|
Post by barrataria on Jul 24, 2013 7:52:02 GMT -6
That's a good read, Geoffrey. Thanks for posting.
That was a Zahn concept? I just got around to reading "Foundation", and I noticed that the description of the capital of that Galactic Empire happened to be described exactly the same as Coruscant. I chalked it up to a Lucas cut-and-paste, but if it was Zahn's maybe it was more of a specific homage to Asimov.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 24, 2013 7:36:56 GMT -6
A couple of thoughts on this: (1) I didn't make the Ward --> Warden connection for decades. (2) It's hard to make "Marv" into a cool ship name. U.S.S. Marvelous? Yes, but "Finarvyn" would be fine, especially if your players don't know your username Barrataria (at least Barataria) is of course a real place, so I wouldn't use that. I had intended to use it for one of my homebrew worlds but it always seemed wrong to me.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 21, 2013 14:13:24 GMT -6
Thank you for posting this, and especially for posting the link to the NYT article. I'm clueless enough that I didn't know he was still alive, much less that he went to the same college as me and lived about 30 minutes away.
I've only read the Dying Earth, I guess I have a lot of work to do. RIP indeed.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 22:47:00 GMT -6
Hell yes, you should finish the omnibus! Rosenberg managed to transcend the wonkiness of the premise and delivered a violent, gritty fantasy series, that also has humor, heart and soul. This indeed. Excellent books if you ignore the silly "game becomes real" conceit. In particular I liked the focus on tactics in the various battle sequences, among the best. And I have ripped off various aspects of his world here and there. As to the game rules, it certainly reads as if he consciously changed things to avoid suit (remember this was back when TSR had the Monty Burns style room full of lawyers available at the push of a button).
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 21:36:43 GMT -6
Amazingly, this page came up as I googled and googled looking for an online scan of that campaign map (the El Dorado County side). Anyone? Bueller?
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 19:36:43 GMT -6
Honestly, I didn't think about the re-imagining much at all. Like most of my D&D campaigns, I tend to draw my own maps rather than stick to ones created by others. That makes sense; although I like the A to O version well enough and it's interesting for my purposes, it seems a little too fiddly/detailed to be good for running a full-blown MA campaign. This "space station" will be much smaller, about the size of a Star Destroyer or Mon Cal Cruiser (but of course predating those by 5000+ years! I should go have a peek, however. You have me interested. As far as your OP about having characters stomp around on an old Star Destroyer, I like it! Cool idea! Thanks, although it's not relevant for this Ancient Republic campaign, I think after the fall of the Empire that derelict/repurposed ISDs would be pretty common features of the landscape. In my SW universe neither the New Republic nor the Imperial Remnants can muster enough crew to fill all those ships. So lots will be space stations or floating dry docks or colony ships or pirate or.... at least one riddled with radiation and mutants
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 19:22:02 GMT -6
greentongue: As noted above I looked at 2300 before posting this question. @crussdaddy: Thanks, I think I lost the link to that site somehow. Much appreciated.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 7:39:41 GMT -6
1. I own "Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega" but largely ignore it. I bought it to be complete in my collection, not because I was that interested in anything in the AMAZING ENGINE product line. What did you think of the re-imagining of the ship? If you thought about it Anyway, the key is that you develop each level just like you would for any other RPG setting. Then you hang on and see where the players take the adventure. That's all pretty interesting. For my immediate purposes (as a derelict space station) that mystery aspect won't be so important, I'm just mining the maps. But now I'm half tempted to surprise my D&D group in a few weeks with a discovery that they're in fact just on a level of the Warden
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 20, 2013 7:35:06 GMT -6
This is kind of a funny thread, because most of you have the same recollections I had. I never got into CT, I started with MegaTraveller, which IMO gets a bad rap or is unloved. I still enjoy playing the "character roll-up" game from time to time, and I still use it to generate characters for my homebrew d6 space galaxy (I convert the stats after mustering-out).
Anyway, when I think back to the MT games we played when I was a freshman in college (I think), I for the life of me cannot recall what I was doing with the rules. I'm pretty sure I misunderstood the core task system. I vaguely recall running starship combat encounters, but I'm pretty sure I grossly simplified that too. But the funny part of the memory is that I THOUGHT then I was using the rules, when looking back I must have been doing what I do for d6 and D&D now... make up a task number and ask for a roll.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 17, 2013 7:28:09 GMT -6
1. Has anyone used the ship version from Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega in their game (I can't tell if that's the only version this ship type appeared in)? Do I understand the maps to indicate there's a smaller ship stuck to it? www.metamorphosisalpha.com/ma2map.html2. In practice, how did you run your game? Would you use a level map as a campaign map, and then develop lair/location maps like you would for an overland campaign? I have an idea for using the ship (and someday intend to use a derelict Star Destroyer in one way or another) and this kind of "overland dungeon" mapping style is appealing to me.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Jul 16, 2013 14:38:14 GMT -6
Hi all, I'm messing about with some ideas for a "Tales of the Ancient Republic" Star Wars campaign, and am interested in finding good and interesting ship pics I can use as a jumping-off point for some different-looking ships. Keep in mind that this game would be 5500 years BBY (before Battle of Yavin), 500 years before Tales of the Jedi. I expect it to be mostly planetary adventure for a while (and if my main man gnombient has his way, probably a loooong while). I'm just looking for things of a 70s type aesthetic, not too 1950s rocket-shippy, but not too angular either. I saw a picture I liked on an old Richard Avery Expendables novel... 1.bp.blogspot.com/-E9W2M9Z_7J4/T18y-Op5rkI/AAAAAAAAHdc/tMLG03ZVh9U/s1600/The+War+Games+Of+Zelos.jpg is the best I can find at the moment although my edition has a better pic of the ship. I tried Space Opera books, and like 2300AD the shapes look too modern to me. I've also looked at the old Traveller alien modules. Any sort of inspirational drawing would be of interest. Maybe Erol Otus drew some starships?
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on May 6, 2013 8:38:11 GMT -6
Nice post, I've been thinking about this a lot in connection with drone deployments/discussions by city police departments.
I've used it (the Great Drone disaster, which I haven't detailed yet) as an explanation for why there are piloted starfighters in my far-future campaign.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Dec 31, 2012 21:38:40 GMT -6
On the off chance he stops by in the New Year, I hope it brings him some peace and joy.
I've been reading some 20s history books the past few days and thinking about GB again.... many thanks for bringing this to gamers as it continues to make fun for people after 30 YEARS!
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 31, 2012 10:49:15 GMT -6
SW+Disney could mean seeing something like this. Note: that Yoda does not have a lightsaber. Improved already!
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 31, 2012 10:48:45 GMT -6
It is quite the octopus. On the one hand, something like the Pirates movie makes me think it will be a great thing for SW. And eventually Lucas or his heirs would have sold or licensed the IP away. On the other hand, unlike the pre-SW period which was untouched until the prequels, there's a giant universe of EU novels which I really can't see them totally invalidating. I fear what they'll pick out of that lot, and how long they'll run out the story.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 24, 2012 13:20:31 GMT -6
I do... when I got the Birthright setting it seemed to me perfect for B/X with a few tweaks.
About this time I realized I enjoyed designing worlds from scratch, and started doing so backwards... looking at the rules, then thinking about what elements would fit them well. I've been through C&C, B/X, AD&D over the years, never finishing but having a great time working on them as I get interested and distracted now and again.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 15, 2012 8:36:26 GMT -6
Fin, I was looking at the d6 System book and noticed a conversion table for task numbers, something I had been looking for. Not sure if you'll find it useful, but you might take a peek at some point. It's on page 29. I won't repeat the whole thing here, but it lists success/failure chances based on 3D skill level.
99% success= TN 3 98% success= TN 4 95% success= TN 5
etc.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 4, 2012 8:18:27 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 4, 2012 8:07:18 GMT -6
Remember that when I put my chart together I wasn't really looking at what "should" be, but what mathematically the dice give. Naturally, 3D would be "average" for OD&D since OD&D characters are rolled using 3d6 typically. Yeah, I think I misread what you were doing there. FWIW, if you didn't know the d6 Space/System later stretched the human range from 1D to 5D. One of many weird things they did that threw numbers off, but I thought I'd mention it.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 3, 2012 19:38:36 GMT -6
Some interesting navel-gazing here! I'm way out of my depth in dice/math/probability... but for the first few values you used +3, no? Which is of course how many "pips" make up a die, so I'm wondering how you decided on 3.5 instead of 3 for a die factor. 1D = 3, because 1d6 "equals" 3.5, fractions discarded, we end up with 3 1D+1 is the same but +1, so 4.5, fractions discarded, thus 4 2D is 7, because 3.5+3.5 equals 7 I am puzzled by what you can possibly mean by "+3". In d6, each "D" is worth/composed of 3 "pips". Thus, 3 to me was the first thought of value to assign to the dice.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Oct 3, 2012 8:09:40 GMT -6
Some interesting navel-gazing here! All I did was assume that each D6 was 3.5 and then add on any numbers, then discard any fractions. I'm way out of my depth in dice/math/probability... but for the first few values you used +3, no? Which is of course how many "pips" make up a die, so I'm wondering how you decided on 3.5 instead of 3 for a die factor. I agree with your other post too, it's pretty slick. Certainly has its problems, especially with force/magic/psionics and so on, but it's fast and intuitive and really fades into the background during the game. Without totally going away like some story game.
|
|
|
Mini D6
Sept 23, 2012 7:07:28 GMT -6
Post by barrataria on Sept 23, 2012 7:07:28 GMT -6
Those covers, though, remind me of the early 90s, especially the over-chested Fantasy cover... I found some cool craft paper this weekend and will probably make a cover for mine before I play with my 8-year old niece, wife and sister in law Note that the original post was about Mini Six, a super-simplified version of the game. You're referring to the full d6 Adventure/Fantasy/Space books which were a revision/generic version of the SW d6 rules. Mini Six has four attributes instead of six, for example, and a greatly simplified skill list. But that makes it crazy-simple to tack on more for particular settings or games you want to run, and the mini-settings in their book are great for one-off out-of-the-box gaming (like a Cthulhu or Serenity game, for instance).
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 16, 2012 6:03:59 GMT -6
llenlleawg's right. I'd forgotten about that, but I think I remember some discussions about it on Dragonsfoot in the past. [snip] I'm sure this was ignored by most .... Right on both counts...I didn't get into this because I understood the OP to be asking for help in running an enjoyable game, not a DF-style parsing of the rulebook. Sorry to have caused a disturbance.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 14, 2012 17:39:14 GMT -6
True enough, but not the most elegant solution. I would think that rather than making a given magic item be necessary for the use of another magic item (i.e. a wand for a scroll), it would be easier either [snip] BX is not the version for over thinking... The wand is just a way to give the MU a few more spells, with just a few remaining charges. And yes it's easier to not cause the problem in the first place by reading the rules to require all beginning MU to start with read magic as their only spell.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 13, 2012 22:21:38 GMT -6
Unless I am mistaken, B/X presumes that an MU can have no more spells in his spellbook than he can cast per day. Well, if the player is lucky his detail-oriented DM could always let the magic-user find a wand instead which will avoid this unfortunate conundrum.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 6, 2012 21:22:18 GMT -6
Do you think Star Wars is an easier sell for new players than fantasy is? I have found the average non-gamer I've managed to talk into gaming is more likely to have an interest (or at least passing knowledge of) SW than in fantasy gaming. Or not have been burned out on/turned off by D&D at some point.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 6, 2012 19:13:03 GMT -6
The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming. Interesting situations and evocative detail. I'd like to point out that this adventure is available free at rpgnow. And thanks to Bryce for mentioning it.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 6, 2012 18:34:55 GMT -6
I know what you mean about the dice. Sometimes you just want to know how many dice to roll and/or a target number. On the other hand, I'm certain that -- after playing awhile -- determining dice pools becomes second nature and proceeds quickly. I suppose... for the past few years I've had to convert new gamers (as opposed to finding existing ones) so I've found d6 to be the easiest to use, by far. I played in a white box game with folks who were experienced non-RPG gamers, and was struck by how long the "which die do I roll for what" problem came up. I think that would be worse with a system with dice organized by the pips on them rather than the number of sides. Maybe my view is skewed from playing mostly with newbs. But I'd think that would be a preeminent concern in making an SWRPG (which I've found a very easy sell in getting new players/games together).
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 6, 2012 13:43:31 GMT -6
Thanks for the link; yet another blog I'm sorry I've missed for so long. If I may: Let us further say that the character's Intellect is two (average) and Astrogation is three. The larger of the two numbers tells us how many Ability dice to roll and the smaller number tells use how many of these dice are upgraded to Proficiency dice. We start with three Ability dice and two are upgraded. If the Kessel run is 'hard' in terms of difficulty, three Difficulty dice are added to the pool. As of now, the dice pool consists of one Ability die, two Proficiency dice, and three Difficulty dice. Advantages can be represented by adding Boost dice to the pool and complications can be represented by adding Setback dice to the pool. For instance, if our example character was using a ship that had “special modifications,” one or two Boost dice might be added to the pool. Something about this does not appeal to me as much as "see the number on the sheet? That's how many of these six sided dice you roll". Something... elusive.... I'm glad they make dice stickers available, and glad that you took the time to post (and share) the review.
|
|
|
Post by barrataria on Sept 6, 2012 9:04:48 GMT -6
That's great... glad you have found an enjoyable game style. Sleep and undead turning are pretty critical to survival in this game. And don't let the campaign "die" even if they don't want to play regularly; you can keep it as a night-off type of game, for when some players don't show, or the regular DM needs a night off, or whatever. If you throw together smaller dungeons, or park them outside a megadungeon, the game can be really enjoyable in this "perpetual one-off" type of play. I also added the house rule mentioned above about healing after each battle by drinking alcohol. You mean the characters in the game, or the players at the game table?
|
|