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Post by sepulchre on Nov 23, 2015 15:37:05 GMT -6
bycrom, I just can't relate, though I do realize there is a vast array of music that has played in the background for all of us. I am hoping that no one posts ABBA in this regard. The Dragonforce hysteria just baffles me. It's as if the lovechild of Dream Theater and Europe were discovered by millennials and hipsters and raised up, because they're older siblings/parents were wise enough to shield them from the abomination that was the former.
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Post by sepulchre on Nov 13, 2015 10:58:08 GMT -6
Ha! Keys play a part in this game, especially that of Solomon...I believe there is a short write-up in Dragon 27 and boardgame geek provides a fair description and a few images: The Emerald Tablet. No pdfs are in circulation as far as I know.
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Post by sepulchre on Nov 12, 2015 17:59:04 GMT -6
Kesher wrote:
Please do. I have owned a copy for a few years. As a piece of table top rpg history it's a great addition to any collection. For myself, I have never found a way to implement the rule set in my own game. Ceremonial magic plays a central role in our games, but in the abstract - as a more concrete insertion into the mechanics I find tends to part with immersion. Nonetheless, it's an interesting read and full of great pen and ink borders, though there is a weighty dose of percentiles...
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Post by sepulchre on Nov 9, 2015 9:28:52 GMT -6
Bhoritz wrote:
Couldn't afford it as a kid, but was always curious about it. Had a great exchange with the gentleman behind the reissue and purchased the hardcover about a year ago. It's a fantastic rule set; employing a curved distribution (d10 and d6-1 IIRC)and mechanics that bear some semblance, especially list combat, to Chainmail. The books are full of information to elaborating period military units accompanied by a morale value. It's well worth the time and money spent.
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Post by sepulchre on Nov 2, 2015 21:07:08 GMT -6
delverinthedark:
Though no spell casters have donned armor in our campaign, I have no reservations about allowing it as noted above. Likewise, our campaign runs on a "spirit-based" model, at least in the abstract, essentially spells are spirits. I particularly like your characterization of garments as "part of the sympathetic arrangement of charms", that is very well put. One way to circumvent this propitiation of the spirits and don armor might be to bind them, the spells that is, within a rod, staff or wand...
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 30, 2015 18:49:31 GMT -6
Many here are already familiar with this chart, which is easily adaptable to Chainmail MTM, but it speaks to tactical considerations while balancing the importance of abstraction
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 29, 2015 9:46:08 GMT -6
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 28, 2015 23:00:32 GMT -6
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 28, 2015 17:10:10 GMT -6
bestialwarlust wrote:
Players may state whatever they wish to do (engage in melee/special maneuver whatever), the dice offer a result by which the referee envisions for them. That is to say, a 'hit' is an abstraction that demands elaboration.
Elegance. The tactical game reflects the pedantics of a skill-based mechanic. Conversely, the success of all the possible tactics is assumed under one enumeration in a level based game. This allows for immersion as the player need not be focused on the numbers, especially all the modifiers (a modifier and at most two is acceptable), rather one is listening for the colorful outcome of his characters actions by the referee. The referee, likewise, is freed from the numbers to carry on the description which began with the dungeon. Given the abstraction subsumes so many factors, the dice really can be handed over to the referee, leaving the dice as well as numbers out of the focus of the players, again immersion and elegance. Most of all this style of gaming promotes cooperation and trust, something that becomes overlooked as players crunch more and more numbers and is altogether absent from console gaming.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 25, 2015 20:15:03 GMT -6
I have run one for a few years. Travel and adventure locales, attrition and exposure, language barriers, value of coin and marketable treasure, and religion are significant hurdles in the game and rather than deter have only enhanced immersion.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 22, 2015 0:05:54 GMT -6
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 12, 2015 19:39:46 GMT -6
Ran a Middle Earth campaign through college, but that was using MERP and Rolemaster.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 9, 2015 9:18:55 GMT -6
Porphyre wrote:
From some of the reading I have come across on medieval warfare at sea, this is the reason cumbersome armor if it could be afforded was generally shunned. Agreed, it makes a pit trap rather harrowing. The drowning percentages regarding armor seem appropriate.
Here are some rulings I have seen in print: (6in6 (100%)/drowning)/swimming in any metal armor(+ 1in6/35lbs. of encumbrance other than armor) (55 DMG) (1in20/hour/drowning/non-metal armor...only the doggy paddle possible... 3"(?) (55 DMG) 3in4/drowning/gale force winds [1-4 rds/(drowning/paralysis)]/icy waters (10 N1 Cult of the Reptile God)... (AD&D rounds) 2 rds/death from asphyxiation (62 WG13 Castle of the Mad Arch Mage)... (AD&D rounds)
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 8, 2015 13:13:26 GMT -6
Fair enough, then you and I have an understanding.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 8, 2015 12:23:25 GMT -6
You're misrepresenting my point. It's not whether a stranger validates your opinion, rather it's about strangers engaging in a rational conversation about design; that some opinions might turn out to be right or wrong, or have an application to playing the game is a consequence of such a dialogue. Whether one can play the game 'however one wishes' is irrelevant, that is rather self-evident.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 8, 2015 11:47:27 GMT -6
The issue is not whether the game is fun with critical hits. Rather, the focus becomes whether the game by design lacks something without a critical hit battery. As Elphilm noted, maximum damage is a 'critical hit' in a hit point game. Critical hits understood as anything else are just extraneous. If your game demands an increased frequency for death and dismemberment, switch to a non-heroic game (lvls 1-3) or return to some version of Chainmail's MTM. I prefer the latter. The loving adoration of characters Gygax refers to in the Dungeon Master's Guide is for characters of fantasy, figures that avail the trials of combat far beyond the normal range. The addition of a critical hit battery just reverses the intention of changing the design from one of historical combat to one of fantastic combat (the direction of D&D's 3LBBs, really).
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 7, 2015 22:10:12 GMT -6
mindcontrolsquid:
Rather than a natural 20 signifying a critical hit, ruling a 'natural 20' to be an automatic hit has been the great equalizer. The elaboration of repeating 20s in the attack matrices in AD&D is inspired from this notion. Also Elphim has it, the move to a d20 ushered in randomness.
Porphyre wrote:
When I rolled d20 and used 'critical hits'that was how we handled it.
Elphim wrote:
That is how I see it.
The problem of a game without critical hits: no correlation between higher chances 'to hit' and lethal damage delivered in one rd;
One of the reasons I have found Chainmail to be an infinitely better assessment of combat, being that lethality is assumed in one die roll and within one rd.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 5, 2015 13:32:44 GMT -6
Definitely. Though it be a granular take on the wilderness as a category, I would expect, like rivers or roads, terrain modifies the chance of becoming lost. I have had some experience with wilderness work; it should be noted when people become lost, most often they actually do end up returning and going in circles, sadly.
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 5, 2015 0:05:18 GMT -6
Tetramorph wrote:
How do you determine the chance to become lost initially, does the chance assume terrain or other factors like scout or map, as scout is factored into the table you posted?
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 4, 2015 23:31:54 GMT -6
aldarron wrote: So with the Dalluhn tables, one rolls percentile 'to hit' dice following a successful score 'to hit', then throw dice for a chance to kill(2d6)indicated by a number that compares weapon and armor type as shown on the MTM table?
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Post by sepulchre on Oct 2, 2015 9:16:19 GMT -6
I think skydyr has it. If your rounds in list combat are derived from Chainmail (returning to Waysoftheearth's post in OD&D Study), I think you would have to arbitrate the ruling for dweomercraft and missile attack. As long as neither combatants are engaged individually in the melee, I have house-ruled spell casters may cast a new spell when the casting time has concluded, and missile attacks, like melee, default to rounds instead of turns(which is pretty close to simulation, though not btb).
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 23, 2015 8:07:52 GMT -6
Finarvyn wrote: His AC may not be based on Conan, but his defense is based on Conan: his Weapon Class, his number of hits, and his number of attacks are assumed in the defensive aspect of a character. If it ain't broke... Moreover, should Chainmail's weapon class be minimally adapted with Judges Guild's Weapon Priority Table, Conan goes from formidable to rather harrowing. It is important to recall, most of Conan's adversaries are normal men, he is more than a match for them.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 21, 2015 15:32:48 GMT -6
tetramorph wrote: I see what you are driving at here. I am one of those who cleaves closely to the fighting man as the core class, while all else takes the form of a standard or expert hireling. Clerics are a version of Father Brown, the non-combatant, so I have a bit of a bias.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 21, 2015 9:02:31 GMT -6
Tetramorph wrote: Either gaming conventions (ac, attack matrix, saves, abilities etc.) or outward appearance inform our application of 'flavor or campaign specific terminology'. The fighting man archetype suits the characters of Howard and Leiber; it also suits the historical templar or romanticized knight errant we think of as a paladin. Templars can be approached much the same way the dervish works for holy nomads in the 3LBBs or the military order for knights in Chainmail. Templars, like dervishes, are fanatical warriors. Paladins are fighting men granted spell-like abilities, rather than the modification of a shared mechanic like morale (see dervish or knight within a military order) or the addition of a skill (see thief). In our campaign we dispensed with the spells altogether, finding them redundant in conjunction with a paladin's acquired abilities. The limitation of strict conduct demanded of a paladin suffices for their acquired gifts, rather than a diminished placement as a cleric on the attack matrices. It is true sword and sorcery heavily inform the images we associate with Oe; being fantasy rather than simulation, the archetypes of Oe through 1st edition, however, play host to the coexistence of many milieus and genres if you will.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 20, 2015 18:10:01 GMT -6
bestialwarlust wrote:
Whether a paladin has spells or not is more or less a convention. The inclusion of spells certainly implies a deity btb, but the exclusion of spell does not exclude a deity. A paladin most likely would operate beyond the bounds of a church as the quest which so often defines him might be heretical even. They might also operate as an extension of a clandestine order within a religion. The paladin you are describing reminds me of the virtuous gunfighter, a figure like Shane.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 20, 2015 16:12:10 GMT -6
Talysman wrote:
I see why I missed this. Thanks for the citation. The tracking of alignment here really regards assessing experience and weeks of training, not so much radical loss of class or status. No such suggested ennumeration is ever regarded in the discussion of alignments or alignment change.
Sure, even in a class-based game, there is a degree to which the concept is observed by philosophy, history and literature and that to which it is regarded by one's own expectation for fantasy.
Indeed, he is not part of the Church hierarchy. He is part of the Christian milieu, his culture is religious as you note. The notion of 'supposed to be' defaults to his religiosity as a man-made quality (merely socially ordained) an interpretation that extends beyond the bounds of the game, though it is certainly a popular and academically valid point of view when considering religion today. The literature of the time, however, suggests his religiosity is not only cultural but existential, paladin hood is a calling as much as it is an ethical responsibility or cultic devotion. How one otherwise wishes to read the paladin rests on their own penchant for fantasy and/or their own modern sensibilities.
One may find weighing these perspectives unnecessary to playing a paladin. Over the years, I have found these insights instructive in not only playing a paladin, but essential to whether or not the paladin continues to have relevance at all, much less be fun to play.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 20, 2015 11:07:25 GMT -6
Talysman wrote:
As far as I recall the tracking of alignment rests on the PHB appendix III graph in which minor and major shifts of behavior are plotted analogically; allowing for drift within one's band or radical departure into another alignment entirely. The 1 to 4 linearity sounds like a 2nd edition invention, though I confess I have not come across it. If you would cite the actual text I would be interested in seeing it - when I played with the nine alignments I would have thoroughly appreciated a numerical alignment tracking.
An interesting distinction, Talysman. I agree they are clearly chivalrous knights; however, if the feudal order is ordained by God and they are beholden to God's ordination of that order then in their mind the measure of their action must in someway be ordained by God. I can't imagine the paladin mind reducing God to a trope or necessary fiction.
Certainly a predominant medieval view, the converse in keeping with austerity, monasticism and mortification, the world and the spirit being mutually opposed. However, loss of alignment is not the consequence of being stripped of paladin status; one may be lawful and a knight without being a paladin.
howandwhy99 wrote:
The anti-hero I imagine is more of a personal orientation than a class. A neutral alignment is probably fitting, though I could imagine a lone lawful figure bearing this character as well. Innocents and those not essential to one's end being an uncomfortable reminder of a former life, or even compelling interruption to one's present activities. Antiheroes take all shapes and sizes from Homer to Shakespeare to Camus and contemporary authors like Stieg Larson.
punkrabbit wrote:
A clever reading and I had to give this some thought. On the surface I like it, but it doesn't really bear out. The paladin does not cease being Lawful or Lawful good, he loses his status, his favor and privilege awarded by the society and God. The samurai's reading of Bushido reflects the period of the feudal era. Stripped of his lands due to disfavor or occupation, a samurai becomes a ronin. In earlier periods, he might find his status restored (some served numerous masters in their life time)under the tutelage of a new lord. Even retiring to farming, craftsmanship or trade occured without disfavor. During the consolidation of the Edo period, there were fewer lords and less opportunity for military employment; it is during this later period that the 'wandering and vagrant' connotation becomes part of the idiom and the story of the ronin committing ritual suicide at the grave of the 47 ronin comes to us.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 19, 2015 14:05:35 GMT -6
Howandwhy99 wrote: Here, we depart in two ways. Alignment is not a stat, as it bears no numerical value. It is a quality, measure may be imposed on it (as in the almost venn-like diagram in the PHB, nonetheless more geometric than algebraic), but it is something in itself; to borrow from your point without meaning to be flippant, ask a paladin. Alignment, moreover, is not a reflection of behavior or rather conduct, as much as orientation. That orientation reflects belonging, Lawfuls find their perceivable origins in civilization (even a withdrawn monastic life is a form of civilization) a world formed out of an increasingly rarified cognition that is initially human and ultimately existential in outcome (pantheons initially appear human often giving way to something cosmic and remote or even to a mere fiction and incredulity). Neutrals coexist with the wild, within and without, perceiving flora, fauna and the land as their source and reflection, and in the shamanic ways of sight may yield a more remote but unifying mystery. Chaotics are monstrous, the blind, appetitive forces of life that disrupt and threaten to overwhelm the living, both neutral and lawful, flora, fauna and mankind alike. Tolkien draws the very same distinction between Christian, heathen and monster in his exposition of the Beowulf tradition. He is an author who grounds OD&D as much or more than Howard, Lovecraft, Leiber and Moorcock; all of whom share a similar though varied view of human orientation.
If here you mean stats, like numerical values for intelligence as sighted in the PHB and described in the MM for instance, sometimes this is the case. NPCs I find commit to action based on their class, and alignment, as I described above, tells us something more about the actual landscape from which that class has emerged. A fighter, may be a knight, Viking, or even anti-paladin, if you will, the latter being chaotic as this rendering of alignment reflects.
I think this is a fair assessment. Drawing from war gaming, morale really rests on sheer nerve and/or military training. With regard to loyalty, high morale may reflect either fear or devotion as the source of one's loyalty.
The crumbling of loyalty or morale leads to failures in cohesion and purpose. Sometimes this will shift a character's alignment, but in our games the source must be a failing of nerve in the most dire of circumstances or from the insidious effects of sorcery that erode will and cognition.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 17, 2015 23:28:14 GMT -6
howandwhy99 wrote:
BTB how does alignment relate to morale/loyalty dice? Morale, loyalty and alignment IIRC do show up together in the AD&D's DMG, but I don't recall them falling together elsewhere. What is the alignment "shifting" game? That is to say, alignment tends to remain static in most games I have played, chaotics remain chaotics, as do neutrals, and for the most part Lawfuls.
Turning is just another spin on morale dice, much like a superhero or wraith within charging distance causing others to check morale (30,33 Chnml). Moreover, if turning, miracles and skill at arms are campaign specific as you assert, the implication is they are not class specific.
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Post by sepulchre on Sept 17, 2015 11:56:19 GMT -6
howandwhy99 wrote:
I agree the ability to turn and the calling on of miracles and combat prowess is campaign specific, which makes them external qualifiers. So what is the cleric system? Do you mean just the concept of a holy man (which could either be a normal man or adventuring class)?
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