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Post by capitalbill on Jul 1, 2015 14:46:35 GMT -6
And...received!
Ordered a few more Player's Books and the Castle That Fell From The Sky adventure, arrived quickly and well packed.
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Jul 2, 2015 12:18:55 GMT -6
And...received!
Ordered a few more Player's Books and the Castle That Fell From The Sky adventure, arrived quickly and well packed. Cool! I think you might be the only one with a full set right now. I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through assembling the first print run. I hope to finish that next week and then start promoting S&SS more. Once I've completed assembling stuff, I plan to begin work on an entry-level adventure tentatively titled "The Valley of Skulls" (a small wilderness area with several dungeons) and a solitaire S&SS adventure done T&T style.
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Post by machfront on Dec 20, 2015 5:20:53 GMT -6
Yeah, so I'm up waayy too late...and I checked the mailbox...and there's my gal's order for me (and our lil one, since we took advantage of the awweesuummm Christmas sale and got the extra box set which will be her OWN! ). Super fast. Packaged wonderfully. And...an extra surprise to boot. A surprise that....honestly...filled me to the brim with joy. Humbles me a lil bit, too. I'll ever smile immensely when I look at it or think of it. Maybe I'm going or feeling overboard in some way, but, that's just how I feel. I wondered for a moment what the good book said about friends and gifts so I opened my nearest copy and cross-referenced a thing or two and quickly came across: "Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." Proverbs 27:9 Thanks, man.
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Post by machfront on Dec 20, 2015 5:30:32 GMT -6
But, now to the important part: Closing my eyes, going over to the book shelf, and randomly pointing at something and spending a few short moments to make that somehow in some way a new, shiny S&SS mini-campaign at least. Oh. Oh, yes. (I know if I say out loud to the lil one anything about the aforementioned "Dragon's Lair" she'll make me do it so I'll play it safe. lol )
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Dec 23, 2015 21:01:58 GMT -6
I'm glad you liked it, machfront. I hope you and your girl enjoy it.
I had always heard it was better to give than to receive, but it wasn't until I got to be a parent at Christmas-time that I really understood what Jesus meant. Merry Christmas all!
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Post by machfront on Dec 23, 2015 21:33:21 GMT -6
She digs it. She thinks it's cool she has her "own rpg". After she flipped through every book for a while a couple of times, she put everything into the box and gently placed it on her game shelf. We gave it to her today since it was her birthday. She's excited about playing but also about going to the FLGS and getting some new, cool d6s.
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Post by machfront on Dec 24, 2015 4:54:39 GMT -6
Alright. A couple of re-reads later invites questions. I'm not used to the game in play yet so I don't feel responsible enough to make my own decisions. I'd like clarification of intent. To that end: As save 'scores' are never mentioned (and S&SS taking inspiration from T&T) I'll assume all saves are ability saves/checks. As that seems to be the case, why the SAVE section on the character sheet? Is this intended to be a space to record specific save mods (as in dwarves' and hobbits' mods for magic and poison saves)? Thieves. All classes are allowed to add half their level rounded up towards any save (and/or?) ability check with regards to anything 'class related'. If that is the case, then it would seem that the Thief's class ability is the same as, well, every class's ability (to save + half level rounded up), which would seem to leave the thief without a thief skill ability at all. That is, unless, the Thief Skill mod is in addition to that class's 'half-level-rounded-up-mod' for a class-related save/ability check. So...erm...which? What? Huh? The fact that it is explained other classes can attempt such thiefly actions but thieves do it better doesn't help as that would indeed be the case for any class as per things their classes excel at (but also sort of hints that thieves get the level bonus plus their Thief Skill bonus). Spells. The wording is awkward but I assume that the intent of the wording for spells known/received is simply this: # of spell slots for X level of magic-using-class, of which only one is chosen with the remaining determined randomly. (look back at the sentence or two that explains this in the Players rule book and you may see how I mean it seems a bit odd and an itty-bitty...opaque) Armor. I like and am at the same time uncertain about the explanation of light, medium, and heavy armor. It seems as though it was purposefully written to be widely interpreted. Being that it states the categories refer to amount covered and not to the TYPE of armor. I kinda doubt that was the intent (as interesting as it might be that a fighter with nothing but a plate breast plate may be defined as being in 'light' armor and a thief in head-to-toe studded leather may be 'heavy'). Simple clarification here, please. Or...tell me to shut up and do whatever. Ha! Healing. I like the rule pertaining to level limiting amount of d6 hp healed. However there still exists the 'problem' (as in many games including the two that most inspired S&SS) wherein characters of higher skill take much longer to heal. Advice? Am I misunderstanding or otherwise? Direction for house-ruling this so that both a 1st level PC may heal nearly the same percentage of hits as is possessed of a higher level PC? Saves. Also allowed may be a class-related knowledge or some such to therefore take advantage of the level bonus? I'm assuming not, but wanted to ask just in case. Ability Checks. First making both saves and ability checks operate the same but being discrete causes a bit of confusion for me. I can simply tell myself that diving out of the way of the dragon's breath is a 'save' and diving out of the way of the falling boulder could be a save but might be an ability check...but...umm. I suppose: "Oh, crap!" = save and "I wanna do sumpin'." = ability check. Yes? Also within the last example of this section brings out yet again the question regarding level bonus and Thief Skill bonus mentioned earlier. Help. But, man. What a fun read. What a joy to look at with that fun art. I can't wait to play (despite the fact that, having my own predilections mirrored by many/most folks I've gamed with loving agile fighters and scrappy thieves causing one or two simply house rules that facilitate both and, as yet, I cannot see how I may implement such in S&SS...so...there comes my fit again. Hopefully I can noodle something out in this area that's quick, easy and can be put down in a handful of words. )! Cheers!
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Post by delverinthedark on Dec 25, 2015 11:37:52 GMT -6
Just got to unwrap my beautiful copy of Swords & Six-Siders this Christmas morn! Thank you, Steve, for my favorite gift of this holiday season and for holding a wonderful sale! ...Oh, and I'd love to hear your clarifications regarding machfront's questions.
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Dec 27, 2015 0:11:11 GMT -6
It's late, and it's been a long week, but hopefully my responses will make sense. As save 'scores' are never mentioned (and S&SS taking inspiration from T&T) I'll assume all saves are ability saves/checks. As that seems to be the case, why the SAVE section on the character sheet? Is this intended to be a space to record specific save mods (as in dwarves' and hobbits' mods for magic and poison saves)? Saves and ability checks are very similar, but not exactly the same thing. Saves always includes the bonus from the PC's level and sometimes can include a modifier based on an ability score, whereas ability checks only sometimes include the PC's level bonus but always includes the relevant ability score modifier. Basically, Saves are when something is being done to a PC, and ability checks are when the PC is attempting to do something; the difference in a PC being passive vs. pro-active in a given situation. The Save section on the character sheet is intended to be where you would put your level bonus to Saves (+1 to +3 depending on level), plus any additional bonuses to specific kinds of saves, like you mentioned. It is intended to work the same way as the Attack and Damage section on the character sheet, although I can now see how this could be unclear. Now that you mention it, I think it would be good if I included a character sheet filled out with a sample character in the future. Thieves. All classes are allowed to add half their level rounded up towards any save (and/or?) ability check with regards to anything 'class related'. If that is the case, then it would seem that the Thief's class ability is the same as, well, every class's ability (to save + half level rounded up), which would seem to leave the thief without a thief skill ability at all. That is, unless, the Thief Skill mod is in addition to that class's 'half-level-rounded-up-mod' for a class-related save/ability check. So...erm...which? What? Huh? Yes and no. It is true that it works like other classes in that each class is assumed to have skill in certain domains related to their profession. The difference is the thief's skills cover a much broader range of tasks useful to the adventuring life. A fighter could use his level bonus on things related to the use of brute force or combat (kicking open a door, tackling a creature to the ground), but a thief could use his skills in all manner of stealth, trickery, and traps (climbing, hiding, sneaking, lying, knowledge of rumors, cracking codes, disguise, ventriloquism, impersonation, detecting/disarming hidden traps/doors, bluffing, etc.). Each class has their own domain, but in terms of broad usefulness, the thief's skills are far more useful IMO. The fact that it is explained other classes can attempt such thiefly actions but thieves do it better doesn't help as that would indeed be the case for any class as per things their classes excel at (but also sort of hints that thieves get the level bonus plus their Thief Skill bonus). It isn't just that thieves do it better, but they can also do some things others cannot even attempt. For example, if the party is captured, stripped, and locked behind bars, a thief can attempt to pick the lock with improvised materials on hand. Anyone else would need a set of lock picks or a spell to attempt the same thing. Spells. The wording is awkward but I assume that the intent of the wording for spells known/received is simply this: # of spell slots for X level of magic-using-class, of which only one is chosen with the remaining determined randomly. (look back at the sentence or two that explains this in the Players rule book and you may see how I mean it seems a bit odd and an itty-bitty...opaque) Take a myrmidon, for example. The first spell of a given spell level would be chosen by the player. So at 1st level, he chooses which 1st level spell he wants. When he reaches 2nd level, he gains a second 1st level spell, only this one is determined randomly. When he reaches 4th level, he now gains access to 2nd level spells, so he'd choose a 2nd level spell. When he reaches 5th level, he would gain a second 2nd level spell, which would be determined randomly. At 6th level, the myrmidon would have chosen one 1st level and one 2nd level spell, and would have two additional random 1st level spells, and two additional random 2nd level spells. A 6th level myrmidon would know 3 different 1st level spells, and 3 different 2nd level spells. He could have even more spells available if during his adventures he has looted scrolls and spellbooks, but a 6th level myrmidon will always have at least 6 spells that he knows. Armor. I like and am at the same time uncertain about the explanation of light, medium, and heavy armor. It seems as though it was purposefully written to be widely interpreted. Being that it states the categories refer to amount covered and not to the TYPE of armor. I kinda doubt that was the intent (as interesting as it might be that a fighter with nothing but a plate breast plate may be defined as being in 'light' armor and a thief in head-to-toe studded leather may be 'heavy'). Simple clarification here, please. Or...tell me to shut up and do whatever. Ha! The purpose of this rule is to allow players the freedom to envision their PC using whatever kind of armor they preferred, rather than thieves being limited to leather armor, and fighters basically being forced into wearing plate for practical reasons. Yes, it is the intent that a fighter wearing nothing but a metal breastplate as wearing "light" armor - it means the arms and legs are completely unencumbered. You can see this today by how police officers and the military often wear vests. But if you are covered head to toe in a protective layer of anything, whether it be padded cloth, leather, chain, plate, it will hinder your mobility and slow you down. It isn't perfect, but I think it does a better job of approximating how armor works in the real world than other simple systems. Healing. I like the rule pertaining to level limiting amount of d6 hp healed. However there still exists the 'problem' (as in many games including the two that most inspired S&SS) wherein characters of higher skill take much longer to heal. Advice? Am I misunderstanding or otherwise? Direction for house-ruling this so that both a 1st level PC may heal nearly the same percentage of hits as is possessed of a higher level PC? By the rules, higher level PCs do heal faster than lower level PCs. A 1st level PC will only heal 1 hp per day, but a 6th level PC will heal 1-6 hp per day. Saves. Also allowed may be a class-related knowledge or some such to therefore take advantage of the level bonus? I'm assuming not, but wanted to ask just in case. A Save would use the PC's level bonus. Whether you allow other adjustments (for a high/low ability score, a bonus related to class, etc.) would be up to the discretion of the GM. Ability Checks. First making both saves and ability checks operate the same but being discrete causes a bit of confusion for me. I can simply tell myself that diving out of the way of the dragon's breath is a 'save' and diving out of the way of the falling boulder could be a save but might be an ability check...but...umm. I suppose: "Oh, crap!" = save and "I wanna do sumpin'." = ability check. Yes? Yes, save = passive, ability check = pro-active. Example: You set off a trap that rolls a boulder down the hallway. Your GM might allow you a DEX check to jump out of the way, and/or a save to take reduced damage if you can't get out of the way of the boulder. I can't wait to play (despite the fact that, having my own predilections mirrored by many/most folks I've gamed with loving agile fighters and scrappy thieves causing one or two simply house rules that facilitate both and, as yet, I cannot see how I may implement such in S&SS...so...there comes my fit again. I think you can do these things with the rules as written, at least, that was my intent. The way armor works, a fighter can wade into battle with only a helmet, a shield, and a loincloth (such as a certain famous barbarian has been known to do) and not be committing suicide. In BX, a fighter can do without a shield, but he can't do without a suit of armor. Thieves are allowed to wear max defensive gear in combat (helm, shield, heavy armor), they just aren't able to use their special abilities while so donned. Even adhering to their restrictions, they still can wear a helmet and light armor, plus they have attack abilities similar to the fighter and myrmidon, along with access to a fairly non-restrictive backstab ability. If you still feel the need to houserule, something you may want to try is to allow fighters a "natural" DR equal to half their level rounded up that only applies when they aren't wearing a suit of armor, or allowing thieves to wear armor without penalty so long as the armor's DR does not exceed half the thief's level. That would effect the balance between the classes, though.
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Dec 27, 2015 0:27:34 GMT -6
We gave it to her today since it was her birthday. She's excited about playing but also about going to the FLGS and getting some new, cool d6s. Oh man, that's tough having a birthday so close to Christmas. I had a relative that was born I think on Dec. 24th. When she got married, she informed her husband in no uncertain terms that she expected to get a full complement of birthday AND Christmas presents; none of this combined-presents baloney. The best/worst thing about d6s is that they have the largest variety of any die. I even have a wooden d6 pen-holder!
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Post by machfront on Jan 12, 2016 4:37:26 GMT -6
Save: Yeah, at least the 'skull space' for saves should perhaps be a lil but larger to allow for bonus/penalty for most saves + the same for other saves (if a race/class allows for such). Thief/class abilities: While I understand that a thief's class abilites cover a very broad area of knowledge and that, whithin that exists some very specific and near-pretanatural abilities, one must accept under then precept or no it isn't just brute force that a fighter (for example) has knowledge in. Also, perhaps hereldry, weapon/armor quality, intimidation, tactics, etc. Aknowleging that (and that's cool...nothing wrong with that) still takes us sorta back to thieves having a 'class ability' that is still in keeping with each and every class having a likewise 'class ability' (in terms of using half level rounded up for 'class stuff'). I guess we're only left with thief stuff being a lil bit more specific/defined/impressive. Spells: clear now (I'm pretty sure.) Got it. If I don't 100%, too bad for me. Armor: On the one hand, this is near brilliant. On the other it actually introduces likewise same but different issues that the standard D&D/T&T system (and others) posess. In D&D a thief (for example) could wear either head-to-toe leather or a soft, studded leather breastplate-style-something and either would, by virtue of the Original or 'basic' D&D system, most if not all DMs would charge this as AC7. Our same thief in S&SS would only be able to be a full-force thief were he to just and only wear a 'bit' of leather....or a chain mail shirt...or a lil less than Madmartigan's plate from "Willow" during the latter half of the film. It's not really a problem (as you said, it's not perfect), but it's still almost as equally as problematic as per the odd issues that, seemingly, both you and I take issue with (such as awesome fighters "have to" cover themselves in full plate, instead of being ...as they should... like Richard Green's 50s-era Robin Hood in clothes or very light leather armor and still being viable warriors. I suppose this whole thing results, for now, as: *shrug* Heh. Healing: I'm not sure what bizarre thing tore apart my brain here. Duh. I see how. How I did not before, I cannot answer. My bad. Derp. Saves/Ability checks: Right. Saves = oh, crap (level, maybe ability); Ability checks = I gotta/wanna do this (ability, maybe level if you're dumb or lucky or awesome). Got it. Cool! I love the rule for fighters' dual-wielding, but since I (and many/most folks I've played with over many years) enjoy picturing/playing thieves as super-scrappy I'd like them to benefit similarly. I don't want to add a bunch (and in fact, can't considering the low and flat power-curve of the game).... I'm thinking I'll allow thieves to also dual-wield but instead treat it as though they possess a shield. Thus they'll have AC 5 in melee at the cost of only having AC4 in other situations (such as missile attacks, etc.). After many (foolish) years of attempting to squeeze in skill or skill-like junk into both D&D and T&T, I finally accepted not only classes as huge bundles of skills but also that a PCs background being likewise, I've long since found it both fun and convenient to have players note their characters background and/or some sort of natural skill or talent. I usually used this as a cue to allow a bonus to an ability check. Now I'm wondering how to implement this in a game that I cannot really stack more than two individual "+1"'s. I'm wondering if perhaps, when a PCs background is relevant (being brought up in a sea-side fishing village, whilst learning the skills of weapons he befriended the city's kind and elderly librarian and oddly became interested in reading about and learning the lore of demons and the d**ned, restless dead and so on...), the PC may roll 2d6 and keep the highest. That's the only thing I can think of that may not crazily toss about and overpower the mechanic. I suppose that may work. Work well, for the cases in which it's needed/fun, and not inadvertantly cause overuse/overpower, etc. Cheers!
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Post by machfront on Jan 13, 2016 23:18:07 GMT -6
Also, as I enjoy my house-rule sheets to match the original rules, I was wondering what font is used in S&SS?
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Jan 14, 2016 11:41:18 GMT -6
The font is Bookman Old Style. Regarding the fighters and thieves needing armor, I have rules for alternate advancement where certain classes could gain a natural DR when not wearing armor, as well as other abilities. Such a system could be used as advancement past level 6, or alongside the leveling process. I plan to announce my 2016 plans on my website soon, but here is something that relates to your posts, machfront. I am brainstorming on a rules supplement containing optional races, classes, rules for advancement, that sort of thing. It is tentatively titled Rules Bloat until I can come up with something better. It just occurred to me it would be good to include something like our recent Q&A, as I'm sure you're not the only one with those questions. After publishing a bunch of issues of Rules Bloat, I could put it all in a single hardback on Lulu as a Cyclopedia: Swords & Six-Siders, Bloated Edition. It could be the first rules-lite rules-heavy game! Oh, and one more thing, make sure y'all check out wizardawn.and-mag.com/rpg_ssxs.phpWizardawn has created a random dungeon generator for S&SS and more! How cool is that?
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Post by machfront on Jan 14, 2016 21:08:10 GMT -6
Ha ha! Rules Bloatopedia.
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Post by Vanquishing Leviathan on Jan 15, 2016 8:55:26 GMT -6
Ha ha! Rules Bloatopedia. Sounds like a medical condition!
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