Be aware that I am not limiting myself to one gaming forum
for these! Ha!
“Does anyone else not
care for racial stats? Or is it just me?”
I've been trying to
work through a homebrew world, and I keep getting stuck on the races. I
function just fine deciding flavor-wise "Okay, I'm going to have minotaurs
and centaurs and naga and talking dogs and bee people and weird
spirit-inhabited stone skeletons and sphinxes and...." But then whatever I
decide I come to stats........and I can't work up "damn" to give. I
try finding them online and don't like them. I try building them and don't like
them. I've eventually come to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with the
specific builds and everything to do with the fact that I don't like any of these middling little numbers and features.
So find a system that doesn’t use them. This isn’t rocket
science.
I can't wrap my head
around what they do
Really? Then this
might not be the hobby for you.
and frankly don't want to. I feel like
"race" should be pure flavor text the same way height, weight,
coloration of various body parts, sex, etc is. To me it's a fashion statement!
That’s nice, and perfectly acceptable when dealing with
games based on or similar to the real world. Games with alien or inhuman
species? Not so much.
So what do I
do?
Find.
A.
Different.
System.
Does anyone else
ever get frustrated by this?
I’m sure they do. Probably because they, like you, are
apparently not smart enough to puzzle through this second grade dilemma.
“How to manage
sandbox for many parties?”
I realized that once
players play out prepared mini adventures and locations in my sandboxes, there
is not much to do left in such area. Fact that I tend to make small areas doesn't
help. What would you do to keep sandbox ready for adventuring? Restocking,
making follow-up stories are some ideas. But
it takes too much prep.
If it takes too much prep, you’re either doing it wrong, or
you need to stay away from sandbox play. To do sandbox, you have to
A. Have a number of vague ideas of what’s in the
applicable area.
B. Be able to improvise or whip something up
quickly.
If you can’t handle those two things, then sandbox isn’t for
you. Now, it takes practice, so you should work at it a bit, but yes, consider
if this is really something you even want to mess with.
“A belated
realisation about "to the death" combat”
I think it's one of
those commonly known things that your average PC group will happily slaughter
their way through dozens upon dozens of mooks, and in return mooks will aim to
slaughter them back; fudging dice to not
kill your entire party is probably something everyone's done at some point,
Yes, when I was 15 and just starting out as a game master.
It's taken me this
long to realise that that's almost universally true because almost universally
systems have no "You're incapacitated but alive" result without
special efforts. At best, you find wound penalties, with which you're just
worse at fighting, or a "unconscious" state where you're dying but
not quite dead.
Then all you've realized is nothing at all. You’re blaming
the tools when you should be blaming the craftsman. I’m not fucking around. You
can try and say it’s because the system lacks this or that, but it’s not. It’s
because their GMs have trained them that way. I did it too when I was young,
and then I retrained them.
I am, in fact, struggling to think of RPGs
where becoming a casualty doesn't also imply being dead, either at that point
or within the next few rounds. Beyond more narrative efforts, anyway. It now
seems rather obvious to me this is influential on the basic assumption of combat
being a deathmatch that permeates most RPGs; of course it would be when most
RPGs require on-the-spot rulings to not be!
You’re assuming something based on your ignorance then. I
can think of quite few systems that have
provisions for this without putting any effort into it.
Thoughts?
Yes, you don’t know what you’re talking about, yet you keep
talking.
Recommendations of
systems where this isn't the case?
No. Mostly because I don’t like you.
“Specific Beats
General”
Sure. Unless the specific is poorly explained and doesn't
actually cover the case in question, so stop repeating it. Repetition does not
create truth.
“Boobies?”
Yes.
Easiest answer ever.
“I totally get not
wanting people to partake of porn in the workplace, sure, but sexual harassment?”
Yes, and you fucking know better. Don’t become one of those
posters who is a deliberately obtuse dipshit. You’re pretty cool right now.
“Is there an ideal
way to handle player-controlled summoned creatures/pets in combat?”
"Pets" (as
I will call them in this conversation, for the sake of brevity) seem like a
persistent problem area in D&D. If pets are treated as additional
participants, then the player in control of them gets more actions and more
turn-time at the table; it makes sense from an action-economy perspective, but
it can seriously slow down a game if multiple pets are in play. On the other
hand, the mind boggles if (ostensibly independent) pets are unable to act
without the "owner" expending an action; this approach is more fair,
but it's ridiculous to imagine a pet attack dog that needs to be told to keep
biting the bad guy every round.
Sheesh. The player issues a command, the GM runs the animal
like any other NPC. This also is not rocket science.
“Would you change a
monster's hit points mid-fight?”
As the title asks:
it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?
As indicated above, yes; when I was 15 and didn’t know any
better. I was a shitty GM then, and that’s something shitty GMs do. So if you
do this, yes, you are, in fact, a shitty game master.
This might be during
a boss fight where the PCs roll well and it looks like the big bad is going to
die before taking a turn. Or maybe during a long fight that looks like it might
drag. Or perhaps a tense fight where the party is toeing on a TPK.
If the big bad dies without a turn, so fucking be it. If you
don’t want that to happen, DO NOT USE A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS FOR IT. One of my
favorite moments was a Shadowrun adventure I was running one time. The big bad
was a Wendigo with a horde of mindless mooks. The PCs busted in, and before the
big bad could give any orders, one of the PCs managed to decapitate the Wendigo
by scoring very nicely with a monowhip. Bam! Like that, the end fight was over,
and everyone thought it was awesome. Because it was.
If the party is toeing a TPK, then the solution isn’t for
you to cheat (contrary to popular belief, you, the GM damn well can cheat, and
it’s just as wrong for you to do it as it is for the players), it’s for the
party to get the fuck out of Dodge.
What it comes down to is this:
If you find yourself cheating while playing a role-playing
game, either as a player or GM, then something is wrong.
You’re playing the wrong game, you’re playing
with the wrong people, you’re playing with the wrong expectations, you’re playing with the wrong goals, you’re
engaging in the wrong hobby, but something
is fucking wrong.
“Roleplayers: Stingy,
Poor or neither?”
Are Roleplayers a
stingy lot?
Is it just the ones
who complain about price the vocal minority?
Do Roleplayers tend
to be on the lower end of wage/income brackets, so perhaps are more sensitive
to prices?
Role playing game players are people too, so the answer to
each of these questions is “Yes”.
Some are stingy
The complainers are a vocal minority. The majority isn’t
talking about these things online.
And yes, some are on the lower end of the income scale
(including yours truly). That’s why bullshit arguments like “It’s only $60 for
hundreds of hours of entertainment, and you spend more than that on a 20 hour
video game or a night out at the movies”
piss me off. Why?
Because I don’t spend more than that, or anywhere near that
on any video games. Once or twice a year I’ll spend $5 on a used video game. I
don’t go to movies anymore. When I did, I either went with friends who paid, or
I went to the $1 theater when it was open, because I can’t afford a $20 movie
night. So don’t fucking tell me that RPGs are cheap. They might be
cost-effective over the long run, but that’s
not the same thing. And stop being douchebags about it too.
“Has a game's fanbase
ever put you off playing it?”
Yes. Once. I don’t even remember the game – I think it was a
d20 fantasy setting actually, Scarred Lands maybe? – and there was this one guy
who would not shut up about it. Every thread, every day. Grew to hate him and
lost any interest in the setting. Rational? No. Doesn’t matter, drove me away.
“what do you want in
a dm screen”
What’s a “dm screen”? Do you mean The Wall of Fear and
Ignorance? All I need from that is for it to hide what I’m doing with my hands.
“what are your
thoughts on abstracted wealth rather then measuring your money and buying
things for a set price”
First off, what the fuck is with the people on this
particularly unpleasant (therpg)site and their inability to use fucking
question marks?
Second off, it depends. Seriously. It does. It depends on
the game in question. Hell, it even depends on the development of the game in
question.
If I’m running a low level D&D game, a Fallout style
post apocalyptic game, or a Western, then I’ll track cash. The amounts in
question are typically low enough that it isn't a bother, and the actual amount
available can be pretty important (can you buy that 9mm ammo, or do you have to
trade your shoes for it?)
In a modern or futuristic game, I’m more inclined to go with
an abstract system because modern finances are hard, yo. It’s also possible for
a game that started out with cash tracking to switch to an abstract system. For
example, if the characters in the D&D game strike it rich or become landed
or whatever, they may start dealing with amounts that are simply impractical
and not fun to deal with. Everyone’s threshold for that differs, of course.
And Something That’s
Not A Forum Statement or Question
Apparently, Hell has frozen over. Why? Because it seems that
Kevin S., 25 years after its creation, has finally licensed Rifts (insert appropriate mark
here). My first thought is for all the
people jazzed about it: Don’t be. Until you have your copy, anything can
happen. Kevin is wacky about his IPs, and . . . sometimes things under his
management get screwed up. Or screwed. So save your high until you get the
actual book/pdf.
Also, take into account that Kevin S. is a micromanaging
machine, so his inclination may slow down development tremendously, depending
on what approval process is in play.
Now they seem to have licensed it to Pinnacle Entertainment
Group for conversion to their Savage Worlds system. This, for people like me, is a shame. I mean,
SW isn’t the worst choice, but it’s
also not the best. SW is a pretty
mediocre system that I personally do not enjoy, so this conversion does nothing
for me. I’ll still have to finish my unending project of converting the game.
Now, personally, I would have liked to see it go to either
Evil Hat, for a Fate version, or SSDC, using the Battlelords of the 23rd
Century system for super crunch. Unfortunately, I don’t think the SSDC guys
could afford the license. Sadly, their games have just never gotten the love
they should have. Actually, I would have loved a d20 system version. But Kevin
got some really fucking awful advice from a lawyer who apparently had no idea
what he was talking about, and that scared him off the d20 idea permanently. Or
Maryann, whomever was actually making the decisions then.
But I bet this brings a fair chunk of SW fans to Rifts, and
maybe even a fair number of former Rifts players back to the game. So while I am shocked that it happened, and
mildly disappointed that it’s a system I don’t like, I think it’s an awesome
thing for the people it’s an awesome thing for, and I hope they have a blast
playing it.
I’ll just be over here kit-bashing nine different systems
together until I get it where I want it.
I do hope they get new and better are though. Most Rifts art
has been pretty shit.
And remember kids, if you’re about to ask a question that
starts with “Am I the only one?” or “Is it just me?” then STOP RIGHT THERE
because
A. 99.9% of the time, the answer is no, because
you’re not that fucking special
B. You are about to ask a stupid fucking question
