GregH's page

A whole lotta speculation in that article. The initial premise that Facebook Home will eventually turn into something that will get itself tossed off google play is interesting, but not real yet.

If it does come to pass, it will probably be seen as the natural evolution of an open operating system. How many different flavours of Linux can one download these days?

Greg

So the consensus seems to be that even while pinning, a creature with an extra appendage can't use it against a different opponent?

Guess its house rule time!

Greg

GregH wrote:

ghettowedge wrote:

Draconomicon wrote:

4) On its turn, a pinned creature may try to escape. A character that makes a successful opposed grapple check (as a melee attack) or Escape Artist check (as a a standard action) is no longer pinned but is stil grappling with the dragon. If the character makes two successful checks against the dragon, the character has escaped the grapple entirely.

5) On the dragon's turn, it can choose to maintain the pin or to release pinned characters. If it tries to maintain the pin, it makes a single grapple check opposed by crappie checks made by all pinned opponents. Creatures who beat the dragon's grapple check take no damage, while other creatures take the dragon's full crush damage. If the dragon decides not to maintain the pin, it can act normally, without regard to the creatures that share its space (since they are necessarily at least three sizes smaller than it is).

I didn't think to check the Draconomicon. But it basically confirms my original suspicion, that the rules don't support the dragon crushing and then attacking with its tail or bite.

Greg

I just saw my typo, don't know if it was autocorrect or subconscious, but it made me laugh.

I assumed you were editorializing. :)

Draconomicon wrote:

4) On its turn, a pinned creature may try to escape. A character that makes a successful opposed grapple check (as a melee attack) or Escape Artist check (as a a standard action) is no longer pinned but is stil grappling with the dragon. If the character makes two successful checks against the dragon, the character has escaped the grapple entirely.

5) On the dragon's turn, it can choose to maintain the pin or to release pinned characters. If it tries to maintain the pin, it makes a single grapple check opposed by crappie checks made by all pinned opponents. Creatures who beat the dragon's grapple check take no damage, while other creatures take the dragon's full crush damage. If the dragon decides not to maintain the pin, it can act normally, without regard to the creatures that share its space (since they are necessarily at least three sizes smaller than it is).

I didn't think to check the Draconomicon. But it basically confirms my original suspicion, that the rules don't support the dragon crushing and then attacking with its tail or bite.

Greg

Well you can't grapple a foe that is 2 or more sizes larger than you .

Where is this written? It makes sense but I can't find it in the PH, the Rules Compendium or the on-line SRD.

and crush only works on foes that are 3 or more sizes smaller than you. I would suggest then to treat it as a swallow. That is the target is considered grappled/pin while the dragon is not.

This is kinda what I was thinking, a big enough creature should be able to handle a pinned opponent and use an extra appendage on others.

Now if he maintains the pin on the following rounds, then his options reduce due to now treating it as a normal grapple.

Sorry for seeming obtuse, but why would it be considered a normal grapple on later rounds? What's changed?

Greg

I had something come up in a game last night, and I have yet to see a concrete answer anywhere on the boards. Basically, a dragon performed a crush attack which automatically pins the opponent. My question is, if the dragon is pinning the opponent (with its four limbs, presumably) can it attack other opponents with its bite or tail?

Since pinning is a result of a grapple, the grapple rules would seem to apply here. But attacking a different opponent is not a possible action according to the grapple rules (at least not that I can see). It would seem silly that a Gargantuan dragon can grapple a dwarf but would be forbidden by the grapple rules from performing a tail sweep on nearby opponents.

(I'm more than happy to make this a house rule if necessary, but I'd be interested if its ever been addressed in the rules.)

Anyone know of any rules that apply here?

Thanks
Greg

Basically if you know anything about XML it is fairly easy. If not then it is not as difficult as one might think as Ramarren has mentioned the customer base is very good at helping out on their forums :)

I hate XML. I can work with it, but boy do I hate it...

It appears that X-COM: Enemy Unknown (the new version) is being released on iOS this summer:

X-COM iOS announcement.

I had been contemplating getting it for the Xbox, but I think I'll wait it for it for my iPad. (With young kids in the house it's easier to play an "M" game with an iPad). According to the video it'll be a straight-up port, the only modifications will be for the touch interface.

Loved the original, this is gonna be cool. Just hope it isn't restricted to retina-only iPads.

Greg

They are close to the end of the dungeon, and have only had ONE fight from their last rest. The Big Bad of the area appears in a fire burning in the room and taunts them to come and get him through the UNLOCKED door (opens in towards his room). Their reaction...better sleep.

I just want him and his contingent of guards to ambush them while they sleep, but i also don't want to be a complete jerk to them.

The BBEG wouldn't wait for them to fall asleep. If after a few minutes they don't come in (he has taunted them) either he'd send his mooks in to the room to see what the heck is going on or he'd go in himself. The party should be just getting ready to sleep (removing armor, etc). They will have a choice: fight or run. If they fight, then let the dice fall where they may. If they run, have them chased out of the complex.

How long would you let a thief sit in your living room before you went down to find out what was up or called 911? Would you wait for the thief to fall asleep? Would you even assume that he would go to sleep?

Greg

Is it done through the GUI or do you create your own database files (a la PCGen)?

You do realize that Hero Lab only needs the core system and once you have that you can enter ALL the information yourself. It is not to terribly difficult to do if that is what you want to do that is. Just takes time.

Just to clarify, cause I thinking about getting it, are you saying you can add any custom information, including, say, a home brew prestige class into Hero Lab? Thanks.

Make ample use of the archives here. I don't think one needs to make as many changes as some people did, but there are a lot of good ideas on the boards.

Greg

So we are left with the US as Europe has no interests other than Europe... With the US we have a shared cultural beginning, shared language and similar outlooks on life...

And here I thought Australia and Canada were best buddies...

(Pouts and goes and sits in the corner...)

May actually be worse than that. You can hit a process similar to evaporative cooling: its how romans made ice in the desert.

Temperature is an average of the temperature of every single molecule in a batch. If the hotter molecules are allowed to leave, whats left is a much colder whole.

If an organization becomes so conservative that the liberal people leave, you're left with a far more conservative organization to perpetuate itself. Even worse than a stalemate, it can become a negative feedback loop where you keep driving out more different views and getting more conservative until things get a little loopy.

This likely applies to the church at large, but I think the college of cardinals is about as conservative as it gets. I'd really like someone to name an active cardinal who has a liberal viewpoint on contraception, gay rights, and on women and married people in the priesthood. (I won't even ask for women's choice, 'cause I know that's a non-starter, but that'd be great too.) If there was just one cardinal who held a more progressive view of those topics I'd think there was hope for the church but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit: I'd even consider it a minor victory if it was an "or" not an "and" between each of those. But even there I think we're batting .000.

So into the "good" part of Season 5, and part of the evidence against the centauri is weapons residue. I am trying to reconcile all the effort the centauri took to hide their actions against that basic identifier..and I conclude that they din't bother using other race's weapons and had always planned to blame it on the narns.

The Centauri attacks were orchestrated by the Draak. They wanted the Centauri to be found out so that the rest of the Alliance would exact their revenge for them. Any blame on the Narn was an initial smokescreen until the "truth" came out.

You'll enjoy Age of Worms, I think. We're on adventure 10 of 12 and there have been some definite high moments.

Greg

Incidentally the best episode of the season. ^^

And, see I found the whole mystical, talking to the dead bit to be completely out of place for B5. It was Gaiman, so it was well written. It i didn't care for the whole Reebo & Zooty bit or the dead come back to life stuff.

It's been a long time since I've watched S5 but I seem to remember thinking "The Long Night of Londo Molari" to be the best episode of the first half is S5.

Greg

GregH wrote:

While true, my concern is that helping the poor is not a new idea. It's just a good idea. The papacy is stuck in a medieval mindset which has no hope of changing in the next millennium.

There are modern problems which require modern solutions. It's one of the main reasons I no longer consider myself catholic. (Along with the whole "does god really exist?" thing.)

Greg

Well, I'm sure it'll change in the next millennium. It certainly changed in the last one. It'll just lag a bit.

Ok fair enough. Millennium was a stretch. But the papacy is about 500 years behind having only just apologized for how they treated Galileo. So, next "half-millennium" maybe?

Greg

So, a few things to hope for, and a few things to be disappointed in.

That alone is a step above the last one, who only offered things to be disappointed in when he took the job.

While true, my concern is that helping the poor is not a new idea. It's just a good idea. The papacy is stuck in a medieval mindset which has no hope of changing in the next millennium.

There are modern problems which require modern solutions. It's one of the main reasons I no longer consider myself catholic. (Along with the whole "does god really exist?" thing.)

Greg

Unfortunately, as long as old conservative men do the voting, the result is going to be an old conservative pope. You would need to change the demographics of the cardinals before you can change the type of pope you get. But since the pope appoints the cardinals that would require a more liberal pope... which would require a more liberal group of cardinals... Which would require a more liberal pope... Which would require...

Catch 22.

Greg

I still think Season 5 is better than 99.9% of the junk out there and only pales in comparison to the other 4 seasons. Taken on its own there are some pretty good episodes in the last season. And I think the wrap up (the last handful of episods) was a really good way to end the series.

Greg

I've moved on. I've DMed all the Maure stuff available in a previous campaign and am now in the middle of Age of Worms. After this I'll probably do something centered around Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk and the I've still got Savage Tide and Rise of the Runelords sitting in wait.

Is be curious to see what was all intended but that could be satisfied by a very long post by RJK. But he doesn't seem willing to spill the beans.

Greg

Thanks, Dryder.

Greg

I prefer not to give out my personal email to someone I don't know, so I did hopefully something thats just as good, gave it a 4-star rating and explained in the review that I would like portrait mode. Hopefully the devs read the review.

Greg

GregH wrote:

Reggie wrote:

How much would be needed?

Reggie

Enough to buy the rights to all things Maure from WotC, assuming they are selling.

Greg

Sooooo..... Not happening, then.

Reggie

I'm not holding my breath.

Greg

So I've used this app in a couple of sessions now, and I really like it. It does everything I need in an initiative app. If I have one criticism it's that it's landscape only. All my PDF material works best in portrait mode on my iPad and having to look at it in landscape is not as easy during a battle. I prefer it to flipping the screen, so I keep it in landscape. I realize that the developers probably think that landscape is a more efficient layout for this app, but if they could figure out a portrait orientation that would work well, I'd consider it a pretty much perfect app.

Greg

I'm pretty sure I gave my party full XP for negotiating.

Greg

Rheostatics - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot cover)

Thanks for the input. Courtney!, that seemed like a fun encounter. Not sure I have the dramatic chops to pull it off, though. My party is in the middle of Kings of the Rift, having just found the first key. I will basically have one more chance to interject Darl before its too late. But since my guys don't really go for "downtime" much, they are likely to head straight to the Wormcrawl fissure after getting the phylactery.

I've been thinking that maybe Darl is done for this AP though. I've been meaning to run a "looser" campaign after this, one starting with "Mad God's Key" and have the campaign revolve around the developments of that adventure.

I thought I'd make Darl the focal point of the next campaign. Not the same party, but it would be the same players so it'd be almost as good.

Greg

Severed Dreams" is probably the finest 40 min of television I've ever watched.

Greg

Finally downloaded it last night and played with it a bit, but won't get to use it in-game until next week. Looks like it has pretty much everything I need, though. Really looking forward to using it.

Greg

Cool. Going to check it out now...

Greg

Is this a mobile or desktop app? Win or Mac/iOS or Android?

Greg

How much would be needed?

Reggie

Enough to buy the rights to all things Maure from WotC, assuming they are selling.

Greg

It lasted 2 seasons, but still died too early:

Dead Like Me.

It's available on DVD and is pretty good. I've heard there might have been a movie as well, but if so I've never seen it.

Don't bother with the movie (yes it exists), theres no Mandy Patinkin. Just enjoy the series.

Greg

How useful would this be for a 3.5 game? Not very familiar with PFRPG so I don't know if there are any serious differences in how combat is run.

(I realize the reference material is all PFRPG, I'm just looking for a good initiative tracker.)

Thanks,
Greg

What is it like in the future?

Jet packs and hover cars, I hope.

I just ran the Darl Quethos encounter this last week, and Darl had to plane shift out with the Sunfire twins at the end. (Fun battle, but really bad rolls by me including a failed dispel of a sphere of ultimate destruction sealed his fate.)

Has any one used Darl again before the end of the adventure path? I'd really like to have him re-occur but I'm kinda stuck on ideas of how to do it.

Darl want secrets, but after LoLR there's really nothing left in the AP that would interest him it seems. There's always revenge but that seems a little too obvious as a motivator to have him show up again.

Anyone use him again? How did you do it?

Thanks,
Greg

Looks like I should've held my breath after all! Awesome!

Greg

No. I have no phone plan for my iPad. (I can only assume such things would be even easier on Android.) The device is a little less expensive if it's wi-fi only, too.

Not only that, but if you already have a smart phone (I know, not everyone does, but if you do) you can pretty easily tether your phone plan to your wifi tablet. I do it with my iPhone/wifi iPad and I have a friend who tethers his iPod touch/iPad to his Android phone. As long as you discipline yourself not to go nuts and refrain from app or movie downloads, you shouldn't have to worry (generally) about your download cap. Save all the big downloads for when you have a "real" wifi connection.

(This assumes your mobile plan allows tethering.)

Greg

If you're using goodreader, you can download it to a normal computer and then attach the ipad and transfer across. I must say I haven't had this issue either. So far everything downloads fine to good reader using the procedure Jim says.

You can also set up your computer for sharing (SMB or aftp) on your local network and GoodReader will download directly from your computer over your wi-fi connection. It's pretty straightforward and doesn't require a physical connection to your computer.

Greg

Fish LOVES you...all Praise FISH!!! :)

I like my Fish and Hogarth in equal measures. :)

Greg

I'll certainly have to check it out then. Any specific album you would suggest to start with?

Lavender was from "Misplaced Childhood" so that's as good a place to start as any. I've seen it written that the first four albums (Mispalce Childhood was #3) were heavily Genesis-influenced (the good 70s stuff) but I don't hear it as much.

However, I'd also suggest "Brave", but that was with their "new" singer and they started moving in different directions. More "atmospheric" at times, more pop-oriented at others, but a great album, IMHO.

Greg

Haha, there is a lot of love for Marillion here (and in the Prog Community). Admittedly, the only song I can recall of the top of my head is "Lavender". Perhaps I should remedy that.

Well, if Lavender is the only song you know, my suggestion is start with the "Fish-era" (I.e. 80s) Marillion and work forward from there. The Marillion of today is not the same as the Marillion of the 80s (musically speaking - the line up hasn't changed since '89).

Greg

I'm not holding my breath. The fan voting counts for 1 out of 600 votes I hear. If the critics don't want them in, they aren't getting in.

BTW, saw them in Montreal last week. Awesome show marred by just atrocious sound. Hope they release a BluRay of the tour so I can hear what it was supposed to sound like.

And I'm jealous of those that got the set list with

Lucky so-and-sos.

Greg

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MARILLION!

(And Rush, and Yes, and King Crimson, and a little Dream Theatre, and Flower Kings, and Transatlantic, and SAGA...)

Greg

GregH wrote:

I used the Tarrasque as the penultimate big bad in my last campaign, so I don't think I'll go there.

Thanks,
Greg

Yikes! What ended up being the big bad after that then?

:) The herald of Tharizdun "Shothragot" form the Wizards online adventure "The Essence of Evil". It was a campaign centered around Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil where the party near the end had to deal with the Tarrasque which I had decided was basically the physical manifestation of the pure element of destruction of Tharizdun, like an avatar. The Tarraque appeared as one of the signs of the rise of Thaizdun. It was a fun battle, they made good use of walls of force, and they were prepared with strong enough weapons and wish spells. It was a lot of fun.

Greg

Crusade

In my campaign, I put the Tarrasque in place of the nightmare beast. It was a lot of fun. My players figured out pretty quickly that they weren't going to be able to kill it - after they foolishly woke it up. Just give them a means to trap or banish it.

I used the Tarrasque as the penultimate big bad in my last campaign, so I don't think I'll go there.

Thanks,
Greg

GregH wrote:

Cuchulainn wrote:

Check out the Bandersnatch in the PRD.

Will do, thanks. I'm playing 3.5 is it an easy conversion?

Greg

Not much work, really. Drop CMD, convert CMB to grapple, rename a few skills (perception=spot/search, etc). Everything else more or less stays the same.

Cool. I'll definitely consider it.

Greg