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Has anybody tried tabletop simulator for pathfinder? What is your experience. The google heavy nature (ajax, fonts, plus) of roll20 makes it a pain to use as I live in China...I also have connection problems with Fantasy Grounds...


I'd like to mention that I've started at least three games on this forum which I abandoned...without telling people why. I find that living in China, I occasionally lose all internet access to this website, or have other technical issues (no internet at work, broken PC, etc.) On the other hand I haven't run anything in over a year, so I'm not a part of this.


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-Recently I've been teaching some Chinese high school students to play d&d. 5th edition. And as they are non native speakers of English, and my Chinese is very poor, I have to do this very slowly and carefully.
-One thing that I've noticed is my heavy use of cliches. This is a Dwarf.
"Like in King of the Rings." Yes. "With an axe and beard?" Yes.
-Or this is a goblin "Kill it." It looks like...'Kill it with fire!"
-In other words I've noticed the cliches are exactly what the players want and expect. They also come to the table with these ideas in their head. It's all very Jung.
-So I'd like to have your opinion or thoughts. Do cliches, such as beer drinking dwarves and tree hugging elves, help to explain the game to new players, or do you think they 'turn off' people from the hobby.
-Another example, a player wanted "sword and magic" but doesn't really care about RP details, so I made them a paladin. The player was happy to have "Magic Sword" and couldn't care less about the RP side of things. Is this a good thing or bad thing?


A 20 year old with severe depression who was role-playing a puerto rican drug dealer...why was this a problem
1)The player fell asleep at the table
2)The player wasn't sure what PR drug dealers act like, in the least
3) He wasn't sure what coke did, but insisted his character did drugs at 10 min. intervals...


Now that Martial Law has been declared, doesn't that mean the civil/criminal code is no longer being enforced, but rather Martial Law? ie...court martial, detention, and so on?


I'm teaching
Harbin 122 Middle School program for rich Chinese Kids
English, English Lit, American Culture,
It pays well.


Just looters. I think shooting a few looters would stop the others. It would make you stop thinking "free stuff" and start thinking "stay home and live".


-I've lived in Russia and China, and that kind of firepower has NO need being deployed on US soil unless you are dealing with a Drug Cartel. A
MINE-PROOF APV?
-At the same time, I think looters should be shot...on sight. But these pictures and images do NOT belong in the US. This isn't right...This isn't Xinjiang or Chechnya...or the DMZ.


Our only experts are bards...and corn.


Yeah...tell me about it...I regret my Russian Literature degree, and really wish I'd have switched to geology and mining...


Well especially as I'm running it, there is a force for 'good and light' but what exactly or who it is is left unsaid...It isn't worth while to split hairs, just divine magic hurts vampires and ghosts, and thus is worth knowing.


Perhaps drugs or NPR were involved...maybe both.


I should talk to him, but I have had some trouble as a DM in that in my early days I would cripple player agency...I just want him to know that being a jerk to village priests and spitting in temples is going to get him burnt at the stake by an irate mob...


It's Barovia only....basically the Church is Deist, a good "force" exists, but it isn't knowable. Instead Saints are venerated, such as Ezra and a whole host of other characters drawn from Ravenloft fiction, mythos, and some actual Dark Age European Saints (Saint Christopher for example, and Saint Patrick)


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None of the languages used on Golarion would be anything like ours, so 'concepts' are used...So a person from Ustalav and a native of Geb don't say anything like "Earth Elemental"...


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I was described a scene where a cultist was removing the heart of an infant halfling, and then eating it...
...a PC Paladin asked " do I detect evil on the cultist?"
-Not the brightest character, or player.


It isn't the atheism as much as the let's put it this way...
...Remember the death idol in Breaking Bad where the twin Mexican Cartel Members crawl up the ground to put Walt's picture on it?...
I may think that is a silly superstition....but would you tell those two guys that to their face?
-I just am getting a strong anti-divine vibe from this player, which is going to cause really problems for my game world...Like I say, this isn't Realms or Golarin, vampires, monsters, ghosts, and devils are real, evil, and can't be killed for the most part except by divine characters, thus priests and paladins are treated with great respect by the local people...


When you insult a priest who is NG, bought your character dinner, and healed your friend in the first day, I wonder what your problem is...


-So I'm trying to run a ravenloft game, except I've got a problem. One of the players is playing an atheist. Now, I don't know about you, but knowledge religion and divine casters are pretty much your definition of a light shining in darkness...a hope against madness...
-So what gives...well the character is well RP'ed that isn't the issue, the setting is the issue. You don't walk into an inn and call the local priest a superstitious rapist. At the same time, I hate DM's who punish the players. I offered a campaign switch but the two players say they like it.
-So here is what gets me....how do you run gothic horror without devout serfs, and superstitious people in Barovia...


Play a small race and have a STR 2 gnome...


Would a hedge witch healer be useful? If so I'd like to suggest Babyshka Eliza, a gnome female hedge witch...Character would be a NG midwife-folk healer with strong Russian Pagan background (Russian was my major) and very 'fey'. (Mood swings, and stange behavior...)


I'd like to suggest any of the three
A) A female Dwarven barbarian/fighter who is looking for work as a caravan guard, city militia, or mercenary...
B) Og the Smasher- A full orc (not half orc) CN Boar Style Unarmed Fighter...He is a prize fighter, and a lacks most social skills...sadly.
C) Viktor Zarvich a Dhampir Paladin from Ustalav (Yes, cliche)


I'd like to throw a Female Ulfen Barbarian into the mixture...

Character:

Looks:
A Native of the lands of the Linnorm, Sigrid Trollsblud is a fierce warrior and mercenary. She is 19 years old, 6 feet tall, 190 pounds, heavily muscled, and has a stocky frame. She is fairly attractive, with blonde hair, blue eyes, a pert nose, and white skin. She favors the great-axe, and carries two throwing axes in her belt.

Personality and motivation:
Sigrid is young, looking for adventure and experience. She was drawn to this venture because she views it as a place to grow and learn, both from her own adventures, and working with others. Also, her family is poor, and thus she wants to gain money to improve their life. Her father was lost at sea soon after she was born, and she hopes to find word of him some day, though she knows this isn't likely. She is violent, but good natured, and a little naive. Sigrid is a young character, and thus doesn't have a huge backstory. I intend to use this as an opportunity to play a youth, my own bildungsroman...I see this character as being NG-CG but more likely CG.
Tactical role:

Hit it with axe. Hard. Drink beer. Repeat
Character oddity:
Sigrid has worked as a fur-trapper, and has ranks in craft:trap.
Traits: Charming...(Just because)...Pioneer (+1 Survival)Campaign trait

RP sample:

-You see a tall, clearly Ulfen woman standing by the fire. Her braids are tied around her head, and she leans on an enormous great axe, which stands head down. She peers intensely into the fire, and you notice that despite her size, the woman is still a youth.

-What brought her here, to these lands...She asked herself. What indeed? The lands of Brevoy were not her native lands, and her thick accent gave away her native tongue. The weather was warmer here, but the trees were less green. She wondered about this. She had many questions, and nobody to ask them to.

-Her dream was of coins, How she would find a treasure and bring it home to her mother. How she would buy a meadhouse and serve strong drinks to great warriors, and invite the greatest Skalds and Bards to recite the great sagas of her people...How strange it was to be a widow's daughter in a culture of warriors and raiders...

-Dammen bring me Beer, ja? She suddenly shouted to the barmaid, a woman who barely came up to her breast...funny that. She'd seen elves as tall as her, but few woman in these lands seemed as tall as the people from her homeland...

-The tavern was full of other adventurers, the strange collection of men and women from all the lands, all races, colors, and tongues. But the majority were the Erastil Worshippers, with bow and leather armor. Sigrid had seen the skill of the local archers, and was quite impressed. She'd also won a few coins throwing her deadly axes, or as she called them "Thor and Odin"...a few single men even proposed marriage but she wasn't going to settle down in this far off land...certainly not..
.


Or as my mother used to say "It takes two to fight unless one of them is Nick"...


Things with 4 legs get a big bouns, and things with no legs can't be...like snakes for example, and swarms and ooze.


See low magic means the bad guys are low magic too...If the bad guys have magic items, and you don't, that isn't going to end well, or fairly....That's not low magic, that's like RP'ing the Opium Wars.


Another vote for E6...
...Hey I have trouble getting a party to go from lv. 1 to 2 let alone 2 to 3...


China, where I live, is dying for war, but it has to be one they can win...so they need to find which ally will the US throw under the bus, India, Vietnam, Philipines, Japan, Taiwan or the South Koreans...Notice each country gets tested in turn...
...China has a several MILLION extra men they need to kill off, for social stability. They don't even need a victory.


I just read GUPRS basic combat for 4e (free set) and gave up...no way in hell will I run this...


Run D6 games...so that level 1 warrior is still a person, but his +4 perception is crushed by your +8 stealth.
(Warrior WIS 10+1 rank+3 class skill)
You
(Rogue +1 Rankr+3 class skill+3 DEX+ 1 low light or other situational mods)


Hatecrime cause they hate RPGs?...Seriously who steals books these days? I mean unless they are bound in leather or something...That's quite a story.


I'm the DM, but I did play with a guy who argued that cleave allowed him to take a single step, attack, step, attack, step attack, etc...
not in 3.5, not great cleave, the pathfinder cleave...


I've allowed them on a necklace, and also painted on the shield...and one player used to have a longsword that he'd flip over and hold as a cross...


I see 20 to 25 point buys being floated at Roll20...


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Not the real stone age...you want...no need....DINOSAURS...and bone weapons...


Would I play it...hell yeah...but I'd hardly consider optimal, or even normal power levels bu most modern gamer standards...
...I've played 3d6 game (with a single reroll for one array) ouch!


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-Since the End Boss of Carrion Crown is a Life hating Lich, I don't think he'd take kindly to a role-played ending...more like "stop breathing...worms..."
-I actually think RP breaks down as levels go up...I'm a die hard e6-e8 kind of guy, for that reason...


Um...sorry...I thought this was a campaign setting...not a Points of Light Mirobrazivanya...
Anyway...Here is what I suggest you think about for a campaign setting (I've written two one 59,000 words, the other 20,000 words)
-A concept is a GREAT place to start but thing about what you want...
There are two examples
Kitchen Sink-A world where our world is re-created, or a narrow part of our world. The two Kitchen sink settings would be Forgotten Realms and Golarin. Almost anything happens in those settings...
Small World-Eberron is a good example of small world, as is DarkSun or Ravenloft, a much smaller world. You don't try to create our reality, but only a place where everybody does indeed speak common.
-Moving on from the gross-concept, what makes your world special. In your world it seems the Demon Concept is well known. As I see it you'd have both a very religious society, (LG-CG) at odds with the cultists who wish to side with the Devil powers. You have left a traditional pantheon out of your description? Was that intentional? Or simply an oversight...?
-Next humans...is this is a small world...all humans look the same, speak human, worship human, and eat human food? Or are humans the major race, with the many races and cultures that are common to us? Or something else?
-Other races...describe other races and their relations to both cosmology and their race-relations? Do elves hate dwarves? Why?
-History...did devils have temples of evil built to them? Why? When? Still used for worship?
-Monsters-Are monsters mindless target fodder? Or do they have civilizations of their own? Are the Devil/Demon worshippers? Why?


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Cyperpunk Vampires in Space ( I tried...then 10 years later dead space came out, which is cyber-punk zombies in space)


-Um no...you haven't delt with the reality, namely that this is a world with a potential APOCALYTPIC end of the world time cycle. Please compare Dark age europe (Black Death, Decline of Trade, Cultural collapse) with say 1400's North Italy (Venic and Friends)
-Also as described there isn't a strong Demonic Influence (What does that even mean? Art? Cusine? Literautre? Music? The Pan-Succubi waltz?)
-Where is the geography? The languages? The religion? The climate? The level of trade? How good are the roads? These are the things that matter in world building...


It's a video game cliche...
...in other words monster come up kill things, heroes have to kill them, repeat, rinse, DC al capo...
Which makes for great high fantasy conflict (I need to close the gates of HELL!) very Diablo
...But what would suffer is civilization...survival doesn't create great art, peace and civilization create great art. Look at the difference between hundred years war Germany, and the Germanies in the Wiemar republic.


4d6 drop lowest would still average to 9 right?


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I'm going to have to agree with the other posters...
...I love and RUN RP heavy games if I can. I'm usually sad my players don't like heavy RP. That said, I don't think you can ever, ever expect a published adventure to have the support for heavy RP because it is a chaotic situation, that can't be prepared for in advance.
Let's make an example, the Dwarf Vampire Female Cleric Mini-boss
...What if the party is all Dwarves?
...What if the party is all neutral or evil?
...What if the party is all good divine casters?
...What if the party is all motivated 100% by money?
...What if the party thinks she is hot? (yes sex is a motivator, or I wouldn't still be in Asia!)
The party would react, and she would react, in so many different ways, that thinking any published product would cover this is just too hopeful. It seems, from reading PBP threads, that the AP's over plenty of roleplay opportunities...


Is it dangerous to go alone?


What's your DM like?
I run low level games, and therefore a Core Dwarf fighter is going to be quite good, cause there is nothing to compare him to. If you play with a high level crowd, or a 3PP crowd, or even a PFS crowd things change...


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When ever you start thinking about anthropology and cultural interaction, Golarin, FR, and Middle Earth are impossible. That's why it is called fantasy...So please don't argue if Iron Gods is realistic...


-Honestly, nuclear weapons (tactical and otherwise) is hardly a thread for RPG advice. As for your opinions/facts I think we could derail this thread faster than Crisco on a frog....
-That said, I dislike the idea that certain divine classes are immune to RADS..it isn't fallout.


Oh Sweet Mother of God, somebody wants to fight...
...on a serious note, the ability to play low level, low magic games is why I like the game. As a friend told me, you want to kill a god, play exalted...


Torbyne wrote:
All kinds of military vehicles have chemical, biological and radiological defenses (CBR) and continue to be built with them. It's not like the potential for exposure to these things has lessened since the cold war.

Not to be a jerk, but I'd argue the chance for nuclear war has lessened since 1950, or 1980. Is it still real? Yeah, but I think mad men did a good job of showing the sheer insanity of the Cuban Missile Crisis.


radiation is simple exposure, so the blood thing isn't really an issue...
...I remember reading there were anti-nuclear T-72's that were designed to operate in a radioactive area, but the crew couldn't leave the vehicle. Man it's good that cold war ended.

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