Krypter's page

I haven't read a good near-future technothriller since Red Storm Rising, but I'd like to get back into the genre if there is something really good there. Any recommendations for new, modern-day or near-future military thrillers with cool weaponry and smart geopolitics?

I've just started playing this game and I'm enjoying the fantasy world quite a lot. It seems coarse, unpleasant and very medieval, but still spiced up with some exotic monsters and arcane magics. I'm just not impressed with the countless cutscenes filled with mediocre acting (though this the Enhanced Edition and is considered better in that regard). Love the high isometric mode, though, it's just like a 1990s CRPG should be.

Has anyone here completed the game? Worth playing to the end? How does it stack up against Baldur's Gate, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, etc.?

Looks like Mercenaries 2 will let you play as either Obama or Palin to go to war with assault rifles, rocket launchers, the works! This is too funny, especially the grenade-wrestling:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/10/obama-palin-com.html

Partisan jab:

I haven't had time to keep up with all the 4E announcements, but has a 4E version of Planescape been confirmed, any date given or any other tidbits/rumours released?

I always loved his crazy ink style, and he had some really whacked out ideas for technology and human relationships. THB especially had so much neat stuff inside it that it blew my mind. It's a weird mixture of Burroughs, Kafka, and David Lynch. Or something. And his take on Batman was just beautiful. There's a languid grace and compressed energy in all his drawings that I would love to emulate.

Someone started a very interesting discussion on rpg.net about whether 4E is "Mike Mearls' Heartbreaker RPG". What makes it interesting is that Mike himself showed up and added some fuel to the fire; specifically, he listed 13 things that were wrong with 3.x:

Many of the changes we've implemented have been asked for by gamers, or at least are changes to features that people don't like about 3e:

1. Generating numbers for NPCs is like doing (really boring) homework.
2. The game seems to function best at about levels 5 to 12.
3. High level games are cumbersome and difficult to run.
4. Low level games are swingy.
5. The CR system is confusing and produces wonky results.
6. Spellcasters outclass everyone else.
7. Multiclassing works for only certain combinations. Classic tropes (warrior-wizards) need new core classes because the core system doesn't work.
8. Characters have too few skill points.
9. Monsters are unnecessarily complicated.
10. You don't get enough feats.
11. Attacks of opportunity are confusing.
12. Magic items are really important, but it isn't equal. Some items are critical, others are complete chaff.
13. There are a number of weird little subsystems that introduce unnecessary complexity, like grappling.

There's more, but I'm tired, and I have more weird analogies to dream up.

I'd have to agree with the majority of things listed, but notice that none of them seem to touch on the drastic meta-setting changes that were also implemented. The thread is long (60+ pages) but worth checking out.

Got this from rpg.net, but I figure I'd post it here since there seem to be many fans of Dr. Who on these boards. Release scheduled for Summer 2008.

"From the doctor who news page
http://www.gallifreyone.com/news.php...VuZAyFvqnqLfnC
Angus Abranson, head of Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd, announced today that Cubicle Seven have been awarded the license to produce an official Doctor Who role-playing game based on the new series. The announcement was made at Dragonmeet, London's premier role-playing convention. Full confirmation, and further details will be made available, though a press release, which is to be issued at the beginning of next week.

[...]

The following was revealed:

The game will be released as a boxed set, and will contain a Players Guide, a GM's Guide, an Adventures Book, a GM screen and some funky Who-themed dice. Everything will be full colour and glossy, with plenty of photos from the new show. Scheduled for a 'Summer 2008' release it will sell for £25-£30.

It will be possible to play Time Lords, Companions, UNIT soldiers or anyone else you can think of. The competence disparity between characters will be mitigated in a similar way to the Buffy RPG. Dave Chapman has great fondness for Blink, and wants to include the option of playing a Sparrow & Nightingale type of campaign. Playing the Doctor will also be an option.

The system will be based off a single conflict resoloution mechanic that can be applied to anything, from hypnotism to fisticuffs. The GM and players will narrate the specifics, tailoring it to the situation at hand. It sounded like a crunchier version of Risus to my ears. And yes, your characters can die if they lose a critically dangerous conflict.

Characters will earn 'Story Points' during play, which can be used to effect the outcome of events. From the sound of it these effects will range from the minor (a bonus to a single di roll) to the truly mind-boggling (Rose absorbing the Time Vortex and blowing up the Dalek fleet). The system is desigend to mimic stuff like the Doctor suddenly coming up with an arcane and convoluted soloution to a problem that actually works. Think Adventure's dramatic editing mechanic, although with a much wider potential scope. The players are encouraged to be as creative as possible when spending Story Points, and the game will ideally run as a fast-paced dialogue over the screen.

Devices will be created in the same way as PC's, and will possess unique characteristics, including a Story Point pool that allows them to behave in unusual ways. Thus the Sonic Screwdriver could be used to open mundane doors whenever you fancied, but to to use it as a weapon you'd need to spend SP's."

Has this title been delayed?

I'm eagerly looking forward to this compilation as I've had a fractured picture of the story since I jumped into the middle of it with Dungeon #118. Downer's art is great and added a huge amount of character and charm to Dungeon over the years. Kyle has brought the Underdark to life in a much more interesting and convincing way than any 5 dry supplements from WotC. Three cheers for Downer!

I'm still really confused as to which of these card sets are random and which are 'complete' (for lack of a better word).

Item Pack 1 is complete, right? It includes all 54 cards, 1-54?

Booster Packs are random? You get 12 random cards out of a possible 54 in the set?

Dragon's Hoard is complete and includes all 110 cards?

The product description needs to be clarified because even some of the buyers seem confused as to what they got.

Thanks.

Ryan Dancey, a former D&D brand manager and guru of the OGL, has updated his blog in regards to the death of Dragon and Dungeon.

More speculation about what WotC's digital initiative might look like in this ENWorld thread.

He's not happy:

"What I see happening is the exact opposite of what I would do if I were running the business. What Wizards is doing is implementation without a public roadmap. They have not sought to educate their customers -- they’re acting like TSR of old did, doing what they think is right, and assuming that their customers will be dragged along with them because they don’t have any viable alternatives."

My group is playing the excellent Chimes at Midnight adventure and I was wondering what new Eberron adventures are planned for upcoming issues of Dungeon. Will there be more higher-level Eb adventures, Dragon magazine tie-ins, more place articles ala the Ring of Storms (which was great, btw)?

Thanks.

Asking as a player in the Age of Worms campaign, what can my character do to protect himself against these vile worms that almost killed him three times? As a party we know these things are some sort of zombie-worms, but we're not sure how to protect ourselves given that armour doesn't seem to help. Would it be worthwhile to research some sort of oil/balm/tar that could be applied to the body to repel them? My berserker character seems especially vulnerable, being front-line and unclothed except for a loincloth.

Does anyone have any spoiler-free hints or tips, including rules (I'm not very familiar with d20) that might help us?

Thanks.

"From the people that brought you the Graveyard of the Dead and the Castle of the King, comes a harrowing tale of creepy dungeoneering called... THE DUNGEON OF THE CRYPT!!!"

I'm sorry to be so harsh, but did the word-naming-thingie machine break down on a Friday afternoon or something? That's got to be the most generic name for an adventuring location that I've ever seen in gaming. Perhaps I'm not up on my Waterdeep lore, but does this lame excuse for a dungeon name have some sort of FR historical precedent or something? I'm at loss for how this could be the name of a real dungeon.

I would be grateful if someone could tell me which Dungeon
issue contains the Khazefryn adventure. I searched the site
and googled it but came up with nothing. Thanks.

Hi Paizo,

Just to clarify, after having reading the FAQ, that if I
subscribed to dungeon on Oct 15, I will NOT be receiving
issue #117? And since it will take 3 weeks to ship the
next issue (on Nov 21), I can expect to receive my first
issue of dungeon (#118) on Dec 7th?

If that's correct, that blows. Sorry to say it, but there's
something seriously wrong with your shipping company/contract
if it takes 3 weeks for a magazine to get from the Midwest
to southern Ontario in Canada. I get periodicals from EUROPE
in less than a week.