Sprain Ogre's page

Yeah, man. Screw EA. I mean, sure, they put out a 90+/100 Metacritic-scoring game, but they did a couple things we think could have been done better. Must be time to boycott!

By the way, on the subject of Metacritic, I love the idiots-on-parade discrepancy between the professional critic ratings (20 reviews - every last one positive - from professional news outlets written by people who do this for a living) and the fan ratings (900 negative reviews written by internet people). When there is a 53-point difference between the score "fans" give the game and the score professionals give the game, it's worth asking what the difference is between every reviewer and the majority of internet fans writing reviews.

The answer, of course, is an appallingly overblown sense of personal gamer entitlement. It's a shame to see it's still alive and kicking.

Level-headed person: "Huh, the last five minutes of the game didn't really measure up to the quality of the rest of the game. Better knock off a few points for that one."

Crazy internet person: "Huh, the last five minutes of the game didn't really measure up to the quality of the rest of the game. Better give that game a zero!"

Imagine the outcry in college classrooms if professors graded papers the same way internet people graded entertainment.

Pfft, no one plays humans. All my players play ponies.

Which crafting feat lets you craft sheep? :) Otherwise I don't really see the relevance of that to the topic here

Craft: Boom-Chicka-Baa-Baa

Haha.

At some point I might take a group and tell them, "Choose whatever stats you feel is appropriate for your character concept."

No point buy. No rolling. Just pick the numbers. :P

It'll probably end up more 'fair' than most rolling methods.

I am pretty old school, but the 3d6 method has so variation. It also forces the player into something different from what he wants to play, if he gets several bad rolls (pretty easy to do, actually). 4d6 drop lowest has the same problem.

Now, when I was first shown point-buy, I didn't like it, because I was used to rolling for stats, and the idea that someone could just pick an 18 seemed wrong. But lately? I have grown more and more enamored of the 20- and 25-point buy system with the Pathfinder values. You can build a solid character on 20-points and a very good character on 25-points.

For example: Someone in the group has their heart set on playing a swashbuckling rogue. They need Str, Dex, Con, Int, and Char; not necessarily extravagant scores in those abilities, but they all have a reason.

With 20-point buy, that character could get the following (before racial modifiers)

Strength 14 (5 points)
Dexterity 14 (5 points)
Constitution 12 (2 points)
Intelligence 12 (2 points)
Wisdom 11 (1 points)
Charisma (14 (5 points)

Is he a super-uber character that is going to overpower at 1st-level? No, but he has no real weakness, and it fits his Errol Flynn concept. Strong, dextrous, smart, and witty, and able to take some punches.

Now, let's look at rolling for that same character concept. I won't have him assign his stats in order, either. I'll even let him roll seven times, and keep the six highest. Fair?

3d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 1) = 12 =12
3d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 5) = 13 =13
3d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 1) = 8 =8
3d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 1) = 7 =7
3d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 3) = 12 =12
3d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 3) = 12 =12
3d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 3) = 11 =11

We end up with 13; 12; 12; 12; 11; 8, for an 8-point buy.

Strength 13 (3 points)
Dexterity 12 (2 points)
Constitution 11 (1 point)
Intelligence 12 (2 points)
Wisdom 8 (-2 points)
Charisma 12 (2 points)

Is it playable? Sure. Did I get good rolls? Yes. But I could have just as easily gotten horrible rolls or a bunch of very high scores. In my mind, point-buy just makes things easier by letting your players choose their own path, instead of having to play what the dice say. It is their character, let them make it how they want it to be.

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Master Arminas

DaveMage wrote:

Glad to see prepainted minis.

Not too thrilled with 4 PCs for $12.99.

So... why? That's $3.25 per mini, less than what you'd pay for an unpainted mini.

Just curious.

Probably just comparing them to the random lot booster box prices of DDM.

I don't have an issue with the price - I don't mind paying a few bucks for quality, non-random pre-painted minis. I have bought every single pre-painted Legendary Encounters mini so I will buy these just as extras for my players.

Oh yeah, pre-ordered.