DM Harpwizard |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Although I agree with most everything said here. I should also add that characters must be able to die, otherwise there is no suspense. If there were no consequences for actions, this would be a rather dull game. However, that being said, I do not think characters should die by something as simple as an unlucky roll. On a tabletop, I do believe in fudging the dice in the interest of creating a great story. Sometimes I fudge to favor the monsters and sometimes I fudge to favor the characters. In the case of Alchy, I think some fudging of the dice would have been appropriate, especially considering his absence. However, even if he was here, I do not think his death would have improved the story, especially considering how much his character adds to the game.
My players may give me a hard time for admitting this, but as a DM, if I need to fudge a dice roll, I sometimes add an extra perception check or some other skill check that will move the important dice roll down to something different.
Bilbo Bang-Bang |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ultimately, it seems that most us are in agreement in one or another that the death of a character is needed to keep things fun and not seem like we just "Game Sharked" the thing for infinite lives. We also seem to agree that when you have a prolific poster like , Shifty, that he deserves to at lest be at the helm when his ship runs aground. Not that I believe that he would complain to discover he'd been offed, but there is always that question of would I be around if I had made the decision.
I have always been a fan of Crit Hit rules, but not everyone wants to chance losing an eye, or their whole freakin' head for that matter. I feel the same affinity for critical fumbles. Neither happens enough to be of the greatest concern, but when they do it so much fun. More so to me than yay I got another 2 points for that roll.
How do just the folks in that game feel about it? It would not shock me to find Perdition dead after not being around for 3 weeks, but it would to find Harl in the same state. Did Shifty's character take chances or play it safe? Unlucky rolls happen, less than they used to, but still they do. Play it as what you see as good for the game and for you.
Tirion Jörðhár |
Not sure about Perdition, but so far he has been severely chastised by our alcoholic cleric and has gotten the party bard to attempt to trip him with anything that can be opened or closed.
--> It should be noted that we did drag Shifty's Harry onto a boat which might have been tougher had he been here since his last boat decided to go exploring the bottom of reefs.
TarkXT |
If it helps at all it should be noted that without the bite he would have dropped to -5 which is enough to drop him. Depending on the wererat ogre he might just 5ft shift over and thwack somethign else with that bite. No fudging necessary just that someone else has to get nibbled on.
Celestra Zomesco |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Not sure about Perdition, but so far he has been severely chastised by our alcoholic cleric"
"Just because I worship Cayden Cailean and enjoy a glass of wine or a refreshing ale, does not make me an alcoholic! And in regards to dear Perdy, I still love him, despite his little pranks! I'm glad I sounded stern, because within I was nearly in tears from laughter!"
Bilbo Bang-Bang |
The general attitude towards Alchy's death goes together with what I think. so I'll rulke in this special case that Alchy is downed to -5 (just like Karlan said).
I think that this is a suitable choice. You like it and they like it. On the ball rolls. Now the chance of death is still there if left unattended and your crazy monster got his bit of bashing in.
Shifty |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi guys!
I am back, just resting up a bit and catching up on whats what... should pick up posting again in the next few days as I get to start returning to normal routine. Course went well and I was fortunate enough to pass... so I'm all set now for the final 35 day selection/assessment in July!
I see Alchy had a tough time, I appreciate the discussion and the outcome, and would have been a shame if he had have croaked in my absence, but like always, absence is no free ride from a casualty - though I appreciate the leniency :)
Cheers guys!
(I am so tired, and so smashed, that was a very hard 17 days... 12 hours missions, 8 hours of manual labour digging a defensive position each night, and 4 hours allocated to sleep, personal admin, and time to analyze and write orders. And during that 4 hours you also had piquets.
Bilbo Bang-Bang |
Shifty! Welcome back, brother. Man they really put on you guys out there. Thanks for the kind words. I hope all goes well for you too. Looking forward to seeing ya back around the joint. I head off to school in a couple of weeks and I may need the assistance of some of you math types on this one, haha. Any chance you'll ever be sent stateside for joint training?
Shifty |
Thanks guys :)
The purpose of this latest little endeavour is to basically cut the field right down, wasn't just about 'do you know your stuff' because to be there it was clear we had the goods, but 'can you do it when we relentlessly slam you?'.
45 of us rocked up, 24 didn't finish.
The good news was it highlighted a few areas for improvement for me to work on until June. If I make that I get my two pips.
DM Harpwizard |
Hey folks, I have a question, and I think the answer is yes, but I cannot find it in any of the books. I have a character with a hippogriff mount with a Fly move of 50 feet. Can I double this movement for a 'Double move', triple it for 'Run x3', or quadruple it for 'Run x4' just as I normally would with creatures that walk on the ground?
Tirion Jörðhár |
Ok, I am probably prejudiced on this since I am the one who brought it up, but here is what I can find on the issue of "running" while flying.
It is not specifically disallowed --> Fly Running Messageboard Discussion.
Also, under the Fly description it references that while using the Fly spell, a character can Charge, but not Run.
Thus, under the theory of the inclusion of one indicates the exclusion of others, since they felt the need to expressly disallow running while using a Fly spell, versus never even referencing it in the other Fly related sections --> Flight Skill, Beastiary Flight section, etc. - I would say that you can Run dependent on how heavily loaded the flyer is. So with an armored Dwarf riding a hippogriff, probably 3x, or possibly 4x depending on how heavily loaded the hippogriff is.
DM Harpwizard |
$6.95 +
$4.69 shipping to Vermont
$6.12 shipping to Germany
for a total of $17.76. They said that they could not guarantee how long it would take to deliver, but they anticipated about two weeks. I certainly could have sent it faster, but to send it Express would have cost about $38.00. I presumed that cheaper was a better in this case. If you want to wait until you get it before you pay me, that will be fine. By the way, I am still waiting for the shipment of minis to arrive from Germany. Did they say how long they would take?
Bree Longfield |
Bree Longfield |
For example, we were given an article to read called Ethnicity and Families by M. McGoldrick, J. Girodano, and J. Pearce; in this article references are made to the different values different cultures place on verbal and non-verbal communication. Some of these references are:
"In Chinese culture, families may communicate many important issues through food rather than through words. They generally do not accept the dominant American idea of 'laying your cards on the table.'"
"In Sioux Indian culture, talking is actually proscribed in certain family relationships. A woman who has never exchanged a single word with her father-in-law may experience deep intimacy with him, a relationship that is almost inconceivable in our pragmatic world. The reduced emphasis on verbal expression seems to free Native American families for other kinds of experience of each other, of nature, and of the spiritual realm."
For the particular question, I'll need to apply some concepts that were previously discussed in earlier assignments as well, such as what constitutes a "family" in your culture? To you is a family the "nuclear" family, consisting of two generations, the parent(s) and their children. Is it an "extended" family, with three or more generations co-residing or actively involved in each other's lives. Is family pretty much anyone you have formed a bond with and choose to have in your family (i.e. god-parents, best friends, adopted children). Your answer need not be restricted to what I've mentioned here. Secondly, would you say that your particular view of family is average in your culture, and if not, what is the average view for your culture?
What kind of ways do you communicate with your family? Do you (or if you would prefer you may speak of your family of origin, that is the family you grew up in, the family that helped to shape you) make it a point to talk to those in your family about the personal details of their lives/your life? Do you avoid or encourage the expression of emotions? Is there an expectation for younger generations to be more open than older generations? Do you rely heavily on non-verbal communication, and if so of what sorts?
How is your family expected to communicate with the outside world? Are you expected to be open and friendly, or are you expected to keep personal things about you private so as to not reflect poorly on the family? What about sharing information about the family itself (i.e. if you mother was an alcoholic, would it be unheard of for you or your siblings to tell anyone about this, you needn't actually share anything personal in this regard, just whether or not it would be acceptable for you too)?
Again, these questions are examples of some of the things that the assignment is looking for, but the most important is to identify those communication patterns that you can look at and say, "I communicate this way because I was raised in an [insert ethnicity/cultural background here] family."
Zyren Zemerys |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thx for sending it! I'll send you the money asap, once you give me your Paypal email.
The shipping tracker of DHL has its last entry on the 28.1. with "shipping the package to target land". If we don't hear from it until end of February, I will have to investigate...Normally it should take about 3 weeks.
Thought so :)
Even though I have a rather big family (at least for German standards) - I have lots of cousins, but no siblings) I don't have much contact to anyone besides mother and father and before my grandparents died also to them. And yes, we do spend quite alot of time together, I see them like four times per week, I guess. With "problems" - should they ever occur :) we deal privately, but speak openly about them - I guess like it is done in most capitalistic western societies. I think Germany and America are pretty similar when it comes to such things. Sharing information about the family with others is a taboo.
In general I'd say that we communicate in an open way and we don't shy away from conflicts because we are always able to sort things out in the end. I don't think there is anything typically German about that, though.
feytharn |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bree
I come from a large family as the youngest of seven siblings (by ten years, and my brothers and sisters have another mother). Our relation is close, but I am probably least close to my siblings.
What problems we have we resolve with talking, though the desire to talk varies by person(ality) and sometimes it takes a nudge from another family member to start talking.
While there is no outspoken taboo for talking about internal problems with friends (or even professionals) outside the family, in my family I am again sort of an exeption (as I know through conversation with my siblings especially in the time after my fathers death) as I have a small circle of friends that I consider as close, sometimes closer as any family member, while my siblings tend to turn to their partners or to each other when there are problems.
The student of educational science in me that worked on similar papers before wants to add, that while there seem to be no special cultural taboos compared to other western countrys in germany, the last years (as in the last statistics done for a paper in 2008) seemingly bring a change. The impact of the large number of students from immigrant families (large compared to the overall number of immigrant people in germany) especially from Russia, the Ukraine and Turky seems to be quite meaningful.
While the 'parental generation' often doesn't interact on a personal level, their children more often do and the sometimes stricter rules for family and friends found in their respective culture impact the 'non immigrant children' (no discrimination of either side intended, but I lack a better or proper term, sorry)as well as some children seem to actually prefer the more regelmented enviroment of their friends over the more casual enviroment that is common in german families).
Bree Longfield |
Acculturation is very common, inescapable even, when two or more cultures have prolonged contact with each other. We also touched lightly on the ways that younger generations can and do change older generations. For instance, as you mentioned, it is not at all uncommon for the younger generations to be more open than the older generations but it is common for the openness (and perhaps the pushiness)of the younger generation to lead to a more open older generation.
feytharn |
Bree
As far as statistics go, the amount of families with one or two children is about equal, closely followed by families with three children (the latter number is actually increasing compared to the former numbers), but the number of families without children sizes almost equal.
Sadly, despite the fact that their children make up about 30% of the newborn in Germany, there is almost no usable statistic about the average family size of immigrant families (and no, even more sadly most statistics about family size take immigrant families into any account since many immigrants still have no German citizenship...but that is another, sad topic...)
One of the 'problems' with the younger and older generations influencing each other seems to be, that both generations seem to hunt for an always missed 'sweet spot'. Thus, children )or grandchildren) of stricter generations tend to gravitate toward mor openness and casuality, while children (or grandchildren) of more casual and open generations gravitate to stricter rules and life-models - but one can hope...
Zyren: Ich kenne die Regel überhaupt nicht! 2W6 Stabilität bei Charaktererschaffung? Wo hast du das gefunden?
Bree Longfield |
Thanks for you help!
Tirion Jörðhár |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ok all. I drove by a huge billboard today which proclaimed the whatever religious group had paid for the billboard would "Bring the bible to life."
How suprised do you think they would be if I helped them by casting Animate Object on their book?
Bree Longfield |
When I see signs like that, I really just want to purchase the one right after it and say the same thing about The Satanic Bible. No, I'm not a Satanist, I'm just contrary and I really hate it when people try to shove their faith down my throat.
EDIT: Also, yes, I'm aware that Satanism is nothing like what the masses believe it to be, but it is the simple fact that the masses believe it to be something extraordinarily evil that provokes my desire to do this.
Vaughn Elliot |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Bree, I'm with you 150%!!! There's this one obnoxious billboard I go by frequently that yells loudly, amidst flames of eternal damnation, "are you going to heaven, or HELL?!?!" grrrr I hate it. I wantto call their number on teh billboard and ask them if John Frum will come to bring me cargo. (look it up)
I am always reluctant to bring up my feelings abotu religion for fear of offending anyone . . .
Bree Longfield |
Vaughn, I tend to avoid religious debates because I really don't have any desire to convert anyone to my belief system and I'm not going to sit around while someone tries to convince me that if I don't convert to their's, bad things will happen to me. I don't have time for it, nor the patience for human arrogance. I looked up John Frum... interesting. As far as offending anyone, my general policy is that if you don't act offensively, than no one will be offended, and if they are, then it's there problem, not yours.
Stiehl9s, sweet. Now I want Vodka :P