Spoiler:
Your suggesting that 13th Age is a better game as far as story telling is concerned and there is less preparation time?That's mostly personal opinion. I find it easier to run, but that's just me.
In 13th Age the pc's get better as the combat goes on? What about the bad guys (well good guys in our case)?No, only PC's. The intent isn't to have a fair fight, its to have an epic battle where the PC's will come out on top. Fights start difficult and then get easier since the assumption is PC's will succeed and win. I'd say its a more modern perspective like that in 4e. However, some monster abilities trigger on escalation die increases. For example, a current monster can deal ongoing damage if the escalation die is even.
How is an even roll different from an odd roll?Depends on the class and monster. For example, a recent monster could make two attacks if it rolled an even.
What do you like best in 13th Age? What is better in Pathfinder that could be brought into 13th Age?Ease of play, simplistic backgrounds that encourage explaining how you can do that. "What do you mean you want to use your Scholar background for stealth?" "Well, as you know, my character is a bit of a prankster. While at the academy, he routinely snuck up on teachers to put tacks on their chairs." of course, the Dm can disallow this use so it depends on the DM. I'm pretty loose and as long as it keeps encouraging PC's to build more background, I say go for it.
The only thing it could get from Pathfinder is more options (and the setting, I <3 Golarion).
In your example with the rouge against the Paladin, you say he can use his 'narrative stunt' to do certain things, isn't that similar to acrobatics skill and mobility in Pathfinder?Mobility is a feat in Pathfinder that does nothing but provide a small boost to AC against opportunity attacks. Acrobatics in Pathfinder is useful at low level, but at higher level it becomes very difficult to beat the CMD of many monsters. For example, if Jax had maxed out his acrobatics he'd have +15 CMD (+6 Dex, +3 favored, +6 level). If the treant we are fighting is a standard treant at CR 8, it would have a CMD of 29. Meaning Jax needs to roll a 14 simply to move, at half speed, through its threatened spaces. This gets much worse as a player levels. Sure, you can invest in magic items to boost that chance (1500 GP for +5 to acrobatics), but it requires more investment than simply scooping up a level 1 ability as in 13th age.
The Rogue can use his narrative stunt power to do any number of things. In our game its been used to blind an enemy (dirty trick maneuver, you need minimum of 2 feats to even attempt to do this as a standard action), disarm an enemy (again, minimum of 2 feats to even pull this off without it backfiring with opportunity attacks), slow down enemies (trip takes 2 feats again), or move around dynamically up walls, across chasms, through enemies (jump skill, climb skill or spider climb, acrobatics skill). So for the cost of 1 ability, in Pathfinder, you'd need to spend at least 4 feats and max out three skills. Even then, your chances of success will be incredibly low for most of these abilities at mid to high levels due to how scaling of CMD works.
In conclusion, Kind of, but not really.
My questions with them is, do NPC or DMs characters get backgrounds as well and what keeps DMs and players form abusing it?Depends on the DM. I've given a few NPC's basic backgrounds of 3 points. For example, the NPC bandit they recruited/kidnapped has "Bandit 3" and the guide they hired has "Long-time Narlmarches Trapper 3." (Narlmarches being the name of the forest) For random enemies, I don't bother. Who cares if the treant has Knowledge (nature)? If there is something nature-y that it needs to tell the PC's, just have it know that information. If its making Knowledge rolls against the PC's..why?
As for abusing it, I'm not sure what you mean. A PC can't just use the same background for -everything-. But that relies on the DM/table deciding collectively. If Player A wants to use his Pirate of the Sellen River background to make perception checks in a desert..its easy to say no. If they want to say, use Skywatch Academy Graduate for a stealth check, see above. I expect a story if its something out of place/raises an eyebrow. If the story is good enough and makes sense..go for it.
I don't think I followed your explanation of subplots. Would it not be a little difficult for the DM if say there were six strongly vocal PCs and each was trying to advance their own subplot?Not really, its just like how Doug does subplots in his game. Cimu has visions. Jax talks with his sword. Dren has creepy things going on with his blade.
In our game, subplot stuff occurs in PM's and spoilers for the most part. Anything involving a combat (say, for example, a PC is told where a certain magic item is) is put inside of a dungeon the PC's would have already investigated for some reason. In this example, there is a barbarian cairn with a mini-dungeon that was b uilt on top of an ancient fey tomb. The tomb itself is one room and contains the subplot for one PC. The cairn has a few general plot elements and its own subplot for the rest of the party.
There is a Bref in your campaign too? Wow, he's franchising!I rolled goblins randomly for an encounter and decided to spice it up. Bref had a backstory where he learned how to be an adventurer complete with his own full plate and sword. he's incredibly smart and his tribe used extensive tactics to battle the PC's. Shield wall + abusing a spell their shaman had where a cursed target took a small amount of damage if an enemy engaged or disengaged them for a round. All twelve mooks would run up to the enemy (triggering ability) and attack them or (if they were engaged already) attack and then run away from them (triggering the curse).
Mooks are much like 4e Minions. They have low hp (level 1 mook has 4-7 hp) and are "connected" to 2-4 other minions (at levels 3+ mooks are in groups of 5, at levels 1-2/3 they are in groups of 3-4). Say you deal 14 damage to mook 1. Well that other 7 damage goes to mook 2. You'd describe it as something like:
Jack the fighter stabs the goblin in front of him through the chest, pulling his blade out and flicking blood across the swarm before him as he steps forward and kicks another goblin in the skull, sending it flying across the room"Or, if mooks are farther apart: "Jack rolls forward, cutting the goblin's stomach open and pulling a dagger from his boot at the same time. The knife flies toward a second goblin, taking it in the eye."
For an archer, they simply fire more arrows that round or a goblin feints from fear. For a magic caster, the spell bounces or they fire two bolts of fire instead of one, or whatever you feel like.
I could use a little more examples for 'icon rolls'.An Icon is an important NPC character. Not a "god" figure like Elminster, but rather someone who has no direct pull on the game, but a lot of indirect pull. In our game, the Dwarf King (lord of Five Kings Mountain), the Winter Queen (fey court), Summer Queen (fey court), the heads of several churches (Abadar, Pharasma, Gorum) and a few others. Each character has 3 relationships (can have multiple relationships with the same icon). These relations are either Positive (Icon's organization likes you!), Negative (Icons organization hates you!) or conflicted (Some of them like you, some of them hate you!). Rolls of 6's are successes. Rolls of 5's are successes with a complication and rolls of 1-4 do nothing.
Rules for how these work vary significantly by table. Some Dm's have you roll them as an event happens. I.e. you're stuck at the Dark Tower and an army is descending to take the tower. John the Rogue rolls 2d6 with the Prince of Shadows. He gets a 5. He recalls a ritual that he learned from a shadowy figure taught him. Unfortunately, there comes a price. He casts the ritual and it causes a massive storm of black wind to cover the army, making it harder for them to move forward. In return, one of the Prince's minions may come to take a toll later on. Or tell the bad guys when the PC's are weak or whatever plot element you feel like tossing in as a complication.
Your also saying that the game has a more old school feel I take it, but I am not entirely sure what is considered old school to most players save for I think games were less defined by the rules and DMs had more leeway back then.I wouldn't say that as much. It does encourage DM leeway but discourages PC death. A lot of older games felt more "hardcore" where PC's dying was realistic and expected. 13th age has a modern fantasy viewpoint. You are the hero. You are the protoganists of this story. You are "special" and not just "Joe the Barbarian #5." This is encouraged in the "One Unique Thing" (OUT) rule.
While the OUT doesn't have any mechanical impact (i.e. it doesn't boost/decrease character stats in any way), it has significant narrative impact. Perhaps you are the only dwarf born of a zombie mother. Maybe you're the last heir to the Empire of Thorns. Perhaps you are the only individual to have seen the face of, and kissed, the Prince of Shadows. You are the only half-elf that is also half-lizardfolk. (and one from my game) You were cursed as a child with the "Winter's Withering." One of your arms is weak and scrawny looking (no mechanical impact, cool flavor). When you cast magic, the arm occasionally glows with runes. The curse has some connection to the Winter Court, but the Pc does not know what it is. The player put the decision in my hands, I loved the idea. I talked with him about a few ideas and negated any he seemed unsure/not fully behind. The one we went with is the Winter Queen granted this 'curse' but unknown to the PC, it will occasionally pull down terrible winter storms to protect his life if its in danger. Say, he's in the middle of a war between his kingdom (far, far in the future. This is Kingmaker after all) and Pitax. If the battle is going against his favor, and he is about to be felled by an enemy general, a storm will start. The snows allow him to retreat with his soldiers and recoup, although half of them die to frostbite in the process.
Its also led to someone in the Winter Court (the Crone in this case) wanting his character to become the next Winter Knight. Of course, the Winter Princess wants a different PC to become the next Winter Knight instead. Rather than PC conflict (as neither wants to be a pawn of the Court), this will show up as conflict between NPC's following a single Icon that will bring benefits and conflicts to the PC group as a whole (magic items, spontaneous benefits, not sure where else this will go).
Oh, BTW: for those of you who still have some fragments of spare time left in your life?
Jax thanks for the very detailed answers, it sounds like a good game in its own right, making the players the hero of the game. Is it popular as a pbp?
Found this game for kids, maybe DM can take his children on some adventures and Bref will get more playmates.
I posted that the players are looking for a replacement on the recruitment thread.
why?
Cy - you realize that whenever you post on the recruitment thread, it resets it to the top of the Recruitment board. Then people start posting and asking if we are recruiting which we are not.
I posted that we are not recruiting and for people to not ask. Hopefully we don't get a bunch of submissions.
I have no idea, I was very confused as to what her post in the recruitment was about.
i assume it was just a joke.
That isn't to say that we weren't all crying int he fetal position under our beds at the thought of the game not continuing...
:)
Though I might have been doing that because I live in a one room flat with the goblin
teeheeteeheeheehee
not at all
Cy - is there a reason why you never title any of your spoilers? All you have to do is type:
[.spoiler=NAME] Junk in Spoiler[/.spoiler] without the "." This will then create a named spoiler named NAME like this.
Sorry nothing in here.
You do not have to do this, but it makes things much easier to read, especially your character sheet, and greatly simplifies figuring who you want to read your spoilers if you named them this way instead of simply typing something on the line above.
Random question: without googling, do any of you know what an "Incoterm" is? -- I'm substitute teaching a class, and I'm idly wondering how many people in the general public would recognize it. (I suspect not many, so it's cool to say "no".)
No idea, if I had to guess I'd say its a scientific word or old fashioned term referring to an individual. Although I have no idea what beyond that..*goes to look it up now*
Edit: Well, I was more than a bit wrong!
Edit Edit: As a random aside, my wife and I were cracking up over this video last night. I'm not sure how well it translates to every field, but I feel this is a good description of 90% of anything relating to science, technology or engineering when working with managers, customers and clients.
Well, I was on the right route. I figured that the base was term. I was assuming it was referring to the period of time. I studied international law, but do not recall that particular one.
probably worth scribing some high CL Dispel magics
Cy has enough slots that she can probably memorize one. The only thing is that Dispel Magic is abjuration and I have no clue what her opposition schools are.
Cymu, your character sheet isn't very easy to read haha.
Noted in passing: what I do when I'm not writing reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
That is great. But the Judge would prefer if one of the red lines is a shadow.
Noted in passing: what I do when I'm not writing reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
Isn't that the same thing I linked to? :P
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Noted in passing: what I do when I'm not writing reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
Clearly this engineer needs to study Non-Euclidean Geometry and visual doppler shifts. Then he could have infinite parallel lines that were perpendicular to each other and red lines written in green or blue ink. Not sure whether this would help with making straight lines that are cats, but it is worth a try.
Cy - you realize that whenever you post on the recruitment thread, it resets it to the top of the Recruitment board. Then people start posting and asking if we are recruiting which we are not.
I posted that we are not recruiting and for people to not ask. Hopefully we don't get a bunch of submissions.
I thought it wold be obviously taken as a little April 1 joke.
I guess it was not obvious or funny :(
i assume it was just a joke.
It was. You guys don't do April Fools?
Random question: without googling, do any of you know what an "Incoterm" is?
I'm in finance and while I guessed the general meaning before I checked I had not heard of that term, also DM uses a lot of short hand that I don't see commonly, that kind of gave me a clue to what you were getting at.
Cy - is there a reason why you never title any of your spoilers? All you have to do is type
I did not even think of doing that I would just put the title of the spoiler above the spoiler,
Like this
The Judge's soul
I did not even really notice others doing it in your manner although I guess some do, I will use that method if its better.
probably worth scribing some high CL Dispel magics
I mentioned in the game thread that because of the caster dependent roll in Dispel, this would get expensive really fast, it's not like Fly or Haste where I could set the caster level at 5, which is already expensive, but I would have to keep making scrolls at a higher level to keep up with our challenges, and even then I could roll low and not Dispel the magic effect.
worth it to have one or two i think, a CL 7 is still useful up to level 10 or 11, then sell it
This is what they see whenever anyone good scries us.
Edit: As a random aside, my wife and I were cracking up over this video last night.
I work with those people!
Some people just have other priorities.
feel better dmdm
my wife and i are off to see Captain America tonight, anyone seen it?
Some people just have other priorities.
That looks like about the most staged video I have ever seen. You see how fast the "uninjured" person got out of the rolled over vehicle.
Sold out. Lame
Saw captain america on opening day and have been going to the Comic Con nearby Friday/Saturday/Today as well. The movie was really good, better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed it more than Thor 2 (although I've always liked Cap more).
I hope to see it soon. Need to get a babysitter for the miniature people in our home.
ok so we have to kill the plant if we want to keep grumbles around!!
Probably do not have to kill the plant, however unless we want to fight zombie grumbles, it might be a good idea.
Just a heads up. I will be camping this weekend from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. The place has no internet access so I won't be back on until Sunday night. Feel free to retcon me as needed.
Two weeks is still faster than most pbp. And, as you said, you were busy with RL which we have to allow from time to time.
nothin to worry about!!
So do we want me to use my lesser restore potion on Grumbles or trust that there shouldn't be anymore int damaging monsters coming?
Might be best to use the potion. I hate using potions when it can be avoided, but I do not think that we have anyone who can cast Restoration at this point.
At the same time, he will heal 1 point a day, so it depends on how long we expect to be in the woods. Intelligence is not going to effect saves or fighting, but with DMDM it will assuredly lead to some poor choices by the 1/2 ogre.
I think we can trust there won't be any more. We should have a Potion of lesser restoration in the party funds Jax has a Potion of Lesser Restoration in his inventory, we can say that Grumblejack is currently holding it and can use it if he needs to.
As a random story, the reason Jax is searching the pond lies with a former DM. One of my best friends rarely, if ever, hid things when it came to loot. We come from the same standpoint of mostly saying what the bad guys had on them before the PC's even have to ask. However, one time, we defeated a BBEG in a room with a giant pit in the middle. At the time, I was playing a character with an imp familiar and sent it into the pit to look around. It found a pit filled with bones and snakes, nothing interesting..but I was bored, we had time (were going to spend the night in that area) and said "Eh, he takes 20 on perception."
Our DM does occasionally like to hide things here and there, but its rare and usually something we'll either never ever ever find. He stared at us for a few moments and told us the imp found a lever hiding amidst the snakes, which of course it pulled..revealing a chamber part way up with a very handy, and expensive, +2 adamantine axe with some random enchantment. Being as, at the time, we were relatively low-wealth and hadn't encountered any large chunks of pure magical wealth, it was surprising. He put it there almost as a joking afterthought, not expecting us to beat the DC 30 requirement to find it..
Yeh, it is fun reading old AD&D stuff. You find treasure in all sorts of interesting places. Monster's stomachs, bedding, latrine, you name it, Gary Gygax found a way to have some piece of loot, usually gems, stashed there.
I'm not sure if we've done it, or if I've suggested it in this game (although I think I have..) but I have definitely cut enemies open to search inside of them before.