The Avalon Chronicles

Game Master lynora

I'm gonna take the lul in gameplay to start a meme amongst us, hopefully.

For those of us with a manageable character list, for each of your characters, who is their roomate, and what classes do they have?

I think this might be a nice way to spurr on interactions. I'll post mine in a bit.

So a bit of somewhat positive news.

I don't usually talk about out of game stuff here, but, I figure I should share this a bit-

TL;DR-
I'm back on my antidepressants, and I feel half alive, rather then dead inside.

Heads up everybody:

I will be leaving for GenCon tomorrow, and as I am working, I do not know how much time I will have to check on games, let alone post to them.

Have a great time!

I'm gonna take the lul in gameplay to start a meme amongst us, hopefully.

For those of us with a manageable character list, for each of your characters, who is their roomate, and what classes do they have?

I think this might be a nice way to spurr on interactions. I'll post mine in a bit.

Can do.

So, I realized something. Because of the nature of Avalon's students, students with extreme mental prowess would probably be the only ones drawn to classes such as Engineering, Engineering, and Psychology. Which makes me wonder, how blasted would Robin's brain be as brilliant, but still within the range of a normal human, student after one of those classes?

The engineering and psychology classes are the same things and levels that are taught in normal high schools, but maybe with some fantasy elements like the difference between normal and enchantment madness in psych, for example. So they're just like regular high school electives.

Ah. So they're just incredibly easy for some students.

Which is why there are advanced courses for the mechanics classes

I will be out of reach from friday night to tuesday afternoon. I am going to my sister's house and then on to watch the eclipse from inside the path of totality. I may have occasional access on saturday, but I am not planning on posting anything.

Eerily enough, I too will be out of pocket during that same time to visit my wife's parents, and they happen to be right in the path of totality for the eclipse.

Our eclipse-viewing glasses just arrived yesterday, and we're as ready as the weather will allow. Time to go enjoy "a day without a night, and a night without a day". (^-^)

I feel like somewhere a hawk will screech and turn into a human now. :p

Holy...

I've been playing this game since 2013.

Four years now.

I'm... Kinda blown away.

The engineering and psychology classes are the same things and levels that are taught in normal high schools, but maybe with some fantasy elements like the difference between normal and enchantment madness in psych, for example. So they're just like regular high school electives.

This. Kids who are well above that test out of those classes quickly. Sometimes they might end up as a teaching assistant, or even as a student teacher in the event of the professor's unexpected absence (this is how Sadie ended up as the temporary light blades instructor). Or they simply get funneled to other classes where they have more to learn. So for instance, you wouldn't end up taking something like engineering or mathemagics with the genius level kids because they've tested out and end up doing something like advanced mechanics or the new work study program at the factories instead.

I am back. For certain values of back. :P
The trip was amazing. But no real surprise, I totally overdid it. So, end result, much pain. So much pain. Even the serious painkillers I take can't handle this much pain. So it may take me a bit to get back up to speed. Please be patient with me in the meantime.

Feel better Lyn!!

GenCon 50 was literally *BEYOND* amazing!!

Among many other awesome moments, the best was when my buddy Zack proposed to his girlfriend Paige, in the middle of our makeshift wrestling ring. He presented her with a customized card(of herself as a wrestler.) from our game!! She said yes, of course!(Also, a really pretty diamond ring).

Then, last night, she ended up becoming our new world champion, beating out around 92 other players!! She played as herself(Paiger Rager), and just kicked all the ass!!

It was pretty much a legit fairy tale weekend for her!!!

Ugh. I don't want to get into class schedules for all of my characters.
As far as roommates, I think Mithros is the only one who has one, and that's his brother.

Eh, I've just sleeping in the garden. Got a nice hammock my the vulca flowers. Warm like home there.

Well, I'm doing better as long as I don't try to walk. :P
Anyhow, sorry for extending my absence, but it's hard to concentrate and put words together while I am in that much pain. However, I did not waste my time! Over the last week I managed to thoroughly read all of Starfinder.

The verdict: Mostly positive. I was really liking what I read for most of the book. Really, really liked it. (*fangirl squeeing* Hey, look at this part! This is so cool! That kind of really liked.) And then I got to the starships chapter. *Screeching record sound* What the actual frak happened here?!!! Like seriously, this feels like it was cut and pasted in here from some completely different game. Also, it's an overly complicated mess that only works if you're playing a Star Trek style game. And even then you would want to avoid combat if at all possible if only to prevent the game-killing slowdown this bloated mess would cause. Not happy at all. Sigh. And it was going so well up to this point. :/
Overall, I love the game. I just can't use their starship rules. A friend suggested I might try and use the firefly rpg space combat rules. Anyone have that book? I'm happy to buy it if it is something that will work for me, but I'd like to at least have some idea of how their space combat rules work before I commit money to it. :)
I'm going to run a Starfinder one-shot for my in-person group for our next session, so we'll see how the whole thing works in an actual game setting then. But I like it well enough to volunteer to GM a live game, which I never do, so disappointment with the starship rules aside, I genuinely like what they did with it.

Oh, and as far as the roommate/schedules thing goes, I'm not necessarily keeping too close of track, although I often remember who is rooming with who. It is good to check in with that from time to time, especially with new people and if there are folks who have a character without an assigned roommate yet. Classes, though, I mean you can put it in your character profile to help you keep track, but unless you're keeping track of who has a class with who, then not that big a deal. But yeah, it can be really useful for keeping track of who runs into who on a daily basis. Just, you know, be aware that I am not actually tracking it myself. Because that would be madness inducing. :P

Glad you're seemingly feeling better Lyn!!

Also, happy that you like Starfinder a lot!

I plan on getting the pdf, and probably a few 3pp to support my friends in the biz, just don't know if I will ever use the material.

I don't really intend to get starfinder.

It doesn't really seem like my thing- i like making charecters with tons of self synergy and are mostly self reliant.

That doesn't seem to be viable with what little i know of starfinder.

I don't really intend to get starfinder.

It doesn't really seem like my thing- i like making charecters with tons of self synergy and are mostly self reliant.

That doesn't seem to be viable with what little i know of starfinder.

I don't think it's that different from Pathfinder. But maybe I don't really understand what you mean by self synergy and self reliant in this context. I liked that it was more streamlined in a lot of ways. Less fussiness is good in my book. But it wasn't so far off of what I'm used to that it's hard to learn.

icehawk333 wrote:

I don't really intend to get starfinder.

It doesn't really seem like my thing- i like making charecters with tons of self synergy and are mostly self reliant.

That doesn't seem to be viable with what little i know of starfinder.

I don't think it's that different from Pathfinder. But maybe I don't really understand what you mean by self synergy and self reliant in this context. I liked that it was more streamlined in a lot of ways. Less fussiness is good in my book. But it wasn't so far off of what I'm used to that it's hard to learn.

An endless number of sprawling options that can put you above the curve for ecounters when used well, is what i mean.

I have an entire thread dedicated to be crushing the balance of pathfinder into paste because it's fun to do.

Also, being reliant on consumables for most things but healing isn't exactly my thing.

Trying to put up new posts in the game thread, reading through like where am I again?...

Good News and Impressions

'Tis good news indeed that you're on the mend, Lyn (^-^)

My Starfinder reading has been a bit slower than yours (I just started the Computers section of the Equipment chapter last night), but so far I'm liking it as well. If I get any different impressions from the starship chapter when I get to it, I'll let you know.

(I can't remember if the d20 Star Wars rules for starship combat were any good or not, but I may check my books and see.)

My take on Starfinder:

Getting rid of the free 5' step fixed alot. Glad for this change.
Changing how the HP's work/are calculated is an overall positive thing. Adding another resource to track isn't usually ideal, but in this case I think it adds depth to your state of health, and the RPs are a great recovery mechanic (and also act as "pool" points for certain class abilities).
Lowering the number of iterative attacks was a good overall change, and should reduce the amount of time spent on a round. I think this new system fits more in line with the abstract of combat, rather than "Combat is abstract, unless you are a monk, then we're gonna try to fit in the number of strikes you can land in 6 seconds." To further keep it in abstract, two weapon fighting no longer adds extra attacks, but instead lowers the penalty to full attacking.
Getting rid of "flat footed" or "Touch AC" is also a good thing. Flat footed is now a condition, which looks similar to flat footed AC, and touch is non-existant, being replaced with EAC (armor class for energy based attacks). The normal AC we're used to is called KAC (kinetic AC for bullets, arrows, and non-energy melee weapons).
CMB/CMD has been simplified down to KAC+8 to defend against combat maneuvers. Making a combat maneuver goes off of the appropriate to hit (either including weapon or not, depending on the maneuver). No more grapple flow charts!
Immediate actions are gone, now falling under swift. Reactions kind of replace them, which is how you take an attack of opportunity.
Themes replaces traits, which is a group of abilities you gain as you level outside of your class abilities, based on a theme. This is great, imho. Not as clunky as traits, and pretty uniform.
The only 'bad' thing about Starfinder, or rather the one I'm not completely sold on is the archetypes. Starfinder combined the concept of a PrC and an archetype. It works like an archetype in replacing certain class abilities at certain levels, and acts like a PrC in that it's not a class-specific template. An archetype is now a kind of template you can add to any class, and they have a chart that shows per class what abilities you give up when you take an archetype. Not sure I like this in execution, but I think I like the idea overall. I think they're still going to end up with a certain archetype may fit overall better with a martial class vs a caster or rogue-ish one, and vice versa. I'll need to see more examples other than the two in the book.
Weapons now have a level base. There are level 1 weapons and level 20 weapons. The damage and cost increase as the level does. They suggest a character not have access to weapons higher than their level +2, but there's technically nothing that prevents a level 1 character from having a level 20 weapon. This was done to help get rid of the "big 6" phenomenon, and I think helps keeping martials on par with magicians at higher levels (some level 20 melee weapons do a base of 18d12+75 damage!). Armor is handled the same way, and adds powered armor to the mix as well (which you can get a feat to use at 5th level; some level 20 armor has a base of 55 KAC/52 EAC!). I LOVE THIS.
Everything you can do to enhance your character is either tech, magic, or a hybrid. This is great for the feel of the game. From cybernetic arms, a magic slug that increases your stats, or the like.
Along these lines, they also VASTLY reduced the number of bonus sources.
For instances "divine" bonuses replace profane and holy. This reduction is helpful to GMs, imho. Less to keep track of.

In short, I'm very, very happy with what I read. My home group is looking to integrate these things, to use them as a basis for fantasy rules as well. We love it!

.... Reading all of that kinda pushed me in the opposite direction.

I can't say a simplification of the rules catches my intrest.

Well, it's all about benefit ratios. How much granularity provides benefit to the experience, before it begins to bog things down?
Obviously, this sweet spot is different for different folks.
For my home group, our games tend to almost always go into the high teens, and we don't like spending a significant amount of time on combat. We've gotten to the point where some fights we don't even bother running, because its not worth the time spent, even if the outcome isn't guaranteed. We do this for the benefit of the story, and to move things along, but when 90% of your character's stats are for what they can do in a combat round, it's annoying.

Sad to say I've only been hearing bad stuff about the Solarion, and that's really killed my interest in the game. Combining that with Lyn's reaction to ship-based-combat and even the chance to play my infamous goblin in a space game isn't enough to get me to want to play.

Still here. Sorry for the lack of posting.

Solarion isn't bad by any stretch. Most folks giving it a bad review I suspect are looking at it through a PF lens. Just looking over the options, the build possibilities have much potential.
IMHO, of course.

As to the space combat...I haven't read through those rules yet. It's on my to-do list :)

One of the biggest things I love about pathfinder is having rules for everything.

I've spent more time then I care to admit looking through options on the srd, coming up with crazy combinations to use.

By my nature, if there aren't rules for it, I assume it simply isn't a thing you can do.

And I defiantly like having a ton, and I mean a ton of options.

The more options that I can find to play terrible mosnters, the better.

Solarian's just sound like Core Monks. Too many attributes needed for everything....

DB3,

Why you gotta keep teasing us? You post bunches here in the discussion, but we no longer get DB3 character posts in game, and it breaks my heart!

I miss Anthony, Belyu, Gareth, Michael, Oneiro, Pyrrhos, Pyry, Taika, not to mention Ryo, Taron, Kam, Keaton, and Alton.

COME BACK TO US DRAGONBORN, WE LOVE YOU!!!

Maybe I am and you just don't know it yet.

Do you have the pdf yet, DB3?

Nope. If I get it it will be after it's all online.

One of the biggest things I love about pathfinder is having rules for everything.

I've spent more time then I care to admit looking through options on the srd, coming up with crazy combinations to use.

By my nature, if there aren't rules for it, I assume it simply isn't a thing you can do.

And I defiantly like having a ton, and I mean a ton of options.

The more options that I can find to play terrible mosnters, the better.

Yeah, this is totally completely contrary to how I run things and/or play. I'm all over here like, rules, pssh, we don't actually need that many of them. Let's just keep it simple so all the rules don't get in the way of the story and having fun ^.^

I'm like this about other things too, though. Like I'm trying to research washers and dryers because mine are not really functional anymore. I mean, they are still marginally better than washing everything by hand. Marginally. But every load I hope I don't end up having to haul half washed clothes to the laundromat this time. So I need to buy new ones. And it's just pages and pages of info about this one has these settings and this one has these special features, and I'm over here like, I just want it to wash the gorram clothes/towels/bedding without having to take a class in how to run the machine. You put in the soap, you hit the button, it washes things. It's a washing machine. That's it's purpose. It doesn't need to actually do anything else. (For the last three or so years my washing machine has only had one cycle that still works so I've gotten totally spoiled by a lack of choices) My husband thinks it's hilarious that someone who is almost always an early adopter of new technology is perpetually looking for things with less options. *shrug* My brain is usually busy and distracted. The less difficult items I have to interact with every day, the better things work, or at least the more things I actually manage to get through. And games are no different. The less barrier-to-entry there is, the more fun I can actually have.

But that's just how I work and how I have fun. Whatever works for you. It's not like there's a wrong way to have fun. :P

Solarian's just sound like Core Monks. Too many attributes needed for everything....

That....doesn't really match what I remember reading....

Yeah, you might need different attributes, but not necessarily for the same build. I mean, they kind of read like Jedi with the serial numbers filed off, really, and there's a whole range of ways you can put it together depending on what kind of Jedi/Sith you're trying to play. Plus it's a lot easier to raise ability scores in Starfinder so it's really not the same kind of problem as monks. YMMV. Also, to be clear, I do not hyper-analyze what I read and crunch all the numbers. I just read it and get a basic impression. That was my basic impression of the class.

JEEEDAIIII

I like a lot of things in life to be simple and easy.
When I interact with things in real life, I usually don't care for a ton of options.

This is not true of my games- because once I care about something, I will obsess over it night and day until I've picked apart the entire thing.

For me, half the fun comes from tinkering with the rules themselves. I want to find the next odd combo, or break the game in a way no-one else has.

For me, a game is defined by it's rules.

Not that I'm saying your wrong, either.

It's a mindset diffrence.
Me, I'm heavily lawful in most things- I require a rigorous order to how things work. I may not be neat, but I need to understand and minipulate every little thing- no suprizes or sudden changes from what I understand.

OH, the other thing about starfinder, is the setting, not just the system.

I don't usually do tech settings.

This isn't any different than all characters in PF having access to all simple weapons. You wouldn't say that because all characters can use a light mace, that they are all the same.
Some classes are built around magic or the like, and some around the weapons.
In SF, it's the same thing.

As far as options go, there will be more. The CRB for PF didn't have that many diverse options at launch either. They have, what, 10 books with additional options, not counting the setting, now? Starfinder will get there, albeit at a slower pace, because they have more resources allocated to PF content. But, give it time. Soon there will be SF 'bloat' :)

EDIT: I hope you don't take this as me being antagonistic. That is not my intention, just wanting to have a discussion, and to understand your point of view better.

This isn't any different than all characters in PF having access to all simple weapons. You wouldn't say that because all characters can use a light mace, that they are all the same.

Some classes are built around magic or the like, and some around the weapons.
In SF, it's the same thing.

As far as options go, there will be more. The CRB for PF didn't have that many diverse options at launch either. They have, what, 10 books with additional options, not counting the setting, now? Starfinder will get there, albeit at a slower pace, because they have more resources allocated to PF content. But, give it time. Soon there will be SF 'bloat' :)

EDIT: I hope you don't take this as me being antagonistic. That is not my intention, just wanting to have a discussion, and to understand your point of view better.

I will talk and debate. Hope it doesn't get heated.

I don't want it to get heated either :)

This isn't any different than all characters in PF having access to all simple weapons except wizards.

Added for accuracy. :)