My group loved the two official 5e adventures Kobold Press created, so yeah, I'd definitely be interested in seeing them do more 5e stuff. I know that Hoard of the Dragon Queen & Rise of Tiamat both got mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed running them, especially Hoard.
Ryuutama has manga style art and a very upbeat feel. The English translation was successfully kickstarted and the book will be ready to ship in early Oct. You get a free pdf of the rules now if you buy it. I ordered my copy last week. The rules are on the lite side. I don't have any kids, but if I did and they liked anime, I would definitely play this RPG with them. Not sure I'll be able to sell my DnD5E group on it, but I'm interested to read the rules anyway. It's core concepts were enough to intrigue me.
You don't need to cast identify according to the rules. If you examine the magic item during a short rest it reveals all its properties to you. Jiggy is correct about the pearl. It's not consumed so you only ever need one pearl.
Our group just finished Tyranny of Dragons. It did have a lot of errors, but nothing that was difficult to figure out. There's also a ton of errata and suggestions online if you do get stuck. I agree with your comment that it is a bit inconsistent, but despite that it was a really fun adventure and I do recommend giving it a try if you haven't already. I just finished reading Princes of the Apocalypse, which I'm running next and it looks more polished, but in some ways I find it lacking. Minor spoiler alert: It's basically one huge connected megadungeon that the party has to explore. While parts of it are very cool and well designed my GM instincts tell me it may drag a bit in spots. Without the sidequests (of which there are quite a few) it would honestly just be a big old fashioned dungeon crawl. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I personally like to see more variety in my adventures.
I also really like the 5E monsters. I did not enjoy stating up 3/3.5E monsters. I felt like I was making a character which can be fun once in a while for the BBEG, but it ends up being a giant time sink when you have to do it all the time.
Here here! I second that. Running Hoard of the Dragon Queen now, and I just got Rise of Tiamat last week. It'd be shame if Wizards didn't ask Kobold Press to write another adventure because my group is having a blast with it. As a side note; I hope they stick with the same format for their adventures in the future regardless of writers. I really like the hardcover books with the heavystock pages.
I never played 4th, but what I saw of it led me to believe it would have made an awesome rules set for a turn-based tactical RPG on the PC. I'm surprised they never did anything with it digitally. I think it's main strength was tactical combat with minis, but again I never played so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
The simpler more streamlined rules clinched it for me. One read through of the PHB and I'm confident that I could run a game without a copy of the rules in front of me.
I've had the pre-adventure shopping trip in town take close to 2 hours before because my players just love to shop and sometimes they just get chatty with an NPC. As long as the group is being entertained I just roll with it. As Tony says above, you don't need to finish in one session unless it's a one-shot. Just keep an eye on your players for signs of boredom or apathy. If someone is getting restless it may be time to move onto the next scene. I also try and think one step ahead of my players when we're getting close to the end of a session. If I know someone has to leave in 30 minutes and the next encounter is a long one that will take longer than that to finish then I'll call a night before we reach that encounter. If you're GMing one-shots you may want to check the PFS forums for advice. From what I understand these are games that are set to finish in a set time frame and you may find advice there about how to stay on track. Another tip is if the first half of the session went slower than expected look for an encounter you can cut from the second half without hurting your story too much. You can always recycle that encounter for a future play session.
I suppose it could have been worse... "What do you do with Four Arms and a Tentacle, a grease spell and the Rod of Lordly Might?" Sorry... I couldn't help myself.
Another option is the X out of Y people found this review helpful option that some sites have. To me seeing that 90 out of 100 people agree with a particular review means I will take the time to really read that review and consider what it says when I make my buying decision. If I see 1 out of 10 people found a review helpful I will usually just skip it. IMO that system works really well for the Good Old Games site. I find that the more helpful reviews are usually at the top of the list as they sort it based on the # of most helpful votes. Reviews of a questionable nature are usually buried in the pile and I never even get to them before I make a decision. This system requires some work on Paizo's part to setup, but after that it allows us, as the consumers, to moderate the reviews. It's also a great way for someone who's not very articulate to still have a say as they can just pick a well-written review that expresses how they feel and mark it as helpful.
What you're describing is extremely unlikely. If you genuinely believe there is no cheating taking place and still wish to play with this person have someone else roll his dice, or use a PC program or tablet app for his dice rolls where he isn't physically interacting with the dice.
Kamaitachi: stealthy scythe-wielding weasels
|
