Ed Reppert's page

Hm. Can I have the young Barbara Eden as a genie companion? :-)

Icky? Why so?

"Bugs, Mr. Rico! Jillions of 'em!" -- R. A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

You think you've got problems. I have a dying iPad *and* a dying car that I can't afford to replace. Well, maybe I could replace the iPad. :-(

All week, the tracking data said "Friday". Until today, when it said, correctly, "delivered". :-)

Is it February yet?

I guess we'll see. :-)

I view that as having plenty of time to turn to face the threat, not "facing everywhere at the same time". <shrug>

Sounds like your pain meds are committing treason. Bummer. Hope it clears up soon.

Human.

Hm.

Suppose your character has both hands free and wants to throw some darts or knives. Does it matter which hand he throws with? It looks to me like RAW it doesn't -- which effectively means all player characters are ambidextrous. Am I wrong?

Extra credit question: can he throw two darts (one from each hand) on the same attack?

Hm. I have a grouping of classes that looks like:

No Magic Ability: Alchemist, Barbarian, Fighter, Gunslinger, Inventor, Investigator, Rogue, Swashbuckler

Low Magic Ability: Champion, Monk, Ranger

Moderate Magic Ability: Magus, Summoner

High Magic Ability: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Oracle, Sorcerer, Witch, Wizard

I would put Thaumaturge in the "No Magic Ability" group, and Psychic in "High Magic Ability". Sound right? Bonus question: where will the Kineticist go?

Thanks, Jinglemane, that helps. :-)

Let them do it their way. They'll figure it out eventually. Or not.

On a scale of 1 to 5, worst to best, how would you rate the Thaumaturge and the Psychic in these five areas: offense, defense, support, utility, and difficulty to play? If a subclass or subclasses would change your rating, please comment on that.

I got the 141 byte file. Unzipped it, got a zero byte pdf which "can't open, 'cause it's empty". :-(

That's on both the regular single file version and the special edition single file version. The "file per chapter" versions seem to be okay.

Expected Delivery: next Friday. We'll see. :-)

Copy-paste is the bane of accuracy.

Was planning to do some support buy today and go for some pocket editions (I normally only do pdf's to avoid shipping costs, but thought what the hell) I very much wanted to include the pocket version of this but then it would split the shipping costs in 2 bundles. do I best wait then till it is officially out?

I don't think it matters. If you order something that isn't available yet, it goes into your sidecart, and will be shipped when it's available. So if you order every pocket version you can, you'll get a shipment (which might be split up) of all the stuff currently in the warehouse, and then the sidecart stuff will trickle in as it's available.

If you want to order say ten at a time to avoid that trickle, then you'll have to wait until there are ten (that you don't yet have) available in the warehouse.

My authorization email came in about an hour ago.

dot

Ed Reppert wrote:

tstplsignr wrote:

But then what is the accusation by removing the old rules wholesale?

Why does there have to be an accusation in it?

I mean... because of what I said? If both rules for doing stats are valid (which you and I seem to agree they are) then there would be no problem in leaving both rulesets in the game as RAW, with one of them simply being a variant.

But that isn't what happened. The old rules were both subverted (2 free boost can't be turned off) and removed (voluntary flaws that expanded character diversity previously, and the more important change) with no way to opt back into them outside of unofficial homebrew (which doesn't really count because you can homebrew anything you want).

So.. again.. by not leaving it to player/GM choice, there is very much an implication that the old rules are wrong/bad. Intentional? Maybe not, but implied nonetheless.

I think you're reading into this way more than is actually there. First off, from the sidebar on page 26 of the latest CRB: "You always have the option to replace your ancestry’s listed ability boosts and ability flaws entirely and instead select two free ability boosts when creating your character." IOW, the old specific boosts and flaws option is still in the rules. It is not the case that a player must choose two free boosts. As for "can't be turned off", any GM can turn off (or turn on) any rule he wants to.

The optional ability flaws rule was changed from "take two flaws to get a boost" to "take a flaw". the net effect on overall stats is the same -- one less total boost at character generation. Granted you can no longer use this rule to get a boost. That's not so terrible --- and it doesn't imply that the old rule was bad or wrong.

But then what is the accusation by removing the old rules wholesale?

Why does there have to be an accusation in it?

To be blunt, I'm concerned about GM's being called racist for deciding they want to use the older rules rather than the new ones, and the weight those rules are given by being a default alternative, rather than an optional one.

That accusation would be absurd.

Wait, am I confused? You should get ten with the voluntary flaw rule, shouldn't you?

- Two free from ancestry
- One from taking two Voluntary Flaws
- Two from backgrounds
- One from class
- Four for free

Unless you're counting Voluntary Flaws against Boosts, which is ignoring how important the customization is. You can't get an array like 8 14 8 16 16 14 without voluntary flaws, not as a human. The loss of versatility is the whole issue here.

You're saying the flaws don't count. To me, that's nonsense.

Oh, I get it. I think. You can, optionally, voluntarily take a flaw, but you can't take two flaws to get a boost any more. Is that it?

Not sure I'd view the current two flaws one boost as giving support for taking a flaw. <shrug>

Under the current rules, not including the voluntary flaw rule, you get 9 boosts total at character generation. With the voluntary flaw rule, you get 8 boosts. Under the new rules, not including the voluntary flaw rule, you get 9 boosts. With the voluntary flaw rule, you get 8. Not sure I see a big difference there.

current rules: Humans get two free boosts, non-humans get two specific boosts, one free boost, and one flaw, any character can take two flaws to gain one boost.
new rule: same or (alternative: any ancestry can get two free boosts and forego the "three boosts and a flaw" possibility). If you don't take the two free boosts alternative, you can take two flaws to gain one boost.

Have I got this right? Under the new rule can humans use the optional voluntary flaw rule?

Maybe I just don't understand how the new optional voluntary flaw rule works. In that case I hope somebody can explain it to me.

"We don't have time for coffee, tea, or milk! We're doomed!" -- Shelly Berman

Was Mother Teresa good or not? Don't know. I imagine we'll find out when we find out where her soul ended up. Until then, I'm not gonna worry about it.

Language is interesting. Used to be when you were entitled to something, you had a right to get it. Now when you're "entitled" you think you have a right to get it, but you're wrong. Weird.

Ed Reppert wrote:

"Patience, my ass! I'm gonna kill something!" --- A. Vulture

The young 'uns probably don't remember that poster, Ed.

Blacklight, wasn't it?

Yep. :-)

"Patience, my ass! I'm gonna kill something!" --- A. Vulture

After all the hype, including the county Executive holding a presser to tell us all what he's doing to help, I am laughing. Yeah, it's colder than f**k, but the wind's stopped blowing, there's less than an Inch of snow on the ground, and I still have power and water. Of course, that's just this little corner of the county. Can't speak for elsewhere. :-)

The relevant officials are assuring us it won't happen again, however.

"How can you tell when a politician is lying?"

:-)

That's a long run!

Wakarimasen.

Sounds like it may be time to let someone else GM and just be a player for a while.

Hm. “Ramius” is one of the names of Roger, Emperor of Man (full name Roger Ramius Sergei Chiang McClintock), also known as “Roger the Mad”. :-)

I suppose if I need her as an NPC, TNG has the right way to go. If I wanted to make her a PC, or make a PC like her, I dunno. I do note that the first edition version was statted to 14th level, at which point she has only two levels of swordlord. I think in second she would, most often, be able to get that much out of the Duelist Dedication well before 14th level. Even just basic rules, Bard/Swashbuckler Dedication at 2/Duelist Dedication at 8 means you could start her out at 10th level.

The point about Swashbuckler being a better base mechanically is valid. OTOH, there may be something in her backstory that suggests Bard more, even if it's not mechanically best.

"Tieldlara is an elven master of both the elven nemesis fighting style and the prestigious methods of the Aldori swordlords." -- Adventurer's Guide, page 19.

Tieldlara is, in first edition terms, Bard 7/Swashbuckler 5/Aldori Swordlord 2. How would you stat her in second edition? Would you dual class her (Bard/Swashbuckler) with Aldori Duelist as a free archetype? Start her as a Bard, pick up Swashbuckler Dedication (perhaps via Ancient Elf) and then Duelist once you get two feats in the Swashbuckler Dedication? Something else?

Extra credit question: what the heck is "elven nemesis fighting style"? ;-)

Elvis is not dead. He went home. -- Agent K

<le sigh>

Is "medium" a distance or a temperature?

My other favorite RPG, Harnmaster, doesn't use alignment. Instead it has two somewhat related attributes: morality and piety.

Morality: Numerical attribute. Ethical integrity, generally a measure of a character’s selflessness. In general, characters select, rather than randomly generate Morality. The GM adjusts the attribute according to character actions. The scale runs from 3 or less (Diabolical) to 17+ (Exemplary).

Piety: Numerical attribute. A measure of a character’s standing (favour or karm a) with her/his chosen DEITY. Piety is measured in Piety Points which are accumulated by doing service for the god/temple, and expended by calling for divine intervention. A running total of PPs must, therefore, be kept for each character. Piety is generated for new characters by rolling 5d6. For information on the accrual and expenditure of piety see Religion article Piety Table: Religion 6.

I wonder if N. Robin Crossby (author of Harnmaster) ever read Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness". :-)

Can I play a treecat? :-)

Indeed it would.

Doubtful.

IIRC this whole thing started because Gygax was a fan of Michael Moorcock's "Eternal Champion" stories, where the conflict was between Order and Chaos, and Good and Evil weren't really an issue. So don't blame Gygax, blame Moorcock. :-)

I seem to remember that at least one of the members of ShaNaNa had a Ph.D or two, so it's nothing new.

Ed Reppert wrote:

Seems like getting from say Abasalom (or Otari) to the site of Ruby Phoenix could be an adventure in itself. :-)

Since they invite only 32 teams, and the organizers of the Ruby Phoenix are sitting on one of the greatest hoards of magical treasure on the planet, it seems plausible that they can just send a ship to pick up every team they invite. Hao Jin likely owned at least 32 magical ships.

You're completely missing the point.