Erosthenes's page

Quark Blast wrote:

How is this thread not locked?

I mean, given some of the stuff that has been deleted and locked by the MODs over the years, this thread seems like a no-brainer candidate.

But then maybe no one's flagged it...

Or, the MODs are already here participating as little-known avatars? :o

Well, given the tacit approval let me just add this.

There's been a lot of debate (some of it serious! - go figure) about the RAW vs the RAI in this situation. Clearly this needs to be worked out and the only proper way to do that is to LARP the whole scenario enough times to get a good feel for the RAI and then modify the RAW as needed with a house rule.

Yep.

It has been flagged many times. I don't think I have seen any other thread so favorited.

Despite the risqué nature of this thread, there are many contributors to this thread with grapple rules, protective measures, and other rules items. The theme gets people to remember these rules, and use them in their own games. While I have not used the grapple rules much, I do remember them better than other rules I don't use because of this thread.

Now on to the serious stuff.

With a LARP in a suitable adult environment, and with suitable example materials to study*. I believe sufficient evidence could be gathered to generate a baseline for scientific study.

/cevah

* Two books come to mind: JoS; KS

Oh my! Oh ...My!

Bigdaddyjug wrote:

So the last session of my home game took a new spin on the succubus in a grapple. Our wizard decided to telekenetic charge one of the NPCs into the flying succubus to drag her down to the ground so we could all get a piece of her.

It didn't work and I think he should have just tried to impale on his ranseur instead.

And here is an example of why Sorcerers are better than Wizards. Telekinetic Charge is a 4th level spell, Unnatural Lust is a 2nd level spell. I would be surprised if a 7th level Sorceress couldn't match Charisma with a Succubus in an encounter. Why move towards the Succubus when you can make her come to you? And once you're grappling with her, that's when the Rogue sneak-attacks her in the back.

Ahhh but CrimsonVixen - who comes to whom first?

I go back to GMing. When running the game, it's not uncommon for my NPCs to crit with 50% or more of their attack sequence. Of course this trend reverses itself immediately if the NPC is attempting to help the party. My dice roll high so consistently, that I have staunchly refused to use a GM screen, for fear of my players falsely believing that I was cheating. I have had several instances where my dice have been so hot that players have stolen them for weeks at a time, just in case it was the dice that were loaded. Needless to say, this never helped them much.

In the rare occasions where someone else is running the game, my dice tend to punish me for slacking off in my GMing fervor. I've debated recording my rolls for actual analysis, but I tend to average something akin to 7 on a d20, regardless of the dice used.

Are they, by chance, the ancient rounded edge D20's that roll forever? I still have mine and use them routinely. It is fun to watch them roll and roll and roll and roll and roll until they finally come to a stop, and then roll once more! LOL

This thread can never die. It's like a fine wine. After an energetic and fast paced beginning we are now entering the stage where everyone sits back, savors, and adds meaningful comments or support as necessary while enjoying the palpable feeling of lethargy.

Then, invariably, someone does something particularly stimulating and the cycle begins again.

Bask in the afterglow, as it were

Darn - I completely lost track of who wrote this - apologies:

[We established fairly early on in the thread that a grappled succubus can use her ability on the person performing the grapple. I suppose if you could pin her before she got a turn in, you could potentially stop her from getting an Energy Drain in. Hopefully you also avoid the Will save to avoid then tying up all of your friends and letting her loose to have her way with them.]

So to clarify: Would the scantily clad female Paladin using Smite Evil break the grapple or pin? Or would that just make the sin even worse?

Erosthenes wrote:

I think it is awesome that the CEO takes her time-on a Saturday (When she should be gaming instead of working LOL ;) ) to respond to posts on the message board!

When the worker finds the task to be his entertainment, then all is leisure.

Amen to that!

Ssalarn WROTE: "ACG felt like a "big company" book. Lots of "we need 1 class that does X, 1 for Y, hmmm, we're light on divine casters add more Z, then make sure we've got a variant for the pet class that gets multiple pets and one that does this, ...." and not enough stuff that actually felt like someone loved it and wanted it to be."

WOW, I have the book and did not get that sense at all. I really like most of the classes presented, and I think that, for the most part, they are an interesting slant on existing classes. Maybe I am just a Bear of Little Brain, but I could not have combined classes to make something distinct which matches the War Priest etc. As stated in my earlier posting, I am old. Perhaps that grants me some perspective - I play PF for fun.........not to make points, get girls, or show how smart I are. ;) I have enough stress at my real job - when I play I want to have fun and relax. I don't take things as seriously as some posters, because they don't matter that much----to me. I am not saying that I don't notice errors or grumble over confusing text, I do; my point is......welll I think I have made it.

Kirk out

wraithstrike wrote:

Since Gencon releases have more errors typically the answer is more likely that, they did not notice the errors for (insert reason, to include lack of time to completely look over the book as needed)*, which is different from "I know these errors exist, but instead of fixing them we will ship it to the printer anyway".

I want to squash one thing right here and now. GenCon releases don't ever have less editing passes than other releases. Matter of fact, they probably get a few more since they are usually our flagship product for the year and we want to make extra sure that it is awesome.

-Lisa

I think it is awesome that the CEO takes her time-on a Saturday (When she should be gaming instead of working LOL ;) ) to respond to posts on the message board! Thank you Ms Lisa for having a company that makes my favorite RPG of all time, AND AND AND for caring enough to look at the message board on your day off! As you stated nothing human made is perfect. If this makes me one of the "fanboys" then so be it. I am 54 years old and have been playing since the White Box edition, and havn't been a "boy" for a very long time.

Another suggestion is to fit the "social encounters" suggested above to the area of town. In the seedier parts of Korvosa, have a domestic fight in the street in front of them (Got a Paladin or LG's in the party?) Have someone throw a pot of nightsoil (urine and feces) out of the window, landing on a PC or three. Mention clothing hanging from lines strung across the street from window to window (ESP if you have a climb crazy rogue in the party!) How about an intoxicated person begging for hard earned coin? In better parts of town the Watch will be a lot more attrenive and visible. Or, how about a town crier announcing news of the city, and tidbits useful to the PC's? stREET VENDORS HAWKING THEIR WARES IN LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS WAYS. How about a traffic jam of wagons, carriages, and a dead mule? A boy stealing food and running away. A woman calling for her husband, or asking for directions. Make her charisma high enough and the male members of the party will start falling over themselves.

Have a PC step in horse, cow, human, or dog dung. Does Korvosa require you to check weapons at Watch Towers, or peace-bond them at the gate? Have a dirty mangy dog show up at the Inn door every morning begging for scraps. Is it a sad dog or a spy looking to shadow them to collect information. What about alley cats fighting in the dark recesses of a smelly, cobble stoned alley?

Buy, build, make urban buildings. They can be made cheaply from the cardboard from breakfast cereal boxes and spare bits of flotsam and jetsum. Urban area's are my favorite place to run campaigns and mess with PC's. They are an endless source of fun, confusion, merriment, sadness et al!

@Bodzilla - I have been playing this game since 1974, and I never thought about that - dude you are brilliant (pun intended)

********************************YES**********************************

To the original question, that is.................

I am an Old Gamer, really a Grognard. I also love the comic book Knights of the Dinner Table, a spoof on all things FRP. As a joke they have elaborate methods for restoring "luck" to their dice. Since the authors are all old gamer's, their stories are based upon their experience and collected stories from across the world.

Here's the question-----What do you do, or your friends, to restore luck to dice, or the funniest story concerning folks behavior and their dice?

I have a real world job that is very stressful. I have a mortgage, bills and children which are now on their own, but I still worry about them.

I play games to get away from that and prevent myself from throttling someone at work. THAT would be a BAD THING!

ciretose, your approach sounds a lot like my approach some 25 to 30 years ago, back when I took this game very, very seriously. Back then immersivity and verisimilitude were extremely important to me. Back then I would probably have had a very similar approach to making players "explain themselves".

Maybe I'm just old and just don't want to put that much effort into the process anymore. Maybe so.

I greatly enjoy playing in games that have that level of verisimilitude and focus on immersivity. I prefer it in fact.

But I learned a long time ago that pushing such a hard line narrowed my player population potential considerably, and specifically excluded some of my close friends who wanted to play. So I've adopted a play style that includes my friends and allows me to play more frequently.

Heh, I guess you could argue that I've "sold out" or something like that. I'm just in it for the fun now. Back in the old days I had these visions of writing the greatest RPG world ever and novelizing the exploits of our games for fun and profit.

Now I just enjoy playing the game.

CRASH!! (Sound of nail hitting head) AD you have said it in a nutshell - the game is for fun. Since when do orcs, wizards or magic make sense? ROFLAMO

"Matthew Morris wrote:

I then find out that the GM has decided to say no computers at the table.

Matthew, I cant speak for Erosthenes, but my post was regarding the policy of the store I play in, not my policy. I don't enforce it any more heavily than I have to (meaning pretty much all I do is nod in agreement with him when he brings it up to someone, which isn't often), but it is the policy of the place, nonetheless."

Well, I CAN speak for Eros! LOL The policy I mentioned about no laptops is not a Draconian rule that excludes anything with racing electrons. I was intending to speak to the use of Hero Lab as an active part of playing PFS in my area. Our VC seems to feel that there is too much room for the potential of a player fudging with a laptop running Hero Lab character. He, like me, is an Old Fart and prefers his dice real, and a paper character sheet. I think HL is a great application, and I use it for all my PFS characters. (Too many digital dice rolling programs do not generate a truly random set of results) A player can certainly have a .pdf on her machine, and can have it running on the table. Although, I must admit, the folks that do this usually have a very popular machine from a company that shall remain nameless pad. They are very convenient and a heck of a lot lighter than carrying all the books.

About 37 years ago my friends were playing an all night session of AD&D. Our DM decided he would roll out his newest dungeon for us, at this special occasion. We were first level and mucking about until we came to a small room, 10 foot square, that had a sliding door. Inside it was bare except for a metal panel with a bunch of buttons. We all piled in and my character hit the bottom button. Our DM looked like his teeth nearly fell out. He stammered, "Are you SURE you want to do that?"

We arrived at the bottom on another plane, hell- to be exact. Standing there was an elegantly dressed man with a large black mace with a huge ruby at the end. He introduces himself as "Asmodeus". My character asked if he was interested in a soul. At that point my partner grabbed my character, pulling him back into the 10x10 room and hit the top button. The door closed as the dude was yelling something unintelligible. We got out of the "elevator", and, thinking we had escaped ran out of the dungeon only to find him standing in the cave entrance.

"You promised me a soul!" He yelled at me. I stammered, remembering he was Lawful Evil. "Well, Sir, your lordship, um, I only asked you if you would be 'interested' in a soul! I never promised you a soul." He teleported away, but left blackened footprints permanently in the stone of the cave entrance.

Garbage in garbage out. What I am trying to say is that the chase may be designed by the author to let the bad guy get away, or very tough for the party to keep up. This is frustrating, but perhaps, we have to rely on the abilities of the scenario designer to have a chase that makes sense from her perspective; not necessarily ours.

I just watched SKYFALL for the first time - lots of chases - even the great Bond, James Bond, doesn't get the bad guy when the story calls for it.

A chase is inherently a function of dex anyway. Any character with a good dex will have the advantage. Hence, there are times the heavily armored fighter shines, there are times when he spellcaster casts he perfect spell, why not a chance for my rogue to shine?

"Shoanti Tribeswoman

First, 10 is an average stat. So assigning 14 13 13 13 13 13 would be a guy slightly better at everything than his neighbor, but was not near as good at specific tasks as any one of the other 1000 neighbors in town. Not really a compelling character for a hero type. I am Mr. Slightly Above Average Man!"

"Average Man or Woman"

Stats do not make a good role player. A good RPGer is someone who can play a character capable of doing her job. If a player "min/maxes" a PC that is the nature of a game with varying abilities. In PFS we choose stats from a High Fantasy point block. We are encouraged to do so. We are success oriented, and the rules support this.

In PFS you are a member of a team of varying abilities. Your team lives or dies depending upon your ability to perform. If the team is lacking essential skills, then you are sunk before you slide down the way. If your interest is an unusual character with a rich background and personal history that is fantastic. Play your character accordingly. Fantasy literature (Hell, real life!) is full of average people doing above average things. Do you honestly think a Fire Fighter is superman? Do you think the first cop at the New York school shooting was over whelmed? What did she do? She entered the school and started searching for the shooter, heedless of her own safety. When she found a live kid, standing amongst a pile of dead bodies what did she do? She searched on, knowing the shooter was there, somewhere. Tough decision - yup. Did she/he have an "S" on their chest? Did they have an 18 dex or 20 strength? Probably not. Chances are that officer had a pot belly after years of bad food, years of stress, too much coffee, and not enough sleep. What about the first Paramedic on that school shooting - how many patients and only two hands. How about the "average" bus wreck or rollover Motor Vehicle Accident with van full of critical patients spread all over 1/4 mile of freeway. Talk about stressful! Unless you have been there you cannot understand what it feels like.

My point? Average stats does not mean a character has to be superman, but a lot can be accomplished by the average "guy" doing extraordinary things. It is a game - play it for fun, play it to win, play it to survive to the next encounter. Do your best, it is all anyone can ask. If you choose to emphasize role-playing over combat feats, okay; but please at least bring a sword and use average tactics to support your party. A perfectly role played character with personalized gestures a perfect astroasian middle Slombovian accent is great - but bring a crossbow for chrissakes! Use the damn thing. Bad RPG is rewarded with death and lack of experience. Self rectifying, huh?

EDIT: Oops, got off on a bit of a rant! Apologies.

ROFLMAO - OKAY! Reading "nosig" last post about the pregnant character: I can just see the look on the faces of all the women in our group! I blew Diet Pepsi all over my screen, desk and the woman next to me. She does not play RPG, so she did not see the humor.

Apologies for not reading everything on this thread. Looks like some great advice. I would recommend (Even if it has been suggested before) that you consider taking Knowledge (Local) and Profession (XXXXXX) with out exception. The Knowledge (Local)is essential for making your way through PFS adventure modules. Profession (Fill in the blank) is also nearly essential from first level, certainly after attaining second. The "Day Job" roll after a PFS module is simply free cash, and CAN be the difference between sadness and that Magic Item you really want.

ALL of the Knowledge skills are useful, but this becomes apparent for everyone after their first session. Most, if not all, the Adventure Modules require interaction with NPC's and some level of investigation. Knowledge skills are essential for this. Having said that, understand that you are not alone. Other characters in your group will have some of the Knowledge skills to balance yours. Most folks in m area take a level of Rogue just to get the skills!

Enjoy!