Knight who says Neek!'s page

Instead of "stupid" try "uneducated" maybe have him illiterate...it is a medieval-ish world after all. Also make him young, say 15 so he is uneducated and doesnt have much life experience either. That would fit Int 7 without him riding the short bus as well as Wis 5 as few 15 year olds are as wise as they think they are.
With a Cha of 20 he's never had to learn much, his silver toungue was enough. He could be a seductive young man like Don Juan who attracts rich women, but is unwise enough to pick married ones (wis 5)...married ones with angry husbands. (although if he is Don Juan dont have him 15 years old obviously)

What are his other stats?
A high Str would mean jock, but a high dex would fit the Don Juan sneaking in his lover's window...and enough finesse to fight off the husband's guards.
A high Con would make him buff and bold, maybe a Pirate who relies on toughness to survive things his Cha cant smooth over and his lack of experience doesn't warn him of.

What class is he? A young, uneducated bard with natural talent would fit, as would a dashing rogue (whose 8 skill points make up
for a low Int) who is part con-man.
A teenage Sorcerer would fit perfect: his inborn magic meant he never had to recieve an education to achieve power (uneducated) and that power would have made him cocky and arrogant (unwise)

One last question; who has rights for spelljammer? Paizo published the 3rd ed version in the old dungeon/polyhedron magazine. Did they do it for WOTC or did they get the rights? A Pathfinder Spelljammer would be sweet.

If by suck, do you mean one that cant be done better by multiclassing.
A Multiclass Cleric/Fighter is a better warrior than a paladin, a better healer than a paladin, and only lacks by having a lower bab...with the right domains it even has smite.
A multiclass Druid/fighter. is ditto for the Ranger. It is better with animals than a ranger, better spells than a ranger, a better animal companion, plus if you pick the right feats you are again only losing a little BAB with just as good combat abilities once you start casting spells on yourself
A Multiclass Wizard/Rogue does better than a bard with spells that do damage, more skills, and a transmuter can even boost ability scores both with school abilities and spells to make up for any loss of BAB.

In fact with multiclassing, you can pretty much replace all but Barbarian and Monk with a multiclass combinations of ceric, druid, fighter, Rogue and wizard.

So half the classes suck.

(actually I love them all but my point still stands)

I only played 2nd ed once (as in one session), then literally the next was 3rd. BUT now I have gotten obsessed with 2nd-ed style retro games.
I started with Castles and Crusades, then got even more primitive with the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying game (BFRPG) by Chris Gonnerman. (free and OGL by the way at basicroleplaying.org )

BFRPG went back to 4 classes (fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief....
sound familiar?) races that you just couldn't roll above or below certain numbers, limited abilities---in fact the fighter's only ability is proficiencies and the higherst bonus to hit. Quite fun, altough I stil give max hit points at first, and d6's where BFRPG has d4 HD for thief.

I also dabbled with Layrinth Lord, which my gaming mentor say is like playing a hybrid of 1st and 2nd ed.

Hmmm...so 13th age vs DDN... Tweet vs. Cooke.... Well, not really.
What I read is that they put setting first, mechanics second.

An isnt that what Patfinder did and 4e didn't?

I actually think that is a great way to do it.
Settings like Forgotten realms pulled in lots of players to older D&D editions, Golorian with its greyhawk-but-improved feel, and even Call of Chthullu in a wierd way all put feel up front.

Personally, I thought one of 4e's mistakes was not making Ebberron the default setting...the magic item heavy feel of Ebberron would have been an excellent fit for a system where you get magic items ALL the frickin time. Instead they did no real default setting--no matter what they said--and waited till the end for Ebberron.

If DDN wants to succeed, they need to follow Tweet/Hardee's lead and go
FEEL first.

The "pools" idea was used extensively a few years back by the Iron Heroes (a variant 3.5 handbook). It works well but for IH got complicated as the moment you multiclassed you could have a half-dozen different pools. Keeping them to one class as you suggest would help.

Actually, some of what you are saying is stuff I have seen in ENworld's intell on 5e or D&D next or whatever it is going to be called. Stop by there and check it out.

Also if you want to strip down to basics, you might want to try starting with one of the Retro-style gaimes out there like Basic Fantasy Roleplaying, or OSIRIC. They are out there-usually free-on the net and you can use their bare bones to build upon. Most only have 4 classes, and are deliberately thin on features, so you could easily build up your ideas on top of them.

I think like most guys who have GMed 90% of the time, I not only homebrew rules, classes, races, equipment etc. But I have probably went to far more than once.

I know that I have run most of one campaign without barely reading the core rule books (this was 3rd ed) and have given rules-lawyers grand mal seizures when I have ignored things that got in the way of the story.

But when is it too much? And is it a good thing or a bad thing?

I would love some stories of too much, as well as some honest opinions.

We used something similiar in a homebrew but instead of just d6's, we had different size dice depending on race and attribute. Ours were a little more extreme, with less randomness. For example;

Elf
Str 1d10+8
Dex 1d6+12
Con 1d10+6
Int 1d8+10
Wis 1d8+10
Cha 1d8+10

Dwarf
Str 1d8+10
Dex 1d10+8
Con 1d4+14
Int 1d8+10
Wis 1d8+10
Cha 1d10+6

Sorcerer's have always been a lovable bunch.

I have bedded every wench for a hundred leagues...any ointment for this terrible burning sensation?

Valeria! Put your clothes on you shameless hussy!

IIf this can be pulled off it sounds like the best of both worlds - you can use the core for quick and simple one shot sessions, but if you want to them continue into a campaign you can do so by adding in rules layers rather than have to completely change system and rebuild characters.

I am hoping for that as well. A simple core, then add complexity as desired. I have been homebrewing something like that myself forever.

I notice that some of the ENworld info says that the BAB's are slower and monte cooke himself confirmed it is vancian magic so we can only hope that is their goal.

You should check out basicfantasy.org though. That is where this guy has his Basic Fantasy Roleplaying game. It is mostly a one-man work of love that did actually get playtested and has several thousand users, all word of mouth. The PDF and a ton of supplements are all free. (no, it's not my site, just a fan).

I have been a long time fan of Call of Cthullu, and was curious if anyon has use the new BRP chaosium has comeout with. I played a game or two using the Quickstart BRP (with COC stuff stirred in)but I'm wondering if it is worth buying the full edition. How "basic" does it stay? Is the magic system good for a fantasy game? Does it have psionics?

Spell jammer...I still treasure my issue of Paizo's old Dungeon/polyhedron relaunch of the setting for 3d ed.

Spelljammmer gave you the option to combine the feel and monsters of D&D wth the "spacebuckling" of Star Wars. The ships having the look of the creatures who used them, seperate worlds for races instead of simply seperate communities, and the idea of magic as a method of space travel itself was all cool.
I also have adapted some spelljammer ideas for more conventional campaigns with the spaceships becoming very wierd looking seagoing vessals, and islands instead of worlds. It works fine.

I also didn't include space hamsters in my capaign.

When you think about it, if magic were real and as powerful as D&D, then spacetravel would evetually happen using spells to hold the air to the deck and fly the vessel at great speed...and not much more fantasy than some of the sillier Faster Than Light methods I have seen in cheesy sci-fi.

Iron Heroes is good, but it has a number of balance issues of its own, due to a lack of play-testing. I feel like those issues should have been able to have been overcome, but I haven't seen good fixes (e.g. making the Armiger suck less).

On the whole, I really like the feel of Iron Heroes. Same goes for Midnight. I just don't really feel like trying to update Midnight/IH to PF... If someone else were to do it, on the other hand ;)

Have you tried the Revised edition Firey Dragon released? It corrected the horrific Armiger (practically a rebuild) and cleared up several other problems.

I also homebrewed one thing for Iron Heroes; replacing all the pools with one generic pool point that had 5+1/2 class level in generic points.

If you can find it, I would recommend The IRON HEROES rpg. It is a d20/3.5 variant players handbook that Mike Mearls did many moons ago before he left Malhavioc for WOTC.
It basically made low magic classes that focused on weapons and weapon abilities to compensate for a lack of magic. Feats were numerous (Weapon specialization was 10 stacking feats!) and classes had lots of Hit Points and even relatively higher BAB as well.
The goal was to have non-magic enchanced characters kick ass with standard OGL monsters. SO you could still use Pathfinder/ogl beasties but take names.

After Mearls went to WOTC, Firey Dragon bought the rights and offerred a revised version in PDF. I have both the original hardback (with LOTS of erratta) and the revised PDF.

Lately, I have been looking at a new batch of "retro" games that have the simpler feel of 1st or 2nd edition, but either have updated (3.0 like) mechanics, or even keep the old mechanics. There are several out there; The Basic Fantasy Roleplaying game (a free one with 3rd ed mechanics, but 1st ed simple), Labyrinth Lord (a straight up rendering of 1st ed), and the very successful Castles and Crusades from Troll Lord.
All feature; simple races, "skills" are class abilities, Low BAB, a max of 10 HD (and small HD at that), vancian magic, and very limited class features.

Anyone tried any of these or at least seen em?

And if you did, are you like me and wish there was a "Pathfinder Lite" out there as a Retro-style version of Pathfinder?

BESM-20, which is made for playing Anime and it's Mecha companion make good D20 sci-fi tools, although the setting is up to you.

Star Wars saga is great even if you don't set it in the star wars universe. The force rules make good PSI rules, (although a little too powerful at higher levels) and if you want a hard sci-fi game just drop the force rules. I have played in an ALiens style universe with Saga and it worked fine.

(not in order)

Pathfinder/Besm-20 (both 3.5 based and you asked for SYSTEM)
Call of Cthullu/BRP

and finally on this one, I am the only one alive to say so:
Coda system by Decipher...but I only played Lord of the Rings, I thought their other games like Trek sucked.

Easiest fix:
1-20 Base Attack Bonus progression,with the flurry modified to match.
This sounds a bit simple but makes a big difference in terms of overcoming opponents.

For AC, simply let them wear light armor and have it stack with the wis/ac bonus progression they already have.

For me: drop the fast movement; man is it annoying when you are GM and the player gets spring attack.

There should be no "2nd edition" for a while, but maybe a
"REVISED EDITION" might be in order where they include nothing that makes the present obsolete, but puts in some of the options they have placed elsewhere like traits, archetypes,etc.

I still have my share of things about 3.5/path I am not wild about: Vancian magic can be very annoying. Mostly I think there are too many attacks of opportunity, and too many feats whose sole purpose is to prevent attacks of opportunity--this somewhat incestuous method of creating a reason to create a feat was always annoying.....and I still think the number of prerequisites for whirlwind attack is riduculous.

BUT having said that, I would want all the vancian magic, annoying Attacks of opportunity and feats ALL included in a Revised EDITION.

I got into Pathfinder because I loved the feel and flavor of 3.5, knew it backwards and forwards, and so did everyone I knew. That is why 4e is starting to languish, while Pathfinder is slowly expanding, even though 4e had all the corporate help and (more importantly) all the D&D setting we loved.

My one suggestion--turn the Archetype options into "talents" that are restricted to specific classes. So anyone with "original" pathfinder's characters would be fine since those abilities would also be talents, but give those who buy a revised edition customizable options right in the core class.
To save money on the cover price I would also recommend the "revised core" leave out the GM stuff, and put it in a seperate book with the GameMastery guide stuff.

If your GM works with you to pick the optimum favored enemy and favored terrain combo for the campaign, then Rangers are excellent, and can be nearly as lethal as fighters, especially if you save your buff spells for yourself....if they dont, then they are weaker but more skilled than Fighters.

Paladins in pathfinder can be butt kickers, particularly in a campaign against undead. The new smite is more usable and is a good tool for combat not merely a finishing bloow. The new channel energy ability is good for flash-frying zombies or doing a decent group heal if a group is cleric poor.

Wizards rule at mid not just high level now that they have hit points worth something. But if your gm throws lots of crunchy NPC's at you, you still use up your spells per day since they stuck with Vancian magic, and that lets you rule less.

Now that Druids can choose a domain instead of the always-annoying animal companion, as a player, I think I might choose it over cleric personally, although the cleric is still superior in terms of armor.

If you are wanting to play, a human paladin or dwarf ranger would be a good way to go. I would choose either over Fighter myself, but then I always liked skilled characters (ranger) and the ability to heal myself (paladin).

Perhaps Pathfinder should create something similar to the Races books from D&D?

Give'em time...they had to put Archetypes out there first, see how well the APG did, etc...

So let's give them some ideas.

Here's a quick and easy one=
Turn Arcane Archer--Elves and half elves--into a 20 level class using a Ranger Archetype=
*only use light armor, but can cast with it. No shields,simple
*must take Archery combat style
*Spells per day the same, but now they are arcane spells from the wizard list, are prepared like wizard spells and are based on Int instead of wis like a wizard. THey must choose two schools and can only cast from those two schools and cannot cast from any other school.
*Lose wild empathy and nature sense, gain Cantrips (as wizard), and the Magical Aptitude feat...also add Use Magic Item as a Class skill.
*Replace Hunter's bond with Imbue Spell
*Replace Terrain Master with Enchant Arrow.

Part of it depends on just homebrewed it is...Do you want it to have a similar feel to an existing setting like the old Ravenlft, or Tolkienesue, or something totally non-traditional like having the entire campaign from 1st to 20th level in limbo an you will have to make new rules and classes, or having a "modern" Golarion where all the classes, rules, cities, etc. are the same, they just have modern firearms and fighter jets instead of bows and horses.

Thing is...and I say this as someone who has GM'ed more than been a Player...hombrew setting are about the GM than the player whether we like to admit it or not. Your setting could make Tolkien weep in jealousy and if the players think it limits their characters, or their characters suck in your setting, they will hate it.

The number one way I get interest is to ask players what kind of characte they have never played but always wanted to. I hombrewed the crap out of one campaign that all the players loved and they thought it was the best ever...but my setting was ctually aweaker than I planned and my plotline ran out after 8 sessions. The secret? One guy said he wanted to be Alucard from the Helsing anime and another guy wanted to be Blade from the movie series and I took one for the team and had to rebuild some of my bad guys just so they could be the character they dreamed of playing.

SO...start with THEIR ideas...then add your plot line, then put in the details later. And during game play, listen carefully to their questions and think before you answer. They could be giving you a whole new perspective on how to do things. I had a simple question once during a 3.5 Ebberron based setting, that was so good I ended up with a seriously fun setting that diverged a lot from the Ebberon world but lasted longer than the actual group did...it led to a new campaign with another set of players.

By the way, I would NOT advocate giving in quite as much as I did...creating an Alucard that didn't rip through everything in one session was harder than the actual setting.

Oh, and keep your list of elements tied to ability scores. This will become the new modifiers to base your spellcasting on. For example Instead of Int determing save dc's and bonus spells, a wizard will use dex for air, con for metal, etc. There will be elemental spell lists that are somewhat like the arcane schools.

Wizards and sorcerers can use 3 rather than two elements--they will be unique ones that the characters in the books just never happened to run into. You might look at the elemental archetypes for the wizard in the advanced guide (which are online as part of the PRD)to replace the normal school based ones. Oh, and since they are more limited by the spell lists than a normal wizard/sorcerer, they can cast in light armor.

Clerics use domains tied to the elements,but tie more domains to each element, since the furies of calderon have multiple abilities per element. The cleric can choose two domains each from two elements (four domains total). This seems like a lot BUT the ONLY spells he can cast are from the 4 chosen domains. Since this is less spells, he can spontaneously cast any of them. The bonus domain spell per day is one selected every morning that gets a +2 bonus to caster level. This seperates it out from the

Druids use the domain option of nature bond, but can choose from more domains. However, they cannot choose the metal based domains, and gain a bonus domain that is wood based domains.

Rangers and Paladins will have slightly different spell lists since theirs are more combat related than raw power.

Bards will be more or less the same since they already have a decent BAB, and less spells than a ranger or paladin. One change would be to grant them Weapon Finesse at first level, and bonus feats every 5 levels like a wizard, but with a different feat list than either wizards or fighters.

For NPC's I would give the Aristocrat NPC class the Adept's Spells per day. Voila! That makes a noble with elemental powers without any fuss.

Love the Calderon series...converting it to Pathfinder will face a few difficulties:

The magic is inborn like a sorcerer...no real spells to learn.
The magic is elemental (mostly)
A LOT of people in Calderon (all nobles) have this magic.
It is not vancian--but what fantasy novels other than Vance's themselves ever were?

My suggestion:
1) DONT scrap all the core classes. Keep barbarian, fighter, monk, and rogue pretty close to as is. HOWEVER, these will be tied to an element--barbaric rage becomes the temporary strength increases from earth, the monks's multiple attacks and speed become air-based, etc.
2) REDO the spellcasting classes by simply making custom spell lists. Use the cleric domains as a start. I would be happy to help. Make the wizards and sorcerers have the most powerful ones at lower levels than the cleric, and let the cleric keep healing but tie it to the appropriate element.
3) KEEP it simple by KEEPING it Vancian (spells per day), so players have a shorter learning curve.
4) After you have compiled spell lists into the 6 elements, then work on archetypes (variant core classes) to better suit the setting.

The only thing I can think to say is that thank goodness none of my players are flaming idiotic nut jobs.

....yet.....

How are you planning to do the SPARTANS! ? (Every since 300 I can only write SPARTANS! in caps with a exclamation point)

There was a lively debate about this on another thread.

They were one of the rare cases where the reality came close to matching the legend (at least at their height of power.

A bunch of PC's at Thermopolaye might change it from the dramatic sacrifice 0f 300 to the dramatic victory of 7 fifteenth level characters ;)

For demi-gods, I would try something simple, that would make it more pathfinder-ish, but still work--give them a Cleric domain, and at each even level they can use the spell of the domain as a spell-like (or maybe supernatural?) ability once a day. But control it, mostly sticking to Strength and Charisma based abiilities, although a Circe like character might have ones with some more magical abilities.

Knight who says Neek! wrote:

Then I went into LE and ran into a bunch of cops who played 3rd ed and finally got into gaming for real.

Am I the only one who read that as "I went into Lawful Evil..."?

:p

LE=Law Enforcement...although now that I think about it, most of the Cops wanted to play Lawful Evil character...you might be onto something...

A lot of it is if a prior GM let them get away with that stuff.

One way to head off this is to have Arena combat of some sort where they don't die or face terrible injury because of ready healing. Then you beat the living snot out of them. They learn that they CAN get killed for being stupid, and will usually take it to heart.

One very extreme solution: Kill the whole frigging party---then tell them it was all actually a vision the cleric had from the Gods warning them of their behavior. It's cheesy to the extreme, but depending on the group, most will appreciate the do-over. This is not to be attempted on any group whose PLAYERS are armed.

I was in the Air Force and a friend invited me to play Champions. I was a superhero comic nut so I loved it. I made 7 characters before I actually sat down and played it...not sure the year, but Reagan was president...
Later the same group swithced to D&D (AD&D 2nd ed)and they tried to make me a cleric whose only job was to heal everyone and get his butt kicked (I dont exaggerate by much). I declined and didn't play again for 5 year, but when I left the military, I did end up working with a guy who played Gurps. I never played it with him, but we would spend all of night shift making characters for his game.
Then I went into LE and ran into a bunch of cops who played 3rd ed and finally got into gaming for real.

First Contact was definitely the best of the TNG based movies. Good humor (which is why Trek IV is one of my faves) and the Borg were best villians since the Klingons. The other TNG movies were 2 hour long episodes with better special effects.

As for Star Trek the Notion-less Picture...lets be honest. Rodenberry always had a similar problem to Lucas: Incredible ideas, but not the greatest writer. The Motion Picture's problem was it was all idea, no character development or dialouge worth paying attention. I remember when it came on cable as a teenager. I watched it two or three times just to study the ship for my own spaceships I used to design

I just watched the Costner Robin Hood on tv the other day.
Yea, Costner's got the worst dissappearing accent and is so-so,
But Alan Rickman is at his absolute scene chewing best as the sheriff of Notingham..."No more table scraps for the poor and cancel Christmas!"

By the way is this strictly Theatrical movies? There's been a few on Sci-fi and a few other channels that are low budget but surprisingly good...or are we going for sheer Icons of film?

Also we seem to be aiming strictly for teen to adult...when you go to animation, Disney's Aladdin was a bloodless but great fantasy. And the 70's animated Hobbit was also great...if you are old enough to remember them.

Just an aside; my vote for best Sword and Sorcery comic is
the original run of Mike Grell's Warlord back in the 70's and early 80's. Anyone else used to read those?

They are basically the Japanese equivalent of a grim reaper.
But the depiction varies a bit from anime to anime.
In one of my faves, Deathnote, the Shingami uses a notebook where he writes the person's name in the notebook and how they will die, then the person dies....there is more to it than that, but the "rules" of Deathnote are too complicated for a simple thread post-check the manga.
If that is the kind of shingami they want then stay clear=the PC's will steal the notebook and wreck holy havoc on any campaign with it.

The one in Black Butler would be a good start;
They are sentient supernatural beings who have a "scythe" that can be anything-garden shears to a chain saw-that is tied to the Reaper.
They are strong, but more than that phenominally fast.

If it is going to be an NPC this simplify's things a bit:
Take a succubus or erynies and modify them with more dex, then give them a +3 Slaying (humans) weapon. Then give the arcane character of your group a spell for summoning him. Play him (as GM) as charming like the Black Butler and somewhat bound to the group for reasons known or unknown. Don't let them use him to do their dirty work, but he can make a good "Deux ex machina" to save them when they make a major scew up and everyone might die.

I don't think it's possible to do a good continuation of the Firefly storyline past Serenity, at least not without heavy ret-conning. Too much changed in a way that made storytelling difficult.

River, in particular, was re-written between the series and the movie.

Ah, but remember that the Serenity movie was what Whedon planned on spending 4 seasons getting to. Also remember that he was shy on whether the Blue men were government or Blue Sun. It would be easy to see that the company would want to get back it's next big product...but over time they could have resolved that by having the government back out of the project for fear of information leaking out. The existance of a psychic assassin would be bad for an "enlightned" government. That would happen about season 3, probably with a cliffhanger that would be resolved at the beginning of season 4.

Then someone in the government--perhaps the very person whose memory River saw--finds out just how extensive River's powers might be. Then they would need to find her and hide or destroy the memory. That would be season 4's ending, setting the stage for what finally happens in it's last season which was condensed into a 2 hour movie. You could easily imagine 2 or 3 episodes where the doctor and river leave serenity then are reuinited later, where we are introduced to Mr.Universe and even a slow introduction to the Operative of Parliment. And remember also that it took a command code to activate her combat abilities...the doctor knew her safe word, but not neccessarily her activation code. That would have happened in season 4 or 5 as the Operative goes after her.

As for the reavers--their boogieman quality was their reputation. Over time they would be seen more often, the crew would have scrapped with them, barely escaping, but seeing them less as their reputation for monsters as insanely violent humans that are tought to kill but killable nonetheless. Don't forget--their battle at the beginning of the Movies was while running away, not standing and fighting. They had no choice but to stand against them at the end of the movie, and they held them at a chokepoint where they were easier to deal with.

Some admittedly weird suggestions:

D&D Wrath of the Dragon God--bears no connections (thankfully) to the original D&D movie, and was made on a typical Sci-fi channel budget (i.e. almost none) But it is the most genuine to D&D movie made and pleasant to watch. You actually see (if you look real quick) the wizard preparing her spells, the rogue disarming and finding traps, a cleric rebuking the undead, and the Barbarian raging...it even had the ring of the ram! It had decent acting (not much scene chewing)although not LOTR material.

Star Wars--and by that I mean the original movie. Yea, it had sci-fi elements but come on: a knight rescues a princess from a fortress. The fortress is protected by an evil sorcerer (remember the quote about Vader's "Sorcerous ways"?)and they are befriended by scoundrels and monsters (wookies) Lets face it, in many way SW is responsible for relaunching a LOT of intrest in sword & sorcery because everyone could see where it came from.

The good-ole-days require good-ole-people. When RPGs started out, video games were pathetic. You HAD to use your imagination. You HAD to have a group of guys that were willing to feel a little embarrassed at first saying stuff like "I'm casting a lightning bolt" and enojoy the experience. We were a bunch of little geek clubs doing something that people made fun of for the next 20 years...fortunately we all have a good sense of humor.

The rules-heavy, "what do I get next" attitude is due to the incredible visual power of X-box, playstation, etc. Which are in actually easier to use than classic RPGs and low and behold you "level" all the bloody time...I think 4e especially is an attempt to get what are now called "gamers" but should be called "video gamers" to join what people on this board would refer to as gamers--us old farts that love dice, imagination, and cameraderie...although we also still love killing things and taking their stuff ;)

I think our love of the good-ole-people we used to game with all the time makes us nostaligic. That is why we are seeing such a resurgance in lighter games like the Castles and Crusades slimmed down D20 with 2nd ed "feel" or the return of Runequest, Traveler, and even a slight resurge in CoC...we'd rather play characters that go insane than be players that get run insane by the rules lawyers in our present groups.

I have tried getting people who dont remember when MTV was all music videos to play and it is often hard. The first and second generation (I'm actually more 2nd gen since I started on 3rd ed)are slowly tapering off in demographics for the 3rd gen who were weaned more on video games. And sadly, we have also been tainted a bit as we now find ourselves playing with people we dont know as well as the ones in are first groups...and so we end up also worrying more about our character getting XP than the totality of the old school gaming experience.

One word: AMNESIA!

The players do not have a character sheet. The GM has all the sheets.
The only thing they know is that they woke up in a room with no memory of who they are, what they are doing, or how they ended up that way.
The GM does give a description of what everybody looks like. And unbenownst to them, one or two (pick the two with the best sense of humor) are in disguise. <in a fantasy game, one is disguised as wizard but knows not one spell, and another looks like a rougue but is actually a wizard>

They are then hunted for a "dark secret" that none of them can remember, but two or three other factions want.

They have to discover their abilities as they go.

Did this with a star wars game, and a 3.5 D&D game.

Too 4e?

Thou shalt not speak of the blasphemy that is 4e for it is an abominations to all true gamers===the 11th commandment of Neek!

Yea, I have an idea for something similiar I call combat apps. Basically I would tie what are now some feats and class abilites to skills. For example anyone with Stealth as a trained skill could sneak attack, and the number of d6's would be tied to the number of ranks in Stealth. But tying them to conditions also increses the number of feat--and this is for a Lite version. You idea is a great one for a bigger version of 3.5 like Pathfinder, but would make it hard to keep it down....I am shooting for around 30-35 pages not unlike Gurps lite.

As for why so many that simply add x to hit: I kept breaking down feats into what the do and discovering that that is all most feats actually do! Tying t

Rifts had great background stories, decent art, and some cool weapons and concepts...and the single worst system I ever tried to play (see worst game ever thread for a few dozen that agree.)

So take what some call "fluff"--the backgrounds, stories, concepts and weapons...which are the "role" part and leave Pathfinder or another d20 for the mechanics...
Dont attempt direct conversions as they are a pain in the ass and rarely ever work.

Besides pathfinder, I would also suggest the Star Wars SAGA system (which Wotc is going to cancel...the @#$%7!). It is made for high tech, and the "force" can be turned into magic or psionics very easily.

With Pathfinder, I would simply stick to Fighters and Rogues mostly, make equilalents for Rifts abilities into Figher only feats or Rogue talents.

Amael wrote:

Freehold DM wrote:

Mine would be Rifts. *sigh* Such potential...

Abnout 6 years ago, I ran a campaign of GURPS:Rifts (all home-brew)

Of course it worked well--it was GURPS which is a functioning rpg system. I think Palladium came up with their rules by dropping acid while reading 1st ed CoC and listening to Led Zepplin albums backwards. Then they did some mushrooms while typing it on a TRS-80 PC with torn 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and sent the disk to the publisher.

If the problem is that Lucasfilm wanted to charge more than there might be one glimmer fo hope: For Wizards to take all the mechanics of SAGA and do what a lot of people on this thread have done=used them for Modern or Sci-fi games.

That would work a lot better than the horrific idea of a 4e Modern.

Here is another idea to use with it: self-stacking feats.
This gives you 12 feats (including two that were once class features) that instead of having "improved" or "greater" versions simply stack with themselves which reduces how big the feat list should be.

Tell me what you think

Finesse Chose a melee weapon you are proficient with (this can include unarmed strikes and claw attacks but not grab/grappling). You can use your Dex bonus instead of your Str bonus for your melee attack roll. Also, if you had a negative Str modifier (such as –1 for having a Str 8), you no longer apply the penalty to damage rolls. You can take this multiple times. Each additional time you do +2 damage with the weapon you chose.
Power Cleave Str 13+ You can subtract up to –4 from your attack roll to add an equal amount your damage on an attack.
If you drop your opponent to zero or less hit points, or drop him to unconsciousness on the Condition Track, then you immediately get a single melee attack action as a free action against an adjacent square.
You may take this feat multiple times, each additional time you can subtract up to –2 more from your attack roll to add an equal amount your damage on an attack. Also for each additional time you gain one more melee attack when you drop someone to zero HP or unconscious. For example, if you took this feat 3 times, you could subtract up to –9 more from your attack roll to add 9 to your damage on an attack, and if you drop someone to zero HP or unconscious, you can make up to 3 free attacks against target(s) adjacent square(s).

Deadly Charge Str 13+,
BAB +1 You get +2 to your attack roll and +1d6 damage on a charge once per day. You may take this feat multiple times, each additional time gaining one additional time per day to a maximum of 3/day
Smite Cha 13+,
Wis 13+ You can choose one target that seems to symbolize everything your alighnment is oppossed to. You add your Cha bonus to the attack roll and your Wis bonus to the damage roll against that opponent for the next 10 rounds. If the target is defeated you may switch your smite to another target.
You may take this feat multiple times. Each additional time you add +2 to damage vs. your smite target.
Point Blank Shot Dex 13+ You no longer provoke an attack of opportunity firing a ranged weapon into an adjacent square.
You also add +1 to Attack and Damage with ranged weapon if the attack is within 6 squares.
You may take this feat multiple times each additonal time you gain +1 damage to ranged attacks within 6 squares. (You do not gain additional bonuses to attack rolls however)
Rage Str 13+,Int 12 or less You can enter into a fearsome rage once a day. When you rage you add +2 to melee attack and damage rolls, gain 20 temporary hit points, and a +2 bonus to all saves. This rage lasts a number of rounds equal to three times your con bonus. After the rage is over, you are fatigued for an equal number of rounds.
You may take this feat multiple times, each time you can use Rage one additional time per day.

Rapid Fire Dex 13+,+1 BAB.
With any projectile weapon with a standard rate of fire you can make an extra attack at –4 penalty to all attacks that round (instead of –8) ). The extra attack is a separate attack roll (with the same penalty).
You can take this feat multiple times, each additional time the penalty is reduced by 1. For example, if you took this feat 3 times, your penalty would be down to –2. If taken 6 times or more you actually get +1 more to the attack roll in rapid fire each time.
Multi-Fire Dex 13+,+1 BAB
You expend multiple shots with a gun, or any projectile weapon with a standard rate of fire as single attack on a single target. You make one attack roll with a –2 penalty, expending one extra round, and do +1 die of damage more than a single shot would normally do. You can take this feat multiple times. Each additional time, You can expend one more round and do +1 die more damage. The penalty also increases by
–2 more. For example, if you took this feat 3 times, you could fire 3 extra rounds doing +3 dice more damage with a penalty of –6 .

10 Perfect Shot Dex 13+
You no longer Suffer a –5 penalty for shooting into melee.
If you aim in a round, you get +1 to your attack roll. You may take this feat multiple times, each time you gain an Additional +1 to Attack when you aim.
Dodging
You designate 1 opponent you face during an encounter. Against that opponent you gain +1 dodge bonus to your AC and +1 to your reflex save. If that opponent is at 0 hit points or unconscious, you can switch the bonus to another opponent. You may take this feat multiple times, each time you gain an Additional +1 to AC and Reflex saves. You still must choose one specific opponent.
1 Two Weapon Combat Dex 13+,Int 13+
If you have a weapon in each hand, you can make an extra attack with your offhand, at –4 penalty to all attacks that round (instead of –8) ). The extra attack is a separate attack roll (with the same penalty). You can take this feat multiple times, each additional time the penalty is reduced by 1. For example, if you took this feat 3 times, your penalty would be down to –2.If taken 6 times or more you actually get +1 more to the attack roll in rapid fire each time.

Since I am without a gaming group at the moment...and it is becoming a long and painful moment...I have been thinking about trying a play by post here......only I have never done so before.

Can somebody get me direction? I have about a half-dozen games burning holes in my brain and no one to share them with.

Still not seen it....after it left the theater and was no longer 3D I gave up on it...

But now I read about the starship in the movie being based on realistic concepts so I'll probably watch it...

Just hate being constantly told how Technology is evil and Nature is good....let's see them make a digital movie without computer microchips doped with chemicals that are toxic or DVD's that wont take centuries to break down in a landfill, and movie theaters that run on renewable energy instead of off the same power grid that uses an oil fired power plant...hollywood hippie hypocrites.

Do you want JUST anime or would you ALSO like animated series? I will get you what I have in my collection tomorrow when I find my list.

Bit o both is fine with me.

Right now I am devouring the Venture brothers on Adult Swim. I grew up on reruns of Johnny Quest so it hit me right off, although now I cant get enough of the Monarch...and want a pin-up of Dr.Girlfriend. Besides, I'm fat enough that the only character on any animation I can cosplay is henchman 21.

Xabulba wrote:

Wash, NOOOOOOOOO!!!

I still say they need to bring Wash back as a discovery in a Blue Sun facility of a dozen clones - Our Wash being the one that escaped...

I'd like to see them try an old tv trick I loved with Wash.

I can just see it now: Wash's half-brother Dirk walks onto the ship with black hair and a mustache, but backlighting makes his hair seem yellow. Zoe come out and embraces him...and then gets it's not Wash.
This one would be close to Wash in temperment, but every few episodes, a new "half-brother" shows up giving Tudyk a chance to ham it with different characters while still keeping him on the show.

I have been in an anime black hole for a while, and want to know what new stuff that is good is out there. I would also like this to be a "go to" thread for anybody wanting to talk anime and manga

I just saw "High School of the Dead"...awesome~! although the fan service is almost too much.

When last I left devouring anime, Hellsing Ultimate was stuck at episode 4...did they ever finish it? I just read the last manga. The original Hellsing was my favorite anime.

and then the ship would explode and the screen would go all hazy and we'd see a scene of Isabella Rossellini snorting coke off the back of a dolphin wearing a monocle and eating a bowl of peaches.

Dude, I want to party with you.

No GM or player is immune to moments of monumental dumbassness. (Is that a word?)
They range from the GM giving a back door to ending the campain in one swoop ("What do you mean you can control the sphere of annillation? But that..that..stupid 3rd party spells!)to players who "suicide" the whole freaking team ("you killed the dragon you are all sitting on the back of at an altitude of 20,000ft?...um, the wizard didn't prep feather fall or fly today so let me roll 20d6 for damage...)<note--I forgot the actual amount of damage dice I ruled on that one--please no one correct me>

We will change the names to protect the stupid...

But then it occurred to me that playing it just like Knight suggests could actually aid in roleplaying. It seems appropriate that the character who has lost most of their sanity is the one saying, "I really love you guys. Not that way. You know what I mean dude. I'm gonna hurl."

Exactly! You truly become your character! Heck, if you're a lightweight drinker, and the GM begins a scary scene discription, you might even piss yourself, just like your character!

Nothing brings true schizophrenia to the table than being so drunk you cant tell the narrative from reality...of course you do have to make sure no starts killing "Dagon" and shoot the goldfish.

Cthullu drinking games:

Everytime you lose sanity you down a brew.