Lord Wimpy's page

When I make a purchase, one of the things I do consider is who I'm giving my money to. Sometimes it sways my decision, sometimes it doesn't. Since it's my money, I'm allowed to do that. Just like it's your money, and you're allowed to spend it how you like.

That's the best part about capitalism, in my opinion, and I feel the same way about statements he's said. But in a world where I have to give money to OPEC just to get to work in the morning, giving a few euros to a bad guy who, at this point in his life, is just raising his kids in the woods isn't what keeps me up at night.

Frankly from a game design perspective, the first edition of MYFAROG, the copy I have, is garbage. The base d6 system isn't bad, but it suffers from too many convoluted tables and charts. Also, the type face for every word in the book is Papyrus. It's bad enough that I wouldn't have thought to ever buy a newer edition until I saw just how much physically smaller the new books are. It looks like much of the crunch has been consolidated into something manageable.

Although a few interesting things I did like, such as "fighters" (so to speak; the game doesn't have classes) do have an incentive to make use of Charisma, such as by forming a warband. A magic paradigm based off of something other than the modern western tropes, or far eastern tropes, both of which are common to play with. I do really want to play a more "tribal" caster with a magic system flavored as such. Normally one just re-skins the fluff of their character to use voodoo methods of casting Fireball and Haste. Having a pagan-based magic system fundamentally changes the stories that gaming groups will tell. Playing in a MYFAROG-like setting with a D&D magic system would shift the lens to modern western perspective, breaking the whole point of the setting.

I should say something about the setting, since MYFAROG is a system designed and tailored for it's accompanying setting. There are details that people will find objectionable. Different stats for different human ethnicities is a line some people don't want to bother crossing for fun in their spare time. There are negative caricatures of the Abrahamic religions. There are rules to see if a woman dies in childbirth. Despite all this, or maybe because of, I think the setting is the best part of MYFAROG. The author based it on what he perceives to be reality, but I know better than he does, and once I got over my initial reaction, I looked at everything with a more anthropological eye, and discovered a great setting that sparked my storytelling imagination.

The general feel of the setting is primitive people living in a gritty, dangerous wilderness. They are beset on all sides by hostile forces: foreign imperialists, religious crusaders, magical beasts, or otherwise. The geography is a series of islands, increasing the feeling that danger could come from any direction. On top of that, alien beings called Ettins move into land and terraform it, causing it to be incapable of supporting human life. It's a gritty and pessimistic setting. The tribes fight to survive even though given enough time, players can see that their characters will die, perhaps their tribes will die. They persevere in the spirit of real-life viking age scandinavians, which the setting is obviously inspired by. They fight on just like Thor and the other gods, even though they knew Ragnarok was coming and that in the final battle, they would be defeated. Anthropologists seem to agree their mythology helped morale whilst fighting to survive in the inhospitable north. You can tell some good stories in this setting, but it is specialized for certain kinds of stories.

The setting is a fantasized version of Roman/Christian domination of Europe from the pagan perspective. People seem to forget that the first victims of European imperialism were the Europeans. This is definitely not a setting to play out your power fantasies. The best game would be one in which the players all adopt a primitive, pagan mindset. In a high fantasy game, a female PC dying in childbirth would be bad storytelling; an abrupt and unsatisfying end to a power fantasy. In this setting, it would be an important plot point; they mourn, they revere the divine feminine, they persevere, the child is accepted into the tribe. It's just a different kind of game. Sorry for the wall of text, but just saying, "the racism and unempowerment of women are good storytelling tools" without explaining why would draw troll comments from people who haven't read the book, especially from west-hating fanatics of my generation. This is definitely a setting that requires mature players, considering how the source material was written, but I think it can be salvaged and enjoyed.

I find it's best to keep politics out of MYFAROG threads, otherwise nobody will talk about MYFAROG. It's irrelevant to game design or your gaming group having fun.

I own the first edition that came in the big hardcover but sadly haven't gotten to play. None of my friends are interested in playing a low magic game where hunting and gathering is a part of the fantasy. If I got the opportunity to play I would absolutely buy the latest edition: fewer rules are better than more rules, after all.

In your game world, you're free to have wizard colleges administer intelligence tests (as a series of INT checks), and only intelligent people are good at magic anyway (a low INT means the DC's of your spells are low).
Mechanically though, stat requirements add nothing to the game. If something happens in the story that makes the fighter want to take classes in warlock, stat requirements would only restrict that option without adding anything of value. Fortunately, 5e was written with the spirit and intention that groups customize it to their liking.

You could trade your human bonus feat for a bonus skill focus feat at 1st, 8th, and 16th, which might be worth it depending on what levels you'll be playing until. 2h power attack builds really only need 1 feat, and that's power attack. If variant multiclassing is an option, bard nets you Bardic Knowledge, which is great for the warrior-scholar trope. You'll also get a versatile performance down the line, which means free skill points. I'm playing a warrior-scholar paladin. Although 25 point buy allowed me the luxury of 14 INT, vmc bard and the bonus skill focus feats have allowed me to even use a couple extra skill points for fluff with a profession. I would change your trait if possible also, -1 to armor check pen is equivalent to having masterwork armor, which is a measly 150 gold. It does stack, but honestly if there is a skill that you identify your character with, find the trait that makes it a class skill.

The goblin adventure theme is great. I think that once Squealy and the gang become too high level for new players to immediately understand (Pathfinder being what it is, and also now competing with 5e which is an easy system to jump right into and doesn't suffer from the bad press that made my friends choose pathfinder instead of 4e for our first system), they should write new goblin characters and keep up the simple hijinx. In my experience, new players, almost without exception, want to play silly chaotic evil neutral characters. It's a safe premise that everyone can understand and it fun for children, too.

Tucker's Kobolds.

This is your reminder that the kids who played The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion as their first "rpg" when they were 10 have now all graduated high school.

How about a Hellknights Primer?

Seconded. More information on each Order, advice for playing good Hellknights well or evil-aligned Hellknights without being disruptive (they do tend to draw the attention of That Guy, especially with the awesome cover art this book would have), and maybe even a new or rediscovered Order.

Player options could include:
-Rules for Hellknight Orders as cavalier orders
-A new Devil creature to summon
-Unique magic Hellknight armors (not just full-plates, but breastplates, Order of the Godclaw robes, enchanted light armor of some kind for undercover detective work, and capes)
-Class archetypes with altered low-level abilities to synergize with taking prestige class levels
-New [pain] spells and crowd control spells.

And an illustration of a kitten in Hellknight barding.

I think the name of the iconic ninja is Reiko, not Ameiko.

A torture victim has died, and returned as a Ghost!