Strategy works both ways. I'm just saying those MMO terms might not apply to a tabletop game. They certainly won't be observed at any game I've ever played or run. There's no "Pathfinder Taunt Hotkey" that I've ever seen.
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I love using this quote for tabletop "tanks" who try to draw "aggro". "Kill The Finger Wagglers!" Ironically enough, it's from Everquest 2. Anyone who treats my table like an MMO is going to be surprised. My monsters aren't MOB's and they certainly won't line up to die in a way you feel is appropriate.
D&D, 1983, 10. Played my first character, a human thief, for around 2 years until I started my own gaming group and alternated DM'ing with one of my best friends. Good times.
Yesterday it was the Wizard. Today it's the Bard. I'll see what I feel like tomorrow.
Mommy said I was special so everyone needs to know my opinion. Also I don't like something so no-one should enjoy it. Millenials...
None. In the right hands with the right build they are all useful. Versatility is one of the reasons I love the class. But in all honesty I have no experience with (or desire to play) Elemental wizards. The existing schools have yet to disappoint.
I've always liked the idea that Assassin wasn't a class per se, but more of an occupation. Anyone could be paid to kill another regardless of class. I understand that doesn't fit the idea of the stealthy killer that is the flavor of the word nowadays. That's moot, anyway. So...I feel the class as presented pertains to more of a "contract killer". I would definitely treat the abilities gained from the class as trained instead of naturally learned and therefore unavailable once the character changes alignment or ceases to work for the organization that trained him/her. If this was truly a story of redemption wouldn't the character be trying to leave that life behind? Perhaps take up rogue again,(assuming that was part of his/her pre-assassin days. Or another class, what-have-ya) with a specific set of skills learned from the time spent as an assassin. I actually like the idea of characters growing and changing through alignment as the levels are gained and classes change. The story of the re-deemed assassin is a classic. Not to mention the lengths their former affiliation might go to silence a member who turned their back on them. Just my 2 cents. Your feelings on the subject might differ. To each their own ;)
Sounds like some GM needs to get his table in check. I would have nipped this in the bud the moment it raised its head. Leaving a glaring error in judgement like this for the players to fix is a recipe for disaster. Things like this rarely end well.
I don't care what the player's build is as long as he does things. If someone wanted to build an alchemist focused on crafting items, that can still be really helpful to the group, as long as he contributes and everyone has fun. I would probably break the adventures up by having the group at least spend a couple days in cities here and there to let him do his thing, maybe even have the adventures all be urban so he could work in a shop and have adventures when they come up. This, exactly. I love the idea of a character being a merchant or craftsman in his spare time. Background is always a good thing,(sometimes it can be taken a bit far, but that's another bag of donuts) BUT,as a GM I am not a sandbox. The adventure I'm running is the adventure you will be playing or don't bother to show up. I'll work with it to a certain extent, but it will not be the focus of our game session. If that's what you want to play, find another table, or start your own gaming group.
Maybe they couldn't transfer within the budget, maybe they turned down the offer, maybe they just let them go on a Friday with a kick in the ass. Without knowing the inner workings of either team, it's all speculation. I like free stuff as much as the next guy. But the game we are playing is also a business no matter how we feel about it. I played the game since beta, ran a Golden Age themed Supergroup for about 2 years, then played on and off with a subscription till they went Free to Play, then I played sporadically between other MMO's until the shut down. I love the genre and really liked the setting. But if the game isn't making the money it needs to make, what can they do? After Free to Play fails to make the grade there really isn't any other option. Even if it turns a profit they might have better money making avenues to invest in. Ones that will keep a company thriving instead of running a skeleton crew and hoping for a buyer. Don't get me wrong here, I hate big business, but it is what it is. It's happened to other games and will happen again. Yeah, I will miss it, and I hope I can find another game to fill that niche, but an eight year run for an MMO is still pretty good.
Some people play one way, some people play another way. I've played the monty haul campaigns and I've played in groups where we rarely rolled a die. They each have their merits and flaws.
Acknowledge, move on.
I think it's a GM issue as well, but I have to say that as a player who predominately plays casters, that spellbook is my life. No way does it ever leave my person. I've even told a former GM that my book was in a hip pouch with the shoulder strap around me and my hands clasped over it while I slept. Not to mention the magical protections cast on it if anyone managed to get it away from me. Even at first level "Alarm" can be used to good effect.
I've always preferred the "Oh, God. I woke up and my family is all dead and I'm covered in blood." Lycanthropy over the "Dude, I can turn into a <insert animal type here>. Awesome." type of Lycanthropy. But in all seriousness, unless you want that to be the focus of your game, (and granted, you might) I've always found it alot more fun for the group to quest for ways to stop the curse rather than propagate it. I agree with Selgard. He put it pretty plainly.
Anything by Blackmoore's Night or Dead Can Dance. Both bands are main staples of our games for years. Niahm Parsons (do yourself a favor and listen to "Clohinne Winds" one of my wife and my favorite tunes) some of Zeppelin's acoustic stuff (Battle of Evermore comes to mind). Stonecircle, Renaissance (Ocean Gypsy is a great tune, also redone by Blackmore's Night), Loreena Mckennitt, Clannad. There was a collection of instrumentals called Scottish Moors by Lifescapes that we still put on for sleeping and other activities ;) Just a few suggestions. When it comes to music I could literally go on all night.
Maybe I'm over-simplifying, but who says she wants him? Being a succubus doesn't mean she just sleeps with any dude who wants her. That would be counter-intuitive to her real goals. She uses sex to corrupt goodness. I'd make her offer forever but never really deliver. Maybe she will keep asking for bigger and bigger favors, promising the whole time, never really delivering, while he sinks further and further into depravity. She's evil, like primordial evil, not a stripper with daddy issues.
The arguement is about who is more powerful. I find alot of players equate that with damage. Apparently you understand the point I was making. Powerful doesn't always mean the most damage output. Yes, it is silly. But this is what WoW hath wrought when it comes to tabletop characters and their usefulness. I think it's what other posters meant when they say "Define "Powerful".
A sorceror who focused all spells on damage will have an incredibly tough time at my table. Not all gaming tables are the same. I would base what you play on the type of game your group runs and what might be the most useful there.
I think what the OP means is that to the Minkai a katana is commonplace. Whereas to other races it is rare. ie. A dwarven waraxe is a martial weapon for dwarves, yet exotic for other races. I understand how the game mechanic works, but there are real life cultural differences in weapon styles between East and West and he was wondering if that carried over to the game's depiction of an Eastern style race. It's a very valid question concerning your choice in skills. My advice would be to to speak with your DM and see his views on it. With your character being Minkai and a Samurai at that (intimately familiar with the weapon you are crafting) as long as there were no serious game-breaking issues I would definately allow it.
Hate to toot my own horn, but seriously, the Sprite is pretty damn close to a gnome in spell-like ability, glows like Tinkerbell or Oona,(can serve as a mobile light source) requires little-to-no changes to be a playable race, and is a small fey with wings incredibly similar to a pixie. I doubt there would even be any kind of CL changes. Add the Sorceror class with the Fey Bloodline and you can basically obtain spells to get the spell like abilities of a pixie without the second guesses, ability modification, or trying to get your hands on older race rules. Plus the monster description is here on this site. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/sprite.html#sprite
What about a Sprite instead? They seem pretty easy to convert to a playable race, have some magic abilities but are not overly powerful. Hell, a Sprite Sorceror with Fey bloodline would be right up your players alley. Easy to keep track of spells, spells are innate, but with a little leeway in power development for usefulness. Just a thought. Here's the link. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary3/sprite.html#sprite
Sit down with the player, explain why the pixie might not fit your campaign and try to come up with some alternative ideas. The idea of a small Fey companion is a pretty traditional role for fantasy and mythology.(Legend, Peter Pan, etc) Gotta be some way to figure out something that might be a cool addition to your game but not a game breaker in terms of ability.
Adamantine Dragon said- "It is my opinion that there is a point in interpersonal relations where if someone wrongs you, you not only no longer have an obligation to "play nice" but that in fact doing so runs the risk of becoming a regular target of bullying." From what I've read if I was in the position of the OP I'd have taken my toys and went home before this situation even got this far. This DM seems to be lording it over the player a bit much for my liking. And has a little henchman to help it along. I'm a pretty easy going dude when it comes to games, as long as it's all in fun. But it really seems that the situation is more about some petty power trip than a stupid horse. Been there, stopped playing with that. Save yourself the time and grief and find another gaming group.
Agree with Mystic_Snowfang. The word Samsara is in the name of the item.
Then I guess you wouldn't. No one says you should be "forced" to play anything. And the last sentence of my post could hardly be assuming all non-core players are the same. I can understand a player using non-core races to set themselves aside from the norm, but too many times I see it as a "look at me, look at me" tactic and not a tool for good RP. Basically fishing for NPC response and taking time away from other players or focusing the game on their weirdness. Maybe you arent that type of player, so in that case I wasn't speaking about you. But honestly I see it so much it gets old quick. Play whatever the hell you like, but I keep my games grounded and still stand by what I said. If you can't make a basic race/class combo interesting, then no amount of strangeness can help you. I didn't say everyone has to play a human fighter, just that many times non-core races are used as an excuse for unimaginative play. At the end of the day, however, this is just one opinion. If your table is different,then by all means, play how you see fit.
Honestly the weirder and more exotic the race the less likely I am to even allow it, much less play it. Justin and Doomed Hero hit it on the head. Everybody has to be the craziest most "unique" type of character these days. About the strangest I've let slide was a goblin rogue because the player was pretty low key about it. I allow different races, but only if the player seems to actually want to play that type for the RP value or just to spice it up without intruding on the pace of the game or story. Not just because it's "Hella Effin' Badass" or any other exclamatory dudeness. Hell, if you can't make a human fighter interesting no amount of strangeness will help you. Weird races don't excuse lack of imagination at my table. Not saying this applies to all players, but we all know the type.
I'm a Prog-Rock-ologist getting his mind blown by early Floyd and King Crimson while drinking a few beers. Does that count? :)Hawkwind fan and microbiologist here Hawkwind rules! And don't get me wrong, microbiology too :)
Don't forget Canada's best power-trio!I'm a Prog-Rock-ologist getting his mind blown by early Floyd and King Crimson while drinking a few beers. Does that count? :)Not quite. Drink a stout one for me though and crank up the Crimson. Best. Show. Ever. Saw them do 2112 in it's entirety. 2 full hours of music with only a small interlude. Blew the roof off the place. And I watched in awe the whole time without any booze or, um...herbal supplement and still had a great time.
I'm a Prog-Rock-ologist getting his mind blown by early Floyd and King Crimson while drinking a few beers. Does that count? :)
For the record, the IQ scale only goes up to 200 and the higest ever recorded adult IQ was 186. Nice.
Two-thousand-ten.
That made me laugh, right there :) I think I just mellowed a bit with age. They say if you aren't a rebel by 20 you have no heart, but if you haven't turned establishment by 30 you have no brains. I just fall kinda in the middle. Have several liberal views, yet many conservative views as well. I've always felt that most people aren't ultra-conservative or ultra-liberal. Most of us regular Joes fall somewhere in between the extremes.
Centrist here. The far right and far left are too batcrap-crazy for me.
I guess this being the Holiday season I would forego my curmudgeonly ways. Only cause my wife said she would like to see some "Narnia-esque" eaces as well. Centaurs, Fauns, and talking animals in specific. Would be cool to see them added simply out of my love of traditional fantasy worlds.
I think the point of Watchmen was that none of the masked adventurers are clinically "sane". Each of them has their own delusions, psychosis, emotional traumas, what-have-ya. The most successful of them has a god complex and the least accepted is a paranoid murderer. The only one among them with true superpowers suffers from extreme emotional detachment and ennui, who finds it difficult to interact with reality without extreme objectification. I would say the least damaged are Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre II. Who, together, were able to work through their emotional problems by establishing a healthy, if not particularly normal, relationship. In the end I think that was the point of the book for me. In an insane world all we truly have is each other. We need love and friendship to help us cope. Without that we could become as megalomaniacal as Veidt or as paranoid and out of touch as Rorshach. In a nutshell anyway. Damn good book though :)
And with that it's all cool, bro. To be honest, the open-mindedness and acceptance of other playstyles is why I haunt these forums. We are all gamers and no table is the same, just in spirit. Opinion cannot be right or wrong, but can make for some great conversation :)
What I've learned here is that I will always use a licensed fire-arm to take down burglars over a cricket-bat.
Um, yeah... Nothing is wrong with it, and how others want to play their games is their business. You are reading way more into what was said that what was actually meant. I might not have all kinds of crazy races at my table, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone for their gaming preferences. You can relax now.
Dispel Magic, the Summon Monster line but the greatest spell of all has to be... Animate Rope! I loved the look on my DM's face when a group of Sahuagin used a hemped rope net on our Monk and the "un-knot" command came into play. Just one of those great uses for a mostly unused spell.
We aren't exactly talking about a sane situation. How are we supposed to react when masked men with knives invade our houses and tie up our families? Just wondering, because if that happens to me, I sure hope I'm not infringing on any criminals rights. I certainly would hate to think I'm breaking a law by taking back my home from armed men who had my family members in a position to murder, rape, what-have-ya. You know, I'd hate to think I wasn't doing something sane.
I'd have to say I'm the opposite when it comes to new races. What I do like are books that flesh out the existing races. Also anything that expands on the differences among different strains of humans. Not so much for new abilities or stat changes but cultural differences.
Not making any assumptions about any fellow players here on this forum just in general. A creative player can make a human fighter just as interesting as a half-demon genasi sorceror/paladin/monk with half-dragon ancestry. JK, but you get my meaning.
If this was me, I'd be in jail too.
Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.
Thank God for perversions of justice like this to remind us that we can't deal with home-invading, career criminal scum appropriately after they take your family hostage at knife-point. Bravo...
I was going to say the "my whole morning is a ritual" thing as well. Hell, I even have my shower broken down to a set pattern. I think we all have a way we welcome the day or prepare ourselves for it that harkens back to a more primal ritualization whether we realize it or not. Interesting thread anyway, but Mikhaila's usually are :)
The Frank Herbert Dune stuff is amazing, it just asks a bit more of the reader than your average novel. I honestly feel that Herbert is the Tolkien of Sci-Fi. Guess it's not for everyone.
My tables both tend to be very violent and gritty, but more PG-13 when sex is considered. Even our players who are married couples tend to play characters who are not romantically involved. My wife and I, however, played through about a year and a half of our campaign as an elven male and female who were friends as children and then ran off to adventure despite the wishes of her noble father. We slowly began to incorporate the romantic ties as our characters began to develop as a couple. Our DM worked in concert with us, without the rest of the group knowing. Untill our group finally returned with an ancient elven artifact that contained the collected knowledge of thousands of long dead elves. The artifact then posessed my wife's character, basically turning her into an oracle for the knowledge contained within it. (She had begun to put in alot of hours at work and decided to retire her character) Periodically her personality will turn up, but she is now considered the recepticle of all this knowledge and is kept under guard at all times, thus insuring that we will probably never be able to have a normal relationship, or any real relationship at all ever again. This story was really just a great example of DM'ing and we had a great time playing through it, as sad as it was for our characters. Might be a bit tame compared to some, but it made for a great tragic love story.
I always felt "Grunge" was a catch-all term to describe alot of bands who were taking rock in different directions. The bands were all from the Seattle area, but drew from many different influences. Other than wearing flannel shirts, which was only because it gets cold and rainy there. Even MotherLoveBone was called Grunge when they really had more in common with Glam or hair metal. The media decided to coin a term to lump them all together. Hell, when some people found out that Heart was from Seattle I remember folks trying to say they were grunge. Which is rediculous because they easily predate the word by 15 years. I will say this though, some damn good music came out at that time.
We always called stuff like Nickelback "Jock Rock". Heavy enough for the non-metal crowd to feel like they are skirting the edge of acceptability, yet soft enough to get radio play. Godsmack, 3 Days Grace, Metallica's self-titled album, stuff like my 14 yr old neice would listen too. I heard the first note of Slayer's "Reign in Blood" and knew I was home.
The video game Mass Effect. If you haven't played it you need to. Just one more example of the excellent game design by the people at Bioware. Deep, immersive sci-fi RPG. One of the best games I've ever played, really.
Yeah, I'd definately want a more traditional high-tech method of space travel, but maybe with a magical or super-science effect to simulate warp speed or folding space. Mass Effect has alot of ideas to offer a setting such as this. Also the look of the armors, weapons and ships could be tailored for elves, dwarves, what have ya. The idea of orcs raiding other ships like Klingons or the Reavers from Firefly is a great mental image. Not to mention a legion of paladins done up like Space Marines trying to bring faith to uncharted space. And Dwarves travelling to uninhabited planets to harvest resources. Endless possibilities.
Having read most of Herbert's work I'm very familiar with the Dune setting and the ideas behind it. I think you are reading too much into the way I used the word. I meant a high fantasy setting with a feel similar to Dune, not saying Dune itself was high fantasy. If one simply says "D&D in space", many think Spelljammer. I was trying to make a comparison, not a genre association. My idea in a nutshell is basically D&D in a sci-fi/space opera setting, magic still exists, but alongside Tech similar to Dune or the video game Too Human. Just a pet project I'm working on in my spare time.
Just wondering, not in a sarcastic or potentially offensive way, why "Majik" instead of "Magic"?Honestly, it's just a habit and I really don't know, I just like how it looks. Perhaps it looks more majikcal >.~ Fair enough ;)
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