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It's not the quantity of posts that matter, it's the quality. Ashiel has a large presence around him. If I were to stat up Ashiel, he'd have a high Charisma. People naturally flock to what he has to say, both for and against it, because he points out holes in stuff people tend to not want to acknowledge. His input is also extremely valuable with tons of experience weighted behind it, experienced seeped in finding out how the system works and how to make it work for you.
He's a wealth of information on this game and his experiences in life has given him a deluge of wisdom to draw upon. It's natural for people to talk about Ashiel because he's a truly interesting person.
I have nearly 7,000 posts as it is, but, to my knowledge, I'm not really referenced in other threads. I may make some good posts here and there, but usually nothing that's groundbreaking or sparks big debates about how things work. Though I do tend to have some witty one-liners every now and then :P
Anyone can have a large number of posts, that will come with time if nothing else. But what those posts say determines how people will think of you and your presence on the boards. It just so happens, that people pay attention to what Ashiel has to say; whether they like it or not, however, is another story.
(o///o)
Thank you! (QvQ)
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It's not as if I was chomping at the bit to become the next Paizo celebrity, but I was a bit curious as to if anyone around here recognized me, how I do some others after a couple years.
Tels, if it makes you feel better, I remember you.
Mostly because I follow Siefter's thread, and I think you post there more than he does!
But I did recognize you. Er, your name, and, you know, words that is.
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By the way, if you join the Cult of Ashiel today, we'll throw in this nice avatar of Seoni, for free!
** spoiler omitted **
Hail Ashiel!
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It's not as if I was chomping at the bit to become the next Paizo celebrity, but I was a bit curious as to if anyone around here recognized me, how I do some others after a couple years.
Tels, if it makes you feel better, I remember you.
Mostly because I follow Siefter's thread, and I think you post there more than he does!
But I did recognize you. Er, your name, and, you know, words that is.
I think you're pretty cool. ^_^
Hail Ashiel!
Hugs all around! Or better yet...
Do the dance! *boogies*
For what it's worth, I recognize Tels and tgtg when I see them.
... who?
Boo! Hiss! Off with him! Jerks unwelcome!
YES! YES! GIVE ME YOUR RAGE! IT FEEEEEDS MEEEE~!
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YES! YES! GIVE ME YOUR RAGE! IT FEEEEEDS MEEEE~!
Priestess of Urgathoa: "Why are you looking at me like that? You told me to turn undead!"
Paladin of Pharasma: "I meant turn undead, not turn undead!"Priestess of Urgathoa: "Oh...well, this is awkward,"
:D
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:D
I'm rollin' up a vampire character for my friend's Carrion Crown game, and I figured she's going to be a follower of the positive aspects of Urgathoa. However, I just read in the PG that Pharasmites are like ants around here so that'll be interesting.
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Well thats's news. I'm on the notice of two Paizo pseudocelebrities! Well, three. Tacticslion is my homie, or at least he favorites about 2/3 of my posts, which is good enough for my growing narcissism.
Sometimes I consider hitting the reset button with a new favorite alias, perhaps actually paying attention to both the space bar and capitalization this time around, but now I'm thinking I'll lose my street cred if I do something like that.
Also, as much as I love my camellia sinensis, I'm lately more of a rooibos guy, but it lacks the alliteration. "theredteatabletopgamer" is less abbreviatable, I do believe.
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Something about this...feels...wrong.
Is this wrong?
I'm digging the avatar, but the spacing, and the caps...I dunno. Maybe I'm getting old and afraid of change.
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Cult of Ashiel... will you sacrifice stuff?
...As if he needed any more dead birds. ><'
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It's not as if I was chomping at the bit to become the next Paizo celebrity, but I was a bit curious as to if anyone around here recognized me, how I do some others after a couple years.
Tels, if it makes you feel better, I remember you.
Mostly because I follow Siefter's thread, and I think you post there more than he does!
But I did recognize you. Er, your name, and, you know, words that is.
Oh, I'm fully aware people recognize me, post enough or be around long enough and people will eventually recognize you.
What I meant, is that certain people make lasting impressions on the board and will be known for certain subjects.
For example, I can be reasonable certain that TOZ will probably end up posting in nearly any thread I read at some point or another. I know that if I read a threat about 'Monks' I'm pretty certain I'm going to see Dabbler and Master Arminas show up in it (though I haven't seen Master Arminas online in awhile, but I could have just been missing him). I know that if there is some cool or really different takes on input, Tacticslion is one of the contenders (also, there's a 90% chance that the person who favorited your post is Tacticslion because he likes all the things :P ).
I know that if I want someone to make a snarky comment, there's the always reliable Gorbacz. If I read a thread about something that needs clarification (such as a FAQ) or turns into a hot-topic subject that possibly makes Paizo look bad, there's a decent chance that Ravingdork was involved somewhere (not a critique of Ravingdork, he just has a tendency to be involved in touchy matters). And I know that if I want to see someones expectations of what is or is not possible utterly shredded, Ashiel is the man for the job. If I want to go for maximum Grognard level, I look up DrDeth (the dude literally invented the original Thief class for D&D).
These are all people (but not all of the people) I've seen referenced through out the site for one reason or another. There are lots of people who are known for certain things because of who they are and what they post. Just because someone has a large post count, does not mean that the person is going to be someone that is referenced in another thread.
People like Ashiel can always be relied upon to post in a certain way. Ashiel, in particular, is always reliable to shake up what people think on a subject and he's a great source for tips and tricks on how to do different things. For example, while his guide on how to be a savvy adventurer is unfinished, it still made it onto TarkXT's list of 5 guides all players should read. If you don't know, TarkXT is the author of the 'Forge of Combat' article that changed how a lot of people think of classes in Pathfinder.
Some people are just known for the quality of their posts, or a certain type of post they favor. You can't force such a thing, it happens or it doesn't. Because if you do try and force it, then it feels fake and people pick up on it.
People will learn who you are in time. Just make sure that the person they recognize, is the person you are, and not a fake persona you've adopted to get attention. You want people to like you for you, nor for someone else. You'll be much happier being yourself as well. Deception is never fun (unless deception is the name of the game).
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Cult of Ashiel... will you sacrifice stuff?
...As if he needed any more dead birds. ><'
Lord Ashiel is always in need of more skeletons for his workforce. His people have a certain standard of living that needs to be maintained after all.
Also, if you've got any dragons around, some oft he Lord Ashiel's more important citizens are in need of mounts in armor, and dragons do fit the bill of 'armored mount' ever so nicely.
Yeah, pretty much stuff I've come to notice about a lot of the folks around here. You can definitely pick up one the personality of some of the folks around here, or their respective niches, as you've noticed.
I had a longer reply, but I don't want to steal Ashiel's thunder. This is his thread.
I'll ask him a question again, instead of another "look at me!"
On a 1-10 scale, how do you like your rules complexity, with zero being no dice rolls for anything, and I think you're smart enough to get the jist of this without laying out what 10 is?
Do you think increased rules complexity is necessary to reflect increased realism (within whatever paradigm of realism is defined by the setting)?
Do you think decreased rules allows required for easier immersion into the game world?
Classed or classless?
If you could eliminate five dead horse subjects on the boards magically with a wave of your hand, what would they be?
Makes me wonder if I'll be known for anything. Besides insomniac posts that don't make much sense after very little sleep while having a massive migraine. Nah, I'm not around enough. Just how I like it... I've already totally borked the Lurker's Code by posting relatively regularly.
That said, question for Ashiel!
Well, not so much a question, really. Just a prodding... We all REALLY wanna see some huge update on adventure prep!
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Makes me wonder if I'll be known for anything. Besides insomniac posts that don't make much sense after very little sleep while having a massive migraine
Well, um...how do I put this? From what I recall, you're kinky, and have no compulsions against sharing that fact. (Please make note I don't inherently think that's bad, simply unusual, and I only remembered because we got into that one alignment discussion a while back, so I remembered your name.)
Admittedly I believe I've only seen you mention that 2-3 times, but, well, that's more than anyone else I have seen talk about that stuff around these parts.
Makes me wonder if I'll be known for anything. Besides insomniac posts that don't make much sense after very little sleep while having a massive migraineWell, um...how do I put this? From what I recall, you're kinky, and have no compulsions against sharing that fact. (Please make note I don't inherently think that's bad, simply unusual, and I only remembered because we got into that one alignment discussion a while back, so I remembered your name.)
Admittedly I believe I've only seen you mention that 2-3 times, but, well, that's more than anyone else I have seen talk about that stuff around these parts.
Well, when one writes smut for (mostly) a living, one can't be too shy about things of such nature. Though, it doesn't help that my fiance's even less shy about it than I am (pokemon team based off a gijinka harem? Check! Tiefling with prehensile tail to grapple 4 armed races though it was mostly fluff? Check!).... A lot less "prudish" now than I was previously.
That said, might as well keep posting if someone recalls me, lol. I think they revoked my Lurker card.
You probably have no idea, but... WHY IS SECURITY GUARD TRAINING/LICENSING SO DANGED EXPENSIVE!?
Also, Mikaze.... Hm *nod*.
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Yeah, pretty much stuff I've come to notice about a lot of the folks around here. You can definitely pick up one the personality of some of the folks around here, or their respective niches, as you've noticed.
I had a longer reply, but I don't want to steal Ashiel's thunder. This is his thread.
There's plenty of thunder to go around. (^_^)
I'll ask him a question again, instead of another "look at me!"
On a 1-10 scale, how do you like your rules complexity, with zero being no dice rolls for anything, and I think you're smart enough to get the jist of this without laying out what 10 is?
Probably about a 6-8, depending on the details of what complexity means in this case. Generally speaking, I believe that rules should be generally consistent, as intuitive as possible, and be able to be "processed" quickly. I recently had a conversation with Artemis where rule complexity came up. Here's an excerpt from that conversation.
a grand total of 6 different resources to track which have similar purposes and a loooot of conversions. And that's just to determine what happens when the orc swings his sword at you. (o_o);
I'm often tempted to do these sorts of things when I'm writing as well, but I always have to step back and remember that I'm not coding a computer algorithm that is going to run in an instant with every attack but instead writing a script with a lot of variables that's going to have to be processed by a human mind at the speed of reading and resolved with dice real-time. Given the medium, less is often more.
Example: In games like World of Warcraft, a single attack goes through a gauntlet of modifiers and/or checks before it resolves. It compares your weapon skill vs your target's defense skill, applies modifiers for expertise vs defense rating, checks for any resistances, makes a separate % check to see if the attack was dodged, blocked, or parried, then calculates damage based on your weapon's damage and attack power vs your enemy's armor value and block value (if the attack was blocked) and finally returns damage.
Due to it being a computer, this entire process occurs in less than a tenth of a second and can be resolved for lots of attackers at the same time (this sort of calculation may happen tons of times per second if you've got an angry mob of gamers all busting each other up in a fight pit :P).
However, if I tried to implement a similar system into tabletop, the game would be near unplayable before I even got to things like mana, limited-use abilities, and/or class-based resource systems.
However, if you mean complexity in the sense that there's just a rule for almost everything, then it'll rank much higher on my scale, because I really appreciate that d20 has things like the Environment chapter. There's virtually no other RPG that I've seen that covers as much about the world itself (such as storms, snowfall, avalanches, cave ins, aquatic environments, etc, etc, etc). I surely never noticed anything so supportive of the world itself in other RPGs I've played like Deadlands, Legend of the Five Rings, Shadowrun, etc. Having had this sort of complexity in d20 has made it hard to shake it as my favored system.
Do you think increased rules complexity is necessary to reflect increased realism (within whatever paradigm of realism is defined by the setting)?
I'm not certain if it's absolutely necessary but I think it certainly does help.
Do you think decreased rules allows required for easier immersion into the game world?
Continuing this thought from the previous paragraph, I actually think the opposite is true. In game systems that are less robust I often find it more difficult to become immersed because there are often no standard "laws of the universe" to ground myself in which can be very jarring as more and more stuff requires sudden ad-hoc adjustments. In d20 for example, you generally know what can be done and you only have to ask about corner cases (and if the system is consistent and your GM is familiar with it, those corner cases will often be resolved by a mechanic that feels like it fits).
One great example is Hardness. An oft-overlooked and under-appreciated mechanic, Hardness alone was one of the biggest things that set 3.x apart as being strait up better for RPing than 4E (my opinion, I make no apologies about this one). In 4E there is no hardness. Your wizard can punch his way through an adamantine vault door 1d4 damage at a time (it's only a matter of time, and generally speaking it'll take less than five minutes). Now someone could ad-hoc to not allow it but the rules explicitly allow you to attack objects and even gives the door HP, while giving functionally no difference between adamantine and wood beyond how many HPs each have. Even if you do ad-hoc it, you'll find yourself having to ad-hoc it in virtually every case. Okay, maybe your puny wizard cannot punch through the wall, but what about his magic missile? What if a dragon falls on the wall? What if the dragon breathes fire at the wall...?
Meanwhile, the simple mechanic of hardness (combined with various standards of damage) allow you innately understand certain truths about the world. Just as an example, I have on these very boards once written as to the sheer epic marvel of how powerful and hot the breath of an ancient wyrm red dragon was, and we couldn't have done that effectively without the simple hardness & HP rules for objects.
To reiterate that comment, an ancient red's dragon average damage when halved (energy damage vs object hardness), hardness applied, and damage dealt, is enough to completely destroy a suit of mundane full plate armor in a single breath weapon attack. Because the dragon bellows this breath weapon as a standard action, it takes no longer than half of the 6 second round (we'll say 3 seconds).
Imagine the intensity of that flame. It shames the most brilliant of blast furnaces in reality for it can slag a suit of steel plate so thoroughly that it isn't even armor anymore in three seconds flat. It's like fighting a magical godlike being that spits the surface of the sun at you! XD
Classed or classless?
I'm actually pretty indifferent about this one but I lean towards the latter because I find it's easier to get newbies into. I've played a number of classless systems (including classless d20 games) and I think both have some pretty strong pros and cons.
Classless
Classless systems tend to give the most control over the creation of a character. For example, in Shadowrun, you might be an expert marksman with a 9MM handgun, but you don't know the business end of a rifle from the stock, merely because you invested 6 points into handguns and 0 points into rifles or whatever. Character creation can be very detailed and involved as you fine tune the character.
One downside of the classless paradigm is that all the problems of balance in a class-based system are tenfold in a classless system. It can be trivially easy to accidentally gimp a character before they're out of the gate (the reverse can be true in some classless systems as well). If you didn't understand how important it was to put points in your dodge skill, your really cool character just gets insta-gibbed by a mook in the first encounter. Oops! It can also be weird if the party isn't advancing their general combat statistics at similar rates, as it can quickly lead to "high level" characters where half of them feel like high level characters and the other half are only high level insofar as they're both great computer hackers and great chefs. :P
I've also found (from a brief foray into playing Mutants and Masterminds) that classless systems tend to try to compensate for balance issues by pricing individual abilities in ways that make it prohibitively difficult to make certain types of characters (even if they wouldn't be OP). For example, I had this idea for a bard I wanted to play in Pathfinder and a friend of mine who was enamored with the most recent edition of Mutants & Masterminds insisted that I make her using M&M because it was better than Pathfinder and stuff.
I couldn't do it. By the system, just covering her basic bardness was impossible for the effective level of points that it should have been, merely because bards are well rounded generalists and the system just couldn't handle what they're capable of doing at 1st level just with their class features and 1st level spellcasting, especially not if I actually wanted to use my sword. >_>
Also: One aspect to a lot of classless systems which could be a pro or a con is they tend to have a sort of E6 mindset built into them from the get-go. Due to balance concerns, a lot of these games have hard limits in advancement that are actually pretty low. When I played shadowrun, humans could start out with 6 dice towards a thing, but could only go up to like 9 dice overall. Generally speaking this means that you'll end up leveling out instead of leveling up (as you start dumping character points into other off-theme stuff). This could be a pro or a con depending on your view.
Classed
Classed systems take a lot of the option paralysis out of it and make it harder to thoroughly screw up a character. It also tends to make creation faster as you just take a package and run with it with a few adjustments. Generally speaking you're typically given the basic stuff for someone with your skill set (so even if you're superior with handguns you probably at least know how to fire a rifle properly), and even if your character specializes in non-combat problem-solving you will still have a few base statistics keeping you in the realm of play that your team is in (such as your advancing HD and saves).
The major downside to classed systems is they tend to be rigid and/or lack the customization that is inherent in most classless systems. You may get some unneeded or unwanted abilities, features, or restrictions. For example, if you want a pet wolf from 1st level, Druid might be your best bet, but that doesn't mean you want to be a spellcasting dude who can't wear metal armor. :o
In old classed games like pre-3E D&D, there was rarely any difference between characters mechanically that were really meaningful and instead were based on the most minor or pointless of things (what weapon you used, what ability score you rolled, what race you chose). Everybody tended to just be the same fighter with a longsword. :(
Hybrid Systems
D20 I feel like made great steps towards marrying the two over the years with advancements in multiclassing and systems for interchanging class features and a more free skill system. Design influences such as interchangeable talent systems (which you can find some examples of in Pathfinder, especially with certain archetypes or advanced classes), talent systems in general (which you can find in d20 modern classes, as well as classes such as barbarians, rogues, and alchemists in Pathfinder), feats (which are kind of like generic features not bound to a class), and cross-class skill systems (we can finally have Paladins who are also investigators or acrobats).
Ultimately I feel this hybridizes the best features of both systems. It's rare that I feel there's a character concept that is out of reach (especially with refluffing and such) and it's pretty easy to create new characters and teach people how to play the game and make their own characters.
One thing I want to do with my own d20 system I'm working on currently is to provide more support for multiclassing and hybridizing existing classes where you won't need things like mystic theurge classes or special advanced hybrid classes, which will include things for scaling class features between two (or more) classes as an innate part of multiclassing.
If you could eliminate five dead horse subjects on the boards magically with a wave of your hand, what would they be?
Hard to say. If "eliminate" includes "solving", I'd like to eliminate:
1. Crappy class threads (fighters, monks, rogues).
2. Stormwind threads (Roleplaying vs Gameplay).
3. Alignment threads ("using a goblin baby as a dragon-dildo is totally both Lawful and Good, because in medieval times in our own world, particularly in England between the year XX82 and XX83...").
I'll need to think about it more for 4-5.
Oddly, if these threads were to die out, I'd have little left to post in. :P
That said, question for Ashiel!
Well, not so much a question, really. Just a prodding... We all REALLY wanna see some huge update on adventure prep!
Noted. :)
Hopefully we won't be so short-handed at work soon and I can have more time off to work on writing. :P
Well, when one writes smut for (mostly) a living, one can't be too shy about things of such nature.
I must admit that when I was making my sarcastic rant about roleplaying in a recent thread...
My hatred of roleplaying and character drives runs so deeply that I most certainly never wrote a NSFW slashfic about on of my PCs and her psicrystal/mentor purely on the basis that the other players in the group were shipping them and wanted to read more about the characters and their hot +1 on +2 action (which if such a thing existed would require a PM since it would be in bad form to post Ashiel's of fifty shades of gay on the boards, because those +1s and +2s and morale bonuses probably shouldn't be read by anyone younger than puberty).
That I was mildly disappointed that I didn't actually get PMs from people inquiring about the slashfic (especially on this forum :P).
Did you know I'm super grateful for those ascetic/magic-gearless character rules you made?
'Cause I am. :)
I actually didn't know. I never really heard anything else about it. :P
I'm super glad to hear that you enjoy 'em. It was you that inspired me to write 'em that afternoon. (^_^)
That I was mildly disappointed that I didn't actually get PMs from people inquiring about the slashfic (especially on this forum :P).Now I'm conflicted. :/
I'm not sure what you mean, but it makes me laugh none the less. XD
What do you think about the witch class? (if you hate it be gentle... it's my favorite class)
-I will say I am not thrilled that it is the ONLY class without a Capstone ability... like... ANOTHER hex is NOT the same as being able to perpetually MAKE gold.
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I'm not sure what you mean, but it makes me laugh none the less. XD
I enjoy smut (as attested by my extensive collection of visual novels) and usually prefer original characters rather than the established characters that some doujin mangas use. But reading the work of someone I am acquainted with just feels weird.
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I will say I am not thrilled that it is the ONLY class without a Capstone ability...
Cleric begs to disagree.
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What do you think about the witch class? (if you hate it be gentle... it's my favorite class)
-I will say I am not thrilled that it is the ONLY class without a Capstone ability... like... ANOTHER hex is NOT the same as being able to perpetually MAKE gold.
I'm personally not a big fan, mostly because I find the spell list generally too limited in spells that make help keep enemies from making you dead. I also don't really like the familiar as a spellbook mechanic as it basically turns into a familiar that you can't actually use and it's a lot harder to carry around a spare familiar than it is a spare spellbook (honestly scribing a few generally useful spells into a few spares is not very costly), which means that it's tragically easy for you to just sit around twiddling your thumbs after someone launches a fireball or something in your direction and it nukes Mr. Scruffles. :P
I know during our Reign of Winter game, our GM ultimately ended up rebuilding every enemy Witch NPC as a wizard instead so that the encounters would be more interesting. Unfortunate, really.
I really like their Hex mechanics and I think I'd have liked to have seen their hexes change their gameplay style a little more. They've got a handful of good/useful hexes but little way to improve those hexes as levels rise. I'd really have liked to seen options for things like spreading hexes out, quickening hexes, etc.
Ultimately I feel like they have too much in common with the wizard to really make them unique enough to stand out, and not enough in common with the wizard to give them similar usefulness, while having some pretty harsh drawbacks. It's a class I want to love but feel has problems.
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I'm not sure what you mean, but it makes me laugh none the less. XDI enjoy smut (as attested by my extensive collection of visual novels) and usually prefer original characters rather than the established characters that some doujin mangas use.
Ditto. :D
But reading the work of someone I am acquainted with just feels weird.
Hahah, yeah, I totally get that. Imagine the confused horror my brother had to endure when I read it out loud to him! XD
My poor GM was pretty torn over it too 'cause he was like "It's really good, but it's weird reading about the sexual exploits of the player characters in my game! XD" (but he has urged others to read it too. :3).
The player who petitioned for the slashfic loved it though, so I was happy about that. I'm still trying to get another friend of mine to make it through, but she says she can't get more than half-way through it before she feels too tingly to continue. The lightweight (it's not that intense IMHO). >:|
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I will say I am not thrilled that it is the ONLY class without a Capstone ability...Cleric begs to disagree.
Indeed. Honestly, 9th level casting tends to be a pretty major capstone as well but it's not truly a capstone, being at 17th level and all that (but honestly, being able to gate in a solar and have it obey you kind of laughs at most capstones :P).
Personally I'm less fond of capstones and more fond of features that just keep getting better. This could be due to the fact I think multiclassing and such is a strength of the system and shouldn't be punished, and because I don't mind going post-20th level and so capstones aren't the end-all from my perspective.
In my class design, I will usually include capstones, but the real power usually comes from the fact that many of your scaling class features are also going to hit their pinnacle at 20th level as well (which means it's going to be a subtle but noticeable bump to your overall effectiveness).
What's the most ridiculous thing one of your characters has ever done?
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What's the most ridiculous thing one of your characters has ever done?
- Had a human ranger in a 3.5 Forgotten Realms game which worshipped Eilistraee who danced naked in the woods with her sword. Most folks would consider this pretty ridiculous, especially for an adventurer.
- Had a Star Wars d20 character who once pulled a tie-fighter out of the sky when she was supremely pissed off, which was pretty ridiculous (and awesome). The party was speeding along on speederbikes and a tie-fighter was flying overhead and hadn't realized that the party was there yet, but then one of the players (who was known for making less than great choices) fired his blaster pistol at the tie-fighter.
To put this into perspective for non-Star Wars fans, this was kind of like trying to shoot a tank with a shotgun and expecting that do do something other than alert the drivers that someone is shooting at them.
The tie-fighter returned fire on our speeder bikes (which dealt something like 8d10 damage or something like that) which blew our bikes up and threw us down a hill, nearly killing most of the party. My Jedi Consular who's specced as a force user managed to crawl up from the wreckage as the fighter was coming back around. She looked at the other party members who were downed, she was wounded, and everything was pretty screwed up. At that point she got the initiative and I declared my action. I was using Move Object and I was going to spend a Force point to tap into the dark side of the force (which gave more bonus D6s at low levels where we were but mars your character with a permanent darkside point which slowly corrupts your character).
One d20 result later and my padawan Jedi gets pissed and rips the Tie-Fighter out of the air and slams it into the nearby cliff-face before collapsing to her knees and then trying to save the lives of her comrads. We joked that our soldier lost blaster privileges. :P
- My psionic witch had an a love affair with her psicrystal, who was also her teacher, her aunt, and her dark mentor that intended to manipulate and use her to exact her revenge on her mentor's enemies. She kind of mellowed out later though as she came down with a chronic case of conscience (the psicrystal, the PC was pretty caring by nature).
- A tiefling of mine had an incredibly distorted view of good and evil because of racial prejudices. She grew up believing that good/evil were just things you kind of just were, and despite being an incredibly altruistic and open-minded individual was 100% certain that she was an evil abomination of sin and was going to hell (where she belonged), which led to some interesting dialog where one of the other PCs (an elven wizard) was trying to explain to her that isn't how it works. :P
- Had a young weretiger a long time ago who was a wild-child who was orphaned and grew up in the wild. She eventually decided she wanted to be a gladiator, so she went to go sign up to be a gladiator (she was like maybe 13 or something) and the guy at the counter thought she was funny hefting her axe and stuff. He tried to dissuade her, and then told her that you needed to be smart to be a gladiator (again, just trying to dissuade her) and gave her a rubics cube to solve. To her frustration she fiddled with the thing for an hour before finally getting pissed and smashing into tiny bits in a tantrum. XD
- I had a Paladin who was wisdom drained really hard (down to sub-human Wisdom) after a nasty encounter involving multiple Wis-damaging traps and a Lamia's wisdom-draining attacks. I roleplayed it as her partially losing her mind and/or having weird bouts of catatonic dazes mixed with the occasional bursts of apparent normalcy.
Since the party wasn't entirely sure how far down the rabbit hole she fell, they decided they needed to keep her on a leash so she didn't wander off in the dungeon and get into trouble or something. At one point when they climbed down a ladder, she paused, tugged on the collar she was wearing and mused "This would be pretty demeaning if I wasn't insane", causing the party's hellknight to double-take and be like "wait, what?", at which point she said something super-random like "I like waffles". Hysteria ensued.
It was all the more amusing that the Hellknight and her had a budding romance building, and there was an amusing comment made about keeping the leash around after restoration was had. :P
Same Paladin once had a fist-fight with a demon and after knocking it unconscious, flopped back on a nearby rock, took a drink from her waterskin, and then commented that she'd had about enough for one day and was ready for a good drink and a better ****. It caused the bard player to break the 4th wall and ask "What kind of Paladin are you!?" when she had said nothing about being a Paladin thus far. XD
- Had a vampire character get fragged by a orc and buried by a few Paladins who didn't realize she was dead. They had a cute funeral for her and went on. Later she crawled up out of the ground and was like "Damnit, not again..." *grumbles*
Might be more, but these stand out in memory (mostly 'cause most of them are recent). I also didn't do a lot of gaming from the PC-side of the screen throughout most of my years as I was GMing almost everything I was involved in. :|
Now if it's NPCs...oh boy, I could probably fill a post with just the antics of some minor characters like the goblin sorcerer Grex "Jum Jum" Gritzelkin.
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Can you tell us about Mr. Gritzelkin?
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I LOVE that paladin story so much. Pretty sure I've read it before somewhere else on the forums but still.
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Can you tell us about Mr. Gritzelkin?
Grex "Jum Jum" Gritzelkin was a goblin sorcerer that the party encountered as part of a band of mercenaries consisting of humans, orcs, trolls, hobgoblins, and goblins. The mercenary group was basically hired to disrupt some stuff and put up a road block and ended up getting into a tussle with the PCs which didn't end very well form them (especially after two of the party members with mind-influencing powers charmed the trolls).
Grex surrendered, seeing that this was not going to end well for him. The party's rogue (using a rogue-rewrite the player had wanted to test out) decided to make Grex his minion. It was pretty much as matter-o'-fact as well as he referred to him as his loyal minion, and promptly forgot Grex's name and began calling him "Jum-Jum" instead since he figured that sounded goblin-y enough instead (that racist bastard >:P). "Jum-Jum" tended to give the rogue the stink-eye pretty regularly.
Grex quickly became the Kip to the rogue's Zap Brannigan. Kind of being the sidekick lacky out of enjoying having a heartbeat moreso than anything else. However, he became pretty loved by (most of) the party (the rest of the PCs tended to treat him much better, rather than the dismissive life-threats of the rogue :P).
"Jum Jum" had a lot of amusing anecdotes about growing up as a goblin and learning goblin magic. His magics often had some rather colorful visuals and/or gestures associated with them, such as flinging flaming burger-balls at badguys and so forth. At one point he was trying to recall a spell he learned a while back to impress a girl in highschool, which involved conjuring a magical rainbow-colored unicorn. However she dumped him for a jock and he forgot about the spell (after having the unicorn trampled the both of them in a bout of nerd-rage which only resulted in minor breaks and bruising assuredly). He did manage to re-invent the spell a bit but could only seem to manage a rainbow-colored ass (which occasionally talked when nobody was paying attention).
Jum-Jum was pretty sweet on the ladies though. Despite being a gross Shrek-ian sorcerer, put a pretty lady in front of him and he polished up like he was he was in a Luchador wrestling match with Mr. Clean. He used his prestidigitation magics to freshen up, clean the gunk out of his hair, and polish his teeth to sparkling, and sometimes put a little breeze through his silky green locks. Kind of like a little goblin Fabio! He was actually quite the charmer and to the rogue's lamentation was doing quite a good job of hitting on some of the priestesses while they were visiting the Templar on business, as he sat upon his rainbow ass with pride. :D
He was actually a bit of a softy though. At one point during the game he got drunk and went on a crying binge because the little loli-vampire girl (a PC) didn't like him 'cause she thought he was gross, and he used his goblin magics to create a pretty scene of flowers and unicorns (it's not necessarily his fault that it was made with goblin farts and pixie dust) to cheer her up when she was sad. He realized she was unamused when she nearly lobotomized him with her sword in a manner that was morbidly similar to someone's reaction upon realizing a cockroach was crawling on their arm. By "nearly lobotomized him" I mean that she did kind of stick her sword in his head...but he got better. (^~^);
When she finally felt kinda - almost - bad about what she had done since he was so distraught over it, she manned up and gave him a skin-crawling hug and tried to say she was sorry. Which admittedly she was having an incredibly hard time of doing since his tears and boogers were gushing into her dress as he cried on her. It was all she could do to try to remain in her happy place and not snap the little goblin's neck like an angry child popping the head off a Pez dispenser.
After the party's rogue left the party, Jum-Jum actually remained for a bit (of his own free will) and then stayed in the capital city to pursue a relationship with the priestess he was shmoozing earlier in the campaign. That's okay, because he still had Buckshot with him to keep him company.
Buckshot being an orc barbarian/HoA-Gunslinger pit fighter who tends to beat the ever-loving-crap out of people with guns. Literally. When the party first met him, he pulled a pair of pistols in a pit fight, and the other guy was like "Hey, that's illegal! You can't use guns!" to which he said, "Oh, I'm not going to shoot you with them," and then proceeded to turn him into a pinata by pistol-whipping him into the dirt.
I LOVE that paladin story so much. Pretty sure I've read it before somewhere else on the forums but still.
I wish I got to play her more than I did. :)
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Oh whoa is me! I should have thought of this before! From now, I'll be collecting the Lord Ashiel's stories into a document called 'Ashiel's Anecdotes' to show to potential Converts.
[Edit] It will be similar to my collection of Ashiel's Encounters.
Well, when one writes smut for (mostly) a living, one can't be too shy about things of such nature.I must admit that when I was making my sarcastic rant about roleplaying in a recent thread...
My hatred of roleplaying and character drives runs so deeply that I most certainly never wrote a NSFW slashfic about on of my PCs and her psicrystal/mentor purely on the basis that the other players in the group were shipping them and wanted to read more about the characters and their hot +1 on +2 action (which if such a thing existed would require a PM since it would be in bad form to post Ashiel's of fifty shades of gay on the boards, because those +1s and +2s and morale bonuses probably shouldn't be read by anyone younger than puberty).That I was mildly disappointed that I didn't actually get PMs from people inquiring about the slashfic (especially on this forum :P).
... Alright you, PM that to me. I'm immensely curious now, lol. Specially since I'm not sure I was around at that time (I seem to have a habit of losing internet service for long periods of time), so I'll be a little late, but, meh.
Edit: ... And, for some reason, the Cultist reminded me of a Daria episode.
Joey/Jeffy/Jamey: "What is woe?"
Daria: "It's that feeling you'd get if the superbowl were suddenly pre-empted by antiques road show."
Joey/Jeffy/Jamey: "Woah!"
Daria: "See?"
Well, when one writes smut for (mostly) a living, one can't be too shy about things of such nature.I must admit that when I was making my sarcastic rant about roleplaying in a recent thread...
My hatred of roleplaying and character drives runs so deeply that I most certainly never wrote a NSFW slashfic about on of my PCs and her psicrystal/mentor purely on the basis that the other players in the group were shipping them and wanted to read more about the characters and their hot +1 on +2 action (which if such a thing existed would require a PM since it would be in bad form to post Ashiel's of fifty shades of gay on the boards, because those +1s and +2s and morale bonuses probably shouldn't be read by anyone younger than puberty).That I was mildly disappointed that I didn't actually get PMs from people inquiring about the slashfic (especially on this forum :P).... Alright you, PM that to me. I'm immensely curious now, lol. Specially since I'm not sure I was around at that time (I seem to have a habit of losing internet service for long periods of time), so I'll be a little late, but, meh.
Edit: ... And, for some reason, the Cultist reminded me of a Daria episode.
Joey/Jeffy/Jamey: "What is woe?"
Daria: "It's that feeling you'd get if the superbowl were suddenly pre-empted by antiques road show."
Joey/Jeffy/Jamey: "Woah!"
Daria: "See?"
I know I typed 'woe'... because every time I type or read the word 'whoa' I automatically think of Keanu Reeves saying it in a Bill and Ted movie.
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... Okay, those are awesome movies. Cultist has officially regained the points he had lost for using "Whoa" in place of Woe. Net result: 0.
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I'm about to launch myself into a world of pokemon and rp to try and get myself into a better mood. Ive been playing alot of pokemon games and before that monster rancher to try and cheer me up so i thought it be fitting. Tho i want it to be a bit more realistic. My Fiance is a bit slow at leveling in the game.(gets distracted easily.) I dont want to just verse him and trounce him cause my pokemon are 20 levels higher then his or my monsters are like 3 generations later in training for monster rancher 3.
So I was wondering how would you go about deciding things of who wins. I keep thinking a dice roll or something like that wouldn't be as fun. Any suggestions on how to handle it?
... That's it. I'm gonna have to build a Pokemon D20 system.... *cough* Make that Monster Raising d20. Already had a basic idea for it, might as well get to work on it. Pretty much just a stat comparison game with d20 as a modifier...
Now for my question to Almighty Ashiel (Mythic?). You up for being a sounding board for it?
Note to self... Build system, find modable (free to play) virtual table top, invite Ash and others to test it out.
I've no idea if this will help, but here you go! Someone linked it to me a while back, and it might have some ideas you can modify borrow steal drag into a dark ally and mug relentlessly. Or not! (I've not played with it myself!) :)
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I'm content with the idea of a Druid defending his grove by casting awaken on animals and then the animals (now being able to take class levels), all taking levels in Kineticist.
You can end up with Dire Rat Aerokinetics that shoot lightning, Giant Turtle Hydrokinetics that blast water, Giant Lizard Pyrokinetics that breathe fire, and Giant toad Telekinetics that telekinetically throw leaves and uses Kinetic Whip in melee.
Pretty much scratches my 'Pokemon in Pathfinder' itch right there.
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Preservationists have their own pre-filled Pokeballs!
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Did you know I'm super grateful for those ascetic/magic-gearless character rules you made?
'Cause I am. :)
I actually didn't know. I never really heard anything else about it. :P
I'm super glad to hear that you enjoy 'em. It was you that inspired me to write 'em that afternoon. (^_^)
I surely do appreciate them! :) It's still my go-to link for demonstrating that playstyle.
The freedom it's offered in making monks is priceless.
Also, Mikaze.... Hm *nod*.