D&D (in every incarnation), Pathfinder and other System Games

Started by LunarSage, July 05, 2011, 08:18:54 AM

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Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Star Safyre on September 24, 2011, 10:07:27 AM
I was kind of disappointed in that I was expecting an updated timeline and my lore princess is apparently in another castle.   :-\

I liked it all the same.. I wished for an updated timeline but still.. it's there.. if things go where I'm hoping I'll be seeing a Mage 20th version out :D Not too much into Werewolf, but I will be looking at the Hunters Hunted 2 book too.

meikle

Isn't the updated timeline, like, "The world is over hoorah!"? :P

If the books weren't so expensive, I'd love to have those in my collection.  I don't really like World of Darkness, but it's such a big name in roleplaying games that it is worth having familiarity with.

Too bad there'll never be Wraith 20th.  :(
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Dhi

Quote from: meikle on September 24, 2011, 04:20:51 PM
Isn't the updated timeline, like, "The world is over hoorah!"? :P
As far as I know, the Vampire End Times book (Gehenna?) is identical to the Werewolf version- a bunch of possible end of the world scenarios. They don't necessarily pick up where the metaplot leaves off, they can be inserted anywhere. I agree that they could have advanced the timeline, and it's sort of disappointing to hear that they didn't.

But since I'm more into Werewolf Wild West and Dark Ages currently, I wouldn't be using a list of the bad things Pentex has been up to anyway.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Dhi on September 24, 2011, 06:25:32 PM
As far as I know, the Vampire End Times book (Gehenna?) is identical to the Werewolf version- a bunch of possible end of the world scenarios. They don't necessarily pick up where the metaplot leaves off, they can be inserted anywhere. I agree that they could have advanced the timeline, and it's sort of disappointing to hear that they didn't.

But since I'm more into Werewolf Wild West and Dark Ages currently, I wouldn't be using a list of the bad things Pentex has been up to anyway.

I liked the fact that the Ascension war ended in a whimper and not a bang. I felt it was very fitting in a way.

Lilias

In my WoD, it never ended. :-) What I loved most about the WoD was the encouragement to cherry-pick what we wanted to apply, from plot to rules, and ditch the rest. My Mage storyteller was shameless in both game crossover and going between editions - I still haven't had to read the Revised corebook cover to cover.
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
~Wendell Berry

Double Os <> Double As (updated Feb 20) <> The Hoard <> 50 Tales 2024 <> The Lab <> ELLUIKI

Kate

QuoteThe point of a discussion thread is discussion, which can include debate and disagreement. It's fine to hold views, but if you don't want other people's opinions on your views, you might not want to post them publicly in a thread such as this.

You posted what you feel would get more people playing a game. I laid out my arguments as to why I disagreed with you (starting with a lack of any identified game system, and moving from there). It'd now be up to you to provide rebuttals to my arguments, if you want to actually discuss the topic. If you don't, we'll just have to agree to disagree and move on from there.
- Glyph

I wonder if any others viewed your opinion to my view as respectful and engaging as a topic for discussion, or condescendingly dismissive.

TheGlyphstone

Quote from: Kate on September 25, 2011, 06:18:10 AM
- Glyph

I wonder if any others viewed your opinion to my view as respectful and engaging as a topic for discussion, or condescendingly dismissive.

Why don't you ask them, instead of me? It'd be more productive than harping on your hurt feelings by being disagreed with at this point.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Lilias on September 25, 2011, 05:41:41 AM
In my WoD, it never ended. :-) What I loved most about the WoD was the encouragement to cherry-pick what we wanted to apply, from plot to rules, and ditch the rest. My Mage storyteller was shameless in both game crossover and going between editions - I still haven't had to read the Revised corebook cover to cover.

My last game ended in a paradox  storm of Epic size as a three way fight between the players, a Nephandi Lich and a giant purple t Rex (Marauders) turned into a 'Lets see who can kill the most cyborgs that just appeared'.

Winner: Joseph the Order of Hermes Mage who teleported every rivet out of the building we were fighting in. Of course the paradox got him (and the MiB that shot him)

Genbu83

Quote from: Callie Del Noire on September 25, 2011, 11:33:35 AM
My last game ended in a paradox  storm of Epic size as a three way fight between the players, a Nephandi Lich and a giant purple t Rex (Marauders) turned into a 'Lets see who can kill the most cyborgs that just appeared'.

Winner: Joseph the Order of Hermes Mage who teleported every rivet out of the building we were fighting in. Of course the paradox got him (and the MiB that shot him)

sounds like there are some interesting elements to WoD games. Though I worry that for me to try and jump into a game I'm looking at getting an Associates in History of Whitewolf.

As far as interesting uses of magic. I always enjoyed systems that didn't have set spells...There's just something nice about doing something and when everyone is astonished and you calmly take a drink and reply,"because I'm a wizard...bitches". Though the trick is to use the Most interesting Man in the World approach, and voice.

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Genbu83 on September 25, 2011, 01:00:19 PM
sounds like there are some interesting elements to WoD games. Though I worry that for me to try and jump into a game I'm looking at getting an Associates in History of Whitewolf.

As far as interesting uses of magic. I always enjoyed systems that didn't have set spells...There's just something nice about doing something and when everyone is astonished and you calmly take a drink and reply,"because I'm a wizard...bitches". Though the trick is to use the Most interesting Man in the World approach, and voice.

Nut-shell description of paradox in Mage. You do magic.. reality notices. You draw Paradox dependent on how badly you fool 'reality' on it. The more 'mundanes' that see your will working, the worse it can be. Eventually you accrue paradox till it discharges. Which can be something as subtle as your hair turning white to leaving a pair of smoking shoes where you once stood.

A paradox storm is an immense piling of paradox in a small (relative) location over a short period of time. Till reality snaps back. In the case of the final fight we had will-workers from four very different groups of mages. The traditions (the players), Maruaders (think insane mages), Nephandi (diabolic magics) and the Technocrats (the guys who use tech magic to enforce conformity to their definition of magic/reality)

Think a cat 5+ tornado dropping out of the sky in the middle of a hurricane that spontaneously appeared over the site. Multiple lightning strikes, explosions, tears in reality. Basically hell on earth. The entropy master in the group ran the risk to 'tweak' the odds and killed the leader of the Nephandi before they could complete their rite. Six lightning strikes in as many seconds. It got uglier from there.

I miss that group of players a lot. :D

Genbu83

Quote from: Callie Del Noire on September 25, 2011, 02:00:12 PM
Nut-shell description of paradox in Mage. You do magic.. reality notices. You draw Paradox dependent on how badly you fool 'reality' on it. The more 'mundanes' that see your will working, the worse it can be. Eventually you accrue paradox till it discharges. Which can be something as subtle as your hair turning white to leaving a pair of smoking shoes where you once stood.

A paradox storm is an immense piling of paradox in a small (relative) location over a short period of time. Till reality snaps back. In the case of the final fight we had will-workers from four very different groups of mages. The traditions (the players), Maruaders (think insane mages), Nephandi (diabolic magics) and the Technocrats (the guys who use tech magic to enforce conformity to their definition of magic/reality)

Think a cat 5+ tornado dropping out of the sky in the middle of a hurricane that spontaneously appeared over the site. Multiple lightning strikes, explosions, tears in reality. Basically hell on earth. The entropy master in the group ran the risk to 'tweak' the odds and killed the leader of the Nephandi before they could complete their rite. Six lightning strikes in as many seconds. It got uglier from there.

I miss that group of players a lot. :D

sounds like it could be fun to play.

TheGlyphstone

Also know as "You do impossible things. This makes the universe upset. Do it too much, and you get cosmically pimpslapped by Reality Itself."

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Genbu83 on September 25, 2011, 02:10:01 PM
sounds like it could be fun to play.

Two players (of six) survived. It was a campaign ender, given that I was headed out to boot camp the next week. It was a fun group. One session ended with the players being taken prisoner by the Technocracy. Sixty Hit-Mark Cyborgs coming over the hill after they lost the guy who got them to the Astral Realm.

Next session started with me saying 'It's been six months in the Technocracy Gulag..."

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on September 25, 2011, 02:11:03 PM
Also know as "You do impossible things. This makes the universe upset. Do it too much, and you get cosmically pimpslapped by Reality Itself."

Hey there has to be a downside to being the master of reality manipulation. :D


Basically in Mage.. EVERYONE has the ability to manipulate/define reality. Mages are simply aware of the ability. Mankind as a whole is 'asleep' and their potential ability holds reality in it's current 'static' form. By pushing against reality like they do, Mages draw the sleeping titan of humanity as a whole. Push the 'envelop' too much.. and you get stamped. Hard.

Lilias

Quote from: Genbu83 on September 25, 2011, 01:00:19 PM
sounds like there are some interesting elements to WoD games. Though I worry that for me to try and jump into a game I'm looking at getting an Associates in History of Whitewolf.

In my playing days, I only owned three Mage books: corebook, Book of Shadows (aka player's guide), Verbena tradbook. More than enough, I assure you.
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
~Wendell Berry

Double Os <> Double As (updated Feb 20) <> The Hoard <> 50 Tales 2024 <> The Lab <> ELLUIKI

Callie Del Noire

Quote from: Lilias on September 25, 2011, 02:19:15 PM
In my playing days, I only owned three Mage books: corebook, Book of Shadows (aka player's guide), Verbena tradbook. More than enough, I assure you.

Yeah.. I usually got by with the Core and BoS.. I would allow SOME of the stuff from the traditions books.. but I also helped all my players make mages and did a lot to help them come up with the rotes they liked to use' (A rote was a 'spell' of sorts)

One of the favorites the 'social guy' had he stole from Book's of Magic.. he called it the 'look'. (basically there was a scene in Books of Magic where John Constantine faces down a bar room full of the most powerful magi in the DC universe with a bluff. He lights a cigarette and talks his way out of the bar with the boy and Zantanna.. and at this time he'd done JACK in magic in the books)


Lilias

The old Verbena tradbook was the first Mage book I got, even before the corebook. I understood nothing of the system, but the fiction was beyond gripping. I think it shaped what I've been looking for in gamebooks ever since.

The Books of Magic are awesome. A Greek publisher started translating them in the mid-to-late 90s, together with the Sandman, then dropped them halfway. Dammit, I have to go hunting on Amazon again...

/hijack
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
~Wendell Berry

Double Os <> Double As (updated Feb 20) <> The Hoard <> 50 Tales 2024 <> The Lab <> ELLUIKI

Callie Del Noire

Agreed..

Quote from: John Constatine
"The boy's mine. And in thirty seconds, me, and him, and the witch, are going to walk out of here. You know who I am. Or you ought to. You know my reputation. Now... does anyone here really want to start something?"

That's the line.. it, by itself, does NO justice to the scene in the book. The folks in the bar were like a 'who's who' of mystic evil. As I recall two of them (at least) were folks who had stopped the JLA dead in their tracks a few times. And like I said.. the biggest thing Constantine had done (asides from being mouthy to the Swamp thing) was the Jedi Mind Trick on a doorman.


Genbu83

I'm thinking of gettign back into D&D online...thoughts?

Dhi

The big trend in playing D&D online is a free program called Maptool. It's a combination text-based chat and map program that can be as simple as a visual aid for your encounter maps, but it's also a powerful programming tool and there's a large community of coders on the site's forum.

Some groups prefer to have voice chat as well, to enable things to move faster. Mostly that comes down to Teamspeak or Vent, though I've seen at least one group require Skype.

There are places to find a group on the various D&D message boards. RPTools (the Maptool site) has its own board, which is naturally going to be populated by folks who're a little more involved in Maptool's features. WotC has a very brisk forum, it's also mostly populated by younger gamers. EN World is traditionally more of a GM haunt and so you get older folks there, and many of the classifieds are strictly for tabletop meetups. Another venue is the RPG.net forums, I can't offer any insight there since I've only rarely been.

TheGlyphstone


meikle

Quote from: Dhi on September 26, 2011, 03:37:16 PMSome groups prefer to have voice chat as well, to enable things to move faster. Mostly that comes down to Teamspeak or Vent, though I've seen at least one group require Skype.

My experience with voice chat was that in an online environment it didn't move a whole lot faster (surprising to me!), and also (and this is just a general comment) roleplaying vocally always seems weird to me.  I played a Shadowrun 4e game over Skype once and nobody took my character seriously because I do not sound anything like a five hundred pound troll. :(
Kiss your lover with that filthy mouth, you fuckin' monster.

O and O and Discord
A and A

Dhi

I've had the same experience, I wouldn't call voice faster. I prefer to use text- actually, I prefer not even using Maptool, I'm sort of a purist for the written word in online play. I like the immersion of forming your own mental image from a description, rather than looking at pictures. But virtual tabletops have changed expectations.

Genbu83

glyph was correct. i was reffering to the MMORPG.

Though since it's been brought up. I am trying to learn maptool for the game I run in the forums.

Any tips, comments, concerns?

Black Howling

Quote from: Genbu83 on September 26, 2011, 11:49:39 PM
glyph was correct. i was reffering to the MMORPG.

Though since it's been brought up. I am trying to learn maptool for the game I run in the forums.

Any tips, comments, concerns?
I've heard it's good from everyone I game with. Though warning, I hear it's more chat based then forum if that poses a difference to you. I know it does to some people.

Though agreed, voice doesn't hold the same appeal it does at the gaming table. Without people you know, and the facial expressions, it just does not come out the same.