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The Shadowscythe
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Re: DnD

Post by The Shadowscythe » Mon Apr 15, 2013 12:23 pm

Hokey kokey then lads and laddettes - let Scythe hit you with a wall of text . . .

My first ever campaign in which I played, I was 14 years old - playing Traveller 1st edition, and pre-rolled up the glorious "Uushki Mag" through the random name generator - this bitch was hard as nails, rolled up between naval military life and then mustered across to the merchant navy - she had every single goddamn skill I could ever need - Purser, shooting skills, diplomacy, heavy weapons, driving and a fair few others - she could pretty much run the ship with the exception of piloting and engineering skills.

Due to the way Traveller character gens before you play - she was also old as hell (36 to my memory, just at the cut off point where age starts to degrade skills) and had lost a leg and an eye in her service, to be replaced by EVEN BETTER CYBORG LIMBS.

She also owned a badass robotic cult, which was upgraded with military level data hacking abilities, ablative/ballistic armour under the fur and a goddamn laser IN HIS MOUTH.

Fluffy was not a bitch you messed with, especially as I played the almighty c'ptn/bitch out as the craazy cult lady from the Simpsons - incoherant muttering, random giberish, outlandish bouts of violence and the occasional exploding cult.

We rode around in the "Jessabelle" - which was a fairly standard run of the mill Far Trader -

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And we rolled around the stars, the ship half-owned by one of my old navy "buddy" NPC's as we wheeled and dealled our way around trying to make a quick buck (these where the days before firefly was released, so my vision was untainted at this point) - we managed to find a ship due to crash into a gas giant and salvage it - and later rescued some local nobles from a spacestation that was in the midst of a reactor meltdown and eventually managed to make our first major haul my taking some dirt cheap hydration units for crop growing off an asteroid base that didn't need them any more and sell them for 17 times the profit to a desert world three systems away.

Eventually - she hit her most awesome moment in holding an entire asteroid full of raving mad space-cultists hostage inside their own base with nothing more than a dead asteroid, three dozen baked bean tins with the labels taken off, some flashing LED's and a lotta duct tape - convincing them that every airlock was filled with improvised explosives ready to blow everyone aboard into space unless they handed over some fairly important politicians that they had kidnapped from another nearby system - hence opening us up a few fairly tasty local trade goods and outlets to make more money.

Alas - the campaign stopped at that point - but the first Uuskii will always hold a happy memory for me.

After that - I will spoiler the tale of FRED! BARBARIAN CHILDMINDER!
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The Shadowscythe wrote:Hoboy.jpeg

Here we go.

>Been forever GM for about 4 years between a Battletech campaign and a more recent Halo based campaign.
>Finally get to play D&D, after 8 years of tabletop, I have never played it.
>Instantly despise the maths/long winded char gen.
>Roll up a bog standard Human Barbarian.
>Notthesharpesttoolintheshed.mp4
>Go maundering about for a bit.
>Get hired by local Baron to rescue his son from some kinda evil wizard.
>GO FORTH TO THE WIZZARDS DUNGEN!

>Dare you enter my magical realm?

>WIZZARDS! NO SENSE OF RIGHT OR WRONG!

>Finally emerge with Barons son, no wizzard kill though.
>Kid under some type of glamour spell, sees all alignments as reversed.
>Have to hog tie and bind kid, carrying him on my shoulder

>I AM FRED! BARBARIAN CHILDMINDER!
>TREAT CHILD LIKE TROLL!
>BEAT CHILD UNTIL HAPPY!
>BEAT CHILD IF SAD!
>IF CHILD HUNGRY, FILL WITH MEAT! MEAT MAKE CHILD MAN!
>WASH CHILD LIKE TROLL!

Commence dumping kid, still hog tied, face first into local river.

>Get the kid back to the castle.
>Local Baron outside castle with troops, saying castle was stormed by evil wizzard and we had to get in there and kill him by a secret entrance only the baron would know about.

>But now Fred knows about the secret entrance.

>Therefore Fred is a Baron.


>GET OUT OF WAY OF FRED, BARON FRED.

>BARON FRED THE BARBARIAN CHILDMINDER!


<<Insert Metal Gear Solid style stealth section here>>

>Get inside the castle
>Kill some Orcs
>Kill a Troll
>So good so far
>Then one of the Orcs calls Fred an Orc
>Fred stops in his tracks.
>Fred is not an Orc, Fred is Fred, Baron Fred, Baron Fred the Barbarian childminder.
>Orc says he is not an Orc
>Fred says he is not an Orc.
>Rest of partys faces as the LOWEST IN CHAR IN THE PARTY FIGURES OUT HE IS UNDER A GLAMOUR SPELL BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE THROUGH SHEER DUMB LUCK AND FORCE OF WILL.
>Join forces with former "Orcs" that turn out to be local malitia/castle gaurds.
>Fight off Gaurds that turned out to be Orcs.
>Evil Wizzard breaks into the castle.
>Only for Fred to jump down from the battlements and stab him.
>In the Throat.
>With a Greatsword.

>THIS IS HOW FRED WIZZARDS.

Exp totalled up, rewards given out - Fred blatantly stole the night.

God I wish I could play that char all the time, rather than just a one shot. :?
During the in-between spots I have run a battletech game, which involved some low-level mercs marauding about in the 3015 era - with not much in the way of memorable moments.

. . . And then there is my Halo based game that I have been running on and off for a few years now - notable moments include -

>Blowing off the leg of a Scarab with a warthog filled to the brim with the player parties explosives, a length of rope and a brick.

>One of the players trying to open the busted up back door of a pelican dropship IN-FLIGHT to take out the banshee fighter that was following them and fucking up their shit so he could fire a rocket launcher out of said door.

Getting ever pissed off at the door not opening he decided to finish off the job with a fucking LOTUS anti-tank mine.

As you can all tell - this blew off said door, and involved him learning how to fly, at 30,000 feet, outside of the pelican and without a parachute.

His solution? To fucking glide onto the hood of the oncoming banshee, slide to the back, and with one hand on the fuselage, unloaded a shotgun between the elites fucking legs - then pulling out said elite and flying the fucking thing down to the ground with the pelican himself.

Did I mention he was just a fucking marine? He survived a half dozen "HE SHOULD HAVE FUCKED UP BY NOW" style rolls and in the end I had to give him the feather in his cap, after all - isn't it just fucking awesome?

>The same guy again, punched out a shitting Elite in a fist fight - and not just any Elite - no no no, the ship-master of the fleet that had been invading the planet come down to lead the fucking fight himself.

>The party medic managed to scare a group of brutes into shitting themselves with the creative use of his medkit, a blowtorch, a shitload of cutlery and a hell of a lot of pop-quiz anatomy questions.

-----

Basically - if you can find the right groups, and it will take a long damn time in some cases, you can unleash awesome onto the table . . . or maybe you fucks just need to play with me.

Because I am that damned awesome. :troll:
-- WARNINK -- LINK BELOW IZ KNOWN TO CAUZE HEMMORAGE --
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I WARNED YOU, DIDN'T I WARN YOU?! BLAME RAYHAWK DAMNIT.
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stubby
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Re: DnD

Post by stubby » Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:30 pm

Keldoclock wrote:Please don't play Rogue in unmodified 3.5! You've gimped yourself.
I disagree. A 3.5 rogue may not be the best class for damage output, but 3.5 isn't about damage output. If you're playing a skills-heavy game then rogues shine like no other class.
Natalya wrote:Wtf is going on in this thread?

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IVhorseman
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Re: DnD

Post by IVhorseman » Mon Apr 15, 2013 3:00 pm

Besides, I plan on multiclassing into Beguiler > Assassin. Damage output is one thing, but Invisible Death Attacks seem pretty cool in their own right. That and the fact that the majority of my party members are first-time players, so they're certainly not optimising their builds (we have a half-elf wizard. I told him to be a full-elf but he REALLY wanted to avoid the -2 con penalty).

Basically, the whole emphasis of Yardstick the Halfling is that I've pumped a bunch of skills into the necessary rogue bits, while equipping myself with the gear and secondary skills to get me up into the rafters and onto the rooftops pretty much immediately. Sure I may only plink away at the enemies with a dinky hand-crossbow (I know you're gonna tell me to use a sling, but I can't reload that with one hand, such as when dangling from a rope), but if I can successfully stay in the shadows and avoid damage while the cleric/marshall and barbarian keep them busy, I'll eventually whittle em down. The sneak attack doesn't hurt either.

Oh and I guess my last point is that it is a slightly modified 3.5 edition. My DM thinks small weaponry is for pussies, so my halfling gets to use a regular-sized rapier. I also bought myself a mithril chain shirt, which interestingly enough gives me about as much AC as the big fighter-types in our group. Stubby's right - my skills far outweigh my actual combat abilities, and so far have reaped me much higher profits than anyone else in the group. Even the DM is pissed at me, so mission accomplished!

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Re: DnD

Post by knolli » Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:24 am

Silverdream wrote:How did you guys find groups? Did you just have friends who were really into it or am I just terrible at networking?
When I went to the university one of the first things I did was to post a players wanted note at the blackboard. That way I met the first experienced member of my future group. I asked three of my fellow students and an old friend from school as did the other member and soon we started our campaing that ran for over a year with six players plus GM . The group stayed together for over five years with minor modifications.

Later on I found new groups using a specialized platform on the internet that works quite similar to dating sites.

Roleplay conventions are also a great way to get to know new players from your area.

Coincidentally just last week several different people asked me if they could join my group. Now I introduce them to each other so that they can found their own one.
Ross_Varn wrote:Knolli is awesome.

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Re: DnD

Post by Keldoclock » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:44 am

IVhorseman wrote:so far have reaped me much higher profits than anyone else in the group.
This is the issue here- once your arcane casters can duplicate your skills through magic you become considerably less useful- this is the core issue with D&D, where the fighers are too strong early on and then the wizards are too strong later on.

A sling isn't really that great of an idea, you can afford mithril armor so you can probably afford tons of flasks of Acid and/or Alchemist's fire, which are a far superior weapon if you can get multiple attacks in a round, since they only need to beat Touch AC (and they're still very good if you can't)
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IVhorseman
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Re: DnD

Post by IVhorseman » Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:39 pm

caster. Let me give you a party run-down just so I can justify myself:

Half-orc Barbarian, specializing in an orc double-axe
Half-elf Wizard, specializing in running up to things and hitting them in melee instead of casting for some boneriffic fucking reason
Dwarven Cleric/Marshal, pretty straightforward. Marshals passively add bonuses to the rest of the party just by being there.
Half-elf Favored Soul (basically a divine sorceror), this guy's pretty much an archer.
Human Factotum: next to worthless.
Halfling Rogue: gets pretty much all the treasure and can flank things by himself thanks to his awesome dog.

We may have a druid joining us at some point, but she's also never played before (as has the entire party save me and the factotum). And of course druids are OP, but I don't really give a shit.



Sure, in a "perfect" group the others far outclass me. They hit harder, have more hitpoints, and can cast miracles and spells that are individually more useful than my skills. But they're not perfect. The wizard's too scared to "waste" his precious casts, so he runs up and smacks things with his quarterstaff instead - and even though he's got elven blood, he'd much rather use a sling than a bow (and he even just found a straight up +1 shortbow!).

Even then, our party works best as a team, and that's how we have the most fun. I don't need to be the best at everything (which currently, I absolutely am by several orders of magnitude), but if we can get past an obstacle because someone else on my team was able to cast some awesome fuck-off spell that worked better than just plinking bolts at someone, I still get loot and XP. If the party's having fun, I'm having fun, and I certainly don't want to hog all the powergaming to myself. What is this, Munchkin?

Good call on the flasks of acid and alchemist's fire though. I do still have about 700gp lying around, and while I plan on spending some of that on my party members who need a little bit extra to pitch in on that plate mail, the leftover money could easily go there.

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Re: DnD

Post by Quantumsurfer » Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:16 pm

I've never really seen it as an issue anyway, a byproduct of gaming with several power gamers and rules lawyers. I've seen builds of almost every type that outclass anything else in the party. Probably the most primary example of this was a two year long campaign I played in that ranged from 5th to 49th level (I'm still irritated at the DM, who was the roommate I mentioned, for not taking us to 50). We had all sorts in the party. At that level, power was essentially a moot point. Epic Level falls apart completely after 30 anyway but it served well to give us all some perspective.

But even at the typical 1-20 range, I've seen all sorts of builds that are "OP."

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IVhorseman
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Re: DnD

Post by IVhorseman » Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:33 pm

Most of the time, I'm the one giving my teammates shit for picking shitty spells, like shield instead of mage armor. Ultimately though, I realized I shouldn't be so critical about it. If they spent so long making their character all cool and I show up just to shit on their fun, am I being a good teammate?


Besides, now I can rob their underpowered asses blind 8)

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Re: DnD

Post by Quantumsurfer » Tue Apr 16, 2013 6:27 pm

For sure. Actually some of the most fun I've ever had has been in playing underpowered characters in an underpowered group. It's nice, every now and again, to get back to the basics. My group is filled with experienced gamers and we regularly conquer challenges with ease. It's nice to have to actually think through a situation instead of doing all my thinking during character creation. Anyway, you've got the right of it. Fun is the purpose, and as much of it as possible should be had by everyone.

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Re: DnD

Post by stubby » Tue Apr 16, 2013 6:43 pm

I think D&D is best when it's full of fights you can't win. When everything's tuned to exactly the difficulty level that your party can beat, it just feels like a mechanical fight - loot - fight loop. I feel like you should just skip to the end of encounters like that. "Your level 4 party runs into a group of orcs. They're challenge level 4. What do you do? You fight them? Okay, after a short battle you win." Like why even bother playing out the combat.

Now "You see a group of orcs on the horizon. They are much stronger than you, and if you fight them you will lose. They are marching towards the farmhouse where your family is hiding. What do you do?" Now we're talking about something interesting. Now's where you pull out your trapmaking skills and your distractions and your delaying tactics and your bluffs, or where you stage a losing battle in hopes of buying time for your family to grab the important magic heirloom and escape.
Natalya wrote:Wtf is going on in this thread?

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Re: DnD

Post by Quantumsurfer » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:41 pm

Yes, exactly. D&D is a system geared for combat. Why not at least make it interesting instead of just comparing die rolls?

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Re: DnD

Post by IVhorseman » Tue Apr 16, 2013 7:53 pm

Well, it's also a game about a lot MORE than combat. And a lot of times, that's all it boils down to: the party gets to do N number of easy encounters and then a hard one and then yay. But what about the whole role-playing bit?

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Re: DnD

Post by Quantumsurfer » Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:28 pm

Depends on the players, that. I've seen (and run) my fair share of D&D sessions without a single combat. What I mean is that the system isn't built to facilitate much more than combat. Taken as is, every D&D edition's mechanics are combat focused. There are a lot of other RPG systems that easily outshine D&D in providing mechanics that assist RP. There's a bad side to that too, of course. There are some that replace RP with dice rolling and that's no good.

I think 3.5 vaguely tried to do that with its horrid skill system. 4th ed tried to improve on that with its skill challenges but lost a lot in translation by simplifying the system a little much. Those systems always felt a little...tagged on. Same with utility spells. A caster's bread and butter came with combat spells for offense or defense, buff or debuff. Utility spells, especially of the higher level variety were a kind of afterthought on the part of the designers.

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Re: DnD

Post by Whiteagle » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:20 am

Silverdream wrote:So basically I'm just a terrible networker.
Hey have any RPs you've been involved with erotic or at the very least semi-fetishy in nature?
Quantumsurfer wrote:I have no idea how it is where you are but there are a fair few gamers around me. We had some failed gaming stores in the relatively small city where I live and that brought us into one another's fields of view for a time, so I've seen quite a few other groups form up in various ways as well.

If there is a gaming store near you, you might try hanging out for awhile and joining some of the in house games there.
...And that's where you hit my problem, where you don't live ANYWHERE near anything!

Iowa's nose isn't exactly known as a bustling center of commerce after all...
stubby wrote:
Keldoclock wrote:Please don't play Rogue in unmodified 3.5! You've gimped yourself.
I disagree. A 3.5 rogue may not be the best class for damage output, but 3.5 isn't about damage output. If you're playing a skills-heavy game then rogues shine like no other class.
Indeed, which is probably one of the reason why I think I prefer 3.5 to 4e, Non-combat skills actually can mean something...
knolli wrote:
Silverdream wrote:How did you guys find groups? Did you just have friends who were really into it or am I just terrible at networking?
When I went to the university one of the first things I did was to post a players wanted note at the blackboard. That way I met the first experienced member of my future group.
...The other being that 4e release happened while I was still out at Collage, so the edition war scared me from committing to the hobby.
Keldoclock wrote:
IVhorseman wrote:so far have reaped me much higher profits than anyone else in the group.
This is the issue here- once your arcane casters can duplicate your skills through magic you become considerably less useful- this is the core issue with D&D, where the fighers are too strong early on and then the wizards are too strong later on.
Well Next is trying to fix this, with Wizards getting very little outside of Spellcasting...
Finesse actually being a Weapon type that can use your Dex score instead of Str also makes Dex Barbarians a thing.
stubby wrote:I think D&D is best when it's full of fights you can't win. When everything's tuned to exactly the difficulty level that your party can beat, it just feels like a mechanical fight - loot - fight loop. I feel like you should just skip to the end of encounters like that. "Your level 4 party runs into a group of orcs. They're challenge level 4. What do you do? You fight them? Okay, after a short battle you win." Like why even bother playing out the combat.

Now "You see a group of orcs on the horizon. They are much stronger than you, and if you fight them you will lose. They are marching towards the farmhouse where your family is hiding. What do you do?" Now we're talking about something interesting. Now's where you pull out your trapmaking skills and your distractions and your delaying tactics and your bluffs, or where you stage a losing battle in hopes of buying time for your family to grab the important magic heirloom and escape.
...How much rope, lantern oil, and how many square yards of canvas do we have available?

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Re: DnD

Post by Silverdream » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:47 am

Whiteagle wrote:
Silverdream wrote:So basically I'm just a terrible networker.
Hey have any RPs you've been involved with erotic or at the very least semi-fetishy in nature?
How did you know?
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