Random RPG thoughts

[Timespike]

We don't have a thread for this?


Anyway - I picked Night's Black Agents up a little while ago and I'm really liking the look of the GUMSHOE system so far. Anyone around here have experience running or playing it? What did you think?

[tombombodil]

Ultimate Killer Chaos Gnome:

Gnome,
Slight Build (count as one size category smaller when advantageous)
Tiny dagger (deals a d2 damage)
Deadly Precision (feat - Psionics Handbook): re-roll all 1s on damage dice when sneak attacking.
Aura of Chaos (stance - Tome of Battle): whenever you roll max on a damage die, roll again and add it together, you may continue to do this as long as your dice show max damage.

build at lvl 6. Sneak attack a colossal Red Dragon, roll sneak attack damage. Oh I rolled a 1 on my damage die! *procs deadly precision* re-rolls into a 2. Oh what do you know! *procs aura of chaos* rolls again its a 2, 4 damage so far (just from the dagger)! etc. etc. Red Dragon explodes into a cloud of red mist.

I flavor it that he basically channels the butterfly effect, stabbing you in such a way as to unravel you at the molecular level. It's obviously not a guaranteed infinite loop, but the odds of you doing a ludicrous amount of damage are pretty high, especially if you take some feats/skill tricks that let you reroll damage dice by expending action points or similar.

[ad1066]

We don't have a thread for this?


Anyway - I picked Night's Black Agents up a little while ago and I'm really liking the look of the GUMSHOE system so far. Anyone around here have experience running or playing it? What did you think?

I've played Trail of Cthulhu a couple of times, I quite like it. The way the Investigative Abilities work, it eliminates the whole "Well, the players didn't manage to find the clue I hid in the desk drawer, I guess I'll just let them flounder around for a couple of hours" problem that usually arises from RPGs that purport to have a strong investigative bent, but don't really handle it all that well (CoC, I'm looking at you).

-- Ben

[IronJelly]

Thought: I dislike when people can't adapt. We start rolling characters for MSH. I get an altered-Human. another Player gets Mutant, and immediately asks if I want to trade, and if we're allowed to trade.

Sorry, but I like running what I roll.

GM Says no anyway.

Player then says, "can my power be that I invented power-armor?"

GM Says no.

"can I be trained as a mercenary and happen to have access to a highly advanced power-armor suit (in addition to being a mutant)?"


Perhaps what makes this bother me the most is that we play over skype. He could have just made his answer to the roll question whatever he wanted.

[tombombodil]

Thought: I dislike when people can't adapt. We start rolling characters for MSH. I get an altered-Human. another Player gets Mutant, and immediately asks if I want to trade, and if we're allowed to trade.

Sorry, but I like running what I roll.

GM Says no anyway.

Player then says, "can my power be that I invented power-armor?"

GM Says no.

"can I be trained as a mercenary and happen to have access to a highly advanced power-armor suit (in addition to being a mutant)?"


Perhaps what makes this bother me the most is that we play over skype. He could have just made his answer to the roll question whatever he wanted.

Yeah, even when there's no spite or frustration etc. behind it, people who are dead set about getting exactly what they think they want out of the game frustrates me. If you want to tell your specific unique story, go write a book or play a video game. The whole point of TTRPGs is that the experience is greater than the sum of the player's involved. and if all you care about is being a BAUS (beautiful and unique snowflake) and refuse to compromise for the sake of the game, go play something else and stop wasting my time.

It gets even worse when they can't even settle on what they think they want. If they just remembered that once they start playing the game the specifics of their background, equipment etc. will fall into the background of the character's and the story and all will be hunky dory we wouldn't have this problem.

[zircher]

I noticed that there is not much in the way for solo sci-fi RPGs. I might have to do something about that for NaGaDeMon this fall.

[tombombodil]

I noticed that there is not much in the way for solo sci-fi RPGs. I might have to do something about that for NaGaDeMon this fall.

If my engine is "complete" which is to say functions if not particularly bug free, by then I'm really going to try to participate this year.

[mindtakerr]

Does anyone feel like D&D is the Call of Duty of RPGs now? I've only been playing RPGs for a short time, but in that time, I've seen D&D 3, then 3.5, then 4, and now 5/next or whatever.

Prior to that, they only had like 2 editions in 2 or 3 decades.

It seems like we keep getting brand new editions. Am I imagining this?

[Ikoma]

A little, yeah.

1974 original
1979 AD&D (5 yrs)
1989 AD&D 2e (10 yrs)
2000 3e (11 yrs)
3.5e (3 yrs)
2008 4e (8 yrs)
2014 5e (6 yrs)

IF you count 3.5 as a whole new edition, then maybe. But if you think 3.5 is just 3.0 corrected, then we're still on the short end but not by a lot. And 4e struggled so I think we might keep 5e for the decade period.

[Knaight]

Does anyone feel like D&D is the Call of Duty of RPGs now? I've only been playing RPGs for a short time, but in that time, I've seen D&D 3, then 3.5, then 4, and now 5/next or whatever.

Yes, inasmuch as both of them are among the games that have a bunch of iterations. L5R is on 4th edition, Shadowrun is on 5th, GURPS is on 4th, Fate is on 3rd (and 1st was in the 2000's), Paranoia has released something like 6, Ars Magica is on 5th, so on and so forth. Then, on the video game side, Call of Duty is joined by basically the entirety of Nintendo's output, Final Fantasy, etc.