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Post by Arcona on Dec 31, 2013 7:29:39 GMT -8
Yeah... first time I hear this Asmodeus ban on human sacrifice thing...
As I mentioned in the past our group had dealings with Asmodeus (I think its posted in the awesome moments thread or something like that).
He was all for human sacrifice back then...
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Post by guitarspider on Dec 31, 2013 8:05:38 GMT -8
The most important thing I learned from this episode: in order to ensure a meaningful roleplaying book in High Gygaxian is written, strict passive voice records must be kept.
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tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Dec 31, 2013 10:36:39 GMT -8
Regarding the whole L5R thread, can I saw that my thoughts are that gina nailed it. In the same way the GM was trying to work the players into characaters that mirrored them (as per his e-mail earlier on), there was additional things that could be done that would get the player's japanese knowledge to mimic the character build (per geenah: have the ninja be an older veteran and the courtesan to be a neophyte, which starts to explain their knowledge gap). If that causes other issues, like for example let's say the courtesan has a VERY high charisma (I'm using D&D terms since I don't know L5R mechnics), and you are worried that the stats don't mimic this change, do what you can... for example high charisma in his case would be that everyone is ENAMORED by him (like he looks like a model of what a Japanese male should be per stereotypes (think supermodel), even though his actual personality is a bit quirky. Before hearing geenah's comment, I was going to say maybe go for something like his character (courtesan/Mike) being from a royal family and raised to be a courtesan, but sustained some brain injury which makes him a bit odd or different (shit, this is fantasy, could be a curse, or magic that has put his culture facilities at disrepair, but as time goes on it fades... and coincidentally as time goes on he is figuring out how the culture works. Another option is his character just has asbergers or some syndrome that makes him act different... this is not purely something that is in our culture (and would be a better explanation than he is a foreigner, unless that actually works for your setting. Which is another option: he is a foreigner. Now I am not saying he is a guy in this pseudo Japan world that stands out cause he is from another land... what I am saying is he looks like a normal dude, but GREW UP somewhere foreign and therefore doesn't really understand the culture well. You may then go: why is he playing a courtesan? To which my answer might be that he is a courtesan from this other culture, or learns quickly about culture and nuance, etc. In fact, if you look at historical japan there were local groups from the mainland that have had lower status cause they don't come from what became the japanese aristocracy or general culture (similar to lower castes in india), which again, being a fantasy world, you could easily write in somehow. Maybe this guy was from this normally looked-down on caste, but saved the super-high-lord-daymio's life and hence has been given status in the clan.
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Post by Kainguru on Dec 31, 2013 11:30:14 GMT -8
Yeah... first time I hear this Asmodeus ban on human sacrifice thing... As I mentioned in the past our group had dealings with Asmodeus (I think its posted in the awesome moments thread or something like that). He was all for human sacrifice back then... I've a certain contract signed in blood with Asmodeus, (*scans parchment*) yep one human sacrifice buys me 7 more years . . . roll on the next millenium . . . Aaron
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Post by joecrak on Dec 31, 2013 12:21:16 GMT -8
People who choose to play L5R are choosing to play the setting. The game mechanics are nothing special, and certainly not the reason someone would want to learn and run or play this game. So that really only leaves the setting. This statement saddens me, as I absolutely love the Roll & Keep System. Learned it first in 7th Sea (which i think streamlines it much better, 5 stats compared to 9) , but I can't deny when someone asked me if i wanted to play a samurai game with those mechanics I jumped at the chance. (though i know L5R came out first). But because of the beauty of the mechanics I would play just about any game if it was done with the R&K Mechanics. Even try my least favorite genre in cyberpunk. But yea as to the L5R talk and how to get the guy some knowledge of the world....I'm a bit confused as he said he was running the Topaz Championship. And all of the tests in the Topaz championship help spell out the flavor and setting of the world for new players. I'm currently running it for 6 people, two that have never played L5R, and 1 of those 2, this is his first ever table top RPG. (And is amazing seeing someone new and wanting to keep playing even after 4 hours). But for both new people, the tests have been working great to get their head into the culture. I think the problem, which I respect as it adds a bit more story for the guys, was they were thrown into the deep water with a mission, before running them through the tutorial in the Topaz tests. I mean an example of a test in the Topaz Championship is an Etiquette test, where you Roll INT + Etiquette to say why you don't touch dead flesh. and the GM is encouraged by the adventure to read the full description for all players at the table to hear. The adventure even provides the questions and answers for a number of the more important aspects of the social culture of Rokugan. but yea, that Brian guy should shut up and let the GM do his job. The key is being a supportive GM, and not a GM that penalizes you everytime you make a mistake you don't know about. Tell them the social norm twice, then if they keep touching dead flesh, then give them the honor and glory hit, just make sure they know what they are losing it for.
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Post by jughead5187 on Dec 31, 2013 21:34:31 GMT -8
maxinstuff: pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Iomedaewww.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Asmodeusi took a little liberty, but my gm said it sounded kinda cool. I changed it from the following: " In countries not under Cheliax's yoke, priests are expected to abide by local laws and take sacrifices only from willing victims.[10][2][7] It is also common for individual priests to offer the sacrifice of a small animal before preparing spells." to something more along the lines that they sacrifice animals or use their own blood, but rarely/reluctantly use human sacrifice for whatever reasons. like i said, the gm liked the idea and made it cannon that my order taught me something similar. obviously we dont just allow anyone to do anything evil, but by allowing for the slightest bit of respect for the followers of asmodeus (and other evil creatures as well, but to a lesser extent) it gives my character a little motivation to actually be toughtful, rather than smiting everything i come across. also, how many times has batman teamed up with/ignored bane or the joker so he could stop a greater threat? maliferyeah i was originally going to try and squeeze some monk levels into my pally build, but level 1 i only had so many options. i cut some guy in half on accident with my greatsword. so instead of picking up unarmed feats, i instead am going to follow the hospitaler route, to allow for more healing. i also picked up major points into healing/ a healers kit. so if i acidentally hurt someone again, at least i can save his or her life! ArconaI didnt crit. I just rolled REALLY high for the damage on my greatsword. I figure i could whack the guy once, then get him to surrender. didnt work out the way i planned. My character is taking that into account for future levels and once i can get the "merciful" enchant for my weapon, ALL of my greatsword damage will be subdual. Kainguruoh, as far as i know asmodeus is still a bad guy. but he and his minions are playing the "long game" (see lawful evil) as unless they have a REALLY good reason to start the human sacrifice, i think they would avoid it so they dont have to answer to laws/ have paladins like my character track them down. and like i mentioned before, i wanted to hit the guy once with my greatsword then try to intimidate him into surrendering. actually once i cut him in half, i WAS able to convince his cohorts to drop their weapons and come peacefully to justice. @everyone like i said above, it gives my character a bit of incentive to travel with some not so nice people if i have a slightly different mentality than most paladins. my gm agrees that my "as long as they arent actively hurting anyone/ i dont have proof of them doing anything too bad in the past(i CAN sense evil after all)" approach makes it a bit easier for him to work my character into his campaign. also, we just had a session where an evil lizard-man that we fought before (he was blocking our exit and once we got past him, we kinda just went on our way) came back.. and begged us to help him. he was doing those things because his family is being held hostage, etc. a lot of paladins probably wouldnt have spared him to begin with, and although my character doesnt WANT to help him, i will anyway. happy gaming, tarin
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Post by jughead5187 on Dec 31, 2013 21:44:57 GMT -8
oh yeah and i was brought up by one of the more "liberal" elders of the order. he was cool with me hanging with infidels and stuff. my immediate concerns are to be the safety of the common folk/ trying to right wrongs where i can.
also, my gm IS kinda new. hes not bad by any means, but he doesnt roll with the punches like some more experienced ones do.
the first adventure was pretty cool. there was a town that the mayor HAD to run, but didnt want to. so he organized a difficult scavenger hunt. whoever wins would "prove themselves worthy" yada-yada.
well my party was me- a 17 year old paladin, an 11 year old witch, a halfling bard, and an alchemist.
NONE of us wanted to run a town, so when we got it.... i asked around and everyone was fine with me handing it over to my order!
hells bells, none of us wanted to sit around and legislate. so instead we are travelling around, saving woodcutters that had been turned into trees by vengeful dryads, rescuing the head of the alchemist guild whose caravan had been captured by orcs...
ya know, the usual.
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Post by Kainguru on Jan 1, 2014 3:55:09 GMT -8
For a Batman Paladin I would try a couple of levels of Urban Ranger to get the city based survival and stealth while remaining martial. I know there was a Gotham by Gaslight has there not been a similar medieval reimagining of the Dark Knight.? Aaron
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Post by malifer on Jan 1, 2014 7:49:45 GMT -8
For a Batman Paladin I would try a couple of levels of Urban Ranger to get the city based survival and stealth while remaining martial. I know there was a Gotham by Gaslight has there not been a similar medieval reimagining of the Dark Knight.? Aaron Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty Batman Dark Knight of the Round Table
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Post by malifer on Jan 1, 2014 7:52:04 GMT -8
maliferyeah i was originally going to try and squeeze some monk levels into my pally build, but level 1 i only had so many options. i cut some guy in half on accident with my greatsword. so instead of picking up unarmed feats, i instead am going to follow the hospitaler route, to allow for more healing. i also picked up major points into healing/ a healers kit. so if i acidentally hurt someone again, at least i can save his or her life! happy gaming, tarin Sounds like a good plan. Happy gaming indeed.
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kroh
Supporter
Posts: 132
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Post by kroh on Jan 1, 2014 12:05:41 GMT -8
One of the greatest things a GM can do is to MAKE his game speak to his players. The best example of this is the first Star Wars Movie. That first scene when the ships pass by followed by the fight in the hallway did more to immerse fans at the time than any other movie before it. I am currently running a Nemezis game (Savage Worlds) for my game group once a month. Against my advice, we had a first time player (one of the players GF's who had never played any RPG before). I was a bit skeptical in the beginning because Nemezis is such a niche within a niche and the subject matter can get kinda creepy. I knew I had done well because after the game she said, "Man, I was grossed out and excited all at the same time. This stuff is sick... When is the next session?" The trick to it is to convey just enough setting information to get the point across while immersing the players. The danger is trying to convey too much and cram a metric ton of info down the players throats (especially new players). I appreciated this when i was first playing Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy. I had a great GM (the player with the girlfriend) who had been following the setting since the 80's and immersed me in the setting without drowning me in it. The setting is just as immersive as Star Wars with just as much cannon. Imagine being the new player at the table for the first time and try to explain why Princess Leia feels snubbed that Spock doesn't love her, right before she storms off in the Tardis... Thanks all, Regards, Walt
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Post by Kainguru on Jan 1, 2014 12:58:14 GMT -8
For a Batman Paladin I would try a couple of levels of Urban Ranger to get the city based survival and stealth while remaining martial. I know there was a Gotham by Gaslight has there not been a similar medieval reimagining of the Dark Knight.? Aaron Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty Batman Dark Knight of the Round Table Thanks, now if they'd just give the Adam West Batman the same treatment that'd be something Aaron
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tomes
Supporter
Hello madness
Posts: 1,438
Currently Running: Dungeon World, hippie games, Fallout Shelter RPG hack
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Post by tomes on Jan 2, 2014 10:47:42 GMT -8
I think this is definitely key. I ran a game for a few newbs, and at first I screwed this up... I was even conscious of it and thought I was being light on details, but it was heavier than they could handle, and was a detractor. Fortunately I listened to them (feedback after the fact) and they've played a few times since, as I've toned down even what I think is minimal extraneous info.
On a second campaign I'm running for some gamers, I've definitely stuck to this. Even though I've got some "big" plans for the overall world they're in and their role in it, the game started with just them living in some ass-end of the world, with minimal information about the world itself. They just see their narrow area and slowly get exposed to more as we go.
One thing you can do to this end, is start with player-familiar terms for things, and then get into game/character-specifics later. E.g. in this game they live near the tundra, so I just named all the humanoids that live out there "Inuits". We all know what to visualize there, and what flavor that one word provides. No need to come up with weird fantasy words that will compete with the other weird names and things they'll need to remember. If relevant in later games you can meet these individuals, and find out they have a different name for themselves, or their people, or whatever, but by then they become a focus, instead of just another distraction.
That's one thing I like about L5R from the perspective of someone who knows a little Japanese: you can just borrow Japanese culture, similar to the "kubikuma" name that Stu used in game. Shit, if you have people who are Japanese-fan boys/girls, you can straight out gang historical stuff... make the various capitals of country be Nagoya, Kyoto, Tokyo, whatever, as that's already something that they will understand, and is just less names they have to memorize without context.
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Post by CreativeCowboy on Jan 2, 2014 11:02:17 GMT -8
I think this is definitely key. I ran a game for a few newbs, and at first I screwed this up... I was even conscious of it and thought I was being light on details, but it was heavier than they could handle, and was a detractor. Fortunately I listened to them (feedback after the fact) and they've played a few times since, as I've toned down even what I think is minimal extraneous info. On a second campaign I'm running for some gamers, I've definitely stuck to this. Even though I've got some "big" plans for the overall world they're in and their role in it, the game started with just them living in some ass-end of the world, with minimal information about the world itself. They just see their narrow area and slowly get exposed to more as we go. One thing you can do to this end, is start with player-familiar terms for things, and then get into game/character-specifics later. E.g. in this game they live near the tundra, so I just named all the humanoids that live out there "Inuits". We all know what to visualize there, and what flavor that one word provides. No need to come up with weird fantasy words that will compete with the other weird names and things they'll need to remember. If relevant in later games you can meet these individuals, and find out they have a different name for themselves, or their people, or whatever, but by then they become a focus, instead of just another distraction. That's one thing I like about L5R from the perspective of someone who knows a little Japanese: you can just borrow Japanese culture, similar to the "kubikuma" name that Stu used in game. Shit, if you have people who are Japanese-fan boys/girls, you can straight out gang historical stuff... make the various capitals of country be Nagoya, Kyoto, Tokyo, whatever, as that's already something that they will understand, and is just less names they have to memorize without context. What tomes is describing is a way to work with what I have come to call player engrossment. It will inform the players about many things: world, cannon, lore, system..... There is also a tabletop conversation happening in his advice with using names that players are familar. It may not be "cannon" but it highlights the allure RPGs hold for me (people like me?) beyond another board game.
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Post by Stu Venable on Jan 2, 2014 13:55:53 GMT -8
joecrak It's not that I don't *like* the Roll-and-Keep system. I do. But it certainly wasn't the selling point for me when I bought the L5R core book, and I'd venture to guess that's the same for most purchasers. They either bought it because they like the fiction of the card game or they have an interest in Japanese/Asian culture. I think the system is good, very playable and not difficult to learn -- but that's all a happy coincidence from wanting to play a Japanese-culture-based game.
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