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Post by Kainguru on Oct 30, 2015 11:14:25 GMT -8
He speaks nothing other than the truth, sir. If you wish to make it a point of honour, I'll stand as his second. Why thank you, sir. Methinks that it should be swords at noon for the glare of the sun should give us a hearty advantage . . . Aaron
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Post by ayslyn on Oct 30, 2015 11:15:10 GMT -8
So much nonsense in that post that I don't know what to start with.
Edit: Not your's Kain.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2015 11:24:10 GMT -8
But what about the probability of the D20 as a die vs systems with bell curves!? I HAVE CHARTS! *Goes running off for promotional materials.* Personally, I'm a big fan of D20 or D% systems because it's super easy to intuit success or failure chance across any series of actions, and although you lose a bit of granularity in going with the D20, I think it's a fair trade-off for the simpler math. (If it's important for you to establish exactly a 72% chance of success, rather than rounding to 70% or 75%, then the game is probably too complicated.) With a bell curve system, it can be hard to see how likely you are to succeed at any given task, and it can be ever harder to see how that changes in the presence of additional factors. It's not that you have any more or less information than you would have under a flat-distribution system, but actually parsing that information into a usable form can be a big pain.
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Post by Kainguru on Oct 30, 2015 11:27:58 GMT -8
Surely we're not talking about roleplaying when we're critiquing system, right? I can accomplish the same story in Swords & Scrolls, D&D5e, Dungeon World, and those OSR games. Truth be told we don't even need a system to roleplay. So when were talking about quality of system we're specifically talking about how the mechanical rules of the system affect the gameplay. Whether the resolution mechanic is satisfying is so completely subjective, how can you possibly rank two games in comparison to each other objectively? Other than a game who's mechanics actively hinder play, what makes a game 'bad'? As they've said on the System Mastery podcast, the measure of an RPG system is in how well the rules allow you to tell the story that you could tell without the rules. You don't need rules to roleplay, but we want rules for their structure and balance, and to lend weight to the characters and their story. I would disagree with your statement, and posit that you cannot accomplish the same story in both D&D5 and an OSR clone, because the rules shape how the events of the story unfold. You can't tell a story that involves a peasant hero trading blows with a skeleton if one or the other collapses after the first hit. You wouldn't even get that far, if you were playing a horror game and the mere sight of an undead creature causes the peasant to flee or go insane. It's a very different story, and a very different tone of the story. As many have noted, it can be difficult to pursue a character-centric story in early editions of D&D, because characters tend to die suddenly in dramatically-unsatisfying ways. It's a valid criticism, from that perspective, so we might suggest a later edition of the game or a different game in order to better serve the desired playstyle. Other people might prefer a style where anyone can die suddenly, and would prefer an earlier edition over a later one; but maybe they also have strong feelings about what sorts of magic "makes sense" to them, so we could suggest a different game based on those preferences. If you want to objectively measure the quality of a game, then the fair metric is in how well it accomplishes its intended goal. Even setting aside games that are completely unplayable due to rule complexity or contradiction, some games just don't work well for the style they're supposed to support. Sticking with D&D for now, old editions didn't really support their concept of the mighty warrior who slays all the monsters and saves the princess (due to the aforementioned dying-at-any-time rules), but the game still worked pretty well as a resource-management dungeon-crawling murder-hobo simulator. Going for something a little more obscure, Don't Look Back: Terror Is Never Far Behind is supposed to be for telling horror movie stories, but the rules just don't support anything like that; it's bad, because it's bad at doing what it's trying to do (even though some people still might enjoy it). Just a small bone of contention, early DnD/ADnD was always more 'Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser' than sweeping epics like LoTR. The error lay with the audience imposing a set of expectations that were not entirely suited to the game as intended - the system didn't so much as fail to support it's intended style rather the Players/DM's failed to understand it's stylistic intentions. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had EGG not included hob...<cough>...I mean halflings . . . Aaron
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Post by HourEleven on Oct 30, 2015 19:02:08 GMT -8
As a GM who has run many many many solo games, and who successfully converted a non-gaming spouse:
1. Tailor your game to suit her interests. You should know what her favorite movies and books are. What kinds of stories are they? What kinds of characters are in them?
2. I disagree that you can't have good role play with only one player. If your world is full of fun NPCs that player wants to interact with, it can be all role play. We ran an entire campaign with zero combat, pure RP, only about two dice rolls per session max.
3. It's much easier to read a single player, especially one you know very well. You can keep the floor shifting based on their interest to keep them focused and involved.
4. When I soloed a combat heavy Savage Worlds game with her, her character was in charge of two other NPCs (like outranked them in the organization), giving them orders in combat. She effectively ran her side of the combats (with NPC comments and commentary about the stuff she was telling the to do).
5. After the session, talk about what parts of the story she liked and was interested in, and what was kinda meh. Then the next session you can focus the game that direction.
You can make it like they are the main character in a book they'd like to read or a movie they'd like to see.
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Oct 31, 2015 3:34:19 GMT -8
...Hyvemynd level hatred... Ooh. There's a level of hatred associated with me? Cool.
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Post by ericfromnj on Oct 31, 2015 6:27:50 GMT -8
...Hyvemynd level hatred... Ooh. There's a level of hatred associated with me? Cool. Your hatred of Savage Worlds burns brighter than a thousand suns... ...though I've noticed "Just Savage It!" has been replaced by "Just PbtA It!" around here.
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Post by joecrak on Oct 31, 2015 7:01:41 GMT -8
Ooh. There's a level of hatred associated with me? Cool. Your hatred of Savage Worlds burns brighter than a thousand suns... ...though I've noticed "Just Savage It!" has been replaced by "Just PbtA It!" around here. While I love that sentiment, that can be very difficult to do. Fate is more fitting.
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mrcj
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 173
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Post by mrcj on Oct 31, 2015 8:12:57 GMT -8
Three thoughts on GMs using a sniper in game. 1. Structure the encounter. One of many ways to use a sniper in the game is to have the players know that there is a sniper present. So the players have the information that a sniper is around and they need to prevent an assassination or stay alive or complete some other mission objective. So the game is less about spotting a nest (thought it may be that) and more preventing the NPC from taking advantage of his skills. NCIS handles snipers well in this case, there have been several shows where they have had to hunt one down. This link is to one of those episodes in the first season, feel free to steal the premise: a sniper is on the loose and the team has to track him down and stop him www.imdb.com/title/tt0658013/. You can probably find a bunch of shows with the same idea, because it works. Another example is the theater scene from the last Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise has to stop two assassins. 2. If you want to make it real, kill off an NPC. Ratchet up the drama, those players will hate your guts if you do it right. This is also a common trope in NCIS not only with minor characters but also major cast members as well. This is a snip from Bones when a sniper hits one of the series minor characters www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw52nl7u0Ng . Play up the drama. 3. System, using these types of NPCs really only works in a system that can give you a one shot kill. Like Mook said GURPS is perfect for using these kind of attacks because of the aiming, called shot rules, and rifle damage.
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Post by ericfromnj on Oct 31, 2015 15:20:33 GMT -8
Your hatred of Savage Worlds burns brighter than a thousand suns... ...though I've noticed "Just Savage It!" has been replaced by "Just PbtA It!" around here. While I love that sentiment, that can be very difficult to do. Fate is more fitting. Says the guy bringing up PbtA versions of Star Wars and L5R...
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Post by joecrak on Oct 31, 2015 21:07:52 GMT -8
While I love that sentiment, that can be very difficult to do. Fate is more fitting. Says the guy bringing up PbtA versions of Star Wars and L5R... They were not easily written! Neither are in completion phase at all! A Great PbtA game has moves specialized for it's theme and feel. Both in basic and Playbook moves.
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Post by jazzisblues on Nov 1, 2015 4:48:46 GMT -8
Personally I think that Savage It, Fate it, and PbtA it are all perfectly viable options, depending entirely on what sort of flavoring one wants with the game.
JiB
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 1, 2015 6:40:33 GMT -8
GURP it.
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Post by HourEleven on Nov 1, 2015 12:10:43 GMT -8
That sounds dirty. But not like sexy dirty - like grossout internet video. "She freaked when I showed her that video where the guy has that thing and totally GURPS it."
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Post by joecrak on Nov 1, 2015 15:23:53 GMT -8
Personally I think that Savage It, Fate it, and PbtA it are all perfectly viable options, depending entirely on what sort of flavoring one wants with the game. JiB I'm not against the idea of it, I just come from a place, where I now know how difficult it is to hack PbtA. Writing good moves is hard.
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