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Post by heavymetaljess on Feb 27, 2012 14:56:44 GMT -8
What more do you need to know? How bout how far is that shelf from my character? how high up is that shelf? Where are they in relation to the other players? Where are they in relation to the other enemies on the field? Is there cover? How far is that shelf from any other enemies? And so on. These are all things that can effect your decision. These are also all things your character would be able to judge and also things the GM may forget to mention or have difficulty verbalizing the full layout easily. The Ledge might be too high. Maybe there is a door behind them and that's how they got up there. maybe the latter requires 2 turns to climb. It is not a douche move and by using a map and telling players upfront while laying out the map eliminates the fuzzy ness of describing the scene in your head and makes you less likely to leave out details. Often times as the GM is laying out the map you can ask questions. Yeah, I gotta say these are all the kinds of things players ask me or just assume. Maybe I want to add a door at the last minute to give one of the bad guys a chance to escape. Maybe I don't want the characters to see all the assassins heading down the back alley because they're in a dense crowd. Maybe my players want to make up that there is a nearby barrel to bust over someone's head or a tree to swing down from a building on. Maps take away the fuzziness of these things to let us bend the game to the fun. I think what hyvemynd is saying is that his games also work this way. Though, as an artist I wouldn't be adverse to everyone having little minis of their characters just in case something crazy comes up (which it sometimes does... players draw their own map and I make any corrections that would be obvious to them). In fact, I would probably volunteer to paint them. Oh yeah, and Old Rasputin would totally represent a character who was unkillable.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Feb 24, 2012 9:51:17 GMT -8
I really feel like minis and GM provided maps/battle mats limit players who have never used them and constrain the imagination of people who have. We play just like Stu described - no minis, no GM provided maps, and all combat is imagined in the head. In my 2E game, two players are used to never having maps unless they drew one from an in character stand point (Josh & Alex). One was playing for the very first time and has no expectations (Rae) and the other is used to mats and minis (Mike).
When our first combat broke out there was only the slightest resistance to me describing the scene instead of pulling out minis. Mike was open minded and in the end really liked not having the physical bits (wink, wink). He made some great decisions because he had no maps to look at during the game. Josh is an inventive combatant and wouldn't have curb-stomped an assassin if he had a battle map to tell him he wasn't near said curb. Alex was rolling like a boss - practically cleaving bad guys in half. I let her move quicker than her character actually can in that first combat to keep up the momentum and impress an important NPC with her combat prowess.
BUT, for this to work, I have to side with hyvemynd - the GM has to be really descriptive of approximate distances (for spell casters and ranged shooters) and basic visuals. If you can create a feeling of the scene and at least one player is being inventive, everyone else will join in. If the fight's in a kitchen, the character to pin a bad guy behind a table will get the next character throwing trash onto the floor to slow movement.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Jan 20, 2012 9:18:26 GMT -8
I know you were there to get a laugh at me playing 2E, and then there was no word from you for awhile so you might have stepped out. Those boys get rowdy without supervision. Don't worry, I will continue the double entendre in my future emails just to keep everyone happy. I would be great to have Gammon talk about some of his 2E house rules. If you guys have an urge to plan ahead, you could always announce a topic the week before so that listeners have time to write in about that topic and put the topic in the subject line so you have a heads up.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Jan 19, 2012 12:03:09 GMT -8
Agreed, especially because I play 2nd Edition D&D (land of the house rule) and you boys were too busy making BDSM jokes to provide any GM tips in response to my email in episode 07-01. I'm guessing that makes me the DMnatrix?
We house rule frequently, but I feel like that's part of the fun of playing 2nd Ed - everyone who runs a game plays it a little (or a lot) different.
My players are really excited about a change I made to the way a critical hit works in combat. After they roll a 20 I have them roll percentile dice.
1-25% they get a second attack roll. 26-75% they roll damage twice. 76-100% they get to use the critical hit charts from the optional rules to do actual trama.
In our first game last Friday it made everyone excited. Only one critical hit was rolled during the game, and it didn't do trama, but it added a bit of extra excitement to the game when they all saw that 20.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Jan 4, 2012 14:56:02 GMT -8
I definitely feel Joshua's pain. A play-by-post freeform roleplaying background has made it really difficult for me to find the right balance for my group. Some of my players are used to computer/console games. They run around trying to "complete the quest" as quickly as possible. The rest have a "Don't tell me what to do!" attitude. I think as a starting GM it's easier to find a group with all the same background. If you're all from a freeform-type background you'll get in lots of acting. In my experience these players like fewer rules and restrictions. If you have a lot of computer/console gamers you'll have a lot of action. These players seem to rely on more the rules to guide their strategies (especially in combat) and like clear guidelines to help direct their attention to important things. Example 1: My first attempt at GMing was for our old group (a 1 shot adventure). It started with their characters at a tavern on a coast and I had an NPC hint at a job on a ship. One of the players (an “actor”) responded with "My character wouldn't go, but I can tell that's the adventure you have planned so I’ll just do it anyway." It was meant as a not-so-thinly-veiled insult telling me that he could see my tracks. I wasn’t about to build an entire sandbox for a game that would only last one weekend and I was pretty annoyed that he had expected that. A different player (an “action player”) told me after the game that he felt lost the whole game and that I didn’t give clear direction on how they were supposed to “finish the game.” Example 2: The above actor player used his blow gun to shoot a dart dipped in holy water at a ghoul so he didn’t have to get close. The action player used their sneak attack because that’s what his character sheet said he could do. In our mixed background group we use rules-light 2nd Edition D&D. The actors can then have enough wiggle room to act in weird and wonderful ways and the action players have enough rules to help guide them through the game. I know a lot of people don't care for 2nd Edition D&D but you can view all of the core 2nd edition books online for free (http://www.coryj.net/CoreRule/) and use as many or as few of the rules as you want to customize the game to your players. I have used that website to make my own GM guide with just the rules we use organized in a way that makes sense to me in a binder. Works great for someone like me with a terrible memory for boring details – like the rules. P.S. Most chainmail bikinis are lined to prevent nipping the nips.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Jan 4, 2012 5:57:28 GMT -8
Nope, nothing did but it's all good. Did you want to get something going? Feel free to send me a message.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Dec 19, 2011 14:10:15 GMT -8
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Post by heavymetaljess on Dec 16, 2011 13:01:58 GMT -8
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Post by heavymetaljess on Dec 12, 2011 10:17:33 GMT -8
I'm trying to get a feel for the GURPS game but am having a hard time finding players of the system in my area. I have the GURPS Lite rules but don't want to purchase another gaming system unless I'm playing a game with it. I'm looking to be a player, not a GM.
I'm on the East coast and I work an 8-5+ so the best time would be every other Friday night or a couple hours on a weeknight. Monday night would be awesome because the significant others are out of the house playing poker. Non-fantasy is preferable. Any takers?
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Post by heavymetaljess on Dec 8, 2011 9:04:21 GMT -8
A game I play online is similar in terms of religious irreverence but is extremely gritty. The big-bad is the demon Legion and the main PCs are a fallen angel demon hunter and the goddess Astarte in a semi-human form. Usually Legion is trying to use humans to his advantage or trying to kill the demon hunter or capture Astarte for nefarious purposes which are still unknown. With games like this I think it's important that people know what they're getting into. I would be sure to let people know that in our game the mainstream "god" is made out to be a bad guy and that Astarte pushes pretty hardcore religious views which the other characters don't believe. It’s also not a heroic game. A lot of times the bad guys win… and sometimes those bad guys are the PCs. I'm Gnostic, so a lot of the otherworldly structure follows some of those ideas. When it's lampooned or made light of I never take offense. I can see how people with more mainstream religious beliefs might take offense to such things and gaming companies (especially American ones) would be sensitive to that. Though I don't think those people are necessarily playing RPGs.
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