The Fireplace

[Nexaduro]

It's safe to assume you won't accept curse/bless tradeoffs or negative/positive skill tradeoffs to prevent minmaxing right?

 

Can I have more than one curse and one bless?

[archimage_a]

It's safe to assume you won't accept curse/bless tradeoffs or negative/positive skill tradeoffs to prevent minmaxing right?

I am not sure what you mean.

 

 

Can I have more than one curse and one bless?

Yes

[Nexaduro]

It's safe to assume you won't accept curse/bless tradeoffs or negative/positive skill tradeoffs to prevent minmaxing right?

I am not sure what you mean.

 

 

Can I have more than one curse and one bless?

Yes

Do I have to start with them actively cursing me?

 

I meant, taking extra curses with extra blesses. +5 Bracers of Stupidity for a +5 Sword of Generic Viking Heroism. Remove something you don't need to replace with something helpful.

 

Or are there curses one might benefit from? Like becoming so imbecilic that you can gaze into the void and go "I'm bored, where's the shinies?" while everyone else is clawing their eyes out from the horror of revelations about the universe, etc.

[archimage_a]

You don't start with cursed/blessed items.

They are given randomly from encounters, or crafted.

 

Adding multiple curse/bless to an item is cumulative.

 

Aka:

You say you are making a fire sword from a crystal of fire energy/shard of fire elemental/rarified vapour of fire and a sword.

I say are you sure?

You say yes

I roll a die. You get an 11, so you get 0.1 xp in Fire Magic/Enchanting/something else.

I roll another die. You get another 11, so you get a +0.5 Fire Sword/Sword of Revealing Fire/Sword of Flaming Glory.

You wield/ID/Get someone else to hold the sword.

I say it is a blessed +0.5 sword of fire.

You say you want to add another enchantment using your Nevermelting Ice/Ironical/Shard of Ice Elemental and your blessed +0.5 sword of gire.

I say are you sure?

You say yes

I roll a die. You get a third 11, so you get 0.1 xp in ice magic/enchanging/something else.

I roll another die. You get a 7, so you get a Cursed -1.5(Ice Magic) +0.5(Fire Magic) Sword/Sword of Everheat/Hot Knife.

You wield/ID/Get someone else to hold the sword.

I say it is a Cursed -1.5/+0.5 Sword of Slush.

You say you want to add another enchantment using your Finger Bone of the Lich/Skull of the Ghoul/Vampiric Dust, and your Cursed Sword of Slush.

I ask if you are sure

You say yes

I roll a die. You get a 15, so you get 0.2 xp in Necromancy/enchanting/something else.

I roll another die. You get a 20, so you get a Cursed +5.0(Necromacy) -1.5 (Ice Magic) +0.5 (Fire Magic) Sword/Sword of Undying Flame/Sword of Undeath.

You wield it/ID/Get someone to hold the sword.

I say it is a Cursed +5.0/-1.5/+0.5 Sword of Unliving Slush.

You say you want to add another enchantment using your Fire Salts/Soul of the Infernal/Torch of Everburning and your Cursed Sword of Unliving Slush.

I ask if you are sure

you say yes

I roll a die. You get a 13, so you get 0.1 xp in Fire Magic/enchanting/something else

I roll another die. You get a 10, so you get a cursed +5.0(Necromancy) -1.5 (Ice Magic) Sword/Sword of Mangy Ice/Blade of Ice Absorbtion.

You wield it/ID/Get someone to hold the sword.

I say that it is a cursed +5.0/-1.5 Sword of Half-life Ice.

 

[hide]

You say you want to add another enchantment using your Turnip of Bedazzling/Orange of the Dutch/Soul of the Culinaromancer.

I say the sword has turned into a Ficus and you die.

[/hide]

 

I would imagine that most people could work out the system from this example...

 

 

 

The Curse/Bless are merely stat penalties/boosts, they have no other game effect...

Unless you are doing an especially bad job and have managed to gain levels in Bleeding out or Glass Jaw, Curses are ALWAYS bad.

(Unless you can can roleplay them into a positive...say being too stupid to be affected by the mental compulsion to stab yourself in the head...Or stabbing someone with your -5.0 Fire Magic Sword to prevent them from casting very well (NO THIS IS NOT A MECHANICAL EFFECT, this is a GM-Roleplay decision going 'Hmmm, that makes sense, I will allow it.') As a General Rule, though, Curses will only make you weaker, Blesses will only make you stronger.)

 

If people want to have their sword burst into flames on command, or to provide mental shielding against the unspeakable horrors of the universe, then I have no problem with reasonable degrees of Roleplay-added-functionality.

 

Aka 'I use my flaming sword to light our way through the dark tunnel'* or 'I freeze the door mechanism with my Chill Blade' or 'I stab the wizen old man, who is clearly there to deliever the plot, with my sword of Undeath and instantly animate his skeleton to tear its away out of his skin'

(On a scale of difficulty I would say the first one needed level 0 to try with normal chance of failure (10+ to succeed), the second needs level 0 to try(20 succeeds), but level 5 to have much chance of success(10+ succeeds), the third needs level 10 to try(20 succeeds), but really level 20 to do reliably (10+ suceeds))

 

 

*Compared against 'I set fire to my sword to light our way with fire magic' 'Your sword becomes red hot and burns your hand, take 1 wound on your right arm' if you didn't have a magical fire sword.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To directly address your question...I can't imagine there would be reason to have an intelligence skill. If there was then yes, you could probably roleplay that you were too stupid to be aware of the horror. (It would probably depend on how you had been acting...If you wandered around translating ancient scripts one minute, and were claiming to be too stupid to understand the feeling of doom the next...then I would say that you were still affected)

[Jehosaphat]

Sounds good, Archi, I'll probably play once I'm entirely sure that my schedule isn't copmletely insane.

[Retech]

Okay, makes sense. I was just confused by when you said "ask" you for one, as opposed to making one yourself.

 

As you level, does it become easier to make such an item or is the same basic difficulty throughout?

[archimage_a]

I would imagine it would be the same difficulty throughout.

If we decide we need higher level blessings/curses then we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

[Resistance]

How do we feel about anachronism?

 

Especially in a medieval fantasy setting, to what point does it detract from the story? Do you like the feel or anachronism?

[archimage_a]

It is an inherant part of roleplaying in the 'past'

 

A game might be supposed to take place in the 900s, but that doesn't mean that people won't expect Longbows and Katanas to exist.

 

 

Ultimately it depends on the historical knowledge of the player and the GM, and how willing they are to ignore it in favour of just playing the game.

[Resistance]

In some cases you could argue the the items in question actually do fit into the genre, a longbow for example could potentially fit into a setting in the 900s without any questioning.

However, would things that clearly wouldn't be available in the medieval ages liked diving tanks or automatic crossbows ruin the feel, or do you think that it would be okay?

[archimage_a]

Longbows were invented in the 11-12th century...

 

 

Stuff that obviously isn't in the period is just silly.

[Corvus]

Well, it all really depends on how the obviously inaccessable technology is treated, Like while a diving tank would obviously be impossible to obtain, you can always use a tactic of making use of an overturned boat Pirates of the Carribean style to get something similar to the desired outcome while it may obviously be inferior to a more modern solution. In terms of a repeating crossbow you need to get more in depth to provide a reasonable explanation for its existance, (assuming a 900 AD setting in actual history) such as a scholar from the Far East selling you the advanced weaponry after finding himself in need of local currency to continue his journey.(this would effectively imply that its a non-replaceable item, which is generally a good way to treat such items if they are allowed)

[Resistance]

I understand about bows, but they're an example of things that probably wouldn't noticed or cared about. But sometimes things from a later age may actually enhance gameplay to a point, I can't think of many that really make gameplay more fun but I can be sure that there is something like that.

 

Wyvren, I agree with what you're saying and I'll probably go with that. It is not necessary to have specific items (not of the time) when other items (of the time) could potentially yield a similar outome and if it is necessary then precautions will be put into place to make it hard to reobtain. I don't really think I will have that many anachroistic items but if the need arises then good control of them will keep them from being too plentiful.

For example a scientists workshop will be guarded safely (in my campaign, probably in a dungeon) and once the things are stolen they would be unobtainable again due to the scientist being executed.

[archimage_a]

You wrote:

I understand about bows, but they're an example of things that probably wouldn't noticed or cared about. But sometimes things from a later age may actually enhance gameplay to a point, I can't think of many that really make gameplay more fun but I can be sure that there is something like that.

I wrote:

A game might be supposed to take place in the 900s, but that doesn't mean that people won't expect Longbows and Katanas to exist.

 

 

 

So thanks for inverting the thought process.

[Resistance]

I meant the same thing by it.

 

'people won't be annoyed because longbows exist'

'people would expect longbows to exist'

[archimage_a]

...

Which is what I said in the post above yours. You just keep trying to invert the argument, which is tedious.

[Resistance]

...

Which is what I said in the post above yours. You just keep trying to invert the argument, which is tedious.

Sorry, I didn't realise that I was doing it.

 

 

 

I have a fun idea: a lightweight version of hegemony that can be played with minimal input. Super basic combat, super basic economy.

 

Basically the hegemony would be played as long as possible, it would rely on simple 'capture the point' style systems which rely on your having to capture areas which produce money. Each produce a sum of money, for example one point could produce 1 'point' a day. This way there would only need to be very little effort put into any sort of moderation. I think it would be a fun side-along game which aims to be constantly running with more focus on politics than warfare.

[archimage_a]

Do do do.

 

I have been thinking in (walking down) my lab (the hill) and after much deliberation (10 minutes) I have originated (subverted) two new games (four old games).

(I have been walking down the hill and after 10 minutes I subverted four old games)

 

 

The first is:

A Door Appears, you go Through It.

Or DATI for short.

 

Basically you take 1 game, say DnD, and then you inject those starting level characters, into a different game system (With all their old levels and such. The only change is their HP, which is converted to something reasonably the same as the people of this world, also weapon damage/enemy HP). Progressing along a normal adventure.

The object of the game is to the survive until the end of the session and the winner is the player with the least levels. Sounds simple? Think again. Dying makes you level up. Also the GM will occassionally say a number/colour/something, if you fail to say that number in 5 minutes then you gain a level. Leveling up should take no more than 10 minutes, if it does, you gain a level. :thumbsup:

Now you could still be terribly dull and spend 3-5 hours screenwatching and occassionally saying a number. If you do then huzzah.

 

Basically it sounds rather entertaining, given how various people play :grin:

Because it is supposed to be rapid fire I would ask that there are no complex leveling strategies. :thumbup:

 

 

Game 2:

Settlers of the ISS unitY

Or SISSY for short.

 

The game begins that you have each taken a shuttle(together/in groups/alone) to a massive space hulk (Large sheet of paper divided into a 10 by 10 grid, or scale). You all land in a single bay, which, by fortunately co-incidence, is always a clone-o-matic. You can then do various things; Clone yourself (produces a clone), loot the room (???), open a door (reveals a new room, up to the number of grid squares next to you), and probably other stuff.

 

The clones are essentially automatons, so you can't make five of you then go off exploring 5 rooms per turn, but they can occupy a room/keep a door open. Occupying a room gives you whatever bonus that room gives you, and holding a door open means you can skip that room when travelling.

You can also attack other people's rooms on a 1d6 to 1d6, favours the defender, basis. +mods from rooms, ect.

 

When you reveal a room you get to choose what room you find, but once decided it stays that for the rest of the game.

 

You can also mark a room as open to space, in which case all the clones(of all people) who are not sealed off by a door (aka not one with a clone holding it open), are sucked into space and stop providing benefits.

 

The list of choosable rooms is decided at the beginning of each game, along with their bonuses.

 

 

 

 

Not 100% complete rules, but I think we could probably play them should we want to =)

[Corvus]

Do do do.

 

I have been thinking in (walking down) my lab (the hill) and after much deliberation (10 minutes) I have originated (subverted) two new games (four old games).

(I have been walking down the hill and after 10 minutes I subverted four old games)

 

 

The first is:

A Door Appears, you go Through It.

Or DATI for short.

 

Basically you take 1 game, say DnD, and then you inject those starting level characters, into a different game system (With all their old levels and such. The only change is their HP, which is converted to something reasonably the same as the people of this world, also weapon damage/enemy HP). Progressing along a normal adventure.

The object of the game is to the survive until the end of the session and the winner is the player with the least levels. Sounds simple? Think again. Dying makes you level up. Also the GM will occassionally say a number/colour/something, if you fail to say that number in 5 minutes then you gain a level. Leveling up should take no more than 10 minutes, if it does, you gain a level. :thumbsup:

Now you could still be terribly dull and spend 3-5 hours screenwatching and occassionally saying a number. If you do then huzzah.

 

Basically it sounds rather entertaining, given how various people play :grin:

Because it is supposed to be rapid fire I would ask that there are no complex leveling strategies. :thumbup:

Well, DATI would be an absolute mess to deal with as it is not easy to covert characters between different game systems, with the only realistic transistions I would know of being D&D 3.0 to 3.5 to Pathfinder since they all use the same basic systems and content, but D&D 3e based games are notoriously slow to level up characters. 4th edition D&D would just have things get out of hand once people start leveling up as it is Extremely focused in PCs becoming noticably more powerful each level. More general game systems like Savage worlds and GURPS would not really have the desired effect as they have reletively low rates of ability increase as the game progresses within most settings. So really the most difficult part of making it work is deciding which direction to go with running it, since there is no major system that I know of that is quick to level up, not exponential power levels, and has noticable level increases. (based on the optimum playing strategy for the game I would say Paranoia would make the most sense, however I don't like the game system.)

[archimage_a]

It largely depends on how absolutely accurate you want to be.

I mean it would not be impossible to level up a character in a few minutes, since you are basically collecting abilities and making fairly straight forwards choices (From my limited experience with Pathfinder), though it would probably have a number of errors in, which is not a major concern.

 

If you wanted to be more accurate then I guess you could draw up a dozen or so 1-20 level progression cards, so people knew exactly what they got/limited the number of choices to make.

 

And it is excessively easy to convert between systems if you don't get over technical with it.

You take a DnDer, with their 'blow up walls' strategy/ability, and you put them in a game(Such as Danse Macabre) where people usually don't have the ability to blow up walls, and suddenly people are blowing up walls and getting into all sorts of mischief, which the game subsequently punishes horribly.

(Basically all the stuff GMs usually avoid because it leads to everyone dying/short circuiting the adventure(Which I would count as dying))

Comparatively taking a group of Danse Macabre players and throwing them into a DnD world.

 

I suppose if you wanted a more stable sort of a version you would simply take the powerup abilities of one system and apply them to another, as opposed to trying to convert +21 to hit into roll up to 6d6 to hit...But I think it could be managed without a great deal of hassle.

 

Yes it would become a headache if you needed to convert Trauma and Insanity points (From 40K) into Savage Worlds language, that much is true I grant you, but it is the sort of thing that you, as the GM, would resolve prior to the session or on the spot.

 

I had been playing Munchkin all afternoon, and had been talking to Retech earlier, and various other things which made me think that a less serious, more 'Suddenly there are monsters', would be fun.

Also a game where you are trying not to level up.

 

As to Savage Worlds, ect, with their non-linear to level up characters...Not sure, could probably draw up a set of level-up cards, drawn at random, maybe summing to a predefined total.

 

Its not a game I massively expect to run, would be up for running it if people were interested, but yeah...

[Corvus]

Well, the issue is more of each character is going to end up with an absurd number of different statistics that all need to be leveled up, and you need to keep track of the systems for a ton of different game systems. Also Savage worlds is also the quickest to level up game I have found to date, with leveling a character taking a few seconds if you have any idea what you want to do with the character (takes at most 5 minutes if you have no clue what you want to do with the character)

[archimage_a]

You have to keep track of the same number of statistics as in any game system...

And you would need to keep track of 2 game systems...

Essentially the game would last 1 session, whoever wins wins, then a new game(Or not), different characters.

 

 

 

And there are always ways to speed up the process, as I suggested playing cards.

[Retech]

I've found that the games with more than one system usually work as roleplay based game.

 

With Pathfinder though, there's always the option for rules-lite. Basically, you just need to find out the value of your saves, your attack bonus, your AC, and spells (if you have them), and just go. It's a lot of improv, and it gives an option for those that want to do some prep with spellcasters and others that don't (personally with rules-lite, I like going with melee for the ease of prep).

 

It takes like five minutes to level (check how much your attributes go up, your saves go up, and your attack bonuses, then grab some items) and it can either turn into a roleplay-heavy game with more improvised combat or head more into the quick hack-and-slash kinda thing, which are both fun and don't need a committed GM (no need for a huge storyline, just maybe write an interesting encounter).

 

If you actually stick with melee, then it is not a pain to go to like level 15-18 and let's you try a lot of insane things.

[Corvus]

Well, its more an issue of rectifying the horrible issues issues caused by conflicts in the game systems. Like giving character options from D&D to a Savage worlds character will literally end up 1 hit killing everything (Savage worlds has a system that effectively all things have 1 point of easily renewed HP, and either 1 or 3 hp that cannot be recovered during a session by anything short of magic) and most other types of bonuses from D&D would end up increasing the odds of success for actions by 50% or more or allow for doing an additional action at no cost per turn. (Savage worlds has a taget number of 4, when D&D has 10. and Savage worlds deals with multiple actions per turn by imposing a -2 penalty to all actions for each action past the first.)

[archimage_a]

giving character options from D&D to a Savage worlds character will literally end up 1 hit killing everything (Savage worlds has a system that effectively all things have 1 point of easily renewed HP, and either 1 or 3 hp that cannot be recovered during a session by anything short of magic)

The only change is their HP, which is converted to something reasonably the same as the people of this world, also weapon damage/enemy HP

 

In my mind I would just apply some form of commonsense, or talk it over with players before beginning....or just make it up as I go along...as I usually do.

 

and most other types of bonuses from D&D would end up increasing the odds of success for actions by 50% or more or allow for doing an additional action at no cost per turn.

I am struggling to see how this is actually a problem, unless DnD has a multiple action skill that I am not otherwise aware of you would either rule that you were using the DnD system (Multiple actions at level X or whatever) or the Savage World's system (Multiple actions at -2)

Where you got 'What we will do is take a Savage World's skill and then, for no explicable reason, take a DnD dice roll, and fuse them together to make things far far far more likely to occur' I have no idea.

 

But even supposing you did go for some strange fusion of the game, having it more likely to succeed isn't really that major a deal because all the players would get an equal bonus, and so no one would die more often as a direct result of that...

More havok would be wrought, there is no question of that, but that is mildly the point of the game.