The Gaming Den

Here's an even more fundamental question that needs to be asked: Do we really want people to have more actions a round as they level up? I mean, while it is loads of fun to combo separate big effects, there are a few huge stumbling blocks that you can't really solve just with relentless playtesting...

This is a pretty neat idea. If I ever run After Sundown again, I might try to mathhammer out a working implementation and throw it in. You could use something like the escalation die from 13th age as well and maybe have the backing off action decrease the die's effect. I immediately jumped to that ...

I believe zone control more or less defines Doomtown.

Without a direct combat use for intimidate, is it really necessary to separate it from Persuade? I think you could just make "intimidating" a modal state for Persuade where you're getting some bonus in exchange for a short term effect and attitude swing or something similar. Also, I think ...

While I would agree that the less savvy like myself don't know, but I can easily make a google search in the time it takes to make this post. However, stuff like the "furry Bolgani" I can't seem to find on simple google searches, so there is merit in wanting to deliver some context. I thi...

The defenders of The Union know with certainty that it is possible for them to lose, possible for the combined peoples of this world to be enslaved or wiped away without a trace. But there is no way to be certain that any positive outcome is even possible. The Union's protectors have chosen to figh...

So, terrible rape analogies and accusation of logical fallacy aside, this is fundamentally an argument about whether or not jumping on the back of dragons to stab them with swords is stupid or not, right? Could we maybe move the argument back a layer and expand on that? I'm not yet persuaded one way...

For the elementalist, how about rolling one die to determine which element is good? Whatever element you role is "ascendant" for the round and you get it's good powers. If the element changes, then the old ascendant element is either weak or unavailable this round. If it doesn't change, th...

a well written power in a good system should take up no more then 1/4 if a page. if your changing the usage, the area, the damage type and the effect it has why not just write a new power? it also leans to confusion for new players rather then looking at one power entry they now have to look at the...

I believe that the general purpose of both fireball spells is to "do fire damage in an area." I am talking from a gameist view, what is the purpose of the spell in each class. that is what causes problems when classes share powers, the value of a spell known for a sorc and wizard is diffe...

I believe that avoiding at least half of these wouldn't actually be that hard. Obscurity and how well written each 'variant' is written can be avoided just by not doing write ups for each variant [Halfling]. Instead, just make the [Halfling] race, give them a general description, a single trait sha...

As I understand it, the "problem" that those success at a cost mechanics are trying to solve is "sometimes rolling a failure results in no change to the game state." In that case, I can't see a real benefit to the mechanic that can't just be covered with clearer rules for timing,...

Fantasy Craft is releasing their big book of magic, only about 3 and a half years late.

Spellbound Announcement

Immersion comes of keeping character motivations and player motivations aligned This is the whole thing. As long as I'm not expected to make decisions my character can't make (with maybe some small leeway for luck based powers, like rolling opting to reroll a bad roll) immersion is maintained. If I...

The single most satisfying thing I've done in a board game lately, is building a first or second turn port in Archipelago and selling the first round of pineapples to Europe for stupid amounts of money, while locking everyone else effectively out of the export pineapple market forever.

So has anyone outside of this thread found a review of 5e that has anything broadly critical to say about it? Because even people I generally trust to review other products are getting starry-eyed about it, and I'd like some faith in humanity again.

Deckbuilding games can be pretty masturbatory, as each player is ofen building their own deck in isolation without much incentive to interact with the other players. That, and it's often pretty easy to isolate an ideal strategy in games like Dominion where you directly purchase you victory points. I...

On twitter some people asked about digital tools, and Mearls responded being deliberately vague. So it is within the realm of possibility that they are aiming for some form of SRD/Character Builder/whatever, but don't want to announce it until it's ready to launch for fear of a repeat of 4e's onlin...

But actually I still prefer an example from the old WOTC boards. The standing advice there for every problem a GM ever faced was "Hit trouble player in the head with a brick/hammer!". This advice had several flaws. That is precisely the opposite of the meme. The "advice" was &qu...

Is there any official justification for the 4e warlock's power? They make some sort of agreement with some sort of big power and apparently get free magic powers without any obligation? Every time I bring it up anywhere, all I get are "I've amusing refluffed the power this way" but the pre...

Hmmm, this card here suggests Kit can speak to Ice or something. That would totally explain his ability of treating Ice as "code gates" - so he can speak to any Ice to allow her passage. Awesome. That is also the in-universe explanation for breaking bioroid subroutines by spending clicks....

It's specifically the first program, and he has one influence outside of that. So, he gets 1 copy of any program he'd like out of faction, and then he can take another copy of a 1-influence program if he'd like. Honestly, he's not great right now, partially because he was released with the shaper me...

The mechanic only rewards metagaming if the group playing it is composed of powergamers. Indeed, any mechanic rewards metagaming for this kind of group - min-maxers will min-max regardless of system. Trying to build anti-min-maxers rules is futile. Thats my point. ;) Gosh. That's brilliant. Do you ...

Gold and Indigo aren't particularly well differentiated, at least in that example. One is aiming more lawful than the other, but the differences are pretty weak.

The one thing I can't figure out is the hiding rules. What is the relationship between the involved rolls and the base time precisely?