The Gaming Den

Mordheim in campaign settings had Underdog Experience bonuses, where if you faced another warband of a higher value, your lads were probably not going to win, but they'd get a bunch of catchup experience.

There just is a Leverage RPG (add pdf to that and you'll have hits). I think its thing was that you can do flashbacks to prep instead of having to do actual prep, just like in the tv series.

The monsters are deeply unthreatening in 4th edition, and as you increase in levels and numbers that becomes increasingly true. By tenth level, people were seriously suggesting increasing the number of minions by a factor of four to eight and it wasn't making much difference. But then on the flip s...

There's the Worm webfiction that does a pretty neat job of superpowered society and a universal cause, and some classification schemes. It has whole wikis to read through. As far as word count goes, it goes about a third of the Wheel of Time series, but there's also a full on free audiobook version ...

Today's XKCD seems relevant.

Mordheim or Bloodbowl video games any good? Blood Bowl is alright. You can toggle between playing it with the game rules as on dice, or as some live event that is not good. Mordheim is an outright disappointment. There is no way to play anything like the tabletop game. They took name identity, and ...

Strike is alright. It was a okay to read, but I doubt I'd actually play it. There is no campaign hook, just a different generic system that looks familiar if you've read 4e, but without some of its pitfalls. Its best part is the combat mini-game, and the rest is mostly superfluous bulk. There's a pu...

Why limit them to the colours at all? There's certainly been more First Strike than just in White and Red, and nearly all the abilities have seen use in a variety of decks. Since you're pre-genning, the division doesn't even come into it. Ground Ambush is really weak compared to the rest. Just make ...

I've played with tracking ritual components in 4e. There was an Arcane, Religion and Nature specific-material, and a catchall 'good for everything' supermaterial. We got the components from looting, butchering and salvaging monster corpses and enemy hideouts. It felt like a nice way to go about givi...

Basically, the more dice you throw, the less likely it is to get a high or low result. Instead you'll roll 'average' more often. It makes things like high AC much better, since lucky crits from mooks happen a whole less often, etc.

You want Soldier first level due to all the proficiencies. Value of Int (skills) and feasability of Iron Man depend on how disempowered your GM wants you to be during social events, and their prevalence. Is it 'not done' to be in armor during talks, etc. The best skill in the game is Initiative. The...

75% off right away. What a prediction.

Working Link for the Let's Play

I played it a few years back on a recommendation, but couldn't chew myself through it. Whatever there are as game mechanics are pretty terrible. It might be worth a watch, but not a play, I'd say.

Goths is a scene you choose.

Yeah, Tier is a popular term to talk about more powerful magic.

I agree on Munchhausen. Explaining the game takes a minute at it's worst, the game becomes immediately transparent at the first two penalties or so. It's a game that's fun in short bursts, and doesn't lend itself well to hours in a row, even if it's fun multiple times.

Survey Q: How many different games do you play in? A: Three. Q: How often does your main group meet? A: One twice a week. Two every other week (alternating Sundays). Both ran for years, so all qualify for main group. Q: How long are your sessions typically? A: Twice a week, for 2-3 hours online lat...

I read through the Leverage RPG, and wasn't too impressed. The resolution mechanic seems broken, due to being infinitely able to keep raising the odds. If you ignore the "Aha, but actually!" part of the rules, it becomes usable, maybe?

Animal messenger will not instantly travel, it'll travel as fast as the fastest tiny animal you have. Since the message originates from one point, even if the whole globe was covered in druids capable of casting the spell reliably at each other to get around the time limitation (1 day per level), th...

That's a weak argument, virgil. From the wiki, it does implicitly have nanotechnology, terraforming, Zero-G living, upgrading animal sapience, a computer virus that can infect both machines and animals, and (wait for it) non-theoretical but actual space ships. The applied and available technology fa...

What would be a good system for a Lego rpg? I kind of want to write one, but I'm not entirely sure what all a lego rpg needs to be able to accomodate beyond "make stuff in game from legos" and "accomodate guys with stone clubs and guys with high tech blasters" There's a wargame ...

I don't think there is one, or everyone would be all over it. To make a free-form magic system not suck, it should not be: "Buy your flavour of magic, MTP the results", but probably "Buy the effects of your magic, MTP the flavour." That'd require the definition of as many effects...

You're speaking of multiple damage tracks with varying timeframes. It sounds like a pain to bookkeep, without adding fun to the table. Also, it is so complicated and full of steps, it has essentially become a HP system, which seems like what you wanted to resolve in the first place. This sounds like...

This makes me smile.

In Shadowrun I found that every player having the same amount of initiative passes makes them enjoy the game better when combat breaks out. All players having 2 passes, mooks having 1 pass, bad ass guys 2 passes and solo monstrosities 3 passes seems to make everything better, without characters havi...