The Gaming Den

I don't play WoW, but I think DragonChild's actual points may be valid - he doesn't compare the rogue to the Death Knight - he describes how the options a Death Knight has are balanced against their other choices at those levels. The fact that a class has meaningful choices without the ability to ma...

While this is just feeding the derail (discussion of magic-level in LotR has nothing to do with whether guns can exist in fantasy) the point about the corruption is worth looking at. It didn't have any corrupting power that tugged on the people around Frodo, and certainly didn't turn Frodo to Sauron...

Ok, so Diablo III came out and people are playing it. Several things came to my attention: 1. Everyone has an option for combat control, defense, healing, AoE attacks, single target. Everyone can solo things. 2. Everything uses a mana-like resource that is specific to the class and some attacks add...

More importantly, how does the DM adjudicate either one? Unless he is both a great battlefield tactician and a Renaissance thinker, how does he decide if what they're suggesting is a good or bad thing? And, of course, there must be guidelines about what either one would allow a character to accompli...

LotR is low- level , not low magic. I'll take that. There is a fair amount of 'magic' that PROBABLY exists, but isn't definitive. But there's enough definitely there that it doesn't qualify as low-magic. I don't buy that Ents have to be a magical race (or that other races were necessarily created b...

Actually, I already have a system I play where everyone can learn spells. But, as you say, wizards are the best, by far. But I thought I'd throw out some ideas that might work under the 3rd edition rules.

My 4 year old has been having a blast watching My Little Pony. I say yes.

No. In standard D&D, only a few classes have access to spell-casting. In the case of clerics, it makes sense that only true devotion allows someone to cast the divine spells granted as a gift by a very real and knowable deity. But wizardly fluff makes it sound like a skill that anyone can learn ...

If magic is something you learn by training, it makes sense that anyone should be able to cast spells. Giving everyone access to learning spells is not a bad thing. I'd prefer that other classes have the ability to learn a small number of spells that they could actually cast in combat. Like the rogu...

The world of Lord of the Rings has magic in it - clearly as a feature of the world. The funny thing about some magic is that you can't actually tell if it works or not. Belief in magic is still strong in the modern world, and may have been stronger in earlier times. Tying a charm around your neck th...

In terms of protected combat roles, you could decide that Rogues have the protected roles of debuffing, creating opportunities for others to attack enemies, and dealing damage to protected enemies. Barbarians have the protected roles of moving characters around, debuffing and dealing damage to unpr...

I think most people recognize, at least intellectually, that being run through by a sword is just as deadly as having a bullet pass through your body. Sure, lots of people survive being stabbed, and lots of people survive being shot - but both are pretty effective ways of killing someone. The thing ...

Oooh, ooh, I got one! Suck a barrel of cocks: A generic insult employed on the Gaming Den when a generic denigration of problems in behaviour, assumptions or design is required, and the specifics should be obvious. Man, did I wildly misinterpret that. I thought it was used like, "DeadDMWalking...

While that might be a part of it, I think the consensus is that most people who believe that guns don't belong in fantasy like a type of fantasy that doesn't have guns. I am getting the idea that you think that the position I am talking about (That you cannot have guns in fantasy) doesn't exist, si...

While that might be a part of it, I think the consensus is that most people who believe that guns don't belong in fantasy like a type of fantasy that doesn't have guns.

That's terrible. It's not a problem if gunpowder weapons are a part of the game, or even if they get introduced by player action within the game. But it's not appropriate to assume your Character has knowledge of the Anarchist's Cookbook. It's no more reasonable to allow a character to make black-po...

No matter what "reasonableness" restrictions you put on stealth, it will never, ever stop team monster from sneaking up on the PCs. So any "reasonableness" limits on stealth are always an anti-player rule. And yet, nevertheless, I've seen appeals to reasonableness used just as o...

I think that if you can do heroic things at 1st level, and continue to do heroic things at higher levels, the system works. If the system explicitly says 'you can't be effective at 1st level' - that's where it becomes a problem. If you're fighting armies of orcs at 3rd level and you're fighting armi...

That is true. High level PCs should be able to have a meaningful effect on the game world because high level NPCs have an effect on the game world. Ideally, even low-level characters will be able to have a meaningful effect. I admit to not being familiar with 4th edition, and I have not downloaded o...

A couple of weeks ago I took my 4-year-old daughter to Dollywood. It's nearby, but it was the first time either one of us had gone. She's exactly 42" tall, and she's lucky she was, because lots of rides have a 42" requirement to be allowed to go on them. She's a brave girl, and she went on...

No, fantasy is not defined entirely by the presence/absence of magic. A fantasy wherein a man engages in carnal acts with three or more attractive ladies is often just as much a fantasy as being a wizard with a pointy hat. Some fantasies are just a little more likely than others. A fantasy setting d...

Guns are an element of our modern society (like other aspects of ShadowRun). The poster in question probably didn't spend a lot of time explaining his objection to guns, but in this case he probably means 'high-fantasy' or 'traditional fantasy' when he says 'fantasy'. If you compare Yojimbo and A Fi...

I think TarkisFlux is right - not being noticed should represent stealth. As a result, a creature that has no eyes and does not 'see' may not suffer any penalty on observation - they may have other sources that make them just as aware of their surroundings. Nobody objects to the idea of sneaking pas...

Personally, I think that Stealth (and perception) should be universal to all senses. Things like Move Silently and Scent should just be specializations within those skills. If you have a Good Eyesight specialization for Perception it very often applies except in condition of total darkness or whate...

[*] If you don't adhere to the old rulings, it's doubtful that you're playing a game at all. Because apparently you do the same action and can expect different results like you were in the mind of a crazy person or reality itself was run by someone who was incredibly dickish. -Username17 This may b...