The Gaming Den

RPGPundit going the full Franco is something that surprised me more than it should have. Right now, I just genuinely don't even know what his goals are. I mean, he doesn't want the man who was extremely credibly accused of abusing his girlfriend to be thrown under the bus by corporations that he di...

Fucking with each other was the driving conflict in the MH games I played, but having an establishing reason for the characters to be in the same scenes consistently was tricky. Preventing a Carrie situation with one of the NPCs half the group decided to fuck with ended up being the driving plot poi...

There's a Divine Bard in 3.5, the non-Arcane magic bullshit Monks can do plus the pseudo-Oriental pure soul mysticism makes them Cleric + Rogue if you squint, but the Pathfinder Inquisitor is flat out Cleric + Rogue. Cleric + Druid is a Druid that doesn't turn into a bear, or a Spirit Shaman. Arcane...

I didn't know Sarah Newton worked on LoA and made Mindjammer; that's pretty neat. But yeah, writers either write to an existing market or fill an underserved niche they want to see. It also feels more impactful to me when you get a unique game perspective from a minority voice than when you get a he...

merxa wrote:Alternatively the best alchemist archetype is likely the investigator class.

Unless Investigator got a lot of new tech, or being INT-SAD makes you horny, isn't that the other way around?

Can't the Investigator still not meaningfully contribute to combat until level 4?

You don't need to make your mental health worse by reviewing this mess; take as much time as you need to get your mind right.

So how does Shadowrun handle the "spam your best spell" problem that comes with being able to cast everything you know until you faint? Drain codes and Force, I think. The amount of damage you've already taken, plus the general unpredictability of the Drain roll disincentivizes rolling fa...

I saw a Kickstarter for some Spire splatbooks that looked seriously fun, though my order won’t show up for a while. https://rowanrookanddecard.com/spire-rpg/ I like the idea of a campaign specifically oriented around revolution in an oppressed city, and the published adventures look seriously fun. ...

I read about Overlight sometime last year on Adrian Tchaikovsky's blog. He seemed pretty hyped, but I didn't see anything that really caught my imagination. I was looking for a compelling "this is what you do", or even "here is what your crazy powers can do". I'm afraid I didn't...

Giving them out on level-up means that people have no means of getting things they'd want (the ability to perform stunts, proficiency with exotic weapons, etc.) during adventures when you'd actually want to gain those abilities and instead only between adventures. What are some potential viable alt...

The idea of a resource management mini game is to give a player tactically interesting choices during a game, one of which is "do I blow my load now or do I conserve". Another is "can/should I use X right now? If not, how do I get in a situation to use X". Another thing is, the a...

The reason I didn't post the first time, is that I kinda thought "I don't care if the Hulk could beat up Spiderman (well, I DO care, but you know...)." Whether or not a "high-power" character could beat up a "low-power" character (or how useful each character is with t...

Kaspersky Free and Windows Defender/Security Essentials plus common sense are the best choices for free. They'll work unless there are very specific security situations you need to be handled.

But if you're going for the 4-color tropes, then the acceptable result for Hulk punching Spider-Man is for Spidey be thrown through a wall and fall unconscious on the other side after muttering a last quip. I had kind of assumed that this what was meant by "redmist." Not literally dissolv...

I get the point you're trying to make, it's just wrong. You keep saying things like this, and then go on to agree strenuously with me. Like, here's your latest thesis statement: You can use source material power declarations. It's just that due to the medium, those declarations become fixed in an R...

People lost their minds over the Swordmage because it actually had decent damage mitigation for its punish and could Voltron together a sticky ZoC off an at-will. There was also a version with a gap closer which people loved, even though it sucked.

That seems like a lot of splinting hairs, except for Wizard and Berzeker all the classes you've mentioned are essentially purple. Like the difference between +2/+0 offensive advantage and +1/+1 offensive advantage does not seem that meaningful. It is when SAME is tuned to the point being 4 up on so...

jt: I imagine the issue is that some, if not all of the 10 units of useful mundane things you give to martials are things every humanoid adventurer can do. So if you divvy up the mundane units among the martials, and any of the 35 units given to casters can enhance or replace the mundane units, you ...

General data retention studies show people can remember an average of seven unique things, give or take two, without strain. Chunking things into groups helps increase the number of things people can remember, since remembering the group triggers memory of the elements in the group.

If we're talking about people with black shiny buttons being able to call down the wrath of gods, raise the dead, desecrate the land, or really do anything a Cleric of 5th level or higher can do, then you're goddamned right those people are getting sent to the gulag for the good of the state. You're...

Also, D&D 3.PF is my personal favorite system, for a variety of reasons <"System matters" but in 3 paragraphs of condescending vitriol> It's telling, Frank, that you quoted this bit Also, D&D 3.PF is my personal favorite system, for a variety of reasons and not this more important...

The claim that all religions have exorcisms is just as valid as the claim that I now make: That all religions have Minotaurs and therefore Minotaurs and the belief in them are a cornerstone of faith. The Greeks have Minotaurs, there are multiple bull headed figures in Christianity, Brahma has the h...

I was taking a backhanded shot at modern magical belief and didn't mean to be offensive. The whole idea of Will is just generic faith that the universe will give you cake and blowjobs if you believe it hard enough (and do the right superstitious tics). Putting it like that, it does seem pretty shitt...

Sylvan Sorcerers are honestly pretty cool in the tabletop game, too.

Someone denouncing religious demagoguery with a big red badge that says Atheist on their posts is funny. So is the idea of prospective Van Helsings keeping kids with them to drive back the monsters (which can also give a Monsters and Other Childish Things angle). Scientologists making movies about t...