Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:45 am

OgreBattle wrote: You remember what they did with them though? I believe the main complaint that it was minor stuff like a 4e "push 1 square" atwill power

These are two fifth level fighter abilities that need even rolls to trigger.

13th age book wrote: A Dozen Cuts
Flexible melee attack
Triggering Roll: Any natural even hit
Effect: The target also takes ongoing damage equal to double your Dexterity modifier, or triple it at 8th level.
Champion Feat: Once per battle, you can trigger a dozen cuts with a natural odd hit.
Hero’s Skill
Flexible melee or ranged attack
Triggering Roll: Any natural even miss
Effect: Add +2 to the attack roll, then halve any damage dealt by
the attack if it hits.
Champion Feat: Add +4 to the attack roll instead of +2.
Epic Feat: The damage is no longer halved on a hit after using hero’s skill.

This is an attack of a monster:

Jagged longsword +15 vs. AC
(2 attacks)—15 damage
Natural even hit: One nearby lower level mook makes an attack as a free action.

It's possible that there exist abilities that do more exciting things with the concept, it's a pretty long book.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:26 am

How the hell does Races of the Wild not have elven druid substitution levels?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:58 pm

RPG ignorance question: What do the terms "heartbreaker" and "kitchen sink" refer too?

schpeelah · Post by **schpeelah** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:10 pm

Shrapnel wrote:RPG ignorance question: What do the terms "heartbreaker" and "kitchen sink" refer too?

"Heartbreaker" is a an RPG made of some game G who wants to make G but all fixed. Original usage was "fantasy heartbreaker" referring to such games derived from D&D. "Heartbreaker" because of the emotional investment of the authors and the almost universal failure of such projects.

"Kitchen sink", originally "fantasy kitchen sink" is a TvTropes term describing a setting with an outrageous number of fantastical elements without common origin. Think comic book universes for instance, or what Planescape tells us it is.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:13 pm

The specific etymology of the kitchen sink nomenclature is that they threw everything but the kitchen sink into the setting, an idiom that I only know because it was used as part of a gag on Hey Arnold once.

silva · Post by **silva** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:16 pm

Hmm, I've never thought of Planescape as a kitchen-sink kind of setting. Perhaps because I associate the term with generic settings like Forgotten Realms or Yrth.

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 8:36 pm

Kitchen Sink refers to the phrase "everything and the kitchen sink", and is a reference to a setting that throws everything it can into itself. D&D is a fantasy kitchen sink because it has all sorts of fantasy trope shit, as well as the things that are D&D only things.

Heartbreaker means an RPG system that is a derivative of another popular system. It's deciding "I'll make my own {popular system}! With blackjack! And hookers!". It's called a heartbreaker because it will always break the designer's heart, either because it will never fix all of the base game's problems or because it will never be seen as a proper successor.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:10 pm

Apparently before World War I the phrase was "everything but the kitchen stove." But for over a hundred years we've been saying "everything but the kitchen sink" instead. No idea why it changed, but for my whole life and the lives of my grandparents, the phrase has been "kitchen sink."

The Fantasy Heartbreaker term was actually created by Ron Edwards as a term of condescension. But despite the fact that Ron Edwards is a twatshitter, he could at times turn a phrase. And Fantasy Heartbreaker was a cool sounding term to describe something that we needed a word for and didn't have one.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:10 am

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"

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 3:04 am

Prak wrote: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"

Expand on those:

Vaguely RIFTS-inspired mega-crossover setting without RIFTS' trap character options.
Hot-swappable characters (Wizard and Cleric vs Warlock and Sorcerer)
Craft mechanics involving hot-swappable components
Greyhawking. Greyhawking the everything. Down to bedrockbaseplate

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 4:03 am

If you don't mind a high level of crunch, HERO would work pretty well for the Lego thing. 6E probably, since the lack of figured characteristics makes building a character out of modular parts easier.

You just stat up each piece as a set of powers / stats / etc, put that on a card, and stick that on your character sheet when you add it to your figure. Equipment, vehicles, and bases are all built the same way, so it works for whatever type of parts you're salvaging.

One thing to note - the default stance of HERO is "you pay for what you get" - ie. looting for permanent bonuses is not a thing. But nothing breaks if you ignore that, it's just something you should tell people is different if they've played it before.

Wulfbanes · Post by **Wulfbanes** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 1:36 pm

Prak wrote: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 for Lego out there: Brikwars.

It has some rules on how your model looks versus what it can do as a result. You could do worse for a starting point.

8d8 · Post by **8d8** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 3:06 pm

Prak wrote: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"

Is it Minecraft in meatspace? Do you have to start with $300 worth of Lego blocks, build a map with caves and crap, then have players make rolls to destroy/collect the landscape and fight monsters? Or is it TotM where you just describe the landscape and the monsters you find, and every bit of loot is a Lego piece, from dirt blocks to tires? Then you take your booty back to a base and use it to make something cool that occasionally gets attacked?

Using Minecraft as a base concept works pretty well. Your goal is to acquire resources and build things, and the world wants to kill you. Throw in all the Lego tech you can, but have requirements not unlike a FTB modpack where you have to build machines to make the stuff you need for more machines, etc. Build a weak base, make it better, defend it, rebuild what was destroyed, make it stronger, expand to fill needs, etc.

But maybe your concept is one I don't get. I never had a Lego set, I was a Construx kid.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 5:24 pm

My kids recently watched a LEGO movie (but not THE LEGO movie). I believe Clutch Powers was in the name. A trio of criminals escaped a secure prison in 'space'. One of the criminals fled to a medieval world where technology just doesn't work.

If you don’t want ray guns with knights, you have to give regions 'tech levels'. With Castle, Pirates, Town, and Space you have at least 4 tech levels. If you want to include things like Chima or Marvel things are less clear. In any case, if gunpowder works in Tech Level 2+, the pirates aren't going to be able to use cannons against the Castle Legos (Tech 1).

The Space stuff would be 'the best', but you couldn't use it in a lot of places. Since you'd expect the characters to interact with different tech levels, they would need base attributes that interact with the equipment. Effectively you'd have 5 equipment lists. A 'healing kit' at Tech 5 could bring a character back to life. At Level 1 it might drain VP to restore WP.

The system would also benefit from having part replacement rules. No reason you couldn't replace your hand with someone else's.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 5:38 am

I want druids in my world to be able to organize meetings among all members of the class with animal messenger. Assume there are ten elder druids in a faerun sized world, and they're around 8th level or so, with high wisdoms (there aren't really high level npcs in my world because gods were highly interventionist and people didn't need to attain high level personally) and that they're set up in whatever would be the best way for this. So, like, they have banners that can serve as landmarks to send animals too, and it's codified that when you get an "All druids bulletin" you basically stop what you're doing and rest to prep new spells so you can cast AM and send it on to the next druid.

What is the fastest that druids could expect to get the word out in this way? Am I looking at days or weeks or what?

RelentlessImp · Post by **RelentlessImp** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:20 am

Assuming an Iron Age population of numbers-pulled-from-my-ass of 100 million and the propagation of spellcasters being around 1%, which is 1 million, into which several types of spellcasters must fit, let's call it around 10,000 druids total of lower level spellcasters that the 10 elder druids must contact.

The 8th level Druids can contact 3-5 7th level druids, so that's a total of 30-50 contacted in that way. The 7th level druids can contact 3-4 6th level druids each, so that's 90-200. The 6th level druids can contact 3-4 5th level Druids, so that's 270-800. The 5th level druids can contact 2-3 4th level druids, so 540-2400. The 4th level druids can contact 2-3 3rd level druids, 1080-7200. The 3rd level druids, finally, can contact 1-2 2nd level or lower druids, 1080-14,400.

So that's a total of 3090-25,050 druids contacted in a single day of all 2nd level slots dedicated to animal messenger, which is probably, depending on your demographics, more than enough animal messengers to contact every Druid in the world within however long it takes for the message to go from the first round of contacts to the last, depending on distance.

Alternately, if the higher level druids are filling 3rd level and higher spell slots with animal messenger, then each 8th level Druid can contact 8-11 7th level Druids each, which is 80-110 total, who in turn contact 6-9 each, which is 480-990 6th level druids. They can contact 5-7 5th level Druids each, 2400-6390. The 5th level can contact 3-5 4th level druids, which is 7200-31950 druids. They can contact 2-3 Druids each, 14400-95850. And finally the 3rd level Druids can contact 1-2 druids each, for another 14,400-191,700 druids.

The second scenario leads to a total of 38,960-326,990 Druids contacted in a single day of spellcasting, which is probably a few orders of magnitude higher than actual druids in your setting.

EDIT: Math corrected on first example, because somehow I thought 200*4=600, not 800.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:51 am

Wow. I greatly underestimated how quickly this sort of message system could work. Thanks.

deaddmwalking · Post by **deaddmwalking** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 3:23 pm

Note that the example doesn't add in the day required for each druid to prepare spells. It also assumes a 'perfect distribution' and all high druids beginning the summoning right away. It also assumes the animal messenger succeeds and is able to reach the next druid in reasonable time. So a reasonable result is going to be much less than the theoretical result. Also, the numbers above assume that each druid was contacted one time.... If not every messenger succeeds, you'll want to send duplicates. Finally, if you want to confirm the message is received you'll want to send a message back to the sender.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 3:52 pm

One important thing to remember about Lego is that each Theme has its own metaplot.

Rock Raiders are asteroid miners in space, whose ship has been damaged in uncharted territory. They're mining energy crystals on an unknown planet to repair and refuel their ship so that they can get home. And they run into rock creatures that are native to the planet they're mining.

Power Miners, on the other hand, are from contemporary America. They're sent into underground caverns by the government to investigate weird shit, which turns out to be rock monsters.

The Egypt Theme has Australian archeologist Johnny Thunder and his team trying to find a mystical ruby guarded by a mummy before the antagonist Baron von Baron does.

Life on Mars is set in the future, during the first attempts to colonize Mars, and is about the relationships between the Astronauts and the native Martians.

Aquanauts is about a war between two factions for control of underwater power crystal mines.

Time Twisters involves a conflict between two factions of time travelers, one of which has learned how to use time paradoxes caused by stealing important artifacts as a power source and the other which wants to stop them from changing history.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:27 pm

deaddmwalking wrote:Note that the example doesn't add in the day required for each druid to prepare spells. It also assumes a 'perfect distribution' and all high druids beginning the summoning right away. It also assumes the animal messenger succeeds and is able to reach the next druid in reasonable time. So a reasonable result is going to be much less than the theoretical result. Also, the numbers above assume that each druid was contacted one time.... If not every messenger succeeds, you'll want to send duplicates. Finally, if you want to confirm the message is received you'll want to send a message back to the sender.

Yeah. But the standard procedure in world is to stop what you're doing and prep new spells. And I'm thinking of making the model something more along the lines of each elder sends messengers to set locations that are the centers of their tradition in a given area, with like 6th level druids that tend to not go far, and know where the druids under them are. With some organization, the actual speed should be close to the theoretical speed.

Wulfbanes · Post by **Wulfbanes** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:38 pm

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), the minimum time to spread the message is still the travel time required for the fastest tiny animal to get from one side of the world to the other. Find out Faerûn's size or decide upon it, and you can make the calculation by deciding on an overland travel speed for your messengers.

Distance covered is the hardest limitation, not the amount of castings required.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:02 pm

Ducks can travel at ~70km/h, so you'd cover most of the globe in a week, or the continental US in a bit over a day, closer to three days from an edge. Ocean crossings could slow you a bit, having to work around the edges, but not much.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 10:25 pm

And D&D worlds are pitifully small.

AcidBlades · Post by **AcidBlades** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:53 am

Why is it that DnD players (at least on the net) seem to enjoy playing low-level games? It's frankly kind of annoying in a way.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 6:31 am

At a guess, I would say it probably has a lot to do with Tolkien.