It came to a head this Tuesday. Last Tuesday, my main game ended in the midst of combat with the players locking away the solo monster in an impossible situation. Then they wanted to whittle her down and kill her but that would have taken about 50 rounds in-game so… a whole session if we ran it quickly. To solve this, two of the programmers in my group decided to write software to simulate a million runs of this to get a probability of how long it’ll actually take to bring her to 0, and that’s without taking into account the various defenses and backups a vampire, and especially her, has to protect themselves. I know that programming interesting thing could be really fun but let me say that again: two people who like to play the game decided to invest several hours of their lives to avoid playing one part of the game. This very much resonated with something Matt Colville has been saying they want to step away from in MCDM’s own game, the fact that in D&D combat, characters go all out at the start of combat and the more it lasts, the more of an unfun slog it becomes. Which is stupid for a game about a high-magic, superhero-esque fantasy of fighting monsters for cool shit and maybe saving the world. Combat should get more fun the more time it takes and it should usually end in a few short rounds. So, this Tuesday, after simulations Continue Reading →
Posted in No Category and tagged D&D, RPGs by Eran with .
Here we go, another Barbarian. Let’s hope it’s a good one. Dismantle Kind of like becoming a siege weapons if it wasn’t really cool. You ignore damage threshold of non-magical items, whatever that means, and you deal double rage damage to constructs. Not double damage, double rage damage. Maybe with that it should have been higher level but if this is the Wrecker then let it wreck. Percussive Maintenance I’m all for it. I’m actually thinking that this should be the 3rd level feature and what I suggested for the last one should be the 6th level feature. This one allows the Wrecker to hack system with brute strength instead of intelligence, ultimately breaking the thing. It’s great. Disarm Foe This is kind of funny and cool. A Wrecker is a master of breaking things and ripping things apart? This one applies to creatures. The full mechanical description is more specific but you can, basically, rip enemies limbs off and beat them with them. I like this a lot. Just, too bad we had to get to 10th level to get this. Crush, Smash, Bash This is a cool ability but not good enough. You can now start breaking armor to the point of reducing its effectiveness. As it is, it costs nothing but only reduces armor by 4. I would say it should cost something but can eventually break worn, non-magical armor entirely, something like ‘reduce it but no more than 10 + Dexterity Modifier. That would be something. Continue Reading →
Posted in No Category, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud and tagged D&D, Dark Matter, Review by Eran with .
Month the First
Posted in No Category and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
I decided I don’t really have the bandwidth to handle this challenge along with everything else this year, so I’m going to delegate it to ChatGPT, or Geppetto from now on. So, I’m going to keep the current entries but restart with Geppetto being my writer and me just being the Editor-in-Charge. I will give them an outline, and I will make sure the entries are grammar correct and not nonsense but most of the work will done by the bot. Let’s see what we have at the end of the year. Every entry will have a percentage attached to it, designating how much of it is actually Geppetto. The more I have to edit or add to it, the less it’ll be. Also, to keep from flooding the blog with a ton of entries very quickly, I will have every month in their own entry and bump it at the end of the month. New entries coming over the weekend. Hopefully. It depends on Geppetto’s availability which isn’t 100%. P.S. I think I’m going to stop using categories and switch to tags only. Let’s see how it goes.
Posted in No Category and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene Sights Sounds Smells Touch Pillars Exploration Combat
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene Sights Sounds Smells Touch Taste Pillars Exploration Combat
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene Sights Sounds Smells Touch Taste NPCs Mostly Absorbed Humanoid Motivation Mostly Absorbed Humanoid Information Mostly Absorbed Humanoid Pillars Exploration Social Combat Tension Timeframes Triggers Complications End
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene Sights Sounds Smells Touch Taste Pillars Exploration Combat
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene The way back leads to 5. The Shaft Sights Sounds Smells Touch Taste Tension Timeframes + Triggers Complications + End
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .
Dungeon23 is a writing/drawing project for 2023 to write/draw one dungeon room every day with the purpose of having a mega-dungeon by the end of the year. Just look up #Dungeon23. The Scene Sights Sounds Smells Touch Taste Pillars Exploration Tension Timeframes: Every player movement or action. Triggers: Every actual interaction with the room. Complications: Everyone in the room must save against a medium fear effect or flee the room. End: When the room is no longer occupied.
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing and tagged dungeon23 by Eran with .