tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post3544285045534368617..comments2023-06-08T08:26:07.304-05:00Comments on Advanced Gaming & Theory: Blog Carnival: Mistakes, Me? Never!RipperXhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-34345616801162141962009-10-07T00:34:04.441-05:002009-10-07T00:34:04.441-05:00Brooze, please do not take offense to my comment o...Brooze, please do not take offense to my comment on your AD&D game, while yes it might seem intensive to me, it does not mean I would not enjoy the game play of Canonical AD&D. I do love to immerse myself into character, just not as much into intensive game mechanics as others might be. I agree it is the Dm who helps bring the game to the players, but the players help bring the game to life.Arthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15123793414669877987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-22620213794943023542009-10-06T11:05:37.195-05:002009-10-06T11:05:37.195-05:00Art,
As a DM, you go as detailed into the rules a...Art,<br /><br />As a DM, you go as detailed into the rules as the players want to go into their characters.<br />Character development adn growth can be a lot of fun, especially if yuo want to get past knock the door down, kill the monster, take the treasure. The player does not need to know tye rules mchanics, all s/he needs to know is exactly WHAT the character does in the game. Te play is about storytelling. In my game a player who picks a weapon based on PH tables will not doa s well as a player who knows soemthing about how that weapon was actually used. IN AD&D a two-handed sword is a two handed sword, and according to the AD&D canon, two identical charcatyers fighting with the same armor, same stats and same wepon will win or lose solely on the strength of their die rolls. In MY game, one player might know that HISTORICALLY, two-handedd sword was used to break the heads off the polearms in formations of pikemen to make a cavalry breakthrough possible. In the German school of dueling with the two-handed sword, knights, who typically fouhgt with two-handed swords, wore armored gloves. The were trained to fight using all parts of the two-handed sword: To seing it like a sowrd, to swing it like a hammer using the pommel (the handle) to bash the opponents skull in, to hold it like a staff and to fight with it like one of Robin Hood's men, to hold it like a spear and to thrist with it to punch through armor, holding it with both hands by the blade. In other words, a knight skilled with the zweihander, could use it to fight out of reach of a longsword, fence with at the swordsman's reach,a dn also to fight with it in a clsoe battle, where a regular swordsmam will have to go for his dagger. Canonical AD&D does not take this into account. I do. In my game a player who just picks up Players Handbook and relies on the die rolls will lose to the dedicated player, who will seek to open or close distance for positional advantage, who will make use of the weapon's unique capabilities to achieve advantage over a passive player relying on game mechanics. Player skill prevails over die rolls. This does not go only for fighters or combat. I make riles to accomodate players desires. A player wanting to play a wizard will get challenging rules for acquiring and using magic. The key is to make the players ROLE-PLAY their character's training and leveling up. To the outsider these modifications might seem complex, but for the player, the detailed game emchanics necessary to manifest their character in the game is fun. For instance, WILDERNESS RULES, the outdoorman in the party will show a greater interst in tracking and exploration, and s/he will show more interest in that part of the game, then in Dungeon Exploration, where the Thief might be showing he most active interest. <br /><br />Player needs not kow the precise game mechanics, that's player's responsibility, player's end is to pay attention to what is happening in the story, making decisons for the charcater, telling the DM what, how, when the character does, and making sure that chartacter is properly equipped and trained. <br /><br />Very simple really, unless you are in it for the story and no to roll play, munchkin, powergame or hack and slash. You CAN, but chances are, you will not last very long.<br /><br />DM is a spider at the center of the web of rules mods and ideas, but the players are only aware of those strands of rules and ideas, which they touch with their interest.Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-46064741317369330242009-10-02T23:54:07.253-05:002009-10-02T23:54:07.253-05:00Really good article Ripper, you made some very val...Really good article Ripper, you made some very valid points about the game as does Brooze the Bear, but it seems to me as if his game mechanics go into adding more complicated rules. I always liked the fact the game was not exactly accurate as to me anyway you are using your imagination to live through what is happening to your character. I think it was because of my first DM's experience (or lack of) that the game he ran became so out of control as you had players cheating on dice rolls & etc. Maybe a little more know-how from him and the game would have run better. As for Brooze pointing out that a 1st level character could never kill a 12th level so what, the whole idea was that if your character was lucky enough to roll a 20 you actually hit him, yea you did not kill him, but you got his attention! As for doing double damage with a natural 20, in my old group we had something happen, because it was so rare for anyone to roll a unmodified 20, even the Dm. So if a player rolled a 20 he may have scored a crit. depending on who or what he was fighting and if the Dm did too then guess what his villain or whatever also got extra bennies just as the pc's did. I never really screwed with the magic system leaving that alone, except to let 1st level mages have spell components till their spells became complicated or rarer then they had to start making sure they had the correct spell components to cast the spells.Arthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15123793414669877987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-88849100736731288522009-10-01T14:04:51.841-05:002009-10-01T14:04:51.841-05:00I have no problem with house rules, but I do belie...I have no problem with house rules, but I do believe that they have their place. <br /><br />I don't know how old you are, Brooze, but when I was a kid, my favorite game was Legend of Zelda, the original one for the Nintendo. I sucked at Mario Bro., and struggled with almost every game that came out for that damned system, but I could kick some serious butt on Zelda! I was transformed into a videogame god! <br /><br />Zelda two came out, and historically speaking, this was a huge deal. Zelda II was the very first videogame sequel of all time, and in my opinion, it sucked big donkey nuts. They didn't stick with the formula, everything that I liked about the original was gone, and instead they turned it into a side stroller when all they had to do was make new mazes and maps, but they had no idea that that is all we wanted! This was fixed for the gameboy sequel, but the failure of Zelda 2 was instrumental in the video game business when it came to making people happy. We didn't want new, we didn't want a bunch of changes which the game writers thought would be fun, we didn't want a different and more challenging game, we simply wanted more Legend of Zelda because we had the original memorized from playing it so much.<br /><br />I think that D&D is the same way. I love Armor Class, and THAC0. I enjoy the way that magic is handled, and I love that the DM has lots to do, and the freedom which he has to really flavor the game. <br /><br />I really am not into war games, I enjoy the heroics, and the mystery of the thing. Writing stories which I have no idea how they will end, the combat is really secondary to me. The combat system works because that is D&D. <br /><br />This is also a historical exercise, struggling to find the game that it was truly intended to be, despite the house rules which we felt were cannon but were not. That is fun stuff! And that is Dungeons & Dragons.<br /><br />Add new monsters, add your own NWP's, these things you are encouraged to do! The game isn't complete without house rules, but if the foundation is not core, then it isn't Dungeons & Dragons and you might as well be playing something else.RipperXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506064393275174920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-83847641935136023752009-10-01T12:15:04.552-05:002009-10-01T12:15:04.552-05:00(3 of 3)
My oher mods are primarily done to teh s...(3 of 3)<br /><br />My oher mods are primarily done to teh skill system and how magic works. Skill syste is based on Runequest improvement by experience. As to magic, practicing magic is a mini-game in otself. There is nothing to prevent a mage fro tryin to learn a spell of a higher level (first level mage trying to scribe a Fireball spell) but the odds of success are very slim (2-7%) and it takes a very long time - several months as opposed to several days for the spell equal to charcter, and magical reserach is dangerous. So, difficult but not impossible, especially if there is a 9+ level wizard tutoring you one on one. To my thinking, casting spells is like a performance on which the wizard must maintain focus. Preapring spells for a day is akin to repetition (higher level spells require longer prep time). As the wizard eneters combat, he must ignore what is going on around him and cocnentrate on casting the spell. If he gets hit my anything the spell is lost. If te wizard manages to cast a spell once, he has a chance to cast it again that day. As the wizard grown fatigued and stressed out, the spell casting technique becoems less precise and so it is harder get everything right for the second casting of the same spell, so the chances for successfully casting a spell drop with each subsequent casting. Once the spell is lost, teh wizard needs to practice it again to get everything just right. Not magical gatling guns. A typical first level will most likely cast the first magic missile. Second, maybe, third if he is lucky, fourth time is highly unlikely. An so it goes, the unperedictable business of magic. Wizards have tough choices woith regards to non-weapon proficiencies. They can opt for meditation, arcane calligraphy, alchemy and sleight of hand - skills to make the casting of spells more reliable. Or they can opt for Astrology, Studies specific to each magical school, and ancient languages - skills to make the acquisition of spells easier. Scrolls are NOT written in "Magic", they are written in languges. Some modern, some old, some languages from distant lands, the best and most unusual spells are written in languages so ancient, that a few Lichs, Mummies, Demons, Vampires and scatered Sages might know them. And what would a Lich do, if it discovered that there is another person who speaks the same language as it? Kill that person, of course! For the Lichs are also known colloquially among Necromancers as "Keeper of the Secret". A quick one: Do you think that the knowledge you need to learn a Wish spell would be written in Common or in a dialect of what became Ancient Egyptian, of which no writtens amples survies and which is spoken by a few demons who were present and summned in that langauge long long time ago? Soem advenrture for a party of high level D&D players, eh? <br /><br />Anyway, MAGIC is nothing more than a body of knowledge acquired and organized in accordance with ceratain customs and mythodology, we call Arcane and or magical, much as SCIENCE is a body of knowledge organised in accordance with customs and methodologies of what we call the Scientific Method. A SPELL is the application of that magical knowledge to a specific situation in order to produce a specific effect (say Turn Flesh to Stone). In Magic, this is accomplished by the Magician (The Magic User) interpreting the greater body of knowledge and applyign it to a concrete situation in accordance with bis INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITIES. Each spell is a UNIQUE INTERPRETATION. No two magic missile spells are alike as scribed by two differebt wuzards. "Writing a magical spell into a wizard's spellbook" is nothing like copying a paragraph out of a textbook. Instead, the magic user figures out how to accomplish the spell's effects using everything that he or she knows from personal experiecne and all of teh skills at the magic user's disposal (sort of like an artist creating a masterpiece). A more experienced wizard can help guide the magic user, but they can not "teach" the magic user any spell!!!Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-56881285106068559892009-10-01T12:14:28.618-05:002009-10-01T12:14:28.618-05:00(2 of 3)
There is a hit location table, but you d...(2 of 3)<br /><br />There is a hit location table, but you don't roll on it unles you are confirming a critical hit, and you only roll if someone is wearing heavier armor or has a shield. There are three locations for the head (head, face, neck). Bassinet or full helm will cover all3, Great Helm will cover 2, and a stell cap will cover just 1. There are locations for hands, knees etc, every location that can be covbered by a metal armor piece. During dark ages, where every warrior carried a large shield, wore mostly leather, some cbain, few few lords had mail (plate) armor, experienced warriors would strap metal plates to their shins because that' were the axemen and spearmen (battleaxe did not have that FANTASY huge double blade, but had a LONGER metal handle to make it look almost silly with a smallish axe blade and make chopping fire with it impractical) used to go for. Axes were traditionally used in battle to hook, pull away and to splinter enemy sheields. You hook a guy's shield, jerk it away from him, your friend stabs the bastard in the face! That's while the shielded opponent is busy fighting sword to sword with yet a third guy on your team! OR, you can use your axe-head to hook the guy's shin, cut his hamstrings, and dude FALLS!!!! Then your friend who was fighting a duel with him can just kill him with a simple downward thrust while the idiot begs for his life or prays to go to Valhalla!!! Soooo,<br /><br />You roll on a hit location table, if the location of the critical hit is protected with metal (or heavier) armor piece, you need to rill versus AC2 to CONFIRM the critical hit. Most of the time there will be no critical hit, and the metal arnor would have worked. You will only get a critical hit on a natural 20 or close to it. The metal armor worked! With a metal armor piece you will not be able to get a "To Hit +5" roll until you reach Level 10 or so!<br /><br />You can not duplicate these hostoric combat effects with the tradition D&D rules, but with my house rules for a more realistic combat, my players get to learn from history!!!!<br /><br />I saw FEAR in my players eyes as they sighter enemy and prepared for battle!!! I saw GLEE and RAGE as they slaughtered the goblins, outlaws and others when they shrieked and tried to surrender!!!!<br /><br />Ahhh, AD&D on steroids!Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370162161693557709.post-1165480581020764352009-10-01T12:13:33.236-05:002009-10-01T12:13:33.236-05:00(1 of 3)
Rip,
you take a position that house-rul...(1 of 3)<br /><br />Rip, <br />you take a position that house-ruling a game is a mortal sin. That's not necessarily the case, especially with D&D. The bottom line is D&D's utter lack of realism when it comes to certain things. Under D&D rules a 1st level character sinmlpy CAN NOT kill a 12th level character with a normal arrow, no matter WHAT s/he rolls. in the real world, ANYONE can get killed from a single arrow, regardless of level. <br /><br />I understand the pit traps of blow by blow combat and the hit location tables. I avoided those.<br /><br />Another problem is that acording to the D&D rules, it will not make a difference whether you wear an open faced helmet, a full helm or no helm. Your armor class depends on the overall armor you are wearing.<br /><br />Still another problem is that weapons are largely defiend by the amount of damage they do. This is inaccurate historically. <br /><br />So I fixed all these bugs. It's qite common ense. The effect of the success or failure of a "To Hit" roll is to allow or deny the combatant what s/he wants to so. Every weapon has a reach: wrestling, stabbing, fencing, spear, pole arm. There will be penalties for using a spear at a wrestling or stabbing range, unless you hold it with both hands and use the spear shaft as a cudgel. <br /><br />As is historically the case, a swordsman facung a spearman, a short sword against the long sword will have to first close the distance before they attack. In a duel situation (one on one) as opposed to mass melee or formation combat, if the warrior with a shorter weapon does not score a hit and if the opponent with a longer weapon hits, the warrior with a shorter weapon does not close the distance! Theoretically speaking, a lucky goblin with a spear can hold a swordsman at bay in perputuity and eventually will kill him. Every one of goblin's rolls will suceed and uinflict damage, everyone of the fighter's roll will fail. Historiccally speaking, there was no groud fighting. What was done in battle, going back top ancient romans, at least, was to trip the opponent off his or her feet, and then kill them on the ground. So, martial arts/players' actuon of rolling on the ground and taking the fight to the enemy was never done. to lose one's footing was to die.<br /><br />With regards to individual pieces of armor, they are extremely useful for preventing critical hits. Critical hits are a function of luck (a real tangible entity on battlefield, proven statistically) and experience. Therefore, if you roll 20, 19-20, 0r 18-20 depending on weapon OR you roll 5 higher than "to Hit" roll, you get a critical hit. You roll a second time to confirm the crit hit. The second roll can either be a miss, a hit, a "to hit"+5, a weapon crit hit or a natural 20. Depending how well yuo do on the roll, you can kill the opponent, get them out of the fight, get some kind of a multiplier, or do maximum possible damage for the weapon.Brooser Bearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08487438364129415650noreply@blogger.com