Role-playing games

Wow, this thread has gotten long. Anyway, interesting stuff, even though I've just been perusing it. I've recently started playing again, though I had to start at 6th level since everyone else in the part is 7th level or higher.

Anyway, I've been perusing this thread, and noticed some discussion about 5th edition. It's not up to me, of course, but I don't think I'd be interested in playing that version. I like 3.5 well enough.

Norc wrote:

My character i passes out during a battle and did some doodling

Nice doodles!

I like 3.5 well enough.- Radaghast

Yeah its solid enough- though I don't like feats. Very unbalancing and to much a vodeo game sort of thing.
When I run a game the house-rules are a mix of 2nd edition and 3rd.

Wow, there were no feats in 3.0? That's rather surprising.

What are vodeo games?


Anyway, I agree about some feats being unbalancing. However, I only mind the ones that serve to amp up damage output. I find those to be particularly annoying. There is, for example, a feat in 5th edition that allows you to minus 5 from your attack roll for an attack and, if it still hits, you then add 10 damage to said attack.

It is meant to balance out in the end for a slight boost (arguably similar to what you could get by simply taking 2 points in your main attack stat, resulting in +1 to attack rolls and damage rolls), but if your group works towards setting up 5e Advantage (roll 2d20, take the highest) it can significantly boost your damage output, to the point of imbalance.

Many of the feats are not damage-focused however, and I don't mind ones that, for example, allow you to become proficient in an extra type of save (add fortitude save proficiency if you're a Paladin, for example (Paladins are not proficient in fortitude saves, but have some long-duration spells that rely upon them not being interrupted, or hit too much, in order to work. ))

They add more variation to the game, and more customization options, so that's a good thing. Right Petty?

Forest Shepherd wrote:Anyway, I agree about some feats being unbalancing. However, I only mind the ones that serve to amp up damage output. I find those to be particularly annoying. There is, for example, a feat in 5th edition that allows you to minus 5 from your attack roll for an attack and, if it still hits, you then add 10 damage to said attack.

Yeah, this exists in 3.5 too. It's called Power Attack, in which you subtract a number from your attack roll (no higher than your base attack bonus) and add it to damage, or twice that if you're wielding a medium or better weapon two-handed. Why do you find it annoying?

For two reasons.

Firstly, because it is the one that is most complained of by people on D&D forums in relation to how someone they play with is abusing the rules or some such in order to min-max for damage output. The complainers are often mistaken in just how effective this feat is under most circumstances (not overly) and will often cite one particular set of lucky rolls as a valid reason for their malcontent. It's brought up too often, in other words.

Well, actually, scratch that. Let me be perfectly truthful.

I don't actually have anything whatsoever against the feat. I think it's fine and probably would take it if I played a fighter or something. The reason I said it was annoying was because I used to read the stupid D&D discussions on reddit for several months. I couldn't really find elsewhere to talk about the game. Unfortunately, they are often shallow, inane, boring, extremely repetitive (by which I mean the same type of post will often appear nearly every day, week after week), and misleading for the sake of gratuitous "up voting" (a mechanic by which the most popular posts are sent to the top of the heap).

It has left a very poor impression in my mind, these reddit D&D posts. And combined with the incredibly crappy and borderline-traumatic experience I had a few months ago when I left my former D&D group it has left me bitter, sad, and disillusioned.

So I don't actually find it annoying, now that you mention it.

I'm glad I don't read reddit (and never have)

That's excellent. It blows more than a humpback whale with a terrible cold.

Yeah, I've glimpsed it. It looks pretty chaotic.

As for the Power Attack feat, I always liken it to a swing in baseball (or cricket): swing harder for more of a chance to hit the ball out (or whatever the equivalent in cricket is), but also increase your chance of missing.

That sounds about right.

By the by, I haven't heard from my new D&D friend for nearly two weeks. Apparently he's left the country or been abducted or something. It makes me sad.

That's too bad. Does that mean no D&D for a while?

Yeah. The wanker finally responded. It turns out that's he in Tennessee for another two weeks. So after that we can play again.

Wanker?

Radaghast wrote:

Norc wrote:

My character i passes out during a battle and did some doodling

Nice doodles!

thank you  it got worse though.. had to draw my hawk too hehe  

this thread has gotten huuuuge!! and i haven't been following up :/ nevermind... will probably (hopefully) be another year until we play this game again

Got a game coming up in a weeks time- friend visiting back from Australia, was a good excuse to get the old group together for a one off night of gaming- and I am breaking a rule Ive had since almost the begninng of my Dm'ing: I'm going to use a preset module- we are going to play a classic module from back in the day from when we all first started out (approx 1983!)- besides I need something at short notice and I need to fit a game into one evening- so about 6-8 hours worth of game. Be a low level game, as also got 1 first timeplayer joining us, so kobolds, gelatinous cubes, rust monsters and all the other old classics will be getting an outing.

That's a lot of monsters to fit in one session!

Norc wrote:

Radaghast wrote:

Norc wrote:

My character i passes out during a battle and did some doodling

Nice doodles!

thank you  it got worse though.. had to draw my hawk too hehe  (

Well, now I'm curious. And I'm sure it's not as bad as you think.

That's a lot of monsters to fit in one session!- Radagast

True, but some, like gelatinous cubes I can just literally drop on their heads

So, you're looking to wrap things up that quickly, then?

Well don't worry about the evening going smoothly. I'm sure you'll all gel as a group quickly enough.

We have decided to use 3rd edition rules (well House version) as everyone playing is already familiar with those rules and no one can be arsed having to learn a new system for a one-off game.

Well played the game last night went well.
Which under the circumstances was a touch surprising, as it was to be a short quick game I had decided to go for straight forward dungeon crawl. And as time for preparation was short I had thought just to use a pre-made dungeon from an old module- but upon actually looking at it I really didn't like the dungeons in the module, so with about fifteen minutes to go I grabbed some paper and a pencil and drew a two level dungeon and everything in it and its immediate surrounding land and we just played that.
Proving to me once and for all that all you need for this game is some paper, a pencil, some dice an imagination and a tight time limit!
Everything else is just shit to buy you don't need.

2nd level party, a cleric, a barbarian, a fighter and a fighter/thief.
As time was short was a simple set up I conjured up in the fifteen minutes I had- hired by some villages to go to an old ruin and clear it of kobolds and some hobgobolin leaders there. Chucked in some rumours of a lost treasure house underneath the dungeons somewhere and off they went.

Never managed to complete it though so squeezing one more game in on Monday night before my friend returns to Australia, hopefully they will finish the game before he goes, or be finished!

Nice, Well played Petty! I'm glad to hear that you don't subscribe to these new-fangled ideas about the complexity of story and character-driven plots and so-on in D&D. A one-shot should be sweet and simple.

Thanks Forest. Was a fun straight forward game.

I like all the character and plot stuff (see my book of the game for that!) and usually have all that- but that's in campaigns that can cover several years of gaming where you nee the world building and believable characters- in a one off with only a few hours to play it in though, then, as you say, sweet and simple is the way to go