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Post by Oneiros on Sept 11, 2015 17:48:00 GMT
*puts on DM's hat* *starts slowly nodding* Of course it does...
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 11, 2015 6:20:54 GMT
The life of a Level 1 adventurer is often eventful and short, going out with a bang and ending on a high note (that note often being a sustained EEEEEEEEEEEE!)
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 9, 2015 7:32:34 GMT
Yup, no penalty to defence for just being unarmed. An unarmed strike does provoke the attack of opportunity (on attack, not on damage/hit) *if* you don't have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat or similar (e.g. natural weapon) - so that you are considered 'armed' whilst unarmed.
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 4, 2015 6:28:43 GMT
Like quiche.
<sotto voce> Keeeeeeeesh </sotto>
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 2, 2015 20:31:02 GMT
Soooooo much product is gonna get opened in the search for the Zendikar Expeditions. That may even keep the average rare/mythic price down for this set.
My appreciation for Jace is growing, I have to admit. Like, he seems genuinely reluctant to use his memory-rewriting power (as indicated in today's Uncharted Realms) and he's delightfully snarky to Ugin in the flavour text on Hedron Archive. I'm looking forward to seeing what changes Chandra's mind and gets her to join the battle. And I suspect that future blocks are going to look at where Emrakul and Kozilek have headed off to (perhaps something to do with the Oath these four make in the next set, which would keep them in focus)... Can't say I'm a big fan of Nissa, even if her powers are nifty.
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 2, 2015 17:55:30 GMT
Dwarven sages have long known of such things but they have held their counsel for fear of panic in the staid dwarven society.
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Post by Oneiros on Sept 2, 2015 8:46:50 GMT
Another really good episode folks! The foley (post-production sound FX editing) on this one was particularly good. I have to admit I'd never really thought that a thunderstone going off, actually sounded like thunder (rather than just generic explosion). Also, good work on the door Bertie. The Scooby Doo reference immediately made me try and pair the characters up. Unfortunately this can only ever be a losing endeavour For what it's worth, my best match scenario ended up with Brutor = Scooby, Zolf = Fred, Bertie = Daphne, Hamid = Velma, Sasha = Shaggy... all of which are less than optimal, really. Once again you've crafted an ad break that amusingly gets your info across. Fourth wall, what fourth wall? Nice explanation of the vertical representation issue, could have so easily been glossed over. In general, a decent set of explanations all round here - which is both the strength of your podcast and the weakness it has in making progress. It's fantastic that you're not assuming a high level of knowledge on the parts of your listeners. Unfortunately, things won't speed up significantly until the players have internalised the rules more. Multiple humanoid opponents also makes it tougher going - another limiting factor that you need to be aware of when balancing gameplay versus the practicalities. As I think I may have I've mentioned before, I've run sessions where one fight of 10 or so rounds (about a minute of in-game time) has taken 5+ hours to run. True, in one there were 4 PCs and 7 intelligent opponents, all with multiple abilities and reactions, but I'm guessing no-one would want to spend 6 episodes listening to us go through all of that. Anyway, TL;DR - Bertie's critical... disposal of his foe at the end there was a masterstroke of description. I both laughed and felt rather queasy.
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 27, 2015 14:31:47 GMT
I actually did a double-take when that part of the episode came up - quite a dramatic shift tonally from the rest of it. Nicely done and not dwelt on overlong. From previous experience, I know that those kind of PC vs PC disagreements can spill out into much larger conflicts (and take up huge amounts of game time) so it was good to see that there was a bit of concession on both sides in order to move forward. I daresay the matter will be revisited... It was good to see Zolf affirming his faith and belief in the tenets of Poseidon, as his faith hadn't really come up before. I think it's all too easy in games to overlook the fact that clerics (often but not always) serve a deity with prescribed acts of faith and dogma and should display this in rituals and prayers and such. Glossing over this, I feel, reduces the cleric to 'just another spellcaster', only seen as the 'healstick'. 'Power comes with a price' was very much on display here - so kudos to Ben and Bryn for playing that out. It's also an interesting juxtaposition showcasing the nature of their powers - Hamid's spellcasting is inherent and instinctive, deriving from his blood and ancestry, whereas Zolf's is bestowed by his belief. I think Zolf calling Hamid on his use of magic, particularly with the claw manifestation in the previous battle and the general stress of being in Other London, helps beautifully heighten Hamid's own confusion about who he is and what he's doing. Another great episode, although it did feel it suffered a little from the old 'we've been playing for 6 hours and only advanced a minute of in-game time' scenario (which can't be helped at times)
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 21, 2015 11:44:34 GMT
"Yea, though I walk through the alley of the shadow of death, I will fear no gazebo: for bow art with me; my rod of alertness and my staff of fire comfort me."
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 21, 2015 8:30:39 GMT
I don't think they have booths but a live recording from a panel might be an interesting challenge - maybe a short session or interlude but probably more likely a metacast?
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 21, 2015 8:26:52 GMT
On a slightly different note, I'm wondering if I missing something - I don't recall there being any in-character discussion of Barret and Sasha's relationship. Bryn brought up the surname thing out-of-character, but it didn't seem to be raised by the party, even with a "I don't want to talk about it" shut-down. Likewise in Ep 11, when Sasha makes the introductions there's no gasp or apparent shock at the reveal (were these perhaps edited out?) - and the more theatrical side of me feels let down (Okay, so a dun-dun-DUHHHHH sound effect would have been OTT) My assumption is father or uncle... Or I'm just not paying enough attention and this has all been explained and I'm just an idiot. I should probably go listen to the episodes again.
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 20, 2015 15:20:02 GMT
As Brave Sir Robin said, there are guidelines. For Pathfinder, you can see them on the character advancement table here: www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancementThe main thing to note is that character wealth is supposed to represent both cash and assets, so for many adventurers most of their wealth is tied up in their armour/weapons/worn magic items. Also, the table is a guideline to what the system expects an average character to be worth at those points. How often treasure is given out (be it in the form of found loot that is instantly usable or stuff to be sold) can be a more significant limiting factor to advancement than encounters faced. For example, a level 5 character using equipment equivalent to that of a level 3 character is probably going to find it harder/takes longer to get to level 6 than one with a level-appropriate amount of gear. Obviously I can't answer for Alex and the specifics of this campaign but, broadly, I try and keep characters at or around their expected wealth levels in my games. Variance will occur naturally, though, and past a certain level it often becomes somewhat irrelevant (the 'adventurers destroy economies syndrome'). I've tended to use the stated wealth levels when asking folk to create characters above 1st level. And later on use judgement calls to say whether or not PCs can buy/sell their items in a given locale and whether there are any penalties. As a general rule of thumb, PCs in one of my D&D games can sell stuff for 90% of list price in most cities.
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 20, 2015 14:47:21 GMT
Yup, pretty much any D&D campaign I ran post-uni would include my repurposed Deck of Many Things - the Plaques of the Seldarine (or Erevan's Deck) - for which I had a specific prop: a gilt-edged set of Arabic playing cards.
If anyone's interested in the details I can send my notes on it to them, or post the item in the forum if preferred.
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 20, 2015 10:09:50 GMT
Like bravesirrobin, I've played a lot of characters over the years that I've sadly forgotten a lot of the details - especially names *sigh* Probably my most interesting ones were: a) in a mate's homebrew world, the only cleric of an interloper god (a god of secrets and mystery) trying to get a foothold in the world. His main schtick was trying to turn any situation involving others into an opportunity to proselytize about his deity and suggest that it was only by his grace and power that the situation was resolved/danger was averted. b) An Exalted game as an illegitimate scion of House Cynis, sold into servitude at a Cynis pleasure house, who Exalted as a Sidereal and became fixated on trying to bring down the entire House through subtle machinations. c) In a all-elven game set in the Forgotten Realms, my gold elf wizard (Elastris) died fairly early (like Session 2) so the next one (Vaelyn) turned out to be his secret silver elf ex-boyfriend who Elastris had to renounce in order in order to spare his family (House Starryn) shame. Vaelyn originally joined the party just to recover Elastris' body and carried on with them. I ended up blue-booking a lot about Vaelyn's subsequent run-ins with Elastris' family and his downward spiral following the death. Ah, good times
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Post by Oneiros on Aug 20, 2015 9:53:31 GMT
Dune is pretty much my top sci-fi novel :-) I love the worldbuilding, politics and history, even if some of the newer novels are rather shaky. The fall of Ix and House Vernius from the Prelude novels struck me hard emotionally.
An under-rated/not very well known setting, I feel, is the jewel-magic and matriarchal society presented in Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series. It's a little on the risque side (in the same vein as The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanick - another good, dystopic kind of world) but presents an interesting world view and magic system.
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