Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

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IAmNotAlpharius said:
Would you recommend Hero? I never played it.
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I would 100% recommend HERO 6e with two caveats.
1) No matter how you obtain it, the HERO Designer software is pretty much necessary at the very least for the GM. Even if you can do the point cost math yourself, it's convenient for building powers super fast.
2) You have to figure out the game balance for yourself. The system gives you the tools for it and they work well (I have a lot to say the issues with those tools, but those won't start cropping up until you played the game for a long time), but it's extra work for the GM.

It's a very different point-buy from GURPS though. GURPS is "there's rules for everything" while HERO is "with these rules you can make anything". It's 100% mechanics and the players are supposed to make the flavor for those mechanics themselves. Basically, you don't buy a defined Fireball power, but instead buy Blast 8d6 vs Energy Defense (Fire), AoE (Sphere 4m) (+1/4) (50 points) and call it Fireball. (Though I think HERO Grimoire has a fireball spell premade for you). If you're into making distinct characters and tinkering with the system, it's a great game and the power system is incredibly flexible once you get into the mindset it requires. Mutants and Masterminds is similar to HERO, but it's much more limited in what you can do with it and while learning HERO requires more effort, it's well worth that effort.
 
Played alot of GURPS 3rd edition years ago. Loved it. Very adaptable to different genres. The disadvantage system helped players roleplay.
 
My personal favorite trap, in a bad way, was in the great Uwe Boll's first Bloodrayne movie.

Vampires can be killed by water, so this trap filled a room with water. It was used to hold an artifact that made vampires immune to damage from water. No, that's really what happens. If they have captured the treasure, they can't be harmed by the trap any more, because they are now immune.

It is a moment of pure anti-genius.
 
My favorite trap is very very simple and can be used even in noble manors.

The character gets a spot or perception or trap sense, usually pretty high, because this floor plate is crafted to look perfect.

When stepped on, it makes a loud CLACK!

Even more advanced ones make something behind the wall go CRACK! and maybe some loud whirring and clanking.

Watch the entire party freeze in place, swearing, as the guy stands on the click plate sweating his ass off.

That's it.

That's all it does, although it might summon a monster or alert the guards through the noise.

"KLACK!"
 
BScCollateral said:
My personal favorite trap, in a bad way, was in the great Uwe Boll's first Bloodrayne movie.

Vampires can be killed by water, so this trap filled a room with water. It was used to hold an artifact that made vampires immune to damage from water. No, that's really what happens. If they have captured the treasure, they can't be harmed by the trap any more, because they are now immune.

It is a moment of pure anti-genius.
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Best part of the Boll-trap is that the room has spinning blades criss-crossing everywhere at insane speeds with barely any gap, but once the artifact is stolen, they are shut down and the water comes trickling in. You might just have the blades continue to slice up the room and put the artifact at the bottom of a deep basin filled with water and you'd be set...

Jet Fuel Johnny said:
My favorite trap is very very simple and can be used even in noble manors.

The character gets a spot or perception or trap sense, usually pretty high, because this floor plate is crafted to look perfect.

When stepped on, it makes a loud CLACK!

Even more advanced ones make something behind the wall go CRACK! and maybe some loud whirring and clanking.

Watch the entire party freeze in place, swearing, as the guy stands on the click plate sweating his ass off.

That's it.

That's all it does, although it might summon a monster or alert the guards through the noise.

"KLACK!"
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Certain Japanese manors and temples had floors constructed in a way that would create creaking and chirping noises when walked upon, called "Nightingale Floors". It's not entirely clear if that was an intentional feature or an unintentional outcome of the construction technique used, but there's theories that it was meant to prevent people from sneaking around in the corridors and hallways unnoticed.
It might not be helpful against assassins, but it sure as hell prevents maids and servants from eavesdropping.

So independent of what the intention actually was, it does make for a nice set-piece.
In terms of a manor, it makes perfect sense to have a fake-out trap or something that merely makes sound. You don't want to risk some guest to make a wrong turn and get speared up the kidney accidentally.
 
Ironically, traps without anyone guarding them are functionally useless. Kobolds (actual kobolds, not the dragon cocksleeves furries turned them into) have it right, using traps to wear down, disorient and pin down invaders so the kobolds can pick them off from relative safety. There are all sorts of emplacements and manually-activated traps that can be used for these things, too. Drop rocks, explosives, thrust spring-loaded spears out of the ground, etcetera.

Really, nothing makes a party stand up and pay attention like busting open the door to a fortified goblin hovel and being met by two honest-to-Tyr ballistae pointing straight at them. Our Paladin was not happy with the 6d10 damage he took there. The GM described him seeing his life flashing before his eyes as the bolts only grazed him and the heads still ripped clean through his armor, because he would simply not survive taking a direct hit from these things.

(Bonus points for us kiting a chimera all the way back to those ballistae later on.)
 
The Fresno Nightcrawler said:
ive never played dnd, but i've been interested in giving it a shot recently. any advice?
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Any experience with other PnPs or RPG vidya games? What are your favorite roles in those?
Take it from me, who fell for a bit of a self-inflicted trap: Champion Fighters look neat on paper, but the only thing you can do is clobber shit with your attacks and you have barely any functionality outside of combat... and your choices in combat boil down to the order in which you clobber enemies to death.

Say what you want about the excel-spreadsheet-nature of "The dark Eye", you've got so many different talents and the ability to pick up literally any skill and improve it to your wishes, you have no issue making a really versatile character that will be able to have interesting input in many different situations.
My longest-running character in that RPG was a viking-inspired warrior who was also an accomplished master-smith with a plethora of useful skills and tricks up his mail-armor sleeves.
I also had a knight who was as good at combat as he was in social situations, with a knack for dancing and writing sappy poetry.

Meanwhile, my DnD Level 7 Fighter can do exactly one thing:
bdb968d23654e9407b07139db57ede6d3232c519269ed3cc4f20dcd7481ab1ca_1.jpg

Ironically, I don't like characters with magic abilities that much, so DnD is the wrong system for me anyway.
In hindsight, I think taking the battlemaster would have been a great idea. If I ever need to roll a new character, I'll make it a battlemaster with one rank of rogue and then go for a giant bastardsword and a shortsword/buckler combination for backup.
The battlemaster has an ability that grants him advantage on his next attack, which in combination with the rogue's sneak attack makes for a great little surprise during combat, in case I can't use the big sword.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Any experience with other PnPs or RPG vidya games? What are your favorite roles in those?
Take it from me, who fell for a bit of a self-inflicted trap: Champion Fighters look neat on paper, but the only thing you can do is clobber shit with your attacks and you have barely any functionality outside of combat... and your choices in combat boil down to the order in which you clobber enemies to death.

Say what you want about the excel-spreadsheet-nature of "The dark Eye", you've got so many different talents and the ability to pick up literally any skill and improve it to your wishes, you have no issue making a really versatile character that will be able to have interesting input in many different situations.
My longest-running character in that RPG was a viking-inspired warrior who was also an accomplished master-smith with a plethora of useful skills and tricks up his mail-armor sleeves.
I also had a knight who was as good at combat as he was in social situations, with a knack for dancing and writing sappy poetry.

Meanwhile, my DnD Level 7 Fighter can do exactly one thing:
View attachment 1868828

Ironically, I don't like characters with magic abilities that much, so DnD is the wrong system for me anyway.
In hindsight, I think taking the battlemaster would have been a great idea. If I ever need to roll a new character, I'll make it a battlemaster with one rank of rogue and then go for a giant bastardsword and a shortsword/buckler combination for backup.
The battlemaster has an ability that grants him advantage on his next attack, which in combination with the rogue's sneak attack makes for a great little surprise during combat, in case I can't use the big sword.
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I blame a lot of that on 3E, bluntly put.

In 2E, fighters enjoyed nonweapon proficiencies pretty much on par with every other class. The warrior class group (fighter, ranger, paladin) gained three NWP initially and one every three levels. The mage and priest class groups started with four and gained one every three levels, and the rogue started with three but only gained one every four levels (but then, they got thieving skills, so I guess it balanced out). Meanwhile, the warrior group had four weapon proficiencies and gained one every three levels, which was pretty damn solid compared to the other class groups (priests and rogues got two to start, one new proficiency every four levels, while the mage group got one and gained a new weapon proficiency every six).

But then 3E rolled around and the fighter in particular got fucked hard in the skills. This would've been less of an issue if fighters could sidestep the prerequisites for combat feats when selecting them as bonus feats, but they couldn't -- which meant every fighter's sole ability was 'attack'. And since most fighters didn't pour stat points into Intelligence, it meant they had to dole out their skill points carefully. This is most likely the legacy of Monte Cook, who honest to God believed (from what I've been told) that martial classes were overpowered compared to spellcasters.

I have never, ever understood why fighters weren't set up to use combat maneuvers the same way monks were originally set to do (yes, I know, monks are also fucked in 3E/PF). But then, I'm not a 'highly paid game designer'.
 
I'm not going to lie, being a fighter is a lot of fun initially, when you dish out obscene amounts of damage every round... but at some point you realize that every combat round, all you do is "I hit enemy with big stick again". The most variation I have in that regard is: "I move to enemy so I can hit enemy with big stick".
 
Capsaicin Addict said:
I have never, ever understood why fighters weren't set up to use combat maneuvers the same way monks were originally set to do (yes, I know, monks are also fucked in 3E/PF). But then, I'm not a 'highly paid game designer'.
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My GM back during the 3.5e days liked to quip that Fighters only existed to be fodder for martial Prestige Classes. I think he may have been up to something there.
 
The Fresno Nightcrawler said:
yeah, i'm a huge dork for roleplaying in vidya. in general, i go for characters with lots of utility, or characters with weird gimicks. is dnd 5e any good? apparently, 2 of my friends play that version.
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I can't vouch for the System, even though I play it myself. I unfortunately lack any experience with any other DnD system to be able to compare them.

As far as I can tell, there are many classes with lots of utility, especially when you consider cantrips, that allow you to perform spells for free. I looked at the Ranger class and it seems it has some neat abilities and spells, that can be very useful depending on the situation, but I don't know how effective they are overall, since DnD 5e has massive powercreep and some classes scale better than others, so it's entirely possible that the Ranger is actually not a good choice from a MinMaxing point of view - but if he offers a few fun abilities and the campaign isn't half a decade long, so the party ends up level 20, I doubt that's a whole lot of an issue.
 
The Fresno Nightcrawler said:
yeah, i'm a huge dork for roleplaying in vidya. in general, i go for characters with lots of utility, or characters with weird gimicks. is dnd 5e any good? apparently, 2 of my friends play that version.
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Honestly the people you play with matter more than the system you play. Good friends with a bad game make a good time. Just listen to your friends advice and don't worry too much about making a character.

RomanesEuntDomus said:
I can't vouch for the System, even though I play it myself. I unfortunately lack any experience with any other DnD system to be able to compare them.

As far as I can tell, there are many classes with lots of utility, especially when you consider cantrips, that allow you to perform spells for free. I looked at the Ranger class and it seems it has some neat abilities and spells, that can be very useful depending on the situation, but I don't know how effective they are overall, since DnD 5e has massive powercreep and some classes scale better than others, so it's entirely possible that the Ranger is actually not a good choice from a MinMaxing point of view - but if he offers a few fun abilities and the campaign isn't half a decade long, so the party ends up level 20, I doubt that's a whole lot of an issue.
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Base 5E ranger is considered the worst class lol
 
WinchesterPremium said:
Honestly the people you play with matter more than the system you play. Good friends with a bad game make a good time. Just listen to your friends advice and don't worry too much about making a character.
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Great advice there!

Although I would also add that if you like playing support, being versatile, and goofing around a lot, give Bard a look!
 
Swiss46 said:
They really need to make 2-3 ranger specific spells and I think it will be alright. As it currently stands I hardly ever see rangers in my game use spells outside healing or hunters mark.
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Even revised ranger UA doesn't give them enough oomph. They could really use a third attack. As it is, playing a Scout Rogue feels more like a ranger than the actual class does while bringing more utility to the table.
 
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