Volourn

Uhuh. If you say so. It's not my fault that you feel that all uber bosses should be the 3rd grandson of Hades with the power to move mountains and to controlthe armies of BOTH heaven and hell. HAHAH! What the players liked about this orc shaman is that he wans't really special, and in fact, in a way they created him. He went from your typical orc shamn who was simply happy bowing to his god (Gruumish) and kissing his cheiftain's ass to someone who wanted more which eventually included taking power from the chieftain forcefully (as orcs are wont to deal) and wrecking havoc on the PCs and their chosaen home village. Like any good big boss. But, the bottom line, he didn't cheat. He didn't have any special powers beyond what the shaman (cleric) class gave him. But, he did have a personality, and the will to dominate others including (temporarily) a PC (through his clerical magics). He also had perosnality which the players also liked instead of being some silly over powered munchkin.

Thanks.

"That reeks of lame. "The orc escaped." "What? How? I shoot him." "You can't. He, like, ducked behind the rock or something and then disappeared into a cave." "We follow him!" "Can't the cave has collapsed..." Where the heck did I post that i ever did anything remotely liek that? The orc shaman escaped because a bunch of 'typical' orcs tried to abush the party. It was obviously quick that the orcs were no match for the PCs so they started to run randomly. The PCs as PCs are wont to do started chasing them down. However, a few orcs including the shaman managed to evade capture. This orc eventually gathered the survivors together and began plotting his reveneg. He then started hounding the players with random attacks by his cohorts while he gained power for the eventual confrontation. When they finally confronted him again, the players relaized he wans't going to run away this time. ... In fact, they did as he fought them on his terms.. Good stuff. R00fles!

"cut out all the tangential side-quests and you not really gots a crpg anymore

"What if a PC gets killed because of a completely incidental roll that wasn't precipited by any sort of player stupidity?" Luck stinks. It's a part of playing a game. What part of role-playing GAME did you miss? Do you allow people to reroll (ie. cheat) in yahztee? That said, if it happens way too much ala multiple time sin one session then I'll back off as that *ruin* a player's fun in no time if they repeatedly die through no fualt of their own. But, that's the exception to the rule. "It's hard to romanticize a villain you could simply live next door too." Right. Because we all have mages and orc shamans (from my examples) living next door to us. LOLOLOLOLLIPOP We're talking fantasy here. By default, they have 'supernatural powers' so they shouldn't need unfair advantages beyond that. In fact, my players will scream bloody murder at me if I made a habit of issuing super pwoers they have no access to to UBB. Once,a nd awhile is acceptable but as a matter of practice. No way, Jose. HELLO!?!

"What if the rules get in the way of said role-playing/experience?" Why would they? That's why a DM has the right... no, the obligation... to change rules if they should intervere.. that's completely different than 'cheating' or 'cooking the dice'. And, all changes should be logical. ie. A human shouldn't be given the ability to fly just because he's an uber boss and to give an unfair advantage. That said, if you really want that npc to have flying as an ability there are multiple ways to do it fairly within the rulez... "If you don't give TBB some sort of "special" combat ability, you shouldn't bother pitting the player against them. They will feel unfulfilled and bored." Absolutely false with no basis in fact. Espicially dealing with D&D. Have an enemy mage follow the rules, and give him a good personality, and he can *easily* be a very memorable villain. Heck, I had one orc shaman who became a very hated (in a good way) enemy of my player ssimply because he scaped an onslaught by them and came back with a vengenace (and all legit, and noc hetaing or unfair advantage given to him).

Sure, they are. If they weren't why bother with gaming systems at all. Might as well just play dress up and play act. Without the rules; you aren't role-playing; you are acting.

Like I said, they gave up so now they are actively helping the Devils score. :D

"Uh... it's "the big bad." TBB can't be just another bad guy, he needs to be extra-ordinarily challenged or players feel robbed." Nope. My players never seem to feel that way at all. in fact, they are usually estatic, and feel proud of themselves for such an accomplishment espciially since they know I tend not to take it easy on them. Whenn this happens, they know they earned it, or got lucky. And, sometimes, all ya need is luck espicially in a game where dice (ala D&D) is involved. "TBB himself doesn't need to be uber, he could simply come with allies, but even then TBB needs SOMETHING be identified with. Any good TBB has some sort of seemingly super-natural power or aspect to them." That's ludicrous. Most of the best TBB I've seen in pnp don't have any special power outside of overly strong persoanlities and a will to give thier wants (outside of the spells, and skills like characters).

"Okay, well, enjoy your 10 minute CRPG that you paid $50 for." Yeah, because a story can be told in 10 minutes and actually be good in a gaming format. LOLOLOLOLLIPOP JE is 20-30 hours (40+ for slowpokes like you and 20- for speedsters). Good length for it since it doens't waste time with silly inventory tetris garbage ala the KOTORs or free roaming boring, and bland repetitive open space ala ES series. Sure, BIO could have added another 10-20 hours; but it would ahve been fluff. Sure, entertainingg fluff most likely; but it would have likely added NOTHING to the story. I would have loved the extra 10-20 hours; but it was not neccessary. Period.

I rarely 'cheat' as DM. I believe it's bad form. I try my best to balance it as much a spossible. Soemtimes, very rare as it is, I overrate my players and their characters' abilities and so find that they are dinks and will be completely wiped out with noc hance so I give them one or two breaks to even up. Other times, if tit's their fault that they're getting their butts wupped; I say tough. Very rarely do my 'big bads' die as easy as the exmaple given. The rare time they do (1 in 1 million) I don't cheat as I feel those times give a good ego boost for the players and their skill for when theye ncounter an enemy that's not so easily or luckily defeated (with one hit). In a game like D&D when you have death spells, hold spells, and crits; luck is all apart of it. And, the story *never* suffers; because what some ar eforgetting gaming is not a novel. It's a story being told by BOTH the players and the DM; not just the DM. If you cheat and manipulate the players to get the result you want you mght as well dump them and write a book. LET THE GAMEZ BEGIN!!!

As long as the story trying to be told cna be told in the time given; the length is irrelevant.

No. The coach just felt Weekes would do better. As per usual is wrong. I thought in the play-offs that you are supposed to go with the best team possible. I guess Renney missed that day in Coach School. Geez.. If Weekes had played in game 1 when the Rangers were doing the Penalty Parade, the Devils would ahve scored 10 goals instead of 4!! 2 short handed goals. Bah humbug! P.S. It's Jagr who missed the game because of an injury. I don't blame the coach for that. It's bad enough Jagr couldn't play let alone one of the best goalies in the league - bad game 1 and all.

The lead vampires, the demons, the end boss, the vampire hunters etc., etc... I laugh at Hades dying to the werewolf so many times; but yeah the werewolf being invulnerable was sillyand illogical in the game world considering that your buddy manages to kill one. You should be able harm it. Period.

"I don't like High Heat Baseball games, but I can still recognize that they are good games." Too bad they aren't. P.S. I'm not a big fan of Blizzard but their games don't suck. Diablo1, for example, is a fun little scrimmage.

NO JAGR, NO CHANCE! NO LUNDQVIST, NO CHANCE X2! 3 GOALS ON NOT EVEN 20 SHOTS AND EVERYONE THOUGH LUNDQVIST WAS BAD WHEN HE GAVE UP 6 GOALS ON 30 AND THEY WERE ALL MORE OR LESS ON THE POWERPLAY AT LEAST! RENNEY SHOULD BE FIRED FOR BEING A MORON!!!!!!!! YOU DON'T BENCH YOUR ACE GOALIE BECAUSE OF ONE BAD GAME BECAUSE HIS TEAMMATES LIKE TO TAKE STUPID PENALTIES AND SCREEN HIM ALL DAY LONG AND THEN PUT IN A HORRIBLE BACK UP WHO COST YOU THE DIVISION!!!! P.S. Yes, I'm being mean!!!

"And no, I don't know of many incidents in Bloodlines where NPCs tell you to run away. Please enlighten me." Pick a quest pretty much - movie monster mania, graveyard, haunted mansion, sewers, the gargoyle and the list goes on... "Not many of them are followed by encounters where you do ZERO damage to the enemy." This is true, and is what cued me in when I tried fighting it once.

"He was special, your character is not. Simple." yeha; but your character comes from a newbie vamp to ultra power in a matter of like a moth or so game time. I mean you beat some very powerful vampires, undead hunters, and demons; but not werewolves? LOLOLOLOLOLLIPOP

"Being told to NOT fight and to RUN right before hand was a good indication IMO." Well.. come on.. how many times have you played a CRPG where some npc tells x is very dangerous and you will die if you go to x place, or fight y creature than you go and do it anyways as dumb adventurers do and the battle is eaisly doable. Heck, it happens in BL a lot at that so sayiong z npc tells you to run proves nothing to me.

"It wasn't required to complete, but it was coo." That's the key right there. You shouldn't be required to have some item you likely have no reason to believe is mandatory to finish. Now, if some npcs tells you that you need x item to complete the mission and thwen you throw it away that should be blamed on poor playing. That said, there should be no way a game should be unfinishable because of one silly item.

"Pssst... Sawyer, mind telling the moderator to stop insulting people?" Who she insult? Certaibly not me. In fact, I agree with her assessment. SP, the legacy I speak of are the great games, and even the decent ones. DQ8 couldn't even fit the threshold of the later games in the series let alone the awesomeness of the earlier ones.

No. He "shouldn't" do anything. He has more important things to do then talk with this rabble. He owes us *nothing*. LoneWolf, I don't see the point of continuing to play a game I view as poo poo. Games are supposed to be fun; not a chore. I got real life for that. If a game can't draw me in after a couple of hours than the game sin't worth investing another 20, 40, 60+ hours to. Llyr, it was meh. Honestly, the last real great (as opposed to merely good or meh) DW game I remember playing was DW4. Coincidently (or not) I beleive it was the last one to go by Dragon Warrior in North Amerika. LOL

What offending posts? Did I miss some people saying mean things to me because they disagree with my opinion? Darn. Too bad. "Though, I'll admit, he could be a bit less condescending and outright jerky about it. " Welll... when I played it I expected it to continue the great legacy of the DW/DQ series, and with all the praise that's been heaped on it; I thought I was in for a treat. Sadly, I was wrong.

"That was a good article. Arrogant, but true in several points." Hitler was also truthful on some points. That didn't make him good either. P.S. OMGODZ!! I used the Hitler reference! HAHAHAHA!

THE RANGERS HAVE FORFEITED THE SERIES - WILL START BACK UP IN SECOND GAME!!! See you all next year!!! Good luck in playoffs you other 15 teams who are actually trying to win their series!!!