Tale

I don't think Avellone wrote Safiya. It wasn't tragedy either way. Unless it was and she got eaten by One of Many. The ending I got a couple of days ago had the PC and Safiya get happily married. It was pretty lame, but there it was. Doesn't hold a candle to my god devourer playthrough.

I don't think Avellone wrote Safiya. It wasn't tragedy either way.

I would have been behind you if you hadn't said that. I can't think of a single book I've seen or movie I've read that had a tasteful sex scene. Scratch that. Spy thriller movies. Those aren't bad. They're not memorable either, except Xenia Onatopp.

It's objective based, not quest based. But maybe that's beside the point. Why do you think they'll never be able to be overpowered? It's not. But I might as well ask you how stealth and charm getting XP hurt other people's games. Because that's a large part of what the system does, it allows for alternate playstyles to reach the same end. I'm not worried about how you play. The problem is it needs to reward the people who don't kill.

Yes, what difference does it make? Why do you assume that's impossible? The objective system allows for more options than just killing to reach that goal.

What restriction? You said earlier that you want to take your group into a dungeon to get XP and loot. That still happens. The only change is when the XP is parcelled out. At milestones instead of every time a kobold hits the floor. You've also gained more options in that you can reach those milestones in different ways.

It's not that complicated. The extra complication is for a reason, though. It's been used in PnP games for who knows how long at this point for exactly the same reasons. You'll still get your XP and loot for dungeon delving, I don't see what the issue is.

What I'm interpreting. Restoring stamina is available from abilities, magic, abilities, perhaps potions as well. Restoring health requires rest. Like setting up camp. I would be surprised if he's referring to something other than this. I've played a few games where they reward you with XP for completing a quest using skill checks. Like you talk an enemy out of a fight. But then they also reward you for killing your way through. So the ideal solution became talking them down, then stabbing them in the back. Basically, situations where the ideal solution to any scenario was to game the system for as many quest solution paths as possible because they were all separately counted.

Why wouldn't "interesting foes not necessarily tied to a quest" be an objective on their own? Is there some assumption that quest givers define objectives? Dungeons can grant XP based on progress through dungeons. Quests on quest completion. Dragons on slaying the dragon or stealing their hoarde or whatever. Random encounters on surviving the encounter, whether you run, talk, or fight. etc. etc. And the dungeon concept isn't limited to literal dungeons. Find gnolls on a mountain side? It could be just as easily tied to progress up the mountain.

I was hoping for a multiple out before death system. Or even the D&D dying mechanic. So I'm happy to hear it.

Playstyle is an approach to challenges. Slaughtering peasants doesn't strike me as approaching the challenge of an orcish strongholds. It is faffing about.

To validate playstyles equally.

One doesn't exclude the other. Quest xp can coexist with kill xp. Yes, but kill xp makes killing the optimal solution to most encounters. Encounter XP (which can be around levels of a dungeon, fights, or quests) does not care how you solve the encounter.

I don't think you give new players enough credit. They can figure out the necessary information from contexts. "Ahh, people are using 'the nine' in prayer, they must be gods." Then they can look elsewhere for deeper information, asking priests who the nine are.

Handmaiden is a passable example. It had enough subtlety that it didn't seem to be objectionable. Elanee was creepy, I think that should be avoided a bit. Safiya seemed to be purpose built for a romance. The backstory of Akachi and how it connected with her and the player laid all the pieces out remarkably well for a romance. The Alpha Protocol romances, despite Avellone's hatred of them, were consistent with spy thriller conventions. Then there's Annah-of-the-Shadows, another mostly subtle example. Now maybe many people who ask for it come from a background of expecting Bioware romances. However, it's unfair to claim that's the only kind they appreciate. I never heard aspersions cast upon Handmaiden/Safiya/Annah for the differences those interactions held. And I think a similar one would probably satisfy them the same.

Last update was that health may recover by resting.

I'm conflicted here. I agree on the surface that melee characters should have interesting options for combat. The problem is that if everyone has interesting things to do, it'll be a micromanagement nightmare. If I'm controlling a party, it's good that I only have to micromanage half of them. The rest I assign targets for and make sure they're not dying. Having to be active and make decisions or reactions for all 6 characters every combat round sounds a bit too tedious for a RTWP system. I could definitely see it being more interesting for a fully turn based game. Now I'm not totally siding against giving them interesting things to do in combat. I'm just thinking it needs to be somewhat infrequent. Or, maybe this would work too, it'd have to have really good scripting system for behavior.

Make connections, go to conventions, talk to people. Get in on independent or mod projects. Even spending time on your own to play with toolsets and find bug workarounds can help out on a cover letter for a QA job.

What I've gathered is that it has cross-platform support (Mac, Windows, Linux) and is a sort of all-in-one solution without needing extra middleware. But there's probably a few other reasons, too.

I think the moratorium on these threads has lifted, so I won't shut the thread down just yet. If you don't like the thread, you are free to ignore it. Play nice, this goes double for those who have a habit of congregating in these threads.

Depends, am I going to end up with a bag full of random junk weighing me down because I'm not certain which of it's worth anything without a guide? 1 or 2 items that make an effort to stand out, that's cool. Enough items that it qualifies as a "mechanic" and it's increasing miscellaneous tedium. I already despise carting around gemstones on the off-chance they're needed for a crafting recipe I won't find out about until 30 hours later. I fear this being a version of that.

OH man, Story of gaming right there. I swear in Dragon Age my character herself said, "Oh, it looks like more darkspawn." and I was all like, "YOU THINK?!". That had to have been the worst case of this problem in any game ever made. Swear it was a traumatizing effect. I don't think Dragon Age II even worked on fixing that... Hell mighta been worse... Anyone know if DA2 Had a larger or smaller beastiary of creatures then DA1? I think it was smaller. They lost genlocks, among other things. The non-monstrous enemies expanded significantly, though.

Your post about it a few days ago is what inspired me to create a thread. Then I realized we hadn't seen the group rogue yet, either.

I'm sitting around worried that I'll have to lower my pledge for the longest time. We near the deadline and I see that I'm good for it. Then they add playing cards. So I'm actually increasing... *sigh*

I don't mean something so broad as "mature themes." Let's get to specifics. Animated armors, wizards a little too obsessed with fire, and winged priestesses aren't high up on my list. Perhaps the party rogue will be a female godlike of lower ancestry. But I think there's one thing I think we'll all hope for in unison. A blind old woman with dreams and perhaps an unhealthy obsession with the PC.