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smithereen

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Everything posted by smithereen

  1. smithereen
    You will need a Core Rulebook and several full sets of polyhedral dice (usually sold in sets of one of each size) - those should be available at any decent geek shop for <$100. They are also on Amazon but can be expensive or slow to ship, depending on where you live. As for campaign ideas, read books! Play video games! Browse forums! Hell, I have a stack four times has high as I have groups to play with of ideas! If you are totally stumped, I think there are several dozen published campaigns as well. I've never played any, but I've heard Kingmaker is very good, and still in print. Also, you will want to know about these sites, they are invaluable for checking rules on the fly and posting info, respectively. I've played a tonne of pathfinder since it's come out, and there are some veteran RPers on this site, and I'm sure you can get more advice than you can use if you ask.
  2. smithereen
    What, characters with no tragic backstories? In a game with Chris Avellone involved? Yeah, right...
  3. smithereen
    I also think that Morrigan romance has wary good begining but i think that ending was horrilbe ... I can see why the ending could feel cheap, but I liked it. Mind you, I never played Witch Hunt.
  4. smithereen
    Let's see if we can get this back on topic. The romances I enjoyed most were Annah, Safiya, and Morrigan, all for different reasons - mainly for good writing and for pulling out all of the stops in terms of emotional torque. As a side note, given the 2D-ness of this game I don`t think anybody has to worry about cash and man-hours being diverted to digital boobies.
  5. smithereen
    The rewards should always make sense. Refusing payment for derring-do should cause a net mechanical penalty. Being an ass and pissing everyone off should result in a net mechanical penalty. Making a risky bluff should go either way.
  6. smithereen
    \ This guy. He was a boring, badly written, pompous ass.
  7. smithereen
    I know it's heresy, but I hated that there were only a very small number of distinct monsters in The Witcher 2.
  8. smithereen
    The build-up to the Broodmother scared the living crap out of me.
  9. smithereen
    You're right about Feist and Donaldson - I hate to be that guy, but they are objectively terrible. I can why some people like Goodkind - his prose can be quite elegant and times, and his ability to torture his protagonists is near unrivaled. But in the end it is quite derivative and horribly derivative. Martin's prose is weak, but his plot and characters are fantastic. You should keep reading. Maybe I'll give Ruthfus an Esselmont a try next time I have free time.
  10. smithereen
    ... Really? The ME games repeatedly went out of their way to show you just how freaking awesome the PC is and by extention just how freaking awesome humans are. I could see their Lovecraftian influences when they first introduced the Reapers in ME1 but after that they went in the most unLovecraft direction possible. You must have misunderstood me - I didn't mean that I thought that the series was Call of Cthulhu in Space. You can't deny some of the thematic similarities, though, especially in the ending - the universe is large, cold, doesn't care about you.
  11. smithereen
    First of all, HP Lovecraft - nobody can write like that man could (and I don't just mean the ability to use squamous in a sentence correctly). I don't mean the story needs to a bleak cosmic horror story, but the feeling that the universe just doesn't care about you. I think the Mass Effect series showed that that can be done very well in an RPG. Neil Gaiman for similar but diluted themes and equal quality imagery. William Gibson is also an author from whom game writers could learn a lot about style and characterization - I would sacrifice my firstborn for a game based upon or inspired by "The Difference Engine" or "Neuromancer" made by Obsidian or Bioware. Tolstoy and Martin as well - the latter obviously influenced The Witcher and Dragon Age games quite heavily.
  12. smithereen
    I have to admit I hated not being able to grab my buddy's healing potion when he was 'knocked out' by a Disintegrate spell in NwN2.
  13. smithereen
    In a pathfinder game I am running the players are having a blast exploring an abandoned dwarven outpost, trying to figure out what happened and why everybody's dead. </tooting my own horn> Most of what's important has already been discussed - the best dungeons are truly terrifying, but they need explanation and justification - why is this here, who feeds the monsters, etc, but more importantly, why am I here, and why do I care? Challenge dungeons (crazy dude built a maze of death and declares open season on the treasure buried in the middle) aren't nearly as compelling as exploring ancient ruins, if they are well designed and make sense. Just my two cents.
  14. smithereen
    This issue bugged me more than anything else in BG2 and P:T. In fact, the insanely illogical spawns in DA2 were (for me) a significant improvement.
  15. smithereen
    I actually really like the atmosphere on these forums, it's like the Bioware forums before they got infested with haters.
  16. smithereen
    I have to say the unsolvable main plot was what I most enjoyed about Mask of the Betrayer.
  17. smithereen
    I'll be contrary again - I love hearing combat banter. What's annoying is when it's terribly repetitive. I wouldn't mind if some of it was text-based, though. That way it can be kept fresh, and you won't have to hear it. I'll explicitly disagree with "we have health metres for a reason," though. I like to be reminded I'm running my friends through a meat grinder once in a while.
  18. smithereen
    I don't want the game to make concessions to tedium, no. But things should work the same way as in the real world unless clearly stated otherwise, and above all, the game's world should remain internally consistent. As little "world and gameplay segregation" as possible.
  19. smithereen
    I definitely agree that making primitive armor viable just so people can 'look cool' is pretty absurd, but there *are* advantages to wearing lighter armor. It really bugs me when chain gets a smaller movement penalty than plate, though.
  20. smithereen
    It would be very, very cool if something provided a sense of urgency, causing enemies to become more prepared and/or quests to be failed if rest-spam was used. If you're chasing down bandits, and rest to heal a broken arm, you shouldn't expect to get there in the 'nick of time.'
  21. smithereen
    Also, as an aside, I've always thought the requirement to have a rogue in the party felt really contrive. Really? There's no way I can get through this door or into this chest without lockpicking skill? Maybe if it's a solid iron safe, otherwise... the rogue should be able to do it quickly and quietly, but that two-handed axe I'm carrying should work on a wooden sea chest at least as well as it works on plate armour. Note that I'm not saying I don't want a place for rogues, but their place should be in low durability/high damage/nonleathal damage combat roles, forgery, fast talking, and above all, stealth.
  22. smithereen
    I'm going to be the downer here - I don't like how a lot of these skills have been implemented in the past. Crafting leads to OCD, I would also really like it if robbing people blind had some negative consequences, or at least made your party upset if they find out. Actually, that sounds like a great opportunity for roleplaying and character development. I would also really, REALLY like to see a few opportunities for lying to backfire. In the past. anything marked as a dialogue skill check was "click here to win!" No more of that, please. Perception should be very important.
  23. smithereen
    *alleged* false positives.
  24. smithereen
    While the combat was unbalanced as anything I've ever played and the AI was horrible, Alpha Protocol had one of the best stories to come out recently and was a really fresh idea. Too bad it will never see a sequel.
  25. smithereen
    HBO's Rome and Game of Thrones had some very inspiring visuals.
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