rjshae

Thank you, Adam. I'm curious how the custom elements from the high-end contributors are coming along. Have you received a lot of interesting ideas?

and that is what i say too. every player will influence the system differently, so all aspects of the system should be equaly viable for all possible choices. They don't need to be equally viable... just viable. With steadfast persistence and/or clever tactics, you should be able to find at least one path to the end game even if you can't necessarily succeed at all the side quests because of your particular build.

New this week: The Strange, a Tabletop RPG by Bruce Cordell and Monte Cook "Explore mysterious worlds hidden just outside our reality in this new RPG using the story-based Cypher System of Numenera." "The Strange is a cosmos-sized artifact built in the afterglow of the Big Bang. The original alien builders lost control of it eons ago, but their dark energy network remains 'beneath' our universe. For those on Earth who've discovered it, everything is different. These select few know that the Strange hosts recursions: unique but limited worlds with their own laws of science and even magic, seeded into the network by the creative resonance of pure imagination, but still nonetheless very real." It is currently succeeding quite nicely at the sum of $177,865 with 28 days to go.

Here's a Wired article published yesterday (10/23): Over Budget, Behind Schedule: What's Up With Gaming's Biggest Kickstarters? To see them all, click on the 'Next' link or the picture icons. There are summaries for Broken Age, Wasteland 2, The Banner Saga, Shadowrun Returns, Planetary Annihilation, Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse, Homestuck Adventure Game, Project Eternity, Star Citizen, and Godus.

Technically it's not a medieval European fantasy. The wheellock weapon was introduced at the start of the sixteenth century; coincidentally at the end of the medieval period. The European colonial period also began at that time. For me it's the story that matters; the characters, the interactions, the goals and the motivations. The setting just serves as a backdrop. But it does happen that a renaissance setting provides a good circumstance to play a larger than life hero. Most of the population are still caught up in the need to survive, to feed their family, and to bow to the local nobility. Only a handful of people actually make a difference, and as an adventurer you get to try being one of those people. In a more advanced society, you'd just be one amongst a myriad and so your goals are consequently less influential.

I know it's a matter of opinion, buuuuuuuuut thankfully elves are here to stay You already have a bunch of new races: godlike, orlan and aumanabananarama. Just give it a go. There's no reason why the P:E designers couldn't give elves a reboot and move them further away from the overused archetypes used in D&D. Why not give them a different type of soul--a nature spirit--that is not subject to rebirth as humans? They could dump the idea of elves being wizards and instead introduce them as the original druids. Maybe they can live for ages, but a good part of that time could be spent as raw elements of nature. Their life as a humanoid form is actually an aberration meant to fulfill a life-long quest for inner meaning. They can shift back into their nature spirit forms, but doing so entails risk of entering the wilding state and losing their purpose.

Appearing on the local news this morning: castAR: the most versatile AR & VR system Not exactly a catchy name, but their AR/VR product looks pretty interesting. Plus there's a clip-on model. I could just picture using this in PnP RPG sessions...

I enjoy anime that spend time on stylistic elements, character development, and a sense of drama; those can be sadly lacking in western animation. What I can do without is some of the goofy humor, particularly as expressed in absurd emotive states. Serious anime films such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Princess Mononoke are as enjoyable for an adult as any well-done live-action drama film. Unfortunately, Western cultures have been conditioned to view animation as children's fare, so adult anime has only done well with specialized audiences.

Looking forward to the third patch release when the game will finally be stable enough to play...

Some people are just hard-wired for it.

I was disappointed that the designers caved on the equipment maintenance feature instead of simply making it an option for the expert mode. Otherwise I've been reasonably pleased by the various concepts presented.

I really hope you guys are being facetious... 'cause I want to live long enough to become a cyborg and spend my life exploring the galaxy and uplifting new habitable worlds.

I could see an abstracted mount system being beneficial for an overland map. A fully mounted party should be able to flee most encounters, or to fight on more favorable ground. Likewise, a mounted foe against an unmounted fleeing party should be able to maneuver them into an unfavorable tactical position, or an ambush. The party should be able to park their mounts at a location in order to advance on foot, thereby reducing their detection radius. The location of their mounts could then represent their camp.

Drakensang has a mana cost, or rather an astral energy cost. You can change the actual cost of the spell by modifying the power per use (up to your trained limit). Thus if your astral energy is low, you can choose to cast weaker versions of the same spells. It also has a spell-casting time.

A weapon needs to "do something extra" to make it special. Even if that something is just an improvement to your reputation.

What you're describing is a weapon with enchantments, something that some posters don't want. Some people don't want enchantments at all. We've seen stuff like this in the IE games. Items like Balduran's butter knife which I always sell because I prefer a knife with an enchantment that is useful in the game for characters like my Mages. Yes there are a small number of outspoken posters who are adamant about having little to no magic. I don't agree with that preference--magic may be uncommon, but so is the party. They are more likely to run into holders of such equipment than is the average person. From what I've heard, the enchanted items in the game are going to be on a par with the content in the IE games.

I don't see the point. Why would you keep a legendary sword that is just the same as a normal mundane sword without any enchantments? Especially when a regular +2 sword is much better in battle. I'll take the +2 item over a mundane legendary item without enchantments any day. It might be cool to have a magical sword that became more effective based upon the context. Magical weapons may possess a certain sense of place and may choose not to reveal their full power until the circumstances are right. In an ordinary battle against grunt guards that legendary sword may choose to behave in an almost ordinary manner, but in a battle against a powerful figure of evil the sword would assert itself and become a weapon of terrible vengeance.

This Excalibur never really did anything that any other sword couldn't have done, with the exception of getting stuck in a rock, it was a symbol. Weapons with a small bonus and a backstory are the way to go, rather than making something so powerful you feel you have to use it. A mythical sword that never existed... never did anything? Imagine that. I think you have to consider the context -- in our mundane world swords became famous because of their owners. In a realm where magic is powerful, it may well be the other way around.

Blackguards release date pushed back to 2014... but only to January 14. Definitely looking forward to this.

A thought that occurs is to use an overland map similar to SoZ with a scaled down ship model controlled by the player. Encounters are represented on the map by other ship models--most are friendly--or giant sea creatures. As in SoZ, once an encounter occurs you're placed on the battle map and go directly to boarding combat. For a future release, of course, blah blah blah...

Reaching for the bucket of popcorn...

Some days I think we need a cute cat pics thread...

Where is this magic button ? I've never seen it. Per Gfted1's post: Click the little arrow next to your avatar in the upper left hand corner of every page. Choose My Settings. Choose "Ignore" Preferences. Add names. The blocked postings appear as gray bars, which you can still open view if you choose. I wish more forums had this feature, as well as the Like button...

Expendables with storage requirements: once you unseal and activate them, they gradually lose potency. An example would be a potion in an opaque container with a carefully sealed lid. Once opened, the effective number of doses decreases at the rate of one per day. Hence it's better to wait for the right time then use it up all at once.

you can ignore people? Yeah, I have a list of about a dozen. You probably know who they are. Occasionally I check to see if their replies are worth following again... nope.