JFSOCC

This is a fantastic idea which adds a lot of gameplay. Maybe you can infiltrate that party and prevent an assassination, (or assassinate) but you'll have to carry concealed weapons. Maybe you'll need to beat a heavily armoured knight (paladin, whatever) You can take a weapon which pierces armour, but is also tiring to use. etc. This would further allow you to customize your party to play according to your playstyle, and perhaps further increase the value of the crafting system.

That's a logical fallacy. Some people respond differently to different environments and behaviours than others. Maybe not every abuse victim will become an abuser, but some do, and it's the abuse that set them on the path there. It's a lot more, as chippy noted, who are predisposed towards these kinds of behaviours. But that does not make them murderers or evil. There are as many sociopath CEO's as there are violent murderers about, possibly more. I'm saying having violence in your doesn't make you evil. I don't believe in good and evil, they are entirely abstract human concepts. Nietzsche knew what he was talking about. You and I may find something good or evil, but that's entirely subjective. In some cases, murder is warranted, to save your own life, it is right to take the life of those who threaten it. (I believe) So you can't use absolutist reasoning to say, this is always good and that is always evil. that's the pinnacle of naivete imo. and these social norms vary per place and time. In ancient Rome, killing someone in gladiatorial combat was not seen as evil (by most) but that's my point exactly. thank you for making it for me. You can't say someone is born evil. Someone maybe born with a gene which encourages risk-seeking behaviour, dis-inhibits, or decreases empathy, but that does not determine whether or not a person will end up criminal or crook. You can't say someone is just born evil. I'm not saying people are born good either. I don't believe in good and evil. that's too simplistic a view. I don't believe someone is born with a clean slate, you're always brought into this world with factors influencing your chances in life. your dna, your parentage, the socio-economic position of your family. I don't believe people will only do wrong when they're corrupted. I think people might do foolish things for many many different reasons But there are always reasons. and none of them are "this person is evil" it's an oversimplification of reality which I will not stand for.

No. You are wrong. While there is an ever so small percentage of sociopaths (people with no conscience) in the world, most of these are not problematic. The greatest "evils" in the world are either by circumstance, bad decisions, incompetence or a mistaken intent. You'll find no-one (save those very few sociopaths) who will murder 'just because'. Witch hunts were the result of religious zealotry and families settling old feuds. Evil for Evil its sake simply doesn't exist. There is ALWAYS an underlying cause. But for those absolutist pricks, who see the world in black and white (and whom I believe are part of the problem) and don't look further than the first convenient excuse (video games, porn, rap videos) to avoid finding out what truly motivated someone to their actions. It's just so much more convenient to say "must have been born wrong" or "evil" and be done with it. God forbid we'd actually have to think and maybe face uncomfortable truths, like that it is our own society which created these monsters. No, you are as wrong as wrong can be. To my mind ignorance is Evil, stupidity is Evil, but these can be prevented or solved. Apathy is the greatest evil, "Apathy is death". So to be dismissive and go "meh, some people are evil" grates on me to no end. Whatever Evils are done in this world, you can rest assured there is motive behind it. You may not agree with the motives, but these are what lead to bad action, not some inherent character flaw that is unmovable and unfixable. Recently a study has shown that psychological treatment of psychopathy helps. I can think of no stronger evidence that you are wrong.

Padamal's lonely cloak Gives whomever wears it +<suitably large number> for hide/move silently skills. As long as the cloak is worn, the player cannot initiate conversation or attack with the equipped character. If worn by a Rogue, the cloak offers summon creature, blackbird. 2/day. If worn by a Druid or Ranger, the cloak offers summon creature (any solitary) 2/day. Is given to the player as a reward by Padamal herself, should they be lucky enough to encounter her.

Padamal, Goddess of loneliness and trust. The Silent Friend. The Listening Ear. The Living Ghost. Patron of druids, rangers, thieves, lonely people, close friendship and scouts. Patron of all solitary animals. Padamal came from the wilderness into urban society on a mission of mercy, to tell the people of the city that they were using too much resources and that soon their society would collapse, unless something was done. And like society is, she got ignored, she would shout and people would move on and pay no attention to the nutcase who was speaking of doom and damnation. Jaded, those city dwellers. Padamal felt invisible, no-one would hear her out, no-one listened, and she withdrew into herself. Wandering through the city, she found she could take what she wanted from the stalls, no-one saw her. She could shout and no-one listened. No-one but one. A blackbird listened. And offered advice. "Don't speak, listen", the blackbird told her. "It is your gift to go unseen and listen, I've flown across the city and found the place where decisions are made, it is not the marketplace" First Padamal went into town and listened, listened to all the problems of all the people. She heard of their petty squabbles and their hatred for taxes, she couldn't bare the mundaneness, and so, she asked the blackbird, Lister, to find her a way into the palace council. Padamal went unseen into the council and listened. They were speaking of war and harvests, of intrigue and loyalty. None saw her as she observed them for weeks, right in their midst. And when she heard enough, she revealed herself and told the council. "Listen now! a harsh drought is coming and if you march to war your resources will be gone before your armies ever see your enemies! Your people will starve and your lands will blow away! The animals will die, you will all die!" Shocked by her sudden entrance, the council still found it hard to see her. They were impressed, but proud. They did not listen. Well, some did. a few council members prepared for drought, and withdrew their support for war. But the worst did happen. In the almost deserted city, those who listened survived, barely, they apologized and told her that nevermore would they fail to listen to the words of a stranger, to trust that there are those unknown worth listening to. Grim, Padamal nodded and told them "You will remind the world what happens if you don't". She set off back into the wilderness she came from, though Lister went with her. Her scout and loyal friend. Those who remained built her temples and tell her story, a story of stealing to survive, of listening before speaking, of patience, of kindness to strangers, even those who seem strange and foreign. It is a minor cult following, in places you might find a small courtyard or walled garden with trees and blackbirds being fed there. The priests of Padamal are divided into groups, some keep the place liveable, welcome strangers for respite, and keep extra resources and watch the environment. These are the Environmentalists. Others go out into the world to find the lonely and listen to them. They are the listeners, and they report to the head of their church about what lives in society. It is rumoured that a third group exists, the thieves, or infiltrators. If they exist, they spend their time watching all manner of organisations, and influencing them when they threaten the environment, when they fail to heed nature's call, or when they are unjust in dealing with the defenceless solitary souls. They steal for the survival of the world, or so it is believed. Padamal is a minor Deity who still walks the earth. She's found where fools are about to do something truly damaging to the environment, showing up out of no-where. She also has the secret of walking around unseen, something she has shared on rare occasion to those who helped serve her. Padamal is depicted with Lister on her shoulder, or flying overhead. Sometimes her outlines are barely observable, but Lister is always clearly visible.

I thought it was a lamp.

in Dnd +5 is not a small bonus, in PE, we have no idea and are using it as an arbitrary example number

Knights of the Open Road. In old country, there was a time when many roads were filled with banditry, washed out during summer rain, rockslides, new rivers cutting through it. Yes roads were the thing you risked your life on. You only travelled in groups, no-one was stupid enough to go alone. And without infrastructure empires crumble, Infrastructure means trade, means logistics for fielding an army are less complex. Roads connect cultures and ideas. However the rulers of the many patchwork kingdoms, they couldn't be bothered, or they weren't powerful enough. And one day, Borg Branik saw his farmstead burned down by a small army of brigands. But rather than give up, he took his plow-horse, what survivors there were, and went to his liege lord, petitioning for help. When the liege lord told him there was nothing to be done against, but offered funds and workmen to reconstruct the village. Borg took the money, but choose to equip himself instead. Borg took the men, but choose to recruit them instead. And he set out after the brigands. And he found them. Outnumbered, Borg used the element of surprise to raid the bandit camp. It was here where his tactical brilliance first became known. He defeated the brigands in a story I'm sure every child knows well by know, so I won't bore you with it. After the defeat of the brigands, he scavenged their gear and gathered his men. Borg said that from this day, it would be his duty to protect all the roads. He had the workmen of his liege lord reinforce the bandit camp. He used some of the spoils to hire workmen to build with stone. He used the last of his funds to buy several more horses. By the time he returned to his liege lord, he had constructed his keep at the main road, and several walled enclosures with a watchtower, each within sight range of the previous tower, and next to the road. He demanded from his liege lord, for the work the lord could not do, a noble appointment, legitimacy, and that the fort he built was to be his keep forever more. Under his leadership the Knighthood of the Open Road was founded. They spend their days patrolling the road, building wayhouses (the enclosures with the watchtowers soon became reinforced, and equipped with spartan but functional inns, some later grew into villages) building road improvements, building bridges, escorting VIP's along dangerous missions, sending messages across the realm, and levying toll. It was later during his life that Borg Branik became Borg Dragonsong. And later still that he went missing. In the safest places the Knighthood is considered little more than a glorified postal service, but the Knighthood of the Open Road goes wherever roads need protecting. Their wayhouses are always open to weary travellers, the Knighthood always has work to do. They're engineers and knights and soldiers, experts in cavalry tactics. Their way is practical, not spartan per sé, but that's how it usually turns out. Their service is currently run by Steen Borgson, the 'Borgson' is purely a title to denote the current leader of the Knighthood, just like Borgway is the name of the road Borg liberated and built his fort on. The Knighthood names roads after their more legendary members. The Knighthood owes no fealty to any king or queen, and protects roads anywhere they're allowed to operate, regardless of the political situations. The Knighthood is always looking for fighters, paladins especially are welcome, and skilled labour is always welcome as well. Work in the Knighthood mostly consists of patrolling, escorting, and sending messages, and training. Sometimes knights are given special tasks. Any crime taking place on roads protected and patrolled by the Knighthood falls under their jurisdiction . -Questhook, In a perfectly safe place, some of the Knighthood's fortifications have become deserted, knights were sent to check it out but none came back. The road, a relatively minor road, has been closed off by the Knighthood until the problem is solved. -Questhook. The Knighthood of the open road has joined the new world, they have yet to set up a base of operations beyond their ad hoc quarters in the port city where they made landfall. A whole new land of challenge and opportunity, where a knight trying to make a name for him or herself might still be able to rise fast. Roads here are much more dangerous, and fortifications as of yet are non-existent. What better way to show the locals the benefits of the Knighthood? The Knights of the Open Road carry the emblem of Dragonsong, Their shields are festooned with a Dragon in what with a lot of imagination can be called a singing pose.

Vortex Pillar. The Vortex Pillar is a guardian creature. The Vortex pillar's zone of control is twice the size of that of a humanoid. It can attack all party members individually at the same time. It has ranged vortex attacks dealing piercing damage, though not much damage is dealt. Near the vortex pillar (zone of control) all creatures (both hostile and friendly) are slowed, this effect increases the closer to the vortex you are. (aura effect) All creatures near the Vortex Pillar (melee range) suffer gradual life drain. This effect also increases the closer to the vortex you are (also aura effect) All creatures within range of the Vortex Pillar's zone of control must pass a strength check, or be 'engaged' with the vortex, unable to break away from the forces pulling them ever closer. Whenever a ranged attack from the vortex pillar hits, there's a 5% chance that a character is stunned for 2 seconds. If this is inside the zone of control of the Vortex Pillar, the character is sucked into the vortex and will take additional damage over time until the Vortex is destroyed or the character dies. This effectively removes the party member from combat. The vortex pillar is slow. The Vortex sounds like the screaming winds of a tornado, and near it no abilities requiring sound will work. The Vortex Pillar has much health, has a powerful defence, and a slight health/stamina regeneration. It is an endgame monster which threatens the player by bogging the party down in a position unfavourable to the party and favourable to the vortex. Long range damage dealing and staying out of its way are really the only ways to defeat it. A party which studies the vortex will find that it slowly moves towards the lowest health party member. This can be used to lure the Vortex along a preferred path.

I'm on the fence. My biggest problem is that there is no honest competition for steam. Their censorship of some steam greenlight apps because of some questionable reasons (sensibilities of the audience... yeah) has me worried. There insistence that you don't own your games, only a license to play them, and you HAVE to agree to this contract if you wish to play your games, saying no shuts you out of your own library. that's suspicious, it also would not hold up in (european) court. The service itself also leaves a lot to be desired. you can add games to steam which you've bought outside it, but it won't add them to your account, except on the computer where you've added it. Their update process is lacking transparency, their program is slow and heavy. search is crappy, they haven't improved their chat service in YEARS, despite many requesting a log-in invisible option. I don't like to always broadcast to the world what I am doing on steam, but steam logs in for you and does so, without your permission. And while valve makes great games, and while it is very convenient to be able to go on any computer, log in, and download my games, and I currently have 116 games in my library several of which I've never played, I'm still very dubious about valve's ethics. I don't trust them to handle my privacy well, and it's clear to me that they're there for themselves, not me.

If grimoires are the spell focus for wizards, will it be possible for rogues to attempt to steal a grimoire and thusly gank opposing casters?

hey potz, welcome to the forums! I hope to see more from you

maybe it's not the creature itself, but the creatures it creates? the echoes, which are dangerous?

Finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons. 6 short character stories fit to a plot that works as a good framing device for these stories. Recommended.

I think what people who use the argument "your own responsibility" in any thread are missing, (and this argument has been brandished a lot) Is that while they may be right that you don't have to play degeneratively even if you can, it's bad design on the part of the developers for creating a situation which so easily becomes degenerative. There's a reason exploits are considered cheating, even though they work WITHIN the game's allowances. personal responsibility is the argument used against gun control laws, even though they work, against anything trying to stop tobacco use, even though it's addictive. I don't think its relevant at all, in a well designed game, degenerative gameplay is avoided without the need for player self-control.

No. Just make morally ambiguous choices equally viable solutions, and leave it up to the player whether they feel comfortable with it.

Mixarna, goddess of ingenuity and betrayal Patron of politicians, plotters, engineers and inventors. Mixarna was a Lady of a noble household. Her husband had fallen to political intrigue for some years, and Lady Mixarna was forgotten in the last keep her family still controlled. Ignored as a powerless noble fallen from grace, her political opponents failed to see her as a threat to their power. Mixarna was left to her own devices and leveraged all her resources into an ingenious endeavour, hiring workers from all over the known world, to construct an automated workforce, her lands grew prosperous under her administration, and the wealth that she garnered she used for political favours, slowly, but steadily increasing her influence. Refusing to marshal her wealth to bring new lands under her dominion, instead she sold the secret of the construction of her workforce in order to gain political favour. The Nobles were eager to buy and create their own automated workforce, the production of their lands increased, and for a while, the automatons were all the rage, until every noble household had a few. It was too subtle for these nobles to notice, but the more automatons they bought, the less their lands returned over time. and less, and less. Until eventually they produced less than before the automatons were working. Mixarna by then had lost most of her political favours, but she had saved. Alone in her small keep, she cashed in on her last political favour. She begged an audience with the ruling families. She got the audience. And she told them. You have one chance now, Bow down to me as your Goddess and I will spare you. And they laughed And she spoke her coded words, long prepared and in the design of every golem, since they were all based of her design. And all the golems killed their masters, destroyed their equipment. Mixarna's terrible revenge for the murder of her husband decades earlier. Some fought and died, some fled and of those some even survived in exile. Some begged, these she spared in return for their fealty. Of those who fought, she destroyed not just their families, but also their castles, the lands themselves. The golems had been poisoning the soil dedicatedly for years. It was a master-stroke of revenge, but it ruined the land, most of it was poisoned by the golems, what golems had killed their masters stopped functioning when their masters died. Statues without purpose, those who aren't toppled or destroyed stand in the same position they did when their masters died. Eventually the land recovered, but the kingdom, bereft of nearly it's entire elite, it's organisers, and most of the food supply, had dwindled into oblivion, with farmstead communities surviving without real society, they told their children the story of Mixarna. It is a lesson, no good will come of revenge, some say. Others say the lesson is that you must utterly destroy your enemies because you never know if they will keep posing a threat. Others still say the lesson is that with guile and ingenuity you can achieve great things. Yet that care must be taken, because it's possible to destroy everything in the blind pursuit of ones goals. It must be no mystery then why Mixarna's worship is paired with fear, as ruthless and powerful as she can be, it pays to take caution and be respectful. Mixarna did instruct those who served her stead to build places of worship for her. Some were built around the golems, not statues exactly, but for all intents and purposes. But the religion of Mixarna has lost popularity with new and more exciting gods coming in from new peoples who call this land new, and theirs old. And Mixarna's following has found themselves thrown out of their temples, if not worse. These new peoples were not interested in hearing of her. And so the cult of Mixarna is slowly moving underground. Shrines can be found in ateliers of inventors and some powerful men have allowed worshippers to come into their home shrines in the cities. They're not exactly hidden, as much as placed out of sight. If someone who doesn't know about Mixarna asks about the shrine, they may get a non-committal answer, evasive, or a simple 'none of your business', as followers of Mixarna have become wary of outsiders. That doesn't mean that it is impossible to enter the temple, however, or to learn of Mixarna's tale and wisdom, it's just slightly harder. It's not exactly secret, it is just not shared (easily) with outsiders. But the clergy of Mixarna remembers that Mixarna bid her time for revenge, and got it. So will they. The new gods, along with the peoples that brought them, they will find themselves betrayed when the time comes. Unless they swear fealty to her. when the time comes. Mixarna is depicted on the shoulders of the Golem she rode in old age. Most of the gods new to this land (where our story takes place) are unwelcome and at odds with Mixarna, but not all. Particularly Hezeng is unwelcome, as early colonists came with the fleet of his religion.

I thought the ability to script responses for my companion characters in combat using the tactical slots was pretty much one of the few interesting things Dragon Age Origins had to offer.

I like the mosaic, but the other one seems a bit like fan-fiction of like the most awesum club evah. It's a bit over the top. Its widespread but secretive, it values strength and valor, but also guile and intelligence, while teaching charismatic leadership, and no doubt they help old ladies cross the road.

I'm sure they won't be able to survive long-term without artistic merit. Obviously they arent going to intentionally stifle creativity, but they have made a ton of money churning out sequels and catering to the largest audience possible. Artistic merit is simply one aspect of development, and not necessarily the top one. But that's the thing, in order to make good games, you need to focus on it as an art, not as a product. You simply can't make good games when you start giving in to censorship of any kind. Because the quality drops. And while mildly amusing may get you some purchases, in the long run, people will dismiss it as lame when it doesn't compare to the competition and still gets sold for the same prices. EA makes pulp. penny books and booklets. Ubisoft are slowly pulping their work as well. And people tend to leave pulp in the communal libraries in hostels and hotels. Right now their products are still palpable, but they're getting ever more flavourless and tame. Until their empires crumble like all empires do.

I'm sure they won't be able to survive long-term without artistic merit.

What happened to EA, and Ubisoft (which I recall used to be the noble underdog) is the takeover from upstairs. With the Marketing team, the legal team, and the shareholders all wanting to weigh in on the projects, because they're seeing it as a product and nothing else. While they should be focussing on their artistic merit, giving project leads, the artists, total creative control over what is produced. Because that's the only way to create anything truly special, and the public will respond accordingly. Quality always sells.

I thought Arcades died out ages ago. No more quarters for an extra life. Sure there maybe an audience for this, but I think that with the amount of competition in the gaming community their market share will steadily decline until they are as bankrupt as their artistic integrity.

Falke81, go to this thread> http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61817-the-obsidian-order-of-eternity-wants-you-part-6/ and name your title

lucrative is good. tiring doesn't have to be bad. I'm curious, what kind of training do you give?