Regggler

Hope I'm not mistaken, but I think you can't take only one level-up of several. If you've earned two or more, you need to do them all.

While realistic, I'm not sure I would like the idea about ship types and strictly gated content - say I have saved up for a hardy, high-seas faring heavy vessel, and I'm super happy that instead of running I will now be able to tell pirate captains "No, YOU surrender!". If I then get to an interesting reef right after the purchase and can't explore it because my vessel is too heavy, my reaction is likely to be "This really sucks." Now, If I can get over this by using a dinghy, that's another story This could have consequences like "can't use the big ship to restock until you return" or similar things, so a shallow hull ship could still offer an advantage in this situation. As for your second suggestion, I love the idea of limited exploration distance linked to securing ports. Negotiating with a harbor master about being allowed to dock and restock is a cool hook for all kinds of quests. And you are right, it is a nice way of guiding the player through the "open" world. I'm with you in principle, but I still think JFSOCC's ideas could be done in a sufficiently RPGy way. ... I see what you did there...

Good point! If they were to go with the "tried and true" D&D approach to animating statues (iirc), then the steward and the head master should be able to move. Since these two don't, and the rusting of the Devil's body seems to prevent her from moving, I'll wager that bound souls can move things in ways these are physically able to move in the first place. Which brings us to skeletons: No skin, no muscles, no tendons. This means their bones would be able to move in any direction. Crabwalking wildly-flailing skellies incoming Then we'd need more explanations in the style either of "Magic!" or "well, their former movement is imprinted on their non-mind". But hey, rule of cool - no fantasy game without undead. And I do like the way they handled it in Pillars, what with the descent into mindlessness. No definitive answer here on how screwed the Devil is, though.

Oh, it gets even worse. See the descriptions of skeletons: "Given enough time, even the bones will be reduced to dust which the soul will still be bound to." However, "soul" is not the same as consciousness in Pillars lore, is it? My reasoning comes from the description of the revenant: "Of the mind, only base instincts and the desire to feed remain." So an entity animated by a bound soul can slip into unconsciousness. This, depending on one's personal point of view, may be a sliver of hope for the Devil. However, the souls bound to objects we know of (Steward of Caed Nua, Head Warden Ethelmoer) seem to endure in absolute clarity - which in turn doesn't bode well for the Devil.

Jobs vs money vs free time... everything's a trade off ever Trying to get the group together over roll20 currently. We'll see how it works out.

Ha, nice! For us, moving to different cities for uni and then work effed up our group pretty well. So it's the RPG-slackers' life for us But hey, better few and far between sessions than no PnP at all.

Ouch, that's harsh. It's actually been ages since I last played a written adventure. Since we only manage to meet up two, three times a year anyway, there's always enough time for someone to prepare something everyone else is reasonably happy with.

... am I the only one who finds the "slip beneath the waves" ending incredibly dark at second thought? There's nothing in there that implies her consciousness fades - basically her mind is imprisoned in a rusted-shut sarcophagus sinking to the bottom of the sea. The mentioned "slowing of the world" may be a saving grace, but to me the whole thing still sounds horribly like being buried alive.

Good to see at least some improvement Absolutely true. It's a question of playstyle anyway: As long as everyone gets the spotlight (both in and out of combat) in reasonably equal measure, higher and lower tier classes can happily coexist in the same group.

Cheers, mate! As a caster-player, I'm not usually on the receiving end of mediocre class balance, but man, they apparently just can't shake that tier problem...

"Every old RPG has multiplayer elements"? I contest that. Check out the games on http://crpgaddict.blogspot.de/ Nevertheless: It was hard and expensive to implement back then as well. Several new design decisions must be made. Do you allow one player to leave the map while the other stays? When one player enters combat mode, does the other as well? How do you deal with pause conflicts? Will story decisions only be made by player 1? While all of these can be answered reasonably easily, the list probably can be extended virtually endlessly. One single justification of the impact multiplayer has on cost suffices, though: Multiplayer (other than hotseat) requires network functionality. Depending on the way you do it, this means integrating several protocols into your game. In addition, everything you do here makes your code more complex, meaning the costs balloon into testing as well. I don't know how easy all that is in Unity, but my intuition is that the cost would be significant. Perhaps someone more knowledgable about Unity and network programming could give an assessment?

Don't worry, you can still be a "wine and meat monk" Fun short article: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/liquor-stains-and-incense-the-shaolin-temple-in-new-york While Zahua typically is all about escaping live's "snares", he still exposes quite some qualities of a wine and meat monk, what with all the drugs and his cheerful disposition towards intoxication.

Lice-infested tree-hugger too cowardly to face enemies head-on half the time and thus needs the help of an enslaved animal vs invincible master of universal inner peace who has honed his body into a weapon to such a degree that he is able to hold his own naked against armored and armed enemies. It's all a matter of perspective I get that "monk" here means "oriental warrior monk", which doesn't click well with European "medieval" RPG settings thematically. But hey, my powers of suspension of disbelief run strong. I like both monks and rangers.

Not a fan of the no-helmet thing either. However, I do like godlikes visually and thematically, nature godlikes in particular. And I always run with Pallegina, I just like the character.

So apparently, CoDzilla is alive and "well" in 5e? (I only know the rules up to 3.5)

As an aside, sometimes the dice fit the game thematically. I only know of one example though: In Nomine / Magna Veritas (players are angels or demons) uses 3d6 for every roll, i.e. the d666 in their parlance.

While I don't want to run around with a lightsaber in a fantasy game, I think Pillars handled it reasonably well. Whispers of Yenwood had a bit of a Sith-vibe, for example, but not so over-the-top that it would have subtracted from my enjoyment. I liked both the historic influences and things like the greenstone staff, which errs on the side of high fantasy quite a bit in my opinion. Silver lining for the anti-lightsaber crew though: Scabbards

It's not exactly the same, but the lore highlights should scratch at least some of that itch.

Are you ever right here... the chunky salsa rule is a nightmare. As is initiative order in version 2. They can't all be winners. Magic system is top-notch in my opinion, though. Depends on whether you want the crpg or the pen&paper one. p&p wise, I've only played versions 2 and 3. Personal favourite probably is 2 due to nostalgia. crpg wise, I'd say start with Dragonfall - Director's Cut. The magic system did not survive the translation from p&p to crpg, unfortunately. Neither did most of the system, actually. Still, the Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes are all solid choices in my opinion. Returning to upkeep: Shadowrun p&p has another version of upkeep cost: While a spell is in effect, everything gets more difficult for you because you need to concentrate on upkeep. That could be translated to other systems as well, e.g. as an accuracy penalty in Pillars. You'd need to weigh pros and cons of a spell more carefully then, as opposed to upkeep that "only" came at the cost of other spells.

Ah, we were working from different starting points: I wasn't aware of your assumption that "mana system" also encompasses "no spell levels". I agree with your assessment then. This offers a lot of freedom, though, which is great for the player, but a significant impact on balancing. Easier to manage? Yes. Easier to balance per encounter? My gut says no. "more potential approaches" equals more complex balancing. Personally, I love systems like this, but again, I'm not sure it fits with Pillars all that well. Maybe for a level-less system. Again, Shadowrun Arcane Warrior style rocks - but it probably really requires either pre-buffing (Booo!) or upkeep spells.

Not sure a mana system would be easier to balance - with fixed spell slots, you are absolutely sure how often the highest level spell can go off on a character. WIth mana, you wouldn't be. Same problem with spell slots that can be used freely, no matter the spell level. Those are the same as spell points, which are basically the same as a mana system. Mana drain and mana burn? "Steal spell (slot)" and "Destroy memory" then. It's all just a different abstraction of the same thing. Moving on to upkeep: Yeah, that definitely needs to hurt some other area - otherwise you're getting something for nothing. A cost of several spell slots was what I had in mind for more powerful buffs anyway. Not sure how easy balancing would be for this, though, and how well it would fit with the Pillars system.

Don't need mana for this - upkeep could simply limit your number of spells per rest / per encounter. SHHHH! not so loud, everyone will hear. I want to get a mana system And I would like a magic system based on drain in the style of Shadowrun pen&paper. But hey, what can you do. To be honest, though I can live quite well with spell slots. Now, if we were able to combine spell slots in the way of D&D's Ur-Priest (basically, use higher level spell slots to cast lower level spells, use up several lower level slots to cast higher level spells), that would pretty much be the same as a mana system. Probably a bit of a nightmare on usability and clarity though. ...oh, right thread topic. Gotta have me some yummy out of combat utility spells! Say no to pre-buffing!

Man, this thread just keeps getting better! Random person of negotiable affections: "I'm a fine-looking strumpet, ain't I?" Low-Con Watcher: "Argh - my heart!"

@ DigitalCrack: WotC and you think alike: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/soulknife.htm

Pig head mode in addition to big head mode! Or even better, pig-everything mode!