No fight in RPG

[Jorian Drake]

Another thing.. A good site with all sorts of great tips for DMs/GMs is here:

 

www. roleplayingtips.com

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Thanks Lance...hey lance ,are you interested in a 'forum RPG'? (i don't know the proper name for it, i already have a link to some samples here somewhere)

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I would but I am too booked with school and research to make a serious committment now. Maybe in a month or so things will free up a bit!

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Oh..OK, but don't forget to PM me than

 

 

EDIT: yay! I'm now lvl3 :D

Edited January 30, 2006 by jorian

[Jediphile]

In an upcoming adventure, the PCs just might come face to face with the legendary orc-king Thar (Lancer will know who this is), who is (IMC) a 27th-fighter *and* 12th-level shaman. Oh, and he's a nosferatu-vampire too, only the PCs don't know that 

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Haha!.... awesome.. Is your campaign currently based in the Broken Lands or does that just happen to be one of the many nations they have traveled to in the Known World?

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We're in early AC 1011 and one PC is a dwarf, so the group will be heavily involved in the clan war in Rockhome, which will eventually lead to a confrontation when Thar's hordes invade.

 

I also updated Denwarf to my 2e version, and he's an absolute monster <_<

Edited January 30, 2006 by Jediphile

[Jorian Drake]

What World is this in?

Becouse I don't get the joke if i don't understand it at all <_<

[Jediphile]

What World is this in?

Becouse I don't get the joke if i don't understand it at all <_<

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Lancer and I both play in the world of Mystara, which is the original D&D world, then called simply "the Known World" (that pre-AD&D 2e D&D, aka OD&D).

 

The world is high fantasy and quite tolkienesque similar to the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, but the various nations were thrown in a bit randomly, which makes the gaming world look a bit silly at times (an arabian-like desert nation is separated by norse/viking-nations to the north only be a thin mountain-range, for example).

 

Oh, and the world is hollow, and people live on the inside of it as well with a central red sun, where the core should have been. The Hollow World is a sort of cultural "museum" where the Immortals (gods) place examples of dying civilizations before they are destroyed by evolution.

 

But in spite of all, I prefer Mystara to FR, Greyhawk, and other AD&D worlds because it has more 'grey' and political tones. The nation of Karameikos, for example, has the ever-so-nice-and-benevolent King Stefan as ruler, but he was not above stabbing his former homeland in the back by signing a treaty with their mortal enemies during the most recent war between the empires when things looked bad (and he was too naive to realise how nefarious his cousin the Baron was to the halflings for three decades...). Mystara doesn't fall into the "all-good or all-evil" category of most AD&D worlds. In Mystara nobody is above doing a little evil when necessary, and the 'bad guys' aren't all evil for the sake of being evil either.

[Jorian Drake]

Interesting...maybe i see more in this later.

 

About the politics: Don't know Greyhawk, but in FR they r changing things, there is, and will be more grey-colors too

[Lancer]

Mystara is the sh!t!

[Jorian Drake]

Mystara is the sh!t!

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Now thats a statement

Edited February 1, 2006 by jorian

[Jorian Drake]

What 'no classes' games are there?

( I know 7th Sea, and Vampire)

[Jediphile]

What 'no classes' games are there? 

( I know 7th Sea, and Vampire)

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GURPS would be a major one - no classes at all, just skills.

 

Also depends on what you call 'classes' - Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium's original, not the d20 half-brew) has "professions", but all they do is force a character to distribute his major skill points on eight relevant skills during character creation, while there are still plenty left after that. Definitely more skillbased.

 

Exalted has a very loose class-structure (they're there, but nowhere as forced as D&D), but then that's another storyteller game like vampire and all the rest.

 

Hmm... not sure I can think of others right now. Paranoia?

[Jorian Drake]

What 'no classes' games are there? 

( I know 7th Sea, and Vampire)

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GURPS would be a major one - no classes at all, just skills.

 

Also depends on what you call 'classes' - Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium's original, not the d20 half-brew) has "professions", but all they do is force a character to distribute his major skill points on eight relevant skills during character creation, while there are still plenty left after that. Definitely more skillbased.

 

Exalted has a very loose class-structure (they're there, but nowhere as forced as D&D), but then that's another storyteller game like vampire and all the rest.

 

Hmm... not sure I can think of others right now. Paranoia?

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Whats Call of Cthulhu and Exalted like? whats about them?

[Jediphile]

Whats Call of Cthulhu and Exalted like? whats about them? 

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Call of Cthulhu is a horror RPG based loosely on the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

 

It is typically set in the Boston area in the 1920s and is all about evil cults trying to awaken ancient evil gods of incredible power, the most powerful being Cthulhu, who will unquestionably destroy civilization and enslave mankind if the cultists succeed.

 

The cultists can call on magical lore to summon nasty monsters and similar, and generally you're screwed as a player, because you'll never gain the power of the cultists without learning more about their mythology (the dreaded Cthulhu Mythos skill), yet the more you learn about it, the more insane you get.

 

You used to play with a percentile die (1d100) and roll against your relevant skill (between 0 and about 90).

 

It's one of the few games to have rules for insanity. You begin with a number of sanity points determined by your stats, typically around 60-70, but lose them as you experience traumatic experiences (seeing a dead corpse for the first time, witnessing a horrible murder, or seeing one of the monsters). Typically you will need to make a sanity check in these cases (which is initiatially the same as your number of sanity points), and missing the check always costs points.

 

Use of magic also costs sanity points, but then magic use is based solely on the aforementioned Cthulhu Mythos skill. Trouble is that your sanity is never higher than 100 minus your Mythos skill, so learning more about it will automatically drive a character insane.

 

It's really a fun (well...) game to play. But the gaming company decided to make it all d20 years ago, and the conversion fails (IMHO) miserably to capture the feel of the original rules.

 

Oh, and it's good for non-fight RPGs - here a fight usually means that you're finished, because the monsters will eat the PCs for lunch in a second. Even a single zombie is a lethal threat to any player. The way to complete adventures here is to investigate and solve the problems, not just kill the monsters. The PCs aren't even called Player Characters but rather 'Investigators'.

 

 

Exalted is a heavily anime-inspired game of some prehistoric period of high fantasy is a japanese-like fantasy world. All the players are "chosen of the gods" with special powers, yet are seen as demons in the eye of the public and therefore hunted by the authorities.

 

It's not D&D, but it's just as high-fantasy if not more so. It's also good fun, at least it was the times I played it.

 

It uses the storyteller RPG system from White Wolf just as vampire, werewolf, mage, and all those other games do.

[Lancer]

It is futile to talk about other games and systems. Mystara rules all

[Lancer]

What 'no classes' games are there? 

( I know 7th Sea, and Vampire)

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Seriously speaking, I think the question should be "what class-based games ARE there?"

 

There is just a crapload of skill-based games with no classes. Almost all of them nowadays are, although many come with "templates." They just don't make many class-based systems anymore.

 

GURPS yes,

 

Call of Cthulhu yes,

 

World of Darkness games have "templates" which are sorta like classes but they are more like guidelines

 

Shadowrun, similar to WoD.. It has templates that aren't really classes in the truest sense

 

Cyberbunk 2020 has classes but it is VERY trivial to design your own using those rules.

 

Cyberspace, ditto as per Cyberpunk 2020

 

Heavy Gear has templates but you can make your own character from scratch too

 

 

Hero/Champion you are allowed to make your own from scratch

 

Silver Age Sentinels...

 

so is FUZION (and it is FREE!),

 

FUDGE(though this is more of a framework from which you can devise your own ruleset rather than an actual ruleset. ALSO FREE!),

 

..etc.. You get the idea.

Edited February 2, 2006 by Lancer

[Gabrielle]

[Jorian Drake]

'Hero/Champion you are allowed to make your own from scratch'

 

You mean my own HERO?

[Jorian Drake]

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Whats this about? <_< What should it mean?

[Lancer]

'Hero/Champion you are allowed to make your own from scratch'

 

You mean my own HERO? 

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Sorry. Let me be more explanatory.. The Hero system is what is used in the Champions RPG which is a superhero RPG. Like the other games on that list, you get to design your own superhero without the influence of classes.

 

The company that makes Champion is at www.herogames.com

Edited February 2, 2006 by Lancer

[Lancer]

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Whats this about? <_< What should it mean?

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I think Gabrielle was just confused about my post.

[Jediphile]

It is futile to talk about other games and systems. Mystara rules all 

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Much better than the competing (A)D&D stuff, but as games go, I actually like Call of Cthulhu better. Mystara is tied way too closely to the more silly aspects of D&D rules... I've been considering the idea of Mystara with GURPS rules, but it'll be a major rewrite and I'd lose or have to heavily convert a lot of the feel in the process

[Jorian Drake]

Is there a game where players can be nobles (even royalty) and have castles, soldiers, etc...and all this detailed and in-game system?

( I know you could be in most of games a noble, but is there a setting just for that?)

[Jorian Drake]

It is futile to talk about other games and systems. Mystara rules all 

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Much better than the competing (A)D&D stuff, but as games go, I actually like Call of Cthulhu better. Mystara is tied way too closely to the more silly aspects of D&D rules... I've been considering the idea of Mystara with GURPS rules, but it'll be a major rewrite and I'd lose or have to heavily convert a lot of the feel in the process

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Whats GURPS about? (and for what stands GURPS in short?)

[Jediphile]

Is there a game where players can be nobles (even royalty) and have castles, soldiers, etc...and all this detailed and in-game system? 

( I know you could be in most of games a noble, but is there a setting just for that?)

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Mystara had specific guidelines for "dominions" in the old rules (and in the Rules Cyclopedia) with castles, servants, and such. Take a look at some of the articles here.

 

Mystara also had rules for becoming an immortal (god).

 

Still, Birthright had rules where the players were the leaders of entire nations...

[Lancer]

It is futile to talk about other games and systems. Mystara rules all 

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Much better than the competing (A)D&D stuff, but as games go, I actually like Call of Cthulhu better. Mystara is tied way too closely to the more silly aspects of D&D rules... I've been considering the idea of Mystara with GURPS rules, but it'll be a major rewrite and I'd lose or have to heavily convert a lot of the feel in the process

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Nah..You know how I feel about Call of Cthulhu's combat system. Not to mention that it doesn't have some sort of traits/advantages system.. And I think you once said that you don't even use CoC's combat system but have transplanted the one from Twilight 2000.

 

Mystara is just a much larger and richer world than CoC , IMHO---barring rulesets aside.. For the same reasons you have mentioned--More issues, politics, more grey. etc. I also want to add that Mystara just has many more gameplay options (which I describe below). Aside for how CoC introduces horror, there isn't too much more that CoC can offer. Horror personally has never really been able to scare me anyways.

 

Not to mention that in CoC, you are damned no matter what and there isn't much you can do about it. The good guys can never win in the long run though they can temporarily thwart the threat through very small scale victories. That isn't much fun either.

 

CoC might be great for a non-combat game and for getting a certain atmosphere, but it just can't match Mystara in terms of richness, diversity and substance.

 

EDIT: The Vaults of Pandius site is first-hand evidence of just how rich Mystara is. It truly is an amazing world, barring rulesets.

Edited February 2, 2006 by Lancer

[Lancer]

Is there a game where players can be nobles (even royalty) and have castles, soldiers, etc...and all this detailed and in-game system? 

( I know you could be in most of games a noble, but is there a setting just for that?)

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Mystara had specific guidelines for "dominions" in the old rules (and in the Rules Cyclopedia) with castles, servants, and such. Take a look at some of the articles here.

 

Mystara also had rules for becoming an immortal (god).

 

Still, Birthright had rules where the players were the leaders of entire nations...

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Jorian, aside for the "grey" tones in Mystara, the politics, and rich world, it was the ability to become a lord of a dominion in Mystara that got me hooked. There are even rules in that same Rules Cyclopedia (IMHO, the greatest Dungeons and Dragons rulebook ever made... if not the greatest PnP rulebook ever made!) called the "War Machine" for conducting mass military battles. The Poor Wizard's Almanac series (The PWAs) had army statistics--which included the stats for soldiers, generals etc.-- for every single nation of the Known World. These were the stats you would use to conduct War Machine battles. The PWA's were also notable in that they detailed important political events that would happen throughout the calendar year. By incorporating these events, you really make your Mystara a truly living, breathing world with real dynamics.

 

Mystara even had a cosmology system (similar to Planescape's cosmology) but waayyy before Planescape was even on the board.

 

Not to mention that Mystara's Voyage of the Princess Ark (VotPa)/Champions of Mystara boxed set beat Spelljammer to the punch.

 

Long before the AD&D Castle Guide, Mystara already had rules for designing a castle from scratch. Down to how to obtain important castle NPCs like castellans, castle materials, and castle siege artillery like trebuchets and catapults...etc

 

Jediphile also already mentioned the option for PCs to achieve Immortality. It even had rules on how to run a *very* political Immortals campaign (alongside other fleshed-out Mystaran Immortal stars like Thanatos, Ixion, Khoronus, and Ka) as your Immortal PC struggles to gain clout and tries to advance the interests of his or her chosen Sphere. Come to think of it, this would make a great option for a non-combat oriented game.

 

As I said Mystara is rich. No that is an under-statement. Very, very, very freaking rich. IMHO, it was probably the richest PnP setting ever devised. I don't know any game with more gameplay options than Mystara does and I have been gaming for well over a decade having tried many, many other settings.

Edited February 2, 2006 by Lancer

[Lancer]

It is futile to talk about other games and systems. Mystara rules all 

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Much better than the competing (A)D&D stuff, but as games go, I actually like Call of Cthulhu better. Mystara is tied way too closely to the more silly aspects of D&D rules... I've been considering the idea of Mystara with GURPS rules, but it'll be a major rewrite and I'd lose or have to heavily convert a lot of the feel in the process

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Whats GURPS about? (and for what stands GURPS in short?)

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GURPS stands for Generic Universal Roleplaying System. It is made by Steve Jackson games and since it is a unversal roleplaying system it claims that it can handle any PnP genre.. Be it fantasy, sc-fi, western, horror, superhero..etc

Of course, in practice this is not actually true...