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On March 15 2011 20:07 Nawyria wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On March 15 2011 18:24 kuresuti wrote: I'd like to ask, what character sheets do you guys use? We just printed out a few copies of the sheet created by Paizo for Pathfinder, which worked fine for us but would you recommend something else? Ahh, the issue of character sheets; it comes down to what you want to record. You can find a good Character sheet database here . Paizo's character sheet works well enough for recording basic stuff, but I'd recommend Treyu's character sheet which allows you to jot down everything relevant for your character. If you're not yet quite comfortable with the mechanics, there are several sheets that do calculations for you. You just fill in, say, your Strength score and the sheet calculates all relevant bonuses for you. This will probably slow down your learning process, but can help you get things right. There's a good one in Excel format and an editable Paizo Sheet. If you're feeling fancy you can go for Happy Camper's character sheets, whose documents contain 3-page character sheets tailored to each individual class. Edit: On a sidenote, so many Dutchies in this thread! :D
Oh I like that Happy Camper's Character sheet very much!
One thing I didn't like about the one I used was that I couldn't find where to put down character classes and levels. I'll check these out, thanks again!
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On March 15 2011 19:37 ShatterStorm wrote: My advise for new players...
Use your imagination and above all, have fun! The rules in the books do not need to be religeously followed. Sure, they povide a frame or structure under which you can play and handle the "mechanics" of play. But at no time should one think "well, if it''s not covered by the rules, then I cant try it" Also, if your group dislike a rule... change it. It is after all your game, played in your home. You dont have to worry about server limits, eula agreements or balance/imba discussions with D&D.
Ahh, the memories of 2nd Ed where there were no official improvised weapon rules and having a player in my group beat a (small) dragon to death with a pipe wrench. Or the jokes about making a player roll dice when he went to attend a "call of nature"... roll a 1, fumble and therefore "loose" his "equipment" for 1d6 rounds.
2e and GURPS bring a tear to the eye if you consider how much you can let your fantasy work up rules. The longer I spend away from the game the more I'm sad that I didn't dedicate enough time to playing 2e. Plus I love happy hardcore and you could very easily build something like a crossover with a 4e bard spouting soundwaves of pure goodness.
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For anyone interested in trying out 4e you might want to read some of Justin Alexanders articles on it first. He has written some modules and gaming books himself and is quite analytical in these essays. I found the reasoning behind them very solid ... http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/playtesting-4th.html
To all the new players I can only give my personal observations on "player progression". There are several phases through which you will be progressing and they might be longer or shorter depending on who else is playing. Dont worry, just keep an open mind about other styles of playing.
- The first phase most gamers start with is the "Monty Haul" phase where the DMs tend to give out loads of magic items just as the module says. My first character had an extra sheet for all the items he had ... and obviously that was wayyyyyy too much.
- The second phase is the "ruleslawyering" phase where you tend to obey the rules as written and where players try to find "broken combos of ultimate uberness" just to be the most powerful character ever created.
- The third phase starts when you dont care much about power and magic items anymore and start actually playing your character. One of my fondest memories is playing a female wizard from a different country and since the language of that country was french I got to talk in a fake female french accent all the time. Quite hilarious, but it is things like these which draw you into the game and make you behave like the person you are playing.
- The last phase is quite rare - I hope - and it consists of players who manipulate the other players through everything they say, even through non-game-realted stuff. I have only met one person who qualifies for this phase and he was guildmaster in my WoW guild (which was formed by 25 people who knew each other IRL). I like to call this the "politician phase" because manipulation includes lies and deceit.
So there you have it ... my heads up as to what awaits you out there. All phases (apart from the last) have their shining moments of glory, but the first two should get boring eventually and only phase 3 has "unlimited potential" (because you arent limited by the rules / rolls of the dice as much if you solve problems through dialogue). You might encounter problems if your players are in different phases however.
EDIT: Name for phase 4.
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United States47024 Posts
On March 16 2011 05:33 Rabiator wrote:For anyone interested in trying out 4e you might want to read some of Justin Alexanders articles on it first. He has written some modules and gaming books himself and is quite analytical in these essays. I found the reasoning behind them very solid ... http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/playtesting-4th.htmlTo all the new players I can only give my personal observations on "player progression". There are several phases through which you will be progressing and they might be longer or shorter depending on who else is playing. Dont worry, just keep an open mind about other styles of playing. - The first phase most gamers start with is the "Monty Haul" phase where the DMs tend to give out loads of magic items just as the module says. My first character had an extra sheet for all the items he had ... and obviously that was wayyyyyy too much.
- The second phase is the "ruleslawyering" phase where you tend to obey the rules as written and where players try to find "broken combos of ultimate uberness" just to be the most powerful character ever created.
- The third phase starts when you dont care much about power and magic items anymore and start actually playing your character. One of my fondest memories is playing a female wizard from a different country and since the language of that country was french I got to talk in a fake female french accent all the time. Quite hilarious, but it is things like these which draw you into the game and make you behave like the person you are playing.
- The last phase is quite rare - I hope - and it consists of players who manipulate the other players through everything they say, even through non-game-realted stuff. I have only met one person who qualifies for this phase and he was guildmaster in my WoW guild (which was formed by 25 people who knew each other IRL).
So there you have it ... my heads up as to what awaits you out there. All phases (apart from the last) have their shining moments of glory, but the first two should get boring eventually and only phase 3 has "unlimited potential" (because you arent limited by the rules / rolls of the dice as much if you solve problems through dialogue). You might encounter problems if your players are in different phases however. That's a pretty good assessment of play styles. I will say though that problems arise more out of a DM not being able to accommodate players in different phases, more than the players themselves being in different phases--if you can present interesting scenarios to all the players, their differing interests should be able to come together.
Personally, I think the place where you want to be is somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd phase. The 3rd phase is definitely where "true" roleplaying comes in, but it's important to not allow "talking out" and "playing out" your character be too disjointed. A player who's engaged in the vocal acting, but not in the intricacies of the PC's increasing supernatural power as the campaign progresses can even detract from the surreality of the high fantasy setting (obviously how big of an issue this is depends on how fantastic your setting of choice is). That said, as a DM I'd much rather have a player that errs on the side of phase 3 rather than phase 2.
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On March 07 2011 19:27 Nawyria wrote:Edit: Also, there is a very good Pathfinder SRD (System Reference Document) online at http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ . This contains all the statistics and several rules provided in both the Core Rulebook as well as the APG and both Bestiaries. Ever since the whole "4e vs. Pathfinder" situation came up I thought that 4e was the clear loser because some of the rules didnt make sense. Justin Alexander called it "dissociated mechanics" because a power was declared to have "effect X" in the rules, but there was no reasoning given why it was doing so.
After looking through the Pathfinder SRD I have found something which seems similar in the form of "Cockatrice Strike", which "turns a target to stone with a critical hit". I would have had no problem with a physical attack paralyzing a target with a critical hit, but "turning to stone" is a magical effect and that seems a bit unreasonable as an effect for a non-magical attack with a weapon which doesnt need to be magical at all.
Thus I would advise all beginning DMs to keep the world somewhat logical, because you need to explain less if it behaves like the real world. Be prepared to explain or change things like the one I mentioned above.
It is also harder to guess the "danger level" of a human opponent compared to "Monster X which got copied exactly from the Monster Manual". This will - hopefully - make players try diplomacy over violence every once in a while to solve a challenge.
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On March 18 2011 18:46 Rabiator wrote: After looking through the Pathfinder SRD I have found something which seems similar in the form of "Cockatrice Strike", which "turns a target to stone with a critical hit". I would have had no problem with a physical attack paralyzing a target with a critical hit, but "turning to stone" is a magical effect and that seems a bit unreasonable as an effect for a non-magical attack with a weapon which doesnt need to be magical at all. Every system has it's oddities and Pathfinder is no different. This feat is clearly designed for players playing a Monk, a class I've never really been able to fit into any of the campaigns I've run. It's also worth noting that it comes from the Advanced Players Guide, which is to say a supplement. These have a history of detailing rather... unusual abilities and variant options that should generally be taken with a grain of salt.
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If anyone wants to play dungeons and dragons over skype, im willing to start a group, although i havent played a single game yet i no the basics, and probably cant dm yet then but my name is g4mr_nub on skype, so anyone can contact m eif they want to get a group going, its hard to find groups nowadays
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I started a 4e game in Central Massachusetts if anyone in the area wants to come out to Leominster Ma. Having a lot of fun so far and I'm glad I got back into it after not having played since AD&D 2nd. Does anyone have a DNDinsider account they'd like to share?
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I love dat 3.5
I don't want to talk about 4th edition, talk about sequels creating a different type of game.
Anywhoo... Not so much Homebrew's, but I use DnD wiki and srd to create characters in my campaigns all the time.
Solid Snake as a Brawler/Monk, hell yes.
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On March 15 2011 23:32 Vandro wrote:Anyone here reads The Order of the Stick? It's one of my favorite comics and is D&D inspired I do. It's EPIC!
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Skype D&D? Interesting. Sounds tough though, it´s like getting together a group on time, just the location that stops being a problem, but with different timezones, the time in the day becomes an added problem.
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2nd edition all the way! much prefer it to the others
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My biology teacher told me all about DnD as well as Call of C'tulu, and I became very interested. The podunk town I live in doesn't have any players besides him, and he said that Skype and online DnD is only acceptable when you have played the real thing in person. Therefore, I will be playing in College.
Anyone here in FSU that plays DnD/SC? If so, you are my hero.
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United States7483 Posts
Figured I'd bump this to try to get the discussion going again.
I used to play, then wound up taking a long break due to various IRL circumstance and started playing again a few months ago. I'm currently running a game in the Mass Effect setting using my own roleplaying system (yes, Bioware gave the okay =p), and playing in a 3.5 game where I play a wizard/warmage/ultimate magus with split personality disorder.
I'm starting up a 4E play by post game online and have room for another player as well if anyone is interested, starts at level 11 (paragon) with the theme being of a Devil invasion, send me a PM if that intrigues you at all.
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Ooh, I've completely missed this. I am DMing a 4E game in FR-settings but I got stuck writing the setting for a town the PCs will pass through. I have no good ideas for a town layout and the whole deal seems ardeous to construct. Any ideas how to overcome this writers block? Any ideas on how to create good towns?
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United States7483 Posts
On August 18 2011 14:44 Cuddle wrote: Ooh, I've completely missed this. I am DMing a 4E game in FR-settings but I got stuck writing the setting for a town the PCs will pass through. I have no good ideas for a town layout and the whole deal seems ardeous to construct. Any ideas how to overcome this writers block? Any ideas on how to create good towns?
Well, most of FR is written for you if you pick up the supplement appropriate to the area, but my method for town creating is to first ask what purpose the PCs are going there for. If there's something plot related going to occur there, I start with the plot and build around that, until it looks something like a town. If there's nothing plot related, I build around what purpose the PC's have. If they are just passing through or just stopping briefly, I usually don't bother other than cursory descriptions.
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2nd Edition AD&D was my favorite. Was a long time ago though but recently got nwn2 which re kindled a lot of good memory's. Still not as good as the pen n paper version but a close 2nd imo.
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just watched The Gamers and wanna get into a group in my city if i can would be interested in joining one on skype/ts
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I've been playing in 2 campaigns, both 4th ed.
Our 1st campaign feels very mechanical which I at first blamed on the edition, but the guy DMing the 2nd campaign encourages role-play a lot more and keeps the story moving, so it feels less hack n' slash.
Ultimately the edition number is irrelevant, its so dependent on the DMs style, though I still kinda prefer 3rd Ed.
Our 1st campaign has become a bit frustrating, just combat with hardly any role-play. I'm in a party of 6 characters and my Halfling rogue feels kinda useless cause he's so dependent on at-wills for his DPR, and cant really contribute much with so many encounter and daily powers flying around.
The DMs character is a min-maxed Avenger that can deal about 100 damage in a round, the characters so ridiculous that the guy DMing our 2nd campaign banned us from playing Avengers.
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