Dungeons and Dragons

Trey

Nakari said:

Nellaundra said:

Trey said:

Dorn said:

I'm in a Pathfinder campaign IRL.

My DM's openly admitted he's turned down perfectly reasonable ideas I've suggested for fear of what I'll do with them.

I've short-circuited the plot three times now with DC50 knowledge checks (at level 5/6), and we've gone five sessions without spending more than five rounds in combat. I know more about an alien race descended from madness than the race themselves know.

Wizard3/Priest3, going into Mystic Theurge. (Priest was a hell of a find - extra skill points, better channelling, an extra domain, at the cost of armour (which I can't use) and combat ability (which I don't use).

You're exactly what's wrong with most campaigns.

Being a bit of a Munchkin isn't -bad-.  But, taken to stupid levels it's awful.  I tend to powergame just a slight bit, but I never do anything that doesn't make sense ICly (unless that's the point of the game, ala Disgaea or something)

sounds like an appropriate time to link to the stormwind fallacy

Except I'm not saying he can't roleplay. I'm saying that he's bragging about fucking over a DM's plot, which considering the work that goes into a campaign in most instances, is a cock move. Needless to say, it isn't furry nice

Nakari

Id still argue that it still makes sense IC, even if it is a bit of a jerk move, though I was referring more to the class builds rather then the absurd knowledge checks.

 I'm also not sure how you get to a minimum of +30 on a given knowledge checks, actually. I'm not as familiar with pathfinder (I get stuck in my 3.5e mindset, which makes probably a large portion of what I say directly to applicable, stupidly of me), but something like that would require a really heavily tinkered build to avoid conflicting buffs and the like, especially with that level layout

Dorn

I didn't actually break the plot. Why aren't you people listening to me? I allowed the party to skip a period of aimlessness and trying to find the information/threads to actively pursue one of the -many- plots available by having all the information on hand already. And in doing so we're ignoring other plot threads that we know less about, like the cult of the god of destruction that's tipped their hand as having/having access to a Sphere of Annihilation. Granted, I figure we can press more of a fight to said cult once we know the aliens aren't infesting most of our allies, but at the same time, it might be a better idea to make sure there's still a world left to save from the aliens before we go save it.

As for how I did it.

Int 22 with Fox's Cunning: +6
Lore bonus: +2 (My GM was generous and ruled that half of 3 rounds up)
Class skill bonus: +3
Ranks: +6

We're at +17 already. Now here's where the buffs come in.
Inspire Competence (permitted as this was an active check, thus could be planned for): +2
Access to a library: +2
Aid Another (again permitted, because our Bard is, well, a Bard): +2
+23.

Rolled a 19. My GM has a rule at the table that rather than tell you 'You can't do that', he just sets an insane DC for it - 50 is his favorite number to set for it. Knowing this, I rolled an action dice to see if I could get lucky.
Action dice: 6. GM runs with exploding action dice rules - if you roll a 6, you get to roll again and add it on top.
Second action dice: 3. Knowledge check result: 51..

(The second time I did this I used a spell instead that gave me a +10 to the check for the purpose of knowing about monsters, skipped the library, skipped inspire competence, still got the Aid Another check, rolled a bit lower and popped an action dice but didn't explode. The third time was a case of -insane- action dice - I don't use that d6 anymore, because I'm worried either I've burnt all its luck or it's loaded.)

...It occurs to me I don't think I've used my action dice for anything -but- knowledge checks.

EDIT: Forgot which was which with Owl's Wisdom vs Fox's Cunning. >.>

Idelisa

No.  Shadowrun FTW.

(Partially cause my husband DM's and last time we played D&D I rolled a 1 while in fox form and my pet dire wolf may or may not have decided I looked rather tasty and knocked me up with dire fox pups.... Also, cause I played 4.0 and surges are stupid, damnit.)

Tvistor

Tenemara showed me a build that was capable of running so fast by level twelve that it could exceed the earth's escape velocity.

Sigge

Ugh, I just tried to play on that d20 site and it nearly killed my computer...

Xaetherian

Tvistor said:

Tenemara showed me a build that was capable of running so fast by level twelve that it could exceed the earth's escape velocity.

I want to know! If it's for 3.5, message me.

Synbios

I bet it's similar to this build.

Friztic

Shadowrun is win. If enough people want it, I can surely run a game. My favorite by far to play and especially to run.

Synbios

You DMs should probably put this twist in a normal McGuffin hunt plot.

Alynna

I adore the Planescape setting. The tone, scope and attitude of it is unlike any setting I've seen.

Nellaundra

So, in the solo campaign I'm running for a friend, I decided to start him off kinda easy. 

He and his companion were basically exploring a nearby forest on a whim to find some bounties, and happened across a Harpy's territory.  They were both level 1, and they fell under her charm.  Eventually, she screwed up and suggested something that they'd both be against and got out via a Charisma check.

Friend's character drew their flail.  Got a 1 for their attack roll.  I facepalmed heavily for ten straight seconds.

Ended up clonking themselves in the head.  Took off half their HP (Level 1 character)

Ally drew his greatsword.  Never bloody hit the Harpy for the entire fight while she just is tearing them apart with lucky bites.

Eventually, they flank her and manage to kill her.  Ally has 3 HP left and friend has 4 out of 12.

This was the first encounter.

Erasariel

@nellaundra, that's OotS material. Man, that's some intense bad luck there.

..Maybe I should run some solo campaigns with myself, haha. That sounds so forever alone-ish though

Xaetherian

@Erasariel Just do what I do and tell yourself you're testing fighting theories with different classes and races.

Tvistor

The last time I met people who played D&D that weren't my friends, they totally had cartoon-nerd nasal voices. It blew my mind that the stereotype had a foundation.

Korben

I used to play from the time of AD&D 1 to right after AD&D 2 came out.

Trey

Man, I remember AD&D. Whoever came up with THAC0 as a mechanic was higher than fuck. But good times. I'm sure you've got plenty of tails to tell!

Kendus

Great thread!

I first started playing with my community theater friends which was, IMO, a great start as they were far more interested in playing good characters and making good stories than huge numbers. After that I ran a lot of games for them and, after joining, in the military. Running games in the military changed my approach as I had to cram a decent story into a few weeks because I never knew how long I would have my players for. Tons of EXP were awarded each session. This gave me a taste for high level games which I've kept after my military career. Most recently I ran a White Wolf Mage game that ended with characters with thousands of EXP Points. If you ever want a serious mental/imagination workout, run a high level mage game where your players can literally do any and everything. I've never been so mentally exhausted as I was after running one of those. Great times.

What I've learned from running the several games I have:

• Make your players hate their enemies and love their allies. Don't be afraid of insults from the enemies, make your players want to destroy them. Don't be afraid of side-plot love stories, most good movies have them, why not good table-top games?
• Keep time. If the character doesn't have ten minutes to figure out what to do, then don't give ten minutes to the players. I run games with an old wind-up stopwatch that's loud as hell (you can hear the seconds ticking). This adds a lot of drama to combat and any sort of quick thinking situation, it also keeps the game moving at a nice brisk pace.
• If you have a crazy smart NPC or character, think of Hannibal Lecter, what would he know or do? Intelligence can be one of the most difficult attributes to role-play and I found that watching movies with that character really helped me imagine that state of mind.
• Award most of the EXP for playing in character. This will side-line a lot of munchkining and bring a game back to the story, which is what it's all about.
  

 What do you think about running a game in Achaea? One of the hardest things about running a game for me is knowing the world. Would the intimate knowledge we have of Achaea make it easier? There are maps, cities, denizens, plots, a pantheon. How would you start? What would the end look like?

Caneloc

Haven't played since 2nd Edition came out.  So I'm waaaay out of the loop.

No group around here that even HEARD of it, much less played it.

Had a Barbarian once that wound up having a Thief/Mage for a best friend...until that guy cast a spell in front of my Barbarian.  That was some GREAT rp right there.

Mathonwy

Most of my playing was original AD&D, although there was a game or two I played online with friends under the, what, 3? 3.5? rules.

I still kind of prefer AD&D, although that could be because that's what I grew up on (RIP THAC0 ) and because I still have most of the old books (at least, I definitely know that the original Fiend Folio is kicking around my apartment somewhere).

ETA: yeah, Planescape was easily the best setting; too bad there was barely any support for it.

Delphinus

Mathonwy said:

ETA: yeah, Planescape was easily the best setting; too bad there was barely any support for it.

But on the other hand, it gave us Torment. And anybody who's anybody loves Torment.

Mathonwy

Torment's pretty good. I'm playing through Baldur's Gate 2 again, though (as well you know), and I really prefer it in terms of gameplay (I don't think it's possible to touch Torment as far as story goes, however).

Siduri

I used to DM for some fellow Achaeans back in the days, online, but we were all in different timezones and the group dissolved after a few games. Mostly Mhaldorians, heh!

Currently DMing for a long term campaign, been doing this for over 10 years now: 3e, 3.5, 4e and we're anxiously waiting for 5e to boot the next episode. Some of the youngest players might leave town soon, and I'm not even sure of the stability of my current establishment. If fate happens to cast me into faraway lands again, I'll consider hosting for some of you.

Anedhel

Super late, but! 3.5

Anything else is a travesty.

I been DMing ages, and playing even longer. Both online and off!

Shirszae

I used to read some rulebook or something, back when I was in high-school, and imagine how awesome it would be if I knew people who actually wanted to play. No such luck, in all these years.  So someone set something online already!  ;;)

Anedhel

Don't toy with me woman. If you don't mean it, don't say things like that

Santar

I'd play if anyone wanted to DM a 3.5 campaign.

Anedhel

@Santar

Anedhel said:

Don't toy with me woman babycakes. If you don't mean it, don't say things like that

Trey

I'd play in a 4E campaign. It's a shit-ton more balanced than 3.5.

Santar

Anedhel said:

@Santar

Anedhel said:

Don't toy with me woman babycakes. If you don't mean it, don't say things like that

I wouldn't jerk you around, Annie. I really want to play some D&D. Unfortunately I can't DM though, since I just started playing in like July/August - Not experienced enough. If someone else set one up on roll20 though, I'd definitely be in.