I guess this is my little corner of the internet, huh? It is certainly aas good as any thing else I could imagine.
On my mind:
Well, honestly couple of worries, some goals, and some thoughts that are bouncing around in there.
These will be in no particular order as things rarely are in my brain and much like real life, I may rarely even touch upon those things.
My buddy Will (who moved away because he is smart and going to be a PhD in Physics soon) has been more or less my anchor and wall for tossing DMing ideas for my D&D team against. Lately I have been getting irritated with Wiz of the Coast in general. I know you need to publish to make money and that's why all the books and new editions come out but I want something simpler. They have yet to fulfill the promises of 4th ed while moving us on to the next big thing, they are the politicians of pen and paper.
When 4th ed came out I sang its praises and I feel like its still set up better than 3rd or 3.5, it stream lined some things and I think it did a good job of making it accessible to people new to the game. I also agree with people (now) that it takes some of the freedoms associated with D&D away. Over all, improvement for the company, and with house rules and personal preferences there wasnt a large impact on my gamers. However, I feel its gone stale.
I like my new team, I like how they set themselves up and I like how most of them are pretty archetypal. I got a guy who is probably pretty Chaotic/good or chaotic/neut, likes playing larger than average strong men who crave the glory and praises of meeting an enemy in battle and mangling him, he isnt much for talking when there could just as easily be smashing. Their rogue and team leader is clever, deceptive and opportunistic, his orders are unquestioned and his greed rarely out matches his care for his party. Lastly there is the healer. The player is a sweet kid and tries. When left to his own devices he comes up with good ideas but this is usually followed by bad choices. He picked the melee oriented healer to really boost the combat effectiveness of the team. He picked traits that filled in skill gaps in the group and even a feat on his own that has probably been one of the easier things to point to as to their success. Then he leaps into battle, not RPing as a dragoon or even a man afflicted by a jumping curse. At first I took it as flavor, "I am leaping into battle" and I liked it but as soon as I realized he was making rolls and favoring jumping to his targets vs walking I became concerned. Even with our help he still fails to master the new ability system and their place in his class and combat. This started to make me realize an underlining problem which brings us to my first actual point.
I dont think I like D&D combat anymore. He is the problem, average gaming session 5-6hrs average combat session like an hour. I have had other teams that could work their way through combat quicker but it is still a time consuming process. When I was young, giving my friends godly weapons and sending them against wave after wave of monster seemed fun, epic even. I could sprinkle in a little bit of story and as long as the team took down armies of goblins and orcs on a genocidal scale we were content. Now there is a need for action! By action I mean involvement, growth and story and combat takes away from that. The ever important quest for xp takes away from that I feel.
Anyway, Will has come up with a bare bones combat system. I am excited because its more of a reactionary system vs an action oriented system. Resources are expended and recuperated but mostly you have to think ahead and then react to the changing battle field. We are going to test it out this week some and I couldnt be more excited. If it works out well I am hoping to make a full system with the addition of my out of combat ideas.
One more thing to put on the dream website. You know, that one where your friends wrote comics that were funny and you posted your blogs and art and ideas and people from around the world came and liked them. Hell, maybe some day we'll even make some money
On my mind:
Well, honestly couple of worries, some goals, and some thoughts that are bouncing around in there.
These will be in no particular order as things rarely are in my brain and much like real life, I may rarely even touch upon those things.
My buddy Will (who moved away because he is smart and going to be a PhD in Physics soon) has been more or less my anchor and wall for tossing DMing ideas for my D&D team against. Lately I have been getting irritated with Wiz of the Coast in general. I know you need to publish to make money and that's why all the books and new editions come out but I want something simpler. They have yet to fulfill the promises of 4th ed while moving us on to the next big thing, they are the politicians of pen and paper.
When 4th ed came out I sang its praises and I feel like its still set up better than 3rd or 3.5, it stream lined some things and I think it did a good job of making it accessible to people new to the game. I also agree with people (now) that it takes some of the freedoms associated with D&D away. Over all, improvement for the company, and with house rules and personal preferences there wasnt a large impact on my gamers. However, I feel its gone stale.
I like my new team, I like how they set themselves up and I like how most of them are pretty archetypal. I got a guy who is probably pretty Chaotic/good or chaotic/neut, likes playing larger than average strong men who crave the glory and praises of meeting an enemy in battle and mangling him, he isnt much for talking when there could just as easily be smashing. Their rogue and team leader is clever, deceptive and opportunistic, his orders are unquestioned and his greed rarely out matches his care for his party. Lastly there is the healer. The player is a sweet kid and tries. When left to his own devices he comes up with good ideas but this is usually followed by bad choices. He picked the melee oriented healer to really boost the combat effectiveness of the team. He picked traits that filled in skill gaps in the group and even a feat on his own that has probably been one of the easier things to point to as to their success. Then he leaps into battle, not RPing as a dragoon or even a man afflicted by a jumping curse. At first I took it as flavor, "I am leaping into battle" and I liked it but as soon as I realized he was making rolls and favoring jumping to his targets vs walking I became concerned. Even with our help he still fails to master the new ability system and their place in his class and combat. This started to make me realize an underlining problem which brings us to my first actual point.
I dont think I like D&D combat anymore. He is the problem, average gaming session 5-6hrs average combat session like an hour. I have had other teams that could work their way through combat quicker but it is still a time consuming process. When I was young, giving my friends godly weapons and sending them against wave after wave of monster seemed fun, epic even. I could sprinkle in a little bit of story and as long as the team took down armies of goblins and orcs on a genocidal scale we were content. Now there is a need for action! By action I mean involvement, growth and story and combat takes away from that. The ever important quest for xp takes away from that I feel.
Anyway, Will has come up with a bare bones combat system. I am excited because its more of a reactionary system vs an action oriented system. Resources are expended and recuperated but mostly you have to think ahead and then react to the changing battle field. We are going to test it out this week some and I couldnt be more excited. If it works out well I am hoping to make a full system with the addition of my out of combat ideas.
One more thing to put on the dream website. You know, that one where your friends wrote comics that were funny and you posted your blogs and art and ideas and people from around the world came and liked them. Hell, maybe some day we'll even make some money