tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post18302184824020065..comments2024-03-27T19:02:58.368-04:00Comments on BARKING ALIEN: Champions: REBIRTH - Editor's NotesAdam Dicksteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-70987755954233739692014-05-23T09:58:02.559-04:002014-05-23T09:58:02.559-04:00Yes, when I reas some of your game write-ups I wis...Yes, when I reas some of your game write-ups I wish I could play in them. I'd play pretty much any genre or scenario if it sounds well done. For instance, I'm not that big on fantasy RPGs, but Pendragon or Bushido I could get into with a good GM. Sadly, I am unlikely to be in your neck of the woods anytime soon. Between work and kids I haven't even been out of the county in almost 3 years!Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-36121573741848912132014-05-22T22:14:09.635-04:002014-05-22T22:14:09.635-04:00Couldn't agree with you more Matt.
If you'...Couldn't agree with you more Matt.<br /><br />If you're ever round my way (New York, NY), let me know. There is a Champions game with your name on it just waiting for you.<br /><br />Alternatively, my personal variant on D&D (D&D AD, also known as D&D-But-Not and D&D-For-Those-Who-Don't-Like-D&D), is very much in the vein you describe.Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-57604028636397542842014-05-22T21:40:38.596-04:002014-05-22T21:40:38.596-04:00Ha ha ha...sadly that pretty well sums up why I ra...Ha ha ha...sadly that pretty well sums up why I rarely bother with D&D. For one thing, I can't create Sinbad or Conan or Gandalf, even low-powered versions, due to the class-and-level stuff, but even more because that's the mentality I run into nine times out of ten. I'm not really into the "murderhobo" style...I want my character to have some reason and goals aside from, respectively, avarice and power-grab...some wrong to right, some quest to fulfill, some vengeance to seek, some duty to uphold even against seemingly insurmountable odds.Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-40257514043343496972014-05-22T19:37:27.717-04:002014-05-22T19:37:27.717-04:00OMG Matt! You just gave me such an idea...
Two pl...OMG Matt! You just gave me such an idea...<br /><br />Two players have their PCs go on an adventure at Table 1 at a convention, and their two friends go on an adventure at Table 2. Afterwards...<br /><br />Table 2 Team: "How was your session?"<br /><br />Table 1 Team: "It was OK. The story was good. We had to take this magic ring that appeared to be just a ring of invisibility, but was really this all powerful artifact that spelled the end of the world, and drop it into this seriously scary volcano."<br /><br />Table 2: "Sounds cool. What did you fight? What magic items did you find?"<br /><br />Table 1: "Well, some of the guys fought some Orcs and there was a run in with some undead wraith-type creatures, but Frank and I just snuck into the mountain, had a few scrapes and such and then got attacked by this weird goblin who bit off Frank's finger and fell into the volcano with the ring."<br /><br />Table 2: "Harsh. No magic items? No gold?"<br /><br />Table 1: "No. We didn't even get close to leveling. How about you guys?"<br /><br />Table 2: "Slew a bunch of Orcs, two Ogres and a Roper! Set the Roper on fire with a flask of oil and someone's burning hands spell. Anyway, GM randomly rolled all the treasure, and I got a +2 Axe and a Cloak of Elvenkind. Steve got a Flaming Sword and a Ring of Spider Climb. We split all the gold we found and got almost 1000 each. Some of it was in a trapped chest, and some of it was in another trapped area. The thief in the group detected and disarmed them. He was rolling hot today! We got to second level easily."<br /><br />Table 1: "Man. Wish we'd been in your game."<br />Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-72072103399483783292014-05-22T13:47:59.009-04:002014-05-22T13:47:59.009-04:00not to mention the ridiculousness of "the hig...not to mention the ridiculousness of "the higher the danger, the greater the treasure." I forget: how many gold pieces did Frodo and Sam collect while taking the ring to Mount Doom? "Sorry boys, you haven't experienced anything worthwhile since you didn't find any money."Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-2564865384088178082014-05-22T13:00:41.768-04:002014-05-22T13:00:41.768-04:00I never thought it made any sense. It seems arbitr...I never thought it made any sense. It seems arbitrary, a game mechanic that translates into rules and not how one feels or thinks. <br /><br />If I find a gold piece on the ground I get one XP. Do that enough and you raise a level. <br /><br />So my improved ability in combat and my increase spell repertoire was achieved through looking down. Genius.Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-40902951564524480572014-05-22T04:50:00.362-04:002014-05-22T04:50:00.362-04:00The treasure you gain is a practical measure of ho...The treasure you gain is a practical measure of how successfully you faced the dangers to get that treasure (the highest the danger, the bigger the treasure.) How do you translate this into character experience? Simply map the treasure to XPs. It makes sense to me.Antoniohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17258180992723371727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-52061024121531774812014-05-21T19:05:34.733-04:002014-05-21T19:05:34.733-04:00XP for treasure = a reward for getting a reward. N...XP for treasure = a reward for getting a reward. Never made any sense to me. XP should be for, hmm, maybe experience?Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-88669471222578849462014-05-21T10:33:11.613-04:002014-05-21T10:33:11.613-04:00To be fair, OSR fans often cite works like Fafhrd ...To be fair, OSR fans often cite works like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (citing the only one I have read) and the like as a much bigger influence for D&D than Lord of the Rings. I don't think that is entirely true, but those characters are indeed thieves and adventurers who would kill for money.<br /><br />However, I too find that the cautious aproach to adventuring classic D&D favors gets boring pretty quickly, especially when you are the GM ("It's just a door, for goodnes sake! Open it and go ahead!"). But, then again, I was schooled in Star Wars instead of D&D, and jumping from moving vehicles was quite normal XD.Miguel de Rojashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15762364029464337239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-60720120627710488412014-05-21T08:47:52.208-04:002014-05-21T08:47:52.208-04:00I forgot: in D&D (at least Basic and AD&D)...I forgot: in D&D (at least Basic and AD&D) the most XP is from treasure, not killing; the latter should only account for roughly 20% of the total XP gained (Mentzer is quite explicit about this 80%/20% divide.)<br />Also, there are plenty of mechanics not tied to killing: from the thief abilities, to reaction and morale, to demihuman spotting abilities, and finding of traps. On the contrary, combat being quite simple, there's really not much to it.Antoniohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17258180992723371727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-41692139091000817742014-05-21T08:43:08.604-04:002014-05-21T08:43:08.604-04:00Well there are precedents in the fantastic literat...Well there are precedents in the fantastic literature for the D&D "tropes" of adventurer/looter/killer, from Satampra Zeiros in Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea tales, to Fafhrd and Grey Mouser in Leiber's Lankhmar, to Howard's Conan. Sure enough, it's never only "enter the dungeon and kill," there is always something else going on, but the action many time focuses on acquiring some treasure, facing some adversary, and more often than not, fleeing. The guidelines in the D&D basic rulebook were quite specific about the creation of an environment and a "raison d'etre" for the dungeon.Antoniohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17258180992723371727noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-24555311362782739512014-05-20T09:57:01.787-04:002014-05-20T09:57:01.787-04:00Isn't D&D as written all about "kill,...Isn't D&D as written all about "kill, loot, level up, repeat"? XP is awarded for killing and for how much treasure you get. <br /><br />I never understood why on top of getting the gold you deserved an additional reward of XP. Or why being lucky and rolling high for ability scores should entitle one to an XP bonus: it always seemed to me it should be the reverse, as the character with lower scores has to work harder/smarter.<br /><br />The total absence of any skills unrelated to killing and looting says a lot about what the game is about.<br /><br />Clearly D&D as written is not for me.Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-5405583968895668872014-05-20T09:49:27.883-04:002014-05-20T09:49:27.883-04:00I haven't read a large number of fantasy-type ...I haven't read a large number of fantasy-type books, but of those I have read NONE are about raiding a dungeon, killing its inhabitants, and looting the corpses. It's quite odd that people accept that as the basis of a "game." of course, I have never played D&D that way simply because that seems incredibly repetitive and boring to me. As well as amoral.Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-81032193233145381492014-05-20T09:45:06.407-04:002014-05-20T09:45:06.407-04:00Players want to get stronger gear and to survive. ...Players want to get stronger gear and to survive. If a GM makes it clear that they will get all the equipment and food they ask for at the next castle, they probably won't loot the bodies. If the characters of Lord of the Rings hadn't had royal support at so many major locations, I bet they would have been more inclined to loot too. <br /><br />It also doesn't help that too many weapons and armors are considered interchangeable. If Legolas had tried to pick up any of the bows he found on the battlefield, he wouldn't have been able to use it as well no matter how much stronger it was. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08744387076248475114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-66566247293611966762014-05-19T22:43:28.654-04:002014-05-19T22:43:28.654-04:00Why should they indeed?
If neither the system mec...Why should they indeed?<br /><br />If neither the system mechanics, nor the average D&D DM, encourages or rewards non-combat activities, who gives a damn whether their character does anything, or can do anything, but fight and kill stuff well. Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-36718693288337023102014-05-19T22:40:07.436-04:002014-05-19T22:40:07.436-04:00Thank You!
I thought I was the only person in the...Thank You!<br /><br />I thought I was the only person in the world who noticed that the primary inspiration for modern medieval fantasy, and therefore D&D, LORD OF THE FRICKIN' RINGS, does NOT feature the kill-it-rob-it mentality of old school RPGS. Where did that come from? A creation of Gygax and Arneson perhaps?<br /><br />It could be argued that the Hobbits stole from the Barrow Wights after their encounter, but that was a somewhat unique moment in the trilogy and had a very different feel from what we usually see in D&D. (Ah, you thought just 'cause I don't like medieval fantasy I never read Lord of the Rings, right? Heh. Wrong-O Boingo!)<br /><br />Few fantasy novels and stories do actually feature this approach actually. At least, there aren't many I remember that utilize the murderhobo mentality. It's not unheard of certainly, but it really isn't the norm.Adam Dicksteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04840144928096089178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-85943897579933384882014-05-19T10:50:58.409-04:002014-05-19T10:50:58.409-04:00On that same note, I hear many complaints from D&a...On that same note, I hear many complaints from D&D players about "Why should I spend my karma/hero points/XP in-game? I'm saving them to increase my attack/damage scores!" <br /><br />Oftentimes they just don't get it.Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465863144787683153.post-86871721077793761942014-05-19T10:46:18.276-04:002014-05-19T10:46:18.276-04:00You are correct re: the D&D kill-and-loot ment...You are correct re: the D&D kill-and-loot mentality. It is incompatible with so many other games. I almost said genres, not games, but even other fantasy worlds (Tolkien, Xena, what have you) would not work with that murder-and-grab mindset. Doc Savagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08783244633195233970noreply@blogger.com