So I did a new podcast. This one is about how I created many of the Liedecker Institute kids and how that relates to D&D.
And once you’re done with that, check out my two new favorite diversions: Standard Action, a webseries about D&D Adventurers, and Pokemon Omicron, a fan game based on pokemon and made in RPG Maker.
Thoughts:
Speaking of dungeon ceilings, it’s good that you mentioned Moria since otherwise I’d have had to tell about Durin’s Bane unfairly trying to get away by flying… Oh look I did it anyway. Again, the MERP Moria module is pretty great.
Not everybody hates encumberance. It forces people to make choices about what to carry along, and choices are a good thing.
And yet, even we who like counting how much your character’s waterskin weights when full or empty will still buy a magic bag as soon as possible, not to get rid of the accounting but because being able to carry MORE is just that valuable.
It doesn’t make you Batman though. No matter how well you carry stuff you still won’t have all that fancy stuff to carry (and even the D&D alchemical items with their painfully poor effectiveness cost money), plus, you know, the whole aspect of being really good at everything.
Six times 3d6 in order 4 lyfe. Very short, painful lyfe, but lyfe anyway. Many consecutive lyfes in fact. Good thing it takes only about 2 minutes to make a 1st level D&D character.
Relating to this, story time again: Early in the first Ars Magica (4th edition) campaign I was involved in we were making some more characters for it to replace dead ones and add a player, a person asked to join. We said sure, grab a sheet and make a character. Now, there was two options for generating stats: Either point buy, or rolling for them. She chose to roll, rolled less than the point buy would have gotten her, declared she wouldn’t play a character with a negative total and never joined our games. Fun times. Now, at the same time I rolled a far worse stat set, and annoyed by her attitude decided to make that character effective anyway. I’m still ashamed of that character, and playing him made my throat sore.
No idea why I shared that one.
Funny coincidence, I just installed Pokemon Omicron about 3 hours before you posted this. Already played Zeta some months ago but then my laptop died a horrible death so lost the save right after beating the elite four.
I’m deeply curious and concerned now: how did playing a low-stat character hurt your throat?
His horrible Communication-stat was partly explained by him talking in a growl that’s both unpleasant to listen to and hard to follow. Doing the voice made my throat hurt.
So you’re the guy that created Nolanverse!Bane.
Goodness, no. That guy was far too burly to afford with the kind of stats Rodrigo had. This was a small, monkey-like fellow with some trouble keeping track of reality. Very nimble though.
To be honest, I tend to get a real bag of holding so I can put in the twelve sets of fullplate those minions were wearing and sell them.
You know, to go along with the 20 masterwork swords. Those don’t usually break the encumbrance limit for the meat shield, so you don’t need a magic bag for THOSE, but leaving expensive armor behind is painful on a deep level for a money-grubbing adventurer.
What? There aren’t any rules about how awkward carrying stuff is, only about their weight!
I have long known that Packrat’s power is pretty crazy. The little gesture makes it not all that good at defending himself quickly, so he’s kind of a glass cannon, but he could empty a bunch of machine gun magazines into his little portal and let it out all at once, then go on to the armor piercing sniper rounds and shotgun slugs, then continue by asking Maya and Tammy to give him a bunch of fireballs and lightning bolts.
He’s better as a criminal, though. Screw ballistic tests: he can shoot a gun on one side of the country and use the bullet on someone on the other side. Without the sound of the gunpowder exploding. He can smuggle in weapons and explosives and drugs anywhere, then hide everything incriminating (including those priceless jewels he just took), take out a change of clothes and make his getaway.
And that’s not even going into the mundane utility.
But really, when he grows up, I don’t want him to be a superhero or a criminal. I want him to become James Bond. He can carry ALL of the gadgets.
The spam filter caught this post, but I found and resurrected it!
Yeah, secret agent fits his power more as it’s not a power he can use from the hip as it were. I didn’t think about storing powers though. That’s crazy awesome.