Next up, September 25th. No leveling or other strangeness (other than a little recovery from the great beyond).
Any problems, coordination, etc., let me know. (I’ll try and update the loot list– subtract off the stuff we sold, etc.)
Happy Birthday Kev! (Today, not the 18th.)
Next game is Sunday the 18th, same 2pm start as normal. Remember that we leveled to 10; I think everyone rolled HP, so some stats and skills monkeying and we’re ready to go.
Anything people want to figure out before we play again?
Vanport, OR Where? Gone. (Via brutal women) Also Indianola, TX
An all too accurate report on the current Democratic party, from Fafblog
ACORN Housing & community support, for rebuilding.
Shaman Info. Spells, talent builders, etc. Very good.
Shaman Talent Builder, Alt Shaman Talent Builder, Shaman Talent discussion
From the Shaman FAQ on the WoW boards–
5.2 Are there any talents that I *shouldn’t* point points into?
In my opinion, there are four talents that I would recommend staying away from:
* Improved Stoneskin Totem. This talent will increase damage reduction by about 2 hit points for the average shaman, because the stoneskin totem decreases damage before damage reduction from armour is calculated. See my post here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=27379&tmp=1#post27379 for a more detailed reason why this talent is not a good usage of talent points.
* Combat Endurance. From my testing, HP is regened according to the following formula: regen = 9 + spirit/9. With 279 SPI, you regen 40 HP per tick (one tick is about 2 secs). Ten percent of 40 is 4. So, this talent will allow you to regen 4 HP per tick during battle.
* Improved Grounding Totem. Currently, grounding totem is bugged such that any damage spell it absorbs will destory it. This bug has been around for the majority of beta, and it is pretty much been accepted by the shaman community as “broken as intended”, and there is some uncertainity that this bug will even be fixed. Whatever the case, this bug makes this talent very ineffective.
* Improved Healing Totem. Five points here give 20% increase on 14 HP every two seconds. Over the course of 70 seconds, this talent will give 2.8*35 or 98 more health.
Right now, the next game we have planned is for September 11th. Kev, your Birthday’s the next day (right?)– are you free to game?
This weekend is certainly a weekend off; happy Labor Day everyone! Zack will be in town (on Monday the 5th, probably), so we’ll probably schedule something with him a night or three. If you have suggestions, they’re good for this thread too.
Until we dice again…
A few nights ago I mulled about a solution to “0 HP = unconscious, -10 HP = death” thing. Around 2 am I woke up and had most of a solution. I’ll take a stab at writing it down here. [Note: This is inspired in part by Blue Rose / True20. Iron Heroes, a new release, is supposed to mimic it in part.]
Low Death (but grittier) gaming–
The idea starts from a core: Death is dramatic… but it’s best when it’s dramatic. As it is, the space between “perfectly fine” (1 HP) and dead (-10 HP) is small. 11 hit points is normal damage from many of the critters our characters are fighting.
One advantage of this revision is that criticals have a greater impact (immediate wounding), but don’t take a character out immediately.
When a creature is hit and drops below zero hit points, or when a creature is hit for a confirmed critical, the character doesn’t necessarily fall unconscious (nor just loose hit points). Instead, the player rolls to resist the wound, to keep the character on its feet. This introduces an opportunity to introduce tradeoffs; creating wounds that don’t put a character out, but do impair fighting ability.
Whenever a character is struck and drops below 0 HP, or whenever a critical is dealt, you make a Fortitude saving throw with a DC equal to the damage your character was dealt. Compare the save and damage to the chart below. (We’ll call this “wound saves” for clarity.)
| Beat the DC by 10 or more | A scratch or bruise; no fight penalty, -1 to wound saves. (Cure minor to alleviate penalty). |
| Beat the DC | A minor wound; a cut over the eye, a bruised rib, a gash along the forearm, etc. -1 to all rolls until healed (including wound saves). Cure Light to eliminate. |
| Failed by less than 10 | A significant wound; bones break, muscles pull, artery pierced, finger severed, etc. -2 to all rolls until healed. Cure Moderate to alleviate the penalty, Cure Critical to eliminate the condition. |
| Failed by 11-20 | Maiming wound; foot removed, eye gashed, skull cracked, massive blood loss. -5 to all rolls until healed. Cure Serious to alleviate the penalty, Regenerate or Heal to eliminate the condition. |
| Failed by 21+ | Deadly wound. (Usually traded up to maiming + unconscious, unless the player decides it’s time for a dramatic death.) |
In all cases, the player can choose for the character to take a wound one step less severe as long as the character is also knocked unconscious by the blow. (This is not necessarily a blow to the head; blood loss, shock and the like are other acceptable ways to “trade up” the damage and remove a character from the fight.)
The small things in life are the strangest.
At lunch I wandered out to eat, then popped by Rite Aid for an ice cream cone. The place was dead; after ringing me up at the register, the older lady led me over to the ice cream counter. I ordered a scoop of Pecan Praline.
She replied, “That’s been my favorite since I was a little girl.”
Just cool strangeness in the world.
Right now it looks like we’re on schedule for a game next Sunday, though Jennifer will miss part of the game for a seminar. On to the Dragon Coast!
(We’ll try to get the loot list typed up during the week.)
A little link roundup…
[From The Game Mechanics] Red Dragons, broken out by age: (pdf) and the website. Inititive Cards in general.
Crafting items A WOTC variant; interesting, but it doesn’t solve the core issue (experience as a cost). On the same subject, a message board discussion about crafting items from the Pizao boards.
20 Page Arms & Armor Preview For inspiration only; it has a few names and item properties, but few full definitions.
The Year’s Best d20 is a collection of open gaming content from many manufacturers, culled and evaluated. Looks worthwhile (especially as a pdf). Also: the Table of Contents.
Dungeon Crafter Game world design advice (from old Dragon articles). Also, Dark Heritage, a world created by applying the previous articles.