Comments for GamesTopica.Net

Comment on Dragon Age Pen and Paper RPG Items: Arrows and Bombs by 00iCon

00iCon — Sat, 21 May 2011 08:45:24 +0000

2 quick questions… Why is the ice arrow 2 dmg?
Where are the costs? Should I take them straight off the dragon age wiki?

Comment on A Rule of Thumb for In-Character Gaming by Jack

Jack — Sun, 08 May 2011 00:35:07 +0000

I agree with everyone. If any player has an MMO background, or heavily involved in online MMOs, I have found that they immediately begin to run numbers rather than character personality, motivation, or history. Character acting for RPGs is something people have to learn, and a hard lesson is that there may be times where that will cause grief for the character, but that is the point in some ways.

Nice article.

Comment on Fast Talk vs. Persuasion – a Lesson of Mindfulness by Mike Bourke

Mike Bourke — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:07:46 +0000

Exactly right. Fast Talk is snowing someone, Persuasion is attempting to convince someone. The difference comes when someone asks “why did you do that?”. Those affected by Fast Talk: “I don’t know!” Those affected by Persuasion: “Because…” and go on to list one or more reasons.

A secondary impact is that someone convinced to do something by Fast Talk is in isolation, while someone who has been Persuaded may, in turn, persuade others – building that into later roleplay can really add to the verisimilitude of the game world for a bit.

Comment on A Rule of Thumb for In-Character Gaming by extrakun

extrakun — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:21:06 +0000

I guess it has something to do with some players have exclusively computer role-playing games background. The stats, items and classes perhaps add to him expecting the game to be in the mold of “kill x and gain y”. For instance, he does not power-game while playing Nobilis.

Comment on A Rule of Thumb for In-Character Gaming by Jiminy

Jiminy — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:59:25 +0000

It almost sounds like the player treated the session like a boardgame or miniatures wargame where the objective is simply to “win” and out-of-character min/maxing is a required activity, rather than as a roleplaying experience that requires “acting”. Hopefully some coaching will help overcome the problem.

Comment on A Rule of Thumb for In-Character Gaming by Sean Holland

Sean Holland — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 21:43:15 +0000

Agreed, for a rpg campaign world to hand together the player have to at least by into the genre conventions of the setting and play to those. While I preferring the elusive immersive gaming experience, I understand how rare it is that a group clicks to really allow that.

Good luck!

Comment on Mass Effect using the Dragon Age RPG Rules by Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:59:43 +0000

Many good ideas here. I do like the overall Mass Effect computer game, but there are some aspects that are a bit “off” for the sake of gameplay. In my idea of the pencil and paper Mass Effect game, shields are a defense that needs the be “battered down” before one can get past them. This “batter down” technique doesn’t hold for armor, however. A well placed shot will punch a hole in it and damage the goods inside without having to shoot every scrap of armor off the target in question. You really don’t notice it in the software game because, let’s face it: It’s not something you have to think about so much. Not to bash the game itself, but there were obvious limitations set upon programmers when the game concept for Mass Effect came about. For a Pencil and Paper RPG’r, you really don’t have to deal with all the constraints the programmers had to deal with, but you DO have to deal with things that become more apparent because the mechanics are suddenly visible. I can just hear some game nerd screaming “What do you mean his medium armor took all three shots from my assault rifle at point blank range?”

The devil is always in the details… LOL.

Comment on Mass Effect using the Dragon Age RPG Rules by Dagda

Dagda — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:32:08 +0000

I’m inclined to go with a moderate level of crunch for my own Mass Effect RPG project, because of my intentions with the combat system. It seems to me that the best translation of ME2′s power-cetric combat would be to have most of the player’s actions be chosen from sets of personal abilities that all follow the same core rules (similar to 4th Edition’s powers). In my case, the central character creation decision would be how to allocate a reserve of points into four categories: General (Skills and Attributes), Training (i.e. of the military bent), Biotics and Tech. The resulting scores play a similar role to choice of class in other rpgs; they primarily determine what kinds of defenses you have (how strong your barrier/shield/armor/health is) and what kinds of talents you can take (which in turn mostly provide or upgrade combat powers).

Your core mechanic actually helps solve one dilemma I’ve had. I knew I wanted some defenses to be strong against high-powered shots while others are instead strongest against higher volumes of shots. Weapons that roll X dice and then take the best Y results provide an elegant way to do this- Automatic weapons roll larger numbers of smaller dice. Shields force you to discard your top _ rolls, whereas armor is like DR that applies to each die separately (and neither case can reduce the effective result below 1).

Comment on The “Mass Effect” Effect by Rhetorical Gamer

Rhetorical Gamer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:47:09 +0000

I certainly agree with you that being epic, being a member of an important organization, being respected, is sometimes great in a game. I disagree with almost everything you said about the relationship system in Dragon Age: Origins, but I understand you point about Mass Effect. You enjoy being large and in-charge. You want to matter.

The concept of the Nobody Hero is a very good one though, that shouldn’t be overlooked. I know you are just advocating that sometimes players want respect, but respect is a tricky thing in an RPG because respect is earned. Just like XP. But this is something you can do in any system, at any time.

I just started a Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition game and all the players started off as Nobles. Not all of them have the “noble” career, but they are all members of noble houses who get to make important decisions. Star Wars does this well if you play members of the Jedi Order or Rebel Officers, because you have some authority.

Two problems with starting games with “respect” that often come up though. One, it often means that you have to create “experienced” characters with enough backstory to have earned respect (and the backstory can become more important than the front story if you aren’t careful). The other problem is in licensed games like LotR. If you are playing a character like Eomer or Elrond’s sons, you are stuck with either changing the story, or, accepting the chains of being that person. LotR is, in my opinion, a terrible game setting, because all the most important stories have already been told… I love to read it, but I don’t want to play there.

Being important is just as difficult, for players and GMs, as being a nobody. Often, it’s even harder. I think that’s part of the reason this trend exists. I don’t expect it to go away any time soon.

Comment on AI and Tactics for Team NPCs by jonathan susara

jonathan susara — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:49:43 +0000

Thanks for a great article. I’ve be scouring the Net for running combat better and yours is top notch.