Hallos!
I'm on my break at the restaurant, and I got the urge to put down a few words about a few disparate topics.
The Champaign County Young Republicans came in for lunch today. They asked for a table for ten. Forty minutes later, there's still only 4 people here, and just one who could accurately be described as "young." Now you know everything you need to know about Republican voting in Illinois.
Bank lobbies open at 9 in the morning, and close at 5. I'd hate to have to go to one during the normal lunch hour. Fortunately, I'm usually here during that time.
It struck me how much I like 4th edition D&D as opposed to alternative systems. I'd rather not try to adopt it for Nobilis, but re-skin the powers and allow for more flexible selection, and it'd be a great super-hero game. With emphasis on the limited selection of abilities, it'd be a good system for a horror game. And for D&D...well, at the climax of 3rd edition, characters had spells (powers), skill tricks (skill powers), feats (some of which were basically powers), multiple attacks (powerspowers), wildshapes (pow-rawrs), invocations (see spells)...this list goes on. Put those together with discrete rolls to help players do what they thought classes should be doing anyway--certain classes were thought of as "tanks," even without any real mechanics to help them fulfill those expectations, while there weren't many flavors of "healer" around. Third edition unified the d20 die roll for the conflict resolution of the game, but the miscellany sort of...exploded. Forth edition picked up there, unifying the miscellany, though many classes still have class abilities that don't quite fit the power mold. With a broad selection of classes, character creation is really, really simple once you know what you want to do--and there are basic, useful rules for editing your character if you change your mind.
I've been trying to ramp up my general "web presence" recently. Besides this, and Matt Underwood's blog about being Death, I've been trying to be more active on Facebook, and on Google's Buzz service. I've also added a Twitter account (linked to Buzz), a Picasa account (linked to Buzz), and have dusted off my YouTube account (linked to Buzz). I'm using StumbleUpon to find neat things to share. It sounds like work, but I don't know that I've ever enjoyed relating this much before. It must be the blinking lights.
Time to get back to work. Until next time!
~j
I can see what you mean about DnD having paired things down a bit.. but I think they went a bit far. It feels way way more like a computer game than ever before and I prefer powers that can be used for more than one thing. . and allow some creativity. . I find 4th ed DnD kinda frustrating and the lack of skill customization kinda annoying as well. When you first make your character you are the sneaky one if you have a very slightly higher chance of success than the others. Also the die roll is way more important to success than any of your stats most of the time unless you have magic items that add large bonuses.
ReplyDeletecourse. . I've never liked dnd. . . really. :)but I preferred it in previous editions when I could be the warlock and have super hero type powers, less choice but still incredibly versatile. now the warlock doesn't feel much different than anything else really.
I'd have to say that you're just wrong on some of those points--but maybe it really depends on your GM. I think that even at a relatively low level (say, 5th) your bonuses significantly impact your chance of success. You are a sneaky one if you've trained Stealth (not Hide AND Move Silently!) and you're not carrying a bunch of noisy stuff. And, if you're looking for skill customization--that was one place I would agree with you on previous to my recent experiences, but their are Skill Powers out now that, if selected, give you little gimmicks based on what skills you have trained.
ReplyDeleteAs far as classes feeling similar, read the keywords for the power. I think it's up to the player to enrich the game by describing what their powers look like, and there's plenty of info in the powers and classes to show a stark, vital difference between Warlock and Wizard.