Umm, in my last session my level one party encountered a band of orcs. I went through both my magic missile spells, one of them empowered to do maximum damage, and I only killed one Orc. Granted, my first casting was split my missile between three different orcs (as they all were already damaged by a fire trap) but didn't kill a single one despite the fact that they were each already hurt. My second cast used my daily feat to empower them and two missiles hit one Orc and killed him, and one...
View full commentUmm, in my last session my level one party encountered a band of orcs. I went through both my magic missile spells, one of them empowered to do maximum damage, and I only killed one Orc. Granted, my first casting was split my missile between three different orcs (as they all were already damaged by a fire trap) but didn't kill a single one despite the fact that they were each already hurt. My second cast used my daily feat to empower them and two missiles hit one Orc and killed him, and one missile hit another Orc, and he still survived. After a short rest, I have one first level spell back, the fighter and rogue in the party have not lost any ability to do anything. This was just a random encounter on our way to a town (it was one Orc per party member) and it was our first encounter for the adventuring day. So I don't want to hear any nonsense about the uber power of magic missiles over other classes. Thank you.
Also, not a complaint, I am having fun playing my wizard, at least so far.
Maybe what they should do is have "classic" advancement, which is more of what we are used to and then "official advancement" for use in dnd encounters and living campaigns, as i suspect that's what is behind this move any way. Then people can chose. That could work but it involves not singling out the fast track approach as the default or "right" way to play. I know this for sure, it will fail miserable in its goal of attracting old school players back into the fold if they read that the...
View full commentMaybe what they should do is have "classic" advancement, which is more of what we are used to and then "official advancement" for use in dnd encounters and living campaigns, as i suspect that's what is behind this move any way. Then people can chose. That could work but it involves not singling out the fast track approach as the default or "right" way to play.
I know this for sure, it will fail miserable in its goal of attracting old school players back into the fold if they read that the default game is level every other session as it suggests the game was designed to again he something comlpleatly foreign to what they grew up with. As I said, I myself have been in games that house ruled quicker leveling tracks, and they were fun. But to define DnD as that kind of play won't go over well in winning people back.
Because I don't want to see this column go, I'm going to be selfish and ask you to write another couple entries. We have learned a bunch about Iomandra, but I'm extremely curious about the type of campaign you are considering running next. Therefore, I would really appreciate you giving us some insight into the themes that are getting you excited for the next go around. I think this would be the perfect "intermission" for you column, as I refuse to believe you have run out of topics...
View full commentBecause I don't want to see this column go, I'm going to be selfish and ask you to write another couple entries.
We have learned a bunch about Iomandra, but I'm extremely curious about the type of campaign you are considering running next. Therefore, I would really appreciate you giving us some insight into the themes that are getting you excited for the next go around.
I think this would be the perfect "intermission" for you column, as I refuse to believe you have run out of topics to talk about forever.
If you are truly finished, then I would suggest WotC begins a new column where each week you have a different employee talk about a memorable campaign, adventure, or encounter they have run or played in; it's these stories that help inspire us all.
I have few words that can do my thoughts justice, but I'd like to try. Very simply, Dungeon Mastering is the reason I can feel "okay" in this place, and your words are the reason I am a Dungeon Master. I don't think I can ever thank you enough for that. Appreciated. - Barker
View full commentI have few words that can do my thoughts justice, but I'd like to try. Very simply, Dungeon Mastering is the reason I can feel "okay" in this place, and your words are the reason I am a Dungeon Master. I don't think I can ever thank you enough for that.
its far easier and more lucrative to develop games and software for the PC platform. Part of the issue is that because MAC is so proprietary, and always has been, they just don't own the market share that PC products do. After development in the PC platform, some software is ported over to the MAC platform, depending on demand and how complex the porting process is going to be. Enough MAC users use Dual-Booting and/or Virtual Boxing that the overall demand for a strictly MAC version of most...
View full commentits far easier and more lucrative to develop games and software for the PC platform. Part of the issue is that because MAC is so proprietary, and always has been, they just don't own the market share that PC products do. After development in the PC platform, some software is ported over to the MAC platform, depending on demand and how complex the porting process is going to be. Enough MAC users use Dual-Booting and/or Virtual Boxing that the overall demand for a strictly MAC version of most software isn't high enough to justify the man-hours of additional development. Also note that PC and MAC versions coding is different enough that Tangential coding in both platforms is rarely cost effective either.
I like being creative. I am even a fan of some "over the top" concepts. However, just like in a movie, special effects can be overdone; likewise, special effects can't always compensate for a bad movie. One of the main reasons I cannot take modern horror movies seriously is because they too often spray gore and blood around and hope the audience won't notice that the movie is terrible. In contrast, I don't believe Hitchcock ever actually showed a person being murdered in his movies; yet,...
View full commentI like being creative. I am even a fan of some "over the top" concepts. However, just like in a movie, special effects can be overdone; likewise, special effects can't always compensate for a bad movie. One of the main reasons I cannot take modern horror movies seriously is because they too often spray gore and blood around and hope the audience won't notice that the movie is terrible. In contrast, I don't believe Hitchcock ever actually showed a person being murdered in his movies; yet, he's still viewed as one of the best directors of the genre.
I do agree that players often remember the oddities and wackiness of a campaign. However, the most amount of pride I ever took away from a game was when the players remembered the story itself as being good. To be sure, there was a lot of cool stuff I included in my last 4th Edition game. I had arcane hover bikes; high speed chases, and all manner of other things, but none of them would have been anything without the underlying quality of the campaign. This article gives great advice, but sometimes you can do a lot with very little.
Quite literally all of those have happened in my groups campaigns... Probably the most over the top thing that has happened was a character in a campaign became the avatar of Olidammara, after being given a deck of chaos which was used to choose which of the party members would ultimately be the champion. The characters then meet this character again some years later in the next campaign and find that the character has transported to the Dark Sun campaign setting where he then split in 5 parts...
View full commentQuite literally all of those have happened in my groups campaigns... Probably the most over the top thing that has happened was a character in a campaign became the avatar of Olidammara, after being given a deck of chaos which was used to choose which of the party members would ultimately be the champion. The characters then meet this character again some years later in the next campaign and find that the character has transported to the Dark Sun campaign setting where he then split in 5 parts to become the ultimate Lawful Good, Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, and Chaotic Neutral beings which then had to duke it out highlander style (one controlled by the player who's character it really was) for the ability to be called the only one. All of this is happening while they have armies coming to invade their town (run by the party under a false pretense of not being magical (one was a blood mage and another a wizard) and helping sorcerers escape) while they put sorcerer's into a ghetto to "protect them" before ultimately giving them up and climbing a sorcerer's tower where the illegitimate son's of one of the character's children grow up and turn out to be Bigby and Mordenkainen who were raised in an artificial time loop to kill their father because he caused the death of their mother (a prostitute he chose not to pay) with his defiling magic. All leading up to the epic final battle where the gods come into Dark Sun in order to stop the players from becoming gods Bahamut leading the final attack.
Wow really glad that this is still a thing! Downloading manually now--did not show up in my iTunes WotC feed... The poll does appear fixed & I am suprised the Wookiee did not do better. In terms of more 'wider geek circle', I would actually rather see more WotC specific stuff--like standard segments--Chris Perkins Corner with what he is doing, Shelly's Mom with an advice type column aka Dungeon Bastard, etc.
Downloading manually now--did not show up in my iTunes WotC feed...
The poll does appear fixed & I am suprised the Wookiee did not do better.
In terms of more 'wider geek circle', I would actually rather see more WotC specific stuff--like standard segments--Chris Perkins Corner with what he is doing, Shelly's Mom with an advice type column aka Dungeon Bastard, etc.
Good adventure ideas too.
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