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4 years ago ::
Feb 17, 2009 - 2:17PM
#101
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The rules compendium is:
1) Buggy (technology-wise) - the whole login issue with it makes it annoying enough to use that I avoid ever using it.
2) Buggy (game-wise) - it has wrong entries in it
and
3) Incomplete - Since some of the stuff on the warforged article are missing (like components), people at the con this weekend ruled that warforged PCs can't use component items. Even though the compendium ALSO includes warsoul weapons and whatever that "are always component weapons".
4) Doesn't get updated. I've reported various problems with the rules, like the Paladin's Divine Challenge, which has been broken (in the sense that it doesn't work), since 4th Edition came out, traded a couple emails with Cust Serv until they realized what the problem was, got a "we'll talk to R&D about it", and then it's still broken. At the last gameday I went to, it got bogged down for about 15 minutes with everyone arguing about how they thought Divine Challenge was supposed to work. It's things like that that kind of irk me. =)
But I think the real issue here is with the insanity of the reparation apparatus. Trying to fix the reparation apparatus cheese with some combination of hand-waving, pointing at the D&D compendium, and making official rulings in the middle of a forum post, is just not a workable combination for a worldwide campaign.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 17, 2009 - 3:54PM
#102
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Date Joined:
Mar 29, 2001
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I wouldn't hold my breath on this.  ACs are meant for roleplaying purposes, not for mechanical advantages. The AP is already pretty powerful as it is.
And the AP makes little sense, roleplaying wise.
I mean, if I had to, I could probably come up with a roleplaying reason why belonging to an organization magically gives my group extra actions when we're together. But it'd be something kludged on after the fact to justify the AP.
I was EXPECTING some roleplaying related effects from AdCo membership. Not combat effects.
Something like, bonuses (or penalties) to social interactions, information gathering, resource acquisition, etc. You know, the stuff that an organized group of people can do that an individual might find difficult.
For example, if your AdCo took a build option as High Society, you might be able to get into a classy party easier but have penalties dealing with working class groups.
Instead we got an Action point.
Don't get me wrong, an AP is nice and all, but I'm finding it difficult to understand how this relates to my character, say, being a member of a politics-and-intrigue-based AdCo.
-karma
LFR Characters:
Lady Tiana Elinden Kobori Silverwane - Drow Control Wizard
Kro'tak Warscream - Orc Bard
Fulcrum of Gond - Warforged Laser Cleric
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4 years ago ::
Feb 18, 2009 - 6:53AM
#103
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2005
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I mean, if I had to, I could probably come up with a roleplaying reason why belonging to an organization magically gives my group extra actions when we're together. But it'd be something kludged on after the fact to justify the AP.
The members of your adventuring company know each other and know how to work well together. That manifests itself in being able to take an extra action at a critical juncture in a combat. Makes a fair bit of sense to me, though if you've got an adventuring company that doesn't have requirements dealing with combat, I guess it's a bit of a stretch...
That said, there's at least one module out there that allows spending an action point to reroll a failed check in a skill challenge. Use your AP that way, and you've got a pretty decent RP benefit.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 18, 2009 - 8:48AM
#104
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Date Joined:
Sep 19, 2008
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(DMs are less likely to carry laptops then players, and only a few players do it).
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this.
In My Experience:
Most of the DMs I play with use laptops when they can, (all but 3 out of 8, and one of them is me) while only a few of the 15-20 players use their Laptops while playing.
Ahh, so THIS is where I can add a sig.
Remember: Killing an ancient God inside of a pyramid IS a Special Occasion, and thus, ladies should be dipping into their Special Occasions underwear drawer.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 18, 2009 - 9:10AM
#105
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2007
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Maybe it is different in Australia, there are hardly any DMs here with Laptops, and most don't like players with them either.
We have found that:
1. Laptops combined with dice, and other stuff usually take up an inordinate amount of room.
2. There is usually insufficient power to run all of them.
3. Burning said power aint too great for the environment.
4. Time taken to find things on a laptop is usually less than checking a printed copy
5. Laptops encourage less participation as players are constantly trolling through rules, building characters, or generally mucking about.
6. Excessive use of electronic character sheets often result in people not understanding their abilities and becoming over-reliant on others to do their work for them - this means they don't understand why their 'to hit' is that number, etc. This leads to errors and often an increased lack of understanding, rule-wise.
7. If a player/gm is looking at a screen they are not addressing other players/interacting interpersonally that much
8. Said Laptops cause a worry at cons with other people being careless with drinks, etc, also it's a lot worse losing the laptop than having some dice stolen.
I am personally of the opinion that technology is a great aid, but I have met many players who don't understand how their powers work, take up a huge amount of space with those darn power cards (write em on a piece of paper FFS, and tick em off when used) and often have ask questions like "why are my numbers klkike tis? where is the random +1 coming from?"
- Metz does think that all this newfangled technology can result in people not knowing the rules and becoming over reliant though - he has seen it.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 18, 2009 - 9:29AM
#106
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Date Joined:
Sep 19, 2008
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1. Point.
2. As I said, it's mostly the DMs who use them, so we've never had a big issue. There is one venue where we tend to have 3-4 computers going, but that's one person's house, and 3 of the computers are fixtures. (and one of them's usually running FFXI or a PS emulator anyway...)
3. Instead of risking violating Community Rules, I will ignore this point, except to say that, YMMV re/ "carbon footprint" and its (percieved) effect.
4. Depends on how well the person knows the source.
5. Depends on the person.
6. I'll grant you this one.
7. Only if they constantly stare at the screen. We haven't had any problems with this.
8. Point.
And I'll agree with the reliance issue. I'm the only person in my Accounting class (Including the professor) who doesn't need a calculator for anything harder than addition/subtraction.
On the other hand, those in our group who don't understand how their powers work are the ones who have no interest in the powers, and only on "I attack this, does it die?"
YMMV, of course.
Ahh, so THIS is where I can add a sig.
Remember: Killing an ancient God inside of a pyramid IS a Special Occasion, and thus, ladies should be dipping into their Special Occasions underwear drawer.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 18, 2009 - 10:00AM
#107
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I am personally of the opinion that technology is a great aid, but I have met many players who don't understand how their powers work, take up a huge amount of space with those darn power cards (write em on a piece of paper FFS, and tick em off when used) and often have ask questions like "why are my numbers klkike tis? where is the random +1 coming from?"
- Metz does think that all this newfangled technology can result in people not knowing the rules and becoming over reliant though - he has seen it.
There are some of us, however, that use laptops at the table and know damn well how our powers work (as well as everyone else's), take up less space than most people without laptops, and still interact interpersonally with our tablemates just as much as we would if we didn't have a laptop
I actually use a laptop while playing quite often. I thought it was kind of weird when I saw people do it when 3.5 was prevalent, but nowadays, I'm a big fan. First of all, I have 5 PCs and each one levels every 3 adventures. I don't feel like printing that much... STUFF. Second of all, I like having all of my books and resources in one place. Third of all, when I DM, I like to track initiative in notepad.
I agree with you about many people, though. There are some people that just shouldn't be using laptops. For others, it can be a really useful and powerful tool - even at the gaming table.
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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4 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2009 - 3:19AM
#108
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2007
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3. Instead of risking violating Community Rules, I will ignore this point, except to say that, YMMV re/ "carbon footprint" and its (percieved) effect.
I will rephrase:
Arbitrary wastage of power based on expensive non-renewable resources is an issue if a whole Con wants laptops ot be running a whole weekend...
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4 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2009 - 6:36AM
#109
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Date Joined:
Jul 29, 2006
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First of all, I have 5 PCs and each one levels every 3 adventures. I don't feel like printing that much... STUFF.
I use a pencil, paper and eraser... What "STUFF" do you need to print so much of? Admittedly, I'm seemingly the only person in our group not a DDI subscriber. And a bit of a Luddite. But even so, with one character sheet, and one A4 sheet (or the back of a character sheet!) for powers, plus the adventuring pages, 5 characters now take up less space than 1 LG character did. And updating takes what... 5 minutes? I'm with Metz and Darkwolf on this one. Players are getting (mentally) lazy.
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4 years ago ::
Feb 19, 2009 - 7:06AM
#110
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I use a pencil, paper and eraser... What "STUFF" do you need to print so much of? Admittedly, I'm seemingly the only person in our group not a DDI subscriber. And a bit of a Luddite. But even so, with one character sheet, and one A4 sheet (or the back of a character sheet!) for powers, plus the adventuring pages, 5 characters now take up less space than 1 LG character did. And updating takes what... 5 minutes? I'm with Metz and Darkwolf on this one. Players are getting (mentally) lazy.
I designed a fairly in-depth Excel sheet that I particularly like using. I wouldn't call myself mentally lazy at all (if you knew me, you'd probably agree). I simply prefer to use the tools that I created to be used for a specific purpose. I agree that levelling up a PC isn't exactly difficult, but when your character sheet isn't hand-written in pencil to begin with, updating it over and over again (i.e. crossing things out and writing over them) gets really sloppy and detracts from my enjoyment of the game.
It's similar to how some people (including me) get more enjoyment out of the game when they're using a nice, hand-painted mini as opposed to a plastic mini or a green Sorry! game piece. The same goes for a nice character sheet.
Dave Kay
LFR Writing Director Retiree
dkay807 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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