Black Jack Rackham
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(Date Posted:04/16/2005 17:06:13)
Kevin,
These are truly wonderful! None seems unbalanced and I can see that they are related to gladiatorial (sp?) combat. Thanks for posting these. Not only that but they also engender some evil thinking on that part of a certain GM
Mark
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"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Salamanca
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(Date Posted:04/19/2005 21:03:21)
Kevin,
I gotta know man, cause I've had the chance to look at everything that got published you worked on and now these as well (and a few that were left out of things or altered later). What is it with you and listing advanced knacks as basic slots in swordsman schools? That is the weakest thing you can do to a school but it seems to pop up a lot. If it's a knack the school does not normally recieve, I can almost forgive it, but in the examples above, it was advanced knacks for skills the school has in the curriculum.
Dimachare master ability should be shifted off, it's not all that handy. Drop the beat, ignore whirl and give the school double attack. (a note of idea for those thinking of using these)
On the other end of the spectrum, The Samnite journeyman ability is a bundle of fun waiting to happen. (but the mastery bonus is a cop out and overkill with the raised damage soak)
-sal
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Damn! Asking for exposition is like kryptonite to NPCs!
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Mus Borwin
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(Date Posted:04/19/2005 23:34:40)
First -- the Double Attack thing. What I've posted here are simply my initial concepts for the schools, and by no means what I would claim to be finished results. You like Double Attack better? Go for it. But bear in mind that these Schools were not built for 1668, they were used sometime around the year 70, in gladiatorial matches where opponents sometimes wore armor that would increase the TN to hit and reduce the kept dice from damage. I found that an attack that kept more dice would have an easier time damaging an armored opponent than taking two attacks, each at normal damage would. Certainly, against unarmored foes, the Double Attack Knack would be more advantageous. Also, at this time, Double Attack had never been given to any weapon other than a Knife. This was well before the Vendel/Vesten book was written and it got added to Hand Axes. I was wary of giving it to a 2k2 weapon without more testing.
Second -- the Advanced vs. Basic Knack thing. I'm not the originator of that practice. I simply continued it. Personally, I like getting something cheaper at character creation time. Yes, it's a benefit that goes away once you stop paying HP and start using XP to increase it...personally, I don't mind that either, it gives a flavor of the school preferring students who made it their first choice. Again, I would not be surprised if the opinions of others differ from my own.
In the case of a School like Retiarius, I'd give it Entangle (Net) even though it has the Net Skill, and make it Basic, so that you could start with a Rank of 3 in it for minimal HP expense because it is so central to the concept of the School. Don't like it? I'm not twisting anyone's arm and saying that they have to take it. The Golden Rule says that GMs can ignore these rules as much as they like.
They be more like guidelines anyways.
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Ravenshadow
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(Date Posted:04/20/2005 10:10:29)
Reply to : Mus Borwin
Don't like it? I'm not twisting anyone's arm and saying that they have to take it. The Golden Rule says that GMs can ignore these rules as much as they like.
This is exactly what we were talking about recently in the thread about the original plan for Cathay.
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"Why in poo-perfect hell did you pee on the corpse?"
- Gay Perry; Kiss, kiss, Bang, bang
"The things I have learned not to do have held me in better stead than the things I have learned to do."
-- Senator Joe Biden, Commencement address, Syracuse University College of Law, 2006
"You live in a world full of 12,000 menus and nothing to eat."
-- Rube [Dead Like Me]
"Hubris is so cute."
--Joss Whedon
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Mus Borwin
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(Date Posted:04/20/2005 11:03:12)
Reply to : Ravenshadow
This is exactly what we were talking about recently in the thread about the original plan for Cathay.
I've seen that thread and several others like it elsewhere, and much as I would personally like to comment on it, I feel that I really shouldn't for a variety of ethical, professional, and other reasons, so I won't.
But don't take it as a case of "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all," because it's not.
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Ravenshadow
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(Date Posted:04/20/2005 19:27:20)
Reply to : Mus Borwin
But don't take it as a case of "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all," because it's not.
NP, I don't think anyone would Mus.
Still, if you feel like weighing in, please feel free to do so, your opinion and thoughts carry as much weight as anyone elses around here. (Save mine and Sal's...ours means less.  ) I am sure you are just as passionate about stuff like this as others might be.
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"Why in poo-perfect hell did you pee on the corpse?"
- Gay Perry; Kiss, kiss, Bang, bang
"The things I have learned not to do have held me in better stead than the things I have learned to do."
-- Senator Joe Biden, Commencement address, Syracuse University College of Law, 2006
"You live in a world full of 12,000 menus and nothing to eat."
-- Rube [Dead Like Me]
"Hubris is so cute."
--Joss Whedon
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Mus Borwin
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(Date Posted:04/20/2005 19:49:38)
Reply to : Ravenshadow
Still, if you feel like weighing in, please feel free to do so, your opinion and thoughts carry as much weight as anyone elses around here.(Save mine and Sal's...ours means less.)I am sure you are just as passionate about stuff like this as others might be.
I wouldn't feel comfortable discussing any officially published material that I worked on or in any other way contributed to, as it would fall under NDAs and other such things. I'm happy to talk about other material, like the schools above, which were developed solely for home use.
On reflection, I see that Dimachare's Master ability was later used for Siggursdottir's Journeyman. It'd need beefing up, maybe to a 3k4 attack to make it more Master-worthy. Or, move it to Journeyman as-is, dump the +5 to TN to be hit, and come up with a new Master.
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