|
Sebastion Duvlac
|
1# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:364
From:
Registered:
05/07/2002
Time spent:
0 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/23/2005 05:15:18)
Well, the avalon have a nifty thing called Shidee Weapons. These are weapons crafted by the Shidee that have special properties, usually in the form of increased dice pools when using them. Though, it is worth noting that the Shidee Bow doesn't offer extra dice but rather that it's string is unbreakable and that it comes with six arrows that, in addition to always being retrievable, don't kill their targets. Rather they put them a to sleep for a variable amount of time ranging from 1 day to 100 years.
The Vendel have it good. They can buy any nations specialty weapon for only an additional price of 2 HP more then the standard price for them. The only things they can't buy are Dracheneisen, Secert Society items (Dietrich Swords, Uppmann Coats, ect.) and maybe Crescent or Cathayan stuff, though I'm not sure on those two.
--------------------------------------------------------------
And I"m prepared to passionatly argue this point until nothing makes sense any more.
"Your disrespect is an axe-worthy offense, elf boy." -Durnkrag the Dauntless, dwarven paladine
|
|
Lady Grace
|
2# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:1183
From:
Registered:
06/02/2003
Time spent:
0 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/23/2005 05:35:08)
Likewise from Avalon are the MacEachern weapons...for those who want to go hunt Sidhe.
The Vestens have runed weapons, which can be bought by their hated Vendel cousins like any other speciality weapon.
I think Ussura's the only nation that has no "official" special weapons per se.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Ulf, just because you drank six tankards of Vesten mead and shout "I'm the Oncoming Storm!" does not --I repeat-- does NOT automatically make you a Berserker!" -- Fortunato Valari
|
Black Jack Rackham
|
3# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:707
From:
Registered:
02/26/2004
Time spent:
0 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/23/2005 19:00:13)
Let us not forget those Pattern-Welded Steel Weapons from the Crescent Empire...
Mark
--------------------------------------------------------------
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."
Friedrich Nietzsche
|
|
Salamanca
|
4# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:4517
From:
Registered:
02/25/2002
Time spent:
2115 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/23/2005 21:26:46)
I see this as another point where good intnetioned game design gets beaten into submission by rules lawyers and editors taht don't get the point.
An editor looks at the game system and wants to know why every nation does not have a special weapon. They are thinking about making the design "fair". And that ends up concocting some really bad ideas. Why? Becasue the editor forgets the larger picture and starts focusing on the single detail.
This is a great example (along with sorcery) Dracheneisen was more or less installed in the game because somebody insisted that Eisen have something special if they didn't have magic. A few sourcebooks later, Montaigne gets puzzleswords to balance their lack of dracheneisen weapons becasue some editor forgot why dracheneisen was installed. Now the eisen and Vodacce are behind so zerstorung and twisted blades pop up. (again, the editors are now so obsessed with balancing the factions so people will play all of them that they forgot what the original balances are.
By now, Castille is so far behind they need 5 different bonus die blades AND a Sorcery to keep up.
Honestly, these things should all be ultra rare. If more than one of each shows up in your campaign, you are probably overdoing it. (I'd concede a couple of the local variety IF you are playing with the major personalitites and they are sort of focal to your campaign plans. But otherwise, keep them very obscure and they will seem all the more magical.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Damn! Asking for exposition is like kryptonite to NPCs!
|
|
The Benj
|
5# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:20
From:
Registered:
02/17/2005
Time spent:
0 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/24/2005 18:50:42)
Reply to : Salamanca
Honestly, these things should all be ultra rare. If more than one of each shows up in your campaign, you are probably overdoing it.
And if you want a runic, twisted, Dracheneisen puzzlesword, made by the Sidhe, then you're just being silly. 
|
|
Barna
|
6# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:1120
From:
Registered:
03/28/2002
Time spent:
0 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/24/2005 20:51:54)
Reply to : Salamanca
They are thinking about making the design "fair".
By far one of the cancers of RPG design. The pointless struggle for "fairness" (a supposed equilibrium in a system so subjective and complex it hurts) only reflects the intense boardgame spirit that has somehow remained in our hobby. One of the things I liked about the Buffy & Angel RPG? was the fact that a party could have characters with different power levels. I? not advocating total anarchy when it comes to point systems, CG, etc. What I do think is that the frantic search for an impossible balance robs RPG? of it? narrative aspect. Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin are not equal in power or experience, nor ar Athos & D?rtagnan. I?e seen that when the "fairness" issue is pushed beyond the elemental "avoid powerhouse races/classes/skills/etc" thing, it can ruin or hamper a design. Specially when one burdains the gameworld with stupid gimmicks, races and the like in order to mantain this supposed balance, hampering the world? credibility at the same time.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"No era el hombre mas honesto ni el mas piadoso, pero era un hombre valiente"
Arturo Perez Reverte, primera linea de ´El Capitan Alatriste´
|
Ravenshadow
|
7# |
Rank:none
Status:
Score:0
Posts:4693
From:
Registered:
08/02/2002
Time spent:
46 hours
|
(Date Posted:06/24/2005 21:19:52)
Reply to : Barna
By far one of the cancers of RPG design. The pointless struggle for "fairness" (a supposed equilibrium in a system so subjective and complex it hurts) only reflects the intense boardgame spirit that has somehow remained in our hobby. One of the things I liked about the Buffy & Angel RPG? was the fact that a party could have characters with different power levels.
Yeah, Unisystem...in specific the two "Whedonverse" games...do have a lot of play in the power level department, as it is reflected in the show (look at the difference in Buffy to any one of the "scooby gang"). But, even so the game does try to bring some sort of level to the playting field in the form of Drama Points, which are cheaper (and often easier) for the lower power characters to get.
Fairness can come in different ways to make the PLAYERS feel more equal ( or at least "less extreme"), but a lot of game designers and games just don't get that. And that "even steven attitude" isn't a d20 thing. It was in D&D, MERP, GURPS, CODA and most every game.
D6 and Roll & Keep (7th & L5R) do a pretty decent job of walking the line between.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"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
|
| |
