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Topics - SolEiji

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1
General D&D Discussion / Construct Control
« on: October 08, 2018, 04:24:14 AM »
Try as we might, we couldn't find an answer to this.  Clearly, when you make a construct you control it (usually) and you are it's master... but does it actually say this anywhere?  I found examples of references when you lose control, or if control is item specific like with the Shield Guardian, but I couldn't see anywhere where it actually says you control your constructs.  An oversight?

2
Gaming Advice / Crowdsourcing my Fluff
« on: September 19, 2018, 03:51:00 AM »
So I am running a game in a Soulsborne-esque world for my PCs and they are about to enter the main dungeon ruins and everything.  I am trying to crib from Souls storytelling style by not quite explaining the story, but I still wanted to drop bits of lore notes here and there, just enough to pull together a credible narrative.  Namely from the notes of the BBEG scattered here and there.

But it would be weird if it was just his notes around, right?  And anyway a lot of it is just for setting fluff.  It's a lot of work, and I am uncertain about my writing ability.  I had a thought though: if I informed others of the setting and the scenario... what if people other than me wrote random notes about the place and its problems?

Is this a good idea?  Can I bother you guys to help me be more lazy?

I will explain the setting anyway.  So it is a pseudo-renaissance setting in the main superpower of the world at that time.  They have castles, they have magic, and they've been doing a lot of research into the mysteries of the supernatural universe and eldritch things.  Then at some point someone (not at this location, but nearby) seriously fucks up and Berserk's Eclipse basically happens.  The nation sinks into a pool of blood, monsters boil up from the ground, people go insane and feel the warp overtaking them, etc. etc.  Oh and all their fancy eldritch artifacts they were digging up and seemed to have no use turned on, fun that.  It's nasty for everyone involved and the whole land is cursed.  That was like 100 years ago, and that apocalypse technically ended (or went quiet and stopped spreading anyway).

When these ruins still had life in them, the notes would have been just before and immediately after this supernatural apocalypse occurred.  And I am trying to think of good notes from the lives of people who would have lived at that castle, and how they would have reacted to the sky turning into an endless field of skinned rat corpses and tentacles pouring out of their eyes.  After all they weren't ground zero so they would have survived for a short time before they fled/died, with all the castle mages trying to figure on what the heck was going on.

Even if you can't think of any in character notes from randoms to make, trying to figure out who was where doing what might help. 

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[3.P] Strata / Collection Services: The Story of Wystan Hyde
« on: September 24, 2016, 10:20:23 PM »
At long last, you had another job.

Wystan's life had taken a turn for the worse.  Rubicon had always been a steady source of income for bodyguard work, with all the various old and decrepit nobles of the previous generation always worried about them backstabbing each other for political gain.  A sorry state of affairs for them, but it suited your wallet just fine.  But the jobs were becoming a bit scarce, as were the nobles.  The shroud, that black scar which blighted this world a decade previous, had bloated again in recent times and it brought Rubicon in fearful unity, leaving little time for the usual foolishness of the elite as they all trembled in worry for the future.  Regardless how Wystan felt about the situation surrounding the shroud, it didn't affect you directly.  At least, it didn't until that one fateful night. 

It was a normal job as any other.  You were escorting Duke Zillart across the land when you encountered that strange golden knight who blocked your path, demanding some manner of scroll the Duke supposedly carried.  You did your duty and fought well, though he wounded you before he retreated from combat suddenly.  You do not know with whom he was communicating with or even the knight's name but you do know he dressed in the armor of a Chrysanthemum knight, that lost nation consumed by the darkness.  As he departed, the knight had even mentioned Dragon Tower, tallest tower in the world, held within that forgotten nation.  That is of course impossible.  None who enter the shroud ever leave.  Perhaps he was an accursed gone mad by his visions.

Three days later, you had your first nightmarish vision, and woke up with the telltale spiral mark of the Accursed somewhere upon your body.

How long have you had it?  It is known that those who become Accursed often hide their mark, for if others knew they would surely exile you, or worse.  It wasn't without good reason.  The marked slowly seem to lose their minds, their visions and nightmares escaping into reality, until they went mad.  And others would experience terrifying deformities as part of their curse.  It was often better then just to let the marked give into the one universal urge that all seem to have, the one universal vision they all shared.  To enter the shroud, to find exactly what their dreams foretold.  Their dreams seemed to be of Chrysanthemum, cold and dark, and a howling wind within.

To this day, all Accursed who have entered the deep shroud have never returned.  They are the only beings which seem not to be able to be noticed by the terrible Titans which roam under the shroud, and they are the only ones who have made settlements beyond Sothis, the last bulwark of humanity against the dark.

Perhaps you were found out, and your exile has begun.  Perhaps you travel of your own violation.  What is certain is that you managed to pick up one final odd job before your journey begins.  Duke Zillart has long had rivalry with a certain Baron Manus Marlowe and Countess Alzbeta Marlowe.  Their manor has long been silent, save for a few indirect replies via messengers.  They have had neither visitor nor ally in some time, and rumors have begun to swirl that the mansion was actually abandoned, haunted, or cursed, and that the Countess has become one of the marked who has fled her home.  They have been paying their taxes to a point but they had missed their last few billings, and the collectors were tired of sending officers demanding entry.  Your skill with the sword was not forgotten, and it was believed that the Baron would be more pliable to suggestions of payment if it were delivered with the threat of blade at its back.  Zillart, of course, was all the more pleased to help you traverse to their estate.  After all, it is on the way to the shroud.  You only need to write back (and possibly mail back) proof of your success at your next nearest opportunity.

To this end, you have been granted ride from a carriage to your destination, leaving the city of Glintham in Rubicon.  You can busy yourself before the trip if you wish, otherwise your driver (a portly fellow named Wittershins) will begin your trip.  You do not expect to run into any problems along the way.

Trip begins in an hour or two.  This is the last time you will probably see this place.  Soak it in.

4
Gaming Advice / Two Handing the Large Rapier
« on: September 15, 2016, 09:30:34 AM »
Eiji the Human Fighter picks up a large rapier.  For him it would be two handed.

Question A) Is weapon finesse retained?  Unlike Light to One-Handed, being finesse is called out in the rapier.  And there are a few finesse two handed weapons out there.

Question B) You can't two-hand a rapier.  Would that still apply even though its oversized?

5
Play By Post / Reopening Strata: Round 2
« on: August 26, 2016, 02:44:06 AM »
The Strata game is getting a bit short on players, and I am running into a prime opportunity to add some more.    Not to many, probably no more than one-two max, but still.  Anyone interested?  I can answer questions and whatnot.

6
Board Business / Spambots have breached the walls.
« on: April 08, 2015, 01:06:18 AM »
Given our method of preventing this I'm surprised they managed.  But now it's shitting all over the place.

I don't suppose anyone knows how to contact the mods or admins?  I'm so used to being admin over on my forum I admit I was ready to go delete everything... oops, right, wrong forum.

7
Gaming Advice / Do we have a throwing handbook?
« on: March 28, 2015, 08:08:29 PM »
Hmm.  I swore we did but for the life of me I can't find it.  Isn't there a handbook on throwing weapons fighting?

And if not, got any suggestions on optimizing it?

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Off Topic Fun / Eiji gets bored easily.
« on: March 23, 2015, 09:13:50 PM »
Very easily.  It's actually very annoying.  Happens almost every night for 12 hours, so...

I claim this thread as the Eiji thread, where Eiji sits here and answers whatever questions you have of him, or just to use it as a public PM system, or a poor man's chat program, or whatever.

I'm bored.  What's up with you?

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Min/Max 3.x / Help me become a ROCK LEGEND!
« on: March 22, 2015, 02:20:49 AM »
The situation: I need to perform in a rock concert!
The character: Half-Elf Bloodrager 8!  No ranks in Perform, but Cha 16.
The question: How do I become a rock god?!

It may be for fun, but I want to optimize the shit out of this impromptu musical challenge.  I figure the obvious, get a scroll/potion of eagle's splendor and a masterwork item for performance, but I figure there must be other ways I can push my checks into the heavens.  I am limited to pathfinder only, but as far as I know all books are in, so...

What can I do to break this wide open?

10
Gaming Advice / The Perfect Spy
« on: March 20, 2015, 08:06:05 AM »
On phone but need to know.  Trying to make a "spy" solid snake or james bond style, but unsure where to start.  They're kind of rogues kind of monks kind of fighters things.  Ideas how I might build one?

11
Ptembridge was alone.

The surroundings were both familiar and alien.  It wasn't just the darkness or the freaky and possibly still living decorations, the surroundings were wrong.  From his spot he could see down the hall where Axejack once stood.  Down there, no wall of clear slime webbing existed.  The place did seem to distort off towards the right where that endless tunnel used to be.  On the other side there there had been a window there was still a window, but it now lead to a grayscale version of the cosmic maelstrom you spotted outside in the real world.

There was that door in the hall here, which was locked there you were.  Rather than wood, this door seemed to have been designed by Gieger, composed of glossy black chitin grown in the shape of a door.  It looks unfriendly.

There was the way back you came, which seemed a much longer path than you remembered before you took a turn around the bend.  And just south of you, the staircase that was there before.  However this time the stairs were steep, more short cliffs which you'd have to jump down or climb up one step at a time.  It sunk down deep past a haze which prevented you from seeing what was on the bottom floor.

There is a small crack in the wall to the east of where you were.  You don't remember that crack being there previously.  Great, what a time to be lost, and GPS hasn't been invented yet.

Meanwhile in another dimension...

12
Game Design / Steamspace- Ship vs Ship combat.
« on: February 09, 2015, 10:03:05 PM »
Actually this one is less mechanical and more flavor, but its close enough.  For those unaware, Steamspace is my pet project, a soft sci fi space fantasy setting which I often make comparisons to Outlaw Star.  One of the big draws is ship vs ship combat being done easier.  On the nature of the ship combat, that issue is pretty much settled (it is almost identical to ground based combat).  Instead I'm trying to tackle the issue of impersonality and player agency.

The Outlaw Star comparisons are apt; ships are more Millennium Falcon sized, and not 40k sized crafts.  They fly around at high speed and sometimes engage in melee.  Still, I was thinking I may need to focus more on the use of fighter craft, single-person ships for people to fight in.  They can still fight in the main mothership but most will be outside.  It brings in a new tactical dynamic, since not only do they need to survive but the mothership must survive (and it's a big target) because fighter crafts don't have warp drives.

Anyway, on impersonality and player agency; I've heard that scenarios which have people simply being FTL-like minions moving about the ship, simply acting as stat boosters to the ship or worse, having the shots being called by only a single player (the pilot) is boring, and understandably so.  Previously it was fixed by having people commanding bits of the ship: The gunner guns, the pilot moves, the repair guy repairs, etc.  But what happens when the number of PCs and the number of ship systems don't match?  Too few PCs, and you need some kind of AI or NPCs to handle the rest.  Too many, and some PCs are left out or done doing boring tasks (repair).  Slowly things went from systems needing to be manned, to systems being AI driven but superior of manned.  It may change further still.

I'd like to pick your minds, do you think this is a good path I am pursuing by focusing on fighter craft?  Fighter craft can be tailored to the number of PCs there are much easier.  Someone may want to still stay on the mother ship and treat that as their fighter craft of choice, with the various options that gives.  Should I be having PCs who stay on the mothership be superior to what the ship can do on autopilot?  And if so, by what degree?  I fear if I make it too extreme of a difference, it will make it that being on autopilot is a death sentence for the mothership's survival.

Discuss, and you will receive cookies.

(EDIT: I almost forgot.  The other thing I figured I might stress is that a lot more ship attacks apply "status effects", such as breaches, breaking systems, disabling this or that, reducing speed, and whatnot.  During each round the PCs inside their respective ships can perform on-ground actions affecting the ship like trying to seal a breach which has appeared, if needed.  It is a bit slower since it adds "PCs" to the initiative, but I think it may be more exciting.)

13
Gaming Advice / Weaponizing Non-Weapons
« on: January 08, 2015, 01:01:42 AM »
Doing a project, need some help.  Can you help me think of "weaponizable non-weapons"?  Things like nailguns, rivet guns, a flamethrower could be used for clearing out debris, a giant drill is for mining but is also dangerous, etc.  Anything that is both a weapon and a tool is good.

14
Gaming Advice / [5e] Bear Totem Question
« on: January 03, 2015, 09:21:30 PM »
While I am trying to learn 5e, and not having access to the full pdf, it gets a little confusing if I'm looking at beta-tests of classes or the final classes, so hopefully this is accurate.

For barbarian's, bear totem.  It says "Whenever you expend a Hit Die to regain hit points, you add your Constitution modifier to the roll twice, rather than once."

Expend a HD?  What is it talking about?  I clearly missed something...

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Legends of the Heroes / Steamspace: On Flavor and Aethetics.
« on: January 02, 2015, 11:09:24 PM »
Some of you may already be aware that I'm still working on Steamspace, my pet project game system in building.

I happen to be reviewing and re-viewing some of my previous stuff.  Currently on the matter of aesthetics, specifically for human factions which are the most steampunk out of the grouping.  As much as I'd like to prattle on about the setting, I don't think anyone is interested in that right now.  Rather as an experiment I'm curious about what others think when I say "Steampunk Star Control/Mass Effect".  I already have my fluff and my thoughts on how it should go, but maybe others have different views and ideas I can steal consider and adapt to my pre-existing stuff.

Indulge me please.

16
Game Design / Steamspace- Initiative
« on: December 21, 2014, 01:37:27 AM »
(click to show/hide)

The above issue has been "solved" and just not deleted for sake of the curious.  Changing the title and contents, and giving it a second shot with a new problem.

I've come upon a debate of using a 3.5e style system of rounds, vs an (apparently) AD&D style system of initiative counts.  That is, you could act on count 20, do an action that takes 3 counts to complete, and have your action go off at count 17.  If someone is at 18, they could totally interrupt you or change what they are doing.

While I like it, it seems like it may be overly complex and slow things down.

What are your opinions on it?

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[3.P] Strata / Strata OOC- Arsonist Murderhobo Adventures!
« on: November 12, 2014, 05:25:05 PM »
What could possibly go wrong?  :P

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Gaming Advice / Looking for a good Mephistopheles...
« on: October 27, 2014, 09:39:40 PM »
I have a need for a Mephistopheles-type character, and it needs to be able to grant wishes.  I want to say there was a devil just for this, but I can't recall which one and don't have books on hand.  Actually, I'd like to know what other kinds of monsters fit the bill, it need not all be fiends.

I already know of Efreeti.

(EDIT: Oh and no unique creatures, like the archdevil with the similar name.  Actually, the lower CR the better, though I don't need any specific CR.)

19
Was hopping around the pathfinder handbooks and for some reason Rogue Eidolon's Guide to Fighters isn't just down, but "violates Google's Terms of service".  Any idea what that's about?

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Off Topic Fun / What should I do for the Big 3k?
« on: September 25, 2014, 02:46:54 AM »
That 3000th article is fast approaching for me (at the time of writing I am 2777).  I did something special for each of my 1000 articles, last time being stating myself if memory serves.  But what should I do for the Big 3k?

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