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Messages - GMarshal

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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / Re: The Truenamer - The Concept, The Problems, Possible Solutions [3.5 Discussion]
« on: January 12, 2012, 01:42:55 PM »
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214115
is a good reference about why trunamers aren't as good as they should be.

I'm a huge fan of the lore behind the truenamer, but the concept falls flat in its execution. For one, the Law of Resistance and the Law of Sequence seem to exist for no other reason than to annoy the player. Secondly the utterances are generally not that good. The early ones are passable early on, but up until you get broken gate the invocations at your disposal are pretty sucky, with one or two exceptions. Any revamping of the system would probably require rebuilding the class from the bottom up, in my opinion.

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Gaming Advice / Re: Ending a Campaign Well
« on: January 12, 2012, 12:03:02 PM »
My advice is to end as soon after the climax as possible. Once they've done whatever the campaign goal was, they have the whole emotional payoff of basically WINNING. Narrate the rewards, do the crowning ceremony, show how what they did matter, and then cut it off. There is nothing more disappointing than having stopped the end of the universe as we know it, becoming a baron of the thanelands and receiving  that staff of the archmagi you were lusting for, and then having to go off and kill more random crap, because apparently saving the world wasn't enough.

Later, in another campaign, they can hear about the legends of their PCs, but once they've gotten the massive reward they were going for, they have little more to fight for. Plus, your whole campaign has been working towards the climax, in a multi-year build up, any threats after that are going to be disappointing by comparison.

So, yeah, give them the rewards you know they want, the flashy recognition, the titles and the loot, and the end it. Narrate a small epilogue, showing how what they did changed/preserved the world and the segue into the next campaign.

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General D&D Discussion / Re: D&D 5e: For real this time?
« on: January 10, 2012, 12:53:47 PM »
As someone who was really, really excited for 4.0 color me extremely skeptic. I really hope we get a good, deep, complex game with fun mechanics and enough sophistication to be interesting. But I doubt it, more likely than not it will try to appeal to "gamers" again, rather than trying to be fun because it is.

Oh well, we'll see when the playtests start rolling in, I guess.

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Re: The perfect villain?
« on: January 06, 2012, 12:55:41 PM »
The best villains are those that are tied to the PCs personally. There is nothing quite as gratifying as having the paladin break into the temple of hextor and interrupt the sacrifices,  confronting the six armed iron monstrosity that the PCs have been hearing about in hushed whispers. Only to have it take off its mask to reveal that its the paladin's brother. (Incidentally, 6 poisoned attacks per round and ridiculously high AC is rather nasty to deal with) 

Great villains have build up, having the PCs already informed through contradictory rumors about how terrifying and powerful the villain is makes the fight all the more intense. Oh, and mind control magic, pitting the PCs against each other is also fun :-P .

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Gaming Advice / Re: Scaring the Player (bwahahaha!)
« on: January 06, 2012, 11:10:47 AM »
Quote from: BrianTheBrain on December 30, 2011, 10:15:50 PM
Quote from: DonQuixote on December 30, 2011, 07:29:18 PM

Also, to deal with the Knowledge checks problem, you could build creatures out of simple bases and numerous templates.  Now, I'm not sure on the rules of Knowledge checks and templates, but I would play it that each template that would fall under a different Knowledge skill would require a different Knowledge check.  A Knowledge (nature) check might tell them that the thing used to be a bear, but they'll need to make a few more checks to understand what the hell it is now.
The problem is I have a bard who's using bardic knack from PHB2 and Jack of All Trades from Complete Scoundrel to justify huge checks in every skill, including knowledge.

I like all the other suggestions, though.
Its horror, there are unknown terrors that no one knows about, simple as that, he can roll as high as he wants, but if no one has survived seeing it before then your knowledge skill is worthless.

As far as horror goes, perceptions are key, mess with how they perceive things, make them doubt their own senses, have them be attacked by a "ghoul" only to discover after they've hacked it to pieces that it was a villager cloaked in illusion and controlled by some puppetmaster.

Have a"threat" emerge from the shadows, and pick off a mount or cohort and then vanish. Make the PCs not always be fully in control of their actions, have random spots of memory vanish from their memories, for example, if they are heading towards the temple at noon, make them find themselves suddenly at the tavern, several hours later with no idea how they got there or what happened.

Players revile being in control and having information, if you attack that at its very core, the sense of the players, they'll quickly begin to fear what might happen.

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Introduce Yourself / Re: Look! A dragon!
« on: January 06, 2012, 11:02:59 AM »
Quote from: sirpercival on January 06, 2012, 10:49:25 AM
Quote from: GMarshal on January 06, 2012, 10:47:43 AM
Quote from: sirpercival on January 06, 2012, 10:41:34 AM
Where do you go to school in Philly? Are you from there originally?  I live about a half-hour away in NJ.

I'm currently attending Drexel. I'm not originally from Philly (my parents moved here from spain with me when I was three), but I've lived here most my life, so I consider myself a native :-P

Haha sounds good, I think that counts.  You're more a Philly native than I am, at least (having grown up in central NJ and never lived in Philly at all).  Are you a Phillies and/or Eagles fan?
I'm not a huge sports fanatic,  but its my policy to always support the local team, whatever it may be, so yes, I suppose I am an Eagles/Phillies/flyers fan. Really though I don't watch much outside of the Superbowl and when I get dragged to the occasional game

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Introduce Yourself / Re: Look! A dragon!
« on: January 06, 2012, 10:47:43 AM »
Quote from: sirpercival on January 06, 2012, 10:41:34 AM
Where do you go to school in Philly? Are you from there originally?  I live about a half-hour away in NJ.

I'm currently attending Drexel. I'm not originally from Philly (my parents moved here from spain with me when I was three), but I've lived here most my life, so I consider myself a native :-P

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Introduce Yourself / Look! A dragon!
« on: January 06, 2012, 10:06:35 AM »
Ok, I lied, there is no dragon. Just an introduction.

Hello, all, my name is GMarshal, but I'll answer to anything pretty much (except Marshy, I'm not a swamp damnit. >.> <.<)

Anyway, about myself, I'm a 19 year old college student in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America (see, no abbreviations!)

I've been DMing for close to six years now, and my favorite system is still D&D 3.5. I'm fairly fluent in theorycraft and delight in trying to make broken builds. I don't get to play nearly as much as I would like, but when I do I favor "true" heroes, especially paladins. I'm more of a roleplayer than a Min/maxer but when it comes down to it I can build a crunch heavy character with the best of them

The majority of my hobbies are gaming related, from WH40K to Magic The Gathering. I'm also an avid reader, book enthusiast or bibliophile, depending on what you wish to call me :-P. When not occupied with gaming at some level I also code,  fence, write and carve wood.

My other online "hangouts" include Teamliquid and RPOL.net.  I tend to be longwinded in my posts, use lots of smiles (especially ^_^) and parentheticals (see!?).


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