(no subject)
So yesterday I had a fairly fun outing of airsofting with the usual posse. If there's anything I've learned from that day it's that I should be somewhat more comfortable with my abilities to climb up and down things, but I think I also need to get used to jumping down off of higher-set surfaces, especially if I'm even thinking of free-running/parkour.
D&D in Steven's campaign was also fairly fun, mostly because we get to play evil characters. I make a special point to seek out children with candy in any town we go to, being evil and all. The only thing I've noticed with Steven's DMing is that if you somehow set yourself up to have an advantage, it will be in his general opinion to remove it from you.
Some small examples, but examples none the less.
I'm playing a Large size-category monk right now (i.e. he is 8'7). Normally when something is that large, they have a reach of 10 feet (Vanilla Thunder could somewhat vouche for this, I'd bet), occupy a 10 foot area (but he's human, so he'd be tall rather than wide), as well as a bonus to strength. However it's not all perks; I get penalties to my dexterity for being so large (I put a 18 stat into dex just so my monk wouldn't suck ass), and you get an AC (armor class) penalty for being such a large target. However from Steven's balancing of it, I don't get the extended reach. My guy is a monk though, and they kick ridiculous ass. Also instead of taking Flurry of Blows (which lets me make an extra attack at a penalty), I took one to replace it from a supplementary book called "Decisive Strike" This instead makes it so I take the same penalty for one attack, but deal double damage. A little more risky than flurry of blows, really; flurry lets you have one chance for double damage, and even if you miss one of those attacks you still have another chance to hit for normal damage. For this attack, it's hit or miss, all or nothing!
Oh ya, and he also won't let me take the feats Cleave or Great Cleave even though I meet the prerequisits. He thinks it would be unfair for my monk (a melee character) to have such a thing, so he says I must have a weapon to do it. But as a monk my body a weapon, that's even how they describe monks in the player's handbook!
This is also how the usual conversation of D&D goes. I don't mind it, but quite enjoy pointless banter with the occassional crude joke thrown in. =P
But a better example would be Steven's rules on Attacks of Op. as well as sneak attack. Luis and Tai got quite heated about getting their sneak attacks, and potentially losing them because (here we go) Steven felt it was too great an advantage
But my main stipulation about it is from a soley strategic viewpoint of the game; we have to use combinations of feats, items, skills, and abilities to create advantages for ourselves to overcome whatever variety of situations may arise. Is this not in fact why there are such a range of classes, abilities, races, skills, and feats? Joe's character could fight in a melee very well, but what if the melee that had an object of some need being whisked away by the opposition? Well then that's where my monk could come in and chase them down on foot to halt their efforts. But what if that didn't succeed and we needed to find this item? That's where our two rogues/ninjas come into play with scouring the town for any leads they could find whether through bribery, trickery, or from just being a sly-fox. And say that item had left town the day we got there, putting it a few days of travel ahead of us. Jordan's Druid would use his tracking ability to look for any clues they've left behind, and Julie's character, with skill in knowledge of the local area and cartography, could deduce what options they have available for a hasty escape.
You can get where I'm going with this. But in any case, he asked for us (Tai and myself) to join the campaign because he needed more experienced players. And now because I'm planning to make my guy become a veritible melee force, he's getting bent out of shape. In all fairness you literally asked for it, Steven. =P
So yes, to those other gamers in the campaign, unite with me! I say we go on protest until Steven agrees to stop gimping us because he feels it "makes it too powerful" Not that I want/need 10 foot reach, but please dont limit us just because something seems "too powerful" For every ability I choose to gain, that's a hundred more that I won't be able to do (and I may note you were more supportive of Joe's death-touch ability than Tai and Luis getting an extra 1d6 damage. =P).
If anything Steven, just remember you can throw NPCs at us with just as good abilities. ;)
I would even say look at our sheets, and see what kinds of things you can face us with (foes or situations) that require much team work, or play a little against our abilities (Julie's blood-blade lets her weapon do more damage...what if she went against a foe with improved disarm?)
Oh ya, and Ben, the only thing I'd say you should do as far as DMing would be to take the time to read through the Dungeon Master's Guide one time through. That way it'll be easier to call information off the top of your head as far as what's appropriate for different circumstances (what kind of checks to make (reflex, knowledge, dex/str/stat checks, etc)),structuring encounters for the party based on their level and how hard you want the encounter to be, and other such things. That, and then you could make some really crafty shit to throw in our way (it's fun, f.y.i. =P)
School is also going well for me; All of my teachers are very friendly to approach, and also very realistic and serious about the scope of the course. My physics teacher looks like he'll be fun in lab, my english teacher is very energetic and always keeps the class laughing, and my calculus teacher is very well practiced and clear in her writings. It looks like it'll be a good semester!
And I have to go and harass that temp agency again! First I hear there are positions for the job I'd like, and when I call back the next day I get a different employee answering telling me there aren't positions for the job I'd like. WtF? So in any case I'm going to call them again, and maybe even go in myself this coming Tuesday.
And this week (since I'd been getting used to waking up earlier still) marks the beginning of more regular exercise! A mile every morning, and specific regional workouts on my days off from school. And after exercise comes a little ninjutsu and bass practice.
You'd be amazed at the things you can do when you can keep yourself moving. =P
D&D in Steven's campaign was also fairly fun, mostly because we get to play evil characters. I make a special point to seek out children with candy in any town we go to, being evil and all. The only thing I've noticed with Steven's DMing is that if you somehow set yourself up to have an advantage, it will be in his general opinion to remove it from you.
Some small examples, but examples none the less.
I'm playing a Large size-category monk right now (i.e. he is 8'7). Normally when something is that large, they have a reach of 10 feet (Vanilla Thunder could somewhat vouche for this, I'd bet), occupy a 10 foot area (but he's human, so he'd be tall rather than wide), as well as a bonus to strength. However it's not all perks; I get penalties to my dexterity for being so large (I put a 18 stat into dex just so my monk wouldn't suck ass), and you get an AC (armor class) penalty for being such a large target. However from Steven's balancing of it, I don't get the extended reach. My guy is a monk though, and they kick ridiculous ass. Also instead of taking Flurry of Blows (which lets me make an extra attack at a penalty), I took one to replace it from a supplementary book called "Decisive Strike" This instead makes it so I take the same penalty for one attack, but deal double damage. A little more risky than flurry of blows, really; flurry lets you have one chance for double damage, and even if you miss one of those attacks you still have another chance to hit for normal damage. For this attack, it's hit or miss, all or nothing!
Oh ya, and he also won't let me take the feats Cleave or Great Cleave even though I meet the prerequisits. He thinks it would be unfair for my monk (a melee character) to have such a thing, so he says I must have a weapon to do it. But as a monk my body a weapon, that's even how they describe monks in the player's handbook!
This is also how the usual conversation of D&D goes. I don't mind it, but quite enjoy pointless banter with the occassional crude joke thrown in. =P
But a better example would be Steven's rules on Attacks of Op. as well as sneak attack. Luis and Tai got quite heated about getting their sneak attacks, and potentially losing them because (here we go) Steven felt it was too great an advantage
But my main stipulation about it is from a soley strategic viewpoint of the game; we have to use combinations of feats, items, skills, and abilities to create advantages for ourselves to overcome whatever variety of situations may arise. Is this not in fact why there are such a range of classes, abilities, races, skills, and feats? Joe's character could fight in a melee very well, but what if the melee that had an object of some need being whisked away by the opposition? Well then that's where my monk could come in and chase them down on foot to halt their efforts. But what if that didn't succeed and we needed to find this item? That's where our two rogues/ninjas come into play with scouring the town for any leads they could find whether through bribery, trickery, or from just being a sly-fox. And say that item had left town the day we got there, putting it a few days of travel ahead of us. Jordan's Druid would use his tracking ability to look for any clues they've left behind, and Julie's character, with skill in knowledge of the local area and cartography, could deduce what options they have available for a hasty escape.
You can get where I'm going with this. But in any case, he asked for us (Tai and myself) to join the campaign because he needed more experienced players. And now because I'm planning to make my guy become a veritible melee force, he's getting bent out of shape. In all fairness you literally asked for it, Steven. =P
So yes, to those other gamers in the campaign, unite with me! I say we go on protest until Steven agrees to stop gimping us because he feels it "makes it too powerful" Not that I want/need 10 foot reach, but please dont limit us just because something seems "too powerful" For every ability I choose to gain, that's a hundred more that I won't be able to do (and I may note you were more supportive of Joe's death-touch ability than Tai and Luis getting an extra 1d6 damage. =P).
If anything Steven, just remember you can throw NPCs at us with just as good abilities. ;)
I would even say look at our sheets, and see what kinds of things you can face us with (foes or situations) that require much team work, or play a little against our abilities (Julie's blood-blade lets her weapon do more damage...what if she went against a foe with improved disarm?)
Oh ya, and Ben, the only thing I'd say you should do as far as DMing would be to take the time to read through the Dungeon Master's Guide one time through. That way it'll be easier to call information off the top of your head as far as what's appropriate for different circumstances (what kind of checks to make (reflex, knowledge, dex/str/stat checks, etc)),structuring encounters for the party based on their level and how hard you want the encounter to be, and other such things. That, and then you could make some really crafty shit to throw in our way (it's fun, f.y.i. =P)
School is also going well for me; All of my teachers are very friendly to approach, and also very realistic and serious about the scope of the course. My physics teacher looks like he'll be fun in lab, my english teacher is very energetic and always keeps the class laughing, and my calculus teacher is very well practiced and clear in her writings. It looks like it'll be a good semester!
And I have to go and harass that temp agency again! First I hear there are positions for the job I'd like, and when I call back the next day I get a different employee answering telling me there aren't positions for the job I'd like. WtF? So in any case I'm going to call them again, and maybe even go in myself this coming Tuesday.
And this week (since I'd been getting used to waking up earlier still) marks the beginning of more regular exercise! A mile every morning, and specific regional workouts on my days off from school. And after exercise comes a little ninjutsu and bass practice.
You'd be amazed at the things you can do when you can keep yourself moving. =P