Markdoc

Re: Your Favorite Fantasy Weapon? Oh that's easy - magic weapons don't take the STR min limitation. Thus they can be outrageously huge - and also much more dangerous than conventional weapons, since you get to add all the STR you have. Cheers, Mark

Re: Holy Killer Angels

Re: Holy Killer Angels

Re: Holy Killer Angels Well, the Jains, for a start, as well as the Buddhist ideal (athough history has given us some pretty bloody-handed buddhist sects,s howing that practice and ideal don't always match up). Christianity, too - soldiers and gladiators were banned from joining the early christian cults: as professional shedders of (human) blood they were not welcome unless they renounced their former trade. We have multiple examples of this. Clemens of Alexandria calls his Christian contemporaries the "followers of peace," and expressly tells us "that the followers of peace used none of the implements of war." Lactantius, another early Christian, says expressly, "It can never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war." About the end of the second century, Celsus, one of the opponents of Christianity, charged the Christians with refusing to bear arms even in case of necessity. Origen, the defender of the Christians, does not think of denying the fact; he admits the refusal, and justifies it, because war was unlawful. Even after Christianity had spread over almost the whole of the known world, Tertullian, in speaking of a part of the Roman armies, including more than one-third of the standing legions of Rome, distinctly informs us that "not a Christian could be found among them." There are many contemporary stories of legionaries who became christian, renounced the use of arms - all that I know of were executed, becoming martyrs. The idea that war and self defence are OK are later additions to christian morality. So there we have 3 faiths at least who believe that killing other people - even evil people, even in self defence, is wrong. It's not too far out to believe that in a fantasy world such beliefs could also exist. cheers, Mark

Re: Holy Killer Angels Isn't this what player characters do? cheers, Mark

Re: What's the best way to conquer Canada? You guys are overlooking the obvious. They're Canadians, right? So you want to conquer their country? Just ask - politely, mind. cheers, Mark

Re: Character: Ahmad ibn Fadlan

Re: Fantasy GM's - question... Especially with this spell. I mentioned before that the one GM I knew who used the Turakian age magic system had his game implode. This spell - and free use of it by a ruthless player - was the prime reason. He simply started duplicating all the monsters the GM threw at them and the monsters had to get tougher and tougher rapidly, since ordinary foes melted in the face of a basilisk or similar creatures. It soon reached the point where the shapeshifting mage absolutely dominated the party. Anything that could challenge him in a fight would kill anyone else in the party and many critters gave him useful non-combat powers as well. I feel bad about this - the player (who shall be unnamed to protect the guilty) was a hero noobie. After talking to him, I suggested he play a druidy-type shapeshifting character because that's what he grokked in d20. The GM was cool with that. But when the GM showed him the Grimoire, the player decided that being able to turn into different kinds of monster was way cooler than being able to turn into different kinds of animal. And the result was .... cheers, Mark

Re: Character: Ahmad ibn Fadlan

Re: How not to fire your weapon in Dark Champions... Actually, nearly. One way that warlords keep their guys in line is by giving them ammo and cheap weapons. I haven't seen it in real life, but I have seen photos of guys standing in pick ups full of amo basically shovelling the stuff out with their hands to the guys pressing all around. Often they don't supply food or pay - the idea is that if you give your men weapons they can use *those* to get their food and pay - and you have to give them weapons so they can fight. Of course, in such a situation, the only way to survive is to hook up with one or other militia. That's one reason that so many countries in Africa are so f***ed-up. cheers, Mark

Re: How not to fire your weapon in Dark Champions... Nah. Such a barrage would give us the "cassino effect" - mounds of rubble, impassible to the US vehicles, so they would have had to make a detour through exactly the same urban terrain they crossed anyway - just via a *longer* path. Meaning it would have taken longer to get to the Rangers perimeter, longer to get out *and* have increased the chance of casualties along the way. In addition, it would have certainly drawn all the other militias into the fighting - increasing the number of hostiles pitched against US forces and it would have generated thousands of completely needless civilian casualties - a lose/lose/lose situation all round. The Russians used this approach on Grozny, only to find all they had done was restrict their own mobility. cheers, Mark

Re: Character: Ahmad ibn Fadlan Actually, "Iben" - that's a viking in-joke, because it's a woman's name. cheers, Mark

Re: How not to fire your weapon in Dark Champions... I think the article overstates the case a bit and in some cases is plain wrong - what, they had muskets with magazines at Gettysburg? But there is a core of truth there. It was a truism in WW2 that 90% of casualties were caused by 10% of the troops - the guys who would keep their heads up and keep aiming, when the enemy was shooting back. Most guys would keep their head down and fire in the general direction of the enemy. But I'm not sure it's to do with our pure humanity. That may be part of it, but a large part is simply due to the fact that when confronted with something or someone who is trying to kill you, most people a) lose the ability to shoot straight* and tend to prioritise seeking cover over inflicting casualties. Those who don't, are the dangerous ones. Part of what made veteran troops far more deadly was the fact that they were more inclined to go for the kill, though that meant taking a little more exposure: the survivors had simply learned how to minimise that risk. Those two things together, mean that under fire - or even expecting to be under fire - people tend to hang back, or shoot at ranges where they have almost no chance of being hit (or hitting). That's why you can (and do) get firefights in the developing world where two groups of 60 guys can fire automatic weapons at each other for four hours and end up with 2 dead and 4 wounded. Modern militaries know this, which is why they work more on fire response, not getting surprised and team-building than they do on marksmanship - and which is why when they clash with untrained soldiers, the casualty figures are so lopsided: both sides are often equally brave, but modern soldiers are trained to kill, and to do so without taking unnecessary risks. As for the guys from Liberia - c'mon. These guys have little to no schooling, followed by a military training program consisting of bootleg US action films and the information (if they are lucky) that the bullet comes out of the little round hole at this end. Everything else they make up as they go along. cheers, Mark *or even think straight - there's an unintentionally hilarious recording from Vietnam of two US marines under fire - one of them spots the enemy and says "I got them, they're over there" The second says "Where?" and they spend the next two minutes shouting "There!" "Where?" There, right there!" "Where?" "There!" at each other over and over again.

Re: How not to fire your weapon in Dark Champions... Sure - except that chat doesn't make you brave or funky, or anything: the effect is more like drinking 5 cups of coffee. It's much more to do with a different mindset. I told you about the riots last year in Addis. Chat's available there (you can buy it legally at Mercato, the big outdoor market) But it's not that widely used - and there was exactly the same sort of posturing by totally unstoned people in the face of automatic weapons. When the specials opened up the protestors didn't run away - they just took cover and returned fire with rocks: against AK47s, and .30 cals in the hands of guys who had just shown they'd shoot to kill.

Re: Wisdom I fall on the GM'ing side of the fence. For both highly intelligent and wise characters, INT is the Stat, since it affects perception and information processing. In both cases, such people come off as relatively intelligent - a person who picks up information really quickly and can process it comes off as smart, because he "knows a lot" wheras a person who can effectively process information comes across as smart in a different way but is still respected for "giving good advice". So in my game, a character with a high INT defined as "smart" gets more information - I tell them things about what they see and interact with that I would not tell a dimmer character, like "the shiny metal thing looks silver, but you are pretty sure it isn't - it's too hard and too shiny. You don't know anyone who could make a thing like this." A character with a high INT defined as "wise" gets hints on what he knows, like "isn't that kind of the same as the stuff you saw on that guy Hobro?" Globro the Dim just gets told it's round and shiny and no, there's no place to attach a chain so you can swing it like morningstar. As always what information is given depends on what skills the PC has - even the smart guy isn't going to be told it's mithril unless he has metallurgy or something similar, or he was familiar with mithril. cheers, Mark

Re: How not to fire your weapon in Dark Champions... Which is what the commanders in Somalia thought. These guys are crap but they're really cheap and there's lots of them - and they are suicidally brave: heavy casualties don't really faze them that much. Remember, in Mogadishu guys exactly like this took on a company of Rangers (who also got support from delta force, SEALs and the 10th Mountain) and would have wiped them out if task force David hadn't cut them a way out. And task force David: two US rifle companies, two Malaysian mechanized companies, a composite platoon from TF Ranger and one Pakistani tank platoon - with air support, was only able to get in, get the guys out and then beat a retreat. They're easy to mock, but also easy to underestimate. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! Another brief update on the game. The ball went off without too much of a hitch, with several other players turning up as "torchbearers" and checking out the assembled nobles, although Khastz is on Lord Raus' "enemies list" now after spending the evening greasing up to his daughter. The "Batman" character - who apparently had a name (Aquila) after all, it just wasn't widely disseminated - spent some time lurking about and following various Samadrians and discovered that someone else is also spying on them - though he has not yet been able to find out who it is, nor actually lay hands on him. The next day the players spent some time doing market stuff and then we went to the wrestling (actually more like Greek Pankration - simply unarmed combat). Unlike the joust this was *supposed* to be a friendly contest of strength. Again, no deaths, but the healers were called on to mend a few broken bones. Jarst Daro, the mysterious stranger, got things rolling by turning up for the wrestling in "classical" attire (ie: nothing at all). The judges made him put a loincloth on, but he's added a few points to his roll at the later "ladies' choice" event This event did not go so well for our players. Khelsen, the huge merchant, was a favourite for this event, but he's so slow and clumsy that his opponent - Carylyon, the local lad - danced around him throwing punches and kicks until he finally fell over and then jumped on him. Lamoniak, who put on the previous day's dazzling display of swordsmanship has martial arts and levels - with sword. Without them, Mhyrryn was able to grapple him and sqeeze him senseless in pretty short order. He did so easily since he cheated, using a magical strength augment loaned to him by his patron which he hid in his a loincloth and Agrestis, hiding under the stands, helped him with magic protection. Khastz drew the really short straw - he faced off against sir Bararach, who not only had greased himself with fat, making him almost impossible to hold (+10 STR for escape) but also used a spell to boost his STR to 30. Khastz stayed out of his grasp for a while but eventually Sir Barharach caught him and flung him into the audience. They got out of the way and Khastz got a broken arm (soon healed by magic, but that's about all the magic healing he can get). The crowd loved it. Laughing Loolie, the trickster priestess was up to her old tricks again - using a "draw attention" spell and a display of her vast bosom to render Mhyrryn DCV 0 for one phase: enough for Carylyon to put him down in the second round, and casting "Fast as the Hare" on Promidor so that he was far more nimble then he expected. But it was Sir Baharach's day - one by one he grabbed all his opponents and threw them sailing out of the ring. Then he went off with a string of fans to drink them all senseless in the taverns. The rest of the players spent the entire match scouring the crowd for magical cheaters. They didn't catch Loolie (who has a small group of men who help in her pranks in return for, ahem, certain favours: she also has the spell "sexual fascination"). They actually discussed if Agrestis would hide under the stands, but for some reason never looked there. Gen, the quorrock breeder, fastened on a cripple on a cart as mostly likely being Agrestis in disguise (since he was small) and stuck with him throughout while the others hunted high and low without success. When Agrestis finally emerged the players decided to trail him and see what he was up to *except* Aquila - who was the only one who might have done it successfully - with the result that Agrestis led them around town, hither and yon until they worked out that nothing would come of this. Aquila meanwhile, had spotted the "man in the brown robe" who was watching the Samadrians. It turns out that he is following one group of them in particular and Aquila followed him following them. He lost the man in brown, eventually, but he knows where the Samadrians (who are actually sorcerors) are staying - but inexplicably didn't tell the others! Argggg. In the meantime, the players had recruited a mercenary (another player, Liz, who has joined to replace the guy who was a non-show and who is playing a no-nonsense female warrior/sailor with two-sword fighting) and spent some time bringing her up to speed. Lamoniak, Gen and Castor - the priest - set off for the sacred stormapple tree and while Lamoniak and Gen distracted the guards, Castor stole three apples with his "mage hand" spell. The apples give some degree of resistance to poison and were intended for helping the contestants in the next day's contest. At some point in the evening, though Castor had an attack of conscience about stealing sacred apples and helping people cheat, so he stole them back and fed them to a quorrock instead. There was a second ball that evening, given by Lord Sorghall. Since the house he has rented was not big enough, he loaned the temple with the aid of a big donation, and had it done out with hanging cloths and pretty lights. Khastz's "little present" was alas not considered worthy so the Lady Jezra spurned him and settled on Lamoniak, with his rumoured wealth, acknowledged sword skills and fabulous "horse" as her new beau. He got an invite and Khastz did not. Khastz got in anyway as a contestant and spent some time chatting up the serving girls. Lamoniak and lady Jezra disappeared behind some hanging cloths while she "explained the finer points of local religion" to him and with the help of her serving maids arranged that they should be discovered in an almost compromising position by her father and Khastz simultaneously. A few angry words but no blows were exchanged and Lady Jezra made both annoyed parties look petty before taking Lamoniak away to do some dancing. Khastz lost his taste for the party after this and being insulted by Agrestis in his official role as jester (Khastz: "What do I care - you're just a fool!" Agrestis. "Yes, but at least *I* get paid for it", etc etc) and left, hooking up with Aquila and Bellona (the new recruit) to drown his sorrows in a nearby tavern. Aquila - sneaking here and sneaking there, earlier on - had noticed some Samadrians paying a particular interest in one tavern which had a guarded shed. He has lipreading - a useful skill - which let him gather that they had plans regarding the shed that night and some more skulking around revealed that the shed was being used to store the barrels of ales for the next day's contest. Thus the three set out to keep a watch on the shed and eventually found out that a loose board in the back gave access to the shed, while the guards stood outside getting free drinks. They eventually worked out that something was going on and managed - with only minor violence - to get past the sentry set, to surprise two samadrian agents in the process of spiking the beer with a purgative (their man would get the antidote). There was a brief fight, with beerkegs rolling hither and yon in the poorly-lit darkness of the shed (the only light was the firelight coming between the planks of the shed from a bonfire outside) and people tripping over them. Khastz put one Samadrian down with a well aimed punch - and a knife in the shoulder from Aquila. The noise alerted the guards who unlocked and opened the shed door. The other Samadrian (they are both sorcerors) used a spell to generate a blinding cloud of black smoke and dragged his comrade out through the door as the guards recoiled and they escaped under cover of smoke. There was seething confusion as the patrons abandoned the bar en masse, thinking it was on fire and there was some running about after buckets and water. Aquila used the confuson to steal the bar's overflowing cashbox When the smoke evaporated the guards were left with Khastz and a now-broken bottle of purgative in among the beer for the next day's contest. He got marched off to the temple by the guards where they had to drag the head priest and priestess out of the party to do justice. Fortunately Khastz was able to explain, and some witnesses backed him up - that, together with a truth spell got him (mostly) out of trouble, but he was sent home under guard so he wouldn't get into any *more* trouble. Despite the fact that he always has a good explanation, Khastz and his friends are getting a reputation as trouble-makers. Lamoniak had a good time with the Lady Jezra, teaching her dances of far-off Moncu and her father is about to have an apoplexy. Everyone got to bed late. The next day was the Intelligence contest, but this was interrupted once again by the discovery of a second mutilated body - this time of a local girl, which stirred up much anger and some fear. It's clear that something serious is going on, now. The priestess of the Crone - the death goddess - noted uneasily that the bites resemble those made by human teeth... A ritual was being performed to keep evil things out (too late, they're inside the walls!) and various people are on the track of the murderer, but the ritual of the contests must go on... And that's where we are up to now. I've left out a fair bit of side stuff - the players don't realise it yet, but they have actually seen the murderer and his victim in the course of last night's events and I introduced two more NPCs and subplots which won't bear fruit until later so I will explain them then. cheers, Mark

Re: Your Favorite Fantasy Weapon? Our GM took a tip from this. My starting character (Fonographix the bard) joined a more experienced adventurer (Hengeist the Paladin) as his trusty sidekick and he gave me magcal flaming sword. me: "Gosh! Just starting my adventuring career and already I have a phat magic sword!" It was actually a cool weapon, but I soon found out why I got it. It *would*not* shut up. Not long after, we encountered 4 trolls, and since we were in a hurry to go somewhere else, we simply tried to sneak round them. Hah - fat chance. As soon as the sword worked out what was going on... "Hey! What are you doing? Those are trolls. I'm a flame sword. I was MADE to kill trolls. You can't pass this up! HEY TROLLS!! WE'RE OVER HERE!! WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR BUTTS...etc" We did survive (barely) but afterwards I had a talk with my prized magic sword along the lines of "Hey, flamesword. How'd you like to spend the next couple of centuries at the bottom of a deep cold lake?" It was an irritating presence, but I have to admit it was one of my favourite fantasy weapons. cheers, Mark

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Re: Herophile Fantasy art and since I was bored, I did another one this evening. This is the bad guy for the next sries of adventures lying before my players... cheers, Mark

Re: Better living through Alchamey There's a bunch more here: http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/Gaming_stuff/Grimoire/potions_powders_and_potat.htm cheers, Mark

Re: Herophile Fantasy art Something a little "later period" than usual for me - a landsknecht for all you steampunk fantasy guys. This was made out of a low polygon game model, of all things. cheers, Mark

Re: the point cost problem It *is* anticlimactic. We have thrashed this to death on the fantasy boards, and I've tried multiple variants on resource pools, paying for equipment, etc. No-one has yet suggested a points-cost solution that doesn't end up being really, really out of whack. The solution that works best for me? Your #3. Standard equipment is free, personal powers and one of a kind gadgets made by players are not. I'd add a coda which is that the GM should require appropriate skills to operate free equipment. The balance issue - that people who rely purely on free equipment get an unfair advantage - is true, but largely unimportant in actual games, with even moderately decent gamesmastering. So... Boba Fett: Hey, cuz, I got a blaster for free! Qi Gon: I have a lightsaber. That didn't cost points either. Boba Fett: Yeah, but I got a jet pack that lets me fly! Catch me now, sucka! Qi Gon: Well, the 4 points you spent on TF and combat piloting, I used for a slot in my Jedi mind tricks multipower, so that you think you're flying out the window when in fact it's two metres to your right. Ooh, that must have hurt. Basically, free gadgets are available to everyone, and there's only so much stuff you can carry, plus only so many places where it's appropriate. Free stuff is cool, but when you're thrown into a cell on the Death star, you are going to have to function without it. You're not just going to walk into Jabba's palace without a firefight if you are tricked out to the eyeballs with armour and weapons. Equipment gets lost, broken, cut in half with light sabers, hijacked by annoying little droids or just plain malfunctions. Powers, in general only as limited as the player wants to make them and they give access to things that equipment can't replicate (for example, you can't buy equipment in Star Wars to give you precognition, or mind control. You have to be a Jedi to do that ****.) In fact, this approach allows Jedi and non-jedi (or fighters, rogues and wizards) to adventure together. In the original Star wars Games, you always ended up with a bunch of Jedi because the way points were allocated you were either Jedi or supporting cast, your choice. In fantasy games, the free stuff lets non-magic folk compete by using points buff their physical abilities to compensate for all the things they *can't* do (turn invisible, fly, level castles with a disapproving sneeze, etc) cheers, Mark

Re: Inspiration: The Five Fists of Science Dang. I'm gonna get me a copy. cheers, Mark

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did Yeah, see if it was me, these days, I'd likely be St John. Sensible chappie at heart, even if a bit too machivellian for his own good. cheers, Mark