GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Discussion on the Earthdawn game line, errata, and feedback not related to playing or GMing.
Marceli
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Marceli » Thu Jan 22, 2015 10:22 am

1. Only few are really hard, rest are easy :)
2. Use spell sheets (i'm sure for 4 ed will show soon too)
3. Yes few could be write on paper
4. What for ???
5. few tables to copy
6. Was in 1 edition - never used. We use item sheet from 1 ed (Ash made) http://www.rpgsheets.com/sheets/036003.pdf

Question is: anyone buy such extra packet ?
Maybe someone will make such pages for reference :D

I like weight of dices also from i read conversion to other system was not so much successful. ED have possibility to success anything with tons of luck. You can try replace it with other mechanics, but still it is not same.

Sangeet
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Sangeet » Thu Jan 22, 2015 11:05 am

1. Talents - i picked randomly the first two talents, which had multiple usages, inconsistent rulings for karma /strain, certain conditions which have to be met, to have it work, and some excluding conditions as well. This could be resolved with with a strong keyword system.
2. Spells - there are a lot of spell, without reading what it does - could you use bone shatter on undead ?
3. Combat Rules - there are a lot of options, armour defeating blow, how much success levels is it ?
4. Recovery Rules - how many days am I hindered by a wound, how long does healing take, what can be used to speed it up. How much recovery tests does a first aid attempt allow- will it worsen the injury?
5. Shopping & Poisons /Services (renting a house, renting a caravan, air travel , buying food in a tavern.)(obvious.)
6. Item Cards for Magic Items - I really liked them from the 1st Edition, its something that made the eyes of my players shine, when i handed them the card. They knew - there is only one of Kegels sword around. It was something special, not randomly thrown after the hero, when looting a goblin.

My request is simplification and more standardisation of the rules. Each usage of a talent costs 1 strain, each can use karma to fuel it, more standards no exceptions.

I like the exploding dice, and the fact that a hero could kill with a lucky blow a dragon. I just stated that there are other systems around which had a good modernisation factor and very good success with it. Earthdawn is now where near the "The dark Eye" rule set - which has rules for talents where you have to calculate the average of other talents to get derived talents from it. You get separate Talents for baking and cooking, brewery has its own skill.)

I know there are a lot of old school guys around, who say - what the heck is the problem with having to reference the rulebook, but if you read a lot of gm advises - one of them is - to don't ever let your game bog down, due to rules clarification. Well i am old school as well, i know what works, and what doesn't. Sure i can make it work - with a lot of extra legwork - i did it before. I just request that this time, the manufacturer delivers a game right out of the box, which is playable without me having to condense it down to its essentials. Creating cards myself etc. I want it spoon fed, i am getting old, and do not have as much time left over, as i did when i was 16. (You could call me lazy if you want to, but i know i just voice up what many people think.)

I bet that if you would send out an online question form to the backers, and ask them if they would like a simplification of the rules, and if they wanted the option to have spell cards as (optional) buy able product, there would be a a very good response to it. Also it would give the people the feeling that they are involved into the system, and that their input matters.

I play RPG's since 28 years.

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Flowswithdrek
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Flowswithdrek » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:10 pm

Somewhere, a while back on the Internet there were blank spell/item cards that could edited and printed. Might be worth while doing a search.

Athaeis
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Athaeis » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:23 pm

Regardless of the setting, regardless of the history or lore, regardless of the system, every single game that is vetted as a role-playing game can be used for whatever purpose you want it to be used for, whether as a combat simulator, for objectives completion, for exploration/spelunking, for character-driven, or any other purpose you want it to be used for, and I have an example of that.

Do you remember the Aliens Adventure Game by Leading Edge Games, back in the early 90's?

That was my game, man... it was a combat simulator with character statistics, and little more, and I managed to turn it into my best role-playing game, ever. There was combat, yes, but it was amidst relatively equal portions of investigation, horror film, character interaction, political and corporate intrigue aimed at the player characters, and more. My group and I had begun a Strike Team game, where they were focused around being Colonial Marines, and instead of chasing after Aliens, they were called in to deal with a Combat Synthetic, because of course Combat Synths are illegal in the ICC. They were on their way planetside, on the DropShip, and opened a channel to get a feed from the local cops, and one of the cops had worked his way into the basement of the building this terrorist group with the Combat Synth had taken over. For the next while, I guess it was about a half-hour, maybe, I performed all of the sound effects, radio calls, answered all of the questions, for my players, of this cop going into the building to get intelligence, all the way up until he was killed. I got a standing ovation for that role-playing, though I didn't even know how completely in the zone I was, and I've NEVER been able to do that, again.

The point is that it doesn't matter what the game is constructed of and, unless you just absolutely cannot stand the system, you can make anything of any RPG you run. That part is up to you, not the manufacturer of the game.

Now, that's something I would like to see in the GM book, I guess... more instruction on how to ham it up in-game.

Marceli
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Marceli » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:28 pm


Sangeet
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Sangeet » Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:21 pm

When you see the 4th editon of DnD, i know there was a lot of biching about that ruleset - but it came with an character editor programm, which was capable to print out all the possible actions /powers that was availalbe to the character. I did just say that the system should be more accessible, either with reduction of exceptions, or with the ability to provide props. A PDF with premade print out cards would help a lot here.

You may have a complete diiferent playing group around than myself - i am the dedicated player, and of course i can learn it. But i play with not so hardcore friends which are not so deeply involved into the system. Its fine by me, if you say the game is just for the hardcore oldschool crowd - then be it, it was meant as constructive critizism. Obviously most of the not so hardcore crowd wont post here - as they are busy with other interests.
I think most of the backers are the GM´s which like the game, so the question is how to attract new players to the system. The market is highly competetive - there are a lot of game systems around, and its hard to convince people to try another game, if there is learning involved, and when they can just continue to ride on the pathfinder train.

My example for the dark eye RPG was just that it could be worse - its acutally gotten very buerocratic after the 2nd version of the game. Earthdawn is nowehre near such a point, and it doesnt feel like it.

I think the discussion should be focussed around the user interface /accessiblity and i would like to hear if you have proposals or good ideas to increase the playability. What i read here is just - that the failure is on the user, cant you be constructive ?

No i dont like monopoly.

peterjk3
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby peterjk3 » Thu Jan 22, 2015 11:02 pm


shiinx
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby shiinx » Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:18 am

When I was still playing first and third edition of Earthdawn, I made my own character sheets. It is amazing how much you can fit on few sheets of paper when you're only aiming for an Execl look and using a 2-sided printer - for example, my sheets included a small box with all of the combat options. For talents, spells, and skills, I always abbreviated the most important or hard to remember aspects of each next to them and advised my fellow players to do the same. This worked well for most situations. I also have another sheet of paper on which the rules for all of my talents are fully summarized so that I don't have to bother anyone with a rulebook in the few cases that I can no longer read my abbreviations :).
Oh and I do the same for any items I don't use frequently (like healing potions, wound salves, ...) - add a small abbreviation of how to use it and what it does next to its entry and I am fine - no searching in the rule book. Sure when you first get this item, you have to have to look it up, but this is only once and often can be postponed to after the game.

Regarding magical item cards. They are fancy, but the original ones were never used by us. Our GM made own cards for his magical items, though (only text, but we were free to illustrate them if we wanted to).

Marceli
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Marceli » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:00 am


Sangeet
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Re: GM's Guide -- Anything you would like to see?

Postby Sangeet » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:05 am

I played 1st, 2nd and 3rd - i know how the rules work. The recovery test system is not new. You don't need to explain it here - but it shows that you needed a whole paragraph to explain the available options.

1) sometimes a player does not show up for the session, now some other person has to play the character, she is probably not as familiar with it, as the owner of the character.

6)
I am a collector as well, i have everything already thx.

7)
I have reread the 4the edition players handbook, and cross referenced it - and compared it to the previous edition. Yes i copied a text from 3rd edition, but besides changing the name of the talent, its the same thing.

I think you have the feeling that i would like to attack the system - and that is not the case. I am talking about improvements - and you seem to be enjoying yourself telling me that i cant cope with the system, then the system is not for me. You seem to ignore , that i stated multiple times, that i am very familiar with the system, and have run very long campaigns with it. I play the advocate for the not so dedicated players. And i have some casual players in my round.
Sure, i can make it work, with putting extra legwork on my end - i can write summary's for the rules, i did it before, for all editions.

Well i think the char gen gets updated with 4th edition rules - and it features a spell card print out, as it seems. I would personally hope that the text would be allowed from the rulebook to be printed via the character generator.


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