OOC & MW's Chat Hut

[mb.]

Or maybe he went out and got kidnapped by Pulp-only-knows-what, and we could investigate and try and save him later. Maybe he was dragged off to Tallinmar!

Anyway, whatever happened to Jonas, it's a pity to see you go zeb. Thanks for adding to the game!

[zebediah]

Aw, Zeb, I'm sorry to hear that. You've been a great addition to out team. But I understand, we can get pretty post-happy.

Jonas has, by the bye, been an absolute murder machine with more kills and heroic acts than anyone else in the party!

Unless you have any plans for an exit, shall we just retcon that Jonas went out for herbs and didn't make it back in time for the rest of the adventure? That would leave open the possibility of him rejoining the group for some later adventure.

Our post rate here is not to blame at all, I am also leaving the other games I'm in that have much slower post rates.

Looks like a good solution to me and I would love to rejoin in the future.

It's been a pleasure guys, game on!

[KingOfCowards]

Guys, I'm afraid I will have to back out from the game as it has become almost impossible for me to keep up as en effective member of the group. I am really sorry to leave as this has been a great game thus far and I had alot of fun being a part of it.

Going to miss you Zeb. It has been great having you in the campaign. Good luck with whatever you've got going on.

[MonkeyWrench]

Aww, Well that's lame.

Hopefully everything gets sorted out for the better and you can return to us soon

[mb.]

D'oh! Low rolls for skill checks are good, right?

[PyroArrow]

Beyond the Wall getting Updates & a new product!

Info here:
http://osrnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/rev ... works.html

[mb.]

I believe Pulp was in a Hangout playtest of that new product last week. I was meant to be, but timing.

[Pulpatoon]

This PbP game is actually part of the playtest, as well. WE ARE HISTORY IN THE MAKING.

[mb.]

Moving the mechanics chat over here...

Yeah, this is a syntactic hiccup in the game. "-2" doesn't look like a bonus, but "+2" gets applied differently depending on the roll. I think of + as good and - as bad, and so +2 is two points in your favor, whichever way that goes. In a skill check like this, yes, you effectively get a +2 bump to your intelligence.

I'm not sure I understand why they created this problem. Any game where I sometimes have to roll high and sometimes low, and where +2 sometimes means plus and sometimes minus, almost feels like it's intentionally trying to confuse people who play it. Why not just normalise all rolls that they have to be above a difficulty rating/saving throw/armour class, and always have + mean +?

[PyroArrow]

New Cover Art for the Revised Edition of, "Beyond The Wall....":

http://osrnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/cov ... ition.html

[Pulpatoon]

Moving the mechanics chat over here...

Yeah, this is a syntactic hiccup in the game. "-2" doesn't look like a bonus, but "+2" gets applied differently depending on the roll. I think of + as good and - as bad, and so +2 is two points in your favor, whichever way that goes. In a skill check like this, yes, you effectively get a +2 bump to your intelligence.

I'm not sure I understand why they created this problem. Any game where I sometimes have to roll high and sometimes low, and where +2 sometimes means plus and sometimes minus, almost feels like it's intentionally trying to confuse people who play it. Why not just normalise all rolls that they have to be above a difficulty rating/saving throw/armour class, and always have + mean +?

Good question. They even say in the rules "We know this seems weird, but you'll get used to it quickly enough, we promise."

Combat is established in D&D as a roll-over mechanic, where the target number is your opponent's ascending armor class. There are of course, other D&D combat mechanics (Descending AC and THACO and whatnot), but roll-over/ascending AC is elegant and doesn't require charts or math.

Saves, which they've admitted they really only kept in the game to maintain compatibility with OSR products, are also established as roll-overs.

For BtW, they wanted simple ability checks using the established 3-18 attribute numbers (which doesn't really exist in old timey D&D), which make sense with a roll-under mechanic (because a higher attribute is better than a lower one). This attribute check system is something I like about BtW. It drives me crazy that D&D chargen puts so much emphasis on rolling these stats that actually have almost no use in the game. It's such a relief to see someone putting it to use.

Anyway, thinking it over, I think the answer is this: The +2 is not added to your roll, but to some number on your character sheet—either your relevant attribute or to your Battle Attack Bonus or your Save. So + is always +, but you just need to put that + in the right place.

I'll have to read through the rules to make sure I reporting this correctly, but it makes sense in my head, and also explains the BAB, which had struck me as a bit of an odd add-on.

[Pulpatoon]

New Cover Art for the Revised Edition of, "Beyond The Wall....":

http://osrnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/cov ... ition.html

Nice isn't it? I'm obviously fond of this system, but find the visual design of the original edition embarrassingly amateurish. I'm excited to think that I'll be able to get a physical copy that I won't mind seeing on my shelf. I hope the interiors looks as good.

I wish they'd clean up their masthead, though.

[PyroArrow]

Yes it is a nice cover!

[mb.]

Regarding the mechanics stuff above:

Yeah, I totally agree that ability score checks are a good thing, and I understand the "roll under" idea. It's just the inconsistency of "roll under for this, roll over for that" that's a bit weird. It's obviously a bit of an OSR legacy thing. Maybe a way to make it consistent would be that ability score checks are "roll over difficulty - score" or something. Super easy difficulty could be 20 for example, so a super easy climb with 18 DEX would be 20-18 = roll over 2. Or something like that. Adds a little more math, but gives a simple "always roll over" mechanic.

[mb.]

And yes, nice picture! Crappy logo! They really need a designer to clean it all up for them. If it hadn't been for you Pulp, I'd have never looked at the old rules for even 5 minutes.

[PyroArrow]

Maybe make the Logo 3D-ish looking with Castle stone wall texturing for a start?

Or some sort of image that is looking out from crenelations into a forest beyond imbeded in the logo?

[PyroArrow]

Some more Updates News on Beyond The Wall:

http://osrnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/mor ... -news.html

[MonkeyWrench]

I guess we all now know that Marcus isn't too find of Hake's fatherly skills either..

[mb.]

Bürd's not exactly the well controlled diplomat, so he's quite happy to give fists to everyone else's opinion of Hake.

[mb.]

Crap. What an embarrassing "I'm a badass dwarf and you deserve whuppin'" scene!