Topics

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General Chat / Steam Summer Sale 2013

« on: July 12, 2013, 12:08:46 AM »

It's that time again.  Post here about stuff that is real cheap I guess?

-Currently BioShock Infinite is half off.  It's a very good game so you should think about getting it.

-Skyrim Legendary (the version with all the DLC) is $35 bucks.

-Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition is 11 bucks.  BUY THAT SHIT IT'S GREAT.

-Most of you either have already played DA:O or aren't able to appreciate why it's better than animu trash but the version with all the DLC is 9 bucks.

-Civ 5 gold edition (base game, all DLC, Gods and Kings... basically everything but BNW) is $25.

-Sega will sell you basically the entire Sonic franchise for $15.

-The Last Remnant is $3.40.  I guess that's some people's thing?

-There's a ton of quality indie games for between 2.50 and 5 bucks right now.  Stuff like To The Moon, Hotline Miami, FTL and so on.

Just remember:
Gabe's watching.

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General Chat / The Granddaddy of Them All: Tabletop RPG thread

« on: April 23, 2013, 08:04:17 AM »

I looked backwards for ALMOST THREE PAGES and found out we didn't have one of these, so I'm fucking making one.

I like tabletop games.  I've been playing BattleTech for about 15 years now.  Still can't paint a miniature for shit, but that's what knowing dudes from Camo Specs Online is for. Recently, though, I've been playing in a different system: the newest Marvel RPG system.  I find its general spirit very enjoyable; rather than be a serious RPG based on superhuman powers like, say, M&M, MRPG thinks of itself as a "comic book simulator."  In fact, one of the lines in the core rulebook about character death says "even if your character is maxed out on trauma and dies or turns into a vegetable, don't get too upset!  People come back from worse stuff in comics all the time." 

Rather than be focused on having hard target numbers to hit like a D&D game with its AC numbers or BT's to-hit modifiers, everything in MHR is based on opposing dice rolls.  That means that Daredevil can throw four eight-sided dice against Galactus' pool of 4d12 3d10 4d8 and still win if he does really well and Galactus does really poorly, because your target number is, by default, two dice.  You can change that through various things, mostly plot points (which the players get and spend to break rules) and doom dice (a pool of dice the Watcher keeps and uses at discretion) but the main point is, there's never a point where someone is totally unable to do anything.  No matter what there's always a chance that your punch manages to find the place that Terrax the Destroyer keeps his dick.

I've been running a game for a while now.  We are a superhero non-team (Iron Man is planning on reforming the Avengers, but he hasn't yet made his speech about how Earth's Mightiest Heroes were brought together to face a foe no one hero could face alone) made up of Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man (Iron Spider armor forthcoming), the Beast, She-Hulk (with stolen Carnage powers) and Iron Fist.  We started out playing through the Breakout scenario, based on the first arc of Bendis' New Avengers, but I took it off the rails after we let the Raft.  Turns out it was orchestrated by Dr. Doom, who set the whole thing up as a diversion so he could try to siphon the power of Mjolnir using a complicated magic ritual and an orbital satellite platform.  You remember how I said everything was based on opposing dice rolls?  It's intentionally super-hard to pull Mjolnir out of the ground.  She-Hulk tried and failed, and got thrown through a building for it by Doom (who is using Mjolnir to give him control over weather because his intellect knows no equals).  But backed into a corner, Iron Fist decided to give it a go, and he rolled really well, and I rolled really badly, which means the Immortal Iron Fist... has been judged worthy.

On the other hand, it's not all great for our heroes.  Mjolnir was also powering a spell that Doom used to push all the people in town out of phase, as a sort of human shield tactic, figuring they wouldn't tamper with the enchantment if it was keeping the people out of his line of fire.  But pulling the hammer took it out all at once, and now there's people all over the place as the team pretty much levels a shitty town in Oklahoma.  It's actually kind of worked out well for me, because I now have a perfect segue into Civil War (our next adventure, and yes, it will be better than the original version). 

So that's been my tabletop campaign thus far.  What do you play, what have your campaigns been like, and so on?

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General Chat / NFL 2012-2013: bountygate + spygate = spoutygate?

« on: March 20, 2012, 12:35:58 AM »

So most of the really big free agents have landed. Williams, Manning, Flynn... Now the question is where does TIM TEBOW: GUY EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT end up, and how much of a disaster is this season for the Dolphins that they are hoping they can land Alex Smith?

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Discussion / Paring back voice acting?

« on: February 14, 2010, 06:46:53 AM »

I had a discussion recently about the Shepard VAs in Mass Effect. You know, it's just the standard gender voice actor discussion. I find MaleShep to be more as I envision the character ("Trying to shock me is like trying to shock Captain Kirk. I have already seen whatever it is you are about to do") and this is primarily because of the roles I associate Jennifer Hale with. Also because people who save galaxies should have moustaches.

Well, in DA:O they chose not to give the PC a voice because they thought that people would read the dialogue lines themselves, in their heads at least, thus turning it in to a first-person, rather than third-person narrative. Apparently Shigesato Itoi used only kana in Mother 2, even though the SNES could render a practical amount of kanji, because he wanted people to do the same thing. Likewise, look at Dissidia: even though a lot of Terra's lines are straight from FF6, she got a lot of backlash because her voice and body language was seen to not fit her well.

Sure, sometimes when the VA is really on, it makes the character (Albel would still be fun because of his belief that he is the villain, but it's Crispen fucking Freeman's cackling that pushes him over the top), so it's not that all VA is necessarily bad. But given the rising cost of game production and some of the misfires we've had in VA lately, as well as increasing interactivity in the medium, do you think perhaps voice acting will seem less mandatory in games as we go on?

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Discussion / Interest for a writing prompt contest?

« on: October 26, 2008, 11:33:12 PM »

So, all the discussion of tropetastic RPGs has led me to realize: would there be others in the DL who would like to take part in a contest to write a plot outline and such for the most generic RPG ever? There will be no reward, but just like in Rocky 1, the competition is all you require. Am I the only one who thinks this would be a magnificent read?

Some basic rules:

1) Keep it short. We don't want to read anything longer than a normal Meep rant (which is to say, shorter than his long rants where he devotes a paragraph to the way he levelled each character in Fire Emblem).

2) Characters, Setting, Plot Events. Cover these three things. Make them tropetastic.

3) Being clever in your writing is a good thing. "And then Cloud was like Squall I'm gay for you but Squall just wanted to eat hot dogs but then Zell was mad lol" is not clever.

4) Don't mention a fucking battle system. The goal is to write a tropetastic game, so all games have the most generic battle system I can think of: turn-based, coat rack characters. Think Wild Arms 3.

What say you?

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Discussion / Why do you play?

« on: February 22, 2008, 09:24:04 AM »

Well, yeah, I know, for fun, dumbshit. Everyone says that. What I'm more interested in fostering a discussion on is what constitutes fun in your mind.

I, for one, play games because I like the characters, the settings (EarthBound!!!), and the plot (in that order) more than anything else. Most turn-based combat is bland and uninteresting, and I run from combat a lot just to save myself time, but I will put up with them if the game has really good plot, preferably combined with ways to avoid combat (Fallout and FF6 both come to mind).

Also, I enjoy dungeons. Not for the combat (the only RPGs I've ever played where I've actually ENJOYED getting in to fights were Tales of Symphonia, SO3, and to a much lesser extent SO2) but because I like exploration in general. In WoW, for example, I pride myself on having completely mapped every corner of every area in Kalimdor, Azeroth, Khaz Modan, Lordaeron, and Outland. Old-school dungeons, which were like mazes and not this FF7-and-on "the only dead ends have awesome loot, OH YEAH AND HERE'S A FUCKING MAP." stuff. This is secondary to the first entry (VP1 has nice dungeons, platformer-wise, but nonexistent characters and atrocious storytelling, so fuck that game) but still important.

After that: AM I IN TO THE COMBAT? ToS does this really well, and SO3 probably the best of any game I've ever played. Wild Arms 4 was really good in this respect by having each character be distinct and having bosses hit like trains, thus making combat more based in strategy, but more on that game later. But more than anything, SO3. ToS was great once you got good at it, using shortcut commands to party members and such to chain juggle combos together and so on, but SO3... well, as an Albel player, I think it's awesome that you can be virtually untouchable once you get good at playing the game, and how each character is totally unique. And speaking of unique...

Are all the characters unique? My number one problem with games: coat rack syndrome. Customization is well and good... hell, I teach my four characters everything in FF6... but when it doesn't require any work, it's a huge detriment. Take FF7: not only are your characters interchangeable when it comes to abilities, but the game even makes it easy to swap out characters' entire set of abilities with the "Exchange" command. You can't use Cid to steal and he's the guy you like to have steal? Oh no, you have to use someone else. Wild Arms 3 and 5 are also both big offenders in this. On the other hand, most of my favorite games (WA4, SO3) have characters whose abilties are completely unique, or you can make characters fill other roles, but you're putting a square peg in a round hole (FF6... you can make Locke a mage, but you're wasting his good stats and equipment).

And finally: does the game not have Random Bullshit Syndrome? Persona 3 and all the goddamn Fire Emblem games do this, and it pisses me off. "Whoops, some random event came up because you got unlucky. You lose; start over from your last save!" I don't have time to be randomly flogged because the game decided I wasn't being punished enough while playing. Some random variation is good; I don't want my bosses to do the exact same thing in the exact same order in every fight. But when it comes to getting a Game Over, I want it to be MY fault, not just the random number generator deciding to punch me in the cock. Likewise, on the topic of Fire Emblem, random stat-ups are ALSO much like randomly deciding to turn your game off.

On the other side, I don't care about the following:

-Difficulty; I don't play games to be punished for making a mistake in a game I've never played before.
-Twinking; to be honest, it kind of kills the fun. Going through the super-dungeon is one thing, but twinking for its own purpose, just to squish a regular boss tuned for characters forty levels below yours armed with weapons half as good seems pointless to me.
-Length; like I said, I don't have time for most of this shit anymore. I don't want any FFX Monster Arena-scale sidequests, nor I do I want a 50-floor superdungeon with no save points that I have to play in one sitting. On the other hand, I don't want my game to be four hours long, either. Anything between those two extremes is fine.

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Unranked Games / Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

« on: February 13, 2008, 07:19:03 AM »

We needed this so hard.

Anyway, all stats are taken right before I take on the last boss. Thread is a WIP. Quick description of stats...

VP- Health
BP- B-Ball Points. Think Mana.
Speed- Turn order and dodge. Not sure how much dodge. Speed needs a little testing, but it seems Barkley is just about average, and Hoopz is ridiculously fast.
Guard- Physical Defense
Muscle- Attack Power
Brain- Magic Power AND Magic Defense

All gear used is either unique or store-bought with the exception of the Shrekmono, which is shared between Barkley and Hoopz. I gave it to Hoopz, because he needs it more, and Barkley gets the almost-as-good Mithril Jersey from a solo fight with Kevin Garnett in the B-Ball Dimension. Can't test the exact boosts for weapons because you can't unequip one like Armor and Bling.

Each character has three types of attacks and a special condition for their dodge. I'll cover those in this. Except where otherwise noted, all attacks that use BP don't miss.

The two status effects that will come up here are Glaucoma and Diabetes. Glaucoma causes you to miss 50% of the time (blind) and Diabetes causes you to lose 5% VP a turn (poison).

Charles Barkley
Chaos Duuuuuuuunk!!!!!!

Weapon- H/S Ball. Attacks twice with normal attacks (but not specials)
Armor- Mithril Jersey
Bling- Cyber-Gauntlet (+19 Muscle)

VP- 798
BP- 63
Muscle- 224
Speed- 69
Guard- 93
Brain- 63

Shots:
Free Throw: Allows two attacks (against different targets, if you want). 150% accuracy, low damage.
Pass: 50% Accuracy, Very High Damage.
Forward Jumper: 100% accuracy, high damage, guard down 33% until next turn.
Jump Shot: 150% accuracy, medium damage.
Fadeaway Jumper: 100% accuracy, low damage, guard up 33% until next turn
Guard: 66% bonus to guard.

Slam/Jams:
Double-Team (10 BP): Repeated free throws. Need to count how many. It's at least eight.
Showboat Jam (20 BP): Does Jam-elemental damage and boosts a random stat.
Vampslam (10 BP): Drains health from the enemy and gives it to Barkley. About 170 on the last boss.
Ghost Muscle (5 BP): Boosts Muscle by 14 and Brain by 8. Can be stacked (need to check how many times).
Holy Dunk (35 BP): Dikembe Mutumbo's forbidden dunk. The most powerful attack in the game.

Balthios James
I'm something of a B-Ball historian

Weapon- Snail Zauber. Increases Guard by 20.
Armor- Zaubermancer Garb
Bling- Facemask. Increases Guard by 20.

VP- 580
BP- 80
Muscle- 100
Speed- 80
Guard- 100
Brain- 115

Blitz Commands-
Zauber Slash: 200% accuracy, Brain attack
Stab Dash: 200% accuracy, Physical attack
Zeta Flash: Knocks all enemy's turn meters back 20%.
Guard: Counter-attacks. All the time.

Zaubers:
Fire Zauber (5 BP): Reduces attack power of all enemies
Ice Zauber (20 BP): Freezes enemy and then shatters them for very high damage.
Water Zauber (10 BP): Inflicts Glaucoma and Diabetes on all enemies
Thunder Zauber (25 BP): Five hits of low damage thunder magic.
Wind Zauber (25 BP): Launches wind blasts randomly, one for each enemy in the battle, then hits everyone once.
Snail Zauber (10 BP): 50% accuracy, lowers enemy speed to the point where it cannot be lowered any more.
Muscle Zauber (20 BP): Reduces a random stat by 4 ten(?) times.

Cyberdwarf
Applebottoms. Only Applebottoms.

VP: 900
BP: 60
Muscle: 175
Speed: 58
Guard: 140
Brain: 40

Weapon: Dwarf Muscle
Armor: Tupperwear Armor
Bling: Pumps (+8 speed)

Combos:
Jab, Kick and Punch do low, middle and high damage. You have a countdown timer to attack as much as you can. It takes about 25% more time to kick than to jab, and about 50% more to punch, instead of jab. You can also use Finishers, which do no damage, but lower an enemy's stats. He can lower Power, Brain and Guard this way.
Guard: Increases guard by 33% and adds a Cover effect.

Dwarfrage:
Insulin Shot (5 BP): Cures and makes the target immune to Diabetes
Dwarven Touch (10 BP): Increases VP by 50% and raises a random stat.
Dwarven Knowledge (15 BP): Increases VP by 100% and removes negative stat debuffs
Glaucoma Prayer (10 BP): Cures Glaucoma for the party.
Dwarven Caress (20 BP): Heals whole party for 66% of their VP.
Chaff Grenade (10 BP): Medium Damage, decreases enemy brain by 10.

Hoopz Barkley
I'm a Vidcon expert

VP- 490
BP- 40
Power- 160
Speed- 105
Guard- 110
Brain- 70

Weapon: F.I.N.A.L G.U.N.
Armor: Shrekmono
Bling: Facemask

Shotz-
Accurate Shot: 200% accuracy, medium damage
Fast Shot: 100% accuracy, low damage. Five shots.
Mega Shot: 50% accuracy, high damage.
Guard: 100% evasion until Hoopz attacks next.

Guns'blasts-
Gun's Slay (10 BP): Instant Death. Seems to be about 50% accurate
Bulletdance (10 BP): Twelve random shots of really, really low damage. Useful when you only have one target, though.
Status Shot (10 BP): Inflicts Diabetes on the target. About 75% accurate?
TrickGun Assault (30 BP): Basically four Fast Shots, then a Mega Shot, twice. Doesn't miss, though.

I need to get Vinceborg 2050's stats down some time, and also test some damage.