Quote from: Kyle Aaron;792497Sometimes the DM chooses to play things that way, so players have to deal with it.

If you openly plan to use a fireball spell and the chief villain just happens to have a ring of fire resistance, and next time you plan to use a cone of cold and the chief villain has a ring of frost resistance, you start to become suspicious. So you play your cards close to your chest. This then forces the DM to have his villains make plans without knowing exactly what the players will do.

Pundy has a thread about what one looks for in a player. What I look for in a DM most of all is a sense of sportsmanship, fair play and integrity. A DM who is constantly pulling things out of his ass to screw the PCs is a shitty DM. Maybe I'll elaborate further on this here or in another thread.

Quote from: Will;794675Now I'm imagining attacking God and as you do piles of damage, random things around you start shattering and dying.

Not if you have an iron chariot.

Quote from: Nexus;795694Good analogy. That close to how I thought the "fate roll" you mentioned earlier would work. You know, roughly, how your character is going to buy the farm or at least when but how it happens and what brings them to that point is the meat of the game.

I don't think I want a campaign that resembles the typical weekly TV show, where you know that no matter what happens, Colombo will be back next week.

I prefer the Game of Thrones approach.

I dunno, at least one of the campaigns I GMed back in the day felt quite Walker Texas Ranger-y...

John Wick strikes me as a putz.

He thinks that because characters in a couple of bad movies can take out their enemies with a thumb and a tea cup, then having a selection of weapons detracts from role-playing and telling stories.

QuoteMore important question. In fact, perhaps the most important question: how do any of those things–range modifiers, rate of fire, rburst fire, slashing, piercing, etc.–help you tell stories?

All of them.

Instead of using shitty films as inspiration, how about a good one -no, scratch that, how about a great movie? For example, let's take a look at Sam Peckinpah's classic Western, The Wild Bunch.

The characters and their stories revolve around guns, and all the things they do (or try to do) with them. The protagonists, a vicious gang of outlaws, obtain a number of modern military weapons, along with uniforms and horses stolen from the U.S. Army in order to pass themselves off as soldiers when they march into a small town and rob a railroad office. Not only are these weapons (especially the M1911 automatic pistol) an important part of their disguise, but they are also a way to increase their firepower against any who might try to stop them, since the latter are armed with old Colt revolvers and lever-action rifles. Or so they think: Some of the bounty hunters hired by the railroad have also been issued modern military weapons like the M1903 Springfield ("Just dig out that bullet and see if it ain't my ought-six!").

As the outlaws run for their lives, they meet up with a Mexican generalissimo who also wants modern weapons and hires the Wild Bunch to sneak back across the border and steal them from the U.S. Army.

So yes, the different types of guns and what they can do are VERY important to the story and the characters in one of the greatest films ever made.

QuoteJust a moment ago, I called weapon lists one of the most common features in roleplaying games. These things are not features. They're bugs. And it's time to get rid of them.

No John Wick, you need to watch better movies. Don't get me wrong, I love bad movies as much as the next guy, but I'm not about to claim that because the only weapon the aliens in Plan 9 From Outer Space ever use are their Electrode Guns, then sci-fi games that include all kinds of weapons are detracting from storytelling. And if you or anyone else really thinks so, it's only because of your stupid minds.

John Wick's an idiot.

IOW, agree with Elfdart.

Allthough, the importance of weapon charts etc would vary by genre. Frex a gritty Peckinpah style Western would need guns, lots of guns. OTOH it doesn't need 20 different medieval swords.

Quote from: Elfdart;795810I don't think I want a campaign that resembles the typical weekly TV show, where you know that no matter what happens, Colombo will be back next week.

I prefer the Game of Thrones approach.

I don't think I'd enjoy a steady diet of it but its fun for a diversion and change of pace. I really enjoyed playing Fiasco, for instance which has a similar set up. You know everything is going to go pear shaped in a major way but the game is finding out exactly how.

Today, I think we have the answer to the question why John Wick wrote what he wrote : he has a new KS to promote, the 2nd volume of Play Dirty, his take on GM advice.

Quote from: yabaziou;796130Today, I think we have the answer to the question why John Wick wrote what he wrote : he has a new KS to promote, the 2nd volume of Play Dirty, his take on GM advice.

Oh, he's the ass that wrote that self-congratulatory bit of wankery about his fun fucking over his players in his superhero game. That explains everything.