I REALLY like the 4e essentials line. I've been running it for my family recently and it hand holds very well.

>>97284665
To wit, if you do not mix the different books, the Essentials line is excellent at a low bookkeeping, straightforward game.
I'd run it for my kids.

>>97284787
I've been mixing the books a bit. My wife wanted to play from the Fae book and my brother wanted to play from the elemental book. So far so smooth.

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>>97284665
Honestly, I do too. A lot of 4e fans hate it because it stepped away from the AEDU framework and people who liked 4e liked that framework, but I don't actually care about that: an attack is an attack, and "hit harder" is a perfectly valid improvement rather than getting a "hit REALLY hard 1/encounter and move enemy one step / give enemy -1 slaves for 1 round/etc."

A lot of 4e's problem is having too much faff in combat, and Essentials classes reduced the faff

>>97284813
If your players don't go hard in the paint, it can work, especially if you modulate battles towards their strengths.
>>97284845
I gently disagree, as I believe the wealth of options at all times was a boon for players who wanted to have meaningful impact outside 'I hit the dude'.
I've brought in almost a dozen new players to the hobby with 4e, and I have found that it is fairly easy to understand, has depth, and forges good habits of mindfulness and paying attention to the battle when the spotlight isn't directly on you.
One of my cherished memories was running a game for some teens at my LGS, and the fighter being the star because she just ran around protecting everyone, forcing a chokepoint and battering the attacking spider demons.
The look on her face when the party was cheering her on, watching the group fall in together like a well oiled engine, supporting each other, that is what this hobby really is about for me.
That was more than 10 years ago. I wonder what they are doing now?

>>97270237
>You shouldn't run pulpy adventure games
I'll do as I please.

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>>97270237
grim

Savages exist to be exploited by their betters.

>>97284794
>what kind of adventures can you have
What kind of retarded mother-may-I bullshit is this?

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I WILL have sex with the fantasy savage tribal women

>>97284570
>feels like i'm just giving the players an out
what is the sword just an auto-win? you made it sound like it only becomes a viable weapon at that point.

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>>97284375
>Rance plot point
Okay, I grant you that you've got balls to want to do this, OP

The simple answer is obvious.
You don't play the hero trying to power up the sword to save humanity. You play the party of brave adventurers tasked by the kingdoms of the world to stop the hero that's clearly lost his mind and turned against humanity by going on a genocidal rampage across the land. Then when they eventually catch up to him, THAT is when he drops the bomb that he's not lost his mind and in fact trying to save the world, with all the possible signs showing he is fully cognizant and with an appropriately divinely ordained mission.

That way, the party can decide whether he's right and join his efforts to sacrifice pieces of humanity to save it from the demons with the blessings of the rest of humanity or not, decide he's full of shit or otherwise insane/brainwashed/fucking evil and take him down at the cost of having to find another way to stop the evil demons, or convince him that the cost is too high and try to find an alternate way to stop the demons, whether that exists or not. Or decide this shit is too complicated for them and let the hero do what he's going to do, whatever.

There. Clear goal, clear moral dilemma, and you get to let the players decide for themselves the morality of the situation. Not that complicated.

>>97284375
30% calculated from what point? From when he picked up the sword for the first time? From when it was made? Since last Tuesday? Because if that period is long enough, it would take years, decades, or maybe even centuries for a diminished population to rebound enough that it weakens the sword. Plenty of time for one human with one human lifespan to do whatever he can do with it. If its counter resets regularly, then there's a real dilemma and it's just going to spiral out into doing the demons job for them. Go find a different source of power.

>>97284375
This isn't even a dilemma because if he doesn't get the charge he needs, presumably the entire world dies. So it's either 30% die or 100% die, which means the 30% are just going to have to suck it up.
I mean maybe we could kill everyone in Africa, North Korea and in the Middle East, that should be more than enough. It wouldn't even be an imposition.

>>97284394
>if anything the sword should be the fallback option and the main characters focus on trying other methods to fight demons.
I'd suggest a variation on this. Don't give the PCs the sword. It belongs to someone else who acts unwillingly as half the story's "threat". The PCs' job is to find a better way to win or at least stabilize the situation before either the enemy becomes overwhelmingly strong or a person or faction nominally on the same as the PCs decides it's time to use the doomsday weapon. Kind of like >>97284707, but I think I'd probably make the doomsday sword a well-known but controversial thing. Probably owned by a powerful and respected king or something rather than a rogue "hero". That gives lots of opportunities for intrigue where some allied factions want to use the superweapon right away and others reject it entirely. I'd also increase the cost of using it so it isn't a clear fallback option if things drag out too long. Not only does using it require lots of deaths, it also causes additional ones or does something similarly bad (maybe cuts humans off from magic permanently or something). If the PCs do their job, let them discover a bunch of other potential tradeoff options to choose from to fit with the campaign theme of selecting the "lesser evil", with maybe one ideal outcome that's really hard to discover or implement.

>>97284596
Mmm, yes, a shining example of the actions a largely optimistic person would take.
I am humbled.

>>97283001
>Howard Firstname & Howard Lastname
Fuck me, all these years and I never noticed.

>>97283372
>The more intelligent you are and the more you value your intelligence, the more vulnerable you are to Lovecraft's horrors.

What if you're intelligent and place value on said intelligence, but aren't so arrogant to think that what you know is the definitive "truth"? Like what if your response to finding out that much of what you thought to be true about physics, history or the universe is wrong, is akin to "oh, ok... cool, guess I get to learn a bunch of new stuff now! Cool!" Does that stop you from going mad, or does that just lead to knowledge that is beyond the understanding of mortal minds, which is an insanity driver?

>>97284649
>optimists are, by law, disallowed of feeling bad or suicidal
what fucking hypocrites...

>>97281870
Maybe because those are different genres, retard. Why did you make a thread to ask such a stupid question?

>>97282856
>in the text
Fucking finally. The original one only hitting Vemmon is annoying.

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>>97281222
>>97281230
You are strong, but Jesus is stronger.>>97274093

>>97284644
they've already resolved this

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>>97284209
This is actually an upscale for Owen

>>97277961
post player birth certificates and state IDs.

>>97240302
/thread.

>>97258275
Turn your monitor on

>>97223103
This looks like shit.

>>97223103
All non medical weapons deal D6, no attribute adjustment. Unique maneuvers per weapon to ensure maximum player engagement. Dead simple to GM, a blast to play.

>>97279360
>Gunslinger as Specialist
I'd be alright with that, but could we have a ranger trait that lets you take them as Elite? That way you could still have a posse

>>97280102
>>97280143
We could easily do both through traits, let me see.

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>>97280143
How about this, + Posse rules on the Ranger?

>>97284581
also, just in case you think it was missed
>no ur humiliated/ashamed/embarrassed/any word that covers the basic concept.

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>when your need to fondle your friend's wife outweighs any of your public claimed principles.

On OP's topic of production, permanently distancing them would lessen the physical stage acting shit and forced scenes but role-playing has never been at the top of their motives.

>>97281598
Maybe you think she's doing something hot BECAUSE that you-know-who is on it
Maybe it's your kink showing

>>97284694
Laura's kid was to young to be vaxxed, btw.
The show was fine with them distanced.
Imagine bunching back together as soon as it was no longer mandated, just to give the impression that it is a real game sitting around a table. Horrible people. >>97281480 related(?)

>>97284748
(or ANYTHING really) >>97281598
Try again.
>DM Matt's thought bubble: I totally accept that roll was a 1 and not a usual nat20, Liam. What high number are you going to claim for that re-roll?

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>>97284535
Far as I can see, that system is "the GM". But for real, my skimming didn't show a specific counter or upper limit to the tags that can apply to a situation. Just an acknowledgement that GMs should discuss a table-appropriate limit how many "broad" tags their players can apply to their characters, a reminder that sometimes tags just don't apply or won't apply, and an emphasis that for all the positive tags the players can add for more Power, weakness tags are just as abundant and situational. I'd love someone else to look over the book and point out where the stated limits are on tags, though.

After briefly skipping through this since i am on a leave from work and I am just fucking around in my home in my pajamas it became quite clear to me that this is actually a very good product. It's for a very specific audience and one that about 80% of /tg/ is actually a part of. So it's rightly shilled here. It has very high production values and pretty decent writing and editing. The layout is very clean and readable and, as that anon suggested, you kinda have to buy this book. Not a pdf. This book doesn't work unless you buy an actual printed copy, preferably a hard cover. It's library jewel. A conversation piece. A ttrp"g" tailored for people that don't actually play games but for some god forsaken reason they want to pretend that they do. Just look at the art, very pretty ngl, but look at what it depicts. Look at the comic at the begging showing of how a ttrpg kinda works and tailored for someone that never actually thought about ttrpgs more than watching a YT D-listers pretending to play one would allow or if not that Stranger Things. And it seems to actually be playable, even if you are one person! For about 2-3 hours or one session and then it's done. It has nothing more to offer but it doesn't have to. It did what it was supposed to do. You not only have the book but you can actually honestly proclaim to whomever you are showing it off to that you have actually played it! Not with other people no but it does support solo and co-op! A GM is optional! If you have fa/tg/uy or ca/tg/irl friends and you want to buy them a Christmas present this is a very good alternative to Mork Borg.
5/7 points in the Worth a Buy Tag.

>>97284817
This is some advanced shitposting. Are you the guy that has been posting screencaps of this shit system?

>>97276085
ad

>>97283948
buy an ad

>>97284683
Historipiggy go oink oink

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Im 6’ 145 lbs

>>97284715
no way, you're literally all bones and standing on a 20mm base, bro.

>>97284582
That's true I suppose, but still, at least have the set launch in autumn or something. I feel like moving to a 4 year cycle would benefit all systems, but for gw it's probably better financially to let 40k cycle as much as possible.

What are you hoping to see in the January errata?

>>97284696
Don't forget that he also raped and killed that girl behind an Arby's.

>>97276282
awesome, all players should eat shit

>>97279518
unfathomably brown post

Anyone got stories of when they were a shit GM?
>Playing call of cthulhu.
>Running a pre-written adventure in a hunted house.
>One player immediately recognizes it.
>Try to deny it and throw in some curveballs from other adventures.
>He recognizes those too and immediately knows what to do.
>End up ending the game early with some dumb plot thread of there being a haunted video game console and series of haunted books a poltergeist of a child was reenacting.
In hindsight, I should of just did the original pre-written adventure instead of trying to make some half-assed Frankenstein thing.

>>97284801
For me, I don't have any particular moments but I had a bad habit of envisioning some cool scene and then trying to force the game towards it and panicking if things went off the rails. Lost a few shitty and a few good players doing it, but I figured out what I was doing wrong after the 3rd time around thankfully and now I just feel stupid for not catching myself the first time.

>>97276102
The rest can be found here at

pastebin(dot)c0m/ ajv9ZmF8

If captcha is going to make me jump through more hoops, I'll do it this way now.

Happy New Year, anons.

Origins of the Order of the White Lily-Penned by Mother Superior Amelia of Loshire
It was not how an angel was meant to die. Not in some back alley of Loshire.
Everett wheezed, blood flecking his parched lips. The radiance that had surrounded him for so long dimmed.
Genevieve could do nothing but stroke his hair, rocking back and forth and whispering it would be fine. As she did so many years ago when he came to her crying over some small injury or some social slight, the worst thing he had experienced thus far. That it wasn’t the end.
As if she could force reality to conform to her desperation if she continued to repeat, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”
With a shaking hand, she held the pressed white lily he had given her all those years ago in his eyeline. It was now dessicated and dry. Her tears and her son’s blood were the first moisture it had felt in decades.
He was strong. Stronger than his father, even. His mouth opened and she expected some words of defiance or even comfort.
The hurt he felt was nothing compared to the pain he was causing her. He apologized so many times before his lungs could bear no more words. She expected something. Maybe if the two believed hard enough, he would just hold on.
He wheezed, then he breathed no more.
Even as the light finally faded from his eyes, she continued the mantra. Her son was gone, but his body was the closest she could now be to him.
The others of his cell finally turned the corner. They insisted she had to go. To leave her poor, sweet son.
She fought with all the strength of a farm wife to stay with her son. It took four of them to drag her away before the guards arrived.

>>97284799
Genevieve sat solemnly as the others of the cell argued. Her Everett was not the first singled out and killed by the Daughters. Seductresses, assassins, those who killed through poison blades, food, and tongues.
She told the men all they needed to know and left. She did not say how she had tracked him down. Did not mention the perils of the war around them. That was hers. This war would take no more.
She kept to the roads. Feigning an old refugee when needed. Until she reached friendly lands. She would take no questions from guards and her insistence that she had information no one else knew was believed.
It was only in the presence of the sage that she made her demand, “Where pain shows its thorns, I will be the gardener. Give me the women who have lost or those that are not yet threatened by heartbreak. They will be moulded. They will grow. Teach me and I will teach them.”
The sage smiled and could not refuse her.
Loshire was reclaimed. The poisons and plagues concocted by the Midwife of Serpents and her Daughters beaten back by the tireless toil of those who sought out Genevieve. Though their white smocks were often soaked in scarlet and their hands shook from exhaustion, they fought their own war. One no less deadly than the flashing steel of the battlefield. A silent conflict. Against the rot.
The others, less hardened by anguish, were immune to the feline charm of the Daughters. Bright, unsullied eyes hid vigilance. Well trained to counter their tricks.

>>97284807
As the final bastion of Loshire fell, she returned to the city. There were always more patients. More despair to keep at bay. She felt older than her years as trembling legs carried her through pitted streets and past burning buildings.
It was not her city. Not yet.
She walked the roads as if she knew them well. Heart pounding. Longing and dread collided in her chest and separated again in a dance of anticipation. She knew she would not see him again. But this was close.
She turned the corner she recognized from a night she tried to forget.
It was dark. Kept from the sun and rain by the brothel and tavern that flanked her son’s final resting place.
Between the moss-stained cobblestones, white lilies grew.

>>97282204
Hear, hear. Saying that is ultimately what this entire post was about, too: >>97281176

>>97280550
It is correct in terms of the non-game activity it calls a game, but incorrect in terms of an actual game.

>>97284344
No, it isn't. These don't describe people at all. You've missed the point entirely.

>>97281694
I was going to countersignal >>97281176 to troll but you know what, no he's actually unironically right and players are, in fact, just that simple. Being able to differentiate between these types has been immensely useful in weeding out shitty players from my games and cultivating the behavior I want to see more of.
Sorry, but you're just a faggot.

>>97284773
You've still entirely missed the point. These describe referential frameworks that you construct to categorize people, so that you may better decide how to interact with them. They describe you--not other people. The difference is important.

>>97283803
It's kind of funny that you think that your bullshit is anything even remotely connected with reality.

It's just AD&D but written in a clear and easy to understand fashion. All you've done is start with your conclusion ("Everyone must hate 2e") and then done the most pathetic mental gymnastics in hopes of presenting something you hope could be mistaken for an argument.

>>97283548
>actual 50-something year old grognards that played holmes and molvay when they came out will call even 5e offshoots like shadowdark and olde sword regin OSR
All that proves is that being old yourself gives you no particular understanding of what the term "old-school" means in relation to D&D.

>in no universe is 2e old school
You accidentally insterted an excess negative here, FTFY

>>97283803
>If you think that pile of absolute garbage qualifies as OSR
are you clinically retarded?
OSR is not some badge of high quality it's just about preserving a certain style of play which 2e absolutely can be do if needed

>>97284369
You don't need to preserve storyfaggotry: It's alive and well in all WotC editions, mongoloid.

>>97281665
You're rong, kill yourself

>>97279700
At 2/4, CMC3 is fair. At 1/4, CMC2 is fair.

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>>97279700
Colorless damage to creatures 2
Body with defender 1
Pseudo-pacifism in colorless 2
I'd say 5, but I could see it by 4, never 3.

>>97279700
Iron Maiden {3}
Artifact Creature - Construct
Defender
When Iron Maiden enters it fights target creature.
Creatures dealt damage by Iron Maiden become 1/1 creatures with no abilities and cannot attack for as long as Iron Maiden is on the battlefield.
2/4

>>97279954
I do not understand this.

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>>97282995
You play a Monty-Hall game for a card, if you win, you get to draw the card if you lose you get gunk'd. Gunk is pic.

>>97282995
is there a way to word it that only damage from fighting counts? damage by being blocked shouldnt proc the ability