Samantha Patri's Blog

  Black Bugs by Regurgitator Far too often, a campaign ends after the first big arc is finished. The characters have gone out, saved the world, defeated the big evil end boss, rescued the princess, and defeated the evil vizier. Or whatever the plot is. Cool.  Congrats. So what happens next? That "what happens next" for me is more important than the victory. What does my character do afterwards? What other things does my character get to see? Who does my character get to meet? How has the world changed now that we won? I don't make characters to go through a single campaign and stop. They have goals, they have interests and hobbies and families. They had a life before the adventure, and may want to return to it after - or go do something else that doesn't involve 'go out and kill a lot of monsters and save the world'. The 'save the world' plot, for my characters, is an interruption in their life - it takes up time they would usually rather use to do oth...

EGG back in the day decided he was going to nerf bows and crossbows. He wanted adventurers to be front-and-middle, in the thick of things, not standing back, hitting enemies with arrows and bolts. So, obviously, ranged weapons needed to be powered down. Being a fan of long-ranged weapons - especially bows and sniper rifles, I can feel the hate, because it's carried on into almost every other RPG to come out. The sword is the 'go to' weapon, and ranged weapons are left to the side. In 2nd edition D&D, the best you could hope for with a bow, not including using magic or other special tricks, was 3/1.  Or, '3 per minute'. The argument for combat was that in 60 seconds, you're moving around, trying to avoid getting hit, and giving off a bunch of attacks that are deflected or simply miss.  Right.  So, if you're using the bow and you're not engaged with the enemy, you're firing into combat over the course of 60 seconds, and only get three 'to hit...

There's a type of fantasy setting called a thousand points of light . The premise is that civilization is huddled in towns and villages, or behind city walls, and out there is a dangerous world, with monsters roaming around, and dark forests you don't go into, and all sorts of nastiness. The PCs are heroes, who go out into this dangerous world and fight the monsters and collect the treasure and return with stories of their heroic deeds. I was discussing a pacifist character that we've played from time to time, and even have the write-up for her. We recently redesigned her for 13th Age.  She has an Str of 3, and a Con of 5, and not a single attack ability, spell, or weapon. She's a cleric, and she heals and buffs, and raises the dead, but she is definitely not a combatant. And a few game masters said that she'd probably not be welcome at their table, and the reasons given were pretty straightforward: She's not pulling her weight (by doing damage in combat) The pl...