05-18-2021, 10:30 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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05-18-2021, 10:33 AM | #32 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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Henchmen sort of walks it back to 125 points. I'm playing a game at that level now, and they still feel quite powerful, though some of that is about the foes we've been up against so far.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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05-18-2021, 05:31 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Jacksonville, AR
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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ISTR in a discussion on rpg.net that characters originally had 1 hit point and died if hit (like a counter in a miniature wargame) and that this was deemed unfun so characters got 2 hp so they might survive._
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05-18-2021, 07:37 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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I don't think I ever saw a D&D character survive much above 5th level, very few reached 3rd. But some people play one character from peasant to god!
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
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05-18-2021, 08:48 PM | #35 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
In my copy of Chainmail, it's stated that it takes one hit to kill an ordinary man, but four simultaneous hits to kill a hero, and eight to kill a superhero. On the other hand, in D&D, an ordinary man has one hit die, which seems to mean 1d6 hit points. Or maybe it's 1d6+1, I seem to recall that a "veteran" is a bit better than an ordinary man.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
05-18-2021, 09:11 PM | #36 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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This is why in the original D&D boxed set, all hit dice were six-sided dice, and all attacks caused 1-6 points of damage. (The very few monsters that could cause multiple dice of damage were therefore fearsome.) It didn't matter whether you were wielding a dagger or a two-handed sword; you still did 1-6 points of damage if you hit, because damage didn't represent physical, structural damage to the body, but a randomized system to withstand a potentially fatal blow. |
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05-18-2021, 11:37 PM | #37 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
I mean, I don't have a problem with using 250 point characters for dungeon crawling. I just have a problem with viewing them as starting characters, because zero to hero is a pretty key component of the dungeon fantasy genre.
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05-19-2021, 07:00 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
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05-19-2021, 07:24 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
The original fiction that served as inspiration for what became the "dungeon fantasy" genre certainly had a zero-to-hero aspect to it, resulting in the genre itself having some aspect of that, but once you get to the somewhat-incestuous point where the entire purpose of the game is "kill monsters and take their stuff" (which is very much the point where GURPS DF is) a lot of people want to just have established delvers from the beginning, not fresh-faced goblin fodder who grow into the role of hero or die.
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GURPS Overhaul |
05-19-2021, 07:35 AM | #40 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Game Settings Written for the Game System vs. Generic Systems
I would point out that "kill monsters and take their stuff" was NOT a design philosophy of the original D&D. The guiding philosophy was "plunder a weird environment in any way possible."
"Zero to hero" came about because the Chainmail wargame had figures for mundane soldiers that were killed with one hit, Heroes who were killed with four simultaneous (mundane) hits, and Super Heroes who were killed with eight simultaneous hits. As Arneson's Blackmoor campaign evolved, people started to ask, "So what's in between a mundane soldier and a Hero? What about two hits, three hits? Four hits?" And so the D&D concept of character levels was born. "Kill the monsters and take their stuff" was a later conception as people tried to boil down what THEY thought the D&D experience was all about. So "zero to hero" far predates pure "kill the monsters and take their stuff." |
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