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UnderDiscussion 55: d20 system!

Sep 122011

On this week’s exciting episode of UnderDiscussion WDR and I are joined by Hooligan, Slacker, Nockergeek, Hida Man, and new guest Jolly Rodgers for a discussion of the d20 system. What d20 is (and what it isn’t), Pathfinder (long time listeners will of course be shocked at that), D&D through the ages (Basic, Advanced, 4e, Gamma World), and the various offshoot games (like Mutants & Masterminds). We also learn that I (8one6) apparently cannot pronounce granularity.

This one clocks in at one hour and forty-three minutes.

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UnderDiscussion 19: Ghostbusters London

UnderDiscussion No Responses »

Sep 062010

All right, this week’s episode of UnderDiscussion is about one of my favorite games I’ve ever GM’ed: Ghostbusters London. Gather ’round and listen as WDR, Nockergeek, That Damn Punk and new guest Kbrighton wax nostalgic about the amazing adventures in the paranormal that I put them through. This episode has such classic lines as “ghost sheep” and “You take Dr. Zaius, I’m goin’ after Hitler!”

Here’s a link to Nockergeek’s blog, That Damn Punk’s blog, and Kbrighton’s twitter feed.

Here’s a link to get Exorsystems!

Here’s the link to our iTunes feed.

Here’s the link to the UnderDiscussion RSS Feed.

Wizz by Bob Wizman

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Now the Hard Part

General Roleplaying No Responses »

Jun 012010

I’ve been playing RPGs for about eight years now. I first got into RPGs through the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons and managed to get in just late enough to that game that the first set of rule books I owned were the 3.5 core set. After that I purchased things like d20 modern, Mutants and Masterminds, and almost every supplement for d20 that I could get my hands on. So it’s pretty safe to say that I was a pretty big fan of the system back in the day.

As far back as the first game of D&D that I played I’ve noticed a few things that were a little weird, but back then I just assumed that the system had a way of dealing with them that I hadn’t noticed yet. All through the time period that I played in or ran games little issues popped up and I would just address the specific symptoms without trying to fix the underlying cause. I realized a little after the release of D&D 4e that the underlying cause is that the system was inherently borked.

The d20 system has a few major flaws (like melee centric characters essentially being reduced to meat shields and spell book caddies at higher levels to name just one) and tons upon tons of minor flaws (the built in assumption of magical equipment being a requirement at any level higher that 3) that can reduce a game to a heap of broken and counter-broken home rule patches if you attempt to fix them one issue at a time. The only solution in my mind is to rebuild the systems from the ground up.

I’ve always said that given six months in seclusion in Tibet with the Zen masters I could fix all that ails d20. I don’t actually think it’s that broken, but I do think that tearing it down and rebuilding it would be the best thing for it. For the past couple of days I’ve complied a list of notes that I think could be used to drastically improve the game. Basically it’s a collection of great suggestions, my own house rules, and some possible responses to the largest complaints of the system.

Today’s question: Is there any issue in d20 that you think should be addressed? Please note: “fighters suck” is already being worked on.

Tomorrow I’m going to put up the first part of my notes having to do with magic and how it needs to be overhauled completely.