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Messages - paul_Harkonen

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1
I can say with 100% certainty that if you walk into the B&N in Tysons tomorrow you will be able to purchase the book.  (I know this because I went and did so).  I will note that when I went to pick it up my reserved copy wasn't in and didn't show up as being in the store, but I was able to pick up one of the physical copies on display up front and they had at least 15-20 just in that stack.

2
It's called Gordon Bierch (possibly flipped the i and e) and it is literally across the hall from the first floor of the Barnes and Noble (if you walk out of the Barnes and Noble and walk in a straight line you run into the wall for the GB). 

3
HIM.   :D

And by all means, if you are very familiar with Tysons, you can definitely take the reins.  When I volunteered it seemed like the vast majority of folks were out of towners so I just wanted them to have a local contact.  Although I live on 10 minutes from Tysons, I do my damned best to be nowhere near it cause of the traffic and legions of mallrats walkin around everywhere.

I am perfectly fine with taking a back seat and just offering my number to anyone needing last minute directions and a local contact.

I live about the same distance away and have just about the same mentality about going anywhere near there if I don't have to.  But I think I just went and volunteered myself to organize didn't I?  Whoops...

I think that GB for like a very late lunch when people arrive and then heading across the hallway\whatever you call the main walkway in a mall, to B&N whenever they start setting up for the signing would work pretty well and be really easy.  I've never had anything to eat or drink there, but some of my friends have been there and said it was good.  Pretty much whatever we decide to do the most important thing is getting an accurate head count as soon as possible.

4
I am also from the area and spend entirely too much time at that mall.  There's a really nice open meeting area just outside the B&N on the first floor between the Gordon Biersch, Coastal Flats, and another restaurant that just opened who's name escapes me at this moment.  The TGI Friday's is in the same area as the theater on the 3rd floor about 5 minutes walk from the B&N and is also next to a large open meeting area (although it tends to be filled with kids and their parents as there is a play area nearby) and one of the large food courts in the mall.  Both of those would be easy places to meet up and I am fairly sure that they wouldn't mind having us hang out and game for a bit as long as we are also buying food etc. (obviously calling to ask is a good idea).  After the signing, as has been mentioned, there are a large number of very good restaurants in the area (15 minute drive or less) including several in "Tysons II" which is a different mall just across the road. 

Short version, there's a lot of options, once a head count exists someone (it would appear to be SkinsFan since I'm not about to fight him\her for it) can call around and see which of the many places would be willing to work with us to hang out before and\or after the signing.  But the head count is probably the most important part.

5
DFRPG / Re: Is anyone else annoyed by Physical Immunity?
« on: June 15, 2011, 04:42:59 PM »
Ok, I have one last comment that I hope is helpful for everyone, but its the last thing I tossing into this because it seems to have turned into "but I don't like it.  You shouldn't like it either".

As a GM there is an enormous difference between "Can I do X?" and "Can X be done?"  The answer to the second one should almost always be "Yes, but" (and even in the case of physical immunity, the answer is yes but you need to find it's catch).  The answer to the first one can absolutely be "no."  

"Can I lockpick the welded manacles?"  the answer is no. "Can the manacles be opened via lockpicking?" on the other hand yields the answer of "yes, but it would have to be supernatural in nature."

GMs should strive to create a world where anything is possible, but that doesn't mean any given PC can do anything at any given time.  "Can it be done?" is not the same question as "Can I do it?"  And I think your answers above are to the question "Can it be done?" rather than "Can I do it?"

6
DFRPG / Re: Is anyone else annoyed by Physical Immunity?
« on: June 14, 2011, 05:21:26 PM »
3) What I'm asking is - does the ability make sense?
Does it really make sense that there are entities out there - who are not true heavyweights by any means - that can take the entire nuclear arsenal of the world to the face and not just survive but entirely laugh it off?
Does it really make sense that if the entire White Council worked together on the most potent Heart Exploding spell in existence, spend weeks and weeks sacrificing humans and going full crazy-on black magic to get into the 4 or 5-digit range as far as shifts go, creating a spell powerful enough to wipe a country off the map, a freaking Ogre(not a heavyweight by any means) could just shrug it off?

To answer the two "Does it make sense?" questions.  Yes, it does.  Compare it this way, if you are made of fire, does it make sense for you to be able to withstand a similarly powered column of fire?  same answer.  You may not like the existence of those creatures, but it does make sense.

The next question to ask is:  Does it make them more powerful against those things as well?  Yes it does.  If you are immune to magic and all that the wizards have is fireballs to throw at you, you should win.  Just as a creature of fire should handily beat someone only armed with a flamethrower.

If that's true then you need to ask the last question: Does it break the game?  I remain unconvinced.

Combat does not have to simply be direct fireballs and physical attacks.  There is much much more to it, and physical immunity only prevents that direct confrontation, it does nothing to stop every other method of interaction available to the players.  Social combat, Mental attacks, physical aspects that are tagged, and invoked.  Throughout mythology there are plenty of creatures that are just flat out immune to X, why shouldn't they be modeled that way in the game?

Physical immunity is a very specific very powerful ability.  As a GM you should limit its use, but that doesn't make it a bad power.  Shapeshifting, Glamors, even Thaumaturgy all have the potential to be game breaking when used and thought of in very specific ways, why shouldn't physical immunity?  It exists to model those few creatures that are really and truly untouchable, and for those creatures I think it should be there.  It is ok to force the players to panic, its ok to put them up against something that requires lots of creative thinking, and maybe even forces them to run away the first time.

While a GM should try everything they can to answer "yes but" there are times when "no" is the right answer.  "Can I beat him into a pulp?"  "No, but you could trap him in iron chains" is just as good an answer.

*Edit:  And Belial just barely beats me to the punch with exactly the same thoughts.

7
DFRPG / Re: Is anyone else annoyed by Physical Immunity?
« on: June 13, 2011, 09:19:55 PM »
I disagree.

I think that DFRPG is actually pretty hard to break.

Also, just because it isn't a crunchy system doesn't mean that mechanical problems aren't problems. Mythic Toughness + Mythic Recovery is inferior in (very nearly) every possible way to Physical Immunity. That's not a good thing.

PS: I'm pretty sure that forcing someone to concede is literally impossible. It's a player action, not a character one.

Given the number of threads on here about X way to break the system, I think you aren't trying hard enough.  But that is neither here nor there.

I'm not convinced it actually is a mechanical problem, and mythic toughness + mythic recovery is a completely different power and mentality (flavor wise) than physical immunity.  They let you do different things.  Toughness allows you to take a beating, Recovery allows you to heal quickly (along with not needing food and being able to run\fight\whatever indefinitely) and physical immunity means you don't take damage at all.  Unless you are taking them for a specific character reason, you're right, physical immunity probably provides your character with more protection than two mythic toughness powers, but that doesn't mean there is a mechanical problem.  It also doesn't mean you can't, (or even that you shouldn't) take the toughness + recovery track if that is the flavor you want to have for your character.

As to forcing them to concede, I'm pretty sure that is well within the realm of a valid invoke\compel.  Characters, NPCs and PCs can be compelled to hide, to run, to investigate, to fight, to trip, and do pretty much everything else.  Why couldn't they be compelled to concede?  Admittedly as GM I would be somewhat cautious about what kinds of aspects can be used to make that kind of compel, but mechanically that's perfectly legitimate, and pretty much the whole point of the GM (in the context of conflicts) is to adjudicate what compels\invokes are reasonable.

Finally, being called a munchkin isn't an insult.  What you appear to be considering is how you can maximize in game effects from a mechanical standpoint without regard to flavor or story.  That is pretty much the definition of power gaming\munchkifying.  Does that make it bad?  no.  But that is pretty much what we are discussing here.

8
DFRPG / Re: Is anyone else annoyed by Physical Immunity?
« on: June 13, 2011, 08:46:10 PM »
Ah power gamers.

Look, DFRPG is a story heavy, rules light system.  If you want to break it, you can do that.  You can do it really easily (at least if you do so directly).  However, it also encourages lots of lateral thinking in order to get around those types of problems.

Consider this example:  We have a normal human in every way except he\she\it has physical immunity with a +0 catch.  You aren't going to hurt this person, ever.  Fine, instead of trying to kill this person directly (impossible) I'm going to spend the next set of exchanges applying aspects such as "Pinned Down" "Wrapped in barbed wire" "trapped in dirt".  I could also use assessments and declarations to apply "Weak floorboards, "creepy house" or "Construction yard relics".  After applying 4-5 aspects as a team we then tag them for effect in rapid succession.  We use those tags to force the NPC to concede, to be trapped in wires, to be pinned to the ground or some other equally effective way to simply prevent this person from moving.

DFRPG is all about aspect manipulation, story and creativity, not numbers.  If you just play by the numbers you are going to have easily broken systems and miss out on half the fun of the game.

9
Do you the the folks at B&N would mind if we took over an area in order to play?

This one has a cafe\coffee shop type area on the top floor that usually has empty tables, but it might be a bit tight for space simply because the tables are fairly small.  I think they probably wouldn't mind if you\we moved a couple of tables together, but they're still the little round type (if memory serves and they haven't changed them recently) so they won't make a flush table even if they're together.

10
I will absolutely be there, and I would be perfectly happy to meet-up before or after.  I would strongly suggest eating at one of the restaurants in the mall itself rather than trying to find a place nearby and hoping you get back in time.  As has been mentioned, traffic in the area of the mall is really bad between 3 and 7 (sometimes its ok, but I always triple the amount of time it takes to get there when going to the mall around then).

I should also note that you need to give yourself a huge window of time if you are planning on driving into the area from somewhere else.  Traffic is generally hellish for the entire area, and so while it might take you 20 minutes to get from the 95/495 interchange to the mall, it could also take you two hours.

11
DFRPG / Re: How does an Emissary contact his Boss
« on: May 28, 2011, 07:18:21 AM »
As has basically been the response thus far "Any way you want".  There is no reason why calling your boss to report in, deliver items or otherwise generally just check in should require a point of refresh.  That said, if you wanted a character who could call upon his or her boss in combat (or other conflict) situations that would be very different.  You could certainly assign some level of refresh to calling upon your boss to save your life, or help you escape, or SMITE THINE FOES! (or whatever else you wanted).  But just a phone call home probably doesn't need any sort of special power.

12
DFRPG / Re: how much is this Catch?
« on: May 25, 2011, 06:20:30 PM »
I don't think the toughness power needs any more refund at this point. If he is fighting evil, he goes all angel and got his powers, if he isn't, he is Joe Normal and can be hurt like anyone else. All his powers already have the +2 refund from the involuntary change, anything more would be, like Tsunami said, wringing some more points out of it.

This way, as long as he is in his angel state, he is protected against a lot of harm, even if it comes from a mundane human source. If he would, for example, slay someone who already surrendered, he would loose all his abilities until he would be able to redeem himself in some way. This would make him pretty similar to the swords of the cross, enormous power as long as they are wielded for the right purpose, fragile, if they are betraying this purpose. And in my opinion, a being like this should probably work like this.

Again, what if the evil in question was a mortal?  The idea is to have an angel that protects against the supernatural and fights evil, but is bound by the will of the mortals.  Your version doesn't deal with this concern very well.

13
DFRPG / Re: how much is this Catch?
« on: May 25, 2011, 05:40:23 PM »
I don't think that "I can only shapechange when standard Dresdenverse enemies are present" really qualifies as "rare" in the Dresdenverse setting.  If it were "I can only shapechange when demons (and perhaps outsiders) are present" then it would be more reasonable, because it wouldn't work against a number of likely foes. 

Uh... Most of the creatures in the Dresdenverse aren't evil in the typical sense of the word, just alien.  Faeries, not evil.  White Court, not necessarily evil.  Ghouls, probably evil, but you can't know that until they actually try to rip your head off.  Other Wizards and Spellcasters, probably not evil, and even if they are, trying to rip your head off is not proof they are evil, just proof they disagree with you.  I think it certainly qualifies as rare so long as you consider the proper things "evil".  Not everything that disagrees with the PCs, tries to kill them, or meddles with people is "evil" they may just have a different goal that you don't know about, more information that you don't know about, or simply not have morals in the traditional sense.  Heck, one could even argue that most vampires aren't necessarily evil since they have to feed to survive (this one is by far the biggest stretch though).

As everyone else has said on the subject of the catch, it could be either a +3 or +4 depending on how often you, as the GM, want to beat the player up with it.  At +3 you are probably saying that it has to be the actions and choices of a character with free will (or a pure mortal) that cause the damage.  +4 means you as the GM should probably have a small group of dudes with guns sitting next to every big bad and in every fight the character ever has (not quite this much, but you get the idea).  This would also be the applicable level if pure mortals being controlled by someone else applies as well.

Finally, I think Incite Emotion: Sense of the Divine makes sense, and primarily depends on how the character intends to use it.  You probably could use it to attach aspects or related elements "Fear of the Divine" "Divine Inspiration" things of that nature but other than that I don't see much affect mechanically.

14
DFRPG / Re: Wardens and the Deathcurse
« on: May 23, 2011, 05:50:23 PM »
Actually this supports the whole hood prevention but in a weird roundabout way. The caster has no thematic link to anything at that point. I would think that actually having the target nearby would count, but with the hood....

Mostly though I'm with Sanctaphrax and Wookinstien on this one. They don't get death curses unless they are interesting to the story like "Die alone!" Otherwise it's just bad form to tell the PC's "You've taken him out, he explodes and you all die (or are severely injured or messed up in some way)."

First of all, I would think that the wizard in question could always link to him or herself.  (for example, call down lightening on him or herself, or turn into a burst of flames, or whatever devastating explosion they felt like).  I think the two biggest protections that Wardens have is their experience and encasing the entire event inside a circle.  The circle limits the power a Wizard has access to and limits potential targets to just the wardens in place, and the experience and power of the wizards present probably allows them to defend themselves from any potential attacks.

In game terms, I would say, as pretty much everyone else NPC wizards do get a death curse, but I would treat it as the opportunity for plot hooks rather than the ability for the taken out wizard to deal massive damage to the party.  Figuring out what curse is now hanging over their head, dealing with the demon called up at the last minute, or coming to terms with a new aspect applied to one or more characters are all sparks for good storylines, and are probably the best use of the death curse.

15
DFRPG / Re: The Six Swordsmen.
« on: May 23, 2011, 04:56:33 PM »
uh guys... I don't think he's saying, "I want to try this thing." I think he's saying "In our campaign we have decided that there are 6 swordsmen of significance, they are the bearers of the following swords"  Knowing this, he's wondering what types of catastrophic events could bring all 6 together to face off against it.  (or more precisely suggesting reasons they could all come together.  I think the focus is on the types of events that could require all 6 swordsmen, rather than on "can we have these 6 swords".

To that end, you could also include events such as Nevernever Entity X (or crazed Wizard X with sufficient power to do so) wishes to forever tear open the barrier between the Nevernever and the mortal world, causing them to merge and blend together.
You could do something where the Denerians have all come together (and I do mean all) to free (maybe not the right term) Lucifer and allow him to freely interact with the mortal world as well as the Nevernever.

Pretty much any other event involving destruction and\or a complete restructuring of the Nevernever as well as the mortal realm would suffice.  Possibly the rebirth of one of the Old Ones (who I think of as distinct from Outsiders).

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