tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post1563453382366236384..comments2024-03-27T21:18:33.034+00:00Comments on Fabled Lands: The jackboot of statsDave Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14468228790874490693noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-47754075599642514382017-10-16T21:35:35.381+01:002017-10-16T21:35:35.381+01:00Orrorsh is the Horror reality in TORG. As a matte...Orrorsh is the Horror reality in TORG. As a matter of course, I never tell my players the difficulty of anything there. The most basic fear being that of the unknown and all that.johntfshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005496604068259398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-7409112641294575552017-10-16T20:14:50.363+01:002017-10-16T20:14:50.363+01:00Sounds a little like the Maelstrom magic system, e...Sounds a little like the Maelstrom magic system, except with the added nice touch of not knowing the difficulty.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-21758346419213674562017-10-16T18:22:10.028+01:002017-10-16T18:22:10.028+01:00My favorite "magic system" is the one us...My favorite "magic system" is the one used for the sub-setting of Orrorsh in TORG, which is called the Occult. The base template of the Occult is a kind of "wish parser." You decide the effect that you want to accomplish and build a ritual around that effect.<br /><br />Suppose you want to enchant a wooden stake to kill a vampyre. You might start with a stake, better yet a stake cut from a branch of an apple tree growing in a church yard. You'll carve runes into the stake. Let it steep for an entire night in a mixture of holy water and garlic oil taken from garlic grown in a garden of one of the vampyre's victims. Then let it dry in the sunlight over the course of a day. Basically, the more hoops you set for yourself to jump through, the more likely the ritual will do what you want.<br /><br />Oh and the stake you just enchanted will only work as a magic weapon against the one vampyre you enchanted it to work against. If you want to kill a different vampyre, you'll need to make a different weapon with a different ritual. And as the GM, I won't tell you the difficulty number. You'll just have to make your best guess. And as such, you'll likely overbuild your ritual and make it harder on yourself than I ever would.johntfshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005496604068259398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-24195474864199944372017-10-13T22:13:57.752+01:002017-10-13T22:13:57.752+01:00The way the world is going, every day is Friday th...The way the world is going, every day is Friday the 13th !DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-49312855745532933522017-10-13T21:52:02.193+01:002017-10-13T21:52:02.193+01:00Is it coincidental that this ruckus occurred on Fr...Is it coincidental that this ruckus occurred on Friday the 13th? I think not...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03848530930786042468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-33116022743140563842017-10-13T13:59:45.539+01:002017-10-13T13:59:45.539+01:00Not always. If you're encountering a natural a...Not always. If you're encountering a natural adversary, a platoon of soldiers, say, there can be surprises in the encounter, but the use of stats isn't going to spoil anything. The problem comes when you are actively trying to create a sense of mystery, and then the stats can only wreck the effect. It's why, in game settings that include magic, I almost never allow player-character sorcerers.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-84782510481946469622017-10-13T12:12:01.425+01:002017-10-13T12:12:01.425+01:00Well, sure, but a cat that is dead and alive at th...Well, sure, but a cat that is dead and alive at the same in a state of quantum superposition is always going to be more interesting than a cat that's just dead or a cat that's alive.<br /><br />Stats in a game make something real. Reality is almost always going to be less interesting than whatever we imagine before encountering that reality.johntfshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005496604068259398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-75036927495324480232017-10-13T09:15:00.682+01:002017-10-13T09:15:00.682+01:00The picture is by Sidney Sime, presumably for one ...The picture is by Sidney Sime, presumably for one of Dunsany's stories. However, the point of the post is that stats in any system will only ruin the effect. Sometimes I wonder if anybody actually reads these things.DMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01887893691053633187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141372262111342844.post-90486852089568182982017-10-13T09:02:47.878+01:002017-10-13T09:02:47.878+01:00I appreciate the effort it likely took to create t...I appreciate the effort it likely took to create the stat-bloc and flavor text. It's always cool to get a view into that process. Again my biggest difficult is that this creature uses a system I'll likely never play or run for a setting I'll likely never play or run it in. If I was going to use this creature, I'd probably check whatever game I was running for the stat-bloc of a baboon (which is what the picture above most resembles to me), boost its intelligence and give it scales for armor and spell-casting abilities. johntfshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16005496604068259398noreply@blogger.com