Nioca

Originally Posted By: Tirien Originally Posted By: Sarachim If I were playing this campaign instead of GMing it, I'd make a material wizard to prove you wrong. I think summoning, teleporting around the battlefield, and altering terrain are all excellent tricks for a battlemage. Teleport onto small rock ledge out of reach of melee weapons, alter ground under group of enemies into stalagmites. Or is it stalactites that are on the ground? I forget which. Anyways, if I wasnt busy I would have joined this just to do such. Material may sound weak at first, but if used creatively, it could easily be the strongest school. Sure, you're not hurling giant balls of fire, but it wouldnt take to much effort to cause stalactites (or stalagmites, whichever is on the ceiling) to break off and fall on someone, spraying the area with stone shrapnel of pain and death. In theory, you're right. Material Magic can do a lot of things. As a secondary to either a Martial or other Magic skill, it'd be useful. As a primary, however, it just doesn't add up. You only get so many spell slots; in this case, the most slots you can start with in any single school is 6. That means you have to cover as many angles as possible with a very limited selection, because you have to choose what what will be useful to a given situation BEFORE you actually know what you're up against (which requires either having spells with a wide variety of uses, or being psychic.) And the more versatile spells tend to be either limited in scope, high level, or cost stamina. In addition, Material magic in general burns stamina faster than any other spell school, simply because of its nature. Terrain alterations? Anything other than minor alterations eats up stamina. Teleportation? Hunter's Jump (a short-range self-teleport spell) burns 2-5 stamina a pop, meaning you can burn half of your stamina on one spell. Summoning? Getting anything halfway decent requires either a lot of skill, luck, or stamina. To use your examples: creating stalagmites (floor, by the way) would require either a specific spell to do that, or a more general stone-shaping spell. Both would likely cost stamina, and the latter would be mid-to-high level. Dropping stalactites would be fairly practical, but it makes one major assumption: That there's stalactites to drop. If there isn't, you better pray one of your other spells covers your needs, or that your party members can do just fine without you. My point is that being effective in combat with Material Magic requires either being situationally lucky, or burning a lot of stamina. Since about 80% of Material's combat uses just got hamstrung (healing, direct damage, most buffs or debuffs), and most of Material's remaining functions can be handled by the other three schools (albeit in different ways), it leaves Material as the weakest school.

Originally Posted By: Lilith why is the spell system from sarachim's campaign named in honour of my campaign i mean not that i'm complaining but The idea behind the CreepingHack skills-only variant is that it's simpler than the original AIMHack. The quad-school system meshes excellently with that; it's simplified and flexible (for the most part, personal feelings about Material Magic notwithstanding). Plus, you stated that you did plan to overhaul the magic system anyway. Also, I tend to suck at naming things, and decided there was a perfectly good name right there so I might as well use it.

Sort of moving on a weird quasi-way in that we're not off the topic yet are off the subject: Originally Posted By: Nioca (In the Metathread) For all those interested, the Spell Compendium has now been ported over to Sylae's AIMHack Wiki. Martial Techniques now have their own (much smaller) compendium as well. I'm aware that there are spells missing, but I was more concerned with getting the current compendium ported over and getting the CreepingHack Quad-School compendium up. SARACHIM: I did my best to try and match up the spells to how you described them, but you need to look over the Compendium's CreepingHack portions and make sure everything's in correct and working order.

*bup* For all those interested, the Spell Compendium has now been ported over to Sylae's AIMHack Wiki. Martial Techniques now have their own (much smaller) compendium as well. I'm aware that there are spells missing, but I was more concerned with getting the current compendium ported over and getting the CreepingHack Quad-School compendium up. Also, for all those interested, I just added 121,324 bytes worth of text and, on an related note, am not touching the compendium for a week. If you want to see a bunch of bad jokes and puns most people couldn't care less about that are a result of me going mad from the insanity, check out the Recent Changes page on the wiki.

Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: Seasons of Destiny It's fine to just have one username. Some players like to change their alias to their character's name during play, but it's not enforced. That said, having a secondary account on hand can be nice if AIM gets glitchy (as a few AIMHackers can attest to).

Originally Posted By: Triumph I just hate seeing my past character concepts neutered into uselessness in the name of balance. Especially when said "balance" only serves to make it the weakest school of the bunch.

Originally Posted By: Sarachim Originally Posted By: Triumph Originally Posted By: Nioca (Not to mention that no direct-damage is nearly unenforceable. Don't believe me? Name three material spells, and I'll bet you I can name how at least one of them could be weaponized into direct damage by a clever player.) SO TRUE. Really, part of the fun of playing a magic-user is trying to come up with unorthodox ways to use one's spells. That was part of why of enjoyed playing as Phulax - how many ways can I find to make a basic teleport spell useful? If you've got a spell that dissolves wood, and you use it on the balcony an enemy is standing on, I'm not going to veto that. Coolness trumps balance. Trouble is, you can't count on all your enemies to stand on balconies for you. No, but I probably could count on gravity to drop anything I summon on someone's head.

Originally Posted By: Sarachim Originally Posted By: Nioca 2) Material magic: Originally Posted By: Sarachim (Emphasis Nioca's) Material Magic deals with the creation and alteration of matter. [...] (Conjuration and Transmutation, but no healing or direct damage) Why? I can understand why you'd want to stop the "conjuration" of orbs of flame and such, but there's spells that do direct damage and are well within the parameters of Material Magic (Detrimentum, Needlestorm, conjuring acid/magma/an anvil over the target, etc). Balance trumps realism. If Material Magic were just as good at dealing damage as Force Magic, there'd be little reason to take the latter, as Material Magic can do a lot of useful things that Force can't. The inverse is true, too; Force magic can do a lot of useful things that Material can't (Flight, Warding, Antimagic, and Enchantment Breaking come to mind). Plus, Material direct damage spells still wouldn't have the same variety and power as Force magic, just thanks to the inherent limitations of the Material magic school. (Not to mention that no direct-damage is nearly unenforceable. Don't believe me? Name three material spells, and I'll bet you I can name how at least one of them could be weaponized into direct damage by a clever player.)

Still haven't heard from Excalibur one way or another. Normally I'd go ahead with it, but as an added bonus, I think I'm coming down with some sort of throat malady. Yay. So, I'm rescheduling the session for NEXT SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11TH. I'm sorry to disappoint, but I think I'd be sorrier if I made you go into this next part two characters down with a ZM who isn't in peak condition.

I've got two questions about how magic is handled. Not that it really applies to my character that much, but it seems important to bring up. 1) Where do illusions belong? Following what you say about the old schools, it'd seem to go to Deep Magic (enchantment), but going strictly by your descriptions of the schools, it'd seem they belong in Force (light, sound) instead. 2) Material magic: Originally Posted By: Sarachim (Emphasis Nioca's) Material Magic deals with the creation and alteration of matter. [...] (Conjuration and Transmutation, but no healing or direct damage) Why? I can understand why you'd want to stop the "conjuration" of orbs of flame and such, but there's spells that do direct damage and are well within the parameters of Material Magic (Detrimentum, Needlestorm, conjuring acid/magma/an anvil over the target, etc).

Originally Posted By: Actaeon And three pilots with a skill of level 1 is JUST as good as one of three! Or can you not assist another with a check in AIMhack? It's also three times the chance to critfail. And it only takes the one to send the party crashing into a star (pun intended). Anyway, it's not something that comes up too often, and is sort of ill-defined. Most of the time, parties just roll individually to try and succeed. Plus, there's the minor problem of too many cooks spoiling the broth; imagine what would happen if three people simultaneously tried to steer the same car. Now take that travesty, and throw in movement in three dimensions and no friction to bring the vehicle to a natural stop. It might be more reasonable if it was a larger ship with multiple stations that needed to be manned, but for a small craft made for a single pilot, "assistance" would likely be more of a hindrance than a help. One rule of thumb to keep in mind: In AIMHack, common sense usually trumps rules and mechanics (And depending on the DM, Rule of Cool might beat them both).

Three engineers. Wow. I mean, most parties wind up being fixers of one sort of another, but this is ridiculous. (Although, considering our best pilots have 1 point in flying and our best driver has 1 point in driving, I get the sneaking suspicion we'll be putting it to good use. )

Hmm... Alright, I'm still going to leave the session on for Sunday. If by Friday it looks like you'll be occupied over the weekend, let me know, and I'll reschedule it.

After thinking it over for a good long while, I've decided I'm banking all XP this time around. Amadan will not be leveling up just yet.

Originally Posted By: Cairo Jim Out of curiosity, do your base attributes increase as you level up? Yes. Each level grants 1 attribute point, along with 3 new skill points. Every odd level also lets you select a new feat.

Really, it boils down to a few simple steps. Know that the DM is willing and ready to help you with your character if you get stuck or are unsure of something. 1. Come up with a character concept. This can be anything from a rough concept to a full character complete with backstory, but you should probably get an idea of what role(s) the character will fill in the party. 2. Set up your base attributes. Each characters starts with 1STRength, 1DEXterity, 1PERception, 1INTelligence. They also start with 5 attribute points; an attribute can be raised by 1 at the cost of 1 attribute point. The base attributes are very important, because they govern your ability to survive and fight: STR improves health, melee skill, and general body strength. Dexterity improves evasion, speed, throwing, and agility. Perception improves awareness and firearm skills. Intelligence improves several non-combat skills and grants skill points. 3. Calculate Derived attributes. These are secondary attributes that are important to keep track of. You have: *Hit Points (10+2STR), which is how much damage you can take before collapsing and/or dying. Equal to 10 + Twice your Strength. *Armor Class (10+DEX), which determines how hard you are to hit. Equal to 10 + Dexterity. *Speed (3+½DEX), which determines how fast you move (and how many spaces you can move when acting on a grid). Equal to 3 + Half of your Dexterity. 4. Raise your skills. You start with no skills, but also with 10 skill points. Additionally, every attribute point invested in INT grants you an extra skill point. (If you're confused, the formula for skill points is [6+(3*Level)+Int]). Use the skill list in the first post; like attributes, you can raise a skill at the cost of a single skill point. There is a soft skill cap, equal to your level + 3; exceeding this doubles the cost of improving that skill. 5. Select a Feat. You start with 1 Feat. Select one that sounds good from the feat list. Keep in mind that this is also your only opportunity to select a Character Creation Feat. 6. Tweak. Look over your character and make sure it looks good to you and is how you want it. If you started with just a rough concept, this is a good time to fill in the character's biographical details (occupation, personality, etc.) and create his/her backstory. 7. Add Inventory. A character's useless without a decent set of tools and weapons to use. You'll probably be relying on the DM's help a bit to do this, but just list off what you think the character should have. Keep in mind that, being an L1 character, you may not get everything on your list; some stuff has to be earned. 8. Submit the character to the DM. Simply send a PM with your character to the guy in the opening post. Okay, so that's more than a few steps, but that's all there is to it. Note that this list can mostly be taken in any order you desire; this is just how I tend to create characters.

Originally Posted By: Actaeon So Perception = Wisdom and neutral is 0 instead of 10? Skills work normally, but with just ranks and not attributes? Pretty much, though it's worth noting that Perception is more combat oriented in ZombieHack than wisdom. It's also worth pointing out that your base attributes govern combat and weapons. Basically, STR govern Melee and Unarmed combat, DEX govern thrown objects and also helps with small arm firearms, and PER governs firearms. INT has little effect except to assist with willpower; however, it's useful outside of combat, since it's the key stat for most regular skills. There are exceptions to these rules, but those are the basics.

Originally Posted By: Sarachim Originally Posted By: Rowen Originally Posted By: Sarachim Signing up: I’m going to do a character creation and player selection mini-session like Lilith did for ATCT. As silly as this sounds but can't you choose the players before hand with PM's and then do a mini-session with them to set up the characters? Or do you want to do it exactly like Lilith did: have everyone show up, and then seem to choose from a predeterminer list, and make everyone that was not chosen to play wonder why the hell they had to come to a mini session to be told "you aren't playing, good day." You raise valid points, but part of what I want is to ensure that the party is balanced. If I pick players first and everyone wants to be a thief, I'm in a position of telling people to make totally different characters. Except isn't that part of the point of having the mini-session? Rebalancing selected characters so their abilities mesh correctly? Quote: So, if you have to have at least some idea what your character's like before I decide if you're playing, then it doesn't matter whether we do it via PMs or a chat, because either way you have to invest some time in this knowing you might not get chosen. Except that in this case, you have to invest time creating the character, then invest additional time listening to the DM publicly explain how you, as a player, are deficient. Honestly, the more I think on it, the more against it I become. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the people who get rejected, which discourages them from trying again. Plus it comes off like you're basing your decision on who's the better player, which is unfair to newer and less experienced players, even if they have great characters.

Honestly, part of the supply problem is that you've been looking in backwoods Nevada, in places that have already been looted and scavenged. If you can get to some place that has a greater infrastructure and (former) population, you'd probably find far more supplies. But you didn't hear this from me.

I've submitted a character for consideration.

...and signups are now closed. Unfortunately, despite hearing interest from a few people, nobody actually bothered to submit a new character. So it appears the survivors are now going to have to make do with five people. Remember, though, the next session is Sunday, December 4th, at the usual time and place. See you there!

As a reminder, the sign ups for the open spot close TODAY at 6:00 PM EST. This is approximately 15 hours and 11 minutes from the time of this posting. If you want to submit a character, today is your last day to do it.

Mmmm... Thankfulness. Well, I'd like to thank all the DMs as well for putting campaigns together. I'd like to thank Ephesos, for letting me sub for Cumulo's back when I didn't even know what a D20 was. I'd like to thank the players of my previous campaigns for taking a chance on someone who's idea of taking baby steps was starting a party of six and kicking off a plot regarding necromancy, floating fortresses, and completely forgetting what the plot's actually about. I'd like to thank my current players (Excalibur, B.J. Earles, Dantius, Rowen, Nalyd, Sylae) for letting me torment their characters. The zombies would be hungry without your contributions! On that note, I'd also like to thank Lazarus, who started the ZombieHack variant and did the original Zombies! campaign (even though it's stalled). I'd like to thank Lilith, who's putting up with Amadan (who currently has a character sheet that's longer than the other four characters put together). I'd also like to thank Lilith again, for putting up with me perpetually telling her that she's doing it wrong. (You know what, let's broaden that out into general thankfulness that you all put up with my crap, shall we? ) I'd like to thank Sylae for starting the Wiki. I'd like to thank Ephesos for kicking off the whole AIMHack thing. I'd like to thank Lilith (again) for taking over some responsibility for handling the Spell Compendium. And I'd like to thank my two cats for occasionally acting as my fuzzy armrest co-pilots when a session starts. Also I'd like to thank ham, for being a delicious and far superior alternative to a thanksgiving turkey. EDIT: OH! OH! Almost forgot! I'd also like to thank all the spectators who sub for players that go missing/AWOL. You guys are real life-savers!

*Sees Lilith's post* Originally Posted By: Lilith Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn How much needs to be planned in advance, and how much do you let the players deviate from your plans? Is it excessive to have three alternate routes planned out around the same obstacle? My advice is: plan as little as possible. Have ideas of interesting things that you can have happen and interesting situations you can put the PCs in, but keep them as just that - ideas and possible situations, with just enough notes to use them if they come up in play. It's less work for you and it reduces the temptation to funnel your players through a pre-written plot that they may or may not care about. Let the players decide what they want the PCs to do, and then make it possible. Yipe! Improvising and low-planning's fine for DMs that have gotten the hang of things, but for a first time DM who doesn't have a feel for balance and doesn't really have his DM-legs yet (so to speak)? That's just asking for trouble. It's a lot easier to come up with interesting encounters in advance than it is on-the-fly; having a solid set of plans is a good thing for when you're first starting out. After all, if you need to, you can always deviate from the plan. But if you go with improvising off-the-bat, you're stuck with it for the rest of the session.

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn Originally Posted By: Actaeon Perhaps someone could run a newbie campaign? Get us up to snuff? I'm been cast as a DM for so long, running a PC would be quite novel. I've long been considering DMing a two or three part campaign series, starting with level one characters and going up from there, (sort of like the Selos/Risis>RoMD progression.) I have a basic map of my island and a general idea of what I want to do in each of the campaigns; a few NPCs, situations, and enemies. But I have no idea where to start as far as what preparation actually goes into running such a thing. First off, keep in mind one thing: You can never be prepared for players. More seriously, it seems you've already taken a few good steps thusfar. Make sure to look over what you already have, and that it all makes sense and is reasonable. Don't start too big; take baby steps. Have your first fight be against a couple of thugs or a couple minor enemies, so you can get a feel for how a party operates and what it takes to handle PCs and enemies. Don't overplan your dialogue with NPCs. And most of all, remember that the DM's supposed to have fun too. If I may offer a suggestion, try running a one-shot with just two or three player characters (preferably using players that have experience both playing and DMing). That can help you get a better idea of what you're up against, without putting a massive amount of pressure on you. Quote: How much needs to be planned in advance, and how much do you let the players deviate from your plans? Is it excessive to have three alternate routes planned out around the same obstacle? To put this into very simple terms: There are wrong ways to DM, and there are different ways to DM. Some DMs work better doing a lot of planning and keeping players on a fairly linear track (Ephesos). Some DMs do better when improvising things on the fly and keeping options open (Lilith). Some DMs fall between the two. Some may not really even fit in this form of categorization at all. It all boils down to figuring out how you work best as a DM. Do you handle things better when you plan things out in advance, or are you a fairly competent improviser? Unfortunately, that's a question that can only be answered by experience. I can say, however, that when you're first starting out, it's better to have too much planned than too little. That said, don't let yourself get bogged down in little details. Do the big picture first, then work your way down to the smaller minutiae. Quote: What do I do to ensure that situations are properly balanced and possible? Again, this is something that really comes with experience. Start on the easy side, then work your way up as you get a better feel for it. That said, when planning a difficult fight, there's one thing that's key: Never underestimate the party. Quote: How do I avoid giving too much away, while still telling enough that everyone isn't completely confused? First off, this only becomes a serious issue if you've got a complicated plot. Being a first time DM, you should avoid a complicated plot. As such, you should have no problem. Generally speaking, this can wind up being the more difficult parts of handling a story. When in doubt, err on the side of too much, rather than too little. Additionally, while technobabble (or magibabble, depending on your setting) is fine, make sure things can be explained in layman's terms as well. Quote: How do I know whether to push the players forward or just let them muddle around in any given situation? Yet another thing that generally requires experience more than advice. You'll generally get a feel for when you need to nudge once you've done a few sessions. A good rule of thumb, though, is to watch out for a lot of dead air (that is, no one posting messages) or keep an eye out for signs that the players are bored or looking for things to do. Quote: I'm just so totally new to doing something like this, with people I don't know IRL, it's a rather daunting prospect. I've been putting off actually thinking about it all year, but if anything's going to get done, I guess I need to start somewhere. Yeah, it can be rather daunting. I was nervous as hell when I started Brigandage (something not helped with me jumping right into handling six different characters with no experience whatsoever). Understand that you're new, and a lot of mistakes are bound to happen. Understand that even if you weren't new, you'd still make mistakes. And understand that every DM running a session so far has screwed up at least a few times. The DM is human, and thus not infallible. Learn from your mistakes, try to do better next time, and you'll be on your way to becoming a good DM.