Goodman Games

I'd be fascinated to see playtest reports on these npc spellcasters. I think for players it is interesting to have all sorts of variable spell outcomes, as well as interest in the case of spell failure and fumbles. For NPCs I think this is rarely the case. Now I'm thinking I'd name the spell somethi...

I'm coming to the conclusion that Pathfinder may well be the apex of systems master D&D. But, it is awfully tough to just point your ten year old cousin towards it and suggest the go read it and try some role playing. I think there is a lot of room in the market for a game with the classic D&...

Does the game still feature spell duels? Are these NPCs able to cause or initiate them? That has been a big part of what I'm excited about in the new magic rules, but it does seem to present a challenge with NPCs. I suppose you can create specific NPCs for spell duel situations, but it would be cool...

Joseph, you summarized what I'd been thinking much better than I could of said it. So I'll just say I'm glad you are excited about it as well. I'm hoping that they will actively encourage publication of "conversion tools" so that we are encouraged to use adventures, bits of rules, etc. fro...

IP is a social/legal construct just like the corporation. And, just like corporations, the rules that were set up centuries ago and occasionally updated decades ago aren't quite right for today's day and age. They also aren't nearly as universal as folks think. For example, it is my understanding th...

I think the super weird d5 & d7 would be better as barrel dice. They don't roll fair on battlemats or other softvinyl surfaces. They roll great on hard flat surfaces. This is a real problem for me and my group. We always have a battlemat down, even if just so we can easily sketch out a "la...

I think my difference of opinion is that a couple of the things you are penalizing with xp are things that I'd just allow, or disallow as a GM. If I thought a player were genuinely trying to cheat by knowingly asking if they could do things that were explicitly against the rules in hopes that by GM ...

Good Rolelplaying for me is: - behave as your character would (if you said you're the spiritual kind of guy, who doesn't care about gold pieces, then don't be greedy when you find a ruby!! "Hey I said gold pieces, this is a ruby" -.- ?? ) I like this one. - Speak "In character" ...

Bah, I don't think that the extra 4% or 3.33% of the time a player hits and gets a crit when they wouldn't have otherwise is enough to change the play balance to the point I care. In my opinion there is nothing that takes the joy out of a crit so much as needing to do math to "confirm" it....

I like: A natural 20 is always a crit (regardless of die rolled). So is a natural 24 and a natural 30.

That means crit odds go from 5% to 8% to 10% as you get bigger dice, but I don't have a problem with a level 9 (guessing here) getting a crit on 1 in 10 attacks.

After seeing all the back and forth I'm pretty happy with how I've ruled things. In general, give up a damaging attack to try for a different result (trip, grapple, shove, etc.) In specific cases, give possibility of a "called" outcome if an attack happens to be a crit rather than rolling ...

Brief digression that I promise quickly gets back to the point. I recently had occasion to ask my players the question "What would you say is my biggest flaw as a GM?" (Inspired by the RPG Geek Question of the Day thread.) A telling response was: ...you lean towards sticking close to the R...

I originally changed the terms so it would be clear to players that they are in a different game. I still think Personality should be different because it's effectively Charisma+Wisdom. But as to Dex/Agi and Con/Stam, I could go either way in terms of keeping them or changing back. What does everyo...

The thing you are forgetting is that old school there is a time unit called the turn. To climb a 100 foot wall, the DM would usually only make you roll once to fail or succeed and if you fail he might roll a d10 to see how high you were when you failed. In 3E+, you have the 6-second round and 100 f...

The DC's are set just out of reach of the average character... resulting in PC's that flail about uselessly for most of the time. My wife has started referring to the game as "Joseph Goodman's Futility Generator." This I agree is a potential real problem. DCs are similar in concept to 3rd...

Tortog wrote:just a bunch of cranky posers.

Sure, but they still throw the best parties.

This all implies that it is the cleric "doing the healing" or "casting the spell". My interpretation is that the cleric is just a conduit. It is the god doing all those things. And that takes work and is distracting. So, the god makes it clear to the cleric that no matter how per...

I think the "roll 3d6 and if it is over the current stat get plus one to that stat" rule is an interesting way to amp characters up slightly as they gain levels without changing the game balance too much. But, I don't think it fundamentally addresses the problem of characters with all low ...

Just realized that all those core stat adjustments I was going on about could be irrelevant. Just adjust the modifier!

So you can adjust your actual applied modifier for the ability depending on task without changing the ability score itself.

I'm going back to the "You are not a hero" core concept in my thoughts. One thing I like about rolled stats is that all characters indeed are not created equal. My suggestion is to introduce/allow specific weaknesses in exchange for boosting stats. After all, stats are intended to indicate...

I think we've all been around to know that gamers are very good at having opinions on how things will work in play that are entirely conjectural and not actually based on play test. Many folks have reported the funnel being much more fun than they anticipated. So, I agree with the decision to strong...

While I don't disagree with the points being made, I'll point out that the game's tag line is explicitly "You are not a hero." Obviously it is up to John what that means to him, and any of it can be house ruled. But, I suspect any suggestions that don't take that well into account will not...

I think "normal to hero" would appeal to a wider audience. To me, the whole "weak to average" idea is just a fancy way of celebrating mediocrity... I get plenty of those kinds of stories every day in the newspapers. I hear you. I play FRPG's to get away from real life and its wo...

I think unopposed checks are a good thing for the thief skills. It is up to the DM to appropriately set DCs, but in general opposed checks are incredibly variable which discourages the risk taking you want thieves to engage in. I'm in 100% agreement on the Intelligence/Personality and scroll reading...

It has been confirmed. The details are in http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=17050 but essentially there is are specific misfire and corruption lists for each spell, and now a variable chance for corruption vs. misfire so Cantrips will be less threatening on a natural 1 tha...