Tabletop Gaming Night
Some comments about offline gaming. It's interesting as now the group is a blend of the old Saturday regulars and the mid-week group that I go into.
Our Dresden Files game is on hold, it seems. The GM didn't make one session and wasn't up to another. In some ways, I like that. Probably that whole "jaded gamer" thing is preventing me from enjoying it as much as others, but I don't really want to discourage a budding GM either with criticism.
Instead, we've played a couple one-off games of Warrior, Rogue, & Mage. 'tis a small game, free (at least at the time) to download in PDF. Rules are fairly light and straightforward. Three main stats. Pick three skills that give a flat +2. Rolls use d6. Secondary stats include HP, Mana, Defense, and Fate (used to avoid certain death for the most part).
It works fine for the "classic dungeon crawl" style in which we've used it, where you have a band of characters that may not know each other well operating with questionable morals to retrieve something from a danger-infested dungeon for little more than profit. The games have been entertaining and fun. Perhaps even liberating. There's limited attachment to anything and no real concern about politics or plot twists, just some direct hack-slash-loot activities. Honestly, the last two sessions might be the most raw fun I've had at a tabletop game in years. Though last night took far too long to actually get going, with new character creation and enough house rules being developed to make the system something totally different (such is the obsession of one of our group members, it seems). It was fun when we got into it.
Of course, while the system is good for quickie dungeon crawls, it doesn't work as well for grander things. The imbalance between mage and non-mage (though anyone can mix those to varying degrees) is amazing. Spells have to be purchased, so a starting "mage" will have to make some hard choices. Someone who focuses on spells tends to start as a glass cannon - spell rolls are generally easier to make than hit rolls against armor, all but the cheapest ones do more damage than most weapons, and they can hit multiple targets. My first character started with a fireball-style spell and he was nearly useless in the first fight (creature in the middle of the party), but cleaned house against what could have been a difficult "boss" fight with a couple spells. Mana does become a limiter, but when you can clear a room of enemies in a flash, sitting around for an hour or two to refresh is usually doable.
But that's just starting out. Because further spells are bought, and magical implements (which give a bonus to casting and function as rechargable storage like wands) are bought, mages increase in power, utility, and sustainability by getting more money. Someone with no spells, on the other hand, looks at the equipment list and twiddles his thumbs as the starting money is more than enough to get decent armor, weapons and gear, and the few "magic items" included are mentioned but not priced for purchase. So a non-mage gets better only as stat/skill increases come. A mage does that AND he gets far better by buying things. Short-term, there's some measure of balance. Long-term, there's a huge advantage to playing a caster, even if you only dabble to start.
Our Dresden Files game is on hold, it seems. The GM didn't make one session and wasn't up to another. In some ways, I like that. Probably that whole "jaded gamer" thing is preventing me from enjoying it as much as others, but I don't really want to discourage a budding GM either with criticism.
Instead, we've played a couple one-off games of Warrior, Rogue, & Mage. 'tis a small game, free (at least at the time) to download in PDF. Rules are fairly light and straightforward. Three main stats. Pick three skills that give a flat +2. Rolls use d6. Secondary stats include HP, Mana, Defense, and Fate (used to avoid certain death for the most part).
It works fine for the "classic dungeon crawl" style in which we've used it, where you have a band of characters that may not know each other well operating with questionable morals to retrieve something from a danger-infested dungeon for little more than profit. The games have been entertaining and fun. Perhaps even liberating. There's limited attachment to anything and no real concern about politics or plot twists, just some direct hack-slash-loot activities. Honestly, the last two sessions might be the most raw fun I've had at a tabletop game in years. Though last night took far too long to actually get going, with new character creation and enough house rules being developed to make the system something totally different (such is the obsession of one of our group members, it seems). It was fun when we got into it.
Of course, while the system is good for quickie dungeon crawls, it doesn't work as well for grander things. The imbalance between mage and non-mage (though anyone can mix those to varying degrees) is amazing. Spells have to be purchased, so a starting "mage" will have to make some hard choices. Someone who focuses on spells tends to start as a glass cannon - spell rolls are generally easier to make than hit rolls against armor, all but the cheapest ones do more damage than most weapons, and they can hit multiple targets. My first character started with a fireball-style spell and he was nearly useless in the first fight (creature in the middle of the party), but cleaned house against what could have been a difficult "boss" fight with a couple spells. Mana does become a limiter, but when you can clear a room of enemies in a flash, sitting around for an hour or two to refresh is usually doable.
But that's just starting out. Because further spells are bought, and magical implements (which give a bonus to casting and function as rechargable storage like wands) are bought, mages increase in power, utility, and sustainability by getting more money. Someone with no spells, on the other hand, looks at the equipment list and twiddles his thumbs as the starting money is more than enough to get decent armor, weapons and gear, and the few "magic items" included are mentioned but not priced for purchase. So a non-mage gets better only as stat/skill increases come. A mage does that AND he gets far better by buying things. Short-term, there's some measure of balance. Long-term, there's a huge advantage to playing a caster, even if you only dabble to start.
This is something I've always seen with magic. As things progress, a mage will almost always outstrip a warrior. 1) A mage spell is a renewable resource. You may not get to renew it right away, but it will come back for free. 2) A mage spell will usually 'grow' with the caster. Either it does more damage, or it is harder to resist, or both. 3) A mage spell can be area-of-effect or even have selective targets. 4) A mage collects more spells, and thus becomes more versatile. A warrior really can't compete with that. Almost all attacks are limited to one or two targets, the warrior's equipment can break or get lost, the warrior needs to purchase upgrades (or be lucky enough to find them), and a warrior can only carry so much gear. 99% of the time 'magic trumps might', once the game progresses. I really can't find any method of fixing this.
ReplyDeleteWell, the thing that really strikes me about that imbalance in WR&M is that mages benefit so much from money, while no one else does. Starting out, a non-mage will have a couple weapons and armor of their choice while a mage will have a few spells. Given a theoretically-unlimited budget, a non-mage will have... exactly the same thing, while a mage will have all the spells and magical implements that give bonuses to casting as well as acting as supplemental mana banks to cast the spells stored in them. But yes, your point is valid (though in most of the games I've seen, item loss isn't a real concern). Various means have been used to balance the magical and mundane to various degrees of success. Ultimately, though, magic is about doing the undoable. It wouldn't be magic if it did only what everyone else could do without. There's probably no perfect answer. Older games made mages far more fragile and less able to do things without their magic. But magic still eventually became the tool that could solve any problem. The trend in MMOs (and pushing into 4E D&D) has been to give non-mages more abilities-that-probably-may-as-well-be-magic. Area weapon attack, enhancement movements, "non-magic" self-heals, stuff like that. But that muddies the flavor of what's magic and what isn't. That's why I tend to favor just plain limiting magic in scope and power level when it comes to a long-term setting. Even that isn't perfect, it's just the best I can come up with to keep things in the realm of what I consider to be "in control."
ReplyDelete*nods* Check my most recent post, and tell me what you think?
ReplyDelete