Pro and Contra after my campaign

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    • Pro and Contra after my campaign

      So, hello again, i wasn't here a rather long time, sorry.
      After finishing my campaign, wwhich lastet for 1 year and two month, i want to talk about some pros and contras i and my players discovered, first the Contras:

      - We agreed, that the SciFi Parts in Darduna history are just not fitting, there would be better just a fantasy setting.
      - We would really like to have more information about the countries, since there are just really really short summaries in the Glossar.
      - There were several Problems with fighting: First: It is really work-intensive to make a nice fight. As soon as there are more than four combatants the system begins to be not playable due to calculating combat Actions, and initiative. I wanted a fluid fight, so i got rid of Combat Actions in bigger fight in Order to get more dynamic and i made a constant initiative. Moreover we just not used the combat location table, Players and I just couldn't read it properly. If there was a special attack to any Bodypart i gave a spontanous modifier and told effects. It was just easier and as much flavoured as the combat location table.
      - I as GM would have liked to get more hints for how the dream realm looks like. I just had the Example of dreamwalking, but that was for the special situation. A nice tiny list of flavour would be nice.
      - The skill list is sometime rather repetative. There are 6 skills for negotiating (Diplomatics, Bribery, Bargain, Conversation, Persuasion and Oratory) but none for valuating other Janahs intentions, whether they lie or not and such (except for maybe Empathy, which is no skill)
      - The map of Darduna in the book is not really usable, because the big gap in the middle just prevents from getting an overview of the true map. I got the digital map, which is really much more helpful!
      - We all buyed the Basic compendium, but one of my players said, the binding of his book already breaks. It is just 3 month old, thats rather early. Mine however is rather fine, except of some places on the edges of the binding.

      pros:
      - We had really many ideas in Charakter Creation. There were so many possibilities in the animals and the professions, that the ideas just flooded in!
      - The idea of ritual magic, which is really powerful but dangerous and time taking is very interesting. It is just different from "spontanous spellcasting" in other systems, so the players maybe have to deal without magic in a surprising situation.
      - The idea of Suthra is very fascinating, there were so many ideas of using them, that i decided to play a Suthra Master next Adventure.
      - We also had much good ideas and fun with crystal weapons and some magic bound on them (artifacts), at the beginning i concentrated on that, even if there is also very nice chitinwork.
      - The indian like setting is also something very new and nice. There are just many ways of awesome architecture and religious flavour!
      - there are also many other positive things, but that were the main ones.

      In Conclusion:
      We really enjoyed playing shard and will continue playing it. But we will also change some rules for more dynamic.
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      Originally posted by Terralux
      - I as GM would have liked to get more hints for how the dream realm looks like. I just had the Example of dreamwalking, but that was for the special situation. A nice tiny list of flavour would be nice.
      .


      The Realm of Dreams is just that, a place of thoughts and dreams. It can look like anything you can imagine, but should in part be based on the desires of the dream walker and/or the subject, or zoic, being viewed, and it should appear differently every time. It is a chance to let your imagination run wild. For one dream walker, it might be nothing more than billowing clouds, or fog; for another it could be a temple, a glade, the heart of a raging storm, the depths of space, or anything else you can think of. The dream walkers could appear as themselves, motes of light like will'o'wisps, fish, suthra, even someone other than themselves. It all depends on what you want the flavour of each journey to be.
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      Well, yes, but its hard to make it special every time without some notes, that could happen. For example: If the seer is somehow sad while he enters the dream, there could a rainy day, or a quiet lake, or also a destroyed temple, he could were some black or blue robes and so on. Just some hints to help to imagine. It would especially be helpful, when players unexpectedly go to the dream realm. It sometimes is hard to pull a good dream out of nothing, that is also connected to the situation!

      Also, there are more points to discuss. ;)
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      - We agreed, that the SciFi Parts in Darduna history are just not fitting, there would be better just a fantasy setting.

      It's not hard to leave the sci-fi aspect out, since that part is beyond the knowledge of the Janah. However, leaving it out also cuts off some possible storylines. For example, what if Corporate Security managed to make it through hyperspace, arriving in the present time, even though they entered at the same time as the Naga Sena? Would passing through the Realm of Dreams have changed them? If so, how? If not, do they still have their ship,and technology? How would the Janah react to The Great Devourer having arrived on Dardunah? The possibilities are endless. (Even Dungeons and Dragons, being a fantasy setting, has dealt with Scifi elements. Spacecraft have been to Mystara. There are connections to modern Earth, and even the old west, in official game settings.)

      - We would really like to have more information about the countries, since there are just really really short summaries in the Glossar.

      This information is most likely in the World Book. I'd like this information myself. We just need to be patient.

      - There were several Problems with fighting: First: It is really work-intensive to make a nice fight. As soon as there are more than four combatants the system begins to be not playable due to calculating combat Actions, and initiative. I wanted a fluid fight, so i got rid of Combat Actions in bigger fight in Order to get more dynamic and i made a constant initiative. Moreover we just not used the combat location table, Players and I just couldn't read it properly. If there was a special attack to any Bodypart i gave a spontanous modifier and told effects. It was just easier and as much flavoured as the combat location table.

      I haven't had a chance to run a game yet, so I don't know how smoothly the combat runs. But you've already taken care of that problem by adapting the rules to your own needs. I will probably keep the initiative the same throughout the whole combat, myself, in order to cut down on rolls.

      - The skill list is sometime rather repetative. There are 6 skills for negotiating (Diplomatics, Bribery, Bargain, Conversation, Persuasion and Oratory) but none for valuating other Janahs intentions, whether they lie or not and such (except for maybe Empathy, which is no skill)

      A simple way of discerning whether a lie is detected or not would be a straight Wits check against the successes rolled by the person telling the lie. Empathy would just provide a bonus to the roll.

      - The map of Darduna in the book is not really usable, because the big gap in the middle just prevents from getting an overview of the true map. I got the digital map, which is really much more helpful!

      Each of the pages on the map in the book shows overlap of the other page, so it could be photocopied and combined to get the complete map. In my opinion, though, the official world map is easily worth the cost. I bought it, and I was not disappointed.

      - We all buyed the Basic compendium, but one of my players said, the binding of his book already breaks. It is just 3 month old, thats rather early. Mine however is rather fine, except of some places on the edges of the binding.

      This is a problem every publisher has. Sometimes there is just a flaw in the binding process that affects a few books out of every shipment. When I bought my first edition Dungeon Master's Guide for Advanced D&D, it had binding problems, as did the main book for another RPG that I bought many years later. Clear tape is your friend.
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      - We all buyed the Basic compendium, but one of my players said, the binding of his book already breaks. It is just 3 month old, thats rather early. Mine however is rather fine, except of some places on the edges of the binding.


      Please, have your player with the broken book send me a Private Message on these forums, and I'll talk to them about getting a new one shipped out right away! I hate hearing about book troubles, and I certainly like to fix it whenever possible... As Grymmly said, these things can happen, but as long as supplies last I'd love to take care of it...

      What I usually have folks with broken books do is send me back the broken one (we like to see how the book broke to help avoid future flaws), and I'll send them a new book as well as a PDF copy of our Basic Compendium...

      Please let me know!

      Scottie ^^
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      I have told him, what you said. He wanted to register next days. His usual Nicknames are Yarrek and Grom. I don't know which one he will take. ^^'

      Grymmly:
      SciFi: As said, we left the sci fi out because they didn't really fit.

      Countries: I wanted also to mention, that it would be better, if more of these information would be in the Basic book, because its coreinformation to make own adventures and Campaign, since there aren't many online.

      Fighting: Yes, i did change them, but maybe Scottie is also interested to fix this problems officially, so no one has to change them themselfes (or, if he has no Problems with them, how he plays with them) ;)

      Skills: But then you can just detect lies, if you are very genius. It would also be interesting to have a rather normal charakter, who can just detekt someones aims.

      Map: I know how it works, that doesn't make it a good map, since you cannot overiew it that good. Maybe a sharp cut would have been better for a good overview?

      Binding: See above. ^^
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      I don't have the book in front of me, but I would allow either Diplomacy or Conversation (combined with Empathy) to be used to try and discern if someone was lying.

      Diplomacy would be used to evaluate encounters with members of opposing factions/nations and try and tell if their representatives were telling the truth (diplomats should be able to try and guess if someone they are dealing with is lying to them, after all).

      Conversation would be used by spies, informants, courtiers, investigators, or anyone who should be skilled in using conversational skills to extract information (including the truth) from someone, and should therefore be allowed to be used to discern if someone was telling the truth.

      That's how I would handle that situation.

      -Aaron
    • RE: Pro and Contra after my campaign

      That's right!

      The methods described by both Aaron as well as Grymmly are excellent ways to go in the case of attempting to detect lies...

      One thing to consider, though,...is that the reason we never actually created a specific "lie detection" Skill, is that in real life there is no such skill (at least, not one that has ever been perfected, even with the use of machinery and science, that is absolutely dependable and accurate)... It's never really possible to tell if someone is absolutely lying until after hard evidence of the lie (or truth) manifests one way or the other,...and by then it's too late (and you don't need a skill to tell it's a lie, at that point)...

      Though SHARD has many different Skills, including those that have magical and super-human properties, when it comes to "basic natural skills" that reflect everyday events and concerns, we like to keep it as "real" as possible, so as to reflect the kinds of normal challenges that characters would often be facing in their day-to-day lives, including subterfuge, lying, cheating, and other such things...that folks get away with all the time because it's so hard to tell when it's actually going on,...and it's especially hard to prove it until it's way too late...

      Scottie ^^
    • Okay, i think i can deal with it.

      Nevertheless, there are some repitative skills. So maybe you should think about it again. Its nice, that there is some place left for skills not in the actual table. Maybe it would also be good, if any Skills in the Skill List would be erased, except of Basic starting skills. So any charakter can make his Skilllist where are just the ones he has purchased and can use. (Just a suggestion, that came to my mind).

      PS: I used the word "skill" to often in the post o.0
    • The important thing to remember, Terralux, is that the rules are only guidelines. We would hope that players would play with the rules and adjust them to fit their own personal play styles. That includes anything in character creation, whether that be Skills or Animal Templates or Animal Abilities, what have you. If you feel some Skills are redundant, then simply eliminate the ones you feel are redundant. If you feel some Skills are missing, then make up new ones to fill in the gaps.

      Once you buy the Basic Compendium, the rules are yours. Do with them as you please. Change whatever you like. Add whatever you like. It's part of the fun (IMO) to play with rules systems and to tinker with the various mechanics. I always loved doing that with my favorite RPGs.

      So experiment! Play! Tinker! It's all good. :)

      -Aaron
    • Grymmly wrote:

      It's not hard to leave the sci-fi aspect out, since that part is beyond the knowledge of the Janah. However, leaving it out also cuts off some possible storylines. For example, what if Corporate Security managed to make it through hyperspace, arriving in the present time, even though they entered at the same time as the Naga Sena? Would passing through the Realm of Dreams have changed them? If so, how? If not, do they still have their ship,and technology? How would the Janah react to The Great Devourer having arrived on Dardunah? The possibilities are endless. (Even Dungeons and Dragons, being a fantasy setting, has dealt with Scifi elements. Spacecraft have been to Mystara. There are connections to modern Earth, and even the old west, in official game settings.)


      That idea sounds like the kind of campaign I would love to play!