I Hit It With My Axe: Episode 12: The Blind Stabbing The Blind

Noumenon

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Jun 6, 2010
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...maybe this deserves it's own thread. I'll put one up later.
If you do, put a link to it because I don't know anything about navigating the forums except going right here.

*edit* I just had a bit of a realization. Is it possibly that shows like this that actually let you "know" the people in front of the camera on porn makes you more eligible to pay for it?
Obviously if 1,000,000 people started watching this show, at least 1 of them would become a huge fan of one of the players and buy the porn of it. All name recognition leads to sales. Also, I would never go find a place to buy their porn if I just saw it as another video on YouPorn, but now I would be thinking, "Hey, I know the person who made that, I should drop a tip in their tip jar or something."

On the other hand, I have sort of a madonna-whore thing going on where I have such a big geek crush on the players I don't want to spoil it by looking up their porn. I'm more likely to buy Zak's book.

Ultimately it seems like they were going to be doing it anyway and it only has taken about 16 hours of their time each (not counting Zak's time) so it might possibly make sense from a business perspective if the show's audience gets super large. But they're clearly not doing it only as a promotional tool, so if any of us buys their porn it's more like gravy for both of us -- they earn money and we learn about porn we would have liked if we knew it existed.

Mandy writes her own blog, but do you guys think that building this kind of rapport with the consumer might help sales?
Whoa... I didn't know she had a blog. And I love the question-and-answer format she's chosen to write it in (unless it's really a transcript of talking to Zak or something).
 

mandymorbid

Blindheim!
Mar 17, 2010
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Noumenon said:
btw -- this "2 hit points" thing really makes me wonder. Characters like that are so fragile, yet they all survive all these scary things. I haven't been able to put my finger on any DM cheating for them, unless it gets cut out.
The reason everyone has survived the 3 sessions you've seen so far (one with Sasha, 2 with Justine) is mostly because my character is a 4th level cleric with 11 hit-points who keeps healing everyone. However, as you will see in a few episodes, there are limits to what I can do...
 

Eversor01

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May 20, 2010
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mandymorbid said:
Noumenon said:
btw -- this "2 hit points" thing really makes me wonder. Characters like that are so fragile, yet they all survive all these scary things. I haven't been able to put my finger on any DM cheating for them, unless it gets cut out.
The reason everyone has survived the 3 sessions you've seen so far (one with Sasha, 2 with Justine) is mostly because my character is a 4th level cleric with 11 hit-points who keeps healing everyone. However, as you will see in a few episodes, there are limits to what I can do...
You never know though, DM saves alot of the time aren't noticed by players... probably noticed even less by people who only get to see 5 minutes of the session every week. Still some of those creatures hes putting you against would normally mop the floor with a group at your level (that is i assume the spider people are driders that have been nerfed). Granted a good healer will keep a party alive though most things so maybe your pro nerd more than we give you credit

On a complete side note it's a shame to see the hair go Mandy, was diggin seeing something that different on someone.

EDIT: Bad gramma etc
 

Satine Phoenix

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Thing Fish said:
Watching this series actually persuaded me to start playing, so yea, I'm a bit new to D&D. Looking forward the next episode.
Awesome! That's what I like to hear. Tell all your friends because its a Fraking RAD game!

~ Satine
 

mandymorbid

Blindheim!
Mar 17, 2010
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Eversor01 said:
Granted a good healer will keep a party alive though most things so maybe your pro nerd more than we give you credit
That would fit the general theme--we don't get credit for knowing what's going on. When my friends get knocked unconscious, I heal them. Because I am not stupid.

Zak has very little interest in artificially prolonging players' lives or promoting "story moments"--just read his blog. He always rolls the dice in the open and goes "alright, if I roll a 4 or higher, you die" things like that, all the time. He likes things unpredictable.'

In fact, someone dies in the session right after this one, in case you didn't notice the hint above.
 

Mordicai Caeli

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May 1, 2010
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mandymorbid said:
That would fit the general theme--we don't get credit for knowing what's going on. When my friends get knocked unconscious, I heal them. Because I am not stupid.
Waaaaiiiit a minute...are you suggesting that girls are...as good at things...as....boys...nah, that's craaaazy.
 

Eversor01

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May 20, 2010
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Mordicai Caeli said:
Waaaaiiiit a minute...are you suggesting that girls are...as good at things...as....boys...nah, that's craaaazy.
Theres no racial stat bonus either way so yea
 

d23

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May 28, 2010
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I love seeing how this series has been panning out.


Eversor01 said:
Mordicai Caeli said:
Waaaaiiiit a minute...are you suggesting that girls are...as good at things...as....boys...nah, that's craaaazy.
Theres no racial stat bonus either way so yea

I don't mean to come off as being sexist or anything, but I'm afraid girls have some shortcomings in comparison to guys...

...take -4 save vs kittens for example.
 

chepenoyo

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Apr 16, 2010
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d23 said:
...take -4 save vs kittens for example.
C'mon, man, the game designers clearly balanced that one on the guy's side with a -4 save vs. expensive technology.
 

Eversor01

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chepenoyo said:
d23 said:
...take -4 save vs kittens for example.
C'mon, man, the game designers clearly balanced that one on the guy's side with a -4 save vs. expensive technology.
Thats not really balanced though, theres no kitten on the random encoutner table... maybe a hellcat but those freaken things are invis anyway so can't see it is a cat. Expencive technology though, i'd say just about every construct falls into that catagory
 

Noumenon

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When talking about the two hit points I had in mind this post from Dave Noonan [http://nnnooner.blogspot.com/2009/03/so-where-did-these-roles-come-from_14.html] where he argued that the original, 2 hp wizard was mathematically impossible to keep alive. Unless the DM and the fighters arranged for the wizard not to get his fair share of hits -- and thus was born the notion of "tanking," he says.

But I see that his discussion doesn't really apply here, because he is talking about a ruleset that had characters dying at 0 hp. If you have 3.5's buffer from 0 to -10, and some healing, then it doesn't absolutely require handholding to keep you alive. (It's still too risky for us, though -- we start new characters at level 2.)
 

clovezombie

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May 27, 2010
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* walks in and places down soapbox, pulls himself up *

There are a ton of reasons to allow players to live in a RPG. Things like story, morale of the group. I have been a DM for 29yrs and in that time i can tell you one thing. Just killing of characters because "the dice say so" is bad policy. As DM you have an infinite amount of time to kill off PCs. But in a good game of D&D death is suppose to be epic. You don't just kill off the party, or you will find yourself alone in the room. So please be kind, rules are made to be broken. Especially if they add to the overall vision of the story. Think of it as a "script re-write". Thank you.

* Jumps off soapbox and drags it away *
 

chepenoyo

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Eversor01 said:
Thats not really balanced though, theres no kitten on the random encoutner table... maybe a hellcat but those freaken things are invis anyway so can't see it is a cat. Expencive technology though, i'd say just about every construct falls into that catagory
Oh, random encounter table, sure, but who baits a trap with a golem?

Noumenon said:
...he is talking about a ruleset that had characters dying at 0 hp. If you have 3.5's buffer from 0 to -10, and some healing...
In my house games, I play Rase Dead as being very rare and having complications. The counterbalance is that you can go not just to -10 (which has been in D&D since the original hardbacks if not earlier) but all the way down to negative (your constitution + double your level). This counterbalances the fact that -10 stays a constant number while the hits keep getting harder and harder. Out of the book, the increasing ease of raise dead as the party gains in levels is meant to counterbalance this, but I prefer to keep death maximally fearsome, so even if you can find someone to cast Raise Dead in my campaign, there will likely be consequences.

clovezombie said:
Just killing of characters because "the dice say so" is bad policy. As DM you have an infinite amount of time to kill off PCs. But in a good game of D&D death is suppose to be epic.*
That's one viewpoint, but the downside of playing this way is that the players don't have the spice of fear in normal encounters. Playing this way can really take the edge off the game.
 

clovezombie

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Randomly killing off characters does not inspire fear it inspires boredom. I am not saying there should be no consequences to low health; comma etc. can provide new plot points and new directions for the story to go. But to just kill off the characters is dull game play at best. If you let the players die like NPC store clerks they will not value their lives or want to take risks.
 

Eversor01

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chepenoyo said:
Eversor01 said:
Thats not really balanced though, theres no kitten on the random encoutner table... maybe a hellcat but those freaken things are invis anyway so can't see it is a cat. Expencive technology though, i'd say just about every construct falls into that catagory
Oh, random encounter table, sure, but who baits a trap with a golem?

Noumenon said:
...he is talking about a ruleset that had characters dying at 0 hp. If you have 3.5's buffer from 0 to -10, and some healing...
In my house games, I play Rase Dead as being very rare and having complications. The counterbalance is that you can go not just to -10 (which has been in D&D since the original hardbacks if not earlier) but all the way down to negative (your constitution + double your level). This counterbalances the fact that -10 stays a constant number while the hits keep getting harder and harder. Out of the book, the increasing ease of raise dead as the party gains in levels is meant to counterbalance this, but I prefer to keep death maximally fearsome, so even if you can find someone to cast Raise Dead in my campaign, there will likely be consequences.

clovezombie said:
Just killing of characters because "the dice say so" is bad policy. As DM you have an infinite amount of time to kill off PCs. But in a good game of D&D death is suppose to be epic.*
That's one viewpoint, but the downside of playing this way is that the players don't have the spice of fear in normal encounters. Playing this way can really take the edge off the game.
When my party is high enough level you bet your ass i'm gunna bait a trap with a golem, that shit would be halerious. Unfortunatly they are level 2 and TPK last session due to a constuct critting the one main threat to it and general party failing (mainly the healer waiting for people to be unconcious to heal them not just doing it when the tank is on 5 hp).

The buffers not a bad idea but my people usually start spamming hardcore to get in effect a massive bonus on HP. Screwing roudn with raise dead is always fun, or pushing them towards reincarnate instead, a fighter may fear death or loss of a limb, but the fear of coming back as a gnome is much worse.

And if my players didn't think their lives were in serious risk when fighting town guard or the like they would probably just screw round with it. We had an old DM who tried keeping players alive and it just frustrates the party in the long run. Better a consistent approach so one player doesn't take it personally that they get chopped up or sold into slavery.

Once again posting at some stupid time in the morning so not rechecking what i've writen, dunno if these forums are patroled by the gramma nazi's but ya << my disclaimer
 

clovezombie

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May 27, 2010
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The groups I played with are writer/artists they wanted a great story...

We used a book (second addition Greyhawk Adventures) that allowed them to play their characters from apprenticeship to level 1 ( referred to as a "Less than Zero" group). Experience was replaced with raw stats (6 for base; 12 for your best(you get one "appitude" like Dex); controlled by your potential 4d6). So the whole group had 3hp apiece or less(and think how resilient children are... ). Basically imagine all the trouble you got into as a kid and imagine doing it in a realm like D&D (rogue goblin bosses etc). But after fleshing out their childhood (like why your character has that big scar on their right arm), when they died they felt like they lost a part of them.

However they loved it so much i spent many a night with Little Ceasers pizza and 2 Liter bottles of Jolt Cola running "Less than Zero" campaigns. All groups vary and what my friends found fun may bore you. I just think that killing off level 2 characters while some of them are still learning the game is not fun. Opinions and Millage may vary.
 

rddj623

"Breathe Deep, Seek Peace"
Sep 28, 2009
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Thing Fish said:
Watching this series actually persuaded me to start playing, so yea, I'm a bit new to D&D. Looking forward the next episode.
Welcome to the game!

Satine Phoenix said:
Awesome! That's what I like to hear. Tell all your friends because its a Fraking RAD game! ~ Satine
You said "Fraking" and that makes me really happy :)

OT: Loved this episode! More cool DnD action as well a some fun banter. Keep up the good work Zak et. all :)