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Oinodaemon's "Into The Darkness" RPG Review

Oinodaemon's "Into The Darkness" RPG Review

This will be the official Q&A page for Oinodaemon's "Into the Darkness". Any questions not directly related to In Game: events should be posted here. This is also a review thread. My goal when playing Dungeons & Dragons is to involve the players as much as possible. The world is shaped by the player as much as the Dungeon Master when all is said and done, and I try to use that. I have been Dungeon Mastering Dungeons & Dragons for friends in tabletop sessions for 10 years, but I am still new to the play by post system. I am very used to new players, and have introduced many people from many walks of life to Tabletop role-playing games. Hope you enjoy it!

Review RPG Darknessquot quotInto Oinodaemons

In answer to your question, Bruconero, your character may attempt any action, regardless of training. What I mean is, anyone with two working hands could stick a pick in a lock and at least try to open it. They won't do it nearly as well as someone trained (Deft Hands feat for instance), but they can still make the attempt. Ability scores determine success, for the most part. Rogues get an automatic +4 to lockpicking, disarm traps, etc,Magic Users get an automatic +4 to any spellcraft checks, +6 if it regards their specialty. I could go on, but the important thing is that your character may TRY to do anything they could realistically do in the situation.

Oinodaemon's "Into The Darkness" RPG Review Reviews RPG & Card Board

Yup, that's true also for Dungeons&Dragons (save few exceptions) but is hard to make choices without knowing the chances you have to succeed in something. For instance: I want to climb a cliff. Probably I know how hard is the climb but I don't know exactly how good I am at it and, therefore, I have only a vague idea of how much risk I'm taking doing it.

Review RPG Darknessquot quotInto Oinodaemons

[Strength] check per 10 ft modified by circumstance. For your character, with 15 [Strength], on a good climbing surface with lots of handholds, you would need 15 or lower on a d20 for the first check, dropping 1 point per check. So you would have a 75% success rate for climbing 10 ft up a wall with good climbing conditions, 70% at 20 ft, etc. A character with 5 [Strength] would obviously have 25% chance. Most rolls work on this system, unless its a roll vs someone else like grapple. Jump works more or less the same way, varying by distance and conditions. As a general rule, take whatever stat governs the action, a roll of that stat through half that stat is a moderate success, half that stat or lower is a complete success. When I say +4 I mean -4 but I think it looks better as a plus. -Spellcraft checks for your character will almost never fail, unless modified by conditions. Also certain things like lockpicking may get modifiers based on the quality of the lock.

Just a side note, I have the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual's 1 and 2, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, and the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters guide (the last of which I only required recently). I grew up with the players handbook, but didn't understand the rules without the Dungeon Master's guide, so I had to improvise. After 10 years, I have my own system almost entirely worked out. I don't know why I'm telling you this, just making conversation, I guess. Oh, my map is up, also.

Edited: Oinodaemon on 2nd Mar, 2013 - 5:11am

Review RPG Darknessquot quotInto Oinodaemons

That's great. It means you didn't change the skills type from the original Dungeons & Dragons (I mean which stat governs what)? As for the monsters, I doubt you will be able to use those manuals for something more than just get some ideas out of them. I always used the 2nd edition and I tried to convert some monsters to the 3.5e: not possible. Everything is different. You will have the same problem, I believe. Just adapting them will unbalance greatly the amount of xp they grant (sometimes too much, sometimes too few). Most of their abilities will become meaningless also.

Oinodaemon's "Into The Darkness" RPG Review

I have a custom monster list. Same monsters, for the most part, different stats, for the most part. And yea, the stats which govern skills are the same.

Edited: Oinodaemon on 2nd Mar, 2013 - 7:12pm

Oinodaemon's "Into Darkness" RPG Review

Hey, man, I just wanted to drop a couple of thoughts here. I was not sure about writing this in your introduction thread or here but in the end I decided this is maybe the most appropriate place.
I just wanted to tell you to not give up or get disappointed if you don't get many players for your game in the beginning. That's normal. When I started my game, it took me 20 days (more or less) from when I posted the setting to the first character approval.
That was a particular time, the Member Wars board was not active: the only game running had just lost his Master and also that game was lagging since long time and counted only three players left in it.
I started my setting and I got one of my companions in the dead game (iCon) and another old member of this website (Krusten). Once we started, people kept joining. Because the important thing here is showing you are serious and active. I'm talking about my experience because you can see the game having many players now, but the beginning was not easy. Just keep it going and you will have an active and entertaining game running.

Oinodaemon's "Into Darkness" RPG Review Board Card & RPG Reviews

Thanks dude, I appreciate that. I haven't felt discouraged yet, probably due to the support I've been recieving from you and the mods, which I am very grateful for, by the way. I plan on remaining active and keeping the game moving as best I can, hopefully we'll get more players before too long. I have a friend who is supposed to be registering today, possibly I'll have him in game tomorrow. My work schedule just changed, so my posts may become somewhat less frequent, although I will still be posting at least twice a day. Seriously, though, thanks for all the support, bro, I really appreciate it.

I'm waiting 'til this evening to post in game, I have to go to work soon and I don't want to be distracted when responding in game. One last thing, I have been taking this very seriously. I know other Dungeon Master's have simply disappeared. I would never do that. Play by Post is the best way for me to participate in my favorite hobby, considering I live in isolation. In some ways, I think I prefer the play by post system rather than IRL games. I have all the time I need to figure out exactly what someone is going to say or do. My point: even if I do get discouraged, I'm not giving up.

Edited: Oinodaemon on 3rd Mar, 2013 - 8:34pm