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Post by Laena Pyre on Oct 15, 2020 15:45:50 GMT 1
My sister tested positive a few days back. She's fine so far, but I'm more worried about when my young nieces get it. And if she's passed it on to our elderly parents (they live close to each other and meet regularly).
And I'm job-hunting.
But hey, at least I have my health. It's just the stress of waiting to see if, how, & when the Sword of Damocles-19 will fall. Though I don't want to complain: if 2020 has proved anything, it's that things can always get worse, so I prefer to focus on the positive.
Edit: In case anyone was curious, the whole family made it through fine.
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Post by Daeron Wildfyre on Oct 15, 2020 23:13:02 GMT 1
I had a scare at work last week that turned out to be *just* influenza, but I live in South Dakota which is one of the worst states per capita now and I work about a mile from the Smithfield plant which was the biggest hotspot in the US (if not the world) earlier this year. My customers all have this delightful habit where they have to lick their fingers before handing me literally anything, or where they'll pull down their mask to cough on their hands before touching everything around me. It's a miracle that I've not gotten sick yet.
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Post by Balon Blackbriar on Oct 15, 2020 23:34:14 GMT 1
I had a scare at work last week that turned out to be *just* influenza, but I live in South Dakota which is one of the worst states per capita now and I work about a mile from the Smithfield plant which was the biggest hotspot in the US (if not the world) earlier this year. My customers all have this delightful habit where they have to lick their fingers before handing me literally anything, or where they'll pull down their mask to cough on their hands before touching everything around me. It's a miracle that I've not gotten sick yet. Blood of the Midwestern: +1 to effective Endurance when resisting disease.
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Post by Roland Cordwayner on Oct 16, 2020 11:05:32 GMT 1
My sister tested positive a few days back. She's fine so far, but I'm more worried about when my young nieces get it. And if she's passed it on to our elderly parents (they live close to each other and meet regularly). And I'm job-hunting. But hey, at least I have my health. It's just the stress of waiting to see if, how, & when the Sword of Damocles-19 will fall. Though I don't want to complain: if 2020 has proved anything, it's that things can always get worse, so I prefer to focus on the positive. That is rotten - very tough environment to job hunt in and hope this is a pleasant distraction at times. All of the "This too shall pass" stuff might be true, but it doesn't tend to help much in the moment. Share your parental concern - younger folk seem relatively robust (albeit still some long term consequences or worse in that group). If anything a relief I suppose, as some previous epidemics have had higher infant mortality. You're doing well to take the "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think" attitude.
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Post by Davos Dayne on Oct 31, 2020 15:09:36 GMT 1
Has anyone tried the Pendragon system? I don't know much about it but from what little I have heard it seems like it might make an interesting basis for a ASoIaF game with a greater emphasis on house progression.
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Post by Laena Pyre on Oct 31, 2020 19:03:15 GMT 1
I have quite a few of the books, though I've not actually *played* them.
I think the first problem you'd hit would be you'd need to a fair amount of work converting the settings. The system is *very* integrated into the King Arthur setting.
I think the second main problem is that the system is *very* focused around being an honourable, albeit flawed, knight in a fairly strict chivalric system (which is somewhat 'larger than life'). You don't always have control over your character's actions - they are occasionally dictated by your passions, etc. If your character is the kind of world-weary, cynical knight that Westeros has so often, I suspect you'll end up fighting the system as much as you would anyone else.
For example, it makes a point that there's no intelligence/wisdom-type score, there's only: Size, Dex, Strength, Constitution & Appearance. So, it doesn't really serve schemers well (though having said that, there are separate rules for generating female PCs, with their own skill list, so it's not *entirely* unsupported).
Now, it's been a long time since I read through my books, I've just skimmed over a bit for this, but from what I've seen, if you want to do a Reach-centric campaign limiting the PCs to honourable knights and ladies, I think it could work, with a not-horrendous amount of conversion. Dishonourable scheming NPCs shouldn't be a problem. The further you stray from that concept, the worse of a time I think you'll have.
All that is just from a quick skim, though. Others with more experience may have more input.
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Post by Davos Dayne on Nov 1, 2020 14:54:01 GMT 1
Hm. Sounds like it might work better to lift the game structure (winter court, family rolls, etc) and integrate it with a different system.
That's actually the context I learned of Pendragon - the annual structure & family development aspects grafted onto Battletech (which despite being a very different genre has a good deal of feudalism in it's setting).
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Post by Laena Pyre on Nov 1, 2020 19:03:20 GMT 1
Can't comment on the Battletech similarities, but I assume that could work. Personally, if I wanted to include some kind of 'house management' in one of my games, I'd look to Reign, or the Legends of Anglerre (for FATE - sadly, last I checked, it was no longer available, I believe due to licence expiry, but if you could find a second-hand copy, the base book has rules for organisations, and the Companion has rules explicitly for families), since both have that kind of system 'baked in', no house-ruling required, and the more consistent the rules are (rather than having different systems for different parts), the easier I find it. For ASoIaF particularly, Reign would probably be the better fit. YMMV, of course.
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Post by Balon Blackbriar on Nov 1, 2020 21:47:08 GMT 1
I think something more House progression based would be fun for certain settings. Take Dune for example. How does your house stack up against the other Great Houses of the Landsraad over the millennia.
If you're looking for realistic try England during the Hundred Years war and War of the Roses. Will the 9th Earl of Northumberlandshiresussex bring his house to fortune or ruin?
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Post by Davos Dayne on Nov 1, 2020 23:37:30 GMT 1
I do love me some Dune, but it doesn't have the same periodic 'questing knight' aspect - there aren't really regular tourneys or adventures or the like. The frequent interaction between the houses it what makes it (in my opinion) viable as an RPG. Otherwise it would be more like a boardgame. Nothing wrong with that (I quite like boardgames) but it is a different experience.
I will definitely look into Reign and the Legends of Anglerre.
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Post by Daeron Wildfyre on Nov 26, 2020 17:36:23 GMT 1
Happy American Thanksgiving y’all!
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Post by Davos Dayne on Nov 26, 2020 18:18:18 GMT 1
Taking the day in the spirit intended rather than a reduction to historic facts or modern traditions... I am thankful to Father and all of you for making this game a wonderful and rewarding experience. Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate, Happy Thursday to those that do not; I hope everyone in both groups enjoy some delicious food today
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Post by Balon Blackbriar on Nov 26, 2020 18:21:12 GMT 1
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Post by Balon Blackbriar on Nov 27, 2020 6:05:17 GMT 1
Taking the day in the spirit intended rather than a reduction to historic facts or modern traditions... I am thankful to Father and all of you for making this game a wonderful and rewarding experience. Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate, Happy Thursday to those that do not; I hope everyone in both groups enjoy some delicious food today Every night when I put the kiddos to bed we say prayers and afterwards they have to tell me three things that they were grateful for over the course of the day. In the spirt of Thanksgiving I will do a 3 Gratefuls; Great Bastards edition. 1) I'm grateful for Father running this game. I can't comprehend what he goes through on a daily basis, let alone over the last couple years. 2) I'm grateful for the players, especially those that have been here since launch. I read every post in every thread and their writings and ideas are great and make me feel like a mongoloid at times. 3) I'm grateful Balon is alive... somehow. I understand I'm tempting fate by writing that before Battle Valley. My dream is to see this thing through to the end. The Hightower Regency. Lord Piggy. Offseason shenanigans. The Blackfyre Rebellion. Win or lose,
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Post by Laena Pyre on Dec 24, 2020 20:23:37 GMT 1
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and who are actually celebrating it. (In our family, we're actually delaying it by a few months, since new restrictions came in recently which made the travel to meet up ... difficult, let's say.) Still, at this time of year, I feel we can all look back and agree... Yeah, 2016 wasn't *that* bad, after all. Merry Crisis, and a Happy New Fear, everyone!
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