RP-Critique/Support/Self Monitoring Club

[Lambert]

Sign me up too. Been role playing for about 20 years, but I'll all for constructive criticism. My specialty are wood elves, human priests, and evil rogue/mages.

[Laurk]

For you for whom english is not your fist language, I think playing a foriegner is an excellent adaptation. It makes the character much more believable.

[FunkenGruuvin]

Self-Critique here:

I was involved in some great RP at the (?)Battle Camp(?) this morning.
Since then, I've been to work and mulled it over and I'd have to say I failed at the end of it all. Felicia, a barely literate Wild Child Wood Elf suddenly blurted out in Draconic, leading to a lucid conversation between her and two others. Well, that took the character in a direction I didn't want her to go in. Also, a lovely Elf Lady named Dajala buffed Fel to the nines. Upon reflection, Felicia, having never witnessed anything other than divine/druidic type rituals didn't say "Thank you Lady", she screamed in terror watching her skin be affected by the Spiderskin gabbled in (very broken) elvish at an unintelligable 200 MPH and lit out for the trees as if Dajala had just summoned a Demon and said to it "Snack time, spikey!"

So, Epic suxes for me in the last 5 minutes of an hour of great RP, thumbs up to all I was involved with and finally:

Does anyone have any good suggestions on how the hell I can fix this?

[DM Sword]

I think... and I am not a great rp-er by the way... that if you want to take it in that direction it is fine. Typically, if it is logical, it is good RP.(period) Although you might want to get to know Dajala a bit more, she is awesome *wink wink smile smile*.

[Entori]

only question is how a barely literate wild elf, knows draconic and not elven..

elves learn in the whom, and can speak and walk at birth........................


but no-body knows that..at all..

on the way to fix it, is wild elves, are generally very unsure of their kindred. and Spider skin really is a disgusting spell... so apologies !.. and i'm sure its not a screw up

Rp is creative so skys the limit.

[FunkenGruuvin]

only question is how a barely literate wild elf, knows draconic and not elven..

elves learn in the whom, and can speak and walk at birth........................

Yeah... still working that out. The point is, she is intelligent, not educated. She must have suffered some trauma at some time, causing her to loose some parts of her psyche. Still working that out, really. When she was asked 'How many seasons do you remember" she replied, looking to the sky and ticking them off on her fingers; "Four. Summertime. Falltime. Springtime and...... Snowtime."

I think Fel is going to develop very well and I'd credit all the players I interact with with infulencing that development in a positive way. Thanks to all of you!


BTW: It's 'womb'... sorry. Can't help it.

[Entori]

hee hee on another server they've given me the crown of typo king....


"Grandlroe Master of Tpypos" I believe is what they edited my signature to be.


there are lots of magical items that in one fails the intelligence check you get feeble minded... just for a heads up cursed items are always cool and unique story lines.

[FunkenGruuvin]

Actually, thanks to Meri for advancing her plotline: Turns out Fel was Cursed sometime in the past by an Evil Priestess. Scrambled her Literary Centre I guess....

Now if she can just get Dhiim's Dale to stop hitting on her.....

[Ayren]

A weapons master, is almost by definiation someone who views combat as an aesthetic means to improve their fighting style. The film "seven samurai" contains what is arguably the most pure depiction of a weapons master. A man who refuses to engage in combat because it demeans the "art".

I think it's fair to say that a weapon master could simply be a warrior who has developed a deep affinity for the type of weapon he wields not necessarily some reluctant warrior pish posh.

Also your post made me think of this:

That's it. I'm sick of all this "Masterwork Bastard Sword" bullshit that's going on in the d20 system right now. Katanas deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.

I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine katana in Japan for 2,400,000 Yen (that's about $20,000) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even cut slabs of solid steel with my katana.

Japanese smiths spend years working on a single katana and fold it up to a million times to produce the finest blades known to mankind.

Katanas are thrice as sharp as European swords and thrice as hard for that matter too. Anything a longsword can cut through, a katana can cut through better. I'm pretty sure a katana could easily bisect a knight wearing full plate with a simple vertical slash.

Ever wonder why medieval Europe never bothered conquering Japan? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined Samurai and their katanas of destruction. Even in World War II, American soldiers targeted the men with the katanas first because their killing power was feared and respected.

So what am I saying? Katanas are simply the best sword that the world has ever seen, and thus, require better stats in the d20 system. Here is the stat block I propose for Katanas:

(One-Handed Exotic Weapon)
1d12 Damage
19-20 x4 Crit
+2 to hit and damage
Counts as Masterwork

(Two-Handed Exotic Weapon)
2d10 Damage
17-20 x4 Crit
+5 to hit and damage
Counts as Masterwork

Now that seems a lot more representative of the cutting power of Katanas in real life, don't you think?

tl;dr = Katanas need to do more damage in d20, see my new stat block.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Katanas_are_Underpowered_in_d20

Link to others.

[Chasted]

...You forgot the rest

[07paul87]

...what? I'm pretty sure that medieval Europeans didn't conquer Japan because, well, it was largely undiscovered by the west.

Also, there is no magical superpowers with katanas IRL. Sure, they may have been crafted really, really well, but to say they were three times as sharp is silly. The exact smithing practices for many weapons have been lost through the course of time, including Japanese and European (particularly German and Spanish) techniques.

As far as shooting the katana-wielding soldiers first, most sword-toting Japanese were the officers. It's always good warring to kill off the person that others look to guidance for early. The katana was a part of the officer's dress uniform, and some brought them to the battlefield.

Also, lol@spending $20,000 on an archaic weapon to be *made.* As in, no historical value, just a shiny wall display. Oh, wait! He's been practicing with it for 2 WHOLE YEARS! And he can cut blocks of steel?! Holy shit! I'm amazed! No, wait, I'm calling bullshit.

The quoted poster sounds like a japanophile that has let his fandom blind his logic. Unfortunately, this is common when it comes to anything involving martial arts/Eastern shiznit.

EDIT: Hehehe, I guess I should have clicked the link before responding. Seems I missed out on a joke. I guess. Frankly, I'm quite confused.

[ragnarok1983]

Katanas, O-tachi's, etc are excellent weapons and are indeed capable of cutting steel... (if made by a halfway-decent blacksmith of the period)

Now saying that, one must take into consideration carbon content of the steel (hardness), density, shape, angle of the blade's approach, speed, and mass of the blade as well as the draw of the blade.

Yes it's possible, but would be simply ignorant with a 20k blade. Also the number of layers means little in comparison to the quality of the layers. The purpose of folding the steel and the way that they cooled the metal was to put hard, dense, and unfortunately brittle steel in the center, to be surrounded by flexible supportive steel on the outside. This made a durable blade that one could hone to be razor sharp.

You can get any blade razor sharp, but a high-carbide blade will hold that edge much longer. If you want to consider that a "sharper" weapon, than it won't be entirely incorrect... after slashing at something.

And yes, medieval Europe was more concerned with crusades, the holy land, invasion, and religion to be much worried about Japan.

Oh, and not too much has been lost as far as the art of crafting the blade goes. There are still a couple (and literally a couple) of exceptionally well-trained artisans left. There's a specific name for them that escapes me at the moment though.

[ragnarok1983]

For those of you that want to apply real world physics and ideas to a game though... you guys can just scoot now. hahaha. We have kukris and sickles and scythes as usable weapons. All of which would make a man *facepalm* on the battlefield.



Hmm... I didn't see the title of the thread... perhaps a move to a new thread is warranted.

aaaaaaaand I missed the joke to. DANG IT!

[DM Sword]

There is a bit more to the crafting of the blade, the Japanese smiths were well ahead of their time. If you wanted to find a similar process it would now be called pattern welding. They also quenched the blade differently from the edge to the blunt side. Resulting in a hard martensite edge and a softer pearlite on the opposite side. This, and the folding is what gave the blade their distinctive wavy patterns. The folding helped distribute the carbon content evenly. I've taken several materials engineering courses, and I must say I am quite impressed by what they could do without a blast furnace.

[Ayren]

I hear the distinct noise of something whooshing over everyone's head.