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[Criptfeind]

*For reference, the Baleen Whaleman starts Large, with +8 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Con, +4 Wis, and +9 Natural Armor.  There are no penalties, unless you count being large as a penalty.  I'm pretty sure someone was high when they penned in LA+0. Aside from a constant need to stuff one's face with krill, they don't really have much of a drop side, or a decent reason why they haven't conquered the world with their bulging whale pecs.

I guess three levels of monstrous humanoid is sorta a downside. But yeah, savage species feels to me like they didn't try. I guess because it's suppose to be a general use template to apply to anything (which of course doesn't work, so they didn't try to make it work? That's the most generous reason I can think of for why it is how it is.)

Too bad, not easy to be the half fay catboi you know you need to be.

[Harry Baldman]

If you have 3 levels of monstrous humanoid, doesn't that imply an LA of at least +3?

[Criptfeind]

No, LA is different from getting HD. HD are actual things that give you hp and skill points and feats and can presumably interact with whatever systems normally interact with HD. LA is just an albatross around your exp gain and ecl.

[Harry Baldman]

I know they're different things, but what I meant there was that if you have racial HD you should have a level adjustment as well. For instance, if I leaf through Races of Stone, the feral gargun has 2 racial HD and an LA+2, while the stonechild has the same 2 racial HD and also LA+4.

So it's clearly not one-to-one, but the only thing I can picture there is some kind of terrible typo. Or possibly nobody really pays attention to miscellaneous races anyway (since the only thing they're really good for is NPC fodder since those don't give a shit about LA to begin with).

[Criptfeind]

Oh. Well. No. That's not how it works.

The non pc races really aren't typically balanced for actual play (at least in my opinion for most games, obviously for some games they are fine) so you more often see a mix of hd and la on high hd races simply because everything gets a lot of la slapped on it. But it's not a requirement that HD and LA go together I'm pretty sure. Just... Well, extremely common.

Edit: Although thinking about it, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head other then the savage species ones of races with +0 la and more then 1hd. So I guess it could be some sorta unwritten rule or something that whoever made the savage species didn't follow. That'd make sense. I don't think it's like, literally a rule of hd in any way. But yeah I get what you mean that it's a clear trend I guess... I can think of some races that have more (even way way more) hd then they have LA though. So 3 hd doesn't necessarily imply at least 3 la.

[Draignean]

I would say 5e personally would be best. Nothing to ridiculously stupid to throw you off your game and its a good starting point. Plus, roll20 has specific stuff put for 5e already, so thats nice.

If you do go with bay12, I suggest NOT doing roll20, as I've noticed people on bay12 can tend to drop off and never talk to you again (no idea why, but it happens).

Just be aware that running an online D&D game gets ridiculous in some cases. I've actually had a lot of problems in the online game I played because the DM brought in online friends he never met and it turned from a motley group of 4 mercenaries running a small guild, to a group of 5 bandits and rogues plus one do-gooder who are stuck saving the world because a world ending power got mad at them. And thats just from players coming and going. If you get a good group together, you're good.

Basically, I have two people who are pretty much guaranteed to continue, one more who will if the time schedule works for him (he moved to Japan), and a couple others who may, or may not, keep playing. I'd ideally love to get a group of 5 players, because five is a good number, and thus I can cherry pick my players pretty well. *Maniacal Laugh*

I'm really digging the Roll20 game I'm in that Fniff is DMing, but that's both a function of a good DM and a system that lets you forget you're using a system most of the time. PBP I've done quite a bit of, but it doesn't lend quite the same rapid-fire that you get in live chat games.

So it's clearly not one-to-one, but the only thing I can picture there is some kind of terrible typo. Or possibly nobody really pays attention to miscellaneous races anyway (since the only thing they're really good for is NPC fodder since those don't give a shit about LA to begin with).

Sadly, this is not the case. There are a half-dozen other anthropomorphic races from savage species with CRAZY GOOD stat bonuses in exchange for LA+0. Most of them have a few penalties as well, but table A-58 of that book is a Munchkin's dream (You want am LA+0, +10 starting Dex bonus? We've got it!). Hell, even Apeman, which you'd think would be mostly baseline human, gets LA+0, +2 Str, +6 Dex, and +4 Wis.

I maintain the writer was a drunk furry. There's nothing wrong with furries, but being part animal should not make you intrinsically superior to all forms of life.

Don't even get me started on wolverines having a CHA bonus. Truly, the Wolverine is the most charismatic of animals.

[Harry Baldman]

Basically, I have two people who are pretty much guaranteed to continue, one more who will if the time schedule works for him (he moved to Japan), and a couple others who may, or may not, keep playing. I'd ideally love to get a group of 5 players, because five is a good number, and thus I can cherry pick my players pretty well. *Maniacal Laugh*

I'm really digging the Roll20 game I'm in that Fniff is DMing, but that's both a function of a good DM and a system that lets you forget you're using a system most of the time. PBP I've done quite a bit of, but it doesn't lend quite the same rapid-fire that you get in live chat games.

Definitely hit me up when it's ready to go, I'm fairly reliable and I've got stuff I'm very eager to try in either 3.5 or 5E.

Sadly, this is not the case. There are a half-dozen other anthropomorphic races from savage species with CRAZY GOOD stat bonuses in exchange for LA+0. Most of them have a few penalties as well, but table A-58 of that book is a Munchkin's dream (You want am LA+0, +10 starting Dex bonus? We've got it!). Hell, even Apeman, which you'd think would be mostly baseline human, gets LA+0, +2 Str, +6 Dex, and +4 Wis.

Might just be a strictly GMing resource that got into the wrong hands, like the Hulking Hurler.

Don't even get me started on wolverines having a CHA bonus. Truly, the Wolverine is the most charismatic of animals.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Teneb]

Hopefuly will finish what I planned for my Eclipse Phase campaign's first session this week, because one of the players had an emergency pop up right at the end. I said it here before, but to recap: they had to infiltrate a small ship and destroy the TITAN device inside. They managed to get inside the ship, slaughtering most of the mercs guarding it without alerting the station authorities, and were about to go into the cargo hold when we had to end the session.

Originally, I was going to have red herrings mixed in with the real thing, but after re-reading rules for basilisk hacks, I got a better idea. Once they open the container it is in, the device will activate (not that I will tell them right away) and we'll skip straight to their backups. The campaign's plot will then be trying to stop their now-brainwashed originals.

[flabort]

Don't even get me started on wolverines having a CHA bonus. Truly, the Wolverine is the most charismatic of animals.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm convinced.

[Kadzar]

On one hand 5E is easier to run and probably a better system overall once you learn to play fast and loose with it (easier to do theater of the mind with it as well).

On the other hand oh my god I can't bear the itch to play in a good 3.5 game, I've got so many concepts that aren't possible in Pathfinder!

Or take something weirder, like Dungeon World or something. You can theoretically do anything in a Powered By The Apocalypse game and they're pretty good for off-the-cuff bullshit.

Oh, and while you can occasionally get good randos, you definitely want people you know as a significant part of your group. Reliable folk are hard to find sometimes, but when you have them, try to use them when possible.

Yeah, 5e is probably the modern (by which I mean post-WotC era) edition for just winging it, what with the more simplified ruleset and balanced classes, though I do sometimes feel a desire for better character customization. Not even more classes or archetypes, really; I just wish there was more room to define characters in minor ways, like more smaller feat-type things.

Also, I do sometimes wish I was running Dungeon World, since that game has the ability for DMs to create monsters basically on the fly, whereas making a new monster for 5e tends to be a lengthy process involving repeated revisions and the consultation of charts. Making encounters is almost equally tedious, though I do at least have a good online tool for that, though even that requires some trial-and-error.

Personally, I kind of wish I could play or run some sort of retroclone game, preferably one with ascending AC (or at least something that doesn't require me to learn how THAC0 works). Mostly for the sake of greater simplicity, but also because of something I noticed while playing Baldur's Gate last year, which is that characters in old-school D&D tend to have at least a basic form of most of their abilities to start with, and then they get better over time, whereas, in later editions, you often have to wait a number of levels for something to come "online". I mean, sure, I guess it's nice to have new things to look forward to, but often it feels like you're just waiting to be able to play the character you wanted to play, when people probably would be willing to have a class feature at a much lower power rather than it being arbitrarily level-locked.

And maybe old-school D&D doesn't really address this all that well (it does have a lot of arbitrary level restrictions of it's own), I feel like it at least does it better than later editions, for the fact that players were able to bear more extreme leveling restrictions (because for the most part levels just got you more HP or a better chance to hit). I don't know, I'm just rambling at this point, but I've had this idea for a while, and I just wanted to get it out.

[Teneb]

Well, today's Eclipse Phase session was... something.

The players were basilisk hacked, becoming exsurgents. Woke up on mars from their backups (one bouncer, one hypergibbon, one ruster), were told something went wrong and that they had to undo their fuck-up. They managed to deduce exactly where their exsurgent selves were going, in this case Uranus, sold their new body and transport for mad cash, and egocasted all the way to Oberon. There, they stole two synthmorphs (one with a ghostrider), and made friends with the collective responsible for defense of the hab (and one of the players ended up starting a sort of romance with a dolphin). They spent a bit too long doing so, however, and their exsurgent alter-egos managed to land. Two of them went through the Pandora Gate, and the session ended mid-fight due to time issues against the tankiest of the group.

[Neonivek]

My game fell apart.

Yet I am learning from my mistakes and I am going to wait until I get a finished book (or advanced BETA) before I attempt it again.

Well, today's Eclipse Phase session was... something.

The players were basilisk hacked, becoming exsurgents. Woke up on mars from their backups (one bouncer, one hypergibbon, one ruster), were told something went wrong and that they had to undo their fuck-up. They managed to deduce exactly where their exsurgent selves were going, in this case Uranus, sold their new body and transport for mad cash, and egocasted all the way to Oberon. There, they stole two synthmorphs (one with a ghostrider), and made friends with the collective responsible for defense of the hab (and one of the players ended up starting a sort of romance with a dolphin). They spent a bit too long doing so, however, and their exsurgent alter-egos managed to land. Two of them went through the Pandora Gate, and the session ended mid-fight due to time issues against the tankiest of the group.

Excellent session overall.

[highmax28]

Party got their asses kicked by a band of wood elves and then had to phone in one character's vampire husband to save them.

The party vampire proceeded to feed off of the corpses who were still alive as their throats were torn out, and created a horror scene for one of the other party members who's convinced they were in a fever dream after waking up after stabilizing and getting back up from 0hp.

Party vampire came out and said she's a vampire and they proceeded to go into the Temple of the Leviathan to gather the last item needed that will make them probably not die fighting a man who is half machine.

They meet midget gnomes (think Underpants Gnomes) by shrinking to their size and meeting a preist's spirit who came back to speak to them. They said to fix the shield they're after, they have to absolve a terrible elf pirate of his sins (he stole a gem and the fury of the gods and his sons manifested into the leviathan). Sadly, the elf isn't there, so they have to absolve him themselves.

And we left off there as the party tried to attack the gnome preist by the end of it because one of my players takes having -2 to his Int too seriously

[Jimmy]

So whilst one of the players is away, another of my players is going to run a Stars Without Numbers game, which is essentially a pulp fiction space RPG. I've decided to go with a backworld character, and the following is my concept:

Name: Ilmenster the Mage, Sage of Shadows, The Great Overspacorceror, Doombringer of Mysteries, Old Stinkbeard, Put That Pipe Out That Tank's Filled With Pure Oxygen
Race: Human
Age: Venerable
Class: Psychic Space Wizard

I survived Stars Without Number!

The game opens on a space station with the local big-wig making noise about an asteroid mining outpost that's gone quiet a few days ago. We get paid half up front to go take a shuttle and check it out.

I, the crotchety old space wizard, demand payment in gold pieces instead of these new-fangled credit things.

We get to the space station and get knocked unconscious when we find a mysterious psychic egg macguffin, awaking later with patchy memories.

I immediately declare this to be a dragon's egg, spawn of Tiamat herself. I assign my lack of memories as being due to wizard pipe-weed, then blaze up a fresh bowl.

We advance deeper into the outpost, getting attacked by robot-spiders named gremlins which somehow seem to decide I'm the tastiest looking meat-sack on the abandoned station. The GM is looking eager to encourage the space-wizard's early retirement, it seems. Fortunately my Mage Armor protects me from serious injury until my allies blast them to bits.

Not taking any more of this guff, I decide to screw caution because I'm a wizard, damnit. The enemies should be afraid of me, not the other way around. We find the comms room, our tech expert tries to fix the uplink for the outpost and ignore the bloodstains on the floor, but the power cuts out. Our techie rolled well on the computers check and scored a full map of the outpost before the system crashed, and I demand she show me the site of the wellspring of arcane energies on her magical mapping scroll.

So throwing caution to the wind, I charge into the reactor room, disturbing another nest of robot spiders. I win initiative and cast a grenade fireball.

The GM takes to shuffling his notes and trying to figure out how to salvage his story-line whilst I shout to my allies that the danger has been eradicated. Eventually the GM decides that the reactor's salvageable but will take several hours of work to fix, which is fine since I strike out to explore the rest of the station, leaving the more technically minded to fiddle with the scorched remains of the reactor. I find the medical bay, and spend the next few hours inventing recreational ways of experiencing the contents of their drug cabinet.

Time passes. Rolls are made. Eventually the GM declares that the reactor is fixed and everyone returns to the comms room, except me. I've seen everything there is to see on this outpost and I'm ready to go, so I decide to hang out around the airlock. They hail the space station and transmit valuable information in the form of crew logs and reports, but of course there's a jamming signal that cuts off their transmission. Space pirates are inbound!

Everyone starts reinforcing the comms room in preparation for attack, but I'm still in the airlock. They're torn between letting me know about the pirates or not, but eventually decide to try calling me back. I calmly refill my pipe and ignore them with a crafty gleam in my eye. The pirates dock, the airlock opens, I roll for initiative and nail it. First pirate gets a fireball to the face before he's taken a single step, and I redecorate the inside of the airlock in chunky red pirate salsa.

The other two are smarter and decide to take cover around the corner inside their ship. They fire at me from their cover and miss, then it's back to my turn again. I pull the pin on another fireball and put a little English on it, curving it neatly around the corner as it makes a very satisfying splash of body parts in response. Then I just stand there in the airlock, leaning on my wizard's staff, calmly smiling whilst I wait for my allies to come and mop up the mess in our brand new ex-pirate spaceship.

We discover one of the pirates is none other than a former employee of the mining outpost, though identification is tricky when the body's mostly medium rare hamburger meat. Still, it's enough to get us going to their last known mining site, a large asteroid near the outpost. We dock at the asteroid mining site after some skill checks by our pilot, board the habitat, and find the survivors of the dig crew holed up inside a storage area.

They tell us they found a strange pre-tech artefact inside the asteroid, from which came the macguffin. I tell them it's nonsense as it's obviously a dragon egg, holding it out to them. The egg starts to suddenly grow hot to the touch, and the GM says it's so hot I drop it. Bugger that, I say. I declare that I want to make a Mental check to force myself to channel whatever power this egg is emitting into myself. The GM says that's fine, but with an evil grin he warns me that failure will probably explode my head. The DC is 12 on a d20 roll, and I've got a +2 increase in the DC because the GM says this is an extremely dangerous power I'm attempting to channel. Death or glory, I pick up my dice and roll it.

Natural. 20.

The table explodes and the GM throws his hands up and admits defeat. We steamroll the final wave of robot spiders, my space wizard glowing with burning power as he unleashes hellfire into the swarm. We eventually discover the ancient pre-tech facility, which is described as an opaque orb that gradually turns transparent as we approach with the egg. Inside we see an organic looking altar with a curved cup at waist height exactly the right size for holding the egg.

I take one look at it and say "I'mma rub my nuts on it."

After thoroughly desecrating the ancient structure and being threatened by my allies at knife-point to my family jewels, eventually I surrender the altar to it's intended use. We get a light-show of some star maps showing interesting places for further adventures, a psychic contact with otherworldly beings who don't take kindly to suggestions they're dragons and therefore ought to be slain and turned into armor, and then we're back on our merry way to return to the space station with the rescued miners.

Overall, I had a lot of fun, and it was a good break to get to play a character again. Despite being reckless to the extreme, the dice smiled upon me this time, and if we ever run another Stars Without Numbers, I'll be sure to bring back Ilmenster the Mad for an encore.

[highmax28]

I nee guinnea pigs for trying out D&D basic in a PBP endless dungeon so I can get the hang of it.

PM me if you're interested. I have four players right now and I need four more as I want to see how a group of 8 fares (I'm expecting that many for the one off session I'll be having IRL)