Quote from: Abyssal MawIt WAS a player issue. He had this character background that his PC was a "special police informant" and that specifically "the police always believe him" because he's so attuned to strange events. And this didn't just cause problems for me, it caused problems for the other 3 guys playing who wanted to go in and investigate.

But I just let it drop after one adventure so I guess it's fine now.

Heh, with hindsight that is a really dumb advantage.  It makes no sense in terms of the real world I live in and is an obvious gamebreaker.

Which takes me onto something else I hate.  The way with hindsight sometimes it is obvious how bad an idea it is, but at the time when the player comes and says "oh yeah, and he has access to the Pentagon's missile command codes" one sometimes doesn't quite think through the implications until far too late...

My Magic Deer. I think I mentioned mine another post but I'll say it again.

Magic in DnD. I have never been able to play a spellcaster, because the limitations don't make any sense. I mean I know they're there for balance but there is no other explanation why. Spell slots and memorization and spells per day. Aggggh. I can't stand it.

Oh...and Dragon's. Dragon's have always been the Magic Deer of DnD. Your standard dragon in Fantasy: it's a big flying lizard that breathes fire. They're were sometimes chained to a great evil wizards treasure hoard or whatever.

In DnD they're Immortal, uber-strong, uber-intelligent, perfect beings with uber-magic powers that are un-matched by anything but other Dragons. They should, for all intents and puposes, be the known rulers of the world. Instead they hide in caves. The ones that breathe lightning are ridculous beyond imagination (just try imaginaing what it looks like,  aghhh it's so stupid!)

A friend of mine can't play Vampire. He can't stand the whole beast thing. He doesn't understand why a Vampire should/would try to resist it's own nature. He cannot stand to see Vampires that are more than highly intelligent monsters. Or something to that effect. I don't quite understand his argument, but there's his "Magic Deer" to flesh out this thread a bit more.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadWhat is your "Magic Deer"? No, I am not talking about which authority figure shackles and oppresses you. What element of an established setting really bothers you? Be it for reasons of shattering disbeleif, making statements you don't agree with, or any other thing that makes the setting annoying for you?

Edit: Emphasized SETTING details. SETTING. Not system.

Rifts. Just can't get past the whole barbarian with a stick vs guy in pwoer armor thing.

Bill

Quote from: Abyssal MawI really hate real world current day settings. I especially don't like GMing those. One time I was running this 'secret occult invasion' plot set in the modern world, and one player -- instead of engaging the various mystery elements kept going to the police.

Yuck!

I've been running a modern CoC game for quite a while now, and I actually love using "today" as a setting.  For one thing, I don't need to research the setting much, and when I do, a simple Google Earth or Wikipedia lookup does the trick.  There's more "source material" for 2006 than for any other setting, just floating out there on the web.

I've avoided the "cop problem" in a few different ways.  In the first campaign I ran, the PCs all worked for a quasi-governmental organization that specifically worked with the police force.  Think X-Files, only spookier and with more coherence.  One of the PCs was a former cop, actually, and used his connections to find information on a couple of occasions.

In the current game, the characters are more or less cut off from the world.  When they get back in touch with the world, I have a "cop plan" for just this contingency.

-O

Quote from: HinterWeltRifts. Just can't get past the whole barbarian with a stick vs guy in pwoer armor thing.

Bill

Ah, but Bill, when that's an M.D.C. stick, that changes everything.

For me, magic in D&D is something that rubs me that wrong way--I don't care for spell slots, and prefer games with Mana or Power Point systems.  But it doesn't flat out stop me from enjoying D&D--I just end up putting a greater emphasis on classes like the sorceror & bard.

Quote from: KrakaJakMy Magic Deer. I think I mentioned mine another post but I'll say it again.

Magic in DnD. I have never been able to play a spellcaster, because the limitations don't make any sense. I mean I know they're there for balance but there is no other explanation why. Spell slots and memorization and spells per day. Aggggh. I can't stand it.

You might already know this, but they took the idea from Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, it makes sense in that particular setting.

What's odd is that they took a very world specific way of doing magic from a particular set of stories and then made it generic.  It made sense in the original stories, which are truly brilliant.  Once moved to DnD it made slightly less sense I think it's fair to say.

I'm not a fan of "low magic" settings. Hand-in-hand with this is the "gritty" setting. I game to get away from real life.

"Spontaneous magic" systems which allow the player character to put together a spell on the spur of the moment. More often than not, "spontaneous magic" is anything but as the game grinds to a screeching halt so the magic-user and/or gamemaster can figure out 1) what kind of spell to use and 2) how it works.

EDIT: Hmm. I guess the second is more a game mechanic thing. But it seems like it can also be a setting element depending on how you look at it.

Hmmm..."Magic Deer"...in ESTABLISHED SETTINGS...let's see:
 
Forgotten Realms: I'd say the Chosen of Mystra may be at the "Magic Deer" level for me. I can't articulate why very well, so I'll leave it at that for now.
 
Greyhawk: Deities with their "plane of existence" being the Prime. I don't like it and I know that Greyhawk has deities that exist there (Farlangh...sp?).
 
Spelljammer: Crystal Spheres...I just couldn't buy into them (oh, and the Scro).
 
Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Mystara: No "Magic Deer" that I can think of.
 
I have't run other settings, so I can't report on them.

Quote from: HinterWeltRifts. Just can't get past the whole barbarian with a stick vs guy in pwoer armor thing.

Bill

Isn't that sort of what could happen in Future Skein?

Quote from: FickleGMSpelljammer: Crystal Spheres...I just couldn't buy into them (oh, and the Scro).

The Crystal Spheres thing bothered me as well. Glad to see that WotC has sort of let that cosmological theory sort of fade away.

Quote from: FickleGMSpelljammer: Crystal Spheres...I just couldn't buy into them

Same here. The concept didn't originate with Spelljammer, of course, but the way SJ uses it, it comes off as a bizarre game construct.

Quote from: FickleGMRavenloft,

The mists are the magic deer.

QuoteWhat's odd is that they took a very world specific way of doing magic from a particular set of stories and then made it generic. It made sense in the original stories, which are truly brilliant. Once moved to DnD it made slightly less sense I think it's fair to say.

As a point of 'realism' or whatever- sure. Memorized spells seem ridiculous. (Although they have changed it into 'prepared' spells now).

As a game mechanic, though, D&D magic is great. Because here is a renewable, gameable resource that allows players to strategize in several different ways. Some of my favorite gameplay moments are listening to players try to assess clues from the adventure and figure out what spells to prepare. "Well, sounds like undead..zombies or mummies...  so I get my fire spells ready, plus I swap out some of my 0-levels for Disrupt Undead.." (etc).

Then there's metagame of plundering enemy spellbooks and scrolls, and specializing magic into groups (illusion magic, necromancy, etc). I find it makes for a deeply strategic game.

I also like the systems from Ars Magica, Torg and even Mage -- but for different reasons.

Finally .. Crystal Spheres: They come from Ptolemy!

Quote from: Abyssal MawFinally .. Crystal Spheres: They come from Ptolemy!

Yep. It's an exotic concept, but the way the concept was used in SJ left me cold.

Why the term "Magic Deer"?  I am not in with the getting of it.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Why the term "Magic Deer"?  I am not in with the getting of it.

Look in Pundit's forum. He has a rant that will explain it all.