Exactly! Wouldn't it be boring if new versions of weapons were just better than anything else in all respects?
(I'm thinking here more of the metagaming/storytelling balancing and the zero-sum principle. The important thing is, he loaded it with weaknesses and downsides, but made precisely that fun.) Go to Comment
Darn, Echo beat me to it. The thought of a high-tech armored fighter breaking something apart with a mace or equivalent, is highly amusing (and still perfectly in tune). Well worked out. Go to Comment
And you know, even if the small tribe in question was destroyed, somebody would inevitably survive. If the news gets out, that humans have started eating orcish children and kill any witnesses, the characters may have just provoked a war into existence. Good playing, folks.
Agree with the compliments and: the last sentence was just mean, man. :) Go to Comment
Spell 7 Drinker's Palm
Passing with the hand above a liquid, the caster is able to sense its alcohol content. The estimate depends on the familiarity with the drink; this won't say much to the common drinker, but brewers can find it very useful. There is an unverified claim, that some poisons can be detected in this way. Go to Comment
Well, it is hard to recreate the fine complexities that constitute a taste of a certain food or drink. It's easy to do 'sweet' or 'bitter', but how to approximate the taste of hops and water from a certain region, and the processing itself, the recipe for which is most likely secret (along with any secret details or ingredients the master brewers keep to themselves)?
There is one way around it: the arts of illusion. The drinker can either supply his own taste impression, which may not work on anyone else; or may make "people feel good", in which case everybody will taste something different. And that only if the illusion doesn't dissipate, leaving a bland or completely tasteless brew. Some would call it cheating anyway.
So I'd say it would take a master brewer to make a magic brew as good as the real thing. Go to Comment
Zerlen was a man known to handle little drinking, he'd buy a mug or two and go home singing. It was only after his death, that the effect of his favorite mug was discovered. Once filled from a certain source, it would continue to refill itself if the drinker so wanted. All this without the knowledge of the innkeeper, one could steal quite a bit before becoming suspicious. Zerlen would 'nurse his drink' and save a lot money, until one mean bartender decided to teach him a lesson. Giving him a dose of a mildly poisoned beer to give him the 'runs', Zerlen drank his full and died of the poison. The bartender was hanged and the thievish mug was lost. And that is the end of the story. Go to Comment
A nice location indeed! It is added now to the right codex.
There's a few typos, but the composition makes it easy to digest... speaking of which, I also like the cuisine and the 'un-sponsored mages', what a nice way to call a necromancer. The occasional undead mingling is encouraging for a visit as well. See the sights! Don't let anything kill you! Go to Comment
It is indeed a good fantasy material to wrap your head around. ("So it is from ice? Like, from water?!") Nice work there.
What happens if it is exposed to fire or other form of intense heat? Would it simply turn into water again (and make a very expensive extinguisher :) )? Go to Comment
It would suck to be in a spaceship in some alternate dimension and have a part of it ripped out for ammo. This feels like it is out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, oddly realistic, but still fun. Go to Comment
Me, I remembered playing Dune II ages ago, where the biggest tank of the evil Harkonnens could take a lot of punishment, and its explosion was able to take quite a few units with it. Oh yeah.
Maybe the reason for not using nuclear reactors are precisely the tank's weaknesses - the bulkiness of the reactor (needs strong plating that will last under fire), the thermal signature, the risk underwent by the crew and the possibility of leaks to downright meltdowns. Most of the time, you want to blow your nukes in very specific places if at all, not all over the place you want to capture. And this vehicle plays exactly upon that. Go to Comment
Well, it doesn't seem 'special' to me neither. What is of interest though, is the tactical and strategic thinking behind it (and yeah, maybe it was just started on that nuclear angle, but that is no bad). There is this whole set of preconceptions on how things ought to be, then there is something which does it exactly the wrong way and is successful because of that. I like those turn-arounds.
What this gives is a very different option for its setting, and that is useful. Go to Comment
Items (Wand/Staff/ Arcane) (Magical)
Magical torches are fun! Go to Comment