outofcontextdnd:

In a Future-Based GURPS campaign.

GM: And with that you use your last bullet… Your party is still faced with the chief of the security force

Me: How did they attach my cybernetic arm?

GM: It clicks in with a pressure switch… Why?

Me: I pop it out. Improvised Mace baby!

GM: You could just punch him…

Me: 2d6 for bludgeon… 1d3 for punch. I’m going to rip off my arm and beat him to death with it.

GM: I hate you.

we-are-rogue:

Player: Can I do the thing?

Mutants and Masterminds: Yes you can do the thing.

GURPS: Fill out these forms in triplicate.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: Yes, but it’s really not worth it unless you are a Dream Elf with the Godblooded feat and at least five levels in the Thingomancer Prestige class from Complete Thing. Or you could just play a Wizard, they get The Thing as a 3rd level spell.

Call of Cthulu: You can do the thing, but you REALLY don’t want to.

FATE: That depends, can you bullshit the GM into believing that one of your vaguely-worded aspects supports you doing The thing?

7th Sea: Only if the thing is properly dramatic!

Shadowrun: Yes, but you’ll need a bathtub full of D6s.

Paranoia: The thing is treason.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition:

[I copied the above from this brilliant post, and I reblogged as text because I really felt the need to add the gif for 5e, and chat posts don’t allow gifs, dammit.]

(via we-are-rogue)

chrisjessee:

Btooom! manga volume 1 - review

Dozens of players drop from a cargo plan onto an island with few supplies. In order to find victory, they must scavenge what supplies they can find and battle for air drops in order to get the weapons and equipment they need to kill enough opponents to emerge victorious.

Upon first reading this you may think I was describing hit new pc game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, but I’m not. I’m describing Btooom! A manga that mixes “stuck in a video game style scenario” with battle royale. And it excels at this.

The basic premise is this: Sakamoto Ryouta is a world champion level player in a multiplayer video game that shares it’s name with the manga title. One day he wakes up suspended from a tree in a parachute with no memory of how he got there. He comes to find that he is stuck with dozens of other people in the real life death game version of the digital contest he was so skilled at. In order to escape the island, players must kill a certain number of other contestants with the satchel of bombs they were given at the beginning of the game. Each of these bomb types have various characteristics from time delayed to motion sensing that add strategic depth to the combat.

One of the highest selling point for the manga in my opinion is the art. While it is only average in most of the panels, when the combat begins, mangaka Junya Inoue excels. The brutal, explosive nature of the conflicts really jumps off of the page. This is enhanced by the fact that the manga doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of these fights. We see severed heads and bodies blown apart by explosions. This allows us to get inside the head of the main character and be horrified at the carnage unfolding on the page.

Tension also plays a major role in the enjoyment of the book. First there is the tension caused by the fact that we don’t know the whole picture. Who set up this game? Why? How many players are there? What kinds of bombs exist? Where are the other players located? Etc. Combat scenarios are given tension as the main character has to figure out the type of bomb his opponent is wielding and create a plan to counteract it. Even outside of combat, players are equipped with a proximity sensing crystal embedded in their hand that flashes when another player is nearby. However, it doesn’t tell you direction, speed, or distance. It’s like the motion sensor from Alien, only even less helpful.

One of the other points that I really enjoyed about the first volume is the way the main character handles himself. Unlike most other shounen or seinen protagonist, he’s not born to fight. Yes, he enjoyed the multiplayer games he was skilled at, but when it comes to fighting and killing real humans, you can see him struggle. I think this is something all of us would go through in a similar scenario. If put in a situation where you had to take the life of another person to live, could you? I think the first volume captures this feeling in the main character very well. I also, think there is potential for this concept to be expanded upon later in the series. We don’t know the age limit for participants in this game. What if a competitor is a child, or an elderly person? What if our protagonist is put in a scenario where he has to betray a friend or vice versa? I love moral gray areas in fiction and Btooom provides fertile ground for that type of story telling.

My biggest gripe with the first volume is my lack of emotional investment. I know it’s only starting out, but I don’t care about any of the characters involved. The main character has not given me any reason to really be afraid for his life or care if he is in danger. No villain that I love to hate has stepped forward yet. Hopefully that will change going forward.

Overall Btooom mixes the battle royale and “stuck in a game scenario” premises very well. The art direction, tension, and main character with a moral compass sell the story enough despite my general lack of caring for anyone involved. I’m looking forward to more explosions in the future.

Final score 8/10