I know this is slightly off topic..kinda but I never liked the introduction of stat increase. When we played D&D in the 70's if your fighter had a 11 Str he dealt with it lol...back when elves well had no class and 3d6 meant your character was going to really suck..but you couldn't wait to play Keep on the Borderlands one more time..because it was the only module you owned and there was no internet and no store carried D&D stuff so we mail ordered it from Wisconsin...it took months but we finally got T1 Village of Hommlet in the mail...

Ugh... This planet you come from is so alien that I can not even begin to imagine it!!

Sometimes I feel like I missed a lot of good stuff being born in 1998. Other times, I realize this was pre-google and I'd be utterly lost.

One of my players is moaning about not being able to up his characteristics. He is also the one that is actually roleplaying the least for some reason...

Mouthymerc,

You still haven't told me your favorite Orwell novel. Since the bantha is past being beaten to death and has entered decompsition. The pursuit of semantics is moot. But if you need something to do, run along and play in the escape pod.

Peace Gentlebeings

Don't have a favorite. Only read Animal Farm and 1984 and only just barely. high school over 30 years ago. I like the quote as it relates to the Devil's Brigade and soldiers in general.

I read somewhere on the forums where the creators of the game said the rules are guidelines.

All rules are guidelines. If you don't like the limit, find an appropriate cost for post-chargen Characteristic-raising and go with it. I'm not sure the chargen option of 10 * (new level) is sufficient though. More like 15 or 20.

Sometimes I feel like I missed a lot of good stuff being born in 1998. Other times, I realize this was pre-google and I'd be utterly lost.

. . . .16? Dear god, I have Atari 2600 games that are older than you.

*weeps uncontrollably*

Sometimes I feel like I missed a lot of good stuff being born in 1998. Other times, I realize this was pre-google and I'd be utterly lost.

. . . .16? Dear god, I have Atari 2600 games that are older than you.

*weeps uncontrollably*

heh heh. I have comic books older than her.

To go a little back on topic.

The only thing we house ruled was that later increases to Brawn and Willpower do add to Wounds and Strain Thresholds, respectively. This helped people from feeling like they had to min max at character creation.

On the other hand, this also means that permanent reductions in those characteristics due to crits would lower Wounds and Strain Thresholds.

To go a little back on topic.

The only thing we house ruled was that later increases to Brawn and Willpower do add to Wounds and Strain Thresholds, respectively. This helped people from feeling like they had to min max at character creation.

On the other hand, this also means that permanent reductions in those characteristics due to crits would lower Wounds and Strain Thresholds.

This sounds like an excellent house rule.

The quick and dirty reason is game-wise, it slows down the power creep of the game by keeping dice pools down. GMs would have to load players up with setback dice to counter them rolling 5+ Yellows on every check. That, or increase/upgrade the difficulty, which would seem weird that normal tasks you performed in the past suddenly became harder for no reason.

You'd never fail a task rolling 5 yellow and 3 purple. The odds are so in your favor it's silly (35 faces that succeed vs 12 that fail).

Have you played a high level D&D campaign where your first 3 of 5 attacks only miss on a 1? It stops being fun. That wasn't my character, but even I had +20/15/10/5 at the end.
The 3.5 developers knew their math broke down; every high level monster had mounds of natural armor for no reason other than to keep the AC high.

Right now the trade off is capping out a Characteristic so you can be the yellow dice god of The Best There Is At What I Do, or you can spread things out a bit and be pretty good at a few things.

. . . .16? Dear god, I have Atari 2600 games that are older than you.

*weeps uncontrollably*

I suppose, to stay on topic a little (not that I seem to be known for that) I should mention that, not having much rpg experience, the EotE rules for characteristic raising seemed fine to me. Maybe my expectations aren't affected by experience in other games? All we can really do here is say that it was designed to be the way it is and people are free to tinker if something works better for them.

Sometimes I feel like I missed a lot of good stuff being born in 1998. Other times, I realize this was pre-google and I'd be utterly lost.

. . . .16? Dear god, I have Atari 2600 games that are older than you.

*weeps uncontrollably*

There there...

Hopefully E.T. isn't one of them.

Oh dear, Haley is younger than Star Wars! she missed all the arguments about was Darth Vader really Luke's father or was he just playing mind games after Empire Strikes Back.

Oh dear, Haley is younger than Star Wars! she missed all the arguments about was Darth Vader really Luke's father or was he just playing mind games after Empire Strikes Back.

Depending on the order she watched them in, the sibling kissing scene might've been weirder. :-)

There there...

Hopefully E.T. isn't one of them.

I get that! I really do! Worst. Game. Ever! I feel so knowledgeable.

Oh dear, Haley is younger than Star Wars! she missed all the arguments about was Darth Vader really Luke's father or was he just playing mind games after Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars came out in 1977, right? There have to be more of us here that are younger than Star Wars. But what might REALLY be interesting is that I didn't really care for Star Wars until I played EotE. I watched the movies but I was 8 or 9 and they didn't really interest me... other than (get ready to cringe) Jar Jar Binks and ewoks! lol!! Being a little older, I guess I realize how silly Jar Jar Binks was and, after learning that the ewoks were originally going to be wookies, I know that decision was made with wallets in mind. I'm sure I wouldn't have wanted to watch the wookie movie as much as I loved watching the ewok movie (except the scene where one dies. I'd always hide my eyes). I doubt I was the only kid who felt that way.

Depending on the order she watched them in, the sibling kissing scene might've been weirder. :-)

I saw them in the original order. My dad's a purist, I guess. ESB was my least favorite episode. No cute creatures, no goofy sidekicks... so I just didn't even think about it.

I've gone back to them in the episode order fairly recently via audiobooks and, knowing now what I ignored then.... ewwwwww!

Although.. ESB has become my absolute favoritestestest episode.

OMG...When Han says "I know." I melt....

BTW, I got a new interface for Christmas and I love it. Lookie what I can do! I can quote from multiple messages!! WOOT!!

As someone who first saw 'Star Wars' as a girl of eight in 1977, I think it's very cool that it's still pulling in new fans like Haley.

The cartoons and new stuff doesn't appeal to me, personally, but they clearly have a place in drawing in new people to this wonderful little subculture

@Haley,

Just so you know, when Han says 'I know', that was not a scripted line. It is one of the finest examples of improvisation around. That was all Harrison Ford (much like the scene in raiders if the lost ark, where the guy shows up flourishes his sword and Indy shoots him. Ford was really sick, didn't want to do the fight so pulled his revolver and BAM instant classic and iconic scene)

@Haley,

Just so you know, when Han says 'I know', that was not a scripted line. It is one of the finest examples of improvisation around. That was all Harrison Ford (much like the scene in raiders if the lost ark, where the guy shows up flourishes his sword and Indy shoots him. Ford was really sick, didn't want to do the fight so pulled his revolver and BAM instant classic and iconic scene)

Part of that scene too was that apparently Carrie Fisher had flubbed her lines on prior takes (rumor has it she was high due to a drug habit she had during that period of her life), and on that particularly take, not only did she get the lines right, but Harrison improv'd the "I know" line, which all concerned felt really made the scene work. And lead to a nice callback in RotJ too.

I think that was part of the problem with the prequels, was that there wasn't anybody that was willing to improv a line or really go beyond the script, particularly with the overly-cheesy romance dialogue between Anakin and Padme in AotC & RotJ. Better actors might have been able to salvage that into something watchable, but sadly those two are only as good as their director, and Lucas really isn't that great of a director. An absolutely amazing idea guy though, as a lot of the material for the Clone Wars came from ideas he pitched, as did much of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

That's so cool to know... the improv part, not the high on drugs part. Maybe they should have improv'd THAT into the script.

And... yeah. I think the dialog between Padme and Anakin is awful and since that remains consistent across the different ways you can experience the movies, their romance just never works. Not that I can claim to be an expert... but there's definitely a feeling that I get from Han and Leia that is completely missing between Padme and Anakin and it should mean so much more since we're really only seeing the beginning of Han and Leia's relationship but Padme and Anakin actually get married.... and make babies. And without it meaning more, the tragedy at the end of Episode 3 is almost comical. WHo didn't laugh when ANakin gets all Vaderized and yells NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

But we are SO off topic again... I'm expecting the forum police to show up any moment.

Good call on the chemistry, Haley. Problem is, the guy playing Anakin is a wretchedly poor actor, and Lucas isn't a good enough director to coax a decent performance out of him. Portman has shown she's a good actress in other roles, but her part is dull and she's horribly wooden here.

The forum police live inside of my thread, the forum police come to me in my head...

Good call on the chemistry, Haley. Problem is, the guy playing Anakin is a wretchedly poor actor, and Lucas isn't a good enough director to coax a decent performance out of him. Portman has shown she's a good actress in other roles, but her part is dull and she's horribly wooden here.

Actually, I've seen a few instances where Hayden can indeed act. The problem is, as I mentioned before, is that he's really only as good as the director he's working with. Same with Natalie Portman, who was enjoyable to watch in the Thor movies, but I generally wind-up fast-forwarding thru most of her scenes in the prequels, since as has been said, Lucas isn't a good director when it comes to getting performances out of his actors. Ewan McGregor did a great job breathing life into young Obi-Wan with what he had to work with, but I think he's a really good actor to begin with.

I had the sense that Portman didn't much like Hayden, she probably had to work pretty hard to show any affection at all. Also, with the move to mega-CG, often the actors didn't have much to work with. The whole scene on Kamino is Obiwan talking to sticks in the air. Can't be easy. Then again, Mark Hamill spent weeks on the Dagobah sets, and pulled off some pretty compelling stuff.

I had the sense that Portman didn't much like Hayden, she probably had to work pretty hard to show any affection at all. Also, with the move to mega-CG, often the actors didn't have much to work with. The whole scene on Kamino is Obiwan talking to sticks in the air. Can't be easy. Then again, Mark Hamill spent weeks on the Dagobah sets, and pulled off some pretty compelling stuff.

They were actually dating. I guess that means you couldn't be more wrong... or you couldn't be more right.

Honestly, watching the prequels after having watched and rewatched so five seasons of The Clone Wars is a TAD hard for me. Don't get me wrong, I can still find plenty to enjoy, but overall I think the writing on that show surpasses anything done in EITHER movie trilogy.

More or less, I watch the prequels when I want to see badass live-action lightsaber duels. Every one of them is chock full of them, but only one of them has two of the hands-down coolest characters in the saga; Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul.