What is a death ray?

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DuBeers
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by DuBeers »

In OD&D the Finger of Death, the reversed for of cleric spell Raise Dead, specifically lists a "death ray" (scare quotes and all) as its type of effect in the spell description.
SnowflakeBlue
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by SnowflakeBlue »

Something tells me that whoever wrote the core rules, wrote them with the assumption that whatever GM would be reading them, would by default have a fundamental understanding of old school D&D similar to the author.
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SmootRK
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by SmootRK »

SnowflakeBlue wrote:Something tells me that whoever wrote the core rules, wrote them with the assumption that whatever GM would be reading them, would by default have a fundamental understanding of old school D&D similar to the author.
Perhaps to an extent. I will make a suggestion that in the next 'edition' of BFRPG (talked about as a possibility at some point), we expand the thought, theory, and usage of Saves so that anyone new to gaming (or to old school styles of games) have a little more to go on.
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MedievalMan
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by MedievalMan »

I Still believe Fortitude, Reflex and Will were a great move by the authors of 3E. That is of course my personal opinion.
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Dimirag
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by Dimirag »

Most people knows what is Strength related to a person and the game explains it quite nice, but few people know what are the specific or broad uses of Saving Throw yet the game doesn't give any help, as Smoot said incorporating some descriptions will be of great help for new players and GM and it will help eliminate the "yes, you can use your own adventures/setting but not yet, first you must play existing adventures until you get the hand on how to use Saving Throws" kind of feel.

I like the C&C approach but I also like improving ST values/bonus.
For BFRPG I've came with a simple solution (based on the underlying mechanics of the originals ST) using one value determine by the character and his level and class.

For d20 style games I'll probably (if ever play one of them myself) use a Good/normal/Bad save bonus linked to the abilities scores.

Another good mechanic is to replace the ST with the Ability Roll system and give each class some bonus to one or two abilities...
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Solomoriah
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by Solomoriah »

I'm honestly not sure what the confusion is. Is it the use of the term "death ray?" Because every other save is pretty specific to what it covers.
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DuBeers
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by DuBeers »

I'm thinking of the film Mystery Men when Captain Amazing is arguing with his PR man. Quote slightly modified by me ...

"Then get, eh ... Death Ray!"

"Death Ray is dead."
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JoeCarr28
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by JoeCarr28 »

MedievalMan wrote:I Still believe Fortitude, Reflex and Will were a great move by the authors of 3E. That is of course my personal opinion.
I couldn't agree more.
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JoeCarr28
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by JoeCarr28 »

Solomoriah wrote:I'm honestly not sure what the confusion is. Is it the use of the term "death ray?" Because every other save is pretty specific to what it covers.
One example of where the confusion lies: to avoid falling in the pit traps in the first dungeon of Morgansfort you suggest a Saving Throw versus Death Ray. To me, that is in no way obvious.
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MedievalMan
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Re: What is a death ray?

Post by MedievalMan »

JoeCarr28 wrote:
MedievalMan wrote:I Still believe Fortitude, Reflex and Will were a great move by the authors of 3E. That is of course my personal opinion.
I couldn't agree more.
I can understand games not using this format, especially if you are trying to recreate an older style of game. But for a generic d20 save system the triad covers all the bases.

That being said I like BFRPG's save system because it leaves some interpretation up to the GM.
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