Ask the Mormon

[ArchAngel]

Yup. One of the two ones. They also have this cool model of Jerusalem at the time, where you can highlight different locations of events in Jesus' life.

[ArcticFox]

Yup. One of the two ones. They also have this cool model of Jerusalem at the time, where you can highlight different locations of events in Jesus' life.

I don't know if they have one of those tables at every visitors' center but they do have one at the Washington, DC Temple near here.

[Chozon1]

Burger King?

[Deepfreeze32]

So what is your opinion on the Psionics rules in the various incarnations of Dungeons and Dragons?

[ArcticFox]

Burger King?

Yes, please.

My son works there and says your best bet is the tendercrisp/tendergrill menu options. Everything else is... unsavory.

So what is your opinion on the Psionics rules in the various incarnations of Dungeons and Dragons?

I *hate* them. I never allow them in my campaigns.

[Deepfreeze32]

Any chance I can persuade you to tell me why?

[ArcticFox]

Any chance I can persuade you to tell me why?

Oh yes...

From a fluff perspective:

Psionics never did quite manage to really fit in a fantasy setting with magic and monsters. Magic is the supernatural element that adds wonder and new variations on the story. Psionics was sort of like a second "magic" system only... not. It just isn't something that meshes well with a high fantasy environment. Could a creative backstory be used to justify it? Maybe... but the very fact that one would need to testifies that it doesn't really belong.

From a game mechanics/balance perspective:

In 1st Edition AD&D a character could roll percentile dice to see if he/she was able to use psionics at the time of character creation. If course the percentage chance was very small, but nevertheless it was there, and a player who wanted to be a psionicist badly enough would find a way to make that roll. Mind you, these psionics abilities were in addition to their character class. That means you could be a Magic-User and a psionicist at the same time...

... but it gets better. In 1st Edition AD&D one of the factors that balanced the power level of a character class was the XP chart. A very powerful character class like a Barbarian or a high level Magic-User required much more experience to advance to the next level than a less powerful class like a Thief. Nominally, this achieved some measure of game balance. The problem with psionics was that there was no impact on the XP chart for gaining psionic ability. Thus, you'd have characters with all sorts of extra powers and abilities with *no* balancing mechanism of any kind.

In 2nd Edition AD&D the Psionicist became a full-fledged character class with its own abilities, equipment restrictions and XP table. Woo-hoo? Not really. Psionicists didn't fit the fluff any better for it, and still had very few balancing disadvantages. A Psionicist's abilities, unlike those of a Magic-User, were just as powerful as magic but required no spell book, components, verbal or somatic gestures, prayer, alignment restrictions, or anything of the kind. They were not subject to dispel magic, magic resistance, anti-magic fields, or weakening due to extra planar travel.

A Psionicist with a couple of the lower level abilities could be completely unarmed and still have a better armor class than a Fighter with plate mail armor and a shield, and inflict more damage than that same Fighter could with a two-handed sword and an 18/100 Strength.

In short... broken.

[Sstavix]

I quite enjoyed psionics under Second Edition, though! Then again, they really shone in the Dark Sun campaign... sure, you may have a character with psionic powers... but so did everyone else. Leveled the playing field quite a bit....

Did you ever play Dark Sun? What were your thoughts?

[Chozon1]

Chess?

[ArcticFox]

I quite enjoyed psionics under Second Edition, though! Then again, they really shone in the Dark Sun campaign... sure, you may have a character with psionic powers... but so did everyone else. Leveled the playing field quite a bit....

Did you ever play Dark Sun? What were your thoughts?

I bought the campaign box for 2nd Edition when it first came out and read through it, but I never really played. I'm sure it was a great campaign setting, but not really my cup of tea.

My current campaign world is of my own design, and it takes place on a world that is always cold and icy, where the polar ice caps would reach, if this were Earth, to North Carolina. The world was flung into the cold (The planet's orbit was changed to put it further from its star, Pelor) by an angry sun god, and the ultimate goal of the campaign is to redeem the world and gain forgiveness, and perhaps Ith'Meireun will once again be a beautiful, lush, green world...

... So you can see where this is nothing like the campaign world in Dark Sun

Actually, if you're interested, there's a very brief in-game bit of prose that hints at that backstory on the homepage of my gaming club site. http://www.ldsknights.org (Under the part that says "An Ancient Passage")

Chess?

I love it. Some of the greatest games of my life have been stalemates, but very satisfying nonetheless.

[Sstavix]

Sounds like a cool campaign! And I must check that site out - even the name of your Web site makes me jealous. I wish I had people in my branch that gamed... actually, I really wish I had more time to game....

[ArcticFox]

We used to play at the church on Friday nights, which caused a little drama with members who were freaked out by the idea of members of the Church youth playing AD&D. Apparently one or two members had had some kind of "bad experiences" and so on. The Bishop defended us on the grounds that while at the church playing AD&D, the young men and women were in a safe place, in a safe activity, with adult members of the church who were trustworthy.

My Bishop rocked.

[Chozon1]

Solar sails?

[ArcticFox]

Useful things, those.

[Deepfreeze32]

How would you rate Java for web development?