4.Fail satire project.

violence in the media · Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:25 pm

Sorry, that was directed towards Dark Fuzz's writeup.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:25 pm

Well... the analogies that we want to use should try to remain consistent.

Do we want Everquest (1 or 2), or World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Rangarok Online (1 or 2) or Warhammer: Age of Reckoning?

I'd say WoW, since it's the most well known of the MMO's out there.

Hmm, here's a question, are abilities in 4e things that have a cooldown before they can be reused, and are there abilities that you just spam over and over, and toss in your 'specials' when the cooldown wears off?

I've got the understanding that it's "like" this, but I'm not quite sure.

TheDarkFuzz · Post by **TheDarkFuzz** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:33 pm

Violence: Thanks dude!

JE: Probably WoW, but it hardly matters cause 90% of MMOspeak is common to all of them.

For powers, you have your At-Will powers which you spam repeatedly. Your Basic Attack gets lumped in here too, but you'll never use that unless you're making an attack of opportunity. Always use your best At-Will (Magic Weapon, Righteous Brand, Twin Strike) over and over to minimize strategy and maximize success!

Encounter powers are usable once per time the DM tells you that you are having an Encounter, whether it be a Skill Encounter, a Fight to the Death Encounter, or really any other sort of Encounter you can imagine. Ostensibly these powers have a cooldown time of 5 minutes (or a short rest), because once you pull your nifty trick (like Tumbling) you just don't feel like doing it again for a little while.

Daily powers are your 1/days, and they have the same recharge time as a wizard's spells used to, only now they call it an extended rest. These powers tire you out for some reason, because just being a hardy warrior is no excuse for thinking that maybe you ought to be able to swing your axe that hard twice without needing an 8-hour nap in between.

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:44 pm

TheDarkFuzz wrote:JE: Probably WoW, but it hardly matters cause 90% of MMOspeak is common to all of them.

This. Also thirding WoW. It's what most people know. Hell, I've never played it and I can still put on a good act.

He also already covered PC abilities. Enemy abilities do have a cooldown more like you'd expect with the random dice rolls.

But basically what you do (and what enemies do for that matter) is use like... a quarter their daily abilities then you use encounters from most to least useful, and then you spam at wills until the mob dies. Comments about toggling on auto attack should follow. And then you repeat about three more times. Then you take a long downtime and repeat.

To VitM and PR: If it were PbP (and therefore required near zero time investment) would you be in?

violence in the media · Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:37 pm

I've never played a PbP game, but I'd be willing to give it a shot. Now, I don't have any 4e books, but I might still have the pdfs (at least the Player's Guide) on my home computer. Assuming I didn't delete them in a fit of fuckthisshit!

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:11 pm

I have the PDF. I can barely read it without falling asleep, but it's there.

Ok, so that's five.

TDF, since you're the DM make a game forum and link us?

Once the organization is done, I can shut up.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:25 pm

Fuck it, I can do this. I'd prefer it to be on RPOL though, since that's where I play extensively.

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 5:28 pm

mean_liar wrote:Fuck it, I can do this. I'd prefer it to be on RPOL though, since that's where I play extensively.

RPoL doesn't have inline posting.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:36 pm

I have no idea what that is.

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:38 pm

mean_liar wrote:I have no idea what that is.

Unless they've majorly changed something...

A post on MW will look like 'Roy is afirin' his lazers! PEWPEWPEW!' where that last bit is a dice roll for piddly shit damage.

The same post on RPoL would have the rolls somewhere else entirely, so you have to flip back and forth between several things to know if the lasers lightly scratched the MOB, or didn't do anything.

In line posting = die rolls in game post.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:50 pm

Uh...

You roll dice, the results appear in a link in the game's forum, and you copy/paste them into your post.

Observe:

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 6:55 pm

Ok, so they did add new stuff then. Of course since we already have five... anyone here want to do RPoL?

TheDarkFuzz · Post by **TheDarkFuzz** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:39 pm

Couldn't care less. I hang out on dndonlinegames.com, so it would be way easy for me to make a game there, but I assume it's not difficult to sign up and make a game at MW or RPOL or wherever.

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:42 pm

TheDarkFuzz wrote:Couldn't care less. I hang out on dndonlinegames.com, so it would be way easy for me to make a game there, but I assume it's not difficult to sign up and make a game at MW or RPOL or wherever.

MW = make user account, do usual email registration etc. Click the Games thing at the very top, select 'Create new game' in middle right. The rest should be right in front of you.

RPoL from what little I recall of it is also simple and easy.

Mask_De_H · Post by **Mask_De_H** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:43 pm

RPoL's where they're running the Dungeon Crusade game right? That would be cool for me.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:18 pm

Either MW or RPoL, I'm using RPoL for a game, but MW is also a forum that I've used as well and enjoyed.

Mythweavers is a bit 'fancier' in terms of what the dice rolls can do. A lot fancier. You can set up your posts to contain massive amounts of text that are selected based soley on your roll. So, you can seriously pre-write your success, minor failure and major failure into the post, before you know what your dice roll is, and your post will reflect your actions.

and yeah, I would spam my at-will abilities. I'd be retarded not to use an ability that is superior to an other ability.

I've got the feeling that 4E only has one "boss" fight per session/day?

So, what do we want for Party composition?

All ranged? All Melee? All the same class? plus a "whatever class it is that makes other classes better"?

Heck, being an evil cabal of rangers/wizard/laser clerics and their 'whatever' ally would be an interesting take. Because honestly, people like a bunch of bad guys fighting good guys more than the other way around.

Look how popular Gambit and Wolverine are, compared to Cyclops. I don't think that Cyclops has ever rated his own stand-alone comic, while both Gambit and Wolverine both have. People like a magnificent bastard.

Note: if we all play the same class, we should make a gentleman's agreement to have no one play the race that the is best for the class; and each person should play a different race.

When you have each member as the "same thing" you need some really large differences to keep the readership from thinking that they're all alike.

The 'marshall' or whatever, should be the race that's best for wizard or rangers or laster clerics, or whatever other ranged class we decide to play as. We want very little overlap in terms of what characters are like, even if we have 4 of one class, and 1 of an other.

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:25 pm

I think we should play it as if we are at least mostly new to playing 4.Fail (which isn't even a lie) which means starting off taking their advice, having that not work, then spam the same build for contrast.

As for the 'boss fight' thing, it depends. Realistically you'd never get even a five minute rest between encounters because that's plenty of time for the base to mobilize. Of course nothing about the edition is realistic. Cue mob spawn jokes. Play probably would quickly devolve into spam dailies then encounters to get a decent XP/hour rate instead of slow fights then move off to spam the rest button.

And I agree about people liking the evil more, but at the same time the closer this is to a 'typical' game the better the smiting will be. Remember, these fuckers are inherently illogical. So they'll totally take something like 'lol, evil party' to mean something meaningfully different. Dunno how well that will work.

So let's see...

JE wants either MW or RPoL. I'd rather have MW, but don't really care too much assuming RPoL has comparable functionality. Registration is easy after all. Mask wants RPoL. TDF doesn't really care. Haven't heard anything from the other guys. So I guess RPoL it is?

Edit: "Note: if we all play the same class, we should make a gentleman's agreement to have no one play the race that the is best for the class; and each person should play a different race.

When you have each member as the "same thing" you need some really large differences to keep the readership from thinking that they're all alike. "

Dude, this is 4th edition. If anything we should first try to showcase being different as much as is possible, go with their so called balance etc. Then have that not work. Then we all go best race best build best class * 4, and a fucking Warlord and do much better. If the readership is thinking they're all the same, isn't that part of the humor?

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:33 pm

Actually... if it's a "Dungeon", you seriously sit on your ass between each fight, and the casters refill their mana (by drinking); the tanks get their health filled to max again.

Only a really good group will be able to marathon or blitz a dungeon. Also, most of the time, you try to pull small groups of mobs at a time.

The "sit on your ass 5 minutes" is even less of a deal than it is in WoW, because in WoW, you actually have to sit down for a minute or two just regening your mana. On a tabletop setting it's "you sit until you fill your HP, just like you would in any other MMO"

I'm fine with RPoL. Just set up the game.

Also, I haven't actually looked at the books or pdfs in question. So, I'll have to get those.

Akula · Post by **Akula** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:33 pm

Someone has to pretend to be a WotC fanboi. After all, how else are you going to sneak in lines like, "It's okay we failed that skill challenge, remember, this is 4e; the math just works!"

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:43 pm

Akula wrote:Someone has to pretend to be a WotC fanboi. After all, how else are you going to sneak in lines like, "It's okay we failed that skill challenge, remember, this is 4e; the math just works!"

Good point. Bonus points if they get converted halfway and/or are the DM.

As for the Dungeon: Yeah, that's what you'd do in an MMO. I'm saying that would never work in tabletop, and that could be brought up as a point against 4.Fail.

TheDarkFuzz · Post by **TheDarkFuzz** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:53 pm

I'll get it set up on RPOL and post a link when I get home.

I think that as a satire, we should do things by the book. Mix 1 balanced party with 1 standard adventure, add humor to taste.

Quantumboost · Post by **Quantumboost** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:06 pm

Roy wrote:As for the Dungeon: Yeah, that's what you'd do in an MMO. I'm saying that would never work in tabletop, and that could be brought up as a point against 4.Fail.

Nonono. It would never happen in a tabletop game that's actually trying to suspend disbelief and act like a realistic raiding scenario. However, I've personally seen that behavior in the 4E game I play in, so that statement is actually false.

Having the 5-minute rest next door to the next monster room and hanging the lampshade on it is actually something you could do. Whether you do that, or have the players try it and fail, is of course you guys' call.

Or just have the wizard stand there razorbeaming the door for five minutes.

violence in the media · Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:21 pm

I'm fine with whatever site you guys want to use. Just link it when we're ready and I'll sign up.

Also, does PbP work much like the forums? In that sometimes we'll all be online and conversations will happen quickly and other times we'll be waiting for someone to respond?

Roy · Post by **Roy** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:23 pm

Well, those things are just assumed as a part of tabletop. Since it isn't supposed to be an MMO and all.

Basically, anything we do with it is going to be funny. The question is what is the most amusing. Lampshading or having the enemies act realistically. The latter would only be funny if it got us slaughtered and then someone commented on being unable to ever get their abilities back because the enemies interrupt.

Speaking of which... someone needs to try a ritual in the dungeon.

Player: OMG MOB TRAIN!

Edit: It literally is a forum, so yeah. It's much slower than things close to real time like chat rooms and OpenRPG, but that's because it requires less time. Making it better for those who are busy and can't coordinate schedules well for this.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:40 pm

Akula wrote:Someone has to pretend to be a WotC fanboi. After all, how else are you going to sneak in lines like, "It's okay we failed that skill challenge, remember, this is 4e; the math just works!"

I plan on always succeeding mine. Because the math works!

It's not that hard to act like a fanboi. We just don't act like that, at all, on the RPoL forum. That's easy enough.

http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?p=101218#101218 for the game discussion.

Also, the Mob Train joke is pretty niche. Mob Trains occur when a player runs from one monster; and then suddenly tons more seem to start giving chase in order to kill you because attacking monsters generate more aggro than just a player on their own.