JimLotFP wrote:

>>3- That should be "curses or diseases." This is one of those typos that's important at this stage. :)

(context: response to comment on dispel magic spell)

It wasn't your typo, it was my read-o. You do have "curses or diseases," I just read it wrongly. When the proofreading contest comes along, I'd better not participate, yes? 8^)

Started going over every single spell description, lost the ability to understand what I was reading (not due to the text, I just do that frequently), put it aside for a while, came back to it, realized I'd put my initial comments in the wrong place and so now really don't know what I'm doing, so posting what I have so far, in the hope it's vaguely useful. Or something. Here's the cut-and-paste:

general note: You may or may not care, but your software's handling of the "smart quotes" feature appears inconsistent when it comes to single quotes/apostrophes. Sometimes they're straight and sometimes they're curly. At first I thought it was consistently straight with letters and curly with numerals, but it's not.

Aino's Remote Surveillance: is the MU provided w/ any sort of context? E.g. among many: Does the MU know who the conduit is? Or what race/species he/she/it is? (This could make a difference in interpreting the data provided.) Or the conduit's location? (The object may have been moved by natural or nonliving forces before being handled by a person/creature.)

Airy water: have you considered making the spell reversible, to allow water-breathers to function on land?

Animate dead: 1. many versions of the game limit this spell to chaotic casters, but you didn't. Is this intentional or an oversight? 2. It's unclear whether "One hit die worth of undead per level of the  caster may be created" refers to a) each casting of the spell, b) the total a caster may have under her control at any one time, or c) ever

Animate objects: are you sure you need to specify the movement rates?

Blink: minor typo in the second line: no space following a comma, and the following word is capitalized. Not sure if you meant a comma and the capital is the typo, or you meant a full stop and the comma is the typo.

Chaos: minor typo in the third line: two full stops in a row.

Charm Monster: "This spell makes creature" would appear to be missing an article. In the first line on the second page, there is no space after the first full stop.

Clone: the bit about the vat has a very Raggian vibe to it.

Repost or cross-post or something of comments I stupidly and rudely put in the wrong place the first time:

Quick 1st thoughts on perusing some of the spells of interest to me. Might have more comments/questions after reading them all.

Anywhere where I sound nit-picky or smart-assed is unintentional, I just come off that way sometimes.

Glad there's no wish spell.

Realize it would be un-old school to be too specific, but for my curiosity, did you intend Jalo’s AA to be able to re-create a specific person?

As written, a really fat 1st level MU can't use feather fall to save herself. As a former fat man I think of these things. But I love the idea of using it as an ersatz protection from normal missiles.

Detect Magic: some versions of DM specifically say the detected magic will glow, implying that the spell works in the dark. Your description (where you point out that hidden items can’t be detected) could be read to imply that the spell is useless underground without a light source/infravision/&c.

Shame the whole licensing thing means you can't call it "Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter"--that kid deserves her immortality. I wonder what ever happened to her.

You're much more specific with fireball than with most of the other spells.

Thank every god that shits that you didn't use Mentzer's version of magic missile (the glowing arrow that follows the MU around thing). Interesting that you went w/ increasing dmg done by a missile rather than # of missiles. Don't disagree, but curious as to your thinking.

Thank them again that you didn't nerf sleep, such as by giving it a save.

I mentioned in the comment for Jalo's spell that I understand why spell descriptions shouldn't be too specific, but I also understand why you were with fireball. So, re my all-time favorite spell, polymorph other: if you polymorph a monster into a literal fish out of water, will it suffocate with no further PC action required? ("Assumes all physical characteristics" seems to imply so.) What happens if you polymorph a monster into a small creature (a goldfish, say) & swallow it? Digestion, therefore death? Passes through unharmed? Stays there & if somebody dispels the magic it regrows & kills the host? Point is, polyother is one of those easily abused spells. If you do want to have the occasional spell description that goes into too much detail so as to prevent abuse (a la fireball), you may want to do it with this one.

3 things unclear w/ Dispel Magic: 1. "any spell-casting class" Does this mean that spells cast by, e.g., a dragon or demon are unaffected by dispel magic? 2. "scrolls are permanently nullified." Does this mean only that they can't be read out loud to cast whatever spell is on them, but can still be copied into a spellbook, or does the writing go away too? 3. "negates magical cures or diseases for only 2d6 turns." 1st level fighting woman has 5 hit points. She takes 3, the cleric cures her for 2, bringing her to 4. Next round she takes 3 more dmg, bringing her down to 1. Round after that, some smart-ass MU dispels the cure, temporarily taking her to -1. Is she alive, dead, undead, temporarily dead, mostly dead, grateful dead, or what?

Re first line of the description of detect evil: if I could reach you, I would kiss you. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Actually, the whole description is really well done.

Silence 15' radius: I seem to recall a controversy as to whether the original intent was a means of being sneaky, or a way for clerics to neutralize MUs. Unless you covered it outside the spell descriptions (e.g., a rule stating whether MUs must be able to speak audibly to cast spells) & I missed it, your description doesn't clear this up. Of course, you might want it that way.

Can we once & for all change continual light to continuous light? It's not a bloody strobe.

While I imagine I'm in the minority, I'd recommend against the whole organize-spells-alphabetically (instead of by class & level) thing. Never been a fan.

Hear! Hear!

5

(13 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Gamer #2 (player only) refused to make any comment other than (direct quote) "that's fucking great."

6

(13 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Gamer #1 (a player and DM) was unimpressed by the blurb, but said that if she ran/played TGG & decided that it lived up to the blurb, she'd be much more likely to buy other LotFP stuff than if she hadn't been exposed to the blurb in the first place.

7

(13 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Gamer #3 (a player but not a DM) says: "The description sounds pretty standard, but the warning is over the top enough that I figure if he's willing to say all that, he must mean it, and I take it as a personal challenge. So yeah, I want you to get it and run it."

8

(13 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

It works for me, but I was already planning on buying the thing. I'll read it to a couple gamers I know who probably wouldn't otherwise see it, ask if it makes them eager to try the adventure, and report back.

Sorry--the previous post made me think of something that I sillily posted before realizing it was a threadjack. Please disregard.

10

(219 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

37 years old today (10/31, that is--not sure if the time difference means right now is yesterday or tomorrow or something elsewhere in the world), from the US, specifically western pennsylvania/northeast ohio. Started with B/X & BECMI in '84, almost immediately moved to AD&D1E. Burned out in the mid-nineties and mostly stopped gaming altogether, so my "return" to the old ways was because of returning from no games at all, not because of returning from newer games. Early mid-naughties I remembered something one of my high school art teachers repeated ad naseam (while trying to encourage students inclined toward abstractions to be less so inclined): "before you can draw a tree stump that doesn't look like one, you have to learn how to draw a tree stump that does look like one." So I acquired a copy of the the 1974/OD&D rules and started a campaign using even older-school rules than I'd used when I started out, just in time to check out the early OSR stuff on the oddboard, these 'blogs, etc (as a lurker, not a contributer). Originally drawn to the LotFP 'blog by JER's combination of in-your-face-ism and idealism, if everyone understands what I mean by that. Started buying the products after reading some very positive reviews of DFD (don't recall where, sorry, but I believe one of them was the pope's). While I like the other LotFP stuff I've bought, it was definitely DFD that hooked me. Best module ever, as far as I can tell without having run it yet (due to an unfortunate personal crisis in the lives of several of my players, our campaign is on temporary break). But I can't wait to experience how well it works in actual play, and will be sure to post summary of it in the appropriate thread, even if I otherwise stay just a lurker.