Still limping along

[melchar]

[hobble, hobble, hobble] Trey's on crutches, I'm wearing a brace. We did some shopping [for birthday prezzies for nephew & nieces], then some shopping for card luggage. [a folder, card protectors]

And once back home I card-fondled my Dragonstorm cards and came to the conclusion that I am completely -lame- when it comes to Dragonstorm. Other than the 'oooo! pretty pictures' part of the game, there's this thang with points and making sure your papers have all the cards listed appropriately and are signed-off on. So I'm looking at my -2nd- character [since boojum helped me with the 1st one] and I see that I have a flaw card and an anchor that cannot be together. Even though I've played her like 3-4 times with the game designer. Who OK'd her. However, having been chewed out a little about character #1, I just decided the heck with this and got rid of the anchor [anticipating more 'are you kidding' conversations]. I don't know what it is with this game, but I -truly- like the game, the cards and the world idea the game is set in, but I must be one of the dimmer bulbs in the box when it comes to getting things in proper format.

Must be because I'm a chaotic.

However, the 2 characters look REALLY good in their folders now. And I got card protector sheets for Trey, so his cards can look nice, too!

Comments

Sorry to hear...

[efng.livejournal.com]

sorry to hear that you 2 are still hobbled. Hope Trey isn't going to be on crutches to long or for that matter hope you don't need the brace for very long. Hope you can still come to the party but if not stay home a rest.

As for the card, your NOT a dimmer bulb (and you should know that.) My first thought is that if you AND the creator couldn't tell right away that certain cards can't co together then maybe the cards need to be modified to make it clearer that there is a conflict.

I haven't seen the cards very much or have any details about how they work but the fact the 2 cards can't be used should be easier to figure out then pouring over them multiple times. I suppose that might not be possible,given the fixed size of the cards and what not but in this case it might be the tools and not the craftsman that is the problem...

Re: Sorry to hear...

[gil-liant.livejournal.com]

Let me clarify one thing here: there is no reason the cards can't be played together, on the same character, in a Dragonstorm game. And, as a rule, there are even some 'forbidden' combinations that actually (IMHO) make sense. (Forbidden by [u]whom[/u], you ask. Ah, my children! Listen and you shall hear.) There are some combinations, both 'forbidden' and not, that are pretty silly -- but that's going to be true in any game system.

However, they can't be played together in a [u]Guild[/u] game. You see the game Dragonstorm is created and published by Black Dragon Press. They're the ones who write (or at least sign off on) those little boxes of text on the bottom of the card (and the numbers along the right side of the card) that go [u]with[/u] the pretty pictures. They also publish (periodically) errata to the printed cards. If those boxes don't say the cards can't be played together, then they can be -- [b]in non-Guild games[/b].

There's another group, very closely associated with, but separate from, Black Dragon Press, called the Storm Riders Guild. They have a whole bunch of [u]extra[/u] rules and 'errata' which were developed to facilitate the objective of people creating and playing characters in diverse settings with many GMs, while still offering at least a modicum of quality control and validation. Under those [u]extra[/u] rules, which of course, [u]aren't[/u] printed on the cards, there are several more 'forbidden combinations'. ('Forbidden', of course, meaning 'forbidden by the Guild for use in guild-sanctioned games'.)

The dilemma being that said game designer (who is a very nice lady and a fine GM), is a good Dragonstorm GM, but not necessarily a good [b]Guild[/b] GM. However, the Guild has found it in their interest to grant the designer 'carte blanche' and effectively recognize her authority in matters relating to the game. (For understandable reasons, I expect. ^_^)

So, if the game designer 'signs off on' a 'forbidden' combination (or even single card), the effect is generally that, for that character, that particular Guild rule (or rules) gets suspended. And she's happy to sign off on things for the nice people who are buying lots of her product. ('Cause she's a nice lady.) So there are (I suspect) more than just a few 'exceptions' to guild rules out there.

Ethical players, of course, won't ask her to sign off on something they [u]know[/u] to be illegal, but the Guild rules [u]aren't[/u] printed on the cards and some of them can be hard to recall -- especially if you are new to the game. Storm Wardens (i.e., GMs) who 'inherit' some of her signed off chars get to deal with the fallout in their games as best they can. But this is a by-product of the Guild situation, not a fault in the game itself.