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Too bad it's one of those bidding ones. I refuse to do those anymore. Keep getting outbid due to fuckers using software to bid at the very last second. I've absolutely sworn off all bidding of that sort since the last time. If they put up a buyout price i'll snag it, otherwise I walk.
Gixen. It's free, and it works.
 
Too bad it's one of those bidding ones. I refuse to do those anymore. Keep getting outbid due to fuckers using software to bid at the very last second. I've absolutely sworn off all bidding of that sort since the last time. If they put up a buyout price i'll snag it, otherwise I walk.
Sniping programs are a solution to a non existent problem.

Just enter your max bid right up front. People can snipe all they want but if their max is less than your max you win. You keep the winning bid until they pass you.

Your bid only increases to the max bid so you don't actually pay your max bid unless somebody matches it. If you bid $47 and the next highest bidder only bids $30, then you get it for $31, not $47.

Another advantage to just making your max bid is it helps keep you from getting into an emotional bidding war and paying more than you really want to.
 
Sniping programs are a solution to a non existent problem.

Just enter your max bid right up front. People can snipe all they want but if their max is less than your max you win. You keep the winning bid until they pass you.

Your bid only increases to the max bid so you don't actually pay your max bid unless somebody matches it. If you bid $47 and the next highest bidder only bids $30, then you get it for $31, not $47.

Another advantage to just making your max bid is it helps keep you from getting into an emotional bidding war and paying more than you really want to.
That presumes a true max bid is known. Often it's not that clear. I think this is mostly a good idea however I would say put your max bid in at the last 10 seconds so if you lose you know whatever you bid you know someone else had already decided to his more.
 
That presumes a true max bid is known. Often it's not that clear. I think this is mostly a good idea however I would say put your max bid in at the last 10 seconds so if you lose you know whatever you bid you know someone else had already decided to his more.


Um, I would hope that you are capable of determining the maximum amount that you will pay, your max bid. If the ultimate max bid is more than that amount then of course you won't win, but you still made your max bid, makes no difference if they sniped or the two of you continued matching bids until you reached your limit.
 
Um, I would hope that you are capable of determining the maximum amount that you will pay, your max bid. If the ultimate max bid is more than that amount then of course you won't win, but you still made your max bid, makes no difference if they sniped or the two of you continued matching bids until you reached your limit.
I can't always. Primarily because I can't precisely determine the utility function of the product for me. That's a problem for non commercial auctions. In a commercial auction I can more realistically determine just how much the item I am buying is worth based on how much revenue it will generate. But for pleasure it's not near as clear. It's an imprecise probability curve. I might be sure I would buy it for $50 but would $51 cause me to skip it? I dunno. I just don't want to think about it that much. If I wait until the last 10s then I know that is the most I would bid right then and I have a better degree of confidence that someone didn't just keep raising their bid to beat me by $1. I don't know that they didn't beat me by $1 but I'm willing to bet it was more that $1. Basically I remove what my max bid information is until a time almost too late for them to do something productive about learning it. That's good enough for me.
 
I can't always. Primarily because I can't precisely determine the utility function of the product for me. That's a problem for non commercial auctions. In a commercial auction I can more realistically determine just how much the item I am buying is worth based on how much revenue it will generate. But for pleasure it's not near as clear. It's an imprecise probability curve. I might be sure I would buy it for $50 but would $51 cause me to skip it? I dunno. I just don't want to think about it that much. If I wait until the last 10s then I know that is the most I would bid right then and I have a better degree of confidence that someone didn't just keep raising their bid to beat me by $1. I don't know that they didn't beat me by $1 but I'm willing to bet it was more that $1. Basically I remove what my max bid information is until a time almost too late for them to do something productive about learning it. That's good enough for me.
My strategy when I was prowling eBay (mostly for Lego though I did do some gaming stuff), I would make a determination of the the maximum I really was willing to pay, and then if I didn't have some reason to make it hard and fast, I'd bid a few bucks more than that. So if I felt something was worth $50, I might bid %53 or even $55. That way, if someone bid $51, I would get it for $52 and not feel like, "gee, I should have bid one more buck". If someone bid above that buffered max, then they really were willing to pay more than I was.

I would also follow the auction and if I got outbid, I would re-assess. And if I REALLY was interested in an item, I might try and watch the end of the auction, to have a chance of bidding just a bit higher.

But overall, my strategy was to bid high enough that if someone outbid be, I wouldn't feel bad.

Now I understand, something REALLY unique, you might well be willing to keep bidding up. But I think you could still figure out the most you really would pay for the item, and bid that.

But different mind sets come to different conclusions. But as I got more and more into auctioning, I got more and more patient, so I really would set a max bid (plus buffer) and not care if I got outbid. I'd just be patient and watch for the item to come up again.

That patience paid off, I got various really cool things at very reasonable prices.

I would also leverage buy it now. My big RuneQuest haul was a buy it now. I got the first Lego castle set for a reasonable price with buy it now.
 
Sniping programs are a solution to a non existent problem.

Just enter your max bid right up front. People can snipe all they want but if their max is less than your max you win. You keep the winning bid until they pass you.

Your bid only increases to the max bid so you don't actually pay your max bid unless somebody matches it. If you bid $47 and the next highest bidder only bids $30, then you get it for $31, not $47.

Another advantage to just making your max bid is it helps keep you from getting into an emotional bidding war and paying more than you really want to.
Without Petty Rivalry, Jealousy, Rage, and Vengeance, what's the point of Ebay?
 
Sniping programs are a solution to a non existent problem.

Just enter your max bid right up front. People can snipe all they want but if their max is less than your max you win. You keep the winning bid until they pass you.

Your bid only increases to the max bid so you don't actually pay your max bid unless somebody matches it. If you bid $47 and the next highest bidder only bids $30, then you get it for $31, not $47.

Another advantage to just making your max bid is it helps keep you from getting into an emotional bidding war and paying more than you really want to.
That's what I've done when I've been looking for stuff.

Keep in mind that, most of the time, you are looking for an X, not The X. If you're not in a hurry to get it, it's better to lose some auctions and wait for ones that don't get driven sky high.
 
Codex Integrum is currently selling the .pdfs of their adventure series set in Silesia in 1456, The Road to Monsterberg, pretty cheaply: Crypt of the Raubritter is $1.87 and Secret of the Golden Hills is $2.40 on Drivethru. They also have a stand-alone module set on the Anglo-Scots border in 1547, The Reiver's Lament, for $2.40. These are pretty substantial--120 to 140 pages. They're designed for the company's D20 system, though personally I'd just port them over to another system I prefer.
 
Codex Integrum is currently selling the .pdfs of their adventure series set in Silesia in 1456, The Road to Monsterberg, pretty cheaply: Crypt of the Raubritter is $1.87 and Secret of the Golden Hills is $2.40 on Drivethru. They also have a stand-alone module set on the Anglo-Scots border in 1547, The Reiver's Lament, for $2.40. These are pretty substantial--120 to 140 pages. They're designed for the company's D20 system, though personally I'd just port them over to another system I prefer.
Aren't the core books also on discount?
 
Aren't the core books also on discount?
A bit of one, at least for me--that is, say, $12.99 for the Codex Martialis Core rules, which would normally be $14.99. There is a Core bundle that gives a larger discount--$16 instead of $29.99. But the adventure markdowns are much better--they're selling for $2 to $2.40 instead of $10-$12.99. Volume 1 of The Medieval Baltic Sourcebook has a pretty good markdown: $12.99 instead of $20.
 
Codex Integrum is currently selling the .pdfs of their adventure series set in Silesia in 1456, The Road to Monsterberg, pretty cheaply: Crypt of the Raubritter is $1.87 and Secret of the Golden Hills is $2.40 on Drivethru. They also have a stand-alone module set on the Anglo-Scots border in 1547, The Reiver's Lament, for $2.40. These are pretty substantial--120 to 140 pages. They're designed for the company's D20 system, though personally I'd just port them over to another system I prefer.
These have a serious chunk of content for 6 bucks and change. The Border one seems an invaluable supplement for that place and time.
 
These have a serious chunk of content for 6 bucks and change. The Border one seems an invaluable supplement for that place and time.
I got curious and snagged the Core book just to read through their ideas on how to improve combat. About 20 pages in before I hit the sack last night, looks interesting. Though those first pages makes it feel like what they're doing might make DnD 3e/5e more clunky instead of making it flow faster and more dynamically.

That's my gut reaction to the first 20 pages, maybe it gets better when you've read through it and can put it all together for play. We'll see.
 
HEMAists aren't afraid of crunch(es), so you might well be right...:thumbsup:

I downloaded the Codex Martialis QS from their site (it's free if you download it from there, but the biggest advantage is that it's only 28 pages:devil:), but am still to read it. Westlands landed today, after all, and when it's about a choice between a Cepheus Engine title and a d20 derivative, there's no choice, really:grin:!
 
I got curious and snagged the Core book just to read through their ideas on how to improve combat. About 20 pages in before I hit the sack last night, looks interesting. Though those first pages makes it feel like what they're doing might make DnD 3e/5e more clunky instead of making it flow faster and more dynamically.

That's my gut reaction to the first 20 pages, maybe it gets better when you've read through it and can put it all together for play. We'll see.
OK, read through the majority of the 97 page core book, skim read through some of the equipment lists etc. After going over it I find myself fascinated that it reminds me of the hoops and acrobatics I found myself attempting to do to old 1st edition AD&D to make it more active in the combat mechanics. Changing armor to damage reduction, giving options for active defenses etc.

In the end I realized that I was simply kludging up the system in my attempt to make AD&D something that simply wasn't capable of handling in an efficient, elegant way and I ended up tossing those ideas to the side and going back to Palladium Fantasy 1st edition until I moved onto GURPS in 1986-87. The folks at Codex Integrum have made the same error in my opinion. Though they made it much worse by doubling down on the amount of detailed mechanics that they've attempted to shoehorn into DnD 3x which actually made it more inelegant and clunky than my own efforts, bless them my opinion.

In the end I feel it's worth owning because it does offer some interesting takes, ideas and insights. I also had DriveThruRpg print up a copy as well though I won't see that for weeks. I think I'll also snag all the other material because as source material (speaking about their historical work) I think it would be a nice addition to my library of gaming material. I'd never attempt to run that core material in 3e or 5e though.

As an aside I quickly bought a second DnD 5e Player's Handbook not long after it released just for the purpose of using it to tweak mechanics. Once again I was attempting to do what I tried to do in the early 1980's to AD&D. lol. This time my attempts were much lighter, tweaking shields, armor and weapons a bit. Plus a few sundry combat options and recovery changes. Much more do-able and playable than my massive attempts back in the day.
 
HEMAists aren't afraid of crunch(es), so you might well be right...:thumbsup:

I downloaded the Codex Martialis QS from their site (it's free if you download it from there, but the biggest advantage is that it's only 28 pages:devil:), but am still to read it. Westlands landed today, after all, and when it's about a choice between a Cepheus Engine title and a d20 derivative, there's no choice, really:grin:!
Definitely think I'd rather use the lighter CE for sure. lol.
 
Definitely think I'd rather use the lighter CE for sure. lol.
Well, after a quick look at the system of Codex Martialis, it's got a lot to recommend it to people who would want to use d20, while wanting a somewhat more realistic combat:thumbsup:!
 
Sniping programs are a solution to a non existent problem.

Just enter your max bid right up front. People can snipe all they want but if their max is less than your max you win. You keep the winning bid until they pass you.
My problem is that sometimes I'm not sure what I would pay in advance. If I think something is worth $50, would I pay $51 just to get it? Maybe. 52? Not sure.

My solution to the sniping problem is that e-bay should have some sort of a timer set so that any bid in the last five minutes of an auction would reset the remaining time to five minutes. Someone snipes in the last three seconds? Okay, now you have five minutes to contemplate a counter, and if you do they have five more minutes, and so on. This would be a win for the seller and eliminates the "snipe" issue.
 
OK, read through the majority of the 97 page core book, skim read through some of the equipment lists etc. After going over it I find myself fascinated that it reminds me of the hoops and acrobatics I found myself attempting to do to old 1st edition AD&D to make it more active in the combat mechanics. Changing armor to damage reduction, giving options for active defenses etc.

In the end I realized that I was simply kludging up the system in my attempt to make AD&D something that simply wasn't capable of handling in an efficient, elegant way and I ended up tossing those ideas to the side and going back to Palladium Fantasy 1st edition until I moved onto GURPS in 1986-87. The folks at Codex Integrum have made the same error in my opinion. Though they made it much worse by doubling down on the amount of detailed mechanics that they've attempted to shoehorn into DnD 3x which actually made it more inelegant and clunky than my own efforts, bless them my opinion.

That seems like a fair assessment to me. The date of the original Codex Martialis may have something to do with it--I noticed it has been on Drivethru since 2009 and so must have been written even earlier, maybe near or at the end of the D20 boom, when a lot of people were trying to hack the D20 SRD to do things that they might have done more easily if they started with another chassis.
 
My problem is that sometimes I'm not sure what I would pay in advance. If I think something is worth $50, would I pay $51 just to get it? Maybe. 52? Not sure.
That's one reason I started bidding 52 or even 53.

My solution to the sniping problem is that e-bay should have some sort of a timer set so that any bid in the last five minutes of an auction would reset the remaining time to five minutes. Someone snipes in the last three seconds? Okay, now you have five minutes to contemplate a counter, and if you do they have five more minutes, and so on. This would be a win for the seller and eliminates the "snipe" issue.
That would be nice to some extent. The problem is if you respond to the sniping bid, then YOU have t wait 5 more minutes.

It would drive hot bidding wars though which would be good for sellers - to an extent - the problem is that hot bidding wars can also produce buyers remorse and then the seller is chasing a non-paying buyer.

The automatic bid seems to insulate buyers from the worst aspects of sniping while allowing the auction a fixed end time.

And then as a buyer, exercise patience. A similar item WILL come up again. If you decide you REALLY REALLY want it, bit accordingly. If you use patience and get sniped out several times, revisit your evaluation and the next time, come in with a higher bid.

Those ideas served me well in Lego buying, though I also came in with solid high side bids, to the point I kept meeting folks at conventions who would tell me how if they saw me bidding on something they just walked away knowing I was going to pay more than them.

I also took advantage of "buy it now" prices when they became available. I got several nice deals where the "buy it now" price was pretty modest. Boom, item is mine, no anxiety about getting out bid.

And a silly little thing about "buy it now"... My church auction folks don't quite understand "buy it now", they set initial bid at like 50% of the declared value, and "buy it now" at the declared value... "Buy it now" should be like 150% or 200% of the declared value...
 
DriveThruRPG just launched their May D&D sale--looks like nearly everything D&D-compatible is being included at up to 40% off.
Anyone which Spelljammer 2e book is the best one to get if I wanted the setting info to run in another system?
 
My solution to the sniping problem is that e-bay should have some sort of a timer set so that any bid in the last five minutes of an auction would reset the remaining time to five minutes.
Ebay awards the auction to the person who made the highest bid, for an amount just above the second-highest bid. So if the initial stands at ten dollars, and you register a bid of five hundred dollars, the algorithm will consider you the current bidder and the current bid as $10.25. Then if a third person bids twenty dollars the algorithm will immediately raise your bid to $20.25 and the third person will leap to the conclusion that you sniped them. Even though you weren’t even logged on.

This is called a “second price auction with proxy bidding”.
 
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That seems like a fair assessment to me. The date of the original Codex Martialis may have something to do with it--I noticed it has been on Drivethru since 2009 and so must have been written even earlier, maybe near or at the end of the D20 boom, when a lot of people were trying to hack the D20 SRD to do things that they might have done more easily if they started with another chassis.
That is quite likely. But from their comments under their magic supplement, it seems they might be after the OSR market.
Maybe they just don't believe another system would allow them to get nearly enough customers to warrant the effort? I've seen the same logic by other publishers I respect as well, and while I don't like it, I'm not going to tell them what works best for their business.
Or, you know, maybe they actually like D&D, for sentimental reasons or whatever, and don't want to ditch it? Unlikely, but if they do, again, I'm not going to tell them they should:thumbsup:!

And, conversely to the estimate, I actually think they've done a great job with the rules. It's not light by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not clunkier than 3,5-5E, either. Certainly seems less clunky than what I remember from Pathfinder (my memories might be a bit unclear, though, since I played it a long time ago and not for long:tongue:).
Still, might even be willing to play that if anyone else was offering...though nobody that I know has probably heard of them.
I might have to change that, maybe by running their system on one of the RPG Days here:shade:.

Oh yeah, and I just snatched the core system and the sourcebooks. I was going to get those sourcebooks sooner or later for the source material, anyway, and the system book is discounted below what it costs in their bundle:angel:!
The question is whether to get the Players' Guide. But then I can get this one via the bundle (since I've got the core now, Drivethru is going to deduct it from the bundle price:gunslinger:!
 
I've been converting the adventues to Mythras. Works pretty well using Mythic Constantinople as a base.
Yeah, that is an option as well. But then I didn't get them...:thumbsup:

And if I had, nothing guarantees I would have used them with the original system:shade:.
 
I've been converting the adventues to Mythras. Works pretty well using Mythic Constantinople as a base.
Any interest in sharing the conversions? I had been thinking of doing something similar using one version or another of the D100 base.
 
The two corebooks for Scion second edition, Origin and Hero are on sale at 90% off ($1.50-$2). Not that interested myself, but someone might be.
Joking aside, Heirs to the Shogunate (the Dragon-Blooded book for Exalted 3e) is also subject to the same promotion:thumbsup:!
 
Drive Thru is offering nearly $500 worth of RPGs for $25


(Obviously this is tied to a political cause of some volatility in the US at the moment, and one completely inappropriate for discussion at The Pub, so it's at your discretion if you agree or don't care - like the prior situation of this type, feel free to discuss the games themselves )
 
Drive Thru is offering nearly $500 worth of RPGs for $25


(Obviously this is tied to a political cause of some volatility in the US at the moment, and one completely inappropriate for discussion at The Pub, so it's at your discretion if you agree or don't care - like the prior situation of this type, feel free to discuss the games themselves )
What are people's thoughts on the best gems in this bundle? I don't think I have much of what it's offering but a few names strike me as familiar.
 
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