Vincent Takeda

Archetypes I enjoy playing most are brilliant kind wise mentor types. Doctor strange, Qui gon, picard, sherlock, wade garret, gandalf,oogway, old kevin flynn, hawkins from space cowboys. Spirited classy caring and kind. Sometimes dignified, sometimes showboaty. Generally pacifists. Get the partys butt out of a fire ex machina and convenience wizard tricks. Healers. Sometimes a statham or a dean winchester style aloof yet gritty. My female characters are always spirited classy caring and kind but also have a slightly more (brave?) devil may care thing than my male characters... Not sure why. I also have a bit of an addiction to shapeshifting. Both for impersonation purposes and also animals and creatures and objects and, when the system allows it, vehicles and robots and demons and dragons. I like playing circus acrobats, singers, dancers, martial artists. Cross between miroku and genjuro with a boken. Other than convenience mage and get out of jail free wizard and healer, my preferred role is investigation infiltration and exploration.

Started with gamma world in like 1983. Becmi by 1984 (red moldvay, all else mentzer). Switched to AD&D when 2e came out. Then Heroes unlimited and ninjas and superspies. Cyberpunk 2020. Rifts for a bit. Big hiatus after highschool. Came back for Dead reign. 3.5 and really went deep on pathfinder for a bit... Changed my mind. Dabbled in probably 4 dozen other systems but quickly developed a short (LIES! frankly huge) list of things I just ain't into.

MDC. Exploding dice. Storyteller games. Narrative systems. Dice pools. Fate points. Feat trees. Multiple attacks per round. Balance mechanics. Challenge ratings. Prestige classes. Static initiative order. Stacking bonuses. Short rest long rest. Wound mechanics. Attribute damage. Abstract wealth systems ala d20. Jury is still out on 5e's rolling double dice with advantage but I'm pretty sure thats gonna be a no for me as well. Back to just homebrewed heroes unlimited and ninjas and superspies these days.

I really REALLY liked pathfinders evolutionist summoner (I prefer broad competence situational utility builds and 'creature comfort/convenience wizards') but summoners of all varieties got a lot of flack even within the community itself, so big surprise the one thing I like in the system is certainly the one the community itself does not. Certainly I agree with the community that stealing action economy from the table became a big deal and something to watch out for in every system. So much so that its sort of started a modern war against multiple attacks per round, which for me is GREAT because I always felt like multiple attacks per round was a bad idea. Especially as a palladium guy where attacks per round can get up to like friggin 15 or so.

Obviously theres a lot of stuff I do like, and obviously most of that is contained within my system of choice... Opposed rolls, linear probability, percentile skill system, broad overlapping character utility, low level competence, non unified mechanics, rulings over rules. Powers based more on contributing a narrative effect than raw mechanical bonuses (also not the same as giving players direct narrative control).

Trying to make a short list of 'new gaming conventions' that I do like and have made my old games better. So far the only one that comes to mind is damage resistance. Thats a great and functional concept. Armor in my palladium games is now both resistive and ablative. Quite cool.

http://nearbygamers.com/gamers/Takeda
http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=46316
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/member.php?99919-VincentTakeda
http://paizo.com/people/VincentTakeda
https://www.therpgsite.com/member.php?11978-VincentTakeda