Yesterday at PFS I ended up fighting and advanced version of one of these:
(the Remorhaz, not the person)
My scythe wielding, plate wearing Inquisitor of the Goddess of Death was the only front line fighter, so I got to take every hit. And it had Awesome Blow, so it's full attacks were hard enough that it either threw me backwards to land prone in a heap, or knocked me backwards to bounce off a party member taking extra damage for the impact and landing prone in a heap.
So the fight ended when I stopped getting up to get hit again, and just scythed it legs off while laying on the ground.
Obviously with that many legs, scything them all off killed it.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
Speaking of PC's meeting in prison that is uh, exactly what I'm doing for a three part Dystopian Cyberpunk Future in the Year 20XX game I'm going to run.
The players all got to decide whether or not they were there for an actual crime or were imprisoned falsely but either way they are in a corporately owned prison and were contacted from the outside by a crime lord to break her son out of prison. A giant hurricane is coming to destroy the city they're in (Los Angeles) and getting out of the city is nearly impossible and the prison is running mostly on a couple of people left behind to run the security robots and ... a bunch of security robots. So if the group can get him out, they'll get a free ride out of the city on the crime families private jet when they get to LAX.
In my head I see the game taking three sessions with each day being a single session. Session 1 I imagine will be the prison escape. The party is an athletic ex drug runner with no combat abilities but a lot of social skills and acrobats, a dude who just put all his points into hacking and is rocking two cybernetic limbs, and a petty ex gun thug who is the only person in the party who even has combat skills. Fourth guy is making his dude tonight, no idea what it'll be.
I want to give them a lot of leeway to devise how they break out, but it's a party of 4 and 2 of them have never played a PnP RPG before. Thoughts? Suggestions?
What system are you working in? Some systems are way better for this sort of thing than others, as we've been discussing.
TechNoir. Its' a cheap but neat little system that is pretty similar to FATE. Very light on crunch.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Well, that's good news. Crunch and prisons don't really get along that well.
Here's what I'd say. Come up with the hard way to break out. What the worst possible way that they could choose to do it? It's probably going to be going through and fighting every single guard, but who knows, maybe your players are committed to bad ideas.
Anyways, stat that out as much as you need to, and offer it to your players as an option. Emphasize the fact that it is an option and that it will be very difficult, and at that point rely on the players to come up with something better.
If they don't, then they can just play it out as you planned it. But if they start on a good path, definitely encourage them and give them options along that path.
This doesn't mean you can't give them hard choices, mind you, but I'd wait until they solidly pick a plan and start down that path before you do so. You don't want them to revert back to plan Kill Everything That Moves.
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
My bro's wife got the Star Trek TOS deckbuilding game and it's actually pretty cool! This may be the only game in the world that features both "grenade launcher" and "Abraham Lincoln" as playable things that you can get.
+1
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
edited March 2016
So, because there was no session last night for The Rise of the Runelords!
But that doesn't mean I can't regal you all with a quick story from a couple weeks ago.
The party were exploring the underground section of the Glassworks factory in hopes of finding Ameiko Kaijitsu, which they did! Valiant Kilmer (the Sterling Archer of cavaliers), who was in a loose relationship with Ameiko, decided he'd deliver her back to town while the rest of the party delved deeper into the darkness. So he put her atop his trusted steed Copernicus and they were off!
He arrived at her establishment, the Red Dragon Inn, and came in to the applause of all the locals in it. He brought her up to her bed and what followed was...
DM: And you lay her into her bed. Tristan: I also take care to let her coworker know she's in bad shape, as to tend to her. DM: Of course... Tristan: Alright, I descend the stairs to head back to the Glassworks factory. DM: "Oye! There's the hero of the day! A drink on me for such a fellow!" Tristan: "Oh sir, thank you but I ought to get--- DM: "I too will match that request!" "Me too! A drink for the hero!" Tristan: Please Jimmy, don't do it. Don't make me do this... DM: *Long stare* "Free drinks for the hero!" "Free" "Drinks" "FREE DRINKS" Tristan: No......
Well, Valiant Kilmer couldn't resist such a reward and after drinking A LOT he rode back to the Glassworks factory. By that time the party was already deep into the underground cavern, but Valiant Kilmer drunkenly tried to catch up with them.
Well he got lost.
And then he was blinded by a sudden opening out to the beach.
And he fell off of it and all the way down into the wet sand.
Speaking of PC's meeting in prison that is uh, exactly what I'm doing for a three part Dystopian Cyberpunk Future in the Year 20XX game I'm going to run.
The players all got to decide whether or not they were there for an actual crime or were imprisoned falsely but either way they are in a corporately owned prison and were contacted from the outside by a crime lord to break her son out of prison. A giant hurricane is coming to destroy the city they're in (Los Angeles) and getting out of the city is nearly impossible and the prison is running mostly on a couple of people left behind to run the security robots and ... a bunch of security robots. So if the group can get him out, they'll get a free ride out of the city on the crime families private jet when they get to LAX.
In my head I see the game taking three sessions with each day being a single session. Session 1 I imagine will be the prison escape. The party is an athletic ex drug runner with no combat abilities but a lot of social skills and acrobats, a dude who just put all his points into hacking and is rocking two cybernetic limbs, and a petty ex gun thug who is the only person in the party who even has combat skills. Fourth guy is making his dude tonight, no idea what it'll be.
I want to give them a lot of leeway to devise how they break out, but it's a party of 4 and 2 of them have never played a PnP RPG before. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Come up with a few ways for each character's non-combat skills to shine, and then hammer those ways into your players' skulls with zero subtlety
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
+1
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Woo! Friend of mine found a copy of Bottled Demon (an early 1st edition Shadowrun book) for me. $13 is a bit steep for that old of a book, but it's one of the more iconic adventures and it is in really good shape, so I'm okay with this.
He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
Learning 5th ed shadowrun to run for my friends, recoil seems potentially fiddly and easy for new players to not track well. Any of you folks know of any elegant solutions for tracking this or do you just have to stay on top of players until it becomes habit for them?
Inquisitor on
0
Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
edited March 2016
Our session ended with the cleric walking up to the current BBEG and having words outside of the town gate. The thief hid in a bush. That bush had bees in it. He got the 'success at a cost or hard choice' option when trying to hide in said bush so he found out the bush he was hiding in was home to a particularly angry stinging insect. He could either keep hiding and get stung and face the consequences or flee the bush, make himself known, and face those consequences. He chose bees. And then remembered that he had sleeping poison and that it wasn't harmful to him so he poured a bunch in his mouth and tried to aerosol spit it onto the bees. He succeeded mostly.
So yeah. Big convo happening here and the thief is spitting on some bees.
Learning 5th ed shadowrun to run for my friends, recoil seems potentially fiddly and easy for new players to not track well. Any of you folks know of any elegant solutions for tracking this or do you just have to stay on top of players until it becomes habit for them?
well, simple run down from what i remember is that effectively each bullet fired in a round adds ones recoil but the first one is free. so one three round burst is 2 but two is 5. mind you, it's been a while since i read it and i forget how attachments play into it. i know if fourth recoil compensation was always active, so with gas vent 2 the first three round burst was zero recoil and the second one was 1. which is why i made an ak with like rc 8.
in short, i lost sight of what you're asking. make them count bullets fired, iunno.
There was the Ares Alpha, I think? The bullpup assault rifle in SR4 with the special chamber design for two inbuilt recoil comp. Yeah I'll have that, with a Gas Vent 2 system and a compressive stock. Medium Narrow Bursts with no penalties to hit? BRRRRRPPPPdead.
I was gonna spend my time off work designing a new game, or doing this big supplement for Monsterhearts... But instead I'm using a ad-hoc system to play what is basically Earthbound / Undertale / Adventure Time with my nieces and nephews. No regrets.
In SR5 your recoil amount doesn't apply to each shot but is an initial number of shots you can absorb.
So if you have a recoil absorption value of 5, your first 3 round burst would do nothing, your second 3 round burst you give you a -1, your third 3 round burst a -4, etc. Doing any action other than shooting resets this count.
So I just have to make sure my players don't forget where they are at.
0
Tommy2Handswhat is this where am iRegistered Userregular
I was gonna spend my time off work designing a new game, or doing this big supplement for Monsterhearts... But instead I'm using a ad-hoc system to play what is basically Earthbound / Undertale / Adventure Time with my nieces and nephews. No regrets.
Star wars dice for modifying good things/failures sound perfect for this.
0
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
does anyone bother to keep track of how many rounds a given player has on them
what if a gun jams
e: honestly I would be the worst dm
In Shadowrun, it's part of the economy model.. but not a huge point. It again depends on if you decide to go black trenchcoat or pink mohawk with the theme of your game.
Establish the rules early and stick to them. Guns jamming and running out of shots are great for cinematic tension. If your players are going ultra-realism, track bullets. Anything between.. just be consistent.
He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
There was the Ares Alpha, I think? The bullpup assault rifle in SR4 with the special chamber design for two inbuilt recoil comp. Yeah I'll have that, with a Gas Vent 2 system and a compressive stock. Medium Narrow Bursts with no penalties to hit? BRRRRRPPPPdead.
nah man, gas vent 3. and a heavy barrel, and you can basically get it to the point where even at full auto it doesn't budge. it is a real good gun. I just use the ak because it's cheap and almost gets there.
Buddy of mine grabbed Lords of Waterdeep, and we played a couple of games of it yesterday. I had never played it before, and was curious to check out one of the modern classics. Turns out I liked it, but didn't love it.
First game, I waaaay overthought things. The hidden identities got me thinking that other folks would be paying attention to me, trying to block me if they figured out my deal, so I varied what I was doing and never really built a solid engine for the late game. My paranoia left me in third place out of a four-person game.
Second game, I internalized the lessons of the first. I knew then that nobody was paying attention to what I was doing, so I did not hesitate to hit my secret goals and hit them hard. I ended up winning with about 75 points of daylight between me and the second place finisher. Felt real good.
I liked the sense of progression in the game, the feeling that you're building a successful network for yourself. Seeing the plot quests line up and the buildings splay out. I liked the flavor of it, and I like how targeting your identity's bonuses really makes the character come alive. The game I won, I was an evil doppleganger who was impersonating a priest, so I got bonuses on Piety and Skullduggery. So I'm doing these big public good deeds, and then sneakily buying up property all over town and building a criminal enterprise. That much was really, really neat.
But I didn't like how easy it was for everyone to ignore everyone else. This could certainly be a result of the group at the table, but it was so much easier to just focus on your own shit and build yourself up than it was to impact anybody else's tableau. It ended up feeling a bit like competitive solitaire.
Still, though, a nice little change of pace from the combat-and/or-lying games that are the bread and butter of my gaming group.
Buddy of mine grabbed Lords of Waterdeep, and we played a couple of games of it yesterday. I had never played it before, and was curious to check out one of the modern classics. Turns out I liked it, but didn't love it.
First game, I waaaay overthought things. The hidden identities got me thinking that other folks would be paying attention to me, trying to block me if they figured out my deal, so I varied what I was doing and never really built a solid engine for the late game. My paranoia left me in third place out of a four-person game.
Second game, I internalized the lessons of the first. I knew then that nobody was paying attention to what I was doing, so I did not hesitate to hit my secret goals and hit them hard. I ended up winning with about 75 points of daylight between me and the second place finisher. Felt real good.
I liked the sense of progression in the game, the feeling that you're building a successful network for yourself. Seeing the plot quests line up and the buildings splay out. I liked the flavor of it, and I like how targeting your identity's bonuses really makes the character come alive. The game I won, I was an evil doppleganger who was impersonating a priest, so I got bonuses on Piety and Skullduggery. So I'm doing these big public good deeds, and then sneakily buying up property all over town and building a criminal enterprise. That much was really, really neat.
But I didn't like how easy it was for everyone to ignore everyone else. This could certainly be a result of the group at the table, but it was so much easier to just focus on your own shit and build yourself up than it was to impact anybody else's tableau. It ended up feeling a bit like competitive solitaire.
Still, though, a nice little change of pace from the combat-and/or-lying games that are the bread and butter of my gaming group.
I specifically remember my last game of it involving player blocking all over the damn place because we apparently all figured out eachothers secret identity in the first round and all focused on being bastards
I've always found that actively blocking players in Lords of Waterdeep is a surefire way to get shit all points yourself. Most blocking occurs because people are just after the same resources sometimes.
I've never felt the need to really watch what the other players are doing outside of some of the cards you can play. It's one of the reasons that while I like the game there's a lot of other worker placement games I'll always prefer.
Also mandatory quests are the worst. Really awful game mechanic
also the expansion apparently has more player interaction stuff beyond just worker placement.
+1
MrMonroepassed outon the floor nowRegistered Userregular
All the buildings are pretty serious player interaction. The fight over what's in the builder's hall is usually pretty intense in our games, plus the intrigue spaces.
VivixenneRemember your training, and we'll get through this just fine.Registered Userregular
Lords of Waterdeep is my FAVOURITE game, being a rapid worker placement. I do agree that there's limited player interaction, but the expansion Scoundrels of Skullport really helps with that by adding a shared resource to the game.
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
@Poorochondriac I'd be really curious to hear what you think if you try the game again with the Skullport expansion, which I feel like is basically essential and brings the game to a really nice rounded state of completion. It has this very Prisoner's Dilemma-y "Corruption" mechanic where you can do really awful stuff (take bribes to overlook slave trading or whatever) and as long as everyone's doing it it's no big deal, but if you're the only corrupt person, or the most corrupt person, you suffer a huge cascade of point penalties - or you can keep your virtue and hope that everyone else's corruption is enough to sink them even as they make tangible material gains that you are denied.
Yeah skullport is pretty great! I think I like the game significantly more with it added in. The corruption mechanic is really smart and provided you get a good lot of buildings/quests that affect corruption popping up over the course of a game it has a really cool dynamic.
But that brings up my other big problem with the game- it can be really snowball-y based purely on luck. If one person snags a plot quest early on that gives them a huge boost they can easily grow at a rate much faster than a player who just gets some garbage or really basic quests at the start of the game. I wish there was a way to lessen that somewhat.
Last night I dreamed that I was teaching Teddy Roosevelt to play D&D. He rolled a bard for the focus on leadership and diplomacy, but then he insisted on maxing out his Constitution and trying to upstage the Tank. And I was like "Teddy... bro... let me talk to you about Paladins. I think you could get the vibe you're going for without it being such a mess...", but he wasn't listening because he was too jazzed to have an awesome Flute-Knife like the Green Power Ranger, that played marching songs while he shanked kobolds.
So now I'm working on a way to incorporate this brilliant new NPC into my ongoing 5E game...
Realizing lately that I don't really trust or respect basically any of the moderators here. So, good luck with life, friends! Hit me up on Twitter @DesertLeviathan
Last night I dreamed that I was teaching Teddy Roosevelt to play D&D. He rolled a bard for the focus on leadership and diplomacy, but then he insisted on maxing out his Constitution and trying to upstage the Tank. And I was like "Teddy... bro... let me talk to you about Paladins. I think you could get the vibe you're going for without it being such a mess...", but he wasn't listening because he was too jazzed to have an awesome Flute-Knife like the Green Power Ranger, that played marching songs while he shanked kobolds.
So now I'm working on a way to incorporate this brilliant new NPC into my ongoing 5E game...
Teddy Roosevelt would be all about a Bard's skills & bardic knowledge.
Posts
(the Remorhaz, not the person)
My scythe wielding, plate wearing Inquisitor of the Goddess of Death was the only front line fighter, so I got to take every hit. And it had Awesome Blow, so it's full attacks were hard enough that it either threw me backwards to land prone in a heap, or knocked me backwards to bounce off a party member taking extra damage for the impact and landing prone in a heap.
So the fight ended when I stopped getting up to get hit again, and just scythed it legs off while laying on the ground.
Obviously with that many legs, scything them all off killed it.
TechNoir. Its' a cheap but neat little system that is pretty similar to FATE. Very light on crunch.
Here's what I'd say. Come up with the hard way to break out. What the worst possible way that they could choose to do it? It's probably going to be going through and fighting every single guard, but who knows, maybe your players are committed to bad ideas.
Anyways, stat that out as much as you need to, and offer it to your players as an option. Emphasize the fact that it is an option and that it will be very difficult, and at that point rely on the players to come up with something better.
If they don't, then they can just play it out as you planned it. But if they start on a good path, definitely encourage them and give them options along that path.
This doesn't mean you can't give them hard choices, mind you, but I'd wait until they solidly pick a plan and start down that path before you do so. You don't want them to revert back to plan Kill Everything That Moves.
This thing is fucking massive
Easily twice as thick as my old M:tAs books, and at least as in height and width on the cover.
Just a fucking murder weapon of a book. Black bound with the Prime Sphere symbol on the cover.
Gorgeous.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
But that doesn't mean I can't regal you all with a quick story from a couple weeks ago.
The party were exploring the underground section of the Glassworks factory in hopes of finding Ameiko Kaijitsu, which they did! Valiant Kilmer (the Sterling Archer of cavaliers), who was in a loose relationship with Ameiko, decided he'd deliver her back to town while the rest of the party delved deeper into the darkness. So he put her atop his trusted steed Copernicus and they were off!
He arrived at her establishment, the Red Dragon Inn, and came in to the applause of all the locals in it. He brought her up to her bed and what followed was...
Well, Valiant Kilmer couldn't resist such a reward and after drinking A LOT he rode back to the Glassworks factory. By that time the party was already deep into the underground cavern, but Valiant Kilmer drunkenly tried to catch up with them.
Well he got lost.
And then he was blinded by a sudden opening out to the beach.
And he fell off of it and all the way down into the wet sand.
HAS THERE EVER BEEN A MORE NOBLE HERO???
Come up with a few ways for each character's non-combat skills to shine, and then hammer those ways into your players' skulls with zero subtlety
So yeah. Big convo happening here and the thief is spitting on some bees.
well, simple run down from what i remember is that effectively each bullet fired in a round adds ones recoil but the first one is free. so one three round burst is 2 but two is 5. mind you, it's been a while since i read it and i forget how attachments play into it. i know if fourth recoil compensation was always active, so with gas vent 2 the first three round burst was zero recoil and the second one was 1. which is why i made an ak with like rc 8.
in short, i lost sight of what you're asking. make them count bullets fired, iunno.
So if you have a recoil absorption value of 5, your first 3 round burst would do nothing, your second 3 round burst you give you a -1, your third 3 round burst a -4, etc. Doing any action other than shooting resets this count.
So I just have to make sure my players don't forget where they are at.
Star wars dice for modifying good things/failures sound perfect for this.
If a firefight has gone on to the point where anyone needs to reload, it's gone on too long.
.. nah, I'm joshing.
It would be an action other than shooting so it would reset it.
what if a gun jams
e: honestly I would be the worst dm
In Shadowrun, it's part of the economy model.. but not a huge point. It again depends on if you decide to go black trenchcoat or pink mohawk with the theme of your game.
Establish the rules early and stick to them. Guns jamming and running out of shots are great for cinematic tension. If your players are going ultra-realism, track bullets. Anything between.. just be consistent.
nah man, gas vent 3. and a heavy barrel, and you can basically get it to the point where even at full auto it doesn't budge. it is a real good gun. I just use the ak because it's cheap and almost gets there.
First game, I waaaay overthought things. The hidden identities got me thinking that other folks would be paying attention to me, trying to block me if they figured out my deal, so I varied what I was doing and never really built a solid engine for the late game. My paranoia left me in third place out of a four-person game.
Second game, I internalized the lessons of the first. I knew then that nobody was paying attention to what I was doing, so I did not hesitate to hit my secret goals and hit them hard. I ended up winning with about 75 points of daylight between me and the second place finisher. Felt real good.
I liked the sense of progression in the game, the feeling that you're building a successful network for yourself. Seeing the plot quests line up and the buildings splay out. I liked the flavor of it, and I like how targeting your identity's bonuses really makes the character come alive. The game I won, I was an evil doppleganger who was impersonating a priest, so I got bonuses on Piety and Skullduggery. So I'm doing these big public good deeds, and then sneakily buying up property all over town and building a criminal enterprise. That much was really, really neat.
But I didn't like how easy it was for everyone to ignore everyone else. This could certainly be a result of the group at the table, but it was so much easier to just focus on your own shit and build yourself up than it was to impact anybody else's tableau. It ended up feeling a bit like competitive solitaire.
Still, though, a nice little change of pace from the combat-and/or-lying games that are the bread and butter of my gaming group.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Man, I'd like to play this sometime!
Being a worker placement game, it's intrinsically about player blocking.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
a real low point game that was
I've never felt the need to really watch what the other players are doing outside of some of the cards you can play. It's one of the reasons that while I like the game there's a lot of other worker placement games I'll always prefer.
Also mandatory quests are the worst. Really awful game mechanic
Usually there's an alternate for them to take that's slightly less advantageous but less advantageous for them = more for you.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
But that brings up my other big problem with the game- it can be really snowball-y based purely on luck. If one person snags a plot quest early on that gives them a huge boost they can easily grow at a rate much faster than a player who just gets some garbage or really basic quests at the start of the game. I wish there was a way to lessen that somewhat.
So now I'm working on a way to incorporate this brilliant new NPC into my ongoing 5E game...
Teddy Roosevelt would be all about a Bard's skills & bardic knowledge.