I picked up some potentially neat stuff at PAX this weekend, still looking to dog into them. Picked up Dread and a copy of the One Ring, as well as a copy of the board game Fog of Love. All of those are games I've had some knowledge of going in, an bd had been meaning to check out.
New stuff (to me): I don't fully remember the name, and it's in the luggage compartment, but I picked an rpg about losing and changing language. The premise was really interesting and I want to dig into how it works.
Mutants in the Now: a revamp of the old Ninja Turtles system where you randomly generate a mutant. Was very cheap, and sometimes I just wanna roll on some tables
Legacy: Life Among the Ruins: a pbta game where you control both a "family" and an individual member of that family in a post apocalypse. Over time, you're meant to rebuild the world and play through generations, swapping out characters and redrawing the map. It seems really neat and there's a lot of fun ideas in there.
Anyways, who knows if I'll get to play them, but there's a lot to dig into either way
Last Saturday night I ran the final battle of my Underdark campaign I began in August 2020. The 15th-level party, made up of a dwarf bard/cleric, shadar-kai monk, kenku rogue, and dragonborn sorcerer, faced off first with Doresain (after defeating much of his ghoul nobility) and then with an only slightly weakened aspect of Orcus.
The shadar-kai monk slew at least a dozen of the ghouls that crawled up from their pit onto the platforms (as a Long Death Monk, this also meant he had a fairly reliable means of getting temp HP), ran across the heads of a tightly-packed ghoul horde to get to a safer platform, and at one point ran up a wall to give a potion of healing to the flying rogue before jumping off, teleporting, and slow falling onto the giant statue.
The dwarf bard/cleric dealt a ton of thunder damage to strong earth elemental ally of Doresain's, prayed to the her goddess just before the aspect of Orcus' appearance and obtained some healing for the entire party, and was able to inflict Bestow Curse on Orcus (who I rolled a natural one for on his save).
The kenku rogue picked off several of Doresain's more dangerous allies, such as a bodak, maurezhi, and a crypt thing that could teleport the party into dangerous positions. At one point he pulled the unconscious monk to safety from advancing ghouls by grabbing him and flying away to a nearby platform.
The dragonborn sorcerer summoned a draconic spirit to help fight and dealt a ton of damage with spells like sunbeam and a metamagic radiant fireball. He ended up dealing the final blows to both Doresain and the aspect of Orcus, the latter of which he suffered a parting power word kill. The monk was able to use a rope of climbing to pull the sorcerer's body from the ledge he'd been on for the bard/cleric to restore him with revivify.
All in all I'm very proud with how the four hour final battle went down. I feel like I gave each character a role to play in the fight: support from the bard/cleric and a powerful earth elemental for her to shatter (one that had petrified her and the monk sessions before, which added urgency to defeating it), ghoul minions for the monk to mow down and terrain for him to navigate with his unparalleled mobility, more dangerous creatures for the rogue to snipe, and powerful bosses (Doresain and Orcus) for the sorcerer to unload his greatest spells against. I think my only regret is I didn't have a dragon miniature for the sorcerer's player to use (he brought the behir mini we used as a substitute).
Thinking about starting a second Play-by-Post game on here since I can’t run any games in person right now.
Since I want to devote good descriptions and plot points to the first game, I’m thinking the second game could be extremely light and just focus on slapstick and tactical combat. It’ll be D&D 5E. I think I’ll even put enemy AC and HP out in the open, same for skill DC, just to keep it breezy in the PbP format.
I picked up some potentially neat stuff at PAX this weekend, still looking to dog into them. [...]
New stuff (to me): I don't fully remember the name, and it's in the luggage compartment, but I picked an rpg about losing and changing language. The premise was really interesting and I want to dig into how it works. [...]
Ooh, ooh, is it maybe Dialect? That was in my shortlist of RPGs I've been eyeing! I'll be interested to see your take.
I almost got Sign (another Thorny Games title) at a FLGS Saturday, but opted to get Jaipur instead, as likely to get sooner & much more frequent play.
Traits Aura of Gnashing Teeth. When a creature enters within 10 feet of Doresain for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 3d8 force damage. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage. The aura is deactivated if Doresain takes radiant damage, and he can activate or deactivate the aura as a bonus action. Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If Doresain fails a saving throw, he can choose to succeed instead. Magic Resistance. Doresain has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. Undying Soul (Recharges after a Rest). If Doresain is reduced to 0 hit points by an attack that does not deal radiant damage he immediately makes a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If he succeeds, he is instead reduced to 1 hit point.
Actions Multiattack. Doresain makes two attacks. Spectral Claw. Melee or Ranged Spell Attack: +14 to hit, range 60 ft., one creature. 3d6 slashing damage plus 3d6 necrotic damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. Toothlust. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1d8+8 bludgeoning damage plus 4d6 necrotic damage. Doresain regains hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt, and the target can’t regain hit points until the start of its next turn. Soul Shredding Scream (Recharge 6). Each creature that is not a construct, fiend, or undead within 40 feet of Doresain must make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 6d6 necrotic damage and its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to half the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the creature is targeted by Remove Curse or a similar effect. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0, and it rises after Doresain’s next turn as a maurezhi under his control. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage.
Bonus Actions Teleport. Doresain teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space he can see.
Legendary Actions Attack. Doresain makes one Spectral Claw or Toothlust attack. Eyes of the Ghoul King. Until the end of Doresain’s next turn, he knows the location of any creature that is not a construct or an undead within 60 feet that is not behind total cover and if their current hit point total is equal to or less than one-fourth of their hit point maximum. Teleport. Doresain teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space he can see.
Lair Actions
• 2d4+2 ghouls appear and roll initiative.
• Each ghoul, ghast, shadowghast, and maurezhi that Doresain can see can use its reaction to move up to its speed and make a melee attack.
• Until the next initiative count 20, each ghoul, ghast, shadowghast, and maurezhi within the lair is filled with ravenous hunger, causing them to have advantage on melee attack rolls and causing attack rolls to have advantage against them.
I feel like it worked pretty well, especially in terms of softening up the party for their final battle against Orcus. Doresain doesn't do that much damage himself, but he can lower maximum hit point totals and temporarily forbid healing, making it easier for his ghoul minions to wear down enemies.
Hexmage-PA on
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Debating doing another re-org of my board game shelves...
Last time, I did it alphabetically. But like most projects such as that, there wasn't enough room for expansion. So things are just gonna be pushed down the queue as I go. And if I do that, I might as well see if there are better ways to do it. By publisher, by genre, by color, by release year, by size of the box....
I could really use the help of a certified library technician.
Thinking about starting a second Play-by-Post game on here since I can’t run any games in person right now.
Since I want to devote good descriptions and plot points to the first game, I’m thinking the second game could be extremely light and just focus on slapstick and tactical combat. It’ll be D&D 5E. I think I’ll even put enemy AC and HP out in the open, same for skill DC, just to keep it breezy in the PbP format.
I don’t want to touch this until my current PbP game completes their first adventure (they’re fighting undead in a cave, classic), but I might have a recruitment thread up Saturday if things go well.
3-6 players. Start at 3rd level. Any race as long as the math isn’t wonky. Plus if you want your high elf to have jet black skin and a golden afro, that’s just how things are retroactively. Likewise, any class as long as you’re not dealing damage with 3d20 or something. It’s a comedy, so rolls of 1 will be catastrophic for your character. You’re genuine heroes though, like a for all ages superhero comic, so you’ll get to kick ass and save lives on the regular.
I instantly backed the Dialect kickstarter after hearing One Shot Podcast play it because the theme is so cool.
I don't think I'll ever get to play it myself, and am kind of worried about losing the cards.
Well, you could invest in the Glossopoet edition and get a limited edition fancy screenprinted bag to keep it bundled together.
Tom of Shut Up & Sit Down has it, and the video on his collection is what turned me on to Dialect in the first place! (I was disappointed the bag isn't embroidered, but that would justifiably be much more expensive.)
The premise of this doodle is that a group of people working for Strike Force Claymore get to choose what colour their uniform is, except all the good picks were taken ages ago by higher ranking teams.
These are the only options I’m allowing.
Naturally this is just a base, you wear full plate in the same palette over it, or stick a wizard hat on etc.
The weird triangular pocket is a pocket of holding. Standard issue.
Debating doing another re-org of my board game shelves...
Last time, I did it alphabetically. But like most projects such as that, there wasn't enough room for expansion. So things are just gonna be pushed down the queue as I go. And if I do that, I might as well see if there are better ways to do it. By publisher, by genre, by color, by release year, by size of the box....
I could really use the help of a certified library technician.
I think we've got at least three hanging around here. I'm only technically trained on how to organize comic books.
This was my collection just after cleaning. Since then a few more TTRPG books appeared, and we've added the pile of Itten games from their Crash Octopus kickstarter in there (thankfully all those come in small-sized boxes)
Considering our collection is in view in the middle of our living room we are rather concerned with what it looks like. So no Dewey Decimal in my household... Generally we keep it slightly color-coded and keep keep games together with their expansions. The kid games are on the lowest level for the kid and I kept the very old second hand games together on the far end (Napoleon at War, Baduk, chess)
If we were more active participants in the hobby we would have rotated out a few weak games, but we're still in a holding pattern due to Covid and my partner's health. Maybe one day we'll move out half these games and pick up new stuff.
Card of Law(Wondrous Item, Legendary)
It is said that this card was once part of the first Deck of Many Things ever crafted but later vanished under mysterious circumstances. By itself, the Card of Law has no effect, but if shuffled into an existing Deck of Many Things it permanently becomes part of that deck, taking on the style and texture of the other cards.
If a player subsequently draws the Card of Law from the Deck of Many Things, a high-quality playing card set worth 1gp appears in their hand and they gain proficiency with playing card sets if they were not proficient already.
JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Oh shit!
The oft-wished-for SRD of Modiphius's 2d20 system is finally happening and it's coming out this summer.
They're also doing third-party licensing and a partnership program:
2d20 SRD & Licensing Programme
We'll be releasing the long-awaited official 2d20 SRD this summer which will let you create your own adventures using the popular ruleset, and the plan is to launch a programme through DriveThroughRPG to let you release content for select lines commercially or your own content. We are already working with other publishers to help them produce commercial RPG releases using the 2d20 system and welcome submissions to support@modiphius.com for commercial projects. We'll be announcing more details on all of this very soon.
I extremely doubt that STA will be one of those "select lines", but what if??
At any rate, the prospect of official support for homebrewing and system hacking is a Big Fucking Deal and I'd love to see 2d20 take off in the same way that PbtA and FitD have. It's my current favorite system for cinematic action storytelling and I can think of several IPs that could make for good serial-numbers-filed-off adaptations. Imagine a playable version of Shadowrun! Or Exalted!
One of our players won't be able to make Friday's game, so the DM asked if anyone wanted to run a one shot. I offered, and then floated the idea of running a One Ring one shot using the starter set. Got one response so far that was down for it, hopefully everyone else is too.
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UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
oh my god I have never been as thoroughly charmed and hooked by a premise as much as this one has
Brindlewood Bay is a tabletop roleplaying game that combines Murder, She Wrote with H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play a group of elderly women, members of the local Murder Mavens Mystery Book Club, who help the authorities solve murder cases in a picturesque New England Town. Over the course of their investigations, they become aware of a dark occult conspiracy that connects the cases, and will eventually have to face that conspiracy in order to save their community. The game is low-prep and easy to play no matter your experience with tabletop roleplaying games.
oh my god I have never been as thoroughly charmed and hooked by a premise as much as this one has
Brindlewood Bay is a tabletop roleplaying game that combines Murder, She Wrote with H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play a group of elderly women, members of the local Murder Mavens Mystery Book Club, who help the authorities solve murder cases in a picturesque New England Town. Over the course of their investigations, they become aware of a dark occult conspiracy that connects the cases, and will eventually have to face that conspiracy in order to save their community. The game is low-prep and easy to play no matter your experience with tabletop roleplaying games.
oh my god I have never been as thoroughly charmed and hooked by a premise as much as this one has
Brindlewood Bay is a tabletop roleplaying game that combines Murder, She Wrote with H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play a group of elderly women, members of the local Murder Mavens Mystery Book Club, who help the authorities solve murder cases in a picturesque New England Town. Over the course of their investigations, they become aware of a dark occult conspiracy that connects the cases, and will eventually have to face that conspiracy in order to save their community. The game is low-prep and easy to play no matter your experience with tabletop roleplaying games.
Step one of shadowrun but good: no dice pools above 20 unless you’re fighting a dragon. Actually have the pc and npcs fit to the ‘6 is average, 9 is professional and 12 is a bad ass’ scale.
Also as an aside I’ve being musing with a dumb sci fi western and have being trying to figure if a certain concept works:
Specifically it’s a big desert/mining planet with the mandatory mining towns, space port city and weird ruins.
However the thing that made it take a nose dive prosperity wise was the hyperspace gate being taken out. So now it takes a good year from the nearest one for deliveries to be made.
Which has turned water into the most valuable currency. Basically so that players only track water and bullets and also so you can play mechanically with the difference between clean water and recycled water as large/small currency and so on.
Just also feels silly for a like, hyper space, planet hopping capitalist weird sci fi setting to also be hung up on producing H2O. Probably over thinking it.
Eh, Water as desert planet currency doesn't feel weird, on the contrary, it's a go to for a reason.
I would say making another resource scarce, like Power generation, would introduce familiar wrinkles while asking interesting questions of the setting.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Hail Hydra
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
And by run a 6e campaign I mean I basically make up the rules on the fly because I can't remember any of them
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
No no, it's fair. It's just.. my thing, you know? I don't have much of value to add to this forum. =P
I have been looking at other cyberpunk/cyber-noir settings. I have Shadow of the Beanstalk for Android/Genesys.. and there's apparently this kickstarter going on right now called Tokyo: Otherscape that looks SUPER cool... but I'm hesitant about cultural appropriation. I always wanted to do d20 modern, and I had to fight EVERY DAMNED URGE I HAVE about that Magic: The Gathering set that was a plane set in like a blade runner / cyberpunk universe with all sorts of techno-creatures. I couldn't bring myself to get back into Magic again, even for that.. but if they release any of that stuff as a sourcebook, I'm screwed.
Posts
New stuff (to me): I don't fully remember the name, and it's in the luggage compartment, but I picked an rpg about losing and changing language. The premise was really interesting and I want to dig into how it works.
Mutants in the Now: a revamp of the old Ninja Turtles system where you randomly generate a mutant. Was very cheap, and sometimes I just wanna roll on some tables
Legacy: Life Among the Ruins: a pbta game where you control both a "family" and an individual member of that family in a post apocalypse. Over time, you're meant to rebuild the world and play through generations, swapping out characters and redrawing the map. It seems really neat and there's a lot of fun ideas in there.
Anyways, who knows if I'll get to play them, but there's a lot to dig into either way
The shadar-kai monk slew at least a dozen of the ghouls that crawled up from their pit onto the platforms (as a Long Death Monk, this also meant he had a fairly reliable means of getting temp HP), ran across the heads of a tightly-packed ghoul horde to get to a safer platform, and at one point ran up a wall to give a potion of healing to the flying rogue before jumping off, teleporting, and slow falling onto the giant statue.
The dwarf bard/cleric dealt a ton of thunder damage to strong earth elemental ally of Doresain's, prayed to the her goddess just before the aspect of Orcus' appearance and obtained some healing for the entire party, and was able to inflict Bestow Curse on Orcus (who I rolled a natural one for on his save).
The kenku rogue picked off several of Doresain's more dangerous allies, such as a bodak, maurezhi, and a crypt thing that could teleport the party into dangerous positions. At one point he pulled the unconscious monk to safety from advancing ghouls by grabbing him and flying away to a nearby platform.
The dragonborn sorcerer summoned a draconic spirit to help fight and dealt a ton of damage with spells like sunbeam and a metamagic radiant fireball. He ended up dealing the final blows to both Doresain and the aspect of Orcus, the latter of which he suffered a parting power word kill. The monk was able to use a rope of climbing to pull the sorcerer's body from the ledge he'd been on for the bard/cleric to restore him with revivify.
All in all I'm very proud with how the four hour final battle went down. I feel like I gave each character a role to play in the fight: support from the bard/cleric and a powerful earth elemental for her to shatter (one that had petrified her and the monk sessions before, which added urgency to defeating it), ghoul minions for the monk to mow down and terrain for him to navigate with his unparalleled mobility, more dangerous creatures for the rogue to snipe, and powerful bosses (Doresain and Orcus) for the sorcerer to unload his greatest spells against. I think my only regret is I didn't have a dragon miniature for the sorcerer's player to use (he brought the behir mini we used as a substitute).
@Endless_Serpents I'd be up for this!
I almost got Sign (another Thorny Games title) at a FLGS Saturday, but opted to get Jaipur instead, as likely to get sooner & much more frequent play.
When I heard about Dialect, it became a must-buy, even if I never get to play it.
I feel like it worked pretty well, especially in terms of softening up the party for their final battle against Orcus. Doresain doesn't do that much damage himself, but he can lower maximum hit point totals and temporarily forbid healing, making it easier for his ghoul minions to wear down enemies.
Last time, I did it alphabetically. But like most projects such as that, there wasn't enough room for expansion. So things are just gonna be pushed down the queue as I go. And if I do that, I might as well see if there are better ways to do it. By publisher, by genre, by color, by release year, by size of the box....
I could really use the help of a certified library technician.
I don't think I'll ever get to play it myself, and am kind of worried about losing the cards.
I don’t want to touch this until my current PbP game completes their first adventure (they’re fighting undead in a cave, classic), but I might have a recruitment thread up Saturday if things go well.
3-6 players. Start at 3rd level. Any race as long as the math isn’t wonky. Plus if you want your high elf to have jet black skin and a golden afro, that’s just how things are retroactively. Likewise, any class as long as you’re not dealing damage with 3d20 or something. It’s a comedy, so rolls of 1 will be catastrophic for your character. You’re genuine heroes though, like a for all ages superhero comic, so you’ll get to kick ass and save lives on the regular.
Tom of Shut Up & Sit Down has it, and the video on his collection is what turned me on to Dialect in the first place! (I was disappointed the bag isn't embroidered, but that would justifiably be much more expensive.)
These are the only options I’m allowing.
Naturally this is just a base, you wear full plate in the same palette over it, or stick a wizard hat on etc.
The weird triangular pocket is a pocket of holding. Standard issue.
Here's my PAX tabletop haul, minus some dice
I think we've got at least three hanging around here. I'm only technically trained on how to organize comic books.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Considering our collection is in view in the middle of our living room we are rather concerned with what it looks like. So no Dewey Decimal in my household... Generally we keep it slightly color-coded and keep keep games together with their expansions. The kid games are on the lowest level for the kid and I kept the very old second hand games together on the far end (Napoleon at War, Baduk, chess)
If we were more active participants in the hobby we would have rotated out a few weak games, but we're still in a holding pattern due to Covid and my partner's health. Maybe one day we'll move out half these games and pick up new stuff.
The oft-wished-for SRD of Modiphius's 2d20 system is finally happening and it's coming out this summer.
They're also doing third-party licensing and a partnership program:
@MsAnthropy @Solar @Hahnsoo1
I extremely doubt that STA will be one of those "select lines", but what if??
At any rate, the prospect of official support for homebrewing and system hacking is a Big Fucking Deal and I'd love to see 2d20 take off in the same way that PbtA and FitD have. It's my current favorite system for cinematic action storytelling and I can think of several IPs that could make for good serial-numbers-filed-off adaptations. Imagine a playable version of Shadowrun! Or Exalted!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gauntlet/brindlewood-bay-cozy-murder-mystery-rpg
Yep ill have to keep an eye on that one.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
2D20 is real good but I do kinda wish there was like... almost an OSR to it's 5e?
Something with slightly less focus on specific token spends. Which is something even the lower complexity 2d20 games have in spades.
OMG
I may back that just so I can run it for my mom's knitting group
I absolutely cannot
But they'd all need the designers to agree on what tone and scale Shadowrun actually exists in.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Sorry, I'm playing the Decker, and you have to wait for me to finish my turn. How's next Thursday 5PM looking for you?
1. In Fantasy Grounds so it's automated
2. Fuck it, run it in Genesys instead.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Specifically it’s a big desert/mining planet with the mandatory mining towns, space port city and weird ruins.
However the thing that made it take a nose dive prosperity wise was the hyperspace gate being taken out. So now it takes a good year from the nearest one for deliveries to be made.
Which has turned water into the most valuable currency. Basically so that players only track water and bullets and also so you can play mechanically with the difference between clean water and recycled water as large/small currency and so on.
Just also feels silly for a like, hyper space, planet hopping capitalist weird sci fi setting to also be hung up on producing H2O. Probably over thinking it.
I would say making another resource scarce, like Power generation, would introduce familiar wrinkles while asking interesting questions of the setting.
I feel attacked right now.
don't worry, it'll take six hours to actually resolve
To be clear I run a 6e campaign like once a month
And by run a 6e campaign I mean I basically make up the rules on the fly because I can't remember any of them
I have been looking at other cyberpunk/cyber-noir settings. I have Shadow of the Beanstalk for Android/Genesys.. and there's apparently this kickstarter going on right now called Tokyo: Otherscape that looks SUPER cool... but I'm hesitant about cultural appropriation. I always wanted to do d20 modern, and I had to fight EVERY DAMNED URGE I HAVE about that Magic: The Gathering set that was a plane set in like a blade runner / cyberpunk universe with all sorts of techno-creatures. I couldn't bring myself to get back into Magic again, even for that.. but if they release any of that stuff as a sourcebook, I'm screwed.