So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
Here's the barbarian and druid in the game I'm running:
+2
Options
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
Well, I know what Rex X Hunter would use their one free wish spell on...
+7
Options
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
Sovosh - Wizard. Maybe playing to be comically sociopathic.
Deadeye - Bard or rogue. Maybe going for witty snarker.
Zoey - Ramona Flowers, which can be almost anything. Character wants to be cool and aloof?
Rex Hunter - Two chicks at the same time.
Stanley - Deffo martial, not sure which. Plenty into either the lore or the crunch, probably both.
Crumbs - Maybe a barbarian. Objectively the best party member.
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-lincensed products.
So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
Sovosh: going by the icon the party's obese sociopathic wizard. Fun to play with if the player is doing it tongue in cheek, hard pass if he's earnestly trying to channel cartman.
deadeye: generic arsehole halfling rogue psychopath. being played by someone who likes boardgames but isn't into RP or cooperative gaming. pass.
zoey: ramona flowers is a bad character, probably being played by a girl that is a romantic prospect or a gf of one of the players. pass.
rex: It looks like an established meme that I am not aware of. No idea.
stanley: the only straight-forward character in the group? so probably being played by someone with experience or an absolute rookie. I'd guess rookie because who names a dwarf "stanley"!
Crumbs: Oh wow. The result of a wizard casting awaken on some toast? Sentient yeast that merged with flour and water to become a superior life form?! I wanna play with crumbs!
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-licensed products.
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-licensed products.
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
Yeah, I just associate it with 4th Ed because it came out during 4th Ed's era, and the stat blocks for enemies are close enough that you can mix and match.
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-licensed products.
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
Yeah, I just associate it with 4th Ed because it came out during 4th Ed's era, and the stat blocks for enemies are close enough that you can mix and match.
Yeah I mean it is definitely very, very similar. But, like, who's gonna sue 'em?
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-licensed products.
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
Yeah, I just associate it with 4th Ed because it came out during 4th Ed's era, and the stat blocks for enemies are close enough that you can mix and match.
Yeah I mean it is definitely very, very similar. But, like, who's gonna sue 'em?
Uh...Gamma World is owned by WotC/Hasbro so they are definitely* not gonna sue themselves over it. There was an OGL like thing for 4th but they clearly were told to kill it. They dragged their feet on releasing it and it had some rough terms. That lateness is what forced Paizo to spin off Pathfinder since they could either do that or go out of business from not publishing anything for a year. I always felt it was amusingly karmic the way they created their own competition.
The Gamma World based on 4th Ed has, if I remember rightly, "swarm" and "electric" as options
She could be a lot of bees in a trenchcoat that zaps people
Plus Gamma World is a lot looser with the rules
Oh, I hadn't realised there was non-D&D stuff based on 4th Ed, I was under the impression one of the goals with that edition was to break free of the OGL to specifically stop non-licensed products.
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
Yeah, I just associate it with 4th Ed because it came out during 4th Ed's era, and the stat blocks for enemies are close enough that you can mix and match.
Yeah I mean it is definitely very, very similar. But, like, who's gonna sue 'em?
Uh...Gamma World is owned by WotC/Hasbro so they are definitely* not gonna sue themselves over it. There was an OGL like thing for 4th but they clearly were told to kill it. They dragged their feet on releasing it and it had some rough terms. That lateness is what forced Paizo to spin off Pathfinder since they could either do that or go out of business from not publishing anything for a year. I always felt it was amusingly karmic the way they created their own competition.
*Err...probably.
Yeah, it's all WotC, which was my point. Gamma World (7th edition) borrowed a lot of stuff from 4e. Which they could, because WotC owned both brands so they could do that without having to worry about any copyright issues.
And apparently, according to wikipedia, GW7 is compatible with D&D 4e and the SRD.
So without saying anything about the actual characters, I have a fun exercise for you all. Based off of these tokens, what can you glean about my Players and their characters?
Sovosh - Wizard. Maybe playing to be comically sociopathic.
Deadeye - Bard or rogue. Maybe going for witty snarker.
Zoey - Ramona Flowers, which can be almost anything. Character wants to be cool and aloof?
Rex Hunter - Two chicks at the same time.
Stanley - Deffo martial, not sure which. Plenty into either the lore or the crunch, probably both.
Crumbs - Maybe a barbarian. Objectively the best party member.
Pretty close!
Sovosh - pretty straightforward wizard adventuring for more knowledge. Straight man of the group.
Deadeye - ranged Ranger bounty Hunter with a 4 for his con score (not modifier). Character is pretty middle of the road personality wise.
Zoey - manic pixie dream bard.. who is actually a pixie. Created weird science style by a dark lord when he was a teenager. She escaped when she realized she had free will and a mind of her own. Now living a life of adventure.
Rex Hunter - David Lee Roth ex rocker Bard. Living the margaritaville lifestyle and adventures to fund it. Coasts a bit on his previous fame. His leather pants are far too tight.
Stanley - Human fighter who has a family and is adventuring to support them. The other straight man of the group. Player is talking like Stallone, so we all love that.
Crumbs - a dwarf turned into a Bread abomination (fighter/barbarianish homebrew). He is now living bread. Living on the outskirts of society, he was thrust into adventure when he stowed away aboard a ship and it was attacked. A pacifist he will defend himself with pita punches and other bread attacks. You know when he is around when you catch the smell of fresh baked bread.
The Curse of Strahd game I'm playing in finally starts proper tonight. Death House is complete (we broke the curse and so now have a home base of sorts in Barovia) and we're all level 3!
Nah, "the party is rarely hit by traps", is kinda the point. Someone brought the right skillset to make that happen... just let it happen, you've got a bad ass trap technician, let them be badass.
Or just let the thief find the traps, and work out how to disarm them - just make that something that needs more than a sleight of hand role. Some fiddly dart mechanism built into a lock is something you can defeat with fine tools, but a large mechanism that defends a corridor might have all manner of failsafe/fail lethal elements (maybe even unintentionally, but pinning the blades in place just means the steam is building up somewhere else) with no single point that can be disarmed at once.
Meaning the party is now aware of the trap and what it will do, and then has to come up with a plan to avoid or mitigate it - or they could attempt to disarm it but it's going to require more than a single person. The expert machinist can handle the fiddly bits around the trigger, but you're also going to need a second pair of hands with small fingers to stop the gas release when they jam the trigger mechanism and a strong set of arms to hold back the blade release whilst the trap goes through its reset procedure.
And not all of that is going to be in the same room...
0
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Nah, "the party is rarely hit by traps", is kinda the point. Someone brought the right skillset to make that happen... just let it happen, you've got a bad ass trap technician, let them be badass.
Or just let the thief find the traps, and work out how to disarm them - just make that something that needs more than a sleight of hand role. Some fiddly dart mechanism built into a lock is something you can defeat with fine tools, but a large mechanism that defends a corridor might have all manner of failsafe/fail lethal elements (maybe even unintentionally, but pinning the blades in place just means the steam is building up somewhere else) with no single point that can be disarmed at once.
Meaning the party is now aware of the trap and what it will do, and then has to come up with a plan to avoid or mitigate it - or they could attempt to disarm it but it's going to require more than a single person. The expert machinist can handle the fiddly bits around the trigger, but you're also going to need a second pair of hands with small fingers to stop the gas release when they jam the trigger mechanism and a strong set of arms to hold back the blade release whilst the trap goes through its reset procedure.
And not all of that is going to be in the same room...
At this point though its become an encounter, not just a run of the mill crossbow trap. Which is super cool! Encounters built around a trap sound super fun. I wouldn't do every trap like that though. It would get boring fast, especially in a dungeon potentially filled with them.
One of the races in my setting is going to be small monkey people, based off mainly Pygmy Marmosets, with a bit of Gibbons thrown in.
Mainly gibbon's inftable throat sack.
I wanna give them they ability to do a sonic special ability with this, and i'm trying to figure out what a good effect for it would be. My instinct is to not make it an attack, and instead make it inflict a condition. How strong would a racial ability that does an AoE cone of Frightened and Deafened on anything that fails it's saving throw in the cone be? Recharge on a long rest?
What about just stunning things? Too strong?
(For context, other abilities they're getting is having a climb speed, being automatically proficient in stealth, dark vision and i'm not sure what else i'll give them yet. They were bred to be a spy servitor species, and escaped and are making their own way now)
A quick glance at SCIENCE tells me that siamangs can hit a max. of 113db which is rather loud but not loud enough to emulate the bang part of a flashbang (170db).
Given that you're making these guys midgets I'd guess they're even quieter.
How about a "thieves cant" mixed with "divine intervention" type ability? like a living internet where any member of the species can shout a question and as long as they aren't in a completely isolated part of the world an answer will get back to them (perhaps not immediately and the answer will only be as good as the intelligence this species has on the given topic).
A quick glance at SCIENCE tells me that siamangs can hit a max. of 113db which is rather loud but not loud enough to emulate the bang part of a flashbang (170db).
Given that you're making these guys midgets I'd guess they're even quieter.
How about a "thieves cant" mixed with "divine intervention" type ability? like a living internet where any member of the species can shout a question and as long as they aren't in a completely isolated part of the world an answer will get back to them (perhaps not immediately and the answer will only be as good as the intelligence this species has on the given topic).
Honestly, i'm leaning towards going with some version of the AoE Fear/Deafen. Just have to find the right numbers for it. I like the idea because it fits with their "Bred to be a spy" thing - something gets on top of you? Shriek in their face and run like hell.
Also they're... actually about Gibbon sized in this setting? Like they're small, but they're no smaller than actual gibbons. And given they were a spy-serivtor race, it's easy enoguh to say their call was magically bolstered.
Honestly, what i might do is try it out as a point blank aoe (i.e it's a VERY short ranged circle around the Marmoset), include a note on it will attract attention, and have it deafen the user (ontop of being 1/long rest). So it's a power move, but one with downsides.
If that's still too strong - drop it to just being a single target, melee range thing.
The living internet is cool, but not really fitting for what's in my head for these.
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
How about starting with:
10ft sphere centered on you AoE doing deafened and 1d4 thunder damage 1/long rest, Con save with DC based on your Con. Adds 1d4 on 6th level, Fear on 11th, and 2nd usage on 16th.
I suppose the implications of the race/ability are amusing.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
I suppose the implications of the race/ability are amusing.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
Wait, how on earth did you get "cant help stealing your shit" from what i've said about them so far?
I suppose the implications of the race/ability are amusing.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
Wait, how on earth did you get "cant help stealing your shit" from what i've said about them so far?
I suppose the implications of the race/ability are amusing.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
Wait, how on earth did you get "cant help stealing your shit" from what i've said about them so far?
They're bred to be spies. Spies steal.
Yeah, but... compulsive stealing would be a dumb spy thing to do. Like an incredibly dumb thing to do. You'd give yourself away in no time.
Spies steal, sure, but it's something that should be tactical. Compulsive kender style stealing would make them just.. terrible spies! I'm much more going for the asthetic of these were fucking good at being spies, and that backfired on whoever made them - the classic "I have invented this gun and promptly shot myself in the foot with it"
Does make me think i'll give them Calligrapher's tools as an inherent thing though. An inbuilt knack for written word and writing things down makes sense.
I suppose the implications of the race/ability are amusing.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
Wait, how on earth did you get "cant help stealing your shit" from what i've said about them so far?
They're bred to be spies. Spies steal.
Yeah, but... compulsive stealing would be a dumb spy thing to do. Like an incredibly dumb thing to do. You'd give yourself away in no time.
Spies steal, sure, but it's something that should be tactical. Compulsive kender style stealing would make them just.. terrible spies! I'm much more going for the asthetic of these were fucking good at being spies, and that backfired on whoever made them - the classic "I have invented this gun and promptly shot myself in the foot with it"
Does make me think i'll give them Calligrapher's tools as an inherent thing though. An inbuilt knack for written word and writing things down makes sense.
I understand what you're saying, the moment I read butler monkeys my mind went to the apes in the madagaskar movies. More slapstickey than james bondey. Which could also work, depending on what sort of tone you wanted to go for.
I haven't seen your design document on this race so any further comments I could make would be premature.
Can someone give me a rundown of what Gamma World is/how it is to play when compared to D&D? Large portions of our group really enjoy 4th Ed combat/class design and a different system that borrows from its mechanics/can take stuff designed for it could be really interesting.
Can someone give me a rundown of what Gamma World is/how it is to play when compared to D&D? Large portions of our group really enjoy 4th Ed combat/class design and a different system that borrows from its mechanics/can take stuff designed for it could be really interesting.
At its core, it is 4E D&D. It runs from level 1 to 10, using randomly generated characters that are not intended to survive for a particularly long time. That being said, you really never know what's going to happen. When I ran a Gamma World game on these very forums, I only managed to kill one character, and that was nearly at the end of the campaign. In the Gamma World game I'm running with my wife and friends, I killed all of them in the very first encounter.
Anyway more about the mechanics.
You roll two origins that inform what kind of weird mutant you are, and give you a basic set of powers that you unlock as you level up.
There are no classes and no races. Just your origins.
All powers still follow the 4E At-Will/Encounter/Daily power structure. If you know how to play 4E you already know how to read these powers.
Weapons and armor are reduced to generic categories. Is your Heavy Two-Handed Melee Weapon an ancient naginata or a sharpened stop sign? That's up to you to decide and they both would have the same stats.
Magic items are replaced by Omega Tech, which are cards that you draw at certain times from a deck. They tend to break after being used, but can sometimes be salvaged into a permanent item.
At various times you will also draw Alpha Mutation cards, which are additional random mutations that give you an extra power or benefit. They are not permanent and change frequently.
A short rest and a long rest are exactly the same thing, except of course a short rest is shorter. The only thing a long rest does is give you the opportunity to level up (if you choose to use XP). This is intentional.
The game's tone is very tongue-in-cheek.
Gamma World is probably one of my favorite RPGs of all time, if not my favorite. It is so fun to play and run. I made a character generator/character sheet here if you want to roll a few characters to get a feel for the tone and stuff. It's probably a little buggy, but should be mostly usable.
Anyway, update on the campaign I'm playing in. We were hired to get a specific item that a mysterious ship was supposed to be taking to an isle that some dragons are using as a roost. The group decided to charter a ship and crew, beat the other ship to the island, send off our own ship to come back when signalled, and prepared an ambush for the other ship at the island's dock. The plan involved the party tabaxi monk and halfling ranger waterwalking alongside the ship to its back end, where they would climb into a window to hunt for the item while the dwarf cleric/wizard and human fighter (me) would hide and wait with a rope trick spell whose extradimensional entrance was set 30 feet above the dock.
Unfortunately, a trained death dog on the enemy ship caught the scent of the tabaxi monk and halfling ranger. The tabaxi monk climbed on deck to draw attention while the waterwalking halfling ranger ran far from shore out into open water to snipe from great distance. I threw down the rope used for the rope trick, ready to descend and fight, but before I could the enemy ship's captain, apparently a monk of some kind, teleported to the rope, climbed it to enter the extradimensional space, knocked my character on his back, and then used slow fall to safely leap back out of the rope trick space down thirty feet to the dock.
During all this a number of enemy crew members just kept going about their docking procedures like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The cleric/wizard forced them to take us seriously with a fireball one round and wall of fire the next, killing several crew members.
My fighter, pissed off by the humiliation given to him by the enemy monk, leapt the thirty feet from the rope trick space's entrance down to the dock. The DM had me roll a check to see if I landed on my feet, which I failed, but I immediately knocked the enemy monk prone beside me and used my three glaive attacks, bonus action polearm master attack, and an action surge for three more glaive attacks, using up all my superiority die to deal as much damage as possible. The enemy monk, while now severely wounded, still lived. He subdued my character with a stunning strike that his allies followed up by quickly tying me up.
Eventually our whole party had been subdued in the same way (save the halfling ranger, who surrendered) and we were left bound alongside a number of items intended for the island's dragons (including a recipe book written in Draconic for how to cook human meat). The mysterious sailors departed, presumably leaving us as a free meal for the dragons.
Luckily, a player was absent that day and the rest of us had established at the beginning of the session that his character was hiding nearby, just in case things went south. The DM admitted he'd forgotten that detail when we reminded him, and soon the PC of the absent player came to untie us all, meaning that despite losing the fight we ended up with a ton of treasure, including the thing we'd been hired to find! We'll be sure to congratulate the player for his vital role in saving us next week (lol).
We signalled the ship we'd chartered, loaded up all the treasure, and are now trying to get to the protective anti-dragon aura of Waterdeep as fast as we can before draconic pursuers come for their goods that we've just made-off with.
My only regret is that we didn't clear out the enemy ship and take it for our own. Oh well!
Played an Echo Knight at level 3 several times (in Endless_Serpents' current PbP game too!), and level 5 once. Very cool, you can get up to a fuckload of shenanigans
My only regret is that we didn't clear out the enemy ship and take it for our own. Oh well!
That is some fantastic terrain. That ship is great! I don't have the time or inclination for this aspect of the hobby myself, but I sure do appreciate it!
Just a quick request @Hexmage-PA and @Steelhawk - can you Sblock the images, please? they take up a HUGe chunk of screen realeaste, esp now they've been quoted.
Re: Fighters - What's the issue, beyond the usual casters get to do all sorts of out of combat bullshit, and dnd dosent handle giving fighters/etc similar out of combat tools as well?
Played an Echo Knight at level 3 several times (in Endless_Serpents' current PbP game too!), and level 5 once. Very cool, you can get up to a fuckload of shenanigans
Yeah that does look cool. As does the Battle Master and the Psi Knight. A lot of them look really cool on paper, but I guess I have doubts.
Re: Fighters - What's the issue, beyond the usual casters get to do all sorts of out of combat bullshit, and dnd dosent handle giving fighters/etc similar out of combat tools as well?
I dunno but if I'm being honest it's probably a whole heaping pile of I miss playing my Warlord.
So I got to see something neat in my D&D campaign the other night: Self sacrifice.
My party (which was down to 3, a zealot barbarian, a tanked up eldritch knight and a stormborn sorcerer) had just gotten done with fighting the crocodile thousand teeth in an extremely tough fight; A strong opening with a crit bite made it clear to the party that this was a beast that had more then earned the right to a name and it's use of legendary actions had my party on edge. Still, they prevailed amidst heavy damage sustained, including the sorcerer who had gotten chomped when he tried to get cheeky with a thunderwave and was knocked unconscious as a result.
So I had the players do a survival check to try and get back to where they needed to be and low and behold the conscious players didn't exactly do whell on their dice rolls and I determined they'd been traipsing about long enough to force an encounter check. Which happened. And the players rolled a 20 to see what it would be.
My heart sunk as it came up "young black dragon"; a creature that is mean as sin and against which the beaten down twosome of my party couldn't possibly hope to win, but rather then just go straight for combat I decided to give the players as many chances as I could get away with to get them out of this alive, so I mentioned that they heard something loud moving through the swamp. Being not stupid (terminally unlucky but not stupid) the players tried to hide but the dragons perception check crushed theirs and it moved to talk to them in a threatening manner.
Now, I was hoping the players would bribe it since that was the best option for avoiding conflict, but instead it boiled down to the dragon "inviting" them to a game of hide and go seek and giving the players a minute's head start; My plan was to make this a skill challenge with them using a combination of survival, stealth and athletics to escape this thing... but I was feeling just the tiniest bit cheeky and had the players roll an insight check, which the barbarian succeeded at and realized that black dragons are inherently cruel, getting off on the ability to hurt others who couldn't defend themselves. And the party was carrying around an unconscious sorcerer....
The barbarian however refused to go through with this. He was a good boy and wouldn't (as a worshipper of ilmater) abandon a friend to so cruel a fate.
To my shock the eldritch knight simply said "I'll do it".
Dude got a nat 20 to make as much noise as possible and spat on it before it melted him with acid.
Hat's off to you Argan, I didn't see that one coming.
So I got to see something neat in my D&D campaign the other night: Self sacrifice.
My party (which was down to 3, a zealot barbarian, a tanked up eldritch knight and a stormborn sorcerer) had just gotten done with fighting the crocodile thousand teeth in an extremely tough fight; A strong opening with a crit bite made it clear to the party that this was a beast that had more then earned the right to a name and it's use of legendary actions had my party on edge. Still, they prevailed amidst heavy damage sustained, including the sorcerer who had gotten chomped when he tried to get cheeky with a thunderwave and was knocked unconscious as a result.
So I had the players do a survival check to try and get back to where they needed to be and low and behold the conscious players didn't exactly do whell on their dice rolls and I determined they'd been traipsing about long enough to force an encounter check. Which happened. And the players rolled a 20 to see what it would be.
My heart sunk as it came up "young black dragon"; a creature that is mean as sin and against which the beaten down twosome of my party couldn't possibly hope to win, but rather then just go straight for combat I decided to give the players as many chances as I could get away with to get them out of this alive, so I mentioned that they heard something loud moving through the swamp. Being not stupid (terminally unlucky but not stupid) the players tried to hide but the dragons perception check crushed theirs and it moved to talk to them in a threatening manner.
Now, I was hoping the players would bribe it since that was the best option for avoiding conflict, but instead it boiled down to the dragon "inviting" them to a game of hide and go seek and giving the players a minute's head start; My plan was to make this a skill challenge with them using a combination of survival, stealth and athletics to escape this thing... but I was feeling just the tiniest bit cheeky and had the players roll an insight check, which the barbarian succeeded at and realized that black dragons are inherently cruel, getting off on the ability to hurt others who couldn't defend themselves. And the party was carrying around an unconscious sorcerer....
The barbarian however refused to go through with this. He was a good boy and wouldn't (as a worshipper of ilmater) abandon a friend to so cruel a fate.
To my shock the eldritch knight simply said "I'll do it".
Dude got a nat 20 to make as much noise as possible and spat on it before it melted him with acid.
Hat's off to you Argan, I didn't see that one coming.
bonus points if the stormborn sorcerer is the cocky sort that only got downed because he thought "he had it".
"Where's argan?", to which there is no comforting answer..
So I got to see something neat in my D&D campaign the other night: Self sacrifice.
My party (which was down to 3, a zealot barbarian, a tanked up eldritch knight and a stormborn sorcerer) had just gotten done with fighting the crocodile thousand teeth in an extremely tough fight; A strong opening with a crit bite made it clear to the party that this was a beast that had more then earned the right to a name and it's use of legendary actions had my party on edge. Still, they prevailed amidst heavy damage sustained, including the sorcerer who had gotten chomped when he tried to get cheeky with a thunderwave and was knocked unconscious as a result.
So I had the players do a survival check to try and get back to where they needed to be and low and behold the conscious players didn't exactly do whell on their dice rolls and I determined they'd been traipsing about long enough to force an encounter check. Which happened. And the players rolled a 20 to see what it would be.
My heart sunk as it came up "young black dragon"; a creature that is mean as sin and against which the beaten down twosome of my party couldn't possibly hope to win, but rather then just go straight for combat I decided to give the players as many chances as I could get away with to get them out of this alive, so I mentioned that they heard something loud moving through the swamp. Being not stupid (terminally unlucky but not stupid) the players tried to hide but the dragons perception check crushed theirs and it moved to talk to them in a threatening manner.
Now, I was hoping the players would bribe it since that was the best option for avoiding conflict, but instead it boiled down to the dragon "inviting" them to a game of hide and go seek and giving the players a minute's head start; My plan was to make this a skill challenge with them using a combination of survival, stealth and athletics to escape this thing... but I was feeling just the tiniest bit cheeky and had the players roll an insight check, which the barbarian succeeded at and realized that black dragons are inherently cruel, getting off on the ability to hurt others who couldn't defend themselves. And the party was carrying around an unconscious sorcerer....
The barbarian however refused to go through with this. He was a good boy and wouldn't (as a worshipper of ilmater) abandon a friend to so cruel a fate.
To my shock the eldritch knight simply said "I'll do it".
Dude got a nat 20 to make as much noise as possible and spat on it before it melted him with acid.
Hat's off to you Argan, I didn't see that one coming.
bonus points if the stormborn sorcerer is the cocky sort that only got downed because he thought "he had it".
"Where's argan?", to which there is no comforting answer..
This is actually closer to home then you might think; the EK and the sorcerer had a sort of father son deal going on.
So this is absolutely going to be a thing for the sorcerer who learns his adopted son is dead.
Posts
Well, the wizard is super seriously, you guys
Here's the barbarian and druid in the game I'm running:
Well, I know what Rex X Hunter would use their one free wish spell on...
Sovosh - Wizard. Maybe playing to be comically sociopathic.
Deadeye - Bard or rogue. Maybe going for witty snarker.
Zoey - Ramona Flowers, which can be almost anything. Character wants to be cool and aloof?
Rex Hunter - Two chicks at the same time.
Stanley - Deffo martial, not sure which. Plenty into either the lore or the crunch, probably both.
Crumbs - Maybe a barbarian. Objectively the best party member.
I’m tempted to buy this adventure again now.
Aldo, highfive to whoever named it ReVamped
Sovosh: going by the icon the party's obese sociopathic wizard. Fun to play with if the player is doing it tongue in cheek, hard pass if he's earnestly trying to channel cartman.
deadeye: generic arsehole halfling rogue psychopath. being played by someone who likes boardgames but isn't into RP or cooperative gaming. pass.
zoey: ramona flowers is a bad character, probably being played by a girl that is a romantic prospect or a gf of one of the players. pass.
rex: It looks like an established meme that I am not aware of. No idea.
stanley: the only straight-forward character in the group? so probably being played by someone with experience or an absolute rookie. I'd guess rookie because who names a dwarf "stanley"!
Crumbs: Oh wow. The result of a wizard casting awaken on some toast? Sentient yeast that merged with flour and water to become a superior life form?! I wanna play with crumbs!
Oh it's ... not really based on 4th ed like that. More it just uses the same general idea of powers with varying usage frequencies. Pretty sure it's a separate licensing.
Yeah, I just associate it with 4th Ed because it came out during 4th Ed's era, and the stat blocks for enemies are close enough that you can mix and match.
Yeah I mean it is definitely very, very similar. But, like, who's gonna sue 'em?
Uh...Gamma World is owned by WotC/Hasbro so they are definitely* not gonna sue themselves over it. There was an OGL like thing for 4th but they clearly were told to kill it. They dragged their feet on releasing it and it had some rough terms. That lateness is what forced Paizo to spin off Pathfinder since they could either do that or go out of business from not publishing anything for a year. I always felt it was amusingly karmic the way they created their own competition.
*Err...probably.
Yeah, it's all WotC, which was my point. Gamma World (7th edition) borrowed a lot of stuff from 4e. Which they could, because WotC owned both brands so they could do that without having to worry about any copyright issues.
And apparently, according to wikipedia, GW7 is compatible with D&D 4e and the SRD.
Pretty close!
Sovosh - pretty straightforward wizard adventuring for more knowledge. Straight man of the group.
Deadeye - ranged Ranger bounty Hunter with a 4 for his con score (not modifier). Character is pretty middle of the road personality wise.
Zoey - manic pixie dream bard.. who is actually a pixie. Created weird science style by a dark lord when he was a teenager. She escaped when she realized she had free will and a mind of her own. Now living a life of adventure.
Rex Hunter - David Lee Roth ex rocker Bard. Living the margaritaville lifestyle and adventures to fund it. Coasts a bit on his previous fame. His leather pants are far too tight.
Stanley - Human fighter who has a family and is adventuring to support them. The other straight man of the group. Player is talking like Stallone, so we all love that.
Crumbs - a dwarf turned into a Bread abomination (fighter/barbarianish homebrew). He is now living bread. Living on the outskirts of society, he was thrust into adventure when he stowed away aboard a ship and it was attacked. A pacifist he will defend himself with pita punches and other bread attacks. You know when he is around when you catch the smell of fresh baked bread.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
YAY!
Or just let the thief find the traps, and work out how to disarm them - just make that something that needs more than a sleight of hand role. Some fiddly dart mechanism built into a lock is something you can defeat with fine tools, but a large mechanism that defends a corridor might have all manner of failsafe/fail lethal elements (maybe even unintentionally, but pinning the blades in place just means the steam is building up somewhere else) with no single point that can be disarmed at once.
Meaning the party is now aware of the trap and what it will do, and then has to come up with a plan to avoid or mitigate it - or they could attempt to disarm it but it's going to require more than a single person. The expert machinist can handle the fiddly bits around the trigger, but you're also going to need a second pair of hands with small fingers to stop the gas release when they jam the trigger mechanism and a strong set of arms to hold back the blade release whilst the trap goes through its reset procedure.
And not all of that is going to be in the same room...
At this point though its become an encounter, not just a run of the mill crossbow trap. Which is super cool! Encounters built around a trap sound super fun. I wouldn't do every trap like that though. It would get boring fast, especially in a dungeon potentially filled with them.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
One of the races in my setting is going to be small monkey people, based off mainly Pygmy Marmosets, with a bit of Gibbons thrown in.
Mainly gibbon's inftable throat sack.
I wanna give them they ability to do a sonic special ability with this, and i'm trying to figure out what a good effect for it would be. My instinct is to not make it an attack, and instead make it inflict a condition. How strong would a racial ability that does an AoE cone of Frightened and Deafened on anything that fails it's saving throw in the cone be? Recharge on a long rest?
What about just stunning things? Too strong?
(For context, other abilities they're getting is having a climb speed, being automatically proficient in stealth, dark vision and i'm not sure what else i'll give them yet. They were bred to be a spy servitor species, and escaped and are making their own way now)
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
A quick glance at SCIENCE tells me that siamangs can hit a max. of 113db which is rather loud but not loud enough to emulate the bang part of a flashbang (170db).
Given that you're making these guys midgets I'd guess they're even quieter.
How about a "thieves cant" mixed with "divine intervention" type ability? like a living internet where any member of the species can shout a question and as long as they aren't in a completely isolated part of the world an answer will get back to them (perhaps not immediately and the answer will only be as good as the intelligence this species has on the given topic).
Honestly, i'm leaning towards going with some version of the AoE Fear/Deafen. Just have to find the right numbers for it. I like the idea because it fits with their "Bred to be a spy" thing - something gets on top of you? Shriek in their face and run like hell.
Also they're... actually about Gibbon sized in this setting? Like they're small, but they're no smaller than actual gibbons. And given they were a spy-serivtor race, it's easy enoguh to say their call was magically bolstered.
Honestly, what i might do is try it out as a point blank aoe (i.e it's a VERY short ranged circle around the Marmoset), include a note on it will attract attention, and have it deafen the user (ontop of being 1/long rest). So it's a power move, but one with downsides.
If that's still too strong - drop it to just being a single target, melee range thing.
The living internet is cool, but not really fitting for what's in my head for these.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
10ft sphere centered on you AoE doing deafened and 1d4 thunder damage 1/long rest, Con save with DC based on your Con. Adds 1d4 on 6th level, Fear on 11th, and 2nd usage on 16th.
Like, how are their relations with other groups? I'd be wary around spy monkeys that can't help stealing your shit (are you inadvertently making Kender? ^^). Also some guard might think packing their ears full of cotton is a good idea because people know about the defensive howling but this stops said guard from effectively detecting thieves/spies in the first place!
Wait, how on earth did you get "cant help stealing your shit" from what i've said about them so far?
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
They're bred to be spies. Spies steal.
Yeah, but... compulsive stealing would be a dumb spy thing to do. Like an incredibly dumb thing to do. You'd give yourself away in no time.
Spies steal, sure, but it's something that should be tactical. Compulsive kender style stealing would make them just.. terrible spies! I'm much more going for the asthetic of these were fucking good at being spies, and that backfired on whoever made them - the classic "I have invented this gun and promptly shot myself in the foot with it"
Does make me think i'll give them Calligrapher's tools as an inherent thing though. An inbuilt knack for written word and writing things down makes sense.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
I understand what you're saying, the moment I read butler monkeys my mind went to the apes in the madagaskar movies. More slapstickey than james bondey. Which could also work, depending on what sort of tone you wanted to go for.
I haven't seen your design document on this race so any further comments I could make would be premature.
It's post-apocalyptic wastelands full of mutants and crazy creatures.
PCs are generated using a random table of primary and secondary powersets.
Like... Fungus Cat person or Robotic Hawk-man.
Each powerset has specific powers associated with it and you gain those as you advance in level.
At its core, it is 4E D&D. It runs from level 1 to 10, using randomly generated characters that are not intended to survive for a particularly long time. That being said, you really never know what's going to happen. When I ran a Gamma World game on these very forums, I only managed to kill one character, and that was nearly at the end of the campaign. In the Gamma World game I'm running with my wife and friends, I killed all of them in the very first encounter.
Anyway more about the mechanics.
Gamma World is probably one of my favorite RPGs of all time, if not my favorite. It is so fun to play and run. I made a character generator/character sheet here if you want to roll a few characters to get a feel for the tone and stuff. It's probably a little buggy, but should be mostly usable.
The Battle Master and Echo Knight rule, IMO.
Anyway, update on the campaign I'm playing in. We were hired to get a specific item that a mysterious ship was supposed to be taking to an isle that some dragons are using as a roost. The group decided to charter a ship and crew, beat the other ship to the island, send off our own ship to come back when signalled, and prepared an ambush for the other ship at the island's dock. The plan involved the party tabaxi monk and halfling ranger waterwalking alongside the ship to its back end, where they would climb into a window to hunt for the item while the dwarf cleric/wizard and human fighter (me) would hide and wait with a rope trick spell whose extradimensional entrance was set 30 feet above the dock.
Unfortunately, a trained death dog on the enemy ship caught the scent of the tabaxi monk and halfling ranger. The tabaxi monk climbed on deck to draw attention while the waterwalking halfling ranger ran far from shore out into open water to snipe from great distance. I threw down the rope used for the rope trick, ready to descend and fight, but before I could the enemy ship's captain, apparently a monk of some kind, teleported to the rope, climbed it to enter the extradimensional space, knocked my character on his back, and then used slow fall to safely leap back out of the rope trick space down thirty feet to the dock.
During all this a number of enemy crew members just kept going about their docking procedures like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. The cleric/wizard forced them to take us seriously with a fireball one round and wall of fire the next, killing several crew members.
My fighter, pissed off by the humiliation given to him by the enemy monk, leapt the thirty feet from the rope trick space's entrance down to the dock. The DM had me roll a check to see if I landed on my feet, which I failed, but I immediately knocked the enemy monk prone beside me and used my three glaive attacks, bonus action polearm master attack, and an action surge for three more glaive attacks, using up all my superiority die to deal as much damage as possible. The enemy monk, while now severely wounded, still lived. He subdued my character with a stunning strike that his allies followed up by quickly tying me up.
Eventually our whole party had been subdued in the same way (save the halfling ranger, who surrendered) and we were left bound alongside a number of items intended for the island's dragons (including a recipe book written in Draconic for how to cook human meat). The mysterious sailors departed, presumably leaving us as a free meal for the dragons.
Luckily, a player was absent that day and the rest of us had established at the beginning of the session that his character was hiding nearby, just in case things went south. The DM admitted he'd forgotten that detail when we reminded him, and soon the PC of the absent player came to untie us all, meaning that despite losing the fight we ended up with a ton of treasure, including the thing we'd been hired to find! We'll be sure to congratulate the player for his vital role in saving us next week (lol).
We signalled the ship we'd chartered, loaded up all the treasure, and are now trying to get to the protective anti-dragon aura of Waterdeep as fast as we can before draconic pursuers come for their goods that we've just made-off with.
My only regret is that we didn't clear out the enemy ship and take it for our own. Oh well!
what levels have you played them at?
Played an Echo Knight at level 3 several times (in Endless_Serpents' current PbP game too!), and level 5 once. Very cool, you can get up to a fuckload of shenanigans
That is some fantastic terrain. That ship is great! I don't have the time or inclination for this aspect of the hobby myself, but I sure do appreciate it!
Re: Fighters - What's the issue, beyond the usual casters get to do all sorts of out of combat bullshit, and dnd dosent handle giving fighters/etc similar out of combat tools as well?
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Yeah that does look cool. As does the Battle Master and the Psi Knight. A lot of them look really cool on paper, but I guess I have doubts.
I dunno but if I'm being honest it's probably a whole heaping pile of I miss playing my Warlord.
My party (which was down to 3, a zealot barbarian, a tanked up eldritch knight and a stormborn sorcerer) had just gotten done with fighting the crocodile thousand teeth in an extremely tough fight; A strong opening with a crit bite made it clear to the party that this was a beast that had more then earned the right to a name and it's use of legendary actions had my party on edge. Still, they prevailed amidst heavy damage sustained, including the sorcerer who had gotten chomped when he tried to get cheeky with a thunderwave and was knocked unconscious as a result.
So I had the players do a survival check to try and get back to where they needed to be and low and behold the conscious players didn't exactly do whell on their dice rolls and I determined they'd been traipsing about long enough to force an encounter check. Which happened. And the players rolled a 20 to see what it would be.
My heart sunk as it came up "young black dragon"; a creature that is mean as sin and against which the beaten down twosome of my party couldn't possibly hope to win, but rather then just go straight for combat I decided to give the players as many chances as I could get away with to get them out of this alive, so I mentioned that they heard something loud moving through the swamp. Being not stupid (terminally unlucky but not stupid) the players tried to hide but the dragons perception check crushed theirs and it moved to talk to them in a threatening manner.
Now, I was hoping the players would bribe it since that was the best option for avoiding conflict, but instead it boiled down to the dragon "inviting" them to a game of hide and go seek and giving the players a minute's head start; My plan was to make this a skill challenge with them using a combination of survival, stealth and athletics to escape this thing... but I was feeling just the tiniest bit cheeky and had the players roll an insight check, which the barbarian succeeded at and realized that black dragons are inherently cruel, getting off on the ability to hurt others who couldn't defend themselves. And the party was carrying around an unconscious sorcerer....
The barbarian however refused to go through with this. He was a good boy and wouldn't (as a worshipper of ilmater) abandon a friend to so cruel a fate.
To my shock the eldritch knight simply said "I'll do it".
Dude got a nat 20 to make as much noise as possible and spat on it before it melted him with acid.
Hat's off to you Argan, I didn't see that one coming.
bonus points if the stormborn sorcerer is the cocky sort that only got downed because he thought "he had it".
"Where's argan?", to which there is no comforting answer..
This is actually closer to home then you might think; the EK and the sorcerer had a sort of father son deal going on.
So this is absolutely going to be a thing for the sorcerer who learns his adopted son is dead.