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So: I'm used to working pretty hard to retool the 3.5e rules for new games. I write whole new feat lists, base classes, everything. I also make a ton of effort intensive maps and poo poo. This all works very well, because I've gotten drat good at it over they years. But now I can't use any rules just as-is out of the box, and my players are sort of spoiled, in that none of them will ever run anything (it's intimidating to compete) and none of them will try anything that is not d20 or some custom variation thereof (it's flexible to accommodate our needs). I'm not going to go with other players, because I've been gaming with these people since high school, but a change of pace or other rules system would be nice. We've tried all the other big games over the years, but what most of the my players took away from that is that they have terrible rules systems (WoD, Rolemaster, Shadowrun, etc), and they flat out refuse to play any of the lumpley games that I have wanted to try. I dunno. Advice for my gamer ennui?
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Sep 14, 2010 20:06
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SnatchRabbit posted:I'd like to plan a heist encounter for my 3.5 campaign. The basic idea is there's a large gaming house inside the main city. The gaming house itself has all sorts of magical enchantments to keep people inside, doorway illusions, magical locks, enchanted chests. I was just going to have a spiraling dungeon with gradually more high stakes games with each level, but I feel like I'm missing something. Any ideas for an Ocean's 11 style heist encounter? Some ideas that I hope are not too outlandish for you: •Riff on the gaming theme by having there be some die-based games that they can play to get some permanent modification to their character (+1 to a random save, natural fire resist 5, whatever is balanced for your game), with the risk of a permanent penalty (-1 to a save, -1 to an ability score of their choice), and they can only play once. They don't need to be dice in-game, but that's a good way to represent them to your player. •As they get deeper into the dungeon you could have things get less and less human. Mind flayers playing poker with beholders, with human slaves as the stakes. •One of my favorite spells from 2e was Frisky Chest, which would have a chest grow legs and run away at an absurd clip. I'm sure you can do something with that. •One of the rooms must surely be a gladiatorial arena with a viewing area, with some horrible monster there. Perhaps the best way past that area is to act like they are supposed to be there and fight the monster du jour, because of a surplus of guards or whatever. So the adventurers are in the pit and there are all these gambling house patrons placing bets on them, shouting advice, and so on. •Incorporate a deck of playing cards into a minigame of chance that will affect your players, that they can try at different points throughout the dungeon. Something along the lines of "Draw a card. If it is a heart you will be healed damage equal to that card's numerical value. If it is a diamond you get gold equal to that card's numerical value multiplied by 10. If it is a spade, you take damage equal to that card's numerical value. If it is a club, you lose gp equal to that card's numerical value multiplied by 10." You can do something special with aces or royalty, or not. How the game is represented in-game is up to you. •Do what you can to emphasize chance. Perhaps there is a poker (or more smoothly for a game session) blackjack room where a baatezu is summoned to play against you. That's the kind of gimmick that an amoral d&d casino owner might try. The players could choose to fight the demon, free it to cause mayhem and perhaps make some of the dungeon easier, or try playing a game of whatever sort it has to offer (with appropriate stakes).
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Sep 14, 2010 20:29
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One cool idea I saw for a heist-type scene in an RPG was to simulate the "intense planning and recon" aspect of it by placing obstacles in their way and allowing them to retroactively use their skills to avoid them. For example (not a DND example, but just to give you the idea), there's a security camera that can't be bypassed in the hallway right outside the vault. The hacker could roll whatever hacking skill and describe how he disabled the camera and replaced its feed with yesterday's video of the empty hallway. You'd then set a difficulty for the roll and say that if he succeeds, it worked, but if he fails then maybe his hacking was detected or maybe the camera is reporting that it's broken and there's a repairman coming along the hallway just as the party are breaking open the vault! The idea of using skill checks to retcon events had never occurred to me before I read this idea, but I think that it works very well. You can just imagine the movie scene with the guards talking to each other and then the flashback to some clever thing one of the thieves did earlier to foil the guards.
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Sep 14, 2010 20:41
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Those are excellent ideas, thanks! Just reiterating my edit from last page but does anyone know of a good online repository for free world/town/battle maps?
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Sep 14, 2010 20:45
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oh god there's shitloads, I have quite a few bookmarked http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mi/20041007b http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=40 http://rpgmapshare.com/index.php?q=gallery&g2_itemId=120 http://www.stargazersworld.com/2009/02/27/roleplaying-city-map-generator/ http://mappery.com/ - I like to use this for city and town maps http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=8 http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mwa/archiveall http://www.flickr.com/photos/diabloazul/sets/72157612936335463/
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Sep 14, 2010 21:55
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Jimbozig posted:The idea of using skill checks to retcon events had never occurred to me before I read this idea, but I think that it works very well. You can just imagine the movie scene with the guards talking to each other and then the flashback to some clever thing one of the thieves did earlier to foil the guards. Bill and Ted's excellent die results.
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Sep 15, 2010 03:07
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I'm a bit stuck and would appreciate any creative ideas. This is for a 4e Eberron campaign. The players have reached the midpoint in my short campaign and while Act 1 went fine, and I'm pretty confident on what I want for Act 3, I'm sort of stuck on how to get there from where the players ended up last session. These are the facts: 1) The players are stuck on the Talenta Plains on the lightning rail track near Mournhold. They are in the first two carriages of a lightning rail train which got teleported from near Sharn in a screwed up hijacking. They have just recovered from an attack from halfling barbarians but the damage that the train took ended up letting the elemental bonds loose, so now the train is out of elemental juice. 2) They have with them a senior member of House Lyrandar who they rescued, a restrained hijacker (hired by the Aurum), and a restrained wizard who was the inside man as a member of the House Lyrandar entourage. 3) The train was initially on the way to a trade deal. The deal involved a new magical communications "technology" comprising of strange bonded crystals only found in a particular mine. The Aurum attempted to hijacked the train and have stolen some of the crystals from House Lyrandar. They want to know the location of a mine, possibly in collaboration with House Sivis. A connection with House Sivis was how the players initially got involved. 4) A different senior member of House Lyrandar (also a Duke) knows the location of the mine but was killed earlier in the campaign. The players have his decapitated head in a freezer back in their apartment in Sharn. (long story) 5) Unknown to the players / most of the NPCs, the crystals only work because the mine is an ancient holding cell for a Daelkyr (or perhaps another way-out-of-the-PCs-weight class) enemy. Over thousands of years the Daelkyr has infused the surrounding crystals of his prison with part of his presence. House Lyrandar thinks they have discovered a magical property of the crystals where they can be used to communicate with other holders of crystals, but in reality this is just the Daelkyr's powers in the crystal - unbeknownst to users, he is subtly changing words and messages and influencing the holders of the crystals to eventually release him and serve him. 6) Forcing the hijacker to use one of his crystals to contact his superiors, his superiors are sending an airship to pick him up and the House Lyrandar member on the train, who they believe has been successfully kidnapped. The airship is on its way. 7) The players know the crystals are being fought over, the Aurum is involved, they have made friends with the House Lyrandar guy and they are currently wanted in Sharn for the death of the Duke. This is where we're up to. WHERE I'M STUCK: I don't think I've been clear enough in helping to provide goals for the players. What vaguely like to happen: 1) The players somehow get back to Sharn and get the Duke's head. 2) Somehow (a ritual?) they try and bring it back to life to find out where the mine is. 3) They need to get from Sharn to the mine somehow. 4) They need to discover the secret of the Daelkyr somehow. 5) They need to destroy the entrance of the mine and stop people looking for it somehow. 6) They need to recover and destroy the crystals. 7) Someone needs to give em a big old fat reward for this and hopefully they are in somebody's good books and somebody's bad books. I'd like the players to connect most of the dots, but I suspect I'm going to have to give them more guidance and I'm not sure how I'm going to inform them about (4). They know an airship is coming full of bad guys. They are stuck out in the middle of nowhere with an inoperative lightning rail train. They probably should take care of the House Lyrandar guy as he's the only person who knows they didn't kill the Duke and can get them out of poo poo back in Sharn. I was thinking they could try and take over the airship, use it to get back to Sharn and get back to the mine. Only it's probably a pretty big deal for Level 3 characters. On the other hand, they might choose to leg it, so I'm wondering about covering bases for them either making a shot through the Mournhold (not recommended) or striking out for civilization in the plains then getting passage back to Sharn. Only that would seem it would take a lot of time. So I'm not sure how to prepare. I could give them an out in terms of repairing the lightning rail somehow, but it's either a very long trip back to Sharn (and through many towns/countries) or through the Mournhold, which would be cool but I doubt the line is reliable. Ideas? I want to give them maximum choice and flexibility but I think they're not that great at operating without some sort of guidance. So i've been scratching my head about ways to give them that in game. I'm particularly concerned about how i'm going to communicate the business with the mine and the Daelkyr without a NPC just going "Welp, this is the deal guys:". Any suggestions? I'm just trying to prepare for next session - it's not so much I don't have stuff lined up, it's just how to communicate "It might be a good idea to take on the airship, get back to Sharn, get the Duke's head while avoiding the cops, somehow get out to the mine, somehow understand the situation, somehow deal with it." A showdown at the mine would be ideal with a mix of players, House Lyrandar, House Sivis, and Aurum all fighting it out with Daelkyr demonic servants but I don't really know how to tie it all off satisfactorily and get them to that point without laying it all out. Sorry for such a long diatribe, but I think I haven't set this one up very well. A good learning experience though! Any help would be welcome!
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Oct 8, 2010 07:32
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Blamestorm posted:I'm a bit stuck Was it the players' idea to force the hijacker to communicate to his buddies? If so, prepare for them to be able to take over the ship. If not, prepare for it anyway or go along with whatever they want to do, even if it takes some serious marching. It makes sense for the hijackers to not send a full crew to pick up their gang of thugs and some prisoners, so if the PC:s can get the drop on them, they should be able to hijack the ship after a tough fight. Not to mention that hijacking an airship is pretty awesome and memorable. If they fail, they can be left for dead (survivors now have a reason to get back at the hijackers) or kidnapped (classic break-out-of-jail scenario). *Investigating the mine Perhaps you can get the senior member of House Lyrandar they rescued to be concerned about the mine? If so, he can hire the PC:s (they've proven capable by now) to accompany him there. Alternatively, have him be suspicious about the whole thing and send the players to investigate. Option 3, have him be actively opposed to the mine (maybe some internal conflict in House Lyrandar) and have him send them to find anything he can use to argue for the closing of the mine. Here's probably your best bet of giving them a juicy reward, as well. If you're really opposed to having an NPC telling them to visit the mine, make them personally involved somehow: Maybe they'll receive a couple of crystals as a reward for helping the senior member guy, have them offload them as valuable loot and have the buyers come complain about their messages not going through clearly? Maybe an old friend of the PC:s is starting to act funny after using a crystal a lot? Maybe a PC is starting to hear strange voices from the crystals? *Finding and getting to the mine Hopefully the players now have an airship, which makes getting to the mine easier. There's a level 6 ritual, Speak with Dead, they can use to communicate with the dead guy, but surely there must be an easier way? Is there any reason why the senior Lyrandar guy can't know where it is? In broad terms at least. If they're in the right neighborhood, locating the mine should be doable, especially with an airship or by talking to some local ranger or by following a stream of curious demons attracted to the Daelkyr's energies or something. *Discovering the secret When they get to the mine, make it clear that something's... off. Maybe the mine attracts demons and/or other creatures from far and wide. Maybe the workers grow slowly insane by working in the mine. Maybe a crazy cultist has snuck into the mine and is performing unholy rituals next to one of the biggest crystals they've ever seen. Whatever the case, eventually they'll want to roll some appropriate Knowledge tests and realize that this mine needs to be destroyed. No need to make it explicit what's going on unless they roll really well. I hope this at least gives you some ideas. Good luck. 
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Oct 9, 2010 12:53
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Thanks so much! That's perfect and totally has fixed all my problems. I was going around in circles. The reason i wanted them to use the Duke's head is because I'm going to turn it into an ongoing artifact like the navigator's head in Monkey Island. Ultimately when they have a skyship for keeps I'll suggest they tie it to the main mast with it constantly screaming out directions. The ideas on discovering the secret are particularly helpful, I think. I feel like I was just banging my head against the wall trying to make it work but wasn't clearly thinking of alternatives. There's a lot of flexibility in all of your suggestions so I can easily play things several ways depending on how they go. Thanks again, really appreciated!
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Oct 10, 2010 00:57
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I'm currently DMing a DnD 4e campaign and I've got an idea that's either interesting and flavourful or it's stupid. Also I'm using drama cards. Basically, each player has the choice of picking a theme song for their character. Each character's theme song is added to my playlist, which is put on shuffle Whenever the character's song starts to play, the character is now in DRAMA MODE. extra leeway is given to the character doing badass/awesome things, and gets extra drama card rewards from doing so (obviously Freebird is banned as a theme song) What could be a concern here is: 1) one or more players don't have their songs come up and get shafted 2) players are discouraged from trying cool stunts while their song isn't playing thoughts?
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Oct 10, 2010 23:40
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do that but without the mechanical stuff, people will want to do crazy poo poo when it's their song anyway. just make it a fun thing, not everything is made better by having a rules reflection.
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Oct 11, 2010 00:23
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Pharmaskittle posted:do that but without the mechanical stuff, people will want to do crazy poo poo when it's their song anyway. just make it a fun thing, not everything is made better by having a rules reflection. I'm gonna second this, I think this is a case where mechanical aspects are going to be mostly downside.
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Oct 11, 2010 00:32
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hmmm, do you think the drama cards are too mechanical? I use them for the exact purpose of being able to give little rewards/perks that won't have lasting mechanical effects i mean it's pretty freeform "if you do something cool you get a drama card as a perk", and if their theme song is on i'm more likely to think something is cool the best thing to do probably is to see how the players react when their theme song goes on and go from there!! they might not even be interested
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Oct 11, 2010 00:36
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general consensus is that drama cards (if they're the same ones we usually talk about) are pretty loving rad. and if everyone is more likely to do/recognize awesome stuff that gets drama cards into the hands of players when theme songs are on, that's perfectly fine as a naturally emergent thing. just don't sit the players down and be like "do awesome stuff when it's your song, you'll get a BONUS!!!" or else it'll feel contrived and dumb.
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Oct 11, 2010 00:39
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I agree. Drama cards are cool because they transfer a little power to the players and let them directly shape the story, sometimes in ways that make the DM scramble (which is a bonus). Giving a mechanical bonus for when a player's song comes up just encourages them to be a showboat and do potentially stupid stuff for a reward. It could make them act like dogs looking for a treat. I love the song idea, and I agree that the players will want to act dramatic when their song comes up regardless of the benefits. BONUS: if you see a player dragging or acting disinterested, slyly queue their song up and get them involved!
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Oct 11, 2010 06:58
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Rather than awarding them a drama card for doing something cool during their song, how about just giving them one when their song plays? (Whether they'd have to use it while it's still playing, or can hold on to it, is up to you.) It might still cause issues in that not everyone's song will come up, but that can be organised by making the playlist a bit shorter (and varying the non-player songs for each session, if you want variety) so that the entire thing will play over the course of the session. Effectively, someone's song playing becomes the cue for 'Choose Your Own Adventure' mode.
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Oct 11, 2010 07:33
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I'm kicking around DMing ideas, but I'm pretty new at this and I wanted input on the execution. How do you suggest running an "evil counterparts" group, hired by the BBEG to continually harass the PC's? I like the idea of having a very Tactical fight, with plenty of terrain and enemies with intelligent objectives in a battle. I think plenty of banter to explain what they're going to try to do next would help inform the PCs of whats up. Moreover, a group of familiar enemies with similar characteristics makes for an interesting rivalry with the PCs, and could lead to some interesting interactions. However, how do you keep it challenging but allow the PC's to fight the group later? I was thinking of ruling that when any member of the group gets reduced to 0 hp, he always just goes unconscious. Could allow for interesting bits as the evil counterparts drop the fighting to rescue the downed guy and allow him to escape. Would it be too much to give the leader an ability to revive an enemy after he gets downed, except that guy's only option afterward is to hoof it away from the battle? My biggest concern is that giving this group plenty of escape options would only frustrate my players. Additionally, I need to figure something out for when (not if) my players manage to capture or very thoroughly kill a member of the evil adventuring group.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:02
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M.c.P posted:How do you suggest running an "evil counterparts" group, hired by the BBEG to continually harass the PC's? I like the idea of having a very Tactical fight, with plenty of terrain and enemies with intelligent objectives in a battle. I think plenty of banter to explain what they're going to try to do next would help inform the PCs of whats up. Moreover, a group of familiar enemies with similar characteristics makes for an interesting rivalry with the PCs, and could lead to some interesting interactions. However, how do you keep it challenging but allow the PC's to fight the group later? Well, right now (fight starts here) Kassoon's running a combat featuring a Quirky Miniboss Squad in his Astralverse game, with terrain and banter. The enemies definitely have roles -- there's a defender with marks, a controller, a striker, an attack-granting leader. You might find it interesting to mine for ideas. The general consensus for 4E is to avoid the trap of making a group of PCs that you run; 4E isn't balanced for that and the fights will drag out. quote:I was thinking of ruling that when any member of the group gets reduced to 0 hp, he always just goes unconscious. Could allow for interesting bits as the evil counterparts drop the fighting to rescue the downed guy and allow him to escape. You could give one or two leader opponents an ability that's an immediate interrupt to a damage roll that would reduce an ally in a burst 5 or 10 to 0 HP, effect: Reduced to 1HP, shifts speed as a free action, may not use standard actions for the remainder of the encounter (but can cash their standards in for a move as usual, so they can 'hoof it' as you say). quote:My biggest concern is that giving this group plenty of escape options would only frustrate my players. Additionally, I need to figure something out for when (not if) my players manage to capture or very thoroughly kill a member of the evil adventuring group. Without extensive fiating, that's going to happen, so I would suggest not having plans that depend on that not happening. Outside of an antagonist-TPK, some of 'em are going to get away, so they'd probably recruit new members to come back up to strength and then re-engage your party later with the added motivation of vengeance. Having folks killed also works in your favor, because you can rotate in new abilities they haven't seen before (including defenses, since the survivors will have a gauge of the party's strength and select new squad members accordingly) and it keeps the second fight from being too samey.
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Oct 11, 2010 18:28
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What's the general concensus on what I might call "slow boat" games here? Because some of us want to do a bit of gaming but our schedules don't necessarily let us post every day. Not necessarily once a week, but maybe three or four times?
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Oct 11, 2010 20:31
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A lot of folks are big on Maptools and hate normal PbP to begin with for its pace, but as a guy who does not have a 6-8 hour block of time every week, PbP is great for me. A slower version of PbP might really not be to everyone's taste, but I'd play in one or hypothetically run one, though I've never run a PbP game and I'd want to research what's involved.
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Oct 11, 2010 20:50
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Gomi posted:I've never run a PbP game and I'd want to research what's involved. Depending on your system (of course) most pbp games focus more on writing out what your character is doing in an interesting way. but otherwise it seems that the general differences are: 1. players post what they want to do, and usually what roll they want to make. 2. GM makes all the rolls, and then makes an update post advancing the game and letting the players know how their rolls went. 3. repeat steps 1 and 2. Disclaimer: I don't play D&D or Crunchy systems much, so I don't know how that specifically changes in pbp.
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Oct 12, 2010 07:15
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So, a bunch of my roleplaying games as of late have been good but have gotten really grim and heavy and dramatic. I have the counter-impulse to run something light-hearted and upbeat. The setting is something like an Etrian Odyssey-sort of fantasy setting, with groups of adventurers given letters of marque to head out into the wilderness to seek fame and fortune. The issue is I can't decide what system to run it in. I'd like the ability for people to do fun, cinematic, swashbuckling kind of things right off, combined with good freedom of character design. Now before you all reach for PDQ#, I'd also like something with a little more crunch so I can build my end of things with a little more granularity.
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Oct 13, 2010 19:33
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Mad Fnorder posted:So, a bunch of my roleplaying games as of late have been good but have gotten really grim and heavy and dramatic. I have the counter-impulse to run something light-hearted and upbeat. The setting is something like an Etrian Odyssey-sort of fantasy setting, with groups of adventurers given letters of marque to head out into the wilderness to seek fame and fortune. NWoD, Storytelling system, using some combat hacks, and optional rules for medieval/fantasy worlds.
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Oct 14, 2010 03:19
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My Dark Sun party of level 2 peeps is going to be ending up underneath Balic in their aquaducts. Now, I have a stiffy for Carrion Crawlers, so I'll be leveling one down to level 4 or so, but I'm looking for things to make the fight seem more interesting. I'm thinking some sort of tiny undead (Crawling Claws? Aquatic Zombies) that the carrion crawler would ignore, but would hang around him. Also, what are your thoughts on a rushing stream that forces players to certain positions or be slid 3 at the end of their turns to keep them moving? Or something like that.
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Oct 14, 2010 06:48
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Why not just halve their move in one direction and double it the other way? An aquatic carrion beast sounds like a good fight.
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Oct 14, 2010 08:31
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My last session with the group went both very well, but also not quite great. I changed formats somewhat, and this session involved zero combat (whereas the others involved combat with maptools and stuff). It was mostly the characters investigating a development in the major plotline and trying to track down leads about the BBEG (though they're not quite sure that's what's going on, exactly). I went in with zero plans or preconceived notions about what would happen, only knowing who the guy was and letting their actions determine what information they found (turned out to be a decent amount) and where I'd have the BBEG end up. It flowed a lot better than previous sessions. However, I felt bad for one of my best players--his character is kind of crippled when it comes to social stuff (barbarian slave who barely has survival-skill proficiency in the local language, but can speak with the group leader, who is bilingually fluent in both) and intellectual things (again, barbarian). While he did participate quite a bit in the discussion and so on, his character didn't really have much to do, outside of intimidating a couple of people into cooperation. What's the best way to handle this without shoehorning combat into the game? Just find excuses for him to use his brawn somehow?
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Oct 14, 2010 09:19
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i'd just tone down the need to be mechanically good at social encounters so the character can participate more. if you're sticking with more investigation sessions, you could have a chase scene so the barbarian gets to use his physical skills or something like that? or just ask what his character's going to do to help, and roll with that. could just be he's not really interested in what his barbarian's doing and wants to help the group with the intellectual/social stuff instead, and that's fine. i mean if he wants his character to participate you should encourage him to have his character find barbarian-ish ways to help
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Oct 14, 2010 09:46
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Actually, his character's been oddly successful at social things in the past, where the Tiefling Warlord has failed utterly--e.g., a trio of werewolves were terrorizing the local farmers' animals (but weren't touching any humans), and the farmers hired them to take care of the problem. The barb was the first to notice that they weren't overtly hostile, and he made ridiculously good wisdom and diplomacy checks while the charismatic Warlord failed utterly. We figured maybe the barbarian's animalistic nature helped him empathize. It actually turned out to be pretty good. But this last session we actually didn't roll dice at all until near the end, where I had them stumble on a town where the people had disappeared. But yeah, a chase scene sounds good. I'll see if I can brainstorm up some other opportunities for his character to do stuff.
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Oct 14, 2010 10:06
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Son of Thunderbeast posted:But yeah, a chase scene sounds good. I'll see if I can brainstorm up some other opportunities for his character to do stuff. If you're running social encounters where the players are trying to track down a bad guy, try involving some seedy underworld types. The sociable diplomats will still have a role to play in that environment, but the barbarian's free to intimidate (and knock heads) as well. It also allows easier segues into stuff like a chase scene - Chesterfield Q. Stuckupington III isn't going to book it when he doesn't like how the conversation is going, but Jimmy the Rat sure might.
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Oct 14, 2010 12:29
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Error 404 posted:NWoD, Storytelling system, using some combat hacks, and optional rules for medieval/fantasy worlds. Where do I find these hacks? I've never played or GMed anything Storyteller before. I heard it has vampires in it!
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Oct 15, 2010 15:53
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Mad Fnorder posted:Where do I find these hacks? I've never played or GMed anything Storyteller before. I heard it has vampires in it! The supplement books Armory: Reloaded and Mirrors have combat hacks of varying quality. Mirrors has the rules for medieval/fantasy worlds. There are indeed vampires in nWoD. Only a couple, though. Like two or three.
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Oct 15, 2010 16:02
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:There are indeed vampires in nWoD. Only a couple, though. Like two or three. But there doesn't have to be. the system is literally a toolbox of make-your-own-games. ~Storytelling Supermacy.~
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Oct 16, 2010 02:56
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Yesterday I finished the last part of the Age of Worms campaign and my players had a ton of fun playing. Those hints and advice you gave me in this very thread a year ago were really useful. Thanks.
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Oct 16, 2010 08:11
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Error 404 posted:But there doesn't have to be. the system is literally a toolbox of make-your-own-games. ~Storytelling Supermacy.~ Actually there's a backdoor built into the character generation system. No matter what you do or what kind of game you want to run you will inevitably end up with at least one vampire PC or NPC. That's just how the numbers work out. I tried running a game of political intringue in 16th century France with no supernatural elements whatsoever and I still ended up with a French court vampire.
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Oct 16, 2010 08:21
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Actually there's a backdoor built into the character generation system. No matter what you do or what kind of game you want to run you will inevitably end up with at least one vampire PC or NPC. That's just how the numbers work out. I tried running a game of political intringue in 16th century France with no supernatural elements whatsoever and I still ended up with a French court vampire. Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff- WHITE WOLF! 
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Oct 16, 2010 12:37
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I just got back from a trip to Montreal, and brought back a little bottle from Notre Dame Basilica of 'actual' holy water. I figured it'd be fun for D&D, but what should I do with it? I thought about handing it to my lvl3 D&D4E players as a token of loot, like they found an (expendable?) item. Should it just be lvl6 holy water, though? That's kinda lame, for an item with a prop. Would it be unbalanced to give them lvl11 holy water, for a party of 3s? (It's only 350gp in the store.) Should I say "You find a big bottle of holy water, and split it into 3 small containers of lvl6?" Or use it in some completely different way?
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Oct 16, 2010 14:45
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Well I kind of narrowed down one of the major reasons MY GIRLFRIEND hasn't really been able to get into the game despite my efforts. Turns out that she feels really lost during a lot of the game, mostly because of technical stuff and details. This last session was a little better because I stayed away from heavy combat and other mechanics-heavy stuff and it was mostly roleplaying, but even so she felt a little lost with a lot of the terms and mythos thrown around. I suppose a lot of that is my fault/responsibility as GM and storyteller; this kind of thing shouldn't really be left up to a player (especially a new player) to try and puzzle out for themselves, otherwise they'll get frustrated and quit. But to me, it didn't seem too out-there, at the time I thought it was pretty easy to follow. The only specific example I can think of is when the PCs were discussing where to go to find information. The setting is Early Modern Germany during the Holy Roman Empire era, so magic is heavily regulated (essentially the only ones truly allowed to practice are clerics/paladins/etc., and wizards/others who study at institutes of higher education that only teach church-approved magic). The two experienced players were discussing what they could do to find leads on the BBEG, asking me if X or Y could be found--e.g., were there any underground thaumaturgists, or maybe a magic-trinket black market for the superstitious farmers and so on. She really had no idea what the gently caress was going on as they discussed the various types of magic/magicians/etc., and unfortunately I wasn't paying enough attention to her (assuming she knew what I knew) and she just felt lost and disconnected. I certainly don't want to "dumb the game down," nor do I think that would be a solution, but how do I keep everyone on the same page when it comes to things like this?
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Oct 19, 2010 18:54
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Son of Thunderbeast posted:I certainly don't want to "dumb the game down," nor do I think that would be a solution, but how do I keep everyone on the same page when it comes to things like this? One easy thing to do is talk to her about her character, and (if appropriate) how it's ok that her she doesn't know these things, in or out of character, and it's ok to look at the other players like they're casually discussing Non-Euclidian Geometry in a dead language and ask them what the hell they're talking about. or, you know, tell her "hey, it's fine. No one knows all this crap from the very beginning, sorry I haven't been good with the explanations so far. If you don't know something, just ask me, and we'll take the time to go over it with you."
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Oct 19, 2010 23:56
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TheAnomaly has got a very good idea there. There's a very good reason why computer RPG's tend to have fish-out-of-water protagonists - it's an excellent way to explain the world in-character. With a group of players who are familiar with the setting, anyone new joining would probably be well-advised to make such a character. The chance to explain things IC not only allows opportunities for roleplaying, but also helps prevent the situation where the new player feels awkward or guilty stopping play to have stuff explained to her all the time.
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Oct 20, 2010 00:12
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| # ? May 9, 2024 13:55 |
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I'm running a Delta Green/CoC investigation game where the PCs will likely start out as FBI agents. I'm wondering what a cool way would be to introduce them to the Delta Green conspiracy. Since DG often likes to cover up run-ins with the supernatural, it seems like they would be more likely to interfere in such a way to keep FBI agents ignorant. But I guess that all depends really - as a keeper, I should be able to wrangle it. Still, does anyone have advice on this or have any Delta Green anecdotes? I just wanted to avoid giving everyone a 20-minute intro speech about DG before this game which is going to be a one-shot that can potentially turn into more.
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Oct 21, 2010 18:54
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