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I've been working for a long time now with a military sci-fi campaign set into the Star Wars universe, where the players are the high command of a separatist group during the OT era and beyond. Going to use ORE to run it just simply because ORE owns. One thing I've been thinking is that when the player characters have wildly disparate fields of expertise, a lot of the time it just doesn't make sense to every central character to get involved. So, how does this sound: I make baseline barebones stats for crewmen, officers and such. At any time, the players can take over an NPC to do stuff if their main character is not involved. For example, if there is a space battle, and at the moment there is nothing to do for the guy playing the Intelligence Agency boss, he can take over the sensors operator, comm officer, gunnery chief, the flagship's captain or XO. If one of these generic-type characters actually manage to accomplish Something Significant, like managing to punch a comm message through Imperial jamming, take command of the damage control team during a crisis or whatever, the generic characters get special status and become supporting actor, whereafter i stat them out a bit more.
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Dec 11, 2010 13:45
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SnatchRabbit posted:Yeah, I think I'm just going to have them set up as groups and have the players make morale rolls to see whether they are overtaken and then just have a boss fight. Anyone of any good references for steampunkish siege weapons though? I looked in Arms and Armor but couldn't find much. I want to have something to install a little fear. all the soldiers should look like this guy 
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Dec 11, 2010 15:37
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^ ^ I prefer the automaton soldiers in the second half of Steamboy. Also all the other coal-powered horrors in that movie. St0rmD fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Dec 11, 2010 |
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Dec 11, 2010 18:14
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I need some ideas for plot development. This is a generic fantasy world, running in a DND4E game. I'll tell you what's happened so far. The characters were recruited by a "shady underworld character" who was a pretty nice guy. It was made clear he was a "good guy" and that the current mayor of the small city was corrupt and used the police force to push his own agenda. The characters got a quest to go and retrieve an item out in the wilderness. As they were leaving, a guard asked them some difficult questions and they ended up killing him. Three levels and 2 weeks later, the characters return to the city. They sneak in under the cover of darkness to find the nice-guy's house wrecked and burned, and WANTED posters with bad drawings of themselves up around the area. They secure lodgings by bribing an innkeeper, and that's where the last session ended. Basically, their contact has gone to ground, and I want them to try to use streetwise smarts and stuff to try to locate him, while staying out of the way of the city watch. Many of the characters have accrued some golld over the last two weeks and would like to spend it in shops. It would be best for them to split up (bwahahaha) but they have never done so in the past, so I don't know how to subtley show them this might be a good idea. I'd really like to have one or two (party of 6) characters captured by the evil mayor and interrogated, and have the others break out. Also, so far they've never come across a battle that they need to run away from. If they are stupid enough to stick together, should I just send an army after them? How does this work? I'm new to DMing, so I've got a basic grasp of adventure hooks and dungeons and combat but I'm feeling a bit lost with how to make Definite Things happen in a big city. My players are beginners too, so they'll probably sit around and wait for me to suggest something for them to do. Any generic storyline ideas on where to go from here would be much appreciated. Any suggested mechanics (Skill Challenge situations?) would also be valuable. edit: I guess part of the problem and the thing I'm nervous is how do I paint a city as vibrant and active, to really portray busy-ness and stuff, without having to flesh out all the details about every person, shop, conversation, etc. Forum Joe fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Dec 14, 2010 |
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Dec 14, 2010 08:42
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DarcArc posted:Any generic storyline ideas on where to go from here would be much appreciated. Any suggested mechanics (Skill Challenge situations?) would also be valuable. Well I'm not familiar with 4th ed, so I can't help with mechanical stuff, but maybe the PCs could break into the watchhouse to see if there are any records of the fire or who was responsible. Since their contact is part of the underworld, maybe they have to gain the trust of the criminal elements of the city (or some kind of resistance, since the cops are corrupt) in order to find him. Another possibility is having them find some evidence at the site of the fire (maybe it was done by the Watch and one of them dropped a baton or something). Or if they know some other people in the city, their contact has left a message with those people. Perhaps their contact has been busy while they've been gone and is now in a position of power among the various gangs/resistance fighters. He has a plan to overthrow the evil mayor, but it requires highly skilled individuals like the adventurers. Luckily they've made it back just in time! I'd like some advice for my Dark Heresy campaign. I've DMed a fair bit, but mostly with 3rd Ed D&D doing high adventure type of campaigns. The last time I tried to do a kind of slowly revealing mystery game I ended up giving way too much away too fast. Any tips on how to keep things under wraps but also moving forward? I really like convoluted conspiracies and stuff but I'm not sure how to run one. For context, I'm planning on the BBEG of the game to be a rogue inquisitor who is attempting to time travel by use of the warp. His plan is to create billions of time clones of himself and his ship, and then travel back to the Horus Heresy and defeat the traitor legions. The side effect of this plan is that the warp rifts created will tear apart the entire Calixis sector, and maybe even the Imperium as a whole, but he sees this timeline as a hopelessly corrupted where mankind is doomed to extinction. So this dude is really really crazy, and he has a limited range version of the time travelling ship ready, meaning there's multiple versions of him running around. Reality is starting to show signs of strain (warp leaks, daemons). To complete his plan he needs warp-tech from various heretical factions, navigation tech from the alien Hrud, and an AI system (heavily proscribed in the Imperium) to actually run the whole thing. The idea is that the PCs will be fighting all these different groups but he's in the background putting together his plan at the same time. Am I in way over my head with this idea? Any advice on how to handle time-shenanigans?
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Dec 14, 2010 10:56
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Blisster posted:I'd like some advice for my Dark Heresy campaign. I've DMed a fair bit, but mostly with 3rd Ed D&D doing high adventure type of campaigns. The last time I tried to do a kind of slowly revealing mystery game I ended up giving way too much away too fast. Any tips on how to keep things under wraps but also moving forward? I really like convoluted conspiracies and stuff but I'm not sure how to run one. The way I'd do it would be to put together a general timeline of what needs doing by when and where but without the really fine details to start. As the PCs go in and start mucking around with his plans, start filling in details from the actual sessions. Start leaving signs that some "shadowy figure" has been running around and doing things in really impossible spans of time: maybe they witness someone running along a catwalk in the ship hangar and then see him again less than five minutes later inside a high-security zone. Don't overdo it though; think G-Man from Half-Life. Then when they finally meet the bajillion copies of the BBEG at the campaign climax you can whip out your notes and go "That was ME blowing up your transport!"
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Dec 14, 2010 11:16
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DarcArc posted:It would be best for them to split up (bwahahaha) but they have never done so in the past, so I don't know how to subtley show them this might be a good idea. I'd really like to have one or two (party of 6) characters captured by the evil mayor and interrogated, and have the others break out. i would really recommend against splitting the party. it almost always results in one of the groups sitting there bored while the other one gets to have all the fun
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Dec 14, 2010 12:50
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Alasdair Crawfish posted:i would really recommend against splitting the party. it almost always results in one of the groups sitting there bored while the other one gets to have all the fun I did a thing once in a Call of Cthulhu game with two players, where in one session the other player character disappeared into Carcosa and the other guy had to find him. To keep him from being bored, I ruled that the other guy heard him whispering in his head, giving suggestions and advice, so effectively they both played the same character for one session.
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Dec 14, 2010 13:06
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DarcArc posted:Basically, their contact has gone to ground, and I want them to try to use streetwise smarts and stuff to try to locate him, while staying out of the way of the city watch. Many of the characters have accrued some golld over the last two weeks and would like to spend it in shops. Make sure that they know this. You could just simply tell them, "It looks like the crooks are the only ones who will talk to you without needing to be bribed to forget the conversaiton." As long as you don't have any stuck-up LG characters, you're fine. They go talk to the criminals and criminals are known for running black markets. They can still do just about everything they would otherwise, they just might need to make some stealth checks to avoid guards at certain points. Also, you can have the characters owe some mob boss favors for this. They don't have to be buddy-buddy, but have the guy pull a Godfather on them. "Some day, I will think of a way for you to properly thank me," or something like that. Now you've got plot advancement, character development, and a ready-made plot hook for later. And if they decide to cross the guy, you've got a villain too. DarcArc posted:It would be best for them to split up (bwahahaha) but they have never done so in the past, so I don't know how to subtley show them this might be a good idea. I'd really like to have one or two (party of 6) characters captured by the evil mayor and interrogated, and have the others break out. I'm gonna get on the "bad idea" train on this one. The biggest problem is whoever isn't involved is gonna get bored. Criminally bored. This kind of thing came up in Shadowrun 3rd Ed with their hacking rules. The DM and the hacker would go off into a corner for two hours for a private adventure every time someone wanted to check a system for info. If you're going to capture the group, capture the group. Surround them with forces. Lots of forces. Let the character with the highest wisdom realize that living to fight another day means you can go to prison and bust out when everyone's back is turned. And don't describe how the characters are tortured. Let them know that they got tortured and that they're in pain and move on. Your players' brains will fill in the gaps. Encourage creativity with the break-out. Maybe the wooden slats from the bed can be worked loose and used as a lever to pry open the cell door. Maybe someone else is planning a breakout and the PCs take advantage of the distraction. There is one time putting a small group in prison would work. If you only have two or three players available some game night, let everyone know that you'll be running a little side adventure where those who are there will start off in prison. Ask each player to come up with a way they got captured. Start off with the most obvious reason if no one volunteers. If you've got a character who's into boozing/whoring, he got surprised while engaged in that activity. Nothing shameful about it, he was just too drunk or otherwise occupied to notice the guards until they'd blackjacked him into unconsciousness. Encourage creativity. And if one of them says that he killed a guard in the process, he starts the game off bloodied. Boom, done. Adventure away and make sure that you end with them busting out. No real XP gain, but they could pick up some non-tangible rewards. Maybe they get a good reputation with a group that could help them later. Maybe they find out some vital plot info (which will be suitably rewarded once they take down the corrupt mayor). Just don't punish those who couldn't show by leaving them behind in loot/XP/what-have-you. DarcArc posted:Also, so far they've never come across a battle that they need to run away from. If they are stupid enough to stick together, should I just send an army after them? How does this work? I'm new to DMing, so I've got a basic grasp of adventure hooks and dungeons and combat but I'm feeling a bit lost with how to make Definite Things happen in a big city. My players are beginners too, so they'll probably sit around and wait for me to suggest something for them to do. The PCs are never stupid for wanting to stick together. It's natural. The only time they split up is when they're on a clock and there are five rooms that need to be searched for treasure. And only send overwhelming forces at them if it is critical to the plot that they be captured. If you cannot think of any other way of getting them information or a contact aside from a god leaning down from the heavens and saying, "Yo, here's the scoop...", then do so but make sure that the players know that it is an unwinnable fight. Also assure them that the game will continue even after the arrest. If you have a character that says that he would rather die fighting than be captured, you're a bit of a prick for wanting a capture, by the way. Bear in mind your characters' backstories. As to your next point, poo poo always happens in big cities. Don't be afraid to have the characters cross paths with an Unbelievable Coincidence, fight against the Slightly Disguised Cliche, or encounter Stock NPC Informant #147-C. Just have stuff happen. This is especially true if they're going to look to you for clues about what to do. Have a street urchin beg them for shelter from the town guard. Street urchins always know what's going on and could prove a goldmine of information. Especially if he recognizes one of the characters from the drawings. Give him shelter, The PCs find out what he knows about where the guards are searching. Boom, they know where not to go (or where to go right after). DarcArc posted:edit: I guess part of the problem and the thing I'm nervous is how do I paint a city as vibrant and active, to really portray busy-ness and stuff, without having to flesh out all the details about every person, shop, conversation, etc. "How loud is it? Well, you're trying to keep your ears open for footfalls? Yeah, just so you know, that Notice check is gonna have a penalty. Why? Because it's loud. There are a dozen people in direct contact with you, bargaining, shouting at each other, trying to force their way through the press of people. This is what happens when you try to hide in a crowded market on market day. You have a hard time hearing the person next to you (NB: Don't make the PCs roll Notice every time they want to converse), let alone someone sneaking up behind you. And speaking of packed in close, there are a lot of people, all jammed around crowded stalls. Fabrics, food, spices, shoes, anything the common man could want is for sale here and there are a lot of common men around, apparently. Oh, you want to head out onto a main road? Alright, Stealth checks? Hmmmm, okay. You think you make it out to a main road without drawing the attention of a patrolling guard. The road in front of you isn't quite packed with carts, but it's close. You aren't sure where they've all come from, but you see some of the drovers aren't dressed in local garments. One seems to be wearing a broad, conical hat made of woven reeds..." You get the idea. Gloss over things. Move from point to point, emphasising the fact that things are busy. Or loud. Or colorful. Or whatever adjective you're going for. Empty alley? Describe the silence. Not even rats can be heard it's so deserted. That kind of thing. Have a list of premade NPC names in case someone takes an interest in someone you don't expect and make that person up on the fly. You'll get used to it. Edit: Wow, that rambled a bit more than I planned. Don't force the characters to do anything they don't want to. Don't make players wait on the side while others have fun. Keep the group together unless they want to split. Only get into the nit-picky details if someone wants more info or if it's crucial to the plot. Give players chances to be creative and reward them when they are. And if the action ever stalls out, have a masked man with a sword burst through the door and demand revenge.
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Dec 14, 2010 17:45
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ItalicSquirrels posted:
poo poo no, that's all awesome advice. I reckon I'll scrap the idea of them getting captured, or maybe have it as a fall-back if they do nothing active to try to find the guy they're looking for. Still, I want them to know its a constant threat and that they need to be careful. If I do it, I won't split up the party. Thanks for that, it's great!
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Dec 14, 2010 21:02
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This might be a little specific for this thread, but I'm running a one-shot for the first time in a new system and I'm not entirely sure how to design some of the opposition. The system is M&M3rd, and the one weakness of the DC Adventures book is guidelines for building mooks or big-bosses. I am, admittedly, doing things out of the book's setting (Planned PL is 4, think Final Fight for PC power level). I've got an idea on how to build equal-level opposition, but I don't have much background in M&M. I know how to build big bosses in something like 4E or HERO system- Generally make things hittable with prominent defenses, and either big AoE effects or high speed (For multiple actions to counter the PCs). I'm not sure where the balance line is, though- will a PL6 capped villain demolish PL4 heroes? Or go down like a punk?
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Dec 15, 2010 22:45
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Xazak posted:The way I'd do it would be to put together a general timeline of what needs doing by when and where but without the really fine details to start. As the PCs go in and start mucking around with his plans, start filling in details from the actual sessions. Start leaving signs that some "shadowy figure" has been running around and doing things in really impossible spans of time: maybe they witness someone running along a catwalk in the ship hangar and then see him again less than five minutes later inside a high-security zone. Don't overdo it though; think G-Man from Half-Life. Cool. I like the idea of him being like the G-man. I actually have a precedent of assassin cadres in this campaign who are surgically altered to look identical, so that should help keep my players from figuring out what's going on too soon.
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Dec 15, 2010 23:38
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Blisster posted:For context, I'm planning on the BBEG of the game to be a rogue inquisitor who is attempting to time travel by use of the warp. His plan is to create billions of time clones of himself and his ship, and then travel back to the Horus Heresy and defeat the traitor legions. The side effect of this plan is that the warp rifts created will tear apart the entire Calixis sector, and maybe even the Imperium as a whole, but he sees this timeline as a hopelessly corrupted where mankind is doomed to extinction. I dunno man, considering how terrible the Imperium in 40k is, I wouldn't be shocked if one of your players decides his plan is worth a shot. So be ready for that possibility.
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Dec 16, 2010 02:28
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Pharmaskittle posted:I dunno man, considering how terrible the Imperium in 40k is, I wouldn't be shocked if one of your players decides his plan is worth a shot. So be ready for that possibility. Well the player who generally takes on the leadership role in our games pretty much has a "don't gently caress with time travel" policy, and the others tend to go along with his suggestions. I'm totally willing to run a game where they join up with this guy though. He's an Oblationist inquisitor, meaning they'd get to play around with sorcery, forbidden tech and other fun stuff like that. And some of the NPCs I've created as allies would make pretty good foes as well. There's also the possibility of PC Time-clones choosing different sides and ending up fighting each other. I'm probably going to have this happen regardless of what they choose, because it will be a creepy and tough encounter.
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Dec 16, 2010 02:55
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you've turned dark heresy into a star trek episode and I could not love it more.
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Dec 16, 2010 04:35
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I have been scrounging around for good resources. My friends and I play in a modern spy setting. I does anyone have a good place to get rpg maps of normal places like office buildings, airports, police stations, houses, mansions etc?
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Dec 17, 2010 02:42
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Kali11324 posted:I have been scrounging around for good resources. My friends and I play in a modern spy setting. I does anyone have a good place to get rpg maps of normal places like office buildings, airports, police stations, houses, mansions etc? Look up blueprints, and satlite maps, also CAD has some demonstration designs, but google image search is actually decent if you tell it to search for larger than 800*600 assuming you are using maptools or a computer. My question is this. I'm running, or soon will be running a game in a giant robot ripoff universe, and the players are ok with this, but I was asked "Hey, why not put more fantasy stuff into this. What are some good say "Modern Fantasy" novels to read that have things that aren't say Shadowrun, but still have modern elements.
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Dec 17, 2010 18:55
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Dresden Files. American Gods / Anansi Boys, The Magicians, Dirk Gently, The Kraken, Harry Potter 
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Dec 18, 2010 13:10
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Twilight
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Dec 18, 2010 15:41
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Orphans of Chaos, Fugitives of Chaos, Titans of Chaos. -By John C. Wright I loving loved these books.
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Dec 18, 2010 19:49
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DarcArc posted:Basically, their contact has gone to ground, and I want them to try to use streetwise smarts and stuff to try to locate him, while staying out of the way of the city watch. Many of the characters have accrued some golld over the last two weeks and would like to spend it in shops. It would be best for them to split up (bwahahaha) but they have never done so in the past, so I don't know how to subtley show them this might be a good idea. I'd really like to have one or two (party of 6) characters captured by the evil mayor and interrogated, and have the others break out. Hey this may be a bit too late but if you basically imply and suggest to your players that they should split up to investigate, and then have one of the groups captured by the bad guys, they will never split up again.
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Dec 18, 2010 22:36
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At the moment I have just started GMing a campaign using the BESM 2nd Edition rules. As it stands we had our first game a couple of nights ago and all of us bar one player is new to the system, but it seemed the best out of all of the rulebooks we had for the setting which is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now we are using telekinesis to simulate bending and it has been working OK, but the players with bending have been absolutely trashing the bad guys whom aren't benders and we've all admitted that it is a bit overpowered. I've talked to the players about it and it is agreed that they are happy with me creating additional rules to scale down the telekinesis a little, but I am scratching my head as to how to go about it in a way that doesn't completely gimp them but still means that combat won't be impossible. At present since the NPCs they have been fighting aren't fighting at range (only the benders are, the rest are using swords/spears/etc.), I can't really apply telekinesis' long range damage loss to the situation either (because my first instinct was to reduce it's effectiveness). Anyone a bit more familiar have any ideas?
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Dec 20, 2010 09:54
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What sort of terrain should a 4e mage-emperor's sanctum have? I was thinking a field that buffed magic attacks, but that would kinda screw the 2/3 of the party that aren't arcane. Could I get suggestions from you geniuses?
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Dec 20, 2010 15:13
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A sanctum is a sacred or private place, so I wouldn't really expect it to be optimized for combat. Instead, I'd suggest having it reflect the power of the mage by having the entire sanctum bend to his will. Give the mage a lot of abilities that allow him to move people around, which you can theme as the floor sliding beneath their feet. Similarly, attacks can be reskinned as resulting from manipulating the contents of the sanctum. You can also highlight the fact that this is likely a place filled with valuable treasures which the mage might want to keep from damaging. You could introduce a number of obstacles which initially provide cover - a table with small works of art on it, a marble statue, ideally something which tells the players something about the character - because the mage is unwilling to destroy them, but that stop being cover once he's bloodied and desperate enough to damage his prized belongings. Some of these things, when destroyed, might create difficult terrain (broken shards of pottery covering the ground, that sort of thing) when destroyed, or might reduce the amount of stuff available for looting after the fight. If you want specific elements, I'd look to the "fantastic terrain" listed on page 67 on the DMG. A sanctum might easily contain artifacts which duplicate the effects of blood rock, a font of power, or sacred circle. A table covered in alchemical reagents, when destroyed, might form an area with the properties of cave slime, grab grass, or grasping slime. Have the sanctum increasingly become a chaotic mess as the fight goes on and the place gets torn apart.
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Dec 20, 2010 16:11
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Sir Kodiak posted:A sanctum is a sacred or private place, so I wouldn't really expect it to be optimized for combat. Instead, I'd suggest having it reflect the power of the mage by having the entire sanctum bend to his will. Give the mage a lot of abilities that allow him to move people around, which you can theme as the floor sliding beneath their feet. Similarly, attacks can be reskinned as resulting from manipulating the contents of the sanctum. Thanks, this all sounds cool.
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Dec 20, 2010 17:02
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Operation Juicebox posted:At the moment I have just started GMing a campaign using the BESM 2nd Edition rules. Okay, well I know basically nothing about BESM, but it seems pretty true to the show that in an up-close and personal fight, a non-bender has basically no chance against a bender unless he's an amazing swordsman or unless it's Sokka fighting a few nameless mooks. It takes a dozen or more bowmen out of bending range to threaten a team of benders. So I'd suggest rolling with it and upping the opposition - a squadron of archers atop a high wall with crenelations to hide behind. Other benders. Non-benders with other cool powers of their own. Or make the benders fight at a disadvantage - they get ambushed and have to struggle to free themselves from nets while the enemies get a few free hits in. Since I don't know BESM, I don't know how to represent these things, but if the system is at all robust it should be able to handle that. If it doesn't work, I'd change systems - maybe something more abstract and narrative-based. I know some people have successfully used Burning Wheel to play Avatar-themed games.
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Dec 20, 2010 19:53
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Would an Exalted dragonblooded campaign work for benders? You already have the elemental poles of Air, Earth, Water, and Fire (with bonus pole Wood) and I think the charms are themed by element, so it should take minimal reskinning and rebalancing to match the flavor. I've only played one game of Exalted, and that was a Solar campaign, so I can't say how well it would work. I do recall hearing that the Dragon Blooded were comparable in power to mortals (though still far superior) so they may not be as incredibly overpowered.
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Dec 20, 2010 20:01
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http://tinyurl.com/2b5ufrd It's a 4e conversion someone did of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago. I haven't looked at it in depth but it seemed pretty balanced and I haven't heard of any huge problems.
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Dec 21, 2010 19:29
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Jimbozig posted:Advice. All good, thanks very much. BESM should be able to handle adjustments fine (I've already inserted a 'bending defense' rule) but I think in future they'll just be fighting a) other benders or b) non-benders with some other advantage rather than just throwing pirates at them. Because although they enjoyed the pirate fight, the pirates got more of a whipping than I had hoped.  DarkHorse posted:Would an Exalted dragonblooded campaign work for benders? One of my housemates has the book for this and pushed it at me before the game began but I asked around and no one seemed interested in the system as much as my housemate. BatteredFeltFedora posted:http://tinyurl.com/2b5ufrd This is insanely cool and I will give it the once over it deserves a little later when I have more time - unfortunately one of the players has objected outright to 4e and I have little/no experience with it but I shall keep it on hand.
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Dec 21, 2010 19:48
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Kali11324 posted:I have been scrounging around for good resources. My friends and I play in a modern spy setting. I does anyone have a good place to get rpg maps of normal places like office buildings, airports, police stations, houses, mansions etc? When I was running a Top Secret campaign (remember that game?) I contacted the local library who put me in touch with the local Historical Society. It turned out that they had tons of blueprints of old mansions, buildings and whatnot that they let me buy copies of. Plus the local urban planning office of Public Works has great blueprints of parks and so forth for your outdoor encounters. It takes a bit of work and a little bit of cash for the copies, but there was nothing cooler than a bunch of players standing around a table looking at a blueprint of an old mansion to build the vibe that a bunch of secret agents and catburglars were standing around a blueprint of an old mansion planning a hit on the Big Bad Guy. That caper was killer because every door, window, nook and cranny was detailed to scale. That night loving rocked with agents leaping through windows, cutting through skylights, and whatnot. also, I think the newer (read: very old) Top Secret S.I. boxed set had a large sheet of generic places mapped to scale, like office buildings, residential homes, car parks and city streets. Check it out on eBay.
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Dec 21, 2010 20:29
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I really want to run a one-shot Just Cause / Gears of Warsie game. Tough guys with big weapons destroying everything in sight, everything explodes (including horses) they can hijack mounts/vehicles and steal weapons on the fly. I also want each and every player to have a terribly emasculating secret, where every player knows one of the other guys' secret. And some way to make that you can throw your buddy under the bus, by taking a jab at him with his secret, and gain an edge at the same time. Is there anything that can do anything like that?
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Dec 21, 2010 21:47
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Doktor Per posted:I really want to run a one-shot Just Cause / Gears of Warsie game. Tough guys with big weapons destroying everything in sight, everything explodes (including horses) they can hijack mounts/vehicles and steal weapons on the fly. I'd use PDQ or FATE, and make the character's secrets be one of their character creation aspects (but kept secret) while still allowing it to be tagged for scenes/actions by the dudes who know the secret.
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Dec 21, 2010 21:51
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You should consider having every player know every character's secrets but only having one other character know. As long as your players are cool about that sort of thing - that makes it a bit easier to bring them into play.
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Dec 22, 2010 21:13
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Vaguely kicking around an idea for a big arena battle, putting some notes here for inspiration, troubleshooting and just general outside input. 4E as usual. The basic idea is the Royal Rumble, but team-based (4E being what it is). I'm thinking I'd have maybe four or five teams of four that enter the battle one by one in an order determined by random draw. You're removed from the battle if you get knocked down to 0 hit points or are pushed into a designated area (this would allow for a saving throw as per forced movement over a cliff). The winning team is the one whose members are the last standing. Probably the biggest and most obvious problem is the idea of, assuming one participant entering per round, a fight of at least 16 rounds. This idea would need a strong focus on the players' actions to work, i.e. no terribly detailed descriptions of what NPC participants are doing to each other. Maybe just have combattants take 10 damage on their turn if they're not directly engaged with PCs, or maybe just DM fiat it altogether ("you see George the barbarian shove Alan the wizard into the You Lose Square and turn towards Jim the rogue on the opposite side of the arena, he's not going to come over and bother you just yet"). HP would probably need to be reduced, too. NPC participants would also need to be kept very simple, nothing more than HP, defenses, an at will attack and an encounter attack or passive effect. Anything to make this a little less of a bookkeeping nightmare. PCs with social skills could shine here as they persuade or bully NPCs into attacking who they'd prefer. Maybe that would even make a good immediate reaction or interrupt. Certainly it would make the time between players' turns less dull. Something like "Trigger: an attack targets a creature within 5 squares, target: the attacker, effect: make a Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate roll, success: redirect the attack to a target of your choice" as an encounter power. (At this point I'm already leaving my notes and making poo poo up as I go along but that doesn't sound bad.)
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Jan 5, 2011 16:08
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What are your plans for PCs that get forced into the You Lose box? Because if they're out, the players are gonna get bored.
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Jan 5, 2011 16:35
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Yeah that's one of the aspects I haven't quite worked out. Best I can think of is either to just not give NPCs forced movement, or to have them use it only on each other, or to have the PCs stop just short of the zone when they do get hit with one to create situations that are more "that one almost got you, you need to get away from there and quick" than "welp that big guy had a lucky roll so maybe you could go grab us sandwiches since you're not doing anything in the next two hours." Or I might steal from the WWE style rumble even more - getting pushed into the You Lose Square is the only losing condition, and HP function as your remaining ability to manage to catch yourself before you go in. This works as long as you have HP left but as soon as you hit 0, anyone can push you around at will, which still allows for your leader to heal you.
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Jan 5, 2011 16:51
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Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea on all sides. Make it a bad guy tossing royale. They could leave guys lying around with 0 HP giving them a chance to move on to other bad guys but leaving it an option for an enemy leader to heal them up, or they could take them time to toss them over the edge but giving other baddies more time to drop them to that magical number. I say go for it.
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Jan 5, 2011 17:06
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Okay, here's a dumb idea I thought up in the shower, TGD please let me know just how dumb it is. I'm planning on adding a gambling group to my campaign as a little aside. The twist is they don't play for money because adventurers inevitably have deeper pockets than anyone else. Instead, they play for forfeits. Lose in a game (which would be abstracted as a quick skill challenge) and you have to complete a forfeit (which you chose as your stake), usually something embarrassing, dangerous, illegal, or all three. Something like scaling the temple of Pelor during the high priest's sermon or going to the basilisk's cave outside town and reciting a bawdy limerick. Ideally they should be quick tasks that present a bit of extra danger but also the potential for additional rewards (befriending a gargoyle on the temple roof, the basilisk's cave is full of treasure, whatever). Actually the more I think about it the more I like the idea of challenges, maybe this gambling group should be some kind of thrill-seeker's club instead and the cardgame is how a character gets suckered in. Good idea? Dumb idea? Any cool ideas for forfeits or challenges?
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Jan 8, 2011 13:06
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This...Party Boat posted:Okay, here's a dumb idea I thought up in the shower, TGD please let me know just how dumb it is. This is a hilarious idea! It sounds like something that much of any guild filled full of jackasses would do. If your players want to do this, I say let them. You might have to think quickly on your feet though.
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Jan 8, 2011 13:20
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| # ? May 9, 2024 09:10 |
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Just quickly want to say thanks for the input on my Royal Rumble idea! I managed to persuade a few guys to sit down tomorrow and give it a practice run so I'm sure I'll catch some more problems, but I did specifically put in some more enemy leaders because while the tactical option of throwing someone out now vs. doing it later didn't even occur to me, I really like it.
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Jan 8, 2011 19:40
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