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Guesticles posted:I want to hear the curse you're cooking up more than I want to point out that was the comedy answer. This was your serious answer: quote:serious answer: I'd start off pillaging a scotish/english monestary. Maybe on the way home, and give everyone a short background story telling how they are returning home after slaughtering and robbing dozens of unarmed monks/nuns/sick/peasants; maybe even addressing how this the only way to feed your families. Members of the antagonist clan might also be involved, maybe showing that . It is somehow worse than your usual bullshit passive-aggressive I do not understand human interaction I am literally a child posts.
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# ? Oct 19, 2012 20:33 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 09:26 |
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Guesticles posted:I want to hear the curse you're cooking up more than I want to point out that was the comedy answer. Ha ha. You called culture X rapists. What fun and mirth. Your serious answer is no less poo poo than your "joke", you stinkfarted breadnosed fishbelly who takes the name of his mother because she couldn't tell who blew into her. May your corpse be so meager and foul that it starves ravens.
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# ? Oct 19, 2012 20:43 |
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Affi posted:Group is annoying and wanting to play Devas, Pixies, Plants and Gitzerai. How do I get rid of their bodies? When they actually walk into a bar, the bartender always says "What is this, some kind of joke?" If you want to take it farther and really ruin the game, you could put them in stupid joke situations - their plane (magic carpet, whatever) is going down and there's only one parachute. They find themselves at the gates of heaven. They are captured by cannibals.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 04:06 |
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Rulebook Heavily posted:Ha ha. You called culture X rapists. What fun and mirth. Or, as my good friend Khal Drogo once said...
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 05:51 |
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Affi posted:Group is annoying and wanting to play Devas, Pixies, Plants and Gitzerai. How do I get rid of their bodies? You're probably sold on loving with your group for having the gall to play an available race. So I'm not gonna just tell you to not gently caress with your players. But keep in mind what everyone was saying during Paranoia chat. Don't gently caress with your players in a way that only serves you, the almighty DM. gently caress with your players in ways that are entertaining and make for a better story and session. For instance, this is what the racial description for Pixies actually says: quote:Playing a pixie means having people judge you before getting to know you. Your wild kin are known throughout adventuring parties as tricky and malicious. Most adventures will only party with you if they must and very few will ever trust you. This is not to say you don't deserve trust but you will have to earn it far more than most. Many elves look down upon pixies as childish liars and look up to them as plotting masterminds. This gives you some play to mess with your Pixie players while actually making it fun to be the Pixie. I actually just wrapped up a game in which I was playing a Drow Invoker and another guy was playing a Pixie Warlord. The Warlord was indignant and bossy in battles because the Drow had bigger fish to fry but during RP/riff time the party, especially the Drow, made a running joke of abusing the Pixie by stuffing him in a large sack, shaking him violently, etc. If you're not on board with their race choices because it's against the norm for the setting, make a note of it in game. The Deva has a bunch of creepy worshippers that don't leave her alone whenever the party's in a town. The Githzerai is constantly mistaken for a Githyanki so people are really edgy around him. And quack herbalists are constantly trying to buy or steal bits of your plant player so they can sell it as a bogus salve to cure necromantic curses. But whatever you do, make sure it's done in a way that your players will potentially laugh at or otherwise enjoy. Don't be that guy that fills your campaign with merchants that won't serve the party or make it impossible to find an inn because fantasy racism.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 07:16 |
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Razorwired posted:gently caress with your players in ways that are entertaining and make for a better story and session. Play to your players' strengths, not against their weaknesses. Don't drop Confusions to spite your players with lovely Will saves, and don't make your wizardy players make unnecessary Fort saves. Actually don't drop Confusions on your players at all unless you're houseruling Save Ends, and don't aggressively coup de grace 'em unless everyone agrees they hosed up and it'd make for a good laugh. There's nothing worse than not being able to play. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Oct 20, 2012 |
# ? Oct 20, 2012 09:58 |
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So, I'm going to be running Encounters at my FLGS starting next week. A couple of questions: 1. Is all the GMs get REALLY those initiative cards from Wizards? My FLGS offered me some free drinks or something because we both agreed that that reward is kind of lackluster. (I'd run it even without a reward, but I was just curious.) 2. Any general tips for Encounters in general? Fairly familiar with DMing 4e, just never done Encounters.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 18:19 |
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I obviously exaggerated a little (lot). I got some good advice though so i'm happy. Razorwired posted:You're probably sold on loving with your group for having the gall to play an available race. So I'm not gonna just tell you to not gently caress with your players. But keep in mind what everyone was saying during Paranoia chat. Don't gently caress with your players in a way that only serves you, the almighty DM. gently caress with your players in ways that are entertaining and make for a better story and session. This is excellent advice, i'd never gently caress with my players just because they went against me, but I should have some say in what races are allowed (I think). I don't want good drow dual-wielding scimitar rangers. (and this is what one guy created) but I do allow some monster races (eberron setting) with the implication that there is fantasy racism and it will affect them.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 22:50 |
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Be careful that "fantasy racism" doesn't become "ironic racism," which isn't ironic.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 23:07 |
Affi posted:This is excellent advice, i'd never gently caress with my players just because they went against me, but I should have some say in what races are allowed (I think). I don't want good drow dual-wielding scimitar rangers. (and this is what one guy created) but I do allow some monster races (eberron setting) with the implication that there is fantasy racism and it will affect them. Then if they still want to go outside the boundaries you've set up you can have a discussion about what they actually want out of their choice (do they just want the +2 to the right stats? do they want the flight ability? the fluff of being a mischievous rear end in a top hat fairy?) and how you can accommodate their desires (whether through reskinning or whatever) while also being upfront about the kind of campaign you want to run. Tacking on a bunch of fantasy racism and giving them a hard time after the fact is kind of a dick move.
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# ? Oct 20, 2012 23:53 |
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Affi posted:I obviously exaggerated a little (lot). I got some good advice though so i'm happy. They want to play those things. You don't want them to. Have you thought about why both of those things is true? What do they want out of those specific race choices? Why do they want that? Does the pixie guy really want to be a tiny glittery rear end in a top hat, or is it a "these stats + flying" thing? Is the Deva player after mechanical bonuses or the feeling of playing a celestial being or do they just really like the picture in the PHB?** Why do you not want these races? Overpowered? Not the sort of story you want to tell? Not the general tone you're after? A weird aversion to plant monsters, like maybe that scene in Evil Dead really freaked you out? What I'm getting at, is discuss it with them and come up with a compromise. If you want an all-human game (and have a reasonable way to say why), then maybe they could get characters with the bonuses or aesthetics they want while still being human. If they're truly after a balls out weird fantasy adventure with walking trees and efreeti powered airships and weird magic AI computers and crap, maybe you could just roll with that and leave your differently toned game for another time. **Story time! Back in high school, Planescape was a new thing and my friend's little sister wanted to play D&D. She read over the books and said she wanted to be <weird planar race with superpowers>. Everyone kind of freaked out until I (GM) asked her why she wanted to be that race, and her response was "it has the coolest picture out of any of these books". She was actually fine with any race, as long as she could look exactly like that awesome picture with the girl with the horns. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Oct 21, 2012 |
# ? Oct 21, 2012 04:34 |
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Affi posted:This is excellent advice, i'd never gently caress with my players just because they went against me, but I should have some say in what races are allowed (I think). I don't want good drow dual-wielding scimitar rangers. JUST RESKIN. You've already said they're interested in those races for the mechanical benefits, just reskin them into humans or whatever races you find appropriate.
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# ? Oct 21, 2012 11:22 |
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I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask this in, but I couldn't find one that fit better. I'd like to run a modern zombie-themed game and I can't figure out which RPG system to use. The style of game I'm looking for is one that emphasizes equipment, resource management (survival), and relationships/conflict with NPCs over character power level. Each PC would have the relative strength of a normal person, with very little advancement in the traditional RPG sense - it would be about what they find, how they conserve resources, and who they choose to help. I'd prefer rules-light, but with enough combat modeled to scratch my tactical combat itch. I looked at All Flesh Must Be Eaten, as I liked the idea of a zombie toolkit, but it felt far too fiddly for my tastes, with the D&D philosophy of skills and rules for freaking EVERYTHING. I've run 3rd and 4th ed D&D before, and while it's great with the right group, that's not what my current group is. I know there are a number of other zombie-themed (and generic setting) RPGs out there, but I don't know where to start. Any advice?
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 16:22 |
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Gosh... I am going to suggest Savage Worlds, using the Horror supplement and the "gritty damage" rules. It's pretty rules-light, very fast, with some tactical depth, and with non-fiddly skills. It's pulpy in the core, but you can twist a few dials to zero in on what you want. My biggest issue with the system is that you sometimes need to worry about a lot of +/-'s on your die rolls. The core is easy enough, though.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 16:41 |
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I'm not sure if this is the right thread to ask this in, but I couldn't find one that fit better. I'd also recommend Fear Itself, a GUMSHOE game. Characters with the Firearms skill can shoot guns and also have a limited pool of points to spend on augmenting those rolls -- when they're gone, no more augmenting until the pool refreshes. You may not care for / want the investigative aspects, though.
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# ? Oct 23, 2012 17:07 |
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There's definitely some great ideas in this topic that will help me. I'm a fairly new DM for a group of 3 people. The guy who's books we're using (apparently 1st edition AD&D) ran a few modules and I mentioned that they were a little boring because they were mostly just short dungeons without much room to diverge from the planned story. He suggested I try DMing and I've been doing so for the past month or two. I've come up with an overall question and one for the story I currently have going. Is there anything I should know or keep in mind that I may not figure out on my own while DMing? I ask because I'm still pretty shaky on most of the rules. But the group is laid back and the stories are never anything too serious so sometimes I bend the the rules I do know to fit what I want them to or make them up. I figure as long as everyone is having fun then it's not really a big deal. I've only had a player argue what I did once so far and after he explained himself I changed what I did because his argument convinced me. Should I be thinking of it differently? Story wise, last week I ended with my players about to confront a pirate/slaver captain in a stateroom on his ship. I can't really come up with any ideas of how to proceed besides: 1. The "original" plan of a moderately hard battle with the captain and his cohorts in their stateroom before moving on to my other plans. This feels dull and too basic. I say "original" because the ship wasn't something I had planned out coming into the night. I mentioned the docks offhand while trying to describe the town, the players wanted to explore the area and it was something I came up with spur of the moment. With no prior planning, ending with a battle was all I had but the night ran long. It was already late when they were approaching the stateroom so I ended the night as they approached the battle scene to try to come up with something different. Since then I've only come up with: 2. During the battle, non-fighting crew brings the ship out of the port, putting them out to sea. This seems too cliche or obvious to me. I'm not worried about the stories I had planned out for the town they're in because I can always go back to them later but I don't really know what to do with them once they're out to sea. Killing the captain and forcing the crew to return to port or another town seems pointless. Making them attempt to control the ship themselves sounds funny but not very productive and really just a temporary diversion. I would be interested in hearing other ideas.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 04:22 |
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Sounds like it might not jive with your campaign, since this seems like a side trip and getting your players back into the city is the next stage, but, what about giving the Captain a medallion/amulet/trinket that gets damaged when he is killed, causing the ship to be transported to another plane. (Maybe a plane where everything is almost-but-not quite identical to the one they're from) Another idea, give your players a hostage crisis. The Captain has bombs on the ship, and threatens to set them off and blow the ship skyhigh if he starts to lose the fight. Even if you party backs off and lets the Captain and his ship leave, this could bring up questions like "Why does he have so many explosives?" "Are they for someone in the city?" Also cliche, but might spark an idea: the Captain isn't actually human.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 04:43 |
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The ship is actually a spelljammer
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 05:50 |
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Is this the place to ask for worldbuilding advice? I'm trying to remove the stigma of Necromancers in this campaign world; moving them more to a grave-keeper/keeper of soul magic rather than undead raising assholes (Although it'd still be within their power). Alternatively, how do I go about making a likable Necromancer? TalonDemonKing fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Oct 24, 2012 |
# ? Oct 24, 2012 11:25 |
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TalonDemonKing posted:Is this the place to ask for worldbuilding advice? I'm trying to remove the stigma of Necromancers in this campaign world; moving them more to a grave-keeper/keeper of soul magic rather than undead raising assholes (Although it'd still be within their power). Have a necromancer run the local militia, and play him up as a super friendly town guard. Of course he'd rather keep his boys alive, but sometimes casualties happen, and well, you just can't let them go all that easy. These old boys, you grow fond of 'em, and sometimes you just... want to bring them back. So you did, and look, now they fight harder than ever! The city guard's never been stronger. The old man down the street grew so sad after his wife passed away. Rather than burial, he paid the town necromancer to bring her back for him. She can't go out during the day anymore, but keeping her around has kept the old man sane. One day, when he too passes, she'll be set free from her plight, and they'll both move on together. That kid just loved his big brother Hugo. They were orphans, see, and Hugo's the only one who ever looked out for him. So when Hugo bit it after that accident at the factory, kid just couldn't take it. He got himself an apprenticeship with the local necromancer, and Hugo got to come back as a big tough zombie. It's not the same as it was before, but the kid likes having him around. Makes him feel safer, and just like the old days, he's never had a better protector than Hugo. The kid takes Hugo everywhere he goes, and the townsfolk know that as long as they don't mess with the kid, everything works out fine. Kid's a fine example of an up and coming necromancer.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 11:45 |
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gnome7 posted:The old man down the street grew so sad after his wife passed away. Rather than burial, he paid the town necromancer to bring her back for him. She can't go out during the day anymore, but keeping her around has kept the old man sane. One day, when he too passes, she'll be set free from her plight, and they'll both move on together. This one in particular is loving creepy instead of making the necromancer look lovable. It reads like the plot of a Lovecraft short story. Like "Cool Air" or the one with the body-jumping sorcerer. Edit: Perhaps Necromancy is the purview of great leaders or kings. Particularly good soldiers get turned into undead after they are finally defeated, and it's a reward for them. A bit like the dreadnoughts in 40K - "Even in death, I still serve the Emperor". The same is true of any particularly skilled or loyal servant. Their soul goes to rest but they are content knowing that their untimely death hasn't robbed the King of a dutiful servant. Like Ancient Egypt in reverse. As a super weird addition, when a Necromancer King dies, his soul dissipates and re-enlivens the bodies of all his undead servants. So faithful service in life (and undeath) guarantees you a literal life after death. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Oct 24, 2012 |
# ? Oct 24, 2012 14:04 |
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TalonDemonKing posted:Is this the place to ask for worldbuilding advice? I'm trying to remove the stigma of Necromancers in this campaign world; moving them more to a grave-keeper/keeper of soul magic rather than undead raising assholes (Although it'd still be within their power). This is excerpted from GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners: quote:...or in another sense, to a wilderness guide: His job is to help the spirits of the dead find their way to wherever they should go next. Unfortunately, some dead spirits don’t want to follow the rules, and some wizards and such have dangerous ideas about meddling with the natural order, so the psychopomp sometimes has to get a bit forceful, and maybe work with other defenders of the natural order. He has characteristics such as Higher Purpose, Medium, Licensed Exorcist, possibly Spirit Badge, a Sense of Duty, Exorcism, and Theology.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 14:11 |
gnome7 posted:Have a necromancer run the local militia, and play him up as a super friendly town guard. Of course he'd rather keep his boys alive, but sometimes casualties happen, and well, you just can't let them go all that easy. These old boys, you grow fond of 'em, and sometimes you just... want to bring them back. So you did, and look, now they fight harder than ever! The city guard's never been stronger. I've been planning on using one much like this but with a religious bent. Patriotic necromancers have been raising the dead in a settlement for generations as an honored position akin to a chaplain. They do it as a reverential act, the townsfolk completely support it and may even hope that they'll be strong enough in life to one day be called upon to serve their descendants, keep them safe, and fight their enemies. A Norse inspired 'Honored ancients' ideal that inspires the necromancer to perform what's necessary for the good of the settlement but not abuse it for petty personal gain.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 14:12 |
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Play up, culturally, the difference between the Body and the Soul in your setting. Make sure it's well-understood by the people of your setting that when a necromancer raises a zombie, he is only animating the body of the departed, while the soul remains in its home with the Gods. Necromancy concerns itself with both body and soul, but the desecration of the body once the soul has passed on is a cultural stigma... and this culture simply has less of said stigma. As for the necromancer's other powers, play them up as reverent and even holy; a necromancer casing Speak With Dead or whatever isn't forcing the departed to obey his will, he is acting as an intercessor between the heavens and the earthly realm and beseeching the spirit's aid. Hell, make them all priests.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 14:34 |
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Also, if necromancy is the manipulation of the body's energies independent of the soul, do what D&D used to do and lump all healing into necromancy.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 14:37 |
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dwarf74 posted:Gosh... I am going to suggest Savage Worlds, using the Horror supplement and the "gritty damage" rules. homullus posted:I'd also recommend Fear Itself, a GUMSHOE game. Characters with the Firearms skill can shoot guns and also have a limited pool of points to spend on augmenting those rolls -- when they're gone, no more augmenting until the pool refreshes. You may not care for / want the investigative aspects, though.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 16:35 |
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Play up, culturally, the difference between the Body and the Soul in your setting. Make sure it's well-understood by the people of your setting that when a necromancer raises a zombie, he is only animating the body of the departed, while the soul remains in its home with the Gods. If you had a larger or more prosperous settlement in mind, just use the above as the origin for it, and the stigma for necromancy just never developed. It certainly helps if the actual necromancers are genial, friendly, and generally just pleasant people, especially if it's clear they have the people's defense and best interests in mind. As an analogy, consider that soldiers have to go out and kill things in service to the people and can be well-regarded by the populace, or they can be mercenary thugs who abuse their power for their own gain and be resented by the people. As long as the necromancers' work benefits most people and performed on willing subjects it won't be hard to portray them in a positive light.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 18:13 |
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Rotten Red Rod posted:I'll check out both of them, thanks. Savage Worlds even has a zombie adventure book I can play off of/borrow from, I see. SW has a good number of forays into the horror/zombie genres. Deadlands, Weird Wars, a generic "Horror" supplement, etc. Also? You can get the (new) paperback Deluxe Explorers Edition for $10 to check out the game and see if you like it. $10. It's a steal.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 18:50 |
DarkHorse posted:If you had a larger or more prosperous settlement in mind, just use the above as the origin for it, and the stigma for necromancy just never developed. It certainly helps if the actual necromancers are genial, friendly, and generally just pleasant people, especially if it's clear they have the people's defense and best interests in mind. In a larger settlement, you can pretty much base the entire culture around it, much like some of the proposals for the Lich King in the 13th age thread. A farmer works his entire life, scrimping and saving, so that when he dies, he has enough money for his children to have his body turned into a skeleton to help work the farm. If he doesn't have enough money, he signs up as a body donor for the military, giving his family a monetary boost that may mean when the next death comes along, they can afford a reanimation to make the whole family better off for generations. The wealthiest of farmers goes even further, and has undead oxen to pull the plows. Only the poorest, or the newest immigrants, are forced to do menial labor themselves.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 18:55 |
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Mar 31, 2017 |
# ? Oct 24, 2012 18:57 |
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Mar 31, 2017 |
# ? Oct 24, 2012 19:14 |
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50 Foot Ant posted:If you don't mind d20 Modern, I wrote a zombie RPG setting for it, and would be happy to give you a complete set of the books. The few other people I've handed it off to here on SA were really happy with it.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 20:08 |
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Anyone constructing a necromancy heavy kingdom could do well to take inspiration from the Necromancer's Gambit books or High Cromlech in the Bas Lag books by China Meville. Both are societies with a heavy undead presence that seem well thought out.
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# ? Oct 24, 2012 20:22 |
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Mar 31, 2017 |
# ? Oct 24, 2012 21:19 |
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Guesticles posted:Another idea, give your players a hostage crisis. The Captain has bombs on the ship, and threatens to set them off and blow the ship skyhigh if he starts to lose the fight. Even if you party backs off and lets the Captain and his ship leave, this could bring up questions like "Why does he have so many explosives?" "Are they for someone in the city?" As far as the Captain not being human, I've previously had them run afoul of a doppelganger at least twice (I think they may have killed him previously but "oh no, that must not have been the real doppelganger") so it could also be a way to bring a bigger bad guy into the picture. Now I just need to decide which one I want to go with. Thanks,
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 04:04 |
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It would be interesting in a world where people rise as hostile undead, like in the aftermath of a zombie disaster, to have necromancers become a necessity to "tame" recently risen undead. It would provide an interesting change of role to make the necromancers outright necessities of existence, making the best of a horrific situation.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 13:21 |
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One of the "horrors" of necromancy is having the dead doing things antithetical to who they were in life (eating their own children, going on rampages, wearing socks with sandals). If necromancers can only make the dead do things they would have been willing to do in life because their personality is forever imprinted on their body, it's basically only as scary as the living are. So, uhh, pretty scary.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 18:08 |
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Having run a small Vampire: the Masquerade game with some old friends over the summer with moderate success, I've decided to start planning a new game with players from my university who have a bit more experience. My idea was a game set in Las Vegas, with the city run by a Ravnos Baron with a vice for gambling. I'm looking to set up a power structure within the city, but that seems a little more difficult than standard Camarilla fare. Can anyone offer advice on how independent cities are typically structured or recommend any resources that can help on dealing with that? I have ideas for spheres of influence, but I'm really wondering more about kindred politics and a hierarchy there, should one really exist at all.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 19:26 |
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You really need to get your hands on Damnation City: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/28796/Damnation-City?it=1 It'll help you with everything.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 19:43 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 09:26 |
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TalonDemonKing posted:Is this the place to ask for worldbuilding advice? I'm trying to remove the stigma of Necromancers in this campaign world; moving them more to a grave-keeper/keeper of soul magic rather than undead raising assholes (Although it'd still be within their power). Some additional thoughts in addition to the great stuff already posted: Preventative Necromancy. Either a friendly necromancer reanimates Uncle Frank, or an unfriendly one might disturb his rest later to join an undead army. As for what the People's Undead Army Corps does, lots of ideas have been posted. CSI:Necromancy. Necromancers don't just reanimate corpses, but perform autopsy with Science and Speak with the Dead. If you wanted to take it a step beyond just murder investigation, go with Lemon Curdistan's suggestion that Necromancy is basically healing magic. If you bring a plague victim to the local Necromancer, reanimating the corpse will help the Necromancer develop a cure for the plague. Reanimated dead make cemetery maintenance a breeze. Your players first encounter with the culture could be undead digging their own graves. If you want to remove the stigma even further, necromancy might be a gift given from a good-aligned god; figuring people would discover necromancy anyway, the god decides its better to teach it to good people, instead of letting it be discovered by amoral-to-evil assholes. Look up Archlich for more ideas.
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# ? Oct 25, 2012 20:05 |