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You've also basically just described every session of L5R ever, AlphaDog. Fake edit Every non-Spider session, rather.
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Nov 30, 2012 05:40
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But wait, if they couldn't attack the guy without losing honor, and they lost honor for running, then what could they have done? They were kind of damned if they did, damned if they didn't?
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Nov 30, 2012 06:40
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Captain Bravo posted:But wait, if they couldn't attack the guy without losing honor, and they lost honor for running, then what could they have done? They were kind of damned if they did, damned if they didn't? Stand there and wait for the guy to finish him, I'd guess.
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Nov 30, 2012 06:48
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Der Metzgermeister posted:Stand there and wait for the guy to finish him, I'd guess. Yep. Like I said, the challenge had been laid down (to the death in this case, but it could be until first blood, until someone taps out, until someone's unconscious, etc), and the terms had been agreed to. Less honor lost for running from a fight than interfering in an honor duel (still less lost if nobody finds out you ran and/or you kill everyone who could have spread the story, but breaking the terms of the honor duel is immediately bad for the participant - you know what you did and it shows). The correct course of action, mechanically speaking and assuming you think you could win, would be to wait until your friend bleeds out and/or the bad guy starts gloating about winning (duel's over), or the bad guy makes an aggressive action towards you (he has violated the terms assuming the duel's not over). Then you fight him 4 to one, because it's not an honor duel now. Challenging someone to single combat can pay off big time, so it's sometimes worth it. Of course, if you're already really honorable (or if you're just really famous), you can get away with all this stuff to a greater or lesser extent. Edit: Or if you cheat in a legendarily creative way, or if you hire better bards to sing the tale than the other guy does, or a few other ways. Point is, in this case they thought that the bad guy would kill the gently caress out of them with ease, so they ran away. Turns out he was just really lucky. Colon V posted:You've also basically just described every session of L5R ever, AlphaDog. Now there's another game I have to buy  Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 07:22
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AlphaDog posted:Challenge was issued, terms were accepted. I have nobody to blame for that but myself. Hackmaster is indeed a wonderfully loony system, and this highlights one of the absolute best moments of Hackmaster... most of the rest involve high level Fireball variants.  My only advice for people wanting to play/GM Hackmaster? Don't take it too seriously, and, as the book, KoDT, and the HMPA/HMGMA will remind you: Let The Dice Fall Where They May!
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Nov 30, 2012 15:50
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Captain Bravo posted:But wait, if they couldn't attack the guy without losing honor, and they lost honor for running, then what could they have done? They were kind of damned if they did, damned if they didn't? Obviously the guy should have been named "Kobayashi Maru". Because that's the impression i got from the whole thing.
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Nov 30, 2012 16:43
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Colon V posted:You've also basically just described every session of L5R ever, AlphaDog.
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Nov 30, 2012 17:14
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Depending on whether or not you pay attention to the card game's metaplot, the Spider are either the evil clan full of corrupted, honorless thieves and blood magic users, or the barely-tolerated antiheroes who decided to accept the Empress' offer for pardon in exchange for help fighting literal demons. The most amusing thing about L5R to me is that important rolls to be filled in a party are "someone who knows how to make good tea ceremonies" and "someone who's good at schmoozing", because without one, you regain your not-hero-points painfully slowly, and are likely to take massive honor hits every time you enter a new town, respectively. Either that, or the fact that these two need not be the same person. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 22:57
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JamieTheD posted:My only advice for people wanting to play/GM Hackmaster? Don't take it too seriously, and, as the book, KoDT, and the HMPA/HMGMA will remind you: There's kind of a meta level involved where pretending to take the whole thing extremely seriously is where a lot of the fun comes from. Basically "pretend to be horrible grognards pretending to be elves".
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Nov 30, 2012 23:55
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Yawgmoth posted:I only know bits and pieces of L5R, but I do know that Spider is the best clan. That's a really weird way to spell Dragon. The truth about L5R, though, is that each clan has a great deal of variety and there isn't a "best." the only things everyone can agree on are that Lion and Crane are the worst. Oh, and the Nezumi are awesome.
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Dec 1, 2012 01:37
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I had an L5R character (3rd edition) who was a Lion guy in the Berserker school. He died in glorious combat while massively outnumbered, trying to impress a Dragon Shugenja lady who wasn't even remotely interested in him.
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Dec 1, 2012 01:47
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TheAnomaly posted:That's a really weird way to spell Dragon. Which is, itself, a strange way to spell Scorpion. (I never got into L5R save for an abortive RPG campaign and the occasional card game but the Scorpions were awesome)
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Dec 1, 2012 01:57
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Which is, itself, a strange way to spell Scorpion. How the hell do you misspell "crazy fantasy not-Mongols" that badly? Actually, Scorpion are pretty drat awesome. Really, I can find a character I'd be excited to play in pretty much every clan, which is pretty impressive. Except the Mantis. gently caress the Mantis.
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Dec 1, 2012 03:37
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GimpInBlack posted:Except the Mantis. gently caress the Mantis. akimbo matchlock wielding asian Errol Flynn.
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Dec 2, 2012 06:30
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Who are the Mantis clan? Peasant loving leaders of men, unaccustomed to landlubber's staid behavior.
Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Dec 2, 2012 06:35
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TheAnomaly posted:akimbo matchlock wielding asian Errol Flynn. Touche, TheAnomaly. Touche.
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Dec 2, 2012 07:51
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This guy who joined my irl game group for a session recently was quite the character. Commenting on the fact that you've never gamed with a "girl" in the group is an interesting little factoid at best, the first time it's mentioned (also not calling the 34-year-old woman a girl would be a good plan). Not ceasing to comment on it every 15 minutes, even interrupting the woman to do so is not loving okay. We got it. Girl gamer. Shut the gently caress up about it after a while.
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Dec 2, 2012 09:24
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Sadly, all of my gamers who happen to be female (to the best of my knowledge) have turned out to be bad, (but not nearly as many of my male gamers  )Seriously though, one of them was completely insane and the other one, though a good friend, refuses to read rulebooks why won't you read rulebooks  Neither of them were as bad as the guy who wanted to play a midget with skimpy clothes and a buster blade who pissed on the airship's engine and then jumped off the ship as well as out of his first session halfway through. Seriously 
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Dec 2, 2012 09:35
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I've done fiasco in predominantly male and predominantly female groups. Honestly, a few minutes of talking about expectations will clear out 80% of crazies of either gender.
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Dec 2, 2012 09:50
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One of the guys in my group--actually, two, come to think of it--play almost exclusively females. One of them is a 40-year-old virgin, your typical overweight neckbeard who is often spouting poo poo-that-didn't-happen and always has to one-up people in conversation. He once went several months without brushing his teeth  and only started again when his doctor told him that that poo poo leads to heart disease. I did not see him at all during this period or I would have said something; I don't know why the other people around him didn't but they all complained about it.In the fifteen years I've known him I think he's only played two males, both of which were made after constant teasing from the rest of us. He always affects a softer voice when playing a woman; they're always singers or dancers (or both), intelligent and beautiful, family-oriented and altruistic. If the system supports a healing class, then she will be a healer. The other guy plays women maybe half of the time. His women are either sorority airheads (and like the other guy, they're beautiful singer/dancer healers) or they're coldly rational scientists. His men are all lone wolf ninja gunman assassin demolition experts. (This one, I try not to play with.) (Actually, I try not to play with either of them, but this one can be avoided more easily.)
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Dec 2, 2012 10:08
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Another session of Pirates Of The Spanish Main. Our heroes were sailing away from an island with a new ship, which they could barely even sail due to how undermanned they were. Two ships, with six sailors and about four landlubbers, and most with barely any combat experience. What's that in the horizon? Why, it's governor Verigo's own ship! Governor Verigo, whom we just stole a ship from, and whose wife we are holding captive. Shiver my loving timbers. We decided to employ a "fork" strategy: One ship starts heading northeast, one southeast. If Verigo chooses to engage one, he'll have to deal with cannonfire from the other! The plan worked, in a sense. We bombarded the bastard with grape shots, bringing his crew of 20 down to 16. He boarded one ship, and my half of the crew had to survive the assault while our other ship boarded Verigo's ship from the other side. We managed to survive until then, thanks to some really lucky rolls and surprise assistance from the captive Mrs Verigo, who turned against her abusive husband. We had one more ace in our sleeve: A sharp-tongued frenchman. Our GM had dealt out one Adventure Card to each of us, randomly, which we could invoke at an appropriate time. My card was Witty Repartee, which gave me a bonus to my melee attack rolls every time I said something suitably witty, but the bonus could be negated if the target said a good counter-line. Very Monkey Island. Here's the thing, though: My frenchman might be a decent swordsman, but he is no wordsmith. Basically all his "witty" lines were just string of jingoistic profanity. One such exchange went like so:  : Disgraceful! Back in the French army, a soldier like you would have been stuck in permanent latrine duty! : The Dutch use the French as toilet rags!*The Dutchman is decapitated* : How appropriate, you drat shitstain.Later in the fight, our marksman headshotted governor Verigo from two ships away and after long struggling we managed to win against pretty overwhelming odds without a single casualty. Now we have a third ship! And still no crew to actually sail it.
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Dec 2, 2012 16:28
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In my session last night one of my players set a horse on fire to distract some guards. I don't have much of a story to go with this one, it just sort of happened. Like one second they're formulating a pretty sensible plan that involved flanking, and the next they say "We cover the horse in lantern oil and light it.".
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Dec 3, 2012 04:38
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Tardcore posted:In my session last night one of my players set a horse on fire to distract some guards. I don't have much of a story to go with this one, it just sort of happened. Like one second they're formulating a pretty sensible plan that involved flanking, and the next they say "We cover the horse in lantern oil and light it.". Horses are really undervalued as weapons - I used a mount scroll during one ambush to summon one on top of a group of combatant's heads, then while the survivors were recovering I jumped on it's back and rode to safety.
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Dec 3, 2012 07:10
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There was a story here a while back about a barbarian who used a horse as a melee weapon on a couple of different occasions.
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Dec 3, 2012 07:26
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Everything Counts posted:In the fifteen years I've known him I think he's only played two males, both of which were made after constant teasing from the rest of us. He always affects a softer voice when playing a woman; they're always singers or dancers (or both), intelligent and beautiful, family-oriented and altruistic. If the system supports a healing class, then she will be a healer. 
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Dec 3, 2012 15:20
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His cliched feminine ideal.
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Dec 3, 2012 16:58
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AlphaDog posted:There was a story here a while back about a barbarian who used a horse as a melee weapon on a couple of different occasions. I can't dig it up right now, but I hope someone else can. That was a really amazing story.
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Dec 3, 2012 21:19
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Nanja Monja posted:Don't get me wrong, the guy sounds gross, but I'm not sure what's so wrong about this part Yeah, it's totally this vvv SagatPunisherFanFic posted:His cliched feminine ideal. It's very off-putting how extremely one-dimensional women are in his portrayal (I should add that, when he GMs, female NPCs are generally non-existent but when they do show up, they are from the same mold). Coupled with his OOC personality--a "Nice Guy" who is constantly confused by women and drunkenly complains that they are all just gold-diggers at heart--and his insistence on playing them is just... weird.
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Dec 3, 2012 21:26
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3.hybrid D&D game, I am DM. DM: Spot checks, please. Cleric: *rolls a 6* ElfIlluz: *rolls a 6* GnomeIlluz: *rolls a 6* All of us: ... DM: ... Barbarian, please roll something other than a 6. Cleric: Yeah, preferably something higher than a 6! Barbarian: *rolls a 7, has a -1 Spot, net result, 6*
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Dec 3, 2012 23:43
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My fellow goons, let me tell you the story of my best/worst roleplaying experience. And it is undeniably that, as it was also my first roleplaying experience. I still cringe when I recall what happened. Which isn't surprising as it happened yesterday. Some time ago, my friend Eddy, with whom I share multiple nerd hobbies, told me he was going to lead a multi-session game of Call of Cthulu in the Gaslight era setting. I had heard of the CoC game, as he had told me some stories about him playing it before. I showed some interest, and sure enough, he asked me if I would like to join the playgroup. Always ready for a new gaming experience, but a bit wary about the implications (like committing my sunday afternoons), I asked for some time to think. After mulling it over and looking up some things about the game, I agreed to joining their game. Yesterday afternoon was our first session. Eddy had informed me that the other players would be Gerald (the owner of our LGS and a very close friend of Eddy), Gerald's wife Lisa and their daughter Karen. All people that I've met numerous times. Another guy that I hadn't met before, but who frequents Gerald's LGS, would join as well. His name is Bobby. We're all just a bunch of nerds. Oh and by the way: we don't speak English as a native language. So yesterday afternoon I arrived at Eddy's house, a tad late perhaps, but carrying my nice set of dice as well as a big bottle of Coke. As all the other players had lots of experience with the BRP system and apparently were very eager to get going, they had rolled most their characters beforehand. Eddy had told me he'd help me with rolling my character: a young archaeologist, freshly back from an expedition to North Africa, now employed by a noble couple (played by Gerald and Lisa) to tutor their daughter (played by Karen). Bobby plays the family butler, a character named Bernard. While Eddy and I were preparing my character sheet, the other players fiddled with their character backgrounds and other things. As I finished up my sheet, Eddy says to us: "Ok, you are all at the mansion. theroachman is tutoring Karen. Gerald and Lisa are in the salon. Bobby is in the background" And with that, Eddy handed me a piece of paper. The edges were folded to the center, joining in a big clump of candle wax. A letter, addressed to Roderick Fine! I opened the seal and started reading intently. Big, swirly strokes: quote:My dear nephew, I put down the letter. Eddy hands me a map of London, pointing to a circle: "Your uncle's tailoring shop is...there".  (me) - "Ok, I guess I write him a letter back." (Eddy) *sigh* - "Do a language roll." *roll* - "Yep" - "From the wording 'at your earliest convenience', you infer that your uncle is subtly asking you to come visit him as soon as possible." - "I had to get that from that?" - "Yes, that's how they spoke back then." - "Ok, I guess I'll try to call a cab or something?" (Lisa) - "No, haha, you don't say 'guess I'll call a cab', you act it out! (my internal monologue) - "Wait...really?" - "Errmm..ok." - "Could someone call me a cab please?" (Gerald) *in English, with a ridiculously overacted British accent* *to Bobby* - "Bernard, my good man, fetch this man a hansom, would you?" [I just looked it up, it's a sort of horse carriage] (Bobby) *in English with a British accent* - "Certainly, M'Lord" - "Is this how this is supposed to work? Oh shi..." *in Dutch* - "Ok, so I end up at the shop, right?" *in Dutch, rolling his eyes* - "Yes, you do" - "Oh man...of course this is how it is supposed to work. I'm so dumb. gently caress!" *British accent, croaky voice* - "Aaaah! My young nephew! How good of you to come so soooon!" *Dutch* - "Hi uh...uncle...what's the unfortunate thing that came up?" *British accent, croaky voice* - "Aaah! So unfortunate, yes, quite, indeed! An old army buddy of mine...good man, he was... You see, a terrible mishap...such a shame!" *Dutch* - "So...what happened?" "I can't do this...I can't do this...I can't do this" *British accent, croaky voice* "Yes...quite unfortunate indeed. You see, young lad, he was apparently strangled, in his own garden shed...such a shame, good man, he was."I'll cut off the dialogue because I'm tired of it and I ran out of smilies, but for those who didn't catch it yet: I honestly always thought roleplaying was just a matter of describing your actions, paraphrasing the things you say, which skills you want to use, etc. I never actually realised I was expected to PLAY a ROLE, as in "act it out" vocally. The moment I realised what I was expected to do...what these people were expecting me to do...I just froze. I wasn't ready. I couldn't do it. I felt so incredibly self-conscious, and it got worse by the minute. Part of me was angry: Eddy shouldn't have hooked the story on me, he knew this was my first time! A bigger part of me was way angrier at myself: How could I have been so stupid? How could I not know what would be expected of me? I can't do what they're doing! Here I was, between 5 other people, who spent an entire afternoon speaking in hideous British accents, and one loving fRRRRRench accent to top it off, basically prodding me to play along every couple of minutes. All the while I was trying to become invisible, sitting there with my head basically in my character sheet. I didn't manage to go in character the entire afternoon. The more I refused, the more they prodded me. The more they prodded me, the more I smiled apologetically. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I nearly cried on the way home.
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Dec 4, 2012 00:30
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RPGs fall on a continuum between what you thought they were and what you experienced. While what you found may not have been to your liking, there are other groups that may be more to your taste. I personally find getting into character impossible in standard in-person games, but find it easy and even fun in text-based mediums.
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Dec 4, 2012 00:39
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theroachman posted:
MadScientistWorking fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Dec 4, 2012 |
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Dec 4, 2012 01:00
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Wow, talk about throwing someone in the deep end as their first swimming lesson. He definitely should have given you better prep than the nothing he gave you. Maybe had you sit in on a session beforehand. Kind of absurd to expect you to know and RP minutia like that, too.
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Dec 4, 2012 01:11
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Yeah, my group generally waffles between acting out our conversations and just describing them, based on our mood. It helps that all of us have a background in acting, though.
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Dec 4, 2012 01:12
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Der Metzgermeister posted:Yeah, my group generally waffles between acting out our conversations and just describing them, based on our mood. It helps that all of us have a background in acting, though.
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Dec 4, 2012 01:18
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We learned long ago that accents are a terrible, terrible thing. I'll still attempt one every now and then, but when I start to hear the subtle sounds of teeth grinding, I drop it and go "Ok, screw it, here's what he's saying:" You don't have to affect every mannerism of a person to get into the role, and some things are just more off-putting than others.
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Dec 4, 2012 01:32
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I've been playing quite a lot of Psi*Run lately, and it is consistently a best experience, whether I'm running it or playing in it. For those who haven't played it Psi*Run is an interesting indie game, designed for one shot play. At the start of the session all you know is that you've been in a crash, you have a special power, and someone is after you. That's all the GM knows too. Every player has a set of questions they choose during character creation, and as those get answered they define the world, slowly forming a plot. It has this wonderful thing, which has been consistent over every game I've seen: The first hour consists of running around, not knowing what you're doing or why, convinced that things are an incoherent mess. Then questions start getting answered, a story begins to form, and by the end you have a tale so perfect and tightl constructed that it seems like this is the only possible outcome, it must have been planned from the start, there's no way anything else could have happened. Except that's not true, it's all improv. The mechanics make railroading drat near impossible. In the most recent game I ran, literally every time someone answered one of their questions they'd fall to their knees and yell "Nooooo!" Everything they found out just made their situation worse. There were three different sets of horrible things hunting them through a ruined city, all of their own devising. And the finale involved a piece of player created theological genius that I have to include in the back story of a fantasy game some day (essentially: they had accidentally pulled the sun out of the sky. They got the sun back but couldn't return it to the heavens. So one character ended up trapped as the man whose job it was to carry the sun around the world, bringing its light to all people. His descendants formed a monastic order to continue this duty, eventually becoming corrupt and selling the light of life to the highest bidders). I just love starting a game where as a GM I'm not allowed to know anything more than the players, and 4 hours later having a really tightly knit story. I have full write ups of the last two sessions, written by one of the players, but they're pretty long.
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Dec 4, 2012 02:23
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Captain Bravo posted:We learned long ago that accents are a terrible, terrible thing. I'll still attempt one every now and then, but when I start to hear the subtle sounds of teeth grinding, I drop it and go "Ok, screw it, here's what he's saying:" You don't have to affect every mannerism of a person to get into the role, and some things are just more off-putting than others. If your tone is serious, badly faked accents are awful. They can, for example, destroy the vibe of an otherwise creepy Dread game. On the other hand, in our usual semiserious to pants-on-head-drinking D&D games, one guy with a bad accent can be completely hilarious. Especially an otherwise unremarkable recurring NPC.
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Dec 4, 2012 04:07
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Elves have a french accent, it's the law.
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Dec 4, 2012 04:11
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Psalmanazar posted:Elves have a french accent, it's the law. The last two elves in a game I played were no-poo poo called Jean-Paul Bieber (bard) and Gauche "La Crochet" DeForest, (fighter, hook instead of a left hand). They both had awful French accents. Gauche's player actually speaks a bit of french (and does crochet), which is where she got the idea (her character essentially being named "the left hook from the forest"), and the other guy rolled with it.
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Dec 4, 2012 04:33
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