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BrainGlitch
Jan 14, 2007

Good sir, you can't pay me enough to go to France while our countries are at war!

Golden Bee posted:

Apocolypse world. Easy peasy, you'll grok it quick.

Does it have published adventures and stuff for easy one-offs/a fantasy setting?

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Mimir
Nov 26, 2012

BrainGlitch posted:

Does it have published adventures and stuff for easy one-offs/a fantasy setting?

The Fantasy equivalent of Apocalypse World is Dungeon World, which is well-loved here.

The Fantasy equivalent of D20 Apocalypse is the far more popular 3.5 Edition of Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, which are roughly the same rule-set as D20 Modern, but with Fighters instead of Strong Heroes or whatever, and also Wizards.

There are about a billion modules for D&D, and only a few for Dungeon World but it's pretty simple to convert from D&D to Dungeon World - you just read the book and ignore the rules text. Like Golden Bee said, Dungeon/Apocalypse World are incredibly rules-light and easy to learn. They're also pretty easy to run - the character generation rules for both are explicitly designed to create an interesting setting to work with.

(Is there a set of Playbooks for Dark Sun Dungeon World? There must be.)

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
I recently ran a 4e fight where the players were unarmed (one of them had talked the others into letting themselves be arrested as part of a heist scheme and then betrayed them to their captors) and it was a whole lot of not fun. A lot of the PCs couldn't do their schtick and the ones who could were not very good at it. Instead of disarming them I would pump up the fight to 11. Have concealed swinging blades and traps in the arena and make them fight huge, bizarre monsters for the entertainment of a cheering crowd.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Guesticles posted:

Maybe the arena itself is trapped - there are wards high on the walls that try to zap anyone who uses magic inside of it. So your wizard/warlock are given implements so that the crowd can laugh as they have to make REF saves vs. being zapped whenever they cast spells. Now, instead of just dealing with the pit fighters, the party needs to disable the runes so the Wizard and Warlock can cast spells. This could also open the a way for the party to escape, as the runes could also run a forcefield that prevents climbing out.

That is actually a pretty good idea. Something like a +5 vs Ref 1D6+2 damage blast so they can cast whatever they want, but at a price. Nothing big enough to really hurt, but just a zap that might motivate them to at least try and take down some enemies by hand or go for those traps first instead of taking damage just to get a minion. Maybe even base the damage on spells, so single-target at Wills get a weaker attack than large Blast Encounter powers.

They can't climb out because of collars preventing them to leave or hurt anyone outside the Arena. However, someone on the inside will help them escape their chains during the night in between fights so they can travel deeper into the dungeons and destroy the apparatus controlling these collars. The idea is that after the last battle they have some pretty decent gear and can attack the unsuspecting Sultan sitting in the pulvinus after numerous hints that something isn't right with him. This will give them a surprise attack round the shapeshifter that is impersonating the Sultan, but the Vizier and guards don't know that they have been misled so will fight to protect him.

God Of Paradise
Jan 23, 2012
You know, I'd be less worried about my 16 year old daughter dating a successful 40 year old cartoonist than dating a 16 year old loser.

I mean, Jesus, kid, at least date a motherfucker with abortion money and house to have sex at where your mother and I don't have to hear it. Also, if he treats her poorly, boom, that asshole's gonna catch a statch charge.

Please, John K. Date my daughter... Save her from dating smelly dropouts who wanna-be Soundcloud rappers.

SlayVus posted:

So I'm DMing a Fallout d20 game and I really suck at role playing at story poo poo. I need some thoughts for a protagonist to give my players an actual goal.

In the group we have a robot, escaped slave, gangster, prostitute, and merchant/scammer. They all different personal goals and they don't keep the party together.

Run off of the lore.

Have the protagonist who they are working for be a rival candidate to John Henry Eden, or Dick Richardson.

Heh... Dick Richardson. Heh... Dick Dick Son.

Or have them work for a candidate that communicates to them only through a happy robot Yes-Man that sounds like Dave Foley.

God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Apr 14, 2013

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

SlayVus posted:

So I'm DMing a Fallout d20 game and I really suck at role playing at story poo poo. I need some thoughts for a protagonist to give my players an actual goal.

In the group we have a robot, escaped slave, gangster, prostitute, and merchant/scammer. They all different personal goals and they don't keep the party together.

Ideally, the best advice is "don't let this happen." That is to say, try to ensure that your party will be built with an eye towards acting like a party, not a group of strangers who hate one another.

Since that's out the window, go with force majeure. The PCs are abducted and their PiP-Boys are rigged to explode if they are more than 250 yards apart for more than 24 hours (or whatever), because the abductor wants them working together while they complete a quest for him because reasons. Maybe he's an Enclave scientist that needs them to retrieve data from a fallen Enclave base, and he figures their skill sets will be complementary enough to get them through whatever obstacles they might find. Then you design an adventure that gives every character a moment in the sun, so to speak - thus A) proving him right, and B) showing the PCs that they can get more poo poo done by working together. Then, hopefully, when the quest ends, the PCs will have taken a hint and started to form some group cohesion (through shared experience if nothing else).

Afterwards you can remove the explosives and, hopefully, they'll start identifying as a team and start working as one. It's tempting to keep the leash on, so to speak, but that is a dick move so don't do it.

Liesmith
Jan 29, 2006

by Y Kant Ozma Post

BioTech posted:

For sure the rusty swords and other crappy weapons in the first wave will have a dagger in there as well. But he will have to take it. Seeing how they are minions I doubt it'll be more than one or two rounds before the Rogue punches one to the ground or dashes over to one the Fighter downed and picks it up. I am mostly going for that first round of "this isn't good...", as explained below.

This isn't the beginning of the campaign, sorry if that wasn't clear. They are currently level 4 and this will happen somewhere before hitting 5, after a dozen encounters with normal gear in this campaign so far.

If I were you, I would give the rogue a chance to smuggle in a knife or something when they get captured. because that's what rogues do. Meanwhile as soon as the fight starts, describe a pile of broken bones that count as a spear or something but do 1d8-1 damage. Give your players penalties but don't send them out naked. You can do the atmosphere and the crushing item poverty or w/e, but you must, must, MUST divorce mechanics from fluff to at least some degree. The fact is that without a weapon, D&D isn't just hard for a fighter, it's unfun. not having a weapon is lovely fluffwise but is beyond lovely mechanically, your ranger/rogue/fighter/other weapon guy may as well not have shown up this session.

If you seed the first fight with improvised weapons that they must reach in the first round or so and that have significant drawbacks, but that they don't have to fight other people for because NO ONE ELSE SEES THEM AS WEAPONS, then that is both badass for your players and gives the right feel for your story. These guys are heroes. Think Luke Skywalker with the Rancor: no one else thought to kill it with a bone. Heroes think of that poo poo right away. where everyone else sees a rock or fragment of bone, your ranger, used to making his own stuff, sees an improvised dart that he can use his amazing ranged weapon skills with.your fighter finds a broken spear head and wraps his shirt around it, wielding it as a really lovely shortsword. If you do this right, then ten sessions on someone will say "hey, remember when Ragnar killed that ogre with a dinosaur bone?" and people will laugh, pleased with their gaming memories.

the way you describe it, someone will say "hey, remember when we didn't have any weapons?" and either other people will say "no, i dont. did that happen?" because it won't be memorable, or you will say "look man I said I was sorry stop bringing it up every time we run into some dark elves" because you will be ashamed.

Liesmith
Jan 29, 2006

by Y Kant Ozma Post
I know you might not see the difference between what I described and just taking a weapon off a minion but I just don't think people will have as much fun engaging a fully kitted out monster armed with nothing but their drive to finish this arena fight. It could go really bad for you.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Everything you write about heroes doing their thing makes a lot of sense. Turning the tables, finding a solution, etc., but that is exactly what I am trying to do. Isn't being naked and punching down a AC13 minion to take his rusty blade and wreak havoc when the whole crowd expected you to get cut to ribbons exactly that kind of thing? I mean, the audience doesn't know their stats or what a minion is. To them it is just another unfair fight, especially since they start unarmed, outnumbered and it looks more like an execution than something else. Sultan talks about how they are foreigners that came here to destroy their way of life, etc. Party gets boo'd, people throw things, they are not even mentioned by name. However, over the course of the next few fights they win the crowd by delivering amazing fights. They show wonderful moves, refuse to give up and claw their way to the Champion. People start to learn who they are, doubt the Sultan's words about how their intent, etc. That is a memory I am trying to make. Going from nobody to heroes in the eyes of thousands of people.

A Sultan gloating about how his lions will dine well this day getting frustrated by a player taking a rusty sword and bringing the beast down. Heroes doing the unexpected and taking charge is exactly what I would expect them to do in such a situation. Instead of running or preparing to die like "normal" people would they rise to the occasion. Just like you described, I guess?

You are right about how I don't see the difference.

I mean, nothing but their drive against a fully kitted out monster seems like a bad idea indeed, but that isn't what I am doing. One good blow and taking that weapon is basically turning the tables like heroes and also symbolizes this story arc as a whole, going from zero to hero.

BioTech fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Apr 14, 2013

Liesmith
Jan 29, 2006

by Y Kant Ozma Post

BioTech posted:

Everything you write about heroes doing their thing makes a lot of sense. Turning the tables, finding a solution, etc., but that is exactly what I am trying to do. Isn't being naked and punching down a AC13 minion to take his rusty blade and wreak havoc when the whole crowd expected you to get cut to ribbons exactly that kind of thing?

I think the difference is, with just punching out a minion and stealing his rusty cleaver, that's the only way to do it. But if you put them in a room with a pile of bones and a smuggled knife and some environmental stuff they can use, you can say "OK, improvise" and your players will feel like THEY did it, it was their clever idea that got them that bone spear or whatever. Even if their idea is to punch out a minion, they still have ownership of it. it just feels better. Plus it lets them use their encounter and daily powers with their improvised weapons. And without encounters and dailies, the game just isn't any fun.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Liesmith posted:

I think the difference is, with just punching out a minion and stealing his rusty cleaver, that's the only way to do it. But if you put them in a room with a pile of bones and a smuggled knife and some environmental stuff they can use, you can say "OK, improvise" and your players will feel like THEY did it, it was their clever idea that got them that bone spear or whatever. Even if their idea is to punch out a minion, they still have ownership of it. it just feels better. Plus it lets them use their encounter and daily powers with their improvised weapons. And without encounters and dailies, the game just isn't any fun.

I see what you mean now. Bone shivs, the idea earlier of taking a flagpole and breaking it, stuff like that works better than me saying "you have to take it" Thanks. It also helps that we play with Lego, I can just set up some flags, bits of rock, etc. without pointing it out and when they ask it is their quick wit that saved the day.

Just a quick question, what did you mean by no Encounter and Dailies? Rulebook says "Many martial powers, as well as several divine powers, can be used only if you’re wielding a weapon. (You can use an unarmed attack as your weapon.)" and I looked up what was said before and the same thing goes for Implements, you can cast without. Why wouldn't they have powers?

Guesticles
Dec 21, 2009

I AM CURRENTLY JACKING OFF TO PICTURES OF MUTILATED FEMALE CORPSES, IT'S ALL VERY DEEP AND SOPHISTICATED BUT IT'S JUST TOO FUCKING HIGHBROW FOR YOU NON-MISOGYNISTS TO UNDERSTAND

:siren:P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT:siren:

BioTech posted:

Just a quick question, what did you mean by no Encounter and Dailies? Rulebook says "Many martial powers, as well as several divine powers, can be used only if you’re wielding a weapon. (You can use an unarmed attack as your weapon.)" and I looked up what was said before and the same thing goes for Implements, you can cast without. Why wouldn't they have powers?

I think its the same thing as "unarmed is your weapon" - no implement is your implement. But you can't, for example, cast thunderwave while chained the back of a prison cart just like the fighter can't do cleave with his fist. And certain powers require certain implements/weapons. The Fighter can't do a ranged attack with only fists, the wizard can't do staff of defense without a staff.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Guesticles posted:

I think its the same thing as "unarmed is your weapon" - no implement is your implement. But you can't, for example, cast thunderwave while chained the back of a prison cart just like the fighter can't do cleave with his fist. And certain powers require certain implements/weapons. The Fighter can't do a ranged attack with only fists, the wizard can't do staff of defense without a staff.

The ranged thing and needing certain weapons for specific moves is fine, but I see no problem with the Warlord using Lead the Attack or something like that. I just picture a devastating gut-punch that leaves someone gasping for air, etc. Then again, I doubt they will use such powers as their first attack and after that they get some bonus through proficiency with the swords so all should be well.

Gorefluff
Aug 19, 2004
cuddly minotaur
Is there a good resource for pre-made cities? Maps would be nice, but I'm more interested in something that would save me time coming up with dozens of tavern names and shopkeeper inventory and other mundane stuff that's helpful as flavour and depth when players explore cities and villages.

BrainGlitch
Jan 14, 2007

Good sir, you can't pay me enough to go to France while our countries are at war!

Gorefluff posted:

Is there a good resource for pre-made cities? Maps would be nice, but I'm more interested in something that would save me time coming up with dozens of tavern names and shopkeeper inventory and other mundane stuff that's helpful as flavour and depth when players explore cities and villages.

http://www.wizardawn.com/rpg/tool_ftown.php

Roctavian
Feb 23, 2011

I realize we're more than a few days past the Tomb of Horrors talk, but I don't have an internet connection at home so it took me a while to post this. I think it really deserves a bit more love than it's had, because it can be a load of loving fun if you set it up right.
Originally my players weren't too interested in box adventures, but one of them saw a picture of the inverted ziggurat from White Plume Mountain and thought it was funny. I dug up a PDF and ran that adventure – the barbarian drowned in the ziggurat, the rogue got chopped in half twice (horizontally by the siege crab, vertically by the ogre mage, raised both times by the cleric, has really weird scars). My players thought it was a blast and a great break from our usual campaign, and thus a year later or so we did Tomb.
The key is definitely understanding that Tomb has nothing in common with your typical character-focused D&D and the guy who said it's more like fantasy Paranoia hit it on the nose. I ran it like a high-fatality boardgame that took a weekend to get through: that meant a lot more prepwork for it than I'd have for actual D&D and is maybe not what most DMs would be interested in.

I think one of the most important things to avoid is system mastery checks. Most player characters aren't designed to run Tomb of Horrors, not in the sense of “they'll get slaughtered immediately” but more along the lines of “they have nothing to do except get slaughtered immediately.” So, the last time I ran Tomb for some players, I built the characters myself – about ten or eleven, I think. I used 3.5/Pathfinder rules, and I didn't bother working out all the details appropriate for level 10 PCs, and instead made sure they all had the basic numbers (six attributes, HP, AC, saves, speed, initiative) and five or six relevant skills (search, acrobatics, disable device, knoweldge, whatever), with a good distribution of strengths and weaknesses across each character. Since most things in the module don't have proper DCs, I just made them up and based them on the range of what the players could roll. I made sure that every challenge could be overcome by most player characters, but of course it's Tomb so things should be more than a little fatal.

After that, I made spell lists for the casters. Loads of D&D spells have no relevance to Tomb and I made sure they were loaded with the good ones: dispel magic, find traps, see invisible and so on. The key thing was to give the players more casts and fewer spells, because it's easier to just pick up a character sheet when it's simple. So I made sure that each caster PC was focused on something thematically clear like divination, abjuration, or what have you. I had a couple of combat-focused characters as well, because my players love combat. To account for this, I added encounter rooms at a few key bottlenecks, and had ambushes in store if they decided to take any naps while indoors.

Finally, I gave each character a single special trait or magic item – again, something relevant to the module, but something fun. Like one character got a “Book of Prophecy,” which meant that when the party had a TPK the game rewound five minutes and all the awful poo poo that went down was just something they read in the book. The conjuror got a staff that allowed him to cast his spells through any creature he's summoned. Another character got two immovable rods.

Each player got a budget of 10,000 GP. Hiring a new PC cost 2,500 GP; raising a dead one cost 5,000; true resurrection cost 7,500. Only four PCs were allowed into the dungeon at a time, because magic. The goblin rogue got the trait “worthless soul” which meant it only ever cost 1,500 to raise him. I threw more treasure into the module in different places to add even more incentive to poke around, and made up little index cards for magic artifacts they could pick up and use, sort of more like achievements than anything else.

The end result was just tons of fun. I got really nostalgic writing this up, because I've moved internationally and don't really have anyone to game with, and I've been reading all this Dungeon World stuff and it's basically what I was trying to turn 3.5 rules into on my own. Anyways. Certainly Tomb of Horrors isn't for unique snowflake PCs or normal campaigns or anything, but it's got potential to be great.

Guesticles
Dec 21, 2009

I AM CURRENTLY JACKING OFF TO PICTURES OF MUTILATED FEMALE CORPSES, IT'S ALL VERY DEEP AND SOPHISTICATED BUT IT'S JUST TOO FUCKING HIGHBROW FOR YOU NON-MISOGYNISTS TO UNDERSTAND

:siren:P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT:siren:

Roctavian posted:

Each player got a budget of 10,000 GP. Hiring a new PC cost 2,500 GP; raising a dead one cost 5,000; true resurrection cost 7,500. Only four PCs were allowed into the dungeon at a time, because magic. [...] I threw more treasure into the module in different places

That is a really good idea for ToH, actually. Lower start lives, but the chance to buy more as they progress.

homullus
Mar 27, 2009

A lot of bad adventures are more fun if you houserule them and jury-rig them and make your own game around them while waiting for the planets to align perfectly for them. Or you could just, like, play or make ones that are better to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I see the appeal, the module is "famous", and then your players can experience it first-hand (through the careful fun-scaffolding around it). I just don't think it's even a good example of a good "old school" D&D module.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


On the maps topic, how do other people handle them? They're easily my least favorite part of DMing, because I play at someone else's house and we use a dry-erase mat, so I can't set up beforehand and the players get impatient if I take too long to draw. The end results are typically uninteresting or flawed maps. Is there a good way around this that I'm missing, or is it just "yeah, it sucks, but that's how it works?"

homullus
Mar 27, 2009

tzirean posted:

On the maps topic, how do other people handle them? They're easily my least favorite part of DMing, because I play at someone else's house and we use a dry-erase mat, so I can't set up beforehand and the players get impatient if I take too long to draw. The end results are typically uninteresting or flawed maps. Is there a good way around this that I'm missing, or is it just "yeah, it sucks, but that's how it works?"

Sometimes people pre-draw a map on dry-erase mats. Some people buy a few multi-use gaming mats (a village scene, forest clearing, et cetera) for variety, and draw in the unusual terrain. You can also use dungeon tiles in conjunction with either, placing the tiled on top of the map.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


homullus posted:

Sometimes people pre-draw a map on dry-erase mats. Some people buy a few multi-use gaming mats (a village scene, forest clearing, et cetera) for variety, and draw in the unusual terrain. You can also use dungeon tiles in conjunction with either, placing the tiled on top of the map.

I can't pre-draw the maps because I don't have the mat, I have to wait until the session. Dungeon tiles were a terrible failure when we tried them. I may look for smaller mats I can pre-draw on, though.

homullus
Mar 27, 2009

tzirean posted:

I can't pre-draw the maps because I don't have the mat, I have to wait until the session. Dungeon tiles were a terrible failure when we tried them. I may look for smaller mats I can pre-draw on, though.

I suppose you could find or make some 1" graph paper and pin it to corkboard or cardboard, too.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


homullus posted:

I suppose you could find or make some 1" graph paper and pin it to corkboard or cardboard, too.

I'm considering trying to make an 18" ­× 24" grid in Photoshop, maybe with a background, and then attempting to find a print shop that'll print two double-sided copies and laminate them. If anyone's done this before, does it work and is it worthwhile?

DarkHorse
Dec 13, 2006

Nap Ghost
Good laminate works well enough with dry erase, but it handles rolling poorly and folding terribly. 18" x 24" is small enough it probably won't be a problem, but it's something to consider. I think there's places you can get 1" graph paper already, so it may be easier to just get that laminated. I'm not sure how expensive it is to do that, though, because I always had my mom laminate things when I was a kid.

As an alternative, make up some generic "battle grounds" with a grid overlaid on them and use the print shop to print and laminate those. Forest clearings, graveyards, dungeon rooms, etc. come up often enough you can probably reuse them enough to make the cost worth it, while still keeping your generic white grid. If you're really ambitious, you can just use a transparency sheet instead of laminating it and have printed features that go over the terrain but under the transparency, giving you even more flexibility.

Ultra-cheap option: get a roll of butcher paper and draw everything on that; keep detailed maps or ones you plan to reuse, junk the ones you don't care about. Maybe have a big sheet of gridded transparency so you don't have to do that every time.

My personal favorite is the projector/tv and MapTool combo, but that has obvious limitations due to cost and access to power or technology.

Liesmith
Jan 29, 2006

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Guesticles posted:

I think its the same thing as "unarmed is your weapon" - no implement is your implement. But you can't, for example, cast thunderwave while chained the back of a prison cart just like the fighter can't do cleave with his fist. And certain powers require certain implements/weapons. The Fighter can't do a ranged attack with only fists, the wizard can't do staff of defense without a staff.

yeah. if your party ranger has a daily where he shoots an arrow at every guy in the room, then he can't really do that with his fists. He can do it with sharp shards of stone that he made from a handy flint rock, the use of which he recognized immediately because he's a Master of Outdoor Survival.

Piell
Sep 3, 2006

Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer


Young Orc

tzirean posted:

On the maps topic, how do other people handle them? They're easily my least favorite part of DMing, because I play at someone else's house and we use a dry-erase mat, so I can't set up beforehand and the players get impatient if I take too long to draw. The end results are typically uninteresting or flawed maps. Is there a good way around this that I'm missing, or is it just "yeah, it sucks, but that's how it works?"

Do they have a good-sized TV? Do you (or someone) have a laptop? Connect the laptop to the TV and open Maptools or the mapping application of your choice!

Rocket Ace
Aug 11, 2006

R.I.P. Dave Stevens
Does anyone have any tips on group character creation?

I'd like for my players to all build their PCs at the same time, and I want to streamline the process and make it easy for everyone to do as much as possible together.

I understand that at a certain point, they'll have to each consult the books on their own, though...

We're using Pathfinder, if that helps...

Guesticles
Dec 21, 2009

I AM CURRENTLY JACKING OFF TO PICTURES OF MUTILATED FEMALE CORPSES, IT'S ALL VERY DEEP AND SOPHISTICATED BUT IT'S JUST TOO FUCKING HIGHBROW FOR YOU NON-MISOGYNISTS TO UNDERSTAND

:siren:P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT:siren:

Rocket Ace posted:

Does anyone have any tips on group character creation?

I'd like for my players to all build their PCs at the same time, and I want to streamline the process and make it easy for everyone to do as much as possible together.

I understand that at a certain point, they'll have to each consult the books on their own, though...

We're using Pathfinder, if that helps...

How much experience does your party have, which is to say, would they know how to build a balanced party? When you say build, do you mean Crunch, Fluff, or Both?

If they're new, I might have a one-off session with pre-builts and give a quick "Here's how I built these pregens" tutorial, then let them play and see how these things play in combat and non-combat situations. Then do the generation for the real campaign next session.

Something Else
Dec 27, 2004

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022

Rocket Ace posted:

We're using Pathfinder, if that helps...

At least with Pathfinder they can all go check out the d20pfsrd.com site, so you don't have to have them all sitting around waiting to get a book passed to them.

BioTech
Feb 5, 2007
...drinking myself to sleep again...


Guesticles posted:

How much experience does your party have, which is to say, would they know how to build a balanced party?

This is important. Five barbarians can be a lot of fun if they are familiar with the game, but if they are new it will limit them not to have a balanced party. There are many things possible in these games and while you can't show all of them more classes will give them more option and a better understanding of the game as a whole.

When I start with players new to the game I gave a list of classes and different ways to play them. Cleric could be a kind man, doing his all to heal others or a gritty warrior priest, smashing skulls for his God. The Rogue could be a coldhearted assassin or a charming scoundrel looking to liberate gold from those that can spare it. Usually if you show them multiple sides of the same class it is easier for everyone to pick something they like. If there are doubles you can take the aspect they like and search for similar things in other classes.

If a player really likes the idea of an aggressive Cleric, you can talk about a Fighter with a huge hammer for example. If you have someone wants damage and only damage most classes can be specced for that. Someone wanting to play the tank can be a Dwarf in full plate, but light armor and a high Dex score will get you a similar AC.

Rocket Ace
Aug 11, 2006

R.I.P. Dave Stevens
It's a mixed group of various levels of proficiency with RPGs in general. But not with this system (one guy was an avid 2nd edition D&D player, though).

I'm approaching it in terms of concepts first, then choosing classes and races.

I'm definitely emphasizing party balance and how everyone could compliment each other.

Ideally, everyone would be ready with their concepts, then we go through, step by step, together, in building our characters.

For example, since we're using point-buy for attributes, my thought is that we can quickly see if the PCs overlap too much.

Next, we'd move onto race, then class, everyone noting down things at the same time.

In a way, this would be like creating the PARTY, rather than a bunch of individuals.

Not sure if this is a good idea or not...

Guesticles
Dec 21, 2009

I AM CURRENTLY JACKING OFF TO PICTURES OF MUTILATED FEMALE CORPSES, IT'S ALL VERY DEEP AND SOPHISTICATED BUT IT'S JUST TOO FUCKING HIGHBROW FOR YOU NON-MISOGYNISTS TO UNDERSTAND

:siren:P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT:siren:

Rocket Ace posted:

It's a mixed group of various levels of proficiency with RPGs in general. But not with this system (one guy was an avid 2nd edition D&D player, though).

I'm approaching it in terms of concepts first, then choosing classes and races.

I'm definitely emphasizing party balance and how everyone could compliment each other.

Ideally, everyone would be ready with their concepts, then we go through, step by step, together, in building our characters.

For example, since we're using point-buy for attributes, my thought is that we can quickly see if the PCs overlap too much.

Next, we'd move onto race, then class, everyone noting down things at the same time.

In a way, this would be like creating the PARTY, rather than a bunch of individuals.

Not sure if this is a good idea or not...

Here is what I'd do since you have newer people, and no one is familiar with the system.
I would build out a party for the number of players you have, and base it not off classes but roles - Tank, Healer, Support, Damage, Magic Nuke, Trap Detection, Negotiator, etc. If you have N party members, have N or maybe N+1 roles to pick from.

And then I'd break down each role into classes that will fill that role, and then races that work well for those classes. Flavor it up a bit - tell your players why playing $RACE or $CLASS would be awesome.

The players then choose a role (and let the players choose who gets what, if possible) and then they select Race/Class based off of that - this way you're less likely to have a completely broken party, or someone realizing they've screwed themselves over with a Gnome Paladin 12 levels in. If you're doing point buys, you might even have suggested Stats listed for roles/classes. Don't have your Roles, Classes that fit Roles, or Class/Race combos set in stone - be willing to flex.

The main thing this does is limits the choices people have to make without just handing them a pregen sheet. Since this seems to also be a learning excercise (IE: you will know now how to build characters) you can step them through the character building process and explain why You want These Stats for This Class that will be doing This Role, and they might want to select These Feats.

Guesticles fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Apr 16, 2013

Pinball
Sep 15, 2006




I'm looking to run a Space Horror-type game on Roll20 for some friends of mine. The system I like best for horror games is Dread, but obviously Jenga doesn't work when we're not meeting in person. Are there any free, very rules-light systems you guys like?

P.d0t
Dec 27, 2007
I released my finger from the trigger, and then it was over...

Gorefluff posted:

Is there a good resource for pre-made cities? Maps would be nice, but I'm more interested in something that would save me time coming up with dozens of tavern names and shopkeeper inventory and other mundane stuff that's helpful as flavour and depth when players explore cities and villages.

a) Don't come up with that bullshit unless absolutely necessary
and
2. Make the players do it. Players love naming NPCs/Taverns/Cities/Punk-Metal Bands, etc.

Liesmith
Jan 29, 2006

by Y Kant Ozma Post

P.d0t posted:

a) Don't come up with that bullshit unless absolutely necessary
and
2. Make the players do it. Players love naming NPCs/Taverns/Cities/Punk-Metal Bands, etc.

lots of people love 'coming up with that bullshit' so if you're one of those guys by all means get as granular as you feel. One of my only real beefs with the SA tradgames crew is the hate for the background prep. You can go full on gygaxian naturalist with fully realized cities and dungeon ecosystems and 10,000 years of elf history if you like. Lots of great stuff comes out when you do that.

Benagain
Oct 10, 2007

Can you see that I am serious?
Fun Shoe
The other option is to play a game of Microscope as a prelude to your actual game. All the fun of 10,000 years of history with the added bonus of your players already knowing it before you sit down to play.

Babylon Astronaut
Apr 19, 2012
Quick D&D 3.5 question: what is the correct damage for a colossal mercurial great-sword?

Thanks! I was rolling 4d10 because I have the 3rd ed books and RAW could be interpreted that way. 40d6 criticals here I come!
V

Babylon Astronaut fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Apr 17, 2013

Guesticles
Dec 21, 2009

I AM CURRENTLY JACKING OFF TO PICTURES OF MUTILATED FEMALE CORPSES, IT'S ALL VERY DEEP AND SOPHISTICATED BUT IT'S JUST TOO FUCKING HIGHBROW FOR YOU NON-MISOGYNISTS TO UNDERSTAND

:siren:P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT:siren:
8d6 that does 4x crit damage. edit: and crits on 19 or 20.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









homullus posted:

A lot of bad adventures are more fun if you houserule them and jury-rig them and make your own game around them while waiting for the planets to align perfectly for them. Or you could just, like, play or make ones that are better to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I see the appeal, the module is "famous", and then your players can experience it first-hand (through the careful fun-scaffolding around it). I just don't think it's even a good example of a good "old school" D&D module.

I played it pretty straight, just gave each player two characters and went for it. Was a blast. With the single precondition that everyone understands dying is part of the fun, it is a Good Module. :colbert:

E: though i wouldn't have said that before I ran it. There's a lot of wiley smarts baked into it that are not apparent on a quick read

sebmojo fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Apr 17, 2013

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Rocket Ace
Aug 11, 2006

R.I.P. Dave Stevens

Guesticles posted:

Great advice.

Thank you! I appreciate the advice.

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