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tzirean posted:How do I spice up my marker-and-playmat battle maps? I can't think of ways that don't involve either drawing for 15 minutes between encounters while the group gets more and more bored, or having to remember which scribbled-on tile is difficult terrain, which one is impassable and which one is something else in the environment. A solution I found that worked well for me was to grab a bunch of random rocks from outside, and then make some mini-trees out of those fake christmas tree branches made out of wire and plastic "needles"-- a player donated a bunch of those, I cut them up, stuck the ends in sliced winebottle corks, and I had an impromptu forest. I found that scattering rocks and trees on the map is much faster than using the wet-erase markers, and looks nicer too. For indoor encounters, we've been improvising with pens/rulers/books for walls, with just a bit of scribbling for anything important.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:15
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tzirean posted:How do I spice up my marker-and-playmat battle maps? I can't think of ways that don't involve either drawing for 15 minutes between encounters while the group gets more and more bored, or having to remember which scribbled-on tile is difficult terrain, which one is impassable and which one is something else in the environment. http://newobmij.tumblr.com/post/24176813787/who-wants-to-play-some-mda Download the PDF at the bottom of the page there, at the bottom of the PDF they have a bunch of papercraft dungeon items, little things like tables/walls/treasure chests that you print out/glue together to make tiny 3d props to set on the playmat, it really goes a long way to helping everyone visualize diving behind the table when you have a little one laying there you can tip over.
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Jan 23, 2014 01:48
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This is a question possibly more specific to D&D4e, but I think it applies to most role-playing games with skills: How do I handle social skills when a player uses it against other PCs? Here's my situation as a new GM in D&D4e: One of the players is a changeling Sorcerer that has a ton of Charisma. He has a high value in his Bluff skill (15) while the other PCs (two fighters) have very low scores in the Insight skill (1). Looking at the mechanics versus NPCs in D&D4e, he rolls his Bluff (D20+15) versus the target passive Insight (10+Insight skill) or a counter Insight check (D20+Insight skill) if the target attempts to sense his motivations. The Sorcerer is going to roll a minimum 16 on a Bluff. That means the passive insight from both other players (11) is guaranteed to fail. If they try to sense his true intentions, they'll only succeed if they roll D20 15-20. On the sorcerers worst possible roll. I've found a list of modifiers on Bluff depending on the circumstances, but it still looks rather bad for the poor Fighters. So, how do I handle social skills versus other players in a manner that still somehow lets players use them as a fun roleplaying tool, but at the same time not frustrating the other players? In this case, even if their characters don't know they're being lied to, the players know. I don't even want to imagine the mess if he opens a chest and rolls a bluff to lie about the contents in it.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:51
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You don't let people skill roll on players. It's never, EVER fun.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:55
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As Party Members, all Party Members have developed a bond by working together through large amounts of time. Speech-related skill checks are decided by how well they can bullshit one another in real life, as mere dice cannot represent the complex conversations that occur while constructing such clever deceptions. Basically, play skill checks like drunk scrabble. If your reason is great enough, objectively, then it flies.
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Jan 24, 2014 04:13
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Thanks for the help, everyone. Guess I'm trying my hand at papercrafting!Lamquin posted:How do I handle social skills when a player uses it against other PCs? I just want to reinforce what's already been said: don't allow a player to use social skills against another player. That poo poo ruins games, as you seem to already realize.
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Jan 24, 2014 04:16
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Turtlicious posted:You don't let people skill roll on players. It's never, EVER fun. death .cab for qt posted:Basically, play skill checks like drunk scrabble. If your reason is great enough, objectively, then it flies. tzirean posted:don't allow a player to use social skills against another player. Well I guess that about settles it then! Thanks for the quick responses 
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Jan 24, 2014 04:31
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So, I've volunteered to run a game at Reapercon this year. System will be Savage Worlds. Theme of the con is western, so I've got a couple of options. One is to run a quick Deadlands one-shot. This is easiest as there are already Deadlands one-shots available. Also minis, many of which I already have, which would be appropriate. On the other hand, I've been itching to run something in my Unwaking setting (think Fantasy western). Downside is I probably won't be able to use minis without a lot of proxying, and I'll need to condense the setting down to a couple of paragraphs so that I'm not boring them with worldcruft. But I've already got some ideas involving rustling, changebeasts, and dream trains.
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Jan 24, 2014 06:09
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Lamquin posted:How do I handle social skills when a player uses it against other PCs? Bluffing is a fine enough roleplaying tool when you get to use it against every NPC ou come across but you have an entire person to control and putting a lot of points in Bluff gets you enough advantages to not have to dictate what other players must do, too. (It can work out, by the way - I had a good session once come out of the fact that one character pocketed a valuable magic item and told the party she'd only found a less valuable one. Trouble is they were supposed to get the valuable one for a local underworld boss - "you'll know it when you see it" - and when they brought the wrong one, poo poo went down.)
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Jan 24, 2014 08:48
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Turtlicious posted:You don't let people skill roll on players. It's never, EVER fun. It is in Dogs in the Vineyard, Monsterhearts, and Smallville  But those are special cases. In Dogs and Smallville PC vs PC social skill rolls are basically a game of chicken and the winner is normally the person that wants the outcome more - and all rolls are opposed. In Monsterhearts only two of the social skills out of three work on PCs - Shut Someone Down (bully them to make them either look or feel bad or otherwise deny them) and Turn Someone On (which does what it says on the tin). The third social skill is "Manipulate an NPC" which does what it says on the tin (including only working on NPCs). And two things all three of these games have in common is that they were designed for at least semi-social semi-PVP, and that there is no direct bluff or diplomacy skill to use. If you aren't playing a game designed for semi-PVP don't let people skill roll on PCs because that will wreck games - but there are games that are designed to make PC vs PC social opposition fun.
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Jan 24, 2014 13:54
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neonchameleon posted:It is in Dogs in the Vineyard, Monsterhearts, and Smallville It's also practically NECESSARY in Apocalypse World. But basically, games/systems fall into two categories: Those that rely on inter-party checks, and those that fall apart when you have inter-party conflict. Decide which one you are, and proceed accordingly.
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Jan 24, 2014 17:03
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Turtlicious posted:You don't let people skill roll on players. It's never, EVER fun. I'm going to be contrarian here - it is occasionally fun. That is to say, it can be fun if and only if your players (not your PCs, your players) are willing to run with it. If they've been gaming together for a good long while and are willing to accept the rolls and are willing to give up that degree of control over their characters and they trust one another to not screw each other over... then it can be kind of fun, really. It presents an interesting roleplaying experience, giving up that degree of control and trying to make it all click. But you've got to be in a long-running group with a demonstrated history of trust and acceptance, and honestly if you're in that kind of group you're probably in sync with one another enough that you shouldn't have to roll social skills on one another, so the point becomes moot. In general, if your group is well-established enough to get away with that kind of thing, you'll know it, and the question won't come up.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:08
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In general, ANYTHING decided between PCs, should be decided between the players. If what the players decide is to let the dice decide, fine, but they don't do that unless all concerned agree. You can;t talk my dude into doing something he wouldn't do with Diplomacy, but you might be able to talk me around or help me find a way that what I initially thought he wouldn't do, he actually would.
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Jan 24, 2014 19:33
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thespaceinvader posted:In general, ANYTHING decided between PCs, should be decided between the players. If what the players decide is to let the dice decide, fine, but they don't do that unless all concerned agree. You can;t talk my dude into doing something he wouldn't do with Diplomacy, but you might be able to talk me around or help me find a way that what I initially thought he wouldn't do, he actually would. You roll skill between players because everyone agrees that, while you could discuss it and decide at a meta-game level, it'd be a lot more fun to let the "characters" decide and roll with whatever results. If you have two players with antagonistic characters and they're having fun with the antagonism then this is a great way to play this out. The key is to not punish the players for having fun in a way that's by definition not optimal or gamey -- don't give the paladin any kind of alignment-based penalty for being overruled by the party when the thief convinces everyone to rob the Tomb of the Sun King, and in fact maybe give him some kind of bonus down the road when everyone (except him!) are crippled by the inevitable curse protecting his treasure.
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Jan 24, 2014 20:15
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There's "our characters have different values and frequently butt heads" and there's "I want all the loot, suck my +20 Bluff bonus, other players."
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Jan 24, 2014 21:32
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There's also, "I wouldn't normally charge in ahead of you, but gently caress it, you sold me, YOLOOOOOOO," which can be a fun case of just roleplaying with a roll of the dice between players. Although I will say that 99% of the time when something like that happens, it's the players off to the side having fun and doing their thing without the input of the DM. They decide they're going to have a roll off, handle it, and then act accordingly. At no time did the DM step in and say, "Okay, y'all roll against each other and accept the consequences."
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Jan 24, 2014 23:00
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What do you do when player simply don't see what is going on? Or see it, but don't react. Last night the party entered a room with holes all over the floor. They could see the glimmering tips of spears below, springs in some cases. There were 5 statues of Dwarves with a crossbow and a shield on pillars spread throughout the room . A skeleton guard pulls a lever on the wall, one of the statues slowly starts spinning and everyone hears cogs and grinding stone. There are some low-level enemies in there, players rush in and start hitting them. End of turn 1 the statue locks into place, fires its crossbow, hits the shield of the next statue, which starts rotating. Someone notices there is a giant target on the wall across one of the statues, presumably the last one in the sequence. Everyone panics that if the target gets hit, bad things will happen. However, the Wizard and Warlock refuse to enter the room at all, the Rogue keeps backstabbing whatever the Fighter and Warlord who stay in the center of the room attack, after five turns the last statue fires into the target, spears come out of the floor and everyone gets damage only to complains there was no solution. I explained options like climbing a pillar to take the bolt from the crossbow, to ready an action and try to blast the next bolt out of the sky, to knock over one of the pillars with a Str-check, to disable the rotating mechanism in the pillar with Thievery, to ignore the enemies and get out within 5 turns, to disable some of the springs and create safe places or to climb/jump in front of the target and get hit by the bolt instead. They said none of this was clear and taking out the enemies was more important. Before that they found 4 pressure plates in a different room with some skeletons, right underneath chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The Rogue easily saw that these were connected and warned everyone. They have 6 push/pull/slide moves between, but not a single enemy was moved into the tiles while everyone just stuck to one corner of the room and avoided going near the tiles. When I asked them afterwards why nobody tried to get an enemy crushed they all just looked at me like I was crazy. There was also a room filled with mirrors that made copies of the party, but without any armor, weapons, abilities. These counted as minions, escaping the mirror, shattering like glass when they were hit, running forward with just their fists, screaming soundlessly while attacking the players and trying to drag them into the mirror. One player noticed right away that there was quite a big area where the mirrors couldn't reflect anything since it was out of their view, he ran there and his clones stopped coming. He shouted it to the others, who all stayed in place for 4 turns fighting the mirror images that kept spawning. Am I overestimating my players? How far do you go to give them hints in such cases?
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Jan 25, 2014 13:42
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It just sounds like your players expect combat to be combat, and puzzles to be puzzles, and never the two shall meet. You can try to re-educate them, or you can just plan accordingly. Personally, I'd recommend the latter, unless you want them to be perpetually frustrated by your game, and for you to be perpetually frustrated by them not "getting" your devious plans.
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Jan 25, 2014 15:35
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Alternate solution: Find less boring players.
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Jan 26, 2014 01:48
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I ran a GURPS Monster Hunters game (think Buffy or Supernatural) for a bunch of people who would more or less shut down if anything got much more complicated than standing in front of an enemy and trading blows. A large part of the game, and this was made clear when I pitched the game to them, is piecing together clues to figure out what they are up against and how to stop it since stronger monsters will tear you apart if you aren't prepared. At first I thought it was because my clues were too obtuse so I made things a little more obvious. Eventually I just got to the point where any successful skill roll that sounded like investigation worked and shoved them along to the next event. Everyone except the mage would forget how to do anything but basic attack and defense in combat, even though they had customized cheat sheets outlining how their skills and powers work. I thought maybe it was just not a game they were into but when I asked, they said they were enjoying themselves and liked the game. Ultimately, it was a huge chore to run and the only player I would invite back has a really erratic schedule anymore. So yeah, find less boring players. You'll be happier in the long run.
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Jan 26, 2014 02:09
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Update on my campaign: Didn't get a chance to run the game this week because of weather but I did get a chance to post a blank 2-Ace of Clubs in our facebook group to see what people thought about the idea. It's completely positive and everyone's pretty excited to find out who's at the top or even who's next. I also talked with the one player who's DM'd a bunch of our Starwars campaigns and he thought it was a great idea so long as I have an idea on how to pick up the trail after they nab the Ace, which I do. Looking forward to the session on Tuesday.
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Jan 26, 2014 05:36
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About the whole "Should players ever roll dice against each other?" thing, I think it's really only ever fun if you're with people you know are good for it and won't completely bone you with it, or if you're just trying to settle really silly/petty poo poo. Had a group I played with sit their characters in a tavern and start an argument over booze. Dwarf is, of course, loving with the elf and calling him a lightweight and a wimp, while the elf is getting offended and saying that his elvish constitution is more than a match for that of a dwarf's. The half-orc thief (more like mugger, to be honest) is laughing his rear end off and saying bragging he could beat both of them, and my human paladin is just trying to stay out of it. DM goes, "K, let's settle this like real role-players: whoever rolls highest on the d20 goes under the table last." I think the dwarf won, with elf coming in second and half-orc last.
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Jan 26, 2014 07:13
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Yeah that sort of thing works fine with rolls, even (and especially) skill rolls. But then it's not really rolling against each other, in the sense that one character's skill roll would give him direct influence over another or a mechanical advantage. It's more like rolling against the booze. Rolling Bluff to steal all the loot from the party is lovely, rolling Bluff to see who comes out on top in the annual Best Liar contest is fine even if the 1st prize is all the loot.
My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Jan 26, 2014 |
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Jan 26, 2014 10:08
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BioTech posted:Am I overestimating my players? How far do you go to give them hints in such cases? Take your party aside before you play your next session and chat with them. Let them know that sometimes the fights may also involve traps; and that they're free to use those traps to their advantage in mid fight if they can figure out how. Then, over the next few sessions give them an opportunity to see what's going to happen in advance or a last-second example of how to avoid it. To use your timed Crossbow trap as an example: Have the trap go off immediately after they open the door when the crossbow bolt strikes the target timed crossbow trap; while the giant spider on the floor climbs up its safety line to get out of spear range before dropping back down or have the kobolds lingering in the deathtrap provoke attacks of opportunity so they can jump up onto the statues and avoid the spears the first time the trap cycles. To use your push traps as an example, have a mad berserker goblin minion charge straight across the room in a screaming berserk rage only to step on a pressure plate and get himself mashed. Then, shortly after the party enters have the rest of the combat encounter's monsters show up through the opposite door shouting "They killed Berserk Steve!" or what-have-you, so it's more clear they have less knowledge of the room's hazards than the PCs do. Really, though, talk with your players. None of these traps sound particularly egregious but depending on their experience or their past DMs they may not realize that sometimes the monsters aren't the most important thing in the room.
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Jan 26, 2014 16:20
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Howdy all, Long time lurker, first time poster. I am back to GMing a Ravenloft game for a partially new group. One of the things I try to do is to throw in some character progression that unfolds over time. So far, I've managed to plan these for all but three of my players. Here are those I am having trouble with: The Druid. This guy's back story is about being tortured by a nobleman and locked in a cellar since childhood. So while this has given me a fantastic villain for the group modeled loosely on Josef Fritzl, I'm unsure how to proceed in a way that isn't "You killed the bad man. You feel better." The Alchemist. The player in question handed me zero in the way of back story, other than to say he was more or less going to play Rick, from Rick and Morty. Enter a character who drinks constantly and has not much else to do between fights, besides taking people's poo poo and slowly being corrupted by failing Powers Checks. While the game is likely to lead to his timely demise, I like to think that he can be salvaged by proper motivation. And now we come to the power gamer of the group. The Warforged Mage Another back story. This time about being a prototype designed to experiment until he managed to make Warforged that reproduced. Also, a double social outcast. Being that non-humans and mages are shunned in Barovia. Realistically, the second townspeople see him, they'd want to throw him out. If he tried to defend himself with magic, they'd want to burn him alive. The player voices him like a machine running some sort of Cylon/DOS hybrid OS, meaning that if he tried to talk to people, he'd probably end up dead, too. The only idea I have for plot for this guy is to have him start abducting people and experimenting on them, which would lead to powers checks, and the eventual death of his character. So here I am. Asking for help/advice/ideas. I am not above killing them off in brutal ways.
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Jan 27, 2014 04:28
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Elevorot posted:The Druid. Give the bad man a suitable gothic villain reason for what he did and it won't be so bad. The Druid's parents, cult, whatever killed his wife. Maybe another big bad was responsible for a horrible tragedy in the noble mans life, and he is impotent to do anything about it... so he's raised the only person he's ever found with any gift to get revenge for him, even though it will likely mean his own death. quote:The Alchemist. Give him his sidekick, someone whose life he can negatively influence while still being the good guy. If he doesn't have a Morty, give him a bored ten year old kid with overprotective parents who longs for adventure. He can be the bad side of adventuring. Give him a family to save, and he'll be the horrid hero who saves the world in a stupid and pointless fashion. Motivate him with the option to be the hero no one wants but desperately need. If they're in Barovia he may also be the only person the townspeople can reach out to. quote:The Warforged Mage Pepper your adventures with the writings of an ancient artificer and rumors of a lost laboratory that might have the answers he wants. Don't have any good ideas for this one.
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Jan 27, 2014 04:47
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Many thanks already TheAnomaly. I can see the Druid and Alchemist responding well to those two. Glad I'm not alone in what to do with the Warforged. The biggest problem is that the setting, and the way the guy's playing his character, mean that there's constant clashes. I might have to pull one of the party aside and tell them to step up and claim him as property, seeing as no one in their right mind will consider him a person anyway. Might lead to the two being implicated in a string of murders, but hey, consequences.
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Jan 27, 2014 08:42
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If the Warforged is an experimental prototype someone's got to be overseeing him, and at some point they'll want results or at least some signs of progress, or they might decide he's a failure as a prototype and scrap him. Also the lost laboratory could be fantasy Frankenstein's if that's Ravenlofty enough. Old artificer, had the right technique, just used flesh and bone instead of the desired materials. Actually I did an adventure about reproducing warforged once, but that involved an existing forge that only needed an AI to run it, which the party found in a mountain-sized burial hill made of Warforged bodies that was infested with rust monsters.
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Jan 27, 2014 09:08
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Turtlicious posted:You don't let people skill roll on players. It's never, EVER fun. Disagree heavily, if your game has social combat and reasonable concessions. I started out a game of Grimm with the Dreamer, Outcast and Popular Kid all taking minor consequences escaping a flooded beanstalk. When they encountered a pony, the popular kid charmed it...and said nobody else could ride. I offered the Popular Kid a fate point to initiate social combat to call the other two ugly, dirty boys (and target their existing consequences). She mopped the floor with them, and they conceded (earning a fate point each). The Popular Kid got to feel like a real bigshot, the entire thing took 8 minutes to adjudicate, and everyone had more fun than if I made it a straight die roll.
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Jan 27, 2014 09:31
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My Lovely Horse posted:If the Warforged is an experimental prototype someone's got to be overseeing him, and at some point they'll want results or at least some signs of progress, or they might decide he's a failure as a prototype and scrap him. Also the lost laboratory could be fantasy Frankenstein's if that's Ravenlofty enough. Old artificer, had the right technique, just used flesh and bone instead of the desired materials. The problem is that they've all been wrenched from their home planes to the demiplane of dread (Except for one guy playing a local bumpkin). I could have a scientist or golomancer see him and become obsessed, but it's not really central to the story. I was toying with the idea initially of having the party stumble into a group of dwarves who take him for the fulfillment of a prophecy that will lead them from oppression, but that went out the window the moment the guy gave his character the robot logic personality...
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Jan 27, 2014 09:40
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TheAnomaly posted:Give the bad man a suitable gothic villain reason for what he did and it won't be so bad. The Druid's parents, cult, whatever killed his wife. Maybe another big bad was responsible for a horrible tragedy in the noble mans life, and he is impotent to do anything about it... so he's raised the only person he's ever found with any gift to get revenge for him, even though it will likely mean his own death. I'd disagree. Players rarely care too hard about their nemeses' motivations. If you want to stop the plot being 'you kill the bad guy' then it's better to come up with some reason why you can't just kill the bad guy. Or why killing the bad guy will be only the beginning of your problems -- maybe the nobleman was torturing the druid as part of a ritual to prevent something terrible from awakening, and the druid needs to either accept that his revenge will come at the price of unleashing something terrible, or find a non-torturey ritual that will have the same effect.
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Jan 27, 2014 10:55
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In this scenario killing the bad guy could be just the start of your troubles because with his dying breath he tells you he's proud of what he made of you, and to go and meet the Brotherhood of Light because they need you. Turns out whatever plan they groomed you for is actually genuinely good, they're just real "ends justify means" kind of people.
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Jan 27, 2014 11:05
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Whybird. My Lovely Horse. Thank you so much for feeding me horrible, horrible ideas! The game's theme is pretty much built around bad choices and, a sacrifice of pain that the player didn't understand would go down well. Already seeing how I can tie it in to the story...
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Jan 27, 2014 12:11
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Your Warforged could probably pass as human for a while if he keeps his mouth shut and wears multiple layers of heavy winter clothing. For added fun, the comedy option: encourage the use of increasingly elaborate disguises, fake human masks, synthetic mustaches, and ridiculous excuses for the Mage's clearly robotic behavior. Mimir fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jan 27, 2014 |
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Jan 27, 2014 19:19
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2014 19:33
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Tonight I'll be GMing for my bi-weekly RP group. The host is cooking chili and others are bringing beer, so all that the evening needs is some fun game-play to break up the table talk. The system is ostensibly Pathfinder, but those who have followed my notes in the design thread and elsewhere know that I use it as a testbed for low-prep improv GMing and FATE/AE-ish houserules. Although we are at present running things RAW, we are thankfully running lots of content that goes way off-book. Why you, the reader, might care: I spend alot of time pontificating about principles for improvisational scene generation of in the Some Heartbreaker thread, so every time I GM is a chance to put my money where my mouth is. Basically I view myself as the moderator of an improv troupe and it is my job to plant seeds for drama and guide the action to a fun place. Alot of people like to cite improv in the context of making fun story games, and it is a great tool, but what is often neglected is that improv has its own kind of discipline in knowing how to keep a scene from hitting a roadblock or deflating dramatically or spiraling into the weightless and arbitrary place we call crazy-town. In this post I write about my thoughts for how Im' going to run tonight's session. Whats the Scenario? The Party is run by a number of players with widely varying degrees of RP experience and extroversion, and composed (in order of min-max) of a Druid (Bear Shaman), Rogue/Magus, Wizard, Cleric, and Ranger - all level 8. Their current base of operations is the coastal frontier town of "Bayville". In tonight's episode, Bayville is under threat from an invading horde of wild humans with necromantic tendencies known as "The Death's Head Clan". As Bayville is the only bastion of civilization anywhere near the party, they have an overt interest in its continued existence. Players of Dungeon World might recognize this situation as the "impending doom" of a horde "danger". I've been running the high-level of this campaign as Fronts for quite some time with great success. The players arrived in the present brink of destruction by ignoring reports of growing threats from this horde in favor of dealing with other dangers such as an evil cult in town and an accidentally awakened ancient construct army. Those other threats were quashed, but the great thing about the Fronts system is that with every sigh of relief the players breathe for making progress against one danger, other dangers are intensifying. It is a great way to run a campaign and I recommend anyone who GMs long-running groups to use it. PREP As of now, with just a few hours till game-time, I have nothing written down. The process of composing this post will probably be all of my prep for the evening. The invading horde has not been well-investigated by the players, but they have hearsay that it is roughly 500 strong so I'll stick to that. They also have had past interactions with the faction, knowing that they have arcane tendencies, frequently riding atop undead bear mounts and wielding enchanted gear derived from the plants and animals that can be found in their mountain home. The horde will be composed of 100 undead-bear mounted cavalry, 100 conscript infantry (low morale units from conquered human clans), 100 "blazing axe" infantry (magus-dip warriors), 100 archers, 50 support arcane casters, 50 support divine casters. The party has on it's side an ancient colossal elven construct made of wood infused with nature spirits that must be piloted by several party members (essentially an Arboreal Mech - spoils of completing a danger on the adventure front) backed up by an irregular force of Bayville residents composed of roughly 50 town guards and 150 militia, with very few of either group having military experience. There is also a small contingent of 20 defectors from the invading horde that the party has persuaded to help. The players have been discussing their plans and they are inclined to have one group of players charge the invaders with their elven mech while sending another group around the flank in an attempt to take out the clan's leadership. As the party is somewhat off-guard for mounting this defense, and they wish to use their mech without demolishing the town, the battle will most likely take place in the farmland immediately north of Bayville. The terrain will be open with limited cover. The Battle This is not a tactical war game. The excitement and interest of this scenario is in what happens on the character-level. The flow of battle will be what it needs to be in order to create the opportunities for the players to have some dramatic moments. The players sway the course of battle and the outcome will have more to do with what happens on the level of the PCs rather than what happens on the level of the opposing armies. As such, I am not planning on drawing up detailed stats for the elven mech or the majority of the opposing forces nor will there be any dice rolling or other mechanical attention payed to the battle. That said, the players are anticipating a tactical war game and have been talking about battle mats and trays all week- so, for show, I will give them a wet-erase battle mat and some cardboard unit markers and we'll push things around and i'll jot things down in my notebook, and the real fun and memorable moments will come in the sweet things they do on the character-level while I maintain a facade of warhams. Principles Over in the Some Heartbreaker thread I'm always harping on about certain priciples for constructing dramatic scenes. This set-piece battle is exactly the kind of encounter that I want to bring these principles to bear on. To summarize: - scene should have multiple campaign-level stuff that the players care about at stake - overlapping demands and action to keep all players engaged - choices should be straight-forward and character-based, not optimization problems - dramatic tension should rise over the course of the scene - throw some twists and surprises in to shake up their strategy Stakes I think the big-stake is good. The player's only center of civilization is under threat. But we need more stakes to add interesting choices. I think we will put the awesome elven construct at stake and make the players ride the line of protecting their sweet ride versus saving civilization. Also at stake is the player's reputation amongst the townspeople. Even if they fend off the attack, if their strategy gets large amounts of the militia killed there will be dissent against their leadership. Overlap Although I usually hate their insistence to always split the party up, the players have set this up nicely for me already. The elven mech smashes into the front lines of the invaders while the recon group flanks. Its a good start, but I'll have to throw some curve-balls that give each party some choices. Curveballs Nothing is more boring than a well planned and executed operation. By about 10:00pm I want the players to feel like their plan has the wheels coming off and the engine on fire. Some key ideas: The mech is going to have some great fun smashing things earlier in the battle, but remember that I want to bring this down to the character level and there is no place less dramatic for a bunch of characters than the risk-averse, protective womb of an elven EVA. Opposing infantry is going to go Hoth on the PC's ride, scaling it and attempting to break into the cockpit. If they ignore the threat, it will create some nice character-level heat inside the mech cockpit; otherwise I imagine they will try to flail around at the infantry - a difficult thing to do in a slow, lumbering colussus and something that takes their eye off the flow of battle. The recon party is not going to have an easy time getting to the leadership. Their lack of preparation has given them no point of ambush and the open field gives them no covert approach. There will be mooks upon mooks and by the time they reach the leadership for a showdown (which of course they will), the enemy will be well-prepared AND (big campaign twist) the leadership will not be the arch-nemesis that they suspect. The arch nemesis set up this horde incursion as distraction and delay that has provided opportunity to further a danger on the campaign front - thats what you get for hitting impending dooms! (also I have to set up hooks for future adventure). The horde army is not just going to sit there and trade blows with a colossal construct. The horde cavalry will flank the construct's position and attack the irregulars. Towards the end of the night, I might just have the horde forces flee into town for cover and to make the players choose between the construct's power and preventing collateral damage. This could also bring the fighting back down to character-level. Yeah I'm definitely using this later in the battle. Pacing I think an idea for the flow of the encounter is forming. We'll start nice and easy with a brief parley with absurd demands so the players can get some characterization out. The armies advance, early battle will be the horde forces testing with troop movements, watching responses, and making retreats. Finally, the horde sends conscript infantry in, let the players feel badass in their mech, the rest will depend largely on how the players direct their strategy, but I'm assuming the recon team will head out once the colossus engages. I'll cut between both groups fairly quickly, giving the colossus team some mechanical tests to match the crunch of the mooks encountered by the recon team. As the "blazing axe" infantry moves in to scale the colossus, the recon party will hit tougher mook encounters. As this resistance rises, the cavalry will detach to flank the irregulars - how it goes will depend on the players - deal with the saboteurs? charge off to defend the flank? hold the line and demolish the infantry? Now that is some fun choosing with some weight to it. The recon party will be nearing the enemy leadership around the same time to find the twist absence of the big-bad, so their choice is whether to continue with the operation to kill the leadership even if it is not the specific hated antagonist, or whether to change strategy and attempt to aid the fight in some other way (maybe give them a shot at flanking the archers?). From there I'm going to wing it - keeping the flow into the city in my back pocket for that last dramatic push if I need it. Thanks for listening. I think we're in good shape for tonight's game.
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Jan 27, 2014 22:54
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50 Foot Ant posted:The Warforged is something you'd be perfectly able to say "No way" because seriously? They're gonna bring that into Ravenloft? Yeah. More or less what I told him. I told them all to be careful of what they were playing as there would be social implications, something apparently only I touch on in their games and not their other GMs. The party knows that they'll have trouble with the townsfolk, and the one guy they saved told them he flat out wouldn't vouch for them if the townsfolk decided to burn them. I've also told him to ready up another character just in case*. The player himself is something of a paradox. He'll bring in an optimized character/concept and RP it for what it is - a vaguely 2-dimensional killing machine. Pretty sure he went with Warforged because he expects me to throw diseases/mind effecting stuff at him. I did explain that fear/horror/madness checks were survival instinct and not covered by his immune to mental effects, which he seemed okay with. Haven't had a good opening for other effects such as possession to hit him. Yet. Unlike other power gamers I've known, he takes things like this in stride pretty well and doesn't throw a fit when things don't go his way. In a game where I've forewarned the players not to get attached to their characters, I'm hoping to use him as an example of what not to do. I actually have plot for him should he fail some checks, where he more or less begins experimenting on villagers while the rest of the party works at unmasking the serial killer hiding in their midst. Trick is not getting him roasted/sunk before that. Might have the powers protect him as part of their dark designs? Might also be a good opening for possession at night. While the Adam angle is something I would have liked to explore, I honestly don't see things ending well for him. Who knows? He might surprise me though. Stranger things have happened. *It's not just in case. He a dead man.
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Jan 28, 2014 01:35
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Elevorot posted:*It's not just in case. He a dead man. Just don't become That GM 
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Jan 28, 2014 01:40
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Xaander posted:Just don't become That GM Hahaha. Yeah. No asteroid falling out of the sky to kill the player. These guys are used to the party turning on itself. If *cough*when*cough* he dies, it will serve to drive the plot and the game will be richer for it. Because 2 pages of posts and I'm yet to see a reasonable way for him to survive. Not with the way he's playing his character.
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Jan 28, 2014 01:52
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Elevorot posted:Hahaha. Yeah. No asteroid falling out of the sky to kill the player. These guys are used to the party turning on itself. If *cough*when*cough* he dies, it will serve to drive the plot and the game will be richer for it. Because 2 pages of posts and I'm yet to see a reasonable way for him to survive. Not with the way he's playing his character. Admittedly I know nothing about Ravenloft, but what if you just killed off the Warforged part? One of the mad scientists is experimenting on him and removes his consciousness from his shell - he can give in and die or he can slip into some cadaver that the party is conveniently about to find. To be clear, I'm not trying to like poo poo on your plans or anything, I just like these sorts of "puzzles".
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Jan 28, 2014 02:10
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