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50 Foot Ant posted:What I'm asking, I guess, is is this a symptom of having GM'd for so long Nope, he is just an rear end in a top hat. Also probably a lovely GM.
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Jun 6, 2014 09:46
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God Of Paradise posted:Apparently what I joined and played tonight was a Pathfinder Society game... So I scrapped backstory, as it wasn't the time or place for it. I actually think I'm going to spend all the money I got killing Kobolds on a Royal Outfit, and proclaim myself King of the Pathfinder Society and demand that every player bow to me.
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Jun 6, 2014 09:52
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Rexides posted:Nope, he is just an rear end in a top hat. Also probably a lovely GM.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:09
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What is a good random world/continent generator? My players are off to explore a new region of the world (ORE/REIGN hacked for early-modern fantasy) and I need something handy.
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Jun 8, 2014 15:16
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ZearothK posted:What is a good random world/continent generator? My players are off to explore a new region of the world (ORE/REIGN hacked for early-modern fantasy) and I need something handy. I like this one: http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/ It can automatically create continents, rivers, cities and names forests and stuff. It also looks really neat. EDIt: if it says the server is too busy, just let it hang around in a tab for a while. It'll automatically retry every so often until it gets through.
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Jun 8, 2014 15:28
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Dwarf Fortress. 
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Jun 8, 2014 17:46
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Bad Munki posted:Dwarf Fortress. This really works. I can't find the link, but I even used to have a script that would pretty up the generated maps for people who can't interpret the ascii.
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Jun 8, 2014 22:48
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I never became the kind of DF operator that could look at the ascii and see dwarves, hoary marmots and plump helmets.. There are good graphics packs, so I guess ya get lazy 
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Jun 8, 2014 23:16
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Deltasquid posted:I like this one: Okay, that worked like a charm. Thanks, mate! And yeah, I always found Dwarf Fortress to be kind of impenetrable.
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Jun 8, 2014 23:51
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Ben don't read this. Hi everyone. I'm wrapping up my D&D 4ed campaign within the next month or so, and I could use some help with the final battle. I want my players to get a taste of epic tier before we consider a level reset, so I need help building an awesome level 30 fight. The campaign takes place in a high-tech futuristic world where the entire planet in under the boot of a small nation of tyrannical bourgeoisie. Think futuristic retelling of the French Revolution mixed with the biblical book of Exodus. The party will be attacked while shepherding a group of commoners and revolutionaries on their way through a massive desert on their way to overthrow their slave masters. This planet is dedicated to the manufacturing of weapons and defense, and throughout the campaign the party has stolen everything not nailed down and have paid off the best scientists and engineers in the land to come work for them. Of everything they've stolen their favorites are a sky-yacht, a mech made out of lightning and metal plates, the loader from Aliens, a giant tank, and a giant motorcycle, and have upgraded them all to the point that they are generations ahead of every other war machine in the universe. To simplify this, I've had my players create level 30 copies of their characters (normally lv 15) and have played it so they're level 30 whenever they're piloting their vehicles. (Thankfully most adventures take place indoors.) I need help with two things: - An awesome level 30 fight. I've never designed one, and I don't know what the best monsters/encounters to take from are. What I invision are five main units (one for each party member), possibly supported by minions. The fight will take place in a barren desert ravaged by extreme and erratic climate change. At some point the five ships need to voltron into one massive enemy. - The players want to voltron as well. Last time we ad-libbed a voltron, everyone shared the highest stats amongst the party members highest defenses of the group (eg. if the rogue had 31 Ref, everyone had 31 Ref.), resistances were shared, temporary attack bonuses were shared, etc. That fight ended before it began, so I don't know the best way of going about this. The fight doesn't have to be well-balanced or a nail-biter, I just want my players to have fun and blow off some steam. Please share any advice you might have, your comments and expertise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Jun 9, 2014 02:20
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I just started a new channel on SynIRC.net - #gameadvice, a mostly on-topic channel for talking about running and playing in all sorts of RPGs, since IRC can suit conversations better sometimes than this thread, for example. (And because a lot of the existing Trad Games IRC channels are very imposing and anything but.) Come and join and ask questions and poo poo!
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Jun 9, 2014 04:35
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A couple of my long time players have expressed interest in DMing. I would like to run a sandbox style campaign and group source the campaign content as much as possible, so that we can rotate DMs sometimes. My initial idea is to use a simple version of a system they are already familiar with (by which I mean B/X D&D), but use the 'fronts' concept from AW/DW to store setting content. Is this a feasible idea?
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Jun 9, 2014 05:29
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Tomero_the_Great posted:Ben don't read this. Honestly, it's as good a voltron as any. To add challenge, maybe put stats kind of on rotation, like stances. The pilot who is "on point" determines the mech's stats and main actions, and other people contribute by operating subsystems and turrets until the mech needs to switch from Agility mode to Spellcaster mode, or whatever. This kinda only works if the battlefield is enough of a clusterfuck to warrant things like directional shielding and secondary attacks using turrets, though, which might not be what you want.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:51
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Deltasquid posted:I like this one: Thank you for this. Just created a great map for a pathfinder campaign I was brainstorming a backstory/map for.
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Jun 9, 2014 16:06
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Making custom items for your players, yea or nay? I've made up several items and given them to my players in a couple campaigns of Edge of the Empire, and they seem to be cool with it, but I'd like to branch out and stat up some custom items for a 4e campaign I'm currently running. My players are all decently experienced with the system and I'd like to keep things fresh instead of just waiting to hand out treasure parcels of stuff I know they want. Anyone got experience with such things?
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Jun 10, 2014 04:28
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Glukeose posted:Making custom items for your players, yea or nay? I've made up several items and given them to my players in a couple campaigns of Edge of the Empire, and they seem to be cool with it, but I'd like to branch out and stat up some custom items for a 4e campaign I'm currently running. My players are all decently experienced with the system and I'd like to keep things fresh instead of just waiting to hand out treasure parcels of stuff I know they want. One thing I've always heard is that while you should try to keep it balanced between party members, as long as everyone's having fun it doesn't have to be precisely tuned.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:02
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Stallion Cabana posted:One thing I've always heard is that while you should try to keep it balanced between party members, as long as everyone's having fun it doesn't have to be precisely tuned. Yeah that's pretty fair. It isn't like we're playing a super serious tactical combat elf simulator so I don't think anyone will get on my rear end about it.
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Jun 10, 2014 05:23
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Yeah, really the only thing to watch out for is unbalancing the party. if one guy gets a shiny new toy that puts him above the rest of the group, find something to hand out to the others. You don't need to do the "give it to everyone or nothing" thing all the time; if a player finds a weapon that gives them a slight edge in combat but won't make them noticeably more powerful than the rest, that's fine. You just can't let one person gain too much power over the rest, lest they get jealous.
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Jun 10, 2014 06:21
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It gets even better when a player that's already overly geared decides that the item you specifically made for a lower powered character is perfect for them. Especially when the weaker player enthusiastically agrees because they know how much that's going to annoy you, and how little they currently contribute to combat.
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Jun 10, 2014 06:49
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Glukeose posted:Making custom items for your players, yea or nay? I've made up several items and given them to my players in a couple campaigns of Edge of the Empire, and they seem to be cool with it, but I'd like to branch out and stat up some custom items for a 4e campaign I'm currently running. My players are all decently experienced with the system and I'd like to keep things fresh instead of just waiting to hand out treasure parcels of stuff I know they want. For 4e, I suggest you start by using the inherent bonuses rule from DMG 2. That way you can focus entirely on the riders and flavor of the items instead of fiddly numbers bullshit, and the players will be less stressed when having to choose between more fun or more efficient items. Of course there will always be items that are just plain better in terms of calculable damage output, but the choice will not be as clear-cut.
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Jun 10, 2014 10:42
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chitoryu12 posted:Yeah, really the only thing to watch out for is unbalancing the party. if one guy gets a shiny new toy that puts him above the rest of the group, find something to hand out to the others. This only becomes a problem if you have a bully player who doesn't care about anyone else's fun but his own. Asking for equipment they don't need is different than just flat out commandeering it, which I've seen too many times. Try to let the players handle it themselves. If they don't, you can reasonably have intelligent enemies focus on the PC with all the nice equipment, as it would be pretty obvious indication that he is the "leader." Or you know, you could try talking to him, but that doesn't really work as well as it reasonably should. A lot of people drawn to these games aren't the best at social situations or making compromises. The ugly truth is sometimes as a DM you have to make your point in the game, using the logic of the game. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 12:09
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I'm getting ready to run my first game ever via Skype and it's going to be Werewolf: The Apocalypse with 3 players. Is there an effort post somewhere with some tips and tricks on how to best run a Skype/VOIP game? I'd like to have the ability to play music and sound effects but I'm not too sure the best way to go about that. Since it's a White Wolf game I'm not dreadfully concerned about being able to map out combat situations.
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Jun 10, 2014 15:02
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Play it on Roll20 instead, you can load up sound and music and poo poo, and it will let you easily put up images of NPC's/areas as well.
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Jun 10, 2014 15:08
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God Of Paradise posted:This only becomes a problem if you have a bully player who doesn't care about anyone else's fun but his own. Asking for equipment they don't need is different than just flat out commandeering it, which I've seen too many times. Try to let the players handle it themselves. If they don't, you can reasonably have intelligent enemies focus on the PC with all the nice equipment, as it would be pretty obvious indication that he is the "leader." Or you know, you could try talking to him, but that doesn't really work as well as it reasonably should. A lot of people drawn to these games aren't the best at social situations or making compromises. The ugly truth is sometimes as a DM you have to make your point in the game, using the logic of the game. If I'm using enemies or NPCs with actual intelligence, I usually try to let them make logical or semi-logical decisions in combat. They'll focus on the guy who's swinging around the most powerful weapon, or maybe try to intentionally kill the medic. This works mainly because I play the kind of game where winning every fight isn't necessarily the only way to "beat the game", and I like to encourage my players to play smart without pulling stupid stunts (like having a machine gunner stand in the open spraying at someone's cover) unless it's a cinematic or otherwise intentionally unrealistic game.
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Jun 10, 2014 15:58
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Bosushi! posted:I'm getting ready to run my first game ever via Skype and it's going to be Werewolf: The Apocalypse with 3 players. Piell posted:Play it on Roll20 instead, you can load up sound and music and poo poo, and it will let you easily put up images of NPC's/areas as well. Or do both. Roll20 is great, but I'm not a fan of their voice chat and always end up using Skype to supplement it.
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Jun 10, 2014 16:25
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I prefer the table, but when I DMed a few sessions over skype I used MorphVox and the players loved it. YMMV.
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Jun 10, 2014 16:39
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Table is impossible due to distance. Thanks guys, I'll check those out.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:03
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Rexides posted:For 4e, I suggest you start by using the inherent bonuses rule from DMG 2. That way you can focus entirely on the riders and flavor of the items instead of fiddly numbers bullshit, and the players will be less stressed when having to choose between more fun or more efficient items. Of course there will always be items that are just plain better in terms of calculable damage output, but the choice will not be as clear-cut. I'm checking it out and yeah, this is pretty intuitive, thanks. Now my next question: Does anyone have interesting stories about powerful items carrying hidden drawbacks for the user? For instance, in an EotE game I gave the party sniper a hard-earned E-11s Marksman Rifle, typically reserved for Imperial sharpshooters and the like. What he failed to consider was that he now possessed a very illegal black-market rifle. One session later he whips that poo poo out in public and draws a lot of heat to the party, botching their assassination attempt on a Black Sun lieutenant. Their escape from the fuzz and Black Sun was pretty intense.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:49
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Glukeose posted:I'm checking it out and yeah, this is pretty intuitive, thanks. Now my next question: Does anyone have interesting stories about powerful items carrying hidden drawbacks for the user? For instance, in an EotE game I gave the party sniper a hard-earned E-11s Marksman Rifle, typically reserved for Imperial sharpshooters and the like. What he failed to consider was that he now possessed a very illegal black-market rifle. One session later he whips that poo poo out in public and draws a lot of heat to the party, botching their assassination attempt on a Black Sun lieutenant. Their escape from the fuzz and Black Sun was pretty intense. It's something I've thought about. It's relatively easy in games using modern technology that go for a higher side of realism, since everything has little quirks or flaws that aren't immediately noticeable to someone without the requisite knowledge. Then again, sometimes you DO tell the player about the drawbacks and they go for it anyway. Like in my old west game. The guy playing the Italian brothers really has an obsession with being unique (hence why he's playing a gunfighter with Marfan syndrome and an obese merchant/explosives expert), which extended to his firearm decisions. Fat brother has a cap and ball Colt 1855 revolver shotgun cut down as much as possible; not too bad, could presumably exist, and its power doesn't outweigh its problems. But the giant guy? He gave him a Treeby chain rifle, an outdated and inefficient design that never superseded revolvers. It's unreliable, rare, expensive, requires custom molded bullets because of its non-standard bore diameter, takes ages to reload, and the chain keeps getting in the way and can easily get caught on stuff. It's totally inferior to almost every repeating rifle it's going up against, but he wanted it simply so he could make a special snowflake. I'm not sure how long that gun will last. I do plan on some disaster happening to the group's wagon later down the line that will take some equipment with it, and it's probably going to be up to random chance if the Treeby goes. But even without that, it's going to be a hell of a pain to try and use in combat. I warned him away from it and recommended better choices, and I kept reminding him that we were aiming for a more realistic game, but he wouldn't bite. I let him have it only because the gun wasn't anachronistic or 100% unavailable and he legally paid for it.
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Jun 10, 2014 19:17
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chitoryu12 posted:I let him have it only because the gun wasn't anachronistic or 100% unavailable and he legally paid for it. Well according to the internet, only two were ever made. I don't know if it would derail your campaign too much, but I could definitely imagine an eccentric and highly skilled collector of firearms would want that gun. Simply destroying it feels kind of cheap, so why not use this guy's pink mohawk nature for potential quest hooks or unforeseen complications?
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Jun 10, 2014 20:19
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Glukeose posted:Well according to the internet, only two were ever made. I don't know if it would derail your campaign too much, but I could definitely imagine an eccentric and highly skilled collector of firearms would want that gun. Simply destroying it feels kind of cheap, so why not use this guy's pink mohawk nature for potential quest hooks or unforeseen complications? Hm. That might be a better idea. In that case, I think I'll see if that comes up. He bought it as Signature Gear, which means it could easily have some kind of backstory to it. When he returns from his long hiatus, I'll PM him and ask him to come up with a story for how the Ingo Brothers got the gun, and play it from there. The game is a typical cross-country treasure hunt with other hunters (all sponsored by members of the American wealthy elite, who are the only ones who know about the discovery), so it would be a "Meet someone along the way" kind of deal.
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Jun 10, 2014 20:53
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If you took it as Signature gear why the gently caress were you planning to destroy it? Dude wants a rare but not overpowered gun and paid the appropriate metagame price for it, so why not let him have his fun?
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Jun 10, 2014 23:43
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Piell posted:If you took it as Signature gear why the gently caress were you planning to destroy it? Dude wants a rare but not overpowered gun and paid the appropriate metagame price for it, so why not let him have his fun? Honestly, it totally slipped my mind that he had spent points rather than money. The pair had stupid amounts of gear, so I must have misremembered them as being unusually wealthy. It started getting hard to keep track of all his crap because of how much he kept adding onto the sheet, and he kept trying to wrangle more disadvantage points out of me to make his "vision" for the character. I don't think he's going to have fun with it. I'm pretty sure he'll drop it as soon as he tries to actually use it in a real firefight and realizes the mistake that he made.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:12
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chitoryu12 posted:Honestly, it totally slipped my mind that he had spent points rather than money. The pair had stupid amounts of gear, so I must have misremembered them as being unusually wealthy. It started getting hard to keep track of all his crap because of how much he kept adding onto the sheet, and he kept trying to wrangle more disadvantage points out of me to make his "vision" for the character. Just make sure the wacky nature of the weapon has appropriate story consequences and everyone will be happy.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:54
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sebmojo posted:Just make sure the wacky nature of the weapon has appropriate story consequences and everyone will be happy. I think he underestimated the problems it can cause in a grittier game like mine. The only advantage he's got is ammo capacity (and only by one or two shots if he goes against lever-action guys) and it has decent power and a good wound modifier from the .50+ bore size. But it's a cap and ball gun, so each chamber takes ages to load. It's also got a pretty low Malf number, and it'll go even lower if he's in a situation where the chain can get tangled up in stuff (like shooting while hiding in a bush or while prone). The rest of the party, thankfully, chose more sensible weapons. There's two Winchesters in the group, a double-barrel shotgun, some Single Action Armies, and a S&W No. 3 in .44 Russian from what I remember off the top of my head.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:10
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So... he spent character points for a fancy cool gun and you're insisting that in real life it's garbage so in game it will be worse than any other gun he can pick up on the street? Have you told him that you're going to intentionally make his special gun extra lovely? I'd discuss it with him out of game and see if he can get a similar feel out of a more effective weapon.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:27
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Mr. Prokosch posted:So... he spent character points for a fancy cool gun and you're insisting that in real life it's garbage so in game it will be worse than any other gun he can pick up on the street? Have you told him that you're going to intentionally make his special gun extra lovely? I'd discuss it with him out of game and see if he can get a similar feel out of a more effective weapon. Hey mannnn, he doesn't make the rules, he's just the...oh.
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Jun 11, 2014 01:43
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Mr. Prokosch posted:So... he spent character points for a fancy cool gun and you're insisting that in real life it's garbage so in game it will be worse than any other gun he can pick up on the street? Have you told him that you're going to intentionally make his special gun extra lovely? I'd discuss it with him out of game and see if he can get a similar feel out of a more effective weapon. Yeah, this whole thing seems kind of lovely. Ask him what he wants out of the gun and see if you can give it to him. Letting him have his cool, unique gun and making it actually effective won't break your ~verisimilitude~, especially if he spent character resources for it.
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Jun 11, 2014 02:14
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Also, you do realize the gun in your game is not one of the two actual guns irl, right? Maybe the gun he has in your game is actually a one-off custom job that doesn't suffer the problems you're set on inflicting. Because One-Man TFR Sperg D&D being slapped on top of a game other people are trying to play sounds lame as hell.
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Jun 11, 2014 02:19
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Bad Munki posted:Also, you do realize the gun in your game is not one of the two actual guns irl, right? Maybe the gun he has in your game is actually a one-off custom job that doesn't suffer the problems you're set on inflicting. Because One-Man TFR Sperg D&D being slapped on top of a game other people are trying to play sounds lame as hell. quote:So... he spent character points for a fancy cool gun and you're insisting that in real life it's garbage so in game it will be worse than any other gun he can pick up on the street? Have you told him that you're going to intentionally make his special gun extra lovely? I'd discuss it with him out of game and see if he can get a similar feel out of a more effective weapon. There's some problems with your reasoning: 1. I told everyone up front that it was going to be heavy on the realism side of the scale and to make sensible decisions. That included their weapons suffering many of the same flaws that they had in real life to allow for more challenging combat that required more thought on their part. I recommended some types of Western films that it would be taking inspiration from, like Open Range. 2. When he suggested the gun, I tried to offer various alternatives and pointed out the problems with his decision. This was after he attempted to literally get a handheld 2-inch cannon as a portable small arm. Some of his GURPS friends likewise tried to recommend different suggestions, but his continued excuse was that he didn't want "cookie cutter" characters. 3. It really CAN'T avoid all of the problems. Most of the problems in the gun are inherent in the design itself, which is why it failed. I did let him have a Malf one point higher than I originally requested, but that was the only concession that could be made if he was insisting on using that design. It's not going to stop a cap and ball gun from being slow to reload, or keep the chain from getting in the way. At no point was this "one-man TFR sperg", nor was it impeding the kind of game the players wanted. I laid out all the rules and background in my recruitment drive, and every player willingly joined without prodding. The other three came in planning on playing a relatively hard realistic Old West adventure game and this guy came in wanting handheld cannons, superstrong giants, and unusual one-off custom guns. It's like trying to run a gritty SWAT game and having a guy try to make diving rolls through windows dual-wielding Berettas.
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Jun 11, 2014 03:04
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