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Here's a question for planning a huge, chaotic battle! Basically, it's about a giant chase scene through an active battle: the players have to prevent an evil shapechanger from getting away, but at the same time, an (almost) unrelated war is going on. Since the shapechanger really wants them dead, he uses the confusion to take them down, and only retreats when he's bloodied (they're supposed to track him down via blood trail, and other shenanigans like magic tracking devices they've already created for this specific purpose). The players are supposed to search the battlefield and find the impostor, while attackers occasionally intervene. Basically an ongoing skill challenge with plenty to do for the defender, with short offensive exchanges on enough successes. Now, here's the big question: at some point, a huge boss monster appears, giving the shapechanger an opportunity to escape. The party is forced to fight it, or at least escape. However, I don't want it to appear as if I'm suddenly dropping a boss from the sky because the players got too close to finishing my precious recurring villain. What would be an elegant way of, well, dropping a boss from the sky without looking cheap? My idea so far was a hard time limit; as in, an unrelated sorcerer in the war who REALLY hates the players starts a summoning spell which finishes in X rounds, and once the shapechanger is outmatched, he retreats and stalls until round X is reached. Boss summon (literally) drops from the sky, creating a huge shockwave which knocks everybody over and disables all those pesky minions. Since the shapechanger is amorphous, he isn't knocked over and retreats past the boss (maybe even eating an opportunity attack to show the players they're not on the same side). Players are now cornered themselves, and they have to fight or escape from the boss (who focuses on them and will pursue). I think this hard time limit will provide a nice addition to the preceeding skill challenge: the sooner they finish, the faster they corner the shapechanger, which gives them more rounds to cause damage and - more importantly - apply all their fancy tracking devices. What do you think? I don't want it to appear as if the players had absolutely no way of succeeding.
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Dec 8, 2014 13:19
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:35 |
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You could have it always there, but it's fighting an entire npc unit, which keep it tied up for a time.
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Dec 8, 2014 13:26
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I'm guessing these opposing armies are going to have mages/wizards/warlocks on the payroll, I'd have one of them summon a demon during the chase then take an arrow to the face at the right time to leave a very loving angry unbound hellspawn right near the players.
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Dec 8, 2014 14:15
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Or (stealing an idea from Deadlands) the slaughter on the battlefield draws a spirit of war and destruction into the world. The spirit builds itself a body from the flesh of the fallen, creating a hideous giant made of the broken corpses of the soldiers! The creature, of course, wants to destroy everyone around it. The PCs could come across the conglomerate monster as it's knitting itself together, or it could ambush them from plain sight as they pick their way through the bodies. E: Read "The Colussus of Ylourgne" to learn another way a giant built from corpses and animated by an evil will can work for YOU, the GM! E2: VV petrol blue posted:Necromancers love this housewife's simple trick! ftfy Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 14:52
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Necromancers hate this housewife's simple trick!
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Dec 8, 2014 15:16
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Cantorsdust posted:Not exactly sure where to ask this, but I figure here's good enough. For our next campaign, my wife wants to play a game with "sexy blue aliens." I need a space-opera RPG, but I'm not too familiar with the genre. I just finished a custom campaign, and I'm not looking to really create an entire new setting myself, so I'd ideally like to find something with a good established setting. I'm not opposed to some crunch, but I'm probably not going to be designing detailed floor plans for every spaceship and playing space quartermaster/accountant. It should have rules for squad-based ground combat as well as ship combat as well as mechanics for trading/social stuff. Also, maybe this is obvious, but there is a nice new Star Wars RPG out. Well-established setting, lots of sexy blue aliens, weapons and vehicles that can be upgraded, and rules for ground combat, space combat (both combats are abstracted, though, so you can use maps without needing them to be precise tactical ones), trading, and talking to people. Maps are probably the weak point, though, since there is a galaxy map, but not a lot of sector maps or whatever. Of the books that are out, you would want Edge of the Empire rather than Age of Rebellion. Unless you want to be Rebels.
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Dec 8, 2014 15:48
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What the hell do D&D monsters buy with all their gold? Like, say you're the floating head of an angler fish covered in eye stalks. You live in a cave. Where do you shop? What do you buy with all that stupid gold?
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Dec 9, 2014 08:30
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You ate a whole bunch of adventurers in your lifetime and gold, being famously nonreactive, doesn't digest well.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:34
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One school of thought is that the Dungeon is an entity with a consciousness - a sentient embodiment of the underworld. The gold is its bait.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:42
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Goblin hotdog stand.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:44
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gradenko_2000 posted:The gold is its bait.
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Dec 9, 2014 08:45
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gradenko_2000 posted:One school of thought is that the Dungeon is an entity with a consciousness - a sentient embodiment of the underworld. The gold is its bait. http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13408 quote:Can you kill the dungeon before it kills you? By Garth Hanrahan, who is completely loving awesome.
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Dec 10, 2014 03:12
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gradenko_2000 posted:One school of thought is that the Dungeon is an entity with a consciousness - a sentient embodiment of the underworld. The gold is its bait. Even if the Dungeon isn't, the Dungeon Keeper probably is. You know how those types get, with their imps and lust for gold.
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Dec 10, 2014 04:56
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Since you're one of the outcast races you can't go to town and buy anything. You would be killed and looted. Instead you have to pay black market prices for EVERYTHING. What humans spend 30 coppers on to furnish their house becomes 200 gold worth of item hot off the local thieves' guild fence. Or do you mean like the non-sapient ones? I don't usually give them gold (even if loot specifies it). I'm doing worldbuilding and making up a setting for a game I plan to run in the future. I am gonna be drawing a lot of the notable NPCs and locales. I am bad at drawing but good at doodling so I'm purposely just doing black/sepia ink on lined paper. Was considering doing a CYOA game set in the world here on the forums. I would do all the combat in the system I plan to use back-end with maybe a few explanatory mechanics posted. It would help me iron out kinks in the fluff and combat. Having the short story and images to dump on players at the start of the campaign would be really nice too. Do you think a CYOA drawn in the style of a bored teenager in math class would go over well? I did an unrelated freeform CYOA on another forum in the same style, but SA is a much bigger community and the quality of CYOAs here is amazing. There's some really talented artists. Here are some of the images from the old one I did:     "MY NAME IS EATS-THE-MOUNTAIN, BECAUSE I DO. AND ONCE YOU'RE DEAD I'LL EAT YOU TOO!" 
WITCHCRAFT fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 05:29
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I don't do CYOA's, but I really like that art.
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Dec 10, 2014 06:10
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Loki_XLII posted:I don't do CYOA's, but I really like that art. hell yeah, those are great
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Dec 10, 2014 09:14
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p-hop posted:Since you're one of the outcast races you can't go to town and buy anything. You would be killed and looted. Instead you have to pay black market prices for EVERYTHING. What humans spend 30 coppers on to furnish their house becomes 200 gold worth of item hot off the local thieves' guild fence. The monster that spawned my thought was the Gauth, the lil' Beholder. The manual said they attack parties just to rob them of their wealth.
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Dec 10, 2014 12:32
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They don't need gold, but parties of adventurers are the easiest, most mobile source of magic items. At worst they can be disenchanted and used to power an evil ritual. At best, you've accidentally stumbled upon a fabled mcguffin that you can use to draw in a cult of adoring worshippers. Plus, even if you, a beholder have no use for a big pile of gold, it's still handy for bribing young dragons with.
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Dec 10, 2014 15:19
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p-hop posted:Since you're one of the outcast races you can't go to town and buy anything. You would be killed and looted. Instead you have to pay black market prices for EVERYTHING. What humans spend 30 coppers on to furnish their house becomes 200 gold worth of item hot off the local thieves' guild fence. This has given me a great idea for a hook wherein the party come across a very poor goblin tribe who try (poorly) to trap travellers to ask them to go to a local town to buy the goods they need to survive (medicines, seeds, that sort of thing). And the nearest town is run by a man who uses the Goblin Threat to cover for his own corruption. But also: under those circumstances which of the townsfolk would be willing to be seen as a collaborator to profit from the goblins. Why haven't the goblins gone somewhere more accommodating? What is the mayor covering for? What would the goblins need to set themselves up better long-term? Yessssss I think my players will like it.
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Dec 10, 2014 18:20
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fallingdownjoe posted:Yessssss I think my players will like it. I really like that idea. Let us know how that goes if you use it.
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Dec 10, 2014 18:27
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fallingdownjoe posted:Why haven't the goblins gone somewhere more accommodating? What is the mayor covering for? What would the goblins need to set themselves up better long-term? Because the unscrupulous traders have convinced them that they're being far nicer than any other humans would be, just look at what those (paid conspirator) guys who threw rocks at you were saying! Not to mention that they don't have the supplies to travel far - no wagons, horses, etc. Sure, the adults could travel, but that'd mean leaving the kids and elderly (like any goblins live that long) undefended.
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Dec 11, 2014 01:05
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Lallander posted:I really like that idea. Let us know how that goes if you use it. Pretty sure I will, but I don't think we'll be playing till February at the earliest so if anyone wants to try it do say how it went! petrol blue posted:Because the unscrupulous traders have convinced them that they're being far nicer than any other humans would be, just look at what those (paid conspirator) guys who threw rocks at you were saying! Not to mention that they don't have the supplies to travel far - no wagons, horses, etc. Sure, the adults could travel, but that'd mean leaving the kids and elderly (like any goblins live that long) undefended. Oh, I like that. The party is all non-human so that could be a good reason why the goblins would be hopeful of help. And true, if the goblins think they have friends or allies who are willing to risk their own necks to help them, then they'd be very happy to believe that. I think it'll all work quite well!
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Dec 11, 2014 11:07
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Anyone have thoughts on how to add rennaissance style firearms into a game while A) foreshadowing that they'll be used so that it doesn't come out of nowhere but B) not making it completely obvious what the players are looking at. The PCs would be from a culture that has never encountered firearms before, they're completely new innovations from a secretive enemy. I know this is a bit broad, but a broad spectrum of thoughts would help here. For example, I was going to have a fort on the wilderness be massacred by firearms wielders and the players come across the aftermath. But I can't think of a way to describe a bullet without players automatically going "oh, its a bullet".
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Dec 11, 2014 19:37
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It's a bullet. A sling bullet. Only it's basically punched all the way through a dude, like a slingstone from a giant. Also, they're missing the graffiti that most sling bullets are inscribed with, like "Catch!" or "I hope this hits you in the dick!"
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Dec 11, 2014 20:02
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Maybe describe it like the aftermath of a Trail of Cthulhu thing? Something like... "The best comparision you can think of when looking at the fortress is 'magically summoned hailstorm'. There are holes and splinters everywhere, and you can trace that a very many somethings have gone through the outer palisade, the inner commander's house, and out the other side without stopping. The garrison are all dead. Most of the bodies have been pulverized and burnt beyond recognition. The ones that are left...you might prefer they be pulverized beyond recognition." If firearms are supposed to be a completely new surprise, then the best way to describe them might not be as firearms, but as the aftermath of Expullocean the Elder God of Explosions coming through and leaving his blown-out trail behind.
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Dec 11, 2014 20:04
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armoredgorilla posted:Anyone have thoughts on how to add rennaissance style firearms into a game while A) foreshadowing that they'll be used so that it doesn't come out of nowhere but B) not making it completely obvious what the players are looking at. The PCs would be from a culture that has never encountered firearms before, they're completely new innovations from a secretive enemy. I know this is a bit broad, but a broad spectrum of thoughts would help here. Think about what a gun and bullet are and try to describe them to yourself. Keep in mind that bullets actually date back far earlier; they were used heavily by slings. Let me think of some examples: The players come across the scene of the battle "Bodies are scattered haphazardly across the ground, blood pooling around them. There's even some splatter of blood on a few walls and tables, as if the fluid was violently expelled from them. Turning over one of the corpses, his face is the blank stare indicative of a rapid death. It takes a few moments to find, but eventually your finger digs through a hole torn in his shirt and digs into his stomach. Something has punched a hole in his gut. As you dig deeper, you find something hard and pull it out. It's a little piece of dark metal, smashed into an asymmetrical shape. It looks a lot like a sling bullet, but you don't know them to be shaped like this." The players encounter someone with a musket "He levels a crossbow at you. Wait, it's not a crossbow. There's no distinctive arms or string, merely a tube pointed at you. And something on the back.... BOOM The man is blocked by a cloud of thick grayish-white smoke and your ears hurt and ring at the sudden noise. You feel something whip through the air by your arm, but nothing is seen." chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 20:18
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I recently had that exact situation, where we discovered one in a traveller's luggage - we figured it looked like a musical instrument, and dimly-recalled legend confirmed it was a 'magic flute that makes people sleep'. Of course, that impression's going to change pretty fast once it gets used.
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Dec 11, 2014 22:29
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petrol blue posted:I recently had that exact situation, where we discovered one in a traveller's luggage - we figured it looked like a musical instrument, and dimly-recalled legend confirmed it was a 'magic flute that makes people sleep'. 
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Dec 12, 2014 00:43
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Just have some survivors rave about "boomsticks". That's all you need, and it will save you the embarrassment of your players going "Oh, they were muskets. There are muskets in out fantasy world  "
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Dec 12, 2014 00:52
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Rexides posted:Just have some survivors rave about "boomsticks". That's all you need, and it will save you the embarrassment of your players going "Oh, they were muskets. There are muskets in out fantasy world My friends aren't lovely nerds, they'll think it's fun. Thanks for the ideas folks
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Dec 12, 2014 06:27
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Do the Princess Mononoke thing. Say it looks like strange iron meteorites.
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Dec 12, 2014 07:21
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Rexides posted:Just have some survivors rave about "boomsticks".
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Dec 12, 2014 08:36
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Make your players think they're realizing that you added guns, then pull the wool over them again by revealing the wounds to be the product of a fearsome BULLETBEAST, which looks like an anteater but with a gun on it's snout.
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Dec 12, 2014 09:02
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My Lovely Horse posted:Magic Missile staffs. Wand of magic missile slingers.
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Dec 12, 2014 09:57
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Mimir posted:Make your players think they're realizing that you added guns, then pull the wool over them again by revealing the wounds to be the product of a fearsome BULLETBEAST, which looks like an anteater but with a gun on it's snout. And then when they're finally getting over that, have someone come in and save them from the bulletbeast by shooting it with a gun.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:16
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Mimir posted:Make your players think they're realizing that you added guns, then pull the wool over them again by revealing the wounds to be the product of a fearsome BULLETBEAST, which looks like an anteater but with a gun on it's snout. Bad Munki posted:And then when they're finally getting over that, have someone come in and save them from the bulletbeast by shooting it with a gun. This actually would not be out of place in our more common adventures.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:18
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And go "you brought swords to a gunfight?"
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Dec 12, 2014 16:19
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Also, take a page from the Princess Bride and its ROUSes and name your bulletbeast something like Great Unkillable Nastiness or something, but of course people just prefer to say GUN. What I'm saying is, make it guns, guns all the way down.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:23
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Bad Munki posted:And then when they're finally getting over that, have someone come in and save them from the bulletbeast by shooting it with a gun. But just before that happens, someone shows up in a futile attempt to kill it with their fire-arm. Because he's a wizard.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:46
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 00:35 |
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The campaign I just started is high fantasy and post-firearms. Gunpowder exists and has it's uses but guns are seen as loud, noisy and archaic. You could definitely build or find a gun, but it would most likely be a novelty or an antique. A wand of magic missile is generally accepted as the preferable alternative. Common folk prefer a bow and arrow for huinting because it won't scare away your target when used. Many ships and fortified cities are armed with cannons though because there just aren't many decent cheap alternatives for sinking a ship.
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Dec 12, 2014 17:01
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