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c0ldfuse posted:So after all this discussion I should still get XP right? Typical munchkin, only caring about numbers and rolls 
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Apr 30, 2015 03:35
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c0ldfuse posted:So after all this discussion I should still get XP right? Troubleshooters if you can, XP otherwise.
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Apr 30, 2015 13:45
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I played in a D&D 3.5 game a while back that I loved despite all odds. The game just had the weirdest, most dysfunctional group of players I've ever played with, but I still managed to have a good time and I have great memories of it. I had not played with any of these people before, and most of them I knew only for a short time through my roommate. The cast of characters: Our DM was a moody guy, and was my roommate at the time. He's a good guy, and I still game with him now. He was just moody in such a way that made it hard for him to cope with the more troublesome players (i.e. all of them) at times, so I and one of the other players had to do the diplomacy. It was also his first long term campaign. One of the players was a friend to the whole group, but happened to start dating the DM before the start of the game. She's OG, and has been playing D&D consistently since her brother introduced her when she was in kindergarten. I'm just stressing that she's not "the girl friend PC," because that is a thing that exists elsewhere. Besides me, she was the group's other diplomat, and is way better at it than me. She played a paranoid NG human paladin. One of the players was the DM's best friend. He is a power-maxer on paper and relishes the challenge of min-maxing systems. In game, though, he actually acts, but does so in a way that can sometimes cramp other people's style. He would seize upon other people's opportunities to shine, take it for himself, and grandstand like crazy. It should be noted that he is a big fan of big, cheesy, over-the-top anime, hence the grandstanding. He's a good guy in spite of it all. He played a NG half dragon spell sword or sword sage or whatever the gently caress they're called. I don't know how else to say it, so here goes: one of the players is legitimately on the spectrum. He's a really nice guy, probably the nicest one in the group, but he just loving loves Mega Man. Get him talking about Mega Man and it is loving on. He's awkward as hell and knowingly struggles with communication. Roleplaying is one way he tries to work through his communicaton issues. Toward that end, he deliberately made a NG human bard, and was (on paper, at least) the party's face. Welp. The oldest guy in the group was also our resident munchkin. He and I bonded at the very beginning over being veterans of 2nd Ed. D&D. We didn't know it at the start, but he came from a school of gaming that is more competitive than cooperative, both between the DM and the players, and between the players themselves. Naturally, he played a LE elven sorceress. You may see where this is going... I was the other elder statesman of the group. And by that I mean, I was in my mid-20's at the time, and most of the others were 19-22. I do more GMing than playing, so I was the defacto rules guy when the DM wanted feedback. I'm not a rules lawyer by nature, and I actually play fast and loose with rules when I run games, but I was willing to put in my two cents when the DM asked. I played a CG dwarven rogue crossbow sniper with 5 CHA and chain-smoked cigars (hence the emoticon). We had a friend of the group who wasn't actually in the game, but attended drat near every session. He said he hated D&D and refused to play, even when the DM offered for him to join, and even demanded it at a certain point. But he never did. He would just hang out, play video games, and make fun of poo poo that he overheard in the game. He's also a good guy in other contexts, but Jesus tap dancing Christ did everyone want to kill him at some point or another during the campaign. He's included here because he is a part of a lot of the stories in the way that a barnacle is part of the description of a boat. He played a CG no one, doing nothing, ever. By all rights, this group should not have gotten through a single session. We got through an eight month campaign. Not only that, but I enjoyed enough of it to have generally positive memories of it. most of the stories are about the dumb poo poo, but there are some good spots as well. I think most of that has to do with the fact that pretty much all of these people are good people, despite their struggles as a group. I'll share one later when I have a few more minutes. Here's a preview of some of the stories: "Sense and Snipability," or "Why You Don't Make an Evil Character in a Party with a Paladin" "The Crazy Cat Lady," or "Cats, Rats, and the Local Economics of Unmitigated Madness" "Never Split Up the Party," or, "the Most Awkward Game I Have Ever Played" "A Bard's Tears," or "Reasons Not to Trust Your Face" "The Peanut Gallery's Finest Hour," or "Don't Ever Be Absent for a Game" "How I Met Your Mother," or "Literally, How I Met My Wife Playing D&D" If anyone is interested in a specific story, I'm willing to take suggestions.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:23
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Railing Kill posted:If anyone is interested in a specific story, I'm willing to take suggestions. 
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Apr 30, 2015 17:29
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I'd love to hear How I met your Mother.
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Apr 30, 2015 17:31
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Start with "Never Split Up the Party"
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Apr 30, 2015 17:33
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Dr Snofeld posted:Troubleshooters if you can, XP otherwise. Or hold out for the reboot, isn't that supposed to come out this year? I know the playtest rulebook was released like last month.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:03
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High-Water Marx fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jan 24, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2015 18:11
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Baudin posted:I'd love to hear How I met your Mother. Definitely this one.
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Apr 30, 2015 18:12
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I suggest in chronological order, from start to finish. 
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Apr 30, 2015 20:23
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For future reference: here's the post about my D&D group. I'll use the emoticons there as their names. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258&pagenumber=169#post444733986 The cast: The DM. (I'll call him... The DM.) Played a LG human paladin. (I'll call her J.) Played a NG half dragon spell sword. (I'll call him Smaug.) Played a CG human bard. (I'll call him Megaman, which would make him the happiest man on Earth.) Played a LE elven sorceress. (I'll call him Munchkin.) Played no one and just hung around and trolled us. (I'll call him Statler.) Played a NG dwarven rogue. (This is me.)I'll post "Never Split Up the Party" before "How I Met Your Mother" because one is helpful to understand the other. "Never Split Up the Party," or "The Most Awkward Game I Have Ever Played" I mentioned before that the DM started dating one of the players shortly before the start of the first game. I didn't know any of them besides the DM prior to the first game. Everyone knew the DM, but did not necessarily know each other. I was more of an odd duck than the rest of them, but it was mainly the friendship with the DM and the game itself that brought the group together. That was a weird dynamic for me, since I don't usually game with people I don't know. So we all entered into this tenuous arrangement, and on top of that the DM had just started dating J. I also mentioned that the DM is a moody dude. I was his roommate at the time, and we got along well. I think I'm very easy going, but if I was less so his moods might have made it a bad fit. This was not the case with her. She's a great person, but she was not as easy going about his moods, and his moods were not easy on her. She didn't live with us, but she spent a lot of time around our apartment because she lived in a lovely dorm on the nearby campus. In hindsight, they were not a great couple. She admits now that it was more of a partnership of convenience than true affection, and it showed. At their best, they were nice enough, but at their worst they made games awkward. His moods knew no rhyme or reason, so they would sometimes trigger an argument between them literally minutes before people started showing up for the game. To their credit, they hid it well to the rest of the group, but as the roommate, I was witness to the whole thing and I was the one at the table sitting there thinking about how these two were just yelling at each other about groceries or something stupid and couple-y. That made things occasionally awkward, but not The Most Awkward Game I Have Ever Played. That came later. Over first six months of the campaign, the group developed a functional dynamic. J was the diplomat between the DM and whichever player was being dumb at that particular moment. I was the diplomat between the two of them, when need be. Smaug became a sounding board for all of the Munchkin's munchkiny ideas about min-maxing. Megaman became the group's affable mascot. Statler just sat around playing video games and provided the group with something to rally against when we needed it. So, one day Statler and I were out of the apartment playing VTES. It wasn't D&D day (thank god). Now, VTES is a fairly involved game and has a two hour time limit. It involves four or five players to a table, yadda yadda. He and I are at a table with three other players, 20 minutes into a game, and he gets a call. We gotta go. When? Now? Can we finish this game? Nope. Now. Gotta do it.He stands up and scoops without another word. He's normally pretty chatty, but he's uncharacteristically terse so I can tell something is up. We fold, which completely fucks up their game, but whatever. It's just a game. What he tells me in the car is that the DM and J have split up. She was at the apartment when we left. It's the middle of the night, and she doesn't drive, so she's stranded at the apartment of a dude she just split with. So we roar home. I expect to find him in the apartment brooding, and her wandering around outside. What we find instead is her sitting on the couch trying not to sob, looking more angry than sad, and him nowhere to be seen. So, at least she didn't have to wander into a sketchy neighborhood in the middle of the night, alone. But everything else is lovely. Statler takes her home and the DM eventually wanders back to the apartment two hours later from god knows where. His car never left the lot. Just wandering around in thought, I suppose. To make a long(er) story short, he dumped her. I guess he came to the same determination they both did, and he just chose to pull the trigger first. He felt bad about it, and she really wanted the social outlet that the game offered, so he invited her to keep playing. She did, just one week later, and man was that awkward as hell. So remember that awkward tension that I would sometimes have from their fights that no one else at the table detected? Well, now everyone had that. The problem was, some of the people at the table genuinely sucked at being diplomatic and judicious about dealing with it. Everyone is sitting there, tension all over the room thick enough to slice, just trying to focus on in-character stuff to avoid the out-of-character drama. Then, a well-meaning, awkward Megaman blurts out in the middle of a combat with some orcs, apropos of nothing: So, J, are you still going to spend the night here tonight, or do you need a ride back to campus? No, Megaman. I need a ride back to campus.  Oh, ok. I didn't know because you're here and I didn't know... the... yeah. Welp.I wish I could say that blew the tension out of the room. It didn't. The DM got moody and ended game abruptly and early, but not early enough. He probably shouldn't have held game at all that week. In the long run, things turned out well and she got right back into the swing of things. They were both good and mature about it, but no amount of maturity can cover over a wound that fresh. I don't care who you're talking about. It's just too soon. I barely even remember anything that happened in character that week because the whole thing is just a two hour knot of angst, and I'm sure everyone (except for the blissfully unaware Megaman) has the same memory of it. Luckily, it wouldn't happen again between the two of them. Years later, I'd marry J. Our baby is sitting next to me playing as I type this. The DM is coming over for a game in two hours. All is well. Next: "How I Met Your Mother."
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Apr 30, 2015 21:03
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Goddamn that's an awkward situation, glad it turned out really well though! After next story, my vote is on for "Don't ever be absent for a game" because it's a standing rule/agreement in our games that missing 2+ sessions in a row gets you nonfatally maimed by advancing the plot at your own expense; In the current Mage game, I had to miss a few sessions for exams, so in the interim was kidnapped by vampires and had my left leg horribly mangled (our GM always goes for the knees). Once I returned we had to rob an elderly Mafioso of his stache of chromium, so that I could have my leg rebuilt with sweet bionics (and also reconstruct the spine of a minor NPC who got punched by an 8ft tall vampire). Currently, our Spirit-talking Verbena Russel We eventually settled on "Tap into the mind-control network and give the leader a psychic uppercut" via a Mind ritual, and at the same time try to make sure that the leader is fully invested in the network and weakened via a multi-part assault on the underground tunnels this cult operates in. Should be fun! Someday I'll get to telefrag someone with a Correspondance ritual, and everyone will agree that it's the best and proper course of action.
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Apr 30, 2015 21:56
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First Paranoia Game, we ran 2 missions. 1st Mission Contained, Riley, Charlie and Francis, all gender neutral names on pre-fabbed characters. Francis was an Armed Forces, Empath, with a Communist Secret Society Francis Riley was a Printer Field Office Reporter, who never used their mutant power, and was allied with the sierra club. Riley Finally was Charlie, a Power Specialist, who had a registered Corrosive mutation, and was allied with the Free Enterprise group. Charlie Also friend computer was voiced by google translate. All note passing was done via text message. Paste these paragraphs in an English to English translation, then press the little speaker for the full effect (cuz that's how I did it.) http://pastebin.com/FNPfu2K8 I give them all 3 blank pieces of paper and give them 5 minutes of silence to doodle while they look over their MEcards that I made for them. (16 page micro books made with staples, a printer, a piece of card stock and careful cutting.) http://imgur.com/5EInm8R http://imgur.com/FxQovB1 http://imgur.com/HNW5jel http://imgur.com/rjRl3ei http://imgur.com/QcDx02U Francis was Loyalty Officer first mission, while Riley was equipment guy, and Charlie was Team Lead. Their job was simple, go fix a door that wasn't broken, they just need to make the functioning door more functional, they're equipment must be picked up from PLR (acquisitions,) and they will not have clearance issues. Charlie tries to use con games to get access to lasagna, but because lasagna is orange, and loved by a orange cat, it is above her clearance level. Friend Computer agreed to marinara sauce. Riley sneaks off, and goes too look for the door while Francis and Charlie pick up the equipment. While in the long PLR line, Francis gets their secret society mission, to replace the experimental epoxy with a bomb, and give the glue to the society.. In another part of the base, Riley is getting their secret mission to destroy this new experimental epoxy, and is given a green barrel to ensure it's done. They get to their equipment, but not before Charlie is testing out my personal limits and starts mouthing off to Friend Computer. I give the green light, (as she was saying treasonous things,) and Francis tries to kill her. Charlie runs, but is found by Riley who kills her with the green barrel. Francis switched the glue out. Charlie had a new clone who was Friend's Computer best friend, and decided she didn't need a secret society mission. Instead she was going to just make Francis and Riley miserable. When they got to the corridor where the broken door was they found they were in a red hallway staring at an orange door. They knocked on the ground in front of it, careful not too touch the door, and they met a yellow officer. The Yellow Officer allowed them temporary orange clearance to fix the door. Friend computer had called them about 6x now to ask if the door was fixed, they never seemed less then cheery once. They are about to fix the door, and Francis hands Riley the epoxy to test out, Riley doesn't want to use it, but Francis and Charlie insist, getting higher rolls, they force Riley to use the epoxy (that had been switched out for a bomb,) but Riley did a surprise inspection on it, found it was a grenade and "accidentally" broke it. (During this, Charlie rolls a 1 and steals her green barrel.) Riley then fixes the door and yellow guy comes back around and asks them to undo fixing the door. They say they're on orders from friend computer, and yellow guy asks friend computer to remind the reds of order of command. The unfix it, then re-fix it when he leaves, they try to sneak out but are stopped by yellow guy, orange guy, and an infra red. The camera's are disabled and Friend Computer states that, Charlie asks to do a power inspection on all the weapons, and Friend Computer forces them to comply. Then when she finds out there is an infrared in the room orders it terminated. Charlie uses her corrosive power to melt the power cells on all the weapons so they can't fire and called it "more efficient." Yellow can't shoot at them because he knows that friend computer can still hear, so he leaves with his busted weapons for interrogation later. They all throw each other under the bus during interrogation, Charlie makes a huge case against Riley being a member of a secret society and therefore a traitor. Good rolls mean the computer goes with it, and terminates Riley-1 Francis succeeded her mission, and later passed off the epoxy, so she got +2 to her secret society. The next mission involves checking camera's, and a moose that didn't exist. Turtlicious fucked around with this message at 08:46 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 08:24
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For the sake of reference, her eis the post about my old D&D group: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=169#post444733986 Last time: "Never Split Up the Party." This time: "How I Met Your Mother," or "Literally, How I Met My Wife Playing D&D" The cast: The DM. (I'll call him... The DM.) Played a LG human paladin. (I'll call her J.) Played a NG half dragon spell sword. (I'll call him Smaug.) Played a CG human bard. (I'll call him Megaman, which would make him the happiest man on Earth.) Played a LE elven sorceress. (I'll call him Munchkin.) Played no one and just hung around and trolled us. (I'll call him Statler.) Played a NG dwarven rogue. (This is me.)So, last time I mentioned that J and the DM were dating as the game began, and broke up about six months later. the group stayed together, despite the initial awkwardness, and the game continued on to its conclusion. But let's rewind a bit. At the start of the game, J made a paladin with an elaborate backstory. Her character was a guy that got kidnapped by a doppelganger and impersonated by him for several years before escaping. He never did find his doppelganger, so he was paranoid about doppelgangers in general. Because he never found and killed the doppelganger, he never got closure and constantly suspected everyone of potentially being a shapeshifter. J didn't play this to the hilt enough for it to be obnoxious, though. She was pretty measured about it. But it was enough of a thing for her character that she did things in character to act upon the paranoia. Enter my dwarven rogue, Swampy. He was a crossbow sniper, and more of an INT rogue than a DEX one. He was the skill guy, and the group's tactician. Everyone else was of pretty average INT and didn't have great skill points from their classes, so I carried the load for a lot of mundane skill checks. My character had a CHA of 5, though, so I acted as blunt as possible at all times. He wasn't mean, just... blunt, and swathed in cigar smoke at all times. There were more obvious choices for the paladin to pal up with in the group: the bard and the spell sword in particular. They were both literally Good characters, but they actually had more of a chaotic strain to them than mine. My rogue was NG, so he was less about the rogue as a career and more about it as a tactical position in combat. He was about being a sniper, not a looter. So, between that and the complimentary skill sets, the paladin gravitated toward the rogue and they became like a pair ina buddy cop film. I thoguht of it kind of like an Odd Couple kind of relationship. But the paladin was paranoid. No one else in the party, either in character or out, was willing to play along with the paladin's nuttiness. My rogue, though, was. He recognized the paladin's value to the group, and wanted to keep him around (and not going nuts and killing everyone in a fit of delirium). So, during one of the first games, the paladin had "reason" to believe someone inthe group had "been replaced," so my rogue stepped up. Boyscout. Come 'ere. Yes, Swampy? What is it? We need a signal. To make sure... doppelgangers don't infiltrate our group. Yes! Good idea. What should we do? We just need a common call-and-response that is plausible enough to seem like regular conversation, so we can use it in secret. It has to be something common, like "how's the weather," but with a slightly unusual response that can't be accidentally guessed by a doppelganger. Right. Yes. Yes. Ok. Let's use "How's the weather." What should the response be? *Thinks for a moment* "Hurricane's coming."From that point on, J's paladin and Swampy were pals. The irony was, the paladin never really did completely trust anyone in the party except for the rogue. From a functional standpoint, I recommend it for any D&D group with a paladin and a rogue. They complement each other well, as long as both of them look the other way often enough to let the other do their job. But besides that, the two of us bonded over the game as well. Like I said before, I didn't know anyone in this game except for the DM at the start of the game. I had ways to bond with each of the players, and this was the first one for J and I. At this point I should mention that I wasn't attracted to J at that point. It's basic bro-code stuff: don't mack on your roommate's girlfriend, and don't even put yourself in a position to think about it. I mean, she was an attractive woman (and still is  ), but I didn't let myself think of her as anyone other than another friend in the group. And it worked. We got along well, and in hindsight she was probably the one in the group that I enjoyed playing alongside most. The DM dated her for another six months, and even after their mid-game break up, I maintained the bro-code and didn't so much as think about her romantically, let alone pursue it. It honestly didn't occur to me at the time.It wasn't until a few years later, when both J and I had had a couple relationships come and go uneventfully that we came back on each other's radars. We had maintained our friendship, but we kind of went our separate ways for a couple years after the game ended. But we got back together and eventually started dating. J and I are married now. The game was seven years ago, and we started dating about four years ago. The inside of her wedding band reads, "How's the weather?" Mine reads, "Hurricane's coming." The jeweler gave us quite a look, but asked no questions. I still game with J and the DM regularly. J and I host a weekly 7th Sea game that another buddy runs. The old DM plays alongside us as a player now. I'm not naturally an optimist, but it is one of the examples I have from my life of a truly happy ending. The next story will be more of a funny one. I'll go with "The Peanut Gallery's Finest Hour," since that one was requested and the chronological order of things doesn't matter much for that one.
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May 2, 2015 18:29
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Railing Kill posted:The inside of her wedding band reads, "How's the weather?" Mine reads, "Hurricane's coming." The jeweler gave us quite a look, but asked no questions.
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May 2, 2015 19:10
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Yawgmoth posted:The jeweler is a doppelganger. No, the rings are. Your doom is imminent. Seriously, though... very touching.
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May 2, 2015 20:09
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"What do you need if you've got a cult gunning to kill you? You need an even bigger cult that has your back. That's why I've decided to move to Clearwater Florida and live in a Scientology compound until all of this blows over. All of you should all come with me." - Detective Ray Wexler. Just a quote.
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May 3, 2015 12:57
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God Of Paradise posted:"What do you need if you've got a cult gunning to kill you? My stagecraft and stage makeup teacher in college actually helped building the Scientology center, and he showed us construction pictures that nobody was ever meant to see. Basically, all of the neat spherical and curvy sci-fi stuff was built by random Florida contractors. The same guy participated in the building of much of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure.
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May 3, 2015 20:37
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chitoryu12 posted:Basically, all of the neat spherical and curvy sci-fi stuff was built by random Florida contractors.
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May 3, 2015 21:18
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RiotGearEpsilon posted:As opposed to... what, magic? Who else would build them? What's the unspoken alternative here? I assume the unspoken alternative was "scientologists."
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May 3, 2015 21:32
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Fumaofthelake posted:I assume the unspoken alternative was "scientologists." This. The idea is that everything in the center is supposed to be carefully crafted by the super future space guys with their secret knowledge of how the universe really works. You're not supposed to go "Some sweaty bald guy in between theme park construction jobs made your sphere chair out of fiberglass." Remember Kamino from Star Wars Episode II? That's basically what it looks like inside.
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May 3, 2015 22:33
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Isn't there a Scientology doctrine that basically says "Our idea of the actual reality of the universe doesn't look like a hacky science fiction story because it's written by a hack science fiction writer, no, it's because hacky science fiction is actually recovered memories of the actual reality of the universe!"?
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May 3, 2015 23:14
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point of return posted:Isn't there a Scientology doctrine that basically says "Our idea of the actual reality of the universe doesn't look like a hacky science fiction story because it's written by a hack science fiction writer, no, it's because hacky science fiction is actually recovered memories of the actual reality of the universe!"? I think so. It's been a while since I read about the "religion" in detail.
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May 4, 2015 00:37
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So we had a party wipe the other day. We're playing Deadlands. Deadlands, for the uninitiated, is a weird west game. So, to set the scene, we'd rolled into town at nightfall. I can't for the life of me remember the name of said town, but it's somewhere in Kansas. Kansas being Kansas, it is crazy windy (Non-US readers: Kansas is flat, terrible, and has no natural windbreaks), and the GM estimates the winds as being in the 45 mph range. This will be important later on. There are four of us. Shane is GMing, I'm playing a US Marshal, Gary is playing a bounty hunter, and Erik is playing a railroad worker/chi master. So, we came to town because we'd heard odd rumors about the dead rising from their graves, people being unable to sleep, strange monoliths in the plains... you know, the usual. We hitched up our horses and we're struggling against the wind toward the saloon when we're attacked by some kind of flesh-eating tumbleweeds, one for each of us. Again, Deadlands, so not too far out of the ordinary. We're pushing through the combat pretty quickly. The bounty hunter dispatches his tumbleweed with a bowie knife, I fan the hammer on my revolver and blow mine away, but the chi master is having trouble hitting his. Bad die rolls more than anything else, but still. So, I go to offer him a helping hand and shoot his tumbleweed. I draw my second revolver, fan the hammer, and accidentally put two rounds into the chi master's guts. Oops. I should here mention that we've been playing for a while, and, out of character, we were totally cool with this turn of events. Accidents happen. Now, in Deadlands, it's possible for two characters to go at the same time. Both myself and the chi master drew sixes for initiative, so we were acting simultaneously. In the same round that I accidentally shoot him, the chi master dispatches his tumbleweed. However, as dark as it is, combat being what it is, and my crazy low Scrutinize score being what it is, I completely failed to recognize that I had shot my ally. So I'm blowing the smoke off my revolver when the chi master comes up and, with a glare, sunders my revolver, exclaiming "You not shoot me!" This was something of a problem. Out of character, we took a quick smoke break to discuss where to go with that. Turned out that, in character, I balled up my fist and socked him as hard as I could. Suffice to say that things escalated from there. The fistfight turned into knives turned into my drawing a gun. So I'm putting a gun in his face, the bounty hunter is trying to grapple both of us simultaneously, the chi master is screaming obscenities in Chinese, you know. The chi master didn't use firearms, but he DID have a way with explosives. Erik (chi master): Alright, I pull out a stick of dynamite from my bandolier. Shane (GM): What? Erik: Yeah, I'll light it off my belt lantern. Shane: Okay, you're more or less in melee so you'll need to vamoose first if you want to throw that. Erik: Oh, no, I'm going to shove it in his mouth. Dice are rolled, and he succeeds in shoving the dynamite in my mouth. Needless to say, this kills all of us more or less instantly. But wait! The chi master kept a wagon full of dynamite, nitroglycerine, and all the rest that he'd need to excavate if he were working the rails. When his bandolier of dynamite went off (Yeah, it wouldn't work that way, but whatever), it demolished a good chunk of the podunk town we'd come to investigate. But it also started a good-sized fire. You remember those high winds? Yeah, we were walking AGAINST them when this fight started. So the fire, carried by the wind, rapidly spread all the way back to the stables, where it consumed the wagon and, well, the walking dead are really the least of that town's problems now. We are calling it a successful mission. GHOST_BUTT fucked around with this message at 13:22 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 13:15
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Not a story per se, but the preamble to a possible story down the road… At Free Comic Book Day this weekend, my current D&D GM and I were catching up with some old friends who had moved out of the area. GM – “Ok, I’m going to say this because Cobi is right here, I know he won’t say anything, and I know it’ll drive him absolutely insane. Someone in his party has a full-blown wish spell, and they don’t know they have it. I’m just waiting for them to say the magic word so all hell breaks loose.” Cobi – “…that’s brilliant. I’m just thankful it isn’t me.” GM – “How do you know it isn’t you?” Cobi – “I just joined the game. I don’t have any magic items yet. All I have is the gear I started the game with and it’s all mundane.” GM – “That’s right. All you have is what I gave you on your character sheet when you started the game. Everything I gave you.” Cobi – “…I hate you.” X X X X X In return, one of his friends gave us this line when his party found a magic sentient sword that…well…has a history… Sword – “I refuse to be wielded by a dwarf.” Player – “What the…did we find a RACIST talking sword?!?”
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May 4, 2015 14:12
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GHOST_BUTT posted:So we had a party wipe the other day. Awesome. If you're going to have a TPK, you have to at least try to take out a whole town on your way out. I'm pretty sure that's in the Hero Handbook or something. Our 7th Sea game almost had a TPK last week. We're at sea in the Midnight Archipelago (i.e. the Caribbean). I'm the captain of a ship, and the other PCs are all officers on the ship:  Katherine. Avalonian (English) Glamour sorceress. Career sailor from a minor noble family of naval officers. Bullshit artist. Captain. James. Avalonian (English) young gun. Trying to learn the principles of command despite being seventeen. May have... other reasons for seeking command. Second Mate. Alana. Inish (Irish) prizefighter. Drinker and storyteller extraordinaire. Master of the Tops (i.e. in charge of the sails). Vignar. Vesten (Norwegian) warrior. Tank, bodyguard, and defensive specialist. But also a berserker when need be. Sergeant-at-Arms. Sebastian. Castillian (Spanish) scholar, theologian, and medical doctor. Also a closet fire mage. The ship's doctor. Peter. Montaigne (French) knife fighter. Is an assassin for a secret society, but also does the necessary evils for the good of the crew. Technically, not an officer (he prefers anonymity).We were pursuing a lead on a notorious pirate named The Valkyrie. Little is known about her, mostly because all of the information is clearly bullshit: she's twenty feet tall, she can command the sea itself, her ship is an invincible force of nature, and so on. There is a substantial bounty for her capture, though, so we go after it. (Vignar is one her countrymen and would have spoken out against the mission, but his player wasn't around when we took up the mission.  He joined in on the next game, after we found The Valkyrie). James found the bounty and was the most vocal about pursuing it. He made a convincing argument so, off we went.When we found The Valkyrie at sea, they tried to waylay our ship. They could, as it turns out, at least control the wind and weather. We had a trick up our sleeve though, and ambushed them when they came alongside to board what they thought was a defenseless vessel. We opened up with our hidden gunports and did significant damage before they maneuvered away with oars. They tried to "cross the T" while we were immobilized, but we managed to pivot our ship with some creative actions on deck. We peppered them with cannon strikes a few more times, and they hit us a couple times and hit us with lightning once. Katherine used her own magic to heal our ship's damage, in an attempt to appear invincible. By the time they maneuvered back in for a boarding again, their ship was slowly sinking and ours appeared unharmed. Their crew outnumbered ours 3 to 2, and were legendary for their ruthlessness. As their crew gathered on the deck of their ship to board us, Katherine called over to them: I am Captain Katherine Lyons, and I am here to accept your surrender!They did not see the humor in it. They came over with pretty much everyone they had, since their ship was sinking. We paused the game there. Vignar's player was at the next game, as was everyone else. The crew saved Vignar from a slave ship a while back (when his player joined up in the middle of the campaign), so he is fiercely loyal to Katherine and the crew. But he is also a Vesten bearsark, and The Valkyrie is a national hero to the Vesten people. He resolved to go on all-out defense, to protect the crew while not attacking The Valkyrie. He pleaded with Katherine, who is a known bullshit artist, to try to parley with them, to avoid any killing. The rest of the crew scoffed at the idea, but I made the attempt anyway. With Vignar's help, Katherine was actually able to talk The Valkyrie down from the ledge. I put every resource I had into those negotiation rolls, and even then I needed a ton of luck to succeed as much as I did. But it worked. We agreed to tow them to a safe place where they could repair their ship, and instead of turning them in for the bounty, partner with them. Seeing that the Valkyrie wasn't actually an evil monster made it easy to turn on the bounty. An alliance with them would have been more valuable than the bounty anyway. Then James, my second mate, stepped forward. And by "stepped" I mean "lunged." With a sword. That he had poisoned. Without any other PCs knowledge. With one of the most lethal poisons in the game. "This is for my mother, my father, and my brothers! Die, you wicked beast!"His yell alerted Vignar, but James' player rolled an absolutely insane roll to hit The Valkyrie, so there wasn't much Vignar could do. Vignar actually got in the way with one of his skills ("Interpose") , but got ran-through and pushed back so that The Valkyrie got stabbed as well. To top it all off, we found out a bit later that James, who is unskilled with the use of poisons, accidentally dosed himself with the stuff days earlier, when he was applying it to the blade. So now we have two PCs and a key NPC dosed with a poison that kills slowly but incurably over many weeks. Keep in mind that none of the other PCs knew anything about this. James apparently had his whole family die on a freighter that was attacked by The Valkyrie. e was orphaned from a young age as a result. James' player kept his character's revenge background against The Valkyrie a secret, as well as his actions in pursuit of his revenge. No one knew that he was Ahab, and that The Valkyrie was his white whale. No one knew he pushed for the bounty specifically to get an opportunity to kill her. No one knew his life at sea, his whole career as an officer, was a sham to put himself in a position to find and kill this woman. PCs in 7th Sea all have secret backgrounds and personal plots, but they're usually open secrets. The players know, even if the characters don't. Sebastian's fire magic is a secret to every other character except Katherine (who noticed him use it once and agreed to keep his secret). But the players know what Sebastian is. Not even the players knew what James was planning. We were all stunned, in and out of character. So, all hell breaks loose. The Valkyrie is crippled but the rest of her crew attacks. At this point, everyone at the table, including the GM, is thinking "this is a total party kill." The Valkyrie's crew significantly outnumbers ours, and most of them outstrip us on paper. But with some creative actions, tenacity, and a ton of good rolls, we are able to fight them to a draw. In the melee, James finished off the Valkyrie in a phase of the combat when both Katherine and Vignar could see what he was doing, but could do nothing to stop him. He then got hacked to pieces by The Valkyrie's psychotic first mate. Not literally, but he was dead by all rights. James' player spent his last "Drama Die," a spendable resource in 7th Sea, to keep from dying for one round. He played dead. When the battle was over, James was actually the only PC was lost. A bunch of the Valkyrie's crew was over the side and/or crippled, but she was the only one dead. We shouted for the doctor immediately, but she was too far gone. We were able to save James, though. So now we have to pick up the pieces, and we have a PC whose death wish just got fulfilled. But he's still alive. the next game is going to be interesting. Oh, and Sebastian is going to try to devise a cure for the poison. He has several weeks to figure out something no one has been able to do for centuries, or else Vignar and James will both die. 
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May 4, 2015 15:27
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That story makes James' player sound like a COLOSSAL dickbag, by the by.
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May 4, 2015 15:52
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thespaceinvader posted:That story makes James' player sound like a COLOSSAL dickbag, by the by. He isn't, really. 7th Sea is a game about secrets and personal agendas, to a big extent. He did go out of his way to do his thing under the radar of everyone else (and almost get us all killed in the process), but it's understandable. It's not how I or most players usually play 7th Sea, but it's a thing you could do within the tone of the game. Than again, the last 7th Sea campaign I played alongside him, he played an authoritarian Eisen (German) noble and my character came to blows with him a couple times over his bullheadedness, and my character almost shot his once when the noble tried to summarily execute an NPC. James' player just likes being an occasional antagonist, and he's good at it. It doesn't usually derail the whole game, and it usually creates interesting, dramatic moments when it does come up, so I don't mind it. if he were more one-note about it, he'd be a troll and I would hate it. But he does others things besides gently caress with the other PCs. Other players I've played with are huge dickbags and troll the other PCs almost exclusively. I'll get to that later in a story about the old D&D group...
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May 4, 2015 16:01
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Started playing in an already-establish Pathfinder campaign a couple weeks ago. The backstory isn't terribly relevant, so I'll cut to the key point: My Gnome Fighter has joined up with a party (a useless-in-combat Bard/Wizard, a Rogue, and a Ranger). The first night I meet them, one of them is attacked by a vampire they had pissed off a while ago in the middle of the night. I rush to help out and do some serious damage to the vampire, who transforms into mist and escapes. Some days later, the vampire returns and attacks the Rogue in her sleep. We all burst into the room, ready to fight... and the Vampire uses Charm Person. On me. With my +3 Will save. I am dominated with the Wizard and Rogue on my flank and the Ranger in the back in melee with the vampire. I fumble one of my attacks and cause myself to bleed, but I proceed to crit the Rogue twice and bring her to one HP away from death. The Vampire crits the ranger and does the same thing. The Wizard/Bard's NPC retainer stabilizes the Rogue, and I, still under the effects of mind control... crit the Bard/Wizard and knock him unconscious, too. We're all vampires now.
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May 4, 2015 21:39
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Pathfinder's vampire template gives fast healing 5, 10 resistance against cold, electricity, and any weapon that isn't silver and magic, creature summoning, level drain on any attacks with its fists (which are now natural weapons and therefore better than fists), at-will domination equivalent to a level 12 caster, a shitload of free feats, skills, and stats, and immortality unless you can find their coffin. The vampire template gives a +2 CR adjustment to any creature you put it on. Do not use the vampire template.
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May 5, 2015 02:52
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Well, too late. GM declared we were all taken captive and vampirized. Hand wavey *time has passed* stuff happened and now the vampire that used my character to kick our asses is missing. Or something. It's a strange game. I don't mind, though, I'm there to roll dice, drink beer and stuff my face with terrible snacks. But I'll have to keep that in mind in the unlikely event I ever run a Pathfinder game.
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May 5, 2015 03:04
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The Crotch posted:Pathfinder's vampire template gives fast healing 5, 10 resistance against cold, electricity, and any weapon that isn't silver and magic, creature summoning, level drain on any attacks with its fists (which are now natural weapons and therefore better than fists), at-will domination equivalent to a level 12 caster, a shitload of free feats, skills, and stats, and immortality unless you can find their coffin. I don't see anything in your litany that merits that last line. Absolutely use the vampire template, give it to all of them, and then BRUTALLY ABUSE the fact that all your PCs are now functionally immortal. The DM already had the good sense not to make it a "welp, guess the campaign's over" moment, I see no reason not to go full awesome.
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May 5, 2015 12:02
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point of return posted:Isn't there a Scientology doctrine that basically says "Our idea of the actual reality of the universe doesn't look like a hacky science fiction story because it's written by a hack science fiction writer, no, it's because hacky science fiction is actually recovered memories of the actual reality of the universe!"? From what I read on Clambake and similar, they seem to have a belief that every idea anyone ever has is actually a resurfaced memory from their soul's distant past. Like, if you close your eyes and randomly think of yourself riding a horse in a field, that's because sometime and somewhere you did ride a horse in a field, and that's why you had that thought rather than a different one. Which kind of explains why they accept a lot of the stuff they do, and while it seems a bit nutty (in particular, where did the first art come from?), it gives pause to think that it's not like anyone else has any better explanation of ideas other than their being random, which feels kind of dehumanizing.
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May 5, 2015 12:20
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FrostyPox posted:I fumble one of my attacks and cause myself to bleed, but I proceed to crit the Rogue twice and bring her to one HP away from death. Next time you go up against an army, just infiltrate the army as one of the combat trainers and have the entire army train themselves by swinging a sword at a dummy for an hour. The entire army will be dead and you might even get the XP for it! D&D style critical fumbles are awful, especially since characters with more attacks are more likely to fumble, despite the fact that they are now objectively better at fighting than they were when they had only one attack.
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May 5, 2015 12:43
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Dirk the Average posted:D&D style critical fumbles are awful, especially since characters with more attacks are more likely to fumble, despite the fact that they are now objectively better at fighting than they were when they had only one attack. Agreed. We always had fumble and crit tables ready to keep high-level warriors with tons of attacks from somehow tripping over their own wrists. We were into tactical combat, even in combat-light campaigns, and having things like reduced movement (due to leg wounds), loss of strength (arm wounds), loss of vision (cuts above/to the eye) made for very exciting fights.
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May 5, 2015 16:50
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We had our season finale of WWWRPG. The Cinco De First was Tawni and her (absent this week) boyfriend Johnny Social vs the Third Dimension, a team that we certainly didn't keep calling "Team 3D". Tawni had to think fast when she found out Johnny wasn't attending. But what to do? Tawni called out the winners of the night's tag elimination match, The King's Court, for bitching, and invited them to join the main event! Mostly because 2 heel teams would give her the advantage. With Johnny STILL not in attendance, she had to improvise , so she declared she and her beau would wear masks in honor of Mexican history. She teamed with Speed Demon #1, who was a great luchador (except for forgetting he was a heel and trying to pump up the crowd repeatedly). And in classic greaser fashion, they pulled lots of poo poo. Johnny started the match by poking his opponent in the chest...and having made physical contact, immediately tagging in an opponent. The duo then attacked the non-legal man on the outside. Which led to the surviving opponents deliberately not tagging them in. Eventually, Tawni slapped the champ on the back, tagging herself in...while "Johnny" put on brass knucks and cracked the guy in the mouth. Tawni covered the champ for the one-two-three, cementing her place as a It was around this time that I introduced another great character, Noreen St. George. She was an attache to the British Ambassador to the US and had very little idea what Husman's Pro Wrestling was about, and referred to almost every wrestler as "that horrid man." Second was Double Barrel Daisy vs. Flying heel Raptora, a match that can be summarized by this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMrjQCO1Pw but actually ended in interference from El Toro, who THREW RAPTORA at Daisy, and featured a sneak attack from a t-shirt cannon. Going last was Jodi Wales vs. The Prep, a match that ended with Jodi driving Max through the stadium's speakers, him trying to get the match ruled a no-contest, and Jodi grabbing the mic and declaring herself the winner . Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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May 6, 2015 07:53
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JustJeff88 posted:Agreed. We always had fumble and crit tables ready to keep high-level warriors with tons of attacks from somehow tripping over their own wrists. We were into tactical combat, even in combat-light campaigns, and having things like reduced movement (due to leg wounds), loss of strength (arm wounds), loss of vision (cuts above/to the eye) made for very exciting fights. Were there miscast tables for the casters?
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May 6, 2015 08:02
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Oh, and it turns out the heel commentator Jesse Ventura (who Noreen calls "governor Jesse") is part of Enigma Force Five. Which means our federation is in continuity with Comedy Bang Bang.
Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Sep 4, 2015 |
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May 6, 2015 08:22
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Anticheese posted:Were there miscast tables for the casters?
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May 6, 2015 15:14
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I've been running a Pathfinder Skull and Shackles campaign for a few months, mostly because we started playing the Adventure Card Game and I got the itch to actually play in a game, then made piece with the fact that I wouldn't be able to trick anyone into running it. One of the players has rolled a d20 in the past, but it's been a while, so he decided to be related to one of the more veteran players. They both wanted to be Half-Orcs and also be related, so they became Half-Orc Half Brothers, born of a marauding pirate mother who would shack up with a guy in port, then pop them out and ditch them with the dad. The rest of the party followed suit. Our adventurers are: The Swashbuckler/Gunslinger, played by the older grognardy guy. He's our crunchy rules arbiter, though I've overruled him a couple of times when the mechanics get in the way of the fun, but he's been fine with the decision in the end. The Barbarian, played by the new-ish guy. He took a trait that gives him a bite attack, then a feat and Rage powers that make him bite harder. When he's raging, he bites with a d10! This is probably not mechanically sound, but I allowed it because he's got great big honking tusks. Bonus: his name is Barq. Because he has bite. The Rogue, played by a completely new player. He comes from Video Games, and it shows- his initial build saw his points spread evenly across all of his stats, and dual-wielding, because that's what Rogues do in his video games. We managed to talk him down to something more reasonable when he realized that he would have trouble hitting a peasant, let alone someone with actual bonuses to their AC. He wound up thanking us for our advice in the end. The Alchemist, played by a guy who can't make it, but has given his blessing to be auto-played, and loves ridiculous character builds. He's The Worst Orc, tiny, weak, smart, and who loves brewing. Mostly hangs out behind the party, hiding behind people and throwing bombs. Also the party healer. The Swashbuckler/Sorceror, played by a good friend of mine who took the Arcane Brawler archetype so he can start swapping out combat feats on the fly. Focuses on using a whip to trip people, because he loves being a jerk to people we're fighting.On the whole, things have been going well! is helping keep everyone on track mechanically and doling out adventurer advice, is axing and biting every drat thing into oblivion, is occasionally sneak attacking things but usually nearly dying because he tends to charge out into the open, getting dogpiled, is failing at physical challenges and healing , and is magic missiling and tripping the hell out of anyone he can.So far our campaign highlight is the creation of an unlikely adversary. At one point in the first module, the party has to save some crewmates from a Grindylow lair. Think Goblin/Sharktopus. They kill almost every Grindylow, save one, which fails a morale check and bolts when crits a bite on one of his fellows and the crit hit deck says it was particularly gory. The party goes on to beat the bosses. The module says that one of them is supposed to flee when the other goes down, becoming an ongoing nemesis, but I decide that, hey, a Grindylow got away. He knows about their ship, having helped crash it into a reef in the first place, and assumes they're there, so he heads out for revenge. Let's do this.Later, they're trying to sneak back onto their ship in order to mutiny against the current captain, since he was planning on killing them anyway, but while they're trying to get on deck, they hear screaming. Meanwhile, I'm making rolls for That Grindylow, which has managed to sneak up onto the ship unnoticed, Crit one pirate to death on deck, then cripple another. That Grindylow proceeds to knock out two more pirates while the party tangles with the pirate captain and his first mate. manages to take out That Grindylow (after missing it three times), knocking it overboard. The players have been joking that That Grindylow is going to come back more powerful than before, so I'm planning on doing that. I'm not 100% on how that's going to work, but they'll probably be tangling with this thing again at some point.
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May 6, 2015 15:48
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