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HERO, obviously oh god don't use HERO
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May 26, 2015 21:43
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As a related question, are there any published rpg magic systems with interesting restrictions and conditions? For example, instead of having a 20' range, the range is as far as your shadow is long. Or spells that can only be cast during a storm, or at a particular time of day (or night), or spells requiring interesting spell components such as a maiden's sigh. That sort of thing? I have a player that's always wanted this kind of system, and I agree with him that it'd be awesome. But finding some good rules for it... I have no idea if this has ever been done.
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May 27, 2015 05:46
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It'd be kind of interesting to design but impossible to actually express in mechanical terms or occur in gameplay for normal spell-slinging. Most Ritual casting stuff will have that though.
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May 27, 2015 05:54
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Iunnrais posted:As a related question, are there any published rpg magic systems with interesting restrictions and conditions? For example, instead of having a 20' range, the range is as far as your shadow is long. Or spells that can only be cast during a storm, or at a particular time of day (or night), or spells requiring interesting spell components such as a maiden's sigh. That sort of thing? There's bits of that in Ars Magica; A lot of spells have a duration of Sun: They last till the next sunrise or sunset. Some have 'moon', which lasts until the next new or full moon. House Merinita stuff (Faerie Magic) in particular is good for this, with options to cast spells on a entire bloodline, or spells broken with a particular set of conditions.
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May 27, 2015 05:57
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There's a LOT of that in Ars Magica if you start picking up supplements. It's very friendly to unusual and mythic feeling magic that can still be modeled with consistent rules.
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May 27, 2015 06:50
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Iunnrais posted:As a related question, are there any published rpg magic systems with interesting restrictions and conditions? For example, instead of having a 20' range, the range is as far as your shadow is long. Or spells that can only be cast during a storm, or at a particular time of day (or night), or spells requiring interesting spell components such as a maiden's sigh. That sort of thing? In Changeling the Lost all powers (contracts) have a Catch, a condition that makes the contract free to use if it's met. Those are exactly as obscure as those you named.
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May 27, 2015 09:17
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I have an issue that I think you all have had before. The player who doesn't do any homework for their character. Currently she is new to the system (DND 5e) but has been playing in my friends Star Wars Saga campaign for nearing a year. The problem is that during each session I have to spend a large amount of session time explaining to her the rules and concepts of her character and the system. Currently she is playing an Eladrin Cleric and i have recommended in the past that she play a more hack and slash character until she gets a hang of the system. She likes her Cleric so i moved along. Normally in this instance I would ask the person if she is really interested in the campaign and system and if they want to continue. However she is married to one of my other players and if she wants to leave he will go as well. Since he is playing the Bard and group face in this adventuring party, this would throw my campaign into chaos. What would be an advisable course of action here?
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Jun 1, 2015 13:40
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What parts aren't she getting? Everything since 3.5e has boiled down to "roll d20+modifiers, rolling higher is always better", with the rest being what those modifiers actually are/where they come from. Maybe you could give her (or ask her to make) a one-page cheat sheet of combat actions, and/or index cards for her available spells?
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Jun 1, 2015 13:53
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Tiki Powers posted:I have an issue that I think you all have had before. The player who doesn't do any homework for their character. Currently she is new to the system (DND 5e) but has been playing in my friends Star Wars Saga campaign for nearing a year. The problem is that during each session I have to spend a large amount of session time explaining to her the rules and concepts of her character and the system. Currently she is playing an Eladrin Cleric and i have recommended in the past that she play a more hack and slash character until she gets a hang of the system. She likes her Cleric so i moved along. Maybe have a frank discussion with her about the fact that her lack of understanding of her character is hampering the game. Frame it as a constructive conversation about what can be done to increase her enjoyment and understanding of the rules. Something like "I feel like we've been over the rules a couple of times, is there something you're having a hard time understanding?". Brought up away from the table. Other than that cheat sheets might be a good alternative, tho in my experience someone not understanding the rules tends to gloss over or just ignore cheat sheets.
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Jun 1, 2015 14:06
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gradenko_2000 posted:What parts aren't she getting? Everything since 3.5e has boiled down to "roll d20+modifiers, rolling higher is always better", with the rest being what those modifiers actually are/where they come from. A lot of it is lore based. Not knowing about her chosen deity, not acting like a cleric in situations that are tailored for that type of character etc. As far as mechanics ill try the spell cards because she does spend a long time looking up each spell each turn to figure out what to cast. She seems afraid to use spell slots over her 0 level spells just incase she needs to cast something later.
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Jun 1, 2015 14:07
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gradenko_2000 posted:What parts aren't she getting? Everything since 3.5e has boiled down to "roll d20+modifiers, rolling higher is always better", with the rest being what those modifiers actually are/where they come from. Index cards is what I always do when I play a d20 spellcaster. If I'm deviating from my usual loadout, I make a new index card. It saves everybody a ton of time when the caster's not consulting a book every 10 minutes. As a GM, I like index cards for treasure, as well. If somebody finds a cool magical sword or whatever, I'll make an index card with all its stats and weird properties to give to the player. On the other side of the card, I draw a picture of the item. If she's having issues remembering how to do stuff, a cheat sheet really does help. It's a pain to make one up, but then you can keep it on file in case somebody else needs one. I recommend categorizing it by "action types". So, a section on "Fights", a section on "Talking", a section on "Investigation", and so on. You pretty much want to give them a GM screen, but dedicated to player actions and responses. Edit: Tiki Powers posted:A lot of it is lore based. Not knowing about her chosen deity, not acting like a cleric in situations that are tailored for that type of character etc. As far as mechanics ill try the spell cards because she does spend a long time looking up each spell each turn to figure out what to cast. She seems afraid to use spell slots over her 0 level spells just incase she needs to cast something later. The whole not acting like a cleric thing can be rough, and it probably does stem from not doing any homework. I find that people who have even a cursory knowledge of their character's deity can usually pull off a pretty fun "renegade" cleric. In prior campaigns, I've had a player who basically read that paragraph about their god in the PHB and that's it, and it's resulted in a pretty awesome "oh, that's why they send you into the woods for adventures" type of character. Spouting one-liners as she incinerates the undead with glorious holy light like, "Once you're dead, you're dead to Pelor!" I think it's not too much to ask somebody to come up with a consistent code of behavior that their character aspires to follow. deadly_pudding fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Jun 1, 2015 |
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Jun 1, 2015 14:11
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Does anyone have any advice with balancing for a larger party in 5e? In particular, Princes of the Apocalypse? We're two sessions in, and right out the gate the fact that there are 6 players lets them swarm at pretty much everything being thrown at them so far.
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Jun 1, 2015 15:29
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Toes posted:Does anyone have any advice with balancing for a larger party in 5e? In particular, Princes of the Apocalypse? We're two sessions in, and right out the gate the fact that there are 6 players lets them swarm at pretty much everything being thrown at them so far. Now, I don't know how well the encounter design of POTA cleaves to the game's own built-in encounter-building rules, but generally you want to have at least one monster per player, and possibly outnumber the party outright to increase the difficulty even more.
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Jun 1, 2015 15:38
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Toes posted:Does anyone have any advice with balancing for a larger party in 5e? In particular, Princes of the Apocalypse? We're two sessions in, and right out the gate the fact that there are 6 players lets them swarm at pretty much everything being thrown at them so far. Rule of thumb for low level encounters is 1 monster or 2-4 minions (whatever 4e calls the baddies with 1 hp ) per player. I've been noticing that often the pre-written modules are walkovers lately. If your party isn't even using most of their encounter powers you could try combining encounters together until you get to a level of difficulty you and your players enjoy. So instead of having three easy encounters you can have one hard fight that covers all the same ground. That's what one of the DMs I used to play with did and it worked well even if boss fights were a little anticlimactic sometimes.
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Jun 1, 2015 16:40
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For my next Dungeon World campaign, I'm thinking of doing some sort of "around the world in X days" story. Basically, they start at some place and need to end up there again within a certain timeframe, crossing a fantasy world as they do so. I could crib from "around the world in 80 days" and fluff it as "you guys made a drunken wager" or something like that, but I'd actually like there to be more of an incentive for them to do this, and more importantly, for people to try and stop them. One of the players also said he was interested in playing a Slayer (basically, a Monster Hunter) so there's that. So now, my dilemma: How do I give them some sort of incentive to hoof it around the world and keep their eyes on a time limit, while also letting antagonists interrupt them at every turn? I could fluff it up as a race, where other contestants play it fast and loose with the rules and try to off the competition. But then it'd be difficult to give them a "you have X days before you lose!" limit. It'd be an estimation at best. Or do I let them do it as some sort of personal voyage where they take their sweet time? This might help the Monster Hunter angle more (travel the world! Discover amazing fauna and flora, then kill it!) but they risk stranding two countries over and dicking around instead. Which I wouldn't mind a lot, but our last campaign was very sandboxy and chaotic and we all agreed a bit of a tighter narrative would work. Hence, my idea to give them a rough "do this" objective and letting them freely pursue it, but reminding them of the plot thread a lot.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:01
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Deltasquid posted:For my next Dungeon World campaign, I'm thinking of doing some sort of "around the world in X days" story. Basically, they start at some place and need to end up there again within a certain timeframe, crossing a fantasy world as they do so. I could crib from "around the world in 80 days" and fluff it as "you guys made a drunken wager" or something like that, but I'd actually like there to be more of an incentive for them to do this, and more importantly, for people to try and stop them. One of the players also said he was interested in playing a Slayer (basically, a Monster Hunter) so there's that. So now, my dilemma: First thing off the top of my head, if one dude is a monster hunter, is that you guys are doing a sort of cross between a cannonball run, where you and a bunch of different colourful characters are racing around the world, and a great hunt, where you are following the migration route of some kind of giant monsterous beast. Maybe a giant Island Turtle or something, maybe something a little quicker. The beast could be on it's way to it's breeding or hatching grounds (on the other side of the world) and then it's a race home with some kind of special material, like eggshell or something, that is only harvestable at that particular time and place, and maybe it doesn't last long. Obviously, there are a bunch of people after the limited supply who are willing to do anything to possess the mythic component. And it clearly needs to be transported back to the Mage Spire or whatever the gently caress to be processed within a strict time limit, or it's useless and rather than a poo poo ton on money, your players don't get squat!
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Jun 1, 2015 21:15
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Prison Warden posted:First thing off the top of my head, if one dude is a monster hunter, is that you guys are doing a sort of cross between a cannonball run, where you and a bunch of different colourful characters are racing around the world, and a great hunt, where you are following the migration route of some kind of giant monsterous beast. Maybe a giant Island Turtle or something, maybe something a little quicker. That would work super! And what if the player decides to not be a monster hunter after all? I guess we can still work with this plot, then, but some other ideas would be nice as well. the campaign isn't going to start until mid-summer probably so he might have changed his mind by then.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:28
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Two of four players in my campaign (D&D 5e) are hell-bent on being able to reliably shove goodberries down the throats of unconscious targets to instantly revive them with 1HP. But the PH explicitly states that you need an action to eat a goodberry, and that you can't take actions when unconscious/incapacitated. I quoted them chapter and verse, told them that the PH gives a hard NO to their plans, but I wanted to propose an alternative. Any ideas? The ranger loves to cast goodberry once per day, and has even gone so far as to hold on to a spell slot to ensure this; such is her love for goodberries. I'm just not about to say "sure" and hand them access to 10+ mini versions of Cure Wounds every day.
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Jun 1, 2015 22:01
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Five goodberries can be made into a goodberry poultice that can be slapped on gaping wounds by other people, hurrah.
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Jun 1, 2015 22:07
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DOWN JACKET FETISH posted:Five goodberries can be made into a goodberry poultice that can be slapped on gaping wounds by other people, hurrah. Thanks, I hadn't thought if that -- we'll see how it goes. It's a party with a ranger, bard, cleric, and paladin, and a druid NPC -- 4/5 have access to Cure Wounds, 3/5 have taken it as a spell. Not exactly relying on the berries, are they?
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Jun 1, 2015 22:22
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If you're running Dungeon World, isn't the correct answer to ask your players "Why are you trying to make it across the world, what's in your way, and what happens if you fail?" and just go from there?
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Jun 1, 2015 22:36
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Loki_XLII posted:If you're running Dungeon World, isn't the correct answer to ask your players "Why are you trying to make it across the world, what's in your way, and what happens if you fail?" and just go from there? Not all parties like to play like this. Mine just stare at me blankly and go, "uhh aren't you the DM, what have you been doing all week?!"
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Jun 1, 2015 22:41
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Loki_XLII posted:If you're running Dungeon World, isn't the correct answer to ask your players "Why are you trying to make it across the world, what's in your way, and what happens if you fail?" and just go from there? That's how we did the last two campaigns. Both times they bumbled around until I found some sort of endgame goal and let them work for that. My group prefers to have me go "You're at A. You're going to B. Fill up everything in between those with as much mayhem and chaos you like, but don't forget about B." They explicitly told me that after I asked them what they wanted in our next campaign. One said he wanted to play the Slayer class. Another one said we wanted the campaign to involve lots of traveling. Third player doesn't really care, prefers character interaction and interesting fights rather than plot. I'm simply bouncing ideas right now. I'm still going to ask them to fill in all the blanks on the map towards the end goal, what beast they're hunting exactly, what antagonists are trying to stop them etcetera. But by giving them the basic framework of "You have a task to do, it will involve lots of slaying, Slayer, and there's some sort of time limit" they can jump straight into the meat of things.
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Jun 1, 2015 22:52
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Deltasquid posted:That's how we did the last two campaigns. Both times they bumbled around until I found some sort of endgame goal and let them work for that. My group prefers to have me go "You're at A. You're going to B. Fill up everything in between those with as much mayhem and chaos you like, but don't forget about B." They explicitly told me that after I asked them what they wanted in our next campaign. One said he wanted to play the Slayer class. Another one said we wanted the campaign to involve lots of traveling. Third player doesn't really care, prefers character interaction and interesting fights rather than plot. I'm simply bouncing ideas right now. I'm still going to ask them to fill in all the blanks on the map towards the end goal, what beast they're hunting exactly, what antagonists are trying to stop them etcetera. But by giving them the basic framework of "You have a task to do, it will involve lots of slaying, Slayer, and there's some sort of time limit" they can jump straight into the meat of things. Fair enough! Thought I'd at least suggest it, because it really is the easiest thing to do if your players are down for it.
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Jun 2, 2015 03:40
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TheSnowySoviet posted:Two of four players in my campaign (D&D 5e) are hell-bent on being able to reliably shove goodberries down the throats of unconscious targets to instantly revive them with 1HP. But the PH explicitly states that you need an action to eat a goodberry, and that you can't take actions when unconscious/incapacitated. I quoted them chapter and verse, told them that the PH gives a hard NO to their plans, but I wanted to propose an alternative. Any ideas? The ranger loves to cast goodberry once per day, and has even gone so far as to hold on to a spell slot to ensure this; such is her love for goodberries. I'm just not about to say "sure" and hand them access to 10+ mini versions of Cure Wounds every day.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:15
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Hey guys, so I've been playing D&D 4e with like seven people and one thing I've come to notice is that when action economy is 1 200-HP enemy against 6-7 comparable level PCs, it really never goes well for the enemy. Turns out one guy up against a group including a laser-firing robot, a sharkman straight from the WWE, Wonder Red, and a man with infinite chickens in his pocket doesn't usually go well no matter how much blood the one guy can make explode out of the party dog (31/34 HP's worth specifically.) What should I do? The obvious answer is "Put more enemies in," but there's some scenarios where that's just not feasible. Just give them more HP? Give them multiple turns?
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Jun 2, 2015 05:36
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alcharagia posted:Hey guys, so I've been playing D&D 4e with like seven people and one thing I've come to notice is that when action economy is 1 200-HP enemy against 6-7 comparable level PCs, it really never goes well for the enemy. Turns out one guy up against a group including a laser-firing robot, a sharkman straight from the WWE, Wonder Red, and a man with infinite chickens in his pocket doesn't usually go well no matter how much blood the one guy can make explode out of the party dog (31/34 HP's worth specifically.) What should I do? The obvious answer is "Put more enemies in," but there's some scenarios where that's just not feasible. Just give them more HP? Give them multiple turns? Yes. Try to come up with a monster design that would let you justify breaking it up into multiple parts that can act independently, such as a Hydra where each head gets its own turn in the initiative count. If you really cannot make such a thing fit, then give your one boss dude as many abilities as you would six different dudes, but group them up into six, and give each "action group" its own slot in the initiative count. If you're going the Hydra route, then each section of the monster will have its own slice of the total HP pool, but if it's just one dude with lots of actions, then it's up to you whether you "turn off" an action group every time it loses a sixth of its HP, or he keeps everything up until the very end, or something in between.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:43
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A 4E solo is made to face 5 PCs and a party's power level rises in slightly more than a linear relation to party size. Especially against solos due to conditions and people ganging up. Use solo monsters sparingly and when you do, have them be in the company of loads of minions. With 7 PCs you could probably get away with fighting two solos at once, though of slightly lower level.Tiki Powers posted:A lot of it is lore based. Not knowing about her chosen deity, not acting like a cleric in situations that are tailored for that type of character etc. It takes a bit of effort on my part. In-game, I introduced a priest NPC who can clearly spell out the tenets of the faith for him, out of character I have to keep up with the player and make sure he's still okay with the direction things are taking and tone it down if necessary.
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Jun 2, 2015 07:18
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Anyway I'm designing a dungeon again and as usual that means I'm crowdsourcing.  It's The Gambler's Tomb, the last resting place of a legendary gambling man, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. I'm looking for ways to flavour some combat encounters after familiar games of chance, and then there's the big one - playing against the man himself. Got a bit of a structure in mind already: Opening the tomb - fairly easy puzzle, maybe with a statue or relief of the gambler outside holding a hand of cards, and you have to get them in the right order according to the epitaph above the door. (One required card is cleverly hidden in the statue's sleeve.) Two combat encounters - my major grey area right now. Keys to the main chamber have to be retrieved from two rooms, each should involve a fight and some take on a casino game, most likely with a game mechanism serving as a trap or hazard. Some potential ideas: Roulette - the battle map itself could be squares on the roulette table. Each turn the wheel spins and Something Happens to the creatures who stand on the right (or wrong) fields. If your square matches red or black there's a minor effect, if it's a range of numbers it's more noticable, if you're on the exact same number things get bad. No idea for effects yet. Wheel of Fortune - every round the wheel spins and there's an outcome. Easy to come up with stuff, but maybe a bit boring? Slot Machine - again, different outcomes according to the slots. Maybe you have to win the key from the slot machine; you can hold certain reels and continue spinning, but certain combinations spawn enemies. Others are beneficial so occasionally you have to choose - try for a short-term benefit and lose what you have on hold, or continue playing for the key. Beating the Gambler at his own game - this still seems promising: NinjaDebugger posted:Bring a standard deck of cards. Deal 2 for the players, 2 for the gambler, face down. The Gambler wants to come back to life. If they want his treasure they'll have to put their own life force (healing surges) on the line. They win, they get the treasure and he stays dead (he may cheat, but he's a fair loser). They lose, he's alive again and ready to roam the world once more; if they want the treasure they can beat it out of him, or challenge him to one more game, maybe for their magic items; or they can think of another way to get it. e: that second game should probably not be the same card game again though. Maybe dice, since it's all about his magic dice cup and lucky die, and dice are underrepresented in the dungeon so far (discounting the fact that it's D&D and therefore all dice all the time ).
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Jun 2, 2015 11:04
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Loki_XLII posted:Fair enough! Thought I'd at least suggest it, because it really is the easiest thing to do if your players are down for it. Yeah, but giving my players a whole wide sandbox to start usually makes it feel like they're trapped in quicksand. They're not very inspired if I let them come up with everything themselves .My Lovely Horse posted:e: that second game should probably not be the same card game again though. Maybe dice, since it's all about his magic dice cup and lucky die, and dice are underrepresented in the dungeon so far (discounting the fact that it's D&D and therefore all dice all the time Maybe chinchirorin/Cee-Lo if that isn't too complicated? For the roulette part, you could crib ideas from Persona 3's boss fight against the Wheel of Fortune. Damage buffs or debuffs, reflecting shields going up, that kind of stuff that forces the players to hold back when the odds are against them and lash out hard when they get buffed or the enemy gets debuffed. Deltasquid fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 11:16
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Deltasquid posted:Maybe chinchirorin/Cee-Lo if that isn't too complicated? On the other hand, the card game has more opportunities for skill rolls. Hmmm.
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Jun 2, 2015 11:39
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You can always let the characters use skill rolls to cheat or bluff. Like: let them reroll one of the dice if they cheat, or reroll one of the gambler's dice if they bluff to make him mess up? EDIT: that reminds me, maybe one of the players can be "out of the action" for a while? Voluntarily sitting on the side, and if their friends mess up, they have to roll a skill check or lose health points. The players can rotate out in between rounds if they want. This ups the tension a bit, and might force the clever rogue to switch places with the fighter if the fighter is getting too bruised up. That way, the fighter (presumably not built very well for gambling checks) has to continue the game. You can refluff it as the gambler going "Oh, I want to make sure you don't cheat/bail, so I'm holding one of you captive with ~~ghost chains~~ that constrict them if you screw with me. Deltasquid fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 11:40
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The combat encounters could be people who have bet their eternal servitude to the Gambler, in a desperate attempt to get back what he took from them. Keep in mind that traditional roulette square have both a number AND a color associated with them:  Maybe the color could represent either good or bad, and the number how powerful the effect is. Even better, have the fighters scream their "bet" as the roulette spins: if they get it right, they get a bonus, if they get it wrong they get wounds, curses and whatever else you can come up with. The effects get more powerful depending on the odds: if you call for either red or black and get it right maybe you get healed a bit, but if someone calls for a 0 and gets it, he should potentially solo whatever opponents he is dealing with. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 11:47
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That's true. This could even tie in with the paladin, whose deity's portfolio also includes luck. "Oh goddess help me win this game" - "yeah fine but you better shape up, mate." e: nice idea for the roulette. For the enemies I was thinking tomb raiders who didn't make it and were turned into zombies - the gambler's treasure is a skull he himself took from a necromancer's effects, and it colours the magic vibes in the place - but that works too. Or a mix of both. My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 2, 2015 11:48
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A labyrinth. If you try to map it or figure a way through it'll get you lost, but tossing a coin at each junction and following that will always lead you to the quickest route out.
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Jun 2, 2015 12:37
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My players would get incredibly stuck on trying to map it out anyway. Current plan: Entrance - solve the epitaph/cards puzzle to enter the tomb Roulette room - combat encounter; the floor itself is the roulette table layout, and you place bets by where you stand. There are default bets - maybe something like 5 HP for red/black, +2 to attacks for odd/even, and so on - but you can make up your own. You have the whole round to make bets, the wheel stops after each round and effects are applied. (This makes for a quite narrow battlefield, and area attacks would therefore be pretty powerful. Hmm.) Slot machine room - you have to win the key to the burial chamber from the slot machine, but different combinations summon different monsters. Burial chamber - play a dice game against the Gambler's spirit for healing surges vs. his treasure; if you lose, play cards against him for a second shot at the treasure, or fight him. If you lose twice, you'll also have to fight if you want the treasure. I'm sure there's got to be a published encounter or something where random effects are a feature, but all I can find through Google are homebrew ULTIMATE ROD OF WONDER 1d10,000 RANDOM EFFECTS lists and those are pretty dire. ========== Aside from that here's another of those things that regularly surprises me about my group. In the background of the main quest there's an evil empire vs. revolutionaries thing going on and it loosely ties in with the paladin's shtick so I'm including little decision points. One of those was: you're at the market, a thief is coming your way with bread and meats, pursued by a stallowner, and the militia are closing in on him, what do you do. I was expecting "we stop the thief" or "we stop them both and pay off the merchant to settle things" or even "we confront the militia" but what I didn't expect was "we let them both pass and move on". I'm like, okay, more time to dungeon crawl I guess, but something's off about this. Actually we had one exchange that highlights the difference in approaches here: Me: "The thief is coming right your way." Player: "Do we think he's likeable?" Me: "... I dunno dude. You tell me." Player: "Well he could make a Charisma check or something.  "And I'm thinking, yeah, or you goofballs could make a decision on your own. After the game they asked me "should we have helped that guy" and I replied, hey, I'm not in the you-should-have-business, you guys made a decision and I'm just taking note. And I actually thought of a neat way to work it into the proceedings, but I'm still thinking, maybe I could save myself a lot of work if I asked those folks if they maybe really just want a totally linear story with fights and loot, cause I'm up for it. Bonus: the ostensibly freedom-loving paladin spoke out in favour of helping what the whole party calls "the jackbooted fascist militia". My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Jun 4, 2015 |
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Jun 3, 2015 12:35
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I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign with 3 friends, its been running for a longass time now and they've gotten to the point where they are basically the leaders of the magical MI5/6 currently embroiled in a secret but heating up spy war with the magical CIA/DoD. I want to let them sorta plan their grand strategy pretty free-form but also be able to delegate NPC teams to carry out investigations and missions for them. One of my players really loves combat so maybe also the option to join NPCs on their missions. I can sketch out some mechanics for that, but does anybody know a decent way to sorta simulate a grand campaign like that in a way that the players can engage with? I might make up some kind of warscore system so they know how close they are to loss/defeat with maybe some kinda win condition resources you can earn through violence, espionage and magicks or something. I'm also really looking for some way to determine the outcome of actions on a large scale. If theres a Cold War or spy war RPG out there someone could condense simply that'd be ideal. tl; dr: how I roleplay leading a war?
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Jun 4, 2015 05:12
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nopantsjack posted:I'm running a Call of Cthulhu campaign with 3 friends, its been running for a longass time now and they've gotten to the point where they are basically the leaders of the magical MI5/6 currently embroiled in a secret but heating up spy war with the magical CIA/DoD. There are too many ways to approach this. I would recommend stealing from the Mass Effect series, and make the players job one of gaining allies by doing spy missions. Whenever they report back to the front lines, have them fight off a horde, or become engaged in combat. If you want them involved in actually making strategic military decisions, I would recommend you using a war strategy game's rules for this part of your campaign, as CoC is not built for that. Since this is a CoC game, why not just smash all of this to bits and do a retelling of A Colder War by Charles Stross?
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Jun 5, 2015 06:58
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I would advise against using actual wargame rules for it -- getting into abstract boardgaming where you know the rules and stats and can know what's going on isn't conducive to a horror atmosphere. My approach would be to come up with a list of resources that the PCs have access to, and a few lines about them; then manage a list of problems that they're facing. Only tell them about a few -- let them find out about all the other bad stuff as it happens. Then let them make tough calls about who they send to deal with what, and whether the team intervene in person anywhere.
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Jun 5, 2015 08:16
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 02:58 |
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My Lovely Horse posted:Anyway I'm designing a dungeon again and as usual that means I'm crowdsourcing. Just make sure that somewhere in the darkness, The Gambler breaks even.
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Jun 5, 2015 13:06
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