Turtlicious posted:

Game: 13th Age

The Adventuring Party: 1 Character is really bad at being good, and is a Deva (Angel Person), 1 Character is really bad at being bad and is a Tiefling (Demon Person), 1 character has 8 intelligence, 10 wisdom, and needs a moral compass in his life. He also has a magic music box that is leaking blood, and is the ONLY son of an Undead in the Universe. The Deva & Tiefling act as his moral compass. Shenanigans ensue.

Problem: I made two semi-interesting NPC's who own a tavern / inn in the city. They are asking for information / want the plot to revolve around these people. I didn't do much story boarding, so I need some help figuring out cool backstory for them to pull out of these tight lipped NPC's. Mack owns the bar, and Fin works the stage. Mack is a man of few words, patient, a good listener, scarred to poo poo and scary. Fin is mute, plays instruments, and sometimes delivers food to the rooms. When Fin was asked her name, she flicked off the party. When Mack was asked Fin's name, he also flicked off the party, then shrugged, "that's all I get out of her... We call her fin, short for finger."

That's the entirety I have on these people, but the PC's want something to be there, and I want something to be there, so I'm going to need help generating plot hooks.

Iceclaw posted:

Mack's an ex soldier turned highwayman that decided one day he wanted a job that doesn't involve killing. His old crew, whom he deserted, might track him down, either for revenge or for a little help.
He might also have a few capers/cons if the players swing that way, but he refuse to use any kind of violence.

Soylent Pudding posted:

Combine two of the above posts. Fin was the bard (possibly divinely inspired) who's tongue was cut out for perceived slights against some king. The king's wizard took the divinely powered tongue and did something relating to the bleeding music box. Meanwhile Mack was the royal guardsman who took pity on the innocent bard and betrayed his oath to the king by breaking her out. Perhaps he was a highwayman for a time while they were on the run before settling on these cover identities in some far enough away place.

Whybird posted:

Where had you originally planned your players' attention to be? Make them involved in a thing that is either helping, or opposed to, that object of the plot you had planned.

Soylent Pudding posted:

Anyone have a good idea or slogan for an (Incan themed) Dwarven variant of the "Uncle Sam wants you!" recruitment campaign? It's a little background flavor detail I'd like to add but I keep having this mental block over it.

Turtlicious posted:

If they don't follow that, I'll just wing it and do what ever they want to do. It looks like they want to explore the whole Mack / Fin thing.

AceClown posted:

Fin's voice has been magically stolen and is being used to sing the song that is letting the evil in

Turtlicious posted:

I swear to god I love Goons sometimes.

These plot ideas are all great and I'm planning to use all of them

I had a different question now, has anyone (in 13th age, or DND or the like,) broken a singular mega monster into a bunch of parts, and giving each part initiative / health / etc. So for example, you're fighting a Kraken, you have 8 "skirmisher" tentacles statted out to have the AC, HP, and initiative of a similar (or lower,) level monster. Then you have the Kraken Body which is a "brute" with a magic attack that has a recharge and a bite that's kind of weak, but can proc on anyone adjacent to a tentacle. It can move a certain distance from the Tentacle monsters.

Are there ideas out there for good ways to do that? I know it does effectively double / triple their attack, but if you do HP properly, and everything is statted as an on point equivalent level monster, can it still be balanced?

Turtlicious posted:

I had a different question now, has anyone (in 13th age, or DND or the like,) broken a singular mega monster into a bunch of parts, and giving each part initiative / health / etc. So for example, you're fighting a Kraken, you have 8 "skirmisher" tentacles statted out to have the AC, HP, and initiative of a similar (or lower,) level monster. Then you have the Kraken Body which is a "brute" with a magic attack that has a recharge and a bite that's kind of weak, but can proc on anyone adjacent to a tentacle. It can move a certain distance from the Tentacle monsters.

Are there ideas out there for good ways to do that? I know it does effectively double / triple their attack, but if you do HP properly, and everything is statted as an on point equivalent level monster, can it still be balanced?

Mendrian posted:

The only problem is that presumably if you defeat the 'trunk' of the monster, the whole thing dies. So you have to make sure that the players have a reason to want to attack the other parts or else they're just going to focus down the body, it's the most efficient course of action. Some kind of persistent defense boost based on the number of remaining parts might be a good idea; maybe the thing gets a bonus to defense for each remaining tentacle, or based on the number of remaining tentacles (1/3 for instance).

My Lovely Horse posted:

Tentacles could intercept like fighters, and/or get a free attack on PCs who go for the body like 4E fighters.

My Lovely Horse posted:

Tentacles could intercept like fighters, and/or get a free attack on PCs who go for the body like 4E fighters.

My Lovely Horse posted:

Dream Girl

Mendrian posted:

The only problem is that presumably if you defeat the 'trunk' of the monster, the whole thing dies.

Elfgames posted:

this is a really simulationist problem. in a game where HP is not meat ponts it should mean it cant take "trunk" actions /loses a turn and maybe a bonus like having it's powers recharge a bit slower or maybe it can't recover anymore cause the wind was knocked out of it, oorr have all 5 parts share an HP bar

Elfgames posted:

this is a really simulationist problem. in a game where HP is not meat ponts it should mean it cant take "trunk" actions /loses a turn and maybe a bonus like having it's powers recharge a bit slower or maybe it can't recover anymore cause the wind was knocked out of it, oorr have all 5 parts share an HP bar

Zomborgon posted:

I'm going to run a one-shot tomorrow in the streamlined D6 system Lasers and Feelings (thanks to Dareon for mentioning this in the thread sometime way back). Asking as a beginner GM, does anyone see any major problems that may arise due to the mechanics?

Text dump of setting/mechanics posted:

The main inspirations for the setting are Dark Souls, Wraith, Mordheim, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. When the game started I had the players pick a 3rd level character, a culture and social station loosely based on historical settings (I just name swapped stuff like Imperial Rome, Ancient Egypt, Vikings, etc). The players were all from various pseudo-historical “realistic” times and places - they didn’t come into the game world from a place where magic was ‘real’ (but then again they did because ancient people believed in magic, but you know, they didn’t come Grey Hawk into Ravenholm). The characters all remember dying or being in a situation where they could have died and then they ‘wake up’ in a strange place.

The setting is a ruined city based on the city of Rome and Constantinople; I cribbed a map of Rome, named it Constantius (founded by Valerian empress Constance), and made it a costal fortress city like Constantinople.

Here’s where the influences start: the City is ruined and empty like Mordheim, a dangerous urban wilderness filled with monsters. Like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the players explore this dangerous place freeform, looking for treasure but also just trying to manage the various factions and figure out why they’re here. Oh yeah, you can’t leave the city because it’s surrounded on 3 sides by water and in both the water and the grey waste outside the city are just huge monsters that will kill you.

Also like in that game there are occasional storms called Maelstroms that, like the emissions in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., require everyone to hide inside. The Maelstroms, like resting at a bonfire in Dark Souls, also ‘resets’ the city. Monsters come back and the layout of the city changes: basic geographic concepts remain the same ex: building X is always due south a ways from landmark Y, but the particulars of the streets change. When the city resets it also repopulates the insentient monsters that occupy most of the city.

The only places that aren’t affected by Maelstroms are areas that have special fountains, which are pretty much the bonfires of Dark Souls. I also created a ‘humanity’ mechanic where humanity damage ticks up like subdual, except it only heals a hit dice a day spent resting at/near a fountain. Also, every day that you rest you have to ‘eat’ 1 cp per total HP you have, dissolving the coins in the fountain water and drinking it. The coins aren’t actually money, they’re “pathos” slugs (like in wraith, the currency in my game is pathos, objects imbued with/created by the humanity/emotions/soul of living people.) Every time your humanity damage reaches a multiple of your total HP it’s bad; 1st multiple is just you go pathos hungry and eat a bunch of coins, but after that it becomes level drain. Take too much humanity damage you go ‘ragged’, essentially the hollow of dark souls.

The game is basically about exploring the city, trying to figure out why it exists, and dealing with the “innate” monsters, the other “human” factions, and the “villain” factions.

Origin of the setting, “the mystery” posted:

I was dabbling with Plato and that’s where the idea of the ‘why and how’ of the setting came from. I didn’t start with this, I started with “I want a setting like Dark Souls” and came up with this explanation later. Some of it I’ve changed because I’m making a game world and not a summary of the Timeaus/the Republic, some of I’ve changed because I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Ok so there was a “Demiurge”, a craftsman, who builds the world. The Demiurge creates everything, but he bases his work on the “forms” (perfect conceptual versions of things, emotions, actions) that exist above and beyond what the Demiurge makes. This Demiurge receives prompting from the thoughts that emanate out from a “GodHead”. The Godhead is immoral/inhuman/inscrutable, sort of like the way Yahweh gets portrayed when he rebukes Job, whereas the Demiurge is more of a personfied god-figure with hopes and fears, etc.

The Godhead makes the Demiurge build a world, build people, but also destroy them, recreate them, etc etc. This is the “real world” that we live in/the players came from.

So the Demiurge gets sick of doing this, the constant creation and destruction, and decides he doesn’t need the “forms” from which he makes the world and if he can just get the Godhead to shut up then the Demiurge can make a perfect, ideal, unchanging world, and he can stop the cycle of creation/destruction the Godhead keeps forcing on him/the world.

With that goal in mind, the Demiurge seals up the link between the material world he’s made and the godhead, allowing the Demiurge to create a perfect and changeless world without having to tear and down and start over again from prompting from the Godhead.

This all happens far in the past (or maybe it’s all taking place ‘outside of time’?) of the setting: The Demiurge basically goes back through time and takes all the things he liked best, his ‘greatest hits’, and makes a perfect utopia. It’s great for a while but the Godhead is basically a force of nature and it can’t be bottled up forever. At some point the Godhead is banging hard on the seal between it and the world, and the Demiurge decides he has to go seal it up more. He gathers his best children and leads them up into Heaven to seal up/stop the Godhead. It doesn’t really work, the Demiurge and his greatest children are destroyed, and the seal starts to leak.


At this point we’re in the ‘present day’ of the setting. The city is like a partly shaken etch-a-sketch, the thoughts of the Godhead come pouring out the seal, mix with the shattered souls of the Demiurge and his children, and come into the city through a tear in the sky as hurricanes full of lost souls. The Demiurge, which itself was also lesser than the Godhead, and by extension his children, are all hosed up from being broken apart/getting raged upon by the Godhead. So now the city is full of crazy angry ‘people’ that want to put the now pissed Demiurge back together so he can, I dunno, kick over his own sand castle and take his ball and go home. So the party doesn’t really know it, but the ‘non human’ factions that are loving with them are trying to put the Demiurge back together so he can go on a rampage or something, I dunno I literally just thought that up while writing all this out.

I figure the end of the game is going to be whether or not they want to:


1) Seal up the Godhead better, making a world that finally stops completely. Heat death?

2) Tear up the seal and let the Godhead’s thoughts pour through but without a Demiurge to shape its “desires”. Total Chaos? Thoughts without bodies?

3) Take the place of the Demiurge and go back to shaping the world? I guess this is the “hybrid” answer from ME3? Back to a ‘normal world’? Would this also be the end of magic?



I know those endings are a little overwrought/big picture, but my plan was to run a pathfinder game out to level 20 and (while I know there are epic levels beyond that) by the time you’re level 20 in pathfinder I’m ready to just wrap it all up and have you literally kill god or something.

Wayward Factions posted:

These are ‘normal’ people like the players. They died, came here, now they try to survive in the city and avoid going ragged.

WarDogs. Warriors - Medieval footmen. Live in the grand forum at the Palatine, tend to hire themselves out to other factions. These guys have been real buddy buddy with the party when they’re supposed to be neutral without being dicks. I need to work more to fracture the politics of the factions.

Scintillare. Priests - blind with bandaged eyes, holding unlit lanterns. Can see the fragments of the Demiurge that come down from heaven during Maelstroms. Live right next to the party and are pretty chill with them but are also a smaller group.

Sun Touched House - Explorers. Basically a group of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style characters, these are the people who first introduced the party to the game world. Has the most developed characters but the party doesn’t seem to give much of a poo poo about them, I think because 2/3rds of them are either worthless or untrustworthy. Also it’s a weak faction.

Tacitus. NPC sage. Trying to figure out what this world is all about, Lived in the Campus Martius which was overrun, moves around now.

Dextro. Orc assassin/mercenary. He was helping the charioteers fight the party earlier in the setting and though he was defeated the WarDogs convinced the players to give him a fair parley instead of just killing him. This is something I want more in the game: wayward factions that oppose the party and complicate the game world without it turning into total war.

Balda’s Huscarls. Warriors. Lived on the eastern shore and had the only boats. Hard drinking viking warriors that can make a mead that is a better version of fountain water. Most of them were killed or captured by the Scrivener, which I need to fix because I really did plan on the party using their mead.

Sheol Wanderers. Mages. Live along the Via Latta. They’re pretty sure this is the afterlife so why not make the best of it.

White Cloaks. Archers - English longbowman. Lived in the Campus Martius which got overrun. They got plot decimated and now mostly work for a party member who has the leadership feat.

Charioteers. Fighters - tattoos, bare chests, playing drums on the backs of Chariots. Live in the Piscina Publica near the party. The first enemy faction the party really dealt with. They’re basically a fantasy version of the Fury Road guys, they love to ride around on Chariots and kill people.

Zandi’s Arbalesters - Persian crossbowman. New Faction, I have them both being reasonable to the party and also allying with the Charioteers because I’m trying to keep the politics of the gameworld fractured instead of just having the party glob together.

Corca’ean. Warriors - celtic swordsmen. New faction, I have them looting an area near one of the villain factions so they can come back with some lore later.

Sons of Attica. Warriors - Hoplites. New faction, I have them looting an area near one of the villain factions so they can come back with some lore later.

Ashdonbal’s Children - Cannanite slingers. New faction, I have them looting an area near one of the villain factions so they can come back with some lore later.

Villain Factions posted:

These were groups or individuals that were present in the Utopian days of the setting and went crazy when the Demiurge was destroyed and his angry soul first started raining down in the Maelstroms

Pyre Priests. Necromancers. The original bad guys of the setting. They hang out at a light house on the edge of the city, burning a big mystical fire on the top. They throw people into the fire and burn away their body to make Pyre Infantry skeletons. The guard the gate that leads into Heaven where the seal is.

This is where Malestroms come from, out of the gate. The Pyre Priests are making skeletons like crazy (they can get hundreds of corpses from gaveyards every time the city resets) and sending them into the gate to try to stop things. These are the only undead of the game and though I haven’t really shown this to the players yet, undead don’t give a poo poo about Maelstroms because they’ve achieved, in a hosed up way, the “stasis” the Demiurge was looking for.

Mechanically they’re 3 liches leading about a 1,000 skeletons and a few hundred more specialized troops. As the party leveled they’ve gone from being unapproachably dangerous to “the party teleported to the roof to the tower and almost killed them all except I decided there could also be a demi lich poking around in heaven who came out to see what was wrong. The party hasn’t managed to destroy/find their phylacteries yet though so at least the liches keep coming back.

I like this guys a lot and the party enjoys hating them, but I need to make them….DO something. Like have them go around the city sticky their noseholes into things.

Scriveners. Artificers. These guys make golems and things to do their bidding. I’m dabling with Wind Waker style islands out beyond the city and that’s where these guys live. I thought it would be a good place to hide the Demiurge’s body while he gets reassembled. Whereas the Pyre Priests are ‘holding the line’ of trying to keep the godhead from just tearing the city apart, the Scriveners are going around looking for the pieces of the demiurge.

Mechanically they’re NPC mages and priests backed up by construct type monsters. I just made them so their monsters are much more in line with the 12 level party, which means I can use a lot less of them. Combine that with the Jewels Verne submarines they have and they’re good for sneaking around the game world looking into stuff.

Neutral Characters posted:

Silent Queen. Sorceress. I haven’t done anything with her yet, I just thought a mage in a tower loving with the characters would be good. So far I’m thinking she’s more of an observer who wants to swoop in at the last second and claim something. Maybe she thinks she can become the best Demiurge and is waiting around for the right time to steal the body from the Scriveners?

Claudius. A huge animated statue of Emperor Claudius. He’s in the game world but hasn’t done much yet. He doesn’t know who he really is why he’s alive, but he’s really strong and I figure he likes to project the weak. So far all the party knows about him is that he’s been fighting the Pyre Priests skeletons in the street and currently agitating for an alliance with various wayward factions to go kill the priests. I haven’t figure out why that is? Maybe Claudius has been around long enough to know what they’re up to? If so, why does he know it but others don’t? Why is there a ‘memory horizon’ in the setting (which is a thing I’ve brought up before in game but haven’t explained, either to the players or myself).

Macelar. A demon. The Butcher from Diablo 1. I made him because I wanted him, I don’t have a clue who he is. The party has heard of him but hasn’t met him. Maybe he’s a piece of the Demiurge that’s already up and running, ready to kill everything? Could be a clue for the party that the Demiurge is not a nice guy anymore.

Jack B Nimble posted:

Jesus

TheCog posted:

Good, bad, too railroady?

Jack B Nimble posted:

Jack B Nimble posted:

My pathfinder campaign isn’t going well. I made a custom setting that doesn’t have the normal tropes of a D&D game and I’m finding it hard to make adventures/villains/engaging encounters. If I can, I’d like to try to sum up my campaign, what I’m trying to do, and what problems I’m having; I’d appreciate any advice you’d have. I don’t want to give up on this game, but I need some help both fleshing out the setting and finding a way to slowly reveal the origin/purpose of the game world.

quote:

The problems boil down into two main things:

The city's empty. Rome is divided into 14 districts and while I’ve tried to make about a faction per district both the city and the factions feel poorly defined. I’m having a problem where, after 14 or so play sessions, most of the “human” factions seem pretty much on board with helping the party, leaving only about a few ‘monster’ factions to oppose them. I wanted more politics/factionalism.

quote:

The setting is “mysterious” but I’m having trouble revealing the mystery; who made this city, why, how do they players get out of here / fix this

quote:

Ok, I’m going to have to dive into what the game is all about. I’ll separate these into quotes.

quote:

Ok guys, so that’s most of what’s going on in the game world right now in terms of backstory and setting. Very quick briefing on what the party’s up to: They’ve met and helped many of the wayward factions, established a base form themselves, and fought the pyre priests to a stand still. They also got a boat, sailed out into the ocean, and met the scriveners. The boat had Demiurge artifacts in it’s hold (size gargantuan hand tools) that were stolen from the scriveners. The scriveners have come from their island fortress to the city looking for the artifacts but have been repulsed so far.

My game starts in a couple hours, I run it from 4pm-2amish every other Saturday. The party is planning on asking Tacitus what he knows about the Scriveners and giant tools. I’m thinking that’s going to turn into a general war council in which they try to convince people to fight the pyre priests. I don’t actually want the pyre priests out of the setting yet so I plan on strengthening them with the pathfinder monster Lead Skeleton which will be a joint project/gift from the Scriveners, which will be the first clue the party has that they work together.

quote:

What I’d like to do in the future, after I run this session, is flesh out the characters of the factions better, and the locations/bases where they live. I think I need to take my spreadsheet, which currently has a disorganized ‘character’ tab, and make 1 tab per faction and put the faction specific characters there.

quote:

As I said at the beginning which I really need help with two things: fleshing out the setting and helping reveal the background (and thus the overall goal of the gameworld). I know I just typed out a huge wall of text but if anyone could look over it I’d appreciate any advice or feedback they could give me. Just typing it out all out has given me some ideas and helped me clarify a few things.