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CzarChasm
Mar 14, 2009

I don't like it when you're watching me eat.

Doodmons posted:

Speaking of best laid plans, my session of Spellbound Kingdoms on Saturday was meant to be a sideplot session because we had a player missing. It was the big annual grand tournament of Rithaign, full of jousting, duelling, athletics competitions, horseracing and gambling. The session was meant to be like 50% saltybets gambling because none of the PCs were actually taking part in the duelling tournament and 50% Olympics Simulator 2016. A bit of a diversion from the kinds of things we normally do, a slightly more lighthearted session after a few absolutely depressing ones and no massive plot twists that our missing player would miss. The athletics tournaments went fine, but I hosed up how many competitors there were supposed to be in the duelling tournament - I had 12, so that meant there were an odd number for the quarter finals. 'No problem' I thought, 'I'll just add a stereotypical Mystery Knight to make up the numbers' and explained that meanwhile the plot of A Knight's Tale had been happening in the background and now the Mystery Knight was in the quarter finals. Mystery Knight made it to the semis, took their helmet off when they were eliminated to receive their runner up prize and:

Player: So is it literally Heath Ledger?
Me: No, no, it's... *thinking quickly* a 15 year old girl, surprise twist!
Player: I use Keen Eye on her, to determine her class levels.
Me: *thinking quickly* okay she's a 15 year old girl surprise Mystery Knight who's been reenacting A Knight's Tale in the background, clearly she is a Chosen One!

Five minutes later the party have whisked the new Chosen One and her entourage away and have recruited them into their resistance organisation, and are now chasing up what her destiny is supposed to be so they can help. My missing player is playing a Chosen One and they can't wait to show the new girl what she'll look like in 12 levels time, and give the PC Chosen One a new destiny-buddy.

I have made an error.

If you really feel this was a mistake, you could throw in a little tension and reveal that your PC Chosen One and the throwaway NPC "Chosen One" are both the chosen one for the same fate. Kind of a Harry Potter vs Neville Longbottom situation.

Maybe the 15 year old girl is a patsy, boosted with magics during the tournament so she does much better than expected. Some young girl with her naive head filled with stories from a mischievous wizard, just for kicks. Or some rear end in a top hat sold her some magical trinket that either does nothing at all or does something for a short time before getting used up.

I mean, I don't know if you have some BBEG already planned for your Chosen PC to encounter, but bringing in someone to cast doubt on their fate might be an interesting path to take.

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Tunicate
May 15, 2012

Nah, just set it up as a Genos/Saitama apprenticeship scenario, and play it for comedy.

"Oh no, FIVE goblins!"

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

Doodmons posted:

Speaking of best laid plans, my session of Spellbound Kingdoms on Saturday was meant to be a sideplot session because we had a player missing. It was the big annual grand tournament of Rithaign, full of jousting, duelling, athletics competitions, horseracing and gambling. The session was meant to be like 50% saltybets gambling because none of the PCs were actually taking part in the duelling tournament and 50% Olympics Simulator 2016. A bit of a diversion from the kinds of things we normally do, a slightly more lighthearted session after a few absolutely depressing ones and no massive plot twists that our missing player would miss. The athletics tournaments went fine, but I hosed up how many competitors there were supposed to be in the duelling tournament - I had 12, so that meant there were an odd number for the quarter finals. 'No problem' I thought, 'I'll just add a stereotypical Mystery Knight to make up the numbers' and explained that meanwhile the plot of A Knight's Tale had been happening in the background and now the Mystery Knight was in the quarter finals. Mystery Knight made it to the semis, took their helmet off when they were eliminated to receive their runner up prize and:

Player: So is it literally Heath Ledger?
Me: No, no, it's... *thinking quickly* a 15 year old girl, surprise twist!
Player: I use Keen Eye on her, to determine her class levels.
Me: *thinking quickly* okay she's a 15 year old girl surprise Mystery Knight who's been reenacting A Knight's Tale in the background, clearly she is a Chosen One!

Five minutes later the party have whisked the new Chosen One and her entourage away and have recruited them into their resistance organisation, and are now chasing up what her destiny is supposed to be so they can help. My missing player is playing a Chosen One and they can't wait to show the new girl what she'll look like in 12 levels time, and give the PC Chosen One a new destiny-buddy.

I have made an error.

Are your players enjoying themselves? Then you have not made an error.

Doodmons
Jan 17, 2009
The speed with which they jumped on that plothook implies that they're enjoying themselves, but... sheeeeit. There's a lot going on already! Mainly the mistake was putting more on my plate as a GM than I really needed to do. At least Chosen Ones aren't Highlanders and the PC doesn't have to job a 15 year old girl to maintain his destiny.

I really should make some effortposts about this campaign, Spellbound Kingdoms is excellent and everyone should try it.

Railing Kill
Nov 14, 2008

You are the first crack in the sheer face of god. From you it will spread.

Doodmons posted:

The speed with which they jumped on that plothook implies that they're enjoying themselves, but... sheeeeit. There's a lot going on already! Mainly the mistake was putting more on my plate as a GM than I really needed to do. At least Chosen Ones aren't Highlanders and the PC doesn't have to job a 15 year old girl to maintain his destiny.

I really should make some effortposts about this campaign, Spellbound Kingdoms is excellent and everyone should try it.

This is why I take a Taoist approach to my plots. Is there a lot going on? Sure! But you have to just let it go if the players are enjoying a tangent. It's easier said than done, but if you just take up an attitude of being less attached to your prepared stuff, then it can get easier. Just have to take whatever path is in front of you.

I ran a Pathfinder game a little while ago that I mentioned a while back ITT, and in the middle of the campaign I introduced a whole nation full of undead, ruled by a council of undead of different types and different alignments. The story went that this nation was facing a pandemic a couple thousand years ago, and they didn't have an answer. At the very last, with only about 1,000 left alive in the whole nation, one of them had this bright idea to conduct this ritual that would make everyone undead. That way, the logic went, at least they would live on in some sense and they would not be forgotten. The players latched onto this place and their plots so strongly that we spent way more time there than I originally intended, and the campaign's endgame ended up taking place in a lich's lair at the heart of that plot. The whole premise and background of that place took me a minute to think up on the fly, but the players don't know that and don't care. It rendered obsolete other plots I had spend hours preparing. Just had to roll with it. That other stuff I can use later, or in some other game down the road.

I would be interested in hearing more about Spellbound Kingdoms. I've only vaguely heard of it and would like to know more, if you get a chance.

hyphz
Aug 5, 2003

Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.
Unlockable Ben

Railing Kill posted:

I would be interested in hearing more about Spellbound Kingdoms. I've only vaguely heard of it and would like to know more, if you get a chance.

http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/nifara/spellbound-kingdoms/

Doodmons
Jan 17, 2009

Railing Kill posted:

I would be interested in hearing more about Spellbound Kingdoms. I've only vaguely heard of it and would like to know more, if you get a chance.

It's in my top 3 best-written RPGs of all time, both in terms of mechanics and high concept. It's the game that tons of people actually want to play when they sit down to play RPGs, but haven't heard of. The elevator pitch is that it's Renaissance-era swashbuckling in a setting where magic is both illegal and hyper-dangerous, of the 'magical surges can accidentally start hurricanes or firestorms, summon dragons or cause magical plagues' variety of dangerous magic. Emotions are literally magical in the setting (and therefore are also highly illegal) and characters can spend points of Mood to maximise die rolls, or use their Inspirations to roll bonus exploding dice. People with high enough Inspirations literally cannot be killed - Fate will intervene to save their life. The only way to kill PCs or important NPCs with high Inspirations is to find out what they love and cherish and then destroy them. Kidnap their family, seduce their wife, kill their dog, burn their village down. Only once they've lost hope can you finally kill them. Magic is loving sweet and surprisingly well balanced with muggles, combat is highly tactical, fast, furious and fun (but extremely lethal to people without inspirations. PCs are powerful, awesome and have a lot of safety nets to avoid being lovely dirtfarmers who get critted to death by town guards. If you've always wanted to play Three Musketeers or Zorro and are tired of bashing D&D until it works, give Spellbound a try.

Also Chosen One is literally a character class, and I maintain that Warrior is the best class.

Kaza42
Oct 3, 2013

Blood and Souls and all that

Railing Kill posted:

I would be interested in hearing more about Spellbound Kingdoms. I've only vaguely heard of it and would like to know more, if you get a chance.

I've recently run Spellbound Kingdoms, and I don't think I can actually recommend it. The high concept elevator pitch is great, and it has a lot of good ideas, but it falls down in execution for me.

A few issues I had with the system:
There are no good guidelines for what the Doom (standard difficulty of heroic actions) should be in a given area
Mood is way too easy to come by, and maximizing a die will almost always succeed
Once you've Mastered a style (which happens pretty early for most classes) you don't get much better at combat as you level. There's no good feeling of progression as you level up
In general, the game needs better guidelines and advice for how to run it. If I'm starting at level 5, what wealth should my players have? How fast should they progress their wealth and organizations to stay balanced?
The classes with boosts to Histories (read:skills) quickly hit d12s in basically anything they care to do
The ability to spend Mood to maximize a defense die means that high damage attacks almost never actually hit the players
The social influence system is actually pretty bad, and basically just comes down to "Like fighting, but without swords". You beat someone down until they're unwilling/able to spend more Mood, then you just get what you want


It is also ATROCIOUSLY laid out. Rules chapters bounce all over the place, making it hard to find anything unless you're using a pdf with bookmarks

This is a real shame because I love the concept and setting. Little details that make up the world are amazingly creative and well written (when I stumbled across Stake Monkeys in the book, my players and I all stopped at WTFed at what mad genius came up with them)

Doodmons
Jan 17, 2009

Kaza42 posted:

I've recently run Spellbound Kingdoms, and I don't think I can actually recommend it. The high concept elevator pitch is great, and it has a lot of good ideas, but it falls down in execution for me.

A few issues I had with the system:
There are no good guidelines for what the Doom (standard difficulty of heroic actions) should be in a given area
Mood is way too easy to come by, and maximizing a die will almost always succeed
Once you've Mastered a style (which happens pretty early for most classes) you don't get much better at combat as you level. There's no good feeling of progression as you level up
In general, the game needs better guidelines and advice for how to run it. If I'm starting at level 5, what wealth should my players have? How fast should they progress their wealth and organizations to stay balanced?
The classes with boosts to Histories (read:skills) quickly hit d12s in basically anything they care to do
The ability to spend Mood to maximize a defense die means that high damage attacks almost never actually hit the players
The social influence system is actually pretty bad, and basically just comes down to "Like fighting, but without swords". You beat someone down until they're unwilling/able to spend more Mood, then you just get what you want


It is also ATROCIOUSLY laid out. Rules chapters bounce all over the place, making it hard to find anything unless you're using a pdf with bookmarks

This is a real shame because I love the concept and setting. Little details that make up the world are amazingly creative and well written (when I stumbled across Stake Monkeys in the book, my players and I all stopped at WTFed at what mad genius came up with them)

I don't really agree with most of these, but the bolded ones yeahhhh boy they're real problems. After nearly a year, at this point, I'm comfortable enough running it and familiar enough with the book that they're becoming less of a problem but yeah I'm definitely playing by ear a lot of the time with regards to wealth, loot and organisational stuff. I'm really hoping the new supplement is going to offer more advice on that front.

Railing Kill
Nov 14, 2008

You are the first crack in the sheer face of god. From you it will spread.
It sounds similar to 7th Sea, which is probably my favorite game, but different enough from it to be worth trying. 7th Sea is also renaissance swashbuckling inspired by high adventure stories from the Age of Exploration right up through the French Revolution. There's sorcery in that too, and it's similarly illegal and the Castillian (Spanish) Inquisition gets all over people for doing it out in the open. From there it diverges, since magic doesn't cause natural disasters in quite the same way. There's a... strange meta-plot behind magic in 7th Sea, which some GMs use and some don't. I just like the stuff like The Three Musketeers, Zorro, The Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, The Princess Bride, an so on. It makes for a good framework to encourage players to be as crazy as possible. It's a genre where being over-the-top and dramatic is actually part of the setting's expectations for the main characters.

I'll definitely give Spellbound Kingdoms a look. Thanks for the info!

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin
Yeah, 7th Sea is marvelous brainless swashbuckling adventure, but then you get deep into the metaplot and your suffragette is actually supposed to be devoted to averting doomsday, your crusading knight is supposed to be ferreting out insectoid infiltrators, and there's a skin-stealing Atlantean robot showing up.

There's something for everyone, but if you're the kind of GM or player that feels like everything in a setting should see use, it begins to feel very schizophrenic.

Railing Kill
Nov 14, 2008

You are the first crack in the sheer face of god. From you it will spread.

Dareon posted:

Yeah, 7th Sea is marvelous brainless swashbuckling adventure, but then you get deep into the metaplot and your suffragette is actually supposed to be devoted to averting doomsday, your crusading knight is supposed to be ferreting out insectoid infiltrators, and there's a skin-stealing Atlantean robot showing up.

There's something for everyone, but if you're the kind of GM or player that feels like everything in a setting should see use, it begins to feel very schizophrenic.

Yeah. The meta-plot all ties together, but it does so at the expense of literally every nation and secret society in the game. It can work if the players all want some weird poo poo in their swashbuckling game, but that ironically requires them to agree to stuff that really should be secret from the get-go. Otherwise, it can be run without all of that nonsense as a good swashbuckling action/adventure with some fantasy elements thrown in. First edition also suffered from terrible supplemental mechanics heaped atop a solid base system, so I recommend either using 2nd edition or being very choosy about what you use from 1st edition. I wrote my own entire 2nd edition years before the actual 2nd edition came out, just to use in our local play group. It was worth it to do that because so many of us like the setting and base mechanics so much that we wanted to fix it once and for all.

PJOmega
May 5, 2009
Did we ever get a thread for the new 7th Sea?

Because man oh man was that a surprise to see on the shelf.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.
I'm running a new group through Curse of Strahd, a Ravenloft module in 5e D&D...

And well, not to spoil the module too much and to cut to it, the PCs just incinerated the mayor of Vallaki, a major town.

By accident.

No, genuinely by accident, they were trying to help light the lantern for the Festival of the Blazing Sun!

It just happens that Fireball has a 20 foot radius and deals 8d6 damage.

And ordinary Human Nobles have an average of 9 HP.

dordreff
Jul 16, 2013

Doodmons posted:

My missing player is playing a Chosen One and they can't wait to show the new girl what she'll look like in 12 levels time, and give the PC Chosen One a new destiny-buddy.

I loving love the idea of characters bonding over both being the Chosen Ones of different prophecies and working together to loving speedrun that poo poo. Just loving Voldemort starts his "the boy who lived... come to die..." poo poo and Frodo stabs him in the back and screams TAS'D LOSERS CYA DOPES.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

dordreff posted:

I loving love the idea of characters bonding over both being the Chosen Ones of different prophecies and working together to loving speedrun that poo poo. Just loving Voldemort starts his "the boy who lived... come to die..." poo poo and Frodo stabs him in the back and screams TAS'D LOSERS CYA DOPES.
Comparing prophecies like quest logs. "Right so there's obviously a Vampire here, and I've got to 'bring death to that which does not live', but if we hit it with sunlight that should cover you for 'wielding the sun against the darkness'. Just make sure to grab all the Renfields for 'saver of the lost'/'clear'd the minds of the stolen'.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Splicer posted:

Comparing prophecies like quest logs. "Right so there's obviously a Vampire here, and I've got to 'bring death to that which does not live', but if we hit it with sunlight that should cover you for 'wielding the sun against the darkness'. Just make sure to grab all the Renfields for 'saver of the lost'/'clear'd the minds of the stolen'.

"So: Main objective is kill the dragon, but so you two can recieve further powerups we gotta beat him in a game of wit and retrieve his stolen horde of heirlooms"
"Does this one even have a horde of heirlooms"
"Well does your prophecy specify whose heirlooms"
"Its spectacularly vague, just like every other one ever"
"Optional objectives are the worst"

Razorwired
Dec 7, 2008

It's about to start!
Build a whole society on it. Include a seer that's basically an overworked academic advisor.

"Your tyrant can only be killed by a blade forged from the Bloodmoon's Crescent? Light drat you, boy! Just bring Eames a request form for the Lunar Saber and come back when you have a real problem."

Voyager I
Jun 29, 2012

This is how your posting feels.
🐥🐥🐥🐥🐥

Kobold eBooks posted:

I'm running a new group through Curse of Strahd, a Ravenloft module in 5e D&D...

And well, not to spoil the module too much and to cut to it, the PCs just incinerated the mayor of Vallaki, a major town.

By accident.

No, genuinely by accident, they were trying to help light the lantern for the Festival of the Blazing Sun!

It just happens that Fireball has a 20 foot radius and deals 8d6 damage.

And ordinary Human Nobles have an average of 9 HP.

If your players are the kind of new where they're trying to light campfires by casting fireball at them, maybe explain things to them at a more basic level before having them accidentally assassinate the petty aristocracy.

bbcisdabomb
Jan 15, 2008

SHEESH

Voyager I posted:

If your players are the kind of new where they're trying to light campfires by casting fireball at them, maybe explain things to them at a more basic level before having them accidentally assassinate the petty aristocracy.

Why do you assume there wasn't an option? "Huh, so Fireball has a 40 foot radius, which would cook the burglemeister. Well, he's a piece of poo poo anyway, what the hell."

Tunicate
May 15, 2012

I like my burgermeisters well done.

Obligatum VII
May 5, 2014

Haunting you until no 8 arrives.

Kobold eBooks posted:

I'm running a new group through Curse of Strahd, a Ravenloft module in 5e D&D...

And well, not to spoil the module too much and to cut to it, the PCs just incinerated the mayor of Vallaki, a major town.

By accident.

No, genuinely by accident, they were trying to help light the lantern for the Festival of the Blazing Sun!

It just happens that Fireball has a 20 foot radius and deals 8d6 damage.

And ordinary Human Nobles have an average of 9 HP.

Trying to light a lantern with a fireball sounds like a pretty typical wizard/adventurer thing to do. This is why no one actually likes adventurers.

Golden Bee
Dec 24, 2009

I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.
My Masks arch villain succeeded by lying to the heroes faces and light bribery. I guess it's a warning about tying player backgrounds too tightly together.

The adventure started when The Troll attacked the Holiday Parade. But the heroes were determined to mess things up; first they tried binding him with ropes, then hit him into the air (which sent him flying, attached to parade floats.) They eventually defeated him by smashing him into a 6th floor office.

So the villain behind The Troll (pictured below) was the Transformed, mentor Dr. Mutaxis. (He had a real name but it was really frenchy, so folks called him Dr. Mutaxis.) The Janus was a teen genius who went to the same college Mutaxis taught at; the Youth, 13 year old FLASHBOLT aka Sarah Evelyn, was his niece.

After defeating the Troll (but before The Transformed, Stag Beetle, accidentally freed him), Flashbolt used a hacking method she saw in Watchdogs 2. She found out that Troll was broadcasting a wifi signal, which she traced back to Halycon City College.

AEGIS, the Science Police, showed up. The team they refused to surrender Troll to the Science Police, which led to bizarre lies (like the super speedster re-entering a crime scene just to exit in his civilian identity) and stupid plans (like fleeing onto the fire escape while pretending to jump out the window.)

Fed up with the running battle with The Troll, Aman the delinquent teleported himself and Flashbolt to the wifi signal. He rolled snake eyes (his 2nd teleportation botch of the night), which trapped them in a glowing biotank in Mutatrix's lab. The lab assistant, who was the Janus's girlfriend, rescued Flashbolt, recognizing her, despite the costume, as the Dr's neice.

The doctor gave Flashbolt a wristlet and a super costume, replacing her Pokemon go Team Thunder hoodie. Unfortunately, Aman tried to teleport away, and ended up in a specialized, power neutralizing tank. From the tank, he saw that his parents were spying on him with Mutaxis's help. Sarah tried to convince Mutaxis to free her teammate, and he agreed...at which point Aman accidentally set off a flashbang, knocking himself unconscious.

Eventually, Stag and the Janus reached the college, but the evidence of wrongdoing was hidden. Aman's player got disconnected, and between Sarah being bribed, Stag being loyal, and the Janus being OOC drunk, they bought the explanation that The Troll was powered by the Department Head, Dr. Kilpatrick. The last scene of the game was everyone taking the bus upstate to bother the man.

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Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Dec 20, 2016

JUST MAKING CHILI
Feb 14, 2008
Tonight I was able to convince my party of good characters to not only allow but to assist my true neutral malconvoker with his first lesser planar binding. The party now has a Bar-lgura named Francis helping us clear a Tiamat cult occupied city.

Also, the guy that is almost smelly enough to be a catpiss guy farted really loud and everyone just ignored it. No laughing, or disgust. Just pure conflict avoiding fart denial.

darthbob88
Oct 13, 2011

YOSPOS

dordreff posted:

I loving love the idea of characters bonding over both being the Chosen Ones of different prophecies and working together to loving speedrun that poo poo. Just loving Voldemort starts his "the boy who lived... come to die..." poo poo and Frodo stabs him in the back and screams TAS'D LOSERS CYA DOPES.
Or having somebody else put Chosen Ones together. So you two are both destined to fight dark princes, there's a "Lord of Ravens" over that way, go have fun.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

Voyager I posted:

If your players are the kind of new where they're trying to light campfires by casting fireball at them, maybe explain things to them at a more basic level before having them accidentally assassinate the petty aristocracy.

It wasn't a campfire, it was a sad wicker ball for the FESTIVAL OF THE BLAZING SUN.

You see, the mayor of Vallaki thinks everything in spooky scary skullsville will go back to being good and nice if everyone in town is happy, so he throws festivals all the time.

This one has some build-up, it's raining, nobody wants to be here and the mayor storms up to light the massive wicker sun with an "All will be well!"

And his torch goes out in the rain.

Cue our intrepid wizard going "I've got it! I've got it!" and flinging a Fireball at the wicker sun.

I double-checked if they really did want to incinerate the burgomaster(as is his official title) and we all agreed it stuck as a pretty good bit of dark comedy, fits right in with Ravenloft.

Kumo
Jul 31, 2004

At our last session my group's spotlight hog said "I like that our [other game] is full of plot and characterizations and this game is just hitting stuff."

I'm the only one who doesn't play the other game, and would love more plot.

I could also do without his loud aspy outbursts, and exactingly detailed descriptions of everything he does. It used to be worse, we used to have two; then the DM gave the other spotlight hog's PC a magic item that would require him to be silent for a month in game to use it. Haven't seen him since.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Kumo posted:

the DM gave the other spotlight hog's PC a magic item that would require him to be silent for a month in game to use it. Haven't seen him since.
:golfclap: I know I know "OOC solutions for OOC problems" but this is amazing.

hyphz
Aug 5, 2003

Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.
Unlockable Ben

Kobold eBooks posted:

This one has some build-up, it's raining, nobody wants to be here and the mayor storms up to light the massive wicker sun with an "All will be well!"

And his torch goes out in the rain.

Cue our intrepid wizard going "I've got it! I've got it!" and flinging a Fireball at the wicker sun.

I double-checked if they really did want to incinerate the burgomaster(as is his official title) and we all agreed it stuck as a pretty good bit of dark comedy, fits right in with Ravenloft.

Oh god, that scene drove our group up the wall. The burgomaster in question is also having anyone in town who openly expresses discontent with the constant festivals locked in the stocks for "malicious unhappiness". After a bit of discussion previously we decided not to take action because he is genuinely opposed to the rule of Strahd, and killing or deposing him would result in the other contender for mayor of the town - a woman who is openly a lieutenant of Strahd - rising to power.

Then after we left the town and came back, we arrived to the Festival of the Blazing Sun with the description of how miserable everyone was, and our party spotlighter promptly attacked and slaughtered the burgomaster and his guards because "with all that description of how miserable they are the GM is obviously prompting us that we failed before by not killing him"

This prompted a bunch of bad feeling and a bunch of discussion if having gray moral choices in a game was actually fun if you can't restore a save and see how the other option would have gone.

Mister Bates
Aug 4, 2010
My group got bored and spent a night rolling Traveler characters using the first-edition can-die-in-character-creation rules. We brought out an old twist that our GM used to use for tabletop games when he was in the Marines, which is that you can reroll any bad roll...as long as you take a shot. And then your second reroll is two shots. And then your third reroll is three shots. And so on, and so forth.

We managed to avoid getting too excessive with it, but by the end of the night we were all fairly intoxicated, and on top of our pile of dead characters who didn't survive creation we had a Duke with a pile of social and leadership-related skills, a ludicrously minmaxed musclebound melee fighter with the intellect and hitting power of a sledgehammer, a filthy-rich merchant with their own ship, and a ship's engineer with 2 STR and 2 DEX (rolled snake-eyes on both and decided to just go with it) but 15 INT.

Eventually people started falling asleep and we didn't get around to actually playing with them, but Alcohol-Enhanced Traveler Character Creation is on its way to becoming a game night fixture all by itself.

Kumo
Jul 31, 2004

Splicer posted:

:golfclap: I know I know "OOC solutions for OOC problems" but this is amazing.

It was inspired if intentional. The guy was also a bit of a loot hog too but while silent in character, was also silent OOC so communicating dice rolls became a bit tedious.

Eh, I'm just blowing off some steam. They are both nice guys and good company otherwise, but have trouble sharing the game.

DM: "Okay, roll for Stealth."
Me: "I got a four-"
SH: "Hey, actually can I...diverts conversation for 1-2 minutes
DM: "Okay, what'd you get on your Stealth roll?"
Me: *silence* "Oh, is it my turn?"

I'm trying to find a solution that doesn't come off as overly confrontational, because I do find this quite annoying. I suppose I could ask the DM to do something about it in private the next time it comes up, or say something along the lines of "Please stop interrupting the other players when they're talking, you are being rude."

Ugh, loving geek social fallacies.

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!
Taser. Every time he talks out of turn, bzzzzzzt. Or I guess if you want to be less violent (for some reason), a joy buzzer to the back of the neck or a rubber band with a paper clip shot at exposed skin.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
It's great fun when the DM's wife is one of those, and plays the party scout/infiltrator type. Great fun. It's even better when she's competing with another one in the party.

It's even better when you find out his policy that you don't get XP if you don't show up for game dovetails with her badgering him to run solo adventures during downtime.

I still love 'em like family, but I'm so glad I realized that no gaming was better than dealing with decades worth of bad gaming habits.

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

Bieeardo posted:

It's even better when you find out his policy that you don't get XP if you don't show up for game
I realized that this is a bad policy at the same time I realized that if "not getting to be in this week's session" isn't punishment enough, then my game sucks. That and finding out "well I'm already behind and it's unlikely I get back to par by showing up, so gently caress it" is a great reason to drop a game.

quote:

dovetails with her badgering him to run solo adventures during downtime.
Uuuuggghhhh. I used to play with a couple who did this, then try to mitigate it with "oh our solo stuff doesn't impact the group stuff!" except it does when those events come to light in the group session and you bring in characters from said solo games all the loving time, characters with roughly double the xp of any of our characters. Oh and you get a rack of magical weapons, armor, and tools akin to Neo & Trinity about to save Morpheus. Yeah, doesn't impact the game at all. :rolleye:

Razorwired
Dec 7, 2008

It's about to start!
Re: Spotlight hogs. I just tell them "That sounds like a really good idea for your turn." or something similar every time they jump in. Its hard the first couple times but with most people you only have to do it once or twice.

If the DM jumps to the defense of the spotlight hog then saving the group is too much work to call it a hobby. Bail.

sfwarlock
Aug 11, 2007

Kumo posted:


DM: "Okay, what'd you get on your Stealth roll?"


Well, I guess if you didn't notice, then I succeeded.

Mr.Misfit
Jan 10, 2013

The time for
SkellyBones
has come!

Yawgmoth posted:

I realized that this is a bad policy at the same time I realized that if "not getting to be in this week's session" isn't punishment enough, then my game sucks. That and finding out "well I'm already behind and it's unlikely I get back to par by showing up, so gently caress it" is a great reason to drop a game.
[snip]

Bizzarely, I´ve had the opposite encounter this week.
We have a friend who only takes part in our pathfinder game when his job allows him to, which has been rather rare these past few weeks.
Anyway, we are playing Pathfinder, where even a single missed level can cause power level disparity (to put it mildly) and the group recently finished a module thus leveling up.
After a recent session for a completely different game, I´ve offered to level his character up as well, because, well, I consider missing the game (and thus the fun times with friends) the punishment.
But he not only flat-out denied it, but even seemed insulted that I would offer him something like this.
I was left speechless and, well, he can still join, but I just don´t know what to do with these people sometimes.

Mr.Misfit fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Dec 21, 2016

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

Mr.Misfit posted:

Bizzarely, I´ve had the opposite encounter this week.
We have a friend who only takes part in our pathfinder game when his job allows him to, which has been rather rare these past few weeks.
Anyway, we are playing Pathfinder, where even a single missed level can cause power level disparity (to put it mildly) and the group recently finished a module thus leveling up.
After a recent session for a completely different game, I´ve offered to level his character up as well, because, well, I consider missing the game (and thus the fun times with friends) the punishment.
But he not only flat-out denied it, but even seemed insulted that I would offer him something like this.
I was left speechless and, well, he can still join, but I just don´t know what to do with these people sometimes.
For a lot of people, the process of leveling up is a significant chunk of the fun. Offering to level him up is like saying "how about I eat that slice of your favorite pie for you?" So I'd just let him level it whenever he can and assume that he'll have it done before the next time he shows up.

Splicer
Oct 16, 2006

from hell's heart I cast at thee
🧙🐀🧹🌙🪄🐸

Yawgmoth posted:

For a lot of people, the process of leveling up is a significant chunk of the fun. Offering to level him up is like saying "how about I eat that slice of your favorite pie for you?" So I'd just let him level it whenever he can and assume that he'll have it done before the next time he shows up.
Mr.Misfit meant "give him free xp so he's the same level as everyone else". He refused the xp. To use your analogy, he's refusing an offer of pie because he's to busy to bake his own pastry.

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Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

Splicer posted:

Mr.Misfit meant "give him free xp so he's the same level as everyone else". He refused the xp. To use your analogy, he's refusing an offer of pie because he's to busy to bake his own pastry.
Oh. Well then. Maybe he thinks he has to earn it "legit" or something?

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