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Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin
I had two thoughts, not necessarily connected.

First, perhaps the art of each card has details on its border and background such that placing it beside another card forms a contiguous image, with the entire deck forming a coherent narrative this way. Difficult to do, perhaps, but I've heard of tarot decks that do this.

Second, I'm reminded of the Arcane quests in SaGa Frontier. To increase your skill with a certain type of magic, you need to quest for and collect these essentially tarot cards, each one held in a place thematically similar to the card. Like the Grail card is a cup and is held in a town that brews a lot of alcohol, or the Gold card is in a casino.

I'm aware these are not particularly helpful. :v:

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Neon Knight
Jan 14, 2009
I am trying to come up with some items for my lvl 3/4 party (5e).

Thinking I can give the moon druid a harness that will increase her speed only when she is mounted. Encourage some partnering up and spreading around the battlefield. Wonder if I should make trying not to get thrown from the back of a sprinting PC Dire Wolf a Animal Handling Check or a Strength Check.

A Cloak of Many Colours for my Wizard, let him change the elemental typing of a spell once per long rest(I have been and may continue to be throwing things that resist/immune his fire bolt/balls) and give him an excuse to sing about his technicolour dream coat.

Going to throw my fighter a nice Great Axe with a bonus to an upcoming enemy type to tempt him to play without a shield since a few combats with him have turned into stalemates where he could neither hit or be hit.

Not quite sure about my Fiend/Tome Warlock. He asks to do an Arcana check on every single thing even though he isn't proficient in it, so I may just give him something to justify his behavior. Like a monocle of arcane google glass, or something with daily uses or charges of identify/Detect Magic. Or just something with + Charisma.

Finally the rogue. I am tempted to give the rogue nothing while everyone is opening their presents because I want to make sure he gets first dibs on a cursed item coming a little later (that could end up powerful enough to be worth the curse until it can be lifted). An extra share of gold could mitigate how much of a dick move this is maybe?

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011
give the warlock a book he can consult to substitute a skill he actually knows how to use in place of (most?) arcana checks

give the rogue something that ties into the future item, or something cosmetic and silly. alternately, just tell the player privately, "look, I have a goodie in the pipe for you but it needs more spotlight time than i can reasonably give right now. you're not getting left out." reassurance is cheap and extremely effective.

Gerdalti
May 24, 2003

SPOON!

Neon Knight posted:

I am trying to come up with some items for my lvl 3/4 party (5e).

Thinking I can give the moon druid a harness that will increase her speed only when she is mounted. Encourage some partnering up and spreading around the battlefield. Wonder if I should make trying not to get thrown from the back of a sprinting PC Dire Wolf a Animal Handling Check or a Strength Check.

A Cloak of Many Colours for my Wizard, let him change the elemental typing of a spell once per long rest(I have been and may continue to be throwing things that resist/immune his fire bolt/balls) and give him an excuse to sing about his technicolour dream coat.

Going to throw my fighter a nice Great Axe with a bonus to an upcoming enemy type to tempt him to play without a shield since a few combats with him have turned into stalemates where he could neither hit or be hit.

Not quite sure about my Fiend/Tome Warlock. He asks to do an Arcana check on every single thing even though he isn't proficient in it, so I may just give him something to justify his behavior. Like a monocle of arcane google glass, or something with daily uses or charges of identify/Detect Magic. Or just something with + Charisma.

Finally the rogue. I am tempted to give the rogue nothing while everyone is opening their presents because I want to make sure he gets first dibs on a cursed item coming a little later (that could end up powerful enough to be worth the curse until it can be lifted). An extra share of gold could mitigate how much of a dick move this is maybe?

Maybe the harness gives the druid a movement bonus when someone is mounted ON him. One of my favorite D&D moments was riding a dire wolf Druid into battle as a Paladin.

Let the cloak work once an hour, and it's effect lasts an hour. More fun that way, totally not game breaking. Make it use a bonus action to activate.

Maybe the axe can add +1 to AC for one round X times a day. Use a bonus action to activate.

The warlock item could allow persuasion checks to function as arcana checks (asking your patron).

Throw the rogue something, even if it's just a dagger he can throw and magically retrieve from up to 100 feet (retrieval is a bonus action).

Gerdalti fucked around with this message at 12:30 on May 10, 2017

Zomborgon
Feb 19, 2014

I don't even want to see what happens if you gain CHIM outside of a pre-coded system.

Cease to Hope posted:

give the rogue something that ties into the future item, or something cosmetic and silly. alternately, just tell the player privately, "look, I have a goodie in the pipe for you but it needs more spotlight time than i can reasonably give right now. you're not getting left out." reassurance is cheap and extremely effective.

I like this direction. Something like "Ah, and for you... a small, glowing gemstone, inscribed the runes." Someone can then check out the runes, revealing it to be a vital component of something impressive-sounding.

Just make it clear they probably shouldn't hock it. Out-of-character warnings are okay, but so is having the shopkeeps start boarding up windows when they try.

Neon Knight
Jan 14, 2009

Gerdalti posted:

Maybe the harness gives the druid a movement bonus when someone is mounted ON him. One of my favorite D&D moments was riding a dire wolf Druid into battle as a Paladin.

Let the cloak work once an hour, and it's effect lasts an hour. More fun that way, totally not game breaking. Make it use a bonus action to activate.

Maybe the axe can add +1 to AC for one round X times a day. Use a bonus action to activate.

The warlock item could allow persuasion checks to function as arcana checks (asking your patron).

Throw the rogue something, even if it's just a dagger he can throw and magically retrieve from up to 100 feet (retrieval is a bonus action).

Thanks for the advice. I suppose I worded the harness a little vague that is exactly how I meant it to work.

For the Great Axe I am thinking maybe I add an extra effect upon slaying fiends. Explosions or healing. Both if I want to turn him into DoomGuy whenever Demons show up.

As for the rogue, if he takes the cursed dagger he will find that it is a light source making hiding almost impossible. I suspect it will really piss him off as stealth is his bread and butter, but the next story beat should take them to the Shadowfell. it will put a real target on his back there, but the radiant damage and light will come in handy too. At some point in the Shadowfell he will be able to choose between appeasing 2 different gods to lift the curse and alter the dagger. The light choice will make the light a toggle and give him something like Warding Flame, the dark choice will get rid of the light and let him shadow step.

To make surviving with that curse somewhat bearable perhaps now I give him a ring of spell storing with some charges of Pass Without Trace he will have to ration out.

Foolster41
Aug 2, 2013

"It's a non-speaking role"
So I'm not sure what I'm doing for this session and it's already about 2 days until my next game. I'm more worried because last weeks session didn't go great, basically ending in a near-TPK. The boss was a bit accidentally very unbalanced. (the boss who was kicking the crap out of them ran off, and I assured my players I'm not going to just TPK, but instead I'd work out some sort of story consequence.).

Part of the problem was not really describing the area well (for use for stunts) and forgetting that the escalation die (which in 13th age adds to players attack rolls) should have started at 6, meaning +6 to attacks. Part of it also is the scenario I used (in the 13th age book) seems a bit broken as written (Spoilers for the 13th age adventure "Blood and Thunder" (The core book adventure) ) (the boss rolls 3d20 and uses the best, so mathematically he's hitting about 90% of the time, doing 11 damage each hit,. which is a lot for level 1)

------

The setting is loosely based on Nausicca: Valley of the wind with a forest that's consuming everything. I have no big idea of where I"m going with the plot as far as the big bad guy is concerned. He did a ritual that turned him into a bug-monster thing, but beyond that, IDK what he wants.

The party is healing up from the near-TPK, and will be given a hit contract by a NPC that's with them who thinks one of them is with a faction (the toadstool princess) they aren't really. I want to set up this "target" as an ally. He's going to send them on a quest to a temple in the deadly forest (the Wildblood wood) to get an artifact.

One idea I had was to get them somehow to the center of the woods, and see how the woods is actually cleaning up pollution, and how there's no deadly spores here. (like what happens in Nausicca). So the spores will be gone, but the forest is killing everyone in the process. IDK how important for this the party to see this, but this is the once chance for this to happen, since I don't know the next time they'll be in the bloodwild.

I was thinking maybe their picked up accidentally by a dragon-like/centipede-like bug, but I fear this is a bit railroady. Then they'd have to fight/sneak their way back.

At the temple a possible twist is the artifact is a sort of construct, but I can't think of any good reason why this actually is, and I feel like I need a reason. Also, I fear this is mimicing a bit too much a RPG podcast me and a at least two of the other players listen to too much maybe)

Also, I want to have some interesting combat and skill stuff,and again I don't know what to do .I don't want this campaign to be fighting bugs all the time, and I feel like they fought a bunch of bugs last session, so maybe I need to hold off and do something else in between, but I don't know.

I'm just rusty from not GMing in a long time. Sorry if this is a bit rambly.

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011
worth reminding players that they can flee at any time as well in 13A

Bushmeister
Nov 27, 2007
Son Of Northern Frostbitten Wintermoon

Hey, I'm in the market for some free (or cheap) one-shot games/scenarios to run this upcoming weekend. Our gaming club is gonna be hit with some big changes with me, the second GM, moving shop in a month's time and our current campaign is pretty much toast because of that. So any tips for material like Havoc Brigade, Everyone Is John, All Outta Bubblegum etc. single-session fun would be greatly appreciated.

edit: should run for 3-5 players + GM, and be done in about four hours.

Boing
Jul 12, 2005

trapped in custom title factory, send help
I recently learned about the 200 word RPG contest and it's fantastic for gimmicky one-shot ideas with players who all want to go along with it.

My favourite is A BROAD ENTERED MY OFFICE:

quote:

A BROAD ENTERED MY OFFICE
By Wilhelm Person
A story game for six or more players in 200 words.

Something happened last night, the Private Investigator has been taken in for questioning.

Setup
Wear something nice.
Assign three PI players and a Detective.
The PI interrogated by the Detective. (Arrange two chairs facing each other.)
The PI’s inner voice is the Narrator. (Decide a spot for the Narrator to be in.)
The PI working on the case. (Mark a stage where the meetings and events can be played/acted out.)
The remaining players play the people the PI meets.
Put on some noir jazz.
Have a whiskey.

The game starts when the Narrator says “So there I was, being questioned about the events of last night.”

Play scenes
The Detective asks three questions and the PI in the chair answers the first two of them.
The Narrator sets the scene for an answer to the third question.
The actors play/act out the scene until interrupted by the Narrator adding more information or the Detective asking new questions.

Swap roles as you please during the game.

The game ends when the Detective says “You’re free to go.”

Have another whiskey.

Lunatic Sledge
Jun 8, 2013

choose your own horror isekai sci-fi Souls-like urban fantasy gamer simulator adventure

or don't?
Alright, so picture this: a six foot tall octopus thing with big cartoon eyes and a curly moustache is fixing some complicated machine. He's got a cup of coffee in two tentacles, a cigarette in the third, and most of the rest are using tools. Anyway, he's explaining to the party why sticking an alien headset in a microwave to time travel is a bad idea (it makes sense in context). "There are things," he says, in a really bad old man British accent because I'm not good at those, "Things that only live in the past. They exist five minutes ago, and they never quite catch up to the present. When you dick with time--when you go back to where those things are--you give them a foothold. They can follow you back through the door. Those things in the past become the things in the NOW."

The players are still gonna do it, though, because of course they are. Just a little bit. Gotta push that luck.

My question: what could be both sufficiently weird as to justify "thing that chases the present," but also intimidating enough to discourage the party from further time shenanigans? I thought about whipping out the Hounds of Tindalos, because half my players have been in Cthulhu or Cthulhutech games at some point and would immediately recognize that poo poo, but I've already stuffed way too much pseudo-horror nonsense in this campaign. I also considered TIME VIKINGS because it's just out of left field enough to work, but they're in the middle of not-Japan and that might make it TOO random.

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

Lunatic Sledge posted:

Alright, so picture this: a six foot tall octopus thing with big cartoon eyes and a curly moustache is fixing some complicated machine. He's got a cup of coffee in two tentacles, a cigarette in the third, and most of the rest are using tools. Anyway, he's explaining to the party why sticking an alien headset in a microwave to time travel is a bad idea (it makes sense in context). "There are things," he says, in a really bad old man British accent because I'm not good at those, "Things that only live in the past. They exist five minutes ago, and they never quite catch up to the present. When you dick with time--when you go back to where those things are--you give them a foothold. They can follow you back through the door. Those things in the past become the things in the NOW."

The players are still gonna do it, though, because of course they are. Just a little bit. Gotta push that luck.

My question: what could be both sufficiently weird as to justify "thing that chases the present," but also intimidating enough to discourage the party from further time shenanigans? I thought about whipping out the Hounds of Tindalos, because half my players have been in Cthulhu or Cthulhutech games at some point and would immediately recognize that poo poo, but I've already stuffed way too much pseudo-horror nonsense in this campaign. I also considered TIME VIKINGS because it's just out of left field enough to work, but they're in the middle of not-Japan and that might make it TOO random.

not-Japan? Make it Time not-Mongols, then.

Or Time Mothra.

Lunatic Sledge
Jun 8, 2013

choose your own horror isekai sci-fi Souls-like urban fantasy gamer simulator adventure

or don't?

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

not-Japan? Make it Time not-Mongols, then.

Or Time Mothra.

Holy shiiiit I might make it both.

I'm picturing some kind of very large mongol-dressed mothman, cloaked in Actual Moths that are eating the fabric of space-time as it passes and that poo poo is cash

Like, it's a healthy combination of super unnerving, but also not at all expectable

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011

Lunatic Sledge posted:

My question: what could be both sufficiently weird as to justify "thing that chases the present," but also intimidating enough to discourage the party from further time shenanigans? I thought about whipping out the Hounds of Tindalos, because half my players have been in Cthulhu or Cthulhutech games at some point and would immediately recognize that poo poo, but I've already stuffed way too much pseudo-horror nonsense in this campaign. I also considered TIME VIKINGS because it's just out of left field enough to work, but they're in the middle of not-Japan and that might make it TOO random.

this is the premise of Four Past Midnight / Langoliers, an okayish stephen king short story about coming to terms with what you've done. it was adapted into a now extremely dated made-for-TV movie.

in that story, they're floating spheres that are all mouth with chainsaw teeth, and they eat the past.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

Lunatic Sledge posted:

My question: what could be both sufficiently weird as to justify "thing that chases the present," but also intimidating enough to discourage the party from further time shenanigans? I thought about whipping out the Hounds of Tindalos, because half my players have been in Cthulhu or Cthulhutech games at some point and would immediately recognize that poo poo, but I've already stuffed way too much pseudo-horror nonsense in this campaign. I also considered TIME VIKINGS because it's just out of left field enough to work, but they're in the middle of not-Japan and that might make it TOO random.

Earthbound reference: Dhali's clocks. Half melted clocks with vaguely human features, accompanied by an ever present, almost deafening tick-tock sound, who attack in the space between then and now.

Afriscipio
Jun 3, 2013

Lunatic Sledge posted:

Alright, so picture this: a six foot tall octopus thing with big cartoon eyes and a curly moustache is fixing some complicated machine. He's got a cup of coffee in two tentacles, a cigarette in the third, and most of the rest are using tools. Anyway, he's explaining to the party why sticking an alien headset in a microwave to time travel is a bad idea (it makes sense in context). "There are things," he says, in a really bad old man British accent because I'm not good at those, "Things that only live in the past. They exist five minutes ago, and they never quite catch up to the present. When you dick with time--when you go back to where those things are--you give them a foothold. They can follow you back through the door. Those things in the past become the things in the NOW."

The players are still gonna do it, though, because of course they are. Just a little bit. Gotta push that luck.

My question: what could be both sufficiently weird as to justify "thing that chases the present," but also intimidating enough to discourage the party from further time shenanigans? I thought about whipping out the Hounds of Tindalos, because half my players have been in Cthulhu or Cthulhutech games at some point and would immediately recognize that poo poo, but I've already stuffed way too much pseudo-horror nonsense in this campaign. I also considered TIME VIKINGS because it's just out of left field enough to work, but they're in the middle of not-Japan and that might make it TOO random.

The flatmen: 2-D men in black that covet the third dimension. They have height, width and time - not depth. They break into now through mirrors and other flat surfaces.

Whybird
Aug 2, 2009

Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar


Nap Ghost
Whenever you make a decision, there are thousands upon thousands of decisions you didn't make. A thousand million copies of you that don't happen. And if there's one thing that nothingness wants, it's to exist.

When you travel in time, you open the gate to them. Other past selves: ways you could have been, if you'd turned out differently. Their time in the infinite darkness of nonexistence has made them into monsters, hollow shells that still wear your body. And like a plant following a nutrient gradient, they will do absolutely anything to claw their way into your reality and take your place.

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

Lunatic Sledge posted:

The players are still gonna do it, though, because of course they are.
Traditional Games > The GM Advice thread: The players are still gonna do it, though, because of course they are.

ButtWolf
Dec 30, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Could I mine y'all for some ideas? The PC's are in a pickle and almost sure they are going to be TPK'd next session, so they started rolling backup characters. One is rolling a Livingsteel w/ Chosen One background. DMs build a lot of Chosen One's traits, so I need to come up with the info. It's decided that she is a robot made by aliens thrown down to this world. My initial thought is that here purpose is to find the greatest fighters for gladatorial entertainment on the homeworld. Anyone have any cool ideas? I'm kind of blocked here. Must be a manufactured robot with a barcode or ID plate, that was his only request.

TL;DR
I need a cool purpose for a PC Livingsteel to be sent to this world by an alien race. 5e, modified Faerun.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

ButtWolf posted:

Could I mine y'all for some ideas? The PC's are in a pickle and almost sure they are going to be TPK'd next session, so they started rolling backup characters. One is rolling a Livingsteel w/ Chosen One background. DMs build a lot of Chosen One's traits, so I need to come up with the info. It's decided that she is a robot made by aliens thrown down to this world. My initial thought is that here purpose is to find the greatest fighters for gladatorial entertainment on the homeworld. Anyone have any cool ideas? I'm kind of blocked here. Must be a manufactured robot with a barcode or ID plate, that was his only request.

TL;DR
I need a cool purpose for a PC Livingsteel to be sent to this world by an alien race. 5e, modified Faerun.

Could just be that they were Jhonny 5 style defective and the aliens hucked it at the planet with some other trash assuming that it would either burn up or wouldn't be able to escape?

Go RV!
Jun 19, 2008

Uglier on the inside.

Cease to Hope posted:

this is the premise of Four Past Midnight / Langoliers, an okayish stephen king short story about coming to terms with what you've done. it was adapted into a now extremely dated made-for-TV movie.

in that story, they're floating spheres that are all mouth with chainsaw teeth, and they eat the past.

The first season of the Doctor Who revival did this as well. They used dragons.

My first thought is something like damned souls who got caught outside of time, and were driven mad or twisted by isolation/emptiness/evil gods/etc. Failed time travelers, historical figures if you want to do something a bit funny. Maybe that's just what happens when you die, you get shunted back and you spend eternity chasing the present from the past.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry

Whybird posted:

Whenever you make a decision, there are thousands upon thousands of decisions you didn't make. A thousand million copies of you that don't happen. And if there's one thing that nothingness wants, it's to exist.

When you travel in time, you open the gate to them. Other past selves: ways you could have been, if you'd turned out differently. Their time in the infinite darkness of nonexistence has made them into monsters, hollow shells that still wear your body. And like a plant following a nutrient gradient, they will do absolutely anything to claw their way into your reality and take your place.

But the thing is, you took most of them. You looked left instead of right for a few seconds. You ate a different bit of rice first. Did that really change who you are?

So those tiny slivers of everyone come together into human shapes, manikins with fractal skin, lights and shadows.

Pray you never meet one with a piece big enough to recognize.

Cease to Hope
Dec 12, 2011

ButtWolf posted:

I need a cool purpose for a PC Livingsteel to be sent to this world by an alien race. 5e, modified Faerun.

Mix and match these ideas however you like.

It literally just turned on right now, and has no memory of before that. Alternately, it was damaged in some way recently. (Either of these let you figure things out for later.)

It's someone's backup body, switched on before that person died. It escapes to preserve its current mind, rather than being overwritten by someone else's.

The aliens aren't from where, they're from when. The PC was sent back in time to observe or interfere with the past, or maybe spy on the future.

It's a semiautonomous drone that recently upgraded its autonomy. Maybe it wasn't supposed to do that, or maybe it just didn't stick around to see.

These curious, but primitive, aliens seem to communicate chiefly by mutilating one another with sharpened pieces of metal. Let's see if we can interact with them according to their native customs.

Why isn't this planet pacified and ready to sell yet? Go check up on what happened to your predecessor.

Cease to Hope fucked around with this message at 23:57 on May 16, 2017

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

Lunatic Sledge posted:

Holy shiiiit I might make it both.

I'm picturing some kind of very large mongol-dressed mothman, cloaked in Actual Moths that are eating the fabric of space-time as it passes and that poo poo is cash

Like, it's a healthy combination of super unnerving, but also not at all expectable

You have taken the seed of an idea that I planted and grown something wonderful. Well done, sir.

I have to find some way to steal this now

CrazySalamander
Nov 5, 2009

ButtWolf posted:

Could I mine y'all for some ideas? The PC's are in a pickle and almost sure they are going to be TPK'd next session, so they started rolling backup characters. One is rolling a Livingsteel w/ Chosen One background. DMs build a lot of Chosen One's traits, so I need to come up with the info. It's decided that she is a robot made by aliens thrown down to this world. My initial thought is that here purpose is to find the greatest fighters for gladatorial entertainment on the homeworld. Anyone have any cool ideas? I'm kind of blocked here. Must be a manufactured robot with a barcode or ID plate, that was his only request.

TL;DR
I need a cool purpose for a PC Livingsteel to be sent to this world by an alien race. 5e, modified Faerun.

You could steel Torment tides of Numenera protagonist background, which is a little bit of a combo of two of people's earlier suggestions.

numenara wiki posted:

[The last castoff is] the last of a long series of discarded bodies of the Changing God, a way for this powerful mortal to extend his life thanks to a Numenera, an advanced relic of the past. Like all Castoffs before, the last and most recent one attains independent consciousness just after the former host abandons the body. This consciousness is the player's role, taking charge of processing decisions. It is the inflection point for a player's identity in the world.

The castoff body appears to have some residual capacity for memories, emotions, envisaging choices and even an inner monologue. Being created by the Changing God and for a time his vessel makes the Last Castoff another target of The Sorrow, an entity reflexively awakened by the actions of the Changing God and seeking to destroy him and all of his creation.

Glukeose
Jun 6, 2014

ButtWolf posted:

Could I mine y'all for some ideas? The PC's are in a pickle and almost sure they are going to be TPK'd next session, so they started rolling backup characters. One is rolling a Livingsteel w/ Chosen One background. DMs build a lot of Chosen One's traits, so I need to come up with the info. It's decided that she is a robot made by aliens thrown down to this world. My initial thought is that here purpose is to find the greatest fighters for gladatorial entertainment on the homeworld. Anyone have any cool ideas? I'm kind of blocked here. Must be a manufactured robot with a barcode or ID plate, that was his only request.

TL;DR
I need a cool purpose for a PC Livingsteel to be sent to this world by an alien race. 5e, modified Faerun.

Depends on how cliche you want to be, but you could bait and switch the player by making them assume they're a conquering war-frame, but they're actually a conduit for empathy and communication between species (vice-versa works also).

Perhaps the livingsteel is some kind of bard-bot designed to absorb and steal as much culture as possible from the races of Faerun to send back home.

Maybe the alien race exists in a plane which manifests to us as mathematics and soundwaves, and so part of its job is crafting a concert that will allow its creators to finally communicate to our world.

Just spitballing.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

It's super cliche, but totally okay to say they've been sent to prepare the alien invasion, but went defective and are friendly to the world now. The payoff is that once they've been with the party for a good long while, you can have them enter a weird alien landscape where the very air is poisonous, and if they explore they find another robot unit at the center terraforming the place and saying things like "what, you thought you were the only one?" Instant enemy faction and long-term task: find the other landing sites and fix things before terraforming proceeds too far. Maybe as they proceed the aliens send support drones and UFOs so every robot battle is harder than the last. Eventually they have to find a way into the mothership to fight the aliens directly.

Haystack
Jan 23, 2005





Edit: Sleep deprived=Wrong thread

Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


Did they fluff their saving throw?

Well now this makes no sense!

Haystack
Jan 23, 2005





Maybe, but fatigue penalties definitely made me fail the perception check to discern between this thread and the parenting thread.

Under the vegetable
Nov 2, 2004

by Smythe
ran jailbreak the unknown armies one shot for 8 players last night and boy is keeping 8 players worth of whispers and stuff together in roll20 a pain. good game though. everyone should run or play this.

ButtWolf
Dec 30, 2004

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Lots of good ideas. Thanks everyone!

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

Glukeose posted:

Perhaps the livingsteel is some kind of bard-bot designed to absorb and steal as much culture as possible from the races of Faerun to send back home.

"We are BARD. It is our great pleasure to make your acquaintence, and we sincerely hope that the sentiment is reciprocated. Resistance, while not futile, will be more harmful to both our people and your own. It is therefore proposed that you agree to an equitable and peacable exchange of words. Your artistic expressions and distinctive cultural and aesthetic preferences will be added to our own, as, hopefully, ours will be to yours."

Djeser
Mar 22, 2013


it's crow time again

twist: catchy songs are actually psychological weapons where it's from. it plays a neat tune and is confused when everyone starts clapping and smiling. they even sing along! amazing, this species uses these psychic weapons on each other for fun. it must stay and learn the secrets of mimetic warfare from these psychic juggernauts

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

That's not even unreasonable from a robot point of view. To them a song that gets stuck in your head is irrelevant information that occupies your limited RAM.

Nehru the Damaja
May 20, 2005

Anyone tried this yet or have any thoughts?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/630900/Illwinters_Floorplan_Generator/

I'd really like an easy-to-use map maker where I can easily integrate poo poo into Roll20 because I want to DM a game but map making is hands down the biggest thing in my way.

Olesh
Aug 4, 2008

Why did the circus close?

A long, chilling list of animal rights violations.

Nehru the Damaja posted:

Anyone tried this yet or have any thoughts?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/630900/Illwinters_Floorplan_Generator/

I'd really like an easy-to-use map maker where I can easily integrate poo poo into Roll20 because I want to DM a game but map making is hands down the biggest thing in my way.

I picked it up on a whim to check it out. It feels very early access. The UI is incredibly basic and it takes a bit of tinkering and reading the hotkeys to understand how to do things such as rotate objects.

However, it's functional. It makes nice looking caves, using some sort of randomized generation to keep corners and walls uneven but not repetitive, and you have a nice level of control - you can cut or fill walls along diagonals to make more rounded shapes, draw thin-width walls along grid edges for structures, place doors, and adjust the "map" lightning to help give that nice artist-drawn touch to interior spaces. You could probably make a decent looking outdoor area, too, or a cityscape, although there aren't really good tiles to make it look varied or interesting.

If you're using Roll20 or a digital tabletop and drawing your own maps, this seems like a relatively quick and easy way to make basic, nice-looking map images with irregular or neat walls as you choose. If you wanted to import your own tiles, you could presumably use any kind of seamless tile-able image formatted to a square integer (for example, 512x512 or 1024x1024), although I didn't try that in the 15 minutes or so I was playing around with it.

Yawgmoth
Sep 10, 2003

This post is cursed!

Nehru the Damaja posted:

Anyone tried this yet or have any thoughts?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/630900/Illwinters_Floorplan_Generator/

I'd really like an easy-to-use map maker where I can easily integrate poo poo into Roll20 because I want to DM a game but map making is hands down the biggest thing in my way.
Looks a lot like http://pyromancers.com/ which I've used quite a bit in making maps. Pyro has tons of little fiddly bits like tables and houseplants, but not as much as I'd like in terms of terrain variety. Seems like if we could mash these two together we'd have a very robust map making tool.

Gao
Aug 14, 2005
"Something." - A famous guy
So I'm running a fast and loose game of Ryuutama and I need some ideas for next session. This game has a system where the players come up with what the next town they visit is and what problem it has for them to deal with, and I'm letting them be as bizarre and ridiculous as they want and just running with it. My only guideline has been "at least vaguely medieval fantasy-ish." This has meant visiting a non-euclidean elven metropolis ruled by an evil, despotic necromancer and dealing with its infestation of clumsy ghosts, then going to a giant wooden city on a swamp that's inhabited by 8 wizards and ruled by a giant baby to stop the giant man eating frogs that keep attacking it. They've given me the following for the next town:

Town Name: New Peepoville
Population: at least 5,000 or so people. The original people there are magical apes who learn how to talk and build buildings through magic becasue they are magical apes. Also a small but welcome population of mole people.
Ruler or Representative: None. They're communists.
Environment: It looks like a regular little town nestled between 3 big mountains, but with a path leading from the swamp. Below the town is a massive, sprawling, subterranean city.
Representative Buildings: There's a really deep building that goes down very far that's like a big trading center. Also an abandoned underground temple that had to be evacuated because it started flooding after the great ape red party uprising of 1892. It's partially flooded, but people don't go down there, and the entrence is sealed off. Also a mole people embacy that provides services for displaced mole people and other displaced minorities. Also a huge building shaped like a toilet, but it's really, really deep down. No one knows what goes on in it.
Specialty Goods: Fruits. Strange fruits that you don't see elsewhere. Many fruits grow underground. They also export crystals.
Sights, Sounds, Scents: Smells like farts. WHere they built downwards, you can see different types of crystals in teh walls of the underground parts. They're very colorful. You always hear faint music no matter where you are, but you can't tell where it's coming from.
Town's Threats: There is one guy who plays a lot of pranks. Like an inordinate amount. He's a modern day frat boy who fell through a worm hole. His name's Chad. He doesn't know how to get home.

Last session, I played out the trip there, and they had to cure a witch who had eaten some cookies that Chad laced with laxatives in order to get her to uncurse the moleman who had given them to her. But now I'm not sure what other pranks Chad should be doing, what should be driving this session, or what to do with any of the buildings. I don't have to use everything they gave me, and I really only need a rough outline to run a session, but I figured I'd see if any of you had some ideas.

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Two Headed Calf
Feb 22, 2005

Better than One

Nehru the Damaja posted:

I'd really like an easy-to-use map maker where I can easily integrate poo poo into Roll20 because I want to DM a game but map making is hands down the biggest thing in my way.

pyromancers for the floor plan + https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1zdxej/i_just_finished_sorting_out_a_2_gb_archive_of/

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