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Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Dareon posted:

A socket set measured in fractions of an inch.

Oh no, my sockets read 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2”, 5/8”, etc? :raise:

Or are you saying that every hardware store in God Bless America is cursed? Because that I can buy into.

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Mr. Maltose
Feb 16, 2011

The Guffless Girlverine
It's just a regular Hobby Lobby but every purchase you make there funds the looting of cultural artifacts and lobbying for homophobic legislation oh wait poo poo.

Dameius
Apr 3, 2006
A tech store that only has Stallman Was Right Drones in it.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Only tangentially related, but now I’m picturing a hardware store where all the bolts, nails, and screws are sorted into “regular” and “backward” bins, following the old “haha this nail was made backwards, the head’s on the wrong end, must be for the ceiling!” joke, which appears to be the case to the players, and the two varieties are entirely indistinguishable, except somehow the goblin proprietor consistently knows exactly which is which, and he gets pissed if the players mix any up.

I don’t know WHY such a thing would need to exist in a game, but I feel like it should. He also sells literal elbow grease.

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

Bad Munki posted:

Oh no, my sockets read 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2”, 5/8”, etc? :raise:

Or are you saying that every hardware store in God Bless America is cursed? Because that I can buy into.

I'm not a hardware guy, mine are in millimeters and that original thought was "off by half a millimeter so none of them fit right" but that was too clunky a thought and half a millimeter isn't much. That said, I would go for that second thing. It's like the country is built on millions of indian burial grounds or something.

Gumball Gumption
Jan 7, 2012

Any advice on how to do a who done it in 5E? It's just going to be a session or two but the players have been invited to a dinner hosted by a mix of people who they currently consider allies. One of them is a spy and will try to poison the players thorough the food. I'm going to have everyone be involved in making the food so that they can't just point to the cook and go "It was him" and I'm going to plant clues to point them to the true culprit. I'm mostly hung up on what to do if they hit a snag and what the fallout should be if they finger the wrong person.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









This guy has a good guideline for mysteries, the three clue rule.

Gumball Gumption
Jan 7, 2012

That's useful, it's something I've always "known" but seeing it like that is really helpful.

Nash
Aug 1, 2003

Sign my 'Bring Goldberg Back' Petition

sebmojo posted:

This guy has a good guideline for mysteries, the three clue rule.

This is a really good read. Very helpful to the campaign I’m running. Thanks for posting it.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

sebmojo posted:

This guy has a good guideline for mysteries, the three clue rule.

The note about red herrings ("Don't bother because your players will make them for you") reminds me of the first episodes of the second Critical Role campaign. They had to solve the mystery of an old man suddenly turning into a zombie during a circus performance involving a giant toad-like creature and a girl singing. The party latched onto the ideas that:

* The girl singing was behind it.

* There was a special significance to the victim.

* There was some connection to a giant snake monster that was killed in the lake earlier.

They spent an entire session searching these false leads (including asking people the same questions at different locations and getting frustrated by getting the same answers) before finally bothering to check the giant toad creature, whereupon they instantly discovered that he was a Fiend and later research confirmed that he was feeding off of people's life energy and turning the old dude into a zombie was an accident. Ironically, part of the reason they spent so long on the other "leads" was that Taliesin was absolutely convinced that his character knew too much about the circus he was working in and disregarded any idea of checking the other performers until the very end.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


I'm having a little trouble beefing up my next session. The party is going to be investigating a town that has more problems than it realizes, and track the problems to one of the temple's staff. Checking out the temple will reveal some D&D-standard catacombs with cultists allied with that staff member. I have the boss fight figured out and a big reveal at the end of the session.

What I don't have is more to this session than a bit of investigative work and a roughly-five-fight dungeon. I'm starting to worry that it's not going to take nearly as long as it should. I'd appreciate any suggestions for other things to throw into this town.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

tzirean posted:

I'm having a little trouble beefing up my next session. The party is going to be investigating a town that has more problems than it realizes, and track the problems to one of the temple's staff. Checking out the temple will reveal some D&D-standard catacombs with cultists allied with that staff member. I have the boss fight figured out and a big reveal at the end of the session.

What I don't have is more to this session than a bit of investigative work and a roughly-five-fight dungeon. I'm starting to worry that it's not going to take nearly as long as it should. I'd appreciate any suggestions for other things to throw into this town.

Sorry, to clarify, do you mean that the town has more trouble than it realizes, or that the town has more trouble than the party realizes? If it's the latter, you can have the townsfolk be "helpful."

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


Keeshhound posted:

Sorry, to clarify, do you mean that the town has more trouble than it realizes, or that the town has more trouble than the party realizes? If it's the latter, you can have the townsfolk be "helpful."

My fault, I'm trying not to give everything away. The town is unaware they have so much trouble.

It's a variant on the "false hydra" monster everyone loves. The villain is using a kind of magic that, when it kills someone, it erases them from everyone's memory as well. So the town is confused when, for example, a woman who no longer remembers her husband has a whole bunch of men's clothing in her closet. So the town thinks they have maybe a weird prankster, when really they have a serial killer.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









That sounds like plenty. How long are your sessions?

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

tzirean posted:

My fault, I'm trying not to give everything away. The town is unaware they have so much trouble.

It's a variant on the "false hydra" monster everyone loves. The villain is using a kind of magic that, when it kills someone, it erases them from everyone's memory as well. So the town is confused when, for example, a woman who no longer remembers her husband has a whole bunch of men's clothing in her closet. So the town thinks they have maybe a weird prankster, when really they have a serial killer.

That still works; if you think they're powering through the mystery too fast (somehow), have someone become convinced that they are or are working with, the prankster.

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


sebmojo posted:

That sounds like plenty. How long are your sessions?

~6 hours. We don't play every week so we play for a while when we do.

Keeshhound posted:

That still works; if you think they're powering through the mystery too fast (somehow), have someone become convinced that they are or are working with, the prankster.

Part of the problem is that the way I have it set up, the party knows more about the mystery than the town does; they're being enlisted by someone who has a good amount figured out and knows they can't handle something like this alone.

SpiritOfLenin
Apr 29, 2013

be happy :3


Hey I need a bit of advice regarding creating mythical beings. In my campaign the pcs killed a creature that also represented the destructiveness of fire itself, being an aspect of the Primordial Fire in the setting - now I'm trying to figure out what the other aspects could be. I've got Warmth/Heat and Light already, and I think a third one would be nice, but not sure what that could be. The setting is a sea-based setting that's taken some inspiration from Sunless Sea, a dark endless ocean with no sun and strange things lurking in the dark - although the setting has evolved into its own thing by now.

Tuxedo Catfish
Mar 17, 2007

You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.
Growth. Fire spreads as long as it has fuel to do so, and the sun is "fire as the source of all life."

Similarly, a huge part of the Fallen London / Sunless Sea lore is that the Bazaar is a parasite and every city that it steals eventually decays into nothing (and then they steal a new one), and even if you aren't literally using that setting, fire-as-growth makes a nice parallel to the degeneration and slow collapse implied by the absence of the sun.

SpiritOfLenin
Apr 29, 2013

be happy :3


Growth's a good idea yeah.

I was thinking something about fire's positive aspects, but wasn't sure how to represent it, and Growth is a real good one. Now I just need to figure out an entity to represent it - albeit thankfully I have relatively free reign there, since with Destruction it was already established that the aspects don't have to be literal fire creatures as long as they represent their aspect (Heat/Warmth is definitely a fire creature 100% tho). For instance, Destruction was a giant hateful sentient sea monster that had plagued the sea for several millennia, destroying most things it ran into (except this bunch of crazy fuckers who basically also represent fire's destructive aspects), only revealing its link to fire during the massive sea battle during which it was slain.

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
L5R also has fire linked to intelligence/passion/creation, if that helps.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger

SpiritOfLenin posted:

Hey I need a bit of advice regarding creating mythical beings. In my campaign the pcs killed a creature that also represented the destructiveness of fire itself, being an aspect of the Primordial Fire in the setting - now I'm trying to figure out what the other aspects could be. I've got Warmth/Heat and Light already, and I think a third one would be nice, but not sure what that could be. The setting is a sea-based setting that's taken some inspiration from Sunless Sea, a dark endless ocean with no sun and strange things lurking in the dark - although the setting has evolved into its own thing by now.

You could have it linked to purification and transmutation, in the form of a crucible or forge.


tzirean posted:

Part of the problem is that the way I have it set up, the party knows more about the mystery than the town does; they're being enlisted by someone who has a good amount figured out and knows they can't handle something like this alone.

If it's not spoiling too much, what's the mechanism for the memory loss? Is it something that could wear off at an inconvenient time, or could be intentionally inflicted on an important witness if need be?

Also, how elaborate is the secret cult dungeon? Are we talking a secret complex of tunnels under the town, or more of an unused basement?

Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jun 17, 2018

disaster pastor
May 1, 2007


Keeshhound posted:

If it's not spoiling too much, what's the mechanism for the memory loss? Is it something that could wear off at an inconvenient time, or could be intentionally inflicted on an important witness if need be?

Also, how elaborate is the secret cult dungeon? Are we talking a secret complex of tunnels under the town, or more of an unused basement?

The memory loss is permanent and is tied to the magic killing that person; to everyone in the world, it's as though the person never existed. Even if you're smart enough to understand that the magic happened and to put together the pieces that show you must have been married to that person, or fought alongside them, or whatever, you cannot remember them short of maybe a Wish spell. So the plot threads from there are where did this magic come from, how did this relatively low-level guy get it and use it, and who else might have it?

My thought was to have the temple basement, which is a few rooms over one or two floors, then have a tunnel leading from one of those rooms to the extra-culty area, which would only be like three rooms.

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
I really like the trope of fire-as-industry: it's the spark that fires forges and drives engines.

You can also make the analogy of fire with emotion and impulse and passion.

Fire can also be a guardian and a force of revelation. It drives away shadows and burns out obfuscating darkness.

CubeTheory
Mar 26, 2010

Cube Reversal
I'm homebrewing a bunch of magic items for a specific vendor in my campaign, if I post them here as I make them would people be willing to give me feedback? Specifically on balance and whether or not their actually interesting. The items are supposed to be real oddities, things you wouldn't normally see, and from a variety of dimensions and planes.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

I'm looking for advice on a specific kind of RPG format. Basically, I want to do a game that's sort of a cross between Crimson Skies and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker or MGS V, set in an alternate 1955 where the United States has broken up. The PCs are the founders of a mercenary agency in this chaotic world and trying to become the wealthiest and most powerful guns for hire.

It's going to be on the pulpy side of things, so powerful player characters with skill and strength levels on par with famous heroes like Indiana Jones or James Bond and simplified physics for doing crazy dogfighting. I want it to be similar to Peace Walker or Phantom Pain where they have a base and private army that completes missions while they're away or provides backup for the specialist jobs only the players can do (like bringing a mortar unit along for support, or NPC-controlled planes and armored vehicles), but also having regular expenses that drain their bank account so they don't get too rich too fast. If they end up in the red, it also provides opportunities for the PCs being offered risky jobs from sketchy people for a high payout. Because it's pulpy, the PCs are also going to be handling both air and ground combat in equal measure because they'll be building characters skilled enough to do so.

Has anyone here had a game with this kind of logistical gameplay in it, and what advice would you recommend to keep it from getting boring or too deep into "Accounting: The RPG"? I do know I'm going to just abstract their money into generic dollars so they don't have to worry about converting currencies or tracking how much they have in precious metals, bonds, etc. that they may receive as payment or theft from missions.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









CubeTheory posted:

I'm homebrewing a bunch of magic items for a specific vendor in my campaign, if I post them here as I make them would people be willing to give me feedback? Specifically on balance and whether or not their actually interesting. The items are supposed to be real oddities, things you wouldn't normally see, and from a variety of dimensions and planes.

Hell yeah.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









chitoryu12 posted:

I'm looking for advice on a specific kind of RPG format. Basically, I want to do a game that's sort of a cross between Crimson Skies and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker or MGS V, set in an alternate 1955 where the United States has broken up. The PCs are the founders of a mercenary agency in this chaotic world and trying to become the wealthiest and most powerful guns for hire.

It's going to be on the pulpy side of things, so powerful player characters with skill and strength levels on par with famous heroes like Indiana Jones or James Bond and simplified physics for doing crazy dogfighting. I want it to be similar to Peace Walker or Phantom Pain where they have a base and private army that completes missions while they're away or provides backup for the specialist jobs only the players can do (like bringing a mortar unit along for support, or NPC-controlled planes and armored vehicles), but also having regular expenses that drain their bank account so they don't get too rich too fast. If they end up in the red, it also provides opportunities for the PCs being offered risky jobs from sketchy people for a high payout. Because it's pulpy, the PCs are also going to be handling both air and ground combat in equal measure because they'll be building characters skilled enough to do so.

Has anyone here had a game with this kind of logistical gameplay in it, and what advice would you recommend to keep it from getting boring or too deep into "Accounting: The RPG"? I do know I'm going to just abstract their money into generic dollars so they don't have to worry about converting currencies or tracking how much they have in precious metals, bonds, etc. that they may receive as payment or theft from missions.

Do a five point wealth rating thing, buying extravagant stuff maybe knocks you down a point. There are lots of good examples, I think WoD does it that way.

CubeTheory
Mar 26, 2010

Cube Reversal
Posted a couple in the 5e thread, but here are a few I have so far. These are all supposed to be either a little goofy or referential, this particular vendor is cross dimensional and sells a variety of exotic items.

Clockwork Trilobite
Half magic, half machine, this tiny creature of wood and steel stretches only a few inches and is in the shape of a trilobite. Setting this Trilobite on the ground causes it to scuttle directly in a straight line towards it’s home, though it cannot circumnavigate walls or other obstacles and becomes stuck by them. Burying the Trilobite in the ground overnight causes that location to become it’s new home.

Doorkickers
Black leather boots with a thick sole, these shoes give advantage on all Athletics skill checks made to kick down doors, and protect you from an damage you would incur from failing to kick a door down.
Once a day, as an action, you may tighten the laces on these boots. If you do, you automatically succeed at kicking in the next nonmagical door you kick, and that door is blown backwards off it’s hinges, damaging any creature it collides with.

Eye of the Celestial Warrior
A small silver monocle, inlaid with a thin ruby lens. When looking through it, pressing a small button on the side will quantify the strengths of anything animate in the area and display this value numerically.

Maître D's Magnificent Table Cloth
This plain white, magical table cloth will stretch to fit any table it is laid on. A player may attempt a Sleight of Hand skill check to remove the table cloth. On a success, any empty place settings on the table are instantly filled with conjured food and drink of the highest quality the player has experienced. On a failure, the silverware and dishes are flung about the room potentially being damaged. The DC is equal to 10 + 2 for each place setting. This ability may be used once a day.
If the meal is leisurely enjoyed over a short rest, each diner is granted temporary hit points equal to twice their constitution modifier.

Spellcatcher’s Mitt
Requires Attunement
A thin black glove embossed with silver runes. Whenever you counter a spell with the “Counterspell” spell, you may make a Sleight of Height skill check with DC equal to 10 + the countered spells level. On a success, Spellcatcher’s Mitt absorbs the countered spell instead. As an action, you may cast a spell absorbed with Spellcatcher’s Mitt. You may only have one spell absorbed at a time.

Spirit Chalk
A thin white piece of chalk emitting a slight glow. Using this chalk, you may trace a humanoid figure onto a flat surface, and draw a number of features onto the figure (eyes, ears, etc.) granting it the abilities of those features. The figure then becomes animate and gains an intelligence of 10. It follows simple commands you issue it, though it cannot move more than 1 foot from where it was drawn. If at any time the outline of the figure becomes broken, it ceases to be alive. This chalk can be used 4 times before it becomes consumed, but can be used freely to repair slightly damaged outlines it previously created.

Umbral Cord
A short one foot length of sturdy, black rope. Pressing one end of the rope up against an inanimate surface and speaking a command word will cause the rope to fuse to that surface permanently. Once fused, you may cause the rope to extend any length at will. If at any time the rope becomes cut, it ceases to be magical and becomes a normal rope.

Plate of the Green Banner
Requires Attunement
Half-Plate Armor +1
AC: 15 + Dex (max 2) + 1
Disadvantage on stealth checks
Whenever you take 20 or more points of damage in a single attack from a hostile creature, make a charisma saving throw. The DC is equal to half the damage rounded down. On a failed save, you are transformed into a Berserking Beast.

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company
Doorkickers: I love these, but is there a limit to the damage done by a flying door? Is the size of the door limited? Do gates count? Or portcullises? Also, does the door have to be affixed to a wall, or can I carry one around with me for use as an area-of-effect attack? Hey, if they protect me from damage from doorkicking, what if I carry a door covered with spikes and use that for more damage? Or if I can't carry a door, maybe the wizard can transmute the door into lava before I kick it down and it flies across the room!

(yes, these are all things I think of as a player)

Eye of the Celestial Warrior: cute and all, but be aware that if your players get hold of this you're committed to actually assigning a Power Level to every NPC or monster they will ever meet. Because they'll never not be checking.

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger
If the Doorkickers are meant as a reference to Gunpoint, you could also include a ball of crisscrossing wires that lets the holder randomly retarget one magical effect each day.

CubeTheory
Mar 26, 2010

Cube Reversal

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

Doorkickers: I love these, but is there a limit to the damage done by a flying door? Is the size of the door limited? Do gates count? Or portcullises? Also, does the door have to be affixed to a wall, or can I carry one around with me for use as an area-of-effect attack? Hey, if they protect me from damage from doorkicking, what if I carry a door covered with spikes and use that for more damage? Or if I can't carry a door, maybe the wizard can transmute the door into lava before I kick it down and it flies across the room!
I'm a little loose with setting things up here, if it's iffy I'll just make a call. For the most part I define door as "a physical barrier preventing entry to a space that could be opened under your own strength if not locked".

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

Eye of the Celestial Warrior: cute and all, but be aware that if your players get hold of this you're committed to actually assigning a Power Level to every NPC or monster they will ever meet. Because they'll never not be checking.

Luckily, this already exists in 5e as Challenge Rating. Challenge rating is a bad system though, and so are power levels, so I feel fine having them interpret it's readings as they choose given just the raw CR number.

sleepy.eyes
Sep 14, 2007

Like a pig in a chute.

Keeshhound posted:

What kind of goods can you buy at the Home Depot of the damned?

Screwdrivers that always strip the screw no matter how careful you are.

Plants that always end up dying because of improper sun/water/soil, even when they are all correct.

Red Cypress mulch that always rips open in the back of your hatchback and even manages to get under the loving tarp you put there for just such an occasion.

Mower that'll never start until you get someone to show them how it won't start.

Gauntlet gloves that'll always have the stitching on the index finger come apart but you always forget to take them out of your garage so you keep hurting yourself.

The knife sharpener who's outside the store every first Friday does a really great job but ever knife he sharpens ends up being used in a murder, fatal accident, or suicide.

CubeTheory
Mar 26, 2010

Cube Reversal
I'm making an amulet that has a face on it. When casting a spell that requires concentration, you can tap on the amulet to wake up the face and make it hold the concentration for the spell. Unfortunately, the face complains about everything and is generally super annoying. Trying to decide what the funniest face to put on it is.

Dareon
Apr 6, 2009

by vyelkin

chitoryu12 posted:

Has anyone here had a game with this kind of logistical gameplay in it, and what advice would you recommend to keep it from getting boring or too deep into "Accounting: The RPG"? I do know I'm going to just abstract their money into generic dollars so they don't have to worry about converting currencies or tracking how much they have in precious metals, bonds, etc. that they may receive as payment or theft from missions.

I was in a game with a similar situation, and it was handled by having multiple groups of minor NPCs who could go on various missions with various equipment, with more important NPCs or secondary PCs (We were all running two characters) along to supervise. These matchups of group, job, equipment, and overseer would provide bonuses or penalties to the resulting roll to determine degree of success or failure.

Example: "We'll send Ven's spy ring into the mountains to mine, sending along the mining gear we picked up in that last wrecked caravan, and send Zushi along to supervise." "Okay, the spies don't really know how to mine, so that's a -2. The mining equipment will give you a +2, but Zushi is an uncultured barbarian, the spies don't respect her and that's another -2." "...Why is my spy ring mining? Wouldn't the Boar tribe be better at that?" "They don't know much about mining either, but they like hitting things and Zushi is good at handling stubborn folk, so that at least switches those penalties to neutral."

Basically give each group an aggregate personality and a job, so instead of a nebulous Support Unit you have the remnants of the 33rd Bombardiers, boisterous fly-boy pilots who you bailed out of an ambush by the Black Wings and can now count on for close air support and speedy flying, but shouldn't be trusted with vital diplomacy.

CubeTheory posted:

I'm making an amulet that has a face on it. When casting a spell that requires concentration, you can tap on the amulet to wake up the face and make it hold the concentration for the spell. Unfortunately, the face complains about everything and is generally super annoying. Trying to decide what the funniest face to put on it is.

A historical figure like a prince/ss or famous wizard, the amulet was created as the equivalent of a political cartoon.

Alternately, a really cute bunny.

Dameius
Apr 3, 2006

CubeTheory posted:

I'm making an amulet that has a face on it. When casting a spell that requires concentration, you can tap on the amulet to wake up the face and make it hold the concentration for the spell. Unfortunately, the face complains about everything and is generally super annoying. Trying to decide what the funniest face to put on it is.

Walter from The Big Lebowski and every time you make it work its the Sabbath or someone is cheating at bowling again.

chitoryu12
Apr 24, 2014

Dareon posted:

I was in a game with a similar situation, and it was handled by having multiple groups of minor NPCs who could go on various missions with various equipment, with more important NPCs or secondary PCs (We were all running two characters) along to supervise. These matchups of group, job, equipment, and overseer would provide bonuses or penalties to the resulting roll to determine degree of success or failure.

Example: "We'll send Ven's spy ring into the mountains to mine, sending along the mining gear we picked up in that last wrecked caravan, and send Zushi along to supervise." "Okay, the spies don't really know how to mine, so that's a -2. The mining equipment will give you a +2, but Zushi is an uncultured barbarian, the spies don't respect her and that's another -2." "...Why is my spy ring mining? Wouldn't the Boar tribe be better at that?" "They don't know much about mining either, but they like hitting things and Zushi is good at handling stubborn folk, so that at least switches those penalties to neutral."

Basically give each group an aggregate personality and a job, so instead of a nebulous Support Unit you have the remnants of the 33rd Bombardiers, boisterous fly-boy pilots who you bailed out of an ambush by the Black Wings and can now count on for close air support and speedy flying, but shouldn't be trusted with vital diplomacy.

What I was thinking was something not unlike the Phantom Pain system for running Mother Base. You'd have a relatively simple cost breakdown:

* Monthly cost for the base existing (adding new elements adds to the monthly cost).

* Monthly cost per soldier recruited.

* Cost to purchase weapons and vehicles (which can also be stolen or taken as war trophies to save money).

* "Deployment cost" for any weapon or vehicle, representing the ammo, fuel, and maintenance costs of using it on this trip.

The PCs would be presented with a selection of jobs for their mercs every time they're at the base, listing all sorts of standard tasks like participating in battles or guard duty, VIP protection, strike missions, etc. The PCs decide which units they want to send with which gear and vehicles, with the deployment cost of the whole unit being taken out of their funds once they hit "go". The better equipped the NPC unit is, the higher chance they have of success. I do all the rolls to determine what (if anything) gets destroyed or who gets killed and whether or not the mission is a success. If it is, they get the money immediately upon the return of the NPC unit. I was thinking there could also be some "missions" like air shows that they could send some people out to get money at little to no risk.

While the NPCs are out on their missions around the globe, the PCs are given a special task with a high payout or some special benefit (like free additional soldiers or equipment) that only their skills can solve. These would be commando-style raids on sensitive targets, espionage missions like infiltrating a West California socialites' ball to steal a briefcase of military secrets, or investigations into mysterious South Seas pirates to try and find their base to destroy. Depending on what's appropriate, they can also spend the deployment cost to bring assets along with them. In the aforementioned pirate job, they may do the ground work finding the base themselves and then call in a fighter squadron loaded with rockets to provide backup and destroy their secret cave.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Speaking of magic items, does it make sense to provide items that “fill holes” in party abilities as a result of composition? e.g. a skeleton key when the party lacks a Rogue, a lens of arcane truth when they lack a Wizard or Cleric, etc. Should I simply provide it to them, or make them pass a challenge for it? Should they be freely able to use it, or have it limited by spending resources or some other kind of tradeoff?

Keeshhound
Jan 14, 2010

Mad Duck Swagger
Ideally you should be tailoring your challenges to the party, rather than making a challenge they can't meaningfully interact with and then giving them a tool to circumvent it.

Edit: that reads a little more dickishly than I meant for it to. What I was trying to say is that, for example, if a party doesn't have a rogue, don't put locked doors in their way and give them skelleton key, put a locked door in their way and then put a note on it that says "changed the locks after last month's break-in, if you need in ask me or Gort to let you in. - Boss"

Then it becomes about circumvent in the guys with the keys instead of the lock.

Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Jun 18, 2018

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Keeshhound posted:

Ideally you should be tailoring your challenges to the party, rather than making a challenge they can't meaningfully interact with and then giving them a tool to circumvent it.
Keeshhound is right. However I think you can make the difference between having a wizard and having an arcane lens interesting, that can be really fun.

Really you want to back into this a different way. Think about it in terms of - what sorts of scenes would this item allow you to create that you wouldn't otherwise get to use? What is engaging about the difference between having a wizard vs having an arcane lens? Can you present those moments in a way that puts a spotlight on characters in a positive way (e.g. normally only a group with a wizard could accomplish X, but you as a group are so capable that you have found a different approach)?

You can also sometimes throw a hard block in front of the party, but then the story is going and getting the thing that gets them around it. In those cases, though, it's important to try and make it about the party picking a solution. Don't lock yourself into there being only one way through, and especially allow room for the party to come up with an answer you hadn't considered.

The balance here is that if the party does get stuck, you need to have an out. Even engaged groups that have bought in will sometimes bounce off a challenge, sometimes even ones they would normally get into, and that's fine! You just want to avoid getting locked in yourself and if something doesn't work, move on.

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Jun 18, 2018

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Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
The clockwork trilobite is adorable and I want four. :3:

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