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This afternoon the final session of our campaign came down to a pitched battle in a burning dockside warehouse. I as the paladin was doing my best to keep the heavy melee hitters away from my squishy companions but it looked like a losing battle; I was taking too much damage and the BBEG was staying behind cover, popping of spells to buff her team of miscreants. Seeing our rogue start to close in on her position however, I cast Misty Steps to teleport right next to the enemy spellcaster, and rightly figured I could beat her in a grapple. Our rogue, going next, had clear shots on the normally elusive foe, and introduced her innards to all manner of stabbing. Without her buffs the remaining enemies were quickly dispatched by our sorcerer and cleric, and we (largely) managed to escape the warehouse before the entire thing exploded. It was a good session, and my Lay On Hands prevented anyone from going down permanently, so my usually stoic and uninvolved character (it was an investigation-heavy game; I took a break from my usual tropes and made a meat shield as everyone else was exceptionally soft) got to be a big part of the win.
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Jul 11, 2022 06:23
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Although our Planescape game is delayed for another fortnight due to IRL issues I got to catch up with the GM and bard for a bit. When discussing stats the bard insisted they had charisma like a labrador retriever, to which I suggested we get him neutered and spayed before the party gets dragged to Sigil. Succubi and Incubi are far too accessible there for the party's well-being.
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Jul 11, 2022 06:54
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FreshFeesh posted:This afternoon the final session of our campaign came down to a pitched battle in a burning dockside warehouse. I as the paladin was doing my best to keep the heavy melee hitters away from my squishy companions but it looked like a losing battle; I was taking too much damage and the BBEG was staying behind cover, popping of spells to buff her team of miscreants. I feel like invoking the grapple rules is a CE action and should cause your paladin to fall.
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Jul 11, 2022 07:57
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So my normal Saturday group is about to get back to 5e Dungeon of the Mad Mage, but we have had a few weeks between that and the end of Mage. In that time, one of us wrote a Vampire: the Masquerade short-run game to fill a few weeks. It's a heist plot, and all of the PCs are Red Listed (basically, on the game's most prominent political group's kill-on-sight list). As such, he gave out an absolutely insane amount of XP to make the characters. By design, it is a game about doing absolutely stupid, insane poo poo with truckloads of dice because it's basically a one-shot so why not? Imagine Ocean's Eleven and suicide Squad had a baby. A stupid, stupid, undead baby. The game has taken place in three acts: the setup, the plan, and the heist. The setup is this: Clan Giovanni sends messages to all of the PCs independently, asking them for a meetup. The game's pusher character is a mobbed-up idiot from South Boston. He says the Giovanni struck an agreement with the Camarilla (the setting's most powerful political group) in 1511 as a sort of non-aggression pact. The thing is, this Pact of 1511 has secret stipulations that were deliberately kept hidden to both parties, and the agreement is about to expire. The pact was also mystically-binding and has all sorts of weird ramifications, so Clan Giovanni wants to steal the Camarilla's copy of it before the expiration to get a monopoly on the post-pact stipulations. This, of course, means a heist. They have assembled four Red Listed vampires to do this dirty work because, being Red Listed, we are all a) already on the Cam poo poo list, b) are tough, dangerous operators capable of succeeding, and c) are in a position to want or need something that Clan Giovanni can offer. They offer each of us something different, from indefinite shelter to vengeance against specific NPCs. The team is as follows:  Alexis is a sabbat Toreador social butterfly prone to cruelty. Red Listed for collaborating with another Red Listed vampire and ending up the fall gal for all that. Heist archetype: The Face Bogdan is an elder Nosferatu hacker who, unlike other elders, makes a concerted effort to keep up with tech. Red Listed for starting hunter.net "for the lulz." Heist archetype: The Fixer Kemal is an ancient "City" Gangrel who is a master thief and compulsive pickpocket. Red Listed for accidentally stealing some important McGuffin in the past. Heist archetype: The Ace Kourosh is an ancient "Country" Gangrel steppes nomad with a vicious streak. Red Listed for helping the Turks (and Assamites) conquer Istanbul in 1453. Heist archetype: The HeavyAlexis spends the planning stages securing invitations to the big shindig the Cam are having ahead of the expiration of this Pact of 1511. Whatever they want to happen apparently requires a bunch of elders in town for what is to follow. So she is our ticket in. She also helps Kemal with some of his on-site investigations. Kemal skulks around the hotel where the shindig and heist is to take place. He works with Alexis and Bogdan to get a floorplan and HVAC system map of the secret sub-basement where the target is housed. Bogdan smuggles himself in in the form of a cellphone (?!) in Kemal's pocket and sets up his own hardware on the sub-basement's intranet. Now he can see through all the security cameras, control the automated weapon systems, and a number of other things. Kourosh acts outside to get eyes on the four Archons (elite Cam secret police) who are supposed to be guarding this shindig. One of them is his hated enemy, Izak, who betrayed his coterie to the Cam after 1453. He dunks him into Torpor using Quietus and claps eyes on two of the other three archons. At this point, the Giovanni get mad at us. They say we've gone too far in acting against the Archons and in some of the social dealings. They say what we're doing is too risky. Kourosh goes Full Joker Mode and reminds them that this is what they paid for when they hired four notorious fugitives to do their dirty work. It becomes clear that the Southie handler is not a master conniver and is now in way over his head to the point he is worried it will all blow back on him and his clan. All of the PCs laugh at him for this and we proceed with the plan. Alexis uses fleshcrafting to make Kourosh look like an innocuous young woman to be alongside her during the shindig. This will give her support on-site, and will get Kourosh into the city now that the Cam is onto him from his strike against Izak. Kourosh's strike itself was intended to get an Archon out of the way, and to provide a red herring: the Cam will hopefully be scrambling resources to hunt him instead of keeping as many eyes on the shindig. Meanwhile, he will be hiding in plain sight, at the shindig itself with Alexis. Meanwhile, Bogdan gets Kemal's help making an illusory bomb hidden in a cart. Kemal will use his abilities to sneak it and Bogdan into the sub-basement after Alexis has used her abilities and a plausible lie to clear the way. Bogdan will go to his hardware and set up shop in a maintenance closet so he can provide maps, tactical intelligence, and control of the security systems from there. Kemal will use that intelligence and some of our prior groundwork to find and steal the documents. Kourosh will go with him to provide support, retreating back to help Alexis if need be. Alexis will stay by the entrance to the sub basement to keep our exit secure. Kourosh's destructive capabilities and the actual, non-illusory bombs Bogdan has snuck in will provide cover for escape. With the plan in place, we're about ready to wrap things up on the eve of next week's game, the heist itself. We go tank up on vitae and I realize that Alexis' disguise for Kourosh has provided a simple solution to a challenge. I ask, "how many rats can I stuff in a purse?" My idea is this: I use Animalism to summon and sedate as many rats as I can stuff safely (as they have to be alive) in a purse, now that my character is now likely to be carrying a purse, having had his appearance changed to that of a woman. This seems way less likely to be suspicious and Normally, rats aren't worth much, but I have Animalism 6 and the Efficient Digestion merit, so I'm getting triple blood from animals. Basically, every two rats I eat gives me 3 blood instead of 1. After a five minute discussion about purses, it is determined that I can fit eight rats in my purse. My wife helped with a physical demonstration of arcane purse technology. Now we are ready for the heist. 
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Jul 17, 2022 14:58
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Railing Kill posted:
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Jul 17, 2022 18:36
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Joking aside, humor is the only way to play or run a World of Darkness game. Humor both makes the dark poo poo darker in contrast, and tolerable at the same time. We are having a blast playing a bunch of old, crazy assholes. We are bad people doing bad things to worse people. There's a subtheme in this game about how stupid and out of touch with modern reality elder vampires must all be. We all are (with the exception of Bogdan), and the elder Cam dickheads are all even moreso. There was a scene earlier when I was casing the hotel while possessing the mind of a crow. I was silently following Izak, my mortal enemy, as he entered an elevator. Trying to stay hidden, I moved to try to hop behind him as he turned around. But the GM said, "He's an elder vampire and he barely understands how elevators work, let alone elevator etiquette. He gets into the thing just enough to clear the door and just stands there like an rear end in a top hat. He doesn't even turn around. "It takes about five seconds for him to remember to press a button to make it go up."
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Jul 17, 2022 20:53
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There's two ways to play VtM: The boring way, in which you're cursed to eternal highschool drama with other depressing assholes who can't go out during the day, or The cool way, in which you're a magical blood elemental controlling a supercorpse gundam and you use your powers once in a while.
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Jul 17, 2022 22:43
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wiegieman posted:There's two ways to play VtM:  This person knows what's up.
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Jul 17, 2022 23:01
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Railing Kill posted:Joking aside, humor is the only way to play or run a World of Darkness game. Humor both makes the dark poo poo darker in contrast, and tolerable at the same time. We are having a blast playing a bunch of old, crazy assholes. We are bad people doing bad things to worse people.
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Jul 17, 2022 23:28
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The WoD game I was in got around this by being a well-maintained mishmash of all the creatures in the setting. The Storytellers did a good job balancing "within your wheelhouse, you're powerful" and "there's always a bigger fish," aka "a nine-foot murder machine who doesn't care that you've spent 100 years controlling the rest stops in the greater Cleveland area, and a resurrected Egyptian spirit who won't leave you the gently caress alone." X X X X X According to my DM, there's a difference between necromantic burial rites and necromantic burial rights.
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Jul 19, 2022 14:26
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's a difference between necromantic burial rites and necromantic burial rights. I initially misread this as “there’s a difference between necromantic burial rites and nec-romantic burial rites” and grew concerned.
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Jul 19, 2022 23:50
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Preechr posted:I initially misread this as “there’s a difference between necromantic burial rites and nec-romantic burial rites” and grew concerned. Ultima Noctae
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Jul 20, 2022 00:05
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's a difference between necromantic burial rites and necromantic burial rights.
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Jul 20, 2022 03:09
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NGDBSS posted:Well yeah, haven't you played Ender Lilies? ...now that I've heard of it, I will!
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Jul 20, 2022 11:55
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the demonic entity in my monsterhearts game is now known as "Fuckboy Satan"
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Jul 22, 2022 10:59
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ItohRespectArmy posted:the demonic entity in my monsterhearts game is now known as "Fuckboy Satan" This reminds me (in a good way) of one of the baddies from S1 of The Adventure Zone. It was a pair of glam liches. Griffin wrote boss fight music for them that sounds like what a Final Fantasy end boss would walk out to in a drag show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEsdTqfoOc4
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Jul 23, 2022 00:37
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According to my DM, there's "a pretty big loving difference" between furies and furries.
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Jul 28, 2022 11:42
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's "a pretty big loving difference" between furies and furries. But only barely sometimes.
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Jul 28, 2022 13:00
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Cooked Auto posted:But only barely sometimes. Make an Animal Handling check.
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Jul 28, 2022 13:21
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Thankfully you only need one type of bomb collar for both.
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Jul 28, 2022 15:31
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CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's "a pretty big loving difference" between furies and furries. There's also "a pretty big difference loving"
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Jul 28, 2022 22:31
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Aeschylus posted:The central doors open, disclosing the interior of the temple. ORESTES clings to the central altar; the FURRIES lie slumbering at a little distance; APOLLO and HERMES appear from the innermost shrine. quote:Scorch him with reek of fire that burns in quote:The CHORUS OF FURRIES enters, questing like hounds. CobiWann posted:According to my DM, there's "a pretty big loving difference" between furies and furries. Idk they seem interchangable here. 
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Jul 28, 2022 23:14
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Railing Kill posted:
I picked this up recently and while I really love the book and presentation (some of the text in the character creation really hit home and made me a bit emotional ngl) I am a bit confused as to how you actually...play it? Like I could see myself using this as a really good way to generate characters and locations but once you've done that it kind of seems like it gives you nothing to go on if you're not already an experienced DM/gamerunner/writer
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Aug 6, 2022 17:53
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CountryMatters posted:I picked this up recently and while I really love the book and presentation (some of the text in the character creation really hit home and made me a bit emotional ngl) I am a bit confused as to how you actually...play it? Here's a live play with Brennan Lee Mulligan GMing, might give you an idea, or some inspiration (or at the very least a cozy 95 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS8-SPeQSnc e: no kids, yes BLM Ichabod Sexbeast fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 6, 2022 |
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Aug 6, 2022 20:15
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CountryMatters posted:I picked this up recently and while I really love the book and presentation (some of the text in the character creation really hit home and made me a bit emotional ngl) I am a bit confused as to how you actually...play it? My first impression was the same: that I had missed something or misunderstood the rules because I couldn't grasp much. The truck is: there isn't much to grasp. It is extremely rules-light, so much so that your character is mostly a characterizing framework for RP, rather than a spreadsheet of stats. Most of the mechanics hinge on Tokens and Traits. You get Tokens for doing cool poo poo, and you can use them for extra cool poo poo. Some Traits call for spending Tokens, but that's unusual. Traits are your core characteristics, and "let you" do specific things. For example, one of the things the Caretaker Trait let's you do is say, "Everything is going to be alright." Literally, that's what you can do. What is implied there is that you can bend the fiction by saying that; that everything will be ok because you make it so. A lot of effects in Wanderhome are implied, like the importance of unplayed notes in a jazz song. But it all comes from an understanding that it is a game about collaborative storytelling, and that everyone is creating and bending the fiction together. A lot of the traits can be read with that in mind. They're less about mechanical effects, but narratological effects.
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Aug 6, 2022 23:30
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Railing Kill posted:My first impression was the same: that I had missed something or misunderstood the rules because I couldn't grasp much. The truck is: there isn't much to grasp. It is extremely rules-light, so much so that your character is mostly a characterizing framework for RP, rather than a spreadsheet of stats. That does help actually, I was looking at some of the "moves" each class has (thinking in terms of various pbta books which I've run once or twice) and I was seeing them as basically a joke. Like "you can always: shrug" wow ok thanks, great. But from what you're saying I guess I could explain to players that the 'you can always' moves could be more ' you can always do it and it's always appropriate for the situation'? So the firelight being able to always shrug maybe indicates that they can declare a situation isn't as big a deal as it seems and it's ok to ignore it and then that becomes true. I'm still not sure why I would ever need to fidget as a moth tender That's the sort of thing I could really have used an explanation of or example for in the book, though. Everything's very sad and whimsical which makes it great as a book to browse but kinda...difficult as a tool to help me run stories that would be fun for people. I'm thinking of merging it with one of my pbta books (probably fellowship) or possibly with golden sky stories to give me a tiny bit more structure as a jumping off point for my group
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Aug 7, 2022 09:35
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CountryMatters posted:That does help actually, I was looking at some of the "moves" each class has (thinking in terms of various pbta books which I've run once or twice) and I was seeing them as basically a joke. Like "you can always: shrug" wow ok thanks, great. But from what you're saying I guess I could explain to players that the 'you can always' moves could be more ' you can always do it and it's always appropriate for the situation'? So the firelight being able to always shrug maybe indicates that they can declare a situation isn't as big a deal as it seems and it's ok to ignore it and then that becomes true. I'm still not sure why I would ever need to fidget as a moth tender PBTA is a good parallel. It has more mechanics, but the same core idea of collaborative storytelling and that each player having ways to affect the plot and setting. It's important to jot down, specifically, what your Traits let you do. Anyone can say, "everything will be ok" aloud, but only someone with a Trait that says that can have saying it affect the plot events so directly. I wish I was home to post the character sheets that my daughter and I made, but I'm out of town right now. But basically, you end up with no numbers and just a list of things in the past or present that shape the character. There's no underlying mechanics behind that list; the list is the game and how to play that character. It's definitely not for players who want a really crunchy, tactical experience, but it's a breath of fresh air if your group is up for, essentially, improv collaborative storytelling. Oh, and if anyone in the group loves Redwall as much as my 8 year old daughter does.   For a really wild experience, you can try the GM-agnostic option for running a game. That scoops the GM out of the game entirely, leaving the players to take turns volunteering to play the role of NPCs when need be. Plot conflict, then, comes from interpersonal conflict and personal backgrounds, rather than one person's idea for a story. You decide as a group what is going on, and just...riff from there. It's very free form, very anarchistic, and very cool if you have the right group for it.
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Aug 7, 2022 11:22
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I’ve been lurking in the pathfinder thread and the D&D 5E thread and am amazed at how far the conversations go into game balance and biases and the power of the DM vs the adherence to the rules and it has me wondering about GM agency and how gaming groups play together. Over the years I’ve learned to GM by feel, learning how to read the room and giving my players what they want while also keeping obstacles in their path that keep me entertained as I watch my players navigate them. My players pick classes based on cool storylines rather than feat progressions and my current Rolemaster campaign has an archmage a mountebank(mage/thief) and a berserker- picked for interesting flavor rather than party optimization. My question is- how many of you GMs play games as written and use the rules as designed and who among you uses the game rules as a framework, winging encounters and dynamically sliding difficulty as necessary? E: I ask because these threads have me scratching my head going, “play what class you want to play and I’ll figure out opportunities for each of you to shine in turn.” E: E: now I’m reading how the 5E ranger is terrible and no one should play one. My other group is comprised of two rangers and a Druid. Come to flavor country. Agrikk fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Aug 10, 2022 |
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Aug 10, 2022 03:31
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CountryMatters posted:That does help actually, I was looking at some of the "moves" each class has (thinking in terms of various pbta books which I've run once or twice) and I was seeing them as basically a joke. Like "you can always: shrug" wow ok thanks, great. But from what you're saying I guess I could explain to players that the 'you can always' moves could be more ' you can always do it and it's always appropriate for the situation'? So the firelight being able to always shrug maybe indicates that they can declare a situation isn't as big a deal as it seems and it's ok to ignore it and then that becomes true. I'm still not sure why I would ever need to fidget as a moth tender Some of the stuff in "you can always" is just there to be "your idle animation". The moth-tender jots down notes, full of nervous energy. The shepherd takes a moment to ease their burden and pets a bumble.
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Aug 10, 2022 04:02
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Agrikk posted:I’ve been lurking in the pathfinder thread and the D&D 5E thread and am amazed at how far the conversations go into game balance and biases and the power of the DM vs the adherence to the rules and it has me wondering about GM agency and how gaming groups play together. How much I strictly follow the rules depends largely on how well designed the game is.
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Aug 10, 2022 04:06
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I mean, it depends. Different players have different wishes for where the curtain sits. Some players will hate feeling that the McGuffin is in the forest only because they played a Ranger and that had they played a Rogue it would be in the vault of a shady casino. If it means their Ranger ends up as a fish out of water then, well, that’s game balance. Some love the idea that if they use their mad science skills to build a super ink analyser and use it on the ransom note then of course it will turn out to yield useful information and maybe we’ll even end up on a hunt for a stolen antique fountain pen. Some, including me - as I recently found out - like both, as long as we’re clear on which one we’re doing. The only thing I can’t stand is the idea that the GM or anyone else should misrepresent the game as one of these when it is the other. hyphz fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Aug 10, 2022 |
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Aug 10, 2022 05:36
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From what I recall from when I played a Ranger in a 5E campaign that the version they released first with the core book was very underwhelming. But the alternatives offered later were a lot more interesting. I think I played one of the alternatives but can't remember which one on the top of my head. Even then I was felt kinda useless at times since we also had a druid in the party that managed to do some of the stuff I did better. 
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Aug 10, 2022 10:57
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Railing Kill posted:PBTA is a good parallel. It has more mechanics, but the same core idea of collaborative storytelling and that each player having ways to affect the plot and setting. it's possible to enjoy flavor and want a balanced game at the same time
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Aug 10, 2022 11:26
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D&D 5E has no balance. Some classes are just miles better than others, monsters on the same CR will range from "easy to defeat" to "hellishly unfair" without any mechanical indicator, and entire categories of encounter can go from Challenging to Instantly Bypassed depending on which spells are prepared. For that game specifically, you need to either have a group that doesn't care about balance or have a highly adaptive DM able to adjust to the table and keep things moving so that nobody feels badly done by.
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Aug 10, 2022 15:57
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Kaza42 posted:D&D 5E has no balance. Some classes are just miles better than others, monsters on the same CR will range from "easy to defeat" to "hellishly unfair" without any mechanical indicator, and entire categories of encounter can go from Challenging to Instantly Bypassed depending on which spells are prepared. For that game specifically, you need to either have a group that doesn't care about balance or have a highly adaptive DM able to adjust to the table and keep things moving so that nobody feels badly done by. tbh this has been hard-coded into the game since 3.0 and is more touted as a feature than anything else at this point.
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Aug 10, 2022 16:11
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Galick posted:tbh this has been hard-coded into the game since 3.0 and is more touted as a feature than anything else at this point. Edit: I was talking about CR, not class balance, but 4E did an OK job with balance pre-Essentials I thought, with some exceptions
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Aug 10, 2022 16:34
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if I could just find a 2e game, sigh
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Aug 10, 2022 17:27
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Sometimes the party makes an easy scenario harder based on who shows up, that’s OK. I was running 77 and we had a driver, a talker and an escape artist. Very few problems could be solved by fighting. One was solved by throwing a raccoon at people.
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Aug 10, 2022 17:37
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Kaza42 posted:D&D 5E has no balance. Some classes are just miles better than others, monsters on the same CR will range from "easy to defeat" to "hellishly unfair" without any mechanical indicator, and entire categories of encounter can go from Challenging to Instantly Bypassed depending on which spells are prepared. For that game specifically, you need to either have a group that doesn't care about balance or have a highly adaptive DM able to adjust to the table and keep things moving so that nobody feels badly done by. That's been my conclusion as somone who retired after 2e. 4e actually made efforts to balance and codify the game's combat system and balance, but they went back to the tummyfeels style of 3/3.5 for 5e because of the toxic fanbase. 5e will eventually be just as a bloated mess as 3/3.5 were.
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Aug 10, 2022 18:05
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Golden Bee posted:One was solved by throwing a raccoon at people. More problems can be solved by throwing a raccoon, the new problems that causes is future you's problem.
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Aug 10, 2022 18:07
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