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CobiWann posted:So sake? Bourbon, surely.
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Apr 14, 2023 18:19
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wiegieman posted:Bourbon, surely. That's a type of whiskey though.
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Apr 14, 2023 20:12
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Phone posting from a waiting room on my day off, so you get: The Aftermath To recap, our 7th Sea party have been recruited, first as monster hunters for a burgeoning Vesten settlement, and later by the secret society Die Kreuzritter whose operative runs the town. We had befriended two of this guy's pals, and went seeking them out when they did not return from a mission. As it turns out, they were killed on The Dark Paths that Die Kreuzritter use, and are both undead shadows of themselves. One of them we failed to put to rest, and the other was put to rest despite her pleading to return to the world of the living. Prior post here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=414#post530904812 Now we are in deep with Die Kreuzritter (I'M going to just say DK from here). The cast: Kristjana: A Vesten/Ussuran (Scandinavian/Russian) huntress and rune sorceress. Laconic and private, her closest friend a steppes horse. (My character) Helgi: A Vesten whaler-turned-monster hunter. A soft-hearted gentile giant, rapidly becoming the party's moral core. Viktoria: A Ussuran shapeshifting noblewoman. Betrothed to a Vesten Jarl, a bit of a romantic to Kristjana's hard-nosed naturalism. Mandelos: An Aegean (Greek) demigod. A cocksure jock forever seeking opportunities for heroic escapades. An odd couple-type rival to Kristjana. Evelien: A Vendel (Danish) polymath, an anthropologist by trade. Circumspect widow to a Vesten, dedicated to stemming the Vendel/Vesten conflict. So we get out of The Dark Paths and find ourselves in a DK stronghold. It is a castle somewhere in Eisen (Germany) but we are "strongly encouraged" not to leave. The Hochmiester of the order will arrive in three days to address our unique situation. In this time, we are free to roam the castle grounds. A few things happen: It is clear that two unprecedented things have just happened. Five people joining the order under duress is definitely not the normal plan, and losing two to The Dark Paths is unheard of. Apparently only a dozen members have fallen in such a way in 250 years altogether. The fact that we tried to put them both to rest earns us kudos from the regular DK knights. Evelien and Mandelos find different approaches to gathering information about DK. Evelien talks to the stronghold's librarian while recovering from her injuries, and Mandelos chats up the younger knights while easily rinsing them in athletic competitions in the courtyard. Evelien gets some good info and takes it to the group. Mandelos is too dense to know the value of what he has learned yet. More on that later. We are shown around a bit. Well, everyone but Kristjana is (see below). Helgi inquires about the order's ability to care for its knights. He is kindhearted and concerned for his pal Kristjana. The group is shown a special room. They see three knights: two playing chess and one reading a book in the corner. The knight showing off the stronghold explains that, "there is at least one knight in this room at all times. It is his duty. He keeps vigil over any knight who seeks solace and peace of mind from the horrors we face. Here we keep candles lit at all times. This is a place always free of darkness." Kristjana is absent for most of this. She hangs around at the stable with her horse for a day, but leaves before dawn on the second day. Just as her friends begin to worry she has truly ditched, she returns after sunset on the second day. She doesn't say anything about it, but seems to have resolved herself to dealing with DK despite her prickly libertarian nature. She wordlessly avails herself of the PTSD ward ahead of the Hochmiester's arrival on day three. Hochmiester Gunther Schmidl is your stock Grizzled VeteranTM. Before he gets to his pitch to the group, he leads us once more into The Dark Paths to see what we and the order are up against. This is where things get weird. See, 7th Sea by genre is a game of high fantasy, adventure, and melodrama. Its parents are The Princess Bride and Zorro and The Count of Monte Cristo. But there's a weird undercurrent to all of it that, frankly, some GMs choose to ignore. The game allows plenty of room for that, as there's more than enough swashbuckling to float the game. But what we're getting into here is--  See, there's these beings that DK calls Outsiders. They are literally inhuman, and there are several known types. What they all seem to have in common is that they have been supernaturally sealed out of the physical world, and they absolutely hate humans. The nature of The Dark Paths lays bare this barrier between... wherever the Outsiders are now, and Theah. Critically, some types of sorcery seems to be tearing holes in the barrier. And there is one titantic, draconic/demonic face pressing up against the barrier. There is a place in The Dark Paths where this face looms in the false sky like a sinister moon. This order of knights that were supposedly wiped out in a war 250 years ago have been in a secret war with the Outsiders this whole time. They have recontextualized Legion (Satan) on these grounds so much so that they seek aid from anyone of any nation or creed that will join them in this fight. We are introduced to followers of the Second Prophet (Muslims) and a pagan from the new world who are on board, for exxmple. This does quite a bit to assuage Helgi, Kristjana, and Victoria, all of whom are pagan in some way. This order was once (and secretly still is) the Hierophant's (Pope's) Praetorian Guard, so they are intimately tied to the church. But their real duty is fighting this weird poo poo, and they are open-minded about help. The Hochmiester explains, by way of apology, that this duress was not intentional and is unusual. Manuel, our pal back at the Vesten settlement, apparently panicked when he lost his two closest comrades and asked us, uninitiated, to find them despite the possibility we could stumble into this secret society. He has been punished and stripped of some (but not all) rank for all this. We discuss a few things with the Hochmiester before, one by one, we all take the oath of membership. Now this is a Die Kreuzritter campaign. Once we're finally turned loose from the stronghold, Mandelos has a plan. He approaches Kristjana for a walk-and-talk because he knows her best among the group. "We swore an oath to fight monsters and defend our fellow knights," he says. "That old Eisen never said anything about betraying anyone else besides the Hierophant." "So?" Kristjana says. "So we should ditch all this as soon as we're able. I know you hate being told what to do even more than I do," Mandelos says. Kristjana halts her horse to look down at Mandelos, to focus. "Listen. These people can go anywhere, anytime, at speed. We're not going to get away from them. And besides, you saw what we're up against. We might as well help. It's a worthy cause." "But don't you think it's possible that the needs of the order could make some of us have to sacrifice another? Loathe as I am to say it, Kristjana, I care more about you than any of these knights. I care more about the rest of the group too. We should be more loyal to each other than the order." "I agree in principle. But let's do the monster hunting until that comes up. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Kristjana says. "Ok old pal. You just say so and I'll just start punching every knight I see. I'll start with the Hochmiester. You just say the word." The word, as it turns out, is literal. The code word for the whole group to turn on DK if need be is "Baklava" (named after Mandelos' favorite food). We may never need to use it, but it's there. All for one, and one for all bay-bee! 
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Apr 14, 2023 20:13
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How many 'nationalities' (not sure what to call them exactly) are there in 7 Seas?
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Apr 14, 2023 23:34
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JustJeff88 posted:How many 'nationalities' (not sure what to call them exactly) are there in 7 Seas? The game calls them nations, although the pedantic history nerd in me bristles at the term because only a couple of them are, politically speaking, post-Westphalian nation-states. Anyway, there's a bunch: Avalon = British Isles Montaigne = France Eisen = Germany Vendel = Netherlands and Denmark Vesten = Scandanavia Ussura = Russia Voddace = Italy Castille = Spain and Portugal Aegeus = Greece and the Balkans Aegeus isn't strictly canon but our group uses it. I added that in between first and second edition, in the middle of fixing the broken mechanics of first edition. It always annoyed me and a few of the folks I play with that there's a huge swath of eastern and southern Europe that they just left out of the setting in the first place. So I added on that smashes together Greece, Romania, Hungary, and the Balkans.
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Apr 14, 2023 23:57
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Railing Kill posted:The game calls them nations, although the pedantic history nerd in me bristles at the term because only a couple of them are, politically speaking, post-Westphalian nation-states. Anyway, there's a bunch: There's also the other places that aren't europe, but most players aren't going to care about not!Africa.
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Apr 15, 2023 00:46
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Railing Kill posted:The game calls them nations, although the pedantic history nerd in me bristles at the term because only a couple of them are, politically speaking, post-Westphalian nation-states. Anyway, there's a bunch: You could make a 10th nation(-state) called Pedanticus, and you could be the head of state! Fivemarks posted:There's also the other places that aren't europe, but most players aren't going to care about not!Africa. I do. I care about all of them. I'm a French-language scholar - I care about Africa a great deal even if the rest of the world doesn't.
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Apr 15, 2023 01:04
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JustJeff88 posted:You could make a 10th nation(-state) called Pedanticus, and you could be the head of state! lol Yeah, it is my cross to bear. Although I mention it only because some of the nations are more unified than others. Eisen and Vodacce are really just a collection of smaller principalities, whereas Montaigne is unified under an absolute monarch with their Not-Louis XIV. JustJeff88 posted:I do. I care about all of them. I'm a French-language scholar - I care about Africa a great deal even if the rest of the world doesn't. First edition mentioned places like The Crescent Empire (Africa and the Middle East) and Cathay (Asia), but they were deliberately left vague. Early maps of Theah were drawn wrong on purpose, the idea being that ignorant Theans had no idea the shape or size of these places, and the game's lore was written from the Thean perspective. Later books published the whole map of the CE and it was like, "oops it isn't that little peninsula from the core book! ¯\ (ツ) /¯ "
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Apr 15, 2023 01:19
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Second Edition (the one that came out in 2017) added some new countries like the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth and Greece, as well as books for the Far East, India, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America, along with a PDF for Vatican City.
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Apr 15, 2023 01:43
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CobiWann posted:Second Edition (the one that came out in 2017) added some new countries like the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth and Greece, as well as books for the Far East, India, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America, along with a PDF for Vatican City. Yeah. I like the new setting stuff but I'm not wild about the mechanics. Our group has had this unofficial 2e for so long that we just stuck with that.
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Apr 15, 2023 01:55
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CobiWann posted:Second Edition (the one that came out in 2017) added some new countries like the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth and Greece, as well as books for the Far East, India, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America, along with a PDF for Vatican City. I want to be my ancestors in fantasy New England, when is that book?
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Apr 15, 2023 01:58
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Railing Kill posted:Yeah. I like the new setting stuff but I'm not wild about the mechanics. Our group has had this unofficial 2e for so long that we just stuck with that. Our rule tended to be "First Edition Rules, Second Edition Setting."
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Apr 15, 2023 02:25
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Kavak posted:I want to be my ancestors in fantasy New England, when is that book? Play an Avalonian and/or Vendel Objectionist. Take the Colonial background. Take a secret society like Rose and Cross or Invisible College. It can be done.
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Apr 15, 2023 02:34
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CobiWann posted:Our rule tended to be "First Edition Rules, Second Edition Setting." Yeah, we kind of backed into doing that five years before 2e came out. My rewrite of 1e is... comprehensive, but fundamentally 1e mechanics. It just took a lot to fix the many, many problems heaped atop it. I still prefer it to the published 2e rules, but part of that is probably inertia on the part of a group that has been using these rules for over a decade.
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Apr 15, 2023 02:38
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Do nationalities get any kind of mechanical advantages in this game, or is it just flavour?
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Apr 15, 2023 03:42
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JustJeff88 posted:Do nationalities get any kind of mechanical advantages in this game, or is it just flavour? IIRC different kinds of magic and different swordfighting schools (Vesten have "battleaxe", Vendel have "gun")
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Apr 15, 2023 08:18
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JustJeff88 posted:Do nationalities get any kind of mechanical advantages in this game, or is it just flavour? Each nation gets a bump to one of the game's five traits (1e gave a free dot; I changed it to a cost discount to make it less deterministic). Nations also offer discounts to certain abilities and exclusive abilities. For example, my character was able to buy Steppes Horse because she is Ussuran. But the vast majority of abilities aren't barred in this way. Nations also have a set of combat schools and one sorcery. You can buy schools out-of-nation at a slight penalty, but players almost never do that. The sorcery is exclusive to a nation, though.
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Apr 15, 2023 10:52
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Ran Spirit of 77 again. The Stench Connection involves a car full of drugs that crashes into a frat house. A tremendously successful lying crook, Omar, and a self-proclaimed superhero named Cricket who wielded a sledgehammer, technically succeeded. They were humiliated when a pile of hallucinogens they put into a fiberglass volcano exploded, getting hundreds of students super stoned. But technically the people they were paid to protect survived! Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Nov 4, 2023 |
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Apr 16, 2023 02:37
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Golden Bee posted:Storm of the Century! “You want to -buy- our sacred artifact?” asked the moleman. Devika Velyapur, India’s richest girl, started counting out francs. The negotiator’s beady eyes grew wider and wider as Lord Simon pitched the benefits of money. “Sanitation. Furniture. Paint. Fresh food, supplies to grow mushrooms. Cloth and clothing…tea cozies.” All of that for a pesky little power source that would replace a plane’s need for fuel. Gulia “La La” Santinella had also promised a perfect, homemade Italian pizza. The Nazis broke up the gathering (as they so often did), but the butler Aldous Bingen was a master of stealth. Getting back to the hotel and finding pizza ingredients was more of a struggle. Devika decided to stop by the plane and tell semi-mad mechanic Jonesey about the new power source. Unfortunately, he was kidnapped, and the kidnapper was there! While the rest of the group argued over what “sun-dried” tomatoes were, Devika fled with the artifact. The kidnapper, Pierre, was one of Lord Simon’s exes! He was also possessed of remarkable willpower, shrugging off Devika’s mesmeric attack. She fled to a luggage cart on the tarmac, and tried to drive it into the airport lounge. The two fought over the controls, but when the kidnapper tried to turn the wheel in another direction, Devika let him, exiting and running as he accidentally drove away! The group was able to follow the kidnapper discreetly to his lair and escape, with Lord Simon’s tearful “apology” a centerpiece of the scheme. — Months later, the gang (now joined by photographer/sniper Javid) was in Mexico City. Devika had invested a lot of money in “oil-finding robots”, but Lord Simon smelled a scam and was eager to get the money back. Miss Santinella, eager for publicity, was lobbying Gustavo Ortiz (Mateo’s uncle, remember Mateo from the Japanese wedding adventure?) for a spot to replace an injured luchador. She tried diplomacy, which failed, then vowed to sneak her way onto the program. This was easily accomplished, with Lord Simon acting as a Press Agent, lying about how amazing “the Ultimate Cavewoman” was. (Why that gimmick? It was a mask he could find at a decent price.) Javid, who had almost lost a photography gig standing up to the fascist Dr. Atomico, helped build on the illusion. Lala was able to hold her own in the ring, earning the of respect of her opponent El Verdad. quote:Lord Simon didn’t get the same respect, being told to “Get out of the locker room. [And] If you want to see this, buy some bodybuilding magazines.” The group got back on task, investigating the robotics company. The trail led to a pyramid of the moon outside of town, where a trailer truck and two jeeps were already parked. The structure’s roof was opened. Huh. The players found a hidden entrance, and were only a third totally-surprised by what they found in the main chamber. The hieroglyphics had mentioned vampires. They didn’t mention Luchadors fighting them, or a gigantic robot cracking the ground with a 2-ton syringe in search of oil! Aldous made some trenchant insights about vampire physiology and drew their focus. The group fought bravely, exchanging fists and bullets with the creatures. Lord Simon, extremely reluctantly, saved his rival El Verdad from being thrown down a soul pit. But no one dealt with the robot, which split the Earth, creating a geyser of terrible purple ‘oil’. Lord Simon set up his grappling hook. The robot began to dissolve in the viscous mess. They could smell the rope molder and rot as they climbed for their lives. The only thing left was the easy part: beating the robot's inventors in Mexican court. Having a guy named “La Verdad” testify on your behalf couldn’t hurt… Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 18, 2023 00:40
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Golden Bee posted:Look Out Below / Petròleo de Upton Sinclair! Consistently the best stories in the thread, and underappreciated. Please post more pulp. I love Pulpkin.
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Apr 27, 2023 21:31
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Golden Bee posted:A two parter: Look Out Below / Petròleo de Upton Sinclair! The hopheads and juicers seemed far out… And they were. Adapting modules is often a challenge. The default version of this adventure is set in the 2010s in Afghanistan, from a British perspective. In this version, we focused on Javid, an Afghani sniper who fought the British...in 1935. So the entire first third of the module went out the window. It still went great though! (Especially since I lost two players an hour before game time and had to switch over from my Hawaiian adventure.) The group was in a remote village in Afghanistan, a place known for mysticism and strangeness. Javid had gathered his outsider friends for some tense political dealing: tribal loyalty and alliances could easily cascade and disrupt the currently peaceful nation. This time Javid, Aleksandra Pavlovic (the tour guide from the Ireland adventure), Inspector M’tombe, and Querida Wilcox were joined by the Negro League's first female pitcher, Connie Johnson. Young and with a chip on her shoulder, she excelled at all physical and charm challenges, but seemed the most flabbergasted by the ridiculousness around her. And it was ridiculous! The village, despite being above the snow line, grew fields of blinding white poppies. The leader of the tribe, Alga Alkhan, was followed around by pshur, or wise man, who seemed to be tuned to the wrong frequency. An afternoon of tea and sympathy with M'tombe revealed a startling truth: the pshur was at the back and call of mysterious spirits! Meanwhile, the players made adequate first impressions but were banned from the temple at the top of a nearby peak. Locals only. No exceptions. The ban didn’t last long. A mortar attack from a rival tribe interrupted the welcoming feast, nearly exploding the party. Another pshur said to follow her in a strange, British voice. Most of the group did, with Javid returning sniper fire and helping defend the village. A ball of opium in a brazier led the players to a city… I might as well let the module describe it. (It’s the only module I’ve ever run where I wish there was more gray box text!) quote:The smoke grabs your mind and whisks it far, far awake. You feel euphoric, lighter than air and full of energy. It’s wonderful. You—all of you—find yourselves in a marvellous sunset city. The streets glitter in the orange light of the setting sun. Minarets and elegantly curved domes are outlined against the purple sky. The music of flutes and delicate bells can be heard in the distance. In a square, you see some of the people of this wonderful city. They are all young and beautiful, dressed in rich robes or nothing at all. The players met Daniel Dravot. He first arrived in the village in 1894, on a mission from her Majesty, but was betrayed by his partner ‘Peachey’ Carnehan, who left him with the mystics. Not wanting a political incident, they kept him physically alive but banished him to the city. Could everyone be so dear as to retrieve his body, reunite it with his soul, and get him out of here? The group agreed, although Connie let out an opportune “What mystic nonsense is this?” What followed was a series of mindfucks, interrupted by intense mountain climbing. The temple? Guarded by a single monk, staffed by three sages high on opium. Inside it was a pit, filled with corpses of those who have been sacrificed while high on the drug, their spirits ascended to the secret city to serve as aides and courtesans. The detective, not squeamish, investigated the pit. He emerged with what he was looking for: a British skull and a cigarette case labeled DD. They had been talking to a dead man. Miss Pavlovic, master of ancient languages, decoded a painting deep in the temple. The hidden city wasn’t a drug haze, it was a flicker in the mind of a mad god. Anyone suffused with the local poppies had their mind trapped and eventually stolen. And the 300-person village was eager to sell its goods throughout the nation. The final pshur was an ageless initiate, threatening to throw a ball of opium into a nearby fire pit. Cowgirl Querida lassoed it away from him. The numbers advantage still favored the party. In the temple, at least. The big challenge was lying their way out of the village. Javid’s heroics, combined with a series of denials and pantomimes, paid off. The group had merely climbed the mountain to chase infiltrators! Who they slew! The next step was bribing local warlords to raze the poppy crop and salt the earth. The villagers could be paid and integrated into other tribes, but the mountain had to be abandoned. Then the players had another idea. (So, I mentioned that the module was adapted, and that gets rid of the last fifth of the module as well. In the original, the agents have to justify their behavior to a Department that knows full well about extraplanar entities. I was out of adventure. But the players were sharp.) "So the only other person who knew about the plants was 'Peachey’ Carnehan, right?" Asked the tour guide. Silence. The players called in favors and did some excellent investigating to find him at his manor house in Sussex. After being greeted, announced and fed, all the players had to do was convince a retired British spy to admit culpability based on specious evidence. Easy. (That’s right, social combat! The new players hadn’t played Fate before. Unlike other systems, it’s relatively easy to improvise any kind of combat, whether social or mountaineering.) It took a while for the players to even pierce their foe’s defenses. He buffeted the agéd inspector with compliments. Querida’s insinuations were met with performative fogginess. Abashed and confused, the players scoured his gallery for clues. That’s when they discovered their host’s weakness: flattery. Connie, used to sucking up to team owners and sponsors, started complementing his sporting equipment... The arquebus, the fencing sabers, the Bengal rug. Javid and the inspector, who tried threats, were 'politely' asked to stand outside and wait for a cab. The others were given a tour and assured, after a bit of whiskey, that the smoky death cult would stay out of Peachey's memoirs. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2023 19:57
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Where are you adapting from, into Spirit of the Century? Delta Green? Love that you can pull off a social end boss, though.
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Apr 29, 2023 22:03
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Glazius posted:Where are you adapting from, into Spirit of the Century? Delta Green? Laundry Files to Fate Core. Golden Bee posted:The Shadow Over Kafiristan Moonlight Madness! Time and tide wait for no lizard. Duke, Aldous, Devika and the flight staff tapped their watches… and were cleared for takeoff as La La Santinella drove her stunt bike down the tarmac and up the cargo ramp. People were peeved, until they realized that she had brought homemade pizza. Somewhere over the Atlantic, though, there was a stowaway on board… something on the ship was playing the first eight notes of “pop goes the weasel.” Buried in the cargo was a heavy Jack-in-the-Box rigged with explosives. It took a lot of effort to eject it from the plane, which the team did with only minutes to spare! (Perhaps a less skilled team would’ve gone down to the seconds.) Still, the French Riviera was waiting. Duke and Vika had plans to purchase competing restaurants for the weekend and see which could bring in more cash. Instead, there was time for only a brief amount of yachting before the butler, Mr. Bingen, requested that they investigate their attempted murder. Spoilsport! The first stop was the local Academí Du Clown-arts. The guest lecturer was Devika’s old contact, Poodles the Clown*! They had met on a circus caper, and he had lied about someone making dangerous clown bombs: a failed student of his named Mumford B Havershoot. In fact, Mumford was performing at the local society party… Schmoozing his way into society parties was Duke’s favorite pastime! While he and Lala worked industry contacts, Bingen snooped into Mumford’s dressing room. No bomb equipment, but two weird pistols, one orange and one blue. Showtime! Asking for a volunteer from the audience, Mumford shot a blue pistol at a wall of the mansion, and an orange one at the moon, causing a lizard man to try and crawl through! Duke smashed it with his signature Robin-tipped war club, while Miss Santinella tackled the clown. “That’s part one of our show everybody, come back in 20!” Back in his dressing room, Mumford was compelled to confess a few things. He had commissioned and designed the bomb. He was working for Commander Darkness, a lunar commander who didn’t want Devika or her pals spoiling his latest scheme. Duke asked if the clown if wanted to hear a joke he learned at Annapolis. “Hey, can I move your head?” He didn’t wait for a response before punching Mumford unconscious. Some sizable donations to the local astronomy college revealed something interesting. There was a base on the moon, filled with lizards… and it took expensive jewelry to power the guns that caused portals. The second part wasn’t a problem, but nobody in the party was a particularly good shot. Taping a portable telescope to the gun like a sniper scope, the group aimed for the sea of tranquility and took the journey into space! — The group landed semi-gracefully on the moon base. It seemed extremely advanced, mostly. (For example, it had bathrooms designated “regular lizard” and “lizard with a skirt”.) Since the first security camera was invented in 1942 and they wouldn’t be popularized for decades, Lala took a running leap and examined one. It seems to be a camera, but it was filled with wires instead of mirrors?! After brief imprisonment, a small jailbreak, a fight, and then imprisoning their captors, the players got the full story. The commander had bred a race of lizardmen and was using a giant space laser to extort the planet! Bingen’s superb interstellar diplomacy (“You and I are both servants in a way...”) saved the day. The security forces marched our supposed-to-be-vacationing heroes into the control room. The commander's plan was financially lucrative. The Earth’s gold allowed him to build more weapons to threaten the Earth with. He offered to cut in Devika and Duke Van Der Pol, and they initially seemed interested… Until they revealed it was a ruse! It was merely a distraction while the other two disabled the laser cannon. (Essential to this task was Bingen’s household object, a small bottle of diffractive French cologne.) Devika told the commander to put down his shades… shot one portal next to him, and aimed another outside the dome, at the sun. FWOOOOOOOM! Only the villain’s sunglasses survived. A fitting fate for a terroristic extortionist. The group disabled the portal, taught the lizards a few tricks about hydroponics, and aimed the teleportal right for the beach. Of course, shaky aim landed them in the surf, where wet clothes and the Earth’s gravity made trudging to the hotel a real chore. There was a surprise when they got there though! Lala had commissioned Li’l Devi, a costume-accurate doll of the teen adventurer. Devika explained that she was slightly too old for this, then talked about commissioning doll clothes versions of her favorite outfits. Still, it was Saturday night, which meant one more day of vacation…And a big beautiful Riviera... The group decided to get room service. *Poodles is a real person. Up there with the head of the British fascist movement, J.R.R. Tolkien and Marcus Garvey. **Stunt: "Just the thing." Once per session, you possess the perfect household tool, no matter how inexplicable it might be. Anything larger than a chainsaw would be unseemly. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2023 04:49
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Glazius posted:Love that you can pull off a social end boss, though. Yeah, that's a very cool idea! Sounds interesting, tbh - I might need to adapt it into Delta Green myself, if I use some other scenarios they have, set in Afghanistan.
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Apr 30, 2023 09:20
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According to my GM, despite the song's claim a pelvic thrust does not cause an automatic Sanity roll.
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Apr 30, 2023 16:45
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CobiWann posted:According to my GM, despite the song's claim a pelvic thrust does not cause an automatic Sanity roll. …because it needs to be part of a ritual for the effect to manifest. The jump to the left and then the step to the right are necessary somatic components.
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Apr 30, 2023 18:12
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Agrikk posted:…because it needs to be part of a ritual for the effect to manifest. The jump to the left and then the step to the right are necessary somatic components. Don't forget to bring your knees in tight, or else you might as well be doing the madison - and nobody wanna see that.
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Apr 30, 2023 18:59
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My online 5e group just adjourned its weekly session and we narrowly avoided a moment of cat piss. Long story short, our party is traveling to the capital of another country next to request they ally with our home county in an upcoming war. During that trek, we ended up in a forest and got some not so subtle hints from the GM that massive wolves were terrorizing travelers in our area. A disembodied hand and large animal tracks on the road lead us to a clearing in the forest where a guy with one arm was investigating an overturned cart. We get to talking and he indicates he's working with the country's ruler to investigate wyvern-mounted bandits camped somewhere in the forest. Said bandits immediately show up in the clearing, and we hide (via the guy's suggestion and, admittedly GM fiat). As the guy's talking with the bandits, I say my goblin artificer keeps his rifle trained on one of the bandits in case things come to blows, but state out of character that if the rest of the party wants to run, I wouldn't have a problem with it. After the guy gets pinned by one of the wyverns, our earth genasi barbarian then decides we should cut and run, hefting my character over his shoulder and booking it, casting Pass Without Trace to basically ensure we don't get caught. The GM lets us know we can hear the guy getting eaten before we see the bandits leave the area. Seeing the coast is clear, we head back to the clearing and the barbarian says in-character that it wasn't a fight we needed to get involved with, we had a mission that took priority, and he wouldn't apologize. My artificer, who I've been playing as a doctor who doesn't like to abandon people who are in need, offhandedly shoots the barbarian in the foot with his rifle before checking the body. Here's where the troubles happen: the GM requests I roll the attack against him. Initially I decline since it was just an RP thing for me and I don't actually want to hurt him (I even stated immediately after shooting him I give him a healing potion because my artificer instantly felt bad about doing it) but I did it after the second request. I crit. And the GM has ruled that crits do max damage on top of the normal damage roll, which was almost max damage as well. So my RP moment has now put the barbarian at half health thanks to my (kind of busted) homebrew weapon, and due to house rules, the barbarian now had to roll on a lasting wound table. Both the barbarian and I immediately reiterate, again, this was just for RP and we really shouldn't be crippling a PC due to a joke and bad luck. The GM thankfully agrees that he went too far and we just proceed with the rest of the session as normal. The group's been a good one, but drat if that didn't almost ruin the session.
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Apr 30, 2023 23:13
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Synthesis: he should have a lasting scaron his foot with only RP consequences
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May 1, 2023 01:53
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Seems like, in a sense, the barb dodged a bullet.
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May 1, 2023 03:07
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Looks like he wanted to give you an inch and you took a foot.
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May 1, 2023 03:18
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MelvinBison posted:My online 5e group just adjourned its weekly session and we narrowly avoided a moment of cat piss. I feel like the problem here wasn't with the DM, but that you wanted it to be an "RP moment," but you chose to express your displeasure with bullets and not words. Bullets tend to be used for "combat moments," and words for "RP moments." Even a punch would have been more proportionate. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 04:47 on May 1, 2023 |
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May 1, 2023 03:24
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Or aiming for the ground rather than directly at his feet, if you were wanting a similarly intense impact without serious injury. Saying you shot someone in the foot and expecting to have them still be fine seems deeply odd to me.
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May 1, 2023 03:31
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I feel like the problem here wasn't with the DM, but that you wanted it to be an "RP moment," but you chose to express your displeasure with bullets and not words. Bullets tend to be used for "combat moments," and words for "RP moments." Even an punch would have been more proportionate. Like Clockwork posted:Or aiming for the ground rather than directly at his feet, if you were wanting a similarly intense impact without serious injury. Saying you shot someone in the foot and expecting to have them still be fine seems deeply odd to me. Yeah a bullet to the foot's gonna mess you up no matter which way you look at it.  I agree that it's good that the GM didn't go overboard with a lasting wound for what amounts to a fairly inconsequential RP moment, but well, shooting someone between the feet to scare/startle them (and show how annoyed your character is) probably would've been a more proportionate response in the first place. Compared to potentially crippling them for life, in any case! 
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May 1, 2023 03:44
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Like Clockwork posted:Or aiming for the ground rather than directly at his feet, if you were wanting a similarly intense impact without serious injury. Saying you shot someone in the foot and expecting to have them still be fine seems deeply odd to me. This. There's a reason why it's a (likely aprochyal) cliche for soldiers to shoot themselves in a foot to get out of wars - it's less lethal and less apt to be suspicious but still enough of an injury to get out of combat.
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May 1, 2023 04:15
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Y'all are right that I went too far. We ended up deciding the barbarian just lost a pinkie toe, which he was fine with since he's technically undead from some mishaps earlier in the campaign, and we just stuck it back on.
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May 1, 2023 04:29
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Just punch him, imo. My gun-wizard in the Wrath game I'm in has been known to lose her temper and punch the paladin on occasion, for like, 1d4-2 nonlethal damage.
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May 1, 2023 05:10
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After going to heaven, the next natural location for the First Annual Waterdeep Bookclub to visit was hell. But first we had to have out showdown with the necromancers... We had put it off long enough and dealt with all of our sidequests for now. We rested up and the next day set off to Little Arcadia and the Seventh Heaven bar to get our blessing that the solar had promised. The deva gave us a blessing, Blaze of Glory, which would allow all of us to do a burst of healing affecting targets we chose (including ourselves) when our HP reached 0 once, each. Not missing the opportunity to be condescending it dismissed us, telling the group to "go forth with the blessing of Heaven". Attracting a few odd looks as we now glowed faintly, we walked to the Hive and went to the Dustmen to get their help which came in the form of an amulet for each party member. The amulets hid us from lower level undead which would allow us to get close to the necromancers without being worn down by a wall of rotting flesh and bone. The catacombs now were concerningly filled with roaming undead, who had clearly been raiding tombs to increase their numbers. Slightly worried we decided to check in on the ratfolk commune and found that they were still holding out and they had barricaded themselves in again. (Or maybe had not taken the barricade down yet). As the party went deeper the number of undead actually thinned out, until we found a dead end with a door to an ostentatious tomb dedicated to a previous lord of Sigil. Deciding that our original plan of crowding around the door and peeking through was silly (and had gotten us spotted the GM revealed later), we changed our mind and I sent my familiar, the weasel "Wodger" in to quickly peek around before coming back. There were a couple of specters, weird hand crawler things (think Thing from the Addams Family but only bones) and three figures; two human looking ones and one gnome. Going with the smarter approach we got a surprise round, and my wizard rolled very well so we got to drop 2 fireballs and a hunger of Hadar on the enemies. This wiped out all of the undead while the Druid summoned 8 giant bats into the large tomb. One of the humans, a cleric judging by their equipment, dispelled the warlock's spell and went to a corner which had a wardrobe out of it. The bard cast hypnotic pattern and my wizard used one of my portent rolls to lock down the necromancer, although the gnome still made his check with a roll of 4. It turned out the gnome was a vampire as he climbed straight up the nearby wall about 30ft. The rest of the battle was pretty much a beat down, a barbarian with haste, 8 giant bats, some scorching and eldritch rays made quick work of the trio of villains even with some specters as reinforcements. The necromancer did not even get to do anything they were so locked down, and we killed the cleric before he got to do anything with the wardrobe and the vampire got knocked out by a group attack of 8 bats and feel down to the ground and went splat. Tying up the necromancer who we left alive we checked through the belongings of the trio. The wardrobe had some mundane supplies in it but after checking with a portal sense spell we found that it went to hell, which made sense as the cleric had a (un)holy symbol of Asmodeus on him. The vampire had a circlet that was used to control a crystal which was bound to all the undead the trio was directing. We took our captive, the wardrobe and the crystal and circlet up to the surface and to the Dustmens enclave who gave us many weird looks about carting a captive and wardrobe into their HQ. Our contact did not care about the portal but was happy to take the crystal and circlet, along with the prisoner. We negotiated a bonus given we went above the original agreement and gave them a very useful item, as the Dustmen made extensive use of "legally acquired undead" in their compound. They also took the captive who they would simply kill and speak to their spirit to interrogate. There was also one more item of note we had found on the vampire, a note warning the trio that they might have been found and that they needed to move up their timetable. It was written in a familiar hand and signed with a name we'd seen before, Askosh, who had signed a payslip to the advocate we had checked in on before. Now we had a conspiracy unfolding... Next time we visit warm and scenic Dis, in the Nine Hells!
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May 4, 2023 10:40
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Shot to the foot - at least the GM pulled it back. I could see a good RP argument about "the job vs. saving people," but even in RPG's, only fire a gun unless you intend mortal and fatal things with it. Necromancer - ah, the love of messing with the undead. Always clear out the chaff first, even if stupid zombies keep making their CON saves after three straight AoE spells... X X X X X It's become a running gag in our Tanicus game that my 14 STR, 8 CON Warlock keeps finding evil sentient artifact swords who offer themselves to him. The first was Night's Bane, a two-hander wielded by the High Paladin of Caradoc, the God of Conquest. It kept telling Viktor, my Warlock, that it could make him cut and buff, but he'd just have to pledge himself to his god (Pact of the Chain to Hexblade). This didn't sit well with Viktor's patron Nephys, the former Goddess of Secrets and Disease and now an undead goddess who wants her divinity snuffed out ("being a patron means more free time since I don't have to answers prayers and beseechments"). Plus our Rogue said, "but you'd lose your familiar Karloff, and we like him more than we like you!" So we handed the sword over to a Paladin of Arwin, the Goddess of War and Caradoc's sister/lover (gods are WEIRD, man) to be destroyed. The second was the one-handed Soul Razor, found in the tomb of Jadon Dragonhall, who turned his back on his kingdom and used the soul-swallowing sword to nearly massacre the Elven race on Tanicus. His sword has thousands of Elven souls trapped inside, but he's been locked up in Jadon's sarcophagus for centuries. Our Cleric, Nuriel, has been looking for Jadon's journal, but it turns out someone else snatched it from the tomb first. The sword again offered itself to my Warlock, telling him that it has centuries of Elven knowledge and could turn him into the "man he was supposed to be." Again, though, Viktor went with Nephys, and we shut the lid on it, hopefully for another couple of centuries. Cobi - "Why do you keep handing my weak-rear end Warlock magical swords! If it was an evil tome Viktor would be all over it, but you can't tempt him with sentient weapons!" DM - "I'm not tempting Viktor, I'm tempting the player. I know you're a sucker for sentient weapons and huge gently caress-off swords." Cobi - "Someday I'm gonna grab the pommel of one of those swords. Where will you be then?" DM - "Happy." We're switching to Pathfinder 2e in a few months, and my DM's made rumblings about converting "Warlock" to "Witch," so I still might get that evil sword...
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May 4, 2023 13:42
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CobiWann posted:It's become a running gag in our Tanicus game that my 14 STR, 8 CON Warlock keeps finding evil sentient artifact swords who offer themselves to him. Is that a typo, or isn't that kind of a high STR for a Warlock?
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May 4, 2023 15:25
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