|
sebmojo posted:The local tavern is serving Bad Brew, the beer that makes people crazy! The PCs must investigate! Giant rats and barrel smashing may be involved! I just watched that!
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 23:27 |
|
|
sebmojo posted:Edit: Also, make a swag (6-8) thumbnail sketches of characters and names that you can scatter around the town, and then keep an eye on which ones the players are interested in so you can develop them further. Give each one a name, a way of talking/catchphrase and a relationship with another town member. Adventures will ensure, I promise. For town stats and the local population, I found some really good generators that name as much of the town as you want, give them professions, names for businesses, all that stuff. Hell, one I found even provides you with menus for the various taverns and told you where/when various business owners liked to hang out when not at work and such.  For a long-term town like this, it'd actually be worthwhile having all that information. And if something isn't right, you just adjust it as needed the first time you use it. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 01:17
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:For town stats and the local population, I found some really good generators that name as much of the town as you want, give them professions, names for businesses, all that stuff. Hell, one I found even provides you with menus for the various taverns and told you where/when various business owners liked to hang out when not at work and such. Got a link to this magical trove of randomness? Sounds like it could come in handy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 01:25
|
|
|
http://www.mathemagician.net/town.html The format is a bit annoying in that I can't find a way to just get a flat text dump of the whole thing, but there are numerous browser plugins that will scrape a page like that to a local archive for later perusal at your convenience. Also if you leave a window open for a while and try to load up sub-portions of the town, it loses them sometimes? I don't know, but I recommend scraping the page real quick if you have a town you intend to re-use.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 01:27
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Right on, this'll be great. Thanks a ton. Usually I'm full of ideas, but sometimes, it's just not working. You can also flip it around; the sorceress is already on the case, since she lives there, but out of her league and looking for backup.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 01:53
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:http://www.mathemagician.net/town.html Wow. That's an amazing find. Might be worth emailing the dude to see if ther'es a way to get a text dump, can't imagine it's a complicated change.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 03:54
|
|
|
 This is the map of the river rat castle. After successfully landing and taking a beachhead, the PC's botched taking out a patrol whose survivors alerted the main garrison. Later, through some impressive roleplay and ingenuity, I allowed them a chance to sneak in and assassinate the wyvern god of the rat-folk. I start the next session with the PC's and a handful of gnolls rescued from the dungeons, in a large throne room, hovering over the bloody carcass of a butchered deity. The door is wide open, an entangled spell is still active in the entrance way, and a small number of rats are stationed on the second floor of the keep. The rest of the mercenary company the group is attached to is attacking the rubble gate to probe the castle's defenses. How does a clan of evil rats react to the death of their god? FagHatesGods fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Aug 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 22:41
|
|
|
Panic, riots, and looting? I guess it'd depend on if they saw the PCs do it. If not, then I imagine things'd devolve into general chaos. If they did, it could be anything from a lynch mob to declaring the PCs their new gods.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2013 23:33
|
|
|
Fargo Fukes posted:I was just involved in a game a week ago with a great system for getting you involved with and attached to your characters/group. I forget what the system is called, maybe someone will recognise it? FATE doesn't call that system anything in particular, but it shows up pretty much any time you create characters. FATE Core/Accelerated standardize it pretty well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 01:13
|
|
|
FagHatesGods posted:
It depends on what you want as a GM, and what your players like doing. If you are fed up with this island and rats and want to move on to your next plot then sure, they all flee or worship the PCs as gods. If you want to throw some more combat at your players, then the rats realise it was them what did it, start hacking down the tangles, and come after them. If your PCs like complicated diplomatic situations, then the rats recognise the players and mercenary company as worthy foes and offer their loyalty, but their traditions of an alliance are complicated and obscure, and rogue elements among the rats want to derail the negotiations and kill everyone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 08:13
|
|
|
Fargo Fukes posted:I was just involved in a game a week ago with a great system for getting you involved with and attached to your characters/group. I forget what the system is called, maybe someone will recognise it? That's a Fate game of some sort.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 08:52
|
|
|
homullus posted:There are a lot of ways to handle this other than saying "I don't want you to play your character this way." All of those other methods are worse. Coming back to this, I went with "I'm not DMing this campaign anymore." It became apparent that the game most of the players wanted to play wasn't the game I would have fun running, so I asked the usual-DMs of the group if they wanted to continue running the campaign instead; there are 3 of them, so worst case scenario, it might end up as a rotation of some kind.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 05:00
|
|
|
P.d0t posted:Coming back to this, I went with "I'm not DMing this campaign anymore." It's too bad it came to that, but it is the only good option after you've made your feelings known and they are disregarded.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 05:13
|
|
|
homullus posted:It's too bad it came to that, but it is the only good option after you've made your feelings known and they are disregarded. Well, it was more complicated than that. At one point earlier on in the campaign I asked, "what do you think this campaign is really about?" and nobody was on the same page with what I had in mind. So I railroaded them towards the plot a bit. After a while, the departure of one of the players necessitated speeding up the main story arc, so I asked if they wanted to keep on going with it; not surprisingly, everyone was more interested in other aspects of the game. So at that point I quickly wrapped up the mystery plot and tried to move on from there, but my heart wasn't in it as much. My problem player was just another stumbling block, because I didn't know what to do with their character that would be fun for both of us. With the campaign shifting focus from "the type of DM work I like doing" to "[other]" I figured now was a good time to hand over the keys.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 07:25
|
|
|
Is there any kind of site that's just a buttload of tables. I don't care about the context or anything, I just want d100 tables.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 12:29
|
|
|
If you have the the D&D 3.0 DMG, there are like fifty random treasure tables that are all d100. What an odd request, though. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 13:37
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:If you have the the D&D 3.0 DMG, there are like fifty random treasure tables that are all d100. What an odd request, though. Random tables are useful. You never know when you might need one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 13:51
|
|
|
Nihnoz posted:Random tables are useful. You never know when you might need one. My PCs actually just went to a different planet in my Star Wars game, so I made up a random table of common Bothan and Arkanian first names/last names. Just in case. Which brings me to: My Star Wars game. A few weeks ago, my main Game of Thrones DM was sick, both of DMing and from the vile food at IHOP, and he asked me to run. The fastest thing I had on hand was the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner's Box. So I ran that for three of the five players (two were absent). They seem to really like the system, got off Tatooine, and then we called it quits for the night. Note that the game has you get off Tatooine by killing a trandoshan bounty hunter, and stealing his ship. On Thursday we played with four players (the other two showed up, and one of the originals was out sick). I've decided that the two new players were just captured bounties. There's a third bounty, a dead Arkanian senator, named Joreeknee, a clone wars military genius, turned Arkanian noble, who hated the Hutts and what they were doing to the Outer Rim, and spoke out against it. They're in hyperspace getting away from Tatooine when I ask the all-important question: Where the hell are you going? Leaving Tatooine they had a number of choices, such as Rodia and Bothawui. They choose Bothawui, the head of the Bothan race, and decide to go there. I make it known that this is a planet of spies and what not, but they're out of options, so they go anyway. They realize they're seen and there's nothing they can do about that. They roll to see who has contacts on Bothawui, and two of them know a very young information broker and fence, and go to him. They spill the beans and he spills a bit in return. --Joreeknee was a military hero, but wasn't born on Arkania. He was born in the Outer Rim. He hates the Hutts for the control they have and the fact that everyone on their planet is basically a slave. He was using his newfound political clout to try to get some support to go to war with them. --Trask, the bounty hunter they killed, is the brother of Bossk. Bossk is a badass bounty hunter, known to do things like destroy entire buildings to bring in his bounty. --Trask hadn't fully paid off the ship yet, getting it only a month or two before from a Hutt on Nar Shadaa named Besgos, promising two years of service in return. Besgos is kind of a badass, owning about 1/10th of the total surface of Nar Shadaa. --Teemo, the Hutt the originally escaped from, is still looking for them, and has put a bounty on their heads. They not only escaped his employ, they stole his prize gladiator, caused a ruckus in his streets, and killed a bounty hunter currently bringing him a bounty (one of the other players). --The killed five stormtroopers, lied to an Imperial officer, and blew up four TIE fighters. Empire wants them now. So, they decide on what to do, which is: --Repair the YT-1300 they stole and send it back to Besgos in tip-top shape with their best regards. They also send two Aqualish mercenaries who will pledge to work for Besgos for two years to fulfill Trask's contract. These mercs are secretly under the employ of the fence. --Promise Besgos one mission/favor. --Just ignore Teemo for now, he's small potatoes. This is dumb. --They can't really take Bossk, so instead they're just going to try to stay prepared. --Give the senator's body, along with the body of his killer, to the Arkanians. The fence arranged this for them, for a reward of 25,000 credits. He's also arranged to give them an old junker version of a Wayfarer class transport to replace their ship. They rolled extremely well on their negotiation, so he's also having his contacts fix it up a bit. --They're going to attempt to get work with Joreeknee's family, as mercs or contractors or whatever. This will be helped by the Fence as well. --Above all, until their debt is paid off, they are currently working for the Fence. All delicious information they find out is to be transferred to him. So I've got them bent over a barrel, and I'm wondering where to go next. I typically don't 'plan' things, but this seems like a group that needs a little bit of a push to get them going. The senator's family is big into genetic experimentation, weapons, and mining. So I've got some leeway there as to what I can put them in. But where to go from here? In case it matters, characters currently are: 41-VEX, a droid hacker/doctor. Kellen, human thief/security expert. Tri Sha, Falleen survivalist/lawman. Siir Shri'la, Clawdite technician/jury rigger. Pash, standard smuggler, pregen from beginner's box. This may change. Rook, smuggler with no piloting skills. Think Malcolm Reynolds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2013 22:24
|
|
|
Nihnoz posted:Random tables are useful. You never know when you might need one. Oh, I see, you're just looking for a library of tables for whatever events might arise. The way I read it originally was more along the lines of "I need a giant stack of d100 tables for no reason other than to have tables. I don't care what is on them, and when using them, I still won't care." So like you were just going to look threatening by rolling lots of d100s while paging through a massive pile of tables and glaring at your players or something. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 03:27
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Oh, I see, you're just looking for a library of tables for whatever events might arise. The way I read it originally was more along the lines of "I need a giant stack of d100 tables for no reason other than to have tables. I don't care what is on them, and when using them, I still won't care." So like you were just going to look threatening by rolling lots of d100s while paging through a massive pile of tables and glaring at your players or something. I would play this game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 03:34
|
|
|
Only if you have to roll a d100 for which table you roll d100s on. Rollception
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 00:53
|
|
|
DarkHorse posted:Only if you have to roll a d100 for which table you roll d100s on. You're just joking, but this would be a good game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 00:56
|
|
|
Table crawls are the new dungeon crawl. Also I take full credit for this game and I will be launching a kickstarter soon to try to gather $50,000 to put together the book of tables. Backing at the $100 tier will get you a pdf of the tables I google up.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:05
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Table crawls are the new dungeon crawl. I am so in, at the $50 tier can we get our own table inserted?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:07
|
|
|
$50 gets your name mentioned on a website somewhere, I don't know. $1000 gets you a personal email from me thanking you for your contribution (PDF not included). e: poo poo, forgot, I'm going to need stretch goals. Okay, if we hit $75k, I will add in a second book of tables. It will contain twice as many tables as the first book, and will be called "d50".
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:11
|
|
|
Roll to see what table to roll on. Roll your result and write it down. Do that a hundred more times. Generate a table with those results. GOTO 10 IT'S TABLES ALL THE WAY DOWN
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:31
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:$50 gets your name mentioned on a website somewhere, I don't know. ...aren't you just describing character creation in Rifts?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:37
|
|
|
My players spent 45 minutes debating the best way to take out a sentry. I got fed up and had a NPC do it for them. I felt bad about it, but if I had let it go to an hour I probably would of TPK'd the whole group. Did I do wrong?
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:39
|
|
|
rocode posted:My players spent 45 minutes debating the best way to take out a sentry. I got fed up and had a NPC do it for them. I felt bad about it, but if I had let it go to an hour I probably would of TPK'd the whole group. Did I do wrong? If they were amused and the game moved forward, then no.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:45
|
|
|
rocode posted:My players spent 45 minutes debating the best way to take out a sentry. I got fed up and had a NPC do it for them. I felt bad about it, but if I had let it go to an hour I probably would of TPK'd the whole group. Did I do wrong? I take a page from Dungeon World for this situation and "show signs of an approaching doom". Since they're debating for 45 minutes in the real world, are they doing it real-time in the game? Your solution is fine, but you can also make other things happen that change the situation and force them to act - an example would be the changing of the guard, flickering candlelight suddenly goes out giving them an opportunity, something that was chasing them catches up with them. If it becomes a larger issue it will seem like a cop-out if you have an NPC do it for them all the time if they're overanalyzing a situation (or, you may wish to reevaluate the pace of the game and what the players want out of it).
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 01:55
|
|
|
rocode posted:My players spent 45 minutes debating the best way to take out a sentry. I got fed up and had a NPC do it for them. I felt bad about it, but if I had let it go to an hour I probably would of TPK'd the whole group. Did I do wrong? Players are evil and must be punished, never forget that. Also, never feel bad about any of the horrible things you do to them, it's their own fault/for their own good, take your pick.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 05:05
|
|
|
Any advice for running a sandboxy, political intrigue...y campaign? I'm running Rogue Trader, the introductory part is about done and the players are about to step knee deep into a world of ruthless trade guilds and scheming noble houses where a trade dispute can and will result in chainswords. I'm unsure of how to present this. How would I go about immersing my players into this so that they will have personal motivation to make friends and enemies and chainsword the latter? Good schemes will result in good loot, of course, but my players will need to have a concrete idea of just what they can do and how the mechanics of money and power work and I've gotta provide material for that. I want to keep it wide open so that they can make their own space life and decide where they go and what they do and not just provide a choice of Big Bads A, B or C.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 06:51
|
|
|
Given what I've heard of RT, I'd suggest (even more than usual) making sure your players are on the same page as you before you start - they might think 'rogue trader equals psychotic nazi pewpew time' rather than 'intrigue'. I'd probably work out a few major houses/guilds, with an npc or two for each, and make sure I know what they're generally after. You'll never work out every detail, but if you can think 'well, house deathgoth are willing to lose cash on a deal as long as they make the blackangels look bad'. Then give the PCs someone to really despise, but maybe they need to bring them down a peg or two politcally before they can safely gank them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 08:08
|
|
|
rocode posted:My players spent 45 minutes debating the best way to take out a sentry. I got fed up and had a NPC do it for them. I felt bad about it, but if I had let it go to an hour I probably would of TPK'd the whole group. Did I do wrong? This is better than letting player arguments drag the session along and wasting everyone's evening, but there are also better ways of spurring them into action. As GM you do sometimes have to almost chair the players' meetings by getting them to finish talking or move the discussion along. One way to do this is to summarise the players' plans: "Okay, so the plan as it stands is to  ?" Another is to shut down boring sidetracks using player skills: "Actually, Ben, with your Streetwise skill you know you won't have to worry about this guard calling for reinforcements, his buddies will be at least three streets away."Also, what Aldantefax said about Signs of an Approaching Threat.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 08:15
|
|
|
Elukka posted:Any advice for running a sandboxy, political intrigue...y campaign? I'm running Rogue Trader, the introductory part is about done and the players are about to step knee deep into a world of ruthless trade guilds and scheming noble houses where a trade dispute can and will result in chainswords. I'm unsure of how to present this. How would I go about immersing my players into this so that they will have personal motivation to make friends and enemies and chainsword the latter? Good schemes will result in good loot, of course, but my players will need to have a concrete idea of just what they can do and how the mechanics of money and power work and I've gotta provide material for that. I want to keep it wide open so that they can make their own space life and decide where they go and what they do and not just provide a choice of Big Bads A, B or C. First you'll want to provide dossiers. Give players information on important figures, their personality traits, their capabilities etc. Allow them to purchase new information or uncover secret facts to use as leverage. This might reveal who's trustworthy, who's planning something important, or how they can be manipulated into helping or hindering the players. Dossers are like your political roadmap. They keep the players on top of the situation and stop them getting too lost. They also offer a sense of progression and control over the NPCs they encounter, and make it easier to come up with clever plans. All your NPCs should have an agenda and act in pursuit of it, and the players will find it much easier to get into the politics if they're predictable in doing so. You can help prompt them by phrasing information in the form of hypotheticals: "If provoked, this person will probably..." or "This person doesn't sound like they'd suffer fools". This will help get people thinking "what if I provoke them?" or "what if I act like an idiot around them?". Weave enough clues like that into the dossiers and the players can start setting them against one another which is always fun. For more information on how Dossiers are cool, play Alpha Protocol. It does it really well and the game encourages you to use the information therein to manipulate the NPCs so you can get the outcome you want. One of the best examples is that you get told ahead of time that an informant will go to the police if threatened. If you then beat him up, the following mission will have added security. You can take advantage of the fact to dress in heavy armour and bluff your way in through the front door, masquerading as one of the guards. If the players are unsure of things, they should have some allies who can give their opinions on the political climate. Said allies might have their own agendas or ask favours for doing so, but a political game is all about having people you trust and people you don't, and the best course of action not necessarily lying with either one. An uneasy alliance might be a way to get the best outcome, but the players won't take it if they don't know how it'll benefit them. As for providing motivation, the important figures should be able to affect the players' lives or their friends lives personally. They might have a wider goal, but if its clear that their success will help or hinder the players then the players should find it easy to decide whether they should be chainsworded or assisted. An easy way to get investment is to allow the players to describe their home turf. If they can collaborate into coming up with some sort of home or neighborhood they that can be invested in (ask them questions - what do they do? who do they know?) then they'll be all the more motivated when its threatened. It'll be important to their characters, but because they had a hand in creating it (or at least fleshing it out) it'll be important to them personally as well. You can flesh it out subtly if you want to build up to it - something like having them pass a neighbor on the street who is concerned about something Important Person X is doing that affects them. Ask them the person's name and then describe them or vice versa. Ask them how they know that person or if they're a good neighbor. If you feel like pushing it you might have the person react negatively to one party member and ask them what they did, or if it was a misunderstanding. An accusation is likely to either at least get their attention, or make that character memorable. There's a lot of things you can do to build investment, but I find people most identify with the little things - subtle details that make the thing they're investing in unique and special. Its the reason you tend to get better characters out of 13th Age's One Unique Thing than you do out of D&D's alignment grid. The former is something personal, the latter is a checkbox. Politics and world saving can be fun, but without a human stake in it, its not as motivating as it could be. Again, the former is something personal, the latter is a checkbox. Oh, and one last thing: Encourage your players to explain their plans to you. Politics can be complicated, and if they blindside you you might not be prepared to deal with the fallout. On the other hand, if they give you the heads up early, you'll be able to suggest NPCs that might be helpful, prepare useful dossier information ahead of time or give them an idea of the consequences. That'll make it much easier for them to engage with the environment you've created without getting lost, or putting you into a position you weren't prepared for. Besides, everyone loves it when a plan comes when a plan comes together.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 08:23
|
|
|
That's hugely helpful and just what I needed. Thanks. petrol blue posted:Given what I've heard of RT, I'd suggest (even more than usual) making sure your players are on the same page as you before you start - they might think 'rogue trader equals psychotic nazi pewpew time' rather than 'intrigue'. Elukka fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Aug 27, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 08:55
|
|
|
Nihnoz posted:Is there any kind of site that's just a buttload of tables. I don't care about the context or anything, I just want d100 tables. Its not a site, but AEG put out a book called Ultimate Toolbox a few years ago. It's a frighteningly big tome of d20 and d100 charts with pretty much any table I've ever wanted. Hopefully this isn't too late. http://www.alderac.com/ultimatetoolbox/
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2013 10:34
|
|
|
This may not be the right place to post this, but I can't think of anywhere else and it's too small for its own thread. I was looking for mapping tools and I stumbled across Shuffler. I tried the demo and it seemed pretty decent for what I'd use mapping tools for (Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase); does anyone else know anything about this?
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2013 20:39
|
|
|
Forums Terrorist posted:This may not be the right place to post this, but I can't think of anywhere else and it's too small for its own thread. I was looking for mapping tools and I stumbled across Shuffler. I tried the demo and it seemed pretty decent for what I'd use mapping tools for (Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase); does anyone else know anything about this? I am totally getting that, that's just the program I need for my game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2013 20:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 23:27 |
|
|
Pyradox posted:First you'll want to provide dossiers. So a player in my Star Wars game read my post above and linked me to your post here. It was really helpful. I wrote them up five dossiers, one on the company and four on important NPCs, and they got to do a bit of 'research' on the major players. And it actually came in handy, because they remembered a lot of stuff from the dossiers and used it to their advantage! So that was neat. So yeah, thanks for this suggestion.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2013 12:42
|
|