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trapstar
Jun 30, 2012

Yo tengo un par de ideas.

Lamuella posted:

I don't think there's necessarily a direct correlation between severity and cruelty of crimes and the power of the people committing them. Sometimes low level criminals are the ones who commit the most depraved acts. Sometimes powerful criminals get their way with minimal display of violence.

Imagine for example a third gang who are made up of former army riflemen and sappers. They time their operations with precision, they can get into any bank vault in the West, and if it came to a firefight they have superior weapons and tactics to any posse a sheriff could round up. A formidable foe, most likely. But one that is aiming for as little bloodshed as possible. With them you'd sell their cred on how effective and skilled they were. Tales of their sniper shooting a gun out of the hand of a US Marshall, or stealing all the money in a Western Union coach without the driver noticing, that kind of thing.

You can do both if you're trying to give variety.

Yeah that makes sense. I just wanted the subject matter at the beginning of the game to be more comfy and familiar then have the subject matter of the world get more intense as they level up.

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Squidster
Oct 7, 2008

✋😢Life's just better with Ominous Gloves🤗🧤
A friend of mine is looking for a rules-light system for a game set in ancient Mesopotamia, preferably with a focus on interesting melee combat. Are there any systems that come to mind that make swords and stabby things actually fun to use?

Siivola
Dec 23, 2012

My gut says Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, because the parry/dodge dynamic makes intuitive sense to me as someone who has fenced. There's little depth to it beyond that, however. You'll have to roll your own pocket sand move.

Edit: Burning Wheel might do it, actually. But I've not played that.

Siivola fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Feb 16, 2023

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









Squidster posted:

A friend of mine is looking for a rules-light system for a game set in ancient Mesopotamia, preferably with a focus on interesting melee combat. Are there any systems that come to mind that make swords and stabby things actually fun to use?

Runequest?

Fellblade
Apr 28, 2009
Mythras has a Babylon book, not sure I’d call it rules light but it’s not as crunchy as most make out.

It’s very specifically about having a cool melee system.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
E: sorry wrong thread

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
I'm running a 4th edition "Dark Souls" style dungeon crawl, and I'd appreciate advice on a tent pole environmental theme/hazard I'm going to be using a lot:


---
Fear the Dark
In this land, the wise fear what waits
beyond torchlight. In the dark –
especially in unlit depths – twisted
horrors without form or name spawn
and breed. None enter the cold earth
without good cause, and none linger
longer than necessary, for it is as though
the earth rots from within.
---

("Rotting Dark" can happen anywhere the scouring sun doesn't reach in this campaign world. These dark areas are rotten, liquefied, and spawn malformed horrors.)

So far in the first dungeon I've got:

A hallway that has collapsed down into a large cess pitt and wading through it deals damage.

A cliff of bare earth and climbing up invites grasping hands to seize you.

A large sink hole spanning a room with ranged enemies harassing you from the other side; when you jump down, horrors spawn in the sink hole and slow you down/engage you in melee.

A room that's suffocatingly dark, there's a secret entrance on both sides but you'd have to find it supernatural darkness while rolling for suffocating of some sort.

I'd welcome any other trap suggestions for "rotting dark", anything nasty, corrupting, anything that's a mix of either decay or mutation (both creatures and the land itself).

trapstar
Jun 30, 2012

Yo tengo un par de ideas.

Jack B Nimble posted:

I'm running a 4th edition "Dark Souls" style dungeon crawl, and I'd appreciate advice on a tent pole environmental theme/hazard I'm going to be using a lot:


---
Fear the Dark
In this land, the wise fear what waits
beyond torchlight. In the dark –
especially in unlit depths – twisted
horrors without form or name spawn
and breed. None enter the cold earth
without good cause, and none linger
longer than necessary, for it is as though
the earth rots from within.
---

("Rotting Dark" can happen anywhere the scouring sun doesn't reach in this campaign world. These dark areas are rotten, liquefied, and spawn malformed horrors.)

So far in the first dungeon I've got:

A hallway that has collapsed down into a large cess pitt and wading through it deals damage.

A cliff of bare earth and climbing up invites grasping hands to seize you.

A large sink hole spanning a room with ranged enemies harassing you from the other side; when you jump down, horrors spawn in the sink hole and slow you down/engage you in melee.

A room that's suffocatingly dark, there's a secret entrance on both sides but you'd have to find it supernatural darkness while rolling for suffocating of some sort.

I'd welcome any other trap suggestions for "rotting dark", anything nasty, corrupting, anything that's a mix of either decay or mutation (both creatures and the land itself).

Reminds me of this song tbh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bePCRKGUwAY

Krul
May 20, 2015

is that you, blizzard?
very cool and evocative. this may not be the direction in which you're taking the concept, but it would be interesting to see how societies would restructure themselves if the earth was no longer symbolically nurturing, grounding, sheltering, etc. and was instead viewed with distrust and hard-earned caution.

would villages of mud huts be replaced with stilt shacks and tree homes? barrow crypts with crematoria and sky burials? would farmers' fields go from a pastoral retreat to a weary, scavenger snatching of nutrients from dangerous soil? would societies be structured less around agriculture than grazing animals, hunting, or catching fish? speaking of fish, are deep bodies of water susceptible to the rotting dark? are marshes and deserts seen as even less trustworthy, and even more inhospitable?

dirt is more permeable than stone, so it would make sense to build high (increase natural light) and on rocky outcroppings (more sure of what's beneath them, more able to see threats from afar). societies would probably include more windows and carve more light shafts if it meant trading the comforts of warmth for the promise of safety.

Jack B Nimble posted:

I'd welcome any other trap suggestions for "rotting dark", anything nasty, corrupting, anything that's a mix of either decay or mutation (both creatures and the land itself).
dark souls really loves the idea of undead and bone constructs/abominations absorbing and reconstituting the dead, and i remember somebody in the last few pages posting an idea for that. my own idea would be about fungi and other saprophytes. is this life finding a way, even among the dark and decay of the earth? or are fungi just another form of corruption, with spores and growths taking over the shady under-boughs of a forest and colonising its animals and communities?

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









I don't know if you're loving with the rules but I strongly suggest doing that, 4e really sings when you put the screws on. In particular limiting healing surge refreshes, or maybe just tying it to finding bonfires. Also lean hard on the encounter construction, and use mountains of minions, and have monsters reconstruct themselves if you leave them alone.

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat

sebmojo posted:

I don't know if you're loving with the rules but I strongly suggest doing that, 4e really sings when you put the screws on. In particular limiting healing surge refreshes, or maybe just tying it to finding bonfires. Also lean hard on the encounter construction, and use mountains of minions, and have monsters reconstruct themselves if you leave them alone.

Yeah exactly long rests will only occur at bonfires and the game world "resets" afterwards. And yeah, I plan on using lots of minions.

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









Haha that sounds rad

Or rather: ehrheehehhehehehh

grobbo
May 29, 2014

Jack B Nimble posted:

I'm running a 4th edition "Dark Souls" style dungeon crawl, and I'd appreciate advice on a tent pole environmental theme/hazard I'm going to be using a lot:

...

I'd welcome any other trap suggestions for "rotting dark", anything nasty, corrupting, anything that's a mix of either decay or mutation (both creatures and the land itself).

This is really cool!

Some added grimdark ideas:

- Undead foes reskinned as Hollow Men: wandering paladins, pilgrims and clerics, corrupted and consumed by the darkness, who empty out their own decaying organs to lay before altars of the rot, packing black soil into their empty ribcages and eyesockets.
- Colossal Rot Titans that stride across the land when darkness falls - vast shambling mounds that trap and ingest anything that gets too close (half-digested animals cry out in terror from high up on its decaying form). More an environmental threat than an actual fight.
- Corrupted areas that function as punishing twists and surprises for player abilities to sow some chaos and make them change up their tactics; in a corrupted grove, summoned beasts have a chance to mutate into something horrible and hostile, in a corrupted temple, divine healing has a chance to cause a rotting disease, etc.
- Corrupted fields; as the players venture deep into a thick wheatfield, the crop begins to grow higher and higher, until it obscures the sun, and they find themselves hopelessly lost in a space that seems bigger than it could possibly be. Faceless corn-dolls, totems of the local god of the harvest, stalk them through this place.
- A sentient 'old town' buried in the earth beneath a new settlement, which begins psychically dominating the village's residents (a sort of False Hydra deal); they begin calmly digging down into the bedrock, letting themselves be swallowed up by the foundations unless they're stopped.
- A corrupted silt-filled river that must be safely crossed; mud-dripping, grinning sirens calling out to try and tempt the players to fall in.
- A twist on the Rust Monster; an entity that causes metal armour and weapons to become corrupted by the rot and deadly if not removed - after which they'll turn into additional hostile enemies.
- Some kind of anglerfish-esque monster; a monstrous rot-creature festooned with dangling lanterns that lurks in the night and waits for adventurers to approach.

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
That's great! I'm going to use a lot of that; the Hollow Men in particular is going to play a major role in the game because I need alternative factions, and they're perfect.

See, in this game world the sun scours the land, bringing storms and madness. The few living survivors have to take shelter in the few safe havens available. The default option I'm going to present to the players are essentially firelink shrines, but I want other factions to have their own methods, which express opposing views on this world the living find themselves in, and the Hollow Men are that exactly.

Actually, here's the campaign primer I sent to my players. I'd welcome any setting advice or world building contributions. The level of "society" I'm envisioning for the game is like Wraeclast in Path of Exile, or my players have likened it to The Walking Dead - small bands of survivors scrabbling for existence in a world that is almost entirely ruins, monsters, and dungeons. So there's enough people for me to more or less maintain the usefulness of social skills, trading, and crafting, but there's not really anything like normal cities, a general populace, etc.

Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Feb 21, 2023

Pvt.Scott
Feb 16, 2007

What God wants, God gets, God help us all

Jack B Nimble posted:

See, in this game world the sun scours the land, bringing storms and madness. The few living survivors have to take shelter in the few safe havens available. The default option I'm going to present to the players are essentially firelink shrines, but I want other factions to have their own methods, which express opposing views on this world the living find themselves in, and the Hollow Men are that exactly.

Are there entities that don’t give a poo poo about the sunlight? I think there should at least be one as a roaming threat that snatches or lures survivors out into the bright light of day. Maybe a lady in a nice sundress with a parasol? Add tentacles to taste.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Curious about the start of that last paragraph. The PCs are new here, how do you intend for that to happen? Since it sounds like this environment is all anyone in it knows, is this a “you woke up here and don’t remember anything” type deal or what? I mean sure everyone can have their own unique background to some degree, I’m just curious how you intend to lay it out for them or what constraints you might put in place.

Beyond that, does everyone arrive here similarly, or are some people actually born and raised here? And if so, in such a place of rot, do native-born folk have any factors attached that change their lives compared to others? Revered? Shunned? Cursed with traits of the place? Immune to certain effects?

Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Feb 21, 2023

Indolent Bastard
Oct 26, 2007

I WON THIS AMAZING AVATAR! I'M A WINNER! WOOOOO!
Found magic items. How do you deal with them? Do your players have to pay to get them identified, how much does casting detect magic reveal of the item, does attuning with the item give players "perfect knowledge" of the item, or do you leave it as somewhat of a mystery?

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
Everyone "wakes up" in this world and has fragmentary and contradictory knowledge of the"real" world. I let the players decide if their character has either been here a while or brand new, with the caveat that I wanted at least one of each.

In our ongoing discord "session zero" I talked about being worried that, if everyone was brand new and without that primer I made, the first session would have too many huge exposition dumps where NPCs tell them tons of things to be aware of.

Players who choose to have their characters already exist in this world will each get to start off with a relationship with some faction or person and be generally aware in play of what I wrote in the primer. I'm not sure exactly what to do with the new characters but I was thinking I'd start them with some hooks that sort of mark them out as harbingers of a change or possible end to the status quo.

Regarding the sun, it's what resets the world, like when you rest at a bonfire in Dark Souls. Monsters respawn, changes to the environment are undone, etc. Dark places underground aren't impacted but they have their own issue, that they're putrefying and corrupting. The "living", the more or less normal people, have to take shelter in the rare sites that are both hidden from the sun and not subject to rotting dark.

grobbo
May 29, 2014

Jack B Nimble posted:

Actually, here's the campaign primer I sent to my players. I'd welcome any setting advice or world building contributions. The level of "society" I'm envisioning for the game is like Wraeclast in Path of Exile, or my players have likened it to The Walking Dead - small bands of survivors scrabbling for existence in a world that is almost entirely ruins, monsters, and dungeons. So there's enough people for me to more or less maintain the usefulness of social skills, trading, and crafting, but there's not really anything like normal cities, a general populace, etc.



I like it a lot!

OK, faction-wise, a few ideas and prompts in case they're useful...

quote:

- The Flayed Order. A faction of kindly but functionally insane healers that revel in the scouring effect of the sun. They believe that the land's refusal to be healed is a demonstration of the gods' omnipotence - a punishment for over-proud humanity and proof that we are powerless and helpless without divine intervention.

At dawn, these clerics chain themselves upon the mountainside in full of view of the rising sun as an agonising test of their faith, allowing themselves to be hideously scoured - or swept away in the storm. At night (assuming they survive), they patiently heal their grievous wounds in imitation of the sun's daytime regeneration.

quote:

- The Lantern-Runners. A wandering faction of daredevil monks who use their discipline, willpower, and grace to act as scouts for isolated communities or travelling groups.

Strapping a lamp to their own backs and covered in small silver bells, a lone Lantern-Runner will down a dozen potions before making a near-suicidal dash down dangerous roads or through unexplored dungeons, aiming to lure out any threats - and safely dodge or escape them all - to reveal safe routes for caravans or adventuring parties.

The Lantern-Runners are well-paid for their services, but they care more for the prestige of completing a particularly difficult 'run' than anything else.

quote:

- The Hand Nocturnal. A ruthlessly pragmatic collective of mages who believe that - as the dawn prevents the land from truly healing - a world plunged into eternal darkness would be the preferable solution to give civilisation time to rebuild. By any means necessary, and through their cultivation of shadow magic and chronomancy, the Hand works to prevent the dawn itself and bring about an eternal night...

quote:

- The Lurking Watchers. A faction of bards who send lone representatives to observe the deadliest horrors of the night from a distance and in well-hidden positions, spending long years at a time obsessively recording a monstrosity's behaviour, strengths, and weaknesses - and, eventually, dying sealed up with their findings.

The Watchers believe that there will come a day when the horrid creatures of the land will no longer regenerate at dawn and can finally be defeated - and their sworn duty is to prepare as much useful knowledge as possible for that day. As such, they will gladly watch a dozen adventuring parties march to their deaths against a foe rather than risk revealing their hiding places and endangering themselves (and some Watchers go further yet, slowly falling in love with the monstrosities they observe, becoming unseen if faithful servants to the horrors of the night...)

quote:

- Rotwhispers. Some desperate communities believe that the darkness itself can speak to us, if we could only survive its dangers. This leads to a situation where some poor soul or captured criminal is entombed in an iron coffin and lowered into a pit or mine overnight - if they're still alive when they're brought back up, the babbling lunatic is then treated as an oracle and soothsayer (and in some cases, Rotwhispers do appear to genuinely have the ability to psychically detect horrors of the night) or sold to a travelling party as a kind of semi-sentient bloodhound.

quote:

- The Gentle Sleepers. Some who accrue enough money or power (or who are half-remembered as the nobility of the old world) abandon this reality entirely - paying great sums to illusionist mages to place them in a permanent delusional state. Surrounded by their hoards of wealth, with a gentle smile upon their face, the Gentle Sleepers doze away in imagined worlds of bliss, sequestered in fortresses or iron barges - or they may be found by the roadside, having been abandoned by disloyal retainers.

If you're using DnD races, I think you could also go in fascinating directions with fire genasi and how the world would react to them - it sounds like a world where having a literal torch on your head could easily make you a favoured prize for superstitious communities, perhaps a self-proclaimed god...or the prisoner of powerful raiders.

Lamuella
Jun 26, 2003

It's like goldy or bronzy, but made of iron.


Indolent Bastard posted:

Found magic items. How do you deal with them? Do your players have to pay to get them identified, how much does casting detect magic reveal of the item, does attuning with the item give players "perfect knowledge" of the item, or do you leave it as somewhat of a mystery?

Presuming you're talking about a 5e-like system I would generally do something like this:

You see the object - it's an object
You examine the object and make an arcana check - it's a magical object
You cast detect magic - it seems to have magic of school X
You've seen someone else use the object - it seems to do XYZ
You concentrate on the item during a short rest - it's an item that does XYZ (not revealing curses etc)
You or someone else casts identify - it's an item that does XYZ (not revealing curses etc)

Admiralty Flag
Jun 7, 2007

to ride eternal, shiny and chrome

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2022

Lamuella posted:

Presuming you're talking about a 5e-like system I would generally do something like this:

You see the object - it's an object
You examine the object and make an arcana check - it's a magical object
You cast detect magic - it seems to have magic of school X
You've seen someone else use the object - it seems to do XYZ
You concentrate on the item during a short rest - it's an item that does XYZ (not revealing curses etc)
You or someone else casts identify - it's an item that does XYZ (not revealing curses etc)
All this, except if I were running a 5E campaign I'd port over elements of 4E's artifact "sympathy" system (or whatever it was called) for important or powerful items, where they gradually unfold their powers to you as you align with their goals and wants.

Dameius
Apr 3, 2006

Jack B Nimble posted:

Everyone "wakes up" in this world and has fragmentary and contradictory knowledge of the"real" world. I let the players decide if their character has either been here a while or brand new, with the caveat that I wanted at least one of each.

In our ongoing discord "session zero" I talked about being worried that, if everyone was brand new and without that primer I made, the first session would have too many huge exposition dumps where NPCs tell them tons of things to be aware of.

Players who choose to have their characters already exist in this world will each get to start off with a relationship with some faction or person and be generally aware in play of what I wrote in the primer. I'm not sure exactly what to do with the new characters but I was thinking I'd start them with some hooks that sort of mark them out as harbingers of a change or possible end to the status quo.

Regarding the sun, it's what resets the world, like when you rest at a bonfire in Dark Souls. Monsters respawn, changes to the environment are undone, etc. Dark places underground aren't impacted but they have their own issue, that they're putrefying and corrupting. The "living", the more or less normal people, have to take shelter in the rare sites that are both hidden from the sun and not subject to rotting dark.

I'm not sure if you'd be able to work them in but a small faction of so insane they've wrapped around to sane raiders. Supremely weird to be around, they are slightly off in everything they do. Laugh at the wrong things in the wrong way. Don't blink enough. See everything in a slightly askew manner etc.. They refuse to acknowledge the horror around them and try to continue on with a life they think they remember about the real world. They can be reasoned with but only if you come at them from the odd way they view the world, otherwise they will simply iust kill everything in their path with no preamble or seeming reason when it is other people and not monstrosities. Because they're so insane they don't get the idea of being scared or knowing when to quit when the odds are stacked against them making them tenacious fighters which is about the only reason they've not been wiped out by the larger factions. Basically everyone sees the cost in doing so far to high to be worth it.

Oldsrocket_27
Apr 28, 2009
I've never run a stealth mission for my players before, but I think I should plan to for this Sunday. (maybe stealth/puzzle?)

For context: My players are exploring on Batun, the pirate/merchant island I posted about earlier, chasing rumors of disappearances, ghosts, and powerful artifacts in the Olympia Nat'l Park style rainforest on the mountainside of the island. They've run into strange plant creatures and our bard got charmed and separated from the party, lured into a trap by a powerful Fey. Being a braggart he immediately introduced himself by full name and got himself backed into making a deal with the Fey to retrieve the artifacts for her, completely separated from the party.

Deep in the forest is the secret hideout of the Shadow Merchant, one of the council members of Batun. Traditionally the Shadow Merchant was a single person at the head of a sort of black market organization. however, this fey likes making little creatures for amusement, and on her first try she got it wrong. She turned the forest's ravens into kenku, and made their ability to imitate and learn too strong. They learned her trickery and won her circlet and cloak (the powerful magic artifacts) in a series of games and riddles, which they now use to keep her at bay. As others have wandered into the forest, they have also wandered under the kenku's watch, and so it was with the former Shadow Merchant's hideout in the forest. They captured him, learned everything from him, and replaced him as the head of his organization. He was an illusionist/rogue, so their hideout is now a difficult to penetrate maze of fey magic and illusions. Now ALL of the kenku are "The Shadow Merchant."

The players are about to try and sneak up on a camp of spies sent by a rival councilman, which could be help for them and intel about the compound if they play it right. But I'm not coming up with good details of how all the trickery will manifest when it comes to an infiltration mission. I like the idea of rumors of ghosts to be illusions of the party seeing and possibly facing themselves, especially if I can get them lost and separated on the way and chasing visions of each other.

I don't know if I want to have a normal map, or lots of separate little mapped locations that players will pop in and out of, with some central conceit or puzzle being the key to getting at the artifacts. My players tend to be good at separating player knowledge from character knowledge, so it wouldn't be too much of a logistical mess when they get separated.

What would you do with this situation/ session(s)?

Defenestrategy
Oct 24, 2010

Oldsrocket_27 posted:

What would you do with this situation/ session(s)?

I wouldn't bother with maps entirely, just have a script such as "You crept down a hall way, gimmie a perception check, Pass, you see a cunning trap of a tripwire attached to cans of tuna and deftly avoid that" give them as many random skill checks or whatever til they either find their way or get caught.

If I where doing this with a VTT, absolutely wanted battlemaps, and I wasn't a lazy jerk I would draw a map of the compound and play with fog of war such that each individual player can only see what they where doing.

Oldsrocket_27
Apr 28, 2009

Defenestrategy posted:

I wouldn't bother with maps entirely, just have a script such as "You crept down a hall way, gimmie a perception check, Pass, you see a cunning trap of a tripwire attached to cans of tuna and deftly avoid that" give them as many random skill checks or whatever til they either find their way or get caught.

If I where doing this with a VTT, absolutely wanted battlemaps, and I wasn't a lazy jerk I would draw a map of the compound and play with fog of war such that each individual player can only see what they where doing.

It's all in-person with a battlmat for a grid. A lot of the forest navigation and a few of the things they've encountered have already been skill check based, and I think if the whole thing were just some skill checks, they'd pass without trace their way through it and it'd be boring and anticlimactic, especially since all failures would essentially be roads to getting captured. My players like puzzles and they haven't had one for a while, so I think it would make the illusion-filled hideout more climactic and rewarding for them if the stealthy challenge is more dynamic.

Verisimilidude
Dec 20, 2006

Strike quick and hurry at him,
not caring to hit or miss.
So that you dishonor him before the judges



I'm running a pre-written campaign for my warhammer fantasy group. It's a "court crawl" where the players interact with various noble npcs trying to solve a mystery, set to the backdrop of a massive festival. The mystery takes place over the course of 8 in-game days.

I thought we'd do 1 day per session, maybe 2 depending on the day.

So far we've done 2 4 hour sessions of the actual mystery. The first session brought them from 8AM - 4PM. The second session brought them from 4PM to 7PM.

At this rate we'll finish this campaign under a new administration.

And none of this is bad. My players are engaging in conversation with NPCs and each other. They're asking interesting questions, doing interesting festival things, talking about the mystery and sharing notes.

It's a really good experience. I just hope they don't get fatigued, but then we can always speed things up!

admanb
Jun 18, 2014

Verisimilidude posted:

I'm running a pre-written campaign for my warhammer fantasy group. It's a "court crawl" where the players interact with various noble npcs trying to solve a mystery, set to the backdrop of a massive festival. The mystery takes place over the course of 8 in-game days.

I thought we'd do 1 day per session, maybe 2 depending on the day.

So far we've done 2 4 hour sessions of the actual mystery. The first session brought them from 8AM - 4PM. The second session brought them from 4PM to 7PM.

At this rate we'll finish this campaign under a new administration.

And none of this is bad. My players are engaging in conversation with NPCs and each other. They're asking interesting questions, doing interesting festival things, talking about the mystery and sharing notes.

It's a really good experience. I just hope they don't get fatigued, but then we can always speed things up!

hahahaha yeah RPGs pretty much have two modes: (1) they bypass every challenge you put in front of them with either a clever or incredibly stupid idea or (2) they engage with everything way more than you expect them to and it doesn't matter how straightforward the challenge is, it takes forever.

Colonel Cool
Dec 24, 2006

It once took my team of superheroes an hour to climb over a chain link fence.

Dienes
Nov 4, 2009

dee
doot doot dee
doot doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot
doot doot dee
dee doot doot


College Slice

Colonel Cool posted:

It once took my team of superheroes an hour to climb over a chain link fence.

I had a party spend a whole session trying to figure out how to make donkey armor.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

My players dropped everything to help use their superpowers to make tractors, shadow livestock, and things to help an overworked peasant village bring in the harvest.

Mind, that was also so they could learn more about where the heck they were and what was up with the evil Connecticut yankee who had seized control of a bronze age city-state but it was still adorable.

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters
"It should only take one...maaaybe two sessions to complete this one-shot"

- me, lying to myself every time

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Morpheus posted:

"It should only take one...maaaybe two sessions to complete this one-shot"

End of first session, which was 6 hours long:

"All right, so I think at this point, we'll be just about ready to start the actual game next time."

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters

Bad Munki posted:

End of first session, which was 6 hours long:

"All right, so I think at this point, we'll be just about ready to start the actual game next time."

I'm in a campaign that's been going mostly weekly since September.

We're nearly done the what the DM has been calling the Prologue.

Lamuella
Jun 26, 2003

It's like goldy or bronzy, but made of iron.


The slower the story goes the less the GM has to write / prep.

I'm prepping ideas for the 4th "adventure" of the Pathfinder campaign I'm running. Two sessions in and we're about halfway done with adventure number zero.

Defenestrategy
Oct 24, 2010

I will say though sometimes it works to your advantage. One of our players had to cancel last minute so I ran one a pregenned one shots.

First hurdle: infiltrate a fancy restaurant to get at security footage.

Suggested routes:
Hire a hacker
Go to the restaurant as diners and sneak about
Go get hired as a waiter and sneak about
Wait for someone to leave through the back door and nabb their creds and sneak in

Their route:
Infiltrate via the roof and toss a smoke grenade into the air ducts and in the commotion run in through the front door pretendjbg they where firemen.

That one section which I thought would take maybe an hour took the entire session and i didnt need to run the rest of the module.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Defenestrategy posted:


Their route:
Infiltrate via the roof and toss a smoke grenade into the air ducts and in the commotion run in through the front door pretendjbg they where firemen.

This is a very, very quality plan.

TheSwizzler
May 13, 2005

LETTIN THE CAT OUTTA THE BAG
I'm running moon rats as an arc villain right now and wouldn't mind some extra ideas as to how normal everyday rats would gently caress with players who are trying to start a tavern business. I've already had them chew through the chandelier ropes in a murder attempt, and I'll definitely have a blackmailed city official messing with their permit process. They'll definitely gently caress with their food supplies too. The gag of the arc is that they'll keep finding enemies they think are the ringleader, but they're just blackmailed minions.

Drakyn
Dec 26, 2012

I can't think of anything personally but for possible inspiration for what clever and malevolent little rear end in a top hat creatures might personally do to physically threaten humans I suggest the documentaries 'Gremlins' and 'Gremins 2.'

Youremother
Dec 26, 2011

MORT

TheSwizzler posted:

I'm running moon rats as an arc villain right now and wouldn't mind some extra ideas as to how normal everyday rats would gently caress with players who are trying to start a tavern business. I've already had them chew through the chandelier ropes in a murder attempt, and I'll definitely have a blackmailed city official messing with their permit process. They'll definitely gently caress with their food supplies too. The gag of the arc is that they'll keep finding enemies they think are the ringleader, but they're just blackmailed minions.

Rats are vile rumormongers and will literally whisper lies about the PCs into people's ears at night. They'll chew holes in the PC's clothing, over specifically private areas. The rats have it in good with the other rodents in the area - an unruly squirrel suddenly darts up a PC's pants leg during a delicate moment. They piss on anything and everything they can pee on, leaving the PCs stinking of rat urine 24/7. In a big city you are never more than six feet away from a rat, who hears everything you say. Rats planting drugs or other illegal items on the PCs. A rat bites the barmaid on her rear end as a PC walks past. Rats tying their bootlaces together, rats ripping up important documents for bedding, rats waking you up at night by wrestling in the walls as loudly as possible, rats chewing holes through anything softer than metal.

I owned pet rats for ten years. There's nothing you can't put past them.

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TheSwizzler
May 13, 2005

LETTIN THE CAT OUTTA THE BAG

Youremother posted:

Rats are vile rumormongers and will literally whisper lies about the PCs into people's ears at night. They'll chew holes in the PC's clothing, over specifically private areas. The rats have it in good with the other rodents in the area - an unruly squirrel suddenly darts up a PC's pants leg during a delicate moment. They piss on anything and everything they can pee on, leaving the PCs stinking of rat urine 24/7. In a big city you are never more than six feet away from a rat, who hears everything you say. Rats planting drugs or other illegal items on the PCs. A rat bites the barmaid on her rear end as a PC walks past. Rats tying their bootlaces together, rats ripping up important documents for bedding, rats waking you up at night by wrestling in the walls as loudly as possible, rats chewing holes through anything softer than metal.

I owned pet rats for ten years. There's nothing you can't put past them.

These are all amazing suggestions and I think I'll be using most if not all of them

I'll also need to think mechanically about the climax battle, I've got crews of rats carrying wands as artillery, a rat wearing a belt of giant strength/cast enlarge, it'll happen in a warehouse so there will be constant falling objects being thrown down at the players from the rafters, and idk maybe a rat sorcerer uses some sort of soul trap spell to take over the body of some kind of brute to use as a boss

it's just gonna be session after session of tiny mayhem and paranoia

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