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Knew yall wouldn’t let me down and filled in a major blind spot I missed. I was so focused on the architectural horror possibilities in a House of Leaves style that I didnt think about what it could do to people. Definitely will be tapping into some SOMA/Hellraiser body horror vibes. Also that Echo game is half off right now so I snatched it up and will pilfer liberally like any good DM.
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Mar 21, 2024 20:37
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weekly font posted:Knew yall wouldn’t let me down and filled in a major blind spot I missed. I was so focused on the architectural horror possibilities in a House of Leaves style that I didnt think about what it could do to people. Definitely will be tapping into some SOMA/Hellraiser body horror vibes. If the pcs get in a fight infect them with nanobots that give them bonuses
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Mar 21, 2024 21:29
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sebmojo posted:If the pcs get in a fight infect them with nanobots that give them bonuses One of them should get a 2way comms with the AI. It never shuts up.
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Mar 22, 2024 03:02
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1secondpersecond posted:Maybe the mansion has some sort of sapient servitor (or even a human butler, if we're going with flesh printing/cloning) who is produced around the house as needed and recycled when their tasks are done. Reminds me of a thing I had for PCs exploring an abandoned wizard's tower. She missed her dad and had created a replica of him to have conversations with, with his own bedroom. Unfortunately whenever he disagreed with her and told her things like "your powers are making you less human" she'd inevitably destroy him in a fit of rage, so she created a cupboard nearby full of backups. The PCs were not ready for the Chamber of Grandpas.
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Mar 22, 2024 08:22
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Whybird posted:Reminds me of a thing I had for PCs exploring an abandoned wizard's tower. She missed her dad and had created a replica of him to have conversations with, with his own bedroom. Unfortunately whenever he disagreed with her and told her things like "your powers are making you less human" she'd inevitably destroy him in a fit of rage, so she created a cupboard nearby full of backups. Makes me want to run a wizard antagonist who solves all of their interpersonal problems by creating an amenable clone of the person they're fighting with. You better not cut Memreth the Cloner in line at the grocery store, or you'll find yourself coming to in a tank with a weirdly positive feeling about that guy from the shops.
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Mar 22, 2024 14:39
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Dameius posted:It sounds like you already have a pretty good handle of what is going wrong in the game, why it is wrong, and what can be done differently. So I'll add that for your opening, it'd probably be useful to ask something along the lines of, "what is the intended difficulty you're trying to set? I'd like to help you dial that in." Thanks for your thoughts on this mate. He’s a brand new DM, first game, only played BG3. Based on what you said I actually went a little harder on “I can see what you’re doing wrong and can help you to fix it.” We talked about asking for too many rolls, and helping the party along rather than holding them back. I was right that we were throwing him by not going his planned route so we also covered a bit of leading the way without railroading, and how he can call for specific rolls without us asking to help guide the plot along. Pointed him towards Matt Colville and also the Dungeon Dudes “top ten” videos which will help him a lot. He asked me how I would have handled a couple of specific situations, and he’s asked if I can stick around at the end of the next session and give him some more feedback. Everything is fine and good.
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Mar 22, 2024 15:16
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Doing your part to improve the community, one GM at a time.
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Mar 22, 2024 15:24
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Sanford posted:Thanks for your thoughts on this mate. He’s a brand new DM, first game, only played BG3. Based on what you said I actually went a little harder on “I can see what you’re doing wrong and can help you to fix it.” We talked about asking for too many rolls, and helping the party along rather than holding them back. I was right that we were throwing him by not going his planned route so we also covered a bit of leading the way without railroading, and how he can call for specific rolls without us asking to help guide the plot along. Pointed him towards Matt Colville and also the Dungeon Dudes “top ten” videos which will help him a lot. He asked me how I would have handled a couple of specific situations, and he’s asked if I can stick around at the end of the next session and give him some more feedback. Everything is fine and good. Awesome to hear. An easy question he can keep in the back of his head is, "how can I make failing this fun/interesting?" and if he can't come up with any answer or the answer is too convoluted then scrap the idea and try again. And as always, that should be a guideline more than an immutable rule.
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Mar 22, 2024 16:10
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1secondpersecond posted:Makes me want to run a wizard antagonist who solves all of their interpersonal problems by creating an amenable clone of the person they're fighting with. You better not cut Memreth the Cloner in line at the grocery store, or you'll find yourself coming to in a tank with a weirdly positive feeling about that guy from the shops. I did in the same game have a player who was playing a time mage. One of the antagonists was a future version of a different player who'd come to the past to kill him before he gained full control of his powers and turned evil. There was a detail she shared to her present self that I was proud of: the point at which she realised he was irredeemable was when she realised they'd stopped disagreeing, not because he was getting more reasonable but because every time they had an argument he'd been rewinding time and trying the conversation again until he found a way to persuade her he was right.
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Mar 22, 2024 17:34
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OK, that's cool as hell
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Mar 22, 2024 18:24
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Whybird posted:There was a detail she shared to her present self that I was proud of: the point at which she realised he was irredeemable was when she realised they'd stopped disagreeing, not because he was getting more reasonable but because every time they had an argument he'd been rewinding time and trying the conversation again until he found a way to persuade her he was right. Yeah, chronurgic gaslighting is a red flag in any relationship.
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Mar 22, 2024 21:25
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I've posted a few times about how the players in my RT game are beneficiaries of a dark bargain between the Rogue Trader's aunt and the Dark Eldar, who accept slaves* in exchange for transporting the dynasty's cargo faster than any honest trader could. But a twist happened! When my players got their first clues about this bargain, they came to the conclusion that... it was the RT's wastrel uncle, who kept a double book on his Imperial taxes**, abandoned the ship, and stole all the nice stuff on board in the first session. This was the inciting incident for all the characters to end up on the ship and launch the campaign, and I'd completely forgotten about it. * All of whom are destined for a fate worse than death. ** A Sword of Damocles still hanging over the characters which I haven't had an occasion to drop just yet. So the players actually came up with a better idea than I did. The only question is... what has the debauched uncle been up to, what are his goals, and how does he tie into the Big Bad of the campaign, a chaos sorcerer who has so far not really done anything but is planning to torch a bunch of loyalist planets in the Expanse and the Calixis Sector in order power up his bid for godhood? It's time to do some rising action in the campaign and my players have handed me a great story idea. But I literally forgot about this character and have nothing planned. Any ideas? Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Mar 23, 2024 |
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Mar 23, 2024 01:28
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Arglebargle III posted:I've posted a few times about how the players in my RT game are beneficiaries of a dark bargain between the Rogue Trader's aunt and the Dark Eldar, who accept slaves* in exchange for transporting the dynasty's cargo faster than any honest trader could. But a twist happened! When my players got their first clues about this bargain, they came to the conclusion that... it was the RT's wastrel uncle, who kept a double book on his Imperial taxes**, abandoned the ship, and stole all the nice stuff on board in the first session. This was the inciting incident for all the characters to end up on the ship and launch the campaign, and I'd completely forgotten about it. My first thought was to say that the chaos sorcerer should kick off their torching spree with a planet that is too far away to save but not too far away for the players to charge a bunch of money to get out of the system. One last foray with the old ship before they switch to their new fancy ship. This could involve the uncle letting chaos forces use stolen ships in their attack. Or certified dynasty defences that are missing or defunct thanks to the uncle. But then I realized it would be way better for the chaos sorcerer to attack the planet... and get driven off by the allied Dark Eldar. Who not only don't make a secret of their involvement they take this opportunity to set the uncle up as planetary governor. The only thing better than pilfering slaves is having a whole planet full of them. So now the players have a fixed target for their fancy new ship, rather than stern chases with their cool but slower ship. And they have the time pressure of cleaning up this mess before too many officials associate the RT with a rebel system. Don't forget that the chaos sorcerer is heading full speed to a system expecting a refugee convoy... and the trick they failed to pull off with the Dark Eldar that will destroy unwary imperials!
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Mar 23, 2024 08:48
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Any tips on how to run a BBEG? I don't want to steal the party's climax by having the baddie Dimension Door to get away or something similar. I also don't want the party to beat the BBEG down and then get access to the cool items they have. Specifically, the adventure ends with uncovering a powerful artifact. The BBEG snatches the artifact and I plan for it to bond with them in a horrific way that should dissuade the party from trying to use it, but players being players I worry that they will put the clearly evil crown on just to see how it goes. I am also not wanting to say "the powerful item sits broken on the ground" after the fight is over and remove player agency over what to do with this cursed item.
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Mar 25, 2024 15:16
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In the final fight, have the BBEG slowly become more unhinged and having an argument with the crown that the BBEG seems to be losing. When the fight ends BBEG has something horrible happen that is obviously tied to the power of the crown which had its appearance shift during the process. Then when BBEG's body suddenly gone, the crown just looks like a well made, very expensive, very inviting looking crown.
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Mar 25, 2024 15:33
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If somebody puts the crown on, have them become a new BBEG that the rest of the party now has to fight. When it's over, the player isn't dead, just unconscious. The crown falls off their head and they come to as their old self.
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Mar 25, 2024 15:36
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Deteriorata posted:If somebody puts the crown on, have them become a new BBEG that the rest of the party now has to fight. When it's over, the player isn't dead, just unconscious. The crown falls off their head and they come to as their old self. When they put the crown on, take them aside, have them play themself, and tell them every PC that they kill will get a nice big bonus for the party.
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Mar 25, 2024 16:22
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Do they need to get the artifact at the end? You can always have the final fight in a precarious setting and have the villain and magic item fall into a pit ie Lord of the Rings or Last Crusade
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Mar 25, 2024 16:35
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Or have the artifact absorbed into the villain’s body. Depending on your system, the villain might win. Unless you’ve already had a conversation with the players, the assumption is you’re going to play things straight… Is there a way they can preemptively foil the dimension door, instead of just making your villain dumber? We have a party member whose Trouble is “ looks with his hands.” The DM often gives him tempting things to touch and toggle with. Sometimes that provides a solution, the other times, the rest of the group has to hold him back while he says “c’mon!”
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Mar 25, 2024 16:54
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Maybe the BBEG grabs the crown, and it magically grows fingers/claws that slowly and painfully bore into the guys head, causing massive physical trauma to him (and maybe a minor constitution check to not get nauseous at the sight). Yes, it makes him more powerful, but it's also clearly a parasitic/demonic creature that is using the able body as a host. And it's a very one sided exchange. Post fight, if they want the crown, they can either pry it off (a very slow, very messy, and crunchy activity), or they can remove the head with the crown still attached to turn it in for the quest rewards. If at that time, after everything they just saw, one of them wants to tempt fate and put the crown on, you've basically thrown up all the red flags you can.
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Mar 25, 2024 17:46
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Tosk posted:What do people think of as "well-written" campaigns? Regardless of system. I think the two I hear most about are Masks of Nyarlathotep and Griffin Mountain, the latter I think for pioneering the idea of a sandbox setting splatbook (I could be wrong, I haven't run it). I haven't read Masks. I posted this in the chat thread but it probably fits better here so I'm quoting myself
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Mar 25, 2024 17:50
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What do you mean by well-written? Like, the book is easy to parse for the DM so that they can make the campaign good for players, or well-written in the sense that, if you go by the campaign word-for-word in what it tells you to do, and read all the box text, that it's got good prose and such?
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Mar 25, 2024 17:55
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First, I’m confused by the idea of a forever GM in 2024. Even if you’re posting from McMurdo, you could find a play by post game. There are way too many in person and online conventions, as well as GMless games to facilitate. I’ve played Fiasco with non-gaming acquaintances before. As for what makes a well written adventure, I’m imagining something that is clearly laid out^, inspires lots of ideas… and chooses its scenarios carefully! I’m a fan of one particular writer for Savage Worlds, but there are usually three or four redundant fights or chases in each module. ^Generally, maps, handouts, and stat blocks at the end, with keyed dungeons. For great gray box text, I‘m a fan of Garreth Hanrahan. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 18:01
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Tosk posted:I posted this in the chat thread but it probably fits better here so I'm quoting myself I've heard really good things about eyes of the stone thief for 13th age but I've never played it.
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Mar 25, 2024 18:26
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Tosk posted:I posted this in the chat thread but it probably fits better here so I'm quoting myself Not entirely sure I understand what your question is but as a fellow permaDM and a call of cthulhu main I dig “famous” campaigns. I’ve run pulpier versions of Masks and Horror on the Orient Express and they went over very well with some changes (I never run anything RAW, ever). Now that we’ve slightly pivoted to Delta Green my group is gearing up to walk into my mashup of Impossible Landscapes and the first half of Tatters of the King andI’m jazzed for it. Thats said, there are “great” campaigns that seem pretty unplayable. Beyond the Mountains of Madness is a good example. For as great as the last act is, the lead up to it seems pretty dreadful (chapter 2 has a “checking cargo manifests” sequence) and the massive scale of NPCs to juggle plus the fact there’s a Poe short story that is an in universe journal that reveals what’s going on means the player buy-in has to include homework assignments. Same goes for Dracula Dossier. I’m also a big Deadlands guy and would love to run the 4 Horsemen campaigns but lol. Glad I read all of these though because they’re great insight into clever worldbuilding, setting tone, pace and scale. In DnD I don’t think any of the pre-written campaigns hit the Icarus level the way a CoC one does except maybe Strahd but with the right group its very manageable. Official DnD campaigns have bigger issues with being unbalanced slogs than anything else. To try to narrow in on your post I think premade campaigns are fantastic but I think anyone who runs them completely RAW is doing themselves and their table a disservice. Because 1) you should be pulling your players and their ideas and backstories into the world 2) you often get trapped in poorly built combat/situations and if you TPK your party at level 2 and go “well sorry the book says theres 9 ogres if you take the left path” you’re kind of a lazy rear end in a top hat.
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Mar 25, 2024 18:45
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weekly font posted:Not entirely sure I understand what your question is but as a fellow permaDM and a call of cthulhu main I dig “famous” campaigns. Sorry, my post might not have been that clear. I usually run premade campaigns and just go wild using the material as a base, but I don't think D&D premade campaigns are very well put together and running them raw would be terrible, I agree with you there. I'm not used to planning out more than a few sessions, so I'm basically looking for examples of how people approach structuring a campaign to see if it helps me give my plans more structure when I'm not using a prewritten module as a foundation. Thanks for the examples everyone!
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Mar 25, 2024 19:39
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Indolent Bastard posted:Any tips on how to run a BBEG? I don't want to steal the party's climax by having the baddie Dimension Door to get away or something similar. I also don't want the party to beat the BBEG down and then get access to the cool items they have. Specifically, the adventure ends with uncovering a powerful artifact. The BBEG snatches the artifact and I plan for it to bond with them in a horrific way that should dissuade the party from trying to use it, but players being players I worry that they will put the clearly evil crown on just to see how it goes. I am also not wanting to say "the powerful item sits broken on the ground" after the fight is over and remove player agency over what to do with this cursed item. The BBEG has appropriate treasure/items for its level to reward the party, and then the crown, from which they've drawn power enough to be a threat, so the players don't get hosed on rewards. Maybe the crown's not terribly evil at first. If a PC puts it on, maybe it can't be easily removed by a simple remove curse, but it allows only a little of its power to be used initially. But every time the PC crosses a line/follows the crown's instructions/etc., a little more unlocks. And the crown isn't stupid; it won't try to get the PC to kill orphans out of the gate, but more like, "You can't let the bandit leader live! Even though he's surrendered, he could still rally forces to his side and break out of jail, or bribe his jailers. You must finish him now, before the others realize what you're up to. Otherwise, you'll be responsible for all the deaths he causes in the future!" Or, "Swear to me to make a blood sacrifice in my name within a week, and I will grant healing to your dying comrade!" As the PC takes these deals, they slide further along the line to temporary NPCdom (of course, check with your player first.) At some point, the PC becomes so possessive of the crown and/or paranoid of the rest of the party that they steal away during the night or (even better) something the party does/says triggers a fight or flight response from the becrowned PC, and they're in the wind, perhaps after a minor bloodbath. The player brings in a temporary PC to play as the party hunts down the possessed NPC (PNPC). They eventually find him, now in thrall to the crown and working to further its goals. Out of respect for "the good old days," the PNPC will allow the PCs to leave without harm if they do so immediately. Of course, they won't, and they'll find that the PNPC has minions (elemental/spirit if need be), legendary actions, lair actions, and enough of a CR to challenge the party. (The crown has granted the PNPC durability -- HP/HD/AC, new abilities, and improved damage, if appropriate, as well as tricks to escape things like grapples/oppose proning/etc. -- find an appropriate monster and build from its template.) Upon defeat, the crown falls off and the PNPC lies unconscious, their life while wearing the crown only a fading dream...what do they do with it now? It's proof against the barbarian's maul's mightiest blows. Do they sell it? Attempt to melt it down for gold? Seek sage advice on disposing of it? Also, the crown isn't necessarily evil with a twisting mustache and demonic horns. I ran practically this exact scenario in a Dark Sun campaign where the crown's objective was to restore the land by any means necessary, not exactly evil, especially by Dark Sun standards...but of course, if you weren't all in on the plan, you were against it.
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Mar 25, 2024 19:49
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weekly font posted:Do they need to get the artifact at the end? You can always have the final fight in a precarious setting and have the villain and magic item fall into a pit ie Lord of the Rings or Last Crusade Isn't Gollum ex Machina the ultimate removal of player agency? Player: I'm gonna keep this crown! *Bullette out of nowhere leaps out, bites off hand and crown, falls into a convenient sphere of annihilation* Player: Welp.
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Mar 25, 2024 20:15
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Azhais posted:Isn't Gollum ex Machina the ultimate removal of player agency? Give them the crown, no strings attached. Let it happen. If you want players to make all their own problems, give them power and wait. They will literally write the story for you.
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Mar 25, 2024 20:44
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Hes the GM now. (The player who just made himself BBEG)
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Mar 25, 2024 20:50
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Tosk posted:Sorry, my post might not have been that clear. Oh sure. If you are planning out a full campaign start with the setting and the antagonists. You should be able to flesh these out pretty thoroughly. With this alone if you wanted to run a more sandboxy game, this knowledge can probably serve as the springboard to run a few games before letting your players off the leash. I don’t run fully sandboxy games, mine are a bit more linear in storytelling so I like to have an idea of where the game starts and where I want it to end, usually involving facing the big bad. I also have some points along the way filled in for scenes, locations, or combats I want. A way to facilitate this and fill in unknowns is to get your PCs to make characters and get their backstory so you can find moments along your plot to sprinkle in individual arcs and moments for your players. So now you’ve got a start, a destination, and a few stops along the way. It’s up to your players what routes they take to get from one point to the next with you laying plot threads and seeds to nudge them along. I personally do some light outlining using the format of a series. After all, a campaign is really just a bunch of scenarios (episodes) logically strung together. Maybe levels 1-4 will be Season 1 so how does it start and what climax/reveals do I want to see in the season finale? Then Season 2 is 5-8 so how do the events and revelations from the S1 finale get built upon in season 2 while also building to a new climax. Repeat until you have a rough sketch. Basically what I’m saying is that writing a linear plot from start to end in 5 acts or 10 chapters or whatever works for prose but not so much for TTRPG where the players will create a lot of the action. Have your desired segments and highlights you need to hit and let their actions determine how quickly they end up between climactic moments and reveals that have been simmering in the background since day 1. You can only do so much campaign pre-prep before you just gotta play and see where they take you. Azhais posted:Isn't Gollum ex Machina the ultimate removal of player agency? I was more suggesting the BBEG running around with the artifact can plummet into lava/an abyss upon death without worrying about what happens to either. Not literally a cutscene that does the end of LotR. It sounds like the DM would rather avoid the PCs getting the evil macguffin so there’s a lot of options to either disappear it or just make it inert in the hands of PCs for **magic reasons**. If your players are adults and there for the collaborative storytelling they should be willing to accept that no they cant stop the crown from falling into the conveniently placed river of alien piss that dissolves everything it touches, as long as you’re not regularly cutscening your players out of moments. If they beat the baddie and theres shiny treasure to dangle in front of them they probably won’t care about the object if theyre sure no other evil can get at it. Edit: In going back and reading it again, I think the adversarial set up of “we find the thing, villain takes thing” alone might push your PCs to want the item since you’ve set it up as the carrot on a string now. I missed that thinking it was just a bad guy who had some bad guy magic item. So I think you should decide if you’re willing to deal with what comes when they get and use the object vs deleting the item entirely once its job as macguffin is done. weekly font fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 21:21
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NinjaDebugger posted:Give them the crown, no strings attached. Let it happen. If you want players to make all their own problems, give them power and wait. They will literally write the story for you. This. So much this. Every time I try to steer players away from them trying to write the story ends with me getting in my own way. YMMV but isn’t the GM’s job hard enough? Them taking the crown and getting into trouble with it writes session content for a half dozen sessions easily.
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Mar 25, 2024 21:29
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Tosk posted:I posted this in the chat thread but it probably fits better here so I'm quoting myself Eyes of the Stone Thief, and anything else Gareth hanrahan writes, like zalozhniy quartet and pirates of drinax. He's a really good and entertaining writer but he also gets what is fun at the table. Couple of quirks (likes a railroad sometimes) but
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Mar 25, 2024 22:12
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NinjaDebugger posted:Give them the crown, no strings attached. Let it happen. If you want players to make all their own problems, give them power and wait. They will literally write the story for you. Yeah. Make it clearly horrible, then have it change back into an ordinary crown. Maybe have it absorb the BBEG, just slurp him up like gelato. Then let them choose to take it and things proceed as appropriate if so.
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Mar 25, 2024 22:14
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Harold Fjord posted:Hes the GM now. (The player who just made himself BBEG) This needs to happen in a campaign built around it. A secret mcguffin in the game that once a player takes ownership of, they become the gm.
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Mar 25, 2024 22:16
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For real. An element of one of the 5e campaigns was the discovery of a cursed ore that makes you go crazy. There are several enemies that went crazy because of the cursed ore, a king who went crazy because of his obsession with the cursed ore, and a lady who tells the PCs specifically how LAME and UNATTRACTIVE it is to be obsessed with the obviously cursed ore that makes you go crazy. Naturally the first time my Dwarf PC finds a big statue made of it, he tries to steal it by grabbing it with his bare hands.
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Mar 25, 2024 22:19
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HellCopter posted:For real. An element of one of the 5e campaigns was the discovery of a cursed ore that makes you go crazy. There are several enemies that went crazy because of the cursed ore, a king who went crazy because of his obsession with the cursed ore, and a lady who tells the PCs specifically how LAME and UNATTRACTIVE it is to be obsessed with the obviously cursed ore that makes you go crazy. I also used this in my main homebrew campaign and it's taken until now, year 6, that the wizard has decided to not wear the ring they had custom-made from the cursed stone
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Mar 25, 2024 22:40
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HellCopter posted:For real. An element of one of the 5e campaigns was the discovery of a cursed ore that makes you go crazy. There are several enemies that went crazy because of the cursed ore, a king who went crazy because of his obsession with the cursed ore, and a lady who tells the PCs specifically how LAME and UNATTRACTIVE it is to be obsessed with the obviously cursed ore that makes you go crazy. One of the players in my L5R campaign (the first one, anyway) wanted to become a legendary swordsmith. He collected a bunch of legendary materials, including ones connected directly to the Sun and Moon, and then had NO IDEAS what to make, other than "sword good, make sword". So he was taken by a fey mood and when he woke up there was a sword that could kill anything forever, as long as you managed to find it embodied and strike a killing blow. Oni lords? Gone forever. The champion of Jigoku? Gone forever. The Yogo family and curse? Gone forever. The concepts of passion and ambition taken to the point of dishonor? GONE. The emperor, and the empire he embodied? Sadly, they did not take this opportunity. Then, at the end of the campaign, they put the PC whose entire family line was cursed forever by the dark oracle of air, starting with him, on the throne of the empire. This has provided me with 100% of two subsequent campaigns.
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Mar 25, 2024 22:40
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Session yesterday went well, my players delved too greedily and too deep trying to get their salvage cruiser to fly itself instead of doing the hard work of towing it back home and woke up the machine rakshasa that held the ship in its sway. Yesterday they encountered a depowered version of its avatar and managed to kill it (and with good rolls narrowly avoided buying the Missionary a new arm.) Next session they're going to encounter it in its full-power boss form. As the mad ship's security systems wake up from deep freeze the players are finding their boarding parties badly outnumbered (between 10-1 and 20-1). The players have the location of the captain's control rod, and they're going to have to rush to the cogitator pit where the captain's corpse is. But of course, after battling servitors to reach the cogitator pit, they will encounter a boss battle with the rakshasa war-form! The power level of the campaign is growing, and I want to present an enemy that is strong enough that retreating and employing their starship's main guns is a realistic option. The location of the rakshasa is inside the computer core of the ship they want and that gives the fight stakes. If they win the fight they can fly their new prize home, and if they lose they will have to flee for their lives while their frigate's main battery blows up the bridge component on the cruiser. Then they'll have no choice but to tow it home on a long and arduous trip. The question is, how do I make sure the players understand these stakes and not walk into the conflict with a fully powered-up boss battle and get TPKed? I haven't had a strong handle on the combat encounter difficulty before and that's led to trouble and the players expecting easy encounters. This time I want to give them a real challenge, since they are in a position to flee and try a costlier alternate approach. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Mar 26, 2024 |
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Mar 26, 2024 00:08
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| # ? May 2, 2024 10:10 |
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Lots of cogitator messages as they go towards the battle about energising things and engaging fusion armatures and activating void conduits. Then have it plain that the boss is utilising the full power of the ship in some way. Have a bunch of sacrificial battle servo skulls offer to rush in to resolve the intrusion and get obliterated. Also you can just tell your players, give them the choice, if they haven't picked up the clues
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Mar 26, 2024 00:14
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