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ripped0ff look what the gently caress you've done: you have me completely and unironically agreeing with Ferrinus. How retarded do you have to be that Ferrinus seems the more reasonable and fun person to play with? And from Ferrinus' perspective, how loving awful are you that even Etherwind thinks you're a tool?
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Jul 27, 2009 03:26
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ripped0ff posted:Yes, unless one of your players does something to radically change the situation so as to make the spy's escape extremely unlikely (in which case you should dock them XP for trying to derail your game), it sounds fine. Running battles can be a pain and are obnoxious to deal with on a battle map, so it's often times easier to just sort of hand-wave it (but don't award them XP because they haven't earned it the hard way).
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Jul 29, 2009 05:06
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Dark Heresy credo: the ends justify the means.
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Aug 3, 2009 22:12
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Fallorn posted:I'm kind of scared running this because the only other rpg I know they have played is Paranoia and one of the players rolled up a crazy good feral assassin except for his 21 Will Power and 29 Fellowship, he has 5 scores over 35+ and a 35. The another friend rolled up a psyker who is more average except for his starting 40 Will power, 39 fellowship, and 38 Ballistic Skill. I'm hoping one of the other players will be a Tech priest or guardsman/arbitrator. Don't worry. Good stats won't save them.
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Aug 3, 2009 22:53
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According to D&D 3.5 to craft a magic item costs half the base price in GP and 1/25 the base price in XP. For an item that costs 2 GP it follows that, mechanically, 1 GP + 2/25 XP = 2 GP. From this we can deduce that 1 GP = 0.08 XP and thus that 12.5 GP = 1 XP. This is without going into profit margins and other such nonsense. I'm seriously tempted to change the D&D 3.5 Item Creation feats to allow characters to make items of the feat's type for 90% of the listed cost; the craft reserve for an Artificer would be multiplied by 12.5 to convert it into its equivalent worth in GP for the purposes of crafting. In Eberron there are feats that reduce the GP cost of an item by 25% and that reduce the XP cost of the item by 25%. Since 25% of 50% = 1/4 * 1/2 = 1/8, I'd make it that each of these feats would reduce the crafting cost by a further 12.5%, meaning that someone who takes both feats and an item creation feat could craft an item of that type for 65% its ordinary cost. Does that seem fair? I'd still insist that players couldn't sell their items for more than 50% the normal retail cost, I just want to reform crafting to remove XP accountancy. Similarly, I'm tempted to make abilities that cost XP instead require spending GP equal to 12.5 times the listed XP cost.
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Aug 4, 2009 19:13
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DeclaredYuppie posted:My players are about to reach "the big city" in the campaign setting, and I'm trying to come up with a way to give the players a tour and sense of scope w/o me just reading a long, boring description. They need to report somewhere to register with authorities or whatever. Have two different places at opposite ends of the city to choose from, and have one bounce them to the other, so they have to travel through the locales. Offer to have one of the city guard guide them, and he gives a commentary on the place as they go through, lets them ask questions etc.
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Aug 16, 2009 00:05
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I can help you out there, Crawl. Hit me up. 
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Feb 11, 2010 17:11
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MrMortimer posted:Hey, just thought I'd chime in an possibly ask for some help. 3.5? Libris Mortis, True Necromancer prestige class. It's basically made for villains. In fact, that whole book is a must-have if you plan to use undead at all. Also check out the Dread Necromancer base class in Heroes of Horror.
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Apr 14, 2010 19:16
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moment if I can pull it off right.
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That Arcana book is pretty good, but could do with some editing and some clarifications in places. If I get bored I might have a crack at tightening it up. In particular, there's a couple of places where the guy has put his own assumptions about Practice in place of what the writer's have said, and while it's pretty harmless it could do with a bit more explanation.
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May 19, 2010 01:47
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As an example of fiddling stuff, I was running a game of RuneQuest at my local gaming society, late at night, and just as they were fighting the climax (a Manticore) I was told we had to finish up soon, we were all being thrown out. So, mid fight, I dropped all the monster's skills by 20% and took 4 points off all its armour locations. Players never had a clue. Told them afterwards, and explained how it was so we could finish quickly, and none of them really minded. The short of it is that players don't mind you changing poo poo on the fly, or even making stuff up on the spot, so long as it's entertaining and you had a good reason. While sparing individual characters from well deserved deaths is kinda lame, changing things up to avoid an entirely accidental Total Party Kill is perfectly fine. A lot of people seem to have an aversion to this kind of chicanery, but it's really one of the most important techniques a GM should use and perfect. The difference between doing it right and just making poo poo up is, I find, only making changes to bring stuff back under control: if you intend a fight to be lethal, don't throw the players any bones, but if you put something together and it's clearly kicking their rear end when you explicitly don't want it to (say, a filler encounter of low-level monsters like goblins), it's okay to relent a bit. Conversely, never change stuff up to be harder when your players are getting lucky or doing well. You shouldn't dilute their hard work or good fortune, just roll with it and come up with another challenge further down the line.
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May 22, 2010 02:20
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Generally, the best way to handle it is to roll the dice first, see what the result is, then role-play it out appropriately. If you're dealing with a new player, or one who just plain sucks at that kind of improvisation, it's your job as GM to fill in the blanks to make it work. The alternative way to do it is to ignore the dice and just role-play it out, and base the result on the interaction that occurs. It's never a good idea to role-play and then roll the dice anyway, as the mismatch can be a pain to arbitrate. The only exception I can think of is when you've role-played it, but the result of the role-play is unclear, and you can then use the dice as an arbiter. I learned this the hard way, in a game I ran where players role-played and then rolled. It didn't work well. After changing the order, suddenly it became much more fluid.
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Aug 13, 2010 01:55
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The police go in to sort out the situation (probably underestimating it) and get ripped to pieces. Then it's just them and the cult/monsters, and a countdown has started until the Men in Black turn up to cover up the entire thing, including witnesses.
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Aug 23, 2010 04:36
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I'm in a student gaming society in real life, and in a few weeks' time everyone will be recruiting for campaigns. Usually, the people who're running games stand up and give a brief 60-second summary of the general idea of their game. I've made some special efforts this year to make an impression, and as such will be turning up "in character", in suit and tie, and delivering my summary from the perspective of the game. I'll then be running people through character generation as though it's an application to work at the (evil, illuminati-like) firm. So, as part of this, I'm trying to work out how to deliver my summary with just the right level of American Business Bullshit to sound authentic and faintly satirical. The plan is that I'll stand up, deliver the speech, while behind and to the side of me, a co-conspirator will flick through massive cards with things written on them, such as: "EVIL ->" "LIKE WOLFRAM AND HEART ->" "ILLUMINATI WITH MAGIC ->" "BLOWS GOATS: HAVE PROOF ->" It's the actual wording of what I'll be saying that I'm trying to nail. How does this sound? "Hi, I'm Alex. "I'm here on behalf of Preston and Preston, a Limited Liability Partnership that provides legal and financial services to businesses, governments and state-owned entities. "We're looking to recruit five junior partners into the firm, and we're very greatful to - [society name], is it? - for allowing us to join you at this recruitment faire. "If you're interested in a high-pressure, high-reward career in an extremely meritocratic environment, please come and speak to me. "As most of you are soon to graduate, we're not looking for previous experience, though any talents you can bring to our partnership will be highly valued. "And don't worry if you haven't already been fast-tracked for recruitment: we're still accepting applications. "So, if you want to advance your career by any means, please drop by our stall: I look forward to hearing from you all! "Thank you, and have a nice day."
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Sep 8, 2010 17:58
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I've thought long and hard about some of the feedback I've received, and I've decided to drop the idea of an in-character recruitment pitch entirely, saving it for when players come over to the table to generate characters. It was fairly half-baked to begin with, and it should have been obvious to me that my problem with making it work was that, in fact, it was a bad idea. The company's still called Preston & Preston, specifically because it is so banal. Also because I already sent out the recruitment packs.
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Sep 12, 2010 03:21
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frest posted:Oh god I hope there's no setting-mandatory knowledge in those handouts because no one even reads that poo poo when it's for a real job... let alone a fake roleplaying game job There's not. You're also wrong. Everyone who received one of the packs read the stuff; they realised pretty quickly that it was for a game, one they'd probably like to play in, and people are willing to put more effort into something they like than something they're forced to do.
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Sep 12, 2010 04:54
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Android Blues posted:The curse will end once they return every coin of the stolen Maztican treasure to its rightful resting place, and seal it with a drop of the original captain's bloodline! See quote, but unironically.
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Nov 4, 2010 20:55
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I tried posting this in the nWoD thread, but I've so far not had any feedback. I'm currently running a Mage: the Awakening game, and want some thoughts on how to handle something. Excuse the clunkiness, but I originally wrote the post for people familiar with the game, and I've had to put some explanations in. I have a player who's playing a Mastigos (Mage with the Mind and Space Arcana as his Ruling Arcana). The character is a Seer of the Throne (the bad guys of the setting) who desperately wants to get out of the Seers and find a healthier way to live. His Pylon (the group of player characters) is made up of amoral fucks, with at least two of them being outright evil in the step-on-your-neck-to-earn-a-bigger-bonus sort of way; by way of contrast, he's the only one with something approaching a conscience, and he doesn't like the road he's locked into. It's becoming increasingly apparent to him that he's joined the bad guys, and the problem is that he's not a bad guy by nature. Last session his Pylon survived an attack by some Diaboli (a kind of demon, specifically a Spirit) thanks to him: he was the only Mage with any dots in the Spirit Arcanum, and he saved them by using a conjunctive Spirit + Mind spell to compel the Diaboli to back off. This got the attention of a full-blown Dominion (a kind of demon that is most decidedly not a Spirit, and that the Spirit Arcanum will not work against), which approached the party and - to the horror of the moral character - talked them into signing a contract to their mutual benefit, whereby they'd give it Spirits, and in return it would let them choose the humans it preys upon. So now he's really loving worried about the Dominion, and is frantically trying to learn more about Spirits (and demons in particular) in the hopes he can find a way to compel it when poo poo inevitably hits the fan. [Unfortunately, both out-of-character and in-character, he doesn't realise that while his Spirit magic works on Diaboli, it doesn't work on Dominions (their metaphysical true name protects them from Spirit-compelling magic). He doesn't, in fact, realise that the two types of demon are different. This will be fun to play out, though I intend to have him realise this in a position where he won't be horribly screwed by it.] To this end, his player has been looking at Legacies (a sort of specialist path for Mages) that focus on messing with Spirits. His player had a look at the Clavicularius Legacy (which focuses on summoning inner demons into physical forms in order to confront them), but thought the Attainments (special abilities that the Legacy grants) were pretty terrible. I suggested the Scions of God Legacy (which focuses on becoming more like a Spirit), and he liked it a lot. The problem is that the Scions of God Legacy has two different branches, neither of which will really suit the character: the Seers of the Throne branch, who are ruthless and worship the bad guys of the setting, and the Pentacle (good Mages) branch, who thoroughly check any potential recruits to be sure they don't have any magical or political connections to bad things (like, say, Seers of the Throne). The character can't join the Seers of the Throne group because he secretly hates (and fears) the Seers, and also because he isn't ruthless and amoral enough to follow their lessons. He can't join the Pentacle branch because he doesn't know much about them (not to mention the fact that they would probably kill him on sight for being a Seer of the Throne, and would never trust him - even if he talked them out of killing him - for fear he was a spy). I think I have a solution for this that might lead to drama. Scions of God who've mastered the Third Attainment can become (pretty powerful) Spirits upon death. I'm thinking that, rather than have him inducted into the Seers of the Throne sect, I'd have him approached by Corat: Legacies: the Sublime, Pg. 78 posted:Fallen Angel The idea being that Corat noticed him after the massive Spirit-fuckery the Dominion and Diaboli caused, and will approach him in full, seraphic manifestation with an offer to teach him how to fight against the demons. Of course, she will only tell him she used to be a Mage of the Pentacle (an organisation he knows very little about), and given how desperate he is, he probably won't push her to discover how dangerous she is. Do you think this works, both to give the character what the player wants and to provide fodder for drama? Etherwind fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Jan 13, 2011 |
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Jan 13, 2011 04:39
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Sir Kodiak posted:What I would suggest, though, is that you be careful how hard you make it for him to get out from underneath the influence of this Corat character once he figures out the risk she presents. It depends somewhat on the tone of your campaign, but I'd be hesitant to have a player fight their way out of an association they don't want anymore just to trap them in another, particularly considering that it sounds like Corat won't actually give him what he's looking for in terms of solving this problem with the demon. Some challenge is good, but possibly more like a session's worth of stuff rather than a whole arc. I intend to play it as a "Oh, hey, this angel is helping me against the demons!" followed by "Holy poo poo, she used to be a Mage! And a member of the Pentacle! She's helping me against the Seers of the Throne!" which in turn leads to "She's a bit extreme... I'm not sure her methods are really so great..." and finishes with "Holy poo poo she is crazy and dangerous and I need to do something about her; she's just as bad as the demon, in her own way." Potentially, I'd leverage that last point as a means for him to prove himself to the Pentacle at the end of the campaign. How he handles Corat is basically a sort of moral test (is he really dedicated to doing the right thing, or is he more concerned with the appearance of doing the right thing), and part of the theme we're going for in this game is "there are no easy ways out," which I think this plot arc could really play up. I'm thinking that the final confrontation with Corat would be the subject of a session, maybe, but until that point it'd all be background detail that gradually comes to a head. I guess the best way to phrase it is that Corat is going to seem like the answer to all his prayers, in-character, but in the end he'll realise that there are no such miracles, and the only way to save himself is to stop taking the path of least resistance and to stand up for what he believes, even if it risks great personal cost. At least, that's the intention I'm mulling over. I think the player would dig it. Etherwind fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jan 14, 2011 |
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Jan 14, 2011 03:18
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CHaKKaWaKka posted:I gave him a penalty of -7, -4 for the sympathetic connection as there are pictures of the flag and -3 because the flag is a famous object, although I would agree that the flag is more like the tower of Pisa than the Hope Diamond and might fall outside of the scope of Gift of Fortune. The seven year time frame is fine, I like the idea of a rich man stealing the flag from the moon. Pictures of a thing do not necessarily count as -4 sympathetic connections, especially if they're old photographs (though if you had Time you could use Temporal Sympathy to see how it would look now). Of course, you're ignoring the best option. There was no moon landing. It was all faked by the Hegemonic Ministry in order to stir up national fervor and keep the masses distracted from the hidden wars as the various Ministries in the East and West went to battle to determine who'd come out on top. Your Acanthus does get the flag - suspiciously quickly - and soon comes to realise that it's just a prop from the film set they used. Meanwhile, a minor, bureaucratic archivist in the Hegemonic Ministry notices that someone's been tampering with their carefully locked-away evidence, and takes it on herself to hunt down the offending Mage.
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Sep 14, 2011 03:56
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