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So nobody has thought to try and take this bleeding-edge tech away from them yet? I mean, there's all kinds of ways that someone could try and take it - they could try to steal it out from under the PCs' noses, or blackmail them, or send a cool assassin after them, or just throw lots and lots of mooks at them. Maybe they don't want to keep the tech at all - maybe they want it destroyed because mankind was not meant to have such power and/or its theft threatens their share of the market. And if the PCs are just killing people willy-nilly, well, that's bound to attract someone's attention. I think Jeff's Gameblog has the right idea here: Jeff Rients posted:Give the players the sun and make them fight for the moon - What I mean is that you give the players almost everything they want and them put them through a thousand chinese hells to get everything else. Put the PCs on the throne of Aquilonia, if that's what they want, then have ten-thousand angry Cimmerians invade, intent on burning their capital to the ground. Not because you're a sadistic rear end in a top hat, but because fighting off an army of Conans is one of the cool things kings get to do. e. You should read Jeff Rients anyway because he has some pretty neat ideas, especially in the post I linked.
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Jan 31, 2010 21:28
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TheAnomaly posted:Deadlands, Hell on Earth is pretty good for that kind of stuff. I take every opportunity I can to pimp Savage Worlds and I am doing just that right here. It's basically the classic Deadlands ruleset stripped down into a universal system that's easy to run and play. Download their free Test Drive rule set here, and if you like what you see, consider dropping the  for the core rulebook.
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Mar 26, 2010 21:51
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Arrrthritis posted:The main concern I have with PDQ# is that it wouldn't harbor enough character development Actually, I think that a bare-bones system actually harbors more potential for character development than a strict one: with fewer mechanics structuring the character, the player has more room to use his imagination. Now, some people need structure to help flesh out their character, and that's fine - you can't always come up with an interesting and complex character right off the bat. But trust me: if people want to take their character in a certain direction, they'll do it - mechanics be damned. Just let your players know that you'll reward creativity, and they will give you ample opportunity to reward them.
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May 15, 2010 05:04
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I don't envy you - it's hard to keep a PbP going, and I have resolved never to host one for that reason. I admire that you're trying to save it before you scrap it, but don't be afraid to cut your losses if your game gets beyond saving. Whether you complete this game or not, you should try a few PbPs as a player so you can learn what works and what doesn't before starting another one. If travel time is boring, then skim over it. You remember the Indiana Jones movies, right? Remember how they would convey long trips by showing a red line moving across the map? That's what travel should be like. If nothing interesting is going to happen on the trip, then don't show the trip. "You sign on with a trader's caravan in East Bumfuck. After a few weeks, you arrive in West Adventureland." Also, don't be afraid to ask your players what would interest them - they know better than you do.
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May 17, 2010 01:11
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Masonity posted:As a background, I'm planning to run an Eberron game in a couple of months. Haven't even recruited the players yet, so this is all very early planning stage theoretical crap. The second option sounds fine to me. Honestly, the players should be mature enough to accept the reasonable restrictions of your setting and scenario and try to tailor their characters to that. Yes, let them go wild and play their characters, but put your foot down whenever someone's actions interfere with the group's fun. Rich Burlew puts this better than I could in this article for players: quote:Decide to React Differently: Have you ever had a party break down into fighting over the actions of one of their members? Has a character ever threatened repeatedly to leave the party? Often, intraparty fighting boils down to one player declaring, "That's how my character would react." Heck, often you'll be the one saying it; it's a common reaction when alignments or codes of ethics clash. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Jun 23, 2010 |
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Jun 23, 2010 20:55
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Lord Twisted posted:http://pyromancers.com/ is quite good for making simple maps. 1. The sensible choice would be to sacrifice the orphanage: you need the command center to win the battle with a minimum of casualties, and the hospital to care for the wounded that are to come. Besides, losing the orphanage to the undead isn't so bad:  2. Hit the granary to ensure potential mass starvation.  Affi posted:Group is annoying and wanting to play Devas, Pixies, Plants and Gitzerai. How do I get rid of their bodies? Mix lye with water to liquefy the corpses, producing a brownish sludge with brittle bones. Lye is already used for drain cleaning, and it works much better than acid. Watch out for the fumes, though! No seriously, stop playing with those people. No gaming is better than bad gaming, Carthago delenda est, etc.
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Oct 19, 2012 09:37
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EVIR Gibson posted:Does anyone have any general tips for running a Monsters and Other Childish Things campaign? Include me, if you're running it through IRC. Seriously, I've never played this game before and I really really want to.
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Apr 17, 2013 15:35
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EVIR Gibson posted:I'll let you know if I do. I'm running it this weekend and I have lots of things planned out and also a few key points that the players might take a different way. Aw crud, I can't make this weekend. So never mind me!
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Apr 18, 2013 01:15
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crowtribe posted:Next game is mine, and I'm looking at doing a single shot, maybe chasing down some Chinese criminals, who are really the star acrobats of the Red Star Circus in town from China, using their acrobatic skills to commit the crime. Question is, what's the crime, how do they commit it out of the ordinary, and where does it lead the party in the ensuing chaos? One of the guys is a contortionist; he gets into secure locations by hiding in a box or crawling through air vents. The latter might make for an interesting chase scene variant as the PCs track him through the vents. EDIT: The criminals steal rare jewels; their next target is sure to be the Blood Diamond, a fist-sized red gem with a reputation for cursing people ever since its original owner, the beautiful Crown Princess of Ruritania, was shot and killed by an anarchist in 1886. It is scheduled to be displayed at a local museum as part of a traveling exhibit on old Ruritania, which is now part of Czechoslovakia. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Nov 14, 2013 |
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Nov 14, 2013 05:39
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Good for you! Always remember: no gaming is better than bad gaming. I want to be clear that it's okay for the GM to impose some limits on character types for the sake of cohesion ("You're part of a starship crew that explores the galaxy," or "you're prisoners in the wicked king's dungeon"), and it's within her rights to reject character concepts that make it harder to run a cohesive plot ("Everyone else made characters focused on diplomacy and intrigue, so Gorblak the Destroyer's not going to fit in.") This GM's taking it too far, though. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jan 12, 2014 |
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Jan 12, 2014 10:53
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Zereth posted:... so wait, she is literally writing a script, and then not even playing it out herself, she's handing it over to somebody else? If she really wants you guys to act out something she's planned in advance, she should write a play.
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Jan 12, 2014 14:23
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I want to make a Titan World oneshot and I could use some advice on scenario building. For those who don't read the link, it's an Apocalypse World hack set in the world of Attack on Titan, a manga/anime where teenage soldiers battle nigh-unkillable giants that menace humanity's last stronghold. I have the skeleton of a scenario in my head: the PCs are deceived into a trap by a superior officer, they investigate and find out that she's snapped and wants to help the Titans wipe out humanity, they try to foil her plan and expose her. This would be complicated by the brass not listening to the PCs if they ask for help because they respect the officer and can't believe she'd do something like that. I need help adding flesh to the skeleton without falling into the trap of not allowing player choice. Suggestions for plot beats would help immensely. AOT hits a lot of the zombie tropes, so a lot of "zombie" plot beats can be ported into it. I plan to let the players figure out how to stop the officer themselves, but I'd also like a strategy to suggest if they're stuck. Furthermore, I've never run AW or any of its hacks, so general advice would be welcome too. Thank you in advance! Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 09:58
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Thanks very much for the advice. I will have to let you know when (if) I run this and how it goes.
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Mar 11, 2014 13:09
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Elevorot posted:On the other hand a game where everyone dies is not really fun for anyone but the DM. Speak for yourself! One of the best one-shots I've ever been in was one where the PCs were members of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, who resisted the ghetto's liquidation by the Germans. Anyone who knows their WWII history will already understand that the characters had no real hope of victory or rescue, but the scenario was still fun because we focused on killing as many Nazis as we could before we were killed in turn. Taking the attitude that your character is going to die is actually kind of liberating because you don't have to spend time worrying about how to save your character. The challenge in a suicide mission is not avoiding death, but making death meaningful. That was different from your scenario, however, because the players all knew we were playing a TPK. It sounds like your PCs don't know necessarily know how deadly your scenario could be, and it also sounds like you think they'd take a TPK badly. I wouldn't necessarily assume this, especially since they're playing a horror game, but you know your group better than I do. My advice would be to figure out a subtle way to ask the group members how they'd feel about their character dying and make your decision based on that. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 13, 2014 |
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Mar 13, 2014 06:57
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Writer Cath posted:If it takes them a while to notice that they're working for the villains, I want to build up some subtle clues. Stuff like there being no taverns, no alcohol in the city at all, a strict curfew, people disappearing. Most of the people in the town are very polite to everyone - not in a friendly way, but in a cringing, nervous way. People tend to end disputes by reporting their rivals to the secret police, so most go out of their way to avoid offending their neighbors. The exceptions are people favored by the secret police.
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May 8, 2014 23:01
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Rotten Cookies posted:Jokes. They exist. Jokes are banned under the theocracy. They create too many misunderstandings. Humor can even be used to mock our God! 
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May 17, 2014 15:53
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Deltasquid posted:Retcon it as a bad fever dream of the guard. And when he wakes up, there's a Kraken attacking the ship. It's actually a prophetic dream, and now he can change the outcome of the Kraken attack. In fact, he's going to start getting prophetic dreams more and more often, and things start getting worse and worse each time he tampers with the way things are supposed to be. With each dream he'll be faced with a terrible choice - does he let events play out and face the (bad) immediate consequences, or does he intervene and risk making things worse?
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May 29, 2014 10:36
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Piell posted:1. Do both - set up the dungeon quest with the arrested player, and then have the players do a jailbreak as cover (the guard captain can't just let the PC's go, after all, he has to make it look good for the higher-ups!) Twist: right before the jailbreak is scheduled to go down, the guard captain is arrested on an unrelated corruption charge and is replaced by an honest man. Now the jailbreak's for real! (Full disclosure: I stole this idea from a Conan story called "Rogues in the House." It's a fun read.)
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Jun 17, 2014 09:06
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e. misunderstood the question.
Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Jul 10, 2014 |
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Jul 10, 2014 08:56
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The DMPC is best if she functions more or less like a robot: the players only need to deal with her when she's performing her function, otherwise she fades into the background until the next time they need her. She should get more involved in the plot if and only if the PCs get invested in her. As Lichtenstein demonstrated, some people don't like dealing with children, so you should only make the DMPC a child if the players don't mind babysitting.
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Jul 21, 2014 10:40
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Or (stealing an idea from Deadlands) the slaughter on the battlefield draws a spirit of war and destruction into the world. The spirit builds itself a body from the flesh of the fallen, creating a hideous giant made of the broken corpses of the soldiers! The creature, of course, wants to destroy everyone around it. The PCs could come across the conglomerate monster as it's knitting itself together, or it could ambush them from plain sight as they pick their way through the bodies. E: Read "The Colussus of Ylourgne" to learn another way a giant built from corpses and animated by an evil will can work for YOU, the GM! E2: VV petrol blue posted:Necromancers love this housewife's simple trick! ftfy Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 14:52
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I am thinking about running a Monsterhearts scenario about orphans who get adopted by an eccentric billionaire and are taken to live in his mansion. My concept is basically Gossip Girls meets supernatural novels - angsty teenagers have money and privilege dropped in their laps, but still have to deal with the baggage that comes with growing up in foster care AND struggling with your insatiable lust for blood/carnage/revenge/magical fuckery/whatever. But there's one thing I need to figure out: why would an eccentric billionaire want to adopt a bunch of angsty monster teens? I can always change the billionaire's motivations around, but it will be easier if I have something to build towards at the outset. The only reason I can think of is that he's Professor X assembling a team of mutant superheroes, but that's a little on-the-nose, don't you think?
Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Dec 17, 2014 |
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Dec 17, 2014 12:09
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Anyone got any ideas for dramatic stuff I can introduce in the Monsterhearts game I might run tomorrow? In the first session I had a car crash into the PC's classroom, then there was a party that evening. I want to mix things up a bit more.
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Jun 27, 2015 04:16
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Thanks for the earlier advice on my Monsterhearts game. Now the game is starting to take shape, and I've figured out the main antagonist: A mind-controlling entity centered in the local insane asylum that feeds off of mental anguish. The problem is I don't know how the PCs can beat it. If they come up with their own plan to defeat it, I'll go with that, but I'd like to have some idea in reserve in case they can't come up with anything on their own. Thanks in advance.
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Aug 31, 2015 22:22
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Keeshhound posted:Start a Pay It Forward style social awareness campaign to promote positive thinking until it has to either leave or starve? The entity, which I'm calling Ataraxia (from the Greek for "tranquility") is trying to give the entire town moral treatment. It's a big believer in 19th-century psychology and attributes the recent (PC-caused) tragedies the town has experienced to ethical decline. It's trying to "fix" the problem by enforcing the middle-class values of industry (i.e. industriousness or work ethic), sobriety, and respectability on the town. For instance, a PC's mother is already affected and is forcing her son into carpentry and her daughter into embroidery. Soon more and more people in the town will dress modestly, pick up wholesome hobbies like singing temperance hymns and taking long walks, abstain from alcohol, eat lots of unsweetened bran and warm milk, wear anti-masturbation devices (masturbation was considered a serious problem back then), etc. Non-conformists will be forced into the asylum, where Ataraxia and its agents are most powerful; the worst offenders (like the PCs) will spend hours in the tranquilizer chair:  The thing is that Ataraxia means well and believes it's "freeing" the townsfolk from the evils that plague it. The problem is that the entity's idea of "freedom" is alien to most people today and should be especially horrifying to the teenage PCs.
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Sep 1, 2015 00:54
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Bad Munki posted:I don't know much about monsterhearts and what would fit in there Basically teenage monster melodrama in the style of Jennifer's Body and Ginger Snaps. chitoryu12 posted:3. Overload it: Fill it with so much of something (in this case maybe extremes of anti-Victorian depravity) until it metaphorically "bursts." Keeshhound posted:The gently caress are you asking us for? The eighties have you so covered. Keeshhound posted:Eeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssss The game's actually set in 199X (the X is for extreme!) but I like the general idea
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Sep 1, 2015 01:57
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Soylent Pudding posted:Obviously the PCs need to organize a massive town dance party until the creature overloads. Adding to the 80's video list. Borrow it? You just came up with the dance party idea! Yeah, you can use Ataraxia in your elf games and I encourage you to learn more about 19th-century psychology. Moral treatment was actually an improvement over the previous mental healthcare method (i.e. lock them up forever, maybe torture them or charge people admission to gawk at them), but it ended up being pretty authoritarian.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:59
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Golden Bee posted:They have to get a Band to come to town, and they're the complete opposite; proof of the moral decay. One of the PCs was thrust into leading a vampire gang; she's trying to make them kinder and gentler, which has caused some major resentment. They haven't expressed that resentment in front of her ... yet I think they'll make a great opposite extreme.
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Sep 1, 2015 23:15
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I think that paladins - and holy warriors in general - are stereotyped as inflexible authoritarian assholes so often that many people have a difficult time understanding how they could be played any other way. In popular culture, paladin-type groups tend to be villainous dictators more often than not (TRIGGER WARNING: TV Tropes link). It's partly the fault of older editions of D&D for imposing a bunch of rigid rules and harsh penalties on paladins, but I also think a big part of it is a failure of imagination on the players' parts. Even the medieval holy warriors the paladins are based on weren't always assholes. Usāmah ibn Munqidh, a Syrian gentleman who fought in the First Crusades, reports that the Knights Templar allowed both Christians and Muslims to worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (the "Temple" the order is named for) and even stopped an intolerant Frank [Western European] from harassing him: quote:One day I entered this mosque, repeated the first formula, “Allah is great,” and stood up in the act of praying, upon which one of the Franks rushed on me, got hold of me and turned my face eastward, saying, “This is the way thou shouldst pray!” A group of Templars hastened to him, seized him and repelled him from me…. They apologized to me, saying, “This is a stranger who has only recently arrived from the land of the Franks and he has never before seen anyone praying except eastward.” If the Crusaders could be chill dudes, then so can your paladin character!
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Sep 2, 2015 22:07
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gradenko_2000 posted:That's because people sometimes don't think of the game as "a story/movie/TV episode whose plot needs to be shaped for maximum entertainment" Or even "a game I am playing with my friends." It's not just not-fun to derail the plot for the sake of your *~*character*~*, it's also rude to the other players who want to have a fun time instead of a not-fun time. I've been guilty of this before (my character refused to accept a quest because it was against her principles), and the GM had to jump through a bunch of dumb hoops to try to get me on board. It was really tedious for everyone involved. I should have figured out a way to go along with the original plot and still keep character ("I don't want to do this, but I need the money!") If you're playing a game where paladins have rigid codes, you might have them say something like this: "Woah, you guys are talking about doing some bad stuff! I can't get involved in that! Now let me go off on ... paladin business ... for the next oh, four hours or so, and when I get back I don't want to hear anymore about that bad stuff!"
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Sep 3, 2015 15:40
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paradoxGentleman posted:I hear ya, but I feel that on the other hand it would behoove a GM to not propose a quest that goes strongly against one of your PCs' belief; their adventures should be tailored to them, not vice versa. Yeah, that's the ideal, but that's not always possible, especially in con games where every player is a stranger to the others.
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Sep 3, 2015 22:43
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Update on my Monsterhearts game: The Infernal PC (basically, a kid who's made a Faustian bargain with a demonic being) got himself sent to Ataraxia's asylum in yesterday's session. He's spent most of the game being a villain who does whatever he wants (he's in the asylum because he got arrested for some truly heinous crimes and his lawyer is going for an insanity defense), so I expected he'd fight hard against Ataraxia's control, but to my surprise he's embraced Ataraxia and made it his new master. In addition to the dark powers he already had from his previous master, he now has an army of fanatical foot soldiers at his beck and call. The other PCs managed to figure out that the weird badness was coming from the asylum and tipped off the police, but the Infernal just had the patients beat up the cops before converting them to Ataraxia's cause.  Meanwhile the other PCs are having their own problems as Ataraxia's control spreads into town. The Witch PC's boyfriend and mother have been brainwashed and expect her to act like a respectable 19th-century lady - and to marry the boyfriend after a brief courtship period. The Vampire PC is losing her grip on the hedonistic coterie she inherited from her late guardian (whom she murdered, though the rest of the coterie doesn't know that yet): the vampires are having enough trouble finding mortals to feed on now that most townspeople are staying home at night, now their leader is saying they can't kill people? How unreasonable! I've dropped hints that at least one or two of the coterie members is musically talented in order to set up the Power of Rock solution you all suggested, but the players didn't pick up on those hints and are starting to hatch a plan to drug a bunch of people instead. I'm happy to go with this, but there's another issue that's come up: Amazingly, the Vampire's player doesn't think his PC will have any more problems now that she's had the lead rebel in the coterie killed, and doesn't see why she should fight against Ataraxia when things seem to be going well for her. The player asked to take a break from the Vampire for a while and play a new PC - a young drug cook (think Jesse Pinkman) who's struggling to keep his zombified girlfriend from falling apart. I've told him that his character could work if he can get the other players to switch PCs, but I'm not so sure it's the way to go. I don't like the idea of the player abandoning the Vampire character when there's still plenty of room to explore her - the way I see it, the coterie still hates and resents the PC AND there's nothing to stop Ataraxia's agents from kidnapping and brainwashing coterie vampires. But I don't know how to convince him of that without tipping my hand. If I do go back on the decision to allow him to switch PCs, I don't think he'll be all that upset - he's always cared a lot about telling a good story. He does love that new PC concept, though, and I have to admit it is a cool idea. So, two questions: 1) Should I let the players make a big change and roll with it, or should I convince them to trust me and see their original characters through? 2) What are some interesting complications or twists that might come with trying to drug a bunch of people?
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Sep 14, 2015 20:43
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Pththya-lyi posted:Update on my Monsterhearts game: We wrapped up the current plot line this past weekend, and it went great. The Vampire's player ended up sticking with the character for one more game, and gave her some great character moments. Meanwhile, the Witch desperately tried to find a way to stop the big bad without destroying the town, and the Infernal's player actually suggested the solution they ended up going with: sever the Infernal's connection to the entity. The player admitted that he was getting tired of playing the Infernal and wanted to switch to a different one, so we decided that was a fitting end for the character's arc. Long story short, the Witch and the Vampire used their abilities to get the Infernal into an electroshock machine and zap the evil out of him. The game encourages you to end the "season" arc when a PC unlocks a certain number of advances and take a break before starting a new season. Technically the PCs aren't advanced enough mechanically, but we agreed this was a natural "season finale" and that we should end things where they stand now. When the second season starts, two players will completely change characters, while the third will have his character change classes ("skins," in Monsterhearts terms). Also, while the players are happy with my GMing, I want to have the chance to play as a PC, so we may rotate GM responsibility from session to session. BTW, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to use McClucksky. The school was closed due to PC-caused problems anyway so it would have been hard to work him in. I do hope to use him in the future, perhaps in the second season. I plan to use him like "O'Malley the Anti-Drug Dog," a sample NPC from the excellent Monsters and Other Childish Things. He's also an anti-drug animal mascot, but he goes much farther than appearing at assemblies: O'Malley the Anti-Drug Dog character description posted:“Hey, kids! Don’t do drugs!” O’Malley is a guy in a suit who comes to your school and talks about drugs, vis-à-vis that they are bad. But once he arrives, he seems to hang around for a long time. Like, weeks.
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Sep 29, 2015 20:11
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Turtlicious posted:WHat's a good way to introduce little vigniettes into my campaign? I want to give my players voldemort style visions, but I have to think of a good reason why. The visions may be of mundane poo poo, or of super important things, but they'll be a kind of running theme. A magic user is psychically projecting the visions onto the party members in an attempt to communicate. They ate/drank some magically-tainted food/drink. They're descended from gods and/or ancient heroes and Fate brought these psychically-talented individuals together.
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Oct 10, 2015 03:06
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Roach Warehouse posted:My players don't like learning rules. They find it boring, so when we play a new game I need to explain things as we go and/ give a boring spiel at the top of the game that they pay varying amounts of attention to (understandably because it's just me saying boring stuff). Definitely don't give a spiel at the top, it's hard to learn that way. If I were you, I'd teach the mechanics concentrically (give them a basic piece of information, then expand out with related information), and teach them through contextual examples ("Let's say Punchstorm wants to Take Down a bank robber. Punchstorm has Smash 2. So take 2 dice and roll them. Good. Add your Smash 2 to the result. What's the total?") If they really struggle with building characters, you might make characters for them. Just ask your friends what they'd like their superhero characters to do, then tell them what they should take. Since they're still learning, you should give them the chance to switch things around in play.
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Oct 26, 2015 20:22
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Baronjutter posted:Never give players what they want, that is not correct GMing. No, it's "give them what they want, with strings attached."
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Dec 9, 2015 22:57
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