Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

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Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Tonight is the finale of the UA game that me and some internet friends have been in for the past couple of months. I think I'm gonna have to crosspost it in this thread and in the Best Experiences thread because it literally is the best gaming experience I've ever had.

Greg Stolze you are the man.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 16:25

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:53

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

I'm going to post this in the Best Gaming Experiences thread, but it also belongs here.

Let me tell you about my first Unknown Armies experience.

It was a streets level campaign called Lullaby. There were three other players other than me, and all of us had never played UA before. Our GM, Mani, had run this particular campaign twice before on an actual table, but this time we were playing over AIM chat, which turned out to be a huge boon once things started going off the rails.

The characters and their players (I'll use their actual names because there's nothing bad or embarassing about any of this):

Fuse: played by Dylan. Fuse is an ex-Yakuza hiding out in America after basically fleeing Japan to escape some supernatural forces that were haunting him, J-horror style. He had the highest struggle level in the party, and his primary skill is Obayun, which is his ability to make people listen to him through sheer force of personality.
Gary: played by Chris. Gary is a private investigator. I don't think he ever told us what his character's trigger was, but he stuck by Fuse's side for most of the game because he was on his payroll, and because they were the two old guys in contrast to the other two characters, who were much younger and more impulsive. He's the only character with any sort of firearm skill, though he wound up shooting like a stormtrooper for most of the game.
Mark: played by Ben. Mark is an academic, and the only character in the party with any kind of major supernatural skill, in that he can see auras around people and objects. I actually don't have much to say about Mark because Ben wound up being absent for large stretches of the game.
Lynch: my character. Lynch is sort of an odd duck in the party. He was a DJ and a signals intelligence expert-- his day job was doing tech support for major broadcasting corporations, and he also worked the graveyard shift at a Top 40 radio station, a job he hated. He is also an insomniac and an alcoholic, and started with the most failed sanity points of the entire party. His trigger moment involved a traumatic experience with a number station, and every since he's been obsessed with finding strange and arcane radio signals.

The party is formed with Fuse as the leader and financier, Gary as his enforcer and Mark and Lynch as consultants, basically. Lynch was brought in by Gary to make and plant listening devices.

The setting and story of the game is an island town called Vinalhaven, where there have been reports of strange happenings going on involving vandalism, nightmares and a strange, troubled girl named Elsie. I'll post Mani's info dump on it actually:

quote:

Vinalhaven, a small Maine island town not far from Rockland, is a storybook community of around 1,200. Their biggest claim to fame is probably that the author of Goodnight, Moon once lived there. There's a small Historical Society which sells her books, and displays a few relics from the ancient Red Paint civilization that once inhabited the island. There is only one K-12 public school, only one library, only one nature preserve, only one lighthouse - and only one way to get on or off the island (a ferry ride of about 1hr 15mins to/from Rockland). There's a small swell of tourism in the summer, but above all Vinalhaven's community prides itself on its friendliness and its people.

As explained by the owners of the island's Tidewater Motel: "We have a habit, you'll be quick to notice, of waving instinctively to one another from our cars and trucks or as pedestrians. If you stay with us for a few days, you'll fall, awkwardly at first, and then more comfortably, into the same custom. We hear endlessly from our guests that this is the friendliest place they've ever been."

The Vinalhaven you all will be visiting is not nearly so warm and cozy.

About two weeks ago, 8 year old Elsie Hale-Shepley disappeared one night, and was later found about to jump from a cliff into the sea, babbling in a tongue no-one seems to recognize. She was promptly hospitalized, and then committed to psychiatric care under Dr. Jonathan Lanham (one of the town's two psychiatrists, and the only one who lives on the island): Elsie has been acting strange since then, and so, it seems, has the town...and the sea.

Nightmares about black, stormy oceans and sea monsters bubbled throughout the Vinalhaven night at a suspicious rate. Soon, some of the island's many fisherman claimed to have seen enormous, dark shapes moving just beneath the waves - others began to speculate about the fact that Elsie's father, Leland Hale, had himself begun talking about dark creatures in the sea singing terrible songs - just before he died: against advice, he took his ship out during an unnaturally violent storm, and was sucked into the sea not too far from the town; his body, of course, was never found. Perhaps most disturbing for the a town whose primary income is lobster fishing, hauls have been anemic since that incident, and declining. Occasionally, a haul will contain nothing but the dismembered remains and cracked shells of lobsters, not a single living one among them.

On land, people began to see and hear things that weren't there - shadows darting just beyond the corners of their vision, wet footprints appearing mysteriously all over, and sounds with no apparent source echoing throughout the town: notably, children crying, pianos playing on their own, and a haunting lullaby. On rarer occasions, a townsperson has been seen acting in a bizarre delirium, hoarding any and all books they can find, muttering about the "permanency of the word" in the "cold black of existence" and reading feverishly for hours and hours on end - and then remembering little to nothing the next day, unable to explain what happened to them, except that it had a dreamlike familiarity to it, that it "made sense" on a level they can't quite articulate - or aren't willing to.

It wasn't long before local gossip mixed with quiet hysteria, and talk flew around that Elsie was possessed by some demon or malevolent force. After all, everything started after that morning she was found, gibbering in that freaky language. Even more suspicious, the doctor overseeing little Elsie are unusually tight-lipped about her case and condition - the only person permitted to visit her, is her mother, Lisa Shepley.

Having lost her husband, Leland, only recently - and now enduring this whatever's-going-on-with-her-daughter - Lisa has the sympathies of almost all of the townspeople. Almost. A few gossipers have been spreading talk that Elsie was herself unnatural from the start; Lisa had been unable to conceive for years, and it was only after she returned from an off-island consult with a "specialist" that she bore Elsie. Lisa had herself confided in her friends that she thought there were demons or dark forces interfering with her daughter, though at the time they chalked it up to the stress of being a new mother. Fisherman have begun noticing that their catches really began declining about the time that Elsie was born - and have only hastened (albeit dramatically) since the incident. That was two weeks ago.

Suddenly, simple things started taking on a dark and unfamiliar tone all over Vinalhaven - from the worsening weather, to the blurb on the library's website: "Some research says readers begin in the womb," or the blurb on the recent horror/mystery-themed readings at the library: "The world of writing and books will come alive as these authors speak, even though more than the average number of subjects will be dead or dying."

Of course, with the tourist season only months away, and things being as unsettling as they are - in a town that usually sees nothing worse than the occasional "curmudgeon" or "offensive language" - the townsfolk aren't spilling all this to just anyone. People are on edge, and the normally warm community is twitchy and uneasy and tight-lipped (relatively, anyway).

It's worth noting that the previous two times that Mani ran this campaign, the PCs had been religious types: once a squad of catholic exorcists, and the other was a televangelist and his entourage. We didn't have any kind of religious connections, it was more based on Fuse's interested in the occult due to his activities in Japan.

So we arrive in town in the rain and set-up shop at the hotel. Things are immediately off to a weird start when Fuse's assistant and chaffeur, Ise, is acting very paranoid and jittery. He's found in possession of a strange novel called This Cold Black. Before we can grill him to figure out what's going on, a window is smashed and a small girl is making off with Mark's luggage. We give chase into the storm but she's gone. Lynch, however, picks up a strange giggling sound in the air thanks to how his Notice skill is augmented by a skilled called Ears Like a Safe Cracker.

We stay the night at the hotel. I have Lynch begin setting up his radio equipment and cruise the airwaves for signals. Meanwhile Fuse, Gary and Mark all sit down for storytime as Mark begins to read This Cold Black. Now I wasn't actually around for this part because the way the game worked was that when different parts of the group would receive exclusive information, we'd split off into our own chats with the GM. This would factor heavily into later parts of the game. From what I understand, they got sucked into a nightmare where, like, water and giant squids started exploding out from the book and prompting sanity checks that I think Fuse at least failed. From that point on, Fuse (and Dylan) became extremely paranoid around any and all books, and basically forbade Mark from even touching one.

It's worth mentioning at this point that there was sort of a meta game going on here. Dylan said at the start that he was obsessed with Fuse surviving this campaign. Now Ben and I, we saw things differently, so we made it our duty to complicate things as much as possible to increase the odds that someone would die horribly. Ben accomplished this by giving Mark almost no sense of self-preservation and leaping headfirst into whatever supernatural challenge popped up. With Lynch, I contributed to our cause by steadily increasing his paranoia and erratic behavior as the game went on, fueled by booze, lack of sleep and weird radio messages.

So while they're having their reading rainbow adventure, Lynch is in his room scanning for radio signals when he comes across a weird, carousel tune playing on a channel without any discernible source. Mani actually sent me an MP3 of the tune; I think it was from Silent Hill but it was creepy as hell. If I can dig it up I'll play it here. It's so sudden and alarming that Lynch spazzes out and breaks his nose against a piece of furniture.

The next day we do some investigating, splitting up into two parties. Lynch and Gary go to speak with Elsie's former elementary school teacher, Helen, while Fuse, Ise and Mark go to the library to see what they can find out about This Cold Black. Lynch plants a bug in Helen's office while she explains to the two of them about how distressed Elsie's mother Lisa is, and about Castro, the old mulatto guy who lives in the Lighthouse who was found with Elsie after she went missing.

It's about this time that Dylan begins his pattern of improbably good dice rolls. He must have passed more than 80% of his checks, and rolled more single digit successes than the rest of the group combined. It was unreal and basically allowed Fuse to do practically whatever he wanted. His obayun skill practically became a jedi mind trick.

After Gary and Lynch finish with Helen the party regroups in the town center in time to find a crazy guy screaming at the top of his lungs while hanging from a flagpole in the town square. Before much else happens he's struck by lightning and falls to the hard ground below; and yet comes up fine. This is JJJ (I forget his full name), an exorcist whose come to town to expel the demons possessing Elsie. Lynch later discovered that JJJ had a radio show that he picked up some broadcasts on. JJJ gets carted off to the hospital, since he just got struck by lightning and all.

Our party heads to the hospital to speak to Dr. Latham, Elsie's child psychologist, but to our chagrin it turns out that JJJ was a step ahead of us; be broke loose from his restraints in the emergency ward, beat the hell out of some nurses and disappeared. We run into him in the hall. We try to talk him down at first but he's full of zeal and god's love, so we have to do it by force. Here, ironically, in spite of Dylan's boss rolls he sorta doesn't do that well in the struggle, and it's dragging pretty bad until I manage to roll well enough to have Lynch grapple JJJ while Gary and Fuse beat the tar out of him. The whole time, Mani is openly rolling dice and randomly telling us that JJJ is evading our attacks through increasingly improbably coincidences. After we finished the game, Mani revealed that JJJ was an entropomancer, although he didn't know about the true nature of his powers and just assumed that god loved him so much that he protected him from harm. We manage to subdue JJJ and the cops take him away. We come out of it with minor injuries, but luckily we're in a hospital.

Afterwards we recoup from our heroics, and Gary and Lynch head up to talk to Latham while Fuse and Mark talk to the authorities. Turns out he's not in, but his office is unlocked, so I sneak in and plant a bug in his office. We bolt as he approaches, splitting up. And here is where things start to go nuts.

Gary gets out of the hospital but Lynch ends up going deeper in, and there finds Elsie. In the only lit cell in an otherwise totally dark hallway. Oh and it's soundproof. And her neck is wrapped in bandages. I put two and two together and realize that they gave the girl a tracheotomy to remove her ability to speak normally, and put her in a soundproofed cell for good measure.

So this is all pretty terrible. She can only communicate through drawings, and the first thing she asks is "Can I Go Now?" I actually have a long conversation with her, discovering, among other things, that the spooky carousel that Lynch heard on the radio was some kind of lullaby that Lisa sang to Elsie, and that more importantly Lynch has a weakness for little kids. I left promising her that I'd be back to get her out and bring her to her mother.

I should note, also, that all of this took place in a private chat away from the rest of the party. None of them knew that I had personally met Elsie.

while this is going on, Mark, Gary and Fuse are having their own little adventures. Gary and Fuse go to talk to Castro while Mark stumbles into some kind of weird other space where he meets a boy calling himself Ego, who talks about the Mother and the Devourer and the Victim and the Host and a bunch of other weird stuff. This is actually the last full session that Ben plays with us for several weeks. A combination of technical issues and real life concerns kept knocking him out of the game. All of these occurred as solo sessions with their respective party members, so none of us know what the other is really up to.

Gary and Fuse's experiences with Castro are equally uncanny, and in the end he does something to Fuse that scrambles his speaking abilities before kicking them out of his lighthouse. He also reveals that he is the author of This Cold Black. As is revealed in the post game, Castro is a Bibliomancer, and also an Avatar of the Outsider or something. When the party regroups at the hotel after all of this happens, Gary and Fuse are shaken. Especially Fuse. Especially. He's talking about going back to Castro and putting the boots to him, medium style. He's extremely agitated. He's talking about him being a crazy sorcerer and stuff.

It's at this point that Lynch's paranoia is getting really ratcheted up from a combination of more booze, less sleep and another creepy radio message, this time a rock song that dissolves into a gutteral chanting of "I'm always watching you", and I decide not to tell the rest of the party that Lynch met Elsie.

Gary and Fuse retrieve a bunch of tapes that Latham made of his sessions with Elsie, and they have Lynch analyze them, which I do in another solo session. The tapes reveal a few things-- the first one is actually the doctor talking to Lisa and Leland. Lisa is a total wreck and Leland is becoming increasingly distressed with the whole situation. Another tape has Latham speaking to Elsie directly; however, Elsie is speaking gibberish. And then Latham starts speaking gibberish, unconciously. After listening to the tapes over and over and over again and dissecting every bit of dialog, begins to understand a few words in Elsie's strange language. Understand them like he's known it all his life. For the rest of the game, this language continues to creep up into his speech at random.

Okay so now Lynch is in a really weird mood. He's got a constant buzz going, hasn't slept in days, is being hounded by mysterious radio signals and now his brain is being rewritten. He begins to see Fuse's threats of violence as his very real intentions instead of just venting.

This leads to the turning point in the game, where everything goes haywire. Lynch is taking a break from his analysis to get food and while he's at the diner, Mark walks in. Ben managed to get himself in order enough to try out a game, but no sooner does he enter the chat than does his connection die on us. Then he's back. Then he's gone again. This goes on for about a half an hour, during which the game is at a complete standstill.

Finally Mani gets sick of it, and when Ben disconnects for the last time he has Mark simply pass out on the table. I take his phone and call Fuse and tell him what happened. Then I decide to leave before they arrive. Through the emergency exit in the back. Which sets off the alarms in the diner. I figure, why does it matter? The ambulance is coming anyway.

My objective here is to visit Castro before Gary and Fuse decide to go over there and put the screws to him, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity while I still can. Fuse and Gary arrive soon after, and realize that Lynch left through the emergency exit. Gary goes out the back and sees Lynch just barely in view, and they give chase. And now I'm running to because, hey, I'm being chased!

This leads to an hour long chase scene of Lynch trying to outmaneuver Gary and Fuse. As it proceeds, each side is becoming increasingly sure that the other side is up to something, and the paranoia of the characters becomes the paranoia of the players since no one really knows exactly what the others have been doing. I almost get away with it, but then Gary rolls and 01 on his Notice check and realizes that Lynch is heading for the lighthouse. Fuse calls Ise and they give chase in their car.

Lynch beats them there just barely and races up the lighthouse to the top, where Castro has locked the door and covered it in police tape (later revealed to be a sealing spell), but Lynch is able to convince him to let him in by saying that he met Elsie and by repeating "The darkness is safer than the light", the key phrase that he was able to understand from her gibberish. Castro lets him in a few minutes before Fuse and Gary catch up.

I get a really awesome scene in Castro's library where I get to monologue about Lynch's history with music and his own obsessions with radio, and solidifies in my mind that Castro is on our side. Meanwhile, the opposite is happening with Fuse and Gary, who are now convinced that Lynch is totally unhinged and that Castro is even more dangerous than they predicted. When they finally get to the top of the lighthouse, Dylan and I have an intense and awesome cellphone argument through the door, where it comes out that Lynch met Elsie. He asks Fuse if he wants to talk to Elsie, and then plays some of her gibberish which he recorded to a microcasette through the phone. Fuse practically throws the phone down.

Finally Castro comes away with a book-- another copy of This Cold Black, which he uses in conjunction with the original copy to see that JJJ has escaped from police custody and is heading for the hospital.

Then this exchange happens. I'm paraphrasing, but:

quote:

Lynch: You've got bigger problems than me right now.
Fuse: What do you mean?
*pause*
Gary: We've got to go now!
Fuse: What?
Gary: I....squid

I didn't know this at the time, but a giant squid had just erupted from the ocean nearby and was approaching the shoreline.

They flee, and now the party is not only split, but actively working against one another. I'm now determined to save Elsie not just from the doctors who want to take her off the island for more testing, but from Fuse and Gary who are obviously dangerous. This is exacerbated by the fact that Dylan/Fuse has come to believe that Elsie is also dangerous, so I genuinely think he may do something bad to her.

I talk to Castro for a while and learn some things. He took in Elsie after she ran away, and through his research learned that her gibberish language is called Alter Tongue, and that it has the ability to spread to people who hear it. He used her language to write This Cold Black and attached a bunch of Bibliomancer spells to it.

Castro gives Lynch his second copy of This Cold Black and I head for the hospital. On the way I call Elsie's mother Lisa to meet me behind the hospital. I head over, sneak in through the back, and reach Elsie's room just in time to see Fuse, Gary and Mark preparing to throw down with JJJ, who has just broken through the soundproof glass. When my turn comes up I aim the book at them and open it like it's a cannon.

I honestly was expecting it to flood the room with water or summon a squid or suck them all up like a pokeball, but what it did was fill them with feelings of weakness and victimization and, in Fuse's case, make him even angrier because not only had Lynch betrayed them, but he had brought along the one thing on the island he was most afraid of.

I get drawn into the brawl and its a free for all, and during the melee Elsie tries to break free. JJJ almost gets her but in his moment of victory, right when he has the upper hand...he just up and walks away.

Mani explained it after the game. Because he didn't really know how his own powers worked, when JJJ thought he was exorcising spirits he was actually summoning demons. If he succeeded, the demon would have tried to possess one of us and we'd have to save against it. However, he did not succeed. He botched it, very badly. And as a result, he was possessed. And the demon, finding himself suddenly in a shiny new body, decided that he had better things to do than fight a bunch of humans.

Lynch shouts to Elsie that her mother is outside and she bolts for the fire escape. Mark (Ben was finally able to rejoin us) made a snap decision and ran with her, trying to carry her outside to her mother while Lynch was determined to hold off Fuse and Gary. Unfortunately for him they had much higher struggle scores, and they had weapons. Lynch, however, had a complete lack of regard for his own safety. I get the crap beaten out of me. In the middle of the fight Gary pulls his gun intending to threaten me, but Chris somehow fails a roll so badly that the gun actually goes off. It misses Lynch by inches but deafens him, and since his hearing is so good he's really messed up. I actually have to make a sanity check, since Lynch's fear impulse is silence, which I pass. I keep on fighting until I basically get KO'd, but by this time Mark is almost out the door. Fuse and Gary give chase, and they run right into a squad of police cars waiting outside.

So we all get arrested.

Everyone spends part of the night in the hospital, and the rest of the night in the slammer. Over night we get visited by weird dopplegangers of Elsie, each with weird distorted faces. The next day we make bail-- thanks to Ego, the weird kid that Mark met earlier. It's Mother's Day, and Elsie is scheduled to be shipped off the island.

We leave the jail and the whole town is in chaos. Its being vandalized by an army of Elsie duplicates. In the middle of it all we find Mark's lost luggage, which happens to be soaked with urine for some reason, and inside we find pills. Antipsychotics. At the same time I get a phone call from Lisa, who is utterly unhinged, screaming about how Elsie is not a bad girl and how she needs her daughter back and on and on and on. She bellows something about the pills aren't working anymore and we figure that the meds we found in Mark's suitcase were hers.

Just then, an ambulance pulls up to a stoplight, and Fuse has a revelation. He runs up to the driver and tells him he has a fuel leak, and when he gets out jumps him while Lynch gets in the driver's seat (I have the highest Drive skill in the party). We gag the guy with Mark's piss stained clothes and throw him in the back, then strip him of his EMT uniform. Our plan is simple:

1.) Pretend to be EMTs
2.) Go to hospital, pick up Elsie
3.) Uhhhhh

I dress Lynch up in the EMT's outfit and we head for the hospital. We get there and Gary gives Lynch his stungun, in the event that I need it, but when I come in an orderly, partly speaking Alter Tongue, throws Elsie into my arms and says to get her out of here. So that was pretty easy.

We take the ambulance (and the hogtied EMT) away from the hospital and plot our next move. In the process we have one of the best exchanges in the game, something like this:

quote:

Fuse: Castro is a psychopath and a sorcerer! He wrote that damned book!
Lynch: Yes wrote it, but he used her words! *pointing at Elsie*
*Fuse's jaw drops slightly, and he immediately walks off*

Afterwards Fuse spends some time talking to Elsie, who answers his questions with a combination of body language and writing. When asked if she's afraid of Castro she shakes her head, and then confirms that by writing "Kastrow" when Fuse asks if there's anyone on the island that was nice to her.

During this time we get a call from Helen (Elsie's teacher), who's with Lisa at her home with Doctor Latham, saying that Lisa is calmed down and that we should bring Elsie back. Now we're starting to formulate a plan. By this time, incidently, we're all convinced that Latham is the villain, possibly the Devourer that Ego spoke about. Using a valuable book that we found at the hotel (a signed first edition of Player Piano), Lynch "calls" Castro, thinking that maybe he can hear him through one of his books. Afterwards Lynch says "I feel retarded." Our plan is to get everyone together at Lisa's house and settle things there.

What amazed me about this final act is how our group dynamic had shifted. We were all on the same side, but instead of Lynch coming to his senses, they had all basically joined his side, kinda vindicating his craziness. I also discovered something about Lynch during this act. I was concerned that I was sort of acting out of character by having him behave more rationally and less impulsively given his prior actions, but then I realized that he hadn't had a drink in almost 48 hours. He's not schizophrenic; he's just a really bad drunk.

So we drive the ambulance to Lisa's home (we still have the EMT in the back, by the way) so that everyone can air their grievances. Helen greets us and leads us through the house and up into Elsie's room. The whole while we're hearing the creepy carousel lullaby that I heard at the start of the game.

When we reach Elsie's room we discover that we had vastly miscalculated things. Latham wasn't the devourer; he was dead on the floor with a pair of scizzors in his neck. Lisa seems Elsie, and all hell breaks loose.

I wish I had Mani's description on hand, but in sort order:

Elsie's old crib explodes into shards and forms a crucifix behind Lisa. Knobs from it impale her hands and feet and she's lifted off the ground.
She transforms first into an image of the Virgin Mary
Then her stomach bulges out and explodes into a dozen tentacles emerging from a fanged, ravenous uterus

So it turns out the Devourer and the Mother were the same thing. Oopsie.

Two of our party fail sanity checks but select Flight anyway so they bolt out. I grab Elsie and run, while Gary has the decency to haul Helen away from being horribly killed. We managed to break out of the house and make it to the ambulance and start driving away. Lisa crashes out of the house and gives chase and Lynch floors it down the street.

At the end of the street he stops. For once, Dylan and I are 100% on the same page. I turn the van around, tell everyone to buckle up and say a prayer to the god of random number generators, and roll to run that bitch over with a van. Success.

Mani said afterwards that that's the first time anyone's tried to hit the Devouring Mother with a car.

I score a direct hit and smash right against and over her, but she's not quite dead yet. Gary opens the window and starts firing uselessly at Lisa, and I end up pulling away in the van to get away. Elsie now crawls into the front with the piece of paper reading "Kastrow" on it, so we drive to the lighthouse.

When we arrive Lisa is catching up. We untie the EMT and have him drive away with Helen while we head into the Lighthouse.

Now at this point Mani had an ending in mind. We were supposed to climb the Lighthouse, and then we fight Lisa in Castro's library alongside him. That's not what happens though.

Instead, while we all run for safety, Gary hangs back and stands his ground. He draws his weapon and fires one last time before retreating with the rest of the party.

And rolls a 01.

At this point the chat explodes into hysterics as he adjusts his aim and fires right into Lisa's womb, which, in conjunction with me hitting her with the van, does enough damage to kill her outright. She goes down and is shriveling up and Gary goes over to her and delivers a coup de grace with his gun to her head while saying "Happy Mother's Day."

So yeah. Unknown Armies owns.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2011 17:25

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Not only did he write that campaign but he made a trailer for it and put it on Youtube. I'll get it from him next time he's online.

He's working on a new game for our crew once he wraps up our post-game stuff.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2011 19:41

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Here is the trailer that my GM made for the game, and here is the music box theme that Lynch heard over the radio. Imagine hearing this at like 1:30 am while drunk out of your gord.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2011 02:57

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Does anyone have any links to some user generated "What You Hear" lists? I remember reading one, I think it was linked in the grognards thread for some reason, but it had some pretty great stuff in it like using Tarot Cards no longer working for fortune telling because the US Mint transferred the power of the Arcana into state quarters.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2011 03:18

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Can someone tell me about Wild Talents? I'm looking for some superhero action and my experience with UA makes me want to try it out.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 13:06

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Thanks for the input folks.

I've been reading through the Essentials guide and potentially preparing a playtest for this game, and I've got a question: what determines if an attack does Shock or Killing damage?

As an example, one the test Talents I'm tentatively assembling controls air, and has an Attack Quality called Microburst, which attacks an enemy using a concussive blast of pressurized air. So far I've given it the Range and Mass Capacities, so it can attack at range and also cause knockback, but how do I determine what kind of damage it does? Based on the description of the Harm power from the Cafeteria, do I just need to write in the effect that it deals Shock and Killing Damage, or is that automatic as an element of it being an Attack Quality? If I wanted to could I say that it only does Shock Damage?

EDIT: Okay I may have figured it out. Here's what I've put together so far as a possible test. Did I do this right? Anything major that I messed up? I'm not using any Hard or Wiggle Dice because I want to get the base mechanics down before I start messing with slightly more complex aspects.

Jetstream Jackie

Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 16, 2014

# ¿ Oct 16, 2014 15:30

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

SageNytell posted:

I don't have the book with me, but I seem to recall Shock Only being an attack power flaw that you can take for a reduction of points. fake edit: yup, you've got that down.

I would definitely avoid hard dice with that engulf attack, that would get downright unfun quickly. Looks good on the whole!

Nice. It's funny, building powers in WT seems incredibly intimidating as laid out in the book, because some of the ones it presents in the Cafeteria, like the one that lets you transform into a different form, look incredibly complex. But actually putting them together isn't that hard.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2014 18:04

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Here's the second Talent that I put together: Dwight the Titan

Dwight has the ability to absorb materials around him and fashion them into a battle armor enhanced by his powers. This gives him Hyper-Body, highly damaging physical attacks, and enhanced defenses.

I build his Defense Power based on the Heavy Armor power in the Cafeteria, with some slight changes. Instead of being Endless, it has a Duration of 10 minutes, and it requires available materials within 3 yards to activate.

However, there's something that I may have done wrong, and I just want to confirm this.

As I've written it now, when Dwight actives his Titan Armor, he gains +3d Hyper-Body, which means his total Body stat would be 7d, and his Brawling would be 7d+4d, meaning 10d with 1d as a penalty eater.

I've also granted the Titan Armor an Attacks +2 quality. Looking at it, however, this seems totally redundant with Hyper-Body up and running, since Titan Armor is a 7d Power, meaning that if I were use the Titanic Strike Attack, I'd be rolling 7d instead of 10d. Of course, Titanic Strike has +2 SK Damage, so does that give it a significant advantage? Or should I just stick with the 10d total brawling?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2014 19:50

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Doodmons posted:

If you wanted his Titan Armor to give him extra oomph on his punching people attacks, and you've already given him a large punching people pool, you can either build an Augments attack power that makes his punches do more damage or have more Mass Capacity or do Engulfs or something, or you can give the suit Hyperbrawl with a load of extras on it like more damage or any of the above. I'd probably do it the second way, but I'm sure you could make something work with the Augments.

Oh jeez

Are you saying that if I put Augments on Titan Armor, which would cost all of 6 points (2 for the Attacks Quality, 4 for Augments), I could add a whole 7d to my Brawling Pool, and I'd literally have a total pool of like 18?

You weren't kidding about it being trivial to create insanely powerful Miracles. I think I may avoid that one purely to keep things relatively sane.

Also, can you let me know if I'm understanding Gobble Dice and Interference correctly?

Gobble Dice: Gobble Dice seems to be just a goofy way of saying "if your roll Opposes another character's roll, and your set is at least as wide and high as his, you negate his roll." Am I interpreting that correctly?

Interference: Interference appears to be a Super-Opposed Roll, in that you only need to beat the Height of the attack, not the Width. It looks like the book is saying that the GM should put hard limits on what stuff an Interference power can affect, otherwise you could just put 1hd in it and say that you can negate anything ever. Am I on the correct page with that?

EDIT: Re:Augments. Actually I just read the part where it says that Augment can EITHER add a Power's Dice or its Extras, so I'll set it so that Titan Armor Augments Brawling with the +2 Attack (I'm not sure if this is what is intended, but I think it's fair, giving that I'm limiting the options). To balance out the cost, I added an Allergy to the Archetype, which is going to be an anti-retroviral compound that drains Willpower.

Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Oct 17, 2014

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 13:47

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

jagadaishio posted:

Gobble dice don't necessarily negate the entire roll. If you ruin a set, they can usually fall back on a worse at from the same roll, if there are any left. You're gobbling individual dice.

I see. I wasn't clear on that.

So let's say I'm rolling 10d Brawl and I'm being opposed. I roll two sets-- 3x10 and 2x5. My opponent also rolls a 3x10; since that beats both of my sets, he can gobble my 3x10 and force me to use my 2x5. Am I understanding that correctly?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 15:14

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

jagadaishio posted:

No. He uses two of that 3x10 to make your 3x10 into a 1x10. He uses the remaining width to turn your 2x5 into a 1x5. You don't need to gobble the entire set, just ruin it.

That said, he might not have enough width remaining to gobble that 2x5. I forget how, exactly, gobble dice and order of actions work.

Oh that's right, I forgot that sets only need to get gobbled down to 1w to be effectively neutered.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2014 15:33

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Is it worth upgrading to the full 2nd Edition Wild Talents book if the campaign that I'm running is 100% original? Does the 2nd Edition book have anything particularly crucial in it for the experience?

# ¿ Nov 4, 2014 00:38

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

So I've been able to turn my wife, who has never played a tabletop RPG, into a devoted addict of Wild Talents. She'll literally tell me every day "I can't wait to play more Wild Talents."

She loves noir too, and I just discovered the existence of A Dirty World, so that may just blow her mind. Does anyone here have any experience with it?

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 16:53

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Been playing Wild Talents for the past three weeks and it's been a blast. I'm trying to get more adventurous in my character designs, and I've got a couple of questions.

Question 1: Foci

The Essentials manual gives a couple examples of Foci. The first is an enhanced machine gun, and the second is a suit of powered armor. In the case of the Machine Gun, the Focus Extras and Flaws ends up making it so that the total cost is 1 point per die. One of these Flaws is Operational Skill (Rifle), and the rules for the Flaw state that you use the lower of your two dice pools when making an attack. Ultimately, the manual gives the gun 10d for 10 points.

However, since the gun has Operational Skill (Rifle), then its true cost isn't really 10 points. Its true cost is 10 points plus the cost of raising your Range Attack (Rifle) to an adequate level; therefore for a normal character that cost is at most 20 points (10 for the machine gun, 10 for 5 skill points in Rifle).

But what I'm thinking is this: since you can add Qualities, Extras and Flaws directly to Skills, would it not be more direct to build weaponized foci as Skills, more or less? Let's say that I'm creating a character that uses the Caster Gun from Outlaw Star. Using the rules as directly explained in the book, I'd want to create the gun itself for X points per die where X must be at least 1 , and then buy 9 or 10 points in it (total cost 10x), and then buy, let's say, 5 points in Ranged Weapon (Caster) for a total cost of 9x+10, minimum 20 points.

OR

I create a HyperSkill, Range Weapon (Caster), for 1 point per die. To it I attach Focus along with all of the all of the Focus Extras and Flaws that come with it, and then the rest of the Extras and Flaws needed to create the Caster Gun. Let's now assume that the total Focus points comes to -2 (entirely possible, due to the way that Foci work), and the rest of the Flaws and Extras associated is +2. The end result is that the total cost for the Caster Gun in this scenario is 1 point per die, so I'm literally able to get the same effect as the standard method for, at best, 1/4th the cost.

Does this seem like a valid approach? I could also very easily be doing exactly what I was warned about with Wild Talents-- breaking the game in half by using more advanced character building knowledge.

Question 2: Variable Effect
Can someone please explain the Variable Effect Extra to me? I don't at all understand it from the manual's description.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2014 15:37

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

HerraS posted:

So I just got myself Wild Talents and decided to have a go at making a dude. A dude who basically is a regular joe schmuck who happens to have a pair of gauntlets/gloves/whatever that let him either decrease or increase the effect of gravity on any object or person.

What I need is someone who could tell me whether I failed miserably at wrapping my brains around this.

He's only got one power that he can use to Attack, Defend, and do a bunch of other things, so clearly he puts all three Qualities on it.

For the Attack, the free Capacity is Range. I give it Attack +2, Engulf, and Non-Physical as Extras and Focus along with If/Then (Gravity increase/decrease only) as Flaws, the latter meaning that he can't harm things that aren't affected by gravity (such as someone with the power to turn insubstantial or existing as an astral projection or whatever) or if he's fighting somewhere with no gravity to effect.

The Defense is just a plain Self defense with the same Flaws. He can only defend himself from physical attacks that can be stopped by affecting gravity; psionics and magics blast him all the same.

For the Useful I figured I'd just put Speed as the free Capacity and have him mostly use it to decrease the effect of gravity on himself, letting him jump around and run faster. I also give it Range so he can do the same for other people. Then I slap Variable Effect in there for all the other things you could do by decreasing/increasing the gravity of objects or people. I didn't give it Mass since he doesn't have any innate ability to move objects even if they're weightless aside from punching them real hard. Same Flaws as the Attack and Defend.

Finally I give the Focus the Delicate and Immutable Flaws, meaning I end up with something like this:
code:
Gravitational Gauntlets (ADU)

Attack: Range, Attack +2, Engulf, Non-Physical, Focus, If/Then (Gravity control only)

Defend: Self, Focus, If/Then (Gravity control only)

Useful: Speed, Range, Variable Effect, Focus, If/Then (Gravity control only)

Additional Focus flaws: Delicate, Immutable
Firstly, did I completely gently caress this up? And secondly did I calculate it right so that the cost is 10/20/40 per die?

I may be wrong but I think for the Useful Quality, you'd need to add the Mass Quality for it to be able to affect other people at a distance; in this case you are literally using your Power to affect their Mass, which I'd think would be a textbook example of that Capacity.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2014 14:59

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

So here's some homebrew rules regarding ORE combat that I'm looking for some input on.

Basically, I want to counter the dominance of called headshots in combat, especially called headshots with wiggle dice. The problem that I've been experiencing is that they are practically impossible to defend against without hard dice; the end result is that combat winds up boiling down to who can get the best headshots first.

So here is what I'm working on:

1.) Hit locations are rearranged so that the Headboxes are located at the 1 location
2.) Fixed Dice are substituted for Hard Dice

Now it becomes actually possible to defend against headshots, because a defender just has to match the attacker's Width if they want to Dodge or Block rather than their Width AND roll 10s. I think this better reflects a combat environment where hitting a guy in the head who is conscious of your attack is a lot more difficult than going for their chests and arms.

Any thoughts on this?

# ¿ Nov 30, 2014 22:07

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZearothK posted:

Yeah, REIGN has the best combat in all of the ORE games. Armor is really effective, but there are martial techniques that deal with that and even if you don't have them there is the tried and true method of tackling the bastard and choking him to death.

That's actually excellent to know. Can you tell me more about REIGN? I've already ready some of the crazy fluff elements (human shaped continents, lady-only cavalry, ghosts of vengeance by default), but not much about the crunch.

Full disclosure, this is part of a project that I'm starting to create an ORE space opera type game.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 14:42

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Doodmons posted:

I think that's all the important things. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. In general, it's a much better put together game than Wild Talents and is far less breakable.

Wow, I'm liking a lot of what I'm reading here, particularly the limits on ed and md (which is a rule that I already apply in Wild Talents to Skills and Stats where hd and wd are concerned, though not to Miracles) and the revised stat limitations which eliminates Hyperdice. I may have to buy REIGN just so I can hack it into the homebrew that I'm working on.

The end product that I'm aiming for is sort of a marraige between WT and what you're describing with REIGN. I want to surgically alter the Archetype and Miracles system from WT into what I'm tentatively calling Marvels, which are skills and equipment born from advanced science and physical training and are built like Miracles but function as Skills, where their pool is the total of the Marvel plus the Stat that they are assigned to. I also think that the Company rules from REIGN would work extremely well in allowing the players to represent the Crew of a starship.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 16:43

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

unseenlibrarian posted:

Though it's not Stolze-penned, more ORE adaptations need to steal how skills work from Kerberos Club.

Do go on...

I want to absorb as much as I can about different ways that ORE can work.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 19:04

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

I mentioned it a few pages back but I've been fiddling here and there with a space opera-esque sci-fi add-on for Wild Talents. Most of the stuff I've put together is scattered among some Google Docs, but I was able to sit down and assemble the first draft for the alien builder rules, and uploaded it here. It is 100% meant to be a supplement to WT, so in a few areas it refers to page numbers of the Essential Edition guidebook. Let me know what you all think!

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 19:21

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Since we're discussing ORE:

I've made some progress on the Space Adventure supplement for Wild Talents that I've been working on. It's still in bits and pieces but it's coherent enough now most of the rules I've written could actually be put into place.

One Roll Creatures and One Roll Planets: These are based on the instructions and tables from the REIGN supplements Nain and From a Violent Planet. The One Roll Planets part could use some fine tuning; the Sets vs Loose Die match-ups don't quite make as much sense as the Creatures write-up, which I'm pretty proud of.

Creating Space Heroes: These are the primary revised rules for character generation. There are a few adjustments to how Wild Talents handles things, primarily based on reining in the impact of Hard and especially Wiggle Dice in character skills by making them conditional through the Edge system. It also contains rules for characters who are part of a spaceship crew.

Xenotypes: These are rules for creating alien species for player characters and NPCs via a simplified take on WT's Archetype system.

Spacecraft Creation Rules: This is an overview of the total process as well as instructions for assigning Systems to a Craft, which are its main stats. Building a Craft is actually inspired by Monsters and Other Childish Things, where you literally draw what your ship looks like and then say what each part does. It's crunchier than MaOCT but as a result is really freeform and lets you build basically any kind of ship you want.

Prototypes: Just as superhumans have Archetypes and aliens have Xenotypes, spacecraft have Prototypes, which define the characteristics of shared between ships of a similar design and purpose. These work in concert with Systems to basically describe the parameters for what a ship can do.

Right now I'm working on modified rules for combat in space between characters (a fairly short section) and spacecraft (much more extensive) as well as general rules and guidelines for space adventures. It's been really interesting putting this together; ORE is probably the most intuitive and flexible system I've ever seen for a game.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2015 19:17

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZypherIM posted:

Does anyone have a quick rules sheet they like to use for various ORE stuff? I'm looking for reign in particular, but any version would pretty much work. Most of the guys I play with haven't really done anything with the system, but my google-fu isn't turning up much of anything useful. On a note for myself, I'm not quite sure how hard to make enemies they'll face. We'll have 3-4 PC's, and the mook rules are pretty nicely laid out. How many dice should I be aiming for on the tougher but not real rough sorts of fights? I'm not expecting to have poo poo working smoothly since I haven't actually gotten to run anything in the system yet, just a sort of spit-ball area that I can tweak after a game or two.

This has been a pretty invaluable asset for my Wild Talents game, though it's probably a bit wordier than you might like, and Wild Talent's ORE is slightly less evolved than Reign's.

As far as enemies are concerned, I always refer to ORE's Bell Curve, which says that 5d-6d is a 70-85% chance to get a matched set, and anything above that is valuable primarily for the fact that it can suffer a penalty or two to boost effectiveness without killing your chance of success. So for competent but not terrifically powerful foes, 5d-6d is generally a good bet.

On another front, I just finished drafting up this ORE monstrosity: a set of rules for creating playable alien races and cultures for a sci-fi homebrew I'm building.

One Roll Xenotypes

It's technically a 3-roll system, since you roll each for the alien's natural abilities, cosmetic appearance and cultural background, but it still should be doable in just a few minutes.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2015 20:39

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZypherIM posted:

Hrmm, that roll distribution chart is pretty nice actually. Think I can work something decent up with that.

I'll try messing with your generator a bit! One thing that seems off as I'm just looking over it is the 2 sets seem kind of weak, while the 5 sets seem too strong. Like +1 STAT and +1 skill is 6 points, AR1 to 1 location is probably less than that, etc. For example, the #1 set, 2x1 gives you +1 stat +1 skill, while 5x1 gives +stat AND a wd.

The 2xY sets should be roughly twice as good as the rest of the steps (3xY, 4xY, 5xY), because you're using 2 dice to get them. Reign uses 5 points worth of stuff for each die (set or waste), I'm not sure what your target was.

Ignoring that bit, so far the themes on the sets are neat, and the waste dice match nicely with shoring up what they'll be missing from not having that in a set.

Yeah I'm still working on dialing in the proper numbers for stats and skills. The goal is to create a baseline to start a character at, not a fully functioning one. That's why if you get multiple +Stats from the Culture roll, you can only actually pick, at most 2d worth.

Obviously I adapted the Culture roll especially from the Professions in Reign, and they actually match-up pretty much 1 to 1 (Beggar becomes Scavenger, Sorcerer becomes Scientist).

One thing I've wrestled with is that with these systems, to a point, you'll get more Waste/Loose dice than sets, and then as soon as you surpass that point you get way more Sets than Waste/Loose. I'm not entirely sure where that tipping point is yet; it might be past 10d.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 01:04

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZypherIM posted:

I'm not sure probabilities for sets and larger sets or whatever, but you aren't 100% getting a set until 11d (which is why you roll that for the random table). If the point cost on everything is X per die, it doesn't matter if people get more or less waste dice. Less waste dice just turns into a character more focused on something (like they are huuuuge!), while someone with a lot of waste dice is more generalized. One reason there are 3 tables for waste dice in the reign book I think is so you can put a variety of stuff for each dice, and the person can pick to customize a bit.

I didn't actually get to the culture stuff originally. Looking at your culture tables, some of the same stuff jumps out. 2x1 gives +STAT +Skill (6 points), while 5x1 is giving +STAT +wd (12 points) yet 3x1 and 4x1 both are 2 +Skill (2 points). I like the flavor of the events, but if you're giving them restrictions on when those are usable they should be stronger than the average amount of points per die. If you're only letting them take 1 event, it should also get scaled by the # of waste dice they have, or have an instruction to spend extra waste dice times your average points per die like normal point buy.

The idea of the Culture Roll, and the One Roll Xenotype system in general, is that you're creating a template not just for your character but for any character, whether PC or NPC, who wants to play that species. So the idea behind only choosing one Event for a character is in fact to introduce more uniqueness for characters within a Xenotype that has been shaped by many different events in its past. Two characters can be from a species that experienced a Collapse and was then Uplifted; one character embraces the hardiness of their savage past, while another throws themselves into the future.

Thanks for pointing out my point imbalances, I appreciate it. The reasoning behind why 2x generally has more value than 3x and 4x is that it's fairly easy to get a set of 2x, but since your character can only adopt at most 2d worth of Stats from their Culture, it doesn't really matter if they roll 2x six times and get +1d to every Stat-- that just means they have more options, not more power. 5x is of course significantly more valuable because it has Stats and special dice, but it's also very rare to get a set with that much Width unless you're rolling huge numbers of dice; and again, you can only take at most +2d worth of Stats, which I think mitigates the power creep. I may be wrong though, it clearly needs more testing.

quote:

It kind of feels like you expect to see more sets than expected. After adjusting numbers, maybe think about something along the lines of "roll 15d, you can pick off of race/culture tables, have to take at least one from each. reroll any dice past 5 width". That should guarantee 2 sets minimum (a 5-width puts you at 10 dice for 9 numbers). Can always do something like "roll 1d and set 2 more dice to the result, then roll 7d more" if you want to guarantee a set of some size.

I think subconsciously that's exactly what I'm doing-- focusing more on Sets than Loose dice (I play more Wild Talents than Reign, so I tend towards its terminology), while it's fairly unlikely that you'll get more than 1 set unless you're rolling very high numbers of dice. That's probably because the Set progression is more fun to write.

I'm going to address this when in the complete document using a preface to the One Roll [X] appendices (I also have one roll planets and one roll monsters in early draft form) by presenting several different ways of actually doing the roll:

1.) Pure Chance: What you roll is what you get. No fudging. This will generally produce more Loose Dice than Sets unless you are rolling 11d or more.
2.) Loose Reroll: If you only get one Set, reroll your Loose Dice until you get another. You can repeat this as many times as you want.
3.) Set Stacking: Pretty much what you said. Roll 1d+1wd to create a set, then roll the rest of your dice.
4.) True One Roll: Also what you said. You do one roll for all three Xenotype aspects. You need at least one set for each aspect, and should reroll as necessary.

Thanks for your input again, by the way. Aside from my wife you're the first person to give me actually informed input on this stuff, thanks mostly to the fact I think that ORE is still a pretty obscure system.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 14:40

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Here's a slightly updated Draft that includes the preface I mentioned along with the four approaches which should help people handle their dice better.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 20:11

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Couple things:

quote:

I'm not sure probabilities for sets and larger sets or whatever, but you aren't 100% getting a set until 11d (which is why you roll that for the random table). If the point cost on everything is X per die, it doesn't matter if people get more or less waste dice. Less waste dice just turns into a character more focused on something (like they are huuuuge!), while someone with a lot of waste dice is more generalized. One reason there are 3 tables for waste dice in the reign book I think is so you can put a variety of stuff for each dice, and the person can pick to customize a bit

I hadn't grokked it when I read this post at first, but I was rereading the Enchiridion and finally grasped the Mathematical underpinning behind the One Roll character gen in REIGN, and how it ties into the 85 point value of a Beginner PC. So I'm grateful for your post, ZipherIM, since it pointed me in a good direction for my own project.

I have a question for the thread though. I'm sure it's been brought up in the thread before, but how do you work around the fact that it's almost always easier to hit someone than it is to defend against that hit? Specifically when Called Shots and Special Dice come into play. It's a total nightmare in Wild Talents, of course, since by design there are no limits to the availability of special dice, meaning that someone with a Wiggle Die in an Attack Power can ALWAYS guarantee at least one set made for a Called Shot, but even in REIGN I'm detecting that the inequity is there. It's worse of course when dealing with called shots to the head, which requires the defender to make a technically more difficult set to protect herself, but in general ORE combat seems to favor offense over defense; since a faster set with gobble a dice from a slower set, the best way to protect yourself from damage is to hurt the other guy before they get you. Defense to me has always felt like kind of a wasted action.

Are there any established solutions for handling this? I've thought of a couple but I haven't put them to the test yet.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2015 20:38

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Ambi posted:

Inverting the hit location difficulty for called shots works, but then you run into problems with Squishing sets (if I'm remembering the terminology right) and some Martial Disciplines I think? It's a weird thing that Dodging a sweep to the legs is much much easier than avoiding a headshot.

Inverting hit locations was my first thought to address things, but it's not thematically appropriate; in ORE a 10 is always the best possible outcome, and in an attack it's the deadliest possible hit. Making that true for everything except fighting to me seems like a step in the wrong direction.

Here's what I've come up with:

Called Defense: If the problem is Called Shots, then the solution might be to allow for a "Called Defense" of sorts that works the exact same way-- you lose 1d, and set another the area you want to defend. The catch here would be that your Gobble Dice can ONLY be used against an attack targeting that location. If you do a "Called Defense" and set your dice to 10 and end up with a 2x10, but your opponent gets a 2x8, then you still take damage because while you protected your head you left your torso open for attack.

The upside is that works very well in the Declare-Roll-Resolve system (if you Sense an attack coming you can better prepare for it), and it has a good trade-off (protecting your vitals in exchange for leaving your other areas open). The downside is that Gobble Dice don't ever work that way anywhere else in the game.

Interference: Essentially, Defense rolls sort of ignore the Speed aspect of the Resolve phase. Tud attacks Blanca with a 3x2, and Blanca defends with a 2x5, Blanca can still use his 2x5 as Gobble Dice and break Tud's attack because they have superior Height. This doesn't necessarily solve the issue of headshots being easier to hit than to dodge, but it makes defense easier; perhaps too easier, though.

Defense always gets Max Gobble Dice: A more extreme idea, what if a defense set always gets treated as if it has a Height of 10? This would totally change the dynamic of combat in favor of the defender, but it would make protecting your neck easier

Loose Defense: Defense rolls don't need a Set to create Gobble Dice. If you roll 10d and get no matches, you can use your highest Loose Die (10 in this case) as a lone Gobble Dice. This would also re-balance combat in favor of defense, as it would mean that any attackers are basically up against a variable difficulty every time they act, or else need at least a Width of 3 to accomplish anything. Morevoer, again, nothing else in the game actually works this way.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2015 22:18

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Yeah Heavy Armor in WT is hilariously powerful (breaking any Attack set with less than 3 Width? Don't mind if I do!), coupled with the fact that there are a.) no downsides to having Heavy Armor and b.)nothing really to restrict a character from having it. At least REIGN sort of gates armor behind the Wealth/Possession system, which I really like and am in the process of translating into a sci-fi setting.

The houserule that I've been using is that if you Block an attack, and you have left-over Gobble Dice after breaking any attacking Sets that hit you, you can carry that extra Gobble Dice into your next turn as a 1d bonus to an Attack. So it creates kind of a momentum system where if you defend yourself well enough you can get an edge on offense as well-- like knocking aside your opponent's blow to create an opening for your own attack. It doesn't make defense easier, per se, but it does make it a more desirable option.

Given that the homebrew I'm working on is a mash-up of Wild Talents and REIGN optimized for space adventures, it's also going to have WT's special moves and Willpower system, so you can opt to take a 1d penalty to add +1 Width for Speed on a Defensive action, which could be interpreted as effectively giving you another Gobble Dice in most situations. That would also help address the inequity.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2015 18:57

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZypherIM posted:

Glad that my yammering was helpful! I really like the ideas on how they made the one roll char generation. They're sort of point buy packages that you're randomly selecting. Eclipse phase has something similar in the transhuman book. If you have access to that, it might be interesting to look at their tables and stuff for more table idea action.

I don't think you can ruin defensive sets? At least in reign it specifically says the sets become gobble dice. None of the examples show a multi-attack where one goes before the defense though. The way I read it was your successful dodge or whatever of 2x5 turns into 2 gobble dices going off at speed 2 and height 5. I'm a fan of house rules being less complicated or just changing restrictions on existing things, otherwise it starts to get a bit too .. gooey.

Here's what the Enchirdion says about Defense in the Combat chapter about Dodge:

quote:

Match sets from Dodge rolls become Gobble Dice (described on page 14). Each one can cancel out a die from a set. Dodging, you can apply Gobble Dice as long as (1) the Width of the Dodge roll lets you react in time and (2) the Gobble Die has equal or greater Height than the attack die.

Example: The bully pulls out a dagger. Hokoto decides to dodge for a round. He gets a 2x8 result, and his attacker gets a 3x1. While Hokoto�s Gobble Dice are Higher, the 3x1 attack gets resolved first, and Hokoto�s leg is sliced before he has a chance to react. Hokoto dodges again and gets a 3x1 while the knife-fighter gets the 2x8. Hokoto still gets hit�he acts first, but his Gobble Dice are weak 1s and useless against stout 8s.

In the third round Hokoto gets lucky. The bully strikes twice and gets a 2x2 and a 2x5. Hokoto�s dodge roll yields a 2x6. With his two Gobble 6s, he cancels one die from the attacker�s 2x2 attack (reducing it to 1x2, which isn�t a match) and another from the attacker�s 2x5 attack, ruining two strikes with one set.

(Parry works the same way, with the stipulations that it requires something to Parry with, and that it can be used to protect other people)

The example actually does a good job at highlighting how balanced against Defense combat is, perhaps intentionally. Hokuto's defense fails twice-- the first time because he doesn't have enough Width, and the second time because his Height is too low. Attacking can get by with just having good Width OR good Height most of the time, but not defense. You need both, which is something that I find very frustrating with the ORE.

What if instead, Dodge and Parry worked slightly differently? With Dodge, which prioritizes speed, you need to beat your opponent's Width, without needing to worry about Height; while with Parry, you generate Gobble Dice that work irrespective of speed.

Here's how it could play out:

quote:

Lin attacks Wen with a straight-sword. On the first round, Lin attacks with a 2x9, and Wen Dodges with a 3x1. Because Wen's Dodge is faster, he's able to sidestep Lin's attack. On the second round, Lin attacks again and takes a -1d penalty to add +1 Width for Speed, and Wen Dodges again. Lin rolls a 2x7, which becomes a 3x7 for Speed, and Wen rolls a 3x9. Since Wen did not beat Lin's speed, he gets hit, even though he had more Height, since Dodge cares more about speed than height.

In round 3, Lin attacks again and Wen changes up his strategy and tries to Parry with his quarterstaff. Lin rolls a 3x5 and Wen rolls a 2x8. Lin's attack is fast, but Wen's defense is too strong for Lin to pierce; Wen's 8's Gobble two of Lin's dice and break his set. Round 4 repeats, but Lin rolls an amazing 5x6. Wen's defense is another 2x8, but he's only able to whittle Lin's attack down to 3x6, which breaks through his defense and damages him

This would give a bit more mechanical variety to Defense; as stated there's no real clear reason to use one Defense over the other, aside from the fact that you can't Parry weapon attacks while unarmed or unarmored. Do you think it's too complex?

# ¿ Dec 24, 2015 17:08

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Wild Talents has an optional rule where you can shift damage down to a lower location by spending width in willpower, which is probably the easiest way to increase survivability in that game. It has a nice dynamic actually- against strong enemies it turns fights into battles of will instead of pure muscle and firepower.

EDIT: Also I was playing earlier this evening and experimenting with different ways of doing defense, and here's what I found:

-Trying to mess around with how Defense explicitly works is inviting trouble, and it hurts the flow of the game. ORE's strength is its speed and simplicity, with Defense being kind of a specialty; most characters won't be able to effectively use Dodge and Block unless they are specifically trained in it. This of course makes sense: it's easier to punch someone than it is to block that punch.

-Simultaneous attack and defense using multiple actions invites confusion and slows down combat, even between two combatants. It's good in theory but in practice it winds up being just unfun.

What we settled on is the following: we devised two new special maneuvers (we're playing Wild Talents but they could very easily be used in REIGN), which can be used at a cost of -1d

Fast Guard: Gain +1 Width for Defense Purposes
Strong Guard: Gain +2 Height of Defense Purposes (cannot exceed Height 10)

These can obviously be used together at a total penalty of -2d, which is a pretty significant drop for a character lacking a large Dodge or Block pool, but as a result it can allow a character to far improve his chances at protecting himself.

Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Dec 25, 2015

# ¿ Dec 24, 2015 23:43

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

I've got a question about XP in REIGN.

According to the rules for Character Development, it says that it costs 1 XP to promote a Skill Die to an Expert Die, and it costs 5 XP to promote an Expert Die to a Master Die.

However, in the description for the "Knack for Learning" Advantage (in Enchiridion, at least), it says the following:

quote:

Pick one Skill. When you improve that Skill, whether by buying more ranks in it or by promoting dice into Expert or Master, the XP cost for the Improvement drops by 1. (If you have Knack for Dodge, getting your second level of Dodge Skill costs 1 point instead of 2, promoting a level to Expert costs 9 XP instead of 10, and promoting an ED to Master costs 14 instead of 15.)

These two pieces of math seem contradictory. Am I missing something, or is it just an editorial mistake?

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 02:20

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

ZypherIM posted:

Version I have says

So looks like a misprint or errata'd.

Okay, I thought I was totally misinterpreting something with the rules. I've actually noticed several misprints and other things in the Enchiridion, so it wouldn't surprise me if that particular thing got screwed up.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2015 05:18

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Long post incoming.

I want to run something by the thread, having to do with my current ORE homebrew project.

I'm working on a way to take the Power building components of Wild Talents and transport them into the framework of REIGN. The goal is to create a unified system for creating three things: unique, specialized pieces of technology; bizarre biological abilities and components; and esoteric techniques like secret martial arts maneuvers. Since WT and REIGN use very different point economies, this requires a good amount of finagling to make work.

Here�s what I�ve come up with. I�m calling them Marvels.

All Marvels have the following Aspects:

1. Form
2. Theory
3. A Skill that you roll to use the Marvel
4. At least one Function

Form: Form defines the Marvel�s state in the universe. There are three possible Forms:
Built- A Built Marvel is a piece of constructed technology, or some kind of artifact. Choosing the Built form gives you a -1 point deduction from the Marvel�s cost.
Grown- A Grown Marvel is a part of its user�s biology and/or anatomy. The Grown Form doesn�t affect the Marvel�s Cost.
Learned- A Learned Marvel is a special technique or art that the user has been trained in. Marvels with the Learned form have an additional 1 Point cost to them.

Theory: Theory establishes the sci-fi underpining that makes the Marvel possible. In a sense, it carries over the idea of Sources from Wild Talent�s Archetypes system. There�s no real mechanical aspect to a Theory-- it�s mostly a narrative device and a way for the user to make-up technobabble to support his abilities. Like Sources in Wild Talents, I�ve put together a list of Theories that can be picked from.

Skill: Unlike WT, where Powers typically have their own Skill pool, Marvels are used by making a Stat + Skill roll. The Skill involved may be an existing skill, like Athletics or Fascinate, or it may be a wholly unique skill, like Mind + Telekinesis. If the Marvel uses a unique skill, then it gets a -1 point reduction to its cost.

Function: What Wild Talent�s calls Meta-Qualities. Since Qualities in REIGN means something completely different, this requires a different name, and I like the idea of a Marvel being defined by Form and Function. There are three Functions, same as in WT, and cost 2 Points each:
Attacks- A Marvel with the Attacks Function inflicts Damage, starting at Width in Shock
Defends- A Marvel with the Defends Function generates Gobble Dice against Attacks
Useful- A Marvel with the Useful Function does anything else not related to inflicting or preventing damage.

A Marvel must have at least one Function, but can have as many as the designer wants and can afford.

A Marvel�s Function must have a Target, which are as follows:
Self: The Function only affects the user
Range: The Function exerts its effect at a distance
Mass: The Function affects an object within reach
Augment: This is a departure from Wild Talents. Augment means that the Function doesn�t have its own Target parameters, but instead modifies the output of an existing Skill. In other words, it�s baking in the Augments Extra. Augments is primarily used with the Attacks Function, where it can be used to add Extras to your attack rolls to create unique combat techniques, similar to REIGN�s Martial Paths. If you have an Attacks Augment Function, then your default damage and range is whatever the Attack Skill would normally have-- so if your Marvel Augments your Brawling Skill, you�re still doing Width in Shock at melee range, but it can add damage or Extras to the attack.

Extras and Flaws: These largely work in the same way as they do in Wild Talents. I want to also bring in Extras and Flaws derived from the Esoteric Discipline Effects listed in REIGN in order to broaden the scope of the Miracles system.

Putting it Together: In Wild Talents, once you build a Miracle you wind up with a Points per Die Cost, which you then invest in to build a dice pool for that Power. With Marvels, you aren�t buying a Dice Pool, you�re buying the Marvel itself, all at once or in part (so if you have a Learned Marvel that represents a combat school, you can acquire its Functions individually).

For Example, let�s say you want to create a Marvel that creates a Zero-Point Energy Field that freeze someone in place. This can be done by adapting an existing power from the Wild Talents Miracle Cafeteria with the Containment power, which normally costs 4 points per die. Here�s how it could be done with the Marvels system, with some minor variations:

Zero Point Containment Field Projector (Total Cost: 4 Points)
Built (-1 Point) / Relativity and Topology
Skill: Mind + Field Manipulation
Useful Range and Mass (4 Points)
Extras: Duration (2 Points)
Flaws: Unique Skill (-1 Point)
This device projects a field of zero-point energy that prevents an object or character from moving for Width turns (or 10 seconds per Width if not in combat). A character contained by this device can make a Brawling check to escape if they are able to beat the Height of the initial Set which contained them.

A player can acquire this piece of equipment for his character at a cost of 4 Points; to use it, he has to Roll Mind + Field Manipulation; since Field Manipulation isn�t a common skill like Athletics or Scrutiny, it counts as a -1 Flaw for the Projector. That Skill may serve no other purpose other than allowing the character to use the Projector, unless he acquires some other Marvel that also uses the Field Manipulation Skill, like an Electromagnetic Field controller.

The tl;dr version: you buy special gear, organs or techniques for a lump sum, and use them by rolling either a common skill or a specialized skill.

Any thoughts on this? Major ideas that I�m missing? Is this a fundamentally flawed approach or am I onto something?

# ¿ Jan 1, 2016 23:39

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

So I've put together a few new Advantages for using REIGN in a sci-fi space adventure setting. Dropbox link here

Thoughts? Anything I should tune up/down? Especially re: Enhanced Body Parts. Oh and Implanted Weapon is meant to be a more flexible/generic replacement for Cannibal Smile.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 17:56

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

Looking for some input here regarding Martial Paths.

I'm building some new Paths for my ORE homebrew; in the past I've not done much with Martial Paths but I wanted to come up with some that were interesting and (I thought) unique.

Homebrewed Martial Paths

Any feedback for these ideas? Do any stand out as being too weak or too strong for their point progression?

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 20:49

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

inklesspen posted:

So the Reign Enchiridion explains how to build new Esoteric Disciplines, Spells and Spell Schools, and monsters. But try as I might, I can't find any guidance on building new Martial Disciplines/Paths. Has anyone seen anything like this?

Unfortunately not. If you study the Paths in Reign and in the supplements there isn't really a cohesive strategy behind them as there is with the Esoteric Disciplines, apart from the "Spread vs Stack" idea that Stolze rights about in the Reign corebook. It's pretty much "Does this seem cool and flavorful? Is it not too terribly overpowered? Great!"

I'm sure that you could reverse engineer a Build Your Own Martial Paths system but it wouldn't be easy.

I've cranked out 7 Martial Paths for the ORE Homebrew I'm working on, and they're all pretty much based around the idea of "do these at least seem like they are relatively balanced against the core Paths?"

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 16:47

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

inklesspen posted:

Ok, sounds good. I'm going to have to make some wushu martial paths shortly, so I wanted to gather all available guidance on doing so. Thanks!

Would you be interested in sharing? I've been hammering away at some Paths (for a space-oriented adventure), and I'd love to compare notes with someone.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 18:37

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

I think the second and third techniques could be switched, as the second power is actually pretty powerful in that you can pretty much shut down a fighter's ability to escape a fight completely; especially when combined with the fourth technique, where you can do it with extra speed.

The path itself is good, though. It's definitely capturing a the wuxia style that you're going for, where it's all about speed and flashy movements, with the fifth technique representing extreme precision. I can actually picture a kung-fu film where the spear fighter is gradually stripping away his enemy's armor as it goes on. Very evocative. I wonder though if that last skill is a little underpowered. There are plenty of lower-level techniques in other paths can ignore or negate armor and deal full damage. You could instead make it like Shield Riving, the 3-Point technique for the Broadcutter's Path in the firsts Reign supplement. That deals no damage but destroys Width in armor. Since this is a 5-Point technique, you could probably get away with it dealing Shock as well as Width in armor destruction. That's just my thought process though.

How about instead of Serpent Style you go with something like Scorpion Style? The techniques you've made to me might evoke a scorpion's tale striking rapidly better.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2016 04:17

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:53

Strange Matter: Oct 6, 2009; Ask me about Genocide

I'd say go Feint, Mook Blocking, Interpose, +Speed and Armor Stripping.

As far as language for +Speed, all you need to say is "This technique doesn't affect the speed of any other martial techniques along this path", in the same way that you largely already have.

Here's a Path I've put together that I'm somewhat uncertain about. It's a path for heavy or great weapons that isn't particularly picky about what kind of weapon you use, as long as it's real big. As a result it uses Body + Weapon instead of Coordination, as strength is as important if not more so than dexterity.

I'm just wondering here if I'm making this path too damaging. It's mitigated somewhat in that most of the techniques have a -1 Width for timing purposes penalty, but it may be overpowered still.

Full Swing (1 Point): A Full Swing attack trades speed for damage. During the Resolve phase, your attack acts as if it has one less Width for speed purposes, but one more Width for damage.

Unstoppable Cleaving (2 Points): As Full Swing. In addition, you won�t lose a die from your Set when you�re hit by an enemy attack.

Follow Through (3 Points): As Full Swing. You can Declare two targets for your attack. This differs from performing Multiple Actions because you use the same set for both victims. You need to specify who gets hit first: if the first target successfully Blocks your attack, the attack will fail against both foes.

Giant Impact (4 Points): Any attack you make with your heavy weapon penetrates up to AR1. If your attack is successfully Blocked, your opponent will take 1 Shock to the hit location that sustained the block.

When using Full Swing, you can penetrate up to AR3, and inflict Width in Shock when your attack is Blocked. This technique�s penetration only affects armor provided by equipment. It�s not effective against armor granted by Martial Techniques.

Cut Them Down to Size (5 Points): As Full Swing. As long as you�re facing a foe of equal or greater size to yourself, you can squish your Body + Weapon Set�s Height downwards, at a rate of 2 Height for 1 Width.

This has the effect of allowing you to turn any attack (against a foe with conventional hit locations, at any rate) that would normally hit an enemy in the torso or head into an even more powerful attack against their arms or legs. Since this technique can only be used when you�re Full Swinging, it will resolve one Width slower than it normally would, but it allows you to rack up truly immense sums of damage.

Here's the fluff:

quote:

Titanomachy
This extreme form of combat training has its roots in the Quarantine Fleet that stands between civilized space and the wild onslaught of Metacoral-born monstrosities that dwell within the Reef. Anthogens, the half-plant, half-animal footsoldiers of the Metacoral, are highly resistant to most forms of ranged attack, including directed energy, guided explosives and even old-fashioned projectile guns. Quarantine hunters therefore engage their quarry at close quarters. This became increasingly difficult as whatever intelligence guides the Metacoral adapted its approach and began engineering anthogens of immense size, against which an entire battalion of hunters were risked.

In response, inventive hunters lacking in self-preservation instincts came up with a straightforward solution to the problem of bigger foes: bigger weapons. Man-sized swords, axes, spears and hammers that before seemed like gimmicks or showpieces suddenly filled, or rather smashed into, a vital niche. The techniques and arduous training needed to master these otherwise impractical arms became Titanomachy, the school of giant slaying. Though these techniques were invented for use against adversaries much larger than the user, there�s nothing to stop a hunter from employing them against foes his own size-- to devastating effect.

Titanomachy uses Body + Weapon Skill, and can be used with any kind of heavy or great weapon. Hunters in the Quarantine Fleet prefer massive swords and axes, but some have found use for immense clubs and hammers, and the techniques of Titanomachy are just as useful. Since Titanomachy uses such weapons, it�s impossible to make use of these techniques with less than 4d in Body.

Unless otherwise stated, Titanomachy technique can�t be used with multiple actions, only as single attacks.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2016 20:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, One Roll Engine) Appreciation Station

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