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Minutia posted:The Gnoll Slumber Party I was reading saying "this sounds like Paranoia", but that part sealed it.
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Mar 12, 2013 22:49
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Explosions, Weather, Hamstrings One of the benefit of a recurring gaming group is being able to give certain characters the spotlight. Last session the ranger was a bit out of her element in the dwarven mines, so I made sure this adventure had plenty of overland travel. We introduced a new adventurer, the Storm Mage Andromeda. In brief: The party ventured into the human city of Rosebluff and investigated a supernatural winter. They also found out that someone was sabotaging the Adventurer's Guild. Specifically, by blowing up its guild house. Things that Arodef the ranger did this session: *Kept watch over an investigation site, where she caught a pair of town-guard impersonators in a lie. (The real town watch had seen them them their earlier, and told them the storms had destroyed the buildings. I slipped up OOC by saying "blown up buildings", and improvised that they were a lead!) *Tracked down two footpads through a new city's twisty streets *Navigated a group of "indoor folk" through blistering winter storms, twice. *Communed with an elven supremicist, Sunflower, and convinced her to surrender her control of the Weatherstone, to stop warping local weather, and to disperse her elvish colony. (This was a particularly tearful moment, as Arodef made Sunflower realize that all of her efforts to exclude made her a failure...and no better than humans.) *Shot an ogre in the hamstring from 103 yards away, crippling it, and saving the party's escape boat. Moral: Make your players feel awesome! Give them challenges they can solve, and then test the very limits of their character.
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Mar 17, 2013 05:29
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Patchwork Shaman posted:When I DM, characters with names like "Fedora" spelled backwards live a trying and often short life of hardship. I do have the decency to mention this during chargen though. ...but that's my player's name backwords?  It reminds me of the old WCW bit. "RELLIK IS KILLER BACKWARDS!"
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Mar 17, 2013 19:08
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I'd combine two of his roles, so you could eat cockroaches but be allergic to bees.
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Mar 20, 2013 05:12
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If your players are motivated by loot, then give'em loot. Then make'em fight like hell for it. In Paranoia, I've had stolen loot be dangerous, loud, and/or wanted by other people. (Including a car whose alarm was just repeating "HEY! Stop it, mister!") Sometimes, the statue becomes the story - and if adventurers are smart enough to go into tombs, someone's smart enough to try and mug them, tax them, or falsely appraise the goods when they return. Or it's a statue of the mayor's long dead wife.
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Mar 20, 2013 21:28
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My party is really, really good at following logical trails...even if it hurts them. I had two of my players get invited to an archery competition; prize was two tickets to the masquerade royal ball the players needed to get into. The entry fee was a substantial amount of gold. The players would compete against the Split Arrow Tavern owner's son, Rickerd. I asked if anyone wanted to place bets. The thief bet on the markswoman*. Despite cheating from both sides, the ranger won, and the ranger and archer split the tickets. The rest of the party was kicked out of the bar, for cheating and/or discovering the place had been cheating. The party later found a bunch of identical flyers for the Split Arrow Tavern. The artificer, mage and thief went to the docks, following the rumors of a printing press. Inside the hidden printing room, the mage discovered what was being printed: forged invitations to the royal ball, and posters for the Split Arrow. She grabbed three invitations and escaped the boat. We took a break, and when we came back everyone described how they were outfitting their grubby adventurers for the ball. They took a teleportation circle up to the top of the penthouse, and entered... When someone mentioned, nobody had looked at their tickets. They just assumed they had them. Then someone else realized...the ads for the Split Arrow and the forged tickets came from the same place. Everyone realized... Even the tickets they won were fake.
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Mar 24, 2013 02:41
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It sounds like you should be on clone 2 of your 6 pack. If you don't like it, have you talked to the other players and GM OOC about game expectations?
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Mar 25, 2013 21:39
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I can't fathom replaying an adventure you've played before. Maybe with an edition change and some time ("Hey, everyone roll someone up, we're doing Keep On The Borderlands!"), but if you know what happens, that's almost all the fun. It's not like a book or movie, it's an active experience.
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Mar 27, 2013 07:05
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Brilliant session today, but it shows how the Dungeon World system requires creativity. I asked how the Dwarven Paladin got to the human capital city, expecting a religious mission, a political trip, etc. He was last seen 4-5 sessions ago, so I figured there'd be a good solid reason. The player said he was sold into slavery. Huh. This caused an awesome, totally unscripted derail. I asked the ranger for the name of her god (and we all had a good laugh when she suggested Howard. She settled on something else). I started the game off in a dingy alley, where the players encounted an illegal slave auction. When the players refused to bid on their friend, Sir Lucia, he was purchased by the dread necromancer Howard. Watson the inventor bribed a guard to tell him where Howard was hanging out, leading to the following exchange: Watson said "I already offered you ten! You can't up your bribe price!" Guard responds, "I'm the guard of an illegal slave auction. Nice doing business with ya." The players then stormed the Courtesan's Brazier, a high class gentleman and gentlewoman's club*. I switched up the music playlist (normally fantasy/actiony stuff) to Pour Some Sugar on Me. The entire sequence ended with Watson, disguised as Garri the serving boy, accidentally flirting with Howard during an assassination attempt. (I think the line was, "Is that a projection rod?/It can be. Wait, damnit.") Now the party owes a 400 coin favor to a Necromancer, in addition to the troubles they got into during the actual adventure I wrote. Luckily, I can tie that into another adventure front... *Again, all improvised. It was originally a hotel but I lateraled. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Apr 21, 2013 08:25
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And I felt awkward about having my characters visit a strip club. Huh.
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Apr 23, 2013 21:06
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Jesus Christ. That post makes me want to sympathize with the monk and/or blank every post I've made on this site. It's like finding out the Red Cross is a violent separatist movement and I just sent them three months rent.
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Apr 28, 2013 09:59
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"First I was holding a beer. Then I was holding a gun. Then I was holding two guns. Then I was holding two beers." -Ricky Chaz DiGornio, Soul of the Band. I finally played Fiasco with the Touring Rock Band playset, and it was my funniest session ever. I played Jackyl Vice, 40 something British Rock God. I was Best Friends with Ricky Chaz, who was a parisitic sidekick to the awesome bassist Brandi Shade. She was a twin sister of Donny Shade, AKA Tommy Rainbows, formerly of the Wiggles. The only one who knew this was Jackyl. Our band was We started off with Jackyl telling Donny to upload his blackmail footage to Youtube, since Jackyl didn't get computers. Donny agreed but secretly destroyed the tape. Chaz tried to convince Brooke of the importance of going to Chadwick, Ohio, the home of Lenny Subwarski, aka Leonard, aka Lenny. Lenny had a junkyard that was a pyrotechnic utopia. Brooke wasn't interested in Chaz, so Chaz bribed the bus driver Tito to make a detour. We flashed back to Donny and Chaz meeting at a lovely tattoo parlor. The owner/operator was mad at Chaz for repeatedly recruiting there, and changing the band name constantly. He accused Chaz of doing it deliberately, so the t-shirts Chaz paid with were useless. Donny, after reading Lenny's blog, got his carebear tattoos turned satanic. It hurt, a lot. We decided to flash forward. Everyone exited the tour bus on the second day in Chadwick, and the barn was on fire. Leonard wasn't home, and his place was closed down. Earlier that day, Brandi found a bloody spear gun in her possession, and hid it under a drunken Jackyl's bed: He'd been a real rear end when she joined the band. For his part, Jackyl worked hard to remember the name of band members before they died. (Although he remembered Randy's; Randy lost a foot in an explosion, and Jackyl had it preserved in his kitchen as a keepsake). We flashed back to before the show; everyone meets Lenny, and he has a polite fascination with Brandi Shade. He also tells Donny that his niece loves Donny's music; when asked how old she is, Lenny says she's eight. The group convinces Lenny to supply the show with as much pyro as he can sell. The town will never forget Gangbang Conception. --- The tilt introduced "A Showdown" and "Magnificent Self Destruction." We cut to Day 1 of Chadwick; Brandi receives a text from Jackyl, inviting her to a party at the mayor's house. There, he surprises her by having a flawless British accent (learned during 3 overseas stints in rehab), a propensity for loquaciousness, and most unlikely of all, by having the gall to apologize. He'd been a right prick and felt awful. The mayor was extremely interested in Brandi, despite her showing up to a fancy party in an off-the-shoulder tanktop. Donny, pissed that he was recognized as a former Wiggle and ditched by Brandi, goes to the liquor store. He tosses hundreds of bucks on the counter and buys not only tons and tons of liquor, but a shopping cart, which he takes to the local high school. There he meets the best NPCs ever, a Yugoslavian 11 year old (who's really 17), a chain smoking jock, and his deaf, Metal-loving girlfriend. Donny gives them liquor in exchange for attending the show. We flashback to the show. Jackyl is killing it, playing an old organ that Leonard found. He cues Brandi for a bass solo (her first of the tour), and she knocks it out of the park. The mayor cuts her a check backstage for 'cultivating the arts'. Lenny brings in a wheelchair full of explosives for the band's breakout hit, Death Support (about Jackyl's hatred of tech support). Jackyl is talking to Lenny between songs, and brings up that Donny was a good singer when the topic is brushing one's teeth. The wasted Donny overhears this and begins slapping Jackyl. Jackyl demands to know if he signed a contract, and when Donny says he hasn't, Jackyl refuses to hit him. Unfortunately, Donny won't stop, so Jackyl hits him with a mic stand, opening a huge gash in Donny's cheek. Donny grabs a speargun, tosses it to his sister...who shoots Lenny. Jackyl runs as a series of drunken crowd members tear up the equipment, setting a fire. --- Back in the present day, Jackyl and Chaz talk about the band's future. Chaz wants to take the band to the next level...and call the band Next Level. Jackyl demands that Chaz get everyone together and leave town, IMMEDIATELY. There's no way he can smooth over burning down a concert venue. Donny gets nabbed by the cops and pinned to Lenny's murder, as well as aiding in the delinquency of minors and arson. He can't talk his way out of it; he's all out of good luck. Chaz is about to do get the bus rolling when Brandi stops him. She'll give him a date if they break her sister out of prison. All he has to do is choose the girl over the band. Chaz calls for the tour bus to STOP!, but Brandi gets caught in the door and badly sprains her arm. In the final scene of the game, Chaz and Brandi break into the police station. They're drawn on by the city's two cops, but Chaz has a trick...he throws a dog kennel at them. Inside the kennel is the mayor. The cops freeze, the band gets the drop on them and they free Donny! Unfortunately, as they get to the street...the tour bus is gone. They see it roll off over the horizon, with only Jackyl aboard. ---- During the aftermath, here's how the rolls went: Brandi: 1. Donny: 2. Jackyl: 10. Chaz: 0. (An 11 is perfect; a 0 is a fate worse than death). Jackyl laughed his way over the horizon, going through Brandi's things and signing the check over to himself. The rest of the band ran through the streets, trying not to get shot by the cops. Donny was badly winged. They reached Leonard's and forced their way inside. The cops fired wildly, setting off all of Leonard's internal pyro (which he was using, with theme music, to make entering his house wicked awesome). Jackyl found a bloody speargun under his bed...and vowed to get rid of it ASAP. The house exploded, with the bang visible from space. Chaz only barely avoids saving Brandi, and is launched through the house, out a window, and into a cop car (totaling it). Donny, Brandi, and much of Chadwick is obliterated. Jackyl stops at a gas station, and finds three teenagers (one deaf) hanging out. He asks them, 'Do You lot Rock?' They bow their heads and threw up the horns. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Sep 25, 2015 |
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May 1, 2013 08:22
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Freaky Friday, Continuity, and an Arrow Up The Rhino's Arse There's nothing better way to beleaguer a group than with continuity. Everything about today's session was based on almost entirely player-created prior action, and it was perfect. The session began with the party, in the woods, being accused of the murder of Desmond Yarborough. To catch up: Five sessions ago, the party heard about the Duke of Ballywick's death. Watson (the artificer) said that the Ballywick lands contained his hometown, Stonecrest. Four sessions ago, party went to a fancy-dress ball among the nobility. The party was thrown by nobles, all trying to convince the king they should become the next Duke of Ballywick. which was attacked by two groups of assassins. The first wore white, a false-flag attack by evil trade baron Agemmemnon Bloom of the Pathmakers. The second were soldiers dressed up as orcs, who had earlier raided a Museum of Orcish War and stolen the Chest of Kalthak(described by Oria, the Markswoman) that was granted orcs extreme strength and endurance. The party stopped both murders and defended the Duke's 10-year-old-daughter, Azalia•. They suggested that the duchy should be hers when she turns 18; and before then, should be in the custody of retired admiral Desmond Yarborough. Three sessions ago, the group journeyed through Stonecrest, Watson's home town. There he was menaced by a bunch of punks, but blasted them with his steam-emitter-wand. They vowed revenge. During the tournament, they found out their rivals** had a shape-changing cleric in their retinue, and would do anything to win. --- Which all led to the following things happening^: *The party realizing their murder accusation was a ploy, confusing their opponents, and stealing their tournament points; *The party lying to a 10 year old girl about if/how her evil stepdad died, with the ranger staying and vowing to be her bodyguard; *Watson and the thief, Silk, touching a Freaky Friday gem due to their blatant mutual jealousy *The heroes returning to Stonecrest, only to find it covered in wanted posters from The Pathmakers; *The heroes finding out that the thugs Watson dealt with were now burning down his house; *Watson-as-Silk being unable to utilize his criminal network since he was acting way too kindly. The punks had one ace up their sleeve; a white, magic rhino given to them by Bloom. Watson and Silk eventually coordinated their evasion worldlessly, returning to their old bodies. As the creature passed, Oria took an opportunity to stop firefighting. She drew a bead and nocked a stun arrow, aiming for the rhino's most dangerous point: its arse. The party was barely able to escape (using an old friend's ship); Watson's arm was shattered trying to put a clockwork obedience saddle on the rhino. With his arm broken and his childhood house burnt down, the crew set sail back to Thessalia. It was time to end the Pathmakers forever. •Azalia's bodyguard, Brien, disappeared in the confusion. In a sub adventure (3 sessions ago) it turned out he was caught in an unstable time loop, caused by the mage changing character sheets and declaring her previous character never existed . **Some of recurring from earlier adventures! ^As well as other things, like the Marksman shooting the thief in the chest because she was wearing a ring of anger and he winked at her. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Sep 4, 2015 |
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May 6, 2013 01:10
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It's a golden opportunity to take a note, punt it down the road, and move on. Whoever buys huge silver doors isn't in town, but they'll be able to put the stuff in escrow. A few sessions later, homeless people steal the doors off the player's HQ.
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May 18, 2013 23:09
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My group finally faced off with the people loving with them for the last 50 hours of gameplay. The players (only 2 of which have been in since the 1st adventure) traveled through simulations of old encounters, and discovered that there was a spy among them the entire time. (I was also able to retcon that various other one-time party members were spies). Of course, they confronted the CEO of the Pathmakers in his office, a solid mile above the empire's capital city. They tried to bribe the elevator-operating Giant to turn on his boss. The Giant took their bribe and tried to throw the ranger down the elevator shaft. The party turned the combat around, but the giant hurled them around like crazy. They killed the CEO, but the archer got bull-rushed into the glass window. Then the boss's desk was kicked at her. The artificer decided to prioritize saving the CEO's mystical trinkets; the giant tried to rush out the window, and was three steps away when the archer hurled a dagger into his neck. The session ended with the archer and artificer dangling out the window, the CEO's corpse flung to the city below, and a knocking on the office door from the chief of security.
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May 20, 2013 07:47
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Chard posted:Welp I've finally made it to the end of this thread. Thanks everyone for sharing and continuing to share your great stories. Tabletop RPG gaming has, for me, been an unattainable and lifelong goal. Literally no one I've ever known has shown the slightest interest, so I don't play. loving sucks. There's a play-by-post forum only three clicks away from this one!
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May 21, 2013 00:51
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I think before you play a Paladin, the GM should ask you a few questions. (Hopefully all GMs ask players about their characters, but these Qs should set off alarm bells that can be heard in space). 1. Who are your characters friends? What do they spend their downtime doing? 2. When was the last time you had to compromise to get what you wanted? 3. How does your character relate to non-believers? 4. Where do they go when they want to keep a low profile? --- The same thing can be asked of stab-happy rogues.
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May 27, 2013 20:39
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Just played a Fiasco with the Pinnacle City Heroes playset. God, was it grim. The first incident was when Copycat, distraught over her love of Princess Dawnstar, dismissed the alien princess to go backwards one year in time, to a world where they never met. After a comedy of errors (with three heroes showing up to bank robbery that didn't have any villains), everyone teleported to Blink's apartment. His girlfriend (and Orpheus's roommate), Dawnstar, was in the shower...which Copycat teleported into. Blink revealed he wasn't an executive at the Petco where he and Orpheus worked; they were actually coworkers. He also accidentally implied he was cheating on Dawnstar with Copycat. After some romantic tiffs (one need: "To save the world...because it's your fault"; the other "To get laid...to make someone jealous"), the group made its way to the interior of the Washington Monument. Turns out it was an alien artifact, controlled by an angry, bitter Dawnstar. She had faked the bank robbery. Princess Dawnstar and Copycat, lovers unmoored by anti-alien sentiment and time travel, went back a year, to an empty cornfield outside Pinnacle City. Copycat uncovered Dawnstar's crash-pod. They kissed. --- In the aftermath, things turned into a real shitfest. In a world where Dawnstar and Copycat were together, Dawnstar didn't conceal her identity...leading to waves of anti-alien sentiment. Copycat somehow got pregnant (due to alien physiologies), but anti-alien laws got them both kicked out of their apartments and put on the street. Orpheus, who originally discovered Dawnstar, was never granted superpowers. He ended up working at Petco, in a city destroyed daily by supercrime. Blink, unburdened by the failure of others, became a huge celebrity, a corporate executive, and host to a bevvy of superbabes. Dawnstar gave up on fighting crime, and after accosting and attacking a random man (Orpheus) in an alley, left Earth forever. She harangues him with their relationship, the last words of the game: "You. You made me what I am." And she flew off, never to return. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Jun 26, 2014 |
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Jun 4, 2013 06:30
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You shouldn't make "tons of checks" anyway. Every roll should move the game forward. If it's difficult to survive, it's difficult to survive. If it steadily gets harder, then roll when things change. Only roll if the outcome can't be determined by player choice or GM giving info that the characters would know.
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Jun 9, 2013 22:32
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A key to get players involved in the game is recurring enemies. Now, they can be innocuous (an old high school friend who works at a museum, and swears revenge when the players smash the museum and get her fired). They may be incidental (the slumlord the players see once at a party and absolutely loathe.) But they should be recurring. In my Dungeon World game, the players entered a tournament. Their chief competition were dark mirrors of themselves, most competently The Professor. The Professor opposed our storm/star mage, Andromeda. He wore an armored raincoat, a plague mask, and attacked with syringes. He was also near-impossible to kill. During a spectator event, he slid up behind Andromeda and stuck her with a syringe. The paladin tried to interpose but almost fell unconcious. The ranger tried to defend her but was intercepted by another of his allies. When Andromeda regained her footing, he was gone. He appeared again and again; in magical disguise to arrest the party, as the trainer of a "Containment" team, and on a pirate ship. Now, the pirate ship was different; Andromeda was holding her own. Unfortunately, she decided to use a Forceful attack, dropping him to 1 HP...and sending him into the cannonade of the enemy ship. He begged the kind Ranger for help, and she (not knowing who he was) came closer. He stabbed her with a poison of friendship; she healed him and he slipped the noose again. A few sessions later, the mage got a love letter. It told her to meet at The Frozen Kipper, an iced-cream parlor in town. When she got there, the city guard were fighting off a deader infestation that would leave most of the party crippled. There was also one person, sitting shyly at a table, waving to her. While she knocked the undead through the restaurant, she found herself with a syringe in her chest. The Professor knocked her across the room, into a smoothie machine (which, combined with the attacks of the unliving, left her on the brink of death). Despite the party's efforts to defend her, the Professor stepped...slowly...over. He was stabbed. He was on fire. He was unstoppable. In her last desperate action, Andromeda summoned him into a black hole, banishing him from the known universe. She then fainted from the exertion. A key to good villains is having good characters. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Apr 18, 2018 |
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Jun 14, 2013 20:25
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Yesterday's Dungeon World session was terrific. Because it was Father's Day, a lot of my players were unavailable, so I brought in a ringer from the Netherlands. We attached speakers to one of the player's cell phones so we could Skype him in. It was a great choice. Our party was Casmir The Slayer Andromeda the Mage Watson the Artificer We started where last session left off, with the party escaping a crime scene. Andromeda gave an addled testimony (having nearly died), and Watson simply pushed past the investigators. In the market, they ran into Casmir! A victim of Duke Yarlborough's magical manipulations, he escaped when the party blew up the lab he was stored in, wandered the wilderness and became an adventurer. We found out that Andromeda got drunk a few years ago and beat up Casmir; the latter was only a commoner at the time. They got a letter from an Adventurer's Guild messenger, telling Andromeda, Watson and Co to go back to Rosebluff and restart a guild branch. Casmir was invited (especially since he claimed to owe Watson a life debt). The group sought out Carraldo Fritz for use, again, of his steam ship. Due to the group's lack of smooth talking (which included the phrase "You're right! You shouldn't trust us.",) they agree to put down a huge deposit, which'll be returned if the boat safely arrives. Luckily, it does, around 5 in the morning. The players decide to use the town's inn, not pushing their luck by staying on the boat any longer than needed. When they visit the Mayor's House, the find that he's been kidnapped. They also find Silk Keldar, Thief, pestering the Butler, convinced that the house is still a boudoir. (It isn't). The group investigates the mayor's bedroom and follow the path of destruction to an odd well on the edge of the property. 15 feet wide, shooting up air, and filled with runes repeating the elven word for "Control", they lower the slayer in on a rope. He hears shadowwings, giant demon birds that eat souls instead of food. The party jumps in. Watson is immediately grabbed and slammed against a wall, his holding apparatus battered and scraping against the sides of the well, throwing up sparks. Silk perfectly dives in, daggers in front of him, managing to stab his way through a shadow wing and emerging on the other side covered in its blood. Casmir joins the fight, and he and Andromeda try to rip the wings off the creature so they can slow their own descent. Watson puts his boots to the creature he's fighting, barely managing not to slam Casmir (clinging to the creature's back) into the wall. By this point, everyone's reached terminal velocity. Andromeda uses wind control to blast two monsters away from Silk. The creatures knock him about. Casmir finally rips off the creatures wings, and uses his resourcefulness to dive after Silk and save him. Casmir uses his mutagenic toughness to absorb the creature's attacks without complaint. This leaves Watson alone again. Below the group, Silk saw a pulpy membrane made of mushrooms and throws one of his daggers at it. He retreats upwards, opening his cloak. The gas disoriented the remaining souleaters. The creatures emerged in the middle of the procession, and Andromeda dove down at them with her staff. She mistimed it, though, and tumbled. Casmir threw the thief upwards and grabbed Andromeda. Watson slew a Nightwing and wore it as a carapace. With 70 feet to the bottom of the cavern, Andromeda pulled out a massive spell, plucking everyone out of the air and placing them down in the entrance of a dungeon. --- A few yards into the dungeon, they found a ripped up MAYOR sash near a section of wall colored a grisly red-brown. Silk's caution alerted the group that the floor turned into wall-mashers, and that whatever messy bit of bone was left was probably the Pathmaker thugs. But then, who had captured the Mayor? Silk soon found a book on purification of evil spaces. Apparently, a prayer could send the book and its assorted artifacts wherever it was most needed, but it could only be used by the pure hearted. After making their way through some trap-filled hallways (and using shadowwing entrails to map a maze), they came to a dark shrine. It was dedicated to the Purple Armored undead, as well as Howard the Necromancer. The group pilfered the ritual daggers then hid...only to realize the Mayor was tied above the altar! As Casmir released him, fierce mohrgs attacked. (Mohrgs, as you probably know, are tortured souls who died in tragic conflict with their ideals. They carry around nooses made of their own guts. The players were suitably disgusted). Mohrgs attacked from all directions! Watson closed to melee with one of them, but was savagely stabbed in the gut. Silk blasted it with a flurry of sneaky blows, covering Watson in the creatures putrid guts. Meanwhile, Casmir slashed one with his bastard sword, using the altar to gain a height advantage. The party was in dire straits, however, as the Mohrgs kept coming and the dark altar granted them strength! The defeated creatures lashed on to 'living' ones, creating dual-sworded crabwalk creatures that squirted blood and ichor. Casmir chose between protecting Watson and the Mayor. He chose Watson; the mayor was stabbed from stem to stern. Silk, in an act of pure chutzpah, approached the altar. Wearing holy artifacts and being of fluid moral code, he smashed the evil icons. With Andromeda's help, he purified the altar. Waves of holy light sent the Mohrg fleeing, restored the mayor, and caused the shrine to rise. Andromeda and Watson worked together to clear the temple ceiling before everyone was crushed; the group emerged on a shrine, smashing through one of the mayor's pagodas and creating a new site of worship. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 17, 2013 20:43
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Your cyberpunks are no match for my crew. Today I went to a special playtest-gameday a few towns over, and it was a wonderful, completely worth-it trip. I helped playtest H Cameron's Sprawl (An Apocolypse World hack). It started with world creation (everyone named a corporation and what it did), character creation, then "heist creation." The only rule was we had to include a reporter. My group featured Global News Network's Social Media Superstar 'Grant Access', an 18 year old hacker named Nezumi, and a geneticist named Angel-17. Oh, and my character, Oakley Djinn. Oakley was a Lifeworks TV celebrity, "a cybernetically enhanced mouseketeer." With a friendly face, subdermal six-pack-abs and white hair, he was the ultimate party starter. Originally introduced as a Cousin Oliver character, he'd failed to catch on outside the teen girl demo despite endless repackagings. He was also a killer, but memory erasure made him forget it. He was happy go lucky and started play with a katana the size of a boogieboard. Here's how backstory was generated: Everyone around the table had at least one mission that they'd gone on already, and it had to involve the person next to them, but could feature everyone. If you were involved, you got a +1 bond, but that corporation was pissed at you for some reason. Grant covered Wipe (a data-erasure company) putting backdoor info on all Lifeworks cyberware. Nezumi helped expose this, which effected Oakley; Angel leaked relevant data. Nezumi, when she was 15, used mining explosives to write Oakley's name on the moon. Oakley saved the president of Lifeworks life from the vat-grown assassins Angel made. No harm, no foul. So, we kind of collaborated on creating our mission: Xeno Corp offworld mining had irregularities with its travel schedule. Everyone who went on vacation would return either early or late, and have exactly the same experiences. The Yelp reviews were basically identical. While Grant and Nezumi caught on to this, we had to find out how Oakley got into trouble. Well, he complained in Rolling Stone that he wasn't allowed to travel into space. Unaware that it was due to his memory erasure, he started #SendOakleyToMars. --- Our mission begins in media res. We're in a helicopter, headed to an Arcology near Catalina Island. A VP of Xeno Corp has a hard drive with all of the relevant data. How did we requisition this helicopter? FLASHBACK: Grant Access is arguing with his editor. (He rolled a 4, aiming for a 7). His editor gives him poo poo: quote:"You have a lead...is this a lead for a story you owe me from LAST WEEK? Grant accidentally pitched the story as follows: "Is YOUR apartment building as safe as you think? We'll show you LIVE as we break into the most secure suites in the world!" The editor sends him out. In the chopper, Oakley monologues to the cameras. "OK, sorry, complete sentences. When we were riding on the helicopter, I felt..." Nez freaks out over the recording. She gets out her deck and reprograms them; they're now looping, replacing her face with a mouse (her hacker symbol), and cutting in random footage of Oakie's movies. The building calls our chopper and asks us what the hell we're doing. Oakley announces that we're the PARTY PATROL, and that there's a very special birthday girl in the arcology! This bafflegab continues; of COURSE nobody's heard of the party, it's a secret. And it makes a weird sense; if Justin Beiber showed up to give the boss's daughter a surprise party, you'd go out of your way so he didn't leave. Angel smashes a sedative patch onto the butler before he can call upstairs. Oakley yells PARTY PATCHES! and applies one from his own supply to himself, getting a little tipsy. As Nez goes through the security system, Oakley leads the group upstairs. Grant starts Fox-Newsing the security guards ("Who are you working for? Do your parents know this? Aren't you ashamed? You are ON TELEVISION!"), getting us into the security room. The head of security FINALLY gets in our face, and Oakley yells "Bro. BRO. Dude. DUDE, BRO, DUDE." When that doesn't work, Oak backhands the guy against the wall, knocking him out instantly. We're left with the Media Manager. Oakley apologized, kinda, and, as I had to leave the session, revealed the second part of his plan. He'd live-tweeted the group's exploits and was now throwing a FLASH MOB PARTY! He had to party with the people (part of the move's cost), so I took my leave; I had to go. --- According to the rest of the group: The Media Manager tried to escape when Oakley left to party. Angel tranqed her but she (the MM) had a reaction to the drugs. It triggered her medic-alert bracelet. Angel was spotted by security as she dumped the MM in an elevator to a lower floor to keep the medic response team away. Back in the security office, Grant Access and Nezumi loaded all the hard drives into a bag and headed for the helipad. managed to lose security in the crowd of partgoers around Oakley and met Grant and Nezumi on the roof. As the chopper came down, the squad of security guards burst onto the roof to arrest everyone, but Grant Access went live and on the air to seal the escape while Oakley partied on. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 08:06
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For info on my Cyberpunk game, read here: http://www.ardens.org/games/the-sprawl/ The GM will also be at Go Play Northwest next weekend if any Seattle folk want to play: http://www.goplaynw.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=401 Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 09:13
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I mentioned that I played two games yesterday. The first was in Fate Core, in a setting called After Ragnarok. It's from a timeline where instead of losing World War Two, Hitler summoned the World Snake to eat the allied forces. The US responded by nuking the eye of the snake, sinking England and creating a tidal wave that destroyed much of Europe and the American coast (all the way from Maine to Appalachia). That was 3 years ago. As players, we were intrigued by the Agents of the Crown theme, where we were members of the British Empire (now mostly located in Africa and Australia). We chose some really interesting characters, which is why I love group character creation. Our group was Nadira Batra, secret agent of Royal India; Jackson Ford, American inventor/greasemonkey recruited when he fled into Canada, and "Professor" Phoebe Holland. Phoebe was working on cracking German's mystical research, and despite the loss of her mentor (Professor Knightsbridge) and her husband Phillip, was still an active part of the University of Rhodes. She never got her true doctorate because World War Two broke out. I chose these aspects (And I like how Fate Core gives you 5, instead of Spirit of the Century's unwieldy 10) code:Phoebe's top skills were Lore (mysticism and magic), Empathy, and Notice. She took the stunts Obscure (use magic to replace "Sneak" with "Lore"), a spellbook (typewritten) and an attack spell which let her use lore as an attack. We decided that Southeast Asia was a great place for an adventure. Our GM spent 5 or so minutes sketching an adventure. Fate Core seems to have an easy setup; he seemed open to anything and didn't urge us to "Secret Asians in Southeast Asia". (He suggested City-State Chicago vs Milwaukee!). The game started as Ford and Phoebe arrived at the British airfield in Chinese Macau. Ford was tall, blonde, and thin; Phoebe was relatively short and wore a red business-dress with a flowery pillbox hat. Agent Batra showed up in a suit and immediately came over...asking if we knew where Ford and Phoebe were. (It's worthwhile here to note that Jackson took the "drat Yank" aspect; the GM laughingly asked if Jackson spoke any language besides English. Jackson didn't. It is one of the best FATE aspects I've ever seen). --- At the briefing, the Briefer gave our group a series of aerial photographs. They showed a tall tower in a previously unknown ancient city. Ford couldn't discern them, but Phoebe rolled well on lore and got the aspect, An odd mystical connection. The site had a connection to a Japanese commander and Heinrich Bowman, One of Hitler's best rocket scientists. The Briefer said something churlish, there was this exchange: PHOEBE: It takes a big man to stand behind a desk. BRIEFER: It takes a big man to send people to their probable death and not worry about it the next day. Abashed, the group entered Macau proper. Agent Batra took the lead, finding an old connection of hers in the Japanese police administration. Over tea, he revealed that the structure would require days worth of travel, through territory controlled by a Local Strongman, Marcus Olavich. Marcus enjoyed putting peoples' heads on pikes. Phoebe and Ford sat in the next booth, trying to be inconspicuous. As the conversation was dying down, Phoebe noticed a waiter paying a bit too much attention to the conversation! [This created the distinction Spying Waiter. She asked him to show her and Ford to the latrine and when outside, tried to slam him the waiter against a wall. He responded by countering her with Kung-Fu. As he held her against the latrine and asked the same question, Ford began to choke him. The man countered, threw down both Ford and Phoebe, and rushed across the rooftops, escaping in a flash. --- The group requisitioned a car to cross the desert, and Phoebe cast her "Obscure" spell. They managed to make the car invisible OR silent, opting for invisibility that included the dust it would kick up. Everything went well, until they met a huge procession of Olavich's men on camel and truckback. Unfortunately, since we were invisible, they were coming right for us! Flubbing his drive roll, Jackson Ford SWERVED off the road through a sand dune. The worst part was that he honked. As our spies fled the procession, Batra told Jackson to loop around an outcropping, then drive through his own tracks so it looked like we were headed the other way. Disaster averted. --- The ancient city was surrounded by a series of ad-hoc structures. The group quickly came up with a plan of attack; Phoebe created a "Whispers of German" aspect to help defeat the guard's patrols, while Batra "timed their schedules". No problem getting in. Phoebe slunk off with her invisibility spell, trying to get the location of Bowman. (I hadn't gotten much use of my "I have to rely on Me" distinction). Jackson and Batra examined the building, and realized it was an oil tower. But it wasn't pumping oil; it was pumping serpent blood! Phoebe managed to slink through most of tent city, taking photos with her spy camera. She only barely managed to avoid a dog (having heard about it from the German base guards, immediately using up "Whispers of German"). As she stumbled upon a meeting of the camp's high commanders, Batra and the Yankee were cornered...by a NINJA ASSASSIN! Phoebe kept quiet as she discerned the situation; the camp situation was brittle, and Olavich wanted power for himself. The dragon summoning ritual would be done soon, and Japan would have the power to stop Allied Russia's advance permanently. There was a hangar, with planes fueled. A plan began to form in her mind: At the same second, Jackson caught a throwing star in the back. There were TWO ninjas! Batra responded with her silenced pistol. Jackson unholstered his Marconi/Telsa cannon, which fried the other to ninja bits. It was then Batra realized she'd underestimated both her companions. Unfortunately, the melting ninja alerted the camp, and the two only barely managed to escape. Marcus would bring in increased security. --- Our group was sharing its information when they were come across by Bedouin-style raiders. At their head was the Spying Waiter...AKA Colonel Chen of the PRC! He knew about our mission and would help us raid the camp, as long as we destroyed the Camp. Phoebe kept to herself. She knew the power of summoning the dragon was within her; she knew the ritual specifications; and perhaps, just perhaps, controlling the dragon herself would let her fix the broken world. It could unsink England, eat the body of the currently dead world snake... A plan was hatched. Chen (and his commandos) would attack at dawn. The tower would be destroyed, the ritual disrupted, and everyone would go on their way. What happened was different. Batra was distracted by keeping Jackson stealthy. Phoebe slinked off alone; she could only rely on herself. As the Indian Secret Agent and the American Inventor arrived to plant C4 on the pump, they were greated by the Japanese Commander, Bowman, and Olavich. "Ah, the sacrifices are here." --- Batra lied her rear end off, saying she was a representative of Russia, and that everyone was under arrest. She also intimidated the Commander, telling him to evacuate his men; there were Bombers Coming in Five Minutes. Olavich concentrated, opened his third eye, and successfully scanned Batra's mind. He then told the commander Yes. There were bombers on their way. --- Phoebe found the ritual circle and began her preparations. Blood of the hand, fruit of the soil, a wishful thought in handful of dust. She thought of her late husband, her assistant-professorship at Rhodes, and begin to aid in summoning the dragon. --- Jackson took advantage of the confusion. He grabbed his C4 and rushed the tower, tossing it on...and running away as fast as he could. An angered Dr. Bowman went to the tower to try and defuse it...and died yelling "Sheiss". I activated my "Chinese waiter" distinction to announce the assault had begun! The entire area came under mortar fire. Batra outshot the Japanese Commander and scrambled for cover. --- Olavich's mind entered the summoning ritual, and Phoebe got to ask one favor of the dragon. Olavich asked for the dragon's power; Phoebe, awed by its magnificient power, could only ask that it destroy her enemies. --- Batra scrounged for a hand grenade and threw it down at the geyster of dragon blood. It exploded into flames. She dodged the Japanese Commander, who was still after her, as her own contingent of Chinese Do-Or-Die troopers gave covering fire. She took sight of Olavich. Phoebe began to float a foot off the ground. The ground itself began to collapse, as the 30-miles-wide dragon began to lash at its cage. --- At the airfield, Jackson tried to highjack a plane. Not knowing the japanese word for "Fly", he instead zapped the pilot unconcious and put him in the back seat. --- Batra rushed across the collapsing city, before putting a A Bullet in the strong man's Brain. --- Phoebe was thrown out of the Dragon's mind; even her amazing skill and mystical connection couldn't overpower the primordial creature. --- As the city surged 50 feet into the air and collapsed, Batra grabbed onto the now floating Phoebe. --- Jackson made it across the shot-up airstrip. Sure, he couldn't read the gauges in another language, but He was Better with Machines than People. --- Phoebe decided to give Olavich what he wanted, and gave the dragon full control of his mind. A mind that had a Bullet in the Brain. Batra grabbed a strut of the plane and pulled her and Phoebe inside as the entire desert fell into a sinkhole. Mission accomplished.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:13
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My 13th age group crashed an underground fight club. The fight was pro-wrestling themed. Someone else will write it up, but it ended with new love entanglements and very ineffective jeering.
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Jul 3, 2013 08:46
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Tonight, five brave troubleshooters went to USA sector to celebrate July 5th. During that time, there were 3 different party leaders/presidents, with an average term lasting 20 minutes, sometimes as low as 10 seconds. The players: *Blew up R&D repeatedly, while in it *Stole R&D products even after they're proven worthless (including a 50 pound weight labeled a "Gravity Enhancer") *Stole aerosol glue, getting one character's hand stuck in the party president's pocket. *Ran through a wall because they "didn't trust" the person holding the door *Shot the mission briefer, invited the next Troubleshooter into the room, and snitched that he had killed the mission briefer. This was before the mission. They were given an ice cream truck ferrari and sent to USA sector. While trying to bring patriotism to USA sector, they: *Blew up a barbeque the size of a tramopoline (by dropping grenades in it). In response, one of the nearly dead troubleshooters used ice control to save himself; was promptly shot in the back of the head. The killer took a "kill the cook" apron. *Blew up apple pies (one player got his hand shot for trying to use granny smiths, which were above his clearance; interestingly, multiple people tried to put grenades in pies. One player hit another with the grenaded pie, blowing them both to smithereens. *Fed the crowd with exploded bacon, earning their allegiance to Patriotism *Started playing patriotic marches on the ice cream truck; one mutant turned the music into the Communist National Anthem, and the players began shooting each other. Then they tried to run each other over. Then the ice cream truck exploded. During the parade, they: ^Sped, alerting the police ^Turned the police sirens into communist propaganda, leading the crowd to attack the police. When two troubleshooters fought over the steering wheel, the current president shot BOTH OF THEM IN THE HEAD. This caused the vehicle to, by random roll: --Spin --Twist and --Careen into a group of cloned girl scouts. After the parade, while setting up the fireworks display, they: --Vastly overused fireworks beyond all bounds of safety --Spend 6 perversity points (on a 6 point scale) to increase yield --Confiscated illegal fireworks to add to the parade --Hid stockpiles of fireworks around town -->Secretly changed the fireworks so they'd have a nuclear payload and display the hammer and sickle. This led to USA sector's: *complete and utter destruction.
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Jul 6, 2013 08:30
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Earthbound, Fate Core Style One of the things I love is teaching people new systems. I had the opportunity to do it this week with some great players. We created an Earthboundy group of kid characters. We ended up with: Yup!, Saturn-Valley raised mystic, and adopted brother of Sharon Peebles, the Trust-fund archeologist, friend of Fox Scott, Amateur Ninja and Rollerskate master. (For the purposes of this post, Yup!'s name will be unpunctuated). The group started out in Bright Heights Nevala, in the Southwest of Eagleland. It was the annual Starfall festival, and everyone enjoyed playing games. That is, everyone except Sharon (who had an alligator clamber all over the Hit the Bar challenge) and Yup, who used his PSI powers to win at the balloon pop. Blatantly. In exchange, the owner of the balloon pop gave Yup a whole reel of tickets to move along. Unfortunately, those tickets were stolen by ALOUISA RAD and the SKATEBOARD FUN CLUB FOR GIRLS! Sharon decided she was Overprotective of Yup, and took on the skate gang by herself. (She did this with social combat, telling them that they only stole the tickets because they were poor). The group began shredding their way up over and above Sharon, which led Fox to join in...by ninja-stealing all the tickets. He also managed to knock a group of girls off their skateboards. Sharon's harsh words eventually sent the group off crying, and Yup went home to bed. They cashed in their tickets for a prize... exploration passes to Cactus Cave! The next morning, the trio made their way toward the cave. Unfortunately, the rope bridge was blocked by the cowboy Mayor, Judd Hemhaw. When his social threats and warnings broke down, he tried to destroy the bridge! Kid archeologist Sharon was able to swing across, while Fox jumped the bridge on his rollerskates! They prevailed against the mayor's boobytraps and abashed, he let them enter the cave. --- Inside the cave, Yup revealed he had been sleepwalking, but was now awake. The group snuck over a sound ahead, which was an auction! The animals were bidding on a variety of human junk, but came to a prized artifact: A Redblue gem that fell from the sky. (Here, we brought out the contest rules, where Yup created aspects like "staring at rich moles" to give Sharon the victory.) The moles warned the group that there was something DANGEROUS in the cave, and to be really careful. The moles were right; over the next few minutes, the players would encounter a creepy lake monster and a series of malicious psychic crystals. The group wisely slammed the problems into each other, ripping the crystals from the wall and throwing them at the lake monster. Soon, they reached a potential exit. Sunlight streamed through a hole to the outside world...and there was the outline of Mayor Hemhaw. The crazed mayor demanded they leave, even firing his pistol to deafen them! He then vanished into the gloom, promising to use force where reason failed. Luckily, the ninja was able to sense him in the darkness, and put the mayor into a brutal Ninja-lock! Once they knocked sense into him, he explained; something in the cave was controlling his mind and making him crazy. The group should tie him up and leave him near the sun. (They did.) Our heroes reached the center of the cave. Inside was a door with alien writing; they discovered that it was actually a series of dance moves. While Sharon and Fox weren't able to do the dance, Yup reluctantly helped (which worked). Inside the next room was the cause of the disturbance; the alien master GROKTHROK! The purple-armored demon summoned his 12 Starman minions, and the fight was on! The fight was brutal. Our heroes suffered physical, social, and psionic abuse and the Alien Egomaniac showed them visions of doom! Luckily, our heroes were able to work together. Sharon swung her scooter around. Yup used PSI telekinesis, and Fox used his variety of ninja weapons. The numbers game caught up with them, though; each hero was outnumbered and losing ground. In a desperate move, the amateur ninja, who was sweating and bleeding, threw one minion into another six, turning the tide. Soon, the alien overlord was embarrassed about his mother, had lost his helmet, and had Kunai in the Back. He fought to the bitter end, and instead of stopping the combat, he decided to COLLAPSE THE MOUNTAIN ON HIS FOES! Our heroes smashed the door, rescued the moles and, with fabulous aplomb, raced out of the mountain and dove with the mayor into a deep waterfall! The redblue gem started glowing, so Sharon stuck it under water. Her archeologist sense told her one thing: the crystal was broadcasting to space, and it was telling Grokthrok's people that Earth wasn't to be messed with. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 02:46 on May 4, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2013 08:43
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Carrasco posted:You really captured the style of Earthbound here, well done. Your players must've loved it. Thanks! They had a lot of fun. If you're jonesing for a pickup game of FATE, the Google+ group has 2-3 events a week. The times and genre vary widely.
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Aug 21, 2013 21:43
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Just run it in fate and have true mortals start at -1 instead off +0 in things they're untrained in.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:44
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Double post.
Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2013 23:45
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Just played "Forsooth!", the Shakespeare RPG, and had a wonderful time. Every character has an Oath and a Motivation. You are encouraged to speak in iambic pentameter. I played Lord Xenathon (a Rakish Tyrant) who vowed to turn ancient Athens into a Bacchanalian tourist destination. He vowed to never stop others from carousing. Many others sought to overthrow him and start a war for minerals, including chief senator DuPol. I also played the bizarrely popular Brachi, a soldier for hire who vowed to never to kill for free. The most interesting character was the Oracle/Prostitute, who vowed to never give both advice and love to the same person at the same time. Highlights: During a party at his estate, Lord Xenathon passed by a group of revelers conspiring against him, drunkenly saying "Lord Xenathon, Lord Xenathon, Lord Xenathon" and exiting immediately. Helena, the Marquis De Boz's soldier-loving daughter, hosted a gameshow to find Athen's most eligible bachelor. When the first contest was "fight each other to the death", Brachi and Xenathon's nephew both tried to lose the contest. (As an aside, the nephew declared he was going to fake losing and stab the winner in the chest, so Brachi threw the fight. Brachi left the stage, snuck around to put Helena in a hammerlock, and was mistakenly stabbed to death. This drove Helena crazy.) Helena interrupted formal debate with the statement "Blood, blood, everywhere blood! The mob should kill DuPol!" before being beaten up by Xenathon's bodyguards. The Marquis De Boz was fought over, as his poem would close formal arguments on the war/no war issue. His player used his uninterruptible Soliloquy to deliver the opening lines of Biz Markie's "Just a Friend."* (This drove the crowd into a murderous frenzy, and they ripped DuPol apart.) In the end, Lord Xenathon violated his vow to "never stop the party" by stopping a general from sleeping with his courtesan oracle. Two ghosts convinced Helena to marry Xenathon's scheming nephew, who she immediately killed by accident. Xenathon decided to give up drinking forever and turn Athens into a sober, boring place. Buy Forsooth! *We had only let him name his character this if he promised that it wasn’t a reference to Biz Markie Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Aug 18, 2023 |
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Sep 23, 2013 03:56
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Was in session of Monster Hearts so good I bought game. The setting was basically Santa Barbara, CA. (For those not in the know, Monster Hearts is (Vampire Diaries + Buffy) * Dungeon World. I'll put Mechanics in spoilers so that if you don't give a gently caress about the system, you can ignore them.) Mara was a GHOUL who fed on fear. Monsterhearts is roll 2d6+stats, and her stats were +0 hot, +1 cold, +1 violent/volatile, and -1 dark/mystic. She fed on FEAR, and whenever she fed on fear, she became more powerful. Monster Hearts has Strings, which represent emotional leverage. She started with two strings on Crow, the Fae, and 1 on Logan, the other player. Crow had a ton of strings on her; the Fae are very, very good at promising things and even better at manipulating other's promises. Mara got Hot and Volatile as her marked stats; the first time she tried to seduce or manipulate someone in a scene, run away, or be violent, she'd mark XP. --- Mara Calver died last Friday. Which made her appearance in art class Monday shocking. No one was more shocked than Elise, because Elise tried to kill her. (Well, even if Elise didn't mean to, she poured vodka into Mara's beers). The art teacher demanded everyone close their eyes for ten minutes and then draw their dreams. Mara shook dust out of her hair. Elise said something bitchy (probably about her rich boyfriend, Felix, or about Mara's lack of hygiene). In response, Mara smashed Elise's head into the art table. And it satisfied something deep down in Mara. Mara liked seeing someone deeply, deeply afraid of her. Mara rolls 10 to lash out physically. Instead of dealing 2 harm (and potentially killing Elise!, she gains a string on her, and gets TWO points of experience. Crow, a fae lad, was a few tables over. He was busy drawing dozens of dozens of pictures of the Valedictorian, Stella. Crow sassed the teacher, and got sent to the principal's office. But before he did, he dropped a single picture off for Mara. It was her getting hit by a bus. --- Meanwhile, Mara's churchy friend Logan was ecstatic. His prayers had worked! An angel had answered him... Unfortunately, the angel wanted something in exchange. It wanted people brought to the town cemetery, tonight. Crow also had a test: he needed to find a special soul to deliver, willingly, to King Oberon's faery court. The sooner the better. --- Mara, feeling the best she had in days, decided to get men under her thumb. She treated her ex-boyfriend Crispin as a warmup, finding him in the library and throwing her tongue down his throat. He agreed to see her after school. Maybe they broke up hastily. A simple "Turn someone on" role to get a string. Mara's dice were hot at this point. With a few saucy texts, she had Felix all hooked up for Halloween weekend. Of course, things had to go loving sideways. Ashley somebody had had a stroke during class and everyone was gathered around the ambulance. Crow found out it was a mental assault, by purple-eyed seagulls only Ashley could see. Mara sent Crispin to take a cell phone pic and text it to her. (He did). M immediately USED her string to Manipulate an NPC. It was messed up, but what could you do? They were all set to go home, getting into Mara's car, when Crow showed up and started talking poo poo. Mara was flabbergasted, and accidentally showed Crispin the picture Crow drew. Crispin took this really, really badly, thinking it was a photo of his girlfriend being murdered. He tried to punch Crow, who dodged. Instead, he dented the glass of Mara's back passenger window. Crow embraced the man, and asked him simply...who do you want? Mara, Ashley, or Crow? A sexually confused and extremely hurt Crispin dumped Mara on the spot. "I was only using you for sex anyway." He yelled, storming off. "That's bullshit! You can't dump me, I was using YOU for sex!" This public breakup happened in front of the entire school parking lot. Here M rolled three failures in a row to diffuse the situation, get Crispin to leave with her, and maintain her dignity. --- A scorned Mara met Logan for burgers after school, where she learned that he had prayed to God to bring her back to life. Felix and Elisa showed up, somewhat together, somewhat not. Logan invited the pair, as well as their jock friend Drake, to the cemetery that night. They reluctantly agreed. Mara slipped Felix her number. Logan gives Elise a charming look, and it's reciprocated. This allowed Elise to lose her condition "Scorned", which she'd gotten from being publicly dumped. -- Back at home, the "poor little dead girl" (as Crow called her) had a problem: her dad was home and would notice the huge smashed in car window. Mara covered up the damage to her car the only way possible: aggressively rewriting history. The following things WERE technically true: *She had gotten back together with Crispin *He had punched the window of her car *He had then said he was using her for sex. That tactic worked really, really well. Of course, the former-corpse girl wanted more, so she said that Felix, rich Felix, was coming over. Her dad was ecstatic. He'd even forgotten about the car. In her excitement, Mara forgot: she hadn't invited Felix yet. --- quote:"C'mon, Felix. It's not Halloween, but we could play dress-up." quote:"my dad's going all out making dinner." There was a pause. "I don't want it to be weird. I just want it to be...you know, sexual. I want to use you for sex. You're weird." Felix responded, logging off of Skype. (Five minutes later, the entire high school was emailed a pic of Mara, labeled in bold impact font: "SEXY NURSE? SEXY MORTICIAN? MY DAD'S MAKING DINNER.") At this point, Mr. Calver yelled from downstairs. Why was there a drawing of Mara being hit by a truck? gently caress. Mara didn't have any strings on Felix, which left her at the mercy of the dice. Mara blamed Crispin. Dad threatened to call the police, and Mara said that the police couldn't protect her. Besides, she was still daddy's girl. (And if the cops arrested Crispin, how would she feed on his fear?) A mildly successful "Shut Someone Down" roll here: The Drinker and her Dad gave each other conditions. Mara gave her dad "Overly Protective", which would lead him to kill Crispin if the two ever met. Mara took "Daddy's Girl." --- Crow was in a spot. Stella had asked him a major favor: find out why Ashley was still in the hospital. If he did it, he'd have the leverage to take her to the Faerie Realm and make her his bride. Of course, his plan had backfired, and after a very, very awkward moment of putting his head on the comatose Ashley's chest (and finding the dream face of a purple-eyed woman), he had fled through a 2nd story window. Through the reinforced glass. So when he showed up at Mara's window, he was half dead and desperate. Mara could use desperate. --- Mara told her dad what Felix had said, declaring that she'd "become a lesbian at this rate." Crow (sewn up and wearing one of Mara's brothers old shirts) rang the doorbell, and, posing as the conciliatory gay friend, enjoyed the Calver's dinner party.* --- Meanwhile, Logan had invited Drake and Felix over for some football. Drake, concerned about Ashley, asked Logan to lead the group in prayer. Logan, aware that asking the Angel for anything could go very, very badly, pretended to pray. --- Mara arrived at the Cemetery a little late, and found Drake and Felix freaking out. Logan had allegedly murdered the night watchman. Drake fled into her car, and they bolted. Unfortunately, Crow landed on the roof of Mara's shitbox car. She hit a rather large tombstone (rattling her) but feasted off of Drake's utter fear. Crow pulled a string on her: there was no way she wanted to miss meeting whatever brought her back to life, was there? Crow used one of his strings in an interesting way: Mara could do what he said and earn an XP. Why not? --- When Felix and Elise showed up, an angry, bitter Mara took out the middleman, making out with Elise. The two, potential murderer and fear-sucking ghoul, grabbed some 40s and slipped off into the bushes. (This changed Mara's appetites: where previously she only enjoyed fear, she now found herself addicted to fear AND being with Elise ). Meanwhile, The Angel revealed itself to Logan. It had glowing purple eyes. It thanked him for its bounty. Luckily, Logan had brought plenty of targets: but which three should it take? Elsewhere, Crow was bewitched. He found himself asleep in Mab's domain, Stella bound in golden chains. Oberon berated him for his inadequacy, and gave him an ultimatum: give the girl up for the faeries to eat, or lose his place in Court forever! Despite his struggles, he was lashed by Oberon's words. Stella screamed and fell into a stupor, a pawn instead of a queen. At this point, Crow couldn't roll to save his life. Where before he had done well, he rolled 4 failures in a row, dooming his plans of a loving, Valedictorian queen. --- Meanwhile, the dark presence made itself known to Mara. quote:"Why didn't you tell me that a fallen angel brought me back?" yelled Mara. She punched Logan in the face and broke his nose. The indecisive Logan couldn't decide who to sacrifice: Felix looked up to him, Drake was in his church group... So he decided to fight the Dark Power. UNFORTUNATELY, as he struck it, it made contact with his bare skin. His eyes glowed purple...and it made him a better bargain. As much power as he wanted. In exchange, he gives everyone's soul. Instead of taking damage when the Dark Power kicked his rear end, he entered his DARKEST SELF. All of the monstrous teens tried to negotiate. The Fallen Angel promised Mara she'd get Logan's contract if she killed him. And to upset the still frigid Crow, it snapped Stella's neck. Mara told Elise to hide and started scratching at Logan's eyes. He smashed her head into a mausoleum, and she s l o w l y removed a shard of stone that was jutting out of her neck. Crow tried to send Mara go to sleep and fall to the Fae. It only made her madder. Mara succeeded well on her Hold Steady roll, and got a +1 to her next one. Logan, panicked, demanded for more power. He got it: as the moon appeared behind the clouds, he hurled Mara into an open grave. And that was the worst decision in a long night of bad decisions. A furious, unhinged Undead Girl clambered her way out of the Earth for the second time that week. She lurched up with a shovel and, finding the Dark Angel between her and Logan's fear, decapitated it with a single swing. Thanks, Crow! Mara was able to heal all her damage by entering her darkest self, a place of unrelenting feeding on whatever's nearest. Logan fled, only barely escaping her wrath. And as he ran, the Undead Girl everyone wanted stumbled over Elise. Beautiful, horrible, frightened Elise. Elise who had killed her, Elise who had made her this way. And as Logan tried to duck past the police sirens, the two kissed. Whatever Mara was now, she was alive. --- *Scene truncated. The cool thing about Mara's relationship with her family was how normal it was. She played up the waterworks and the family goofyness with her father, and when little sister Marjorie threatened to snitch that Crow was in Mara's room, Mara dug her fingers into her sisters arms and fed off her fear, which allowed Mara feast and gain XP. Over this session, Mara gained 13 XP. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 08:31
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I'll go back and add mechanics in spoilers so they don't mess up the flow of the story. "The right group of players" was right. I was nervous when we had 3 male players but the female GM was amazing at pulling off basically 20-30 non-player characters and keeping them simple but consistent. (Monster Hearts says to use NPCs like stolen cars - use'em fast, use'em hard, then get rid of them). VVVVVV It takes a lot of work, and a mature group, to be able to handle any game, but especially a genre game about showing vulnerability. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 19:42
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The players drive the action in Monsterhearts, and this game was no exception. I started the game in Mr. Harper's Science Class and the Werespider immediately shut down the teacher (shooting the chalk out of his hand, leaving him flustered.) He gave out the assignment: "Perform a psychological profile of someone else" and that sent the games events out of control. From that: --The Werespider, Pepper, did Ty's profile as she stared him down. --K-Dawg hit on Solomon, who was distracted from Fionna (who he would try to sacrifice to appease his horrid ancient family). The teacher would take the Infernal Baron's cell phone (which Pepper would later recover, sending lots of fake texts and getting Baron a posse. Baron would sacrifice much of this posse to the Dark Power with an intentional car crash). Pepper turned in a psychological profile of Ty that "deduced" that he came from an abusive home. Mr. Harper was required by law to investigate this and, finding the results negative (and not liking Pepper for making him feel Old), ended up trying to get her arrested. She would later roll a 13 to escape confinement, wrecking a cop car and leaving two officers stranded in the woods. Pepper had a lot of opportunities to be evil and mostly didn't take them. (For example, she failed a Hold Steady roll with a girl who had taken her to a wooded area and ended up with a girlfriend instead of a snack). I think the mix of danger and friendships creates villains and anti-heroes, which makes sense, since there's no default moves for stopping violence or being above it all. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Oct 12, 2013 08:18
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You had the right opinion when you left the first two times, but the fact you got pushed around for hours instead of discussing play expectations...kind of mega-lame.
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Oct 19, 2013 10:01
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Magicians are never to be trusted. Tried a one shot in Empire of Dust, a rather obscure setting. Our party is a post apocolyptic war band of evil mercs, trying to take down the Hero Alliance and get a Glyph that can summon God. We're at the final battle, and have managed to reach the bunker containing the Glyph. Unfortunately, only one of our characters is combat optimized, the Dust Devil GunKnight. (He manages to easily outpace the damage of the rest of the party combined, shooting an assault cannon with one hand and a flame thrower with another; whatever he doesn't shoot to death soon burns up.) I, as a vainglorious noble magic user Laminar the Beautiful, can't get anything going. I can only use my main power every other turn, as it's charged by taunting, and taunting is all of my combat actions. Everyone tries to do something, but only the Gun Knight can get anything done. Enemy mages have locked down their forcefields; he shoots, but they can ignore the damage. I tell the Psychic to mess with her electronics and open the Godbunker. But I have a plan. Instead of armor, I took a Battle Standard, depicting the might of my faction. That lets me power up someone else's attack. After four hours of play, it's still in my backpack. I look down on the sheet. Me and the Psychic are secretly siblings, but that hasn't come up in play. I unfurl my banner, revealing that the drug-addicted Psychic is my long lost sister. This lets her power up her precognition power, which gives her 3 rolls...which she can give to others. I sprint across the battlefield under fire, ending in a very odd, very precise place. The GunKnight FINALLY finishes fighting the enemy side. Everyone who isn't on fire is in a gory pile on the floor. It's my turn. I sprint inside the bunker, and ask the psychic for one of her dice. [I have a 12 in a stat, she rolled a 12, and matching your stat exactly means critical success.] I use it to get a critical success on my diplomacy check, convincing the guardian that I am the human form of the lord almighty, and only I could absorb the glyph's power.
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Oct 29, 2013 06:15
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Not everyone has the 3 hours a week it takes to make a good module. If you buy a bookfull, you know every week that you'll have X, Y, and Z as NPCs, and players can form attachment to a setting that is there for you at 7pm Saturday.
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Oct 30, 2013 22:47
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My Lovely Horse posted:To wrap it up, the last encounter of the night was a rugby game... It was probably because of the "make the rules as you play" thing...my rogue was a point scorer, and at the time at like three different free movement abilities. (Tumble! Teleport! Swashbuckle! AAAAND MVP!)
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Nov 4, 2013 08:22
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After 20 years, why wouldn't you be? I mean, look at Heroes after two seasons.
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Nov 11, 2013 19:54
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 15:30 |
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That "Killer Cousin" story was bizarre, because it mixed the worst aspects of hostile GMing and hostile PVP. Deal with game stuff in game, and out of game stuff out of game.
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Nov 14, 2013 22:15
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