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I dunno, this is 40K. The setting is powered by people trying to out-evil each other in the nominal name of good, but actually wealth and power. It does seem to be a fairly common thing for new DMs to tackle a munchkin in-game with targeted encounters etc. rather than talking to them. With hindsight and age comes wisdom, I guess. One time, a similar thing happened to me. In an epic-level adventure, the problem player spent all their starting wealth on an ungodly powerful weapon. Everyone else spread their cash around, and (I think) we did try to encourage him to have armour and other gear, but he was having none of it. So the DM has an epic level monster, a Phase Slime, I think, show up and eat the sword. It was basically a walking ball of hunger for magic items. The rest of the party held back, shot the slime or used spells and eventually took it down. But, 'guy with nothing but a sword' had become 'guy with nothing'. The game didn't last too long after that, there were mixed feelings on both sides of the screen about what had happened. Also, the best way to combat a munchkin, is to restrict the source books. Here's a house rule that's followed me since 3.0: No Mongoose.
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Jan 20, 2012 17:44
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 00:16 |
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My Lovely Horse posted:Gaming experience: it turns out that when you negotiate with an elder dragon, you really should bring more to the table than "we may know people who might be willing to enter their own deals with you, but that's, like, totally their decision, nothing to do with us, what no we won't bring them to you." Otherwise you can easily end up entering a different deal altogether, namely "do whatever the dragon tells you or get the gently caress eaten." My players have to work on their negotiation strategies. Oh, I've got a few like that. The first concerned a game of Exalted, in which one PC was mayor of a small town. He also decided to be named 'John Borrison' and banned drinking while underground, bendy horses and other such ludicrous things. It transpired that some of his citizens had been kidnapped by fairies (i.e. very odd elves). The party made their way into The Wyld, found said fairies and demanded the release of the people. The Fairy Lord claimed the villagers had entered of their own free will, and just had to ask to leave to be allowed. Said villagers were too drugged out of their minds to ask for anything, no matter how much the players asked. John's solution? It was something along the lines of 'If they've kidnapped my people, I'll take some of theirs.' and used a pied-piper style power to lead a fairy-conga back to his town. So far, so good. But he hadn't thought any further than this, and when he stopped dancing, the compulsion ended. Also, there were a lot of fairies. Surely they didn't ALL fail the resistance rolls? Eventually, there was a conversation that went something like this: John: Alright, we're at the village. I'll stop dancing now. GM: It takes a little longer for the elves to stop dancing, but they eventually do so, and start watching you. John: Ok. I address the elves. "Listen up, you lot. I've captured you now, you hear?" Elves: "Have you?" John: "Yes, I've led you here and then... I... Oh god." Elves: "We're going to open a circus!" They did, and John made of his secret escape tunnels, where his secretary tried to kill him. The rest of the party saw an explosion of razor-blade butterflies burst through the wall of his office, and neither were seen again. And as for dragon negotiation, I've been on the wrong end of that one. The party was caught up in a net-trap, when the dragon arrived. It informed us that we were trespassing in it's forest and demanded tribute. Capitulating, I gave it an unidentified magic item we recovered from a goblin king. A crown. Turns out, the crown had artifact status, and ate minds. When one wears it, they either have their mind eaten, or get access to the knowlege of all the previously eaten minds. The dragon failed it's save, and keeled over right in front of us as soon as it tried the crown on. We were very proud of ourselves, until we met it's mother. We lied through our teeth with that one.
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Feb 27, 2012 11:46
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You didn't do too badly, they sound like they would've been hilarious if you were there, and with a little bit added to them would do very well. Just fill in the blanks next time.
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Feb 27, 2012 15:16
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Yeesh, that guy sounds like trouble. Eclipse phase is a first edition, so balance is pretty hard to get down, and is really more about flavour and setting anyway. It's Lovecraftian Horror in space, where no matter how competent you seem, the real threat is leagues grander, forcing you to think fast and try for a long-shot. Just remind the GM that the players have backups precisely so he doesn't feel guilty about killing them horribly, and whatever the enemy self-replicating nanoswarm pulls out of it's mass isn't cheating, it's supposed to be ludicrously tough. Oh, and if the GM is running the module in the quickstart rules, give him the following piece of advice, which is as spoiler-free as possible. "Replace the neotenic."
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Feb 27, 2012 20:50
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Eeh, that's true of all RPGs. It's like Rule thirty-whatever but for bad GMs instead of porn. If it exists, they can run it badly. Whereas when I played it, I had great fun disabling enemy robots and forking into them, gaining man-bot-power and momentum with every obstacle cleared. As for Chance II's GM, I'd talk through problems with him rather than just bailing. Every new GM risks these traps, I know I made a lot of mistakes when I was starting out. First sessions in particular are tricky, because if the players don't travel in the expected direction, suddenly any notes are useless. The result? A little railroading. What the GM was probably trying to do, was impress upon the players the severity of the situation. Alright, you can't trace your handler, but he doesn't want to be traced and may have a lot of people like you running interference. Likewise the mysterious counteroffer with their Super-NPC Powers over local electronics may actually be a VIP of some kind, who does have that sort of swing. Or, it could be bad GMing. To find out which, start thinking aloud, instead of simply stating actions. If the GM is a good one, he'll use your ideas, because they'll often be better than his own. For example: "I look at a list of local bigwigs." becomes "Shutting off the mesh is a significant act. This mysterious stranger either is, or works for, a big shot. Maybe we could look in to local personalities, and find out who could do this, and work backwards?" "I go to the mesh relays. What do I see?" becomes "Once we've finished this bit, we should investigate the mesh relays. To shut off the mesh, they'd probably need to do it through here. We may be able to find a clue." "I board up the vents" becomes "If I were a flesh-eating bio-engineered nightmare, I'd come in through the ventilation system, so I'm nailing them shut." And now, a slightly related discussion topic. What things did you do as a rookie GM, that looking back were danger areas. Myself, I remember writing up significant NPCs on character sheets, and having a GMPC fight a climactic battle while the PCs 'helped'. I feel pretty stupid these days, but it made sense at the time.
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Mar 5, 2012 23:07
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Ravens are the best familiar. I remember a character a friend of mine played, an Orc sorceror named Ug. His familiar was a raven, and smarter than him, so it really was the brains of the outfit and Ug was the raven's henchman. It's catchphrase was "Quiet, you."
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Mar 13, 2012 13:47
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I may have been a Worst Experience on Tuesday. Some background is needed though. It was an IRC game of DnD, and a sequel to a game from a few months back. Of the five players, three were in that game and two were keeping their characters, myself and a cleric of a thunder god. The game opened with the King on his deathbed, and ended up in us saving the Crown Prince's life. From his sister, the queen-consort of a nearby city-state, who was then executed for treason. The sequel opened six months later, with a large crown of people being accidently teleported to the New World, a mostly unsettled continent far East, where the rival city-state is the only real power, thanks to having a Gate there. The teleport was slowly reversing, based on proximity to the initial spell, so people at the edges were popping back every few hours, while the PCs at the middle had a few days. Near the end of that time, we encountered a camp of Orcs, and from that camp we saw a whole army of them, poised to attack the city-state's colony. The presence of ogre mages and demonic idols suggested the Orcs may have been capable of opening the gate and invading the home continent. Bad news as, even if we weren't on best terms with the city-state, we doubted the Orcs would stop there. Our druid became an eagle and flew as fast as she could to warn them, and was the only one capable of making it before the teleport wore off. Back home, we told the new King's steward, and he was obviously worried. The orcs and ogres with the same demonic idols had been involved in the attempted assasination of the then-Prince, and we never did find out how they got to the Mainland. We needed intel from the city-state. It was at this point, that I made my first point. A perfectly rational decision in my mind. My wizard and the cleric were both significant figures in the death of the city-state's queen-consort. One of us crossing the border might look odd, but both? Together? It could spark an incident, and we don't know the Orcs aren't with the city-state. So I decide to arrive two days later. It's splitting the party, but in this case makes more sense than not. One of the new players, and a captain in the City Guard, elects to accompany me, while the other three head off first. The game splits into two channels at this point, so the split parties are isolated from each other. As I and the Captain arrive, we can see smoke in the distance. Refugees are fleeing, and groups of mercenaries are camped outside the city-state walls waiting for orders. The mercs aren't telling us who their orders came from, and we have out party members still, presumably, in the city. Heading in as stealthily as a wizard and paladin can, we at least avoid the patrols of Orcs and meet up with the party's Rogue, who fills us in. The Orcs have invaded, with ogres and a demon, the one their statues were of. A Marilith (Though we failed out checks to identify it, all we know is it's a big one.), which has set up a teleportation circle in a cleared area of the city. Which the druid and cleric have gone through. At this point, I make my second observation: They've probably committed suicide. The circle here could lead anywhere, but almost certainly not to the New World colony, as the Orcs have taken the castle which already has one of those. Additonally, if it does lead there, it's bound to be guarded and in the bulk of the orc army at that. Additionally, we were asked to find out the situation in the city-state, which seems to be: "ORCS!". Finally, there's no guarentee that this circle is two-way. All in all, going through that portal after the other two party members seems like a terrible idea. I feel kind of guilty about it now, I'm not the kind of person to walk away from the plot, but there's a difference between bravery and stupidity, and informing the nearby armies seems like the better choice. I dunno, what would you guys have done?
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Mar 16, 2012 00:27
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Are we still adding to the Deck of Useless Things? Because I've got one from a typo on a player's sheet. Clock of Elvenkind. Gives a bonus to hide and move silent checks, but is a 200lb grandfather clock that rings loudly on the hour. I'm also a little concerned about my gaming group, as our 'that guy' is the one giving me and another player a lift in. We seem to have lost a trio of players rather quickly as well. He's the sort of person who has to be the best at fighting, regardless of game style. After I suggested running Shadowrun as the cops, in a CSI-inspired game, he began planning the most efficient way to wield a minigun.
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Apr 4, 2012 10:26
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How not to join an adventuring party: From a skype session. Names have been changed to protect the innocent, but 'Dave' had been bugging the GM for a while about joining in here. Eventually, he gave in, and here we have Dave's introduction. quote:Adam: (Yes, we can.) As the group approaches the farm, they pass a figure leaning against one of the buildings, twirling a gun and wearing a stetson cap and that was the last Dave posted. and yes, it's a Final Fantasy setting.
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Nov 9, 2012 11:50
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Yeah, Tabletop Wargames Awesome/Terrible Experiences are like Rimmer's RISK diary. "And then... I rolled a double-six!" As an example, a game of 40k. My opponent was playing Necrons with Whatsisname the Lightning Lord, who causes a lightning storm in the first turn that strikes your enemy's units. Each unit has a 1/6 chance of being hit, doing d6 hits, so not usually too big a deal... Until he rolls hits on 2/3rds of my units, for a lot of damage. This causes enough damage that most of them run away, and as I've not had a turn to move, they flee off the board. And that's how I was nearly tabled before I had a turn. On the flip-side, I remain proud of the time in Warhammer I neatly dropped a cannonball on the head of the enemy magic-user, who had been hiding outside a unit to avoid combat.
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Nov 11, 2012 21:55
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Section Z posted:I think they meant more along the lines of "Avoid games where failing the 'Ride Escalator' check results in you being fired out of the mall skylight, into the sun"... Next time I run Paranoia, I am /so/ having them make 'ride escalator' checks.
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Nov 16, 2012 08:48
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Arkham Angel posted:I just started a game of Scion (as GM), and we were doing character creation. I was having everyone go around the table and tell me their scion's background. The last one to go was a female scion of Loki. She gives a brief description of her character's life, and then I ask her how she met her dad. The ability to make a one-off joke canon is always awesome. Happened quite a bit with Loki when I played Scion too. We'd blame him for plot holes, or throw out crazy ideas that the GM would roll with. Such as: "When you arrive in your living room, there's someone already in there..." "Santa?" "No, it's Loki, and-" "but dressed as Santa?" "...yes." "Dad? What are you doing?" "I'm stealing Christmas!" The Loki-spawn's player was new to the system, and struggled at first, until he figured out how to make illusions work for him. Naturally, he did not get on with the son of Thor in the party, who had read too many of his dad's comics, and not enough of the legends. Made up for it by being a rock star, who made every single member of his band and road crew into berserks, including the lawyer. "Damnable trickster-spawn, I know you're the reason my axe is missing, when I get my hands on you..." "You mean this axe?" "Raaargh!, and I strangle him." "Or so he thinks, but actually, it's a lamp." His illusions hit their peak when he snuck about a frost giant arms train, and used an illusion to disguise himself as one of the giant-sized rifles. His player was absent for the next few sessions, and when we next saw the character it was when a frost giant tried to shoot us, only to have his rifle kick him in the teeth.
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Jan 25, 2013 17:08
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Oh dear, the WOD Fight-Guy. On the one hand, I'm against such things on general principles, on the other it's hilarious to watch them try and do anything other than fight. In one situation, the group's fight-guy decided to infiltrate a building site, that was in the group's territory but might be being financed by a rival. Fight-Guy himself decided he was best suited to the task, and no-one else objected, so in he went. At first, it went well. He got in by jumping from the roof of an adjacent building, over the security fence. High dex means good stealth, and he had some camouflage disciplines, so avoided the security guards and found his way to the foreman's office. This was when a problem occurred. He'd envisioned this as being a ghost, in and out unseen, but had no way to open a locked door. His options were to break the lock, break a window, or knock out a security guard and see if they had keys. He decided the latter was stealthiest, as then they wouldn't know there'd been a robbery. Luckily, the guard in question did have keys, so he got in the office and was faced with his next challenge. A computer. The solution? Steal the whole thing. Ah, but of course this meant there'd been something stolen. So he'd have to hide the evidence somehow. But how... ah, that fuel should do the trick! He luckily didn't just cover the place in petrol and drop a match, instead decided to sabotage one of the generators for power tools, so it would go off when next turned on. And finally, he used those same stolen keys to open the gate and leave, before things exploded. They never did. When one of the security guys didn't check in, the police were called and the whole site locked down. But a stealthy thief mission nearly ended in arson.
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Jan 26, 2013 21:46
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We did basically have to ignore or re-write large sections of the rules. It's the sort of game you have to go in to knowing that someone who dedicates themselves to combat is going to trivialise any combat encounter not designed for them, at which point the other players would be useless. If your players know this, and you're more generous with XP, they'll quickly fill out roles though.
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Jan 27, 2013 09:31
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Well, I was gonna put this in Secret History, but couldn't find all of the bits. So instead here's a summary of a one-shot dnd I ran. Quite silly. High level PCs learn that their country's chapion is actually a weak child without his magic sword! A magic sword now stolen by his undead arch-nemesis. They have to fight their way through his Evil Lair, and defeat his lietenants. The energy-spewing Laser-Scream. Mistress of kid-friendly dark magic Witchesca. The wildly effective or ineffectual Gamblor. The man with the strength of eight and not-too-subtle homoerotic undertones, Musclar. The extra-dimensional alien with a silly voice, Warpulon. And the cameo from another series Ninjettea. It was as silly as it sounded.
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Jan 31, 2013 20:04
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That does sound like a pretty sweet one-shot, even to a Brit who never had that show growing up. I'd consider stealing the idea with the Brit equivalent for my own group, but... the DnD movie already had Richard O'Brian running a maze of challenges with a crystal as a reward. It's one redeeming feature, really.
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Nov 5, 2013 11:12
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 00:16 |
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Guarded by actual Kappas, I hope? Cucumber jokes ahoy...
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Nov 8, 2013 12:47
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