|
Yeah, I actually went and checked the manual and the stats are Fighting (melee), Accuracy (shooting), Agility (speed and reflexes), Strength, Toughness, and Technique (tech stuff). So I can sorta see where Schwalb was coming from but still, there are too many stats and the Dex split in particularly is so weird. I feel like he came across an amusing (oh hey let's name them after body parts) and he just kept going.
Azran fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Sep 17, 2019 |
#
?
Sep 17, 2019 22:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 06:22 |
|
|
Need opinions on a couple of things: First is grabbing. My group loves to fuckin' grab enemies. In 5E a grab is automatically maintained until you let go or they escape, while in SotDL it appears that the grab is automatically released at the end of the next turn unless you actively use your action. So, you can get an attack off on your target next turn before you automatically let go. Would you give them a boon to attack their grabbed target, and give a grabbed target a bane to attack their grabber? Seems fair but I know my group will be sad that they can't indefinitely grapple a creature (assuming it fails to escape every time). Second is cursed items. I like powerful items with drawbacks rather than it being a straight up "gotcha" curse, but some of the items in the premade adventures don't seem very well balanced. One of my players took a Goreblade in Blood Will Run, but he succeeded on the Will challenge against the curse. So now he just straight up has a +1 boon +1d6 weapon. It'll still corrupt him when he kills, but there's nothing about making additional challenge rolls. Looking at some of the other adventures, that seems to be the trend. You get a one-time challenge roll against the curse. If the player succeeds, they basically never need another weapon because the bonuses are very good. If they fail the roll though, the penalties are so severe (weekly insanity, permanent health loss each rest) that cursed characters are pretty much as good as dead. Some of the curses are high level which makes them almost impossible to remove, and many of the penalties persist even after the curse is lifted which leaves the character so crippled that you should probably just put him down. These curse challenges usually have one or more banes too, which is kinda fine because the items are powerful, but also kinda not fine because you die if you fail. Just as another example, here's an excerpt from the weapon in Knife in Your hand: "Second, any wielder who becomes cursed by the blade must make a Strength challenge roll each time the moon rises full, even if the wielder is no longer cursed. The wielder makes the roll with a number of banes equal to his or her Corruption. On a failure, the wielder takes a permanent and cumulative –1d6 penalty to Health. If the penalty reduces the wielder’s Health to 0, the wielder’s body withers and dies." This one doesn't even allow a roll. It makes sense within the context of the adventure, the character basically sacrifices themself in order to do the greater good. But they have literally no way of knowing that until they get cursed, which is required to use the weapon. So it turns into this big "gently caress you" to the player who is now guaranteed to die during the downtime between adventures. Would I be better off creating my own lower-intensity items, or is this sort of thing intended to be supremely high risk/high reward? Does anyone have ideas for making similar items? Fresh Shesh Besh fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Sep 21, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2019 17:54
|
|
|
I would say gaining corruption when you kill is pretty bad. The underlying plot of corruption is you're loving up your body with marks of darkness or whatever they're called and weakening the barrier that prevents the Demon Lord from consuming Urth. Neither of those really have a gameplay impact unless the GM actively decides they do but you could certainly run with it. If nothing else possessing something like that should make the PC a massive target for cultists, mages, inquisitors, etc. I'm not familiar with the knife but it sounds like the party has to use it to win, and failing the initial curse check is a gradual death sentence. Maybe it makes sense narratively, but you could also have them make a deal with Diabolus or reforge the knife in that floating tower above Caecras or find an artifact in the Kingdom of Skulls that would restore them or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 05:06
|
|
|
Youre supposed to roll to see if you get a mark of darkness any time you get a point of corruption. If youre getting one every time you kill someone he should be pretty hosed up pretty fast.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 14:56
|
|
|
I incorporated knife in the hand into my game and then just later did a subquest with a goblin black market shaman who partially lifted the curse but also sapped some of the weapon's power. I also had left the door open for the wielder to try to communicate with the devil who made the weapon but they opted to go the other way. Giodo! fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Sep 21, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 15:07
|
|
|
I have a similar issue with the sword in Necessary Sacrifices, where if you fail the check, you take a stacking penalty to health.quote:If you are not a faerie and you touch the relic, you must get a success on a Will challenge roll with 2 banes or become cursed (as if by a rank 6 spell). While cursed in this way, whenever you complete a rest during an adventure, you must get a success on a Strength challenge roll with 1 bane or take a –1d3 penalty to Health. The penalty remains until the curse is lifted. The sword specifies "the penalty remains until the curse is lifted" (which I read as "the penalty [to health]"), so it's not even something that could be cured every morning. If the save is failed, it's a death sentence unless they can find the deus ex machina to remove that level of curse. Elysiume fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Sep 24, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2019 21:09
|
|
|
Schwalb is a machine who keeps releasing supplements - the two semi-major releases since Men of Gog have been Legacy of Shadow: Curse of the Spider Wood and Paths of Purpose Curse of the Spider Wood is largely a Men of Gog-connected setting supplement focused on a sweltering jungle at the edge of the Desolation inhabited by a whole bunch of nasty critters (detailed), with an especial focus on giant spiders which makes sense given the name, and the existence of the Demon Queen of Spiders (an actual Demon, though not given stats) and the corrupted spider-people who worship/follow her the supplement lays out their society, includes rules for them as a playable ancestry (agile, can turn into spiders, and can eventually learn to spit venom), as well as a number of related paths: Priest of the Spider Queen - A basic path, it's a corrupted priest with Death, Demonology, and Primal who gets spider form (if they don't already have it) and bonuses for using it, and a prayer that imposes banes Chosen of the Spider Queen - An expert power-based path with the same traditions as above - standard power + spellcasing, and you gain a randomly determined and hidden pool of power to call upon each rest, which lets you reroll any failed attack/challenge roll until you run out of favor (at which point you need to succeed at a 3 bane will roll to avoid gaining some insanity), as they level they gain a heft bonus on attacks that re-roll successfully and the ability to take an action to make a similar will roll to add to their power pool at lower risk Demon Beast - A corrupt (gaining at least one Mark of Darkness above and beyond corruption every level) Demonology and Transformation magic specialist, this does what the name implies and gives you significant demonic characteristic bonuses whenever you transform yourself. AS you level you gain the equivalent of Demon Shadows when you cast spells, and eventually gain a damage bonus (that also makes it harder to voluntarily drop your enhanced demonic form) Envenomer - Death Magic class that unsurprisingly focuses on poison. Makes all your death spells poisonous and can eventually expend Death spells to spray a cone of poison, becomes immune to poison, and surrounds themselves with a poisonous mist whenever they cast a Death spell. Spider Savant - Primal magic specialist with an unsurprising focus on spiders. Gets a large spider as a pet which improves as you level. Pretty good if you're planning on using Primal for summoning. Paths of Purpose is not a setting book, and is more similar to the other entries in the Paths series. All paths are Expert, and nearly all are non-power based, with one exception. Cutter - Dagger/knife/hatchet specialist. Improves their damage to d6, reduces dual wielding penalty, and gets a nice bonus on the first round of combat. Learns to use triggered actions to impose banes on incoming attacks, and then gets a boon/bonus damage dice at level 9. A solid path that suffers from the perennial "why not just Fighter instead?" issue such classes tend to. Doomseeker - Compelled to undertake a great quest and mopey about it. Can make a will roll to resist instant death from damage = health, and heals to half life and gets serious combat bonuses for a minute the first time they're incapacitated after each rest. Gets a small doom pool the GM can use to impose banes. As they level they can add to the Doom pool to take an extra action (once per minute, and limited per adventure), and then get notable extra damage for both their recovery state and the bonus action, as well as a significant chance to resist afflictions. Exalted - The power-based class. Essentially someone with the apparent favor of a deity. Full caster, and imposes a bane/receives a boon in relation to attacks against them and is hard to kill. Learns to deliver (long!) sermons that awaken religious devotion and make anyone who actually listened to you friendly. Eventually can directly petition a deity to intervene - this takes a while to set up and requires expending a spell, but has a number of powerful effects (not-worth-it damage, pretty decent healing, really good sustenance and transport, and other effects based on petition the DM). This does take a will roll (with banes based on spell level), with fairly harsh penalties on failure. Fractured - Gain power from (and over) insanity. Lots of health, boons to resist frightening/horrifying and boons to attack them (to offset any penalties), increases insanity cap, and can make a will roll to recover 1 insanity per rest. Can eventually make will rolls to shrug off many of the nastier afflictions (stunned, compelled, etc.) at the cost of minor insanity gain, and then gains a boon + bonus damage for a number of rounds equal to insanity total whenever you gain insanity. This one actually seems like a pretty strong pick if your DM favors sanity-blasting horrors (which is a lot of the SotDL bestiary!) Highlander - Gains the power of being Scottish. Gains bonuses to charging over difficult terrain and ignores the cumbersome trait on weapons (so you can finally Dervish with bastard swords, though I don't think it's that good). Later gets improved healing while injured and a triggered-action cleave with heavy weapons, and then damage/defense bonuses with heavy weapons and immunity to being moved. I like this one better than Cutter because the bonuses it gets to its fighting style have less direct overlap with what the Fighter does. Magnate - Become a smarmy merchant and have some thugs backing you up! Gets a business that can generate non-trivial amounts of income, and 2 mercenaries (the diff 10 NPC) that you direct and who improve somewhat as you level. As you level you gain the ability to potentially have helpful connections in any new community you visit, the previously mentioned improvements in security, and eventually lots of money. A really flavorful/good path imo. Nomad - Outdoorsy type with a nimble fighting style. Bonuses to speed, boons for moving on your turn, and moves whenever they succeed on an agility roll to avoid an effect. Bonuses to avoid attacks you trigger, faster overland movement, a damage bonus with your mobile fighting style, and eventually a limited use medium-range teleport(!). Outlander - Class based around aggression. Gains speed bonus and fading above-the-curve combat bonuses for the first couple of rounds of combat that eventually turns into a bane on round 4+. Gets outdoorsy bonuses to perception, survival, sneaking in the woods, and athletic endeavors. Eventually gets quick reflexes and bonus damage. Philosopher - Probably my favorite new path. Be a smarmy bookworm who assails people with argumentation. Initially gets bonuses to intellect-based attacks and defenses, and gets the ability to take an action to make a short ranged intellect vs. intellect attack roll to compel (!) any creature capable of understanding you for one round. They become immune until rest on failure, but that's one heck of an on-demand control effect. As they level they can use a triggered action and intellect roll to halve damage or remove afflictions imposed by spells, know whenever a creature knowingly speaks a lie, and eventually talk so much poo poo that they can impose a huge debuff (everyone gets 2 boons and +2d6 damage against them) once per minute that can be sustained as a concentration effect. If you're doing the mundane academic/intellect-based rogue thing this is probably the path for you. On the whole I think it's a good supplement - nearly all the paths do something cool and I could see building a character around them because they largely do a good job answering the implicit "why this over Fighter?" question in either emabling/providing better support for alternate fighting styles, or giving genuinely meaningful bonuses in different areas while maintaining baseline competency.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2019 22:54
|
|
|
Have any of you tried tracking Corruption secretly, making the rolls yourself, and informing a PC if something happens? Or is it better to tell them when they earn Corruption and let them deal with it?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 15:08
|
|
|
Admiral Joeslop posted:Have any of you tried tracking Corruption secretly, making the rolls yourself, and informing a PC if something happens? Or is it better to tell them when they earn Corruption and let them deal with it? I'm not sure if much is gained by doing it secretly. Without transparency it might seem arbitrary whereas if its out in the open it's a warning to the player not to gently caress up too much.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 15:24
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:I'm not sure if much is gained by doing it secretly. Without transparency it might seem arbitrary whereas if its out in the open it's a warning to the player not to gently caress up too much. Sorry, I didn't mean that everything is secret. The players will will be aware that Corruption as a mechanic exists they just wouldn't know for sure whether something they did (beyond the obvious like taking Dark traditions) gave them a Mark. Until they wake up one day with a black horn growing out of their forehead and maybe a sense of "What have I been doing with my life?" I guess it depends on the individual player and how they would react.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 15:29
|
|
|
How is it even possible to "secretly" earn Corruption?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 18:37
|
|
|
Conspiratiorist posted:How is it even possible to "secretly" earn Corruption? That was my reaction. Isn't Corruption accompanied by a visible effect? Or is it numerical bands?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 18:50
|
|
|
Admiral Joeslop posted:Have any of you tried tracking Corruption secretly, making the rolls yourself, and informing a PC if something happens? Or is it better to tell them when they earn Corruption and let them deal with it?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 18:52
|
|
|
There's a mechanic in the Battlegroup series of wargames where morale is tracked on chits, with each chit having a number from 1 - 3 on it. You know how many chits your opponent has, but not their exact morale score. Something along those lines might be fun for corruption, since it eliminates exact knowledge of how many points while giving the player a ballpark idea.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 19:10
|
|
|
Admiral Joeslop posted:Have any of you tried tracking Corruption secretly, making the rolls yourself, and informing a PC if something happens? Or is it better to tell them when they earn Corruption and let them deal with it? is this an adaptation of how spire handles stress? i could see that working, but it would require everyone to be okay with it. and it would also require playing basically an evil campaign, because how often is corruption coming up otherwise?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 19:11
|
|
|
I was under the impression that you earn Corruption by doing certain things, and you roll every time you gain a Corruption. If you roll under your new Corruption score, that's when you get a Mark of Darkness. It was just a napkin thought I had while working and wanted to see what other people thought. Do you GMs usually give players a choice not to do an action if you tell them it'll result in Corruption, or just tell them after the fact and they have to deal with it now?
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 19:43
|
|
|
Admiral Joeslop posted:
Played in a campaign with revolving GMs and this exact scenario played out. When I GMd I let people know in advance, just naturally. Had another GM give us all corruption for an act only half of the group participated in after the fact and it did raise some objections. My advice would be, if it's an openly awful or murderous act a warning isn't really necessary but if it's even somewhat nebulous give a heads up.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 23:34
|
|
|
Midgetskydiver posted:Played in a campaign with revolving GMs and this exact scenario played out. When I GMd I let people know in advance, just naturally. Had another GM give us all corruption for an act only half of the group participated in after the fact and it did raise some objections. Giving corruption to the entire group because some of them did a thing sounds like a GM making a Paladin fall because they shook the hand of an evil person instead of killing them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 23:36
|
|
|
If it's ambiguous whether something should inflict Corruption then it shouldn't inflict Corruption at all. Additionally, only award Corruption for singularly heinous acts within the context of the individual; murder should increase Corruption, but a murderer shouldn't get more Corruption for every kill. For a Player Character, they need to be really trying to get Corruption scores past 3 or 4. Dark Magic gets Corruption so easily because it commits the objectively most egregious sin possible within the setting: it unravels the very order of the universe. Merely possessing that knowledge taints a soul. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 19, 2019 |
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2019 23:44
|
|
|
Admiral Joeslop posted:Giving corruption to the entire group because some of them did a thing sounds like a GM making a Paladin fall because they shook the hand of an evil person instead of killing them. His reasoning was that the rest of the group didn't do enough to stop the ones who actively participated. There was some discussion and he backed down, but that's mainly because our group is super open and chill about this stuff. In a more contentious group it could have been a real problem. That's why I think in most cases it's best to let players know a corruption will be awarded beforehand.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 01:36
|
|
|
Which supplement was the one that went to weird-rear end space?
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 06:30
|
|
|
Pull of the Stars IIRC
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2019 17:42
|
|
|
I finished up the holiday mini-session yesterday. One of the players sent this to the Discord today: I couldn't be prouder.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2019 03:18
|
|
|
Shadow of the santa claus
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2019 03:21
|
|
|
If you use one of the extra attack options (e.g. driving attack), does it still deal damage? And can the rogue apply the trickery talent outside of combat?
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 08:26
|
|
|
Yes to both.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 09:06
|
|
|
Nice. Cheers!
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 09:52
|
|
|
I've always loved how in most cases a simple question for something which sounds reasonable ends up being correct for the rules of this game. Now if only I could get people to play the damned thing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 11:30
|
|
|
Just wrapped up a session today using Freeport and we had a big chat afterwards about how SotDL revitalised our group's interest and how much easier it is  Lancer is next.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2019 12:26
|
|
|
Hey so can someone recommend which of the many many adventures for this game I could cobble together 0-10 for a more '80s practical effects horror' kind of vibe? I was originally looking at the Pirate Isles campaign, but then two of my players mentioned they really don't like body horror so that's probably right out. On the flipside the 0-level adventure where you're besieged in an inn by zombies seems like the right vibe.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2020 23:02
|
|
|
I don't know that you will have a lot of luck with published adventures if players are averse to body horror. The setting has a ton of potential for stories that don't lean too heavily on it, but most of the adventures that I've seen rely really heavily on weird body stuff.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2020 23:38
|
|
|
Agreeing that published adventures probably aren't the best route. The regional source books might be a good option if you want to run something free form but have some interesting hooks and statted opponents. The Caecras book has a lot of interesting stuff about a huge city under occupation by an extremely hostile force, for instance. There's also a giant floating wizard tower above it, a bunch of ancient catacombs, etc.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 01:12
|
|
|
I'm also partial to Borderlands of Tear as a militarized frontier with a lot of tension on its interior borders now that the Emperor is dead.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2020 17:29
|
|
|
We're coming off a big intrigue player-directed game, so the goal with published adventures was to just have a straight "1 adventure per session, one level per adventure" experience; as well as letting the system do some encounter building for me so I get a hang of how things properly work. Normally I struggle a bit GMing DnDlike games as I'm too much of a softie in the players favour, so it's also a way of shocking myself out of that and going "well hey, at least you get to roll up a wacky new PC with a totally different build!"
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 22:58
|
|
|
Yeah, when I first ran a one-shot of SotDL for my then RPG group they so loved the character creation that when the adventure I had picked turned out to be a bit over-tuned and they had a TPK during the first encounter they just shrugged and went "oh well, it's still early enough to roll up new characters and try again. Let's see who gets the craziest character this time!"
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 12:40
|
|
|
some information has come out about shadow of the mad wizard: -kickstarter will be in fall 2020 -rob seems to be indicating that he wants to support mad wizard for 5 years like he did with demon lord -it is not just sotdl with the gross poo poo stripped out, it runs on the same engine but has become its own thing -he claims it has more options than sotdl too, which is wild to me -the kickstarter will include an 11-adventure campaign guide -there will be an open limited playtest for mad wizard, no date given but presumably in the summer or fall before/during the ks -"lost and found" will be the first "worlds in shadow" game and it will be about playing as a group of children who wake up in a terrifying orphanage and have to find their way out
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 18:14
|
|
|
Dope, that's good news.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 18:52
|
|
|
Serf posted:
But there is an idea that the gross poo poo will be stripped out, right?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 20:25
|
|
|
Serf posted:some information has come out about shadow of the mad wizard: that's excellent news, and seems like a great way to do a SotDL 2E "Normie Edition"
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 20:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 06:22 |
|
|
Gharbad the Weak posted:But there is an idea that the gross poo poo will be stripped out, right? Yeah, as far as anyone knows that is still the basic idea. Tonally it is supposed to feel like D&D circa Greyhawk.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2020 22:00
|
|
