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I had mentioned SoDL for my current RP group (currently playing a Dungeon World campaign) and there had been some interest, so earlier this week when two people couldn't make it and no one had brought a tabletop game of some kind, I suggested trying out SoDL to get a feel for it. Despite not having any practical experience with the game, nothing prepped, and only having the pdf's on my ipad, I managed to sell the game to them. Well, I did a poo poo job, the game sold itself really. They loved the character creation, despite two players being dwarves they ended up feeling totally different, the changeling loved the idea behind the ancestry, and when her 'interesting thing' ended up being a trunk full of body parts we spent almost half an hour brainstorming the hows and whys behind that trunk. Since I hadn't actually prepped anything I decided to try running Survival of the Fittest, but unfortunately I didn't explain the mechanics all too well, and also didn't put enough emphasis on the lethality of combat, especially at lower levels, so they ended up dying to the first combat encounter. Still, given that their immediate reaction was "Aww.... Oh well, let's make new characters for next time  " I think they had fun. And it also gave me an idea of what I need to prepare for the next, 'proper' attempt, so silver linings and all that.
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May 26, 2017 00:43
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Lichtenstein posted:Help, I'm blind and dumb. What's the difference between core Warlock and Paths of Power Warlock? Nothing, as far as I can see. I guess not every Path got/needed changing.
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May 27, 2017 12:45
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I just ran another one-shot of SotDL again, rather unexpectedly as one of the people in the Dungeon World group didn't show. Different person from last time, so now the entire group's had a chance to try SotDL and they all quite enjoyed it. Rolled up brand new characters again, this time using the tables from the Victims of the Demon Lord supplements. It took considerably longer than using just the tables in the core book, maybe a bit too long especially considering how lethal the game can be at 0th level. I didn't get a chance to prepare too much since I hadn't expected to run it again so soon, though I had downloaded a couple cheat sheets from the G+ group that did come in handy. We ran through Survival of the Fittest again, because it's the only adventure I've got so far, and this time I bumped them up to Level 1 beforehand so they'd have some class abilities/spells to play with. We ended up with 1 goblin rogue, 1 clockwork magician, 1 clockwork warrior and a dwarf priest. They went back to the ambush site, fighting a giant spider on the way that wasn't too threatening against the group but managed to do some damage before it got stomped. The four bandits was still a significant challenge, dropping the clockwork warrior and dealing significant damage to the others. The MVP was definitively the goblin, who hanged back and sniped bandits using a sling with Trickery, hitting every time thanks to the boon and doing respectable damage with the additional 1d6 damage. Question from the session that I was uncertain of the answer: Can clockworks not die? Normally PCs become Disabled and have to make Fate rolls and risk death, but clockworks just wind down and become objects until someone winds them up again? Since we'll be down a man next week we'll (try to) finish Survival of the Fittest, shouldn't be too difficult now that they'll get some half-decent weapons. However, it looks like I'll be running a proper game over summer, since schedules will be a bit spotty over the summer. I'm rather lazy, so I was wondering if someone had tried the two campaign packs, and which one is better/easier to run?
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Jun 2, 2017 01:47
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I wouldn't mind a turn in the player's seat, seeing someone who actually knows his poo poo GM'ing would be helpful. Based on the time zone difference, Saturday would be best for me. Incidentally, I'm looking for reviews or play experiences of the two Tales of campagins, since I'm lazy and would rather use pre-made adventures. I found a couple mentions of the first one, and they were... not too hot.
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Jun 6, 2017 20:11
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MMAgCh posted:I am rolling up a character for a SotDL game and her Interesting Thing turned out to be fear and loathing. I remain uncertain what to make of this considering that fear and loathing seem like the least interesting sort of thing in a grimdark setting like this one. Watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for inspiration  .
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Jun 15, 2017 05:22
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MMAgCh posted:I might already be playing a junkie in a different upcoming game, so I'm not sure I want to be taking that route in this game as well. Well there you go then, he's self-medicating in an attempt to cure the plague, it's just too bad PTSD from surviving a plague outbreak doesn't combine well with the psychotropics in the various coctails he keeps taking...
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Jun 15, 2017 07:35
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That system reminded me a little bit of the one used in Expeditions: Viking. You travel on an overland map between points of interest (settlements, ruins etc) but as you travel you build up fatigue, which can eventually cripple characters in combat. Dotted around the map are special POI's that represent camping spots, and once you've cleared out any vagrants/bandits/wild animals that may be squatting there you can set up camp. Each character then gets four 'timeslots' to assign to different tasks, two of which (one with a special perk) must be assigned to resting to get rid of fatigue. Then there's a solid list of activities that can be undertaken in the remaining slots, such as guarding (prevents negative events such as minor theft), hunting (aquire meat), preserving (turn meat into longer-lasting rations), cooking (chance for 'well-fed' buff), scouting (try to find mini-POI around the camp site containing resources), witchcraft (turning herbs into medical supplies), healing (use medical supplies to remove injuries/debuffs), and tinkering/crafting (create potions, items, weapons and armor). The different camp sites also have different stats for abundance of food (influences hunting), security (influences guarding) and quality (high quality shelter might give 'well-rested' buff, normally camping in a site will slowly degrade the quality but if you set aside a slot for cleaning in the morning you actually buff the quality). Likely too fiddly for a tabletop game, but might be an interesting source of inspiration for a homebrew camping system.
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Jun 21, 2017 00:11
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The problem with making SotDL more like DD would be that DD is entirely dungeon crawling, with rules/emphasis on cutting it as close as possible to maximize returns/gains. You could run a game or two like that, sure, but an entire campaign? Also, from my limited experience with the system, I'd say that either you don't touch expected healing, Insanity or Corruption, or you do a full re-write of the systems to avoid wonky-ness. F.ex. Insanity, I expect on higher levels as there becomes less 'bandits and wild animals' enemies and more 'demons and other horrible things' enemies there might be a bigger potential for Insanity, but at Starting/Low levels it seems to be a couple of potential points per adventure, and there's already a problem in the game that if the party has access to Life spells Insanity is pretty much de-fanged. You'd either have to add significantly more potential points of Insanity per adventure, or buff the current sources significantly for the mechanic to have any sort of impact when you can reduce it per rest. Same with Corruption, unless things really take a turn or you're playing 'evil' characters you could go through an entire campaign and not pick up Corruption points.
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Jun 21, 2017 10:46
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Maybe add some crafting during camping, using the Forbidden Rules stuff? Obv. no hammering out a suite of plate armor in a night, but stuff like whipping up a healing potion or two, or cooking up a particularly fortifying meal that f.ex. gives a boon to challenges to resist fatigue? Likewise, if a PC's got the correct Professions they can try foraging around the campsite for useful plants/herbs, or try to gather some food?
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Jun 21, 2017 21:39
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Serf posted:I hadn't thought about it before, but it would be cool as a variant rule to let a player pick up a rank-0 spell with 1 casting with that level 4 feature. You could probably do a decent "high-magic" setting by giving everyone a free Tradition at level 0, and +1 Power at level 4 or 5.
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Jun 26, 2017 11:44
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Yeah, don't forget this is a setting where magic's a bit... weird. Just being the target of a spell, or even near a spell being cast, can be enough to awaken magic in you. So if a player wanted to use his level 4 to f.ex. make a specific spell he's cast from incantations a couple times 'stick' I'd be fine with it. Not least because 1/rest rank 0 spell is kinda... well, naff compared to most level 4 ancestry talents.
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Jun 26, 2017 13:55
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Jack B Nimble posted:That was the feeling I got reading through the races, but maybe the third time you roll a human you just want something else? Some of the Victims supplements have multiple Talents you can pick between (unfortunately Human's not one of them), but even so... which rank 0 spell would be worth getting 1 cast per rest vs. re-rolling all 1's on every boon rolled?
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Jun 26, 2017 14:34
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homullus posted:I'm guessing "the one that fits the character's story better" is the one worth getting. Mechanically, the question I'd have is what to do about that extra casting if the character later does get a tradition and a power rating. Personally, I'd look for ways to retrain/retcon that original decision, as opposed to having that decision nullified or keeping track of one extra level 0 casting. Sure, story uber alles, just pointing out there's a significant power difference between the two choices. As for the mechanical question, that'd be something the group would have to hash out before the game. You could just make it a free Tradition and solve it like that, though that would make the magister very happy. Or you could say it works like any other spell where increasing Power increases the uses, you just don't need to learn the Tradition first. Sorta like the Wizard's Grimoires, I guess.
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Jun 26, 2017 15:02
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If you're interested in re-skinning the game then looking at Godless would probably be a good first step. It's not too too different, since it's still got magic and weird ancestries, but being set in a post-apocalyptic near-future Earth should give some inspiration for how a different setting would look like.
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Jun 28, 2017 14:56
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I was playing one of the Rogues, a dwarven James Bond with a pretty drat good +4 bonus to Perception, 1 boon from Trickery and 1-2 additional boons from my Professions. I don't think I had a single Perception challenge roll under 15... Oh, and since I was the one who pushed for more enchanted items before the game, might as well discuss 'em a bit. I think the adventure had one pre-built, a coin that could detect demons in a large radius which is... nice, I guess? The two that Serf rolled up was an elven weapon that subtracted a bane and we got to pick which type of weapon it was (we ended up going with a bastard sword since it'd effectively negate the cumbersome quality, was used by one of the orcs to excessively murderate a bunch of fomors) and a belt that let its user do a Will vs Will attack to charm someone 1/rest which never got used, since we were too busy killing beastmen to try it out. There was technically one more, that also got used to great effect, but it's part of the adventure and very spoilery 
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Jun 30, 2017 14:53
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I believe WoG is Professions don't add boons to weapon attacks, but Professions definitively adds to other attack and challenge rolls where applicable. If the Priest want to smash faces with a mace, let him learn the Battle tradition.
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Jun 30, 2017 21:23
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Gay Horney posted:I'd like to do dead by dawn but you've already got a handful. I'll play if there's room for me but failing that can I observe somehow? Eh, there's what, four people signed up? I think we had 6 or 7 at the most, so one more shouldn't be an issue. Hell, the adventure even suggests the players run two PC's each, since level 0 ancestries are kinda deadly and this is not an adventure where you can easily slot in replacement characters as soon as one drops.
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Jul 10, 2017 19:21
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Also, did you guys use Fortune at all? It's helpful at the best of times, but especially at level 0 when checks are more or less 50/50 they're invaluable...
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Jul 11, 2017 11:59
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MMAgCh posted:I am also considering running a SotDL campaign (possibly on this very forum) in spite of having virtually no experience with the system! Its relative mechanical simplicity is appealing, as are the overall grim mood and aesthetics. Which maybe try a little too hard in places to be dark and nasty, but in all fairness it is a fine line to walk. If you absolutely don't want to risk PC death, I'd suggest picking up Battle Scars, and make a house roule that whenever you 'die' you get knocked out for a long time/require medical attention and also pick up a battle scar. Granted, some of those battle scars can be pretty nasty and might even end up retiring the character anyways...
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Aug 19, 2017 08:27
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Conspiratiorist posted:So how'd this go? Serf'll do a proper writeup, no doubt, but if I had to sum it up in one word, "curbstomp" comes to mind. Turns out level 10 characters in SotDL kicks all kinds of rear end.
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Aug 20, 2017 02:35
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Rip_Van_Winkle posted:Yeah everyone got the chance to do some really cool stuff, it was a very good terrifying moon adventure. Yeah, Technomancy's neat, especially paired with Potent Spellcasting. Wrenching fools to knock them on their asses, the turret's a decent force multiplier, and the flamethrower's suprisingly good for low levels (if you can roll damage dice worth a drat...). Teleportation and Time had some cool tricks up their sleeves as well, dunno how it felt to run with them.
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Aug 25, 2017 17:10
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Hollandia posted:How many level 0 PCs is survival of the fittest designed for? As many as you're comfortable running, IMO. That adventure is a bit... over-tuned, the first time I ran it we had a TPK to the first fight. FishFood posted:How would this game work for a hexcrawly kind of game, with exploration and resource management being key components? Thinking about an "explore the new world" kind of game, with the campaign starting with a shipwreck and level 0 being about finding the colony. We've been playing a lot of Fellowship, which rules, but I'm itching to try something a little more old school and have always wanted to do a hexcrawl with forgotten civilizations and jungles and diplomacy and looting and running away from monsters. I've been ruminating on a West Marches game using SotDL, and hexcrawls should be well doable, yeah. Survival of the Fittest contains some hexcrawling, and has some fairly basic rules for it that you could expand if necessary. I haven't looked too much into how resource management combines with the slot-based inventory system, there might be some curveballs there.
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Oct 10, 2017 14:59
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dwarf74 posted:So I saw Companion 2 is out now? What's this one about? Any good? A little bit shorter than DLC1, but still good. 6 new ancestries: Ferren (humans who can turn into cats), Hamadryad (trees who can turn into humanoids), Molekin (molemen), Naga (snake-people), Sylph (air-elemental humanoids), Yerath (humanoid bugs). New story complications: Engraved (anti-magic tattoos), Hunted (powerful nemesis), Inbred (monstrous), Trusted (someone you must look after), Rivalry (with another PC), Spellscarred (strong vs. one tradition but weak vs rest), Splintered (multiple personalities). Group themes lets the PC's choose what kind of group they are (Bold Explorers, Cunning Merchants, Daring Scoundrels) and they gain a small thematic benefit (merchant gives a bit of coin at the start of adventures + minimum lifestyle, entertainers can become recognized and get bonus to social attacks as well as a minimum lifestyle). New Expert Paths: Auspex (Divination specialist), Silhouette (Shadow specialist), Wangateur (Curse/Spiritualism specialist) and Wardscribe (Protection/Rune specialist). New Master Paths: Cenobite (Soul master), Fencer (swift weapon master), Halberdier (polearm master), Invoker (Invocation master), Legalist (Order master), Metallurgist (Metal master), Sleuth (perception master) and Tormentor (intimidation/fear master). New Magic Traditions: Invocation (summon aspects of stereotypes (the brute, the betrayer, the deceiver) to buff yourself), Metal (metal-manipulation/Magneto-lite), Order (anti-Chaos/set dice results) and Soul (self-buff).
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Oct 20, 2017 19:32
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FunkMonkey posted:Any interesting details on fencer? I had a matador-type character in mind for an upcoming campaign and swashbuckler into duelist struck me as kind of technically redundant in a lot of aspects. They get a defence increase, decent health bonus, a boost to attacks with swift weapons, and swift riposte (when someone misses you you can use a triggered action to counterattack).
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Oct 20, 2017 19:48
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There's not much in the way of mechanics that are objectionable. Like, the base stats for goblins or orcs aren't particularly objectionable, it's just background (the history/background of orcs) or specific character creation results (large genitals, loveslave to a hag, reputation as a great lover) that are maybe not suitable for a kid. I think most releases would need a sanitation pass before they're suitable for a 10-year old, but it shouldn't be too difficult or onerous (maybe time-consuming to come up with alternatives, though).
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Oct 24, 2017 11:25
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That's one thing I miss from Fantasy Craft, balanced/points-based ancestry/species design. I wonder, with the amount of ancestries we've got currently, if it would be possible to reverse-engineer something like that? Eh, probably more effort than it's worth...
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Oct 25, 2017 12:39
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dwarf74 posted:Wow, I am loving this 31% off sale right now. The latest new version was basically fixing the bookmarks, they went missing when they did the big update.
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Oct 27, 2017 19:37
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Tias posted:Yeah that's not gonna happen. I just binge-bought Call of the Void books, pressing all these plot hooks into one campaign is going to mean I'm gonna run outta levels You could always use the (somewhat cludgey) 10+ rules in... Forbidden Rules I believe?
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Oct 31, 2017 07:56
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Speaking as a player, you pretty much can't go wrong with a level after each major accomplishment and/or story beat, or if there is a lengthy downtime period.
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Oct 31, 2017 11:14
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Serf posted:I've been toying with a goal system where players define small and large goals for themselves and the group. Accomplishing small goals lets you gain a Fortune Point, while accomplishing a large goal (typically the objective of what would be an adventure) gets the party a level. When you accomplish a goal, you cross it off and set a new one. Since the objective of an adventure aren't often readily apparent until half-way into the adventure, I'd say in such a system the GM should set the big, 'plot' goals while the players set smaller, 'character' goals.
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Oct 31, 2017 14:38
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FishFood posted:How much would I break the math if I were to trade the d20 for 2d10? I gather that crits would be rarer, rolls would be more consistent and less swingy (which would be the point), and success would be a little bit more likely. I don't think I mind the success being more likely, and I can just change that to 11+ if it becomes a problem, but what about crits? Thinking about having them trigger on doubles that are also successes. Any thoughts? Am I thinking too hard? Should I just use the d20? Also, don't forget only challenge rolls have a difficulty of 10, attack rolls use the opponent's relevant attribute for difficulty, which can vary greatly.
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Nov 6, 2017 02:00
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As long as everyone is on board with being evil (proper boundries set, etc), why not let the players go in that direction? The game does support it, after all, with f.ex. 'evil' spells and Paths. As long as they don't end up serving the Demon Lord they're still the lesser evil, and preventing the end of the world should always be on their list of objectives.
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Nov 12, 2017 22:06
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RagnarokAngel posted:Like most games with ability scores, specialists win out, but the game dictates pretty hard how youre allowed to spend points so you dont usually end up with some strength 8 intelligence 20 stuff. Yeah, an average level 10 human with no extra Path shenanigans will have a, what, 15-13-10-9 attribute spread? Also, while we're discussing things we might've been wrong about... You can't take more Damage than you have Health, right? Even if you're Health 15 and takes 20 damage you only drop Incapacitated with 15 Damage recorded?
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Feb 8, 2018 09:26
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Yeah, in the game I'm running I'm using Trickery as "If you use the boon on an attack roll, that attack gains +1d6 damage". Combined with Backstab he's the deadliest bastard in the group, but given the rest of the group is 3 priests and a magician...
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Feb 8, 2018 16:05
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dwarf74 posted:Yeah, the Rogue is super deadly. If he uses Trickery with net boons, he also uses Backstab and deals +2d6 damage. If he uses Trickery but attacks without any net boons - is he dealing +1d6 damage or +0 damage? So far I've been giving the extra damage even if they lose all their boons. Rogue damage is very dependent on boons, so I think taking away all their damage in addition to their boons is a bit harsh.
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Feb 8, 2018 19:09
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dwarf74 posted:HUH! Okay then. Yep, got both. Caercras has Saboteur and Trooper, Kingdom of God has Agent, Flagellant and Red Cloak. The Saboteur has some rogue-y stuff (Quick Reflexes), some direct damage against contructs/objects, and a fairly meaty sabotage/trap focus. The Trooper is very warrior-y, with a good balance of attack, damage and survival. The Agent is a personal favorite, a touch of rogue-y stuff, a hint of combat utility, and a whole heaping of 'solve/progress plot' abilities. The Flagellant is... weird. It's a combat class where you're wearing no armor (but get divine protection), you flagellate yourself (penalty to Health) to get attack/damage bonuses and certain immunities, and a talent called 'Crazed Charge'. The Red Cloak is a pacifist healer that eventually gets the ability to revive recently-dead people.
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Feb 9, 2018 09:36
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Ryuujin posted:I am finding a problem. Monk gives 1d3 unarmed, if the unarmed damage is less. Then up to 1d6 at 2nd level if unarmed damage is below that. Mystic improves unarmed damage to 1d6 if it is below that. Neither seem to do anything if your damage is already equal to or greater than that. This perfect seeming combination ends up with a bunch of wasted features. Try asking Rob about it on the G+ page. You usually get a reply right quick.
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Feb 10, 2018 08:21
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dwarf74 posted:Any less-bad character sheets out there? I've seen some fan creations on the G+ page, but most of the ones I can remember were variations on the official 'basic' one.
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Feb 12, 2018 21:07
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Well, you could try giving Spiritsinger a look, it's Song-based but it also has a heavy Woad flavour, so it might not fit too well either.
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Feb 25, 2018 02:51
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Speaking of build requests, I've a player who wants to be a healbot. Priest of the New God for Novice Path is all fine and good, but we're kinda struggling for a good Expert Path. We didn't really have time to look so we went with Cleric to follow the New God theme, but it's kinda useless without attack spells, and the player's going all in on Life so far. Red Cloak would probably fit thematically, but he wants dat Resurrection, baby, so a no Power path is unfortunately right out. I don't think I've missed anything, but I thought I'd just check if anyone had any suggestions.
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Feb 27, 2018 20:09
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