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So I'm working on a campaign, which is basically deconstructing my friends view of iron age Scandinavia through Vikings and other rubbish shows. Our guys are young deep woods tribal dudes, with working magic and spirit clerics, who try to get their poo poo together in a low-medium power setting. Only problem is, what system to use? Fate would be best for pure storytelling, but I hate the combat resolution and treatment of magic. I thought WFRP 2e or Legend would be really good, because both have gritty combat and a lot of potential for writing magic( and Legend a faction-intensive system good for representing tribal society), but the rest of these systems are really annoying, particularly character progression. How well do you guys think SotDL fits what I'm looking for? Thanks in advance.
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Aug 24, 2017 13:33
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Thanks, sounds really promising! e: Yeah, being equivalent to our year 8-900, the tech level is going to be really lovely, but I'm not seeing a problem in just removing the bits I won't use.
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Aug 25, 2017 05:50
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Reviewing the difficulties for monsters, and they seem completely insane. Like, the only opposition that seems fitting for a starting character is a small animal!? I think I might have the character start at a higher level, unless the disrepancy is not as bad as it looks.
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Aug 29, 2017 15:18
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I'm trying to whip up stats for a tribe of were-wolverines as primary antagonists for the iron age thing I was talking about. I'll share what I have written when I get home, but do you have any suggestions? The projected party is 3-4 lvl 3 adventurers. E: make that were-sable or something, wolverines should be more badass. Tias fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Sep 8, 2017 |
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Sep 8, 2017 12:59
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FunkMonkey posted:Do you happen to have the Skin Changer supplement? That's all about werewolves and their like and may help with inspiration. No.. I already bought A Glorious Death, which I wasn't that satisfied with, so I'm sort of cautious about using my limited budget for more splat.
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Sep 8, 2017 15:01
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You're spot on, 'cause that's what I did  Weresable Tribesman Size 1 shifter. Perc 11, Shadowsight. Defense: Hard Leathers, def 14. Strength 12(+2) Agility 13(+3) Intellect 8(-2) Will 11 Trait: Bite till I hear a crunch! If the weresable hits with a bite attack, roll against target defense to inflict another 1d6 of damage. Spear - +2, 1 boon, 1d6 or Teeth +2. 1 boon, 1d6+2
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Sep 8, 2017 16:45
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Lotz I mean, without fully understanding the diff system, fighting their party size minus one or two is probably fine for first contact.
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Sep 8, 2017 18:16
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FunkMonkey posted:Just be careful. With those stats two of them ganging up could potentially take down even a rank 3 character in a single round depending on the rolls. A damage potential of 13 in a single attack is pretty serious at that level. cool, I'll probably go with that then. Thanks!
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Sep 8, 2017 20:48
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Make sure they take some damaging spells, I guess? I intend to guide my players character creation somewhat, in part because the game requires particular classes like Shaman and Gydje-type cleric, but also because I want them to be able to fight, it's going to be a grim fantasy campaign after all. In other news, I think I will let my sable-weres keep the Warg "vicious bite" ability and save the extra damage bite for their chieftain.
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Sep 13, 2017 07:54
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What would be a good statline for a human warrior as an opponent? My group would be around level 4 at this point. I guess it's dumb to plan encounters that far into the future, but I'd love to hear more of your takes on the crunch.
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Sep 20, 2017 17:18
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Allright, I might try that. I considered just rolling up two-three lvl 3 characters of the same fighting path and sic on their lvl 4, but this seems sensible. Thanks!
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Sep 20, 2017 17:39
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Running a one-shot for a couple of friends in the city of Dis. Current idea is that they're slaves, maybe gladiators( a slave city's gotta have some fighting pits, right?). Any ideas for conflict here? Are there any sourcebooks that go into the nine city-states?
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Oct 6, 2017 16:08
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First game went well, I think. My friends created a gang of goblinoid scum and rejects with characteristical efficiency, and went on a mushroom ale bender trying to locate some kidnapped missionaries of the new God.
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Oct 8, 2017 20:59
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Second session of my game(set in Dis, City of Chains) done tonight. I'm floundering a bit, GM-wise, and would like your help: The players are a proud orc chieftain taken slave who is now a gladiator, a goblin mystic who minds the sewers around the circle of Iron and Blood, an orc rogue who plays strings as a half-time act in the same place, and a human wizard, who apart from being the only free man of the bunch is an agitator who shares the other characters belief that slavery is poo poo and should be abolished. The primary objective for them is to wage a hidden war against the slave regime of the autarch, but they've latched on to an introductory quest that was meant to be a dead end: They were approached by a member of the New God cult, who had his mates kidnapped from outside a restaurant while they were having a smoke before going to talks at the palace about opening a mission. The characters used a goblin "bloodhound"( magic nose!) to sniff up a hidden cellar, where two moon-calf orcs ambushed them. Killing one and interrogating the others, they learned how to operate a portal hidden at the back of the room. However, they refused to use the portal to check out the other side, where I had the priests tied up in the hands of Tartarus slave-raiders somewhere on the plains of Blötheim. They opted to gently caress it, dissassembled and hid the portal, before pursuing the main quest, mediating the surrender of a slave rebellion, and smuggling out weapons and ringleaders in the meantime. That done, they wanted to re-try the priest grab, and cajoled a Jotun gladiator into taking the goblin through, to see if they could find another portal on the other side( they, actually correctly, assume that the raiders are from some other dimension or world, and that the Blötheim portal is just a waypoint). At this point, it was night time in-game, and the session was drawing to a close IRL as well, so I sort of panicked and described how the other place was night-black, with snow taller than the goblin and huge wolves howling in the distance. The jotun explained, in broken common, that he couldn't find other portals, and the terrified gobbo asked to be sent back. The jotun slam-dunked him into the portal, and he's now back at the colosseum feeling sorry for himself. They clearly want to find the kidnappers, who by now ought to have gotten to Tarterus, but they're "only" at the expert path and I have a hard time working out a solid adventure of the current situation. The kicker is that they are more interested in leaving town safely than actually leading the insurrection, which means that any portal not leading to the moon or an equally inhospitable hellhole will be used as an escape ticket instead..
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Oct 22, 2017 21:06
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wiki gotchu, though more may have come out already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Demon_Lord#Game_Products_Sortable_Lists
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Oct 23, 2017 12:55
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Serf posted:It seems like they could kill two birds with one stone by rescuing the priests, returning them to Dis and then hightailing it out using the same portal. Only it goes deep inside Blötheim, which is not only a master-level zone but really inhospitable.
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Oct 23, 2017 15:15
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Serf posted:If they don't want to make a go of it there, then they're back to square 1. They can still rescue the priests (or at least get some form of closure on that front), but they'll have to find another way to get out of town. Sure, thanks. I just have to work out how. I figured, since they killed the guardians on this side, and then just refused to enter the portal before 48 hours later, the priests and their kidnappers have vacated the spot on the other side - presumably to leave for Tarterus. Of course, maybe I could get them to Tarterus, somehow 
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Oct 24, 2017 12:03
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Yo Serf, I've been thinking, and I've decided to let Tarterus come to them. The powers that be are going to take out the group for what they did to their portal/guards, and sic a group of hobgoblin assassins on them. Torturing, tracking or bloodhounding the survivors or corpses will lead to a new portal, to a waystation on Tarterus itself. Fighting off the moon-beast slavers will lead to finding the lost priestly delegation, and horrible insanity trying to deal with the cursed moon and returning in one piece. Your feedback has been much appreciated, is there anything you'd add or remove? FunkMonkey posted:Play a smarty orc. Be the exception that proves the rule. (Not racist) Both the orcs in my group are rather bright with a Kunta Kintish streak a mile wide. Good thing they're stuck in Dis 
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Oct 26, 2017 14:13
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How often are you supposed to level up the party? Asking because I'm GMing a longish campaign and want to pace it properly.
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Oct 31, 2017 06:56
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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
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Oct 31, 2017 07:44
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Thanks. It feels off, but I'm not sure if it's because I'm bad at GMing or my players love to dick around and shoot the breeze.
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Oct 31, 2017 14:08
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Serf posted:I like the idea of making the problem more of a proactive thing. Confronting players and sending threats after them is a good move when you want to get them rolling down the path. My suggestion for something to add would be harvesters. They are often responsible to the abductions that take place on Urth, and since they can often blend in with normal society they make good intelligent villains who can hound the players after they return from Tarterus. If you don't want them to be the centerpiece of the adventure, maybe set up some hints that harvesters are working with the slavers. Then you can spring harvesters on them later if you want and go ahead and set up some foreshadowing now. I'm going to take this advice, because I really enjoy the harvesters as a concept( even with their creepy reproductive stuff). Thanks!
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Nov 10, 2017 13:42
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So uh, tonights session didn't end exactly like I planned it to, and I'm not sure how to proceed. I decided to go with a harvesters subplot. The session starts with the players discovering that a lot of corpses lacking parts have been showing up in the sewers( one of the PCs is a goblin monk whose monastery is located in the sewers below Dis), and one of the players( who is a gladiator-cum-slave revolt leader) mediate a slave dispute in the meat packing plant, where the slaves are being murdered one by one and would risk insurgence in stead of being killed on the job. One member of the kidnapped delegation suddenly dropped through their ceiling, dead, with eyes and tongue removed. He provided them with a scroll stating that in euphemistic terms that the harvesters serve the outlanders and that the rest of the delegation was dead. In the meantime, they hook up with a crime lord whose daughter was kidnapped and escaped from the harvesters behind the murder spree, and she explains where to find them. They track down the boss, a( roughly) female skin tailor named Face Tailor, and her 4 up-buffed Corpse Filch minions. Instead of fighting them, though, the goblin PC decides to convince her to only target members of the slave police for their body replacement, thus empowering their long-term goal of abolishing slavery and razing Dis. Because of their harvester expertise, the creatures easily fashion corpses looking like themselves that the players can present for the bounty - and the city is none the wiser. I gave them a load of corruption points for straight up dealing with the devil, and now I'm not sure where to take the campaign. It seems like the players are a lot more set on being antiheroes than we had originally talked about - do I continue setting them up for a greater struggle against minions of the demon lord, or do I allow their slide into moral gray areas? Knowing how players are, I'm afraid that will just encourage them towards a career as evil PCs, which isn't what the game seems to intend.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:31
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FunkMonkey posted:My party deliberately threw in with the primary villain of my campaign (a Death Lord in the Desolation) because dammit they had an undead apocalypse to halt and the Crusaders have been unreliable assholes the whole time they've come to this desert shithole. They're basically hoping that if they just help him put down his rivals trying to undermine him and the good guys in the way of his ambition he'll be sufficiently satisfied to stop. It's completely thrown my planned story out the window and I've had to compensate on the fly. You could introduce the Knights of the One True God( a splinter sect of the new God turned unknowingly to demon worship), they live in the patchwork lands past the desolation I believe! I know because I'm reading through Uncertain Faith right now, and uh.. let's just say Horrific Parasites isn't the only supplement with pointlessly kinky poo poo in it  Spoiler here: A sect where cultists get impregnated, regardless of their gender, by a huge burbling, eye-encrusted demon cock pillar, by "lowering themselves on it"
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Nov 14, 2017 13:14
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Oh man, I find it really hard to write at the moment. I hope I can ask you guys for feedback again: I want to play up this bit about layers of evil, because my guys have somehow managed to con a senior Harvester into helping their guerilla war against the Autarch of Dis( or maybe just ending slavery, that's what they talk about the most. I'm not sure if they realize this means fighting both the 300, the Manacles and the Bronze Elite). The overarching plot was supposed to be that evil star-beasts of Tarterus who worship the Shadow in the Void were using the harvesters to kidnap humans, but I'm thinking about putting that on hold, because I want to do something with the theme of rebellion and social upheaval. The orcs have taken Caecras' throne just under a month of game-time ago, and the players are sure to hear of it soon. Perhaps something about bands of ork raiders threatening the city? The players have two orks who want to abolish their own slavery and preferably that of all other slaves. One is a regular ork Kunta Kinte and desires for orks to rise up and create a better society. I'm kinda stumped on how to work it into the chronicle. Their bondage keeps them in the city, so perhaps I should give them the choice that they can escape the city, but that would invalidate the work they have done to create the insurrection so far. The other players have less scrutable goals. One is a morally flexible goblin monk who was the one who conned the harvesters into helping them, the other is a human wizard abolitionist, but the player seems a lot more interested in learning forbidden magic. There's got to be a way to link all this together, but I haven't been a GM for a long time, and have sort of hit a wall. I'm sorry if this sounds like me wanting you to do my homework for me, but I don't really have any problems running an enjoyable session, it's writing the plot I find hard 
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Nov 25, 2017 23:03
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This is great stuff, thanks! I'm going to use a lot of it, I think, I'll write after I've heard the podcast - no sense in not weaving a more complicated web around my clueless players if I can help it The thing that really interests me is making them choose between their own freedom, and that of everyone in Dis. The first is definitely going to be easier than the latter, but what would it do to a man to realize he could actually have made things right and didn't? Also, I just got Forbidden Rules, and the additional marks of corruption are, uh... not mind safe. Shadow of the Demon Lord: An extra face appears on your genitalia. It whispers unspeakable things to you.
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Nov 26, 2017 12:05
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If not, I got you( provided they speak english): Changeling - Know the medieval changeling legend? These are it: Enchanted piles of sticks and buds evil faeries have switched for a human baby. They posses the spell-like ability to become any kind of appearance( at least of humanoid creatures) they desire, and can only be forced to revert by magic or touching iron objects. Clockwork - Made of ensorcelled, high-tension clockwork with a spirit of a dead creature bound into them, these golem-like creatures are essentially robots, though they need 'resetting' on a regular basis. They come in all sizes and shapes, depending on the intent and/or insanity of their creators. Dwarves - Pretty standard dwarven concept, these guys ply the deep earth, venerate their ancestors and have a kind of complicated attitude towards other races. Goblin - Most degenerate of faeries, these little guys possess odd mutations and even odder personalities, often obssessing over creepy poo poo and they enjoy hanging out in sewers and other garbage fills. Halflings - Akin to in LOTR or Warhammer Fantasy, Halflings are fat little people who are nevertheless fearless and appreciate having rural reservations in human empires. Human - like in most other fantasy worlds, humans are often assholes, tribal in nature and suspicious of people they don't know. There are some out there variants, such as insane winter-men, the shapechanging and spirit-worshipping woad, corpse-eaters and other degenerate and/or feral variants. Orcs - Like in Tolkien, these guys were created to be a perfect slave-soldier race. They resent their bondage, and have recently broken the magical curse that made them subservient to the rulers of the Caecran empire.
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Jan 5, 2018 12:33
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Oh boy. The amazingly resourceful goblin monk PC in my Dis game has been caught up with. I decided his interesting thing rolls ("a box full of fleshy rods", "17th son of the Goblin King", and "Reputation as an amazing lover") have caught up with him - and that Princess Ailara of Summer, a powerful fae lady about to be wed, wants to bang him before she settles down. It's going to lead to some chicanery down the road when whoever she marries finds out about it, but right now the issue is the courtship. She wants to fulfill a wish for him and his party if he goes to town on her, which he of course agrees to. He then has a long conversation with his erstwhile friends( who are all colossal crooks like him, except maybe the gladiator freedom fighter) about what -they- want, then goes on to completely ignore it and ask her for the following: All orcs must treat him as the 'holiest af holies'. 2 of his party members are orcs, and an orc army from Caecras is currently threatening Dis, so he wants to be safe from harassment in the foreseeable future. Of course, they all know that the fae are not to be trusted, and he is justifiably worried about how she will fulfill it when he awakes. Do you have any suitably devious interpretations of his wish? I'm thinking he gets viewed as a prophet or other dangerous element by non-orcs, or perhaps turns into an actual messiah of sorts, with all the problems that entails.
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Jan 16, 2018 10:00
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Still GMing a campaign in SOTDL, and I gotta say the combat system is tedious because it's so simple. What do you guys do to spice it up?
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Mar 22, 2018 11:04
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No abstract stuff, no. Perhaps I'm bad at handling encounters.
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Mar 22, 2018 12:41
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What does OSR stand for?
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Mar 23, 2018 12:23
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drat, my campaign got weird fast So, the characters have flirted with harvesters, Drudges forces and pirates in order to gain their freedom in Dis, finally settling on smuggling in the forces of Drudge via their secret cave lair below Dis. To achieve this, they swagged a load of dwarf slaves led by the quixotic Helmuth, who started making a lot of Dorf Fortress-esque swag, while the goblin monk who sets up all their treacherous poo poo deals was contacted by a force of Crusader State knights driven south by the orcs, who also aim at taking the city. He tells them they should attack when they see a red signal rocket (red being the general signal for the insurrection, the orc gladiator PC is supposed to smear himself in red paint when it goes down), buys the rocket and tells Helmuth to set it up, then forgets about it. The dwarves fix a tin-plated missile silo connected to a conspicous lever. I mention this, but it is again forgotten in the general plotting. The orc army is smuggled in, while the orc gladiator fights. I roll a chance die, and an orc pulls the lever. The gladiator PC, who wasn't even informed the crusader army existed, goes buck wild, dunking himself in red paint and assaults the Bronze elite guards, getting critted in the face and loses his nose gaining 2 IP, the mage char jumps off a battlement garrotting an enemy, while the goblin monk, high on chi focus, zips around throwing lamp oil at the colosseum gate houses, causing the gates to fall while the orcs slaughter the slaveholding elite. I don't even know where to go from here, but it sure turned epic quickly
Tias fucked around with this message at 12:29 on Mar 29, 2018 |
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Mar 28, 2018 18:28
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Helical Nightmares posted:I haven't read it myself, but there is Godless. Boom stick 
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Apr 4, 2018 11:33
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Recently one of my players was attempted abducted by a gang of orcs (he got one wish from a faerie queen after boning her, and of course wanted to be considered the holiest thing imaginable to orcs), led by a spellcaster with Hex tradition. Since it was a baleful magic and would generally harm those directed at, I opted to make the implement appear threatening and emitting bad, reddish juju in the direction of the victims. That's not saying too much, but hinting at what is going on.
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Apr 6, 2018 10:19
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Gay Horney posted:fighters having less to do than mages is usually a symptom of bad dming or lack of imagination on the fighters part. your battlefield should be filled with poo poo like hanging chandeliers or rivers of lava or piss. one of my PCs who is a fighter just died by bullrushing a thousand year old vampire, grabbing hold of her and jumping out a window at the top of her castle. if all of your combats take place in featureless rooms then being a fighter will suck but so will everything else. Yeah, this. My group just instigated a revolt by smuggling an invading orc legion through the undercity through the Circle of Blood and Iron where they work. Having decided on this as a flashpoint, we drew up plans for the colosseum together, and then tasks for all players could be mapped out: The warrior/monk would distract the Bronze legion guards, the rogue/assassin sneak down a parapet to cut the gate ropes to trap in the slaveowners there to see the big show, while the gladiator would convince his opponent to help him gently caress up the bosses, and the mage provide support from the battlements. As my last post shows it went to hell pretty quickly, but they each had (one!) job. Of course, having your players pick and help you develop an interesting and trait-filled battleground is my wet dream as a GM, but in any case you can plot out likely battlefields ahead of time. If your players don't bite, ambush them at your favorite hazardous terrain!
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Apr 12, 2018 08:52
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As a rule of thumb, I give out IP when people experience something more horrifying than they've tried before, and CP only when they have done something more lovely than they have done before - if they break their own record in a particularly grotesque or blatant manner, they just get several at once.
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Apr 19, 2018 11:05
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I need some advice on how to find a 'bigger' adversary - I don't feel like GMing this campaign forever, and the stage seems set to confront a demon prince, the Shadow itself or some other big bad: Our heroes have gotten themselves in sort of a pickle. They started the game as slaves in Dis, and have over the course of four sessions finally caused the citys fall: Creating a tunnel, they made it possible for one of Drudge's rebel legions to assault Dis through the underground, and as of the start of our next game, the city is being overrun by orcs and freed gladiator slaves, brigands and other fun types. However, they inadvertently bungled a negotiation with an old friend from the Crusader states, leading a Crusader army to attack the city while the orcs are fighting the remnants of the slaveholder armies. Other things happening: The players know of the old plot that was never realized, that slave-holding aliens/demons from Tartarus are attacking Urth to kidnap people for their giant prisons. I had sort of hoped the players, who explicitly stated their abolitionist concept, would want to invade Tartarus and defeat the demons, but so far they've felt too intimidated or busy with Dis itself. They have struck a deal with an elder Harvester, but she has presently ran off, citing 'trouble is coming'. One of the players wants to turn evil, or at least learn forbidden magic, but I'm not too keen on letting him demolish his character with corruption before the game has progressed a bit. I wanted to run one of end times concepts from Hunger in the Void, but I'm not sure exactly which works. The orcs are too cookie-cutter for me, and I'd like something more disturbing.
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Apr 21, 2018 10:38
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Okay so I'm making a character who is a cook who uses fire magic. It says fire magic makes you hot tempered (lol) and the dm said to pick a celebrity picture who looks most like my character and I immediately a short angry halfing guy fieri. Any suggestions for a good tradition to combine with fire magic? Transformation might be cool but it seems like you can't cast spells in animal form. Technomancy: Craft angry, animated stoves that spray incendiaries!
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May 15, 2018 07:58
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There's going to be a new print version? Where do I get in?
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Oct 26, 2018 12:25
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Oh, I thought it was the core rules. Carry on!
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Oct 29, 2018 12:17
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