|
Toebone posted:Humble Bundle has a pretty nice looking deal on Wasteland Warfare stuff (link) I haven't played anything from Modophius, is it worth grabbing? Like Leperflesh said above, if you want in on the minis-game, it's a great deal. If you have access to a 3-D printer, it's a really great deal. If not, eh.
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2021 14:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 05:01 |
|
|
I guess my question is more, is the game good? I like nerd games with minis, I like fallout, and I have a resin printer, but I don't know anything about the game itself.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2021 15:20
|
|
|
For those of you that have played Infinity 2d20, what was your experience like when players reached the higher skill and stat levels? I had a player put points into hacking to the extent it was difficult to meaningfully challenge them and another character came fresh out of chargen with masterful social skills. The accessibility of wealth in chargen seemed odd to me as well. I had two hyper-rich characters at the start, wealthy to the extent it was very odd they were spending any time slumming around the galaxy with the rest of the group.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2021 20:00
|
|
|
Just got my Fallout RPG set from the UK in the mail (loving DHL magic) and I'm going to try to figure out what the gently caress I just bought, if it actually is stand-alone, or if I gotta go buy the base game (so I can paint some minis). So far my only comment is that opening the books from the plastic; everything smells a bit like playdough, which I don't mind but I do think is a bit weird.
|
|
#
?
Feb 26, 2021 15:53
|
|
|
Red Shoe posted:For those of you that have played Infinity 2d20, what was your experience like when players reached the higher skill and stat levels? I had a player put points into hacking to the extent it was difficult to meaningfully challenge them and another character came fresh out of chargen with masterful social skills. So I played in one of these games and character generation was a beautiful mess. We had two very OP hackers, one Bear-Man melee fighter guy and me, who was basically Elon Musk except in a dress. I died in character gen so I got to spend all of my considerable fortunes on a top-tier body (Siren, I was a social build) before I even began the game, and it only got worse from that point on. I started the game with what can only be considered end-game gear, because by pure accident not only did my super wealthy hyper-elite (or whatever I was) have the funds to buy things, I had the skills to do so as well. I didn't know what Lifestyle skill was at all, only that if I'm Lady Elon then I should probably have that or something. My party was pretty much scraping by with minimal gear while I had holographic disguise kits and top-tier augments (silk). I had a house that could shape change based on my thoughts, and my faction was Corp meaning I was pretty much a Ferengi. I pushed my social stats well beyond human maximum this way and then when the game actually started, I could end entire encounters by telling people they were bad, or giving them a withering look. In short: it's a bit bonkers. Edit: To sum up in terms of what this means in sci-fi's people know. 1) I was playing a character from The Culture 2) The hackers were basically from Star Trek 3) The bear man guy was found in alley in Altered Carbon Bringing the group together was somewhat tricky, lol. Nexa fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Feb 27, 2021 |
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2021 14:20
|
|
|
Has anyone pre-ordered the Dune game and tried it out. The first three novels are some of my favorite books, but I'm not really sure I see how to make an RPG out of it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2021 16:53
|
|
|
Finally got to actually start my STA campaign and I love supporting characters. They really do just work.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 12:29
|
|
|
2d20 GMs: how much info do you normally give your players, when you spend from the GM's pool (e.g., the Doom pool)? For example, it costs 1 Doom to add a Minion to an encounter, or 2 to add a Toughened NPC. If my players know that, then they immediately know if an NPC I've added is one or the other by how much Doom I spent to bring them in. I sorta feel like that's fine? But the game rules are silent on the subject.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 17:15
|
|
|
I keep it posted openly on tabletop. It adds to the tension about using threat (STA GM here) -- when I've got tons of threat, they're hesitant about adding to the total, but when I'm low they don't mind using points here and there. e: and when I screw them over badly they know it's "their fault" for letting the threat pool build up so high
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 17:29
|
|
|
Oh yeah they always know how many tokens are in the pool, that's the requirement. I meant, do you tell them when you spend some Threat, exactly what you've spent it on?
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 18:20
|
|
|
I use red poker chips I got for about $2. Whenever I spend them, I dramatically clink them back into the container and tell them what I did. It’s a very satisfying sound. KLINK KLINK KLINK “Another Dominion Scout Ship had appeared on your sensors!” I’ve only done one or two entirely secret rolls/spends, and those paid off about a year later. I snuck a Changeling past them, replacing their security chief (a supporting character) a la Bashir in DS9. They’re on their way to the prison to rescue her now. If I hadn’t nailed my deception roll, I would have given them more clues. But I did. Still told them she took the blood test out of the doctor’s hand and administered it to herself before testing the rest of the crew, but they didn’t catch it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 21:20
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:Oh yeah they always know how many tokens are in the pool, that's the requirement. I meant, do you tell them when you spend some Threat, exactly what you've spent it on? If they always know how many tokens are in the pool, wouldn’t they necessarily know when and how much you spend by simple subtraction? I may be missing something here...
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 21:27
|
|
|
I'm running online with the majelbot and it comes with threat and momentum counters. You can add to or subtract from the momentum globally for the server, so you can type the command publicly or you can do it in secret in a hidden channel.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 21:29
|
|
|
Subjunctive posted:If they always know how many tokens are in the pool, wouldn’t they necessarily know when and how much you spend by simple subtraction? I may be missing something here... The players have not necessarily read the GM stuff, to know exactly what everything costs in tokens. Or, if I pull say four tokens from the pool and then things in the encounter are escalated, they don't necessarily know that: 2 were for this new Toughened reinforcement, and 2 were for <some other thing> vs. a 1, 3 spend, or a 1,2,1 spend, etc. So what I'm asking is, do you say to the players "I'm spending 2 doom to add a Toughened reinforcement!" or "I'm spending 2 doom from the pool. An NPC enters the fray... it's a winged ape looking thing and it's real angry!" or maybe you just scoop out four doom, you say "DOOOM" real ominously, and then say "An NPC enters the fray... it's a winged ape looking thing and it's real angry. Also, the west wall, the one with all the cracks in it, gives way! It's falling on you!" e. an extension of this question is the degree of information asymmetry you have at your table. Broadly, I'm convinced it's not a good thing if players never have a way to assess the threat they're facing. But this system gives the players multiple options to assess threat: Observation rolls, the Obtain Information momentum spend, etc. If I felt it was a D0 check to know that a given foe is a minion vs. toughened vs. nemesis, I might volunteer that info up front, but I prefer not to use exactly those terms, especially for players who know the rules. It's important IMO not to trick the players into routinely wasting resources. So if it's clear the players think a minion is actually a nemesis, I don't want them blowing multiple limited resources to throw big piles of dice that aren't needed; similarly, it's not good to trick the players into dismissing a serious threat as a minor one, at least not very often. What this actually accomplishes is a distrust of the GM's descriptions, leading to hoarding of resources, endless un-needed hemming and hawing over every obstacle, and obsession over information gathering in advance of every possible encounter. So a balance is needed between a reasonable amount of information that the players can trust, so they have a basis to make good decisions, vs. a desirable amount of surprise and mystery to the world, so their characters aren't always making the optimal, tactically perfect decision. Since the players have some tools, I don't think it's an absolute requirement to tell them which foes in a battle are minions vs. toughened etc. every time. Especially for less familiar enemies. But it's certainly an option and could be fine? Just wondering what other 2d20 GMs do. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 25, 2021 |
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 21:40
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:The players have not necessarily read the GM stuff, to know exactly what everything costs in tokens. Ah, I misunderstood what you meant here, I think: Leperflesh posted:For example, it costs 1 Doom to add a Minion to an encounter, or 2 to add a Toughened NPC. If my players know that, then they immediately know if an NPC I've added is one or the other by how much Doom I spent to bring them in. In general I try to avoid situations where having read additional sourcebooks gives a material advantage in terms of strategy (though monster manuals are a challenge here), so in that situation I’d probably disarm it by telling them outright or leaning into the description of the new entrant to convey it. I haven’t GM’d Modiphius specifically, though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
Reading the Dune 2D20 now. They pull in a bunch of lore from the Brian Herbert books for the setting. Which is straight up blasphemy, but I can understand why they did it. The canonical six novels are pretty confined in scope and don't give a ton of playable detail on the broader setting. If you want to get to RPG sourcebook levels of detail, you have to either draw in some of the non canonical books, or just start making poo poo up. When it comes to non canonical Dune books, I personally like the Dune Encyclopedia better. But I can understand why the Herbert estate would prefer that the game reference books that still make them money, rather than an out of print book by a dead guy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2021 18:56
|
|
|
Almost pulled the trigger on fallout 2d20, but $35 in shipping made it a no go at least for now.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2021 07:16
|
|
|
mellonbread posted:Reading the Dune 2D20 now. Yeah, I just picked it up today too. I've read the first three Herbert books and am currently working my way through God Emperor, and the backstory in the Modiphius book is my first exposure to the absolute bullshit Brian Herbert and KJA seem to have come up with  Haven't gotten to the mechanics yet but the little one-page demo of play was basically just "this is Star Trek Adventures", so I guess I'll be right at home with the system. Thinking about running the included intro adventure as a one-shot via PbP or something.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2021 18:26
|
|
|
Drone posted:Yeah, I just picked it up today too. I've read the first three Herbert books and am currently working my way through God Emperor, and the backstory in the Modiphius book is my first exposure to the absolute bullshit Brian Herbert and KJA seem to have come up with
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2021 20:23
|
|
|
What the hell, why not. I put up a PbP recruitment post to try out Dune: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3964564
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2021 15:54
|
|
|
So, Conan question. Treatment in combat is a Dx, where x is 1 or number of wounds whichever is higher. If you have the "This will hurt" talent (reduce difficulty on healing checks by 1/2/3 steps for 3/4/5 mental damage on your patient), can you do that as the free "simple task" action instead (The character may perform any other task that requires a Simple (D0) skill test or no skill test as a Free Action)? Also, would courage soak apply to that this will hurt damage (regardless if the combat situation applies)? Especially if the target is yourself
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2021 22:48
|
|
|
I went through the treatment rules pretty recently and to be honest they're a bit of a mess. One thing that wasn't obvious is that you're assumed to not really bother treating Vigor in combat (even though that would be a very useful thing to do) becuase it's assumed the player low on Vigor will take a Recover action to do that instead. While the rules do say that a simple D0 test is a free action in combat, I think this clause in the Test Difficulty section (p 97) applies: quote:In circumstances where something significant is at A test taken in combat to heal yourself or someone else has enough going on with it that I probably wouldn't allow a free action non-rolled test for it. There's a risk of Complications I want to be evaluated by the dice. I can't find any rules that suggest courage soak can't be applied to any source of mental damage, so I'd allow that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 7, 2021 17:39
|
|
|
Are there any good resources/hubs for fan material for 2d20? Especially Star Trek but any. I'm noodling about a Kelvin: TNG game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2021 02:34
|
|
|
CitizenKeen posted:Are there any good resources/hubs for fan material for 2d20? Especially Star Trek but any. https://continuingmissionsta.com/ is good for Trek. Also, the Modiphius product manager (I think that's who he is) hangs out in the subreddit, or at least he used to -- haven't been there in a while
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2021 04:48
|
|
|
Jim Johnson (the product manager) is also very responsive if you want to email him with specific questions as well.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2021 09:22
|
|
|
AAR: Did our first actual session last night of STA. I ran the group through the quick-start adventure, which was fairly straightforward. Everyone had a ridiculously good time. The biggest impact for me, is that I have a couple players that just sit back a lot and kind of go along for the ride for most campaigns, but for this they were both actually very active, and called out their values (one supporting, one challenging) and used them in play, it was great! One of those players also commented that they really like the game system. He felt like it wasn't too crunchy, and it wasn't about rolling huge dice pools or sorting through skills or whatever. A++ would play again
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2021 16:27
|
|
|
Finster Dexter posted:He felt like it wasn't too crunchy, and it wasn't about rolling huge dice pools or sorting through skills or whatever. I really like this aspect of the system. Every other Trek RPG system I've played has had a long list of skills to sort through, and STA better models the "get up from Ops and man Tactical" that we see in TNG and later Treks, plus no "OK, science officer, what's your Planetary Science (meteorological [precipitation])" skill checks.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2021 17:32
|
|
|
Yeah, my initial impressions are that STA is an excellent "Star Trek TV Episode Simulator", which I'm sure flies in the face of neckbeardy types that are jonesing for "Hard Sci-Fi Military Starship Simulator". Which has always felt kind of weird since Star Trek TV is almost as far from Hard or Military sci-fi as sci-fi can get. (Don't @ me about Siege of AR-558 because that episode doesn't glorify militarism or war, which is usually a thing in military sci-fi.) It's a good RPG.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2021 20:01
|
|
|
What sold me on it totally was that the test for the Captain to give orders was difficulty 0 so that the Captain should totally go first and give orders just to fill the pool with Momentum for everyone else to do their job better.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
If the captain is not a player character should they be a "GM PC" or a Supporting character? Supporting characters seem a little anemic for a skipper. fake edit: for Star Trek not Conan
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2021 18:15
|
|
|
I would think GM pc, but Supporting Character is probably more appropriate. It isn't his story.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2021 18:30
|
|
|
Keep the captain on the ship, let them assist appropriate rolls. You can make them more interactive, but it’s absolutely not necessary. Captains aren’t on away teams.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2021 18:54
|
|
|
My advice: don't worry about rank, it's meaningless, just go with what you need or want for the adventure. You can justify it easily: some captains are micromanagers, some are over-promoted limp noodles, some are distant cloistered half-retired seat warmers, some are genuinely helpful enablers of their crew's competence, etc. Captain could do nothing but start an adventure by issuing an order which serves as sort of a framing for your away team, some could constantly be a communicator-call away to provide resources or assistance whenever, some could actively interfere and effectively serve as an adversary (one you're not allowed to shoot with a phaser).
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2021 18:54
|
|
|
Running my first session sunday after next. Would you recommend the starter box adventure or something else? I kind of like the idea of something less Romulan Plot and more Big Expansive Sci-Fi Trippyness like Encounter at Farpoint for a first sesh before getting into geopolitics with forehead aliens. FWIW I have most of the standalones as well as TATV and SNW from going in on the Humble Bundle. If it makes a difference I moved the game date to just after the end of the Dominion War which I figure shouldn't rule out too many with the most minor retooling of details. Players are in an Ambassador class that did signals and ECM stuff in support of fleet actions and hasn't yet been refit completely with a "peacetime" sensor package due to lack of drydock time with all the new ships rolling out and getting refit/repaired their older model is on the back burner.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2021 19:30
|
|
|
Owlbear Camus posted:If the captain is not a player character should they be a "GM PC" or a Supporting character? Supporting characters seem a little anemic for a skipper.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2021 23:33
|
|
|
Owlbear Camus posted:Running my first session sunday after next. Would you recommend the starter box adventure or something else? I kind of like the idea of something less Romulan Plot and more Big Expansive Sci-Fi Trippyness like Encounter at Farpoint for a first sesh before getting into geopolitics with forehead aliens. Starter box adventure and the adventure book "Star Beyond the Stars" are pretty good, and focus on hitting a lot of the major components of the game in terms of checks, combats, etc. They are definitely Romulan-heavy though. At least at the start, though the 3-part campaign in that adventure module ends up drifting a ways off from Romulans. The rommies are such a good hook, though, if you play in the default area around Shackleton Expanse. I'm running those, and did something similar for my campaign. It was a toss-up with the players if we wanted an Ambassador class or Excelsior class. We ended up going Excelsior class with a refit or two behind schedule, and meant to be a sort of tin-can in space deal, almost exactly like your setup. I also put them sort of near to Shackleton Expanse a few years before Dominion War. I don't plan to do anything with Dominion War and am on completely other side of Federation so I can kind of advance time as I see fit. Also, turns out the old Iconian homeworld is very close to that area of space... so who knows what the ship might run into out there...
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2021 21:01
|
|
|
I'm embarassed to admit I started reading Star Beyond the Stars and dismissed it as a Scheming Romulans module to run later before picking it back up and reading further.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2021 17:34
|
|
|
I've been running a Conan game for a few months now and really love the Gamemaster's Toolkit for coming up with new adventures. I'm about to begin a Star Trek Adventures campaign and I was wondering, is there anything similar for STA? I like the mission briefs that Modiphius has put out, but I'd really love to get better at coming up with my own storylines. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that coming up with an interesting Star Trek plot is more complicated than coming up with a brutal Conan plot...
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 18:48
|
|
|
They just announced a week or two ago that two new books are coming (and IIRC PDF's are available immediately), one a Player's Guide and one a Gamemaster's Guide. So maybe give that a look?
|
|
#
?
Nov 2, 2021 20:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 05:01 |
|
|
Yeah I was looking at those. I think I might wait until they have the PDFs available on their own though - I have soooo many books already...
|
|
#
?
Nov 3, 2021 15:26
|
|