Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

«‹›6 »

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Hey TG chat thread! I wouldn't normally pimp my own subforum but the fairly badass (but lazy) T-rex came up with this prompt and I suspect it's up your alley.

Tyrannosaurus posted:

So I've been running a weekly super homebrewed, freeform D&D-like game for my partner and our two friends and we recently wrapped up a long, long, long campaign. They�ve now rolled new characters and we�ve starting fresh which is cool but I�m also mentally exhausted. Work is picking up. Covid still sucks. Yadda yadda yadda. Doesn�t matter. By the power of the blood throne, I am declaring this week:

You have 4,000 words to build me a �dungeon.� And I don�t mean a literal, dingy, underground crypt beneath a castle. I mean a self-contained adventure or encounter for me to put my players through. Goblin Punch�s Arthur K. says there are seven things a dungeon needs:

1. Something to Steal
2. Something to be Killed
3. Something to Kill You
4. Different Paths
5. Someone to Talk To
6. Something to Experiment With
7. Something the Players Probably Won't Find

You can read his post in its entirety here. Those seven things aren�t a requirement for the week but I thought they might be helpful to you. Of course, maybe you just want some examples. Here is one by Joe Fatula and two by Joseph Manola of increasing length and complexity:

The Trouble at Mudwater

The Tower of Broken Gears

The Rosefinch Khatun

I'm well aware that Thunderdome is a competition where we write stories. The challenge this week is writing a story for someone else to experience.

Things to Know about Your Setting
A hundred-ish years in the future is the apocalypse. This campaign is a hundred-ish years past that. The exact time frame is unimportant.

There's no magic but things were so advanced when the world ended that any remnant tech might as well be. This makes for fun loot and dangerous and dangerously misused technology. Actual in game example: a spray can that shoots almost instant drying cement instead of paint. It was meant for quick repairs to highways. My players stuck a regenerating raider boss to a wall.

Everything takes place in the Pacific Northwest. The land has been shattered into islands. Anything you write should be island or ocean based. But not tropical. Because Pacific Northwest.

Weaponry has mostly fallen back to melee and bows and arrows. Gunpowder is treasured. Weirder stuff even more so.

Monsters are fine. Mutants are fine. The end of the world came with a lot of genetic fuckery. It doesn't have to make sense. One player has a lobster claw for a leg.

You can include pictures if you want but they're neither expected nor required.

You don't have to stat anything out. You can tell me about a pre-war DJ whose brain is in a semi-immortal cat's body or a massively muscled warlord that uses a stop sign he pulled out of the ground as a mace. I don't need to know the mace is +2 or whatever.

Things to Know about Your Prompt
Signs up close Friday at midnight EST
Submissions close Sunday at midnight EST
You can use up to 4000 words.

To sign up just go to that thread and type 'in'. If you feel saucy, then note you're from TG and you will get a wicked hot gangtag if (and only if) you can trounce our homegrown nerdlords.

# ¿ May 26, 2021 09:20

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 13:50

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Hey nerds, thanks to anyone who came and posted a thunderdome adventure, they start here if you want to take a look! Of the ones I've read sitting here and yoruichi are a fun read, and thranguy deserves insane props for crafting a full hexcrawl that references a bunch of the other adventures this week.

Any TG visitor who gets an honorable mention will get a suitable gang tag, of course!

# ¿ May 31, 2021 06:16

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Ethics_Gradient posted:

Hi Trad Games,

I was looking up versions of "This War of Mine" to use for an Ethics unit with my high schoolers and saw there was a tabletop version, which got me to thinking that going a physical game might be easier, cheaper, and maybe even better, likely having more opportunity for "multiplayer".

Basically, I'll be teaching an ethics unit to Year 9 and 10 students and wanted to give them some opportunities to apply and reflect on some of the theories we look at and choices that they make. Criteria I'd be looking for in a game:

Involves making ethical choices, ideally where there's not a clear "right" answer and you get to see the consequences play out.

Can probably get away with PG-13 type content, although I don't really want to use anything involving sexual or domestic violence

Not too long - would need to be able to get their teeth into it within about 60-90 minutes and have some choices to write about/reflect on the results. If it lent itself to ~20 minute "rounds" or play sessions that could also be a plus (break it up over multiple lessons), but not required.

Reasonably easy to pick up: I don't want to spend a lot of class time teaching the mechanics of the game. It can't require a "DM" type expert role as I can't be everywhere at once.

Cost: should also add that I'm in Australia. I might have AU$100-300 to throw around, which is not a lot when I'm looking at the cost of some of these! My classes are around 25 students each, so I'd probably need 4-5 copies of whatever.

Durability: teenagers being teenagers, things happen. If something being broken or lost would render it unplayable, and it wasn't easily replaceable, then it'd probably not be a wise investment for my department.

Related to above two points: if it was "open source" where I could print and laminate my own cards or something like that, it'd be a huge plus. We also have a 3D printer and a wood shop I might be able to comandeer.

Quoting this for attention

# ¿ Jun 5, 2021 13:37

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

dwarf74 posted:

This may not be a story about TG in a traditional sense...

But this is absolutely a TG story.

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/o2z5pw/am_i_at_fault_for_drawing_a_sword_at_a_person_in/

quote:

Clearly the correct answer is to start carrying a Sakabatou so that you don't accidentally kill those weaker than you when you're forced to draw the blade. Alternatively you could study Chinese Kenpo, but only if you are confident you can become a Kaio

# ¿ Jun 20, 2021 08:56

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Sex stuff really isn't that weird, people are horny. I'm glad it's not the 100% default now though. Just like, uh, 80%. :balldo:

E: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human_female_outfits gw2 was posted before in this or another thread, the women in skimpy lingerie and the men in robes, but in this summary link it's mostly, if not sensible, not deranged ultracheesecake

sebmojo fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jun 21, 2021

# ¿ Jun 21, 2021 21:28

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Halloween Jack posted:

Setting the sexual politics aside, I'd just like to say that every single one of these designs looks like boiled dogshit.

you might want to take your dog to the vet idk

# ¿ Jun 21, 2021 23:09

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Skyarb posted:

I'm going to be designing a one off dread-esque campaign where player reaction is Paramount. Basically things happen in relative real time and players must make quick decisions. As a boring example: "a killer is running towards you with a knife": someone within the group MUST act within 10 seconds or someone dies.

For the longer times I have a collection of sand timers ranging from 1 to 15 minutes which are fairly accurate. I have a couple sand timers under a minute but they are inaccurate and fluctuate and are only as low as 30 seconds.

For the very short time windows, (5 seconds or 10 seconds) does anyone have any suggestions for timing this? I could obviously use my phone or Alexa, but I want some tactile and in their face. Sand timers are great for this but they don't exist at such small increments. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Spin a coin on a table

# ¿ Jun 22, 2021 21:07

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

hyphz posted:

Don�t forget Strike if you want a simpler 4e D&D.

or 13th age

EYES OF TEH STONE THEIF

# ¿ Jul 9, 2021 06:51

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Megazver posted:

Man, some of you have weird loving ideas about CR. They're still actually playing D&D, they're just trained theater nerds.

i think the implication is that it spoils you for regular D&D because you expect, uh heaving comedy and gigantic, personalities.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2021 22:03

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

I do a fair bit of live music for improv, and good improvisers routinely come up with elaborate scenes that are indistinguishable from a scripted play. I can imagine a bit of " there could be a cool scene in a tavern basement, with the thing, and the guy??" "Yeah that will be fun," but its nuts how good improv can be.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2021 23:10

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Leperflesh posted:

We're all sorry your group bailed on you after one bad session of whatever game you were trying to get them to play, but that's not normal. poo poo-talking someone you socialize with behind their backs because of that one time we tried Blades in the Dark and it went badly is also messed up and not something real friends do to each other.

Case in point. A few months back, kinda on a whim, I tried to run a conan 2d20 game for a few mods. The game fell apart. Partly that was due to my own unfamiliarity with the system, I made some bad choices very early on (for example, I let character creation use all of the supplements, which made for too confusing an array of special abilities; and I misjudged the likely pace of play and did not start the game with an action scene because I expected to get to one in a few days, rather than a month later), but even as we all kinda agreed the game wasn't going to keep going, everyone was mutually apologetic, and grateful for my having made an effort and tried it out.

I do not think that case has destroyed my reputation on SA as a GM and I do not think any of those players would advise anyone else, publicly or privately, to avoid the next game I recruit for. That would be weird. If someone tried to warn me about some GM, I would expect that warning to be along the lines of "that guy always tries to get you to do piss wizardry" or "that guy once tried to have his NPC rape a PC" or "that guy refuses to let anyone play a gay character." Not "that guy tried to run Lancer but we just fumbled with the rules and the adventure hook didn't really work and it wasn't fun." If someone tried to give me that last line as their sole reason to avoid a GM, my response would be "that can happen to anyone, it's not a red flag" and I'd happily try them out as a GM anyway.

speaking as a player in this, I thought you did a great job and conan is a really good and interesting system though not particularly well-suited to play by post (though you made it work). it's a pity all the other players bailed, I was enjoying learning my way round it.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2022 22:40

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

hyphz posted:

Wait until they find her character sheet.

Yep, that's her highest level power. Still, it just like makes people fall in love with her when she needs to be incognito, right?

Nope.

it's a ...rapist ray...?

# ¿ Jan 19, 2022 03:16

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

drrockso20 posted:

That's why for most of my Superhero setting concepts I just reuse various Golden Age Superheroes who have fallen into the Public Domain, saves a lot of time coming up with concepts and designs, like in a setting set in the Early 70's that's meant to invoke the late Silver Age to early Bronze Age transition period, if I had a player ask who was the first major superhero of the setting, I'd tell them it was The Fighting Yank and the Black Terror, who both debuted at about the same time back in the mid 50's(and who roughly fill a similar role that Superman and Batman do in DC), or if they ask for any times where real world history got altered due to the presence of Superheroes, I would point to how JFK wasn't assassinated in this universe due to the interference of Stardust The Super Wizard as part of his arrival onto Earth, with Stardust then using his phenomenal cosmic powers to then do absolutely horrifying things to first Lee Harvey Oswald and then to everyone else who had been knowingly involved with the would-be assassination plot

Stardust uses a special ray to transfer LHO to a world full of grassy knolls where he is endlessly assassinating himself

# ¿ Jan 19, 2022 23:27

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

hyphz posted:

Sorry if this is old hat, but I need to vent after a session that contained all the crap that winds me up at the moment.

The second AP in the PF2e series we're playing ends with the PCs on a flying chariot chasing the episode's Big Bad, a spellcaster, through the city.

PF2e is a crunchy game. It is for people who like crunchy games. I bring a tablet with me to help track all the states of things at the table. The best integrated tool for doing that is Hero Lab, but it's insultingly priced, in permanent beta and clunky as anything. The players all also ignore their printed character sheets and use their phones instead, because apparently someone died and named some random bloke the authority on PF character generation rules.

PF2e has a chase mechanism. It is a ridiculously lazy and poo poo chase mechanism. It is one of those where the author decides that getting PCs to make lots of skill checks and giving them points somehow creates a mechanic.

The adventure states that the PCs find the spellcaster only after completing two other encounters first. Since they are flying over the city in a chariot, the spellcaster is standing in plain sight on a roof singing a magically amplified song that can be heard all around, and the encounters are not between them and the caster, there is no reason or explanation for this. I ignore it. They've seen him. He takes flight (he's a birdman). By the rules he gains 1d4 "chase points".

"How far away was he when we saw him?" Don't know, they didn't bother to put that in the AP, nor any suggestion of it. And there's no mapping of chase points to distance. It also does not mention how high anyone is flying, so nobody knows how dangerous falling would be.

Other things it also does not tell us: how far the PCs chariot moves per turn, whether it needs to be steered, how difficult it is to turn, how any damage has impact upon chase points, etc. This becomes relevant when the Gunslinger, who has a weapon with a 150' range band, starts shooting at him and the book gives no way to resolve the distance and no way to calculate the effect of the damage on the chase. I decide to penalise his chase rolls, because since the rules give no way to establish how he can dodge or avoid being in line of sight of the Gunslinger, if I inflict HP damage the gunslinger will blast him out of the air before we even get to the actual encounter.

Per the AP rules, he summons some monsters to defend him. They're a kind of cool monster concept, actually - air dragon like creatures, but formed of the pressure waves that create music. They begin to fly towards the PCs, although we can't tell when they reach them because we do not know how far the caster is from the chariot. Since they are very fast fliers, I decide that 2 move actions will get them there.

The Gunslinger interrupts to point out that since combat has been joined, his Hair Trigger feat lets him immediately fire his gun. "Go for it," I say. Instead of shooting the melodic dragons, he shoots the caster again. Having technically dealt enough damage to end the encounter right there, I instead decides that he cripples his wings and he's now dropping out of the sky. Since we do not know how high up this is happening, nobody can tell if the fall will kill him or not.

A PC decides to speed up the chariot and try to move it underneath the falling caster to catch him. Since we don't know how far that is nor how fast the chariot moves, I figure to have him make an Acrobatics/Piloting check and call it a day. For whatever bizarre reason, one of the PCs with a flying race also decides to jump over and catch him as he's falling, and so manages to do so first. How high above the deck does he catch him? God only knows. I just bodge it as "not far enough to cause much damage", since they were trying to catch him in the first place.

In his turn, the caster tries to break the grapple (what other option is there), falls on the deck, and is immediately surrounded by mace-wielding PCs and pounded into jam. At the same time, the flying PC actually makes one of the melodic dragons crash onto the deck as well, causing a discussion as to whether or not there's a railing on the chariot, how the dragon can land on the deck when the railing is in the way, and whether or not the railing would break. At the same time, I am also left to judge if the weight of the dragon landing on the deck is enough to overpower the lift of the chariot. Because obviously when there's a dragon made of animated song one of your concerns is going to be how much it weighs.

So in what is supposed to be a crunchy game, crunchy enough that I had to spend the bulk of the previous evening setting up the tool for those encounters and working out what to do with the caster, I had to ad-lib 80% of the key decisions and the result was the usual run of various "neat" but unremarkable actions and then the PCs winning without much in terms of problem solving, the kind of thing that gets people saying you're player-centred and they had fun and then going oddly quiet when you mention wanting to run something else.

At the same time it seems the only alternative the market offers to these is games where the adlib is baked in from the start, which is OK if it's inevitable, but that don't even give enough of an adventure or definition to get as far as the chase in the first place.

That was vaguely cathartic.

sounds like you did a good job of DMing to me.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 01:42

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

i remember that with 4e the skill challenge rules as written were really dull, but they popped nicely when you ran it more apocalypse world style, with each success being a positive story development, and failure being a negative one. Chase rules sound sort of similar, and if you're looking for a mathematical precision it won't be that fun.

Still reckon the description of the chase sounds like perfectly solid DMing though.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 04:29

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Lamebot posted:

D&D 3.5:
Silly question regarding the imbued summoning feat in PHB II: it reads like the feat is meant for buffs only but doesn't explicitly state it. It says a summoned creature or creatures(wotc errata fix) get the "benefit" of a spell when they're summoned. Would summoning 1d4+1 small vipers all imbued with explosive runes on their underside so that they can slither up to an enemy and raise their heads as to expose their underside work out with hilarious results?

More to the point: Can I apply non buff spells that meet the touch range requirements of the imbued summoning feat?

edit: on second reading it looks like I can't put explosive runes on creatures

ahaha that's amazing

# ¿ Feb 11, 2022 23:57

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

dwarf74 posted:

Oh I love it! I'll send that to the players.

Speaking of, one player had to drop last-minute (the chef bard ) so I'm down to 4 players. She'll rejoin at a later date, at least.

So - The other four and I had our first session this past Wednesday. They did awesome, and a good time was had by all. Nothing about 13A is revolutionary anymore, but everything worked more than well enough for us!

I made a rather big oops - I let Holy damage do double to zombies automatically - but it actually sped the first combat along nicely so I'm not even upset I did that. It's going to be difficult to learn all the 13A quirks - it's so close to other d20 games but so weird in others.

But it went well. I'm happy with that.

it might be worth doing some research to find good ways to use icon benefits - in particular rolling them at the end of the session not the beginning is a good idea, so you can think of ways to embody them between games. Also having a list of things that a benefit will get you might be helpful if you find you struggle with coming up with stuff.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2022 00:37

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Siivola posted:

Unrelated to anything, here's a useless game design thought I recently had: Many D&D dice rolls are not actually binary, but instead follow an implicit miss/weak effect/success pattern because things are measured in feet and hit points. When you climb a wall, depending on the height of the wall in feet and your check result, you can either make no progress, some progress, or finish the climb. Similarly, when you hit an orc you can do no damage, some damage, or lethal damage.

Edit: Sorry, I tell a lie. That's not how the climbing rule goes. Sorry, sorry. I was thinking of the old third edition jump rules somehow.

rolemaster had a great table for that, you could run a whole game off it with a bit of effort.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2022 08:24

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

GimpInBlack posted:

There are plenty of reasons speak with dead might not be a reliable tool in a mystery plot. First and most obvious, a mystery doesn't have to be a murder mystery--if nobody's dead, speaking to the dead is of limited usefulness. I don't know the exact specifics of the system you're using and its particular flavor of speak with dead, but it's reasonably common for the spell to require the body of the dead person in question, so proper corpse disposal can add a layer of challenge. Likewise, if the spell limits the number of questions you can ask the dead, you might still be missing vital context if all you get is the name of the person who killed them. Then, of course, the dead might not be omniscient--if the victim was koshed on the back of the head, drank poisoned wine, or died in a "tragic hunting accident," they might not know who killed them. If the PCs are acting as agents of a justice system and thus have to care about due process, maybe there's a reason postmortem witness statements are inadmissible in court. And, of course, unless the spell in question obligates the shade to tell the truth, the dead might lie to you, just like any character involved in a mystery story. Maybe the victim was actually killed by their brother, for example, but the ghost cares less about justice than ruining their hated business rival, and sees a bunch of well-armed spellthugs poking around into their death as the perfect opportunity.

More broadly, assuming you're talking about a setting like your typical D&D world, where people can be reasonably expected to be aware that the possibility of someone speaking with a dead person as part of an investigation, that's going to shape both the methods and motives for murders. If a dead person can be communed with, or raised from the dead, or whatever, killing people to silence them is no longer a good idea.

So consider how your very clever criminal would adjust their methods and approaches, and how speaking with the dead to get the name of the killer isn't necessarily the simple, clean-cut solution to an interesting mystery. (And yes, obviously there are still going to be dumb murderers and ones who acted in a panic or whatever and it's very easy to solve the case by speaking with dead at the victim and asking whodunit, but those are not the crimes around which you build a murder mystery, any more than Agatha Christie writes novels where the crime is a straightforward "argument escalated to violence, a dozen witnesses saw the killer pull a gun and shoot the victim in the middle of the bar.")

also: 'it was dark, i couldn't see the killer'

or, for preference, the killer was polymorphed into someone else, like the guy casting 'speak with dead'

# ¿ Feb 15, 2022 11:18

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Jimbozig posted:

But you can see where that has issues within the context of the broader system, right?

As a wizard, the tool I have to use to shoot at him is my fireball spell. But if I expend that, I don't get it back. And I get no advantage by casting a strong spell with a longer range than by casting a weaker spell. Hyphz says that even having had Haste cast on you before the chase doesn't do anything.

So you have a problem at the interface between the generic Chase system where many different actions are mechanically equal and the rest of the game where those actions are very much not equal and there are whole resource systems built around them being unequal.

I'm having to think hard about this with what I'm working on now, because Tailfeathers has specific spells you can learn with specific effects, but is also based on Strike! so I have to think about things like "this totally seems like a spell someone would cast during or before a chase. How should that work? What do they get in the Chase for having done that?"

get X points of chase bonus for using an X level spell, fluff it appropriately, if it's a damaging spell then when they catch him he's down some HP.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2022 23:13

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Jimbozig posted:

Is that in the system already or are you saying they should have put something like that in?

i'm assuming that is what the system says, and if not that's how i would run it.

e: oh wow it does, imagine that lol

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 00:01

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Splicer posted:

I should also say that in Hyphz original post the other day he made a bunch of excellent on the fly (heh) adjudications and did an excellent job of improv to bring the chase to a satisfactory conclusion, and it sounds like his players agreed. Witht he funny thing being that he ended up running the chase basically according to the rules, just he was making them up as he went along.

I should also say the chase rules proper as opposed to the abbreviated ones the module seemed to be pushing him toward are a bit more visually coherent. You don't just have generic chase points, you have specific obstacles and setpieces you're trying to overcome. Like you round the corner and see him sprinting up the steps at the other side of the square and in between there is A Crowd. You need (party member) chase points to pass A Crowd, so you all take your turns and if you succeed before you run out of turns then congrats, you catch up with him in the alley and combat starts or whatever. If you didn't then he moves one obstacle ahead on his turn and when you do escape A Crowd you reach the top of the steps to encounter his hastily erected Magical Barrier. You lose the target if they pass their Escape Obstacle (jumping onto a passing train or diving into a portal or running into their extremely well defended hideout or whatever) or if they get a certain number of obstacles ahead of the players (you just lose him).

So a properly set up chase between two flying parties would involve obstacles that make sense in that context. He might Sing Up Turbulance or SUmmon Bats(rolls to control the flying chariot or magically counter his spell), or fly through the upper floors of An Office Building, or try to lose you in A Crowd (of local quidditch supporters).

Man, never assume something like that. I would not have been surprised either way.

I was just meaning that you need to translate from one system to another, but hyphz complaint was that you couldn't use one system in another. I agree that they did a perfectly cromulent job of running the chase.

the main thing is to convey action and excitement and constantly bounce off players suggestions and responses, the resolution mechanic couild be a coin flip (it already seems extremely simple).

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 00:32

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

That sounds amazing, thanks for the writeups!

# ¿ Feb 16, 2022 05:20

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Gumshoe would probably work well.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2022 20:32

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Antivehicular posted:

There are definitely some here that fit that mold, although I'd probably give Synnibarr a spin if anyone wanted to. deadEarth is definitely in the "no way I'd play this, no way in hell" pile, though, among others.

The starter module for that was just some insane poo poo. Like the quest giver had the party followed by the Best Sniper in the World, who then dug 100 meter trenches round the party and set them on fire, for some reason? Just hilarious.

Character creation was entertaining, though.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 03:03

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Holy poo poo Gareth hanrahan reviewed it

quote:

Chapter 6: Recovery Mission (Sample Adventure) said:
History
About a week ago Hagi Christ lost a very important shipment. Four days ago he sent out a rescue team of five men. The team located the shipment and took off with it. They found the shipment in a small town just west of New Frankfurt. Intel indicates that the rescue team is transporting the cargo via truck to Paris. It is unknown where they intend to go from there.

Mission
Hagi has assembled you to go after the rescue team and dispose of them. Then recover the cargo and bring it back to him. To ensure that you are successful, he has made you aware that he has a secondary team of snipers watching you. They will aid you if you are in need and kill you if you betray him.

Reward
Should your mission be successful, each member of the team will be rewarded with a 1,000 $tandard credit at any of Hagi's trade depots, pubs, and casino's in New Frankfurt. Each member of the team is also granted $500 in credit up front to equip themselves for the mission.

NPCs
The group may encounter many NPC's during this mission and ask them questions as to the whereabouts of the original team. The following list are the NPCs which are integral to the mission.

Hagi Christ
A legend. He is the "boss" in this particular mission. For more information about Hagi check out his bio in Legends.
four snipers
Hagi will have four very talented snipers watching the group the entire mission. These snipers formally worked for the Power and have all the training they need to stay hidden and be able to cap a target at 1000 yards, through the brush, in a stiff breeze.
John Smith
One of the original rescue team members. He is dangerous with dueling handguns and has a quiet arrogance about himself. He is also quite a tracker.
Trinity
The only driver in the group and also the only woman. She is an excellent driver, but has a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel due to her Narcolepsy.
Mike Walker
Good with his hands as a construction worker and a jury rigger. He also has a number of years training in the martial arts.
Suk Rugwad
His talents lie in the interpersonal, though he can also stand his own in a hand to hand brawl. Suk is also very intelligent and reads whatever and whenever he can. Suk is also a religious fanatic and has spoken many times of his church.
Shooter Wheaton
Has some mechanical skills, and is very good with a rifle. Shooter has been known to be a bit predjudous against mutos.
Game Master Background Info
The original rescue team is not incredibly talented, but can be quite resourceful. Don't use this mission for battle hardened veterans. Likewise it is probably not a mission for characters that are just starting out. It will be quite hazardous to their health. Especially if they spend any time in Paris.

The original rescue team will get to a mountain pass just outside of Paris and will break an axle. They will jury rig the drive shaft into an axle in an attempt to push the cargo the rest of the way. Unfortunately they will lose control of the truck as they go down the mountain and will destroy it. They will bury the cargo a few hundred feet off the trail/road and will continue on to Paris.

Paris is a complete wasteland. It is heavily radiated and is home to the world�s largest population of Troggs (see the Spawning Bed Database for more information). Gern Blythe, a researcher, is really the only person that resides in Paris. He is protected by the Troggs but acts as though he has barricaded himself in to keep them away. He maintains a private library of several hundred thousand books and acts as a shaman to the Trogg.

The cargo that Hagi is wants so desperately is a crate about 12 feet long, four feet high, and five feet wide. It weighs about three quarters of a ton or 1,500 lbs. The crate contains a fully functional, though powered down Xavier X-11 warbot. If anyone were to look inside the crate, they would most likely not even know what the Xavier is.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2022 03:19

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Run the DCC adventure sailors on a starless sea as a funnel. It's loving hilarious.

Also, try a 1st ed module like hidden shrine of tamoachan or white plume mountain, they're almost rules free because the vast array of rules in the Dmg are mostly pointless bullshit you ignore, you just need attack rolls and saving throws which is like 4 pages.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2022 19:10

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

CitizenKeen posted:

I adore GMing, Tulip.

yeah, it's a blast

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 01:29

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

dwarf74 posted:

Then block him.

Seriously, stop making GBS threads on the dude for merely posting. If you can't do that, and you find yourself unable to manage the sequence of actions to remove his posts from your easy view, you're gonna have to either exercise some restraint or be removed from the conversation.

Yeah, we ask get it - hyphz threads can get lovely and dumb sometimes, but they're way more on-topic and less gross than your weird grudge-posting.

Yes please.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2022 02:08

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Could you link your reviews of the modules purple?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2022 09:35

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Siivola posted:

What other parts of AW are designed for cons? Its tools for running campaigns and character advancement were downright groundbreaking.

i feel like AW basically systematised Being a Good DM in a brisk, commanding sort of way and didn't lean on 'all of these rules are simply suggestions!' which has been a mainstay of the hobby since day one.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2022 21:06

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

As written it has a bunch of rules for a campaign and none for con play, but it makes sense that it would work well as a one off.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2022 05:17

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Absurd Alhazred posted:

I'm pretty sure I read Baker talking about adjustments he makes when running this at cons, so no, I don't think it was originally designed around that format.

Edit: Found it, it's in this Q&A session he did a while back, starts at "Back when I used to run a lot of Apocalypse World con games".

That's a great link, thanks!

# ¿ Mar 27, 2022 06:48

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Leperflesh posted:

From a game theorycrafting standpoint, what are the alternatives to rolling dice to discover the outcome of a character using a skill?

I can think of at least two: you can have a system where characters always succeed at skills on their sheet; and you can have a resource pool from which you spend to succeed at skills, and eventually run low on resources and need to replenish them somehow.

Anything else?

Gumshoe does this, and in my limited experience it sort of just kicks the problem down the road because you spend your points until they're gone then you're suddenly a bit useless

# ¿ Mar 29, 2022 19:52

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

i'm thinking of running bulldogs because gareth hanrahan did a campaign for it - anyone have experience with that?

# ¿ Apr 8, 2022 01:42

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Whfrp 2e question: is it just a constant festival of players failing rolls and dying horribly

# ¿ Apr 9, 2022 05:22

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Absurd Alhazred posted:

lmao

# ¿ Apr 22, 2022 03:55

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

A hardcore indie earthsea rpg would be amazing

# ¿ May 1, 2022 02:15

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Is there a blades in the dark thread? Sprung for the paper version, I didn't realise how different it was from a standard *world game.

# ¿ May 3, 2022 00:17

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 13:50

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Hel posted:

Isn't using the hundreds of a second parts of a stopwatch already a thing for randomization? Just have the player press stop and count it from there, much quicker than seconds or minutes and won't hold up the game while players wait 15 minutes for the perfect result.

oh, that's really clever.

Another way to get random numbers is think of a number from one to ten (or w/e) and ask for the same from the player - and them together and make it roll over (so, 7 plus 6 equals a roll of 3 on a d10, 9+2 =1).

# ¿ May 6, 2022 23:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Trad Games Chat: squabbled over drafts, forked, and disbanded

«‹›6 »