With everyone's schedule what it is one of our players wasn't able to come to the first session, 3 of the players would be missing the next one and neither he nor I would be able to go to the game on the 25th because of respective work. So the GM floated an in between episode. I would play a side mission with the Bard to get him introduced to the story, then the next week the Cleric, Paladin and Mage would run a concurrent side mission, reconvening after Easter where we will hopefully all be together for the first time. Unfortunately the Bards player hadn't really gotten much done character wise so of the 4 hours we had available only 2 of it was actual game time. C'est la vie.
Session 1.5
A travelling Gnome begins to enter Sandpoint from the south when he hears something from under the bridge. Looking down it is a young woman who says she was fleeing with some children when they were set upon by goblins, she was knocked over and hasn't been able to climb up yet and needs his help. The gnome (who at this point I still do not know if he has a name yet, and I took to calling Tiny Nuggets) mentions that he is not the guy she wants for hauling things but will try anyway. Grunting with effort Tiny Nuggets does succeed in pulling her out. She introduces herself to Tiny (I have completely forgotten her name, but I do remember she was a red head and the picture was a little bit slutty). She has Tiny take her to the local clergyman who looks over to Kumak and requests they find the children the goblins made off with. Tiny takes one look at Kumak and makes some cutting remarks about his size. Kumak hands his backpack and bag to the priest grabs Tiny and throwing the gnome over his shoulders takes off at a run.
Following the tracks the two come upon a full Orc standing over the bodies of 3 goblins and a crying child. The Orc introduces himself as Gris and calls for a challenge. As a fellow follower of Kurgess Kumak agrees. If Kumak and Tiny win then the Orc will tell them where the rest of the goblins went with the other children and Gris will return the one child here unharmed to Sandpoint. Gris does not mention what happens should they lose. Preparing himself for a test of strength Kumak is surprised to see Gris has chosen what is essentially a puzzle box/cryptex hybrid. Tiny manages to solve it in fewer moves than Gris. Gris nodding picks up the kid and begins walking towards Sandpoint. Tiny is unsure if they can trust Gris, but Kumak assures him that Gris would abide by the deal.
Continuing in the direction Gris pointed the 2 find a large pool of blood, a discarded child's toy and what appears to be the entrance to a burrow. Tiny begins talking about how they should proceed when Kumak grabs him and shoves him in the warren first his half-orc form squeezing behind. Finding what appears to be a refuse pit Tiny refuses to enter so Kumak does, finally able to stand up again. A giant centipede drops from the ceiling and tries to take a bite but finding only the rough crocodile hide of his shirt. Kumak shakes the centipede off and with one back swing of his hammer crushes the insect. Finding only the remains of a strange book mostly buried in an alcove they descend further into the warren hearing chanting that Tiny identifies as the goblin language. Without darkvision Tiny is relying on Kumaks guidance and when they come upon 3 goblins gleefully tormenting a terrified child Tiny forgoes the element of surprise to insult the goblins. The fight is difficult, without light Tiny is relying on on his hearing and after several misses elects to illuminate the room. Kumaks first strike crushes a goblin but spends the next few swings missing while the much smaller goblins begin taking the large half orc down with many small cuts. Finally Kumak scores a hit against another goblin, and quickly finishes the last. The small girl tells the 2 that there was a fight at the entrance, one of the goblins took a bite out of the other boy and the boy ran, chased by some of the goblins. Kumak escorts Tiny and the girl outside and away from the blood, conducts a final search of the goblin warren then using his Earthbreaker collapses the tunnels from the surface.
Tiny distracts the girl, making her laugh to keep her occupied. Following the trail Kumak finds an escarpment where 60 feet below he spies the body of the boy and 3 goblins among the rocks not moving. Without his pack for a rope and as injured as he is Kumak decides to return for the body after he takes the 2 small ones back to town. Hefting one up on each shoulder he begins the long walk back to Sandpoint.
Thoughts: With another 2 hour session, not what I was hoping for, but understanding this is another outlier. The interaction with Kumak and Tiny was, almost hostile I suppose. The Bard kept throwing out insults and demeaning terms, which with an Int of 7 I imagine Kumak is still picking up on. That being said the fault I rolled for him was Loyalty (So long as I don't feel betrayed I will be loyal to a fault) so I took it to be Kumak seeing Tiny engaged in combat despite being completely outclassed, yet staying with him would be enough to earn some respect and if he feels Tiny needs some correction he can certainly make his opinion known.
Split the Party
The other side: I only have the GM's synopsis but it went something like this;
Villister, Susan and Tiberius hear about the children being abducted and a local bar owner and former adventurer Ameko mentions that she knows about some goblin caves by the sea. Leaving Sandpoint they spy a large Orc entering the village with a scared and confused looking child under his arm but shrug and continue. Finding the goblin caves Ameko stays at the entrance to keep any goblins from surrounding the party should there be a trap. Encountering a few traps on their way in they find a large room where an elderly female goblin squawks something that only Susan understands as "run children" before charging the heroes. With that a swarm of even smaller goblins begin coming out of every turn. Tiberius swings with wild abandon while Villister brings his heavy mace down on the adult goblin. Susan finds the work unpleasant so guards the entrance but an escaping goblinoid forces her to act and soon the cave is cleared. Searching further they come upon the bodies of 3 goblins on the rocks and one human boy. There is a large crab that is about to make its meal out of the bodies and with one of the heroes spying the barest breath from the boy they leap into action. Using a wand of Glue Seal she found in the caves Susan glues both the crabs claws shut. Tiberius now only in danger of aggressive poking from the crab makes short work of it. Villister tends to the boys injuries and brings him back from the brink. Searching the fallen goblin bodies they rejoin Ameko and return to Sandpoint.
Tuesday, 27 March 2018
New Beginnings - Rise of the Runelords campaign session 1
Long hiatus there, but what can you do?
Our RPG group found ourselves deciding what to pursue next as Starfinder did not really hit the mark and we settled on Rise of the Runelords. Paizo's first official Adventure Path, and from what I hear one of the better ones.
We decided to go a bit old school with our rolls to see what we got. 4D6 drop the lowest. No moving your rolls around. 1st is Strength, 2nd Dex, etc and ended up with an interesting assortment. I ended up with (before modifiers);
Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 17
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 14
So I figured that looked like a typical hulking barbarian to me. The charisma of 14 got me thinking however and instead of going pure barbarian I went into Bloodrager, which is a hybrid of barbarian and sorcerer. Since in our Pirate game our current GM had done a Dwarf Barbarian with an Earthbreaker, and I had decided to run Earthbreaker I went for Half-Orc instead and pumped up the Str by 2.
Doing up a quick backstory rolling in Ultimate Campaign I ended with;
Kumak Half Orc Bloodrager
Human mother who has never talked about his orc heritage, as far back as he can remember she was already remarried to a human farmer who had 3 sons and 1 daughter from his late wife. No issues in the family, the husband loved them all like they were his own and no issues with brothers and sister. Local lord (Jarrus) is fighting a campaign against nearby Shoanti tribe,raising taxes both food and money on the farmers to pay his army and when his youngest son Endrev comes of age the son decides to join the war. Conscription comes by and Kumak being of massive build even as a teen volunteers to keep his family safe. In their first foray the young lords regiment is supposed to guard a pass to prevent fleeing barbarians from escaping, but seeing a chance for personal glory he orders his regiment to attack. The Shoanti seeing a now unguarded means of escape begin surging en mass. The entire exchange lasts maybe 30 minutes but is a bloody one. Kumak for the first time feels his Orcish heritage rise up and in a rage slaughters dozens of Shoanti. The regiment that once numbered about 150 strong has maybe 20 that will live the night. Kumak while surveying the dead hears whimpers and finds the lord hiding beneath bodies of the slain, not a scratch on him. As the lords father is riding up, Kumak makes the deal that he will tell no one how he found the lord cowering beneath the dead if the lord agrees to have the farmers tax lowered to its pre-war rate, even if it means he pay the difference himself. With moments before his father arriving the young lord agrees, while his father surveying the landscape knows the truth of what happened there, the official reports reflect well upon Endrev's conduct. Jarrus declares that he needs his son close, so the remainder of Endrevs short lived regiment is disbanded. Kumak returns home and remains for a few months, to be sure that the taxes collected have been lowered. Wanting to explore this raw power and aggression he can feel Kumak leaves home, to find work where he may. Which brings him to Sandpoint, on the day of the Goblin attack;
Session 1:
Arriving in the town of Sandpoint it is arrayed for a festival to dedicate its new church. Games, prizes and food are all on display. After some delaying speeches the fun is finally begun. Kumak looks around and spots a well armored human whose size seems to rival his own. Sizing each other up, they each hear that the hammer game has opened up and decide to let their muscles do the talking. Each are given a heavy nail about a foot long and a heavy one handed hammer. Their first swing sees Kumaks nail driven halfway in with a solid blow while the humans makes a respectable third of the way in. The second blow Kumak only manages a glance but still sees his nail almost driven to the end, however the human lands a solid blow and is only inches behind. Not wanting to be shown up Kumak lets out a bellowing roar and feels his muscles swell, the nail is driven clean through the heavy wooden board and the board itself is shattered. Panting Kumak looks to the human who arches an eye brow then nods. Kumak laughs and holds out his hand, taking it they introduce themselves, his name is Tiberius, and he wants to know if Kumak would join him for the ale drinking contest.
Villister an elderly clergyman from Sandpoint enters a trivia contest where he places well but is outshone by a young female newcomer named Susan, who not only answers the questions but unprompted provides ancillary information not related to the questions. Susan is declared the winner and Villister suggests they find another activity to let some others win at trivia for a while.
Kumak and Tiberius sit down to the ale drinking contest. There is a progression of drinks beginning with a lighter lager and working its way to a rich dark ale. Kumak makes into an early lead easily downing the drinks. Tiberius forces too much drink down at once and finds it coming back up, covering himself and splattering on Kumak. Kumak reaches the penultimate drink when he hiccups while drinking and causes himself to lose his breakfast. Tiberius continues towards victory but Kumak concedes, Tiberius eyes the pie eating contest but Kumak declines opting to wash himself in a nearby horse trough.
Villister and Susan partake in a game of hide and seek in a nearby barn. Susan finds a well hidden position in the rafters while Villister finds a cozy well shaded position in some hay. Down to the wire Susan sees she is about to be caught but spots what she feels is the only other contestant and using her Mage Hand makes a noise by them causing them to be caught first. After confirming the count again the officiant declares there must have been a miscount and as Susan was the last found she is the winner. Looking around Susan does not see Villister and after searching the barn finally discovers the old man having fallen asleep in his hiding spot.
More officials begin giving speeches when all 4 notice something small dart under a table and a flash of metal as something is about to kill a dog, its a goblin. Kumak enters a rage and charges at the goblin as 4 more appear and pandemonium breaks out. The goblins alternate between attacking, eating food, throwing fish at each other, and setting anything on fire. The four make quick work of the nearby 9 or so goblins. Hearing a commotion from up the street they run to investigate. Seeing a goblin riding a mangy dog threatening a local dog protecting a cowering man Kumak charges and with his last reservoir of rage caves in the head of the goblin with one swing. Tiberius accounts for another goblin, Susan and Villister together dispatch one, and a final goblin making a hasty retreat is taken down by the no longer cowering man.
End Session
Thoughts: The session went well, Tiberius and Susan's players were new meets so it was held at a local store as our host would prefer to meet someone before bringing them to his place. Both players (a boyfriend/girlfriend team) seemed to enjoy it and were very pleasant. The session was only about 1.5-2 hours long, not great considering I find our usual 4 hour sessions lean enough as it is but there it is. As they are new to this we elected to not use battlemat/minis and did combat as a much more free form thing.
Our RPG group found ourselves deciding what to pursue next as Starfinder did not really hit the mark and we settled on Rise of the Runelords. Paizo's first official Adventure Path, and from what I hear one of the better ones.
We decided to go a bit old school with our rolls to see what we got. 4D6 drop the lowest. No moving your rolls around. 1st is Strength, 2nd Dex, etc and ended up with an interesting assortment. I ended up with (before modifiers);
Str: 17
Dex: 12
Con: 17
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Cha: 14
So I figured that looked like a typical hulking barbarian to me. The charisma of 14 got me thinking however and instead of going pure barbarian I went into Bloodrager, which is a hybrid of barbarian and sorcerer. Since in our Pirate game our current GM had done a Dwarf Barbarian with an Earthbreaker, and I had decided to run Earthbreaker I went for Half-Orc instead and pumped up the Str by 2.
Doing up a quick backstory rolling in Ultimate Campaign I ended with;
Kumak Half Orc Bloodrager
Human mother who has never talked about his orc heritage, as far back as he can remember she was already remarried to a human farmer who had 3 sons and 1 daughter from his late wife. No issues in the family, the husband loved them all like they were his own and no issues with brothers and sister. Local lord (Jarrus) is fighting a campaign against nearby Shoanti tribe,raising taxes both food and money on the farmers to pay his army and when his youngest son Endrev comes of age the son decides to join the war. Conscription comes by and Kumak being of massive build even as a teen volunteers to keep his family safe. In their first foray the young lords regiment is supposed to guard a pass to prevent fleeing barbarians from escaping, but seeing a chance for personal glory he orders his regiment to attack. The Shoanti seeing a now unguarded means of escape begin surging en mass. The entire exchange lasts maybe 30 minutes but is a bloody one. Kumak for the first time feels his Orcish heritage rise up and in a rage slaughters dozens of Shoanti. The regiment that once numbered about 150 strong has maybe 20 that will live the night. Kumak while surveying the dead hears whimpers and finds the lord hiding beneath bodies of the slain, not a scratch on him. As the lords father is riding up, Kumak makes the deal that he will tell no one how he found the lord cowering beneath the dead if the lord agrees to have the farmers tax lowered to its pre-war rate, even if it means he pay the difference himself. With moments before his father arriving the young lord agrees, while his father surveying the landscape knows the truth of what happened there, the official reports reflect well upon Endrev's conduct. Jarrus declares that he needs his son close, so the remainder of Endrevs short lived regiment is disbanded. Kumak returns home and remains for a few months, to be sure that the taxes collected have been lowered. Wanting to explore this raw power and aggression he can feel Kumak leaves home, to find work where he may. Which brings him to Sandpoint, on the day of the Goblin attack;
Session 1:
Arriving in the town of Sandpoint it is arrayed for a festival to dedicate its new church. Games, prizes and food are all on display. After some delaying speeches the fun is finally begun. Kumak looks around and spots a well armored human whose size seems to rival his own. Sizing each other up, they each hear that the hammer game has opened up and decide to let their muscles do the talking. Each are given a heavy nail about a foot long and a heavy one handed hammer. Their first swing sees Kumaks nail driven halfway in with a solid blow while the humans makes a respectable third of the way in. The second blow Kumak only manages a glance but still sees his nail almost driven to the end, however the human lands a solid blow and is only inches behind. Not wanting to be shown up Kumak lets out a bellowing roar and feels his muscles swell, the nail is driven clean through the heavy wooden board and the board itself is shattered. Panting Kumak looks to the human who arches an eye brow then nods. Kumak laughs and holds out his hand, taking it they introduce themselves, his name is Tiberius, and he wants to know if Kumak would join him for the ale drinking contest.
Villister an elderly clergyman from Sandpoint enters a trivia contest where he places well but is outshone by a young female newcomer named Susan, who not only answers the questions but unprompted provides ancillary information not related to the questions. Susan is declared the winner and Villister suggests they find another activity to let some others win at trivia for a while.
Kumak and Tiberius sit down to the ale drinking contest. There is a progression of drinks beginning with a lighter lager and working its way to a rich dark ale. Kumak makes into an early lead easily downing the drinks. Tiberius forces too much drink down at once and finds it coming back up, covering himself and splattering on Kumak. Kumak reaches the penultimate drink when he hiccups while drinking and causes himself to lose his breakfast. Tiberius continues towards victory but Kumak concedes, Tiberius eyes the pie eating contest but Kumak declines opting to wash himself in a nearby horse trough.
Villister and Susan partake in a game of hide and seek in a nearby barn. Susan finds a well hidden position in the rafters while Villister finds a cozy well shaded position in some hay. Down to the wire Susan sees she is about to be caught but spots what she feels is the only other contestant and using her Mage Hand makes a noise by them causing them to be caught first. After confirming the count again the officiant declares there must have been a miscount and as Susan was the last found she is the winner. Looking around Susan does not see Villister and after searching the barn finally discovers the old man having fallen asleep in his hiding spot.
More officials begin giving speeches when all 4 notice something small dart under a table and a flash of metal as something is about to kill a dog, its a goblin. Kumak enters a rage and charges at the goblin as 4 more appear and pandemonium breaks out. The goblins alternate between attacking, eating food, throwing fish at each other, and setting anything on fire. The four make quick work of the nearby 9 or so goblins. Hearing a commotion from up the street they run to investigate. Seeing a goblin riding a mangy dog threatening a local dog protecting a cowering man Kumak charges and with his last reservoir of rage caves in the head of the goblin with one swing. Tiberius accounts for another goblin, Susan and Villister together dispatch one, and a final goblin making a hasty retreat is taken down by the no longer cowering man.
End Session
Thoughts: The session went well, Tiberius and Susan's players were new meets so it was held at a local store as our host would prefer to meet someone before bringing them to his place. Both players (a boyfriend/girlfriend team) seemed to enjoy it and were very pleasant. The session was only about 1.5-2 hours long, not great considering I find our usual 4 hour sessions lean enough as it is but there it is. As they are new to this we elected to not use battlemat/minis and did combat as a much more free form thing.
Monday, 30 December 2013
Nice kid, tries hard
So the wife and kid are still off visiting her family for Christmas but since I had to come back to work I have ample time on my hands. Better knock out a few posts. I don't visit well, whatever social flaws I have I know this one for a fact. So before we went off to see her folks I stocked up on some books to pass the time. One of them in particular sounded right up my alley. Sadly it began to fall short rather quickly.
The premise of this book is akin to, World of Warcraft mixed with the Matrix. Imagine that a crazy genius invented the equivalent of the Matrix but built it so that there were many worlds within that you could visit and it played just like an RPG. You level up your avatar, can collect magic items or sci fi tech and so long as you are in a PVP zone you can kill anothers avatar or be killed yourself. While this wont do anything to your actual body there are no respawns, you die, you start a new avatar at level 1. Now this crazy tech guy became stupid rich and he loved the 1980's especially all the geek culture that one who grew up in that era would have been exposed to. So when he dies and his video will is read on every station the world finds out that since he has no relatives, all of his wealth and control of his company that runs this virtual world will go to the first person to find the "easter egg" that he has somewhere in this virtual world.
Well that sounds all right to me, and for the first little bit it was. The writing was passable and the story was laden with cliches but there were enough nerd "inside joke" passages that it kept me reading for a while. However the story never gets up onto its own feet. If you have ever seen the comedy of someone like Dane Cook then you might understand. It became nonstop "look at all these pop culture references, isn't that awesome? You can feel like you are in on all this." At one point the main character is talking about his DeLorean done up like Back to the Future, with Ghostbusters logo's on the gull wing doors, and a few other one offs thrown on top. It was like looking at someone wearing a hat on top of a hat. There is potential galore in the book, and I wish the author had gone back and trimmed and polished more until this book wasn't just a guilty little pleasure but an enjoyable read in its own right. But if you want a quick little read that has nerdy "easter eggs" riddled through it give this book a shot.
Sunday, 8 September 2013
The End of the Line
So a campaign came to an end a few weeks ago. Pathfinder Second Darkness. The "good" guys triumphed, but at great cost. In the end it was a massive team effort and removing any cog from that machine would have likely snatched a hard won victory from our grasp, but a special shout out has to go to my main man, level 10 Illusionist cohort Muicadem ( Moo for short, though he HATED that ). This little scrapper was the guy that made it all possible. Using 3 level 1 Ray of Enfeeblements, he crit strength drained some giant snake demon of 22 Str turning what would have been a huge drain on resources right before the final showdown into a single turn joke as the demon greater teleported out after getting a hard beat down, then after the big bad girl had Disjunctioned us all and even our mono build 2 handed fighter couldn't land a blow. He beats her killer SR and takes away 11 Str, some grapples and Paladin beat downs later after she Heals/Teleports twice, he beats her SR again only this time he crits the hit for 20 Str drain. With the Paladin and his young dragon mount able to pin and smite her my double cursed rogue finally managed to get to the final glyph and we shut the whole operation down.
There were fallen comrades to mourn, the PC wizard who teleported away from all of us to escape minor damage, only to be surrounded and cut down just hours before our final assault.
Our two-handed fighter, who refused to change tactics and try anything but to hit the BBEG with full attacks, who fell to a blade barrier and was diced into hundreds of pieces.
Our Paladin, who also took a blade barrier to the face, but luckily I had a scroll of Raise Dead ready to bring him back and finish the fight. ( Though he is still slowly dying from his exposure to the Black Blood, even with his supernatural saves he has at best a few years left )
The monk, who replaced the PC wizard almost died twice, once from succumbing to drow poison, and then again trying to toe to toe the big bad.
Finally there was my Cleric ally, who followed me because she thought her patron Cayden Cailen had something in mind. Her body was consumed completely, nothing left to bring back, not that she would have wanted that anyway.
So now I bid farewell to my charming smart mouth rogue, his allies dead or dying. His outlook on life violently shifted, yet for the better. The paladin will want to hunt down the remaining drow, plus the few demonic loose ends that we didn't clean up using whatever time he has left . Moo will probably go with him, not out of any desire to see the world saved, but because he was promised the PC wizards gear and didn't get it. If anyone has the patience to listen to that mouthy little wizard extol his own virtues it would be the paladin. But "Twitch", he has his own scores to settle. I can see him seeking out a few more of those "Drow disguise" scrolls and heading back down, while humming "This Town", (Destroy MY hat will you?). Or just throwing his Haversack on his back and walking off towards the horizon.
Kingmaker next, and I'm either looking at a racist Elven Ranger, or a bookish, irritable Human Wizard depending on what the party needs. Not much actual "meat" to this post, but after a year it was nice to see the adventure to its completion, even nicer to have pulled a win out when the GM didn't pull any punches, in fact he said he went back into the book and re-statted her / changed her spell selections to make what he thought she should have.
There were fallen comrades to mourn, the PC wizard who teleported away from all of us to escape minor damage, only to be surrounded and cut down just hours before our final assault.
Our two-handed fighter, who refused to change tactics and try anything but to hit the BBEG with full attacks, who fell to a blade barrier and was diced into hundreds of pieces.
Our Paladin, who also took a blade barrier to the face, but luckily I had a scroll of Raise Dead ready to bring him back and finish the fight. ( Though he is still slowly dying from his exposure to the Black Blood, even with his supernatural saves he has at best a few years left )
The monk, who replaced the PC wizard almost died twice, once from succumbing to drow poison, and then again trying to toe to toe the big bad.
Finally there was my Cleric ally, who followed me because she thought her patron Cayden Cailen had something in mind. Her body was consumed completely, nothing left to bring back, not that she would have wanted that anyway.
So now I bid farewell to my charming smart mouth rogue, his allies dead or dying. His outlook on life violently shifted, yet for the better. The paladin will want to hunt down the remaining drow, plus the few demonic loose ends that we didn't clean up using whatever time he has left . Moo will probably go with him, not out of any desire to see the world saved, but because he was promised the PC wizards gear and didn't get it. If anyone has the patience to listen to that mouthy little wizard extol his own virtues it would be the paladin. But "Twitch", he has his own scores to settle. I can see him seeking out a few more of those "Drow disguise" scrolls and heading back down, while humming "This Town", (Destroy MY hat will you?). Or just throwing his Haversack on his back and walking off towards the horizon.
Kingmaker next, and I'm either looking at a racist Elven Ranger, or a bookish, irritable Human Wizard depending on what the party needs. Not much actual "meat" to this post, but after a year it was nice to see the adventure to its completion, even nicer to have pulled a win out when the GM didn't pull any punches, in fact he said he went back into the book and re-statted her / changed her spell selections to make what he thought she should have.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Rig the Scales of Justice for story?
So, I read through the previous post. Clearly trying to type while coming off a 15 hour work shift is a poor idea at best. If I was a perfectionist I would go back and edit it but I believe in letting my mistakes propel me forward, and the knowledge that I won't revise this blog means I must remain vigilent on the "quality" of what I put up.
This said today's topic comes up from a nagging little issue I encountered several times months and months ago. The GM deliberatly hedging things in favour of the PC's. Now the GM in question has had this pointed out and is taking steps to rectify it but I will put up the specific issues I saw and why I didn't care for them.
1. Giving the players X chances to succeed.
This took several forms; we play where on each level up the player rolls his HP and if he doesnt like the roll can request the GM to reroll but must take the GM's roll. All was well and good but when one player rolled poorly, followed by a GM bad roll, later in that session the GM threw out that if that player performed a daring stunt that held approx a 80% chance of success and failure would flirt with death, that player would be allowed a 3rd roll for that levels HP. Not wanting to "be that guy" I didnt mention anything but felt marginalized. Another time one of the players got stinking drunk, derailing much of the game, at the premature ending of the session we leveled up, the drunk player being too hammered to roll his own HP was rolled twice by the GM getting a 2 and 2 again. Then the next session the GM felt it wasnt fair that he didnt get to roll his own HP and he was allowed 2 new rolls getting a 9 in the end. Now I have ended up with a 3 before and hedged my bets against rerolling a 5 while my comrades are giant blocks of HP. Now I can just say to myself "Turk you are playing YOUR way, don't worry about what others are doing" but the truth is I will generally mimic the table. So if the majority of the players are min/maxing and so combat focused that the only in game talking that occurs is related to the party mage proclaiming what NPC's have magic gear to steal, I will eventually start picking up similar traits.
GM's sometimes players will fail. This is important. Your front line fighter may not hit triple digit hit points until the mid-teens. Thats ok. Fail a jump and get a reflex save to grab something? Thats ok, giving another reflex save to the player or another to catch him? Maybe you should just let him fall.
2. Pulling punches
When masquerading as slaves to some Drow a player decided that he didn't like being talked down to by a noble, despite his character having the intellectual strength of a rutabaga. After cold cocking the noble I was thinking how we could go around retrieving his corpse to raise him, but instead of brutal torture/maiming and death the player was whipped ( which was promptly healed by our Paladin ) and sent back on his way. When our dubious mage sold our party out to a powerful Drow mage for the hint of possible power and they destroyed our disguises I tried to quickly activate my Hat of Disguise and feign shock that my "fellow Drow" were not Drow at all. The Drow Arch-mage then burned 25,000gp and a 9th level wish spell to destroy my hat. This rather annoyed me as I felt if she was going to burn 25,000gp and one of her 9th level spells over that she should probably have killed me rather than destroy a 1,800 gp utility item.
GM's if your players make poor decisions dont feel the need to pull your punches. We had 2 players each go to 2 seperate crime lords on thier own, making demands with their low level mooks that their abilities and history could never back up. The entire time they were demanding to speak with the Bosses I was expecting them to be led into the buildings to a secure room and get tuned by some thug named Rocco or the like but that never came to be. I'm not of the opinion that every NPC the PC's encounter need to be out to kill/rob them, but when dealing with known degenerates some of which are famous for their cunning and brutality are encountered feel free to impress upon the PC's that they are not dealing with civilized people. Especially if your PC's are something like a level 3 chump, no crime lord worth his cigar cutter is going to get all weak in the knees when some johnny-come-lately waltzes in and starts making demands. These people supposedly got to where they are by being smarter and more brutal than their contemporaries. Heck they should have underlings that are clever and brutal enough to deal with low level PC's well before the PC's even catch a glimpse of the Boss.
3. The enemy has a better Int than a wild animal, let them use it.
The enemies should be using every advantage that your players do. Players frequently make elaborate plans in combat that "free talking" shouldnt really cover. Allow the enemies to set up flanks or elaborate tricks as well. Wizards generally have high Int, let them use it. Have them cast spells in intelligent ways. If they have the time let them prepare the battle field, soak the ground in oil then toss a Fireball. If they notice a sterotypical min/maxed mage take the field, a good roll on Ray of Enfeeblement followed by a Rogue Str sneak attack or simple Str poison will drop that PC Wizard without even killing him. Nothing will freak a PC out more than the realization that there is a first level spell out there that can almost take him out of the fight and leave him open for a coup de grace.
Bards, Sorcerers and Paladins are notorious for having high Cha. The most under valued stat in the game. You can influence people with Cha. The PC's are a bunch of murder monkeys who laugh at everything you throw at them? Have that Cha 26 Bard incite a minor rebellion against them. Shop keeps that have heard all these horrible stories about the PC's might raise their prices, causing PC's to to act angriliy since they know the market cost of that longsword. Which will only serve to cement in that shopkeeps mind that these people are villainous. What started as possibly only a lie and rumor could now be considered canon depending on the players actions. I once turned a town against another player who had pissed off my character by doing nothing but inventing little lies, then when he actually performed some of them toting the evidence out to drunken mobs in taverns for several nights, rileing the people up. When a sizable mob showed up one night to "teach him a lesson" his PC stats offered little protection to 30 opponents swinging clubs and grappling him.
Theres more but the end result is the same. Your players will feel a sense of accomplishment in succeeding where they can fail. God mode on Doom was fun for only 5 minutes or so, it took the skill and danger out and left you with just going through the motions. Whatever rules you are going to play with stick with them. If Character death is not something you like, so be it, but think about what that means for your players.
This said today's topic comes up from a nagging little issue I encountered several times months and months ago. The GM deliberatly hedging things in favour of the PC's. Now the GM in question has had this pointed out and is taking steps to rectify it but I will put up the specific issues I saw and why I didn't care for them.
1. Giving the players X chances to succeed.
This took several forms; we play where on each level up the player rolls his HP and if he doesnt like the roll can request the GM to reroll but must take the GM's roll. All was well and good but when one player rolled poorly, followed by a GM bad roll, later in that session the GM threw out that if that player performed a daring stunt that held approx a 80% chance of success and failure would flirt with death, that player would be allowed a 3rd roll for that levels HP. Not wanting to "be that guy" I didnt mention anything but felt marginalized. Another time one of the players got stinking drunk, derailing much of the game, at the premature ending of the session we leveled up, the drunk player being too hammered to roll his own HP was rolled twice by the GM getting a 2 and 2 again. Then the next session the GM felt it wasnt fair that he didnt get to roll his own HP and he was allowed 2 new rolls getting a 9 in the end. Now I have ended up with a 3 before and hedged my bets against rerolling a 5 while my comrades are giant blocks of HP. Now I can just say to myself "Turk you are playing YOUR way, don't worry about what others are doing" but the truth is I will generally mimic the table. So if the majority of the players are min/maxing and so combat focused that the only in game talking that occurs is related to the party mage proclaiming what NPC's have magic gear to steal, I will eventually start picking up similar traits.
GM's sometimes players will fail. This is important. Your front line fighter may not hit triple digit hit points until the mid-teens. Thats ok. Fail a jump and get a reflex save to grab something? Thats ok, giving another reflex save to the player or another to catch him? Maybe you should just let him fall.
2. Pulling punches
When masquerading as slaves to some Drow a player decided that he didn't like being talked down to by a noble, despite his character having the intellectual strength of a rutabaga. After cold cocking the noble I was thinking how we could go around retrieving his corpse to raise him, but instead of brutal torture/maiming and death the player was whipped ( which was promptly healed by our Paladin ) and sent back on his way. When our dubious mage sold our party out to a powerful Drow mage for the hint of possible power and they destroyed our disguises I tried to quickly activate my Hat of Disguise and feign shock that my "fellow Drow" were not Drow at all. The Drow Arch-mage then burned 25,000gp and a 9th level wish spell to destroy my hat. This rather annoyed me as I felt if she was going to burn 25,000gp and one of her 9th level spells over that she should probably have killed me rather than destroy a 1,800 gp utility item.
GM's if your players make poor decisions dont feel the need to pull your punches. We had 2 players each go to 2 seperate crime lords on thier own, making demands with their low level mooks that their abilities and history could never back up. The entire time they were demanding to speak with the Bosses I was expecting them to be led into the buildings to a secure room and get tuned by some thug named Rocco or the like but that never came to be. I'm not of the opinion that every NPC the PC's encounter need to be out to kill/rob them, but when dealing with known degenerates some of which are famous for their cunning and brutality are encountered feel free to impress upon the PC's that they are not dealing with civilized people. Especially if your PC's are something like a level 3 chump, no crime lord worth his cigar cutter is going to get all weak in the knees when some johnny-come-lately waltzes in and starts making demands. These people supposedly got to where they are by being smarter and more brutal than their contemporaries. Heck they should have underlings that are clever and brutal enough to deal with low level PC's well before the PC's even catch a glimpse of the Boss.
3. The enemy has a better Int than a wild animal, let them use it.
The enemies should be using every advantage that your players do. Players frequently make elaborate plans in combat that "free talking" shouldnt really cover. Allow the enemies to set up flanks or elaborate tricks as well. Wizards generally have high Int, let them use it. Have them cast spells in intelligent ways. If they have the time let them prepare the battle field, soak the ground in oil then toss a Fireball. If they notice a sterotypical min/maxed mage take the field, a good roll on Ray of Enfeeblement followed by a Rogue Str sneak attack or simple Str poison will drop that PC Wizard without even killing him. Nothing will freak a PC out more than the realization that there is a first level spell out there that can almost take him out of the fight and leave him open for a coup de grace.
Bards, Sorcerers and Paladins are notorious for having high Cha. The most under valued stat in the game. You can influence people with Cha. The PC's are a bunch of murder monkeys who laugh at everything you throw at them? Have that Cha 26 Bard incite a minor rebellion against them. Shop keeps that have heard all these horrible stories about the PC's might raise their prices, causing PC's to to act angriliy since they know the market cost of that longsword. Which will only serve to cement in that shopkeeps mind that these people are villainous. What started as possibly only a lie and rumor could now be considered canon depending on the players actions. I once turned a town against another player who had pissed off my character by doing nothing but inventing little lies, then when he actually performed some of them toting the evidence out to drunken mobs in taverns for several nights, rileing the people up. When a sizable mob showed up one night to "teach him a lesson" his PC stats offered little protection to 30 opponents swinging clubs and grappling him.
Theres more but the end result is the same. Your players will feel a sense of accomplishment in succeeding where they can fail. God mode on Doom was fun for only 5 minutes or so, it took the skill and danger out and left you with just going through the motions. Whatever rules you are going to play with stick with them. If Character death is not something you like, so be it, but think about what that means for your players.
Friday, 9 August 2013
A place to hang your hat
One of the guys from my RPG group contacted me during my off cycle while the family was away and asked if I wanted to go for a bit of a drive to a games store with him. Long story short, his girlfriend was training a new crew off in Oakville and since he was off as well he had went with her while she was staying there and stumbled upon a little gem of a store out there and wanted to both show it off and patronage their establishment based off the impression it left. This coupled with the opening of a new bigger established downtown store that I checked out led me to compare the 2 stores.
I will refer to the stores as Oakville and Toronto respectivly.
Toronto had huge square footage, I had been in their previous location and they were in desperate need of the space. I may be alone in this but I hate feeling like I need to turn around slowly for fear of knocking product over and with the shelves/stands and tables this store meant I always had to keep a portion of my mind cateloging where I was in the establishment and my relation to various merchandise. The new location had lots of open room, lots of it was taken up by the MANY (opening night ) nerds but once the place settles down there will be more than enough room to move about.
I can't comment for sure on the ventilation, there being far more bodies than normal, as well as the doors propped open I suspect to help generate traffic. But I suspect that there will be a heavy nerd musk that permeates these places.
Location was great, smack in the middle of downtown and only a minute walk from the nearest subway stop. However parking would be a real kick in the pants, and as I have moved from the teenager dependant on the subway to the "adult" that drives now for the convienence the concept of free parking is a HUGE draw for me.
Now for Oakville.
The store while having less total square footage had what I thought was a brilliant layout. There were 4 "rooms" that had doors and several tables with tabletop terrain held on shelves above. Apparently if you want a private room for tabeltop wargaming or are running a RPG you can I assume book a room or drop in and hope for a vacancy. Now this was just brilliant, I remember seeing RPG's being run in stores before, its almost impossible to avoid being a looky-loo just to see what the system/campagin/characters are being run and while I would feel slightly annoyed by people constantly leering into my RPG it would be a small price to pay for a central location back in the days when none of the players could provide. The actual issue that I have with this comes when people either set up shop for 20 minutes to audit your game and start interjecting into your game, asking questions is fine;
"Hey this looks neat what are you guys playing?"
"Oh this is Shadowrun, imagine the worst parts of Corporate America given steroids and a few decades to run rampant, we each play members of what amounts to freelance wet-works guys."
"Looks like fun, could I try?"
"Sorry we have a full table right now, but if your'e interested there is a sign up board over there where people looking for a game can join up."
The guy that runs the store almost always runs one-shots too. It helps newbies get into the game and they can buy the books generating income.
But invariably I have always seen spectators either start injecting their own non-sequiters into a game where players do this all too frequently, or even worse start providing their own "advise";
"Hey, your Wizard should cast a fog spell to give your guys concealment"
".......I dont have concealment"
"Oh well any Wizard worth his salt should always stock up on......etc"
The private rooms in Oakville eliminate these pet peeves of mine as well as reduce the distracting din of conversations that make listening to the DM difficult. Now you don't get the advertisement that seeing people play gives you, but any kid that spends any amount of time in the store will eventually see people setting up in one of those rooms for a RPG and can have his introductions, it just takes a bit longer.
Oakville also had quite a few board games for sale, and the best part was they had an opened copy of all the ones they carry to play test. Check out some game that looks neat but not quite sure how it would play? They will break it out and play test it with you. This actually led to my friend purchasing more as he was on the fence about it before but after playing a game found he really enjoyed it.
The A/C was running in Oakville and when it started to pick up you could sometimes catch a whiff of nerd musk it was always momentary. There was pleanty of parking, which while a bonus for myself particularly beacuse I was coming from out of area was unfortunatly a neccesity as I think it was more than a bit out of the way. But were I a teenager out in Oakville I would be willing to make the 10-20 minute trek from the nearest main bus route or wait the extra 20 minutes to catch the infrequent bus that went closer.
All in all, I find myself thinking back on my Oakville experience with better and better memories than I have gotten from any of the local stores I have gone to. Here's hoping that you have a place that resonates with you the same way this has with me.
I will refer to the stores as Oakville and Toronto respectivly.
Toronto had huge square footage, I had been in their previous location and they were in desperate need of the space. I may be alone in this but I hate feeling like I need to turn around slowly for fear of knocking product over and with the shelves/stands and tables this store meant I always had to keep a portion of my mind cateloging where I was in the establishment and my relation to various merchandise. The new location had lots of open room, lots of it was taken up by the MANY (opening night ) nerds but once the place settles down there will be more than enough room to move about.
I can't comment for sure on the ventilation, there being far more bodies than normal, as well as the doors propped open I suspect to help generate traffic. But I suspect that there will be a heavy nerd musk that permeates these places.
Location was great, smack in the middle of downtown and only a minute walk from the nearest subway stop. However parking would be a real kick in the pants, and as I have moved from the teenager dependant on the subway to the "adult" that drives now for the convienence the concept of free parking is a HUGE draw for me.
Now for Oakville.
The store while having less total square footage had what I thought was a brilliant layout. There were 4 "rooms" that had doors and several tables with tabletop terrain held on shelves above. Apparently if you want a private room for tabeltop wargaming or are running a RPG you can I assume book a room or drop in and hope for a vacancy. Now this was just brilliant, I remember seeing RPG's being run in stores before, its almost impossible to avoid being a looky-loo just to see what the system/campagin/characters are being run and while I would feel slightly annoyed by people constantly leering into my RPG it would be a small price to pay for a central location back in the days when none of the players could provide. The actual issue that I have with this comes when people either set up shop for 20 minutes to audit your game and start interjecting into your game, asking questions is fine;
"Hey this looks neat what are you guys playing?"
"Oh this is Shadowrun, imagine the worst parts of Corporate America given steroids and a few decades to run rampant, we each play members of what amounts to freelance wet-works guys."
"Looks like fun, could I try?"
"Sorry we have a full table right now, but if your'e interested there is a sign up board over there where people looking for a game can join up."
The guy that runs the store almost always runs one-shots too. It helps newbies get into the game and they can buy the books generating income.
But invariably I have always seen spectators either start injecting their own non-sequiters into a game where players do this all too frequently, or even worse start providing their own "advise";
"Hey, your Wizard should cast a fog spell to give your guys concealment"
".......I dont have concealment"
"Oh well any Wizard worth his salt should always stock up on......etc"
The private rooms in Oakville eliminate these pet peeves of mine as well as reduce the distracting din of conversations that make listening to the DM difficult. Now you don't get the advertisement that seeing people play gives you, but any kid that spends any amount of time in the store will eventually see people setting up in one of those rooms for a RPG and can have his introductions, it just takes a bit longer.
Oakville also had quite a few board games for sale, and the best part was they had an opened copy of all the ones they carry to play test. Check out some game that looks neat but not quite sure how it would play? They will break it out and play test it with you. This actually led to my friend purchasing more as he was on the fence about it before but after playing a game found he really enjoyed it.
The A/C was running in Oakville and when it started to pick up you could sometimes catch a whiff of nerd musk it was always momentary. There was pleanty of parking, which while a bonus for myself particularly beacuse I was coming from out of area was unfortunatly a neccesity as I think it was more than a bit out of the way. But were I a teenager out in Oakville I would be willing to make the 10-20 minute trek from the nearest main bus route or wait the extra 20 minutes to catch the infrequent bus that went closer.
All in all, I find myself thinking back on my Oakville experience with better and better memories than I have gotten from any of the local stores I have gone to. Here's hoping that you have a place that resonates with you the same way this has with me.
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Shadowrun Returns
Way back when I backed this game on Kickstarter. I like RPG's in all mediums and really find that most RPG's lack the gritty Bladerunner like atmosphere that I enjoy. Now I had only had a very brief introduction to the world of Shadowrun years and years ago but the universe was colourful enough that I was more than willing to fork over $15 to see what they would churn out. So here is my review of the game;
Lets get this out of the way first, my rating for this game "right now" is 4/10. HOWEVER don't be fooled by the rating, let me explain. The "main" campaign that comes preloaded is the reason for the low rating. I had thought/hoped that they would churn out a really engrossing story that would take me more than a day of playing to burn through. The Dead Man's Switch is fine as an introductory campaign but if this was all I was going to get then it would not have been worth the money.
That said, what I am hoping is that all the time and money went into really juicing up the editor so that people can write up a long and fulfilling story on their own with relative ease. They keep using the key words of "Community content" to make their point for this and once I have some time I will watch some YouTube vids to get the hang of it and try to make a practice "Shadowrun" to see how quick/easy it is to start building a campaign.
I hope that there is a lot of customization available. The gear was lacking, the sense of urgency missing, I want to be able to alter/add stats on weapons and armor. I want to be able to have multiple jobs available at any given time, but they are on timers. Just because you don't do the Renzaku job right away doesn't mean that another group of Runners won't step in and take that Nuyen. I want to make certain actions have long term effects;
oh you broke into a corp and stole some sensitive info?
well 5 missions later guess who has hired there own group of Runners to get it back or at least send a message? And they show up while you're in the middle of something else. Or maybe when you were hiring runners for this latest one you saw a Street Samurai with killer stats and he was on the cheap.
"This is too good, it must be a glitch" you say as you hire Janus to your team,
then at a critical point in the Run, Janus suddenly goes from under your control to NPC and starts blasting you and your boys. Turns out "Janus" has been hired by that Corp and he has been sitting there for several Runs trying to entice you to hire such a deal.
Decking was never really as explored as I was hoping for, I want to design a level where your meatbags and deckers are working in tandem. Your decker will hole-up in as secure a position as you can make, then your meatbags continue with the Run, the Decker has to divide his time between shutting down security systems and grabbing targets of opportunity as well as eventually delaying any security that eventually locates his Jack-in point. Maybe have some kind of HP for a barricaded door so now it becomes a question of low long do you risk your decker providing your team his assets vs how long do you risk him getting overrun and ice'd.
All in all this game's future depends on the consumers. To use some lingo, if they put the Nuyen into giving us the best Deck, then baby, just you hang on, 'cause there's enough Shadowrunners out there with the skills to give you Runs to remember.
The SNES game never got the love it really deserved, we will see what Returns looks like in a few months. Till then,
Shoot straight,
Conserve ammo,
and Never, ever, make a deal with a Dragon.
Lets get this out of the way first, my rating for this game "right now" is 4/10. HOWEVER don't be fooled by the rating, let me explain. The "main" campaign that comes preloaded is the reason for the low rating. I had thought/hoped that they would churn out a really engrossing story that would take me more than a day of playing to burn through. The Dead Man's Switch is fine as an introductory campaign but if this was all I was going to get then it would not have been worth the money.
That said, what I am hoping is that all the time and money went into really juicing up the editor so that people can write up a long and fulfilling story on their own with relative ease. They keep using the key words of "Community content" to make their point for this and once I have some time I will watch some YouTube vids to get the hang of it and try to make a practice "Shadowrun" to see how quick/easy it is to start building a campaign.
I hope that there is a lot of customization available. The gear was lacking, the sense of urgency missing, I want to be able to alter/add stats on weapons and armor. I want to be able to have multiple jobs available at any given time, but they are on timers. Just because you don't do the Renzaku job right away doesn't mean that another group of Runners won't step in and take that Nuyen. I want to make certain actions have long term effects;
oh you broke into a corp and stole some sensitive info?
well 5 missions later guess who has hired there own group of Runners to get it back or at least send a message? And they show up while you're in the middle of something else. Or maybe when you were hiring runners for this latest one you saw a Street Samurai with killer stats and he was on the cheap.
"This is too good, it must be a glitch" you say as you hire Janus to your team,
then at a critical point in the Run, Janus suddenly goes from under your control to NPC and starts blasting you and your boys. Turns out "Janus" has been hired by that Corp and he has been sitting there for several Runs trying to entice you to hire such a deal.
Decking was never really as explored as I was hoping for, I want to design a level where your meatbags and deckers are working in tandem. Your decker will hole-up in as secure a position as you can make, then your meatbags continue with the Run, the Decker has to divide his time between shutting down security systems and grabbing targets of opportunity as well as eventually delaying any security that eventually locates his Jack-in point. Maybe have some kind of HP for a barricaded door so now it becomes a question of low long do you risk your decker providing your team his assets vs how long do you risk him getting overrun and ice'd.
All in all this game's future depends on the consumers. To use some lingo, if they put the Nuyen into giving us the best Deck, then baby, just you hang on, 'cause there's enough Shadowrunners out there with the skills to give you Runs to remember.
The SNES game never got the love it really deserved, we will see what Returns looks like in a few months. Till then,
Shoot straight,
Conserve ammo,
and Never, ever, make a deal with a Dragon.
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