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It is discreet, it looks like a couple of junkies got on a bad YOLO-flavoured trip... that ended in us murdering 6 armed guards...
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Jun 24, 2013 02:29
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Does it look like a shadowrun or intentional, aimed hit? If it doesn't it's discrete.
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Jun 24, 2013 02:37
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MohawkSatan posted:Does it look like a shadowrun or intentional, aimed hit? If it doesn't it's discrete. No guns were used, the only weapons were fists swords and an incredibly effective van.
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Jun 24, 2013 03:05
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Yeah, my van was the best weapon we had. 2 killed and 2 wounded is a pretty impressive record for what amounts to "dirt cheap van." Sad part was I wanted to drive off with Manic so we could let the 3 infiltrators do their dirty deeds with out any interference from the guards. Instead I got hosed up and took up the whole session killing all the exterior guards with Manic. At least everyone had fun! 
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Jun 24, 2013 03:11
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To clarify, everyone, myself included as GM, had fun, and the "discretion question" was not intended seriously. After all, I've seen much more open carnage passed off (successfully, and cleverly) as "just gangs" or whatever excuse. But drat, if that wasn't one of my most recent "Best experiences", and I look forward to seeing more from the group. 
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Jun 24, 2013 03:16
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A Shadowrun game that doesn't start with people getting run over by a van isn't. I ran Shadowrun for friends (on skype) sometime last year. It was the best, but unfortunately one of the only few times I ever ran a game of any sort. The mission was to intercept a large (500-1000lb) package being delivered from a Corp's research compound, and deliver it to a warehouse on the river in Seattle. With a little help (forged RFID tags provided by their Johnson) they managed to fake their way in as the delivery people, and get the package as far as the gate, before the Yakuza who were actually intended to receive the package showed up. What followed was a thirty minute chase where they were navigating the streets by Google Maps. Halfway through, at a critical moment, the Face glitched a Drive roll, the van got T-boned by Yaks, and the Face took massive damage. Then he got shot to hell, and nearly bled out. Our phys adept closed to melee, dropped three Yaks, and stabilized our Face. The Van was totalled, and the package was glowing red and beeping, from the impact of the vehicles. The Face got out, and roped a group of civilian bystanders into loading the package into the unmarked Yakuza truck. He told them the Package was a Heart transplant or something. It was around this time that a Knight Errant patrol car showed up to handle what was reported as a car accident. Our rigger hacked the Knight Errant's car, locked the doors, and then caused it to drive off, full-speed. The group took off, and before long more Yakuza were on their tail. To make things worse, they spotted a helicopter hovering ahead in the distance. They hopped on the Freeway, heading north, and discovered a huge traffic jam. Off the freeway, and taking backroads now, they've shaken off all obvious pursuit, and the driver is rolling hot. The helicopter was still around though. Lacking for firepower, they couldn't really do anything about it, except drive faster. This is fortunate; the helicopter was private, and was recording the Urban Brawl game taking place... ... across a few blocks directly en route to the Docks. Our driver (the Rigger) drove a few blocks around it, and by the time they got to the other side, there's new signs of pursuit. Another truck coming up behind them. A smoke grenade is thrown, but it whiffs, and does little except cause a distraction. They're in the home stretch now. Another truck appears ahead of them. The road is pretty narrow. Danger is closing in on both sides. Driver plays chicken with the Truck ahead. The truck behind is catching up. Driver SWERVES at the last second, and the other two trucks collide in fiery wreckage. Hard luck for the one ahead, it was a civilian. They reach the warehouse, and thereby asylum. Extraterritoriality is great. A group of technicians show up, offload the package, and barely say a word to the group. I'm not sure whether it's because the game took about 8 hours from start to finish, or because my group's runners were actually serious about keeping things professional, but they never did find out what was in the package. Though they never found out, the package was a Technomancer who'd been "used up" by a Microtech Industries think-tank, and was being sold off to the highest bidder for 'research' and 'disassembly'. Mr. Johnson was a conscientious insider who'd never brokered a deal with Shadowrunners in his life, and the folks at the warehouse (in Learson Shipyards. I just checked my campaign notes.) were a bunch of activists trying to help the technomancer disappear. She survived, so the group got paid... but only barely.
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Jun 24, 2013 05:00
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Your cyberpunks are no match for my crew. Today I went to a special playtest-gameday a few towns over, and it was a wonderful, completely worth-it trip. I helped playtest H Cameron's Sprawl (An Apocolypse World hack). It started with world creation (everyone named a corporation and what it did), character creation, then "heist creation." The only rule was we had to include a reporter. My group featured Global News Network's Social Media Superstar 'Grant Access', an 18 year old hacker named Nezumi, and a geneticist named Angel-17. Oh, and my character, Oakley Djinn. Oakley was a Lifeworks TV celebrity, "a cybernetically enhanced mouseketeer." With a friendly face, subdermal six-pack-abs and white hair, he was the ultimate party starter. Originally introduced as a Cousin Oliver character, he'd failed to catch on outside the teen girl demo despite endless repackagings. He was also a killer, but memory erasure made him forget it. He was happy go lucky and started play with a katana the size of a boogieboard. Here's how backstory was generated: Everyone around the table had at least one mission that they'd gone on already, and it had to involve the person next to them, but could feature everyone. If you were involved, you got a +1 bond, but that corporation was pissed at you for some reason. Grant covered Wipe (a data-erasure company) putting backdoor info on all Lifeworks cyberware. Nezumi helped expose this, which effected Oakley; Angel leaked relevant data. Nezumi, when she was 15, used mining explosives to write Oakley's name on the moon. Oakley saved the president of Lifeworks life from the vat-grown assassins Angel made. No harm, no foul. So, we kind of collaborated on creating our mission: Xeno Corp offworld mining had irregularities with its travel schedule. Everyone who went on vacation would return either early or late, and have exactly the same experiences. The Yelp reviews were basically identical. While Grant and Nezumi caught on to this, we had to find out how Oakley got into trouble. Well, he complained in Rolling Stone that he wasn't allowed to travel into space. Unaware that it was due to his memory erasure, he started #SendOakleyToMars. --- Our mission begins in media res. We're in a helicopter, headed to an Arcology near Catalina Island. A VP of Xeno Corp has a hard drive with all of the relevant data. How did we requisition this helicopter? FLASHBACK: Grant Access is arguing with his editor. (He rolled a 4, aiming for a 7). His editor gives him poo poo: quote:"You have a lead...is this a lead for a story you owe me from LAST WEEK? Grant accidentally pitched the story as follows: "Is YOUR apartment building as safe as you think? We'll show you LIVE as we break into the most secure suites in the world!" The editor sends him out. In the chopper, Oakley monologues to the cameras. "OK, sorry, complete sentences. When we were riding on the helicopter, I felt..." Nez freaks out over the recording. She gets out her deck and reprograms them; they're now looping, replacing her face with a mouse (her hacker symbol), and cutting in random footage of Oakie's movies. The building calls our chopper and asks us what the hell we're doing. Oakley announces that we're the PARTY PATROL, and that there's a very special birthday girl in the arcology! This bafflegab continues; of COURSE nobody's heard of the party, it's a secret. And it makes a weird sense; if Justin Beiber showed up to give the boss's daughter a surprise party, you'd go out of your way so he didn't leave. Angel smashes a sedative patch onto the butler before he can call upstairs. Oakley yells PARTY PATCHES! and applies one from his own supply to himself, getting a little tipsy. As Nez goes through the security system, Oakley leads the group upstairs. Grant starts Fox-Newsing the security guards ("Who are you working for? Do your parents know this? Aren't you ashamed? You are ON TELEVISION!"), getting us into the security room. The head of security FINALLY gets in our face, and Oakley yells "Bro. BRO. Dude. DUDE, BRO, DUDE." When that doesn't work, Oak backhands the guy against the wall, knocking him out instantly. We're left with the Media Manager. Oakley apologized, kinda, and, as I had to leave the session, revealed the second part of his plan. He'd live-tweeted the group's exploits and was now throwing a FLASH MOB PARTY! He had to party with the people (part of the move's cost), so I took my leave; I had to go. --- According to the rest of the group: The Media Manager tried to escape when Oakley left to party. Angel tranqed her but she (the MM) had a reaction to the drugs. It triggered her medic-alert bracelet. Angel was spotted by security as she dumped the MM in an elevator to a lower floor to keep the medic response team away. Back in the security office, Grant Access and Nezumi loaded all the hard drives into a bag and headed for the helipad. managed to lose security in the crowd of partgoers around Oakley and met Grant and Nezumi on the roof. As the chopper came down, the squad of security guards burst onto the roof to arrest everyone, but Grant Access went live and on the air to seal the escape while Oakley partied on. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Dec 12, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 08:06
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Golden Bee, I don't know what that game is, but I want it. When is the playtesting over and the game being released?
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Jun 24, 2013 08:38
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For info on my Cyberpunk game, read here: http://www.ardens.org/games/the-sprawl/ The GM will also be at Go Play Northwest next weekend if any Seattle folk want to play: http://www.goplaynw.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=401 Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 09:13
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Short clip from last night's game: The party arrives outside the office of the ruler of an undead town. I describe the plaque on the door, which simply says "DA BOSS". The gnome immediately acts. "I steal the plaque" "Umm... the plaque is nailed down pretty hard, do you have a crowbar or-" "I have acid, I melt the door behind the plaque and steal the plaque" So I say gently caress it, and describe how there's now a big-rear end smoking hole in the door, through which da boss is currently looking at the party through, when the gnome decides to try subterfuge. "Holy poo poo, did you see that? There's this half-orc running around splashing acid on things!" Situation diffused, the party continues onward. Later on, after defeating an evil lich, they return to the town to receive rewards from da boss. The gnome gets a big wooden box filled with his prize, and at the very end of the session, as we're just about to end it, he makes my goddamned night. "I put the plaque on my new box. The one that says "Da Boss". I'm Da Boss now."
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Jun 24, 2013 15:06
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Golden Bee posted:FLASH MOB PARTY!
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Jun 24, 2013 18:06
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Captain Bravo posted:The gnome immediately acts. This person sounds insufferable.
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Jun 24, 2013 18:47
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cheetah7071 posted:This person sounds insufferable. Sounds like fun to me. He didn't steal the plaque because he's obsessed with stealing everything in sight (he appears to have legitimately wanted to label himself as "da boss") and I don't think a game where a mayor has a plaque that reads "da boss" is super serious to begin with.
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Jun 24, 2013 20:24
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I mentioned that I played two games yesterday. The first was in Fate Core, in a setting called After Ragnarok. It's from a timeline where instead of losing World War Two, Hitler summoned the World Snake to eat the allied forces. The US responded by nuking the eye of the snake, sinking England and creating a tidal wave that destroyed much of Europe and the American coast (all the way from Maine to Appalachia). That was 3 years ago. As players, we were intrigued by the Agents of the Crown theme, where we were members of the British Empire (now mostly located in Africa and Australia). We chose some really interesting characters, which is why I love group character creation. Our group was Nadira Batra, secret agent of Royal India; Jackson Ford, American inventor/greasemonkey recruited when he fled into Canada, and "Professor" Phoebe Holland. Phoebe was working on cracking German's mystical research, and despite the loss of her mentor (Professor Knightsbridge) and her husband Phillip, was still an active part of the University of Rhodes. She never got her true doctorate because World War Two broke out. I chose these aspects (And I like how Fate Core gives you 5, instead of Spirit of the Century's unwieldy 10) code:Phoebe's top skills were Lore (mysticism and magic), Empathy, and Notice. She took the stunts Obscure (use magic to replace "Sneak" with "Lore"), a spellbook (typewritten) and an attack spell which let her use lore as an attack. We decided that Southeast Asia was a great place for an adventure. Our GM spent 5 or so minutes sketching an adventure. Fate Core seems to have an easy setup; he seemed open to anything and didn't urge us to "Secret Asians in Southeast Asia". (He suggested City-State Chicago vs Milwaukee!). The game started as Ford and Phoebe arrived at the British airfield in Chinese Macau. Ford was tall, blonde, and thin; Phoebe was relatively short and wore a red business-dress with a flowery pillbox hat. Agent Batra showed up in a suit and immediately came over...asking if we knew where Ford and Phoebe were. (It's worthwhile here to note that Jackson took the "drat Yank" aspect; the GM laughingly asked if Jackson spoke any language besides English. Jackson didn't. It is one of the best FATE aspects I've ever seen). --- At the briefing, the Briefer gave our group a series of aerial photographs. They showed a tall tower in a previously unknown ancient city. Ford couldn't discern them, but Phoebe rolled well on lore and got the aspect, An odd mystical connection. The site had a connection to a Japanese commander and Heinrich Bowman, One of Hitler's best rocket scientists. The Briefer said something churlish, there was this exchange: PHOEBE: It takes a big man to stand behind a desk. BRIEFER: It takes a big man to send people to their probable death and not worry about it the next day. Abashed, the group entered Macau proper. Agent Batra took the lead, finding an old connection of hers in the Japanese police administration. Over tea, he revealed that the structure would require days worth of travel, through territory controlled by a Local Strongman, Marcus Olavich. Marcus enjoyed putting peoples' heads on pikes. Phoebe and Ford sat in the next booth, trying to be inconspicuous. As the conversation was dying down, Phoebe noticed a waiter paying a bit too much attention to the conversation! [This created the distinction Spying Waiter. She asked him to show her and Ford to the latrine and when outside, tried to slam him the waiter against a wall. He responded by countering her with Kung-Fu. As he held her against the latrine and asked the same question, Ford began to choke him. The man countered, threw down both Ford and Phoebe, and rushed across the rooftops, escaping in a flash. --- The group requisitioned a car to cross the desert, and Phoebe cast her "Obscure" spell. They managed to make the car invisible OR silent, opting for invisibility that included the dust it would kick up. Everything went well, until they met a huge procession of Olavich's men on camel and truckback. Unfortunately, since we were invisible, they were coming right for us! Flubbing his drive roll, Jackson Ford SWERVED off the road through a sand dune. The worst part was that he honked. As our spies fled the procession, Batra told Jackson to loop around an outcropping, then drive through his own tracks so it looked like we were headed the other way. Disaster averted. --- The ancient city was surrounded by a series of ad-hoc structures. The group quickly came up with a plan of attack; Phoebe created a "Whispers of German" aspect to help defeat the guard's patrols, while Batra "timed their schedules". No problem getting in. Phoebe slunk off with her invisibility spell, trying to get the location of Bowman. (I hadn't gotten much use of my "I have to rely on Me" distinction). Jackson and Batra examined the building, and realized it was an oil tower. But it wasn't pumping oil; it was pumping serpent blood! Phoebe managed to slink through most of tent city, taking photos with her spy camera. She only barely managed to avoid a dog (having heard about it from the German base guards, immediately using up "Whispers of German"). As she stumbled upon a meeting of the camp's high commanders, Batra and the Yankee were cornered...by a NINJA ASSASSIN! Phoebe kept quiet as she discerned the situation; the camp situation was brittle, and Olavich wanted power for himself. The dragon summoning ritual would be done soon, and Japan would have the power to stop Allied Russia's advance permanently. There was a hangar, with planes fueled. A plan began to form in her mind: At the same second, Jackson caught a throwing star in the back. There were TWO ninjas! Batra responded with her silenced pistol. Jackson unholstered his Marconi/Telsa cannon, which fried the other to ninja bits. It was then Batra realized she'd underestimated both her companions. Unfortunately, the melting ninja alerted the camp, and the two only barely managed to escape. Marcus would bring in increased security. --- Our group was sharing its information when they were come across by Bedouin-style raiders. At their head was the Spying Waiter...AKA Colonel Chen of the PRC! He knew about our mission and would help us raid the camp, as long as we destroyed the Camp. Phoebe kept to herself. She knew the power of summoning the dragon was within her; she knew the ritual specifications; and perhaps, just perhaps, controlling the dragon herself would let her fix the broken world. It could unsink England, eat the body of the currently dead world snake... A plan was hatched. Chen (and his commandos) would attack at dawn. The tower would be destroyed, the ritual disrupted, and everyone would go on their way. What happened was different. Batra was distracted by keeping Jackson stealthy. Phoebe slinked off alone; she could only rely on herself. As the Indian Secret Agent and the American Inventor arrived to plant C4 on the pump, they were greated by the Japanese Commander, Bowman, and Olavich. "Ah, the sacrifices are here." --- Batra lied her rear end off, saying she was a representative of Russia, and that everyone was under arrest. She also intimidated the Commander, telling him to evacuate his men; there were Bombers Coming in Five Minutes. Olavich concentrated, opened his third eye, and successfully scanned Batra's mind. He then told the commander Yes. There were bombers on their way. --- Phoebe found the ritual circle and began her preparations. Blood of the hand, fruit of the soil, a wishful thought in handful of dust. She thought of her late husband, her assistant-professorship at Rhodes, and begin to aid in summoning the dragon. --- Jackson took advantage of the confusion. He grabbed his C4 and rushed the tower, tossing it on...and running away as fast as he could. An angered Dr. Bowman went to the tower to try and defuse it...and died yelling "Sheiss". I activated my "Chinese waiter" distinction to announce the assault had begun! The entire area came under mortar fire. Batra outshot the Japanese Commander and scrambled for cover. --- Olavich's mind entered the summoning ritual, and Phoebe got to ask one favor of the dragon. Olavich asked for the dragon's power; Phoebe, awed by its magnificient power, could only ask that it destroy her enemies. --- Batra scrounged for a hand grenade and threw it down at the geyster of dragon blood. It exploded into flames. She dodged the Japanese Commander, who was still after her, as her own contingent of Chinese Do-Or-Die troopers gave covering fire. She took sight of Olavich. Phoebe began to float a foot off the ground. The ground itself began to collapse, as the 30-miles-wide dragon began to lash at its cage. --- At the airfield, Jackson tried to highjack a plane. Not knowing the japanese word for "Fly", he instead zapped the pilot unconcious and put him in the back seat. --- Batra rushed across the collapsing city, before putting a A Bullet in the strong man's Brain. --- Phoebe was thrown out of the Dragon's mind; even her amazing skill and mystical connection couldn't overpower the primordial creature. --- As the city surged 50 feet into the air and collapsed, Batra grabbed onto the now floating Phoebe. --- Jackson made it across the shot-up airstrip. Sure, he couldn't read the gauges in another language, but He was Better with Machines than People. --- Phoebe decided to give Olavich what he wanted, and gave the dragon full control of his mind. A mind that had a Bullet in the Brain. Batra grabbed a strut of the plane and pulled her and Phoebe inside as the entire desert fell into a sinkhole. Mission accomplished.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:13
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Shadowrun was probably my worst gaming experience so far. I know some people love it and honestly I love the setting and idea, but the system broke down for me utterly over the course of a few sessions. While we were playing the sample adventure, we found that one of the players had min maxed their shooting ability so high that no higher value could actually exist in the system. Meaning he was the best shot on the planet. It didn't help his character was also a psycho who in the first session managed to murder a bunch of gangers, hack off the gang leader's cyber arm, mutilate the other corpses in an attempt to extract their hand razors, burn down the bar, dump the bar's owner (who was actually relatively innocent and nothing to do with the gangers) into the trunk of his car, and tie the one remaining surviving ganger to the back of their car with rope for a painful ride around the city. In latter sessions he executed two tied-up mercenaries, in one case shooting off all his joints with a pistol, tried to plant a bomb in a hacker/decker bar that again had done nothing to him, and ended up sniping both of the Johnsons who gave him missions because "they're evil drug dealers". Problem being, in system there was nothing I could do about this. Not only was there the ridiculous min-maxing but most of the statted threats in Shadowrun are remarkably weak, and the sample adventures are terrible for that kind of thing (they include multiple bosses who have no skill in the weapons they carry and an undercover infiltrator with no points in Con - that's Con as in deception, not constitution). Yes, I could have him smacked down or stat up enemies against him, but ultimately if I was going to do that I might just as well throw away al the character sheets and drop a meteor on him because I didn't like him. I did ask the player about it and he basically said "the other players are laughing, they don't seem to mind (he was not lying), I'm actually finding it boring because it's no challenge so I'm just doing ridiculous stuff". The response - "why did you make a character who can easily shoot anyone, then complain that shooting people is too easy" caused a big ruck in the group about the nature of min maxing and how challenge was supposed to work, and the campaign broke down a few weeks later. I'm honestly still baffled about what to do about fair challenges in roleplaying.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:44
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hyphz posted:Problem being, in system there was nothing I could do about this. "Hey Sam, stop being a douchebag."
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Jun 25, 2013 05:24
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Send him into situations where shooting makes the problem worse. He's asked to bodyguard the CEO of a company at a very important cocktail party. The press show up and start asking questions like 'Hey, aren't you the man who killed a bunch of guys in Temple Street? What sort of message do you think Mr. Wright is trying to send to his business rivals by employing mass-murderers?'
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Jun 25, 2013 08:48
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Whybird posted:Send him into situations where shooting makes the problem worse. He's asked to bodyguard the CEO of a company at a very important cocktail party. The press show up and start asking questions like 'Hey, aren't you the man who killed a bunch of guys in Temple Street? What sort of message do you think Mr. Wright is trying to send to his business rivals by employing mass-murderers?' The problem with that idea is folks like him would just shoot up the place anyway, consequences be damned. When he does encounter some consequences, he's probably going to whine like a 3 year old who dropped his ice cream. With folks like him you just gotta man up and send the "Shape up or ship out" ultimatum.
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Jun 25, 2013 09:36
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While I agree that Shadowrun's mechanics are broken like a gimp, even the worst PCs can't stand up to every reasonable threat. I've run into terrifying power-houses who could be ruined by a teenage hacker or enslaved by a starting magician. And when you get to the fact that you have in-universe justification to send terrible things after him, well. I don't think he'd have a leg to stand on if all the folks he pissed off sent a nice hacker in to destroy his commlink. So that he couldn't call for help if he survived the missile launcher. And the Force 12 Manabolts. But, yeah, he'd probably whine anyway, even if you didn't finish him off. Guys like that are no good for your game table.
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Jun 25, 2013 10:22
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It was less about the disruptive player (although arguably he wasn't disruptive since, as I said, everyone at the table enjoyed his antics) as that I was trying to do the whole sandboxy "say-yes" style GMing that I'd heard such wonders about and it failed utterly. The implication was that the "say-yes" style works only if all of the "no"s are pre-empted by the players in deciding their actions: in other words, there's not really any more freedom than there would be in a more railroaded style, it's just that the players know to keep within the lines so "no" is never said out loud. Likewise the fact that it doesn't actually lead to characters being able to do cool stuff because this guy clearly wanted to do cool stuff with guns and in fact the game was making sure any gun-related situation ended as fast as possible, and all the advice I was getting was to hose him by pulling him as far away as possible from any ability to do that. It was more about how it changed my outlook than the player being disruptive, but I just posted the player's antics because they're funnier, and I don't want to derail.
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Jun 25, 2013 16:23
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Make up numbers then.
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Jun 25, 2013 19:20
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hyphz posted:It was less about the disruptive player (although arguably he wasn't disruptive since, as I said, everyone at the table enjoyed his antics) as that I was trying to do the whole sandboxy "say-yes" style GMing that I'd heard such wonders about and it failed utterly. The implication was that the "say-yes" style works only if all of the "no"s are pre-empted by the players in deciding their actions: in other words, there's not really any more freedom than there would be in a more railroaded style, it's just that the players know to keep within the lines so "no" is never said out loud. Likewise the fact that it doesn't actually lead to characters being able to do cool stuff because this guy clearly wanted to do cool stuff with guns and in fact the game was making sure any gun-related situation ended as fast as possible, and all the advice I was getting was to hose him by pulling him as far away as possible from any ability to do that. Honestly, though... you tried saying yes, and the player had fun, and the other players had fun (apparently), so... what went wrong, exactly, besides 'my players clearly wanted to play a less-serious game than I had envisioned'? It might just be that you're not in tune with this group of players. It happens. It's not something that necessarily needs to be corrected; you just have to know, before the game starts, that 'the game I want to run' and 'the game the players want to play' are close to one another. This time, it wasn't, but I don't think that calls for Monster Grudge Fuckin'.
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Jun 25, 2013 20:06
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It sounds like he wanted to see what he could do and what he could take on. I don't think it's wrong to stat up a challenge for a player if the player says he's not feeling challenged and wants a harder fight. If he's outright killed Johnsons it makes sense in-universe to stop using the weaker pre-made goons and change the sandbox your players are in to react to what they do.
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Jun 25, 2013 20:49
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Honestly, though... you tried saying yes, and the player had fun, and the other players had fun (apparently), so... what went wrong, exactly, besides 'my players clearly wanted to play a less-serious game than I had envisioned'? What went wrong was that the player acting out wasn't enjoying the game (given his complaint that there was no challenge) and the other players were enjoying his acting out in lieu of enjoying the game. Despite that, I couldn't say he was "disrupting" the other players' enjoyment of the game since I have no evidence there was any such thing to disrupt (and the other players are reasonably capable of talking him down themselves if they need to). And the Shadowrun rules just made it really hard to make a reasonable challenge without dropping a meteor. The way his stats were set up, any attack other than shooting would instawin, no superior shooter could exist within the rules, and an equal standard shooter would just result in a roll-off to the death which wouldn't achieve the goal either (since having to roll 15 on a dice instead of 5 isn't more challenging, it's just less likely.
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Jun 25, 2013 21:59
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Currently playing a D&D 4e campaign set in Neverwinter where we’re gathering an army of rebels to eventually come together and usurp the corrupt dictator of the city. One of the powerful barons of the city has been working with the dictator and we stumbled across scrolls with evidence he had beenworking with evil cults and planned to give part of the city to the orcs. We developed a plan to kill him and take over his massive expensive manor for our own. We invited him to our two-story base of operations for a dinner and conversation on the second floor of the base (we had done a few quests for the dictator and the baron so he trusted and respected us). The plan was to have our assassin coat the scrolls containing his damming evidence with debilitating poison, so when he opened it he would either go crazy and attack his personal guards or simply sit there paralysed, a sitting duck. Things went a bit differently though when, as well as his two powerful body guards, the baron bought an army of eight Dragonborn warriors along to dinner, waiting on the first floor in case anything suspicious was up. Being a small level 5 party, we were making GBS threads ourselves and a few of us thought about abandoning the plan. The baron opened up the scroll we gave him just as planned and took a large amount of damage from the poison it was coated in. What we didn’t expect was for him to be powerful enough to instantly turn invisible and escape while his two personal body guards laid into us. poo poo. Meanwhile downstairs, our gnome sorcerer had kept the Dragonborn guards captivated with his magic tricks and tales of dragons old, managing to role high diplomacy, history and bluff checks to stop them from paying attention from any noises happening upstairs. Liberal amounts of rum being served also helped. This all failed when the baron suddenly re-appeared on the bottom floor yelling “kill them!”. The gnome stopped his stories and instantly cast his daily power, covering the floor and front entrance with a sticky web to stop the Dragonborn from getting upstairs, or to stop the baron from escaping. We managed to defeat the baron’s two personal guards and went downstairs, where I commanded my unseen servants to open the front door. Waiting outside was about 10 archers we had hidden outside the base to prevent the baron from escaping. They let loose swarms of arrows at the Dragonborn inside the room, and even the strongest of the warriors were easily bloodied by a hail of 10 arrows. Eventually we defeated the baron and his personal bodyguards as well as half of the eight powerful Dragonborn soldiers. Seeing their leader dead and an arrow-y death waiting outside for them, we rolled a huge diplomacy check and offered them a substantial amount of gold to work for us instead, as well as a bit extra to tell no one about what occurred that night. Being paid mercenaries, they agreed. So that’s how a small level 5 party, way in over their head, managed to defeat a corrupt powerful baron and his army of personal soldiers, even managing to turn some of those soldiers onto our side, all over the course of a nice candlelit dinner.
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Jun 26, 2013 00:45
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double post sorry
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Jun 26, 2013 00:54
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Incorrect Username posted:So that’s how a small level 5 party, way in over their head, managed to defeat a corrupt powerful baron and his army of personal soldiers, even managing to turn some of those soldiers onto our side, all over the course of a nice candlelit dinner. But how was the dinner that was prepared? 
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Jun 26, 2013 13:37
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My DnD group was down two guys, so I decided to prepare an activity for the remainder. I wanted them to take a bunch of hand-drawn assets from Starraven's Sketchy Cartography Brushes and populate a massive, blank subcontinent map. They took to it with great gusto. They created Hoxenn, and then asked how soon it would be before they would be allowed to explore it. 
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Jun 26, 2013 17:02
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I should save that, I like world-building and these kind of things helps alot.
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Jun 26, 2013 20:12
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So the party from this post (Robin, Lylia, and Artemis Gage, Professional Mage) played last night. This campaign has two DMs essentially, because we're playtesting some homebrew vampire and lycan war stuff that they came up with collaboratively, so the DM from last time was able to play his character more effectively. He has a ranger named Jon Thomas, who is my character's half brother. He's been loosely based on Kamina from Gurren Lagann and has been proclaiming our exploits wherever we go, building us a reputation of sorts. He has done amazing things so far. He uses two pistols called Jay and Silent Bob (Jay has Thundering, Silent Bob has a silencer on it) and has a shitload of charisma. So far he has- -Executed the leader of a group of over a dozen orcs in the middle of combat and intimidated them all into running away -Scared off the sister of a dragon we had killed earlier by telling her in exact detail how we killed him and made money by selling his scales and bones -Killed a bunch of half elf highwaymen while we were on the train from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep. It should be noted that he was sitting in a chair across a table from me, and never stood up, just drew his pistols and started blasting away Han Solo style, feet up on the table the whole time -Enthralled three different large crowds of people with tales of what he's started referring to as Team Gurren I have also done some fun things, including stealing a dragon's breath (this involved a magical item enchanted with an equivalent to the Suppress Breath Weapon spell) which I did strictly because I always insist that I can steal anything not nailed down or on fire, so my brother dared me to steal the breath of a non-red dragon. I am now the proud owner of a magic goblet full of acid sprayed at me by a black dragon. Oh and I took some levels in Spymaster and recruited Al Capone for the "security" company I'm starting in my cover identity.
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Jun 26, 2013 22:07
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Even though I don't play myself, I just want to say that all these stories are really great.Robindaybird posted:I should save that, I like world-building and these kind of things helps alot.  Oh, but it's actually really easy to just copy them from the source and define them myself! Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Jul 1, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 19:44
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So story to come when I have the time, but I just Magic Jar'd 163 barbarians, wiping out a solid 75& of their village.
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Jul 1, 2013 08:54
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My 13th age group crashed an underground fight club. The fight was pro-wrestling themed. Someone else will write it up, but it ended with new love entanglements and very ineffective jeering.
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Jul 3, 2013 08:46
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I had a great session of 4e last night with my maptool group. We're playing one of the scales of war adventures I think, the one with Kalad and the steam vents. We're in what I think is the final room, which is a walkway spiraling upwards around the edges, leading to our objective, a control panel at the top and center. First, our Monk kicks the enemy chieftain off one of the walkways with Drunken Monkey. He fails his save and falling damage finishes him off. The player comments "This. Is. Sparta!". Apparently the chieftain was a personal enemy of his character, so he got the resolution he wanted. The fight's winding down but it's still tense, since we're all bloodied and out of heals and pinned on a walkway by the minions that just don't stop coming oh god. I tap the party Bard on the shoulder and ask her "why don't we deal with that warlock, since we're the only ranged ones here". All we have is Vicious Mockery and Illusory Ambush, but we nail her 4 times in short order and she's screaming profanities at her -4 to-hit and then flees when her minion meatshield finally goes down to our monk. I calculate how far the fleeing warlock moved and realize I'm faster, so I sprint off after her. It's a footrace of double-move running and she makes it out of the chamber, but I catch up in the hallway outside and sprint past her to the next door, a good 250+ feet of footchase. I draw my Nail of Sealing with Mage Hand (which elicits something like "good job" from the GM if I recall correctly), but I realize it's a standard action to use and I don't have one. So, I turn and banter about how she'll have to get through me if she wants to escape, and she burns her standard attacking me instead of double moving through the door. She opens it with a minor action, and on my turn I have to tug-of-war it closed with an opposed strength check. I'm a Wizard with 8 str . She rolls a 16. I roll... 19! Success, and I slap the Nail of Sealing in the closed door, which instantly seals it with a powerful Arcane Lock ritual. The Monk player remarks that it was the most Avenger thing he'd ever seen. Also Nail of Sealing is my new favorite 4e consumable, because both my GMs love monsters that flee when things go to poo poo. I'll have to see if I can convince one of them to let me weaponize it on a crossbow.I return to the chamber in time to witness our Monk and Avenger throw our Gnome up 30 feet to get to the control panel quicker.
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Jul 4, 2013 11:51
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I've spent the past few months playing 4e in a homebrew world over skype with some friends, and we've had many, many notable moments. [Our party consists of; Vaphels, a werecat rogue with insane bluff skils. Roy, an alchemist with a potion induced case of an as yet unidentified lycanthrope. Marcus, Tiefling warlock with a penchant for all things firey. Our fearless leader Darius, a barbarian werewolf ousted from his tribe during a coup led by the matriarch. And my character Kragara, a massive Goliath warrior and designated meatshield.] -Marcus once cracked a safe by successfully turning its own magical wards into ersatz shaped charges and blowing the door off. -Darius has got the entire party, with the exception of Kragara, high on mushrooms after a victory. -We've managed to accidentally burn down 3 separate buildings. -Kragara has stopped and flipped a speeding tank, think early WWI style metal boxes with wheels, with his bare hands. -After one of our misadventures with fire, Vaphels convinced the town guard that the men cover in soot had nothing whatsoever to do with the building burning behind them.
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Jul 5, 2013 10:01
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A Pathfinder player of mine has an item called The Robe of Impracticality, which holds 50 wild card items of my own invention. Some are useful, some are powerful, some are dangerous, some are benign. It's like a robe full of SCP Foundation novelties and graphic adventure puzzles. Last game my player pulled from the robe. It was a square piece of plastic. In a moment it started flashing red and vibrating, and the party was whisked away to another plane. When they faded back into existence they were in the crowd of a theater full of strangely dressed men and women. Then a magical booming voice rang out announcing four of their names. This was immediately followed by the famous statement, "You're the next contestant on the Price Is Right." The party won a newwwww car thanks to our thief, as she won The Dice Game. Another player won during the yodelling climber game. Then the dwarf lost at Plinko. There was much bloodshed as they tried to open a portal back to their Prime Material plane. The history books of the strange land they visited will forever remember them as the Price Is Right terrorists.
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Jul 5, 2013 11:53
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why why the gently caress would you do that that just seems like a goofy, fun, but very silly not what anyone came for random derail
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Jul 5, 2013 11:55
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People come for different things. I could totally see that one being very enjoyable for many parties.
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Jul 5, 2013 12:45
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How'd you run the games?
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Jul 5, 2013 12:56
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:56 |
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God Of Paradise posted:A Pathfinder player of mine has an item called The Robe of Impracticality, which holds 50 wild card items of my own invention. Some are useful, some are powerful, some are dangerous, some are benign. It's like a robe full of SCP Foundation novelties and graphic adventure puzzles. I cannot accept this as cannon due to the fact that nobody was the closest without going over.
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Jul 5, 2013 16:35
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