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Zereth
Jul 9, 2003



Barudak posted:

Im so glad Torg lets me roleplay investigating such wild things as “a river” and “a gorge” finally a game captures the adrenaline of a summer vacation to the american southwest.
"This canyon is filled with poison gas! What do you mean, why should the PCs care about it beyond "okay let's avoid it"?"

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Angrymog
Jan 30, 2012

Really Madcats

Our happy party of adventurers are beginning their trip through

Splitting Hairs

Recap: The party have encountered a group of gnolls fighting with each other. As Magonna understands them, she passes on the information that they're accussing each other of having lost a bit of treasure.

If the party wade right in, all the gnolls (30) turn on them. If they wait, there's only 2d6. Downsides of this is that there' no reason for the PCs to assume that the gnolls have just dropped the treasure there (they have). Still, I'm deciding to Keep it as it's simple, but allows some PC decision making.

The party acts posted:

Quota casts Bless, granting everyone +1 to their attack for 6 rounds

Magonna already has Armour up (cast yesterday), so has an AC of 6

Gnolls are Suprised, but the party can't cast spells in the suprise round.

Beavis, Bhead, Quota, Janie, and the dogs charge. Between the gnoll's suprise, the Bless spell, and the charge, they have a total of +4 to their attack rolls, vs. the Gnoll's AC of 5

Moganna lets fly with a sling stone; she only has a +2 bonus (down to -2 due to her lack of proficiency)

Beavis slays one gnoll, and still has an attack left. Bhead also hits and kills a gnoll, whilst the two priest types miss. Magonna's sling bullet whistles past a gnoll's head and vanishes into the brush.

One of the dogs tears a gnoll's throat out, whilst a second takes a massive chunk out of an arm. Beavis's second strike slays a second gnoll, whilst Magonna's second bullet clonks one on the head, dealing 2 damage.

Round 1 tally: 3 dead knolls, one on 1 hp, one on 3. 4 un-injured.

Round 2 and they need to check for suprise again. This time they realise that they're under attack and that 3 of them are already dead. They fail their morale check and break, running for the hills.

The party let them go and search the bodies finding the Brooch of shielding, and 8 GP worth of random coinage. Moganna takes the brooch for now planning to cast Identify on it later (once they have the 100gp to buy the material component). They gain 126 XP each

Moving on, it's time for a land dispute in The rights of miners

This encounter takes place in hills, and starts with a group of miners asking the PCs for help to defend their claim from a goblin tribe. They're offering gold equivalent of 20% of a day's production if the PCs will help them. The card lists 500gp, but isn't clear if that's the PC's take, which means that the mine is producing 2500gp of copper ore a day, or if that's a day's output, in which case the PCs get 100gp. Nor does it say if they're offered that per day, or for the entire job. Also that means these miners in the middle of loving nowhere have at least 100gp on them, and as much as 1000. This is D&D, the wilderness is inherently dangerous, why didn't they spend some of that money hiring guards?

As the card plays out, the PCs spend two days with nothing happening, then on day 3, 18 goblins attack for a couple of rounds before running. After that they attack once a day at a random time for a week. If the miners fall below two-thirds of their original number they pack up and go home.

I'm tempted to pass on this one because you need to flesh out a few NPCs - the foreman at the least, and may even need to come up with a goblin lair if the characters decide to be proactive and go hunting. Also escort quests are a bit poo poo.

On the other hand, you could make it more complicated - perhaps the goblins aren't miners, and have a really good reason for wanting the humans to stop digging. The miners could pay the PCs with a credit note redeemable at the offices of the organisation that's bankrolling the dig, which makes more sense than them having loadsa gold with them. You could have the PCs come back a few months later and see the beginning of a small gold rush town that sprung up when they struck gold.

Jury?

Moving on, the party are getting tired, so it's time to Sleep Tight The PCs come across a dilapidated roadside inn, however the innkeeper and his family (wife, two kids, grandma) are friendly, and the food is quite good. A couple of other guests wander in and are happy enough to swop stories. If they spend the night, the PCs get bugs, which are really irritating for about a week, but don't have any mechanical effect. Stats for the innkeeper and his wife are provided (they're normal humans), I guess in case the party decide they're disguised demons or something and decide to kill them.

Pass - lovely but friendly inn isn't really an encounter that warrants a card, is it? I suppose you could use the innkeepers or other guests to drop some rumours, or have the PCs find the place in the aftermath of another adventuring party passing through, jumping to conclusions, and murdering the owners, but that's pretty dark.

Of course, the PCs may want to avoid civillisation as a whole, as the next small town they come to sees them picked out as marks for The Small Con - they are approached by a small, distressed, boy who explains that his parents have lost him (the story makes it clear that he wandered off), and could the nice heroes please help him find them? Also, he's very hungry.

The child is actually an un-named adult halfling, who's planning to rob the PCs blind in the night or as the oppurtunity presents itself. If they don't have anything easily stealable, he's just going to mooch off them for the rest of the day before wandering off. There's no Alignment listed, so whether he'll ping on Paladin radar is up to you (assuming the paladin even thinks to trigger the ability)

Keep It gives them some RP oppurtunities, and if he gets away with it, they might spot him the next day (or the next town over) and have the oppurtunity for revenge. It could also derail a session or two.

How do our party deal with it? posted:

Moganna, Janie, and Beavis all succeed on a Wisdom roll and notice that the child is actually an adult halfing. Beavis goes aggro, at which point the 'child' bursts into tears and starts causing a scene. A member of the public takes the child under her wing; the party try to warn her, but the reaction roll goes poorly and the rest of the crowd grumbles about the PC's boorish behavior. We'll give the party their 25xp (a stunning 5 each) for not having fallen for the con and trying to stop someone else being taken advantage of.

Angrymog fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Nov 10, 2017

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

I like how everyone was so focused on how boring the presented stuff in Land Below is, y'all seemed to miss that the sun has a loving stat block. Either that or we're that used to dumb poo poo.

DalaranJ posted:

Wait. Does this diagram have mechanical meaning in the system?

Oh good lord yes. You can't just make a jetpack in Torg by saying "I buy the flight power, then put it on this gizmo, maybe reducing the cost of the power to reflect the fact that the device can break or get taken away." You know, like most RPGs (and, admittedly, Torg Eternity).

In Torg, we are simulating a loving reality here. If you want to build a device with powers built in, you actually have to blueprint the whole thing out, make a ton of loving rolls, then hope you can afford to buy all the pieces to assemble it. Oh, and you still have to power it with your XP.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
edit: I was wrong. I was so wrong. oh god. I'd forgotten how bad the Terra stuff was, apparently.

unseenlibrarian fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Nov 10, 2017

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Evil Mastermind posted:

I like how everyone was so focused on how boring the presented stuff in Land Below is, y'all seemed to miss that the sun has a loving stat block. Either that or we're that used to dumb poo poo.

While its dumb as all get out for the sun to have a statblock, it seems like the stats are reasonable enough we could kill or trick into doing what we want which in the land of “the rocks spew gas, no treasure here” is at least something actionable so im going to call it a good thing in light of its competition so far.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

In case people are wondering how it works in Torg Eternity:

To get a pulp power, you buy it, and you keep it. Period. Every power has the same cost: one "perk" slot. No variable costs, no adventure costs, no "if you don't use the power once per adventure you lose it" BS.

To improve a power, you can take one major or two minor limitations on it to get one power enhancement. "Is built into a device" is a minor limitation. Alternately, you can "buy" the power again to get an enhancement later.

So if I want a jetpack, I just buy the "Flight" power, add the "is built into device" minor limitation, and call it a day. I can then add another minor limitation to get an enhancement to the power if I want.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Barudak posted:

While its dumb as all get out for the sun to have a statblock, it seems like the stats are reasonable enough we could kill or trick into doing what we want which in the land of “the rocks spew gas, no treasure here” is at least something actionable so im going to call it a good thing in light of its competition so far.

Just don't convince the sun that you are in the moon, it won't end well, and also it means your PC is Monte Cook.

(The best part is that you can stare down the sun on a contest of wills and presumably make it set by intimidating it enough.)

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 22 hours!

You shouldn't have taken my beer away, sun.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Horrible Lurkbeast posted:


You shouldn't have taken my beer away, sun.

It all comes full circle.

hyphz
Aug 5, 2003

Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.
Unlockable Ben
Kinda random I know, but one of the artists for Witch Girls Adventures is live streaming himself drawing art for it. https://www.facebook.com/TheImagineer/videos/10156109433774396/

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Warhammer Fantasy: Realm of the Ice Queen

Only Leave Kislev In Winter

Ice Magic came about when the Gospodar were still wandering the great steppe and warring with their Kurgan neighbors, long before the founding of Kislev. When the Kurgan eagerly bowed to the Great Eye (the terrible portal at the pole) and sought its power, the Gospodar's ancestors were smart enough to recognize a bad deal when they saw one. They instead focused on learning to follow the natural flows of power from their native land, rather than the invading force of Chaos. Their magic is very powerful, and much less likely to corrupt the user. It is still reasonably likely to kill her if she isn't careful.

An Ice Witch channels her power with the Channeling skill, like any other caster, but this skill is even more important for her. If she is not in Kislev itself, and is not in freezing or cold conditions, she needs a half action Channeling test to attempt any spells. This doesn't give the normal +Mag to her casting check, either. So a Kislevite witch in a normal Imperial campaign in summer in Reikland is simply going to be hobbled because of where the campaign is taking place. This is fitting to the fluff on their magic but limits how much you can really use Ice Witches outside of their homeland. On the upside, if it's below freezing, an Ice Witch does not need Ingredients for her spells, no matter where she is; she counts as having used one (and gets the bonus for it) regardless of if she did. Using an Ingredient while in cold conditions does not grant extra magic.

Glacial Surge is what happens when an Ice Witch rolls doubles, triples, quadrouples, or all 1s, and it's another thing I'm a bit iffy on. You see, for a normal spellcaster, if they merely get doubles they have pretty good odds of the effect just being weird or minor. The Glacial Surge table is *harsh*. It starts out simple enough: Stunned for 1 round, spell takes longer to cast, freeze the ground around you and make it slippery, but after that it jumps straight to 'take d10 damage, no DR', 'Cause a nasty AoE spell centered on yourself that makes movement and shooting hard and keeps hitting everyone for Damage 2', 'take a Damage 5 hit with no armor allowed', 'Roll as if you got triples on a normal Tzeentch's Curse table' and finally, a 1% chance to summon a Frostfiend, which is basically a minor boss monster, who will assault the whole party. You only have a combined 45% chance of the more minor manifestations. You've got a 55% chance on any sort of miscast, minor or no, to do serious damage to yourself or gently caress over your party. This is too much, especially for a magic school that's supposed to be 'safer' to make up for the geographic restrictions. It's too binary in how quickly you can suffer the worst consequences.

Also note a Witch outside Kislev just suffers the normal Tzeentch's Curse rules, so you might actually be safer away from home.

Whenever a Witch or Hag rolls doubles on one of her miscast tables, they gain a Mark. Marks can be good or bad, and reflect the spirits/magic changing you over time. For a Hag, these get a little weird about something: They keep talking about how increasing apparent age makes 'charm checks to seduce' even harder, and they sometimes go on about Gospodar legends about how Hags will use their magic to trick handsome young Gospodars into romances by appearing young and beautiful again. I thought I'd point out that feels a little weird to focus on.

All the marks are a 10% chance. Hag Marks are:

1: Emaciated: You lose weight and can't seem to gain it back, losing d10 Toughness permanently from sickness and appearing d10 years older.
2: Club Foot: You lose a point of Mv permanently, and appear d10 years older. You can only gain this twice.
3: Palsy: Whenever you fail a WP or Toughness test your shakes start up and cripple you in combat, giving you -10 to pretty much all physical stats and limiting you to a half action a round for d10 rounds. Ouch. Appear d10 years older (sense a theme?)
4: Hoarse: Your voice becomes aged and ragged, giving -10 to Charm tests, and guess what, you appear d10 years older.
5: Popping Bones: Your bones make weird popping and creaking noises when you move, you appear d10 years older, but this has no negative effect.
6: Aged: You don't just appear d10 years older, you actually become d10 years older. The spirits think they're helping, but this ACTUALLY moves you closer to dying of old age, rather than just making you look it.
7: Spirit Companion: A spirit becomes your permanent bodyguard or buddy. Some of the spirits mentioned require the (kind of awful) Warhammer Companion to find the stats, but you can have a Dryad bodyguard. That's pretty drat good.
8: Wise: The Spirits reveal the world to you. You gain a permanent +5% on all Academic Knowledge tests.
9: Long Life: The Spirits want to keep you around. Your first roll of this, you will live for 150 years. Your second, 400. Your third, you are now functionally immortal.
10: Marked by Spirits: Your body becomes covered in odd runes and markings, and you gain +10 to all tests to control the spirits.

Hags also have a further effect from their apparent age:
16-30: The spirits disrespect the young. -10 to tests to Command them.
31-50: No effect, 'natural' age for an average adventuring Hag.
51-60: -10 to Charm tests 'to seduce' and +5 to Command tests with people (not spirits).
61-75: -30 to Charm tests 'to seduce' and +10 to Command tests with people (not spirits).
76-100: No longer able to seduce (really guys, come on) and -20 to Charm and Gossip tests with humans, but +10 to Command spirits.
101-150: You are impossibly old and gain Unsettling, because no-one your age should still be moving.
151+: You become Frightening when you want to, a living embodiment of the Ancient Widow herself.

Ice Witches only suffer Marks, not the whole aging thing.
1: Frosty: You take a -5% to Fellowship because you start to have trouble feeling strong emotions.
2: Pyrophobe: You hate fire, taking -10 to WP tests if within 12 yards of a burning fireplace or torch.
3: Rimed: A part of your body just seems to have permafrost. No real effect unless the GM decides to give the discretionary and occasional -10 Fel when dealing with superstitious southerners.
4: Seasonal: You respond to the seasons. In summer, you have -2 Max Wounds and -1 Movement. In Spring, -1 Wounds. In Fall, +1 Wounds, in Winter, +2 Wounds, +1 Movement.
5: Snowy: At any time, you can turn your hair or skin pure white like snow, gaining +5 on Intimidate tests because it makes it very clear you are an Ice Witch.
6: Glacial: You can choose to turn off your body-heat whenever you wish. If you do, you take -10 to Charm but +10 to Intimidate as you're unnatural and terrifying.
7: Unfeeling: Non-magical cold cannot touch you. You are immune to the winters of your land and never take damage from non-magic cold.
8: Icy Stare: You have an intense glare that seems to lower the temperature when you decide to turn it on. Gain Unsettling.
9: Frozen Heart: The Ancient Widow has shown you there is nothing to fear. You gain Fearless (Which is extremely great).
10: Marked by Kislev: Ancient symbols of the Gospodar appear on your body, and you gain +10 to Channeling tests when using your Ice Magic.

I like Marks, as a concept. I like the grab-bag of good and bad that makes a wizard strange and unusual. They're fun character flavor and rarely too crippling or powerful. We'll get ones for all the normal and divine lores in other books, too.

Next: The Actual Spells.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Horrible Lurkbeast posted:


You shouldn't have taken my beer away, sun.
Zap Actionsdower?!

Dallbun
Apr 21, 2010

Angrymog posted:

The rights of miners

...

Jury?

The very thought of eight consecutive goblin combats fills me with homicidal rage. I'd only use it if I was willing to go all in on prep and create a whole tower defense minigame.

"I reckon we could set up these spare lengths of minecart track on that hill and roll those big boulders down... or I suppose we could use 'em to reinforce the barricades."

senrath
Nov 4, 2009

Look Professor, a destruct switch!


I like the general idea of "there are miners being attacked and need help" but not without putting a lot of work into who the miners are, what they're mining, who is attacking them, why they're being attacked, and how to not make it a slog. So I say that it's a pass for a card that supposed to be used as a random encounter thing.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Yeah that's a pretty fine basic for a whole mission but not just as a "get me 20 goblin asses" random thing.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Hostile V posted:

Yeah that's a pretty fine basic for a whole mission but not just as a "get me 20 goblin asses" random thing.

Honestly a dude standing around handing out MMO quests in a regular RPG session would be awesome. Party finds some guy on a little mound just outside of town, he addresses the first one that comes up all "Welcome champion! To establish a foothold on the West Coalstone Ridges, we need to first dispense with the infestation of hill goblins thereabouts! Please go forth and slay them. Bring me 20 asses of hill goblins as proof. Naturally, only the finest asses will do, so do not be surprised if they don't all have one I'll accept! Your reward shall be your choice of a staff or a cloak, along with 13 gold and 91 silver pieces!" Then he just immediately turns to the next guy "Welcome champion!..."

And he's just the only guy in the world like that. But he's outside every town.

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


theironjef posted:

And he's just the only guy in the world like that. But he's outside every town.

The heroes broke the Gate of Woes, scattering the first line of defenses of the depths of Hell, and they and their forces tumbled over the piled corpses of their enemies into the heart of Stormhands' domain. And they heard:

"Welcome champions…!"

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 22 hours!
"Listen guys the mayor had kept his strange champion seeking vigil for two days now and hasn't eaten or drank anything! If we don't get him now he might catch his death standing there shouting at passers-by!"

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
Questgiveritis being a magical affliction that causes people to stand in one place and deliver speeches and offer rewards for tedious murderhobo services.

It's probably a wizard's fault, somehow.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

unseenlibrarian posted:

Questgiveritis being a magical affliction that causes people to stand in one place and deliver speeches and offer rewards for tedious murderhobo services.

It's probably a wizard's fault, somehow.

or someone cursed after severely shortchanging a wizard/Djinn/etc. for a valuable item and decide the perfect ironic punishment is forcing them to pay good money for useless junk.

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

unseenlibrarian posted:

Questgiveritis being a magical affliction that causes people to stand in one place and deliver speeches and offer rewards for tedious murderhobo services.

It's probably a wizard's fault, somehow.

Well, of course it's magic. How else do you explain the glowing symbol that appears over the head of someone suffering from the condition?

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

unseenlibrarian posted:

Questgiveritis being a magical affliction that causes people to stand in one place and deliver speeches and offer rewards for tedious murderhobo services.

It's probably a wizard's fault, somehow.

How else is the wizard going to get rid of his basement full of junk and all of that vermin at the same time?

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Selachian posted:

Well, of course it's magic. How else do you explain the glowing symbol that appears over the head of someone suffering from the condition?

If you can see this symbol please seek clerical help immediately. You may be a pc.

Dallbun
Apr 21, 2010
Every 24 hours, you must refresh the duration of

The Deck of Encounters Set One Part 24: The Deck of Halflings and Henchmen

137: Dispelling Doubts

The PCs wander into a dispel magic zone that nullifies magic effects for 1 hour (do spells resume after that?) and stops mages from casting spells for 1d6 rounds. Magic items get a save as per the spell.

“This is an ideal card to play directly outside the main villain's door. It is sure to brighten the players' days when they learn that their favorite magic is gone.” Uh, wait - is this a random encounter, or an idea to use when planning a dungeon? If it’s the former, I don’t choose to play a card like it’s Magic: the Gathering, I draw one randomly (and why would I do that outside a villain’s front door?) If it’s the latter, I don’t need to play a card, I just have it planned!

Then the card goes into musing about why such a zone might be there, but all the ideas are boring. Look, don't leave it completely to me - just give me one good concrete reason. An avatar of the God of Magic got dumped by their mortal paramour on that spot and cursed it, how about that?

Regardless, I suppose a random antimagic zone could be interesting, either as an arbitrary inconvenience the PCs or for them to later go back and build a keep on. Keep.


138: The Question Game

The PCs run into Fawling, a level 7 halfling thief who’s traveling the world to see the sights, and steals to “supplement his food and income.” So he’ll probably steal some food and money from the PCs if they hang out with him (but not from other halflings).

He’s constantly playing “the question game,” where you try to respond to your conversational partner with a question.

Dang, this guy seems annoying! Just… 100% irritating. I don’t really want to inflict him on my players, so pass.


139: Birthday Party

In a medium-sized halfling community, the PCs basically wander into Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party (actually, it says it’s “the birthday of no less than three of [sic] citizens of the village.” Bilbo, Frodo, and…?). There are streamers, fireworks that spook horses, etc. They’ll be invited to join in.

They will, however, be pickpocketed 1d6 times by a small halfling boy who, if caught, “just wanted to look at it for a while.” If the PCs are a good sport about this, the townsfolk will like them, but “if the PCs turn ugly, the halflings will, too.”

We’re treading dangerously close to kender territory with these halfling encounters. However, attending a hobbit birthday party is the secret dream of every D&D nerd. I can’t deny that to my players. Keep.


140: The Failed Paladin (Tavern Series)

Oh boy, fallen Paladins. Everybody’s favorite part of the AD&D alignment system.

In a tavern that the PCs hang out at, there’s a man brooding at the bar who’s been drinking heavily. He’s got a shield with a LG deity’s symbol on it. Local thugs move in to bully him and he wrecks them, tosses money at the bar, grabs his stuff and leaves. He heads to the PCs and asks to join up with them, he only needs enough money to live on.

The poor guy lost his paladin status “when he allowed three pompous clerics of his church to perish, instead of sacrificing his only son. Now no cleric of the church will allow him to atone.” He’s looking to redeem himself adventuring.

If it makes you feel any better, dude, the DM would have found some justification for you to fall even if you had sacrificed your son. Don’t be a paladin in 2E. I’ll keep the encounter, though. Edit: pass, actually I don't want to engage in the AD&D alignment & Paladin systems any more than necessary.


141: The Voiceless Bard (Tavern Series)

In a seedy but well-run tavern, the PCs hear a bard playing the lute like a virtuoso, but not singing along. When he does open his mouth to sing, it’s godawful. He’ll come to the PCs after. “He speaks with an outrageous accent and apologizes for his poor voice, explaining that his throat was seared by eating too much hot food.” He’s a former adventurer, is nostalgic for it, and wants to join them. His name’s Dyvad UeMulle and he’s 9th level.

I don’t know about that outrageous accent, but I like the idea in this series of cards that other random adventurers might occasionally try to join the PCs. Keep.


142: The Man in Black (Tavern Series)

In an upper-class tavern, the normal evening patrons haven’t shown up, but there’s Strider a mysterious man dressed in black, seated in the darkest corner. He’s trying to watch the PCs surreptitiously (notice with a Wisdom check). He’ll look away briefly if noticed. Once more patrons come in, her starts watching them too.

His name is Rilifin, and he’s actually “quite an engaging fellow,” a fighter 6/mage 6 hired by the owner to sit there, look menacing, and help the bouncer if necessary. I guess to add a touch of danger to this upscale place, so folks can feel like they’re slumming it? Rilifin is just in it for the money, and will join an adventure if there’s good returns. He’s pretty well-equipped, too: long sword +3, bracers AC 2, ring of blinking. Also about 1600 gp worth of wealth, so I’m not sure why he’s being underemployed here. Keep, anyway.

Dallbun fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Nov 11, 2017

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

It's always kinda funny that the only people who had to worry about mechanical consequences for the Alignment system existed to get screwed by it, constantly.

D&D Paladins are just a hilariously bad idea.

Barudak
May 7, 2007

Any god who wants me to make that trade isnt good aligned.

That paladin is less an encounter and more a vignette in the “getting the crew together” scene in a film about killing a god.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
The Job Job.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bieeardo posted:

The Job Job.

Hey man Job actually profited by struggling with God. He does actually find out he was without sin, when God settles his argument with his friends post theophany by telling them that they had spoken of Job that which was not correct.

I mean he doesn't find out the first part about why any of this happened anyway, which the reader knows during the second part (but which neither Job nor his friends do) but the layered narrative structure in Job is why it's one of the best books in the bible.

I wrote my master's thesis on Job so whenever it comes up it all spills out.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Nov 10, 2017

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
It's cool! I know, I just wanted to make the play on words. :)

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bieeardo posted:

It's cool! I know, I just wanted to make the play on words. :)

Well I mean part 2 is basically Job slowly convincing himself 'Maybe I can take this rear end in a top hat to court and win. You know, I bet I could! But who would judge such a case' before Part 3 is like 'Man, Job, I can beat up a hippo, what could you possibly do against me.' 'poo poo.'

hyphz
Aug 5, 2003

Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.
Unlockable Ben
Betrayal at House on the Hill, 6

Uh. Bit of a cold, work week, and just got done assembling the Gloomhaven organizer. Had no idea that was so dang big. Let's have some more Haunts.

Perchance to Dream
Trigger: Find a Holy Symbol in the Catacombs, Charred Room, or Furnace Room.

Whoever has the lowest Sanity has just fallen asleep. In a bed. In whatever room they were in at the time. That.. could be pushing it, honestly. I mean, if it happens to be the lowest sanity person who finds the Holy Symbol, there's just a comfortable bed next to the furnace? Come on. Anyway, they've fallen asleep and gained control of their nightmares, and decide it'd be fun to just control them from now on.

This is actually pretty simple but with a bunch of convoluted extra rules. The traitor is incapacitated, but gets a number of Nightmares to play equal to the number of players. They're Speed 5, Might 4, and Sanity 4. They fight normally, except they deal mental damage, and unlike most monsters they don't get stunned; they're killed when defeated, but they respawn at the dreamer's location. Their objective is to get the Nightmares to certain rooms with exterior windows or openings to the outside, where they can escape. When a Nightmare escape, another one spawns, and no more nightmares can escape via that room. The traitor wins if a number of Nightmares equal to the number of escape routes in the house at the time the Haunt began (or the number of players if it's higher) have escaped. The Heroes don't technically get to know that number, because it's going to be an awful lot of fun for them to suddenly be told they have lost.

The Heroes? Well, their job is to take the Holy Symbol to the room with the traitor's dreaming body, and then make Sanity or Might rolls to wake them up. It takes a number of rolls (of both types combined) equal to the number of players.

So. This is going to be hugely depending on the number of escape rooms in the house at the time the Haunt starts, which is probably why the adventure tries to fudge it by hiding it from the Heroes. If there's more than the number of players, the heroes should just rush for the sleeping character since the Nightmares will need to respawn at least once. But honestly, the real problem with this is the tedious climax. Everyone has the single goal to go to one room and make a bunch of rolls.

The Stars Are Right
Trigger: Find a Mask, Medallion or Skill in the Pentagram Chamber.

Do you do Cthulhu? Actually, now you do do Cthulhu. Whoever wandered into the Pentagram Chamber has just remembered they are actually the leader of a cult who's summoning a nameless (hurr) dark god this evening. They get a number of Cultists (all stats 4 except Knowledge) to play equal to the number of players, and their goal is to score 13 "sacrifice points" to summon the dark god by hauling items back to the Pentagram Chamber. Sacrificing a tradeable item or omen is worth 1 point; sacrificing a follower item (Girl, Madman, or Dog) is worth 2 points; and if a Hero gets killed, dragging their corpse back to the chamber is worth 4 points, but dragging a corpse means moving at half speed.

The Heroes are trying to mess this up by.. well, um.. vandalizing the pentagram. A number of Paint tokens are spawned in the house equal to the number of Heroes. The goal is for the heroes to go pick up a Paint token, carry it adjacent to the Pentagram Chamber, and then throw it in by spending a square of movement. If they throw all the Paint in the house on the pentagram, it ruins the ritual, because dark gods are picky about their art.

So. Kudos to the designers for letting paint be thrown with a movement point instead of an action, and not requiring Heroes to enter the Pentagram Chamber to do it. It's still potentially a good idea for the traitor to just wait for the heroes to come to them. The poor old cultists are kind of stuck; the safest way to get those extra sacrifice points is to explore rooms, but Cultists can't explore, and while they can steal from the heroes, that might not be worth the risk of getting killed. Still, I'll give this one a pass for now.

Here There Be Dragons
Trigger: Find a Spear - for some reason - in the Charred Room, Furnace Room, Gallery, or Servants' Quarters.

When people complain about bad Haunts in this game, it's usually this one they end up mentioning. Because bringing a freaking Dragon into a traditional horror/occult game is always going to be silly, and the plot for this Haunt doesn't even try to make it sensible. The person with the lowest speed randomly says "I wish I had a dragon" and suddenly, a dragon kicks in the door! They decide this must therefore be a dream, and the best way to keep the dream going is to.. have the dragon kill their friends in the dream.. because otherwise their friends will point out that it's not real.. or something?

Anyway. Dragon. Speed 3, Might 8, Sanity 6, hit points equal to the number of players that don't lower its traits, 2 points of damage resistance, can't be Speed attacked. Each round, it can breathe fire (anyone in its room or adjacent must make a Speed roll and take 2-4 damage as a result, based on whether they're in the room with the dragon or not) and Bite as its regular might attack.

Fortunately, there's now some items in the house to help to deal with the dragon. The spear which the active player found? It's a dragon slaying spear that gives you +4 on rolls against the dragon. Also, at the start of the haunt, a Shield spawns in the Chasm or Crypt which protects you and anyone with you against fire breath, but slows your movement by 1 square; and a set of Ancient Armor spawns in the Catacombs or Underground Lake which gives you 5 physical damage resistance, but slows your movement by 1 square again. Slay the dragon? Heroes win.

Yep. It's just bad. I've never read any report of anyone playing this Haunt who actually enjoyed it. Basically, everything is going to be determined by whether the rooms with the artifacts have been discovered yet, and where the heroes are in relation to the dragon at the time the Haunt starts. Don't forget that the traitor is still in the game, and could potentially steal the artifacts themselves or.. um.. well, try to murder their friends because they're not real.. or something? Also, having the dragon's HP be equal to the number of players is really, really silly. It means that if the number of players is small, a random hero could one-shot the dragon, which just makes the whole thing seem daft. Let's not forget the munchkin option of just having the dragon run away or hide in hazardous rooms while the traitor attacks, since killing the traitor doesn't end the scenario. Ugh.

Desiden
Mar 13, 2016

Mindless self indulgence is SRS BIZNS

theironjef posted:

Honestly a dude standing around handing out MMO quests in a regular RPG session would be awesome. Party finds some guy on a little mound just outside of town, he addresses the first one that comes up all "Welcome champion! To establish a foothold on the West Coalstone Ridges, we need to first dispense with the infestation of hill goblins thereabouts! Please go forth and slay them. Bring me 20 asses of hill goblins as proof. Naturally, only the finest asses will do, so do not be surprised if they don't all have one I'll accept! Your reward shall be your choice of a staff or a cloak, along with 13 gold and 91 silver pieces!" Then he just immediately turns to the next guy "Welcome champion!..."

And he's just the only guy in the world like that. But he's outside every town.

I ran a mini-campaign once doing something like that, though with a bit more of a slow build. I was pretty proud that it didn't fully dawn on the group what was going on until right as they stumbled on a max level character decked out in legendary gear, who was randomly rocketing around slaughtering everything for inscrutable reasons (not them though, they weren't flagged for pvp).

Their other nemesis was someone they asked for help in the articulate fashion of ye olde lande, and who afterwords just followed them around jumping and screaming "LOL RP FAJETS LOLOLOLOL".

Dallbun
Apr 21, 2010

Night10194 posted:

It's always kinda funny that the only people who had to worry about mechanical consequences for the Alignment system existed to get screwed by it, constantly.

D&D Paladins are just a hilariously bad idea.

If I recall correctly, 4E Paladins cause no problems because once they're ritually invested with their gods' power, there are no takesie-backsies.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

hyphz posted:

Betrayal at House on the Hill, 6
Trigger: Find a Mask, Medallion or Skill in the Pentagram Chamber.

Do you do Cthulhu? Actually, now you do do Cthulhu. Whoever wandered into the Pentagram Chamber has just remembered they are actually the leader of a cult who's summoning a nameless (hurr) dark god this evening. They get a number of Cultists (all stats 4 except Knowledge) to play equal to the number of players, and their goal is to score 13 "sacrifice points" to summon the dark god by hauling items back to the Pentagram Chamber. Sacrificing a tradeable item or omen is worth 1 point; sacrificing a follower item (Girl, Madman, or Dog) is worth 2 points; and if a Hero gets killed, dragging their corpse back to the chamber is worth 4 points, but dragging a corpse means moving at half speed.

The Heroes are trying to mess this up by.. well, um.. vandalizing the pentagram. A number of Paint tokens are spawned in the house equal to the number of Heroes. The goal is for the heroes to go pick up a Paint token, carry it adjacent to the Pentagram Chamber, and then throw it in by spending a square of movement. If they throw all the Paint in the house on the pentagram, it ruins the ritual, because dark gods are picky about their art.

So. Kudos to the designers for letting paint be thrown with a movement point instead of an action, and not requiring Heroes to enter the Pentagram Chamber to do it. It's still potentially a good idea for the traitor to just wait for the heroes to come to them. The poor old cultists are kind of stuck; the safest way to get those extra sacrifice points is to explore rooms, but Cultists can't explore, and while they can steal from the heroes, that might not be worth the risk of getting killed. Still, I'll give this one a pass for now.

I lost this one in two rounds, it's loving terrible. All of the paint spawned within a round's movement of the pentagram room, and since we hadn't discovered the dog, or the girl, or anything else that could be sacrificed, I'd have had to track down and kill every other PC anyway-- the PCs that were RAW allowed to run by, egging my Fortress of Wankery.

Kurieg
Jul 19, 2012

RIP Lutri: 5/19/20-4/2/20
:blizz::gamefreak:

Barudak posted:

Any god who wants me to make that trade isnt good aligned.

That paladin is less an encounter and more a vignette in the “getting the crew together” scene in a film about killing a god.

I know I've talked about it before. But I had a campaign where I was playing a paladin who was just such an all-around decent person that believed in the basic good of everyone around him that he basically self-empowered before he was brought into the church. When he met up with God, He asked him to go back to civilization and genocide all the non-human races to reinforce belief in Him, and thus restore his power. His response was to immediately cut off his head with his shiny new vorpal greatsword because obviously any god that would ask for such a thing was evil.

The fact that said god had a backup of himself from before he became such an rear end in a top hat saved somewhere was a happy accident.

Mr.Misfit
Jan 10, 2013

The time for
SkellyBones
has come!
I don´t kow, that a paladin scene could be great for any kind of story about "Gods are Dicks, Part XXI".
Because in DnD at least, they are. Also for groups willing to engage in the idea of martial priests
as the best way to convert those who wouldn´t otherwise because paladins are basically
crusaders and therefore usually greedy dicks by default.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!
Well, if you make Paladins with take backsies, you'll get awful DMs who want to make them fall.
If you make Paladins without take backsies, you have gods who don't care what their holy warriors do with their power.

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

JcDent posted:

Well, if you make Paladins with take backsies, you'll get awful DMs who want to make them fall.
If you make Paladins without take backsies, you have gods who don't care what their holy warriors do with their power.

Or, rather, gods who actually have to, like, do something in order to stop someone once they go off the reservation. Like, say, tell another paladin. Make it into an adventure, y'might say.

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

If I was playing a paladin, I’d actually really dig having my god-boss call me into his office to chew me out for being a loose cannon once in a while.

Or have a trial with the rest of the party as character witnesses.

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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Green Intern posted:

If I was playing a paladin, I’d actually really dig having my god-boss call me into his office to chew me out for being a loose cannon once in a while.

Or have a trial with the rest of the party as character witnesses.

I think the thing is 'Divine Loose Cannon' is different from 'Lose all your special abilities and mechanical powers'. Getting called in to get yelled at by your God and he takes your badge and gun but there's an archangel in internal affairs who has your back and keeps feeding you Smites until you clear your name would be great.

Wei Shen: Paladin.

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