This week our D&D session has been cancelled due to one of our number being secvonded by the 'Evil Empire' to do a stock take. As such this week we shall be playing poker, perudo and possibly some Munchkin Cthulu. This of course leaves me with nothing to talk about concerning my own game and so I'm going to have a look at the future and Gareth's space opera.
We were sat downstairs after a successful session discussing what we could possibly run next so that I could perhaps have a break from running our sessions. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy running the sessions, but it's always nice to actually play a game rather than run it. Gareth too has been itching to run something spacey and we sat down with the intention of coming up with a functioning system that would be light and easy to learn, fatal in combat and allows us to be whatever we'd like.
It took us a good 15 minutes but we came up with something that seems like a bastard child of Risus and FATE, stealing liberally from different sources and employing a 2d6 roll for that delightful bell curve that apparently we should all aspire to. Add into that FATE's evoking of character 'aspects' to gain an extra dice (Up to a max of 4d4, pick the 2 youn like) and margins of success and it begins to look like a half way acceptable system.
It's going to be fatal, with somewhere between 6-10Hp per character and every margin of success on the opposed combat roll causing an extra point damage (in addition to the 1 for just hitting) it won't take long to kill a PC, but then again we're not supposed to be getting into fights. Hopefully we can shift gears from the stabby-stabby-kill-kill(TM) to something a little more sedate without too much trouble.
Showing posts with label Dice Junket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dice Junket. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Alignment and Resolve
Alignment is one of those things that has never really worked for me in role playing games, indeed they seem somewhat antithetical to the whole experience. Attempting to define an individual’s moral code into one of nine groups seems to defeat the entire purpose of playing the role, and whilst it can be a useful guideline for players who don’t have a well defined character in mind, the rest of the time it just comes off as arbitrary and obtrusive.
In Fourth Edition D&D this is compounded by reducing the number of alignments to five and making ‘unaligned’ a catch all group for almost every character in my group. In short it is irrelevant to us and has little impact upon the game, and this is beginning to bother me.
On Sunday when our group encountered Taluil there was, in my mind, a certain kind of conflict going on for the characters. Half the party are dedicated to the Raven Queen, and here was a cleric of the Raven Queen euthanizing the desperate and needy in order to aid those who still had the will to live. The lack of information on the Raven Queen means you could interpret this many ways, certainly he claimed to be administering her will. So was he an evil character who was killing innocents or a desperate priest making use of what few resources there were to keep himself and his followers arrive? Perhaps that’s a little sanitized since when I say ‘resources’ you have to substitute ‘corpses’.
Caradoc and Du’nn’o clearly took the high ground, albeit in an overtly violent way and clearly they saw this as an evil act, but what if they’re wrong? What if they killed a cleric and mutilated a priest on a false assumption? I cannot penalise the characters for acting out of alignment because their alignment is ‘Unaligned’ and thus provides no framework within which to interpret their actions.
I’m tempted to replace the alignment system with something a little more useful to our group, which will still have relevance within role playing encounters but won’t chain them to a single course. Vampire had a good system for managing this, granting willpower to characters who would act with their chosen conducts. This is a simple enough system to adapt for 4th Ed, granting either an unlimited action point (which persists beyond an extended rest) or a point which grants some other kind of bonus (shrug off an ongoing effect, automatically pass a death save etc). In game this would represent some kind of self belief, or ‘Resolve’*, which allows them to push beyond their limit.
I’ll put this to the masses and see what we come up with, largely characters already seem to have certain conducts to which they adhere, though I’d be tempted to give Du’nn’o and Caradoc one involving punishing ‘Heretics’ after their latest debacle.
*The idea of ‘Resolve’ is specifically stolen from Gareth/Caradoc’s now defunct Bleach RPG, where characters regularly endure beyond the limits of the body by strength of will alone.
In Fourth Edition D&D this is compounded by reducing the number of alignments to five and making ‘unaligned’ a catch all group for almost every character in my group. In short it is irrelevant to us and has little impact upon the game, and this is beginning to bother me.
On Sunday when our group encountered Taluil there was, in my mind, a certain kind of conflict going on for the characters. Half the party are dedicated to the Raven Queen, and here was a cleric of the Raven Queen euthanizing the desperate and needy in order to aid those who still had the will to live. The lack of information on the Raven Queen means you could interpret this many ways, certainly he claimed to be administering her will. So was he an evil character who was killing innocents or a desperate priest making use of what few resources there were to keep himself and his followers arrive? Perhaps that’s a little sanitized since when I say ‘resources’ you have to substitute ‘corpses’.
Caradoc and Du’nn’o clearly took the high ground, albeit in an overtly violent way and clearly they saw this as an evil act, but what if they’re wrong? What if they killed a cleric and mutilated a priest on a false assumption? I cannot penalise the characters for acting out of alignment because their alignment is ‘Unaligned’ and thus provides no framework within which to interpret their actions.
I’m tempted to replace the alignment system with something a little more useful to our group, which will still have relevance within role playing encounters but won’t chain them to a single course. Vampire had a good system for managing this, granting willpower to characters who would act with their chosen conducts. This is a simple enough system to adapt for 4th Ed, granting either an unlimited action point (which persists beyond an extended rest) or a point which grants some other kind of bonus (shrug off an ongoing effect, automatically pass a death save etc). In game this would represent some kind of self belief, or ‘Resolve’*, which allows them to push beyond their limit.
I’ll put this to the masses and see what we come up with, largely characters already seem to have certain conducts to which they adhere, though I’d be tempted to give Du’nn’o and Caradoc one involving punishing ‘Heretics’ after their latest debacle.
*The idea of ‘Resolve’ is specifically stolen from Gareth/Caradoc’s now defunct Bleach RPG, where characters regularly endure beyond the limits of the body by strength of will alone.
Monday, 11 May 2009
On Top of the World: Session 5
This week was a chance to change things up for the characters and introduce some of the dreaded role playing to proceedings. It seemed to work quite well.
The party’s attempt to beat a hasty retreat from the Malboro Forest was thwarted by the arrival of a mysterious figure clad in armour as black as night and swathed in dark robes. He appeared to them stood in a tree and dropped down when spotted by Skurmesh and instantly began accusing the party of ‘transgressions’ by trespassing and awakening the huge Malboro (Malthulu?). The party were none too pleased about the possibility of going to prison for the prescribed 25 years and Du’nn’o snuck off into the long grass to take a shot at the ‘Judge’ with her new Blingtastic Crossbow (The first item in the campaign to get the much coveted +4 Enhancement bonus, largely because I felt guilty for losing her character sheet before the session).
Suffice to say there is a time to shoot and a time not to, specifically it is a poor idea to shoot a man in the head when he is in the middle of exposition, and even worse when he’s in the middle of delivering the DM’s railroad. Generally I try to avoid railroading the party, but this once I wanted them to be somewhere so that the work I had actually done wouldn’t be wasted. Suffice to say the Judge was struck squarely by a sneaky bolt and instantly disappeared.
Du’nn’o felt burning and cold and the distinct sensation of having been cut open. Twice. Frankly she took a ridiculous amount of damage, which was fine by me as it instantly made the party realise I wasn’t about to let them just run away, and begrudgingly they followed the judge through a rift to the Gaol Zendicon.
I pulled a couple of ‘dick moves’ here, intended solely to make the party’s life difficult. One was to remove all of their food and water, including their much coveted ‘Horn(s) of Plenty’. These items I didn’t rule out near the start of the campaign, but given that I want Zendicon to be tough for reasons other than monsters and the like, they had to go. Mercifully I concocted a reason that was acceptable to the internal mechanics of the world and yet wouldn’t rob them of their other precious magic items.
The party awoke to the sound of a lean looking elf by the name of Cael who seemed to act as their guide; letting them know where they were and what travails they would encounter within the walls of Zendicon. Caradoc was very upset to find out that he had lost his Horn of Plenty and 40 Waybread Rations, it would not be the last time he would be upset this night.
The party having recovered themselves began to get a general lay of the land; to the South lay Dust Market, there were the East and West wings and to the north was a hall where a temple of the Raven Queen was holed up. Additionally in the ceiling of this chamber were two portals set into the carved ceiling from which, at irregular intervals, food and water would be deposited. Cael mentioned it was a kind of control; the food and water was never enough to sustain all the inmates, forcing them to fight for what resources there are.
Caradoc instructed Katarakis and Skurmesh to stay in the main chamber whilst he and Du’nn’o (The two party members dedicated to the Raven Queen) went to check out the temple. I get the inkling that Caradoc was well aware of what would be going on when I said: ‘They administer the Raven Queen’s Blessing’ and I was not one to disappoint.
Within they found Taluil and his brother clerics with rows upon rows of the dead and it didn’t take long for Caradoc to go on the offensive as Taluil explained quite plainly about how he euthanized the poor souls who came here and justified his actions as a blessing granted by the Raven Queen.* The exhumation and consumption of the organs post mortem was treated quite matter of fact-ly by the cleric who claimed that the dead allowed the living to survive; but Caradoc saw this as a clear sign of murder and kicked the Cleric.
Caradoc is 2 feet 9 inches tall, the minimum size for a Halfling in Third Edition, we assumed he either got a stepladder or has an exceptionally strong boot.
Suffice to say that as Skurmesh and Katarakis arrived the entire place went crazy; the Dragonborn threatened everyone in the room whilst Skurmesh played good cop and squeezed some of the more terrified clerics for information before loaning his axe to Caradoc who tied up the now whimpering Taluil and lopped his hands off. Katarakis prevented him from dealing the fatal blow although Du’nn’o managed to kill a cleric before Skurmesh could stop her (by hitting her in the face with the haft of his axe) and the others including Taluil made a dash for it. Du’nn’o, apparently not enamoured with having her nose broken by an irate Dwarf ran after the fleeing cleric and into Dust Market.
The Dust Market is a market ostensibly for Dust, a kind of narcotic which represents the only ‘escape’ from the Gaol Zendicon. Here and there merchants were plying wares for trinkets, jerked rat meat and weapons made of sharpened pieces of metal. As a symbol of status those merchants who were particularly wealthy wore cloaks made out of strips of faded precious fabrics; the more gaudy the more up market they were and probably the closer affiliated with the gangs.
Du’nn’o didn’t find Taluil before the rest of the party tracked her down (with Cael’s help) and led her back to the area with the two ceiling hatches. Caradoc stated plainly his disgust for the place and his desire to be rid of it by the end of the day. His plan was simple and relied upon Du’nn’o’s skills of athletics and thievery to open one of ceiling hatches and find a route up into the higher reaches. Cael had warned them of the darkness clad warders he had heard about higher up the gaol and the beasts that existed in the lower reaches, but Caradoc felt confident they could at least assess the risk.
Du’nn’o shimmied up the wall and set to work hanging from the ceiling. Her Aevis Sandals she had gained a while back protected her from falling damage so she was a good candidate for the task at hand. It took her some time but eventually she managed to open the iris hatch and climb into the room above in which shafts of light caught the dust from the floor and a pair of tall wooden doors stood in the wall like proud guards.
Speaking of proud guards it was at this point Du’nn’o attempted a stealth check in an empty room and true to form rolled a 1.
We have an unspoken rule in these parts that when Rachel (Du’nn’o’s Player) rolls a stealth check on ‘anything but a critical failure’ she will instantly roll a 1 (Or 100 in her fabled Dark Heresy bork) and we are obliged to then hurt her character. Specifically at this juncture three wardens crept out of the shadows, immobilized her and began to wail on her. They had greatswords. They did extra damage when she was immobilized.
Now she could still teleport down the shaft that she had just come up and didn’t risk falling damage but Du’nn’o apparently wanted to cause as much damage as possible and being a trickster rogue managed to toss two of them down the shaft (and they had teleported by the time they reached the floor and Katarakis got to bat at them) although in the process was hit so hard she lost almost all of her Hit Points in 3 hits.
Eventually she beat a hasty retreat and teleported down the shaft, which was fortunate as one more roll probably would have killed her with no way for the party to get up there and save her. The hatch in the ceiling closed and the wedges Du’nn’o had put in to keep the hatch open were reduced to splinters.
The party were, at the end, reunited and currently have some much needed info; primarily don’t go up alone, and given it was midnight at this point we elected to reconvene in a fortnight and continue from there; possibly with a journey down into the depths of Gaol Zendicon.
*This is perhaps a point of contention, technically Taluil kills only those who seek him out and it was never stated nor implied that he went out into Gaol Zendicon and hunted people down. Certainly his other crimes are severe but we are talking about a place with little or no food or water and given that a corpse is rich in (or at least possesses) both, the dead can be considered to be one of the few resources that the Gaol has in rich supply. Currenlty the party see this as black or white and Caradoc was certainly not impressed with Taluil’s reasoning.
The party’s attempt to beat a hasty retreat from the Malboro Forest was thwarted by the arrival of a mysterious figure clad in armour as black as night and swathed in dark robes. He appeared to them stood in a tree and dropped down when spotted by Skurmesh and instantly began accusing the party of ‘transgressions’ by trespassing and awakening the huge Malboro (Malthulu?). The party were none too pleased about the possibility of going to prison for the prescribed 25 years and Du’nn’o snuck off into the long grass to take a shot at the ‘Judge’ with her new Blingtastic Crossbow (The first item in the campaign to get the much coveted +4 Enhancement bonus, largely because I felt guilty for losing her character sheet before the session).
Suffice to say there is a time to shoot and a time not to, specifically it is a poor idea to shoot a man in the head when he is in the middle of exposition, and even worse when he’s in the middle of delivering the DM’s railroad. Generally I try to avoid railroading the party, but this once I wanted them to be somewhere so that the work I had actually done wouldn’t be wasted. Suffice to say the Judge was struck squarely by a sneaky bolt and instantly disappeared.
Du’nn’o felt burning and cold and the distinct sensation of having been cut open. Twice. Frankly she took a ridiculous amount of damage, which was fine by me as it instantly made the party realise I wasn’t about to let them just run away, and begrudgingly they followed the judge through a rift to the Gaol Zendicon.
I pulled a couple of ‘dick moves’ here, intended solely to make the party’s life difficult. One was to remove all of their food and water, including their much coveted ‘Horn(s) of Plenty’. These items I didn’t rule out near the start of the campaign, but given that I want Zendicon to be tough for reasons other than monsters and the like, they had to go. Mercifully I concocted a reason that was acceptable to the internal mechanics of the world and yet wouldn’t rob them of their other precious magic items.
The party awoke to the sound of a lean looking elf by the name of Cael who seemed to act as their guide; letting them know where they were and what travails they would encounter within the walls of Zendicon. Caradoc was very upset to find out that he had lost his Horn of Plenty and 40 Waybread Rations, it would not be the last time he would be upset this night.
The party having recovered themselves began to get a general lay of the land; to the South lay Dust Market, there were the East and West wings and to the north was a hall where a temple of the Raven Queen was holed up. Additionally in the ceiling of this chamber were two portals set into the carved ceiling from which, at irregular intervals, food and water would be deposited. Cael mentioned it was a kind of control; the food and water was never enough to sustain all the inmates, forcing them to fight for what resources there are.
Caradoc instructed Katarakis and Skurmesh to stay in the main chamber whilst he and Du’nn’o (The two party members dedicated to the Raven Queen) went to check out the temple. I get the inkling that Caradoc was well aware of what would be going on when I said: ‘They administer the Raven Queen’s Blessing’ and I was not one to disappoint.
Within they found Taluil and his brother clerics with rows upon rows of the dead and it didn’t take long for Caradoc to go on the offensive as Taluil explained quite plainly about how he euthanized the poor souls who came here and justified his actions as a blessing granted by the Raven Queen.* The exhumation and consumption of the organs post mortem was treated quite matter of fact-ly by the cleric who claimed that the dead allowed the living to survive; but Caradoc saw this as a clear sign of murder and kicked the Cleric.
Caradoc is 2 feet 9 inches tall, the minimum size for a Halfling in Third Edition, we assumed he either got a stepladder or has an exceptionally strong boot.
Suffice to say that as Skurmesh and Katarakis arrived the entire place went crazy; the Dragonborn threatened everyone in the room whilst Skurmesh played good cop and squeezed some of the more terrified clerics for information before loaning his axe to Caradoc who tied up the now whimpering Taluil and lopped his hands off. Katarakis prevented him from dealing the fatal blow although Du’nn’o managed to kill a cleric before Skurmesh could stop her (by hitting her in the face with the haft of his axe) and the others including Taluil made a dash for it. Du’nn’o, apparently not enamoured with having her nose broken by an irate Dwarf ran after the fleeing cleric and into Dust Market.
The Dust Market is a market ostensibly for Dust, a kind of narcotic which represents the only ‘escape’ from the Gaol Zendicon. Here and there merchants were plying wares for trinkets, jerked rat meat and weapons made of sharpened pieces of metal. As a symbol of status those merchants who were particularly wealthy wore cloaks made out of strips of faded precious fabrics; the more gaudy the more up market they were and probably the closer affiliated with the gangs.
Du’nn’o didn’t find Taluil before the rest of the party tracked her down (with Cael’s help) and led her back to the area with the two ceiling hatches. Caradoc stated plainly his disgust for the place and his desire to be rid of it by the end of the day. His plan was simple and relied upon Du’nn’o’s skills of athletics and thievery to open one of ceiling hatches and find a route up into the higher reaches. Cael had warned them of the darkness clad warders he had heard about higher up the gaol and the beasts that existed in the lower reaches, but Caradoc felt confident they could at least assess the risk.
Du’nn’o shimmied up the wall and set to work hanging from the ceiling. Her Aevis Sandals she had gained a while back protected her from falling damage so she was a good candidate for the task at hand. It took her some time but eventually she managed to open the iris hatch and climb into the room above in which shafts of light caught the dust from the floor and a pair of tall wooden doors stood in the wall like proud guards.
Speaking of proud guards it was at this point Du’nn’o attempted a stealth check in an empty room and true to form rolled a 1.
We have an unspoken rule in these parts that when Rachel (Du’nn’o’s Player) rolls a stealth check on ‘anything but a critical failure’ she will instantly roll a 1 (Or 100 in her fabled Dark Heresy bork) and we are obliged to then hurt her character. Specifically at this juncture three wardens crept out of the shadows, immobilized her and began to wail on her. They had greatswords. They did extra damage when she was immobilized.
Now she could still teleport down the shaft that she had just come up and didn’t risk falling damage but Du’nn’o apparently wanted to cause as much damage as possible and being a trickster rogue managed to toss two of them down the shaft (and they had teleported by the time they reached the floor and Katarakis got to bat at them) although in the process was hit so hard she lost almost all of her Hit Points in 3 hits.
Eventually she beat a hasty retreat and teleported down the shaft, which was fortunate as one more roll probably would have killed her with no way for the party to get up there and save her. The hatch in the ceiling closed and the wedges Du’nn’o had put in to keep the hatch open were reduced to splinters.
The party were, at the end, reunited and currently have some much needed info; primarily don’t go up alone, and given it was midnight at this point we elected to reconvene in a fortnight and continue from there; possibly with a journey down into the depths of Gaol Zendicon.
*This is perhaps a point of contention, technically Taluil kills only those who seek him out and it was never stated nor implied that he went out into Gaol Zendicon and hunted people down. Certainly his other crimes are severe but we are talking about a place with little or no food or water and given that a corpse is rich in (or at least possesses) both, the dead can be considered to be one of the few resources that the Gaol has in rich supply. Currenlty the party see this as black or white and Caradoc was certainly not impressed with Taluil’s reasoning.
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Sunday Prep and Playing Roles
So another Sunday session of D&D is upon us and after the washout that was last week I’ve been spending some time with the players wish list I’ve come up with a suitable plan for getting everyone back into the swing of things.
Next up comes a site based adventure which is quite simple, it resorts to tried and tested techniques and will hopefully allow the players to do some of the roleplaying which has gone by the way side in recent sessions but was so prevalent in the first.
We’ve encountered this problem which I’m certain many other parties have encountered before where the role playing takes a back seat to combat mechanics and adventuring. This is especially jarring after the first session was so strong with this particular aspect. One could blame the players for not playing their characters but that’s unfair when they’ve been in the wilderness for weeks and have been given no opportunity to interact with creatures who didn’t instantly try to bite their faces off.
I’m fortuitous in this respect since I’ve been running World Top largely adlibbed and that means dungeons and the like only go on as long as I really want them to. It also allows me to drop things in at the last minute; such as the Malboro forest, which I only had a vague idea about before the session began; and then these adventures need only go on as long as the PC’s are interested. Since the Malboro forest was a bust this Sunday the party will be leaving it for Zendicon.
In other news with the Monster Manual II coming out soon we may soon be fighting a new swathe of nasties. Personally I’m hoping for a Paragon level Rust Monster or something that steals magic items so that I can get rid of the party’s annoying ‘Horns of Plenty’.
Next up comes a site based adventure which is quite simple, it resorts to tried and tested techniques and will hopefully allow the players to do some of the roleplaying which has gone by the way side in recent sessions but was so prevalent in the first.
We’ve encountered this problem which I’m certain many other parties have encountered before where the role playing takes a back seat to combat mechanics and adventuring. This is especially jarring after the first session was so strong with this particular aspect. One could blame the players for not playing their characters but that’s unfair when they’ve been in the wilderness for weeks and have been given no opportunity to interact with creatures who didn’t instantly try to bite their faces off.
I’m fortuitous in this respect since I’ve been running World Top largely adlibbed and that means dungeons and the like only go on as long as I really want them to. It also allows me to drop things in at the last minute; such as the Malboro forest, which I only had a vague idea about before the session began; and then these adventures need only go on as long as the PC’s are interested. Since the Malboro forest was a bust this Sunday the party will be leaving it for Zendicon.
In other news with the Monster Manual II coming out soon we may soon be fighting a new swathe of nasties. Personally I’m hoping for a Paragon level Rust Monster or something that steals magic items so that I can get rid of the party’s annoying ‘Horns of Plenty’.
Monday, 4 May 2009
On Top of the World: Session 4
This was by far the worst of our sessions in terms of combat and the blame for that falls squarely at my feet. Our party having beaten Melgoroth of the Eternal Blight finally got a weapon for Katarakis (The Smith's Hammer) which Du'nn'o fished out of the lava with her face given that she took 45 damage (12d6 Fire damage) because I was still annoyed about not killing her character a fortnight ago.
At the top of the ridge on the far side of the lava river was a great crater of glamoured forest in which dancing multicoloured lights weaved between the gret deciduous boughs. In the centre of the forest a massive oak rose out of the canopy and dominated the area around. Perhaps not the most original of glamoured forests to be sure but it worked quite well and for a while the party were wandering in circles. Eventually they reached the great oak* and decided to wander in opposite directions around it to reach the far side in a direction that was roughly north.
Halfway around Caradoc and Du'nn'o noticed they were being followed by dryads and a few minutes later realized they were no dryads. These were the deadly Malboro's we had been building for a week and I was quite pleased with how tough they were; as it turned out they were too tough. Here's three thing I learned:
1) Stunning is brutal and takes people out of the game and should not be given to 4 monsters in an encounter.
2) Stunning should most certainly not be a rechargable power with a 1/3 chance and auto-recharge at bloodied.
3) Taking people out of the game for near enough 5 rounds can be classed as a 'dick move'.
My lust for tough monsters made the Malboro's overly powerful and I was forced to give them a raft of 'on the spot' changes; lowering some defences, giving them the fire vulnerability they sould always have had and amending their bad breath to 'dazed' instead of Stunned.
All in all it was a bit of an underwhelming session, I think in order to make it up to the players next week might have to involve a trip into the 'awesome' bucket for encounters. At the end I polled some of the players for things they'd like to see and will use some of that feedback. Next week will be a session as normal although hopefully with more roleplaying and less unkillable monsters.
*Katarakis is officially insane. Our journey to the centre was a skills challenge and I was eager for a little bit of 'out of the box' thinking. To this end I told the players they could use any skills as long as they justified it. Given that the party were under the impression they were being watched Katarakis attempted to intimidate the hidden parties into revealing themselves... By shouting at the trees.
At the top of the ridge on the far side of the lava river was a great crater of glamoured forest in which dancing multicoloured lights weaved between the gret deciduous boughs. In the centre of the forest a massive oak rose out of the canopy and dominated the area around. Perhaps not the most original of glamoured forests to be sure but it worked quite well and for a while the party were wandering in circles. Eventually they reached the great oak* and decided to wander in opposite directions around it to reach the far side in a direction that was roughly north.
Halfway around Caradoc and Du'nn'o noticed they were being followed by dryads and a few minutes later realized they were no dryads. These were the deadly Malboro's we had been building for a week and I was quite pleased with how tough they were; as it turned out they were too tough. Here's three thing I learned:
1) Stunning is brutal and takes people out of the game and should not be given to 4 monsters in an encounter.
2) Stunning should most certainly not be a rechargable power with a 1/3 chance and auto-recharge at bloodied.
3) Taking people out of the game for near enough 5 rounds can be classed as a 'dick move'.
My lust for tough monsters made the Malboro's overly powerful and I was forced to give them a raft of 'on the spot' changes; lowering some defences, giving them the fire vulnerability they sould always have had and amending their bad breath to 'dazed' instead of Stunned.
All in all it was a bit of an underwhelming session, I think in order to make it up to the players next week might have to involve a trip into the 'awesome' bucket for encounters. At the end I polled some of the players for things they'd like to see and will use some of that feedback. Next week will be a session as normal although hopefully with more roleplaying and less unkillable monsters.
*Katarakis is officially insane. Our journey to the centre was a skills challenge and I was eager for a little bit of 'out of the box' thinking. To this end I told the players they could use any skills as long as they justified it. Given that the party were under the impression they were being watched Katarakis attempted to intimidate the hidden parties into revealing themselves... By shouting at the trees.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Sculpting and the Like
I can be classed as a fairly lazy DM, perhaps this is the reason why all the sessions of World Top have been ad libbed so far, but this week I am making an extra special effort, the kind of effort I've never made before.
I am making models for the game.
Now I'm no sculptor by any means and my first complete attempt that sits beside me as I write this looks decidedly amateurish, however there is something quite fun about using sculpty. It's like plasticine that you cook in the oven until hard and just using the stuff is cathartic. The model itself might be a bit rubbish but I like it despite that and hopefully my group won't mind fighting it on the night.
Amanda's attempt is on the other side of the room and is far better; she's much better at sculpting than she gives herself credit for and I reckon the party will take one look at her monster and head for the hills... Y'know, if they weren't already in the mountains.
I'll try and grab some pics on sunday so you can see the finished results.
I am making models for the game.
Now I'm no sculptor by any means and my first complete attempt that sits beside me as I write this looks decidedly amateurish, however there is something quite fun about using sculpty. It's like plasticine that you cook in the oven until hard and just using the stuff is cathartic. The model itself might be a bit rubbish but I like it despite that and hopefully my group won't mind fighting it on the night.
Amanda's attempt is on the other side of the room and is far better; she's much better at sculpting than she gives herself credit for and I reckon the party will take one look at her monster and head for the hills... Y'know, if they weren't already in the mountains.
I'll try and grab some pics on sunday so you can see the finished results.
Monday, 27 April 2009
No Session This Week
With Hair Dave off fighting at the Black Gate this week we decided not to plunge on without Katarakis and so myself and Amanda enjoyed a day entertaining small children and having the occasional pint of Becks. However since I'm trying to post something every monday I felt obliged to drag myself from bed and put something up here. For a week I've had nothing at all to write about but yesterday following a conversation between myself, Dave and Amanda I got all excited. The reason: I finally get to play a game!
Huzzah
Finally I get to play Vendreth the Barbarian (Vendreth; warrior without fear!) and spend some time cracking skulls and investing in more d12's. Amanda, my long sufferring girlfriend has been elected to run a session or two at some point (Probably after Giz's Fudge Bleach), this promises to be alot of fun since last night I got to watch her tear into my Monster Manual in search of all manner of nasty critters to unleash on our unsusupecting party.
This promises to be alot of fun, Amanda is really starting to get to grips with D&D and its been a pleasure to watch her Dwarf Warlord (Skurmesh Anklebiter) come into his own in the encounters we've fought; saving Du'nn'o from certain death, granting Katarakis all manner of nasty bonus attacks and just generally keeping the party in shape. I'm hoping that she can carry that enthusiasm into her DMing and just have fun with it.
Our party itself seems to be taking shape, aside from my Barbarian Mr. Dave is talking excitedly about an Avenger with a double-bladed sword who looks like Darth Maul and I feel certain Giz will arrive with something musical and leader-ish. That just leaves Rachel who we intend to corrupt into becoming a Defender of some flavour; I personally am voting for Warden.
Now I'm off to go do some planning for next week; here's your sneak peek: It starts with M and ends with -alboro.
Huzzah
Finally I get to play Vendreth the Barbarian (Vendreth; warrior without fear!) and spend some time cracking skulls and investing in more d12's. Amanda, my long sufferring girlfriend has been elected to run a session or two at some point (Probably after Giz's Fudge Bleach), this promises to be alot of fun since last night I got to watch her tear into my Monster Manual in search of all manner of nasty critters to unleash on our unsusupecting party.
This promises to be alot of fun, Amanda is really starting to get to grips with D&D and its been a pleasure to watch her Dwarf Warlord (Skurmesh Anklebiter) come into his own in the encounters we've fought; saving Du'nn'o from certain death, granting Katarakis all manner of nasty bonus attacks and just generally keeping the party in shape. I'm hoping that she can carry that enthusiasm into her DMing and just have fun with it.
Our party itself seems to be taking shape, aside from my Barbarian Mr. Dave is talking excitedly about an Avenger with a double-bladed sword who looks like Darth Maul and I feel certain Giz will arrive with something musical and leader-ish. That just leaves Rachel who we intend to corrupt into becoming a Defender of some flavour; I personally am voting for Warden.
Now I'm off to go do some planning for next week; here's your sneak peek: It starts with M and ends with -alboro.
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