Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Uzumaki]

What's your opinion on campaigns where everyone has to play a member of a certain Non-Human race? Like all Jawa in Star Wars or all Elf in the Realms. Yay or nay?

Fun when the idea comes from the group just loving dwarves or jawas, gay when it’s the GMs top down pet retardation.

Is there any interest for Fantasy Flight Warhammer RPGs here?

Rogue Trader is my pet game, so while I’m not a huge Deathwatch keener I know the system and could have a look.

 

[Tri-Tachyon'sClown]

Rogue Trader

Will never forget my first game. Pure chaos (but not Chaos) and styling on xeno scum.

 

[Edward "Caesar" Sallow]

Rogue Trader is my pet game, so while I’m not a huge Deathwatch keener I know the system and could have a look.

Here is the first one for the Lamenters. I kept out a lot of the fluff, as you can find in most places. As much as I call this v1.1, this was a big overhaul.

 

[Lightning's Heraldry]

As mentioned before I will make a short report on Shadowdark as a system so far.
(TL;DR It's a 6.5/10 so far for me. Not a waste of time but probably not my first choice of game especially if I want to just run an AD&D retro-clone especially when OSE exists.)
Thus far my biweekly group is having a fine time but did not finish their level 0 gauntlet last week. A few lost characters to some traps, one to an encounter. Death rate is shockingly low for the group having two very new people not familiar with classic style dungeon running. I expect a few will reach 1st or even second level next session as they are starting to understand and pick up the pace a bit.
I am also running a personal solo campaign on the side to kind of test waters on stuff in advance of my players. I have four characters on which I am running myself through the B series modules in my spare time. I finished Castle Caldwell and am not sure if I will run B8 or finish the other adventures included in B9 first. Caldwell being the cash dispensary it is saw me easily to 3rd level in any case and that was with dividing all treasure totals by 10.
- My wizard has very poor intelligence and is obviously hampered by it significantly. Initial stats definitely make a big difference in how powerful a PC will be. Additionally because wizards cannot use crossbows for some reason he was also kind of useless outside casting the Light spell for the first two levels. At level 3 I now have Knock though and any classic GM knows the power of such a spell, so his value as a member went up significantly.
- I have two Fighters, twins with nearly identical stat lines. They didn't start with excessively high stats but it hasn't mattered so far. Definitely the MVPs of Caldwell by a country mile.
- Last member is a Priest (Cleric) who rolled very well on stats and got a 16 starting Wis. Additionally rolled very well on Talent tables so far. This character kind of exists to show how much better high starting rolls on a caster can be. Very good and consistent healing output combined with acceptable defenses.

I have gripes with the system thus far, but overall still think it is fine especially for an indi game. Thief is woefully underpowered, as an example. This game clearly took a lot from AD&D 1e but failed to grasp how important Thief's old % tables really were. Spell Miscast hasn't come up for either Wizard or Priest and I don't expect it to be an issue. I think the way the spellcasting system works combined with risk of wandering monsters is decent for prevention of the 5 minute adventuring day that most are familiar with having cropped up in (largely) the 3.x era. The game solves some issues that later editions created for the most part, but definitely has its own problems too. XP is too vague, Thief is useless and talent table RNG means even characters who start basically the same quickly diverging (not in interest but in power).

As of right now I think the game should've taken more risks. The D&D 6 stat array is a long since outdated sacred cow. I think hit dice may also be outdated as a concept, or more specifically it seems no system which has +health per level, especially +random health gains, ever seems to balance it well. I don't mind slots based inventory but I still think I haven't played a system which gets it quite right. Stars Without Number is a bigger offender on this but even Shadowdark can have slots feeling weirdly starved for mundane items like a bag of flour, set of lockpicks or a canteen.

Related but what inventory / equipment systems have you guys found work best? Slots, Carry Weight and Not Tracking It are all common ones but I know Black Hack has usage die which I thought was a cool concept for limited but expendable resources. Any other interesting subsystems?

 

[Ghostse]

Related but what inventory / equipment systems have you guys found work best? Slots, Carry Weight and Not Tracking It are all common ones but I know Black Hack has usage die which I thought was a cool concept for limited but expendable resources. Any other interesting subsystems?

My preference has been "Carry weight is the source of truth and needs to be trued up between delves; but in the dungeon slot-based or *hands them pen and paper* draw for me how the fuck you are going to carry all that with a single backpack."

I think hit dice may also be outdated as a concept, or more specifically it seems no system which has +health per level, especially +random health gains, ever seems to balance it well.

The issue is the huge min/max gulfs that exist and the fact that 10-20 rolls is not enough to average things out given player HD might be D12.

I've seen some systems suggest that either players average their roll with the average result (i.e. a D6 hit dice goes from 1-6 to 2 to 4 with a very, very strong bellcurve on 3) or they take the HD average and then instead of CON being a flat bonus, they roll a D6 and can add UPTO CON points per level but that is pretty much only workable with 5e.
I've seen suggestions that like 4e you only get your CON bonus once, but you add 1/2 your con bonus to your HD rolls, but cap at HD maximum. (I.e. CON mod of 4, D6 HD; I roll a 5. So 5 + (.5 * 4) = 7, but caps down to 6.
Someone in this thread suggested that on level up players can re-roll 'low' HD which seems to have potential.

I saw another thing online.. everyone has very shitty HP, but your level acts as Damage Resistance.

But this all is just working really hard to get a result that isn't much different than "just take the average".

and that variable HP is more interesting on monsters anyway.

 

[Uzumaki]

Will never forget my first game. Pure chaos (but not Chaos) and styling on xeno scum.

There’s two kinds of Rogue Trader crews: hyper jingoistic religious fanatics, or kind of chill unorthodox inquisitor-level chaos users who think they’re the second Abbadon,

Here is the first one for the Lamenters

Downloaded, will have time to read through it tonight.

 

[Lightning's Heraldry]

Carry weight is the source of truth and needs to be trued up between delves

Not a bad idea to just not require (much of ) an inventory check until in between dungeon runs. I think some players hate inventory management because it can slow down doing what you find most fun and constantly tracking new shit can end up erasing a hole in your sheet over time.

I've seen suggestions that like 4e you only get your CON bonus once, but you add 1/2 your con bonus to your HD rolls, but cap at HD maximum. (I.e. CON mod of 4, D6 HD; I roll a 5. So 5 + (.5 * 4) = 7, but caps down to 6.

Shadowdark only allows CON bonus once and tries to keep the hit dice small (only d4, d6 and d8 for HP) but still ends up swingy. I mentioned I had two fighters in my solo party and despite starting with identical physical stats one already has 50% more HP than the other. Half CON as a bonus to rolls up to HD max is also a nice trick. It feels less hamfisted compared to just allowing max HP at level 1, results in CON still being a good stat for consistency while also not horribly bloating HP values into ranges that feel unacceptable.

Level as Damage Reduction is one I had not heard of before though. I wonder what the best way to handle that is? You can't do it as "true" DR because then lower monsters or damage totals just do 0 damage, so maybe you always take at least 1 damage on a hit? You probably can't use base HP as HP total, so maybe you give the players 2 dice of HP + CON mod? I feel like this quickly starts to jump into the realm of me fixing / developing someone else's game for them for free though, at which point I usually just go try yet another game. Maybe I have to really eventually nut up or shut up and just do it from scratch myself.

Frostgrave has the opposed D20 roll where each party in a combat rolls a D20+modifiers and compares. The lower value is the loser. The higher value "wins" and then compares their total to the losers Armor Class, with the loser taking the difference in damage. This means both parties in a given fight get to roll, resulting in engagement from the enemy and the player. Which is something else I think a lot of systems ignore in favor of being "simple" is that rolling to hit and then damage if you hit is not engaging for the defending party. One of the reasons I rate GURPS as highly as I do is because there is a constant engagement from both sides with attack and defense and neither party is just left out to dry on any given turn.

 

[Uzumaki]

Here is the first one for the Lamenters. I kept out a lot of the fluff, as you can find in most places. As much as I call this v1.1, this was a big overhaul.

Unbowed and Unbroken might be hard to qualify for with -10 fel.

Shield of the Forgotten is pretty strong, I’d consider steepening its drawback.

Overall it seems pretty flavourful and playable.

 

[Edward "Caesar" Sallow]

Unbowed and Unbroken might be hard to qualify for with -10 fel.

Shield of the Forgotten is pretty strong, I’d consider steepening its drawback.

Overall it seems pretty flavourful and playable.

Honestly those two were the most questionable. I mainly justify Unbowed and Unbroken as this is a Chapter for someone who wants a little challenge, and being a more supportive ability design, while being a Lamenter is the challenge. At the very least, I am probably going to add an additional 1000XP Advance, so people have a different option. Shield of the Forgotten is probably the part I am going to rework the most. While I am a terrible DM, I like making material for people to use.

 

[Edward "Caesar" Sallow]

Anyone here watch Legends of Avantris? I tried grabbing those free downloads for Crooked Moon that they posted last week, and some of them aren't showing up in my inbox. Wondering if anyone else had them.

 

[The Bogwater Flows On]

4e is inferior by a noticeable degree to 2e, but it does make up for it with decent to good art and for expanding regions of play by a country mile. It actually touches Grand Cathay, Ind a bit, and the Vampire Coast as places. And it synergizes with other books to do a Man O' War style campaign decently well.

It's an inferior edition, but still a decent option IMO. Kinda like how some Shadowrun variants are still fine, if inferior to your personal tastes.

Ooh that does sound good. I ran a 2e campaign and had a blast. MIght have been my favorite and my players' fav campaign (despite one spastic we had in the group at the time).

I do want to give 4e a chance since I saw the starter box for a decent price and figured "Why not start there?" Haven't got to run it yet, but now I feel better about my purchase.

 

[Aib Ld]

i joined a game a while back and, I'm suffering under a player who goes "its what my character would do!". i thought guys were joking
keeps forcing us all into battle and unfavorable situations despite the glaringly obvious warning signs to not do that, and sometimes I could see the other players pause and still trying to roleplay out of the situation while the player keeps dragging them further in.
I feel trying to say anything about the constant disruptions would place a bomb in this group because the player is the girlfriend of the GM, and I read various stories on how couples ruin games like these

 

[Ghostse]

thought guys were joking

We never joke.
We never over state. If anything we understate.

player is the girlfriend of the GM,

Fuck. the most powerful prestige class.
Yeah you fucked dude. Suck it up, or find a new group until they break up.

keeps forcing us all into battle and unfavorable situations despite the glaringly obvious warning signs to not do that, and sometimes I could see the other players pause and still trying to roleplay out of the situation while the player keeps dragging them further in.

Here is the only thing you can possibly do and it still probably won't work and might result in a huge blow up and massive group drama.

The next time your Chaotic-Retarded grrlgamer attempts to fuck the party, just go full out of character "I really don't want X stupid thing to happen. Can we please try to run this like our characters are normal and rational people?".
I would advise you have a couple of specific instances where "oh I'm not bored and sad the action isn't focused on me; its just my CHARACTER is a fucking retard and I have to do what my character would do!" didnt' apply because the player very clearly didn't want a chaotic retard fucking up a part of the story they were interested in your pocket.
I would also advise you rehearse mentioning them to get your emotions out so that you are not angry or seething about them and can discuss them calmly without make her feel like you are angry at her and put her on the defensive.

 

[Anonymus Fluhre]

Fuck. the most powerful prestige class.
Yeah you fucked do. Suck it up, or find a new group until they break up.

Only thing I can think of that's worse is the sister of one of the players who's interested in you. No matter what you do, your fucked. Do you start dating and not go to games as often? Do you pass and upset the brother? Do you go for it and upset the brother?

 

[Ghostse]

Only thing I can think of that's worse is the sister of one of the players who's interested in you. No matter what you do, your fucked. Do you start dating and not go to games as often? Do you pass and upset the brother? Do you go for it and upset the brother?

No no there is actually a solution to that scenario:
Simply turn gay. Situation defused.

 

[Manly_Brony]

Rogue Trader is my pet game, so while I’m not a huge Deathwatch keener I know the system and could have a look.

I always wondered how that worked in the long run. Do you let your players establish Jamestown in SPAAAACE? Do you design completely new xeno species or just use the existing ones? I like Fantasy more but I played 40K a few times and RT sure beats playing a Space Marine or cannon fodder.

 

[AnOminous]

HP is such a shit system. You can just walk into a fight, know you can suck up so much damage, basically tank it, and move on to the next fight.

I like systems where even an idiot can take you out. Then you actually have to think before getting into a fight and possibly find a way of NOT getting into a fight.

This is not to say you should never never get into a fight, but it should always be a scary prospect.

 

[Uzumaki]

Do you let your players establish Jamestown in SPAAAACE? Do you design completely new xeno species or just use the existing ones?

If they want. Rogue Trader is about power and freedom. It’s Exalted in space.

If the PCs want to be die hard religious zealots of the Imperial Creed they ran ride around bringing death to the hated xenos and taking their planets and things, if the PCs are wary of the Imperium they can do their own thing; in one game they destroyed the warp maw that gives access to the Jericho Reach and functionally created a breakaway sector (they were nominally still imperial but completely cut off from the Imperium).

Most common storyline is (mostly thanks to nudging from the ship creation system) is once glorious Rogue Trader House is broke, having only an amazingly powerful ship and almost not enough money to fly it. The PCs have to restore the old holdings, fight off old rivals, and return the house to a position of glory.

Edit: For xenos I use a mix of established one (popular and obscure) and making shit up. The 40k universe is so big it kind of demands you making some of your own material to make it feel lived in.

It’s also worth noting Rogue Trader takes place 200 years before literally every shitty change they ever made to the setting.

HP is such a shit system. You can just walk into a fight, know you can suck up so much damage, basically tank it, and move on to the next fight.

First time I ran Unknown Armies for at the time people who had only played D&D 5e I remember the shock and exhilaration the players felt when one of them was shot and they realized 1) she was now dealing with substantial penalties 2) there was no to magically heal. So for the rest of the session it was a thing that her character had been shot and no short rests were changing it. Everyone started treating danger like danger from then on.

 

[Notepad Anon]

I am ambulance chasing / shooting my shot to be a TTRPG Developer for Marathon (tm), a game that I've already somewhat written and can just heavily expand upon. Last time I did this, Highguard shot itself after I asked.
So here's to miracles and less blood on my hands.

Also Rogue Trader is my favorite FFG TRPG by a country mile, I will make my own Space Capitalism Game one day because everyone I know is terrified of the FFG D100 System.

 

[The Ugly One]

HP is such a shit system. You can just walk into a fight, know you can suck up so much damage, basically tank it, and move on to the next fight.

I like systems where even an idiot can take you out. Then you actually have to think before getting into a fight and possibly find a way of NOT getting into a fight.

This is not to say you should never never get into a fight, but it should always be a scary prospect.

I've been spergtastically mad about this in video games lately. It's turned every single FPS into Headshot Mania 2000. People say it's "more realistic," but no, it's not. Real life people are not killed by whittling down their hit points, requiring you to target the area with the highest DPS multiplier to kill them quicker.