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

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Homoerotic Cougar-kun said:
Yeah, I decided to look at the rules for Dracoliches and decided "you know, fuck it, I'll just say the DN capstone involved making the relevant materials/phylactery for a Dragon-type NPC so they're a Half-Dracolich" so it even (sort of) makes sense.
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The joy of NPCs is that you can always say "while you were adventuring your way to level 20, this sucker was studying and experimenting with magic so obscure even the party's know-it-all wizard has never so much as heard of it".

Yes, in a way it makes these kinds of NPCs a bit like hipsters. Avoid giving them fedoras and the players shouldn't notice it.
 
Corn Flakes said:
The joy of NPCs is that you can always say "while you were adventuring your way to level 20, this sucker was studying and experimenting with magic so obscure even the party's know-it-all wizard has never so much as heard of it".

Yes, in a way it makes these kinds of NPCs a bit like hipsters. Avoid giving them fedoras and the players shouldn't notice it.
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Well, I assume adventurers wouldn't have the time to study the weird and obscure magics that non-adventuring wizards have. So it makes sense imo.
 
Is there a single more frustrating thing then having a 4hour battle with the BBEG, just for him to make some snide remarks once you got him to a quarter of his HP and then him snapping his fingers to teleport to safety?

Feels like our GM didn't want to give up that character and by having him just escape like that, it feels like there was no way to prevent it. Even if we had dished out more damage, the NPC would have just left sooner.
We spent the past 2 months of game sessions tracking down that arse, gathering additional troops for the surprise attack on his stronghold, infiltrated it, surprised him literally in his sleep with our troops mopping up his henchmen, dropped a powerful spell on his ass to shake him awake . . . and then, when we finally got him in a corner, he just pops out of existence with his laughter echoing in the chamber. Feels like we wasted all that time and like we didn't achieve anything of substance, cause the few mooks that we did end up killing are insignificant.
We didn't stop or hinder the BBEG's plans, we didn't free someone from his terror, we didn't get him, we didn't take away anything important to him. We just gave him a rude wake-up-call and then watched him leave once the tide of the fight turned.

Defeating that guy is tied to a quest giver that we'll leave behind when we continue onwards, so next time we inevitably come across that BBEG's wrongdoings, I'll make the case that we shouldn't waste our time and resources on him again - after all, we're not even getting paid for it and I couldn't give less of a shit about whatever it is this guy is doing.
Maybe I am a bit salty over the cheap getaway, but my character is sort of on a timer and can't afford further delays for something he has to take care of quickly, so it is appropriate for him to go "fuck this shit".
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Is there a single more frustrating thing then having a 4hour battle with the BBEG, just for him to make some snide remarks once you got him to a quarter of his HP and then him snapping his fingers to teleport to safety?

Feels like our GM didn't want to give up that character and by having him just escape like that, it feels like there was no way to prevent it. Even if we had dished out more damage, the NPC would have just left sooner.
We spent the past 2 months of game sessions tracking down that arse, gathering additional troops for the surprise attack on his stronghold, infiltrated it, surprised him literally in his sleep with our troops mopping up his henchmen, dropped a powerful spell on his ass to shake him awake . . . and then, when we finally got him in a corner, he just pops out of existence with his laughter echoing in the chamber. Feels like we wasted all that time and like we didn't achieve anything of substance, cause the few mooks that we did end up killing are insignificant.
We didn't stop or hinder the BBEG's plans, we didn't free someone from his terror, we didn't get him, we didn't take away anything important to him. We just gave him a rude wake-up-call and then watched him leave once the tide of the fight turned.

Defeating that guy is tied to a quest giver that we'll leave behind when we continue onwards, so next time we inevitably come across that BBEG's wrongdoings, I'll make the case that we shouldn't waste our time and resources on him again - after all, we're not even getting paid for it and I couldn't give less of a shit about whatever it is this guy is doing.
Maybe I am a bit salty over the cheap getaway, but my character is sort of on a timer and can't afford further delays for something he has to take care of quickly, so it is appropriate for him to go "fuck this shit".
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You need someone with a spell like Dimensional Anchor in your party. Something that basically says "no, fuck you" when he tries the teleport-away trick. DM might still say "no, FUCK YOU" but he'd have a lot less ground to stand on - a good DM would have some kind of contingency in place for BBEG getting merc'd slightly early anyhow, IMO.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Is there a single more frustrating thing then having a 4hour battle with the BBEG, just for him to make some snide remarks once you got him to a quarter of his HP and then him snapping his fingers to teleport to safety?

Feels like our GM didn't want to give up that character and by having him just escape like that, it feels like there was no way to prevent it. Even if we had dished out more damage, the NPC would have just left sooner.
We spent the past 2 months of game sessions tracking down that arse, gathering additional troops for the surprise attack on his stronghold, infiltrated it, surprised him literally in his sleep with our troops mopping up his henchmen, dropped a powerful spell on his ass to shake him awake . . . and then, when we finally got him in a corner, he just pops out of existence with his laughter echoing in the chamber. Feels like we wasted all that time and like we didn't achieve anything of substance, cause the few mooks that we did end up killing are insignificant.
We didn't stop or hinder the BBEG's plans, we didn't free someone from his terror, we didn't get him, we didn't take away anything important to him. We just gave him a rude wake-up-call and then watched him leave once the tide of the fight turned.

Defeating that guy is tied to a quest giver that we'll leave behind when we continue onwards, so next time we inevitably come across that BBEG's wrongdoings, I'll make the case that we shouldn't waste our time and resources on him again - after all, we're not even getting paid for it and I couldn't give less of a shit about whatever it is this guy is doing.
Maybe I am a bit salty over the cheap getaway, but my character is sort of on a timer and can't afford further delays for something he has to take care of quickly, so it is appropriate for him to go "fuck this shit".
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There are ways to make a villainous escape still feel satisfying. Show the villain is desperate and almost beaten, show they did their preparation to escape, and give the players something meaningful to mark their victory and a good lead on where to find the villain somewhere he can't escape from. Unfortunately, your GM did none of these things.
 
Homoerotic Cougar-kun said:
You need someone with a spell like Dimensional Anchor in your party. Something that basically says "no, fuck you" when he tries the teleport-away trick. DM might still say "no, FUCK YOU" but he'd have a lot less ground to stand on - a good DM would have some kind of contingency in place for BBEG getting merc'd slightly early anyhow, IMO.
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The mage attempted a counterspell but rolled horribly. I have no clue how that works, so maybe the GM would have pulled a "BBEG rolled higher than you, so he's gone now anyway" but I dunno.

If we had actually stopped anything or prevented something, I'd feel not half as bad about it, but this whole thing was literally "go into stronghold, kill BBEG" and he just left us blue balled (not the first time the BBEG got away btw). There was an NPC giving us the "Thank you for your help, this was an important victory" pep talk, but as it stands, I wouldn't know what we achieved. Felt more like the GM realized he dun goofed (well, you could literally feel the temperature drop at the table when the guy escaped), so yeah...
At best, the BBEG lost that stronghold, but given the exact nature of the BBEG, that doesn't feel like much, since he doesn't seem like the guy who'd have much of an issue finding a new one.

The game overall is a lot of fun, but this was just a dive into frustration and I had to vent somewhere about it.
 
Hopefully this will serve as a good lesson on what not to do for any Kiwi GMs out there.

Oh, right. Going back to the conversation about Fighters and other melee characters, I just remembered something that can make them a little more interesting in an encounter:

You can only declare Melee attacks to be nonlethal. So if you have to catch someone (or a few someones) alive for some reason and the Wizard hasn't loaded up on all the crowd control/incapacitation spells, the fighter is a good pick for taking out those final hit points (particularly if they lock the target down with a Grapple). The Rogue can also do it, but depending on how the GM interprets the Instant Death rules a lucky Sneak Attack might kill the target outright. Also good for having one or two goblins alive at the end of the fight so you can interrogate them.

It's a small role, but sometimes it's those minor things that bring you joy while playing a character.
 
Anyone here played Mausritter? I've never done anything OSR but recently a player wasn't able to make a session so on a whim I decided to do something totally improvised. Taught everyone to play in only ten minutes and it was a blast. Now I've made it into our secondary campaign that people can do whenever since it requires almost no prep and play is lightning fast. It's a nice counter to the usual fare since this is incredibly streamlined while our main game is a rules heavy GURPS campaign.
 
If you'll allow me to sperg about dice.

I like dice. They're cool looking, fun to roll and go click clack. They roll random numbers and determine how well (or bad) you do. You'd think that'd be the end of it but I know some fellow tabletop gamers who take them waaay too seriously.

-They act like they are literally guided by the hands of fate; one time I told a friend that dice gods aren't real and you'd think I told a Catholic god was dead.
-Touching people's stuff is rude so I avoid it if I can help it. Especially since I've gotten REEE-d at for simply picking up someone's die that fell off the table and rolled under my chair. You'd think I'd put a curse on it.
-A website had a sale on dice so me and some friends were putting in a group order. I go to put a set in the cart and one of them goes "NO! I already got that set and you can't have the same exact one too!" Like I'll get whatever heckin dice I want and roll in right in front of you, so what?
-Even online gaming isn't safe. People act like the RNG is out to get them.

This is probably a bunch of petty sperging and maybe I'm in the minority. But people can be so annoying about plastic math rocks.
 
I feel like such an idiot, what's the point of tormenting tabletop rpgs? I mean yeah I like reading about setting and sometimes the crunch but I have no one to play so why do I even do this?
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
Is there a single more frustrating thing then having a 4hour battle with the BBEG, just for him to make some snide remarks once you got him to a quarter of his HP and then him snapping his fingers to teleport to safety?

Feels like our GM didn't want to give up that character and by having him just escape like that, it feels like there was no way to prevent it. Even if we had dished out more damage, the NPC would have just left sooner.
We spent the past 2 months of game sessions tracking down that arse, gathering additional troops for the surprise attack on his stronghold, infiltrated it, surprised him literally in his sleep with our troops mopping up his henchmen, dropped a powerful spell on his ass to shake him awake . . . and then, when we finally got him in a corner, he just pops out of existence with his laughter echoing in the chamber. Feels like we wasted all that time and like we didn't achieve anything of substance, cause the few mooks that we did end up killing are insignificant.
We didn't stop or hinder the BBEG's plans, we didn't free someone from his terror, we didn't get him, we didn't take away anything important to him. We just gave him a rude wake-up-call and then watched him leave once the tide of the fight turned.

Defeating that guy is tied to a quest giver that we'll leave behind when we continue onwards, so next time we inevitably come across that BBEG's wrongdoings, I'll make the case that we shouldn't waste our time and resources on him again - after all, we're not even getting paid for it and I couldn't give less of a shit about whatever it is this guy is doing.
Maybe I am a bit salty over the cheap getaway, but my character is sort of on a timer and can't afford further delays for something he has to take care of quickly, so it is appropriate for him to go "fuck this shit".
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Coffee Druid said:
If you'll allow me to sperg about dice.

I like dice. They're cool looking, fun to roll and go click clack. They roll random numbers and determine how well (or bad) you do. You'd think that'd be the end of it but I know some fellow tabletop gamers who take them waaay too seriously.

-They act like they are literally guided by the hands of fate; one time I told a friend that dice gods aren't real and you'd think I told a Catholic god was dead.
-Touching people's stuff is rude so I avoid it if I can help it. Especially since I've gotten REEE-d at for simply picking up someone's die that fell off the table and rolled under my chair. You'd think I'd put a curse on it.
-A website had a sale on dice so me and some friends were putting in a group order. I go to put a set in the cart and one of them goes "NO! I already got that set and you can't have the same exact one too!" Like I'll get whatever heckin dice I want and roll in right in front of you, so what?
-Even online gaming isn't safe. People act like the RNG is out to get them.

This is probably a bunch of petty sperging and maybe I'm in the minority. But people can be so annoying about plastic math rocks.
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Imagine not going digital and using RNGs lol
 
Zaryiu said:
I feel like such an idiot, what's the point of tormenting tabletop rpgs? I mean yeah I like reading about setting and sometimes the crunch but I have no one to play so why do I even do this?
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Just sign up as a DM on those group finding apps. You'll have to strong arm some tards inevitably either because of retarded munchkin antics or that guy, but as a DM you're a premium.
 
Swiss46 said:
Just sign up as a DM on those group finding apps. You'll have to strong arm some tards inevitably either because of retarded munchkin antics or that guy, but as a DM you're a premium.
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Which group finding apps are these? I’ve been meaning to try running a Savage Worlds game sometime.
 
Gingervitis said:
Which group finding apps are these? I’ve been meaning to try running a Savage Worlds game sometime.
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I'm pretty sure Roll20 lets you search by game, a website called meet up lets you search for online groups, and Facebook has groups dedicated to finding tabletop groups. If you're super desperate there is a sad community of DM simps who pay to play in DMs groups.
 
Swiss46 said:
Just sign up as a DM on those group finding apps. You'll have to strong arm some tards inevitably either because of retarded munchkin antics or that guy, but as a DM you're a premium.
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That make sense, thanks. Anyone know where I can torrent Gurps? So far all I found was partial torrents. Also I can't find L5R Emerald #mpire for 3rd edition, I don't know what happened with 5he trove but it's L5R section is a mess right now
 
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