- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
Could also be a fun one for higher-leveled ones if you make it A Night to Remember with demonic fuckery afoot that night involving the evil god of Lust, Seduction, and Betrayal. Fallen angels make the best servants.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
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- Jun 4, 2018
Reminds me of an adventure I always wanted to write up. This one works for most fantasy settings.
Basically, the PCs are hired to be caravan escorts for a gaggle of religious pilgrims, traveling to a shrine-city. The route is a little worrisome, but the good news is that Sir Albert, a paladin of some repute, will be riding with them. All but the most incompetent information-gathering checks will find that Albert is basically a paladin cross between Chuck Norris and Bob Ross; he's a genuinely good man who was the absolute terror of evil forces.
The bad news is that he's old. A good visual aid might be a current year picture of Sam Elliott. But, according to Sir Albert, 'I think I've got enough in me for one more ride with pilgrims.'
Initially, it really should feel like a cakewalk. Obviously, you're going to want a good-aligned party, or at least neutral-leaning-good, because despite Albert's advancing age it's clear he is a walking theological disaster waiting to happen to some hapless evildoer. The first couple of encounters, Albert will hang back to let the party handle the bad guys; one, because they need to be 'blooded' (they need the XP, duh), and two, he takes protecting the pilgrims VERY seriously. This won't stop him from tossing buffs or healing party members, though, and for entertainment, have one bad guy break through to charge Albert. When he's done the bad guy should be a grease smear on the ground.
So yeah, cakewalk right? Sure -- until, maybe a third of the way into the journey, Sir Albert does not rise from his bedroll. Passed away peacefully in his sleep.
(If this sounds familiar, it should -- I'm stealing the plot of City Slickers.)
So the party now has to lead the pilgrims, and bear the body of Sir Albert. DMs should not allow the PCs to pillage Albert's body (although if a party member desperately needs an item, perhaps Albert has one).
Fill out the rest of the encounters with level-appropriate critters (though a really canny party might use Sir Albert's armor to impersonate the paladin to intimidate any monsters; personally, I find that idea pretty amusing). Upon reaching the shrine city, the party should surrender Sir Albert's gear. Minor things like potions won't bug the priests, but they will definitely take his armor and sword to be passed along to another initiate. If the party has a paladin PC who conducted himself well, the arms and armor might eventually find their way back to him at the DM's discretion.
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
So my friend just turned me on to pathfinder and im loving looking in the classes so far. So many possibilities.
In particular, eldritch knight, arcane trickster, bard and witch seem the most fun
In particular, eldritch knight, arcane trickster, bard and witch seem the most fun
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
Last chapter, GM's chapter on how things actually run. As far as I can remember we still need a way to level up, which should probably have been mentioned by now but hasn't lol, and some bad dudes. Luckily the sidebar tells us leveling up is, in fact, in this chapter and links to the page. It also has some adventures making me a liar earlier.
It starts off telling us about the urban setting. Urban places suck. Garbage, bodies, and crazy murder hobos everywhere. It rains a lot because CYBERPUNK MEANS RAIN DAMN IT! Birds are all dead. There are gangs of children roaming the street.
Then it gives what amounts to advice more than direction. Make them paranoid! Make contrasts between the rich and poor! Don't be afraid to kill your players! Wear leather and sunglasses and play in the dark! That one might have been left over from a spicier book, but its totally in here.
Next it goes into more detail about "Teams", pointing out that you probably need an actual reason for all your guys to work together and not betray each other since by default you're just a bunch of criminals doing crimes. Like with character advancement this is probably something you'd want to point out in character creation so you can make a group with a goal in mind. There is a big list of suggestions with a small paragraph to describe them including groups like a Rock Band, Boostergang/cult, a normal gang, cops, etc. They all have suggestions for what team composition works well with the concept but...like I said, you'd need to have this in character creation for anyone to know that.
More advice, this time Nerdy stuff Podsmith loves. Play it street level (you know, like super heroes)! Its like a heist movie! There are a couple of side quests here, but their mostly just bare bones ideas like "You get hired to take down a cyberpsycho"
He (since this seams like Podsmith's personal corner) then goes into "beat charts", essentially pacing advice. They use the story from waaaay back on page 5 as an example. Some of it seems a bit harder to control than in the example given that the players are in control of what their own characters do - the players would be the ones controlling half of the example beat chart instead of the GM. It goes into...a lot of detail in giving examples of the concepts that it talks about. Some are kind of dumb like the classic "You wake up with amnesia". False accusation is still here as an example hook, but doesn't list any false rape accusations unlike the original. How unbased. Some of the examples are still relying on the player's making decisions ("An edge runner could fall in love" seems like a player thing rather than a GM thing for an example example).
Cliffhangers has battle advice. Generally it says 1-2 Mooks per player (peaked ahead, and it seems fair enough), 1/2 Lieutenant per player (so 4 players = 2 Lieutenants) which seems a bit weak at first glance but we'll get to that later, 1/3 mini boss per player (4 players = 1 mini boss and 1 or two mooks) which seems much lower. It points out you can increase the gear or number of baddies if your dudes are too strong for the normal amount of bad guys.
Development manages to reference both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars within three paragraphs. Framed is somehow both a hook and a Development. It suggests you can to a training montage to learn some special skill to let you win, but the game really isn't set up for that. It suggests the bad guys monologue.
Climax suggests you can save your PCs from defeat with GM EARTH QUAKE! if you don't want them to die.
In the end its basically multiple pages of TV Tropes articles explaining various tropes you can use. You could probably work with it if you're the one GM who actually follows the GM outline in RPGs, but it does feel awkward to implement. Last page tells you to be flexible but it gets awkward with their chart system.
Finally Leveling! Exp is called I.P. GM awards it arbitrarily based on how well you rollplayed! And not just how well you rollplayed, but how well you rollplayed based on different arbitrary criteria!
Friendships will be ruined by this level up system.
First players are to take a quiz to decide if they're a "Warrior", "Explorer", "Socializer", or "Roleplayer". You get one primary and one secondary playstyle. You then get IP based on how either you or the group performed, depending on if you finished the mission. If you did its the group and you get it based off of how successful you are, if you didn't then its how well you rolleplayed. It ranges from 10 to 80 IP, 10 being "You failed", 20 being "You didn't fail". Group has some OK guidelines, but the "showed teamwork" ends up being arbitrary. Everything else is basically "The GM gives you points based on how much they like what you did", so advancement is essentially left entirely up to your GM.
IP cost for things are pretty simple and increase linearly with level, so level 1 costs 20 level 2 costs 40 etc. This means you're better off going as far as you can with skills at character creation then leveling up lower skills later for cheap. Going from 6 to 7 costs 140 for normal skills and 280 for X2 skills, so it will take you a while to become a maxed out combat monster at even 80 per mission. Which you may or may not get entirely depending on how generous your GM is.
Back into stat blocks! First we get the mooks. For the most part they're weaker than what I ran numbers for, actually using the 4/7 armor despite how cheap 11 is. People with pistols will probably be focusing on these guys while the heavy hitters whittle down the stronger characters, by the time they're dead the stronger characters will have their armor down enough pistols can actually help out. They're usually shooting around 10~ with 4d6 or occasionally 5d6 weapons. Specifically there are three of them. Strongest is Security Guard (7 armor, 30 HP, 2d6*<=4 +10), next is Bodyguard (7 armor, 35 HP, 5d6 Shotgun with +10 to hit), next is Boosterganger (4 armor, 20HP, 4d6 VHP with +12), weakest is Road Ganger (4 armor, 25 HP, 4d6 with +10). Against a combat minmaxed starting PC the gangers will go down in one or two hits from basically anything combat capable since they might as well be naked and can't eat attacks (Two VHP from Exec's minions = 21 HP = dead boosterganger), the Bodygaurds are a bit tougher but still won't deal too much damage. Their odds to hit arn't bad for the lowest badguys, 70% to hit at their best range and 50% at their second best, but they arn't mobile enough to take full advantage of it. As long as you arn't caught naked you should be able to face tank their attacks anyway, you'll probably walk away from the fight but you might need to get patched up if you didn't either shoot them at a distance or duck behind cover.
Overall, 2-1 is probably fairly easy for a combat focused character to handle. Someone who invested in combat at least moderately should still be able to handle it. Someone who dumped combat but at least paid the small price for SP 11 armor will survive while their friends beat all the bad guys. With the way combat is now you should be able to survive a full round ambush if they somehow launched it on you. 1-1 mook should only really be necessary if a majority of your team dumped all combat stats or screwed up with their loadout. Security Guards are the only ones that manage to be a "you might die" threat thanks to having an Assault Rifle with high potential damage, their stats shouldn't be high enough to make them a severe threat but if you get spray and prayed enough you'll go down. Otherwise a suit of Metal Gear basically makes you God against mooks, 11SP standard armor at least makes you a demi-god.
First Lieutenant is the Netrunner who is...probably meant to be a threat to other Netrunners while net-running. Basically a mook who didn't cheap out on getting 11SP armor otherwise. Non-trivial upgrade but not worth 2 PCs in a fight. Reclaimer Chief...is...also basically a Mook with a Shotgun who dropped money for 11 SP armor. Both have +10 attack. A combat character should be able to absolutely own either. Last but not least is the Security Officer who is...a...Security Guard in SP13 armor. I mean his stats got increased. But they're offset by his armor penalty so he has the same dice as the mook version. And a bit more HP I guess. Probably the only one that might be worth two non-combat-focused characters, will still be knocked flat by one combat player.
Up one is the Minibosses! Meant to take on three PCs each! First up is the Outrider who is...A Security Officer who decided SP11 armor was better after-all. He does have the Nomad Class Skill at starting level, so he'd probably kick some but in a vehicle, and some cybernetics that don't help out super well with his autofire (the only thing that he can use to do some real damage). Still he's weaker than a starting combat character. You could build a killier Nomad out of the box, he isn't a 3V1 threat. Last of the two is Pyro. Who uses a flamethrower...which wouldn't normally be a threat if he didn't have the Solo Skill. Which he can use to do extra damage, bypassing the standard 11 armor and setting you on 4 damage a turn fire. He also has an Incendiary Grenade and Flashbang. If he catches three non-combat characters in the open he might be able to take them down with AoE incendiaries after a couple turns! He's closer to being a minmaxed starting character with 14 in his chosen fighting styles, and the ability to dodge bullets at +13. Only character so far who could plausibly 1v1 a combat character reliably, will still probably lose even to combat character + two moderate combat players. Overall the fights are weighted so the PCs make it out alive. Munchkins will have to be dealt with by giving the baddies some gear upgrades.
Not mentioned earlier but implied by Minibosses is the Boss Fight! A Cyberpsycho! Two Pop Up Grenade Launchers! One Pop Up Heavy SMG! +13 Dodge! +17 Melee! +14 Autofire! SP11! He's tough but not quite all he's cracked up to be. We're back to "You could make a stronger starting character", while you couldn't get as many pluses to melee you'd be able to pick up a classes' abilities that got dropped from boss to Miniboss. He'd probably be taken out by a group of medium combat proficiency, though he might be able to take one of you with him. 1v1 a combat character could lose, but two minmaxed starting characters would almost certainly kick his but. Lore appropriately the Lawman's Pscyho Squad backup is two minmaxed combat characters who would almost certainly kick his but.
Then its a random encounter table. Starts out with advice pointing out that the Zone's threat level will make some (above fifty) unlikely in higher security areas while others (below fifty) are unlikely in low security areas. They arn't necessarily violent encounters. The first example is a group of cops that stop characters with visible weapons for questioning, something solved by either not having visible weapons or having a Lawman friend flash his badge for example. Other notable encounters:
-Corporates. Just a couple of dudes in suits. Either being followed by a gang who wants to rob them (an easy fight since the corporates are all armed, armored, and would presumably help you), they assume that you're gangsters attempting to rob them, last they went full Karen and called for backup from HQ.
-Trauma Team. Trauma team is evacuating unrelated gangsters. 50% chance they try to kill you with mook-level assault rifle fire just because.
-Street Punks. No Armor mooks lol
-Nomad Truck fighting gangsters. 30% chance they reject any offers of help and probably die.
-There is an "Evening" version of the list...which seems to reprint a majority of the first list lol
-There is a "Midnight" version of the list...which...seems to reprint a majority of the first list a second time. Lol. Did you guys need to fill for space? At least some of these got edited so everyone is more hostile because you're sketchy for being out so late.
-You can be attacked by Inquisitors with nunchucks, whips, acid paintballs, and handguns lol. Watch out for the ninja inquisition.
-Pyro bro from above setting everything on fire with his mook friends. His friends also have incendiary grenades, which could actually be a problem with that "no miss" thing.
After the random encounters we get some scenarios, in the form of the in-universe newspaper things mentioned earlier. Basically its two pages, one is the Newspaper page, two is the Player and GM information detailing how the scenario goes down.
First job is protecting a bio engineered forest for Biotechnica. $1000 a person (so medium danger), plus room and board. They give the players fancy drones to see all the forest and keep people from stealing the trees. Big twist is they're hired by Biotechnica investors who want them to move operations out of California. I'm pretty sure this whole thing is an excuse to fight people wielding chainsaws. Its set up so you can't actually figure out who did it and they're head will explode if you get them to tell you. -$100 per tree they cut down. "They will cut down at least one tree".
Next one has an add for sex braindances. I'd tell you what the plot hook is but I'm confused. There is...a glass box with money, a gun, and a teddy bear inside and a bunch of people are randomly firing in its general direction. Its apparently viral marketing for Militech but doesn't have much to do with the actual news paper aside from the ad for Danger Girl. 100 HP ("indestructible" lol) safe with $5,000 inside, some Excellent quality guns, and an invite to Militech job fair. You have to fight off a bunch of gangsters to get to it, and a friendly old man will unlock if if you manage to fight them off and don't break down the safe yourself in return for a share. He'll betray you if you got too injured during the fight and try to take everything for himself (also lol).
Next newspaper has a story about two gangs entering a cease fire. Until they get more reliable guns, as both sides bought some cheap 3d printed pieces that blew up in their hand. The actual scenario is again based of an ad, but is roughly related to that former story. A chick is making weeb guns. She's being stalked and blackmailed by some other 3d printing gun guy. It turns out he's working for...I think its supposed to be Disney, in a pretty secure building. Cartoon character posters will glare at you. Then attack you. Turns out the guy behind it was trying to get her to sign on with him instead. Let him live and he'll stop bothering her. He's crippled and a Netrunner so you can also murder him if you are the murdery type.
Finishing up the book is Black Dog. A story based on people with real life prosthetics. They're inspirational and crippled and we totally thought about how great prosthetics are when we made a game about turning yourself into a monster for money and or survival.
Black Dog starts out with someone writing a song. The lyrics include "Black Dog", so presumably this story is named after this song. Someone responds and says "fucking" despite every other "fuck" being "Frack" including one said by the chick writing the song just above on the same page. Learn the lingo normies REEEE. Anyway the chick is a Rocker trying to recreate a lost song, the dude is a Media just kinda hanging out. Other two characters are a Nomad working on a minigun and a Netrunner. Nomad and Netrunner are in a relationship, Netrunner has a British accent. Given Europe is designated "Not a Hellhole" he probably made poor life decisions. They randomly get attacked by gangsters, end the fight with a single burst of the minigun and like two sentences. Freaking munchkins.
Two more. Another Fracking! There is hope for this pair at least. Dude is a Tech, chick is a Solo using a bow like a looser. Solo chick also has a gun with a manufacturer from the original cyberpunk not mentioned elsewhere in the book. That should be it for the "Cyber6".
Tech eyes a "full cyborg amazon" wanting to tear her apart. To see how she works. There is a picture that is much less sexy than what I had envisioned. Especially when they keep trying to make her sound hot by doing things like bringing a data chip from out of her metal cleavage.
Come on! You're a decent artist! Sexy robot girls arn't hard!
Sigh. Anyway it turns out the lost song is by Silverhand. Robot girl has the song on a data chip. They explain its damaged by an EMP in an awkward bit of dialogue. She'll give them the chip if they deliver a package. Next page has a sidebar on the Nomad. As you expected its basically a self insert from one of the "real life disabled people!!!!" who helped design the character.
Second random gang attack. I'm not sure why they're here or where they came from or who they are. Protagonists just kind of pull out a flamethrower, set everything on fire, then drive away. Somehow (I'm pretty sure the hacking had to be within like a couple feet of an access point) the Netrunner speedhacks some of the machines they pass to slow down their pursuers. They join up with a nomad caravan who shoots the rest of them.
Second Bio on the Netrunner. Its slightly less self insert, its James Young, a guy who worked at Konami. His wife has a different last name from him. At least his character has a different backstory than himself.
Now they're just hanging out in a mobile home driving. Robot chick gave one of them Johnny Silverhand's gun. Its not clear when. Writing is still cheesy but less 80s than the opening: "It seems very heavy. Heavy with some ineffable quality that's more than its weight."
Third Bio. Didn't even bother changing his name. Backstory is complaining about how he got passed over because of his Hispanic race (lol), based off of a children's book author. A white one so I'm not sure why he made race so much a part of his character. Maybe trying to get away from the self insert thing I guess?
Back to the story, Media drinks with some old Nomad talking about his backstory. Old nomad uses a lot of gratuitous Spanish. Talk about how the nuke went off.
Next day. A gang of Japanese Bikers. You know they're dangerous because they're Japanese. They're also hot. It makes sure we know that. "like Japanese Idol singer groups". They all make fun of the bikers for being a bunch of pretty boys. The Nomad's weapons drop shell casings REEEE LORE VIOLATION unless they're using old weaponry like one of the dudes was earlier which they probably are I guess? The fight is kind of silly. One of the bikes tries to get in front and just gets run over. Another does...a jump off a ramp and drops a grenade. Its 80s again. The Solo shoots the grenade out of the air (we're staying 80s) with Silverhand's gun. They exchange fire a bit more and the Nomads just kinda gun them down with their multiple machine guns/miniguns/air support.
Tech's bio! Basically he likes tech. Based off some no name "disability advocate" who might have worked on Adult Swim's games and pretends like this is a big deal. I had to dig to find out who he was.
Back to the story they're yelling at each other over probably being the target of the bikers. Who where dealt with kind of easily I'm not sure why they're getting so worked up. I don't think anyone has even been injured so far. I was looking forward to you guys getting injured so I doubt I'd have missed it. They argue about opening the crate, which they are told would kill them, after discovering that it has a high level of radiation inside that would at least ruin their day making the whole discussion kind of dumb. They determine that it must have Johnny Silverhand inside. Because why not?
""I've got past the ICE," announces Pneumo suddenly" - I totally thought he was talking about immigration there.
So yeah. The retards decide to open up the crate full of something radioactive just because they want to see what is inside. They point their guns presumably just to be dramatic.
Bio time! Solo just kind of has a generic solo background. Was a bodgyguard! Not picky about clients! Actual person is Angel Giuffria, who lists a bunch of accomplishments like being an "Actress, model, has a masters degree in psychology". To give you an idea of how successful she actually is the first google result of her name is her intagram page.
So the morons open the crate and see its marked with a radioactive sign because it was radioactive like they knew it was and now they can't travel with the rest of the convoy because they're carrying something radioactive. Turns out is a nuclear bomb probably. A tank comes out to kill them now that they don't have an army protecting them.
BIO TIME! Actually the Rocker Girl helper is just someone who worked at CDPR that Podsmith liked. No prosthetics or anything fancy. Only similarity I can really see is that they both like grunge. Good on her for making it in to the game I guess?
Back to the suspenseful story! Oh some NPCs just come and save them again. Tank exists for like half a page of everyone talking about how screwed they are when it just kinda explodes.
NPC is that cyborg schoolgirl from earlier. Arasaka's daughter. Apparently she has an "anime like voice". Anyway it was Arasaka's bomb from the nuke thing, the one that didn't go off. Robot girl took it. They argue about what she wants with the bomb, she says she's here to destroy it, so they deliver it without any trouble. It gets disarmed without any trouble. They get a lot of money. They get the song chip. Now they know all the lyrics HAPPY ENDING!
Oh then the robot girl dies of cancer. Its hinted that she really did have Johnny's body in Cryo and that she died next to it.
So in other words our handy capable PCs just kind of let the NPCs carry them around and do everything important. Their main accomplishments are...not dying then opening the crate for no reason. I'm not even sure Rockergirl did anything.
And that is THE END! Thanks for sticking with me. If someone actually read this. I'm not sure why anyone would read the whole thing. Or why I wrote the whole thing.
It starts off telling us about the urban setting. Urban places suck. Garbage, bodies, and crazy murder hobos everywhere. It rains a lot because CYBERPUNK MEANS RAIN DAMN IT! Birds are all dead. There are gangs of children roaming the street.
Then it gives what amounts to advice more than direction. Make them paranoid! Make contrasts between the rich and poor! Don't be afraid to kill your players! Wear leather and sunglasses and play in the dark! That one might have been left over from a spicier book, but its totally in here.
Next it goes into more detail about "Teams", pointing out that you probably need an actual reason for all your guys to work together and not betray each other since by default you're just a bunch of criminals doing crimes. Like with character advancement this is probably something you'd want to point out in character creation so you can make a group with a goal in mind. There is a big list of suggestions with a small paragraph to describe them including groups like a Rock Band, Boostergang/cult, a normal gang, cops, etc. They all have suggestions for what team composition works well with the concept but...like I said, you'd need to have this in character creation for anyone to know that.
More advice, this time Nerdy stuff Podsmith loves. Play it street level (you know, like super heroes)! Its like a heist movie! There are a couple of side quests here, but their mostly just bare bones ideas like "You get hired to take down a cyberpsycho"
He (since this seams like Podsmith's personal corner) then goes into "beat charts", essentially pacing advice. They use the story from waaaay back on page 5 as an example. Some of it seems a bit harder to control than in the example given that the players are in control of what their own characters do - the players would be the ones controlling half of the example beat chart instead of the GM. It goes into...a lot of detail in giving examples of the concepts that it talks about. Some are kind of dumb like the classic "You wake up with amnesia". False accusation is still here as an example hook, but doesn't list any false rape accusations unlike the original. How unbased. Some of the examples are still relying on the player's making decisions ("An edge runner could fall in love" seems like a player thing rather than a GM thing for an example example).
Cliffhangers has battle advice. Generally it says 1-2 Mooks per player (peaked ahead, and it seems fair enough), 1/2 Lieutenant per player (so 4 players = 2 Lieutenants) which seems a bit weak at first glance but we'll get to that later, 1/3 mini boss per player (4 players = 1 mini boss and 1 or two mooks) which seems much lower. It points out you can increase the gear or number of baddies if your dudes are too strong for the normal amount of bad guys.
Development manages to reference both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars within three paragraphs. Framed is somehow both a hook and a Development. It suggests you can to a training montage to learn some special skill to let you win, but the game really isn't set up for that. It suggests the bad guys monologue.
Climax suggests you can save your PCs from defeat with GM EARTH QUAKE! if you don't want them to die.
In the end its basically multiple pages of TV Tropes articles explaining various tropes you can use. You could probably work with it if you're the one GM who actually follows the GM outline in RPGs, but it does feel awkward to implement. Last page tells you to be flexible but it gets awkward with their chart system.
Finally Leveling! Exp is called I.P. GM awards it arbitrarily based on how well you rollplayed! And not just how well you rollplayed, but how well you rollplayed based on different arbitrary criteria!
Friendships will be ruined by this level up system.
First players are to take a quiz to decide if they're a "Warrior", "Explorer", "Socializer", or "Roleplayer". You get one primary and one secondary playstyle. You then get IP based on how either you or the group performed, depending on if you finished the mission. If you did its the group and you get it based off of how successful you are, if you didn't then its how well you rolleplayed. It ranges from 10 to 80 IP, 10 being "You failed", 20 being "You didn't fail". Group has some OK guidelines, but the "showed teamwork" ends up being arbitrary. Everything else is basically "The GM gives you points based on how much they like what you did", so advancement is essentially left entirely up to your GM.
IP cost for things are pretty simple and increase linearly with level, so level 1 costs 20 level 2 costs 40 etc. This means you're better off going as far as you can with skills at character creation then leveling up lower skills later for cheap. Going from 6 to 7 costs 140 for normal skills and 280 for X2 skills, so it will take you a while to become a maxed out combat monster at even 80 per mission. Which you may or may not get entirely depending on how generous your GM is.
Back into stat blocks! First we get the mooks. For the most part they're weaker than what I ran numbers for, actually using the 4/7 armor despite how cheap 11 is. People with pistols will probably be focusing on these guys while the heavy hitters whittle down the stronger characters, by the time they're dead the stronger characters will have their armor down enough pistols can actually help out. They're usually shooting around 10~ with 4d6 or occasionally 5d6 weapons. Specifically there are three of them. Strongest is Security Guard (7 armor, 30 HP, 2d6*<=4 +10), next is Bodyguard (7 armor, 35 HP, 5d6 Shotgun with +10 to hit), next is Boosterganger (4 armor, 20HP, 4d6 VHP with +12), weakest is Road Ganger (4 armor, 25 HP, 4d6 with +10). Against a combat minmaxed starting PC the gangers will go down in one or two hits from basically anything combat capable since they might as well be naked and can't eat attacks (Two VHP from Exec's minions = 21 HP = dead boosterganger), the Bodygaurds are a bit tougher but still won't deal too much damage. Their odds to hit arn't bad for the lowest badguys, 70% to hit at their best range and 50% at their second best, but they arn't mobile enough to take full advantage of it. As long as you arn't caught naked you should be able to face tank their attacks anyway, you'll probably walk away from the fight but you might need to get patched up if you didn't either shoot them at a distance or duck behind cover.
Overall, 2-1 is probably fairly easy for a combat focused character to handle. Someone who invested in combat at least moderately should still be able to handle it. Someone who dumped combat but at least paid the small price for SP 11 armor will survive while their friends beat all the bad guys. With the way combat is now you should be able to survive a full round ambush if they somehow launched it on you. 1-1 mook should only really be necessary if a majority of your team dumped all combat stats or screwed up with their loadout. Security Guards are the only ones that manage to be a "you might die" threat thanks to having an Assault Rifle with high potential damage, their stats shouldn't be high enough to make them a severe threat but if you get spray and prayed enough you'll go down. Otherwise a suit of Metal Gear basically makes you God against mooks, 11SP standard armor at least makes you a demi-god.
First Lieutenant is the Netrunner who is...probably meant to be a threat to other Netrunners while net-running. Basically a mook who didn't cheap out on getting 11SP armor otherwise. Non-trivial upgrade but not worth 2 PCs in a fight. Reclaimer Chief...is...also basically a Mook with a Shotgun who dropped money for 11 SP armor. Both have +10 attack. A combat character should be able to absolutely own either. Last but not least is the Security Officer who is...a...Security Guard in SP13 armor. I mean his stats got increased. But they're offset by his armor penalty so he has the same dice as the mook version. And a bit more HP I guess. Probably the only one that might be worth two non-combat-focused characters, will still be knocked flat by one combat player.
Up one is the Minibosses! Meant to take on three PCs each! First up is the Outrider who is...A Security Officer who decided SP11 armor was better after-all. He does have the Nomad Class Skill at starting level, so he'd probably kick some but in a vehicle, and some cybernetics that don't help out super well with his autofire (the only thing that he can use to do some real damage). Still he's weaker than a starting combat character. You could build a killier Nomad out of the box, he isn't a 3V1 threat. Last of the two is Pyro. Who uses a flamethrower...which wouldn't normally be a threat if he didn't have the Solo Skill. Which he can use to do extra damage, bypassing the standard 11 armor and setting you on 4 damage a turn fire. He also has an Incendiary Grenade and Flashbang. If he catches three non-combat characters in the open he might be able to take them down with AoE incendiaries after a couple turns! He's closer to being a minmaxed starting character with 14 in his chosen fighting styles, and the ability to dodge bullets at +13. Only character so far who could plausibly 1v1 a combat character reliably, will still probably lose even to combat character + two moderate combat players. Overall the fights are weighted so the PCs make it out alive. Munchkins will have to be dealt with by giving the baddies some gear upgrades.
Not mentioned earlier but implied by Minibosses is the Boss Fight! A Cyberpsycho! Two Pop Up Grenade Launchers! One Pop Up Heavy SMG! +13 Dodge! +17 Melee! +14 Autofire! SP11! He's tough but not quite all he's cracked up to be. We're back to "You could make a stronger starting character", while you couldn't get as many pluses to melee you'd be able to pick up a classes' abilities that got dropped from boss to Miniboss. He'd probably be taken out by a group of medium combat proficiency, though he might be able to take one of you with him. 1v1 a combat character could lose, but two minmaxed starting characters would almost certainly kick his but. Lore appropriately the Lawman's Pscyho Squad backup is two minmaxed combat characters who would almost certainly kick his but.
Then its a random encounter table. Starts out with advice pointing out that the Zone's threat level will make some (above fifty) unlikely in higher security areas while others (below fifty) are unlikely in low security areas. They arn't necessarily violent encounters. The first example is a group of cops that stop characters with visible weapons for questioning, something solved by either not having visible weapons or having a Lawman friend flash his badge for example. Other notable encounters:
-Corporates. Just a couple of dudes in suits. Either being followed by a gang who wants to rob them (an easy fight since the corporates are all armed, armored, and would presumably help you), they assume that you're gangsters attempting to rob them, last they went full Karen and called for backup from HQ.
-Trauma Team. Trauma team is evacuating unrelated gangsters. 50% chance they try to kill you with mook-level assault rifle fire just because.
-Street Punks. No Armor mooks lol
-Nomad Truck fighting gangsters. 30% chance they reject any offers of help and probably die.
-There is an "Evening" version of the list...which seems to reprint a majority of the first list lol
-There is a "Midnight" version of the list...which...seems to reprint a majority of the first list a second time. Lol. Did you guys need to fill for space? At least some of these got edited so everyone is more hostile because you're sketchy for being out so late.
-You can be attacked by Inquisitors with nunchucks, whips, acid paintballs, and handguns lol. Watch out for the ninja inquisition.
-Pyro bro from above setting everything on fire with his mook friends. His friends also have incendiary grenades, which could actually be a problem with that "no miss" thing.
After the random encounters we get some scenarios, in the form of the in-universe newspaper things mentioned earlier. Basically its two pages, one is the Newspaper page, two is the Player and GM information detailing how the scenario goes down.
First job is protecting a bio engineered forest for Biotechnica. $1000 a person (so medium danger), plus room and board. They give the players fancy drones to see all the forest and keep people from stealing the trees. Big twist is they're hired by Biotechnica investors who want them to move operations out of California. I'm pretty sure this whole thing is an excuse to fight people wielding chainsaws. Its set up so you can't actually figure out who did it and they're head will explode if you get them to tell you. -$100 per tree they cut down. "They will cut down at least one tree".
Next one has an add for sex braindances. I'd tell you what the plot hook is but I'm confused. There is...a glass box with money, a gun, and a teddy bear inside and a bunch of people are randomly firing in its general direction. Its apparently viral marketing for Militech but doesn't have much to do with the actual news paper aside from the ad for Danger Girl. 100 HP ("indestructible" lol) safe with $5,000 inside, some Excellent quality guns, and an invite to Militech job fair. You have to fight off a bunch of gangsters to get to it, and a friendly old man will unlock if if you manage to fight them off and don't break down the safe yourself in return for a share. He'll betray you if you got too injured during the fight and try to take everything for himself (also lol).
Next newspaper has a story about two gangs entering a cease fire. Until they get more reliable guns, as both sides bought some cheap 3d printed pieces that blew up in their hand. The actual scenario is again based of an ad, but is roughly related to that former story. A chick is making weeb guns. She's being stalked and blackmailed by some other 3d printing gun guy. It turns out he's working for...I think its supposed to be Disney, in a pretty secure building. Cartoon character posters will glare at you. Then attack you. Turns out the guy behind it was trying to get her to sign on with him instead. Let him live and he'll stop bothering her. He's crippled and a Netrunner so you can also murder him if you are the murdery type.
Finishing up the book is Black Dog. A story based on people with real life prosthetics. They're inspirational and crippled and we totally thought about how great prosthetics are when we made a game about turning yourself into a monster for money and or survival.
Black Dog starts out with someone writing a song. The lyrics include "Black Dog", so presumably this story is named after this song. Someone responds and says "fucking" despite every other "fuck" being "Frack" including one said by the chick writing the song just above on the same page. Learn the lingo normies REEEE. Anyway the chick is a Rocker trying to recreate a lost song, the dude is a Media just kinda hanging out. Other two characters are a Nomad working on a minigun and a Netrunner. Nomad and Netrunner are in a relationship, Netrunner has a British accent. Given Europe is designated "Not a Hellhole" he probably made poor life decisions. They randomly get attacked by gangsters, end the fight with a single burst of the minigun and like two sentences. Freaking munchkins.
Two more. Another Fracking! There is hope for this pair at least. Dude is a Tech, chick is a Solo using a bow like a looser. Solo chick also has a gun with a manufacturer from the original cyberpunk not mentioned elsewhere in the book. That should be it for the "Cyber6".
Tech eyes a "full cyborg amazon" wanting to tear her apart. To see how she works. There is a picture that is much less sexy than what I had envisioned. Especially when they keep trying to make her sound hot by doing things like bringing a data chip from out of her metal cleavage.
Come on! You're a decent artist! Sexy robot girls arn't hard!
Sigh. Anyway it turns out the lost song is by Silverhand. Robot girl has the song on a data chip. They explain its damaged by an EMP in an awkward bit of dialogue. She'll give them the chip if they deliver a package. Next page has a sidebar on the Nomad. As you expected its basically a self insert from one of the "real life disabled people!!!!" who helped design the character.
Second random gang attack. I'm not sure why they're here or where they came from or who they are. Protagonists just kind of pull out a flamethrower, set everything on fire, then drive away. Somehow (I'm pretty sure the hacking had to be within like a couple feet of an access point) the Netrunner speedhacks some of the machines they pass to slow down their pursuers. They join up with a nomad caravan who shoots the rest of them.
Second Bio on the Netrunner. Its slightly less self insert, its James Young, a guy who worked at Konami. His wife has a different last name from him. At least his character has a different backstory than himself.
Now they're just hanging out in a mobile home driving. Robot chick gave one of them Johnny Silverhand's gun. Its not clear when. Writing is still cheesy but less 80s than the opening: "It seems very heavy. Heavy with some ineffable quality that's more than its weight."
Third Bio. Didn't even bother changing his name. Backstory is complaining about how he got passed over because of his Hispanic race (lol), based off of a children's book author. A white one so I'm not sure why he made race so much a part of his character. Maybe trying to get away from the self insert thing I guess?
Back to the story, Media drinks with some old Nomad talking about his backstory. Old nomad uses a lot of gratuitous Spanish. Talk about how the nuke went off.
Next day. A gang of Japanese Bikers. You know they're dangerous because they're Japanese. They're also hot. It makes sure we know that. "like Japanese Idol singer groups". They all make fun of the bikers for being a bunch of pretty boys. The Nomad's weapons drop shell casings REEEE LORE VIOLATION unless they're using old weaponry like one of the dudes was earlier which they probably are I guess? The fight is kind of silly. One of the bikes tries to get in front and just gets run over. Another does...a jump off a ramp and drops a grenade. Its 80s again. The Solo shoots the grenade out of the air (we're staying 80s) with Silverhand's gun. They exchange fire a bit more and the Nomads just kinda gun them down with their multiple machine guns/miniguns/air support.
Tech's bio! Basically he likes tech. Based off some no name "disability advocate" who might have worked on Adult Swim's games and pretends like this is a big deal. I had to dig to find out who he was.
Back to the story they're yelling at each other over probably being the target of the bikers. Who where dealt with kind of easily I'm not sure why they're getting so worked up. I don't think anyone has even been injured so far. I was looking forward to you guys getting injured so I doubt I'd have missed it. They argue about opening the crate, which they are told would kill them, after discovering that it has a high level of radiation inside that would at least ruin their day making the whole discussion kind of dumb. They determine that it must have Johnny Silverhand inside. Because why not?
""I've got past the ICE," announces Pneumo suddenly" - I totally thought he was talking about immigration there.
So yeah. The retards decide to open up the crate full of something radioactive just because they want to see what is inside. They point their guns presumably just to be dramatic.
Bio time! Solo just kind of has a generic solo background. Was a bodgyguard! Not picky about clients! Actual person is Angel Giuffria, who lists a bunch of accomplishments like being an "Actress, model, has a masters degree in psychology". To give you an idea of how successful she actually is the first google result of her name is her intagram page.
So the morons open the crate and see its marked with a radioactive sign because it was radioactive like they knew it was and now they can't travel with the rest of the convoy because they're carrying something radioactive. Turns out is a nuclear bomb probably. A tank comes out to kill them now that they don't have an army protecting them.
BIO TIME! Actually the Rocker Girl helper is just someone who worked at CDPR that Podsmith liked. No prosthetics or anything fancy. Only similarity I can really see is that they both like grunge. Good on her for making it in to the game I guess?
Back to the suspenseful story! Oh some NPCs just come and save them again. Tank exists for like half a page of everyone talking about how screwed they are when it just kinda explodes.
NPC is that cyborg schoolgirl from earlier. Arasaka's daughter. Apparently she has an "anime like voice". Anyway it was Arasaka's bomb from the nuke thing, the one that didn't go off. Robot girl took it. They argue about what she wants with the bomb, she says she's here to destroy it, so they deliver it without any trouble. It gets disarmed without any trouble. They get a lot of money. They get the song chip. Now they know all the lyrics HAPPY ENDING!
Oh then the robot girl dies of cancer. Its hinted that she really did have Johnny's body in Cryo and that she died next to it.
So in other words our handy capable PCs just kind of let the NPCs carry them around and do everything important. Their main accomplishments are...not dying then opening the crate for no reason. I'm not even sure Rockergirl did anything.
And that is THE END! Thanks for sticking with me. If someone actually read this. I'm not sure why anyone would read the whole thing. Or why I wrote the whole thing.
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2014
They're all solid classes if done right. Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster are challenging classes to get going but the rewards are pretty great. For Arcane Trickster there's a feat that raises sneak attack by a d6 somewhere, this is almost a requirement. Keep in mind you can sneak attack with touch spells like scorching ray. If you manage to catch something off guard you'll be shooting at their flat footed touch AC, which is likely going to be 10.
I'd recommend going witch or bard for your first time around. Pick up higher level spells a little faster and play around with them. Witches are really just wizards with some separate powers. Bards will give you a taste of everything and when in doubt you can always inspire/buff.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2017
You got a source on this? It would be amazing if true
anti SJW
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2016
Here is latest.
Would be interesting. I could also see FFG trying to buy. But not sure if they have the cash.
Would be interesting. I could also see FFG trying to buy. But not sure if they have the cash.
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
Now that you mention it, the one thing I'm having trouble with finding an answer to is in regards to what the eldritch knights limitations on casting with weapons and armor are, and if there's features that circumvent them. As for the arcane trickster I did notice that and figured a build with an arcane bond familiar and Improved Familiar would make sense.
Unfortunately, my friend's group is in the middle of a pretty intensive campaign and he's already one New Guy, so they don't really have an opening rn. Bard and rogue were what I was leaning into for a potential first time, but that may not be for a while unfortunately
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2020
Each set of armor has an arcane spell failure chance. For example, Scale Mail has a 25% penalty, so each time you try to cast a spell there is a 25% chance it just fails and you lose the spell slot. While the arcane armor training and mastery feats reduce this penalty, they eat up your swift action are really aren't worth taking. The better option is just to have high dex and use mage armor. As for weapons, you just need to have at least 1 hand free for any spells that have somatic components.
My advice will be to avoid prestige classes entirely if you're new. I'll second @Mr. Manchester's advice of going bard, especially over a rogue. Bards can do pretty much everything rogues can do, except better.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
If you like the eldritch knight, check out the magus in Ultimate Magic.
While it's not a superb class, it's an interesting balance between melee combat and spellcasting.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
FFG is part of asmodee, they certainly have the cash, but (one) theory is they became the EA of boardgames to make it easier to flip it to a new buyer. wotc would certainly be a nice catch, question if it's not too big one way or another for that.
however it would be incredibly lulzy, imagine asmodee really buys wotc and gives FFG back the netrunner license
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
You're about to go down a very deep and autistic rabbit hole. If you're playing for the first time, make sure you're on the same "level" as the other players, as in, there's not an autistic min-maxer that will delete all encounters and force your DM to buff enemies just because of them. Witch is very fun as you can disable big hitters with hexes and extend their debuffs almost for the entire length of an encounter with Cackle. And you can get access to potions with your Cauldron hex and rp flying on a broomstick with the Flight hex.
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
I'm very much a minmax type of player which is why the whole system has me kind of going crazy figuring out what the best options would be, what with the tons of content available.
I think the point that really got me into pathfinder was when my friend told me he's a barbarian riding a mammoth that would have 40 strength and something like 38 ac at level 20
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
This'll be the perfect system for you then. There's so many options, you can really make some really broken builds. If your DM allows third party content, you can go even further with Path of War or Spheres of Power.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2017
I hope this is true. I'm looking forward to the current D&D guys being swept away by the transfer, if only so the streaming and woke shit ends already.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
I gave you an
rating, but I've done so with a heavy heart because I dearly hope you're right even though I know it's probably not happening.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
I like 5e and wasn't bothered by that one line in the PHB, I was expecting the whole buzz around Tasha's cauldron to just be shit tacked last minute to save face, but after seeing the art on the book and how cringy the lines are I think it is gonna get worse from now on. I was bothered by how they shuffled Mearls elsewhere and pretty much trashed all content he was working on.
I don't think changing parent companies will make them dial down on woke pandering, since the messes which started this (mearls supposely defending a woman abuser and that black guy being treated like shit) had nothing to do with hasbro.
At the same time I don't think hasbro will sell them, the author makes good points yet the brand is currently profitable and their current strategy has been working well for the past few years, why sell now and who the fuck would be both interested AND have the cash to buy wotc?
I don't think changing parent companies will make them dial down on woke pandering, since the messes which started this (mearls supposely defending a woman abuser and that black guy being treated like shit) had nothing to do with hasbro.
At the same time I don't think hasbro will sell them, the author makes good points yet the brand is currently profitable and their current strategy has been working well for the past few years, why sell now and who the fuck would be both interested AND have the cash to buy wotc?
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
I gave you an
well, FFG had leigh "I AM games journalism" alexander write for android and made an official premade transgendered character for legacy of dragonholt, if you combine them they probably become super woke, captain planet style.
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- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
Eh, that's what people said about Lucas selling Star Wars, you know.