Lets Talk Pen & Paper RPGs (All systems welcome!)

[Oman]

The moment that the pet gets stats and the players use it to fight, it is no long a pet, is another character. Just keep that in mind.

I do not see a problem except that you think it's unfair to narrative-kill a character?

[hasdgfas]

The moment that the pet gets stats and the players use it to fight, it is no long a pet, is another character. Just keep that in mind.

I do not see a problem except that you think it's unfair to narrative-kill a character?

Players tend to expect their characters to survive unless they choose for the character to die. If a character is narrative-killed and it hasn't been discussed with the player beforehand, there's a very decent chance they'll be angry, and also a good chance they may quit.

[Oman]

As far as I'm concerned that's a valid expectation for a PC, but not for a terrier. We did a lot of expectation management at the start, but yes it'd be something that I would discuss with the player that owned him, probably not the others though.

[hasdgfas]

As far as I'm concerned that's a valid expectation for a PC, but not for a terrier. We did a lot of expectation management at the start, but yes it'd be something that I would discuss with the player that owned him, probably not the others though.

If it fits with expectations, cool. Just saying that may be some of what Claus was trying to say when he said the pet would become a character if it got statted out. The players start to give it PC expectations.

[Claus]

Yeah, I can see it working wonderfully, but I can also see some players getting really upset if a character they are too close to die. But if you are checking expectations, everything will probably go ok

Also, DM got family business to deal with, so no game this week

[Oman]

How do I manage those expectations without saying outright "this is what's happening?"

[Claus]

Well, Oman, my friend. In this I think I can only offer questions, no answers

Let us know how it goes!

[Oman]

Well. We had our session. It was the first one I've ever gone into completely improv. It was fucking amazing and I had a blast. I let the PCs run almost all of it. So they're in this town, enemy army marching towards them. They set up this ambush and a deceit and I just gave them a bug enough rock for their wave to crash against. A mage, a warlock, and three sections of enemy troops. They a red the townspeople and led this battle. The enemy casters focused mostly on spells like darkness, hold person, and colour spray. They actually didn't do much damage at all, but they still felt powerful. Which was a good thing. I think the more I get away from the monster manual and the more I think "what is the design of enemy I want" and get away from hit points and say "what is the most dramatic moment that they can die." our ranger crit one guy, but rolled low on his damage, so the guy still had 4 HP left I just killed him there anyway because shiiit he deserves the win.

[Claus]

One thing that 4th edition did REALLY right was the addition of 1-hit kill enemies, which ties a lot with "the enemy dies when I feel it should" that you mentioned.

We are still playing SLA, but we have switched to the original system, which solved most of the issues I mentioned in my previous post. Since the GM is more comfortable with the original system, he is also more comfortable adjudicating when I try to push its boundaries -- everyone wins

In our last session, we were tasked to deal with a "public disturbance". It turns out that "cannibals" (feral humans) took over some buildings at an abandoned part of the town, and we moved in for cleanup duty. Now, in our power armors we pretty much outgunned the cannibals, and when I realized that, I put away my weapon, pulled out my hand camera, and started recording as the bio-engineering killing machine of the group tore apart the masses of under-nourished marginalised groups. Combat became: Enemies rolled to see if they hit, War machine rolled to see how many it killed, I rolled to see if I could capture the best and bloodiest shot.

The fixer took 60% of the pay to give us this cakewalk, but those clips will certainly be the entry ticket for our group to fame and fortune!

[Hanasawa]

So, considering I'm in a fair few games, I'd like to gauge some interest in sharing some stuff on the player side of things here which might be helpful to a ton of people like to see whether you'd like tabletop RPGs or for DMs/GMs who want to have an idea of how a player might think, act etc. I'll be writing a list of what games I'm in and whoever has the most choices, I'll talk about more later on... or just talk about all of them too if you want. Just voice what you want in the thread.

Without anymore delay, these are the games that I'm either playing or about to play in.

• FATE (content is nWoD, specifically Mage: The Awakening, and Dresden Files)
  - Abigail "Hecate" Thompson - A group of people suddenly awaken to magical powers through various traumatic ways in the city of Seattle, Washington. Abigail fell off the roof of a building and then unconsciously rewound time for her time magic awakening. Her space magic was unlocked through almost drowning to death by a sea monster. We've finished Season 1 (About 12-16 sessions?) and I'm getting into my character who is a mercenary for hire, struggling with her powers now as she got herself into paradoxical trouble and having an arc based around the result of her careless release of uncontrolled magic and changes in her character personality now because of it.
  
• Monsters & Mutants 3e
  - Amie Sente AKA Raidy - In a cyberpunk future, a city that has similar traits to London called Freedom City, there are a host of people with superpowers. Raidy has the ability of telepathic communication (Raidy comes from Radio) and teleportation, using it to help her newfound team after her old team perished while she was the communication line for them, blaming herself for the complete loss. This started just last week, nothing much to report on just yet but one of the PCs seemed evil when we came across him so we're still not a whole team yet, not to mention someone not showing up...
  
• Dungeons & Dragons 5e
  - Miri Mayweather - Faerun, a world familiar with a ton of people. Miri is an aasimar, draconic sorcerer but during her travels, she came across a bard who taught her the ways of music after she told of her stories so far. Having to flee from her hometown of Yartar after she was framed for murdering the waterbaron's husband, she met with her group and is constantly looking behind her back for the constant threat of people after the bounty on her head. She suspects that she might be chased after because of the inheritance of her deceased father, a ring that grows with power to the wearer, provided they do good deeds. This sorta happens once a week possibly and currently we're looking into the disappearance of a caravan holding important delegates. We constantly gain new party members too which is nice.
  
• Spacer (It's a custom system. It's set in intergalactic space with combat and lewd parts)
  - Lizbeth Beaufort - In the vastness of space, there are many things that lie unexplored. Lizbeth is merely just a human doctor, seeking a little bit of thrill after being constantly bored of studying and staying inside her colony's ship. Once she saved up enough credits and did all the paperwork, she set off with her team, armed and ready to help her team in any way she can.
  NOTE: This game has not started at all yet, it'll happen next week and I'll talk a bit about the first session afterwards.

I obviously also have the 3.5e game here on MS and you can check that out here as well if you want.

I have no life. I wish I played in more tabletop games and have the time for them ahhhh.

[Oman]

Combat became: Enemies rolled to see if they hit, War machine rolled to see how many it killed, I rolled to see if I could capture the best and bloodiest shot.

I fucking...pray for the day I get something this good. Omg you're amazing.

D&D 5th is starting to get really good for this group. It sucks that I always feel comfortable with a group right before they finish their six week run with me


I rly wanna read the new Storm Kings adventure. Anyone else?

[Claus]

Oman > Come on, the games you DM (like that "stages of grief" scene that you narrated earlier) are super ultra duper. Most of the cool things in my group come out of playing with the same dudes over 10 years -- we basically know what to expect from one another by now. BTW, what do you mean by "six week run with you"? Is this some sort of rotating table arrangement?

Also, what is Storm Kings? New adventure from Wizards?

Hanasawa > I am super jealous! I wish I could be playing in more games All those you listed sound great, but I am most curious about the Spacer, because I'm a sucker for custom systems. Even if the game has not started yet, can you tell us a bit about what is the game about?

[Oman]

Yeah, having a long-standing gaming group does provide that real comfort zone of being able to play things differently. Do you ever feel bored of them? Like you know what they're going to do?

BTW, what do you mean by "six week run with you"? Is this some sort of rotating table arrangement?

Yeah I run six weeks worth of weekly games for a group of newbies at my local games store. I'm honestly liking this group enough to continue with them, but I'll have to have a chat with the store runner about it. We do provide a good service for the community, and that's really nice, but it's a LOT of effort teaching six new people how to play D&D every two months.

EDIT: Yeah new adventure from Wizards. Norse mythology, a lot of gods and giants. I know nothing else about it, but I'm excited. Curse of Strahd was really good (not escape from Ravenloft good, but good).

[Lady Lambdadelta]

a lot of people hated 4e. I was not one of them. I thought it had a lot of really cool advantages, especially since it had the option to print out little cards for your powers that you could flip when exhausting and it was like...

it was different to be certain but it was a lovely break from 3.5 pathfinder blehness.

[Oman]

I loved 4e except for the fact that i needed minis and I've never had a minis collection (but am thinking about building one). I use skill challenges a fair bit now and they're always a blast.

[hasdgfas]

JonTron did a video on the Dark Dungeons movie, which is the DnD Chick Tract. It's played completely straight and looks wonderful.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

I loved 4e except for the fact that i needed minis and I've never had a minis collection (but am thinking about building one). I use skill challenges a fair bit now and they're always a blast.

did you use the post errata ones? theyr'e a lot better

[Oman]

Uh tbh I've used my own number of success and failures anyway. Usually I want a skill challenge to last two to three "turns" (i.e. goes around the table), so I go for Number of players = number of successes, or I go for number of players * 1.5 If I want it to feel really epic I'll make it number of players *2 but I've literally never felt the need to do that. Then in terms of failures I just say either half the number of successes, or 75%. Sometimes I won't tell my players how many failures they can get and I'll just pick the most narritavely interesting time (when they've got two successes left, usually) and say "I just wanted to let you know you'll need two successes before you get two failures".

Full disclosure, I like to use rules as a baseline, or as a bit of structure. The bits in the middle, well that's the fun. The PCs expect to win, they've told me that. They expect me to challenge them. So if I throw them a big baddie and they surprise him so he can't summon his skelingtons, then they crit him twice and he dies immediately...well...that's not meeting the player's expectations. Similarly if they get crit at level 1 and die...well that's violating our contract. So I like to fudge a lot. As an experiment (after hearing it on Fear the Boot) I tried a game where I didn't even count NPC hit points and OMG it went so well. Number of success and failures in the DMG does not bother me one bit.

[Claus]

Yeah, having a long-standing gaming group does provide that real comfort zone of being able to play things differently. Do you ever feel bored of them? Like you know what they're going to do?

I kinda know how they will probably react, but I can't say I feel bored of them. When we get bored of a game, we generally switch to another one for six months, or try a few one shots.

Yeah I run six weeks worth of weekly games for a group of newbies at my local games store. I'm honestly liking this group enough to continue with them, but I'll have to have a chat with the store runner about it. We do provide a good service for the community, and that's really nice, but it's a LOT of effort teaching six new people how to play D&D every two months.

That is neat. is it a paid gig? The game store where I play has something similar, where they house tables for newbies. Maybe you can move the team you like to a different, permanent slot? Although then you are doubling the game time.

EDIT: Yeah new adventure from Wizards. Norse mythology, a lot of gods and giants. I know nothing else about it, but I'm excited. Curse of Strahd was really good (not escape from Ravenloft good, but good).

Yeah, I am terrible with following book releases - I'll take a look at it, giants are cool.

a lot of people hated 4e. I was not one of them. I thought it had a lot of really cool advantages, especially since it had the option to print out little cards for your powers that you could flip when exhausting and it was like...

I don't _hate_ 4e. Levels 1-to-5, it was really fun. I also really liked the ideas of dungeon delves. But when I got past level 10 with my group, the system started getting really clunky, and kinda "un-heroic"? It is a cool game, but in my mind it does not scale really well.

JonTron did a video on the Dark Dungeons movie, which is the DnD Chick Tract. It's played completely straight and looks wonderful.

Wooow! Looking forward to it I hope they show it here.

BTW, the SLA main book, the equipment book ("Karma"), and one setting book ("Contract Killer Circuit") are available for "Pay What You Want" on DriveThruRPG. If anyone wants to know more about what I'm playing right now, the books are a good read even if you will not play the games, as they are full of short stories between the crunchy bits.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/249 ... tries?it=1

[Oman]

That is neat. is it a paid gig? The game store where I play has something similar, where they house tables for newbies.

$40 worth of store credit every six weeks. It's a nice token of their appreciation. And having newbies lets me flex muscles that you don't have to with established players. That gets tiresome though.

[Oman]

So I'm going to continue with my current group. Not sure what to do for the adventure though. I don't want to homebrew the whole thing, it's just too much work for me.

I'm also writing a survey thing for my players, we're going to do a 0th session planning session, but I've never done one of those before (cause I've always run with whatever the DM had planned and whatever characters were brought). Has anyone (Claus) done this before and do they have any ideas?

[GreyICE]

The moment that the pet gets stats and the players use it to fight, it is no long a pet, is another character. Just keep that in mind.

I do not see a problem except that you think it's unfair to narrative-kill a character?

Players tend to expect their characters to survive unless they choose for the character to die. If a character is narrative-killed and it hasn't been discussed with the player beforehand, there's a very decent chance they'll be angry, and also a good chance they may quit.

What is this carebear nonsense? Characters die when they die.

[hasdgfas]

The moment that the pet gets stats and the players use it to fight, it is no long a pet, is another character. Just keep that in mind.

I do not see a problem except that you think it's unfair to narrative-kill a character?

Players tend to expect their characters to survive unless they choose for the character to die. If a character is narrative-killed and it hasn't been discussed with the player beforehand, there's a very decent chance they'll be angry, and also a good chance they may quit.

What is this carebear nonsense? Characters die when they die.

That depends on the group and the system. I also said "narrative-killed".

[Claus]

So I'm going to continue with my current group. Not sure what to do for the adventure though. I don't want to homebrew the whole thing, it's just too much work for me.

I'm also writing a survey thing for my players, we're going to do a 0th session planning session, but I've never done one of those before (cause I've always run with whatever the DM had planned and whatever characters were brought). Has anyone (Claus) done this before and do they have any ideas?

I don't think I've ever done a explicit survey, but yeah, I do ask informal questions to the players before starting a campaign, and they, being lazy fucks, almost never answers. Usually questions as "you prefer this or that theme?", but more often request-questions (I will only allow one Jedi, who will it be?) or "Everyone must know at least one other person in the group before the adventure begins, where do you know each other from?"

[Claus]

The moment that the pet gets stats and the players use it to fight, it is no long a pet, is another character. Just keep that in mind.

I do not see a problem except that you think it's unfair to narrative-kill a character?

Players tend to expect their characters to survive unless they choose for the character to die. If a character is narrative-killed and it hasn't been discussed with the player beforehand, there's a very decent chance they'll be angry, and also a good chance they may quit.

What is this carebear nonsense? Characters die when they die.

That depends on the group and the system. I also said "narrative-killed".

Yup. NPCs get narrative-killed (and even then, sometimes the players want to feel that they had a chance at saving them, even if they fail). PCs die by the player's hand. (there are exceptions, yadda yadda).