D&D General v3 - Games - Facepunch Forum

im planning a campaign in which the players take on the roles of clones struggling against a malevolent computer ai. as far as death goes, im thinking of having hte players re-roll their character and start again from square one if/when they die. sounds harsh, especially if some players play it safer than others and a gulf between player abilities forms. to help alleviate any potential gaps between character experience in the even of death, though, im thinking perhaps the players could have the opportunity to "back-up" their characters knowledge and skills via a computer database, which would translate into the player character's "clones" starting off with something like "80% of total xp gained up to that point, so the players arent completely sol should something unforunate happen. it would also allow the re-rolled baby clones to continue on with any plot knowledge the players have gained in a plausible manner, so the characters arent total fish out of water with each death. at this point, tho, i dont know how to go about presenting the opportunity and ability to back-up their characters to the players that isn't just "roll 'knowledge (computers)' to create a back-up". i think that would trivialize the danger the players will be facing too much, but at the same time i dont want this process to be some long involved ritual that detracts from the rest of the game because in the grand scheme of things, this is all a minor point and definitely not something i want to be the players main focus. so basically do u guys have any ideas how i could present this in a fun and engaging way that wont detract from the rest of the game?

[QUOTE=Beelzebub;43103108]im planning a campaign in which the players take on the roles of clones struggling against a malevolent computer ai. as far as death goes, im thinking of having hte players re-roll their character and start again from square one if/when they die. sounds harsh, especially if some players play it safer than others and a gulf between player abilities forms. to help alleviate any potential gaps between character experience in the even of death, though, im thinking perhaps the players could have the opportunity to "back-up" their characters knowledge and skills via a computer database, which would translate into the player character's "clones" starting off with something like "80% of total xp gained up to that point, so the players arent completely sol should something unforunate happen. it would also allow the re-rolled baby clones to continue on with any plot knowledge the players have gained in a plausible manner, so the characters arent total fish out of water with each death. at this point, tho, i dont know how to go about presenting the opportunity and ability to back-up their characters to the players that isn't just "roll 'knowledge (computers)' to create a back-up". i think that would trivialize the danger the players will be facing too much, but at the same time i dont want this process to be some long involved ritual that detracts from the rest of the game because in the grand scheme of things, this is all a minor point and definitely not something i want to be the players main focus. so basically do u guys have any ideas how i could present this in a fun and engaging way that wont detract from the rest of the game?[/QUOTE] You could take a similar approach to Paranoia; all players get a number of clones that act as limited "lives".

So I asked a friend if he had any trap ideas, and he had two ideas: 1. Light them on fire. They just walk into the room and are on fire. 2. Drop bears on them. Yes, ok good.

[QUOTE=Shanto;43103016]Are there any good resources like podcasts or youtube videos that would improve my DMing skills for D&D specifically, jumping into D&D blind when certain players of mine have more free time than me to read a lot of the shit for Next is making dislike my own campaign. Or if any Eurofags are doing any campaigns I'd like to play/sit in.[/QUOTE] I would reccomend the Counter Monkey series by Noah Antwiler, some episodes are just anecdotes, some are for players, some are just rambles. Can't really speak for the quality of advice, just the best I've got...

[QUOTE=Newbienice99;43103146]So I asked a friend if he had any trap ideas, and he had two ideas: 1. Light them on fire. They just walk into the room and are on fire. 2. Drop bears on them. Yes, ok good.[/QUOTE] [I]Osos en fuego.[/I]

[QUOTE=Beelzebub;43103108]im planning a campaign in which the players take on the roles of clones struggling against a malevolent computer ai. as far as death goes, im thinking of having hte players re-roll their character and start again from square one if/when they die. sounds harsh, especially if some players play it safer than others and a gulf between player abilities forms. to help alleviate any potential gaps between character experience in the even of death, though, im thinking perhaps the players could have the opportunity to "back-up" their characters knowledge and skills via a computer database, which would translate into the player character's "clones" starting off with something like "80% of total xp gained up to that point, so the players arent completely sol should something unforunate happen. it would also allow the re-rolled baby clones to continue on with any plot knowledge the players have gained in a plausible manner, so the characters arent total fish out of water with each death. at this point, tho, i dont know how to go about presenting the opportunity and ability to back-up their characters to the players that isn't just "roll 'knowledge (computers)' to create a back-up". i think that would trivialize the danger the players will be facing too much, but at the same time i dont want this process to be some long involved ritual that detracts from the rest of the game because in the grand scheme of things, this is all a minor point and definitely not something i want to be the players main focus. so basically do u guys have any ideas how i could present this in a fun and engaging way that wont detract from the rest of the game?[/QUOTE] Sounds a lot of Paranoia, where you can get cloned a few times if you die, with 'extra lives' awarded by the city's managing AI (AKA, the DM) for doing something monumentally badass or effective.

[QUOTE=Newbienice99;43103146] 2. Drop bears on them. Yes, ok good.[/QUOTE] theres actually a trap i read about once that sounds like that. someone falls into a pit and when they look up theres a bear or some other creature suspended in stasis that falls down on top of them shortly after

So I'm running Numenera on Mondays with 3 players, and I gotta say I'm really loving the system, way more than any other system I've ever run. It's based on narrative but not entirely freeform. The rules exist to facilitate gameplay but they get out of the way when trying to tell a good story. The rules go exactly with my GM philosophy that the GM should not have to fall back on rules for everything, either for his own sake or as a defense against the players. In other words, running a Numenera game requires a lot of logic rather than a careful reading of the rules. That makes things both difficult and easier: easier in that relying on logic frees the GM from being saddled with hundreds of individual rules, compatibility issues, loopholes, etc. Harder in that you need to be good with improvisation. The setting is just plain awesome too. One creature, a jiraskar, is a Tyrannosaurus-like creature that has dimmed senses but has the innate ability to tap into the datasphere (the Internet a billion years from now) to attack you. BEWARE

[QUOTE=Newbienice99;43103146]So I asked a friend if he had any trap ideas, and he had two ideas: 1. Light them on fire. They just walk into the room and are on fire. 2. Drop bears on them. Yes, ok good.[/QUOTE] Have a trap that drops a portable hole into a bag of holding

you know paranoia didn't even come to mind i think ill go that route

[B]Cyberpunk: Session 12: Bad Deal[/B] [url]http://pastebin.com/8Rw79T96[/url] Ciaster's gonna summarize this I assume but the game's finished now.

[QUOTE=Aperture fan;43108702][B]Cyberpunk: Session 12: Bad Deal[/B] [url]http://pastebin.com/8Rw79T96[/url] Ciaster's gonna summarize this I assume but the game's finished now.[/QUOTE] In this session: -the party watches the news and learns about an explosion in the suburbs of Night City, three guesses as for whose house got vaporized with a literal shitton of gold inside -they go off to do a drug deal to get the evidence to nail one of the villains -but! the villain recognizes Entropy despite his genius disguise, and a fight erupts -Entropy's armor almost completely soaks up a .50 BMG bullet, as he's running away from the sniper, he gets a second one to the arm -Hiro gets mortally wounded, cuts out his self-destruct bomb device and has Tool throw it at the 12 or so guys who are unloading away at the party with UZIs -Tool dies -John and Bruce get away -Entropy musters the last ounce of his strength to pull his revolver and shoot the assassin, who'd come down from the tower he was on to check the bodies -then he faints, and regains conciousness during the sunset a couple of hours later just to deliver an edgy internal monologue before passing away for real -Merchant picks Hiro's and Tool's bodies up, whatever will he do with them??? nobody knows (ooh mysterious) -da end Annd we're gonna be starting a low-level campaign some time in the future! If you feel like doing something more down-to-earth, focused less on fighting and more on roleplaying, lemme know. We're playing on Saturdays, starting on 2 AM UTC+1. [editline]8th December 2013[/editline] We've got a slot open, possibly also another though I'm not 100% on that

I can't remember if I did a storytime of the last Exalted session, but to sum it up they all had visions of the city of Nexus and each other's faces, then traveled to the city to see what was up. They met up and some dude left a note on one of their backs telling them to meet him in a park; they went there and some dudes tried to mug them but got wrecked especially after the dude showed up and put them all to sleep with singular punches. He introduced himself as Vulture and showed them to his house where he told them about a plot to kill the woman who's effectively the captain of the town guard, and told them to go save her. End of the session they walked in to her office to see a man with a whip that had needles through it being wrapped around her neck. This session starts, the player who wasn't here for the previous session's character shows up 5 minutes late with coffee, and the Dusk caste, Prince, intimidates the assassin. He backs off at first, then flings a needle at him; it misses horribly. The Night caste, Cloud, runs in and vaults over him then stabs him in the back with her dire lance. Then a tall, crimson-skinned man with red lips appeared and complained about how they broke his toy, after which he briefly possessed the Dawn Sergeant before she got knocked flat and a second red guy appeared. The Twilight, Shaper, identified them as Bloody Hands, gods of murder, and the rest of the circle quickly dispatched them; the final few blows being dealt by Prince and the Zenith, Wolf, pulling some badass anime as fuck special move thing where they ran around in a circle with their arms linked then used the momentum to add to the force of their blows as they each attacked a different one, and the killing blow on the last one being dealt by the Fiend, Orchid. After confirming the Dawn Sergeant was still alive, they patched her up a bit and returned to Vulture's house, where he told them he had another job for them: protecting a manse that in fact belongs to Shaper. They got to the village the manse is close to, then stopped at the inn for the night. Wolf and Cloud had a threesome with a female peasant for some reason.

[QUOTE=M.Ciaster;43109319] -Tool dies -Hiro gets mortally wounded, cuts out his self-destruct bomb device and has Tool throw it at the 12 or so guys who are unloading away at the party with UZIs[/QUOTE] how

What's Cyberpunk like, anyways? I've never played it, but I quite like Shadowrun.

[QUOTE=elowin;43110842]how[/QUOTE] bullets

goddamn traveller is probably the single worst system for compulsive min-maxers like myself so made a character for a campaign we're going to do, and most of us are on the pretty young end of things (at this point, with a character at 34, I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest member of the crew already). But, this being traveller, compulsive re-rolling and tests for adding stuff is pretty my SOP simply because the character creation system is so fun and I keep rolling random terms just to see what I get and I just got a really, really good one, but I don't want to do that because I'm already the bitter old person in the other traveller game I'm in and don't want to do that again but my character's already been going well on avoiding aging rolls so far, so mechanically the only penalty I'd suffer for taking this is I'd train a tiny bit slower and oh god the conflict is terrible and I don't want to be that guy but at the same time, more cybernetics and +1's on the sheet

[QUOTE=Aperture fan;43111726]bullets[/QUOTE] i was refering to how apparently tool did something right after tool died [editline]8th December 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=ElTacoLad;43111664]What's Cyberpunk like, anyways? I've never played it, but I quite like Shadowrun.[/QUOTE] I've only played Cyberpunk 2020, which is the first edition of Cyberpunk, but from what i've heard that's also the best of them so whatever. Mechanics wise, it is pretty much shit compared to the newest edition of Shadowrun in my opinion. The setting is really simple which can be considered both a good thing and a bad thing I guess. There's some real cool gear and cybernetics, even more if you count all the splatbooks. The Net in Cyberpunk is roughly as bad gameplay wise as the Matrix was in the earlier editions of Shadowrun, and that shit was bad. Also Cyberpunk's setting is way less technologically advanced than Shadowrun, with the one exception of energy weapons being slightly more advanced in Cyberpunk, and a lot more common. Finally, while Shadowrun is a very deadly game, Cyberpunk is not deadly. Cyberpunk [b]wants you to die.[/b] In short I think Cyberpunk can be really fun as long as you don't get a boring mcbore GM, but IMO Shadowrun is way better.

[QUOTE=elowin;43112179]i was refering to how apparently tool did something right after tool died [editline]8th December 2013[/editline] I've only played Cyberpunk 2020, which is the first edition of Cyberpunk, but from what i've heard that's also the best of them so whatever. Mechanics wise, it is pretty much shit compared to the newest edition of Shadowrun in my opinion. The setting is really simple which can be considered both a good thing and a bad thing I guess. There's some real cool gear and cybernetics, even more if you count all the splatbooks. The Net in Cyberpunk is roughly as bad gameplay wise as the Matrix was in the earlier editions of Shadowrun, and that shit was bad. Also Cyberpunk's setting is way less technologically advanced than Shadowrun, with the one exception of energy weapons being slightly more advanced in Cyberpunk, and a lot more common. Finally, while Shadowrun is a very deadly game, Cyberpunk is not deadly. Cyberpunk [b]wants you to die.[/b] In short I think Cyberpunk can be really fun as long as you don't get a boring mcbore GM, but IMO Shadowrun is way better.[/QUOTE] Cyberpunk and Mekton use the same character/skill system. And personally, I think its better used in Mekton, it lets you do over the top shit like using rocket punching giant robots, without making you totally op, that and I like the way IP is used to buy skill points, instead of leveling up with XP and then getting skillpoints.

Since Christmas is coming up soon, I'm thinking on getting a version of D&D. As someone who's never touched it before (although I have an experienced friend, though he doesn't own anything), what would the best starter set/game if I wanted something that can have loads of custom stuff? D&D 3e, 4e or Pathfinder?

[QUOTE=M.Ciaster;43109319]In this session: -the party watches the news and learns about an explosion in the suburbs of Night City, three guesses as for whose house got vaporized with a literal shitton of gold inside -they go off to do a drug deal to get the evidence to nail one of the villains -but! the villain recognizes Entropy despite his genius disguise, and a fight erupts -Entropy's armor almost completely soaks up a .50 BMG bullet, as he's running away from the sniper, he gets a second one to the arm -Tool dies -Hiro gets mortally wounded, cuts out his self-destruct bomb device and has Tool throw it at the 12 or so guys who are unloading away at the party with UZIs -John and Bruce get away -Entropy musters the last ounce of his strength to pull his revolver and shoot the assassin, who'd come down from the tower he was on to check the bodies -then he faints, and regains conciousness during the sunset a couple of hours later just to deliver an edgy internal monologue before passing away for real [B]-Merchant picks Hiro's and Tool's bodies up, whatever will he do with them??? nobody knows (ooh mysterious)[/B] -da end Annd we're gonna be starting a low-level campaign some time in the future! If you feel like doing something more down-to-earth, focused less on fighting and more on roleplaying, lemme know. We're playing on Saturdays, starting on 2 AM UTC+1. [editline]8th December 2013[/editline] We've got a slot open, possibly also another though I'm not 100% on that[/QUOTE] Bitch I am robocoping the fuck out of em [editline]8th December 2013[/editline] Also is there anyone looking for an additional member? I'm just looking to try out other games so I'll pretty much be cool with any system.

I'm thinking about putting together a very sloppy, very rough, play when we can campaign in pathfinder. Don't expect it to go anywhere, it's more of an experiment for me. It's either going to have the PCs be some sort of pirate for a sea campaign, or detectives for more of an RP noir thing. I have a spot or two if you're interested.

Playing Magical Girls PnP. In a mall. One party member's friend is with the group, and she runs into a pet store to get her away while the party talks with the magical talking cat. Eventually, they see that friend run out of the pet shop with two arms full of rabbits. She trips, the rabbits scatter and start hopping everywhere. As she frantically chases them to try and catch them, a mall cop tackles her. I think I like this :v:

Contract Master: he now gets crippling agony every now and then, and he made out with a chick Contract Master: so his OC is gone Overcharge is such a fun game mechanic

So, the only full caster in my game can't make 1900 GMT on fridays, in the interest of a balanced party would any of you guys be interested in playing one? The only other casters in the party are a magus, and a bloodrager who's barely a caster at all. It's a pathfinder game, I'm running it on roll20.net, you're participating in a championship run by an eccentric wizard with a group of other larger than life characters, you start at level 5, 25PB, any race up to 20RP. Custom, 3rd party or stuff from the advanced classes book are probably ok but I'll be looking over it.

I just snuck through a window, failed, knocked a bookshelf over, getting trapped by it in the process. Sarah then is so sick my dumb shit that she fucking tosses it off of me, I then steal a student and jump through a window. I am now in a relationship with the girl who I took, this is an interesting campaign to say the least. :v:

[QUOTE=Dwarfy77;43117239]I just snuck through a window, failed, knocked a bookshelf over, getting trapped by it in the process. Sarah then is so sick my dumb shit that she fucking tosses it off of me, I then steal a student and jump through a window. I am now in a relationship with the girl who I took, this is an interesting campaign to say the least. :v:[/QUOTE] It's a FRIENDship. You aren't bangin' her. (yet)

I've concluded that Magical Burst is fun as fuck. Played for 11 hours straight, almost.

[QUOTE=MeltingData;43119290]I've concluded that Magical Burst is fun as fuck. Played for 11 hours straight, almost.[/QUOTE] Oh god you actually made that your avatar In other news, yes. Magical Burst, aka Magical Anime Girls the PnP, was pretty good. [B]Magical Burst: Session 1: Kats and Kidnappings[/B] [url]http://pastebin.com/vqiyCpjh[/url]

So I'm making a space campaign thing (set in a universe I've already created/am creating), and I'm new to the whole GMing thing, anyone have any suggestions? It's probably going to be kinda light (not a lot of rules, simpler mechanics since everyone is kinda new to RP). Some parts of it I'm making on roll20 but other parts (like the cities and space stations) I'm just gonna describe and shit since those are very large environments. It's starting in a rather Bethesda way (a friend's words on it). They start on a prison station, the station's reactor goes critical and they escape onto the same ship, it starts the second the ship is out of the dangerous range and the station explodes. Why each of them were on the station is up to them, I asked that at least one of them be a criminal and two of them already said they want to be. So far they are excited, I'm still finishing up the assets and story/lore then I have to figure out how the mechanics actually work so I'm not just completely 100% improvising (although I probably will do a lot of improvising). I got a few random events and quest-y like things already thought of that should hopefully be interesting, but any general tips/guidelines would be greatly appreciated.