[QUOTE=Rats808;49533220][sp]I kept stabbing an anti-AT field in AdEva with a knife, long ago. It was the first in a long line of incidents where my actions led to Boston being blown up or otherwise fucked in a bunch of games I played in with the same people.[/sp][/QUOTE]
Ah, if only AdEva was ever finished. Oh well, nevermore.
[QUOTE=Rats808;49533220]And then you keep going, and going, just to see what happens, until eventually you blow up Boston.
Oh wait, that's me. :dog:
[sp]I kept stabbing an anti-AT field in AdEva with a knife, long ago. It was the first in a long line of incidents where my actions led to Boston being blown up or otherwise fucked in a bunch of games I played in with the same people.[/sp][/QUOTE]
Being fair, you were given many tactile warnings that stabbing shit wouldn't work well lol
[editline]14th January 2016[/editline]
Mainly the whole 'insanity field' that burst out each time you stabbed it
[QUOTE=Glent;49532214]If you walk through 7B do you get instantly removed from existence?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;49533094]Yeah add even more obstacles, that'll sure make it fun!
Looks fucking mint MenteR, though where the fuck does 7b go[/QUOTE]
FUCK thanks for noticing that oh god
thanks a lot for the feedback guys!
[editline]15th January 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=cdr248;49533089]all my gimmick minigame things because noticeably drab after the second round[/QUOTE]
so far all my gimmicky minigames have worked really well. specially a illusion staircase that i did like 4 sessions ago. it's all about 1. pacing and 2. keeping the players engaged.
[editline]15th January 2016[/editline]
at some point tomorrow i'll write down everything that's been going on in my adventure! i'll link it here for you guys to read if you're interested.
[QUOTE=No Party Hats;49533458]Being fair, you were given many tactile warnings that stabbing shit wouldn't work well lol
[editline]14th January 2016[/editline]
Mainly the whole 'insanity field' that burst out each time you stabbed it[/QUOTE]
It was literally just a roll on a table every time, the effect was different every time.
I was poking it to see what would happen, and Trooper was egging me on the whole time.
I can't remember if it was then, or later, that I got reduced to LCL fluid for a while.
Right, so I finally introduced my players to combat of Magical Burst. Mind you, I immediately went for a more gimmick battlefield than a standard 5 boxes in a row.
As Sal and her clone were discussing their situation, something flew by a bathroom's window. Sal noticed that it was a huge animal of some sort, told her clone to stay in school and cover for her, while she ran to see what that animal was. Particularly interesting point is that the Clone did not see the creature.
Meanwhile, Priscilla, after annoying Nurse with her hypochondria, was sent home. She noticed that Sal was running towards school's exit, so she decided to outdo her in drama, and outrun her to the exit. The sounds of them running down the corridor caught attention of Elizabeth, whose desk was closest to the door. Seeing the two upperclassmen running and being curious about it (also totally not being prodded to go investigate by Tsuikama), she excused herself to the bathroom, and ran right after the other two girls.
Finally, they stepped outside into the street in front of the school. The street was deserted (surprising, considering that it is in the middle of the city), except for some sad looking kid crossing the street. Before the girls could get a better bearing of the situation a loud roar has sounded and the van-sized wolf creature jumped on top of the unfortunate street-crossing kid, and in the next leap it disappeared down the street, only leaving the kid's grocery bag on the ground. The girls, without much deliberation ("I'm magic girl, stand back." Hey, so am I!", "Me too!", "Alright, let's get that monster!") rushed after it.
Although initially girls had difficulties catching up, after using some shortcuts, Sal was able to get very close to the Wolf Youma. Priscilla was on her heels, and Elizabeth was the last one of the procession, albeit far behind (being 11 and all). By this time girls have reached a dilapidated part of town. Sal decided to take one more shortcut through an abandoned building, and right before she could cut off the Wolf, she herself was cut off by a concrete slab falling in front of her, blocking her way out of the building. By this time Priscilla and Tsuikama ran into the building. Tsuikama suddenly calls attention to the ceiling, wherein lies a stuffed rabbit.
The rabbit is a small stuffed animal, which seems to be connected to the ceiling with a whole bunch of plant-line tentacles and roots that go through the concrete of the ceiling and some of the walls, as if it was ground. In addition to that, the rabbit has human eyes that hang by their stalks and have the capacity to track individual targets. The tentacles of the newly found Youma collapse slabs at the entrances of the building and the girls are transported into the Youma's nightmare, which was a concrete cube with a flat floor, and walls as well as ceiling consisting of a maze with various pieces of furniture throughout. Elizabeth was stuck outside for the whole battle (her player had to leave early).
The Youma's primary means of attack were it's tentacles that would be used to bind the Magical Girls, and then either hold them until the tentacles would explode into acid (only now I realized how hentai as fuck this sounds). At the same time, Youma would try to break the building and maze apart, showering the girls with concrete and furniture. The stuffed rabbit (weak point) was hanging by it's tentacles in the center of the nightmare, and the girl's ranged attack had to bring it low down enough so it can finally be attacked in melee. To be honest, I made the Youma to be fought with at least 3 Magical Girls, so I had to downgrade it slightly through the battle.
The girls got some good hits in and took a mild amount of damage, so I was hoping to keep with the Youma's proper Resolve amount. However, considering that one of the melee attacks was rather powerful, I decided that it cut off the rabbit from the tentacles, dropping the prior to the ground and sending the later into berserk frenzy. This has caused a great deal of the Nightmare pieces to start falling down, and although both girls evaded the falling debris, Priscilla (who was in melee range) has done such a good dodge, so that the sofa that was supposed to have fallen on her has ended up crushing the stuffed rabbit. Immediately, the nightmare collapses, most building damage disappears, and the girls reunite.
Elizabeth went home (she still has not noticed that her handbag is missing), while Sal and Priscilla went to an ice cream cafe, to celebrate their first victory. Que bonding (which I, to be honest, have entirely ignored for now, considering that heavy fallout this early is unlikely) and of course, Fallout. Sal (15) ended up uncontrollably kissing the waiter (20's something and with GF) on the cheek, causing him to cover his face with menus and get away embarrassed, only to have the said menus go alight with blue fire, causing the guy to lose it and quickly back into the kitchen, and various pots and pans that got in his way once he got past the door. Tsuikama appeared to congratulate them on their victory and to explain that magic is unstable and fallout is inevitable. This brought out Priscilla's hypochondria, which caused her to ask on how wishes are acquired. Tsuikama explained the existence of Oblivion Seed, and the girl immediately set off to find it, running off without paying for their ice cream (consumed by Tsuikama, but to be honest, not like waiter was about to stop them).
When the girls arrived to the location of the battle, the sofa was torn apart and only a small acidic burn spot was left on concrete. Girls went back to their homes, and although they were shadowed by mysterious figures for a little bit, the rest of the day was mostly without any incidents.
[QUOTE=Rats808;49533220]And then you keep going, and going, just to see what happens, until eventually you blow up Boston.
Oh wait, that's me. :dog:
[sp]I kept stabbing an anti-AT field in AdEva with a knife, long ago. It was the first in a long line of incidents where my actions led to Boston being blown up or otherwise fucked in a bunch of games I played in with the same people.[/sp][/QUOTE]
It's ok, I blew up Chicago, sometimes these things happen.
[editline]15th January 2016[/editline]
Thinking about running a Shadowrun game after my PF one ends, a team of unknowns getting hired for a series of hits on other runners seems like a good starting point, also lets me use PCs I've made but not got to play as the targets which should be entertaining.
Trying to create some rules for ship combat. I've written a bunch of ship types, weapons, weapon types, ammo types ect.
This is set before gunpowder (but gunpowder will be here soon enough when particular events unfold) so Ballistas are the main weapons on ships. Just trying to figure out how much they would weigh, any ideas? The projectiles weight between 28-78kg according to Wikipedia but I can't seem to find how much the actually weapon weighed. Unless I'm not looking properly.
If anyone wants to have a look at the WIP doc, I'd happily post it.
[QUOTE=Dominic0904;49535511]Trying to create some rules for ship combat. I've written a bunch of ship types, weapons, weapon types, ammo types ect.
This is set before gunpowder (but gunpowder will be here soon enough when particular events unfold) so Ballistas are the main weapons on ships. Just trying to figure out how much they would weigh, any ideas? The projectiles weight between 28-78kg according to Wikipedia but I can't seem to find how much the actually weapon weighed. Unless I'm not looking properly.
If anyone wants to have a look at the WIP doc, I'd happily post it.[/QUOTE]
I think that what most people think of as the stereotypical ballista would probably weigh about 200 kilograms, give or take a couple dozen, but it varies massively, since ballista is a pretty much the term for almost any bolt thrower that's too big to be a personal weapon.
And hell, they don't even always shoot bolts, when used as anti-ship weapons smaller ballistae were usually loaded with small, roughly one pound stones, similar to grapeshot, because unless you're shooting a really fucking massive bolt, it's not going to be sinking a ship anytime soon.
That, or they used rams or boarding tactics, because that was usually a lot more efficent than spending several hours plinking away at each other with stones, for much the same reason that (much much later in history) ships moved away from tons of tiny guns hoping for lucky hits on vulnerable parts, to big guns that were much more likely to cause substantial damage against whatever they hit, without requiring exact hits on specific points to destroy or disable the target
Unless the ships in question are basically open-topped, even using stone projectiles a much more feasible anti-ship weapon would be using catapults, though obviously this depends on if the level of engineering in your game can support such a thing either in the number or accuracy to be able to effectively attack a moving target from a moving platform with such a thing.
Though a lot of this also depends upon other components of the ships in question. Anti-personnel weapons would be vastly more useful when dealing with the large crews of oar-using ships, where as long as you can get into the crew compartment your weapons need only pick off enough oarmen to render the opposing vessel basically dead in the water. But in the age of sail, where crippling mobility is less a matter of killing crew than it is of destroying hardware, something a bit heavier would probably be desired, or again the use of tactics less dependent upon what weapons your ship has (although, depending on how cavalier on the acceptability of friendly fire the groups involved are, small ballista in conjunction with a boarding attack would be quite effective, since it would force the opposing crew to get on deck to defend themselves, making them easy to pick off, much the same as little deck guns on old sailing ships were used)
Well I was writing up different types of weapons including variants of the Ballista (Standard, Heavy, Repeater ect), and a variety of anti-personnel/ship ammo types:
These are all WIP at the moment, just wrote the initial descriptions of them with not stats for damage or effects.
[B]Standard Bolt[/B]: Regular Ballista bolt, does regular damage
[B]Heavy Bolt[/B]: This bolt is used when ships are in close proximity with each other. This is due to the added weight of the bolt. The bolt does much more damage than the standard bolt but has limited range.
[B]Fire Bolt:[/B] The bolt is coated in flammable components that ignites during flight and potentially cause fires on the intended target.
[B]Poison Bolt[/B]: The bolt carries a series of small vials filled with poisonous gas that have been attached to the bolt with elastic string so they don’t shatter from the initial launch. The intended purpose is for the bolt to hit an area of the ship carrying crew, have the glass vials smash from the force and release their payload
[B]Scatter Bolt:[/B] This bolt has a bigger shaft than a regular bolt. Within the bolt it carries multiple smaller bolts that disperse mid-flight after the main bolt has been initially launched due to the shaft breaking apart. The intended purpose is to either tear sails to restrict manoeuvrability or wound crew members due to the number of small bolts. Due to the size of the bolt it can only be used at close range.
It's in a time where ship combat is fought at closer ranges due to the limited range on a Ballista. There would be multiple Ballistas on each ship depending on it's size (envision 1 on the back and front and 2-3 on the left and right side of the ship if you need an example). You would pepper the ship to try and damage components and crew and once close enough you could board.
I'm basing the ship types on the rating system that were used for ships (First rates being big fucking flagships and Fifth rates being Frigates ect) as inspiration. So a First Rate ship would have bigger and many more Ballista's (Possibly catapults as well) to make it feasible that they could take down other ships.
Again this is all WIP, I'm still new to DMing and writing these kind of mechanics so any feedback is appreciated.
I wonder if ballistae could use something similar to chain shot? Two short heavy "bolts" attached together with chain for fucking up rigging and masts.
You might as well just have them use cannons instead.
I've been DMing RoTLs at my Uni's RPG club as my first proper attempt at GMing (I may have aimed too high, there is a lot to cover in that campaign), and I've already lost one player to a Dark Heresy campaign. Does anyone have some advice on how to DM better and keep my players engaged?
One thing I've been trying to do is improv when my players do something unexpected, although not very successfully; because some things don't really make enough sense to be viable, setting up a cult based around purification by fire in a village doesn't seem like it would stick, but stonewalling them wouldn't be much fun for them.
Aside from that, does anyone know a good place to find Shadowrun or Eclipse Phase games? They seem fun, and I'd like to get some experience with the system and world as a player so I can GM them as well.
[QUOTE=Teddypimm;49536654]I've been DMing RoTLs at my Uni's RPG club as my first proper attempt at GMing (I may have aimed too high, there is a lot to cover in that campaign), and I've already lost one player to a Dark Heresy campaign. Does anyone have some advice on how to DM better and keep my players engaged?
One thing I've been trying to do is improv when my players do something unexpected, although not very successfully; because some things don't really make enough sense to be viable, setting up a cult based around purification by fire in a village doesn't seem like it would stick, but stonewalling them wouldn't be much fun for them. [/QUOTE]
Best way to engage players is to have them create backstory, then tie in the backstory with the current events happening in the game.
A player is far more likely to be invested in looking into a cave of half-orcs, if say, a local townsperson had given him rumors of his missing mentor having been spotted there, or so forth.
I'd only advise to be careful about overusing that strategy, because players can tend to get jealous if one's backstory importance is considered "more important" than others.
As for improvisation, it's just a matter of practice, and how much background lore you know about as to whether how good you could be at it.
In general, just make sure whatever you improvise has [I]purpose;[/I] not just as some gag joke or random encounter just to keep your players busy.
[QUOTE=gufu;49534508]~Magical burst words~.[/QUOTE]
Wow is this what my posts looked like every week way back when? I haven't written a summary since session 30 or so, and we're up to the 90s now...
[QUOTE=Aperture fan;49538962]Wow is this what my posts looked like every week way back when? I haven't written a summary since session 30 or so, and we're up to the 90s now...[/QUOTE]
why aren't your players dead yet
i thought killing off the PCs in gruesome ways was the point of magical burst
The Sorcerer in my group who had the metal foot died today. He was separated from the rest of the party while they were in a cavern full of ghouls and they decided to run and leave him since everyone was almost dead. Thinking of having him return as a Revenant a few sessions later as he did have a powerful necromatic mark imbued on his hand with no memory of what it is or how it got there.
[QUOTE=elowin;49538997]why aren't your players dead yet
i thought killing off the PCs in gruesome ways was the point of magical burst[/QUOTE]
There were plenty of near-deaths, but usually a last minute roll saves their skins, and at this point they're so high experience they literally broke the system with their power levels and we had to make too much homebrew shit.
That and I'm just too nice of a GM.
But at this point I've found elevators to be an effective anti-magical girl defense. Dropping them from obscene heights trapped in elevators, trapping them in a large elevator with a youma, dropping elevators on them while they hang from cables...
Also stairs. You don't try to run supersonic speed down stairs, unless you want to reenact SBaHJ.
[QUOTE=Aperture fan;49538962]Wow is this what my posts looked like every week way back when? I haven't written a summary since session 30 or so, and we're up to the 90s now...[/QUOTE]
My eloquence is unmatched. And your Magical Lesbians knew that they were anime.
I will say that in regards to Appy's Burst game that it did start out kind of dark. In fact, my character even sort of died at one point (plot shenanigans) before being resurrected a couple sessions later. It's not for lack of effort that we manage to survive, but we've become powerful enough that some of us have managed to single handedly defeat boss monsters solo on occasion. Essentially everyone's become the equivalent of DBZ characters in terms of sheer power and abilities, making it a bit hard to grimdark an ending and kill everyone without it essentially being forced by Cthulhu.
We would have avoided this fate if Appy just squashed us 60 games ago. :saddowns: [sp]Though I think I would probably still manage to survive, seeing as I think I'm one of the only players who's never really been in a life or death situation where the life of my character was going to be decided via saving roll, outside of the plot related death and resurrection. [/sp]
[QUOTE=croguy;49536275]You might as well just have them use cannons instead.[/QUOTE]
Possibly, but this is in a time before gunpowder so I am adjusting, plus it's fun to write about things that may not exist within the Handbook or DMG.
I still think a double barreled ballista that shoots giant metal nunchucks is a great idea.
[QUOTE=Rents;49542690]I still think a double barreled ballista that shoots giant metal nunchucks is a great idea.[/QUOTE]
You'd have to set it up as two completely seperate ballistae and just put a chain between the bolts. And set up a firing mechanism to fire them both at the same time because if there's even a small difference you'll get fucked up.
[QUOTE=Rents;49542690]I still think a double barreled ballista that shoots giant metal nunchucks is a great idea.[/QUOTE]
Oh my fucking god that's rad. The mental image I have of it is great.
Yeah, one or two large ballistas built into the ship is really the only practical way of going with these things. Other than that there's fairly no other weapon that's better than boarding action, ramming, or filling the deck with bowmen.
[QUOTE=croguy;49543094]Yeah, one or two large ballistas built into the ship is really the only practical way of going with these things. Other than that there's fairly no other weapon that's better than boarding action, ramming, or filling the deck with bowmen.[/QUOTE]
Catapults
[QUOTE=elowin;49543200]Catapults[/QUOTE]
Catapults aren't all that effective on ships. Movement makes their high arch fire inaccurate, and I'm sure that the amount of force the catapult transfers to the front could damage the ship's structure.
...unless you'd have smaller catapults lob fireballs, bombs, sea mines, and whatnot, but that's nothing an alternative mechanism can't do.
[QUOTE=croguy;49543345]Catapults aren't all that effective on ships. Movement makes their high arch fire inaccurate, and I'm sure that the amount of force the catapult transfers to the front could damage the ship's structure.
...unless you'd have smaller catapults lob fireballs, bombs, sea mines, and whatnot, but that's nothing an alternative mechanism can't do.[/QUOTE]
Catapults were used on ships historically, although not as commonly as ballistae or rams.
Obviously not talking about trebuchets or anything here though, but smaller catauplts like onagers are perfectly viable as ship weapons to be used against larger vessels. Their firing arc is not nearly as high as a trebuchet, they can easily fit on the deck of a decently sized ship, and have a fair bit more destructive force than ballistae can supply.
Lobbing fireballs is also viable, but given the setting apparently lacks gunpowder I doubt bombs are going to be a thing, unless they have magical bombs or something.
[QUOTE=Smas;49540449]I will say that in regards to Appy's Burst game that it did start out kind of dark. In fact, my character even sort of died at one point (plot shenanigans) before being resurrected a couple sessions later. It's not for lack of effort that we manage to survive, but we've become powerful enough that some of us have managed to single handedly defeat boss monsters solo on occasion. Essentially everyone's become the equivalent of DBZ characters in terms of sheer power and abilities, making it a bit hard to grimdark an ending and kill everyone without it essentially being forced by Cthulhu.
We would have avoided this fate if Appy just squashed us 60 games ago. :saddowns: [sp]Though I think I would probably still manage to survive, seeing as I think I'm one of the only players who's never really been in a life or death situation where the life of my character was going to be decided via saving roll, outside of the plot related death and resurrection. [/sp][/QUOTE]
Satoya had the most changes in state of being alive or not (sometime both at once, a Schroedinger's catgirl if you would.)
She went from alive (before the campaign), undead, (unun)dead, undead, alive.
[QUOTE=Dwarfy77;49543435]Satoya had the most changes in state of being alive or not (sometime both at once, a Schroedinger's catgirl if you would.)
She went from alive (before the campaign), undead, (unun)dead, undead, alive.[/QUOTE]
And then she phased out of existence in London, completing the cycle entirely. :v:
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