D&D V6 - Edition jokes don't really make sense anymore - Games

D&D is the only game with real, genuine brand awareness—it's the only one people with zero knowledge or interest in PnP can reliably cite. Just like people that live in third world countries and know absolutely nothing about comics can still tell you, vaguely, what Superman is. Everything outside may as well not exist for how little recognition it has by comparison. Within the RPG culture, D&D is less dominate than it was many years ago—outside, D&D [I]is[/I] the RPG. [QUOTE=Lemonguy;50825760]does anyone have any experience playing with conflicting schedules? a friend of mine has been interested in starting up a game but everyone in our group is in different time zones. is there something that's turn based or something, that maybe people could take their turn and wait for others to complete theirs, coming back when it's convenient?[/QUOTE] Many of my games have been Play by Post (PbP) specifically because every player is in wildly different time zones. They're the only way to play with people that have 8+ hours between each other. They're good if you want to have serious [I]role[/I]play and a titanic pain in the ass if you want a lot of [I]roll[/I]playing. Expect progression to be horribly slow after any initial burst of activity, especially in games that normally rely on miniatures and grids for combat. There's many ways of doing PbP nowadays but the most common are creating Google groups or using classic forums (either joining a public one suited to the task or making your own in accordance to your needs). I've done both and having your own forum is, in my experience, easier to deal with.

[QUOTE=Alexander.;50825537]I am very much interested in something like that if you are looking for players, I don't have much experince with CoC but I'm willing to learn. It sounds like a ton of fun.[/QUOTE] Same here, I've always wanted to get into CoC.

Man I cannot figure out how to make combat interesting for players.

[QUOTE=Spacewolf;50826331]Man I cannot figure out how to make combat interesting for players.[/QUOTE] I mainly do it by making sure it's challenging but rewarding, in the case of my latest encounters I've had a "gimmick" to spice things up beyond normal combat. The party was fighting against an eldritch horror/from beyond sort of thing, and it's basically a predator that hunts with fog/mist and uses it's stinger to stab the players from the mist but they get to roll a perception check to see if they notice the movements in the mist, and if so get a bonus on their reflex save. I tried to add a element of problem solving, that a simple straight up rush in it's face wouldn't work, but what happend is the party kinda stumbled upon it's lair where I had written strict rules for myself to follow that "If they enter it's lair, it goes in for traditional combat". Sorry for the messy language but tl;dr, if there's room for it, try to spice somethings up (go beyond the normal rules) and make sure you've typed out all the details as a strict guideline, so you don't pull anything from your ass that might feel cheap.

Also, giving the enemy distinct strengths and weaknesses, especially if it'll involve some tactics, even if it's the stereotypical mage/archer with good positioning and some dudes that look like they can take a beating to make a frontal assault obviously not the best option.

Generally making sure players all have something to make their characters feel like they're contributing in some way beyond just 'roll to hit, roll damage' is good, I think Like, it can vary a lot between games, but stuff like SR where, say, in your average combat you might have the street sam gunning down masses of enemies and hardened targets, the rigger providing overwatch and picking targets, the adept running around the battlefield flanking and assassinating important foes, your decker/technomancer messing with comms and disabling drones, and your mage as general wildcard, medic, and anti-spirit guy, you can be pretty assured that because people all have their roles, as long as you give them something to do, they'll be interested Or, for a D&D example, say your party has some characters who are tanky, some not. Make sure the enemies behave smartly so that the tougher characters need to think about positioning to keep the squishies safe. Make some enemies have good saves but poor AC, and some vice versa, so everyone has a target they can pick out as valuable to focus on. If you've got blasters with AoE damage, throw in the odd horde to give them something to throw a pile of dice at Ideally, in your typical combat, you just want to make sure that a player isn't sitting around going 'I don't feel like I'm needed, I don't think my choices I made regarding this character have any effect on the outcome, etc.' it doesn't even need to be all that much. Even if a character is, say, a face who can't fight, maybe they can negotiate with a hostile leader and end the fight early as it turns against the foe. Just simple acknowledgements and concessions to make everone feel like they're doing something that no one else in the group can do is all you need

I find that combat can be made fun if it really feels like it really has something to do with the story, and everything fits in with the setting. I find it really drab to just come across X enemy and the DM just says "roll for initiate" adding some weight to why they are there, making a sense of danger and just really good rollplaying on the side of the player AND the DM can help out fights a lot.

Combat in some RPGs can be very fun and engaging even in a vacuum, but D&D really isn't one of those games. I think for D&D it's important to lean more strongly on the story than the mechanics, like hyping up the enemy before the actual fight.

Just got a physical copy of CoC 7th (and also Britannica London); good lord the Death Spell sounds horrifying, I'll have to use it sometime. My friends and I are planning a game in the near future. Can't wait to die horribly!

[QUOTE=Alsojames;50828534]Just got a physical copy of CoC 7th (and also Britannica London); good lord the Death Spell sounds horrifying, I'll have to use it sometime. My friends and I are planning a game in the near future. Can't wait to die horribly![/QUOTE] does it kill you?

[QUOTE=Antary;50827475]Combat in some RPGs can be very fun and engaging even in a vacuum, but D&D really isn't one of those games. I think for D&D it's important to lean more strongly on the story than the mechanics, like hyping up the enemy before the actual fight.[/QUOTE] I make the game engaging by throwing lots of curveballs. Like set rules for each encounter or an event occurs every so often. Or crazy wacky attacks and combos.

Any groups looking for another player by chance? Our roll20 dm burned out so now I'm out of weekly games, and I can't handle all this lack of DnD

Today in Deadlands: The Scientist has the last watch while we're camping, an emaciated bunny rabbit shows up and tries to cuddle up to him. He picks it up, and it begins draining the fluid from his arms, turning them black and shriveled. The rest of us wake up. The Priest shotgun blasts the bunny, the Martial Artist flying kicks it, and I(the Huckster) Soul Blast it. We roll a total of 65 damage, split as evenly as possible, with the Martial Artist getting the low-roll of 21. All at once. [B]It's fucking dead.[/B] Then the Priest walks over and we have a short argument about how Fate Chips may or may not stack, since he's planning to fate chip a healing spell to try and fix the Scientist's arms without killing himself if he fails. He ends up rolling a 37, total, after spending a mandatory fate chip from a spell he already cast. I'll just quote the GM, now. [quote]I can't describe that in a way that is worthy of it. Something very very holy happens and Doctor Docs arms are restored to functioning function, and he gains a faith level.[/quote] [quote]Flynn stares, wide-eyed, at the miraculous restoration of Hogarth's arms. Flynn: Uh, wow, Pardre! Didn't know ye had that in ye! Dr. Mordecai Hogarth: "What just happened?" Tuco Alvarez collapses to the floor, exhausted and crying. Tuco Alvarez: Praise the Lord. Dr. Mordecai Hogarth sits up, and stares at his own hands Dr. Mordecai Hogarth: "What did you do, Tuco?" Long Wang: "Èmó" Tuco Alvarez: I did nothing, hombre. I'm just the Lord's instrument. Dr. Mordecai Hogarth: "The Lord.. this was a real live miracle! I don't know how else to explain it!" Dr. Mordecai Hogarth hops up onto his feet, and jumps with joy excitedly Dr. Mordecai Hogarth: "A MIRACLE PADRE! AHAHA!" Tuco Alvarez: Praise Jesus. Dr. Mordecai Hogarth: "Yes! Praise Jesus! He's real! It's CONFIRMED! YOU ALL SAW IT!" Flynn: I dunno what I saw, fer sure.[/quote]

Today in Deadlands, our scientist got his arms jacked up something fierce by a rabbit. Out blessed mexican preist had 5d12 to heal it, but the target number was 18. In Deadlands you only keep one die that you roll, but if you roll the highest possible that die gets rerolled and the result added to the original roll. So he'd have to roll a 12, and then at least a 6 on one of his five dice. And if he didn't he'd die and the doctors arms would never be healed. A very long time was spent arguing about whether you could stack fate chips. Then when he finally rolled he got a fucking 26 [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYpz3abAk98[/media] [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] fuck you rats

[QUOTE=DiscoInferno;50828810]does it kill you?[/QUOTE] Nah, he's just playing CoC, PC's tend to die left and right usually. (besides the 3d10 insanity hehe) [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] At least, in my campaigns they do :v:

so finally going to be GMing something again it's been all of like... 48 hours and I've already completely rewritten Mongoose Traveller's spaceship system to work with a map and have more variety I am so productive I'm actually ruining my wrist with how fast I've been typing god I missed this feeling

[QUOTE=Confuzzed Otto;50829695]Any groups looking for another player by chance? Our roll20 dm burned out so now I'm out of weekly games, and I can't handle all this lack of DnD[/QUOTE] I am on this same boat

So, the thought occurred to me: Wouldn't "Hack the Planet" be a great idea for a game, in some way, especially if expanded to include more types of hackers than just Basement Wizards (like the protagonist of Watch Dogs)? On one hand, you can you have that one "Press 1 to Explode Helicopter" action for a fun power trip, on the other hand you are just some nerd in the basement. Or a nerd in a trenchcoat running around and turning off lights, only to realize that he's in the wrong neighborhood. Yes, it's much like playing Shadowrun deckers, although having a bit more in-depth system for hacking, as well as making setting-free would make for a pretty okay RPG. Just imagine it: "Basement Wizards: An exciting game of hacks, cheetos, and terrible sanitation". Maybe I'm overthinking it's merits, though.

[QUOTE=gufu;50831909]So, the thought occurred to me: Wouldn't "Hack the Planet" be a great idea for a game, in some way, especially if expanded to include more types of hackers than just Basement Wizards (like the protagonist of Watch Dogs)? On one hand, you can you have that one "Press 1 to Explode Helicopter" action for a fun power trip, on the other hand you are just some nerd in the basement. Or a nerd in a trenchcoat running around and turning off lights, only to realize that he's in the wrong neighborhood. Yes, it's much like playing Shadowrun deckers, although having a bit more in-depth system for hacking, as well as making setting-free would make for a pretty okay RPG. Just imagine it: "Basement Wizards: An exciting game of hacks, cheetos, and terrible sanitation". Maybe I'm overthinking it's merits, though.[/QUOTE] [t]http://www.drivethrurpg.com/images/4261/124155.jpg[/t] Basically. [sp]Except instead of the internet police, your biggest enemy is Angels.[/sp] [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] I'm not kidding, both types of hackers can be done pretty easily. Basement Wizards as just Stigmatics or Psychopomp Demons with dots in Computer and optionally any Embeds/Exploits that use Computer, the other sort as basically any kind of Demon, especially those with Computer-related powers. [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] Granted, if you don't like CofD's mechanics and/or weird supernatural stuff, it's not gonna work quite as well.

[QUOTE=gufu;50831909]So, the thought occurred to me: Wouldn't "Hack the Planet" be a great idea for a game, in some way, especially if expanded to include more types of hackers than just Basement Wizards (like the protagonist of Watch Dogs)? On one hand, you can you have that one "Press 1 to Explode Helicopter" action for a fun power trip, on the other hand you are just some nerd in the basement. Or a nerd in a trenchcoat running around and turning off lights, only to realize that he's in the wrong neighborhood. Yes, it's much like playing Shadowrun deckers, although having a bit more in-depth system for hacking, as well as making setting-free would make for a pretty okay RPG. Just imagine it: "Basement Wizards: An exciting game of hacks, cheetos, and terrible sanitation". Maybe I'm overthinking it's merits, though.[/QUOTE] Can you make hacking a team effort, and a task more involved than bruteforcing passwords? What would be the goal of the party, who would they hack and why? What would they achieve at the end of it?

[QUOTE=DiscoInferno;50832204]Can you make hacking a team effort, and a task more involved than bruteforcing passwords? What would be the goal of the party, who would they hack and why? What would they achieve at the end of it?[/QUOTE] For that, we need a few kinds of hackers as "classes" - that way everyone more or less has a role. Basement Wizard - Sit back and type away the trouble. This is the asshole from Die Hard 4 which had power and vidja while the power was out in most of US. They've got their bunker full of gear, snacks, and ex-IRA mom bitching at them once in a while. Those are the guy who run mission control and general breaking, if the server if for some reason connected to the internet. Are very attached to their dektops, even if they are about to be swatted. Black Hat - Some asshole who hangs out with your group because you still play 1.6, who leads the distraction actions. Overloads servers with emails and pings from the botnet he controls. Is the creep who asks to install his worms on every machine you ever come by, especially any laptops in possession of attractive women. May or may not be indebted to mafia of some sort. Also a great source of shady contracts. White Hat - Your guy on the inside. Actual person working in a large company, likely in IT position. Great because he's probably unsupervised, and runs the torrents right on their networks - as well as bounces all the team's traffic through the place like a node. Sure, he has to do his job once in a while and someone's gonna notice the network being heavily used around 3AM - but no one said it will be easy. Actually gets legally paid and if the team needs to hide, they'll probably crash at his place. Leather Jacket - This guy is actually the most action-oriented of the classes. Think protagonist of Watch Dogs. Actually tends to do illegal things, gets in lethal firefights, and operates in regards to his hacking capabilties in a different way - he practically loads his hacks before he leaves, and fires them off Sorceror style. Alternatively, he prepares specific hack types, and his phone battery is literally his mana pool - once it's out, out comes mister crowbar. May be needed to establish connections of all sorts. Face - A more social approach approach to hacker, and a Leather Jacket of public. This would be the person who would approach the target and start flirting with them or tell them that they are on candid camera. They'll ask them about their family, their dog, and their first love. Exactly the things the teammates need to recover the passwords the target has. Although they have actual skills in hacking, their primary role is to put up a facade on the group's actions, sometimes going a bit too far. There could be a few more, and depending on the setting you can try to go for a VR diver or something. As for actual hacking mechanics, those would have to be well developed, I'll try to get some ideas out at later point. [editline]5th August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Rats808;50832071]Granted, if you don't like CofD's mechanics and/or weird supernatural stuff, it's not gonna work quite as well.[/QUOTE] Could always call the splat "Daemon".

[QUOTE=Rats808;50832071][t]http://www.drivethrurpg.com/images/4261/124155.jpg[/t] Basically. [sp]Except instead of the internet police, your biggest enemy is Angels.[/sp] [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] I'm not kidding, both types of hackers can be done pretty easily. Basement Wizards as just Stigmatics or Psychopomp Demons with dots in Computer and optionally any Embeds/Exploits that use Computer, the other sort as basically any kind of Demon, especially those with Computer-related powers. [editline]4th August 2016[/editline] Granted, if you don't like CofD's mechanics and/or weird supernatural stuff, it's not gonna work quite as well.[/QUOTE] hello this is oWoD Mage calling we want our technocrats back preferably in original condition rather than gimped and mutilated like this

I made it out of Barovia alive! I only fell unconscious once, but I exacted my revenge on the guy who put me down by locking him in a room with Hunger of Hadar cast inside. Anyway, we actually failed to kill the big bad boss. We didn't get a TPK, but rather a TPC. A total party charm lol. It was a rather quick fight though. The boss had cast some death cloud thing on one half of the room, and I cast Hunger of Hadar on the other half, leaving only 4 squares of safe zone. Two of us + the boss had moved into the save zone, but for some reason our 3rd player decided to leave the area completely which basically wasted her turn. I was the first to be charmed, then our dragonborn was knocked unconscious, then our rogue/monk was charmed. The boss ended up flying away after "defeating" us, so we didn't get any special rewards from that. But I don't care, I managed to leave Barovia forever.

I feel like the ASOIAF rpg never gets enough love for how popular it should be. Its rules are so perfect for its setting, and its setting is so popular that it should be a crazy popular game, but i rarely ever hear of it being played.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;50850104]I feel like the ASOIAF rpg never gets enough love for how popular it should be. Its rules are so perfect for its setting, and its setting is so popular that it should be a crazy popular game, but i rarely ever hear of it being played.[/QUOTE] Because no one wants to touch that cluster fuck of a setting with a barge pole.

god it's good to be GMing traveller again thanks to my simplified ship-creation system it only took like an hour for everyone to decide on the ship and how to outfit it (they took the biggest combat ship they could afford, put on a huge broadside of neutron blasters and some more dinky electron blaster turrets, then filled the rest of their gun slots with cheap missile racks) so we actually managed to have a small session in the time I'd allotted for just all the last-minute prepwork so they have a job to help some scientists explore some ancient precursor station in an uncharted system, and we left off shortly after one of the scientists put his hand through something he shouldn't have, breaching his vaccsuit. And something is now in his system destroying his blood cells, and the party was attempting to treat him when we left off and I basically flew the whole thing by year because it's traveller and improvising stuff for that is easy as hell and god damn it is good to be running something scifi again

[QUOTE=UzumakaiPatch;50851122]Because no one wants to touch that cluster fuck of a setting with a barge pole.[/QUOTe] If youre referring to the fact that the worldbuilding is so sprawling and massive that practically everything is documented, and so theres no "wiggle-room" in the canon, then theres an easy situation to that. Fuck the canon. Replace one of the houses in the games with your made up house, start at any point you want, and let your players change the course of the series. Too often people try to create a game and dance around canon, making it untouchable, but theres no fun in that. Have your PC's kill Cersei. Have them seduce Robb. Who cares?

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;50850104]I feel like the ASOIAF rpg never gets enough love for how popular it should be. Its rules are so perfect for its setting, and its setting is so popular that it should be a crazy popular game, but i rarely ever hear of it being played.[/QUOTE] No wizards/10 [editline]9th August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;50852659]If youre referring to the fact that the worldbuilding is so sprawling and massive that practically everything is documented, and so theres no "wiggle-room" in the canon, then theres an easy situation to that. Fuck the canon. Replace one of the houses in the games with your made up house, start at any point you want, and let your players change the course of the series. Too often people try to create a game and dance around canon, making it untouchable, but theres no fun in that. Have your PC's kill Cersei. Have them seduce Robb. Who cares?[/QUOTE] But then it's no longer ASOIAF, that's just alternate reality ASOIAF which is not nearly as popular

So my Kronk character was just eaten by his ship, amalgamating into one of the most horrifyingly evil entities on the entire plane. *sniff* I'm so proud. In other news, one of my party members was abducted by a UFO and I'm starting to question my DM's sanity.

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;50853447]So my Kronk character was just eaten by his ship, amalgamating into one of the most horrifyingly evil entities on the entire plane. *sniff* I'm so proud. In other news, one of my party members was abducted by a UFO and I'm starting to question my DM's sanity.[/QUOTE] how do you get eaten by a ship