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

Do you guys have any good songs or soundtracks to use on things like roll20? I've been trying to find some that can be used for combat or in the presence of Orks, Severan Dominate troopers and possibly big bad Space Marines / Chaos for my 40k campaign, but I've only got Darkest Dungeon soundtrack as of current.

[QUOTE=Chayste;51044854]Do you guys have any good songs or soundtracks to use on things like roll20? I've been trying to find some that can be used for combat or in the presence of Orks, Severan Dominate troopers and possibly big bad Space Marines / Chaos for my 40k campaign, but I've only got Darkest Dungeon soundtrack as of current.[/QUOTE] i'll upload all my ambient sounds and soundtracks for you. 130 songs and 115 ambient loops. link: [URL]https://www.dropbox.com/s/dz6k9ohlmtyf3wg/dndsoundsfordms_matheusgraef.zip?dl=0[/URL]

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I've been trying to fit more ambient sounds in but I can't tell if it really works or if my players like it.

[QUOTE=Spacewolf;51046334]I've been trying to fit more ambient sounds in but I can't tell if it really works or if my players like it.[/QUOTE] Ask them? I used a mix of ambient music and actual music in the first few sessions of my Mage game, a while back, and eventually I asked my players what they thought of the music. The consensus was roughly 'its not bad, but having music playing makes it hard to focus on the game', so I stopped using it except when I felt it was dramatically appropriate.

Ambiance works best with in real life games, in my experience. Not as good for online ones.

I constantly play an ambient space mix during our traveller game it will never detract from your experience, it can only serve to make it better.

Everyone in my online group is always listening to their own shit when we play. I can ask them to listen to anything I play for them, but people like listening to their own stuff and I feel rude demanding they listen to whatever I want for hours. Nowadays I just focus on atmospherics and sound effects since that won't interrupt their own music. Straight music is reserved mostly for intermissions or prep periods (it's become a running gag to use [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399YneFTwh0&index=7&list=PLFD0B65AF1A236E8C"]Sims 1 music[/URL] for this).

TBH I kinda wanna run Demon: The Descent again, at some point, if only so I can have a proper game to use this song in. [video=youtube;-MoPZdmDERE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MoPZdmDERE[/video] Also the rest of the Utopia soundtrack.

What's the longest combat you guys have had? I've been in several sessions almost entirely dedicated to a single fight with the longest and most recent being an ambush that took four hours to complete (4 - 5 hours is our normal session time). Funnily enough I wasn't even involved in it. My character was doing covert ops shit away from the party and the DM didn't expect the exchange to last that long. He felt bad I had to essentially sit out the entire session, but I just browsed imgur on my phone and entertained the few guests with conversation so it was actually fine.

[QUOTE=Axznma;51047863]Straight music is reserved mostly for intermissions or prep periods (it's become a running gag to use [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399YneFTwh0&index=7&list=PLFD0B65AF1A236E8C"]Sims 1 music[/URL] for this).[/QUOTE] damn. the soundtrack from sims 1 is instantly nostalgic.

[QUOTE=Archimedes;51048874]What's the longest combat you guys have had? I've been in several sessions almost entirely dedicated to a single fight with the longest and most recent being an ambush that took four hours to complete (4 - 5 hours is our normal session time). Funnily enough I wasn't even involved in it. My character was doing covert ops shit away from the party and the DM didn't expect the exchange to last that long. He felt bad I had to essentially sit out the entire session, but I just browsed imgur on my phone and entertained the few guests with conversation so it was actually fine.[/QUOTE] I've had one combat in SR last two ~5 hour sessions (but about 12 seconds in game time)

[QUOTE=MenteR;51049540]damn. the soundtrack from sims 1 is instantly nostalgic.[/QUOTE] You enter the dungeon. The door disappears behind you, but you find yourself slightly richer out of it. The gaudy wallpaper walls surround you. There are fireworks in the middle of the room. You have an urge to use them.

[QUOTE=Nerts;51049573]I've had one combat in SR last two ~5 hour sessions (but about 12 seconds in game time)[/QUOTE] Shadowrun's combat time really is all kinds of nuts no matter how you slice it I recall once running a solo session for our street sam (during the rest of the party's misadventures in Japan, while he was still in Vietnam) where he took on a job all by himself. Even with my 1-pass = 3 seconds thing, instead of 1 full cycle = 3 seconds, it still ended with about sixty-odd combatants entering, and about 30 seconds later, nobody was mobile and conscious except for the samurai, a whole block had been obliterated by a car bomb with about 40 civilian casualties, and eight vehicles had been destroyed. Whole thing took about four hours I recall having about a six-hour combat sequence in Rogue Trader once, but that was split between a space battle, a mass-ground battle, and a boss fight with a chaos sorceress, so not really all one fight

[QUOTE=SiberysTranq;51049706]Even with my 1-pass = 3 seconds thing, instead of 1 full cycle = 3 seconds[/QUOTE] "yeah normally i can consistently do this thing in 3 seconds but whenever that guy who also takes 3 seconds to do stuff but boasts about being really fast is around, i just feel like waiting 6 seconds before doing anything again" - quote from a person with low initiative

[QUOTE=elowin;51049739]"yeah normally i can consistently do this thing in 3 seconds but whenever that guy who also takes 3 seconds to do stuff but boasts about being really fast is around, i just feel like waiting 6 seconds before doing anything again" - quote from a person with low initiative[/QUOTE] It was moreso that since basically everyone involved had similar initiatives anyway, and I don't like dynamic initiatives while GMing, I just reworked suppression fire and full defenses to scale with initiative without actually requiring shuffling around of numbers mid-fight, thereby allowing everyone the same number of actions and ensuring people weren't sitting out, which fit a lot better with the crazy action-movie tone of the game anyway

[QUOTE=Archimedes;51048874]What's the longest combat you guys have had? I've been in several sessions almost entirely dedicated to a single fight with the longest and most recent being an ambush that took four hours to complete (4 - 5 hours is our normal session time). Funnily enough I wasn't even involved in it. My character was doing covert ops shit away from the party and the DM didn't expect the exchange to last that long. He felt bad I had to essentially sit out the entire session, but I just browsed imgur on my phone and entertained the few guests with conversation so it was actually fine.[/QUOTE] the ork battle seen above lasted around 5 hours in the end i didnt want them to all die because of missing teammates so i just ended the battle with one of the dudes from another squad in my games

[QUOTE=elowin;51049739]"yeah normally i can consistently do this thing in 3 seconds but whenever that guy who also takes 3 seconds to do stuff but boasts about being really fast is around, i just feel like waiting 6 seconds before doing anything again" - quote from a person with low initiative[/QUOTE] PCs do get [i]retardedly fast[/i] in SR though, if you focus on it as a street sam you can potentially get 4 or 5 passes with move-by-wire and drugs, which is 600-750ms per turn, quickdrawing and firing a pistol takes half your actions and presumably half the time. Average human reaction time is 200-300ms. You can easily be pulling a gun out of your coat, firing, and killing someone by about the same time their brain has realised their eyes are seeing your arm move.

I don't understand, why don't most games go for a more realistic 10-12 seconds. It would also explain how everyone is able to throw about paragraphs worth of dialogue while in combat, at least a little better.

[QUOTE=gufu;51050172]I don't understand, why don't most games go for a more realistic 10-12 seconds. It would also explain how everyone is able to throw about paragraphs worth of dialogue while in combat, at least a little better.[/QUOTE] because that's not realistic at all if you're only throwing out one attack per turn, even the slowest motherfucker in the world can swing a sword a bit more than once every 10 seconds The problem is in many games there's a very large gap between how many attacks a shitty character can throw out and how many a high end fast one can. In Dungeons and Dragons, a low level fighter will be attacking just once every 6 seconds, which is ridiculously slow. Meanwhile a high level one can throw out up to 4 attacks in the same timeframe, even without counting dual wielding, haste or any other abilities that can let you do even more. Shadowrun starts the scale at 1 swing every 3 seconds, a bit more realistic for the lower end, but then it has a similarly large gap to the super high end fastness which makes them even more ridiculously fast than usual.

I mean, that's only true if you assume that it's literally a single swing, rather than a number of swings of which only one actually connects or connects and does enough damage. As for firing, it could include actually aiming the gun in the direction of the target, getting into a more favorable position, or moving slightly to get the best from cover (without actually fully getting behind it for Full Defense or suchlike) - although in case of SR, that doesn't make sense, since you only have time for 2 burst shots.

I'd like to picture combat in D&D being you clashing blades with your foe and each attack roll is you attempting to deliver a decisive blow. So basically you get this 6 second rhythm going on and people who take multiple swing develop a technique or a better eye for openings allowing them to deliver more blows in the same time it takes a less experienced combatant. Or something like that. Understandably, if you look at it for face value it does seem silly you can only attack once every 6 seconds, but you apply some creative imagery to fill in the blanks.

[QUOTE=Eva-1337;51050268]I'd like to picture combat in D&D being you clashing blades with your foe and each attack roll is you attempting to deliver a decisive blow. So basically you get this 6 second rhythm going on and people who take multiple swing develop a technique or a better eye for openings allowing them to deliver more blows in the same time it takes a less experienced combatant. Or something like that. Understandably, if you look at it for face value it does seem silly you can only attack once every 6 seconds, but you apply done creative imagery to fill in the blanks.[/QUOTE] Like most arbitrations such as this, there's just too many situations where that doesn't make any sense. Like any situation where you're not 1v1, for example.

Any combat system that's turn based is going to be unrealistic, it's better if they just admit it and roll with what works for the style they're going for

did a portrait for next campaign's villain. the cool thing about him is that he used to be a PC. [t]https://scontent.fgru5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14355756_1123662421058102_3058463517660169617_n.jpg?oh=e74259414aba56db1edc0b40c16543ef&oe=583B65BC[/t]

[QUOTE=gufu;51050222]I mean, that's only true if you assume that it's literally a single swing, rather than a number of swings of which only one actually connects or connects and does enough damage. As for firing, it could include actually aiming the gun in the direction of the target, getting into a more favorable position, or moving slightly to get the best from cover (without actually fully getting behind it for Full Defense or suchlike) - although in case of SR, that doesn't make sense, since you only have time for 2 burst shots.[/QUOTE] The problem with that justification is that a lot of the things you mention explicitly have mechanics that take up half or the entirety of your turn to do. Taking partial-but-not-full cover, taking a second to aim, moving, etc. I, as an untrained civillian can fire off two shots of a semi-automatic rifle in less than 3 seconds easily if I don't pause to take aim or for the recoil to wear off. In Only War, a game about being trained soldiers, I can only do that every 5 seconds. Sahdowrun's time scale makes more sense, being only 3 seconds. To be honest, I don't really see the point in keeping the timeframes mentioned in rulebooks as straight fact unless you have an exact countdown to be aware of (say, a space station self-destructing).

[QUOTE=Eva-1337;51050268] Understandably, if you look at it for face value it does seem silly you can only attack once every 6 seconds, but you apply some creative imagery to fill in the blanks.[/QUOTE] also this. imo, if the DM narrates properly then combat makes sense and becomes really exciting.

[QUOTE=MenteR;51036949]not pictured: the rogue.[/QUOTE] damn they're good

As alsojames said, the actual numbers for combat are usually irrelevant anyway except for things with set durations and if other things are happening outside the combat. It's not realistic, but tabletop RP's are in an extremely weird situation where they have something of an uncanny valley of simulationist effect (because, realistically speaking, a person is not aware of their general chance of success/failure at a given task, or the exact rules they need to follow to get what they want, etc) where systems that do try to get simulationist tend to end up being not only clunky and glacial, but not very realistic either because of the requisite metaknowledge to actually use them Or we could accept that time is fluid and that 'it takes as long as it takes' with the assumption that, again, bar outside circumstances, it will all roughly add up to taking the average amount of time. Maybe that round where the guy unloaded a whole assault rifle clip, dropped it, and pulled his pistol to start blazing away took five seconds. Maybe the round where everyone did nothing but run around from cover to cover took two seconds. It all comes down to what works for your group and is entertaining. Trying to add 'realism' for realism's sake rarely helps

Hell with realism. Go with the 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure' style of timekeeping. In that show, one villain fits minutes worth of bragging into nine seconds. Like explicitly nine seconds: he takes breaks in his monologue to mention how many seconds have passed. In that show, characters can hover by jumping into the air and then starting a conversation.