Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Ghostse]

. Later there were a couple of shitty street gangs having a squabble over some territory, the team massively outgunned either group and I figured they'd just stroll in and do some social checks. Instead they full-on assaulted both gangs and murdered the hell out of a bunch of rando punks. I need to work out some scenarios that they can't just shoot their way through with impunity.

One of the gang members they murdered had an undercover officer/agent. Gang territory beef was a cover for some sort of powerplay. Parent org is very displeased about the loss of their asset and expects the party to make them whole.

The party can't just go in guns blazing because Parent Org needs the person on the other end of the operation alive - maybe its a double-blind op to get a mole even deeper in to a rival.

i.e. Things were supposed to go the Sharks were going to settle with the Jets about territory - one of the Jets was a plant designed to make sure some territory was under their control. This thing they secure is important to Rival Org's place, and the Shark's Rival Org handler is a Parent Org mole that Parent Org is trying to embed deep into Rival Org's power structure. This Mole was originally going to go negotiate with the Jets, get the territory back, and look like a compenent fixer who needs a promotion. By killing the Sharks and the Jets, the party has fucked up Parent Org's plans to do this. So now the party has to make good on making Mole look good, or Parent Org will turn them into grease spots on principal.

 

[Adamska]

I skimmed the Numenera stuff when it first came out, the setting itself was interesting but the system rubbed me the wrong way. It was a pseudo-storygame system with stuff like, "Oh, you can do whatever, but the GM will randomly say that you fucked up and if you agree you get experience!" Not nearly my cup of tea.

In the meanwhile I've been running a shadowrun game where the team is outright allergic to negotiation. There was a sleazy corp VP low-level exec that was involved in a thing that they were involved in, I made it dirt easy to find out the office he works from and expected them to go pay him a visit at his office and speak with him, maybe do some blackmail, that sort of thing. Instead they bent over backwards to infiltrate the housing complex he lived in, break into several apartments since they didn't know which one was his, then abduct him and beat his face for the information they wanted. Later there were a couple of shitty street gangs having a squabble over some territory, the team massively outgunned either group and I figured they'd just stroll in and do some social checks. Instead they full-on assaulted both gangs and murdered the hell out of a bunch of rando punks. I need to work out some scenarios that they can't just shoot their way through with impunity.

Have them start to struggle to find deals due to their attitude in seeing all problems as needing beatings, since Fixers and runners usually need to be deniable and subtle, and these clowns are obvious. If you want to be more subtle, then and the Johnsons that hire them start sending them on more and more lethal runs as distractions for the real team since they can't do subtlety at all and their rep is preceding them and noting who they are.

Explain after you kill several of them in this way.

 

[EnemyStand]

I skimmed the Numenera stuff when it first came out, the setting itself was interesting but the system rubbed me the wrong way. It was a pseudo-storygame system with stuff like, "Oh, you can do whatever, but the GM will randomly say that you fucked up and if you agree you get experience!" Not nearly my cup of tea.

In the meanwhile I've been running a shadowrun game where the team is outright allergic to negotiation. There was a sleazy corp VP low-level exec that was involved in a thing that they were involved in, I made it dirt easy to find out the office he works from and expected them to go pay him a visit at his office and speak with him, maybe do some blackmail, that sort of thing. Instead they bent over backwards to infiltrate the housing complex he lived in, break into several apartments since they didn't know which one was his, then abduct him and beat his face for the information they wanted. Later there were a couple of shitty street gangs having a squabble over some territory, the team massively outgunned either group and I figured they'd just stroll in and do some social checks. Instead they full-on assaulted both gangs and murdered the hell out of a bunch of rando punks. I need to work out some scenarios that they can't just shoot their way through with impunity.

My solution? Drop them into a literal warzone. Aztlan vs. Amazonia, Boston during CFD, hell, invent one. Then do it again and again and again. Extractions, search and destroy, wetwork, any jobs you want. When they whine to their fixer that they aren't mercs and they should be getting payed more, have their fixer shrug and say "That's who's hiring. You blew up a city block last time, so you're toxic to the suits, chummers."

Well, that's if there's enough of the party left to fit in a thimble after catching a round from a Dragonslayer.

 

[anti SJW]

An important safety message.

 

[Abella]

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An important safety message.

My biggest complaint about CR is they give an unreasonable expectation of what DMs are supposed to do.

 

[ZMOT]

I skimmed the Numenera stuff when it first came out, the setting itself was interesting but the system rubbed me the wrong way. It was a pseudo-storygame system with stuff like, "Oh, you can do whatever, but the GM will randomly say that you fucked up and if you agree you get experience!" Not nearly my cup of tea.

there's an official 5e conversion out there, might not be much of an improvement tho.

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An important safety message.

imagine your special snowflake hair looks like a blue shitheap that was shopped in, gg.

 

[EnemyStand]

My biggest complaint about CR is they give an unreasonable expectation of what DMs are supposed to do.

Especially since everything is scripted. Mercer isn't getting any surprise curveballs out of nowhere. The mark of a good GM is having your plans completely go off the rails and you can still keep things moving.

 

[Ghostse]

Especially since everything is scripted. Mercer isn't getting any surprise curveballs out of nowhere. The mark of a good GM is having your plans completely go off the rails and you can still keep things moving.

It is semi-scripted. The writing team come up with the story line and all the 'twists' and the broad strokes of what will be happening during a session are discussed with the players, but everything beyond that is actual improv and the player dice are not fudged (though Mercer does a lot 'interpretive fuckery' with the results if you pay attention).

Its an idealized D&D so people can imagine playing a campaign with friends because they don't have any.

 

[EnemyStand]

It is semi-scripted. The writing team come up with the story line and all the 'twists' and the broad strokes of what will be happening during a session are discussed with the players, but everything beyond that is actual improv and the player dice are not fudged (though Mercer does a lot 'interpretive fuckery' with the results if you pay attention).

Its an idealized D&D so people can imagine playing a campaign with friends because they don't have any.

My point still stands. He's not dealing with something like what I had in my last Shadowrun game where the players figured out how to get the Goomba Battalion to wipe out a Tamanous ring I planned for them to fight. The players do what they're supposed to do, the GM does what he's supposed to do, and losers with no friends think this is how D&D's run when it's pretty much the Dead Alewives skit.

 

[Corn Flakes]

It is semi-scripted. The writing team come up with the story line and all the 'twists' and the broad strokes of what will be happening during a session are discussed with the players, but everything beyond that is actual improv and the player dice are not fudged (though Mercer does a lot 'interpretive fuckery' with the results if you pay attention).

Its an idealized D&D so people can imagine playing a campaign with friends because they don't have any.

It's basically improv comedy following a loose script. The actual "splits" in the story (the stuff the dice decide) are already set anyway.

 

[The Ugly One]

Tucker's Kobolds exist to remind the players

It is semi-scripted. The writing team come up with the story line and all the 'twists' and the broad strokes of what will be happening during a session are discussed with the players, but everything beyond that is actual improv and the player dice are not fudged (though Mercer does a lot 'interpretive fuckery' with the results if you pay attention).

Its an idealized D&D so people can imagine playing a campaign with friends because they don't have any.

In real life, the players accidentally unsealed the lich's tomb when they're only level 3, and your clever plot of having them chase clues and eventually get there around level 14 or 15 goes right straight to hell, and now you have a malevolent Lich terrorizing the country, and anyway, never prepare anything, because players are bastards.

 

[Brain Problems]

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An important safety message.

On one hand they've brought a ton of new people to the hobby.

On the other hand they've brought a ton of new people to the hobby.

 

[Ghostse]

On one hand they've brought a ton of new people to the hobby.

On the other hand they've brought a ton of new people to the hobby.

Its not that they brought new people to TTG, its that they did it by convincing abunch of people who should never play D&D they should play D&D. Most of the Mercer chasers really want a collab story game, but instead they are shitting up D&D and injecting trannies and faggot prom.

I had a player who really wanted to play FATE or Storyteller, but because those are story games and totally just pretend, instead kept playing D&D and got angry when D&D wasn't made to be a story game. Mercer should be running Storyteller.

 

[BoobWhiskers]

So I don't think it's been discussed here and since I had to go dig this image up for another thread (the one about Mercedes Lackey getting publically tarred and feathered for being old as hell and accidentally saying 'colored' instead of 'of color' in a totally benign way), there's an absolutely horrific Discord I'm in where I saw this get posted. Apparently Thristy Sword Lesbians won this year's Nebula Award for Best Game Writing.

Considering the reviews of this garbage I've seen in here... somewhat unimpressed (if not surprised).

 

[Adamska]

Its not that they brought new people to TTG, its that they did it by convincing abunch of people who should never play D&D they should play D&D. Most of the Mercer chasers really want a collab story game, but instead they are shitting up D&D and injecting trannies and faggot prom.

I had a player who really wanted to play FATE or Storyteller, but because those are story games and totally just pretend, instead kept playing D&D and got angry when D&D wasn't made to be a story game. Mercer should be running Storyteller.

HAHAHAHA nahh, the Mercer fans would still find Storyteller too involved and lose their shit when the dice tell them fuck no or if the ST actually uses the rules and their bad decisions. They just want to LARP but without a plot that could *gasp* derail and force their special rip-off characters to face consequences or hardships they can't just talk or beat their way out of.

And TSL getting a nebula award does nothing due to industry awards being fart huffing garbage. Even then, congrats, you idiots rewarded a book whose classes can be summed as either abuse victim or abusers. Disgusting look given that domestic violence rates among lesbians are fucking high. Like 45% of them have gotten their shit beaten in at least once by a lover high.

I will grant there are TWO whole settings in the book which are pretty interesting, which was quite impressive TBH, but most of the book honest to god reads like if some dude who hates the gays tried to make a scam book to take their money since they know they'll fling money brainlessly

 

[EnemyStand]

HAHAHAHA nahh, the Mercer fans would still find Storyteller too involved and lose their shit when the dice tell them fuck no or if the ST actually uses the rules and their bad decisions. They just want to LARP but without a plot that could *gasp* derail and force their special rip-off characters to face consequences or hardships they can't just talk or beat their way out of.

We ran into problems with the Living World in the LARP I was a part of because of this. It adds a whole other level of "literally me" to it because the character is...well, you. I ended up giving up the Living World thing after a couple of months once it became obvious no one wanted their characters to encounter any hardship and caused the organizer to white wash any failures to complete story events (which happened a lot because...well, LARPers tend to not be in the best shape...)

 

[Adamska]

I just always thought LARPs were shit tbh. It's either you just sit there in costume waxing about how cool you are or UGG HIT WITH STICK. Also unless you're part of the central core, good luck getting shit to do officially.

Also you can thank LARPers for why 5e of the World of Darkness is shit too btw. The main writers and designers this round are solely Swedish LARPers.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I just always thought LARPs were shit tbh. It's either you just sit there in costume waxing about how cool you are or UGG HIT WITH STICK. Also unless you're part of the central core, good luck getting shit to do officially.

Also you can thank LARPers for why 5e of the World of Darkness is shit too btw. The main writers and designers this round are solely Swedish LARPers.

LARPs are fun when the whole thing is set up as a social event. Old-school Vampire LARPs worked great for that because the setting had a built-in environment where Camarilla vampires hung out pretty much every night and violence was strictly forbidden: the Elysium. So a bunch of nerds could get together, put on their fake teeth, and spend an evening playing the telephone game politics. I played the Prince's aide (a NPC) in a couple of sessions of a pretty long-running LARP and everybody was having a good time there. It's as much an excuse to hang out in character as it is a way to get anything done, game-wise.

I still wouldn't put LARPers in charge of metaplots or game systems, though. As the Swedes so brilliantly illustrated, that's a Bad Idea™.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

Every time I see what people are having to deal with how the races and classes are getting so watered down I keep thinking of this fucking comic.




On the whole CR thing...

If you want to use low CR creatures to challenge a higher party, like others have said, just give them a few PC levels. Nothing is nastier than a kobold with 5 or 6 levels of vivesectionist or rogue or just plain fighter that the party ends up fighting in close quarters.

If you really want to bump it up, give them a Threat Rating. You can use it as a +1 modifier that they can use once per round. Or act as a dice pool. Or even add an extra d4 to damage per level of threat rating.

One thing I have noticed is that for some reason the players in a lot of the games I read posts about or watch on Twitch/YouTube seem to think that they can just rest for as long as they want, wherever they want, with no risk to the characters.

I hear a lot about action economy and resource economy, then they're getting all their spells and powers back after X amount of encounters.

You rarely see them push through, or keep going after X amount of encounters. Nope. Just "We rest" and "OK. All of your powers are back."

Fuck, makes me glad we have some time keeping stuff and some time dependent nerfing of stuff.

(Have fun memorizing your spells. You need 1 hour of rest, then 15 minutes per spell level PER spell of memorization, max of 8 hours of study, then a full 8 hours of rest. Of course, this counts for the NPC's too, resulting in some pretty tense runs)

 

[Adamska]

Oh, and another cool thing you can do? Learn how each category of monster progresses in their growth and then boost stats accordingly if they can't realistically take levels of characters.

Don't like how shit a Darkmantle is for your gigachad party? Use this tool kit and augment them as needed to make them rattle and startle your party. Up their size, add a couple HD, improve their damage based on size, and maybe add a new effect and boom. Same monster, but nastier due to being older or augmented by some asshole wizard eons ago and they bred true.

I love using monster base templates and just improving them with progression.