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

[Judge Dredd]

There was some unintentional hilarity in separating the research skill (finding information in libraries and databases) and the scientist skill (doing lab research and writing academic papers). You could make a scientist that can make a thorough scientific research paper but have no idea how to find it in an online journal database!

Savage Worlds RAW has something like that, as hacking and electronics are separate skills. So you could end up with a computer hacker who can barely use said computer.

 

[AnOminous]

Savage Worlds RAW has something like that, as hacking and electronics are separate skills. So you could end up with a computer hacker who can barely use said computer.

I've known people like that irl, like autistic savant coders who can't do the most basic physical maintenance on an actual computer. And had to fix numerous such catastrophic attempts.

 

[sarna]

I've known people like that irl, like autistic savant coders who can't do the most basic physical maintenance on an actual computer. And had to fix numerous such catastrophic attempts.

A long-suffering IT professional of my acquaintance has a lifetime of stories about the difference between software guys and hardware guys, and all the bizarre substances he has had to clean out of the keyboards, exhaust fans, motherboard ports, etc. of software guys.

 

[Ah ha']

I've been reading one of the newer Shadowrun sourcebooks focused on the various police forces and all I can say is what the fuck?
View attachment 7124853
This thing is supposed to be a fucking patrol car. Wut?

Thats like the car equivalent of puffed up mandrill ass

 

[robobobo]

Given riggers, there's ample place in Shadowrun for a vehicle without any sort of windows that is instead studded with sensors and cameras that the driver just hooks their brain into. That AI abomination, on the other hand, is definitely not it.

 

[Brain Problems]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

 

[p1138]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

Depends on the situation. If it's some basic town guard and the rest of the PCs are still an active threat, they should probably deal with the PCs. If it's mindless undead monsters as you say that would be satisfied tearing the downed PC apart, then kill him. If the combatant is a trained killer that has a grudge against the PCs and would prefer them to not have any means of interfering with his plans, then kill them. Not every encounter needs to specifically planned to be lethal, but sometimes it needs to happen. Additionally, resurrection exists anyway.

Simply put, if there's never any threat, then why are you bothering with the "game" part of a Role Playing Game with combat?

 

[Tom Bombodildo]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

Regardless of system, if the enemies are capable of rational thought, I go with taking down other combat threats before killing PCs. Unless there's a clearly established routine of healing downed people to get back in the fight, it's almost always less sound tactically to eat damage from active combatants to kill people (provided resurrection exists). If any one of the PCs survives, the rest can be rezzed, and then nothing was accomplished. If an enemy dies to kill a PC, the PC has friends to rez them, the enemy might not; nothing was accomplished. An intelligent combatant would aim to incapacitate all party members so they can be killed at leisure, especially in a manner that would prevent resurrection. That is, of course, assuming the enemy is aiming to kill people in the first place and it's not thieves, guards, a paladin order, etc.

Anything with a will to live but no intelligence (animals, certain constructs, etc.) would generally prioritize self-defense over going for the kill unless somehow instructed otherwise. Even in the case of hungry animals, they know they can't eat anything if they're dead.

When it comes to truly mindless things like zombies, I just say that if you got downed by a zombie and no one is there to pull it off, that's your fault.

 

[Ghostse]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

Do the PCs spare any NPCs? Because the answer is always "no", Whining Players can go get fucking wreckt.

Serious answer: It depends on EVERYTHING. System, Game, Player, Enemy, Situation.

I'm very unlikely to delete a character in 4e, and disinclined to do so in 3.5e. 5e I tend to do it less simply because I only run 5e one-shots and megadungeon and killing a character is effectively booting a player at that point - if it was a campaign I'd be mad for having to GM 5e so I'd be murking PCs left and right.

But it depends on what's going on. All things being equal, enemies will target threats more than non-threats. But if the PCs have a nemesis, they might kill one. Mooks with smart leadership might focus down a single member if the party has been wading through them. An owlbear might want a meal and sucks to be you for you're it.

Anyway the issue with past 2e that character builds take so long and there are too many options to make randomized characters viable.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

disinclined to do so in 3.5e

3.5e, for the most part, is not a game where you really have to try to kill a PC. A character dies at -10 hit points and sometimes that Orc with a great axe crits the moderately injured barbarian and rolls enough to off him.

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

I'm a bit of a murderous bastard but I restrain myself until I know the party has some sort of access to raise dead, even so I tend to hint at temples giving quests to help pay for it. That works out really well because I get to feature whatever bizarre religious sect I've cooked up at the time and I also get a free adventure hook that is probably not going to be ignored by the party (they'll surprise you sometimes though.).

I really like the idea of some asshole deliberately pointing out a member of the party and saying something like, "I don't care if the rest of them drag you to hell, but you WILL drag that one with you!". Changes the dynamic of the fight so that whoever that guy points at (preferably a player with a good attitude when you don't have the luxury of playing with a group without someone emotionally stunted) is now forced to deal with the fact that he's the main target. Dropping may just mean death because the other goblins will jump on and stab you, the rest of the party has to shift their focus to protecting someone and dealing with interference by the ogre who would rather push and grapple fighter away from helping than actually hurting him. Sets up one hell of a scene.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

A lot of slack jawed faggots in this thread. Do your players take turns pegging you between sessions, also?

 

[Imperial Citizen]

Salutations, farmers. I do declare that Dice Scum will be reviewing Deadlands: The South. Enjoy the tale of how the Confederacy supports the glorious cause of manumission and giving black men the right to vote, invalidating the entire reason for the Civil War!

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

I spared a player once because we were only a few sessions in and I didn't want to make him reroll so early, but after that I made it clear that anyone who went down better have a backup character ready, because the gods were no longer feeling merciful. I've also cautioned all the players in my current campaign to get ready for PC death and to prep a backup because one of them got mangled in the very first fight and it's only going to get worse from there.

 

[The Ugly One]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

Just be consistent. In my games, undead always fall on their prey. Wild animals are trying to survive. Sentient creatures in 5e know what whack-a-mole combat healing is (doesn't work in ACKS). Multi-attacking creatures always use all their attacks on the same creature.

 

[strawberry15]

Do the PCs spare any NPCs? Because the answer is always "no", Whining Players can go get fucking wreckt.

In my current pf1e game, some of the characters are buddhists (the setting is oriental) so for 5 session, they manage to not kill everyone in the game aside from a dire boar because they are feracious and will not stop until dead.

 

[Adamska]

How does this thread (PCs/GMs alike) feel about finishing off downed characters? Specifically in the context of (((5e)))? I was hearing a trip report from a friend about a session from a bit ago where he described the DM killing off a PC that had me doing the indecisive Larry David meme. Without getting too deep into it my understanding is that, the situation basically had a player get knocked unconscious through regular combat, fail a death save, and then have the enemies take the next turn straight up murdering him.

From a DM perspective I think the context of undead monsters preferring to tear into the victim in front of them rather than than just arbitrarily stop because the dude fell over makes sense because they're not geniuses, they're evil bloodthirsty monsters. On the other hand it feels kind of mean to delete a PC in this way when you could argue the creatures were being menaces by other party members too and they are "choosing" to kill someone than defend themselves?

Overall I'm leaning on the side that making PCs fear for their lives is a Good Thing Actually and shows that maybe you cant just run into every situation and sit there face-tanking damage without a care in the world, especially in 5e where the power level of PCs is wild.

Depends on the monster and/or the motivations of the beings doing the attacks in my experience.

If the enemy is sentient, I base their decisions on how the sentients in my game would work and their reasons. A roving Orc band for example might kill them for food, but they could also just leave them out cold so they can take them for slaves later. I tend to usually go for the latter here.

Bandits might choose to parlay a knock down into getting something off of them, since killing a party member is disadvantageous to getting the rest of them free, or they might think to get away with some GP and the knowledge to not fuck with them again if they prove to be too hard to take on.

Some magical beasts might just beat the shit out of them for showing disrespect rather than kill them, particularly beings that are more good aligned in nature... or want them alive to torture them if evil in inclination.

However sometimes they will just straight murk you. Assassins would guarantee at least a partial success on contract for example. A canny pirate might not give a shit if the wizard's down; he might slit their throat because he wants no surprise fireballs caused by a healing.

In this case, I'd probably rule that if they aren't intelligent, then the dead probably would just kill them on the spot tbh. A smarter undead, such as a ghoul, might go "need to ensure the rest are stopped before I go dead-dead again!", but a zombie has no thoughts, only hunger. They're mindless monsters after all, and the necromancer or cursed earth might want more corpses to animate later.

I will state I tend to have one or two training wheel sessions where unless you're really fucking stupid or trying to abuse it, then you probably won't die then and there. I've had that tested once, and the dice were lucky that their stupidity did not merit a first session death.

 

[The Ugly One]

I like the ACKS approach a lot better than 5e, because in 5e, it's a strict binary. Either warriors pop back up, no wounds, no scars, ready to go immediately, or they die. In ACKS, if a player drops to 0 HP, once the combat is over, you roll on a table to determine what happened. The player may be dead as a doornail, he may need a week of bed rest, or, very rarely, just rattled a bit and ready to keep adventuring. You also roll to see what wound he sustained. He might permanently lose an eye and suffer a penalty to ranged attacks. It might be the loss of CON points, with permanent max HP loss. The fact that every high-level character has taken some knocks means most characters have some baggage by that point.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I doubt everyone's read all 866 pages.

 

[AnOminous]

If the enemy is sentient, I base their decisions on how the sentients in my game would work and their reasons. A roving Orc band for example might kill them for food, but they could also just leave them out cold so they can take them for slaves later. I tend to usually go for the latter here.

Mind flayers often just take the first desirable brain they get knocked out and then abscond with the victim for a long, slow life of slavery and occasional brain nibbling.

 

[Illumithotty]

I will state I tend to have one or two training wheel sessions where unless you're really fucking stupid or trying to abuse it, then you probably won't die then and there. I've had that tested once, and the dice were lucky that their stupidity did not merit a first session death.

I usually try to take a similar approach, but with NPCs. It just feels like most people won't mind if there's just a sudden run of bad luck that kills their characters, compared to going into a helpless position that then leads to their characters death. Fewer people that've complained about the former rather than the latter in my experience.

So if there's a gang of zombies, a cell of assassins, or ruthless bandits, I do try to make the stakes clear by a helpless NPC take the hit first. Make it clear that the enemies are going to be prioritizing killing their targets as high if not higher than winning the fight overall. The second thing I try to do, if its reasonable, is make sure that 'downing a PC' and 'killing a helpless PC' don't happen on the same turn. Zombies tumble over their own shambling feet before going for flesh, the assassins survey the situation to make sure they're in the superior position, gangbangers crack a saucy quip before racking another shotgun round, etc.

I've also found it's handy for any kind of situation where death/debilitation can come out of the blue. The sniper shot from a belltower that'd be random luck to notice hits an NPC right next to a PC, the landlord doesn't think twice before opening a door rigged with a shotgun, and things like that. It'd be stupid if this happened every time or before every deadly encounter, but I've always felt it fits with what people consider fair play even if they don't really consider it ahead of time.

 

[Scream Aim Fire]

Anyone got any suggestions for any post-apocalyptic settings in DnD? I know there's the Dark Sun setting, and I think Dragonlace technically qualifies as well, but are there any others that I might've ended up missing?

I'm also taking a look at settings for Pathfinder as well; there's the "Broken Earth" setting for that, any others?