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

[Gingervitis]

Has anyone tried Lancer yet? How is it and how does it compare to Battle Century G?

 

[Corn Flakes]

I’ve been running a Fate Accelerated sci fi game for about a month now. I really like the approaches as opposed to concrete skills. But I’m a rules lite sort of guy and like things pretty fast paced. My Fate games go through two stories per session though. I don’t know if it’s my writing or the fact that the players move through things really quickly, but everyone has fun and that’s the important thing.

Fate is the one system no one in either of my groups ever managed to wrap their head around fully. Like... how do you even come up with and run an encounter in that system? Just the basic, a group of adventurers traveling somewhere and a small gang of goblins attempts to ambush them. How do you play that out in Fate?

 

[drtoboggan]

Fate is the one system no one in either of my groups ever managed to wrap their head around fully. Like... how do you even come up with and run an encounter in that system? Just the basic, a group of adventurers traveling somewhere and a small gang of goblins attempts to ambush them. How do you play that out in Fate?

Well, you run the goblins as a mob (mobs are treated like a single character) and they move first. Give the mob one stress for every two in the mob and you’re done.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Fortunately, critical successes of that level rarely make a difference. It does, however, lead to problems where you have a better chance of succeeding through dumb luck with lower skills sometimes.

I found it to be the other way around. Every now and then a PC will get huge numbers that instantly kill a boss tier character. I let them do it though, because it's funny.

The better chance at succeeding with low dice thing is only in specific situations, and even then, it's mild. It's something like rolling a natural 6 on an exploding d4 is 3% more likely than on a d6.

That or you're rolling DCs higher than any sane game would ask of you. You'd have to be trying to make a triple head shot while standing on a speeding boat during rough seas for it to matter.

Of course, you get players who are lucky or unlucky, but that's true of any dice based system.

Skills and attributes normally cap at d12, but if you play Rifts, you can exceed that; however, advancements of that nature only add a +1 to the stat (so, d12+1, d12+2, etc).

That's also why the game doesn't scale well. I've not played a high power supers game, but the mech rules are mostly d12+some really high number.

Only difference was I did not include exploding dice entirely because of that.

You can do that for Savage Worlds if you want. The official rules has a variant called Wound Cap where there's a cap on damage from a single roll. Third party books have options where damage doesn't explode for extras.

The problem you run into if you get rid of all explosions is that you have to be careful how you design encounters. eg. A d4 fighter has no way to hit a d6 (parry 5) opponent.

 

[ShitlordroltihS]

Always wanted to do a TES or Star Wars D&D campaign, since those are the two worlds I know the most about

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Picked up Feng Shui 2 a few weeks back, gonna run a one shot with it in the vein of "Big Trouble in Little China" meets "John Wick". Anyone have experience or advice for this one? Ashamed to say that it's one I never got into back in the day. Heard good things about it though.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

Always wanted to do a TES or Star Wars D&D campaign, since those are the two worlds I know the most about

I remember playing the Star Wars D20 about a decade ago. It was all right. The Genesys one isn't bad provided you download the various species and career folios from the Trove for ease of reference. Makes character creation go a LOT faster when you can just quickly reference things rather than going through several different books with terrible layouts. There are also online dice rollers to get around their stupid DRM dice.

As far as running a TES game goes, the best thing to do with a setting that doesn't mesh perfectly with D&D classes/spell system is to just wing it and go in favor of mechanics rather than trying to homebrew every little thing or you'll just end up bogging yourself down. That's how I did it for the campaign I had using the EverQuest setting. Also made for entertaining dungeon crawls because the old EQ dungeon maps are top notch and all I had to do was stat out various mooks, make up some random encounters on a chart, and homebrew a few special encounters to represent the various named monsters/bosses. It ends up being a lot less work than trying to pound a square peg into a round hole and coming up with unique lair/legendary actions is pretty fun.

 

[Adamska]

I remember playing the Star Wars D20 about a decade ago. It was all right. The Genesys one isn't bad provided you download the various species and career folios from the Trove for ease of reference. Makes character creation go a LOT faster when you can just quickly reference things rather than going through several different books with terrible layouts. There are also online dice rollers to get around their stupid DRM dice.

As far as running a TES game goes, the best thing to do with a setting that doesn't mesh perfectly with D&D classes/spell system is to just wing it and go in favor of mechanics rather than trying to homebrew every little thing or you'll just end up bogging yourself down. That's how I did it for the campaign I had using the EverQuest setting. Also made for entertaining dungeon crawls because the old EQ dungeon maps are top notch and all I had to do was stat out various mooks, make up some random encounters on a chart, and homebrew a few special encounters to represent the various named monsters/bosses. It ends up being a lot less work than trying to pound a square peg into a round hole and coming up with unique lair/legendary actions is pretty fun.

Apparently there is a TES fan game TTRPG somewhere out there. It uses the d% system since it I believe started life from Fantasy Flight's take on Warhammer Fantasy.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

The Genesys one isn't bad provided you download the various species and career folios from the Trove for ease of reference. Makes character creation go a LOT faster when you can just quickly reference things rather than going through several different books with terrible layouts. There are also online dice rollers to get around their stupid DRM dice.

I'm a big fan of Genesys, it's really flexible and I've always had fun with Fantasy Flight Star Wars. I'm not even a big fan of the setting but I enjoy it when ran. Core book can lets you adapt to a fantasy setting to so adding and removing different skills is pretty simple. You're not going to get super tactical combat with it, but you have a lot of control over the type of story you want to tell.

https://genesysemporium.com/ is a pretty good resource for making a character. Takes a little getting used to and it's not perfect, but you can add pretty much any custom skill or talent you feel like it. So if you wanted to replace the standard magic stills with TES schools it's totally doable. I've played it in person (yes I bought the fucking dice) and on Tabletop Simulator, which you can download the dice for. By now I'm sure there's a program to roll the dice with but you'll have to look around a bit.

Has anyone tried Lancer yet? How is it and how does it compare to Battle Century G?

Played in a shot lived game and had a lot of fun. Very refined system and there's a lot of opportunity for dynamic combat. Pilots have tiny character sheets you can do narrative stuff with. Has a very 4th edition feel to it. Never played Battle Century G, though.

https://compcon.app/ is a fantastic resource for character sheets. Not customizable like genesysemproium, but has all the information you need to run the game.

 

[40 Year Old Boomer]

You're not going to get super tactical combat with it, but you have a lot of control over the type of story you want to tell.

The most important thing to grasp when playing a Genesys system game is the best way to play is to ignore you skills and attributes and simply bullshit your way through like it's a B Action/Comedy. Sure, you may start a Netrunner setting campaign playing an android engineer, but you just wind up being Dr. Fisto, Attorney at Law, Private Investigator, and Black Belt of the 4th Dan in Krav Maga while running around in a labcoat and a chest cavity full of Semtex and morphine while solving all your problems by punching them and six sessions in you realize you never once fixed anything.

 

[Snekposter]

The most important thing to grasp when playing a Genesys system game is the best way to play is to ignore you skills and attributes and simply bullshit your way through like it's a B Action/Comedy. Sure, you may start a Netrunner setting campaign playing an android engineer, but you just wind up being Dr. Fisto, Attorney at Law, Private Investigator, and Black Belt of the 4th Dan in Krav Maga while running around in a labcoat and a chest cavity full of Semtex and morphine while solving all your problems by punching them and six sessions in you realize you never once fixed anything.

Isn't that most RPG's though? I mean, not quite to that degree, but I've got a character who I set up as a quasi-necromancer physician of EEEEVVIIILLL and all she's done with those talents is give some guys the evil eye and use her cyberpunk-endowed H cups to talk an old man into a discount on some magic books. Granted, its a very nasty evil eye with more adverse effects than a prescription drug, but still... How the hell can she be a physician of EEEEVVIIILLL if she isn't disassembling people for spare parts or turning them into newts?

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

The most important thing to grasp when playing a Genesys system game is the best way to play is to ignore you skills and attributes and simply bullshit your way through like it's a B Action/Comedy. Sure, you may start a Netrunner setting campaign playing an android engineer, but you just wind up being Dr. Fisto, Attorney at Law, Private Investigator, and Black Belt of the 4th Dan in Krav Maga while running around in a labcoat and a chest cavity full of Semtex and morphine while solving all your problems by punching them and six sessions in you realize you never once fixed anything.

I have to admit that sounds pretty fucking awesome though. I think I might bring this up with my gaming group.

Cripes, our plan A in most campaigns is just 'wing it'

 

[Snekposter]

I have to admit that sounds pretty fucking awesome though. I think I might bring this up with my gaming group.

Cripes, our plan A in most campaigns is just 'wing it'

Tends to work out... even if the outcome wasn't quite what you were hoping for. But its those times that make things truly fun.

 

[Stalphos Johnson]

I'm a big fan of Genesys, it's really flexible and I've always had fun with Fantasy Flight Star Wars. I'm not even a big fan of the setting but I enjoy it when ran. Core book can lets you adapt to a fantasy setting to so adding and removing different skills is pretty simple. You're not going to get super tactical combat with it, but you have a lot of control over the type of story you want to tell.

https://genesysemporium.com/ is a pretty good resource for making a character. Takes a little getting used to and it's not perfect, but you can add pretty much any custom skill or talent you feel like it. So if you wanted to replace the standard magic stills with TES schools it's totally doable. I've played it in person (yes I bought the fucking dice) and on Tabletop Simulator, which you can download the dice for. By now I'm sure there's a program to roll the dice with but you'll have to look around a bit.

I like to use this site for the Genesys/Star Wars dice.

Always wanted to do a TES or Star Wars D&D campaign, since those are the two worlds I know the most about

The SW general on /tg/ has a lot of useful info for all the games. I recommend Star Wars D6 or FFG if you're thinking of running a Star Wars game. D6 is real easy to learn and has tons of source books on any Star Wars topic or location for the OT and old EU, but doesn't have a lot of prequel information. FFG does cover the prequels/Clone Wars and I really like the Genesys/Star Wars system itself. The vehicle rules aren't the best, so I recommend grabbing the Starfighters of Adumar house rules that really improve it.

The Genesys general on /tg/ has a link to a bunch of homebrew, including an Elder Scrolls homebrew. I haven't taken a look at it so I can't say if it's any good. If it links to the FFG forum, you'll need to look it up on the FFG forum archive, since FFG shut those down a couple months ago.

With Genesys/Star Wars character creation, my advice is to always spend as much starting XP as you can on Characteristics instead of skills or talents. Good characteristics make up for poor skills.

 

[BlackDragoons]

So just started getting into the FFG of Star Wars roleplaying games.

We set it 10 years of KoToR 2. I'm playing as a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter that comes from a clan that are pretty much carbon copy of Predators. But they hire themselves out as contract mercenaries.

 

[Road Work Ahead]

Well, my cyberpunk 2020 game officially jumped the shark. I run a pretty loose narrative, pretty much letting the PC's lead and do what they want. Anyways, one of the players made an off hand joke about someone's character seeing a ghost of another PC that he got killed due to his incompetency. We ran with it and soon enough, they broke out a Ouija Board and were performing some Haiti Voodoo rituals. I decided fuck it, I guess we can roll with the supernatural stuff, and soon enough, one botched ritual later (they had no really clue what they were doing) they managed to summon something from the void.

I have no idea where to go from here, but I'll probably figure something out.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Well, my cyberpunk 2020 game officially jumped the shark. I run a pretty loose narrative, pretty much letting the PC's lead and do what they want. Anyways, one of the players made an off hand joke about someone's character seeing a ghost of another PC that he got killed due to his incompetency. We ran with it and soon enough, they broke out a Ouija Board and were performing some Haiti Voodoo rituals. I decided fuck it, I guess we can roll with the supernatural stuff, and soon enough, one botched ritual later (they had no really clue what they were doing) they managed to summon something from the void.

I have no idea where to go from here, but I'll probably figure something out.

Time to bust out the Shadowrun books, then?

 

[Snekposter]

Time to bust out the Shadowrun books, then?

I mean, today's Goblinization Day, so might as well.

 

[Gingervitis]

I mean, today's Goblinization Day, so might as well.

>tfw Goblinization Day happened and I still don't have a shortstack goblin gf
Why even bother living.

 

[Corn Flakes]

>tfw Goblinization Day happened and I still don't have a shortstack goblin gf
Why even bother living.

It was "Goblinization Day", not "Free Goblin Day". You needed to already have a busty human gf to goblinize, otherwise you're just SOL.