Cpt. Stud Beefpile
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 30, 2022
That was one of the official expansions for it. I've uploaded all the official PDF files including Power and Light as well as all the unofficial character sheets I could find.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)
- Thread starter Surtur
- Start date
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- Jun 4, 2018
Huh, I remember seeing Engine Heart. It seemed like a fun premise, the kind of thing you could roll out for a one-shot or a convention game.
Cpt. Stud Beefpile
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 30, 2022
It had massive potential but the first time I sat down to run it I realized there wasn't a map in the back of the book (derp for not checking beforehand) I had to make everything up on the fly and ended up with a whopper of a headache by the time the session was over.
I actually tried to get Bethseda's permission to use some of their names and locations but being a young pup was too obsessed to realize I could just change a few letters and stop waiting for a letter that never came.
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- Nov 15, 2021
3.5 was all about powergaming, much worse than 5e. Except in that game, martials were trash, and DPR was less important than optimizing your build to plane-shift monsters into the Boiling Tar Dimension or whatever. Extremely online nerds will always like to theorycraft characters that sound awesome on paper, but are kind of "meh" in play.
The thing about 5e is that even pretty brain-dead builds are good with party synergies. Wizard casts Greater Invisibility on Champion Fighter, congratulations, you now have a damage powerhouse wiping the floor with enemies.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
That was my experience with Power & Light; great idea, great premise, decent session premises in the back, zero details on how one might execute them.
Cpt. Stud Beefpile
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 30, 2022
I have half an inkling to try and find the gamedev and see if he'd let me pick up the series; I used to have all kinds of ideas for EH but back then I was a broke ass kid with almost no Internet access.
edit: Internet archive shows the site last up 3 years ago and viralgames@programmer.net bounces. There's nothing else listed for contact info. Oh well.
Kalad Hovatter is also listed as a writer on the published book but his Twitter is last dated 2019 also.
You Don't Meet In An Inn Podcast Republic
Podcast Republic is one of the most popular podcast platforms on the world serving 1M+ podcasts and 500M+ episodes worldwide.
www.podcastrepublic.net
Has a few actual playthroughs of EH if you want to listen to it 'in action'.
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- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Gentlemen, time for some gamecrafting.
In some campaign notes I am writing, there is a mission to assassinate a prominent merchant-lord who is part of a cabal who facilitated the invasion of a kingdom, the king's death, and the installation of a collaborationist regime. The main avenue of access is a masquerade ball the Merchant is hosting, but he is supremely paranoid and will have all guests searched for weapons, tools, and potential poisons before they can enter, meaning they really are only allowed to come with their costumes. Even if some of those things are smuggled in, guards (equipped with longswords and gambesons) are patrolling throughout the estate and the Merchant is having everything he consumes tested to avoid any chance of poisoning. What could I do to give the party something resembling a fighting chance?
I've already contemplated having the searching guards be a little sloppy to allow for a few daggers or lockpicks to be smuggled in alongside the overt methods of magic stages disguised as walking sticks, but one of my big ideas was to provide rogues with a prototype hidden blade (though still renaissance-era quality) that would have advantage on concealing it/disadvantage for finding it during a patdown. Is this a good idea, and if so, how would you stat the hidden blade to make it useful while reflecting its prototype status?
In some campaign notes I am writing, there is a mission to assassinate a prominent merchant-lord who is part of a cabal who facilitated the invasion of a kingdom, the king's death, and the installation of a collaborationist regime. The main avenue of access is a masquerade ball the Merchant is hosting, but he is supremely paranoid and will have all guests searched for weapons, tools, and potential poisons before they can enter, meaning they really are only allowed to come with their costumes. Even if some of those things are smuggled in, guards (equipped with longswords and gambesons) are patrolling throughout the estate and the Merchant is having everything he consumes tested to avoid any chance of poisoning. What could I do to give the party something resembling a fighting chance?
I've already contemplated having the searching guards be a little sloppy to allow for a few daggers or lockpicks to be smuggled in alongside the overt methods of magic stages disguised as walking sticks, but one of my big ideas was to provide rogues with a prototype hidden blade (though still renaissance-era quality) that would have advantage on concealing it/disadvantage for finding it during a patdown. Is this a good idea, and if so, how would you stat the hidden blade to make it useful while reflecting its prototype status?
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2022
You could go with having a storeroom/armory raid as an important step to the mission to get the group proper weapons and armor. Also you don't need an Ass Creed knife if you want to give them hidden weapons. Simple things like wire or weights at the end of something flexible can be easily hidden in an elaborate costume and used to sneak attack someone.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
All those sound like good ideas, and I’ll keep them in mind as much as I can, though assume that the costumes are more fantasy formalwear than elaborate pieces of getup. As for the hidden blade, is more of a lasting gift kind of deal in my mind, a way to let rogues have an extra trick up their sleeve for future encounters by giving them an always-equipped weapon. If it seems too much, I will not do it, but I did think it would be one of those fun things to use as a “social” weapon for future jobs like the one mentioned.
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- Jul 4, 2022
Formalwear can get pretty out there and the idea is to have stuff like that hidden in sashes or cords. Also assuming this is D&D, I guess you could give the hidden dagger lower base damage but an extra sneak attack die?
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- Nov 4, 2017
Have them do it the old fashioned way: Bribe a guard. Or have one of the party members be a guard. Add in @Buckaroo 's idea of a armory.
But let me walk you back a titch.
Are you going to feed/have an NPC feed the party a variety of options, or are you wanting the party to figure this out themselves?
Because this set up sounds more like "give them a problem an a box of random objects and let them figure it out", but sounds like you are giving them options. Figuring it out themselves means giving them high options for failure, and that's not compatible with the usual narrative structure.
If I'm sticking to a modern "Heros are the main characters" story line,
What I usually do is have the players do a planning phase. I use or borrow the 4e skill-check system; set a time limit, then everyone goes around the table saying what they do, rolling, and determining success/failure until they max out the successes, fail, or run out of time.
In this case I wouldn't have a failure cap, I'd set a time limit, probably a fairly generous one. In this case I'd have different actions take various amounts of time and I'd gantt-chart the party's actions. When a player runs out of time, they are done. Have things like scouting, maybe have them try to get one of the guards drunk, talk to trades people who worked on the place, etc.
For prototype dagger, I'd suggest its hidden as a hair accessory ("hair chopstick" or part of a comb) and I'd say that its not a weapon, its a tool you use to get another weapon. Maybe have it made of glass or brittle crystal.
I'd say it either instantly kills (or at least does enough damage to insta-frag the guards) on a sneak attack, but the minute the rogue gets into actual combat, it shatters; when they tumble, it gets crushed, or shatters impacting armor, etc.
But really there are so many places to hide weapons in even formal wear. You can have a whip wrapped around your waste under the cumberbund. So many tassles and belts for garrotting. Throwing knives hidden in lady's fans. Poisons and potions in the ladies' handbags. Etc. I'm not sure on the gender mix of your party, but you do some cross dressing ("Va'arg is pretty half-orc lady. Why look? You no think Va'arg pretty? TELL VA'ARG VA'ARG PRETTY") or have the party's patron hook them up with dates/weapon mules.
anti SJW
kiwifarms.net
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The DM turned my cleric into an encounter setpiece today. Made things pretty interesting but also a pain in the ass.
There's a few PF splatbooks that really lean into sneaky stuff. You can get stuff like a belt with a scroll inscribed on the inside, or a magic brooch that turns into a rapier on command (and is completely undetectable while transformed), or a bracelet that fires poison darts.
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- Joined
- Apr 15, 2014
Jumping on the "Bribe a guard" approach, bibes don't have to be monetary. Maybe note to the players that the guards have had their booze rations cut because the Bad Guy wants them sharp. Slipping the patdown guy a bottle of wine could get him to 'overlook' stuff.
EDIT: This would also have the effect of getting some of the guards drunk, which could be useful later. Devious players could poison the bribe wine to further fuck up the guards.
EDIT: This would also have the effect of getting some of the guards drunk, which could be useful later. Devious players could poison the bribe wine to further fuck up the guards.
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- Sep 7, 2019
didn't feel as omnipresent tho. while 3.5 had plenty of munchkins trying to fuck with DMs, it was also easy enough to shut down from the start and wasn't the baseline of people (unless you knew the player was that guy).
5e half the time feels like signing up for a MMO raid (which can be fun, but shouldn't necessarily be the default).
but then that's mostly anecdotal anyway
if your guards are allowed to drink on the job they're shit guards and should be easy enough to pass. if they get drinks from random people they're also not very smart, after the first one died horribly in the past any of them should know better.
don't get me wrong, not a bad idea but I see that rather working on some bitch-ass underpaid city guard (which would also offer plenty of other options) than some castle/royal guard. from a logic and npc perspective the latter wouldn't be the one to fall for it/never make it into the job, the former might but should be more "street smart". drinking on the job at least would get him an ass-reaming from his superior the first time, and if his superior is ok with it it would just mean another shit guard, implying the guard as a whole has bigger issues (discipline for starters).
bribe also leaves a trail, depending what you wanna do and how much "noise" it makes (killing someone or stealing something important usually does) it suddenly gives the guard reason to fuck with you, like a little shakedown to keep quiet it was you, and even if he let you pass ratting you out might save him from getting strung up. might be an interesting story to follow, but not necessarily what your players (or characters) are after.
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- Apr 25, 2020
In 3.5e you could be fucking broken, but it required effort. And the GM's implicit consent because a lot of broken shit required rare items, spells or dipping into prestige classes.
In 5e, the numbers are lower all around and you're naturally fairly well optimized just by class/archetype progression alone, so trying to push for Maximum Performance™ is so easy as to be encouraged.
IridiumDragon06
kiwifarms.net
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- Feb 4, 2022
One option is to smuggle the kit in separately, as party supplies, and then need to break away from the party in costume, sneak into wherever the party's equipment has been stashed, kit up, do the hit, and get out.
Another is to identify a weak point (a wall only guarded by two guards) who can be quietly murdered the night of, letting the party in fake costumes get in and hopefully rush to the merchant before the two dead guards are found and an alarm raised.
Another another would be targeting the food tasters. This is D&D and there's magic shit; maybe you can get a poison made from the bitter tears of 77 widows of goodly men of the kingdom in question whose families fell to the invasion, which is harmless to anyone who wasn't instrumental in the invasion (so the food tasters literally won't notice it). Or you can attack the kitchen, hold it without an alarm being risen (which might be very possible if a lot of the staff are loyalists), and send a ringer with a poisoned dish. Or you can just break into the kitchen, steal knives, murder the kitchen staff, and rush the merchant before an alarm gets raised.
Finally, there's always just going loud; bring your full kit and multiple sets of costumes, rush the gate, kill the guards, bar the doors and crash a cart into them to make leaving through the front difficult, and then just use the terror, confusion, and fact that your PCs keep changing outfits and miming along with the panicking guests to keep getting surprise on the guards, and repeat until they've killed enough guards to start setting fires that can't get put out in time. Obviously it's very high collateral damage and unlikely to help the battle for hearts and minds against the regime, but if the PCs want to communicate "This is what happens to those who break break with our enemy.", going loud and leaving an entire estate in smoldering ruins is a fine way to do that.
If you offer more details on the party, setting, and any special setting-specific abilities the party will have and obstacles the merchant will have access to, we can get more specific ideas.
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- Sep 7, 2019
yeah, that might be another reason, where being a munchkin is so "accessible" that every retards thinks himself a master theorycrafter and goes after it. something you see in other mediums as well.
thinking about it, the people that do it now aren't the munchkins of old either, at least back then they had a certain "that guy" mindset and were mostly competent because they had to be (the effort you mentioned). these days it's fucking tryhard plebs, but without the ability, and worse that's not limited to TTRPGs - which I assume got infected from videogames after shit like troons done quick, streamers and casuals thinking they're hardcore gamers for beating a soulsborne, and then swapped over after cringical role and stranger things made it mainstream.
so it's probably less the powergaming itself that annoys me but the attitude of the people that do it now. maybe I finally reached full frogstatus...
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- Nov 4, 2017
In my experience, 3.5e is just as or more broken than 5e, but 5e is broken in a more consistent manner.
The pinnacles of 3.5e munchkinning depended on what you could get away with from the GM. With Locate City Nuke, you have to convince the GM that picking up ice isn't a standard action, that the spell is valid for explosive spell despite not listing a 3-D shape, etc. and if a GM is wise to the shennanigans, they can say "No" or later say "that's not going to work". And as you said, a lot of 3.5 game-breaking requires prestige classes or expensive items; when you toss out a lot of the splats & supplements and stick to core-rules only, or eliminate/constrain prestige classes, or even just put limits on magic items, the worst of it goes away (And you're left with normal levels of caster supremacy).
In 5e, the builds seem to be less stupidly broken and more OP - but OP in uniform and consistent ways. Crossbow expert is just in the RAW. Crossbow-damage cantrips are just RAW. There are so many places in the rules you'd need to edit them to remove the min-max its nearly pointless, you're nearly rewriting the game.
The but difference is that 3.5e was released in 2000, and 5e was released in 2014. By that I mean, the internet had changed. While you had a few autists slap fighting about spells and comedy posts about things like the "Locate City Nuke", there weren't just repositories you could search up for pre-min/maxed character progressions, and as discussed part of the problem with 3.5 munchkinning is you need to know what you can slip by the GM, the GM has to approve it. 5e you can google up dozens of stupidly broken builds and they clearly conform to RAW.
One of my players for a 4e campaign complained that "There's almost no threads on stack overflow about 4e builds".
Yes bitch, that's a fucking feature.
The pinnacles of 3.5e munchkinning depended on what you could get away with from the GM. With Locate City Nuke, you have to convince the GM that picking up ice isn't a standard action, that the spell is valid for explosive spell despite not listing a 3-D shape, etc. and if a GM is wise to the shennanigans, they can say "No" or later say "that's not going to work". And as you said, a lot of 3.5 game-breaking requires prestige classes or expensive items; when you toss out a lot of the splats & supplements and stick to core-rules only, or eliminate/constrain prestige classes, or even just put limits on magic items, the worst of it goes away (And you're left with normal levels of caster supremacy).
In 5e, the builds seem to be less stupidly broken and more OP - but OP in uniform and consistent ways. Crossbow expert is just in the RAW. Crossbow-damage cantrips are just RAW. There are so many places in the rules you'd need to edit them to remove the min-max its nearly pointless, you're nearly rewriting the game.
The but difference is that 3.5e was released in 2000, and 5e was released in 2014. By that I mean, the internet had changed. While you had a few autists slap fighting about spells and comedy posts about things like the "Locate City Nuke", there weren't just repositories you could search up for pre-min/maxed character progressions, and as discussed part of the problem with 3.5 munchkinning is you need to know what you can slip by the GM, the GM has to approve it. 5e you can google up dozens of stupidly broken builds and they clearly conform to RAW.
One of my players for a 4e campaign complained that "There's almost no threads on stack overflow about 4e builds".
Yes bitch, that's a fucking feature.