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

Judge Dredd said:
What are those?
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Oh, shit! That might be a 3rd ed exclusive. They're basically an alchemical flash-bang. It's a thrown weapon that makes an extremely loud noise when it strikes a hard surface, potentially deafening anyone too close to the point of contact. In 3rd ed and pathfinder, they are resisted with fortitude saves, which wizards and sorcerors are very bad at, and while deafened spellcasters have a percent chance (I think it's as high as 50%) to lose any spell with a somatic component they attempt to cast.
God of Nothing said:
did your group actually kill it or just ran?
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Oh, fuck no. It was a Balor. They're basically the goddamn Balrog from The Lord of the Rings. Even the most benevolent die-roll-fudging DM couldn't hand a win to a 3rd level party. That thing would have had to roll a 1 on every attack to miss even our tankiest player and its minimum damage was probably bigger than that same tankiest player's max hp, much less the banged-up remaining hp we all had from having just finished a dungeon crawl. We tried to avoid it because our characters knew enough to know this guy was bad news, but he knew we were there from the start and killed all but a handful of us. The 2 or 3 lucky ones he allowed to live he monologued at and slapped their asses as they sheepishly crawled out the door.
WorldEaterChampion said:
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I'm going to give the Alien RPG scenario Destroyer of Worlds a run with some players.
It'll be my first time using the system, but I'm excited, it isn't particularly crunchy and so far all the books have impressed me with their depth. The other Free league games have all failed to interest me so far. I remember seeing the excitement when it first dropped but since then it's fallen to the wayside and I haven't heard anything about it since.

Does anyone have any tips for the system or scenario?
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Leafed through the core rulebook and the scenario on pdf, and this is a great rules lite d6 system. I love the idea of not counting round until your character is stressed out and mag-dumping into quivering meatpiles of enemies that were dead after the first few rounds, especially with full-auto weapons. Especially for a more cinematic style system, the idea of keeping track of how many reloads you're carrying is very streamlined, I like it.

I also checked the scenario, and it seems pretty solid. I heard some people ditch an event that happens in the 3rd act which involves the engineers and an over-the-top bombardment. Prometheus was a very divisive movie for the Alien franchise, so if your group is full of old-school Alien fans who hated that movie, I would probably excise that bombardment entirely since it's all Prometheus junk, or switch it to something like drop-pods of facehuggers. I've also heard it recommended making sure someone plays Dante because she's been secretly implanted with an embryo, and that's a great motivating bomb to drop on a player midway through the module. Chaplain, the android, also has a second personality that I would recommend giving to an experienced roleplayer who would enjoy the challenge playing a character with conflicting interests or just make him an NPC by default if you don't think your players would be able to handle the pesona-switching. I can't really say much beyond that when it comes to characters because I haven't bought the game yet and as a result haven't gotten my hands on the pregenned character cards. Speaking of the cards, a lot of people recommend that you do not hand them out to your players, as the cards have spoilers for the campaign on some of them. The big one I remember hearing about was Dante's card just tells the player they have a Xeno incubating inside them.

I'd really like to run this module with my group, but I want their first encounter with a Xenomorph to be a big surprise (like it would be for the marines), so I'm gonna have to strip all the IP-specific names out at least for the first act. My group is very genre-savvy, though, so they might put it together just on the art style.
AnOminous said:
At least in AD&D I just chucked sexual dimorphism for the main races because it did not add any fun. It really never even came into play.
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As someone who rolls their eyes every time they see a 90-lb 5'3" woman push-kick a 6'5" 300-lb roid monster through drywall in a movie because "karate," I never saw the point of cramming sexual dimorphism into character creation, either. It's fantasy. I'm pretending to manipulate the very threads of reality, we can pretend women are just as strong as men.
 
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Judge Dredd said:
I'm not after game recommendations. I'm just laying out my demands for a mech game, which I think are reasonable. It has to have mech building. It has to have other vehicles and infantry. It has to have something for the pilots to either do stuff out of the mech, or have skills that make them unique in the cockpit. Failing these, something loose enough that I can wing my own rules. Setting neutral prefered, but I'll run a stock setting provided it's not commie garbage. On, and it has to function. Sounds like a given but a lot of mech games don't.
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Sorry, you're getting a recommendation anyway, even if all you do is cannibalize it.
Mekton Zeta.
It's a lot crunchier in the mech-making than BTech, in fact you'll have to pre-build all your weapons in all the size classes you intend to mess with, and then you'd be well-advised to pre-build your mechs and vics, and you'd be well-advised to have a good calculator and spreadsheet handy,
BUT,
The basic game mechanics are familiar to anyone who's played either Cyberpunk 2020(its sister game) or 3.Pathfinder,
AND,
It uses the same basic rules for Human(people, androids, and light powered armors), Roadstriker(cars, bikes, battle armors, & protomechs), Mekton(aerospace, tanks, mechs), Corvettes(dropships, small buildings) and Starships(jumpships, stations, buildings, etc) and they can all shoot at each other.
 
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pootoucher said:
Mekton Zeta.
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Thanks. I'll look into it if I find it. I might also give BESM a look if I find that. I have a physical copy of the space add on (with mech rules) somewhere, as I imported it from the states years ago.

I'm giving Lancer another look, and the lore is terrible. None of it is gameable material, and it's nonsensical.
 
Maverick Vile said:
That might be a 3rd ed exclusive. They're basically an alchemical flash-bang. It's a thrown weapon that makes an extremely loud noise when it strikes a hard surface, potentially deafening anyone too close to the point of contact. In 3rd ed and pathfinder, they are resisted with fortitude saves, which wizards and sorcerors are very bad at, and while deafened spellcasters have a percent chance (I think it's as high as 50%) to lose any spell with a somatic component they attempt to cast.
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They're in PF1 and 2 as well. Alchemical weapons are pretty useful at low and even mid levels despite the relatively low saves, simply because they're cheap and surprisingly effective. A tanglefoot bag still cuts a target's speed even if they save, for example.
 
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Adamska said:
Greg Stafford, the shamanist who cooked up Glorantha, RuneQuest and whose efforts are why you have Beast Men in Warhammer and who is directly responsible for why Call of Cthulhu exists due to the D% system, and HG Wells, an agnostic and atheist who has published one of the first rulebook on minis gaming which would inspire games like Chainmail, would disagree with this take.

TTRPGs are neat in that they can potentially appeal to anyone, regardless of belief. The issue is when said belief, no matter what form of it, is sanctimoniously shat all over you. Be it leftist agitprop, or fake affinity faith LARPing, it's all shit.
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Speaking of RuneQuest (a game I know nothing about):


Sandy mentions how gods work in that game and to be honest I love the sound of it. Has anyone played it? Would it work you think to shoehorn them (or at least the mechanics behind obeying them) into (((World's Greatest Roleplaying Game)))?
 
Snekposter said:
I see no way that can work out badly for anyone. Its a brilliant, flawless plan with no downsides.
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BOB the servitor will be reborn in glorious, cross-species, cross-dimensional glory. I will make the fire caste regret destroying him when we file off the tau symbols on a battlesuit and slap on some aquilas. Gonna need to source some ceramic aquilas, quite a few, actually.
 
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Capsaicin Addict said:
They're in PF1 and 2 as well. Alchemical weapons are pretty useful at low and even mid levels despite the relatively low saves, simply because they're cheap and surprisingly effective. A tanglefoot bag still cuts a target's speed even if they save, for example.
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From experience, they're also funny as hell. The only time my players in our long pf1e game made use of thunderstones was by the wizard when he ran out of slots and both times, he crit failed his throw and concussed himself. That wizard had tinnitus by the time he died.
 
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Brain Problems said:
Speaking of RuneQuest (a game I know nothing about):


Sandy mentions how gods work in that game and to be honest I love the sound of it. Has anyone played it? Would it work you think to shoehorn them (or at least the mechanics behind obeying them) into (((World's Greatest Roleplaying Game)))?
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Some of them yes, some no; certain disadvantages wouldn't matter in (((WMPRPG))).

I've wanted to to make a more involved cosmology, stuff where you could see how people are dressed and get an idea of what god they belonged to (or at least how devoted they were). If you're a Harvest Festival/End-of-Winter Bonfire/Solar Eclipse worshipper you don't get a lot of benefits but also your god is unlikely to come around fucking with you for apostacy and breaking a contract with them. Pledge them your soul, you get great powers but a strict set of commandments to adhere to.
 
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Brain Problems said:
Speaking of RuneQuest (a game I know nothing about):


Sandy mentions how gods work in that game and to be honest I love the sound of it. Has anyone played it? Would it work you think to shoehorn them (or at least the mechanics behind obeying them) into (((World's Greatest Roleplaying Game)))?
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I've played it before, and yes that's how it works. It specifically works in the sense that the more devoted to your god you are, and the higher in the cult you ascend, the more you follow their path and beliefs.

And I think you could pull it off; Testament was a d20 RPG that did something similar within the biblical period of the time and did something similar with morality.

It has also been done before: the Wu Jen is an arcane caster from Oriental Adventures that has bans and taboos they must follow in order to access and use magic.
 
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Men in Black said:
Ironsworn and Starforged are pretty good.
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How’s the combat in those? Is it more crunchy tactical or make-believe bullshit “imagine the scenario instead of rolling dice and applying the relevant rules”. At least that’s how I imagine PBTA games go. Never actually played one before.

Yaks said:
I'll add this one to my list! The art style is charming, reminds me a little of the old school TTRPGs before they became big and got better artists.
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Yeah, it’s pretty fun if you want light decision making with some dice chucking. It being a card-based dungeon crawler allows it to have plenty of expansions that just swap cards out or add more cards in to simulate different dungeons. The art slaps, and the creator is working on his next game which is going to retain the art style but change up the rules.
 
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Warm Lasagna said:
Is it more crunchy tactical or make-believe bullshit “imagine the scenario instead of rolling dice and applying the relevant rules”.
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You roll dice, then imagine what happens if you have a success or failure, the same as other actions. I've never believed in doing math in roleplay. Actually, I prefer Freeform Universal over the Ironsworn system, but it's still being developed. Odd numbers indicate a failure, and even numbers indicate a success, with a better outcome the higher they are.
 
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@Judge Dredd Mekton would be one to look at, but also heavy gear. You play humans descended from Colonists on a planet that became independent when the government on earth experienced system collapse and went away. Various nations on this planet rose and they developed new, syncretic cultures until, one day, Earth and it's new authoritarian government showed up and said "Hey we're back in charge! What did we miss?"

And the locals collectively said "The fuck did you just say?"
 
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Tactical Wizard said:
,,, but also heavy gear.
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I forgot about this one. An interesting piece from DreamPod9/Ianus Games, along with its sister game Jovian Chronicles. I think there was also a videogame based on it?
It takes some getting used to, especially for the build rules, but it is a pretty crunchy yet narrative-ish system meant for squad/skirmish wargaming. Unfortunately, I ain't no expert in it,
 
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Tactical Wizard said:
heavy gear
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I know of it, but I thought it was a sports game. As in, the setting was a sport where mechs fight each other, and the PC games were non-canon. Good to know it's an option though.

Ghostse said:
And a saturday morning cartoon I was completely unaware of.
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One of the games has FMV cutscenes and tells an interesting story.


pootoucher said:
I think there was also a videogame based on it?
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This is mostly how I know of it. From a now deleted YouTube video, he claims that after losing the licence to mechwarrior, they bought heavy gear and made another mechwarrior game, just with a different licence. They supposedly ignored the lore.

The sequel is supposedly good, but doesn't work on modern hardware.

There was a modern game that stuck more closely to canon, but is a multiplayer arena shooter.
 
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