Around the table it's not too bad. It certainly takes a load off the GM. Remember that the robots aren't wild cards. They don't get a wild die. Otherwise they're rolls explode like normal.
Super busy day today. I'm a little fried mentally and can't check in. I'll catch up in the morning, when I've had some rest and a lot of coffee.
Hey, GM, could you point out where to find the "bad weather conditions"? I did a quick look and all I found was a (-4) penalty to tracking tests.
Barring that could you just tell us the penalty?
He said repeatedly it's -2 to ranged attacks, Survival, and Notice.
As Sun said; this isn't just bad light - it's like 30mph winds with 45-50 gusts at this point, and such, and the rain is constant and hard. The edge of the hurricane, basically. The worst is yet to come, but the day before one is usually pretty brutal
Yeah, it's always a pretty heavy downpour, with winds that do fun things like making the rain look like it's going STRAIGHT UP.
I was thinking today about running a gritty historical period RPG, perhaps during the crusades, with serious shades of gray issues for the era. Players can be legitimate noble knights, farmers picking up a blade hoping to own their fortune, pious priests hoping to do God's will, etc. - Whatever fits someone heading to the holy land under a king's command, probably King Richard as he comes to mind first.
Something where death is all too fast, like the real world, so maybe using the core New World of Darkness rules, Bu without the supernatural elements. The moral ambiguity of the crusades would be a major theme, obviously, Bu I'd want it to be one of more layers than that.
I dunno. I got the idea today on the way home from work and it's still in the brainstorming process. I guess I'm just sort of asking for ideas on where to build from here.
TBH the Middle Ages without the supernatural stuff and folklore is just the Middle Ages. Basically, a shitty time to be alive for everyone involved.
I personally wouldn't be a fan of playing that.
If you want it to be "gritty and realistic" you're going to spend more time having people roll up new characters than actually playing I think. Especially with all the disease and malnutrition and whatnot.
"My farmer wants to be a soldier. He has dysentery and has eaten nothing but corn and the occasional squirrel for three years."
*Dies in the first combat*
"My new one is a real soldier!"
*Sent to the front lines to die a hero's death by his king*
Unless you play it for comedy it's just gonna get old. Especially mechanically.
Yeah, Sun makes a good point. It can be tough to play a really down and dirty game that focuses on the realism of combat and all, because in real life people die a lot and from little things. Characters will either be lucky enough to survive through battles, or probably die from even a basic injury.
There are systems and such that can help mitigate it at the expense of some realism and that sort of thing, a lot of which revolve around playing slightly more heroic characters (although not necessarily at the level of mythical heroes). Even Savage Worlds falls into that a little bit: it's dangerous enough that a good shot here or there can easily kill a character, but at the same time PCs are heroes who have a better chance of survival than regular folks, and can (at least try to) do some things they can't. I've been cooking up a game based on the lore and tone of games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne that I plan to utilize the heroic mortal rules from Exalted to play, but even there it's assumed that you're playing characters who are well above the average human in terms of skill and potential.
Part of the issue I think is that it comes down to playing RPGs, where you're playing heroes. The scale of those heroes changes, and in some games you can die very easily compared to others, but in the end you just don't typically see games built around playing regular people. Now, wargames on the other hand...
Sun and Loup raise valid points... but as all of you may have guessed already, I'm game anyway.
You know, there's some appeal to playing lethal games. Plus medieval setting implies I can get to play a Deus Vult crusader or a northern barbarian.
That said, I must agree with Loup: a gritty and deadly game rocks, but the mechanics of RPGs imply that PCs face lots of enemies... which means that if they and the NPCs play under the same exact rules, probabilistically speaking, the PCs are screwed.
It's for the same reason certain rules like the well-known double natural 20 means instakill go against PCs, they will receive multiples times the attacks that they do.
To sum up this mighty wall o-text, you can count with me for every crazy idea you get. Except ponies. I won't deal with that. Unless I get to be the most beautiful pony princess ever, that's it.
P.s.- I think I haven't stressed it enough... DEUS VULT crusading rocks. Amen.
I suppose partly to clarify and partly because Emissary's said it, I'd be down for that kind of setting and even a grittier, grimmer tone to the game. I just don't know that it's fun or even particularly doable to run it with the players controlling individual humans who are more or less completely average folks, perhaps with some training or equipment. I don't have a particular issue with lethal games, I even enjoy them for what they're worth: the sense of danger and commitment is much more real in systems like (off the top of my head) Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness, or Boot Hill (oh Boot Hill, how wonderful you are). But it can be a drag to face odds that are more or less completely against you and there's no good way to work around them.
Now, in a slightly more intrigue-based campaign where things can kill you easy, but you can work around them if you're smart and careful? That can work very well indeed. I'm also not sure if there's a good system for it off the top of my head, but another option that could be fun would be something where each player controls a squad of folks, or even the players collectively control a group, determining actions of individual members as necessary. Losing folks would still be sad and the grim reality of death would still be very much there, but it wouldn't be quite as awful as losing what's usually equivalent to 1/4 or 1/5 of the group's collective ability every time someone dies.
I've been told that GURPS, at the lower point-buy levels, works very well for gritty games. Although, full disclosure, I've only played in GURPS for a couple of supers game - which I don't think GURPS does well at all. So I guess take that with a grain of salt.
Only moderately related, but I've been dying to play something akin to classical Conan's novels and comics for a while or the Princess Bride style.
After some high fantasy campaigns where you reach a level of power in which you either are fighting kaijus or armies at a whole, my simple man's desires make me want to stealth into a tower, kill some humans and animals and just fight the occasional abomination or sorcerer.
Alas, my good friends, one of the guys with which I play regularly believes that anything in D&D/PF under level 10 is squishy and boring. And the other one doesn't feel the appealing of a low magic setting in which a +2 sword is an artifact of legend by which kingdoms are won and lost.
#RantOff
In RL I've been GMing Primeval Thule using 5e. It's also available in Pathfinder, 4E and 13th Age. I heard that it might release later for Savage Worlds. This is a link to the Traveler's Guide which you can get for free at DriveThruRPG.com.
The setting is essentially Conan the Barbarian meets the Cthulu Mythos. So you get things like beastmen, snake cults, and evil wizards. Most weapons are bronze or stone. Steel is considered a +1 weapon and only dwarves can make them. And if a dwarf sees you with a steel weapon without a special tattoo on your skin, they assume you stole it and either take it themselves or hire someone to take it from you.
It's been a blast. We went for an old-school feel, so I had my players roll 3d6 in order. I even had them roll for HP. One time they stumbled over an old, moldy chest full of coins. They tried to carry it away down a steep hill, failed a dexterity check and it smashed open on the rocks. They pulled out burlap sacks and had to grab what they could before they were murdered by wild halflings.
Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. It's a great setting. Can't recommend it enough.
Shitty day. No update a bit. Sorry.
Hey guys. I'm gonna come out and say it - I've been dealing with some RL stuff that's had me depressed. I am burned out a bit, and having bad writer's block, and that's why this last week was update free.
I'm gonna slog on this afternoon and try to post at least one update a day until I get through this, because if the situation were reversed, I'd want you to. I can't promise my usual rapid post output, but I'll do my best and I apologize. I'm NOT quitting, bailing, flaking, but I will be slowing down.
If I share another group with you, please inform the others. Thanks.
I know the feeling. Take your time.
Nothing to say that Emissary and Sun haven't, so I'll say the same: take your time and do what need's doing. I get where you're coming from.
Thanks guys. :-)
I'll just echo the same. Hope everything works out in the end for you.
I know that feeling. Had to put my cat down last night. Had him for 14 years. Some days are good and some suck. The good part is that they tend to mix themselves up a bit. Be well.
I'm sure you're wondering "Why is Scruffy updating elsewhere but not here?" Long story short I will be tonight. I am having phone issues. Luckily all my stuff for this game is also on my computer and I now also have internet at home and not just on my phone.
Lots of overtime this week so combat updates as GM are rough cause I need to look up stuff. Non combat, another story.
If you can update rapidly around 6pm EST I'm gonna try to keep online regularly when I get home to plow through this combat and move the plot along. I'm very sorry about the delay.
I'm very interested in getting you guys to encounter the Horde again. The other group just had a run in with them, too...
Coolio. I eagerly await.
If Marcus dies you can test drive the robot rules as Fitz installs an AI disc you find.
That's pretty much explained by a hell of a lucky shot, probably through the eye into the brain or something.
Added some very preliminary robot rules to the rules document in case anyone dies...
There will be no updates for a while in any of my games. I have a major emergency.
No problem, man. Take your time, and good luck. Hope things turn out well.
Appreciate all your understanding. On Friday I lost my job, and had a major crisis occur with my family at the same time.
Ditto. I hope everything works out.
Family emergency resolved. Job hunt progresses. Gonna give you guys an update. Been a sucky weekend, but my wife is amazing, so the week has started okay.
Good luck. I know well how much the job market sucks diseased moose wang in Florida.
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After a long RL games drought, I've been hooked up in a promising short campaign where I will be playing Rexxar from Warcraft 3, with a long goal of establishing in our Setting a safe and peaceful kingdom for all things hybrid, mongrel and outcast.
I tell you this because it had rekindled my love of long term goals for characters and after a long trip on train I've been thinking about Marcus stand on this wretched world of ours.
Marcus won't only be -were he to survive- the Avatar of Rip and Tear, I want him to be a Saviour in the Wasteland, to say something.
So here come a few questions I have:
(Assume I count beforehand with Fitz's help for anything technological)
•As collectors of technology, do the Brotherhood have different blueprints of items such as power generators, lamplights and such? I mean pre war designs, not rust and frail actual ones.
•Would it be possible to build water purifiers? Small or portable ones, not industrial grade Rad-o-gones. If yes, what would be the necessary components?
•How about hydroponics and black light crop labs?
•Are there medical robots? Is it possible to copy an existing robot AI or Software routines? And to build our own robots, given we have broken ones or spare parts?
And that's all for now, I'm sure I will come up with new and exciting ways to try and fix the Waste soon!
PS
I've remembered something else, this time less selfless, but useful: combeads, walky talkies and such. Can we build, if we get two way radios, hand-free ones so we keep communicated even if we split?
The Brotherhood certainly does have access to the things you're asking about. Do they have it at YOUR branch? Possibly. Would they share it with anyone on the outside? Almost certainly not. Would they kick you out immediately and have someone hunt you down like a traitor if you chose to "borrow" them and do so yourself? Very likely. The Followers of the Apocalypse are the ones who would try to find/spread that kind of tech to the world. They butt heads with the Brotherhood, nonviolently, over this kind of thing all the time, as they have almost the same goals, but the Followers believe in sharing the non-weaponry tech and helping people. This is why Veronica can quit the Brotherhood in New Vegas to join the Followers if you prompt her enough and do the right quests.
Water purifiers? Yeah - Fitz even hacked one together in the beginning of the game using his McGyver edge, though it was short lived. What would you need? Meh, "insert plot point here" kind of thing. I can have you scrap for parts for it, but don't expect me to name all of them, as I'm not an engineer, but...yeah you can look for that kind of stuff.
Hydroponics are used out west in the NCR, and probably the vaults as well.
Yes, there are med bots. Mr. Orderly is a Mr. Handy variant, for example, and there are of course AutoDocs, though those aren't "robots" per se, but just machines. You can't build your own robots but you can find a broken one and fix and reprogram it and even have them as extras, but they won't level up like living creatures - you need to find parts to upgrade them. The other party has a Mr. Handy they found that was a school janitor they have reprogrammed and are currently running around with. Pre-war tech is supposed to be too complicated to build yourself, but you COULD make it your own by hacking it, etc.
Radios, etc. Again, kind of set a precedent with the other group saying that functioning power armor can have two-way radios built into them, or tracking beacons, as they have run into Mac and are currently hunting down some Super Mutants who kidnapped a few Brotherhood members, and Mac has radio'd base about his location, etc. Pipboy have radio receivers, but cannot send messages, though I don't think it would be horrible to add some kind of upgrade that allowed them to send messages as well.
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Don't be too angry at me, but I happen to be mentally challenged from time to time and completely forgot to update my Exp since we had 23.
We did earn twice, am I right? 3 exp this time and another 2 when we told each other stories?
So are we at 30 already or am I missing something?
Anyway, this next level up I'm boosting Drive and Persuasion. I think Marcus is getting used to both.
At 31xp, if you told a story. 29xp, if you didn't.
I won't be able to update my sheet until later tonight. But I am indeed taking healing at 1d4. It just keeps coming up. I might take hard to kill on my next advance. Not sure yet.
Anybody mind if I take the Plasma Pistol? I've been waiting for a Plasma weapon to show up this whole time. =)
Also I think my Advance is just going to be raising Smarts to d10. Then next Advance, Repair (or Notice?) and Energy Weapons go up.
Okay, all leveled up and what not. When we get in town I need to refresh our first aid kit and grab some stimpaks.
Hey guys, got a new job, and a better one at that, but that means posting will be slow as I can't use phone at work anymore. Just a heads up.
Sales. Of what I'll keep quiet, but nothing I'll reputable. My father and brother did it for years (my brother has like 37 charisma; he could sell a brimstone and shit sandwich to a devil and have him pay extra for the bread). I refused to without a base pay, but actually found one that is salary and commission to provide the security my uber conservative wife requires so I'm giving it a shot. Apparently the manager seems excited about me. I was hired really fast. I'm good with people. In small doses. For limited times.
I can fake it. I acted a lot in high school and early college.
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And I am now picturing everyone in the Wasteland wearing underwear fashioned from sewn-together dollar bills, without any sense of irony or grandeur whatsoever.