Great job with the association stories everyone. In fact I'm going to make a special reward called the...wait for it...Black Bennie (Whoa, Whoa Black Benny Bam-a-lam) Not sure how it works yet, but you can save them and use them for something really cool.
I'll get the first "real" game post up sometime tomorrow, and we'll get rolling. I'm going to be out of town on Friday, and Saturday, and probably not posting much, but Things should settle down, and really get rolling after that.
Hat's off, and looking forward to the game.
Deadlands uses 4 flavors of Bennies (ahem ... Fate chips). If you're not familiar, they are:
White=regular bennies
Red=ADD 1d6 to your current roll, but GM gets another bennie.
Blue=ADD 1d6 to your roll, and GM gets nuffin.
Legend=ADD 1d6+2 to your roll, or reroll a roll that can't usually be bennied, or gain one extra xp at the end of the session.
I considered using that system, but I'd really like to differentiate the Black Bennies from the others, and make them more a RP benefit, than an actual mechanics benefit. I'm thinking of using them as a type of Serendipity interruption.
For example: The PC just took a wound which exploded and did 34 points of damage to him. He might spend his black benny, and by explaining how it happened, avoid the situation.
"Suddenly a strange whistling moan filled the air, and flaming blob of matter from the heavens fell from the sky striking the sword from the villains hands, just before the inevitable killing stroke."
or
The party was trapped in a dead end situation, unarmed, while the bandit gang approached, when suddenly "whoever spends the black benny" notices a wooden trap door in the ground beneath them.
You will be rewarded black bennies for doing something really cool, and in character...storytelling moments, and tales for inclusion in the 1001 nights tales.
...and then Scheherezade rode off on my damn horse....
I can't decide whether to take the Cocky hindrance or Sharp-tongued hindrance.
Cocky means that I have to spend the first round of every combat by bragging about myself or pronouncing the doom of my opponents.
Sharp-tongued is similar. It makes me start every combat by making a taunt roll. The hindrance gives me a +1 on taunt roll but I can also never raise my persuation past d8.
I can't choose. Both would fit. The Sharp tongued hindrance is mechanically better but maybe it's more antagonistic than Mirian is supposed to be. I'm also wondering if it would I'm leaning towards cocky because we might want to have a persuader with a skill level greater than d8 (I don't have a plan for any advances so I can't tell if I would ever go higher than a d8 anyway). Your thoughts?
She seems more cocky than sharp tongued to me
Then cocky it is! (didn't need that much to persuade me in that direction:)
If anyone's looking for another SW thread, this one could use another body or two.
Hakketh will increase both Notice and Survival to D8 (updated profile)
Going with the Charismatic edge for Mirian's first advance.
Paging Nereus, Tenugai, and Wulfgar...Are you still with us???
I'll give these guys till Friday to catch up, then I guess I'll have to go recruiting. I think this can be a fun game, and could continue with just two, but it will make it very challenging without the breadth of skills.
Thoughts?
I think we can count out Nereus. He hasn't posted on these forums since the 7th jan of january, and then the 17 december before that (his last in game post). Wulfgar did say that he would try to post and Tenugai posted briefly.
I think the sweetspot for a game is somewhere around 3-4 players, so I don't think you need to look for replacements yet.
I'll let you guys figure out your plan in character. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me here, or ask someone in character in the game thread.
While we can continue with two active players, if either of you knows someone who might like to play, we could probably use at least one more player. Figured I'd try it that way first, before opening recruitment again.
Thoughts????
Septimilius is under the assumption that Otto is being held captive in the temple. Since this is an evil cult (so far as he knows) he thinks they’ll perform their rituals (probably sacrificing him) at the temple and then go to the catacombs. From what I know of Hyboria, sorcery isn’t usually a benign practice. That’s why Septimilius doesn’t trust Hakketh’s prediction. He’s seen some interesting events in Aquilonia, but he’s had little interaction with magic and doesn’t know any sorcerers. All the stories he knows of them have them leading a cursed and damned life.
That’s the reasoning behind Septimilius wanting to ambush the priests with the cart.
The only thing Mirian knows is that Otto was wandering the Peacock Square at night. With the priests moving about and the unease they've instilled in the rest of the populous she thinks it's quite reasonable that they've grabbed Otto and is holding him (or his corpse) somewhere inside of the temple (also temple means treasure, she's pretty sure of that). Also the vision of her being dead if we go to the temple now but rich if we go there later sounds very far fetched to her.
She's not above being persuaded to check out the catacombs first, but it would take some reasonable reason to go there first, a means to enter the catacombs (which are locked) and some hint of where we would look for Otto while we're down there.
As you all know I've added the "Black Bennie" as a more powerful bennie used for really dramatic things, but I think there is still room for a level between the Black Bennie, and a standard Bennie. I'm going to call this the "Grey Bennie". It will be like a normal bennie, but you get to keep it when new bennies are handed out...ie. When we do a reset and you get your normal number of starting bennies, then you get to add the gray bennie to that total instead of losing your bennies as norma.
For Sept's description of his combat. It was pretty good, but invoking things like "the mask the man was wearing fell from his face, and landed in a fresh pile of scat". would invoke a Gray bennie. If you add something to the situation that might not actually be beneficial, then you might be awarded a grey bennie, instead of a regular bennie. The black bennies are still for those "Special" moments.
Sept you do pick up a regular bennie for your description.
Thoughts???
Sounds good to me. How much freedom do we have when describing things? In PbPs I usually refrain from describing the results of attacks, since I can't be sure if I hit, or what effect my attack has if it does hit.
How about the Black bennie? Is that one a "use it or loose it" bennie, or is it persistent through refreshes, like the grey bennie?
1. The black bennie is a persistant one, though once used it's gone. It's like a grey bennie, just more powerful.
Dramatic Tasks
Calming the ox is a dramatic task, which must be resolved using the following rules. I'm going to rule that there are three minutes until either someone peaks out the window to see what is happening or the Ox bolts. You may make an attempt a spirit roll, plus Wild Die, once every 30-seconds, for a total of (6) tries, to achieve a grand total of 5 successes. Detailed descriptions of what you are doing to achieve these successes may result in bennie rewards. Normally the task would be at a difficulty of (-2) but since Hakketh is a Beastmaster, I'm going to set a standard target number of (4). Cooperative rolls can either help or hinder the attempt, as you see fit.
Dramatic Task Rules
If the character nets five successes with the required Trait
before time runs out, he’s accomplished his goal. It’s best to
keep track of these successes with tokens of some sort so
you don’t forget from round to round—and to give the player
a visible measure of his success.
If time runs out and the hero has not acquired five successes,
the bomb detonates, the ritual fails, the computer shuts down,
an alarm sounds, or the action otherwise fails. It’s up to the
Game Master whether it may be attempted again, but since
this was a Dramatic Task, it should normally have resulted
in something very bad, or at least require an entirely new
approach to attempt again.
►►Difficulty: Most Dramatic Tasks should have at least a
–2 modifier. This reflects any safeguards on a bomb, the
complexity of a ritual, security on a computer, etc. These
are dramatic tasks, and by their very nature should be fairly
difficult.
►►Cooperative Rolls: Other characters may assist the acting
hero as usual, using the Cooperative Rolls rule on page 63.
On another note, I might have another character from my tabletop gaming joining the game next week to get us up to four players.
”That’s it, that’s it, Hakketh” he urges seeing that the man has a way with animals. He hands Hakketh the lead trying to dodge the ox’s stamping feet.
Lots of travel this week, so posting while continuing may be spotty.
Girlfriend had surgery yesterday, but comes home today. I should be able to post the next actions when I return, so if you haven't acted yet, you might want to before I act for you...Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I hope her recovery goes well.
Wow! I went onto the "gameplay"thread to see why you guys weren't responding only to find that the boards "ate my post". I'll try to readdress it this afternoon. I was in the habit of copy/pasting all my posts, but then the boards got better. Guess I'd better play it safe.
Sorry about the slowdown guys. I'll catch up tonight or tomorrow morning. Slammed at work.
The campaign disappeared from My Campaigns page. How do I add it back?
I think you should contact the web masters about that. As far as I know the only way to add a person to a game is to have that person post in the game thread.
Might be a bit late now but perhaps we should decide on some kind of strategy? :) Mirian was hoping to go and knock out the initiates (might have to abandon that plan) then move back to the stair case and convince the guards that bandits (not you, since she's hoping to drag you along) have infiltrated the temple. Then depending on the situation either prowl deeper into the temple through the door you saw her come out of before or just retreat and think of a better plan.
Thoughts?
Hakketh is ready to bolt for the door that you came in through, then up the stairs and out of the temple.
I won’t be able to post much (if at all) until friday. DMPC me if necessary.
I won’t be able to post much (if at all) until friday. DMPC me if necessary.
Mirian
Is your instinct to fight or flee, if I have to DMPC you?
Fight, unless heavily outnumbered. She's confident enough that she can make it here, but if a few guards start to show up she will try to retreat.
Hakketh: Do you have any remaining AoE effect that can subdue the guards and hopefully a few more. Might be time to think about a retreat :)
Hakketh: Do you have any remaining AoE effect that can subdue the guards and hopefully a few more. Might be time to think about a retreat :)
Hakketh has no power left (and only recovers 1 per hour) so he really needs to get away from here.
Need to think abit about what advance to take. A quick heads up that I will probably not be able to post tomorrow.
I'll ponder what advance...
Septimilius’ rank is Novice, right? I’m not quite sure what to advance. Vigor from d8 to d10 seems good. Same with fighting going from a d8 to d10. Though having Notice or Stealth at d8 has merit. Is there a disguise skill? It would make sense for a bounty hunter to have some degree of familiarity with disguising himself (or sometimes his captured bounty) physically with fake scars, dyed hair, skin color; or by acting such as altering his voice, walking with a limp etc. So many good choices.
That fight with Othbanes was really fun. I like game systems where wounds (or however “damage” is construed) inflict penalties. It feels closer to reality.
I was trying to roleplay Septimilius with the Cautious hinderance. How did I do? Any suggestions in that regard?
Septimilius’ rank is Novice, right? I’m not quite sure what to advance. Vigor from d8 to d10 seems good. Same with fighting going from a d8 to d10. Though having Notice or Stealth at d8 has merit. Is there a disguise skill? It would make sense for a bounty hunter to have some degree of familiarity with disguising himself (or sometimes his captured bounty) physically with fake scars, dyed hair, skin color; or by acting such as altering his voice, walking with a limp etc. So many good choices.
That fight with Othbanes was really fun. I like game systems where wounds (or however “damage” is construed) inflict penalties. It feels closer to reality.
I was trying to roleplay Septimilius with the Cautious hinderance. How did I do? Any suggestions in that regard?
I think you're doing the "Cautious" thing very well. Don't forget if you take a hindrance that you have difficulty with, you can buy it off with advances as well.
As far as I know there is not a "disguise" skill, but if you'd like we'll create a "Who am I?" edge. This will let you make a Charisma roll at +2 for those instances when you need to imitate someone, or a (+2) to the influence roll for just a normal disguise.
The next version of this would be "Master of Disguise", with "Who am I?" as a pre-requisite, but giving a +4 to both rolls.
Hey, guys, SB said it was okay for me to post here. I should be joining you guys as some sort of scholar. I'm going to goof about in Hero Lab until I have a build. I'll post when I have something definitive.
But so far I can tell you that he's a Nemedian named Demetrio. My initial thoughts are of a roguish scholar type. A guy who knows a lot and tries to use it to his advantage.
If you guys have any tips or suggestions for me, I'd be thrilled to hear them.
I'm thinking of taking the Jack of All Trades edge, and possibly Linguist. But how would linguist apply in this game? Normally it would mean you could read and write a language. I'm pretty sure that's not true here.
Okay, here's my rough build, with no advancements. I had to goof around with Hero Lab a bit to get the math right, but everything here should check out -- mathematically speaking anyway.
Okay, after reading a bit through Beasts and Barbarians -- great book by the way -- I decided to switch out Jack of All Trades for Scholar. I also redid some of my skills and fixed some of the clunky math.
So this is the new base character without advancements.
Hey guys, since Supreme Being gave the nod to raygun to post up here....
I like to randomize somethings when I can't make my mind up
Gender
1-50 Male
51-100 Female
Race
Zamoran 1-33
Ophirian 34-66
Argossean 67-100
Switched out Alertness for the Sage Professional Edge. The text of which is the following:
Sage: When fighting a creature, he can make a Common Knowledge roll to remember one of her Special Abilities.In addition, once per session, the player can invent a useful piece of knowledge, remembered from her studies, that helps her or the group in the current situation. This knowledge cannot contradict the consolidated background.
If the piece of information is accepted by the Game Master and doesn’t disrupt the plot, it grants a bonus of +4 to a single roll or automatically solves a specific problem (GM’s decision). Particularly good ideas should be rewarded with a Bennie too.
And hello there, Spazmodeus.
Welcome guys. Demetrio looks good. Try to come up with some reason why you might be in Bathazar, and I'll hook up you and Spaz's character when he gets it ready.
Perhaps Mirian remembers a young Scholar she met who lives around where they are now, and their door at night could be banged upon bloody, and tired.
Supreme, I'm going throught the Savage Swords rule book but can't find any skills/edges related to performing; playing an instument/ singing etc.
Thanks, GM. Just need to catch up on the thread. You guys are a good read, by the way. And I'm perfectly cool with someone here knowing who I am. I'll do my best to have a written background by tomorrow.
Is it kosher to dot the game play thread?