|
You can look for the Greek myths too: [link]
If Diablo counts, then there is also Kratos from God of War (GoW should never, ever, ever count).
Search Posts
No worries; I will be playing a bard, so I may be using those skills a lot. We can do two things (not necessarily always one of them): i) I state the goal of my wise check, roll, and you test against the DC; you may or may not immediately reveal the outcome :) ii) I state my goal, you give the DC, I decide whether I will roll against that or not. Also, please take a look at the bard class abilities, and think of them in terms of the usage of the wise skill. I want to do it in such a way that my bard is not overpowered.
Another question: should we treat the +wise skills separately, or should we bundle their usage into the respective knowledge skill? E.g., Knowledge (planes) would allow us to make statements/guesses about the structure of the Underworld (circles, portals, etc) as if we had "Plane-wise". Also, note that my character requires a quest to reach its startup condition. I think it would be a good hook into the Underworld, but it is also a necessary aspect to my character. If they DM doesn't want that to be a miniquest, he can simply say "Two snakes come by," but I advise you that the pole will not be able to do much besides what can be done through speech before it gets the vipers. After that, it will act, mechanic-wise, as a half-elf bard with a rapier.
I agree (with all that). I would vote for Antoni for the leader, or Rattus (or Gruk Gruk). I could lead, but I don't know if it makes much sense for a bear to care that much. When I am on the table, sometimes the ooc just goes crazy and we all have a blast. Like this time I said, by accident, "I am a cleric of a divine deity" instead of "I am a cleric of a good deity" and the DM instantly envisioned the "divine deity" as a "Priscilla queen of the desert" with divine rank. It was D&D, so we then proceeded to create domain spells for that deity, which included, e.g., "Cure Diet Wounds" instead of "Cure Light Wounds". I am in for keeping the group; I think we are all having a good time without stress to cause huge deals of damage, or get a lot of gold or XP. I am really happy that my main concern when creating my character was not trying to maximize its damage output. We can get out hands into other books for more crazy characters, like Citadel of Chaos and Daggers of Darkness (my friend had this one, and it was... tough). At any rate, we have a Count to deal with first! I also liked what Grim said, about the portal. It made me actually want to go back to the trap after we get rid of the Count just to see whether we can actually open that portal and cross to the other side.
So far I am fine with anything. We have to keep looking for the count anyways. The next character for the next adventure will have divination spells ;) I think there is not much to regret here, we seem pretty capable of turning failures into fun, so even if my character gets the shorter end of the stick, I will still have a good time.
I suggest the crypt. In Portuguese, the title translates into "The Crypt of the Vampire," and the cover illustration does suggest that the count is in a basement of sorts, so we might as well give it a try, no? :)
Me neither; it's hard to find a group playing nice things around here. Most of the events they hold are D&D Encounters and such, and these have too much focus on the grind, and too little on the roleplay (the good one, with space for inventiveness and creative solutions). I am having lots of fun as well. Sometimes my characters are tough to deal with, but l think we all create tension to add to the fun :) One thing I will not do, and that goes in OOC, of course, is fight other PCs. If Rattus goes berserk I will try to subdue him (not kill), otherwise I will keep roleplaying. Now, my character plan for the bear is not limited to the bear (in the DM's word "if someone's character dies, he makes another character and carries on"), so if it does happen that it gets killed by any of the PCs, I won't be resentful, and I will carry on with the plan :D Another thing that the characters should bear in mind is that they are arguing with a bear O.O (a speaking bear, but a bear nonetheless). That does not even make sense in the first place... Besides, do you think a bear has the need to be right? ;) I am glad we are all having a good time, and that the DM thinks so highly of the gameplay :)
Computer maintenance probably took around 2939 pages. If they had to install an operating system from scratch, they had to succeed in five DC 15 Use Magic Device check, if it was ArkLinux, then it's six DC 30 checks. So, to summarize the thread, DM:
[...]
The black bear which had been accompanying the group starts to scratch the wall close to where the others felt a good presence; it also felt the supernatural force, but it could not find any way through the walls. Seeing the group move back to the gate and into the castle, it walks along, in silence, but deeming its feeling of the good presence somewhat trustworthy, it proceeds ahead of the others to the brass doors, but waiting for the party to follow him.
Roughly the same... I improved the statistics a little bit. Now I am outputting the (estimated) victory percentage with a confidence interval that is correct with 99% probability (if this gets you confused, simply assume that this analysis I am providing will rarely fail completely). I will write stats as SKILL/STAMINA (as in Magic the Gathering). Each PC is 7/15. Against a 7/28 enemy, the victory percentages are:
Against four 7/7 enemies,
I can estimate the variances of the percentages as well, if you want to know how much things can get unpredictable in fights. I am not so in favor of number-crunching and engineering the encounters with a particular success probability, but what I foresaw was that we would rampage the castle and breeze through the combats (which is fun, because the vampire guy should have known better before kidnapping the chicks, the grand-daughter, and then us, and then daring to attack us). Edit: a few more data, in the same order as before, but for 7/7 PCs:
The adventure is lots of fun! :D Spoiler: So, I was looking at the battle system, and I found it a bit strange that the enemy never really attacked, only causing damage when someone lost the turn, and then I decided to do some number crunching and write a small battle simulator. Here are the win/defeat percentages (over a thousand battles) of groups of PCs with SKILL 7 and STAMINA 15 against an enemy of SKILL 7 and STAMINA 15: One PC:
Two PCs:
Three PCs:
If I use characters of STAMINA 4, then I get: One PC:
Two PCs:
Three PCs:
Four PCs:
It seems as though the characters might be acting as a pool of STAMINA. This makes the game easier in the beginning, but as we die out, if the party does not gain new members, then the difficulty should increase.
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, living in Edmonton, AB, Canada. I will catch up to everything as soon as possible. I also have a copy of the Vault of the Vampire with me (of all Steve Jackson books, that's the only one I have). It's in Portuguese, and I am obviously not going to use it for cheating, but I did check the rules page at the beginning, and they were saying that LUCK was a very, very valuable asset throughout the game, so I don't think we should be using our LUCK to turn coaches over on their sides, or cause 2d6 damage on the opponent in the first part of the adventure... Anyhow I will check all these things, and I will also point out some cool Burning Wheel advice on tests that are quite nice observations. That is, after I speak on behalf of a certain black bear (if it is still alive).
The closest one (in niceness) to the portrait I had in mind... I have posted, but again I will be away for the rest of the day; do not hesitate to carry on with a black bear as a sidekick :) I tried to set things in such a way that that bear participates in the combat. Also, I have no idea of how to run those tests (overturn the coach, scare the horses), so please feel free to roll dice as necessary. Edit: Niiiice combat post, Antoni Kettler!
What is a name? What is a farmer sogbottle? that black bear spoke. It is perhaps of no matter. Home is being consumed, and I must find the reason. Do not be distressed, however, human, for I sympathize with your condition. Your home, too, seems... degraded. Perhaps the troubles of this place you refer are too the troubles of elsewhere, worse than those the likes of you seem to bring upon yourselves, frequently. What is that which assails you humans? it said, seconding Rattus's question.
. . . So begins another tale, during a silent winter, featuring:
Guest starring:
(If you were there, you too would feel the utmost silence of your cabin be shattered by an imposing knock on the door; the landlord has come to claim his dues. Such is life in Mauristatia: the few seconds between death knocks on your door and you are forced to open it, stretching themselves throughout the hours, the days, the years... there is no future.)
Hello, everyone! Who would like to play Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at the Utmost North? It is a fun way of getting more role-play-per-post, and it does not require a GM, so if we keep getting more players we can simply play more scenes (provided that we properly handle the distribution of roles -- heart, moons and mistaken -- to be even over players). We could have scenes with four or six players. Is anyone interested? Simple post your protagonist! Once we have one protagonist (to be the heart of the first scene), two moons and one mistaken, we can start playing. I will be posting a protagonist soon; if you post one as well, we will have you as the heart of a later scene.
...ready. The last time I played Vault of the Vampire was this January, and I died soon and did not play again. It has been about 17 years since the last time I completed the adventure (if ever), or at least played it intensely, so at decision points about whose possible outcome I know something, I will refrain from participating the decision, so as to avoid any "supernatural knowledge".
This type of rules opens up many, many possibilities. The nice thing is that role-playing is highly decoupled from combat, so I can create the character whichever way I want, and when combat mechanics are rolled out, the attributes decide what happens. A black bear from the forest. He speaks.: Background The evil emanating from the Castle has been withering the woods around it. With the passing of the last few months, more and more trees have dried out and the animals are being driven away. The black bear decided to venture into the Castle and destroy the evil that lies inside. Abilities SKILL 8, STAMINA 15, LUCK 9. Items Wild spirit: the bear invokes the spirits of nature for an effect that acts exactly as a potion of STAMINA; (for consistency purposes, to cover for scenarios in which all equipment can be lost, e.g. in a running river, the spirits may withdraw or deny assistance to the bear). Spells Spirits of fire: causes combustion. Spirits of light: creates light.
Of course, that poses a major campaign management issue, so that is why I was wondering whether and how it has been done. I was thinking that the most straightforward way to do this would be to have three or four parties with one GM per party, plus an extra GMM (Game Master Master, or, if you really like to focus on acronyms, CM, Chronicle/Campaign Master... I think "Chronicle Path" is a pretty cool name :D) to supervise the four parties. Now, the nice thing is that a band of 12-24 player characters is a small army, and they can set in motion a lot of world-changing events without necessarily being epic characters. A few other thoughts:
I am certain many others have had this idea, but the search engine is not helping me a lot here, so I would like to ask you to share some of the lore on the topic: I was thinking it would be cool to have an AP acting as a chronicle, with maybe three or four parties taking part, and this would be mostly a PbP effort. If you have any resources or suggestions, I would be glad to see them :)
We have 24+ nice submissions, one GM, that is not quite right :) In fact, we are short of one arcane for assembling four parties, and, of course, once the hammer hits the wood, three of these parties and a few other characters will be sucked into complete oblivion (or routed to other campaign recruitments). Why not, then, try to recruit three (or four) more GMs and they deliberate on assembling the parties for runs of the Reign of Winter AP?
From the aforementioned Guide: "Although the campaign will take characters to Irrisen and other icy, winterbound locales, it begins in the warm lands of Taldor far to the south. Characters designed for this campaign should plan to be residents of or new arrivals in the village of Heldren." Seriously? This blew my character concept already, but, sure, why not? I will contact the Griffon Master and take the Flight Path to Heldren, to pick up the first quest. :/ (I guess I should not nag as much, and just adapt things :D) Question to the GM: how much should we stick to the warnings/hints of the Guide?
I now read a bit about Irrisen (in the Inner Sea Guide), because I am new to all this Golarion stuff. Though I would have posed Baba Yaga visually more as the Lady of Pain, I think the setting is very interesting, and it inspired me to further develop Ralph Schneider the (Chaotic Good) dwarven barbarian. So, here goes the second iteration of the meat. Vegetables (crunch) will come later (in short, barbarian 3.5 crunch Caesar Salad). I will take a look at the Reign of Winter Player's Guide for the next iteration. Background:
Ralph Schneider is a dwarf barbarian, plain and simple. He believes that if neither money nor violence could solve a problem, it means not enough of either was employed. That said, his life goal is to kill a wyrm, loot its treasures, and relax. He got bored from the many years of long-hour days of labour at the copper mines Kopparberget, not to mention upset from all the trouble the mining foreman MacDiarmid Kuhn got him into, and decided that the dragon-looting followed by a retirement would be a better idea. Of course, he has never seen a dragon, so he it not very good at estimating the perils of such venture -- again, he thinks that if he cannot incapacitate the dragon, he just needs to put more violence into the fight. (In that sense, he is a bit naïf.) He is too far into the west to care about politics. When he says he wants to go hunt a wyrm, he means he wants to go hunt a wyrm: he does not mean slaying a linnorm and becoming a king. For all it is worth, if killing a linnorm was a true deed of power, Irrisen would not have been lost to a witch -- a fact which he frequently voices at the table when talking to the supporters of the Linnorm Kings. When it comes to Irrisen, just about any beast from the Realm of Mammoth Lords would be more subtle and have more cultural tact than Ralph Schneider. Ralph is not superstitious, and his approach to reality is quite pragmatic; for example, he believes that unless you have a bloodthirsty ice-worg for a pet, having a dog will not protect you from a lot. Though he does not ridicule people for being superstitious, he will readily and explicitly dismiss any such practice as meaningless. He will not care about bad-mouthing the witches, either. In fact, he does not care as much about bad-mouthing anyone who deserves it, because he thinks he can either buy or fight his way out of trouble. An aspect of Ralph's personality that will often reveal itself more implicitly, because the character himself does not recognize it, is that he is a very insecure dwarf, with a strong need to be validated, feel respected and not to be taken advantage of by others.
Goals:
Fears:
Relationships:
Here is the deal, I wrote a character that got rejected and my ego got hurt. So now I want to play the barbarian and cause damage. I have got lots of hatred within me :) Concept:
Ralph Schneider is a dwarf barbarian, plain and simple. He believes that if neither money nor violence could solve a problem, it means not enough of either was employed. That said, his life goal is to kill a wyrm, loot its treasures, and relax. He got bored from the many years of long-hour days of labour at the mines, and decided that the dragon-looting followed by a retirement would be a better idea. Of course, he has never seen a dragon, so he it not very good at estimating the perils of such venture -- again, he thinks that if he cannot incapacitate the dragon, he just needs to put more violence into the fight. In addition, Ralph is a very insecure dwarf, with a strong need to be validated, feel respected and not to be taken advantage of or ridiculed by others.
Goals:
Fears:
Relationships:
If you really want to see some of the crunch...:
STR 16 DEX 14 CON 16+2 INT 11 WIS 9+2 CHA 14-2 30pt. completion over the rolls: 11 ⇒ 11, 16 ⇒ 16, 13 ⇒ 16, 13 ⇒ 14, 14 ⇒ 14, 9 ⇒ 9
I am interested :) I grew up playing the "Vault of the Vampire," which is fun and with lots of tension. These games had lots of unavoidable deaths, and part of the fun would be to figure out a path to the end (there could me multiple), which does not quite apply to more humanized games, how are you planning do deal with failures in the tests? The Vault of the Vampire was quite nicely illustrated, I must say.
|