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I also ran it sans map for that very reason. The moment the GM starts putting lines on the battle mat, you're quietly telling them that battle is happening. I did tell them that they thought the alien was their pet, but they thought it was of animal intelligence, and not sapient. Again, that part is probably my fault, and I'll probably say that the alien was thwle kids' "friend," not their "pet." That might help clue the players in on the preferred solution.
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If anyone wants to use this map I created for the junk race, feel free. Each segment represents 25' of movement. It worked great for my PbP game and my roll20 game
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Shady coroners can provide fresh corpses for this purpose with a bribe of 60 credits, though PCs may come up with their own creative solutionsTwo of my players recalled that in a previous adventure they had dealt with a certain family of Ysoki on Absolom Station who bought dead bodies "of the books" as it were, and who were grateful to them for a favor they had done.
I ruled that with a decent diplomacy, they could be persuaded to part with a body for a mere 30 credits.
The players then sold the bodies of the thugs from the river ambush back to them, and got their 30 credits back.
I figured that was creative enough to count.
That’s how i did it. But, he Ysoki were kin, and I was in a tough spot, so they gave me the body I needed. A little “medical” work, and her own kid couldn’t recognize that it wasn’t her body!
We did end up giving them a body in return, though.
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I could have sworn I made a drawing for the nest locations, but I don't seem to have it anymore? I'll look for that when I get home.
As for the last bit:
If someone tries to intimidate a bunch of children, have them start wailing in fear, crying and whatever else children do when they get scared. Hopefully someone gets the hint that taking that route isn't going to be helpful.
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As Jhaeman points out, the scenario specifically states that if the children are intimidated the check automatically succeeds. They're scared kids, easy to terrorize.
That said, never be afraid to reward creative play and use of skills. As long as the players can give you a good rationale for why a skill would work, or come up with a way to utilize it, let them. Just decide how the NPCs or environment will respond, and it may not always go as great as using more appropriate skills.
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I don't think there should be penalties to the shots. As you mention, Velocity gets an additional weapon on their racer, which means there's a 25% chance that one opponent has three weapons on their racer (Velocity in the Well-Armed Racer) and all other opponents just have one, or a 75% chance that two opponents have two weapons on their racer (Velocity in any racer, and any opponent in the Well-Armed Racer) and two have just one. The way I see it, this means that each weapon on each racer can be fired once each round.
Now, the question I'm still struggling with is whether or not these penalties stack. I've not had them do so, but I'm beginning to think it might be interesting to allow them to do so. Most of the penalties won't be on the PCs, so it'll be up to them to decide where to shoot, and could cause wrecks more often - which is definitely exciting! I just need to see if this method causes the PCs to have multiple penalties. Ratrod always shoots at them, and it's entirely possible that a separate opponent could shoot them as well. How have other GMs run this?
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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I don't think there should be penalties to the shots. As you mention, Velocity gets an additional weapon on their racer, which means there's a 25% chance that one opponent has three weapons on their racer (Velocity in the Well-Armed Racer) and all other opponents just have one, or a 75% chance that two opponents have two weapons on their racer (Velocity in any racer, and any opponent in the Well-Armed Racer) and two have just one. The way I see it, this means that each weapon on each racer can be fired once each round.
Now, the question I'm still struggling with is whether or not these penalties stack. I've not had them do so, but I'm beginning to think it might be interesting to allow them to do so. Most of the penalties won't be on the PCs, so it'll be up to them to decide where to shoot, and could cause wrecks more often - which is definitely exciting! I just need to see if this method causes the PCs to have multiple penalties. Ratrod always shoots at them, and it's entirely possible that a separate opponent could shoot them as well. How have other GMs run this?
As a general rule, penalties *always* stack. So I have had them stacking. I suppose you could rule that multiple shots are "from the same sources" so they wouldn't stack, but even then, kinetic and energy should stack. Which might be a good reason for PCs to want one of each on their car...
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Having now run it that way, I'm inclined to agree. The way that the race works, the racers target whoever is behind them, except for Ratrod, who always targets Laboni, as long as she's a threat. As a result, the PCs almost never are targeted multiple times, so the racers in danger of having multiple penalties are all NPCs.
Also, I just realized in my third run that Ratrod's racer is immune to energy damage, and actually gets bonuses based on it. My players didn't do any scouting on the vehicles, so that was a nasty surprise to them. As a result, they decided to stop targeting Ratrod's racer, and target the junkpiles nearby him! I thought it was clever, so I let it work!
Venture-Agent, Netherlands
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I ran this last night, and I agree, getting it to stack works better, Ratrod had a -12 at one point!
I also agree with the multiple weapons, I had the other racers fire all weapons each round and this worked well!
Thankfully I had an experienced group to GM to for my first time! (Was nervous last night!) Because as others have found, the alien was slightly tough to guide the PCs through. After the kids had been helped, they tried to communicate with the Alien (Horseshoe Crab for me) but it doesn't speak to them. So they assumed no language. Then in the conclusion, it mentioned the Alien's language would be studied, slightly confusing them, but alas, they did ok!
Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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I ran this last night, and I agree, getting it to stack works better, Ratrod had a -12 at one point!
I also agree with the multiple weapons, I had the other racers fire all weapons each round and this worked well!
Thankfully I had an experienced group to GM to for my first time! (Was nervous last night!) Because as others have found, the alien was slightly tough to guide the PCs through. After the kids had been helped, they tried to communicate with the Alien (Horseshoe Crab for me) but it doesn't speak to them. So they assumed no language. Then in the conclusion, it mentioned the Alien's language would be studied, slightly confusing them, but alas, they did ok!
Thank you for GMing this. You did a great job :)
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If anyone wants to use this map I created for the junk race, feel free. Each segment represents 25' of movement. It worked great for my PbP game and my roll20 game
I knew I should have checked here first, because this is way better than my effort.
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I told the only player I have who played that scenario (and whose character is still alive) that I'll add the extra in to his next Chronicle along with a written explanation and my initials. I didn't want to reissue the old Chronicle, because then that has cascade effects on the tally for all subsequent Chronicles.
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Venture-Agent, Online—PbP
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Anyone else have their players ask why they couldn't just download their copy of the album?
After stammering for a minute I came up with to protect from piracy, hard copies could be obtained months before the download was available. Also, stop trying to shove your reality into my (science) fantasy.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Anyone else have their players ask why they couldn't just download their copy of the album?
After stammering for a minute I came up with to protect from piracy, hard copies could be obtained months before the download was available. Also, stop trying to shove your reality into my (science) fantasy.
Why do people buy vinyl records nowadays? Why does my neigbour get all excited about a new black metal album shipped to him in a handcrafted wooden box filled with Transylvanian soil? Because people like collecting stuff. And the harder the stuff was to get, the more exclusive, the better.
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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Why do people buy vinyl records nowadays? Why does my neigbour get all excited about a new black metal album shipped to him in a handcrafted wooden box filled with Transylvanian soil? Because people like collecting stuff. And the harder the stuff was to get, the more exclusive, the better.Anyone else have their players ask why they couldn't just download their copy of the album?
After stammering for a minute I came up with to protect from piracy, hard copies could be obtained months before the download was available. Also, stop trying to shove your reality into my (science) fantasy.
The scenario even calls it out as a limited edition. A special one time release.
Which makes it a collectors item. People do weird things for collectors items.
I don't see anything in there indicating they are romantically attracted to Historia-7. They are just a massive fan that thinks their idol's music fixes everything (but that they don't deserve to be fixed.)long-standing member of the Exo-Guardians, Zigvigix suffered severe injuries prior to the Society’s expedition to the Scoured Stars, which prevented them from taking part. Zigvigix became overwhelmed with survivor’s guilt for not being present for the ill-fated expedition
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Zigvigix says that Historia-7 has seemed down after losing her mentor in the Scoured Stars. They hope the sugar-pop music can cheer up the android;
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If a PC succeeds at a DC 17 Sense Motive check—or an astute player voices the observation without a roll—the PCs may note that Zigvigix is not buying a copy for themself. The shirren’s response makes it clear that despite their obvious desire, they downplay their opinion when it might benefit themself and seem uncomfortable spending money on their own personal wants—an oddity for the highly individual shirrens.
My character added this but I the player noticed that they were far more concerned about historia -7 than themselves. Then when I ran it I noticed the same beats that ziggy was either entirely selfless or felt unworthy of being fixed.
A lot of this is what you make of it as both DM and Player. A person wanting a more serious vibe could easily twist it to a more sad narrative. The ysoki less so
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why do my friends keep sending me coupons for pizza with extra garlic....
Why do people buy vinyl records nowadays? Why does my neigbour get all excited about a new black metal album shipped to him in a handcrafted wooden box filled with Transylvanian soil?
Garlic breath is more acceptable than dog breath?
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We have a bunch of people coming online and running this on roll 20. Here's some macros to make it easier. Even if you normally [[ roll everything out.. trust me. learn to macro just for this. Go to the macro page. It looks like this :=
Click ADD ADD
Click one of them.
Call it more the shooting phase
put this in the text box
&{template:default} {name=MORE DAKKA Phase -4 Piloting on hit}} {{LemGem in the Spherical Junkracer EAC 12; KAC 14=hits KAC [[1d20+4-3]] }} {{Nyizin in the Bulky Racer EAC 10; KAC 14 = hits KAC [[ 1d20 +4-3]]}} {{Orsis in the Sleek Racer EAC 10; KAC 12= I'm too pretty to bother with weapons. Do you like my hair?}} {{Velocity 7 in the Tank EAC 10; KAC 12= hits EAC [[1d20+7-3]] AND kinetic weapon [[1d20+7-3]] –6 to Piloting}} {{Ratrod in the Ratrod EAC 12; KAC= 14Hits EAC [[1d20 +8-3]] }}
click save
call this one racing phase
&{template:default} {{name=Piloting Phase DC 16}} {{LemGem in the Spherical Junkracer= [[1d20+4+2]] Success Move 500 Fail move 250}} {{Nyizin in the Bulky Racer= [[1d20 +4+2]] Success move 500 fail move 250}} {{Orsis in the Sleek Racer =[[1d20 +6+4]] Success move 550 fail move 275}} {{Velocity 7 in the Heavily Armed Racer= [[1d20+10+2]] Success moves 400 fail moves 200 or 500/250 if the pcs helped him}} {{Ratrod in the Ratrod= [[1d20 +8+2]] Success moves 550 failure moves 275}} }}
click save
Click show in bar
This will give an easy..ish to read print out of every racers attack, EAC, KAC, and attack. It won't tell you who they're shooting at, but it will speed it up considerably.
Make sure that either you or the computer hasn't put a paragraph break..erm.. the thing you call it when you hit enter? anywhere in the line, even if that line is ending. That template formate requires every }} {{ to have one space and nothing else.