I'm attacking the darkness! Crap, I rolled a 2: Dungeons and Dragons Discussion

[Norellicus]

Also we should get this thread name changed to "The D&D Thread" or something lol

[Riposte]

I don't go to conventions at all. Probably something I should change at some point.

The mods don't give a fuck. I mean the goddamn BG game is still stickied and this after I personally asked to have my own sticky taken down. Maybe you can PM some sense into them.

[Vandole]

fixed as per his request. also, i'm starting a game of Gamma World on wednesday. cannot fucking wait.

[Norellicus]

[Vandole]

this will be my first d20 game.. me and my friends don't plan to take this too seriously, to be quite honest i expect it to turn into almost nothing but fallout quotes since it's gamma world.

any advice?

[Grey Jorildyn]

House rules.

While stickng to the textbook rules makes the game more consistent, there also needs to be some fun involved aside from the usual metagame stuff. They can be anything whatsoever by the way, as long as they are fair and appeal to the whole crowd. If you are able to legitimize the rules via the story, even better.

For example, in the last campaign I ran I had a type of underground syndicate weaved into the game. The players would later discover that this syndicate sold "special" weapons amd armor that you could not purchase in just any old shop. The catch was you need a special type of currency minted only by the syndicate to purchase items from them. As the story went on I told the players that there would be a way to acquire this currency after certaij actions were performed. Since the group was entirely gamer nerds, with one exception--a movie buff- i began to throw humanoid NPCs at them for battle that would quote games or movies I knew they played or watched. If the player recognized a quote they could call time out and tell me what the reference was. I would confirm if it was correct and the game would resume. I kept track of correct amswers with slashes behind my DM screen. When my players looted mobs they would find a certain amount of "syndicoins". Later I expanded the rewards for disarming traps, successfully completing skills checks, and the like which had meta references. It was fun for them and for me since it added something great to the game for that group of players.

[Norellicus]

More generally than house rules, the most important thing is that this is a game; if you're not having fun with it, change it up to make it fun. The rulebook is there to give you a framework and a sense of balance, not to govern your every action.

Secondly, these games are driven by your imagination. Don't think about things in terms of what the rules say, think about what you want to do and then consult the rules to help you figure out how that works in the game's context. If you're the DM, try to accommodate player creativity, don't stifle an idea just because there's not a rule for it.

Gamma World is a great start for a d20 product because it's so light and light-hearted, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. Be cool and remember that the experience is created collectively by everyone at the table, not just the DM, and you'll have a great time.

I don't want to get into too much more than that without observing your group's dynamic, but feel free to ask questions liberally

[Norellicus]

No turning back now...

[Norellicus]

The new character builder is online if you have DDI.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I would really love to get back into DnD but my time is just so limited these days. Just finished another read-through of PHB4 and am lusting for an adventure pretty badly.

[Norellicus]

Find a store near you that runs Encounters. Each session is 2 hours max, usually less. We finished tonight in about 65 minutes.

It's a great format for the time constrained, and facilitates drop-in, drop-out as needed.

[Riposte]

Along the lines of my old "COOL SHIT" thread:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general...-art-rpgs.html

This thread should be interesting to everybody. "B-list" heroes and myths. It even has my favorite "character" in history Borgia.

EDIT:
From the thread:


If they make a Berserk movie, this type of shot needs to be in it at least once - with tons of gore. We should see the guts before they spill out.

[Norellicus]

I've always loved making loose or obscure references to history and mythology in gaming. I try to avoid direct or obvious references because they tend to succumb to peoples' cliches.

[Norellicus]

I'll be damned.

http://images.community.wizards.com/...e6cdbc71e4.png

[Grey Jorildyn]

wow are they actually expanding DDI in this lifetime?

if so it looks nothing like what we were promised, but a standard gametable would be pretty cool nonethless.

[Riposte]

Never gets old lol

[Norellicus]

Oh hey I forgot Session 8. This post will be a twofer.

Session 8

Audio will go up later when I have a chance to upload it, check back for post edit.

4 players; still no new faces really, I'm kind of disappointed as I'd hoped I could use Encounters to network with more of the local RPG community, being a weekly affair instead of the monthly one of our RPGA gamedays. c'est la vie. We still have fun though, I'm not complaining.

Combat was pretty fun. iirc the monsters included a thief, dragonborn, and a few lizardmen. My Knight held up surprisingly well despite taking -1 on almost everything (this is the death penalty for Encounters). The Mage in the group continues to kind of annoy me with his lack of playing smartly and just looking for ways to do as much damage as possible on each turn. I'm not sure why he even plays the Mage in that case, as he's not new to RPGs; but maybe he's new to 4e and doesn't get the slayer vs controller concept, idk. He talks over the table a lot too instead of focusing on the game (more on that later); not really sure what, if anything, is to be done about it.

The Thief was the primary antagonist that we've been chasing this whole 8 session run, and so I tried to get the other players to focus on taking everything else out first in hopes he would surrender. Admittedly, I had a little meta-knowledge motivating me as I know the real backstory of what's going on with these people so I worry about the consequences of killing him outright. Unfortunately, the others would have none of it after the Thief did a 4 square shift straight to our back line and did something retarded like 2d8+2d6+x damage. We already had the other targets on the ropes so I attempted to reinforce that fact with the detail that I could occupy the Thief easily enough and we had enough healing power, but the damage output spooked them and they nuked the hell out of this guy. They did declare the killing blow nonlethal, but he died from poison shortly afterward. Guess we'll find out what that means in the future chapters.


Session 9

No audio, phone died.

I'm back behind the screen again. This whole chapter is going to be a blast, every fight has some really interesting mechanics. Pity I rolled terribly all night so I didn't get to use the ones in this session much

Back to three players so we doubled up characters to keep the action flowing. 4th actually called ahead and say he couldn't make it so I know we're not losing people, just schedule conflicts. Bound to happen in the holiday season.

As I said before, the guy playing the Mage talks. A lot. I'm not sure if he feels compelled to do this, or if he's just oblivious, but he's interrupted another person on more than one occasion to make some pop culture reference that's loosely related to the current situation; any RP block is a chore to get through now, and it's really hard to maintain character. Unfortunately I don't think there's a lot I can do about it.

Regardless, it was fun to talk up the captain of the watch, a dwarf. He explained that there was a treasure vault underneath the keep that was built by one of his ancestors, and he wants to lay claim to the treasure before the keep's lord does. Trick is that the vault has been left in the care of a number of mechanical constructs; when the dwarf went in himself, he barely escaped with his life, and his companion wasn't so lucky. Perhaps the adventurers would fare better, and they could have a share of the treasure plus whatever magical items they find inside. Win-win.

The whole encounter was a blast, design-wise. Most of it revolved around getting the characters into the middle of the room within reach 3 of a statue with a heavy flail; the statue is a "trap" that will swing its flail around against anyone in range, which can push them into spiked walls for some added oomph. It can flail people on its own initiative, and also would instant react to anyone in range who attacks one of its allies. The other constructs were equipped to pull or otherwise immobilize people in range of this statue, so it would have been really painful were it not for my crappy rolls. It's still an impressive encounter, and even the next one has a lot of really neat logic to it; the constructs are all clearly programmed with a specific goal in mind, so rather than just mounting a general "advance on PCs" defense they'll very purposefully make a move on anyone who appears to threaten that goal. Can't wait.

[Norellicus]

FUCK YES I CAN HAS VIRTUAL TABLE :D

[LinktheDeme]

I was wondering if you were doing this locally or if this is over the internets?

[Norellicus]

Encounters is local, it's WotC's campaign to drum up interest in the game without a long term commitment or strings attached.