Search This Blog

Monday, October 31, 2016

The Dragoning



The newly awakened 67th Level Imperial Pswordlock asked the PCs to think about how they could contribute to the restoration of the base, and ideas were hashed.

During this downtime, the Yirinn/Dryvv woman is contacted by the queen of the Shlzm, informing her that a Draconic battlefleet has been sighted in the star system.  The PC contacts the paladin, and the alarm is raised.

Lhorsk, Chapter Commander of the Glorious Imperial Eagles, was inspired to knight the Skyger, who graciously accepted.  Power circle and runes / sigils invoked, and then a future self of the Skyger, now resplendent in Psychokinetic Panoply, hands the Skyger of now a PK blade: "Do you give your all for the Emperor?"  The Skyger realises that he is to slit his throat, and does so.  His blood is pulled out of his body and heightens the sigils, transforming the Skyger's war hammer and fallen comrade badger's skull into a PK form; his blood is then purified, electrified, and returned; he is a new creation.  Now wearing his PK full plate, the Skyger learns that he can dismiss and recall his hammer as a mental action.  The badger skull now is linked to him, and he can invoke the spirit of his badger friend to fight alongside him.

The half-Dryvv Darshin Yirinn woman says that she thinks that she can gain the support of her people (months journey distant), but realises that the paladin has nothing material to offer to sweeten the proposition, and she then plans to journey to the coastal City of Pearl whose library is well known throughout the hemisphere.

The Dokirinn solid light manipulator decides to transform his quasi force creation into a humanoid form with full stats.

The party set out on horseback, and I use encounters at the weekly rate of travel, determining when in the day the encounters occur.  Three mornings in a row, the party is attacked by draconic spawn, ranging from a squire of sorts, to a cloud of dragoncrows.  Finally reaching Pearl, the party learns that sea serpent men (bodies of eels, with humanoid torsos; they fight with tridents and gaff hooks) are devastating the docks, and smoke is clearly visible.

Moving into the horrid pirate haven, the streets are illed with scrawny dogs, and every vice is indulged openly.  A would be encounter turns into an audience with the king, Ahab Pearlmother, and his queen Jezebel.  She is quickly discovered to be a lamia in league with the draconics, and after urging the Yirinn woman to allow her to lie with the Skyger (and the guests throwing down coins to help convince), Jezebel is killed in front of the shocked and horrified court; her body thrown into the king who is attacked by his eunuch guards, but manages to duck their massive scimitars.  The Skyger kills Ahab with a hammer throw, pulping his head, while the eunuchs now lay into the known wicked cohort of the court, and a few even leap out of the windows, only to be devoured by the ravening dogs below.  We fast forwarded the aftermath, which amounts to a council being formed which will run the remnants of Pearl (after a mysterious conflagration burns most of it down), and in exchange, the city will open its library to the PCs.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Healing and Recovery Woes

One of the things that hadn't worked to anyone's satisfaction in this Encounter Critical edition of UWoM was healing.

Now, EC's roll hit dice method, and receive a bonus if luxuriating, was not to my liking, mainly because it is too chaotic, with the disappointment of low rolls, or too speedy recovery, etc.

I had been using a variant of Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes recovery rules until I realised that it actually took longer to recover the fewer points needed to be healed.  I ran a lot of analysis, and couldn't believe that I hadn't spotted that before.  That was out, especially when players complained it required too much in-game downtime (yeah, I know, whiners).

I briefly toyed with the thought that tougher characters should heal faster, but it turned out that that approach simply made everyone heal completely in 10 days.  That wasn't it either.

Now, I have a method which is still proportional, but where folk with more hit points recover faster from lesser injuries, but still take longer to fully heal than characters who have fewer and lost all of them and mend faster.  I'm still not happy with this.  Something charty looks like it will have to be done, which also doesn't thrill me.

Thoughts or suggestions to fulfill my design criteria?

1). Tougher creatures recover more quickly
2). Having fewer HP and losing most or all of them should take longer to recover from than a creature with lots of HP who lost a lot, but proportionately fewer than the low HP creature
3). Simple method; easy to explain; etc.