Another of the issues that the LGS owner discovered when creating his character was that the cost of Attack Bonus is higher over the entire run than the much more flexible, Focus Points.
--He didn't feel that the One Round switch-out to re-allocate Focus was enough of a balancing factor to reflect the cheaper cost, especially given the fact that AB and Fo can be used in conjunction.
He and his wargaming buddy then offered slightly more complicated ideas to make Focus more finicky, such as requiring a roll to Maintain Focus, and so forth.
--While I think that is a cool idea, I'm pretty certain that the same net effect can be achieved without adding a recurring mechanism, let alone one that requires an additional roll.
Prior to his noting that mathematical error on my part, I had been contemplating the nature of Critical Strikes, and how I wanted character skill/ability/prowess to reflect more on their frequency than the simple 'dumb luck' of rolling a 20 on the die.
--I am currently thinking of the following, or something like it:
* (AB / 2) lowers the Critical Threshold
This simply means that more proficient fighters would benefit from more frequent Critical Strikes.
AB +2: 19-20
AB +4: 18-20
AB +6: 17-20
etc.
I still plan on revising the cost of both AB and Focus, but I am asking for your input on the matter of removing pure luck from the Critical Strike.
Thoughts?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
[Playtest Campaign] Latitude Adjustment-
Delver/CiCi was a no-show, with no phone service.
LGS owner made a 3rd-Level Yaesh Archer (Mutant).
Ashta and Mela Mela were the early focus and as they and the rest of the party made their way across the Ocean of Storms, the galleon-style craft encountered 30' swells.
--The seas of the eastern-most Windswept Straits required shallow-draught vessels particular to these waters to transport the party one one vessel, and their new furnishings and other bulky cargo (food stores) on a second. The party had three weeks to acclimatise to the humid (sub-)tropics.
Ashta, still possessing the Ring of Scorpion Control from the Lost Island adventure, took the opportunity to call five of the largest scorps she could, and received lobster-sized buggers. With them in tow, and one on her shoulder, she and Mela left the jungles and encountered an old woman, her pupil, and three young boys along the trail back into the town proper.
--The women bowed, facing the ground, and the boys couldn't help but stare at the tall and muscular, pale, platinum-blonde warrior woman who had arrived on a floating island blown there by clouds --clearly a goddess of Life and Death, with her sizeable scorpion retinue and Mela cohort. The older woman reached out and lightly grasped the hem of Ashta's cloak, which the other noticed.
---Fast Forward: Mela the alchemist/apothecary/healer diagnosed her condition as parasitic-induced liver-distress exacerbated by malnourishment. Sixteen other kinfolk of the woman came to understand that the goddess would heal them all.
Ashta served as the rally for Mela's regimen which included purchasing them several goats and the receiving chickens (or, more precisely Urutsken analogues) in reverence, and the hope that his family, too, would received the goddess' blessing.
--After four days of concoction, using scorp venom to aid in the anti-parasite meds, Mela began the treatment of 24 individuals. Three days later, she emerged from the large hovel, to find the entire village outside awaiting her. The crowd garnered the attention of a civil servant of the Imperial (WICE) Governor, who chastened her and Ashta for wasting their time on primitive lessers too foolish to learn from their superiors, and that if word spread of these 'miracles' riots would surely ensue, and the bloodshed would be upon Ashta's head (the uncouth Highlands barbarian that she is). His revulsion as a scorp crawled up onto her shoulder and began aggression-posturing was not well hidden, but he maintained his composure as he skidaddled out of the village.
---The two built a rain-collector and filtration system, and instructed the folk to use better hygiene (not letting the children drink from the animals' troughs, etc.) but the instructions were not entirely understood, and instead became a ritual procedure. The girls left after telling the villagers to spread the good news, just to spite the civserve, not really grasping the far-reaching repercussions of their decision.
Off on the two large Dhows, one day into the trip, the winds bestilled for three additional days, then a tropical storm (00 on the wind-strength table) rolled through, sinking the cargo ship, although the crew made it over to the passenger craft. The next five days were little to no wind, and the three-day food stores, now strained, failed.
--I concocted an on the spot 4d6 test where each character had to roll higher on their 4d6 to not succumb to faintness and lethargy. At first, it was Mela who was not doing well, but as Ashta began sharing her meal with the other, Ashta finally fell unconscious. Mela used her skills to cultivate quick algae and distil fresh water for the crew. Finally, a Norwester wind blew them close enough to an island for the crew and passengers to disembark. One crewman had died.
I then brought the Hun-like Yaesh Archer to the island via a fae-curse after he tried to rope a horse-woman in a placid mossy hollow in the granite hills of the pasture lands. In a flash of lightning, he was transported to a similar spot on, yes, you guessed it, that island, a world away.
--Great accented speech and acting on his part brought the ridiculous fiat back in line with the rest of the game, and his character (as yet, unnamed) began to observe the group on the beach. He observed them netting hares and began to hunt them himself. His Chameleon Powers and high Secret and Silence percentages aided him in securing three hares, the island literally coursing with them.
---He discovered a strange clearing with a cluster of odd fungus around which several large hares were circling, all in the same direction. He also found three trails made, apparently, by a crippled human. He followed one and found a shack composed of shipwreck and island materials. Eventually, the Yaesh joined the group on the beach, communicated the shack's location. They investigated.
Combat ensued when a Qetswn => KetSoon <= dashed up to Ashta and barely bit her for 1 DP through her Amazonian armour. Furious series of really good rolls failed to hit the creature's ridiculously high Defence, and then, when Ashta landed a blow, it had no effect due to needing a magic or high-energy source. The archer's mutation, however, allowed him to damage it and the relatively frail thing went down with an arrow through the soft pallet driven under its chin. It was quickly determined that the humanoid Monstrous Being was a male of the species, and its human-hair belt with golden buckle, and its bone dagger were absconded with as Ashta retreated.
--Cries of, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" from the kits in the shack led the archer to foolishly think it safe enough to retrieve a few arrows, when he saw a humanoid shadow fall across his. "I don't turn, I just run." Jumping onto a palm frond reduced his falling rate and he only sustained 9 DP upon rolling down the sloped incline of the hill before landing in a sea-grape leaf tree which snared several of his minor bits of equipment.
---The entire group grabbed what food and supplies they could and DD's back to the ship whereupon they caught that last few hours of wind --enough to carry them from the island. Two additional days of becallmed winds, and then finally enough to make it to the next inhabited and well-visited island.
We held it there.
LGS owner made a 3rd-Level Yaesh Archer (Mutant).
Ashta and Mela Mela were the early focus and as they and the rest of the party made their way across the Ocean of Storms, the galleon-style craft encountered 30' swells.
--The seas of the eastern-most Windswept Straits required shallow-draught vessels particular to these waters to transport the party one one vessel, and their new furnishings and other bulky cargo (food stores) on a second. The party had three weeks to acclimatise to the humid (sub-)tropics.
Ashta, still possessing the Ring of Scorpion Control from the Lost Island adventure, took the opportunity to call five of the largest scorps she could, and received lobster-sized buggers. With them in tow, and one on her shoulder, she and Mela left the jungles and encountered an old woman, her pupil, and three young boys along the trail back into the town proper.
--The women bowed, facing the ground, and the boys couldn't help but stare at the tall and muscular, pale, platinum-blonde warrior woman who had arrived on a floating island blown there by clouds --clearly a goddess of Life and Death, with her sizeable scorpion retinue and Mela cohort. The older woman reached out and lightly grasped the hem of Ashta's cloak, which the other noticed.
---Fast Forward: Mela the alchemist/apothecary/healer diagnosed her condition as parasitic-induced liver-distress exacerbated by malnourishment. Sixteen other kinfolk of the woman came to understand that the goddess would heal them all.
Ashta served as the rally for Mela's regimen which included purchasing them several goats and the receiving chickens (or, more precisely Urutsken analogues) in reverence, and the hope that his family, too, would received the goddess' blessing.
--After four days of concoction, using scorp venom to aid in the anti-parasite meds, Mela began the treatment of 24 individuals. Three days later, she emerged from the large hovel, to find the entire village outside awaiting her. The crowd garnered the attention of a civil servant of the Imperial (WICE) Governor, who chastened her and Ashta for wasting their time on primitive lessers too foolish to learn from their superiors, and that if word spread of these 'miracles' riots would surely ensue, and the bloodshed would be upon Ashta's head (the uncouth Highlands barbarian that she is). His revulsion as a scorp crawled up onto her shoulder and began aggression-posturing was not well hidden, but he maintained his composure as he skidaddled out of the village.
---The two built a rain-collector and filtration system, and instructed the folk to use better hygiene (not letting the children drink from the animals' troughs, etc.) but the instructions were not entirely understood, and instead became a ritual procedure. The girls left after telling the villagers to spread the good news, just to spite the civserve, not really grasping the far-reaching repercussions of their decision.
Off on the two large Dhows, one day into the trip, the winds bestilled for three additional days, then a tropical storm (00 on the wind-strength table) rolled through, sinking the cargo ship, although the crew made it over to the passenger craft. The next five days were little to no wind, and the three-day food stores, now strained, failed.
--I concocted an on the spot 4d6 test where each character had to roll higher on their 4d6 to not succumb to faintness and lethargy. At first, it was Mela who was not doing well, but as Ashta began sharing her meal with the other, Ashta finally fell unconscious. Mela used her skills to cultivate quick algae and distil fresh water for the crew. Finally, a Norwester wind blew them close enough to an island for the crew and passengers to disembark. One crewman had died.
I then brought the Hun-like Yaesh Archer to the island via a fae-curse after he tried to rope a horse-woman in a placid mossy hollow in the granite hills of the pasture lands. In a flash of lightning, he was transported to a similar spot on, yes, you guessed it, that island, a world away.
--Great accented speech and acting on his part brought the ridiculous fiat back in line with the rest of the game, and his character (as yet, unnamed) began to observe the group on the beach. He observed them netting hares and began to hunt them himself. His Chameleon Powers and high Secret and Silence percentages aided him in securing three hares, the island literally coursing with them.
---He discovered a strange clearing with a cluster of odd fungus around which several large hares were circling, all in the same direction. He also found three trails made, apparently, by a crippled human. He followed one and found a shack composed of shipwreck and island materials. Eventually, the Yaesh joined the group on the beach, communicated the shack's location. They investigated.
Combat ensued when a Qetswn => KetSoon <= dashed up to Ashta and barely bit her for 1 DP through her Amazonian armour. Furious series of really good rolls failed to hit the creature's ridiculously high Defence, and then, when Ashta landed a blow, it had no effect due to needing a magic or high-energy source. The archer's mutation, however, allowed him to damage it and the relatively frail thing went down with an arrow through the soft pallet driven under its chin. It was quickly determined that the humanoid Monstrous Being was a male of the species, and its human-hair belt with golden buckle, and its bone dagger were absconded with as Ashta retreated.
--Cries of, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" from the kits in the shack led the archer to foolishly think it safe enough to retrieve a few arrows, when he saw a humanoid shadow fall across his. "I don't turn, I just run." Jumping onto a palm frond reduced his falling rate and he only sustained 9 DP upon rolling down the sloped incline of the hill before landing in a sea-grape leaf tree which snared several of his minor bits of equipment.
---The entire group grabbed what food and supplies they could and DD's back to the ship whereupon they caught that last few hours of wind --enough to carry them from the island. Two additional days of becallmed winds, and then finally enough to make it to the next inhabited and well-visited island.
We held it there.
Friday, August 21, 2009
[Playtest Campaign] Windswept Straits, Ahoy!-
Now, down Ray, and Tybalt's player being out of town (and possibly Delver/CiCi's as well), I have to see whether today's session will involve the LGS owner making a character (one with the unique ability to be NPC'd at a moment's notice), and my SO's two characters.
At the end of the 'Find the spaceship, save the city' scenario, the PCs asked their Kherstic League patrons for a governance role.
--While I am interested in that now misty and near-mythical 'endgame win', I don't want it too soon (the Primary PCs are about 7th level, while their 2ndaries are about 5th).
To bring them up a level or two, I have plans for a piratical, island-hopping, Fort-reinforcing string of ideas to which I hope they will take well.
--Located in the Windswept Straits across the Ocean of Storms, the setting mirrors the Caribbean insomuch as that it has the peninsular Riverland area to the north/west, and a great number of islands with a melange of cultures, immediately above the Chaos Isles that are the rough analogue of a detached South America (roughly to southern Brazil). These islands and isles, keys, and sand bars are inhabited by the fierce and generally insane Khark, and their high-born cousins, the Kaukara ('World-Wise Ones').
Neither a Columbian apologist, nor a Columbian hater, I hope to illustrate the difficulties of attempting to bridge such radically different cultures, should the party (eventually? Inevitably?) cross their path.
--Meanwhile, the Western Isles Concord Empire (WICE) fortifications in the region, rife with VCA and Federated City Council (etc.) intrigues, as well as the occasional sorcerer(ess), and plantation uprising will hopefully hold their attention and drive them closer to their desired goal of becoming Stronghold Builders and Governors in their own right.
An after-action report this weekend or Monday.
Have fun gaming! :D
At the end of the 'Find the spaceship, save the city' scenario, the PCs asked their Kherstic League patrons for a governance role.
--While I am interested in that now misty and near-mythical 'endgame win', I don't want it too soon (the Primary PCs are about 7th level, while their 2ndaries are about 5th).
To bring them up a level or two, I have plans for a piratical, island-hopping, Fort-reinforcing string of ideas to which I hope they will take well.
--Located in the Windswept Straits across the Ocean of Storms, the setting mirrors the Caribbean insomuch as that it has the peninsular Riverland area to the north/west, and a great number of islands with a melange of cultures, immediately above the Chaos Isles that are the rough analogue of a detached South America (roughly to southern Brazil). These islands and isles, keys, and sand bars are inhabited by the fierce and generally insane Khark, and their high-born cousins, the Kaukara ('World-Wise Ones').
Neither a Columbian apologist, nor a Columbian hater, I hope to illustrate the difficulties of attempting to bridge such radically different cultures, should the party (eventually? Inevitably?) cross their path.
--Meanwhile, the Western Isles Concord Empire (WICE) fortifications in the region, rife with VCA and Federated City Council (etc.) intrigues, as well as the occasional sorcerer(ess), and plantation uprising will hopefully hold their attention and drive them closer to their desired goal of becoming Stronghold Builders and Governors in their own right.
An after-action report this weekend or Monday.
Have fun gaming! :D
Thursday, August 20, 2009
[RPG] New material for Referee's Manual underway-
I prepared my SO for not hearing much from me as I begin the task of expanding the Referee's Manual with more bits of usefulness and stuff to roll dice for.
Case in point: 100 Archetypal locations with 10 sub-headings each, all to be utilised on the spot, or Empyrean-forbid, used in prep-work by the Ref'.
--The entries form a skeleton upon which to hang necessary scraps of meat as the questions are asked, or the events necessitate their delineation.
---Even with 100 locations, it would be easy to tire of the repetition. That's where the ten sub-headings come in. Each can be quickly adjusted, thus expanding the full kettle to a base of 1k discrete locales.
Each gives a gloss on: 1). environment, 2). resources, 3). security of locale, 4). culture, 5). artefacts, 6). relation to other locales, 7). beliefs, 8). peace/prosperity or lack thereof, 9). population's feelings regarding the government, and 10). the degree of power the government holds over the population.
--All of the above is generic and independent of Terrain rolls, and has no intrinsic effect upon Encounters.
---I write my usual encouragement/empowerment bit hoping to free folks from literalistic enslavement to RaW and die rolls, while still providing enough meat to sate a beast.
I'll be busy with this for a bit.
Case in point: 100 Archetypal locations with 10 sub-headings each, all to be utilised on the spot, or Empyrean-forbid, used in prep-work by the Ref'.
--The entries form a skeleton upon which to hang necessary scraps of meat as the questions are asked, or the events necessitate their delineation.
---Even with 100 locations, it would be easy to tire of the repetition. That's where the ten sub-headings come in. Each can be quickly adjusted, thus expanding the full kettle to a base of 1k discrete locales.
Each gives a gloss on: 1). environment, 2). resources, 3). security of locale, 4). culture, 5). artefacts, 6). relation to other locales, 7). beliefs, 8). peace/prosperity or lack thereof, 9). population's feelings regarding the government, and 10). the degree of power the government holds over the population.
--All of the above is generic and independent of Terrain rolls, and has no intrinsic effect upon Encounters.
---I write my usual encouragement/empowerment bit hoping to free folks from literalistic enslavement to RaW and die rolls, while still providing enough meat to sate a beast.
I'll be busy with this for a bit.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
[Gaming] An Unused Play By Web Character-
This was for a supposed 'Pirate' game that turned out to be an excuse for someone's sexual fantasies, prompting me to drop it like a stone.
--What a waste.
Character (c) Copyright 2007 Kyrinn S. Eis
Dame Raquel Malfoy-
The Dame stands 5'6" and still retains her dancer's figure. She is wont to wear a reinforced bodice regardless of her other elements of dress. While she is entirely comfortable in proper society, amongst lessers she scandalously wears trousers of buckskin leather, and the high, soft boots en vogue with musketeers.
Upon her hips are crossed belts, one which hangs with the trusty rapier she often makes final negotiations, and the other with its sister main gauche parrying blade/sword breaker.
Her descent is perhaps Alsatian, as it clearly favours more Germanic features than Gaulic. However, her French is flawless and harkens to Provence. Her Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, and Scots Gaelic are also all flavoured with native accents. The few who have ever heard her speak German may have realised a more Boehm-inflection before their death.
When the Dame speaks English, it is with a noticeable French accent. Her Latin is Classical.
The Dame's ship is named, Nephthys, and is a shallow-draught, mixed-rigging vessel with a more than reasonable cargo hold to its small crew size. It bristles with Culverin mounts and Demi-Culverin emplacements. The Dame prefers grapeshot, so as to minimise the damage to vessels she boards.
In no way does Dame Malfoy disguise her casual disregard for human life.
Her sorcery is based upon many long decades of research from such diverse sources as tribal witchdoctors of Africa, to Oriental Alchemy and Black Magic, to more commonplace Kabbalistic and Sumerian/Babylonian mysticism and theurgy.
Raquel is a false name, which is a private joke, referencing the term, Rake-hell; one who stokes the flames of hell through their wanton lifestyle. In truth, the woman has long ago abandoned carnal excess for the power she has gained through her studies and the few pacts to which she has bound herself. When she feels she needs to act the tart, or the sly woman of the world, she does so with practised skill.
Of late, after the discovery that her last child had taken to the life of a pirate, and been hanged for the offence, the Dame has begun to soften. At present, she toys with the idea of founding a nation free from all social constraints, where all humans, even the black and red primitives and yellow heathen can live without fear of the Church. She has Florida in mind for this notion, and has made inroads to deal with the pirates which frequent the so-called Keys, and the Ten Thousand Islands of the south-west of the peninsula.
--What a waste.
Character (c) Copyright 2007 Kyrinn S. Eis
Dame Raquel Malfoy-
The Dame stands 5'6" and still retains her dancer's figure. She is wont to wear a reinforced bodice regardless of her other elements of dress. While she is entirely comfortable in proper society, amongst lessers she scandalously wears trousers of buckskin leather, and the high, soft boots en vogue with musketeers.
Upon her hips are crossed belts, one which hangs with the trusty rapier she often makes final negotiations, and the other with its sister main gauche parrying blade/sword breaker.
Her descent is perhaps Alsatian, as it clearly favours more Germanic features than Gaulic. However, her French is flawless and harkens to Provence. Her Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, and Scots Gaelic are also all flavoured with native accents. The few who have ever heard her speak German may have realised a more Boehm-inflection before their death.
When the Dame speaks English, it is with a noticeable French accent. Her Latin is Classical.
The Dame's ship is named, Nephthys, and is a shallow-draught, mixed-rigging vessel with a more than reasonable cargo hold to its small crew size. It bristles with Culverin mounts and Demi-Culverin emplacements. The Dame prefers grapeshot, so as to minimise the damage to vessels she boards.
In no way does Dame Malfoy disguise her casual disregard for human life.
Her sorcery is based upon many long decades of research from such diverse sources as tribal witchdoctors of Africa, to Oriental Alchemy and Black Magic, to more commonplace Kabbalistic and Sumerian/Babylonian mysticism and theurgy.
Raquel is a false name, which is a private joke, referencing the term, Rake-hell; one who stokes the flames of hell through their wanton lifestyle. In truth, the woman has long ago abandoned carnal excess for the power she has gained through her studies and the few pacts to which she has bound herself. When she feels she needs to act the tart, or the sly woman of the world, she does so with practised skill.
Of late, after the discovery that her last child had taken to the life of a pirate, and been hanged for the offence, the Dame has begun to soften. At present, she toys with the idea of founding a nation free from all social constraints, where all humans, even the black and red primitives and yellow heathen can live without fear of the Church. She has Florida in mind for this notion, and has made inroads to deal with the pirates which frequent the so-called Keys, and the Ten Thousand Islands of the south-west of the peninsula.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Vicarious GenCon Loot-
What the LGS owner picked up for me:
* a set of teal opaque Gamescience dice (getting a black Crayola treatment)
* Fiegel & Grayson's HELLAS: Warriors of Sun and Stone (Omni System) [VERY nice]
* a silly Troll Lord Games Dungeon Mapping Sheets quadrille pad (with Key at the bottom of each page)
* a set of teal opaque Gamescience dice (getting a black Crayola treatment)
* Fiegel & Grayson's HELLAS: Warriors of Sun and Stone (Omni System) [VERY nice]
* a silly Troll Lord Games Dungeon Mapping Sheets quadrille pad (with Key at the bottom of each page)
Monday, August 17, 2009
[Playtest Campaign] Off to new adventures [RPG] Art & Layout-
After several sessions, the Playtest Group has finished the dungeoneering section of the Qerzyk adventure (first came the wilderness, then the urban, then the dungeon), and completed that location's immediate gaming.
I will spare you the lengthy details.
--High Tech items found; Abbekqorru captain and two human crew encountered; ship prevented from detonating; infected Hierophantic Church faction encountered; extra-dimensional gateway being studied by the Kherstic League; characters to be rewarded with a higher position in the organisation.
The LGS owner, and one of his room mates, have expressed an interest in joining the game, so, if that happens, the game looks like it may survive the loss of the Ray-man. We'll see how it survives others' school schedules.
--I hope the other set of players I ran for will not be a one shot
Peter Mullen has recently sent me six or seven black and white pieces for the interior, out of the 35 I have envisaged, and they look mighty fine.
--Their placement will ultimately determine the layout of the Manuals.
I will spare you the lengthy details.
--High Tech items found; Abbekqorru captain and two human crew encountered; ship prevented from detonating; infected Hierophantic Church faction encountered; extra-dimensional gateway being studied by the Kherstic League; characters to be rewarded with a higher position in the organisation.
The LGS owner, and one of his room mates, have expressed an interest in joining the game, so, if that happens, the game looks like it may survive the loss of the Ray-man. We'll see how it survives others' school schedules.
--I hope the other set of players I ran for will not be a one shot
Peter Mullen has recently sent me six or seven black and white pieces for the interior, out of the 35 I have envisaged, and they look mighty fine.
--Their placement will ultimately determine the layout of the Manuals.
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