Recently, discussion of "maximize at 16" versus "maximize Deceptive Attack" was going on. Douglas Cole even ran the numbers on efficient use of raw skill and criticals vs. Deceptive Attack.
But there is an easy way to make sure that using Deceptive Attack isn't a strangely exact science.
GURPS Basic Set, p. 370, has a simple suggestion for making Deceptive Attack less of a dial-the-perfect-odds option. It suggests fixing Deceptive Attack at -4 to hit, -2 to the defender's active defenses. It's nominally to speed play.
But it also has a marked effect on fights. You can't adjust your Deceptive Attack level to either get the most you can while still hitting the "perfect" odds to get through defenses, or while staying at skill 16 to maximize critical hits and minimize critical misses. Still, it might be worth having two levels of Deceptive Attack. The following is an (as yet untested) optional rule.
Deceptive Attack may be performed at either of two levels. The first level (Deceptive Attack) is -4 to hit, but gives your opponent a -2 to any defenses against your attack, should it hit. The second level (Very Deceptive Attack) is -8 to hit, but gives your opponent a -4 to any defenses.
Optionally, GMs may wish to remove the skill minimum, and allow anyone to attempt a Deceptive Attack or Very Deceptive Attack. It's unlikely to succeed unless the attacker's skill is high.
Why -8? A variety of reasons. One is the Task Difficulty Modifier table, which caps out at -10. So -10 would be the theoretical max, and since -8 is double the penalty of the first fixed level of Deceptive Attack.
This would also mean, for highly skilled fighters, that aiming for specific locations or using Rapid Strikes or techniques at default would be more common. You would cap out Deceptive Attack at -8/-4, so you'd have some play beyond that to spend on techniques and hit location penalties. This would also be true if you didn't tier the Deceptive Attack, and just stayed with the single fixed level. It would certainly speed play on the tabletop, and it would limit the precision min-maxing you get with a fully flexible Deceptive Attack.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Wasteland 2, Peter 2
I finished Wasteland 2.
Good game, overall. I enjoyed playing it.
- Combat was pretty blah, all the way through. If I could have done it again, I'd have given everyone assault rifles. They were way, way better than any other choice. Eventually, energy weapons were useful, but assault rifles always topped them. The 9 Action Points my .50 cal sniper rifle cost to do 180-200 damage from a headshot was easily topped by spending 9 AP with a 3-round headshot burst with a high-tier assault rifle doing 300+ damage. I actually topped one guy out with SMG at level 10, and then topped him out with Assault Rifle to make up for that poor choice. The guy I equipped with a handgun so he'd be useful close in was never useful with his pistol. I never found a weapon to match a top-end assault rifle, under any circumstances.
- it was generally clear what the "right" answer was and the wrong answer was. I'd have appreciated a bit more grey. My only reload-and-try-again issues were where I couldn't figure out how to trigger the good event with dialogue choices, not that I didn't know what to do.
- Occasionally I was frustrated because I got caught in conversation loops that just didn't make any sense.
- The lack of formations meant I started every fight bunched up, and the lack of surprise meant a sneaky long-range shot from cover at enemies didn't actually prevent them from reacting instantly and effectively.
- Once I hit Hollywood, the game kind of dragged. I'd play in spurts, instead of playing in marathons stopped by a desperate need to get to work or to sleep. Before that, it was the reverse.
- Again, if I could do it again, I'd have gone for higher IQ on everyone. Lack of skill points was the main slowdown for me. I actually had a desperate need for Lockpicking at one point, so I just spent an afternoon trolling for random encounters until I'd leveled up enough to buy up my Lockpicking to the needed level.
- As always in games, I ended up trucking around a lot of stuff I never used. If antivenom is useful for anything, I don't know what it is. Antibiotics? Used them once.
- I see I missed the "tell us how you want to be credited" message. The only me I could spot in the credits was a Peter D. That's got to be me, one of the 61,290.
- The end fights were good, and it was nice to get everyone I was friends with in on the action. It was odd the actual recruitable fighters didn't show. Maybe I should have left them behind, they might have been able to pitch in.
Still, I had a lot of fun, and the game is extremely visually and mood-wise an excellent post-apocalypse game. It made me feel like I need to talk andi into running a longer GURPS Gamma Terra game.
Good game, overall. I enjoyed playing it.
- Combat was pretty blah, all the way through. If I could have done it again, I'd have given everyone assault rifles. They were way, way better than any other choice. Eventually, energy weapons were useful, but assault rifles always topped them. The 9 Action Points my .50 cal sniper rifle cost to do 180-200 damage from a headshot was easily topped by spending 9 AP with a 3-round headshot burst with a high-tier assault rifle doing 300+ damage. I actually topped one guy out with SMG at level 10, and then topped him out with Assault Rifle to make up for that poor choice. The guy I equipped with a handgun so he'd be useful close in was never useful with his pistol. I never found a weapon to match a top-end assault rifle, under any circumstances.
- it was generally clear what the "right" answer was and the wrong answer was. I'd have appreciated a bit more grey. My only reload-and-try-again issues were where I couldn't figure out how to trigger the good event with dialogue choices, not that I didn't know what to do.
- Occasionally I was frustrated because I got caught in conversation loops that just didn't make any sense.
- The lack of formations meant I started every fight bunched up, and the lack of surprise meant a sneaky long-range shot from cover at enemies didn't actually prevent them from reacting instantly and effectively.
- Once I hit Hollywood, the game kind of dragged. I'd play in spurts, instead of playing in marathons stopped by a desperate need to get to work or to sleep. Before that, it was the reverse.
- Again, if I could do it again, I'd have gone for higher IQ on everyone. Lack of skill points was the main slowdown for me. I actually had a desperate need for Lockpicking at one point, so I just spent an afternoon trolling for random encounters until I'd leveled up enough to buy up my Lockpicking to the needed level.
- As always in games, I ended up trucking around a lot of stuff I never used. If antivenom is useful for anything, I don't know what it is. Antibiotics? Used them once.
- I see I missed the "tell us how you want to be credited" message. The only me I could spot in the credits was a Peter D. That's got to be me, one of the 61,290.
- The end fights were good, and it was nice to get everyone I was friends with in on the action. It was odd the actual recruitable fighters didn't show. Maybe I should have left them behind, they might have been able to pitch in.
Still, I had a lot of fun, and the game is extremely visually and mood-wise an excellent post-apocalypse game. It made me feel like I need to talk andi into running a longer GURPS Gamma Terra game.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Review: A4 In The Dungeons of the Slave Lords
This is part 4 in my series of reviews of the Slavers series of adventures.
Here are the previous parts:
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
For all of my reviews, please see my reviews page.
A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords
by Lawrence Schick
Levels 4-7
28 pages including one page of maps, plus maps on the inside cover
TSR 9042
A4 is the last in the Slave Lords series of adventures. It's also quite unlike most other adventure modules. You start the adventure as prisoners, dumped to die in a cave system as the island you're imprisoned on as said island's volcano erupts!
The adventure is basically split into two parts. Part one is the original tournament portion. Part two is the surface, and it's a capstone to a non-tournament playthrough of the series.
In part one, the Slave Lords have the PCs as prisoners. The PCs have already been repeatedly questioned and expended their spells (except for a few cleric spells prayed for during lapses in bad treatment) in fruitless attempts to escape. However, the island fastness of the Slave Lords is a volcanic island and it starts to erupt. The chief cleric of the Slave Lords, Stalman Klim (name changed from A3) has the PCs put to sleep and them dumped down into a cave system under the island as sacrifices to his god, the Earth Dragon.
The PCs wake up with nothing but loincloths, some sand (oddly, it's a sandy, limestone-y volcano, and yes, the module acknowledges that's odd but doesn't give a reason), and a few scroll cases with a mysterious gift from a mysterious stranger. The stranger is of course the secret agent of the people who hired the PCs and who helps out a few times along the way in small ways.
The PCs, in the dark (no light source, no Light spells, no way to make light), must find a way out of the tunnels. The tunnels are inhabited, too, some creatures that might be tough to a well-equipped party and ones that would be ignorable if you weren't so poorly equipped.
Where A1, A2, and A3 had tactical set pieces, A4 has tactical puzzles. Can you recover the weaponizable bits of stalactite from the danger zone of a critter? Can you cross the obstacle? Can you recognize who might help and who might hinder you? Can you figure out how to combine bits of "loot" from different encounters to find a way out?
It's not an adventure that responds to brute force or a party unwilling to sit and puzzle things out. You simply do not have enough force, enough time (remember the volcano), or enough options to just go for and tough it out. You must think. It's a great challenge to both character abilities (you'll need all of them to survive) and player skill (can you leverage your knowledge and your character's stats to get the job done).
It's like playing AD&D on hard mode - few spells (and those only for clerics), and you start out with nothing but loincloths and scrolls you can't see to read. Good luck using them - you are in utter darkness and depending on Infravision until you can find a way to make fire and some fuel. Weapons? Nothing until you can improvise things.
A4 is a lot of fun because it also turns the idea of loot on its head. A broken dagger is vastly more valuable than a handful of gems, and a bit of flint or flammable wood is more valuable than a pile of gold.
There are multiple ways out of the tunnels, too - unlike the railroad-like setups of A1 and A2, and the pure railroads of parts one and two of A3 (literally no actual alternative paths.) A party has more than one way out, although they all involve danger and risk.
But where the adventure really shines is the surface. The PCs come out at one of a few different locations, and have to find a way off the island. The volano's poisonous fumes have rolled into the city, and panicked people have fled to the docks. It's a long swim, so a boat is the best way. Meanwhile, some enterprising looters are looking to grab money, supernatural beings are loose, and the local animals have been stirred up. It's a chaotic mess and the PCs need to make their way through it.
Possibly the best way - or at least most satisfying way - off the island is to seize the Water Dragon, the galley of the Slave Lords. The test of a probably wounded and partly restored, haphazardly equipped party vs. a severely depleted but desperate, coordinated, and dangerous group of slave lords can be a great end to the series.
The Slave Lords are down on HP and have used up most of their spells, and some have died in the earthquakes and in fighting their way to the docks. The PCs are probably better equipped, especially if they dealt with some of the hodge-podge of looters and chances to up-gear themselves.
The adventure has the usual maps, and close-in maps of especially important areas. It also has a side view of a difficult area to traverse, which is very helpful. The adventure also marked the original usage of myconids, magmen, sandlings, and the cave fisher - all four ended up in the Monster Manual II years later. The sandling's pictures (there are two) make it much more interesting than the unillustrated monster in MM2 sounds.
It also has boxed text in the best tradition of boxed text - it's not meant to be read at the players, it's just all the information they players could have. So it's more like a split between GM and player information (the box) and GM-only information (the rest.) It makes it very easy to know what to pass on initially, and what's going to be hard to discern or is GM-eyes-only.
Finally, the adventure has clear rules for swimming, holding your breath, improvised weapons, and anything else. But it also has a lot of guidance for the GM for when the PCs inevitably try something unexpected.
Railroad or Not?
A4 has kind of a weird reputation, in my experience. It's considered a horrible railroad. After all, the PCs start out prisoners, dumped into a cave system and left to die in the dark.
But if the start is a railroad, the rest of the adventure is not. There are multiple ways out of the cave system they've been dumped into. There are multiple ways off the island of the Slave Lords.
While the dungeon escapes are pretty wide open, there is clearly a "best" escape from the island - defeating the surviving Slave Lords and seizing their craft and recovering the PC's lost gear. The other options don't quite as neatly seal off the adventure nor get the PCs their stuff back. They leave powerful enemies at large. But other ways exist.
So in practice, it's quite far from a railroad.
Re-reading this adventure, I'm more impressed than I was in the past - and I liked it a lot then. It's got some real drive and flavor - escaping a death-pit you've been dumped in as a final sacrifice, a volcanic island erupting, a disintegrating society as you flee for safety and seek revenge and completion of your mission. Not only that, but there are so many ways for players to show how their can use their own knowledge and the skills of the characters to the best effect. If you don't think, and you don't use what your characters can do to the utmost, you're going to have a lot of trouble.
I think the setup of this adventure would be best if it was held in reserve in case the party was defeated by the Slave Lords anywhere from A2-A3. Just zip forward to A4, and start with them in prison.
Generally in an adventure the PCs are either the focus of conflict, or they come in as a third party to a conflict. In many of the situations on the surface in A4, the PCs are just a few more people trying to get off the island. Many situations make the PCs nothing but spectators (unless they're foolish enough to jump in), one of many in a multi-sided fight, or just happen without the PCs mattering at all. The encounters - such as magmen, two- and three-plus way fights, etc. plus the escaping Slave Lords and erupting volcano make for a feeling of chaos. The only other adventure I've ever played or read that gave that feel of chaos, PCs in a maelstrom, and a pressing need to get moving now was the last European Twilight 2000 adventure, Going Home.
How is it for GURPS?
A4 would be easy but very different for GURPS. The way GURPS is written, you'd already have all the rules you need for a bunch of people with improvised weapons in the darkness dealing with obstacles and opponents. It would work just fine.
But taking away some (but not all) magic would be tough. For example, using normal GURPS Magic, you couldn't fully deprive casters of their magic without either permanently ripping the ability out of them (Drain Magery) or to use magic in the dungeon at all (a no Mana Zone.) Even a Low Mana Zone wouldn't be sufficient to really bother wizards too much. Clerics (using the Power Investiture/Magery split in DF) would be even better off - heck, they could learn new spells along the way without an issue. So you'd need a very different acceptance of how much magic the PCs would have access to. Where A4 takes the AD&D issue of "dealing with running out of resources" by giving you a select few to start with, GURPS doesn't generally have you run down in power as things go along, so it would be an abrupt and dramatic change. It would clearly be a very overt and deliberate challenge, not just "you've run out of spells and couldn't get them back" which is a normal event that can happen in AD&D.
The rest of the adventure, though, would work quite well. The threat of injury when unarmored and the inability to quickly recovery, nevermind the hell of using improvised weaponry vs. proper weapons and armor, would make it very challenging. But fun - my experience with players is that they gleefully come up with clever alternatives to actual weapons and enjoy weaponing up after they take out properly armed foes. So long as their gear is sure to come back at some point.
War Stories
This is an adventure I got when I was young - it was the first of the Slave Lords series I owned.
Not bad for what was probably my 10-year-old self. I'm no artist but this is less bad than a lot else I've colored.
I know I ran this, but I don't remember much. Little if any about the tunnels, but I do remember playing the Water Dragon fight. My copy of the adventure has lots of stuff crossed out in pencil, hit point countdowns, and spells used - so it definitely saw action. It's just been at least 30 years, so who knows for sure how it went? Even a good adventure is a tough sell if the PCs start out without gear, and starting out naked and without gear was a non-starter for elementary school boys.
Here are the previous parts:
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
For all of my reviews, please see my reviews page.
A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords
by Lawrence Schick
Levels 4-7
28 pages including one page of maps, plus maps on the inside cover
TSR 9042
A4 is the last in the Slave Lords series of adventures. It's also quite unlike most other adventure modules. You start the adventure as prisoners, dumped to die in a cave system as the island you're imprisoned on as said island's volcano erupts!
The adventure is basically split into two parts. Part one is the original tournament portion. Part two is the surface, and it's a capstone to a non-tournament playthrough of the series.
In part one, the Slave Lords have the PCs as prisoners. The PCs have already been repeatedly questioned and expended their spells (except for a few cleric spells prayed for during lapses in bad treatment) in fruitless attempts to escape. However, the island fastness of the Slave Lords is a volcanic island and it starts to erupt. The chief cleric of the Slave Lords, Stalman Klim (name changed from A3) has the PCs put to sleep and them dumped down into a cave system under the island as sacrifices to his god, the Earth Dragon.
The PCs wake up with nothing but loincloths, some sand (oddly, it's a sandy, limestone-y volcano, and yes, the module acknowledges that's odd but doesn't give a reason), and a few scroll cases with a mysterious gift from a mysterious stranger. The stranger is of course the secret agent of the people who hired the PCs and who helps out a few times along the way in small ways.
The PCs, in the dark (no light source, no Light spells, no way to make light), must find a way out of the tunnels. The tunnels are inhabited, too, some creatures that might be tough to a well-equipped party and ones that would be ignorable if you weren't so poorly equipped.
Where A1, A2, and A3 had tactical set pieces, A4 has tactical puzzles. Can you recover the weaponizable bits of stalactite from the danger zone of a critter? Can you cross the obstacle? Can you recognize who might help and who might hinder you? Can you figure out how to combine bits of "loot" from different encounters to find a way out?
It's not an adventure that responds to brute force or a party unwilling to sit and puzzle things out. You simply do not have enough force, enough time (remember the volcano), or enough options to just go for and tough it out. You must think. It's a great challenge to both character abilities (you'll need all of them to survive) and player skill (can you leverage your knowledge and your character's stats to get the job done).
It's like playing AD&D on hard mode - few spells (and those only for clerics), and you start out with nothing but loincloths and scrolls you can't see to read. Good luck using them - you are in utter darkness and depending on Infravision until you can find a way to make fire and some fuel. Weapons? Nothing until you can improvise things.
A4 is a lot of fun because it also turns the idea of loot on its head. A broken dagger is vastly more valuable than a handful of gems, and a bit of flint or flammable wood is more valuable than a pile of gold.
There are multiple ways out of the tunnels, too - unlike the railroad-like setups of A1 and A2, and the pure railroads of parts one and two of A3 (literally no actual alternative paths.) A party has more than one way out, although they all involve danger and risk.
But where the adventure really shines is the surface. The PCs come out at one of a few different locations, and have to find a way off the island. The volano's poisonous fumes have rolled into the city, and panicked people have fled to the docks. It's a long swim, so a boat is the best way. Meanwhile, some enterprising looters are looking to grab money, supernatural beings are loose, and the local animals have been stirred up. It's a chaotic mess and the PCs need to make their way through it.
Possibly the best way - or at least most satisfying way - off the island is to seize the Water Dragon, the galley of the Slave Lords. The test of a probably wounded and partly restored, haphazardly equipped party vs. a severely depleted but desperate, coordinated, and dangerous group of slave lords can be a great end to the series.
The Slave Lords are down on HP and have used up most of their spells, and some have died in the earthquakes and in fighting their way to the docks. The PCs are probably better equipped, especially if they dealt with some of the hodge-podge of looters and chances to up-gear themselves.
The adventure has the usual maps, and close-in maps of especially important areas. It also has a side view of a difficult area to traverse, which is very helpful. The adventure also marked the original usage of myconids, magmen, sandlings, and the cave fisher - all four ended up in the Monster Manual II years later. The sandling's pictures (there are two) make it much more interesting than the unillustrated monster in MM2 sounds.
It also has boxed text in the best tradition of boxed text - it's not meant to be read at the players, it's just all the information they players could have. So it's more like a split between GM and player information (the box) and GM-only information (the rest.) It makes it very easy to know what to pass on initially, and what's going to be hard to discern or is GM-eyes-only.
Finally, the adventure has clear rules for swimming, holding your breath, improvised weapons, and anything else. But it also has a lot of guidance for the GM for when the PCs inevitably try something unexpected.
Railroad or Not?
A4 has kind of a weird reputation, in my experience. It's considered a horrible railroad. After all, the PCs start out prisoners, dumped into a cave system and left to die in the dark.
But if the start is a railroad, the rest of the adventure is not. There are multiple ways out of the cave system they've been dumped into. There are multiple ways off the island of the Slave Lords.
While the dungeon escapes are pretty wide open, there is clearly a "best" escape from the island - defeating the surviving Slave Lords and seizing their craft and recovering the PC's lost gear. The other options don't quite as neatly seal off the adventure nor get the PCs their stuff back. They leave powerful enemies at large. But other ways exist.
So in practice, it's quite far from a railroad.
Re-reading this adventure, I'm more impressed than I was in the past - and I liked it a lot then. It's got some real drive and flavor - escaping a death-pit you've been dumped in as a final sacrifice, a volcanic island erupting, a disintegrating society as you flee for safety and seek revenge and completion of your mission. Not only that, but there are so many ways for players to show how their can use their own knowledge and the skills of the characters to the best effect. If you don't think, and you don't use what your characters can do to the utmost, you're going to have a lot of trouble.
I think the setup of this adventure would be best if it was held in reserve in case the party was defeated by the Slave Lords anywhere from A2-A3. Just zip forward to A4, and start with them in prison.
Generally in an adventure the PCs are either the focus of conflict, or they come in as a third party to a conflict. In many of the situations on the surface in A4, the PCs are just a few more people trying to get off the island. Many situations make the PCs nothing but spectators (unless they're foolish enough to jump in), one of many in a multi-sided fight, or just happen without the PCs mattering at all. The encounters - such as magmen, two- and three-plus way fights, etc. plus the escaping Slave Lords and erupting volcano make for a feeling of chaos. The only other adventure I've ever played or read that gave that feel of chaos, PCs in a maelstrom, and a pressing need to get moving now was the last European Twilight 2000 adventure, Going Home.
How is it for GURPS?
A4 would be easy but very different for GURPS. The way GURPS is written, you'd already have all the rules you need for a bunch of people with improvised weapons in the darkness dealing with obstacles and opponents. It would work just fine.
But taking away some (but not all) magic would be tough. For example, using normal GURPS Magic, you couldn't fully deprive casters of their magic without either permanently ripping the ability out of them (Drain Magery) or to use magic in the dungeon at all (a no Mana Zone.) Even a Low Mana Zone wouldn't be sufficient to really bother wizards too much. Clerics (using the Power Investiture/Magery split in DF) would be even better off - heck, they could learn new spells along the way without an issue. So you'd need a very different acceptance of how much magic the PCs would have access to. Where A4 takes the AD&D issue of "dealing with running out of resources" by giving you a select few to start with, GURPS doesn't generally have you run down in power as things go along, so it would be an abrupt and dramatic change. It would clearly be a very overt and deliberate challenge, not just "you've run out of spells and couldn't get them back" which is a normal event that can happen in AD&D.
The rest of the adventure, though, would work quite well. The threat of injury when unarmored and the inability to quickly recovery, nevermind the hell of using improvised weaponry vs. proper weapons and armor, would make it very challenging. But fun - my experience with players is that they gleefully come up with clever alternatives to actual weapons and enjoy weaponing up after they take out properly armed foes. So long as their gear is sure to come back at some point.
War Stories
This is an adventure I got when I was young - it was the first of the Slave Lords series I owned.
Not bad for what was probably my 10-year-old self. I'm no artist but this is less bad than a lot else I've colored.
I know I ran this, but I don't remember much. Little if any about the tunnels, but I do remember playing the Water Dragon fight. My copy of the adventure has lots of stuff crossed out in pencil, hit point countdowns, and spells used - so it definitely saw action. It's just been at least 30 years, so who knows for sure how it went? Even a good adventure is a tough sell if the PCs start out without gear, and starting out naked and without gear was a non-starter for elementary school boys.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Mad Wizard Did It!
Or a demented godling.
This list, culled from a variety of sources, is pretty freaking awesome reading. The comic linked at the bottom pretty much explains everything.
Mad Wizards and Demented Godlings*
There is a reason why my players - including those who run wizards - claim you can't trust any wizards.
To add a few the author, Max, didn't get to because they're from other, non-D&D and non-Palladium sources:
As-Sharak (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "The as-Sharak are elemental sorcerers who sold their souls for power . . . only to be turned into monsters in Hell and returned to the living world to punish similarly arrogant mortals."
Eye Entity (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "Eye Entities are formed through a magical ritual and a foul alchemical process [. . . ]"
Eye of Death (Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1): "It’s also known that reckless wizards
sometimes summon eyes of death into this world."
Flaming Skull (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "The jury is out on whether they’re necromantic creations or free-willed evil spirits who loathe mortals."
Gladiator Ape (Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1): "Not every mad wizard or strange civilization is satisfied with mere flesh-eating apes (Dungeons, p. 23). These flesheaters have been bred as vicious combatants."
Golem-Armor Swordsman (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "This construct consists of a flesh golem – made from a formerly living swordsman – riveted inside solid metal plates that are also animated, thereby augmenting strength."
Lich (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "When confronted by unavoidable death, most Evil Clerics, Evil Magicians, and Sorcerers depart life with one last, dreadful curse. A few forgo this privilege to become Undead, securing immortality as liches."
Shadows (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "Shadows are the result of a horrible ritual known only to a few Necromancers and recorded in only the most despicable tomes of vile knowledge."
The Rolemaster ones are supported by many more, as are the GURPS ones. I only picked a few examples from DFM1. My examples don't even scratch the surface of the evidence that, basically, wizards are d***s. Mad gods, not much better.
* By the way, I love that he, too, colored in his monster manuals. Here is my Fiend Folio.
This list, culled from a variety of sources, is pretty freaking awesome reading. The comic linked at the bottom pretty much explains everything.
Mad Wizards and Demented Godlings*
There is a reason why my players - including those who run wizards - claim you can't trust any wizards.
To add a few the author, Max, didn't get to because they're from other, non-D&D and non-Palladium sources:
As-Sharak (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "The as-Sharak are elemental sorcerers who sold their souls for power . . . only to be turned into monsters in Hell and returned to the living world to punish similarly arrogant mortals."
Eye Entity (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "Eye Entities are formed through a magical ritual and a foul alchemical process [. . . ]"
Eye of Death (Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1): "It’s also known that reckless wizards
sometimes summon eyes of death into this world."
Flaming Skull (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "The jury is out on whether they’re necromantic creations or free-willed evil spirits who loathe mortals."
Gladiator Ape (Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1): "Not every mad wizard or strange civilization is satisfied with mere flesh-eating apes (Dungeons, p. 23). These flesheaters have been bred as vicious combatants."
Golem-Armor Swordsman (Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons): "This construct consists of a flesh golem – made from a formerly living swordsman – riveted inside solid metal plates that are also animated, thereby augmenting strength."
Lich (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "When confronted by unavoidable death, most Evil Clerics, Evil Magicians, and Sorcerers depart life with one last, dreadful curse. A few forgo this privilege to become Undead, securing immortality as liches."
Shadows (Rolemaster Creature & Monsters): "Shadows are the result of a horrible ritual known only to a few Necromancers and recorded in only the most despicable tomes of vile knowledge."
The Rolemaster ones are supported by many more, as are the GURPS ones. I only picked a few examples from DFM1. My examples don't even scratch the surface of the evidence that, basically, wizards are d***s. Mad gods, not much better.
* By the way, I love that he, too, colored in his monster manuals. Here is my Fiend Folio.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Orcs vs. powerful PCs: Fighting back when you can't win
In my DF game, the PCs are dealing with a persistent and dangerous orc problem that appears in regular (but expanding) areas.
If you turn it around, the Felltower orcs are dealing with a persistent and dangerous delver problem that appears in irregular, seemingly random patterns.
Both sides, I'm sure, see the other as having violated the working agreement they had - the PCs see the orcs as having raised the cost of entering the dungeon and thus getting too big for their britches, the orcs almost certainly figured out the PCs killed any orcs they found in areas they were exploring. But recently this has become an active conflict in the dungeon, with the orcs getting the short end of every face-to-face encounter.
So what have the orcs done?
Setting aside individual tactics (which I covered as extensively as I could in this Melee Academy entry), they have tried:
- ganging up on individual fighters.
- mixing troop types (so some guys with long weapons, some short, some ranged, etc.)
- formations.
- a solid alarm system, with pickets out and delaying tactics.
- Piling on when they have an advantage, backing off when they don't.
- Magic to (literally) shape the battlefield.
- Riling up the dungeon inhabitants against the PCs.
- occasional monster deployment (mostly their own wolf-like pets, but recently a troll.)
- barriers and blockades to channel the PCs.
- special weapons - so far, flaming oil (a bust, mostly, thanks to the PCs liberal use of magical counters), smoke (a bust, thanks again to magic), foot traps (caltrops, spikes, rocks, etc., also a bust), and a few other minor ones. Nothing so far has impressed the PCs (since they're quick to think of and deploy counters.)
- magic, mostly indirectly since direct magical attacks on PCs have utterly failed the few times they were tried.
These guys tried a formation. It didn't help.
These guys brought friends, which backed off the PCs but didn't get them much else.
Of course, the orcs being orcs, they are already poisoning their weapons. That's a given - my orcs are quite resistant to poison, so a safe dose for them is still a combat-worthy amount of venom against a human.
Some of this is shades of "Tucker's Kobolds," - but it's been a progressive reaction to the failure of prior tactics to beat the PCs or even dissuade them from action. Not only that, it's a militaristic/warrior culture who are dealing with foes out-fighting them. They're outclassed but they have a vested interest in beating the PCs and being able to keep the PCs from steamrolling them.
As tactics are put in play, they're learning from what worked, what didn't work, and what might been to be changed. So it's not just a case of running into a wall of pre-made killer commandos, but rather dealing with a reactive foe trying to adjust to the changing tactics and escalating threat of the PCs. The orcs don't always react correctly, but they'll do something. The players know this - they recently said something like "We cleared this section for the orcs, so we better go through now before they come and set up here." It doesn't help the orcs any that the PCs take the orc threat seriously, and fight back hard and quickly when conflict happens.
In a way, you have to kind of feel for the poor guys - the PCs came through last time and turned a well-designed ambush into a death trap for around 25 orcs and a troll without taking any significant long-term losses. But they keep trying, which might tell you something right there . . . the answer to why isn't just "because Peter owns a pile of orc figures." That only says why it is orcs, not something else.
If you turn it around, the Felltower orcs are dealing with a persistent and dangerous delver problem that appears in irregular, seemingly random patterns.
Both sides, I'm sure, see the other as having violated the working agreement they had - the PCs see the orcs as having raised the cost of entering the dungeon and thus getting too big for their britches, the orcs almost certainly figured out the PCs killed any orcs they found in areas they were exploring. But recently this has become an active conflict in the dungeon, with the orcs getting the short end of every face-to-face encounter.
So what have the orcs done?
Setting aside individual tactics (which I covered as extensively as I could in this Melee Academy entry), they have tried:
- ganging up on individual fighters.
- mixing troop types (so some guys with long weapons, some short, some ranged, etc.)
- formations.
- a solid alarm system, with pickets out and delaying tactics.
- Piling on when they have an advantage, backing off when they don't.
- Magic to (literally) shape the battlefield.
- Riling up the dungeon inhabitants against the PCs.
- occasional monster deployment (mostly their own wolf-like pets, but recently a troll.)
- barriers and blockades to channel the PCs.
- special weapons - so far, flaming oil (a bust, mostly, thanks to the PCs liberal use of magical counters), smoke (a bust, thanks again to magic), foot traps (caltrops, spikes, rocks, etc., also a bust), and a few other minor ones. Nothing so far has impressed the PCs (since they're quick to think of and deploy counters.)
- magic, mostly indirectly since direct magical attacks on PCs have utterly failed the few times they were tried.
These guys tried a formation. It didn't help.
These guys brought friends, which backed off the PCs but didn't get them much else.
Of course, the orcs being orcs, they are already poisoning their weapons. That's a given - my orcs are quite resistant to poison, so a safe dose for them is still a combat-worthy amount of venom against a human.
Some of this is shades of "Tucker's Kobolds," - but it's been a progressive reaction to the failure of prior tactics to beat the PCs or even dissuade them from action. Not only that, it's a militaristic/warrior culture who are dealing with foes out-fighting them. They're outclassed but they have a vested interest in beating the PCs and being able to keep the PCs from steamrolling them.
As tactics are put in play, they're learning from what worked, what didn't work, and what might been to be changed. So it's not just a case of running into a wall of pre-made killer commandos, but rather dealing with a reactive foe trying to adjust to the changing tactics and escalating threat of the PCs. The orcs don't always react correctly, but they'll do something. The players know this - they recently said something like "We cleared this section for the orcs, so we better go through now before they come and set up here." It doesn't help the orcs any that the PCs take the orc threat seriously, and fight back hard and quickly when conflict happens.
In a way, you have to kind of feel for the poor guys - the PCs came through last time and turned a well-designed ambush into a death trap for around 25 orcs and a troll without taking any significant long-term losses. But they keep trying, which might tell you something right there . . . the answer to why isn't just "because Peter owns a pile of orc figures." That only says why it is orcs, not something else.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
DF6, DF8, equipment catalogs, and My Game
Recently Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables and some of the items in it came up for discussion.
Here is how my game handles this stuff:
DF1: All equipment/magic items are available unless I say otherwise. The default answer is yes.
DF6: All magic items are potentially available, but only if they appear in play or indirectly in play (via rumors, etc.) Nothing is available for purchase off-the-shelf. The default answer for availability is no.
DF8: All magic items, unusual items, etc. are potentially available, but only if they appear in play, as DF6 items. The default answer for availability is no. Some items may be available off-the-shelf, but generally they are not.
Other supplements: As DF8. Not available unless demonstrated to be available, so don't ask until you see it. This includes Low-Tech, although most TL0-4 weapons are available.
Important note: never bet your character's life, development, future tactics, or end-game plan on any equipment you have not seen used in actual play. That which isn't shown to exist is not necessarily going to come into play just because stats exist for it.
This includes stuff I have personally written - if I wrote it, and I want it in play, it will show up in play, rest assured.
Here is how my game handles this stuff:
DF1: All equipment/magic items are available unless I say otherwise. The default answer is yes.
DF6: All magic items are potentially available, but only if they appear in play or indirectly in play (via rumors, etc.) Nothing is available for purchase off-the-shelf. The default answer for availability is no.
DF8: All magic items, unusual items, etc. are potentially available, but only if they appear in play, as DF6 items. The default answer for availability is no. Some items may be available off-the-shelf, but generally they are not.
Other supplements: As DF8. Not available unless demonstrated to be available, so don't ask until you see it. This includes Low-Tech, although most TL0-4 weapons are available.
Important note: never bet your character's life, development, future tactics, or end-game plan on any equipment you have not seen used in actual play. That which isn't shown to exist is not necessarily going to come into play just because stats exist for it.
This includes stuff I have personally written - if I wrote it, and I want it in play, it will show up in play, rest assured.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Felltower: Where the money is (?)
The last few trips of the PCs to my megadungeon have been a bit scant. They took home a solid haul from the dragon they slew, including a unique weapon.
But after that, lots of very little. Coupled with the way I handle XP - a point-value scaled loot requirement - this has been hard on the higher-point PCs. Generally, the group has been operating at a loss or a near-loss once you factor in:
- upkeep
- replacing potions
- replacing expendable gear
- paying their hirelings and hench-cleric
- research and other one-time expenditures
- healing (they've had to fork out for a Resurrection and Restoration recently)
- bribing monsters
But there is treasure out there. I figured I'd do my players a favor and list some of the place I know they know of that clearly, absolutely, have treasure.
The Evil Temple - they caught a glimpse of strange altar pieces and a bowl of gems in this one.
Pros: Not all that far from their current favorite entrance.
Cons: Guarded by evil demon-undead-whatever-things and a floor that has negative magical effects on you if you walk on it. Orcs can potentially cut off retreat from it. Unknown amount of money. Players assume it's cursed.
Gargoyles: They have all the gems they coerced out of the PCs. May have other gems, too.
Pros: Easily located.
Cons: I don't give XP for re-looted stuff. Flying monsters in a high-ceiling area.
Draugr - there draugr are heavily equipped and each has a valuable necklace, plus there is a bonus reward that probably exceeds the value of the grave-goods on offer.
Pros: The gear alone or the necklaces along would be profitable, nevermind in combination.
Cons: Tough, tough fight (33 barbarian-sized draugr who are demonstrably elite warriors). Orcs can possibly cut off retreat or pounce after.
There are some others which may or may not lead to treasure.
- the maze
- the double doors (the ones near the maze)
- the double doors (inside the main entrance)
- the "airlock door" (which the Lord of Spite once came out of)
- the metal door
- the Sterick symbol door
- the rotating statues
- the headless statues
- the newest doors they've started playing with this past session.
None of this is "new" stuff to my players; I'm just reminding them of their to-do list here. I figured they might be getting a little frustrated finding loot. They've been re-combing over areas for a while. I just figured this might help them remember where known sources of money are.
But after that, lots of very little. Coupled with the way I handle XP - a point-value scaled loot requirement - this has been hard on the higher-point PCs. Generally, the group has been operating at a loss or a near-loss once you factor in:
- upkeep
- replacing potions
- replacing expendable gear
- paying their hirelings and hench-cleric
- research and other one-time expenditures
- healing (they've had to fork out for a Resurrection and Restoration recently)
- bribing monsters
But there is treasure out there. I figured I'd do my players a favor and list some of the place I know they know of that clearly, absolutely, have treasure.
The Evil Temple - they caught a glimpse of strange altar pieces and a bowl of gems in this one.
Pros: Not all that far from their current favorite entrance.
Cons: Guarded by evil demon-undead-whatever-things and a floor that has negative magical effects on you if you walk on it. Orcs can potentially cut off retreat from it. Unknown amount of money. Players assume it's cursed.
Gargoyles: They have all the gems they coerced out of the PCs. May have other gems, too.
Pros: Easily located.
Cons: I don't give XP for re-looted stuff. Flying monsters in a high-ceiling area.
Draugr - there draugr are heavily equipped and each has a valuable necklace, plus there is a bonus reward that probably exceeds the value of the grave-goods on offer.
Pros: The gear alone or the necklaces along would be profitable, nevermind in combination.
Cons: Tough, tough fight (33 barbarian-sized draugr who are demonstrably elite warriors). Orcs can possibly cut off retreat or pounce after.
There are some others which may or may not lead to treasure.
- the maze
- the double doors (the ones near the maze)
- the double doors (inside the main entrance)
- the "airlock door" (which the Lord of Spite once came out of)
- the metal door
- the Sterick symbol door
- the rotating statues
- the headless statues
- the newest doors they've started playing with this past session.
None of this is "new" stuff to my players; I'm just reminding them of their to-do list here. I figured they might be getting a little frustrated finding loot. They've been re-combing over areas for a while. I just figured this might help them remember where known sources of money are.
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