So today was our scheduled Gamma Terra game.
I woke up later than usual, checked my email, and lo and behold, our GM was sick.
Could our Star Wars GM help us make guys and start the regular campaign?
Nope, not ready yet.
So it fell to me to run DF.
The whole point of my DF game is that it's low prep. I can run on no notice. But that's my megadungeon. The Lost City is a little more dynamic and needs a bit more prep. Not only that, but since I had two more weeks until our next scheduled DF game I had:
- taken my whole GM screen apart to re-do with stuff I actually find I use.
- taken all of the major PC and NPC minis out of my game box to organize.
- left all of the NPC minis and monster minis I needed in their long-term storage crates (usually I put them in the transport box the night before.)
- taken all of my game materials out of my backpack and game transport box to re-organize.
- left all the of rumor-writing, restocking, and double-checking of game rules and setting notes for next week.
I basically disassembled my gaming setup.
So I said, sure, I can run game, but I'll be two hours late. I still managed, though, with a fast pass through the city file, some very quick rumor writing, grabbing all the minis I thought I'd need, and shoving all the books into my bag and box.
Whew!
***
How was game?
It went well. I'll put up a summary tomorrow, probably at night. But:
- we had a nice little skirmish with some dire vultures and a harpy.
- the PCs finally found the lost eye of the giant statue.
- we had a great big exciting brawl on top of a step Pyramid vs. a mass of mowgli and pentanthers and a were-bear.
- we had lots of grappling, and our first disarm attempts in maybe the last 10 years of play.
- we found out that Hjalmarr actually doesn't fear snakes. Spiders, ants, centipedes, the word "bugs," and more, but not snakes.
- one PC got back an arm, another one had his left hand bitten clean off and devoured.
- we ended game in the city, because it was a shorter session and the PCs are, in the game world, pressed for time.
Like I said, summary tomorrow!
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Review: Dungeon Fantasy 18: Power Items
Here is my usual caveat - I generally review stuff I like. Also, this is yet another book written by my friend and sometimes co-author Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. I'm not remotely unbiased.
For me reviews, please check my reviews page.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 18: Power Items
by Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch
Published January 2016 by Steve Jackson Games
14 Pages
$4.99 (PDF, available on W23)
This volume expands on what's just a small box in Dungeon Fantasy 1, the rules for Power Items.
This is basically a 10-page (not counting the table of contents, W23 ad, etc.) FAQ on power items for DF.
What's in it?
There is an extended power item table, going all the way up (from 20 power, by 5s) to 120 power at $1.4 million.
There are Power-Ups, like:
- Perks allowing better power items and self-charging power items.
- A power-up for extra power items.
- Access to the secret power item charging ritual (a mere 75 points . . . )
There are sections that go into very specific detail on how power items work and get charged and get used. The book answers a lot of little questions I bet Sean had to answer online and by email. How to swap power items. How to deny them to others. How close you have to be to use one. Static power items. Overcharging power items (and yes, I'll allow it.) Power items for non-casters. How to calculate the price for determining power item value. Improving power items (both cost to get it done, and how to do it yourself.)
There is more, too. Restricted Power Items by type of items they power. More detail on Endurance Items from DF8.
It's really a good resource. It's extremely narrowly focused, but it does its job nicely and concisely.
Overall: I like it. I made up some of my own rules for some of the situations covered here, but I'll swap these in for mine. Worth it for people running casters in DF games or who like the "Power Item" approach for GURPS magic in general.
For me reviews, please check my reviews page.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 18: Power Items
by Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch
Published January 2016 by Steve Jackson Games
14 Pages
$4.99 (PDF, available on W23)
This volume expands on what's just a small box in Dungeon Fantasy 1, the rules for Power Items.
This is basically a 10-page (not counting the table of contents, W23 ad, etc.) FAQ on power items for DF.
What's in it?
There is an extended power item table, going all the way up (from 20 power, by 5s) to 120 power at $1.4 million.
There are Power-Ups, like:
- Perks allowing better power items and self-charging power items.
- A power-up for extra power items.
- Access to the secret power item charging ritual (a mere 75 points . . . )
There are sections that go into very specific detail on how power items work and get charged and get used. The book answers a lot of little questions I bet Sean had to answer online and by email. How to swap power items. How to deny them to others. How close you have to be to use one. Static power items. Overcharging power items (and yes, I'll allow it.) Power items for non-casters. How to calculate the price for determining power item value. Improving power items (both cost to get it done, and how to do it yourself.)
There is more, too. Restricted Power Items by type of items they power. More detail on Endurance Items from DF8.
It's really a good resource. It's extremely narrowly focused, but it does its job nicely and concisely.
Overall: I like it. I made up some of my own rules for some of the situations covered here, but I'll swap these in for mine. Worth it for people running casters in DF games or who like the "Power Item" approach for GURPS magic in general.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Why I use initiative rolls in GURPS DF
Doug took the initiative and got inside my OODB loop (Observation-Orientation-Decision-Blogging) and posted a way to deal with shifting initiative in a fight.
If I had to sum up the GURPS rules for surprise, they are for "attacked out of nowhere" and "blundered into an ambush," basically.
Otherwise, initiative is fixed, there is no overall turn, and being fastest means going first. Being slow means you react after. If you're all in a hair-trigger situation like a Tarantino-inspired Mexican Standoff, GURPS Martial Arts has Cascading Waits rules to see who really goes first. And similar rules for quick-draw contests and such. Otherwise, fixed order.
I'm okay with that, and ran games that way for a long time. It's simple enough, it works, and it rewards people who make fast and capable PCs by giving them fast and capable PCs.
Even when we went to round-the-table initiative order instead of interlayered speed order, I just let the side with the fastest guy go first.
But not DF. With DF, I went with random rolls, detailed here:
My DF Alternate Surprise Rules
This wasn't because I had an issue with the GURPS system.
It was, in fact, because I liked the feel of "surprise" and "initiative" from D&D/AD&D and from early video games. "You are surprised by 4 bushwackers, 4 bushwackers, 2 bushwackers, and 1 goblin" - you know, after you kicked down the door in a dungeon while you're on hair-trigger and terrified of death. Stupid stuff, but fun.
I also assumed that walking around a dungeon, even noisily, meant that sometimes you blundered into prepared opponents who knew you were coming. And sometimes you'd blunder into unprepared opponents who just assumed, wrong, that the metal noises were those stupid orcs from down the hall again.
Pretty much, it's a dungeon genre switch. In dungeon delving games, you have to see if you're surprised by the monsters behind the door you just kicked down. You may know Charlie is in the trees but still get surprised when he's in that tree, not that other one.
My game is full of this kind of homage:
- wandering monsters
- doors that need forcing
- treasure in chests in rooms, often trapped.
- non-breakable environments
- a safe town to sell loot in
- reasonably cheap and available resurrection*
- more danger as you go deeper
It's not logic, it's genre switches that push this. And surprise/side-based initiative is one of them.
Pretty much the only way I could make this more D&D would be rolling Reaction Rolls for all of the monsters. "You are surprised by a beholder! Hahaha! Oh, wait, he's friendly and wants to negotiate."
That's a different, future post right there.
* In GURPS DF, getting raised from the dead costs 15 x Starting Wealth. That's like charging ~1500 gp in AD&D.
If I had to sum up the GURPS rules for surprise, they are for "attacked out of nowhere" and "blundered into an ambush," basically.
Otherwise, initiative is fixed, there is no overall turn, and being fastest means going first. Being slow means you react after. If you're all in a hair-trigger situation like a Tarantino-inspired Mexican Standoff, GURPS Martial Arts has Cascading Waits rules to see who really goes first. And similar rules for quick-draw contests and such. Otherwise, fixed order.
I'm okay with that, and ran games that way for a long time. It's simple enough, it works, and it rewards people who make fast and capable PCs by giving them fast and capable PCs.
Even when we went to round-the-table initiative order instead of interlayered speed order, I just let the side with the fastest guy go first.
But not DF. With DF, I went with random rolls, detailed here:
My DF Alternate Surprise Rules
This wasn't because I had an issue with the GURPS system.
It was, in fact, because I liked the feel of "surprise" and "initiative" from D&D/AD&D and from early video games. "You are surprised by 4 bushwackers, 4 bushwackers, 2 bushwackers, and 1 goblin" - you know, after you kicked down the door in a dungeon while you're on hair-trigger and terrified of death. Stupid stuff, but fun.
I also assumed that walking around a dungeon, even noisily, meant that sometimes you blundered into prepared opponents who knew you were coming. And sometimes you'd blunder into unprepared opponents who just assumed, wrong, that the metal noises were those stupid orcs from down the hall again.
Pretty much, it's a dungeon genre switch. In dungeon delving games, you have to see if you're surprised by the monsters behind the door you just kicked down. You may know Charlie is in the trees but still get surprised when he's in that tree, not that other one.
My game is full of this kind of homage:
- wandering monsters
- doors that need forcing
- treasure in chests in rooms, often trapped.
- non-breakable environments
- a safe town to sell loot in
- reasonably cheap and available resurrection*
- more danger as you go deeper
It's not logic, it's genre switches that push this. And surprise/side-based initiative is one of them.
Pretty much the only way I could make this more D&D would be rolling Reaction Rolls for all of the monsters. "You are surprised by a beholder! Hahaha! Oh, wait, he's friendly and wants to negotiate."
That's a different, future post right there.
* In GURPS DF, getting raised from the dead costs 15 x Starting Wealth. That's like charging ~1500 gp in AD&D.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Player Tips: Running a Utility Character in GURPS DF
This post starts with some conversational war stories, and then segues into GURPS advice. It might be useful for non-GURPS games, because it's pretty general, but your mileage will vary if you're running a different game system.
At our last game, there was a bit of player discussion about the utility of, well, utility PCs. That is, non-front line fighter types.
The occasion was Hjalmarr dying, at least temporarily, and his player considering some other types. These included a cleric and an assassin (a combatant, but a backstabby-specialized one). We briefly had some mention of past thieves and clerics.
Really, though, that session was a pretty good example session of the usefulness of the non-fighters. For example:
- I rolled an 18 on the weather table, and further rolled that it was all-day weather. If it wasn't for the druid and Weather Dome, this could have severely impacted the group. Instead it was just a ration drain and a delay.
- Survival and Naturalist and Navigation were critical expedition skills this session, like all of the other Lost City sessions.
- the PCs utterly failed to detect a trap (default Traps is no substitute for a trained thief).
- the PCs had to resort to magic to open a locked door and utterly failed to open a locked chest, resulting in setting off a trap, because they lack Lockpicking.
- Lack of a healer was a serious issue.
Had the party also had a thief and a cleric, none of those would have been an issue. Conversely, had the druid not showed up, they'd have been compromised by the "the gods hate you" level of rain and storm.
A few years back I blogged about this from one angle:
Thoughts on Dungeon Fantasy & non-front line fighter types
Today I want to give some advice to people running such characters.
In my experience, utility characters benefit from doing the following things.
Defend Yourself
A non-front-line fighter really needs to be able to stop at least one or two attacks, even if only for a few seconds. Being vulnerable to a one-shot kill because you lack defenses puts a strain on your allies. It also means their effectiveness in combat is restricted by your weakness. If you can reasonably expect to survive a shot or two, you let them do their job.
A few good ways to do this:
- get good Active Defenses. Dodge as high as you can, as it's the most versatile. But also Parry and Block. Make sure you can at least stop a single attack.
- have some DR. You don't need a lot, although it helps to have as much as you can. It's best to keep your encumbrance level reasonable so you aren't even very slow or very exhausted or both after a fight.
- have some supernatural help. Invisibility, Missile Shield, Luck, Bless (not that I use Bless in my game), points saved for Impulse Buys, etc. are all good ways to minimize risk.
- have some mundane help. Smoke Nageteppo, a good Stealth score (and a covered light source), hirelings or allies, and just plain good Move are all useful.
- At worst, up Acting and play dead! It's fishy if you just "die" instantly upon seeing the bad guys, though. (DF2, p. 11)
- Know your options - what the defenses do, and how All-Out Defense and Defensive Attack work. Feverish Defenses, too, if you're using extra effort in combat (my group does not.)
These can keep you safe for the seconds it takes a front-line ally to intervene. You'll still be fragile - DF is high powered, and offensive powers tend to nasty. But these will help.
Contribute to Combat
Even if you're mainly a utility character, you still want to have some contribution to combat.
This can be:
- a ranged or missile attack. Get a sling, bow, thrown grenade-type item, darts, whatever. If it's lethal and quick, that's perfect. If not, it'll still help. If it's weak, it's mostly useful to see who has Missile Shield and Reverse Missiles up! But it'll still be useful. Add Poisons if you're my kind of scum. And overpowered crossbows you can't reload yourself are just a fun kind of thing to tote around, if you can make the shot count!
- a combat-useful spell. For casters, find a cheap and quick offense spell and make use of it. Regular spells such as Frostbite or Dehydrate (or Daze and Sleep on the higher end) can be resisted but (depending on the spell) you can sometimes rip off a 1 or 2 pt version quickly. Or going for a buffing spell to help your friends. Even a minor buff (Shield at +1 DB, or Haste at +1, or Armor at +1) is helpful. Some Area spells can help shape the battlefield and keep the back safe - Wall and Dome spells can block up corridors, Illusions can misdirect, etc.
- combat-useful skills. Tactics can help you shout suggestions. Leadership helps against scary monsters by aiding ally's Fright Checks. First Aid or Esoteric Medicine can work in one second with a roll at -10 - but don't critically fail!
Knowledge skills are good here - spent a turn looking and see if your Hidden Lore, Naturalist, Occultism, Thaumatology, etc. can tell you what you are facing. Knowing it's a golem, not undead, or that it's a terrible & dire wombat and not your standard dire wombat, is helpful. Use Animal Handling, Psychology, Religious Ritual, or Singing (as appropriate) to taunt monsters, or Intimidation to scare them. (DF 2, p. 9-12)
- direct combat actions. Thieves and assassins do well with backstab (DF 2, p. 11), especially if they buff it up with Backstabber. (DF 11, p. 35) Casters do well with Missile and Area spells. Clerics can have True Faith (with Turning).
If you pretty much stand around a fight waiting for it to be won or lost, you're probably not pulling your weight as effectively as you can. It's tempting to get caught up in a circle of, "I'm almost useless in combat, so I won't do anything in combat." You know, "Don't just do something, stand there!" Finding low-risk ways to contribute to combat is a good idea. A healing-focused cleric or a thief or a utility wizard isn't going to be able to deal with a worthy or boss-level foe directly, but you can help contribute to the cause.
Exploit Your Niche
If you're a utility character, you have a non-combat niche. Make as much use of it as you can. Whatever it is you do well (spot traps, open locks, talk to animals, exorcise curses, map, sell stuff in town, negotiate with monsters, etc.), make sure you do it. Get skilled at it (no one likes hiring a burglar who can't sneak, or a guide without Area Knowledge, etc.) Don't be obnoxious about it, any more than combat folks should try to fight everything. But make sure you know what you're capable of and try to exploit your skills to aid your group. If you don't do this, you're in danger of just being dead weight (if you don't aid in combat, or are weak enough to need constant protection) or just a weak combatant (if you do.)
Outside of your niche, just see where you can help. There is one especially helpful Power-Up to help you help others: the Team Player advantage (DF 11, p. 16). It's ideal for guys who also seem to help friends or make Complementary Skill Rolls.
It all comes down to, just try to find a way to contribute outside your niche without being a drain.
At our last game, there was a bit of player discussion about the utility of, well, utility PCs. That is, non-front line fighter types.
The occasion was Hjalmarr dying, at least temporarily, and his player considering some other types. These included a cleric and an assassin (a combatant, but a backstabby-specialized one). We briefly had some mention of past thieves and clerics.
Really, though, that session was a pretty good example session of the usefulness of the non-fighters. For example:
- I rolled an 18 on the weather table, and further rolled that it was all-day weather. If it wasn't for the druid and Weather Dome, this could have severely impacted the group. Instead it was just a ration drain and a delay.
- Survival and Naturalist and Navigation were critical expedition skills this session, like all of the other Lost City sessions.
- the PCs utterly failed to detect a trap (default Traps is no substitute for a trained thief).
- the PCs had to resort to magic to open a locked door and utterly failed to open a locked chest, resulting in setting off a trap, because they lack Lockpicking.
- Lack of a healer was a serious issue.
Had the party also had a thief and a cleric, none of those would have been an issue. Conversely, had the druid not showed up, they'd have been compromised by the "the gods hate you" level of rain and storm.
A few years back I blogged about this from one angle:
Thoughts on Dungeon Fantasy & non-front line fighter types
Today I want to give some advice to people running such characters.
In my experience, utility characters benefit from doing the following things.
Defend Yourself
A non-front-line fighter really needs to be able to stop at least one or two attacks, even if only for a few seconds. Being vulnerable to a one-shot kill because you lack defenses puts a strain on your allies. It also means their effectiveness in combat is restricted by your weakness. If you can reasonably expect to survive a shot or two, you let them do their job.
A few good ways to do this:
- get good Active Defenses. Dodge as high as you can, as it's the most versatile. But also Parry and Block. Make sure you can at least stop a single attack.
- have some DR. You don't need a lot, although it helps to have as much as you can. It's best to keep your encumbrance level reasonable so you aren't even very slow or very exhausted or both after a fight.
- have some supernatural help. Invisibility, Missile Shield, Luck, Bless (not that I use Bless in my game), points saved for Impulse Buys, etc. are all good ways to minimize risk.
- have some mundane help. Smoke Nageteppo, a good Stealth score (and a covered light source), hirelings or allies, and just plain good Move are all useful.
- At worst, up Acting and play dead! It's fishy if you just "die" instantly upon seeing the bad guys, though. (DF2, p. 11)
- Know your options - what the defenses do, and how All-Out Defense and Defensive Attack work. Feverish Defenses, too, if you're using extra effort in combat (my group does not.)
These can keep you safe for the seconds it takes a front-line ally to intervene. You'll still be fragile - DF is high powered, and offensive powers tend to nasty. But these will help.
Contribute to Combat
Even if you're mainly a utility character, you still want to have some contribution to combat.
This can be:
- a ranged or missile attack. Get a sling, bow, thrown grenade-type item, darts, whatever. If it's lethal and quick, that's perfect. If not, it'll still help. If it's weak, it's mostly useful to see who has Missile Shield and Reverse Missiles up! But it'll still be useful. Add Poisons if you're my kind of scum. And overpowered crossbows you can't reload yourself are just a fun kind of thing to tote around, if you can make the shot count!
- a combat-useful spell. For casters, find a cheap and quick offense spell and make use of it. Regular spells such as Frostbite or Dehydrate (or Daze and Sleep on the higher end) can be resisted but (depending on the spell) you can sometimes rip off a 1 or 2 pt version quickly. Or going for a buffing spell to help your friends. Even a minor buff (Shield at +1 DB, or Haste at +1, or Armor at +1) is helpful. Some Area spells can help shape the battlefield and keep the back safe - Wall and Dome spells can block up corridors, Illusions can misdirect, etc.
- combat-useful skills. Tactics can help you shout suggestions. Leadership helps against scary monsters by aiding ally's Fright Checks. First Aid or Esoteric Medicine can work in one second with a roll at -10 - but don't critically fail!
Knowledge skills are good here - spent a turn looking and see if your Hidden Lore, Naturalist, Occultism, Thaumatology, etc. can tell you what you are facing. Knowing it's a golem, not undead, or that it's a terrible & dire wombat and not your standard dire wombat, is helpful. Use Animal Handling, Psychology, Religious Ritual, or Singing (as appropriate) to taunt monsters, or Intimidation to scare them. (DF 2, p. 9-12)
- direct combat actions. Thieves and assassins do well with backstab (DF 2, p. 11), especially if they buff it up with Backstabber. (DF 11, p. 35) Casters do well with Missile and Area spells. Clerics can have True Faith (with Turning).
If you pretty much stand around a fight waiting for it to be won or lost, you're probably not pulling your weight as effectively as you can. It's tempting to get caught up in a circle of, "I'm almost useless in combat, so I won't do anything in combat." You know, "Don't just do something, stand there!" Finding low-risk ways to contribute to combat is a good idea. A healing-focused cleric or a thief or a utility wizard isn't going to be able to deal with a worthy or boss-level foe directly, but you can help contribute to the cause.
Exploit Your Niche
If you're a utility character, you have a non-combat niche. Make as much use of it as you can. Whatever it is you do well (spot traps, open locks, talk to animals, exorcise curses, map, sell stuff in town, negotiate with monsters, etc.), make sure you do it. Get skilled at it (no one likes hiring a burglar who can't sneak, or a guide without Area Knowledge, etc.) Don't be obnoxious about it, any more than combat folks should try to fight everything. But make sure you know what you're capable of and try to exploit your skills to aid your group. If you don't do this, you're in danger of just being dead weight (if you don't aid in combat, or are weak enough to need constant protection) or just a weak combatant (if you do.)
Outside of your niche, just see where you can help. There is one especially helpful Power-Up to help you help others: the Team Player advantage (DF 11, p. 16). It's ideal for guys who also seem to help friends or make Complementary Skill Rolls.
It all comes down to, just try to find a way to contribute outside your niche without being a drain.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Hans's New GURPS Blog
Just a public service announce. Hans Christian-Vortisch, author of a big pile of GURPS books and Call of Cthulhu books, started up a blog:
Shooting Dice
Take a look. It's got some posts up already, with Hans's typical meticulous attention to detail on guns and game rules.
Shooting Dice
Take a look. It's got some posts up already, with Hans's typical meticulous attention to detail on guns and game rules.
DF Lost City: Did Hjalmarr Stay Dead?
Busy week this week, mopping up after the last game session.
We ended with:
- one dead PC (Hjalmarr Holgersson)
- two magic items (a shortsword and a ring)
- not enough cash to have Resurrection cast (at an 11 or less to succeed!)
- a character too low in point value (at only 264 points) to make Cut-Rate Resurrection make sense.
What to do?
First things first - does the player want the character back? Yes, he did.
Then, which magic item to sell? Analyze Magic by Hasdrubel followed by some conversations with the locals told them the following:
- The ring is +3 Will plus gives Immovable Stance skill.
- The sword is a magical very fine single-edged shortsword called "The Razor" that is especially good at cutting off limbs and extremities.
After a lot of debate, they sold the sword since no one uses Shortswords as a primary weapon. Plus, there was an impassioned "a good defense is a good offense" argument for the ring. Personally, I'm not shocked - my players are a survival-and-resistance-first group.
Some related questions came up:
There is a guy in a trading camp with Power Investiture 6 and access to 300 energy?
No. But there is a healing for the pilgrims, who are starting to work their way back, who has access to a Charged Scroll of Resurrection. He could use that and a few hours and get the job done.
If it failed, well, they'd use Final Rest, no charge.
We get change, right?
The sword is salable for more than the 15K for the Resurrection spell. But the priest threw in roughly 9-10K worth of healing-related potions, some healing spells on the wounded, and introductions to some potential Ally Initiates specializing in healing. They didn't exactly has 30+ pounds of silver and gold coins to hand over. Giving away the extras they didn't need to use on the trip, sure, why not? Besides, the Church could sell that sword for 100%+ of its value, if they don't keep it for some hero elsewhere in the world, and they don't buy their potions. It's a financial win for them. But the PCs need potions anyway, and these are over and above what they could buy. So it was a financial win for the PCs.
Can't he just make a new character who happens to be Weapon Master (Shortsword)?
No. For a lot of reasons. Partly because it's pretty meta-game-hacky. Second because, realistically, would a bunch of guys with a dead friend, a magic sword they feel they don't really need, and a chance to sell it and get him brought back leave him dead and hand the sword to the next fighter they met? Probably not. Nevermind Sense of Duty and similar disadvantages.
We've been, as a group, pretty generous with bootstrapping but also very strict about making new characters come in ready to go. You can't show up with no sword, or no armor (but just happen to be the same build as a PC who is upgrading to a new suit), or whatever. If you do, expect to spend a delve or two proving you won't die before the senior PCs start to hand you stuff.
But mainly because it doesn't make for a lot of fun.
(It was a good, valid question - it's just we'd moved on past that long ago.)
And the roll? 11 or less (15 skill, 4 days dead) and I rolled a 6, 3, and 1 = 10. Hjalmarr is once more amongst the living.
And spent his points - including the ones he netted this session - on an Ally healer. Heh.
So that's how it went. The stats for The Razor? I'll try to get them in an article or book in the future. Too bad, I was hoping to see it get actually used.
We ended with:
- one dead PC (Hjalmarr Holgersson)
- two magic items (a shortsword and a ring)
- not enough cash to have Resurrection cast (at an 11 or less to succeed!)
- a character too low in point value (at only 264 points) to make Cut-Rate Resurrection make sense.
What to do?
First things first - does the player want the character back? Yes, he did.
Then, which magic item to sell? Analyze Magic by Hasdrubel followed by some conversations with the locals told them the following:
- The ring is +3 Will plus gives Immovable Stance skill.
- The sword is a magical very fine single-edged shortsword called "The Razor" that is especially good at cutting off limbs and extremities.
After a lot of debate, they sold the sword since no one uses Shortswords as a primary weapon. Plus, there was an impassioned "a good defense is a good offense" argument for the ring. Personally, I'm not shocked - my players are a survival-and-resistance-first group.
Some related questions came up:
There is a guy in a trading camp with Power Investiture 6 and access to 300 energy?
No. But there is a healing for the pilgrims, who are starting to work their way back, who has access to a Charged Scroll of Resurrection. He could use that and a few hours and get the job done.
If it failed, well, they'd use Final Rest, no charge.
We get change, right?
The sword is salable for more than the 15K for the Resurrection spell. But the priest threw in roughly 9-10K worth of healing-related potions, some healing spells on the wounded, and introductions to some potential Ally Initiates specializing in healing. They didn't exactly has 30+ pounds of silver and gold coins to hand over. Giving away the extras they didn't need to use on the trip, sure, why not? Besides, the Church could sell that sword for 100%+ of its value, if they don't keep it for some hero elsewhere in the world, and they don't buy their potions. It's a financial win for them. But the PCs need potions anyway, and these are over and above what they could buy. So it was a financial win for the PCs.
Can't he just make a new character who happens to be Weapon Master (Shortsword)?
No. For a lot of reasons. Partly because it's pretty meta-game-hacky. Second because, realistically, would a bunch of guys with a dead friend, a magic sword they feel they don't really need, and a chance to sell it and get him brought back leave him dead and hand the sword to the next fighter they met? Probably not. Nevermind Sense of Duty and similar disadvantages.
We've been, as a group, pretty generous with bootstrapping but also very strict about making new characters come in ready to go. You can't show up with no sword, or no armor (but just happen to be the same build as a PC who is upgrading to a new suit), or whatever. If you do, expect to spend a delve or two proving you won't die before the senior PCs start to hand you stuff.
But mainly because it doesn't make for a lot of fun.
(It was a good, valid question - it's just we'd moved on past that long ago.)
And the roll? 11 or less (15 skill, 4 days dead) and I rolled a 6, 3, and 1 = 10. Hjalmarr is once more amongst the living.
And spent his points - including the ones he netted this session - on an Ally healer. Heh.
So that's how it went. The stats for The Razor? I'll try to get them in an article or book in the future. Too bad, I was hoping to see it get actually used.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Casting Room Adventurers: Cleric
So the temperature rose and the humidity plummeted the other day after all, so I got this guy primed and painted out of my new set of adventurer figures.
He was an easy paint, because almost all of him is armor. I liked the gold-highlighted armor of the painted figure on the manufacturer's website, but I thought bronze would look better.
He was an easy paint, because almost all of him is armor. I liked the gold-highlighted armor of the painted figure on the manufacturer's website, but I thought bronze would look better.
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