Monday, April 30, 2012

Random Encounters and Reaction Rolls

We need more advanced random encounter tables. And by more advanced, I mean more suited to telling the kinds of stories we want to play, not the kind with modifiers based on current rainfall. There is not much to work with, as the mechanic has seen little use for rarely-discussed reasons (much like reaction rolls), so our starting point is much more primitive than with other rules design.

Random Encounters are a major facet of the old-style hex crawl and dungeon crawl. The idea is that when travelling, there exists a chance of triggering an encounter. More often than not, this means a fight scene likened to those random fights in CRPGs that use the world map. They are occasionally still seen in gaming products to this day, unceremoniously slapped in the back, rarely much else spoken of them.

Reaction Rolls are an old mechanic, used in place of many social systems, but are primarily seen in OD&D rules. The rundown is that just before rolling initiative, you would decide what how the NPC or monster would feel about the party. Whether they be hostile, neutral, or welcome to join in making friendship bracelets, would be decided on a random roll. Originally, it would be slightly influenced by the Charisma of one or more members of the party, but there are obviously more complex variations on this mechanic.

Both are signs of an older era, and both have been wordlessly dropped from the scene. Many other mechanics have been dropped from the old days, but their exclusion came with much discussion. THAC0 is one of the more infamous examples of a game rule whose removal had discussions (largely in favour).

As they're not built into the rules anymore, asking someone why they don't use reaction rolls is akin to asking a Texan why they don't put tomatoes in their clam chowder. They probably haven't even heard of the practice, and there's an inherent inertia to changing how things function. For those rare few that are versed in the rule sufficiently to have an opinion, they use the same arguments as you hear surrounding the Diplomacy skill; superiority of GM advocacy, role-vs-roll, unbiased decision-making, etc.

Random Encounters don't see this kind of debate. They're in the corner, used by some, unused by many outside of deciding what the party will fight today (making the process simpler by just opening your monster book to a random page and rolling initiative). The arguments for and against, I suspect, follow a similar pattern to that of Diplomacy. DMs feel more confident in their ability to tell a story, and feel they are hampered by such arbitrary dice, and might as well play a boardgame if the human element is removed.

What's important here is that random encounters shouldn't be seen as a crutch, but a tool. The position of DM carries the danger of bias and favoritism. This is a subtle danger. Even if you manage to not play favorites, your impressions and reactions to PC behavior are going to be the same from NPC to NPC. I'm not saying it's impossible, but actors face a similar hurdle and the best ones take lessons and practice for years in doing only that, while the role of DM is one of unguided discovery amid a sea of other roles. Much like the other rules of the game are used rather than just throwing it all to the wind for Cops & Robbers, an encounter table properly designed, serves to enhance the game.


Relevant Links
The Alexandrian's Game Structures
Online Encounter Generator
Improving Random Encounters

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Pony Day

The TARDIS chameleon circuit got kind of screwy, moreso than usual, and is currently attempting to blend in in Equestria.


Friday, April 27, 2012

Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session IX


This is basically a mini-session, as Pat was still coming down from bronchitis, Larry (armiger) was visiting family for spring break, and Mary didn't wake up until 3pm and we figured there wasn't enough time to run a proper session. In our boredom, we ran a two hour deal for Adam and Jon, since they actually had the decency to show up.


Finally suiting up for departure, Ino came to them in adult form, telling them to be careful on their trek and acting generally worried. Just as they crossed the barrier at the 5-mile mark, the land changed into something otherworldly. The sky was engulfed in clouds, the mountain range expanded to cover the entire horizon, and the landscape itself sprouted the corpses of angels and other extraplanar entities. They were overcome with a sense of regret and sorrow on a supernatural level. Off in the distance, they could see a copse of crystal towers that seemed to be a castle, surrounded by a large and lush garden.

Jon recognized this to be Cornoust, the legendary realm where the supernatural minions of Law go when they die. From what they could tell, Oog-suer (the beholder villain they defeated) kept the town he controlled between planes as the primary means in which to keep others from remembering it; but his death caused it to land in an uncontrolled manner, and was thrown to a random realm.

Deciding to travel to the castle, they were greeted by an angelic minion of Law. She claimed to desire to help them return the town to its rightful plane, and spoke of a deceased minion by the name of The Mender, who wielded a sword that could repair the planar tear. Since she was a minion of Law, she could not speak with him, but the party could. The Mender would likely be near the castle, assuming the urge to pass on hadn't overtaken him.

Jon recognized a hidden accent, only possessed by minions of Chaos, but kept quiet (for the most part) until she was gone. Deciding that it was the only lead they had, they took her advice anyway and began to travel. They were interrupted by a naga-like minion of chaos out of the blue, but took her down swiftly.

Eventually, they came upon a band of humans that were sifting through the wreckage of broken weapons amidst the piles of corpses. Cautiously, they hailed them and discovered they were scavengers, seeking powerful weapons that could sold to prospective clients. Not wanting to speak much in the open, the band began lead the party to a safer area, but Adam noticed an oddity.

In an attempt to point it out, he shot an arrow into the odd collection of armor he saw, causing it to stir and rise to reveal a 14' wide demonic spider and zombie-like minions. After a fierce battle, where Jon barely managed to strike down the creature before it took down Adam, they showed sufficient prowess and trustworthiness for the scavengers to bring them to their camp closer to the Mountains of Grief.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Pony Day

While I like Twilight Sparkle more, it's hard not to love Pinkie Pie in her chicken costume for Nightmare Night.


Friday, April 20, 2012

Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session VIII

We had a guest player today, Larry. He will be playing an Armiger, a veritable tank (down to the taunt), made all the tougher once we got this one rule figured out properly (for those that know what this means, AC 31).

Character summary: Background will be in the session summary. He himself is a former captain of the guard for his home village, and does his best to protect all around him. He also has quite the singing voice, along with a talent for comedy, which is used heavily to taunt the opposition into wasting their attacks on him. His fighting style is to outlast his opponents through a long and painful grind against two spike-covered shields that deflect even the mightiest of blows.

We also took a break at about 8pm to go watch a movie, then played until 1AM.


As the party travelled towards the northeast, Adam noticed that they were moving parallel to the remains of a road, which was expertly broken and scattered to only seem like it was disused for decades. This was curious, as both he and the arcanist knew of no city that existed in this direction for a road to be bothered to be built.

As they got closer, the air shimmered, and suddenly the peak of the nearest mountain of the range erupted in flame with an eye seeming to open out of it. There lay a half-abandoned mining town at the base of the mountain, with armed troops patrolling, and giant floating eyes scouting the perimeter of the town.

They also noticed a shack about five miles from the town, behind a hill and hidden amongst the plant growth. Sneaking closer, they find a lone warrior clad in heavy armor, bristling with spikes and sharpening his javelin. After a bit of uneasy parlay, they discover that this town is called Zorcin, a mining town that unearthed semiprecious stones and does basic metalwork of a notable style.

Upon hearing the name, they suddenly remember about this town and its trade with the crossroads back to the southwest. The stranger tells them that the entire land is enchanted so that none remember the town and its contents if outside the light of the eye atop the mountain. He then continued on and told them his tale.

Several months ago, a Pan Tangian arcanist came to down with demons under his power, slaughtering man and woman alike if they stood in his way as he entered the cavern complex. The arcanist himself had but a single eye, and wore a large hood. The demons bore many arms and wielded their bows with inhuman strength and accuracy. None dared to enter the mining area to try and save the kidnapped women until the next day, when suddenly he and three gorgons emerged, petrifying large portions of the town. None were able to halt his takeover, and a burning eye was erected shortly thereafter, eliminating all hope for salvation.

The captain of the guard, along with a few other fighters, managed to escape and gradually attempted to mount resistance against Oog-Suer (the cyclopian arcanist). Every attempt failed, losing more and more men with each attempt to the stare of the medusa or the shaft of the demon's arrows, or even the dark magicks of Oog-Suer himself. His head had slowly grown too large for a hood to cover, and his body withered and shriveled, until his head was four feet across and the body was a vestigial flap of flesh on the back as he floated about.

This was to be his last attempt at assaulting the town, when the party arrived and said they would in taking him down. They asked if there were any other entranced into the mines besides the front entrance, so that they could skip the guarded town and strike Oog-Suer alone. There were several sinkholes, but the armiger did not know the precise way of the tunnels of the mines and could not guide them himself.

The arcanist disguised the armiger and executioner as demons and they snuck into the town to find one of the enslaved miners to rescue and use as a guide into the mines themselves. However, the armiger got too long a glimpse of one of the gorgons and succumbed to her gaze, breaking their cover before even getting a prisoner out of chains.

Moving swiftly, the executioner killed the meduse where she stood and before the demon could even react. A floating eye moved overhead and unleashed a ray upon him, but was resisted, unlike the hail of arrows from the demon. The rest of the party, watching from afar (with the archer's recently purchased spyglass), saw that the cover was blown and began to charge in to rescue them.

To make a long story short, the party ended up hiding inside one of the buildings and barricading the doors. The demon was too powerful for them with its veritable hail of deadly arrows. They waited for what seemed forever as they bandaged themselves and waited for the inevitable assault.

Meanwhile, the armiger's petrified form was dragged into the mountain to the presence of Oog-Suer, who taunted him for his failure. He magically releashed him from his petrified state, removed his eye & stored it in a pendant. Strangely, the armiger was able to see out of his eye socket before an eye patch was applied and noticed that Oog-Suer was missing an eye in one of his eye stalks. Later, he would have the party check on him, and all they could see was an empty eye socket. The room was then enveloped in darkness and the armiger was wrapped up in bindings and felt weights hung on his sides.

Back outside, the party set up a coat rack to look like a person if not scrutinized too much and shoved it out the door. Moving out after the dummy was instantly blasted with nine arrows and an energy ray from one of the eye golems, they began to attack the demon with its two medusa assistants. the arcanist unleashed the illusion of a more skilled version of the executioner, imbuing it with a sliver of reality so that its strikes would actually do some damage.

After a heated battle, they killed their opponents, freed most of the town, and began to creep their way into the lair of Oog-Suer. Once they got into his central chamber, the arcanist created a light demon for illumination, while Oog-Suer floated behind two demons.

As an aside, Ino had so far been sizzled by an eye golem, petrified, and trapped in a collapsing tunnel.

The archer saw something fishy with one of the demons and told the rest of the party focus on the other first. Fortunately, the armiger disguised as an immobile demon managed to finally break from his bonds (tearing some muscles along the way), and wasn't shot by the party. What followed was quite the brawl as the demon unleashed volley after voley of arrows and Oog-Suer lit up like a disco ball with various rays of death. Eventually, they persevered and overcame what proved to be their most powerful foes yet.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Commoner, Peasant, Mud-Farmer





Commoner Quickstats: HP 4; Init +0; AC 10, Grapple +0; Club +0 (1d6), Sling +0 (1d3); Saves +0/+2/+0; Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4 


Commoner 
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Human) 
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp) 
Initiative: +0 
Speed: 30 ft. 
Armor Class: 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10 
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+0 
Full Attack: Club +0 (1d6), or Sling +0 (1d3) 
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft. 
Saves: Fortitude +0, Reflex +2, Will +0 
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10 
Skills*: Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4 
Feats*: Endurance, Skill Focus (Knowledge - Nature) 
Environment: Temperate Plains 
Organization: Hermit (1), Family (2 to 7), Hamlet (20 to 100) 
Challenge Rating: 1/6 
Treasure: Standard 
Alignment: Usually neutral 
Advancement: By character class 
Everyone knows what a commoner looks like. Watch one of the Disney movies set in medieval times and look at any of the unnamed villagers. They are the lowest of civilized life, not even deserving of a class level, their pitiful combat prowess making the ruthless adventurer question the point in suffering them to live. Literacy is not assumed, and only the commoners who are especially educated are able to do more than add up their tabs. 

Variant Proletariat 
Commoners at the bottom of the social ladder have varied ability based on the drudgery of their existence. The above assumes the most common lifestyle for the D&D human, a farmer. The following templates are to be used for alternate skill and feat selections, based on their lifestyle. 
Cutpurse

  • Skills: Hide +2, Listen +2, Open Lock +4, Sleight of Hand +4, Spot +2 
  • Feats: Idle Hands, Alertness
Performer
  • Skills: Bluff +3, Perform (Dance, Sing) +4, Sleight of Hand +2 
  • Feats: Jazz Hands, Skill Focus (Bluff)
Labourer/Knave
  • Skills: Craft (any two) +4, Use Rope +4 
  • Feats: Endurance, Pack Mule
Master Craftsman
  • Skills: Craft (any one) +7, Profession (Artisan) +4, Spellcraft +2 (+6 identify) 
  • Feats: Skill Focus (Craft), Iron Hands
Healer/Midwife
  • Skills: Heal +7, Knowledge (nature, religion) +4 
  • Feats: Healing Hands, Folk Lore
Beggar
  • Skills: Perform (oratory) +2, Knowledge (local) +2, Search +2 
  • Feats: False Pretenses, Omniscient Whispers
Merchant
  • Skills: Appraise +4, Diplomacy +4, Profession (merchant) +4, Spellcraft +4 (identify only) 
  • Feats: Iron Hands, Skill Knowledge (Appraise, Diplomacy)
Scholar
  • Skills: Knowledge (any one) +5, Decipher Script +5, Speak Language +2 
  • Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge, Decipher Script)
Expert: This is as notable as a commoner can get and still be a commoner, the one recognized by their peers as being good at their job. They have a +2 to the primary stat used in their profession. If the stat is Intelligence, then the additional skill is something suitable for their circumstances, like an additional Craft or Knowledge. 

New Feats
  • False Pretenses [Spelltouched]: When successfully saves against a charm or compulsion, opponent believes the spell was successful. 
  • Folk Lore: You get a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (religion) checks. 
  • Healing Hands: You get a +3 bonus on all Heal checks, and it is considered a class skill. 
  • Idle Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Open Lock and Sleight of Hands checks. 
  • Iron Hands: You get a +4 bonus on Spellcraft checks to identify a spell or magically created/shaped material that's already in place, which you can do untrained. 
  • Jazz Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Perform (Dance) and Perform (Sing) checks. 
  • Omniscient Whispers [Spelltouched]: Once per week, you can tune into the voices you hear, getting hte answer to a question much as if you had asked it with a commune spell. Using this feat renders you exhausted. 
  • Pack Mule: Your Strength is considered 5 points higher for purposes of carrying capacity.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Pony Day

A particularly nice custom pony, themed from the Halloween episode, Zecora!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session VII

Some stuff happened, having the plot get delayed a little bit due to unexpected violence in the plot by the players. Mary came in late due to oversleeping, which I'm actually starting to get annoyed by.


They party had finished preparing their supplies and went to bed for the night. The three of them (Mary hadn't arrived yet) were awakened to muffled screams, so they came out of their rooms and followed the noises, hearing the snap of a neck just before they had a chance to open the door. Jorn (Adam's character) kicks open the door and see another fihyr (see last session) hanging out of the window with a strangled corpse hanging from a tentacle. Pat's character stepped forward and struck it down with a well-placed stab in it, causing it to fall out of the building with a plop.

They heard screams of soul-tearing terror outside, and jumped into a pair of shoes and pants before they bolted outside to see what was going on. Following the tracks of tentacled things, they eventually entered an alleyway with two people being stared down by four fihyrs, sitting in the darkness at the edge of the light of their torch.

Jon and Pat show off some skill and deftly slaughter all four before Adam had a chance, so I threw in two more so he could pump them full of arrows too.

From the fihyr corpses, they discovered Pan Tangian designed armbands around their tentacles, and the two human survivors claimed ignorance and desire to return to the Temple of Goldarr for safety. After some investigation that morning, they figured out that only two people could've made the armbands around here, because they were embedded with a cheap diamond that can only be found in this area of the world. One was the acolyte of Goldarr they rescued the night prior, the other was a black market jeweler.

Also that morning, they discovered that all of their belongings in the stables and with the merchants holding their travelling supplies had been confiscated by the Temple of Goldarr because they were suspects for murder and the release of fihyrs upon the city.

Attempting to get by, they went on to the black market jeweler, only to find out that the Collector (equivalent of the Inquisition for the Temple) was already there and considered him a suspect because of the armbands and looted his shop.

Attempting to be casual, Mary managed to evade notice when she snuck into the back to listen in on the conversation. While Adam went in to ask the distraught jeweler some questions (seemingly innocent), Mary stayed outside and the innocence demon (named Ino) began to talk to the Collector.

It wasn't long before the Collector noticed that Ino was a demon, and placed Mary under complete confiscation. She did not take kindly to these words, and began to attack, only to have weapon after weapon disarmed from her by the Collector (who would pick up the lost weapons and store them). Meanwhile, Adam & Pat ran far away from the conflict, and Jon began to summon partially real illusions to fight for him to keep off the guards.

We got two scary facts here. The first is that Jon can actually do a fair amount of damage with illusions when he makes them partially real. The second is that Pat's executioner will do ALOT of damage in a few levels, as Jon's illusion was that of a more skilled version of Pat's character (300 virtual damage in one round).

Just before killing the Collector, he stated that the inevitables will seek them out if he's struck down. This got Mary nervous, so she just knocked him unconscious and reacquired her weapons before running off from the now gathering city guard.

The party convened on rooftop next door to their inn, where Adam heard a fihyr hiding in the deep shadows of a narrow alley. With some lucky guesses, he killed it with arrows, and they discovered a different armband around this one; it seemingly belonged to the nomads that camp outside the city for their trading.

Sneaking out of town, they found one of the elders of the nomads and asked a fwe questions, discovering that the armband belonged to one of their warriors that had disappeared close to a month ago when he went to the hills in the northeast. It was an area filled with omens of dark magic practiced there, so only he went due to a personal quest he was on (hunting a powerful stag).

The party was given a few bits of information for showing them proof their warrior was actually dead, and thus proper mourning could begin, and they agreed to go there and possibly strike vengeance upon whatever killed him. They were given a vision of what they were to face in the hills to the northeast, and were granted the image of a large ball of flesh with a single giant eye and various eyestalks sticking out the top of it.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session VI

Very short session, as far as events are concerned, because we went on some serious tangents for awhile there. I think next session I'm going to shoot for a getting a bit more on track. Not quite so bad this time, since were lacking Mary (again).

I discussed the possibility with Jon of switching to a different ruleset for the magic system for his character. Right now, all of Jon's faults (poor rolling and limited imagination) happen to be the most vital traits one needs in making his choice in character work. I don't want to force him to play a non-arcanist type, since that's what he wants, but I also don't want to try and fix the problem with something that could come back to bite me down the road; if I just give him a bonus to rolls, any turn in luck for him (someday...) could make him overpowered.



Just before hitting the road, they swiftly filleted the two land shark corpses to use as jerky/rations for the two week journey ahead of them; as they have 250 refugees to feed. Going at half speed to gather food, combined with the party's rations and shark jerky and what the refugees could carry from the logging camp, they had just enough food for half rations for everybody.

It was a common complaint of Adam's character at the horrific taste of shark meat (like mud for the land sharks) and how the party has been subsisting off of it for almost a month now. Nice bit of RP there.

While traveling, the land turned more craggy and stoney, with less plant life. Off in the distance was a merchant caravan that they greeted (near nightfall, so they camped roughly near each other). The head merchant was a 'portly' man in off-silk robes, and one of the wagons was holding a palaquin that the guards seemed to be nervous about. They were able to trade about 15 pounds of spices in exchange for one of the mauls of sequoia wood, and make the shark meat a little more palatable.

While they camped for the night, two of the refugees came up to the party to talk, mentioning how most of them were scared to get too friendly because of the innocence demon that stayed near the party. One of them wanted a knife to pick up whittling again (used to be a carpenter), while the other slowly revealed a large interest in learning the artsof magic from Jon's character, especially since he seems to be unique in not being heavily corrupted by it. Jon adamantly informed him of what a bad idea that was and subsequently refused.

Later that night, one of them heard a muffled whimper, followed by struggled dragging at the edge of the camp. Getting Jon to hold the torch, they began to work their way towards the sound and Adam guess which sqare it was coming from due to the sounds being emanated. They saw the edges of one of the refugee's feet at the tip of the torch light, as well bits of tentacles which dropped the body and a bit of it showed itself from the darkness. It ripped out the arrow in its hide, hissed, and backed back into the darkness while giving the entire party the willies.
They could barely see it, but Jon recognized it for what it was, a 'fihyr'. In his country, as well as Jharkhor (Adam's homeland), there's a technique of horrific torture that transforms the victim into an abomination that does nothing but create and feed on fear. It's also viciously susceptible to sunlight, which Jon then created the illusion of such and used his magic to make it partially real and begin to cause it to burn and boil. Adam then plugged it full of arrows, forcing it to recoil away, sending another wave of fear that sent Jon's character screaming into the darkness. Fortunately, there were enough lucky guesses as to where it was to plink it down from its remaining bits of life.

They buried the body of the killed refugee, checked on the nearby survivors who were near comatose for another minute or two before finally coming too from the fear. They made everyone set up fires for the rest of the night, and eventually went over to the caravan by morning to see if they knew anything. Through good skill checks and tracking ability, they managed to figure out that the caravan was holding the fihyr for some reason before it went over and attacked the camp. Since the mechant and the guards didn't seem to want to provoke anything, the party parted ways from them, and they went onward to the city.

Once there, they split up to get information. Pat looked for a merchant that sold expensive items called 'spyglasses' at Adam's behalf, while Adam & Jon searched for employers that needed/wanted over ten score low-skilled labourers. They found one at the temple of Goldarr (Lord fo Progress and Wealth in this setting), who basically acted like a 'pretty boy' who was employed as a recruiter for a jon in Vilmir (three month journey for the job, excellent pay) to basically build a single house. He was interested in the refugees, and was convinced to provide them a finder's fee for the convenience for getting him soo many so quickly (saved him months of time). The party was then given a very large sum of money.

While in the city, they watched a few cage matches, discovering that apparently the Yellow Night Guild (Analee's guild of assassins) technically own the city and one of the Nightshade caste was in the cage match. A member of the Black Lotus Eaters entered the match in open hostility, but got secretly poisoned by her. The party inquired a bit, and learned at hostilities between the two factions have been getting more and more violent; very likely precipitated almost solely by the party itself because of that vision the Lotus Eaters are so keen on.

Analee introduced them to one of her guild who was of the harvester caste (old woman in a florist shop), who inquired a bit on Adam, basically informing him the only reason the guild has any interest is because the Lotus Eaters have interest; and would leave them alone totally were they to agree to not give up whatever it was that the Lotus Eaters wanted. Since Adam basically said he didn't care what happened, the woman said that was of concern and she would likely have another operative go with the party to follow and ensure that the Black Lotus didn't get their hands on what they wanted.

Werehouse

So, the apocalypse happened. The entire world had been destroyed and withered away. Reality was consumed, retroactively removing it from the timeline. However, destruction and annihilation isn't so clean. There are shards of the world left behind in the world's wake, falling through the quantum cracks into the realm of memory, the Astral Plane.
Someone stores them, catalogs them. This is the Werehouse (pronounced 'wir', not 'wear').




Roughly the size of Manhattan, this warehouse stores crate after crate, labelled and organized. Within each crate is leftover detritus from a world erased. The crates are typical 5' plywood, with an ancient script etched onto it by heat, stating the name of the world the piece is from as well as its multidimensional coordinates of origin.


In the background, there is a constant 'toll' for the deaths of each world: which sounds like this.






If you have a typical player, they WILL attempt to open a crate. Roll a d4 & a d12



d12\d4
1 - Place
2 - Event
3 - Item
4 - Emotion
1
Snowy mountain peak
Amphibious whale giving birth
Laser beam
Saudade: Melancholic feeling of incompleteness
2
Outer space
Extreme speed bridge match, televised before coliseum
Tandem bicycle
Serefe: Drinking for one’s honor
3
Tavern
17th century astronomy lecture
Rope-driven robot
Gezelligheid: Comfort of being with family/friends
4
21st century maternity ward
Humanoid trash monsters protesting in front of large cathedral
Burning animal head
Alienation
5
Wooded glen
Space frogs croaking to alien melody in space swamp
1’ pile of soot
Jubilation
6
Ship’s hold
Ice volcano eruption interrupting path of falling meteor
Bilge pump
Compassion
7
Middle of ocean
Tree falling in forest, soundlessly
Platinum spork
Jealousy
8
Permafrost beach
Battle of Teutoburk Forest, 12k Germans beating 25k Romans
6 tonnes of butter
Guilty
9
Edge of active volcano
Four-armed gorilla approaching lightning-made fire, picking up stick
Trumpet
Sore
10
1920-era train car
Very primitive shaman, exhausted, animating a zombie for the first time
Clump of bamboo
Panic
11
Old West bank lobby
Child drowning drugged mother in kitchen
Meteor
Iktsuarpok: Feeling of anticipation from waiting for someone to arrive
12
Massive tree branch
Giant lizard, seeking, finding last fruit behind rock
Corset for medium human
Boketto: Feeling from gazing vacantly




Place: A single moment, without any animal or sentient life, its conditions unchanging. Any attempts to change or disturb the place will result in it resetting to its original condition when not observed, even for an instant. The boundaries of the place, which are arbitrary, act as an exit out of the crate.
Event: Much like a place, except that people are present to recreate their roles in the original event, endlessly repeating themselves. While they can react to stimuli that differ from the narrative enshrined, they have immense mental inertia to direct the reaction to something approximate to the original outcome. Even getting them to appreciably change this will matter little once the event reaches its end-time and resets every participant regardless of observation.
Item: Other than the item remaining in temporal stasis, unchanging from the passage of time, it is otherwise an ordinary item subject to damage as normal.
Emotion: A glowing pink half-sphere, emanating and impressing a particular emotion upon any in the immediate vicinity (usually about 10' to 20' radius). Its radiating emotion can be blocked with sufficient concentration or a metal helmet.


The Caretaker of Werehouse: Goncho Vierge of the Dustmen
Tall, with flowing Arabic clothes. Everything, down to the skin, is bone white. He carries a plain white staff in one hand, and an identical head with turban in the other, which is fully alive and independent. Very quiet, erring towards silence or few words, and will react with indifference most of the time. He constantly maintains the grounds, and also works on new storage. He only resorts to violence in self-defense long enough to escape their reach, and will only press the attack against assailants to him or the facility if he feels he can take on the intruder.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Same Game Test: A Lesson

Balance, the ever present concern for the gaming community. It is useful as a gauge for DMs in both encounter design and scenario prediction, and to reduce feelings of inadequacy between players. 

For those that argue against the SGT because they've had fun in games without concerning themselves with balance, anecdotal evidence isn't an argument against it, and the logical conclusion of that argument states that you should ditch rules entirely and simply tell a story to each other. While that's not a bad idea, it does mean this entire post is not for you if you decide to go that way.

I bring up this technique, its inception not my own, because I will be using it as a baseline for any classes I post here.

A character is assumed to be at full health and ability before beginning the encounter, but should not be assumed to have any knowledge of it that would allow them to plan specifically for that encounter. The encounter must be overcome in a manner applicable, and escaping/bypassing the encounter is not treated as a win. Each encounter is categorized in terms of how high a chance of success the character has, Impossible (0), Unlikely (.33), Likely (.66), Certainty (.99); decided by doing the test three times to account for random dice rolls, each victory adding 1/3. Once you do this, take the average value for all of the encounters to get a rough idea where your character lies.

Ideally, you do this for several different levels; 5, 10, & 15 being the easiest. The goal is to have a 50% to 60% success rate, which is considered to be on the level of a Flask Rogue. Wizards are on the high end, but only if you're very experienced with the rules. Barbarians, Fighters, and Paladins start out on the 50% balance tier, but drop down noticeably at levels 10 and 15. Monks start and stay at an abysmal rate of success.

Level 5
* Locked door behind a high number of CR 4 traps
* Huge Animated iron statue in a throne room
* Basilisk in its desert burrow
* Large Fire Elemental in a forge
* Manticore flying over a plain
* Phase Spider
* Two Centaur Archers in light to medium woods
* Howler/Allip tag team in abandoned temple
* Grimlock team of four, hidden in a cavern
* Cleric of Hextor, with a dozen zombies, in a crypt

Level 10
* Hallway filled with magic rules
* Fire Giant
* Young Blue Dragon
* Bebilith
* Vrock
* Pair of Mind Flayers
* 10th level Necromancer
* 6 Trolls
* 12 Shadows

Level 15
* Marut
* 15th level Drow Priestess with army of ghouls
* Warparty of Cloud Giants
* Mature Adult White Dragon
* Death Slaad riding a Titanic Toad
* Cornugon
* Fully attended Hullathoin
* Windghost
* Gelugon with Iron Golem
* Pair of Glabrezus
* Harem of Succubi
* 20 Dire Bears
* 12 Medusa archers on Hellcats
* Pair of Beholders
* Forest made of lava, infested with hostile fire-elemental dire badgers