Bill the barbarian

On 11/25/2020 at 5:29 PM, Dissolv said:

After painting all of those miniatures, I wound up using straight up Zoom sessions.  No one has found the other online options especially appealing, although part of that is simply the lack of support.  I AM going to GM the Battle of Iceland using the armies that I have painted up and a camera (or two) when the party gets there in the timeline.  That is intended as the big climax of this arc.

 

I am very similar without the miniatures and using Skype instead of zoom. Quite low tech but it works. Still, I am not a newbie to computers so, I am slowly putting together roll20

On 11/26/2020 at 1:26 PM, soltakss said:

Well, I have now set up some Macros in my Monday night game. D100 and some for NPC names. Also have added a Hit Location Chart and basic Characters.

Slowly getting there.

Yep, slowly it is.

On 11/26/2020 at 12:53 PM, David Scott said:

Click on the collection button, then +Add

 

Thanks Dave, as useful as all your tips!

On 7/2/2021 at 4:00 PM, dvdmacateer said:

When I get some time for the sheet again I can make the weapon section buttons draggable but you will have to rename them as the default name is HUGE.

 

Are you the creator of this marvellous tool, if so thanks a lot!

47 minutes ago, soltakss said:

I just rolled up a Healer that could have qualified for High Healer status, if she had taken Heal 6 and took 5 Rune Points. Obviously, the bar for High Healer is lower than for other cults, but you can roll up a PC that is near God-Talker, Rune Lord or Rune Priest status.

How would one be able to take healing 6 off the roll up? One only gets 5 MPs of spells and the cost for that 6th should be incredible. Mind you, you did say could have. I  suppose if one wanted to, one could go into major debt. Is this what you were thinking of soltakss or were you thinking of a little munchkinnery and paying for the first point and getting the remaining five for free?

11 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Non, non.  That's Ars Magica, pre-World of Darkness  Plenty of people were confused and/or disappointed that Mage: the Ascension wasn't a modern-day AM, but it was probably fortunate for both games in the end

M:tA, got me there, what you have said is about as much as I know. Why does this have the nuts and bolts to pull off a Constantine, or even better, a blond bloke from London from the Hellblazer comics?

6 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Anyway, Constantine was also very much of that time, and thus the Hollywood treatment, the Americanisation, the demon gun, etc.  But that's not bad, really.  I mean, Tilda Swinton as Gabriel!  The tar dripping off Satan's feet!  It's just not the comic Hellblazer.  But it is very World o' Darkness.  And it's kind of John Wick, too -- I'm not kidding about that.  All the bits are there in BRP and it's many spawn to pull together an occult action game.

 

No, bottom line Constantine is no Hellblazer! Just not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Not as Wickian as I feared. And Tilda, have yet to see a bad performance from her.

3 hours ago, Ian Absentia said:

M:tA for a BRP/Hellblazer-ish game.

One core person and a bunch of lackeys, yes? Jajagappa pointed out how easy that would be to do with RQ the other day... a thread about using less then the normal amount of adventurers for questing. Well RQ is not that far removed from BRP. 

Ian, assuming demonology in AS is everything thefub says it is, think good ol’ BRP or possibly RoL as SunlessNick figures would be able to handle the weighty job of replacing M:tA

1 minute ago, Ian Absentia said:

Now, back to the John Wick: Hellblazer RPG, and the system that was meant for it -- Mage: the Ascension.

 

Thanks, I knew I could count on you to be serious!

On 7/15/2021 at 6:28 PM, Ian Absentia said:

I know, I know.  I'm being picky.

Seems I have seen him in NY and Paris as well. So la la land is not impossible is it?

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

In part taking the blame for the activities of Peter's lay.

?

16 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Was it also used in Gumball Rally? or the TJ Hooker series...

 

In a great many shows, but I doubt not in Constantine (remember him? 🙂)

1 hour ago, Ian Absentia said:

It actually has at least as much to do with water rights and resource management. 

Yep, I believe that comes with urban planning (or in the case of the city of angels, unplanning).

1 hour ago, Ian Absentia said:

[Edit: Or, duh-doi, GTA!]

Grand Theft: Antelope... love that game!!!!

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

We'll have to wait for Storm Drains of Los Angeles then.

We have GTA for that (no, not Grand Theft: Antelope, sigh)

1 hour ago, Ian Absentia said:

There actually are rivers in LA.  They're just lined with concrete and usually dry.

 

Urban planning at its finest (sigh).

I had a baboon that talked like a bad film noir detective!

1 hour ago, Beoferret said:

Northern German? Though it'd be kind of funny to have trolls speak with a kinda of sing-songy Alpine German accent (esp. if it was Schweitzerdeutsch in inspiration.) 

Not an Austrian Ahrnie accent?

3 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Rather than have players run two characters, you can let each have a retainer/follower/sidekick.  These have minimal skills: 3-5 noted capabilities (e.g. one is a healer who has First Aid, Treat Disease, Heal 6, and Plant Lore; one is a hunter who knows Devise, Scan, Track, Peaceful Cut, and Bow Attack).  When the players want one of those tasks performed, they can choose to roll on the retainer's ability vs. their own personal ability.  And otherwise they are simply in the background.  That keeps focus on the central character for the player.  In one of my games, one of the players had a main character who was accompanied by the Two Blue-clad Healing Women.  Never had actual names, but they functioned to provide emergency healing in battle or other dire situations.

 

I like this and take it to be part of having an intelligent (or not) pet. 

4 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

An additional option along this line is a GM NPC who is part of the adventurer team.  Sages, healers, and tricksters often work best for this, but could also be an extra fighter.  In my current Colymar game, I run the fighter Pagara in this fashion.  She's an ex-7 Mothers soldier who the PC's saved from bandits, and joined the PC's afterwards.  She guards the horses when the PC's are venturing into dire Caves of Chaos, provides occasional commentary about the Lunar Empire or army, or adds other tidbits of interest as an "outside" voice.

 

Patrons as well!

5 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

1) if you want an actual fight, keep the # of foes minimized.  The JC scenario Duel at Dangerford handles this via individual challenges.  So no 2 PC vs. 10 trollkin battles - the 2 PC's call out a challenge to the cowardly trollkin to have their champion come forward.  If they do, you have a 1x1 or 2x2 fight.  The rest of the foes submit to the results.

 

good for game balance, quite un-trollkin like.

5 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

2) if you want the PC's to be threatened or captured, keep the # of foes up.  Clearly the PC's cannot overcome via a straight-on fight.  If they are captured, they are captured and are held for ransom (or must find ways to escape their captors). 

 

Nice!

6 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

3) keep the adventures focused more on investigation, problem solving, bargaining, and leadership.  This can tie into the retainer idea above.  The PC's may bargain or orate to get the local farmers to help them fight the foe.  You can abstract these as a group (e.g. 10 farmers at 50% attack/parry) vs. the foe group (e.g. 6 dark trolls at 60% attack/parry).  Just use the Opposed Roll chart for this instead of individual by individual results each round while your PC's perform the main action (i.e. the 1x1 fights).  One player can roll for the group of farmers while you as GM roll for the dark trolls.  And for each level of difference each melee round, X number of "losers" are incapacitated (e.g. as one example the Farmers roll a success, dark trolls roll a special - dark trolls have +1 advantage, so 1 farmer is out of action for next round).  (There are other variations you can have on this, but the overall idea is to keep focus on the PCs while other events going on around.  And let the PC's make successful Rune or Passion or skill rolls such as Orate or Battle to influence their ally's chance of success.)

 

Nice!

right, magic and detective work together! Good call!

In a game like RQ this serves two purposes. As one can lose a character quite easily (and it does take time to reroll a new one), one has a back up all ready in the game or ready to bring to the fore.

2 hours ago, glassneedles said:

As for the Gringles Pawnshop thing it was if you are comfortable with the idea and how set you were on using that as the starter adventure. I'm not familiar with the RQ system yet but I do run CoC and D&D games so can keep a lid on metagame elements. I myself don't mind if I play an adventure I've already read, I mean I'm obviously not going to read stuff beforehand to cheat but under these circumstances I'm happy to play the scenario (just to reemphasise as long as you are comfortable with it). 

13 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Absolutely not, I would not enjoy it. In a campaign, perhaps, in a one off where I am following the module closely, and there is no reason for anything other then the text provided (no subplots that will be built up over a number of games, for instance), I can see the player having a touch of familiarity in the campaign but when he knows if he pushed this rock this will happen.... not interested in running such a game. So if you join in, we will not play this game. Are there others you have read?

2 hours ago, glassneedles said:

. Of course I check beforehand to make sure that I'm not inadvertently going to spoil anything by doing this... 

and I do hate spoilers!

2 hours ago, glassneedles said:

Before I commit could you clear up my confusion regarding the times? Do you normally run 9am-1pm GMT-6 or 9pm-1am GMT-6? 

 

0900 hours and 1300 hours have only one meaning. They can not be interpreted in more than one way. Main reason I use ‘em. This is the 24 hour clock. 1 AM is 0100 hours or “O" one hundred hours. 1 PM is 1300 hours or thirteen hundred hours. Always. This is used for anyone working around the clock. I find it easy for talking to fereners across timezones!

ETA

So why do I run modules if I don’t spice them up. Improv is cool, but a lot of work. If I am going to devote this much time I will be wanting more than a couple of games. So, yes, improv is cool and so is using a script written by pros that are probably better than you at it. For me the story is the thing and everything else is setting, theme, props, dialogue and things that go into making the story. For a short game and a demo I am unwilling to go to the depth improvising or writing a game would require.

In any case that is what I am doing and advertising for. People not familiar with the modules. 

So, that’s a possible three, if everyone likes the hours and the trip to the past using classic scenarios. 

The Irishman playing in my regular winter game seems to do alright by it. Still, I am incredibly reluctant to run a game that someone has read recently. In my regular game a member or two read some of the games I run, but about 40 years ago so just with dementia alone there is memory attrition never mind the decades toll, as well. Plus they understand the game and are GMs, so acting accordingly is natural... but for me I do not see the attraction of knowing what is coming... Main reason for my hatred of spoilers, I suppose.

or T&T... same author as Stormbringer!

Honestly though, I do not decry the dark side. Some do prefer D&D, who am I to judge.

55 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

BTW, Can I play a rabbit for my next character? 😁

Bunnies and Burrows it is, let me get my dice!

It would replace my usual game for the 6 weeks or so it would play... Everything in the OP except this being a one-off pick-up game still holds true. I was thinking of Gringle's Pawnshop but if you end up playing I will have change that. I hope to play from 900 hours to 1300 hours GMT -6. This would be a chance to see the game in practice for a short period of time while my usual group discovers travel, romance and freedom before the next wave’s lockdown. 

1 hour ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

and I promise that if it takes you out of your comfort zone than I won't hunt you down and make you do geometry,

No matter what everyone else is saying about ya behind yer back, I think yer a good egg, and this proves it! A squaredealer ya might say.
🙂

Any problems with the above? 

Hijacking, this thread with the intent to stay on topic, (is that allowed?).

Summer game opportunity. 

I will be looking for 2 to 4 players (newcomers, please as I am running old classic games) for a possible 6 week session. One or two games with a one episode zero to meet and decide which direction we want our one/two shot game to go. I intend to use pregens from the RQ RiG book seeing as it is such a chore to roll new ones and we are only playing one or two scenarios.

Also still desperately (now closing in on one year, curse that unnamed GM who turned me down thrice without a reason) looking for a game of Six Seasons in Sartar to play in.

Agreed to both the previous thoughts with this caveat, my complaint was more to do with the feel of PhilHibbs comment in general not this one specifically. In my game I allowed this chicanery, dare I say munchkinnery, even though I disliked the feel of it. And as Rodney said, I have warned my party to expect to reap as they sew... in general. 

Overall, I have been avoiding this thread (thanks for the spoilers, A5), but I saw a portion of Phil’s comment and liked it!

Without a timezone (GMT +/- is the easiest) those numbers mean little on BRP, good sir.

As a matter of fact I will be looking for 2 to 4 players (newcomers, please as I am running old classic games) for a 6 week session. One or two games with one episode zero to meet and decide which direction we want our one/two shot game to go. I intend to use pregens from the RQ RiG book seeing as it is such a chore to roll new ones and we are only playing one or two scenarios.