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What is it that you want to do? And what do you get to do?Nothing in the gaming department.
People in my group are getting online (mostly Discord) gaming done, but I am reticent to join in — even though I really miss gaming, GMing in particular — because right now I feel my wife and kid really need me when I get home.
Could be just an excuse I’m giving myself. Maybe I’ve finally burned out on years of dissonance between what I want to do and what I actually get to do in this complicated little hobby of ours.
But whatever the reason, I am taking a break.
What is it that you want to do? And what do you get to do?
pre-code intense!as I ripped my heart out from my chest with my inhuman hand
Congratulations! If you've got to die, die in style!Well, I've joked before about looking forward to by first TPK. I guess I just assumed I would be on the other side of the screen when it happened.
So our DCC characters had managed to track down the lich to his mountain lair. Once inside, the (electronic) dice decided we had somehow offended them, as our dice rolls were almost uniformly awful. Getting past the lich's traps and guardians cost us the majority of our henchmen, as well as all of us taking some hits along the way.
We managed to find the lich's phylactery, protected by magical wards that both prevented entry and doubled back any offensive/damaging spells multifold. That's when the lich showed up, and our dice rolls continued to suck. Very quickly we had lost our few remaining henchmen, the halfling was turned to stone, the dwarf polymorphed into a giant slug, and the cleric and my wizard each down to single digit hit points. Figuring at this point we were going to die anyways, we decided that we would at least try to take the undead bastard with us.
The cleric read the Cause Earthquake spell she had acquired at the warded phylactery (finally rolling a nat 20), burning all of her remaining Luck as she did so. At the same time, I cast Fireball at the lich, not only burning my few remaining points of Luck, but also spellburing all of my remaining physical attribute points, as I ripped my heart out from my chest with my inhuman hand. The lich's physical form was destroyed by the fireball, as the reflected earthquake caused the entire mountain stronghold to collapse, destroying the phylactery and the entire complex in the process.
...so yeah, end of campaign. At the very least, it was certainly memorable. Not certain what we'll be doing next, although the youngest of our group, now that he's back home from college for at least the next few months, has talked about trying to run a D&D 5e campaign for us. I might also try to resurrect by Cepheus Engine game, although I'm a bit wary about trying to run two different campaigns (with two very different systems) at the same time, much less that I would be doing so on the same day.
One of the main reasons that I use B/X is that it is D&D at its simplest. If there is an option in another version of D&D that catches my eye, it is easy enough to shove it in there. When it comes to house ruling, it's a lot easier to start with something simple and add options on than to start with something complicated and have the house rules be a mish-mash of additions, subtractions and substitutions.Still running my AD&D Spelljammer game (session tonight!) though the system is increasingly grating on my nerves-- I keep eyeing my copy of the Rules Cyclopedia and my growing library of B/X and BECMI clones and wondering just how much of Player's Option I can get away with shoving into one of them.
OK, I read it and I don't understand. Why isn't Set-Up mentioned a lot more?Metahuman News
The concepts of Yin and Yang, push and pull flowing through nature. This week we explore Chen-Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, a style both the spiritual and the martial. We hope this article captures a fragment of the complex nature of T'ai Chi .
Martial Arts In Metahumans Rising Part 9: Chen-Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan - House Dok Productions
A defensive style focusing on control of one’s body and movement. The exact origins of T’ai Chi have been lost to antiquity. However, Chen Village, in Henan Province, China is attributed as it’s birthplace. The Chen style was developed by Chen Bu, a warrior who began his school in the village...housedok.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HouseDokPro
Website: http://housedok.com/
Print: https://studio2publishing.com/products/metahumans-rising?_pos=2&_sid=145b3fa95&_ss=r\
PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277614/Metahumans-Rising
#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG #MartialArts #TaiChi
OK, I read it and I don't understand. Why isn't Set-Up mentioned a lot more?
The closest it seems to get to this is,I think, the "Counter Disable: Active Defense – Stagger". I guess that's staggering the opponent when he is attacking...right?
But where is the set-up where you stagger the opponent offensively? And yes, offense is very much part of Chen (and Yang) Tai Chi. Some masters were noted for liking to "go first, emit strength and win".
I don't pretend to understand Tai Chi, any style, all that well, Certified ! And I admit that I'm going off what I remember from Fractured Kingdom (which, as I understand it, shares the same system).
And I admit that I'm going off what I remember from Fractured Kingdom (which, as I understand it, shares the same system).
Still, a very basic move I've seen in many, many Chinese arts is to push the enemy's limb or body to take him off-base. Having felt it from different practitioners, I can attest that sometimes the difference between a push and punch is minimal, there.
Sure, it's often done after deflecting or voiding an attack...but sometimes it's done when the enemy is preparing to attack, but hasn't actually begun his move yet. Which, to me, is offensive enough in system terms.
(I mean, not many systems distinguish between attacking first, attacking during the preparation, defend then attack and defend-and-attack-before-recovery, anyway. Usually the first and third option are covered, sometimes the fourth. The Riddle of Steel is the only one I can name that did a decent job of covering them all, though...and the problem is, what I've seen of Tai Chi is meant to work with options 2 and 4).
It's likely got more to do with you being a practitioner. People often become friends with those who have similar interests...no idea whether your conclusion about LV is true or not, but I'm just saying that there's probably a lot of people in your city who know less practitioners than you.Of the various styles I've posted the only one I'm personally familiar with is Shorin Ryu. One of my friends runs a studio out of his home, or he did prior to Covid 19 lock downs. Actually, for a bit of context, I asked him for a clip of him teaching class or doing a demo the Shorin Ryu post, but he hadn't recorded anything. Also, tangentially familiar with Shotokan as two other friends study that style. Worked with a guy who took a flavor of Kung-Fu but I forget what exactly he was studying, but he liked to practice when it was slow at work. Saying all this makes me realize how prevalent martial arts is through Las Vegas.... but I digress.
More narrative elements? Not sure I like the sound of that...Fractured Kingdom and Metahumans Rising share the same resolution engine. Character creation is radically different, shifting away from Boon chains to building powers and introducing more narrative elements into the process. All the combat skills were stripped out because of how we handled powers, becoming aspects of someone's Fighting Style if they had one. This was done to allow players more control over how their character worked.
But a block could well be inflicting damage (jamming a fist, for example). Do you need a combo for that or what?As we're discussing this I'm working on the entry for Shotokan, still a few weeks off, and this is a topic I'm having to give a lot of through on hoe to represent just due to the, let's say, potent nature of a solid block. Generally speaking though, Metahumans Rising treats any action that is not inherently inflicting damage as an Active Defense. This allows the action to be described as a block, dodge, no selling an actual hit, or anything else that fits narratively. For example, Nox, a darkness manipulator, might turn into shadow momentarily to avoid a hit as an Active Defense. At the same time, Bulwark, the living volcano, just doesn't have time to get hurt. Both make the same type of roll, but the contributing characteristics and the narrative feel of the action are radically different.
That's an interesting aproach. But why do you believe that you need a pause to benefit from the set-up? My experience is more or less the opposite of that...With that in mind lets look at that defensive push and game mechanics. When taking a Combo action, the player rolls only rolls once, using the result to resolve each of the components involved. Set Up gives you a bonus to your next Action. Because Combos are resolved with with a single roll the bonus from the Set Up would not be applied until the next Action. Technically you could have a Combo of Set Up - Attack, but the Attack within the Combo would not gain the bonus from Set Up. To avoid confusion, when using Set Up in a Combo I like to put it at the end.
Yes, that's the defensive application, alright. I'm just saying the exact same move using Peng can be applied offensively.For T'ai Chi, my thought was to have very direct repercussions for attacking the martial artist. The active defense going directly into a maneuver that would end the battle. To do this, the maneuver should be inside the combo as it removes the opponent's opportunity to react. Using Set Up places a pause between actions, which comes with pros and cons. Pro: The player can follow up with anything and retain the bonus. Con: While harder, the foe has a chance to react.
It's a matter of taste, I guess. To me, it would come back to the above question: why do you feel a pause after the push makes your attack more likely to succeed?Some of the martial arts still to come include Wing Chun and Aiki-Jujutsu both use these types of shifting pushes, but here it's represented by a Set Up instead of an Active Defense, or in one case with an Active Defense, to represent this kind of pause in the chain before executing the next action. Again, hopefully we do both styles justice.
I fully agree with that approach!While we don't call it out as explicitly, one of the goals of the combat rules was to allow players and GMs the flexibility to get as deep into the nuances as they felt fit the group.
Yeah, I noticed that - the same trick was used in your Muay Femur entry, wasn't it?It is completely possible to create foes that can't be punched into submission, can are still susceptible to other combat maneuvers, or tacticians that know when to use an Active Defense, allow themselves to be hit, or attempt to Interrupt an Attack with their with their own. Take a look at the entry for Capoeira it is a deceptively aggressive style that should encourage players to attempt to interrupt an attack instead of defending.
and on the Brink of a new WW2, as the Nazi Occult Regime spreads through Poland, the emergence of an Airship industry, combined with the resurgence of Norse Religion, makes the Danes and such want to bring back their Viking Heritage
but the Pax Britania banned such heathen ways
Now the Pax is crumbling and people can do what they want
since the God Queen Victoria has been killed
maybe America is led by a council of warlocks, because it's more democratic
or cybermancers because Self Improvement
self improvement seems more nazis, unless we go with the purity thing
then they have the whole genetic modification business
industrial revolution taken to the extreme
that's america's angle
harnessed demons and spirits, industrializtion by spiritual slavery
and self reliance
mmm, i like this idea. the south really didn't die. the north agreed that enslaving spirits was OK
Right, Human Slavery stopped being the economical option
Spiritual Abolitionists
"If you can't be bothered to learn the rules, we're playing Mythras and I'm holding your character sheets. You just tell me what you do, and I'll tell you what to roll."Friday is going to be nuts. We (me, GM, other player that reads the rules) sent Out a web page with an abbreviated combat section to help facilitate. I am 100% certain that most all will not do their homework. This is going to make me just go “if you aren’t going to put in the time to learn the rules, why bother putting together a game for you?” Truth, I’m fine if they don’t want to learn a new system, but they aren’t even trying. And that bothers me.
"If you can't be bothered to learn the rules, we're playing Mythras and I'm holding your character sheets. You just tell me what you do, and I'll tell you what to roll."
Yes, I've been there.
Do that! You know you want to!vikings find that Vinland is actually Monster Island.
Do that! You know you want to!
When running a first session for people, the biggest potential stumbling block is if players get hung up on picking combat special effects. If you think that might be an issue for your group, then you can give each player a custom list of no more than five special effects that play to their skills and weapons. I still let players pick from the full list, but they can wade out into the deeper waters of the system as they choose.Thanks to all the constant praise it gets on this forums, I've decided to try running Mythras Thurday nights. Got four players together, all new to the system, so we can learn together, and we ran through character creation last night. It took nearly three hours, but that included a good amount of discussion about the setting, and Roll20 was acting up so two of the players couldn't update their own sheets, so they used a fillable pdf and then I entered them into Roll20. Hopefully that issue gets sorted out.
By the end though I felt like we had a decent group of characters. A wealthy priest from an aristocratic family, a scholar who has is maybe digging into knowledge not meant for man, a warrior born out of a terrible massacre, a woodsman who walked away from the obligations of nobility. Everyone liked the background events and family/connection generation rolls for filling in some ideas.
I've been listening to Raleel's podcast and reading the WIR on TBP to try to absorb as much of the game as I can. I'll start the group off on the adventure Sariniya's Curse and see what hooks from there.
I've been listening to Raleel's podcast
A wealthy priest from an aristocratic family, a scholar who has is maybe digging into knowledge not meant for man, a warrior born out of a terrible massacre, a woodsman who walked away from the obligations of nobility. Everyone liked the background events and family/connection generation rolls for filling in some ideas.
The two more combat oriented characters are players that have been in my other games for a while so I know their style and think they'll pick up on it pretty quickly and will really enjoy the tactical level.
At this point I'm a bit more concerned with learning all the magic systems. I'd wanted to keep it fairly simple with just folk magic and theism, but of course there's always that player that needs something more, so sorcery and animism are in the mix as well.