What are y'all up to these days?

[Bunch]

Classic DCC, I see!

Wait, you had 5 PCs? Isn't that in clear violation of the RAW?

I thought DCC HIGHLY encouraged multiple PCs per player for the funnel?

 

[Edgewise]

I thought DCC HIGHLY encouraged multiple PCs per player for the funnel?

Usually four is the limit, but I recently ran one (Sailors on the Starless Sea) where I let three players have six PCs each. And they barely survived.

 

[Bunch]

Usually four is the limit, but I recently ran one (Sailors on the Starless Sea) where I let three players have six PCs each. And they barely survived.

Seems like an odd limit. I start playing six. After encounter #1 I'm playing five by encounter 3 I'm lucky to have two. Maybe someone survives.

 

[Bunch]

Played protoD&D with my second oldest. Devolved pretty rapidly to the good guys kill everything but let's put a crapton of monsters in the dungeon.
Ended with a foray into the buried space ship you see in the upper right.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

I thought DCC HIGHLY encouraged multiple PCs per player for the funnel?

I believe 3-4 is customary, but as there were only three of us playing, the DM let us start with five characters, to help prolong the slaughter.

 

[Edgewise]

Seems like an odd limit.

Not really. From the rules:

DCC RPG generates characters using what the author refers to as a “funnel.” First, each player generates at least two, and possibly as many as four, 0-level characters.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

Not really. From the rules:

OTOH from what I've seen several of the published funnels will suggest something along the lines of "for 15-20 zero-level characters" because you need a certain number of warm bodies to have a chance of anyone making it through.

 

[Edgewise]

OTOH from what I've seen several of the published funnels will suggest something along the lines of "for 15-20 zero-level characters" because you need a certain number of warm bodies to have a chance of anyone making it through.

Yup that's definitely the case. My only point was there is nothing odd about limiting it to four. The type of text you quote is exactly why I didn't think that 12 level-zeroes could cut it and I gave everyone six. The final fight against 25 Beastmen was nearly overwhelming as it was.

 

[TristramEvans]

WIP of an Oldhammer T-Shirt design. Inspired by the cover of King's The Stand

 

[FeralToaster]

Had dinner with a friend I met at Terrific Con last night. So-so chicken, nothing special just average but great conversation everything from Chamber's stories to regional folklore to video games was discussed at length. Anyway the person gifted me with three shopping bags of old RPGs. It was me or Goodwill So I took'em. Now I have to spend my weekend going through them and sorting what goes in my collection what goes on the community shelf and what I can regift. Normally I'd be quite happy but I was hoping to get in some bicycle time while the weather still nice.

 

[Dumarest]

Rolling up PCs tomorrow...well, it's a combination of random rolls plus point-buy, actually. I was torn on what system to use because a couple of players will be neophytes, then realized I had a very intuitive and easy to grasp superhero RPG staring me in the face the whole time, almost literally as it was on my closet shelf while I was cleaning and I kept brushing right past it, scarcely noticing it. Anyway, e-mails and texts have been exchanged to everyone should be on board with the tone (mainly no sullen loners and no killing at the drop of a hat) and have a pretty good idea of what sort of superhero he or she wants to be. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Bunch]

Rolling up PCs tomorrow...well, it's a combination of random rolls plus point-buy, actually. I was torn on what system to use because a couple of players will be neophytes, then realized I had a very intuitive and easy to grasp superhero RPG staring me in the face the whole time, almost literally as it was on my closet shelf while I was cleaning and I kept brushing right past it, scarcely noticing it. Anyway, e-mails and texts have been exchanged to everyone should be on board with the tone (mainly no sullen loners and no killing at the drop of a hat) and have a pretty good idea of what sort of superhero he or she wants to be. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Golden Heroes?

 

[Doc Sammy]

I'm back.

I've been taking job classes every Wednesday fro the month of September but other than that, not much else is going on.

Been wanting to get back into Big Eyes Small Mouth 1E, especially since I have several books that need to be re-read...

The books in question being the 1E Corebook, Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies, Big Robots Cool Starships, and the Sailor Moon RPG.

 

[3rik]

Been wanting to get back into Big Eyes Small Mouth 1E, especially since I have several books that need to be re-read...

The books in question being the 1E Corebook, Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies, Big Robots Cool Starships, and the Sailor Moon RPG.

Did you get in on this?

BESM Fourth Edition (Big Eyes, Small Mouth RPG) by Japanime Games — Kickstarter

It was somewhat hidden because they didn't tag it "tabletop games", but it seems to have done quite alright anyway. There's apparently the opportunity for late pledges now.

 

[FeralToaster]

Pleasant day sorting through three bags full of old RPGs. left early in the morning to bicycle picked up some pumpkin donuts at a bakery on the way back and just dug into the three bags. My robotech collection is now complete with the new books added, I got the Lyran alliance book for Battletech and the LosTech book for Mechwarrior and an older mercenaries book than the one I already had, dragons and gods from Palladium Fantasy, some Dead reign books. My players asked for the old Shadowrun stuff Aztlan an older cyberware book Renraku shutdown and some other adventures. I'm also giving the one that's into Changeling Nightbane plus a few of the source books. Oh and some expressed an interest in the TMNT stuff and I can unload a bunch of that. My community shelf (shelves now heh) now is groaning under a near complete run of Rifts (hopefully they'll take some home when they flip through'em) and heroes unlimited stuff, palladium fantasy, and of course the Rifters.

 

[Dumarest]

Golden Heroes?

Superworld, but ended up using DC Heroes because one PC was a superspeed/ice power combination and it was a lot easier for me to translate that into DC Heroes and make it work right than it would be with anything else. Same was true for a PC with precognition powers. The only hitch was players forgetting they can roll again if they get doubles (other than two 1s). Another minor issue was new players not really getting column shifts right away.

Edit: my very rough sketch of the superhero team. It turned into a very Silver Age thing.

​

 

[Dumarest]

Creating PCs didn't take too long since my #1 rule, especially for new players, is keep your superhero concept simple enough that you can explain the gist in one sentence (for instance, "I have the proportional powers of a spider!" or "I'm the fastest man alive!") and focus on that as, if a campaign runs long enough, we can refine and expand from the basic premise. I guided everyone through the process step by step, but advance work had been done inasmuch as everyone was instructed to think up a couple of concepts or, if stuck for an idea, think of a superhero he or she enjoys reading and we'll make a knockoff version.

Once the PC basics were settled I decided to use DC Heroes because, as I think I posted elsewhere, for my purposes it handles superspeed, gadget-users, and precognition powers better than the alternative games. If anyone came up a little shy on points to get what they needed, I just gave them a few extra points or showed where they could cut a skill they didn't really need right now and could develop down the line, or an attribute score they could lower without really losing anything. Players tend to try to cover all the bases and buy stuff like mental defenses that have nothing to do with the PC concept and no real justification outside of meta-gaming and wanting not be victimized by a referee who spots their weak points--I just explain that I know all their powers and weaknesses and could exploit them anytime I wanted if that was my intention, but I set up scenarios based on who the villain is and what her goals are independent of the PCs' involvement; later on villains coming back for a grudge match may deliberately try to exploit a superhero's weak areas if the villains know of them, but that's straight out of comic books.

Anyway, 'nuff said, character creation went smoothly except for one player being indecisive about which concept he wanted to play. We ended up merging them. And that is how we ended up with:

(1) Free Spirit: more or less a Captain America knockoff with some $6 Million Man bionic abilities and no shield. The player fancies his PC as the leader of the group, but thus far no one else seems to agree. He has connections in the Federal government but a free agent so not at their behest; the flipside of his independence is that he also cannot rely on their support or resources. He was blown to bits in an unnamed war and put back together in an experimental surgery.

(2) Quickfrost: sort of a combination of Iceman and the Flash, though not nearly as fast. He gets around at subsonic speeds on Iceman-style ice slides and ramps and can create barriers, cages, etc., made of ice. His other ID is a scientist specializing in cryogenic and metabolic research. You can probably guess his origin story.

(3) Malakbel, Lord of Light!: a Middle Eastern deity with Herculean strength and solar powers. We haven't yet worked up why he's hanging around on earth fighting bad guys but he's a lot of fun because his player is doing the Marvel Thor-style language and saying things like "methinks," "Mine strength shall be enow!," "Malakbel says thee NAY!", and "Thou dost jest!" A hoot and a half to have around. Maybe my favorite PC so far.

(4) Kismet: a minor sorceress with uncontrolled precognitive flashes. Her other ID is an antiquarian running a curio shop, sort of loosely affiliated with the Museum of Man and called in as an expert on archaeological finds of an occult nature, which we figured would be a good way to drag the PCs into adventures.

(5) The Scarlet Swashbuckler: an Errol Flynn-type combining the Swordsman and Green Arrow/Hawkeye, only his sword has no gadgets built into it and he uses a crossbow instead of a longbow. My friend didn't care what his PC was and asked me to make one for him. Every game needs a devil-may-care, irreverent swashbuckler. He has an array of trick crossbow bolts like Green Arrow used to have, though not as much variety. In his other ID he is an assistant district attorney.

The first scenario they played was relatively simple on its face: intervene in a bank robbery. The cops were overwhelmed because the bank robbers had high-tech laser carbines and were apparently bulletproof. Additionally, they had a few hostages in the bank. Thus they did little more than crowd control and it was up to the PCs to figure out a way to get in an neutralize the crooks. Having no particularly stealthy skills or powers, the group decided its best bet was to utilize the element of surprise and capitalize on Quickfrost's superspeed to blitz the bad guys. Rather than approach from the front or rear of the bank, they went to the roof where Malakbel tore the roof off the sucka, as George Clinton/Parliament might put it, Quickfrost sped in and erected a huge ice barrier between the bank robbers and the hostages, Scarlet Swashbuckler and Free Spirit swung down to try to disarm the bad guys, and Kismet animated bank furniture to entangle the others. As it turned out, Scarlet Swashbuckler and Free Spirit had a hard time of it because it turned out the bank robbers were super-strong and super-tough androids, not humans in body armor, but in the end the crooks were overwhelmed, especially after Malakbel vented his rage and tore a few "base evildoers" apart. All the androids eventually were smashed or else ceased functioning and the bank robbery was foiled. The superheroes were hailed as heroes by most quarters. However, they still don't know where the androids came from or why they were robbing the bank (aside from to steal money). What you and I know, and the PCs don't, is that the nefarious supercriminal known as the Robot Master didn't care about the money at all and was merely using the bank robbery as a dry run test his new model to learn their weak spots and behind the scenes he plans now to improve them and then unleash his android army on the city, perhaps the state, or even the nation! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

​

Anyway, it was a good start. The players didn't make any effort to seek clues (android parts, weapons, whatever) about the androids' origin. I think the Robot Master will return in a couple of sessions depending on how things go. I have another supervillain called Doctor Decibel, the Sultan of Sound, all set to cause trouble next time.

 

[Dumarest]

Heh heh heh...and now a different point of view from my made-up Daily Bugle-type newspaper. I sent both "articles" to the players this morning.

​

 

[Endless Flight]

You can never go wrong with DC Heroes!

 

[Dumarest]

You can never go wrong with DC Heroes!

Well, I'm super familiar with it and find it just plain works no matter what kind of superhero game I run. I don't know why I even bother thinking about using other superhero RPGs, really. I'm using the 3rd edition since I have two copies and can slide one over to the players if I need to. But rather than have them flip through a book, I actually photocopied the power descriptions that applied for each PC and made a little reference sheet for each player so everything was at their fingertips. Made things go very fast and, between that and having the AP benchmarks for sizes/speeds/distances/etc. facing them , it eliminated probably 90% of the usual "does my power...?"/"can I use my power to...?" questions.

Can't wait to generate some subplots using the subplot rules/guidelines. It's a little early to dig into that right now but I have a few ideas coalescing that I may run by the relevant players.

 

[AsenRG]

I have another supervillain called Doctor Decibel, the Sultan of Sound, all set to cause trouble next time.

Shouldn't that be Ayatollah of the Holy Sound?

 

[Dumarest]

Shouldn't that be Ayatollah of the Holy Sound?

Raquel Welch might agree but I consulted the Spirit of Stan Lee and he said, "Alliteration always appears awesome against any appreciably appealing alternative."

 

[Simon Hogwood]

Besides, there's already the Ayatollah Rocknrolla:

People might get confused.

 

[FeralToaster]

Man, Batman: Gotham city is fun to play but putting everything away does take awhile. One of the group figured out the right amount of carrying bags for the game and brought it over. We had fun playing and I handed out the assortment of books I had recently acquired (they flipped through the Rifts on the shelf but decline to take more stuff with them).

We decided to sample the other side of the chicken war going on and went to Chick-Fil-A. Very good crispy chicken sandwich but the fries were only so-so (personally I like both but think Pop eye's edges them out). The discussion was split with the current hiccup with the Battletech Kickstarter and the Doom as an RPG question I been asking for the last couple of days. The group felt that there was too little world building for anything more than a oneshot adventure but became an interesting discussion on Clive Barker's Jericho and Undying games. The feeling was that both games were deep enough plot wise to have an RPG and possessed a intersting enough combat enviroment to make random encounters fun. Perhaps a modern/urban/dark fantasy (eh pick your own subgenre) take on the Diablo franchise or Hellgate London?

Werewolf Shattered Dreams was just a side quest to harvest some more resources and get a little more experience for the retinues of the pcs.

 

[Dumarest]

Just for fun I'm going to send the DC Heroes players a few headlines throughout the week so they can wonder which, if any, of them will become menaces for their superheroes to face. Here's one for tomorrow:

​

 

[Raleel]

Decided the ruined city of Rhest has been taken over by yuan-Ti or nagas. They’ve cast an illusion over the entire thing to prevent the elves who fly owls from seeing wtf is up. The elves know something has changed (“a shadowy evil influence”) but are unprepared for the likes of them. The priests of Tiamat in the red hand have discovered they are there and have sent an emissary to strike an alliance. They are claiming that the many headed abominations are clearly bless by Tiamat.

Mostly this is because the original scene of “goblin on a dragon” and “a bunch of ogres” is kinda boring. Now they can try and take out the nagas and that will hurt, or try and break up the alliance. And I get to use dwellers of the forbidden city and monster island and a T. rex.

So, mostly all good.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

I went to a session 0.0 for a long term 5e campaign last night. It went pretty well and the campaign is looking good. I'll be playing a Githzerai Necromancer who is bent on becoming a Lich in order to reshape the cosmos.

 

[Raleel]

And now looking at some of the maps of Omu out there, I decided that the nagas (we have Hindu influences) have been using Illusory Terrain to keep quiet and draining the swamp and uncovering the ruins for a good long time. Guards at the entrances, heavy use of distracting illusions, and methodically covering up any violence with local fauna complete their ruse.

I’m thinking there might be some political intrigue as the red hand tries to influences the many headed leader. The leader is an atheist, as most of them are, but views Tiamat as a potential consort and way to gain power (he’s apparently quite ambitious) but they have been using illusions to keep quiet for a long long time. His current consort (and Big Time Sorceress) may not like the competition and may want to maintain status quo. But it’s not like they can just have the party knowing about them and running amok.

I’m liking this a lot more now.

 

[Raleel]

 

[Voros]

Meeting my cousin for some late night beers, haven't seen each other for a long time, he's heading back to the hell of the oil fields.

 

[AsenRG]

I used Facebook last night. Still feeling unclean.

OTOH, my "open campaign" might actually begin this week-end.

 

[3rik]

I used Facebook last night. Still feeling unclean.

 

[E-Rocker]

Played in the weekly 5e D&D game last night. Was a ton of fun. Hilarious, but in a "had to be there" kind of why, so I won't attempt to convey the humor here.

Tonight, I meet my buddy Funkmaster Shane to make his character for my home group's new Savage Worlds game.

Tomorrow night, I run my usual Savage Worlds one-shot at the library.

Thursday night, I meet my buddy Kriss-Kross to make his character for the home group's Savage Worlds game. Why doesn't he just come join me and Funkmaster Shane tonight? He was going to, but belatedly remembered he has baseball tickets for tonight.

Friday night, I run the home group's Savage Worlds game. It will technically be the second session of this campaign, but it's the first real session. The previous session was mostly character creation, followed by a perfunctory "adventure" that was really just the party meeting a few friendly NPCs that will be supporting them throughout the campaign, and a fight in a Danger Room style area where the new players could try out the combat mechanics without any actual risk to their characters. The next session will be better, because I'll have an actual adventure prepared, haha. I expected character creation to take longer, so the last session was mostly pulled out of my... hat.

Tabletop RPGs are my favorite happy, and I'm really glad I get to do a lot with them right now, but doing RPG stuff for five consecutive days feels like a little much... I know I shouldn't complain and I'm very lucky to get to play at all. But this week is a tad overwhelming.

 

[Bunch]

Played in the weekly 5e D&D game last night. Was a ton of fun. Hilarious, but in a "had to be there" kind of why, so I won't attempt to convey the humor here.

Tonight, I meet my buddy Funkmaster Shane to make his character for my home group's new Savage Worlds game.

Tomorrow night, I run my usual Savage Worlds one-shot at the library.

Thursday night, I meet my buddy Kriss-Kross to make his character for the home group's Savage Worlds game. Why doesn't he just come join me and Funkmaster Shane tonight? He was going to, but belatedly remembered he has baseball tickets for tonight.

Friday night, I run the home group's Savage Worlds game. It will technically be the second session of this campaign, but it's the first real session. The previous session was mostly character creation, followed by a perfunctory "adventure" that was really just the party meeting a few friendly NPCs that will be supporting them throughout the campaign, and a fight in a Danger Room style area where the new players could try out the combat mechanics without any actual risk to their characters. The next session will be better, because I'll have an actual adventure prepared, haha. I expected character creation to take longer, so the last session was mostly pulled out of my... hat.

Tabletop RPGs are my favorite happy, and I'm really glad I get to do a lot with them right now, but doing RPG stuff for five consecutive days feels like a little much... I know I shouldn't complain and I'm very lucky to get to play at all. But this week is a tad overwhelming.

I ll take a few of your nights please!

 

[Brock Savage]

E E-Rocker Too much gaming is a good problem to have!

 

[Dumarest]

Today's newspaper...let's see if the players tie this in to the robots they fought last weekend.

​

 

[AsenRG]

Yeah, like this, except with more of a drive to have a ritual cleansing!

 

[Dumarest]

Today's news...wait for the third paragraph for the superhero hook:

​

 

[Endless Flight]

 

[TristramEvans]

View attachment 12261