D&D Subforum / Pen & Paper RPG Discussion Thread

Banjo

Sorry, had a rough last week and weekend, had to deprioritise this. Far as I know both sKeith and Nebelwerfer are otherwise engaged this week, that's 40% of the playerbase, so I'm not sure it's fair to start. If anyone's officially pulling out in a way that affects those percentages, let me know!
(This is going to be such an anticlimax when/if it runs! Chinese Democracy eat your heart out!)

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Sorry, had a rough last week and weekend, had to deprioritise this.

You liar, you've been off writing supplements:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/239824/Baby-Bestiary-5e-Beast-Companion?src=fp_u5

Banjo

You think it's easy coming up with an authentic stat block and lair powers for a Roc Chick? It was rougher than Kerry Katona-branded Sand paper on a day the Swift won't sail!
Actually, that's not far off the truth - the amount of useless background detail I've been chasing down instead of focussing on things actually needed for a functioning module is unreal How do you avoid diving into unnecessary rabbit-holes?

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

How do you avoid diving into unnecessary rabbit-holes?

Rabbit-holes can be either setting details or "possibilities" in adventures usually, so do you mean:

Resisting continuous fleshing out of the setting?

Or how do you run with a setting that isn't fleshed out entirely without it being noticeable?

Or how do you plan for any contingency in an adventure/dungeon crawl?

Banjo

Yes!

(I'm doing a) in an attempt to do c) but really, we're going to end up at b) because no one is going to ask about the detailing on that vase that has 3 pages of backstory and a side plot about the wife of the guy who glazed it running off with a centaur 3000 years ago, just in case, you know, one of the heroes can time travel... especially when they just want to know how much damage that vase did when they hit <REDACTED> over the head with it)

Wait.... My Squirrel-Sense is tingling... can other people see this post?

Smokebomb!

Baggly

Who can time travel?

Banjo

It's not real! You don't have to be jealous of other players! But... I rolled 10 D100s for you just in case and the news isn't good...

Baggly

Im not jealous! I just want that person on side so i dont get ret-conned.

Banjo

Everyone has the power to Ret-Con, subject to GM approval, if they have Advantage.
It's why Batman just happened to have Bat-Shark-Repellent in his helicopter that day, or Bobby Ewing got into that shower, or Hilary lost the election. Sometimes when something is both highly unlikely and highly convenient, convenient has to win for the sake of fun.
The best example I can think of is the Bill and Ted Keys-Causality loop

The key thing is that it requires GM approval, so if the Ret-Con involves Pter's character dying ... oh wait, I see why you're worried. And you're right!

Banjo

Vampire the Masquerade humble bundle!
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/vampire-the-masquerade-rpg-books

Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition
Guide to the Camarilla
Alien Hunger
The Hunters Hunted
Time of Thin Blood
Counsel of Primogen

London By Night
Guide to the Sabbat
Children of the Inquisition
The Inquisition
Children of the Night
Nights of Prophecy

Clan Novel Saga Vol. 1: The Fall of Atlanta
Guide to the Anarchs
Storyteller's Handbook Revised
Sins of the Blood
Havens of the Damned
Succubus Club: Dead Man's Party
Ghouls: Fatal Addiction

Plus 3 months sub access to Worlds of Darkness and a movie about a goat.

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

Vampire the Masquerade humble bundle!
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/vampire-the-masquerade-rpg-books

Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition
Guide to the Camarilla
Alien Hunger
The Hunters Hunted
Time of Thin Blood
Counsel of Primogen

London By Night
Guide to the Sabbat
Children of the Inquisition
The Inquisition
Children of the Night
Nights of Prophecy

Clan Novel Saga Vol. 1: The Fall of Atlanta
Guide to the Anarchs
Storyteller's Handbook Revised
Sins of the Blood
Havens of the Damned
Succubus Club: Dead Man's Party
Ghouls: Fatal Addiction

Plus 3 months sub access to Worlds of Darkness and a movie about a goat.

Jaysus, you'll give Four ideas for the next instalment :eek:

Banjo

OK, everyone has submitted their stuff so we should be good to go on the morrow. I'll post the thread up hopefully in the morning. And then let the car crash games begin!

(Sorry, I'd have done it today but I had to look up a lot of detail about Cabra in the 60s and 70s for another game.)

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

OK, everyone has submitted their stuff so we should be good to go on the morrow. I'll post the thread up hopefully in the morning. And then let the car crash games begin!

(Sorry, I'd have done it today but I had to look up a lot of detail about Cabra in the 60s and 70s for another game.)

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Alien Hunger

I remember running that years ago, still have my copy, so cheesy. Louis Pasteur tries to cure vampirism in a backdrop of 90s trench coats and attitude.

Banjo

OK, thread's up.
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=108303705#post108303705

Sorry about the delay but... well... this is terrifying!

Nebelwerfer

Banjo wrote: »

OK, thread's up.
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=108303705#post108303705

Sorry about the delay but... well... this is terrifying!

Banjo

This feels weird


Off for the night!
(Unless I show up drunk later )

Fourier

We haven't yet played any of his games here (Ghostbusters, Pendragon, Runequest, Prince Valiant, Call of Cthulhu), but probably the greatest RPG designer Greg Stafford has passed away.

Ghostbusters, Pendragon and Runequest are nearly universally considered the games with the best design.

Necro

Fourier wrote: »

We haven't yet played any of his games here (Ghostbusters, Pendragon, Runequest, Prince Valiant, Call of Cthulhu), but probably the greatest RPG designer Greg Stafford has passed away.

Ghostbusters, Pendragon and Runequest are nearly universally considered the games with the best design.

How does the Ghostbusters game work Four?

sKeith

Necrominus wrote: »

How does the Ghostbusters game work Four?

"i'm afraid of no ghost."


wikipedia

Banjo

Sounds interesting and enjoyable. One strongly suspects that busting would most likely make one feel good.

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

Sounds interesting and enjoyable. One strongly suspects that busting would most likely make one feel good.

We could have a game in honour of Greg Stafford. Seems like the right thing to do.

Banjo

Necrominus wrote: »

We could have a game in honour of Greg Stafford. Seems like the right thing to do.

Fitting for Halloween too.

Your turn to run one - good luck and bagsy me be Louis Tully!

Necro

Banjo wrote: »

Fitting for Halloween too.

Your turn to run one - good luck and bagsy me be Louis Tully!

:eek:

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

How does the Ghostbusters game work Four?

Basically there are traits and skills.

There are four traits, in D&D terms STR, INT, DEX, CHAR, just with different names.

Skills (called Talents) are just a list of skills that tended to come up a lot in the film and cartoons.

Both traits and skills work in the same way. Your rating in them means how many d6 you roll. You score for the roll is just the sum of the dice and it has to beat a number picked by the GM.

There are also Brownie points which you can spend to get extra dice.

Ghosts come in seven categories. Starting with the lowest which are just voices or vague lights and colours, all the way up to the highest which are interdimensional super beings.

The first and second editions differ in how much equipment there is (first just has stuff from the films) and health, XP and brownie points are separated in the second.

Fourier

Necrominus wrote: »

We could have a game in honour of Greg Stafford. Seems like the right thing to do.

Halloween game will be either it or Call of Cthulhu, depending on preferences.

Fourier

Happy First Anniversary of RPGs on boards!

Fourier one year ago wrote:

Anybody interested in an online play-by-post game of some tabletop RPG. I've been finding Roll20 difficult to schedule as most players are in different time zones and so would prefer an Irish crowd.

No experience required and it'd be relaxed enough in pace.

Games I'd be interested in running:

1st Edition D&D, but with one of the modern adventures (award winning ones published in the last few years).

Necro

Two games of D&D, a beginner's game, Vampire: The Masquerade, Traveller and Deadlands. Icons and a second GM in Banjo.

Not to mention it now has it's own subforum.

Quite the year Fourier, and it's all down to that original post you made.

Thanks for that, without it I would have never known quite how much fun those games are.

Here's to another year!

Banjo

Ahem, 3rd - I was only caretaker of that Beginner game for about a week!

Anyway - all praise the mighty Four!

Fourier

Powered by the Apocalypse Rules:
Powered by the Apocalypse has basically only one type of roll. 2d6 + Attribute.

The rules are listed as a serious of "Moves", a phrase all the PbtA games use. They're basically just a list of situations where you roll or something mechanical happens. What's unusual about PtbA is that the rules only cover the situations listed specifically under the "Moves", outside of that it is pure narration.

An example move is (I've shortened the text):

Monster of the Week rulebook wrote:

Act Under Pressure
Used when you try to do something under pressure
10+ => You do what you set out to do
7-9 => Either worse outcome, price to pay or hard choice
< 7 => Things go to hell

The thing to notice is that the moves are far more narrative than most RPGs. In the case of let's say trying to escape an exploding house and the door is barred, a roll of 8 would have me offer you something like:
(a) Door gives way, but it leads to a cellar rather than out of the house
(b) Gary, an NPC, dies saving you
(c) The door will open only via an offering of flesh

So what the house looks like, i.e. what's on the other side of the door, or even the exact nature of the door isn't fully determined by me.

Monster of the Week doesn't go as far as some PtbA games like "The Veil" which has a Shopping Move where a 10+ allows the player to specifically say exactly what the market district is like, adding to the setting and creating an area where other PCs can adventure (e.g. they can pick the NPCs and even dangers)

Outside of this there are little other rules. Two small features are forward (+1 to next roll, given by some Moves) and ongoing (+1 to all moves until some condition is met).

Also there is "Hold", which are just points you get to spend, e.g. a move might say on a 10+ you get "2 Hold" and you spend a Hold to ask me a question about the scene.

Each character type has its own unique moves. Levelling up basically grants you access to a special 12+ outcome for a move of your choice.

Health is typically 8HP (HP called HARM in most PtbA games), weapons do 1-3 HP damage per attack.