Commentary thread for that “Describe your game in five words” thread.

[aramis erak]

Wed:
5 Rokunganjin characters mostly generated

one more was generated prior.

• Shiba Kazeyuki, Asako Inquisitor (done prior)
• Shiba Ume, Shiba Guardian
• Utaku Gin, Utaku Battle Maiden
• Mirumoto Gorō, Mirumoto Ni-Ten duelist
• Isawa Hikaru, Kaito Spirit Seeker
• Toritaka Kohaku, Toritaka Phantom Hunter

Kazeyuki and Kohaku are both haunted.

Sat Transformers (Essence20 system)
finished intro adventure. Not impressed.

Not bad enough to drop it, nor good enough to recommend it.

 

[John Dallman]

Mystery with giant mining worms.

The AD&D1e party have been exploring "The Caverns of Adamant," which was once an adamant mine, but became disused. Various creatures and people moved into it over time. Since the party have become very wealthy by finding a gold mine, they're somewhat interested in finding more mines.

Over the past few sessions, we've discovered a flooded system of shafts below the level of the mine. which appear to have been eaten into the mountain, rather than dug with tools as the mine was. The flood water is seawater, which is interesting as the mine is about 3000' above sea level, and many miles from the nearest coast. We had an encounter with sahuagin within the mine, and as far as we know (which is not much), they only live in the sea. The world of Avalon has only one continent and is mostly ocean.

In the last session, our report reached the intelligence agency we sometimes work for, who called us in and asked lots of questions. The really giant worm that ate the largest shaft, which is about 70' in diameter, matches worms that have been found mining adamantite in [CLASSIFIED AND REDACTED], which is a worry for the agency because of [THING WE DON'T KNOW, WHICH THE AGENCY MANAGED TO AVOID EVEN HINTING AT]. They sent some much higher-level people to look at the place, and we went along as guides.

The worm business was confirmed, as was the way that the sahuagin are getting in, and the tunnel where the seawater is coming in was found, although not how it gets there or where it goes. It became clear that there were questions to be asked of the wizard who used to be based here. He was a monster-maker, who seems to have been eaten by his own chimeras about 30 years ago. We knew where his bones were, but there was no response on Speak with Dead by a cleric who certainly should be able to reach back far enough. There are several imaginable reasons for that, but the session ended there.

 

[Cadence]

Not bad enough to drop it, nor good enough to recommend it.

What was the bad? (Don't have the Transformers, but my son has the Power Rangers one [I think same system?]).

 

[aramis erak]

What was the bad? (Don't have the Transformers, but my son has the Power Rangers one [I think same system?]).

Yeah, same system.
THe bad parts:

1. starting characters feel incompetent. Not horribly incompetent, but still not competent.
2. dice mechanics left players confused as to where they were unless using a table and counter on said table.
3. Skill & Specialization issues
   1. Higher skill without specialization results in higher chance of success but lower chance of critical success.
   2. Higher skill with specialization results in not only vastly more success, but also much higher chance of crit.
4. awkward equipment requistion system
5. multiple cases where rules are poorly worded, and required using the examples to guess the correct interpretation
   1. the process for crits and extremely high rolls mention they stack, but are unclear how. It's possible to get rolls up to 38; TNs can be as low as 10. If you roll double the TN, it is double effect. If you roll triple the TN (and yes, we did have this happen) it's triple effect. Criticals do double effect. It's explicit both happen, but not clear weather double TN and Crit is ×3 or ×4, and triple TN is ×4 or ×6. (I lean towards the latter interpretation)
6. classes rigid frameworks, more rigid than D&D 5E (despite being clearly riffing off D&D 5E).
7. it uses d2

So, and example for #3
Joe has d8 skill. Joe is rolling vs a fairly typical 13. Joe is rolling 1d20 & 1d8, summing them. If the d8 maxes, it's a crit, so long as it succeeds numerically. so about 1 in 32 chance of crit (5-20 on d20, 8 on d8)
Now, fred has d6 skill, but is specialized... he rolls 1d20 & 1d6, & 1d4 and 1d2, and crits if the number hits 13+ on the d20 and the best other die, and either the d4 is 4 or the d6 is 6... but the success uses the highest non-d20 plus the d20. (It's explicitly called out in the rules.) d2 do not generate crits, but this means more than 1/4 of successful hits by a specialist will be crits for double effect.
This gets worse for higher rolls.

Improvement is in attributes and Perks (= Features & feats)
You have a class; it dictates what attribute is raised each level, excepting those levels set aside for subclass features (3, 6, 10, 17, 20). Each class also determines which perks one gets at that level, again, excepting the subclass levels, but also setting aside a handful of general perks: 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th, 19th.

Skills exist in 4 groups - one group per attribute.
Total levels plus specialties in an attribute's skills equal the level of the attribute. So... you might need to raise your Strenth so you can take Might (and thus fight better), but your class doesn't have Strength improvement until 2 or 3 levels on, you're stuck unskilled for those intermediate levels.

No Experience Points, per se... but advice to level up as direct fractions of a level...

The sample Troubled Waters, rewards players with a whole level for their characters. Generally, a Mission of its size would reward ¼ of a level. Longer or more challenging missions can reward ½ a level or rarely a whole level, but never more than 1 level.

So, milestone. But not entirely so.

 

[John Dallman]

Our Paladin couldn't with humans!

The AD&D1e party is actually 50% female, two half-elves and a human. The human paladin's player failed to take in that the characters were female for 5-6 sessions, until it was pointed out in character.

 

[aramis erak]

Sun T2K
Town, Doctor; Town; Bear; Russians...

They enter one town, sell their prisoners to the locals, one of whom needs medical aid like RIGHT «BLEEP»ING NOW... but so does the SFC, both with holes in their throats. Two for 40 liters potable water, two jerrycans, and 4 clips of 5.56N, plus access to the doc.​

Doc saves the PC.​

Also, they see a pair of MiG-23 Floggers inbound on main street... which puts them aimed at the town's southern T-72... their sniper takes out both with his M82 sniper rifle... called shot, engine.​

​

They leave town quickly in the morning, Next town, they blow by, stopping long enough to deliver a note from Doc to his cousins.​

​

They find out there's an empty farm up the road.​

They head for it. They find the farmhouse burned to the foundations, but the barn standing. So, they camp in the barn.​

​

That night? a bear. They wound it.... SSgt Morton puts a Cal .50 in it through the door; SFC Moore, still recovering from a hole in his throat, misses, but still suppresses the bear... and that breaks its morale.​

​

Next day, they go digging for resources... coming up with 2 vehicle spares, 2 electrical spares, and one electric razor - charged. And a Soviet sniper team spots them doing so...​

​

They capture one, and SSgt Morton puts a Corps-approved .50 in each of the other three.​

​

Lt Briley fetches the motocycle (with sidecar) they'd been using. A fairly weathered Soviet Dnepr M-72 ...1955 model year from the IMZ plant. But not terribly efficient, not well maintained.​

​

half the party got three XP, half got 4...​

 

[uzirath]

A copse of stone treants.

That's a deliciously evocative image. I'd like to know more.

 

[MNblockhead]

That's a deliciously evocative image. I'd like to know more.

From Rappan Athuk. Playing the 5e version.

High tier-4 level of the dungeon. An ancient area of the dungeon created by an ancient order of druids as part of the protection of world-threatening creature. Took the party of mostly 17th-level PCs about two hours to defeat them.

 

[John Dallman]

Dodge Spanish Inquisition, head upriver.

They'll be going the same way, and we want to stay ahead of them, or they'll likely impress our canoes. Our plan was fairly sensible, but the GM wants a livelier approach, and said:

GM: "All of those (ludicrous) plans would have been good plans. This is a swashbuckling game. There's no such thing as a plan that's too silly!"

Bob: "Challenge accepted!"

 

[darjr]

Fist bumps for D&DBeyond cancellations.

My table, no the whole store, was a buzz about the OGL debacle. And when I informed my players that my DnDBeyond account ended on Feb 14th I got fist bumps.

Then it was all talk about other games. Very cool. I asked the store to open Monday for a table of other games and I had GMs asking if they could get tables too.

Even the players whose Wednesday is their only D&D time, new about the OGL debacle.