/tg/ - Traditional Games

>ask my friends what they want to play

>they say they wanna do a meat grinder game

>plan an Only War game for them

>we meet once a week for 3 hours each session 3 times

>they lose 37 characters because the ship got Warp shenanigans because "It'd be fun to roleplay what happened to a ship in the Warp during the destruction of Cadia"

>each player threatens to quit because I'm being unfair

>they're Guardsmen

>trapped in the Warp

>which is tumultous

>the Gellar Field is strained and fluctuating

>daemons are possessing the dead

I gave them the meat grinder they wanted.

>>391415

If you want to save them, if I recall right, ghosts sometimes appear in Segmentum Pacificus. Have all their former characters fight alongside them in the last battle before they break free into the emperor's light, right next to the ongoing Indomitus Crusade or such.

>>391425

It's moot. We switched campaign ideas. I'm the Road Trip thread anon.

>>386818

>Politics, unironically, combined with the failure to remain objective and dispassionate.

Bullshit.

Me and my players argue politics all the fucking time, we tear each other throat's about it but when the dust settles we can still play and have fun together.

The issue isn't politics, it's retards that cannot live with people that have a different opinion than them.

Say, where did we have that story of that emotion-based caster ascending to dragon-godhood after shenanigans with a buried god? That ended the campaign pretty good, I'd say.

>>391433

Couldn't you have talked with GM about that? Even if you did leave anyway, he'd have known about this in advance.

>>330594

>"If you successfully disarm your opponent without using a weapon, you may automatically pick up the item dropped."

It says it right there, my man.

>>330000

Everyone else started families and didn't want to play anymore.

>>404649

How the fuck did this thread last so long?

Also, players getting married is pretty much a guarantee that you'll never play with either of those people on a regular, consistent schedule ever again.

>>354104

Most people are still running on life lessons from chidren's/YA entertainment, and Hollywood and the publishing industry give the exact wrong advice for dealing with sociopaths, bpds, and (((()))))

>>354520

Ebt, they sabotaged your education and your country, so sabotage their welfare state in turn. Just be sure to do it online (not over the phone or in person) if you're white

>>384257

I don't condone suicide, but if your only choice is to marry a single mother....

>5e group of lvl 4 characters

>we take turns DMing, the two adventures before mine were just "charge in and kill shit"

>decide that if they like combat so much, I'll make it interesting

>devise an old mine full of kobolds

>keep kobold vanilla stats (save for bosses and the like) but give them various equipment they could have gotten from looting dead adventurers (rapeirs, bows, crossbows, leather armor, caltrops, and most importantly, alchemist fire and acid)

>they're still pretty shit but the mine is pitch black and only one player has nightvision, meaning advantage on all their shots against the other three + pack tactics

>each kobold can be killed in one blow by literally any one of them, run the encounter several times myself to confirm, feel it's balanced well enough to give them a tough time, but prevail if they think a bit and counter the tactics

>can get shit like map of the mine, various clues, tons of shit by talking to villagers in nearby town to make things easier

>game starts

>"Hey, you can buy this here map to-"

<"I try to charm him"

>fails

<"I try to persuade him to hand it over for free"

>fails

>cue in bitching and rulecuckery about how he totally should have succeeded

>proceed to miss almost every cue I threw their way about the equipment and tactics the kobolds will have

>they finally get to the mine after even more bitching

>"The cave is incredibly dark. All is quiet, but it's as though, occassionaly, you hear quiet yipping"

<"Half of us will go in, holding the torch high above our head, the rest of you stay outside"

>they do so

>"Uh, guys, roll perception."

>success

>"There are caltrops ahead"

<"Ok we'll proceed slowly"

>don't stop a second to wonder WHY caltrops, which are useless on their own, would be placed in a random spot

>two faggots enter a big cave full of kobold, holding a torch so as to paint a better target, while the other two are still stuck standing outside

>shrug and have the kobolds attack

>both players proceed to roll pathetically low init

>kobolds net them, set them on fire, cover them in acid, and turn them into pincushions with arrows, all the while rolling ridiculous numbers (even for an advantage roll) before they do anything

>one of them is down with his face melted off, the second manages to run outside while still on fire

>one of the guys outside proceeds to start putting him out, the other decides he'll save the other guy and charges in

>ALONE

>actually starts doing decent damage with spells, kobolds have shit rolls, half of them are dead in one round

>the burning guy passed out, the other charges in to help

>kobolds set him on fire too, he's down soon after

>spellcaster on a roll, still on full HP, kobolds start fleeing, with just the leader shooting a parting shot from his crossbow

>critical hit

>maximum on damage roll

>spellcaster downed with that one hit

>TPK

>cue in massive butthurt over whether I balanced this badly or not

>DnD party splits and dissolves

I don't know, was this my fault? It was meant to be a hard encounter, but it kind of hinged on them not going in two at a time.

>on our way to kingdom's capital to look for some McGuffin our group enters a temple that host's blade of the ancient hero, clearly intended to be an background prop by GM

>one of the players interrupts GM's exposition and tells him that he's going to grab the sword from its altar

>GM asks him if he's really sure about it, trying to warn him off by clearly improvised spiel about the blade being sealed for a reason

>having seen the hastily written but OP as fuck stats for it including ominous caption about special effects on the wielder our lootwhore decides to nabs it anyway because he argues that whatever shit may result from it seems more interesting than the previous story hook

>GM decides to get his revenge by having the sword possess the guy changing him into radical true-gooder which forced him to fulfill any request asked by Good-aligned characters unless he could resist the hideously difficult will check

>session ended early because the session derailed into argument between them

Later on it transformed into rather fun campaign about tardwrangling the guy who turned most combat encounters into jokes but kept getting fucked into ass by NPC requests, but the drama at the start killed it for few months until the tempers cooled down.

>>405487

>an old mine full of kobolds

>impending tucker.exe

>not even that bad

>>405723

>>405487

Just be glad that it wasn't THAT recap about the party which gave one of their members to kobolds as rape slave and laughed while it happened

>>405723

tucker's kobolds are for higher leveled group of adventurers, and they use a lot of really cheesy tactics like having murderholes ready, corridors on fire, moving shields, etc. I wanted to see if I could devise something similar for a low level party while using more or less common tactics and equipment, but utilised well.

I found out how fucking powerful alchemist fire and acid are, holy shit.

>kobolds have pack tactics

>means they'll be throwing those vials at an advantage

>acid does 2d6 + DEX modifier (if it hits, can easily take away half of PC's health)

>alchemist fire does 1d4 every round until put out, which asks for a DC 10 DEX check and wastes your action

Both seemed fairly weak and not worth buying prior to this adventure, but I really can appreciate their deadliness in the hands of kobolds now. Acid makes them pack a serious punch, alchemist fire doesn't deal much damage but is constant, and most players waste their action putting it out instead of killing kobolds. I also gave them nets but those were actually worse, as they were highly situational.

Another part of kobold tactics was that the room they chose was big. Really big. Bigger than the torch light can reach. Meaning there was several kobold archers hiding beyond the edge of darkness, taking potshots at the dumb adventurers holding a torch, all with an advantage to their shots because shooting from the dark, but being immune to any return fire because the players couldn't see them. Overall, pretty normal tactics, I think, but working in tandem with kobold numerical superiority and pack tactics, it ensured that practically every kobold had an advantage on every attack it made, meaning they could get past the fairly high AC rating of characters even with their shit stats and deliver a death of a thousand cuts, peppered with the occassional high-damage hit from an acid vial. I was surprised myself at just how deadly this combination was if they players fucked up the init, or if kobolds got a surprise round (they didn't, but I was heavily considering it before running the encounter). If the player round comes soon and they start lowering the kobold troop count quickly, they'll beat the engagement easily, but if they don't, those kobolds will rape them raw.

>>405730

>Both seemed fairly weak

shit man, it tips the scales hard in any battle

>>405785

>>405773

The idea was that kobolds looted that shit from dead adventurers (they made their living slaying and eating adventurers stupid enough to underestimate them), and I figured it was reasonable for adventurers to pack some of these here and there. There was limited amount of those vials that I tracked so that the kobolds couldn't just spam them (and made for a good reward if the players managed to kill the kobold before he threw it at them). Overall, I'd say they worked as intended and levelled the playing field – the tactics I chose for kobolds were to 1) prevent the players from hitting back and 2) maximise damage per round no matter the circumstance. The moment the player characters took initiative would be the moment the kobolds would get utterly fucked, so the kobolds would bank on going for a quick win rather than a prolonged battle.

You gotta remember that vanilla kobold stats are SHIT and that they miss frequently even with advantage, so plenty of those vials just got wasted breaking on the ground and doing nothing. I think acid hit only once or twice while AF hit two times. The damage they deliver is then entirely based on luck. If the player has shit luck, he'll get over 10 in damage from an acid vial, but he can just as easily only take 4. Alchemist fire, on the other hand, doesn't pack much of a punch, but the players tend to waste their time putting it out (sometimes taking several turns as they fail the DC check) instead of continuing to fight (which is definitely the better course of action against a foe like kobolds).

In the end, it was meant as a hard encounter (in fact, probably the hardest in the dungeon as it's literally the kobolds' killroom) and the players did very nearly win it, except they wasted the first two turn due to party split and had shit luck. Thus, I'd say it was balanced well enough.

>>405806

Buddy their stats are shit because you're supposed to use them in groups, there are supposed to be more of them to balance out how weak they are. You not only compensated for their week stats by having more of them than the party but you effectively gave them ranged touch attack spells.

>>405861

>>405806

well, not touch attack but you did give them the equivalent of level 2 mage spells

>>405861

>because you're supposed to use them in groups

If we're talking vanilla kobolds with vanilla equipment, you can throw dozens of them and do little damage, since they're not going to beat an AC that's in the 20's four out of five times even with advantage, and when they do, the damage will be laughably low. Remember that kobold DEX modifier is just +2 and that the moment a player actually attacks one, he's in all likelyness dead. If you don't give the kobolds some manner of an edge, the encounter is going to be a cakewalk.

>>405871

in 3.5 a wizard was incredibly lucky to get 16 hp at 4th level, in 5.0 that's still 24.

A fighter would be sitting around 40 or 48 with 14 CON.

If it were 2 players with 48 HP, against 20, 18 and 16 shortbows a round, how do you think that's going to go down.

>>405871

>>405880

sorry, 12 10 and 8

>>405785

To be fair, that's mainly due to prices in dnd being cancer.

Especially when you get into mechanical practicality.

>>405881

>>405880

seems I fucked up further assuming it was shortbow when 5.0 uses slings, but 1d4+2 is actually better than 1d6

>>405487

You were fine, any time anyone splits the party, they deserve death.

>>405618

>Later on it transformed into rather fun campaign about tardwrangling the guy who turned most combat encounters into jokes but kept getting fucked into ass by NPC requests

Sounds like the lootwhore was right, that does sound more interesting than whatever the previous plot hook would've been.

>>405887

>rate of subjugation: 3

No. The spellcaster alone wiped 3 of them, IIRC, on his own with a spell, the archer could take down two in his round easily (if he hit), and I'm sure the fighter would have taken down at least two as well had he gotten the chance. The cleric would have definitely killed at least one too, but probably more. So that's, what, at least 8 kobolds dead per turn? Total damage would thus be around let's say 20 assuming 12 initial kobolds, which is just laughable. When I said that the moment a player hit a kobold it was dead, I was not exagerrating. Not a single kobold managed to survive any attack that hit him from the player.

Sure, you could increase the number of kobolds, but tell me, is it really fun to wait 6 years for 50 kobolds to take their turn, or would it be more fun to have 12 kobolds with good gear? I know I preffer the latter.

>the retard arguing about kobolds using alchemist fire/acid

I mean, why even.

They are kobolds.

Fucking.

Kobolds.

The party went in SPLIT.

Then SPLIT again, doing solo Rambo bullshit... and you get surprised they fucking died?

Mechanically, if the game was only about rolling numbers, player's would've won ten times over but they got fucked because they thought they were invincible.

And they got fucked.

Rightfully so.

A level 20 character could risk his life if he just strolled about, uncaring of pressure plates, pits with spikes, acid pools, crushing ceiling and the likes.

That's is how the party died, they died because they are stupid.

Stupid people tend to die while doing stupid things.

That's how it is in real life too.

>>405930

anon if the party did so well how did they preform worse than my projections?

>>405935

Has everyone forgotten about Gygax's kobold party

>>405976

Your projections assume kobolds using their regular gear. Here's what went down in my game, step by step:

<round 1: two players surrounded by around a dozen kobolds

>both roll pathetically low init, kobolds obliterate the first one before his turn even comes, the other flees while covered in alchemist fire, barely makes it outside the cave

>warlock outside the cave decides to go save the downed faggot inside the cave, sees kobolds (I hid the gameboard from him until this point because he was outside and thus shouldn't know the tactical situation), goes "sheeeit" and runs back out

>archer outside the cave tries to put out the alchemist fire on his pal and fails

<round 2: kobolds start dragging the unconscious fighter to their holding cell

>the fag on fire goes down

>warlock decides to leeroy jenkins and rushes in, using a spell (I don't remember which, I think it was some AoE or whatever) that kills the three kobolds grouped around the fighter

>archer FINALLY puts out the alchemist fire on his pal so that he doesn't die and rushes in to help the warlock (but his action was wasted on putting out the fire so no action from him)

<round 3

>kobolds are a bit shaken by the sudden losses but attack, manage to net the archer and set him on fire along with peppering him with arrows. One kobold tries firing at warlock, there's some kinda revenge spell or whatever that kills the kobold instantly instead.

>warlock on the offensive, downs two more kobolds with another spell

>archer tries to un-fuck himself, fails, decides to just use a skill to get one more attack and kills a kobold with it

>kobolds freaking out over so many losses, start fleeing, but maintain enough order to at least fire parting shots

>archer downed by one such shot (he was so low on HP the fire would have killed him anyway), the rest miss

>except for the leader with a crossbow

>the very last shot fired in the whole encounter, as the leader was the last to flee, rolls a crit on the warlock

>the crit proceeds to roll max on damage roll

>warlock down

>TPK

Notice that the moment they actually went for the offensive, they absolute raped the kobolds and destroyed their ranks, just as I outlined above. The kobold tactic was thus to get them to waste time with putting out alchemist fire and un-netting, and to concentrate fire to try to down them one by one as quickly as possible, so as to limit the number of actions the players can make per turn. The tactic worked (mostly thanks to the party being split at start, admittedly), but the players still would have won (although in a state that would likely made them abandon quest), except the literally last enemy attack of the final round rolled a lucky crit and damage.

>>406020

how many posts of acid and alchemist fire were thrown and how many did the kobolds have total

>>406034

Had to get my old notes. There was 10 kobolds. There was 7 flasks of acid and 7 of alchemist fire (always one of each on a kobold) total. They managed to throw 5 vials of acid and 4 vials of alchemist fire in total.

>>405861

>>405871

> If we're talking vanilla kobolds with vanilla equipment, you can throw dozens of them and do little damage

>the moment a player actually attacks one, he's in all likelyness dead. If you don't give the kobolds some manner of an edge, the encounter is going to be a cakewalk.

Duh. They are not supposed to fight proper warriors bigger than them, much less fight fair. It's retarded. They know it's retarded, too.

Using kobolds in hack&slash misses the whole point.

They survive by being Vietcong grade sneaky. There's a lot of them, they hit-and-run with potshots where you can't catch them, use narrow tunnels, traps and nasty critters (especially venomous). So they are wimpy little shits, but it matters only when they pretty much lost already.

>>405785

A stinger missile is an anti-aircraft weapon.

>>391425

>>391415

Don't you dare even think about ever justifying that god awful Nu40k Girlyman bullshit lore. Pretend it never happened, and that the status-quo is still maintained.

>>358320

1. Hey, this is pretty cool!

Into:

2. I immediately regret all my decisions.

Such is the natural progression of AnCap.

>>330145

I don't get it. Players refuse to fight in RPG? Are their characters pacifists or just pussies? Also they have weapons, but they didn't think they have to use them? Are they retarded? Am I missing something?

>>423061

This common in the system; it's the O&T delusion. I've ran it a few times and almost every char gen the player chooses the strangest weapons. I explicitly tell them that theyll come across guys with MGs, shotties, and long rifles but they choose shit like "SA low calibre hand gun and hatchet" or a .45 (which isn't strange, but he did get the saltiest after he was shanked to death). After they inevitably die, they either lose it or sulk and don't want to play the system again. I presumed they would jump for hand cannons and meme guns, like a minigun, auto-shotguns, or the CS kike pistol. Spoiled for choice?

The shottie is incredibly OP. With a few easy and unobtuse perks you can fire 5 5d6 shots in a single round with a negligible penalty.

>>422927

>People bitch for years that GW never moves the story forward

>GW moves the story forward and people scream “That isn’t what we wanted, you should have maintained the status quo!”

There really is no pleasing some people.