/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>330000

I was DM'ing a campaign a while back in Pathfinder.

>One character was using a flintlock pistol. >Another player had some RP back and forth about learning how to use it

>Jokingly points it at teachers head

>Teacher rolls, nat 20, disarms and unloads into other player

>Rolls a crit, confirms

>PC's are level 1

>Other PC down to -9 instantly

>First Session

>>330021

And that's why you don't point a gun at something you don't intend to kill.

Nice digits for a thread that can certainly go places.

Had some player RDM in public with several security cameras an important NPC (that they would have had to kill anyway, but at least after hearing her talk) who posed no threat and explicitly implied she was open to talk. This olayer had a minmaxed as fuck character and was basically inmortal, and complained about my every action to give the NPC a way to fight back (rules and "logic" lawyering even though he basically just performed 5 actions in less than one second without the perk that allows for that, but running behind a counter while injured after picking up a rifle was too much; he also wanted her to roll for picking up the rifle with heavy penalties). Had to rollback the second phase of a premature bossfight due to incessant complaining because I didn't apply absurder penalties to the boss than those she already had. Just because picking a rifle and running behind a counter should require at the very least three actions (not even taking into account having to roll for a movement action is already a penalty on itself) for a total of a 16 out of 30 penalty in the last action, which is running behind a counter. Had to fucking measure the crudely drawn map to check if her movement stat allowed her to cross that distance in a second. Passively aggressively made the boss pick up the rifle and stand in front of them doing nothing because "muh logic". Then another player accidentally shot her in the head.

Results: only lead killed, anticlimatic boss fight with a total of 3 shots and 0 damage from the enemy side, total party jail, city doomed.

Aftermath: they didn't want to roleplay getting out of jail so they wanted to reroll characters, which would imply throwing their personal difficult to write plotlines away and also having me writing the charsheets because they don't want to read the manual in a system where making a character alone takes hours at best, let alone reading the whole fucking chargen to another person, so we simoly rolled back because I care about the campaign but not enough to throw everything away and spend weeks rewriting shit. Five sessions in and I still have to make bullshit excuses for them to stay together because terminal My Guy syndrome.

>>330044

What system?

You really need to punish your players, omae

>>330021

…That's not how disarm rules work.

>>330051

>>330050

It's a heavily modded Cyberpunk 2020 with revamped initial resources system (Shadowrun style) to allow for crazier cyberpowered games. I could share the rules if you want to try them, but I must note it makes characters much less fragile, as well as making the game less of a race to see who gets the most REF.

I'm looking to eventually make my own system with just some of the autism of the original to track less variables during combat because every turn takes forever, but oh well.

>But I would love to hear more stories

I have some stories of them going full retard, but none as disrupting as this one. They could still make for fun storytiming, tho. Should I just post them here, or is there a more appropriate thread?

>>330063

Post them here.

>>330069

Pretty obvious. Dude got kidnapped.

Also, was this online or IRL?

>>330064

The first session wasn't all that interesting from a fuckup standpoint, but we have to explain it to make sense of some of the things that happened later.

>Three player character: CIA/CSWAT hard cop (guy who later RDM'd the important NPC; also only guy who didn't ask me to do his character sheet for him), punk singer (which the player and me secretly agreed to kill to scare other players) and assassin showman sniper who has pretty much one point in half of the skills of the game.

>Hard cop and fullborg spy NPC are tasked to protect the punk singer during her concert, since she has received some very serious death threats from an unknown party

>Long story short, punk singer causes mayhem and half of her attendants, the posers, get thrashed by her trve fans within two minutes of the start of the concert

>Some heavily armed guys assault the scene, and two sniper shots later, fullborg NPC gets her head blown off

>Punkie gets her leg blown off

>They were supposed to run this encounter but they kept pushing down the guys down the bottleneck that was the entrance to the ceiling of the building, which was the scenario

>Effectively realize CIA is fucking invincible

Next session is where stuff gets fucky

>The day after

>Punkie retired, got replaced with Japanese yakuza waifubait idol who hates her job

>Said character took us three days to make because she has a shitload of implants and is on the verge of cyberpsychosis

>Airport, 5PM

>CIA is there to pick up the fullborg agent's little 16yo sister, who came from France to enjoy some days with her

>Showman is there to pick up Michelle Jockson, a transsexual Michael Jackson imitator. He is going to interview her him whatever in his late night varieties show.

>Friend of waifudol, an illegal street race pilot who always has her helmet on, is there to pick up waifudol from her latest France tour

>CIA makes an amazing display of tact to tell the little girl the bad news about her sister

>Crying from her part for the rest of the session

>Masked assassin showman bribes the airport's personnel to allow him to jack into the airport's speaker system to announce the arrival of Michelle

>Confusion and laughs are had

>Illegal race pilot seems to know CIA from the days where he was just your average donut munching cop

>They are about to leave in separate directions

>notonmywatch.webm

>End up making Michelle and illegal race pilot race for fun to the studio where masked assassin showman is going to interview her

>>330076

>Some shitposting later, they are in the show

>Masked assassin draws IRL a quick sketch of Michelle

>Everyone laughs their asses off

>Little girl cries some more

>Waifudol dances excellently

>CIA makes another portrait of Michelle with his guns

>Girl cries some more

>Masked showman asks the party to come accompany him for the night at his apartment since all standard flights to the CIA headquarters have already stopped for the night

>They follow him

>At least I don't have to make an excuse

>Some hours later

>Nobody fucking eats anything during dinner

>Showman assassin kills his neighbour to grab his key and let the party sleep in his apartment for the night

>Throws the keys on half-asleep CIA's head

Here is where things start to go down the shitter

>"I wake up and try to shoot him in the balls out of reflex"

>"I grab the little girl as a meat shield"

>They roll for INIT

>Little girl included

>Little girl fucking dodges the bullet

>This is impossible according to vanilla rules

>Bullet passes through assassin's thighs without harming him because I didn't want to get a character down in second session

>Only one who seems to care about the scared little girl's well being is the illegal race pilot (she has the highest EMP rating of the party and she just has a 6)

>They finally go to sleep

>>330077

>Little girl wakes up CIA in the middle of the night and asks him about the murder of her sister

>Describe her as fully clothed, with a long skirt and really thick stockings even though it is summer

>Asks her if it isn't too hot for that

>She shrugs it off, says she's okay

>Nobody bats an eye

>Next day, the little girl is missing

>CIA asks HQ to help him search for her using the surveillance cameras of the zone

>Nobody else seems to give a fuck

>In fact, masked assassin continues sleeping

>They finally locate her, walking in direction to the place of the concert

>HQ describes her as "looking at her phone" and "with her shoes in the other hand"

>"Well, this is weird"

>Nobody mentions this fact again

>Waifudol wants to go home, but her friend asks her to stay until they find the girl

>CIA and waifudol get to the crime scene

>Little girl is standing on top of a warehouse, looking at her phone

>She's obviously searching the future equivalent of Google and Google Maps to find the place of the crime, but nobody thinks about that

>Assassin PMs me

>"I want to shoot her phone"

>You wat

>"She may be a spy with her phone"

>Rolls for it twice and fails

>Rolls a third time

>Critical hit

>Her phone is blown to pieces with his extremely experimental grey goo shooting sniper

>Roll for Awareness for the girl

>High roll

>"You notice her looking in your direction just before running away"

>"Bah, she probably didn't notice"

>Why does nobody notice she is cybered up to the max

>CIA calls for extraction

>Waifudol prevents illegal street racer from going with them because My Guy.

>Little girl and CIA are extracted with the future equivalent of a helicopter

>Waifudol and illegal street racer go away in car

>They get separated again

>>330078

>Assassin just realizes he just shot a sniper straight from his balcony

>"Maybe it's time to play dead"

>Rigs his apartment as a crime scene to appear as if he was murdered

>Pretty shitty scene, but CIA will have to solve and all the extremely obvious clues I throwed them in the face have been failing so I guess he will be okay

>RDMs another one of his neighbours with his petal frag grenades

>Goes to the parking and steals a drunken guy's car who happened to be sleeping in it

>Splatters the guy's skull with his own car's wheel

>Leaves for Arasaka HQ and just kind of crashes the car somewhere else

Next session, they go straight into terrorist territory, but first, I must mention the snipers mentioned in the first post were actually the RDM'd important NPC and the masked assassin, who was just passing there with a sniper and the NPC just mistook her for her companion. It was the girl who ultimately killed the fullborg, because the assassin failed his shot.

>Assassin is tasked by Arasaka to kill a businessman from the new PMC in town in the most gruesome way possible

>Dystopian corporative future so PMC actually control some districts in place of the police and they do fuck all because lol duopoly

>Get lots of intel on the businessman and a man who will pose as the real assassin in place of him

>He is asked to fuck some shit up, scare but not kill the landlords and basically, perform a false flag to make Arasaka look good

>Arasaka says it doesn't matter if some civilian dies, but casualties should be kept to a minimum to make Arasaka look good

>They plan the hit

>Meanwhile, CIA gets some intel on the businessman, and is tasked to investigate as the whole deal seems pretty suspicious

>Deal between landlords and new PMC will happen in a bar

>Waifudol and her friend are just there because I am tired of making excuses

>Start a playlist for some ambiance

>Warn them several times that stopping the GM's music will result in penalties because they had been stopping my music in earlier sessions

>Gets stopped by CIA's player anyway

>Says he can't listen shit over the music even though the bot playing it was at 1%

>Planned on some events over the playlist order but whatever

>Intel said the businessman was gay so assassin convinced his ally to dress like a flaming faggot

>Native American false flag actor reluctantly agrees

>Is later baptized as "The Gay Cowboy"

>>330089

Fast forward a bit, the important events are:

>Assassin attempts to poison the landlords with laxatives to trap them in the bathroom with monowire traps

>Rigs the disco ball to be full of his petal grenades

>Landlords and businessman sit together

>Intel says businessman is allergic to blueberries, so he only serves the table blueberry candies

>CIA tries to eavesdrop, but is distracted by assassin

>Important sniper girl NPC appears there, accompanied by two big guys

>Girl is identified by the masked assassin and tries to poison her with laxatives in a candy

>Girl is visibly offended by being offered a candy with her mojito, so she just throws it back to the barman's head

>Guys eventually have to shit and get stuck in the bathroom

>Gay Cowboy tries to flirt with the businessman, and both go to the disco floor

>Sniper starts dancing as well, but goes back to the bar when she notices the disco ball is going down

>Waifudol reluctantly goes to the dance floor with her friend. Critfails dancing and slips

>She runs out of the disco crying

>Because having to maintain three different private sessions wasn't enough

>My Guy syndrome so we don't see her again in the whole session because fuck running four private simultaneous sessions in real time

>Suddenly the smoke generators engage

>CIA hears the screams coming out of the bathroom

>Goes there to investigate and attempts to help them

>Assassin replaces the Gay Cowboy and gifts the businessman one of his petal grenades

>Businessman gets his face blown off by the small blades

>Clown music starts playing

>Disco ball blows up

>36 civilian deaths

>Arasaka response team shows up

>"Fuck, it's Arasaka! Go get'em!", says a female voice

>Loadsa shootan between the sniper girl, her minions and the batman, and Arasaka

>Assassin shoots the barman in the head from behind the kitchen door

>Girl notices and sends her bald giant minion behind

>Is shot in the head twice by the assassin and dies

>CIA proceeds to attempt to arrest the girl

>"Who the fuck are you?", she says

>CIA runs over her and pins her down

>Other minion hits him in the nape and knocks him out

>They both escape, but not before noticing the girl was now shooting a sniper (which she obviously wasn't wearing when she got there)

>GMing an Ops and Tactics campaign for some first time players

>I myself am an inexperienced DM

>"You should probably give your character's some weapons."

>Ok

>One character has a Glock 17

>One has a sniper rifle

>One has Bond Arms 45LC Derringer

>One has a folding knife

>"So before you go to the location where the quest giver is sending you, does Mr Folding Knife and Derringer want to get a some more substantial weapons with the money the quest giver gave you as payment upfront?"

>Nope

>Alright

>Next session

>Sniper is watching folding knife and Derringer talk with an NPC

>Glock warns folding knife and Derringer that combat is imminent over a walkie talkie

>NPC draws pistol and assures them that he has experience

>folding knife spends 10 minutes panicking

>"YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME I WOULD HAVE TO FIGHT."

>A single guy kicks down the door to the hotel room holding a shotgun

>NPC, Folding knife, and Derringer duck

>Sniper misses

>Folding Knife and Derringer run away by climbing out of the window they're on the third story of the hotel they are meeting the NPC in

>I'm frustrated they won't fight this guy

>They're frustrated I want them to fight this guy

>We argue

>Sniper never gets to take another shot

>We don't get together for a third session

I'm just worried I may have turned them off ever playing an RPG ever again due to my poor GMing.

>>330048

Naw they're good guys so they played it off pretty ok after some healing, but I was sweating pretty bad for a while

>>330031

Pretty much, but the other character was rp'ing in universe as gunpowder weapons were non-existent

>>330052

I just let him do an opposed dex check

>playing Edge of the Empire

>party is Gand headhunter, human slicer, trandoshan with a big gun, and space otter with a sword

>end up getting my huge debt to a Hutt called in

>try to run away from the Hutt's cruiser

>our pilot betrays us for the Hutt and instead we get tractor beamed into the Hutt's ship

>GM was setting it up so that we would essentially be forced by the Hutt to go do crimes

>instead the furry playing the space otter talks mad shit to the Hutt and the human slicer is going to get his hands chopped off

>then have their goons kill everyone else

>slicer has the ability that lets him once per a session make any machine fail

>makes the gauntlet/manacle things that were gonna cut his hands off fail

>the group starts fighting off the pigmen alien goons

>the GM declares that the session is over and he has to kinda replan everything

>next time we play it's now set up so that we're trying to escape the Hutt cruiser

>after grueling combat, fighting for our lives and very nearly being dead, and bactapacks now being wholly useless we have fought our way up to the bridge

>huge trandoshan sacrifices himself so that Gand and slicer can get to the ship's bridge

>slicer locks out the space otter to get killed by the nemesis Rhodian whose been hunting hunting us on the ship the whole time

>hear the space otter get fried to death by disintegrators on the other side of the door

>furry otter player is unbelievably mad that the other would do that

>shut down the blast doors to the bridge and unpower everything they can except life support (to the bridge) and engines

>make a very tense jump into Republic space (this is KotOR era by the way) which we were bordering

>fall into realspace, immediately start broadcasting to Republic forces that we have essentially captured a flying warehouse of illicit drugs filled with criminals

>space police show up

>slicer and Gand become heroes of the Republic

>end of campaign

The GM really expected the campaign to go on for longer, but that was such a great end we just stopped there.

>>330000

>Thread about situations or confrontations that killed your campaign in its tracks

>play with grills

>insist on quasi magical realming our session with romance-undertones and flirting

>most guys being quasi-virgin autists feel extremely uncomfortable

>since I play a female char I play along with the roasties

>I put on my seethrough-nightrobe and wizard hat

>prove myself an expert of manipulating the male psyche and expressing all girls hope and dreams to the point I start to feel insecure about my sexuality

>couple of guys drop out with the excuse of IRL business

>after failed romance attempt with fellow penis player's character I decide "I'm done with men"

>discreet but constant sexual innuendo with fellow female characters

>after a while end up with a monstegirl dykerape-harem

>roasties that constantly praised had put me in charge of their girls only club get extremely butt-flustered and start dropping out with each second session

>all that remains from the originally 8 people party is me and barbarian bro

>decide we have accumulated enough gold and bitches to recklessly risk our extremely comfortable lives in adventuring

>get married, build a huge mansion and make our harem servants (also build an impregnable rape-dungeon for our more dangerous and least tameable monstergirl sex-slaves) and make a deal with local weeping orc for a steady supply of fresh merchendize

>session ends there

GOOD END

>>330148

Disarm usually knocks the weapon out of someone's hand in most d20 systems. Not hyper-familiar with Pathfinder, but I'm going to go ahead and say that there's no way, even on a natural 20, to rip the weapon from someone's hand and kill them with it, without any reaction from the target… It's a ranged attack at point blank, after all.

>>330181

Is the bard an actual grill?

>>330182

Yes.

>>330021

Are you retarded? Way to nearly fuck up your own first session.

>>330200

are you retarded, stop pointing weapons to people's head as a joke.

>>330181

>Umberlite

I would not be surprised if this entire story was fake because of that word.

>>330068

That's just your GM being a dumbass. Would some podunk newspaper in 1840's Texas really be able to convince the whole tristate area that they're real?

Not really familiar with FATE, but wouldn't vampires have some degree of power over the press to keep shit like this from happening?

At best you'd be able to get the town to believe you, maybe attract some Alex Jones types from the area.

>>330216

I'm not the one playing fast and loose with the rules to nearly murder someone in the first session with no reprisal. I don't need to flex my DM powers to get people to stop acting stupid.

>>330219

Well, he told me that he intended for the vampires to be a one-off thing, especially since we killed a bunch of them. The campaign is about getting Texas annexed, not supernatural spooks. Presumably the vampires are going to do something in response, but I'm really not worried about them.

>>330221

FATE gets broken when you have a bunch of people opening fire on the same target.

>>330238

For the records, I mostly play him as a stereotypical japanese villain.

Laughing, saying fool a lot, going "WHAT?!" when his plants are thwarted and such, boasting when he is winning and trying to do as much theatrical shit as possible.

>>330225

Was the campaign even meant to have supernatural elements in the backdrop? If not, that makes me wonder how and why he intended to bring vampires into things as a throwaway.

>>330246

No, it wasn't. He just liked the rules on vampires and wanted something for us to do while we were on the wagon trail.

I mean, I'm just going off of what he's told me at various points of inebriation. I really have no idea why he put it in if we weren't supposed to make a big deal out of it.

>>330076

you say people in here, but you keep refering to waifudoll what is the waifudol

>>330269

I think he was saying it like "waifu+idol=waifudol"

>>330255

He should just run with it and make that the campaign. Weird West is always fun.

>>330181

>Neutral Dick Bard, the problem, always antagonize everyone and everything no matter what.

Ayy lmao.

We had a really old kung-fu chinaman that was bro tier until the moment he died for our sake.

Chaotic Neutral sorcerer

Chaotic Neutral ranger

Lawful Neutral sorcadin

Meme alignment bard, and I say meme alignment because the faggot was "le chaotic neutral" in the way that he constantly wanted to do absolutely nothing, never aided the party and activelly tried to constantly get everyone killed because he thought that was funny.

I fucking hate that shit so fucking much.

>>330829

>Meme alignment bard, and I say meme alignment because the faggot was "le chaotic neutral" in the way that he constantly wanted to do absolutely nothing, never aided the party and activelly tried to constantly get everyone killed because he thought that was funny.

Fucking this.

Same shit with the Neutral Dick bard.

In my opinion neutrality should be about doing things and keeping balance, not doing fuckall.

You're neutral because you do lawful and chaotic actions both, or evil and good actions both, not because you do absolutely nothing.

Hell, even druids, nature's balance itself lies in the fact that when the preys are many, the predators multiply, when the predators are many, the preys die and their numbers lower, when they preys are few, the predators die and their numbers lower, when the predators are few, the preys multiply.

I hate the whole "let's not get involved with this" bullshit, neutrality is about doing 1-1=0 not 0+0=0.

I don't get why people bother making adventurers that don't want to go look for adventures.

>Thread about situations or confrontations that killed your campaign in its tracks

Deck of many things. That fucking deck, man.

>>330969

I have a GM who loves that shit and includes it in every campaign. I am less enthusiastic about it, seeing as it's fucked every single one of my characters.

>Playing a mad bard who is obsessed with the idea that there's a "true" language consisting entirely of true names for everything

>Planning an ascent to godhood because he figures trying to understand it all without being a god would either drive him insane or kill him

>Also the tools for ascension just kept falling into his lap

>Just as planned

>Party wants to find magical shit and being the lore monkey supreme I'm on that shit

>Deck appears on the books I use for research

>Get everyone around and start drawing

>Everybody is getting good shit

>My turn

>Negatives to saves, intelligence loss and further draws, loss of wealth, imprisoned beneath the earth and a dread wraith coming to fuck my defenceless ass

I hate that deck.

>>330181

Take what I'm gonna say with a grain of salt since I've never played DnD and I'm just a lurker but, why not destroy the bard and force the others to submit to you/Umberlee?

>tfw I haven't gotten back to my campaigns

>tfw I had massive plans for the final boss, along with major character development for the NPC that one of the PCs had bonded with

>tfw the whole thing was done in a homebrew that I need to test more

>tfw the campaign is in limbo because I started working full-time and can't afford to stop

>>331139

>>331138

I take it from the looks of things that you don't have skype or discord to do voice shit. But have you guys and/or the DM talked to the bard's player out of session about the infighting behavior? If it's been addressed multiple times and the bard player isn't willing to listen, then the DM has every right to either kick the person out of the group or deliver some karmatic payback.

>>330181

Roll a new character, have the sorcerer RP his way out of the group after such a betrayal. Give the character sheet to the DM and turn him into a villain who swears vengeance for such heresy. It sounds like your character was pushed to the limit and can no longer hang out with these cunts, so it's time for a new character so the campaign can continue. However, that doesn't mean the cultist stops existing. If I was running your game I'd totally have him return for revenge at an inopportune time.

>>331193

nevermind, read your story lol

>>331198

>no initiative roll at all, but gloss over that

>Disarm (standard action)

>provoke attack of opportunity, but ignore that for no reason

>pick up item (move action)

>no more actions, but whatever

>make another attack action (standard action)

Doing it unarmed removes the move action from the equation, but still doesn't give you another standard action, you dullard.

>>331200

> Disarm (standard action)

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Disarm

> You can attempt to disarm your opponent in place of a melee attack.

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

As for the Attack of Opportunity

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Attacks-of-Opportunity

> Threatened Squares

> You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your turn

> melee attack

> If you’re unarmed, you don’t normally threaten any squares and thus can’t make attacks of opportunity.

Let me make it crystal clear here

> dumbass PC points gun at mentor

> mentor takes full attack action, replacing first attack with a disarm maneuver

> dumbass PC is only wielding a ranged weapon and thus can't make an Attack of Opportunity

> mentor succeeds at unarmed disarm, thus now holding the gun

> mentor uses second attack of full attack to put a cap in dumbass PC's dumb ass.

>>331162

>>331193

We do skype but we don't do voice.

And the DM is kind of limp wristed, he doesn't really want to make tough decisions.

However, the players themselves are annoyed and are finally voicing their opinions after I went (in public chat) explaining that it's the player's fault she isn't here, not our own.

We can't retcon a whole session just because she didn't give enough of a fuck to not be present, and that is even beside the point of her character being shit.

The players agreed, the DM still called quits before we could properly get rid of the bard but the deal has been made, alliances have been created.

There is no way of getting out of this one, while I appreciate a lot what the DM did because it gave a mean for my character to rant and explain himself rather than just brooding like an angsty teenager ready to shoot up a school I am tired of the Bard's fuckery.

If she joined us in the last session maybe the Sorcerer and the Bard could've even ended up being friends, you know some character growth.

At this point she has lost the right to have a say in this and I am going to be sure she isn't left out the hook.

Hell, another played said it in a very eloquent way: "ive seen her arrive on time about 2 times between two different campaigns".

Also

>Roll a new character, have the sorcerer RP his way out of the group after such a betrayal. Give the character sheet to the DM and turn him into a villain who swears vengeance for such heresy. It sounds like your character was pushed to the limit and can no longer hang out with these cunts, so it's time for a new character so the campaign can continue. However, that doesn't mean the cultist stops existing. If I was running your game I'd totally have him return for revenge at an inopportune time.

That's kind of cheap in my opinion.

I mean, if the character ends up wanting to kill the party I think I should do it myself, not turn it into an NPC.

Still, kind of a shame, I did have such a wonderful plan, I was even preparing a speech about why was it stupid not to kill me, which would've been similar to a speech we did to a group of bandits that likewise, didn't kill us.

>>331212

Fairly certain you can't do a full attack that consists of a disarm and an attack. Also the now unarmed character could AOO with an unarmed attack if they needed, but there's still several steps involved here that would halt things outright before a GM could outright kill a PC without hesitation.

>>331212

I've never heard of someone using a Full Attack to disarm someone in melee range and counter with a ranged attack to the head, killing them instantly.

>>331243

>>331212

You can totally mix and match maneuvers, but only if you have multiple attacks in the first place which most classes don't get until 6th level. None of this changes the fact that >>330021 fucked up the disarm rules, started combat without giving the victim a chance, and proceeded to shoot a PC in the face after fucking up several important steps, which resulted in nearly killing a level 1 character on the first session.

>>331250

You'd think he'd just pistol whip the guy for being a retard rather than trying to kill him outright, but hey, Pathfinder.

>>331243

> Fairly certain you can't do a full attack that consists of a disarm and an attack

yes, yes you can. I even linked the rules where it says you can.

> Also the now unarmed character could AOO with an unarmed attack if they needed

not unless the now unarmed character as Improved Unarmed Strike or a natural weapon. I linked that part of the rules as well.

>>331244

well a situation where doing so isn't a massively subpar choice compared to something else doesn't come up much, but the course of action is entirely supported by the rules and requires nothing besides a BAB of 6 or higher and an empty hand (proficiency with the ranged weapon does help a lot though).

>>331250

> which most classes don't get until 6th level.

As I initially understood it, it was one of the PCs' mentor that did the do. I went back and reread it and it seems now that it was one PC disarming and shooting another, so yeah whole sequence was a mess (outside of the turbo edge case of "the PC with the gun was a monk with gun proficiency" somehow. Did a Zen Gunman archetype come out while I wasn't looking?). I don't see the 'several' important steps though, unless several=2 because as previously explained, the whole lack of AoOs in there is because you can't make those while unarmed without a feat, so that leaves the lack of an initiative roll (which the poster may or may not have just glossed over in the retelling) and the two standard actions in a row.

>>331256

>I don't see the 'several' important steps though

Establishing that the other character has the intent to attack, initiative, handling disarming properly, taking a moment to step aside from the game and realize that shooting someone in the face is a fucking dumb thing for a mentor to do, resuming the game, actually allowing the player to react instead of rolling a few dice and killing him on the spot.

And as long as we're on the subject.. Fuck Pathfinder and fuck everyone who says it's any kind of improvement on 3.5 when it continues the infuriating tradition of locking lots of necessary maneuvers and actions behind a wall of feat bloat.

>>331260

> Establishing that the other character has the intent to attack

was my first reading with the mentor or my second reading with 2 PCs correct? Cause in the latter case that's just a matter of asking the second dude what his character does and being that detailed in a recounting of events is excessive.

> Initiative

yeah

> Handling disarming properly

assuming you include the extra standard action, yeah.

> Step aside, dumb thing to do, yadda yadda

if it was a PC doing the shooting, this isn't the guy telling the story's mistake

> actually allowing the player to react instead of rolling a few dice and killing him on the spot.

This part is basically a repetition of the two standard actions fuckup. Which is a fuckup sure, but counting it twice?

> short rant about Pathfinder

TBF, a small heap of shit in the living room is an improvement over a big heap of shit in the living room, but as for your hatred of feat bloat and the accompanying feat taxes, my response is this: Motherfucking Amen.

>>330000

checked

>>331735

>go down the street an put a knife into a cop`s throat for a joke.

Well, he wouldn't be able to do much with a knife in the throat.

>>331735

>anon admits he botched all the rules

>CLEARLY IT MEANS HE WAS FOLLOWING THE RULES THE WHOLE TIME

Dude, what?

>>331250

>Started combat without giving victim a chance

Does Pathfinder have surprise rounds? If so the mentor will always go first.

>>331771

Yes

>>331771

A surprise round on someone who has a gun in your face? Is the mentor Neo?

>>331761

he didn't botch the rules tho

>>331799

See >>330148 dubsman

>>330068

That aftermath setting might be fun to play in.

>>330000

Alright, so I wanted to run a (Pathfinder) pirate campaign. Just some fun robbery, maybe some light intrigue, not too serious. None of the party are important to this story except for two. One guy is playing a former slave turned sailor. Guy's a really good roleplayer, only I think someone spiked his drink this time. His sailor was completely honest, had trouble interacting with people, and had strange emotional reactions to events. He told me he was trying to realistically portray someone with severe PTSD. His class was brawler. The other guy's playing his best friend, a goblin musket master (Gunslinger archetype) who is basically Freud's Id made flesh. He likes the sailor because he thinks all the 'tall' races lie constantly, and he knows he can trust what his friend says.

First session has the party sailing into a port town that's at the fringes of a country currently going through a coup. The Lady in charge of the town is imprisoned while a 'revolutionary' force is running the town. Within a minute of them getting off the ship the sailor looks at the goblin and goes "We should free the rightful ruler." The goblin, of course, thinks this is a great idea. They railroad the rest of the party into following their lead.

The game turned into a crazed shitshow, the story of a growing counter-coup being lead by the sailor and goblin, who are acting under the flag of a legendary pirate who may or may not exist (The sailor think's he's real, but the goblin and rest of the party made him up so the sailor doesn't accidentally tell the truth to strangers, WHICH HAS HAPPENED BEFORE! They've even hired an actor to play him when needed.) The sides keep escalating the conflict. Assassin groups have failed multiple times at bringing down the party. They've paid assassins themselves to attack high-ranking members of the coup's leadership. They stole an experimental airship after the warehouse they were running hallucinogenic chemicals out of to fund their activities got hit with a magical airstrike. They burned an island to the ground in revenge for a tavern they had just bought the day before (to launder money through, but they neglect telling people that part of the story) being burned to the ground by crazed dwarven death cultists. I'm not great at typing long bits, but I may storytime it in the future.

Don't get me wrong, the game was awesome, but it really was not what I planned on running.

>>330000

I hate rules lawyering so much now because of my specific experience with a particular player named Ched.

Three serious roleplayers, me, Ched, Sperger, and two others who are basically just in it for the lullz.

Sperger is a good friend and has great DM'ing experience, this is for WOD, Ched plays this narcasistic Torreador, inadvertantly causes major apocalypse plot line in game early, ends up breaking character to the point he is lightening quick and gets 8 attack rolls. Politely game is put on back burner for next campaign but Ched killed campaign.

Ched running his own WOD, play a Malkavian meant to be diplomatic, well balanced, underground criminal. Game is so combat heavy, we constantly get our asses kicked, get attacked by werewolf first fucking game session. One of the background guys manages to actually kill it. Ched doesn't allow this. We keep getting asses handed to us, and then time travel is introduced. Not happy, as Malkavian character has no way to roleplay in this world.

Ok, combat heavy game, let me make new character, carbon copy Assamite, at least have a fighting chance. Nope, get ass handed to me, and party. NPC not friggin kidding is running around with a laser sword, lopping off heads in single round, we are taking four to put down one of these fuckers.

Get into argument with NPC, spit venom in face, permanently scarring sort of shit. No effect, mulligan.

In the end he ended up quitting the game, when we were attacked by a blue gnome in a mechanoid. By this time, we were laughing so badly at the game Ched quits it then and there.

Sperg creates an original world, game has factions. I'm playing a sorcerer who is a con man, actually good magician, just doesn't actually follow the norm for wizard. Ched and other new guy play thieves, and literally kill it in one session, by constantly derailing game, lasts one session.

Next campaign, first time DMing, All Flesh campaign set in WWII Russia, all of the crew are Wehrmarcht. Ched insists on being an ace fighter pilot with one eye, and a fucking sword. Kid you not. First game goes well, all of the objectives are met and it was a good session with RP involving everyone. Ched is always trying to but in and take lead, ok, senior rank, whatever, Ched gets into an argument with a General, ohh boy, basically tries to hijack game, or spends 2 out of a six hour session rules lawyer, a game he doesn't know. (reason I picked the game.) End of session, everyone gets XP regularly, and some small bonuses for character pathos. Least serious guy in the crew did great with his actual character for once, gets one extra xp over everyone else.

Next session planned. Week passes, hey guys when are we meeting up. Oh we've decided to take a break from playing. Oh, ok.

Later find out Ched threw a massive fucking fit over not being awarded extra XP, knew everyone longer and Sperg and him were business partners, everyone else friends with Ched longer so essentially I got pushed out of the gaming group after that. Ched is Dm'ing new game in our slot the next week, doesn't want me involved, left it at that.

Few years later, nobody in the group plays together anymore, Ched kept on blowing out games, and excluding people.

Now I play a weekly game occasionally with new friends, pathfinder. DM is riding this module hard, and the game is boring, but at least there are no big egos to contend with.

>>354081

Would you rather have a shitty system with good people or a great system with shitty people. I would like to play something other than Starfinder when it comes to sci-fi but its easy for people to get into and therefore easier to get a game going with normal people.

>>354099

It's sad when this happens. Worst part is the wait, when you are already pissed off by the douche, you know the cunt isn't even aware he's being a cunt and if you imply as much he'll just hate you, and yet it will take weeks, if not months before he antagonises the rest of the group enough to get collectivelly kicked out. It's one of the main things that stopped me from playing with strangers or friends of friends after two such experiences

>Dm says sessions are to be every week.

>I've been asking the DM about his world for a while.

>Come up with a character that he honestly really likes the idea of.

>He gets girlfriend

>Girl makes the opposite of my character.

>He makes me change my character in order to avoid conflict.

>Have a few sessions, bummed out but still having fun.

>Work calls saying i need to stay late.

>I give 8 hours notice and ask that the game be postponed until the next day.

<No, even though we have nothing planned the next day he refuses.

>Plays without me.

>She calls in for the next session. Just not feeling it. It gets cancelled and they play again when I'm at work.

>Ruined the campaign for me anyways.

Basically, when you have people that you know have put a lot of effort into their character and your home brewed world, make sure that you are supporting them as much as you are some possible girl you met online. It only makes sense to keep your friends close too, right?

>I have to work 40+ hours a week to pay for food

or

>I have to be on call to try to get 40+ hours a week so I can pay for food

every time

My Deathwatch game that I gm switched to a Dark Heresy game, that I also gm after a night where the Kill Team had spent about an hour in a Dark Mechanicum ship that was part of a larger Space Hulk, their Iron Hand Techmarine kept gaining insanity points and went insane. Everyone was on the critical damage table, and so our insane Techmarine decided to start creating cyborg abominations in his maddened state. As an AnCap, I allowed this, as the Kill Team was barely completed with the Space Hulk. But then some heretics and combat servitors started ripping them apart, and the Techmarine started to go really overboard, ripping out fully functioning limbs and replacing them with common craftsmanship cybernetics that he built from junk lying around within the Dark Mechanicum ship.

The group devolved into PvP fighting, as the PCs were also straddling the insanity ladder.

By the time the session ended, I realized things had gotten too out of control so I asked for a switch of game to give me time to think how to deal with the destructive consequences of my leniency.

>>330000

>characters are all well rounded

>PC has this one gay ass ability that basically makes him unable to get by anything short of GM fiat or senseless encounters

>Player of said character complains constantly that fights aren't fun enough for him, because they're not tailored specifically for that character

>This goes on for a few months until the GM loses all will to GM

>Player complains that the game was killed because the GM can't handle powerful characters

>I was having fun

>>358324

GMs fault tbph famalam.

There's always a way that makes sense. It's just never the obvious way.

>>358325

>We're pirates literally nobody knows about

>Character has the ability to teleport miles into the sky and snipe everyone from way beyond their reach

I don't know of many royal navy officers that own a rail gun or something like that.

>>358329

>well, you could have some random sky monster sneak up on him at random

he had a passive perception of 21, and a perception check of +8 w/advantage

>>358330

>>358329

A mermaid falls in love with him. They fuck. Jokes on him, it's a sea witch, he has magic AIDs leeching his power. Now the party has to get a cure, but his power is a finite resource. Set up an encounter at the very end, for after he gets cured (if he gets cured) where his power will be really useful, so he can go full power-gamer, time to shine. Everyone's happy. Unless he's a little bitch that can't handle a short term obstacle. If he is, he can get the fuck out of the gaming table.

In fact, I would say that 90% of problems at the table can be solved by someone's character getting AIDs.

>>358334

I like you

>>358336

A bit more:

Player likes to shoot things too much? Just rip shit straight out of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Have an albatross fly overhead, or another bird if you think that's too obvious. Keep making mentions of it, as the weather gets really bad. See, the bad part about being in the sea, is that bad weather can fuck you.

Basically, bait him into killing the damn bird, and getting a curse of some kind put on him. Skeletons crawl from the ocean to eat his face, that sort of shit. Nightmares = no sleep, which starts to cause fuck ups in the long run. Dead Cthulu lies dreaming, or whatever. Mind you this might not work if there's an even more shooty player in the party. Or maybe the whole party dies, I don't fucking know, that shit'll solve the problem too. Maybe make a few salty sea dog jokes if they do complain.

Dead Cthulu? Great. Throw in shit that the player's can't fight normally, or that requires special conditions. Take the OSR route where encounters are designed more like puzzles, with the mindless shit just basically being random/wandering enemies. If you need a climactic boss battle or something, have it in such a way that normal sniping won't work. Giant sea demon god? Ram that fucker with a ship or blast it with cannon's - that's the only way. Send the weapon-proofed demon back to hell with the summoning book that brought it there.

Humans are smart, unlike monsters (except for smart monsters). If the party is pretty much dominating them under normal tactics, they'll change shit up. Individual assassins popping in at night while on the land. Mages teleporting in out of the blue with a bunch of elite guards, maybe throwing up a paralysis. Guards hiding in ambush, with men ready to grapple or otherwise do crazy shit, the moment people come up. Poisoned food is a good way to handle things as well. Or make sure that certain goals can only be met by negotiations - the DM is allowed to min-max just as much, if not more, than PCs. Hell, I don't even follow the game rules when I make my NPCs, I just draw up a character concept and base stats around it. Keeps them off guard, you know? Never know when the priest that's been blessing shit suddenly rips off his cassock and starts punching out vampires.

Other fun tactics include adventures in a non-euclidean dimension, or sending the players to a space station, where trying to teleport out like that just means being killed in a vacuum. But space stations are kind of extreme. Though I've always wanted to put a party in a situation where they had to crash a space station (optional: with survivors). Maybe one day.

>>354518

What a cunt.

If the layer put on the ring them damn self thats all fine and dandy but forcing it upon them is just mean and shitty. The insult only making that DM sound even more smarmy.

It sounds like a cool cursed item, provided it at least did something useful.

>>330070

>day 15

>Our GM still hasn't come back, and we've run out of chips and mountain dew to sustain ourselves

And not a single mention of Henderson scale. :(

>>369363

Let old memes die, anon.

>>330000

>>359351

GM's girlfriend issued GM an ultimatum: campaign or her. GM chose her.

>>382942

It's a tired story that all of us have probably experienced or have heard about.

>GM running Dark Heresy campaign on MapTools and Google Hangouts with a ton of homebrewed content

>GM is a right Tzeentchian bastard, but is extremely competent, makes every session a paranoid adrenaline-fueled roller coaster, everyone has a blast

>GM's girlfriend not pleased by him having fun without her or by the fact that there are attractive girls playing in his campaign

>GM's girlfriend starts interdicting his GMing time - showing up unannounced at his apartment with urgent problems that he has to immediately address, continuously calling him with false emergencies

>GM's stamina and mental fortitude begins to erode: GM works afternoon-evening shift and runs Dark Heresy after he returns from work

>GM's girlfriend increasingly displeased by her lack of success so far, increases interdiction to encompass all hours of the day, campaign sessions are now greatly abbreviated or outright ended abruptly due to GM needing to leave his PC to deal with whatever GM's girlfriend has done

>GM gamely soldier on, running scratch sessions as our individual schedules allow, until GM's girlfriend finally issues an ultimatum and forces a decision to be made in the open

>GM beaten down the point where he acquiesces

Looking back, it came down to us cucking out. We tried to simultaneously remain neutral and support the GM. I believe more should have been done by us to prevent the campaign from collapsing such as intervening by /i/nvasion. Now all I have left are my regrets.

>>383116

That's incredibly disappointing. You guys should have collectively quit before he had the chance to cuck out.

I have a silver-colored pair of D10s, one regular, one percentile. They roll really well. Which would be fantastic were I not DMing 40K games. While I have quite a few stories of gamebreaking the games with them, I need only tell one.

>be me

>Deathwatch game recently railroaded by Iron Hand player, whose character went fully insane and started performing elective surgery on PCs

>take break because Christmas

>recently read AGP

>want to do Arbitrator themed game while I figure out how to "fix" Deathwatch campaign

>other players well versed in 40K lore, they're on board

>game one, they make a 4 man squad of Arbitrators, each with a different skillset

>start exploring dormant Mechanicus facility

>crit fail opening a sealed door, two regular lasturrets come out of the wall

>gave Arbites an action round first

>all of them elect to full action aim instead of get in cover

>turrets roll low Initiative, due to nature of my dice

>entire team fires

>entire team misses

>entire team elects to use remaining half action to halt action aim

>I roll BS tests for the two turrets

>two crit successes, both headshots

>roll damage, both explode, two characters die right there, as they tried to dodge, but failed

>other two characters die within two more turns

>spent a month designing a great campaign

>>383175

>GM and all the other players not directly involved with that soap opera bullshit are left high and dry

Fucking hell, how many goddamned players were you trying to run. The first warning sign should have been showing up to the first session to see it was being held in an auditorium.

>>383668

You don't even know the half of it. That game got infamously overcrowded at one point and was verging on being a bad LARP. Mind, we were playing WoD stuff and not D&D or something with a typical traveling party.

I looked at the OP and went, "Hey, I have a game story ruined by autism I can tell." Then I saw my story posted, and realized this is the original thread from last year. Here's my old post if anyone's interested. I'm around to answer questions about it, since storytiming isn't exactly my strong suit.

>>343429

I once killed two campaigns in a row due to an inexperienced GM and incompatible characters for his world. All were in GURPS.

In the first one it was going to be set in Fantasty Rome™, so I made a mage who could heat and cool water, figuring that if we had downtime I could make some money with hot and cold baths, air conditioning, etc. I then discovered Fast Fire, and then realized that create fire, shape fire, and fast fire produced a flame that out-damaged ATGMs, lasted a minute, and could move around in three dimensions at 5 meters per second.

After I killed every enemy in about 5 or 6 encounters single handedly the GM killed it because he had no clue what to do.

In the next game, saddened by the game clearly being ended because of me, I did the exact opposite; I made a merchant in Not Byzantium who hired the other PCs as mercenary guards to ensure his profit. The GM, fully aware of this, planned swashbuckling adventures with undead pirates. We went into a town that was extremely barren and starving, heard about some skeletons strangling trade, and immediately started making runs to supply the town with food.

Shortly afterwards he killed that campaign too.

With me GMing a short-lived fantasy game that ended due to me being stressed out in between the original GM did a game set in a cold war era fictional Not Africa which he shelved despite everyone, including him, loving it to death. I can't recall why, but I think it had something to do with his job.

He married a woman and taking care of her two kids takes up most of his time now, so he can't even be bothered to show up for the game we're currently running where another player common to all of these games is now the GM.

Not my own story... but buddy of mine just texted me in the first time in months. Apparently the players voted him out, after he put in about 14 hours work total into the world and factions and all that, just because one player just wanted to play Curse of Strahd and didn't want it as a one shot/second campaign.

>>384498

Rage but also rage.

>>384497

Why not set the device off in a terrorist attack and have them be implicated as the ones who brought it there, giving them the opportunity to go after whoever played them for some revenge while being on the run from the authorities?

>>384498

> buddy calls for the 1st time in months

> the reason: he needs a shoulder to cry on, because he was cheated by guys he hangs out with

I'll say, this is some queer friendzone story. Also, suits this nigger of yours well for putting his trust into wrong people.

>>385534

Yeah that's kind of what went down, though it was the crazed scientist activating it and blackholing a semi important planet.

With the navy after them they finally left the system, and surprisingly not fuck up. Atleast for now.

>>330000

Politics, unironically, combined with the failure to remain objective and dispassionate. Player's girlfriend took issue with the politics of the GM's kingdom that the characters were traversing. Explaining that the fictitious kingdom's politics was just that and not the GM's political leanings was apparently incomprehensible to player's girlfriend. Any attack on the player's girlfriend of course translated to an attack on the player. He had to defend his lady's honor. Threats of varying levels of potency were exchanged. She quit the premises without grace with the player trailing her stern.

>>386818

Had a female player start taking active steps towards murdering another character in his sleep because he harassed a prostitute NPC. It never happened, because she just stopped showing up due to scheduling conflicts, but she was royally pissed due to stupid feminist bullshit reasons.

>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.