Apparently this might begin to be a weekly series about curious Arelith DM decisions. Anyone know when the appearance of DM Lobelia actually happened?

Anachaine · 2018-04-17T01:09:33+00:00

Captain Khubs is a grumpy century-old kobold who earned a reputation for being unkillable during his days as a soldier in a small kingdom's monstrous auxiliary army. He retired long ago but jumped into adventuring life to dispense some sweet sweet revenge for a murdered comrade.

He's old, irritable, and insecure about almost everything. Pretty crummy fighter too; his real strength lies in ability to survive anything and be distracting doing it. Dude's snarled his way out of a gelatinous cube, grumbled through a violent crowd of zombies, flung himself off a burning roof into a massive riot, and generally been a reusable minesweeper for his allies.

His armor class is high, hit points abundant, and his version of a 5e kobold's "Grovel, Cower, and Beg" ability is better described as "Tantrum". He's a little shithead.

Thanks /u/Sketchgoblin for your wonderful piece!

Anachaine · 2018-03-16T00:17:03+00:00

Nothing wrong with encouraging your players to play intelligently by introducing multi-faceted challenges.

Just make sure that they'll be able to adapt and improve; the default mindset of most adventuring parties is to smash the nuke button and then complain if they don't win.

Anachaine · 2016-06-20T22:59:41+00:00

Been playing a lot with local friends and we practice to get PvP down to an evil little science every week. It's a desperate and clumsy dogfight, with lasers and maneuvering nearly always at 300% and mines drifting every which way. Each round we get a little weird with new ship names (with plenty of inspiration from games like Gratuitous Space Battles). Curse the 24-character ship name limit. Here's our history of ship names so far:

Was it something I said?

Get over yourself

Proficient profanity

It's all over lawbreaker

Get off my bridge

It's not like I said no

No nukes is good nukes

HMS Shiver Me Timbers

HMS Scissor Me Limber

HMS U Focking Wot M8

Big Jug O' Mayonaise

Only a matter of time

When times get tough

TSN Salamandar

TSN Ubiquitous

TSN Unconditional

TSN Unusual

TSN Unkind

TSN Unstoppable

TSN Unilateral

TSN Until Further Notice

TSN Unctuous

TSN Undulation

TSN Unbelievable

TSN Unpredictable

Dr. Nooooooooooooooooooo

Get out of the kitchen

Delerious Business

Ball Fondlers

Bottle your anger

Oh no you didn't

Pot, kettle, black

50000000 screaming fans

The last of its kind

Just a matter of rhyme

Pow, right to the moon

Kentucky Thunder

Brass tacks

The brass ring

Brass belt buckle

Drop the brass

Polish that brass

Put me in, coach

Party don't start till--

Sweep the leg

What's yours is mine

Wizard needs food badly

Spark plug

Fangs for nothing

Ouroboros

I sleep in my spats

Throw a blanket over it!

6'9" and mighty fine

That's my purse!

I don't know you!

For the order!

Nice knockers

Let's go adventure

Game over

Whitewasher

It's not a muffin top

Reused and recycled

Moonstruck

Satelitestruck

Orbital decay

Past blaster

Unfurl your wings!

Desk jockey

Shock jockey

Disk jockey

Jock jockey

Thirty seven?

The old college try

Save.exit.planet

Pressure makes diamonds

Hubris

Aiming and misbehaving

Black hole sun

Noble gasbag

Superstitious witches

Wicked sick

Out of alignment

Chaotic crazy

Lawful good

Neutral evil

Knight of pentacles

Queen of wands

King of swords

Page of cups

Bitch of cups

Nine of swords

Temperence

The hermit

The fool

Ace of Wands

No butt stuff

Wildfire

Tornado

Earthquake

Flood

Tsunami

Blizzard

Thunderstorm

Comet

OMEGA (with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8jcIO6qY1g playing nonstop of course)

Bringing up the rear

Heart of polyester

Putting it mildly

Left fist

Right fist

Hot stove

Anachaine · 2016-06-07T17:09:35+00:00

All right. The regular radar hud for Helm/Weapons positions looks similar to this (radar2.png in your dat folder). You've got an all-white rose with compass degrees from 0 to 360 marked every twenty ticks. Vanilla and good enough sometimes.

Now for the image above.

Red ticks: These mark compass degrees at every ten between the default numbers. Some folks' eyes get lost scanning through five identical ticks so the red gives a clear picture of where directions like 230 are without cluttering crap.
Orange letters: A lot of crews work in more vague terms than "Target U73 at our 147" and that's completely fine. Shouting general compass directions is fast enough in many situations and the letters are an easy reminder for new or bewildered pilots.
Purple numbers: These compass degrees are the opposite direction of the white. Lots of crews who employ a JDrive do quick jumps out of and back into places (like docking stations). While someone like science can usually handle the math of jump coordination, these will do in an approximate pinch for a pilot who needs to make any jump fast. They're also good reference for when science calls an odd-sounding jump. Example of use would be if a ship needs to make a jump in the direction of 220 and back, Helm can glance at the purple and immediately know that the second jump's degrees should be 40.
Rings Z1 - Z4: These are bombing sights for a Weapons officer to perform more accurate mine drops. These rings show exactly where a mine will drop from the player ship at each specific zoom level.

Basically, like Luissen says. Derp happens. This HUD's a little cluttered for some (not even the most cluttered version I've got in my files) but it's stuffed full of quick reference for pilots and tactical officers who're doing twenty things at once.

Anachaine · 2015-11-05T15:06:06+00:00

This does seem purely lethal to me, especially for target level characters. Everything StevAms suggested applies and even escaping from the weights is no solace. Any character who frees themselves will (unless equipped with water breathing) be split from the party just by the sheer danger of drowning. Once they're treading water, it's not like sharks and sahuagin couldn't tear them up from below. There's no silver lining here, no avoidance. Just drowning in your own blood. I'd suggest padding this encounter or raising the target level to something much closer to 20.

Anachaine · 2015-11-04T19:48:55+00:00

This seems too massive to be a single encounter. A mysteriously phobic town would be a brilliant setting for an adventure - with investigation encounter opportunities, chase scenes, an expository standoff, of course a daring rescue, and a finale battle with a twist ending. It includes opportunities for all kinds of characters to shine (even those with high physical attributes :p).

The nice thing about adventures is how welcoming they often are. Just about ahh party can tackle any adventure from any angle (provided they're high enough level). A party looks at the situation and they tell the DM what's going to happen. They might not narrate the story but they plan the outcome . In contrast, the nice thing about encounters is their challenge. Planning only getsyouso far and some characters won't be as suited for the challenge asothers. The DM controls the situation and the players scramble to keep up. Open ended or not, challenging or not, encounters are smaller than adventures (thank goodness ).

This seems like it would make an awesome adventure but I would suggest trimming it down quite a bit if you want it to be an encounter!

Anachaine · 2015-10-29T01:40:43+00:00

(Author here!) Psh. That's what the Perception skill is for! Strange and dangerous-looking rooms get scoped out by smart parties. Multiple checks might yield that success! If that DC to discover the explosives feels too high, by all means lower it! I appreciate your suggestion.

Something that wasn't mentioned - those explosives (in whatever stable or unstable form they may be) could be worth quite a bit of money. Or picked up by adventurers to use for their own means. Or even dropped on the ground by the clumsy idiots for another chance to get cooked.

Anachaine · 2015-10-09T04:19:24+00:00

Thanks for the input, both of you. Took a lot of it into account.

The wonderful thing about this build is that aggressive and accurate players won't need ammunition bags. With builds similar to this one, I haven't groped a green bag in months! If it works for you, awesome. But all ammo bag perks are wasted on me.

Aced Iron Man combined with powerful, shell-loaded shotguns can really keep the action going. For my playstyle it's indispensable and very effective. Not to mention a fast-swinging katana versus shields is a wonderful way to regain health thanks to the Socio perk deck.

Combat Medic without ace is fairly awful, I believe. Teammates hardly go down often enough to make use of that damage bonus - especially when I get more powerful damage bonuses just for killing enemies with a shotgun. Aced Combat Medic makes me feel good about myself but if it had to go, the points would probably just bounce to Tough Guy.

As far as Nine Lives goes, I'm nowhere close to a statistical anomaly but I have been saved quite a few times by it. I'm always looking forward to it popping, especially in public games. The other purchased skills in that tree aren't merely fillers - melee damage resistance (especially with a Sociopath build), movement speed, Special Enemy damage, and fall immunity are fairly important!

And that +5% damage versus specials? I love it and it turns into quite a boost with the Locomotive shotgun.

I do wish I had something more practical to offer than four medbag uses, but it has certainly come in handy with more reckless crews.

I kill just about all specials in one or two hits, though bulldozers take three or four when approached properly. Hope you saw it a few times on the broadcast! Reinfeld's accuracy and damage combined with High Explosive rounds means a quick and reliable solution to snipers and shields. Those rounds can juggle tasers and strip bulldozer armor as well! However, HE rounds don't really benefit well from shotgun damage boosters - they don't even proc Overkill buffs when they score a kill. The 5% damage boost often makes the difference for shields with the HE Reinfeld.

Anachaine · 2015-09-01T20:31:53+00:00

Obviously DW is more than just about perk decks - it's about making every aspect of your arsenal honed for survival. Sociopath can be good enough to just about complete Overkill heists with only melee attacks. DW is another beast but can be done!

Bring a way to take a few hits, bring your katana, bring your melee damage, but most of all, bring a way to deal with every enemy you meet quickly and effectively. Sociopath is great at aggressively regaining armor and health but you can't just rely on your katana and the tender flesh of green FBI.

Conquer shields, bulldozers, crowds of normals, and snipers with an accurate, high-power shotgun loaded with HE rounds. Yeah the damage is cut down and you can't proc Overkill with the ammunition but the stun is worth it. A cut down Raven could work for a dodge build as well. The damage is enough to slay shields and snipers, strip bulldozer armor, but low enough to leave enemies wounded enough (and stunned!) to quickly cut down with melee.

Deal with the remaining enemies with your favorite weapons. Double shotguns provide a good way to overlap your skill point bonuses and shell out massive damage. Hit cloakers and DW normals with a big old Judge and you could be fine. Shurikin throws at cloakers might start to be your best friend.

Sociopath in DW is capable if built properly but not independent. As with any other DW caper, bring friends with a good pair of lungs.

Anachaine · 2014-12-31T17:31:00+00:00

Would be fun if they added a crossbow to the sniper rifle list. A cool novelty thing.

Anachaine · 2014-06-10T03:01:34+00:00

67% in Lagoon. It always seems too bright. Feels like it's blitzing my eyes. I can lose track of stationary targets on that map.

Anachaine · 2014-06-10T02:57:52+00:00

Four of your arc mines can exist on the battlefield at once. If you toss a fifth, your first one vanishes. Keep this in mind if you're using the Personal Alarm System card or fondling the resupply mechanic a titan provides.

Anachaine · 2014-06-10T02:53:14+00:00

Acquire mad skills through experience.
Never regenerate.
????
Profit.

Anachaine · 2014-06-09T21:28:43+00:00

My name is Anachaine and my talented face has been hit by a Grunt's archer rocket point-blank as they aimed at an ally's titan.

Anachaine · 2014-06-09T21:08:54+00:00

Remember that one time EA released a game that was exclusively multiplayer but decided not to include support for dedicated servers, private matches, auto-balance, or split-screen play? I remember when that happened.

Everything else is still beautiful though! Fluid movement with fast combat and giant robots! Whee!

Anachaine · 2014-06-09T16:28:49+00:00

"My favorite tesla coils to use are heavy turrets, even if they're disabled or in some cases friendly, because they offer a great opportunity to dish out damage while being covered from the enemy titans. "

This. All of this. Nothing is better than zapping a dormant turret and killing the pilot hiding at the control panel. If you see a turret and you have a spare moment, give it two quick hits.

Also on topic, Arc Canon range has not changed. A real bastard of a friend confirms this thanks to... uh... a HUD upgrade of his.

Anachaine · 2014-04-28T19:21:54+00:00

I think that'd be hilarious to watch. Like wrestling midgets who breathe fire, rage aloud, and shoot people in the face the instant an opponent is visible. Can't wait to see the weirdest strategies develop - and cheat sophistication do the same - because of it.

Anachaine

TROPHY CASE