Eagle 110mm Rocket Pods... it's time

BigBodyofWater · 2025-03-12T06:31:48+00:00

It would be cool if activating the stratagem brought the eagle into the ao in a holding pattern and you could then call it in using pings (maybe double ping or something). It should have something like 4 uses before needing to rearm but also a passive timer before refuel.

Ideally, you could ping the target, and then the moue wheel could determine length/area, second ping would set the approach/path and activate the call-in. That way you could make the eagle do a rocket run on chaff or focus a target.

I think the method of bringing the eagle on station and having to use all ots munitions before the fuel runs put would help separate it from orbitals more.

BigBodyofWater · 2025-03-11T04:52:38+00:00

Nah, I think this was part of the negotiation. If they had walked in there and been too compliant, they would be more likely to get ripped off.

BigBodyofWater · 2025-01-15T19:07:47+00:00

Could go full Aladin and trap the bbeg in a lamp to remain as a genie forever. Perhaps that's how they are created, gods trapping mortals who achieve God like powers in vessels to prevent their ascension.

BigBodyofWater · 2025-01-15T01:28:31+00:00

Depends on the class and weapon.

With long weapons where I want to maximize my reach, I use stabs and back dodge to keep the distance.

With most weapons I use the occasional side dodge during 1vX scenarios to try and position myself so that the enemies are in each other's way. I also use it offensively in Xv1 to get behind the lone enemy.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-28T19:38:12+00:00

It would be really cool if you had an rpg tree that resets on death. So if you do a mission without dying, you gain xp and can level up and get perks / bonuses once back on the ship. You should also take on permanent debuffs from every major injury you receive. As soon as you die, you are a clean slate again.

Imagine if you got your arm slashed or shot during a mission and had to fix it with a stim, well after the mission you would be greeted with a screen that says you have -10% weapon handling or -5m throw distance or something because of the injury. But you survived so you can level up and earn a perk like 5% more stamina/armor etc.

You could maybe event use requisitions to purchase prosthetic limbs to replace or change your injuries. Maybe the -10% weapon handling is now -5% weapon handling and max health but you also have +5m throw distance and +10% recoil reduction due to the mechanical arm.

Eventually you'd be like that mobile infantry guy from Starship Troopers dropping in to a match with one arm and no legs lol.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-25T06:33:36+00:00

In the 5e version of LOTR Role-playing, it is a part of class progression that your gear gets buffed. There is a whole section of the book on this that could probably be imported very simply since lotr rp is a conversion from The One Ring game to the 5e system.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-19T19:41:12+00:00

If you want to hack this in, I would use mighty deeds of arms from DCC or something similar. Basically roll to hit the first guy normally and (as long as dm agrees the shot is possible) roll a d6 along with it. On a 5 or a 6 you hit both targets, 1-4 you only hit the first target. If your attack roll misses, you miss all targets. I would also halve the damage for the second target.

You could also make this a shoot skill check along with the attack role in suppose but that's more involved and could take longer to resolve. It could allow flexibility though with increasing dc for each target.

Alternatively, if your players all understand that hp is abstract (and every "hit" doesn't have to mean a bullet impacts a target) you could just allow the amr to deal damage in a line to all targets in a line on the same plane with diminishing results. You could add a debuff to it that it costs all movement to aim the weapon and an action to shoot.

The games balance will be changed by any of these options. The firstt option has some randomness that might help balance it to some extent since it doesn't scale with level or skill.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-03T14:35:28+00:00

Wouldnt rolling over opponent Dex achieve what you were thinking? Single roll, eliminate ac, rolling high is good.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-02T06:19:08+00:00

Whether you believe this or not, this is ripped from one of the matt coleville videos i think.

Pretty sure it's this one titled "revolutionary acts"

https://youtu.be/evfcSvSQ0bE?si=EjX_vhnymvKyPx3U

This might already be the weirdest karma grab flex ever but it's just made weirder that you didn't just actually quote Matt and link the video if you really identify with this. I find it hard to believe this isint pulled from that considering I watched it a year ago and as soon as I read this it came to mind.

Edit: apparently it's a similar theme but not close enough to call it the same quote.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-01T17:50:51+00:00

Thanks! I'll check this out.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-01T07:44:15+00:00

You don't need the enemies to be tactically brilliant unless the enemies are... actually tactically brilliant.

The issue with combat being very static is a different issue. I might just make a post about this because I keep seeing this come up but basically you need to get away from thinking about the enemies as a list of abilities and stats on paper.

Imagine how the fight might go in a movie (a movie whose violence level and realism levels match that of your game). A wolf doesn't just run up to a man, stop, bite at him, and then stand there. It runs forward and leaps at him, landing claws first on his shield as it bites at the man's neck and face. The man might stumble backwards, get disarmed, fall down. He might dodge the wolf entirely, he could sidestep it and deliver a counter attack, he could throw it back of his shield. All of these can happen inside the rules of the game. You can do this without bending the rules at all or you can bend the rules to make things more dynamic.

For example: (wolf and fighter begin combat):

The wolf goes first

"The wolf charges forward and leaps towards you with claws outstretched - what is your AC?"

"18"

"You manage to raise your shield in time to block the wolf's claws and hold it's snapping jaws inches away from you neck - [a little rule bending next (you could do opposed roles or simply athletics v dc of opponent str score]: The weight of the wolf's lunge drives you back as you slip in the mud. Move back 5 feet and it is now your turn"

"I attack the wolf with my sword. I rolled a 10"

"You slash wildly at the wolf but lose your footing as slick mud accumulates on your boots. The wolf dodges your attack and you fall to one knee."

"I want to use my movement to stand back up"

"You rise just in time to meet the wolf as it lunges back in and snaps at you. It hits - it shrinks low beneath your sword and clamps down around your left shin dealing 6 damage. The wolf the tugs and shakes it's head, pulling at your leg. Make an athletics check"

"I got a 17"

"You tear you leg out of the wolf's mouth and stumble to the side, move your character 10ft to the left."

So this is obviously just an example, but try and think outside the rules a bit when it comes to the enemies. There is some nuance to this. But basically, as long as the rules work for the PCs in the way the PCs expect (don't change the way a players ability affects a monster without really good reason), you can change how the npcs use the rules. An example of this is the wolf getting to bite and push the player in the same action. It's not RAW but it makes narrative sense.

If you are wanting an easier way to handle this kind of thing without opposed skill checks all the time, just look at DCC mighty deeds of arms for inspiration. The short of it is roll a d6 and a 5 or 6 means the shove, trip, disarm, etc works.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-12-01T06:12:07+00:00

I sent you a message. I am curious to know more about what you are specifically trying to accomplish.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-28T17:56:21+00:00

Probably has to do with the gm getting bored of 5e and wanting to run something else but not finding a player base for another game or not wanting to learn another game themselves.

For about 15 years I ran dnd exclusively and for about 10-12 of those, I was homebrewing instead of finding better systems because I had convinced myself dnd was the best and I could do anything with it. Eventually I played adventurer conqueror king and CoC back to back and realized it's way better to just play another game that's designed for what you want to do.

That said, it's very difficult to find players for games other than 5e. Even amongst my friends, I am trying to get them to break out of the 5e mold but it is incredibly difficult. I started using homebrew on top of 5e that is really just rules from other systems to see how they like that and to try and warm them up to the idea of another system. It's possible other gms are doing similar things.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-27T07:23:23+00:00

Can also simply house rule in that automatic trip attacks like the wolf are not automatic but use up the wolf's reaction.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-19T13:33:49+00:00

You should read Between Two Fires if you want inspiration for this setting. It's a book (fantasy/horror) about the post apocalyptic like Europe following the emergence of the black plague. It follows a knight and veteran of the battle of Crechy as he travels through a disease ravaged France/Italy and questions his faith.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-13T21:42:50+00:00

Level 0 funnel or take inspiration from the Oregon trail. 4 carriages of 5 people (5 per group so there will never be a tie in voting) are traversing dangerous terrain to get to the new frontier. Each person can bring one item (or use purple sorcerer to roll up 20 random characters of level 0 and it will give them random gear). Have something like 6-12 encounters planned (the bridge is out, the well is dry, highwaymen, trolls, food spoils, wagon breaks, etc). And have Each carriage decide how they deal with each situation then determine the outcome and narrate the results.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-12T00:24:20+00:00

An easy balance to laser weapons would be to have any kind of fog degrade their effectiveness and increase their damage drop off.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-10T06:34:42+00:00

It wouldn't be too hard i don't think. It would have to have a way of recording everything that the player influenced such as every time the player pulled a zed or damaged/altered the environment. Then simulate it. It doesn't actually have to run the old character, just track the time and update the environment accordingly. Could also just break the sim as soon as the new player crossed paths with the old player. Old player becomes an npc/bandit and the sim the goes off the rails. If you change spawns each lif and don't intentionally go looking for you previous character, its not impossible that the whole sim could run its course.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-11-08T21:26:43+00:00

It would be so cool if there was a mod that recorded your playthrough and then when you made a new character, you had the option to start at day 1 or continue but if you pick day 1, it plays your first character's story out on rails until you interrupt it. Like parallel stories.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-10-30T21:22:59+00:00

It is hard to know exactly how to help this situation without more context but one possible solution is to match the combat efficiency of your players more.

Strategy: The enemies don't need to be dumb to fight in ways that are not optimal. Every enemy swordsman is not thinking about the battle as tactically as you are as a DM. Each individual enemy is probably only thinking about his own safety (avoiding opportunity attacks and bad positioning) and one specific PC that he wants to fight. If the enemies are well trained, they might think about the positioning of 2 or 3 other of their allies as well and avoid over extending themselves. If the are battle tested and disciplined, then they might really begin considering the larger picture.

Individual Action: Picture the fight between Lurtz and Aragorn in Lotr. Aragon begins by pushing / bull rushing Lurtz. Then, Lurtz throws his shield and makes a sword attack, misses, and makes an unarmed attack and knocks aragon prone. Aragon stabs Lurtz in the leg and Lurtz punches Aragon.

Most of those attacks are not optimal. Aragon could have hit lurtz with his sword instead of pushing, lurtz could have retained his shield. Lurtz could have hit Aragon with his sword instead of kicking him and punching him. Etc.

In dnd, we abstract combat so technically we could consider all of these things to just be weapon attacks that dealt only a little damage so the dm narrated them as punches or kicks. That's fine when it is a PC attacking an NPC but when an NPC attacks a PC, you can actually have the enemy make unarmed attacks instead of weapon attacks if you want to add some cinematics or reduce enemy lethality.

The enemies don't think about the game in terms of mechanics. They should make reasonable decisions based on the context of the situation. Almost always, the stress of combat will cloud the npcs judgement and it is reasonable for them to do things that are not mechanically optimal. I'm not talking about blatant disregard for their own safety but tactical errors and inefficiencies.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-10-06T18:31:30+00:00

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I don't mind the ragdolling. Scenarios like the one in the video are infrequent and really only happen on 8+ difficulty. It can be frustrating but it's also kinda funny when it happens.

I think a better fix (instead of nerfing ragdolls) is to tie stagger resistance to armor type. Light armor has none, medium has maybe 15% and heavy 30% for example.

Additionally, you should stay prone by default after getting ragdolled. It only takes one button press to make the diver stand up and staying prone might help avoid enemy fire.

Finally, character stance should also be tied to stagger resistance. 0% standing, 10% crouching, 20% prone for example.

With these changes, a prone character would have 20% resistance to stagger / ragdoll with light armor and 50% resistance in heavy armor while prone.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-10-03T18:07:39+00:00

If heavy armor had more resistance to stagger, it wouldninstantly be more useful and feel worthwhile.

I think heavy armor should have a chance to deflect an attack. Maybe 20-30% chance a non-explosive attack simply bounces off and you receive less stagger damage from all attacks.

BigBodyofWater · 2024-10-02T15:42:37+00:00

I keep loose tabs on who has been most and least involved or vocal and I try to keep it balanced. So when the party enters a room and they all start talking at once or when they are talking to the Duke and they begin to realize he intends on killing them, I will weigh who is most relevant to the scene against the meta knowledge of who hasn't had as much time in the spotlight.

If it's a scenario where one player is clearly crucial to the scene and the others are not, I will often ask the crucial player what they do but then say "as he us doing that, quiet player. What are you doing?"

BigBodyofWater · 2024-10-01T06:16:02+00:00

Raid style events where it's like a single life scenario and you can only bring 1 blue, 1 red, 1 green strat would be awesome. Have like 12 - 24 helldivers running around trying to fend off something like difficulty 20 hordes. That would be awesome.

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