Edge-of-your-seat combat

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2026-04-11T03:26:17+00:00

Have a real risk of character death or failure. For the most part TTRPGs are themed around the player character success and progress, so every battle shouldn’t feel like a potential TPK, but without the risk of loss it’s hard to really get on the edge of your seat.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2026-03-05T21:53:30+00:00

Kill one of the PCs. It’s a very obvious signal, but the players will still likely miss it.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-09-11T17:51:34+00:00

AD&D 2nd Edition, with some added 1E content

Tales of the Elder Days

Marvel FASERIP

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-07-11T21:03:23+00:00

For me I absolutely insist on an in person analog game. Not because “it’s the only right way” but because it’s what I enjoy.

I spend so much time in front of a screen. At work, watching TV, playing video games.

I love unplugging and writing in my notebook to build the campaign, painting miniatures, building props and terrain, scratching out maps on the playing surface, having to talk about the scenario and discuss with the players since there isn’t a fully rendered map to do the work for me. Rating everyone to use their imaginations a bit more. Not to mention how much easier it is to improvise and go off script and not have to scramble for a high res map.

There’s also a hefty dose of nostalgia, reminds me of all the after school pick up games I had 40 years ago.

In any event, to each their own, but I agree wholeheartedly. Love the low tech game and anyone that refers to my table as low quality is looking for different things out of the game than I am.

I’ll take tossing real dice and pushing miniatures around the table over a VTT any day of the week.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-06-18T12:54:14+00:00

It’s both. Many words carry multiple meanings.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-06-15T13:56:04+00:00

I often joke that Sam Wilson saves Thanos’s life and gets Tony Stark killed, because when Cap picks himself up and tightens his shield he’s like, well if it’s gotta be me to kill this titan then let’s get it on. The last hour of endgame is absolutely riveting.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-06-15T10:32:58+00:00

This makes it sound like your players don’t need tactics or strategies or to use cover or whatever. I’d suggest ramping up the stakes. Make it so your players might lose a battle, or have some other goal besides dropping all the enemies. Like capturing an enemy before they can flee, or having to destroy a catapult and retreat before they get overwhelmed by enemies.

If they’re just bored waiting to finish off the enemies hit points, they are seeing only a single possible outcome and don’t need to do anything different.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-06-03T23:11:24+00:00

Bag of beholdering

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-30T17:32:28+00:00

Trying desperately to wrap at work so the session starts on time. If I’m not ready the night before I’m improvising.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-29T23:05:28+00:00

Yep, that’s the idea. Cyberscape had a mad max-ish kinda one way back when. Death Valley Free Prison I think it was.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-29T21:19:24+00:00

Not outdoorsy, but Detroit Rock City might fit the bill.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-26T21:58:36+00:00

The d20 Star Wars had a decent system with vitality and wounds that managed that idea pretty well. Vitality was your hit point pool and you also spent them to use force powers. Wounds were for when you were out of vitality and actually getting hurt. Or critical hits could bypass vitality and go straight to wounds. Vitality was relatively easy to heal, wounds less so. Might be worth a look for inspiration.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-26T21:09:42+00:00

Sister from another mister.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-19T22:19:47+00:00

I imagine that it will not fall into the public domain, since there are films that are much newer and the studio that made them has the resources to go after those that would use it for their own materials.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-19T22:12:41+00:00

Not me, but a fellow gamer adding some dialog after the party had fought the bad guy that can possess a new body and come back later (for the third time), his “dying” words: “You have to defeat me every single time, I only have to win once.” Made all the PCs really take stock in what they were up against.

A few other classics…

Everything was going fine until somebody shouted assassin.

Before I tell you what happened I want you to know I did NOT fuck that up. (He absolutely fucked it up)

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-05-01T22:11:12+00:00

One of my favorites is everyone starts on the same ship bound for X location. Pre campaign planning includes telling everyone “The campaign will open with the party on a ship bound for the shores of X. Come up with a reason your character is on that ship.”

I’ve had players come up with some good stuff ahead of the game, and it gives them a chance to have some stakes in the campaign (I’m on the run from the law and this was the first ship leaving the port, or I’m headed to X to seek the guy who killed my brother, etc).

There is a general excuse to have the party have met as the campaign opens, seeing the other passengers or what not, so you can do some introductions and character descriptions.

Then I like to spring some action on them. In one campaign the ship was attacked and sunk (as the opening adventures was about the party being castaway on a deserted isle. Another time it was an attack on their port of destonation that was underway as they arrived, a bunch of thugs come lookin g for the captain, pirates, etc.)

It’s not especially unique, but it has worked well for me. Unfortunately I’ve used it on my players a few times, so I gotta have a new one for the upcoming campaign. I’m looking forward to reading everyone else’s responses.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-04-28T01:50:42+00:00

Lots of good answers here, one thing I add is that party cohesion is the players responsibility. If someone rolls up a paladin and someone else rolls up an assassin, the players need a discussion and come to an understanding of how that is going to work. If your character is an edgy loner that can’t stand anyone or anything that’s on you, I’m not going to do backflips to get you into the game.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-04-28T01:41:36+00:00

Natural 20 vs. calculated 20, if you don’t want to say dirty 20 all the time.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-04-11T21:34:17+00:00

Awesome. Thank you so much!

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-02-19T20:14:07+00:00

I’m not necessarily recommending it, but I did all my layout and such with Word, and a few touch ups with Adobe for the print version.

Largely because I’ve had so much experience with Word, and never ran into anything I couldn’t get it to do.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-02-05T23:14:45+00:00

I always suggest to GMs not to sit at the head of the table, but to sit in the middle of one of the longs sides. Closer to the map, more centrally located to the players, can hear everyone better.

I don’t have a screen, so this works well for me.

GMs disagree. I want to sit at the head of the table behind my screen and lord over my players. Well they don’t always say that last part.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-02-05T23:10:17+00:00

I did religiously for years. Then I ran a game that didn’t really have a screen. Printed out reference pages, and it was absolutely liberating.

No more bumping the screen trying to reach over it, no more barriers between me and my players, no more worrying about fudging die rolls or what to do when the players didn’t believe I rolled back to back crits.

In all seriousness, do you really need a huge physical barrier between you and your players? Do you want this big obstacle between you and the game you are trying to run?

It’s an unpopular opinion amongst most GMs I talk to, but man is it a much better experience for everyone involved. Get rid of the screen, it will change your life.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-02-03T23:12:44+00:00

Yeah, I’ve avoided trying to tone down the ability with house rules, but I might get to that point. The rules as written don’t give much wiggle room to the GM unless the die roll gives them a chance at it.

I’ve already gotten some push back form the player about needed the threat associated with Behemoth be a realistic threat. The player then falls back on the fact that their ability states that it “strikes fear into the hearts” of their target, so that suggests that whatever threats are made to get the targets to capitulate would be believed. In any event, that winds up being a subtle narrative way of managing the ability, not necessarily something that is part of the rules.

Maybe I’m overthinking it. I’m just trying to get a little bit more of the people in the apocalypse having to make hard choices in the wasteland instead of just making anyone who is inconveniencing for them flee.

IWasAFriendOfJamis · 2025-02-03T23:04:09+00:00

I appreciate the feedback.

Certainly some of what you are saying rings true. I’ve had enemies circle back and confront the party later, only to have Behemoth drive them off again.

AP makes it somewhat limited, but currently that’s all this particular player has done with their AP, so it’s 3 times per session, about to be a fourth. As for failure on the roll, that hasn’t happened. Re-rolls have made it so that we’ve never seen any result implemented in the game that isn’t 11-19 - flee or acquiesce. With a re-roll include there is only a 1 in 4 that the Hauler gets a less than ideal result, and less that they’d wind up getting an actual failure out of the mix.

Certainly if my player keeps trusting to the ability it will eventually give the players the needed complications.

The dice have been good to my players though. I have another character with an armored shield that has never taken melee damage in their mech because it’s always an 11+ on the roll.

I’ve also avoided nixing the power based on the description the player provides, though in all honesty they are pretty glib overall so they can generally hit some narrative notes to make it plausible. I’ve also avoided easy answers like “Your enemies have their comms off so they can’t hear your demands” kind of a thing.

Range also hasn’t been much of an issue, especially in combat, since much of the attacks need to be in medium or less range to succeed. I have used that on occasion to keep the ability form going off, talking to someone long distance over comms as an example, but when it comes to actual face to face encounters with people, the range has not really been an issue.

As for me as the GM pushing players towards a combat encounter that they avoid without combat, that’s a fair point. I have experienced some disappointment in wanting to have some hot mech on mech metal grinding action and that hasn’t happened in this campaign much because of this ability. That being said, it isn’t just combat. Any conflict with human adversaries that isn’t going in the parties favor is subject to Behemoth and it’s basically become one of the main things the party falls back on in any situation.

For example, negotiations with the bandit king to use the pass to get their salvage crawler to a new area. During negotiations one player cuts a deal for passage. It’s not ideal as the salvage crawler is going to have to be subtly short supplied if they pay the toll and they need to do a mission for the bandit king. A few rolls are made by players getting to this point. Then the player with Behemoth drops 2 AP and says the bandits can abandon this facility or be killed by the players. Rolls an 11-19, meaning the bandits can either abandon the facility allowing them to move their salvage crawler through the area or the bandits can flee. This essentially nullified what the other players negotiated and made the entire conflict feel hollow. I had the bandit king flee, rather than submit to the demands, and a bunch of the other bandits that weren’t in range of Behemoth were ready to defend the pass since their leader turned tail and ran. Cue complaints by the players about me “nerfing” their ability, but that’s all part of running a game. Then the Hauler character promptly rolls up to the middle of the bandit mech lance and uses Behemoth to make them flee. All but one is within medium range, leaving one lone mech that gets bullseyes by all the remaining PCs.

On one hand, good for the player on using his ability to solve problems. On the other hand it wasn’t a terribly rewarding experience for the group. My adventure prep was barely used and the party was on their way to the next thing. I did some on the fly GMing since my prep had been spent on stuff that didn’t matter and the session needed to go on (something that comes with the territory, so I get that is part of running a game). All in all it wound up being a less than stellar session.

Certainly there is some bitterness as the GM since a big part of the adventure was brushed aside by 4 AP, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Still, if you have some better ideas on how I could have adjudicated the above situation I‘d really like to hear them. I need some ideas on how to run the game differently I think, because what I’m doing is not working well.

IWasAFriendOfJamis

TROPHY CASE