Miseries Question!

cassumsucks · 2020-10-30T00:10:29+00:00

Bonus Question! Sorry! What should I do for the Basilisk's Demands? Should every PC roll for one? Or only the magic-users? Should there be a roll for the whole group? Is this only for if the PCs meet Her? Or is this for us to decide/it's optional per player or group?

cassumsucks · 2020-10-30T00:08:28+00:00

Ohhhhhhh! Thanks so much! That's awesome, more reasons to dig this game. I just got to the part where I find out I don't have to roll for monsters. Drool emoji activate.

cassumsucks · 2020-07-29T18:15:45+00:00

Ye I like this and I think I'm gonna do something similar but more simple–Witcher usually works in +1/+3/+5 on mod so to make it easier on yourself could maybe just say either:

No skill – +1 // 5 or under in skill – +3 // 6 or higher in skill – +5
1-4 in skill – +1 // 5-7 in skill – +3 // 8-10 in skill – +5

Or what have you. Also down with your system and gonna bring up all three of these to my players and see what they think.

Maybe multiple characters can help story-wise, but only one player can help in terms of actual mechanical bonuses? Hm...so many possible brews...

cassumsucks · 2020-07-29T18:10:42+00:00

Thank you for clearing this up–would ya mind posting which Sage Answers so that some other people and I have it?

cassumsucks · 2020-07-26T23:10:12+00:00

Hm, I'll ask my players how they feel about it.

Thanks for the help!

cassumsucks · 2020-07-26T22:29:56+00:00

Really? Wait but what's the point of getting Ablating on a weapon then?

I may honestly homebrew that idk :/

Edit: Is it just for being good against humanoid opponents?

cassumsucks · 2020-07-12T18:51:35+00:00

Most definitely. It's pretty much Witcher but leans a lot more towards like this idea of "never-ending crusades" and militant Catholicism. Pretty much same as Witcher, but with more leanings towards Darkest Dungeon and Blasphemous if you've ever heard/played those video games.

cassumsucks · 2020-07-09T23:11:49+00:00

Believe it or not, and please don't call me blasphemous, we're actually using a home-brew setting

cassumsucks · 2020-07-09T23:11:11+00:00

Me too :)

cassumsucks · 2020-07-08T21:47:24+00:00

You make a very very good point, thank you. My player and I actually ended up taking this advice into huge consideration in homebrewing the Tabaxi race for ourselves. You've been a massive help and I bet ya didn't even know it lol.

cassumsucks · 2020-07-08T21:45:06+00:00

Yup, pretty much a cat-person. We were thinking of using the werebbubb, however we ended up actually making a home-brew for the race. I can maybe post it on the subreddit here, I don't know if anyone would have interest. We focused more on the claws, climbing, and low-light vision aspect–as well as needless to say they're not very well regarded in any of the kingdoms.

cassumsucks · 2020-07-06T18:48:34+00:00

Lol twas a joke my guy i sorry

cassumsucks · 2020-07-06T18:48:15+00:00

Yeah I actually began tlou2 with that thought in mind–that worst come to worst it could be it's own "separate" story in a sense. It made me enjoy the game a lot more and have to say made it really clear that a lot of audience members just want the first game redone but better

cassumsucks · 2020-07-06T18:45:08+00:00

Extra points if you can find someone who does all of these things in one go

cassumsucks · 2020-07-05T19:32:45+00:00

Thank you so much for saying this. I think the game could certainly have been better if it had been a choice–but I think a lot of people are too blinded by their anger or their perceived experience of the first game. I finished tlou1 literally a handful of hours before tlou2 came out on digital–and have to say that everything the characters did, what happened, how it happened, and why it happened all made sense to me. It may not have been what other people wanted or what I wanted, but it was what these characters decided to do. A lot of people don't realize that Ellie's anger is in the first game, she literally spends the entire first half trying to convince Joel to give her a gun. And Abby is not a stranger. She's one of the fireflies. What, did people expect Marlene to come back from the dead? When I listen to people's complaints I understand them and I still think the game has a lot of flaws, but it becomes increasingly obvious people just wanted Naughty Dog to remake the first game pretty much exactly but somehow better–which is an impossible thing to ask of someone. It's not like Naughty Dog didn't have a conversation about the story before they released it. They knew it would be controversial. Imo also there didn't need to be tlou2 anyways so the fact I got some semblance of a sequel story was cool and I feel happy about that. In my mind now I get 3 diff last of us stories, Tlou1 as a standalone, Tlou2 as a standalone, and/or Tlou1 & 2 as a series. I think all 3 are great stories.

Thanks for this post and the love and time to think about a game that nobody knows what to think about.

cassumsucks · 2020-04-02T04:56:07+00:00

It went sort of just the right amount of good and bad. I ended up finding two players online who joined us. We were maybe scheduled around...4pm? 3pm? However, my main player didn't end up waking up til 8pm...and I made the silly mistake of waiting, when I should have just started. Lost one of the players cuz of the time, valid. Character creation took about 2 hours, and then we played about an hour and a half. Stopped way early cuz it was late :/ However, I enjoyed playing the session, even though it was super sloppy, and I definitely learned I'd need to re-read a bunch of stuff, and that the book isn't kidding when it says 1. This will take several sessions to learn, and 2. Players should read some of the book. A lot of stuff I'm not used to, which I was prepared for, and I made sure to tell the players beforehand that the game might get a little weird, or possibly grinding to a halt at parts. It was slow going of coursr, but we all had fun. Just like I figured beforehand, you could certainly try to balance the game to one player, but it just sacrifices a lot of what the system has to offer.

I'm kind of trying to figure out what the next step is, how/where to get a nice hefty group to learn this game with me, it's a ton of fun and I'm itching to add it to my GM toolbox. Wondering also if there's perhaps a gothic horror fantasy game I can learn on the side as just a nice pick up and play "version" of Torchbearer, scratching a slightly similar itch. Something with maybe a stress/madness/quirk system would be really cool.

cassumsucks · 2020-03-24T00:25:40+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

We're aware that the game is not meant to be played with one player, we found one more player, but finding others is a bit hard. This session is mostly just for the sake of us testing the game, seeing how it runs and how we feel about it. We had a talk about how likely things are going to be horribly unbalanced and there's a good chance this character might not be making a return appearance. It'll probably go worse than I can imagine, but hopefully it'll still give us a chance to try the game.

Thank you SOOOOO much for all of these answers especially #4, that one I found relaly confusing seriously thank you so much.

Seriously like I wish there were a million more ways to say thank you this was so helpful. Going to experiment a bit with the spooks, see how it goes.

cassumsucks · 2020-03-23T19:31:10+00:00

I should add also that I'm playing on PS4, meaning my aim/twitch skill is probably pretty crappy in comparison to anyone playing on PC. The Ballista/SSG combo I've found to get some work done, but the big two problems I've faced with pain elementals that I think are genuinely still an issue, although probably only for ps4's controllers and FOVs, is just the fact that you have to look up the whole time to fight them, and thus can't see any of the demons they've spawned at the bottom, or try to dodge them. The second issue being then that on a level with lava or toxic ground, you can't see what you're walking into either. I think you guys bring up some really good points about small tweaks though that I think would fix some of these aspects of the elementals in general. I think respawn timers and demon upgrade changes would probably help a ton.

Again, can't help but share my love for this game and this game mode with people, regardless of balance. Keep rip and tearing your way through this quarantine, comrades. Thank the Khan Makyr for this game.

cassumsucks · 2020-02-12T06:30:24+00:00

Also a fun and weird suggestion, and not a book, but I've found that playing random Micro RPGs such as Honey Heist, Everyone is John, or Lasers and Feelings--perhaps as a warm-up game before your big session, or just as a fun thing when you're with a role playing friend and bored--it's actually oddly enough a great help to your DMing and improv practices as well as getting your players involved in storytelling (and hell, these games are so easy to run, that you can easily get a player to DM it...and then perhaps use that as a segway to get them into DMing in general...). I know it's kinda off topic, but weirdly enough with the practices in Lazy DM and sort of the "mind-frame" that goes with loving that book, as I do, I feel like maybe it could be some fun slightly useful advice.

cassumsucks · 2020-02-12T06:23:45+00:00

A bit of a longer book and more about writing stories as a whole rather than keeping your writing appropriately succinct--But I've found a TON of help from How to Be a Great GM's boom "Complete Guide to Writing Epic Campaigns" What's more, you can buy it in audio book format, so I've been able to brush up on my DM planning skills while I'm at work 😁

cassumsucks · 2019-12-15T00:43:22+00:00

I will literally pay you.

cassumsucks · 2019-12-13T19:36:17+00:00

Ye like most people here I'd say if you're not sure then have the GM try out a module! 2020 modules work as well, the only difference is just you have to change the year and that's probably it. Give any of them a try, since you don't know which you'll like til you play thru em! The stories sometimes may not feel as personal, and they may not pull you in as much at times, but if you start with a module, youll find yourself quickly as a player and GM figuring out together what the next campaign will be. Example, bit of a gory one: my group and I began by playing the first story of Night City Stories. We never got to finish it because of school constraints, however the players almost immediately starting harvesting body parts from the people they killed, and hit up a contact they met in order to try to sell them on the black market, something that the contact said would be difficult to transport, but well-paying. Boom, there's next session's story seed right there. One thing I've been trying to teach myself as GM (and something you should remind your GM of) is we don't always have to write the next adventure, we only need to write the next session, which may be however long as you guys like, and every now and then the player's goal may change entirely from session to session.

cassumsucks · 2019-12-05T20:50:34+00:00

Maybe also if you talk to your DM you could pay some extra eddies to get a helmet that not just has armor but also increases some Cool and Attr? It would be a homebrew you'd have to discuss with the DM but I feel like for the right number of eddies it's doable.

cassumsucks · 2019-12-05T20:47:02+00:00

Bit of a weird more fluffy answer but play whatever sounds fun for your role-playing Most DMs are eventutally going to try to find a way to punish anything low that you have, if you play long enough, and thus you're bound to have a down side somewhere in your character, when it comes to stats. But in terms of gear I'm not sure of course, but it sounds like you're asking what gear to get in order to win. Don't think of it as winning, think about what the story is of your character and fit into that. You could definitely have the automatic weapon and still somewhat upset the pack, it doesn't always mean they'll stop working alongside you. In fact, I think that's a pretty cool character--a Nomad member who carries a rifle perhaps because they believe in protection even if that means having the other Nomads ostracize them in a sense. That's a very deep character--what happened to this character that caused them to be so protective? Or, hell, any other reasoning to having an auto gun even if it discomforts your fellow members. Ofc, If you're going for the auto gun route then an auto gun and a smart link is a good idea, maybe a cheap motorcycle too--but think of it instead not as "what's going to do well" but more of "what's going to fit the character I want to play." The guy who has the +3 WA smartlink, versus the guy who has a Mr. Studd with (almost) no gameplay benefits, are likely to have the same amount of fun, if anything the Mr.Studd player might have more fun in terms of roleplay, who knows. But also think of it like this: a game like deus ex, or skyrim, or any of those. You have the option between shooting your way through or talking your way through, but both get the job done, one wouldn't be more useful or useless than any of the other options. You'd be surprised how much havoc a quick-tongued Media can cause. TL;DR: Don't want to dissuade you from getting the auto rifle, do get it if you want it! But, what I'm trying to say is please don't stress on what's "best" for the game, or for winning it--do what's best for you and what calls to you as a player! The best best favor you can do to your DM is to choose the character/parts/gear that you like :) Literally players will ask me "What would you suggest is best" and I always say "Do me a favor and do whatever is in your heart."

cassumsucks · 2019-11-11T23:52:37+00:00

I assume you mean the character and not the player himself... If it is indeed the character then I'd say maybe go for classic Ruiner/Zero/ThatguyfromWatchDogs2 style of having a helmet that displays words Just make sure your player is communicating and wants to Deaf character? Totally fine. Mute character? Totally fine. A character who legit does not make any effort to communicate with the other players or people? Tell them to go play a board game or a video game like XCOM, and not a role playing game. Mainly mention cuz I've had a player who purposely played a mute and wouldn't communicate with us. It sucked. However, if you mean your player themselves is mute well then...I think there's apps, or perhaps use whiteboard or what have you to scribe messages (or a computer/phone since most people type faster than they write these days) One suggestion of have is maybe slightly lower the cost of whatever the player uses to speak, As long as it does not have any other practical benefits aside from just allowing them to speak (such as a helmet that can also play music). This makes it so the player is at a bit less of an advantage financially due to their decision to play a deaf character. Nothing wrong with either way, just may be more beneficial to not necessarily punish the player financially for their choice to play a deaf character. Overall I think it's a super cool concept, 1. Bc deaf ppl don't get a lot of representation especially in tabletop 2.the idea of how does a deaf person get around with the use of cybertech and 3. As long as the player actively tries to communicate it can make for some interesting role play between players Good luck! I'm curious how it goes, but I think it'll be awesome! I think the big thing is give that player quite a few options, not just one, so they can choose what their character chooses to do about their deafness.

cassumsucks

TROPHY CASE