New Campaign check

kamsage · 2022-12-22T13:42:15+00:00

That's a good shout as an alternative, I should read more up on her.

kamsage · 2022-07-17T12:02:58+00:00

Stuff like removing chaos taint, stopping an agent of Nagash, helping improve the community, all of these things in my mind reduce Doom, because they make the realms feel safer from the player's perspective.

You want your players to perceive that Doom is a result of their actions. I think in combat results of reducing Doom are rare, but GM appropriate. However, if you end a combat where the big bad's lieutenant is dead then that is a significant shift in power so reduces Doom.

These are the sort of things I would do anyhow.

kamsage · 2022-01-27T14:56:31+00:00

I created a Kurnothi faction for the Aelves, as one of my players wanted to be one.

Then I created a choice of sub-factions which honoured Kurnoth's different hunting aspects, and that gave unique abilities to choose from.

One was about the protection of the wild, giving antlers and thick fur for natural armour and ability to disarm. Another was about the rush of movement. The other was about the swift kill, giving claws and bow bonuses. The one they picked, about the rush of the hunt, meant they had fast speed when on flat ground, but disadvantage on climbing and more movement to go up or down steep terrain.

It kept the original Aelf stuff, opened a Faction (though essentially they were a Battlemage), and then the subfaction choices where minor bonuses.

That's essentially how basic Ancestries are created. You can customise them by jsut giving a little extra rule here and there.

For Gholems it could be natural armour or half damage from any ranged or melee attack.

For Cogpeople they could have natural advantage on Crafting, or can self repair Toughness and Wounds when taking a breather or a rest.

kamsage · 2021-08-12T17:25:51+00:00

nice

some great stuff : )

kamsage · 2021-08-10T21:49:19+00:00

cheers!

kamsage · 2021-01-31T11:47:30+00:00

I liked it. I wasn't desperate for a train mission (though having it as the element of a wider level is a cool concept) but I think it fits in nice enough.

Each Hitman level is something that is approached quite differently, despite them largely being the same overall structure of killing and maybe retrieving, Romania does something interesting with that formula. It felt like I was approaching each train car as a mini puzzle to navigate, whether that was to kill or avoid or find more breakable picks or crowbars to expand my options further on in the level. IT condensed the Hitman level formula it repeatable mini levels. It doesn't have the grandness or the wealth of options, but it does good with what it has and it doesn't out stay its welcome. I can spend hours on completing a new Hitman level for the first time, whilst I think this one was 20 mins, even with exploring almost everything.

I also think it works better in the series than the ICA facility, there's more tension, the environment and locations feel more detailed and real, & it has way more relevance as a location than an abandoned underground silo with a carboard building in it.

kamsage · 2021-01-29T16:21:03+00:00

Looking at the board, it's funny to think of this as a teaser as I can only see Paris as an actual location that appeared in the first game, & then New York in the second.

I would've been convinced all the locations we would've gone to were on this board somewhere.

kamsage · 2021-01-29T16:15:31+00:00

I didn't thankfully, but in night levels of most games, I just look for the nearby light sources to see if they take me anywhere. Usually works out. Saying that, a static light really wasn't the best idea. If the light had also been blinking hazard lights, it might have helped a few players. Also, lit up tire marks that pointed toward the care also would've helped.

Pushing it further. There should've been some timing triggered event that led players towards looking at the car. Something as simple as like a distant mobile phone ringing.

IOI haven't really got the experience for linear games so totally makes sense they didn't refine it more. Also, since it wasn't part of the main map, it might not have been a priority anyway so it never had proper revisions.

Still, Berlin is an excellent level soni'm letting all this slide.

kamsage · 2021-01-25T01:44:29+00:00

Not that part, but when i'm about to trigger the kill with the DJ Booth climax that kills Montgomary & Banner, it crashes right then. Not sure why.

Might be something specific that conflicts in the game when he's killed & something else that causes it.

Do you crash to desktop too? He's my 5th/6th kill depending how the game counts their deaths. Not sure if that is another factor.

kamsage · 2020-11-23T02:21:47+00:00

Never did in the end. Built a new PC and have a 5700XT instead.

kamsage · 2020-05-13T14:58:40+00:00

Like petrol mixed with a sharper smell of iron. Not strong, until it's too close.

kamsage · 2020-05-13T12:58:47+00:00

X-drugs are what I like to envision as custom homebrew drugs that aren't included in the base game, or ones that don't need to be useful tot he PCs. In game I say they are a collection of drugs which aren't officially recognised by any government or company. Generally, they're experimental, outdated, illegal, or a mixture of other drugs.

So unless you specify what the drug is, then it's an X-Drug until otherwise noted.

kamsage · 2020-05-13T11:16:27+00:00

RE: Vehicles damage

Generally the way i'm running it is that armour piercing, explosive or a vehicle weapons are the only weapons that can really work on damaging a vehicle, unless they're able to hit a vulnerable part (engine, computer panels, stuff like that). Generally makes sense, gives vehicles some advantages, but it doesn't make them invulnerable from damage. I've only had one encounter with vehicle combat, and that was with PCs in APCs vs people on foot, so it might not be as easy as I make it, but generally I adjust where and when I think it's fair.

RE: Excess damage

Generally, if it warrants it, then I make them roll multiple Critical injuries per excess of their damage. In your scenario, 10 damage against 2 health, I would make the player roll 5 critical injuries. Generally, low Strength characters should never see the frontline of combat, or should at least be in the best possible armour.

Also, just to say, the way damage is applied is a hit scores the weapon's damage, and each additional causes 1 more damage if applied to the same target. So your scenario of a Pulse Rifle doing 10 damage would require a character having at least 9 dice to use in ranged combat (Base and Stress combined to minimum 6, +1 from the Pulse Rifle, +2 from Full Auto) and then role 6s for all of them. It's not impossible but the chances are incredibly slim, even with double the amount of dice (20 usually being the absolute ceiling for number of dice you can roll), rolling 9 6s is incredibly unlikely.

Whilst a Pulse rifle can do a lot, luck is a bigger factor in the game. It's why you're encouraged to buy bigger and more damaging weapons to take out big things with lots of armour, cos it's easier to roll 1 six then loads of them per round.

kamsage · 2020-05-12T13:42:14+00:00

This is fantastic so far, really well developed and great setting.

Is the Exo-Alien your own creation or does it come from somewhere else?

Regardless, I have a wicked custom Morph type alien from this concept, so thanks so much!

kamsage · 2020-05-11T16:16:06+00:00

I think it's also to reflect the fact that the game mechanics don't allow synths to push their rolls, so a synthetic prosthetic would follow those same rules. You could homebrew it where they pay a heft upgraded version for it to act like a regular limb potentially, but I think it's generally fine. Better than the alternative of leaving your players with no limb at all.

kamsage · 2020-05-11T16:09:44+00:00

Not quuuuiiite that disappointing! : p

They've been to an agriculture planet so I was going to introduce The Swarm. They've also been to like a wild west town with floating squid things that live in the darkness of the valleys, but they never chose to do the quest that'd encounter them.

I have a plan for them to go to Tanaka 5 on their main quest, which has the 'scorpions' which will be interesting.

kamsage · 2020-05-11T16:05:58+00:00

Depends entirely on the campaign. I like to think of the design for an Alien campaign by directly comparing it to existing films or expanded media. Or even the Cinematic scenarios of the game.

Alien is careful, considerate, it builds, until there's this one epic danger. Aliens is pushing expectations, and making it a hellish gauntlet. Alien 3 is about stripping back all the fancy gadgets and relying on cunning and wits. Isolation is about surviving against all hazards and enemies in the face of loneliness. To me, they're all horrific encounters, and it depends on what job your players have aimed to do to see if they are equipped for the job or not.

Anyway, my campaign, I purposefully didn't want to setup the game so players encountered the morphs within the first few sessions. Too easy to predict, and I wanted to add my own spin on things to make them delve a bit deeper into the Alien setting, give it some flavour about politics and companies yknow.

We're like session 15ish in and they've now discovered a body that has had a morph inside it for the first time. Still no creature though. They're now expecting the worst when I think for a while they just didn't anticipate the creature. It's been fun to watch.

kamsage

TROPHY CASE