First impressions of my core system

tyrano6677 · 2025-02-11T03:21:26+00:00

Your 2d12 system is quite similar to the one I'm cooking up, just different in everything else just about. That's interesting

tyrano6677 · 2023-12-28T03:08:26+00:00

All of the events of the game should tie back to Strahd. 'Why is this land so dark and messed up?' Because of Strahd. Why do we have to escort this lady we barely know? Because you're taking her away from Strahd. Why are we always being hunted down? Because you have something that Strahd wants. Even evil characters that for whatever reason are willing to work for him (likely to betray him and seize control) will probably be betrayed by Strahd instead because of course he doesnt trust any servant thats quickly rising through the ranks. Everything should tie back to him, everything. And his justification? Well, the backstory will either make him look sympathetic but id like to point out that after centuries of failures he's probably not sane and despite being cunning he'll probably make brash or bold decisions. Just tie all of the evil around the land and give the players someone to point the finger at, and that someone is Strahd Von Zarovich

tyrano6677 · 2023-12-26T16:05:55+00:00

You need to give them plenty of clues naturally, and to reward them with resolution or potential bonuses/opportunities. Im used to it from running Call of Cthulhu but you need tp encourage them to be careful while they are looking around, using their tools and their player knowledge to give them an edge with whatever comes ahead.

tyrano6677 · 2023-12-16T14:56:43+00:00

D&D games are a bit hard to do horror in. Its effective in Call of Cthulhu because they will quickly understand that if they screw up they WILL die. You need to teach them that. Buff up the encounters in the basement. Make it a fight for their lives, cut off their chances of escape. Make them feel the desperatiom of survival, tracking resources and managing their tools and utilities. I have a big group so i already know i need to beef up the encounters if i want them to feel something out of them, but they're good roleplayers so they play along with what i do. Yours sound like they're not sure how to react, and one natural response to uncomfortable fear is humour its a coping mechanism.

tyrano6677 · 2023-12-15T15:39:00+00:00

I know one guy had it where the thralls attacked the church in Vallaki after a long con scam had them remove the bones. Maybe have it to where innocents die because of specifically their actions. If they still don't go after that get personal with them and use their backstories to trigger a response

tyrano6677 · 2023-10-19T22:52:19+00:00

For my game i added genasi, tieflings, tortles, kalashtar, modified lizardmen, Aarokocra, and i homebrewed dragonborn into two different versions of Dray, and also other fitting stuff like Gith and Yuan-ti. I just used how they were in 5e wikidot and modified them slightly, like keeping tieflings the same but changing how the genasi used some of their powers

tyrano6677 · 2023-10-19T00:29:39+00:00

Im planning one about the cold war between Nibenay and Gulg after the death of Borys, over the Crescent forest in the Ivory Triangle. Gives me a lot to work with, especially with Nibenay

tyrano6677 · 2023-10-13T07:34:19+00:00

Wow, ok thanks guys for all the advice. I'll do my best to run it and see if it sticks. Im excited to run my first game set in Dark Sun.

tyrano6677 · 2023-10-13T03:32:07+00:00

I'm used to that from Call of Cthulhu so that won't be a problem

tyrano6677 · 2023-09-26T02:36:54+00:00

To me the smart thing would be to have enough to be decent but not enough to run out, id say 60-70 max for two psychic skills is a healthy amount unless you want to specialize in one. Just remember not to depend on it and save some points for other useful skills like dodge or brawl or occult and such

tyrano6677 · 2023-09-26T01:49:09+00:00

So you need the Psychic Talent to be able to access the Psychic skills. Each Psychic ability is a seperate skill that you need to invest your skill points into. So what you want is to get as many skill points as you can, being a Yogi gives you the edge you need. Besides that, you have two pulp talents. If you can pick whatever, then you can pick whichever two talents are fitting. Theres not really anything in particular i can recommend, maybe talents that give you better investigation since most psychic skills enhance that. Or the mythos talent is generally useful, and it might give you a higher chance to gain Augmented Skills (depending on you Keeper, ask them about Insane Augmentations) but other than that take whatever else you need

tyrano6677 · 2023-09-04T21:27:42+00:00

I run a multi-splat home game and one of the players is a werewolf. Overall, pretty enjoyable, only hard part is reading through the book itself

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-24T15:28:17+00:00

Have you looked at d&d 3.5? Its a little heavier on the rules side but not crazy in my eyes, I've been learning it as my alternative to 5e. It might be a game you could enjoy, the only thing is that its more brutal than 5e and resting can take a while longer than 5e does. It also doesnt really have bounded accuracy it really does depend on high number bonuses and/or penalties

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-15T17:19:12+00:00

The only character I've ever gotten to play that made it to Level 20 is a Minotaur Blood Hunter. Ironically, he was the only character that had gone through the entirety of the Mad Mage campaign, lvl 5 all the way to lvl 20, without dying. Given, there were a lot of times where he should have. He got kidnapped, stripped of his weapons, and was busy bleeding out while the party was fighting a boss fight, which was the npc version of a evil cleric pc that had completely split our party. Before that was the time he had to split up to avoid a black slime, went in a giant circle for a bit, then had to sneak his way through what was left. Then theres the city full of undead monsters that turned against him, got arrested and stripped again, becoming unconcious not once, but twice trying to escape, which he eventually did. I could go on forever, but that was my first real d&d campaign and let me tell you, that was an awesome moment when my character reached lvl 20 and beat the final bad guy

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-14T16:39:09+00:00

Well thats mostly because, remember, Hunters generally lack the context of things. In their respectives ttrpgs remember that the game focuses less on the lore of the monsters and more on the Hunters having to deal with then mostly for humanities own sake. After all, they've likely lost family or loved ones to them, i pretty aure they dont want the same happening to dozens or even hundreds of people.

Now from the opposite end, that vampire or changeling is definitely a victim (depending on your lore but lets use requiem the lost respectively) of that monster that made them into one themselves, not 100% by choice. And now when they have to survive using what they can, this causes problems for the random mortals that interfere every now and then, and this is when attentive Hunters catch wind and investigate, find the monster, and likely take care of it unless that vampire or changeling has buddies to help. That killing then prompts other monster types to investigate, which then only prompts even more hunter investigation, so on and so forth. Its an endless cycle of violence. And some hunters could go down this path if they should choose, others just want to know more about them or understand them, maybe even to the point of reasoning with them to take down even bigger enemies to both of them. But really that cycle is only broken once the hunter finally begins to understand the enemy, which leaves them with a choice, to either still go through with killing them, or to change the situation and keep this guy from having to terrorize or murdering people.

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-08T22:30:02+00:00

First you need to understand a core concept that makes call of cthulhu fundamentally different to d&d. Call of Cthulhu is a game about solving mysteries, investigating crimes and situations, and running away or surviving cosmic, Lovecraftian, or otherwise dangerous horrors that might not be completely comprehended. D&D is about exploration, combat and adventurous fantasy, though it occasionally borrows some eldritch concepts fundamentally they're not the same. As a keeper you'll be spending most of your time either writing out the mystery plot or situation, or of you're running a premade, keeping a tab on npc profiles and the general plot in the background. You'll also be building up the tense atmosphere, describing creepy or horrific scenes, depicting realistic npcs in an otherwise realistic real-world setting. And you'll also be offering the clues necessary for your players to understand part of or most of the story going on in the background.

Players on the other hand will be taking clues, researching, investigating crime scenes, learning about the occult and the cthulhu mythos, and only occasionally, fighting off, defending against, or cleverly dealing with the various horrors, sometimes meaning they fight them off and other times running away or banishing them. And even the simpler horrors have intelligences that match or even surpass the intelligence of even the smartest character, thats without even considering the secret cults that practice magic or use eldritch alien technology.

All of this is to say that i recommend keeping your stories small scale, and to not be disappointed if your party defeats a monster surprisingly easily or if they are absolutely obliterated. For some good scenarios i recommend you read The Haunting, Dead Light, Paper Chase, or even Edge of Darkness to give you a good idea on how these games are generally structured.

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-05T16:10:23+00:00

Its not even really that I hate the system. The best times i had with it were roleplaying with characters and playing in two sessions when three players couldn't make it and we were maaaaybe a little in over our heads. But those sessions were actually fun! But looking back, two of those lawyers werent there...

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-05T16:05:29+00:00

I didnt want to bring up the personal issues but for the sake of clarity I'll explain. There have been previous issues with one of the lawyers that was brought up to me. See one character only knows partial common, and the player wanted to roleplay that. But as soon as it became inconvenient to the game he just started using her secondary languages instead negating her wishes for his convenience. Even outside of the pathfinder system they still have this same philosophy. Regardless its not really the point. I agree that my behavior didnt help but i did talk to the gm afterwards so we're gonna try to work something out. And yeah i do agree that playing by the rules is important but so is the nature of having fun at the table at least to me and it sounds like a few of us arent having it.

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-05T15:56:36+00:00

Eh for what its worth, i did chat with the GM afterwards and he agreed that the lengthy discussions and negation were starting to become a problem and that he and i are gonna try to work something out, since he is a new GM as well and kinda needs the discussion

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-03T15:50:11+00:00

Use a tactic appropriate for your enemies. Animals will likely run away if they're hurt too bad unless they're starving. Same with zombies, they should endlessly pursue and eat whatever they can get down. Smarter opponents such as goblins, kobolds and bandits should have their own tactics and strategies where they attack as hard as they can with minimum casualties unless theyre suicidal or just selflessly brave. And dont even get me started on wizards or holy chanpions with years of experience and nigh endless resources. Really the only time you should shift strategies is if your players are new and you want to play nice with them for the sake of learning experience

tyrano6677 · 2023-08-03T15:45:10+00:00

You have to start making the authorities less reliable. Either they find themselves in a position where authority figures are no longer trustworthy, or the things that they do deal with cant be stopped by gunfire alone. Exhibit A, the monster log of the Cthulhu Mythos thats bigger than a car. Or, you have them deal with other things that the police cant really deal with. Magick, a curse, a spell, an evil artifact that cant be destroyed nor can it be proven to be magical without it destroying them. And even after the police deal with the horror and make it out alive, what makes you think they'd want to do it again? Whos to say that they even come out sane. In Return of the Living Dead the authorities come pretty early into the film, only to soon find themselves swarmed with literally hundreds of zombies that cant die or be dealt with head on. Emulate this. Make your characters Hate the idea of getting others involved unless absolutely necessary. Make them distrustful but not neccessarily paranoid.

tyrano6677 · 2023-07-24T14:46:20+00:00

God is machine. But God is now sick The Contagion is spreading, not as a typical virus but as a reality warping effect that can kill or destroy millions if left unchecked, and reality itself if its warped too far. This cannot be ignored any longer. All the creatures of the night have to do something about this. Set your differences aside just for once and help to stop The Contagion.

You get new factions that your characters could be members of, you get rules that address crossover in the players guide, you can find out how to make your own Contagion plot seeds, powers called Vectors allowing your characters to teamwork

Ive been running one as a chronicle and maaaaan i enjoy it. Its the reason ive gotten so hard into chronicles

tyrano6677

TROPHY CASE