A while back, I posted about how my Star Wars Alternate Universe campaign came to a rather abrupt conclusion due largely to burn-out on d20 games amidst the players. Which considering that for the longest time the only thing most of them played were d20 games, I guess it's to be expected, kinda like eating nothing but pizza every night for dinner.
Well, luckily that wasn't the only SW campaign I had going on. Up until last night, I've also been a player in a friend's campaign that was set during the New Jedi Order era. While the Vong invasion was certainly a thing, the Vong weren't the main threat in the campaign, but rather something else that was perhaps just as creepy and unnatural as RotJ Palpatine doing reading a book for a group of pre-school children.
In this campaign, I took the role of Alwyn Reezaki, a young Jedi apprentice and member of Skywalker's New Jedi Order. I'd actually played Alwyn with the notion of it being a one-time gig back in August 2011 for the NJO Traitor's Gambit as run by Garrett of the Threat Detected podcast. So when one of my local buddies whose gaming group I'd only recently joined mentioned he wanted to try his hand at running SWSE and was going to set his campaign during the NJO era, I was quite amused at the serendipity behind it all.
We played roughly every other week on Wednesday nights, though occasionally sessions had to be missed or rescheduled due to various real life events. Wherever possible, the GM was courteous enough to let everyone know as soon as he could that the game was going to be postponed, so kudos for him on that. Well, this past Wednesday the game got cancelled due to "excessive GM wife aggro," and was rescheduled for last night (Saturday). Now going into this, I thought we had another session or two, but it turns out I was wrong. All the stops were pulled, and what I suspect was intended to be a two-part adventure wound up being run non-stop until the wee hours of the morning.
The campaign had been building up to this point, a confrontation with the BBEG in a desperate bid to stop their deranged plan to cause further strife and mayhem in a galaxy already ravaged by a vicious war. Just about every character had a stake in stopping the villain, a (likely demented) ex-Imperial Inquisitor from the days of Palpatine's Empire that went by the name of Lord Raith that had risen to a position of power and influence within Black Sun.
I'm not going to go into too many details, although I've posted summaries of the previous campaign sessions, all from Alwyn's POV, over at the d20 Radio Network forums in the thread "Tales of an NJO Jedi Apprentice" which also includes Alwyn's stat block from first level all the way up to 7th level. But I'll just say that the GM did a wonderful job with handling a split-up party and running a starship combat, a running skirmish, and a duel that were occurring pretty much all at the same time. It was hectic, it was frantic, there were character deaths, but most importantly, it was fun. The only thing missing was the Ewok dance party at the end :D
While the campaign was fun and ended on a high note, I am sad that to be putting Alwyn aside for the foreseeable future. But who knows? The GM has hinted that he might run another campaign with this same group of heroes at some point down the road. After all, the Vong menace still exists and our characters have proven to be badass enough to be able to provide a meaningful contribution to the war effort.
Tales of a NJO apprentice thread @ D20 Radio Network forums:
http://www.d20radio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8798
Threat Detected Blog: NJO Traitor's Gambit podcast sessions:
http://threat-detected.com/2011/08/11/gencon-special-edition1.aspx
http://threat-detected.com/2011/08/18/gencon-special-edition-part-2.aspx
http://threat-detected.com/2011/08/25/gencon-special-edition-part-3.aspx
http://threat-detected.com/2011/09/01/gencon-special-edition-part-4.aspx
http://threat-detected.com/2011/09/08/gencon-special-edition-part-5.aspx
(fair warning, first one is tough to hear as there was a very rambunctious table within spitting distance of Garrett's table)
June 17, 2012
June 2, 2012
The funniest table reading of Star Wars in history of history
It's been on YouTube for a while now, but I still think this is freaking hilarious.
http://youtu.be/SBzRmWeC6Ds
It's close to an hour and a half, so make sure you've got some time before you sit down to watch this. But it's quite simply worth it.
The set-up is simple: Get a bunch of talented voice actors together and have them read scenes from Star Wars, using various animated character voices and impressions for different characters. A lot of the humor comes from how at-odds the voices are to the characters, with examples such as Bubbles reading for Darth Vader, Rodney Dangerfield as Luke, Ozzy Ozborne and Bill Cosby for R2-D2, Pinky and Bender as Stormtroopers, or Porky Pig as Obi-Wan Kenobi, while various ad-libs only add to the fun.
So wait are you waiting for? Click the link, sit back, and have a few laughs already.
http://youtu.be/SBzRmWeC6Ds
It's close to an hour and a half, so make sure you've got some time before you sit down to watch this. But it's quite simply worth it.
The set-up is simple: Get a bunch of talented voice actors together and have them read scenes from Star Wars, using various animated character voices and impressions for different characters. A lot of the humor comes from how at-odds the voices are to the characters, with examples such as Bubbles reading for Darth Vader, Rodney Dangerfield as Luke, Ozzy Ozborne and Bill Cosby for R2-D2, Pinky and Bender as Stormtroopers, or Porky Pig as Obi-Wan Kenobi, while various ad-libs only add to the fun.
So wait are you waiting for? Click the link, sit back, and have a few laughs already.
May 19, 2012
MHRPG - Giving it a test drive
So this past Wednesday, instead of playing our bi-weekly NJO campaign, we opted to give the Marvel Heroic RPG a try.
By dint of having a PDF of the book, I had a partial leg up on the other players, mostly as I'd already built my character (though Darkhawk needed and still needs a bit of fine-tuning), so I could help the others with their heroes. After an hour, we had four of the six possible heroes ready to go (the other two players were still trying to figure out which non-movie comic book character they wanted to be), so the GM decided to throw us into a quick scenario to let us try and get a feel for the system and possibly make any tweaks before we settled on our respective characters. The scenario itself was pretty simple, a group of separate heroes minding their own business in downtown New York City when a mad scientist criminal mastermind shows up to cause trouble.
The group of heroes (won't go so far as to call us a team) were a pretty interesting lot. Aside from Darkhawk, we had the following:
X-23: This one was pretty easy to build, since she's pretty much Wolverine as a teenage girl, so she used the official stats for Wolverine as her blueprint, dropping the Weapon X powerset and replacing Wolvy's enhanced strength with claws to get her powers (though her recovery ability isn't quite as potent) and not being as good a fighter.
Miss Hex: Drawing heavily on the base concept of DC's Zatanna, this one turned out to be much easier than Darkhawk to build, as she only had one Power Set and just a few powers within it. To say nothing of her player using the write-up that she'd made for a Mutants & Masterminds game I'd tried to run in the past but ultimately went nowhere, so she already had the core character idea in place, making it easy to determine Distinctions and Specialties.
Maverick: I'm pretty sure the name's been used elsewhere in the Marvel comic universe, but the fellow for this session can be boiled down to "Captain America as the result of intense training" with some commando gear instead of a mighty shield. Naturally, the official write-up of Cap was used as the baseline for this one. Since we're pretty much going to be playing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the player chose to have Maverick be part of S.H.I.E.L.D. in much the same capacity as Black Widow and Hawkeye.
The villain was Professor Haywire, which if you've seen BARON's character threads over on Green Ronin's Atomic Think Tank forums you'll probably recognize. In short, Haywire is a mad criminal genius that relies on his "techno-cane" for his powers and a blonde, buxom, leggy fembot named Miss Marilyn that can toss cars as his "gal Friday." The good professor also had a mob of street thugs for some added muscle, and I think his stated goal was to intercept a couple of armored cars to build up some "venture capital" for his next grand scheme.
As an added bit of fun, the group member that's big into HeroClix brought his figures over, and I was able to use the Darkhawk mini for my character. Now while MHRPG doesn't really have tactical rules, having a map on the table and minis to place certainly helps the other players keep track of who's where in the scene.
The Affiliation aspect was proven to be a great deal more variable than I first thought, but that could just be the GM willing to play a little loose with the rules in some respects, as Darkhawk and X-23 weren't forced to use our Team affiliation, though it did cut down on the assets we could be given; X-23 often went it alone rather than work in a group or with a partner, and Darkhawk really got a chance to shine when working in tandem with a partner, while Maverick and Miss Hex were definitely built to work in a group.
Combat in MHRPG moved pretty quickly after some adjustment to how the dice pools work. To give an example, let's say that Darkhawk, having just seen Miss Marilyn almost flatten Miss Hex with a thrown car, decides it's time to put the robo-moll down with a Force Blast.
I start off with Affiliation, which since I'm directly aiding a single hero, the GM approves my usage of my Buddy die. Next is Distinction, which I first think Edge Against Crime since Haywire and Marilyn are known crooks, but since this is more of a gut reaction on DH's part, I suggest Anger Issues instead, which the group agrees fits the scene, which gives me a d8. Next up are Powers, and while the rules say you can pick one die from each Power Set (of which I have two), nothing in the Armored Form set leaps out as being applicable, so I skip to Darkhawk Weapons and grab Force Blast for a d10. I also decide to bring his Unleashed SFX into play, and go with doubling by the die type, so I now add 2d10 to my pool. Of course, this means that if my attack fails, I'm going to give the bad guys an extra advantage (likely narrated as being some excessive property damage). Lastly are Specialties, of which I can only pick one, and Combat is the natural choice. So, Darkhawk's dice pool to blast Miss Marilyn is as follows:
d10 (Buddy) + d8 (Distinction) + 2d10 (Power) + d8 (Specialty)
I grab 3d10 and 2d8, and roll them out, getting the following results:
5 (d10) + 8 (d8) + 7 (d10) + 1 (d10) + 6 (d8)
Now you only get to keep 2 dice to determine the total of your roll, so I'll take the 8 and the 7 for a total of 15. I could choose to spend a Plot Point to keep an extra die, but I think a 15 is good enough. Since one of my d10s rolled a 1, I set that aside (we'll get back to it in a moment). Of the remaining dice, I have to choose one to set aside as the effect die, which determines just how powerful my attack was, and since I want this to count, I choose the other d10 (the result on the die doesn't matter at this point). Now since I rolled a 1 on that third d10, the GM can choose to exploit that to increase his doom pool (what he uses to power bad guy abilities and resist hero rolls that don't target a specific opponent), which he opts to do, giving me a shiny new Plot Point point in exchange. However, since I know that Miss Marilyn is one tough broad, I choose to spend that Plot Point to add that last d8 to my effect dice. If this attack hits, it's gonna leave a mark, and the GM is regretting having handed me a Plot Point for that one.
Now, since Darkhawk is attacking a specific opponent (Miss Marilyn), she gets a roll of her own to resist, using much of the same formula: Affiliation die (probably Buddy given her partnership with Haywire) + Distinction die + Power die (likely a resistance-based power) + Specialty die (probably her own combat die). The GM rolls it, and spends a die from his doom pool to try and boost an otherwise lackluster roll, but only manages a total of 9. Not only do I beat the GM's total, but I get an extraordinary success, allowing me to kick my primary effect die up one step, meaning Miss Marilyn is getting hit with a d12 and a d8.
Okay, but of rules fuzziness here, at least on my part, but the way stress (damage) is tracked, if the effect die of the most recent attack is higher than the degree of stress you already have, the smaller die is replaced without any added effect. But if the most recent attack as an effect die that's smaller than whatever stress die you currently have, the existing stress die gets bumped up a level. For instance, if Darkhawk already had a d6 on physical stress and got hit by a d10 effect, he'd step his physical stress up to d10. However, if the attack only did d4 stress, he'd go from a d6 in physical stress to d8. Now, what if you have two effect dice? It makes sense to apply the highest die first and then use any subsequent dice to kick it up, but the rules (at least from what I can tell) are vague on that point. That was how the GM ruled it, so that's how I'm playing it out in this example.
As d12 is the highest you can go in terms of stress (physical, emotional, or mental), Darkhawk's force blast causes Miss Marilyn to hit the top of her physical stress track. If I only had the one effect die, then she'd be battered but not out. However, since I do have that extra effect die, I'd force her to step her physical stress track up a die, but as it's already at a d12, she becomes "stressed out" which translates to her being taken out of the fight. So Darkhawk just took out the heavy hitter of the bad guy duo, but wound up drawing Haywire's ire in the process. Good thing Darkhawk's got a force shield to help protect him form the inevitable retaliation that's coming his way...
In the end, the impromptu quartet of heroes claimed victory of the crazed crook, and there was a surprisingly low degree of property damage (three store fronts, one billboard, an armored car, three civilian cars, and one police cruiser). I did have to use my Null Zone Repairs after nearly getting taken out by Haywire's reprisal. The way initiative in this game plays also works to reinforce a "group mentality" in that you do need to keep your fellow PCs in mind, and sometimes going last in the order can be a good thing for the good guys.
I'm still not 100% sold on this system, but at least it was fun, so I'm willing to give it another go at least once more. It's also an interesting crew, though I've still no idea what likely obscure character the other two guys are going to wind-up playing (they're both comic book geeks), but it should be interesting whatever they wind up choosing. Even if the character bore no resemblance to the comic book version, I'm now glad that film!Deadpool exists, as I shudder to think what the one guy that has a weapons-grade man-crush on comic!Deadpool would be like if he was allowed to play that character.
By dint of having a PDF of the book, I had a partial leg up on the other players, mostly as I'd already built my character (though Darkhawk needed and still needs a bit of fine-tuning), so I could help the others with their heroes. After an hour, we had four of the six possible heroes ready to go (the other two players were still trying to figure out which non-movie comic book character they wanted to be), so the GM decided to throw us into a quick scenario to let us try and get a feel for the system and possibly make any tweaks before we settled on our respective characters. The scenario itself was pretty simple, a group of separate heroes minding their own business in downtown New York City when a mad scientist criminal mastermind shows up to cause trouble.
The group of heroes (won't go so far as to call us a team) were a pretty interesting lot. Aside from Darkhawk, we had the following:
X-23: This one was pretty easy to build, since she's pretty much Wolverine as a teenage girl, so she used the official stats for Wolverine as her blueprint, dropping the Weapon X powerset and replacing Wolvy's enhanced strength with claws to get her powers (though her recovery ability isn't quite as potent) and not being as good a fighter.
Miss Hex: Drawing heavily on the base concept of DC's Zatanna, this one turned out to be much easier than Darkhawk to build, as she only had one Power Set and just a few powers within it. To say nothing of her player using the write-up that she'd made for a Mutants & Masterminds game I'd tried to run in the past but ultimately went nowhere, so she already had the core character idea in place, making it easy to determine Distinctions and Specialties.
Maverick: I'm pretty sure the name's been used elsewhere in the Marvel comic universe, but the fellow for this session can be boiled down to "Captain America as the result of intense training" with some commando gear instead of a mighty shield. Naturally, the official write-up of Cap was used as the baseline for this one. Since we're pretty much going to be playing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the player chose to have Maverick be part of S.H.I.E.L.D. in much the same capacity as Black Widow and Hawkeye.
The villain was Professor Haywire, which if you've seen BARON's character threads over on Green Ronin's Atomic Think Tank forums you'll probably recognize. In short, Haywire is a mad criminal genius that relies on his "techno-cane" for his powers and a blonde, buxom, leggy fembot named Miss Marilyn that can toss cars as his "gal Friday." The good professor also had a mob of street thugs for some added muscle, and I think his stated goal was to intercept a couple of armored cars to build up some "venture capital" for his next grand scheme.
As an added bit of fun, the group member that's big into HeroClix brought his figures over, and I was able to use the Darkhawk mini for my character. Now while MHRPG doesn't really have tactical rules, having a map on the table and minis to place certainly helps the other players keep track of who's where in the scene.
The Affiliation aspect was proven to be a great deal more variable than I first thought, but that could just be the GM willing to play a little loose with the rules in some respects, as Darkhawk and X-23 weren't forced to use our Team affiliation, though it did cut down on the assets we could be given; X-23 often went it alone rather than work in a group or with a partner, and Darkhawk really got a chance to shine when working in tandem with a partner, while Maverick and Miss Hex were definitely built to work in a group.
Combat in MHRPG moved pretty quickly after some adjustment to how the dice pools work. To give an example, let's say that Darkhawk, having just seen Miss Marilyn almost flatten Miss Hex with a thrown car, decides it's time to put the robo-moll down with a Force Blast.
I start off with Affiliation, which since I'm directly aiding a single hero, the GM approves my usage of my Buddy die. Next is Distinction, which I first think Edge Against Crime since Haywire and Marilyn are known crooks, but since this is more of a gut reaction on DH's part, I suggest Anger Issues instead, which the group agrees fits the scene, which gives me a d8. Next up are Powers, and while the rules say you can pick one die from each Power Set (of which I have two), nothing in the Armored Form set leaps out as being applicable, so I skip to Darkhawk Weapons and grab Force Blast for a d10. I also decide to bring his Unleashed SFX into play, and go with doubling by the die type, so I now add 2d10 to my pool. Of course, this means that if my attack fails, I'm going to give the bad guys an extra advantage (likely narrated as being some excessive property damage). Lastly are Specialties, of which I can only pick one, and Combat is the natural choice. So, Darkhawk's dice pool to blast Miss Marilyn is as follows:
d10 (Buddy) + d8 (Distinction) + 2d10 (Power) + d8 (Specialty)
I grab 3d10 and 2d8, and roll them out, getting the following results:
5 (d10) + 8 (d8) + 7 (d10) + 1 (d10) + 6 (d8)
Now you only get to keep 2 dice to determine the total of your roll, so I'll take the 8 and the 7 for a total of 15. I could choose to spend a Plot Point to keep an extra die, but I think a 15 is good enough. Since one of my d10s rolled a 1, I set that aside (we'll get back to it in a moment). Of the remaining dice, I have to choose one to set aside as the effect die, which determines just how powerful my attack was, and since I want this to count, I choose the other d10 (the result on the die doesn't matter at this point). Now since I rolled a 1 on that third d10, the GM can choose to exploit that to increase his doom pool (what he uses to power bad guy abilities and resist hero rolls that don't target a specific opponent), which he opts to do, giving me a shiny new Plot Point point in exchange. However, since I know that Miss Marilyn is one tough broad, I choose to spend that Plot Point to add that last d8 to my effect dice. If this attack hits, it's gonna leave a mark, and the GM is regretting having handed me a Plot Point for that one.
Now, since Darkhawk is attacking a specific opponent (Miss Marilyn), she gets a roll of her own to resist, using much of the same formula: Affiliation die (probably Buddy given her partnership with Haywire) + Distinction die + Power die (likely a resistance-based power) + Specialty die (probably her own combat die). The GM rolls it, and spends a die from his doom pool to try and boost an otherwise lackluster roll, but only manages a total of 9. Not only do I beat the GM's total, but I get an extraordinary success, allowing me to kick my primary effect die up one step, meaning Miss Marilyn is getting hit with a d12 and a d8.
Okay, but of rules fuzziness here, at least on my part, but the way stress (damage) is tracked, if the effect die of the most recent attack is higher than the degree of stress you already have, the smaller die is replaced without any added effect. But if the most recent attack as an effect die that's smaller than whatever stress die you currently have, the existing stress die gets bumped up a level. For instance, if Darkhawk already had a d6 on physical stress and got hit by a d10 effect, he'd step his physical stress up to d10. However, if the attack only did d4 stress, he'd go from a d6 in physical stress to d8. Now, what if you have two effect dice? It makes sense to apply the highest die first and then use any subsequent dice to kick it up, but the rules (at least from what I can tell) are vague on that point. That was how the GM ruled it, so that's how I'm playing it out in this example.
As d12 is the highest you can go in terms of stress (physical, emotional, or mental), Darkhawk's force blast causes Miss Marilyn to hit the top of her physical stress track. If I only had the one effect die, then she'd be battered but not out. However, since I do have that extra effect die, I'd force her to step her physical stress track up a die, but as it's already at a d12, she becomes "stressed out" which translates to her being taken out of the fight. So Darkhawk just took out the heavy hitter of the bad guy duo, but wound up drawing Haywire's ire in the process. Good thing Darkhawk's got a force shield to help protect him form the inevitable retaliation that's coming his way...
In the end, the impromptu quartet of heroes claimed victory of the crazed crook, and there was a surprisingly low degree of property damage (three store fronts, one billboard, an armored car, three civilian cars, and one police cruiser). I did have to use my Null Zone Repairs after nearly getting taken out by Haywire's reprisal. The way initiative in this game plays also works to reinforce a "group mentality" in that you do need to keep your fellow PCs in mind, and sometimes going last in the order can be a good thing for the good guys.
I'm still not 100% sold on this system, but at least it was fun, so I'm willing to give it another go at least once more. It's also an interesting crew, though I've still no idea what likely obscure character the other two guys are going to wind-up playing (they're both comic book geeks), but it should be interesting whatever they wind up choosing. Even if the character bore no resemblance to the comic book version, I'm now glad that film!Deadpool exists, as I shudder to think what the one guy that has a weapons-grade man-crush on comic!Deadpool would be like if he was allowed to play that character.
May 18, 2012
MHRPG - Random Datafile generator
In my last post, I mentioned that character generation for the Marvel Heroic RPG was pretty free-form.
Well, as it turns out, there's a free download offered by Margaret Weis Productions off their own website allows you randomly generate a character, and can be found at the following link:
http://www.margaretweis.com/images/stories/bonus_content/mhr_randomdatafiles.pdf
This could also be used as a set of guidelines for GMs to help their group make their own set of heroes. Especially if they're worried about potential system abuse, namely when it comes to powers and specialties, or the GM wants the heroes to have a unified theme (all-mutants, all cyborgs, all-aliens, etc).
Well, as it turns out, there's a free download offered by Margaret Weis Productions off their own website allows you randomly generate a character, and can be found at the following link:
http://www.margaretweis.com/images/stories/bonus_content/mhr_randomdatafiles.pdf
This could also be used as a set of guidelines for GMs to help their group make their own set of heroes. Especially if they're worried about potential system abuse, namely when it comes to powers and specialties, or the GM wants the heroes to have a unified theme (all-mutants, all cyborgs, all-aliens, etc).
Marvel Heroic RPG - Building a Hero
In my last post, I mentioned that I was willing to consider trying at least a one-shot of Margaret Weis Production's Marvel Heroic RPG due in no small part to how much I enjoyed the Avengers movies (which I've seen three times so far, enjoying each viewing just as much as the first time).
Well, as the Star Wars NJO campaign that I play in on Wednesday nights gets ready to launch into its end-game, the GM of that game pitched the idea of his running Marve Heroic RPG once the current campaign came to an end. Seeing as how the Avengers was still fairly fresh in our collective minds, we agreed. But the GM had two caveats: The first was that we had play a hero; not an anti-hero or borderline villain, but an actual heroic character. Also, we could use an established hero from the comics, but only if that character had not appeared in a movie form. So no Film!Avengers, or X-Men, or even Spider-Man for us. Truthfully, these really only annoyed one player that was eager to role-play Deadpool, but for most of us, this wasn't much of an issue.
Having only really gotten involved with comics during the early to mid 90's, I opted for my favorite character from that era, the novice hero Darkhawk. Seeing as I hadn't been paying all that much attention to Marvel comics for some time, I wasn't fully aware that he'd been brought out of relative obscurity and promoted to participant in cosmic-level events and that apparently most of the events of his old series had been retconned away as being one big delusion. Wowzers.
Well, as the GM was thinking of setting this in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that did give me some leeway in concocting Darkhawk's background for this campaign. So I gave some thought to that, decided I'd keep the core concept: Teenage kid finds a weird psuedo-magical amulet that transforms him into a super-hero. And I can always flesh out a background blurb later, deciding what aspects of his personal and family life from the comics I want to keep. For those of that have no clue who Darkhawk is, you can get most of the salient details from the fansite Darkhawk Zone, found here: http://nunoxei.com/darkhawkzone/
Okay, got my character concept, so on to character creation... and pardon the sarcasm, but this is where the real fun begins. In opposition to just about every other RPG on the market, character creation in MHRPG is almost entirely freeform. No points, no rolling, no classes, no hit points. You pretty much pick what powers suit your concept and slap the numbers together. Maybe it's the power-gamer aspect in me, but this just seems so ripe for abuse. Well, no matter, on to creating as faithful a PC version of Darkhawk as I can manage.
So, starting off, each character has three affiliations: Solo, Buddy, and Team. These form the basis of your dice pools in the game, and are generally based upon whether you're working alone, with a partner, or with a group, assigning a d10, d8, and d6 to reflect how good you under those three circumstances. Going by his solo series, Darkhawk seems pretty good at operating on his own, doesn't often work with a team, but seems to work pretty well with a partner, so I opted to set his affiliations a Solo d8, Buddy d10, and Team d6.
Okay, next step is Distinctions. Pretty much, these are three core traits that reflect either who the character is or their personality, and are added to your dice pool when they would apply. These can be used as d8s for a better chance at success when used, or as d4s which also grants you a Plot Point (in-game currency to do cool stuff). So, having read-up on Darkhawk's entry pages various web-pages, I chose to go with "Anger Issues" (never was the most level-headed person, even during his own series, "Edge Against Crime" (what he thought of himself as during the early part of his run), and finally "Into The Fray" (never really saw Chris as being one to hesitate to get into the action, which can easily be a double-edged sword).
Third, we come to the real doozy... Powers. If any section of a superhero RPG needs firm guidelines, it's the powers section. And when it comes to choosing the, MHRPG has little beyond "here's what they generally do, chose what feels right for your hero, but don't be a dick and pick straight d12s for your powers." Yeah. So, back to building Darkhawk, I figure he's got two Power Sets, which is the term that MHRPG uses to describe collections of powers, such as Wolvy having "Feral Mutant" for his healing factor and senses, or Iron Man having "Powered Armor" for his suit and "Weapons Platform" for the suit's weapons, or Captain America putting his 'peak human abilities' under "Super-Soldier Program."
So for Darkhawk, I go with two Power Sets, the first being "Armored Form" (I figure that since this is a starting-out version of Darkhawk, he's not really aware of the whole body-swap android body thing, and I may not even go that route with this character) and the second being "Darkhawk Weapons" to cover his amulet and claw bracer. For the Armored Form, I stick to Enhanced (d8) levels of Durability (resisting damage), Reflexes (reaction time), Stamina, and Strength, while also picking up a Senses power (labeled as Infrared Visor) at d8 and Subsonic Flight, also a d8. The last bit was a point of contention, as under his default form, Darkhawk is generally restricted to gliding, but since DH is also considered to be on par with Spider-man in terms of strength, the GM allowed it since I'd chosen to be weaker than Marvel has officially pegged the ol' bucket-head at being. For "Darkhawk Weapons," I take Force Blast at d10 (kid can do some damage with that sucker), Superhuman Durability to reflect his amulet-generated force shield (giving him an even better shot at avoiding damage), and Claw Bracer at d6 to round out the set. In the comics, his Claw Bracer also had a grapple line, but since my DH can fly, that's not really needed, and he's got plenty of powers already from his "Armored Form" power set.
Next step is to add at least one SFX and one Limit to each Power Set, which boils down to a special trick your hero can employ in regards to that particularly power set and something that works against you in regards to that power set, respectively.
As part of his new history, Darkhawk has access to something called "the datasong," which is a means apparently for the "Fraternity of Raptors" to communicate and work towards their goals. Over at the Doom Pool (a fan website for MHRPG, found here), the site's author gave his version of DH an SFX version of the datasong, giving a boost to noncombat rolls. I opted to just go with a straight Boost SFX, since this Power Set is only available when Chris is in the Darkhawk form. Another trait of Darkhawk is his "body swap to insta-fix Darkhawk's damage." That one gave me some trouble, and I ultimately wound up using something similar to Wolverine's Healing Factor SFX, which is a bit more powerful (especially if I spend a Plot Point), but the entire power set gets shutdown the reflect the "body swap." Allows for really fast healing, but can be very costly in terms of Plot Points if I need to do so in the middle of a fight. For this power set's limit, I again took inspiration from the Doom Pool's write-up and used a shutdown limit that allows me to just "switch off" any Armored Form power to gain a Plot Point, though turning that particular power "back on" isn't as simple.
For his Darkhawk Weapons power set, I go with the Unleashed SFX tied to his Force Blast, allowing him to really cut loose if need be, though at a risk of growing the GM's doom pool (pretty much what he uses to bolster NPC foes and make life tough for the heroes) if I fail my action roll, so something to be used with caution. I also tacked on a Limit that says if Armored Form is shutdown, so to is Darkhawk Weapons.
Okay, powers are resolved (phew!), which brings us to Specialties, which are MHRPG's equivalent to skills. This are pretty much macro-skills that cover what your hero is good at. A d8 rating means you're pretty good (better than the average joe by far), while a d10 means you're amongst the best in the world. For Darkhawk, I chose Combat (he's hand some martial arts instruction), Crime (both parents are involved in law enforcement, so he's bound to have picked up a few notions on crime-busting during dinner conversations), and Menace (his dark form and freaky voice are better suited to intimidation than friendly persuasion). Well, that was easy.
A
Last part to building a character are what's called Milestones. Pretty much, this is a way for your hero to gain XP to advance your character by playing in character with their particular story arc. For Darkhawk, I opted for the first one to adopt the "Amulet & Anger" Milestone from the write-up on the Doom Pool site, changing the first entry milestone to trigger when DH uses is Unleashed SFX, but keeping the 2nd and 3rd entries. For his second milestone, I decided to create my own Milestone to reflect that this version of Darkhawk is still a rookie crime-fighter and is a bit hot-headed.
So now that I've gone through all that, here's the final result:
Thanks to NunoXEI for his work on the Darkhawk Zone fansite, which proved quite helpful in coming up with my "Marvel Cinematic Universe" version of Darkhawk.
Well, as the Star Wars NJO campaign that I play in on Wednesday nights gets ready to launch into its end-game, the GM of that game pitched the idea of his running Marve Heroic RPG once the current campaign came to an end. Seeing as how the Avengers was still fairly fresh in our collective minds, we agreed. But the GM had two caveats: The first was that we had play a hero; not an anti-hero or borderline villain, but an actual heroic character. Also, we could use an established hero from the comics, but only if that character had not appeared in a movie form. So no Film!Avengers, or X-Men, or even Spider-Man for us. Truthfully, these really only annoyed one player that was eager to role-play Deadpool, but for most of us, this wasn't much of an issue.
Having only really gotten involved with comics during the early to mid 90's, I opted for my favorite character from that era, the novice hero Darkhawk. Seeing as I hadn't been paying all that much attention to Marvel comics for some time, I wasn't fully aware that he'd been brought out of relative obscurity and promoted to participant in cosmic-level events and that apparently most of the events of his old series had been retconned away as being one big delusion. Wowzers.
Well, as the GM was thinking of setting this in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that did give me some leeway in concocting Darkhawk's background for this campaign. So I gave some thought to that, decided I'd keep the core concept: Teenage kid finds a weird psuedo-magical amulet that transforms him into a super-hero. And I can always flesh out a background blurb later, deciding what aspects of his personal and family life from the comics I want to keep. For those of that have no clue who Darkhawk is, you can get most of the salient details from the fansite Darkhawk Zone, found here: http://nunoxei.com/darkhawkzone/
Okay, got my character concept, so on to character creation... and pardon the sarcasm, but this is where the real fun begins. In opposition to just about every other RPG on the market, character creation in MHRPG is almost entirely freeform. No points, no rolling, no classes, no hit points. You pretty much pick what powers suit your concept and slap the numbers together. Maybe it's the power-gamer aspect in me, but this just seems so ripe for abuse. Well, no matter, on to creating as faithful a PC version of Darkhawk as I can manage.
So, starting off, each character has three affiliations: Solo, Buddy, and Team. These form the basis of your dice pools in the game, and are generally based upon whether you're working alone, with a partner, or with a group, assigning a d10, d8, and d6 to reflect how good you under those three circumstances. Going by his solo series, Darkhawk seems pretty good at operating on his own, doesn't often work with a team, but seems to work pretty well with a partner, so I opted to set his affiliations a Solo d8, Buddy d10, and Team d6.
Okay, next step is Distinctions. Pretty much, these are three core traits that reflect either who the character is or their personality, and are added to your dice pool when they would apply. These can be used as d8s for a better chance at success when used, or as d4s which also grants you a Plot Point (in-game currency to do cool stuff). So, having read-up on Darkhawk's entry pages various web-pages, I chose to go with "Anger Issues" (never was the most level-headed person, even during his own series, "Edge Against Crime" (what he thought of himself as during the early part of his run), and finally "Into The Fray" (never really saw Chris as being one to hesitate to get into the action, which can easily be a double-edged sword).
Third, we come to the real doozy... Powers. If any section of a superhero RPG needs firm guidelines, it's the powers section. And when it comes to choosing the, MHRPG has little beyond "here's what they generally do, chose what feels right for your hero, but don't be a dick and pick straight d12s for your powers." Yeah. So, back to building Darkhawk, I figure he's got two Power Sets, which is the term that MHRPG uses to describe collections of powers, such as Wolvy having "Feral Mutant" for his healing factor and senses, or Iron Man having "Powered Armor" for his suit and "Weapons Platform" for the suit's weapons, or Captain America putting his 'peak human abilities' under "Super-Soldier Program."
So for Darkhawk, I go with two Power Sets, the first being "Armored Form" (I figure that since this is a starting-out version of Darkhawk, he's not really aware of the whole body-swap android body thing, and I may not even go that route with this character) and the second being "Darkhawk Weapons" to cover his amulet and claw bracer. For the Armored Form, I stick to Enhanced (d8) levels of Durability (resisting damage), Reflexes (reaction time), Stamina, and Strength, while also picking up a Senses power (labeled as Infrared Visor) at d8 and Subsonic Flight, also a d8. The last bit was a point of contention, as under his default form, Darkhawk is generally restricted to gliding, but since DH is also considered to be on par with Spider-man in terms of strength, the GM allowed it since I'd chosen to be weaker than Marvel has officially pegged the ol' bucket-head at being. For "Darkhawk Weapons," I take Force Blast at d10 (kid can do some damage with that sucker), Superhuman Durability to reflect his amulet-generated force shield (giving him an even better shot at avoiding damage), and Claw Bracer at d6 to round out the set. In the comics, his Claw Bracer also had a grapple line, but since my DH can fly, that's not really needed, and he's got plenty of powers already from his "Armored Form" power set.
Next step is to add at least one SFX and one Limit to each Power Set, which boils down to a special trick your hero can employ in regards to that particularly power set and something that works against you in regards to that power set, respectively.
As part of his new history, Darkhawk has access to something called "the datasong," which is a means apparently for the "Fraternity of Raptors" to communicate and work towards their goals. Over at the Doom Pool (a fan website for MHRPG, found here), the site's author gave his version of DH an SFX version of the datasong, giving a boost to noncombat rolls. I opted to just go with a straight Boost SFX, since this Power Set is only available when Chris is in the Darkhawk form. Another trait of Darkhawk is his "body swap to insta-fix Darkhawk's damage." That one gave me some trouble, and I ultimately wound up using something similar to Wolverine's Healing Factor SFX, which is a bit more powerful (especially if I spend a Plot Point), but the entire power set gets shutdown the reflect the "body swap." Allows for really fast healing, but can be very costly in terms of Plot Points if I need to do so in the middle of a fight. For this power set's limit, I again took inspiration from the Doom Pool's write-up and used a shutdown limit that allows me to just "switch off" any Armored Form power to gain a Plot Point, though turning that particular power "back on" isn't as simple.
For his Darkhawk Weapons power set, I go with the Unleashed SFX tied to his Force Blast, allowing him to really cut loose if need be, though at a risk of growing the GM's doom pool (pretty much what he uses to bolster NPC foes and make life tough for the heroes) if I fail my action roll, so something to be used with caution. I also tacked on a Limit that says if Armored Form is shutdown, so to is Darkhawk Weapons.
Okay, powers are resolved (phew!), which brings us to Specialties, which are MHRPG's equivalent to skills. This are pretty much macro-skills that cover what your hero is good at. A d8 rating means you're pretty good (better than the average joe by far), while a d10 means you're amongst the best in the world. For Darkhawk, I chose Combat (he's hand some martial arts instruction), Crime (both parents are involved in law enforcement, so he's bound to have picked up a few notions on crime-busting during dinner conversations), and Menace (his dark form and freaky voice are better suited to intimidation than friendly persuasion). Well, that was easy.
A
Last part to building a character are what's called Milestones. Pretty much, this is a way for your hero to gain XP to advance your character by playing in character with their particular story arc. For Darkhawk, I opted for the first one to adopt the "Amulet & Anger" Milestone from the write-up on the Doom Pool site, changing the first entry milestone to trigger when DH uses is Unleashed SFX, but keeping the 2nd and 3rd entries. For his second milestone, I decided to create my own Milestone to reflect that this version of Darkhawk is still a rookie crime-fighter and is a bit hot-headed.
So now that I've gone through all that, here's the final result:
Darkhawk
Affiliations: Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6
Distinctions: Anger Issues, Edge Against Crime, Into The Fray
Armored Form
Enhanced Durability d8, Enhanced Reflexes d8, Enhanced Stamina d8, Enhanced Strength d8, Infrared Visor d8, Subsonic Flight d8
- SFX: Datasong. In a pool including an Armored Form die, replace two dice of equal type with one die of +1 step.
- SFX: Null Space Healing: Recover your physical stress or physical trauma, or spend 1 pp to recover both and then shutdown Armored Form. Recover Armored From by spending 1 pp or during a Transition scene.
- Limit: Amulet Interference. Shutdown any Armored Form power to gain 1pp. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition scene.
Darkhawk Weapons
Claw Bracer d6, Force Blast d10, Superhuman Durability d10
- SFX: Unleashed: Step up or double Force Blast for one action. If the action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the normal rating of your power die.
- Limit: Restriction: If Armored Form power set is shutdown, also shutdown Darkhawk Weapons power set. Recover Darkhawk Weapons power set when Armored Form power set is recovered.
Specialties: Combat Expert d8, Crime Expert d8, Menace Expert d8
Milestones
Amulet and Anger
- 1 XP When you first use the Unleashed SFX of your Darkhawk Weapons power set.
- 3 XP When you first exploit emotional or mental stress to fuel a die pool.
- 10 XP When you either become emotionally stressed out or deal trauma to a foe while exploiting emotional stress.
Rookie Hero
- 1 XP When you first do something brash or unwise.
- 3 XP When you ask another hero for help or agree to help another hero.
- 10 XP When you join a hero team or turn down an invitation to a hero team and choose to go it alone.
Thanks to NunoXEI for his work on the Darkhawk Zone fansite, which proved quite helpful in coming up with my "Marvel Cinematic Universe" version of Darkhawk.
May 7, 2012
Avengers Assemble!
Sorry, been a tad busy of late. Fair warning, there's going to be some spoilers regarding Marvel Studios' latest cinematic offering, Avengers. So if you've not seen it, you may want to skip this post. Then again, it's going to be a fair amount of fanboy gushing, so you might want to skip it anyway.
So I opted to catch an evening showing of Avengers at the local cineplex, figuring that after a long day of work, I'd take a chance to unwind a bit. I tend not to go into most movies with high expectations, just that I'll be entertained for a couple hours.
To sum up, Avengers rocked.
It was pretty darn close to being a perfect super-hero movie, with Iron Man just being slightly better in my opinion. They got each of the characters more or less right, though I'm not sure how I feel on Banner being a tad too light-hearted about his "monumental anger management issues." Then again, since Thor seemed to be the more mellow fellow he was at the end of his movie, I guess Banner's attitude is just a reflection of his character growth from the end of the Ed Norton flick. For me, Tony Stark pretty much stole every scene he was in, though I wouldn't have minded Black Widow getting a tad more character time, but that could just due to wanting to see more of Scarlett Johannson on the big screen. I'm a guy, sue me.
As should be expected from a Whedon-directed film, there was a lot of humor to be found in many of the character interactions, such as "how nothing is gonna surprise me anymore" from Cap to Fury, who responds with saying that ten bucks proves Cap is wrong. The next time Cap sees Director Fury aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Steve just pulls a ten-spot out of his pocket and hands it over without a word. Or the SHIELD bridge member that actually was playing Galaga when Tony made his entrance onto the helicarrier's bridge. Or Tony making his Big Damn Heroes entrance by first hijacking the PA system on Black Widow's quinjet to blare out AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill." Or Tony mocking Thor's old-fashioned manner of speaking. Or Hulk's reaction to Loki's attempt to scold the giant brute as though he were an unruly child, followed by Loki's reaction to Hulk's response. Tony was right, things really did not end well for Loki. Also, the post-credits scene with the group, most of them still in costume, taking Tony's earlier suggestion and having a meal at the shawarma place, which was hilariously awkward as the place is still a mess from the fighting outside and the group is coming off one heck of an adrenaline rush.
But seeing as how this is a super-hero movie, there needs to be great action scenes, and Avengers did not disappoint in this regard. The entire final battle sequence was just amazing, with everyone making meaningful contributions to the battle and playing to their respective strengths. But the fight between Thor and Hulk aboard the helicarrier (started when Thor steps in to protect Black Widow from a raging Hulk) was cool as well, as throughout the movie Hulk pretty much dominated any fight he was in, except for this one. I got the feeling that Thor was still holding back for most of the battle, and he still gave Jolly Green a heck of a fight.
There aren't many movies I'll pay theater prices to see more than once (Revenge of the Sith was the last one), and Avengers is definitely one of those I will gladly pay to go see a second time, maybe even a third.
One a gaming related note, seeing this movie made me fish out the PDF copy I bought of Margaret-Weis Productions' Marvel Heroic RPG and give it a more complete read thru (to be far, I was a good deal more enamored of One Ring at the time). I dunno if this will ever get on the table, but I can at least appreciate the more narrative approach they took in regards to a superhero RPG, which does at least fit with Marvel's generally "low-powered" feel to their characters. Still, I might be willing to try a one-shot to see how it goes.
So I opted to catch an evening showing of Avengers at the local cineplex, figuring that after a long day of work, I'd take a chance to unwind a bit. I tend not to go into most movies with high expectations, just that I'll be entertained for a couple hours.
To sum up, Avengers rocked.
It was pretty darn close to being a perfect super-hero movie, with Iron Man just being slightly better in my opinion. They got each of the characters more or less right, though I'm not sure how I feel on Banner being a tad too light-hearted about his "monumental anger management issues." Then again, since Thor seemed to be the more mellow fellow he was at the end of his movie, I guess Banner's attitude is just a reflection of his character growth from the end of the Ed Norton flick. For me, Tony Stark pretty much stole every scene he was in, though I wouldn't have minded Black Widow getting a tad more character time, but that could just due to wanting to see more of Scarlett Johannson on the big screen. I'm a guy, sue me.
As should be expected from a Whedon-directed film, there was a lot of humor to be found in many of the character interactions, such as "how nothing is gonna surprise me anymore" from Cap to Fury, who responds with saying that ten bucks proves Cap is wrong. The next time Cap sees Director Fury aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Steve just pulls a ten-spot out of his pocket and hands it over without a word. Or the SHIELD bridge member that actually was playing Galaga when Tony made his entrance onto the helicarrier's bridge. Or Tony making his Big Damn Heroes entrance by first hijacking the PA system on Black Widow's quinjet to blare out AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill." Or Tony mocking Thor's old-fashioned manner of speaking. Or Hulk's reaction to Loki's attempt to scold the giant brute as though he were an unruly child, followed by Loki's reaction to Hulk's response. Tony was right, things really did not end well for Loki. Also, the post-credits scene with the group, most of them still in costume, taking Tony's earlier suggestion and having a meal at the shawarma place, which was hilariously awkward as the place is still a mess from the fighting outside and the group is coming off one heck of an adrenaline rush.
But seeing as how this is a super-hero movie, there needs to be great action scenes, and Avengers did not disappoint in this regard. The entire final battle sequence was just amazing, with everyone making meaningful contributions to the battle and playing to their respective strengths. But the fight between Thor and Hulk aboard the helicarrier (started when Thor steps in to protect Black Widow from a raging Hulk) was cool as well, as throughout the movie Hulk pretty much dominated any fight he was in, except for this one. I got the feeling that Thor was still holding back for most of the battle, and he still gave Jolly Green a heck of a fight.
There aren't many movies I'll pay theater prices to see more than once (Revenge of the Sith was the last one), and Avengers is definitely one of those I will gladly pay to go see a second time, maybe even a third.
One a gaming related note, seeing this movie made me fish out the PDF copy I bought of Margaret-Weis Productions' Marvel Heroic RPG and give it a more complete read thru (to be far, I was a good deal more enamored of One Ring at the time). I dunno if this will ever get on the table, but I can at least appreciate the more narrative approach they took in regards to a superhero RPG, which does at least fit with Marvel's generally "low-powered" feel to their characters. Still, I might be willing to try a one-shot to see how it goes.
April 28, 2012
One Ring - House Rule notions
As was discussed in my last blog post, our Loremaster for One Ring has chosen to implement a few house rules to the game. Several prospective changes were proposed, discussed amongst the group both before and after, with some kept and some not. Those of you that know me from various Star Wars message boards (particularly the HoloNet or D20 Radio) will know that I largely seem unable to avoid tinkering with the rules of any RPG for very long. So even though I'm not running a One Ring game, why should that natural tendency be suppressed? So, that said, here's some notions that our group came up with to tinker with the rules for One Ring.
House Rule #1: New Weapon and Weapon Skill: Slings
Rationale: This actually cropped up during character creation, as Mirabella's player didn't see her Hobbit as being an archer but also wanted her to be good at throwing things. There's been a few takes on slings as weapons, but the GM wound up basing his take off a version offered by a chap under the handle of "Voidstate," and does the same damage as a short bow but has a lower Injury difficulty, making it easier for armored foes to avoid being wounded, though this is offset by it having no Encumbrance value to speak off and a largely limitless supply of ammo. The weapon itself is covered under the Slings skill, and the GM permitted Mira to swap out Bows for Slings.
In Play: Since Mira has yet to even get a threat of a critical hit with her sling, the lower Injury difficulty hasn't really meant much, though apparently she's got less range with her sling than if she had taken up a short bow, not that range really plays much of a part in One Ring.
Outcome: Here to stay, at least as long as Mirabella's a part of the Company.
House Rule #2: Endurance = Base value + Heart score + Body score
Rationale: The GM felt that character "hit points" were a tad on the low side, and that the Body score was something of a dump stat. Personally, I've seen over on Cubicle 7's One Ring board the house rule of reducing a hero's starting Fatigue score (pretty much the weight of all carried gear) by their Body score as a means of giving Body more value, but our group felt that would step too much on the toes of any Dwarf PCs, as they already get a break on their starting fatigue as their racial perk, to say nothing of most Dwarf backgrounds already providing a pretty healthy Body score.
In Play: Since the fighter-types (Brander and Bruni) had decent Body scores, a few extra points of Endurance helped, particularly for Bruni who took a few more hits than anyone else due to a slightly lower Parry value compared to Brander or Rory, who get by with a stout shield and a high Wits score respectively. And given the prior fight with the swamp troll, we all agreed that having a slight buffer was a good thing.
Outcome: We're keeping this one.
House Rule #3: Add Body score to base weapon damage
Rationale: Again, a way to make Body mean something outside of certain Common skill checks.
In Play: Frankly, the heroes were doing way more damage than they should have, particularly Brander and Bruni, who were able to kill a swamp dweller on just a basic success on our attack rolls, something neither of us was having trouble with achieving, turning what was meant to be a tough encounter into a veritable cake walk for the party.
Outcome: Kicked to the curb. We may revisit this in some fashion or another, as the GM would like how strong/burly a character is have some impact on their damage output, but that might just be a hold-over from D&D that needs to be let go.
House Rule #4: Making the Healing skill more useful to recovering lost Endurance.
Rationale: Mostly from the group's perspective that barring Wounds (which can take a bloody long time to heal if you've got a high Endurance total), the Healing skill in One Ring really isn't all that useful. So, the GM proposed that at the end of a combat encounter, if the heroes are able and willing to take a "short rest," then a PC can attempt a TN 14 Healing check. On a basic success, one patient (including the one making the check) recovers Endurance equal to the healer's Wits. A great success lets the healer treat up to three patients, while an extraordinary success lets the healer treat a number of patients equal to their Heart score.
In Play: This only cropped up once, as Mira wanted to do what she could for the minor scrapes and scars that Balin, Bruni, and Brander had suffered at the claws of the marsh-dwellers, but given she has a pretty high Heart score (one of, if not the highest in the group I think), that meant we all recovered quite a bit of Endurance on top of what we'd get from a normal recovery; this resulted in Brander being fully healed up after the short rest.
Outcome: We still want Healing to be of more use, but the initial implementation was just a bit too good. We're going to try a different take for next time we play, this one being that instead of the degrees of success determining how many folks you heal, they determine how much Endurance is regained, starting with 2 on a simple success, 4 on a great success, and 6 on an extraordinary success, and that you can only tend to one patient per roll, though we're not quite sure on how many rolls would be permitted during a post-combat short rest.
House Rule #5: Reduce Experience and Advancement Point costs by half.
Rationale: From what I've read and how the GM feels about level advancement in level-based games, we both agreed that character progression in One Ring can take a long time. So, to facilitate more rapid character growth, the GM opted to cut the listed costs in half (rounded up where necessary). This was spurred by the fact that we've really only garnered about 12 Advancement Points and 5 Experience Points, so there's not much we can do with our points other than save them up.
In Play: During our third session's Fellowship Phase, we actually started to see some development with our characters, particularly in our common skills. Brander is now better at calling upon his force of personality as well as Ranger-type traits such as stealth and looking for clues, and is a tad wiser than he was prior to this adventure, netting him a Virtue due to increasing his Wisdom rank.
Outcome: We're doubtless going to see our characters advance a lot faster, than they might under the usual progression, so it's just as well that the GM also instituted a "can't raise a skill or trait more than one step per Fellowship Phase" rule, thought that might already be in the books. But since we each have a taste for "instant gratification" when it comes to games with point-based advancement, we're cool with that so long as the GM is.
House Rule #6: Armor reducing Endurance loss from enemy attacks
Rationale: This sparked up from Grimbald's (now Bruni's) player about how armor was generally useless unless the enemy scored a "critical hit," and that unless you were decked out in heavy armor, a lot of crits would still result in wounds. So, we agreed to try out a house rule that any Endurance loss you suffered from an enemy attack was reduced by the number of success dice of protection your armor provided. So Brander in his leather corselet (which provides 2 success dice on Injury tests) would suffer two less points of lost Endurance when struck by a goblin's sword.
In Play: This was part of why Bruni, in spite of getting mobbed by marsh dwellers, wasn't taken out in spite of starting low on Endurance, as his mail shirt simply absorbed so much of the damage they were dealing. Even Brander (was still hurting from the swamp troll fight) wasn't hurt much.
Outcome: While we do agree that armor could stand to be a tad more useful, going the route of "damage reduction" isn't for us, particularly if the GM had chosen to let it apply to the bad guys as well, as that would result in combat slowing down quite a bit, especially against a very heavily armored foe or one with truckloads of Endurance, or worse yet a foe with both.
House Rule #7: Increased Injury TN from a great or extraordinary success
Rationale: Rather than simply going with "more successes equals more Endurance loss," C7 forum member cheeplives offered the idea of rather than adding your Body score to the damage dealt when you get a great or extraordinary success, you could instead increase the Injury TN of your attack by +2 (great success) or +4 (extraordinary success). Granted, you first have to roll well enough on your Feat die to possibly wound your target, but it would provide a better chance to injure a well-armored foe.
In Play: This actually showed up in our previous session against the swamp troll, with the GM allowing me to put the extraordinary success I rolled to better use, as the troll still had plenty of Endurance and the fight was starting to drag on, giving Brander better odds of ending the fight right then and there.
Outcome: This one is also a keeper. So thanks to cheeplives for this one.
House Rule #8: Special Training during Fellowship Phase
Rationale: As you might recall, I mentioned that there wasn't many uses for Treasure (the method that One Ring uses to track accumulated wealth). However, cheeplives struck again with the optional undertaking that permits a character to raise a single Common or Weapon skill, paying in Treasure points rather than Advancement or Experience points to reflect the costs of finding a suitable teacher and/or training facilities. Cheeplives set the costs a bit higher than our GM, who opted for New Level x4 for Common Skills and New Level x8 for Weapon Skills.
In Play: None of us are wealthy enough to really take advantage of this, but it is nice to know that the option is out there.
Outcome: As yet to be determined.
So there you have it, eight House Rules that our group considered and (for the most part) tried out. Maybe you'll find something of interest in the above, maybe not. There's also a thread with various house rules on the Cubicle 7 forums to be found here for further reading if you are so inclined:
http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?trk=cubicle7&showtopic=3018
House Rule #1: New Weapon and Weapon Skill: Slings
Rationale: This actually cropped up during character creation, as Mirabella's player didn't see her Hobbit as being an archer but also wanted her to be good at throwing things. There's been a few takes on slings as weapons, but the GM wound up basing his take off a version offered by a chap under the handle of "Voidstate," and does the same damage as a short bow but has a lower Injury difficulty, making it easier for armored foes to avoid being wounded, though this is offset by it having no Encumbrance value to speak off and a largely limitless supply of ammo. The weapon itself is covered under the Slings skill, and the GM permitted Mira to swap out Bows for Slings.
In Play: Since Mira has yet to even get a threat of a critical hit with her sling, the lower Injury difficulty hasn't really meant much, though apparently she's got less range with her sling than if she had taken up a short bow, not that range really plays much of a part in One Ring.
Outcome: Here to stay, at least as long as Mirabella's a part of the Company.
House Rule #2: Endurance = Base value + Heart score + Body score
Rationale: The GM felt that character "hit points" were a tad on the low side, and that the Body score was something of a dump stat. Personally, I've seen over on Cubicle 7's One Ring board the house rule of reducing a hero's starting Fatigue score (pretty much the weight of all carried gear) by their Body score as a means of giving Body more value, but our group felt that would step too much on the toes of any Dwarf PCs, as they already get a break on their starting fatigue as their racial perk, to say nothing of most Dwarf backgrounds already providing a pretty healthy Body score.
In Play: Since the fighter-types (Brander and Bruni) had decent Body scores, a few extra points of Endurance helped, particularly for Bruni who took a few more hits than anyone else due to a slightly lower Parry value compared to Brander or Rory, who get by with a stout shield and a high Wits score respectively. And given the prior fight with the swamp troll, we all agreed that having a slight buffer was a good thing.
Outcome: We're keeping this one.
House Rule #3: Add Body score to base weapon damage
Rationale: Again, a way to make Body mean something outside of certain Common skill checks.
In Play: Frankly, the heroes were doing way more damage than they should have, particularly Brander and Bruni, who were able to kill a swamp dweller on just a basic success on our attack rolls, something neither of us was having trouble with achieving, turning what was meant to be a tough encounter into a veritable cake walk for the party.
Outcome: Kicked to the curb. We may revisit this in some fashion or another, as the GM would like how strong/burly a character is have some impact on their damage output, but that might just be a hold-over from D&D that needs to be let go.
House Rule #4: Making the Healing skill more useful to recovering lost Endurance.
Rationale: Mostly from the group's perspective that barring Wounds (which can take a bloody long time to heal if you've got a high Endurance total), the Healing skill in One Ring really isn't all that useful. So, the GM proposed that at the end of a combat encounter, if the heroes are able and willing to take a "short rest," then a PC can attempt a TN 14 Healing check. On a basic success, one patient (including the one making the check) recovers Endurance equal to the healer's Wits. A great success lets the healer treat up to three patients, while an extraordinary success lets the healer treat a number of patients equal to their Heart score.
In Play: This only cropped up once, as Mira wanted to do what she could for the minor scrapes and scars that Balin, Bruni, and Brander had suffered at the claws of the marsh-dwellers, but given she has a pretty high Heart score (one of, if not the highest in the group I think), that meant we all recovered quite a bit of Endurance on top of what we'd get from a normal recovery; this resulted in Brander being fully healed up after the short rest.
Outcome: We still want Healing to be of more use, but the initial implementation was just a bit too good. We're going to try a different take for next time we play, this one being that instead of the degrees of success determining how many folks you heal, they determine how much Endurance is regained, starting with 2 on a simple success, 4 on a great success, and 6 on an extraordinary success, and that you can only tend to one patient per roll, though we're not quite sure on how many rolls would be permitted during a post-combat short rest.
House Rule #5: Reduce Experience and Advancement Point costs by half.
Rationale: From what I've read and how the GM feels about level advancement in level-based games, we both agreed that character progression in One Ring can take a long time. So, to facilitate more rapid character growth, the GM opted to cut the listed costs in half (rounded up where necessary). This was spurred by the fact that we've really only garnered about 12 Advancement Points and 5 Experience Points, so there's not much we can do with our points other than save them up.
In Play: During our third session's Fellowship Phase, we actually started to see some development with our characters, particularly in our common skills. Brander is now better at calling upon his force of personality as well as Ranger-type traits such as stealth and looking for clues, and is a tad wiser than he was prior to this adventure, netting him a Virtue due to increasing his Wisdom rank.
Outcome: We're doubtless going to see our characters advance a lot faster, than they might under the usual progression, so it's just as well that the GM also instituted a "can't raise a skill or trait more than one step per Fellowship Phase" rule, thought that might already be in the books. But since we each have a taste for "instant gratification" when it comes to games with point-based advancement, we're cool with that so long as the GM is.
House Rule #6: Armor reducing Endurance loss from enemy attacks
Rationale: This sparked up from Grimbald's (now Bruni's) player about how armor was generally useless unless the enemy scored a "critical hit," and that unless you were decked out in heavy armor, a lot of crits would still result in wounds. So, we agreed to try out a house rule that any Endurance loss you suffered from an enemy attack was reduced by the number of success dice of protection your armor provided. So Brander in his leather corselet (which provides 2 success dice on Injury tests) would suffer two less points of lost Endurance when struck by a goblin's sword.
In Play: This was part of why Bruni, in spite of getting mobbed by marsh dwellers, wasn't taken out in spite of starting low on Endurance, as his mail shirt simply absorbed so much of the damage they were dealing. Even Brander (was still hurting from the swamp troll fight) wasn't hurt much.
Outcome: While we do agree that armor could stand to be a tad more useful, going the route of "damage reduction" isn't for us, particularly if the GM had chosen to let it apply to the bad guys as well, as that would result in combat slowing down quite a bit, especially against a very heavily armored foe or one with truckloads of Endurance, or worse yet a foe with both.
House Rule #7: Increased Injury TN from a great or extraordinary success
Rationale: Rather than simply going with "more successes equals more Endurance loss," C7 forum member cheeplives offered the idea of rather than adding your Body score to the damage dealt when you get a great or extraordinary success, you could instead increase the Injury TN of your attack by +2 (great success) or +4 (extraordinary success). Granted, you first have to roll well enough on your Feat die to possibly wound your target, but it would provide a better chance to injure a well-armored foe.
In Play: This actually showed up in our previous session against the swamp troll, with the GM allowing me to put the extraordinary success I rolled to better use, as the troll still had plenty of Endurance and the fight was starting to drag on, giving Brander better odds of ending the fight right then and there.
Outcome: This one is also a keeper. So thanks to cheeplives for this one.
House Rule #8: Special Training during Fellowship Phase
Rationale: As you might recall, I mentioned that there wasn't many uses for Treasure (the method that One Ring uses to track accumulated wealth). However, cheeplives struck again with the optional undertaking that permits a character to raise a single Common or Weapon skill, paying in Treasure points rather than Advancement or Experience points to reflect the costs of finding a suitable teacher and/or training facilities. Cheeplives set the costs a bit higher than our GM, who opted for New Level x4 for Common Skills and New Level x8 for Weapon Skills.
In Play: None of us are wealthy enough to really take advantage of this, but it is nice to know that the option is out there.
Outcome: As yet to be determined.
So there you have it, eight House Rules that our group considered and (for the most part) tried out. Maybe you'll find something of interest in the above, maybe not. There's also a thread with various house rules on the Cubicle 7 forums to be found here for further reading if you are so inclined:
http://cubicle7.clicdev.com/f/index.php?trk=cubicle7&showtopic=3018
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