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Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[SOLDIER First]

Overflow power isn't Super Saiyan, that's just Kaioken at most.

[Kassire]

Got my grubby hands on some of the Savage Rifts books. Holy shit is this stuff neat, way simpler than straight up Palladium.

Though in retrospect, being more straight-forward than the Palladium system isn't all that hard.

[tonnot98]

I was writing a campaign, and wrote myself an example of a dramatic hammering, should a group member ever get incarcerated by the already cruel and untrusting dwarves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(The hammerdwarf looks up to you, and then looks to your knees, and in an instant he swings his hammer for them. *roll* You hear a crack and fall to your other knee, and feel the same hammer wholloped against your chest. *roll* You fall backwards, not hitting the floor for you are suspended by the chains. Pain is jolting through your whole body as you see the dwarf raise his hammer for another strike, this time aimed for your head. *dex save* *roll* You swing yourself to the right, giving a wide berth between you and the hammer, which has now struck the chain holding your left arm. The chain doesn't look too damaged. The hammerer puts his foot out as he gears up for another swing. *dex save* You try to dodge again, but he brings the hammer down hard upon your shoulder. *roll* The hammerer backs up, observing you for a moment. *con save* You manage to stand yourself up, against the pain and injuries. The hammerer readies himself before lunging for you. *dex save* The hammerer misjudges his distance, and before he can bring his hammer down, you deliver an unexpected kick to his chest. He dropped the hammer, and stumbles backwards. You see the guards around you ready their spears....)

[Rolan7]

(I'm two sessions behind but I'm going to share a snippet from last night's session)

The four of us squeezed into the booth, roughly facing the two strange, pale men.  It was midnight, yet they wore thick sunglasses and had their fedoras tipped low over their faces.  Clearly something to hide.  They each carried a heavy metal briefcase.

They seemed uncomfortable in such a public place.  The meet had originally been scheduled for an abandoned field in the boonies - an obvious trap.  But when we (well, I) accidentally killed a man while preparing the area (I thought he was a vampire!), they panicked and agreed to meet here.

For vampires, they were nervous.  Scared.  Why were they making us a deal?  Whatever the reason, they placed the briefcases on the table and explained their demands.  We would stop reporting on the paranormal.  We would not upload our (blurry) vampire footage.  We would take their generous offer and retire in comfort.  One million dollars.

"The offer is good..."
"The money is VERY good!"
"But, to abandon our quest?  We are chosen..."  (That's me, always the lone voice advocating the main plot )
"What if I killed your partner right now?"

All eyes turned to Chad, sitting there in his Scrappy Do fursuit. 
"Uh, I guess you'd get arrested?" 
"Mm I dunno, I want to try it." 
"...I'd rip your head off your neck." 
"I'd like to see you try."

We actually managed to discuss terms a little bit while this was happening, but honestly...  We weren't completely opposed to Chad's plan.  It was incredibly dangerous, but he was taking the lead for us.  He did shout a guy into unconsciousness yesterday.  The other vampire, already nervous, lost his cool and unlocked his briefcase.  "T-that's enough!  Behold!"

White powder burst out of the case.

Jen and I were seated on the outside of the booth, and reacted quickly...  stumbling back from the table.  Jen pulled a syringe-gun, while I coughed and fell on the floor, weakened by the bacteria.  I looked up.  Chad was preparing to vault the table, and Sean had turned his skin to marble.  "You should not have done that..." said Jen.  I hesitated.  But when one of the vampires growled and began extending wolverine=like claws, I closed my eyes and pressed the button.

"Maxim 20:  If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win." - 70 Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries

Spoiler: This narrative is actually maybe kinda disturbingly violent, in retrospect.  Honest warning. (click to show/hide)

The window shattered as our van, parked right outside, exploded.  The air filled with shards of petroleum-coated metal, expensive dildos, cow manure, and cheap SC fireworks which stubbornly refused to ignite.  The intense heat instantly reduced the vampire at the window into a fine ash, which settled on the seat.  Something in the pile vibrated loudly.  The claw-vampire, missing his arm and most of his torso, hissed in terror and scampered away like an animal...  only to collapse into ash as well.  The Beast doesn't know how to stop-drop-roll.

Outside, the two bodyguards turned out to... not be vampires.  One collapsed, unconscious and burning, the other rolled around on the ground trying to put himself out.  I made a total of like... 4 morality rolls.  Along with murdering the farmer earlier (it was self defense!  I thought he was a vampire!  in uh, broad daylight) my character is very close to the dorfen "doesn't care about anything anymore" state.  Though delightfully, I didn't acquire any neuroses from descent into immorality.

So on the downside...  Chad and Sean were both in range of the explosion (though partly shielded by the wall!)  Sean's "armor of contempt", a pride power that makes his skin like marble, helped a lot.  He did promise to beat the crap of me later though (very fair, since our characters don't know how deadly those gangrel claws would have been).  Sean actually leapt through the shattered window, tackled the ghoul who was writhing on the pavement, and finished it off with his bare hands.  This is... actually something of a trend for Sean now...  Afterwards he perched on top of the vampires' car screaming "I AM A GOD" for several minutes.

Chad was considerably less fortunate.  For one thing, he had anthrax.  For another, we started getting really confused about rules   Somehow he was knocked unconscious by the initial blast (anthrax + explosion + intense fire, then he failed his stamina check to stay awake I think).  Jen pulled him out of the booth while I doused his burning fursuit with iced tea, then we attempted to administer first aid.  Our rolls were... astronomically unlucky.  Mostly mine, Jen did a good job assisting (though she did roll "1,1,1" once).  Failing caused my willpower to run out almost instantly (the downside to a pride power I have which grants willpower for succeeding).  Without willpower it was especially hopeless.  Even after begging my demon for a last point of will, we failed to save Chad.

except then we reread the rules and found that one success stabilizes, not 8.  8 would restore consciousness
But by that point Chad's player was prepared to move on to a new concept, so yeah, Chad died of a broken heart or something RIP

His demon emerged from the charred corpse with a howl.  Only we could see it (demonsight) as it went for the waitress who had (after like 4 minutes, fuck's sake) called the ambulance.
except apparently she had true faith or something because she got an amazingly good roll, 2% chance-good, instantly repulsing it.  We just stared as it erupted in flames, screaming, and disappeared into hell.  She had noooo idea.

The rest of us were fine though.  We pinned the explosion on the terrorists with all the anthrax and assault rifles.  Helped that we were infected and at the epicenter of the blast.  Turns out the "million dollar" briefcase was actually just 10K, though, I'm not sure what they expected would happen when we counted the money   Maybe it was purely a ruse.  We also rescued our editor-contact from the trunk of the vampires' car.  He might be a ghoul but we'll see, also he's joining our party to replace Chad.

We've inadvertently destroyed down many taverns and diners in our time as adventurers, but this had to rank up there with worst cases... particularly considering we're barely tougher than normal humans.  Usually we have DND "hit points" or vampiric abilities or something.  This time we literally just sat down next to a carbomb, then used it.

Spoiler: Visual aid and one of the least absurd rolls of the night.  The Starbucks sign is the waitress (click to show/hide)

The vampires are gone (dust).  Our van was at the top left.  The guy left of the pink car has been punched to death, by the guy standing on top of the pink car.  Not pictured: several minutes of "I AM A GOD" in shifting rainbow colors.
The random customers to the east actually got out of this alive.  They were too scared to actually see anything, except maybe the man made of marble screaming on top of the pink car.  Hrm.

good thing maximum masquerade-violation is basically our primary campaign goal, as paranormal investigators

[highmax28]

Horror campaign just ended.

I had the party deal with going into a crypt guarded by a modified death knight. They killed it, and then went in, only to find blood soaked walls and bones licked clean all strewn about the place. They then fought an enemy I custom made that looked like gollum if he was a holocaust survivor, having hardly any muscles to move outside of being near prey. They would get desperate when anything not their own kind was around and got strong due to hunger, and thats when I had then swarm the party (they had 1hp and died if you broke their grapple, but they hit hard).

They then discovered these things fed on their own dead, but they also were more a good source for something... Worse. Something fat and gluttonous, something that would sever their heads and hang them upside down by meat hooks to have their blood drain into pools of blood that these things would drink from.

Party clues in its vampires, and they find their first run in with them. And the description was they looked like junkenstein roadhog from Overwatch with huge jaws. The party kills them easily, but then they enter the refuse room with bodies and severed heads piled up as neatly as you could.

The party tries to discuss what's going on, and me being the asshole DM I am, I rolled a few stealth checks because they got loud with their convo, and they got ambushed by four of these things. One party member dies and another has his animal companion swallowed whole.

They rest up and the dead party member, being a revenant, awakens in the refuse room under piles and piles of dead bodies. They free him, and they then traverse back, only to find out the vampires laid traps out for the party, one of them almost killing a party member if he didn't get out of the way. Wizard rolls a crit and discovered all of the traps and disarmed them.

They make it to the second boss, who is like chucalin (I butchered that) from Final Fantasy Tactics except his legs are buried under so much fat that it can't move, with four sets of intestines in ts mouth to suck up blood from the pools that were depicted in the previous room. He almost wipes the party, but they get a lucky crit on him with a guiding bolt, which instead of turning to ash, he bursts with greenish, coagulated, thick blood (I sprayed the party members with water for effect)

The party took a long rest in this place and were awoken by screaming coming out of a hidden trapdoor that was under the huge vampire's body. Party moved away and then I made a huge mistake about forgetting about the wizard's necklace of fireballs (they just hit level 4) and she decimates six CR2 enemies tht they lured and blasted. Any that survived got killed as they came up to them via spike growth.

They end up getting ambushed by the last ones alive and the party gets wounded but keeps going.

Big mistake on their end.

They go and fight the final boss who was a vampire who was starved for a thousand years due to feeding on other vampires. This thing hit like a truck; he killed the revenant again and then he knocked out the ranger, who died due to death save failures.

They kill it and try to check out the room, only to have the vampire's soul manifest from pure hatred and attack them again. Wizard did max damage on her chromatic orb and insta killed it

They find a mask, and the wizard puts it on, only to find out it releases spikes if blood is applied to it. Wizard dies and the party freaks out.

Wizard then gets back up as a vampire and almost fully drains the cleric; her best friend IRL and in game. She makes an int check to try and save her:

The mask.

She turns her into a vampire as well, as I look at the wizard and say:

"You saw what they did here. You wanted power? You got it.

Now YOU'RE the monster..."

[NRDL]

Please tell me the wizard's name was Dio.

[highmax28]

Please tell me the wizard's name was Dio.

No, but the NPC who is the adopted son of the questgiver is named Derrik Brandon (and also relevant to the next quest)

[Jimmy]

For those who play IRL instead of online, how often do you use physical player handouts at your table?

I've tried giving players a handout of letters with clues in them before, and I'm considering making a map handout for use too. I think it's more exciting when your players can point to a piece of paper and use it as a prop, or draw plans on it.

[highmax28]

For those who play IRL instead of online, how often do you use physical player handouts at your table?

I've tried giving players a handout of letters with clues in them before, and I'm considering making a map handout for use too. I think it's more exciting when your players can point to a piece of paper and use it as a prop, or draw plans on it.

I sprayed my players with water, I have handouts planned for random encounters, drawings for things I can't make, and I literally threw a mask on the table when they found it.

I try to make it as immersive as possible. Including having minimal light because party doesn't have torches since they use darkvision

[Arcvasti]

For those who play IRL instead of online, how often do you use physical player handouts at your table?

Fairly often. They're good for important background stuff that people forget in the long gaps between sessions. Like the exact wording of a prophecy or an ancient document/mad wizard's research journal that needs to be cross referenced with other information to be useful.

[Jimmy]

I've done a game by candlelight before and we ended up just turning on the lights, since nobody could see their dice or read their sheets. Still, good stuff here, I'm gonna use it! Anyone else come across cool stuff that brings physical objects into a game about imaginary worlds?

[Dorsidwarf]

I've done a game by candlelight before and we ended up just turning on the lights, since nobody could see their dice or read their sheets. Still, good stuff here, I'm gonna use it! Anyone else come across cool stuff that brings physical objects into a game about imaginary worlds?

Menacing Paranoia players with a hoover nozzle while a commie with a flames is grandstanding at them?

[highmax28]

I've done a game by candlelight before and we ended up just turning on the lights, since nobody could see their dice or read their sheets. Still, good stuff here, I'm gonna use it! Anyone else come across cool stuff that brings physical objects into a game about imaginary worlds?

You need a lot of candles for that. I tried it and we managed to do it.

... Although I'm convinced my buddy's table and my case for my tiles will never recover from the spilled wax and almost being set on fire...

[MrWiggles]

I got a paying gig to run a Dungeon World game. 50 bucks. @.@

[scriver]

That's pretty cool! How does one get one of those?