Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[Harry Baldman]

Not... exactly... though I'd get into it but then I'd have to talk about campaign specific traits.

Most of the campaign-specific traits are easy enough to reskin for use in other games, though, and they tend to have the best flavor to them. Foreign Opportunist, for example, is practically a background power already.

Besides, if ever there was a time to get into campaign-specific traits, how is this not it? Unless there's something deeply objectionable about ones that aren't blatantly OP like Finding Your Kin, you mean.

[Neonivek]

Besides, if ever there was a time to get into campaign-specific traits, how is this not it? Unless there's something deeply objectionable about ones that aren't blatantly OP like Finding Your Kin, you mean.

Campaign specific traits are not designed to "play nice" with other traits and are often the equivalent of a feat or are even more powerful than even that.

They are all nearly universally OP because they are meant to be.

If your having campaign traits just make them yourself.

[Harry Baldman]

They're OP as far as traits go, mostly, which is to say not very. I think it's pretty nifty to let people fish around for a bit more oomph, given the relatively low stakes. It's kind of like Magical Lineage gives you a rare and prized power for one spell in particular - nice bonus, but not really a game breaker in any way.

But I guess it's a good point that you can just make them yourself if need be.

[BlackFlyme]

Some traits can be incredibly powerful. The newest Adventure Path, Strange Aeons, added a trait that lets you Smite once a day, like a Paladin.


The problem is, I have no skill points to spare for Charismatic skills, and no Charisma modifier, so it's always a flat D20 roll. There is a penalty for failing these Charisma checks.

In both of the roleplay banquets, we have to collect points by passing some rather difficult rolls, and failure subtracts points. It's crucial to the Adventure Path to get as many points as possible. The Adventure Path is literally penalizing any party that does not fully consist of Faces.

[Harry Baldman]

The problem is, I have no skill points to spare for Charismatic skills, and no Charisma modifier, so it's always a flat D20 roll. There is a penalty for failing these Charisma checks.

In both of the roleplay banquets, we have to collect points by passing some rather difficult rolls, and failure subtracts points. It's crucial to the Adventure Path to get as many points as possible. The Adventure Path is literally penalizing any party that does not fully consist of Faces.

What do the Charisma checks entail? Making an impression on noblemen? If you do a good enough bit of RP, maybe the DM would let a Charisma check slide. Maybe try bending an iron bar to impress people. Or carry around some other prop to help you out.

Or, much like Jimmy mentioned, steal as much expensive food as possible and use that as bait to hang out with stable hands, porters and other folk like that. Even more impressive if you have a bag of holding - just shovel some in there while you're eating, then when you have enough pop out for a smoke and chat up the surrounding staff. If the DM's a kind chap you might get lucky with a crucial piece of information or some such.

[BlackFlyme]

We have to do all sorts of checks. Diplomacy and Bluff to get anything from other guests. Perform Dance to impress them. Random Knowledge checks just to be able to eat the food in the first banquet. Just Fortitude checks to not get ill from the food at the second banquet. Both times we couldn't explore, because guards would block all doors, and talking to any non-guests makes you lose points.

The DCs are fairly high, too. Typically a DC of 20 is low. And again, too few points will make the campaign harder later. In the first banquet, the host will outright kill players with too few points, or if they are "disruptive", according to the book.

[Sirus]

 

Sounds boring as all hell. And why would you need Knowledge just to eat?

[BlackFlyme]

Sounds boring as all hell. And why would you need Knowledge just to eat?

Exotic food, you need the Knowledge rolls to know how to eat the food properly. Eating improperly loses points.

[Sirus]

What is this, an adventure designed for a party made up entirely of bards?

[Harry Baldman]

Sounds boring as all hell. And why would you need Knowledge just to eat?

Don't double dip. That costs you points.

And yeah, that's not so much your fault as just the adventure path being shittily designed. Smacks of "NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT SIDDOWN AND FOLLOW THE RAILS" business.

[Neonivek]

Sounds boring as all hell. And why would you need Knowledge just to eat?

Don't double dip. That costs you points.

And yeah, that's not so much your fault as just the adventure path being shittily designed. Smacks of "NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT SIDDOWN AND FOLLOW THE RAILS" business.

To admit I haven't read it and it might have a bit more to it then it first seems... OR is designed with a specific party in mind (which a few do)

That and most parties I've been with pretty much force the face to do everything as it is.

This seems TOO set against you for an official adventure path for me to believe it wholesale.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Are you like at a God's feast? Or just home random add nobles?

[Rolan7]

What happens if you don't get enough points through the socializing?  I assume the campaign is still possible, just more difficult.  Which is fair, since your party spent points on athletics, tracking, and knowledge instead of "closing your mouth while you chew"

A party of people who did basically waste points on socializing deserve to have some advantage in this rare circumstance, imho.
Though maybe I'm a little bitter, because I played high-charisma characters and our ugly nerds and barbarians never had to roll diplomacy during dialogue.  I got to roll, generally because I was awkward at roleplaying out loud and had to "recover".

[Kadzar]

5th edition is unfortunately a diamond in the rough having so many great ideas that would immediately make it one of the best dungeons and dragons to date...

But while it is the most balanced it is also overbalanced... removing what is essentially character creation to retain balance.

Yeah, like, I like that they made feats more powerful for the fact that you don't get them very often, but miss the fact that there are small things you can get to affect your character. That's why I'd like to move to a mostly point-buy system, or maybe some sort of class system where you can swap out parts of your character to adjust how it plays.

[BlackFlyme]

DM said it's the most roleplay-heavy adventure he's seen. And absolutely everyone must participate in these events.

It is Hell's Rebels, for those wondering, which is an official Paizo book. I've been told it gets less roleplay-heavy after the third or fourth book.

The first banquet is for getting a nearby city to agree to help you in your rebellion. The second banquet is held by the big-bad. The first banquet's consequences either result in the noble happily joining you to dominating or outright killing the party and taking control of the rebellion herself. We don't know what the second banquet's point system does yet.

Thankfully our Orc player/Problem Player is gone. He has been purposely fucking up every social encounter we've had. He claimed to be Chaotic Neutral, but has literally been a typical Chaotic Evil "Murder, Pillage, and Rape" type Orc. The nicest thing the Orc's done is spit on our Swashbuckler, who went to say hi when we met him. Attacked random people just for getting too close to him, and has literally sexually assaulted every female NPC we come across. And random wildlife when we were camping in the wilderness. Made jokes about how he spent each night jerking off to the campfire and wearing chipmunks as nipple-clamps.