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)

[Jimmy]

I like the idea, but there's a few problems with the strategy:

1. The group don't know there's a nasty monster lurking behind the door waiting to eat their faces. I mean, they know in the general sense, but not specifically that door and that monster.

2. It'll be hard to craft a giant acid bomb after the fact while inside gale-force winds. Any complex skill check inside a swarm would require a DC 20 Will save each round to succeed.

Of course the reason I give them a bunch of loot that's potentially useful now instead of just a big pile of gold coins is so they can come up with wacky, creative solutions instead of just "Roll for Initiative." There's 60 flasks of acid in that loot list, plus other really useful stuff too.

[wierd]

I tend to be overly cautious when doing scenarios. If there is a keyhole, I will peek first. If there is a door that can be cracked open instead of just brazenly opened, I will do that first and look through the crack, etc.

A whirlwind would be immediately apparent upon cracking the door, because there would be suction against the door. (it would actively resist opening due to the low pressure)

[scriver]

Clearly we needed to emulate the bosmer and brew meat with special bacteria into a toxic, mind-blasting substance.

Oh wait lutefisk

Lutfisk is literally the furthest opposite to "mindblasting" you could get. It is a most substanceless, disgustingly tasteless food. Even calling it a substance is too much, it occupies a state of a fifth form of matter between solids and fluid comparable only to snot. If you were to take a food and remove all sensation and flavour from it, everything that makes a food the slightest amount of fun, that's when you get lutfisk.

[wierd]

only when it is properly prepared.  If it is IMPROPERLY prepared, it tastes like horrid soap.

[scriver]

Which is, at the very least, a kind of sensation, and thus undeniably preferable to proper lutfisk.

[SOLDIER First]

I tend to be overly cautious when doing scenarios. If there is a keyhole, I will peek first. If there is a door that can be cracked open instead of just brazenly opened, I will do that first and look through the crack, etc.

A whirlwind would be immediately apparent upon cracking the door, because there would be suction against the door. (it would actively resist opening due to the low pressure)

The door opens inward. Bam.

[wierd]

It may piss other people off, but I always ask for an awareness check near a door for shenanigans like that.  The DM will be puzzled why, but I will overtly mention things like "well, are there any strange drafts, sounds, heat, cold, or other out of the ordinary things about this door?"

I will accept a bad roll, and roll with the punches, but I DO in fact make the effort to be wary of any and all doorways. Same with treasure chests and clearly magical items. I refuse to even touch that latter with bare hands until they are identified.  (I tend to play as a glass-cannon spell caster, and state that the preoccupation with personal safety comes from having seen fellow apprentices vaporize themselves, and having seen how evil wizards decorate their homes.)

In the case of "Door opens inward", there would be sucking air going under the gap of the doorjam.

[Jimmy]

Yep, Perception covers all senses, not just sight. Hearing a sound on the other side, smelling a strange odour, feeling a difference in temperature, they're all valid questions. The difference is, do the players try to search for this or simply kick in the door and swing their swords?

[Arx]

To be fair, I enjoy playing kick-down-the-door guys sometimes, because it's a nice change from real life. If carving straight into your enemies, or vapourising them, or turning them into pincushions is a viable strategy, you can be sure I'll be willing to take it rather than beat about the bush.

It's something I and my group agree on thoroughly - if you spend more than a reasonable amount of time pontificating in combat, your turn is delayed. You don't have to act instantly, but there's no time to sit and think indefinitely.

Out of combat, you can try to rationalize metagaming or such as long as you like, but the chaotic rogue is getting bored...

[NullForceOmega]

RIFTS alternative: or blast the door down with placement charges, spray lasers and plasma into the room, and casually strut in with complete confidence that whatever was in there is thoroughly atomized.

[Rolan7]

I think my need to chronicle our adventures comes in two parts.  One, I think a few people are interested in our chronicles/campaigns.  Like a soap opera, but with more fight scenes and random arson.
Secondly, because very tense and pivotal combat scenes often take hours to resolve in DND, and even in NWoD.  While playing, one has to wrap their mind around a strange time dilation.  Setting aside memory space to gradually build, over hours, the ~30 seconds of vicious lightning-fast combat.
So I like to... "compile" those fight scenes as relatively short narratives, focusing on the highlights.  So they might be remembered, and recorded, considering that they take up most of the game time.

It only ever feels like a chore for the first two sentences, heh.  Soon, it's like I'm actually there.


We returned to the Waffle House after fighting the angels.  I think only Brian (my character) even got hit, which was good because their arrows dealt aggravated damage and pierced cover and armor...  Still, Jen was also tired (nearly out of willpower).  Sean was in tip-top shape, but the sin of Pride is freakin overpowered

We had completed our mission of "surveillance", probably going above and beyond by slaughtering an angelic host, archangel included, and grabbing a shiny pearl out of a meteor - disabling that angelic gate, though I think the reinforcements had paused after the archangel ganking
Back at the Waffle House, I convinced the lone waitress to accept a possessed artifact (a red feather) - now she has powers as well, or she will when she wakes up.

Unbeknowst to us, though, Captain Murphy used us as a distraction.  His capital of Chicago is under heavy siege, and apparently he volunteered our location to the state of South Dakota.  Around midnight, we heard a grinding roar and shouted demands as a full dozen swat officers pile out of their vehicles, along with
a fucking
M1 Abrams

Spoiler: Scene (click to show/hide)

We won initiative by a long shot (that natural 1 is the police roll), which I think makes sense because they were just shouting at us to surrender.  The storyteller did also give us 9 seconds to activate our infernal abilities since we heard the tank though.

Brian, in Hugh Heffner PJs, stumbled up to cover behind that interior lobby window, then sorta lay there...  Mentally directing his demon (sloth) to open fire.  The bullet grazed one of the officers on the right, who was suddenly overwhelmed by fatigue and ennui.  The officer basically lay there for the rest of the fight, constantly failing to give a shit.
Jen, rather smartly, noped right out the back door of the Waffle House.  Too bad our vehicle was in the front, but it's okay, she had a plan... (This is when the screenshot was taken)
Then Sean charged straight out into the open.  Eyes on fire, marble skin, giant claws...

Now to summarize some, because a lot of things happened:
Jen (Greed) advanced along the east side.  Wherever she went, the officers were struck with incredible bad luck (think Vriska, maybe).  Her demon also flitted around excitedly, stealing the bullets from the guns of almost everyone who tried to harm her.
She focused for a moment and pulsed a blast of pure bling which recruited several officers as mercenaries.  Blinded by greed, they opened fire on their friends.
Eventually she was near death, so she hid in the tank...  unfortunately two other officers tried to hide in the tank (among the corpses left by Sean, which I'll get to).  Their guns disabled, they nearly pummeled her unconscious...  But her demon agreed to use its own willpower in another pulse.  They killed each other for money that didn't exist.

Sean (Pride) kinda stole the show!  He strode straight out, looking literally like a greek statue but eyes aglow.  Perhaps an angel... particularly when he sprouted majestic wings.  Anyone attempting to hurt such a perfect being had to make a very harsh roll, or just shudder in fear and shame.  He... eviscerated... a lot of people.  Including the tank crew. 

Brian (Sloth), my character... well.  I suppose he looked like a VIP, using the same "arrogance" ability Sean did.  More like a VIP scientist than an angel, though.  The officers literally always passed the roll in my case, though
First off, the tank turned its turret and launched a main cannon shell right past me.  Shit was *close*, and a guaranteed 25+ damage on hit (I had 8 health total, which is above human average).  But, it missed.  I botched the military knowledge roll to know the fire rate, so I fled out the back of the building too (with a parting shot, which inflicted another officer with crippling ennui).  I had a plan, but it was cut short when two officers caught up to my lazy-ass character and passed their rolls against his arrogance.  One grabbed him firmly, while the other tazed him right in the gut.  The barbed-prong-kind, too.

Jokes on them, though, my character is lazy... but insanely smart and resilient.  Thinking through the pain, he skillfully directed his demon to execute the cop holding him.  The shock hit him even harder on the next round, but not quite enough...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0
See, last session, I'd bought quick draw (melee), and a point in weaponry....
Brian, through his demon, unsheathed the katana in a harsh horizontal blow across the officer.  Shouting "BUSHIDO ATTACK" like a total weeb.
Then... being ambidextrous...  scored a critical stab with the wakizashi.  Yeaaah.

My character is basically Xavier but with telekinesis (so I guess Jean Grey?  Whatever).

Ronnie (?) uh... his player actually showed up, unexpectedly.  So it turned out he possessed our truck, which is basically a Halo warthog.  He didn't run many people over, but he did do a lot of damage with the Browning on the back.
Also he's incredibly racist, which I think is new??  Sorta relevant because Sean is black.  Later, Sean actually let Ronnie The Truck run him over a couple of times to feel better about being trapped in a truck.
We were able to take his head out of the glove compartment, but it has no eyes, it can only taste hear and speak... yeah...

So... yeah.  A pair of officers tried to escape, but Sean (60MPH flight speed) chased down their vehicle before they got far.  "Have you been drinking, officers?  *stab*".  I wanted to stabilized some survivors but Jen murdered them all, but it's cool because we did capture the newly demonic waitress.  We also arranged the corpses in... uh... a giant pentagram, in order to have a quick conversation with Captain Murphy which was basically
"We found a pearl thing summoning angels, also there were cops" "You're alive?  Cool, bring it here".

Sorta tricky drive back, but Jen was so wounded she didn't really try to fuck up Brian's supergenius navigating (plus we had a police radio to help avoid PATROLLING TANKS).  We went back to Captain Murphy and he was like "Nice job, enjoy a sinful rest".  He wasn't *trying* to kill us, just putting his own interests first.  Naturally.

In fact he blessed Brian's katanas with the ability to harm angels (HIGH FREQUENCY BLADES GET).  In exchange for a future favor (Brian's already a creepy zealot, so that worries me slightly).  Also uh, a brand.  Like, cattle-style.
this game is so fucked
i'm not complaining

[NullForceOmega]

I'd ask how you actually managed to get the Abrams open, and where the hell the rest of its company was, but knowing what I do about RP groups, I severely doubt anyone had the slightest idea how tanks are employed or how their crews behave.

Tips for DM/GMs trying to use military units, specifically tanks, in their games:

1 ) Contrary to popular belief, no tank crew on the battlefield sits around in the open waiting for trouble, they seek cover or engage in continuous sweeps to both avoid enemy fire and flush enemy units.
2 ) Contrary to popular media, tanks do not operate alone, they function in teams of no less than two tracks, with all crews coordinating continuously to cover each other.
3 ) If you are made of flesh, and are in front of a tanks cannon when it discharges, regardless of whether you are struck by the projectile, you will suffer massive soft tissue damage from overpressure, and probably die instantly.
4 ) No military commander worth a damn ever commits modern armor to an urban battle, without maneuvering room tanks are nearly useless.
5 ) If you are going to employ tanks, understand that tank crews are paranoid to the point of near-insanity, they don't open up at all, for any reason, until they are in a secure location.  I know a lot of propaganda shows TCs up in the cupola using binocs or some shit, but we don't do that in hostile territory, because snipers and ambushes.
6 ) Tanks are incredibly confined inside, no one is going to be fighting in those close quarters, because they can barely move, also, tanks don't have any sort of passenger capacity, as the interior is so crowded that it is functionally impossible to cram more people inside.  Flip side, if you somehow pry the hatch open (pfft) then dropping a grenade, even a molotov cocktail inside, will kill most of the crew fairly easily.
7 ) Modern tanks are fully sealed environments, a requirement for NBC warfare, your gas attack is not going to work, a biological attack is not going to work, even radiation isn't a thing that works when that tank is buttoned up, if you can crack its armor, then you don't need those things anyway, as you can already kill the tank.  The Abrams in particular is even more redundant, you cannot reach the driver through the main compartment, so he can still maneuver and crush lots of squishy flesh things (and not so squishy steel/concrete things) under seventy tons of tank that moves at substantial velocity and is being powered by the equivalent of fifteen hundred horses.

I could continue, but I think that covers the salient points.  The paranoia thing and not working alone applies to the military in general, if the group you're facing isn't grossly incompetent.

[Rolan7]

First off I'm very glad you gave us insight like that!  (My group reads this sometimes too).

I'll clarify, but I don't mean to be defensive:

1: The tank was open because we decided it was necessary in order to operate the machinegun.  Maybe that was inaccurate...
2: I think it's weird enough that 12 SWAT members arrived within a couple hours, in South Dakota, even with a tip.  Dunno where the nearest national guard base is how many tanks they have.
3: I was actually at least 15 yards away, in a building, taking potshots behind two walls...  Again, if the shell had rolled any successes, I would have been <chunky salsa>
4: They might have tried to manuever except our supernatural guy charged them pretty fast, he was inside the tank in 9 seconds.  While they were handling the reload from shooting at my character in the building.
5: Considering we *accidentally* (no really) killed about 20,000 people with gas the day before, yeah they probably would have been too cautious to open the hatch.  Agreed.  We might have worn it down with supernatural bullshit, but actually I think it may have been able to escape.  If a national guard tank can exceed 60 MPH, anyway.
6: We were ironically out of deadly grenades.  As for close-range combat inside, people did get their dodge bonuses... maybe they should not have.  But the situation was a marble-skinned being with claws sliding down the hatch and killing them in melee.  Then later some scared SWAT crawling in, then getting mind controlled while trying to brawl the fuck out of Jen.

[NullForceOmega]

It is necessary open up in order to operate the cupola mounted M-249, but in this case the crew would have opted for the co-axial .50 cal instead.  15yards is so damn close it might as well be spitting distance, they would have opted for a range of at least 150 yard/meters, and would have rejected being stationary in a city/townscape outright (Abrams with governor engaged goes 65-70 mph, disengaged is much higher, but they don't like us doing that, as the likelihood of plowing a track increases tremendously).

No, definitely no dodge bonuses, they would have been difficult to kill nonetheless, as there is no room to move inside, at all (there is a small volume of space near the center of the turret, so the loader can move shells from the racks to the breach, but its only about four feet high, so any kind of melee anything is basically out).

And to be really honest, they'd probably have employed mechanized infantry with squad weapons alongside Apache attack choppers instead, much more maneuverable, similar firepower.

Still it sounds like fun, and I'm not trying to be a killjoy, given the situation you guys had, you earned your victory.

Note: this stuff is probably what makes my groups so paranoid, when I throw enemies at them, I make sure they behave as realistically as I can.  I've got a friend who has been GMing longer than I've been alive, and his axiom is "Give the enemy the intelligence they were born with." I find that statement describes my style pretty well.

[Rolan7]

Yeah 12 SWAT along with a national guard tank seemed like an odd mix - though to be fair, Chicago is literally a warzone at this point (with "patrolling tanks" on the highways) so maybe it was a bizarre mix of units still even loyal to the US.  Shit is getting pretty severe, at least in the region.

Edit:  We were in that city near Mt Rushmore, something Falls I think.

And I truly appreciate the realistic input, thank you!!

In this system, people only get to dodge at close ~2 yard range.  It's "Wits + Dexterity", so I think it's supposed to encompass shifting away from blows at brawling distance.  Though maybe it's so close that combatants should automatically be in grapple, which disables dodging.