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Old 02-22-2015, 10:52 AM   #12
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gef View Post
Thanks, I like campaign report posts. I especially like to see a review of how things worked out from a GMing angle, like game mechanics, whether a challenge like a mystery or encounter was too easy or too hard, what if anything caused conflict among the players (as opposed to characters). Sounds like you're off to a good start.
Thanks. I've GMed GURPS campaigns for a bit more than 25 years, now, including two long-running fantasy settings (one based on Harn) that went really well. I can always come up with pretty good stories, but for me the hardest part is carefully gauging the relative strengths of the party and the antagonists.

I plan fantasy game encounters pretty well, because I've had a lot of experience (and healing magic makes things much more forgiving). However, I've had only a little experience with more modern settings. The only one with a lot of guns that I'd run, before this, was the GURPS: Castle Falkenstein campaign that ended early. Fortunately, the Denver GURPS group has a lot of different games going, and Lex has one based on StarCraft. When one is fighting Zergs, it's all guns, all the time, except when it's grenades and flame-throwers.

So, when Tod and Chris couldn't make it, I struggled with how to handle the Apache encounter. Jeb and Deputy Torres are two of the group's better shooters, but I don't like to give the spotlight to PCs on autopilot whose players didn't show. I seriously debated whether or not to cut the number of Apaches by one (the red-headed kid was always going to stay back to watch the ponies).

In the end, even though the group was down by two players, it had gained one when Debbie decided she'd like to give the game a try. That gave me five active PCs, at least one of whom was tactically knowledgeable in real life (my sister loved her time in the Army), and whose character had similar skills.

That's a lot of guns in the hands of active PCs, plus two more inactive PCs who would simply return fire and not do anything innovative. The only thing I did with them that pushed my boundaries was to have Diego grab the .30-06. However, he had just finished reading the Mirandas to Sr. AKA when the Apaches opened fire, and that meant the rifle was right next to him, so that made it tough to justify not taking it, even by an auto-piloted PC.

He then proceeded to use it to put one attacker down, a few rounds later, but that provoked the Apache bullet-storm that dropped him (critical hit, max damage absorbed by the body armor, but still enough got through to reduce him to 2 HP and stunned).

That threw the spotlight wholly on the active PCs. Doc Bascher focused on dragging people to cover and starting to patch them up. Henrietta did the same and also traded barbs with the Apaches. Randy brought fists to a gunfight and declined the body-armor, so what happened to him was pretty inevitable and I didn't feel at all bad about it. In fact, it made Doc Bascher's skills absolutely crucial.

That meant the two main characters left were Arthur and Beatrice, and they saved the day by assembling two M4 carbines while Henrietta and the Apaches shouted at each other.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 02-22-2015 at 11:29 AM.
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