08-05-2014, 12:49 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
That is a cool monster. I had something similar where an Elder Thing larva was in a dungeon and he slowly psionically dominated many of the monsters into serving it. The monsters would raid the country side for people to feed it.
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08-05-2014, 03:31 PM | #12 | ||||||
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Land of the Britons
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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I assume the sea-elves don't have the faculties to swim around these regions either? Making clever positioning and herding an easier method to rid yourself of them before they become snack-food? Quote:
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As for opening the rift being counter-productive, perhaps not. It's HP has a cap, but I'm assuming it just keeps eating, meaning you can deplete its store of snacks before opening up with the big guns (rather than dividing firepower and/or fighting against the attrition of it healing). The fact that you know it wont have access to accelerated healing also means you can more easily plink away at it over time, even with resting/retreats. The other option is to use the stream of sea-elves as a distraction or lure. Keeping it in once place whilst you rig the roof to blow, crushing it under tones of rock, say. Quote:
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08-05-2014, 06:32 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
My table-top group's first response to seeing an environmental hazard is to try to push an NPC into it. Ideally a monster, but they've had moments of moral weakness if there were no monsters handy. They'd be drawn to dragging Igghagh through those vents as if by a hook through their noses.
The infected-sea-elf-popcorn snacking reminds me of some MMO boss fights :)
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08-05-2014, 08:43 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: The former Chochenyo territory
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
Thanks, this is really great. What did you use to make the SVG?
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08-05-2014, 08:48 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
Inkscape - he's really handy with it.
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08-06-2014, 03:33 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
Indeed it's done in inkscape. Quickly done in fact. Seriously, Inkscape is a wonderful program, but as a vector (ie point, line and shape) based program it requires a bit of a paradigm shift compared to raster (ie pixel) based programs.
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Now seriously, it's there for the same reason as it's there in MMO boss fights, to add changing fight dynamics so it's not just "tank and spank" in MMO-parlance. The creature is again supposed to be a big ball of teeth and stupid, so I can't have that through clever tactics. Last edited by Kuroshima; 08-06-2014 at 03:37 AM. |
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08-06-2014, 04:36 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Land of the Britons
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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However, there are other things that can be done. The Psychic Screams may have a physical component too, which in turn causes rocks/bricks to fall from the ceiling and act as bombardment in the room (or in just one area, allowing Igghagh to target a region nearby with something in it, but perhaps one that is out of the of its reach pseudopods). The volcanic vents can flare up randomly, causing bubble screens that block line of sight. It would produce more heat, but you've already pointed out that this wont do anything to anyone. However it might cause additional fatigue, or even release more potent toxins into the water which would take time to dissipate and penalise the HT roll. This would make the fight an unpredictable race against time, or at least give Igghagh periods where it can heal up with greater ease as the PCs briefly flee, or give it greater advantages as they succumb to harsher conditions. Igghagh may be able to cause more unstable dimensional fractures around the cavern as the fight goes on, especially if the scream is slightly more target-able (with a region of 'maximum potency', and an weaker but infinite AoE elsewhere, which can be logically coupled with the physical component). If any given region receives multiple screams (perhaps 2 or 3, so it actually happens) it will cause additional rifts to form, which in turn grant more sea-elves each scream - or open to other less stable locations, allowing other monstrous critters a chance to escape. These might be short lived, or only open if the same region is screamed at (so moving away from that area or forcing it to scream at another area will prevent the hole opening again). This gives more dynamic change and potentially new foes to deal with, and will force the group to keep moving around - especially if Igghagh chooses the target of the scream randomly, making it difficult to know where it land. Not sure if you needed other evil ideas for this fight though, but if your PCs are doing too well, perhaps you can include a few. Or on the off chance someone with even higher pointed characters wanted to make the fight harder, they can now do so!
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08-06-2014, 04:58 AM | #18 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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Though Exalted worked like this too. The best encounters were not "balanced," they were "impossible."
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08-06-2014, 06:00 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
Remember, each sea elf that dies releases either a neuroid or an oddififier, and those are not stupid. They appear no matter if the elves are consumed or killed, and will try to swarm the PCs
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08-06-2014, 12:25 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
You have to have a reasonable tolerance for TPKs, however. This isn't unique to GURPS, it's pretty much fundamental to a challenging fight that it's one the PCs will occasionally lose, but GURPS combat is typically quite swingy (any system with low hit probabilities and low numbers of hits required to drop someone will have high randomness) so it's hard to design for a fight that reasonably consistently leaves the PCs bloodied but victorious.
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