08-06-2014, 04:11 PM | #21 | |
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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DF has similar TPK-resilience, though in the form of magic and resurrection spells. My experience with GURPS is that it's better at threatening people with death than it actually is at dealing it out (witness the fact that when people actually run NPCs using the full "roll for death" rules, they swiftly become these very long, very bloody affairs of beating NPCs to smears on the pavement to make sure they stay down, goddammit)
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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08-06-2014, 05:15 PM | #22 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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Burning xp for successes does cut down on the swinginess, simply by the fact it winds up requiring more 'hits' to put someone down (where we'll call something that forces the victim to spend xp a 'hit'). |
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08-07-2014, 01:10 AM | #23 | |
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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Of course, I run pretty high point totals. And, for whatever reason, my players are far more willing to retreat than tales of the average party leads me to believe. So when things start to turn south, my PCs will often turtle up and retreat, taking their wounded with them. But I often run "no-win" scenarios, where I throw over-powered opponents at my players, not (always) because I'm a jerk, but because that's what would happen. If you screw up your stealth checks in the middle of the Evil Warlords Fortress and he sicks his elites on you, then you're going to get swarmed by high powered people. My PCs have realized this and will often retreat when they see they're outmatched (but the fact that they don't always and sometimes win these encounters anyway is how I know that TPKs are rarer than people think, and that sending something ridiculously dangerous at the PCs may well be best practice). If you run lower point total games and your players are less aware of the concept of retreat, and you include less measures meant to keep the PCs alive, I don't know, perhaps there will be more PC death (though I once ran a 50 point total horror game that was pretty explicitly about murdering the PCs, and it even turned into a PVP death-match by the end, and two PCs still walked away from that)
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My Blog: Mailanka's Musing. Currently Playing: Psi-Wars, a step-by-step exploration of building your own Space Opera setting, inspired by Star Wars. |
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08-07-2014, 06:25 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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The next bit that seems odd is that the cleric could invoke a prayer effect to remove that status by divine fiat. If you have enough 'buying power' with God to transform the whole nature of a vast Eldritch Being to a different nature entirely, why not just have God unmake him or slay him? Maybe that's because I am not au fait with DF. |
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08-08-2014, 06:44 AM | #25 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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08-08-2014, 06:59 AM | #26 | |
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
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08-09-2014, 12:35 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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08-09-2014, 12:37 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
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08-09-2014, 12:41 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Re: The lair of Igghagh, an epic Dungeon Fantasy encounter
I think I would narrate this to myself as the saint's God forcing the Eldritch pseudopod monster to coalesce into this plane of existence more fully, cutting off its 'ethereal' aspect. Once it is forced to manifest fully, then it becomes (more) vulnerable. But hey, that's just me!
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08-31-2014, 03:33 PM | #30 |
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
First day of combat after action report
So, they reach the lair at the end of the dungeon, and the martial artist goes first to scout. She sees it sleeping (they had already heard it's heartbeat), and is affected by Terror Beyond the Stars. She has Mental Strength-27, and so fails the fright check at -20, but then spends her only wildcard point to succeed instead. She comes back, and they all go forward to gaze into the monstrosity. Thanks to how I run Bless*, and to the Aristocrat's Tactician points (I let him have them, as he meets the prerequisites thanks to his Born War Leader), who said "none of my men will flinch at the sight of that thing!", they make it without gaining any permanent disadvantages. So, knowing that they have time to prepare, they all burn through their power items to gain the bigests buffs they can (Shield 10 on two delvers, Shield 6 on the other two), and then they all Wait while the saint prays for Aura of Mortality. He then makes a gesture, and they go all on on it. The Assassin/Martial Artist goes first, and activates Serenity, rolling a 10 for DX and basic Speed, that coupled with the Shield Spell, give her enough dodge to go toe to toe with Igghagh, and dodge it's attacks on a 16-, despite the penalties. The Scout/Mystic Knight/Wizard starts dropping arrows on it like a machine gun but only inflicts 2 HP per attack. (The aura has not yet negated the Injury Tolerance: Diffuse). The Mystic Knight/Aristocrat is next to it shockwaving for big damage too. In one turn, they do enough damage for Igghagh to start using it's Psychic Scream. They burn through their last blesses and tactician points to avoid stuns on the most critical party members, and the rest recover on the next turn. The problem is that they only kill 7 of the 8 sea elves, and so Igghagh eats one and heals to almost full. We leave it there, as it's getting late, and will finish next week. *Bless costs 20 per level, and each point gives you a "destiny point" as per GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys Clifhanger photos Big Yellow Bowl of Doom->Igghagh Blue Caps->Oddifiers Black Caps->Neuroids |
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adventure, dungeon fantasy |
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