05-19-2020, 06:58 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Being Scary with Wimps
So what are good ways to make say a numerically rich force of relatively weak foes (say orks) properly worthy?
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05-19-2020, 07:45 AM | #2 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
Just about everything on pp. 6-7 of Monsters seems applicable. A few ideas:
Surprise. There's no reason why the PCs must always be better than the monsters at Stealth and detection! Give the monsters an arbitrary bonus because they know their home, or have them buried in the sand or whatever and explode into sight on all sides; set things up so that the heroes have to live with penalties to Sense rolls, not just from darkness (easily negated), but also due to things like mist, smoke, noisy mining machinery, and dazzling lights reflected from cave ponds; and it's logical for real wimps simply to be good at Stealth. Put alcoves, arrow slits, murder holes, etc. behind or above the entrance to the area. At least some monsters will get attacks from surprise or behind, against which there's no defense. Traps and Barricades. In the monsters' home, they'll have defenses. In combat, traps hidden on the battlefield are hard to see (Exploits, p. 58); a few simple ST 16 leg-hold traps (Adventurers, p. 114) will make life tough for most delvers, and pits are even nastier. Barriers like palisades, elevated archery platforms, and moats can let the wimps get a lot of shots at heroes who have to waste time avoiding, climbing, or chopping or burning down these things; the monsters needn't be champion archers, as even heavy rocks can hurt, and barrels of flaming oil require no skill at all to use. Swarm Attacks. If the monsters are truly numerous and hateful, they might attack in a fanatical, screaming wave. I'm not talking about two or three times as many as there are delvers . . . I'm talking about so many that the battle map is awash in figures. Some will get behind the heroes and get free shots. Others will try slams or grapples, and a few will succeed by sheer force of numbers; then those PCs are fighting multiple foes in close combat, or on the ground, or both. Just the simple expedient of several ranks of foes with polearms, long spears, pikes, etc. doing All-Out Attack (Double) can be scary – it's quite possible for adventurers with a tight front and no exposed back to each face six, eight, or more attacks this way! Casters. Wimps can still have shamans, witch doctors, or whatever. These casters don't need amazing, high-powered spells to complicate the heroes' lives. Create Fire, Glue, Grease, etc. can be the second spell a wizardly caster with Magery 0 learns; for a better caster, that could be Mystic Mist. Those with clerical or druidic spells don't even need to be fair . . . rule that their gods grant whatever Area spell fits the situation. And if the PCs are the home invaders, the casters are likely to have already cast these spells to aid their allies. All of this stuff could apply at once, too.
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05-19-2020, 08:53 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
I've had success with Itch and Spasm, too. If the orc wizard invests enough points to boost their skill above typical PC HT scores, they have a good chance of affecting them. Itch on an armored foe is a decent debuff. Spasm on the hand is brutal. We had a great moment in my first DFRPG campaign where the orc witch doctor managed to cause the PC caster to drop a maxed out explosive missile.
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05-19-2020, 12:42 PM | #4 | |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
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05-19-2020, 01:14 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
Sometimes, the problem may just be that you aren't being sufficiently numerically rich, though the number of orcs required to actually be a threat to even starting delvers is large enough to turn into a tedious grind.
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05-19-2020, 04:40 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
Tucker's Kobolds -- always a classic.
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Don't forget the effect of low ceilings! If the party has to duck or crawl under, they are vulnerable -- and there's no cover to hide behind, unlike barricades or piles of debris on the floor. |
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05-19-2020, 09:56 PM | #7 | |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
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Giving mook casters the ability to cast from hidden locations can be great, too. I've occasionally had casters hidden above ceilings, behind illusionary walls, or under grates. They can often get off quite a few aggravating spells before the PCs figure out where they are. |
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05-19-2020, 09:59 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
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Yeah, I love the idea of hordes, but I have trouble keeping things moving fast enough for them to be much fun. |
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05-19-2020, 11:51 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
I've always enjoyed this business of making "weak" foes powerful, instead of just coming up with increasingly exotic, super-powered foes to challenge PCs.
When designing scenarios like this, just start with one question: In a dungeon with demons and mindflayers and bone-melting slimes, how has this band of delicious hobgoblins (or whatever) managed to survive for so long? The answer, of course, is everything people have said so far: fortified defenses, lookouts, tactics, traps, hideouts, deals with other monsters, etc. etc. Still, I find that asking the above question gets the ideas flowing. Worth noting: Even foes with limited intelligence can have really fiendish surprises in store for PCs, just by spending lots of time honing those defenses and tactics. (When the PCs inevitably disrupt those surprisingly clever plans, though, the slow-witted foes will struggle to adapt. That's the fun stuff. : ) Also: Just a personal observation, but it seems to me that the sort of "weak" foes (horde or otherwise) discussed here often end up as particularly memorable encounters. The kobold gang that fights dirty is a lot more relatable than the boss monster with the 10d death ray, and can generate actual respect from players. So, yeah. Hordes can challenging to GM (for reasons including speed of play, as Dalin notes), but played smart, they make for good encounters.
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05-20-2020, 08:15 AM | #10 | |||||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Being Scary with Wimps
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Thus, if PC wizards want to cast at camp, rest, and carry around a "free" 18d spell – fine! But if combat starts suddenly and they have Basic Speed 6.00 while the skittering-scamp baddies have Basic Speed 6.25, they may end up making several Will rolls to avoid having their own missile affect them. And if that missile is an explosive one, it'll be affecting the other PCs, too. Quote:
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Also, you can use an interesting variant on "And Stay Down!" with critters that grapple: In general, they call for "between a 1-HP tap and a major wound" to put down, like any other fodder . . . but fodder that succeed at grappling a hero are heartened and thus less likely to "cower, play dead, flee, or surrender." Those ones call for "between 0 HP and -1×HP," like worthy monsters – or even "fight to negative HP and attempt all their HT rolls," like bosses. Quote:
To reflect this in the game, just let monsters who've been in the same place for a long time "take +5" for Time Spent (Exploits, p. 6). They get +5 on all rolls against skills like Observation, Stealth, Tactics, and Traps in the specific situation where they're defending home ground. This reflects having optimally placed sentries, knowing exactly which floorboards creak, spending endless time working on their covered pits, painting white ranging stripes on their side of objects along the approaches, etc. With this, even IQ 7 dinomen can be somewhat effective, and militant races like orcs – who actually improve their skills at this kind of stuff – can be rather scary.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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