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Old 05-17-2019, 04:17 PM   #11
evileeyore
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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3) "Get it off me, it's gonna blow!": Unless I'm missing something, doomchildren can go unconscious like most any other being. That means a lot of 'children in a battle may end up KOed instead of blowing up. And that just doesn't feel right to me.
With a 14 HT versus Unconsciousness (due to Berserk*) it's pretty unlikely they'll pass out before exploding.


* You did have them just automatically go Berserk right?

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4) "No, don't use fire!": To bring in more tactical play, it may be fun to specify some attack that readily causes explosions (fire? lightning?), and some attack that will let the PCs kill the demons with just a puff of smoke and no explosion (brain hit? silver? Deathtouch?). The PCs will probably need Hidden Lore, or hard-won experience, to learn these tactical tricks, though.
I like having them explode into different things. Red ones are fiery explosions, green blow out into 3 hex poisonous gas clouds, yellow splash acid, blue are lightning, white are freezy, etc.

Of course the color coding is on the inside...
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Old 05-17-2019, 04:25 PM   #12
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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I'll note too that a chain reaction of a half-dozen exploding kiddie demons sounds fun on paper - but for the GM, that's a half-dozen incidents of distance-dependent explosion damage, plus a half-dozen fragmentation damage rolls, each originating in a different hex and thus affecting different targets. . . . Sounds like a hassle to work out without some fudging.
I can say from experience that a chain reaction can bog the game down for a while while you parse out all the results.
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Old 05-17-2019, 07:11 PM   #13
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Because I play in Maptools, I wrote a macro for handling that. Drop a marker token at the site of the explosion, plug in how big the explosion is and what the divisor per hex is (/3, /2, or /1) and what the shrapnel is, and it does the rest.
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Old 05-18-2019, 12:58 AM   #14
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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With a 14 HT versus Unconsciousness (due to Berserk*) it's pretty unlikely they'll pass out before exploding.

* You did have them just automatically go Berserk right?
Sure, I'd have them go berserk; they'd welcome it!

But I think they're certainly more likely to pass out than explode. Anywhere between HP 0 and HP -7, there's no chance of death, while they'll be checking every second to avoid KO. Sure, they have a good chance of staying conscious with that roll of 14-, but again, they'll be checking every turn...

Between HP -8 and -16, they'll check for death – but just once. While again checking every turn for KO.

And so on, as the wounds accumulate: there are many more chances for failed KO rolls than for failed death rolls. (Unless the PCs can rack up the damage quickly enough to take them to a fast -5xHP; in that case, the death explosion is guaranteed, and certainly could happen before a failed KO roll.)

But whether KO is unlikely or not, I'm not too keen on it happening at all. These are demons; you stab one and it blows up, or melts, or is banished back to Hell in a puff of smoke, right? Not "it's knocked out and just lies there". . .

So I rather like this idea of "blows up on death or KO". With the added detail that the things smoke and jitter at HP 0 and lower, like some cartoon bomb about to go off. (Because it will go off; about a 10% chance every second, assuming Berserk is in play.) Will have to try it out, anyway!

Side to Bruno: I don't think I'd heard of MapTool. I read a bit at https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/maptool/ ; sounds really interesting!
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Old 05-18-2019, 05:38 AM   #15
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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Between HP -8 and -16, they'll check for death – but just once. While again checking every turn for KO.!
And then check again once they pass out because they aren't Berserk anymore...


Personally I like having a few Boombrats lying around unexploded ordnance style after a fight. Leaves the Characters with a choice, try to cart the unexploded munitions back for sale (possibly a lucrative sale) or leave lying around to become zombie Boombrats decompose gracefully...
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Old 05-18-2019, 07:11 AM   #16
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How unstable are dead boomchildren who didn't die exploding?

Are they difficult to transport?

I had a sudden vision of an orc battering ram with dead doomchildren strapped to the front, but really it's just as fun with live doomchildren.
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Old 05-18-2019, 01:04 PM   #17
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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How unstable are dead boomchildren who didn't die exploding?
Not clear how you do that, but live works fine.
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Are they difficult to transport?
Unsure if pentagram will contain them.
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I had a sudden vision of an orc battering ram with dead doomchildren strapped to the front, but really it's just as fun with live doomchildren.
I think it works better as catapult ammunition.
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Old 05-18-2019, 03:51 PM   #18
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How unstable are dead boomchildren who didn't die exploding?
In my campaigns?

They're about as stable as living ones (who have Berserk and a maniacal hatred of all non-Demonkind) so... not very stable.

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Are they difficult to transport?
The PCs treated them like sweating dynamite.

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I had a sudden vision of an orc battering ram with dead doomchildren strapped to the front, but really it's just as fun with live doomchildren.
Dead ones are less likely to scream curses at you while you're sneaking up to the gate...
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Old 05-18-2019, 08:47 PM   #19
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Default Re: Boomchildren

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The PCs treated them like sweating dynamite.
I like that.

So, thinking a little more about doomchildren at or below HP 0. . . . All right, so normal KO is one more way to play things. Let them fall unconscious if the dice rule it. Because, as suggested, KOed doomies could be amusing. It'd be fun to drop them from a high place onto foes massed below. Or use one as an explosive trap. (The "trigger" would likely be a scout shooting the immobilized 'child from hiding.)

But even if 'children are allowed to fall unconscious, it could be fun to make them especially unstable at HP 0 or lower. Such that any good injury, slam, or fall will set one off like nitroglycerine. So before transporting a load of netted doomies to town, make sure the wagon driver knows to watch for potholes. (This idea comes directly from evileeyore's "sweating dynamite" comment.)

Final thought: However one plays death and KO and explosions and all that for doomies, I'd certainly let a demon happily stab itself for an automatic explosion, in any situation where that'd let it wreak the most havoc.

All right. Too many ideas. Time to pick some and play 'em.
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Old 12-06-2022, 01:01 PM   #20
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Even doing that, a few ideas come to mind as things that would be fun:

1) Smart PC tactics: Even if untouched doomchildren don't die (or chain-react) all that easily, wounded ones will. Smart PCs might want to focus on one 'child at a time, instead of beating on separate targets in the horde, to avoid creating lots of wounded demons that could explode and chain-react easily. Or maybe they would want to wound lots of 'children, in the hopes of taking out many with a chain reaction, if their DR can handle the booms. Either way, tactics could get interesting.

2) Smart demon tactics: Grapple! Grab a PC with one hand and stab with the other, or dogpile a PC into immobility and let another 'child do the knife work. The point: Grappling means "same hex", and even DFRPG heroes can't necessarily shrug off a full 3d explosion. Grappled PCs may have to stow their weapons and desperately work to pry the things off.
On the one hand, smart PC tactics include things like laying caltrops and cutting off Doomchild legs instead of attacking the torso, and then finishing them off from range. Spells like Glue and Concussion are good too.

On the other hand, smart Doomchild tactics include things like doing a attack with All Out Attack (Double) so they can try to hit you in the skull from your weapon side in close combat (11 or better, 62% chance, and you can Dodge at -2 but can't block and probably can't parry). Or a Move And Attack to runaround attack with a strike to your vitals or weapon hand (both 9 or better due to the Move And Attack cap) followed by a move into some other delver's hex to set up the next Doomchild so the target can't retreat out of close combat.

It will get very tactical very quickly.
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