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Old 02-11-2019, 04:32 PM   #11
malchidael
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Near Milwaukee, WI
Default Re: Tactical encounters book

Apparently, I am way too nice :) Re-reading the jumping rules, a 2-hex jump succeeds too often (5D6 vs ST+DX). Given a typical ST+DX of 24, that makes leaping over the pits the obvious choice.

So, I'm thinking of making the pits full megahexes wide, lowering the chances greatly (8D vs ST+DX).

Otherwise, two archers plus two wizards with summon wolf can pretty much walk thru this without breaking a sweat.

I may also make the chasm a river, with a current moving people 3 hexes "down" each round. Add a little danger to falling in.
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Old 02-12-2019, 01:22 PM   #12
industrialchild
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

That would be a great decision Murak! That would definitely go a long way to making the leaping over the pits less attractive.

I GM'd our first game of the Summoning with my mother and brother as players. As you mentioned Murak, they were quick to jump over the pits, but even so, they got smoked by the cultists...:D Even though I was a GM, since this was a one shot, I didn't feel the least bit bad about "playing to win" as the cultists!

Now, I have more experience with TFT than they do at the moment, I did see some things they probably could have done better, but they enjoyed your scenario enough to want to play it again and that's always a great sign! I get the strong impression, Murak, that this is a scenario that you designed somewhere within the realm of 3-4 PCs playing. Am I correct in assuming this? While I think it's possible for 2 PCs to win your scenario, there is little room for error on their parts as this is written.

I'm going to try and figure a way to scale the difficulty down a bit regarding the NPCs for 1-2 PC counts and plug in what you have in mind for the pits in the future and get back to you on this.

All in all, I'm super impressed with your work Murak and I'm beyond happy that you decided to share this with the community! Personally, I think it's good enough to warrant publishing! I'm not kidding!

The Hexagram magazine just met it's final stretch goal a day ago! So there will be a 2nd Hexagram zine for TFT in the future. After you've done your due diligence to refine this scenario more and continue to get feedback so you can make this the best you possibly can; I would STRONGLY urge you to submit it directly to Steve Jackson for maybe a spot in the next Hexagram issue!!! I feel that strongly about this and have loved it thus far!

I just downloaded the 2nd scenario that you kindly shared and I'm looking forward to playing that also and reporting back to you! Thanks again Murak!
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Old 02-12-2019, 01:45 PM   #13
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

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Originally Posted by industrialchild View Post
I get the strong impression, Murak, that this is a scenario that you designed somewhere within the realm of 3-4 PCs playing. Am I correct in assuming this? While I think it's possible for 2 PCs to win your scenario, there is little room for error on their parts as this is written.

I'm going to try and figure a way to scale the difficulty down a bit regarding the NPCs for 1-2 PC counts and plug in what you have in mind for the pits in the future and get back to you on this.
From what I gather here, you feel it might be too difficult to play with 2 players. Are you using 1 figure per player? Why not run 2 figures per player (all 4 of them Player Characters)?
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Old 02-12-2019, 01:57 PM   #14
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

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Originally Posted by malchidael View Post
Apparently, I am way too nice :) Re-reading the jumping rules, a 2-hex jump succeeds too often (5D6 vs ST+DX). Given a typical ST+DX of 24, that makes leaping over the pits the obvious choice.
Note that 5D roll can't succeed more than 84.8% of the time.

http://www.hcobb.com/tft/TFT_Saving_...rcentages.html

Hence the importance of Acrobatics.
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Old 02-12-2019, 02:15 PM   #15
industrialchild
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

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Originally Posted by JohnPaulB View Post
From what I gather here, you feel it might be too difficult to play with 2 players. Are you using 1 figure per player? Why not run 2 figures per player (all 4 of them Player Characters)?
Indeed JohnPaul B! I will surely try it with each player running 2 figures! With that many PCs in play I think it will be well balanced. You are correct though, my players each controlled only 1 PC, so they were outnumbered. Even so though, the game was still very enjoyable for them and it wasn't a total slaughter fest at least. Still smoked them, but they put up a great fight and left only 1 Cultist remaining!

This is just a personal preference for me and my players in any RPG I've played thus far, but my players prefer controlling only one PC as it helps them get into their character better and tends to be a better overall experience I find.

Your advice is solid and very much appreciated though! I will propose this idea to my family the next time we play!

Last edited by industrialchild; 02-12-2019 at 02:20 PM.
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Old 02-12-2019, 06:15 PM   #16
malchidael
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

Quote:
Originally Posted by industrialchild View Post
That would be a great decision Murak! That would definitely go a long way to making the leaping over the pits less attractive.

I GM'd our first game of the Summoning with my mother and brother as players. As you mentioned Murak, they were quick to jump over the pits, but even so, they got smoked by the cultists...:D Even though I was a GM, since this was a one shot, I didn't feel the least bit bad about "playing to win" as the cultists!

Now, I have more experience with TFT than they do at the moment, I did see some things they probably could have done better, but they enjoyed your scenario enough to want to play it again and that's always a great sign! I get the strong impression, Murak, that this is a scenario that you designed somewhere within the realm of 3-4 PCs playing. Am I correct in assuming this? While I think it's possible for 2 PCs to win your scenario, there is little room for error on their parts as this is written.

I'm going to try and figure a way to scale the difficulty down a bit regarding the NPCs for 1-2 PC counts and plug in what you have in mind for the pits in the future and get back to you on this.

All in all, I'm super impressed with your work Murak and I'm beyond happy that you decided to share this with the community! Personally, I think it's good enough to warrant publishing! I'm not kidding!

The Hexagram magazine just met it's final stretch goal a day ago! So there will be a 2nd Hexagram zine for TFT in the future. After you've done your due diligence to refine this scenario more and continue to get feedback so you can make this the best you possibly can; I would STRONGLY urge you to submit it directly to Steve Jackson for maybe a spot in the next Hexagram issue!!! I feel that strongly about this and have loved it thus far!

I just downloaded the 2nd scenario that you kindly shared and I'm looking forward to playing that also and reporting back to you! Thanks again Murak!
Thank you for the kind words. I'm so glad TFT is back!

I ran through The Summoning twice last night. The first time, I had the following:
Swordsman: ST 12, DX 12(9) IQ 8 MA 10; Leather, Lg Shield, Broadsword. Notable talent: Running
Crossbowguy: ST 12 DX 10(12) IQ 10 MA 10; Light Crossbow, Dagger. Talents - Missile Weapons (x2), Toughness
Hammer: ST 14, DX 10, IQ 8, MA 10 Great Hammer
Mace: ST 11 DX 13(11) IQ 8 MA 8; Leather Armor, Mace, Small Shield

Swordsman charged up, engaged both cultist guards. Crossbow slowly advanced, firing when he could. Mace moved up to assist Swordsman, and Hammer charged forward, leaping over the pit to try to break up the ritual.

Unfortunately, Hammer had some bad luck, and was not able to disrupt the scenario. In the end, they defeated the cultists and the Spawn, with only one dead character.

For my second playthough, I replaced Hammer and Mace with two elf clones
ST 10, DX 14, IQ 8, MA 14 - No armor, Hammer, Running talent.

This time, both elves charged and jumped over the pit, and with their higher DX, they were able to disrupt the ritual. In the end, we won; Swordsman died, one of the cultists fled, but we got the cult leader and saved the Lord Governor's son.

So, having a group optimized for speed and high dex makes this scenario easy. Wizards with summoned wolves (or illusions of wolves) would also make this easy. I think going with the 3-hex wide pit will definitely balance this out.
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Old 02-12-2019, 06:25 PM   #17
Skarg
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

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Originally Posted by hcobb View Post
Note that 5D roll can't succeed more than 84.8% of the time.

http://www.hcobb.com/tft/TFT_Saving_...rcentages.html

Hence the importance of Acrobatics.
Those increased auto-fail numbers are to represent things that are very difficult. A 5-die roll on the sum of two attributes is not a very difficult thing, so I wouldn't tend to apply those auto-miss numbers to a 5-die roll on ST + DX.
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Old 02-12-2019, 07:01 PM   #18
malchidael
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

I updated the map for The Summoning and posted it. I have not redone the scenario or created the battlemap-scale map as of yet, but this is what I'm going to playtest over the next few days.
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Old 02-13-2019, 02:01 AM   #19
JLV
 
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Default Re: Tactical encounters book

@Malchidael -- These both look great! Nice job, and I honestly think you should consider sending them to Steve for possible inclusion in issue #2 of Hexagram! They're clever, quick playing, and seem pretty well balanced from just reading them (I'll break out the maps and give 'em a go over the weekend...).
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Old 02-13-2019, 06:13 PM   #20
malchidael
 
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Originally Posted by JLV View Post
@Malchidael -- These both look great! Nice job, and I honestly think you should consider sending them to Steve for possible inclusion in issue #2 of Hexagram! They're clever, quick playing, and seem pretty well balanced from just reading them (I'll break out the maps and give 'em a go over the weekend...).
Thanks!

I think I'll continue to publish freebies as I think of them, but developing something for Hexagram #2 is intriguing. After all, where there are three Cultists of the Foul One, there's bound to be more...

I do need to create better/easier exporting templates for Melee/Wizard maps in Campaign Cartographer 3. That's why my second encounter, the Druid's Hut, did not use a standard Melee Map - it was easier to export. But, for ease of use, standard Melee/Wizard maps and the standard megahexes from the Legacy set is probably the best way to go.
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