03-29-2018, 07:56 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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There could be a How to Be a DF GM, though, which would be useful for both games. Maybe print, maybe PDF only; either way, useful. (Actually, it sounds to me like a perfect addition to the line of numbered DF books.) In any case, there's a lot of great advice and "under the hood" reveals showing up in the forum here – stuff that's totally unique to the genre/setting, not to GURPS in general. Here's hoping it'll show up in a How to... compendium, somehow and somewhere! * "unlikely" <> "impossible". Who knows what could happen. Definitely not me!
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03-29-2018, 09:21 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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Personally, I'm ok with NPC heelbots and alternative healing, a thief OR a wizard (also possibly NPCs), and at least half "melee capable" (depends a lot on build) PCs but I suspect that I'm not as old school deadly as DF is meant to be. This advice would have been a good thing to include in the Delvers to go supplement, along with a couple more Barbs and Kniggits. This may be another reason more recent games have generally moved away from niche protection. |
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03-29-2018, 09:40 AM | #33 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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This also goes with systems where combat is rather abstract and is resolved quickly, and you might need to roll up half a dozen new PCs at once because of expected character death rates, so that's a thing.
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03-29-2018, 09:50 AM | #34 | |||||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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The division has military precedent: On a special-ops team, the "weapons" guy (fighter) handles most of the heavy hitting; the "engineer" (thief) disarms and defuses, and occasionally sets, mines and booby traps; the "medic" (cleric) patches people up; and the "communications" specialist (magic-user) calls in air/artillery strikes, and handles high-tech sensors and other gizmos nobody else quite gets. The "command" role isn't associated with a fantasy archetype because most FRPG parties are nonhierarchical; if there's a leader, that person is chosen on the meta-game level. The "intelligence" role is filled by treasure maps, hired sages, and cloaked strangers in taverns in old-school games, but inasmuch as there are in-game abilities, it's shared among the thief (who spies), cleric (who can ask the gods for information), and magic-user (who can seek things with magic). Quote:
Another subtlety, often missed, is that those final 7 points can be spent "to improve any previous skill." This is an option that bards, clerics, druids, and wizards don't get; it positions thieves between casters and true warriors in terms of combat skill. If you want a warrior-thief, spend those 7 points to be really good at fighting. You could easily have even higher Main-Gauche in my previous example, or perhaps merge those points with quirk points and decide you're an archer with Bow-17, Fast-Draw (Arrow)-15, a composite bow, and a quiver full of fine, balanced arrows. So I think one can go the route of a killer, if one wants. But that's just one option. I wanted to leave in the option of the pure, Bilbo-inspired burglar and similar combat-avoidant sneaks. The thief with enhanced Per and Basic Move, Night Vision, Cartography, Lip Reading, and Observation, and amped-up Stealth is a role some gamers like, too: "Yeah, so while you were resting I scouted the rest of the dungeon real quick. I found all the sentries and lip-read the passwords. Oh, here's the map. The fighting is up to you, but I set some traps here and here on the map . . . lure the bad guys there."
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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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03-29-2018, 09:59 AM | #35 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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And I won't lie . . . the time I had 13 players, the group had a cleric, two knights, two wizards, and a thief, and the other eight were a bard, a druid, a martial artist, and, like, four swashbucklers. It seems that as soon as the basic roles are filled, people go nuts playing swashbucklers.
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03-29-2018, 02:42 PM | #36 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. Last edited by johndallman; 03-29-2018 at 03:08 PM. |
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03-29-2018, 02:43 PM | #37 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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03-29-2018, 02:46 PM | #38 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
The most interesting thing I've seen starting magic-users do is decide to use the brains they're required to have, and think about the overall situation, rather than just that round's actions. Having someone doing that and making sensible suggestions can make a remarkable difference to party effectiveness.
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03-29-2018, 03:01 PM | #39 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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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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03-29-2018, 04:59 PM | #40 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spoilers] Experience running ISAR and some concerns
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Tactically, the classic division is front-line fighter, artillery, support, skirmisher, non-combatant. |
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i smell a rat, isar, party composition |
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