Newbie Needing Help!!

[Blood Legend]

How I run it.

In dire circumstances, as in, when you absolutely need a confrontation now and have no preperation, dont even bother with HP.

If a player makes a valiant or otherwise impressive strike, his opponent is smote. Dont just hand these out though, make them feel like earned kills.

With a slight bit of prep time, go with 10/12/10/10, and typically the 'small sword' and 'leather armor' of that setting. Always make sure no matter what the opponent is that there is someone in the opposing party that can do at least 1 damage to the most well armored person in the player group (or they cease to be threatening, and become naught more than a mild unimpressive distraction). Skills are equal to Attribute level. Slight variations a must. For easier battles, make the NPCs HT 0. They fail every death check, they blow every knockdown and stun, any injury likely to cripple, does. They fall like dominoes.

I have four types of cannon fodder:

Mooks: Your average bar fighter, the jerk on the street, or that one bully. He attempts to flee or surrender after HP/2, a temporarily crippling injury or a major wound, whichever comes first. If the major wound was to the torso, he automatically falls, and doesn't get back up. Most 'real' (cough) fights are a series of damageless pushes and shoves coupled with maybe 2HPs worth of bludgeons and bruises. HP/2 is a lot by comparison.

Thugs: Your average minion, fights because someone presumably scarier than you told him to. Attempts to flee or surrender after you prove him wrong, his HP reaches 0, he suffers a temporarily crippling injury or receives a major wound, whichever comes first. For perspective, HP0 is a trip to the emergency room.

Soldiers: Your average worthy opponent, fights til it aint worth fighting no more. Attacks until he reaches -1xHP or suffers a permenant crippling injury. If he's still alive by then he gives up.

Berserkers: Those mother-bears, dungeon denizens, psychotic slashers, that one thief that cant go back to jail, the ring leader, or your ex-wife. Keeps on keepin on until you've stopped him/her/it from moving. Surrender is not an option for them.



Naturally, meaningful encounters or recurring opponents should probably have character sheets (minimal at best most likely) pulling out the sheet lets your players know you're working on the campaign and there's no joy like seeing your players sit up when you pull Thargo The Butcher out of your binder.

[Gollum]

Here is a quick way to create characters during the game (or before the game start, when you don't have a lot of time to do it).

- 06 is very bad for an attribute or a default skill level
- 08 is bad for an attribute or a beginner skill level
- 10 is average for an attribute or an amateur skill level
- 12 is good for an attribute or a professional skill level
- 14 is very good for an attribute or an expert skill level
- 16 is outstanding for an attribute and a very good expert level

So, if you suddenly need a warrior that you didn't prepare before the game start, no problem...

A warrior is strong, dextrous and healthy but not necessarily bright. ST 12, DX 12, IQ 8 HT 12 is good for an average soldier. A 14 in ST will give an especially strong warrior or a 14 in DX will give an especially dextrous one. For the skills, just give him 12 in every skill he is supposed to be professional, 10 in some related skills in which he is trained but not a professional (First Aid, Climbing, Swimming...) and 14 in his specialities (his prefered weapon, for instance).

[Kaldrin]

Originally Posted by Dahgda

1) How do I balance things so what I throw at a party is neither too much nor too little for them? Is there a point value calculation or something?

Think about the relative skill of your PCs and base it off that. You can tweak it as you go too. Some players are tactically sound thinkers. Others aren't at all. There are a few basic ideas you want to think about though. If the enemy NPCs have the same skill levels as your PCs you'll have a longer fight. The damage ratio is d6 per 3 DR (it'll wound a bit if they miss a defense roll, which is what you want). Use the mook rules.

2) Is there an easy way to make cannon fodder types, other than to make like 100 templates, then just customize a few pieces each time?

Don't even bother. Just write down a few stats on a piece of paper before the game... or have it in your head and don't write anything down at all. Just know what you want them to do and don't worry about how much it costs.