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Messages - crystaril

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This was such a good time, I'm so glad I went!  Thanks for hanging out MSD and Eyeballkid!  (I was the girl with the poster can.)

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I will see you guys there! Gonna try to get in an hour early at least. I'm 39th I think. My question is entirely non-spoilery so I'm clear on that!  Man I'm so excited. 

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DFRPG / Re: Planning vs. Winging It
« on: May 24, 2012, 03:03:21 PM »
Yeah I don't think I've ever had a player buy off a compel either.  Which is great because my style of GM'ing is basically "Maximum Pathos!" I try to make sure every character gets a spotlight moment once in a while where the past comes back to bite them and make them make hard choices and learn all of each other's dark secrets.

For the campaign itself I came up with some major villains and a few second in commands for them, gave each group a motivation and end-goal (nothing super concrete.  "wants to do a city-destroying ritual" or "time magic shenanigans") and then give my players a strong opening scene and let them take the wheel.  I'm pretty much doing it like a CYOA.  "OK, this scene is done. These other three things are happening, where do you want to go?"  (to which they respond: "Let's split up gang!" 99% of the time but that's ok too.)  The important thing is that while they're working on a plotline the other plotlines continue to advance, so the major demon villain might be the one they're currently fighting but they've encountered issues and NPC's from the BCV and Fae plots, which will all come back in later.  This lets the threats level up with the players, without just feeling like I invented a stronger threat later.  And it makes them feel responsible when they prioritize things.

I also make sure to give them fallout reports, like the WCV discussing corpse disposal with the local ghoul-under-the-bridge after the players had a big fight with them, leaving several key WCV npc's wounded.  Consequences, people!

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My group (I'm GMing) is trying to unravel this nasty demonic plot to destroy New Orleans in fire and water but they haven't figured out who the actual power behind the demons is yet.  Our last Significant milestone was... interesting.

It started off with all the PC's having a meeting where they tried to figure out their next step.  Two of them (the more wizardy pair) had summoned a minor demon the night before and beat a bunch of useful information out of it.  The resident holy guy blows a cork when he finds out his friends are "demon summoners" and leaves, but they've got a pretty good idea who the next target is and they're all ready to go. 

Now I like to be spontaneous, so when the holy guy gets to the Warden's office (My DMPC, he's been working with the party when they ask him to) I have the Warden running around to the back and popping a portal to the NeverNever.  Why? Because one of the ally NPCs has just been attacked and his niece is kidnapped. (The demons want to ransom the little girl for a super strong magical artifact that will let them power the whole city-destroying ritual.)

Now it's like a 30 minute drive to the place so the Warden is just going to use the Ways which should take 3 minutes.  Of course the holy guy asks to come along and the Warden says sure.  It ends up sticking them in a narrow tunnel and eventually they come out on a deep winter death swamp, but there shouldn't be any monsters.  Except the fact that the holy guy is basically a cowboy who got buried alive for 120 years (long story, time magic involved) and he's terrified of enclosed dark spaces.  So of course being in deep winter this attracts a pack of fetches (which manifest as ghostly indians.)  While the warden and the cowboy fight off the indians, one of the demon summoner wizards (he's a Japanese guy, and basically a ninja. Lots of shadow magic,) followed them because he wanted to make things right over the whole demon-thing and he's not quite so good with portals so he ends up landing in a tree.

Which then starts moving.  Because all the noise from the fighting woke up this giant hibernating Ent and it's pissed.  So they finish off the fetches, and then the Ent (lots of fire involved in that one, but the ninja guy stabbed both it's eyes out too and the cowboy shot it to pieces.)  And eventually they all emerge from behind the liquor store across the street from the NPC's location.

Meanwhile the other three PCs get the news from one of the pixie payroll (one of our characters is a minor 'za lord, he has one pixie on staff at all times and he called in a bunch more since they were combing the area for demons at the time.) and they just drive over like civilized people and get there at the same time.

So everyone meets up and talks to the NPC, Andy, who's still got the Artifact but his niece was kidnapped.  One of them does a tracking spell and figures out the girl is down at the marina.  They head over in two cars.  When they get there the ninja wanders off and the Warden chases after him, (he's in a bit of a funk since trying to apologize to the cowboy didn't go so well) while the pixies scout out the place.  One of the pixies gets captured by something and the kid who hired them leads the charge down the dock, towards this huge party yacht where there's music and dancing and BBQ. 

The 'za lord is actually a 10 year old kid (who's actually a former Warden that body jumped, long story) and he just runs through the crowd on deck while the cowboy chases after him, ostensibly looking for either the captured pixie or the kidnapped girl.  The yacht pulls away from the dock.  The other two PC's steal a rowboat and chase it, fishing out poor uncle Andy who didn't make the jump from the dock.  (he's like 60, he wasn't very athletic.) They hex the yacht's engines so it can't get away.

There are two male skavis WCV's hanging out on the back of the yacht (one in a speedo and one with a very fake orange tan) and they give chase.  Eventually cowboy and 10yr old end up on the front of the boat where two Rath girls are hanging out.  The Raith girls are distracting enough to stall the search long enough for the Skavis boys to catch up, and a fight breaks out between them and the PCs.  The Raith girls just sit and watch as cowboy and 10yr old make short work of Orange Tan (fireball to the face gave him the severe "Now THAT's a tan!" consequence. heh.)  Speedo is a lot tougher though, and cowboy eventually hits on the idea of just throwing him off the front of the boat (sploosh!)

While this is going on, the girls and uncle Andy are sneaking in the back way.  One of them decides to go help with the commotion on the prow while the other takes Andy belowdecks.  They find the kid, but a huge fat man (obviously a disguised demon) blocks the only exit.  Some quick thinking and a bunch of lying give the PC (a spirit/force user) a bunch of tags and she blows the demon (angled upward) out of the yacht, and it lands in the water and immediately disintegrates. 

Back on the prow, Speedo climbs back out of the water and the fighting resumes.  He calls for his sword and ends up duelling the 10 year old for a while, dodging bullets from cowboy.  But when the third PC shows up he concedes, and says they can do whatever they want.  The demon blows out the side of the hull around this time, and the WCV's all look at Orange tan (who is cooked and croaking miserably on the floor) and basically ask him what the hell that was doing on the yacht.

Police sirens sound and the PC's decide to get the hell out of there, since they've got the girl and they find out that the pixie that went missing has just been trapped under a glass cover (that used to contain a cake...) the entire time. Oh and the 10yr old manages to get one of the Raith girl's numbers. ;)

Meanwhile the ninja and Warden had a whole OTHER adventure... did some underwater diving, got attacked by a giant crab, fought a scion of Hecate and stole her sacrificial knife and chalice, broke the Warden's sword in half, and ended up escaping through the NeverNever into Hades... where they chatted with Charon for a bit before running the hell away and ending up behind a Gyro place.

And the day was only half over.

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DFRPG / Re: Template Balance
« on: May 04, 2012, 11:06:53 PM »
The thing is, there's a lot more to the game than combat.  A battle-wizard is going to do ridiculous things given inhuman opponents and a clear field.  This is easy to complicate by throwing human opponents or hostages out there to prevent zone-wide attacks, having a mental attack take out his mental track so he can't cast freely, or use magic resistant enemies. 

edit: That same doom-wizard can't convince anyone the sky is blue and wouldn't notice a clue if it bit him on the behind, and probably has no money and no connections.  His friends with presence and rapport and deceit and resources and contacts however... They're all just as important to the story.

I just had a "Longest Day" style adventure where my dudes went through a gauntlet of adventures without any breaks between (they were being chased through the nevernever by... oh lots of things.)  The wizards ended up using their swords for half of it, they ran out of gas.

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DFRPG / Re: Magitech???
« on: May 04, 2012, 10:24:53 AM »
My warden is a water/fire/spirit evocation specialist.  He's a bit of an odd duck, but it lets him do things like hang a fishbowl from the ceiling of his lab, when heat is applied to the liquid inside it glows (flourecent lighting! no messy candles for him.)  He has hot running water too. (an enchanted clamp around the showerhead, warms it to exactly the right temperature) and a real ice iceboxx of course but that's simple.

One of the party figured out how to make walkie-talkies. They all have a badge (the Warden deputized the party, they're helping him out basically,) and the badges are sympathetically linked, (with a built in tracking spell keyed to the individual in case one of them gets into trouble.)  One of the players figured out how to use the link back to the master badge to establish sound contact and he's been using it like that ever since.  Helps a lot with the no-cell-phones problem wizards have.

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DFRPG / Re: How often do you split up the group?
« on: May 01, 2012, 11:53:03 PM »
I am the GM of a PBP game with 5 players. (And I should probably count my DMPC Warden since he hangs out with them about half the time.) "It's time to split the party!" has become a running gag.  Basically they like to go investigate and talk to contacts and do whatever in pairs/group of 3 but when it's time for the fighting they'll *usually* come back together.  I don't mind the extra work, it means a lot of stuff happens, and the PCs all know each other and keep in phone contact with each other so they're all on top of the situation even when they aren't present for each thing.  It's also funny to see who hangs out with who, it's rarely the same couplet so I can throw different things at them.  It's also nice because if one of the players won't be around for a few days we can put them aside while the others can keep playing.

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