Things you like in games that don't translate into storytelling well
Impractical weapons.
>>47636666
Vampiric attacks that aren't blood-draining
>>47636708
Characters with wings
>>47636725
Impractical characters
>>47636666
Gunmages
It's either too scarce, or too plentiful and then unbalanced
>>47636775
That is the opposite of the problem I encounter with gunmages. Scarcity is almost never the problem, the problem is always that the concept shits the bed from a mechanics standpoint.
Gun magic is almost always translated mechanically as shoot a bullet, if the bullet hits deal bullet damage and activate the spell. The extra damage of the bullet is almost always not worth the extra point of potential failure if the bullet misses.
From a storytelling standpoint the gunmages are awesome, but from a mechanics concept they almost never work.
>>47639330
I find gunmages only work when it's the only real method of using magic offensively. Like if mana reserves are so small that you only have enough for a few spells, but the way to bypass that limit is by storing them in bullets beforehand, for example.
Having gunmages alongside the typical 'fling fireball' wizards doesn't work out as well. Maybe it could work if the only offensive spells required touching someone and gunmages could bypass that as well, but as long as you can just shoot a laser anyway there's no point.
>>47636666
nice quads
crafting systems. my players have taken a random guys rib bone, and I blame this.
>>47636666
Complex magic systems.
>>47636753
>Dolphin mech
>doesn't translate into a game
Foreshadowed offscreen events, and environments that change slightly as you leave and return
In vidya you can have a scene where the BBEG is talking to a shadowy figure about taking down the PCs. An assassin or infiltrator or rival. In the tabletop they just doesn't seem to have an effect. Maybe I just suck at GMing.
You don't normally describe rooms the PCs have already been in for a second time, so once you start doing it they immediately suspect something's up.
>>47636753
>>47640791
>>47639413
I've seen this done in a game by making bullet scrolls. Pretty much the mage buys or crafts their spell in a bullet form, and as soon as the hammer strikes the material component within the spell activates pointed in the direction of the barrel.
Bullets themselves were much cheaper to make, and the 'scroll' bullets cost around half extra as a normal scroll of the same spell. Pretty sure the game didn't allow for spellcasters to cast spells without a focus though, and guns just acted as an additional option in that regard.
![latest[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/fKlejMF.jpg "latest[1].jpg")
>>47641025
>>47640885
In the old d6 Star Wars game, the pre-made adventures actually had "cutscenes" including the antagonists
>>47639487
...yeah, i'm real bad about wanting that.
Realism.
>>47636666
Mag Launcher. That was the first rpg I ever played.
>>47636775
>>47639413
I think the way Iron Kingdoms handles gunmages is pretty swell actually
>>47636666
Good old fashioned Shonen style power limiters. Either you're weaker than the rest without it, and on par with it off, or you're on par with the others normally, and stronger with it off. Both are still unbalanced as hell though.
(On the flipside, super saiyan style transformations have a similar issue, though I'm not nearly as big a fan of them.)
>>47636666
How about cool things in storytelling that don't translate to games well?
Monsters that are totally immune to everything except one specific weakness.
Thanks GM, we really appreciate you forcing a practically one-on-one fight because there's only one silver weapon in the whole kingdom and you refuse to let us craft an improvised one from that silver necklace we looted.
We can't even attempt to grab or trip the boss monster because anything other than a silver weapon just "bounces off" no matter what. I bet if we had lured it into a pit, it would walk on air because the pit isn't silver.
>>47642641
Silver is one thing. I was rereading the Dresden Files books and thinking about a campaign, and the loup-garou is something that can only be hurt by INHERITED silver. So it's not even a case where you could research the monster's weaknesses and get someone to make you a real silver weapon - unless your backstory includes 'pretty well off family, got Mom's jewellery in the will', you're shit outta luck.
Which is a larger thing in storytelling that doesn't work in games - the minor character who suddenly becomes critically important and saves the day, due to their specific circumstances. As far as RPGs are concerned, the players are the only problem solvers in the world.
>>47636666
I don't see what's so impractical about this; it's basically 'Mage Hand', yes? Only as a mechanical device. I'd allow it, with some careful statting.
