/tg/'s fortnightly Storythread is back. Writefags, prepare yourselves: after the last thread, where there were multiple stories over ten posts long, we have a lot to live up to.
If you have /tg/ related stories to post, post them here, and hopefully some kind anon will give you feedback (or at least acknowledge that someone did actually read it, which let's face it is what writefags really want).
If you don't have a story ready then I and other anons will be posting pictures throughout the thread for you to test your writing skills on. This is, more or less, a world-building and character-building exercise: two vital skills for playing roleplaying games. If you don't have any pics to post, you could try posting an idea for a setting or a character, and maybe someone will be willing to write a story using it. It's also an exercise in writing though, where writefags can try out their material and gain inspiration, so if you just want to talk about world-building save it for the world-building threads.
Remember that writefags love to have feedback on their work. Writing takes a long time, especially stories that go over several posts, and it can be really depressing when no one even seems to read it (and the writer won't know you read it unless you leave a comment).
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And finally, don't forget to check out past stories on our wiki page:
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YES
STORYFAG REPORTING
I MISSED THIS THREAD.
>>46094895
seems like longer that two weeks since the last one, doesn't it. Which doesn't make sense as actually, it's only been nine days since the last one 404d
How to make a primarily non-combat based campaign?
How to make encounters exciting and interesting?
Some ideas to make exciting encounters... (the system I'm GMing now are Pathfinder/dnd 5)
-----
Exciting encounters (with combat)
>Random X-men Power
In my campaigns, to make the battles interesting and unexpected, I improvise some of the abilities of the monsters.
The systems I've GMing are Pathfinder and DnD 5, so, I choose via "random page" of this wiki (http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Powers) and put it in the monsters sheet as spells, abilities or etc, all improvised (sometimes adjust the CR like the mythic creatures do: more powers, more CR...);
I've always indicate one of the enemies as "special" (so my players know of the presence of a "superpower"), so the rhythm of the battle isn't determinate on the beggining and giving the chance of the GM improvising, the monster tatics will be different too.
-----
Exciting encounters (without combat)
>"Encounter" Traps/Haunts/Hazards
In dungeonscape (of the 3.5), there are methods to make "encounter traps" - in the essence traps, but they have iniciative and the trap will be continue attacking round after round unless the PCs discover the weak point of the trap. The book says this "weak point" in general will be a skill check, but you as GM can determine this weak point as a enigma, logic puzzle or what shit you like! With the answer, they win the encounter. In the end, the PCs use nothing more their our brains!
You can go beyond and make haunts or hazards that use the same idea. With this in mind, you can make entire campaigns of investigation that relies in the inteligence rather the general "dungeon crawl" strategy or make hazards in the way of the travel of the heroes to the BBEG castle (like have to escape a magical storm created by the BBEG to delay their journey).
>Hero's dilemma
Use some of tropes of movies (like isolation, moral choices and so on) and add to the adventure plot. The choice/discussion It's the encounter! It will be more improvising than planning of the GM.
Politics, example saving an accomplice from being assassinated by talking it out, or stalling. Just a thought.
It's all about the characters man.
If the players play characters that doesn't fight for a living or even practice combat abilities, then they will want to seek other solutions to the campains conflicts.
But that is also dependent on the system you play with, since many systems like DnD leaves few options for that sort of group.
Choose a system that gives the players options to create "peaceful" characters and make the conflicts of your campain such, that it can be resolved either through roleplay or non lethal competition.
Like if the players were all owners of a company that made the newest cybernetics, but were pressured by a close competitor on the market.
The players can then through their influence, money, social skills and guile investigate and defeat their competition without ever rolling for initiative.
I'm building a Tribal Vampire commander deck and I was wanting your advice on it and what I could add or take out.
Thanks /tg/.
Here's the list:
Commander
- Anowon, the Ruin Sage
Lands
- Swamp x28 - Barren Moor - Polluted Mire - Ebon Stronghold - Crystal Vein
Creatures
- Vampire Nighthawk - Bloodline Keeper - Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet - Dark Imposter - Bloodlord of Vaasgoth - Captivating Vampire - Blood Artist - Vampire Hexmage - Bloodthrone Vampire - Butcher of Malakir - Ascendant Evincar - Pawn of Ulamog - Falkenrath Noble - Shadow Alley Denizen - Bloodflow Connoisseur - Sangromancer - Guul Draz Assassin - Mirri the Cursed - Blood Seeker - Necropolis Regent - Bloodhusk Ritualist - Vampire Aristocrat - Drana, Liberator of Malakir - Bloodbond Vampire - Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Spells
- Blood Tribute - Duress - Despise - Dark Ritual - Urge to Feed - Decree of Pain - Feast of Blood - Malicious Affliction - Tragic Slip - Go for the Throat
Enchantments
- Bad Moon
Artifacts
- Sol Ring - Elixir of Immortality - Blade of the Bloodchief - Caged Sun - Door of Destinies - Codex Shredder - Lashwrithe
Thinking about adding:
- Vampire Nocturnus - Nirkana Cutthroat - Nirkana Revenant - Temporal Extortion - Sorin Markov - Sorin's Vengeance - Black Sun's Zenith - Life's Finale - Promise of Power - Painful Quandary - Attrition - Vampiric Tutor - Demonic Tutor - Diabolic Tutor - Rhystic Tutor - Dictate of Erebos - Grave pact - Vampiric Link - Sanguine Bond - Exquisite Blood - Vampiric Rites
>>46306394
Put it on Tappedout or Deckstats or something, then give us a link.
Or even better, post your question in the EDH/Commander General.
>>46306394
You have a lot of spot removal that only takes care of 1 creature at a time, which won't help too much to keep multiple players in check and you'd be better with spells that can wipe the whole board of creatures, like toxic deluge. Some way of helping you get the cards you need would also be good, like the tutors you mentioned (mainly just vampiric and demonic, but diabolic is fine too) and cards to help you draw like phyrexian arena or greed. Discard cards like despise and duress are less effective against multiple opponents too and could probably be removed.
>>46306519
Yeah, that's why I might put in Black Sun's Zenith and Life's Finale. But, I play both single player commander and multiplayer as well.
Need steampunk art and character designs. Victorian, Wild West, Satsuma Rebellion, whatever you got.
>high fantasy setting
>"Holy Jesus!"
>real life europe
>"allahu akbar!"
>real life america
>oy vey
>>46305880
What's wrong with that, anon? Don't you acknowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Domains: Good, Light, Healing, Law, Death)?
![20af874653459f787462f6d8fe15d9c83d2762cc[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/mZWc8vm.jpg "20af874653459f787462f6d8fe15d9c83d2762cc[1]")
So I just played Expeditions: Conquistador and am now inspired to run a campaign set in the era of Spanish exploration of the New World.
Thing is, I've never been quite that good at the exploration part. I'm not really sure how to make exploring endless jungles, forests et cetera interesting. I have some ideas for how to deal with the natives, but I don't want to make the countryside feel like the void the party moves through on their way to the next event. It feels like the world itself, being a whole new world never seen by Europeans before, should be more interesting than that.
Help me brainstorm interesting shit to do here, /tg/?
>>46305451
>Expeditions: Conquistador
That was a cool game.
Did you recruit the native followers? Marry the chief's kid? What was the rest of your party like?
>>46305603
>native followers
The one with the macuahuitl is too awesome not to get. He does so much fucking damage.
>marry a nonwhite
Please.
>party
I think I had a sword-and-shield guy for tanking, the native with the macuahuitl and one with a halberd for damage, an archer for range, and a healer or two.
I think it might be too simulationist, but including mechanics for hunting and feeding the party might be cool. Or it might just be another stat to track.
>>46305662
>>marry a nonwhite
>Please.
Some conquistador you are
/tg/, tell me about the weirdest PC's in your campaing.
I'll start: Cigar chomping heroic cyborg lady. In a victorian era setting.
the orc equivalent of macho man randy savage in forgotten realms
>>46305120
Did s/he have a Miss Elizabeth?
I'm playing as Yosef Stalen, a lawful evil dwarf who fights with a warhammer and sickle for the glory of the soviet union. My backstory was I woke up in a forest years ago with nothing but a copy of the Communist Manifesto, but because I couldn't read, had to have people read it to me after doing deeds for them.
It's my first time playing D&D, and it's 3.5. Did I fuck up?
So, Legion 2 and 11 are mention fairly often in the lore.
But we know them as the legions that use to make your own, however in the lore this would automatically make your legion a traitor and chaos worshipers.
>>46304862
Yup. Those two leginos approuch the emperor of mankind and told them of flaws in their geneseed.
The emperor being a kind and loving person, had them COMPLETELY PURGE AND DELETED FROM ALL RECORDS..
>>46304898
Only one of them.
It's clearly state that the 2 purges were for completely different reasons.
>>46304862
No, they were eliminated before the Heresy.
The Primarchs were purged. Presumably for being xenos lovers and/or pacifists.
The Legionnaires were just incorporated into the Ultramarines.
Is there a regiment of dishonored Astartes that are forced to serve in the imperial guard?
>>46304764
Why would there be?
There is the Deathwatch for that.
>>46304764
Astartes in flak armor. Man that would be funny.
Here's your lasgun space marine.
What if the chaos gods existed before Age of Sigmar
So thanks to /tg/'s advanced wisdom I've decided to run a game in which the players will be soldiers in some kind of war (still deciding which one).
system will come later, but first i need to figure out how to guide them? i can't say "do whatever you feel like" and i can't just shout "go here and do X, then come back to me and ill tell you to do Y" repeat.
how do i give them an idea that this is a linear story and they're not just being given objectives from a talking bounty board? i hope you guys get what I'm saying.
depends on what level the players are at and what kind of war is being fought,
that being said orders from the brass can be fairly vague when you get any kind of rank. the lower you are on the totem pole the more simple, easy, and rigidly interpreted your orders are.
play up what happens on their down time. maybe they have some rivalries with that card shark in company F, maybe the sergeant in the motor pool (or it's equivalent) hates the party because of some bullshit, or maybe the CO is crazy and puts his own twist on P.T. the possibilities go on.
when it comes to material rewards that's when it gets tricky. depending on the setting you can't exactly keep "spoils of war". In fact it's generally frowned on to raid and pillage civilians. Also if the enemy has awesome loot it's probable that someone will pull rank and take it for their own.
just a few things the think about
>>46304514
Watch the old "Tour of Duty" TV-series.
Take it from there.
And after that, let the campaign turn into A-Team.
>>46304681
you know what, you make a very good point. i have a lot more to worry about than my original issue.
i might just start with finding a system and rest what it tells me to do then
Somebody Rate my setting.
>Great Continent contains only two primary core races; Humans and Trolls.
>They live apart, though a few live in each others territories.
>Humans tend to live in the hotter areas, trolls in the colder ones
>Temperate areas inbetween are sometimes fought over
>Trolls are not as stupid as they are in most worlds but aren't as industrious as humans, have a hard time with mining and making weapons/armor, reproduce slowly but big and powerful and can recover from almost any injury
>Humans mastered horseback riding and go to war with the trolls when they need to
>Many years of uneasy peace have been between the two races for a long time, several satellite races such as kobolds, lizardmen, burrow-folk (basically small animal people like in 100 acre wood) are mingling, but worried of a future war
>This is the tense situation that the players are thrown into, war may be on the horizon.
Not terribly original I know, but how does /tg/ like it?
Also picture unrelated, but cool.
entirely in the execution/10
>>46304393
>Temperate areas inbetween are sometimes fought over
Why would the fight when they life so far apart?
HOW can they they live so far apart if they fight over areas that are I assume somewhere in the middle?
>>46304425
in what way?
Any advice for a wannabe GM?
I'm trying to write an AC campaign, and I'm thinking that I should use GURPS or just modern pathfinder. I'm pretty creative so writing the campaign itself shouldn't be too challenging, but I'm still all ears for advice on what I should and shouldn't do, especially considering the theme.
I do plan on letting my players go in and out of the Animus, if they can get their hands on one of course. Their ancestors are going to going to be pre-made characters with their own traits and such, and for every session that my players spend in the Animus, certain skills will carry over from their ancestors to the real characters.
Of course, my players might just try to run away from Abstergo and the Assassins, trying to avoid the conflict altogether, but I'm pretty sure I've got all things considered in terms of railroading.
How the hell are you going to get your players to use an Animus if they don't want to?
>>46304060
Well I never thought it would be too much of an issue. They'd either be captured by the Templars and forced to use them, or the Assassins would bring them in and have them use the Animus too.
It's going to follow the basic structure of the first few games. Secrets locked away in genetic memory that the Templars and Assassins are racing for.
>>46304084
Well don't fuck it up
>tell people to make regular adventurer characters for a quick game
>start game
>suddenly reveal that they're all highly advanced miniature robot toys of characters from a big fantasy franchise complete with TV show and other coming media
>they have just been unwrapped as presents for a little girl's birthday
>however, she also got toys from their company's biggest competitor
>when the girl leaves they fight and destroy the other toys
>they love it and want to continue
So yeah, I want to run a game with the PCs as highly advanced toys who have to please and look after their owner, while at the same time looking after their corporate interests. Any suggestions?
How to design a world for miniature PCs? What should they be able to do at, say, school, the park, and so on? What places should there be?
also, logically, what would a world with AI tech this advanced be like?
>>46303766
Miniature Shadowrun
They can't let it be known that they are programmed to destroy the other toys. They have to do that when their owners backs are turned.
Obviously, the abilities of the society in question are off the charts. Hover cars and other future tech wouldn't be out of place.
>>46304079
The other toys are also programmed to fight them, and in the original idea their owner would be some engineering prodigy who liked to outfit them with better equipment. I want to keep it covert, but I;m not sure how.
For the sake of familliarity for my players, I want to make it mostly modern day-ish. Except that maybe highly advanced AI toys are used by almost everyone.
>>46304166
As long as they don't have actual metal knives, most American toys can be pretty dangerous looking. You can probably impose size or weight limits to keep from getting too strong or deviating tok far from the basic design.
So /tg/, one of the players in our game has wanted to have a game for a while, with insects instead of the regular races and in a world where frogs and birds are the equivalent of dragons. She finally convinced the GM to give it a try, so I want to ask for suggestions.
The idea is interesting, but I don't know what could be an interesting character. My original idea (Paladin stag beetle) sounds kinda silly, so I'd apreciate some suggestions.
>>46303749
Well what are the conventions of these insect races?
Honestly I'd suggest a Ladybug Bard or somesuch.
>>46303784
We are all allowed to come up with an insect race of our choice based on what we would have played if it was a regular game. Then the GM will tweak them some to make them unique.
Check the Catalog, OP. This board has been making a bug setting for the past week.
SUPER DUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION, OP:
What kind of character do you want to play? Want to stick with your Stag Beetle?
ps, what system?
Any advice for making a child player character in tabletop?
Roleplay? How to make them still useful to the party? Is this even a good idea in the first place?
Bad idea, but at least make them useful as PCs.
Uses *WEAPON* to make up for being small.
Knows *TRICK* that gets party out of trouble
Just fill in those two and you are good.
>>46303698
Child caster is an obvious one, back story up for debate but prodigy son of recently murdered head wizard is an option. Kids can also be fantastic thieves/sneaks/bluffers if you make them a rogue type. No direct combat roles is preferable, cause a massive orc/demon/troll/teenager will kick your ass.
Think why a child would even be going on this adventure. Maybe take some cues from other stories. Be creative, yo.
Child characters can be brilliant to play, especially if you play them either naive, "Why is that orc bending over that elf, Ms. Cleric?" or incredibly cynical, like "Paladin you're a fucking child with your pathetic ideals, let me show you the true horrors of this world" level of bitter.
Children can be practically anything if you're not looking to Magical Realm it up. If you're looking for a place in the Realm, either truthfully, ironically, or with a goal of sabotage, fucking ham that childlike innocence up to 11.
Also, kids can be fucking insane as well and be interesting/terrifying to encounter.
I could go on for days with little quips of ideas for you to steal and flesh out. Thus, being a child PC can't be all that bad of an idea.
Unless you're an anime character. Then everything is absolutely bonkers.
>>46303698
>Is this even a good idea in the first place?
No. Even if the character is useful to the party, bringing kids on an adventure is effectively the same as using child soldiers. If the party does it, they're evil.
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