Tactical Combat

[James]

Just throwing out an idea in case people are interested. Instead of running another campaign long -term, which I have no time to do, I was wondering if people wanted to do some encounters and extended series of battles. That way, people can make characters when they have the time and use them in short one or two short adventures to see how the rules work. This way we can have session that people can leave in an hour or three or whenever and drop in and out on different days when they need to.

We can have it mostly versus monsters /NPC parties, but also do it versus each other as FFA or small teams with a DM moderator. So long as everyone promises to not have their feelings hurt. The point is fun and mechanics testing in fast motion.

Anyone down? People can make up a few characters along the SC spectrum from 5 to the unwieldy 20.
I can prepares a host of beasties of many kinds from the Critter compendium and my dark, twisted mind. I am also pretty good and making arenas with interesting terrain and traps.

Those who know me know that I would rather Storytell than PC, but if someone wants to try their hand at running monsters and the wheel, I would enjoy the switch once in a while...but not often.

[Beach]

Was thinking of proposing the very same idea. I'm in. what i've noticed is that play testing is something that is very much needed, not just for tech and spell testing but also for a better understanding for me of the game itself. I'm down as a clown charlie brown

[Reed]

Fun! I want to mess around with some heavy weapons, perhaps a great-axe. Also some third circle water spells. I am generally free Mondays and Wednesdays. Next week either would work.

[Matt']

Name a day.

[Maugh]

Tuesday?

[James]

[Maugh]

ROCK. Tueseday. Pizza. Maybe something else? I've been craving good hot dogs, lately... Location, wherever. James's would be the most convenient, I think.

As usual, I have four or five chars that I would like to play, so I am okay filling in gaps based on what other folks decide not to pick up.

Rayje, the war-mage, Human, with the longsword, unarmed attacks and support magics. Likely earth, although I am still undecided. Rayje is quiet, resourceful, and lethal, but a bit aloof. His first and only priority is the advancement of his martial skill, both arcane and mundane. He doesn't mind being a gladitorial slave so much, as the organization of planned fights is not so different from the restrictions of the army or the contracts of a mercenary, just more honest about the whole situation. He has no thoughts of rebellion or unrest, so long as he is treated fairly and given the opportunity for a good fight. Rayje is like any good weapon. Care for him well and well he will serve.

Seth, the treeburner. Seth is a straight-up caster and a dryad, with void, fire and plant magics. Seth is a rarity among dryads, as a member of the Unseelie court. He was sent as an emmissary, and in some ways a gift, to his Demon master from the Court as a token of good faith for future bargaining. He has accepted this with some resign, and looks at it as an opportunity to hone his skills in the harsh climate. As an immortal Fae, he simply plans on out-living his captors. Seth does not know armed combat, but does have healing magics to offer, and prefers to use his offensive magics to boost the attacks of others. The law of his court keep him obligated to stay a slave until agreement is made with the Court to have him freed. He does not expect this soon, but does have friends in the upper levels of the Court, so does expect it eventually.

Kalius, the archer, is an Ahrlen and an archer. He enjoys scholarly pursuits, long flights down the beach, and mostly avoids combat, but he does enjoy some athletic pursuits, specifically the sport of archery. It is mostly coincidence that this particular talent has proven useful in his recent imprisonment. Kalius is fairly cowed by the whole experiennce of demonic imprisonment, and although he honestly doesn't expect to survive the experience, he is at least willing to do what he can to survive. Due to his aerial nature and fairly weak constitution, he has been fitted with a Mark of Destruction. The potential for death from this spell is more than enough to keep him in line as a slave, giving his master a bit of freedom to use his talents. Winged combat with the bow. Should be stylish.

I would be happy playing any of these three characters, and I could write up someone else easily as well, so whatever fits best with other folks would be great.

[Matt']

Say Jame's house. Less driving.

Huh. Be interesting. Should see some c5 spells in play. And the high cap may actually make human worth taking.

[Matt']

Good game. Much obliged to James for running it.

Only 3 characters, so team attack was not that big of a thing. Frequently, it was better to use magic or UMA to do the job. Doubleslash was pretty much perfect versus the Mountain of Flesh. Although it's use in grapple seemed a little ridiculous. But I can't complain! The bug was eating my head!!!

I badly missed having a ranged weapon. 2H weapons are so much better then two weapons-- you can let go with one hand, cast a spell, and then add your hand back, without missing a beat. Might have been otherwise had I imbued my rapier as a focus, but I didn't think that ability still existed. (Does it?)

The idea of structures imbued with Resistance to elemental magics was pretty cool. It was interesting to see Magic resistance in action.

James commented that Rob knows the overload rules better than anyone, so that he maxes out his overload die (WILL?) and effectively doubles the feedback he has access to. That's probably very accurate, and I need to learn the feedback rules better.

18 ranks didn't feel significantly different than 10 ranks. I had 9 skills maxed out, and a boatload of weapon techs abilities. Same as any other game. The only real difference I felt was that I got access to higher circle spells.

[James]

Thanks for playing, all!

I felt pretty alright about how things went. Need to plan mayhap a little better as far as storyline, or stop pretense at it for these one shots...too much against my nature to not do it at all, just better pacing I suppose.

I agree with Matt's statement. It didn't seem to be all that different in some ways, but was just different enough to be good. For my part, I was afraid that it would be just like the lower levels, but adding bigger numbers. Glad to have seen a little difference through the use of spell, upgrading armor, and a few new abilities seen in use. Spells are certainly a big difference. In a longer game, the biggest difference would be the sliding scale of power of various skills aside from the ones at cap. When we formalize the new tech tree, that will be a difference as well.

I learned somethings about the demons I chose to use and tweaked a few of the abilites and damages of this abilities. I am a little frustrated still about terrain. multiple times I have made elaborate fields only to find that combat doesn't move that much from a central location without Displacement magics. I do it just as much because it makes sense, so this is not a criticism, just an observation. I think I, as Storyteller, need to make better use of ranged combat to draw people around. The bonuses and strat inherant in the difference of terrain should be used more. Rob had the good idea of fighting the G'nesh from within the pillars, but I made that difficult with angle of the Firesparks and later the appearance of the Crawling mountain.

Two weapons are not the best, I agree. Their greatests uses, that I have seen, come from fighting multiple foes for the sake of blind spot and if you are using poisons. Two handed is great, but really, I think the best we usually see is from single one-handed weapons. About the Arcane Techs: We use the basic techs that are not ideal specific from the old book including Mobile Casting, Sneaky Casting, and the ability to attune weapons as foci.

I liked the Artan. First time I had seen it used. I should have adapted to use less deadening dust to allow him use of his abilites. Felt bad later, need to be more flexible. Needed to use the poor lighting rules to enhance the setting (Firesparks easy to hit because they have their own light, G'nesh dark and hard to see, but has echolocation of its own, etc.) The Terrain seemed dry despite the height and danger of the tower. I will do better next time. More interactive terrain. I had intended to run this terrain interactive (the colored hexes) but completed forgot about them shortly after starting. I tend to ignore colors.

Thank you for the characters that you played. Liked the personality and the secondary skills you still gave.

[Maugh]

Movement is tricky in this system. Moving around a lot requires time, which is a very precious commodity. Combine that with the whelm mechanics, and it creates a need to be -right- where combat is. If you move elsewhere, then your companions are going to get worked.

Some solutions are things like portal mechanics, ziplines, etc. to make combat easy around the field. The demons worked well, I think, and I was pretty happy with the function of the high-level mechanics. The nicest thing was really very simple. Options. Five different blasting options meant I could fire what I wanted when I wanted to, and access to easy third circle magic was quite fun. Rockin' cool. May need to tweak some of the third circles. Maybe not, though. *shrug*

[ben]

Today is probably already in the works but I could do wed. If not.

[Maugh]

I am out this week, but if anyone is interested next week...

[James]

Hm...This week filled up fast for me as well.
Any ideas for the theme next time?

[James]

How about THRUSDAY? My house, 6:30ish?

[Reed]

Sweet! I"m free Thursday, or Monday. Definitely in. I may try a void mage... mwahaha

[Maugh]

Monday works much better for me. Maybe. Thursday definitely won't work.

[James]

I wish I could Monday. At this point, there is not enough time for me to be ready. If you guys want to go without me, that is cool. I need to get some things done in the lab afterwork. If you guys don't game, and want to roll on Thursday, let me know.

I asked Chris what he would want to do as a One-Shot and he said, "I want to fight an army." This is the next one I want to Storytell:

I would recommend making a character and maybe have a second in reserve:
The tiny island of Nah'Yug is the resting place of Yugthalec's Horn, a relic capable of summoning the Breath of the Undying One, a cateclysmic storm that levels armies, cities, and all living things. The Nah'Yug Order protect this indestructable artifact from the world in addition to myrid other items and spells to destroy undead. The island is in the ocean a couple hundred miles off of the western coast of Tenpat.

A few of you are in the Tower and see the unspeakable: 10 ships rowing toward the island; an entire maw of Salvaran Empire ships. It doesn't take a scholar to know that that means several hundred soliders and marines. There are only the group of you on the island, the rest of your order are questing. You give the call through the glyph-complex, and an elder is three days away...if you can only hold out.

Or kill them all...


I have a map and details for Nah'Yug and the Nah'Yug Order. I also have some good ideas on how to run the fight against entire units and platoons. I am excited.

[Matt']

I'll be out for a bit. Headed to NYC March 17-27th.

[marlin]

James, you asked me to post when I worked out my character for Thursday, but I'm not sure what you want posted, so I'll just attach my whole Character Sheet (pdf). It's a first draft, and very dense, but you'll get the idea.

His name is Faisa, he's Phaedre, a fire-caster, and a hand-to-hand fighter.

Fellow party-mates, how well does Faisa complement your characters? Can we coordinate a bit to make sure we have all our bases covered?

[Maugh]

The sheet looks super-slick. Did Chris's character Generator do that for you?

[James]

Your Character sheets always rock, Mar. I am sure if it was for more than a one shot you would have it on two pages and less dense. You character will be deadly.

So, Ben called and cancelled because of work complications. That leaves Reed, Marlin, and Chris confirmed for playing. Anyone else? Let your friends know. It will be fun. Of course, with this level of play, probably only those who have played before. Game for sure at 1830 at my house. Pizza shall be ordered.
We could also go for Marlin's house if people rather. The table situation there may be better suited for large combat. *shrug* I will assume my house if no one says anything.

This is going to be an experiment in some ways, and I apologize in advance if it doesn't go smoothly. Running units or NPCs in large numbers poses many challenges, and I think I have some great methods, but we will have to see it in action. Surely, you will have to do some hit and run just for the sake of Feedback and Hp.

You may take the 12 cap off of any one of your attributes not normally allowed. We can assume by SC 16, they would have found a way to break the mundane limits on a frequently used Attribute. Also, you may equip yourself with exotic material for weapons and/or armor, Alchemical, Technological, or minor Arcane items up to a price of 250 gp. Feel free to raid the shops and lists posted by Rob and I on the site. Also, I will add the old Armor list for you to pick from. Anything else just ask. SC16 means that you have seen and done amazing things.

[Reed]

Anybody interested in trying to do the one-shot sometime this week? It sounds so fun, like Swiss Family Robinson meets Lord of the Rings. Anyway, I'd be free Wednesday or Thursday.

[Maugh]

I'm afraid I'm out this week. Enjoy, folks.

[Beach]

I'm in. I only need the day we're planning on so that I may plan ahead.