Okay, we've come to the end of our Polyhedron characters with Deathnet, a D20 modern offshoot set in a virtual reality program the characters are all trapped in. Deathnet doesn't really bring much new to the table bar a couple of minor things:
It's one of the few D20 games that uses skills to determine how much damage you do. Apart from that, there's different character classes and it's one of the few games to not have a "pure human" option. Everyone is some form of "race" known in Deathnet as character models which in some cases force your class choices in some way. You start off with four levels, which as I've just mentioned, are generally partially determined by your character model, the rets being up to you. A hacking/programming system is also present which uses the point/day mechanic of D20 modern.
That's about all there is to Deathnet really. Powerups are kind of cool though, there's just something neat about grabbing the equalizer pill to crush spam (yes, spam is a montser in this game and they're really, really, REALLY annoying). It's essentially a quirky spinoff to D20 modern for those who really love cyberworlds.
Well, no tears for Polyhedron, let's get going with rolling:
15, 6, 17, 16, 13, 16
Rolling for my character model I get a Hacker. Hackers gte the hacking skill whihc allows them to do all sorts of fun things . However, they oddly get a penalty to the very skill that is the basis of their hacking abilities as a tardeoff for their bonus to strenght of all things. Strange, no? They're required to take two levels of Programmer to represent their abilities, so I thought I'd make this interesting.
Meet Cassie Walker, aka Blu_AngL. In the real world, she was a wallflower, a geeky teen obsessed with computers. Now that she's stuck in one, she's a little more formidable
Cassie Walker/Blu_AngL:Hacker Programmer 2/Twitch 1/Wargame 1; HD 2d10+1d8+1d10+4; hp 31; Init +3; Spd 30ft; Defense 19, touch 19, flat-footed 16 (+5 class +3 dex); BAB+2, Grap +6; Atk +6 (1d10+4 bludgeoning, fists); FS 5ft/5ft; Reach 5ft; SQ Advanced melee combat, Evasion, Viruscan ; 14 cycles/day AL None; Reputation +1; Svs Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +0; str 18, dex 16, con 13, int 15, wis 4, cha 16
Skills:Combat Code (melee) 7 ranks, Computer Use +7, Disable Device +7 , Engineering +6, Hacking +7, Jump +7 Search +7
Feats:Expert programmer, Improved Defense, Improved Processer Melee Combat code
Blu_AngL here can do a bit of everything. Lucky hp rolls and her ranks in combat code make her a really good hand to hand combatant, while her feats and model make her an excellent hacker which gives her access to a few nifty benefits. Overall not too shabby.
Anyway, that's it for D20! Next stop on the character cration train, World of Darkness!
Showing posts with label D20. Show all posts
Showing posts with label D20. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Character 10: Hijinx
Up next is a game idea that really tickles my interest even if the implementation is wonky. Today we have Hijinx, a game inspired by those crime-solving musician cartoons like Josey and the Pussycats or Jabberjaws. The game is split into two parts, performing at ggs and solving crimes.
The solving crimes bit is fairly well done (I particularly love the rules for chase scenes in which you can set up an elaborate trap for the villain) but the main drawcard here are the shows the characters play in. Hijinx replaces combat with performances and thus the classes are all different types of musicians. Rather than killing foes, your job is to win over those audience members who are too bored, angry, distracted or jealous of your awesomeness to enjoy your show. Reduce an opponent to 0 "cool points" and you've got a new fan. Get reduced to -10 cool points yourself and you're so bummed out by the haters harshing your mellow you quit the music business.
This all sounds really cool, however there are a few wierd things about it that worry me. The main thing is movement, where you move your focus to hostile audience members. You only have a certain range you can switch focus, but they can do it at will, which seems really unfair. Also, I have no damn idea how flanking is supposed to work in this game. I've looked at it over and over again and it still stumps me every time.
Overall I really do love Hijinx, and it would be great for a one-shot or even a short campaign arc (interestingly, hitting level 10 is the "end-game" of Hijinx, sginifying you've sold a platinum record and made it into the big leagues) but I'd definitely iron out a few kinks. In fact, I'd probably knock out the crime solving part altogether and run it in a more "serious" style. But to each their own.
Time to roll those dice again! My scores are:
10, 11, 16, 8, 15, 14
Okay, next up we have music style, basically the band's genre. There are 6 to choose from, so it turns out my band is a Hip-hop band (*shudder* I'm really not a hip hop fan), giving all the band members a +1 to reflex saves. Then we roll 1d8 (rolling 8s again) for class for whihc we get a Bass player. Bass players have a couple of abilities that allow them to heal other band members, sending good vibes their way, later using their mellow to resist hostile vibes.
Okay, so a bass player for a hip-hop band is a bit odd. However, a bit of tinkering and Leon is ready to set down the rythm for his band Vain Station (yeah, I'm not the best hip-hop band namer, so sue me)
Leon: Bassist1; Init -1; CD 1d8+3; cp 14; Defense 15 (+2 class, +2 wis, +2 threads); Vibe +3 (1d8+3, used bass); Range 15ft,; SQ Good vibes 4/set; Saves Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +4; Str 11, Dex 8, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 14
Skills and Feats Animal Empathy +6, Diplomacy +6, Knowledge (politics) +7, Knowledge (pop culture) +7, Read Lips +6, Spot +6; Songwriter (Political), Too cool
Equipment: Used Bass, Lucky shirt, Fan Club, $80
Leon is a tough guy who would work well in the background of a performance. He can sit there and scout out hostile audience members with his hefty spot bonus and back up bummed out band-members with his good vibes ability. If necessary, he can even take the lead on a song and use his decent Defense, hefty number of cool points and songwriter ability (dude knows his subtext) to both take a hit and dish it out again.
I was tempted to do up the entire Vain station lineup, and perhaps one day I will. Alas, the show must go on and I'll be finishing up the Polyhedron characters with Deathnet next installment.
The solving crimes bit is fairly well done (I particularly love the rules for chase scenes in which you can set up an elaborate trap for the villain) but the main drawcard here are the shows the characters play in. Hijinx replaces combat with performances and thus the classes are all different types of musicians. Rather than killing foes, your job is to win over those audience members who are too bored, angry, distracted or jealous of your awesomeness to enjoy your show. Reduce an opponent to 0 "cool points" and you've got a new fan. Get reduced to -10 cool points yourself and you're so bummed out by the haters harshing your mellow you quit the music business.
This all sounds really cool, however there are a few wierd things about it that worry me. The main thing is movement, where you move your focus to hostile audience members. You only have a certain range you can switch focus, but they can do it at will, which seems really unfair. Also, I have no damn idea how flanking is supposed to work in this game. I've looked at it over and over again and it still stumps me every time.
Overall I really do love Hijinx, and it would be great for a one-shot or even a short campaign arc (interestingly, hitting level 10 is the "end-game" of Hijinx, sginifying you've sold a platinum record and made it into the big leagues) but I'd definitely iron out a few kinks. In fact, I'd probably knock out the crime solving part altogether and run it in a more "serious" style. But to each their own.
Time to roll those dice again! My scores are:
10, 11, 16, 8, 15, 14
Okay, next up we have music style, basically the band's genre. There are 6 to choose from, so it turns out my band is a Hip-hop band (*shudder* I'm really not a hip hop fan), giving all the band members a +1 to reflex saves. Then we roll 1d8 (rolling 8s again) for class for whihc we get a Bass player. Bass players have a couple of abilities that allow them to heal other band members, sending good vibes their way, later using their mellow to resist hostile vibes.
Okay, so a bass player for a hip-hop band is a bit odd. However, a bit of tinkering and Leon is ready to set down the rythm for his band Vain Station (yeah, I'm not the best hip-hop band namer, so sue me)
Leon: Bassist1; Init -1; CD 1d8+3; cp 14; Defense 15 (+2 class, +2 wis, +2 threads); Vibe +3 (1d8+3, used bass); Range 15ft,; SQ Good vibes 4/set; Saves Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +4; Str 11, Dex 8, Con 10, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 14
Skills and Feats Animal Empathy +6, Diplomacy +6, Knowledge (politics) +7, Knowledge (pop culture) +7, Read Lips +6, Spot +6; Songwriter (Political), Too cool
Equipment: Used Bass, Lucky shirt, Fan Club, $80
Leon is a tough guy who would work well in the background of a performance. He can sit there and scout out hostile audience members with his hefty spot bonus and back up bummed out band-members with his good vibes ability. If necessary, he can even take the lead on a song and use his decent Defense, hefty number of cool points and songwriter ability (dude knows his subtext) to both take a hit and dish it out again.
I was tempted to do up the entire Vain station lineup, and perhaps one day I will. Alas, the show must go on and I'll be finishing up the Polyhedron characters with Deathnet next installment.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Character 9: V for Victory
Okay, so we go back to the Polyhedron magazines with March 2003's V for Victory, which as you might have guessed is an RPG set in Wordl War 2.
There really is not much to say about this game. It's really not that amazingly interesting mechanically and is essentially a cookie-cutter level based D20 game. You get your pre-war background as a substitute for race, your training instead of class. One interesting bit is your specialty, which gives you an area of expertise such as amphibious invasions or mounted warfare. Unfortunately, all it does is give you a bonus feat, so there's really not much to it.
On top of this, I really don't think a level based D20 game captures the grittiness of a WW2 game properly, bar perhaps 1st level, where the tissue paper fortitude of your characters gives the right sense of vulnerability. Honestly, were I to run this, I think I'd tweak the hp a bit so that you absically only got a few hp per level, meaning combat remains dangerous throughout. But really, this is one of the last games I'd run, not because i hate it (it's very rare to find a game I hate) but simply because of it's mediocrity compared to other games covering similar territory.
Anyway, let's get those 4d6 rolling!
12, 8, 14, 14, 12, 8
No heights of brilliance there and a couple of peanlties, but I guess we'll have to see what we can work with. Rolling for pre-war background, it seems my character is a revolutionary with intelligence training
Bit of tinkering around and we have something. Andre Benarious left the small rebel groups of the Spanish Civil war when he found his homeland had been taken over by the Nazis! Fortunately, his espionage and sabotage training will be put to good use!
Andre Benarious
1st level, Intelligence training
Hit Dice: 1d6+1 (7 hp)
Initiative: +1 (dex)
Speed: 30ft
AC:11 (+0 Defense, +1 Dex)
Attacks:+1 Browning High Power pistol
Damage: Browning High Power pistol 1d10
Face/Reach: 5ft by 5ft/5ft
Career Ability: Inspire
Specialties:Combat Engineering
Saves: Fort +1 Ref +1 Will +0
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 6, Cha 16
Skills: Bluff +9, Decipher script +7, Demolitions +9, Diplomacy +4, Disable Device, +4, Gather Information +6, Hide +4, Innuendo +2, Move silently +4, Research +4, Sense Motive +2
Languages: French, English, German, Spanish
Feats: Skill Focus (demolitions) (B), Skill Focus (Decipher script), Skill Focus (Bluff)
Equipment:Forged ID papers, Browning Higher Power Pistol, microcamera, German currency
Yeah, Andre is far better off the battlefield than on. Thus, I put everything into skills, the things intelligence types specialise at. Unfortunately, apart from skills, everything else about him sucks. Ah well, it's not like I'll ever play him anyway.
There really is not much to say about this game. It's really not that amazingly interesting mechanically and is essentially a cookie-cutter level based D20 game. You get your pre-war background as a substitute for race, your training instead of class. One interesting bit is your specialty, which gives you an area of expertise such as amphibious invasions or mounted warfare. Unfortunately, all it does is give you a bonus feat, so there's really not much to it.
On top of this, I really don't think a level based D20 game captures the grittiness of a WW2 game properly, bar perhaps 1st level, where the tissue paper fortitude of your characters gives the right sense of vulnerability. Honestly, were I to run this, I think I'd tweak the hp a bit so that you absically only got a few hp per level, meaning combat remains dangerous throughout. But really, this is one of the last games I'd run, not because i hate it (it's very rare to find a game I hate) but simply because of it's mediocrity compared to other games covering similar territory.
Anyway, let's get those 4d6 rolling!
12, 8, 14, 14, 12, 8
No heights of brilliance there and a couple of peanlties, but I guess we'll have to see what we can work with. Rolling for pre-war background, it seems my character is a revolutionary with intelligence training
Bit of tinkering around and we have something. Andre Benarious left the small rebel groups of the Spanish Civil war when he found his homeland had been taken over by the Nazis! Fortunately, his espionage and sabotage training will be put to good use!
Andre Benarious
1st level, Intelligence training
Hit Dice: 1d6+1 (7 hp)
Initiative: +1 (dex)
Speed: 30ft
AC:11 (+0 Defense, +1 Dex)
Attacks:+1 Browning High Power pistol
Damage: Browning High Power pistol 1d10
Face/Reach: 5ft by 5ft/5ft
Career Ability: Inspire
Specialties:Combat Engineering
Saves: Fort +1 Ref +1 Will +0
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 6, Cha 16
Skills: Bluff +9, Decipher script +7, Demolitions +9, Diplomacy +4, Disable Device, +4, Gather Information +6, Hide +4, Innuendo +2, Move silently +4, Research +4, Sense Motive +2
Languages: French, English, German, Spanish
Feats: Skill Focus (demolitions) (B), Skill Focus (Decipher script), Skill Focus (Bluff)
Equipment:Forged ID papers, Browning Higher Power Pistol, microcamera, German currency
Yeah, Andre is far better off the battlefield than on. Thus, I put everything into skills, the things intelligence types specialise at. Unfortunately, apart from skills, everything else about him sucks. Ah well, it's not like I'll ever play him anyway.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Character 8: Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition
Wow, it's been a while since my last post! However, here I am again, making yet another character. Unfortunately most of my RPG stuff is in my other house (insert long, boring, moving out story here), including my Dungeon magazines, so I'm going to divert our course and skip right ahead to Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition.
Once again, the cornerstone of the RPG world has undergone an edition change. I could go into great detail about the changes, the incessant bitching of nerds everywhere about how WoTC has ruined their game and how apparently the WoW hordes shall descend upon us like a plague of locusts, thus causing the end of Wester Civilisation itself. But really, that stuff is just boring.
I like 4e. Yes, it's a bit combat focused, but I don't care. If you play D&D, yuo should expect a certain kind of experience, mainly revolving around killing orcs and stealing their pies. Whatever else can be said of 4e, they've made combat fun again. Straight off the bat, your character can take on small hordes with a variety of interesting powers that encourage you to come up with your own flavour. Also, there's a new emphasis on team building, rather than character building, so you no longer have that one guy who basically does the job of the entire party by themselves.
Anyway, let's skip to the character making, shall we?
4e encourages point buy to ensure balanced characters, but I think I'll stick with the random roll method. After rolling 4d6 6 times, dropping the lowest, my results are:
10, 12, 14, 14, 13, 17
Could be better, could be a lot worse. Seems the dice gods are happy that I've returned to this holy quest, but aren't just going to give things to me on a silver platter.
the 4e Player's Handbook has eight races and classes, which made randomly picking what race/class combo a simple matter. After rolling 2d8, it was determined that i create a Human Warlock
Humans in 4e fit far better into their "second best at everything" schtick they were supposed to have in 3 and 3.5, which actually turned out to be "that extra feat just makes us really kickass at everything". There are very few classes humans are bad at and they are really awesome at others, wizards in particular.
Warlocks are possibly the most flavourful class in 4e. You're basically the dude who gives up your soul for some arcane power. There are three pacts to choose from, so in the interests of randomness, I roll 1d6 and it turns out my warlock made a pact with things beyond the stars, aka, is a Star Pact Warlock.
A bit of picking and choosing, and here is what i end up with:
Mayloke, Lady of the Pearl Alignments
Female Human Star Pact Warlock
Strength 10 Constitution 16
Dexterity 12 Intelligence 14
Wisdom 13 Charisma 17
HP 28 Bloodied 14 Surge Value 7 Surges/Day 9
Init: +1
AC: 14
Fortitude 14 Reflex 14 Will 15
Feats: Action Surge, Improved Fate of the Void
Skills: Arcana +7 History +7 Insight +6 Intimidate +8 Religion +7
Equipment: Leather Armour, Rod, Fine Clothing, Silk Rope, 23gp
Powers
At Will: Eldritch Blast, Dire Radiance, Hellish Rebuke
Encounter: Dreadful Word
Daily: Dread Star
Ta da! I'll admit, this character isn't exactly going to be the most powerful, but eh. I envisioned her as the sort of high-class, slightly insane yet incredibly charismatic oracle. She charges high prices for her services!
Stay tuned for the (hopefully soon) return to Paizo characters!
Once again, the cornerstone of the RPG world has undergone an edition change. I could go into great detail about the changes, the incessant bitching of nerds everywhere about how WoTC has ruined their game and how apparently the WoW hordes shall descend upon us like a plague of locusts, thus causing the end of Wester Civilisation itself. But really, that stuff is just boring.
I like 4e. Yes, it's a bit combat focused, but I don't care. If you play D&D, yuo should expect a certain kind of experience, mainly revolving around killing orcs and stealing their pies. Whatever else can be said of 4e, they've made combat fun again. Straight off the bat, your character can take on small hordes with a variety of interesting powers that encourage you to come up with your own flavour. Also, there's a new emphasis on team building, rather than character building, so you no longer have that one guy who basically does the job of the entire party by themselves.
Anyway, let's skip to the character making, shall we?
4e encourages point buy to ensure balanced characters, but I think I'll stick with the random roll method. After rolling 4d6 6 times, dropping the lowest, my results are:
10, 12, 14, 14, 13, 17
Could be better, could be a lot worse. Seems the dice gods are happy that I've returned to this holy quest, but aren't just going to give things to me on a silver platter.
the 4e Player's Handbook has eight races and classes, which made randomly picking what race/class combo a simple matter. After rolling 2d8, it was determined that i create a Human Warlock
Humans in 4e fit far better into their "second best at everything" schtick they were supposed to have in 3 and 3.5, which actually turned out to be "that extra feat just makes us really kickass at everything". There are very few classes humans are bad at and they are really awesome at others, wizards in particular.
Warlocks are possibly the most flavourful class in 4e. You're basically the dude who gives up your soul for some arcane power. There are three pacts to choose from, so in the interests of randomness, I roll 1d6 and it turns out my warlock made a pact with things beyond the stars, aka, is a Star Pact Warlock.
A bit of picking and choosing, and here is what i end up with:
Mayloke, Lady of the Pearl Alignments
Female Human Star Pact Warlock
Strength 10 Constitution 16
Dexterity 12 Intelligence 14
Wisdom 13 Charisma 17
HP 28 Bloodied 14 Surge Value 7 Surges/Day 9
Init: +1
AC: 14
Fortitude 14 Reflex 14 Will 15
Feats: Action Surge, Improved Fate of the Void
Skills: Arcana +7 History +7 Insight +6 Intimidate +8 Religion +7
Equipment: Leather Armour, Rod, Fine Clothing, Silk Rope, 23gp
Powers
At Will: Eldritch Blast, Dire Radiance, Hellish Rebuke
Encounter: Dreadful Word
Daily: Dread Star
Ta da! I'll admit, this character isn't exactly going to be the most powerful, but eh. I envisioned her as the sort of high-class, slightly insane yet incredibly charismatic oracle. She charges high prices for her services!
Stay tuned for the (hopefully soon) return to Paizo characters!
Friday, February 15, 2008
Character 7: Omega World
Name sound a little familiar? There's probably a good reason for that. Omega World is the Polyhedron mini-adaptation of Gamma World, D20's game of crazy mutations and survival in a post-apocalyptic world. It debuted in Polyhedron #153 and unfortunately saw no further expansion, probably due to the fact that it was based on an existing game.
Omega world is great if you love random character generation, thanks to the mutation tables. It's quite possible to create a walking god with almost 50 strength or an armless, clumsy moron with fur who can see in the dark. It's definitely not a game that lends itself well to party balance, but roleplaying a party of freaks as they trek across America could be good for an evening where you've got nothing better to play.
You've got five kinds of character. Pure strain humans are better with tech and start of with more levels but don't get the fun mutations (or defects for that matter). Mutated humans are probably the most common characters while furries, clickies and scalies get ability score adjustments and stock mutations as well as standard mutations.
I rolled 1d6 to determine my race and got a Furry. Furries get the free fur and low-light vision mutations and bonuses to con and dex, though they aren't very intelligent. My ability scores were as follows:
9, 14, 16, 18, 12, 13
Now, let's hit those mutation tables!
Snoople;Furry explorer 2; Medium humaoid (furry); HD2d10+6; hp 24; Init+2; Spd 50ft; AC 17 (touch 12, flat-footed 15); Base Atk +1; Grap +3; Atk +3 melee (3d6+3 vibro blade), +3 ranged (1d6+2 spear); SA telekinesis 5/day (CL 5th); SQ low-light vision, cold resistance 5, extra arm; AL Curious; Svs Fort+13, Ref+3, Wil+4; str 14 dex 14 con 16 int 7 wis 13 cha 16
Skills:Jump+32, Psychic attack+8, Survival+6
Feats:Superior mutation (telekinesis)x2, Relic weapon group proficiency (melee weapons)
Mutations:Amazing fortitude, Extra arm, Fur, Low-light vision, Spring legs, Telekinesis
Defects:Poor respiratory, Sensetivity to fire, Reduced dexterity, Heightened metabolism, Partial actions only
Equipment:Vibro blade, 2 good spears, Leather armour, Small shield, Camping gear, 3 weels rations
Poor Snoople here had better hope any fights he gets into don't last long. He gets fatigued after 5 rounds thanks to his poor respiratory system and can only take partial actions! Fortunately, he's lucky enough to possess a kickass relic weapon, and has the power of telekinesis to back him up!
Omega world is great if you love random character generation, thanks to the mutation tables. It's quite possible to create a walking god with almost 50 strength or an armless, clumsy moron with fur who can see in the dark. It's definitely not a game that lends itself well to party balance, but roleplaying a party of freaks as they trek across America could be good for an evening where you've got nothing better to play.
You've got five kinds of character. Pure strain humans are better with tech and start of with more levels but don't get the fun mutations (or defects for that matter). Mutated humans are probably the most common characters while furries, clickies and scalies get ability score adjustments and stock mutations as well as standard mutations.
I rolled 1d6 to determine my race and got a Furry. Furries get the free fur and low-light vision mutations and bonuses to con and dex, though they aren't very intelligent. My ability scores were as follows:
9, 14, 16, 18, 12, 13
Now, let's hit those mutation tables!
Snoople;Furry explorer 2; Medium humaoid (furry); HD2d10+6; hp 24; Init+2; Spd 50ft; AC 17 (touch 12, flat-footed 15); Base Atk +1; Grap +3; Atk +3 melee (3d6+3 vibro blade), +3 ranged (1d6+2 spear); SA telekinesis 5/day (CL 5th); SQ low-light vision, cold resistance 5, extra arm; AL Curious; Svs Fort+13, Ref+3, Wil+4; str 14 dex 14 con 16 int 7 wis 13 cha 16
Skills:Jump+32, Psychic attack+8, Survival+6
Feats:Superior mutation (telekinesis)x2, Relic weapon group proficiency (melee weapons)
Mutations:Amazing fortitude, Extra arm, Fur, Low-light vision, Spring legs, Telekinesis
Defects:Poor respiratory, Sensetivity to fire, Reduced dexterity, Heightened metabolism, Partial actions only
Equipment:Vibro blade, 2 good spears, Leather armour, Small shield, Camping gear, 3 weels rations
Poor Snoople here had better hope any fights he gets into don't last long. He gets fatigued after 5 rounds thanks to his poor respiratory system and can only take partial actions! Fortunately, he's lucky enough to possess a kickass relic weapon, and has the power of telekinesis to back him up!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Character 6: Thunderball Rally
So yeah, just to show what I was talking about last post, this character is going to be an Orangutan.
Yep, you read that correctly. An orangutan who can drive no less.
Welcome to Thunderball rally, the game that lets you play a team of drivers racing across the U.S for a fat stack of cash. Also, in case I haven't mentioned it already, you can play an Orangutan.
Thunderball rally appears in Polyhedron #152. It's a game written for those who loved Dukes of Hazzard, Cannonball Run, Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit. Also, like a few other Polyhedron mingames at the time, it served as a preview for part of the upcoming D20 modern ruleset, in this case vehicle combat rules.
It's a fun little game that's about fast cars, fast talking and mayhem in 1970s America. Great for a short campaign.
Now, about my character. Rules for playing an orangutan didn't actually appear until Polyhedron #153. I'm sort of cheating here since they're the equivalent of 4th level characters, rather than starting characters, which =is what I've been doing. But c'mon, orangutans.
Here are my stat rolls:
14, 10, 17, 10, 14, 8
Now, orangutans get some pretty sweet skill bonuses and some penalties, so everything will balance out here. Here's his completed stats:
Manny
Orangutan (no levels)
Hit Points: 30
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30ft
Defense: 12
Reputation: +0
Wealth: n/a
Attacks: +8 melee (1d6+7, claws), or +8/+3 (1d6+5 claws, 1d6+5 bite)
Saves: Fort+6, Ref +6, Wil+1
Abilities: Str 21 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 10
Skills: Climb +10 Listen +5 Spot +5
Feats: none
Class abilities: scent, low light vision
Unfortunately they decided that orangutans don't get stuff like wealth and don't start getting things like skill points, feats or ability score increases until they gain actual class levels, which made building Manny here fairly dull. I positioned the ability scores so that he's fairly well rounded, with a natural bias towards strength and physical stuff, as Orangutans aren't allowed to use some of the more cerebral skills.
The one area where Manny excels at this point is combat, thanks to his awesome strength score. Seriously, annoy this primate and he'll probably rip your face off with his 1d6+7 points of damage per turn.
Yep, you read that correctly. An orangutan who can drive no less.
Welcome to Thunderball rally, the game that lets you play a team of drivers racing across the U.S for a fat stack of cash. Also, in case I haven't mentioned it already, you can play an Orangutan.
Thunderball rally appears in Polyhedron #152. It's a game written for those who loved Dukes of Hazzard, Cannonball Run, Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit. Also, like a few other Polyhedron mingames at the time, it served as a preview for part of the upcoming D20 modern ruleset, in this case vehicle combat rules.
It's a fun little game that's about fast cars, fast talking and mayhem in 1970s America. Great for a short campaign.
Now, about my character. Rules for playing an orangutan didn't actually appear until Polyhedron #153. I'm sort of cheating here since they're the equivalent of 4th level characters, rather than starting characters, which =is what I've been doing. But c'mon, orangutans.
Here are my stat rolls:
14, 10, 17, 10, 14, 8
Now, orangutans get some pretty sweet skill bonuses and some penalties, so everything will balance out here. Here's his completed stats:
Manny
Orangutan (no levels)
Hit Points: 30
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30ft
Defense: 12
Reputation: +0
Wealth: n/a
Attacks: +8 melee (1d6+7, claws), or +8/+3 (1d6+5 claws, 1d6+5 bite)
Saves: Fort+6, Ref +6, Wil+1
Abilities: Str 21 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 10 Cha 10
Skills: Climb +10 Listen +5 Spot +5
Feats: none
Class abilities: scent, low light vision
Unfortunately they decided that orangutans don't get stuff like wealth and don't start getting things like skill points, feats or ability score increases until they gain actual class levels, which made building Manny here fairly dull. I positioned the ability scores so that he's fairly well rounded, with a natural bias towards strength and physical stuff, as Orangutans aren't allowed to use some of the more cerebral skills.
The one area where Manny excels at this point is combat, thanks to his awesome strength score. Seriously, annoy this primate and he'll probably rip your face off with his 1d6+7 points of damage per turn.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Character 5: Mutants and Masterminds
Mutants and Masterminds battles with Godlike (which i will eventually do a character for) for the spot of my favourite superhero RPG of all time. M&M 2E gets point-based D20 right for a supers game with fast, fun cinematic combat and a great amount of flexibility.
The toughness save mechanic as a substitution for hit points and damage is part of what makes the game so appealing to me. It makes combat quick, which fits the supers genre perfectly. The tradeable limits and such also make for great Justice League style games where Batman-esque costumed adventurers can still be useful alongisde Superman paragons.
One problem you can get with M&M though is that you're pretty much expected to buy up your powers to meet the limits set by your character's power level. This means there's not a lot of varaition in characters when it comes to things like defense or damage. This can of course encourage you to buy up more interesting powers that do things other than damage such as snares or transmutation effects, which make things a little more interesting.
Unfortunately since M&M is entirely points based I didn't have much oppurtunity for randomness in creating a character. I did court the idea of rolling for abilities and then using that for my ability purchases, but that made things complicated later on. I'm kinda dreading what it will be like when I get to more complex point-but systems like Hero 5th ed. It can actually be a little draining making characters for those systems if you have no emotional or creative investment.
Since there's practically an infinite amount of archetypes I could build a superhero from, I decided to go the easy route and use a random number generator to pick an archetype from the Ultimate Power sourcebook. I'll be making some sort of Psionic superhero it seems.
I thought I'd mix things up a little. So here we have it, Special Agent Joeseph Winters, Codename Brainfreeze is ready to take on metahumans for whatever organisation he works for!
Joeseph "Brainfreeze" Winters
PL: 10
Abilities (16 points)
Str 12 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 10 Cha 16
Combat (42 points)
Init +5 Atk +11 Def 20
Damage +1 (unarmed), +3(light pistol)
Saves (24 points)
Fort +6 Ref +6 Will +10 Toughness +5
Skills (19 points)
Bluff +13, Computers +12, Diplomacy +15, Disable Device +12, Disguise +13, Drive +5, Gather infromation +13, Stealth +11
Feats (13 points)
Chokehold, Connected, Defensive roll 3, Eidectic memory, Improved grapple, Improved initiative, Jack of all trades, Power attack, Sneak attack 2, Well-informed
Powers (19 points)
Cold control 6 (psionic descriptor, alternate powers: snare 4 (w/ suffoccating extra), fatigue 4, Weakness 6)
Ice Armour 5 (+5 to toughness saves, ablative flaw))
Though Brainfreeze has a couple of nifty psionic powers, they're certainly not the only tricks up his sleeve. He has a decent attack bonus and if he can get the drop on a foe, even his unarmed attacks can do some nasty damage thanks to his feat selection. He's got a nice array for social skils as well, making him a great skill-monkey and inflitrator.
Well, that's it for my mainstream D20 games! I'll be moving onto the few Polyhedron mini-games I've got (an explanation on those coming soon) and then White Wolf. So far, so good!
The toughness save mechanic as a substitution for hit points and damage is part of what makes the game so appealing to me. It makes combat quick, which fits the supers genre perfectly. The tradeable limits and such also make for great Justice League style games where Batman-esque costumed adventurers can still be useful alongisde Superman paragons.
One problem you can get with M&M though is that you're pretty much expected to buy up your powers to meet the limits set by your character's power level. This means there's not a lot of varaition in characters when it comes to things like defense or damage. This can of course encourage you to buy up more interesting powers that do things other than damage such as snares or transmutation effects, which make things a little more interesting.
Unfortunately since M&M is entirely points based I didn't have much oppurtunity for randomness in creating a character. I did court the idea of rolling for abilities and then using that for my ability purchases, but that made things complicated later on. I'm kinda dreading what it will be like when I get to more complex point-but systems like Hero 5th ed. It can actually be a little draining making characters for those systems if you have no emotional or creative investment.
Since there's practically an infinite amount of archetypes I could build a superhero from, I decided to go the easy route and use a random number generator to pick an archetype from the Ultimate Power sourcebook. I'll be making some sort of Psionic superhero it seems.
I thought I'd mix things up a little. So here we have it, Special Agent Joeseph Winters, Codename Brainfreeze is ready to take on metahumans for whatever organisation he works for!
Joeseph "Brainfreeze" Winters
PL: 10
Abilities (16 points)
Str 12 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 10 Cha 16
Combat (42 points)
Init +5 Atk +11 Def 20
Damage +1 (unarmed), +3(light pistol)
Saves (24 points)
Fort +6 Ref +6 Will +10 Toughness +5
Skills (19 points)
Bluff +13, Computers +12, Diplomacy +15, Disable Device +12, Disguise +13, Drive +5, Gather infromation +13, Stealth +11
Feats (13 points)
Chokehold, Connected, Defensive roll 3, Eidectic memory, Improved grapple, Improved initiative, Jack of all trades, Power attack, Sneak attack 2, Well-informed
Powers (19 points)
Cold control 6 (psionic descriptor, alternate powers: snare 4 (w/ suffoccating extra), fatigue 4, Weakness 6)
Ice Armour 5 (+5 to toughness saves, ablative flaw))
Though Brainfreeze has a couple of nifty psionic powers, they're certainly not the only tricks up his sleeve. He has a decent attack bonus and if he can get the drop on a foe, even his unarmed attacks can do some nasty damage thanks to his feat selection. He's got a nice array for social skils as well, making him a great skill-monkey and inflitrator.
Well, that's it for my mainstream D20 games! I'll be moving onto the few Polyhedron mini-games I've got (an explanation on those coming soon) and then White Wolf. So far, so good!
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Character 4: Infernum
Infernum breaks my heart. What we have here is a beautiful D20 setting made unplayable by shoddy, poorly thought out mechanics. The premise of playing a demon, mortal or fallen angel as they struggle through the political machinations and perils of hell is fantastic. But the designers seem to have little to no concept of balance.
The main problem here lies with the demon breeds, who are unfortunately more-or-less central to the game. Many of the mutations they recieve are either poor, debilitating or inconveniencing. What benefit is there really to being tiny (a mutation of the imp breed)? What gm wants to handle the headache of a Gargantuan sized PC (the hulk breed)?
Fortunately, there's enough material in the three core books that the setting can be easily poached to other systems. Heck, I wouldn't mind trying a game of this with the Mutants and Masterminds setting one day.
Rolls for the ability scores of my Infernum PC turned out as follows:
12,16,12,13,15,9
After a few random rolls (1d3 for race, 1d10 for breed, 1d12 for affiliation) I determined that my character was to be a Stalker demon of House Lictat. Stalker demons are the trackers and bounty hunters of hell, while House Lictat is a loosely aligned group of lesser demon houses. Interetingly, House Lictat's "House mutation" is random, playing nicely into my goal to make these characters as random as possible. Here's what I have:
Maggerai the Wingbound of House Lictat
Level 1 Stalker demon
Str 13 Dex 15 Con 18 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 7
HP 12, Ilaster reserve 7, Corruption 15
Fort +6 Ref+4 Wil +1
Speed 30ft, Fly 30ft (poor, only in alternate form)
AC 20, Touch 12 Flat-footed 18
+2 melee (1d6+1 bite)
+2 melee (1d6+1 claw)
+2 melee (1d8+1 alternate form bite)
+3 ranged (craft (hellfire) check), hellfire cannon)
Mutations: Chain of form, Animal aspect chain*, Chain of the winged*
Special Abilities: Alternate form, Fire resistance 5
*Only when in alternate form
Skills: Craft (hellfire)+9, Intimidate +5(physical threats)/+2(coercion), Listen+5 (+7 in alternate form), Spot +5 (+7 in alternate form), Survival +5
Feats: Skill focus (craft (hellfire)), Martial weapon proficiency
Equipment: Breastplate armour, Hellfire cannon, 1 round of ammo, 3 crowns
Maggerai is probably going to be spending a lot of time hunting for illaster as it fuels most of his abilities. He has to spend it every time he changes form and every time he fires his hellfire cannon. For a first level character he's pretty tough with a decent AC and good hit points. His attacks are a little crappy but those can be improved with feats and mutations over time.
Speaking of mutations, the dice gods appear to have taken notice of my quest to make this exercise as random as possible. The random mutation I picked up through House Lictat was the chain of form, giving Maggerai an alternate form with one random mutation and one of my choice. I got animal aspect, giving him a +2 on listen and spot and increased bite damage when he changes, and picked up chain of the winged, as it's always handy to be able to fly.
The sheer craziness of mutations in this game actually makes character cration for Infernum kinda fun. I suppose with the right characters it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe one day when I have the time I'll have a closer look and see if it can't be salvaged.
The main problem here lies with the demon breeds, who are unfortunately more-or-less central to the game. Many of the mutations they recieve are either poor, debilitating or inconveniencing. What benefit is there really to being tiny (a mutation of the imp breed)? What gm wants to handle the headache of a Gargantuan sized PC (the hulk breed)?
Fortunately, there's enough material in the three core books that the setting can be easily poached to other systems. Heck, I wouldn't mind trying a game of this with the Mutants and Masterminds setting one day.
Rolls for the ability scores of my Infernum PC turned out as follows:
12,16,12,13,15,9
After a few random rolls (1d3 for race, 1d10 for breed, 1d12 for affiliation) I determined that my character was to be a Stalker demon of House Lictat. Stalker demons are the trackers and bounty hunters of hell, while House Lictat is a loosely aligned group of lesser demon houses. Interetingly, House Lictat's "House mutation" is random, playing nicely into my goal to make these characters as random as possible. Here's what I have:
Maggerai the Wingbound of House Lictat
Level 1 Stalker demon
Str 13 Dex 15 Con 18 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 7
HP 12, Ilaster reserve 7, Corruption 15
Fort +6 Ref+4 Wil +1
Speed 30ft, Fly 30ft (poor, only in alternate form)
AC 20, Touch 12 Flat-footed 18
+2 melee (1d6+1 bite)
+2 melee (1d6+1 claw)
+2 melee (1d8+1 alternate form bite)
+3 ranged (craft (hellfire) check), hellfire cannon)
Mutations: Chain of form, Animal aspect chain*, Chain of the winged*
Special Abilities: Alternate form, Fire resistance 5
*Only when in alternate form
Skills: Craft (hellfire)+9, Intimidate +5(physical threats)/+2(coercion), Listen+5 (+7 in alternate form), Spot +5 (+7 in alternate form), Survival +5
Feats: Skill focus (craft (hellfire)), Martial weapon proficiency
Equipment: Breastplate armour, Hellfire cannon, 1 round of ammo, 3 crowns
Maggerai is probably going to be spending a lot of time hunting for illaster as it fuels most of his abilities. He has to spend it every time he changes form and every time he fires his hellfire cannon. For a first level character he's pretty tough with a decent AC and good hit points. His attacks are a little crappy but those can be improved with feats and mutations over time.
Speaking of mutations, the dice gods appear to have taken notice of my quest to make this exercise as random as possible. The random mutation I picked up through House Lictat was the chain of form, giving Maggerai an alternate form with one random mutation and one of my choice. I got animal aspect, giving him a +2 on listen and spot and increased bite damage when he changes, and picked up chain of the winged, as it's always handy to be able to fly.
The sheer craziness of mutations in this game actually makes character cration for Infernum kinda fun. I suppose with the right characters it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe one day when I have the time I'll have a closer look and see if it can't be salvaged.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Character 1:Dungeons and Dragons
Dungeons and Dragons is the Windows of the gaming world. Actually, that metaphor is so good i'll run with it a bit. It takes up by far the largest portion of the RPG market. It has many vocal detractors, who consider D&D unusuable at best and at worst the spawn of the devil himself. Mechanically It's easy to tinker with and utterly break.
But overall, I consider it to be a classic. Sure, it has its faults, but they make the game far from unplayable. Combat can be a little complex and long-winded sometimes, but it's great for those of us who love making good tactical descisions. And there's just something about smiting evil with your +2 flaming longsword that keeps bringing me back to the game that started it all.
A while ago I actually constructed a random class and race generator for D&D 3.5 when I realised that they'd made almost 50 generic base classes. It was this table I used to create the character below.
Okay, here we go...
I start with stats. For this I'm using the classic roll 4 d6s, drop the lowest, no rerolls.
Here are my results:
12, 18, 14,11,15,7
An interesting set. That 18 looks nice and the rest, apart from the 7 make this a fairly solid set of scores. It's not too good if I end up with a class that's MAD (Multiple Ability Dependancy) though. These classes, such as paladins or spirit shamans tend to require at least 2 high scores to be good and if you get more than one score with a penalty, you're going to have problems.
Time to get out that table (If I can figure out how, I'll link it here one day). I get a 65 for race and a 48 for class, giving me a Poison dusk lizardfolk monk.
Okay. For those of you who don't know, the poision dusk lizardfolk is a subrace from the Monster Manual 3, originally introduced in the Eberron campaign setting. Basically, they're pygmy lizardfolk with a few cool things like chameleon skin (grants a bonus to hide checks) a few skill bonuses and a natural armour bonus. I think I'm going to go for defense and stealth with this guy.
20 minutes later, here's what I've come up with:
Llesk Coldshadow
Male Poison dusk lizardfolk monk 1
LN Small Humanoid (reptilian)
Init:+5; Senses:Listen +4, Spot +4, low-light vision
Languages: Common, Draconic
AC:21, touch 18, flat-footed 14
hp:10 (1HD)
Fort:+4 Ref:+7 Will:+4
Spd: 30ft.
Melee: Claws +6 (1d4+2) or flurry of blows +4/+4 (1d4+2) or bite +2 (1d4+1)
Ranged: Javelin +6 (1d4+2)
Space: 5ft Reach:5ft
Base Attack:+0; Grap:-2
Atk Options: Flurry of blows, Stunning Fist 1/day (DC 12)
Combat Gear: 5 javelins
Abilities: Str 14 Dex 20 Con 15 Int 11 Wis 14 Cha 5
SQ: Chameleon skin, Hold breath, Poison use, Unarmed Strike
Feats:Stunning Fist(b), Weapon Finesse
Skills: Balance +9, Hide +18, Jump +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +9, Spot +4, Swim +6, Tumble +9
Possessions:combat gear, backpack, bedroll, 3 torches, flint and steel, 2 days trail rations, waterskin, 1 gp, 4 sp, 7 cp
Chameleon skin: Llesk can adjust his scales to blend in with the colour of his surroundings granting him a +5 racial bonus on hide checks as long as he doesn't wear armour, robes or cumbersome clothing
Poison use: Llesk can apply poision to weapons without rish of poisoning himself
Hold Breath: Llesk can hold his breath for 60 rounds before he risks drowning.
So there we have it! not too bad if I say so myself. Llesk's bonus to dex and small size actually makes him quite a decent monk. He's got a pretty high AC and attack for a 1st level character, and chameleon skin+high dex+small size gives him a whopping +18 to hide! He's got a fairly solid ste of saves and his skills make him pretty mobile. His damage output is a little low though, so he works best as a backup fighter and flanker.
Llesk's one major weakness is quite obviously the social arena. With a charisma penalty of -3 and no ranks in any social skills, any party he joins had better hope they're not going to have to rely on him to talk his way out of anything. His size penalty on top of that makes intimidating anything a failed enterprise.
Were I to use Llesk in a game (and as randomly generated characters go, Llesk is pretty playable) I'd probably end up giving him a few levels of rogue, as sneak attack would make him a lot better in combat. It would also be worthwhile looking at the Scaled Guerilla prestige class from Savage Species, which gives a few handy bonuses to mobile combatants, which he seems highly suited for. Heck, i wouldn't mind playing this guy in someone's game at one point.
So there we have it! Stay tuned for the next installment soon!
But overall, I consider it to be a classic. Sure, it has its faults, but they make the game far from unplayable. Combat can be a little complex and long-winded sometimes, but it's great for those of us who love making good tactical descisions. And there's just something about smiting evil with your +2 flaming longsword that keeps bringing me back to the game that started it all.
A while ago I actually constructed a random class and race generator for D&D 3.5 when I realised that they'd made almost 50 generic base classes. It was this table I used to create the character below.
Okay, here we go...
I start with stats. For this I'm using the classic roll 4 d6s, drop the lowest, no rerolls.
Here are my results:
12, 18, 14,11,15,7
An interesting set. That 18 looks nice and the rest, apart from the 7 make this a fairly solid set of scores. It's not too good if I end up with a class that's MAD (Multiple Ability Dependancy) though. These classes, such as paladins or spirit shamans tend to require at least 2 high scores to be good and if you get more than one score with a penalty, you're going to have problems.
Time to get out that table (If I can figure out how, I'll link it here one day). I get a 65 for race and a 48 for class, giving me a Poison dusk lizardfolk monk.
Okay. For those of you who don't know, the poision dusk lizardfolk is a subrace from the Monster Manual 3, originally introduced in the Eberron campaign setting. Basically, they're pygmy lizardfolk with a few cool things like chameleon skin (grants a bonus to hide checks) a few skill bonuses and a natural armour bonus. I think I'm going to go for defense and stealth with this guy.
20 minutes later, here's what I've come up with:
Llesk Coldshadow
Male Poison dusk lizardfolk monk 1
LN Small Humanoid (reptilian)
Init:+5; Senses:Listen +4, Spot +4, low-light vision
Languages: Common, Draconic
AC:21, touch 18, flat-footed 14
hp:10 (1HD)
Fort:+4 Ref:+7 Will:+4
Spd: 30ft.
Melee: Claws +6 (1d4+2) or flurry of blows +4/+4 (1d4+2) or bite +2 (1d4+1)
Ranged: Javelin +6 (1d4+2)
Space: 5ft Reach:5ft
Base Attack:+0; Grap:-2
Atk Options: Flurry of blows, Stunning Fist 1/day (DC 12)
Combat Gear: 5 javelins
Abilities: Str 14 Dex 20 Con 15 Int 11 Wis 14 Cha 5
SQ: Chameleon skin, Hold breath, Poison use, Unarmed Strike
Feats:Stunning Fist(b), Weapon Finesse
Skills: Balance +9, Hide +18, Jump +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +9, Spot +4, Swim +6, Tumble +9
Possessions:combat gear, backpack, bedroll, 3 torches, flint and steel, 2 days trail rations, waterskin, 1 gp, 4 sp, 7 cp
Chameleon skin: Llesk can adjust his scales to blend in with the colour of his surroundings granting him a +5 racial bonus on hide checks as long as he doesn't wear armour, robes or cumbersome clothing
Poison use: Llesk can apply poision to weapons without rish of poisoning himself
Hold Breath: Llesk can hold his breath for 60 rounds before he risks drowning.
So there we have it! not too bad if I say so myself. Llesk's bonus to dex and small size actually makes him quite a decent monk. He's got a pretty high AC and attack for a 1st level character, and chameleon skin+high dex+small size gives him a whopping +18 to hide! He's got a fairly solid ste of saves and his skills make him pretty mobile. His damage output is a little low though, so he works best as a backup fighter and flanker.
Llesk's one major weakness is quite obviously the social arena. With a charisma penalty of -3 and no ranks in any social skills, any party he joins had better hope they're not going to have to rely on him to talk his way out of anything. His size penalty on top of that makes intimidating anything a failed enterprise.
Were I to use Llesk in a game (and as randomly generated characters go, Llesk is pretty playable) I'd probably end up giving him a few levels of rogue, as sneak attack would make him a lot better in combat. It would also be worthwhile looking at the Scaled Guerilla prestige class from Savage Species, which gives a few handy bonuses to mobile combatants, which he seems highly suited for. Heck, i wouldn't mind playing this guy in someone's game at one point.
So there we have it! Stay tuned for the next installment soon!
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