JohnnyAppleseed098

They don't have to step on each other's shtick: in the last campaign we only had one pure spellcaster (out of 6 players) the rest were swordsmen of various flavours - that ran about 5 years of regular play without significant overlap. In the last campaign, which ran for a similar length of time, 4 out of 6 PCs were swordsman/martial artists of varying flavours (though to be fair, that was a low-magic game). Again, no shtick problems.

It's all in character background and player interaction. The idea that each PC needs to have an identifiable shtick that is his (or hers) alone, is just so much bumfluff.

cheers, Mark

I wish your mentality is the one my party would have.

But Sadly, No.

As Words Die, The True Reason I Haven't Gone Insane Yet Is Because I Already Am

The magic users are suffering from

1) Behind Cover Penalties

2) Having to heal more than attack.

3) A Dominating Swordsmen Ratio That Allows For Them To Force The Spell Casters To Follow The Swordsmen's ideas instead of their own.

More Mages =

1) Less Behind Cover Penalties

2) Less Time Healing

3) Less Swordsmen Mentality Which Means More Free Decision Making.

As Words Die, The Troubles Of My Party Are Shown

Are they having fun? If so, perhaps they don't want to pursue the plot thread you had in mind. If that's the case, you might need to change things up.

 

Most importantly: have you talked to them about the issue?If they are having fun but you aren't, that needs to be communicated. I would personally be very upset if I was having a grand time playing with 11 of my buddies as a group of adventuring swordsmen and then all of a sudden was punished out of nowhere with a plot contrivance that made my character useless (a curse that makes all metal brittle) for an extended period of time.

 

This could be a case of different expectations, which CANNOT be solved by trying to force them to play your way.

This is one of my problems. Yes, most of players are having fun, but my magic users, especially the cleric, are not. I'm trying to prevent this by having more of my party use magic so they don't always have to deal with behind cover penalties and a constantly damaged party. I just want ALL of my party to have fun. I do have somewhat of fun, but I feel more obligated to make my party happy first.

As Words Die, Yo Ca Barel Undestan Thi Writin Witou Hel.

12? Twelve? Players? In one group? Man you're either a masochist or bloody good at running a combat, and so are your players (the amount of goofing-off and distraction that would ensue in any table with 13 round it that I could build from my gaming 'padres would preclude slick and speedy tactical resolutions...)! Respect.

Well Thanks, I Try My Best!

As Words Die, We Discover The Reason 13 People Works Well Is The Fact That I Speak Too Loud.

 

• Campaign world
• How many players
• Describe the characters a bit more
• How many points are the characters being built on
• Are all the fighters built like bricks or some of them finesse style fighters
• Run some adventures where role playing (instead of roll playing) is the focus.  More talking less fighting.  Especially ones where the mage and especially the cleric can take the lead.
• Is the cleric just a weak version of a mage (i.e. D&D thinking) or is the cleric a person to be seriously considered
• Is religion important in your world?  Little things like when the cleric comes to town people say "Sir would you please bless my home by staying with us tonight for free.... Sorry we can't accommodate your friends."  When they go 'shopping' people give them a little extra or ask for their advice.
• Think about how people in our world feel when they see someone walk into where they are at with a pistol strapped to their hip (use to see this in Texas and Arizona all the time).  Made me nervous (not trying to start a gun argument)?  How would people react seeing someone walking down the street armed to the teeth.
• What happens when they come to town?  Does the town guard disarm the warriors of their swords and armor but lets the priest keep their staff/mace because "well he/she is a priest we can trust them"

• Campaign world- Its actually portal, two different worlds one is based in a castle and the politics behind it, the other in a distant time period in a different world where they are regarded as fugitives.  
• How many players- 12 in all three. 
• Describe the characters a bit more- The characters more or less have very similar personalities. In fact, three of my players in one of my games are triplets. About three of them have a past involving some sort of forced fighting and most of rest are like castle soldiers. My mages are a wide variety, and my clerics have different powers and deities. 
• How many points are the characters being built on- 400
• Are all the fighters built like bricks or some of them finesse style fighters- Most are Bricks, one or two are finesse. 
• Is the cleric just a weak version of a mage (i.e. D&D thinking) or is the cleric a person to be seriously considered? A cleric has holy powers that are just as, if not more powerful, than a mage.
• Is religion important in your world?  EXTREMELY.
• What happens when they come to town?  Does the town guard disarm the warriors of their swords and armor but lets the priest keep their staff/mace because "well he/she is a priest we can trust them"? They usually are trusted with their weapons in the original world, not in the portal world.  

As Words Die, I Die With It Via 10 Swordsmen

And Yes, most of my party likes melee. I have tried to tell them that too many swordsmen leads to problems in the long run. I guess I'll let them suffer the wrath of a Dragon or Golem.

As Words Die, We Appreciate The Help We Receive.

...are the swords magic? I'm confused as to why they become less effective the more you use them.

More or less it is wear on a blade, the more you use it the more dull it becomes

Treat spells as equipment ie they cost money.

I could do that

I'd suggest putting in challenges that are more easily handled by magic users.

 

Let them encounter an Iron Golem. +20 PD, resistant, hardened. Let their swords 'plink' off of its armored hide. Then let them get away. Let them find a book with a magic spell that will defeat the Golem. The next adventure, let them find a chasm in the dungeon. There's an invisible path that leads across it, but only those with magic sight can see it. Something like that.

 

Don't completely screw over the fighters, but if you want more magic, then you need to use adventures where magic is incredibly useful, even necessary.

Great Idea!!!

Are the "Swordsmen" in your game fleshed out individuals or just cookie cutter copies? If the former you can still get a good game, if the latter then then you need to talk to the players about the fun to be found in style and characterization.

A group containing Conan, D'Artanian, Inigo Montoya and Gomez Addams may have a lot of steel between them but it will be a hell of a show.

Most of them have bought CSL's in swords and have very similar skills, but are not quite the same per se. And Yes I would love to have those four in my party.

Your games obviously favour swords. Players rarely tend towards less efficient options.

 

I have tried to make it so that isn't the case. I have tried implementing a rule that swords lose power the more you use them. Also, I have given a HEFTY point reduction to magic and its not working. Parameters that are in place in my more Portal Fantasy games are that magic users control different powers in different worlds, and that swords are axes, maces, or even spears in different worlds and vice versa.

My first thought is that spell casters in your games likely pay for their spells with character points, but the swordsmen get their weapons and armor as equipment they can purchase in-game money.

This is true, but I usually allow my magic users to buy spell books to use spells.

I'm curious to know why having a preponderance of melee characters is viewed as an "extreme problem".

It is problem for multiple reasons.

1) The amount of story I have to base around it. For example I wanted my party to tame a Tarrasque (Link is there if you don't know what it is) through the use of magic. Now, they are most likely going to try and kill it.

2) The constant use of gang tactics on small enemies.

3) The lesser fun of my magic users, especially the cleric.

As Words Die Answers Are Given.

I'm having an extreme problem. I'm running three different fantasy games and I'm noticing a trend. In each one, there is about one or two spell casters, one cleric, and the rest are swordsmen. This is starting to get on my nerves, having to run seven or eight swordsmen at once. I'm going to start running a fourth game, and I'm trying to limit the number of swordsmen, mostly for my sanity. Do you guys have any ideas on how to make sure my campaign isn't run over with swordsmen again?

These are some I have now:

1) Applying Bleeding Rules.

2) Reducing The Penalty To Placed Shots on RKA's.

3) Giving Magic Users The "Power" Skill For Free.

As Words Die, We Realize That, In Reality, The Sword Is Mightier Than The Pen

Alright, now this is getting tricky. I like the vehicle idea better, sorry 薔薇語. Thanks for the help guys

As Words Die, I Find Out I Need Ultimate Vehicle!

O.K. Now That I know What Death Note Actually Is, I will give Jason (That's the guy who suggested it) A Dirty Look The Next Time I See Him, and Thanks For The Suggestions For The TARDIS. And Yes, I Want The TARDIS's Abilties In My Campaign. I'm Prepared For The Consequences.

As Words Die, I Discover That Light Yagami= OP

For You Whovians out there, I ask you to help me construct a TARDIS from the series. This is for one of my party members in a mash-up of series. If it helps, he chose the Tenth Doctor.

In Addition, another one of my party members asked for help building a Death Note from the series "Death Note", as he said he was a making a "Light Yagami". I haven't heard of Death Note or Light Yagami, so I was hoping someone here did!

As Words Die, Doctor Who Meets The Light.

This to me feels a lot like Tactics, like Mister E said, and Deduction together.

If both rolls make it then he knows everything about it and how to stop it.

If Only The Tactics Roll Makes It, He Knows How To Stop It but not the details.

If Only The Deduction Roll Makes It, He Knows The Details About The Plot but not how to stop it (Though an INT Roll Would Probably Figure That Part Out).

If Both Rolls Fail, He Receives No Benefit.

As Words Die, The Plot Unfolds in Front of My Face

Give it a try and let us know how quickly your players can multiply by 1.75.

 

Well You Could multiply common prime numbers like 2,3,5,7, and 11 and then have the characters multiply to get there result.

2=3.5

3=5.25

5=8.75

7=12.25

11=19.25

13=22.75

17=29.75

19=33.25

23=40.25

29=50.75

You could either use this chart for multiplying by 1.75 or just have a calculator handy.

As Words Die, The Multiplication We Learned In The Third Grade Comes Back To Haunt Us.

I would say that it would be a -1/2 limitation in order to only duplicate specific people for two reasons:

1) You cannot create a new alias based upon your shape-shifting.

2) If the person happens to be in the area, you are busted.

Both I would say are -1/4 limitations, together -1/2

As Words Die, We Discover That Lucius's palindromedary isn't following the rules of palindromes.

How Did I Come Up With My Handle: Did A Personality Test And The Results Told Me I Was Like Johnny Appleseed and I Chose 98 because that is when my favorite movie "Saving Private Ryan" came out.

What Was The First RPG I Played: D+D Edition 3.5

What Was The First RPG I GMed: HERO Champions

What Am I Currently Playing: HERO Champions, Pathfinder, and Call Of Cthulhu

When I Started To Play HERO: I First Played HERO when I Was 11 years old.

As Words Die A New Challenger Approaches.

Thanks for this.My GM Approved the Power, so I am good for now. Thanks for your help!

I found it, but, yes, I do reference Champions Complete. Thank You

Imagine This. I use my power forcing my hands and arms upwards and making my head larger. The use of the gestures is to represent that I must thrust my hands up in order to activate the defense

As Words Die All Pain And Suffering In The Head Increases

So here it goes

Why I put them is to show the need to abort to a defensive action if not already established. And I Do Agree with the removal of resistant. 

As Words Die The Gestures and Restrainable Limitations Fight To The Death

I mean i would think that if someone were to use a brace against knockback and then they got hit by an attack this is how I would establish it.

1: Determine if attack hit or not.

2: Roll Damage

3: Apply Defenses.

4: Determine if target if Stunned, Knocked Out, Killed, or none.

5: Determine Knockback

6: Apply Knockback Resistance

7: Apply Bracing against Knockback

So, if a target is Stunned on step 4, I would rule that the target cannot contain his bracing. It makes sense because if you look at any person getting hit by something and going backward, you see the impact lands, the affected person stands still for fractions of a second, then goes backwards. I will end on this:

If you are going for realism, apply knockback afterwards.

If you are going for dramatics, apply knockback beforewards or not at all.

As Words Die A Battle Emerges