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Messages - Ardrikk

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DFRPG / Re: Stunts with AoE effects...?
« on: March 29, 2016, 07:58:46 PM »

House Rule:  Lots of GM's award extra tags for success.  So, if he beats the difficulty by 3 shifts, award him an extra tag on the aspect.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm already using Fate Core for Dresden, with bits of Dresden still in there (the entire magic system, of course, as well as the idea of tied attacks still doing Weapon damage, etc.).

So if he does a Manuever/Creates an Advantage and succeeds with Style (3 or more shifts), he would automatically get an extra free tag.  I had to reread the Create Advantage rules to remind myself of that, though, as my players haven't started taking advantage of the Maneuver/Create Advantage action very much yet.

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DFRPG / Re: Stunts with AoE effects...?
« on: March 28, 2016, 05:18:03 PM »
Just have him do a presence maneuver.  Presence is the skill that 'commands' and 'Leads'.

He creates an aspect like "Rally Call", "Boosted Morale", "inspirational Words". (against a fixed difficulty - depending on the situation  - or, if applicable, against an enemy's defense - like a Bosses Presence or intimidate)

He allows his allies to tag it and after the first tag, his allies have to spend FPs.

That said, there are ways to create extra tags:

A stunt:  When you create an aspect that boosts morale, your allies get an extra tag if one or more enemies has suffered a consequence/is fleeing/is Taken Out/Has conceded.

In other words, create a situation where, if met, they get an extra tag.

House Rule:  Lots of GM's award extra tags for success.  So, if he beats the difficulty by 3 shifts, award him an extra tag on the aspect.

Combine the effects:  a stunt that gives him a bonus to create an aspect + a stunt that gives extra tags + a house rule to give extra tags could lead to many tags.

Lots of great advice and suggestions!  Thanks again!

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DFRPG / Re: Stunts with AoE effects...?
« on: March 28, 2016, 05:01:50 PM »
Thanks for the replies, guys.  I think I'm leaning towards Taran's response. :)

Here's another Stunt he's proposing; though he admits this form of it needs work.  But I also think it's waaaay too powerful:

"Inspiration:
While your foes flee from you, your allies draw strength and resolve from your presence nearby.
Roll Presence against your allies' Alertness.
For each ally that fails the roll, add a fragile aspect of "Lion Heart," which adds +2 to your allies' next action."

I also told him that, aside from being too powerful, the fact that his allies had to fail a roll to get a benefit was weird.  He said he put that in there as an attempt at a balancing factor for the power of the effect.

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DFRPG / Stunts with AoE effects...?
« on: March 28, 2016, 02:48:22 PM »
So, I have a player that keeps wanting to create AoE Stunts and I'm unsure if 1) I'm comfortable allowing them and 2) how they should be costed/structured if I do.

He wants to make a couple Stunts that let him:

1) Cause every bad guy in the area to be forced to attack him with their next action
2) Cause every bad guy who fails an Intimidation vs. Discipline roll to run away

Personally, I think both of those are too powerful as AoE effects.  Magic allows for zone-wide effects, but it costs an extra 2 shifts of power....which, in turn, causes the Wizard more stress or to make a less powerful effect and makes their control roll harder (possibly requiring a Fate point be spent to pull it off).
If I allowed these AoEs at all, I think I'd want them to cost a Fate point to use.

I've already let him take a stunt, from Fate Core, that will allow him to cause one person to spend their next attack against him.  And Intimidation can already be used to try to cow one person, possibly causing them to flee if they lose a Mental (or Social?) conflict.  But the AoE parts just make them really powerful.

General thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

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DFRPG / Re: How often to actually give Significant Milestones
« on: February 26, 2016, 10:37:02 PM »
@Ardrikk: I get those two confused every time. Still, just take what I said and flip them.

@OP: What I said could still apply, its based off an achievement of some sort. Its really just some sort of thing that you led them to that they overcame.

I actually get them mixed up all the time too.  I almost always have to look them up....just like I did before correcting you...to make sure I was actually right. :)

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DFRPG / Re: How often to actually give Significant Milestones
« on: February 25, 2016, 06:31:42 PM »
Honestly, in my experience at least, the book is way off when it comes to its estimations of how long sessions take in-game, how long a scenario lasts, etc. The book seems to take it as a given that any one session is going to encompass several days of activity, while most of the games I've ran, a period of two or three days might take a dozen or more sessions, with each session picking up immediately where the last left off and the occasional timeskip of a handful of hours. According to the book, that would mean a character recovering from a bad concussion over the course of a couple hours instead of weeks, or Harry being able to use his force rings much more frequently than the canon suggests.

So while it may be a useful guideline, take it with a grain of salt.

My general guideline has been to have Significant milestones after mid-boss fights or some other equivalent accomplishment, Major milestones at the end of a Scenario.

Yeah, tonight is going to be my 7th session of my first Story/Scenario/Adventure and we've progressed just about 24 hours in game time.  There's been a fight with a Renfield and a bunch of Darkhounds, some investigations, some interrogations, and some character discussion and planning.  But I don't feel anything has progressed to the point where there should be a Significant Milestone.  I expect there will easily be another 5-10 sessions before they reach the end of this Scenario, depending on choices the PCs make, etc.

Your idea of giving out a Significant Milestone mid-Scenario, at a "mid-boss fight," and a Major at the end of a Scenario isn't bad.  But with an extra point of Refresh coming at the end of every storyline/adventure/scenario, I think the PCs will scale up in power too fast.  I do like the idea of a Major Milestone happening every 2-3 Stories/Scenarios or when a Big Bad in the world is taken out as I think that sets a decent pace.  I don't know, I think I'll keep with my progression.  I don't think Fate is as much about "levelling up" as some RPGs.  It's more about the stories and the characters' growth as people and as a group.  I've tried to give my players that expectation, so we'll see how that works out as we continue to move on.

I did start them out at Submerged, so it's not like they're lacking in power!  :)

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DFRPG / Re: How effective is a threshold?
« on: February 25, 2016, 06:19:52 PM »
From a balance perspective, crafter type wizards are already a tad bit too powerful.  I don't think handing them more power is a good approach.

From a reality perspective... the item itself may or may not be invited in, but the bearer definitely can be.  Using a magic item simply makes it an extension of your own abilities.

Would you rule that Harry's duster wouldn't give him the magical protection that's been ensorcelled into it while he was inside a home, with a threshold, that he hasn't been invited into?

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DFRPG / Re: How effective is a threshold?
« on: February 25, 2016, 01:21:49 PM »
Personally, I would not have potions or enchanted items be affected by a threshold at all. They're static magic bound into some inanimate object and inanimate objects can't be invited in. When their effects are used, no one is actively drawing on any magical power, as the magic is already set and self-contained.

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DFRPG / Re: How often to actually give Significant Milestones
« on: February 24, 2016, 07:22:13 PM »
Like blackstaff said its going to depend on your group and your gm style. Generally you are going to want to give them out when a significant story arc has been acheived. As an example: in a game I was running the main bad had been doing some pretty terrible things to pretty much everyone in the city. Part of the investigation into this let the characters to a fomor hideout, where they proceeded to deal with a large fomor threat. After they had dealt with that I gave them a significant milestone. My game was going to arc for quite some time and this gave them a stat boost. It occured after maybe 6-7 sessions, with one or two major milestones between it. It really comes down to how the flow of your game goes/how long you are planning the game to last/when you feel its appropriate. There really isn't a set time for it. I would say a major milestone should be every 2-3 sessions, not a significant, but still its a matter of narrative timing.

Significant is the middle one and Major is the big one that gets them the extra point of Refresh.

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DFRPG / How often to actually give Significant Milestones
« on: February 24, 2016, 04:49:41 PM »
So, when running Dresden Files, how often do you give out Significant Milestones?

The book suggests at the end of a Scenario (Adventure), but it also suggests this will happen every 2-3 sessions. I don't know about anyone else, but my Scenarios don't end that quickly. It seems to me that a Scenario is a specific arc that isn't finished until the bad guy's immediate plan is foiled or the immediate problem is solved.

But is that stretching these Significant Milestones out too far for the purposes of player advancement?  Thoughts?

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DFRPG / Re: Merging Fate Core and DFRPG
« on: February 05, 2016, 12:46:19 AM »
We did give them names, but he wanted to put them on himself and name them things like, "At the ready" or "Form 1 pose" to reflect that they were part of his fighting style rather than putting his opponent off balance.

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DFRPG / Re: Merging Fate Core and DFRPG
« on: February 04, 2016, 07:17:53 PM »

Then again, the DFRPG already has that option built into it, if you know where to look.
Luckily, I do. :)
Harry and Billy talk about it in the sticky notes on page 200, where attacks are explained.

Oh right. Thanks for the reminder and page number about that!

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DFRPG / Re: Merging Fate Core and DFRPG
« on: February 04, 2016, 07:10:02 PM »
What made me wonder about how long Boosts should last was that, last session, I had a player who dodged 2 attacks from Darkhounds between his turns and so he saved both Boosts (he succeeded with style in both Defense rolls) to unleash a potent attack on one of them on his turn. That seemed a little overpowered to me and I wondered if that was really how the rules were supposed to work. If it were Spin, then he would've dodged the first attack, used the Spin to weaken the next dog's attack, gotten another Spin, and then used that single +1 either on his next attack or to pass to someone else.

As for DFRPG Accelerated, I suspect it lightens things up too much for my tastes. I like the crunch of Dresden, though Fate Core seems good too; mostly as crunchy as Dresden (especially with options from the System Toolkit), but more streamlined.

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DFRPG / Re: Weapon Rating for garlic?
« on: February 04, 2016, 03:33:19 PM »
yup.  it's an aspect.  it was invoked for effect and she was compelled to run.

Weapon 1 or 2 object shouldn't scare Mavra.   The important thing is WHAT it is...not what damage it can do.

Catch:  Your Story, p.185

Even the mere presence of the
thing that satisfies your Catch will cause
you discomfort (and may be grounds for
a compel or something similar
).

Ah, good point. Okay, thanks!

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DFRPG / Merging Fate Core and DFRPG
« on: February 04, 2016, 03:28:05 PM »
Has anyone tried bringing rules from Fate Core into Dresden?  If so, what did you add or change and how did it go?

I'm experimenting with bringing in the Four Outcomes into my DFRPG game as I like the change from pass/fail to the different levels of success or failure. So I'm also using Boosts as a replacement to (and enhancement of) Spin which applies to all action types and not just Defense rolls.

My only 2 areas of concern/confusion are:

1) In Fate Core, do Boosts also have to be used on the next possible action (and so can't be stacked up/saved from multiple succeed with style defense rolls)? The main Fate Core book doesn't mention this, but this later clarification seems to indicate it works like Spin in DFRPG in that that regard: 
http://ryanmacklin.com/2014/01/fate-boosts-revisited/

Specifically, this bit:  "Once you invoke the boost, it goes away. They go away on their own fairly quickly—usually after the next action when you could use them—so use them as soon as possible! "

2) In Fate Core, when you tie on an Attack Roll, you do no damage, but get a Boost. This is the toughest one for me to meld with DFRPG due to Weapon Ratings. But I'm thinking of only allowing a Boost to be created if the attack has no Weapon Rating. So it can serve as a nice boost (heh) to characters who fight with Fists and don't have brass knuckles or Inhuman Strength or whatnot.

Thoughts?

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