20517 replies to this topic

[CDLord HHGD]

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 07:32 AM, said:

Totaly get that, I've been my group's usual GM for the last six or seven years, but after my last Pathfinder campaign that took close to a year to wrap up, and even then I still rushed it a little at the end, I've been on a brake for about a year and a bit now... kind of miss being the GM...

But I know I need to let the others get their feet under them, and find the confidence in being the GM... I find that good GM's make great players, but grate players don't always make the best GM's...

I ran the Rise of the Runelords campaign for this group and it took about a year. Every night was filled with working the game, drove me nuts. Maybe my game style is incompatible with my player's, but towards the end, they ended up buying a colossal goliath thing that did all their fighting for them. They even got the thing that allowed it to squeeze into tight spaces and the other clockwork thing that automatically repaired it. And Heaven forbid it wasn't available to buy because it's int eh book and if it wasn't there, they'd just sit out and complain while other's played.

[Bishop Steiner]

cdlord, on 16 April 2015 - 07:26 AM, said:

Oh yeah... My current GM refuses to use anything but HU... No Rifts, no D&D, no Pathfinder. Refuses to let me integrate some battletech or even play battletech/mechwarrior, no Star Trek, no Star Wars, not even other Palladium games... But he'll punish us if we don't use every facet of the Ninja's a Superspies martial arts types..... When I get into my new house and get back to my regular schedule, there's gonna be a "come to Jesus" moment and it'll probably end up with me splitting and starting my own group (again).

I had some killer stuff added to our Rifts campaigns, including some specific inclusions of RoboTechnology (Where did the Regis take her children? To rifts earth, where the flowers of life were growing in the Calgary Rift area. Which of course put them in instant war with a certain other insectoid hive mind.....

Had designed a Guyver/Chronos set up using Atlantean BioWizardry, etc.

[Bishop Steiner]

cdlord, on 16 April 2015 - 07:36 AM, said:

I ran the Rise of the Runelords campaign for this group and it took about a year. Every night was filled with working the game, drove me nuts. Maybe my game style is incompatible with my player's, but towards the end, they ended up buying a colossal goliath thing that did all their fighting for them. They even got the thing that allowed it to squeeze into tight spaces and the other clockwork thing that automatically repaired it. And Heaven forbid it wasn't available to buy because it's int eh book and if it wasn't there, they'd just sit out and complain while other's played.

Ugh. Sorry, while home rules or stuff needs to be explained, I detest players who just want access to the best of the best. I am anti power creep/ monty hall gaming.

Truth be told, back in my old D&D days, for instance, our usual stance was that when the party was hittin g5th level or so, chances were, we were going to make new characters, as the game was actually far more interesting before the god mode power levels were approached. We did play a few High Level Champion Campaigns, but those take like, top shelf, elite GMs to really keep interesting for anyone but your average EverCrack/ WoW / Final Fantasy Combat Power Gamers..... who I found utter bores to play with, usually, anyhow.

To make High level really worked, you had to have GMs (IMO) who actually understood and played the politics, global aspects, Dimensional Wars (which you can only do so often before they get stale) Champion Lvl Quests, etc. But when your character (character, mind you, not party) can show up and bludgeon Tiamat into a new suit of dragonscale armor single handedly?

Meh.

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 07:37 AM, said:

I had some killer stuff added to our Rifts campaigns, including some specific inclusions of RoboTechnology (Where did the Regis take her children? To rifts earth, where the flowers of life were growing in the Calgary Rift area. Which of course put them in instant war with a certain other insectoid hive mind.....

Had designed a Guyver/Chronos set up using Atlantean BioWizardry, etc.

Heh, I did something like that, had a single Arch-Royal class carrier (Macross universe) take up residence in my home town area... Then I started to think what they would do, and they carved out a little empire... turns out, a VF is a nasty piece of hardware in Rifts Earth...

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 07:34 AM, said:

Always found RIfts pretty easy to run. D&D 3.5...now that was just stupid.....

The thing that got me about Rifts, was when taking my player group into account, I would have to be making new NPC's every week, and well it's just time consuming in Rifts, something I lack between 45+ hour a week job, a wife, a house and a toddler...

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 07:42 AM, said:

Ugh. Sorry, while home rules or stuff needs to be explained, I detest players who just want access to the best of the best. I am anti power creep/ monty hall gaming.

Truth be told, back in my old D&D days, for instance, our usual stance was that when the party was hittin g5th level or so, chances were, we were going to make new characters, as the game was actually far more interesting before the god mode power levels were approached. We did play a few High Level Champion Campaigns, but those take like, top shelf, elite GMs to really keep interesting for anyone but your average EverCrack/ WoW / Final Fantasy Combat Power Gamers..... who I found utter bores to play with, usually, anyhow.

To make High level really worked, you had to have GMs (IMO) who actually understood and played the politics, global aspects, Dimensional Wars (which you can only do so often before they get stale) Champion Lvl Quests, etc. But when your character (character, mind you, not party) can show up and bludgeon Tiamat into a new suit of dragonscale armor single handedly?

Meh.

I even have that issue with my group at low levels... When we did Rise of the Runelords, we had level 1/2 characters just fly through the first installment, as our party can normally face encounter levels that are +4-+8 our levels, just due to min-maxers in my group...

[CDLord HHGD]

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 07:52 AM, said:

Heh, I did something like that, had a single Arch-Royal class carrier (Macross universe) take up residence in my home town area... Then I started to think what they would do, and they carved out a little empire... turns out, a VF is a nasty piece of hardware in Rifts Earth...



The thing that got me about Rifts, was when taking my player group into account, I would have to be making new NPC's every week, and well it's just time consuming in Rifts, something I lack between 45+ hour a week job, a wife, a house and a toddler...




I even have that issue with my group at low levels... When we did Rise of the Runelords, we had level 1/2 characters just fly through the first installment, as our party can normally face encounter levels that are +4-+8 our levels, just due to min-maxers in my group...

I'd like to find players who play to the spirit of the game and not the rules. During RR I was constantly applying the advanced template to monsters and foes just so they'd be viable. I'm also banned from playing Dwarfs and Wolfen because "I'm too arrogant"...... R.I.P. roleplaying....

[Metus regem]

cdlord, on 16 April 2015 - 07:57 AM, said:

I'd like to find players who play to the spirit of the game and not the rules. During RR I was constantly applying the advanced template to monsters and foes just so they'd be viable. I'm also banned from playing Dwarfs and Wolfen because "I'm too arrogant"...... R.I.P. roleplaying....

I've been working on my group, slowly... the worst offender of Min-Maxing in my group, has started to enjoy a well crafted story in a campaign... more than just tossing dice.... but it's taking time... and the better part of a decade to get done, but I've been doing it.

[Bishop Steiner]

cdlord, on 16 April 2015 - 07:57 AM, said:

I'd like to find players who play to the spirit of the game and not the rules. During RR I was constantly applying the advanced template to monsters and foes just so they'd be viable. I'm also banned from playing Dwarfs and Wolfen because "I'm too arrogant"...... R.I.P. roleplaying....

yeah....I decided at one point...I think it was 3rd ed, might have been the end of second.. to MinMAx a character to give one of the other players who decided to GM a bit a feel for it. Was using the Dwarves Handbook, so had to be second ed? Made a Mountain Dwarf Berserker (whatever the dwarven equivalent was) max specialized in War Hammers (these were level 12 characters at start for the campaign, so we had a point system assigned for gear and magic items) with a girdle of storm giant strength, gauntlets of ogre power and 2 Hammer of Thunderbolts used in 2 handed fighting specialty.

Oh...and the campaign happened to be a Forgotten Realms Frost Giant one.

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 08:07 AM, said:

yeah....I decided at one point...I think it was 3rd ed, might have been the end of second.. to MinMAx a character to give one of the other players who decided to GM a bit a feel for it. Was using the Dwarves Handbook, so had to be second ed? Made a Mountain Dwarf Berserker (whatever the dwarven equivalent was) max specialized in War Hammers (these were level 12 characters at start for the campaign, so we had a point system assigned for gear and magic items) with a girdle of storm giant strength, gauntlets of ogre power and 2 Hammer of Thunderbolts used in 2 handed fighting specialty.

Oh...and the campaign happened to be a Forgotten Realms Frost Giant one.

heh, I did something like that once...

Had a Dwarven Battlerager (dwarf berserker), that used two dwarven battle axes... he was a murder machine.. was something like +6 to hit and +12 damage at level 1... he was nuts...

That being said, the most blatant power creep in AD&D was the Elven Hand book... but yet... back to giant stompy robots!

I don't get, why we see "new" older versions of mechs, that are you know better than Royal Regiment versions that came out in earlier books...

[Strum Wealh]

The recent discussion makes me miss my RPG group (of which I was not the GM) - we had Shadowrun (I was a Technomancer), (new) World of Darkness (three-way Vampire/Werewolf/Mage crossover; I was the Kindred/vampire), and Pathfinder (I was an Elven Cleric).

Sadly, we had no BattleTech campaign.

Could make a play-by-post or TS/Vent/etc BT campaign work...?

[Odanan]

I was Battletech (in a semi-Mechwarrior RPG way) GM for 3 different groups and all loved.
The campaign was the same, based on MW2:M and I always stop it around 3050, when the players managed to salvage some (good) Clan omnimech.

Heck, I could say the same for the Vampire: the Masquerade campaigns I was GM. Once the players got too powerful, I lost the interest.

I guess I just hate power creep.

[CDLord HHGD]

Strum Wealh, on 16 April 2015 - 08:32 AM, said:

The recent discussion makes me miss my RPG group (of which I was not the GM) - we had Shadowrun (I was a Technomancer), (new) World of Darkness (three-way Vampire/Werewolf/Mage crossover; I was the Kindred/vampire), and Pathfinder (I was an Elven Cleric).

Sadly, we had no BattleTech campaign.

Could make a play-by-post or TS/Vent/etc BT campaign work...?

I tried to play in a TS RPG once, it was rough and eventually fell apart. Been looking for info on hosting a PBEM too for a Trek game I've been cooking up (and anyone willing to play is not within my current TT group). Alas, I don't have a clue how to run a PBEM so that hasn't gotten off the ground either.

I do have a BT/MW conversion to d20 online. Haven't touched it in years though...

http://www.d20battletech.wikidot.com

Edited by cdlord, 16 April 2015 - 08:45 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 08:23 AM, said:

heh, I did something like that once...

Had a Dwarven Battlerager (dwarf berserker), that used two dwarven battle axes... he was a murder machine.. was something like +6 to hit and +12 damage at level 1... he was nuts...

That being said, the most blatant power creep in AD&D was the Elven Hand book... but yet... back to giant stompy robots!

I don't get, why we see "new" older versions of mechs, that are you know better than Royal Regiment versions that came out in earlier books...

was that the one that had the archer that was like a long bow machine gun? But with the accuracy of a sniper?

Must say, the best High Level campaign we ever did was a 3rd Ed home rules, based on the classic 1st and 2nd Ed canon, but with magic items and such as scarce as they were in the LotR, and with the flavor of stuff being like Dragonlance Chronicles.... most low level magic weapons weren't even known to be magic...just a fabled sword that never broke in battle, etc. We had to change some stuff, like making detect magic a much higher level spell, and Wizards were less common, and generally distrusted. And it took a like 6 Clerics working in conjunction to perform a resurrection, and each of them ran a risk (saving throw vs death....i think, been 15 plus years) and risk losing a pt of constitution (if they catastrophically failed, would lose a lot more. And we tied constitution into higher level spells).

Anyhow, total homebrew. At one pt we also experimented with using Palladium as a Campaign, but made Magic Items and dragons into minor mega damage being and items. 1d4 MD sword might not sound like much in Rifts, but of course could cleave through a horse and rider.

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 08:45 AM, said:

was that the one that had the archer that was like a long bow machine gun? But with the accuracy of a sniper?

Must say, the best High Level campaign we ever did was a 3rd Ed home rules, based on the classic 1st and 2nd Ed canon, but with magic items and such as scarce as they were in the LotR, and with the flavor of stuff being like Dragonlance Chronicles.... most low level magic weapons weren't even known to be magic...just a fabled sword that never broke in battle, etc. We had to change some stuff, like making detect magic a much higher level spell, and Wizards were less common, and generally distrusted. And it took a like 6 Clerics working in conjunction to perform a resurrection, and each of them ran a risk (saving throw vs death....i think, been 15 plus years) and risk losing a pt of constitution (if they catastrophically failed, would lose a lot more. And we tied constitution into higher level spells).

Anyhow, total homebrew. At one pt we also experimented with using Palladium as a Campaign, but made Magic Items and dragons into minor mega damage being and items. 1d4 MD sword might not sound like much in Rifts, but of course could cleave through a horse and rider.

No, it was the blade singer... a Fighter/mage, that could ware armour, and cast spells in melee... was kind of sick...

[Bishop Steiner]

Strum Wealh, on 16 April 2015 - 08:32 AM, said:

The recent discussion makes me miss my RPG group (of which I was not the GM) - we had Shadowrun (I was a Technomancer), (new) World of Darkness (three-way Vampire/Werewolf/Mage crossover; I was the Kindred/vampire), and Pathfinder (I was an Elven Cleric).

Sadly, we had no BattleTech campaign.

Could make a play-by-post or TS/Vent/etc BT campaign work...?

Would love to see a tier 1, minimal mechlad (aka proper rules, not megamek with extra rules, but true TT rules) Btech campaign played.

Some of my favorite eras is Fall of the Star League (Begins Literally at the Liberation of Terra), Scavengers of the Succession Wars (either 2nd or pre Nais 3rd Succession War Mercs and Treasure Hunters) or a late 3rd Succession War, low tech campaign, like the Patlabor/Dominion Tank Police campaign that spawned the Deputy Dawg.... only done with (initially) bone stock Urbies, Stingers, etc, as a Militia /Protectorate unit facing constant border and pirate raids....that could eventually evolve into so much more.

Thoughts?

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 08:47 AM, said:

No, it was the blade singer... a Fighter/mage, that could ware armour, and cast spells in melee... was kind of sick...

Ah, Monty Hall...like the old, nonsensical 1st edition Bard, or Cavalier.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 16 April 2015 - 08:49 AM.

[Bishop Steiner]

Odanan, on 16 April 2015 - 08:42 AM, said:

I was Battletech (in a semi-Mechwarrior RPG way) GM for 3 different groups and all loved.
The campaign was the same, based on MW2:M and I always stop it around 3050, when the players managed to salvage some (good) Clan omnimech.

Heck, I could say the same for the Vampire: the Masquerade campaigns I was GM. Once the players got too powerful, I lost the interest.

I guess I just hate power creep.

Yup. Power creep sucked. It was amazing what I did to piss off a Monty Hall Drama Drop out Storyteller, with my Ahroun Crinos Git of Fenris ....wielding dual chainsaws. Leeches tended to fall apart. Of course...then I discovered the Ice Stalkers Gurahl......

Much more fun for me was a ragabash Bone Gnawer I ran for years and years. Or the Halfling Bounty Hunter in a spelljammer campaign. The Galliard Ravnos I ran on old WotD, etc. Characters that were not warr machines.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 16 April 2015 - 08:55 AM.

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 08:49 AM, said:

Would love to see a tier 1, minimal mechlad (aka proper rules, not megamek with extra rules, but true TT rules) Btech campaign played.

Some of my favorite eras is Fall of the Star League (Begins Literally at the Liberation of Terra), Scavengers of the Succession Wars (either 2nd or pre Nais 3rd Succession War Mercs and Treasure Hunters) or a late 3rd Succession War, low tech campaign, like the Patlabor/Dominion Tank Police campaign that spawned the Deputy Dawg.... only done with (initially) bone stock Urbies, Stingers, etc, as a Militia /Protectorate unit facing constant border and pirate raids....that could eventually evolve into so much more.

Thoughts?


Ah, Monty Hall...like the old, nonsensical 1st edition Bard, or Cavalier.

I could get behind one of those B-tech campaigns, would totally rock my standard WHM-6R (I should really expand to another go-to mech...)... or in the low tech, might go with a Stinger or Wasp...

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 08:55 AM, said:

Yup. Power creep sucked. It was amazing what I did to piss off a Monty Hall Drama Drop out Storyteller, with my Ahroun Crinos Git of Fenris ....wielding dual chainsaws. Leeches tended to fall apart. Of course...then I discovered the Ice Stalkers Gurahl......

Much more fun for me was a ragabash Bone Gnawer I ran for years and years. Or the Halfling Bounty Hunter in a spelljammer campaign. The Galliard Ravnos I ran on old WotD, etc. Characters that were not warr machines.

One of my favorite characters I have ever made, was in AD&D, he was an Orc Pirate, whom used a wooden bucket on a rope as a weapon... the funny thing about that Orc, was he was press-ganged into being on the boat, so he had zero skills that were useful on the boat, other than being used as a source of intimidation for the other sailors.

[Bishop Steiner]

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 08:57 AM, said:

I could get behind one of those B-tech campaigns, would totally rock my standard WHM-6R (I should really expand to another go-to mech...)... or in the low tech, might go with a Stinger or Wasp...

My classic Character (self named, lol) was a Kurita Mechwarrior, left behind as part of a diversionary raid who fell in with some Mercs on the planet who were impressed with his skill and honor in the face of impossible odds. He drove a WHM-6R (lucky first ed rules book role). I eventually "customized" it, by dropping the slashers and mgs. Added 2 more Mlasers and 1 ton of armor. Such MinMax, Much Wow.

My first merc unit, I had a Stock MAD-3D Marauder. THAT was a great tier 1 rules Heavy.

But I would love to see an old, 1st ed rules, campaign, random mech assignment Campaign. I don't have the time to be able to GM one anymore though. But I actually had fun when I would end up with an Assassin or something "non optimal", making it work. Also, I think I have all the 1st ed rulebooks in my drop box.

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 09:01 AM, said:

One of my favorite characters I have ever made, was in AD&D, he was an Orc Pirate, whom used a wooden bucket on a rope as a weapon... the funny thing about that Orc, was he was press-ganged into being on the boat, so he had zero skills that were useful on the boat, other than being used as a source of intimidation for the other sailors.

I ran an Jawa Engineer and a Ewok Bounty Hunter in old Star Wars campaigns. My GM HATED me, lol.

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 08:57 AM, said:

I could get behind one of those B-tech campaigns, would totally rock my standard WHM-6R (I should really expand to another go-to mech...)... or in the low tech, might go with a Stinger or Wasp...

I loved those campaigns where you actually felt useful if you got a Commando, you know? (usually we would allow a re-roll if you got an Ostscout, unless you wanted to run it. And we would usually let you pick which stock variant you got. Which meant rolling a Charger wasn't the end of the world)

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 16 April 2015 - 09:05 AM, said:

My classic Character (self named, lol) was a Kurita Mechwarrior, left behind as part of a diversionary raid who fell in with some Mercs on the planet who were impressed with his skill and honor in the face of impossible odds. He drove a WHM-6R (lucky first ed rules book role). I eventually "customized" it, by dropping the slashers and mgs. Added 2 more Mlasers and 1 ton of armor. Such MinMax, Much Wow.

My first merc unit, I had a Stock MAD-3D Marauder. THAT was a great tier 1 rules Heavy.

But I would love to see an old, 1st ed rules, campaign, random mech assignment Campaign. I don't have the time to be able to GM one anymore though. But I actually had fun when I would end up with an Assassin or something "non optimal", making it work. Also, I think I have all the 1st ed rulebooks in my drop box.


I ran an Jawa Engineer and a Ewok Bounty Hunter in old Star Wars campaigns. My GM HATED me, lol.


I loved those campaigns where you actually felt useful if you got a Commando, you know? (usually we would allow a re-roll if you got an Ostscout, unless you wanted to run it. And we would usually let you pick which stock variant you got. Which meant rolling a Charger wasn't the end of the world)

Chargers can be good, if you know, charge with them, and get them stuck in melee...

[Odanan]

Metus regem, on 16 April 2015 - 09:08 AM, said:

Chargers can be good, if you know, charge with them, and get them stuck in melee...

But no one can deny it is a very badly optimized mech. Engine too big, not enough armor, almost no weapons.
You can make 2 better mechs for the same cost.