JimLotFP wrote:

I wouldn't mind doing a graphic novel, but I'm shit at pacing, plot, and dialogue. Situations, locations, quirky characters I think I'm decent at.

Something a bit shorter that doubles up as advertising?:

http://das-ubernerd.blogspot.co.uk/2008 … omics.html


But the whole thing would just be an exercise in abusing all the characters and the readers. The iconic three here would be the villains, you see, doing the standard adventuring thing and completely screwing up some peoples' efforts to save the world from some horrible outer evil.

Yes please.

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(3 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

To the best of my understanding it's inspired by Basic/Expert D&D (Mentzer editions)

http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpage … c13th.html

Systemic fingerprints aside, the LotFP solo tutorial adventure is the twisted twin of what appears in the red box.

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(10 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

You could have them do 0 damage normally and 1d4 on a roll of 20,  piercing someone's eye, gonad or somewhere equally debilitating.

No problem!

Under the rules as written normal men are 0 HD with 1-6 HP, averaging 3-4.

I've also amended the Fighter ability.

A friend and I were talking about how we'd scale LotFP towards more traditional fantasy; the kind with monster manuals, humanoid infestations and keeps that overlook borderlands. We decided to write a one-page hack each. This was mine.

Abilities

Strength bonus adds to melee damage.

Classes

Non-Fighters: +1 base Attack Bonus at levels 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Non-Specialists: +1 skill point at levels 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.

Fighters always strike at the vitals, adding 1 to all melee and missile damage rolls.

Specialists may read and use spell scrolls with a successful languages check

New Skills include Evaluate and Treat Injury. Evaluate allows a correct estimation of the worth of goods. A successful treat injury roll restores 1 HP of per 2 dots in the skill (rounded down). A patient may benefit from the use of this skill once per day only.

Combat and Damage

Charging = +2 damage

Damage bonuses are applied after multiplying sneak attack.

Monsters and Such

Monster ACs should remain within the 12-18 range, with 19+ a vanishing rarity.

Normal men are almost overwhelmingly 1 HD with 4-5 HP and 0AB. Superior combat ability is represented by the quality of weapons, armour and morale. Exceptional individuals have class and levels.

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(4 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Nice. Visually I'm getting a 30 Days of Night Vibe, where the vamps overrun the town.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

islan wrote:
Andrew S wrote:

I understand your point, and accept that holding and parrying may be the optimum tactic in certain situations; but LotFP combat also involves ambush, aggressive movement, pursuit, rescuing your comrades, spell casting, item utilisation, resisting the effects of magic or weird entities, stopping something terrible from happening right now, facing opponents immune to mundane attacks and many, many more. Hold and parry will be suitable only some of the time, at best.

Thanks, however I'm not trying to say it's a "serious problem" or game-breaking or anything.  Heck, the few games I've ran players don't even look at the maneuver options.  I'm just trying to discuss referee styles and game mechanic design.  To be honest, now that I've laid out the cons for both methods, I think I would actually prefer "hold and parry" over "never risk parry unless you get +4".

With both seeming less than ideal however, I'm starting to toy with the idea of having the AC bonus be the result of a die roll, and letting characters Parry after attack rolls are made.  So let's say, for example, Fighters/Dwarfs/Elves get a Parry bonus of d8-1, and everyone else gets d4-1.  Then when they are attacked with, for example, 3 over their AC, then they have to decide whether or not they want to risk a Parry roll for a /chance/ to negate it, rather than it being automatic.

Of course, I will stick with the RAW until it actually becomes a problem at the table.  Once I get a full campaign running (rather than the one-shots I've been doing), I'll bring the players' attention to the maneuvers and get them to try out Parry as it is, and get their feedback on it.  Still nice to have an alternative waiting in the wings, though.

The parry roll sounds like a reasonable alternative.

With my own group it's not an issue, despite them (sort of) knowing the benefits. They'd far rather be pushing forward each round; hedging bets and playing safe isn't really their style.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

islan wrote:

Love the Dwarf as the "straight man"!

Thanks, mate.

Funny thing is , for all his combat ability he's far less fierce than the slip of a girl he's partnered with. She's ruthless, as the first session log will show.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

David wrote:

Sure, I love the idea of Robert MacAdam popping up in your campaign. Your great grandfather sounds like a pretty wild character. He makes me think of another great uncle who "disappeared" into the Australian Outback. I have that in quotes because it was believed he'd only pretended to die so he could marry some Australian girl.

Excellent, Robert MacAdam will make an appearence!

Maybe an aboriginal people led by a mad Scots Kurtz-like figure, too. wink

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

I understand your point, and accept that holding and parrying may be the optimum tactic in certain situations; but LotFP combat also involves ambush, aggressive movement, pursuit, rescuing your comrades, spell casting, item utilisation, resisting the effects of magic or weird entities, stopping something terrible from happening right now, facing opponents immune to mundane attacks and many, many more. Hold and parry will be suitable only some of the time, at best.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

To be honest, I think this is a bit of a static, 'white room' issue where the only danger  is physical attack rolls. In my experience LotFP combat simply isn't like that.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Heikki Hallamaa wrote:

There is a downside. If you parry, you're not hitting anyone that round. The more you parry, the more opportunities your opponents have to inflict harm on you or others.

You don't get to move, either.

We grant an automatic hit for maximum damage on a 20 and an automatic miss with -2 to the next attack roll on a 1.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

islan wrote:

You know, I suspect the 5-minute workday is a symptom primarily of 3E just because spellcasters become so important in later levels.  In older D&D, you aren't so gimped when the mage runs out of spells.  Just my theory.

Agreed.

I've considered using a version of healing (called medicine), with a successful check meaning an injured recipent regains their level in hit points (1 for level 0 NPCs). Patients can benefit from this a maximum of once per day. The rest of the time the skill is used for diagnosis and the identification of herbs and such.

Another skill, commerce, is similar to your appraisal, but also includes weights and measures, recognising forgeries, craftsman's stamps and such.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Nice. With your permission I'll include Gun Rab as an NPC at some point.

My own Scottish great-grandfather was a clown with Scott's Royal Circus. Overfond of his ale, he drank his way around the world, through Asia, Europe and India (where my grandad was born) before falling overboard and drowning within sight of Southamptom dock.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

London, 1613; ten years into the reign of James I

John Lilburn (Fighter 1)

A lean, dour mercenary with a fondness for beer, John has recently returned from fighting in Europe.

AC = 14 (leather), HP = 9, Weapons: Rapier (+3/1d8), Pistol (+2/1d6)

Charisma  7 (-1), Constitution 14 (+1), Dexterity 12, Intelligence 11, Strength 13 (+1), Wisdom 7 (-1)

Skills = Open Doors 2


Nedwyn (Specialist 1)

Quiet, thoughtful and running for his life, Nedwyn the poacher seeks anonymity and coin in London.

AC= 15 (leather); HP = 6; Weapons = Mace (+0/1d8), Dagger (+0/1d4), Pistol (+2/1d6)

Charisma 15 (+1), Constitution 10, Dexterity 13 (+1), Intelligence 15 (+1), Strength 8 (-1), Wisdom 10

Skills = Bushcraft 2, Languages 2, Stealth 2, Tinkering 3


Katrina Serrano (Specialist 1)

Sly, coquettish and ruthless; Katrina is a Spaniard by birth, raised in England. She plies her trade gulling drunken sailors from their coin in alehouses across the city.

AC= 16 (leather); HP = 7; Weapons = Rapier (+0/1d8), Dagger (+0/1d4), Pistol (+3/1d6)

Charisma 14 (+1), Constitution 14 (+1), Dexterity 16 (+2), Intelligence 15 (+1), Strength 8 (-1), Wisdom 13 (+1)

Skills = Languages 2, Sleight of Hand 2, Sneak Attack 2, Stealth 3


Christian Henriksen (Dwarf 1)

A great Danish bear of man, Christian is plagued by visions of darkness and song. A pit fighter in London’s underworld, he aids Katrina in her schemes as straight man and enforcer.

AC= 17 (breastplate and leather, buckler); HP = 12; Weapons = Battleaxe (+3/1d8)

Charisma 13 (+1), Constitution 15 (+2), Dexterity 9, Intelligence 10, Strength 17 (+2), Wisdom 11

Skills = Architecture 3, Open Doors 3

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Wouldn't work for me, I've been teetotal for five years now!

So, the playlog will be slightly delayed as I'm in the middle of exam week. I'll put the characters up over the weekend, the first session will follow shortly after.

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(2 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

It's new, it's shiny, it can be found over here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/?tab=wX#com … 4743013408

Come join and say hello. We hope to run hangout games in the near future.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

I prefer text. I've found audio and video produces self-conscious responses from players, myself included.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

I haven't given it that much thought, to be honest. Hopefully a little of both.

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

It is indeed. smile

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(16 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)

Over the next few weeks I'll be updating this thread as my group progresses or perishes at the hands of various LotFP adventures, official and home written. The first post will be up in the next couple couple of days, detailing characters and their initial experiences with Death Love Doom.

Yeah, monster manuals are almost as ubiquitous as their contents. There are plenty of LotFP compatible products you could use; Tome of Horrors for Swords & Wizardry being one of the biggest and least 'generic'.