Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Any D&D/D20

Shadowrun

World of Darkness

Palladium

Other (feel free to post about it)

[Oneir]

So if it just says proficiency bonus, add the proficiency bonus because it doesn't mean a particular proficiency bonus?

Yeah, you have a proficency bonus, which is based on your level as mentioned. If you are proficient in something (a saving throw, a skill or tool, a weapon type) you can add that bonus to those d20 rolls (so rolling to hit, not rolling damage). (Or some multiple of that bonus with expertise and similar things.)

Some more examples and words. http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/31854/can-someone-explain-what-the-proficiency-bonus-is-in-dd-5e-next-exactly

[Tawa]

I finally got that game up and running.

[Sirus]

I finally got that game up and running.

Awesome.

[Rolan7]

First session of Shadowrun.  New GM, I think- not even sure (new to the system at least).  Here goes.

As I've already shared, this is my character:

And that is really the core for his character.  In that he is a human, pretending to be both Elrond and Agent Smith.
His name is L-Rand because all the runner names in the books are similarly horrible.
This is his story

Shortly after moving to Vampire The Masquerade:Bloodlines Los Angeles, L-Rand (Elbereth Gilthoniel (Herman Inco (real name, fake ID))) started looking for jobs.  There actually wasn't much rush...  His condo was quite decent, particularly with the sizable bugout funds he'd saved.  It's good to save money when you have a secret.

Still, he spent a few days ingratiating himself at the local elf bar.  Because he was an elf.  Totally.  As far as most people could tell, he was definitely an elf, down to his supernaturally practiced mastery of Sperethiel and lifelike eartips.

And inevitably, he found an "in" for his chosen profession.  A RIDICULOUSLY cybered up Decker lady walked in, asking for a drink.  Sorta obviously a runner, in that "You have no proof, coppers!" way.  More machine than woman.  Also, he vaguely remembered her from a... oh, shit.

A local celebrity author/porn actor/actress.  Shit, shit.  Still... with that level of mods, they probably had an in to the local running circuit.  Might be the only chance he got.

"Hey, nice mods!" he ventured.  "Thanks!  They're-" this continued for a while, with both of them being almost supernaturally charming.  He followed her back to a shadowy table of the tavern bar, with hir even buying the drinks (as long as he kept up the praise).  There he pushed his actual goal... shadowrunning... until the deva's fishbowl acknowledged it.

I don't think I mentioned she(?) had a fishbowl.  They did.  With a cyberfish, apparently tied to an increasingly uncomfortable rigger.  Score!

This seems like a good time to skip about 12 hours.  We got a job from a Mr Johnson there at the tavern bar.

AAAAANYWAY.  The job was pretty basic, really.  We needed to acquire a certain RFID card's data from someone at a minor subsidiary corp.  We were even provided with prearranged temp jobs as security guards at said corp, which definitely made our jobs easier.

And this seems like a good point to pause, for now.

[NullForceOmega]

And now he must address every opponent as 'Mister Anderson' while adjusting his shades.

[wierd]

Oh dear. 

Well, it isnt like reading an RFID card discretely is terribly hard. You dont need super advanced kit for that. Basically a cellphone and a driven antenna down a pant leg.

[ShoesandHats]

How would you guys recommend designing the first dungeon/adventure? I'm not sure how many enemies or encounters there should be to challenge a group of four newbies without overwhelming them. I'm also wondering how to make a non-violent solution feel challenging when it's possible in the first place.

[Rolan7]

And now he must address every opponent as 'Mister Anderson' while adjusting his shades.

That's certainly true whenever he's running his favorite personality-chip which I bought.  He's not addicted... yet.

Oh dear. 

Well, it isnt like reading an RFID card discretely is terribly hard. You dont need super advanced kit for that. Basically a cellphone and a driven antenna down a pant leg.

You're not wrong.

First Shadowrun campaign session, continued.  Switching to first person.
First off, I had to run home, because I wasn't wearing my tricked-out armor jacket and 5 weapons to the fricken elf bar.  I have specific Elrond robes for that (which actually might give a bonus to social checks...  Maybe in Run Faster?  Doesn't matter).
I probably could have caught a ride, but I chose to run, my character was a bit out of sorts for reasons
The Decker-elf's apartment happened to be fairly close to mine, anyway, since we're both medium-affluent.  But I had to catch a taxi to the target mini-corp.

Bottom line, I was late to our temp job.
Queue like an hour of our decker refusing to let my character in because my SIN is illegal (actually she never even scanned it, but there was a lot of Skype crosstalk).  I had to step aside for like 3 cars while she/they/whatever pretended not to know me - which was, while hilarious, also total BS   But hilarious IC and OOC.
And honestly, my character had every reason to laugh as well - even find it moderately amusing.  He was desperate to find an in for shadowrunning in this city.  And she was a notable celebrity, if only in low circles.  Not to mention other factors.

Eventually some trolls drive up in a pretty rad car, covered in meme-paper.  They try the gate, but have only one SIN...  Which does check out, IIRC, and I don't think our fake-job's handler gave us instructions for this situation.  Fortunately the Decker-bitch does have guile, and demands SINs for everyone.  They say "Urr okay sure" and park in the median while they...

Well I don't know what the pretense was, but they pretty quickly unload and start scaling the wall.  I (still outside) hide behind the streetcorner.  Decker is literally not being paid enough for this (even the boss was artfully apathetic in our briefing) and follows the actual instructions, laying low and calling Lone Star.  The sorta-kinda-whatever police.

A few turns pass.  Something important happens, but I'll put that off until we finish this troll gang thread.  Here we go:  Lone Star rolled absolute shit, I dove through the gate while Decker-lady briefly opened it for a car, then I helped Lonestar incapacitate the gangmembers.  We actually got a- OH SHIT WE GOT A BOUNTY, I forgot!!  Not sure if I just forgot, or if deva-decker simply didn't tell the rest of us heh.

Incidentally, I love the power glove.  It's so bad.

Meanwhile a special someone drove up to the security gate.  He passed a special RFID card to our Decker (still working the gate).  She had him wait while we [figured out the decking rules] copied the data off, then gave it back.  Mission technically accomplished.

Much laughs and such were had over a job well done.  Until someone drove up to the gatehouse with a note, which I received (I took hir place).

The game had changed.

[Jimmy]

How would you guys recommend designing the first dungeon/adventure? I'm not sure how many enemies or encounters there should be to challenge a group of four newbies without overwhelming them. I'm also wondering how to make a non-violent solution feel challenging when it's possible in the first place.

This is 3.5e/Pathfinder, right? If so, three to four encounters of increasing difficulty is a good ballpark, though it depends.

First, do any of them actually know how to read their character sheets? Holding up the game for each person to find where they add their attack bonus and how much damage they roll means it's dependant on the level of system mastery here. Then we get into things like flanking and other modifiers to combat such as concealment.

Second, do they have any source of magic support, especially healing? You can expect a Cure Light Wounds to handle most character's wounds from a single combat. At level 1, it's about 50% odds that a character will get hit in combat, since variation on the d20 has far more significance at this level when a Wizard and Fighter only have a difference of 1 BAB. Similarly, a level 1 Sleep spell can end most encounters fairly quickly. If so, plan for each magical character to spend about 1-2 of their spells in each encounter.

Third, how many hit points does your group have? Hopefully they're not so new as to dump their Con score. Pick enemies whose average damage is around 4 hp per hit. At 50% chance to connect, and with most combats ending in about 4 rounds, expect each enemy to subtract an average of 8 hp from the group, and healing to restore half of that on average per spell. These restorations count towards the daily magic resource cost.

So a level 1 dungeon might look something like a haunted crypt populated by 2 small monstrous spiders, 3 human warrior skeletons, 2 human commoner zombies and a ghoul cleric.

The spiders wait concealed at the entrance to the crypt, feeding on the juices from the recently dead. Set up an ambush at the entrance with a sheet of web per the Web special ability that needs them to make a DC 20 Spot check to notice, or else they Entangled per the text. Mechanically, they deal just 1 damage on average with a small chance to inflict Strength damage from their poison. They'll die from all but the weakest of hits too. Four characters on average attacking means combat should finish in one or two rounds once they break free of the webbing.

The skeletons rise from their coffins, wielding rusted weapons and decaying shields. These are more tough than the previous enemies, their damage reduction negating a significant amount of damage unless your players carry bludgeoning weapons. You can increase their difficulty on the fly if your group's handling themselves by adding a chain shirt to their gear. A Fighter with 16 Strength has an attack bonus of +4 at this level, meaning they'd hit these creatures on an 11 or higher. Adding a chain shirt increases their AC to 19, meaning your Fighter now has to roll 15 or higher. Their odds of hitting have gone from 45% to 25% with this, a massive increase in the challenge even before reducing the damage they deal from DR. Use your judgement as a DM on whether this is too much for your group. Perhaps give just one of the skeletons a chain shirt to make it tougher than the other two.

The zombies shamble forward, arms outstretched to feed on the living. These guys are straight up bruisers, no finesse needed. Their massive hit points are their only defence. Remember that they can charge up to their movement and still attack even with their Single Actions Only ability.

The sickly stench of rotting flesh surround this armoured figure, hunched over the innards of a corpse as it feeds. The ghoul is your boss monster. It has a variety of nasty abilities that will challenge your group even as just a simple monster, but adding class levels to it increase its challenge as well as its defences. Give it a suit of scale mail to bump its AC to 18, or add a light or heavy wooden shield to make it even tougher. Remember to give it an unholy symbol to its evil deity. This, the extra hit points from its class level, and a mostly used wand of Animate Dead are all you really need to turn this into a boss fight. The Ghoul can either spend its turn using a full attack with bite and two claws, or give up a claw attack to use a shield. It might draw its wand and animate a corpse into a zombie for an additional minion if it's harmed by the group, and activating a wand doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. Between its stench aura, paralysis, disease, high AC and the option to heal itself with Inflict Light Wounds, it's a beast of a boss battle. Note that a savvy player might realise the perfect counter to this creature's abilities are vials of holy water, which hit against touch AC. Whether the group has access to these is up to their preparation beforehand and any loot you might place in the dungeon.

[sjm9876]

How would you guys recommend designing the first dungeon/adventure? I'm not sure how many enemies or encounters there should be to challenge a group of four newbies without overwhelming them. I'm also wondering how to make a non-violent solution feel challenging when it's possible in the first place.

3-4 encounters is probably about right.

Personally, I'd try and tutorialise it a tiny bit. Undead are quite handy for such things as they're very hard to talk around.
Maybe lead with a simple encounter with a couple of weak undead, get them used to their combat statistics.

Have the entrance of the dungeon be such that it would require some sort of skill/ability check to bypass (perhaps a weak locked door, which could be kicked down or picked).

Next encounter you ramp up the difficulty somewhat, but start making terrain interesting. The goal here is to start snapping them out of the video-game mindset many new players have. Put powerful enemies next to ledges, maybe lights held on the roof with pulleys such that cutting the rope can drop it on enemies. Try and tailor it to the character sheets to start with (namely any spellcasters spell lists are a great way of figuring out what alternative tools they have available.)
I'd also drop some kind of hint in this room (note: as a DM, what you think is an obvious hint will highly highly likely be missed by new players, so scale it up a hell of a lot) regards the next encounter.

3rd one is the one that should be bypassable. Have a sentient, maybe a villager from nearby, be doing something with a goal that is not benefited by killing the players. Perhaps searching for a missing relative or the like. Using the hint in the previous room, the players should be able to help. If so, the players should be rewarded by the NPC, perhaps with something that might make the boss fight a bit easier (holy water v some undead, for example). If they don't take the initiative and help, the aid passes them by.
If they decide to kill the NPC, they should be able to. They should also find the reward on their body. In addition, they should find something ( a letter perhaps), that tells the players what the NPC was doing there, and also perhaps a personal possession of the NPC that would sell for good money: and if they kill an innocent NPC, it should have repercussions. If it's a villager, have people mention that X is missing when they come back to town. If they try to sell the personal possession, have them interrogated, perhaps even accused if they act suspicious enough. The challenge to many non-violent encounters should not necessarily be in the solving but in finding the optimal solution.

Back to the dungeon, close with a boss fight. The temptation to make boss fights into huge sacks of hit points is tempting, but not very interesting. Instead, bosses should have more abilities, such as raising dead, or auras of fear. Creative solutions to these problems (ie. burning/beheading the corpses around the room) should very much be allowed/encouraged. I like to think of boos fights less as huge monsters and more a combination of monster and puzzle. Full solution of the puzzle puts it about the level of a fairly normal combat encounter. The reward from earlier would also be considered a component of said puzzle.

Loot frequency depends on the game you're running, but try and make sure the boss fight has some kind of reward (though it needn't necessarily be physical - a plot hook often makes a good reward in and of itself).

Obviously this is all how I'd do things, and even allowing for subjectivity may not be the best way to go about things, but hopefully you'll have other options
Ninja'd: see Jimmy's for other ways to do things (though with some overlap)

[Jimmy]

One final thing should be mentioned too: Both my example and sjm9876 use undead, but these will severely penalise the party Rogue if they're using 3.5e rules for Sneak Attack. On the other hand, they reward Clerics and other classes with special abilities specific to this creature type. Try to keep this in mind if you're building an encounter. Any puzzles or encounters should allow every member to contribute meaningfully in some fashion and have solutions that your group can overcome with their own resources.

Also, puzzles and environmental features are a great way to have fun with oddball ideas. To take an example from my own game, about level 5 my group travelled to the Elemental Plane of Earth temporarily to help an NPC trade for powdered ruby (he was a wizard repairing one of his simulacrums). They ended up needing to rescue a local kidnapped druid to get the items they wanted, and the fight they engaged in occurred in a place the locals called the Sulphur Pits.

After drawing the map of the cave, I drew three 10x10 squares on the board, telling players these were gas vents spewing noxious fumes into the air. Mechanically, they granted concealment as per a smokestick. The players discovered the enemies they were facing had spell resistance, too. Of course, as a player, what would you do? Yep, the party spellcaster, realising they wouldn't contribute much to the fight by simply slinging spells, spent their turns lighting torches from their pack they'd been carrying since first level and chucking them into the clouds, which exploded as per a 5th caster level Fireball spell scroll when exposed to flame. After realising this, the group had immense fun luring the enemies into position to fry them whilst simultaneously avoiding getting cooked themselves.

[Oneir]

If you go with undead, be aware of what gear your players are bringing. Damage reduction is really significant at first level, when you don't have a lot of spell slots and people probably don't have spare weapons with the right damage type, and when losing 5 damage off your roll is probably most or all of your attack. I've played two separate games with one guy who likes to make the first fight skeletons, for some reason, and both fights were slogs.

[wierd]

wizards and clerics come armed with bash weapons though. Admittedly, those are players that shouldnt really be doing such activities... just saying they come with equipment that is useful, and if the group plays well, letting the fighter borrow that craptastic quarterstaff for a bit can save the day.

[Harry Baldman]

wizards and clerics come armed with bash weapons though. Admittedly, those are players that shouldnt really be doing such activities... just saying they come with equipment that is useful, and if the group plays well, letting the fighter borrow that craptastic quarterstaff for a bit can save the day.

That's only a 2E thing, I'm fairly sure. They changed it so clerics are proficient with simple weapons in 3E onward so they totally can pack a variety of armament (granted, swords are still martial weapons but it's the thought that counts).

[wierd]

As long as it deals bash, and is covered by basic proficiency (so fighter can use without penalty), it still can save the day.

You get the benefit of the fighter's hit dice, higher con, and str-- without any special requirement penalties, or damage type penalties when dealing with skeletons that way.  Sure, the base damage of the bash weapon is gonna suck, because it is starting equip, but it is better than the "with penalty" sword he is likely starting with.

If anything, a 1h scepter is probably better than a 2h staff anyway. Fighter can still use shield that way. If I was rolling a party, I would select at least one to have some kind of bash weapon, just because every damn villain in the material plane keeps fucking skeletons in the closet. LITERAL skeletons.

Cleric and wizard at low level are going to be fragile as damn glass anyway, and are better off trying to turn undead, or spamming an offensive cantrip from a corner.