Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Chronicles of Darkness, Other TTRPGs

[The Cat]

​

 

[Totenkindly]

Sure, let's expand offerings to digital, and there's a lot of online TTRPG playing nowadays. But it's bullshit to move away from TTRPG. The books are still extremely helpful. It's why people still buy physical books to read and don't just read Kindle or whatever else predominately.

 

[The Cat]

Sure, let's expand offerings to digital, and there's a lot of online TTRPG playing nowadays. But it's bullshit to move away from TTRPG. The books are still extremely helpful. It's why people still buy physical books to read and don't just read Kindle or whatever else predominately.

For me it comes down to I can have books open on my computer desk vs futzing with multiple monitors. I also like the tactile sensation of reading books. Digital is a great tool, but it cant be the whole tool box.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

It's going to take years to get through The Slumbering Tsar Saga by Frog God Games, ported into Pathfinder 1st ed. It's an evil city that was dedicated to Orcus, and we're digging into it to determine the mystery of what happened and ensure that Orcus can never threaten our world through that angle again. A thousand years ago there were horrific battles between darkness and light there, and then things fell silent but evil still teems there. It's just that no heroes are powerful enough to really plumb its depths.

Starting in 2016, we did about 18-24 months of campaigning to just get our characters up to 7th level or so, in order to start the campaign. Then the group folded for two years. Then we restarted, missing two of our old group and getting more players.

We spent some years investigating the Camp area, then the Wilderness area -- to clear it out and build our strength so that we could deal with the Tar Dragon protecting Tsar. We also found a few NPCs (rescued them) that joined our group. About 18 months ago, we totally crushed the Tar Dragon (we were loaded for bear), and entered Tsar.

Our group seems to just be highly fortunate or lucky. We took out the boss of the initial tower (called the Tower of Weeping Sores) by starting at the top and dropping into the boss room (which we didn't know was a boss room). So then after we killed the boss and his servants, instead of having to fight up to the tower warning him, we simply cleaned out level by level going down.

We've had some interesting fights since there inside the ruined city, with undead, outsiders, and the like. One was the four session gnoll campfight where my cleric summoned a giant earth elemental for the first half (smashing the gates down and just terrorizing the place), then summoned an air elemental to deal with the end of the invasion with a lot of anti-holy gnolls and shamans doing nasty stuff. Another really funny one was my paladin and the dwarf monk under the effects of Overland Flight getting into a fight with a giant Burning Man near the edge of a 60' cliff (that separates part of the city), and between the monk and the paladin using a holy ability to bull rush from the air, we managed to knock it (still burning) off the cliff to land in the swamp below, sinking to its doom. (God, that was fun.)

We had an incident where an invisible stalker (we didn't know) was firing Arrows of Slaying at our group -- and we avoided most of the terrible stuff by dimension dooring the group into the same room in a nearby tower the sniper was operating from.

Then we started going up the Crooked Tower level by level, with the Bloodmage at the top -- we figured he was a high level undead wizard of some kind. We found his treasure room (hidden) in mid-tower and stole all this shit after escaping the trap he had there for thieves, which he didn't realize for awhile. He did grasp we were there and decided to "invite us" to the throne room on a high floor that we had just reached the last time in, after wiping out much of the lower tower.

Again, so lucky. We buffed for bear going in, and on a whim my cleric (figuring elementals were too large) summoned a Monadic Deva (Summon Good Monster VII) who immediately went invisible, before we entered the throne room. The Bloodmage dominated the monk, who tried to sneakily grapple the paladin -- who has a Ring of Free Movement. We quickly realized what was going on, the paladin cast Angelic Aspect (to grow wings and really buy into the "holy angel" thing) and all hell broke loose. But we happened to do all the right things without realizing it. For example, the Deva went into the room and cast Holy Aura which is an amazing buff for the party -- and then when the Bloodmage cast pyrotechnics which could have been a nightmare (a choking cloud filling much of the room that would have blinded the group) the Deva managed to dispel it. [I hadn't realized how effective or powerful even a level 10 Deva is -- it's immune to most energy attacks include death and negative energy, and even has high SR.]

The blood mage had fled, so our group ended up fighting the three remaining high level vampires, an evil winter wolf pup, and an evil outsider dismal minstrel. Our cleric cast Holy Word -- which blinded the vampires (even ones who made their save) for a few rounds and paralyzing the wolf pup. It was probably an 8-round combat but we had managed once again to do all the stuff that happened to counteract the enemy and soon enough all vampires were in mist form but not dying. Suun used her knockback to keep the one cloud from fleeing, and then the bard started hitting them with a Decanter of Endless Water (which the GM counted as "running water") and we managed to snuff out two of them before the third got away, and we killed the demon and the wolf pup.

But we are definitely in the danger zone because if you don't control these fights from Round 1-2, the enemy is so nasty they do crazy shit to you. My paladin is in good shape but other people in the group could be killed if they are hit by the wrong thing.

The really hilarious bit was that the Holy Word affects all non-good creatures. The cleric assumed we were all good and only our enemies would be affected. He found out the monk is lawful neutral, and the latter had to chug potion he had to remove his blindness/deafness from the Word. (Then the Deva cast a lesser version of it later, but he made his save for that.)

All of our mains are on the verge of reaching level 15. (Probably in a session or two.) This is the highest-powered campaign I have been in (definitely the longest!) aside from the homebrew where I was playing a tengu cryptic/thrallherd psionic lich -- I think that one got to 16.

We're not even halfway through the Saga yet, maybe. For this section, we've located 4-5 statues (of which we need 9) to place in the right location to gain access to the Temple of Orcus.

I honestly don't know if my paladin (modeled after Joan of Arc) will survive the campaign. My ultimate hope is either for a beautiful victory or a glorious sacrificial death saving her friends and eradicating Orcus in the process -- either of those would be just so great.

 

[Totenkindly]

We finally leveled to 15 last session.

Suun gets a new feat.

Was looking at the Critical-related feats. It was kind of fun to consider the Bleeding crit, which stacks 2d6 damage of bleed per round for each crit -- and Suun is just a crit machine. However, that is negated by having a lot of enemies either immune to crit damage (so it might or might not work) and undead, which do not bleed + other high-level baddies who don't bleed. (But seriously, it's not rare for Suun to crit 2 times or more per round on a four-swing full attack action. Can you imagine how much she could stack on an enemy who doesn't take time to heal the bleed? Which in itself is great, if it has to heal itself, because it basically can't attack while doing that.)

But I am looking more at the Staggering Crit :

Benefit: Whenever you score a critical hit, your opponent becomes staggered for 1d4+1 rounds. A successful Fortitude save reduces the duration to 1 round. The DC of this Fortitude save is equal to 10 + your base attack bonus. The effects of this feat do not stack. Additional hits instead add to the duration.

A staggered creature may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can he take full-round actions). A staggered creature can still take free, swift, and immediate actions. A creature with nonlethal damage exactly equal to its current hit points gains the staggered condition.

The big benefit of this (besides forcing a creature to choose between moving or attacking) means that Suun could PREVENT a foe from getting a full-round attack action (aka multiple attacks) -- and she crits enough that she can probably do this every round when she is full-attacking.

But all of this is really to set up her feat at level 17: The Stunning Crit, for which Staggering Crit is a prereq:

Benefit: Whenever you score a critical hit, your opponent becomes stunned for 1d4 rounds. A successful Fortitude save reduces this to staggered for 1d4 rounds. The DC of this Fortitude save is equal to 10 + your base attack bonus. The effects of this feat do not stack. Additional hits instead add to the duration.

A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent.

So the DC at level 15 for Suun will be around a 24-25, which is hefty for most foes. For 17, she'll be at 26-27.

Note that there are repercussions even when they succeed (which basically will be some amount of Staggering) -- which is great. Any time she crits, her enemy will be Staggered for at least 1 round.

There are some other Crit types as well to consider, but I think this one makes the most sense because she is wielding a big-ass falchion -- basically a big crude and ugly 2H sword with a cutting edge and a blunt back end that gutters flame. it's the kind of weapon that when someone gets hit by it, you could SEE them staggering under the blow.

 

[Totenkindly]

This was kind of interesting....

 

[The Cat]

This was kind of interesting....

View attachment 31212

I wonder what module it was. That I suspect would answer a lot of the questions this raises.

 

[The Cat]

Module questions aside, What I can't figure out. Is there wasnt ONE single guy who saw that situation, did some quick mental math as a slow smile spread across his feastures, as he checks his breath, before buying a house there. Cause I've played a lot of D&D Ive had a lot of characters, and damned near everyone has a traits/ideals/bonds/and flaws list that are as good as a contract with the dm, that if they put me in that situation, I've essentially become one of his NPCs because an all girl village is the dream.

"Guy's don't look a gift horse in the mouth, let's make a base here, lets spend down time here."

"What the fuck are you doing? Dont fuck this up for us, we're this place is the goose that lays golden eggs."

"*whispers to the dm* I'm not saying I think something is going on here, BUT if there is, I want in. My bard/rogue is throwing their lot in with this village, I never ask for a share of the treasure from dungeons, those mother fuckers owe me."

The party dynamic would change.

Because when are we gonna get this rp opportunity again??​

 

[The Cat]

9:00 the plans for the Virtual Tabletop were released.
"include your favorite IP's."
>_>
"free to play"
<_<
"based on a live service model"
-_-
"subscription fee on D&D beyond for the 'premium' version.
>_<

Monetization Designer for D&D job postings from WOTC.
@_@

oof.

​

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah, trying to monetize a system for creatives who enjoy homebrew is just gonna get a lot more homebrew and/or swap to other systems. The cost to buy all their HC books are already outrageous.

They were always a bit expensive. I remember the 1st edition hardbacks in 1980 were $19.99 or so. I saved up my allowance over time to buy them.

 

[The Cat]

Yeah, trying to monetize a system for creatives who enjoy homebrew is just gonna get a lot more homebrew and/or swap to other systems. The cost to buy all their HC books are already outrageous.

They were always a bit expensive. I remember the 1st edition hardbacks in 1980 were $19.99 or so. I saved up my allowance over time to buy them.

Can you imagine how much worse it would have been if the OGL scandal hadnt broke?

 

[The Cat]

Taste of the first fruits of their brave new digital world.
​

 

[Totenkindly]

Party wipe (in the PF2 Pirate campaign, with my Witch character) last night. The GM wins.

Yes, I know it's not "GM vs the Players" -- except this entire campaign, that's what I've felt like. I said it as soon as we went in and the fight started -- and he kept throwing more shit at us regardless even if he could have adjusted. Our best melee fighter went down within two rounds and the tank lasted 6 or so. It was just reedic. I have a real issue with his balancing; I feel like he's still playing PF1 and prone to just killing us. EVERY combat we've had has felt like we were going to wipe. We are under resourced. We aren't getting the equipment support we need. etc.

I don't necessarily like PF2. Still trying to decide. I like the three-action economy the best. But you can't play it like PF1.

• There's far more variance in critting. PF1 controls crits pretty tightly, it's based on Feats + weapon type (as far as the crit box). You have a crit range for your weapon, that can then be doubled with a particular feat or magical trait you can purchase for the weapon, but can't go past it. Even if you roll within that crit range, you have to confirm the crit by rolling To Hit again and hitting, or your crit is just a regular swing. In PF2, you either roll the Nat 20 to crit or you have to roll +10 higher than what you needed. There is no confirmation needed, just the first roll. Which leads into the second point:
• Running against higher-level monsters puts you at huge risk. Basically their To Hit bonuses are higher, which makes it far more likely they will regularly roll +10 above your AC, which is an auto-crit = Double Damage + any specials they get that come with a Critical Success. Basically even 1-2 levels higher than the party can be dangerous, plus if you are in a class with a lower AC and/or you haven't kept your AC where it needs to be, this makes you even more vulnerable to crits.
• Death rolls. When you hit unconscious, you are Dying 1. Every turn you roll, no bonuses added to the d20. Your DC is 10 + Dying level (so at Dying 1 you have a DC 11). Every failure increments your Dying score by 1. If you reach Dying 4, you are dead. If you succeed, instead of stabilizing, it just moves you back a step. So if you get to Dying 3, you need to make 3 successful rolls to get back to Stable but Unconscious. However, you also accumulate a Wounded 1 condition, and if you are dropped below 0 again -- aka something stabs you while you're unconscious -- you're immediately back in Dying, except you start at Dying + Wounded Level. So in this scene you would start at Dying 2, but Dying 4 still kills you. (PF1 = you get three successes on your dying rolls before getting three failures and you're stable. Plus there are no penalties for Stabilizing.) This means it's really dangerous to just heal someone awake with a minor healing spell; you should really heal them as high as possible, because if they go down again they will be that much closer to real death.
• Hero Points. You get a free Hero Point per session (doesn't carry over) to adjust rolls, and can earn more during the session. If you want to immediately stabilize, you can spend all Hero Points to do that. So it's a Get Out of Jail Free Card, except that if you do it while the group is still in combat, you can get hit and die more quickly. So Hero Points are nice, but not really greatly effectual at preventing death.

So this does immediately remove some of the silliness of PF1 or DnD 5e where you can just heal someone back to 5 HPs and they are running around fighting again like idiots, multiple times in the same combat. Combat seems so much more deadly, and you really should not enter combat unless you are in decent shape and have resources.

We did not get time to rest, so the spellcasters were mostly stuck with cantrips. (Which is okay in a sense, as far as damage output goes -- cantrips are really powerful in PF2, depending.) Out of five people, 2 were only at quarter health going in, apparently. (Smack those players!) We were put into a tactically bad situation with no way to change the battlefield. We had no spells left to control the battlefield. We couldn't see all the combatants. We were led to believe we were supposed to save a particular captive so we didn't really get a choice. There were multiple combatants that appeared after the fight started.

Mercy was furthest out and managed to do a lot of damage with just cantrips, but basically the whole thing got reduced to a smackfest and we ran out of hit points first. as the last party member fell, Mercy used her cantrips to move faster and run through the tunnels to escape. A foe popped up in front of her and she crit-splattered him on the wall.

Then when she was climbing up 50' of wall to escape (and I wasn't precise about where because the DM + the group seemed indifferent to where I climbed), suddenly I was attacked by a bunch of stirge-like creatures who in one round reduced me from 2/3 health to 1 Hit Point and were attached to me and draining blood. Yes, I was Patrick Hockstettered to death. Again, it was at the mercy of the DM who might have just avoided that entire encounter -- and I could have ascended an area I already knew was safe but he actually moved me towards the other exit. So it felt like I was railroaded so I couldn't escape.

I'm annoyed by the whole thing but it's not worth being all-consuming mad about. I'm just frustrated for wasting so much time trying to develop this character and plan ahead, and not really getting to truly know how to play the spec, before this stupidity. I wanted to see what spellcasting was like as I went, and was still learning Witch action economy.

Looks like I am building my monk who worships chaos and destruction.
And in the wings is my Awakened Anima lemur kineticist.

 

[Totenkindly]

I told my friend here this morning and she said it sounded like the DM "had murder in his heart."

I just posted that to the Discord, lol. Very poetic.

edit: lol, i was googling around and realized he was sourcing after the Pirate adventure path from PF1. He definitely murdered me. I wanted to leave by the outer cliffs, but he and another player just told me I could climb the grotto, where the stirges happened to be. if I had left by the outer cliffs right nearby I would have been fine.

And then:

Creatures: Eight stirges nest on the cliffs 20 feet above the sea, at the point marked X on the map. The nests are built on a narrow ledge beneath a steep rocky overhang, making them difficult to see from above. The stirges attack anything above the surface of the water that passes below them. Only four stirges attack at any one time, swooping down to latch onto opponents. The stirges are cowardly, and if struck, they f lee back to their nests, calling pitifully.

He had all eight attack me at once, and I was only a 3rd level witch with limited AC and HPs.

Also the boss fight had two CR4 and two CR3 critters. We had five players of CR3 but with only cantrips, and two people who were heavily wounded. Plus no way to control the battle field, it was fixed. Pretty much we would have just had to abandon the PCs to die, honestly.

 

[The Cat]

Party wipe last night. The GM wins.

Yes, I know it's not "GM vs the Players" -- except this entire campaign, that's what I've felt like. I said it as soon as we went in and the fight started -- and he kept throwing more shit at us regardless even if he could have adjusted. Our best melee fighter went down within two rounds and the tank lasted 6 or so. It was just reedic. I have a real issue with his balancing; I feel like he's still playing PF1 and prone to just killing us. EVERY combat we've had has felt like we were going to wipe. We are under resourced. We aren't getting the equipment support we need. etc.

I don't necessarily like PF2. Still trying to decide. I like the three-action economy the best. But you can't play it like PF1.

• There's far more variance in critting. PF1 controls crits pretty tightly, it's based on Feats + weapon type (as far as the crit box). You have a crit range for your weapon, that can then be doubled with a particular feat or magical trait you can purchase for the weapon, but can't go past it. Even if you roll within that crit range, you have to confirm the crit by rolling To Hit again and hitting, or your crit is just a regular swing. In PF2, you either roll the Nat 20 to crit or you have to roll +10 higher than what you needed. There is no confirmation needed, just the first roll. Which leads into the second point:
• Running against higher-level monsters puts you at huge risk. Basically their To Hit bonuses are higher, which makes it far more likely they will regularly roll +10 above your AC, which is an auto-crit = Double Damage + any specials they get that come with a Critical Success. Basically even 1-2 levels higher than the party can be dangerous, plus if you are in a class with a lower AC and/or you haven't kept your AC where it needs to be, this makes you even more vulnerable to crits.
• Death rolls. When you hit unconscious, you are Dying 1. Every turn you roll, no bonuses added to the d20. Your DC is 10 + Dying level (so at Dying 1 you have a DC 11). Every failure increments your Dying score by 1. If you reach Dying 4, you are dead. If you succeed, instead of stabilizing, it just moves you back a step. So if you get to Dying 3, you need to make 3 successful rolls to get back to Stable but Unconscious. However, you also accumulate a Wounded 1 condition, and if you are dropped below 0 again -- aka something stabs you while you're unconscious -- you're immediately back in Dying, except you start at Dying + Wounded Level. So in this scene you would start at Dying 2, but Dying 4 still kills you. (PF1 = you get three successes on your dying rolls before getting three failures and you're stable. Plus there are no penalties for Stabilizing.) This means it's really dangerous to just heal someone awake with a minor healing spell; you should really heal them as high as possible, because if they go down again they will be that much closer to real death.
• Hero Points. You get a free Hero Point per session (doesn't carry over) to adjust rolls, and can earn more during the session. If you want to immediately stabilize, you can spend all Hero Points to do that. So it's a Get Out of Jail Free Card, except that if you do it while the group is still in combat, you can get hit and die more quickly. So Hero Points are nice, but not really greatly effectual at preventing death.

So this does immediately remove some of the silliness of PF1 or DnD 5e where you can just heal someone back to 5 HPs and they are running around fighting again like idiots, multiple times in the same combat. Combat seems so much more deadly, and you really should not enter combat unless you are in decent shape and have resources.

We did not get time to rest, so the spellcasters were mostly stuck with cantrips. (Which is okay in a sense, as far as damage output goes -- cantrips are really powerful in PF2, depending.) Out of five people, 2 were only at quarter health going in, apparently. (Smack those players!) We were put into a tactically bad situation with no way to change the battlefield. We had no spells left to control the battlefield. We couldn't see all the combatants. We were led to believe we were supposed to save a particular captive so we didn't really get a choice. There were multiple combatants that appeared after the fight started.

Mercy was furthest out and managed to do a lot of damage with just cantrips, but basically the whole thing got reduced to a smackfest and we ran out of hit points first. as the last party member fell, Mercy used her cantrips to move faster and run through the tunnels to escape. A foe popped up in front of her and she crit-splattered him on the wall.

Then when she was climbing up 50' of wall to escape (and I wasn't precise about where because the DM + the group seemed indifferent to where I climbed), suddenly I was attacked by a bunch of stirge-like creatures who in one round reduced me from 2/3 health to 1 Hit Point and were attached to me and draining blood. Yes, I was Patrick Hoffstettered to death. Again, it was at the mercy of the DM who might have just avoided that entire encounter -- and I could have ascended an area I already knew was safe but he actually moved me towards the other exit. So it felt like I was railroaded so I couldn't escape.

I'm annoyed by the whole thing but it's not worth being all-consuming mad about. I'm just frustrated for wasting so much time trying to develop this character and plan ahead, and not really getting to truly know how to play the spec, before this stupidity. I wanted to see what spellcasting was like as I went, and was still learning Witch action economy.

Looks like I am building my monk who worships chaos and destruction.
And in the wings is my Awakened Anima lemur kineticist.

Yeah sounds like your gm is trying to have their cake and kill you too. I don't balance my encounters when I dm I tell my players going in. But I give them things to keep them alive and I tell them if it seems like the fight is going bad, or like it would be suicide to fight... Maybe figure out an alternative to just wading in. Of course my minions are 1hp, my threshold guardians, prefer to capture over kill, and my dragons, are almost always looking for some stooges to play with(not kill) IDK I don't understand some dms.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah sounds like your gm is trying to have their cake and kill you too. I don't balance my encounters when I dm I tell my players going in. But I give them things to keep them alive and I tell them if it seems like the fight is going bad, or like it would be suicide to fight... Maybe figure out an alternative to just wading in. Of course my minions are 1hp, my threshold guardians, prefer to capture over kill, and my dragons, are almost always looking for some stooges to play with(not kill) IDK I don't understand some dms.

He's normally pretty decent, and we did a really nice long-term "Crimson Throne" ported to 5e that was fun and deaths were rare.

I don't know whether he just had a bad day, or he just has really misjudged the lethality of the NPCs / scenarios under PF2 rules.

I literally said 2-3 times going into this fight (as it started), "welp, here comes a TPK, I'm pretty sure," but he didn't change anything and the party just did their thing. So that's partly why I did all of my actions from a distance.

This is literally the first character I have had die in this gaming group since I've been playing with them 11+ years.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, I've been moving on and trying to build my monk who worships one of the dark gods (preferably of Destruction and/or Chaos). She just wants to see the world burn.

Tyria Callay.
(Yes, she's kind of insane.)

We are starting the replacements at level 4, and I've got her tentatively built out to level 6-7.

She'll wield either a bo staff or kusarigama, plus a gakgung, and she's got some undine blood so can navigate underwater just fine.
Tiger stance currently, and also a master at athletics and balance.
I also gave her the cool Clever Improviser feat -- so she actually gets (albeit lesser) scores in all untrained feats + can try to do things you normally need training to do.
Also Titan Wrestler and Whirling Throw.

 

[The Cat]

Okay, I've been moving on and trying to build my monk who worships one of the dark gods (preferably of Destruction and/or Chaos). She just wants to see the world burn.

Tyria Callay.
(Yes, she's kind of insane.)

View attachment 31306

Smiling in a photograph... That psycho bitch.

Think of the children!

Don't unleash that kind of heavy metal bad assery onto an unsuspecting world...they'll keep breaking their necks trying to emulate her. What would Uncle Ben say? Would Pei Mei teach her the five point palm exploding heart technique? There's a responsible level of coolness and there's irresponsible coolness... I think we both know which side of the speedometer Tyria Calley drives on. Full Throttle. And that's just reckless.

Shine on you crazy Lotus Blossom Assassin Queen you.

What's her theme song?

 

[The Cat]

I'm gonna need your badge and your gun. You're off the Case. I better not catch you anywhere it. I'm only two weeks till retirement and this is not how I want to leave the fashion police.