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Post by the light works on Jan 21, 2014 17:31:00 GMT
Had an idea for a spy-themed campaign that I've been toying with, and I wanted to see what people thought about it. The game session in question is inspired by the song "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring. The party is sent to a (fictional) Eastern European nation for an op. However, the op goes horribly wrong, resulting in the party having to shoot their way out of what looks like an ambush. They are able to make it back to a safe house that their organization has set up, said safe house being a hotel a few kilometers from the border and run by a local who the organization has recruited as a local ally. The plan is for the party to hide there until things blow over so that they can sneak out of the country, but a heavy storm rolls through and they are left trapped as the roads and countryside are both now impassable. Making matters worse, the storm knocks out the local power and the local telephone lines; the hotel has its own generators, but all the party has left is the radio and their satellite phone, and both are having trouble penetrating. The last clear instructions that the party is able to get is thus: The incident? It was an ambush. Someone has turned, and they tried to offer the party up as proof of their new-found loyalties. A back-up team has been activated, and they will get the party out once the storm clears. Until then, the party is to sit tight and try to avoid drawing any more attention to themselves. As such, it's the party, the hotel operator, a handful of workers, a live band that was brought in for the weekend, and about two dozen guests. Any one of them could be the turncoat and/or national intelligence. The question is: who does the party trust? Thoughts? Thanks. sounds... intriguing
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 21, 2014 18:23:44 GMT
Sounds like a good basis for a plot, as you can add a LOT of additional threads or dead ends;
Someone present dies under mysterious circumstances, prompting the local police to start an investigation. The PC's will have every reason to try an help solve the case before the storm ends to avoid drawing attention to themselves. Of course if they are seen to be TOO helpful the police are going to notice and wonder why...or how the PC's picked up the skills to conduct an investigation.
The traitor is in fact one of the PC's (this would require a VERY good player, and probably a fair sized group, to pull off well)
A known intelligence officer or high ranking military officer has also been trapped at the hotel. This individual is a 'person of interest' to the PC's organisation, raising the possibility that they might be able to salvage some good from a bad situation...if they can figure out a way to kill/capture that person without getting noticed before they are out of the country.
A military patrol comes into town seeking shelter, this would make starting a fight rather unwise as the PC's are going to be badly outnumbered and outgunned by a force that knows the area far better than they do.
Someone in the hotel (maybe one of the band members) is suspected or known to want to defect. This might be a good opportunity to do this...if the PC's can overcome the heavy security around the group...and assuming that their information is correct. If not they may end up revealing themselves to the wrong person. Which raises the problem as to how to deal with the situation without compromising themselves further.
One of the PC's is identified as an intelligence agent by someone at the hotel. The good news is that the person in question is willing to 'forget' this. The bad news is that they want payment in the form of a small task. Can they trust this person to keep their mouth closed? Could they pull this job off without drawing attention? And is this task something they are willing to do anyway...? This could be combined with a police investigation, in that the PC's are forced to kill someone and arrange matters so they are not suspects - only it turns out the local police chief has detective skills that would put Colombo to shame. And the idea of there being a military patrol in town, making the use of force unwise if not suicidal.
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Post by ironhold on Mar 18, 2014 11:29:51 GMT
Random D&D magic item -
Cinnamon Rolls of Victory
Material components: what you'd normally use for cinnamon rolls
Creation requirements:
*10 skill points in Profession: Baker
*Craft: Wondrous Item feat
*the favor of the character's deity
Description:
Whenever the character goes to make cinnamon rolls, they must make an Intelligence check, a Wisdom check, and a skill check (Profession: Baker), each at a DC (difficulty class) of 35. Failure of one of the three means that they end product is a normal batch of cinnamon rolls, a batch of varying quality.
Success on all three means that the batch is, in fact, a batch of Cinnamon Rolls of Victory.
Each Cinnamon Roll of Victory serves as a full meal in and of itself, keeping the character that eats one satiated for a full eight hours. During this time period, the character also gets +1 to all attributes, skills, and saving throws.
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Post by ironhold on Aug 3, 2014 0:55:25 GMT
OK.
Sooooooooooooo.....
I'm working on a serialized fiction series of a similar nature to Knights of the Dinner Table.
I don't know if the content will be appropriate for the paper I work for, but I might seek publication elsewhere.
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Post by Cybermortis on Aug 3, 2014 12:51:25 GMT
You could always look into publishing online.
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Post by ironhold on Aug 3, 2014 22:47:53 GMT
You could always look into publishing online. One of the issues with self-publishing is that it can hurt your chances of getting picked up by a more traditional printing house. This is because you have to now convince the higher-ups that you still have an untapped audience.
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Post by Cybermortis on Aug 3, 2014 23:27:42 GMT
Or it can help if you write a fair amount, as it can show them that A; You are capable of consistent writing and B; Actually have an audience to sell to.
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Post by ironhold on Oct 26, 2014 21:46:48 GMT
I'm almost done with the rough draft for the first book; I just need to finish two more chapters and I can send it off somewhere for proofreading.
As a joke, I'm thinking about having the title of each book in the series be a gaming term that is somehow relevant to the incidents in said book.
Thus far, I have as possible titles:
*Random Encounters
*Character Building / Character Generation
*Game Master Fiat
Any other gaming terms that might work in such a capacity?
Thanks.
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Post by the light works on Oct 26, 2014 22:38:39 GMT
I'm almost done with the rough draft for the first book; I just need to finish two more chapters and I can send it off somewhere for proofreading. As a joke, I'm thinking about having the title of each book in the series be a gaming term that is somehow relevant to the incidents in said book. Thus far, I have as possible titles: *Random Encounters *Character Building / Character Generation *Game Master Fiat Any other gaming terms that might work in such a capacity? Thanks. it will take some refining, but one of the standard threats in the group I was associated with was the personal blue lightning bolt. to be specific, players who chronically misbehaved might have their character struck by the GM's personal blue lightning bolt.
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Post by Cybermortis on Oct 27, 2014 0:20:05 GMT
DPS Glass Cannon
If you haven't seen it (or know about it) Will Wheaton (of Star Trek fame) has a YouTube channel called TableTop (it is part of Geek and Sundry and co-produced with Felicity Day). Although they usually deal with board games they did a two part episode using the Dragon Age RPG game. The first part of this is rather funny - especially the extended version (which contains strong language). Will (who is notorious for loosing practically every game played to date) was playing as a bad ass Dwarf Warrior, who in the first fight proved utterly incapable of hitting anything. Frustrated when the group is standing on a hill and about to head down to a small town Will sarcastically asked if he needed to make a roll to make sure that his Dwarf managed to walk down the path without falling face first into the mud.
He failed the roll.
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Post by the light works on Oct 27, 2014 3:15:38 GMT
DPS Glass Cannon If you haven't seen it (or know about it) Will Wheaton (of Star Trek fame) has a YouTube channel called TableTop (it is part of Geek and Sundry and co-produced with Felicity Day). Although they usually deal with board games they did a two part episode using the Dragon Age RPG game. The first part of this is rather funny - especially the extended version (which contains strong language). Will (who is notorious for loosing practically every game played to date) was playing as a bad ass Dwarf Warrior, who in the first fight proved utterly incapable of hitting anything. Frustrated when the group is standing on a hill and about to head down to a small town Will sarcastically asked if he needed to make a roll to make sure that his Dwarf managed to walk down the path without falling face first into the mud. He failed the roll. I would guess we've all been there...
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Post by mrfatso on Oct 28, 2014 18:23:51 GMT
Amen to that, there are some systems though that say unless you are under stress for some reason, under attack, scared etc you should just pass easy skill checks without rolling dice.
We are playing shadow,run at the moment, and the Drone Rigger in the party is complaining about the way negatives stack up,against him, every time he gets a damage track that -1, -2 for the next etc. and also spas his drone is damaged it gets minuses too. But then again he can just swap to an I damaged drone, and is sitting somewhere nice and safe not putting his arse on the line is my point.
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Post by the light works on Oct 28, 2014 23:32:04 GMT
Amen to that, there are some systems though that say unless you are under stress for some reason, under attack, scared etc you should just pass easy skill checks without rolling dice. We are playing shadow,run at the moment, and the Drone Rigger in the party is complaining about the way negatives stack up,against him, every time he gets a damage track that -1, -2 for the next etc. and also spas his drone is damaged it gets minuses too. But then again he can just swap to an I damaged drone, and is sitting somewhere nice and safe not putting his arse on the line is my point. I'm old. there was no such thing as a drone when I was involved in shadowrun. or is that a vehicle rather than a "race?"
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Post by mrfatso on Oct 29, 2014 6:59:46 GMT
We are playing the 2005 4th edition, rather than the later one, and drones are vehicles rather than a race Riggers are a bit like Deckers using the Matrix to jack into their various drones. They could have say a combat drone, or a small spy drone depending on what they need to do.
I am playing a Street Samurai myself, cyber ware and guns, but then again I prefer Cyberpunk 2020 myself, without the magic, elves, dwarfs and trolls that Shadowrun has but the GM and the group prefer it.
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Post by silverdragon on Oct 29, 2014 10:53:11 GMT
Bears in mind an old game I was playing many years back, along comes this "n"th level dwarf who is billed as invincible, only rolls of 19 and above will do harm.... against a rookie Mage.....firing a fireball... And he rolled a 20 (20 sided dice) TWICE!.....
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Post by the light works on Oct 29, 2014 13:57:36 GMT
We are playing the 2005 4th edition, rather than the later one, and drones are vehicles rather than a race Riggers are a bit like Deckers using the Matrix to jack into their various drones. They could have say a combat drone, or a small spy drone depending on what they need to do. I am playing a Street Samurai myself, cyber ware and guns, but then again I prefer Cyberpunk 2020 myself, without the magic, elves, dwarfs and trolls that Shadowrun has but the GM and the group prefer it. I've played more Cpunk than Shadowrun, but enough of both to know the most common terminology - but drones weren't around in our games - and the way you phrased it, it sounded like drone was the "race"
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Post by mrfatso on Oct 29, 2014 14:42:56 GMT
Yeah sorry about that, they are one of the classes rather than a race.
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Post by mrfatso on Oct 29, 2014 14:53:07 GMT
Bears in mind an old game I was playing many years back, along comes this "n"th level dwarf who is billed as invincible, only rolls of 19 and above will do harm.... against a rookie Mage.....firing a fireball... And he rolled a 20 (20 sided dice) TWICE!..... Mind you it can also work the other way, a roll that saves a PC comes up,just when it is needed.
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