Friendship is Dragons
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Page 815 - There Is Only War
Author Notes:
Newbiespud
11th Oct 2016, 6:00 AM
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It would make an interesting alternative to FOE campaigns-- the PCs are a group caught in the middle of the war, doing little adventures to help towns in the "war zone", or explore encampments of the enemy to raid for supplies and secrets (in the vein of FTL, the group would have to steer clear of the enemy army or it be a very possible game over). Lots of potential for spy intrigue stuff if you're into that thing. I'd be for it.
I'm sorry, but could you please explain what FOE and FTL mean in this context? I've never seen the terms before.
I think he means FTL the game, which is a roguelike where you're flying a spaceship running away from the enemy fleet.
I'd love to be a part of a Crystal War pony RPG campaign. I have absolutely no interest in Fallout: Equestria, but I'd definitely like a Crystal War game...
The sort of player/GM one-upmanship described in the comic can be rather destructive. It often leads into blind alleys where everything has to be super-optimized for one particular style, making everything of a sameness.
One example of this happening I've run into was a game in which the players started focusing on magical alpha strikes. The GM responded by boosting encounter difficulty so that those alpha strikes were required to even have a chance of winning. By the time someone in the campaign was posting in rgf.dnd about how anything less than a full caster was useless, the campaign had devolved into "one or two encounters, retreat to rest," and was starting to cull the full caster classes.
One example of this happening I've run into was a game in which the players started focusing on magical alpha strikes. The GM responded by boosting encounter difficulty so that those alpha strikes were required to even have a chance of winning. By the time someone in the campaign was posting in rgf.dnd about how anything less than a full caster was useless, the campaign had devolved into "one or two encounters, retreat to rest," and was starting to cull the full caster classes.
Fighting is very enervating what with the adrenaline, heightened reaction, etc...
IIRC, the 15-Minute adventuring day was one of the problems reviewers had with 4th Edition, because the nature of Once-a-Day powers encourages it.
No, with combat IRL you often have to continue on long past where any reasonable person would stop. Just to be clear I'm talking about full "come back tomorrow" style resting, not simply catching one's breath.
One thing that helps stop this particular problem is to make sure time is treated as a resource, (and isn't free the way it is in many CRPGs). If you pull back to rest/recover spells/etc. you are also granting the other guys time to get reinforcements/heal/advance plans/flee/etc.
One thing that helps stop this particular problem is to make sure time is treated as a resource, (and isn't free the way it is in many CRPGs). If you pull back to rest/recover spells/etc. you are also granting the other guys time to get reinforcements/heal/advance plans/flee/etc.
"The sort of player/GM one-upmanship described in the comic can be rather destructive. It often leads into blind alleys where everything has to be super-optimized for one particular style, making everything of a sameness."
True but it's not as bad as revenge characters. Those are truly a horse of a different color.
True but it's not as bad as revenge characters. Those are truly a horse of a different color.
But then if everyone did that we wouldn't have Old Man Henderson.
What I myself would probably do is turn it into a psychological game, where I try to get the players to wonder whether I'd be using those monsters, not using them, or using them with battle-changing modifications.
Complete with said combat being an actual in-character dream, and when the dust settles I'd say, "You wake up in your beds, uncertain how prophetic that dream actually was or wasn't."
Complete with said combat being an actual in-character dream, and when the dust settles I'd say, "You wake up in your beds, uncertain how prophetic that dream actually was or wasn't."
Basically this character decided to sit out a fight the rest of the party was using to test their skills; they lost what should have been a total curb stomp with one player getting disemboweled by a normal dog. Towards the end, they're fighting a god. This character's ward gets hurt and this happens.
Character: Can I one-shot him?
(Rolls; natural 20)
DM: Yes you can.
Character: Can he crit?
(DM rolls; natural 1)
DM: No he can't.
So he one-shotted the god and the DM outright banned physics, which the character was, from all his future campaigns.
Character: Can I one-shot him?
(Rolls; natural 20)
DM: Yes you can.
Character: Can he crit?
(DM rolls; natural 1)
DM: No he can't.
So he one-shotted the god and the DM outright banned physics, which the character was, from all his future campaigns.
Correction to the above: they VERY NEARLY lost the encounter; the disemboweling happened. And the character's player had been saving his turns and decided to power all of his power into attack so he didn't have to roll; the god could not beat a 94, the total score, and could not crit.
Unless the character's name is Physics.
Yes. That's what I meant. Sorry about that. The friend I got the story from is full of great stories about D&D sessions. He's the DM for my first campaign. My character was a Cleric who didn't fight like one or even act like one; we eventually decided her powers had been artificially blocked so that was why she was trying to lie and club things with her staff instead of using spells.
Honestly, the 4e campaign running towards the ending right now had much less of this sort of thing and more steadily having things ratchet up until larger adversaries became clear around the third and fifth "chapters".
And they were designed to call to two different types of play and two different strengths of the party.
And they were designed to call to two different types of play and two different strengths of the party.
I prefer to surprise my players and mostly aim for fair fights. They tend to remember them when that happens.
This makes me glad that the worst thing I have to worry about from our GM is that his dice are cursed. His wife regularly jokes that he should pack them in salt.
Don't get too excited DM... We wouldn't want a repeat of the Nightmare Moon incident now would we?