RPG Questions Galore

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, as several of you probably read a while back, my friends and I have been playing a TMNT and Other Strangeness campaign for the last few months.  Well, we are nearing the end of this part of the story, and we're looking forward to trying out a new system.  One of the main ideas behind forming our gaming group was to try out a bunch of new things, so we've been talking about what we were going to do next.  I've recently gotten my hands on some of the materials for Champions and for D&D 4th Edition, but I've got a few questions that I thought the more role-playing savvy here might be able to answer.

First, why the heck is the Champions system so freaking COMPLICATED!  You have to do division during combat...that ain't my idea of a good time.  I'm just wondering if anyone has ever come up with a simplified approach to their system.

Second, where the heck are bards in D&D?!  I've got the core books, Monster Manual, GM guide, and Players Handbook, and while the Handbook has several classes, there's nothing about bards.  Are they out of the latest version? 

[Talavar]

I can't speak to Champions, but bards got bumped to the second Player's Handbook in 4th Edition.

[BentonGrey]

Bah.  Thanks Talavar, I'll have to get one of those, then.

[bearded]

i have never been able to play champions with any group, it's too much. for the same type of game with the same type of character creation, i recommend getting gurps basic and supplement it with gurps supers. as an added bonus, there are a billion gurps rule books for just about anything. you could add gurps vampires, gurps fantasy, space, steampunk, diskworld, etc.

[BlueBard]

GURPS isn't all that much simpler than the Hero System, at least at first glance.  That first glance always turned me off.

[Xenolith]

Champions is a pain to play.  There are so many more options today and there really is no reason to play a game with such clunky and complicated game mechanics. 

I never found anyone to play 4th Edition DnD.

My group plays Castles and Crusades, but I'm not thrilled with that system. 

I think Basic Action Super Heroes! (B.A.S.H!) could be really fun and its cheap.  I think they have other genre games as well.

You might also like Basic Role Playing and/or Savage Worlds.  My group has played both.  Both left me somewhat unsatisfied.  BRP is complex.  SW is not.  Both have their own flavor.  Both are good, multi-genre games.

[daglob]

Um... I've run a Champions game for years.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!  Daglob, if that's the case, do you have any suggestions?

[BlueBard]

I'm no expert, but it would seem to me that if you pre-calculate as many of the combat rolls as you can beforehand you will save time in-game.  Once you know what the target is for the combat rolls, applying modifiers and reading the dice will be easier.

Oh, and don't forget to bring the calculator.

That's one approach.

The other approach is to fudge it.  Let the players roll.  Don't tell them what their target result is.  Only the GM can really know for sure if there's a hit or not, so he might as well roll his own dice, attempt a reasonable estimate of the result, then decide whether to throw out the die rolls and go with the most entertaining result.  You should have a pretty good idea whether any roll is spectacularly bad or good and anything in between can be fudged appropriately.

You can blend those two approaches effectively, too.  Pre-calculate what you can and fudge the stuff you can't.

[daglob]

Geeze, where do you want me to start?

Like Blue Bard says, do as much of the math ahaead of time as possible, and bring a calculator. Take at least an hour before the game to read through the villains. They don't need to be complicated to give the players a run for their money, but it helps to at least have an idea what they will do.

I have a lot of information on my GM screen, which I did myself because I wanted charts that weren't on the official screen. I did a Hit Chart in Excel (originally in Lotus) with some of the areas marked red (18 and over) and Yellow (3 and under). That way you don't always have to look up exactly what number means whether or not a character is hit. Get one of the character sheet programs to make your life easier when designing and building a character (I had a Lotus spreadsheet for characters too, and it figured stats and added stuff for me).

Give all the agents the same stats. That way you know if they get hit or not. There are several sets of rules for massed combat, but one way is just play the agents like one big pool of stun.

Give each of your super-villains the same OCV and DCV (similar to AC); let your players do the math when swapping skill levels around. You can change this if it is important to the plot. Vary each super-villain's stats enough so that there is a variety of CVs. Let the players keep track of their stats, and remember the words "What's your DCV?". If a character or object is sufficiently large, just say "If you roll anything but an 18 you hit". For a lot of things, let the Player Characters roll off against the approriate villain. Do this especially when trying to break into The Legion of Death's hidden mountain HQ or hack Dr. Omnipotent's Ultimate Incalcutron.

If someone get a "critical hit" on a skill roll, come up with something that makes them feel like they didn't waste it. Not only did they pic the lock, but they can re-set the security system so that they can get back out without any roll at all (or perhaps de-activate most of the death traps), or not only did they hack the computer, but they can use the bad guy's comm system to send all his data anyplace they want.

Go with the flow. Villains kidnapped a diplomat, lots of smoke screens and agents (aka: cannon fodder). I had intended for him to be held in a warehouse by the waterfront. One of the PCs decided to check the embassy basement. I changed my mind, and all the clues that they would have found in the warehouse they found in the embassy basement. Instead of looking for a cabin cruiser on the Hudson, they were looking for a panel truck in Manhattan. Instead of heading for an island off the coast, they bad guys headed for the warehouse, after which they would head for the island. There was a fight in NYC traffic that was quite amusing.

Another time they were in an alternate universe (call it D&D Land) and I had plans to lure them off to fight this extradimensional nasty (call him a not-so-great-old-one) and his army of slaves. They decied to foment rebellion in one of the conquered provinces, and lure the NSGOO back to them instead. Their plans were so good, that I judged the NSGOO would come to them. Besides, one of the PCs rolled a critical hit on a dragon).

Basically, if a player has a good idea STEAL IT!

Built a guy with a laser pistol. He was hitting everything he aimed at, but I was rolling pitiful damage. When the Spider-Man type got hit, and it didn't even get past his defenses, I was asked if his phaser was set on "warm". Now the laser pistol has an "activation roll" to do more than minor damage. Eventually, he will get it fixed.

There is a Power Skill that is supposed to be used to apply powers creatively; let them. Boot Jets as power blasts, demo pouches as rocket propulsion, electrical powers to run a supercomputer, magnetic powers to run a generator...

If you can't seem to hit anything, disregard the dice and roll the damage. If the PCs can't hit anything, have a bad guy slip and fall (that's what Unluck is for), giving him a very low DCV (Until he gets up).

For every three or four groups of competent villains, like The Steel Gauntlet or The Oprichnik, have one a little less than competent called something like The Eccentrics or The Rejects. I had one group that I would tell them had been seen robbing a bank, but one had done this, another had done that, and all were now in the intensive care section of the prison ward.

Have fun, and let others have fun.

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Daglob!  That all seems like really good advice.  I try and play things pretty loose in the TMNT campaign, but I do tend to get blinded by layers and layers of numbers and rules.  I think your practical pointers about streamlining through overlap will be pretty helpful.  I'm sure that I can make use of this.

[GhostMachine]

Has anyone played the current edition of Shadowrun? I heard they got rid of Karma and made a few other changes. I used to be a big SR fan back during the 2nd and 3rd edition days.

Would love to bring my character `The Surgeon' out of retirement someday....if I can find my character sheet and its possible to convert him to the new version of the game. `The Surgeon' is an actual surgeon who lost his medical license due to a corrupt politician (couldn't save the politician's daughter who was in an accident, so the politician screwed him over) and now works as a sniper/field medic for Shadowrun teams. He was a sniper in the Marine Corps and didn't decide to go to medical school until after he left the military, and pretty much threw out the hypocratic oath when he lost his medical license. (The corrupt politician isn't alive anymore, by the way.....  )

[lugaru]

I've got a shadowrun book I picked up at a thrift store but have not checked it out much. Otherwise I'm purely homebrew.

Currently I have a really nice "universal" system based on D6, oposing rolls and using one or two rolls to determine everything. For example the difference between "to hit" and "to dodge" will determine if it hit but also how much damage and if you can choose your critical location. Hitpoints are a non issue... characters loose stats directly and as they weaken they become more succeptible to serious wounds (broken bones) or even fatal wounds. Skills are simple... either you have it or you dont. Runs really fast, gives realistic results and has a lot of "plug ins" which add realism at the expense of tracking one or two more things depending on your style of play.

I'm also working on a superhero system inspired by the Justice League cartoon in that it is not very realistic but is very cinematic. It will be based a lot around rescuing, performing actions and pulling off feats instead of combat. You know... disarming bombs, catching falling civilians, pushing allies out of the way of a blast... that sort of stuff. Combat will be based a bit more around overwhealming a character... for example if you are fighting somebody like Batman you want to make him waste all his heroic feats (such as automatic dodges) so you can take him down. I'll get back to you guys when I have something more solid, but trust me, it wont be very math intensive. Also I'll probably do a "hardcore" plug in for those who want to go all authority and burn holes in the heads of enemies.

[BlueBard]

I'm also working on a superhero system inspired by the Justice League cartoon in that it is not very realistic but is very cinematic. It will be based a lot around rescuing, performing actions and pulling off feats instead of combat. You know... disarming bombs, catching falling civilians, pushing allies out of the way of a blast... that sort of stuff. Combat will be based a bit more around overwhealming a character... for example if you are fighting somebody like Batman you want to make him waste all his heroic feats (such as automatic dodges) so you can take him down. I'll get back to you guys when I have something more solid, but trust me, it wont be very math intensive. Also I'll probably do a "hardcore" plug in for those who want to go all authority and burn holes in the heads of enemies.

Sounds interesting, Lugaru.