Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:22 am

The template is called "Incarnate Construct", and can be used for some shenanigans, but it's not something you'd actually see outside of charop boards. I've mostly looked at it as the way to get the Giant subtype without LA so you can bolt on Primordial Giant goodness.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:35 pm

There any good comprehensive guide on how to craft poison in D&D3.5?

I found http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards ... pic=4854.0 but it's a thread from 2009. It mentions needing specific feats to extract poison from vermin, but I'm not sure what the process is to extract poison from say a viper or a dead wyvern, or a living wyern.

It also seems like a haphazard system overall, so are there any good fan-made poison crafting rules out there?

Alchemy too.

koz · Post by **koz** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:04 am

OgreBattle wrote:It mentions needing specific feats to extract poison from vermin, but I'm not sure what the process is to extract poison from say a viper or a dead wyvern, or a living wyern.

I didn't see that anywhere there. To quote:

Arsenic and Old Lace wrote:According to Drow of the Underdark, it's a DC 15 Handle Animal check to get a vermin to bestow its venom into a container, and then a DC 15 Craft (Poisonmaking) check to distill the poison.

Since you can't handle dead animals (hurr, hurr), that answers your question pretty well I think.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 4:14 am

So Tome TWF lets you do with your offhand what you can do with your main hand, which means attacking twice with a standard action our having two full attacks with each hand. How would it interact with Rapid Shot? Do I get to rapid shot from each hand, or does rapid shot just add one extra attack regardless of how many hands are involved?

spongeknight · Post by **spongeknight** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 4:35 am

OgreBattle wrote:So Tome TWF lets you do with your offhand what you can do with your main hand, which means attacking twice with a standard action our having two full attacks with each hand. How would it interact with Rapid Shot? Do I get to rapid shot from each hand, or does rapid shot just add one extra attack regardless of how many hands are involved?

How are you rapid shotting with one hand? Two-weapon fighting is two-weapon fighting, not multi-weapon fighting, so having four arms doesn't do dick for you if you're wielding two bows that way.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 4:37 am

spongeknight wrote:
OgreBattle wrote:So Tome TWF lets you do with your offhand what you can do with your main hand, which means attacking twice with a standard action our having two full attacks with each hand. How would it interact with Rapid Shot? Do I get to rapid shot from each hand, or does rapid shot just add one extra attack regardless of how many hands are involved?
How are you rapid shotting with one hand? Two-weapon fighting is two-weapon fighting, not multi-weapon fighting, so having four arms doesn't do dick for you if you're wielding two bows that way.

Shurikens, repeating crossbows, etc

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:21 pm

With the repeating crossbow the SRD says you need two hands to operate the reloading lever, but yeah throwing weapons. There's also a Master Thrower PrC that has 'palming' to throw stuff like shuriken and knives two at a time from one hand.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:39 pm

spongeknight wrote:
OgreBattle wrote:So Tome TWF lets you do with your offhand what you can do with your main hand, which means attacking twice with a standard action our having two full attacks with each hand. How would it interact with Rapid Shot? Do I get to rapid shot from each hand, or does rapid shot just add one extra attack regardless of how many hands are involved?
How are you rapid shotting with one hand? Two-weapon fighting is two-weapon fighting, not multi-weapon fighting, so having four arms doesn't do dick for you if you're wielding two bows that way.

Thrown weapons.

To answer the question, rapid shot gives you one extra attack in a full attack action, it doesn't say that it is hand based, it just gives you one more attack. So no, you get the same benefits as you get with 3.5 TWF and Rapid shot, at level one you get 3 attacks.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:49 am

What's a good system to look at for 'kingdom building' in a modern setting. ex: playing as Cobra Command and spreading your influence through the world, going Big Boss and building your own Outer Heaven.

Most kingdom building/management games I've seen are in fantasy settings that focus on going out and stabbing your way to larger territory.

Post by **fbmf** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:45 pm

Is Sunless Citadel available as a PDF? Feel free to answer via PM if needed.

Game On,
fbmf

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 11:47 pm

fbmf wrote:Is Sunless Citadel available as a PDF? Feel free to answer via PM if needed.

Game On,
fbmf

Yes.

http://www.dndclassics.com/product/3727 ... el-3e?it=1

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Nov 07, 2015 9:24 am

So a ways back I asked about an ideal system to use, and ended up deciding to basically use After Sundown/Warp Cult/"Shootig (sic) Fools in the Face", then modify that as need be. Seems to be a good fit, but I'd just like some input on some stuff.

Poisons. The list covers a handful, but I'm looking at including a few more, because poisoning assholes is going to be a thing. Namely:
-Cyanide Gas: each round of exposure = 1 dose, each dose is... what, 1 minute delay, runs for 5 minutes? Pretty sure a couple of puffs of it isn't going to kill most healthy adults, but if you're breathing it solidly for even one minute, you're probably going to collapse and die afterwards?
-A Deadly Neurotoxin (ie tetrodotoxin): stuff like pufferfish seems to be "after about 15-60 minutes it starts to kick in, and then you die in 4-6 hours", but presumably it's faster if someone injects it into you, and GLaDOS' deadly neurotoxin gas kills you within 3 minutes of you breathe it for that duration. A lot of them seem to have a paralysis side-effect (if no hits are rolled?).
-Being repeatedly stung by ox-killer wasps or bullet ants: probably non-lethal (until it fills up) + Agony, you get another dose each time they keep stinging you but when they stop you basically only have another 1-2 tests to make, within the next minute?

Disease. This isn't really covered in the game, other than as a very long-duration DOT effect where you take damage on a monthly basis. Is that basically the extent of it? Overall I could see stuff like dysentery potentially causing damage once per day (before resistance pushes it further) and lasting for up to a month, whereas various cancers could last "until dead" but cause damage at a crazy slow rate such that you'll always heal the damage... until it grows and then basically counts as multiple "doses" at once.

Mental conditions and recovery. I know, not a happy topic, and if you don't know the group, it can be a recipe for disaster. I have good news on that front, though. A big part of this game is the military specialists basically needing to stay in constant communication to stop each other from going mad. The sniper is at greater risk of becoming a sociopath through their "Yep, acceptable sacrifices, let's just succeed", or of having a mental breakdown where they're scared of becoming a sociopath, or they have a harder time relating to people. The "stealthsuit and nano-blade" assassin ends up with social anxiety disorder or narcissism, and has to deal with relational/conflict-avoidance issues and so on.

The point isn't to play out everyone breaking and becoming more miserable, but more everyone being aware of those risks, and trying to keep on top of them, and needing to constantly communicate, thus making "this team" important, and not subject to just swapping people in and out.

How the fuck would I even begin to cover something like that in the rules?

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Nov 07, 2015 9:58 am

Cyanide Gas: Delay 3, Timer 2 minutes, Agony. Provides a “dose” for each round of exposure. Instantaneous exposure will do at most 2 damage, while being exposed for 30 seconds or longer is typically fatal for mundane humans.

Tetrodotoxin: Delay 7º, Timer 1 day, Paralysis. Becomes fatal if the virtual damage level rises to Terminal. Basically, it paralyzes you after ~30 minutes, but if you manage to get 3 hits on your soak dice (possibly after being administered an antidote) you'll eventually recover with no lasting harm.

Bullet Ants: Delay 8º, Timer 1 day, Agony. Each additional round of stinging provides an additional dose. Being bit by one will make your arm start throbbing with pain in an hour or so. Being bit by several will cause you to pass out from the agony within minutes. Mechanically, you make a single Soak roll at the start and modify it based on the number of bites.

Mental illness mechanics: Good fucking luck, mate.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 1:43 pm

Something to be careful with when creating rules for poisons is to keep them balanced with other attack mechanisms.

I don't know about AS/WC but in many games, killing a PC-level character in a single attack is difficult/rare so that PC won't die to one lucky/unlucky attack.

If you introduce "realistic" poisoning that can reliably kill/incapacitate someone in one hit, then you make it a better option than the other attack mechanisms.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:42 pm

Blade wrote:Something to be careful with when creating rules for poisons is to keep them balanced with other attack mechanisms.

I don't know about AS/WC but in many games, killing a PC-level character in a single attack is difficult/rare so that PC won't die to one lucky/unlucky attack.

If you introduce "realistic" poisoning that can reliably kill/incapacitate someone in one hit, then you make it a better option than the other attack mechanisms.

How poison works in After Sundown is each poison has a Delay value which determines how much time elapses between each wound box of damage. Your soak roll decreases the delay, while repeated exposure to the same poison increases it. The Cyanide I posted, for example, has a Delay of 3. That translates to a box every 1 minute. An additional round of exposure lowers that to Delay 2, which is a box every 24 seconds. 3 total rounds of exposure (36s) puts you at Delay 1, which for a toxin that lasts 2 minutes, is deadly without medical intervention. Unless, of course, you move the Delay back up with a Soak roll. Which PCs can and will do.

For a moderately wimpy PC to die to that Cyanide Gas, they'd need to stand in it for 5 or 6 full combat rounds and/or completely flub their soak rolls. Extras, who have much worse soak dice, are pretty much doomed by round 4 regardless of what they roll. And of course PCs have the option to heal themselves via supernatural powers or just be outright immune to poisons through a couple methods.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 3:50 am

How would you go about structuring how PC's acquire poisons to use? Do the walk down to Ye Olde Poisone Vendore, do they have a secret garden, do they quest for rare substances, do they put ranks in "Craft Poison" and "spend X Gold" to create Y doses of Z poison etc.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 5:14 am

In this specific game that is just using the AS core mechanics as a base but isn't about playing vampires, certain characters are just flat-out handed vials of stuff as part of the job, and they can requisition other stuff. And from the other side of things, there will be areas where the whole place is a drug factory and they're basically walking through clouds of loose cocaine powder and opium fumes. Or wading in toxic swamps. Or fighting giant scorpions which have their own stingers of venom.

And certain characters will reach the stage where they're given replicator engines that have lists of recipes. This will include things like a deadly neurotoxin.

In actual After Sundown, it's a different matter entirely, I know.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:56 am

Does anyone happen to know of a 3.5 conversion/update of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks? Maybe one of you has written one?

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:51 am

Prak wrote:Does anyone happen to know of a 3.5 conversion/update of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks? Maybe one of you has written one?

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp? ... /20060505a

An article from 2006 to promote d20 Future Tech has conversions of Barrier Peaks stuff

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:10 pm

Yeah, I've been aware of that for a while. I was hoping for a full update

Antariuk · Post by **Antariuk** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:44 pm

I just read in an old thread on the Big Purple from 2006 that MechWarror is - or was, at one time - linked to Eartdawn and Shadowrun, being the third setting in that timeline of settings. Can someone elaborate? Because that's... not something I thought being possible

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Thu Nov 12, 2015 1:37 pm

Antariuk wrote:I just read in an old thread on the Big Purple from 2006 that MechWarror is - or was, at one time - linked to Eartdawn and Shadowrun, being the third setting in that timeline of settings. Can someone elaborate? Because that's... not something I thought being possible

Well, this exists.

http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/prod ... ts_id=2259

But no, it's not true. Ignoring Battlerun, which came out in 2009, the settings are not connected.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:51 am

I've noticed one of my players has a lot of trouble creating an actual personality and background for his characters. They tend to be just a walking statblock that slowly gains some basic characterization.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can help him with that sort of thing a bit?

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Sat Nov 14, 2015 12:53 pm

Depends if they want to have better characterization but are bad at it, or if they prefer things as they stand. The former can easily be helped by just accelerating characterization process with narrative prompts. Send them to an ice cream shop, ask what flavour they get, etc. The latter cannot really be helped.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:08 pm

I think if you don't bug them about it, it won't actually matter. That's helping, as compared to if you did bug them about doing stuff they wouldn't enjoy.

Or, you know, you could clearly express the extra fun nice things that result from some characterisation, and then if it happens be nice and actually do the extra fun nice things. Or just do nice things anyway and not be a dick. As you will.

Wait, third option for grownups: explain how you enjoy running games even more for characters with some characterisation to them, and say "thank you" as they slowly show up like they always do. Allow the wonders of positive reinforcement to work it's magic.