From a Dead World (Skaven Quest)
- Thread starter Xantalos
- Start date
- Fantasy
Kairos123
Insomniac Extraordinaire
That's gonna be fun. *ahem*
Give him a ratkit launcher, a shratnel gun, make his face a drill, with the lower half of a gilded skittaur...the fuse him to a Gnawmulcher Locomotive! Yes-yes! More power, more force! Boneripper needs MORE! Stick undead bits on him with corpse-stitching! Hollow him out and fill his insides with Moulder rat-creatures! MORE!
- Location
- A pile of cheese
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Not in an EXP sense, since I've phased out numbers entirely from Thanquol's character sheet. But you did get experience of a non-tangible sort. You've got a basis for what the other members of the Conclave, and thus probably Nagash, will be like in a duel. You've got some sense of the benefits of winning duels - in this case, it's given the undead a hefty command penalty what with two of their boss commanders temp-dead. This'll hopefully incentivize you to pursue them to an extent even though they are risky, so I can write more awesome fight scenes.
And you've gained some more hints towards what the hell's going on with Thanquol and his apparent developing Hyde complex.
So, yeah, not increasing your level because there are no levels, but experience nontheless.
Fezzes
Knight of King Stannis Baratheon
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Well that happened.
Damn.
Daaaaaamn.
Thanquol is a badass. And so are the Necromancer Lords. Interesting that it was a closer match than I thought. We would've actually lost until Thanquol went Super-Skaivan and crushed that last one.
Wait, that was a thing beyond just then? Damn, guess I've gotta reread the quest. Then again, I've been zigging and zagging looking for an excuse to reread it.
Wait.
...Are we inhabited by the Horned Rat or something? Oh rat, I hope so.
- Location
- USA
So in future situations we need to just run and then bombard them with our artillery and grey seers because if the last one had gone for a physical attack instead of soul attack it seems like that would have been it for thanquol. And our other guys don't have the horned rat stepping in to help them of the enemy tries to go too deep into the soul
@Xantalos I have to say that entire fight was ... rather tedious. All three chapters of it. It felt exactly like a random encounter with wolves in an RPG, and I ended up caring just as little. Which is a shame because I WANTED to enjoy it ... I just didn't and I'm not sure why.
The fact that it ended with a Deus Ex Machina didn't help matters either.
The fact that it ended with a Deus Ex Machina didn't help matters either.
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- Location
- A pile of cheese
If there aren't any levels, are there other ways to make him more powerful, strong, or durable?
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
I suspect this is because of the rather hodgepodge nature of how and why it happened, namely me going 'ooh it'd be cool to have leader battles like in *name a successful warhammer quest*, and I feel kinda guilty about depriving my players of options for two years straight. Now how can I shove one in without distorting the turn structure too much...'
It was basically me piecing an encounter together in order to give you guys an idea of what it was like to have such a battle, because otherwise it'd have taken place however many months in the future.
My thanks for the feedback, though, this is useful. I'd guess, as said above, that part of the tediousness comes from you guys not planning this at all and so it comes off as kinda forced, which it was. And you are right that the sudden reversal at the end of the fight was a little jarring, though I can probably clear up what was actually happening sans flowery language - the lich was casting the spell Life's End on Thanquol, which he struggled to resist, taking some damage in the process. This activated that hidden trait he has, which, flavor text aside, didn't do too much other than auto succeeding his 'save or die' check on the Life's End. Dragging the lich back into the fire was just him warpstone boosting himself.
Rambling aside, if you end up figuring out more of what made the sequence unengaging for you, please let me know - I suspect it'll be better in the future since duels will be a thing in your plans that I can then structure the narrative around, but regardless constructive criticism is perhaps my favorite Christmas present.
Learning new magic systems, increasing his warpstone
Kairos123
Insomniac Extraordinaire
Could you make it so that Hero units kit themselves out in the most advanced, appropriate gear they can without our involvement? I could see someone like Sneek not upgrading his gear until we research something he'd like *cough cough shameless Inheritor Blades promotion cough cough*, but you've already had some heroes upgrade themselves in flavor text. Why not take it a step farther and have them upgrade their own equipment, if feasible.
Basically I don't want to have to micromanage them.
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
Hmmm getting a promotion/blessing from the horned rat sounds like a great idea!
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
I reckon I will. I think, if I case my mind back to the murky days of initially designing this system, that I wanted it to be a thing predicated on player assignment, but that was back when I was unaware of how long my writing process would actually take.
So yeah, this'll be the way characters do that from now on - mayhaps I'll give a bit more customization to Thanquol, what with him being the lead character and all, but as it is letting you guys customize every character's equipment is a thing more suited for if I was able to update every week or so, which *is cut off by raucous laughter*
This next turn's gonna run so much smoother than before (I hope)...
- Location
- A pile of cheese
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
That'll be something detailed in the next update, but their defeat did mean a significant loss of cohesion for the undead fortress. Not to the level of total collapse, since they do have lesser necromancers doing the majority of the actual summoning and such of their minions, but their overall effectiveness was somewhat dropped. The dragons ... well, I think it'll be better to see what happens to them in the actual update itself, as much as I feel guilty for keeping you guys in suspense for what must be the fiftieth time now.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I've sort of been expressing it, but to me it was:
1) That it was a completely unsupported style of challenge (vs Myrmidia 'arbitrarily' killing the shit out of all of our heroes every time she fought one)
2) That because it is so much lower level/detailed focused, it mandates much more specific WFRP knowledge and action control vs sound universal strategic or logistical decisions (or ripping off other works wholesale and saying "Skaven go mimic this")
2a) That there is perhaps insufficient informational support on what precisely Thanquol & Boneripper can do in this quest, especially with how upgraded they are over a more baseline version, if you aren't already intimately familiar with all of the changes on a micro level
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
I had taken note of your earlier expressions, but since I'm sometimes a brick wall with regard to actually noticing things, I do appreciate you being this comprehensive.
I was already planning to do some sort of alterations to the way I run these duels, but between this recent feedback and the rather low engagement the duel garnered, I think I can likely justify simplifying it to some degree. I'll keep the write-in option, but I think I'll make the main thrust kinda like how torroar does war turns in his quests, with a bunch of preset options that last from round to round. That way there doesn't need to be a huge amount of internal system knowledge on the part of the players in order to actually participate - I might be leaning that direction in the actual turn plans and whatnot, but in these subsections I think it'd be better to make it more simplistic.
How does that sound? I'm just floating ideas currently, but then again almost all of my GMing in this game has been me on-the-fly revising my stuff
- Location
- Canada
Sounds good, the hero interactions from earlier turns was cool but non interactive for the most part. Preset options gives you the chance to interject more of the character into the choices available. Like, there are two options for Thanquol, Fight and run away with sub options. But fight just has basic descriptions for those options where run has lots of detail, backup plans and that sort of thing.I had taken note of your earlier expressions, but since I'm sometimes a brick wall with regard to actually noticing things, I do appreciate you being this comprehensive.
I was already planning to do some sort of alterations to the way I run these duels, but between this recent feedback and the rather low engagement the duel garnered, I think I can likely justify simplifying it to some degree. I'll keep the write-in option, but I think I'll make the main thrust kinda like how torroar does war turns in his quests, with a bunch of preset options that last from round to round. That way there doesn't need to be a huge amount of internal system knowledge on the part of the players in order to actually participate - I might be leaning that direction in the actual turn plans and whatnot, but in these subsections I think it'd be better to make it more simplistic.
How does that sound? I'm just floating ideas currently, but then again almost all of my GMing in this game has been me on-the-fly revising my stuff
- Location
- Germany
I like the detailed duel.I had taken note of your earlier expressions, but since I'm sometimes a brick wall with regard to actually noticing things, I do appreciate you being this comprehensive.
I was already planning to do some sort of alterations to the way I run these duels, but between this recent feedback and the rather low engagement the duel garnered, I think I can likely justify simplifying it to some degree. I'll keep the write-in option, but I think I'll make the main thrust kinda like how torroar does war turns in his quests, with a bunch of preset options that last from round to round. That way there doesn't need to be a huge amount of internal system knowledge on the part of the players in order to actually participate - I might be leaning that direction in the actual turn plans and whatnot, but in these subsections I think it'd be better to make it more simplistic.
How does that sound? I'm just floating ideas currently, but then again almost all of my GMing in this game has been me on-the-fly revising my stuff
Even if I personally have little knowledge of WHF mechanics, this is a chance for people who do know to shine, to choose the spells with the best synergy and similar tricks
That is, for example, also something that works well in DragonParadox's quest.
Fezzes
Knight of King Stannis Baratheon
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
I'm definitely in favour of simplifying the war turns and duels. The more hands-off the players are, the more in-character characters can be. Obviously that wasn't a problem in this instance, but it's an issue that crops up every now and then, in my experience. Plus the duels felt a bit fiddly, even for someone immersed in WHFB. I'd much rather paint in broad strokes that give more room for the details to be filled in than micromanage it myself. That way there's more room for freeform creativity in how things play out.
That's okay. Arguably, that's good. I'm glad you're willing and able to correct things that you don't think are playing out right as opposed to holding to a strict paradigm of how things are going to be.How does that sound? I'm just floating ideas currently, but then again almost all of my GMing in this game has been me on-the-fly revising my stuff
- Location
- A pile of cheese
They the equivalent of the goff of WK40.
Also Like I said to xanatos, I think is far to said that Nagash now know about us.