Plot Hooks/Twists

One thing that always seems to add a bit to a campaign (at least to me) is the good ol' plot twist. For some reason, I like doing them, unfortunately, they're usually cliche and because of this, they really aren't entertaining. Suddenly saying "you're working for the bad guys" doesn't ring as close as it should I feel. As such, I am trying to think how to twist the story in an interesting way that doesn't become generic and boring for everyone involved. Ultimately though, I want to think of something. Betrayal always adds a bit of intrigue I feel. The double agent or some higher up screwing around and messing things up always adds that bit of fun (think The Third Man with the American screwing around). Lots of fun.

Suggestions on how to make this work? Any tips? ideas at all? Comment!

Second Session

So, Saturday was a busy day! Managed to play for (I think) about 7 hours! It was a lot of fun and lets just say, a lot of stuff died :-D.

Started out by having the players be told they were going to Argentina to protect a certain plant from becoming an ingredient in the Zombie Virus creation process (story has it that it was planted in the Andes as that was the best place for it to grow). Ultimately though, as they flew down there, their plane got shot down (egads!) and they had to foot it all the way to the location. On the way, they ran into a couple of drug runners, an ambush and (what I thought would be a challenge) they crossed a rather large river. I really didn't consider how much they would tear up their plane for goods! It was a lot of fun though.

In the end, the players managed to get to the site and defend it using home made explosives. That was a TON of fun. Effectively making landmines, they held off waves and waves of the enemies, and even took down a minotaur at level 2!! Good times all around, and a few unlucky rolls made them all come out with (practically) full health. Finally, I had a chopper come in to rescue them, and right as it got there, waves upon waves of enemies marched in. Chainguns blazing, the party was saved because of the helicopter. So much fun. Next week is (I think) the last session before zombies start popping up! that should be a really good time. I'm not sure how i'm going to deal with them honestly... I haven't picked a main type of zombie, but might just take the zombies from the D20 Apocalypse book. Anyways, that's it for today, tomorrow I might discuss more rules...

Wealth (continued) and Requisition

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday about wealth was that your wealth bonus may never decrease below 0. However, at this point, characters cannot attempt to buy anything that has a Purchase DC of 10 or higher. Pretty clear I feel.

On to the next subject: Requisition. I am not sure how I feel about this in the game, and unless the characters try to requisition goods tomorrow, I doubt I will make up my mind on the matter. I feel that at times it might be beneficial to get goods that might help through this process (such as if they could not normally get it) but I so far have been giving players the things they need from their contact. One thing that intrigues me is that they haven't tried to figure out any more information on their overarching organization (not that I'm complaining, I haven't really created that story yet). I should probably work on that tomorrow, but I figure I might just do it as some sort of large non-profit organization... or maybe the government... or maybe the characters think they're working for the good guys when in fact they are not. Either way, gotta figure it out soon. Game tomorrow at 4!

Wealth

One thing that people have struggled with over the two semesters in my campaign is the Wealth system. It is rather confusing to a lot of the players and so I hope to clarify a bit here.

After playing in the D&D system, a lot of people get used to the gold coins and how those work, unfortunately, switching to a new system (or having never played before) the idea of a "wealth bonus" is quite abstract (as the rules introduce it as). With this, the idea of a fluctuating wealth bonus is confusing. Basically, wealth bonuses vary based on the purchases you make. When you want to buy something, you roll a D20 and add the value of the wealth bonus you have to the number that you roll on the die. If you purchase something which is worth more (by the purchase DC it has) than 15... you decrease your characters wealth bonus by 1.

EXAMPLE: Your character, Johnny, has a wealth bonus of 17. He is looking at buying a PDA (from the consumer electronics section) with a Purchase DC of 16. With this, he must roll a d20 (which he rolls a 7 on) and adds his wealth bonus to the result. With this he gets a 7(d20)+17(wealth bonus)= 24. He can successfully buy the PDA. As the PDA was worth more than a Purchase DC of 15, he reduces his wealth bonus to a 16.

Not so hard is it? Next, if an item is worth more than the wealth bonus you have, you subtract a value from your Wealth Bonus based on how different the two numbers are. If it is an item that has a Purchase DC of 1-10 points higher than your Wealth Bonus, you decrease your wealth bonus by 1. If it is an item that has a Purchase DC 11-15 points higher than your Wealth Bonus, you reduce your wealth by 1d6 (roll a 6 sided die and subtract the number shown from your wealth bonus). if it is an item that has a Purchase DC 16 or higher than your Wealth Bonus, you reduce your wealth by 2d6.

EXAMPLE: Your character, Johnny, has a wealth bonus of 2. He is looking at buying a Gas Mask (from the survival equipment section) with a Purchase DC of 13. With this, he must roll a d20 (which he rolls a 14 on) and adds his wealth bonus to the result. With this he gets a 14(d20)+2(wealth bonus)= 16. He can successfully buy the PDA. As the Gas Mask was worth 11 points more than his wealth bonus, he rolls a six sided die (result was a 1) and subtracts that value from his wealth bonus. He keeps a wealth bonus of 1.

Not too difficult is it?

Guns and Damage

Ok, as I said yesterday, everyone in the party got a gun to use in the campaign and with that, they're now forced to be concerned with bullets flying at them. With that, guns do a lot of damage and they are definitely something to be afraid of. So far, they flipped a table to get 3/4 cover (kept them from getting hurt badly) and avoided getting shot.

Next session, they're likely to get damaged however, as they'll be running into a jungle not sure where shots are potentially coming from. I understand how concealment works and imagine i'll be using that as underbrush does not provide much protection but still, I remain concerned about them actually getting hit. I only hope nothing too serious happens and that they all live to get away. I figure this might be an opportunity to teach them a few things about retreating tactically and surprising their enemies. Last time I was particularly impressed as they made Molotov Cocktails to throw at their enemies. I figure, that they might not be a great idea in a Jungle in the Andes, but we'll see what happens. Any one have any ideas to mitigate damage from guns? I look forward to any ideas!

First Session

Hey all, sorry about not posting yesterday, unfortunately some personal life issues came up yesterday and i was not in a psychologically strong point to write anything. But I'm "better" now, at least enough to write about the first session we had this semester.

Anyways! Yes, we played on Saturday and there was much joy to be had. The group size has shrunk considerably (and beneficially) from last year and because of that, we can get things done much faster. We played for darn near 4 hours and managed to get two of the characters leveled up (the other two just need to do my EXP earning background story), and they got the prized possession of the d20 modern system: GUNS. Man they're deadly... I mean seriously, they REALLY dangerous. One person got "hit" accidentally once (i screwed up and rolled for an extra enemy, turns out that enemy had died the last round and the damage wasn't done to him) and lost i think it was 8/10 hit points. Bang!

Beneficially, the players took my warning of "GET IN COVER OR MAKE IT" and flipped a pool table... i gave them a pretty hefty bonus to defense, but I figure it will in the future determine concealment or cover depending on the stopping power of the materials they're behind. Other than that, it was a great session, and we're on step closer to ZOMBIES!

A quick summary of what happened: They spied on a meeting in the subway maintenance tunnels and learned of the zombie virus. Following this they investigated the chief thug's home (a Goblin named Vehec), got in a fire fight and then are being sent to Argentina next to stop the harvesting of a Zombie virus ingredient. Should be a blast!

Player Character Backrounds

Hello again everyone, new topic today (I hope... I may have mentioned this earlier) about Player Characters (PCs) and the backgrounds that I like people to choose.

Personally, I love roleplaying. I feel that when playing an RPG, the RP part of it is one of the most important (right up there with "fun"). With that being said, I've noticed that a lot of the people I play with don't actually go out of their way to roleplay and generally make characters like themself.

While this can be ok, it doesn't provide for them to think as someone else, one of the joys of the game I feel. As a result, I have required all the players to choose something they don't fit into on a daily basis, after all, we interact with each other every day, why not make a new interaction possible? Just cause we're friends in real life, doesn't mean our characters will be friends or as close. As a result, I required the players to make unique characters for them to play as and so far I feel it's been fairly successful. Another thing i've chosen to do is to give exp rewards for when people really show their roleplaying (and lack of metagaming [thinking outside the game, knowing things they otherwise wouldn't]).

And on that note, let me know what you think!