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Post by Arcanet on Jul 21, 2014 2:48:03 GMT -8
I thought about how to distribute weapons and armor, and realised something.
I can't give a yellow/red weapon/armor to low level characters. They would at first miss more but hit hard, which would be interesting, but they would never need to replace them, and they'd get stronger just by gaining levels.
Item levels? Min/Max usable level? Only usable at level X? Armor and weapons degrade in quality/break entirely if you get a critical failure attack/defence flip?
Or am I just seeing a problem that doesn't exist?
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Post by Dashing Inventor on Jul 21, 2014 4:30:14 GMT -8
I think this applies to all RPGs, I never start my players off with high level equipment (unless its a short game where they won't have much opportunity to advance, then I don't mind if they mow the enemies down from the get go). Here are a couple of tips I've found useful: Design: Give high damage weapons other limitations. i.e. limited ammo, require players to sacrifice their move to attack with the weapon, etc. Give strong armor other drawbacks, such as severely limiting their agility checks. Play: - Face them off with heavily armored opponents.
- Have them find a "barely functioning" weapon, that will break on the first triple strike/critical failure.
- Make ammo drops limited.
- The party is captured, and their equipment confiscated.
- They enter a tavern/town where no weapons are allowed (aside from those they can conceal!).
- etc
In the end equipment makes up a large part of a character's identity, players get really excited to find a good weapon and will cherish it. Taking their prized sword/gun away as part of the story can become its own mini-quest to recover their equipment. Remember, as a proper roleplaying game Simple System games don't even need to feature combat, and not all players will choose to build combat focused characters. If a player builds himself up as the 'tough guy' of the group and invests in awesome equipment, give him lots of bad guys to fight and let him protect the rest of the group, and make sure to give the other players opportunities for their characters to shine in their own respects. |
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Post by Dashing Inventor on Jul 21, 2014 4:33:34 GMT -8
Oh, and sometimes just let them clean the enemies clocks, that's always fun too.
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Post by Arcanet on Jul 21, 2014 4:48:28 GMT -8
All of your points are very good, some of which I've already employed in past RPG's.
My friend has already started work on a zombie apocalypse setting, with slow annoying low hitting hordes of walkers, guns that break on XXX with 7 ammo and no extra clips, evil randomly chosen diseases and other nastyness.
We tested it last week, and had a blast. His delirious NPC sergeant fired a flamethrower at us, as we were between him and the zombies, a few lucky Agility checks saved us.
This went on for a few nights as we tried to salvage supplies and radio backup for our downed helicopter.
Backup eventually arrived. In the form of an airdropped laser target painter with a note on it: "A10 Warthog on standby, awaiting targets." (Everything within 3 squares of the target is obliterated on a successful Intelligence flip.)
Boom.
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Ziphion
Full Member
Resident Mathematician
Posts: 132
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Post by Ziphion on Jul 21, 2014 8:31:56 GMT -8
Here's another idea: a powerful weapon (yellow or red) that forces you to remove critical successes from your deck.
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Post by Arcanet on Jul 21, 2014 14:10:20 GMT -8
This little discussion got my juices flowing regarding 'powerful, but limited' items. A sniper rifle could have impressive max range, but be unable to fire below the minimum range, have limited ammo and require another player to spot targets. The spotter can still fire his own weapon, but neither of them can move on the round the sniper is fired.
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