Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 2:58 am

Would probably be quicker to stat out one than search. Here's a basic:
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Drone Xenomorph, Medium [Vermin]
4d8 HD + 8
40 feet per round move speed
16 Str 16 Dex 14 Con 3 Int 10 Wisdom 10 Charisma
AC: 21 (10 + 8 Natural + 3 Dodge)
+3 BAB
Attacks (to save time): +6 Claws (d6+ 1/2 Str), +6 Bite (d8 + 1.5 Str), +6 Tail lash (10 foot reach slashing or piercing, d8 + Str), Constrict (d8 + Str, nonlethal damage only)
Pounce and/or Rend
Hide in Plain Sight
Blindsight out to 60 feet
Climb speed equal to move speed, can stick to ceilings with no problem.
Max ranks in Hide and Move silently.

Feats: Improved Initiative, Improved Grapple.

Preferred tactics:
In a group, Xenomorphs don't show concern for personal safety until they suffer 50% losses, then they scatter and flee and will regroup or try to set up an ambush.

Alone, a Xenomorph is a canny hunter, striking and fleeing to try to bleed the target.

Hides on walls or ceilings, wait for prey to come by. Will hit single targets from above or behind, with the aim to subdue them and drag them off to the egg chambers . Smarter than your normal animal, will do things to split up targets like create obstructions and sometimes will make distractions. Will also mix up attack approaches; if it hits you from the ceiling once, next time it will try coming out of the floor or waiting behind a wall.

Targeting algorithm: the frailest/smallest individuals first, hoping to eliminate them outright. Moves to kill the first members of a group, survivors are subdued for the egg chambers.
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So there's a quick bashout of a Xenomorph. I forget the exact stuff on Slaad implantation, and could add in acid blood, but eh, I got a D&D session to run a couple

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 3:58 am

Oh, I should say that the party is 6th level, might be 7th by the adventure, so slaad is perhaps a bit much.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 4:24 am

Prak wrote:I've heard of this game before...

Kung Fury, always more ridiculous than anticipated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg

Eikre · Post by **Eikre** » Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:53 pm

Wiseman wrote:Is there any reason to play a Shujenja instead of a refluffed Cleric, or a Wu Jen instead of a refluffed Wizard?

Wu Jen get a bonus metamagic feat at level 1. Has its uses, when you're playing character build solitaire and things get tight. You can get into Anima Mage at level 3, for instance.

They also have Fire Shuriken. So you take Born of the Three Thunders and, at level 3, you use your downtime to make make piles of throwing weapons that deal 3d6 base damage and proc both stun and knockdown on separate saves.

I mean, nothing about them can equal all of the stuff that an ordinary Wizards get, but they've got a few gimmicks and they are still a wizard variant, at heart, which leaves them with plenty enough wizard staples that you shouldn't really ever be left feeling bad when you're working towards a cute trick.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 2:11 pm

Looks like I may be playing in a d20 Call of Cthulhu game soon. Does anyone know of a way to optimize "learn spells from eldritch tomes" beyond "learn that spell that gives you +level to Int for one roll?"

Also, can I get some kind of general pointers for the milieu of 1920s horror investigation? I'm going to read (or, well, listen to) some Lovecraft before the game, but a quick rundown would be helpful too. Ancient History? If you want a specific focus, I kind of hate playing basic humans and prefer to have access to magic.

Count Arioch the 28th · Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:18 pm

I can't think about optimizing in CoC without thinking of Old Man Henderson. Which is totally true and happened like for REAL, guys!

Wiseman · Post by **Wiseman** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:47 am

Is tiefling pronunced TEE-fling or TYE-fling?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:54 am

Planescape: Torment pronounced it with a long e, and that's good enough for me.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:36 am

It's garbeled German, so the "ie" is pronounced "ee." Like Shield or Krieg.

-Username17

Wiseman · Post by **Wiseman** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:39 am

Good, that's the version I prefer. Although I've heard it pronounced TYE-fling in DDO...

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:55 am

Planescape: Torment > DDO. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a pod person.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:57 am

Huh. I've always heard it in my head as "tiffling"

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:22 am

Prak wrote:Looks like I may be playing in a d20 Call of Cthulhu game soon. Does anyone know of a way to optimize "learn spells from eldritch tomes" beyond "learn that spell that gives you +level to Int for one roll?"

Also, can I get some kind of general pointers for the milieu of 1920s horror investigation? I'm going to read (or, well, listen to) some Lovecraft before the game, but a quick rundown would be helpful too. Ancient History? If you want a specific focus, I kind of hate playing basic humans and prefer to have access to magic.

Even if you make your character someone who has dedicated their lives to studying the eldritch & occult... expect to have no Mythos lore skill at character start.

The most long-term efficient way to work around this? Don't avoid the shitty madness mechanic; but rather use it as a way to legitimize burning through Sanity in order to suss out which spells you're allowed from the books the group finds; and then bringing in a new "researcher" PC who provides the party magic who can be guided into learning already known spells that the group knows are worth using (and avoiding useless ones, I guess).

Having your PCs be part of a "reading circle"; or some other group that might want to find & share information about the "real" occult. Thus, when your first character goes ineviteably mad, your next PC could have their notes that they can have mailed/willed to the next PC you've pre-rolled up.

Reading some Lovecraft on Dagonbytes; might help... but so few actual referees have actually read Lovecraft that it often feel pointless to have read any when I'm playing a CoC game. Usually the "horror" presented in CoC is "Hollywood Movie" style horror; not "alienating reality" Lovecraftian horror. If you do have a ref who is a fan of Lovecraft; does the effort pay off, as both player and referee can play references off of each other (there is at times an unspoken CoC houserule that PCs who act crazy/scared when their San is high; don't always take San checks/damage as often; mostly b/c the Sanity system in CoC is manure).

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:45 pm

Prak wrote:Looks like I may be playing in a d20 Call of Cthulhu game soon. Does anyone know of a way to optimize "learn spells from eldritch tomes" beyond "learn that spell that gives you +level to Int for one roll?"

Also, can I get some kind of general pointers for the milieu of 1920s horror investigation? I'm going to read (or, well, listen to) some Lovecraft before the game, but a quick rundown would be helpful too. Ancient History? If you want a specific focus, I kind of hate playing basic humans and prefer to have access to magic.

I'm completely unfamiliar with d20 version, but here's some general advice:
-Don't even bother with the spells or Cthulhu Mythos skill. Most spells are actually garbage in terms of cost/benefit ratio. Every single attack spell is just worse than casting Shotgun, and most utility spells are very niche. Summon Fish is the absolute best spell in the game if you want to win at life. It's also the absolute worst spell in the game if you want to be an adventuring investigator of the occult. You are limited to learning spells GM gives you, so you never actually get to chose spells, but if you can, stick to perception and defense spells.
-Guns and dynamite win scenarios.
-Stealth wins scenarios which can't be won by guns and dynamite (because the monster has arbitrary immunity to them).

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm

Well, MC for it will be my queermate, who has read pretty much all of Lovecraft's mythos stuff. Or the major books, anyway. They're jealous of AH's Mythos library.

They're specifically limiting me to spells in books with "Cthulhu" in the title, or at least spells that come from a CoC book, with conversion into d20 allowed.

What does Summon Fish do? They seem open to me starting with a Sussex Manuscript.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:42 pm

You are not going to believe this, but Summon Fish summons d100 fishes to you. As in, fish swims to your location. In Chaosium's CoC it costs 2 magic point and no sanity, so you can cast it about 8 times a day and be the best fisherman ever, covering all your life expenses.
Out of the corebook most spells are meh. Dread Curse of Azathoth is good because you can intimidate mythos monsters with it without actually casting it (it's crap). Voorish Sign could be good because MC may allow you to reveal invisible things with it. Dust of Suleiman/Hermes is a good offensive magic, but it only works against some things. Bless Blade allows you to set on fire 1 POW to enchant weapon with magic, so that it would hurt monsters that can't be hurt with weapons.
Hexagram Ritual from the Golden Dawn is arguably the best spell in the game, because it provides magical protection against monsters without any stat sacrifices.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:15 pm

I now have an image of a Henderson-alike taking a motorboat up to Innsmouth, and just repeatedly casting Summon Fish and catching the fish in giant nets while muttering obscenities at the Deep Ones. Possibly while blasting them away with a shotgun as they try to do something about this.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:18 pm

Other good spells:
-Flesh Ward is totally worth it if you get to cast it before the big fight. Each magic point you spend on activation gives you 1D6 fake HP, and you yourself have about 10-15 HP.
-Wrack is as good as combat spells get, assuming you have maxed out POW. It's a save-or-die for just 1 SAN.
-Bless Blade requires you to sacrifice POW, but gives you a weapon.
-Voice of Ra makes you win 1/4 more of the social encounters.
-Cloud Memory could be worth it in spy thriller Delta Green scenarios.
-Augur is divination and thus rocks.
-Bait Humans is just hilarious, since it creates a massive illusionary diamond that floats away from the target. It explicitly doesn't include any charm effect to make the target follow the diamond.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:50 am

Working on a D&D character, I rolled three sets of 4d6.drop.lowest and got-

10, 11, 11, 15, 12, 9 (total +2)
8, 10, 9, 15, 9, 12 (total 0)
11,10, 10, 16, 9, 12 (total +3)

According to this article on AnyDice, the average D&D ability set is 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9.

First question- what god of dice rolling did I piss off that this sort of sub-par set is typical for me?
Second question- how would rolling additional sets of six influence the average set that AnyDice calculated?

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:54 pm

Okay, so Vampire: the Masquerade demographics are basically fractally bullshit.

But if we take it as given that there are roughly 70 000 vampires in the world, that they spread via Embrace like VtM vampires do and that the first ones (who numbered a dozen at the absolute most) showed up around 500 BC, what would it be sensible for the vampire population's age pyramid to look like given the following inputs?

- Vampire population growth patterns loosely follow human ones throughout history.

- A small but significant minority of new vampires die within 10 years of the Embrace due to various forms of "unable-to-handle-it-ness."

-Most new vampires die before they reach 100, at the hands of hunters or rivals or simply as a consequence of leading highly exciting lives. For vampires who make it past this milestone, life expectancy improves dramatically.

- Vampires past 300 years of age must kill humans to feed on them, and can feed on younger vampires without risking a blood bond. This means that they exert a much greater pressure on their "food supply" and draw more attention from hunters and rivals. They are very powerful, but not too powerful for clever and motivated underdogs to notch a win every now and then.

- Vampires past 1000 years of age need to feed on the blood of other vampires. This tends to make them rivals of each other, and targets of younger vampires. But they are also fuck-off powerful and it usually takes one to kill one. Even then they are so risk-averse and well practiced at survival that it happens very rarely.

Mechalich · Post by **Mechalich** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:40 am

Schleiermacher wrote:Okay, so Vampire: the Masquerade demographics are basically fractally bullshit.

But if we take it as given that there are roughly 70 000 vampires in the world, that they spread via Embrace like VtM vampires do and that the first ones (who numbered a dozen at the absolute most) showed up around 500 BC, what would it be sensible for the vampire population's age pyramid to look like given the following inputs?

- Vampire population growth patterns loosely follow human ones throughout history.

- A small but significant minority of new vampires die within 10 years of the Embrace due to various forms of "unable-to-handle-it-ness."

-Most new vampires die before they reach 100, at the hands of hunters or rivals or simply as a consequence of leading highly exciting lives. For vampires who make it past this milestone, life expectancy improves dramatically.

- Vampires past 300 years of age must kill humans to feed on them, and can feed on younger vampires without risking a blood bond. This means that they exert a much greater pressure on their "food supply" and draw more attention from hunters and rivals. They are very powerful, but not too powerful for clever and motivated underdogs to notch a win every now and then.

- Vampires past 1000 years of age need to feed on the blood of other vampires. This tends to make them rivals of each other, and targets of younger vampires. But they are also fuck-off powerful and it usually takes one to kill one. Even then they are so risk-averse and well practiced at survival that it happens very rarely.

That's a somewhat complicated question. It's going to vary rather substantially based on precisely how you set the values for your various survivorship points.

I did a rough calculation based on the following values: each vampire has a 25% chance of reaching the 1 century mark, a 5% chance of reaching the 3 century mark, and a 3% chance of reaching the millennium mark (after which they never die but this group is small enough that a low level of attrition doesn't really influence the calculations much). This is also utilizing the assumption that the initial vampire population disperses widely and embraces up to population limits effectively instantly, which is somewhat unreasonable but makes things a lot less complicated.

The resulting curve is actually relatively constant for most of human history. From 400 BC to 1700 AD vampires under 1 century old hover between 73-84% of the total population. Vampires ranging from 1 to 3 centuries are 14-22% of the total, vampires 3-10 centuries are 3-5% of the total, and the 1000 year crowd, once they start showing up in 500 AD, hover at 1-2% of the total.

And then, starting in 1800, all the 'elder' groupings begin a precipitous decline, while the number of 'new' vampires shoots up - hitting over 93% in 2000. Essentially, in 1800 there are 4 neonates to every elder, while in there's over 9 neonates to every elder, with the really old dudes having dropped off particularly precipitously (they're only 0.2% of the total now).

I did the calculations at century scale, so it's very broad, and it will again change rather a lot depending on how you set the values, by I think that no matter what your core assumption that the majority of vampires don't hit the century mark means that there's always going to be a dramatic neonate population explosion starting around 1800.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 9:42 am

Thanks a ton!

Then it seems what throws off the math is the assumption that the vampire population explodes instantly like the human population upon the industrial revolution. It probably would increase significantly, but vampire population growth is weird and slow and doesn't really continue to capacity in normal cases.

I think it would make sense then, at least sense enough for RPG purposes, to use the most bottom-loaded numbers from the normal curve instead:

82% neonates
14% ancillae
3% elders
1% methuselahs

Do you agree?

Mechalich · Post by **Mechalich** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:08 am

Schleiermacher wrote:Then it seems what throws off the math is the assumption that the vampire population explodes instantly like the human population upon the industrial revolution. It probably would increase significantly, but vampire population growth is weird and slow and doesn't really continue to capacity in normal cases.

That's true, though keep in mind that, if your operational date is ~2000 CE, then introducing any significant amount of time lag in Vampire population expansion is going to drop the population a lot. Ex. if the vampires take even 25 years to catch up, then their population reflects the 1975 population of 4 billion, which means 40,000 vampires instead of 60,000. That specific population change basically is the Time of Thin Blood in demographic terms - since in 2000 fully one third of all vampires would have been embraced in the last 25 years.

Here's what the actual distribution looks like graphically:

Looking at it like this, you can see that the influence of the elders peaks during the late middle ages about 1300 to 1500 (the highest point is 1400, which is an artifact of human population decline due to the Black Death, which reduces the number of new vampires in that century).

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:35 pm

Mechalich wrote:That's true, though keep in mind that, if your operational date is ~2000 CE, then introducing any significant amount of time lag in Vampire population expansion is going to drop the population a lot. Ex. if the vampires take even 25 years to catch up, then their population reflects the 1975 population of 4 billion, which means 40,000 vampires instead of 60,000. That specific population change basically is the Time of Thin Blood in demographic terms - since in 2000 fully one third of all vampires would have been embraced in the last 25 years.

Yeah... and the bold is actually something I find pretty neat, but I'd still like a distribution that's not quite as extremely tilted towards the low end. What does it look like if we assume 40% of vampires survive past 100, rather than just 25%?

(It seems kind of entitled to ask you to do all the work -but you are the one who has the numbers. If you have formulas or models, you could give them to me and I could tinker with them myself, if you prefer that.)

Mord · Post by **Mord** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:32 pm

A while ago, I did something similar charting vampire age demographics.

I always meant to revisit it to add two features: 1) a variable vampire:human ratio based on some kind of abstracted human "health index;" currently the ratio is fixed at 1:100,000.

2) vampire attrition. Right now my workbook has the assumption that every vampire ever sired is still kicking in 2016. Obviously this is a gross oversight, but I never got around to figuring out the attrition rates I wanted. I think I'll revisit using Mechalich's figures as a rule of thumb.

Anyway, here's the link, enjoy.