The Old Guard OOC Thread

I'm down.

I only just noticed that SpaceSeeker is away for 19 days... should we maybe start the interrogation without him?

I think so. I'd hate for things to get bogged down. I think Pudge should respond to Serana and then I'll jump in with the interrogation.

That's reasonable and on my part I'll try not to rush through it!

---

So! Long time coming, but big thoughts on mechanics:

I'm not sure how many of you agree, but I feel multiplicative calculations for Hits are, well, proving a bit clunky. I think there might be value in instead declaring that an enemy simply deals a set number of Hits on meeting a Resistance? Rather than having to determine how many times over the Resistance has been beaten. A mob might deal 1 Hit, an elite 2, a boss 1d4, and so on

(I'll also start posting statblocks for enemies/challenges. I did say I'd start doing that months ago, but I mean it this time! Not knowing an enemy's stat until you challenge it/reduce it doesn't really add anything to fights, and showing the numbers up front means players can get more done when I'm not there to reply)

Defence started off being exactly like Armour Class, and I think I'll make a change to that: a miss now deals half effect instead of none. In practise the half damage might well fail to meet the Resistance anyway, but it does mean basic attacks are less likely to be wasted.

Here's something I'm less certain of implementing, but I'm intrigued by it all the same: declaring that Defence is challenged by the d20's natural roll. But if the total roll beats a Defence by 10, +1 Hit. By 20, +2 Hits, and so on.

This would mean modifiers are important but the dice always plays a part. Normally I'd be wary about something like that, but coupled with the Defence change and the idea that every fighter is competent and "misses" are more like glancing blows, I think it might work. Proviso: mobs still miss when failing to meet a Defence. Because they're mobs. You can definitely dodge crappy drones far more easily than trained killers.

I obviously won't implement massive changes like that without running it past the people who are actually playing the game, but I'd be interested to know what everyone thought!

Yo, so what's up? I'm still here just kinda trying to let our other bros have a shot at talking but if we gotta Wilhelm and Serana can just go murder SPACE HITLER and VOODOO B*TCH ourselves. All jokes aside, who's out there and still playing?

Spaceseeker disappeared from one of my other games too. I reached out to him on Twitter and he said he was hotel that he'd be able to get back into it, but that was a number of weeks ago. *shrugs*

That's unfortunate :/ Should we be opening the game up to a 5th? Or does Ed/everyone else think we should just try with three?

It might be a little unfair to any new people to bring them in this close to the climax (I'm assuming after we have our big fight at the vault the play test is over).

Yeah, Act I was always intended to end fairly quickly so bringing in an additional player might not be the best move. I'd be more than happy to revisit this world/these characters again, of course!

Ah? Right. I admit I had thought I'd signed on for the full Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 etc experience! But that makes sense.

So, what's going on eveybody? We still doing this?

I'm in. What are we waiting for?

I was waiting for someone other than me to post. Aside from that not sure.

Although I'm not sure if Albionest is about I'll happily jump ahead to the finale. I think whipstache's post would act a good scene closer, haha

With luck spaceseeker will pop by to get a word in, but for now I think we'll proceed with the three (you here Albionest?) of you and sort out a retcon of some sort if spaceseeker does come back and wants Darghibous to participate more

I'm here! Sorry everyone. Yes, please do jump ahead.

Yay!

Regarding the aspect Serana is entitled to from Pudge's use of Enhance: perhaps some sort of "true strike" Empower ability? Spend 1HP to hit a target automatically, regardless of evasion/concealment, but forfeit the potential chance of rolling a critical. A power that might have some use, but nothing game breaking.

That's cool. Honestly I'd be fine with the to-hit bonus by itself too: I feel uneasy about using empowers. Maybe I value my HP too much.

Whatever y'all decide is cool with me.

Hah, wait, if Pudge gets to act first does that mean he can just throw a virus on the turret and disable it?