Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

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Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

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Well, The girls gamed last night and finished the dead tree / dungeon crawl. The girls loved it had a blast in doing the fights, killing the ants, scorpions and rats hidden in the different levels, and I prepared to start them down the path to the next adventure arc. However … my older girls said words I dreaded “Daddy, I don’t think I want to play again” … crushing !

After talking with her, it comes out that it isn’t gaming she is starting not to like, but gaming a system where she is a squirrel, and everyone is some form of an animal .

Easy enough to fix on that part. Time to switch games. So, I went through ALL the different genres and settings. My younger girl was dead set on fantasy The Hobbit (makes the heart proud it does), and my older daughter agreed. But then she mentioned, “You did say there were super hero games didn’t you. Are they fun too?” With that her eyes lit up

So, I talked about playing Marvel and a couple of other super games back in the day. And of course about our Victorious game. That is what set the hook for her. Little sister was disappointed about not playing Tolkien, well she was until I described some characters and then she had her nucleus for her character & background all figured out ! She to is now sold on it !!!!!

There is one however (the modified) , it will be set in today’s time frame. The haven’t gotten into history enough to find interes in the Victorian setting ideas and attitudes. So I have to update the story heroes and villains from Victorian setting to today. But that won’t be too hard.

Now … what adventures are fitting for heros being played by an 11 year old and a 9 1/2 year old ????

My first one or 2 will be easy enough. Stop a common criminal gang. Then get sideways to the over arching criminal syndicate that is incharge of the gang (I’ll pull inspiration from Holms on that) but after that …

What are good ideas for adventure arcs suitable for you pre-teen girls that aren’t my standard default ‘Grim’ influence ???

Any hints ideas etc welcome !!!
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by Go0gleplex »

Take a page from Kingsmen. Rich Tycoon aka Goldfinger or some Illuminati type. Maybe illegal human experiments trying to make artificial super humans and the crime gangs are funding it covertly. Or some such thing since I am assuming you don't want to go down the darker roads.
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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by RhiannonMM »

The campaigns that meant the most to me were the ones that had NPC's and other characters that it felt meaningful to interact with. I also enjoyed games where there was an opportunity to take on more responsibility. One of my earliest memories of gaming is when my brother's character (who was a sorceror) was going to be arrested for using magic in a town where it was outlawed when he had used it to save towns people. The lord of the small town was a known fighter and to save him from jail time for doing what I felt was the right thing I challenged the lord to a duel. He accepted and I won by the skin of my teeth as a Ranger. I became the new lord of that town and had to deal with those new responsibilities or deciding who would take it on instead in a way I would approve of and would still provide stability to the town. Anything that was morally challenging or had a problem solving element to it really float my boat more so than straight combat.

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by DMMike »

To take a page from Cloak & Dagger, have them playing school kids (maybe older) and the gangs are kidnapping their school friends for said experiments. Thus they use their super identities to try and help the friends, while their secret ID's can be used to hunt for clues in the school?

Mike
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Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

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Great first night game with the 2 of them!

A gang of 15 gangsters thugs robbing a drug store

The confusion at first, plus the younger one figuring out why looking for a broom closet is truly a negative

The older one showing she DOES NOT have the heart of a lion (great initiative but hesitating until her little sister is in the fray before she acts except for using mesmerism)

The younger girl learning that rolling a 3 on the wisdom check to keep from being flat footed when the combat starts is not good (shot gun but to the forehead to get her attention and start combat) and that an AC of 15 isn't great especially when the bad guys are using guns

and then learning how to play supers - learning mesmerize and entangle are great at whittling down numbers but aren't great attacks and wishing they had thought to get something an area effect -

They did some good basic uses of entangle and mesmerize but then flashes of brilliance

My older used mesmerize to tell one thug that he should be the gang leader (great use to cause confusion)

Then the younger used her fog to fill the room the thugs were loading the van to keep them from finishing steeling what ever they were steeling (and ended up causing one of the vans to crash and the older daughter use probability manipulation to ensure the van with most of the thugs to wreck coming out of the parking lot (causing half the thugs to have to run on foot to escape)

Then - showing how evil I am, the wisdom check at the end of the game with 'didn't you see some one else, standing by the phone pole at the edge of the paring lot ... is he there now ... and now the fire alarm and burglar alarm from the room the protected drugs are kept just started going off, and your cell phone (now you think to look again) is now getting a signal (they thought in the middle of the fight to try and call 9111, but the cell phones didn't have any signal). Then isn't 15 people a bit much to rob a drug store coffee shop at 2200 at night, why were there soooo many - the perfect look with realizing there is more to this!

Then the cops pull in ... what story do they tell the cops ???? :twisted:
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by DMMike »

:lol: Sounds like a great time! Good use of Probability Manip., it can really come in handy when events get out of control. Are you going to do a Treebore and let them modify their powers a bit now so as to make the next game more fun?

Oh, and how are you handling Victory Points? ;)

Mike
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
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Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by Lurker »

DMMike wrote::lol: Sounds like a great time! Good use of Probability Manip., it can really come in handy when events get out of control. Are you going to do a Treebore and let them modify their powers a bit now so as to make the next game more fun?

Oh, and how are you handling Victory Points? ;)

Mike
Yeah, fun one with them.

One question, on probability manipulation how do you handle it. Do you have them hold their action (if they have init) and then intervene, or do you allow it to be 'reactive' in that they can intervene even out of init order?

I allowed it to be reactive - she had used PK to move around shopping carts, cans knocked on the floor, etc, to trip up the thugs, then (with a good wis check) see 4 of them in the van pulling out to escape. See did PM then to cause them to reroll at -3 and (actually I just took 3 off the driver's roll) wreck the van trying to speed out of the lot. It cost her action the net round though.

I'm afraid she will do a lot of hold actions, just in case, if it isn't reactive ...

Rgr on modifying powers a bit. I did it last night even, she had taken telepathy but wanted to have the mesmerize effect. I let her switch it there. Also, I gave the little one an area effect on her suppression - Vision for the fog.

All and all I think their characters are dial in fairly well (may need a touch here or there to polish it but not much). It is actually scary how good of concepts and characters they made considering their age ... Heck, I'd be willing to play either character right now (well switch their gender but other than that) . Good concept good use of the skills and powers, good back story, and not unbalanced . I played with guys in the military who's characters weren't this good. Either broken concept or so out of balance to be game breakers ... not bad for 11 & 9 1/2 years olds.



Oh yeah, 2nd question, how do you do the fatigue for using the powers ? I know you had rules somewhere for it. I did it with something like ever 3 or 4 rounds that they used powers consecutively required a con check. It was more fluid than a hard and fast rule though.

As for victory point, I did it by the book, with them starting with 1 VP. I told them at next game they have to vote on who was more heroic to get a VP. I'll probably give them another each for the clever use of mesmerize and fog at perfect times in the game. I will let them know that it is automatic each game but they earned it in the fight.

I think I will put in a rule for Star Wars D6 and force points, that if a FP (well VP in this case) is use in a heroic way at a key point in the game the VP comes back at the start of the net game ( Han using a FP to shoot Vader's TIR and save Luke, Luke using an FP to sink the shot and destroy the Death Star as examples)
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by DMMike »

I allow PM to be used like any other power. That is, it takes an action so if you want to use it you can only do so either on their INIT roll or lower if they hold action. That being said, I agree that excessive caution might be a problem, so if I were you I'd allow reactive at least for a while until she gets more comfortable with the system.

The Fatigue table is on the victoriousrpg.com blog, but the rule of thumb is use of supernatural powers for a number of rounds equal to their CON score. Your system does avoid the bookkeeping part though. Personally, I just wing it and tell heroes to make CON saves when I 'feel' they're overdoing their powers. ;)


Mike
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
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Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

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I think it makes sense to have PM a 'reactive' but to keep it from being all powerful & a rival to victory points I think I'll require a wis check first for them to notice the even in time to effect it.

Also, I have to remember a round is only 6 (or is it 10) seconds . That would be enough time for the character to see something happening and then in the next round use PM. That is ecept for a sniper or a bomb going off etc. that would have to be a reactive use (with the wis check)

Good to hear on the fatigue, the wing it part anyway. With that I may have kicked in the con checks a bit too soon. I had them do the first at round 6 to 8 (now that I type it, yeah WAY TOO SOON)

As for book keeping, one thing I wasn't ready for was all their mesmerize and entangles ....The good thing was they got focused and didn't pay attention, so at least 2 of the bad guys mesmerized was able to get out of it and get try and get a cheap back shot off at them - then I remembered the older one's intuition .... so gave her wisdom checks to keep from being blind sided . Even with that, it kept them on their toes
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

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Re: Harvesters has ended … now to Victorious (modified)

Post by DMMike »

Another consideration is Lightning Speed, allowing 2 actions every other round at rank 1. A small investment but with a hell of a payback!

You think that's bad? Try keeping track of Absorptions! One of my PCs ("Glut") does a Sebastian Shaw and so with every blow he absorbs he has to calculate how his STR ups....and then how many wear off. I'm currently trying to figure out a house rule to avoid this.

Yes, I'm the author of the RPG...and I'm still using House Rules. So what? IMO you're not a real GM until you start house ruling! :D

GM (And HR all the time!) Mike
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
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Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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