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Dungeon of Bad Ends (Homebrew System)

Davian - don't sweat it. We've all got real lives, and writing here is a hobby. It's probably a bit trickier to manage when there are multiple persons involved (as opposed to 1-on-1 writing), but you don't have to apologise for being busy in the real world. :)

GM - A new scene could be handy. I want Cassie to give that door another crack if Kerrish doesn't break it down. If the door does come down, though, Cassie will go scouting. :)
 
Davian-Like Sync said, no worries. Real life takes priority. I'm glad you got a chance to post, but I hope you don't feel too pressured to do so when you don't have a lot of free time on your hands.

@All-I'll start the new scene this evening after work, unless someone has something else they want to do before moving on.
 
Sync and Davian - Remember that Scarlett gave both Cassie and Kerrish an inspiration that they can use whenever they please :)

Like for killing this door until it dies a horrible horrible death
 
Excellent point. If either of you want to use that retroactively on a recent roll, I'd be alright with that

Edit: I feel the need to clarify, this is not intended as a standing rule; considering that the game was just starting at this point and people might not have remembered, I thought it was reasonable to make an exception, but generally you are going to need to use your inspiration before you roll, not after you've already made a bad roll and want to change it.
 
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Heh. I just remembered that. I'll use it for my next roll against the door (assuming Kerrish doesn't kick it down). :)

EDIT: No I won't - Cassie already has advantage against locks. Maybe expend it when scouting once the door is open, then. :D
 
Sorry for the delays. I'm hoping to continue combat Friday evening, or whenever Davian gets a chance to post; whichever comes first.
 
I forgot that one of Louella's talents adds Agility damage to her basic attack; I've corrected my last post to update the damage the hound has taken.

That said, Jovial, you didn't give Louella a specific grappling attack; should I just treat those mechanically as her basic attack again? It's fine to roleplay them however you want, but I just need to keep track of damage and debuffs and such.
 
Alright, combat is over, and the door is open. You guys can still hang around the area if you want, to roleplay or mess with the doors some more; I'm betting Sync wants to scout ahead before actually moving on. When you guys feel like you're done here, let me know and we'll move on to the next scene.
 
So, I had some thoughts on additional mechanics we could incorporate, and wanted to see whether they're something you all would be interested in.

First off: do you want your characters to level up and grow stronger, aside from getting relics? Since the intention is for the characters to be defeated and replaced fairly frequently, I can understand if you don't want the extra bookkeeping of giving them new talents and such, but it's an option we can explore if you guys want to.

The second thing is, I had an idea to give you all the option to make a heroic last stand if you're so inclined. That is, you would have the option to end combat or overcome an obstacle and move the rest of the party on to the next scene, at the cost of consigning your character to whatever bad end is appropriate for the current circumstances. My biggest concern with the concept is that it lets one player end a scene unilaterally, without consulting the other players, but I thought I would run it by you guys and see if you think it's a concept worth refining.
 
I would certainly be interested in a leveling up mechanic for characters; however, I could also see how that might not be a good idea. For a game where bad ends are supposed to be common having players lose their higher leveled characters might be punishing. We want the bad ends to be fun! That said leveling characters would probably add more incentive to save characters and build bonds. Of course we could just let a player's new character keep the previous character's level but that kind of defeats the purpose of leveling. what does everyone else think?

I'm impartial to the idea of heroic last stands. It could be a good way to prevent TPKs though.
 
If we do level up characters, new characters would probably be introduced stronger-although not necessarily as strong as the experienced heroes.

If it ever comes to the point where a last stand is the only way out of a TPK then I've messed up the game balance badly. Mostly I thought it would be good if 1) someone really wants to play out a bad end with whatever they're currently fighting; or 2) someone needs to drop out of the game mid-dungeon
 
That sounds fine to me!

Those are good points. I don't see any real downside to allowing someone to have a heroic last stand, and giving someone who needs to drop out the option to still help out in one last meaningful way is super awesome! (y)
 
Okay, so, some ideas as to what it might look like for characters to level up. First: I want to tweak the character creation guidelines a bit. Currently, it's set so that your stats add up to +3, you have three talents, and you have one weakness. (And some characters have extra weaknesses with extra talents.) However, since I ended up making stat bonuses and penalties viable talents/weaknesses, I feel like it doesn't make as much sense to divide it up like that. So instead, a starting character's stats, plus their talents, minus their weaknesses, should add up to five. We'll call that a level 5 character. I do also want to keep that every character needs at least one weakness.

So, when you level up, you can either gain +1 to a stat, gain a new talent, or you can do one of each and gain a new weakness. (I think I'm going to rule out doubling up on stat bonuses/talents with a single level up, though.) As for when, exactly, you level up, I can either put together a simple experience system, or we can make it simpler and have everyone who makes it to a checkpoint and returns to the safe haven gain a level.

As for new characters, I think they're going to start one level lower than the weakest current party member--or level 5, if that would be higher. So we'd start to see new recruits getting stronger once existing heroes start to hit level 7 and up.

Thoughts?
 
Levelling up isn't a bad idea at all. Restricting it to a +1 gain with no double-ups works - although I'd go a little further and suggest that, if you're thinking about adding a new Weakness just so you can gain an extra +1 somewhere, you should be justifying that Weakness through prior RP. Just my thought as a table-top GM. :)

I'd also say don't bother making a rudimentary XP system, because that then introduces extra book-keeping and number-crunching you probably don't want to do here. I'd be happier with a simple "Well...you survived long enough to reach the next checkpoint - level up, folks".
 
I would certainly prefer that new weaknesses stem from in-game events and roleplaying. That said, with the corruption and madness themes going on, you don't necessarily need an explanation to develop a new kink or phobia or something. Basically roleplaying it would be preferred, but not required.

On the subject of current events: seems like the majority want to sneak. Davian did say they should be able to start posting again in the next day or two, so if you want to wait for Kerrish to weigh in you guys can. Or, if you would like to go with "majority rules" and start making your stealth checks, go ahead. (As a reminder, it'll be +Agility with disadvantage.)
 
Just want to check: if we go the Sneak option, would Cassie - a rogue who's forte is sneaking - also have disadvantage?
 
Hm. That's kind of a tough call, but I'm going to say no, she doesn't have disadvantage.

And, now I feel the need to explain my reasoning on that decision, and why it's hard, so here goes: Cassie faces the same difficult conditions that are imposing disadvantage, namely a large area to traverse without a lot of cover. She does have greater expertise than the others with stealth, but that's at least partially reflected in her high Agility stat. She doesn't have a talent that would explicitly give her a leg up on this particular situation, so on the one hand I worry if it's unfair to the rest of the party if she gets a bonus that you didn't have to invest in when you made her.

On the other hand, there aren't any explicit stealth mechanics in the rules for you to build such a talent around. (Technically, that's true of lockpicking and pickpocketing as well, but that's kind of a tangent.) And you did give Cassie a stealth-based talent for reconnaissance, so you did invest in stealth even if the ability doesn't explicitly cover this scenario. It's not reasonable to expect people to plan on every scenario and then say "Gotcha" when they miss one. So, since the "interact with obstacle" rules that I'm using for this are pretty freeform and give me the discretion to make such a judgment, I'm going with no, Cassie doesn't have advantage or disadvantage here and can make a normal +Agility roll for this.
 
Sweet, thanks.

I wasn't asking to be adversarial - was just curious. I'd have been equally happy had you said that the Corruption in the air affects Cassie as much as anyone else. :) But having it just negate any advantage she might have is also cool.
 
Just a reminder that both Louella and Cassie have advantage that they can use whenever they please!
Scarlett also has one more usage of Inspiring Beauty this scene.
 
Indeed they do. And please remember, folks, to decide whether to use your inspiration to gain advantage (or negate disadvantage) before you roll.
 
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