Paxon

@bcool999are you on discord at all? There is some additional OOC discussion going on there around roles. It's pretty easy to make a (free) account if you don't have one already. Here's the server: https://discord.gg/wRJtsmhp

23 minutes ago, Arklytte said:

@Paxon: Would it be possible to put the Character Creation rules into the Rules & Lore section, for ease of reference?

Indeedaroo. Done.

Yeah, I'd be fine changing up the designation to be in line with the eventual name. I kind of like Breakers too, but this one is up to you all for sure. I don't think there's a poll available, but we can keep the discussion going here, and figure out a way to vote if a consensus isn't reached more organically.

10 minutes ago, PigLickJF said:

 

If we do go this route, who gets to be this guy? :

Too bad no one made a Bard with a flamethrower. Wasted opportunity 😉 (Though one of you technicians can rig up a Chemical Thrower Grand Gadget still and put a bunch of skill points in perform: strings)

4 hours ago, dalamb said:

Does the tank get renamed every few years as the crew evolves? If so, it could be cool to make up a list of what it was called in the past, in case some rarely-visited town remembers one of the old names. If not it might have a name created by the original crew. That might raise the prominence of names based off the original designation.

I'm open to renaming through the years (up to you players), but I would have at least one of either the crew name or the tank name be consistent and recognizable through the generations. It is entirely possible the tank was rebuilt so much at times that the crew rechristened it with different designations. Or even number it. Boom Box VI; Furious Tia III; Indomitable XII, etc.

One small change I'd like you to make on your background @dalamb: Tanya's family hailing from Greenwood might introduce some complications. I would request that either A) you make it a different town (and I would probably still try to have it show up on the journey), or B) have it be that most of her remaining or immediate family left there around the time she did when she joined the tank. Basically I don't really want someone to have a connection that is both strong and recent (the most likely would have contrived to contact Tanya much more directly if so). It could still be her childhood home and maybe some extended family there, something like that.

🙂

Tankasaurus Rex 😁

Liking the ideas so far. 

A little further inspiration (real tank names apparently):

Sounds good. I'm not forgetting those beanbag rounds, but I know you have a placeholder accounted for, so it should be minimal further tweaking once we have effect nailed down.

The Nomad Bazaar

Welcome to all who are joining the game! I'm moving a few things around as I prepare. You also have a little homework as we prepare to start in earnest. Hopefully you've seen the announcement thread for details (I don't always know who looks at what, since this interface is fairly new to everyone).

In addition, I've added some helpful links to the overview page. Notably, I created a Discord server. I like to use Discord as the primary point for OOC communications, though we'll use both. Let me know if it's a problem or major barrier for you to use discord. The server is here: https://discord.gg/wRJtsmhp

I'll also use a combination of things for battle maps, but Roll20 will almost certainly be one at points where the engagement can be reduced down to a tight grid map, and there are enough moving pieces where that is necessary. When I can get away with it, I'll simply describe ranges and use theater-of-mind.

To address SWs question on new recruits: no, you aren't necessarily new recruits. Though you can be - I'll leave it up to you how long you've been on the crew. But the PCs are the only ones currently on the crew (unless folks really would like me to run some sort of sergeant character, but that's not my inclination), so most of you have probably been around for months to years.

Balance and Character Brief

This is a thread for you to give a quick overview of what your character does mechanically, balance some numbers against each other, and sort out likely roles. 

First, I want everyone to make a placeholder post and you can fill out your information over the next few days. Please refrain from further posts in this thread until everyone at least has their placeholder post up, then you can comment and chat through numbers, roles, etc. Your post should have the following information.

Character Name: Self explanatory

Play Overview: This is a description of how your character aims to perform in and out of combat. Talk about weapons used, preferred ranges, and what their primary and secondary tactics are. Are you focused on ranged attacks? Healing? Traps and explosives? Tanking or melee? Just talk briefly about what you’ll do and how you’ll do it with a brief description. Also quickly some things you are good at out of combat, i.e. skills, face work, crafting, sneaking, that sort of thing.

Numbers:

Usually I would have you put up a series of different levels of numbers (all day stats, buffed stats, nova stats), but for this level of character, I think I’ll just stick with everyone posting their battle-mode stats. Battle-mode should be the numbers you expect to be fighting at in most rounds of battle. So it should include all long-term buffs you expect to have active, and short term buffs and effects that you will almost always activate if you have a round or two to prep for combat, or you will usually activate within the first round of combat. The numbers shouldn’t include edge cases, highly conditional effects, or what you can achieve if you really burn all available resources. Though it would be a nice addition to mention significant boosts you get from effects using martial focus or other limited resources. 

OFFENSE

Melee attack/damage: Attack bonus and damage for your main melee option(s)

Ranged attack/damage: Attack bonus and damage for your main ranged option(s). Many of you have several options here. 

Additional option attack/damage (with DCs if appropriate): Explosives, companion attacks, traps, alchemy, etc.

Combat Maneuvers: Include CMB and bonuses for combat maneuvers you expect to heavily utilize, you don't need to list all.

DEFENSE

AC: list regular/touch/FF of where you expect to normally be.

CMD: CMD with any significant boosts for certain maneuvers.

Saves: Self explanatory

HP: (note regular Temp HP, Delayed Damage, etc)

Special Defenses: Note resistances, DR, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, etc here

GROUP EFFECTS

List any effects that will benefit the rest of the groups, i.e. buffs, healing, etc. You don’t really need to talk about crafting things here

SKILLS

What are the skills you really excel in, and what are your expected modifiers (counting buffs to these skills you would expect to have active when using them). You don't have to list all, just your strong suit stuff.

USING THE TANK

What is the primary role you want to fill on the tank, and/or what your character would be best at.

What secondary roles could you also fill fairly effectively.

Any positions you can’t/won’t do, or would be rather terrible at?

How long has your character been with the crew? Pretty new addition? Or been with it for years?

ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE?

Anything not covered above that it is noteworthy about your character that others should know?

Let's Do This

Welcome to the following players as the new crew:

@PigLickJF as Duende

@Arklytte as Doc

@M3mentoMori as Det

@dalamb as Tanya

@bcool999 as The Stump

@Djacob91 as Martin

Thank you all others who worked through creating characters, I appreciate your time.

Now that we have our crew, there are a few orders of business.

1. Get your characters ready to play. That means finish all unfinished bits of your character sheet, fill in the details, spend your money, etc. It might help a little more knowing who is on the team.
2. I will be creating a balance thread shortly. This is to make sure no one is way off on numbers relative to one another, and also to get an idea of what each other can do without needing to dig through mechanics. This may also help inform the above. It would be fine if you want to make some more significant tweaks if you see an opportunity to more thoroughly fill a role left open, or differentiate from other characters. I'll have instructions there on what to post.
3. I’m going to open up the Prelude IC thread for posting. Please feel free to post here as we are taking care of this other business, to start getting a feel for how your character feels. This is for RP purposes, I don’t really want you doing much of mechanical significance here. No crafting, no starting fights, no doing anything that has a major mechanical impact. When done with the other parts, I’ll start the game in earnest, and what you have on your sheet is your state upon starting the game. If you have, for instance, some grenades in your inventory that you bought with starting funds, you can roleplay having purchased them at the bazaar. You can roleplay other things too, (healing people, stealing, winning an inconsequential fistfight) but they won't impact the resources you start with.
4. The Tank needs a better name than that. So does your Crew. In addition, if there is any customization you want to mess around with on the tank build, I’ll allow that. For instance, if you collectively want to decide on modifying which talents I gave to the Crew, you can. These made sense to me, but I want y’all to have agency and ownership of how the tank and crew operate. Go to this thread to discuss options.
5. Put together a post template before you play. Just get it taken care of by your first post. It doesn’t need to be perfect by any means, this is BALDR and new to us all, but work on something. It should at the very least have: Character name, portrait, a place for OOC comments and actions, somewhere you are tracking your Current AC, Saves, Conditions, and note your perception and stealth scores, and a link to your character sheet.

EDIT: Balance thread now posted. Please post a placeholder, and you can copy paste the requested info template from my post. Wait for everyone to post this before responding or commenting otherwise.

Tank/Crew naming and customization.

I’m just going to make this its own thread, so it doesn’t get too mixed up with other OOC conversation. There are a few decisions to make about the tank and crew now that players are selected.

1. What is the tank called?

It has a designation, but what is it known as in the wastelands. What’s its name? Behemoth? Monster? Dominator? Betsy? Blasty McBoomerson? You decide. If nothing else, everyone throw up a suggestion or a few, and we can vote.

2. What is the crew known as?

The crew likely has a name as well, although it could just be “The Crew of the [Tank Name]”. But might as well have a cool name for a kind of mercenary group that has now existed for generations. Here are some examples from fiction as inspiration: Bridgeburners. The Black Company. Avengers. Inglorious Basterds. Rico’s Roughnecks. Suicide Squad. Again, come up with some suggestions, and you all can pick.

3. Crew Build Options

I selected feats and talents for the Crew entity. These are open for customization. If you all can come to a consensus on some that would be changed for the best, I am open to that. I’m also going to put in place a system for retraining these as we go, which will mostly be devoting hours to as a whole crew. The tank and crew both will be things y’all can keep customizing as we go along.

Quick update: I'll make the announcement later today on which players/characters I'm proceeding with for the game, as I make my final decisions and prepare next steps. There are just barely more finished apps than max spots I'd like to run with, so if you don't make it in, I hope you don't feel singled out. I've appreciated everyone's engagement and time spent putting a character together. I've also sent an admin message to get the game set to Read-Only instead of public, at which point I'll send invites to participants.

Today is the application deadline. I didn't specify a time, but if you have something in the works and intend to finish and submit it today, let me know ASAP. Or forever hold your peace.

8 hours ago, M3mentoMori said:

@Paxon Managed to finish the backstory, so I humbly submit Ariane "Det" McKinnion, PhD in Boom-o-mancy.

 

E: Though I have a mechanical question. Can I make Masterwork Mechanical Ranged Weaponry with the Tech Sphere at all? Like by spending the gold and time to craft the masterwork component?

Fantastic, marked submitted

Answer: Yes, but you'll need the Craft Permanent Gadget feat, and make it into a permanent gadget. A bit expensive of course, but potentially cool. A permanent gadget is considered Masterwork by default, so there you go. If you want to increase its masterwork level, I'm allowing the 1st level of masterwork to be deducted from the cost (that is: a Grand Master weapon costs 1200gp - 300gp = 900gp in addition to the weapon creation cost). I also allowed in the Q&A thread another player (and thus anyone) when using this feat to basically pay full price (double the crafting cost) to begin the game with the item. I think a number of players will end up with the tech sphere, so once we begin I may consider using the expanded crafting rules listed near the bottom of the tech sphere page (and allow players to retrain feats accordingly) but for now just go with the Craft Permanent Gadget feat if you want masterwork tech sphere items.

Feedback: Overall, the makings of an interesting character (and I fully realize most people really need characterization to develop during play) and one that would work well with a group. Here are some questions that came up for me reading what you have of the bio and backstory.

What is it that compels her to keep messing around with explosives despite losing limbs and being horribly scarred by them? Obsessive interest? Irrepressible will and resilience to keep going? A little bit crazy? Maybe a combination of those, or something else entirely. 

It seems like she would probably have been highly valued member of her previous community, and she has/had deep family connections there. So what is it that motivated her to join the crew of the tank? I can see you're still thinking out this part of the background, so this is just more to riff off of. Two more obvious choices are that 1) her community was destroyed by the big warband and she latched onto the crew at some point later, or 2) the tank helped in some way against the warband, and she was enraptured by that possible life instead. I mean hey, lots of other possibilities of blowing things up. 

A little bit related to the above would be that the life of a tanker is full of danger and combat. How does Det approach that aspect of the work? She was a miner, was she also part of the community defenses? Or did the desire to fight come about from whatever the instigating event ends up being? 

I'm not really going to comment on mechanics at this point, but hopefully that gives you something more to go on as far as the background.

2 hours ago, bcool999 said:

@Paxon Okay Packer Green is ready for Submission. I do have some mechanical questions to run by you though. 

1. I would like to request Force Redirection Technique for Packer. 
2. Is the Adopted Trait fine to pick up Racial Traits? Races aren’t really a thing but if I could I would like to pick up the Helpful (Halfling) trait. 
3. For Packer’s Mutation I have Mutation taking the Anthropomorphic Transformation which according to the Transformation feat rules lets me pick a Body or Transformation Talent to apply Anthropomorphic’s 2 traits with. I choose the Protean (Body) and the Close Wounds and Shift Organs Traits if they are acceptable.  Improved Transformation gets Packer Darkvision at this level (fluffed into glowing eyes). 
I also with the drawback of obvious mutation on the Greater Mutation feat took Plant Transformation and Favored Form gets me the Rigid body Trait from Plant for +3 Natural Armor. 
 

As far as Combos are concerned I have a couple going on. 
1. Endure Pain + Quick Recovery. I mean… it’s basically Fast Healing on any damage I can delay. 
2. Bodyguard + Cover Ally (Shield) + Defend Other (Guardian) is how I keep others alive. It gives an adjacent ally + 10 AC (3 Cover Ally, 3 Defend Other, and 4 Bodyguard) at the cost of 2 AoOs spent and an immediate action. Which if it still hits after that I can take the damage in their place. Not including any penalty the enemy may have to attack an ally if they are Challenged. 
3. Guardian’s Challenge + Justice Motif + Mixed Assault are a combo for conditional bonuses to attack and damage. Guardian’s Challenge gives me a +2 to attack and damage for anything I Challenge, Justice Motif gives me a +3 to attack and damage anything that damages me for 1 round (Perhaps because they were challenged to) and Mixed Assault gives a +4 bonus to damage until the end of my next turn if I meet the condition. Total can be a +5 to hit +9 to damage if they all line up on the same creature. 

Great, marking as submitted!

Answers:

1. Force Redirection Technique approved.

2. Adopted/Helpful is fine. I basically removed racial requirements for feats/traits/etc anyway because of origin sphere instead of race. So then yeah, you can just pick up the better halfling version of helpful.

3. Those transformation traits all sound fine to me, and seem to fit your character's mechanics and theme well. 

Thanks for calling out those combos, good to know about, and nothing amiss there for the campaign and power levels of it. The Stump is a good tank and protects his crew well.

On 6/12/2022 at 12:26 PM, Demented said:

Would you allow a Profession (Raider) to ID traditions and spheres like soldier or bodyguard?  It fits my backstory better, and it's basically like a soldier without as much respect for property rights.

Yeah, that makes sense, I would allow that and similar profession rolls appropriate to the setting.

On 6/12/2022 at 12:26 PM, Demented said:

Also, by RAW non-siege ranged weapons do half damage to objects.  The anti-armor rockets and grenades should have a full damage to objects clause put in their descriptions or else be stunningly ineffective at their intended roles.  Maybe the heavy sniper rifle too, since it looks like it's supposed to be a .50-caliber anti-materiel rifle, although it might need to be balanced by adding a requirement for support or a high STR score to fire.

That also makes sense, at the very least the rockets/grenades should do the full damage. I'll make sure that is added into the description. I'm going to have to consider the heavy sniper a bit. It may need to be paired with a special ammo type (for game balance, not reality exactly) in order to do so. Of course there is also a Sniper sphere talent that does that.

Sounds good, marking as submitted. Yeah there will be a chance to work out last details later, just want the broad strokes and a good idea of mechanics, which I think you have fine. I'll consider feedback when I have a better chance than this evening to sit down and take a closer look, and let you know if anything is too far off base. With a kind of custom setting like this, I'm often inclined to add fun things from people's characters into the setting rather than have them rewrite. I'll let you know if anything comes up.

@PigLickJF after a more thorough read-through, I certainly don't see anything that doesn't fit in your character background, or really anything I'm missing to use in making a decision. Overall it was a good read, and I think I got some idea of personality and motivations. I appreciated how you worked in explanations of some of his oaths and other features from the character build. Good app!

16 hours ago, M3mentoMori said:

Character sheet is mostly finished; still tweaking things and picking a last few bits. Choosing gear is gonna be a pain lol. Are you doing pre-game crafting, or should I buy stuff at base cost?

Will take a look later and let you know if I have any feedback/suggestions, I know some bits are placeholder. Though usually the best route is to build/create the character you want to play.

As far as pre-game crafting, no. Buy at base cost.

4 hours ago, Djacob91 said:

Actually, interesting point of clarification, the Tank counts as an ally for the purposes of abilities and such as I understand it. So, things like Warleader Tactics should work on it as an ally, right? Presuming that we are driving it of course. 

In general, yeah. For the most part, the PCs make the rolls anyway, the tank isn't making many rolls for itself so those kinds of bonuses don't do much for it. I'll also limit it to effects that seem reasonable. The only one I see off a quick initial glance that might be problematic is something like Shieldbrothers, for which I wouldn't give the tank an AC bonus for being adjacent to a PC (they're always technically adjacent, or rather, inside, but it doesn't make sense for a PC to provide the tank an AC bonus in that way). I would probably allow it if it was next to an allied vehicle though, or I would probably allow the PC to receive the AC bonus being adjacent to (and outside of) the tank. I'll be a bit stringent on giving the tank AC bonuses through Aid Another as well. But giving the tank a speed boost through Courier's Dash seems reasonable, for instance. 

2 hours ago, dalamb said:

Thanks! A lot of the tactics looked very melee-oriented; I guess I should ask: how much do we expect to be out of the tank?

That may be up to individuals a bit, as I expect a lot of battles will have the possibility of staying in or stepping out of the tank. But you'll definitely want to account for combat out of it. I'm going to try to run a good mix of encounters. Some, staying inside the tank will clearly be best option. Some, you will have to exit the tank and take care of things on-foot. Others will be mixed unit tactics. My best guess is going to be about 60/40 balance of combat turns outside/inside the tank (and again, results will vary based on your build and position you tend to occupy). 

The new applications deadline has passed a few days ago. 

Deadline to finishmeaning mostly done. The fluff should be pretty far along. The mechanics should be there in large part, at least to know the broad strokes of how the character will play, but there will be time to polish up later. and submit your applications will be June 14th. I likely will start taking a close look at those already submitted on the Monday (13th) before that, but you'll have until the end of Tuesday to get it done and submit.

Get working on 'em this weekend! I added a little IC prelude to give a bit of narrative context, and maybe get creative juices flowing a bit.