I started my slayers campaign last weekend. The assumptions are that Lina's family, Rezo and Seiruun do not exist, so the map is a bit different and my PCs get to shine.
I made some changes specifically to handle Slayers and comedy and things are going great so far. The pre-series OVA is done and the heroes have met. Onto the Series.
One thing I'm doing that isn't really standard that could be exported to other games is that for the most part I am giving the players small numbers of drama dice instead of XP after the session. This is a bank so they can accomplish crazy stunts when it matters, but I don't have to worry about them becoming ungodly any time soon, since I allowed them such high starting values.
If I get some time I'll try to post more notes in the future as things occur.
Slayers Alternate campaign
Slayers Alternate campaign
Last edited by Siroh on Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Siroh
-
Father of Dragons
- Worthy Tortoise
- Posts: 60
- Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 10:08 pm
- Location: Phoenix, Arizona
I really like the idea of drama dice instead of experience -- it's an elegant solution to the problem of characters increasing in power in genres where they really shouldn't. You might also consider:
- Giving an occasional drama die for when a player really allows one of their disadvantages to inconvenience them;
- Maybe have the players vote an extra drama die to the most over the top character (it is Slayers, after all) at the end of each session.
"If that's pure logic I'll take vanilla."
I pretty much use the crack up rule. If a player does something so funny and awesome everybody is laughing they get a drama die on the spot. Since almost all of their disadvantages are either going to be triggered by me, or are pure comedic effect I'll probably just lump that into 'good rp' and keep it an end session award.Father of Dragons wrote:I really like the idea of drama dice instead of experience -- it's an elegant solution to the problem of characters increasing in power in genres where they really shouldn't. You might also consider:
- Giving an occasional drama die for when a player really allows one of their disadvantages to inconvenience them;
- Maybe have the players vote an extra drama die to the most over the top character (it is Slayers, after all) at the end of each session.
Siroh
OK, these are the changes I made that are specific to Slayers. All of them are just to try and mimic the anime as much as possible in game. And considering I just watched all of the movies I hadn't seen (3 of them), and all of Next and Try within 3 weeks, I think I have a decent handle on the genre by now.
Convention #1: Magic comes in 3 varieties, being good at one does not make you good at all of them. Also, nobody mortal needs magic above +4 or Power Move above +3. If someone wants to cast Dragu Slave, he or she has to pay the exorbitant endurance fee to give himself or herself a Level 5 power move with their magic.
Convention #2: Saying the entire incantation gives you a bonus Die and a 10 pt endurance discount. You are treated as if you are charging a power move. Quietly chanting to yourself or just 'invoking magic' without at least screaming the name of the spell out loud applies a -2 die penalty. As such I don't double or quadruple the difficulty (something Clay seems to be moving away from anyway)
Convention #3: Magic Use is a free action. I know it's supposed to be a multi-action, but nobody ever screams fireball and misses horribly. It will keep things moving.
Convention #4: At GM fiat, characters can have 2 levels of any ability or negate any weakness, if it's funny. Examples include Lina overturning a fully laden 300 pound table on someone when angry, or Gourry noticing something that would take incredible insight that confounds everybody else. This was basically so everybody wouldn't be taking Hammerspace when they never intend to use it except to be funny.
I also let Black Magic cheat. For 10 extra endurance any sorcerer (unless they have an ineptitude for black magic) can cast a major black magic spell. I realize this just cancels part of the benefit of convention #2.
Convention #1: Magic comes in 3 varieties, being good at one does not make you good at all of them. Also, nobody mortal needs magic above +4 or Power Move above +3. If someone wants to cast Dragu Slave, he or she has to pay the exorbitant endurance fee to give himself or herself a Level 5 power move with their magic.
Convention #2: Saying the entire incantation gives you a bonus Die and a 10 pt endurance discount. You are treated as if you are charging a power move. Quietly chanting to yourself or just 'invoking magic' without at least screaming the name of the spell out loud applies a -2 die penalty. As such I don't double or quadruple the difficulty (something Clay seems to be moving away from anyway)
Convention #3: Magic Use is a free action. I know it's supposed to be a multi-action, but nobody ever screams fireball and misses horribly. It will keep things moving.
Convention #4: At GM fiat, characters can have 2 levels of any ability or negate any weakness, if it's funny. Examples include Lina overturning a fully laden 300 pound table on someone when angry, or Gourry noticing something that would take incredible insight that confounds everybody else. This was basically so everybody wouldn't be taking Hammerspace when they never intend to use it except to be funny.
I also let Black Magic cheat. For 10 extra endurance any sorcerer (unless they have an ineptitude for black magic) can cast a major black magic spell. I realize this just cancels part of the benefit of convention #2.
Siroh
Now we get to something you can help me with. I came up with the following perks and flaws for power moves. They are pretty Slayers specific.
Extra Collateral (+0) - Your attack does far more collateral damage than it ordinarily would. Attacks with this Perk treat their damage ratings as twice normal when checking the Collateral Damage chart on page 82 of OVA. In addition, the radius should be considered to be 10 feet per Level of the Ability. Every character within the collateral damage radius may make a Defense check penalized by -1 per Level of the Ability as well. Those who succeed escape being trapped in the radius. Even those within the radius take no damage directly from the attack although they are often knocked back. If the surrounding area is damaged enough they may take damage from that, or get buried in rubble etc. It is considered a Perk because it causes so much destruction, but has no cost because allies may not be exempted from its effects.
Less Collateral (+5) - Your attack does less collateral damage than it ordinarily would. Attacks with this perk treat their damage ratings as 2 less per Level of the Perk when checking the Collateral Damage chart on page 82 of OVA. In addition, the only reason to check the chart is for a direct hit on a structure or a miss in combat.
Phasing (+5) - Your attack does not stop when it hits the first target, it continues on and can hit multiple targets in a line. It is up to the Game Master to determine if a secondary target is targetable. That target, if a character, then gets to Defend itself versus your original attack roll with a -1 die penalty.
Ultimate (+10) - Your attack is of a class higher than normal. When it hits, this attack has the potential to ignore game results and simply change the plot then and there. For example, if the attack has Entangle it might last for weeks or years, if it is a purely damaging spell it might obliterate whatever it hit by more than a minimal success.
So I came up with this right now for Dragu Slave:
Dragu Slave (Ruby Eye Shabranigdu)
Power Move +5 (Damage 20, Armor Piercing x4, Extra Collateral (Radius 50’, -5 to Defend), Extra Accuracy, Extra Damage x5, Empty Hands, Open to Attack, Ranged, Slow, Ultimate, 50 Endurance)
Example: Lina Inverse throws Dragu Slave on an enemy, her attack roll of 7 dice comes up is a 6 5 5 5 3 2 1, for a total of 15. The target she is aiming at has 5 4 4 1 1, for a total of 8. She beats the target by 7. Dragu Slave does 20 damage base. With her success it does 140 damage. Because Dragu Slave is an Ultimate spell the GM is encouraged to have it obliterate targets it is effective on.
I guess what I'm asking is, "Is there a better way to do this?" I know there is stuff that isn't in the core book, but I'm trying to do it in the core before I try modifying anything else absurdly.
Extra Collateral (+0) - Your attack does far more collateral damage than it ordinarily would. Attacks with this Perk treat their damage ratings as twice normal when checking the Collateral Damage chart on page 82 of OVA. In addition, the radius should be considered to be 10 feet per Level of the Ability. Every character within the collateral damage radius may make a Defense check penalized by -1 per Level of the Ability as well. Those who succeed escape being trapped in the radius. Even those within the radius take no damage directly from the attack although they are often knocked back. If the surrounding area is damaged enough they may take damage from that, or get buried in rubble etc. It is considered a Perk because it causes so much destruction, but has no cost because allies may not be exempted from its effects.
Less Collateral (+5) - Your attack does less collateral damage than it ordinarily would. Attacks with this perk treat their damage ratings as 2 less per Level of the Perk when checking the Collateral Damage chart on page 82 of OVA. In addition, the only reason to check the chart is for a direct hit on a structure or a miss in combat.
Phasing (+5) - Your attack does not stop when it hits the first target, it continues on and can hit multiple targets in a line. It is up to the Game Master to determine if a secondary target is targetable. That target, if a character, then gets to Defend itself versus your original attack roll with a -1 die penalty.
Ultimate (+10) - Your attack is of a class higher than normal. When it hits, this attack has the potential to ignore game results and simply change the plot then and there. For example, if the attack has Entangle it might last for weeks or years, if it is a purely damaging spell it might obliterate whatever it hit by more than a minimal success.
So I came up with this right now for Dragu Slave:
Dragu Slave (Ruby Eye Shabranigdu)
Power Move +5 (Damage 20, Armor Piercing x4, Extra Collateral (Radius 50’, -5 to Defend), Extra Accuracy, Extra Damage x5, Empty Hands, Open to Attack, Ranged, Slow, Ultimate, 50 Endurance)
Example: Lina Inverse throws Dragu Slave on an enemy, her attack roll of 7 dice comes up is a 6 5 5 5 3 2 1, for a total of 15. The target she is aiming at has 5 4 4 1 1, for a total of 8. She beats the target by 7. Dragu Slave does 20 damage base. With her success it does 140 damage. Because Dragu Slave is an Ultimate spell the GM is encouraged to have it obliterate targets it is effective on.
I guess what I'm asking is, "Is there a better way to do this?" I know there is stuff that isn't in the core book, but I'm trying to do it in the core before I try modifying anything else absurdly.
Siroh