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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Dust's Avatar

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    Default FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Before we Begin:
    This thread is exactly what it says in the title; a campaign journal for a tabletop roleplaying game. Let's make this a thread that doesn't need the mods to constantly doublecheck for inappropriate content. Please use your best judgement when replying.

    -------------

    We’ve all heard the horror stories of the game that is FATAL, its nine-hundred-plus pages of disturbed prepubescent content vile enough to have earned the system the title of ‘worst RPG of all time.’ But ever since I read the rather scathing reviews as well as Byron Hall’s rebuttal, I came to the conclusion that Mr. Hall had a point, and not the one perpetually pushing at the zipper of his jeans. The reviews were always amusing and appalling in equal measure, but one after another they failed to do the most important thing, the thing that Mr. Hall mentioned several times in his refutations.

    None of them had actually PLAYED the game.

    Don’t get me wrong –why would any of them want to, especially when just flipping through the FATAL book was enough to make them want to wretch, when the ‘historically-accurate’ text of the game molested everything that remained pure and good about RPGs.

    But the fact remains that Bryon Hall was right – you can’t claim a review as a valid assessment of a product if you’ve never played it. Exalted, at a glance, turns many players off immediately, and yet it has a huge fan following. White Wolf’s ‘Scion’ series looks amazing, but a few game sessions of actual tabletop play reveal that it was poorly tested. Could it be, then, that FATAL does indeed have merits as a game, that actually using it as a system and not an object of mockery could result in something worthwhile?

    Ever since then, the five little words on the back cover of FATAL (written in blood-red underneath the image of a nude woman strapped to a sacrificial table looking bored and confused, or perhaps as if she just smelled something unpleasant and was wondering who did it) have haunted me: Play FATAL, if you dare.

    And so, with much hesitation and lots of internal apologies, I gathered a few friends (who, I am told, are seriously rethinking that position after this game) and introduced them to the system we’d be using for the next several weeks. To my astonishment, none of them had ever heard of it, which only made things infinitely more tempting.

    Join me as I GM a game of FATAL for my unsuspecting pals. Because you never know; it MIGHT be good.

    <- Byron Hall, creator of FATAL RPG
    Last edited by Dust; 2010-05-24 at 06:56 AM. Reason: Title change

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    PirateGuy

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Arh! FATAL!

    Campaign Journal? Might be interesting to see what happens... Or it might be squick.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Kaun's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    this will be interesting.

    *grabs pop corn*
    Aside from "have fun", i think the key to GMing is putting your players into situations where they need to make a choice that has no perfect outcome available. They will hate you for it, but they will be back at the table session after session.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    1. This thread will most likely be taken away to the mystic Mod-only subforum preety soon.

    2. In it's latest incarnation it is over 1000 pages long.

    3. I doubt that even Byron Hall played his game.

    Enjoy rolling 10D100/5-1 for all your stats and stuff. And Writing all your things into your 8 page character sheet. Oh, and losing all your friends for surprising them with a FATAL game.
    **** Photobucket ; RIP avatars

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    I've never understood the argument that you have to experience something to judge it.

    I don't have to eat all of an apple to know it's bad; seeing the rotten sagging bits on the surface is enough for me.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Goblin

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    I believe the problem is that it doesn't actually work. As someone who managed to read most of the rulebook, I think I'm right in saying that the rules are contradictory and incomprehensible. You couldn't play a game of John Doe's diary in Seven.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Orc in the Playground
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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Quote Originally Posted by Bayar View Post
    1. This thread will most likely be taken away to the mystic Mod-only subforum preety soon.

    2. In it's latest incarnation it is over 1000 pages long.

    3. I doubt that even Byron Hall played his game.

    Enjoy rolling 10D100/5-1 for all your stats and stuff. And Writing all your things into your 8 page character sheet. Oh, and losing all your friends for surprising them with a FATAL game.
    And if the last one doesn't make you lose all you're friends, surely a randomly rolled potion will.
    Hey people, I can see you signed your name. You don't need to do this. I can see it on the side, right above your avatar.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Titan in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Quote Originally Posted by Touchy View Post
    And if the last one doesn't make you lose all you're friends, surely a randomly rolled potion circumference of the sphincter will.
    Fixed. Ancient romans ate rotten fruits.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Claudius Maximus View Post
    Also fixed the money issue by sacrificing a goat.
    Quote Originally Posted by subject42 View Post
    This board needs a "you're technically right but I still want to crawl into the fetal position and cry" emoticon.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yukitsu View Post
    I define [optimization] as "the process by which one attains a build meeting all mechanical and characterization goals set out by the creator prior to its creation."
    Praise for avatar may be directed to Derjuin.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    I suspect I can still do a FATAL Campaign Journal without being graphic or off-color. You'll just need to use your imaginations to fill in the details.

    I once heard about a campaign taking place down at our local gaming shop, where the players were given only two choices on how to respond to any given situation, and they were things like “Do you agree with the beautiful princess that you’re an idiot in order to try and curry favour, or do you agree while attempting to kiss her hand?”
    The villain of the campaign was apparently a gladiator named Farticus, who was assisted by his personal healer, an excommunicated priest from the Fartican. The first game session had the male PCs hurl rotten tomatoes at the only other female NPC, after she disguised herself as a beauty contestant in order to dig up some information.

    After reading the book cover to cover, I realized I’d rather be playing in that campaign than GMing a game of FATAL. Bryon’s face leers at me from the book.

    I’ve managed to snag four players for this ‘game’, two male and two female. A brief introduction of each, real names changed to protect the guilty.

    Rock – Loud, crude and combat-focused. He shows up to games wearing dirty plaid with a half-empty bottle of whisky in his pickup truck. Theoretically, if the game was designed for a target audience, it might be this guy. He’s got a penchant for aiming for the genitals in combat.

    Achilles – Gaming Stereotypes do not exist here. He’s independently wealthy, doesn’t own a single book or supplement (and instead borrows from his pals), looks like he should be in modelling and enjoys a happy long-term, no-drama relationship. Named because his characters always have one fatal flaw that they seem incapable of ever improving upon that ultimately leads to their (or the game’s!) downfall – they’re childish and prone to temper-tantrums, or suffer from a greedy streak a mile wide, or flee at the first sign of trouble, or secretly have a nuclear warhead connected to their heart.

    Blue - Japanese-culture loving gal who doesn’t for one second put up with any of Rock - she often interrupts games to hit him with a book or popcan for his most recent sexist remark. She prefers social storylines and intrigue to anything else, and quickly gets bored if there’s no betrayal or manipulation going on. There’s a long-running joke that she always plays characters smaller than their weapons.

    Mouse - She just likes the social aspect of gaming, and doesn’t like getting involved too much in the game because she enjoys giving the others the spotlight. Her characters are usually supportive healing types, cheering on the heroes as she stays out of the limelight as much as possible. Quickly learns new systems.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Right, let’s do this proper. The first thing I point out is that I’m not called a GM – in FATAL, I’m the Aedile (pronounced EE-dile). I tell them that historically, an Aedile was the Roman official in charge of games. My group nods enthusiastically, and part of my brain is wondering if that’s true or not.

    I start feeling terrible for putting them through this, not for the first time.

    The second thing I do is read a passage out of the book’s introductory chapter almost word-for-word, informing them that FATAL can be a graphically violent game, may include sexual situations as a backdrop, a combination of both, or other situations that may deviate from more social norms. This is for the sake of being historically accurate. However, I add as I notice Blue start narrowing her eyes at me menacingly, the game can be played without ever bumping into any sort of situations like this, they just happen to be in the book for completeness sake.

    It comes time for character creation, and I walk the four players through each step. First, racial selection – the book suggests rolling randomly for race, which we’ll be doing. However, if any character gets a racial result that wouldn’t work well as part of the group, they may reroll until they get one that does.

    I grimace as I flip the page to racial descriptions, as the first picture included in the book is members of each race standing side-by-side as normal...though in the nude. Awkward, but I can choke that down.

    The PC-creation process is mentioned in the book as being some of the most fun you can have in FATAL, which is demoralizing as the process takes close to three hours, and we skipped roughly half of it and didn’t bother to calculate essentials such as Foot Size, Head/Fist Circumference, or the like. I did manage to go by the book as much as possible and we spent an hour figuring out each character’s BMI, height and weight, skin and hair color, and to figure out their most attractive/repulsive features. Heck, we spent a solid twenty minutes rolling out what hair type and thickness each character has. I even made them roll 1d1000000 (six ten-sided dice) to determine if the one-in-a-million chance that they might be a Freak of Nature with an extra nipple or the like. None of them are.

    The meek Mouse has to roll a half-dozen times before getting a race that won’t kill every other member of the party on sight. (I did not mention WHY, only read most of the racial descriptions quietly to myself - for example, Bugbears are pirating sorts that attack coastal towns in order to ravish...and then devour....humans. I didn't think she needed to know this.)

    The final results are as follows.



    Rock is playing a weak Human apprentice Soapmaker who secretly wishes to become a girdlemaker. He has a large chest and a wheezy voice. His long, flowing locks completely offset this and help give him a ridiculously enormous Facial Charisma modifier. The mole on his right cheek makes people assume that he is often the one ‘dumped’ in a love triangle, and he has a deathly allergy to eggs. The game declares he is likely to ‘sleep with his best friend’s spouse and then get caught’ and has low ethics and morals. For each hundred pounds of soap made, he earns 1 AP (Advancement Points). He has a high Spitting skill and enjoys forgery and gambling.


    Achilles is playing a Old Human introvert with sexy lips and dumb eyebrows. He is an unhappily-married Baron with only two hundred silver pieces in the royal treasury (enough to buy a single book). He has high Enunciation and common sense, and low spatial intelligence. He can’t do math and has a monotone voice, but could cast spells 32% faster than most people...that is, if he was capable of spellcasting, which he isn’t (which is a good thing, since spellcasters are ravished and then burned alive.) He doesn’t give a whit one way or the other when it comes to ethics, and suffers from a mental disorder that gives him pleasure from pulling out his own hair. Due to his age, the number of skills he has DWARFS the rest of the party by a vast margin.
    Barons do not earn AP – instead, every six months (and every seven years) the local economy is checked for an increase. An increase of 5% or more allows the Baron to increase an entire occupational level.


    Blue is playing an Infant Bugbear with an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. She is Neutrally Ethical with Immoral tendencies, and has a both choleric and melancholic temperament. As the book suggests in the racial slurs section, she refers to humans as Poople, not People. Given that she is only a few years old, we agree that this is rather adorable. “She’s like an Ewok!,” Blue laughs.
    However, FATAL does not agree. Due to her age, the infant bugbear has six-inch ‘balding’ hair, giving her a rather large negative modifier to facial charisma. Furthermore, her nasal mole proves that she’ll be subject to large financial losses later in life. She’s got a knack for languages and analytical reasoning despite this, and, even though she isn’t even three years old yet, that’s when her earliest memory took place. Blue has asked me if she can be a companion to Mouse.


    Mouse is playing a Light Elf Herbalist Schoolteacher with an ego a mile wide and a ‘low average speech rate’. Her skill with Mycology and Plants (but not Trees) is uncontested. It only takes her two seconds to stand up from a fall. Whenever she uses an herb successfully, she earns 10 AP. She can smell wine on someone’s breath from 32 feet away while indoors.
    While it’s probably better that she ended up with an Elf instead of a Troll or somesuch, it’s problematic for me because Elves can’t venture far from their forest without dying. Great.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Dust's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Other than Rock, all three of them are incredibly near-sighted. None of them can purchase basic starting adventurer’s gear. In fact, the prices listed for everything are so incredibly, mind-bogglingly convoluted that the game seems DETERMINED not to allow anyone to play a mercenary, despite it saying earlier that such was the most common occupation for players who are able to choose their own career path. (A career path can only be chosen before a certain age which you have less than a 10% chance of being.)

    To continue to drive this point home, a character has an EXTREMELY small chance of being wealthy nobility like Achilles. Barons roll 4d100 to determine their wealth, and a single two-handed archery bow costs 400sp. Arrows are a silver each. A suit of platemail armor costs 20,000sp.


    I browse through the book as they create characters, finding myself feeling ill as I glance at the Gore charts and the spell and magic item lists, but managing to remember that this whole experiment is for SCIENCE and IMPARTIALNESS!

    I peruse the suggested starting adventure, which has an evil sorcerer (with a name synonymous with a bodily fluid) mass-teleport the players’ entire village (despite the fact that they might not even be the same species or caste) in order to brutally murder them with his Dagger of Soul-Stealing +63, which only requires 479 more souls before it grants the wielder godhood. When the PCs arrive without any sort of weaponry whatsoever, the wizard is staggering around drunkenly in his corpse-littered courtyard singing heavy metal.
    He has the following spells prepared: Ascertain Properties, Beguile Enemy, Bestow Blistering Boils, Detect Air, Detect Ether, Detect Lie, Detect Magic, Determine Magic, Electrical Field, Flight, Force Fear, Force Mass Fear, Force Missile, Force Rancor, Force Slumber, Greater Healing, Heating, Immutability, Lesser Electrical Discharge, Lesser Healing, Lesser Mending, Lesser Vulnerability to Fire, Lesser Vulnerability to Weapon, Mass Bidding, Mass Teleportation, Possession, Protection from Discipline (Ether), Protection from Fire, Re-Animation, Regeneration, Seal Orifice, Stronger than Before, and Teleportation, as well as a handful of ones I can't type here.

    Mouse asks me if this will be more of a dungeon-crawl or a political adventure, and I wheedle my way out of the question. I realize at this point that there’s no real ‘monsters’ in the book, only two or three pre-assembled representatives of each evil race that I can use.

    We call it a night and pack up. I’ve begun to realize how sickeningly awful this is going to be. I wonder if my friends will ever let me GM again.

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Dust's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Game Session #1

    Achilles shows up for the game early, and he’s not impressed. He did some research on FATAL in the week between character creation and now, and wants to know what on earth I’m thinking. I explain my theory to him and he seems both amused and intrigued, but annoyed that I’m using them as ‘guinea pigs.” He states that its probably worse on me than on them, having to read the book and LEARN the rules, and volunteers to go along with my ridiculous plan anyway. He warns me that I can’t let Blue EVER see the book.

    The others arrive and munch on pizza (even though they ‘re quickly realizing that it’s an obvious bribe) while I set the stage.

    The Baron Achilles has fallen on hard times recently – a minor drought and insects have damaged crops, which in turn meant he needed to spend more and more money from his personal treasury to keep the lords and ladies of his shire fed. But the situation has only gotten steadily worse, and the Baron’s once-loyal vassals have begun to turn against him. The Baron’s wife accuses her husband of incompetence, and takes matters into her own hands by putting out a notice that any man, woman or beast able to solve the shire’s food crisis will be well-rewarded, given land and a title as well as a portion of the remaining treasury.
    Word of this has stretched across the countryside, past the rolling hills of the Tolian Plains, past the elven home-forest of Aediel’tar. It has even reached the ears of common serfs in a small hamlet, where Rock tires laboriously away. Despite his big dreams, he seems to be stuck making soap until his last breath.

    But when Rock’s elder brother comes up with a scheme to cheat the Baron out of the reward, the apprentice soapmaker finds himself intrigued. They’d pose as rainmakers, with Rock creating a signed, official-looking note from a neighbouring kingdom that declared them authentic and thanked them for their services. As an unethical gambling sort, Rock found himself tempted by the proposition and agreed to travel with his brother. They gathered a wagon of their wordly possessions and set out westward.

    On their way through the Aediel’tar woods, the two brothers were ambushed by a quartet of kobolds, who attacked viciously with small axes and whips. The brothers, who were unarmed, were forced to leave their wagon behind and flee deeper into the woods. Rock’s sibling was injured and the younger brother was forced to seek assistance. The Light Elves in the woods – though wary of strangers – were kindly and took in both humans. Rock’s brother was treated by their herbalist, and he met both Mouse and Blue and took a liking to the latter immediately. Mouse demanded Rock explain the situation, the rather nervous guest explained he and his brother were weather-controllers of no small skill. Mouse passed this knowledge on to the elves, who found this dubious but also concerning – if what Rock said was true, then getting in his good graces would benefit all of them. When Rock and his brother were granted land, they could request the section nearest the forest, which would prevent any more of the Baron’s vassals from expanding their territory outward and hunting in the forest, trespassing and encroaching on ground that didn’t belong to them.

    Mouse made up some excuse about Rock’s brother needing further herbal help and begun travelling with them, bringing the orphan bugbear along as well.

    I was feeling good about the plot thus far – it seemed ‘historically accurate’ by FATAL’s standards, included the racial selection, and was by the rules so far. At this point Mouse mentioned she received 10 AP for using a herb on Rock’s brother, and I agreed this was accurate. She asked how much AP is required to ‘level up’ and I started flipping – turns out the number is set by the GM. Remembering Rock’s 1 AP per hundred pounds of soap, I informed her that the magic number was only 20. Once a character ‘gains a level,’ they can switch occupations...in the case of Rock, two thousand pounds of soap would allow him to pursue the life more to his liking. He seemed to realize this, and grumbled about the rate – I can hardly blame him, especially when I saw mages gained TRIPLE the AP ‘for every Magic Point spend when casting spells while in danger, or towards a specific purpose,’ for a total of anywhere between 15 and 5400 AP for a single spell.

    I browse through the book and realize that the crafting charts are minimal at best, but there’s also no price given for soap. I check again; aged bodily fluids, three different type of capes, pleasure devices.....but no soap. I quickly rule that it’s the same weight and price as a candle (a good base due to simple numbers), so 1sp for 1kg, made in one day. A few more calculations to account for fatigue, and I learn that Rock would need to spend just under four years working steadily away at this.

    FOUR YEARS in order to gain the same amount of ‘exp’ that the player to his left would earn simply from using two healing herbs.

    The player snaps (and rightly so) and requests I allow him to reroll his occupation or pick something different. You can probably imagine me cringing as I tell him to reroll. Cheesemaker. De-louser. Papermaker. Dicemaker. Vintner. Wench. He says he’s sick of rolling and wants to be a fighter, but then learns his low physical attributes prevent him from being anything more taxing than a Bookbinder. I am informed that FATAL is ‘effin’ dumb.’ And he returns to his pizza, astonished. Achilles looks smug.

    We pack up for the week there, and it'll be several days before the next update.
    Last edited by Dust; 2010-05-24 at 06:53 AM.

  13. - Top - End - #13
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Well, I'm (morbidly) interested in seeing how this goes. You and your friends are pretty brave to actually tackle this thing.

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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Greenish's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Don't say you weren't warned. You probably should have warned your (future-ex-) friends, but then by now they should be getting the picture.

    As an aside:
    Quote Originally Posted by Dust View Post
    He’s independently wealthy, doesn’t own a single book or supplement (and instead borrows from his pals)
    That's how you stay wealthy.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Claudius Maximus View Post
    Also fixed the money issue by sacrificing a goat.
    Quote Originally Posted by subject42 View Post
    This board needs a "you're technically right but I still want to crawl into the fetal position and cry" emoticon.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yukitsu View Post
    I define [optimization] as "the process by which one attains a build meeting all mechanical and characterization goals set out by the creator prior to its creation."
    Praise for avatar may be directed to Derjuin.

  15. - Top - End - #15
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Dust's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    They didn't know at the time.

    Only one of them has seen the book at this point - I printed it all off and stuck it in a binder, and the ENTIRELY RANDOM character creation means they don't technically need to read it.

    (I should add that the campaign is well and truly finished now, and friendships were retained. I was informed that I should bring extra character sheets to the next game I play in 'just in case!' but otherwise no harm was done. We've been playing together for close to a decade, and vindictive is not the word best used to describe us.)
    Last edited by Dust; 2010-05-24 at 07:13 AM.

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    Lord Loss's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Run. Run While You still can...

    I will be watching this.
    Last edited by Lord Loss; 2010-05-24 at 06:52 AM.
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    Also, if anyone has any sort of problem at all that they feel like talking about, my PM box is open.

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    You got peopleto play FATAL without warning them? That's just cruel.

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    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Seriously, man: tell your colleagues. There's a good chance they will be seriously pissed off otherwise. I mean, imagine this situation:

    "Why are you making us play this horrible game?"
    "Well, actually, just as an experiment, so I can write about it on the internet."

    Does that sound like something that you'd like to hear from your GM?
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  19. - Top - End - #19
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Greenish's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: Actual Gameplay

    Quote Originally Posted by Dust View Post
    He has the following spells prepared: … Force Rancor,…
    That'll be TPK all alone:
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    That's just a normal one. Imagine what the Force version must be.
    Last edited by Greenish; 2010-05-24 at 06:57 AM.
    Quotes:
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    Quote Originally Posted by Claudius Maximus View Post
    Also fixed the money issue by sacrificing a goat.
    Quote Originally Posted by subject42 View Post
    This board needs a "you're technically right but I still want to crawl into the fetal position and cry" emoticon.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yukitsu View Post
    I define [optimization] as "the process by which one attains a build meeting all mechanical and characterization goals set out by the creator prior to its creation."
    Praise for avatar may be directed to Derjuin.

  20. - Top - End - #20
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Planetar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Please please keep on updating this. This is one of the funniest campaign journals I've ever read.
    I'm the author of the Alex Verus series of urban fantasy novels. Fated is the first, and the final book in the series, Risen, is out as of December 2021. For updates, check my blog!

  21. - Top - End - #21
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    NecromancerGuy

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    I'm intrigued by an actual effort to run FATAL. I'll be watching.
    Iron Chef in the Playground veteran since Round IV. Play as me!


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  22. - Top - End - #22
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Matthew's Avatar

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Saph View Post
    Please please keep on updating this. This is one of the funniest campaign journals I've ever read.
    Seconded.
    It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.

    – Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), Tsurezure-Gusa (1340)

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    I have to say, incredibly brave idea, but WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL THEM?!?

  24. - Top - End - #24
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    MindFlayer

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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Tinydwarfman View Post
    I have to say, incredibly brave idea, but WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL THEM?!?
    Because knowing will influence the test and invalidate it. Make sure to serve cake at the completion of the test as a reward.
    Boats are like nuts, the outside is hard but the inside is usually good to eat.


    And remember, things can always get worse.

  25. - Top - End - #25
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew View Post
    Seconded.
    Tertiated?
    The "official" FATAL leveling numbers, are, iirc, 500 * 2^(current level), but I'm not at all sure about that.
    Thelas

    Ambiguously aligned Domain Wizard (Divination) 9/Iot7V 7 at your service.

    If I am playing in or running a game and I don't seem to be showing up, PM me. Please.

  26. - Top - End - #26
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Kobold

    Join Date
    Aug 2007
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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Dust View Post
    They didn't know at the time.

    Only one of them has seen the book at this point - I printed it all off and stuck it in a binder, and the ENTIRELY RANDOM character creation means they don't technically need to read it.

    (I should add that the campaign is well and truly finished now, and friendships were retained. I was informed that I should bring extra character sheets to the next game I play in 'just in case!' but otherwise no harm was done. We've been playing together for close to a decade, and vindictive is not the word best used to describe us.)
    I seriously doubt this part here.

    You printed up almost 1000 pages. Then you stuck them into a binder. Well, my romanian dictionary has about 1300 pagesand about 8 centimeters thick. You printed all of this.

    Was it worth it ? Hell if I can't think about better things to spend my money on. (if I'd do this at my local printing shop, it would cost about...4 RON for 2 color covers, 0.3 ron for every 2 pages, 13.5 for the binding, lets just estimate 287,5 RON for 2 covers and 900 pages. That is about 82 $)
    **** Photobucket ; RIP avatars

  27. - Top - End - #27
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    SaintRidley's Avatar

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    Jun 2009
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    The land of corn
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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    I can't decide if this is the single bravest act in the history of mankind or the single stupidest one.

    Either way, I yearn for more.
    Linguist and Invoker of Orcus of the Rudisplorker's Guild
    Quote Originally Posted by The Giant View Post
    Fantasy literature is ONLY worthwhile for what it can tell us about the real world; everything else is petty escapism.
    Quote Originally Posted by The Giant View Post
    No author should have to take the time to say, "This little girl ISN'T evil, folks!" in order for the reader to understand that. It should be assumed that no first graders are irredeemably Evil unless the text tells you they are.

  28. - Top - End - #28
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Dogmantra's Avatar

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    Jul 2008
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    With Uncle Crassius

    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    If you ever get arrested, just show them this thread. Plead insanity.

    They'll let you off.
    BANG → !
    OH LOOK AT HER/.../YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN/YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN/YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN MEAN/RICHARDS

  29. - Top - End - #29
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Greenish's Avatar

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    Feb 2010
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    Finland

    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Thelas View Post
    Tertiated?
    Quartered, against my better judgement.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Claudius Maximus View Post
    Also fixed the money issue by sacrificing a goat.
    Quote Originally Posted by subject42 View Post
    This board needs a "you're technically right but I still want to crawl into the fetal position and cry" emoticon.
    Quote Originally Posted by Yukitsu View Post
    I define [optimization] as "the process by which one attains a build meeting all mechanical and characterization goals set out by the creator prior to its creation."
    Praise for avatar may be directed to Derjuin.

  30. - Top - End - #30
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Dust's Avatar

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    Canada, Eh!
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    Default Re: FATAL: A Campaign Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by Bayar View Post
    You printed up almost 1000 pages. Then you stuck them into a binder.
    It didn't cost me a cent to print, and you seem to be forgetting that paper has both a front and a back side. So, 500-ish pages, yes. I don't like gaming books sitting on a computer, and the price was right. Sort of missing the point though, aren't we?

    (Though I have to say, the prices you quoted me are cheap. It costs 0.25 canadian for a printed color page in my area, so if I was to actually pay someone to get purchased pdfs converted to physical form it would end up being $80 for about 300 pages. But I digress.)
    Last edited by Dust; 2010-05-24 at 08:38 AM.

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