Matt Lavery wrote:
A couple ideas for getting the group together: One, have them all be riding a train together, when it gets attacked by something nasty. Assuming they help to defend the train, have a muckraker do a big story on them. The "Mysterious Character" could then read about them and decide to send them each a job offer of sorts. A second idea would involve something happening to friends/loved ones (for example, a vampire attack), something where they as individuals would be trying to find the creature responsible, and that search would also make them bump into each other, since they are all looking for the same creature. The "Mysterious Character" would again hear about them through some sort of underworld sources, and could then offer them all a job.Fellow Marshals:
I?ve got two questions, but here?s the setting:
My players have made characters with very rich, but very diverse, backgrounds. I?ve been in parties before where the GM has forced the character histories to cross, and contrives some way for the characters to already be working together. It works, but it?s not what I want to do with my posse. So far I have a British Bio-Mechanical Mad Scientist bent on ?perfecting the human condition?, a Gunslinger of the ?I?ve been framed for my parents murder and now I?m after the real killer? variety, a stereotypical drinkin? whorin? smokin? ornery gunslinger, a Huckster of the ?I wanna be a huckster ?cause spellcasters are cool? variety (don?t expect to much role-playing depth from this one), and a Saloon Gal who?s not bad with a gun, but uses seduction and persuasion to get men to do her bidding. There may be one more player, but that?s an unknown at the moment.
I need some way to get these players together and working for a ?Mysterious Character? without contriving it or pulling something like, ?You?re sitting at the bar when you notice a guy walk in with a flashing light over his head that says, ?I?m a Player Character too, work with me.?? Any good ideas? I don?t want to use any adventures from the books, because I have very avid readers in my party, and they can?t seem to resist reading things they shouldn?t. I know kind of what I want to do with the Mysterious Character, but I want to use an intermediary to start with. Eventually I want to build them up to an ?Oh crud, we?re in way over our heads,? sort of moment, but I?m drawing a total blank on the hook. Any ideas?
Second, does anyone out there have some good modifications that speed up the combat system. Last time I ran a game, we got so bogged down in minutia that combat seemed to take forever. Anyone have any handy quick reference charts or spreadsheets the I can put on my PDA or something? I *don?t* want to use d20 conversions? I want to maintain the feel and the elegance of the original system, but I need some streamlining. Any help would be appreciated.
To speed up combat, there are several things you can do. First of all, have all the players reveal their cards at the start of the round, so you can skip over numbers that no one has a card for rather than go all the way through the numbers. Also, I am a firm believer in giving a time limit to how long someone can debate what they are doing. If a player's card comes up, and they don't know what they want to do, give them a few seconds, and if they don't figure something out, tell them to sleeve that card while you move on to the next person. For most bad guys, don't roll quickness every time, just give them a card or two based on what their Quickness stat is. Also, don't worry about all the different hit locations for the mooks/peons/fodder bad guys. Have a player roll hit location, but only to see if they get a head or gizzards shot and thus do extra damage. I use a set of small poker chips to track how many total wounds a bad guy has taken, and once he has taken 5, he's out. He may not be dead, but he is too wounded to continue fighting. Please note that for big bad guys, like leader types, you should still roll quickness, keep track of hit locations, etc. But for the mooks and such, just do it the fast and easy way.
--Dave
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com