Recent Posts

71

Reality Zero / [E]The Next Session Is Planned!

« Last post by Excalibur on November 12, 2010, 11:00:11 AM »

I have finished planning the encounter for the next session!

In case I hadn't mentioned it yet, the goal is to set it up so that everyone will get to level 3 so we can get used to the Gamma World rules and the house rules for the campaign. We'll see where we go from there, I hope you enjoy the ride!

I have also been building up my collection of miniatures so that we have plenty of heroes, villains, and monsters to work with.

I've been tapped to run an Encounters table on Wednesdays. With any luck, this will help me improve my DMing experience so that I can make the games more fun for everyone.

Also, a new house rule will be coming into play. Don't worry, it's not a change to the Gamma World rules, but something a bit more fun. See it in the next post after I've finished fleshing it out.

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Reality Zero / [D]House Rule Update: Ammo

« Last post by Excalibur on November 11, 2010, 12:55:40 PM »

Gamma World's current ammo rules states that you either have ammo or you don't. If you have a gun, you have ammo. If you fire your gun once per encounter, you're conserving ammo and at the end of the encounter, you still have it. If you fire your gun more than once per encounter, you are not conserving ammo and will not have it at the end of the encounter. Additionally, ammo is an abstract, generic concept. If you have any sort of ammo, you can fire any gun.

While this rule vastly simplifies the game, it tends to make mundane gunfire a bit less fun. While you can fire your gun wildly during an encounter, you may as well keep firing it every time it's your turn. Not many people will be content with just firing the gun once then putting it away for the next fight.

I also believe that finding a laser pistol, a shotgun, a Colt .45, or an M-16 something that can happen in the game, I don't like the idea that there's one generic ammo pool that covers them all.

I am therefore going to propose the following house rule dealing with gun fire and ammo. The idea is stolen from another blog.

You may fire your gun as many times as you want during an encounter. However, if you roll a natural 1 on your attack roll with a gun you have 2 choices:

[REWARD]    1. You can accept the 1 and miss or
    2. You can re-roll the result and run out of ammo.[/REWARD]

When it comes to ammo type, I am going to leave it up to the player to associate the ammo found to the gun that uses it. The ammo now only works with that particular gun. This means that I will allow players to carry extra ammo other than the generic type described in the base rules. If you run out of ammo, it is ammo for that specific gun.

What does this mean? It means that if you find a gun that requires energy clips in order to function, then the ammo you record for that gun is considered energy clips. If you find ammo and assign it to a sawed-off shotgun, that ammo is now only available for shotguns.

The above two house rules should make the game slightly more realistic and I think a bit more fun since you can now fire your mundane weapons more than once per encounter and still retain your ammo. That is, of course, if you don't roll a natural 1 and then re-roll your attack...

I will, however, have to modify the Pure Strain Human's powers since the new ammo rules functionally debilitate the origin's utility power.

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Reality Zero / [A]Possible Schedule Change

« Last post by Excalibur on November 10, 2010, 09:55:00 PM »

I was talking with Tommy tonight and it's looking good for the game to move to Saturdays @ 6PM instead of every-other-Friday @ whenever. So far, the majority of the players are up for it (with scheduling issues of course, which is fine) just waiting on one or two to get back to me.

My wife seems cool with this so let's try it out. I'd rather game every week instead of every-other-week anyway. This also re-opens Fridays for boardgaming which is awesome.

I still plan on doing the game on Friday next week (the 19th) but if everyone's cool with it, we'll move to Saturdays after that.

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Reality Zero / [D]House Rule Update: Alpha Flux

« Last post by Excalibur on November 09, 2010, 12:33:17 AM »

When an Alpha Flux occurs (due to environment or if you roll a natural 1) you will now be given a choice.

You may:

[BULL] Draw from your Alpha Mutation deck.

[BULL] Draw from your DM's Alpha Mutation deck.

[BULL] Roll on the Alpha Mutations table.

In all cases, the Alpha Flux overrides your permanent mutation(s) until the end of the Encounter or you are affected by another Alpha Flux, whichever comes first. At the end of the Encounter, the Alpha Flux mutation subsides and your permanent mutation regains dominance.

You choose which Alpha Mutation is overridden.

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Reality Zero / [D]House Rule Update: Second Wind

« Last post by Excalibur on November 09, 2010, 12:10:38 AM »

Second Wind gets an update today by giving Pure-Strain humans a special use. Since they cannot use Alpha Mutations, a Pure-Strain Human may, if he chooses, automatically recharge one of his Omega Techs. But it comes at a cost.


[ENCOUNTER]   SECOND WIND[/ENCOUNTER][FLAVOR]   You dig into your resolve and endurance to find an extra burst of vitality.[/FLAVOR]   Encounter
   Minor Action
[FLAVOR]   Choose one of the following:[/FLAVOR]

[BULL] Regain Hit Points equal to your Bloodied value. In addition, you gain +2 to all defenses until the start of your next turn. If you are unable to take actions, another character can use a standard action to trigger your Second Wind.

[BULL] Refresh an Alpha Mutation. Instead of healing and gaining a defense bonus, you may choose one of your tapped Alpha Mutations and refresh it. You are able to use the power and/or overcharge of that mutation a second time.

[BULL] Force Flux. Instead of healing and gaining a defense bonus, you may choose to force an Alpha Flux. Draw a new mutation from either your deck or the DM's deck as if you had rolled a natural 1 on a d20 roll. The drawn mutation follows the standard Alpha Flux rules (house rules) and your permanent mutation will reassert itself at the end of the encounter.

[BULL] End Flux. Instead of healing and gaining a defense bonus, you may choose to end an Alpha Flux mutation. Discard the mutation and your permanent mutation (which was replaced by the Alpha Flux-generated mutation) reasserts itself and is readied (untapped).

[BULL] Pure-Strain Human: Omega Recharge. You may, instead of healing and gaining a defense bonus, recharge one of your Omega Tech devices by untapping it. You may use this Omega Tech device an additional time this turn. If you do so, you do not get to roll an Omega Charge check at the end of the encounter, you must discard that Omega Tech.


[FLAVOR]   Your Second Wind is available for a single use each encounter. This means that during short or extended rests, your Second Wind is refreshed.[/FLAVOR]

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Reality Zero / [E]Reality Zero Campaign Start

« Last post by Excalibur on November 05, 2010, 09:59:59 PM »

Today was the first game of the campaign. The players found themselves slaves of the Splugorth and forced to fight in the slaver's arena.

The combatants were the 5 players vs. an Orlen and a Badder with their Hoop Warrior and Porker minions. Combat was fierce with most of the players ganging up on the favored Orlen.

One of the PCs (Dwight's character) went down at least 3 times. He was saved by another PC (Tommy) and some lucky rolls. The others realized there were minions in the pit and decided to clear away the rabble.

After a few "hundred-hand slaps" from the Orlen, the PCs were finally able to crush the other arena combatants to much applause from the spectators. The presiding Splugorth slaver and its companion got the crowd roaring which earned the victors an extra round of ancient junk rewards.

The day was won and every PC survived their first arena combat. Guards corralled the PCs to their separate cages below the arena.

Will the PCs make it to freedom or will they be forced to fight in the arena until they've been killed or die of old age? We shall see!

[REWARD]Rewards gained this session (per player): 282 XP, Roll 2x on Ancient Junk table.[/REWARD]