Darkness Rising v2.0 - 'Tenebris Unleashed' Campaign

[MarbitChow]

It is 3 Juice for everyone if I Lucky Streak them for 2 blesses, right MarbitChow?

Yes.

[Nnelg]

Well, sounds like lolly is a non issue for the moment. Probably should just throw forces at Logan's run and move from there.

I wouldn't say he's a non-issue: if he isn't bluffing, he's a serious threat to our side. We need more intel on him; perhaps Charlie could help? (Or perhaps not, we might be better off leaving him in the dark about the details of the New Batch's encounter...)

Well then, as for Logan's Run... Marbit, can we take that ruling as final, or is there still a chance of convincing you otherwise? Even if we can't capture the garrison troops, (Coil will be disappointed) sneaking in around the rear isn't a bad strategy... Just not one of Parson-y proportions.

[BLANDCorporatio]

But the chars' stats are up to date.

Zed-Too has Guard & Interpose, which are no longer purchased. All of the Combat Modifiers are now simply actions that can be chosen by an Military unit. Zed will need to be updated, as will any other units that had selected combat modifiers previously.

Ok- replace those two with Skilled.

[WaterMonkey314]

Marbit, how many turns' worth of Warding and whatnot do I need to account for?

[WhirdCheese]

We have at least three turns from the end of the battle to cast spells and roleplay in.

[0beron]

Sooooo basically what I'm seeing is that I'm stuck yet again. Nothing worth XP will be close enough to the City for me to be of any use to the city's defense...so my options are sit at Dis City in case it gets in trouble, or go after Lolly after all (but with a bigger group)

[Nnelg]

Actually, there's some other options. For instance, if it turns out we can't pull off what I was planning for Logan's Run, we could still go for a raid on the Mine north of Scarlet Hills (probably with fast units like Naughty Kitties and Heck Pups). Nemo would help the strike force sneak past the city undetected.

[Nnelg]

Um, I'm assuming we're popping gobwins. We have been popping gobwins, right? ...No reason.


Anyways, here's what Nemo's been up to lately...


(There have been some problems, so in case you can't see the image, here's a link.)

[Lord of Monies]

If we have been popping gobwins, then maybe we could give one back to Lolly to make some amends. Maybe it's worth talking to the gobwin to try and find out why he was being held prisoner in the first place.

[BLANDCorporatio]

(IC William)

Why do I keep hearing you want to make amends? Shaking because of some hole dweller are you? If Lolly's a danger, we'd have seen it by now. My guess, we're dealing with a blowhard here. A blowhard which may be more useful alive, but nothing to be scared of. We don't need to make amends when we can set the terms.

[Exate]

I took a look at Yuri's 2.0 stats; they seem fine. The reference page seems to use "Attack" instead of "Assault" as the primary attack move for melee units, though, and I think at least one spearman is listed as using that instead of Strike.

Lolly grins. "I need not worry at all about you at all. If you enter my realm again, I will croak you to the last unit. My realm is vast. Don't come near it again, and you have nothing to fear. Do come near it, and I shall have nothing to fear. "

Yuri's Response
However ridiculous the caster's claim of being able to croak Tenebris down to the last unit was, Yuri felt his sense of loyalty twitch with the instinct to slaughter this impertinent creature which dared threaten his side, rend the flesh from his bones and feast upon it while laughing in triumph. Restraining himself to a gruesome return smile took an effort. Needed to get information, if Lolly claimed his prowess was so great. "Powerful little marbit, with magics so strong as that! Where is edges vast realm guarded by threats of croaking? Not wanting growing side to wander in as mistake, yes?" The big warlord forced friendly joviality into his tone, dreaming behind his smile of Lolly's bloody corpse in his hands.

If we have been popping gobwins, then maybe we could give one back to Lolly to make some amends. Maybe it's worth talking to the gobwin to try and find out why he was being held prisoner in the first place.

Marbits won't ally with a Dark side; based on that I think we can assume a certain amount of instinctive dislike. Sending troops to their death isn't going to smooth this over, and it's not a practical use of our assets anyway unless he's got some serious assets on offer in exchange. Assuming that falls through, if we get our troops together and crush him at least we'll get some valuable XP out of it.

That said, talking to the gobwin is a good idea in general. He might have information worth knowing.

[MarbitChow]

GM Notes: For those of you aching for faster XP, I'm thinking about offering Mercenary Scenarios. These scenarios would be significantly tougher than the standard scenarios, and unlike previous scenarios, I make no promises that players can survive if they're smart. You might only survive if you're really lucky, or you might face hopeless, overwhelming odds. If you die during one of these scenarios, your side will be compensated with a "unit loss bonus" in addition to the standard fees that the side gets.

You won't have any control over what units you'll have available during these scenarios. The only control you'll have is whether you go or not. No PC will be forced to participate in these scenarios, and signing up for one will remove you from the normal campaign for, potentially, dozens of turns.

Thoughts?

[Exate]

I'm thinking about offering Mercenary Scenarios.
...
Thoughts?

I'm in favor of this for several reasons. One, we have so many PCs at the moment that we basically need multiple missions, and this gives us a chance to enjoy some unusual scenarios outside of our main campaign strategic slog. Two, we could desperately use immediate infusions of cash to upgrade our cities and accordingly boost production, and it's reasonable to trade some lives for it. Three, it will help us playtest all kinds of things that might not otherwise come up.

Yuri, we were wondering if your side would be interested in doing any mercenary work for us. Do you have some units you can spare? We offer a generous compensation package.

Yuri's Reply (to Archon here; not to Lolly here, who was replied to here)
"Is always interested in generousness, but is needing to know more of workings for making sure tiny flying women is generous enough for what is asking. Tenebris is not sending units to croak for three shmuckers and cheap rations."

[Nnelg]

GM Notes: For those of you aching for faster XP, I'm thinking about offering Mercenary Scenarios.

I like the concept here, especially since the time break between these "Scenarios" and the Campaign would make running two battles in parallel easier.

However, I think you may have the difficulties backwards. The Campaign is really the main attraction (or so I would presume). So if players are going to leave it for a while, they should be able to expect that they're coming back.

Perhaps if players who go out on Mercenary Scenarios are afforded a choice of Missions with differing difficulties and objectives? Or at least the choice between an "Easy Set" and a "Hard Set"?

The other option I can think of is that you add in an "escape item". Based off my idea for the Findamancy spell Recall, you could add in a "Potion of Recall" which, when quaffed, would teleport a unit (possibly including its mount) back to it's Side's capitol?



Oh, and since you seem to have missed it, Marbit...

Is that ruling for Logan's Run final, or is there any way to convince you otherwise?

Also, what are the official rulings for ranged fire/LOS and Dance-Fighting?

EDIT:
And what are our scouts' reports of the three elven cities adjacent to us? And of that mine north of Scarlet Hills?


EDIT 2:
Anyways, that "foraging near the city for rations to reduce upkeep" thing sounds like a good idea. I propose we use gobwins to do it, since we'll want some in every city anyways.

Marbit, roughly what is the maximum amount of upkeep we can reduce by foraging, and approximately how many gobwins would we need to ensure that we get it?

[Swodaems]

Well, the main thing I'm waiting for is for everyone to update or confirm their characters under the new rules. There may be some non-XP encounters near the city, which would be used as rations to offset upkeep, but the "good" encounters will be a few turns away from the city. Because of that, I'm assuming whoever is needed to take the next elven city won't be available for wilderness encounters. In other words - I'm trying to keep it so that everyone's involved in something at about the same time. There won't be a scenario where a few players are able to gain XP significantly faster than others. Based on the assault plans, not all PCs may be needed for the attack, so any PCs not involved in conquest get "random encounters" instead.

In order to get this show underway again, I'm setting a deadline of this Wednesday, Nov. 28th as the last day to update or confirm your character(s). Anyone who doesn't by then will be converted to an NPC.

Tod is going to keep his current loadout of stats, but will spend his 2 banked AP on Paragon and Trainer. He'll be spending alot of time with the 8 level 2 spearmen under his command. When Regus gets here, an eight turn rotation gets set up with a different 1 of those 8 getting dropped from training for Regus each turn.

I'd prefer to have a better plan for moving on Logan's run than "Let's take everything and just go there", but that would require more intel. More intel means more time. Given the state of our treasury, time is something we don't have alot of.

The only thing I can really say at the moment about my plan for taking the city is that we'll be relying largely on ranged damage to clear the walls of archers before using the mining pick equipped infantry to break in. We'll need certain PCs for this. Will, Cupid, and T. Coil are our best shots and can target multiple targets per round. Rudy and Anex will be useful to have as well. Bill's skele archers can bolster our ranged ranks and his presence on the field will give them a boost. Triage is probably going to be needed for healing/warding. There will likely be some ground action, but we have alot of NPCs capable of that.

We can fit 6 units with mining picks adjacent to a door. Depending on how the mining pick's (d6/2) damage rounds, we're looking at 3-4 rounds worth of actions to drop a level 1 door with mining picks.

[MarbitChow]

However, I think you may have the difficulties backwards. The Campaign is really the main attraction (or so I would presume). So if players are going to leave it for a while, they should be able to expect that they're coming back.

Nope. Mercenary scenarios are more dangerous, because you have no control over what units are available. The rewards of potentially greatly increased XP over what's available in the campaign, plus potentially substantial shmuckers for the side, means that there's a substantial risk that any units who leave on one of these won't come back.

Perhaps if players who go out on Mercenary Scenarios are afforded a choice of Missions with differing difficulties and objectives? Or at least the choice between an "Easy Set" and a "Hard Set"?

I have previously rejected the idea of making "easy money" by having casters pimp themselves out in the Magic Kingdom. My reasons for that still stand. Charlie won't hire MK Casters for high-risk missions, because he won't risk tarnishing his good name. Using casters from a side is a different story - those are more expendable. So, short answer is "no, players don't get to choose the scenarios."

The other option I can think of is that you add in an "escape item". Based off my idea for the Findamancy spell Recall, you could add in a "Potion of Recall" which, when quaffed, would teleport a unit (possibly including its mount) back to it's Side's capitol?

I'm loathe to allow any such item into the game, but if I do, you can guarantee that it will be extremely expensive. 5,000 Shmuckers would not be unreasonable. Such an item would also be available to your opponents, which will make it EXCEEDINGLY unlikely that you'll ever capture a really high-value unit again. Regardless, mounts would DEFINITELY not be included. If you're getting recalled, then a failure has occurred, and failures must have penalties.

Is that ruling for Logan's Run final, or is there any way to convince you otherwise?

That's final. The only multi-section fights will be capital fights, and while tricks and subterfuges will be allowed to make the fights easier, they'll never allow for capturing a side without conflict. I don't care that prisoners might have other value besides execution. I will not allow a situation where 3 stacks of level 2 units get captured, and one PC suddenly gains 144 XP while no one else gains any.

Also, what are the official rulings for ranged fire/LOS and Dance-Fighting?

Dance Fighting remains unchanged for this rule set update. The Squad rules will be updated so that you can't Fire into a squad or unit that is adjacent to an allied unit, and you can't target specific units within a Squad unless a squad member has no other adjacent squad members - ie you can catch them alone.

And what are our scouts' reports of the three elven cities adjacent to us? And of that mine north of Scarlet Hills?

Much like your own cities, the elves don't post their units on the walls unless they see a force arriving. The Imps won't even be able to reach those cities for a few turns yet.

Marbit, roughly what is the maximum amount of upkeep we can reduce by foraging, and approximately how many gobwins would we need to ensure that we get it?

Foraging is random. The absolute upper limit would be to negate the entire upkeep for the city you're foraging near, but that's extremely unlikely. I won't be revealing the foraging mechanics; I'll simply be posting the upkeep reduction that occurs each turn.

(Responses to Yuri's conversations with Rona and Lolly will be posted in a bit.)

[MarbitChow]

Yuri's Reply "Is always interested in generousness, but is needing to know more of workings for making sure tiny flying women is generous enough for what is asking. Tenebris is not sending units to croak for three shmuckers and cheap rations."

Rona responds, "Yuri, don't be absurd. We'd never short-change you in such a manner. We have standard rates for basic military units, and rates for unique units, such as casters, are completely negotiable."

(Standard unit rates: Charlie pays the unit's upkeep each turn, plus pays 2x the upkeep in shmuckers for each unit, multiplied by the level of the unit. Note that a unit's upkeep increases according to their level in the same way. If the unit is slain during the engagement, Charlie pays out 15x the unit's upkeep on that turn. Payment begins when the units arrive at the staging ground for the scenario, and ends when the scenario completes, but Charlie will provide transportation to and from the staging ground so that the units should arrive relatively quickly.

Special units units can gain significantly more, subject entirely to negotiations.)

Yuri's Response
"Powerful little marbit, with magics so strong as that! Where is edges vast realm guarded by threats of croaking? Not wanting growing side to wander in as mistake, yes?" The big warlord forced friendly joviality into his tone, dreaming behind his smile of Lolly's bloody corpse in his hands.

Lolly responds, "Hm. You seem to possess a small bit of wisdom. Perhaps there is hope for your side yet." Yuri gets the following impression, although in Lolly's mind, Tenebris is still Farkistan:

Spoiler: show

[BLANDCorporatio]

Lolly responds,

Hm. I will refrain from commenting until this becomes shared IC knowledge.

[MarbitChow]

Regarding upkeep: Common wisdom is that ranged units forage significantly more effectively than warriors / spearmen, and the level of the hunter also appears to have an impact.

[Exate]

Charlie pays the unit's upkeep each turn, plus pays 2x the upkeep in shmuckers for each unit, multiplied by the level of the unit.

Can you give a couple examples with stock units and concrete numbers here so there is no confusion? This sentence can be read several different ways.

I can't find rules for unit upkeep in the new rule thread, although I know I've read it somewhere before. Have those been added yet?

Are the colors on that map meant to denote terrain- that is, the green is plains/forest/etc. while the grey/brown is mountains?