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Post by shirokiba on Mar 14, 2016 6:47:46 GMT
So, I'm a bit lost on how to work on these without making them just feel insignificant. The enemy is supposed to greatly outnumber the players and have a vast, constricting, level of control over the Digital World, with very few safe places for the players.
I want to avoid overwhelming the players with massive swarms of enemies but I want these non-boss encounters to carry a good bit of challenge, a feeling of fighting back against an organization much larger than themselves. Currently the players have not made their sheets but I know one of them has been rather vocal about wanting to use the Palmon line, so it's safe to assume what I will be seeing in terms of that player's Digimon. I'll be discussing the system with the others to see what they want to do.
My aim is 3 players but I might have a 4th, if he actually feels up to learning a new system
The most common types of Digimon they will run into are Commandramon, Sealsdramon, Tankmon
I'm open to using other Digimon, as well, to mix things up so they don't bog down facing the same types. I just need to get certain templates ready for them. Mainly going to depend on which area of the Digital World they are in. The above will just be everywhere, as they are the force typically dispatched to cause mass destruction or seize an area.
I welcome any input on this, as it would help me get things ironed out.
I managed to have one stat'd out. Just not sure if it's too easy or if this is fine, if they are ran in adequate numbers
Wound Boxes: 4/4
Stage: Rookie
Size: Small
Speed: 8
Stats:
Health 2
Accuracy 2
Damage 1
Armor 2
Dodge 3
Attributes:
Agility 2
Body 1
Brains 3
Qualities:
Attack Effect [Blind]
Weapon 1
Speedy 1
Area Attack [Blast]
Attacks:
M16 Assassin [Ranged][Damage][Weapon]
DCD Bomb [Ranged][Blind][Blast]
Damage:
M16 Assassin: 2 + Accuracy Successes
DCD Bomb: no damage, inflicts blind
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Post by War Planets on Mar 14, 2016 8:36:13 GMT
I haven't been able to really play any of the system yet, so I can't give informed advice about the build you have, but I'll offer what I can about ideas.
Careful with the numbers you throw at them. Large numbers can cause combat to drag on and become boring. For bulk enemy fights try to make sure the players have a goal. Example: "20 Cammanderdramon ambush you at the bottom of a cliff, you notice a cave behind a squad of 4." This way the players can choose to fight all 20, or kill the 4 and flee into the cave. There either the party can shoot the entrance to seal it or you can have Tankmon artillery bombard the cliff-face causing a rock-slide to seal them in.
Alternate Digimon Ideas Judging by the enemies, you are going for more militaristic Digimon. Dobermon would probably make great guard dogs or hunting hounds. They could be really high speed hitters but low damage and with a Weaken effect (their Grey Noise attack), so that the party wont have a ton of trouble so long as they can deal with them before the Dobermons' handlers arive. I know Guardromon and Mechanorimon seem a little cliche, but don't underestimate the classics. Guardromon can be high defense with lots of area damage, while the Mechanorimon can be for like snipers.
Another idea is the enemies could wrangle(?) some of the more wild, pack Digimon, like Tuskmon and Monochromon.
For other Rookie Digimon: Renamon could be the tougher Rookies with a higher damage output. A group of Commandramon blinds the party while one or two Renamon move in to deal some very painful melee damage. You could also do a color variation or two on Syakomon making its shell look more like a depth charge, some other military ordinance, or even a comoflage to do a surprise attack when the party is hiding in areas with water. It doesn't have to be just at the ocean, you could hide these guys in marshes and swamps.
A lot of Digimon have color variations, you can always create a few variations yourself if their color schemes don't quite match your enemy's style.
If one of your Tamers has the Digital Detector mod for their Digivice you could always have a big, nasty, super destructive, Perfect level Digimon that will randomly fly overhead as a way to 'guide' the players where you (the GM) want them to go. I'm a little partial to Gigadramon for this job. This can be introduced as "Your Digivice is detecting a huge power level approaching for the 'direction'". His attack could be low damage, huge blast radius, and enough Knockback to scatter the party for Commandramon to surround each player. I know blast radius is based on Brains, but you could do more of a Brawns over Brains or Matter over Mind trait to have it work off his Body. For the increased Knockback, you could just put multiple points into Knockback and have it push the players a number of spaces equal to the DP put into it. This Digimon could later become an actual boss instead of just of 'guide'. You want any encounter initiated by this guy to be bad enough to make the players want to avoid him. You probably wouldn't need to stat him out initially. Just build the attack, roll a decent amount of Accuracy (enough to hit most of the party), some non-fatal damage (enough to make them ripe pickings for an ambush), and SAY it's a Gigadramon (or two that are always seem separately until the party fights them as a boss team).
I hope this is what you meant by input and I hope it helps. Remember if the characters don't fear for their lives at least once every 4ish sessions, then they may get arrogant.
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Post by shirokiba on Mar 14, 2016 9:11:29 GMT
That's some good advice. I am going for the militaristic Digimon for the main force, yeah. I do plan to bring in certain Digimon from each of the Zones the players enter, as enemies, people who are under the control of the organization the players will have to topple.
the idea with the commandramon is something close to what I had in mind. It's why I gave them less than the max points for a Rookie Digimon, so that greater numbers wouldn't be too terribly bad.
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Post by numemonsalesman on Mar 14, 2016 10:11:49 GMT
Excellent choice, I think the Commandramon line is underappreciated.
If you want to throw a large fighting force at your players without bogging down combat, you could stat out a unit of Commandramon as a single, big enemy. Maybe give it an area attack with a range that shrinks as troops are defeated (represented as hitting a certain HP percentage).
Edit: Now that I think about it, maybe Commandramon should have Hide in Plain Sight? It is camo-print after all.
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Post by shirokiba on Mar 14, 2016 18:14:15 GMT
funny that you should mention that, that was going to be the condition for certain elite Commandramon to become Sealsdramon, I read on the wiki that only certain commandramon can become that, those would likely be the ones with Hide in Plain Sight. The early encounters wont have any that can do that (these guys are 15 DP zerglings, basically, moving in groups of 4)
I'm debating on making Tankmon Long-Range Optimization, to account for it being a tank. Have them be the long-range artillery fire while being sufficiently bulky in terms of armor. It'll be a bit hard to work out. I was thinking of making a literal tank. Something with high damage high armor but moves somewhat slowly, to circumvent the fact that it will have a low accuracy stat, I was going to give it Certain Strike (armor piercing would be overkill)
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