@SimonGill Diminutive Size says "When your size is a factor in combat, you can only inflict 1 physical stress per attack (but this could be improved by damage bonuses from weapons and the like)."
So I'm pretty sure the Fists:1 rating from Claws gives a max stress output of 2.
Transparency question: do the players get to know about the venomous bite before the characters do (whether through painful experience or the use of evaluative skills)?
So it's equally as valid to hold the venom ability behind the screen until someone is inflicted with it, as it is to tell the players when you first throw the gnomes at them.
But as soon as venom comes into play, it MUST show up on the table.
@Phil Although a lot of scrying and Investigation checks will be to reveal non-mechanical information (like "where does the bad guy live?"), the fact that the Assessment option exists implies that some mechanical information is expected to be uncovered in game.
@Phil Remember that there's player knowledge and character knowledge. The players know about the venom - the characters don't until it happens or they do some investigation.
It's equally valid for the PLAYERS to all know the Big Bad Demon's catch is weapons dipped in puppy tears, but for the CHARACTERS to be absolutely frustrated.
One thing I'm going to struggle with is that my players enjoy to have moments of revelation alongside their characters, and I need to learn how to achieve that while maintaining the appropriate level of transparency.
I would to see the characters at first laughing at the gnomes, and then taking them a little more seriously after someone gets bit, and then picking up a baseball bat and laughing again.
And if my players can have that emotional progression as well, it'd be very cool.
@BESW Depends... when you introduce the mobile ones, I'd have them be moving at night and creeping up. That would be a manuever of Stealth vs. Alertness to give the players the Surprised! aspect.
"A red-capped little garden ornament leaps off the birdbath and clings to your arm, gnawing furiously and growling in a high-pitched voice." "What?!" "...you are now `Poisoned`." "WHAT?!"
When they start looking for gnomes during the day, then you'd let them get suspicious or give them a check and let them know that there are more gnomes out here.
@BESW That would be quite surprising. Maybe if they are distracted by watching a little garden ornament run behind a building and leading them into an ambush.
"What was that? A mobile gnome? Gotta check that out."
@BESW Probably wise. Maybe the gremlin-style adversaries turn up later? Perhaps if events turn this changeling kid to the dark side and he improves his power control.
@BESW I dunno - if he's going after the players again, he might use gnomes as a subtle way of reminding them why he's coming after them. And to make them underestimate the things now that they have intelligence.
@BESW BTW on the escalation, I'd suggest that every time the number of gnomes doubles past five you do +1 to skills; or it could get insane; 50 gnomes, +9 ? So my suggestion is: 5/10/20/40/80/160 gnomes...
@Rob There's actually a canonical monster that starts out as purple fiery-poo-flinging winged monkeys, but then they merge together into an equally purple fiery-poo-flinging winged gorilla.
There was a garden gnome in halflife, that achieved a mild amount of fame: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Garden_Gnome And of course the film Amelie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_gnome_prank
I was hoping beyond hope that I'd find something that would help me figure out suburban garden gnome distribution.
Since, um, Guam doesn't really do suburbia.
Like how many garden gnomes does the average garden gnome display have?
I'm thinking that a neighborhood largely occupied by mortal-choice changelings might have a higher than usual number of begnomed lawns, as a kind of in-joke.
Make a local gnome-faciers group who all liked Amelie and decided to get gnomes, paint them, decorate them and meet every week nearby (red herring/lead?) presto, army of gnomes
@SimonGill Trying to weigh reformatting an external drive to exFat, vs keeping it NTFS and installing third-party software on the MacBooks to let them read it.
Also confused why my XP refuses to format it to exFat, which narrows my options considerably.
I've read both the books through a couple of times, and I guess the next step is for me to make some cheat sheets to help remember rules, but until I actually start using them I don't want to spend too much more time on it
I'm now reading through the Unknown Armies book, which is likely to get a runout sooner than Dresden, simply because it is likely to appeal to my players more
@BESW Not at the moment, no. I had to stop all my games due to illhealth before Christmas, and it'll be a little while before I can get back into things
@BESW Appropriate. Reminds me of the idea I saw on the butter's freshness seal this morning - grate beetroot into chocolate cake to get a sweet fudgy flavour. I've got no idea hpw that' supposed to work though.
I'll give the fire twin a southern drawl, and she'll always couch her sentences as relaying the ideas and opinions of her brother, despite him being entirely unmoving for the whole time.
Agenda-wise, the twins refuse to believe the party because THEY control the city's espionage networks and so if something was going to happen they'd know already (Trust Each Other and No Other), and want to arrange things so the tiefling PC falls into their hands.
The Baron wants to believe, just because it'd be a sticking point against the twins, and of course he can control the situation anyway (he's got his Despair Ray to test).
And the Matron's the only one who will be even the slightest bit objective: she needs to know what's actually going on so as to best figure out how to keep everything balanced.
@SimonGill She's ruthless and cold and will dispose of you the instant it's to her benefit... but she won't dispose of you unless it is to her benefit, which is more than can be said for the other two.
@Rob Cyberpunk always struck me as a little too deadly... but that may be because the story I keep hearing is about the guy who pulled on a squad of cops from hard-to-reach holsters. One short range combat shotgun blast later and he'd lasted all of a second of game time.
@SimonGill Oh yes, definitely. it's very dangerous; smart players don't get into fights unless they're ready for them and have the advantage; guns after all aren't friendly things :) That said, you can coat yourself in hi-tech armour and walk around like a bullet-bouncer with enough cash
