Wine and Savages

GoliathWild Card Gargoyle VeteranAttributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d8Skills: Fighting d10, Intimidation d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d4, Knowledge (Battle) d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Stealth d8, Throwing d6, Tracking d6Charisma: +2; Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 14 Gear: loinclothHindrances: Heroic, Vow [Major; defend his “castle”], Stubborn, Vengeful [Minor]Edges: Attractive, Charismatic, Command, Noble, TacticianSuper Powers:Armor (5): Armor +14, Limitation (Major; during stone sleep only)Attack, Melee (5): Str+d6, AP 2, Heavy WeaponFear (1): ScaryFlight (8): 4 x Pace, Switchable, Limitation (Minor; gliding, requires altitude and wind currents), Requires Activation (must unfurl wings). Switches with Leaping and Speed.Growth (7): MonsterHeightened Senses (2): Low Light Vision, TrackingLeaping (5): Bounce, Death From Above, Switchable. Switches with Flight and Speed.Regeneration (1): Limitation (Major; occurs during stone sleep)Speed (7): 2 x Pace, Blin…

Baseline HumansThe vast majority of humans in the Gargoyles setting (Elisa Maza, David Xanatos, Dingo, Matt Bluestone, Tony Dracon, Dr. Sevarius, etc.) have no inherent superhuman abilities and are limited to spending their Power Points on the following powers:Attack, Melee: Advanced combat training; see Gargoyles SPC Campaign Parameters for damage limits as set forth by the Cartoon Violence setting rule.AwarenessDanger SenseDeflectionGiftedInventLeaping: Level 1 only.Minions: this could potentially handle the Golem of Prague and similar companions.ParrySidekickSpeak LanguageSpeed: Level 1 only; Blinding Reflexes and Catch and Throw modifiers only.Super AttributeSuper EdgeSuper SkillUncanny Reflexes As noted in the Gargoyles SPC Campaign Parameters post and the Untapped Potential setting rule, however, players with human characters may hold Power Points in reserve to buy more exotic powers after some transformative event changes them during play. With Game Master permission, heroes ma…

All gargoyle characters begin with 40 of their base 45 Power Points dedicated to the following racial abilities; these abilities do count against their power limit totals. Super Karma can be used to gain additional Power Points. Armor (5): Armor +14, Limitation (Major; during stone sleep only).Attack, Melee (5): Str+d6, AP 2, Heavy Weapon.Fear (1): Scary.Flight (8): 4 x Pace, Switchable, Limitation (Minor; gliding, requires altitude and wind currents), Requires Activation (must unfurl wings). Switches with Leaping and Speed. (Note that gargoyle beasts like Bronx do not possess this power, and therefore gain 1 additional Power Point to spend as the player sees fit.)Heightened Senses (2): Low Light Vision, Tracking.Leaping (5): Bounce, Death From Above, Switchable. Switches with Flight and Speed.Regeneration (0): natural healing roll every day, Limitation (Major; occurs during stone sleep).Speed (7): 2 x Pace, Blinding Reflexes, Catch and Throw, Switchable, Limitation (Minor; movement a…

I ran the Gargoyles game utilizing the gargoyle Paradigmatic Framework I posted on the blog a while back, but – frankly – I wasn’t too satisfied with it. The hefty load of Hindrances was too overbearing for a one-shot game, so I wound up rewriting and simplifying things a bit on the character sheets. At about noon on Friday, I realized the whole affair would have been easier with the Super Powers Companion, but it was too late to redo all the characters.While the stats I used for the game worked fine at my table, where everything was at least internally balanced (if not exactly system-balanced), I don’t want Game Masters and players out there who want to borrow the characters to have any balance issues at their tables. Therefore, I’m presenting revised options to play Gargoyles with the SPC.* Gargoyles Campaign ParametersGargoyles is a Four Color power level campaign world using Super Karma and typical Power Point distribution (instead of the Rising Stars model). The available races a…

Frankly, I don’t bother to read or listen to other people’s game mastering advice all that often. I’ve been doing this for the better part of 25 years, and I have reason to think I’m pretty good at it. I should probably stop being so arrogant, though, since the last two months have provided me with some surprising revelations.
(They’re probably not revelations to a lot of readers, but they are for me, so it’s best if I write them down somewhere that I’m not going to lose them.)
1) I GM better when I stand the whole game. It keeps my energy up, it helps me project, it helps me hear everyone, and it helps me act. My biggest strength as a GM is roleplaying NPCs, and being able to act with my body as well as my voice plays into that. Not every game session is going to provide an opportunity to play Captain Jack Sparrow, but being able to inhabit that role physically as well as mentally really pushed last Friday’s Gargoyles game to a higher level.
Oh my gods, I enjoyed hamming it up as Jack S…