Post/Author/DateTime	Post
djpika 10-25-04, 09:37 PM	Given the focus on movie-style, Hollywood action in Eberron, I thought it would be good to start a thread for unique combat environments and the rules to support them. For example, the sewer fight in the Forgotten Forge. Hopefully enough will be brainstormed so that a list can be compiled for quick reference for future DM'ing. That said, here are a few ideas that come to mind: The warehouse -------------- Lots of crates, boxes, etc. are stacked on top of each other. Narrow corridors 5' wide between rows of boxes provide many opportunities for rogues to ambush/hide in shadows, people to jump from stacks of boxes on top of enemies below, boxes to nock down, and jump checks can be made to get on top of one. Boxes can be smashed by large monsters to bring PC's down as well... The rooftop ----------- Slanted rooftops have difficult footing and provide opportunities for the classic off the building, long fall death. Rules required: Balance check to move on the rooftop, ??? check to catch the edge before falling off, perhaps a balance check to prevent sliding after a successful trip attack, if grappled and falling off, what's the check to take the person with you?
greatfrito 10-25-04, 11:22 PM	Heh, how 'bout this one (bet you won't know where I went this weekend). Fight in the Surf ----------------------- Every couple of rounds, all characters have to make balance checks or they get knocked prone, and possibly pulled back into the sea a bit. Okay, how 'bout on an airship with wide "stabalizers" out the sides. Yes, the stereotypical fight on the wings.
BullyBoy 10-26-04, 04:21 AM	Picture a very wide shaft, say 30 feet wide, located in The Cogs in Sharn. This shaft is designed to pump air into the more enclosed areas of Sharn (probably some of the lower levels) to improve air circulation. When the characters enter the shaft, probably in mid-fight or after chasing some baddies in there, they'll notice that they are standing on a thick metal grate and will have to watch their step (balance check) or get a foot stuck in the grate for a round. Also, about 50 feet above them is another grate, forming a sort of roof. Nothing can be seen beyond that gate. About ever 3 rounds or so, the shaft "breathes". This means that a strong, steady blast of air will blow from the grate in the floor, lifting everyone in the shaft up. A whole couple of rounds will be spent in flight mode, rising up at a fairly steady pace, allowing the characters to use 3-d combat tactics. Missile weapons and some spells will be fairly useless during this huge rush of air (maybe -10 on rolls). Melee attacks will be at -4 and characters will effectively be flat-footed, unless a successful Tumble roll is made or the characters can fly. Then the characters hit the roof (maybe a small amount of damage, balance check for none). At this point the characters are effectively upside-down. The wind is strong enough to push them onto the top grate with the same force as gravity, and so the characters can stand on the grate upside-down if they wish, and then use melee attacks pretty much normally. There is the balance check to stop getting their foot caught in the roof grate. After a couple rounds of "standing" on the roof, the air blast ceases. Everybody falls unless they try and grab the roof grate (smart players may already be doing this), for a successful Dex check. Damage is as per normal falling damage. Some characters might be hanging from the roof grate at this stage, and may even wish to fight some hanging baddies Then, a 2 or 3 rounds later, the shaft breathes again.... :cool:
LewisLlynn 10-26-04, 03:08 PM	Alrighty, then... :smirk: The Rickety Bridge ----------------------- You know the bridge I mean. The one that is always old, thin, and about to fall to pieces. And often over magma, whirlpools, or a bottomless pit. Well then, Balance checks to keep from falling every round, twice a round if you're engaged in combat. Every time someone performs an action that involves major motion, there's a 35% chance that the bridge will BREAK....
RangerWickett 10-27-04, 04:42 AM	I write an article called The Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything, and so far we've covered wagon chases, sailing ships, rafts on rivers, clocktowers, crowded city streets, windmills, masquerade balls, fey forests, and mental battlegrounds like dreamscapes. I don't know what this forum's policy is for advertising products by other companies, so I won't put up a link unless someone asks for it.
Beleriphon 10-27-04, 06:03 AM	I write an article called The Adventurer's Guide to Surviving Anything, and so far we've covered wagon chases, sailing ships, rafts on rivers, clocktowers, crowded city streets, windmills, masquerade balls, fey forests, and mental battlegrounds like dreamscapes. I don't know what this forum's policy is for advertising products by other companies, so I won't put up a link unless someone asks for it. Its usually okay to post links to other products, it gets iffy when you do ads for commercial products (and other sites can be kinda iffy). At any rate, feel free to post, one of the WizOs will let us all know if its not okay.
CitizenErased 10-27-04, 03:17 PM	I always pictured a bridge that passes across a river about halfway down a waterfall. You have thunderous sound and water spray everywhere. Possible tied in with the rickety bridge as described below. Also when I was growing up we had many 3 wire bridges. One wire to walk on and two at arm heights to hold onto as you made your way across. You could really make those swing and way.
Beleriphon 10-27-04, 04:58 PM	I always pictured a bridge that passes across a river about halfway down a waterfall. You have thunderous sound and water spray everywhere. Possible tied in with the rickety bridge as described below. Also when I was growing up we had many 3 wire bridges. One wire to walk on and two at arm heights to hold onto as you made your way across. You could really make those swing and way. Could you imagine a fight on one of those? The fighter wailing away one arm hanging on for dear life, the other smashing away with his sword at the other guy! It reminds of of Indy with a machete, and crazy cultists! :mymy:
djpika 10-27-04, 05:13 PM	Heh, I was thinking of the Indy series when I first started this; I figured if it took off people could just go chronologicly through the films in case we missed any. Another obvious one from the same flick is the mining carts from the Temple of Doom. You can add trying to get an item in a large crowd. WotVB kind of does this already--you just have to add rolling a random direction whenever the crowd is on top of the item. There's also the generic rescue the X from a deadly trap while fighting off the bad guys. This, of course, varies based on the adventure and the details of the trap. The reversal of this is placing the party on the defensive, trying to prevent the enemy from gettng to a certain location. An example also stems from Indiana (Last Crusade) where they're on board the blimp trying to take off. Ok, so the Nazi's wanted the Jones', but you could easily have them go after the control room. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- That aside, I guess we have a decent list so far. I'd like to have people test/agree upon the rules for the effects as well. Just to make sure their balanced.
gaerfindel 10-27-04, 05:14 PM	Could you imagine a fight on one of those? The fighter wailing away one arm hanging on for dear life, the other smashing away with his sword at the other guy! It reminds of of Indy with a machete, and crazy cultists! :mymy: More cinematic is watching two kalashtar warrior-monks duking it out on such a bridge. Think of every Honk Konk Kug Fu flick you've ever seen...
Grymlock 10-27-04, 08:48 PM	How about: A fight on the top of a runaway lightning rail carrage (can they runaway? not sure...) Sprawling on the deck of a plumiting skyship (whose bright idea was it to shoot the wheelman?) Dicing death on the face of one of the carved dragons on the coast of Argonnessen...
Von Ether 10-27-04, 09:56 PM	In a temple, characters can see thanks to spots of light that come from holes in the ceiling and refracted by the dust that fills the air once the fighting begins. One the other side of the room is a dais with a large stone box. Initiative should be drawn as the skittering gets louder. At first the meager sunlight flickers as a Swarm of vermin crawl down the light shafts and begin to land in the temple. On the second round, the mother insect creatuer will come from behind the dais to attack.
Masterful_Norg 10-27-04, 11:16 PM	This one is situated on the deck of an airship forging through the depths of Khyber. The characters are in danger of being thrown overboard as the captain veers sharply to avoid stalactites, stalagmites, and fireballs from the five persuing fighter airships whose occupants periodically board the party's airship. The characters must attempt to keep enemy boarding parties at bay until an NPC artificer can reactivate the ship's primary defence mechanism by successfully performing 5 infusions. The NPC artificer has 1 action point.
Faulted-Industry 10-28-04, 12:41 AM	As DM I encourage more cinematic-type situations by providing extra experience for them... because to me 90% of the fun in Ebberon is the cinematic effect... For instance I've had three very memroable encounters in Ebberon, one being on a lightning rail as Rouge Aerenal Elves attack the party, the other was bar scene, with multiple humorous encounters as the bartender gets a tankard to the face, tables are turned over, and essentially an all-out non-lethal brawl of drunkards took effect, the third was in a winter enviorment, when one of the PC's was sent to represent the party to a nomadic Orc cheiftan, to enter his hut, he must lay down all arms and weaponry... After insulting the chieftan, the Orc pulls his hatchet on the PC as the Player grabs a stray antler hanging off a dream catcher, and on a 20-20-20 spears the Orc in the face... ahh good times...
SahinTC 10-28-04, 12:53 AM	Then the characters hit the roof (maybe a small amount of damage, balance check for none). At this point the characters are effectively upside-down. The wind is strong enough to push them onto the top grate with the same force as gravity, and so the characters can stand on the grate upside-down if they wish, and then use melee attacks pretty much normally. There is the balance check to stop getting their foot caught in the roof grate. Same force as gravity? Well, for one thing, if it was the same as the acceleration due to the force as gravity (-9.81ms^-2,), then the characters would literally be just floating in air, not moving up or down. If it's twice that in the opposite direction, the net force generated is the forge of gravity in the upward direction, the same thing as falling. Lamen's terms? That's 5d6 fall damage (fall from 50 feet effectively). Potential 30 damage every few rounds... that'd be enough to kill most your players. I like the idea, but propose that the steam should be in constant flow, allowing players to glide through the air in weightlessness. Taking 5d6 damage when you hit the roof and 5d6 if you fail to hold on (60 damage!) is insane.
BullyBoy 10-28-04, 03:37 AM	Same force as gravity? Well, for one thing, if it was the same as the acceleration due to the force as gravity (-9.81ms^-2,), then the characters would literally be just floating in air, not moving up or down. If it's twice that in the opposite direction, the net force generated is the forge of gravity in the upward direction, the same thing as falling. Lamen's terms? That's 5d6 fall damage (fall from 50 feet effectively). Potential 30 damage every few rounds... that'd be enough to kill most your players. I like the idea, but propose that the steam should be in constant flow, allowing players to glide through the air in weightlessness. Taking 5d6 damage when you hit the roof and 5d6 if you fail to hold on (60 damage!) is insane. Sorry, I thought that by saying "the same force as gravity", people would realise the obvious intended meaning, especially when the very next words were "and so the characters can stand on the grate upside-down". I didn't account for nit-pickers. I will get my lawyer to look over my posts next time. If you don't like the falling damage, then have the air blast less sudden to start and to stop. I pictured the blast lifting the characters in the air for a bit and then pushing them against the roof (not enough to hurt them) and then steadily increasing to the point that characters can stand upside-down. Then the air blast slows dramatically, enough that the characters hit the ground with some force, but not enough to kill them (maybe 1d6). Anyway, it depends on character level. An average of 17.5 damage every few rounds might not be so much for higher level characters - and if they are silly enough to continually let themselves fall every few rounds, maybe they deserve the damage :) Compared to the damage from falling off a rickety bridge into molten lava or off a plumeting skyship, my suggestion is child's play!