Author Topic: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!  (Read 9847 times)

Thunderbelly

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Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« on: January 09, 2014, 05:39:38 PM »
Can you tell me if I have a correct understanding of how combat works in Monsters and other Childish things? I have a demo planned for Saturday and when I ran a pre demo for my wife I realized i was maybe confused.

INITIATIVE= brains + out think score... unless tied... then you roll it for width.

Attacks are made with an appendage that can attack (if your are a monster) and with either PUNCHING or KICKING.

Defense is rolled(?) using an appendage with defend... or with block or dodge for a kid.

then a monsters extras are added into the mix...

i don't get AREA.

AWESOME lets you set dice to a value either before or after the attack or defend roll is made

BURN is vague... i don't see listed how it does damage just that it makes ppl freak out.

GNARLY adds one point of damage... does it defend as well?

SHARING allows the monster to give powers to kids... ?

SPRAY is also confusing as it doesn't match the weapon ability of the same name.

TOUGH is like armor. -1 damage per level

WICKED FAST basically acts on initiative.   

****************

Now where I am confused the most is what about HIT POINTS?

for monsters each areas hit points is the number of dice it has... and basically the same for kids... i guess.

damage taken removes dice from that area... until shocks are healed at the end of a fight or scars are dealt with in quality time.

did I miss anything?

crash2455

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Re: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2014, 11:34:05 PM »
Okay so there are a lot of things here so I'll kinda itemize them

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Attacks are made with an appendage that can attack (if your are a monster) and with either PUNCHING or KICKING.

Attacks against other kids can also be made with PUTDOWN.  You can deal emotional damage to anyone who isn't an adult and doing emotional damage hurts other monster kids monsters proportionately.

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Defense is rolled(?) using an appendage with defend... or with block or dodge for a kid.

This is correct.  You have to beat the height and width of the attacking set to create gobble dice.  So for instance:

The attacker rolls 2x7 and the defender rolls 2x8.  The defender beats height and matches width so they create 2 (their defense's width) gobble dice which devour the attackers set.

The attacker makes multiple attacks and rolls 2x6 and 2x7, and the defender rolls 2x8. The defender succeeds, creating 2 gobble dice. The first die gobbles one of the 7s, turning that into a 1x7 set which is no longer valid and stopping that attack. The second gobble die consumes one of the 6s turning the last set into 1x6 and stopping that attack. The attacker threw two blows but the defender was good enough to block both.

The attacker throws 3 attacks this round, making matches for 2x3, 2x6, and 3x7. The defense rolls 3x8, beating the height and width of all attacks, creating 3 gobble dice. The gobble dice remove 2 7s from the top attack set, reducing it to 1x7 and negating it. The last remaining gobble die knocks out a 6 from the second attack, reducing it to 1x6 and negating it. There are no gobble dice left, so the 2x3 attack goes through. The defense was good but the attacker threw down enough blows to get through and landed a hit.

If the attacker rolls 3x7 and the defender rolls 2x8, though, the attacker wins because they beat the defender's width.  The attacker acted faster before the defender could get in position to defend, and the defender's defense set is null and void.

If the attacker rolls 2x9 and the defender rolls 2x8, the attacker wins because they beat the defender's height.  Both acted at once but the attacker had a more finessed attack that passed the defender's ability to defend.  The defender's set is again null and void.

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i don't get AREA.

If an attack has area, it's something like an explosion.  Everything within Y x 5 feet (where Y is the number of times they took area) automatically takes one die of damage for every area die.  Area damage are randomly rolled and deal 1 damage to the corresponding hit location

For an Areax1 attack, everything within 5 feet of the attack takes 1d of area damage.  The we area die and it comes out 9, so everything in that vicinity takes 1 damage to location 9.

For an Areax2 attack, everything within 10 feet of the attack takes 2d of area damage.  We roll the area dice and they come out 1 and 3, so everything in that vicinity takes 1 damage to location 1 and location 3

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AWESOME lets you set dice to a value either before or after the attack or defend roll is made

Awesomex1 lets you set a die before the roll is made.  If you have 8d and awesomex1, you can choose to say that one of your dice is set to a number and then roll 7d.  This is useful for targeting things (specify a hit location and get a better chance of matching) or for making expert actions (set a die to 10).

How I can make this work for me in combat:  My kid makes a BRAINS + NOTICE check to look at an opponent's monster and see their locations:

1 - 3   CPU and Comm-Link 9d:
Attacks(Orbital Laser Cannon), Gnarly x2, Wicked Fast x2, Useful(Teleport) Useful (Infra-Vision)
4 - 6   Skintanium Alloy 10d:
Defends, Tough x3, Bounce x2
7 - 8   Hydraulic Limbs 8d:
Defends (Dodge), Useful (Heave-HO!), Attacks (Taser Knuckles!)
9 - 10   Stereo Speaker System 7d:
Useful(Stun / Resonate), Attacks (THESE GO TO 11!), Area x2

Now I don't like that orbital laser cannon that Leadbot has one bit, so I set a die to 1 during my declaration phase.  During my resolution phase I roll 7d for my attack (my normal pool is 8d in this case) and already have the one die set to 1

I roll 0,1,1,4,5,6,6 on the dice.  Now that Awesome x1 gives me an extra 1 to wallop that laser cannon location, giving me 3x1 to attack.

Awesome x2 is way easier to manage, however.  It allows you to set 1 die to whatever you want after rolling.  In the case of the last scenario, I would roll 8d to attack.

I get 0,2,4,4,9,9,9,9.  Now I like how huge that 9 set is, so I swap one of my other dice to 9 to make it a 5x9 set and WHAM I hit those speakers super hard and super fast.

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BURN is vague... i don't see listed how it does damage just that it makes ppl freak out.

When you hit a spot with a bit that has the burn extra, that location is now on fire.  Every round it automatically takes 1 damage unless the target hit takes an action and drops a die to put that spot out.  For people it's much worse.  They need to make a GUTS+COURAGE check to avoid freaking out, and if they succeed, they have to spend their entire action for the round putting themselves out.

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GNARLY adds one point of damage... does it defend as well?

Nope.  It just adds to the damage roll.  Keep in mind that it does not directly add to the width of a set either.  A 2x3 roll with Gnarlyx5 does 6 damage if it connects, but if the defender is faster they can mitigate the damage some.

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SHARING allows the monster to give powers to kids... ?

Yes.  Keep in mind, the monster has to actively loan this power out to a kid, so if you have players playing other players monsters you can turn this into a barganing thing.  Additionally, the monster cannot use their power when it is loaned out to their kid.

Also keep in mind that if a kid uses a monster power they might get some strange looks if they start shooting lightning out of their hands or fly away or pick up and throw a car.

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SPRAY is also confusing as it doesn't match the weapon ability of the same name.

Spray is confusingly written, but here's how it works:  Every level of spray lets you keep another set.  Normally you have to drop a die to make multiple actions in combat

If I have Sprayx1 on a set and I roll 1,2,5,6,6,6,7,7 I can automatically use both 3x6 and 2x7.

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TOUGH is like armor. -1 damage per level

Bingo.  Be sparing with adding this to monsters and letting players add this to monsters because if everything has Tough x5 a fight can become a slog real fast.

Also keep in mind that if a location is knocked out on a monster and the damage bleeds to another location, that damage completely ignores TOUGH.

For instance, on the robot listed above, if his CPU and COMM LINK location (1-3) gets knocked out, all further damage done will bleed to his SKINTANIUM ARMOR.  Any hit to 1 - 3 will automatically deal damage that bypasses his tough, as the knocked out location is now a weak point.

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WICKED FAST basically acts on initiative.   

Bingo.  Every level of wicked fast adds 1 to the width for purposes of resolution.  A 2x3 set with Wicked Fast x5 goes off at width 7.

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for monsters each areas hit points is the number of dice it has... and basically the same for kids... i guess.

damage taken removes dice from that area... until shocks are healed at the end of a fight or scars are dealt with in quality time.

did I miss anything?

Monsters lose dice from a location when hit and will regain 1 die per day.

Kids can take shocking and scarring damage.  If a kid loses 3 locations to shocks or shocks and scars, they need to make a GUTS+COURAGE check or freak out and flee from the encounter. 

MaOCT is very brutal when it comes to actual weapons.  Shock damage is dealt as normal and heals to all but 1 die at the end of a fight. 

A kid has 5d in hands and takes 3 shocks to location 7 (hands).  For the rest of the fight they have 2d in hands, but at the conclusion of the fight they will recover to 4d until about such time that they can get a nap and a juice box (roughly an hour).

Scar damage, on the other hand, automatically removes one permanent die from the location it's dealt to due to physical injury and trauma, and only recovers at the rate by which medicine or magical healing can fix it.  Additionally, if a location is zeroed out from scar damage alone, the kid will permanently lose one to the maximum they can have in that location forever.  They have been mangled in some way from the attack and are now permanently scarred.

A kid has 5d in hands and gets shot in location 7, taking 3 scars to hands.  Their total hands dice now is 4, and currently they only have 2d in hands (and probably a hole through one of them).  At the conclusion of the fight they still have 2d in hands, until they can go to a doctor to get the injury fixed or unless their monster can cry some healing Phoenix Tears to fix their wound.  However, until they buy back that missing die for 3 exp, their maximum in hands is 4.

Now if that kid gets shot twice and takes 5 scars to hands, they are now at 0d in hands for the encounter (and probably have holes in both hands).  They remain at 0d in hands until doctor or phoenix tears or spacepope blessings or what-have-you, but their permanent maximum in hands can only ever be 4 now.  The damage to their hands was too severe, and no amount of therapy or rehabilitation will restore their total function.

So uh. . . be sparing with things that do scarring damage unless you really want to beat the shit out of your players.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2014, 11:32:46 AM by crash2455 »

Thunderbelly

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Re: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2014, 11:19:27 PM »
Thanks for your help!

My demo was actually run for two different groups.... and everyone said it was a great game!

Sounds like I may have found a new game for my main group to play and its even KID friendly. 

Which was a bonus cause I gained a player underage... and that kid was smart!  He practically defeated one of the baddies all on his own... a Brotron... with tough x5 (ridiculous stats). 

Thunderbelly

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Re: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2014, 06:22:44 PM »
An update on my Monsters and Other Childish Things status.

Last night I got a call from a college aged young lady who played i my Saturday demo... After the game Saturday she fell in love with the game and went out and got it and 40$ of d10s.  And after getting little sleep for the past few days she felt she was ready to RUN a short adventure. 

This is hugely gratifying and I just thought I would share so that others could enjoy knowing that soon there will be Monsters and Other Childish things being run at the University of Minnesota Duluth... and by a girl no less!

clockworkjoe

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Re: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2014, 09:52:08 PM »
Great to hear! MAOCT is a game most people can play, since we've all been kids (or are still children mentally and emotionally)

Wooberman

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Re: Monsters & Other Childish Things HELP!
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2014, 03:48:08 PM »
I managed to run MAOCT for the first time this past weekend using the kickstart setting in the back of the book and, with the exception of telling one of the players that he couldn't have his horrible tentacle monster hide "inside" his Japanese school girl Kid, it went very well.

One of the highlights was the players reactions when I produced a box of crayons and told them they had to draw their monsters. Also freaking them out with O'Malley the Anti-drug dog was great.