# 8 Ridiculous Fight Scenes



## LonePaladin (Sep 9, 2013)

Another way to run the Genius is to turn him into the Mastermind: he has the loyalty of scores of minions, and also has the smarts for enough long-term planning to be a real threat.

You can give the Mastermind a perfectly mundane goal (for the setting): causing a food shortage, emptying the vault at Fort Knox, replacing the Vizier, putting an Orbital Mind-Control Laser into orbit. The difference here is that every move the PCs make to stop him has already been considered, and the Mastermind has either a plan to counter the attempt, or a fallback plan that's even worse than what was stopped.

(A classic example is SHODAN from the original System Shock game. She originally plans on using the space station's mining laser on Earth; when you stop that, she enacts Plan B, sending a mutant virus Earthbound. This is followed by Plan C, then Plan D, etc.)

This requires a bit of cheating on the part of the GM: you have to retroactively make these changes and adjustments, acting like they've been in place all along. It's tricky to pull off — you have to make it clear to the players that they ARE making progress, if only through sheer determination. And you still have to give the Mastermind one or two gaps in their plans at the end.


----------



## amerigoV (Sep 9, 2013)

Eyes of the Lich Queen. I did not like the order of end (fight the Dragon mastermind, then fight the rather straight-forward brute of a Bluespawn Godslayer). So I switched the order (it was fun to bullrush the sorcerer off the top of the observatory only for them to Dim Door back to the top.

For the Dragon, I wanted something memorable - a twisting "dogfight" like aerial battle. So I had the released patron dragon cast Fly on those that wanted it, otherwise they would ride with the dragon. I just needed something to structure the fight (I was not going to break this out to the tabletop). So I rigged a roll that determine how good of a position you were in each round, any obstacles, how many of your multiple attacks, what the dragon could do (ie, roll high and you get to do more cool stuff).

It was a very fun battle to run and very descriptive of what was going on without having a fig on the table.

For you Savages out there, it turned out to be the d20 predecessor of the Deluxe chase rules (using a d20 instead of cards).


----------



## Challenger RPG (Sep 9, 2013)

@_*LonePaladin*_ : Hey, great idea! That's actually just the thing I was thinking about for the Genius, but you've explained it far better than I ever could have. I also like how the mastermind plans things out retroactively instead of the other way around (preemptively). This would make for some pretty cool adventures.

The 'gaps' at the end of his plan are also a nice touch. Sometimes I can get carried away and create a villain who's a little 'too' smart/powerful.

  @_*amerigoV*_ : Ha ha, nice. That dragon battle sounds totally awesome. Now that you mention it, I remember reading an old Dragon magazine article where someone did something similar to your aerial battle, but they were using complex figures.

I really like the idea of using a roll to determine position in an aerial dogfight. This adds a huge element of strategy to the battle over and above, "You hit, he misses, you hit again." Just the fact you planned out a massive dragon dogfight is pretty awesome.

As a game designer, I've owned and run Savage Worlds for a while now. Does that make me a Savage? Anyway, if you had the opportunity to design/help design the Deluxe chase rules that's pretty epic.

The card and dice element is pretty cool. The players love the exploding dice. Also, I have one guy who keeps taking two weapon fighting no matter what. I try to hit him with all kinds of mental checks, but he kind of just shrugs it off and looks for the next battle.


----------



## amerigoV (Sep 9, 2013)

Challenger RPG said:


> As a game designer, I've owned and run Savage Worlds for a while now. Does that make me a Savage? Anyway, if you had the opportunity to design/help design the Deluxe chase rules that's pretty epic.




I did not have any input to the Deluxe. What I came up with at the tail of my d20 days just turned out to be conceptually the same things that the Deluxe eventually came out with.


----------



## Challenger RPG (Sep 16, 2013)

[MENTION=26651]amerigoV[/MENTION]: Ha ha, no worries. That's still pretty dang cool. I think it's a proud moment for a GM when he finds out that the game designers have implemented something he's been using for years.


----------

