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Party Boat posted:Okay, here's a dumb idea I thought up in the shower, TGD please let me know just how dumb it is. This sounds like a great plan, though I'd drop the embarassing side of things and just make it plain dangerous, so you've got this gambling club full of adventurer adrenaline junkies. Also, no reason to add the possibility of an additional reward if your player loses, since they'll no doubt think of something inventive and useful to get the NPC thrillseeker to do if they win.
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Jan 8, 2011 19:49
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Party Boat posted:Okay, here's a dumb idea I thought up in the shower, TGD please let me know just how dumb it is. Keep in mind, You'd have to get some in game way so the players just don't skip town "oh I can drink more alcohol than you!" and gently caress up the first con roll "You have to go to the basilisks cave and throw a rock inside to wake it up!" "oh I'll go do that!" *skips town*
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Jan 8, 2011 20:33
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Yeah, having thought on it a little more I think it's better to have these guys be a load of adrenaline junkie thrill-seekers instead of a gambling guild. Having a samey skill challenge card game preface every potential dare would get old fast, but it'll work as a hook to introduce them in the first place. Having each dare present its own potential rewards is going to be my main way of keeping them from skipping out on a challenge. Also the city they're based in is going to have quite a lot of stuff going on so keeping the thrill-seekers on-side could be useful for various unexpected and shady poo poo. I don't think I'll have to worry about that too much though - my players are almost all cocky show-offs and will need very little prompting to take part in dares that show off what rad motherfuckers they are.
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Jan 8, 2011 23:08
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My Lovely Horse posted:Just quickly want to say thanks for the input on my Royal Rumble idea! I managed to persuade a few guys to sit down tomorrow and give it a practice run so I'm sure I'll catch some more problems Pros: things went much faster than I thought, waiting times for players weren't unreasonable at all, it's definitely a good idea on paper. Cons: being able to throw someone out only after they've been reduced to 0 HP doesn't actually make the battle different from the regular encounter with the mechanic of "beat everyone down to 0." Towards the end no one bothered to throw anyone over the side anymore, just left them lying because hey, they weren't getting up anymore either way. We tried a variant with just the usual forced movement/going over cliffs rules in effect but no one had much in the way of forced movement and it doesn't work very well with only Bull Rush available. Pretty much every melee situation turned into an aimless back-and-forth shoving match. Maybe the battle needs a way to have downed enemies come back more reliably when they're left lying, maybe a smaller arena would have been good, maybe the second way would work just fine if the party and enemies all have forced movement options, either way there's a good idea in there but I haven't quite nailed it yet. Gonna put this one in the "ideas to be developed" file for a while.
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Jan 9, 2011 19:07
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Party Boat posted:Yeah, having thought on it a little more I think it's better to have these guys be a load of adrenaline junkie thrill-seekers instead of a gambling guild. Having a samey skill challenge card game preface every potential dare would get old fast, but it'll work as a hook to introduce them in the first place. The embarrassment should come into play if they are caught reneging on the dare. Perhaps the captain of the gate guard is a member, and now they're getting all-but strip-searched everyone they enter and leave town. The club probably has a couple of bards, so suddenly half the taverns in town are listening to "Rogar Turn-tail, the Craven of Westdale" or whatever. How are you planning on administering the dare process? I was picturing two jars with personalized tiles for each member, out of which a challenger and challengee are drawn. Or is it an open, 'anyone can challenge anyone' sort of deal. Either way gives itself over to a couple of side-quests. Maybe one player is rigging the drawing with prestidigitation, or a player is being constantly challenged by another who he suspects is really just trying to get him killed. If you can't tell, I really like this idea, and may steal some version of it for my upcoming campaign.
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Jan 9, 2011 19:26
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I hadn't really thought about whether dares would be specific challenges to other individuals or just a noticeboard with general challenges for any takers. I really like the potential for rivalries that the former could build so I'll probably use both to some degree, thanks for the suggestion. Also the club needs this guy as a member. (Oglaf, that comic is SFW but click away at your peril)
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Jan 9, 2011 23:35
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While I'm not looking for specific advice at the moment, I just wanted to come post about how excited I am to be running my first attempt at full campaign-length game! Up until now I've only run a few one-shots, so I imagine I'll have a bumpy ride at first, I think it should be pretty fun! Here's the kickoff email I just sent my players: quote:Your base of operations is Delver's Pass, a small town on the western edge of civilization that began life as a miner's camp a few years back. Many enterprising folk from throughout the empire left their homes hoping to strike it rich in the nearby foothills, woods, and streams. Of course, if you have any ideas for me based on what you just read here, feel free to PM me so I can torment my players even further!
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Jan 10, 2011 03:55
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whydirt posted:3. To the northwest lies a deep and dangerous underground realm. The layer closest to the surface houses bands of berserkers, orcs, and other raiders make regular, but thankfully relatively unsuccessful, strikes at Delver's Pass. And if you believe some of the drunks in town, some tunnels in the dungeon can lead you straight to the throne room of the Lord of the Dead. According to folklore, the Lord is duty bound to grant one wish anyone brave enough to survive the trek down to his lair. No ideas, but that's a nice, compelling hook right there.
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Jan 10, 2011 04:41
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I am a brand new DM, following up two before me, a really bad one and a really good one. I'm feeling a lot of pressure to develop a fun game that can top/match the previous one.
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Jan 12, 2011 16:40
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EDIT: Double post, sorry.
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Jan 12, 2011 17:01
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Interstellar Owl posted:I'm feeling a lot of pressure to develop a fun game that can top/match the previous one. Don't try to top or match anyone. The false benchmark will create stress you don't need. As has been said before, talk to the players, a lot. Don't dismiss any ideas for the world they have out of hand. Follow their lead, they know what they'll find fun, you're just there to make sure it's not at the expense of everyone else. And enjoy yourself. DMs, that aren't total dicks, that are having fun are often infectious to the group.
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Jan 12, 2011 17:15
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Interstellar Owl posted:I am a brand new DM, following up two before me, a really bad one and a really good one. I'm feeling a lot of pressure to develop a fun game that can top/match the previous one. There is no be-all end-all advice that will create a good game aside from "Do what's fun for you and your group." Ask them what kind of game they want, do character creation together (if only so you don't accidentally end up missing a role the party needs), interweave some backstories, and after every game ask the players what they liked, what they didn't, and what they'd like to see in the future. And don't forget that this is supposed to be fun for you as well. If you have something you'd really like to do, see if they're up for it. If they shoot down everything that seems fun to you, maybe you shouldn't be GMing for this group.
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Jan 12, 2011 19:12
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I'm going to be running either a CthuluTech or Dark Heresy game for my friends this semester. Most of them have only played Dark Heresy before and are interested in CthuluTech, as am I. The problem is that what we find fun about Dark Heresy is how the game switches effortlessly from plot-based conversations and investigation to combat, which doesn't seem possible in CthuluTech. Does anyone know if there's a way to make CthuluTech have just as much of a plot-based element as Dark Heresy?
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Jan 12, 2011 20:44
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Interstellar Owl posted:I am a brand new DM, following up two before me, a really bad one and a really good one. I'm feeling a lot of pressure to develop a fun game that can top/match the previous one. Keep on the Shadowfell is somewhat boring as-written, but is a solid start if everyone is new to 4E. I mixed KotS with Khyber's Harvest when I was first starting out, and it worked pretty well. One final recommendation - if a fight is dragging on, the outcome is mostly assured, and players are just plinking away with At-Wills on their faces, fix the fight up. Kill a monster when a player gets a solid hit, even if he technically has hitpoints left; change the scenario to a skill challenge, so the monsters aren't the focus any more; have the monsters all flee and lead the PCs to another fight, giving them a chance to get a short rest and restore their powers (or just reset their powers by fiat).
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Jan 12, 2011 21:18
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Pinball posted:I'm going to be running either a CthuluTech or Dark Heresy game for my friends this semester. Most of them have only played Dark Heresy before and are interested in CthuluTech, as am I. The problem is that what we find fun about Dark Heresy is how the game switches effortlessly from plot-based conversations and investigation to combat, which doesn't seem possible in CthuluTech. Does anyone know if there's a way to make CthuluTech have just as much of a plot-based element as Dark Heresy? I've only read through CthuluTech once, but I don't think it would be too hard to adapt the Dark Heresy rules to the setting. Other than Psykers there's not much in DH that doesn't fit in most sci-fi type games. Then again I have a big boner for DH and my group tends to play fast and loose with the rules in any game so 
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Jan 12, 2011 22:59
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I tried posting this in the nWoD thread, but I've so far not had any feedback. I'm currently running a Mage: the Awakening game, and want some thoughts on how to handle something. Excuse the clunkiness, but I originally wrote the post for people familiar with the game, and I've had to put some explanations in. I have a player who's playing a Mastigos (Mage with the Mind and Space Arcana as his Ruling Arcana). The character is a Seer of the Throne (the bad guys of the setting) who desperately wants to get out of the Seers and find a healthier way to live. His Pylon (the group of player characters) is made up of amoral fucks, with at least two of them being outright evil in the step-on-your-neck-to-earn-a-bigger-bonus sort of way; by way of contrast, he's the only one with something approaching a conscience, and he doesn't like the road he's locked into. It's becoming increasingly apparent to him that he's joined the bad guys, and the problem is that he's not a bad guy by nature. Last session his Pylon survived an attack by some Diaboli (a kind of demon, specifically a Spirit) thanks to him: he was the only Mage with any dots in the Spirit Arcanum, and he saved them by using a conjunctive Spirit + Mind spell to compel the Diaboli to back off. This got the attention of a full-blown Dominion (a kind of demon that is most decidedly not a Spirit, and that the Spirit Arcanum will not work against), which approached the party and - to the horror of the moral character - talked them into signing a contract to their mutual benefit, whereby they'd give it Spirits, and in return it would let them choose the humans it preys upon. So now he's really loving worried about the Dominion, and is frantically trying to learn more about Spirits (and demons in particular) in the hopes he can find a way to compel it when poo poo inevitably hits the fan. [Unfortunately, both out-of-character and in-character, he doesn't realise that while his Spirit magic works on Diaboli, it doesn't work on Dominions (their metaphysical true name protects them from Spirit-compelling magic). He doesn't, in fact, realise that the two types of demon are different. This will be fun to play out, though I intend to have him realise this in a position where he won't be horribly screwed by it.] To this end, his player has been looking at Legacies (a sort of specialist path for Mages) that focus on messing with Spirits. His player had a look at the Clavicularius Legacy (which focuses on summoning inner demons into physical forms in order to confront them), but thought the Attainments (special abilities that the Legacy grants) were pretty terrible. I suggested the Scions of God Legacy (which focuses on becoming more like a Spirit), and he liked it a lot. The problem is that the Scions of God Legacy has two different branches, neither of which will really suit the character: the Seers of the Throne branch, who are ruthless and worship the bad guys of the setting, and the Pentacle (good Mages) branch, who thoroughly check any potential recruits to be sure they don't have any magical or political connections to bad things (like, say, Seers of the Throne). The character can't join the Seers of the Throne group because he secretly hates (and fears) the Seers, and also because he isn't ruthless and amoral enough to follow their lessons. He can't join the Pentacle branch because he doesn't know much about them (not to mention the fact that they would probably kill him on sight for being a Seer of the Throne, and would never trust him - even if he talked them out of killing him - for fear he was a spy). I think I have a solution for this that might lead to drama. Scions of God who've mastered the Third Attainment can become (pretty powerful) Spirits upon death. I'm thinking that, rather than have him inducted into the Seers of the Throne sect, I'd have him approached by Corat: Legacies: the Sublime, Pg. 78 posted:Fallen Angel The idea being that Corat noticed him after the massive Spirit-fuckery the Dominion and Diaboli caused, and will approach him in full, seraphic manifestation with an offer to teach him how to fight against the demons. Of course, she will only tell him she used to be a Mage of the Pentacle (an organisation he knows very little about), and given how desperate he is, he probably won't push her to discover how dangerous she is. Do you think this works, both to give the character what the player wants and to provide fodder for drama? Etherwind fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Jan 13, 2011 |
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Jan 13, 2011 04:39
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That sounds pretty interesting, so I'd say go for it. What I would suggest, though, is that you be careful how hard you make it for him to get out from underneath the influence of this Corat character once he figures out the risk she presents. It depends somewhat on the tone of your campaign, but I'd be hesitant to have a player fight their way out of an association they don't want anymore just to trap them in another, particularly considering that it sounds like Corat won't actually give him what he's looking for in terms of solving this problem with the demon. Some challenge is good, but possibly more like a session's worth of stuff rather than a whole arc. In general, though, seems like a good mix of encouraging character progress while throwing in complications for them to deal with.
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Jan 13, 2011 04:52
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lighttigersoul posted:Don't try to top or match anyone. The false benchmark will create stress you don't need. It's often quite a good idea to talk to the players once they've made their characters and interacted a bit about how they see the group of PCs working. Are they Keeping It Professional? Is this the Spoiled Brat And Her Minders? Jersey Shore: the Fistpumping? My first game (which was using the terrible d20 Wheel of Time system) floundered a bit until one of the more seasoned players quietly pointed out that the party was clearly the Spoilt Brat (useless noble played by unreasonably belligerent player) And Her Minders (a bodyguard and a pair of channelers, played by more cautious characters). After that, the campaign almost wrote itself, and everyone (particularly the Spoilt Brat) had a great time.
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Jan 13, 2011 08:37
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Sir Kodiak posted:What I would suggest, though, is that you be careful how hard you make it for him to get out from underneath the influence of this Corat character once he figures out the risk she presents. It depends somewhat on the tone of your campaign, but I'd be hesitant to have a player fight their way out of an association they don't want anymore just to trap them in another, particularly considering that it sounds like Corat won't actually give him what he's looking for in terms of solving this problem with the demon. Some challenge is good, but possibly more like a session's worth of stuff rather than a whole arc. I intend to play it as a "Oh, hey, this angel is helping me against the demons!" followed by "Holy poo poo, she used to be a Mage! And a member of the Pentacle! She's helping me against the Seers of the Throne!" which in turn leads to "She's a bit extreme... I'm not sure her methods are really so great..." and finishes with "Holy poo poo she is crazy and dangerous and I need to do something about her; she's just as bad as the demon, in her own way." Potentially, I'd leverage that last point as a means for him to prove himself to the Pentacle at the end of the campaign. How he handles Corat is basically a sort of moral test (is he really dedicated to doing the right thing, or is he more concerned with the appearance of doing the right thing), and part of the theme we're going for in this game is "there are no easy ways out," which I think this plot arc could really play up. I'm thinking that the final confrontation with Corat would be the subject of a session, maybe, but until that point it'd all be background detail that gradually comes to a head. I guess the best way to phrase it is that Corat is going to seem like the answer to all his prayers, in-character, but in the end he'll realise that there are no such miracles, and the only way to save himself is to stop taking the path of least resistance and to stand up for what he believes, even if it risks great personal cost. At least, that's the intention I'm mulling over. I think the player would dig it. Etherwind fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jan 14, 2011 |
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Jan 14, 2011 03:18
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There was a little discussion about this in the Worst Experience thread but I sorta missed the opportunity so I'll ask about it here: Short of "spend X amount of gold on a resurrection spell" what are some solutions to a single death? (One brought about by unfortunate combat rolling or whatever opposed to something plot related.) It's lame to have someone sit out for the majority of a session or have to play a new character if they hadn't planned on doing so, but on the other hand having someone spring back to life through divine intervention is weak storytelling if it has nothing to do with their character. Not to mention it takes away any fear of death. Does anyone have some good alternatives they've used or come across? Edit: reading back through the thread the death issue has been discussed a couple times so I'll be less vague so we aren't beating a dead horse: A PC dies unexpectedly and unintentionally. What are some contextual (D&D4e) ways of keeping the player in the game if that happens? Wearsyourgodnow fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Jan 16, 2011 |
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Jan 16, 2011 12:47
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Wearsyourgodnow posted:There was a little discussion about this in the Worst Experience thread but I sorta missed the opportunity so I'll ask about it here: Short of "spend X amount of gold on a resurrection spell" what are some solutions to a single death? (One brought about by unfortunate combat rolling or whatever opposed to something plot related.) Have a premade character or NPC that is also there that you can hand to the player maybe. If there's really no big ally NPC that fits the bill at that time or place maybe a lucky mercenary is found prisoner in the next room, and for that session is player run but after is NPC run. Something like 2 at wills, 2 encounters, and 1 daily for the character sheet plus the basic skill checks at the appropriate level would probably be enough to cover a single session just fine.
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Jan 16, 2011 18:44
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If you've heard of the Penny Arcade 4E podcasts, one of the players (Wil Wheaton, actually) died. In the follow-up game at PAX, he got to play a zombie minion with a few unique abilities, like chomping on a rotten arm for THP, grapple attacks, that sort of thing. http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Feature.aspx?x=dnd/feature/paxgame I don't know if it will fit your game, but something like that can be a fun quirk to play if the players are open-minded about it.
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Jan 18, 2011 01:02
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DarkHorse posted:If you've heard of the Penny Arcade 4E podcasts, one of the You had me worried that I'd missed a news article or something for a minute there.
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Jan 18, 2011 02:05
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I thought I checked my post for that, I always mix up player vs. character  Yeah, I think PAX would have been a lot more notable if that had been the case. To make this post (somewhat) worthwhile, Wil played Mr. Stinky the Rotting Zombie. The other choices were: Booger Deep(?) the Kobold Dunce Blunderstein the Dwarf Idiot Bob the Will'o'the'Wisp EDIT: The point being, the PAX guys decided to go with a humorous minion lackey as a stopgap until the PC came back into the story. While the execution was very tongue in cheek and not serious in the least, it wouldn't be hard to whip up a similar character that's a passing traveler going the same direction or some other semi-PC. Not as good as a real character, so there's still the interest in getting the original PC back in the game, but avoids having a player sit the game out completely. Other options include letting them run the monsters, if your game is open enough for that. A player is joining my weekly game, so I let him run a few monsters to teach him MapTool. If you don't do much fudging, it would be an easy way to keep a player occupied, and it can be a fun outlet to try and murder their friends. DarkHorse fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jan 18, 2011 |
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Jan 18, 2011 04:50
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DarkHorse posted:I thought I checked my post for that, I always mix up player vs. character Thanks for the link and advice, the lackey idea sounds great as a temporary fix. I was also thinking of having the players work some kind of one time "In the event of death..." into their character backgrounds. That way they can figure out ahead of time if they want to keep that character dead or work in some sort of revival explanation if they want. (This seem a good idea?)
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Jan 18, 2011 07:01
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UrbanLabyrinth posted:You had me worried that I'd missed a news article or something for a minute there. I actually got really excited that Wil Wheaton had died because he's the worst person in those podcasts. ed: to be fair people have told me he's gotten much less obnoxious in the later ones
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Jan 18, 2011 07:06
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whydirt posted:Delver's Pass You could always consider adding in a "Old Man of the Mountain" NPC who lives out on the slopes of the mountain, perhaps somewhere between major locations. It'd be a nice place for your PCs to learn more about some of the truth behind the folklore that they might hear bandied about by random townsfolk. And if they get messed up outside town, it's a place for them to rest and recover. Also, depending on how long you're running this for, and how open-ended you want it to be, make sure you're prepared for your PCs offending this character somehow beyond any apology.
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Jan 18, 2011 16:43
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Relatively new DM here with questions. I'm running a game where the players are in charge of a trade caravan, and I'm trying to come up with some interesting encounters for them as they travel. The setting is classical greece-ish with magic that is rare and difficult to use. I'm just having a hard time coming up with things that aren't bandits/monsters attack or you find a chest/ruins/sacred site in the middle of nowhere. Ideas? Second, this is my first campaign I'm running play by post, mostly because we're all too busy to find a time to skype together. The gameplay is going really slowly. I'm having a hard time running turn by turn combat, and I was considering having the players just telling me their general strategy and top targets before each combat, handling most of the stuff myself, and asking for more input only if things are going badly. I feel really bad doing this, though, because I feel like I'm taking away something important. What do you guys think?
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Jan 21, 2011 23:52
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Cantorsdust posted:I'm running a game where the players are in charge of a trade caravan, and I'm trying to come up with some interesting encounters for them as they travel. The setting is classical greece-ish with magic that is rare and difficult to use. I'm just having a hard time coming up with things that aren't bandits/monsters attack or you find a chest/ruins/sacred site in the middle of nowhere. Ideas? If you can justify the caravan containing a significant number of NPCs - either workers on the caravan or fellow travelers following the caravan for the increased safety of traveling with a group - then you can generate a lot of the plot hooks out of events within the caravan itself. If a family following the caravan is robbed by one of the PC's workers, what responsibility do the PCs have? If two workers get in a fight, do the PCs let it play out, or do they intercede, and if so, how? A young girl runs off into the countryside during a storm: do the PCs help her family look for her immediately, do they wait until the storm passes and it's safer, or do they decide it's not their problem? If there's enough people there, the PCs aren't just dealing with the complications of travel, they're pretty much running a small, mobile town.
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Jan 22, 2011 00:21
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The caravan's NPCs could also contain a rival adventuring group, and there's a friendly (or not so friendly) competition between them and the player characters. Or perhaps the entire caravan itself is actually full of unsavory individuals and assisting them is only making things worse. Nothing obvious like "Go kill a king," but maybe a story about how one of the traveler's daughter was kidnapped near the upcoming town. The PCs assault a town and pretty much abduct her thinking they're in the right. Evil Badman fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Jan 22, 2011 |
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Jan 22, 2011 01:26
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I was reading grognards.txt just now and was reading about how a GM made a player ask him for details his character would normally be aware of. I've been interrupting games to give certain players background information so they'll have more context with what their character knows, and I feel at times it takes away from the fluidity of my descriptions of the area. Instead of doing that, or going the grognard way of making them ask me for in character context information, I'm considering writing it up on a notecard before the game to hand to the player. They then know what their character would know, and could bring it up fluidly in character if needed. Then the game would only need to be interrupted for clarification. Is there any glaring problem with this?
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Jan 23, 2011 06:48
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There's no problem at all with that, but don't let it stop you from also telling them things they should know as they come up. Just don't be that guy smugly looking over his DM screen saying "well you never asked" 
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Jan 23, 2011 08:51
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I was asked to update with news about how my personal vision quest shroom trip thing would go.My Lovely Horse posted:The Warlock: will encounter one of the main antagonist's henchmen and his party, and will have to resist the temptation to do the usual ambush/torture/kill routine for once. quote:The Fighter: will have to defend the party from an ambush and choose between running or standing up to the enemy (who hits like a truck). Passing condition is defending the party until either the enemy is dead or the fighter himself drops. quote:The Wizard: will be transported back to when the warlock was just about to be expelled from the academy and will have to decide whether to stick with him and abandon her studies or stay at the academy. quote:The Bard: will have to race to a certain location within a short time limit and come across several situations on the way that demand her attention, passing condition would be tending towards a majority of those situations despite the time pressure. In the end they threatened the wise old man at knifepoint, got the town sheriff killed in a wild animal attack, and the bard got herself banned from the village premises for life for failing to offer even the tiniest slip of explanation and pretty much just happily going "we're exorcising a demon, anyway this isn't real, gottagobye" at the increasingly desperate requests from her townsmen. Of course it really was all in her head but she can't actually be sure about that, and as soon as the Warlock identified himself towards the kindly old elder as "the guy with the knife who's telling you what to do" with no interference from the bard they weren't going to win this anymore either way so I just settled for upping the guilt factor as much as possible and will continue to do so. I actually kind of hope that this makes a) all of them consider that maybe it's a good idea to tone down on the paranoia and check situations before assuming the absolute worst, and b) the bard stand up to the warlock every once in a while. I actually looked at the scenario and thought "yep, this looks like a thing the warlock might screw up for her. Well she'll just have to keep him from doing that as an additional condition, either way it'll be a lesson."
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Jan 23, 2011 19:07
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Benjamin Black posted:Does anyone know of an alternative to Obsidian Portal for online campaign management? I used it once before and while it seems very convenient on a core level, the wiki formatting code it expected to use was just awful, and it offered up no real tools to help put together a good looking character page. I am going to quote this post from May 2010 since nobody has answered it by the time I finished reading through the entire thread. Because I have the same question, not because I have a good answer. Google Groups was literally almost perfect for gaming purposes up until the massive and completely stupid change from "amazing online gaming environment with file upload, wiki spaces, message forums, private areas, and Google familiarity" to "just a place to post messages whoops lol sorry if u wanted more, we took it away." My long-term group used it from like 2002 until last year, because it was great for anything you could think of needing. WHY, GOOGLE? WHY? UrbanLabyrinth posted:Or if you want the fancy option, Gaming Paper. Thank you for posting this. Not because I want the Gaming Paper (an excellent product, though), but because there was a link to something else on that page that I absolutely need. Oh yes. ZeeToo posted:Unless you have a very nice webcam, it's probably unlikely to work. Even just seeing the board isn't going to be that helpful if he can only identify its existence, not stuff/distances on it. If you want to see if that can work, I'd try to get him on before hand and ensure that he can see everything that he needs to. Skype is amazing and perfect for remote gaming. It might be creepy to hear an ethereal voice from the machine, but surely seeing the person's face making the sounds eases the tensions? I have been using Skype off and on (off from 2007-2009, on in 2010) to game with my old group in Illinois since moving away for my Ph.D., and I must say there are some games where it is only different from being at the table in that I cannot eat remote brownies or see everyone at once. You would never take it over the "real thing," of course, but I think it is an excellent gaming aid. Also, UrbanLabyrinth, if anyone ever hit me as a response to my gamemastering, suffice to say that person would never be welcome in my presence ever again, let alone at the gaming table. Though perhaps I misunderstood, and it was more like a "tap you out of annoyance" than "swing and a hit!" Interstellar Owl posted:I am a brand new DM, following up two before me, a really bad one and a really good one. I'm feeling a lot of pressure to develop a fun game that can top/match the previous one. As LightTigerSoul said, do not try to match up to or top anyone. Because it is basically irrelevant. Trying to be "as good" a gamemaster as someone else is kind of like trying to imitate someone else's personality. I imagine there are people who have been gaming far longer than I in this thread, but almost 20 years of countless different campaigns and one-shots has told me that literally every single person whose games I have ever played in has a distinct style, and astoundingly the majority of the styles worked well.
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Jan 30, 2011 08:01
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Quarex posted:As LightTigerSoul said, do not try to match up to or top anyone. Because it is basically irrelevant. Trying to be "as good" a gamemaster as someone else is kind of like trying to imitate someone else's personality. I imagine there are people who have been gaming far longer than I in this thread, but almost 20 years of countless different campaigns and one-shots has told me that literally every single person whose games I have ever played in has a distinct style, and astoundingly the majority of the styles worked well. Also, GMing is a skill that takes practice. As long as you're willing to learn and you have a bunch of reasonable people to game with, you should be fine. If you make a mistake, just say so. If the players go off on some tangent you never expected, just roll with it. You're there to have fun and help the others to have fun so do whatever seems most fun. When you encounter other GMs, look for things you like and appreciate. Like anything else, you can learn many things from watching others. Doesn't mean you have to be them, just adapt it in a way you think is best for you.
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Jan 30, 2011 08:27
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I am planning on doing a Hyborian Age Campaign in 4th Ed here on the forukms (or through maptool), and I want to try to keep it as close to the fluff as possible. However to do this I would probably need to completely disassemble any magic classes currently in 4th Ed's core rulebook. What would be the best course of action to take with this? From what I have read in both novels and comics, magic never really had such a foothold in Conan as it does in generic D&D. I am kind of at a crossroads on how I want to handle it, and I am looking for ideas.
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Jan 30, 2011 20:24
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:I am planning on doing a Hyborian Age Campaign in 4th Ed here on the forukms (or through maptool), and I want to try to keep it as close to the fluff as possible. However to do this I would probably need to completely disassemble any magic classes currently in 4th Ed's core rulebook. What would be the best course of action to take with this? From what I have read in both novels and comics, magic never really had such a foothold in Conan as it does in generic D&D. I am kind of at a crossroads on how I want to handle it, and I am looking for ideas. Are you completely set on 4E? It's not the ideal system for what you're trying in the first place, and the amount of time you spend hacking the classes apart could be spent more productively elsewhere. Kestral fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jan 30, 2011 |
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Jan 30, 2011 20:39
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Kestral posted:Are you completely set on 4E? It's not the ideal system for what you're trying in the first place, and the amount of time you spend hacking the classes apart could be spent more productively elsewhere. Not firmly set on 4th Ed. I have the first edition OGL Conan books from a while back, which is just 3rd Ed meets Damage Reduction meets crazy magic system. I was not a big fan of it so figured I would use a different system. I heard the Second Ed was better but it looks like Moongoose lost the license to continue to sell it. Do you know of a system that would be better for it?
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Jan 30, 2011 20:49
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Why don't you just reskin the magic classes? shouldn't be too hard. I mean I have no idea what conan's all about, so maybe reskinning the wizard as a very controller-y archer or an inventor wouldn't work very well, but it's something to think about. E: you should be pretty set with the martial classes though. Warlord for leader, Fighter for Defender, Rogue/Ranger for Striker, if you want some controlling action you could use a monk or a brawler fighter
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Jan 30, 2011 20:53
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:Not firmly set on 4th Ed. I have the first edition OGL Conan books from a while back, which is just 3rd Ed meets Damage Reduction meets crazy magic system. I was not a big fan of it so figured I would use a different system. I heard the Second Ed was better but it looks like Moongoose lost the license to continue to sell it. Some examples you might be interested in: In a Wicked Age - Review Link Jaws of the Six Serpents In a Wicked Age is probably the best Sword and Sorcery game in existence, but it's very indie and not for everyone. I'm also not sure how well it would work over a forum, although maptools or even IRC (with or without skype) would work fine. Jaws of the Six Serpents is a superb PDQ variant for Sword and Sorcery; there's not much more to say about it other than that it works exactly as advertised. PDQ has always been popular on this forum, and for good reason, so it wouldn't be much of a stretch. I've also heard good things about Barbarians of Lemuria, but I've never played it.
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Jan 30, 2011 20:56
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