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Doc Hawkins posted:I've done lots of short, focused campaigns with explicit premises, the completion of which ends that story. But what if the players want to know what happens next? Only occasionally is it cool and appropriate to say "No, too bad, we're only allowed to speculate about what happens next, even though we're all interested in it." Well, the GM is one of the people who is supposed to be enjoying the game, so if an ending resolves the GM's interest in things, that's relevant to the discussion of whether the game keeps going. GMs can get tired of running a particular story, and providing a climax which ties together disparate elements and addresses significant character interests can provide a more satisfying conclusion than just stopping the game. If the GM were interested in continuing to run the game, presumably they wouldn't try to create an ending.
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Apr 18, 2011 21:59
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Oh, of course! I was including the GM among "players." In lots of games, they're more like pitchers than umpires, anyway.
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Apr 19, 2011 02:28
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I'm going to be a first time GM soon for DC Adventures based off the Mutants & Masterminds game system, and I was wondering if there was any advice/resources I should look into. Doesn't seem like there's a thread for DC Adventures or M&M, so I hope you don't mind me asking general questions here. I played a little D&D in the past, and was going to become the DM, but our group stopped getting together before that happend. I'm still working my way through the rulebook, and I'm already quite excited.
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Apr 20, 2011 00:07
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Set a limit for your players and stick to it hard. Capping most everything at the Power Level has worked fairly well so far for my group. I'd also suggest capping the Luck feat at half PL. Yeah, you can burn through all the Luck Points in about ten minutes if the combat's tough, but short of throwing horrifically overpowered enemies at your players they'll have more LP than necessary most sessions. Also, villains always escape. It's a rule or something.
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Apr 20, 2011 12:50
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Thanks for the good responses, Astus, Sir Kokiak, Yawgmoth, and Doc Hawkins. It sounds like people mostly see that advice as "you can have a beginning and a likely end in mind and even some things in the middle, but otherwise just let 'er rip." That seems reasonable. The way the original advice was written just really confused me since the best campaign endings (and campaigns, for that matter) for my group were the ones where the gamemaster clearly knew where things would ultimately go from the very beginning, and there was adequate foreshadowing of the cataclysmic/universe-rewriting/whatever event from halfway through the campaign or earlier. It seems like that sort of planning is more difficult with fully extemporaneous gaming. You can have a thousand different things lead to the important final "set piece," as it were, and leave clues along the way (wherever the game ultimately goes) that this particular set piece is important and campaign-defining, but it would still require a lot of loose-planning-planning to make a really satisfying payoff work.
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Apr 20, 2011 16:22
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Hm, so (as I should have expected, but didn't plan for) I've encountered a snag. I've been running my game with Power Cards, and one of my players managed to do something so awesome a while back I let him draw from the platinum deck. He managed to draw "Deus Ex Machina", which basically reads "an enemy/obstacle/challenge of your choosing is dealt with (DM's discretion)." They were basically in the climactic showdown of what I consider the "First Act," fighting what amounted to a 35-foot-high Zombie Voltron and the BBEG. The party's goal was to either escape and survive or defeat these two to warn about a massive movement of undead armies that were spreading over the European continent. Accompanying them was a recurring NPC--a Franciscan monk who'd appeared from time to time, always seemed to be in some kind of trouble, and would either be helped by or help the party before going on his way (he'd been trying to get back to his order to report on the goings-on in Germania). He was going to turn and (apparently) join the BBEG at the end of the fight, concluding that part of the adventure and escalating things nicely. I even planned for what might happen if they (god forbid) killed the BBEG, since this NPC monk would've fit the role nicely anyway. What I didn't expect was for Deus Ex Machina to be played. Thankfully my players are loving AWESOME and we're all very much collaborative in the storytelling aspect of the game (ridiculous as it can get at times), so instead of having God just smite both of them, he had his character pray, and a holy beam of light swept the BBEG away to parts unknown (who knows how far away). Considerate of him, and still loving AWESOME story-wise. But that took away the impetus for the NPC to turn, haha--so they managed to kill Zombie Voltron with a lot of difficulty, and now they're all alone in this giant, quiet hall. I'm wondering how to get to the NPC-turning bit. I'm thinking it'd be easiest to simply wait until I bring the BBEG back in the future and do it then... or perhaps even have the NPC on the side of the BBEG when he reappears. Are there any other options though? I want the turn to have an impact, because this is an NPC the players have gotten familiar with and a bit fond of, haha
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Apr 20, 2011 18:49
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We wrapped up the Famine in Far-Go Gamma World adventure Monday night. It took the group 5 sessions, skipping some things here and there. It was my first time DMing outside of a one-shot or two so I made a ton of To run the GW published adventures you need to reference information in the setting/plot sections, the encounters sections, and the monster stats section. Every encounter references different pages in each area so bookmarking becomes a pain in the rear end. So I sketched out a rough flowchart of the adventure with page numbers and put every monster for the sessions into the offline monster builder. Way more organized, but gently caress that amount of prework for a drat published adventure. Though as a bonus for all that data entry, I was able to print out the monster stat blocks and use them to help track initiative. Unfortunately, the stat blocks have more information than required (dtas, especially on monster stat blocks) and are kind of hard to read in black and white. I was copypasting them into Publisher as pictures because both Excel and Publisher poo poo all over themselves as table data, and Word can't handle layout beyond a few columns. Anyone have better solutions for making stat blocks adjustable in size and easily read in b&w? The campaign's high point was sadly in the middle. What should have been a climatic final battle lasted too long and left everyone a little disappointed. In the midst of the brawl, the BBEG teleported away briefly to recharge some encounter attacks, and using some tech and alphas one PC bravely went after him. What followed was a duel to the death in an escape pod between the BBEG and a PC's increasingly belligerent hover pig, while the rest of the party fended of a dozen aliens and robots and a giant fusion core was going critical in the next room. And then the hover pig rolled four critical failures in a row. It was loving awful and completely destroyed any sense of pace and after the first two I couldn't really be like "and your shot goes wide, hitting the teleport panel and you all get sent back to earth in the midst of the players that can actually hit a goddamn thing!" Despite the sour final note, for all the bitching I hear about them I thought the skill challenges in general went pretty well. I improvised them quite a bit, or stretched them out over multiple encounters. I also never kept track of failures and successes out in the open (or really at all) or said "this is a skill challenge." I also tried to do immediate consequences at big failures, distant consequences and/or conditional successes right around target, and bonuses at 10+ or crits. I think the bonuses worked great at getting players into the challenge, but I hosed up pretty hard at linking distant consequences to failed rolls. That led to players feeling too over powered out of combat -- that everything they tried pretty much worked. A player said to me "I don't know what I'd do if you ever said no to us." And my first thought was what the hell, I say no to you all the time. Like, a player hacked into a sentry bot grid protecting a building as part of a skill challenge. And of course when it was time to move forward he wanted to take all of his new little friends with him. I let him spend standard actions to program any new target into his ad hoc network, and then let him know that while he could bring as many sentry bots into the building as he wanted, local wireless networks inside might be able to overpower his portable signal which may have... interesting consequences. Anyway, I think I'm most proud of being able to run with the players' retarded ideas, especially in Gamma World.
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Apr 20, 2011 22:12
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Apocadall posted:Close to what I had in mind would happen, except now they want to start looking for allies and build an army to crush that city. I wasn't even expecting it. Awesome, let them do it! That gives them even more reason to start running through dungeons: after all, getting goblins or kobolds to join them against the human scum is one thing, but if they could get through all the traps in an particular crypt and parley cleverly enough, they'll be able to get a demilich on their side...
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Apr 21, 2011 15:26
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Whybird posted:Awesome, let them do it! That gives them even more reason to start running through dungeons: after all, getting goblins or kobolds to join them against the human scum is one thing, but if they could get through all the traps in an particular crypt and parley cleverly enough, they'll be able to get a demilich on their side... This has always been my philosophy while GMing. At least since I turned 16 or so... Your players should be able to do what they want, and the world should adapt around that. That doesn't mean it has to be easy, or even fair for them, which is the way a lot of modern GMs seem to interpret that philosophy. But it should be cool for them no matter what they decide to do. In one game I ran, the players decided that looting the absolute gently caress out of each dungeon was the way to go, down to hireing laborers to cart off the fixtures and fittings. gently caress knows why they decided that, but I let them do it. I threw them curveballs with valuable and obscure items that looked pretty normal. I hosed with them when they carted off the most valuable looking items (which turned out to be forgeries) and made it so the trash was more important (they seemed to have a real hard on for carting away furniture and fittings, so I made the furniture valuable, often moreso than the piles of coins and gems). They seemed to want to play artwork recovery technicians rather than adventurers, so I just rolled with it and they had a great time. I still don't understand why, but that's not important, the important thing is rewarding them for what they want to do, after they overcome appropriate challenges. They were focussed on making fat bank, not defeating injustice throughout the Kingdom, so who am I to argue? In a different game, the characters were focussed on getting enough funds together to build a government-sanctioned Way Station in a particular mountain pass. Again, I don't know how they came up with the goal, but the campaign focussed on them removing monsters from the area, garnering the right politcal connections to guarantee them Right Of Crenellation for their castle, gathering the construction equipment and supplies and escorting it up a mountain pass, and so forth. If I recall correctly, the campaign ended at about 6th level, when they built their little waystation/castle and decided they were going to retire, having acheived what they wanted. In the finale, they drove off a force of evil humanoids, then I described their long contented lives tending bar, administrating the castle, and telling tall stories about their time as adventurers. My initial idea for the campaign had nothing whatsoever to do with this, but it worked out better rolling with their whims than trying to railroad them into something they didn't particularly want to do. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Apr 21, 2011 |
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Apr 21, 2011 18:05
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Here's a problem I could use some advice on getting to flesh out properly. Without getting into too much specifics, the group I'm DM'ing is on a quest to reclaim a kingdom. One player is the ousted prince, and they have finally gotten to the kingdom they are trying to reclaim. They are at paragon path currently(level 13), and I'm trying to develop a nice recurring villan group. Namely, the military of the country. What I've got so far: -The army has been set to search far and wide for the prince, to eliminate him. -A special branch has been formed to deal exclusively with both gathering information and capturing the prince (and when not incognito, can be identified by their distinctive green cloaks). Members of this branch generally have more military authority than other army goons(think in movies when the FBI shows up and takes over for local police). -I want these greencloaks to appear here and there, and to be honest, I want them to be scary. Not just in terms of being difficult for the party to take down, but I want the players to get a tingle of fear anytime I bring one in, or they find out the NPC they've been traveling with for weeks is actually a greencloak in disguise. I want their tactics to be ruthless, and their methods of capturing the prince questionable, like the ends justify the means sort of people. I've been trying to build them up, not only in terms of mechanics, but to create the effect I'm looking for and I'm not quite getting it and am looking for advice to try and get it right. It's doubtful the party will ever actually be scared of an enemy(they are ridiculous. I haven't even given them much in terms of gear, but they blasted through a level 14-15 encounter with only 3 players(which are level 12) but I'd like to give it a fair shake and make it memorable. Any suggestions? I would accept both suggestions for battle mechanics that can shake the party up as well as fleshing the group out more through roleplaying.
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Apr 22, 2011 06:28
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That's a really cool idea for a campaign! Maybe have the greencloaks be an object of real terror to the rest of the populace? Think Gestapo or KGB style stuff. That won't affect the PCs directly, but it should provide nice atmosphere. Since the greencloaks have been formed specifically to deal with the PCs (and would have info on the entire party, I'm guessing), maybe have crack teams of them deployed with items or powers that are specifically designed to gently caress up or annull whatever tactics/powers/items the PCs usually use? (I'm a bit of a bastard GM, so you might want to tone this one down a bit from what I'm imagining). For example, if the PCs have a specific magical item they love, the greencloaks have a few items that annull it's power within a 40' radius or whatever. I'd avoid breaking the character's stuff, though. Do the PCs have developed backstories? I'm guessing they do, if one of them is a deposed Prince... Have the greencloaks threaten/kidnap/kill/torture members of the PCs families or friends. Again, no mechanical effect, but in any of my games the PCs would go to the ends of the earth to save their parents or siblings. (You could get pretty loving dark with this if you wanted). Maybe have the greencloaks actually controlled by a demon or other evil force? I probably wouldn't go this route, but I'm just throwing it out there. Similarly, maybe the greencloaks derive special powers from some sort of arifact or ancient device? Another twist would be to portray them as absolute fanatics about defending the Kingdom and it's current ruler. Not evil as such, just incredibly devoted to what they see as their duty. Scary 1950s-FBI-bent-on-eliminating-the-Commie-menace-at-all-costs guys, maybe with religious overtones if that suits your setting. If a greencloak assassin is sent after the PCs, maybe have him take a slow-acting poison before the job, which will kill him if he doesn't get back to base in time. That would portray them as scary fanatics and also remove the problem of giving the PCs infomration if they torture or interrogate the dude.
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Apr 22, 2011 07:39
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If you want to make the players scared, you'll need to take them out of their comfort zone. A couple of ways you might do this: give the greencloaks encounter powers that are way above level in terms of damage - that makes them a strong threat to take out a PC without making it a sure TPK. Give them powers that do something when a character is reduced to 0 - that PC is teleported to a cell in their dungeon or is sucked into the greencloak's amulet. Speaking of poisons, give them poisons that will give the players a challenge after the combat is over - they won, but now the dwarf is looking a little green. gently caress with the mechanics sometimes - by paragon the players have seen it all, so change it up and occasionally have enemies that break one specific mechanic in a big way.
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Apr 22, 2011 15:50
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I've been having a lot of fun with my players (my brother makes thing difficult at time) but they keep wanting to play every night (Gametable) and I tell them that it's really hard on the DM to have to come up with more stuff to do every night for 4 days straight. Anyways after getting banned from the city they're quite angry with them and want to destroy them. So I have them meet some Orcs in the woods to help push them in a direction towards amassing an army. The Orcs send them to see the Lizardfolk, who say they wont join because they have inferior weapons and armor. I'm still working on trying to figure out skill challenges so I let them try a nature one to see if they could teach the Lizardfolk to make steel weapons and armor. They half failed so I let them teach them weapons but no armor. They figure that one out with little problem. Fast forward to last night, they now owe a mortgage to a Dragon to use a keep in his territory as a base of operations. I'm running out of ideas to push them in what directions or what kind of creatures would be intelligent enough to join them, or if they can get the means to create golems and constructs that could be really cool. Or even if they wanted to kill their dragon landlord to turn him into a Dracolich or something. I need ideas to push them in certain directions, my map is small at the moment and I'm expanding out so I can add whatever I want.
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Apr 23, 2011 20:33
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Have making things take time. Remember, there aren't assembly lines. One person (or demiperson) works on each <item> until it's done. So that one smith works on a sword for a week. Hurray, now you have a sword! You just need 399 more! To help alleviate this problem, they could always conduct little raids on the town they hate. Players naturally greyhawk bodies (it's in the genetic code or something, I swear), so have them donate the twelve <weapons> and three intact <armor> to the cause. And if they want to do anything fancier than sharpened pieces of metal, send them on a quest to find some necessary reagent. They want a Golem? Fine. Now, where's the Sacred Dust that gets mixed with the clay to enable the statue to move like a person without fracturing? And where's the Magical Paper and Ink Of The Gods that place the commands inside the golem? Don't have those? Well, I heard that there's some dust three towns over and there's an archeological expidition to the Ancient Civilization of Qxyz, the greatest golem-building civilization in history. Perhaps they have found some Paper and Ink which could either be bartered for or just stolen (if they want another set of enemies)? Don't be afraid to set a quest chain up three or four people deep. They need to clear the skeletons off Old Man Comstock's farm so he'll give them the Special Fertilizer which Chef Ssest-iss of the Lizardfolk needs to grow the Special Herbs for the blacksmiths so they can work longer and quicker. Oh, and it turns out that skeletons are naturally attracted to the fertilizer, so they'll have to defend the crops while they're being grown. Something like that. I'm certain you can create better chains, especially ones more suited to your world. Just make them work, and work hard, for this. They'll feel better in the end when their plans come to fruition and you'll be able to pad everything out so your brain doesn't fracture. Also, you can always say that you haven't fully planned things out yet so you won't be running tonight. Tell them you need a break but if they want to do something with the game to write up some little piece of backstory. When we had an extended break in my Mutants&Masterminds game, my GM asked me to write up how my powers worked. It kept me thinking about the game, in the long run it probably won't affect anything, and it was still fun. Hell, have one of your players (or more if they can cooperate) write up the history and timeline of the war that took down the Ancient Civilization of Qxyz (the greatest golem-building civilization in history) and then work bits of that into a future session. I know I'd be flattered if my M&M GM worked bits of what I wrote up into the story. So to sum this whole word salad up:
It sounds like a fun campaign, but make sure you don't burn out on it!
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Apr 24, 2011 17:03
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Well I told them to all come up with back stories and such, they've even started writing about the adventures I've been putting them on in story form on some facebook group. I haven't read it yet so I might do that tonight to see what has really caught their attention so far. Good quest chains would help flesh out who they're recruiting more as well and make them more memorable. Thanks for the advice, I'm gonna look into a couple different ideas for quest chains.
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Apr 24, 2011 23:56
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Right, new player coming to my game, but he might be a problem player. Its a friend of one of my current players, and he showed interest so I thought I'd let him in. He had one game playing the Barbarian we were NPCing, and it didn't go badly. A brief episode where he killed dudes that the rest of the party was hoping they'd take alive, but it was a single incident in what was largely a fun game. Later though, talking with my players, I find out this guy has a history of always playing Chaotic Neutral shitheads. I'm running a fairly character/plot driven game, and I don't have any patience for "I stab the king cuz LOL". I'm willing to give this guy a chance, but in case any issues turn up, I'm going to give him a talk. Bullet points as follows. 1. The way you're playing is disruptive, obnoxious, and unfunny. You're pissing off the other players, and you're annoying me 2. That stuff might have been funny in another game, but that's not the game I'm playing. 3. If you don't like it, then find another game, because you won't be welcome in this one I might not need to, but I'd prefer to be prepared for the worst option. Would any of you experienced in this kind of player give advice or warnings?
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Apr 25, 2011 20:38
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M.c.P posted:
While obviously you're not being passive aggressive and that's good, there is something to be said for not being too aggressive. Don't be a dick about it. The only thing worse than a DM who punishes you ingame for OOC problems is one who says "no, you can't attack that guy, because this is a talky game and I don't want you to kill my NPC." Once you lay down the law about what is and is not acceptable, make an effort to help the guy build a character that is fun for him and works for you.
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Apr 25, 2011 21:52
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M.c.P posted:in case any issues turn up, I'm going to give him a talk. In case you haven't, try to talk to him before any issues come up. 1, you might solve it right there without anyone having to sit through an awkward session where all the characters are following a morality/feel that the players have agreed upon except him, and 2, it'll make you seem less arbitrary if there are issues and you need to escalate.
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Apr 26, 2011 17:40
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OK, I've got a question about "setting a scene." In my D&D 4th game, my characters are traveling deep into dwarven tunnels in search of an ancient, abandoned underground city. In the city, they're going to discover a small community of mutant dwarves (I'll use Duergar stats) cowered by a dragon that has made its home in the city. However, when they first get there, I want to convey a feeling of awe and eerie stillness amidst the crumbling rocks, and slowly let them in on the fact that they're being watched (by the mutants). Any suggestions for building atmosphere in a situation like this?
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Apr 28, 2011 03:38
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tell them "You are in an ancient, underground city. The walls of the enormous cavern appear to have been carved out with claws. You see a treasure chest. Next to the treasure chest is a dwarf. The Dwarf appears Mutated! The Mutated Dwarf is holding a rusty sword. You feel as if you are being watched. Exits are north, east, and south."
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Apr 28, 2011 11:34
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Start with describing the place as close to completely disused as you can, and add in strange echoes as they near the things watching? Genre savvy players are going to shortcircuit it in a hurry though.
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Apr 28, 2011 12:48
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Liesmith posted:tell them "You are in an ancient, underground city. The walls of the enormous cavern appear to have been carved out with claws. You see a treasure chest. Next to the treasure chest is a dwarf. The Dwarf appears Mutated! The Mutated Dwarf is holding a rusty sword. You feel as if you are being watched. Exits are north, east, and south." >attack dwarf
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Apr 28, 2011 12:48
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Old Hanz posted:>attack dwarf What will you attack him with?
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Apr 28, 2011 15:31
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Liesmith posted:What will you attack him with? >equip stick
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Apr 28, 2011 16:06
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It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
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Apr 28, 2011 16:31
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Yawgmoth posted:>equip stick you are holding a stick. The Mutated Dwarf strikes! The Mutated Dwarf does 5 damage with A Rusty Sword. You are bleeding. You feel as if you are being watched.
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Apr 28, 2011 18:08
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>exist east
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Apr 28, 2011 18:33
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I don't see any exist here. The Mutated Dwarf strikes! The Mutated Dwarf does 20 damage with A Rusty Sword. A Rusty Sword breaks. You bleed to death. You feel as if you are being watched. You have died. Your Score: 5/1210
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Apr 28, 2011 19:31
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gently caress this, I'm off to play Chaotic Good Crime Squad.
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Apr 28, 2011 19:45
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Liesmith posted:I don't see any exist here. The Mutated Dwarf strikes! The Mutated Dwarf does 20 damage with A Rusty Sword. A Rusty Sword breaks. You bleed to death. You feel as if you are being watched. >use fairy in bottle
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Apr 28, 2011 21:44
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I'm running a Call of Cthulhu/How to Host a Murder evening for some friends. Everyone has a little roleplaying experience but not a heap so I was planning on using some rules light system but having a bit more dice and player agency than a normal How to Host a Murder and, well, no murder. Still do the period dinner and costumes etc. Does anyone have a suggestion for the rules set? Something simple and unobtrusive. I'll pre-make character backgrounds etc but hand out a resume/letter or something to each player with a couple of questions on it. Things like "Hey, I saw that trophy in your office you won in college, was that for being the president of the chess club or the head of the football team?" and then quickly throw together some stats/skills etc from their answers. Story wise it'll be a one-shot CoC style 1940's occult type affair (Picked up Tim Power's Declare at an airport bookstore and got some inspiration). Anyone got any tips or suggestions?
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Apr 30, 2011 02:10
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How do you get your DM to stop making everything dependent on Arcana checks?
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May 2, 2011 19:23
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Chaltab posted:How do you get your DM to stop making everything dependent on Arcana checks? What exactly do you mean by "everything"? If he's making every monster [for example] check dependent on Arcana there's a good chance he flat out hasn't read the rules governing that class of checks. If you mean like "you are foraging in a dungeon for lichens and water to survive the night, ARCANA CHECK" then I don't even know what the gently caress given that there's a skill right there called Dungeoneering and I picked that example straight out of the PHB.
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May 2, 2011 19:33
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Trivialize them by building to optimize Arcana, or go the opposite way and egregiously fail as hard as possible until he realizes he might want to check something else. Or, you know, talk to him outside of game about how other skills exist. Either way, really.
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May 2, 2011 19:36
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Chaltab posted:How do you get your DM to stop making everything dependent on Arcana checks? Punch this shitbrick right in his goddamned mouth. If you can yell something like, "Arcana check this, you pulsating zit of humanity!" all the better. Then, because DMs who abuse Knowledge Skill checks always bring their girlfriends who they are hoping to wow with their authority and get some extra sexings later, steal his girlfriend. Right there. Roll Sleight of Hand and then declare it to be an automatic success no matter what comes up. In fact, try and use some kind of specialty die like a d7. Not only will he still be reeling from the facefucking your fast fist of fury just gave him, but he'll be so hung-up on your non-d20 badass self that he'll spend the next ten minutes in a daze mumbling "He's got Jennifer" (even if her name isn't Jennifer, your actions will be so manly he'll start renaming her just to further dissociate himself from being 'owned' this hard) and "But that's not the right die." Use this time to make out with the newly christened Jennifer, who will be unable to restrain herself from your assertiveness and general manitude. Just when your Arcana-loving DM is starting to snap out of his funk, shout "It may not be the right die, but now you will die!" Then break his neck. For a topper, rip the head clean off and shout, "Snap out of this one!" down the stump of his neck. And then again up the stump of his head. Then get the head cleaned off Predator style and have it fashioned into a d100. Roll it whenever you want to get ahead (see what I did there?) in the game. Or, y'know, you could sit down with your DM and see why he's making all these Arcana checks. If he's that into them, ask if there can be a bit of point reallocation into Arcana that everyone now gets as a class skill (seeing as it's so prevalent). You know, one or the other. I don't recommend combining these ideas, though.
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May 2, 2011 20:07
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Wait . . . I . . . something just dawned on me. Skill checks that the GM asks for (to notice something, or to avoid something, or whatever -- as opposed to ones the players ask for, like "can I tell whether the door is magical" or "I try to pick the lock") are generally not interesting at all if the party will almost certainly succeed, the party will almost certainly fail, or if what is gained by a success is more fun for everyone than a failure (like finding the clues). Mostly you're just wasting time; if you want to have the negative results of a skill check, just have that happen without the roll, unless you're obviously ignoring a character's strength. So . . . the GM should only ask for skill checks when there will be a mix of successes and failures, when the party will have interesting decisions to make as a result of that mix. I think I've been doing it wrong.
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May 2, 2011 20:33
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ItalicSquirrels posted:Or, y'know, you could sit down with your DM and see why he's making all these Arcana checks. If he's that into them, ask if there can be a bit of point reallocation into Arcana that everyone now gets as a class skill (seeing as it's so prevalent). When my Dark Sun PCs hit 2nd level and I realized that they had made more Endurance checks than every other skill put together, I gave them this bonus. Adding Endurance as a class skill for everyone and letting them retrain a skill for free was my first idea. But I realized that this first solution gave something to half the party and nothing at all to the other half, and -- more importantly -- in my game Endurance basically became a skill tax on each PC. (Of course I only did this after one of my PCs stole Jennifer away from me.) Edited to add: homullus posted:So . . . the GM should only ask for skill checks when there will be a mix of successes and failures, when the party will have interesting decisions to make as a result of that mix. I think I've been doing it wrong. Some GMs like to use skill checks to heighten tension or add uncertainty, but if you do this you have to narrate differently. If at least one party member succeeds in a perception check = "Your sharp eyes notice x about the statue" vs. everyone failing = "The only thing that about the statue that seems remarkable to anybody is x". Admiralty Flag fucked around with this message at 20:49 on May 2, 2011 |
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May 2, 2011 20:39
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It's not so much that he uses Arcana checks inappropriately when other skills would be better, it's just that we're constantly in situations where Arcana checks are the most effective, sometimes only, means of interacting with the game world. Our non-Arcane characters don't really get to do much for long stretches of the session.
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May 2, 2011 21:05
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homullus posted:So . . . the GM should only ask for skill checks when there will be a mix of successes and failures, when the party will have interesting decisions to make as a result of that mix. I really wish that I could find the video of this guy talking about how all die rolls should have an interesting outcome regardless of what the result of that roll is - "if the game comes to a halt because someone didn't roll high enough, then you have done something wrong." The example given at the beginning is a locked door: if they need to unlock the door to move the game along then they should just be able to unlock it. If unlocking the door results in either escaping a thing or having to fight it, then it's worth rolling because something interesting happens either way.
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May 2, 2011 21:07
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Chaltab posted:It's not so much that he uses Arcana checks inappropriately when other skills would be better, it's just that we're constantly in situations where Arcana checks are the most effective, sometimes only, means of interacting with the game world. Our non-Arcane characters don't really get to do much for long stretches of the session. Yawgmoth posted:I really wish that I could find the video of this guy talking about how all die rolls should have an interesting outcome regardless of what the result of that roll is - "if the game comes to a halt because someone didn't roll high enough, then you have done something wrong." The example given at the beginning is a locked door: if they need to unlock the door to move the game along then they should just be able to unlock it. If unlocking the door results in either escaping a thing or having to fight it, then it's worth rolling because something interesting happens either way. http://erdtman.com/story-games/setting-stakes-that-rock/ Every roll of the dice should advance the story, not shut it down. What if all the arcane characters roll poorly? Does nothing happen? Do they just go back to the inn and sulk?
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May 2, 2011 21:14
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