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I have been running a modified version of The Slaying Stone as a side adventure for my 4e group while the DM moved. He finished early and joined mid-campaign as basically a double agent. He told the party he was sent by Questgiver A to help them, but he's actually working for Questgiver B, a prominent figure in our main campaign. The plan was for him to drop small hints along the way and secretly steal the macguffin near the end, so the other players would look back and see what was going on all along. (The macguffin is important in the main campaign, so it won't be a lame gotcha ending that goes nowhere.) Awesomely, though, his true motives were revealed in the in the course of the final battle. However, now the party is probably going to try to capture or kill him. I have a monster statblock built out for the player to use, but he is probably going to try to run away, so I need some sort of two-sided skill challenge for a chase through a city infested by goblins and kobolds. Not just any city, though, as the final battle also ended up turning the standard ruined city into a floating chunk of land, basically like Dalaran in WOW. Even if they manage to recover the macguffin, they are still trapped on a floating city full of goblins who want to kill them. TL,DR: Anyone have any examples of/ideas for a skill challenge with two opposing sides, or a skill challenge involving running across or escaping a (floating) city filled with hostiles?
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Apr 14, 2012 18:00
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kannonfodder posted:If you can get access to it, take a look at The Godsmouth Heresy module. It is designed for level 1 characters, but it would be effortless to beef up the monsters a little, and it is packed full of assorted undead creatures. Various zombies, a handful of skeletons (including one that regenerates itself after it dies) and a few other fun creatures. Swarms of bloody skeletons that could be destroyed by holy water after getting knocked down and thrown into piles came in handy. Thanks!
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Apr 14, 2012 20:21
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cbirdsong posted:TL,DR: Anyone have any examples of/ideas for a skill challenge with two opposing sides, or a skill challenge involving running across or escaping a (floating) city filled with hostiles? I once made up rules on the spot for an arm-wrestling contest, where the orc player and an npc of similar strength would make strength checks, and whoever won would move the arms one step over, and it would take a couple winning rolls to win the contest. I was thinking you could do something like that making opposing acrobatics checks, with a slight bonus to people with higher speed. If a party member wins they get closer, if the other guy wins he gets further away, and maybe if he gets too far away they need to search for him again. Don't know how well this will work for a plot device, as the arm-wrestling was to keep the drunk orc player happy as the rest of the party shopped.
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Apr 14, 2012 22:29
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How many minions is too many for one level 2 encounter after an extended rest?
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Apr 16, 2012 15:37
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:How many minions is too many for one level 2 encounter after an extended rest? Or there's always the classic "minions spawn every round until door is locked/spider nests are burned/whatever". In that case I might have no minions on the board at the start and then when they bloody/kill one of the standards the spawning starts (up to 3 on the table or just +1 if there's already 3 or more?).
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Apr 16, 2012 16:27
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ImpactVector posted:Does the party have a controller? If yes then 5-6 sounds fine. If not maybe 2-3? They do, so 5 Kobold Minions it is! I just wanted a group just flat out blocking the road while a wyrm priest shouts patriotic speeches to rouse the mini-army into an attack. While a few bandits sneak up from behind and steal their poo poo.
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Apr 16, 2012 16:41
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:They do, so 5 Kobold Minions it is! I just wanted a group just flat out blocking the road while a wyrm priest shouts patriotic speeches to rouse the mini-army into an attack. All-minion fights can be okay if you're working through a mob or something, but at that point you probably either want to turn it into a skill challenge or use a few swarms like the Angry Mob.
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Apr 16, 2012 17:13
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:How many minions is too many for one level 2 encounter after an extended rest? I don't understand this question.
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Apr 16, 2012 18:33
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P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT
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ImpactVector posted:That was assuming that there are a few standards in the group as well. I'm not sure how the encounter budget works out off the top of my head, but you could probably fit in about 3-4 even levelled standards alongside the minions to give the strikers something substantial to chew on. Oh I am working a few standards, a mix of different races and stuff before I take them to Kobold hall (which I don't think I need to buff because no-one has thievery) or a custom dungeon which I will make up on the fly depending on who they go after.
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Apr 16, 2012 18:37
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Guesticles posted:I don't understand this question. 1) What is the makeup of the rest of the encounter group? Or is it just minions? 2) Does the party have multiattackers/AOEs/zones/a paladin with extra marking abilities? The equation at heroic is that 4 level n minions = 1 level n standard, but that's all up for grabs. If the minions are coming in through a confined area and you have AOE controllers or damage zones, that's all she wrote; you'll need double the number to even pose any challenge. If you have high single-target DPS, then it'll be more challenging for the PCs. Minions are best used in conjunction with other ideas, unless it's intended to be a "yawn! pesky kobolds everywhere, interrupting my nap! Well, let's kill them and get back to sleep" PC powertrip moment. There have been some other posts in this thread and others about how to make minions worth using
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Apr 16, 2012 19:36
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The party is kinda balanced: One wizard, one Sorcerer, one Cleric, one Battlemind. The way the encounter goes so far is this: The group is protecting a valuble cargo of really really expensive booze so the trader will help them cross a heavilly protected border: so they're on a wagon in the middle of a small forest. However, a group of Kobold minions block the road, rallied by a wyrm priest to try and take a shot at the party. HOWEVER!: During this time, a few elven archers hiding on the sides of the roads begin to take potshots at the party while a human bandit sneaks up from behind to try and steal the cargo and bring it back to their cave.
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Apr 16, 2012 20:12
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:The party is kinda balanced: One wizard, one Sorcerer, one Cleric, one Battlemind. Depending on builds and encounter setup, a wizard and a sorcerer can handle a surprisingly high number of minions. You may want to add more than you think you need, and if necessary have some turn coward and run off.
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Apr 17, 2012 00:06
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:The party is kinda balanced: One wizard, one Sorcerer, one Cleric, one Battlemind...However, a group of Kobold minions block the road, rallied by a wyrm priest to try and take a shot at the party. HOWEVER!: During this time, a few elven archers hiding on the sides of the roads begin to take potshots at the party while a human bandit sneaks up from behind to try and steal the cargo and bring it back to their cave. tzirean posted:Depending on builds and encounter setup, a wizard and a sorcerer can handle a surprisingly high number of minions. You may want to add more than you think you need, and if necessary have some turn coward and run off. Yeah, this sounds like the encounter will (all other things being equal and the PCs not being incautious/very unlucky with Perception) cause the party to do this: Battlemind: Lockdown the human bandit and beat the crap out of him so the other party members don't have to worry about sneak attacks. Cleric: Assist Battlemind with melee, off-tank charging kobolds, and/or fry wyrm priest if laser cleric Wizard: Disable the archers, doing some damage, but preventing a significant amount of their damage potential from reaching the party Sorcerer: Annihiliate the kobolds, especially if the sorcerer has taken some powers that blast a single target (the wyrm priest) hard and do splash damage against the minions. Not saying that wouldn't be a good encounter...allows the PCs to play to their strengths and lets everyone shine. Alternately, the fight turns into a cluster as the Battlemind rushes the Wyrm Priest and gets tied up by the minions (preventing the AOEs from shredding the rabble due to friendly fire risk while not stopping the Wyrm Priest from doing anything), the Cleric tries to get the Archers (silly heavy armor wearer, trying to chase down the elves), the Sorcerer tries to ineffectively fight the bandit (doubly so if not a dagger sorcerer), and the Wizard tries throwing damage around in all directions without thinking about control and/or blows most of his powers to stay alive after being focus-fired by the archers/kobold slingers. It's a 50%/50% chance that either scenario will happen for the average party, and the results tend not to be influenced by the last fight. IN about half the fights, my PCs channel Rommel with their tactics; most of the rest of the time, their spirit guide is Commandant Klink. In terms of "safety" minions, to make sure you have enough, the Wyrm Priest can have a line of bodyguards (which also helps so that the battlemind doesn't somehow avoid the other rabble and break the encounter off the bat by pinning the Wyrm Priest). These guys can all be armed with slings and short swords. Have their attack either be some weak minion ranged attack or allow them to use standard actions with a sling in hand to add +x attack and/or damage to another kobold's next attack ("coordinated attack", "sniper team", "distracting shot", "hail of stones", whatever.). That way, you're not rolling any extra dice, just making the other minions a little more effective. Then, when it looks like the Wyrm Priest might get threatened (which could very well be if the PCs are getting beat up -- "they might just get desperate enoguh to charge"), the reserve draw their swords and form a line with readied attack actions, effectively removing them from the fight until the PCs bring melee attacks to the Wyrm Priest, or if the Wyrm Priest is getting pelted by the wizard and sorcerer, they are commanded to go stab those casters (taking them right into opportunity attack range of the battlemind and cleric). That way, there's no "surprise reinforcements" or "fleeing cowards" (which I always find disappointing as a PC) -- and if the PCs try to engage the wyrm priest in melee, they've already won the fight. Just my $0.02 on that topic...I hate reinforcement minions (unless there's a good reason) and doubly so cowardly ones; it breaks the immersion as you're letting the PCs know you're taking it easy on them because you misjudged the encounter, while having minions act recklessly doesn't really seem to have the same effect (they're just dumb cannon fodder, after all).
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Apr 17, 2012 00:33
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Well the encounter worked pretty much as above with the exception of dealing with the archers and the wyrm priest. they had a lot of trouble dealing with the archers who managed to climb trees to hide in and shoot down from, and the Wyrm priest did much better in melee than anyone was expecting. Managing to reduce the Sorcerer to dying state before his Dragonborn rear end got saved by the Wizard while the Battlemind and Cleric took care of everything without scales. Now they're in Kobold hall, and I'm mixing up a few of the traps. Most noticably the Boulder in the big boss (4f) will be able to be gunked up with the slime from previous floors which will reduce it's speed but if it hits anyone, they're stuck to it! Taking damage all the way as it rolls. As well as changing up the final encounter to make it plot-related instead of just a random aside.
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Apr 21, 2012 18:46
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Manic_Misanthrope posted:Most noticably the Boulder in the big boss (4f) will be able to be gunked up with the slime from previous floors which will reduce it's speed but if it hits anyone, they're stuck to it! That's genius.
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Apr 21, 2012 21:03
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Last session my players made their way through a trap infested dungeon, surviving fire, acid cubes, poisoned spears, cave-ins, rapid waters and some hopelessly outmatched Kobolds dying in dozens desperately defending a door that was not the exit the party was looking for. Behind the door was a nursery, with numerous small Kobold children chewing on rats surrounded by hundreds of eggs bathing in the warm glow of sunlight reflected by a huge ruby in the socket of a Dragon skull. The Sorcerer casts Charm Person on the adult standing inside the nursery, a very old and frail Kobold who made no attempt to resist and just stood there shaking. I was hopeful that after sessions of slaughter they would come to their senses. Until the Fighter decides to kill him, take the ruby, kick any Kobold kid in the way and leave them behind without food, warmth or someone taking caring of them. The second Fighter and Rogue decided to kill the first Fighter for what he did and with only 6 HP left after the traps they encountered earlier the Fighter realizes that if they decide go through with it he has no chance. After some discussion, both ingame and out, followed a long silence. They let him live and moved on. So, I stole an idea from here and the next town they arrive at was visited by a Kobold Bard one day earlier, singing the tragedy of how he is the only survivor of bloodthirsty monsters slaughtering every last adult of his tribe and leaving the children to die. Everyone hates the party, children spit at them, they give a round at the inn to get people on their side but everyone pours it out on the floor. The Dwarf Miner Guild that practically runs the outpost hires some thugs to chase them off and the party flees. Realizing they have no choice but to pay the ridiculously high price to the Captain of a ship at the docks who doesn't really want to ruin his reputation in the outpost but also cannot turn down the loads of treasure and gold that they offer him they set sail. Broke and angry at each other they are at least on the way back to take revenge on the big bad who forced them to use an Earth Node and end up halfway around the world in the first place. The only thing they still carry around is the ruby, hoping to sell it on the next continent to recover their losses. How much of a dick move would it be if that thing turns out to be made of red glass?
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Apr 23, 2012 12:53
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That depends hugely on whether your players are actively enjoying the "holy poo poo, everything is going against us" aspect of the story. If they do, go for it.
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Apr 23, 2012 13:04
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My problem is that they are not motivated at all to go after the BBEG. They do it because it is the story, not because they care. He gave them some quests, which turned out to be suicidal and only when they were greeted with a "Ah, the sacrifices BBEG promised are here and they also brought the talisman necessary to release the demon" they realized what was happening and fought their way out to confront him. They got suckered into a trapped Earth Node with the only way out using it. They ended up in the Underdark, fought their way clear to a different Earth Node that dumped them on the other side of the world in the middle of the jungle. They now made their way to the closest city and the ship will be the first part of the long road home. However, they only seem to do it because going that way is where they think the adventure should be going, not because they want revenge on the guy who sent them to get killed and then tricked them into going halfway across the world. Most characters would be pissed if someone doublecrossed them like that, but they seem to enjoy it as long as there is treasure and killing. So I'm thinking that maybe if the adventure turns out to be nothing but a huge waste of time with no reward, the party suffering from infighting and losing a lot of treasure they might be a bit more motivated to get home and confront him, because he put them in a position like that.
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Apr 23, 2012 13:45
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BioTech posted:So I'm thinking that maybe if the adventure turns out to be nothing but a huge waste of time with no reward, the party suffering from infighting and losing a lot of treasure they might be a bit more motivated to get home and confront him, because he put them in a position like that. This is a bad attitude to have. If your players really just want to have a good time being Team Murderhobo, well, there's not actually anything wrong with that. Have the BBEG offer them a bribe to just go away and leave him and his plans alone, or outright hire them to be his valuable skilled employees, and whichever option they take, run with it. Trying to make your players hate someone they don't actually care about is just going to make them hate you and the campaign.
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Apr 23, 2012 13:58
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I think it wasn't clear what I meant. The players are having an absolute blast. I know this for sure. They don't care about the gold, they just want to see the next setting, discover the next problem, fight the next bad guy. They want to move forward and are enjoying the game especially if I pull stuff like this. It isn't the first time and they really have a blast to crawl back up after I screw them over. It is what I usually do and why they asked me to run another campaign. They like being confronted by horrible things and enjoy it a lot when everything goes down in flames. But, that is because they are the players. They are not the person teleported around the world, beaten bloody, tricked and fooled. The characters, when roleplaying, should be a bit more motivated, right? I mean, just like with videogames and movies everything that happens is fun because it is your avatar, not you dealing with it. You are there, but instead of losing your fingers to frostbite you just see a nice shot of a snowy mountain. But you never see that guy climbing there saying "this is awesome" when he gets crushed in an avalanche. Guess it sounds like more of a problem than it really is, maybe I take the roleplaying a little bit too seriously? I just have this nagging feeling that because they make no real choices, I am railroading the whole thing.
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Apr 23, 2012 14:24
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BioTech posted:Guess it sounds like more of a problem than it really is, maybe I take the roleplaying a little bit too seriously? I just have this nagging feeling that because they make no real choices, I am railroading the whole thing. Sometimes, all a group wants is to ride the plot train to BBEG-ville, wrecking poo poo at every stop along the way. If the players don't like your railroad, they will generally make it known in very obvious ways. It sounds like you mainly need to stop second guessing yourself and go with what the players seem to be enjoying.
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Apr 23, 2012 14:37
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I'm terrible at coming up with good puzzles for PCs. Has anyone found an especially good source for dungeon-based puzzles on the web?
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Apr 24, 2012 01:48
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rotinaj posted:I'm terrible at coming up with good puzzles for PCs. Has anyone found an especially good source for dungeon-based puzzles on the web? If you can find it I use: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20020601 Its great for ideas or even taking things right out of.
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Apr 24, 2012 03:13
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I'm DMing some D&D3.5 for some online friends. I don't know how willing they will be to break the game and/or play Caster Edition. Should I use something like the partial gestalt tiers thing I've seen in PbP games on SA? Is there a good set of books I should limit them to content from?
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May 1, 2012 05:45
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rotinaj posted:I'm terrible at coming up with good puzzles for PCs. Has anyone found an especially good source for dungeon-based puzzles on the web? I'm quite pleased with the gauntlet of traps I came up with for an all-Dwarf game I'm running. The players are trying to reach the tomb of an undead dwarf-king. He made a pact with his people a long time ago to remain in his tomb until the council of dwarf kings changed their mind on their "all undead are evil" stance and came crawling to him to have him pull their arses out of the fire (he was under the impression this would take about five years; it's actually two centuries and counting.) As part of the pact, the council got to seal up his tomb with traps to prevent anybody unworthy coming to release him. So my thinking is that these are going to be traps designed to test people, not to annihilate people. They want to make sure that anyone getting through is a Good Dwarf, not just some random rear end in a top hat who wandered in. Trap 1 is the Test of Ancestry: only he who follows in the footsteps of his forefathers may pass. The floor is a 9x9 grid split into 3x3 squares, each with the likeness and name of an ancient dwarf king engraved on it. It takes a skill check to try and remember what the king was famous for: kings who are famous for good things (according to Dwarven society) are safe to walk on, and kings who are famous for bad things trigger a block that smashes down on anyone in the square then retracts into the ceiling, damaging them and knocking them prone. Meanwhile, artillery monsters snipe at the PCs from the opposite side of the room. Trap 2 is the Test of Knowledge: only he who wields his wit wisely may pass. The wall has sixty-four square drawers on, each with an engraving of a dwarf armed with one of four designs of weapon, helm, and shield. One of them contains a key that will open the door; the others are empty, and carved inside with ticks and crosses indicating how many out of weapon / helm / shield are correct (basically, the players are playing Mastermind.) Their first three guesses are correct; after that, the ceiling starts slowly to descend and each incorrect guess releases an enemy into the room. Trap 3 is the Test of Blood: only he who is truly of dwarven descent shall pass. It's a short corridor; midway through, a pressure-plate causes a hidden blade to slice across, about six feet off of the ground, passing harmlessly over the players' heads.
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May 7, 2012 09:57
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I'm about to start running a Pathfinder game at a LGS in a couple of weeks. I think I'm going to offer bonus XP to players for doing things like writing about NPCs, drawing, and also some extra xp for being voted what amounts to bonus karma awards from Shadowrun. Will this inspire active participation or will the gap between the bonus-xp haves and the bonus-xp havenots be so great that my campaign will crumble beneath its own bulk?
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May 7, 2012 16:40
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piL posted:I'm about to start running a Pathfinder game at a LGS in a couple of weeks. I think I'm going to offer bonus XP to players for doing things like writing about NPCs, drawing, and also some extra xp for being voted what amounts to bonus karma awards from Shadowrun. Will this inspire active participation or will the gap between the bonus-xp haves and the bonus-xp havenots be so great that my campaign will crumble beneath its own bulk? You are better off giving some other kind of reward. Extra Drama Cards, extra items or abilities that only work when they do their extra work . . . something to save you the headache of a potentially widely-diverging party.
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May 7, 2012 17:26
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Tell me about these drama cards. I want to make sure people are rewarded for superior play and contributing to the game. Items and abilities seem more like I'm making a mandatory carrot. I want the carrot dangled in front of going the extra step, not the status quo--I expect a lot of ins and outs and player flow, and am wanting to support what basically amounts to an ensemble cast.
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May 7, 2012 17:54
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piL posted:I'm about to start running a Pathfinder game at a LGS in a couple of weeks. I think I'm going to offer bonus XP to players for doing things like writing about NPCs, drawing, and also some extra xp for being voted what amounts to bonus karma awards from Shadowrun. Will this inspire active participation or will the gap between the bonus-xp haves and the bonus-xp havenots be so great that my campaign will crumble beneath its own bulk? I am going to do something similar with my PCs, offering bonus xp and gold for taking on the roll of party cartographer, note-taker, and loot tracker. 3 of the 4 of them are TT virgins, so I hope that it will incite them to keep good notes, etc. Mind you, it's like 100xp baseline during sessions that it comes up and is important. Whenever I've played in games that offer xp rewards for writing backstories, drawing PC portraits, etc, I've never seen any problems arise. Mostly this is because inherent laziness evens out the potential imbalances. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
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May 7, 2012 18:00
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Yeah, I'm probably going to stick with the original plan, but I'm wanting to think about feedback. If drama cards are interesting, I could maybe sometimes offer them instead of bonus xp so that there are varied rewards. This is a trial of a new style of GMing for me. Good to have feedback though, and know it can work. Edit: Plus I love cards. I might include a system where you can earn draws off of a tarot deck. Those cards can be saved and spent like themed action points, with the major arcana having specific important events. Divine intervention type things. Maybe you need to put together a 'trick' in order to use the cards, that way everyone's not throwing around 20 'action points' a session. Edit 2: Of course I'd allow trading of cards between sessions! piL fucked around with this message at 18:10 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 18:04
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I give out Action Dice. I bought 4 pounds of chessex die, and they had about 2 dozen 3mm D6s in them. So I give them out as rewards for good roleplay, doing in-character actions, etc. The Fluff is that that the characters have performed actions that pleased the gods, so the gods will grant them additional power. They're 1-time use things. Here's what action die can do: 1) Trade in a die to gain an action point. 2) Trade in a die to make an extra saving throw, or remove the failure plenty from a failed throw. 3) If an attack misses, they can roll a die and add its result to the attack. 4) Before they make an attack, they can declare they want to use it as an extra damage die (if they miss, the die is not expended) 5) Before a saving throw, add 1/2 the result to the save. 6) Add the result to any check with a trained skill; they can do this after they roll, but before they know if it succeeded or failed. 7) Stabilize someone who is dying. (there are few things specific to other house rules regarding local rumors) I like giving them out more than items/xp because they're one-use items that often benefit the party more than the player. Guesticles fucked around with this message at 19:30 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 19:28
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It's a lot simpler, but I've been planning to give my players +1 tokens when they do something particularly cool/smart/whatever. They're +1 to any d20 roll (if you roll a 20, they add 1 to the next d20 roll as well) and need to be used by the end of the session. I liked the idea, but after reading the above, now I'm wondering if it's just not cool enough.
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May 7, 2012 20:56
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Oh hey, I found the aforementioned Drama Cards by searching for that without putting pathfinder in the search. http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Drama_Cards I'd probably have to adapt a lot of them, but that could work I suppose! Edit: Well hello: http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/p/paizoPublishingLLC/gameMastery/itemPacks/v5748btpy8b8m I think I might like those 4e cards better though, hm. piL fucked around with this message at 22:33 on May 7, 2012 |
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May 7, 2012 22:28
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piL posted:Oh hey, I found the aforementioned Drama Cards by searching for that without putting pathfinder in the search. http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Drama_Cards Some don't even use 4e mechanics, and some are kind of . . . wrong . . . in 4e anyway, but you can always use a subset. They were a hit with my group, and the main reason they didn't get used more was that we were playing online (MapTool), so people didn't have physical cards in front of them to remind them. Savage Worlds has some like it too. It's the Adventure Deck, if you're able to find it separate somewhere. I allowed trading between sessions, and kept the drawing from the Gold/Platinum tier of cards for when they leveled. I also let everyone draw, but people who did session summaries or came up with great stuff in-game got to draw more.
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May 8, 2012 05:46
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So I recently got back into D&D after roughly an 11 year hiatus. My main in-person camp is having difficulty finding plenty of time to play, so I offered to GM a second camp that we could play online from home. (We are using MapTool) Instead of using regular rules like a normal person, I've decided to make a D20 homebrew amalgamation of D&D3 stuff that I remember, and ideas that I really like. The setting is post-apocalyptic. The end result is that I really have no idea how the balance is going to pan out, specifically in combat. For the most part we are all fairly lax with rules, but I don't want the combat to feel stupidly easy or stupidly challenging. Are there any secret GM tricks you can suggest besides fibbing enemy abilities to adjust the difficulty on the fly?
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May 8, 2012 17:07
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wrl posted:Instead of using regular rules like a normal person, I've decided to make a D20 homebrew amalgamation of D&D3 stuff that I remember, and ideas that I really like. The setting is post-apocalyptic. Look at Gamma World's current edition. It's post-apocalyptic and D&D4 based, which means the balance will be a lot more predictable and a lot easier to adjust on the fly, IMO.
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May 8, 2012 18:13
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I'd like to create some kind of "fickle" artefact or magic item for my 4e party - something that could be fairly unpredictable and interesting, with the potential to work to the party's detriment, without having the potential to gently caress everything up for the party and annoy them. However, I'm stumped for ideas. One idea I had was an item that went something like "once per encounter reroll any one single die and take the second result even if it's lower; if you do not use this item in the course of an encounter it becomes fickle for a while, and the DM chooses when it is used in the next encounter." However the more I think about it the flimsier that concept is.
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May 10, 2012 00:46
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Does anybody have any ideas to help while playing with a small group of people? I'm going to start running a weekly game of Pathfinder for my sister and brother-in-law tomorrow, and beyond keeping the number of enemies small in battles, I'm kind of unsure what adjustments to make other than to use common sense. The only reason I ask is because my brother-in-law is really quick to say that he has had horrible luck with small games in the past. I think they can work just fine, but maybe I'm missing some big pitfalls.
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May 10, 2012 00:48
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Crudus posted:Does anybody have any ideas to help while playing with a small group of people? I'm going to start running a weekly game of Pathfinder for my sister and brother-in-law tomorrow, and beyond keeping the number of enemies small in battles, I'm kind of unsure what adjustments to make other than to use common sense. Games with fewer players tend to be more personal. If you're playing the type of game where characters have issues and motivations other than "clear the dungeon" or "accomplish the mission," you can end up spending a lot of time on them because you're free to go deeper down those rabbit holes. The pacing will be different. Sometimes the players will burn through prepared content at an astonishing rate compared to a larger group. Other times they'll go into much greater detail on, well, everything and you end up going on wild tangents that nobody expected. Either way, odds are you'll be getting a lot of improv practice. This is a good thing.
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May 10, 2012 02:35
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| # ? May 9, 2024 00:15 |
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I'd have no problems if things went that way. I'm kind of worried that they might think a small game will be boring simply because they aren't used to playing games that involve much roleplaying or improv style scenarios. (In other words, they are only thinking about combat.) My take on gaming is definitely more collaborative/narrative than theirs. I'm planning to plug in some things like drama cards and pre-game background discussion to get them more in a story telling atmosphere, but I'm not sure how well they'll take to it. Hopefully I can show them the fun, improvisational roleplaying side of things. Anyway, I wasn't sure if their hesitation was growing out of this disparity or if there were other small game hazards I should watch out for. Crudus fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 10, 2012 03:10
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