|
Agrikk posted:After nearly three decades of gaming, I never thought to sit down and collectively discuss ideas for the next arc. Campaign (or story arc!) postmortems are awesome, because the most common mistake a GM can make is to ignore - willfully or obliviously - feedback from his players, and a postmortem session basically forces the GM to actually pay attention to how the players feel about how the campaign went. In addition, sometimes they lead to entirely new games that are just as awesome! My gaming group came together in the heyday of the original World of Darkness line, and one guy ran a series of 'Arcanum' games - non-powered (or very low-powered) mortals kicking around in the World of Darkness, trying to figure out how everything worked. And they were a glorious mess, of course, as such games tend to be, but several of the ideas and concepts that came out of those games went on to inform other, different games; there'd be a Vampire game where stuff that happened in that last Arcanum game spurred Vampire-centric plots, et cetera. Basically any excuse to sit down and say "okay, that was awesome, how do we make the next game even better?" is a good one, in my opinion.
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 01:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 13:28 |
|
|
We just finished the first big arc of our campaign and the GM's looking for suggestions on what to do next. I'm brushing up on Dungeon World and putting ideas for that together, because I know two things: Most of us are reactive, rather than proactive, so getting helpful suggestions and ideas out is like pulling molars. Demons are going to be involved, thanks to an epic-level balor he imported from another campaign, and I loving hate spell and damage resistance in D&D, especially the way they slather it on to demons and devils in 3.x. So hopefully, traditional Christmas adventure aside, we can get a couple weeks worth of plotting time and avoid the usual descent into lovely higher-CR monsters. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what to suggest to him either. His campaigns tend to be laser-focused, so there really isn't a sense of a world beyond whatever part of it we're running roughshod over. Maybe an old-fashioned dungeon crawl, or a quest for anti-demon material to make the inevitable fights slightly less obnoxious.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 02:03
|
|
|
I love bad stories presented as good stories:quote:A while back, I was in a 3.5e campaign and played a Druid. One of my first level spells was Entangle.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 06:03
|
|
|
Correct me if I'm wrong, but entangle isn't supposed to cause damage, is it? The DM just poo poo all over their game because they didn't go on the chase rails he had planned, didn't he? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 06:11
|
|
|
Not only does it not do damage, but you need actual plantlife - grass, shrubs, whatever - to cast it on. If you cast it in the middle of a room, it wouldn't summon a bunch of monster vines, it would just fizzle.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 06:15
|
|
|
Volmarias posted:Correct me if I'm wrong, but entangle isn't supposed to cause damage, is it? Yeah, what was just described is far more powerful than a first level spell.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 08:09
|
|
|
DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Campaign (or story arc!) postmortems are awesome, because the most common mistake a GM can make is to ignore - willfully or obliviously - feedback from his players, and a postmortem session basically forces the GM to actually pay attention to how the players feel about how the campaign went. I want to echo this, because even i f you just had the best campaign ever, there will still be things that you can improve on. Every campaign has flat moments and awesome moments, everyone involved needs to figure out what caused each, to eliminate one, and promote the other. Volmarias posted:The DM just poo poo all over their game because they didn't go on the chase rails he had planned, didn't he? "HUUUR guys! Take my game seriously!" followed by toys being thrown out of the pram.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 10:28
|
|
|
OneThousandMonkeys posted:dwarven runes Was reading the old front page article "is faerun ready for an orc president" the other day and I found out orcs write with Dwarven runes (in 3.5). Before I remembered how I knew this I was scared.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 10:33
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:I agree but I have to admit, the image of a trap that has vents just opening up all over the place almost takes it back around to Tex Avery style slapstick.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 13:07
|
|
|
They actually just employ a kobold to sit in the control room behind it and keep pulling levers and pressing switches to activate bits of wall and panels and start cogs moving so people think they are getting closer to solving the nonexistent puzzle despite the acid spray.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 14:57
|
|
|
...
Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Mar 31, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2013 23:34
|
|
|
I'm not sure whether this counts as good, bad, or cat piss. Possibly all three. Petrolblue is playing The Fae in my Dungeon World campaign. She's a foot-tall fairy with an obsession with trying new kinds of food. Another player has just got a 'make magic items' skill, and decided to try it out by enchanting Petrol's weapon -- a tooth they stole from a treacherous talking coyote -- with 'any magic, I don't care what, something that'll help her eat things'. So now, unknown to any of the other players, the rules for her weapon read: "When you stab somebody who trusts you with this, their flesh will make a meal fit for a king."
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2013 00:07
|
|
|
In not-at-all related news, one of my goldenroot potions and one of the other PC's new minions have gone missing. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2013 00:26
|
|
|
Well, at least it's not one of the other PCs themself. Also, before I read the setup, I thought you had a different Coyote's Tooth.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2013 02:49
|
|
|
Whybird posted:They actually just employ a kobold to sit in the control room behind it and keep pulling levers and pressing switches to activate bits of wall and panels and start cogs moving so people think they are getting closer to solving the nonexistent puzzle despite the acid spray. This sounds like an episode of Darren Brown's Trick or Treat
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2013 23:35
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:I agree but I have to admit, the image of a trap that has vents just opening up all over the place almost takes it back around to Tex Avery style slapstick. It could have been funny if he/she had thrown in some false positives like, "you hear a chime when you hold up the book and the door handle glows." "Okay, I touch the handle." "It falls off as you pull revealing another acid vent, take a point."  Obviously you can only do this once or twice before pissing everyone off.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2013 09:11
|
|
|
Hipster Occultist posted:It could have been funny if he/she had thrown in some false positives like, "you hear a chime when you hold up the book and the door handle glows."once or twice before pissing everyone off. Babylon Astronaut fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Dec 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2013 10:24
|
|
|
Babylon Astronaut posted:The clue for the players is that the sound that accompanies the acid spray becomes more and more condescending. It starts as a chime, then becomes a doorbell. Eventually, after you've heard the clown horn and the slide whistle, the door sprays you from every direction to the tune of Yakkety Sax. I see you are a master Paranoia GM. I approve.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2013 17:09
|
|
|
Babylon Astronaut posted:The clue for the players is that the sound that accompanies the acid spray becomes more and more condescending. It starts as a chime, then becomes a doorbell. Eventually, after you've heard the clown horn and the slide whistle, the door sprays you from every direction to the tune of Yakkety Sax. I started cracking up in my office. This is a Good Trap.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 14:06
|
|
|
Babylon Astronaut posted:The clue for the players is that the sound that accompanies the acid spray becomes more and more condescending. It starts as a chime, then becomes a doorbell. Eventually, after you've heard the clown horn and the slide whistle, the door sprays you from every direction to the tune of Yakkety Sax. Holy crap, that would be incredible.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2013 22:02
|
|
|
Just played a rollicking Spirit of the Century game. It's amazing how much teamwork and individuality you can get in a system while maintaining a clear tone. Our party of a Foreign Legion Vet, a German Spy, A Circus Archer and a Globetrotting journalist worked together quite well. Despite us not having any good drivers, we managed to outwit New York Gangsters (who were under the employ of the Tiger Lady), escape crooked police, and VAULT A MOTORCYCLE onto the gangplank of a departing freighter. Somehow, our spy was able to keep hidden as she tracked crook The Fox all the way across the Atlantic. Who was the mystery woman?! We later met up in the French Republic of Dakkar, where the Fox was going to sell the gems to pirates. The Legionnaire tried to hit up his old military contacts, but the only person he met was a provincial minister who hated him. He agreed to give the group papers if he could have a "private interview" with the reporter, over dinner. Meanwhile, the spy and the archer teamed up to corner a pirate thug. The archer couldn't speak French, though, so he fired arrows to pin the brigand, and had the spy interrogate him. They found out about the club. The group scouted the club, and the journalist was picked up for the date. While the minister bragged about himself, the journalist drank him under the table from the minibar. It turned out their date...was at the club. What followed was a comedy of errors, as the spy dressed as a bartender while the Fox and the pirates argued over prices. The archer stumbled over into the table, "drunkenly" knocking the briefcase to the ground. Then it turned into a FRACAS. The bartender tried to put a drink cart in the way, but the pirates immediately smashed it. The Fox went for it, but was stopped by the Legionaire, who picked it up. The journalist declared it was an attack on the ambassador, and hurried to get the front door open. It would've worked fine, except for the Legionnaire's "Twitchy" war reflexes. He dropped the case, and the archer was jumped by two pirate thugs. The Fox and her bodyguard finally got her hands on the case... When the journalist took a big flashbulb picture of her*. We escaped. *This was the roll of the night. The newsie invoked her Crusading Wire Service Journo and “Aw, don’t be that way.” The Fox used her "Secrets to Keep, Secrets to Sell" and "Powerful Allies". Both tagged scene aspects. The total ended up being +10 to +11 and the photo was taken. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Nov 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2013 22:20
|
|
|
A few months after we started playing Pathfinder with our friends, my fiancee (this is her first game) and I finally broke down and got our own damned copies of the Core and Advanced Player books. Yay Christmas money! My fiancee has been keeping up in the game, mainly having a blast playing a gnome cleric, going WoW-priest (her main RPG experience) all over the place and occasionally flinging a magic mace at baddies. She's been struggling a bit with how the various bits link in together what with BAB, strength, Dex (but only if you have finesse with certain weapons), leveling, just what feats are, etc. When we got the books, she cracked them open and started looking at prestige classes, feats, base classes, and trying to link them all together. I spent probably five minutes explaining how the base attack progression worked, especially when you went to a different class. Here's the weird thing. I can see all of this stuff meshing behind her eyes. She's getting it, and not only much faster than I did but better too. I forgot when the books arrived that she is very good at rules memorization and can plan things out well in advance. Then I remembered that I'm working on a Dresden Files game and she's been asking questions about how those rules and characters work. I may have unleashed a monster on our gaming circle and I couldn't be happier.
|
|
#
?
Dec 31, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
Behind the scenes of catpiss: I was talking to the guy who introduced me to D&D back in the day recently, and he told me about the new campaign he was running, with a huge focus on investigation and courtly intrigues. He explained how he'd plotted things out: first someone from royal family A was going to be assassinated, with the PCs taking the blame and going to prison, then they'd be freed by a mysterious figure who would only explain they had "a mutual friend", the PCs would naturally assume this was a trusted member of royal family B and come along, try to clear their name but they would be betrayed by an ally later on on behalf of, as would later emerge, that very same member, because he was in league with the evils in family A and they wanted to assassinate or otherwise disable every family member so the ruling power would default to the highest advisor... At that point I asked "okay, so, what are the PCs doing while all of that intrigue is going on behind the scenes?" "Well, first off, they have to get out of prison." "Okay, fair enough. After that?" "Hm, what?" "... right." He also explained about this one guy who existed in the campaign world, a 250 year old former PC more powerful than the gods ("you know how even the highest gods in 3.5 are only something like level 56, well this guy is higher") who was trying to stay out of the gods' business but kept getting pulled in. The party was going to meet this guy, "but he's not interested in them." "So why do they meet him then?" "If you have a character like that running around, you just include him, and he can have a big dramatic monologue." e: then he started talking about having the party meet old characters we played when he DMed and obviously probed me for input on mine ("only thing left to figure out is if Samar is still alive...") and I said "well that's up to you really" and thought "hell no he isn't if getting all mixed up in this unholy mess is what's in store for him". My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Hopefully the party emerges from prison and murders all of Family A, Family B and whoever their "mutual friend" works for. After all, they got locked up with the potential of execution, they might as well do something deserving of it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 20:51
|
|
|
goatface posted:Hopefully the party emerges from prison and murders all of Family A, Family B and whoever their "mutual friend" works for. Judging by the DM the players have no agency anyway so they might as well go out like screaming eagles.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:02
|
|
|
How does a 250 year old end up 'more powerful than the gods'? I mean poo poo that's like barely an adult in elf years and somehow he makes the D&D pantheon shake in their britches?
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:16
|
|
|
SUPER NEAT TOY posted:How does a 250 year old end up 'more powerful than the gods'? I mean poo poo that's like barely an adult in elf years and somehow he makes the D&D pantheon shake in their britches? He's also really high level and outlevels the Gods. Because a) Gods have levels and b) The God's levels are whats listed in a rulebook despite it being your own setting and c) That somehow doesn't make him a god himself.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:18
|
|
|
250 year old Mayfly. Hit level 20 at sometime between subimago and sunset and it's been barreling forward ever since.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:18
|
|
|
Does he grant Clerics their spells? Does he have his own plane?
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:22
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:"If you have a character like that running around, you just include him, and he can have a big dramatic monologue." I feel so sorry for that idiotically overpowered character. His life must be a constant blur of traveling from one horribly mishandled adventuring party to the next, interspersed with rolling his eyes and giving the gods a good talking to, like he was Doctor Who.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:29
|
|
|
I think you should hatch a really elaborate plot to kill him and see if the DM will allow it or the lengths he will go to in order to protect him.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:31
|
|
|
SUPER NEAT TOY posted:Does he grant Clerics their spells? Does he have his own plane? All the players are his clerics and his plane? Its the adventure itself 
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:31
|
|
|
Play as a cleric dedicated to him, even if he receives no spells. Later on, hatch a plan to kill him out of spite for the whole spell thing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 21:58
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:the PCs would naturally assume
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 22:10
|
|
|
Thankfully nobody here is silly enough to be playing in that game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 22:14
|
|
|
Barudak posted:c) That somehow doesn't make him a god himself. See how many logic holes you can spot there just immediately, I was at three. SUPER NEAT TOY posted:I think you should hatch a really elaborate plot to kill him and see if the DM will allow it or the lengths he will go to in order to protect him.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 23:04
|
|
|
Why are bad DMs always in such a rush to introduce a character of unimaginable power? Like, we are for the most part people with very imaginable power (generally, little to none) and I like to think we (human beings) are pretty interesting. Like, can't a character of perfectly imaginable power (such as a minor dragon or a king or just like, a heroic knight) be at the center of some plot? Why does it always have to escalate to global/cosmic scale immediately? I played in a Deadlands game once. I went to one session, was immediately railroaded by some kind of invincible skeleton, and never came back. Oh and there was some kind of political plot (I think one of our friends was going to be hanged) but despite spending almost 2 hours plotting an epic escape, we were told it was literally impossible. I mean, I guess I understand railroading to a certain extent, if you're a mediocre storyteller and you need to get from point A to point B, but beings of god-like immunity to everything seem like either overkill or drastic overcompensation based on past groups of PCs who managed to find a way to derail your carefully orchestrated magnum opus.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 23:24
|
|
|
Mendrian posted:Why are bad DMs always in such a rush to introduce a character of unimaginable power? Like, we are for the most part people with very imaginable power (generally, little to none) and I like to think we (human beings) are pretty interesting. Like, can't a character of perfectly imaginable power (such as a minor dragon or a king or just like, a heroic knight) be at the center of some plot? Why does it always have to escalate to global/cosmic scale immediately? I think a big one is a lots of bad DMs think they're telling a story that the players play. Powerful DM PCs let them directly change the story as needed to fit what they want and let them feel like they're playing. Plus, DMPCs follow the actions and ordinations of the plot so they'll never derail it like players. At the end of it though, they're treating the players like difficult NPCs who are messing about the story instead of people who have differing ideas of fun. A good DM should realize more or less you're actually in charge of the fiddly bits. You're simply there to make sure the monsters fairly antagonize the party, somebody adjucates skills and abilities, and that you can futz with the setting so that players can get more of what they want. A DM should never tell players "here is everything in the setting" but should instead get what their players want, offer rough ideas, and have their players fill in what it is they want.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 23:31
|
|
|
Barudak posted:He's also really high level and outlevels the Gods. Because a) Gods have levels and b) The God's levels are whats listed in a rulebook despite it being your own setting and c) That somehow doesn't make him a god himself. I forget how the actual abilities compare to just piling on more epic spellcaster poo poo, though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 23:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 13:28 |
|
|
I think that sufficiently powerful gods get a few flat "no" abilities.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 23:38
|
|