|
Why not invert it? The players are loyalists of a Good and Noble Empire. Their job is to root out evil threats to the stability of the land, like heretics and rebels. They are the inquisitors, the special forces, the troubleshooters of the empire, and they're expected to deliver results without needing backup from a slow and burdened government. They have increasingly difficult missions, from a simple raid, to a long-term undercover job to find and eliminate the terrorist leaders. Over time they may question their loyalties, but keep it ambiguous. Make it so the Empire really does do a lot of good work, and its destruction would create widespread death and chaos. But also make it so the players are asked to do very morally difficult things, and use underhanded methods, for the "greater good"
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 04:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 17:49 |
|
|
petrol blue posted:I need some help with campaign ideas: The last three games I've played/run have turned out as 'revolution, overthrowing the Powers That Be', and I want to do something different - except every idea I have seems to lead back to that idea. Settings are easy, but I'm really struggling with interesting story arcs. I ran sort of a "revolution happened, counterrevolution is on-deck" type campaign. The focus was on trying to find out the root sources of the revolution. Turns out some Badguy was a dick and got in the way of true love, ruined the lives of an entire family, and got off Scott free because he was a member of the elite. He got his comeuppance. Make the campaign about the impact these negative acts have had on specific people and on societies as a whole. I layered in a lot of mystery as the players tried to track down the wronged parties, but also threw in some romance that paralleled the previous true love situation, just to get people worried. When it's all framed in the context of political unrest and waiting for the other shoe to drop, it makes for great tension. It's like Star Wars. Yeah, there's intergalactic civil war and one all-powerful Force, but you watch it for the 3 primary characters; it's basically a human interest story.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 08:05
|
|
|
I am excruciatingly bad at improvisation and the few games I've run feel really stale and boring to me because of it. Any tips to remedy that? I'm working with Dungeon World and both myself and my two players are all very new to roleplaying if that makes a difference.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 09:47
|
|
|
What helped me the most was listening to other people do it. There's some good podcasts on this forum, you'll start to unconsciously mimic styles. Also, don't be afraid to steal ideas from pretty much anything. Even if everyone is familiar with it, like star trek, they won't notice that you pillaged plot points and characters wholesale unless you tell them. Once your stolen idea gets you on track, you'll start making it your own pretty quick anyway. Also, if you're all new there's no need to get crazy with it. Give them a classic dungeon dive. There are evil necromancer trying to raise an army of the dead in the Ruins! Go Heroes! Break through their fledgling army! Overcome their deadly traps! Murder them and loot their corpses! Once you have an understandable structure ideas will flow easier. From there you can grow into a larger and more complex campaign.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 10:04
|
|
|
So I've read the gm section of Paranoia but I'm wondering if there are any pitfalls or such things to look out for when running it for the first time. I'll be doing the included adventure "Into the outdoors with guns"
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 10:28
|
|
|
Mr. Prokosch posted:What helped me the most was listening to other people do it. There's some good podcasts on this forum, you'll start to unconsciously mimic styles. Also, don't be afraid to steal ideas from pretty much anything. Even if everyone is familiar with it, like star trek, they won't notice that you pillaged plot points and characters wholesale unless you tell them. Once your stolen idea gets you on track, you'll start making it your own pretty quick anyway. I've listened to a ton of podcasts and YouTube videos of games being played in an effort to absorb the fun and infuse my games with it, but it just hasn't stuck. I'm all about making wacky characters and voices and stuff, but as soon as they try to make some casual conversation I fumble around with what to say. Same goes with determining the partial successes or the events of a battle. Last session they were on their way up a mountain to investigate some gargoyle raids. I decided to throw in an ambush of a couple gargoyles to set the tone and that ended up taking like an hour to resolve due to indecisiveness on both my part and theirs. I'm sure the battle stuff will partially resolve itself after becoming fluent with the system and gaining the confidence that comes with that, but man am I hard pressed to make an NPC of interest. My players are also not very outgoing when it comes to roleplaying, but I feel like I should lead by example before asking them to get more into it. I will definitely try to follow your advice on keeping it simple. The more I think about it the more I think that I am attempting to describe too much and failing to do so. wigglin fucked around with this message at 11:26 on Apr 13, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 11:23
|
|
|
Thanks for the advice, somehow the idea of "stop a revolution" hadn't occurred to me. Pete Zah posted:I hard pressed to make an NPC of interest. I find that giving them a shtick works well - a simple memorable trait - maybe they really wanted to be an adventurer too, or often use a certain word. Nothing to stop you coming up with this stuff pre-game, and just grabbing something apt from your list as needed. e: the other thing to remember is that they're people, not just quest vendors - just talk like people do. e2: related, I find a pre-genned list of random names a lifesaver when making up an NPC on the spot. petrol blue fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Apr 13, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 13:01
|
|
|
Cerepol posted:So I've read the gm section of Paranoia but I'm wondering if there are any pitfalls or such things to look out for when running it for the first time. I'll be doing the included adventure "Into the outdoors with guns" Remind yourself the dice don't matter in Paranoia. When you have to roll, apply an arbitrary bonus to whatever option you think would be more fun. Paranoia at its best is slapstick comedy, and deaths don't really matter thanks to clone pods. If someone has horrible luck, find a way for them to get more clones. Just keep everything moving and funny. Oh, and think of ways to make completely normal objects sound intriguing, interesting, or like something way more awesome than it actually is. I once had players use red spraypaint on an orange roadcone and continually try to discover its destructive potential because "a bright orange cylinder that looks like an oversized megaphone without the handle" just had to be destructive. At the end of the game they figured out what it was when one of them threw it like a grenade at a robotic vehicle chasing them, and it swerved out of the way and slowed to 25 mph.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 17:32
|
|
|
Make R&D easier by looking up a list online, grabbing what looks interesting, and having players secretly requisition the rest via notes. Then scribble on the notes so they get either something mundane and reasonable, or something SORT of like what they wanted. Like nuke grenads.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 19:33
|
|
|
Pete Zah posted:I've listened to a ton of podcasts and YouTube videos of games being played in an effort to absorb the fun and infuse my games with it, but it just hasn't stuck. I'm all about making wacky characters and voices and stuff, but as soon as they try to make some casual conversation I fumble around with what to say. Same goes with determining the partial successes or the events of a battle. Last session they were on their way up a mountain to investigate some gargoyle raids. I decided to throw in an ambush of a couple gargoyles to set the tone and that ended up taking like an hour to resolve due to indecisiveness on both my part and theirs. My two favourite NPC tricks are to just openly use a movie star - 'this guy is basically fantasy Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs' and then the PCs will fill in the gaps in your terrible impression (and you get to laugh at it too, which is fun) and second to have a name and no more than two character traits, neither of which is 'enigmatic'. So, off the top of my head: Ram Jockson, crew cut, stutter Salerious, slimy, friendly Rolf Berg, kindly, brutal Monologetto, talks fast, coward Make a bunch of these, right now - it's super easy. If you keep those things in mind (and write them down) then your NPCs will be memorable and easy to keep separate in your head. Have a look at Garth Hanrahan's brilliant Treasure Ship if you want some other good npc techniques.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2014 22:28
|
|
|
So my PCs started their second phase of the campaign. They gave the dog an assist, as the dog was staving off bandits who were trying to rob a woman and her children. After the paladin healed his wounds, the dog paused nobly at the top of a hill and took off. The paladin immediately starts humming the theme song to "The Littlest Hobo." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGKSjiw0HQ 
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2014 02:08
|
|
|
So I'm super rusty on GMing, but I'm in the process of putting together a Blood & Smoke oneshot to run for some of the people I do WoD LARP with, and I am having so much fun with this. Partly because I'm getting to use New Wave Requiem, but still. The basic hook (admittedly taken from a RPGNet post) is that, in 1987 NYC, two of the city's younger Kindred run an alternative night at a local nightclub. Feeding from the human patrons is forbidden, mainly because it would draw too much attention and get people asking questions they shouldn't be asking. They're not powerful enough to enforce the formal rules of Elysium, but they're well-liked enough that other Kindred (especially unaligned Kindred) tend to go along with it regardless. This gets complicated when one night, one of the owners finds a bloodless human corpse in the bathroom. The identity of the killer is largely a non-issue; the problem is disposal, and with only a few Kindred in the club and a couple hundred kine, it's a pretty drat big problem. So basically the PCs get to play Weekend at Bernie's by way of Agatha Christie. Some premades I'm thinking of for it are, essentially, Ventrue Patrick Bateman and his coke-addicted ghoul secretary, a Daeva clubkid, a Morbus trying to hide his lineage from the other PCs, a Bruja coke dealer, and a Carthian Daeva punk. 
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 12:36
|
|
|
Writer Cath posted:So my PCs started their second phase of the campaign. They gave the dog an assist, as the dog was staving off bandits who were trying to rob a woman and her children. That's cute  I've got a dog NPC in my game, who looks suspiciously like London, and who the PCs haven't figured out is actually a Blink Dog yet. "How did he get up the cliff? Before we did?"
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2014 20:04
|
|
|
So I'm getting back into the GM arena after a several month hiatus. Being mostly familiar with 3.5 and Pathfinder, with some fledgling attempts at slightly more modern games, I decided to stick with what I know and chose 3.5 with a twist. I went and found the Avatar: The last airbender mod of the game, and am completely drawing a blank with ideas to throw into a loose outline of a plot. Currently I have one of each bending type, we're using the stuff from http://www.scribd.com/doc/58731271/Avatar-the-Last-Airbender-D20 and http://www.scribd.com/doc/36548716/Avatar-the-Last-d20-Supplement-MAIN-SOURCE. We're using the Bending from "the last D20 supplement" and carrying over some of the feats and creature blocks from the first link. Does anyone have any experience with this fan made hack, and if so, any suggestions for an engaging outline and keeping the currently 4 different benders challenged in combat? They asked for near canon setting so I can have fun using different DnD races as "spirit" creatures just with the different description and such but that's all i've got for the moment. What do you guys do when you get writers block for your campaigns?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2014 16:41
|
|
|
When are you going to set it with regards to the show? You could do an interesting Thrawn trilogy thing and set it post-series, with the PCs trying to form a new government and track down the remaining guerrilla forces who don't get that they've lost. Or maybe they are those forces, if you want a darker game. E: Actually, I really like that idea: The PCs are low-power benders trying to restore the old regime, waging a guerrilla war against the populist uprising that's probably being pretty horrific to suspected "sympathisers" about now. The ridiculous child avatar must die, for the greater good! petrol blue fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Apr 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 01:37
|
|
|
It's set after both shows, Korra's second season included, long enough for there to be air benders that are while rare, less of a scene causing sensation. I'm looking more towards a mature game, with the occasional adult theme, still focused on the adventure and the awesomeness of bending and technology. I'm thinking maybe 1930's to 40's? a bit of a tech jump but still focused on the themes within both shows.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 05:40
|
|
|
Ah, I've not seen Korra s2 yet, so can't help there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 09:34
|
|
|
masam posted:It's set after both shows, Korra's second season included, long enough for there to be air benders that are while rare, less of a scene causing sensation. I'm looking more towards a mature game, with the occasional adult theme, still focused on the adventure and the awesomeness of bending and technology. I'm thinking maybe 1930's to 40's? a bit of a tech jump but still focused on the themes within both shows. Earth-bending Hilter, why make this complicated?
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 11:31
|
|
|
Rexides posted:Earth-bending Hilter, why make this complicated? The Hindenburg was a fire bender attack on an air bender project. Intrigue ensues.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 17:45
|
|
|
Rexides posted:Earth-bending Hilter, why make this complicated? Oh man, a game in the avatar universe set in an alternative equivalent to Germany at the rise of Hitler could be really interesting. Players could play as people who are resisting the change in government, sort of like the first Full Metal Alchemist movie. I'd love to play this game.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2014 19:59
|
|
|
I'm running a campaign in D&D 2e, basically The Keep On The Borderlands as the skeleton and all the extras I'm throwing in there give it real life. I'm almost upon the big halfway point of my design, HarvestFest. It's my place to bring in new NPCs to the story, get my PCs to sell off a lot of their loot (they've opened a shop called Chaotic Goods), barter for weapon and armor upgrades (which they'll need for an epic Seige battle near the end of the campaign against hordes of undead and they only know I have *something* big planned) and otherwise trick my players into enjoying a session that's largely an excuse to organize their damned inventories. One of the two highlights, there's a great outdoor fight Melee Tournament, maybe 15 total combatants and only punching/wrestling applies, and I think that'll be a lot of fun for everyone to first team up and then wail on eachother. Some of the NPC entrants are people in the Keep like the Smithy and the Sergeant of the Guard, and others are randoms like douchebag Chet Worthington and huge thug The Man Mountain Amber Alert. Any ideas for what the big prize should be, for if any PC actually wins? I'm seriously stumped... Don't want to go with just Gold Pieces, but I'm flat out for ideas here. Now the second highlight is there's a huge feast the PCs are invited to attend, with all the Keep's big players and such. First however is a concert by legendary dwarf bard Glenndyn Zeeg... If any of you listened to the Nerd Poker podcast where Patton Oswalt performed a filthy satirical song about the players, that's what it'll be. I wrote five songs that feature the PCs and they're all just filthy and belittle the PCs, except for the dwarf in the group, his song is about how bad he's gonna kill you... Also the breaks between songs will be in the concert-banter style of Paul Stanley. Here's where I need advice: I was thinking maybe the PCs can be asked to fill-in for the opening act who never showed (turned into zombies oops), thinking they can make dexterity and charisma checks to see if they can perform adequately or not. They won't have to sing songs improv on the spot, but before going onstage they'll roll a d20 for two costume pieces they'll also keep afterwards. Spiked boots of dancing, devil-horn helms, gauntlets of something or other, etc. So does this seem like a good idea they may like, or just too much? I don't want HarvestFest to be a burden or too slow, although admittedly I want it to be where everyone *wants* to take stock of their characters. Dookie-In-The-Pants fucked around with this message at 05:45 on May 6, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 05:32
|
|
|
Dookie-In-The-Pants posted:One of the two highlights, there's a great outdoor fight Melee Tournament, maybe 15 total combatants and only punching/wrestling applies, and I think that'll be a lot of fun for everyone to first team up and then wail on eachother. Some of the NPC entrants are people in the Keep like the Smithy and the Sergeant of the Guard, and others are randoms like douchebag Chet Worthington and huge thug The Man Mountain Amber Alert. Any ideas for what the big prize should be, for if any PC actually wins? I'm seriously stumped... Don't want to go with just Gold Pieces, but I'm flat out for ideas here.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 08:51
|
|
|
Winning the tournament makes you Master of Ceremonies for the Harvest Feast. You can choose where everybody sits -- even down to the Lord of the Keep -- get first pick of the food, and can order toasts during the feast as you see fit.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 11:59
|
|
|
Babylon Astronaut posted:A title belt? Make it a title belt with some weird, but useful magical property. "Gaudy Wrestlin' Belt of _____". Example powers: Shout real loud. Never need a microphone for your promos again. Wearer is no longer subject to falling damage, provided he lands on his elbow. The belt is an Intelligent Item, and it manifests as a spectral manager that only the wearer, and dogs, can percieve, who looks and acts like Paul Bearer and slowly compels the wearer to become The Undertaker.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 12:50
|
|
|
Whybird posted:Winning the tournament makes you Master of Ceremonies for the Harvest Feast. You can choose where everybody sits -- even down to the Lord of the Keep -- get first pick of the food, and can order toasts during the feast as you see fit. Loads of stuff you can do for this, I'd go with the prize being an evening of courting the king/lord/whatever's daughter, only it turns out she's psychotic and just wants to go be an adventurer, the players can either help her escape and fulfill her destiny and piss daddy off or deny her and have her constantly scheming to pay them back for the slight. (I love lose/lose situations in my games) I'd deffo make it a non monetary reward though, something like 3 boons from the lord of the keep or signed paper proclaiming him the lords champion and essentially giving a "get out of jail free" card. They really should have the local shady folk approach them and get them to throw the fight too, just to add some danger to them winning. I really need to get a fighting tournament in my 13th age game very soon...
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 13:00
|
|
|
You could take it even further and make it a 'king for a day' type affair - it's meant to be all in good fun, the 'king' doesn't do anything more than sit in the big seat and have a really good meal, and no-one would actually be dumb enough to do any 'real' kinging, right?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2014 13:10
|
|
|
So I have a game scheduled, and Im making dungeons and such so we can play next month. I used to play D&D religiously and weekly and I'm definitely out of the habit. My group is composed of 95% new people and 5% only-sort-of-kind-of new person. I have a way to start my homebrew campaign but I'm nervous its not really up to par. I'd love anyones thoughts. so Im gonna post it in this here thread: I'm going to have all the characters pre game try and figure out a way that they all know at least 2 other people in the group. My old DM did this once, and it made the game flow way better than any other game I've ever played. After explaining how the game is played and the basics of what everything means I'm going to describe the scene. "You are all, for some reason or another, at the festival of the first light. Blah blah blah blah descriptions..." then ask everyone where they are in the scene. After we're done with that brief round robin, the PCs will be immediately ambushed. After combat they'll notice that there is smoke coming from the door of the nearby belltower. They will (hopefully  ) go and inspect the belltower to notice that there's a hole in the floor, and they can see stairs leading deeper and deeper into the darkness. Dun dun duh a dungeon crawl...Is this a good intro to a potential campaign for new players? I assume they'll eat up the hook leading, which will lead into the bigger overall campaign. Also I'd love any advice for DMing mostly new people.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 13:12
|
|
|
The great thing about new players (and it's hard to remember this sometimes) is that you can unabashedly bust out the dusty old DM playbook, full of tired, worn out tricks. It's all new to them. You might scoff at "yet another bag of holding" but to them, it's all brand new and shiny. It takes a lot of pressure off being the DM. As for your setup, it seems fine, although you might have to coach them a little that they can be more brash and aggressive about situations they're in. At least in my experience, I found that brand new players tended to play it a little more "real life" at first, where dangers should be avoided, not charged into. But if you can get them to recognize a hook as a hook, it'll go great.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 13:21
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:The great thing about new players (and it's hard to remember this sometimes) is that you can unabashedly bust out the dusty old DM playbook, full of tired, worn out tricks. It's all new to them. You might scoff at "yet another bag of holding" but to them, it's all brand new and shiny. It takes a lot of pressure off being the DM. Well that is a relief. I'm incredibly rusty in the DMing department, and havent played D&D in about 2 years now. Making the first dungeon has been an incredibly difficult task, because unlike my 13 year old self, I need to give every room in this mysterious underground lair a distinct purpose. I should probably stop sweating the fine details... Hopefully my post modern abstract analysis of "what truly is lawful evil" will resonate with my new players  E: Seriously though, I'm going to try and introduce an NPC as a villain and hopefully turn the PCs perception of the character on their heads when they realize he's trying to stop the world from ending (in a completely brutal ends-justify-means way). I am very excited for that reveal. Bread Set Jettison fucked around with this message at 13:55 on May 7, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 13:50
|
|
|
Bread Set Jettison posted:Well that is a relief. I'm incredibly rusty in the DMing department, and havent played D&D in about 2 years now. Making the first dungeon has been an incredibly difficult task, because unlike my 13 year old self, I need to give every room in this mysterious underground lair a distinct purpose. I should probably stop sweating the fine details... You have my problem  Sometime between middle school and now, I started designing most dungeons to be functioning residential compounds, and I think something was lost in the process. I should try and make a move toward "ancient treasure vault that these random goblins are using as a hideout on the first floor" or something.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 13:55
|
|
|
Bread Set Jettison posted:My group is composed of 95% new people and 5% only-sort-of-kind-of new person. Are you running a game for twenty players?
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 14:23
|
|
|
Mimir posted:Are you running a game for twenty players? Yes. Actually 6, and the one player with any experience played exactly 2 games of D&D, about 2 years ago. He's a "a partially experienced" player. Also one of the players LARPs at a very D&D-esque game but has somehow never ever played D&D. He'll probably eat up the hooks and story and will just have to learn the combat-game and rolling stuff portion. Ok, the percentages are off. Whatever.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 15:05
|
|
|
Make sure the hole in the floor of the belltower leads immediately into the dungeon, or a at least a small drop. One of my first times playing d&d, the first event we had to roll was for getting down a thirty-foot well and after a few poor rolls on climbing checks most of the party was a broken pile of dead adventurers at the bottom.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 18:09
|
|
|
Dookie-In-The-Pants posted:Make sure the hole in the floor of the belltower leads immediately into the dungeon, or a at least a small drop. One of my first times playing d&d, the first event we had to roll was for getting down a thirty-foot well and after a few poor rolls on climbing checks most of the party was a broken pile of dead adventurers at the bottom. Its gonna be a short drop to stairs. If they follow it upward they'll find that there was secret room in the belltower, but directly down is the dungeon.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 18:12
|
|
|
I have a request on behalf on my DM: he was looking for ways to make a labyrinth session more interesting. He isn't really feeling doing the whole "map out the labyrinth on graph paper" thing. And last time we had mazes come up in game, he had us solve actual mazes as skill checks - but we'v already done that, now. So, veteran DMs, how do you make a maze fun and involved without having it be a long slog?
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
Sionak posted:I have a request on behalf on my DM: he was looking for ways to make a labyrinth session more interesting. Don't. I've never seen a maze be good, because you either map out the fucker and take forever or you handwave it and it doesn't matter.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 18:40
|
|
|
Piell posted:Don't. I've never seen a maze be good, because you either map out the fucker and take forever or you handwave it and it doesn't matter. I recommend doing what they did in the movie, Labyrinth. Thematically, yeah, it's a giant maze. But the execution is that, for the players, it's actually a relatively linear series of bitchin setpieces. Maybe require a cursory dungeoneering check to determine boring details like how long it takes to navigate between rooms, and just give a "you wander the halls for nearly an hour, occasionally finding your way back to your own sand trail. This place is unbelievably huge, and you find yourself sometimes wondering if yours is really the only trail. This next corridor is different, though...", and now the PCs have to deal with a trap obstacle course, or some kind of weird-rear end tomb chamber, or wonder who planted this enormous garden in this one chamber, and why nobody in the party can find a constellation they recognize in what appears to be an open sky above the walls.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
I did a labyrinth type place that just finished up last session! My players seemed to like it. It was built by a town and it's a sort of tourist attraction for adventurers. You get to the middle, and you get the hoard of treasure and stuff. But nobody's ever completed it. Adventurers come from all over, hoping to get their name picked so they can go in. Anyway, the numbers on this map represent different challenges within the maze. 1 was a minotaur, 2 was a sphinx room where the doors closed and you had to solve a riddle, three of the rooms had different colored orbs you needed to unlock a later room. Of course, the rooms were being worshipped by goblins, kobolds, and the other emitted some sort of light that attracted a bunch of big bugs. There was a giant stone golem that couldn't speak and wouldn't let anyone through unless they bribed him with treasure.  To make it "interesting" there were different paths on the floor in small lines. The PCs could follow any of the lines. The red line was fairly linear and would lead them through every challenge, which were fairly hard and taxing. A blue line lead pretty much nowhere, a green line lead them through traps. Additionally, there were clues throughout the dungeon that let them find out that, in fact, the town was running this labyrinth as a scam, purposefully stocking it with monsters they imported, and selling off the equipment they gathered off dead adventurers. The light grey areas are secret caves where monsters are stocked, ledgers kept. The treasure hoard is actually in the middle, but it's actually just being kept and sorted through until it's shipped out of town. To solve the mapping out problem, I pretty much loaded that image (blank of any of my markings, pretty much) into photoshop, put a completely filled in black layer above it, and erased when they went into a new area. The players could look at that whenever they wanted. And I'm pretty sure I shamelessly stole a bunch of ideas right from this thread ------------------------------------------------------ E: While I'm posting, has anyone ever made up or come across a list of weird, random, marginally useful loot? My players really don't like finding gems or plain old gold. They have the most fun when they find something like a giant bird call, or a staff that summons like 3 spectral sheep that serve only to get in the way, really (Any Pixel Dungeon fans?). Stuff that's sort of off-the-wall. Rotten Cookies fucked around with this message at 20:22 on May 7, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Rotten Cookies posted:E: While I'm posting, has anyone ever made up or come across a list of weird, random, marginally useful loot? My players really don't like finding gems or plain old gold. They have the most fun when they find something like a giant bird call, or a staff that summons like 3 spectral sheep that serve only to get in the way, really. Stuff that's sort of off-the-wall. There's some old 2e netbooks for these, but the places where they're  extensive aren't necessarily in the "just funnin u" type of items. Still, there's a few that are just a couple pages of "not especially good" types of items.You might try sifting through this, maybe.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 20:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 2, 2024 17:49 |
|
|
Thanks for the suggestions. Just cutting the labyrinth out isn't really practical, it's been foreshadowed in the plot for a long while and I think several of the players want to deal with it. I like the ideas of basing it on Labyrinth (so obvious now, yet a good idea) and making sure there's plenty of stuff to do inside besides get lost and frustrated. And that there's NPCs to interact with, of course.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2014 21:54
|
|