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Has anyone ever tried running a plot-less or very plot-light game? This is obviously another case of "I'm going to run a game like this, if anyone's interested let me know", I'm just asking for any experience with a straight dungeon crawl where you only need the barest justification to enter it and keep things mostly consistent because what you really care about are the combats (and presumably everyone that gets on board also is)
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Jan 2, 2015 13:39
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gradenko_2000 posted:Has anyone ever tried running a plot-less or very plot-light game? This is obviously another case of "I'm going to run a game like this, if anyone's interested let me know", I'm just asking for any experience with a straight dungeon crawl where you only need the barest justification to enter it and keep things mostly consistent because what you really care about are the combats (and presumably everyone that gets on board also is) Yes. Nearly every Dungeon World game ever. Plot can be incredibly fluid or non-existent in DW. You don't need a ton of character motivations when you are in cinematic wushu mode and are Jet Li-ing the gently caress out of every encounter. The encounter becomes the reason for the game.
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Jan 2, 2015 14:08
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gradenko_2000 posted:Has anyone ever tried running a plot-less or very plot-light game? This is obviously another case of "I'm going to run a game like this, if anyone's interested let me know", I'm just asking for any experience with a straight dungeon crawl where you only need the barest justification to enter it and keep things mostly consistent because what you really care about are the combats (and presumably everyone that gets on board also is) I've had some success with this in the past, but it really depends on your group. I think you've got it right from the front there- just tell everybody, "I am going to be running this like a video game. Town is where you sell your loot and purchase services. The guy sending you to the quest location is, at most, giving you some clues about what to expect there, and then probably paying you when you come back. The dungeon boss doesn't care about negotiating." Maybe think up a mechanic for getting like an alternate reward for bringing some of the bad guys back alive, though, for the sake of somebody who still wants to use Charm or other forms of compulsion.
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Jan 2, 2015 14:17
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gradenko_2000 posted:Has anyone ever tried running a plot-less or very plot-light game? This is obviously another case of "I'm going to run a game like this, if anyone's interested let me know", I'm just asking for any experience with a straight dungeon crawl where you only need the barest justification to enter it and keep things mostly consistent because what you really care about are the combats (and presumably everyone that gets on board also is) Run every session like a saturday morning cartoon. What this requires is being upfront about it with your players, and then making every session themed some way with an interesting encounter to finish it. Feel free to let inspiration go wild: in my current game the players have done a dungeon crawl through a desolate/haunted casino under another casino. They fought actual dice who tried to squish them. Another one is that a record label hunted them down for piracy and they ended up killing Elvish Presley. Keep the stories short, contained, and have the villains be extremely hammy or memorable in some way.
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Jan 2, 2015 14:27
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gradenko_2000 posted:Has anyone ever tried running a plot-less or very plot-light game? This is obviously another case of "I'm going to run a game like this, if anyone's interested let me know", I'm just asking for any experience with a straight dungeon crawl where you only need the barest justification to enter it and keep things mostly consistent because what you really care about are the combats (and presumably everyone that gets on board also is) Barest justification? Red Box Basic D&D starter solo adventure, first paragraph posted:Your home town is just a small place with dirt roads. You set off one morning and hike to nearby hills. There are several caves in the hills, caves where treasures can be found, guarded by monsters. You have heard that a man named Bargle may also be found in these caves. Bargle is a sort of bandit, who has been stealing money, killing people, and terrorizing your town. If you can catch him, you can become a hero! There are caves with monsters and treasure and maybe the evil wizard bandit Bad McGuy. You know what to do! Town exists. It has merchants and things. You walk from it to the dungeon <the whole game happens here> then some of you come back out with treasure and levels and walk back to town. You could use Dungeon World, any of the countless D&D clones and retroclones, an actual D&D, or whatever. Play it for laughs, with Bargle the bumbling wizzard yelling that he'll get them next time. Play it grimdark. Play it exactly like Diablo. Pretend it's Nethack. Deltasquid posted:...ended up killing Elvish Presley. Basically do this though, this is the best. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 14:53
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Wow, thanks guys. Really.quote:Red Box Basic D&D starter solo adventure, first paragraph See, I had bought a copy of Blueholme Prentice and wanted to give it a spin, so  that's perfect.
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Jan 2, 2015 15:01
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"Saturday morning cartoon" reminded me of Danger Patrol. Episodic, rules light, early 20th century pulp sci-fi. And free. It never made it out of beta, but the core is a solid game. I actually disagree that Dungeon World is light on plotting. Fronts are the same if not more detailed than any plotting I'd normally do for a campaign. And I think they're necessary (or at least something equivalent is necessary) for any game that's going to run more than a few sessions. Bonds help, but I don't think they're enough to carry a group week to week on their own.
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Jan 2, 2015 17:27
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fosborb posted:I actually disagree that Dungeon World is light on plotting. Fronts are the same if not more detailed than any plotting I'd normally do for a campaign. And I think they're necessary (or at least something equivalent is necessary) for any game that's going to run more than a few sessions. Bonds help, but I don't think they're enough to carry a group week to week on their own. I don't get this. Fronts are just about the least amount of plot you can have while still saying you have a plot written down. And Dungeon World works perfectly fine without real fronts. Put the MacGuffin in front of the PCs at the beginning of every session and see what unfolds. You don't need any semblance of overarching plot for that. Granted, most of my DW games have only been 3 or 4 sessions for filler between bigger campaigns, but the PCs seem to have no trouble finding their own motivations for adventure. Especially when they know combat is around the corner (DW combat is the best combat).
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Jan 2, 2015 18:55
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gradenko_2000 posted:See, I had bought a copy of Blueholme Prentice and wanted to give it a spin, so That's a clone of Holmes' Basic D&D, right? I'm pretty sure that doesn't have all the beginner walkthrough stuff. HatfulOfHollow posted:Put the MacGuffin in front of the PCs at the beginning of every session and see what unfolds If you don't want to even bother writing a front, you can always just ask the players. "Everyone pick a character" "Dave, who recently attacked the village and where are they based?" "Jessie, what did the goblins steal to take back to their "abandoned" mine?" "Christine, what can the stolen altar statue be used for?" "Mark, what are the goblins using the statue to try to banish, down there in the old mine?" Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 23:09
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AlphaDog posted:That's a clone of Holmes' Basic D&D, right? I'm pretty sure that doesn't have all the beginner walkthrough stuff. Yeah, it is. I just meant it was perfect in the sense of "if it's good enough for the red box, it should be good enough for me"
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Jan 3, 2015 04:32
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fosborb posted:I actually disagree that Dungeon World is light on plotting. Fronts are the same if not more detailed than any plotting I'd normally do for a campaign. Eh, depends how formal you're being with them - you could write them up as 'kill Krug or the goblins spread west' or a full bulletpointed list of the exact threat name, details on the impending doom, which villages will get hit first, and so on. I do agree that they're necessary, but I can't think of any game (with a continuing plot, rather than pure episodic) that'd take less.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:58
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petrol blue posted:I do agree that they're necessary, but I can't think of any game (with a continuing plot, rather than pure episodic) that'd take less. Oh absolutely, I can't think of anything else easier either -- and that's my point. As awesome as Dungeon World is, it's unreasonable to expect it to be good and zero prep for extended campaigns. I think that way lies limp, sputtering games which is why its one of the GM principles: "Think offscreen, too." I do think it holds up at 3 or 4 sessions, but longer games need something more than just bonds to keep motivations focused, in my experience. But as other posters said, I think it's fine if you're up front and embrace that it's going to be episodic. And that should work with any game, really. I can't think of anything that can't be run as a one shot. And for me that's the great thing about running episodic games: there's no expectation that we have to play those characters or even that system next week. By avoiding grand stories I've knocked out dozens of RPGs that I would never had played or ran otherwise. edit: thinking on it, "think offscreen, too" doesn't really mean "do prep for your game" but I think fronts require it. I also think it's awesome that Dungeon World tells you to not build your campaign until after your first session. That's just brilliant. fosborb fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Jan 4, 2015 |
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Jan 4, 2015 04:10
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fosborb posted:And for me that's the great thing about running episodic games: there's no expectation that we have to play those characters or even that system next week. By avoiding grand stories I've knocked out dozens of RPGs that I would never had played or ran otherwise. Running a bunch of one shots in different systems is hilariously fun and mind expanding if you've been doing the same game with the same group for a long time.
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Jan 5, 2015 21:30
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How do you handle the effort of learning and teaching the different systems? Or are they all rules-light? I find even something as light as FAE still takes effort to get into the habit of invoking/compelling aspects.
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Jan 5, 2015 22:31
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I need help. Every time I run a game or work on an adventure, I run into the same problem, namely my horribly impaired spatial reasoning (apparently, according to some tests from back in school, my spatial intelligence is at "literally retarded" level). I'm used to the general life difficulties this brings like not being able to drive and getting lost all the time, because there are resources for people with this problem - but I'm frustrated by how it impacts my GM'ing. When I try to make maps, they're ugly and nonsensical and I can't ballpark the distances involved for weapon ranges etc. When I only describe environments with words, halfway through I realize we're playing in a five-dimensional M.C. Escher space where rooms overlap, buildings are larger on the inside than on the outside and corridors loop in on each other like that hotel from The Shining. For dungeon crawls this was fine since the layout is an arbitrary series of rooms anyway, when I ran horror I could pretend this was intentional, but now I'm running a realistic-ish post-apocalyptic campaign and making up ruins to explore is a giant pain in the rear end. It's especially annoying because a) I love cool dynamic action scenes that use the environment, but I have to make them absurdly contrived to avoid improvising and b) one of my players is an architect, and while we have an agreement where he doesn't point this stuff out during sessions, I can tell it's distracting and his knowledge makes it actively difficult for him to navigate my brainspaces, if that makes sense. Also it's just embarrassing. Any ideas on how I can improve? A resource with easily RPG-adaptable floor plans for modern buildings would be amazing, as would any creative advice on how to get around the problem.
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Jan 6, 2015 13:03
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Guildencrantz posted:Any ideas on how I can improve? A resource with easily RPG-adaptable floor plans for modern buildings would be amazing, as would any creative advice on how to get around the problem. I have no idea how you could improve because this problem is completely foreign to me. Maybe practice by trying to draw a floorplan of your house and a few friends' houses and see if you can do it? Draw a map of your local park? Resources: http://www.thehalfling.com/floor-plans-modern-rpgs/ http://12tomidnight.com/page/2/?s=floorplans http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/107176/Modern-Floorplans-St-Michaels-PubAn-Average-Modern-Dive-Bar (check out the related items) http://welcometolazarus.blogspot.com.au/2011_05_08_archive.html (down the bottom) https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...or+rpgs&spell=1 e: As for getting around the problem, why not take a different approach? Don't draw maps or try to make or ad-lib detailed descriptions. Say "you're in a large warehouse, all cluttered", and then when players start asking you if there's (eg) a large metal bin to hide behind, say "sure there is" and then they hide behind it. If they want to tip shelves on the enemy, then there's shelves. If they need to crash through a window, there's a window like, right there. Or the dungeon world kinda approach: "You approach the bunker" "I need cover, what kind of cover is there? Also what do the doors look like and are there patrols?" "I dunno, what did your spies tell you was here?" or "What did the map you found say?" or "What do you remember from last time you were in the area?" or "It's built to the standard EvilCorp schematics and probably run by their procedural manual. You definitely remember those - describe them to the party". e2: If you like to use the environment in battles, may I recommend lighting it all on fire? My players love it when everything's on fire. I don't know why, it always does them more harm than good. They probably wouldn't notice what the room looked like (or if it didn't make sense) if it was full of pits for them to Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Jan 6, 2015 |
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Jan 6, 2015 13:10
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God Of Paradise posted:Does anyone have any advice for nautical battles? I love having an excuse to post one of my favorite creations again:  I'll be honest. I haven't gotten to run this encounter myself yet, so this is still all theory stuff. 1. Without knowing if you plan to use a specific ship, I'd suggest some kind of harpoon/MG turret hardpoints that anyone can fire. Can you spear the Aboleth whaling-style and try to exhaust it, while everyone on board has to keep the boat from sinking? 2. Adds are important. My Kraken launches little parasitic crabs onto the deck. Maybe Zombified Sea Worlders crawling out of the water? 3. Do Aboleths grab people with their tentacles? Have a blast springing periodic grapple checks on people near the railings. 1st Failure, you're wrapped up and can't move. 2nd failure, the tentacle pulls you overboard. 3rd failure, you're pulled to its mouth, and 4th *CHOMP.* At any point you can break free yourself, or be helped by a team mate. For extra evil, make the checks progressively harder. Alternate version: the Aboleth telepathically compels targets to jump overboard. 4. Stormy waters? Periodic waves (or particularly sharp turns) require everyone to make a balance check or be knocked prone. 5. Think about other victory objectives. In my scenario there are lifeboats full of shipwreck survivors the PCs are trying to protect. It gives them a chance to be heroic rescuers as well as monster-slayers. Say the Kraken wrecks a lifeboat and suddenly there's people floating helpless in the water. It also works as both a mechanic to keep them from trying to draw the creature away, and periodically causing major panic. 6. Encounter Geography. It's probably necessary to be a little fast and loose here. Luckily we're on open water, which makes it easier. Since I do have multiple vessels in play, I'm keeping vague track of them on a "wide zoom" overview map, while the players will just see the area around the deck of their ship. Hopefully there's some nuggets of inspiration in there for you.
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Jan 6, 2015 18:53
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Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. One of the players in my D&D 4.0 campaign is a compulsory pickpocket, and naturally, she's drat good at it. Part of her character's background is that she doesn't really get the concept of property, which has already got her into trouble more than once. Pretty soon, the characters reached an in-game agreement not to steal from each other, and the thief respects that. But here comes the problem: how should I handle it if the thief steals from somebody else, and simply decides not to share? In a recent example, the players fought some archers, and the thief actually took the main baddie's magical bracers from his torn-off arms (long story). The other players have never even seen the item, since she isn't even wearing the drat things. It's not even that the player is actively trying to screw the others over - it's very much in character, since the thief tends to hoard anything shiny, especially worthless bauble -, but it feels unfair how she essentially gets first pick for many valuable items just because nobody notices her taking them first. How do I make the situation a bit fairer for everybody else without heaping disadvantages on the poor thief? What I did so far was to have the thief make her Thievery check against everyone nearby, not just the target; and anyone who knows she's a thief actually gets a bonus, provided they see her. For example, the party's mage has seen her stealing several times now, so he gets a moderate bonus to guard himself against theft attempts by her, and to spot her stealing from others (not that he has to do anything about it). I thought I could also just talk to the player so that her character doesn't just hopard treasure when nobody's looking, maybe because the thief is opening up to her new teammates or something. It's very much an innocent character quirk and I don't want to drag down the game due to it.
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Jan 6, 2015 20:40
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Torquemadras posted:Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. It sounds like you're going about it the right way.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:00
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Make the magic items the things she doesn't steal. "whoa this guy was carrying a magic axe and wasn't using it!!"
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Jan 6, 2015 21:04
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Torquemadras posted:Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. I do not think letting one player's character steal from the party without the other players' knowledge is ever ok, even if you're making her roll more, unless the players have actually said they don't mind that kind of thing, or the game is specifically about that (e.g. PARANOIA)..
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Jan 6, 2015 21:08
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So, I'm running my 1st game tomorrow (pARANOIA XP) and wondered if anyone has some general tips for DMing the system? Going for a "classic", dark humour but not too heavy style.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:19
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homullus posted:I do not think letting one player's character steal from the party without the other players' knowledge is ever ok, even if you're making her roll more, unless the players have actually said they don't mind that kind of thing, or the game is specifically about that (e.g. PARANOIA).. Yeah tread that line carefully. I watched a group tear apart completely, Alien Chestburster-style, because one guy declared himself the de facto "party accountant and quartermaster", and pretty much made other players ask him for permission to go buy armor and poo poo. The whole "one person quietly arbitrates loot distribution in black-box fashion" angle only ever works if everybody is in on it from the beginning, and is approaching it in the form of a funny joke that the whole group is okay with. See the Penny Arcade D&D podcasts where Jerry's character, a cleric of the commerce god, is the acting CEO and CFO of their 4-man treasure hunting guild.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:22
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Torquemadras posted:Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. As long as you can make sure that +Math items go to the correct recipients (ie, they are rewards handed specifically from quest givers instead of being in the mercy of the thief finding them first), I think what you are doing right now is ok. There are a lot of magic items that are cool but absolutely not essential (I think ritual scrolls are a good candidate) and can be part of that kind of party drama.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:32
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Torquemadras posted:Thievery stuff I think this depends on how your players would feel about it. I know my current group really looks at the game as "we're all in this together," are very much all about splitting up loot fairly, and have almost no interest in intra-party role-play. However, I've also played with groups who would, if the thief got caught, see it as a great way to develop their characters and bring about some interesting drama. Without knowing your players' attitudes on that kind of thing, I'd say to let your thief keep on doing her thing. Just make sure that any items that you really want (for example) the fighter to have are out of her reach. This kind of stuff is a bit risky, and maybe you want to push that angle. It takes some time to pry bracers or a belt off someone (straps can be a pain sometimes), and it sure is pretty obvious to anyone who can see her that she's doing something. Maybe also have the thief need to bluff the party if she said "yeah, I thought it was weird that the bandit only had 5sp on him, but that was it  " after searching the corpse.
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Jan 6, 2015 23:57
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My 4e party had kind of an adversarial approach, where they were all united against the main antagonists, but also all had their own agendas. It worked pretty well, because they had an OC understanding about what was OK and what wasn't, and they IC justified this with "Well, OK, these people are assholes who I hate, but they're the most competent assholes currently available, so we need to watch each others' backs." To put it another way: It's okay if the other players don't know OC each time your thief screws them over. It's not okay if they don't know OC that they're playing a game where this might happen. As applies specifically to 4e: getting hold of magic items is an important part of game balance so I would be careful not to overdo it. Does your thief's player OC understand that if she's too efficient at robbing the others, she'll make the game unfun? Does your thief IC understand that those Bracers Of Giant Strength are going to benefit her more around the fighter's arms than in her fence's warehouse? And, kind of an afterthought here, but: If stealing things is important to your thief, are you giving her plenty of opportunities to impact the plot -- positively or negatively -- by stealing things? If one of my players was a thief with a fondness for nicking stuff, one of the first things I would do would be to put the party in a situation where she can actively screw herself over by doing so: two great feuding nations, both allies of the PCs, put aside their differences, get around a peace table, and finally decide to seal their alliance via the exchange of holy magic artefacts, which the PCs are hired to guard.
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Jan 7, 2015 00:53
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Guildencrantz posted:I need help... A resource with easily RPG-adaptable floor plans for modern buildings would be amazing, as would any creative advice on how to get around the problem. For maps, I'm a big fan of the GM offloading drawing onto the players - So you can say "Right, draw a market square for me, lots of wagons, stalls, and precarious stacks of stuff", or "there's a huge sacrifical alter, size of a car, give me a map of that and the temple around it", and your players will happily take over - give them all a pen, wait till they've had fun adding stuff, then set up where everyone is. The main advantages of it are that you can have them doing that while you work out stats, etc, for the fight (so no-one's sat around bored), and it gets the players more invested in the scene if they can throw someone in the fountain they suggested. Depending on the system, a ream of cheap a3 paper could be ideal if you just want rough sketches that get chucked away (before inevitably being needed again), or a proper squared wipe-clean mat for more crunchy systems (ie, D&D)(Make sure to get coloured pens that won't stain a mat). If you want to spend your way out of it, you could just buy a ton of model scenery and stick it down as needed. Recently in Dungeon World, we've not been using a map at all, just rolling with the narrative, but I imagine that might lead you into problems of "wait, wasn't that guy the other side of the temple?" if you struggle to keep track of spatial stuff.
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Jan 7, 2015 01:18
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petrol blue posted:For maps, I'm a big fan of the GM offloading drawing onto the players - So you can say "Right, draw a market square for me, lots of wagons, stalls, and precarious stacks of stuff", or "there's a huge sacrifical alter, size of a car, give me a map of that and the temple around it", and your players will happily take over - give them all a pen, wait till they've had fun adding stuff, then set up where everyone is. The main advantages of it are that you can have them doing that while you work out stats, etc, for the fight (so no-one's sat around bored), and it gets the players more invested in the scene if they can throw someone in the fountain they suggested. Letting players draw the map of the room is loving genius. Can't believe I never thought of that - or ever seen it mentioned elsewhere.
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Jan 7, 2015 03:03
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Sade posted:Letting players draw the map of the room is loving genius. Can't believe I never thought of that - or ever seen it mentioned elsewhere. Weird, I thought it was pretty common advice.
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Jan 7, 2015 03:13
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Additionally, bring some old soup cans, dry macaroni, and some glue, glitter, and yarn. Googly eyes are optional but fun!
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Jan 7, 2015 03:17
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Bad Munki posted:Additionally, bring some old soup cans, dry macaroni, and some glue, glitter, and yarn. Googly eyes are optional but fun! I have no idea if this is sarcastic or not, but either way, this is brilliant.
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Jan 7, 2015 03:59
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OmegaGoo posted:I have no idea if this is sarcastic or not, but either way, this is brilliant. It's not preschool-level cupholders, it's, umm...dice cups! For rolling! And yeah, I was kidding, but since you said that, well...as a player, I'd be working on mine all night during any down time, sooooo
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Jan 7, 2015 04:10
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petrol blue posted:For maps, I'm a big fan of the GM offloading drawing onto the players - So you can say "Right, draw a market square for me, lots of wagons, stalls, and precarious stacks of stuff", or "there's a huge sacrifical alter, size of a car, give me a map of that and the temple around it", and your players will happily take over - give them all a pen, wait till they've had fun adding stuff, then set up where everyone is. The main advantages of it are that you can have them doing that while you work out stats, etc, for the fight (so no-one's sat around bored), and it gets the players more invested in the scene if they can throw someone in the fountain they suggested. Holy poo poo, how have I never thought of this? This is wonderful. I'm going to give this a try next time a map is needed. I get the feeling my players will be all over it.
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Jan 7, 2015 04:11
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petrol blue posted:For maps, I'm a big fan of the GM offloading drawing onto the players - So you can say "Right, draw a market square for me, lots of wagons, stalls, and precarious stacks of stuff", or "there's a huge sacrifical alter, size of a car, give me a map of that and the temple around it", and your players will happily take over - give them all a pen, wait till they've had fun adding stuff, then set up where everyone is. The main advantages of it are that you can have them doing that while you work out stats, etc, for the fight (so no-one's sat around bored), and it gets the players more invested in the scene if they can throw someone in the fountain they suggested. Yeah okay this is genius and I'm totally using this.
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Jan 7, 2015 05:20
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Torquemadras posted:Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. Talking to the player/group is the best way to approach this for sure, so good on you for not being the person who asks the thread to design a weird curse that makes the game unfun for the thief. When this character shows up in my groups, which is common because Hobbit Bender is one of the best things to be in D&D, the OC discussion usually leads to a specific character quirk. One of the more popular ones is for the player to treat loot distribution as part of their quirk. My last thief had bags of marbles and a satchel full of odd bits of brass and silverware that he referred to as "the Treasure", and my DM was mostly OK with me swiping nonsensical stuff and selling the lot off for a small GP boost later. The table was also cool with me getting the occasional mundane gem or potion if it was a trap vault or something else that was "my scene"(mostly because if the scene in question was about someone else they'd get something similar). This all came with a gentleman's agreement when it came to the +math or other important items. In playing the guy that steals everything I introduced quirks to get rid of stuff that the party needed. One was that certain stolen things just happened to fall out of the character's pockets(since they were full of dumb poo poo like candlesticks). The other was that the guy really was just a kleptomaniac that enjoyed taking stuff. If I got my hands on a Robe of Super Wizardry or Lost Talisman of a Dead God I would make a crack that it "clashes with my hat" or "looks like some nerd poo poo" and would toss it on the floor, coincidentally near the person that needed the upgrade. This allowed me the fun of stealing poo poo whenever it struck my fancy while giving me an in character out.
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Jan 7, 2015 07:52
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Razorwired posted:Talking to the player/group is the best way to approach this for sure, so good on you for not being the person who asks the thread to design a weird curse that makes the game unfun for the thief. Well, thanks for the advice everyone.  It seems the "gentleman's agreement" is the way to go! I'd hate for the group to squabble over something like that, since every single goddamn fight becomes ridiculous Scooby Doo bullshit with them and I love it, so I guess I'll just propose a compromise: thief gets to steal all she wants, players have a much better chance of noticing, and if it's +math stuff, the item quietly goes into the general pool of party items. Doesn't have to apply to plot-related thingies, of course. Maybe the thief just knows when something could be good for someone else, so she notifies everyone instead of effectively having first pick on everything. Player is reasonable, so I'll just try it out! (Also, I like the explanation of stuff inexplicably falling out of the thief's pockets.)And as an aside, I've seen the total opposite as well - a party where everyone literally fought more against others than the enemies to get their hands on treasure. But then again, those guys sucked. The Cleric at one point immediately announced he's calling down a giant pillar of holy fire on the Rogue when he noticed I rolled a Spot check for him, since all enemies were dead and a Spot check could obviously only mean the rogue found treasure. I'm not even kidding, I had to argue with him why that's out-of-game knowledge, why that doesn't make sense for his character and why it's REALLY bad for the game. That group disintegrated fairly quickly.
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Jan 7, 2015 10:11
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Torquemadras posted:Okay, I need some advice on thievery in the game. I feel like a good solution would be if the thief's "not getting the concept of property" was extended to include her own property and she started giving stuff away (to the other party members, of course). That way thievery could be a useful combat skill - take an enemy's magic amulet, and they take a Fort/Ref/Will penalty, and so on. Another idea is to not let her thievery influence wealth and item distribution at all - let her steal worthless baubles, but think of baubles that have some sort of implication to the plot or setting that the party might not have found otherwise.
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Jan 7, 2015 10:28
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Anyway, question. My party is looking for an exiled prince in the feywild. They need him alive, but they know there's a revolutionary ahead of them who intends to kill him. The revolutionary has already tried to drop a cave ceiling on the party's head, forcing them to go a huge detour, which ultimately got their NPC ally killed. They are somewhat cross with him. I've got a possible sequence of events in my head: after some feywild adventuring, an eldarin knight meets the party and offers them shelter, but soon turns out to be a sort of trophy collector specializing in non-fey. They have to escape from his manor, find out where the prince is, get there, have a dreamworld adventure in his mind for unrelated reasons, get out with the prince. It's a nice sequence but I'm not sure if I've found a proper place for the revolutionary to turn up again. Right now my idea is this: the eladrin has picked the guy up some time ago. He's forgotten ever meeting the party (because the feywild does that to mortals) but does still have his quest in mind. What's more, he's found out where the prince is, and all he needs are some capable people to help him escape the eladrin's collection. So they'd have to put their grudge aside for the moment and help this guy out, and then... I don't know, maybe they come around to his side of the story or maybe they take revenge as soon as he's spilled the beans. Just as long as it seems like properly dealing with him. That sort of thing sound alright?
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Jan 7, 2015 19:04
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petrol blue posted:For maps, I'm a big fan of the GM offloading drawing onto the players - So you can say "Right, draw a market square for me, lots of wagons, stalls, and precarious stacks of stuff", or "there's a huge sacrifical alter, size of a car, give me a map of that and the temple around it", and your players will happily take over - give them all a pen, wait till they've had fun adding stuff, then set up where everyone is. The main advantages of it are that you can have them doing that while you work out stats, etc, for the fight (so no-one's sat around bored), and it gets the players more invested in the scene if they can throw someone in the fountain they suggested. Holy crap, this is brilliant in its simplicity, I can't believe I never thought of it. Especially since in this case I need generic modern buildings like "a dilapidated country house" or "an abandoned police station" and I have a goddamn architect - a guy who does this poo poo for a living - sitting right there at the table. Thanks! quote:Recently in Dungeon World, we've not been using a map at all, just rolling with the narrative, but I imagine that might lead you into problems of "wait, wasn't that guy the other side of the temple?" if you struggle to keep track of spatial stuff. Yeah, that's exactly what happens. Doesn't help that my dumb brain confuses the words for "right" and "left" so I make the players confused by saying the opposite thing from what I mean  AlphaDog posted:http://www.thehalfling.com/floor-plans-modern-rpgs/ All of these suggestions are really good. I can have a premade environment or two for big set pieces, shovel everything off to the players, and then to add a cherry on top, set it all on fire. 
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Jan 7, 2015 21:00
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I'm having some trouble with a(n otherwise mostly rad) pre made campaign and wanted to get some advice and bounce an idea off on you guys. The basic gist is that they're needing to collect items to create a weapon that can kill basically a Lich. One of these items is already known to be associated with lust (the campaign is heavily themed around the seven deadly sins). The issue I'm having is that the item as written is located in a succubus's lair, which populated with her children (the products of capturing and raping men), and the items themselves are basically bejeweled dildos. The whole thing is skeeving me out, and I don't want to run it as is. Here's what I've been thinking: 1). Change the encounter to a male wizard who's been clearly trying to Weird Science himself a mate. Change the needed crafting item to bottles of cologne, perfume. 2). Eliminate the encounter aspect, basically change it to the party stumbling on the aftermath of an orgy where everyone OD'd on wizard drugs or something. Change the needed item to a Kama Sutra kind of thing. Any suggestions or "that option sounds good" would be hugely appreciated, keeping in mind that my players are basically the opposite of those "my pc's are trying to rape everyone" groups you read about over in grogs.txt (thank god) and would probably be super weirded out by the encounter as written.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:40
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