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My Lovely Horse posted:Steal plots, characters, aesthetics and setpieces liberally from whatever video game I've played or movie I've watched recently. This but adding in mythology. Every time I read books of mythologies I get lots of good ideas for weird setpieces, characters, events, etc I actually didn't like this book much at all, but it inspired some stuff in my last campaign: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37903770-norse-mythology This book is a collection of short stories, all of which reimagining various asian mythology - lots of cool stuff here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35430013-a-thousand-beginnings-and-endings And you can't forget appendix N! For real, reading classic sci fi and fantasy is so essential to all of this stuff. If you haven't read the big books by Le Guin, Fritz Leiber, grab some today. http://goodman-games.com/blog/2018/03/26/what-is-appendix-n/ edit: finally, some graphic novels and comics are really good for inspiration. i really love Jesse Moynihan's FORMING - it's currently almost 300 pages, and the art and story keeps getting better and better. http://jessemoynihan.com/?p=11 Joe Daly's DUNGEON QUEST is pretty amazing too: http://www.fantagraphics.com/dungeonquest1/ Polo-Rican fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Aug 23, 2018 |
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Aug 23, 2018 15:54
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I sometimes throw Story Cubes or similar a couple of times. Playing out a few cards of the Ungame on behalf of an NPC (or asking of a player!) can help too. Gamewright Rory's Story Cubes https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B003EIK136/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.CTFBbP42ZNY5 The Distribution Solutions Pocket Ungame All Ages Version https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000BXJZ16/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_aETFBbN607DSY
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Aug 23, 2018 16:49
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I've also had too many great ideas literally on the toilet to be coincidence. I don't know if there's a study for that.
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Aug 23, 2018 16:56
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Unfortunately I don't have any grand secrets or tricks for instant inspiration to share - I just try to gather as much information as possible, take whatever I'm trying to figure out, and chew it over and over until I make a connection. Sometimes the process is assisted by whatever I happen to be reading or watching, other times it's basically just grinding down the problem until it finally clicks. If I had any further advice to offer, though, it's to eat the elephant one bite at a time. You don't have to figure out everything in one go, and sometimes it can be useful to talk to your players to see what they're thinking or what they want to do next so that you've at least got a foundation to build off of. Try to ask yourself questions ("Okay, why does he need the Toilet Brush of Ultimate Despair?"), but don't tie yourself in knots if it starts getting in the way. And I doubt it needs saying but if the players hand you an excellent plot thread or idea on a silver platter, for goodness' sake take it! They get to feel smart when they "discover" it, you get to sweat not quite so much, everyone's a winner. e: Sometimes a good night's rest is helpful too. I literally came up with a good chunk of my party's current adventure whilst lying in bed.
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Aug 23, 2018 17:44
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I always consult my close friends, Jack and Jim.
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Aug 23, 2018 17:57
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I want to put a really incompetent imp into my ryuutama game as a way to give my players some interesting magic items. The idea being that he gives them "cursed items" that are actually beneficial. But so far I haven't been able to come up with anything good.
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Aug 24, 2018 00:19
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Danger Diabolik posted:I want to put a really incompetent imp into my ryuutama game.
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Aug 24, 2018 01:10
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Danger Diabolik posted:I want to put a really incompetent imp into my ryuutama game as a way to give my players some interesting magic items. The idea being that he gives them "cursed items" that are actually beneficial. But so far I haven't been able to come up with anything good. A ring that causes the wearer to sneeze and cough uncontrollably... for about five minutes, as their immune system becomes super-charged. Gives resistance to poison and disease
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Aug 24, 2018 01:38
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Pollyanna posted:What does everybody do to get the creative juices flowing for GMing games? I've heard advice ranging from listening to APs, to reading books, to just pulling poo poo out of your rear end as you go. Don't prepare anything until a night or two before game night, panic, and hurriedly scribble some random dungeon on a sheet of graph paper.
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Aug 24, 2018 04:38
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Danger Diabolik posted:I want to put a really incompetent imp into my ryuutama game as a way to give my players some interesting magic items. The idea being that he gives them "cursed items" that are actually beneficial. But so far I haven't been able to come up with anything good. A Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity that only works for transpeople, allowing them to transition magically A Shield of Missile Attraction that also attracts missile weapons - so yes, it will attract arrows, but it will also yank the bows out of the hands of any archers A ring that muffles any noises the wearer makes, intended to curse magic-users by rendering them unable to cast spells but a great boon for sneaky rogues Bracers that render the wearer unable to wield melee weapons but enhance their punches so they're doing equivalent damage to their chosen melee weapon
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Aug 24, 2018 05:35
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Danger Diabolik posted:I want to put a really incompetent imp into my ryuutama game as a way to give my players some interesting magic items. The idea being that he gives them "cursed items" that are actually beneficial. But so far I haven't been able to come up with anything good. Paper Mario and the Thousand Year door was a good source for these: You can't swim(always float) The wind will blow you away(feather fall, constant) No one will think you are a man(morph ball) The finest foods will lose their flavor(poison resistance) You will never be clean again(Acid Resistance) People will talk behind your back(Blindfold of Telepathy) Strangers will never understand you(Helmet that makes you invisible, to anyone who has ever worn the helmet)
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Aug 24, 2018 05:37
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Hey everyone I'm setting up a few adventures in an underground lake environment for 5e and i'm looking for interesting maps of submerged tunnels. Ideally with a shrine in it somewhere. This will be the parties first water breathing excursion and will also involve aboleth, chuul and psionic hallucination experiences. Any leads on good maps that might fit this idea? If anyone has any interesting experiences running aboleth / illithid as trippy cthulhu encounters that could be inspiring. I'm finding the lack of psionics in 5e unhelpful and when I looked through earlier editions psionics I've come to realise this is a probably going to be more freeform than mechanical. Any leads for maps or tips on running this kind of surreal encounter? To be quite clear: there is no giant slug rape scenarios here. clusterfuck fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Aug 26, 2018 |
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Aug 24, 2018 23:31
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lol okay don't all answer at once  Anyway I found this guys collection of encounter maps pretty good and relevant since we're using roll20. I think I'll structure the encounter around the assumption that some party members will fail a save and be caught in a hallucination (which will offer a chance for exposition through dialogue and interacting with the hallucination) while the others run a search and destroy for the macguffin that powers the hallucination. Someone will be doomed to permadelusion, probably / hopefully an NPC.
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Aug 26, 2018 00:25
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Anyone got any ideas for Gruntitrogg? Our party has three dwarves and one of them has been living as a barbarian hermit all of his life. So now that our party is arriving in dwarven territory, we would love to throw him the dwarven coming of age/hazing ritual that he missed out on. I figure they should be challenging-but-manageable-but-embarrassing tasks, mostly. Two of my favorite ideas so far are 'Slay the Wyrm', where he has to drink down to the bottom of something foul and eat the tiny dragon at the bottom, and 'Topple the Mountain King', where he has to wrestle a mountain goat off of a greased-up boulder.
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Aug 28, 2018 17:41
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I can't think of a good name for it, but he should have to chase down and hogtie a greased goblin at some point.
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Aug 28, 2018 17:53
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I need some elemental temples/shrines/dungeons. The party has to either unite or destroy (or subjugate, I suppose) the elemental guardians of a big island. The caretakers of the shrines are ancient robots who are somewhere between haywire/homicidal and confused but well meaning. Another complication is that there is another faction on the island trying to subvert the temples power for themselves. The clients have to get to each temple within a week's time and decide which direction they're going to point the temples magic power--either charging up the Demon Lord, charging up the elemental lords of the island, charging up the Old Gods of the Islanders (basically creating an army of guardians) or they can shut the temples off. I'd love some recommendations for the temples themselves. cool themed designs or something I can steal and re-skin, or something you've done in the past you've liked. They can all be very distinct mechanically because I'm going to use flavor to tie them up. They're headed to the water temple first, but their map is hundreds of years old and part of it is now underwater.
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Aug 28, 2018 18:08
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Ignite Memories posted:Anyone got any ideas for Gruntitrogg?
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Aug 28, 2018 18:23
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Gay Horney posted:I need some elemental temples/shrines/dungeons. Instead of having the water temple be the expected raising/lowering water levels puzzle, have it be a waterpark. Puzzles and challenges are solved by diving into tubes of fast-flowing water. This is of course complicated by the place being partially underwater, but the caretaker robots don't realize that and that can break the puzzles in the player's favor in many interesting ways. Then do the same thing at the fire temple, but with lava. Like use the same maps and everything but now the robot caretakers have placed "No Diving" signs. Alternately, in keeping with the entertaining nature of the waterpark, have these temples all be somehow entertaining. Fire temple is a cooking contest (Your opponent? Gorbot RAM-SE), air temple involves hang gliding, earth temple... minecart ride maybe?
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Aug 28, 2018 19:10
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My Lovely Horse posted:I just asked about Dwarven rituals a few weeks ago, if you filter for my posts you should find a ton of great replies. (That session got postponed, by the way, so I settled on a few things but still haven't run it, and I'll be watching replies to this like a hawk.) Mushroom eating contest, avoiding the hallucinogenic ones...
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Aug 28, 2018 20:54
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sebmojo posted:Mushroom eating contest, avoiding the hallucinogenic ones... The hallucinogenic ones reveal the secret ones.
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Aug 28, 2018 20:56
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Twist: they all are hallucinogens.
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Aug 28, 2018 21:48
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Hi all, can anyone recommend me a good one-shot Dark Sun adventure for new (to the setting) players? I don't want to run Freedom! on account of it being railroaded poo poo. Edit: let me expound: this would be a third party adventure, as the published ones aren't very good IMHO. So if you have a personal one that worked well or came across a third party adventure let me know. Megaman's Jockstrap fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Aug 28, 2018 |
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Aug 28, 2018 22:36
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I'm trying to make a map of a ship on a dock and, looking online at examples, I see a lot of similar-looking maps. I figure there's a map builder I can use to easily make it but I have not found it, so far. Anybody got any good resources for a not-art-inclined person to easily and intentionally build maps?
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Aug 29, 2018 02:54
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Trojan Kaiju posted:I'm trying to make a map of a ship on a dock and, looking online at examples, I see a lot of similar-looking maps. I figure there's a map builder I can use to easily make it but I have not found it, so far. Anybody got any good resources for a not-art-inclined person to easily and intentionally build maps? I sometimes just use Final Fantasy 6 sprites if I'm feeling fancy. Dungeonagrapher when I'm not.
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Aug 29, 2018 18:44
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I use sprite maps and that map builder on steam.
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Aug 30, 2018 01:45
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A minor bad guy was killed while wearing a Ring of Mind Shielding, which now houses his soul. One of the PCs is now wearing the ring. The bad guy has offered what information he possesses about the *major* bad guy, if the PCs will transfer his soul into another body. Q: what should the ritual or circumstance of the transfer be?
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Aug 30, 2018 18:06
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Shitshow posted:A minor bad guy was killed while wearing a Ring of Mind Shielding, which now houses his soul. One of the PCs is now wearing the ring. The bad guy has offered what information he possesses about the *major* bad guy, if the PCs will transfer his soul into another body. He can only be transferred into a living body and will overwrite the soul that's already in there. Or if you want something a little less overtly horrifying than non-existence, the transfer is two-way: they have to put the soul that was already in the body into the ring and figure out what to do with it.
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Aug 30, 2018 18:07
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No, do the opposite; he can possess anything vaguely human shaped with an appropriate "finger" for the ring to go on. Now watch your players try to figure out exactly how lovely a broom golem they can make and have him still be willing to give them what they want.
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Aug 30, 2018 18:19
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Shitshow posted:Q: what should the ritual or circumstance of the transfer be? Voluntary.
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Aug 30, 2018 18:59
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Keeshhound posted:No, do the opposite; he can possess anything vaguely human shaped with an appropriate "finger" for the ring to go on. Now watch your players try to figure out exactly how lovely a broom golem they can make and have him still be willing to give them what they want. Ah, the fallout 4 method
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Aug 30, 2018 20:13
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The finger the ring is currently on has to go with the ring. The target host will also need a freshly removed finger stump to mount the new finger on. Both source and destination must be voluntary, and aware-during-the-process participants (no sedation!). Extra unexpected twist: it is expected that the target host will be wiped out, but perhaps because of some momentary quirk of the mind shielding ring, both the target host and the ring-resident will share the body a la All Of Me (1984).
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Aug 30, 2018 20:25
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Honestly I don't think you need extra twists beyond "I'm only going to tell you if you give me your word you'll let me go free after, sucks to be whoever had this body before me but on the plus side they get to enjoy the fruits of my impending villainy alongside me"
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Aug 30, 2018 23:08
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They’ll just kill him immediately after transferring consciousness and after he blabs.
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Aug 31, 2018 12:40
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Pardon me while I vent: gently caress my players. (one specifically). I ask them to do one goddamn thing in the two weeks between games and they can't be loving bothered to do it and of course I'm going to be the rear end in a top hat by pointing it out. Long story short they went on a quest to improve their magic gear (I joked that they're throwing all their blue poo poo in a furnace to get purples) and asked them to figure out what they're smelting down/sacrificing and what improvements they want to make to their stuff. Specifically asked them to think about it between sessions so we didn't waste any actual game time with what's essentially shopping. Nope. That's too much. "I was busy" like the rest of us don't work 40+ hours a week as well or have other poo poo we have to work on during the week. I'm sure that the rest of the group is going to be the same. I have half a mind to rush the end of the campaign at this point because I'm sick of working on maps and encounters for roll20 for 10 hours a week. gently caress, this pretty much cemented my desire not to bother with the elemental nodes (I'm running Temple of Elemental Evil). /end vent.
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Sep 1, 2018 01:15
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8one6 posted:(I'm running Temple of Elemental Evil). Sorry your players are cunts, though.
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Sep 3, 2018 23:30
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8one6 posted:Pardon me while I vent: lol when did you start a game with my players?
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Sep 4, 2018 16:44
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I think "lol couldn't be assed to do a simple thing" is pretty common among player groups unfortunately. At the table my players are incredibly enthusiastic and agreeable. Off the table half of them refuse to do even the simplest of tasks designed to help them or their role in the story.
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Sep 4, 2018 17:07
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With my old group and one player in particular it was a cause for celebration if they'd levelled up at home.
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Sep 4, 2018 17:17
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My Lovely Horse posted:With my old group and one player in particular it was a cause for celebration if they'd levelled up at home. Level them down in the game. With falling rocks.
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Sep 4, 2018 19:14
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Tell them they can level up when they get home after today’s session. The other players can enjoy their cool new powers because they did their homework and the session can start on time. They might remember next level.
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Sep 4, 2018 19:17
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