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If I can carve out time to DM while working a 50 hour week and fathering a 1.5 year old, they can carve out an hour a month to ask me questions about leveling up and 15 mins looking over their character sheet before the game. I agree the bar is a lot lower for players but if the DM makes themselves available to help with level ups (which aside from power selection really doesn't take all that long) or character development or item requests then there's really not much of an excuse. It's not something that grates on me but it is annoying when you spend several hours over a week or two prepping a session and someone can't put in a fraction of that time. It's an eye-roll situation only because it's a pretty easy fix since I'm familiar with rules and such. It's more a consideration factor.
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Sep 7, 2018 00:23
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poorlifedecision posted:...working a 50 hour week and fathering a 1.5 year old...
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Sep 7, 2018 00:46
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Got to thinking about how to prep for a Dungeon World session, which demands it be as light as possible. I was thinking I could build a deck of concepts, entities, or obstacles with some index cards to remind myself of something that would be cool, and pull one out and use it if it’s fitting. Has anyone done something like that before, and if so, how well did it go?
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Sep 7, 2018 20:46
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When I was running a medieval fantasy game using much crunchier system, I pre-rolled a year's-worth of weather and 100 random encounters for the urban area where the game was set. Anytime I needed something and was stumped, I'd just grab the next encounter off the list; half the fun was working these random events into the ongoing plot/politics/storylines that were already happening in the game.
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Sep 7, 2018 21:56
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So, one of the groups I am in is having general issues with a player. Throughout multiple game systems (V20, Pathfinder, CoC), he seems to be entirely disinterested in actually learning anything about the systems outside of basic dice rolling. In Pathfinder, he was playing a bard and then a sorcerer after his bard died. The bard went through about 10ish sessions including several combats and whatnot and he only did bard things like spell casting or inspire on two occasions, both were in his last two combats. On another occasion, he was falling asleep when playing his sorcerer, we were in the middle of talking to someone, and he just woke up and cast magic missile. In Vampire, he would always sorta run into the middle of combat and I would have to basically ignore rules on flanking to keep him alive since it was basically a tutorial fight and even prompted him on if he really wanted to do this thing because bad things were going to happen. I even told him that I ignored some stuff in order to survive after the session. At this point, the group just now tells him to do stuff and is basically an NPC controlled by the rest of the party and he was treated as such in Call of Cthulhu, were people just used him for dangerous stuff. I've tried to engage him by giving him special storylines, or gifts, or something that would generate interest. I've made materials available to him online. I've tried to make time for him to explain rules to him or help him with the systems. I know he isn't as busy as he likes to try to claim he is because he still manages to spend 4-5 hours doing some random video game stuff because I can see him doing that in discord. Sometimes he will even join a channel and complain about being bored and I tell him that he could always look at some stuff about his classes/clans/a gaming system. I've talked to the group about him and how he's a problem, they all agree with this but two people insist that he sticks around. I feel like he doesn't want to learn how to play any of the games, he doesn't want to really play the games, and he is just wasting everyone's time by being there, including his own. I'm ready to just step away because I don't know how to keep him around and just slowing down everything. I feel like I've been accommodating for him, and that I've made a giant effort to get him to at least figure out stuff in the game, but he just won't do some basic reading to figure out anything.
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Sep 8, 2018 18:17
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For some players, the play space is the only time they mentally set aside time to think about game. It doesn't come naturally to them - they don't daydream about their next level up or have cool backstory ideas in the shower. As a DM, I have story ideas that make me want to run games. For me, writing game is work but also a form of recreation. Some players like the act of playing - having an event to look forward to, hanging out with people, and rolling dice - but since they would never, on their own, work on game, even little things take on the tone of homework. Once you've communicated how you feel, you can't make a player change how they feel about their game. You can either accept that level up and shopping is just part of your play experience or you can find new players. I recommend the former but you do you. It is not a character flaw that they don't have the same priorities that you do. For them getting through the prepared content just isn't as important as the mere act of getting togther.
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Sep 8, 2018 18:51
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Ilor posted:When I was running a medieval fantasy game using much crunchier system, I pre-rolled a year's-worth of weather and 100 random encounters for the urban area where the game was set. Anytime I needed something and was stumped, I'd just grab the next encounter off the list; half the fun was working these random events into the ongoing plot/politics/storylines that were already happening in the game. Whenever I’m doing a game set in the real world, I put it at least a year or two in the past so I can gather the real weather data for those locations. When I write out the campaign, I put down the average temperature and weather conditions for the timeframe I expect the session to take. No need to do work when reality has already done it! In real places, I’ll also just get Google Maps and Street View imagery so I don’t need to spend time making a map. Reality tends to have a lot more detail than you can come up with on the spot.
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Sep 8, 2018 18:55
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Grinning Goblin posted:I'm ready to just step away because I don't know how to keep him around and just slowing down everything. I feel like I've been accommodating for him, and that I've made a giant effort to get him to at least figure out stuff in the game, but he just won't do some basic reading to figure out anything. Talk to him about it, tell him your thoughts and ask him if he really wants to be there because from your position it looks like he doesn't. Is there any particular reason two of the people insist he stays? Definitely reads like he needs to be doing something else as the hanging out activity. Of course, you might just have to step away and leave 'em to it.
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Sep 9, 2018 05:48
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Anyone have any suggestions on how to get players attached to an NPC? All of my NPCs in my games end up feeling like throwaways and whenever I kill one of them off, it feels like it doesn’t have have the impact I want it to with the players.
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Sep 9, 2018 12:35
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Imagine for a moment you're an adventurer. You're following a map to a peculiar location. Apart from the directions, the map also contains a riddle written as follows: A gift of steel Is the ferryman's fee; To shatter the moon and set her free. At the end of the journey you stumble upon a quiet glade with a large pond in the middle. The map confirms this is the place. How do you proceed? Decide on your answer before checking under the spoiler. You wait until nightfall, then throw an object made of metal into the lake to disrupt the reflection of the moon. The lake promptly drains, revealing the entrance to a dungeon. How serviceable is this puzzle? Would it be too much of a leap to specify the object should be a weapon - the ferryman representing death - or should I leave it as is, and count any metal object being tossed in as satisfying the conditions? Bazanga posted:Anyone have any suggestions on how to get players attached to an NPC? All of my NPCs in my games end up feeling like throwaways and whenever I kill one of them off, it feels like it doesn’t have have the impact I want it to with the players. I will say though, as a general rule, the NPCs your party chooses to interact with will always matter more to them than the ones you throw at them. Next time you need to introduce an important NPC, find a way to introduce a bunch of 'em, see which ones the party takes a shine to, then make those the important ones.
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Sep 9, 2018 13:49
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Bad Seafood posted:A gift of steel
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Sep 9, 2018 14:18
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Bazanga posted:Anyone have any suggestions on how to get players attached to an NPC? All of my NPCs in my games end up feeling like throwaways and whenever I kill one of them off, it feels like it doesn’t have have the impact I want it to with the players. Never underestimate the power of spite. Set up an NPC as an eternal villain, to be hated throughout the ages, by having him unintentionally slight one of your PCs. Then have this guy be a jerk to the NPC you want your PCs to like, and get them to mutually commiserate on what a fucker Lord Shitbrains is. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, bing bang boom, you've now formed a blood pact, never to be broken.
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Sep 9, 2018 14:45
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Come up with a long list of humanising details like "Likes cats" or "Afraid of heights". When they encounter a new NPC, pick a few details and figure out how they can meet that NPC in a way that shows off those details. Real people don't just sit around at a desk waiting for a party of PCs to come talk to them -- they're almost always in the middle of something. What is that thing? What does it say about them? Who else is in the middle of it?
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Sep 9, 2018 17:00
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Freudian posted:Never underestimate the power of spite. Set up an NPC as an eternal villain, to be hated throughout the ages, by having him unintentionally slight one of your PCs. Then have this guy be a jerk to the NPC you want your PCs to like, and get them to mutually commiserate on what a fucker Lord Shitbrains is. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, bing bang boom, you've now formed a blood pact, never to be broken. I've found that just makes most PCs want to kill them at any cost and get really pissed off when they're continually plot armored. They care about the person that gives them all the money
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Sep 9, 2018 17:09
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My Lovely Horse posted:I got it right. I did assume it had to be a weapon, but if my party took things literally and assumed straight away any steel/metal would do, I'd count that puzzle as solved. Maybe give them a small bonus if they use a weapon. Players Think of Everything Mode: If they throw in a breastplate, the breastplate gains resistance against all the boss' attacks.
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Sep 9, 2018 17:54
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Sounds good to me! You can give them something extra special if they use a magic weapon or armor, like an extra +1 if we're talking D&D or similar here. And be on the lookout for items they may have where "a slightly nicer version" could be something really special. Actually it might even be cool if anything they throw in upgrades to something useful - weapons and armor get the most out of it, but if they just use a coin, maybe that now wins you any coin toss.
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Sep 9, 2018 18:08
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I'm still drafting the dungeon but my plan is for them to clear it in two-to-three sessions, so that should give me plenty of time to decide what to do with whatever they give me.
Bad Seafood fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Sep 9, 2018 |
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Sep 9, 2018 18:12
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Whybird posted:Come up with a long list of humanising details like "Likes cats" or "Afraid of heights". When they encounter a new NPC, pick a few details and figure out how they can meet that NPC in a way that shows off those details. Real people don't just sit around at a desk waiting for a party of PCs to come talk to them -- they're almost always in the middle of something. What is that thing? What does it say about them? Who else is in the middle of it? This is really good advice! The main trick in my experience is to not try and force them to like a guy. You know the classic bit of players will look at a completely inconsequential thing for 20 minutes instead of solving the encounter because they're sure its part of the puzzle? Same thing with NPCs, they'll often fall in love with the one you just made as a throwaway thing and completely ignore the one you had plans for. If they never like any of your guys then you've got an issue.
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Sep 9, 2018 20:12
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Fun puzzle, and I too assumed that a weapon was needed. RE: Interesting NPCs - much will depend on the situation in which the NPC is introduced and the way in which he or she interacts with the party. A fun dynamic is to have the NPC depend on the party (e.g. it's a PC's now-orphaned niece or nephew) but not necessarily always obey the party. A big part of being "invested" in an NPC means feeling somehow responsible for them.
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Sep 9, 2018 20:13
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Lichtenstein posted:This thread tends to have amazing out-of-the-box ideas when brainstorming, so I'd love to humbly crowdsource a curse idea from you guys. Luck. Good luck,bad luck just all of the luck. the golden man was once a dashing rouge loved by lady luck so much that everything he did turned out for the best for him but because of this he grew arrogant and could not see that it was not his own skill that caused his success eventually this pissed off lady luck and she cursed him this curse however could not overcome his previous blessing making him a maelstrom of luck
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Sep 9, 2018 21:12
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Bazanga posted:Anyone have any suggestions on how to get players attached to an NPC? All of my NPCs in my games end up feeling like throwaways and whenever I kill one of them off, it feels like it doesn’t have have the impact I want it to with the players. The party ended up saving a rich quest-giver NPC, and agreed to take him to City X but had to detour to City Y first. They get to City Y, he tells them he expects to be ready to leave for City X in a day or two, then gets carried off in a palanquin and leaves them to repair their ship and figure out lodging for themselves. When they go to find him the next day, it turns out he owns a 5-story cliffside hotel with two floors reserved for himself. The bard in the party was literally sputtering mad when he realized they'd spent the night in a lovely tavern after bringing this NPC across the ocean on their ship with only the promise of a payment (for the rescue plus the previous quest they'd done for him before). (When they get back to their boat, they find the NPC has sent a work crew to build a VIP bedroom below decks for himself for the remainder of the journey  )
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Sep 9, 2018 22:01
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Is there ever a case where an NPC that is truly out of the party's league ala Overlord is interesting and worthwhile? I imagine that scenarios where an NPC shrugs off their strongest attacks and magic and wildly outclasses them qualify as bad gaming in the common sense. Or am I assuming too much?
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Sep 9, 2018 22:32
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Pollyanna posted:Is there ever a case where an NPC that is truly out of the party's league ala Overlord is interesting and worthwhile? I imagine that scenarios where an NPC shrugs off their strongest attacks and magic and wildly outclasses them qualify as bad gaming in the common sense. Or am I assuming too much? I've used fights like that a couple of times, but they've always been in the context of some other objective being in play and that they're trying to distract the baddie long enough for them to fail their objective, reinforcements to arrive, etc.
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Sep 9, 2018 22:39
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Pollyanna posted:Is there ever a case where an NPC that is truly out of the party's league ala Overlord is interesting and worthwhile? I imagine that scenarios where an NPC shrugs off their strongest attacks and magic and wildly outclasses them qualify as bad gaming in the common sense. Or am I assuming too much? There always has to be a payoff for the players or it's just not worthwhile IMO. I'd also say that the players need to know that going up against this NPC is pretty much going to result in them getting rekt so if they do decide to confront the NPC it's not a generic JRPG intro fight where nothing you do matters.
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Sep 10, 2018 00:22
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Yeah, the big key is that any boss fight that has an unbeatable enemy needs an objective other than "fight the bad guy" as a goal, clear signposting of this (no half measure, it has to be literal 'your attack is deflected by an invisible forcefield' style), possibly even you out of character pulling aside your players and telling them "no really, this is not a fight you're designed to win through combat," and even then you're going to sometimes just have people run face first into it. Especially if you've done the "Good GM" thing of not throwing them into unwinnable encounters before, which will have likely trained them to be used to fair fights. As Ace said, you need to have some sort of payoff for your players. I did manage to pull it off once, where my players summoned a hostile Dragon God via their narrative tokens in order to try and kill off one of their enemies, and after doing that it attempted to kill them. I did a little time out before the fight to mention "normally I don't make things that you can't in theory beat in a fight, but this is the exception. You can totally try to fight if you want, and if you win I'll roll with it, but that'll be a genuine surprise if you actually manage it." Then it fried some of their NPC allies to demonstrate the kinds of numbers it had for its attacks, and they decided to do a fighting retreat while figuring out how to banish it back to its plain, which involved a lot of dodging its attacks (I gave it an MMO style attack indicator, where it'd mark the areas it would hit next turn and then they had to scrabble away).
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Sep 10, 2018 03:36
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Ysengrin posted:Yeah, the big key is that any boss fight that has an unbeatable enemy needs an objective other than "fight the bad guy" as a goal, clear signposting of this (no half measure, it has to be literal 'your attack is deflected by an invisible forcefield' style), possibly even you out of character pulling aside your players and telling them "no really, this is not a fight you're designed to win through combat," and even then you're going to sometimes just have people run face first into it. Especially if you've done the "Good GM" thing of not throwing them into unwinnable encounters before, which will have likely trained them to be used to fair fights. As Ace said, you need to have some sort of payoff for your players. I'll also give non-damaging but powerful positioning abilities in those cases to showcase how outmatched they are, literally toss them around the battlefield for nothing but fall damage, and allow pacing for when actual attacks start up. Another time they engaged something that they witnessed take down most of an adventuring party from a distance before they actually engaged (and ran away).
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Sep 10, 2018 03:40
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Nephzinho posted:I'll also give non-damaging but powerful positioning abilities in those cases to showcase how outmatched they are, literally toss them around the battlefield for nothing but fall damage, and allow pacing for when actual attacks start up. Another time they engaged something that they witnessed take down most of an adventuring party from a distance before they actually engaged (and ran away). Oh yeah, definitely. For my boss, I actually gave his most damaging attack a Mercy limit (so if you take the hit you'll only be brought down to 1 hp) but then it left behind a bunch of fire tiles that meant if you stayed there you'd tick over to 0, and broke up the map for them. Wing buffets to knock them around, and a couple of projectiles that crept along the battle arena to deny them area. All things that they could avoid and not die to, but made it really feel like they had to adapt to it's actions rather than them dictating the terms of the fight. Highly damaging but telegraphed attacks, and nonlethal positioning abilities, are great for that type of "overwhelming" NPC because your players have to actively do something to avoid it, rather than just hope their AC is high enough to tank the attack. Scary without being a guaranteed lethal. I'd also avoid the temptation of having them dueling with another NPC and them just dodging the fallout of the fight though. It seems like a handy way to "explain" why the NPC isn't just directly focusing them down, but in practice it ends up feeling like a sideshow. Unless you manage to turn it into a proper Kaiju fight and not just Sorcerer #1 vs Sorcerer #2.
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Sep 10, 2018 05:00
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I could use some cult bullshit, if y'all got any. My players will in the near future encounter a friendly cult in the process of chasing the main plot. My intended resolution to this is to have a friendly chat, get whichever PCs want cool cyberware blessed by the ancient technological surgical suite (Which I posted about previously), and move on, whereupon the cult begins transitioning into its main villain status. So far, so good. I think I have players invested enough in following the story to keep from just trying to put a sword in the cult leader (Which would work if they could manage it, I'd just have to shrug and say "Great, uh, prophecy fulfilled, Ganon destroyed, we're gonna have to focus on B-plot for a while until I get another A-plot going and by the way every cultist here is now angry with you, roll initiative again."). But I just had the realization that they might decide to join the cult outright. either to gently caress the world (unlikely) or to work against the cult from the inside, which would be really cool but I am totally unprepared for. I have one central tenet to the cult: That through the aforementioned ancient prosthetic limbs, they have achieved perfection. The other monasteries and spiritual retreats all seek perfection, but here they have become perfect. Obviously this is an untenable philosophy, but every example of a cult I've seen has a really incredibly stupid ideology only held together by the leader's charisma. But that bit of information is all I have, and that'll be sprayed in the PC's faces within like five minutes of arrival. I could use some extra cult bits to scatter into dialogue and scenery, mostly to help drive home that yes, this is a cult, not just a prosthetic appreciation society that meets on weekends to discus arcanotech servomotor advancements. I do have one bit of hidden knowledge that the cult leader arrived at this facility with another person and killed her in order to establish his cult, but claims she was simply too imperfect and perished in the medical procedure, thus there's a shrine of weaponry in the "temple" dedicated to those who fell in the procedure or old war buddies. But this isn't something the PCs can find out (easily/at all? unsure yet).
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Sep 10, 2018 05:23
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I posted a link to some good cult chat a little ways back, but remember your players will bedrock assume the cult is evil so you'll just need to work against that as hard as you can. Maybe dangle an obvious evil plan and have it turn out to be a misunderstanding.
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Sep 10, 2018 06:01
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Have they met this guy before? If not consider that he has made himself into that fancy memorial for fallen fanatics. Maybe the heroes were the people who enabled this final transformation, maybe not. Either way this seems to be the last straw for some of the cult's followers. Make it look like people are having doubts about serving a practically immobile leader. Let a cultist reconsider their life choices, and leave in peace. When they follow up on that cultist, have them... still be okay. At least at first. This is actually just a bump on the cult's path to greatness. The locals might not be too big on following a living version of a Vanesh statue but other people are. Big time. And the thing about leader's perfection is that it is ever growing new facets. Perhaps in time perfection buds off more perfection. The only thing more convincing than one charismatic cult leader is... Even if you cannot be born or modified into perfection yourself, you can achieve perfection as part of leader. And eventually our heroes will find that perfection is being thrust upon them. Edit: Forget about that budding stuff. A miles long corkscrew of prosthetic limbs unstoppably spiraling forward. Faith that can move mountains, redirect seas, drill through any barrier. A dance number escalated into strategic assaults. habituallyred fucked around with this message at 09:06 on Sep 10, 2018 |
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Sep 10, 2018 08:05
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Ysengrin posted:Oh yeah, definitely. For my boss, I actually gave his most damaging attack a Mercy limit (so if you take the hit you'll only be brought down to 1 hp) but then it left behind a bunch of fire tiles that meant if you stayed there you'd tick over to 0, and broke up the map for them. Wing buffets to knock them around, and a couple of projectiles that crept along the battle arena to deny them area. All things that they could avoid and not die to, but made it really feel like they had to adapt to it's actions rather than them dictating the terms of the fight. The last boss fight I tried to steer them away from they plowed into, i concocted a reason that this all powerful caster was massively distracted from their fight and was only giving it like 50% effort. Occasionally skipped turns to refocus his ritual, had an astral form that was using wind spells to move the party away from his body, and on a few occasions cast Chain Lightning variant that nearly OHKO'ed half the party so they knew exactly how tough the guy was "supposed" to be. This one however they ultimately refused to run away from, I let them kill him, and it has completely derailed the campaign because I decided the ritual that was distracting him was Super Important and now that he's dead Bad Things are going to happen.
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Sep 10, 2018 14:23
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Bad Seafood posted:Imagine for a moment you're an adventurer. You're following a map to a peculiar location. Apart from the directions, the map also contains a riddle written as follows: Also got it. Like you said maybe allow for a broad interpretation of the fee so they don't choose wrong once and get convinced they're on the wrong track. Do you have a magic-user with identify in the party? Maybe give it a transmutation aura and if they check it they'll be more likely to toss in a weapon or armor if you're hoping they'll try that. It's going to be a balancing act of info delivery if the weapon or amor disappears to make them think "something happened to the weapon and I didn't totally get hosed just now I'll just trust the DM" vs "Okay the weapon is missing but it's probably still here let's try 15 different things to make it reappear."
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Sep 10, 2018 16:56
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Pollyanna posted:Is there ever a case where an NPC that is truly out of the party's league ala Overlord is interesting and worthwhile? I imagine that scenarios where an NPC shrugs off their strongest attacks and magic and wildly outclasses them qualify as bad gaming in the common sense. Or am I assuming too much? Do you have any high level NPC's you can introduce the party to/the party knows who are either dead at the scene or come along with them and get loving destroyed quickly by the Big Bad? Basically make a Worf? Alternately I'd do one of two things, outright tell someone or the whole party that this thing makes them feel outmatched and after the first few attacks they already see that the being is barely exerting itself OR have them make a big spell attack that the magic users* can roll Arcana* on (or maybe just can tell right away) that they've never seen someone cast X spell that was so intense and they suddenly feel intense fear in the pit of their stomach. They can then communicate to the group that this is some bad poo poo. I don't have an unbeatable monster but the party in one of my games just split up and two of them came upon a coven of hags with some footsoldiers. They don't know that they're hags yet and I'm a little worried they're going to attack and get themselves loving destroyed (hag covens cast higher level spells have higher challenge ratings than solo hags). We ended the session just as they were trying to see the enemies from a hidden position so I'll probably indicate that they've traveled a couple miles from their party at this point and if they can't identify the hags with a roll, tell them that they aren't sure but they feel a creeping sense of dread. *or whatever skills/attacks in whatever setting you're using Dareon posted:I could use some cult bullshit, if y'all got any. Maybe the number of handicapped beggars are dropping in the city nearby or the temples that usually care for those who have lost limbs aren't seeing as many come to their doors (and poo poo in a fantasy setting there's a lot of ways to lose a hand or foot or arm. Or even just someone with one leg you introduce them to that they then see again in the cult. Maybe early on the leader was gathering people who were already limbless and giving them these limbs and a "new lease on life" and now they're serving him in the cult. They all seem happy enough but there's something to play around with the leader both "helping" those in need but at the same time using them for free labor and accolades. If everyone seems really happy and is wearing similar clothing and uses similar greetings I think your party will pretty quickly go "this poo poo is weird as hell but not really our problem." poorlifedecision fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Sep 10, 2018 |
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Sep 10, 2018 17:15
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habituallyred posted:Even if you cannot be born or modified into perfection yourself, you can achieve perfection as part of leader. And eventually our heroes will find that perfection is being thrust upon them. poorlifedecision posted:Maybe the number of handicapped beggars are dropping in the city nearby or the temples that usually care for those who have lost limbs aren't seeing as many come to their doors (and poo poo in a fantasy setting there's a lot of ways to lose a hand or foot or arm. Or even just someone with one leg you introduce them to that they then see again in the cult. Maybe early on the leader was gathering people who were already limbless and giving them these limbs and a "new lease on life" and now they're serving him in the cult. They all seem happy enough but there's something to play around with the leader both "helping" those in need but at the same time using them for free labor and accolades. The first part is definitely happening, and the bit about uniformity really helps. I immediately thought of a call/response greeting: “<verb> with perfection, <gender-relation>.” “I shall, for perfection is in my <bodypart>.” Shortened appropriately when needed. But one of the cult NPCs I've already got is from a race with horns. The surgical suite looks for missing body parts first, and he'd lost one of his horns in a fight, so now he has this bladed crown of thorns installed in his skull, and that confuses the greeting a little. I'm picturing a cultist coming up to him and going "Uh... headbutt with perfection, Brother?"
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Sep 10, 2018 18:13
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My party is on an island with a cult they've been hunting down all campaign and they're shocked to find that they're pretty nice! They've been shipping homeless and destitute people off to this island to give them work and build a civilization. Basically I'm making the rumors of the cult conflict with the stated reality--everyone's eyes are bright and shining, and they're all devoted to carving out a life for themselves that is kinder and less cruel than being the downtrodden in a stratified society. The cult is called crazy and heretical by outsiders because they are disrupting the traditional ecclesiastical power structure and providing everyone with a relationship to their creator... and... The cult leadership planning on murdering every single one of them and removing their souls from the cycle of life and death, but nobody knows that part yet.
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Sep 10, 2018 20:23
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Gay Horney posted:My party is on an island with a cult they've been hunting down all campaign and they're shocked to find that they're pretty nice! They've been shipping homeless and destitute people off to this island to give them work and build a civilization. Basically I'm making the rumors of the cult conflict with the stated reality--everyone's eyes are bright and shining, and they're all devoted to carving out a life for themselves that is kinder and less cruel than being the downtrodden in a stratified society. For the added twist: this isn't a secret within the cult, either. They're keeping it from visitors, because they know if anyone finds out it'll upset them and they'll send someone to stop them... but the faithful believers genuinely believe that escaping the cycle of life and death is the best thing they can do for the world. Of course, now the PCs know, they have to be stopped before they can tell anyone else and interrupt the ritual...
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Sep 10, 2018 22:00
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Google some actual cult recovery forums; there’ll be stories. It will result in a cult that feels very different from the classic hooded chanting figures from fantasy, though. - Have them use unusual terms for normal things, especially interactions with each other. Cults love having inner languages. - Most cultists aren’t that devout. Like 70% of people who join real cults just leave of their own accord in a few months. If your PCs want to join they might be pushed to go further but they won’t be heavily invested in. - Likewise, cult beliefs don’t stick because the members have been magically brainwashed. They stick because they’re all that gives the members any hope or other life properties they’re looking for, and/or because they’re already committed to it.
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Sep 10, 2018 22:30
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hyphz posted:Google some actual cult recovery forums; there’ll be stories. It will result in a cult that feels very different from the classic hooded chanting figures from fantasy, though. Whenever I struggle to imagine what a Cthulhu cult would be like I reread the accounts of the Final Fantasy 7 House and think: this is what people managed to achieve without divine inspiration from an elder demigod of pure madness.
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Sep 10, 2018 23:46
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Watching wild wild country on Netflix is strongly recommended as well. Gave strong insight as to what the people who were in the cult seemed to be getting out of it.
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Sep 11, 2018 01:31
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*one hour of browsing later*  Well, now I'm disturbed, and worried what I'm about to do to my players. 
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Sep 11, 2018 04:51
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