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I have a campaign of Mouse Guard planned and I wanted to create a mission where the players investigate a cult. I want to make the cult more complicated than "bad guys in robes", especially since it's to take on a more investigative role, so I wanted to discuss the cult's structure and in what ways it could be improved both from an interesting writing perspective and from a player investigation perspective. The cult worships a deadly predator, but in actuality serve a leader with an ego who claims to be the predator's avatar. The cult's right hand man is a former snake oil salesman who recruits mice into the cult via seminars with promises of a better and more fulfilling life. The two have a deal worked out: the snake oil salesman gets people in and in exchange the cult leader uses the members to create "tribute" (namely various products made from the blueberries native to the area where the cultists live) which the salesman collects and sells for profit. There is one additional bit of detail in the cult's process: the cultists must regularly consume an "ambrosia" that is actually a drug that makes them more open to suggestion. The investigation I've decided to try to make a bit open with a collection of hooks that could grab the player's attention. They could get in either by attending the seminar and joining as cultists, or they could discover the leader of a group of vigilantes, whose son has been recruited and has been trying to scout out the location. Within the cult's location itself, the players can discover the son, who left because the vigilante is actually a pretty terrible father, and a hero who has been imprisoned because he tried to stop the cult himself and failed. And of course the players can do their own investigating to find out any of the other aspects to the cult I have mentioned. At certain intervals the players will have to consume the "ambrosia" and either find a way to avoid drinking it or take a will test, which, if failed, will make subsequent will and diplomatic skill tests more difficult. There will also be a sort of time limit where after a certain number of days the vigilantes will attack the cult themselves and fail if the players do not help, and a few days later, the prisoners will be sacrificed to the predator to be eaten, which would be the climax of the mission. How does this all sound? Mikedawson fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 18:07
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Not familiar with Mouse Guard per se, but if you haven't decided already, based on your description it feels terribly appropriate to make the predator in question a venomous snake. Not only is that perfect for a "snake oil" salesman to be working for (hell, secret snake cult is a common theme in many adventures period), the ambrosia could be something produced from the snake's venom (maybe along with some of the "tribute" stuff the cult is making). Identifying the source of the ambrosia would thus present a great way to foreshadow/reveal the predator. The cult could also use various other poisons/chemical compounds since that seems to be a strength of theirs in this setup; think up various alchemical tricks (flammable oils, colorful smoke, etc.) and you could have some interesting ways to mess with players, especially if they follow the vigilantes and just go in stabbing without investigating first.
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Jan 3, 2019 03:14
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I had the same thought, but iirc snakes are the boss monsters of Mouse Guard.
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Jan 3, 2019 03:22
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I've been invited to a DnD night by some work friends, it'll be the first time playing in years. I've decided on an Orc Chef called "Gor'on Rams-Eye" on an eternal quest to find the mythical lamb sauce. Am I doing this right? (I have checked the tone of the game first and that this is fitting in the campaign)
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Jan 3, 2019 03:28
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Sir Fiery and the quest for the Donkey Sauce. It’s made from real donkeys.
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Jan 3, 2019 03:31
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deedee megadoodoo posted:Sir Fiery and the quest for the Donkey Sauce. It’s made from real donkeys. You don’t mean THE Sir Fiery, do you? Of Flavorshire?
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Jan 3, 2019 03:40
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Yeah that's great. He should have a donkey to carry his knives
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Jan 3, 2019 03:44
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My partner played a pixie chef in Dungeon World game and had this as her main plot hook:
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Jan 3, 2019 08:03
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I've got a question about 5e's Hunter's Mark. My ranger wants to be able to use it to track a person through a city. The text says you get advantage on perception or survival checks to detect your target. It sounds like Critical Role lets players have a global sense of where the target is for the duration, making them basically GPS the mark in a crowded city or something. My read is that you wouldn't be able to pass an impossible detection (a target well beyond range of your normal senses, DC 25+) even with advantage. I could see giving the ranger a cardinal sense or making it as if there were no obstructions to your normal senses (the player can essentially see the mark through walls or other creatures as far as her eyes would see it on flat open ground - maybe a little further for the sensory enhancement). How would you play it?
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Jan 3, 2019 08:49
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Glory to Italia!
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I wouldn’t let it be magic radar or whatever, but I would let it work as an aid to a role-playing sequence, allowing the ranger to do the hard-nosed detective experience of going to just the right shady tavern and talking to just the right shady guy who points them to just the right shady alley with just the right shady nightclub etc. Take a note from dungeon world and let the narrative drive here.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:32
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Im running an almost year-long campaign in 5e DnD for my friend group. How insane is it to want to start another, concurrent campaign using a different system(SotDL) with 2 of the players from the original group playing along with 2 other friends? I got the source book for Christmas and I'm just itching to start a game. The SotDL campaign would meet less often( once a month vs once a week), and we would use a pre-written adventure/module. What are people's experiences DMing multiple campaigns(and/or systems) at once?
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Jan 3, 2019 20:58
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thegoatgod_pan posted:I wouldn’t let it be magic radar or whatever, but I would let it work as an aid to a role-playing sequence, allowing the ranger to do the hard-nosed detective experience of going to just the right shady tavern and talking to just the right shady guy who points them to just the right shady alley with just the right shady nightclub etc. A cool approach, I'll think about it some more. I've no experience with dungeon world, though.
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Jan 3, 2019 21:33
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Dungeon World is just famous for privileging narrative over mechanics--so, there are moves like this one for fighters: "Through Death’s Eyes" When you go into battle, roll 2d6+WIS. ✴ On a 10+, name someone who will live and someone who will die.The GM will make your vision come true, if it’s even remotely possible. ✴ On a 7-9, name someone who will live or someone who will die. Name NPCs, not player characters. The GM will make your vision come true, if it’s even remotely possible. ✴ On a 6- you see your own death and consequently take -1 ongoing throughout the battle. thegoatgod_pan fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 23:27
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Pussy Quipped posted:Im running an almost year-long campaign in 5e DnD for my friend group. How insane is it to want to start another, concurrent campaign using a different system(SotDL) with 2 of the players from the original group playing along with 2 other friends? I got the source book for Christmas and I'm just itching to start a game. The SotDL campaign would meet less often( once a month vs once a week), and we would use a pre-written adventure/module. it's fine if you have the time, I used to DM week on/week off games in completely different systems. Lazy DM techniques help (as they always do).
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Jan 3, 2019 23:34
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I run an Apocalypse World game every Sunday night and a Blades in the Dark game Tuesdays and Thursdays at work during lunch. No worries, but both of those games work well with little to no intensive prep. Much will depend on the "work load" associated with each game system.
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Jan 4, 2019 00:24
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My players are working as auxiliaries for the city watch and discovered that a local crime lord (already found dead) has been storing magically hosed-up dead people in his family crypt. Lots of them. They discovered this, informed one of the custodians of the city mausoleum, and then in an echo of my very first post in this thread hosed off side questing for three days. I’m looking for advice on how to play it when they go back to the watch Captain - he’d be pissed off that he heard it second hand rather than it being reported, but can anyone give me hints on how to take it further without permanently cutting off their connection to the watch? They’ve been really enjoying being poo poo detectives, we did a whole session with no combat the other day and they loved it, but I think they’ve been too poo poo at it now. Severe rebuke needed, but still with a path back in.
Sanford fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 07:40
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How about if this failure has led a rival to start making a play for his position? His rival is running on a platform of 'using adventurers to do your dirty work is a terrible idea, they're completely unreliable, and we should treat them like the common scum they are'. So now they not only have to help him win his seat by producing impressive results, they also have to contend with a guy who'll be using his political influence to make them look bad.
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Jan 4, 2019 10:50
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Ah yeah brilliant thank you, I didn't even think of making it personally damaging to the captain rather than him just being pissed off. He's already had a rant about a group called The Saviours because he doesn't think the church should have their own armed forces in the city, so we're perfectly lined up for them to try and expand their control. And they're secretly evil (although the players don't know that yet!).
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Jan 4, 2019 15:10
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Next month I'm running Tomb of Annihilation with new players (some new to 5e, others new to tabletop RPGs.) I'm new to running in person. The players learn about the Soulmonger during the Cellar of Death prologue adventure, where it's a brand new thing. "Resurrection doesn't work" is weak when it's children of privilege and murderhobos that are affected. To sweeten the pot, when Sylvanas says "go find a thing on Chult" she adds: Keep Paladins of the Raven Queen away from it. Souls of the dead aren't reaching their afterlife, and the Raven Queen is going to be pissed when she notices (made aware by the prayers of her worshipers.) She might be a little Old Testament divine wrath-ey about it. Destroy the Soulmonger so that the Raven Queen doesn't. That's a hard check to cash, though, and I don't want to end the campaign in Chapter 2. In another campaign: one of my PCs have told their king that the political situation in his hometown is fraught. His hometown was independent until invaded by a bad-guy Jarl during a recent civil war. His ownership was not reversed after the war, and people resent it. The player character's own sister is amassing arms for a forthcoming uprising. Telling the king about his sister was not smart. It was absolutely in character, though. If you're the king, and you learn someone's going to start an uprising, you kill the someone. Obviously. What complicates things is that this NPC was someone else's PC in a different campaign, and I don't want to kill their old PC.
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Jan 4, 2019 17:56
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Hobo By Design posted:Telling the king about his sister was not smart. It was absolutely in character, though. If you're the king, and you learn someone's going to start an uprising, you kill the someone. Obviously. What complicates things is that this NPC was someone else's PC in a different campaign, and I don't want to kill their old PC. If you're a dumb king, sure. If you're a clever king (or have clever advisors,) then you let the uprising in your powerful rear end in a top hat vassal's domain occur, then use the instability to swoop in and claim it as your own, because the vassal is clearly incompetent, and the territory needs to be placed under new management. And if you're a really clever king, you have secret meetings with the rebels, give them vague promises of support, then either give it to them if they're winning, or abandon them if they're losing. Keeshhound fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 18:11
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This is a general question. How many NPC factions do you think is optimum to manage for an individual game session?
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Jan 4, 2019 18:34
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Need some encounter building help/advice. This is for a Curse of Strahd game I'm running, currently on break while another friend DMs a game. Some spoilers for the events in Vallaki but I'm going off book for what I need advice on. My players; a fiend pact warlock, an eldritch knight, a life cleric, and a lycan bloodhunter; have turned Vallaki into somewhat of a safe haven. The bones are back under the church rendering it Hallowed ground. The party hit level 5 at the end of their last session when they deposed the Baron and set up Ismark as the new Burgomeister of Vallaki. They killed the Lady Watcher prior to that along with some of her cultists. They've met Rictavio and discovered his real identity. They'd latched on to idea that there are some remaining cultists in Vallaki that need to be eliminated before they can leave the village. So that's what I need help with is figuring out this mini-adventure. The party does not know that the warlock is a warlock and I decided I can use this to maybe out her (the player is really looking forward to the eventual reveal and how the other players will react). Here's what I have so far: The cultists are going to try to do a ritual to remove the hallowed effect from the church, they've given up on stealing the bones, or maybe they don't know about the bone part. Doesn't matter. They are communicating with each other via glamoured posters. People who aren't in the cult or "touched by a demon" see signs for a new festival. The cultists and the warlock party member will see the true message saying that at a certain day and a certain time they will gather somewhere. The party will find the cultists doing the ritual which will involve some sort of bonfire and a round into the inevitable fight they cultists will beg for aid which summons the face of Strahd formed from the smoke/fire (I just watched the Castlevania anime on Netflix and loved the image of Dracula in the fire from the first episode). The form in the fire will join the battle. What I specifically want advice on is how to do the Strahd-Flame as an enemy, statblock and ability-wise. I don't know if there's a creature in any of the Monster Manuals that would be a good substitute or if I should use some of Strahd's actual stats. I would imagine it would be immobile. I also would like advice as to how many cultists should make up the bulk of the fight, and I want at least one cultist to be a bit more scary than the rest, maybe using one of the NPC warlocks from one of the books. Edit: Advice on doing interesting things with the battle via terrain or other things welcome. Maybe the Strahd-Flame can't be directly harmed and needs something else to happen to get rid of it? Maybe there are extra cultists that aren't actually combatants but are performing the ritual and the PCs have to eliminate them while dealing with the actual cultists that are fighting them? Lastly, or really firstly, I would like there to be a bit more steps to the investigation between find the poster and go to the ritual but I'm not sure how to do that. Maybe there should even be a step before the posters. The party may insert their own steps by doing prep things but if not I feel like it should potentially be more involved. At the same time I don't want this to last more than a session or two. Any advice, criticism or ideas welcome. I've got ideas that I think are good but I'm not super experienced in how to do things mechanically. Some things that sound cool can sometimes be actually unfun so avoiding said pitfalls is part of what I'm after. Epi Lepi fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Jan 4, 2019 |
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Jan 4, 2019 18:49
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The poster isn't just directions to the ritual, but instead the cults way of reaching out and finding potential candidates for the cult. The party/warlock finds out about the posters, but to learn the details of the plan needs to meet with a cult recruiter and extort it from them, or maybe join the cult and be invited to the ritual?
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Jan 4, 2019 18:55
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Keeshhound posted:If you're a dumb king, sure. If you're a clever king (or have clever advisors,) then you let the uprising in your powerful rear end in a top hat vassal's domain occur, then use the instability to swoop in and claim it as your own, because the vassal is clearly incompetent, and the territory needs to be placed under new management. I can work with this. The hometown wasn't formally recognized as a polity until the war, where it had unofficial connections to a different jarldom. The bad guy jarldom got to keep it as severance for losing a city to that other jarldom, to allay grudges. So he kills the bad guy jarl (can't hold a grudge if you're dead) and annexes the hometown for himself (king mostly does raiding and trading overseas, this gives him an appreciable local powerbase.) It puts the other city into play, which he doesn't like, but it sequesters potential revanchism away from his nearby castle.
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Jan 4, 2019 20:55
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Working on a Savage Worlds near-future military game - I have the SW deluxe core book, but what (if any) would be good sourcebooks to buy for gear and inspiration?
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Jan 5, 2019 20:20
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Keeshhound posted:If you're a dumb king, sure. If you're a clever king (or have clever advisors,) then you let the uprising in your powerful rear end in a top hat vassal's domain occur, then use the instability to swoop in and claim it as your own, because the vassal is clearly incompetent, and the territory needs to be placed under new management. The Warhammer Fantasy campaign I'm running is based around the Emperor taking over control of a large trade city (Ubersreik) and the ensuing power vacuum. I like the idea of the players being surreptitiously funded by one of the powers. Could definitely create some interesting dynamics.
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Jan 7, 2019 19:14
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This is something of a broad question, but are there any resources that help as a general guide for building out a hex-based/West Marches game? It would be 5th Edition, but I'm looking to squeeze in resource gathering and settlement expansion on top of the usual West Marches theme. Already got a setting, and kind of have sources for knowing what types of creatures/plants/etc are where but having something as a guide would definitely help beyond that.
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Jan 8, 2019 03:30
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I'm running a one-shot set in the Megaman universe to teach some friends the Strike system. I figured i'd tell you guys the general pitch and you can let me know if you have any ideas to spice it up. So the premade characters are all Robot Helpers working for a famed roboticist named Dr Vatios. They each take care of an essential household function and often serve as de facto babysitters for his daughter Martina. The year is 20X3. Yard Man is a Striker Martial Artist Vac Man is a Controller Duelist Fridge Man is a Defender Warlord Signal Man is a Leader Magician and Boiler Man is a Blaster Archer My plot idea is that they have to defend the vatios household from robotic home invaders a la the purge. I made up a bunch of classic megaman enemies as strike enemies and wrote up working macros for them. I figure I start with having them do some basic chores to explain how the skill system works and maybe establish some ominous onlookers, then maybe do an expository news report about a dangerous group of anti-human revolutionaries, and funnel them into a combat in the yard. Then maybe some sort of skill challenges in the house to find/subdue robots that have found their way in? Then maybe a chase scene and some sort of boss combat, in either order. I have vague notions about a violent manifesto called the "Rho Doctrine" that could be a cute little nod to the sigma virus, but thought it might be a little on-the-nose. Anyway, i thought maybe you guys would have some fun ideas for skill challenges, background elements, story beats et al. What do you think I should do to establish that these characters are all a loving family and that they should protect their human friends? I don't think I want them going Full Maverick because I want to keep it fairly lighthearted and straightforward. What are some good home invasion tropes I should work in? I don't watch a lot of those movies but it seems like a good genre for a low-scope set of encounters. Is there a good way to work in a chase scene that doesnt result in me needing to establish a second location? I have a nice map for the vatios estate and i'd love to keep the focus there. Maybe Martina gets kidnapped and they have to go get her and bring her back? but then a boss pops up once they get back home (if the chase feels like too easy of a conclusion) Is there any way you can think of that I can work in a fun, short puzzle? like a lights out puzzle or block-pushing puzzle that 4 people can all participate in? Normally I like to squeeze in one of those per adventure if I can, but I'm not sure what's a good way to do that in-context. Are there any fun plot twists or end-of-story developments you think I should include? Martina's token is an altered Roll, so i think it might be cute to tease that she's really a robot but then she's not. Or something like that.
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Jan 8, 2019 08:30
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Don't think "puzzle," think "home alone." You have x entrances that attackers are coming in and y inconveniently sized movable objects. And you better believe that not all those drat cabinets and such perfectly screen the entrances they are closest to. Do the players take extra time to get a perfect solution or settle and have to deal with extra robot snakes? If the opening tutorial chores are moving the furniture in using various push and pull powers so much the better. If you prefer the lights on puzzle the initial ominous onlookers spike the lab's power distribution systems with their opening attack. Power needs to be carefully reapplied to activate the various life support and defence systems by going to the "convenient" in room breaker switches in a certain order. Think the Apollo 13 power solution, there is enough power for everything if the order is just right. Don't hesitate to let various skills sub in for actual puzzle work. Succeed or fail either could tie into the chase. The automated defence system is designed to kill everybody not biologically related to the good doctor if tampered with. Fortunately there is a time delay and this can be cancelled by Martina herself hopping in the estate's golf cart and high fiving the right panel. Between the attackers and the damage to estate it could take ten minutes to get to the panel with the cart. The panel is usually five minutes away and is programmed accordingly.
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Jan 8, 2019 10:08
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Have the home invasion happen during the daughter's birthday party, or for lower stakes, during her make believe tea time that she does once a week with the players. If birthday, then have the dad make a big deal about how he is freeing the players from their duties during it because the daughter absolutely insisted that her friends be there so they must be sure to attend. That should establish the relationship between the players and humans. I was assuming the daughter was <10, that might not work if you were going to have her older.
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Jan 8, 2019 14:09
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Hell, you could play down the home invasion aspect and make a perfectly good Strike scenario about the various trials and tribulations involved in getting the birthday party just right, with the home invasion just being the action-packed climax.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:26
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here's a few photos of what i'm working with right now. https://imgur.com/a/JtWVWbv Birthday party might be ambitious because i'd want tokens for a lot of the kids, but i like the idea of having tea time with martina to give them all a chance to interact civilly and get attached to the human characters.
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Jan 8, 2019 19:37
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What's the advice when it comes to a max number of players? I'll be running my first PbP game here soon and while I was commited to 5 players, I've had 6 applications so far. If I were a bit more experienced I'd have all 6 but I'm worried about my ability to pace, plan encounters and give everybody something to do if I go to high. Are these fears unwarranted or is it something to actively consider?
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Jan 9, 2019 16:56
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Depends hugely on the system, but for D&D 6 is usually too many and I generally feel like 4 is plenty already.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:10
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OscarDiggs posted:What's the advice when it comes to a max number of players? I tried to have 5-6 in my last game that went on for like 18 months, but for the new one (they accidentally ruined the entire world to the point they couldn't just reroll after a TPK) I'm just going to stick to 3 and let anyone else drop in as hired help for dungeon crawls/whatever scenario. After a certain number of people it is hard to have plot hooks that engage each one and scheduling alone becomes a nightmare.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:32
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Combat really drags in 5e just with 4 but I don't know how big a deal that is with PbP. I'm currently running a homebrew setting with a group of three and a single player (the single player knows about the three but they don't know about him). Playing one on one is easily the most fun and best D&D experience I've had to date, three is cool and good, four was a bit much and five was basically just no fun for anyone. My biggest issue (outside combat) with a large number of players is that there is only so much anyone can do. So your most confident 2-3 people will investigate and search, solve puzzles, etc and the other will either do nothing or just repeatedly go "I... help, I guess?" and get bored quick.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:37
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I play with 6 players and it gets a little bogged down at times, especially during some combats where there are 6+ monsters of 3 different types. Of the 7 of us there are 3 couples, so scheduling isn't a total nightmare since its essentially only scheduling for 4 people.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:38
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OscarDiggs posted:What's the advice when it comes to a max number of players? in any system i've played, four is the max i would recommend. even in systems with quick combat it just becomes difficult for all of the players to get time in the "spotlight" with more than four and it leads to a less engaged group which isn't great imo.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:39
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I'd also consider that any person you add to an online game is one more person who could disappear from the game without notice at any moment. The flipside, of course, is that any person you add is one more that can carry the game on when another player disappears without notice.
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Jan 9, 2019 17:58
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It's not a DnD game it's GURPs and tacticool combat isn't a large focus. But yes, seems that 6 may be a bit to much in any game. Thanks all.
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Jan 9, 2019 18:32
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