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Hattie Masters posted:Just started Curse of Strahd. To be honest there isnt a lot of stuff to buy in Curse of Strahd anyway outside of very basic adventure items and you will get a lot more gold then you need for those. Just let him piss it away right up until he needs some and then dont lend him any.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:24
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Pretend to roll dice and crunch numbers until the wizard uses fireball and instantly ends the mass combat.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:27
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The WebDM guys did a video literally today on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvUlyV3uGQ and one of their suggestions is what I'd put forward. The warfare rules from Strongholds & Followers. The Warfare Rules themselves are open license and are fairly easy to find.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:28
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Arthil posted:The WebDM guys did a video literally today on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvUlyV3uGQ and one of their suggestions is what I'd put forward. The warfare rules from Strongholds & Followers. The Warfare Rules themselves are open license and are fairly easy to find. I wouldnt introduce an entirely new subsystem for one encounter to be honest, regardless of if the rules are really good or bad.
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Apr 11, 2019 02:35
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kingcom posted:I wouldnt introduce an entirely new subsystem for one encounter to be honest, regardless of if the rules are really good or bad. I dunno, special encounters can be perfect opportunities for using novel subsystems - particularly if they are too complicated to use regularly.
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Apr 11, 2019 03:00
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I was going to suggest creating a custom swarm monster, and then I looked it up and there are no longer any specific rules for swarms so just ignore me
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Apr 11, 2019 03:01
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doctor 7 posted:For my campaigns I specify that I don't want to have to deal with petty inner-party squabbles (someone picks the pocket of another party member for some loose change) One of my favorite things I did in pickup games was to have a rogue with ridiculously high thievery. Then, when opening a chest or checking a body, roll thievery. Everyone usually immediately rolls to see it, and no one has succeeded yet. At which point, I sneak little bits of gold or a gem into the chest or onto the body, so that someone else can get a lucky find. Congrats! You found this neat gem! You're great at this adventuring stuff.
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Apr 11, 2019 03:07
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Yeah, I 100% have no intention to simulate 50 dudes or anything. There are a couple actual NPCs with actual CRs that would he interesting in combat, but I also want the players to be able to impact the fight between the mobs if they want to, which means it wouldn't just be "oh and in the background the cultists and guards are fighting." They should be some kind entity(ies). If I make each mob one stat block, it'll have to be a theater of the mind combat, which is maybe for the best. Either way, it looks like I need to do more ground work than I initially hoped. But now I am at least going to make sure not to clog up the initiative order with too many boring NPCs. Flip Yr Wig fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 03:16
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Flip Yr Wig posted:Any advice on the best rules to use for a mass combat situation involving ~25 low-CR NPCs on each side? The mob combat rules in the DMG seemed focused on monsters ganging up on a single PC, rather than going fighting each other. The mass combat rules from UA are meant for scales way higher than this encounter. I could probably just fudge something myself, but that would be reinventing a wheel that has obviously been figured out already. Make an attack roll. Call that A Add 5 to the attack roll. Call that B Subtract 5 from the attack. Call that C If A hits, apply damage as though a third of all the creatures were had hit. That is, with 25 creatures all doing 1d6+1 damage, apply 8d6+8 damage against the target. Do the same for B Do the same for C Kill off as many creatures on the defending side as the applied damage warrants. If only B hit, and you rolled 31 for damage (8d6+8), and each defending creature had 10 HP, then the defenders lost three creatures, and a fourth took 1 damage. The point here is that you're splitting the group into thirds as a middle-ground between rolling an attack for each and every creature, and making a single aggregate attack roll for everyone that's too swingy. gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 04:02
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Flip Yr Wig posted:Yeah, I 100% have no intention to simulate 50 dudes or anything. There are a couple actual NPCs with actual CRs that would he interesting in combat, but I also want the players to be able to impact the fight between the mobs if they want to, which means it wouldn't just be "oh and in the background the cultists and guards are fighting." They should be some kind entity(ies). If I make each mob one stat block, it'll have to be a theater of the mind combat, which is maybe for the best. Either way, it looks like I need to do more ground work than I initially hoped. Depends on how much of a stickler for rules your players are, but easiest way we’ve done large scale batteries without clogging things up is just start with x number of goons on each side and just roll a 20 or whatever is appropriate for pacing for each side and that’s how many die. And if the PCs wanted to interact with the mass combat, they get to murder a cool and satisfying ammount of dudes. Wizard throws a fireball? Roll to see how many guys are crammed into the AoE. They all die. Fighter leads a charge into the crowd? Insta kill a couple dudes and they inspire the guys around them to kill an extra dice worth of people. The few times we did it, the players happy enough with rule of cooling the number of kills but you could also do something simple like everyone has access to an Affect Battle action that kills a d6 worth of mooks with extra kills if they expend resources if your players want rules. The one thing I tried to plan was extra stuff that happened at certain thresholds so that the outcome of the background battle actually mattered and give the PCs a reason to spend their actions on the background fight rather than punching the bosses in the face. Good guys fall to 50%? Extra CR-level baddie joins the fray, either as reinforcements coming in or one of the mooks establishing them self as an actual threat. Bad guy forces drop enough? Heroes get advantage for the next round due to their guys swarming the battlefield. For the battle map, we just assumed that fights were going on in empty squares but that the swarm guys on both sides were too crappy to register as threats mechanically so they didn’t count as sneak attack threats and could be walked through without AOO so it didn’t matter that they didn’t actually exist on the field.
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Apr 11, 2019 05:01
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I signed up for that Reaper Bones Kickstarter 4 mini thing in 2017, it just arrived today. Holy loving poo poo this is a lot of good figures man.
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Apr 11, 2019 06:50
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Flip Yr Wig posted:Yeah, I 100% have no intention to simulate 50 dudes or anything. There are a couple actual NPCs with actual CRs that would he interesting in combat, but I also want the players to be able to impact the fight between the mobs if they want to, which means it wouldn't just be "oh and in the background the cultists and guards are fighting." They should be some kind entity(ies). If I make each mob one stat block, it'll have to be a theater of the mind combat, which is maybe for the best. Either way, it looks like I need to do more ground work than I initially hoped. If it's a climactic bad guy battle and also there's armies there do pseudodragon's. If it's heroes vs zombies, swarm(s) Splicer fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 09:21
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Arthil posted:The WebDM guys did a video literally today on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvUlyV3uGQ and one of their suggestions is what I'd put forward. The warfare rules from Strongholds & Followers. The Warfare Rules themselves are open license and are fairly easy to find. I got S&F and haven't had a chance to read it yet, really should set it aside one of these days as I have loosely planned for inclusion like a year out in my current game.
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Apr 11, 2019 14:53
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Flip Yr Wig posted:Yeah, I 100% have no intention to simulate 50 dudes or anything. There are a couple actual NPCs with actual CRs that would he interesting in combat, but I also want the players to be able to impact the fight between the mobs if they want to, which means it wouldn't just be "oh and in the background the cultists and guards are fighting." They should be some kind entity(ies). If I make each mob one stat block, it'll have to be a theater of the mind combat, which is maybe for the best. Either way, it looks like I need to do more ground work than I initially hoped. So the general gist of the Warfare rules from S&F is that, these guys are meant to be clashing while the party is fighting the 'heroes' of the opposing force. It's entirely possible for a combat to go with absolutely neither army doing any real damage to one another, particularly if it's just one big bunch of a unit type against another. I believe there's ways for players to intervene with their normal abilities, but mostly a player can on top of everything else on their turn issue an order to a nearby unit. Basically it's built so that if the players don't -want- to interact with it, they don't have to.
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Apr 11, 2019 19:58
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Doing war stuff like dynasty warriors is always good. Ignore chaff, fight the guy with the fancy clothes and a name
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Apr 11, 2019 21:21
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I mostly really like Strongholds and Followers, and the mass combat system works well. However one thing that pisses me off is that one of the things you can recruit (I think it's a special follower) is an Antipaladin. But they don't give you stats for it, they just tell you to find some online. Also the dude clearly has a massive hard-on for Dwarves seeing as how they pretty much have the best statline for mass combat stuff. EDIT: Remora posted:He is aware of this and the system is supposedly set up so you can tweak races as you see fit. I haven't had the opportunity to get in and crunch it yet. Yeah that bit wasn't meant as a criticism per se, more just a casual observation. Hattie Masters fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Apr 11, 2019 |
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Apr 11, 2019 22:15
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Hattie Masters posted:Also the dude clearly has a massive hard-on for Dwarves seeing as how they pretty much have the best statline for mass combat stuff. He is aware of this and the system is supposedly set up so you can tweak races as you see fit. I haven't had the opportunity to get in and crunch it yet.
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Apr 11, 2019 22:22
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So I am going to be DMing for the first time for a group with two new players, was planning to run the lost mines adventure just so we could all get our bearings. Really looking forward to it. Just out of curiousity if anyone has any experience with that adventure, how much room does give you to insert your own material? I haven't had a chance to read through it yet since my friend has it.
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Apr 11, 2019 23:30
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Meridian posted:So I am going to be DMing for the first time for a group with two new players, was planning to run the lost mines adventure just so we could all get our bearings. Really looking forward to it. I mean its pretty loose at to what you actually need to do. The critical path is -> Rescue Gundren's bodyguard -> Find castle -> rescue Gundren from that castle -> Go to Magic Cave Dungeon -> Beat Drow Wizzyboi. Outside of that theres really not a huge lock into what you would have to do or how you go about doing it. It really depends on what you mean by inserting your own material I guess, the adventure is pretty small scale and goes from level 1-5 but theres lots of opportunity to 'go explore this other place' or 'heres a sidequest problem' for you to handle.
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Apr 12, 2019 00:47
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kingcom posted:I mean its pretty loose at to what you actually need to do. Perfect, exactly what I needed to know. I don't expect the players to have fully fleshed out back stories but I was planning to ask them for some interesting fact or event related to their character so I could use them as plot hooks later.
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Apr 12, 2019 00:52
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I feel bad for my DM and how he has to be the forever DM, but god is noboody else in the group capable of DMing, least of all me. I'm completely creatively sterile.
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Apr 12, 2019 01:41
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Meridian posted:Perfect, exactly what I needed to know. I don't expect the players to have fully fleshed out back stories but I was planning to ask them for some interesting fact or event related to their character so I could use them as plot hooks later. Best advice would be to have your players all come up with a reason as to 'how they met Gundren and why they were willing to take up a job for him' it forces everyone to want to go save him which carries the motivation of the adventure. Liquid Dinosaur posted:I feel bad for my DM and how he has to be the forever DM, but god is noboody else in the group capable of DMing, least of all me. I'm completely creatively sterile. I'm a forever GM 
kingcom fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Apr 12, 2019 |
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Apr 12, 2019 02:23
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I'm a forever GM simply because I have a long list of small criteria for what is the "ideal D&D game", and I know I'll never see them all met at once unless I'm the one running the game
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Apr 12, 2019 02:51
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I am also a never DM. I have a hard enough time not killed off my own PC every session
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Apr 12, 2019 03:01
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I enjoy the idea of having rotating DMs and the experience of being a player, but I'm also enough of a control-freak that I quickly lose patience when a DM goes too far outside the bounds of how I would do things. Hence I've developed a bad habit of joining groups as a player and then becoming the forever DM.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:12
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If you dont want to DM just run a pre-published module.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:14
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Ceros_X posted:If you dont want to DM just run a pre-published module. Yeah pre-published modules are great and I very much recommend them. Even if you end up not liking the direction it takes and deciding to stray far afield, having some sort of moderately coherent structure to hang everything off of is a huge help to both the players and the DM. It lets the DM focus on developing the story and reacting to the players, and it assures the players that there actually is a path through the adventure that they can be reasonably expected to figure out, and will involve combat, treasure, and roleplaying (which is definitely not a guarantee in homemade campaigns).
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Apr 12, 2019 03:22
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Kaal posted:Yeah pre-published modules are great and I very much recommend them. Even if you end up not liking the direction it takes and deciding to stray far afield, having some sort of moderately coherent structure to hang everything off of is a huge help to both the players and the DM. A friend and I were considering rotating DMing, but I don't really see a way to do it without having more than one campaign running which is a lot of effort and time. Figure he'll take over on the next one.
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Apr 12, 2019 03:52
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Meridian posted:A friend and I were considering rotating DMing, but I don't really see a way to do it without having more than one campaign running which is a lot of effort and time. Figure he'll take over on the next one. Well you could start by having side-quest sessions, where you can join the party as a new member or an existing NPC (i.e. the bartender at their favorite tavern, or a rescued prisoner, or whatever). Maybe you know the plot already but just exempt yourself from decisions, maybe it's a new element (or just one you haven't figured out in detail yet), maybe it's based on randomized encounter tables. Just take a one-shot concept and adapt it for within your campaign.
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Apr 12, 2019 04:25
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Kaal posted:Well you could start by having side-quest sessions, where you can join the party as a new member or an existing NPC (i.e. the bartender at their favorite tavern, or a rescued prisoner, or whatever). Maybe you know the plot already but just exempt yourself from decisions, maybe it's a new element (or just one you haven't figured out in detail yet), maybe it's based on randomized encounter tables. Just take a one-shot concept and adapt it for within your campaign. That's a great idea, I'll throw it to him.
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Apr 12, 2019 05:27
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Meridian posted:A friend and I were considering rotating DMing, but I don't really see a way to do it without having more than one campaign running which is a lot of effort and time. Figure he'll take over on the next one. You could run it where instead of being a long running continuous campaign you could be an adventurer's guild that takes a lot of short term jobs and focus on one offs or 2-3 session adventures. You and your friend pick the one offs separately so you don't know whats happening when he runs and vice versa. Have a job board that the players can choose from that all end up at the adventure you prepared anyways, players love to believe they have freewill. Adorable little buggers.
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Apr 12, 2019 06:03
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Welp, just had my game go incredibly awry. Running skt for my group. I wanted to run curse of stahd, but decided to run skt since it’s more traditional and another new player was planning to join our group. They’re mostly newbs still, so I figured something a bit broader in scope but still dungeon and treasure heavy would be better as a training tool. The players already beat lost mines, so I had them start at Bryn Shander in the north. Events unfolded and they made their way to fireshear to learn how to ride griffins. In the book, after arriving at fireshear the town is attacked by 20 frost giants. Last week the party managed to defeat 6, causing the rest to flee to their ship. They would attack 4 hours later. This week was mostly planning on the party’s part. I had the party divide up their actions over the course of those hours to see what they could do in that amount of time. They rolled well and came up with a very good plan to blow holes in the ship using the mining town’s dynamite supply. The artificer in the group turned it into highly volatile super dynamite, and They also used a combination of water walk and an invisibility potion to get across the ocean, which eventually caused some interesting visuals as a drowning frost giant tried to drag someone with waterwalk into the ocean. They planted the dynamite, and successfully detonated it, dealing hundreds of damage to the ship, enough to cause it to start sinking rapidly. The team’s pet goblin Zognog died instantly after getting shot off a griffin by a giant-sized ballista and falling 100 feet onto the deck of the frost giant greatship. I rolled insanely poorly, and most of the frost giants drowned in the ensuing chaos. The treasure chest on the ship made its way ashore, and I decided to gift the players well with a random magic item from table F. They rolled a 99 and got a bag of devouring. The paladin of the group, thinking it was a bag of holding, decided to put his arm inside. He got sucked in, and the party failed their strength check. He was lost to eternity and faded into nothingness. However, he also had a bag of holding on him. Putting an extra dimensional space inside an extra dimensional space is a big no-no, and the entire party (who was standing close since they tried to help the paladin) were sucked into the dimensional rift simultaneously. Not knowing what to do here, I recalled my experience with this situation. The dm just said I disappeared and had to make a new character. I thought it was funny, but was ultimately unsatisfied with that. So, I decided to do the only other thing I could. The players woke up after some time in a weird forest, surrounded by dense fog and mysterious noises. Now they’re playing curse of strahd until they lift the curse, at which point they’ll return exactly where they were during SKT.
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Apr 12, 2019 06:18
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My friends kind of set up a kind of.. "Nexus" world, thing. Which had different planets, and a government, and whatever. We basically made it to be a setting that's, "Hears some stuff that's loosely laid out. There's kind of an over arching plot, but not really." It's easy to do one shots in, it's easy to take turns and try out new stuff. We check in with each other if we're going to do anything MASSIVELY huge.. but it's more of a place to try out character ideas, and take turns DMing. It works. It can get weird, but we're all easy going.
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Apr 12, 2019 06:30
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Verisimilidude posted:Welp, just had my game go incredibly awry. All according to plan.
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Apr 12, 2019 08:14
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Verisimilidude posted:So, I decided to do the only other thing I could. The players woke up after some time in a weird forest, surrounded by dense fog and mysterious noises. Now they’re playing curse of strahd until they lift the curse, at which point they’ll return exactly where they were during SKT. loving nailed it.
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Apr 12, 2019 12:50
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Verisimilidude posted:Welp, just had my game go incredibly awry. Haha this is ace.
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Apr 12, 2019 14:30
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My wife is rejoining our D&D group after a 4-year hiatus and the plan introduce her warforged fighter is that it was constructed by my chaotic evil skeleton wizard, Chip.  We just finished tracking down and destroying an insane construct that was murdering people against its good creator's wishes. Wife tends to play characters who are anywhere from good to puppy dog-like, so we basically have a reverse of the scenario we just finished.
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Apr 12, 2019 16:44
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Verisimilidude posted:Welp, just had my game go incredibly awry. That's basically a perfect response
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Apr 12, 2019 18:28
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Verisimilidude posted:So, I decided to do the only other thing I could. The players woke up after some time in a weird forest, surrounded by dense fog and mysterious noises. Now they’re playing curse of strahd until they lift the curse, at which point they’ll return exactly where they were during SKT. This is what good GMing looks like.
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Apr 12, 2019 19:44
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Verisimilidude posted:So, I decided to do the only other thing I could. The players woke up after some time in a weird forest, surrounded by dense fog and mysterious noises. Now they’re playing curse of strahd until they lift the curse, at which point they’ll return exactly where they were during SKT. This is really good
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