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Hans Gruber's fall from grace as a RAF hero, fallen into temptation by the lure of money and sitting on a beach, earning 20%
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May 5, 2020 18:51
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In my game when dwarves succumb to the berserker plague they go through a secret tunnel from the hospital to the guard bastion and then into the underdark, so they can die in battle rather than succumbing to the sickness. There has been reference to this tunnel featuring "trials" and that if the dwarfs don't make it through, that still counts as an honourable death. My players have got to go through the tunnel backwards, to infiltrate the hospital and steal from a sneaky doctor. The guy letting them in is "the guardian of the red path" so well placed to do a lore dump if needed. What should they encounter in the tunnels? I know as they get close to the hospital the doctor will release a load of berserker plague victims that the players will have to favour with an honourable death. I can't think what else they could encounter on their way through the tunnels. I thought the trials could be to prove the dwarfs can fight together in the underdark and weed out the ones who have lost it completely but I can't think what that looks like, and would be fun to play through.
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May 5, 2020 20:10
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My first two thoughts are that the trials should weed out people pretending to be sick, and those weak enough to be captured by the enemy. The really tricky part of making interesting trials that test for these criteria, is that the players are going to see them from behind. The start of the trial is an illusion of a dwarven ancestral enemy, that appears to run away down the tunnel. If the dwarf follows the shortest path to this illusion and ignores almost everything else they will reach the exit with no problem. The foe climbs over flimsy looking illusionary walls set under a spiked ceiling, etc. There are other one-way illusions of dwarves, that are keyed to nasty area of effect magic traps if disturbed. The tunnel appears to have branches, that are filled with even more traps, and probably a few oozes. The door leading to the hospital has a simple towers of hanoi puzzle lock, that notifies the facility when the first piece is moved. One or more wall mounted blades act as pace setters, finishing off any dwarf that cannot move fast enough. (A dwarf that died disarming traps for the empire would have died an honorable death, these all totally count as honorable ways to die.) So what do the players see when they tackle this from behind? Well the guardian and the grooves in the walls should tip them off to the blades, so that they don't get surprised by blades coming from the other side of an illusion. The blades can show up every x rounds in combat, as an additional complication. One idea is that the traps are obvious enough that the players can take advantage of them, but only if they look at them from the proper direction. So the party might not instantly know why the berserk dwarves avoid one part of the corridor, but can easily figure it out by flanking the enemy. The side tunnels with extra traps are another risk vs reward opportunity, as the grave goods of fallen dwarves are reasonably intact there due to the rarity of dwarves that try to fake sickness. The sneaky doctor has a hobby of scrying on the tunnel, and is more than happy to send in a group of patients well before the players reach the halfway point. The puzzle lock alerts the entire hospital on completion, in addition to frustrating invisible invaders. In the short term this means the doctor has immediate access to another squad. The squad is supposed to just keep any invaders inside the plague ward, but can be urged to do much more. In the medium term the rest of the hospital goes on lockdown, with any non dwarves directed to evacuate with no questions asked or answered. Ideally this means that the players have trouble moving around and stealing things from the main hospital, but can quit and escape into the confusion at almost any time. In the long term the authorities are going to take a closer look at whatever the plague ward doctor was doing. If the players only want to screw over the doctor they could play ding dong ditch. They could also just break into the plague ward itself and steal their target during a fight with the emergency squad, followed by an escape back into the tunnel.
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May 6, 2020 10:30
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That is an amazing post, thank you. I'm suffering terrible writer's block currently and this thread is keeping my game alive. I really appreciate it.
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May 6, 2020 10:38
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Got a storyline that's gonna send my players into the Feywild. Thinking of transforming them into animals while they're there. Fun or not fun? Gonna let them keep their innate abilities but not their equipment.
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May 11, 2020 02:52
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Quote posted:Got a storyline that's gonna send my players into the Feywild. Thinking of transforming them into animals while they're there. Fun or not fun? Gonna let them keep their innate abilities but not their equipment. very fun but only if you put a quest for some zelda item that lets them keep their form at some point relatively early on. they might decide to continue being zebras and ignore the quest and if so that is on them but giving them the choice is paramount
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May 11, 2020 02:59
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Quote posted:Got a storyline that's gonna send my players into the Feywild. Thinking of transforming them into animals while they're there. Fun or not fun? Gonna let them keep their innate abilities but not their equipment. I personally don't like springing big changes to a player's character on them without warning, especially when that takes away their tools for interacting with the world -- though that might be an overreaction on my part to stories from the catpiss thread about GMs who couldn't keep their transformation fetish out of the game. I would ask yourself "what's my purpose in doing this?" If you want to emphasise how dangerous the Feywild is and how this is dangerous poo poo you should not gently caress with, there are probably ways of doing that that don't rob your PCs of agency. If you want to present the PCs with a challenge that puts them out of their comfort zone and denies them their usual means of solving problems, then maybe? Just be aware that depending on your system, taking a PC's inventory away might have a disproportionate effect depending on their class (like, D&D3.5 fighters are super dependent on magic items to be even vaugely interesting, while a caster class doesn't really give a poo poo)
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May 11, 2020 10:06
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Gonna be fun if it's brief, obviously temporary, and the lack of gear doesn't gently caress anyone over. I'd probably just let them keep their equipment. It changes with them. They get all the bonuses and stuff, except now they're porpoises or whatever.
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May 11, 2020 10:12
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Quote posted:Got a storyline that's gonna send my players into the Feywild. Thinking of transforming them into animals while they're there. Fun or not fun? Gonna let them keep their innate abilities but not their equipment. Perhaps during transit into the feywild they each have a little vignette or vision, where their "Nature" is determined. Like: "Your friend is boasting of his strengths and qualities, and asks if you think that a) many small strengths and stratagems is the way to success or b) one clear forte is the sure way? If they answer a, they are turned into a Fox, and if b a Hedgehog. Might make them feel like they have more influence over the transformation even if it is mostly cosmetic. You could probably find many pairs like that in the fables, like the Hare and the Tortoise etc.
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May 11, 2020 10:51
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When in doubt, ask the players beforehand if they think something would be fun. Maybe they're totally down for a brief animal adventure in crazy fey land.
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May 11, 2020 11:34
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[rant] Am I the rear end in a top hat here (probably): In 5e, I want my drow to be nasty/dangerous as hell, and so I have basically given them all Devil's Sight, a warlock invocation (available at 2nd lvl) that gives them perfect darkvision, even through magical darkness, but it only works on drow darkness (i.e. if PCs cast their own darkness, the drow can't see through it). Last night, the PCs got a little frustrated by this. This was the only encounter out of several drow fights where I had the drow use their darkness stuff. My thinking is: a) Don't just stand in the darkness and get shot at/attacked, which is basically what the player did. They could have easily backed up and around a corner through a narrow chokepoint and at least made them fight 1 on 1 in melee instead of becoming a poison crossbow bolt pincushion. The player was sort of maybe staying put for RP/character reasons, and I can appreciate that, but also that's a choice and actions matter. Drow are pretty smart and if you give them the opportunity to safely fill you with crossbow bolts, they are going to do that. b) maybe the druid should prepare daylight before going into a dungeon? They didn't know they were going to be fighting drow obviously, but ya know, that's sort of how the game works sometimes. I get it, it sucks when you're not very well prepared and out of your element, but also the drow are in their element, and I want it to feel like that to the players, but I also don't want it to feel really cheap and cheesy. I'm also not really thrilled with how 5e handles fighting in the dark (if both parties are equally in the dark, basically it's like normal combat), and I think I prefer the 3.x/PF miss chance/concealment system. How do y'all/ other systems handle it? What do you do for PCs noticing other creatures moving around them to know what square they're in? Am I being a terrible catpiss DM by trying to make this way too hard and complicated and turns out it just isn't fun for players to be scared and fight in the dark? [/rant]
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May 11, 2020 18:34
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:[rant] darkness is annoying as hell and of course the players are going to be frustrated. this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can make for satisfying villains being destroyed. anyway you are right in that it is not fun to base encounters around darkness, but not every encounter has to be fun. use this sparingly. if the drow escaped that fight now they can prepare and seek revenge and have catharsis in the victory, but absolutely do not keep using encounters like this
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May 11, 2020 19:04
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:What do you do for PCs noticing other creatures moving around them to know what square they're in? If I had to make a quick ruling on this I'd say the drow are effectively invisible and can see the PCs in the darkness, so per the rules 'attack rolls against the [drow] have disadvantage, and the [drow]'s attack rolls have advantage.' This already sucks, so I don't think I would punish the PCs much further. If the drow weren't attempting to be stealthy and just relying on the benefit of Darkness then I'd just let the player know which adjacent square contains a drow because 'you can hear the whisper of their drow mail/sense the threat of their presence/whatever'. Otherwise maybe I'd tell them the direction they can hear drow in and, if they move at half speed towards them, I'll let them know when they reach them. If the drow were attempting to be stealthy then it's probably just stealth vs disadvantaged perception. IDK, whatever gets it done quickly but let's the PCs know they're in a tough spot. Esposito fucked around with this message at 21:18 on May 11, 2020 |
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May 11, 2020 21:16
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Sanford posted:I'm suffering terrible writer's block currently and this thread is keeping my game alive. Okay, so there's a powerful thieves' guild. They hired a wizard to help them with a new, dangerous, and entirely untested on living subjects magic process by which someone can enter a dragon's dreams. Our heroes are hired to basically run interference: the (good, metallic) dragon dreams of his past battles, and the enemies he faces pose a very real threat. They will enter the dream, dreaming themselves to be the dragon (anyone who refluffs their attacks to be a dragon's ability receives a small bonus), and fight off threats until the thieves have what they want. The dragon has fought an ogre mage and his army, demons, and another dragon. Maybe the fights are just buying time, or maybe it's that only one of them holds the thieves' target. So far, so good, I've got that all set up. But what do the thieves want in the dream in the first place?
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May 14, 2020 18:50
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super lazy option: "the dreams of a dragon" is something inherently worth stealing modestly lazy option: even good dragons are like giant encyclopedic records of where treasure is stashed. literally anything valuable will do. "other dragon" is a great lead-in here, maybe the location of their hoard? less lazy option: they're trying to Inception the dragon because a dragon with a bizarre fixation on doing X that they think was their own idea all along is a hell of a trump card.
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May 14, 2020 19:03
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Yeah, having the thieves trying to manipulate the dragon to do something useful in the "real" world seems like the option with the best potential story hooks. The dragon dreams of their past battles, but those battles don't go as they remember. The enemies (regardless of the battle being remembered) are more powerful than they should be, keep chanting a specific name, and they're infused with some kind of recognizable aura. Instead of winning the fights, the dragon is defeated (waking just before they would be killed) or is forced to flee back to its lair. The thieves' goal is to convince the dragon that it's been cursed and needs to uncurse itself. Consequently, they're going to keep invading the dragon's dreams every night, driving it half-mad with sleep deprivation. The idea is that the dragon will research the name and the aura, discover that they tie into some massively powerful mover and shaker of the fantasy world (a lich? I dunno...the entity doesn't have to be evil though), and move against that entity. The thieves can then sweep through after the battle, when everyone's weak, the traps have all been sprung, etc. and take everything they like. If the dragon thinks to talk to the person they think cursed them, and discover that they haven't actually been cursed, they'll be mad as hell, of course. Which is why the thieves have a fallback option: while the dragon's away, they raid the dragon's lair and take all of its loot and magical gear. They were able to disarm the traps because they were forewarned by the dream raids, where they were able to follow the dragon when it fled back to its lair. Hopefully (if you're a thief), the extra loot will allow them to arm up enough to fight a dragon while still making a profit. Basically, they get the dragon's stash, but also if they play their cards right they get all the stuff from one of the more powerful powers of the realm too.
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May 14, 2020 19:21
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My Lovely Horse posted:Hi, yes, speaking of which After each battle, the dragon grabs the most valuable treasure to add to its hoard. But the most valuable treasure is almost never the only treasure. By viewing the dragon's dreams, the thieves' guild hopes to pinpoint the sites of some of its most legendary battles so that they can go out and look for any of the treasure the dragon left behind. So when the dragon grabbed the cartload of gold pieces and left the two cartloads of silver behind, maybe some of that silver is still there... and if the guild can find it, it's still a massive amount of treasure.
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May 14, 2020 20:38
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:less lazy option: they're trying to Inception the dragon because a dragon with a bizarre fixation on doing X that they think was their own idea all along is a hell of a trump card. Every time the players have weakened an enemy, the head of the thieves' guild shows up in the dragon's dreams and heroically finishes it off, while insisting to the dragon that it's all in a day's work and there's no need for the dragon to repay the thieves' guild for saving its life. If all goes well, by the end of the dream the thieves' guild will have a dragon which is convinced it owes them several substantial favours. Alternative: the first coin a dragon adds to its hoard contains its soul. The thieves could loot the whole hoard, but if they don't know which one is the first coin, they miss out on the true jackpot: with the right magic, they can use that first coin to turn the head of the guild into a dragon.
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May 15, 2020 00:08
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:After each battle, the dragon grabs the most valuable treasure to add to its hoard. But the most valuable treasure is almost never the only treasure. This seems pretty straightforward actually. Can even introduce other threads that way. The party's sees the item they need, whisked away by an npc with an emblem or birthmark or is a friend of someone the party already knows. Go all bran stark
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May 15, 2020 01:11
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Glory to Italia!
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You can, to complicate things, have the majority of the thieves be here for reason A, while one or two of them are secretly here for a subtler, more pernicious reason B.
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May 15, 2020 04:06
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I'm continuing with my first-ever DnD campaign (a relaxed 5e Dark Sun story), and I've learnt a ton from this thread. I'm making plenty of mistakes along the way, but it's still a blast for me so far! The stoic dray ranger, manipulative halfling psionicist, good-hearted half-giant barbarian, passionate fire genasi druid and absent-minded human shaman have: - successfully escaped from a slavers' camp by inciting a riot, then hiding in a pile of corpses (which then came to life as zombies and attacked) - accidentally opened a portal to the Plane of Fire - solved the riddle of a crystal golem, after blundering into a series of signposted traps - journeyed to a nearby town and slain an Id Fiend for a local crime lord (who they then tried to double-cross) - got drunk on luminous, hallucinogenic fungus spores in a local tavern - attempted to strike a deal with a local aristocrat, only to fall into her trap as henchwoman of the Big Bad Now they're fleeing to Tyr, the shaman's home-city, where they'll be confronted by the aftermath of Kalak's death and have lots of opportunities for political shenanigans. A few things that I'm trying to get my head around: - Because it's more narrative-heavy, and we're playing in 2-3 hour chunks, we're falling into a natural pattern where the first half of each game is often occupied by the players levelling up, talking to NPCs, and setting out on their latest quest - and then we have a fight or mini-dungeon as the end milestone of the session. In many ways, that isn't a bad thing, because it means we generally get to finish up with a victory and a sense of celebration, but I am wondering if I need to find ways to change things up with a surprise or two so it doesn't get stale. (That pattern also means that the spell economy is basically non-existent right now, as they've been beginning every session with a long post-battle rest!) - The weirdness and savagery of the setting is going down well, but I think I'm realising that desert trekking and resource management aren't a good fit for this group. They're really enjoying freedom of choice and variety of experience, so long linear journeys aren't much fun for them, and the use of rations has led to things slowing down after every fight as everyone scavenges meat from the monster's carcass and then argues about who gets to keep it. I'm thinking I may just stretch the usual lore of the setting and lead them towards a cool travelling vessel (some kind of patchwork, primitive hot air balloon powered by a trapped air elemental) that can serve as a homebase, fast-forward travel if necessary, and help things move along at a clip. - One of my players is more experienced with the game, knows the rules by heart, and is more interested in the combat side of things. Everyone else is a total newbie, and is having fun with the roleplaying but basically fumbling their way through a fight (as am I). Everyone's being very nice, but I'm definitely feeling the pressure to provide a challenge *and* be completely on top of the system for the sake of the experienced player - which, inevitably, is leading to mistakes, rushing, and fudges on my part. - People seem keen to split up quite often, particularly when the group comes to a town or a city. This leads to some fun character spotlights and exchanges, so I don't want to discourage it. But I'm sometimes struggling to keep things balanced, ensure everyone gets a result that's equally engaging, and make sure that nobody's out of the game for too long (because inevitably, two players will want to go and investigate the complex encounter I meticulously planned out, and two players will want to go and do something that should really take ten seconds, tops). - The player who picked the half-giant barbarian likes her character, but she is clearly finding combat repetitive, especially as everyone else has spells - she rages, she stabs, she stabs again. I'm trying to come up with some fun items that are geared towards her to help address this - but she's the quietest member of the group and the only melee martialist, so up to this point the others have been tending to automatically load her up with the standard weapons and armour while taking the more interesting items for themselves ("You'd better take this shield so you can tank! I'll take the mysterious crystal shard so I can study it.") I'm not sure if it's worth letting her know she can transfer to another class or character if she prefers, or if I'm better off focusing on improving her experience through items and more strength-based, interactive combat elements? That probably all makes it sound like the campaign is going horribly wrong, but I'm enjoying figuring out my way around any obstacles and everyone's always eager for the next session, so I'll take it as a win!
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May 15, 2020 15:36
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It sounds like you're doing a great job. I'm five sessions into my first ever campaign with a bunch of friends who have mostly never played before and I'll be happy if it goes half so well.grobbo posted:- Because it's more narrative-heavy, and we're playing in 2-3 hour chunks, we're falling into a natural pattern where the first half of each game is often occupied by the players levelling up, talking to NPCs, and setting out on their latest quest - and then we have a fight or mini-dungeon as the end milestone of the session. In many ways, that isn't a bad thing, because it means we generally get to finish up with a victory and a sense of celebration, but I am wondering if I need to find ways to change things up with a surprise or two so it doesn't get stale. (That pattern also means that the spell economy is basically non-existent right now, as they've been beginning every session with a long post-battle rest!) grobbo posted:- The weirdness and savagery of the setting is going down well, but I think I'm realising that desert trekking and resource management aren't a good fit for this group. They're really enjoying freedom of choice and variety of experience, so long linear journeys aren't much fun for them, and the use of rations has led to things slowing down after every fight as everyone scavenges meat from the monster's carcass and then argues about who gets to keep it. I'm thinking I may just stretch the usual lore of the setting and lead them towards a cool travelling vessel (some kind of patchwork, primitive hot air balloon powered by a trapped air elemental) that can serve as a homebase, fast-forward travel if necessary, and help things move along at a clip. grobbo posted:- One of my players is more experienced with the game, knows the rules by heart, and is more interested in the combat side of things. Everyone else is a total newbie, and is having fun with the roleplaying but basically fumbling their way through a fight (as am I). Everyone's being very nice, but I'm definitely feeling the pressure to provide a challenge *and* be completely on top of the system for the sake of the experienced player - which, inevitably, is leading to mistakes, rushing, and fudges on my part. grobbo posted:- The player who picked the half-giant barbarian likes her character, but she is clearly finding combat repetitive, especially as everyone else has spells - she rages, she stabs, she stabs again. I'm trying to come up with some fun items that are geared towards her to help address this - but she's the quietest member of the group and the only melee martialist, so up to this point the others have been tending to automatically load her up with the standard weapons and armour while taking the more interesting items for themselves ("You'd better take this shield so you can tank! I'll take the mysterious crystal shard so I can study it.") I'm not sure if it's worth letting her know she can transfer to another class or character if she prefers, or if I'm better off focusing on improving her experience through items and more strength-based, interactive combat elements? It's been mentioned before, but you could also consider giving her access to some BattleMaster-like maneuvers to make combat more interesting. I think a goon wrote this and I haven't used it but I think it's a great idea: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/231023/Norts-Universal-Martial-Maneuvers--Basics?src=by_author_of_product
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May 15, 2020 17:11
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grobbo posted:I'm continuing with my first-ever DnD campaign (a relaxed 5e Dark Sun story), and I've learnt a ton from this thread. I'm making plenty of mistakes along the way, but it's still a blast for me so far! What was the half-giant's family history like? Maybe in some encounter treasure something like "Wait, you recognize that "Amulet of Whatever." It used to belong to your mother/father/sister/boyfriend/insert-relation-in-this-space who mysteriously disappeared X years ago..."
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May 15, 2020 17:19
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grobbo posted:- The player who picked the half-giant barbarian likes her character, but she is clearly finding combat repetitive, especially as everyone else has spells - she rages, she stabs, she stabs again. I'm trying to come up with some fun items that are geared towards her to help address this - but she's the quietest member of the group and the only melee martialist, so up to this point the others have been tending to automatically load her up with the standard weapons and armour while taking the more interesting items for themselves ("You'd better take this shield so you can tank! I'll take the mysterious crystal shard so I can study it.") I'm not sure if it's worth letting her know she can transfer to another class or character if she prefers, or if I'm better off focusing on improving her experience through items and more strength-based, interactive combat elements? do all three. one of the biggest mistakes in combat is only having battles that could be copy and pasted somewhere else. for an example of an extremely straight forward(albeit cliche) encounter, the group is being chased by a horde of monsters and someone has to hold the door shut as they try to open it. later, you can take an object and try to block the door off, but there is a moment where someone has to hold this door closed. try to think of an encounter not as "you see four Red Goblins(stronger than regular goblins because they are red and have spikes)" but of a specific place, and add obstacles and interesting things for the strength based character to deal with. describe a pillar as "crumbled with an unnervingly deep gash near the base" and see if they try to knock the pillar over to damage people or block off terrain. next, give opportunities to transfer to another class or give some extra abilities(there is a feat that can provide battlemaster esque abilities, for example) in combat. perhaps an old general who does not have the stamina for adventuring beats this barbarian in a fight using nothing but skill and being very high CR, then uses this as an opportunity to teach them that combat is not just about stabbing things harder. moreover, maybe as time goes on they become more noble of a barbarian and get scouted by some paladins. or maybe they find some sort of a magic item which is possessed and whispers to them for a pact they can make for greater power. finally, just make some cool items which are not necessarily safe by any means. it is unlikely that your psionicist is going to want to have some boots that propel you towards the nearest hostile creature. reckless but high power items like that just scream barbarian, and by having them damage the user in some way using physical damage you can allow rage to mitigate them to give the barbarian more synergy with the item while also allowing potentially cool unsafe uses for other party members too if the scene demands it.
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May 15, 2020 18:04
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I know I've said this before, about trying to liven up a melee character's life, but when in doubt, sentient weapon
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May 15, 2020 18:40
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How do you play a sentient weapon? As in what sort of personality do folks like to give them.
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May 15, 2020 19:34
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Josef bugman posted:How do you play a sentient weapon? my go to sentient weapon personality skeleton is as follows 1) out of touch, does not understand modern times at all 2) driven to (X, fill in the blank) 3) tries to force the player to do 2 4) eventually has character development to lighten up(both sides meeting in the middle) or the two fight bitterly 4a) if befriended, weapon backstory ties previous owners to current owner somehow and introduces new plot threads 4b) if not befriended the weapon now has a grudge against in its mind, the ultimate heretic
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May 15, 2020 21:13
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pog boyfriend posted:my go to sentient weapon personality skeleton is as follows Same, actually. That's how I played Hazirawn. It got him thrown into a smith forge...but the owner's sister pulled it out with magic hand and they fought about it for two sessions. Haziy is living in his bag of holding now. No one bit on the scaling shadow adept powers he was promising...if they would just let him plot curse them. Honestly, the affinity in the item card kind of ruined a lot of the roleplay potential. My usable cares way too much about those labels and were like "ew. It says evil. We can't trust it, we're good" ILL Machina fucked around with this message at 22:46 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 22:44
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grobbo posted:- Because it's more narrative-heavy, and we're playing in 2-3 hour chunks, we're falling into a natural pattern where the first half of each game is often occupied by the players levelling up, talking to NPCs, and setting out on their latest quest - and then we have a fight or mini-dungeon as the end milestone of the session. In many ways, that isn't a bad thing, because it means we generally get to finish up with a victory and a sense of celebration, but I am wondering if I need to find ways to change things up with a surprise or two so it doesn't get stale. (That pattern also means that the spell economy is basically non-existent right now, as they've been beginning every session with a long post-battle rest!) quote:- The player who picked the half-giant barbarian likes her character, but she is clearly finding combat repetitive, especially as everyone else has spells - she rages, she stabs, she stabs again. I'm trying to come up with some fun items that are geared towards her to help address this - but she's the quietest member of the group and the only melee martialist, so up to this point the others have been tending to automatically load her up with the standard weapons and armour while taking the more interesting items for themselves ("You'd better take this shield so you can tank! I'll take the mysterious crystal shard so I can study it.") I'm not sure if it's worth letting her know she can transfer to another class or character if she prefers, or if I'm better off focusing on improving her experience through items and more strength-based, interactive combat elements? These two things are related. If you are allowing the spellcasters to have a long rest and refresh all their spell slots before every encounter then they are going to both have a wider range of cool options and be more effective in dealing damage than a melee barbarian - and the power differential will only increase as your party levels up. Spellcasters having more spotlight potential and an increasing edge in combat power is a problem endemic to D&D regardless so you can only mitigate it not solve it, but certainly having only one combat per 'day' will greatly exacerbate the issue. Look, reducing rests and evening the playing field somewhat won't magically make martial classes more interesting, but it will reduce some of the 'how come they get to do cool poo poo all the time and I just hit things with my axe?' justified jealousy. One key thing as a D&D GM is to disassociate the adventuring day with a game session - one session can be multiple days, or day could last multiple sessions. As per the rulebook you can only take a long rest once every 24 hour period, if they have a fight in the afternoon and want to long rest then by the rules they can't until nighttime. Now it's not very fun to just exercise GM fiat and say 'you can't do that yet', so it's best to narratively weave in restrictions (e.g. resting here is dangerous) or incentives (e.g. resting now gives the bad guys more time to strengthen) to stop them just sitting around for six hours waiting to take another rest. The other option is just to say gently caress it, let everyone rest all the time whenever they want and advise your Barbarian switch to playing a Tempest Cleric. tanglewood1420 fucked around with this message at 08:08 on May 16, 2020 |
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May 16, 2020 08:00
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Yeah..eventually the casters staff pulling punches, expecting to off their spells and it's just the barb running around taking half damage and swinging six times in a turn. Doesn't have to be a sentient sword, but magic items or magic adept feats are the classical solutions to the problem. Give them more toys to play with or consequences for doing things the easy/boring way. Or throw some magic nullification around. Or look for RP opportunities to make the pure martial character involved in interesting ways.
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May 16, 2020 08:08
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grobbo posted:
Perhaps they get lost or hindered, for reasons mundane or mystic, as they head back to town for some r&r at the start of the next session. Perhaps they are being hunted, or are low on water, or have to marathon a message home. Or perhaps they are unable to enter the town because of a royal decree, or an armed uprising, or perhaps the town has vanished or been pillaged, so that they have plenty of stuff to overcome before they can rest, shop, or talk to npcs.
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May 16, 2020 08:53
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Covid brought me back to DND. After playing in a campaign of a friend of mine via roll20, I caught the DM itch and have been busy preparing ever since. I decided to revisit a campaign I played in DND 4E, which in turn was heavily modified from a podcast/site called "The New World". The campaign will see the players boarding one of the first ships en route to a fabled continent. Before reaching the shore, their ship is attacked by a vicious Kraken, severely damaging the vessel and killing several. After making landfall in a lifeboat, they will have to contend with the harsh environment and severely depleted ressources. Their first choice will be wether to concentrate on shoring up their makeshift camp, or following the ravings of a feverish sailor who swears he's seen some mushroom-like creatures abducting one of their own into the jungle. The kraken fight will be against a reskinned giant octopus as the head (minus the tentacle attack), and several tentacles (reskinned constricting snakes), with the help of the captain and some sailors. After that, the players will be pretty much free to follow whatever leads they please, and I intend on incorporating some faction reputation and base building aspects. I'm pretty excited for the campaign and spent the last few days getting familiar with roll20, selecting background music, mood-setting "loading screens" and drawing the beginnings of the continent in Inkarnate. The players will reveal this with a fog-of-war effect. As it's my first time working with Inkarnate, I'd be happy to get some tips on what I've got so far (obviously ignore the hexshaped island to the lower right, that will be added later - it's empty for now until the players want to explore there). 
Luebbi fucked around with this message at 17:59 on May 16, 2020 |
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May 16, 2020 17:29
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So I've got this one player- great guy, kind of quiet, absolutely must play a furry any time it's an option, doesn't like to disassociate IC and OOC talking, and he's got a really bad tendency that having OOC conversations about isn't seeming to get rid of. I'll call him Wolf because he's current playing a wolfman rogue. Every time I say "end initiative" he immediately darts off to scoop up any and everything shiny or interesting from the battlefield or run off to go scoop up every bit of "loot" he can from the encounter site, and he takes it upon himself to start divvying it up. One example being when another player crit really hard with a radiant damage spell against a skeleton that couldn't have even survived a minimum damage normal hit with the spell. To make the 20 feel special I ruled that he flooded it with so much divine power that its otherwise ratty Scimitar gained a temporary enchantment of radiant damage. Wolf snatched it up the second the fight was over, immediately named it "Radiant Fang", and refused to even think about giving it up because he'd already claimed it. The player who'd done the actual enchanting admitted he didn't want to keep the sword long-term but he figured he should have at least been asked because he's the one who made it, but Wolf said he needed it more and he'd already gotten attached to it. He takes it on himself to count up coins IC and then decide who gets how much (usually giving himself a double share as a 'finders fee'), he always takes his first pick of magic items because "I found it" mostly just by virtue of being the first to go looking, and the moment I mention anything that even sounds like it has gold value he beelines head first over to it. I've asked him what he wants to do with all that money but his vague answer is just "get stronger and start a tribe I guess." Everyone else in my party is at least ostensibly trying to engage with the roleplay and setting of the world while this one guy just quietly half-exists off to the side until violence, money, or "rogue-y things" get mentioned. Any ways I can try to curb this tendency or get him to engage with aspects of the game that aren't throw dice get shinies?
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May 18, 2020 03:38
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Fumbles posted:He takes it on himself to count up coins IC and then decide who gets how much (usually giving himself a double share as a 'finders fee'), he always takes his first pick of magic items because "I found it" mostly just by virtue of being the first to go looking, and the moment I mention anything that even sounds like it has gold value he beelines head first over to it. I've asked him what he wants to do with all that money but his vague answer is just "get stronger and start a tribe I guess." Everyone else in my party is at least ostensibly trying to engage with the roleplay and setting of the world while this one guy just quietly half-exists off to the side until violence, money, or "rogue-y things" get mentioned. how do the other players feel about this?
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May 18, 2020 03:44
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honestly, i think an amusingly cursed item would be entirely reasonable, if OOC chat isn't working, if nothing else it will give the rest of the party some well-earned schadenfreude. But as always the best option is to talk to them like a human; if it's spoiling other peoples fun and they won't stop, they need to leave.
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May 18, 2020 04:52
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pog boyfriend posted:how do the other players feel about this? Mixed reception. One other 'power player' doesn't mind so long as he gets a reasonably fair share, the majority of the other players are annoyed but too socially awkward to want to talk to him themselves about it. A couple complain about him scooting off to loot taking away from their roleplay interactions with NPCs after fights, others don't like him just deciding who gets how much, but it's currently at mild-ooc-grumble level. I wouldn't say it's full on ruining peoples fun but I've talked with him about it and it still seems to be his natural go-to. Roll dice at thing, thing dies, sneak off alone to search area for treasure, then go silent and barely exist whenever fighting or looting aren't happening.
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May 18, 2020 05:53
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If he doesn't have any way to actually figure out what is valuable outside of coinage you've got some fun levers to play with. Fake gems, 'magic' swords that the only magic is they look cool, etc. Something to bring up OOC with him is that the game is balanced around both experience and wealth, and that he's messing up the curve for the other players. In general though if he isn't going to change his behavior and talking isn't helping, I'd just ask them to leave. There are plenty of things you could do GM wise to even things out, but they won't fix the interactions with the other players and eventually it'll progress from mild grumble to something more. That sort of step might be the only thing to actually drive home that this is a serious issue and not some "yeah-yeah" sort of thing.
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May 18, 2020 08:20
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Yeah, don't look for IC solutions to OC behaviour. If you've told the dude "we're not here to focus on the treasure, knock it off" then escalate this to "what you're doing is making us not want to play with you, I need you to commit to changing your behaviour". Then when he does it again, call it out immediately: "Wolf, this is exactly the thing we talked about and you said you'd stop doing". It is fundamentally ok for your friend to enjoy a different style of game to you -- different strokes and all that -- but if you and your friends have all showed up to play tennis it's a dick move for him to keep bringing a bowling ball and chucking it at the net because that's what he prefers.
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May 18, 2020 08:38
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Thanks for all the great advice re making barbarians interesting! I incorporated as much of it as possible in yesterday's session, focusing on encounters with more options for physical inventiveness. We picked up where we'd left off, with the battered party (almost all their spells gone) fleeing an ambush from their former captors, only to realise that the enemy was coming after them in chariots - and with one slaver riding a giant scorpion, no less. It turned into a fun fight scene for the barbarian, who got to leap onto the enemy chariots and start causing havoc. Then we ended things with our heroes agreeing to help an old man protect his grandson against a tembo that was lurking around his house and attempting to psionically lure the child out into the desert. Traps were laid, plans were made - and it turned out there were two tembos, another one crashing down through the roof. The barbarian ended up fighting it off one-handed while holding the struggling kid with the other. The barb's also taken the Path of the Wild Soul and nearly knocked out the party with a blast of necrotic damage during her first rage, so now everyone's excited to see what happens next time. My next task is to figure out how to make shopping more interesting and less dogged...
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May 18, 2020 09:01
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| # ? May 12, 2024 20:49 |
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Fumbles posted:Everyone else in my party is at least ostensibly trying to engage with the roleplay and setting of the world while this one guy just quietly half-exists off to the side until violence, money, or "rogue-y things" get mentioned. Don't wait until it does ruin people's fun. As has been said: talk to him, point out it makes you not want to play with him anymore. The answer to "but it's what my character does" is "then play a different character or play this guy differently." ===== Exploring the dragon's dream is well underway, and I haven't really settled on any one plan the thieves guild has yet. But my players are taking to the idea of describing their attacks and spells as dragon powers like fish to water. I barely ever see them engage with descriptions like that so that's a neat unexpected bonus. They're also starting to just roleplay this dragon and I'm frantically taking notes, because obviously what happens in the dream is roughly how things went down historically, so if they ever meet the dragon in the waking world later he'll be just as wise and merciful as they're painting him (making him their perfect foil). This was supposed to be a filler session but it's really shaping up.
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May 18, 2020 09:25
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