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Perry Mason Jar posted:Notes description Thanks, this is interesting. I might be DMing a hexcrawl side campaign at some point and I've been trying to decide how to track prep and past events as they explore the map.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:19
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FFT posted:thanks, i hate it Lmao it's not very pretty and it looks a lot more unwieldy than it is in practice. There's some options to dress it up with default backgrounds but I think that's even uglier. I usually have 2-3 tabs opened to different boards.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:25
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FFT posted:thanks, i hate it I use Scrivener for my notes. I like being able to view them in document or corkboard mode. My only complaint is that it's still not really cloud enabled, so for anything I want to share quickly I use One Note. I've never been able to get Trello to click for me.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:34
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Just do theater of the mind but for character stats and notes!
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Jan 12, 2021 14:35
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Perry Mason Jar posted:Lmao it's not very pretty and it looks a lot more unwieldy than it is in practice. There's some options to dress it up with default backgrounds but I think that's even uglier. I usually have 2-3 tabs opened to different boards.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:40
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cowboy
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Disargeria posted:Just do theater of the mind but for character stats and notes!
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Jan 12, 2021 14:47
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I'm also about to run LMoP as a first time DM for 4 first time players (Session 0 is on Saturday) and I'd definitely be interested in hearing about the rest of your experience! You had a lot of good ideas (esp the boosting breakfast and swapping Yeemik and Klarg's room) and I wanna hear more! Most of my tweaks so far have just been reskinning/reflavoring, but the main structural ones are using the doppelgangers earlier for some intrigue in Phandalin and beefing up the Sister Garaele Agatha/Hamun Kost connection and tying them to the ash zombies in Thundertree.
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Jan 12, 2021 14:55
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FFT posted:You're a halfling rogue that's wandered from your companions. Before you stands a troll. The troll is angry. The troll can see you. The troll looks like it's about to bite you. What do you do? "I'd like to roll for advantage." "Do you mean like, initiative? Or... a saving throw?" "No I'd like to roll for advantage over him." "I don't think-" "Also I'd like to use a spell slot for Bigsby's Hand" "What.. level are you right now?" "Halfling rogue."
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Jan 12, 2021 14:56
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Disargeria posted:"I'd like to roll for advantage." "Ignoring that rogues, even arcane tricksters, don't ever get access to 5th level spells without multiclassing, which effect of Bigby's Hand would you like to cause?"
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Jan 12, 2021 15:06
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bear named tators posted:I'm also about to run LMoP as a first time DM for 4 first time players (Session 0 is on Saturday) and I'd definitely be interested in hearing about the rest of your experience! You had a lot of good ideas (esp the boosting breakfast and swapping Yeemik and Klarg's room) and I wanna hear more! Matt Perkins did a series of videos on LMoP and what he did to fix the adventure in the games he runs. I wish he had published these videos earlier because my group had entered Wave Echo Cave by the time I discovered them and some of his advice would have made the adventure feel a lot less janky. It is a fun module but the BBEG is super mysterious and has no interaction with the players until the very last battle, and it is entirely possible that he gets rekt without ever actually talking to the group (see my summary posted above). Matt Perkins setup changes a lot of things, one of them being TBS making appearances fairly early in the story https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmtuNGN3ZDJEFDhOcwfFc0-OpZ7omueRx
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Jan 12, 2021 15:07
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The troll survives the 4d8 force damage, succeeds on its athletics checks, and gets past the half cover. The troll bites. You are now half of a halfling, and certainly not in a useful way. Your companions never notice your absence.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:15
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I'm starting Dragon of Icespire Peak this week with a group that ran Lost Mines a few years ago. I look foward to applying the Lost Mines advice to my campaign too. I'm totally going to steal the temp hp from an inn thing.
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Jan 12, 2021 16:45
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Trivia posted:Awesome! I had a lot of fun and if you have a lot of time to prepare, I have quite a few recommendations for the adventure itself, as well as things I've found to make the game better. Wow, thanks for sharing all of that. Those are some great suggestions. Its funny you mentioned switching the layout of the Cragmaw Hideout around because when I read through it the first thing I thought was "why is it laid out this way". I am hoping to have our Session 0 this weekend and was planning on running the adventure up until the party reaches the Cragmaw Hideout and I am definitely going to use your suggestions, especially the one about having the party meet Gundren before leaving Neverwinter. Would definitely be interested in any other suggested tweaks / changes you think would make the story more engaging but it will probably be a couple weeks before the party reaches Phandalin so no rush.
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Jan 12, 2021 18:04
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Nemo posted:I'm starting Dragon of Icespire Peak this week with a group that ran Lost Mines a few years ago. I look foward to applying the Lost Mines advice to my campaign too. Reminder that there are three nice addons written by top Wizards dudes (Perkins, Merwin, Introcaso, etc) for DoIP after you complete the main adventure. These take your party from level 7-12 and turn it into a full blown campaign - Storm Lord's Wrath - Sleeping Dragon's Wake - Divine Contention
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Jan 12, 2021 19:18
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We'll be doing those too, afterward. I'm trying to read as much of them as I can before we start so I know where they might intersect. For example, it'd be good to know the Wayside Inn is at the intersection of the High Road and the Triboar Trail if the party goes to the coast for the Tower of Storms quest, but Icespire doesn't mention that at all as far as I can tell. I want all the Talos stuff to build organically, and maybe I can pull the Myrkul references from the later adventures into Axeholm and the Dragon Barrow. I really like the sandbox layout of the four adventures. I hope my players have fun with it.
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Jan 12, 2021 19:47
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bear named tators posted:I'm also about to run LMoP as a first time DM for 4 first time players (Session 0 is on Saturday) and I'd definitely be interested in hearing about the rest of your experience! You had a lot of good ideas (esp the boosting breakfast and swapping Yeemik and Klarg's room) and I wanna hear more! Tying Kost to the ash zombies is kinda cool. It makes sense he would poke around areas where magic items could be about. Yes, ABSOLUTELY use those doppelgangers early. I never got around because by the time I read up and thought about them it was too late. However, one good option with the doppels is to have them mimic Sildar in town doing something suspicious. You could even try for a skill challenge to catch them (if the pc's initiate). Another idea is to have a doppelganger take the place of Iarno, and instead have Iarno's body be found at maybe Old Owl Well or Wyvern Tor. Iarno's motivations were always kinda meh imo, and this further cement's Nezznar as A Bad Guy, what with his henchmen running about and him pulling the strings in Phandalin. You could really have fun with it if you planned it out well. As for Nezznar himself, I can get into that some other time. I highly recommend using a big white board for your session. It helps to ground things and aids the mind's eye. As such, think about Agatha's Lair / Wyvern Tor / Old Owl Well. They're not mapped in the adventure but it helps to be prepared. Wyvern Tor can go VERY badly if you're not careful vis a vis your PC's level (I had to seriously fudge some die rolls and HP counts). However, you could use that as a "captured to be sold as slaves" moment and see what your PCs some up with. _____________ Cragmaw Castle is...kinda lame. At least by the time my party went, they were solid third level facing off against puny goblins. I would consider making the Grick a Paragon monster. Give it a free disengage and spider climb so it can grapple someone and climb to the ceiling. If someone hits it with a ranged attack, have it do a con save and maybe drop the pc. I'd also make the King a paragon monster as well. Otherwise he's just a slightly tougher bugbear. The goblin priest I gave a few spells to surprise my party. Also beefed up his HP a bit so he wouldn't go down in a single hit. The abnormally lightweight quarterstaff found in the castle was a disappointment. I gave it a single charge of Featherfall that recharges at dawn (which was later used by its new owner in a totally AMAZING move). Plus, magic items are fun. Here's a cool weak magic item generator: https://www.lordbyng.net/inspiration/ If Klarg escapes Cragmaw Hideout have him be tasked by the king to find and deal with the party. I had two hobgoblins and him ride mounted direwolves and a brown bear and attack my party as they were on the overworld map. I had the hobgoblins shoot at range, while Klarg was equipped with a halberd so could attack at 10 ft without proccing an opportunity attack. It was really frustrating for my party as they were at a massive disadvantage. Wide open plains, and only one could really do any sort of ranged attack. Helped them patch a few holes in their party composition and tactics. A good way to get the party to head to Cragmaw is to have goblins attack the village now that the Redbrands are dead. Say what you will about them, they did serve as a defacto village watch, and now that they're gone the village is vulnerable. Can capture / track the goblins / hobgoblins to their castle. ____________ Thundertree...kinda sucks but kinda doesn't. It's location absolutely sucks. It's jarring and out of the way, and it's proximity to Neverwinter is just too damned close. Surely SOMEONE would clear that place out. Instead, I'd put it upriver, deep in the forest. This has several benefits: It's isolated so would require tracking through the forest (skill challenge?), or tracking upriver. You could leave a clue to it's whereabouts in Cragmaw Castle and go from there. Hell, you could have a woodsman captured and imprisoned inside that knows the way. Mirna from Phandalin knows where it is, so there's an in (she's who you rescue in the Redbrand's jail). The twig blights are annoying so I ended up culling a lot of them. The ash zombies were fun. The spiders are ambush predators, so if someone gets stuck in the web, have the spiders initiate surprise combat, wrap the person up as a bonus action, and grapple them and retreat inside the house. If you can knock a PC out with the spider's poison do it. They won't die, just stable and paralyzed and poisoned. This sets them up for the fight with Nezznar way down the line so they know what sort of threat spiders are. The cultists can be interesting depending on how your party reacts and how you play them. I started vanilla but veered as I proceeded; they wanted to parley with the dragon and offer themselves as servants. However, I had them lie to my party, saying they wanted to defeat the dragon and steal her eggs (better to raise a dragon from youth than tame a wild one), all the while intending to use my party as an offering. My party bought it hook, line, and sinker, and absolutely would have wiped had I not had Reidoth transform into a bird and start singing within earshot. I had earlier emphasized how deathly quiet Thundertree was, so they took the hint and followed. You can also try to nudge your party to use any Augury spells they have. That could work too. In the end my party never did fight the dragon. Which is good, because I was going to wipe them for being stupid. Here's an excellent write-up on how to play the dragon: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/2e682e/what_makes_the_green_dragon_work_in_lost_mines_of/cjwhmus/?st=jdjolhe8&sh=f27f881f ________________ Wave Echo Cave itself I played mostly vanilla. Do your best to telegraph dangers. Put a dead bugbear in the fungus cavern. Describe scorch marks and soot in the blast furnace room. Describe footprints in the dust and sand on the floor (or lack thereof). Make any miniboss a paragon monster, for sure. Beef up their HP as well if you have to. There's a spectator in the Forge of Spells room and I didn't even get to attack with it. I was p pissed lol The Nezznar fight I completely overhauled, and would be happy to share what I did later. As it stands now this has gone on long enough. Also, sorry if this is all over the place. It's late and I'm tired.  I'd be happy to answer any other questions, or just to bounce ideas off of.edit: Forgot to add, this is a great tool for combat: https://www.improved-initiative.com/e/ Also, I found that SumatraPDF viewer to be much better than loading the pdfs into Chrome or Edge. You can even use tabs to easily jump around pages. Trivia fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Jan 12, 2021 |
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Jan 12, 2021 20:33
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FFT posted:You're a halfling rogue that's wandered from your companions. Before you stands a troll. The troll is angry. The troll can see you. The troll looks like it's about to bite you. What do you do? get troll
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Jan 12, 2021 23:16
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I'm also DMing LMOP for the first time for 5 players (4 first time). We are about to enter Wave Echo Cave. My players had multiple characters with very high passive Perception, and it definitely affected how the adventure played out. The initial fight is well known as a party killer, so I had prepared with a cleric NPC to cast aid if things looked grim, but they spotted the ambush and had multiple ranged attackers such that the classic "shoot and scoot" tactics didn't really help the goblins and the fight was over pretty quickly. Not sure if I ran it again with the same number of players if I would focus on developing a better map. I used a download from Venatus that was "fine" but it is difficult to do tree trunk cover if you don't have a clear idea where the trunks are imho. I started out running the game using Beyond/Avrae/OnTheFlyBattle maps. OTFBM is "ok" but I found it difficult to prepare maps and battles in a way that flowed well, we ended up moving to a Roll20/Beyond20/Beyond solution. Phandalin and the Redbrands are an interesting middle section of the adventure. I decided to play Iarno as just another Lord's Alliance guy trying to do Lord's Alliance things but going awry. Harbin didn't like the Redbrands but absent his own military force he will take a murderous militia over hungry goblins / orcs. I rotated the NPCs in the Stonehill Inn rather than having them all there all the time. This meant that the party never encountered the plot threads that would have organically drawn them to Thundertree. Thundertree in general is distant both in space and narrative in a way that was hard for me to motivate the party to go there, so I didn't try to force it. It's good to think about overland travel and how to do it. I found a list of random non-combat encounters that expanded on what was written. I thought it was kinda cheesy, but I decided to try it out and some of the party members really dug it as a chance to do some roleplay. They rolled an owlbear and it nearly one-shot the party rogue. Flanking rules are optional. I allowed flanking because my rogue had played before and was deeply invested in the combat mechanics. I'm not sure if it was a good choice. It promotes odd combat tactics. It's hard to predict the things you say as a DM that your players will seize on. At the Old Owl Well encounter the party had ballooned to 6 which meant the encounter as written wasn't very threatening. They went murderhobo on the mage and the zombie horde and none of the zombies made their reanimation roll. They were interested in the well and rather than just saying "it's a well.. full of water" I said they couldn't find the bottom on a whim. I then had to ad-lib (poorly) an encounter off a random map until session close then roll up a entirely old-school hole-in-the-ground full of monsters. I threw some odd uncommon magic items in it that didn't confer bonuses and filled it with oozes and undead. They seemed to have a blast clearing that out. The whole Spider/Gundren/doppelganger story really doesn't make sense as written. Your players may or may not notice this. Mine mostly didn't. Why is the Spider trying to get the map from King Grol if they are already at Wave Echo? Does it matter if the doppelganger gets the map or not? The players caught the doppelganger in Cragmaw and asked "Why are you trying to get the map if the Spider already knows where the cave is????" I had to ad-lib "Well to prevent you from getting it.. of course" Not exactly sure how Wave Echo Cave going to play out. It doesn't make sense to me that the Spider can't get to the Forge of Spells because of a flameskull and some fungus. I think I'm going to play it that there is a dwarven divine barrier keeping the Spider out (hence their presence in the dwarven shrine) and that the true purpose of all this dwarven kidnapping is to find the right dwarf to bring down the divine barrier. One of my players has the pregen dwarf cleric background, so that seems like a chance for some good roleplay. Good luck!
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Jan 12, 2021 23:20
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Just realized, there should be turtle dragonborn with a steam breath cone
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Jan 13, 2021 01:02
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When planning overland ràndom encounters, consider planning a non-violent encounter. Reward players for roleplay with xp. For example, if the party has to camp out overnight on their way to wyvern tor, instead of a fight have them hear a creaky wheel from a wagon passing through. That oughta creep them out, and if they investigate they can see it's being pushed by hamuns zombies. That's it, no fight, just a weird sound. Anything that happens is up to the players. Trivia fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Jan 13, 2021 |
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Jan 13, 2021 04:25
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FFT posted:You're a halfling rogue that's wandered from your companions. Before you stands a troll. The troll is angry. The troll can see you. The troll looks like it's about to bite you. What do you do? > Get ye flask
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Jan 13, 2021 07:46
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FFT posted:You're a halfling rogue that's wandered from your companions. Before you stands a troll. The troll is angry. The troll can see you. The troll looks like it's about to bite you. What do you do?
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Jan 13, 2021 11:27
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Splicer posted:Open sarcophagus
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Jan 13, 2021 13:58
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When and how often should I give out magic items? Is there a good way to figure if an item is going to make someone too strong for their level?
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Jan 13, 2021 19:06
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I can't speak for more experience players, but if you're unsure you can start by giving players weak magical items and see how they interact with group dynamics. For +1 items though, realize that those have a direct % change in to-hit for enemies and PCs, so a very mathematical difference. A +1 weapon for example is a 5% increase in accuracy (for a naked d20 roll). +1 armor is a bit more difficult to determine, as it depends on mob level (their to-hit bonuses range as well) but it's essentially reducing accuracy for enemies. Other items you could use could be a simple +1 to a specific skill check, or perhaps an item with charges of a spell. It could be something super mundane and seemingly useless, until a PC figures out a clever way to use it that is. Also, magical items are fun so hand them out, adjust mobs to make them harder if things get too easy.
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Jan 13, 2021 19:19
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Generally the big jumps in power I've found are:
Look up some niche or common items to make available if you're worried about not enough/boring loot. If I want to give the party something powerful but I'm not sure it will break things, I usually try a limited/consumable version, like potions or scrolls. This way characters can have cool moments, but I don't need to worry about the fighter being hasted for every encounter, for example. Depending how it goes, you can introduce more supply or permanent versions, and you get to see which things players respond positively to.
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Jan 13, 2021 19:33
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All of this stuff is really helpful! Thanks y'all
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Jan 13, 2021 19:49
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Whatever you do, don't let your lvl 8 Champion Fighter roll for stats and start with 18 STR, get a +2 weapon, take the lucky and great weapon master feats, AND have the homebrew rule that crits deal double damage "because that's how crits work in most games". And don't let him get blessed by a cleric and inspired by the bard. 2d6+4(+2) tops out at 18 damage, 36 with the doubled damage crits. 10% chance to crit baseline before Lucky. 2 normal attacks plus an action surge is three chances to fish for a critical to bring out a fourth. Average of 39 damage before criticals, which is already meaty, but if all 3 and the bonus crit, you're looking at more than your dragon's total amount of health.
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Jan 13, 2021 20:07
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It's also a good idea to give items that affect characters laterally, not necessarily synergistically. What I mean by that is, don't give a rogue a +1 to stealth item. That's kinda boring for them. Give them an item with charges of mage hand or something. This makes them think about options that were never on the table before, and you may get some really cool moments from them. Or, give them an item that let's them specifically do something for a reaction, or bonus action, especially if they don't have many to begin with. In my LMoP session, I changed a "strangely lightweight but otherwise uninteresting" quarterstaff to a Staff of Featherfall, with only one daily charge. The character who took it wouldn't have Featherfall normally (she's a druid) and has few reactions as well, but remembered to use it in the end game bossfight. She was a Giant Spider fighting the boss, and both were on the ceiling. The boss hit her, she lost Wild Shape, and instead of falling and taking 3d6 damage, used Featherfall as her reaction and floated to the ground. I and others there were floored, mainly because we had forgotten all about the staff. I was so surprised I gave her inspiration to boot.
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Jan 13, 2021 20:11
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Seconding that advice to give players new abilities instead of bigger numbers. There's a ton of cool but niche stuff in the item lists, and you can easily invent new stuff as well. Look through the spell lists, find something that's neat but wouldn't normally be worth a caster's limited slots to prepare, and put it on an item.
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Jan 13, 2021 20:15
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Lucky seems like such a nightmare. One floating reroll would be bad enough, but it gives you three per long rest, right?
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Jan 13, 2021 20:18
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Disargeria posted:Whatever you do, don't let your lvl 8 Champion Fighter roll for stats and start with 18 STR, get a +2 weapon, take the lucky and great weapon master feats, AND have the homebrew rule that crits deal double damage "because that's how crits work in most games". And don't let him get blessed by a cleric and inspired by the bard. Pssh, that's baby mode char op. The fighter should have convinced the bard to join the College of Valor to add another die to the fighter's weapon damage roll once per turn (and doubles on a crit), and he should have asked the DM to incorporate flanking rules for advantage to more-or-less double their crit chance. Plus, they should also have Great Weapon Fighting for their fighting style, so they get to reroll 1s and 2s on their damage die, which should increase their average damage by about 1.5 per die rolled. The real trick would probably be to use all of that on a sorcerer-paladin, though, so you can burn spell slots to add smite damage to each crit, and you could convert your sorcerery points into extra spell slots. Also, I want to third the advice to give your players items that let them interact with the world in a deeper way instead of providing stat boosts. Coming up with plans to chain down a flying dragon with an Immovable Rod, or using Dust of Dryness to desiccate a gelatinous cube, or solving a puzzle with materially changing a Cloak of Many Fashions is much more interesting and fulfilling to execute than getting some boring ol' bonus damage every roll. Tenik fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Jan 13, 2021 |
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Jan 13, 2021 20:23
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:find something that's neat but wouldn't normally be worth a caster's limited slots to prepare, and put it on an item. This is also a great idea. Give someone Create Food and Water. Now if they are clever they can use that to set traps for dumber humanoids, for instance. What goblin wouldn't start eating hungrily at the sight of free food and forget its surroundings?
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Jan 13, 2021 20:28
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I enjoyed giving my players fun utility items but there's a certain depression that comes about when you give out a Robe of Useful Items and it gets used to create a ladder exactly once ever. https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/robe-of-useful-items
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Jan 13, 2021 20:42
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Devorum posted:I use Scrivener for my notes. I like being able to view them in document or corkboard mode. My only complaint is that it's still not really cloud enabled, so for anything I want to share quickly I use One Note. If you haven't tried Notion, please try it. It is absolutely awesome for taking notes on campaigns, and planning future sessions. It lets me organize pretty much however I want, build new pages on the fly, tag things, etc. It's also very easy to get something simple going at the start: a few pages, one for each character, and one for the next session. You can build in complexity slowly, as you need it. Some examples of how I use it:       It's been an amazing tool, and way better than trying to organize various Google docs, spreadsheets, links, etc. all in different places. Sly Flourish also has a great rundown on how they use it for Lazy DM planning.
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Jan 13, 2021 21:45
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Disargeria posted:I enjoyed giving my players fun utility items but there's a certain depression that comes about when you give out a Robe of Useful Items and it gets used to create a ladder exactly once ever. In the hands of your average stat building murder hobo, these items would be passed over and never mentioned again. But giving glue that requires a wish spell to unbond to Sam Riegel is going to lead to some amazing play, if a few headaches for the DM. Same giving the bone flute to Taliesin. I think a lot of players would prefer more like a +1 sword, or something with a few daily spell charges, but players that can make good use of the more esoteric items are an absolute gift to any campaign.
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Jan 13, 2021 22:28
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Bobby Deluxe posted:I think you also have to bear in mind what kind of player you're giving the item to. I'm thinking of an episode of Crit Role I watched where the party was in Rexxentrum, in the weird witch shop where they bought a bone death whistle and a pot of glue. Just in case anyone is curious, the Sovereign Glue ended up being used to permanently affix a golden penis statue to the hand of an NPC they didn't like as a prank, while the death whistle was given to that character's sister as a gift, after being a running gag for several episodes. The best use of a weird magic item though goes to Laura Bailey, who used the "dust of deliciousness" (sprinkle on food, whoever eats it has disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws for a while) to cast modify memory on an extremely powerful hag and completely bypass a huge encounter. Surprised everyone at the table, especially the DM and that kinda poo poo is why I love RPGs. And yeah, I gave my players a mix of magic items including some good stuff (+1 holy symbol for the paladin, for example) and some interesting but not super "useful" stuff (magic dice that let you control the outcome, wand of smiles). I also like giving useful magic items interesting properties - I gave one of my players a cursed ring with an eyeball instead of a stone that gives you a Gazer familiar as the main effect, but also lets you see out of the eyeball now permanently affixed to your hand. I'll probably keep adding on unusual-but-not-combat-relevant properties to even "standard" magic items, just to keep things interesting. Arcsech fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jan 14, 2021 |
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Jan 14, 2021 00:13
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Disargeria posted:I enjoyed giving my players fun utility items but there's a certain depression that comes about when you give out a Robe of Useful Items and it gets used to create a ladder exactly once ever. i gave the bard in my campaign a cloak of billowing and i let him use it to give bardic inspiration it’s all about how people play, and either giving them more options or expanding the effectiveness of the options they already have. if you want to give people items in hopes they solve puzzles with them, you gotta give them puzzles they’re supposed to solve with those items. basically you gotta condition your players to think of items as tools to solve problems with, and then they’ll start trying to use it to solve problems you didn’t intend for them to solve with that item. for the robe of useful items: give them an arson puzzle for the lamps, have them sneak a dagger into an area with no weapons, give them a large cliff face to scale or rappel down, make them catch a chicken, idk, just think of something you’d use that item for and if they don’t use their magic item then laugh at them for being fuckin dummies
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Jan 14, 2021 01:25
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Declan MacManus posted:i gave the bard in my campaign a cloak of billowing and i let him use it to give bardic inspiration I love this.
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Jan 14, 2021 02:19
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I just had a session where our DM tried a simple skill challenge and I personally felt it flopped. As often described, a skill challenge let's players come up with novel or inventive ways to use their proficient skills (or otherwise less used skills) to score X successes before Y failures in order to complete the challenge. Players are encourage to be creative and justify their use of a skill. When this happened in my group, I was kinda irritated and I think it boiled down to implementation. It as a simple introductory SC; get from points A to B. Most of the player's weren't sure how to do an SC so the DM was pretty forgiving. I am familiar with it so I started with my skill and justified it. Something like "I use perception to locate the sun, to try to determine East" (which is where we needed to go). Another player said "I use my athletics to move a log that's blocking the path." The DM said ok and we rolled with it, but to me that was no bueno. I think it comes down to action-reaction. The athletics check player had a solution and invented a problem. If she hadn't asked that log wouldn't have existed otherwise; she willed it into existence to justify using her skill. If instead the DM said "After locating east you proceed down the trail and encounter a large log blocking your way." I would have been totally ok with her athletics check. I talked to him afterwards and he seemed pretty steadfast in this approach. He said it allowed players to take part in making the narrative. I can appreciate that but for me it completely destroys verisimilitude. I had always thought that a SC was essentially a framework the DM creates with an ultimate goal in mind. Along the way things happen and ppl need to solve them. Solving them has a typical solution, though novel ones are allowed if justified. As we played it it seemed like players could just create scenarios out of whole cloth to justify whatever. I prefer the former method because, counterintuitively, people are often more creative within confines than they are completely free-form. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe I'm just overthinking it.
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Jan 14, 2021 20:06
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