|
Anyone got any ideas for challenges for a teeny tiny party crossing a floor, riding mice? They’re currently in a mushroom and fungus shop and need to get from one side to the other. I’ve got a spider fight and an environmental challenge (with the draft coming under the door), but listening to them talk last night my players really want to ride their mice around for as long as possible so I’d like to get an extra session out of it. They’re heading for a big patch of green fungus on the wall that makes anyone who goes near it shrink to an inch high, and there are trails of this green fungus across the floor where the mice have spread it. They’ve already met rats that were all messed up by the fungus (kids game, so there always needs to be a moral reason to kill animals). Other than that it’s a big, empty space. They can see the counter of the fungus shop looming in the distance like a cliff but that’s it. Edit: should just note that when they get to the weird green fungus they’ll meet the Sporelings, tiny myconids with a town and that. They’ll need to find a way to clean up the fungus without genociding these little guys. If any ideas need an NPC, it would be a sporeling. Sanford fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Oct 15, 2022 |
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 10:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 08:01 |
|
|
Sanford posted:Anyone got any ideas for challenges for a teeny tiny party crossing a floor, riding mice? They’re currently in a mushroom and fungus shop and need to get from one side to the other. I’ve got a spider fight and an environmental challenge (with the draft coming under the door), but listening to them talk last night my players really want to ride their mice around for as long as possible so I’d like to get an extra session out of it. They’re heading for a big patch of green fungus on the wall that makes anyone who goes near it shrink to an inch high, and there are trails of this green fungus across the floor where the mice have spread it. They’ve already met rats that were all messed up by the fungus (kids game, so there always needs to be a moral reason to kill animals). Other than that it’s a big, empty space. They can see the counter of the fungus shop looming in the distance like a cliff but that’s it. Final boss, Tom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOxCzTlbGd8
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 10:58
|
|
|
Rutibex posted:Final boss, Tom Yep! This is my recommendation too  Cat jumps off the counter after a nap (maybe it was behind it originally, if the players would've seen the counter top pre-shrinking) and they have to try and get away from it, or scare it off, etc
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 12:21
|
|
|
CHaKKaWaKka posted:Are there any published adventures that are mostly based around arena/gladiatorial combat? Any system. Not even necessarily adventures, I'd take articles and any advice as well. My players have expressed an interest in a gladiatorial style campaign, probably in Pathfinder 2e. I think if the campaign revolves around just arena combat and then some political intrigue it's going to get boring and repetitive quick. Ideally I'd find a way to mix arena combat with exploration and adventuring, but part of the appeal for them is to do the whole Spartacus thing so I'm scratching my head at how to mix the two. The one idea I had is maybe they've been marked by a god and the god occasionally summons them to take parts in fights in order to train them, and then they're just set free and can spend their time trying to figure out what the gently caress this god wants or see if there's a way to block their number. Have a look at Dragon Magazine issue 118 and Dragon Magazine issue 303. These two issues have tons of rules about gladiators. Tons of rules about armor and fighting styles, opponents, chariot races, fate of defeated fighters, magic duels, designing tournaments, etc. (Hosting is mine so no leeching worries) Question: how do you handle downtime between adventures in your campaigns? Once upon a time I ran a Twilight:2000 campaign and when it was all over it turned out that, in-game, my PCs had been in a firefight every day for three months straight. While it was fun for my (violent) players it seemed insane that that was the pace of things. Moving on to a decade later, I've recently started a Rolemaster campaign set in fantasy not-Siberia that is loosely based and inspired by Angmar, land of the Witch King and WoW Wrath of the Lich King. The players found themselves in a mountainous mining town up above the arctic circle and are wrapping up a short summer and looking at a long, cold, dark winter. Playing summertime was no problem because the PCs were dead-set on living well through the winter so they busted their assess adventuring and getting established in the trade industry so they could earn enough money to buy a house and provisions and servants to live through the nine month winter comfortably. The game sessions were packed and the players had this great sense of urgency because October was the begging of winter and starving- or freezing to death was a very real possibility. But now they have silver on account with the Merchant's Guild, provisions laid down in their permafrost-chilled basement, and a sturdy house to protect them from the winter and I have nine months of downtime to fill. Sure, I have a notebook full of plot hooks and ideas on how to advance things but it's the middle of September in-game, the first snow doesn't come until early October and my plot stuff depends on there to be snow on the ground and the passes to be closed and travel otherwise hampered. In my mind, I had the next "plot-advancing thing" to happen at the end of October, when the snow lies thick on the ground, the polar night was coming for the next two months and the winter beasties were out and about. I could just say "Okay, you've survived the summer and have provisions for the winter. Let's just say it's a month later when the snow has fallen. What would you do for a month of downtime?" but that feels empty somehow. Is that a legit storytelling tactic that y'all have used? Have you advanced in-game time in a different way somehow? Agrikk fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 15, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 17:31
|
|
|
The only thing better than riding mice is having a mouse riding race. "You have everything ready, how do your characters kill time." Sounds like exactly what you want. You could also "pre-bank" training or crafting time in this interval, if you run a system that cares about that stuff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 21:44
|
|
|
Agrikk posted:Have a look at Dragon Magazine issue 118 and Dragon Magazine issue 303. These two issues have tons of rules about gladiators. who wants what the pcs have? who wants the pcs on their side? who wants to gently caress the pcs up because they hate them? pick one of each, and have some or all of them act to achieve their goals each month.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2022 23:32
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:who wants what the pcs have? And a bonus wildcard you can keep in your back pocket in case they need it: Who wants to gently caress up the people who want to gently caress up the PCs but don't particularly care about the PCs, nor want to ally with them, and what sort of assistance are they willing to give the PCs on a one time basis? With or without strings. I'd definitely do this one last after all of Seb's prompts but when deployed right it can really be the perfect compliment to what you got brewing. Or maybe that's just me. I always like to keep a loosely planned curveball, positive or negative, with no specific plans on using it and then just let serendipity dictate when it gets played.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2022 01:23
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:who wants what the pcs have? Lifted wholesale from A Fistful of Dollars the town has multiple mining and trading cartels. With the arrival of the PCs and their murderhobo trading, they've become a threat to the established order of the guilds. The three most powerful guilds have decided that the PCs are a threat to be eliminated. sebmojo posted:who wants the pcs on their side? Two of the trading houses are all but running on vapors due to the three major trading houses squashing them. They are planning on an alliance with the PCs in an effort to regain their former wealth and glory. sebmojo posted:who wants to gently caress the pcs up because they hate them? One of my PCs is incredibly superstitious and has a problem with crossing any kind of border or threshold without paying respects to the spirits of the place. When they took possession of their (first) house he forgot to pay respects when crissing the doorway for the first time. In an effort to appease the gods and purify the house they sacrificed a goat but rolled a critical failure on the "appease spirits" roll. So the house attracted a spirit from the netherworld who haunted the place. Eventually the PCs burned down the house to be rid of the spirit, but what they did instead was free it to seek revenge. Now this spirit possesses people at random (a la Fallen) and forces them to attack the PCs. So the PCs wander the town and get attacked out of nowhere from random passers-by. They haven't figured out that it is a single entity harassing them. They only know that they keep getting attacked by people wielding sticks and butter knives and rolling pins and blacksmith hammers. sebmojo posted:pick one of each, and have some or all of them act to achieve their goals each month. That's the plan. But my original question was how to manage downtime between events. It's not like all this stuff will be happening every day. In North Brilend time passes slowly in the winter so I figured there'd be 1-3 events a month for the nine months of winter that are "interesting" and/or advance the plot. My question is that there will be a lot of time between these events so should I just speed-game them, saying "$time has passed since your last encounter and until the next noteworthy thing happens. How did you spend that time?"
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2022 02:12
|
|
|
A long time ago in this thread I read someone's idea about a world where some terrible event altered the way should leaving and entering bodies at death and birth works, such that a necromancer is necessary to put a soul into a baby when it's born and souls are trapped in a pocket dimension that no one's able to travel to when they die. The new baby souls get pulled from the pool of old ones, and everyone born after the cataclysmic event has a soul with past lives. I couldn't find the original post to credit the author, but that was the gist of it. For my first full on multi-session campaign I (like a fool) am building a whole setting and world based on this concept (in D&D 5e) starting on Halloween weekend. I've got a fun roll chart built to secretly determine how many past lives PCs will have had depending on race and age and every level I want there to be a chance of a random effect on the character that could be introduced or escalate. My players were aware before building characters that their age/ race would be important for soul-having and side effect reasons and are very excited about it. Does anyone have any fun ideas to help build out the chart of possible effects as deeply as I can? Also, does anyone know whose idea this was originally? If the campaign goes well I'd like to put all the rules and tables and setting and everything together into a module that I can put up for other people to play with, and It'd be right to credit the idea. Oldsrocket_27 fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Oct 19, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 02:20
|
|
|
Do you have an example of the scale of effect? Like.. basically reskinned feats level of stuff? Would say something along the lines of a good roll be that they get an extra 3(? 4? 2?) skill proficiencies but all memories associated with those skills are from past lives but they think they lived it be in line?
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 02:47
|
|
|
Since they're potentially able to pick quite a few of them up as they level, I'd like to keep them pretty minor in most cases, but up to some stat boosts. I intend to have some of them be penalties or quirks as well, and sometimes memories can be associated with them. They could roll no effect, add effect, or escalate effect each level with differing probabilities depending on the number of past lives their soul has had. If I randomly roll to gain an effect a player already has, I'll count it as an escalation. One I've got is +1 to knowledge checks for a random subject (or dm choice subject if it suits story). If the rolls escalate this effect, it'd go to +3, and then +5. Another is an inexplicable fear or horses. At first it's be discomfort and distrust, but with escalation it could become extreme and lead to penalties when mounted or near horses. I've thought about one being gaining a cantrip, but with limited casts if they aren't a magic user, or possibly a diminished spell save DC. I'm also trying to work out a system for players to be able to work off effects or potentially self-escalate. I kind of want it to be as simple as spending an hour a day actively working on it, but I'm worried it'll become a roleplaying afterthought at that point. I might include a roll with it and when they reach a certain total from all rolls or certain number of successes they get their goal. That's be a bit more paperwork, but I think it'd be a decent system.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:16
|
|
|
Agrikk posted:Lifted wholesale from A Fistful of Dollars the town has multiple mining and trading cartels. With the arrival of the PCs and their murderhobo trading, they've become a threat to the established order of the guilds. The three most powerful guilds have decided that the PCs are a threat to be eliminated. Sounds rad. I'd make a list of activities maybe, like training, reading, hunting, politicking, making money, crafting, then give them a d6 roll for each month that's like, 1 negative, 2-5 positive 6 great? Then you can tie a few of them into the monthly event. Some can be multi month tasks, some can give them an immediate benefit.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:33
|
|
|
Not what you’re asking but the setting is interesting so it makes me wonder.. With getting a soul requiring dealer services for installation, I’m curious what happens if: No installer is involved in a birth? An installer fucks up? An installer attempts to install multiple souls? Multiple installers compete for the same husk? Do twins require dual services or can you get a two-for-one sale? In either case, is that handled by a single installer or two? When installing twin souls, is the twinning at all persistent across iterations? What about the same idea for “soul-mates?” Are there any inter-soul persistent traits? Can an actively installed soul be reinstalled in another body? If so, can an installer self-re-install? Is there an installer guild? Are there competing guilds? Are there installers offering shady bespoke/designer services? Are there culty purist groups that only accept souls of X heritage? Is there a chance there’s not actually a pool of souls waiting about and soul installation actually causes a death elsewhere?? OOPS Regardless of whether that’s actually the case, is there a culty group that believes it is since nobody can get to the soul storage warehouse to prove it even exists? What are they doing about it? I guess some of these are questions about your intent, and some are actually quasi-suggestions for possible intrigue within the setting. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Oct 19, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:34
|
|
|
Do nobles only have souls of nobles and will go to great lengths to ensure that? If you can confirm the soul origin post implant, would rival clans/nobles try to sabotage it by swapping necros so the rival ends up with a, gasp, commoner soul?
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:51
|
|
|
Dameius posted:Do nobles only have souls of nobles and will go to great lengths to ensure that? Bonus points if the necros are going around selling this highly expensive additional 'feature' to ensure the noble soul-lineage remains pure... (Plus the sabotage counter-offers mentioned above) but it actually ends up being a load of rubbish anyway, as it's all random regardless 
Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Oct 19, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:55
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Not what you’re asking but the setting is interesting so it makes me wonder.. Most of the time, installers are necromancers or wizards who have cobbled together an understanding of necromancy. Without one there, the child grows up with no personality, hardly any free will, aimless and without ambitions. Very powerful priests and clerics can also make the thing happen, but that's usually for the very rich. If a soul isn't ushered in very shortly after birth the baby gets settled into being soulless and it's harder and harder to get on in there. Do it before birth and the mother's soul gets in the way. Accidental switcheroos have happened. A lot of the things you've mentioned can get fleshed out in the adventure too. The soul pool can run dry in theory but there's a lot of killing going on out there, and the big war that coincided with the altering event kinda primed the pump. Elves have maybe run into the issue though. The major event happened 163 years ago, so it's still a very new and chaotic world out there. Some communities of Elves are only now beginning to care at all. The part the party knows is that the event occurred at the climax of a major war where the two major rival human kingdoms (Iriossin and Camor) came together to defeat a massive evil force. At the climax of that conflict, Iriossin's party of heroes disappeared, the Goddess of Death went completely silent, and the whole soul fuckery began. The part they don't know is that a cult of the Goddess of Death was behind the evil forces and that the warlock of Iriossin's heroes had his pact with the Goddess of Death and had to make a big ol choice as the party attacked the Goddess herself to save their world. So now the pocket dimension for lost souls exists where the Goddess retreated and from where she maintains this new way of existence as punishment for attacking a loving God, and I'll maybe have Iriossin's heroes trapped there in immortal conflict too. Major Isoor posted:Bonus points if the necros are going around selling this highly expensive additional 'feature' to ensure the noble soul-lineage remains pure... (Plus the sabotage counter-offers mentioned above) but it actually ends up being a lot of rubbish anyway, as it's all random regardless Yess, I'm liking that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 03:58
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Without one there, the child grows up with no personality, hardly any free will, aimless and without ambitions. Well shoot, sounds like the party just needs to invent cubicle farms and fluorescent lighting and they’ll be set
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 04:10
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:the child grows up with no personality, hardly any free will, aimless and without ambitions. i can't believe you just went and attacked me like this
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 06:21
|
|
|
man’s out here throwing hands like a WSJ op-ed about millennials
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 06:53
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Also, does anyone know whose idea this was originally? If the campaign goes well I'd like to put all the rules and tables and setting and everything together into a module that I can put up for other people to play with, and It'd be right to credit the idea. It sounds a little like the plot of Pillars of Eternity to me. If that's not the actual source it's close enough that most people reading it will think "Pillars of Eternity" if they've played it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 09:23
|
|
|
what about dogs, are you saying dogs don't have a soul? I don't think animals know necromancy
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 10:41
|
|
|
Rutibex posted:what about dogs, are you saying dogs don't have a soul? I don't think animals know necromancy All dogs go to heaven. Regardless of setting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2022 12:42
|
|
|
Whybird posted:It sounds a little like the plot of Pillars of Eternity to me. If that's not the actual source it's close enough that most people reading it will think "Pillars of Eternity" if they've played it. Looking it up, that very well could be the source. Oh well, I'm not trying to make any money off it, just make a fun adventure. Rutibex posted:what about dogs, are you saying dogs don't have a soul? I don't think animals know necromancy Dogs are unaffected. There's no need for the Goddess of Death to punish puppers, just top sentient beings.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 01:43
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Dogs are unaffected. There's no need for the Goddess of Death to punish puppers, just top sentient beings.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 06:27
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Looking it up, that very well could be the source. Oh well, I'm not trying to make any money off it, just make a fun adventure. Oh totally, I didn't mean "don't do it" -- I plagarise ruthlessly for my settings -- just that's probably where it's from.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 06:45
|
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Dogs are unaffected. There's no need for the Goddess of Death to punish puppers, just top sentient beings. That sounds like a good reason for humans to get all weird about dogs, religiously. Dog worship. Dog sacrifice. Hunting dogs out of spite. Keeping dogs around the souless at all times in the hopes a little bit of soul rubs off on them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 11:32
|
|
|
Soulless animals should grow up into dire forms.Giving people a very vested interest in making sure things runs smoothly. Maybe just for apex animals.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 18:55
|
|
|
I have a world building thing that needs to be fleshed out: In my world of not-Siberia, the mining town of Opal sits nested in the craggy mountains of the Upheaval- a magical cataclysm that erupted from within the earth bursting forth to target and destroy one of the planet's two moons (a la Startkiller Base from Star Wars) over three centuries ago (note: this was done deliberately. More on this at some future date). The resulting rupture in the earth's core created a ring of mountains that rise 25,000 feet over the surrounding plains (Mount Everest looms "only" 9,000 feet up) and will be eroding and collapsing for thousands of years. As an aside, the fragments of the destroyed moon will end up forming a ring around the planet in a few dozen million years, but in the meantime the meteor showers are spectacular and ever present. The Upheaval really scrambled up the earth's crust in the region, making the mining in the area incredibly lucrative and incredibly dangerous from the constant avalanches resulting from the peaks of the Upheaval slowly collapsing. Opal is a town of about 5,000 people, most of whom are in the mining, logistics or merchant industries, mostly human with maybe a few score of elves and half-elves and dwarves tucked away in the corners. It was founded about 50 years ago by some (racist against magic users) prospectors who discovered the wealth in the nearby mountains. About 40 years ago maybe two dozen Duergar showed up who built a fortress of fused stone on the outskirts of town. These Duergar are mysterious and keep to themselves mostly but have offered their services to the town, mainly by using their ability to move through the earth like earth elemental's earth glide ability to scout out veins of ore for the miners of Opal. The Duergar have also created a waterworks within the town, using hydrostatic pressure from melt from a large glacial ravine to move water into the mines to cool them and power lifts and drills and such like and providing warm running water for the town's elite. The Duergar obviously use magic to shape stone, but even the most anti-magic-user citizen can recognize the benefit of the Duergar presence. So the Duergar remain tolerated but shunned. I like the idea of the Duergar remaining mysterious while at the same time helping the town out with construction projects as they pursue their own agenda but what I'm asking all of you is: What was the motivation for the Duergar to show up unannounced on the outskirts of a human settlement on the surface and build a fortress, instead of just keeping to themselves underground? Why do they do the things they do for the town? What do they want? What are their long term goals?
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 23:01
|
|
|
Where does the water go when it's done being used to cool mines and heat baths?
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2022 23:53
|
|
|
Where was the Duergar capitol before the eruption? If it was destroyed near Opal that would be a strong incentive to scout ahead of the local miners. And by cultivating good relations with the local miners they can pick up any rumors of found artifacts or crown jewels. Long term their stone fortress is designed to be buried in a landslide. This whole area will end up underground eventually, and the Duergar will get a head start when it does.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 00:49
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:Where does the water go when it's done being used to cool mines and heat baths? The water flows from a dam into the mines where stone heat exchangers heat up the water from the surrounding air. The heated water is then piped out of the mines and flows into houses to be used for radiant heating, washing/bathing, and sauna use. Water then drains from the manor into a viaduct that dumps the greywater into a ravine nearby. The EPA would be proud. habituallyred posted:Where was the Duergar capitol before the eruption? If it was destroyed near Opal that would be a strong incentive to scout ahead of the local miners. And by cultivating good relations with the local miners they can pick up any rumors of found artifacts or crown jewels. This is good! We can put a major Duergar underground city near the Upheaval where it was destroyed 350 years ago. A long time ago Duergar from $another_city mounted a major subterranean expedition to plunder the ruins of the city and 40 years ago discovered the human mining effort. A crew of Duergar showed up to volunteer to "help" with the human mines, when in reality they are steering the mining effort away from any chance of interrupting or discovering the Duergar expedition.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 01:07
|
|
|
If the Duergar lead the miners to the ore, that means they can control what ore the miners find. The Duergar might be saving the best for themselves, or maybe they have a completely different idea of what ore is most valuable and they lead the humans to useless junk like iron while they mine something normally only found much deeper. The waterworks could have the ultimate goal of clearing the water table so the Duergar can build/maintain an underground network without flooding. Helping the miners also lets the Duergar keep an eye on surface dwellers intervening; getting rid of them would open up the possibility of someone nastier getting there bright idea to come try and mine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 01:11
|
|
|
Agrikk posted:
If it's just a small enclave of duergar, it could be they're exiles or outcasts for some reason - either a petty one like inter-clan rivalry, or a more dramatic one like opposing imperialistic policies (Are duergar evil in this setting? Or just dwarves but weirder?). Or they could just be a small, enterprising, and ambitious group, second sons and daughters looking for their own little slice of the world. They do things for the town in exchange for the town's goods and services - textile, for example, is valuable, labor-intensive, and locally unique, and they may need to trade for it if the climate is wrong for their preferred fiber crop or livestock. You could frame their dealings as either earnest cooperation, or calculated self-interest, but either way it doesn't hurt to make friends - the townspeople will have a much harder time getting rid of the duergar if they've first made themselves essential. Despite warm relations, they may still prefer to remain in their enclave, due to discrimination on top of general cultural differences. Long-term, maybe they want to control trade between the town and the underground? If a tunnel connecting the Underground to the surface were to open up right inside their enclave, then they'd be in prime position to broker the trade between surface-dwellers and the underworlders, and collect fat profits. If they're part of a greater duergar empire, then the enclave might develop into a major base of operations - let the surface-dwellers work the surface, and the duergar need only collect. I guess the question is, how antagonistic are the duergar supposed to be? Are they meant to be an antagonist, or just a neutral party with possibly diverging interests?
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 01:29
|
|
|
lightrook posted:I guess the question is, how antagonistic are the duergar supposed to be? Are they meant to be an antagonist, or just a neutral party with possibly diverging interests? The duergar will initially be an aloof and taciturn group of folks, but as the plot progresses they will become an essential ally (mining and smelting magical ore for the big war that'll be eventually coming down the pipe). But they have interests that are their own so a lot of politicking will be necessary to win their favor. I'm thinking "Go kill wolves and bring me ten pelts" for +100 standing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 05:34
|
|
|
The general culture attitude of Duergar is that they are cold, dour, pessimistic, and utilitarian. This is not necessarily evil, just fairly unpleasant to deal with. The evil ones tend to be larger groups, who tend to have imperialist ambitions and or desire slaves to preform work they start to view as beneath them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 06:34
|
|
|
My new players are fantastic, but they've been doing something quite funny which completely threw me at first: they keep effectively speedrunning through the game, refusing or only reluctantly deciding to engage with any side-quest or encounter hooks I throw at them when they're on the road. They're not doing that to make my life harder or out of any disregard for the story, mind you. It's the opposite: they're very sincerely roleplaying as their characters and rationalising that their situation is urgent and they need to keep moving forwards. After all, they'll lose valuable time, or they might fall victim to a hidden trap, by stopping and investigating those kobold tracks in the sand or helping those farmers slay a wandering beast. (In fairness, this is partly on me for opening the campaign with a powerful villain hunting for them, but they are taking it to extremes of caution - in session 2, despite being penniless and in need of rest and supplies, they came very close to agreeing that they should completely bypass the first town / trading centre / quest hub that they came to and continue onwards into the wilderness, just in case the villain's allies might be in town.) It's genuinely making me rethink how I plan for sessions. Rather than panicking and saying, 'OK, you keep moving and the farmers stare at you despondently as you go. Uh, uh, the following morning, you come to...' fast-forwarding them onto the next sequence which I'd assumed was still a session away (and thus have only half-prepared), it's making me try and spend an equal amount of time prepping two distinct paths for each encounter, 'accept' and 'refuse'. The refusal path needs to feel like a natural consequence of the players turning down the call to adventure, but it can't feel like the DM is just railroading them back to the encounter and the original threat can't just reappear. E.g: - The players don't follow the kobold tracks and rescue the sacrificial victim? Later that night, the kobolds' ceremony results in the nearly volcano erupting. - The players refuse to help the farmers hunt the beast? Now they have an angry mob chasing them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 13:11
|
|
|
Also, maybe try adding some carrot to the sidequests as well as stick. Instead of townsfolk coming to them asking for help rescuing their kids from some random kobolds, maybe they're rescuing them from the organisation of the enemy who's hunting them and this is an opportunity to disrupt their plan. Instead of finding the pirates' hidden gold they're hijacking a ship which'll get them to their goal in half the time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2022 13:34
|
|
|
Isn't there an item, like a wax or grease, that you can smear on an item to temporarily have it be lighter or levitate? I can't remember the name and googling and looking on d&d beyond has been unhelpful.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2022 02:03
|
|
|
ah yes Leomonds Lightening Grease
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2022 02:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 08:01 |
|
|
Oldsrocket_27 posted:Isn't there an item, like a wax or grease, that you can smear on an item to temporarily have it be lighter or levitate? I can't remember the name and googling and looking on d&d beyond has been unhelpful. Bonus points if it is legitimately snake oil and only works when tested at the traveling merchants store because the effect is generated by a thing in his cart. Now the players have to hunt down the scam artist to get their money back, and who also happens to be a master of disguise!
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2022 03:06
|
|