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Rutibex posted:There is no reason to nerf Warlock. If someone is dipping into Warlock for optimization purposes they have already failed. Anyone not taking straight wizard, cleric, druid, or bard is already suboptimal. The Hexblade/Paladin isn't far off being optimised - mostly thanks to the charisma bonus to all saves being incredible defensive tech and short rest smite/shield being useful for flexibility. And Bard 9/Warlock 2 is technically slightly weaker than Bard 11 but has vastly more damage and combat endurance so are a lot better in some types of campaign. Remember there are almost no damage spells on the bard list as a balancing feature.
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Oct 21, 2022 20:19
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Government Handjob posted:It is the first encounter, actually. It is very poorly balanced with regards to character levels and player (or DM) experience. It's been called the deadliest encounter in 5e because of how many TPKs it has caused. Do we really need to spoiler LMOP at this point? The encounter only has 4 goblins total, it doesn't scale for player count, and the tactics specifically suggest to the DM that 2 of them should rush out and engage the party in melee while the other two shoot bows from the woods, but otherwise, yeah it can get dicey, because the goblins have +6 stealth and begin in hiding, and none of the pre-gen characters have a passive perception higher than 13, so it's pretty likely the players begin surprised and the goblins get to start the fight with a free extra round. If the DM focuses fire at all, and targets one of the less-armored PCs, it's not hard to bring at least one player down before they even get to act, and unless you have a full group of 5, that's a recipe for a bad time. That said, the DM is given instructions for what to do "in the unlikely event that the goblins defeat the adventurers" (leave them unconscious, loot their poo poo, and let them buy new gear and come back after they wake up and make it to town....with what money they're supposed to re-equip, I have no idea). That's hardly the only pitfall for new DMs in LMOP either. It's a great adventure, but I think it was definitely designed more for onboarding existing 3e/4e players to the new edition than for onboarding new players to the game. The adventures in the new Starter Set and Essentials Kit are both way better for the latter, IMO, but neither is as memorable or interesting as LMOP for a group with a DM who has any experience, or at least a clue as to how the game is supposed to go. That said, LMOP is free now on DDB, so you can't beat the price, and it's not hard to make it a great experience for your players, even for a moderately inexperienced DM, or a forever-player's first time behind the screen. It's one of the most popular adventures of all time for a reason.
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Oct 21, 2022 22:35
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are there already rulings around magically imposing a "permanent" cosmetic change on a changeling PC? I'm planning for the party to meet a cult offering draconic powers that incur a risk of accruing dragon-like traits over uses. My worry is that the changeling will take the deal and go "lol, I use an action to undo that" and that's not particularly fun imo! Plus the image of them warping through a bunch of races but keeping their fangs or tiny wings is extremely funny to me. I figure I'd have each PC blindly roll with each use of the power and if they pass nothing changes, otherwise after the next long rest "you notice something strange" and they have a patch of scales or a horn or w/e. I mean yeah the short answer is it's my campaign and thus my rules but has this come up enough to have precedent?
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Oct 21, 2022 23:22
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slicing up eyeballs posted:are there already rulings around magically imposing a "permanent" cosmetic change on a changeling PC? I'm planning for the party to meet a cult offering draconic powers that incur a risk of accruing dragon-like traits over uses. My worry is that the changeling will take the deal and go "lol, I use an action to undo that" and that's not particularly fun imo! Plus the image of them warping through a bunch of races but keeping their fangs or tiny wings is extremely funny to me. I figure I'd have each PC blindly roll with each use of the power and if they pass nothing changes, otherwise after the next long rest "you notice something strange" and they have a patch of scales or a horn or w/e. I mean yeah the short answer is it's my campaign and thus my rules but has this come up enough to have precedent? Yeah, dragons themsleves often have the ability to take on human form and they don't show any sign of being a dragon. I should should also say it's a pretty heavy nerf to permanently scar a changeling. Their power is all about changing their identity. If they have a trait that's identifiable in every form they basically don't have their racial feature any more.
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Oct 22, 2022 00:48
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Yeah, I hadn't really intended the change to be so personally identifiable and the setting is such that I don't think it would be that big of an issue depending on what cosmetic feature they took on but that's a really good consideration, thank you! I don't especially expect the changeling to go for the deal and I intend to telegraph as much as is reasonable that this is a risk of accepting the offer, but if they do I don't really want them to get to skate on it lol.
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Oct 22, 2022 00:58
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I generally think it's fair, can explain it away with the curse or powers affecting the very essence of them. They can still transform but they just have a draconic feature, somewhere on them, it doesn't even have to manifest in the same way or place. I would make it clear beforehand that these powers can and will affect the changeling regardless of them transforming, if that is your intent. It's fine to have an effect that might affect one player more than another, mechanically so long as they are told about it. Maybe have there be a Changeling there in the cult that you see with dragon effects or corruption or whatever. There is no "standard" ruling or anything about it tho.
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Oct 22, 2022 01:06
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Thank you! Love the idea of the feature changing each time they change shape, helps the identifiability issue but also ripe for comedic potential. I will absolutely have multiple flags about the nature of the powers/curse, their introduction to the cult is a proselytizer who themself has several marks even. I think treating it a curse removable via greater restoration or remove curse will also help if it turns out any players are extremely distressed about it, especially since the changeling is a bard and they'll all be between Level 3 and 5 when this encounter happens. Being good friends I'm thinking he'll just give me a "you son of a bitch" and take it in stride but really glad for the feedback.
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Oct 22, 2022 01:41
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We played with a Changeling who got slashed across the face and lost their eye. Whenever they changed, their new form still had a milky white eye and no vision because otherwise changelings are basically immune to long term physical damage. All that to say that a deformity or scar could carry between versions and be an identifier. Zurreco fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 22, 2022 01:45
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For my setting, I still have Drow vibing similarly to how they do in Forgotten Realms/Menzoberanzan because I honestly thought Drow society had incredible atmosphere as a kid reading the Drizzt Homeland trilogy and it just kinda stuck with me and lived rent free in my head. But instead of being  evil because of highly cringe demonic magic blood curses, it's because of politics. More akin to Romulans w.r.t Vulcan's than the Forgotten Realms lore. They just had really strong Opinions which results in a schism thousands of years ago in which they split off and formed a totalitarian Imperium of Man-esque oppressive society of militant theocratic isolationist xenophobes around those opinions.So its much more firmly a matter of individual indoctrination and programming due to customs, upbringing, mythos and propaganda within that society. A handful manage to escape and defect, but its a difficult trek through the underdark and many of the surface civilizations can in all honesty at times be much worse; which presents a much more interesting dilemma. To use the Star Trek example, imagine being a Romulan who escapes one life of misery and hardship to fight a war that may never come only to run into the Terran Empire from the Mirrorverse.
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Oct 22, 2022 03:10
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Raenir Salazar posted:For my setting, I still have Drow vibing similarly to how they do in Forgotten Realms/Menzoberanzan because I honestly thought Drow society had incredible atmosphere as a kid reading the Drizzt Homeland trilogy and it just kinda stuck with me and lived rent free in my head. I don't think there is anything wrong with having "evil races" in a fantasy game. The problem is people keep wanting to play as the monsters, and once they do suddenly they start to anthropomorphize them. Drow can be pure evil (in general) just like demons from the abyss are pure evil. That doesn't mean the occasional drow can't be a nice guy, but in general if you encounter some drow it's a bad time. I find that people don't really play elves (drow or otherwise) correctly at all. They are really supposed to be much more weird and alien. Ancient beings that do things humans can't even understand.
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Oct 22, 2022 10:31
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I have a question for my DM compatriots here: I am running the new spelljammer campaign and I had an unexpected issue pop up with my player group the other night. We reached a point in the campaign where they are leaving with an NPC on a ship with the threat of being found by astral elf spies at any moment. They managed to trigger an additional combat sequence by not immediately leaving after threatening the current captain of the ship with violence (in the guide it says you give them an hour to fart around on the ship and then the captain returns with a crew to fight them. Sure enough they farted around talking to a treant lol). So we resolved that encounter but they refused to leave without a long rest. I did a pretty standard escalation of first explaining (in character as the NPC) that the spies they fought off before would surely return, then when they refused and tried a long rest I had a party of astral elves attack with surprise because they still didn't actually just leave the docks. That encounter was resolved, but they are very insistent on a long rest BEFORE leaving the dock on the ship. So what would you do? I could simply tell them as the NPC that they will probably have time to take a long rest after they leave, but I am not sure they would even believe him. Alternatively I could throw more powerful elves at them or even an impossible to defeat fleet of star moths that it is very obvious they have to flee, but that doesn't seem right to me either.
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Oct 22, 2022 14:40
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Scornful Sexbot posted:I have a question for my DM compatriots here: I am running the new spelljammer campaign and I had an unexpected issue pop up with my player group the other night. We reached a point in the campaign where they are leaving with an NPC on a ship with the threat of being found by astral elf spies at any moment. They managed to trigger an additional combat sequence by not immediately leaving after threatening the current captain of the ship with violence (in the guide it says you give them an hour to fart around on the ship and then the captain returns with a crew to fight them. Sure enough they farted around talking to a treant lol). So we resolved that encounter but they refused to leave without a long rest. I did a pretty standard escalation of first explaining (in character as the NPC) that the spies they fought off before would surely return, then when they refused and tried a long rest I had a party of astral elves attack with surprise because they still didn't actually just leave the docks. That encounter was resolved, but they are very insistent on a long rest BEFORE leaving the dock on the ship. You're at the same place as my party which is pretty funny. I kept my group from lingering by saying basically the guards on the Rock of Bral don't want trouble, and your party just murdered 4 astral elves. Even if you're in the right you're going to get arrested and have to plead your case. You can also use Krux as a level because it's his plan and his ship. It can take days to get to Tonopah's tower so the party has time to long rest. If they long rest, then you get to explore more of the Rock as the guards haul them before the prince, or anyone else you think is interesting. Also, if you have any character who has prophecy or anything like that, you can always pull the old, TPK the party with a huge force of elves then snap that character awake as a premonition. Also my party absolutely DUMPSTERED the fight with Hastain, I'd probably give her one or two bodyguards to make it fair. Though the fight with Big Momma almost killed a player.
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Oct 22, 2022 14:45
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Rutibex posted:I don't think there is anything wrong with having "evil races" in a fantasy game.
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Oct 22, 2022 14:52
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Nice I didn't even consider getting the corrupt politicians involved in arresting them, that could be a laugh. I was looking forward to doing the next combat encounter your guys poo poo on.... hopefully we can actually get there next week.
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Oct 22, 2022 14:54
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Bust Rodd posted:Oh, gosh, lol, the Yuan Ti are seafaring traders in our campaign, a long time ago the drow helped them by uncursing their people to be afraid of the moon and in turn their people sold us clothes made out of their old skin after they shed it, ha ha! I've kept snakes and the shed skins are super thin, and nearly transparent. So now I'm picturing running around in shed snake skin armor that is see through 
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Oct 22, 2022 15:08
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Dienes posted:I've kept snakes and the shed skins are super thin, and nearly transparent. So now I'm picturing running around in shed snake skin armor that is see through Bonk. Rutibex posted:I don't think there is anything wrong with having "evil races" in a fantasy game. The problem is people keep wanting to play as the monsters, and once they do suddenly they start to anthropomorphize them. Drow can be pure evil (in general) just like demons from the abyss are pure evil. That doesn't mean the occasional drow can't be a nice guy, but in general if you encounter some drow it's a bad time. From a pure table perspective if you have like a whole race as "Always" or "Usually" evil it becomes just kinda harder to accommodate players who wish to play them. I remember a game that basically never got off the ground back in highschool where I wanted to play like a Sivak Draconian and the player paladin hinted very strongly he would detect evil me (back in the 3.5e days) asap so he could just kill my character asap. The more "official" something is, the easier it is for people to be constrained from their worse impulses. I think its just better to bin alignment as anything other than a vague guideline for any sapient, even supernatural ones like demons/devils. It's much more interesting if outsiders are more like Fey and just kinda alien and above mortal morality concepts and its mortals who made up theology around them to explain what they do and why they do it. Much better if you meet like a drow patrol, its a bad time because they're either scouts following orders and their orders are "leave no witnesses" or its refugees/defectors who are being chased by something far worse. Maybe you meet some equivalent to mercenaries like Bregan D'aerthe led by eccentrics like Jaraxle and you're good if you're sufficiently amusing or useful in the current moment, and more convenient to just ignore you because they got bigger aboleths to hunt. Basically, there's a sequence of explainable meta reasons for why the encounter is bad news, that players can understand, that depending on how they contextualize it, i.e a soldier trying to cash a pay cheque. So from a meta perspective it increases the plausible latitudes for why some of these enemies might be more reasonable. From a player perspective if they're just told "they're just evil" their actions at the table is going to gravitate towards a murderhobo approach, because its (a) easier and (b) you just told them there's no moral consequence. If you want your players to be more willing to try dialogue and RP moments then you need to not give them such license. A scenario where they somehow manage to capture a drow soldier, treat them well, and let them go which starts off a chain of dominos where that soldier somehow ends up the leader of a democratic resistance movement only becomes part of the plausible possibility space where the players are encouraged to not just treat any combatant as irredeemable where murder is the first and often the only option.
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Oct 22, 2022 15:39
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Bobby Deluxe posted:No, that's exactly the problem. You can have cultures that have come under the domination of evil, people who do evil out of what they percieve as necessity, but when you have an entire race that's 'born evil,' especially when they're the races with dark skin, that's approaching some starfarer poo poo. One of my favourite characters to play is Malidrex Mixadar. She is the result of her parents selling their unborn child to a Night Hag. Malidrex was raised as a normal child, until around age 10 people began to notice she wasn't growing any taller, but she was looking more like a monster. By 12 her parents abandoned Malidrex in the woods, because the town was getting ready to lynch them for dealing in witchcraft. Mal was taken care of by benevolent forest spirits that taught her how to use her innate magical powers. By age 16 Mals true mother returned from the outer planes to check up on her and transform her into a full Night Hag. Malidrex ran away from this fate, and gathers magic items to hopefully kill her Hag mother before she can be fully corrupted. Malidrex is Chaotic Good, she is generally benevolent and wants best for the world. But she is extremely agoraphobic and mistrusting of any kind of organizations. She has an innate desire to harm and manipulate evil people, like a Night Hag. She doesn't like this desire and works to resist it, but it's one of the reasons she avoids civilization. Does she act his way because she looks like an evil hag and has been abused by society, or because she is tainted by the power of the abyss? Is the abyss just a metaphore for human evil to begin with? Yes? I donno 
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Oct 22, 2022 16:28
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I'm having a problem running my Strahd campaign. My party understands that they are in constant danger, but they are also convinced that because they are morally in the right, good folk will rally behind them and things will work out. As such, they always do things so... directly. They never stealth or sleuth, instead simply knocking on doors and announcing themselves. They ask even the most nefarious and untrustworthy NPCs to simply lead them places and then are shocked when it occasionally ends with them in a predicament. They say that they need downtime to do stuff but then opt to waltz directly to the nearest big target without gathering clues or supplies. As the DM, how do I reel this in without having an NPC literally say it to their faces? Is there a way to impart this knowledge that isn't just "most times you do this poo poo things go way south and you almost TPK every few sessions?"
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Oct 22, 2022 16:41
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Zurreco posted:I'm having a problem running my Strahd campaign. My party understands that they are in constant danger, but they are also convinced that because they are morally in the right, good folk will rally behind them and things will work out. As such, they always do things so... directly. They never stealth or sleuth, instead simply knocking on doors and announcing themselves. They ask even the most nefarious and untrustworthy NPCs to simply lead them places and then are shocked when it occasionally ends with them in a predicament. They say that they need downtime to do stuff but then opt to waltz directly to the nearest big target without gathering clues or supplies. Are they having fun?
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Oct 22, 2022 16:42
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Zurreco posted:I'm having a problem running my Strahd campaign. My party understands that they are in constant danger, but they are also convinced that because they are morally in the right, good folk will rally behind them and things will work out. As such, they always do things so... directly. They never stealth or sleuth, instead simply knocking on doors and announcing themselves. They ask even the most nefarious and untrustworthy NPCs to simply lead them places and then are shocked when it occasionally ends with them in a predicament. They say that they need downtime to do stuff but then opt to waltz directly to the nearest big target without gathering clues or supplies. I don't think you would be out of place to have a streetwise good guy pull them aside and give them a "what the hell are you doing?" talk. If they don't listen, it's on them.
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Oct 22, 2022 16:43
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Zurreco posted:I'm having a problem running my Strahd campaign. My party understands that they are in constant danger, but they are also convinced that because they are morally in the right, good folk will rally behind them and things will work out. As such, they always do things so... directly. They never stealth or sleuth, instead simply knocking on doors and announcing themselves. They ask even the most nefarious and untrustworthy NPCs to simply lead them places and then are shocked when it occasionally ends with them in a predicament. They say that they need downtime to do stuff but then opt to waltz directly to the nearest big target without gathering clues or supplies. You need to start these kind of horror scenarios with a level 0 funnel adventure. Really build up your reputation as a no nonsense killer DM. Then once the players are playing a single character you can bring out the typical kid gloves, but keep pretending you are playing it just as deadly and anyone could die at any moment! 
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Oct 22, 2022 16:48
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Have the good folks rally behind them, then have things go very, very badly for the good folk who do. Have Strahd personally thank them for how much the PCs helped him ferret out all those people, then have anyone they approach who might otherwise have helped them because they're good people berate them for being such massive dumbasses. Alternately, have an out of character conversation with them that what they're doing is super dangerous and there's a reason that Strahd is feared and people do things secretly. Tell them that if they keep doing things like this, you're not going to pull punches anymore, and if they then go "pfft, you're bluffing we're totes gonna keep doing it", go to step 1.
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Oct 22, 2022 16:48
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Elendil004 posted:Are they having fun? Yes, which is important. However, they frequently make comments about being confused per plot or NPC motivation when they ignore obvious plot hooks, refuse to investigate stuff, and don't ask questions of NPCs. I can only hand hold so much before I'm literally dropping someone's diary in their lap while they sleep. Rutibex posted:You need to start these kind of horror scenarios with a level 0 funnel adventure. Really build up your reputation as a no nonsense killer DM. Then once the players are playing a single character you can bring out the typical kid gloves, but keep pretending you are playing it just as deadly and anyone could die at any moment! Without getting into Strahd spoilers, there is an optional low-level dungeon in the first town that I ran for them. It served this purpose - they got their asses handed to them a lot and their Paladin even died. It's also worth noting that they skipped an entire area full of loot because they were rushing to the big bad for some reason. Azathoth posted:Have the good folks rally behind them, then have things go very, very badly for the good folk who do. Have Strahd personally thank them for how much the PCs helped him ferret out all those people, then have anyone they approach who might otherwise have helped them because they're good people berate them for being such massive dumbasses. This has already happened TWICE. They directly contributed to the destruction of a whole village already and have made some long term enemies in the process. The party doesn't seem to be phased, though they were a little miffed that they have been ostracized by the survivors.
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Oct 22, 2022 17:17
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It sounds like Curse of Strahd is a bad fit for this group and everyone would be happier if you switched to something more straightforward
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Oct 22, 2022 17:24
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Zurreco posted:I'm having a problem running my Strahd campaign. My party understands that they are in constant danger, but they are also convinced that because they are morally in the right, good folk will rally behind them and things will work out. As such, they always do things so... directly. They never stealth or sleuth, instead simply knocking on doors and announcing themselves. They ask even the most nefarious and untrustworthy NPCs to simply lead them places and then are shocked when it occasionally ends with them in a predicament. They say that they need downtime to do stuff but then opt to waltz directly to the nearest big target without gathering clues or supplies. On the other hand, this sounds pretty rad, and if that's the kind of game they want to play, then you could use that to your advantage, too. Something like, "The townspeople here care more about seeing another day than anything else, and don't like outsiders much besides, BUT that might change IF you [follow this story hook]." The point of CoS, I had thought, was not that it's just horror, but that you also get to punch Strahd in the face at the end, and the folk rallying around the heroes could play into that if it's well-deserved. Alternatively yeah they might just like creating trouble for themselves and then hacking their way out, which honestly sounds extremely valid as well.
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Oct 22, 2022 17:52
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Piell posted:It sounds like Curse of Strahd is a bad fit for this group and everyone would be happier if you switched to something more straightforward Yeah, from their response, this is my read as well. Curse of Strahd is a great module, but it's not for every group and it sounds like your group wants things a bit more traditional fantasy. I'd recommend having a conversation with the table and say that they're not engaging with the module's atmosphere in the intended way, and offer them the choice of either engaging differently or moving to a different module. If they're all in on playing Strahd, then level with them and tell them that what they're doing right now is going to lead to a TPK and depending on story, that might mean everyone dies and a new party is rolled, because it's a horror story first, fantasy story second, and horror stories don't work without real danger. If you're not willing to do that, make an executive decision and abandon the module and get one that's more fantasy epic, which I'm kinda getting is their vibe.
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Oct 22, 2022 17:52
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We are a year plus and ~80% into the campaign. This was a minor issue until these last two sessions when the party became aggressively oblivious. I'm not going to blow it all up, just looking for advice on correcting the issue with a gentle hand.
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Oct 22, 2022 17:52
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An out of character conversation is your only choice then. Tell them that how they're playing it is causing you trouble, and that you don't know how to handle their actions except for a TPK. If they say "fuk u, ur not my real
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Oct 22, 2022 17:57
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Have a friendly NPC let them know they're "doing things wrong", and/or have Strahd or Strahd-aligned NPCs praise them for inadvertently helping them so much. Either they listen and adjust, or they don't. Ultimately they will do what they do, and NPCs will react as makes sense for their characters. If that's ostracizing the party or selling them out to Strahd, or taking advantage of opportunities the party has made, then so be it. TPK if need be. The story is only satisfying if the players actions have consequences.
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Oct 22, 2022 18:01
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Or maybe it's time for the campaign to move to the finale. It's been a year? Maybe this is the players pushing for a crisis point.
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Oct 22, 2022 18:21
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Yeah if they're hellbent on running to the end then go there.
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Oct 22, 2022 18:36
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Rutibex posted:Does she act his way because she looks like an evil hag and has been abused by society, or because she is tainted by the power of the abyss? Is the abyss just a metaphore for human evil to begin with? Yes? I donno It's an interesting problem, and one I need to do more reading about because without a good occams razor, it kind of seems easy to fall down a hole of saying no sapient race should be portrayed as evil, at which point the basis for the combat pillar of the game starts to crumble a little. I had a DM years ago who set us a basic 'go rescue this child kidnapped by kobolds' quest, and then accused us of being murderhobos when we turned up, the kobolds started firing arrows at us, and we didn't attempt to negotiate. But in the case of Drow you also have the extra "the black ones are evil" thing, which massively exacerbates the issue.
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Oct 22, 2022 20:25
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Rutibex posted:Malidrex is Chaotic Good, she is generally benevolent and wants best for the world. But she is extremely agoraphobic and mistrusting of any kind of organizations. She has an innate desire to harm and manipulate evil people, like a Night Hag. She doesn't like this desire and works to resist it, but it's one of the reasons she avoids civilization. Does she act his way because she looks like an evil hag and has been abused by society, or because she is tainted by the power of the abyss? Is the abyss just a metaphore for human evil to begin with? Yes? I donno She reminds me a little of Enigmatic Gale from Thunderbolt Fantasy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2o_9MX6Rsk
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Oct 22, 2022 20:40
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Bobby Deluxe posted:
Hence why you can't stream this episode of Community any more:  But yeah, "no sapient people should be depicted as innately evil" is probably a good rule of thumb. Evil culture, evil history, etc, sure, there's room to work with that, though still a lot of room for justified caution. basically "evil" as an abstract concept is usually not optimal writing
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Oct 22, 2022 20:42
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:But yeah, "no sapient people should be depicted as innately evil" is probably a good rule of thumb. Evil culture, evil history, etc, sure, there's room to work with that, though still a lot of room for justified caution. Going by culture/country also has the neat thing where the Designated Bad Guys can actually shift according to player choices across multiple campaigns if they all take place in the same homebrew setting.  Maybe the Evil Empire broke up and reformed, and now the previous Good Republic has formed a New Dominion, declaring themselves guardians of the peace! And their first act was to Order 66 the party!? Curse their sudden and inevitable betrayal!!! Kinda like who the "bad guys" were in films like Die Hard shift over decades as society changes. Its okay if like kobolds go from your designated intro bad guys to PC characters and now suddenly its the humans who are all the bandits/settler colonists trying to steal their land that turned out to have valuable minerals under it.
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Oct 22, 2022 20:56
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Yesterday I DM'ed for the first time in probably a decade for some new folks. It went ok-ish, but all five people around the table plays the reluctant hero. I tried to incentivize taking my plot hooks with cash money rewards or the lure of some neat item and was met with indifference (except for one character who went "why go big when I can go home?").
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Oct 22, 2022 22:59
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Did you have a session 0 discussing character motivations?
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Oct 22, 2022 23:01
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champagne posting posted:Yesterday I DM'ed for the first time in probably a decade for some new folks. It went ok-ish, but all five people around the table plays the reluctant hero. I tried to incentivize taking my plot hooks with cash money rewards or the lure of some neat item and was met with indifference (except for one character who went "why go big when I can go home?"). I had one like exchange with a friend discussing my upcoming campaign that went like this: "What am I being paid?" (context being is its likely the premise is that the players are mercenaries starting out in a mercenary "security" company) "I'm not sure I'd need to check what a good salary for a lvl 1 adventurer is." "Well at a minimum I need 1 gold a day." "Hrm, I'm not sure that's a reasonable salary for a starting adventurer." "Fine, I'll go find a bakery." "I don't think bakeries pay 1g a day." "Of course they do or else they wouldn't have workers." "Well maybe its a employers market, because of high immigration from refugees driving down wages?" "People would starve if its less than a gold a day." "I don't think that's right." "Why would I be an adventurer for less than a gold a day? Adventuring is dangerous. I'd rather work at a bakery down the street."
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Oct 22, 2022 23:04
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Mr. Lobe posted:Did you have a session 0 discussing character motivations? Oh no I had back and forth on characters with 4 of the 5 and they all have reasonable characters with clear motivations. One is supposed helper of the downtrodden, another yearns for body mods to put into their flesh, one is a weird inventor and last person is a god drat Folk Hero. edit: I should also add I don't actually know any of these people in real life or have any connection to them beyond this back and forth and one session. ngl it is tempting to just cut my losses champagne posting fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 22, 2022 23:10
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 01:31 |
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Are they just shy?
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Oct 22, 2022 23:12
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