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Apocron
Dec 5, 2005

hot cocoa on the couch posted:

hi i'm running lmop now and can give a bunch of interesting twist and wrinkle that i put on my game. i considered running icespire peak after as well so i"ve thought about that. Unfortunately i'm in quebec this week on a company trip and they keep me plaster every day after work. i've set an alarm for myself when i get back to respond to.tbis in earnest. :cheers:

Thank you! The game will probably be delayed to next week so that gives me a bit of time to prepare. Thankfully there seems to be a fair amount of people who have shared their insights on integrating the two adventures.

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Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
I used Gremishkas in a session today. They are little demon cats that are pushovers as long as you simply don't use magic near them. I severely underestimated how much my players do not want to hurt cats.

Krul
May 20, 2015

is that you, blizzard?

Apocron posted:

Thank you! The game will probably be delayed to next week so that gives me a bit of time to prepare. Thankfully there seems to be a fair amount of people who have shared their insights on integrating the two adventures.
if you don't mind, i'd be interested in reading whatever your favourite or most interesting resource on integrating the two ends up being. i ran lmop a bunch, but it was a long time ago, and so would be curious what people are saying

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
Plot idea run: I have a new player who's an art major and SUPER into writing his role, which I dig because it's easier to make drama with.

He's a cleric with the War domain, whom I've said to consider Tempus, Torm, Helm or Ilmater (we're using Forgotten Realms as a base, so I guess we could make or import other gods as well). However, what he wants to do is to have been an acolyte of one god, then having had a revelation from another, making him leave his old faith for a new one.

Perhaps he's still following both, if so, how would that work? I have a half baked idea of him being offered a weapon by each cult, and then dual wielding the poo poo out of those while he figures out the schism.

Apocron
Dec 5, 2005

Krul posted:

if you don't mind, i'd be interested in reading whatever your favourite or most interesting resource on integrating the two ends up being. i ran lmop a bunch, but it was a long time ago, and so would be curious what people are saying

The two that stood out to me were a website called Sly Flourish:

https://slyflourish.com/combining_starter_and_essentials.html

And a YouTube channel called Bob the World Builder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNJLclHgb6U

Right now I’m leaning into playing Icespire Peak as is and have the Phandelver stuff rumbling along in the background. That way they can either stick to the posted jobs or discover the Black Spider stuff. If they ignore it I’m thinking about having the Black Spider succeed with the Forge of Spells but it sends Phandalin to Ravenloft for Curse of Strahd. If they stop it then maybe stick with the Icespire Adventure series as is? I’m tempted to just do CoS anyway since it’s so well regarded. But that’s getting well ahead of myself because we haven’t even met once and I just gathered people I’ve never met before online so there’s a chance people don’t show…

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.

Tias posted:

Perhaps he's still following both, if so, how would that work? I have a half baked idea of him being offered a weapon by each cult, and then dual wielding the poo poo out of those while he figures out the schism.

If the gods are part of the same aligned pantheon, it is fine for a Cleric to serve all of them with one as the main conduit. If you are talking about competing gods, I don't see the god being left behind wanting anything to do with their old acolyte. You would need to have some competing alignment happening which is an easy way for a player to aim for the middle and piss off both gods. Even if they decide to go back to their first god, I expect the price would be very high and very sacrificial before that deity would even want them back.

With Paladins it is easier because they can serve a cause or a concept, but Clerics are supposed to directly serve one deity.

I am curious how you would make Ilmater work for a War Cleric. I don't think there's a lot of crossover in those two ethos.

Zurreco fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jun 18, 2023

Dexo
Aug 15, 2009

A city that was to live by night after the wilderness had passed. A city that was to forge out of steel and blood-red neon its own peculiar wilderness.
Isn't Ilmater the redemption through suffering and pain god.

if you are a war cleric who is constantly taking damage from being in the front lines helping others that would probably suffice.

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
Followers of Ilmater believe there is a finite, minimum amount of pain in the world and that them taking it on actively eases the burden for everyone else. My take is that Ilmater is decidedly anti-war since war causes unnecessary suffering to others and increases the total amount of pain in the realms. At most they would wade into battle to act as a target in stead of others or to heal those that insist on fighting. The War Domain flavor text says that followers are basically pro-glorious combat at best or pro-violence at worst

Granted, if the player and DM are cool with it then whatever.

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011

Zurreco posted:

Followers of Ilmater believe there is a finite, minimum amount of pain in the world and that them taking it on actively eases the burden for everyone else.

Do you have a source for this? I can’t find it in any writeup of Ilmater going back to 2e.

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.

Arivia posted:

Do you have a source for this? I can’t find it in any writeup of Ilmater going back to 2e.

Perhaps I am extrapolating a bit from the Weeping Friars but I have also heard this interpretation from many players/modules over the years. There are a few other reddit threads that reference this but, alas, /r/dndnext is now a private subreddit.

Either way, the SCAG specifically calls out that followers of Ilmater show up to battles with the intention of healing everyone, sometimes regardless of what side they were on. I don't think it would be a good route for a War Domain Cleric.

Zurreco fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Jun 18, 2023

Arivia
Mar 17, 2011

Zurreco posted:

Perhaps I am extrapolating a bit from the Weeping Friars but I have also heard this interpretation from many players/modules over the years. There are a few other reddit threads that reference this but, alas, /r/dndnext is now a private subreddit.

Either way, the SCAG specifically calls out that followers of Ilmater show up to battles with the intention of healing everyone, sometimes regardless of what side they were on. I don't think it would be a good route for a War Domain Cleric.

Like in real life, specific orders often have doctrines that differ from the church overall. That doesn't match the general Ilmater dogma, and it definitely conflicts with several of his orders, as we'll see.

Important Note: nothing I'm going to discuss is technically currently canon in the current WotC policy of "only 5e rulebooks are canon."

There are soldiers in the priesthood of Ilmater, according to Faiths and Avatars. Battle or struggle to protect the downtrodden and persecuted (especially against their tyrants) is explicitly called for in Ilmater's dogma, in the same book. (We know it's battle because of a description of an accompanying church tradition in Elminster's Forgotten Realms, where Ilmatari can relieve themselves of the burdens of Ilmater's strictures for a week to accomplish goals that cannot be done in "typical" manners - the example given is using trickery to dethrone a tyrant, instead of a direct battle.)

Furthermore, Ilmater has several orders of knights (paladins, devout fighters, etc) working under him - the Order of the Golden Cup, the Companions of the Noble Heart, etc. (Also see "Deity Dos and Don'ts" [a web enhancement pdf to go with Faiths and Pantheons], and Champions of Valor.)

Further furthermore, Ilmater is one of the Triad gods with Torm and Tyr, and the Triad's orders and aims are frequently explicitly militaristic and forceful, with holy armies going to war against fiends or tyranny. (Again, there are associated knightly orders here, paladins, and the like. See Champions of Valor.) So there's plenty of documented priests of Ilmater in armies, for example in Impiltur.

To put it all together, soldiers or priests of war are uncommon in Ilmater's clergy but certainly not unheard of, without precedent, or against Ilmater's dogma. I would interpret the line from the SCAG about Ilmater's faithful healing everyone the same way it's been historically applied to followers of Tempus: the war can be just, the battle is won, but the survivors should not suffer, especially unusually long or painfully. You fight fair* and when a victor has been found, you help everyone tend the injured, recover bodies, and resolve any remaining dangers.

(*Fair meaning no use of poison, disease, lingering debilitations, trickery to create ambush for slaughter's purposes, slaying those who surrender, and the like.)

Double A
Jun 16, 2023
What builds out there have an actually impactful amount of reactivity besides the obvious, like toons that use sentinel and polearms? I'd like to be able to do more poo poo off turn because it's no fun solely watching other people play 80% of the time.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
I'm using Forgotten as a foundation, inspiration and starting point, I'm not being dogmatic about it. If he wants to be tanky and a protecter of the little man, I'd twist some of the Ilmater orders a bit to fit him.

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

I think the only reason why a paladin would not choose to serve Ilmater is that Torm is right there.

Back in 3E days, two of my buddies played an awesome duo of a paladin and a monk both dedicated to Ilmater. They were super chill, a major catalyst for our group moving away from murder-hobo style adventuring, and gave the campaign in question its major villain when they refused to take a job from a a powerful archmage because the dude was clearly evil and they just wouldn't work for him even if the goal of the mission was ostensibly a good one.

Azathoth
Apr 3, 2001

Double A posted:

What builds out there have an actually impactful amount of reactivity besides the obvious, like toons that use sentinel and polearms? I'd like to be able to do more poo poo off turn because it's no fun solely watching other people play 80% of the time.

The problem with this is that in 5e you've got one reaction per turn so you're not gonna see builds focused on being reactive, because you only ever get that once and then you're out of anything to do until your turn rolls around.

For casters, this tends to be handled by spells such as Counterspell that are used by reaction instead of by action or bonus action, so if you wanted to build around that, you could do a search for all spells that are reactions and always make sure to have a couple prepared.

On the martial side, reactions are generally used to make an attack of opportunity but if that's not doing it for you at base, there's feats other than Sentinel or Polearm Master but they tend to be ones like Defensive Duellist that, quite frankly, just aren't as good (or really any good).

It's probably worth pointing out that, by design, 5e combat is going to be you watching the other players do their thing 80% of the time so you're going to have limited success in coming up with a build that breaks that, and you're definitely never going to be doing something on more than one other person's turn because the action economy says you only get that one reaction.

whydirt
Apr 18, 2001


Gaz Posting Brigade :c00lbert:
Also remember that if you’re taking more time doing reactions, the other players are “sitting around watching” you during all that time.

Ravenfood
Nov 4, 2011

Double A posted:

What builds out there have an actually impactful amount of reactivity besides the obvious, like toons that use sentinel and polearms? I'd like to be able to do more poo poo off turn because it's no fun solely watching other people play 80% of the time.

If you're playing with 3-4 other people, yeah, thats...exactly what you'll be doing, because they will also be playing their characters. The other people at the table aren't playing NPCs just so you can be the main character.

Roach Warehouse
Nov 1, 2010


If you’re having trouble feeling invested in your friends’ turns you could also consider playing a teamwork focused build. That proposition becomes “I can help them do the cool thing/ protect them from harm” rather than “Im bored waiting to do more things”.

I recently wrapped up playing a supportive battle master fighter and had a great time. The game was open season on Unearthed Arcana, so your mileage may vary, but I ran with Interception fighting for defending allies on my reactions, the Tandem Tactician (UA) feat for giving out heaps of Advantage, the Crusher feat for maneuvering enemies, and the BM’s suite of maneuvers for fear, advantage, tHP, etc. (running with the UA that let you swap one per long rest added a lot of flexibility). It was easy to be invested in my friends’ actions when they were capitalising on advantage I gave them, or if I pushed an enemy into range of their AoE attacks.

I’m sure there are probably classes more suited to that kind of play without needing a patchwork of Unearthed Arcana feats too.

Ominous Jazz
Jun 15, 2011

Big D is chillin' over here
Wasteland style
I know it's not unique to 5e but people insisting this game is Theater of the Mind and not minis based does not help me pay attention to the other players turn

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound
The beautiful thing about playing 5e as an adult is, unlike high school, when it's not my turn I can drink

A Real Horse
Oct 26, 2013


Hieronymous Alloy posted:

The beautiful thing about playing 5e as an adult is, unlike high school, when it's not my turn I can drink

Wait people played in high school without a constant stream of Mountain Dew flowing into them?

Apocron
Dec 5, 2005
Does anyone have any thoughts on having significant enemies having multiple initiative values and then tying those values to targeted damage? I always hear that one of the biggest issues people face is action economy but perhaps this can be solved by just giving significant enemies multiple actions. I also saw a playthrough of an RPG where the party faced nearly exclusively solo enemies, but the enemies were split into various parts and each part would have a unique attack. One part would be the "head" which you could target straightaway but it had a high AC that wouldn't drop unless other parts were damaged first. I thought that might give combat against solo enemies a little more tactical complexity by having each attack or ability a monster had an initiative so that players could choose to tactically focus fire on attacks they wanted to disable or risk attacking the weak spot.

whydirt
Apr 18, 2001


Gaz Posting Brigade :c00lbert:
That’s what legendary actions are

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
Also lair attacks. I'll admit that all five pieces of the Megazord acting on different initiatives does sound appealing so long as they are individually not very strong.

Apocron
Dec 5, 2005

whydirt posted:

That’s what legendary actions are

Kind of? Those help with Action Economy but it doesn't help make combat since they're discretionary when they are triggered they don't really inform decision making in combatsince they'll happen when they happen. It also seems like legendary actions are only really incorporated into very powerful creaure (CR10+?).

I'm thinking like taking the bugbear chief who's leading the goblins dividing his health by 3 then giving him a right hand chop attack (big damage), a left hand crossbow attack (ranged), and a headbutt that blinds an enemy. The party could go straight for the head but they're more likely to miss, or they could focus on attacking the crossbow to keep the casters safe, or they could go for the chop to help the melee fighters not get dismembered. They would also have an idea of when each attack would be triggered so they might decide to throw all their energy on knocking out one of the attacks before it gets to its turn again.

Lamuella
Jun 26, 2003

It's like goldy or bronzy, but made of iron.


Ravenfood posted:

If you're playing with 3-4 other people, yeah, thats...exactly what you'll be doing, because they will also be playing their characters. The other people at the table aren't playing NPCs just so you can be the main character.

Also one of the things you should be doing when it's not your turn is *working out what to do on your turn*. Ideally this will be informed by what your teammates do, but what you're trying to avoid is this:

DM: All right, Balon Brightaxe, you're up, Landriel Northstar you're up after this.
Balon: uhm... I guess I run up and attack the phase beast.
DM: the sorcerer killed the phase beast already.
Balon: really? OK, sure... Can I reach any of the crossbow guys?
DM: you can, but you'd need to use your action to dash.
Balon: right, hold on...

Basically if you don't know what everyone else is doing, you don't know what you're doing.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

Zurreco posted:

If the gods are part of the same aligned pantheon, it is fine for a Cleric to serve all of them with one as the main conduit. If you are talking about competing gods, I don't see the god being left behind wanting anything to do with their old acolyte. You would need to have some competing alignment happening which is an easy way for a player to aim for the middle and piss off both gods. Even if they decide to go back to their first god, I expect the price would be very high and very sacrificial before that deity would even want them back.

With Paladins it is easier because they can serve a cause or a concept, but Clerics are supposed to directly serve one deity.

Ooh, here's an idea! What if the character refuses not to worship any of them, ending up in a Heresy of the Three(Two)-Fold God type situation? This was when Helm died and some guy woke up with his sword, founding a church based on the idea that Tyr, Helm and Torm were the same guy.

a7m2
Jul 9, 2012


Does anyone have any experience playing DnD with non-native speakers? I'm an expat and I have both expat and local friends and I'm thinking of running a game in English. All the players would have high levels of English and can communicate without trouble, but the problem is that fantasy terms can be tough for non-native speakers. I remember when I was young asking my mom, who isn't a native speaker but who majored in English what a "necromancer" was, and she had no clue. I'm wondering how to deal with it, or if I should even try. Of course I'm happy to explain and/or translate terms, but I'd love some input from anyone who has a similar experience.

I've fairly successfully played Vampire: the Masquerade with non-native speakers before, but it's set in modern times so there's a lot more to relate to.

nelson
Apr 12, 2009
College Slice

Lamuella posted:

Also one of the things you should be doing when it's not your turn is *working out what to do on your turn*. Ideally this will be informed by what your teammates do, but what you're trying to avoid is this:

DM: All right, Balon Brightaxe, you're up, Landriel Northstar you're up after this.
Balon: uhm... I guess I run up and attack the phase beast.
DM: Okay, roll for damage. The phase beast is still dead. Landriel, you’re up …

PeterWeller
Apr 21, 2003

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Tias posted:

Ooh, here's an idea! What if the character refuses not to worship any of them, ending up in a Heresy of the Three(Two)-Fold God type situation? This was when Helm died and some guy woke up with his sword, founding a church based on the idea that Tyr, Helm and Torm were the same guy.

From a technical "here's how FR cosmology works" angle, one of those gods would be granting the spells, but there are cases of clerics representing pantheons, especially if you count Zakhara, and there are also cases of clerics thinking they worship one deity when really receiving spells from another one.

homeless snail
Mar 14, 2007

a7m2 posted:

Does anyone have any experience playing DnD with non-native speakers? I'm an expat and I have both expat and local friends and I'm thinking of running a game in English. All the players would have high levels of English and can communicate without trouble, but the problem is that fantasy terms can be tough for non-native speakers. I remember when I was young asking my mom, who isn't a native speaker but who majored in English what a "necromancer" was, and she had no clue. I'm wondering how to deal with it, or if I should even try. Of course I'm happy to explain and/or translate terms, but I'd love some input from anyone who has a similar experience.

I've fairly successfully played Vampire: the Masquerade with non-native speakers before, but it's set in modern times so there's a lot more to relate to.
I'd think about it this way, is it a given that everyone in the fantasy world knows what a necromancer is or what all the other fantasy terms mean? Any time I've played with someone whose first language isn't English, or anyone that's not incredibly versed in fantasy for that matter, just as a matter of course they're gonna ask questions about stuff that seems basic, the key is just to keep it in character instead of breaking out and reciting the dictionary entry. You can also throw in esoteric words for stuff to put the native speakers on equal ground, I like to do that anyway just to get people asking questions and not immediately going "oh I know exactly what this is, I need no further information".

imagine dungeons
Jan 24, 2008

Like an arrow, I was only passing through.
Simply cast “Tongues” and you will have no problems.

Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

College Slice

Apocron posted:

Kind of? Those help with Action Economy but it doesn't help make combat since they're discretionary when they are triggered they don't really inform decision making in combatsince they'll happen when they happen. It also seems like legendary actions are only really incorporated into very powerful creaure (CR10+?).

I'm thinking like taking the bugbear chief who's leading the goblins dividing his health by 3 then giving him a right hand chop attack (big damage), a left hand crossbow attack (ranged), and a headbutt that blinds an enemy. The party could go straight for the head but they're more likely to miss, or they could focus on attacking the crossbow to keep the casters safe, or they could go for the chop to help the melee fighters not get dismembered. They would also have an idea of when each attack would be triggered so they might decide to throw all their energy on knocking out one of the attacks before it gets to its turn again.

I like this idea, reminds me of the system from the Fear and Hunger games. Do you go for the head and potentially kill the enemy quicker but risk their attacks dealing a lot of damage? Sort of decision making. And unlike called shots or giving disadvantage for going for the head just have the ACs be different and conditional.

For example, if you go for the Legs and successfully "defeat" them, the enemy falls to the ground making it easier to go for the head etc. Potentially you can create more interesting enemies that are essentially like dealing with a group of enemies but it's still one creature representing them.

And of course perhaps as a small mercy, bleed some of the damage you deal to the limbs to the "main" health pool.

a7m2
Jul 9, 2012


homeless snail posted:

I'd think about it this way, is it a given that everyone in the fantasy world knows what a necromancer is or what all the other fantasy terms mean? Any time I've played with someone whose first language isn't English, or anyone that's not incredibly versed in fantasy for that matter, just as a matter of course they're gonna ask questions about stuff that seems basic, the key is just to keep it in character instead of breaking out and reciting the dictionary entry. You can also throw in esoteric words for stuff to put the native speakers on equal ground, I like to do that anyway just to get people asking questions and not immediately going "oh I know exactly what this is, I need no further information".

You bring up a good point, but I think to a degree characters in-game should know a lot more than the players are likely to know. It's not just fantasy words, it's also items that were commonly used in olden days. From the top of my head here are some examples I'm pretty certain the players would struggle with: "sheath", "reigns", "tavern", "rampart", "gauntlet", "moat", "cauldron", "lance", "portcullis", etc. I had no trouble thinking of these, and I'm sure there are a lot more. For a lot of these I can use other, simpler terms, but my worry lies in it massively slowing things down or it being a little overwhelming to keep track of for the players.

On the other hand, I might be overthinking it. Maybe I should look at how DMs deal with younger children playing these games, I figure there is some overlap in techniques that can be used.

NeurosisHead
Jul 22, 2007

NONONONONONONONONO
Playing a few online games has taught me that the non native English world has a much higher degree of English fluency than you would expect.

goatface
Dec 5, 2007

I had a video of that when I was about 6.

I remember it being shit.


Grimey Drawer
If they're familiar with any of the genre fiction they probably know most of it.

fromoutofnowhere
Mar 19, 2004

Enjoy it while you can.

a7m2 posted:

You bring up a good point, but I think to a degree characters in-game should know a lot more than the players are likely to know. It's not just fantasy words, it's also items that were commonly used in olden days. From the top of my head here are some examples I'm pretty certain the players would struggle with: "sheath", "reigns", "tavern", "rampart", "gauntlet", "moat", "cauldron", "lance", "portcullis", etc. I had no trouble thinking of these, and I'm sure there are a lot more. For a lot of these I can use other, simpler terms, but my worry lies in it massively slowing things down or it being a little overwhelming to keep track of for the players.

On the other hand, I might be overthinking it. Maybe I should look at how DMs deal with younger children playing these games, I figure there is some overlap in techniques that can be used.

Long time ago I played with a bunch of oversea's kids and it was a blast. We got to share a lot of culture and stories and learning about their ghost stories is pretty fun. If their english is terrible, it may be a bit of a chore, but if they put in the effort themselves, you'll probably have a good time. With how invasive our fantasy stuff is, they probably already know of it or some sort of analog you can attach to help them understand.

a7m2
Jul 9, 2012


goatface posted:

If they're familiar with any of the genre fiction they probably know most of it.

NeurosisHead posted:

Playing a few online games has taught me that the non native English world has a much higher degree of English fluency than you would expect.

You're both right, but I'm extremely familiar with the players' level of English (one of them is my wife and another a friend), and it's not the case here unfortunately. Both of the players in question are at a very advanced level where you can have a deep conversation with them and they would be able to live abroad just fine, but fantasy, sci-fi or historical terms for example are just really hard.

I'm a non-native speaker myself. While I'm now pretty much fluent, those terms took me the longest to learn too. Even though these days I speak English way more than my native language and even think in English most of the time, sometimes I still struggle with terms I rarely have the need to use like the names of certain uncommon ingredients, plants, medical terms, etc. I learnt most of my English playing games like Morrowind and reading Discworld so fantasy was never an issue for me, but the two players in question have maybe read Harry Potter in their language but not much more.

I'd just run V:tM again because that went pretty smoothly (I maintained a glossary and sent text versions of the bigger story parts so they could read at their leisure) but the whole group wants to try DnD.

I realize at this point this might come across as me whining or already giving up, but I'm actually really excited to try this. I'm just nervous about the language barrier is all. Maybe we can work the non-native part into the character backstories so it's easier for them to ask questions in-character and help each other out or something. Though that'd be up to them, it's their character after all.

fromoutofnowhere posted:

Long time ago I played with a bunch of oversea's kids and it was a blast. We got to share a lot of culture and stories and learning about their ghost stories is pretty fun. If their english is terrible, it may be a bit of a chore, but if they put in the effort themselves, you'll probably have a good time. With how invasive our fantasy stuff is, they probably already know of it or some sort of analog you can attach to help them understand.

This is encouraging, thanks!

a7m2 fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Jun 19, 2023

Reveilled
Apr 19, 2007

Take up your rifles
What I do with kids (and I assume would work with non-native speakers) is I make sure to physically act more and make more deliberate effort to provide context clues that helps the listener work out what jargon terms probably mean. I tend to deliberately stand up to DM when I do these sessions as it's a good reminder to use my whole body and not just my voice. So I may not be conscious in the moment that my players don't know the word "sheath", but if I'm making a point to physically act, there's a good chance that I'll actually mime the act of sheathing the sword and make a falling sound effect that will get the idea across. Similarly even if my players don't know what a portcullis is, my miming of a portcullis dropping shut and then saying "what you see through the bars on the other side is" rather than "what you see on the other side is" will hopefully communicate enough info for the player to understand we're talking about a gate with bars.

It's not foolproof and you've got to be ready to explain if someone asks and take pains to make sure people are comfortable asking, but you don't need to necessarily think about individual problem words if you are just as descriptive as it's possible to be. Just watch out to make sure that if a player says something or seems to ignore something that you don't think makes sense, be extra careful to double check the player understands the scene as you've described it.

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Green Tea Erotica
May 5, 2010

Anything you can do I can do BETTER

a7m2 posted:

Does anyone have any experience playing DnD with non-native speakers? I'm an expat and I have both expat and local friends and I'm thinking of running a game in English. All the players would have high levels of English and can communicate without trouble, but the problem is that fantasy terms can be tough for non-native speakers.

I play with 2 non-native speakers who both have high levels of English, been going on 2 years now. They run into issues with some words as often as the English speakers.
You don't run into the word necromancer or portcullis in everyday life, so it's not really an issue. High level of English skills they can Google the word they don't know or ask, it's not such a constant for us that it's distracting, once or twice a session at most.
Play with a 3rd native British speaker too. He comes up with crazy British words and slang I have no idea wtf he's talking about sometimes. It's all fun and a learning experience.

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