|
Between work, working out, and my latest spurt of determination to Finally Clean My drat Apartment its been difficult prepping for the game I DM, but every once in a while I get some time and it still surprises me (1) How long sessions actually take, 4 hours sounds like a long time but a single side quest can easily take up the entire time! (2) Even a little prep can help immensely, like even just having a vague outline of "NPC A needs help repairing his X, they need to talk to person B who has the repair supplies, but they were stolen last week by bandits, so they have to now find the bandits and can either talk them into giving it back or taking them back with force." and this relatively simple sequence in the hands of the players actually results in a much more well paced and fun session then constantly ad hoc'ing things.
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 03:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 09:06 |
|
|
Depends on the group, but my groups can often take 4 hours to handle 3 encounters. Sometimes I wish they'd go faster but whatevs, we're all having fun  . My notes/prep for the session is usually 1 single-sided page of handwritten lists with combat/explo maps on the side. Something like:
Maybe more related to your points, having NPC ideas in advance is important as they are hard to do well ad lib. I like having Name / Distinct Visual Features / Goal / Chief Emotion ready. For whatever reason it works for me. Better improv DMs can probably do more with less.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 03:31
|
|
|
Yeah NPC's would definitely be a great thing to have preloaded. One thing I like about some of the Inkarnate maps I've been grabbing off of pinterest as well is they often have interesting landmarks I can create sites of interests for either side quests or locations for the main story quest (currently running a module which I'm altering to fit my world).
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 14:30
|
|
|
HOMOEROTIC JESUS posted:Depends on the group, but my groups can often take 4 hours to handle 3 encounters. Sometimes I wish they'd go faster but whatevs, we're all having fun also bear in mind that your stock NPC can be modular. Prep a weapon shop guy and they don't go to the weapon shop? That's your general store guy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 17:21
|
|
|
I got another question about a spell, this time Sending. You have to be familiar with the target of the spell, but the target “recognizes you as the sender if it knows you.” How can you be “familiar” with someone if they don’t also know you?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 17:41
|
|
|
E-flat posted:I got another question about a spell, this time Sending. You have to be familiar with the target of the spell, but the target “recognizes you as the sender if it knows you.” Are you familiar with Taylor Swift? Does she know you?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 17:41
|
|
|
Toshimo posted:Are you familiar with Taylor Swift? Does she know you? I know of her, but I don’t know if that qualifies as familiar. In the scrying spell, it counts ‘familiar’ as ‘you know the target well,’ above the levels of ‘you’ve heard of them’ and ‘you’ve met them.’
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 22:52
|
|
|
With Sending, you have to be familiar with the target in the sense that you know who they are. The purpose is to keep you from casting it and saying "I want to target whoever it was that committed this robbery." Consider it more like sending mail. You need to be familiar enough with someone to know their name and location in order to send them a letter. If you don't put a return address on the letter, the recipient would have to be able to identify who sent them the letter in order to respond in kind. If you are looking to get a response, you should start your Sending message with "this is <name> from <party>" so that they can know who they are attempting to respond to. Since Scrying is more like spying, you need to know a little more about the target - approximately where they are, what they look like, etc. WOTC should not have used the term familiar for both spells but Sending is "you know of them" and Scrying is "you know unique things about them." You can send a fan letter to Taylor Swift's PO Box and she can respond if you provide the info to do so. You cannot effectively spy on Taylor Swift without having a lot more information. Zurreco fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Jul 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 23:00
|
|
|
In this one group I’m in, the DM treats sending like a telepathic phone call. But the DM in this new one wants the sender to personally be familiar with the target, and the other player(s) agree. Kind of sucks in comparison.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 23:08
|
|
|
Sounds like your DM is boring. Before you cast Sending, ask if your PC knows enough to qualify for success. If they say no, ask what type of info would meet that threshold. If they can't give a solid answer, tell the DM you are instead casting Sending to contact a previously unmentioned close friend who happens to be a private eye in the town of your target and has a dossier on everyone in the region. If they poo poo that as well, tell the DM you are swapping out Sending for Skywrite and start sending messages to the whole loving town.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 23:15
|
|
|
Zurreco posted:With Sending, you have to be familiar with the target in the sense that you know who they are. The purpose is to keep you from casting it and saying "I want to target whoever it was that committed this robbery." “You’re out there somewhere beer baron, and I’ll find you.” “No you won’t.”
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 23:50
|
|
|
My players have never even tried to use sending on someone they didn't know
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2023 23:52
|
|
|
change my name posted:My players have never even tried to use sending on someone they didn't know Critical Role does it all the time. Personally I wouldn't allow it either. Like you need to have seen them at least, ideally spoken to them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:01
|
|
|
It reads like it should be allowable for anybody you know of. It's kind of like getting an emergency alert directly in your head, which would honestly be very annoying if I wasn't familiar with the sender. I doubt I would help somebody unless they were very convincing, and that's pretty hard in 25 words. I mean imagine just sitting on your computer and then something interrupts your thought stream, it's incredibly intrusive to a character that wasn't expecting it. Any character that is famous enough to receive spurious sending spells would probably have some kind of way to block it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:03
|
|
|
Incredibly stupid way to make the rules for this: Sending is now literally just a CODEC message. You need someone's channel number and you have to press your finger to the side of your head.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:14
|
|
|
My players won't stop prank sending Drizzt please help.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:19
|
|
|
As written, there's no way to block Sending short of antimagic stuff (though personally I'd also rule that a Ring of Thought Shielding would do it). Which also means you could potentially go really dark with it if you wanted
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:21
|
|
|
change my name posted:As written, there's no way to block Sending short of antimagic stuff (though personally I'd also rule that a Ring of Thought Shielding would do it). Which also means you could potentially go really dark with it if you wanted Arguably mind blank would do it—"The spell even foils wish spells and spells or effects of similar power used to affect the target's mind or to gain information about the target." Sending an audio message directly into someone's mind seems like it would count as affecting said mind. Though that part of mind blank is pretty weirdly worded...
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:30
|
|
|
As written, there’s no way for PCs to take a dump either
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:33
|
|
|
whydirt posted:As written, there’s no way for PCs to take a dump either Obviously it is a CON save.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 00:37
|
|
|
whydirt posted:As written, there’s no way for PCs to take a dump either Finally, an opportunity to post my compendium of house rules
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 01:11
|
|
|
Base Emitter posted:Finally, an opportunity to post my compendium of outhouse rules
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 01:18
|
|
|
My character can’t cast sending. It was a ‘ask the PC who can/hire an NPC to do a sending to my family member’ situation. This DM also doesn’t want me to know anything my character wouldn’t, because he doesn’t want “any undue influence of what you know as a player” and that “even subconsciously you know [whatever] and that will influence your decisions” like some MCU-rear end director. Which is frustrating because my character is currently separated from the other two parties for the foreseeable future, and, you know, it’s a little lonely doing separate sessions. (And insulting, of course, but in his defense there are other players in the campaign who don’t know how to/aren’t interested to rp a character.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 02:07
|
|
|
Ask your dm if you could show the sender a Minor Illusion of the target.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 02:29
|
|
|
I’m a barbarian.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 03:37
|
|
|
Ok then just shout really really really loud Sorry I got nothin
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 03:57
|
|
|
change my name posted:As written, there's no way to block Sending short of antimagic stuff (though personally I'd also rule that a Ring of Thought Shielding would do it). Which also means you could potentially go really dark with it if you wanted What would be the Sending equivalent of faxxing a looped black sheet of paper?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 05:04
|
|
|
Humming a song that gets stuck in their head, I guess?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 08:21
|
|
|
Grem posted:What would be the Sending equivalent of faxxing a looped black sheet of paper? Qqqq Qqqqqqq, Qqqq qqqq qq qqqq, qq, QQQ, qqqq qq qqqq qq'q q qqq qq qqqqqq. Q qqqq qqqq qqqqq qqqqq qqq qqq qqqq qqqqqqq
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 09:42
|
|
cowboy
|
You only get 25 words, but it is 25 words in any language. So you need to find the language with the longest words, and then say them in the speedy cadence of an Ent. Oh, it looks like the duration is only one round so your message is 6 seconds max? Boo. Boo I say.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 09:47
|
|
|
Facebook Aunt posted:You only get 25 words, but it is 25 words in any language. So you need to find the language with the longest words, and then say them in the speedy cadence of an Ent. Qualith is still a thing in 5e, so you could send 25 words that are literally just a carrier for a cognitohazard. Just blast all of Waterdeep with the image of Elminster’s hairy old rear end pounding away at bear Mystra or something.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 10:07
|
|
|
https://koboldpress.com/diablo-iv-barbarian-subclass/ https://koboldpress.com/diablo-iv-subclasses-rogue-and-druid/ I don't know enough about Diablo 4 to really comment on the Barbarian and Rogue subclasses, but the Druid strikes me as being somewhat decent because it's a way to use Shapeshift that isn't bogged-down in looking up Monster Manual entries and converting stats. And then you still do the normal Shapeshift if, for example, you really wanted to be able to fly.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 12:46
|
|
|
Zurreco posted:Obviously it is a CON save. Cant tell you how many times I have rolled CON for volume of piss on the side of an NPC house or to take a poo poo in some dickhead's stew Question is, do cooking tools give advantage to making GBS threads Rolls?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 13:14
|
|
|
Depending on where the stew is, that would surely be dex.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 13:19
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:https://koboldpress.com/diablo-iv-barbarian-subclass/ D&Done druid (other than Moon) isn't honestly bad this way as every single druid subclass has a combat use of wild shape that isn't shapeshifting. And with the wild shapes no longer having temp hp overcoats or falling out of wild shape you basically only use a couple of utility forms. (IMO this is fine - but the Moon should go to templates and imaginary creatures as their special thing).
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 13:49
|
|
|
Wild shape should’ve been a subclass thing to begin with. Trying to make Shapeshifter and full 9 spell levels Nature Mage in the same base class is too much, imo
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 16:11
|
|
|
Grem posted:What would be the Sending equivalent of faxxing a looped black sheet of paper? Look to some of the poo poo people get up to sending text to speech messages to twitch streamers.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 19:17
|
|
|
Grem posted:What would be the Sending equivalent of faxxing a looped black sheet of paper? https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1680042168432611328?s=20
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 19:25
|
|
|
Famous mages probably have a cantrip ready to go that fires back loud fax machine noises at anyone bothering them with a sending.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2023 19:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 09:06 |
|
|
Ok, but this is now an adventure. Some evil diviner telemarketer* is spamming the greatest heroes of the realm with cold calls for trinkets. Now, they cant do a long rest to get their magic back, and it's up to your group of nobodies to break in and smash the place up! *Of course telemarketers are diviners, how else do they know when you're sitting down for dinner before the call?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2023 01:04
|
|
