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disaster pastor posted:Venomfang seems to lead to some of the best stories. I think I've told this one before, but when I DMed Phandelver, I tried to hint to my players (who are certainly not min-maxers) that this is a small dragon but he's still a dragon, so you probably shouldn't fight him. They fought him anyway. As a player, we also loved Venomfang. When we discovered there were dragon cultists worshipping the dragon here, the Warlock face hatched a plan where he'd claim to be a dragon cultist of a bigger, much more powerful dragon, selling it by holding up a gem and protecting an illusionary face of the big fake dragon to speak with Venomfang via magic facetime. Dragon Lord Abrasax then dressed down Venomfang and called him a cowardly failure for taking over such a pathetic ruined village, and with some stellar Deception and Intimidate rolls, convinced him to take a real castle (Cragmaw Castle, which we'd already sacked) as his lair to appease the bigger dragon. Then with some grovelling, we told him that we'd get the cultists to transport his hoard for him (which we kept obviously).
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Sep 4, 2023 16:57
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Speaking of Dragons it seems they are getting a redesign. Some art previews and current products show them with a new look.    The Drizzt Visual Dictionary shows the whole lot of Chromatic Dragons with new looks that matches the above including that Blue Dragon piece.         
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Sep 4, 2023 18:23
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Dragons need their spellcasting back
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Sep 4, 2023 18:35
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Oh we actually had a preview of the new style Black back in Fizban's as the Greatwyrm Rhashaak Hieronymous Alloy posted:Dragons need their spellcasting back
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Sep 4, 2023 18:39
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Those dragon designs are extremely evocative of the design direction Titmouse ran with for The Legend of Vox Machina animated series on Amazon
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Sep 4, 2023 20:52
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Venomfang was a great experience. I ran it where the characters would hide in different buildings on his map, and on his turn the dragon would destroy one of the buildings. Eventually the players ran out of places to hide and had to fight him. It ended with the dragon deciding to run, and the fighter ran after it, jumped on its back, rolled to hit with advantage and got a crit, killing the dragon but plummeting to the ground in the process and almost dying. Very memorable scene.
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Sep 5, 2023 05:10
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Sticking a Mirror of Life Trapping on a tower shield: feasible or just stupid/impossible?
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Sep 5, 2023 18:04
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I mean, assuming you can lug the 50 pound mirror around one handed, I still wouldn't count being on a shield as "hanging on a vertical surface." But even more importantly, it's an actual mirror. You know, fragile, made of glass, vulnerable to bludgeoning damage, etc. So, it wouldn't last all that long in a fight anyway.
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Sep 5, 2023 18:40
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change my name posted:Sticking a Mirror of Life Trapping on a tower shield: feasible or just stupid/impossible? I'd rule it's feasible, but it requires Sovereign Glue.
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Sep 5, 2023 18:49
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Magical items require extraordinary measures to be destroyed. While your mirrored shield could eventually get ruined in combat, it would have to be from blocking a Boulder or something.
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Sep 5, 2023 19:24
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Zurreco posted:Magical items require extraordinary measures to be destroyed. While your mirrored shield could eventually get ruined in combat, it would have to be from blocking a Boulder or something. Sadly the Mirror of Life Trapping has like 10 HP and an AC of 11, it's called out in the description. This would be for an enemy though, so I'm not super worried about whether it's good or not
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Sep 5, 2023 19:27
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Zurreco posted:Magical items require extraordinary measures to be destroyed. While your mirrored shield could eventually get ruined in combat, it would have to be from blocking a Boulder or something. Not really? They have resistance to all damage, but that's all. A twice-as-tough mirror is still pretty fragile.
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Sep 5, 2023 19:28
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change my name posted:Sadly the Mirror of Life Trapping has like 10 HP and an AC of 11, it's called out in the description. This would be for an enemy though, so I'm not super worried about whether it's good or not Sounds like a fun gimmick for a high level fight, but keep in mind that the mirror is essentially an AOE DC 15 Save or Die (for the purposes of this encounter). It's likely for half the party to be snatched up and the whole party getting got isn't unreasonable. So, plan to have them get dumped out in a prison cell or something to "save room" or whatever so the game doesn't grind to a halt is my thinking. Staltran posted:Not really? They have resistance to all damage, but that's all. A twice-as-tough mirror is still pretty fragile. Yeah, sundering is in the "very effective but pretty dickish" category of tactics that most Players and DMs agree should only be broken out in very unique situations.
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Sep 5, 2023 21:00
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Does anyone have any experience running Strahd Reloaded? Thoughts? Opinions? I’m only a couple pages into the pdf and it seems…fine, if not a bit unwieldy at the start. It definitely reads like someone put a lot of care into it!
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Sep 6, 2023 00:51
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I've been running Revamped for a long time now. It's not much different from the original publication but overall it's one of the stronger modules due to the overall plot, setting, and main characters. I am of two minds on the content itself. A lot of areas have too much content that overlaps/conflicts, so you will have to pick and choose what content is relevant or enjoyable for your party. At the same time, a lot of areas are underdeveloped, so you (arguably) should introduce homebrew to help your players if they choose to travel to those locations. You can also move events and characters from one location to another if you really like the plot points. You should read through the book twice and, if you plan to run it, never prep too much in any given direction. Barovia is a big sandbox and it is really hard to predict exactly where your party will go and/or when they want to go in that direction. Any party WILL skip out on named locations, skip whole sections of dungeons, and not follow conversational bread crumbs if they are already focused on a task or overwhelmed with lore. You should also have a candid conversation with your players that it is a horror campaign so their characters need to 1) respect the setting, 2) care about the situation unfolding and 3) have a reason to get involved. Nothing will deflate a good Strahd campaign faster than a party that doesn't investigate bumps in the night or are fixated on escaping the valley. The book is also pretty clear that if you have players that are obnoxious or pathetic, Strahd will shift from passive interest to actively trying to murder them. If you have specific questions or whatever, you can always PM me.
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Sep 6, 2023 01:07
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I ran my Strahd campaign with the Strahd Reloaded stuff added, and found it much improved from the standard module. I ended up adding a ton of my own custom stuff, but I have only good things to say about the stuff the community has added and DragnaCarta compiled.
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Sep 6, 2023 01:12
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Zurreco posted:I've been running Revamped for a long time now. It's not much different from the original publication but overall it's one of the stronger modules due to the overall plot, setting, and main characters. I am of two minds on the content itself. A lot of areas have too much content that overlaps/conflicts, so you will have to pick and choose what content is relevant or enjoyable for your party. At the same time, a lot of areas are underdeveloped, so you (arguably) should introduce homebrew to help your players if they choose to travel to those locations. You can also move events and characters from one location to another if you really like the plot points. Sorry, I should have clarified. I'm asking about This Strahd Reloaded. I own the original book and ran about 8 sessions of a campaign 6 years ago. They TPKed in the Burgomaster's house after they decided to kill him...it was my first time DMing. Mistakes were made. I'm on a redemption arc.
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Sep 6, 2023 05:39
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Been reading the new Phandelver Adventure book, and while it's unrelated to the plot of the book, it's looking like the D&D team wants to do a future plot with the Weavers They have been around since 2e as the Spell Weavers and were always a cool but obscure creature. I think 4e did some interesting things with them as well, but I have yet to check that entry out.
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Sep 6, 2023 09:23
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Retooled my house rules/option choices for the 5e campaign I'll be running, specifically the campaign Call from the Deep.quote:# Getting Started & House Rules
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Sep 8, 2023 16:29
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Verisimilidude posted:Retooled my house rules/option choices for the 5e campaign I'll be running, specifically the campaign Call from the Deep. Getting the weaknesses of humanoids should be a persuasion check. "hey goblin, what's your weakness" *rolls* "I don't like fire"
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Sep 8, 2023 17:25
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"My kind hates ice and fire both!"
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Sep 8, 2023 20:26
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Fun fact, goblins are actually not any more vulnerable to fire or ice, as they are toward lightning. The are just easier to set on fire.
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Sep 9, 2023 11:45
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Rubberduke posted:Getting the weaknesses of humanoids should be a persuasion check. "hey goblin, what's your weakness" *rolls*
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Sep 9, 2023 12:50
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:"I'm a perfectionist and I care too much." *scribbles in notebook* vulnerable to vicious mockery, got it
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Sep 9, 2023 12:57
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My 10 and 8 year olds play an imaginary game of Minecraft with each other where my 10 year old narrates a scenario and the 8yo will choose what to do then the 10yo will say what happens next as a result. They play this poo poo for hours and it literally sounds like a game of D&D but without the dice rolls. To encourage my kids to obsess over something other video games for once I thought they'd dig D&D. I've only got passing experience with D&D (about 20 years ago I made a character and played a few hours of a campaign at a friend's house). Other than that it's just been Baldur's Gate and other video games that use the mechanics. Is my best bet the starter kit thing that's linked in the OP or is there something else you'd recommend to get started? It will just be the three of us in the beginning so I need something suitable for that group size, easy enough for them to learn (I'll do my best to get up to speed beforehand) and something that's age appropriate content wise. Looten Plunder fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Sep 10, 2023 |
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Sep 10, 2023 04:43
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Looten Plunder posted:My 10 and 8 year olds play an imaginary game of Minecraft with each other where my 10 year old narrates a scenario and the 8 will choose what to do then the 10 year old will say what happens next as a result. They play this poo poo for hours and it literally sounds like a game of D&D but without the dice rolls. Run the Essentials Kit, not the Starter set for a smaller group of younger kids, in my opinion. Think about reading through the whole adventure, and make sure to tone back some of the violence and mature themes as you see fit. Another really kid friendly module is Humblewood, it's a 3rd party setting with a fun little adventure and it's all cute birds and animals as the playable races (think Redwall, Puss in Boots, Zootopia, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) And you can tone any violence or mature themes down (ie. Knocking enemy's unconscious instead of killing them, bandits are more like Disney Robin hood, etc). Honestly I'd recommend Humblewood over any of the official WOTC modules, if I was running for kids.
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Sep 10, 2023 04:58
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That minecraft game rules. Glad to see them independently inventing the medium like the Brontë sisters. I think the suggestions for a 5e boxed set aren’t wrong insofar as that’s what everyone plays so you get access to that common language. Beyond the Wall and Mausritter are additional possibilities - they’ve got all-ages appeal, have boxed sets, and are easier to run than 5e. Magical Kitties Save the Day might also be good if they like cats, or pretty much anything dependent on what they’re into. How much do they enjoy math? Imaginary violence? “Lore?”
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Sep 10, 2023 11:31
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The 10 year old is a bit of a creative writing/maths wiz and loves his imaginary play (he zooms round the house going "woosh" "pshht" "pfff" all day with some sort of narrative going on in his head), the younger one has the imagination but suuuucks at school, to the point we think we has a learning disability so adding up dice rolls and whatnot is another reason I was thinking of getting them into it. Now that they are into Minecraft and Roblox and stuff they're starting to get into that crass sort of "killing/(cartoon)zombies/gross stuff is awesome" phase of boyhood and they've always been obsessed with Harry Potter but I think I'll try and skew it a bit younger if I can I looked up that Humblewood thing and that actually looks quite cool, I think that might be a good start. So how do I get started with that? Do I buy a 5e D&D players handbook to understand the core D&D rulesets and the humblewood one for the lore, character creation, campaign etc?
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Sep 10, 2023 12:02
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You might also look at something like No Thank You, Evil, which is ground up designed as an intro rpg https://www.nothankyouevil.com/ It's not d&d and some of the rules will be different, but it's designed to introduce kids to rpg concepts, and has scalable rules so different age kids can play together.
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Sep 10, 2023 12:25
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Looten Plunder posted:
Yes, pretty much. D&D is essentially several games rolled into one, so the players hand book has all the primary details on character creation, combat, magic rules+ core spell list, ability checks and when to use them, shopping, etc. There's also a more basic rules set available for free that WOTC put out that you can access here which is good but a lot more limited on options, and if you just play with these rules you can get away with only buying the Humblewood campaign book or box set(the box set includes reference cards for you, a whole bunch of punch out stand up cardboard figures and some nice maps. I'd also recommend using online tools to print out little cards for the spells and abilities they end up picking, as well as a cheat sheet of all the possible options they can do in a turn.
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Sep 10, 2023 14:46
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i played lmop with my 8 year old until it was summer and she wanted to play outside with her friends instead and it went really well. were now planning to play mouse guard next
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Sep 10, 2023 15:53
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Looten Plunder posted:The 10 year old is a bit of a creative writing/maths wiz and loves his imaginary play (he zooms round the house going "woosh" "pshht" "pfff" all day with some sort of narrative going on in his head), the younger one has the imagination but suuuucks at school, to the point we think we has a learning disability so adding up dice rolls and whatnot is another reason I was thinking of getting them into it. From my experience playing DnD with my 9 year old is be ready to cut down the rules to roll d20 + add number and then narrate from there. Soon as the roll, roll check, roll damage sequence started becoming a regular thing my kid got real antsy and all but declared himself doomguy, with armor and arsenal to match.
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Sep 10, 2023 17:53
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so I think I sort of boned up a bit, but also I guess I'm looking for guidance on this aspect of DMing that I don't have much familiarity with: I'm running Phandelver, and my party rescued Sildar, but my party is pretty raucous and sure of themselves, so Sildar almost had to elbow his way in for an escort to town, and hasn't really been thought of much since then. he has a lore dump for the party that's pretty important, but they're either not interested or i'm not presenting that fact in a way that's interesting to them to tease out. a couple of them remember the map case from the road, and the broader idea of "adventure", a few are laissez faire or just kinda want to shenanigan, so my question is when you've got a lore dump or an important pivot point via NPC or event, how insistent are you that players take part in it and ask questions that get you to where you need to be? i mean, as a storyteller and someone trying to use all the material here to its useful fullest, i almost wish I had just gathered these jerks up and cutscene'd them, but i kinda just want to let them go too, its tricky
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Sep 11, 2023 11:23
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smarxist posted:so I think I sort of boned up a bit, but also I guess I'm looking for guidance on this aspect of DMing that I don't have much familiarity with: Give out “here’s a thing you can do” information like candy. Players are going to randomly forget or miss half of what you think you communicated so you gotta be generous with info for them to make informed decisions - one of the many parallels between teaching and GMing. If everyone at the table is interested in a linear narrative, you can use hard scene framing to get to the next station on the train ride. Otherwise (and in most instances), give enough information to pursue multiple interesting possibilities, and if they have positive interest in shenanigans in-town or whatever orient your prep around making that interesting. At the summary email after a session I’ll usually just explicitly list out paths they could pursue, with an understanding that I should know their intention by the weekend so I have time to prep, e.g. 1) There’s that cave you found in the swamp around where Zolbtar’s Tomb is supposedly located 2) That rear end in a top hat you all hate is on vacation here; it’s her honeymoon, in fact 3) local thieves guild has a job, supposedly very lucrative, details when you sign up 4) (you tell me) Usually three + “you tell me” is what I shoot for. Because our sessions are short I’ll let the discussion happen over email and begin at the first interesting decision point after that. Oligopsony fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Sep 11, 2023 |
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Sep 11, 2023 11:52
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Ahhh, I like the idea of a little RPG party missive communication before the next sesh. one player volunteered to keep the party "journal" and is doing a good job, so i can hook that in hitting the session with some concrete goals in mind too might help keep things moving
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Sep 11, 2023 12:09
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smarxist posted:Ahhh, I like the idea of a little RPG party missive communication before the next sesh. one player volunteered to keep the party "journal" and is doing a good job, so i can hook that in The reverse side of this is also good practice: ending a session by asking the players what they want to do next time is good because it keeps them on track but it also lets you prepare/set up for what they're going to do next time. It's a thing a lot of DMs do, because it makes your out-of-session prep work a lot easier. Even if you're running a prewritten adventure, it lets you reread the right parts, check the rules, make sure you have any maps or minis set up, et cetera.
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Sep 11, 2023 12:48
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When you DM, how much detail do you use when describing a spell that a monster/badguy uses? Do you actually name the spell or do you just describe what it does? If you do name the spell, do the players still need to do any check when there is a mechanic that pertains to the spell (e.g. counterspell - even if you name the spell they are trying to counter, the PC still needs to know whether it is <=3rd level spell to use which I could see maybe needing some kind of arcana check?) Up until now, I have always just said the name of the spell (except obvious exceptions like illusions) and never really thought about it, but I can see how perhaps it might give a bit of an undue advantage at higher levels of play to tell players what spell was cast.
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Sep 11, 2023 15:08
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I say the name of the spell unless there's a very good narrative reason for me not to; generally if I withhold information like that it's to give the players a clue that what they're fighting isn't using the same powers/magic/abilities that they are used to (it could be something from a different plane, or just a different country if the campaign's geographic focus is tight enough).
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Sep 11, 2023 15:26
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Spellcasting-wise, I'll say "he's going to cast a spell" to bait out the inevitable "I'm going to counterspell" from a player and we resolve whether they're able to identify the spell. Usually if they have the same spell prepared I just let them know what it is, because logically if you're casting fireball you know what the incantation or motion for it is. Then they can use the appropriate level counterspell, otherwise identifying it is a Perception/Arcana check at 10+spell level. I think one of the sourcebooks ruled identifying a spell as a reaction, but that's stupid. If they don't identify it and/or don't bother countering, I go ahead and ask for saves/roll attacks/etc and then give my flashy description. Players find a lot of triumph in Counterspell and I try to find a middle ground in making it still useful while also making it something of an ordeal. Especially when it can completely derail a game plan for a big spellcaster or boss fight. Malpais Legate fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Sep 11, 2023 |
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Sep 11, 2023 15:31
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smarxist posted:Ahhh, I like the idea of a little RPG party missive communication before the next sesh. one player volunteered to keep the party "journal" and is doing a good job, so i can hook that in When I play with new players especially I like to do quest cards, basically anything I think it's important the players remember they can do, I give them a cue card with the summary on it. So this example would be titled something like "Debrief with Sildar", and have a description like "SIldar, who you rescued from the Goblin caves, wants to speak with you in his room at the Inn. He might have paying work!". If it's an actual quest the reward will be included on the card, so when the party goes to Sildar we'll likely exchange that card for a quest card titled "Rescue Gundren" with an explicitly stated reward. It's a bit video gamey, but it means when the party is looking for something to do they can leaf through their cue cards and decide on a course of action quickly and easily, and it's harder to forget a thing when you have a literal physical card in front of you as a reminder. I personally tend to gradually phase this out as the players get the hang of juggling their own hooks and deciding what's of interest to them, but that's up to the DM and the players at any particular table!
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Sep 11, 2023 17:20
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