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Lamuella posted:go the other way and give your PCs family members they didn't know about. The prisoner, the Dark Necromancer, and the king who gave you the quest are all your father. Literally everyone is your father, including you.
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Sep 12, 2023 10:37
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smh at any PC whose family wasn't killed by orcs in their back story
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Sep 12, 2023 12:28
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Lamuella posted:go the other way and give your PCs family members they didn't know about. "Tigtone! I am NOT your father. But if I were, that would be a terrible shock."
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Sep 12, 2023 12:40
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Whybird posted:The prisoner, the Dark Necromancer, and the king who gave you the quest are all your father. Literally everyone is your father, including you. In an All you Zombies-style twist, all PCs and NPCs are in fact both all the same character and both of their own parents simultaneously
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Sep 12, 2023 12:55
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Shanty posted:smh at any PC whose family wasn't killed by orcs in their back story The true power move is to state that you were raised by a polycule of retired high-level spellcasters
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Sep 12, 2023 14:27
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Whybird posted:The true power move is to state that you were raised by a polycule of retired high-level spellcasters Ah, the Faraway Paladin Gambit.
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Sep 12, 2023 15:01
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Isn't that a plot point in Bojack Horseman
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Sep 12, 2023 15:02
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trapstar posted:Is it true it makes for better better storytelling if you kill your PCs family members? I heard it adds more drama and depth to your campaign narrative. 3/4 of my party's backstories involves evil family members so it's going to happen anyways
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Sep 12, 2023 15:15
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I tend to use family members that exist for their own plots. Debts to be repaid, adventures/goals of their own, etc, all dictated by character backstories. If they don't have family hooks in the backstory, you don't have family members to use.
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Sep 12, 2023 20:31
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"i killed your dad" is drama once. "your dad's a piece of poo poo" is drama forever
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Sep 12, 2023 20:55
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ItohRespectArmy posted:As a storytelling device it's blunt and trite. Also even in a situation where you and your players have clearly established that yes, they have family connections that are important to them and they'll fight to protect, killing them is the least interesting thing you can do. You can threaten or kidnap them, which will generate a similar scale of reaction but is far more interesting than just vengeance. They can also have their own goals and motivations that put them in conflict with the PCs. You know what's more interesting than the big bad killing your dad? The big bad paying your dad's salary. Also this gets into "just talk with your players" territory, but there's implied consent or lack of consent based on how your players present their background. A player who says "my parents were abusive so I ran away from home at 11 and never want to see them again" is probably telling you they don't want their parents to show up, while a player that says "my parents were abusive and to this day won't stop calling to complain that I chose to be a space vagabond instead of an asteroid miner" is probably into it. Same for the opposite -- a player with a beloved sister who they dote on whenever they go home is probably giving you a hook, while a player who never mentions their home life probably has no interest in that. The key words here are "probably" because some players are going to be very aware of these implications while others won't. If you aren't running for players you know well I'm a big fan of explicitly laying out Knife Theory during character creation. admanb fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Sep 12, 2023 |
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Sep 12, 2023 20:57
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:"i killed your dad" is drama once. "your dad's a piece of poo poo" is drama forever "Your mom is asking why you don't write her as much as you used to." is a harrowing thing for a villain to say.
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Sep 12, 2023 20:58
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Arrrthritis posted:"Your mom is asking why you don't write her as much as you used to." is a harrowing thing for a villain to say. 'your mom and i are dating now' is, too
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Sep 12, 2023 21:32
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BBEG befriends PC’s family and eventually adopts them into a lavish life of absolute comfort and contentment. Interference from PC will bring it all crashing down around their heads. AND possibly result in their deaths. But destitution at the least.
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Sep 12, 2023 21:34
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admanb posted:Also even in a situation where you and your players have clearly established that yes, they have family connections that are important to them and they'll fight to protect, killing them is the least interesting thing you can do. You can threaten or kidnap them, which will generate a similar scale of reaction but is far more interesting than just vengeance. They can also have their own goals and motivations that put them in conflict with the PCs. You know what's more interesting than the big bad killing your dad? The big bad paying your dad's salary. honestly someone coming to me with more than a couple of LOOMING PLOT ELEMENTS sounds kind of exhausting. 7-12? that's like rush hour at O'Hare Airport level of plot overload.
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Sep 12, 2023 21:37
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sebmojo posted:honestly someone coming to me with more than a couple of LOOMING PLOT ELEMENTS sounds kind of exhausting. 7-12? that's like rush hour at O'Hare Airport level of plot overload. 7-12 is a lot but the concept is good. That said a lot of the suggested knives are small things that you can easily ignore or only bring up as a complication for an otherwise simple task rather than like, plot or side-plot defining items.
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Sep 12, 2023 22:34
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The ultimate DM power move is obviously having the BBEG sleep with the PCs mom.
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Sep 13, 2023 13:55
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trapstar posted:The ultimate DM power move is obviously having the BBEG sleep with the PCs mom. What about having the secret-BBEG sleep with one of the PCs? I managed to accomplish that one a few sessions ago.
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Sep 13, 2023 14:12
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trapstar posted:The ultimate DM power move is obviously having the BBEG sleep with the PCs mom. Nah, it's the threat of doing it. If it is the future/present setting then BBEG sends a video to the PC while sitting on their mom's bed and let the implications torture. If Ye Olden Days then a courier delivers a taunting letter with the mom's necklace that she keeps hidden in the back of her armoire or whatever. Regardless of setting BBEG goes on about what a wonderful time they had with PC's mom. She cooked a lovely ${appropriately.old.fashioned.dish}, and they lost track of time enjoying the night away.
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Sep 13, 2023 14:15
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Dameius posted:Nah, it's the threat of doing it. If it is the future/present setting then BBEG sends a video to the PC while sitting on their mom's bed and let the implications torture. If Ye Olden Days then a courier delivers a taunting letter with the mom's necklace that she keeps hidden in the back of her armoire or whatever. Regardless of setting BBEG goes on about what a wonderful time they had with PC's mom. She cooked a lovely ${appropriately.old.fashioned.dish}, and they lost track of time enjoying the night away.
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Sep 13, 2023 15:41
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DourCricket posted:What about having the secret-BBEG sleep with one of the PCs? I managed to accomplish that one a few sessions ago. Haha, I'm sure some players would like that.
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Sep 13, 2023 15:46
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Our current BBEG is one of the player's mom (tortured her for years, currently trying to ascend to godhood)
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Sep 13, 2023 15:51
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Panderfringe posted:I did this once, but then the players did something unexpected and found out the bbeg has genuine feelings for the mom. They convinced him to give up on his schemes and retire with her to some nice island villa. He was also instrumental in helping the players defeat the even bigger, badder evil guy Hell yeah. Sounds like a great outcome.
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Sep 13, 2023 16:07
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change my name posted:Our current BBEG is one of the player's mom (tortured her for years, currently trying to ascend to godhood) Ooh, that sounds like a fun story hook to have!
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Sep 13, 2023 16:08
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Ooh, same actually! One of my players is playing an escaped magically augmented child soldier (think River Tam crossed with X) and one of the driving plotlines has been the conflict between her mother and siblings trying to recapture her back into the family cult and the rest of the PCs drifting into the role of surrogate dads.
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Sep 14, 2023 07:21
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DourCricket posted:What about having the secret-BBEG sleep with one of the PCs? I managed to accomplish that one a few sessions ago. this happens every session in monsterhearts tbf
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Sep 14, 2023 08:15
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Do y'all like incorporating puzzles into your games? I've been putting simple puzzles in my game sessions and my players seem to really like it. Most are pretty simple, like activating something in the right order. But I jazz it up a bit by hiding clues in lore notes and things like that. My current campaign is essentially a dungeon crawl, so I'm trying to add in room gimmicks so that the party isn't just fighting monsters every room. Our party also dropped from 6 to 4 players, so we're getting like 3-4 combat encounters done in addition to exploration every 3 hour session.
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Sep 14, 2023 16:20
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Vargatron posted:Do y'all like incorporating puzzles into your games? I've been putting simple puzzles in my game sessions and my players seem to really like it. Most are pretty simple, like activating something in the right order. But I jazz it up a bit by hiding clues in lore notes and things like that. As long as the puzzles have multiple solutions so that they don't get stuck trying to solve a riddle for an entire session and can always choose to smash things if they get too frustrated.
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Sep 14, 2023 17:48
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Vargatron posted:Do y'all like incorporating puzzles into your games? I've been putting simple puzzles in my game sessions and my players seem to really like it. Most are pretty simple, like activating something in the right order. But I jazz it up a bit by hiding clues in lore notes and things like that. Typically when I make a puzzle the players have a much better solution than what it was intended, so I just pretend that they had it right. I use clocks a la Blades in the Dark to keep skill checks and puzzles moving a long as well. Every check should get them closer to the solution, and at a cost if they gently caress up. Ominous Jazz fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Sep 14, 2023 |
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Sep 14, 2023 17:55
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Nephzinho posted:As long as the puzzles have multiple solutions so that they don't get stuck trying to solve a riddle for an entire session and can always choose to smash things if they get too frustrated. That's what I've tried to do. There's usually a fail condition that just spawns a monster or they don't get bonus loot. For example, I had a scenario where a mirror bisected the room and was a reflection into the Astral plane. The party needed to use their Astral reflections to move an object from the other side of the mirror into a treasure box, which would teleport the object back over to their side and solve the puzzle. My party solved the puzzle successfully, but our Kobold monk tried to jump into the box and our Warlock threw a table into the mirror to shatter it. So I spawned a Githyanki Warrior for them to fight, which was gonna be the original encounter if they got stuck. So they basically got XP for solving the puzzle AND fighting the monster! Seems like they really had fun with it though. I think we spent about a good 15-20 minutes of them working out the solution and RPing around it. They never got stuck and they got all their hints through successful skill checks.
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Sep 14, 2023 19:05
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This thread is awesome, so I'd like some inspiration. One of my players expressed an interest in gambling. They wanted to play a blackjack style game, so I just had him and the dealer roll contested straight intelligence checks for about ten rounds, before I had him move on from that. Do any of you have some good suggestions for a light gambling system, maybe like 2-4 mini games that are interesting, rules light, and quick? The rest of the party seemed kinda intrigued after that player was done gambling away half of the party's gold  . I do have a laptop, a projected screen on my tabletop, and a monitor nearby, as well as decks of cards and whatnot.
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Sep 14, 2023 19:49
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Mederlock posted:This thread is awesome, so I'd like some inspiration. One of my players expressed an interest in gambling. They wanted to play a blackjack style game, so I just had him and the dealer roll contested straight intelligence checks for about ten rounds, before I had him move on from that. Depends on the setting but I frequently have people play cee lo as a tavern game if a player is set on gambling. I might even have loaded dice for when the occasion calls for it.. Contested checks for gambling is boring, pick a game and actually gamble with them and cheat. Just avoid poker/etc or you will have your D&D game turn into a poker game.
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Sep 14, 2023 20:13
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Mederlock posted:This thread is awesome, so I'd like some inspiration. One of my players expressed an interest in gambling. They wanted to play a blackjack style game, so I just had him and the dealer roll contested straight intelligence checks for about ten rounds, before I had him move on from that. my GM instinct is to figure out why your players want this? If they want to play poker maybe you should just schedule a poker night? If they just want a quick way to make in-game money you shouldn't put that much effort into it.
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Sep 14, 2023 20:13
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It's cool to have resolution mechanics that reflect and reinforce the narrative conflict or effort they represent. Dread is literally built on this premise, no reason poker couldn't work, especially as a mechanic for social conflict or deceit, in the same way that it's cool for many combat-centric games to resolve narrative violence through tactics minigames. Although just stapling it onto an existing game without causing problems when you displace whatever system was already in place to handle <thing> could be an issue.
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Sep 14, 2023 20:52
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Mederlock posted:This thread is awesome, so I'd like some inspiration. One of my players expressed an interest in gambling. They wanted to play a blackjack style game, so I just had him and the dealer roll contested straight intelligence checks for about ten rounds, before I had him move on from that. One suit poker with d12s. 1s are aces, 12s are queens, no kings, all the usual hands apply with an added max hand of five of a kind.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:34
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admanb posted:my GM instinct is to figure out why your players want this? If they want to play poker maybe you should just schedule a poker night? If they just want a quick way to make in-game money you shouldn't put that much effort into it. Their character's backstory has them as the son of a rich merchant, who's gotten in trouble before for blowing money and tarnishing the family's reputation. They wanted to get a quick gambling fix and get more gold for some magic items in town to impress the rest of the party. It also let me introduce another section of the main settlement in the region that they hadn't even thought to explore yet too E: Lamuella posted:One suit poker with d12s. 1s are aces, 12s are queens, no kings, all the usual hands apply with an added max hand of five of a kind. Oh I do like this, thanks! All but one person at the table likes poker anyways, this can be good for a few quick rounds of gambling! Mederlock fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Sep 14, 2023 |
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Sep 14, 2023 22:10
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Can you come back with the results for which games you played, and which worked best? I've got a player with the gambler background who wants to gamble as well. I was thinking street craps because we want to roll dice and it's pretty easy to learn.
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Sep 14, 2023 22:41
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I would just steal dice poker from The Witcher, assuming you have 10d6 lying around lol
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Sep 15, 2023 03:04
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Vargatron posted:Do y'all like incorporating puzzles into your games? I've been putting simple puzzles in my game sessions and my players seem to really like it. Most are pretty simple, like activating something in the right order. But I jazz it up a bit by hiding clues in lore notes and things like that. No puzzles for my group but I definitely write plot gotchas into my arcs. The Big Reveal is a magical moment that is priceless and sometime my players have unknowingly written themselves into a Big Reveal that didn’t originally exist. Sometimes my players come up with such batshit crazy stuff I have to roll with it just because
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Sep 15, 2023 03:24
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Some dice games that have been used on Critical Role that I just collected from some googling; reskin to match your game: Blackjack (simplified): Buy in = 30g (3/2 buyout). Dealer and players roll 2d10, they can hit and roll another 2d10 to get closest to 21 without going over Avandra's Favor: 25 gold pieces minimum buy-in. Players roll 2d6. If they add to a 7 or 12, the player wins. Gamblers can double the bet to add 1d6 to the total. Gambit of Ord 50 gold pieces initial buy-in. Each card player rolls 1d8, keeping the die hidden. Each player has the chance to raise the bet, call the bet (meet it), or fold. It continues when all bets are equal. Then each player rolls a 1d6, keeping it secret as well. A final chance to raise, call, or fold. Each remaining player rolls 1d4. They all reveal the 1d8, 1d6, and 1d4, adding them all together. Winner takes 80% of the pot (the other 20% goes to the casino). Ties split the 80%. Sleight of Hand can give a reroll; Deception can force a fold. Racing Lizard Game: 25 gold pieces minimum buy-in. Roll 1d4 for each lizard three times, describing the stages of the race at each round of rolls. The lizard with the highest roll total wins, and those who bet on it double their bet as winnings. Second place bet gets half of their bet back.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:24
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