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If your parties incredibly long and intricate planning process doesn’t instantly fall to poo poo on contact then are you even really playing dnd?
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Nov 7, 2023 17:52
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Zonko_T.M. posted:I played a halfling paladin named Hup who was based off Don Quixote. I charged blindly into every possible danger. Did I nearly die because of getting stunned by a monster in a cave while my party was two rooms behind? Yes. Did I solve traps by setting them all off while my DM got increasingly grumpy? Yes. Did my party ever get stalled trying to figure out what to do? No! This is my character in ToA, which feels a bit disingenuous as she's a tomb diving smart aleck who knows better, but also sometimes people just need to actually move forward
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Nov 7, 2023 17:57
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Oldsrocket_27 posted:I've had my party spend an entire session planning out a heist that they have subsequently beefed up almost immediately. Despite the fact that they got actual nothing done except planning the whole time they all said they really enjoyed that session. I was still able to participate as DM by fielding questions and making deliberately vague statements for them to mull over. IF everyone in the party is okay with it, I don't see a problem with eating up time on elaborate planning that will never work out. I'll second the above and also mention part of being a good GM is making the failure as fun or interesting as a success. Which I wish was a more ingrained concept in trpgs, though it seems to be catching on.
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Nov 7, 2023 21:58
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My players have elected to do a "High Seas Kaiju Slaying" campaign. Anybody have random advice / resources for a homebrew nautical campaign? I know it's been brought up before in this very thread but I am too low energy to hunt that down. I have a Cricut and I'm cutting out miniature scale cardstock boats with it so I'm excited for the ship-to-ship and ship-to-Kaiju combat. I am also curious if anyone has fun ideas for giant monsters. There will be, of course, fantasy Mothra, Godzilla, etc. Zonko_T.M. posted:I played a halfling paladin named Hup who was based off Don Quixote. I charged blindly into every possible danger. Did I nearly die because of getting stunned by a monster in a cave while my party was two rooms behind? Yes. Did I solve traps by setting them all off while my DM got increasingly grumpy? Yes. Did my party ever get stalled trying to figure out what to do? No! The "blithely charges into danger" archetype is really helpful in busting stagnation and making things exciting. My favorite characters to DM for are often this type of character
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Nov 7, 2023 22:07
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First and foremost: Get Limithron's Guide to Naval Combat. D&D is not well-suited to naval wargaming, but this book is about the best I've found on the topic of running nautical combat in dungeons and dragons. Make sure to give everybody a thing to do on the ship, in and out of combat. Also, Ghosts of Saltmarsh is not nearly as helpful as you might think it would be, but there are a few diamonds to be found in that particular brackish swamp. E.g.: My players really enjoyed "Salvage Operation", but that was about all I actually used out of it. Maybe long and obtuse Lizardfolk and Sahuagin-based dungeon crawls might be more up your group's alley. As far as big ol' water monsters: Juvenile Krakens, Giant Octopi, Dragon Turtles, Aboleths, maybe Marids? It's a shame the Eye of the Deep didn't make it to 5e.
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Nov 7, 2023 22:27
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pseudosavior posted:First and foremost: Get Limithron's Guide to Naval Combat. I was planning to use Limithron, so I'm glad that it looks like I'm on the right track! I'll place an order for the booklet or at least the .pdf then. I think the party is going to start out with a sloop/caravel and are going to upgrade to bigger boats as we get further in the campaign. Does the full Limithron version have recommendations for the player's boat / balancing combat? For ship roles, we're still figuring it out. I know I need to be careful with who becomes captain because I worry the role will go to a player's head. I wasn't planning to pick up Saltmarsh, but Salvage Operation does look good. I'll crib from that at least. And yeah, there at least needs to be a Kraken and a Giant Turtle to fight. So with Godzilla and Mothra that's like 4 of the 8 Kaiju I plan to have. I'm thinking also a smaller Kaiju would help mix things up. Ooh, also an evil King Kong would be fun. Lots of fun things to have. I also note that one of the "sells" was that they absorb the powers of the Kaiju. So the monsters will have stuff like laser beams, lighting themselves on fire like the Human Torch, shooting webs, etc. Lots of fun things, lots of fun things. Thanks for the help 
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Nov 7, 2023 22:45
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pseudosavior posted:First and foremost: Get Limithron's Guide to Naval Combat. Ironic, since I remember hearing that the original Chainmail was based on naval miniature wargaming rules. It might be more accurate to say D&D is bad for naval wargaming for anything smaller in scale than whole ships.
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Nov 8, 2023 00:21
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Asterite34 posted:Ironic, since I remember hearing that the original Chainmail was based on naval miniature wargaming rules. It might be more accurate to say D&D is bad for naval wargaming for anything smaller in scale than whole ships. I think the idea is that they just ganked the concept of AC from a naval game but if I'm wrong it wouldn't be the first time today. my buddy and I were just talking about finally getting our hands on Chainmail and the white box after years of playing 1e and 2e and just being confused
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Nov 8, 2023 01:06
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Luxury Tent Carpet posted:If your parties incredibly long and intricate planning process doesn’t instantly fall to poo poo on contact then are you even really playing dnd? This reminds me of a group that arrived with a small army to attack a fortified abby occupied by Hobgoblins. We arrived late afternoon on an overcast day with drizzling rain. With a human army (no darkvision), we opted to hold off. Our dwarf cleric used Divination to get timing advice: the best time to attack on a clear day was the following afternoon, the best time to attack in the rain was the morning after next, and the best time for an aerial assault (we had two PCs who could fly) was never. We started planning, noticed the dry moat around the abby, noted our two clerics could both cast Control Water on the moat if it were filled, had our eyes bug out at the possibilities, and planned to delay the assault for two days and wait for the rain to fill the moat. Our clerics both prepped Control Water. The morning after next, it was overcast, with a light drizzle. The moats showed no signs of filling. We ended up attacking and seizing the abby almost entirely with PCs (granted, L9 PCs). Only 8 of our soldiers were killed. The moral of the story is, never ask Moradin for a weather report.
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Nov 8, 2023 01:42
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Empty Sandwich posted:I think the idea is that they just ganked the concept of AC from a naval game but if I'm wrong it wouldn't be the first time today. Hit Points, from the Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game.
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Nov 8, 2023 15:46
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Planning is all well and good and part of the fun, but yeah, you need someone to kind of function as a party administrator who turns to the DM and says, 'okay so we do it.' Make sure this permission is explicit and understood but it's a critical part of making the game run smoothly. A couple of pointers tho: * Excessive planning is usually a sign of something. Sometimes it can just be someone (or multiple someone's) who really likes to be clever, and this behavior is probably fine in most groups, so long as it doesn't become the focus of the entire game. * Relatedly, sometimes players think they can 'out think' the story and plan for every eventuality or overcome all obstacles. A story with no obstacles is the literal actual opposite of a story, so this puts the DM in a rough spot where they have to either let the plan go off without much of a hitch, thus making their story a non-story, or they can choose to interfere, making the 2 hour planning session feel like a waste. * Obviously an experienced DM can offer tension and complication by creating smaller challenges along the way that threaten the plan but this is difficult to walk. What I'm saying is over-planning is hard to address as a DM and doubly so as an inexperienced one. * If this is more of a group compulsion than a personality thing, meaning it feels like you're falling into an hour+ planning session without even really meaning to, have a talk OOC. Mention that you see over-planning as a potential problem and invent some short hand to bring discussion to a close. This can be a time limit, a hand signal, or something, but just learn to recognize when it's become 'too much.'
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Nov 9, 2023 00:35
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Planning at the table is the best thing you can ask for as a DM tbh because it's the players going out of their way to slow roll your adventure and also tell you exactly what they're planning on doing. Smart DM is taking notes in the margin of their key to adjust their material to meet the players expectations and shore up angles you didn't think about. Not to gently caress them over, just so you have an entertaining answer for whatever comes up.
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Nov 9, 2023 02:30
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Ir's worth checking in with the players to see if they enjoy the planning. If they're having fun, there's no problem to fix.
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Nov 9, 2023 17:58
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Players doing my prep work for me >>>>
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Nov 9, 2023 22:33
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The worst thing is your party spending 45 minutes theorycrafting an amazing plan that would totally work and fits your plans, just to have them abandon it and wing some bad bullshit at the last minute.
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Nov 9, 2023 23:12
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Going to be running the Planescape adventure tomorrow starting with a Session 0 and I'm pretty excited. I'm the only one with any prior knowledge of the setting so I look forward to slipping in extra details outside of the written stuff. I've been workshopping some additional encounters for the later chapters if they decide to keep going past the initial Sigil portion.
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Nov 11, 2023 00:38
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TheHoosier posted:Going to be running the Planescape adventure tomorrow starting with a Session 0 and I'm pretty excited. I'm the only one with any prior knowledge of the setting so I look forward to slipping in extra details outside of the written stuff. I've been workshopping some additional encounters for the later chapters if they decide to keep going past the initial Sigil portion. Hope you have fun and keep us updated.
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Nov 11, 2023 05:44
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I'm going to be running Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis for my group once we wrap up Witchlight, and I share a lot of the concerns I've seen about some of the sloppiness in the editing of these adventures. I can't discuss these concerns with my players, though, but I'm hoping you guys might have some experience with these modules to share. The first and most obvious one is that Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis don't fit together as written. Of course they'd need to account for players who hadn't gotten up to 5th level playing Spelljammer Academy, but the opening goes entirely in the opposite direction and seems to assume the players as naive to the existence of spelljamming. How are your players supposed to play one of the new, non-Toril spacefaring races if you're supposed to be caught by surprise that the ship you escape trouble on is a spaceship? Next is Vocath, who plays a sort of Jabba the Hutt role as a crime boss you need to deal with in order to put together your rebel fleet. The problem is Vocath was the main antagonist of Spelljammer Academy, planting a saboteur among the cadets and flat out attacking the academy with mercenaries at the finale. Having to work together against a larger threat could be interesting, but nothing is invested in trying to connect these dots. (Just for added flavor, Mercanes are described as basically never forgiving an enemy, and due to their racial collective telepathy to offend one can cut you off from all Mercane trade forever - again, could be interesting if explored!) As an aside, the back third of Spelljammer Academy is dedicated to Vocath trying to extract his saboteur, Miken, after the players reveal he was Vocath's double agent. Why? Miken was a stooge with no further value. Why throw your best mercenaries into a full-scale attack just to get him back? Vocath's motivation to gently caress with the academy is never explained beyond a vague grudge against the director, and it's very hard to work backward from his actions without adding something big (Miken didn't even know the name of his employer so it isn't intel). The ending choice is pure first-draft, decide between destroying Xaryxis's star to save your world or spare them and your world dies. This is like asking players to weigh the moral calculus of destroying the Death Star because... I don't know, there's probably a lot of support staff on there? Never mind the Imperial Citadel can move, so it's not like they're doomed to be destroyed in the blast. It's a non-choice outside of trolley problem logic. It's not like there's a sympathetic Astral Elf around to plead their case, because the princess is written to always betray you in the throne room, which basically guarantees the Xaryxians can only be an irredeemable hostile force. Supporting the princess up to the point of the betrayal also doesn't really get you anything, the scene in the throne room basically always happens and plays out the same way even if Xellendis dies the first time you meet her. A lot of other things are just missed opportunities. Doomspace is a system destroyed by a disaster totally unrelated to the Xaryxian Empire, instead it should obviously be the last system destroyed by the Xaryxians. You could even make it the battle that the Giff Commodore Krux lost against the Xaryxians, tying his melancholy to the fate of this system and motivating him to help you raise them up again. That way, the rebel fleet you raise there actually has a stake in the finale. During that finale, make sure that the rebel fleet's efforts actually impact your assault on the palace, instead of getting handwaved as all dying offscreen! Something like the amount of time you have to defeat Xeleth before reinforcements arrive, or your allies being able to hold off different encounters along the way so you can face Xeleth (also: have some encounters on the way in). Have the conflict not be whether you blow up the star, but whether you've had enough of an impact on the princess to lead to a change of heart where she voluntarily withdraws the Imperial Citadel and allows you to destroy the star, or if she's tempted by power and turns on you. Where's the Spelljammer Corps in all this? Prince Andru could have them locked down on the Rock of Bral, terrified of refugees flooding off your doomed world and overrunning the port as well as fighting the Xaryxians. If you succeed in building the rebel fleet, create an opportunity to get back in contact with Mirt and co from the Academy to pressure Andru to join the fleet. I could go on all day about how the other Astral Elf empires justify their neutrality in the conflict or Vocath trying to corner the market on arms dealing to anti-Xaryxian rebels (replace the adamantine asteroid in Spelljammer Academy with one made of the crystal used in the Create Spelljammer Helm spell to explain his interest in the academy), but the upshot is, there's so much good stuff in here that's all just one step off from connecting up. It's honestly kind of fascinating how much of a target-rich-environment it is for an editing pass. I just needed to get that off my chest, since I won't be able to tell my players for like two years until we do our campaign retrospective. If anyone has any other advice or experience to share about this campaign, I'd really appreciate it!
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Nov 11, 2023 21:27
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Doesn't the Theros DND setting have rules and stuff for fighting big monsters like you're Kratos?
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Nov 12, 2023 02:11
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Raenir Salazar posted:Doesn't the Theros DND setting have rules and stuff for fighting big monsters like you're Kratos? It doesn't really have anything like that for the player characters, but it does have three monsters in the bestiary section that have an optional "mythic trait" that the DM can activate when the monster drops to 0 hp, restoring its health and giving it access to mythic actions that can be used as legendary actions which make the encounters more challenging.
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Nov 12, 2023 05:10
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TheHoosier posted:Going to be running the Planescape adventure tomorrow starting with a Session 0 and I'm pretty excited. I'm the only one with any prior knowledge of the setting so I look forward to slipping in extra details outside of the written stuff. I've been workshopping some additional encounters for the later chapters if they decide to keep going past the initial Sigil portion. i’m going to be running that campaign as well. it won’t be for a few months though. i’ve never dm’d before but my crew is doing candlekeep mysteries and we are taking turns doing dm. so i’ll have at least one session under my belt when we get to it.
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Nov 12, 2023 06:12
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My players have just entered a troglodyte lair in out of the abyss. This is a lvl 10 party which is kinda expected for this part of the campaign. The lair just full of generic CR 1/2 Troglodytes. Just nothing interesting about them. Early 5E writers really had no idea how to do encounters or what a meaningful challenge would look like.  I just reskinned some Orcs from Flee Mortals if the players have to fight and not just sneak through.
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Nov 12, 2023 08:04
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I just played a real season of DND for the first time last weekend, I was the DM for two other players while also playing a party character in a support role. Another player had flaked on us(adopted a baby can do that) so I had to do some heavy lifting with some interactions while trying to avoid railroading as I was playing the party Bard. We used up the whole weekend and survived through Stormwreck Isle starting adventure with a few modifications due to me forgetting certain elements of the adventures. IE characters (names are hard) plot points,map layouts(that myconid cave was pretty much a straight line I think how I described it,I also forgot about the octopus) and trying to find a way why three strangers might want to band together on this island. My Bard was looking to use the island as a muse(secretly trying to lie low for a while), Druid wanted to use the library for research(after being kicked out of her village for being too inquisitive),and the Ranger was fished out of the drowning waters near the isle on a quest to find why his dragon turtle worshipping village disappeared (he want it to be a water elemental dragon pulled them into the water plane). Overall a success and they are addicted and want to get together next weekend and switch DM to play a one off adventure they are cooking up while I DM the main storyline again later.I have no idea where it going and haven't had time to plan anything yet. Stormwreck ended with me in exhaustion making up on the fly having the caretaker of the island give the crew a letter and note of introduction to find a halfling wizard name Flibbidy Gibbet in Wintercrest on what transpired on the isle. Also the Ranger chose drake warden as their subclass but they forgot they could summon a drake till the main boss.When they got hit by lightning breath I played Transformers "The Touch" and they instantly knew what was happening.I allowed them to describe in great detail how the sequence of getting hit and awakening his class power looked like, was a real highlight for them. Quixotic1 fucked around with this message at 09:18 on Nov 12, 2023 |
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Nov 12, 2023 09:13
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Dolash posted:I'm going to be running Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis for my group once we wrap up Witchlight, and I share a lot of the concerns I've seen about some of the sloppiness in the editing of these adventures. I can't discuss these concerns with my players, though, but I'm hoping you guys might have some experience with these modules to share. I can only give you the experience that I had as a player who read through the module after the campaign was finished, and I definitely agree with you that the whole thing is really, really sloppy. No experience with Spelljammer Academy but Light of Xaryxis had this overwhelming feeling of "If Players succed, Goto X. If Players fail, Also Goto X". We ended up getting the impression that the astral elf princess was going to betray us, so we didn't do anything to help them in the arena, and then didn't really care when she turned heel. Talking with the DM about it afterwards and I agree with them saying that it felt like a module that they intended to stream for one of their liveplays but never actually thought about how it would play at a table. It's also a little weird how linear the whole thing is. You're being brought to these big systems for these objectives and you end up exploring a pin point on that system before moving on to the next big astral elf encounter. I know open-ended adventures are a lot of work for a matter of preference though, so I guess if I was going to play it again I would probably want a few differences. 1) Have the rebels that you recruit make a difference for the finale. Whether that lessens the difficulty of the pre-existing encounters (except for the Zodar one, that one was good on its own) because more elves are off fighting the space encounter or what, it felt lovely to spend a whole session doing diplomacy and it meaning jack and poo poo. 2) Include some consequences for failure. Or maybe consequences for success? It seems like both roads lead the same way so it might be good to have some rippling consequences. 3) There's a royal court of astral elves and you don't even get the chance to play them against each other. It's just a "Did you side with the princess? She betrays you. Did you lose the fight against the zodar? well he still wants you dead too." It would be cool if you could convince the princess to believe as she advertised, or to get the prince to do some dumb poo poo. I think it was really funny that there's that whole post-arena encounter where the prince abducts the princess and you're guaranteed to fail, but there's no consequences if you just give her up and avoid the hassle. So i'd say all of your concerns are justified, because during the campaign there were a lot of moments where I felt like there wasn't any weight to the decisions so I would always opt for the path of least resistance, because that would end it sooner. It was also a lovely feeling to know that the best session of the campaign (diplomacy after the arena fights) was completely meaningless.
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Nov 12, 2023 17:56
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Arrrthritis posted:I can only give you the experience that I had as a player who read through the module after the campaign was finished, Thank you for sharing, it's validating to get a player perspective on the experience because there's only so much you can do as a DM interpreting the material in theory. I enjoyed the Dungeon Master Of None podcast episode on this module, and with your observations there seems to be some consensus that the campaign cpuld work if it was overhauled. Somr of the problems could be picked up in editing, some in play-testing, and some are endemic to having only ~60 pages tp work with. I'm going to go for it though and see if I can turn this thing around.
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Nov 12, 2023 21:24
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Rubberduke posted:My players have just entered a troglodyte lair in out of the abyss. This is a lvl 10 party which is kinda expected for this part of the campaign. The lair just full of generic CR 1/2 Troglodytes. Just nothing interesting about them. Early 5E writers really had no idea how to do encounters or what a meaningful challenge would look like. I ran the entire module and I ended up having to rebalance/rework every single encounter including the final battle.
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Nov 13, 2023 19:30
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Pussy Quipped posted:I ran the entire module and I ended up having to rebalance/rework every single encounter including the final battle. Well, they ended up pretty much speedrunning the trog cave. So much for spending 4 hours on a battle map.
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Nov 14, 2023 10:16
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Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. Similarly, is there a go-to place for dice? Would like to get my kids their own set to start them off.
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Nov 14, 2023 14:34
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Klungar posted:Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. Amazon has loads of really cheap dice if you want to start off with something simple. For maps, the Pathfinder flipmat is great.
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Nov 14, 2023 14:54
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Klungar posted:Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. If I were dm'ing these days, and I had a regular group who wanted to do miniature combats (my current group is all theater of mind people), I'd get one of those wooden frames that go around a flat-screen and turn them into a play surface, just throw the map of the day on the screen and run miniatures on it. Or if you have Matt mercer money then buy a shitload of miniature sets.
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Nov 14, 2023 14:59
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Klungar posted:Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. How do you feel about doing a projector or TV table, and just using maps from online? I use a projector myself, but when I'm feeling lazy or didn't have time to prep my setup, I just use the Chessex roll out map and wet erase markers. Obviously this is extra AF but I find it super satisfying. When I get my own house I'd like to ceiling mount the projector and mirror so it's a much cleaner setup.  I also have a stash of trees, buildings, etc. that I printed out of my inkjet on cardstock paper and cut out with scissors that I can throw on the Chessex mat. Sandwich Anarchist posted:Amazon has loads of really cheap dice if you want to start off with something simple. For maps, the Pathfinder flipmat is great. I wouldn't recommend those oodles and oodles of cheap dice from Amazon. I bought one of those 20 packs of 7 dice sets for like $20-$30 and spent an hour testing their balance and almost /every/ single one was waaaaay off. Like, a small amount of being off balance doesn't matter to me, but these ones bobbed like an ocean buoy on a specific number. Just buy 1-3 sets of translucent (easier to see voids/big air bubbles in the dice) Chessex or Game Science dice to start off with, it'll cost as much as 200 cheap dice and won't be unfair to you or your players
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Nov 14, 2023 15:12
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Thanks for the suggestions. Projection/screen solutions aren't on my horizon just yet (just trying to get some basics for a first attempt at TTRPG with my 6 and 8 year old), but definitely something to consider for later. Went with the Chessex Megamat because Paizo apparently has 1-2 week processing waits on their stuff, and I needed something for Thanksgiving. Also picked up a Chessex Pound-O-Dice to hopefully hit a sweet spot between the 200+ crap sets and the individual Chessex sets.
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Nov 14, 2023 16:44
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As far as mats go, I have the standard 1" square grid/hex grid, a set of dungeon tiles, and one of the big spiral-bound books of various scenes that one of my players left at my house before ghosting the campaign, so I use them mostly. But my personal hack for larger (bigger than 28x36) maps is pretty simple: wrapping paper. It's pretty cheap, readily available this time of year, and often comes with 1" squares printed on the back. And, if my players laugh at the fact that the back of the map says "ho ho ho" on it, I just drop more monsters down on the board.
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Nov 14, 2023 17:10
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Big-rear end drywipe board and make the players draw the map as you describe it because you’re lazy
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Nov 14, 2023 17:15
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Klungar posted:Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. Late, but I just finished my "gaming table"; bought a used coffee table from ReStore ($15), removed top, bought used TV from Goodwill ($20) that rests on the legs/frame in a way not intended by the manufacturer. We just took down a floating dividing wall in our living room, so I used the construction lumber to make a "frame" for the tv in perhaps the not smartest way, but it was the first time I have used a miter saw, kreg jig (wanted it strongish, but lack experience for doweling/joining), and router. I managed to only make several aesthetic gouges in the garbage lumber. Most expensive part was the acrylic sheet ($50) since I didn't want to splurge on tempered glass for my trash table. The TV is just new enough to accept a USB with videos/images, so if I don't want to plug my laptop in to run FondryVTT I can still load maps onto the USB and just play. I may "pretty up" the wood frame by finishing/staining/sealing it, but it worked great for now. There are foundry modules to help scale the map to the right size to be 1x1 inch on the screen. (picture from before i routed out recess for acrylic sheet) 
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Nov 14, 2023 17:33
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Am I missing something about Strixhaven? I’m running it right now, part way through year 2, and the “adventure” is some of the lamest poo poo I’ve seen. The story is so flimsy that I’ve had to retool most of it, and the encounters seem to just be there for the PC’s to occasionally have a fight. I like the concept but I can’t figure out if there’s more to this module that I’m not getting, or if it’s just bad. Has anyone run it or have some tips?
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Nov 14, 2023 18:07
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From I remember around the release, common consensus was that they tried to split the difference between a sourcebook and an adventure and ended up not getting a satisfactory version of either.
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Nov 14, 2023 18:32
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VaultAggie posted:Am I missing something about Strixhaven? I’m running it right now, part way through year 2, and the “adventure” is some of the lamest poo poo I’ve seen. The story is so flimsy that I’ve had to retool most of it, and the encounters seem to just be there for the PC’s to occasionally have a fight. I'm running it and no, it really is that bad. It sounds like you're doing the same as me, adding some actual story around the largely unconnected and trivial encounters so there's something going on beyond a bunch of minigames and weak justifications to go into dungeons. On the other hand Candlekeep Mysteries and some of the Golden Vault adventures slot nicely in to provide some meat to the bones, as do some of the Radiant Citadel ones for low-level stuff; I used the museum heist from Golden Vault as a plot point (an academic realises there's a cursed item in a collection of relics sold to a private collector and asks the party to steal it back before the big exhibition opening) and built up a story about all the mishaps in Year 1 being the work of a gang of criminals working as archaeologists looting the university's archives for things to sell - and getting more and more dangerous items and clients, such as cursed books, dangerous animals and so on. The other thing I've done is tie some of the players' backstories in to "field trips" or group holidays - so in the next few sessions they're accompanying a senior academic as she visits another academy in one of their homelands - and the party have their own agendas to try and find out some things about secret societies and some of the clues to the main villain once they're there. I'll also throw in the second Radiant Citadel adventure, the one with the undead and haunted house, as a little spanner in the works as they end up trapped by bad weather in a small town in the middle of nowhere with spooky things going on.
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Nov 14, 2023 19:39
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Klungar posted:Anyone have recommendations for products for having a map at a table? I've played on dry erase interlocking tiles, roll-up plastic mats, theater of the mind, etc., but I don't currently own anything. This depends a lot on how you DM. I travel to DM and carry my stuff with me so I use a Paizo wipe-clean flipmat (I have three) and a set of clear plastic standees from Skinny Minis (Arcknight are cheaper and almost as good). In practice I find standees look a lot better than unpainted minis - and my painted to unpainted mini ratio is very low (I backed Reaper Bones on kickstarter) - and prepaints are generally very basic paint jobs so don't look better than standees. Clear plastic IMO looks significantly better than paper for standees but cardboard is cheaper and looks far better than bare metal. But a lot depends on how much you are willing to spend in terms of money and time. And whether playing at home or somewhere else; Chessex Battlemats are great if you have one set table you use. I've got prettier things but find they take too long to prepare for the way I run. As for the go-to for dice, Amazon does cheap sets; you can get five sets of polyhedral dice for $10
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Nov 15, 2023 01:51
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 09:12 |
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Book of Many Things is out on Beyond, physical is delayed cause of defective cards in enough sets to be annoying.
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Nov 15, 2023 01:54
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