|
I'm wary of any quirk or trait that only penalizes a character, even if it's in situations that may rarely or never occur. The novel situation of traveling and/or fighting on a boat can be ruined for the player if they're dealing with a penalty that nobody else has to deal with. So I think seasickness should just be an RP thing. Besides, PCs are supposed to be heroes. Sure, Torq Geargrinder grew up in the Underhalls and pukes her guts out every time she's on a boat, but when poo poo goes down, she swallows the bile rising in her throat and steels herself for action.
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 16:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 23:48 |
|
|
Something like that probably works best if each character has some weird weakness that rarely comes up. If it’s a trade off or a common issue then it becomes a balance problem (as in seasickness is much less of a weakness than sunlight sensitivity, for most campaigns.)
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 16:25
|
|
|
I'm kind of with Brennan Lee Mulligan in that if you're going to give a character a negative trait or flaw, at least make it funny. In his case for the audience to watch, but at most home games it's going to be a case of making sure it's funny or tension producing for the table and not simply a fun vacuum. Disadvantage on attack rolls seems harsh to me - it's harsh especially if there's going to be combat, and it's just weird and useless if there isn't. Con saves or you throw up is something that at least has sophomoric humour potential.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 17:16
|
|
|
Bobby Deluxe posted:I'm kind of with Brennan Lee Mulligan in that if you're going to give a character a negative trait or flaw, at least make it funny. In his case for the audience to watch, but at most home games it's going to be a case of making sure it's funny or tension producing for the table and not simply a fun vacuum. Yeah agreed. The function of a negative quirk should be contextual spotlighting, not frustration and avoidance. If one character basically can't operate on the water, the party will never go to sea again.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 17:24
|
|
|
Kaal posted:Yeah agreed. The function of a negative quirk should be contextual spotlighting, not frustration and avoidance. If one character basically can't operate on the water, the party will never go to sea again. Yeah, it should never stop the party from getting on a boat; it should just mean they have to convince the party member who hates boats to get on the boat, like how the A-Team needs to convince B.A. to get on the helicopter.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 17:42
|
|
|
We're finally rolling in Tomb proper and we ended last session by bursting into Withers' office... where he recognized one of the party members as his daughter, so that was probably a good way of stopping us from murdering this undead instantly
change my name fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Feb 16, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 17:45
|
|
|
The beat way I've seen quirks and weaknesses come up is having them be "you get disadvantage now if you RP this effectively but can bank it for advantage when you want later."
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 18:07
|
|
|
I like a low CON save after teleportation or a planar shift. It's a weird thing to go through! If you pass, you're fine. If you fail, you puke and your next CHA check has a -5 or disadvantage if you rolled a 1 because your breath smells like vomit. It's easy to RP and trying to cure bad breath can be a fun diversion.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 19:38
|
|
|
Inkspot posted:I like a low CON save after teleportation or a planar shift. It's a weird thing to go through! If you pass, you're fine. If you fail, you puke and your next CHA check has a -5 or disadvantage if you rolled a 1 because your breath smells like vomit. It's easy to RP and trying to cure bad breath can be a fun diversion. Yeah one thing about 5e is how it kinda flattens and abstracts a lot of progression, the fantasy of like learning a new move you can only do once and have some sort of drawback or special circumstance to pull off is so like, built in to the core progression of like, Fighter that the moment you "master" some skill doesn't really have any ompf or fanfare if it isn't something like training a bonus feat in downtime with the cooperation of the DM.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 19:45
|
|
|
It took five years but my group finally made it through the Tomb of Annihilation campaign. My party recruited just about every possible NPC on the way so they had a veritable army descending into the tomb, so I ended up buffing the final fight considerably. One of the characters is a Zealot Barbarian who really didn't have any viable ranged options since there isn't much opportunity to shop. This is his story: I had given Acererak a flight item so he didn't have to maintain concentration on the spell, but had other monsters for the landbound portion of the group to fight. After Ace kills a PC sorcerer with Power Word Kill and obliterates a deceased NPCs body with the Sphere of Annihilation, the Barbarian decides he absolutely going after the lich no matter the risk (he also had Kubazons spirit inhabiting him i.e. a froghemoth trickster god who embodies boldness and grants 23 strength so it was great roleplay all around). He happens to be holding the Amulet of the Black Skull which is one of the ways you can teleport in the Tomb, though it is cursed with a nasty table of possible side effects if non-undead use it, which they've identified, but haven't used yet. I let him ready an action to activate the Amulet right before his next turn so he could attempt to grapple the lich midair over the pit of lava in the final chamber (questionably RAW but much too cool to disallow). He teleports, but fails his constitution save despite bless. We roll, and its the funniest option: he successfully teleports but all of his clothing and equipment is moved to a random space nearby. Now the giant raging nude zealot barbarian appears in Ace's face. He grapples, easy success. He bare fist punches the lich, activating every ability he has (and which includes 3d6 psychic damage from the trickster god spirit) rolls a critical which takes a good chunk of Ace's remaining life pool. After the Barb's turn, Ace decides getting hugged and pummeled by that much sweaty man meat is unacceptable, and uses his last legendary action for the round on paralyzing touch, and Barbarian fails his blessed save again including his class reroll and falls into the lava (fortunately for him with the trickster god spirit you have massive regen so its quite hard to die). Another party member hits hard enough to push Ace below his flee threshold, which saved the Sorcerer from annihilation. (to be clear while I don't ordinarily go out of my way to kill PCs, Ace with his 28 or so intelligence had recognized he wasn't getting much past the trickster god healing and had decided to inflict as much permanent hurt as possible before fleeing). It was a memorable end to a long, long adventure Grogquock fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Feb 16, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2024 22:37
|
|
|
Do Githyanki befriend their dragons or is it a command relationship?
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2024 20:52
|
|
|
Baron Porkface posted:Do Githyanki befriend their dragons or is it a command relationship? Begrudging truce (due to a treaty with Tiamat to defend the material plane) and bribery with raid trasures.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2024 21:37
|
|
|
Baron Porkface posted:Do Githyanki befriend their dragons or is it a command relationship? It's like a buddy cop deal, they're put together by assignment because Tiamat/Vlaakith Says Play Nice
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 03:15
|
|
|
A gith and a dragon in their XXXL get-along shirt
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 03:57
|
|
|
Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in. Running Phandelver and the Obelisk for some folks, anything to know about the adventure? Common issues/fixes? etc? Using the official foundry integration and frankly it's worth it's weight in gold.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 17:55
|
|
|
Elendil004 posted:Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in. Running Phandelver and the Obelisk for some folks, anything to know about the adventure? Common issues/fixes? etc? Lost Mines of Phandelver is one of the best adventures WotC printed. The Shattered Obelisk is probably one of the two worst. I haven't run it so I don't have any particular fixes for you, but if you google there are a lot and you can pick your favorites.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 18:30
|
|
|
Got back into d&d after a decade hiatus and running through lost mines with a mixed group of newbie to experienced. So far if there's any complaints it's that the combat isn't challenging enough, but it's been fun all the way through.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 18:35
|
|
|
disaster pastor posted:The Shattered Obelisk is probably one of the two worst wow really that bad? any particular reason
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 18:44
|
|
|
hot cocoa on the couch posted:wow really that bad? any particular reason I personally don't agree, as the biggest complaint I have seen brought up was complaining about dungeon ecology.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 19:56
|
|
|
Yeah I would like to know more.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 20:19
|
|
|
Would also be interested in hearing why? Cause I can only think of very minor things at most.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 20:27
|
|
|
I don't know what disaster pastor thinks, but here's The Alexandrian's opinion on the matter: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/50077/roleplaying-games/review-the-shattered-obelisk
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:40
|
|
|
^^ I think Alexandrian is a nitpicky grognard, but he's got some good points here. Ignore his complaints about the maps, though, that's him being way too nitpicky IMO. Some of the things that stood out to me: * There's very little tying LMoP to the Shattered Obelisk; the point appears to be "you can run LMoP by itself or you can use it as part 1 and Obelisk as part 2," but you could already run LMoP by itself, so why jam them together at all? They put new NPCs in Phandelver that, by and large, don't do anything (or even appear) until after the LMoP content. Some of the existing NPCs mention seeing weird goblins if you ask, but have no useful information about them, partly because there's nothing useful to know about them. They change an owlbear to a grell, but I'm not even sure that's supposed to be an attempt to tie them together because the grell doesn't matter. And they leave many of the unbalanced encounters in LMoP people have known and complained about since it was first published. (Notable exception: they add monsters to Cragmaw Hideout, which was already a TPK factory.) * The shard "hunt" is dumb and largely pointless. There are seven shards, and by the time they come up, the goblins have grabbed four and the PCs are investigating the "crime scenes." You might think the PCs are supposed to catch the goblins and retrieve the shards, but you'd be wrong. The goblins have already handed the shards off to the mind flayers, and the PCs' goal is to find enough clues at the crime scenes for one of the new NPCs to tell them where the goblins are hiding. They can fail at this task; the adventure then says "Gwyn can't find the relevant research. The characters must uncover more clues to find Zorzula's Rest. If they are stuck and return to Gwyn for help, she can then tell them the location." Again, dumb and pointless. * The last shard is only accessible because the mind flayer trying to retrieve it has been a room away from the shard for "the past few weeks" because he can't figure out how to get his minions through a magical wall. The magical wall has a command word. The command word is written down on a piece of paper like five rooms away, so the PCs can find it. They couldn't have found a better way to write this section? * What happens if the PCs lose one of the last three shards? Glad you asked. Check out this map. If the PCs have all three shards, then one mind flayer is at each of A1, A2 and A4. If they have two, the A2 mind flayer... moves to A4. If they have one or none... all three mind flayers move to A4. Does this matter? Not really, because if the PCs have 2–3 shards and engage the mind flayer at A1, she telepathically alerts the others before combat. * The whole thing with Thorgran. Dumathoin warned Thorgran about mind flayers coming to the mine in plenty of time for him to do something about it. What did he do? "Thorgran set aside his work and faked his death for the freedom to investigate without interference from hangers-on and well-meaning assistants ... Thorgran's corpse is now a puppet for a mutated cloaker, as the characters will discover later in this chapter." It contributes to an overall feeling that the adventure is just "cleaning up after other people's messes." * I can't speak for this one myself since I didn't run it, I just read it and decided not to use it, but the overwhelming consensus I've seen and heard about the end boss is "it's tedious and anticlimactic, not fun." I still think it's better than Dragon Heist, but as a whole, it feels just absurdly lazy and leans heavily on the DM to keep it interesting, which is bad when it's now the official way to get "the best beginner 5e adventure." There's stuff like the elder brain that can track the PCs as soon as they enter its stronghold, but if you want that to matter you'll have to invent something, because the elder brain just sits and waits for the PCs to come fight it. There are definitely ways to make up for its issues; again, google "fix shattered obelisk" and you'll find reddit subcommittees dedicated to the task. But it's lousy to read a $70 book and think "well, if I want to run this, I'm going to have to put a lot of work into filling in gaps."
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2024 21:57
|
|
|
The first dungeon, Cragmaw caves does seem like a TPK factory, I've got some new players and only running 4 so I might pull some punches there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 01:30
|
|
|
We had a new player join the party as a cleric. Hot dice on inflict wounds and toll the dead can really pump out some damage, huh. Who needs healing when you can just delete some opposing minions.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 06:54
|
|
|
Rythian posted:I don't know what disaster pastor thinks, but here's The Alexandrian's opinion on the matter: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/50077/roleplaying-games/review-the-shattered-obelisk Yeah this is the review I didn’t care for. Especially with stuff like the Hydra.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 07:35
|
|
|
Outrail posted:Got back into d&d after a decade hiatus and running through lost mines with a mixed group of newbie to experienced. So far if there's any complaints it's that the combat isn't challenging enough, but it's been fun all the way through. Combat in 5e is hard to get to a point where it feels interesting, and it doesn't help that the provided CR system doesn't work quite as well as advertised. By level 5 or 6, the PCs can bulldoze just about anything that shows up by itself since they have so many more actions than the monster. Especially if they are coming in fresh off of a long rest. There is basically no point in tossing in a random overland encounter if it is going to be the only action the PCs will see that day, it is just combat for combat's sake as there is nothing that will carryover in effect to the next day's adventuring.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 15:54
|
|
|
I'm a new DM running my first campaign, and poo poo went completely sideways in our last session. Running Keys from the Golden Vault with some homebrew connective tissue between heists. The group robbed a casino and got away clean through some clever deception and well timed distractions. One player was in the vault stuffing everything not nailed down into a bag of holding while the rest of the party ran interference. That session was great. Loved it. But in the following session it went to hell. They met with the contact in a tavern's back room, and gave the requisite gold and statuette as were the terms of the contract. Everything was going smoothly. But then the character with the bag of holding decided to lie to the rest of the party about how much extra gold was in the bag. So I had them roll contested deception/insight rolls, and basically everyone knew he was lying. I decided to let this play out and had the only NPC leave the room. These are all adults who have been playing D&D for years. They can handle inter-party conflict and figure this out. lol, egg on my dumb face. The player with the bag of holding decides gently caress IT, casts fog cloud and tries to make a break for the door. The player admits in the moment they are fully aware this means they are almost guaranteed to be rolling a new character regardless of outcome. Everything goes to hell and now we are in PvP combat. They eventually non-lethally subdue the escaping party member, but in the fracas another player had stolen the bag of holding off of him and given it to her imp familiar who went invisible. So now the party's rogue is blocking the door and refuses to move until the bag with the loot is visible, and the player who's invisible imp has it is flat-out refusing to budge on having her familiar reappear. So now we are in a stalemate, and there is a moment of silence before people are looking at me, as if I had anything to do with this series of decisions. So we end the session with an out of character table conversation and it sounds like this campaign is just dead now. In-fiction, why the gently caress would any of these people continue traveling together. The player who tried to make a break for it with the bag admits to loving up and apologized after the session. The player with the invisible familiar was frustrated by everyone else's confusion with her actions because her character was supposed to be untrustworthy, so trying to hold onto the bag therefore makes sense. So I know I hosed up. I should have nipped the PvP stuff in the bud before it got as far as it did. But in the moment I didn't want to take away the player's agency by just saying "you can't do that". We've been playing together for years, and I figured they would be able to figure it out. During all that time they never even tried to pull this PvP nonsense with our normal DM, but couldn't make it 10 sessions before completely imploding while I'm DMing. More than anything else I'm just bummed out. Like, I'm honestly much sadder about this than I expected. Edit: IF I decide to try and run another campaign with this group I'm going to have to set some ground rules for this kind of stuff apparently. It's frustrating that our normal DM never had to set these kind of ground rules though, because none of these same players tried these kinds of shenanigans. Inter-party conflict can still be in play, but before taking any action that would negatively impact a fellow party member, ask yourself "would a reasonable action be to kick me from the group?" If yes, then don't do it. fishing with the fam fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Feb 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:28
|
|
|
fishing with the fam posted:I'm a new DM running my first campaign, and poo poo went completely sideways in our last session. Running Keys from the Golden Vault with some homebrew connective tissue between heists. Start the next session with an out-of-game conversation. Did they self-destruct because they aren’t having fun? If not, discuss preferred options. If they want to keep playing these characters, begin with the PC with the bag: “you finish imagining how wrong things will go if you try to escape,” and retcon events so he can be honest with the other PCs. If they want a new party, make them up and you can work out how to restock the adventure. You might have corpses or NPC versions of the old PCs, and make sure their adventures thus far have a visible effect. You’re even allowed to talk with players about why this happened and how to avoid it in future.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:38
|
|
|
Yeah if this is a learning experience then make it a "what if" and roll back to normal-land.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:44
|
|
|
If a player chooses to roll up a character who fucks up the game they chose to make a character who fucks up the game. E: I mean poo poo goes wrong sometimes, but saying 'well my character is a thieving rear end in a top hat so it's totally fine for my character to blow up the party' is a cop out. That said if they've been playing for a long time without issue it sounds like one or more players were having a bad night. Outrail fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Feb 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:46
|
|
|
The classic evil/sometimes chaotic neutral campaign ender where someone does something insanely annoying that everyone hates and goes "what I'm evil it says right here".
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:49
|
|
|
Narsham posted:Start the next session with an out-of-game conversation. Did they self-destruct because they aren’t having fun? If not, discuss preferred options. If they want to keep playing these characters, begin with the PC with the bag: “you finish imagining how wrong things will go if you try to escape,” and retcon events so he can be honest with the other PCs. If they want a new party, make them up and you can work out how to restock the adventure. You might have corpses or NPC versions of the old PCs, and make sure their adventures thus far have a visible effect. The last half hour/forty five minutes was out of game convo. They claimed to be having fun, but by the end there was some clear frustration leaking through. While this is where it blew up, there were some small moments that also lead to this. In an earlier heist set piece the party's warlock (with the imp familiar) pocket dropped a piece of jewelry into the pocket of the party's rogue while the group was being searched by some guards. This came up again during the last session as a continued source of tension between them, and this is why my character doesn't trust yours. The warlock got frustrated and reiterated her character is not trustworthy, and if people don't like that kind of character she will reroll one that is always trustworthy. The table vibes were clearly way off by the end. Edit: Outrail posted:That said if they've been playing for a long time without issue it sounds like one or more players were having a bad night. This is why I gave them a lot of rope during the session and why I'm frustrated now. This poo poo has never happened before with the exact same group of players! fishing with the fam fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Feb 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:53
|
|
|
fishing with the fam posted:The warlock got frustrated and reiterated her character is not trustworthy, and if people don't like that kind of character she will reroll one that is always trustworthy. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 16:57
|
|
|
fishing with the fam posted:I'm a new DM running my first campaign, and poo poo went completely sideways in our last session. Running Keys from the Golden Vault with some homebrew connective tissue between heists. shouldnt have written off the npc imo. a real valuable purpose an npc can serve is to unite the party. if the party members betray each other, then just have an npc betray them even worse. maybe the npc wants that gold even more. maybe the room is flammable and the npc knows gold doesnt burn. arguments end pretty quickly when flames start licking through the door
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:05
|
|
|
Elendil004 posted:Yeah if this is a learning experience then make it a "what if" and roll back to normal-land. Yeah, I'm torn between "retcon it!" and "vibes are hosed and we need a fresh start, new campaign time". Edit: scary ghost dog posted:shouldnt have written off the npc imo. a real valuable purpose an npc can serve is to unite the party. if the party members betray each other, then just have an npc betray them even worse. maybe the npc wants that gold even more. maybe the room is flammable and the npc knows gold doesnt burn. arguments end pretty quickly when flames start licking through the door Yeah, it probably could have been salvageable from my end, but it all escalated so quickly and I really did want them to figure it out themselves. I expected them to embrace some interparty conflict in a meaningful and interesting way that didn't result in a total party meltdown. They were supposed to spend 5 minutes in that room to turn in a quest and move on. Not 3 hours self immolating. fishing with the fam fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Feb 20, 2024 |
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:06
|
|
|
Have the imp run off with the loot and never return. The warlocks personality bled through to their familiar and the patron let it happen
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:10
|
|
|
e: ^ this one is also funny If you went on I'd consider just, killing the bad PCs and making them reroll, either setting something up that the party can unite behind or just as an example why thieves have to stick together. Or turn the warlock into a NPC and let it be your villain for a little bit, either with you running it or that player gets to have their evil moment in a structured way for one session. It doesn't sound unsalvagable because if they don't actively want to murder each other at the end of it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:12
|
|
|
Sounds like a Mexican standoff. If you want to resolve it with the same party, have an over-leveled casino hit squad hear the ruckus and stomp the party. If the Imp gets dismissed while carrying the bag of holding, or if it is killed, the Imp disappears into a pocket dimension which detonates the bag of holding. Once the party wakes up, they’re all in jail. If anyone wants to re-roll a character, now’s the time.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 23:48 |
|
|
Kaal posted:Sounds like a Mexican standoff. If you want to resolve it with the same party, have an over-leveled casino hit squad hear the ruckus and stomp the party. If the Imp gets dismissed while carrying the bag of holding, or if it is killed, the Imp disappears into a pocket dimension which detonates the bag of holding. Once the party wakes up, they’re all in jail. If anyone wants to re-roll a character, now’s the time. this is pretty good but i would keep the hit squad defeatable and hope the warlock detonates the bag on their own
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 17:28
|
|