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Comrade Gorbash posted:I think the key here is having some kind of shared visual space to work with. Not everyone is comfortable with video chat, and even more people are in spots where it's not technically feasible for a variety of reasons. However, having something to look at and interact with as a group is definitely going to help keep everyone's attention and on the same page.
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Oct 23, 2017 17:12
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:If this was a group that previously met in person I think video chat should be okay? Roll20 isn't exactly "interactive" most of the time - at most you click some dice occasionally outside combat. I don't think it could possibly work over text - that'd be awful to me. If a player at my table had to choose between videochat and roll20, I'd probably suggest they choose video, I think it makes a big difference. There are definitely accessibility concerns but they're worth resolving I feel. EDIT: Basically, there just needs to be an ancillary to voice. Ideally video plus a shared tabletop space to at least post handouts/images, track rolls, and have some text notifications is probably the ideal, but it may not be feasible to have everything. Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Oct 23, 2017 |
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Oct 23, 2017 17:13
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Yeah, some people’s connection might not be able to handle video chat, although they’ve gotten pretty efficient. Obviously if it doesn’t work, that person can place a voice call. Video definitely felt awkward at first and I worried about looking like a doofus, but then I remembered I was playing elf games with my friends and looked like a doofus anyway and now it’s normal. If the technical specs/living situation is there, I really encourage the video because it helps a ton of social conversation cues that are otherwise missed and dramatically improves game flow, even if it takes a little getting used to.
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Oct 23, 2017 17:22
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Comrade Gorbash posted:Mostly I was thinking in terms of web access. Depending on where people are, they might not have the connection to support video chat that's worth dealing with, or might be using their computer in a shared space where having a webcam on isn't appropriate.
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Oct 23, 2017 17:26
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Vargatron posted:I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but does anybody having any experience running a campaign through Skype or another voice chat program? I started playing a short campaign with a group of friends I've known for many years, but the problem is that we all live 2 hours away from each other and it's not really feasible to meet every week for a session. Skype/Google hangouts plus roll20 is about the simplest way to do that if you need a good grid map in front of you. You could also do Discord for voice or text chat and a shared google drawing instead of roll20. Otherwise there still maptool and virtual tabletop, too.
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Oct 23, 2017 20:15
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Discord has video now apparently.
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Oct 23, 2017 20:17
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Vargatron posted:I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but does anybody having any experience running a campaign through Skype or another voice chat program? I started playing a short campaign with a group of friends I've known for many years, but the problem is that we all live 2 hours away from each other and it's not really feasible to meet every week for a session. I've done it on IRC. The trick is to not play a crunchy game like D&D.
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Oct 23, 2017 21:18
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Vargatron posted:I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but does anybody having any experience running a campaign through Skype or another voice chat program? I started playing a short campaign with a group of friends I've known for many years, but the problem is that we all live 2 hours away from each other and it's not really feasible to meet every week for a session. As long as people are invested in what's going on, you can figure something out. A couple of years ago, my regular tabletop game was meeting an hour away because that's where our GM had moved, and when we got a puppy, my wife and I weren't always able to find a dog sitter every session, so what I had arranged was that one of us would stay home with the puppy and call in via Skype. Our GM would set up his laptop's webcam and a desktop microphone so that whoever was remote could see the battle mat and hear everybody, and then someone who was there would handle my dice rolls as needed. That worked well enough for allowing a single remote person to participate in a physical game. If everybody is going to be playing remotely, then the same general principle applies - use Skype/Discord/whatever for voice chat (and optionally also video chat), and use some sort of virtual tabletop to represent the play space as needed. Roll20, while frequently maligned, is both free and works well enough as a virtual tabletop - whoever's running the game doesn't have to go whole hog with importing detailed drawn battle maps. You can just use a basic grid and draw in any terrain details as needed. There's usually a simple way to generate and import character sheets for the most common systems or, at the very least, you can set up a shared Dropbox for character sheets.
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Oct 23, 2017 21:36
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I think I have too many players on my game and that makes balancing encounters really hard for me because they manage to lockout everything and I want to play by the rules but also make encounters that aren't crippled on the first turn. Also I think I'm losing interest on the game or something because writing on it looks more and more like a chore... Is there any way to solve that?
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Oct 24, 2017 20:25
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Take a turn as a player, let someone else run a game for a while.
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Oct 24, 2017 20:29
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Plutonis posted:I think I have too many players on my game and that makes balancing encounters really hard for me because they manage to lockout everything and I want to play by the rules but also make encounters that aren't crippled on the first turn. Also I think I'm losing interest on the game or something because writing on it looks more and more like a chore... Is there any way to solve that? Dude, Gary Gygax himself said that the GM only rolls dice because they like the noise. If you're having trouble keeping encounters where they need to be, cheat. What kind of game are you running? Could you get away with doing less set in stone writing, or does it need to be pretty tightly paced?
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Oct 24, 2017 20:34
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Plutonis posted:I think I have too many players on my game and that makes balancing encounters really hard for me because they manage to lockout everything and I want to play by the rules but also make encounters that aren't crippled on the first turn. Also I think I'm losing interest on the game or something because writing on it looks more and more like a chore... Is there any way to solve that? What system are you running? Some work well for when you're not playing hard and fast by the rules, others really rely on the GM being able to seem impartial. My golden rule for encounter design is to split the party's attention. If there's a relic they have to steal or a ritual they have to interrupt or environmental hazards they have to stay one step ahead of (I even remember one D&D game where the hostage we were supposed to be rescuing went into labour midway through the fight and one of the party had to duck out of combat to deliver a baby) then they can't focus all their attention on wiping the floor with your enemies.
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Oct 24, 2017 20:48
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Final Fantasy D6. It's a simple system to GM and make encounters but I just feel like the storytelling is fatiguing me. I'm also unsure about making a co-GM...
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Oct 24, 2017 21:42
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I am creating a dungeon for my players that is underwater. Not simply under the sea, but an area of a larger dungeon that was at one point a pretty conventional labyrinth that has since been completely flooded. Something like the previous adventurers were hopeless to defeat the Minotaur so they set up a magic mouth to repeat the command phrase for a decanter of endless water indefinitely, flooded the place and drowned the thing/themself. In the centuries since the decanter has widened and is pretty much a portal to the elemental plane of water/Some ocean/abyssal depths. I know people say the act of navigating a maze isn't fun, so that's not what I am going for, just using that setting as a backdrop. But I do want to flesh/pad this thing enough to be a test on their resources. Mostly what I need are ideas for general underwater encounters/obstacles. I have a few combat encounter ideas but would like some noncombat ideas that would fit in this setting. So far I have: an encounter vs some merfolk who will use a harpoon gun to try and pull PCs into magical depth charges. Probably putting this early on so my ranger can pick up a harpoon gun as his bow will be ineffective underwater. a dolphin stuck in a a sticky net, does the party try to release it and risk alerting the giant spidercrab? Dolphins are smart, can be a good ally/guide if they talk to it. navigating a coral reef invested with poisonous sea urchins. party is hunted by a glass/crystal shark (this is what I am reduced to to even have a hope of sneaking up on such a perception skilled party), it will probably pick on stragglers or show up as an opportunist when the party is fighting other monsters. Take a big bite or two and then leave. probably an aboleth boss. some puzzle to drain the water and/or open passage to the next level. Still thinking on: something to with whirlpools or strong currents maybe? something fun that might pair up well with the ink clouds from some giant octopi? other interesting set pieces or scenes to explore. My party is 6 level 7 players. They have gone out and acquired a source of potions that will grant them temporary gills and webbed feet. I can still decide how long this effect lasts so I can use that to put a clock on things and introduce the risk of drowning if they dally too much, though I will probably make that just a minor concern.
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Oct 24, 2017 23:59
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I'd be careful with animal-based hazards if you want non-combat stuff since that can turn into a fight pretty easily.
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Oct 25, 2017 02:59
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rumble in the bunghole posted:I'd be careful with animal-based hazards if you want non-combat stuff since that can turn into a fight pretty easily. Read this quote out of context and my first reaction was “so the dogshit is sentient???”
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Oct 25, 2017 03:03
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I need a few ideas regarding a train heist. The players want to rob a train on the Shadowfell for mcguffin ore, the train is operated/engineered by Slaad, the train travels between the mines in the hills and the town, and maybe elsewhere. The players are in town. The train is huge and macabre. I have three sites where I think they might do this. While it's travelling up to the mine. While it's travelling to the town. Stopped at the mine. Stopped at the town is easy pickings but I'll complicate things by making the train leave if they try; making it a chase. I don't have an economy set up for this Shadowfell undead mcguffin ore logistics chain. And I'd rather not weigh down a cool scene with nonsense about how it all works. Has anyone done a train or wagon robbery before? Tips?
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Oct 25, 2017 03:23
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HatfulOfHollow posted:Read this quote out of context and my first reaction was “so the dogshit is sentient???” yeah, they're called gnomes
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Oct 25, 2017 03:24
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...damned dirty gnomes...
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Oct 25, 2017 05:19
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I seem to remember that Aboleths have some sort of freaky curse that renders their victims unable to breathe air. You could have the Aboleth offer a deal with the devil whenever the party gets low on gill time remaining. Fight some monsters that summon pockets of air to screw over the cursed before the Aboleth even makes an offer. The pathetic remnants of past adventuring parties that had to take the deal, but can't beat the Aboleth alone. Can the party convince them to part with their baubles and advice when they have been disappointed so many times before? The classic twist of the timer running out only for the party to discover that they can breathe water but not air. But that is probably too direct a railroad to the Aboleth boss fight. Or you could play up the Minotaur angle. This sunuvabitch survived the flooding of the whole drat labyrinth. It was hardly 3 dead ends and a spiral when the flooding began. But the Minotaur has been going ever onward, tunneling through the earth at a heroic rate. That adamantium great-axe isn't just for show. Sure the Minotaur stops occasionally to sleep and zap a rod of create food or whatever. But what it truly craves is the fresh meat of adventurers. The labyrinth is folded in on itself, home to countless unopened shafts for when the Minotaur wants to clear a hallway for hunting. A minotaur who insisted on a pure labyrinth would have died long ago. But the Minotaur who managed to get water lost in their labyrinth doesn't care about "fairness" or "no doubling back on your path" anymore.
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Oct 25, 2017 08:19
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Be careful with aboleths, they're up there with mind flayers and such as the monsters inexperienced GMs latch onto and then the party beats the hell outta because an aboleth encounter isn't supposed to be a straight fight. Your in its lair and it will use every advantage against you. The first time I encountered an aboleth as a player, it was in an underground lake. We had a magic heavy party and could easily mess with it from the shore. ...You can guess how much of a chance the poor thing had.
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Oct 25, 2017 17:36
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I wrote an aboleth into my campaign - they're fighting a warlock with it as a patron now. My idea is that they eventually fight it, and learn that it has it's own patron(a kraken) and eventually fight that too. I gotta figure out nefarious things for an aboleth in an underground waterway under neverwinter to do and relate them to giants in SKT vaguely - shouldn't be too hard. This way, if the aboleth fight becomes too easy...well, the next one against the kraken won't be.
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Oct 25, 2017 17:47
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Speaking of GM monsters, I had a ton of fun using a rakshasa as a longer-term villain in my last campaign. It had basically body-snatched a prince and worked quietly against the party/for its own agenda until they figured it out. Then they were stuck trying to undermine it and figure out what it was doing, while not being able to directly attack it for a few levels due to its spell immunity and social position. A straight-up rakshasa encounter would be horrible and dumb, though.
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Oct 25, 2017 17:58
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Terratina posted:Be careful with aboleths, they're up there with mind flayers and such as the monsters inexperienced GMs latch onto and then the party beats the hell outta because an aboleth encounter isn't supposed to be a straight fight. Your in its lair and it will use every advantage against you. Noted. In this context the battlefield will be 100% underwater and probably a little claustrophobic, It's diseases won't really come into effect in this context so I will probably lean on its mind slave powers to gently caress with the party. A nasty minion or two could also come in handy if you have any recommendations. Might just have it pair up with the too stubborn to drown minotaur from a few posts up though. As for non-combat underwater encounters, still plunking away at them. The parties cleric worships the pirate god of drowning so there will probably be some pirate ghosts, sucked through a vortex and spit out by the decanter to drown under a mountain some ways inland, needing help to put their souls to rest. I suppose like animal encounters, there is always the potential of Ghosts turning into combat, which I am fine with. I actually am predicting this cleric, frustrated with never finding bones to animate (the last adventure had exclusively plant enemies) seeing the pirates bones, animating them, and pissing off their ghosts.
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Oct 25, 2017 19:56
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Waffles Inc. posted:Any chance you could post those share links? I spent a bit of time reorganizing these into cleaner lists, trimming the fat, etc. Even if this style of stuff isn't to your liking I hope you can find something! "rhythmic combat": https://open.spotify.com/user/djvecchitto/playlist/5DcvlmmO336nA7l7da8mXv "magical wonder": https://open.spotify.com/user/djvecchitto/playlist/491R12mAtAY9kDQDV6AH9S "mysterious ruins": https://open.spotify.com/user/djvecchitto/playlist/0X0lMp2VbhydcWEAK3l7SA "icy cold": https://open.spotify.com/user/djvecchitto/playlist/1R7eFOOxK5KUB0W7Lq9QTs "optimistic overworld": https://open.spotify.com/user/djvecchitto/playlist/6OGYvSfxCtMTWnPQGZENAc I'll definitely add to these over time, plus put together more playlists — I already have a few that are half-finished (4 songs that I use for forest stuff, I'd like to add more before posting; a few long tracks I loop for villages; one super long track I like to play for creepy visions / hallucinations; etc)
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Oct 27, 2017 03:39
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One shot horror dread game, tomorrow night - clued up workmates who are comfortable with apocalypse world style world/character building. looking at 2-3 hours total. I have any idea of the players playing themselves, plus a few tricksy questions, and being in a minivan going on a ski trip when the van breaks down and they're stranded near a spooky hotel. Thoughts for incidents/evil schemes?
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Oct 27, 2017 09:14
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sebmojo posted:One shot horror dread game, tomorrow night - clued up workmates who are comfortable with apocalypse world style world/character building. looking at 2-3 hours total. Have everyone come up with one question they want answered by the end of the game, it'll help guide you. Make sure they understand they can ask any question from, "Why did my Father leave me when I was 8?" to "Why is my hair green today?" Also, the hotel is in Germany, and is haunted by a vengeful golem. It'd be pretty fitting with the current political climate.
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Oct 27, 2017 09:32
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sebmojo posted:One shot horror dread game, tomorrow night - clued up workmates who are comfortable with apocalypse world style world/character building. looking at 2-3 hours total. Depends on how much object gathering you want to do in a single night but I usually make the pulls more interesting for my players by doing poo poo like:
In a hotel setting you can get away with scenes like "they dump bodies down the laundry chutes" and "people are served here." Depending on how weird science you want to get, the hotel owners could be kidnapping and then stuffing/brainwashing the guests to ensure they never leave. Or maybe the hotel is alive, and lures in guests like a venus flytrap to eat them in the basement.
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Oct 27, 2017 12:55
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Turn off the lights. Get a dollar store keychain flashlight, or find an old huge bulky piece of poo poo flashlight. Use a battery that's run most of the way down. Hold the flashlight on the tower while you make your pull. Light a match. Make your pull before it goes out.
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Oct 27, 2017 13:11
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AlphaDog posted:Turn off the lights. Ha yes these are both also awesome suggestions. Provided none of your players are photosensitive get a strobe app for your phone and use that. I've also invested in blacklights for the purpose of "puzzles" and have occasionally used jumpscare tactics while a player has pulled a block.
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Oct 27, 2017 15:16
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Did I miss something? Are we talking about using Jenga in a session?
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Oct 27, 2017 16:00
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N0data posted:Did I miss something? Are we talking about using Jenga in a session? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_(role-playing_game)
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Oct 27, 2017 16:02
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My dungeon world group pissed off a group of liches and have no idea. (They pseudo-permanently shut down a huge power source that the arcane brotherhood were also drawing from.) I want them to be unexpectedly menaced by them in some way at a session, while still having an unrelated job to do. They are drow working for the intelligence arm of the "kingdom in exile" after the dwarves beat them at war, working with fire giants as new allies to establish a new kingdom/home. I don't have great ideas - a straight up fight with a lich is a little cheesy, I want them to feel legit menaced, like it's the start of a long-term conflict not a one-and-done affair. Their other mission was to assassinate a king who had been menacing fire giants in a certain region. They found a doppleganger in his place, and made him an asset instead, so if that could tie in, extra-cool. (This is like, a side campaign to my main storm king's thunder campaign hence the D&D-isms.) Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Oct 27, 2017 |
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Oct 27, 2017 19:40
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They just defeat a powerful enemy. Just as they think its over, the liches reanimate them from afar, and deliver a message through them. Something like this: https://youtu.be/VxpT7lITxIU
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Oct 27, 2017 20:29
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:My dungeon world group pissed off a group of liches and have no idea. (They pseudo-permanently shut down a huge power source that the arcane brotherhood were also drawing from.) I want them to be unexpectedly menaced by them in some way at a session, while still having an unrelated job to do. They are drow working for the intelligence arm of the "kingdom in exile" after the dwarves beat them at war, working with fire giants as new allies to establish a new kingdom/home. I don't have great ideas - a straight up fight with a lich is a little cheesy, I want them to feel legit menaced, like it's the start of a long-term conflict not a one-and-done affair. The suggestion I'd go for is that the liches aren't going after them personally. They're liches, they've got better things to do than get off their asses and go solve their own problems. Instead, they go for the old scry-and-die: the liches are able to track the party (if you can tie this in to something that the PCs did earlier, so much the better) and will summon horrible undead spirits and long-range teleport them to wherever the party are, whenever it's the most inconvenient for them -- either when they're in the middle of a fight and distracted, or when they're trying to defuse a tense diplomatic situation, or something like that. You basically now have a ready-made excuse for upping the stakes whenever the players roll a 6 or whenever a caster chooses "draw unwelcome attention" or whatever: all of a sudden, another of these stalkers shows up and starts wrecking the party's poo poo. If you can tie this into a physical or tactile sensation which alerts the party that one of these guys is on their way, so much the better: anticipation of a bang is always scarier than a bang, after all.
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Oct 27, 2017 20:34
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:My dungeon world group pissed off a group of liches and have no idea. (They pseudo-permanently shut down a huge power source that the arcane brotherhood were also drawing from.) I want them to be unexpectedly menaced by them in some way at a session, while still having an unrelated job to do. They are drow working for the intelligence arm of the "kingdom in exile" after the dwarves beat them at war, working with fire giants as new allies to establish a new kingdom/home. I don't have great ideas - a straight up fight with a lich is a little cheesy, I want them to feel legit menaced, like it's the start of a long-term conflict not a one-and-done affair. Is there any way the Liches can exert their influence to make standard every day stuff hard on the players? Bribing officials and stuff like that? Attrition by bureaucracy
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Oct 27, 2017 20:36
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Waffles Inc. posted:Is there any way the Liches can exert their influence to make standard every day stuff hard on the players? Bribing officials and stuff like that? Attrition by bureaucracy I was thinking of sending them to plunder a dragon's hoard out in the desert as the "main mission" but that's a little weak as far as "intelligence" missions go. It would tie in vaguely to the main campaign too which my players have enjoyed. (I do this when 1 or 2 people can't make it and we want to do something anyway. They've noticed that these side missions tend to make the world worse for their main characters, which I love, better show up to play DND if you don't want things to get too lovely.) Both having the liches speak through a corpse and teleporting spirits onto them sound like fun. I'll have the first spirit attack come at a tense moment before their journey so they'll be wondering wtf the whole time, with the corpse using exposition at the end to cryptically enlighten them.
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Oct 27, 2017 20:52
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So after some discussion my group and I decided not to go Starfinder after all. I ran a poll and they voted on Blades in the Dark. I'm very excited for this. I think it'll be an interesting change of pace, and I hope they enjoy it.
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Oct 27, 2017 22:20
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The Changeling posted:... not Starfinder ... That is a fantastic swing.
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Oct 28, 2017 00:21
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The Changeling posted:So after some discussion my group and I decided not to go Starfinder after all. I ran a poll and they voted on Blades in the Dark. I'm very excited for this. I think it'll be an interesting change of pace, and I hope they enjoy it. A few tips:
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Oct 28, 2017 01:26
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