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I'm oscillating between abject love and hate.
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Jul 15, 2018 02:37
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 15:14 |
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Amazingly, no! I looked and found my copy of the two books. It's A Catered Murder and A Catered Wedding by Isis Crawford. quote:Bernadette and Libby Simmons have been working twelve-hour days at their store, A Taste of Heaven. And in between whipping up sweet treats and catering high school graduation parties, the sisters have to fit one more event into their busy schedule: catering a high-society wedding that takes a very low turn. . .
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Jul 15, 2018 15:16
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quote:Includes 6 Delectable Recipes for You to Try! Now if only my DM had done this when I was playing a Ranger who was actually an exotic game chef
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Jul 15, 2018 20:48
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DarkLich posted:Currently running a 5th Edition DnD Eberron Campaign. The party recently required a base of operations, a tower in Sharn. The plan is to grow it by a floor each level, granting a party wide bonus depending on the establishment they choose. For example, they chose a market for the first floor, to gain access to discounted magic items. That is a really cool idea. Personally, I used The Sims to lay out a dungeon recently. Doesn't look nearly as nice because all I was doing was walls, doors, and occasionally carpets to indicate different areas. Transferring it over to roll20 was easier than building it straight-up would have been. Cassa posted:Also how do y'all lay out your 'dungeons', as that's usually something I'm never happy with. Remember that usually dungeons are something, in addition to being a vehicle for bringing monster faces in range of PC fists. If you have living inhabitants, those inhabitants usually need places to eat, sleep, and relax. Nonliving or eldritch inhabitants have more freedom of environment, but often have a purpose beyond screaming and leaping. Your described situation may be different, but usually it should feel like your players interrupted something.
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Jul 16, 2018 11:54
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Dareon posted:Remember that usually dungeons are something, in addition to being a vehicle for bringing monster faces in range of PC fists. If you have living inhabitants, those inhabitants usually need places to eat, sleep, and relax. Nonliving or eldritch inhabitants have more freedom of environment, but often have a purpose beyond screaming and leaping. Your described situation may be different, but usually it should feel like your players interrupted something. Like each dungeon has a clock, or something?
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Jul 16, 2018 13:36
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What are some good random encounter tables and which books? Does anyone remember what book the Judges Guilds random encounter tables were in? This is for hex crawl lite.
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Jul 16, 2018 18:45
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Hollismason posted:What are some good random encounter tables and which books? Does anyone remember what book the Judges Guilds random encounter tables were in? They’re in Ready Ref Sheets. Volume 1 (meaning City State of the Invincible Overlord content) although I don’t think they ever got to later volumes.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:55
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I ran my first session of Ryuutama and my players got really into it. The rules seem pretty straightforward, but I was a little confused about weather or not monsters are able to use objects or not. In the section where it talks about objects it says that PLAYERS can use them, but there are instances in the enemies section that refer to monsters creating objects or being able to use more than one. So I'm not sure if they are intended to be able to use them or not.
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Jul 16, 2018 21:38
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Does anyone have a tutorial on how to make macros for DnD 4e and/or Savage Worlds on RollD20?
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Jul 16, 2018 21:50
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Last night our group concluded a year+ long adventure. It's simultaneously satisfying and very meloncholy to bring something so big and long to a close. Do people post postmortems / recaps in this thread? I'd like to write a postmortem thing about what worked better than expected, what didn't work as well as expected, unexpected places the players took the story, etc. To celebrate the end, one of the players made a kickass illustration of the party:  ... and I secretly made tote bags for all of the players, with the name of a shop that the PCs ended up frequenting: 
Polo-Rican fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Jul 16, 2018 |
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Jul 16, 2018 22:13
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That tote bag is amazing.
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Jul 16, 2018 22:44
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Polo-Rican posted:Last night our group concluded a year+ long adventure. It's simultaneously satisfying and very meloncholy to bring something so big and long to a close. Do people post postmortems / recaps in this thread? https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258 is where I usually see them.
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Jul 16, 2018 22:47
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Leraika posted:That tote bag is amazing. Thanks - Snagdar's was an example of an improvised thing becoming a notable part of the story. • Players enter main town, immediately ask where they can get food • I'd written down some business names before but hadn't fleshed everything out - I said there was a place named "Snagdar's" and that they sold hot buns • Players also order coffee - are very enthused about coffee - and take an unusual interest in Snagdar himself • Once I realized that the players were invested in Snagdar, I came up with the idea to have a rival coffee chain named Tambucks in the town • Players then began evangelizing Snagdar's, giving him business ideas so he can compete with Tambucks: culminating with teaching him magic so he can use prestidigitation to create iced coffee here's a bigger mockup (i don't have a good photo of the actual tote)  Subjunctive posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258 is where I usually see them. Ah cool, never seen this thread before! Thanks! Polo-Rican fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Jul 17, 2018 |
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Jul 16, 2018 23:03
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Polo-Rican posted:Last night our group concluded a year+ long adventure. It's simultaneously satisfying and very meloncholy to bring something so big and long to a close. Do people post postmortems / recaps in this thread? I'd like to write a postmortem thing about what worked better than expected, what didn't work as well as expected, unexpected places the players took the story, etc. Stuff like this makes me desperate to start running a game again. That looks like a very Goode Dogge, or Wolfe or whatever. It looks like a good boy and his neckscarf is very handsome.
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Jul 18, 2018 01:14
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Phrosphor posted:That looks like a very Goode Dogge, or Wolfe or whatever. It looks like a good boy and his neckscarf is very handsome. it's technically a fearsome wolf but everyone thinks of it as a dog because we've been representing it with a little rubber golden retriever mini 
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Jul 18, 2018 18:02
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So I'm working on implementing a hex-based combat grid for Stars Without Number, and I'm running into an issue that I can't seem to solve. I want to draw like walls and cover and whatnot, but I'm not sure how to create straight lines that don't bisect hexes and make everything look terrible. I'm doing this in Roll20, which already means you can't use the built-in snap-to-grid tool, so drawing is even more of a pain. Anyone got any tips on how to draw walls and stuff in a hex grid? For now I'm using a zone-based system instead, but I would love to get these hexes working.
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Jul 19, 2018 14:31
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Serf posted:So I'm working on implementing a hex-based combat grid for Stars Without Number, and I'm running into an issue that I can't seem to solve. I want to draw like walls and cover and whatnot, but I'm not sure how to create straight lines that don't bisect hexes and make everything look terrible. I'm doing this in Roll20, which already means you can't use the built-in snap-to-grid tool, so drawing is even more of a pain. Anyone got any tips on how to draw walls and stuff in a hex grid? It's a 3d model rather than roll20, but this guy makes straight walls look super natural by having the wall base composed of hex fragments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0T8EIz2Ec you could probably make it look as natural in roll20 by shading the hex fragments bordering the wall so that their color references the wall color (but i've never really used roll20 so i don't know how hard this would be to pull off well)
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Jul 19, 2018 14:49
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This points to ultimately the solution - you want to make the walls bisect hexes, not try to draw them between hexes. This may feel like making the walls too thick but keep in mind that the grid is already an abstracted representation of space. The wall hexes are blocked because you're standing too close to the wall to do things usefully. Alternatively, for the same justification, you can count them as "squeezed" spaces in whatever mechanical terms make sense for what you're playing.
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Jul 19, 2018 15:04
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I haven't posted in forever since I've been meaning to catch up on the >500 posts I haven't read Today is the day I give up and admit I'm never going to do it 
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Jul 19, 2018 21:39
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Sometimes you just have to declare thread bankruptcy, slash and burn the whole thing, and move on.
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Jul 19, 2018 22:21
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I think I may just make my own random encounter table using Wilder lands hex numbers and like some modifications from first edition and judges guild. I don't like that it's just mostly monsters.
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Jul 19, 2018 23:14
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Need advice on experience to give. A little background. My players just hit level two in a homebrew campaign. The adventure started in dwarf lands where someone has been killing off triton outposts with undead. The tritons have an agreement with the dwarves to guard the ports in return for protection on the seas and favored trade. In the next session, players might visit a farm run by a tiefling. In my setting the tiefling culture is very accepting of necromancy. They have rules though, no kids, only those who choose to be animated upon death etc. This tiefling has nothing to do with the attacks and just settled with his family and some undead servants to live a quiet life. The two broad outcomes are 1. Leave the guy alone but piss off the dwarves authorities for not stamping out undead. The tiefling will become a welcome ally. 2. Kill the farmstead and gain some loot and the appreciation of the dwarves. These are the main outcomes I foresee, but will roll with others if the players go different directions. My question is how to dole out xp in the outcome where the farm isn’t wiped out? If they bring peace between the farm and the dwarves they should get some xp but how much? Would just doing the equivalent of the killing xp work?
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Jul 20, 2018 02:29
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Give the players the same amount of XP whichever option they take. Otherwise you're encouraging one side of what should be an interesting decision.
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Jul 20, 2018 02:34
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That’s what I wanted to do. Same xp but different opportunities open depending on what they do. So just figure out the combat xp and go with that should work?
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Jul 20, 2018 02:42
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Yeah. Generally speaking it's better to think in terms of resolving encounters than in terms of killing monsters. For the same reason you don't (or shouldn't) dock XP for enemies that flee combat, because routing a line is beating it and the XP is for overcoming challenges, avoiding combat altogether through a peaceful resolution is, similarly, a victory and should get the same reward. If you're into calculating XP, calculate the potential XP for the encounter and then give that out when they resolve it, regardless of how they resolve it.
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Jul 20, 2018 04:10
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You should absolutely take Paramimetic's advice about thinking in terms of resolving encounters to heart. Once the PCs have resolved the situation, one way or the other, they get the XP for that resolution. That should be fixed and immutable. The flex point is in how they resolve it - if they leave the dude alone, they get a buddy at the cost of pissing off the dwarves, but if they kill him the dwarves are happy but later they won't have a friend on hand who'll recognize the necromantic sigils on the important whatchamacallit, but if they find some way of coming to an accommodation with both sides they get both benefits at a reduced efficacy (the dwarves begrudgingly allow the tiefling to stick around but some of them are mad about it and are less friendly to the PCs than they might otherwise be, while the tiefling has to agree to destroy his necromantic texts and so won't be able to look up Quest Info later, but he will be able to remember a few hints to set the PCs on the right track), and so on and so forth. XP is XP; don't withhold that. The PCs solve a problem, they get the XP for solving the problem. It's everything other than XP where you should be able to do a bit of give and take.
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Jul 20, 2018 04:32
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Only thing I'd suggest, other than giving the same amount of XP for resolving the encounter each way as above, is to make sure that the XP is earned--or rather, that each way has a challenge to actually overcome. If they want to destroy the farmstead, they have to fight the tiefling necromancer and his family/servants. What's the challenge if they choose to leave him alone? If they resolve the encounter by simply doing nothing (not killing him), that's a somewhat boring alternative resolution to a necromancer encounter with skeletons and ghouls and so on. If they want to be friends with him, perhaps he's untrusting that the players aren't trying to double-cross him, and wants a favor to cement their friendship? Maybe the dwarven authorities want proof that they destroyed the farmstead, and they need to find a way to fake it somehow?
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Jul 20, 2018 04:59
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Good advice from all. I really like the idea of him asking for something to prove he won’t be double crossed. I had thought if they don’t kill him as the dwarves want the nearby guard captain would say that his garrison is marching for the farm in 2 days. Bloodshed will happen if the players don’t somehow broker out a deal
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Jul 20, 2018 05:40
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Maybe a group of dwarves show up as they're talking to him and, seeing this tiefling with a bunch of adventurers around, try to hire them to kill him. If the PCs refuse, they're all "well we're gonna go at him even if you don't" and it's the PCs' job to prevent a bloodbath.
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Jul 20, 2018 06:35
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This goes for giving XP as well as anything else where there are two alternatives, and it's something I have to constantly remind myself of: your players won't ever know what would have happened on the other path. They can't go to gamefaqs or a wiki to see they could have gamed the situation for more XP. Therefore for the benefit of your metagamers, always give them good rewards, so they get the feeling they picked right.
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Jul 20, 2018 10:12
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that being said I'm running an adventure right now where the party works for some dwarves for the promise of a magic item, they've talked themselves into believing it's a magnificent magic sword, and I'm so looking forward to revealing it's a magic beer stein e: gonna describe it as one of the super tacky souvenir ones for tourists, too
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Jul 20, 2018 10:13
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or just tell them to level up after every "adventure" and do away with XP
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Jul 20, 2018 14:30
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I had wondered about this. After the first session I did an auto level up since they were fairly close anyway. Is there any good advice on doing just milestone leveling and not bothering with exp?
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Jul 20, 2018 14:52
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Nash posted:Is there any good advice on doing just milestone leveling and not bothering with exp? just do it
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Jul 20, 2018 14:55
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Yeah just give them a level every two or three sessions.
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Jul 20, 2018 15:01
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Tell your group you don't feel like calculating exp values and make it one less thing for them to track, and tell them they'll level up by story beats/adventure progression. If anyone complains about not doing exp, call them a nerd and tell them to get over it.
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Jul 20, 2018 15:02
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In the GURPS 1955 mercenary game I'm doing here, PCs who are sent on a mission as NPCs get 1 CP when they return alive and probably 4 or 5 CPs after completing a fully roleplayed special op. It's meant to be a pulpy game, so I'm cool letting them expand their skills and attributes faster than is realistic. Just give them XP every few sessions, or a smaller amount of XP at the end of each session.
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Jul 20, 2018 15:20
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Worrying about XP from monsters is dumb and only less painful way of dealing with XP is just lumping it in with stuff like gold which how it used to work. Even then it's annoying and better off just saying x sessions or encounters are a level.
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Jul 20, 2018 15:31
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Nash posted:Is there any good advice on doing just milestone leveling and not bothering with exp? If you want to foster other behaviors, ditch the stereotypical XP mechanics entirely. There are scads of other experience/advancement mechanics out there, and some of them are really awesome. I especially like the player-determined ones like 1st edition 7th Sea and The Shadows of Yesterday, where players can pick certain activities, behaviors, or story elements that generate XP. Apocalypse World's "highlight" mechanic is fun too (where if you make rolls that use a highlighted stat, you get XP; if your "Hard" is highlighted, you're likely to get violent because doing so nets XP, but if your "Hot" is highlighted, it doesn't matter how many people you kill, you'll never get XP for it. But if you can manipulate someone...). The easiest solution is to just give them some fixed amount of XP per session, or a level every few sessions, but it can be hard to decide how much/many fits with the tempo of your overall story arc. Or you could just switch systems and be done with it. I don't want to say, "play a better game," but D&D is a goddamned dinosaur at this point. There are so many better games out there that solve this problem for you.
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Jul 20, 2018 15:52
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 15:14 |
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Scion 2e (and other games from that set that OPP is developping) gives the character the opportunity to define their own goals. You pick a short-term deed, a long-term deed and a band-wide deed (the last one must be picked with the rest of the group) and whenever you accomplish one of those you get XP. I like it because it gives players agency and it lets the GM know what sort of stories they would like to tell for said characters.
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Jul 20, 2018 16:23
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