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Yea, A 6th level sorcerer couldn't have 4th level spells, they'd need 2 more levels I beleive. Edit: I wouldn't actually worry about it. Tardcore fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 04:08
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Zereth posted:... I'm pretty sure sorcerers get no benefit from Int to spellcasting, that's wizards (who get no benefit from Cha). No, they do not prepare their spells. BUT They do have a limited number of spells they know at each level. I made a mistake explaining what she had by confusing it with what she cast. I'm looking at the text doc right now. The Int was simply based on how I fought the party with her. I fought her smart as I possibly could.
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Jan 29, 2013 04:09
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Tardcore posted:Yea, A 6th level sorcerer couldn't have 4th level spells, they'd need 2 more levels I beleive. Cool. I broke a rule and gave her a single 4th level spell, which was used as a plot point as her fatal mistake. (Animating her fallen dustmen.) She'll drop loot accordingly.
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Jan 29, 2013 04:11
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As far as animating dead goes, might I suggest you either use a mook system for enemy pets, convert them to damage spells, or don't use pet spells at all? The number one gameshitter I've run into is "beastmasters"--basically anything that summons or reanimates tons of monsters out of thin air in mid-combat--because it overpopulates the turn list. This, in turn, is really, really boring for your players, but as the DM you tend not to notice it because you have to control a bunch of dudes. Another thing: I'd stick to straight damage or buff/debuff spells (which it sounds like your monster's spell list basically was). Save-or-die and enchantment/illusion spells are really cool when the player uses them to great effect, but when the enemies use them, that means that whoever failed the save is gonna be sitting on their hands for the rest of the encounter. At that point, it's not a question of whether an encounter is challenging or not; it's just really fuckin' boring. Always keep in mind the "the monster doesn't care if it dies" design philosophy. Fur20 fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 05:47
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Yeah, I think that's it. I'll avoid using multiple conjuration spells against the players, that made the fight too loving long. Doing an epic battle of attrition once is fine, and I'm proud of the design I made as the fight went over extremely well with the players. It was designed to be a grueling fight from an old Gygax module. I watched that Spoony video about playing through Dungeonland. Then I started reading old Gygax modules. That said, I am never, ever running a fight with a cowardly conjurer who flees, conjures, and strikes, ever, ever again. 12 hour fight. I kept trying to say we'll finish it next week, but they wouldn't have it. If you thought I was a killer DM before, you'll probably hate me more when I tell you that the party of 5 players had no magic user of any sort... And I made them roll fortitude saves against disease, and will saves against having to make d20 Cthulhu insanity rolls on getting bit by zombies in darkness. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Jan 29, 2013 |
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Jan 29, 2013 08:26
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God Of Paradise posted:Yeah, I think that's it. I'll avoid using multiple conjuration spells against the players, that made the fight too loving long. Doing an epic battle of attrition once is fine, and I'm proud of the design I made as the fight went over extremely well with the players. It was designed to be a grueling fight from an old Gygax module. I watched that Spoony video about playing through Dungeonland. Then I started reading old Gygax modules. I don't hate you for that, but if you make your players fight a 12 hour fight there had better be some outrageous loot. also a thief with high stats is not gamebreaking, because, thieves are pathetic, low tier dudes and their abilities are outrageously situational. fyi.
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Jan 29, 2013 14:18
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Guesticles posted:That's a great idea, but the Queen doesn't have any interest in working with inferiors. Right now, the party is an interesting diversion. When they stop being interesting, she'll probably kill them, either to raise them as undead or to have an arts and crafts day with their corpses. Probably both. well, the inspiration I was suggesting you take from it is, present the PCs with Powerful Faction X, and have the Queen make them dead. Like, find a group that has been running around causing poo poo and kicking rear end all day long, and then have her snap her fingers and they just POOF at the hands of her murderous underling dudes. Then the party will be all like 
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Jan 30, 2013 02:09
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I’m about to DM a session on Saturday. It’s 4th ed D&D. The group has done 8 sessions over the past year and is level 5. The prior DM has stepped down to become a player and I’ve taken over. The quest hook is that my former character, the dwarven cleric of Moradin(a good god), has absconded with the macguffin. He's taking it back to his mountain home (none of the characters know where this is) to do something dwarfy with it. The quest giver, an exarch (high level servant) of Bahamut (another good god), orders the party to find the cleric and get the macguffin for him. His excuse for not getting it himself is that he can’t find the cleric/macguffin because Moradin is protecting it and that it would be improper for him to openly move against a follower of Moradin. My plan for this session is to run 2 combat encounters in the course of the party’s attempts to find the cleric and retrieve the Macguffin. I’m prepared for the characters to visit any and all locations in the town they start in. I expect they will leave but if they decide to stay I’ve got two encounters planned. All the information and clues they can discover in town point them to the elven village to the south. I’ve got an outline detailing what encounters they will have en route to the elven village. The encounters have minis/terrain and are statted up. I’d prefer they head south because I've got a cool setpiece fight planned for the next session in the elven village, but if they head east, west, or north I’ve got a selection of encounters, terrain features and eventual destinations (human village, raging river, or mountain range respectively) and a rough idea of where the next session will start. Broadly, they'll spend this session getting to a place where they can get more information on where the cleric is going, next session they will get to where the cleric has gone, and then third session they will attempt to get the macguffin back- if they don't decide to think outside the box and disobey the quest giver. Any other recommendations for a new DM? I think I’ll go read the combat section of the players handbook and DM’s guide again. A more general question: how can you make skill challenges good? I think the group hasn’t had a real problem with the way they have been run, but to me 4th ed skill challenges in practice seem like roleplaying with a chance for the dice to contradict the roleplaying. E.g. player says exactly the wrong thing and rolls high, or player does something cool in character and botches the roll. I’ve been reading some guides online and the most attractive ideas I’ve seen recommend running the skill challenge almost like a board game. Also the point has been made that skill challenges are a structured opportunity for roleplaying- definitely a couple of our players are more comfortable thinking in character if they get a prompt like in a skill challenge. I’m thinking in the next session there will be a skill challenge where the group pursues a thief through a crowded marketplace. Either they catch him or don’t, but they will encounter the thief’s boss later in the session. Does this sound workable? It allows a different result whether the group fails or succeeds, but doesn’t require a certain outcome in order to support the plot.
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Jan 30, 2013 03:25
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Sup, new DM buddy?  In my experience (granted, this is with 5-8 players each session) you can run 2 combat encounters plus preceding/interceding RP/plot stuff in about 4 hours. My advice would be to have an idea of what information PCs can get in what places, but don't plan too too far ahead as to how or when they will get to that place. Take it one session at a time, and I find you can count on your players to give you an idea for a hook that would interest them, or that you may not have thought of. So let things flow, and don't worry so much about scripting events. Planning for combat is good, especially familiarize yourself with the encounter powers and traits your monsters have, or else you will forget to use them. i.e. if you have a fight in a wooded area where everything is rough terrain, use monsters (Elves, i think?) that ignore difficult terrain. This makes it interesting for "Chargin' Bob" the Barbarian cuz he has to think outside the box, and your monster become a little more lethal. Pre-roll monster initiatives. Also, how are you tracking HP and conditions in combat? I use excel btw. Usually I put all my minions (or each group of minions if I have more than like 4) on their own initiative. As for skill challenges, if at all possible, don't announce "Ok guys, we are in Skill Challenge mode." I found it works a lot better if they enter an exploration/investigation quest thinking that they are walking into yet another combat. Everyone is on their toes just waiting for the attack to happen, with a couple people keeping guard while someone disarms/unlocks something, overcomes an obstacle, etc. Also, I haven't tried it yet, but try and mix skill use/challenges into a combat encounter if you can. Take chances. Last session we ran "Barfight Mode," with the caveat for "poo poo Just Got Real Mode" (which I think someone explained earlier in this thread) and it was a hoot. As long as you tell your players ahead of the campaign that you're gonna try some unconventional things and "encounter prototypes," they'll be forgiving if it's sorta clunky, as long as the goal is for everyone to have fun. Go back a couple pages in this thread and read my "Around the Campfire Encounter" idea, for example.
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Jan 30, 2013 04:16
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You might want to take a look into the Obsidian skill challenge system (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197109) or Don't Wake Sentries (http://kassoon.com/dnd/dont-wake-sentries/) for alternatives to skill challenges. The latter works like the board game concept you mention (specifically in the context of sneaking into/past something) while the former rebuilds the entire system from the ground up into something that makes a little more sense. Your instincts about how to use them are good: skill challenges are an opportunity to get an advantage or lose an advantage, often for a coming encounter. Maybe the party can arrive before the enemies have a chance to set up their defenses or get into position; maybe they flee from an encounter only to lose healing surges from the chase and get caught in battle anyway. I tend to use them as brakes or accelerators for the story, rather than a steering wheel. That way, even if everyone rolls crappy, makes poor choices, or just doesn't have the right skill set it doesn't derail the story or the campaign. One wrinkle that I find interesting is a "maintenance" roll - something that has to be done X times per round or bad things happen. I often use Stealth, Endurance, and Perception for these. While it seems like it would be boring and lock the most optimized character into those rolls, I've found the players will be challenged by the constraint and try to free up that player to roll something else if it's not their best score. Even if they don't, that player still feels useful because they're busy keeping the party hidden from detection, moving and motivated, or away from threats while the rest concentrate on solving the problem. It also gets exciting when the best player for that skill doesn't get a chance to roll, leaving just two players left to make the crucial roll. Just keep up the variety of descriptions for those rolls and they'll be entertained hearing how they narrowly saved the party's hide. One other thing I tend to do is play fast and loose with the rolls. If a player comes up with an awesome idea, even if it doesn't apply to what I had planned, I often throw it in there anyway. In my last session the party was fleeing through a palace that I'd established was suffused with magic due to how it was constructed. One of the players made an arcana check to see if there were traps and alarms - there weren't (originally) but the idea was so neat and reasonable that I described how she was able to detect the wardings and hastily dispel them as the party tore through the hallways.
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Jan 30, 2013 04:35
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Also if you new DMs are running 4e there is a little tip I've picked up from other guys. In combat you attack HP. In Skill Challenges you attack Healing Surges. Nobody likes dying in a fast river or getting tetanus from a botched Thievery check. So if you're in Exploration mode or whatever set DCs for things like Nature, Athletics, etc to navigate a swift river or thick undergrowth. If it's DC 15 at 15+ no problem, they make it through. Crit give them a little gimme perk like the Druid finding a medicinal plant that gives +1 Fort for the next combat encounter. At 10 or under tell them that they're terrible at fording rivers and lose a healing surge to fatigue. It lets the party lose something without killing a guy for not training a relevant skill, and if you use a few of them per adventuring day it can put pressure on the Wizard or Rogue while letting the squishy member that's making checks feel like he's accomplishing something.
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Jan 30, 2013 08:05
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Vim Fuego posted:The group has done 8 sessions over the past year and is level 5. complete and total tangent, but this seems a bit odd to me. Like, one calendar year? So one session every 6 weeks? What level did you start at? and how long are your sessions?
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Jan 30, 2013 09:28
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Simple question with complex answer: How do I run a 4e fight as a skill challenge? Probably needs expanding. For fights with anyone near the PC's level I intend to use a grid. But my upcoming campaign will probably pit the PCs against a large number of situations where a valid response needs to be "kill 'em all, let the Raven Queen sort 'em out" and gently caress statting 'em all out every drat time. A skill challenge where the PCs will either roll well and kick rear end, or roll lovely and get away by the skin of their teeth, should be a reasonable thing to create. I'm thinking instead of skills, just make attack rolls, with a +2 bonus if you burn an encounter power. Are there established systems for this sort of thing?
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Jan 31, 2013 01:58
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Captain Walker posted:A skill challenge where the PCs will either roll well and kick rear end, or roll lovely and get away by the skin of their teeth, should be a reasonable thing to create. Not to sound crass, but why don't you just say "you lose 1d6 healing surges and you kill everything"?
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Jan 31, 2013 03:49
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Captain Walker posted:Simple question with complex answer: How do I run a 4e fight as a skill challenge? I don't understand why you would want to replace 4e's best ruleset (combat) with its worst (skill challenges). If you don't want to stat up a bunch of fights, get two sets of monsters that have more or less the same XP value for each monster, get a couple minions, and reskin combinations of those over and over again. What was a ray of slow becomes a crossbow shot to the leg and then a thrown fanged toad with a slowing poison. If your answer to "why" is "combat takes too long" then your answer is to not run 4e for that campaign idea.
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Feb 1, 2013 04:42
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homullus posted:I don't understand why you would want to replace 4e's best ruleset (combat) with its worst (skill challenges). If you don't want to stat up a bunch of fights, get two sets of monsters that have more or less the same XP value for each monster, get a couple minions, and reskin combinations of those over and over again. What was a ray of slow becomes a crossbow shot to the leg and then a thrown fanged toad with a slowing poison. I didn't even know I was looking for that answer. Thanks!
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Feb 1, 2013 04:58
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Running my first game of D&D 3.5 (or any game, essentially). I honestly haven't played much pen and paper D&D, plenty of pc games (balder's gate, knights of the chalice, nethack). My players are the same. I want to run my campaign skeleton by you guys before I start to make sure I'm not being a total idiot. edit: oh yeah, we've played Descent into Darkness a number of times with multiple different people being overlord, and a bunch of other tabletop games. We're starting at level 1, the players are basically refugees from farming villages undergoing hard times. They're in a small caravan heading to a Dwarven mine and surrounding trade town. They won't have full kits as they are poor (and the players are having a hard enough time building their characters as it stands). I'm planning on having them ambushed after their in character introductions by some NPC bandits. The bandits will consist of a big dumb level 3 half orc, a level 4 fighter, a halfling rogue and in the background a wizard. It will become apparent that the bandits want them alive as they brandish saps. The orc will attempt to take down the party on his own, giving the players a chance to kill him. Whether or not they can figure out how to handle the half/orc, they will be subdued and taken into a cave in the bandit camp and placed in a cell with a hole in the middle big enough for an individual to fit down. The wizard leader guy says something like "You are my prisoners and if you can prove yourself useful you might yet survive. If you can return with *magic item* then I may allow the one of you that brings it to me to live. choose your fates". the NPC rogue soon slides out of the shadows and tells them "I think I can give you a better offer. If you can bring me *magic item* I can get you all out of there". He gives them their equipment, some meager supplies taken from the caravan, and if they managed to slay the half/orc whatever he has. The idea is that the rogue wants profit while the wizard wants the item for power or evil. At this point they can enter a standard dungeon with low level encounters and traps and loot and I expect the players will find the item and escape via an underground river, find the item and escape via an underground river/waterfall, or escape empty handed. Upon exiting they will find that they are nearer to their original destination then they expected and can hit the town with what loot they picked up to start the adventure proper. My idea is that the dwarven mine they are heading for has a portal, or magically locked door that requires a number of artifacts from around the region, the item the wizard is interested in being one. I feel like this is a good way to get them started off and leads to some mysteries and compelling reasons to follow the narrative. If they don't escape with the item, it will become apparent that they may need to go back and get it from the evil wizard. If they bring it to the town perhaps they will be set on the path to find the rest of the set, and if they bring it back to the rogue, who knows what trouble they'll get into!? Thanks for reading this, I feel a little dumb, but I just want to check and see if this sounds totally out of depth and whatnot. Honestly at this point I'm most worried about running encounters. LRADIKAL fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Feb 1, 2013 |
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Feb 1, 2013 11:16
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The main thing I'd say is: players don't tend to like it if they perceive themselves as being railroaded into a specific situation. If your campaign hinges on the party being subdued and imprisoned in that first fight, and if you're going to lead the plot there anyway, save yourself the trouble and actually start the campaign with the party in their cell, narrating the ambush and their eventual defeat - but talk to them first and see if they're okay with being put into a very specific situation like that right from the start. As a compromise, you could run that battle as a D&D combat tutorial, but I'd still make it plain in advance that the actual outcome of the fight would be predetermined and the fight would be just a tutorial/opportunity to get some bonus loot. And if they're not okay with that, run the ambush encounter fairly, but make a contingency for when they beat the odds and manage to subdue the wizard instead. He could carry notes about the magic item he's looking for and the broad location ("All I need are some dumb bastards to go in and get it") and they'd end up in the dungeon anyway, but that way it feels like it's their own agenda.
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Feb 1, 2013 12:26
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I agree with the horse, but I'd also plan for the scenario where the party fails to meet the odds but refuses to surrender. Players usually hate to be railroaded, but they also really hate surrendering... Have a plan to avoid killing them which doesn't require a sense of self preservation on their part.
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Feb 1, 2013 15:12
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I like the idea of the fight being winnable, making the NPC s overconfident rather then assured of victory. Having the party then have the choice of walking to their original destination or infiltrating the dungeon really opens things up. As far as subduing them the NPC dudes were going to sap them, choke them out or the wizard sleep them. Thanks for the tips.
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Feb 1, 2013 19:38
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The other option is during character generation to say: "The game is going to start with your characters as the prisoners of a group of bandits. I'd like you to take it in turns to describe how and why your character got taken prisoner, and a way in which your character has interacted with the character of the players on your left and right: this can be from before you got captured, or it can be some way you've got to know each other since." It's a really good trick for building party cohesion and means that they're not all just "welp, nice getting out of that prison with you, let's go our own separate ways now".
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Feb 2, 2013 15:57
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We're currently doing a campaign using D&D Next, just for a change of pace. I'm planning the next arc of things and I'm introducing an enemy that I hope will come back to haunt them repeatedly. It's based on the idea of the Borg/Cybermen, where a race of constructs whose goal is to assimilate the entire population into their construct army. I'm taking the idea of warforged and their creation process and altering it to this situation. I like the idea of altering creation forges to take humanoids and spit out warforged like constructs, only without the minds of their former selves (through magical inhibition or just plain removal of those memories/feelings, I haven't decided). They are sentient only enough so they have the independence to carry out tasks and make decisions for the good of the construct when in the field. There will probably be some big bad wizard behind everything that got the ball rolling but I plan for the constructs to come back in various forms just when the party thinks they have destroyed them for good (maybe starting with constructs made from wood, then changing their armor to stone/metal as they get more powerful or as time passes to keep the threat growing with the party). What I want your help with, is I REALLY want to get a good name for these constructs and a catchy slogan ("You will be upgraded/deleted", "Resistance is futile") that they can relate to this particular species and hopefully induce some sort of "Oh poo poo, it's the constructs!" mentality when they hear it. I've debating just calling them "The Construct" or "The Forge" and one of their slogans being "You will be forged anew!" when they want to take people in for assimilation. I really like this slogan and I'd really love for some similar alternate slogan that they use when they plan on just straight up killing things instead of assimilating (like the difference between "You will be upgraded/deleted!" with the cybermen). I'm poo poo with names and I really want to make a legendary threat that is familiar enough to their out of game knowledge of assimilating races, yet different enough that they are terrifying in their own right and without a ridiculous name. I could also use some suggestion for trademark attacks that they can use to help identify when the constructs have attacked a town(perhaps with a single magical attack, fireball wielding constructs?) My players have already saved and taken control of a town, so guess who the constructs are hitting first 
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Feb 2, 2013 20:35
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I'd start (as I almost always do) by looking into motivations. Why do the creation forges need humanoids? Why aren't they simply turning, say, wood into wood constructs, or iron into iron constructs? Are the forges disassembling what's put in into their base components and using that to create constructs, or is it just the sentience that the forge uses, and the rest is discarded? You might want to use something like "Your flesh/mind is needed" as an "assimilation" slogan, and you could turn it around to a cold, dispassionate "Your flesh/mind is unnecessary" when the constructs come to kill. On the other hand, your favored slogan, "You will be forged anew!", sounds almost religious, and makes me think the constructs believe that this is more than a simple utilitarian process. Do the constructs use humanoids not because they're the best way to make new constructs, but because they believe that the conversion process is a rite of passage or a kind of apotheosis? In that case, a companion to "You will be forged anew!" might be "You have been found wanting" or "You are not worthy". (Or even simply "Repent. Repent.") In this case, your signal that the constructs have attacked is easy - a town (for example), completely undamaged but completely devoid of humanoid life, with the constructs' symbol emblazoned in the center of town or on the gates. As for a name, what's popped out at me as I was writing this is "the Remade" (usable in both the singular and collective). YMMV on that one, though. SneezeOfTheDecade fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Feb 2, 2013 |
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Feb 2, 2013 21:19
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I actually really like the religious approach. It's difficult to justify the process needing humans since constructs can just be made from non living materials most of the time. A new religion based on reforging the inferior bodies of humanoids into a construct that is perfect I'm the eyes of their new god provides much better motivation. Thanks for the suggestions, which are all good. I still have trouble thinking about good motivations for enemies sometimes, so it's nice to have some other view points.
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Feb 2, 2013 21:51
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Yarrbossa posted:I actually really like the religious approach. It's difficult to justify the process needing humans since constructs can just be made from non living materials most of the time. A new religion based on reforging the inferior bodies of humanoids into a construct that is perfect I'm the eyes of their new god provides much better motivation. Springboarding on Besesoth's "Repent! Repent!" idea; imagine if the party goes through a construct processing center, and sees this scrawled on the walls/floor. Then later on, the party is going through a fairly mundane dungeon, only to come across a barricaded area with "REPENT!" written on the walls. You could even have the constructs' 'leader' think they're doing a good thing. Maybe they were sick/old/disfigured, fell into one of those forges somehow, and woke up completely whole as part of this collective. All the leaders wants to do is bring this perfection to the entire world, so no one has to suffer anymore.
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Feb 3, 2013 01:01
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P.S. STILL COMPLETELY DEVOID OF MERIT
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Guesticles posted:You could even have the constructs' 'leader' think they're doing a good thing. Maybe they were sick/old/disfigured, fell into one of those forges somehow, and woke up completely whole as part of this collective. All the leaders wants to do is bring this perfection to the entire world, so no one has to suffer anymore. Or a deliberate effort on their part if they found/made the thing precisely to deal with the old/sick bit. Or (going by the religious bit) they were originally worshipers of some inventor/mechanical-related power like Gond in FR or the modrons who took their faith too far. For real fun have the forges actually meant for something else, and the assimilation desire is a result of their misuse. The idea of real perfection being twisted because of the human(oid) element being added is a nice theme, and if they were stolen from someone their agents could provide assistance to the PCs at an appropriate time.
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Feb 3, 2013 22:52
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Don't Modrons already worship a single entity that represents their collective intelligence as a whole a la the Borg Queen?
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Feb 3, 2013 23:07
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Lazy Bear posted:Don't Modrons already worship a single entity that represents their collective intelligence as a whole a la the Borg Queen? Yea, its Primus, The One and the Prime.
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Feb 3, 2013 23:13
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Tardcore posted:Yea, its Primus, The One and the Prime. didn't he die in like the time of troubles or something, and then a new prime who was identical in every way was generated to take his place? something like that
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Feb 4, 2013 00:36
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As far as I'm aware, Primus has died a few times. Its replacement has been smooth and efficient each time.
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Feb 4, 2013 03:48
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So, one of my players stopped me and told me that I missed a big opportunity to add flavor. What I'm wondering is, is it my place as a DM to tell the players how they feel emotionally to what is happening around them? Here's the scenario. We had a new player. The other player characters didn't trust her PC at first. The whole night they are trying to exploit her. Making her dance on tables for Harmonium Officers. She roles over a 30 and scoops up almost 20 gold for the party in her bardic performance. But they still are barking orders at her, and keeping her on a short leash. At the end of the session the party runs into a reoccurring villain who's a crooked guard/monk of Shar. The new PC, she rolls an 18 on initiative, so she's going 2nd. So the PC who's up first gives her instructions for his turn. She's up next. She walks up to him and blam, gats him through the reoccurring villain through the eye with critical. The other guards, naturally, start Rodney Kinging her rear end. So finally another PC, she steps up and backstabs a guard that is pinning the nw PC. Killing her attacker instantly. I said nothing. Another player pulled me aside and told me I should of told the new PC that this action was a big deal. This was the first time any member of the party stepped up to protect her. My question is, is it my place to tell the PC's how they should interpret what is happening around them? Sure, it would of made for better storytelling, but doesn't it violate a certain principle?
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Feb 4, 2013 06:32
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It sounds like more like your existing party is a bunch of douchebags who want 'Look, we saved you (after treating you like poo poo), we're big heroes!' credit.
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Feb 4, 2013 07:21
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It sounds like your new player made a really cool "late entrance" so to speak, stepping up to a big bad with whom she has no personal stake - and doing the party a huge favor. That seems like a really cool stepping off point for her relationship with the party, one they squandered. They seem to want her to be their convenient, kowtowing NPC who takes orders and drags in money. You were right to not tell people how their characters feel, I think. If you take that from players, they're not left with much to do at the table.
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Feb 4, 2013 08:12
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You can always ask guiding questions. "How are you feeling about [previous event]?" is useful even in everyday conversation with our best friends. The fact ANOTHER PLAYER told you that she should've felt something, however, is an odd hint. That's what you bring up in character: "Tarythn, you should thank me for what happened at the Black Friar Tavern!" Etc. Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Nov 14, 2023 |
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Feb 4, 2013 08:44
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Lazy Bear posted:As far as I'm aware, Primus has died a few times. Its replacement has been smooth and efficient each time. It's part of their design as a species. When Primus dies one of the Modrons directly under it becomes the new Primus. A Modron in every tier is promoted until the vacancy is at the lowest and most common tier of Modron. A new one of those is created via the Energy Repository and the order is preserved. Imagine four Modrons on the edge of a cliff... As for God of Paradise's question, I'd call it a finesse thing. You never want to tell a Tabletop player how his or her character feels because to the player it'll sound like you're jacking their guy. Plus in a world where people are driven mad by talking to literal demons and angels normal human behavior gets shifty when you've got an Infernal Warlock and a Warpriest in the same party. This isn't to say that you can't inform the tone of the situation or the presence a certain NPC might command. A good way to think of it is to say "This is Ordeus Finch, mayor of Bristol. He commands a lot of respect and within the city his word is law." rather than "You recognize the mayor. As a citizen of Bristol you have a lot of respect for him." Give the new player a few lines informing her that these are his personal bodyguards. Yes they are complete zealots and they might draw weapons if you so much as insult this guy's shoes. And until she's fully integrated I'd consider the Bard's perspective whenever you're bringing in recurring NPCs. If you tell the old players "In the tavern you see Delvin' Dave." They'll immediately remember him as their buddy and start ordering drinks and carrying on. Your Bard won't know him so inform her that this guy seems to know the party, who seems to love him, and redescribe him a bit for her. And finally, if the rest of your party is being douchey and commanding her around remind her that she's a Bard. Bards are cocky as poo poo and serve as the diplomatic face all the time. If they want to keep trying to instruct her tell her to start introducing herself by a bunch of made up titles at formal meetings and then jerking a thumb to the other players and saying "... and these are my boys."
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Feb 4, 2013 09:16
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God Of Paradise posted:So, one of my players stopped me and told me that I missed a big opportunity to add flavor. What I'm wondering is, is it my place as a DM to tell the players how they feel emotionally to what is happening around them? Here's the scenario. No, it isn't your job, and your existing players sound like arseholes. How did you respond to the other player's statement?
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Feb 4, 2013 10:34
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LordMazza posted:No, it isn't your job, and your existing players sound like arseholes. How did you respond to the other player's statement? That it's not my job, I'm the DM. That he could tell her that in character if he likes. But it's her job to roleplay her character, not mine. Two of the players are best friends, who have previously only played D&D with one another, or at most 1 DM and 2 PCs. The game I run has 5 regular PCs. 6 last night. So it appears that though these guys know the rules, they have no idea how the game is usually played. These two, they're like Bizarro players. They seem to become uncomfortable unless they're railroaded. And they think being a DM means being, first and foremost a storyteller instead of a facilitator and world populator. Besides this, they are good at roleplaying their own characters, knowledgeable about rules, and are fun to have as players otherwise. God Of Paradise fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Feb 4, 2013 |
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Feb 4, 2013 11:57
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God Of Paradise posted:My question is, is it my place to tell the PC's how they should interpret what is happening around them? Sure, it would of made for better storytelling, but doesn't it violate a certain principle? Generally, no, you shouldn't tell your PCs how their characters feel. But sometimes I'll give my players cues, or encourage/remind them to consider things as their character. If I am trying to interject some excitement or player involvement, I'll do so open endly; "Wizard, you might not be completely sure you like this NPC" or "You think back to the last time you did a job for someone from that town, and remember it didn't end so well". The player might take it and run, or might decide that no, this guy seems on the level and we're fine here. Razorwired's example with the mayor is dead on. In any case, I think you you were fine. I think maybe some table-talk of "Well Bard, looks like a member of the party is finally helping you out instead of just bossing you around" might have given your players a new direction, but it sounds like things were going along with no need for you to jump in.
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Feb 4, 2013 12:30
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Liesmith posted:didn't he die in like the time of troubles or something, and then a new prime who was identical in every way was generated to take his place? something like that Yeah, and then we were all sad because they gave the Matrix of Leadership to Hot Rod and... ....wait.
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Feb 4, 2013 15:33
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Guesticles posted:Generally, no, you shouldn't tell your PCs how their characters feel. But sometimes I'll give my players cues, or encourage/remind them to consider things as their character.
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Feb 4, 2013 16:08
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