Fidel Cuckstro posted:

I’ll admit I was going to avoid doing normal/upside down meanings as it felt like it’d be even more work

ActingPower posted:

(Obligatory "Death means transformation, not literal death" post)

Air Skwirl posted:

Yeah, if you were going to do the work of having individual events effects for each of the major arcana, having two for each seems like way too much on top of that.

You could do something like, if they're used as a wild card you hang on to the card and they do something else later sometimes positive, sometimes negative kinda like the deck of many things because the players accidentally released a bit of wild magic out into the world. I wouldn't make it as disastrous as the worst of deck of many things, but it'd give you time to actually plan a thematic encounter. Although that would mean every ritual would work as long as they're willing to use the wild cards, and I feel like players will almost always go for that.

Fidel Cuckstro posted:

Thanks! would be interested to see what you suggest

edit-
Actually looking at your suggestions I think that could fit pretty well in the design I'm considering (although I have to admit having played a bunch of Balatro recently, the idea of using poker hands remains appealing to me).

I like the idea of the players going around drawing cards from the deck one at a time. If they all draw minor arcana up to the ritual level (a basic ritual maybe is 2 cards, intermediate is 3, etc) then the ritual is a success. If they get a major, then yeah it goes wrong.

Only problem with this approach is that I want a couple cards to be drawn even on a basic ritual because I want to make sure most of the players get involved every time. BUT if I allow for wildcards or substitutions (example- the wizard and cleric get a feat to always draw 2 cards and can choose which to use, the group can "earn" cards from defeating enemies and a player can opt to use one of those cards over what they drew as long as the group agrees, etc etc), then that might balance out some of the diminishing chances of drawing 3-4-5-6 cards.

Arglebargle III posted:

So now I have to try to balance out the different factions as this thing gets going, because later in the week I'll be getting the first combat ready. I was hoping to use this thread as a bit of a sounding board on balancing the factions so that they players have an interesting choice to make. Obvious choices aren't as interesting.

1. Captain Locke

Captain Locke is the Imperial Navy commander of this outpost. As a navy officer she's going to assume that she's the ranking officer and therefore in overall command of the defense, and is going to get frustrated about the politics very fast. She's a skilled tactician and a good commander whose ship punches above its weight due to its well-trained and disciplined crew. Her presence is important to the space battle. Just as she pulls into port she'll receive strongly worded orders from the fleet to abandon the defense and return to base. She wants to disobey orders, but if the victory seems in doubt she'll leave. She wants to keep these orders secret for obvious reasons. She doesn't even entertain the thought that Damaris might secede from the Imperium, and if that happens she's going to leave as fast as possible to distance herself from the debacle.

Strength
Locke is the best tactician, and her ship is the most powerful space combatant. With her in charge the defense will have a better chance overall. She has only token ground forces to commit.

Resources
Locke is exceeding her orders even remaining here, and so has nothing to offer the players for siding with her.

Relationship with the players
Locke is going to attempt to commandeer the party's ships, which won't go over well with the party. However, she's also going to insist that the players' light cruiser be rushed into fighting shape to the exclusion of all other dock priorities. In her mind a second "real" warship is an invaluable tactical tool in this situation. And she's right, because a fleet battle is the finale to this module. The players will probably like the idea of getting their new cruiser operational in weeks rather than the months they expected.

2. Governor Kapak

Kapak is the third son of a beloved but ineffectual governor, thrust into power by a tragic shuttle accident. He has been content to while away his tenure with social events, and turns to narcotics to lessen the burden of leadership. He prefers to leave governance up to the Imperial adepts, who run Damaris as if it were 80 light years away within the borders of the Imperium. However Kapak has a genuine affection for the people of Damaris as they have for his family. He is afraid of General Dante and the defense forces, which are clearly no longer under his control. He wants to keep the status quo intact, but as the defense becomes more desperate he will start to care less about his position and be more open to radical solutions to protect his people. Kapak is going to beg the players to resolve the dispute between Locke and Dante and unify the defenders' command structure before the main invasion, effectively giving the players overall command.

Strength
Kapak is beloved among the people but has little constituency among the armed forces. His Imperial administrators and their cadre of a few thousand law enforcement officers are all the military force he can count on.

Resources
As Planetary Governor, Kapak has the most cash on hand of any of the factions. He can make immediate gifts of cash, resources, or finished goods, and can also offer futures in Damarian business concerns. He is willing to spend lavishly at this moment, even inflicting ruinous terms on his subjects for the players' help. However if his gifts are too outrageous it might shift support further towards Dante.

Relationship to the party
Kapak has disgusted the party with his disinterest in the planet's defenses and his substance abuse. He snubbed one of their visits because they arrived in the early morning and he was too hungover to be bothered to meet them, while Dante got up for them at three in the morning as if it was completely normal. One of the party however wants to keep him around as the status quo is working fine for them.

3. General Dante

Dante is the charismatic and ambitious leader of the Damaris Defense Forces. He is from the highest ranks of the provincial aristocracy, volunteered for the infantry service as the youngest commissioned officer in the forces, rose to head the military, and has chafed under Kapak's inept rule for his entire adult life. Dante believes that Damaris would be better off under his leadership and out of its fictitious status as an Imperial planet outside Imperial protection. He has recently been raising new forces without Kapak's permission, with weapons smuggled to him at scale by the players. Kapak has yet to react to this provocation, which has only emboldened Dante. His support within the armed forces is near-total, and the majority of the aristocracy back him as well. However the common people still prefer the Kapak dynasty. Dante wants to launch a coup in order to remove Kapak and his Imperial administrators during this critical time, but he won't do it if no other faction supports him. Failing that, he still demands operational control of the defense, which puts him in an intractable conflict with Locke. Unlike the other factions, Dante has no realistic way to flee Damaris, so he can be forced to back down if the defense would collapse without his support.

Strength
Dante controls the ground and space forces of the planet, including the powerful lunar defense station. He is an inexperienced commander, and will do a worse job than Locke in overall command. Without the players' support he will be unable to go through with his coup.

Resources
As the future despot of Damaris, Dante can offer grand promises but no ready cash. As a Damaran patriot, he wants Damaran defense force ships to have priority over the players' cruiser in the dock. He'll want some sort of guarantee of support in order to accept Locke's demands that the player's cruiser get round-the-clock priority from the dockyards.

Relationship with the party
The party like and respect Dante as a like-minded individual and partner in crime. He sounded them out through intermediaries and then revealed himself to them to make his case that they should sell him enough weapons for an army. The players were shocked by how small the Damaris forces were and agreed to sell him large quantities of weapons, which they have been doing for more than a year now. Three of the players see him as a good alternative to Kapak.

4. Lady Orleans

Orleans is an outwardly-affable but inwardly-jaded Rogue Trader who has had extensive dealings with Damaris and the Imperial bureaucracy. She believes Damaris is the key to the future fortunes of the Expanse: the only genuinely wealthy and independent free port beyond the Maw. At least, it could be, if it hadn't foolishly shackled itself to Imperial administration. Orleans hates the Imperial bureaucracy which ruined her father, and sees her family's path back to wealth and prestige in the future of a free Damaris. Orleans wants Damaris to secede from the Imperium, but wants to keep Kapak or a similar weak ruler in power, so that the planet can be run as an entrepot for the interests of interplanetary trade. She is afraid that Dante would be too hard to control. She intercepted Locke's secret orders to withdraw, but is afraid that the defense might collapse if she uses this knowledge to get rid of the Navy at this time. She is less interested in overall command and more interested in making sure the situation plays out to her benefit.

Strength
Orleans has two ships under her control: her own frigate and a mercenary star galleon. She has limited control over her mercenary muscle.

Resources
Orleans has modest resources for a rogue trader, which is to say she is very wealthy. She can offer the players immediate cash and a cut of the future trade and power in a free Damaris. However her resources are strained by hiring on an entire capital ship and she cannot spend like Kapak can.

Relationship to the party
The party don't know Orleans beyond a fellow Rogue Trader who stops at Damaris frequently. They're suspicious as to why Orleans has showed up with mercenaries in tow this time. However, Orleans is a friendly presence whose goals are mostly aligned with the party's.

Are these choices balanced? How do you make these clear to the players so that they can make a choice without jumping the gun and foreclosing other possibilities? Is there a way through this that's obvious and boring but I'm too close to see it?

Morrow posted:

When the stars/planets/moons align, a portal opens to the eye of the Fractal storm. Where and when this occurs is constantly shifting and requires a skilled astronomer/diviner to identify, but fortunately ancient druids went and built circles of standing stones in all the potential places it could be for the next thousand years.

They did this because the portal goes two ways: just as someone from the material plane can pass into the heart of the storm, creatures of pure chaos can pass out. The standing stones serve as a magic circle that keeps them contained until the portal closes.

So, players need to find a scholar buddy who can predict this year's convergence, then they need to travel to the darkest jungle/highest mountain/deepest desert where the standing stones were built, and then they need to fight a CR appropriate aberration.

Maybe the standing stones have other defenses, maybe some sort of magical maze or test.

Dameius posted:

Bob the farmer absolutely needs to find this, but not when Bob the farmer wants to find it. Or is even aware that it is a thing that could be found.

sebmojo posted:

Yeah this, Bob the Farmer accidentally came through fifty years ago with a small flock of sheep and they find him with a makeshift farm that supports him and his sheep that he's created in the meantime, somewhere in the Nightmare Realms, he's gone a little odd though

Arglebargle III posted:

Where are the guys?

sebmojo posted:

probably something to do with a wizard

Jack B Nimble posted:

Does anyone see any glaring omissions in the following taxonomy for a traditional D&D style game? Is there anything that you feel isn’t answered or that needs to be further explanined?
 
Undead - souls of the dead given temporary form in the world Ex: Skeleton, Ghoul, Vampire, Ghost, Wraith [They’re your various Undead]
 
Demons - outsiders from beyond given temporary form in the world Ex: Imps, Familiars, various breeds of devils and demons [would require some setting specific proper nouns to be created]
 
Grotesques - Living creatures created by sorcery, possessing a living creature's needs but with no place in the natural world Ex: Mimic chests, Oozes [Wizards are responsible for a lot of stupid bullshit in dungeons]
 
Golems - Animated but non biological creatures created by sorcery, are not actually alive but are magically animated: Ex: Flying sword, living statuary, stone golem [Wizards are responsible for a lot of stupid bullshit in dungeons]
 
Chimera - Naturally occurring but extremely rare and dangerous beasts. Ex: Owlbear, Griffon, Wyvern, Dragon [Within the setting these aren’t biologically different than “normal” animals except that they’re very rare, very dangerous, and incurably
hostile towards people]
 
Goblins - Sapient monsters that have a pseudo society (camps, bands, leaders, the capacity for language) but which generate and propagate in dark, remote places. Ex: Goblin, Ogre, Troll [these are the various “green skin” races but I want them to grow spontaneously in dark places and adopt a pantomime of warlike culture. They’re magical manifestations that world, they’re probably an ancient curse of some kind.]
 
Fae - Living creatures born of and infused with magic but brought into the world so long ago they now persist as natural inhabitants - Unicorns, Pixies, Undines, Sylphs, Salamanders, Gnomes [These creatures are infused with magic but are not related to the efforts of mortal sorceries]
 

Shanty posted:

Jack B Nimble posted:

"Oh. I tell the party.

Instead, Id like to give the player a single sheet of brief bullet points so that they can arrive at these conclusions themselves. I also hope to make monsters that incorporate multiple types, like demon and undead or fairy and goblin, and that way I can provide complimentary or even conflicting information.

Shanty posted:

Arglebargle III posted:

A good way to fake this would be to give them a tome with a fancy description, but in practice just give them some blurb excerpts from the tome. The players will prefer this honestly over a real tome. If you want to put this behind some kind of test you can give them all the blurbs and then REMOVE blurbs as the reader gains successes to get rid of the least trustworthy borne blurbs.

Morrow posted:

It's my turn to DM in a few months and I'm trying to do an actual mystery: the Werewolf of Monte Cristo. The format is rather than having a long-running campaign we reset and do something different for the better part of a year, which lets us shuffle around schedules and rosters a little.

The idea is there's a cabal of powerful dudes (a wizard, a priest, a banker, a noble) who ruined some poor schmuck's life and had him shipped off to fantasy Australia as a prisoner, where he was turned into a werewolf and now like fifteen years later he's coming back to fantasy London as a superpowered serial killer. The players get roped in because they work for/are suspects in the murder of his first target and need to piece together the conspiracy so they can get ahead of the killer.

Is there a good guide to running a mystery online in D&D? As opposed to my usual format of "go to place, kill dude", or "choose which place to go to, kill dude, then go to other place" there's a lot more moving parts where things can go off the rails. I expect I need to really flesh out the social roster and keep track of which NPCs know what, like a social instead of geographic sandbox.

Morrow posted:

It's my turn to DM in a few months and I'm trying to do an actual mystery: the Werewolf of Monte Cristo. The format is rather than having a long-running campaign we reset and do something different for the better part of a year, which lets us shuffle around schedules and rosters a little.

The idea is there's a cabal of powerful dudes (a wizard, a priest, a banker, a noble) who ruined some poor schmuck's life and had him shipped off to fantasy Australia as a prisoner, where he was turned into a werewolf and now like fifteen years later he's coming back to fantasy London as a superpowered serial killer. The players get roped in because they work for/are suspects in the murder of his first target and need to piece together the conspiracy so they can get ahead of the killer.

Is there a good guide to running a mystery online in D&D? As opposed to my usual format of "go to place, kill dude", or "choose which place to go to, kill dude, then go to other place" there's a lot more moving parts where things can go off the rails. I expect I need to really flesh out the social roster and keep track of which NPCs know what, like a social instead of geographic sandbox.