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Everyone in my group has a family, a job, and some have other stuff to do. They all love to play, but sometimes someone can't make it - that's punishment enough. For our next campaign, we decided that the GM keeps track of XP and advances everyone whenever, no matter how often they attended. Everyone stays at the same level. People who attend can get tokens for good roleplaying that they can spend to buy one-off bonuses like rerolls or +1 to any roll made.
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Jul 26, 2009 19:03
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:42 |
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Covid brought me back to DND. After playing in a campaign of a friend of mine via roll20, I caught the DM itch and have been busy preparing ever since. I decided to revisit a campaign I played in DND 4E, which in turn was heavily modified from a podcast/site called "The New World". The campaign will see the players boarding one of the first ships en route to a fabled continent. Before reaching the shore, their ship is attacked by a vicious Kraken, severely damaging the vessel and killing several. After making landfall in a lifeboat, they will have to contend with the harsh environment and severely depleted ressources. Their first choice will be wether to concentrate on shoring up their makeshift camp, or following the ravings of a feverish sailor who swears he's seen some mushroom-like creatures abducting one of their own into the jungle. The kraken fight will be against a reskinned giant octopus as the head (minus the tentacle attack), and several tentacles (reskinned constricting snakes), with the help of the captain and some sailors. After that, the players will be pretty much free to follow whatever leads they please, and I intend on incorporating some faction reputation and base building aspects. I'm pretty excited for the campaign and spent the last few days getting familiar with roll20, selecting background music, mood-setting "loading screens" and drawing the beginnings of the continent in Inkarnate. The players will reveal this with a fog-of-war effect. As it's my first time working with Inkarnate, I'd be happy to get some tips on what I've got so far (obviously ignore the hexshaped island to the lower right, that will be added later - it's empty for now until the players want to explore there). 
Luebbi fucked around with this message at 17:59 on May 16, 2020 |
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May 16, 2020 17:29
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I created a T-Rex jungle chase encounter for DND 5E groups around level 3-6. The chase rules in the DM guide didn't quite match what I was going for. I wanted to achieve: The Chase rules in the DM guide didn't quite match what I was going for. I wanted to achieve:
I uploaded the PDF here: https://docdro.id/qrrCIVK Hope some of you like it, and would love it if you had feedback!
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Jun 16, 2020 05:09
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Thanks for the feedback! I originally started out with the cliff 500 feet and the Dino 100 feet away, but thought this might be too short for the encounter. With my 4 players (and the T-Rex), the distance of 1000 feat will be traversed in roughly 4 initiative go-throughs, which sounds about right for this type of encounter. I will be running it on roll20, already made an extra-large map with blurred sides to suggest speed. I played a dry-run which ended with the T-Rex just 10 feet behind the group, who had to spend 3 Hit Die and 2 Spell Slots to maintain their distance , before they made it to cover. I also implemented all the tables into roll20 and will allow players to roll themselves, hopefully significantly speeding up the encounter! All this work for one random encounter - but hopefully a memorable one 
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Jun 16, 2020 05:31
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pog boyfriend posted:please do not add acrobatics to this (E: for the base "run" action of these rules). "running" is so strictly in the purview of athletics it is absolutely unfair to the skill to let acrobatics even close to that space. when you let acrobatics do what athletics is supposed to do, all it does is devalue strength far more than was intended and encourage all players to dump it That's a good point. I wrote the encounter with my party in mind - with 3 casters and a rogue, anything strength based would be a death sentence but I'll change thst if I ever revise the encounter.
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Jun 16, 2020 17:27
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I'm trying to show my players what the encounter is about with the flavor text - a way to escape is described, and if asked, I will tell them the T-Rex is a very deadly target at their level. As I play with 2 other DM's, they will probably deduce themselves that 4 level 3 players can't take down the beast alone. If they do decide to stand and fight, I'd probably add a Triceratops into the mix who fights alongside the players to protect his herd.
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Jun 18, 2020 05:51
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My players are about to visit a Kult of the Kraken Temple, and I decided to put a little puzzle in their way. The entire temple can be drained or flooded. There's a treasure room with a magically sealed door. There's 2 4-button rows and a single button in front of the door. If the room is flooded, the lower row will have icons showing. If not, the upper row will be active. The buttons themselves are simple - pressing them advances from Fish -> Coral -> Tentacle -> back to fish. However, some buttons are linked with each other, including some on the water side with the dry side and vice-versa. The goal is to have all 8 tentacles selected before pressing the main button. The players can try stopping the draining mechanism at the right time to have both rows of buttons shown simultaneously. I refrained from using more complicated buttons ("this one advances the other one two steps") to keep the frustration to a minimum.  I made this specifically for use in roll20. The buttons are all multi-sided tokens. If someone needs the assets and wants to incorporate this into their game, PM me.
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Jul 6, 2020 05:30
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That's great advice, thank you! I had planned on one for stopping the draining mechanism at the right time (so both rows are visible), but will incorporate some more (arcana check to show possible linked buttons, for example).
Luebbi fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Jul 6, 2020 |
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Jul 6, 2020 06:39
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Next week my players will most likely face off against the current Big Bad - a homebrewed Kraken that's been magically weakened. I'd be happy if some of you could look over the monster design and tell me if I'm on the right track, especially if the HP are too high/low. We're playing DND5e. I've got a party of 5 players who just turned level 5 and have full spell slots/HP. They're a fighter, rogue/ranger, warlock, cleric and sorcerer. They will fight the Kraken underwater, but have water breathing and a choice between two boons: Freedom of Movement or Bless and 10 Temp HP. They found out that the Kraken has been severely weakened by an age-old spell that binds it. It's followers have started to crack the seal that binds it - they will want to strike while they can (and once the metagamer who knows a normal Kraken is CR23 gets it through his skull that this is going to be homebrewed :P ) As they 2-rounded a 120HP boss at lvl 4, they've been asking me to make the fights tougher. I want to make this one challenging, but hopefully not end in a TPK. I'm thinking of the following template, with a two-phase bossfight AC 13 200-250 HP, undecided Legendary Resistance: can choose to pass two failed saving throws / day Freedom of movement: ignores difficult terrain, can't be restrained/charmed/knocked down 3 Attacks/Round Tentacle attack: 15ft reach, +5 to hit, 2d6+5 bludgeoning If target is a creature, CON 14 save or it becomes grappled Throw: can throw a grappled creature 30 feet. Thrown creature goes prone. if it collides with another creature, DC 14 Dex save or the other creature is knocked down as well. Beak attack: 10ft reach, +5 to hit, 3d6+5 piercing Legendary Actions: 3 legendary actions/round, after another creature's turn. Movement - 20ft movement without provoking AOOs. Tentacle Attack Ink Cloud - costs 2 Legendary Actions, Recharge 5-6; 30ft radius ink cloud that's magical darkness, centered on Kraken. Moving into the cloud causes 2d6 poison damage. Cloud stays until start of Kraken's next turn. Kraken gets to move 20ft without AOO after ink cloud. PHASE 2 After the players cause 200-250HP damage, the Kraken's armor cracks and reveals three beating hearts. From then on, the players have to damage the hearts. Each heart has 60HP. AOE attacks target all hearts. Destroying a heart causes the Kraken a random disadvantage (-2 to hit/dmg/saving throws) and causes the heart to explode in black ichor that causes 1 round of blindness in 10ft around the kraken unless a DC14 save is made. Also, we play on Roll20 and usually with open rolls and visible HP bars. I've been thinking of putting the HP bar of the Kraken at 500HP just to shock them, but trigger Phase2 at around 200-250dmg done. Luebbi fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 19, 2020 13:43
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pog boyfriend posted:Lotta good poo poo Thanks! You helped me make this even more deadly The players will have the freedom of movement spell, which allows them to move freely underwater. Just sucks for the sorceress that her new Fireball is at a disadvantage, but she'll have to make do and use other spells at Level 3 instead. I've added a swallow mechanic, and a Lair Action that summons a whirlpool, and the grapple/restrain on the tentacles. The multi-tiered map and cultists sounds cool, but doesn't fit the rest of the encounter, so sadly has to go. I'm pretty sure things will be difficult enough for the players either way and with putting it at 500HP and triggering Phase 2 at a certain point, I can react to how well (or bad) the players are doing.
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Jul 19, 2020 19:24
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I played the Kraken fight today! It went pretty well, thanks to the suggestions made here. Some things I learned: - don't throw an AC13 boss at a lvl 5 group that loves to use bless. - I had legendary actions that made whirlpools that'd knock down players (who failed a save) at the beginning of their turn. This was ineffective, as they just got knocked down and immediately stood up. Should've knocked em down when the whirlpool was created, so the Kraken could hit them with advantage at least once before they get up. And jesus, my group can dish out the pain. I had planned the monster at 250HP for phase 1, then they had to destroy three hearts with 80HP each. I put the health bar at 500HP "to make them sweat". Turns out, they hit 250 damage in turn 3 and I just played until they finished the 500HP. Otherwise the fight would have been way too quick. After the kraken fight, they had no ressources left, and I threw some displacer beasts at them during their rest. That kept them on their toes. Afterwards, they returned to their colony, had a big "we killed a kraken" party and befriended some sketchy Gnolls that want to join the colony. A good mix of combat and RP. Fun was had! And my favourite quote from the session: sailor to one player, a sentient tree: "have you any experience with sailing?" sentient tree: "No, but my cousin is a rowboat" Here's a screenshot of the kraken fight: 
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Jul 23, 2020 21:13
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Quick question for you guys about consequences for (in)actions. My party, especially the cleric, promised a pregnant woman in their camp a folk remedy in form of a rare swamp flower before journeying into the wilderness. The woman was scared that her child would not be well without it. The life cleric even had a nightmare about the woman suffering a miscarriage, and swore to her that he would help her. Plenty of motivation to take some time out of their busy schedule to search for a simple flower… or so I thought. But the players never bothered. Even when in the swamp, even when a DRUID joined the party or when talking with various swampdweller NPCs, they never brought the flower up or asked where it might grow. Tomorrow, they will get back to the camp and the woman will ask about the flower. I’m expecting some “Oh, poo poo, riiight…” reactions from my players. I’m actually pretty sure they all just simply forgot about the sidequest because they didn’t take any notes, and this was about 4-6 weeks ago in real time. Now what I’m unsure about: either I give them a costly “out” (a merchant has the flower, but abuses their need and wants an exorbitant amount of money and a favor). Or… I punish them and the NPC with the miscarriage from the vision. This is dark stuff I’d rather not see in my campaign. But on the other hand, I have a chance to hammer the point home that actions (and inactions) have consequences, to maybe make them pay a little more attention or treat the game less like a videogame. What would you do? Suffer the consequences, or give them a chance for redemption?
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Sep 30, 2020 10:54
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That's true, but they're already on the way and teleported back. I guess I'll go with the merchant action to sting them a little, but nothing they can't afford. Thanks for the feedback!
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Sep 30, 2020 11:02
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Oh yeah, this works for me. The players already know her husband and he’s one of the few merchants they have available. He’ll be missing the next morning, determined to go find the plant. The players will most likely try to catch up with him, and find him just as he’s about to pluck the plant… and witness as a mossy mound next to the plant starts to shift. Now they’ll have to protect the NPC from a Vine Troll (Tome of Beasts, a dead Troll overgrown by aggressive plantlife) and an assassin vine that’s hitching a ride on the Troll. This also allows me to use a random encounter that I had prepared for the Swamp, but never got to use. Nice!
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Sep 30, 2020 12:12
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DND 5E Rules question TLDR: My players have spent the last couple sessions making sure they’ll walk into a trap. Please help me make sure it’s done well. My players have spent the last few sessions trying to get an audience with the council of the city they’re in. What they don’t know or even suspect is that the Council is under the yoke of a powerful Lich, who in turn works for the BBEG. In fact, they’ve heard about the Lich, and his connection to the BBEG; they just chose to ignore it. They also SHOULD have ample reason to suspect he’s in the very building they are trying to get an audience in… but apparently, they don’t. So here’s what I’ve got planned. They will finally get their audience with the council. With the invite, they will get a written set of rules, including “bow when you enter” and “no weapons in the council chamber”. The players, acting as ambassadors, will have their chance to talk with the council – but the questions will soon veer towards military strength of their colony and the like. Afterwards, the head councilman will get up, seem to listen to a voice only he can hear, and then utter the typical “seize them!” And here’s where I need your help. My problem is that I have a very magic-intensive group, which I don't have much experience with. A normal group of guards would be mowed down with fireballs and the like. Or the players would just teleport out of the room. I’d like the council room to be secured from magic use, but don’t know how. Antimagic Field is both ridiculously high level and ridiculously small. Silence would defeat the purpose of a meeting room. What else is there that could keep my players from using spells? Preferably while letting the Council members still use theirs? Or should I just handwave it, saying “the room is protected against magic by unwanted casters with powerful wards”? I'd prefer doing it "by the books", but if the books don't present a rules-conform solution, I'd be willing to go that route. Same goes for the cells they’ll be brought to; there they need to have their spells dampened as well. Maybe with some wristcuffs or similar? For reference, my party is very Magic-Heavy, consisting of a 9th-level Cleric, Sorcerer and Fighter and a 2 Bard / 7 Warlock.
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Nov 30, 2020 20:22
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Thanks a lot for all the suggestions! Reading these and thinking about it made me realize something: I wasn't feeling uneasy about the whole thing because I wasn't sure about which rules to use against my magic users. I was feeling uneasy because I was hell-bent on the players falling for the trap and getting captured, essentially railroading them to an outcome only I want. Instead, I now thought about 3 possible things that can happen: 1. The players really do fall for everything and leave their weapons, foci and caution at the door. They get captured and have to escape from prison. 2. They wise up, but send one of their group in to negotiate. He gets captured and they have to break him out. 3. They wise up and don't attend the meeting, or they manage to flee even when the trap is sprung. They will then be hunted by the authorities and have to hide out with their underground contact, who will ask them for a favor... break into the palace. All ways can ultimately lead to the encounter with the Lich, but now the players have a fair chance and I don't have to worry about them "breaking" my scripted event, because I've got multiple contingencies.
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Dec 2, 2020 21:21
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 10:42 |
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Clean Your Teeth posted:What in particular do you prefer about Foundry over Roll20/ what do you think sucks? I've been using R20 for a while pretty happily, but coming up against the free upload limit so have been considering Foundry as I'd prefer a one off payment to a monthly subscription. This has been answered extensively, but my two cents: Foundry is a bit more work to get used to, to set up and to behave how you'd like it to. But, it is way more customizable than roll20, and once you've got it going it's awesome. The only thing I prefer in roll20 is that monsters have token artwork, while you will have to do that manually in Foundry. But, making scenes like THIS dragon vs. airship encounter would not have been possible for me in roll20. With the correct mods installed, this took me 30 minutes in Foundry. Depending on the gamesystem, there's also a lot of automation which may or may not be your cup of tea. For example, in DND5E you can hit the long rest button and everything from spell slots to daily class features gets refreshed. If you truly want to put in some work and get into the system, you can also do things like animated spell effects, automated bless d4 on saves and attack rolls... the list goes on. There's basically a mod for anything you can think of. Want a calendar in your game? Sure, there's a mod for that that also gives the GM and/or players a weather forecast for the day. Luebbi fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Mar 4, 2021 |
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Mar 4, 2021 08:48
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