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Here's a fun one; I've DM'ed for awhile in many systems and across several editions, but always to people my own age. Teen camp just started (ages 10-13), and I bought the D&D 4e Starter Set just for giggles because it was on sale anyways and I wanted more variety for the kids during the extended care time. Well 4-5 of them were half mocking it but half leafing through the booklets with interest, the little tokens, maps, etc, but even the basic rules are waaay beyond them and within a few minutes just kind of left it alone. I think I might try to run a short game during the week for them to see if they really do enjoy it or become interested, but gently caress if I know the simplest way to do it. It comes with the character sheets so if anything I was thinking of a one shot or two, all the math is done for them but I don't know how to convey the whole "do whatever you want" thing, since these kids are so brought up on electronics and not PnP/"imagination". Any suggestions?
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Jun 9, 2009 16:15
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That is extremely rail-roady. Understand the players may have fun but the tone and plan you have of giving info out a little at a time to put them where you want is by definition a railroad. For 4e that's needed a little and in small doses pertaining to story it's fine, but an entire campaign based on the premise may put off some of the better players who are used to more experienced DM's with a knack for not doing railroaded campaigns. That being said, if they are new players to 4e or new to RPG's in general then you'll need to have a bit firmer and concrete plans for a slight railroad to help them learn the ropes, options, etc.
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Jun 9, 2009 18:26
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lighttigersoul posted:My personal DMing style is, as I said 'All Roads LEad Here'. I DM this way as much as I can as well, but with 4e needing maps so much it's hard to not railroad a bit or set plot point areas specifically. I hand draw all the maps out ahead of time for quick and easy placement rather than just scribbles of wet erase marker for dungeons, so to some degree it depends on the system.
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Jun 18, 2009 16:01
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I'm having some trouble convincing my players to try out a new system. There's 4 regular players, and for all of them they started their first pen and paper games a little over a year ago with me. We've played D&D 4e for the majority of that, with maybe three sessions of savage worlds tossed in. One of the players is interested in Shadowrun, and I really am too, but the other 3 are iffy on the system and learning new rules, and are already kind of brushing it off before we even start to play it. In addition, I explained the first night would really just be character creation, learning the basic rules, and maybe doing a quick intro run just so everyone learns the mechanics and style, but to them that's terrible and "wastes a whole night we could be playing". They've decided they don't like the game and are just waiting to go back to 4e after one night of Shadowrun, but I really think the group could like the system if they actually learn it and go into it with an open mind. Any suggestions on getting at least a slight spark of interest going so it doesn't fail outright due to preconceived attitudes? I know the ideal option is to find a different group to play Shadowrun with but that's not an option around where I live at my age.
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Sep 22, 2009 15:34
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I've done this before but on a much larger scale (defending a town), but with undead forces and orcs. Basically, play each side how their would normally go. The kobolds are going to try and keep their distance from the zombie, perhaps using their shifty racial to put the PC's between them and the zombie. The zombie will probably just try and attack whatever is closest, honestly.
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Dec 16, 2009 07:28
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I also want to chime in that savage worlds would work great for it, and you can use some of the grittier setting/rules offered by the main rules (incapacitation, etc) or through supplements like Realms of Cthulhu (where double 1's means really bad poo poo happens).
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Mar 26, 2010 21:57
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Liesmith posted:That's the thing, how do they know they one shotted your abotleth unless you tell them? Just write a loving book then.
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Mar 31, 2010 17:33
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Stuntman Mike posted:But what about the "fun" factor - I understand the need for fudging the numbers. Fighting the BBEG isn't fun if you end up getting way lucky and killing it in a round. That isn't satisfying. Maybe its just me, but as a player I'd prefer a confrontation that I have to work at and feel a sense of accomplishment when victorious. The fun factor as the GM is coming up with a new and interesting angle when the players win against all odds and actually do kill that BBEG early on, either through great luck or with great skill and tactics you never even thought of. There's nothing wrong with going "Alright, you have done the seemingly impossible, we're going to take a 5 minute break real fast!" and think, logically, how things would continue. If you had a contingency plan, go final fantasy on your players and add in another form or something. In my last campaign the players were ingenious and super lucky, and killed the BBEG in 3 rounds. Given that he was a high priest of Orcus, I let them have that victory but followed up with a skill challenge and several more fights to scale down the now crumbling tower that was rocked and deteriorating due to the sudden surge of anguish suffered by the BBEG. It was just as epic as if the players had gone toe to toe for a few more rounds with the priest. Don't fudge the numbers and go "aHA! You missed or did piddly damage! *bumps health up 3x normal furiously*", just run with it and escalate the adventure.
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Mar 31, 2010 19:30
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Liesmith posted:You are retarded. Having a DM fudge rolls doesn't take anything away from the players. If they want this aboleth to die, it will. If they want to do some other thing with the aboleth, they can. He just won't die in the first round to a critical hit made by the powergamer who is ruining the campaign for everyone else. If you just make poo poo up, the players get to do the things they want, you never accidentally TPK or have anticlimactic boss fights, and everyone has a good time. Everything you've said comes down to a fault of the GM, not the players, so why make them suffer the consequences? If you know your group has powergamers then plan accordingly, and if you don't know it yet then react and keep going ahead with the story/game. And you aren't fudging rolls in favor of the players if you take away their thunder, you're fudging rolls AGAINST them. Read what I said in the above reply, in regards to going ahead with whatever happens and finding a way to keep the fun and excitement going. Just handwaving an encounter to suddenly make it take longer for your own enjoyment because "that's how you want it" is basically the same as saying "Okay here roll this dice even though it doesn't matter, we're only doing things my way". You might as well tell the players it'll take X rounds because that's what you planned so tough luck. The fun of being the GM is adapting to how your players adapt to what you created, it's a constant cycle. Let's see which situation is more fun: "Oh man remember when we all did really well and planned things out and the fight took forever so we could all see the GM's planned gimmicks? Yeah, I guess our characters really don't matter so much..." or "Oh man remember that time we all did really well and got lucky, killing that guy in 2 rounds, and then poo poo really hit the fan due to it? That was badass, this whole thing would have never happened if not for us specifically!"
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Mar 31, 2010 21:57
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Alright you make some good points as well, I guess we'll just agree to disagree on the finer points, especially if fudging in one players' favor disappointments another player or the group dynamic.
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Apr 1, 2010 00:11
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Although I've had to cut a few sessions worth of plans/plots due to missing out on a lot more game nights than I thought, I want to go ahead with the main villain in my 4e campaign attempting to consume several kinds of iconic far realm type creatures to boost his power in bringing a far realm entity into the world. The players will witness this first hand on the next adventure when he does it with an Aboleth's brain, but I wondered what else he can go for, and maybe even clues so the players figure out where to go and try to stop him. For each consumed creature he will have extra abilities at the climactic battle. I don't think I can do more than 4 total if I want to finish the story arc before I lose half the group come late August. So far I was thinking Aboleth, Beholder, and Mind Flayer (gibbering mouther/orb is out as he already has the power to summon those), the more nasty solo style iconic stuff the better. As for clues I was thinking along the lines of a ritual scroll that requires "the mind that speaks in silence (aboleth telepathy), the unblinking eye of flame (beholder)" etc, etc. Any help would be appreciated!
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Apr 19, 2010 22:30
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I done hosed up bad in the game I ran Saturday night  . I need any suggestions I can to remedy this.The players went through my innsmouth ripoff, finding the kuo-toa and a balhannoth underneath the town in an ancient temple, and a slew of dead adventurers and sacrifices that were tossed down there from a secret tunnel leading to the basement of the inn. At this time they capture the inn keeper and mayor who have been the creepiest, where they talk of the "Great One" (an aboleth) in the ruins across the coast on an island. I've played up the entire town being very odd, people seem wary of the group, won't give them the time of day, and have a glassy eyed look to them. The players light the inn and town hall on fire and I describe that the people, with the same look, are trying to douse the fires. At this time the assassin starts cutting people down thinking they're all a crazy cult to the far realm, at which point he is wracked with pain and blindness. The Raven Queen (who he worships) tells him their minds are not their own, and that their souls are in pain from being controlled. He stops, but the bard/sorc and rogue decide to just keep burning the town atop their flying phantom steeds. I explain that when they do, they see fisherman, crafters, and whole families trying to escape their homes as the fires spread. All of a sudden about halfway through this they understand what they're doing and feel bad, but the damage has been done, as I describe several people trapped in the fiery blazes and dying. For once I figured I'd give them a real consequence since they do things like this quite a bit, albeit not to innocent people that are mind controlled by the Aboleth. I let them know that the slight rains are starting to put the fires out, but people are escaping in boats to the sea and there is much mayhem and murder. Well once that sunk in it killed the last 30 minutes of the night. The bard/sorc was visibly upset from what she had done, to the point of tearing up and not really caring the rest of the night, and the rogue looked to feel bad about it as well and even said "Man I kind of regret that, I don't think we should have done it that way...". This was a huge issue since the rest of the night was great gaming. I'm looking for a way to fix this in-game. My ideas so far are Option A) the god that the bard/sorc worships, which is a god of love and compassion, is going to be pissed but is going to give the character a second chance, in a way to bring all the villagers back to life, and for the party to pay in both gold and time to rebuild the town. Option B is to have the players find out once the Aboleth is killed that all the villagers were slimy, sea-weed coated zombies and far realm creatures far removed from reality in the first place and the aboleth simply made all visitors to Innsmouth see them as normal people. Thoughts?
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Apr 26, 2010 16:03
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Thanks for all the opinions/suggestions. I'm going to see if the players had anything in mind, and mix that with some of my own ideas and ideas from this thread and see where it goes next time we game in like 3 weeks or so. The players have a town of their own they saved earlier in the campaign and are really attached to which I am planning on coming under a small attack/destruction anyway, I could really see them taking in the refugees that were once under the aboleth's thrall.
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Apr 28, 2010 06:12
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We actually had our next game session this past Saturday (back to back weekends), which was great for everything being fresh in everyone's minds, so I thought I'd give some closure to the "burn the town down" issue. The bard/sorc had a dream from her god showing disappointment, and stated that while word may not have spread much from the town itself, that the group would always know how far they had strayed from the path. The god helped push them a little to how important it was that the Aboleth be slayed so that the townfolks' minds are their own again, but also stated that after the aboleth was dead they would be a lost and susceptible people, and that the player would know what to do when the time came. Well the players killed the Aboleth, found shitloads of gold trinkets and relics on its Kuo-Toa minions and in the ruined temple, and came back to town to see all the townsfolk looking normal but confused as hell. None of them had any memories since they had travelled to the town, just their first few days, bad dreams, and then nothing. Some had been there anywhere from a year to 15 years, and most weren't even fishermen by trade. So the players brought all 80 townsfolk back to their main home town that they've defended and expanded already, and have a refugee camp outside with plans to spend all the gold they got expanding the walls, building new homes, and basically now playing a side quest of sim city to see how they can find people with professions or bring more money into the town to have it grow more. Oh, also while having to manage with the original town members who may not like the looks and stories they have of "those strange innsmouth folks", and after coming back to finding their house set ablaze by the guard captain who had a personal vendetta with the players. All in all a good session and end to that whole series of events I think.
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May 3, 2010 15:55
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Chernori posted:I'm not sure if you're telling him to look up monsters and make stat blocks during game time or whether you're telling him to make a whole bunch of stat blocks ahead of time detailing every possible encounter, but both of those solutions seem like they'd make DMing much more difficult than it needs to be. With the compendium you don't "make" stat blocks at all, you open the page, type in your search name and add any filters, and bam, instant stat block all done up for you. It takes maybe 30 seconds.
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May 18, 2010 15:27
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MrMortimer posted:Where do you get this Compendium? A DDI subscription, which also gets you the character builder and adventure tools (just monster builder atm). It's 10 bucks a month for 5 licenses. Seriously, I was die hard against DDI and the idea of paying for it, but I caved when PHB3 came out. I regret not getting it a long time ago because the character builder alone is worth it, and the compendium makes prepping for games and improv during games so easy it's ridiculous. It's like google for every 4e book ever released, right at your fingertips. Oh, you want an items for a player on the spot? Let's see, they could use an arm slot...and you want it to involve grappling...and level 9-13. Aha, 2 seconds in and you're presented with any item that fits those parameters with all stats, the source, etc. Same goes for powers, monsters, rules, and more. The cost is not an arguable point, period. 10 bucks a month across a group of 4 is less money than a loving bag of chips.
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May 18, 2010 20:23
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The Rogue in my 4e group wants to start a thieves guild in a very small town that the players are attached to and are building up from a once-small-outpost. He's using an old friend and resource to get one going, and doesn't want to rob from the town but the other players are vehemently against it, even if it means the guild beyond highwayman against the traders that come in and out of town. The Rogue mostly wants to money for the town to improve it, and just thinks it'd be cool to be head of a small time thieves guild, so any ideas on something that can be implemented that won't irk the other players so much or bring ill will to the town? The closest small town is 2 days ride from town, bigger port city is 4 days ride, if that gives an idea of opportunities.
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May 28, 2010 18:34
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I'd go all out and do a three or four story library/summon chamber with lots of ledges he can hop to and from, slinging spells and controller abilities while summon goofy poo poo like possessed spell tomes or minor demons. I'd also toss in the warforged butler too, because a robot butler with a serving platter as a shield and feather duster as dagger would be kind of funny, and would be a nasty addition to the wizard if he was a defender type. Basically use the terrain and fun magic stuff more than a straight up fight, and give options for the players to use it against him. Maybe the flying books can be re-routed with a successful arcana check to fly up and hit the wizard or blind the wizard for a round, or a smaller player can grab onto the bird familiar to be sent up to a higher spot quicker than climbing. Another idea is maybe have the wizard pick a different element each round (clearly visible) to flavor his attacks, and something in the room can help give the players resist 5 to that type or something.
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May 28, 2010 19:14
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bezel posted:Yeah, there won't be anything worth stealing in the town, and word will get around quickly if he starts attacking traders. That's the last thing he'd want to happen. The player is very much not the douchey "heh, i pick pocket everyone" rogue. His style is more blackmail and subterfuge out of combat to help the party get needed resources or take care of enemies, and doesn't resort to killing unless there is absolutely no other way. Even his item selection is geared towards escape and hiding. I'll toss out the idea of a guild that is far reaching, just set up in their town.
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May 28, 2010 19:17
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Yeah just add a bonus to the stuff. Player roleplayed out and had a good, compelling reason or a well done speech/con? Then they get a +2 bonus on their roll, and maybe avoid a terrible failure/critical fumble/whatever.
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Aug 19, 2010 20:27
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Miles O'Brian posted:So uhhh... is it possible to buy large pads with DnD sized squares already drawn out? I'm making a few maps for my first go at DMing and drawing the squares is really tedious. You can get a big 4 foot by 3 foot easel pad with blue 1 inch squares on it at Office Depot or Office Max. I think it was about 50 sheets for 12 bucks.
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Aug 24, 2010 20:45
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Wearsyourgodnow posted:There was a little discussion about this in the Worst Experience thread but I sorta missed the opportunity so I'll ask about it here: Short of "spend X amount of gold on a resurrection spell" what are some solutions to a single death? (One brought about by unfortunate combat rolling or whatever opposed to something plot related.) Have a premade character or NPC that is also there that you can hand to the player maybe. If there's really no big ally NPC that fits the bill at that time or place maybe a lucky mercenary is found prisoner in the next room, and for that session is player run but after is NPC run. Something like 2 at wills, 2 encounters, and 1 daily for the character sheet plus the basic skill checks at the appropriate level would probably be enough to cover a single session just fine.
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Jan 16, 2011 18:44
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:I am planning on doing a Hyborian Age Campaign in 4th Ed here on the forukms (or through maptool), and I want to try to keep it as close to the fluff as possible. However to do this I would probably need to completely disassemble any magic classes currently in 4th Ed's core rulebook. What would be the best course of action to take with this? From what I have read in both novels and comics, magic never really had such a foothold in Conan as it does in generic D&D. I am kind of at a crossroads on how I want to handle it, and I am looking for ideas. There's no reason this can't be done in 4e, but of course some things will have to be set to be swords & sorcery. Remember that swords & sorcery primarily means: 1) Evil people have the magic, and magic is rare and dangerous. 2) Characters are heroic, but flawed. 3) HIGH ADVENTURE Personally I would just have players be martial classes only, and possibly reskin the bard as someone who is simple a jack of all trades and charismatic enough to do his whole healing and debuffing role. Essentials adds a lot of great classes like the druid controller who uses an animal companion to do most of the controlling, and a ranger class that is a controller as well. That way you've got 2 controllers, 2 leaders, and a whole lot of defenders and strikers of varying flavors. Hell, with essentials and all the martial powers you have almost 10 options for decent fighters alone that mix ample amounts of defender and striker, and about 8 varieties of rogues and a half dozen of rangers.
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Feb 7, 2011 01:46
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Yawgmoth posted:Have all the other players tell them to get the gently caress out. Even the 6 year old. If WotC gets on your tits about it, tell them it was either these two getting the boot or the game dying and them losing 5 customers and a rep. Bad customers aren't something any business wants or needs, even moreso for the tabletop hobbies if they hope to not stagnate and die by 2030 or whatever.
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Feb 18, 2011 04:56
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It would basically be run like Sundered Skies which is a similar premise but without the technology level, so yes. http://www.tripleacegames.com/SunderedSkies.php
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May 3, 2011 22:57
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substance1987 posted:Apologies if this has come up, but here goes: I want to make battle maps. I could, perhaps, draw a circle if you put a gun to my head. I'm hoping to find some resource that has premade top-down views of dungeon-y things so that I can make maps in photoshop. Any suggestions or am I just totally hosed? http://pymapper.com/
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May 13, 2011 07:36
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Gomi posted:Cleopatra: 2525 Most obscure "Action Pack" reference of the decade.
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May 23, 2011 19:58
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Epi Lepi, as someone who has both played in and GM'ed Shadowrun games and small campaigns, let me be the first to say that unless you're planning on a very high powered sort of Post-Apoc game set in the Puyallup Barrens it's not really fitting for the system, as the power curve and balanced (haha) is suited for crazy implants, cyberware, and gun specs. Also the rules are overtly clunky as hell, although playing it a lot with everyone in the same page can minimize the effect of it. Personally I'd recommend a simpler system that either caters to what you want or can do the same thing. Apocalypse World is good, as is Octane and Savage Worlds. Savage Worlds even has a non-fantasy Shadowrun version called "Interface Zero" which is fantastic. Savage Worlds is also only 10 bux for the explorer edition you'll need to play.
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Jun 26, 2011 22:58
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kitten princess posted:I am sure it is, but the main issue I see with airships is players taking advantage of them and I think this could happen in any adventure. Isn't this what they're supposed to do with the cool stuff they get in game? quote:But maybe the 4e rules accommodate for this where 3.5/Pathfinder dosen't. I am sure if proper precautions and rules were in place it would be fine. And an airship battle would be hella fun, assuming the entire party could participate and make decisions as a group about what the ship was going to do, but maybe that is just my personal problem with airships. It's definitely your situation/GM. It has nothing to do with rules and everything to do with imagination on making the airship and asset with consequences. If the players start throwing it around add more towns or enemies having ways of bringing them to the earth, or defending against the specific attacks. Create adventures where the airship is used as other things like far off transportation, or finding a hidden floating city in the clouds in the middle of the ocean as the next dungeon delves. You can also just zip ahead a month or so in the timeline and say "Okay, everyone describe one thing you'd specialize in on the ship, you can do that with an appropriate ability check". If there are specialized hirelings to do stuff bring out the issues they may have with the airship going to hell and back or getting into fights all the time (mutiny!). Hell, if there was a fight between airships the last thing I would do would be firing cannons, I'd be creating boarding situations, rope swinging, repairing broken pieces from the underside while hanging from a frayed harness, etc. all while fighting a terrible lightning storm.
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Jul 11, 2011 18:07
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Glazius posted:I think you might want to take a look at Legends of Anglerre. Seconding this HARD, or if you want a little lighter rules PDQ.
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Aug 12, 2011 18:35
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Golden Bee posted:How long are your sessions? More than 2 hours of prep is overkill. Give'em rewards for what they do right and introduce complications to make it exciting. Not for 4e. I made really elaborate colored maps/battlemaps for all encounters alongside a lot of other backup prep, and my weekly prep was about 2-4 hours on average. One of the most memorable 4e sessions was the players defending a town they had built up over 8 or so sessions...the battlemap was 8 feet by 10 feet (filled the whole living room).
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Jul 13, 2013 01:39
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Xaander posted:I'm running a campaign featuring old-school Chicago gangsters meets the Twilight Zone (So basically subtly paranormal gangsters) and I'm trying to find good music/art to kickstart my brain. Friends of Mr Cairo is a nice start, but I'm wondering if any movie scores would work particularly well for this. I find it easier to keep a consistent tone if I have a touchstone to work off of. Any help? Road to perdition soundtrack is pretty good for this.
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Jul 22, 2013 18:51
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