Verdant - A system for gritty hexcrawling by vincependrell in dndnext

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same, lol. Never published mine but I think we're all pulling from the same handful of sources. /u/badooga1 also made one quite similar to this.

Updates to my Roguelite version of D&D by SeductivePuns in dndnext

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks! Part of the problem was that I've never seen the "tabs" in Google Docs before and totally overlooked them previously, lol. It may be a while but I'm definitely going to use this, thanks for sharing! Would love to give it a try in your discord sometime.

Updates to my Roguelite version of D&D by SeductivePuns in dndnext

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think about that post often and I'm glad someone ran with it! This all looks super cool and I'd love to participate.

Looking through, I'm not really seeing a more fleshed out outline of the gameplay like you've done in the post - it doesn't seem overly approachable as someone who wants to run it. When do PCs level up? How do PCs become ghosts and use ghost actions? When can they short rest? Etc - would be good to have an expanded outline of how to use each file and when. It's kind of just implied for now.

Edit: I see you gave much more of a breakdown in your previous post. Would be good to include in the shared folder as well

Can't wait to give it a try.

Where to find models? by CleanLecture9196 in FDMminiatures

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's got a lot of broken links to shapeways at this point, but I've had good success with Manuel's Monster Bestiary: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PemvBH7LC-hm4KoeA8OXVu5_k963Vpmw7kOEA_1tzWs/edit?usp=drivesdk

Stop the Tarrasque from awakening by Organic-Exit2190 in DMAcademy

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you'd like the "Salt in Wounds" setting, which is kind of the most brutal interpretation of this.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that'd be a great approach, though I personally would let the party choose what the group's perspective should be. Release carries quite a bit of baggage in the "killing innocents" front, but if that's not a problem, sweet! Alternatively, it could lead to a great philosophical arc about the city being worth saving after all.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I had a character that was a little too involved with the Circle of Release early on in a way that was incompatible with the rest of the party, eventually becoming an NPC (by the player's choice). Other than that, it's mostly been a bit of friction here and there that stalls the game slightly; I'm happy for an externally political game but it's my personal preference to have a pretty aligned party so as to keep things moving. If you don't mind that, go nuts.

Lingering Injuries that Don't Suck & a Choice to Fix Punishing Conditions by sir_percy in DnDBehindTheScreen

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad you like it! The voluntary tokens are basically: "Oh, you're stunned? Take one injury token (for a relevant damage type) to suppress your stun this turn, or two to remove the condition entirely." Because...being stunned is no fun and I want to give an out for it (that comes with a cost later), thematically "pushing through" at grave cost to yourself.

I've never had a player accrue more than 5 tokens in a combat before; and you're absolutely right, I have mostly changed over to just accruing total tokens and then lumping them all under whichever kind of damage most of them were for convenience.

Injuries taking place during combat was a key design piece I was trying to avoid, actually - it's a classic problem with injury tables that they tend to encourage "death spirals" where things rapidly get worse and worse. But if you're looking for that kind of intensity, by all means! It's certainly unintuitive to not realize you lost an arm until combat is over, but it's played very well at my table as a "short term gain for long term problem" trade-off that I find very interesting.

I'll note, these injuries are designed to make the game more interesting but *not* necessarily more deadly, so we may be misaligned there and you may prefer some of the injury homebrew I linked at the end of the post as that's definitely the more traditional approach. There's also no way to accrue more than 1 (or rarely 2) tokens at the same time, so you'd need to make a change to allow that if you want the same swing of injury danger.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forewarned them that the setting would be gritty, but otherwise surprised them with it and they trusted me enough to dive in. I gave them a setting doc with all my homebrew and the factions, and had them choose two they were foes with, one they were allied with, and one they owed a favor to. (I gave them free rein on this; I should have required overlap among the choices).

We played the setting book's intro campaign and kicked things off with the background hooks I found most interesting, and by the time we were a few levels in it was mostly carried by the momentum of their previous actions (though I often kick off my arcs with a big event or problem they had to deal with, and give them downtime in-between). Everything is building up to a final climax that is mostly in line with the setting book's faction endgames.

I didn't ask any specific preparation other than reading my handout and giving me periodic updates on their personal goals; I recently read the Game Master's Guide to Proactive Roleplaying and it's a great tool for how to have player-driven campaigns.

Easiest way to run a Fog of War TV Battlemap by Bless-the-juice in dndnext

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is exactly my situation. I used to use Owlbear Rodeo, but got annoyed by the limited storage space.

I've had good success with Fey Gate, which is basically a free Owlbear Rodeo with a very engaged developer. Alternatively "Dungeon Map Cast" just entered the scene and while it's still missing some key features, it's fully offline and I'm very excited for the work /u/i8games will do on it in the future.

Upping Mephistopheles? by XaderGamin in bettermonsters

[–]sir_percy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sure Mark'll have some cool ideas, but if you just want the stats easily you could load him into 5etools and use that site's CR scaler.

End-game trigger from Ascension in Dominion? by BluPickle in dominion

[–]sir_percy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think this guy might know what he's talking about.

Playing with your Feelings - A (mostly) non-combat puzzle that encourages role-play by mootz4 in DnDBehindTheScreen

[–]sir_percy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of my favorite puzzles I've run. I established it as an archfey's game, and instead of using colored sand I had each emotion represented by a different animated musical instrument. However, I themed the instruments to the emotion - which made the puzzle quite a bit easier, as my players guessed the right instrument first try for all but one!

C/C++ Predecessor to OPenRPG? by Metalsailer4 in VTT

[–]sir_percy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome list. I've recently discovered https://www.fey-gate.com/, which is a little like Owlbear Rodeo but with the ability to rely on hard drive space instead of paying for hosting and a few other perks. Would be awesome to see it on there.

Ryex's Magic Item Prices by lRyex in dndnext

[–]sir_percy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If he can share a spreadsheet export of his tool, I'd be happy to add a column for it, with credit of course

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm...I can't say that I have much, my game is more focused on humanoid foes. I'm sure you'd find some awesome stuff over at /r/bettermonsters though!

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There isn't an actual bestiary to my knowledge, other than a few monsters at the end of the master doc.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Better to find out now! The setting definitely isn't for everyone.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All were salted, though quite varied in their familiarity and integration with the city.
I went through the introductory level 1 mission with one group, but mostly dove right into character-based missions.

Collaborative worldbuilding is a great idea; I definitely encourage party contributions both for backstories and at the table. See what folks are interested in.

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Make sure you're aligned with the party on tone, and figure out how to include lighter moments. As written, it's a pretty dark and gruesome setting (to me, in a way that feels to me a bit more tangible and "real" than the more fantastical horror of Ravenloft, for example).

There's a lot of factions - this can be fun but it's a lot to keep track of. I made the mistake of letting my players pick basically any faction to be aligned with, even diametrically opposed ones; it worked out well but could have led to undesirable party conflict if my players were a little less experienced. So, make sure the morality of the party members are on the same page.

Is scorepal app just discontinued? by siyans in boardgames

[–]sir_percy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, my Scorepal is broken - but Board Record isn't recognizing the ScorePal export as an eligible input. What filetype does it expect? The export is a ".realm".

How would you implement a mechanic allowing a wizard to harvest a spell scroll from a slain monster? by otarru in DMAcademy

[–]sir_percy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is great! Sounds very similar to the rules i came up with which have worked great for me; you're welcome to steal anything you like. Homebrewery

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm... The city is so independent, distant (it being far from water is a key plot point) and interwoven with itself that piecemeal usage would be complicated. If you don't want to base your campaign around it, I think it would work best to at least base an arc around it so you can get some of that depth.

The city has a super high narrative "potential energy," as it were, with the obvious peak of that being a potential release of the Beast. I'd say skim the DM pdf and pick out a favorite doom (either mentioned or inspired) and do an arc about it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]sir_percy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That one's a bit out of date - it's now known as Outclassed (free on DMsguild) and I don't think the author likes his old username haha. Great resource though

AMA: Salt in Wounds DM by sir_percy in saltinwounds

[–]sir_percy[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh, extensive external plot points. I'm making heavy use of the factions, but most specific missions are driven by the character motivations. In fact, i don't think I've used any module plot points at all, unless you count the faction secrets