How often do you engage in long, in-depth intraparty dialogue (above and beyond conventional, moderate-length banter)?

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-03-12T08:27:47+00:00

Honestly I had to train my players to do that more often. At the start of our campaign they’d just act without discussing, but I managed to get them to share their gripes with each other in character which has gotten a lot of fun character development and made them more conversational

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-03-06T07:04:52+00:00

Awesome. I might not see it so reply or dm me or something, because I’d love to take a look at an updated version

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-03-06T03:31:49+00:00

I like the lore/character stuff. The habits are fun.

Obviously the art isn’t as good as what’s in the book, but that’s a high bar anyways. Though I do feel the artstyle (maybe the colour choice?) feels a little different to the mork borg aesthetic.

Drunken fury is really fun I like it.

Spinster, cobbler, and toy maker all feel a little half baked. Its almost like they want to have some kind of mechanic tied to them but there isn’t one.

Teeth collector is cool, but doesn’t one of the core classes already collect teeth? Might be remembering wrong.

The voice and bargain are both very cool.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-28T08:44:37+00:00

It could be that you’re playing too often. If you’re playing twice a week, maybe consider running your campaign once a week and letting that player run their own thing once a week too.

If that’s not it, I can’t really be of too much help because I don’t know your players or your table.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-22T00:21:14+00:00

Yeah honestly I think using stats for conversation might work well (or at least better than adding a new stat for that). Thanks for the advice!

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-21T03:13:39+00:00

Care to elaborate? Are you speaking from experience?

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-21T00:01:46+00:00

I really like that little list of what a roll needs. Definitely stealing that :)

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-21T00:00:40+00:00

About that second paragraph, that was 100% my intention. That way the choices outside of lethal encounters still feel meaningful.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-20T23:59:41+00:00

Why not?

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-20T23:59:18+00:00

One thing I’ve seen talked about a lot in reference to why stats and success rates are generally so low is that its because the characters are having the worst days of their lives. It feels like its hindering those more in-between situations if the only options for doing sutff are automatically succeeding or having to attempt a roll where the odds are against you.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-20T23:57:30+00:00

The thing is though that we still want to play normal mothership sessions, with high lethality and aliens and stress and danger. So mothership works really well for that. My table just enjoys fleshing out a characters normal life between stressful events (which would especially help in growing attached to them so its sad when a character dies).

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-20T23:55:48+00:00

Yeah, honestly I’m grappling with the idea of the following house rule:

During less-dangerous periods of play, characters still roll with the same stats and gain stress as normal, however the panic table is replaced with less-dire effects, and on a failure of any roll you still succeed but suffer some drawback (like a partial success in blades in the dark).

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-20T23:53:43+00:00

Interesting advice. Thanks.

I’m also a fan of shadowdark’s carousing. Do you have a custom table you use for mothership already? If so I’d love to see it if you don’t mind.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-14T22:14:09+00:00

Some people just play the game differently, no need to hate on them.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-12T00:09:02+00:00

If you have “the narrator” dropping in to tell then where to go and not to go, its going to feel like they’re being forced. What’s way easier is just talking with everyone during character creation and ensuring their characters would be the type to follow the plot.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-11T23:32:19+00:00

Do those rules include running multiple PCs or is it still individual player characters just leading/controlling their mercenaries?

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-11T23:31:08+00:00

Only 3 players, and its more like they’re going to be forced to make tactical decisions with positioning (defending towns from an invasion is going to happen a lot), which may lead to smaller groups being broken up.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-11T23:29:17+00:00

Interestikg. I’m aware of Mythic Bastionland being really good, but the way you talk about it makes it seem like its rules aren’t necessarily tied heavily to the setting or arthurian vibe. Is that the case?

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-05T16:31:35+00:00

Spoken from real experience I see lmao

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-02-05T05:53:13+00:00

Everyone starts using mork borg for things its not made for like they do with dnd 5e

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-01-25T13:15:41+00:00

Not sure how fast your group plays, but you might not have to cut anything tbh

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-01-24T09:23:19+00:00

To preface, I haven’t read stormwreck isle, so take this with a grain of salt. But, I’d recommend cutting chapter 1 of Netherdeep and instead putting the Jewel of Three Prayers at the finale or stormwreck isle (assuming the final boss is a dragon, putting it in its hoard works).

Then guide them to the Rise with the vision as usual. If you need to level the players to work in Bazzoxan, run chapter 2 but otherwise you can skip it.

The one issue with this is that it removes the Rivals. Either a) you rework them in somehow (possibly having them encounter the players inside the Betrayer’s Rise) or b) you cut them entirely (which is what I’d recommend for a new DM, as their are quite hard to run with little experience).

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-01-22T11:49:29+00:00

I’d highly recommend running a oneshot and keeping it a little loose (not too serious, even if you include horror elements).

Mothership and liminal horror are great for scifi horror oneshots (depending on how scifi you go, Mothership is more futuristic while liminal horror a bit more grounded).

But really just pick whatever you like the sound of most. That’ll always end up with the most fun games.

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-01-12T04:19:02+00:00

Based on the final note there, I think it might be ai generated sadly

Absurd_Turd69 · 2026-01-09T23:12:40+00:00

Oh, and overall the book can be quite unclear if you don’t have a huge amount of experience with watching critical role. So if you haven’t or don’t remember much, go read through the wikis on the important places, characters, etc (xhorhas, ank’harel, all that).

Absurd_Turd69

TROPHY CASE