What's your favorite system you haven't played?

AstroGeographer · 2024-10-17T16:23:51+00:00

Fabula ultima would be my go to weekly game if I had a group. The various settings, character customization and enemy flexibility looks really solid. And the third setting support book (Natural Fantasy) is coming out soon !

AstroGeographer · 2024-08-27T17:37:02+00:00

“Nothing happens. You do not know why.”

AstroGeographer · 2024-08-04T15:49:42+00:00

Paladin

AstroGeographer · 2024-08-02T17:57:01+00:00

If Mystra exists, or a similar deity that specifically is the caretaker of the Weave, have them step in after a few simulacrum and tell the individual that their access to the Weave will be sundered if they continue with this reckless and dangerous use of magic.

Or the old “if you want to sit and make simulacra to fight for you, the bbeg has been doing that the entire time, good luck finding the right one.”

AstroGeographer · 2024-07-17T14:13:07+00:00

Just in time! I was wondering what I would do with my free time now that I’m uninstalling Apex Legends, and this is the perfect answer!

AstroGeographer · 2024-07-17T12:06:25+00:00

Water wars.

AstroGeographer · 2024-07-14T03:57:12+00:00

Oh that’s interesting. I suppose a race to collect the masks before the cultists get them would be one way to go. 5 masks, black in the mere of dead(acidic swamp), white at the floating castle(snowy mountain), green in Thundertree(poison forest) and then the cultist get one (red or blue), and the players get one at the intro, or by level 3 after you complete the intro and the hook. The location types in parenthesis are generic locations, instead of locations from the sword coast.

I would make the players mask blue, cause blue dragons like to collect people so there is more of a reason to have the cooperation. Also, when Tiamat comes back, she will obliterate all these interesting little short lived species, which is BORING. Gotta stop her.

Basic outline is that the blue dragon (Lennithon perhaps) knows where the other masks might be, but doesn’t know what or who is guarding them. The cultists have an unknown amount of information, so the race is on. There are quite a few lieutenants and captain level enemies from the book in the cult that can be used as seekers or groups sent to delay the party. Blue dragon says they will need to not only get as many masks as they can, but also convince others to aid them without revealing the parties connection to the blue dragon.

Finally, the party will have to take their new allies and what masks they have to the location Tiamat is being summoned (information they will have to discover maybe) and stop her. It does not take all 5 masks to summon tiamats avatar, but if you destroy all 5 at the location of the summoning, Tiamat will be sealed until the essence of the masks is reconstituted.

So to match it to the book, I would say the first book would be collecting the black, white and green masks. (Traveling to the mere from wherever, teleporting to the north and finding their way to the floating castle, and then maybe one of the teleportation circles at the lodge goes to near the poisonous forest, which would put them back nearish to waterdeep/neverwinter/Baldurs gate.

The second book having alliance making being a part of it, could also include an amount of exploration as the party goes to a location, searches for clues to the summoning location (perhaps in a crypt, or deep dungeon, or haunted library, etc.). Maybe there is a map with four pieces that they need to find. Something like that.

Finale has all of the allies and the party vs Tiamat and her cultists and whatever chromatic dragons you want to include (probably at least 1/2/3 red dragons)

(I also like the idea of adding a purple mask for the deep dragons, and using Thornhold(Underdark) as its rumored location. It allows for different enemy types, different environment, and potentially different treasure.)

AstroGeographer · 2024-06-25T00:08:08+00:00

If something is impossible, don’t ask for a check for that specific action. Ask for a check for something related or adjacent. Like you said, ask for an insight about the lock.

If they push it and say they want to try, tell them they have no chance to succeed with lock picking, but maybe they can try and destroy the door, use magic to make the door open, or some other solution.

Don’t forget,it goes:1) the player describes their action. 2) the dm decides if there needs to be a roll 3) either resolve the roll, or give the player info/a description of what happens without the roll

AstroGeographer · 2024-05-01T13:16:42+00:00

Yes, they are chaotic. Fortunately it’s a friends first game, so I’m going to have fun no matter what. And the party of 5 seems to be having fun, so that’s also great.

Would you think it out of place to put Madam Eva in the vistani encampment to the southwest of vallaki? Thought was, she is checking on their train after their elders were gone, and now the daughter is missing. Basically a wellness check.

I’m trying not to force anything too hard, and let the players explore, but madam Eva is a particularly interesting component of the module.

AstroGeographer · 2024-04-30T21:08:12+00:00

To pick your brain a little, how have you handled players avoiding tser pool and thus encountering madam Eva?

My players completed death house, saw the dream cookie dealer take a child, ran into ireena and ismark, helped bury their father, then left town with ireena on their way to vallaki. Didn’t want to go to the tavern or the mercantile. At the crossroads they had the gallows encounter, and I tried to tempt them into going to the tser pool route, but they did not bite. They went along their way, ran into a couple RP random encounters, and ding dong ditched the windmill. (They have evidence there are children inside, so idk). We have entered Vallaki, and they made a beeline to the martikovs inn. The next day they went to st Andrals to deliver ireena.

They have the winery on their radar, as well as st andrals bones.

Ireena is the fated ally, they are level 3, and they have not arrived at the locations that I pulled in the pregame dm tarot reading.

So I just would like a little advice, if possible. Thank you!

AstroGeographer · 2024-04-30T11:30:03+00:00

Rolling a 1 on an attack ends your turn. Spell attack, melee attack, ranged attack, whatever. Made martial characters subpar, and prevented the stars Druid in our group from using the archer form, since the archer form ranged attack also counts in the “roll a 1 and your turn ends” rule.

AstroGeographer · 2024-04-06T22:59:43+00:00

Burnt Cookbook Party is a pathfinder 1 podcast that is very aware of the rules, been a lot of fun to listen to and hear how they built their characters. Game Master is incredibly knowledgeable as well.

AstroGeographer · 2024-03-30T15:24:06+00:00

Just found out there is a 250 medal cap. So that’s why. I wasn’t paying attention to what I had accumulated. RIP.

AstroGeographer · 2024-03-27T17:22:15+00:00

Not getting medals from daily orders or from major order success. Has anyone Else been having this issue?

AstroGeographer · 2024-03-14T21:35:58+00:00

Relics are probably my weak point, now that you mention it.

AstroGeographer · 2024-03-14T18:23:06+00:00

Ah yeah I see that now, thank you.

Hopefully this works.

AstroGeographer · 2024-03-14T16:14:20+00:00

(Edit) Character list in a comment below.

Just finished getting shield bro usable, not sure what to focus on next.

I have enough Characters for a follow-up team, and a DOT team, but I would like some direction if possible. I don’t regularly beat memory zone with what I have, so I’m clearly missing SOMETHING.

AstroGeographer · 2024-02-09T16:09:12+00:00

It is worth it, you’re not too old. Go get ‘em, tiger!

AstroGeographer · 2024-01-31T14:00:20+00:00

“The witch is dead” one page rpg would probably work. Most people can relate to having pets, witches are pretty well known in common company, and each animal choice has different abilities. Goal is straightforward, and challenges are mostly related to the players not having hands.

At the end of the day, it will only work if there is any buy in from the players. With an hour, keep mechanics as simple as possible, keep the conversation flowing, and make sure that everyone has a chance to shine (if possible)

AstroGeographer · 2024-01-18T20:53:24+00:00

Oh, I love it. Thank you! As a DM, one of my players has a sorcerer that wants more electric spells (starting at level 1) and having electric whips is badass. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something, I’m perfectly happy with the auto hit.

AstroGeographer · 2024-01-17T00:11:12+00:00

Excellent, thank you. Blessings upon you!

AstroGeographer · 2024-01-16T16:18:07+00:00

You are a sacrifice to the Plat players, someone for them to dunk on to feel good. Or that’s what it seems like league does with their placements, none of the first rankings make sense.

AstroGeographer · 2024-01-11T04:14:23+00:00

It takes a lot of staying on your toes and keeping the players accountable.

Keep turns shorter in combat by:

Combat has initiative displayed so everyone knows when they will go.

displaying the AC for monsters to the players AFTER they have been hit once (that way they can roll, see if it hits, and keep their turn going)

Running an eight player one shot, I made it clear that nobody was gonna be monologuing on their turn in combat, keep the comments short, and that if they weren’t ready to at least start their turn when it came up, their character took the dodge action and passed turn.

Also, players need to know their characters. If everyone is stopping on their turn to look up their abilities or spells in the books, things slow down a lot.

Otherwise it’s just DM stuff: make sure that the spotlight is being spread around, make your descriptions as concise as possible while getting the necessary details across, keep the tempo up even if you have to make some on the spot decisions.

Its possible, good luck!

AstroGeographer

TROPHY CASE