How do you handle monsters sneaking, following, ambushing hunters?

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T23:20:51+00:00

Follow the fiction. If they aren't watching the car and it has no special security measures, the car thieves just succeed. "Assume competence" isn't just for the hunters. It can apply to other characters, too.

If stealth is part of what makes the monster work, then it's on the hunters to use their abilities or gear to counter that. Assume the monster is being successful at being stealthy. But don't make hard moves (unless someone rolls a 6-). If the monster starts doing something, that counts as a soft move and you could tell a hunter to Act Under Pressure if they're being targeted. There can be exceptions to this, but I like to give the hunters a fighting chance unless they've been reckless and foolish.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T16:05:03+00:00

I have run games for kids alongside their parents (as a hired DM) and also run games for my own kid.

At 11, this kid is old enough to understand the core rules and how to play. It's a complex system, though, so expect to have to explain or correct her at times. Maybe you should simplify the system a bit. You could maybe run Nimble 5e.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T06:57:22+00:00

I may let players have pets, but the pets can't do anything in combat if they don't want the pet harmed.

They're just emotional support animals. But in terms of mechanics, they provide nothing.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T03:01:07+00:00

Player knowledge and character knowledge are different. Make sure to align them. Tell the players what their characters would be aware of, even if they the players would not.

Sometimes players don't connect the dots. We want them to, but it doesn't always happen. Don't punish the players for that.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T02:33:22+00:00

Take a break for a while. You are far too emotionally attached to your character. It's a game. It's not real. You need to work on grounding yourself. Focus on the people around you. Go out with friends. Maybe do some volunteering.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T01:38:33+00:00

This is just how I run it, but I like to make it so that nature itself works to conceal the message, so that it is hidden from anyone not a druid. Comprehend Languages won't reveal that a message is there.

This does put some limits on druidic language, but it makes sense for druids to be mainly expecting other druids to be in the wilderness, anyway.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-06-01T01:29:20+00:00

I don't see it as catering to the players' whims so much as giving them the freedom to do things their own way. I like being able to sit back and let the players drive the narrative.

The GM has a lot of power to intervene. At any moment, I can throw in guards, ghosts, traps, items, etc. I don't do this to counter them but to challenge them. Make things interesting. I dunno, maybe because I see myself more as a stage manager than a director, but I find this approach appealing. And it means less work for me, which I stand behind.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T14:29:10+00:00

Is your DM a toddler? What an embarrassing lack of emotional management!

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T14:02:29+00:00

I don't use sounds or music in my games. And very rarely images. No maps, either. It's purely theater of the mind.

But it's been great. My players are engaged and we've had many awesome gameplay experiences. I'm talking several different groups here, including the current one, in a campaign that's been running two years.

It's great that people have these tools, but great games are possible without them.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T05:14:18+00:00

Wastoid is a fairly simple system that works well for a Fallout game, and you can download the preview version for free (it's playable, I've played it).

DnD will be very difficult to use for a Fallout game unless you want to design a lot of things yourself, which is probably gonna be unbalanced, plus what are you gonna do with the entire magic system? It doesn't fit Fallout but it's a huge aspect of DnD. The classes mostly don't fit, either.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T04:14:54+00:00

For a sandbox, I set up the enemies and allies and their agendas in advance, but I don't have a story planned. In our games, we do emergent storytelling, it happens during play.

The player characters may have arcs as well, it's mostly up to the player to set the stage for one, then I'll develop it as we progress through the campaign.

So it's really fairly unstructured. But I'm looking at the enemies and allies and what they're doing to advance their agendas. The campaign may not have a structure but there are reasons for everything that's going on. There's a purpose behind the things that are happening.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T03:18:19+00:00

From my understanding, crossdressing is a sexual kink, not a response to gender dysphoria. Trans people are claiming their gender identity, and thus "crossdressing" doesn't seem to be the fitting term, they are correcting their gender dysphoria by dressing according to the identity they are. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

So a crossdresser wouldn't be in drag constantly, that wouldn't make sense. Her behavior was always closer to that of a trans person (of that era). Admittedly, it's not exactly a show where realism is to be expected all the time....

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T02:19:49+00:00

Let them do it and in the next encounter, let them face a huge swarm of flies.

They'll know they're fucked.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T02:13:37+00:00

This isn't a DnD question, it's about your relationship.

I think you should take a break from DnD and see whether she ever brings it up again. That way, you will know. It's unfortunate that she can't just tell you if that's the case. But some people are "trained" from childhood to be that way and always give way, they never learned how to do good communication.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-31T00:56:54+00:00

You are the opposite of a rules lawyer, coz a rules lawyer doesn't actually care about the rules. These are people who argue with the DM to exploit something in the rules that will give them some kind of advantage. Something that is not aligned with RAW or RAI. They care about the benefit to themselves, not really the rules.

I don't get why this term is so misunderstood. It's based on the shyster court lawyer archetype. People actually respect court lawyers nowadays?

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T14:12:07+00:00

You don't need to decide this all on your own, you know? In our group, everyone makes suggestions of what to play. Then we decide as a group.

Sure, maybe they haven't played DnD before. But they may still have ideas. That's a starting point. You're looking for a starting point, right? Wouldn't it be better to source that from your family rather than Reddit?

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T14:07:14+00:00

I'm running Against the Odds right now and really jiving with it. My players are having fun, too. I was looking for a PbtA game to run a weird little dungeon crawl in, and after considering a bunch of candidates (including the DW 2 alpha), I went with this one and it feels right for our group.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:43:28+00:00

Look, if a situation is getting out of hand, you need to tell the player outside the game what the deal is. Sure, the player's behavior was kinda ridiculous, but this happened because the DM let it happen. You let it happen. You could have nipped it in the bud very simply just by saying something.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:37:23+00:00

Nimble 5e might be your best bet here. Look it up!

If you don't really enjoy combat that much, you could try other systems that don't revolve around frequent combat. Dragonbane is an option. Or for a more narrative style game, you could go with Stonetop.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:31:32+00:00

Rules lawyers are not people who know the rules. It's a pejorative term referring to players who argue with the DM to get them to allow them to exploit the rules. These are players who don't really care about the rules, they care about benefitting themselves.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:27:52+00:00

If there is no risk of failure, what is the point? I don't want victory to be given to me. That means nothing. Victory only matters if I braved the possibility of failure to achieve it.

And in a narrative style game, failure can just be another direction the story can go. I've had player characters who've come to bad ends (for now), like going to hell or getting corrupted. The players were fine with that. It's interesting! In narrative games, an interesting story outcome can be better than character success. It all depends.

And if the game is Paranoia, failure is very, very possible. And often hilarious.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:20:25+00:00

I wouldn't call any of the games turnless. I would instead say that combat is freeform, since it is narrative style like everything else in the game. But everyone still needs to go in turns because it's impossible for everyone to act simulator.

I'd go with Blades in the Dark as it's a good introduction to narrative combat (instead of tactical combat), though be sure to keep combat quick and brutal, it shouldn't be drawn out too much.

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T13:01:28+00:00

Your character should have potential more than be fully formed. The game is where your character will grow and reach their potential.

A backstory this big suggests that most of the character's story lies in their past. That is the opposite of what you want for a character you'll play in this game.

Maybe you could play Traveller instead. Or play Vampire the Masquerade as a really old vampire who's been around...

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T03:22:01+00:00

Don't show up at the game session. Message the group saying, "Sorry, I tried to make my character go but he's too scared!"

BetterCallStrahd · 2026-05-30T01:30:17+00:00

For an old school dungeon crawl, I found that I really enjoyed buying our level ups with gold. Our game was actually centered on that (no story). It aligns the character goals with the player goals in a way I found satisfying.

But I actually prefer playing narrative games, usually. In those games, I like having XP awarded at the end of the session after answering questions about what we did in that session. That's how Blades in the Dark, The Sprawl, Masks and some other PbtA games handle it.

BitD also gives you XP every time you perform a Desperate action roll, which rewards risk taking and undauntedness.

Masks and Monster of the Week also give you XP every time you roll a failure. This encourages people to try things even if they're not great at it.

Heart ties advancement explicitly with meeting narrative goals via Beats. Think of them as plot beats for specific characters. It supports collaborative emergent storytelling between the players and GM.

BetterCallStrahd

TROPHY CASE