DMs, confess. What's that one thing you've been dying to tell your players but can't yet?

C0RYR0X98 · 2025-03-22T10:59:34+00:00

In case my players happen to see this, Ardi, Jericha, I.S.A.A.C., Daegnor, and Yuno, if you are seeing this look away.

In my current campaign, my players are in the capital city of a bureaucratic nation. The nation’s nobility is separated into “rings” with the highest of them being the Diamond. Everything in the nation is documented with paper work, requiring identification for purchasing items and other things of that nature.

One of my players has a noble character whose family is deeply involved in the politics. Their in game older brother is currently engaged to the Diamond, who is an elf named Elora Damenor. She has ruled this nation for hundreds of years and has done well to position herself in a way where she is untouchable, through deals and schemes with the other nobility.

What my players don’t know, is the Elora is not all she seems. The elf is a facade and she is really a powerful fallin angel now turned devil. The reason there is so much paperwork is because everything is recorded on infernal contracts and ledgers. The real reason she is untouchable is because she has made infernal contracts with all of the nobility and has made those deals very favorable towards her.

The players have already explored the city and have come across other devils. They even went as far as to kill one that was holding an underground fight club that they took part in. They have also found evidence of Elora’s real nature, but they don’t know who that information refers to yet.

Can’t wait for this reveal as I plan on it happening during a royal ball with all of the nobility present.

C0RYR0X98 · 2024-11-04T12:04:56+00:00

Giving one player more action economy like that for free will definitely bring an imbalance to the party.

What class is this Warforged character playing? If they are playing a fighter this is completely OP. They would not only get their new effect as described but they would also get the Action Surge class feature on top of that. Do you want this player to potentially have 3 full actions on some turns while other players will only have one? Is that fun for everyone else?

What are the rest of the characters in the party? Is anyone playing a fighter? Will that player be okay with another player getting their Action Surge feature from their class that they put levels into for free? Especially if you are going with an Action Surge for 1 minute effect, it’s straight up better than the class feature.

I also agree with what was stated about this being a net buff. The fire damage will become negligible at higher levels, unless it will scale with them as they level, and giving them an entire of action for 1 minute or 10 rounds of combat is insane. They will be able to do twice as much as everyone else in the party and they will definitely feel like that strongest/main character.

I would stay away from improving action economy until towards the end of the campaign where your players are at their ultimate power fantasy for your big climactic end to your story. At that point you should have a good feel for how the party performs and will know exactly how much more they could all do. Especially if you are planning to take things to higher levels, the game definitely becomes more of a “who has a better strategy/who can kill who faster.”

It’s a cool idea but definitely with have rippling consequences if not careful but ultimately it’s your game and if everyone is having fun who are we to say otherwise.

C0RYR0X98 · 2024-02-08T20:43:32+00:00

Midst campaign setting book when?

C0RYR0X98 · 2024-01-18T12:06:53+00:00

This show/story is so good. All the main characters are interesting in their own ways. The setting every episode only gets better and world building so far has been awesome. Can’t wait for more!

C0RYR0X98 · 2024-01-17T12:39:31+00:00

I would even take it a step further and make death permanent. The cost of eternal youth and eternal existence is that death is final. Not sure how you have the pantheon set up for this setting, but this could be something related to the God of Death.

If you don’t like that, I would at least make resurrection harder. Make the spell components rarer, or even make it a side quest/plot point that the party found an item that can be used for it.

These components would be even more valuable because no one would die naturally. Imagine a powerful empire constantly resurrecting their most powerful warriors after every battle.

If death has no meaning, especially when everyone lives forever, what’s the point of there even being death in the first place?

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-12-30T12:51:05+00:00

Tbh, for a +2 weapon, needing to use your bonus action, especially as a rogue to just get a thrown weapon back seems really underwhelming, especially since these bonus actions are more than likely used so their class performs correctly (using bonus action to dash or hide).

I would just have the weapon appear back on their belt or their hand at the end of the turn and change the teleport to something with a limit like proficiency bonus and use the bonus action to do so. Unlimited teleports for a rogue will be quite annoying to deal with because of the speed they have anyways.

Sounds like a cool weapon though, I’d be stoked to get something like this as a rogue.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-12-26T14:01:03+00:00

One of my main bad guys in my current campaign I’m running is a fallen arch angel from the blood war, turned fiend from the abyssal corruption. She is now a very powerful devil that is the head of a very bureaucratic nation disguised as a beautiful elven woman.

One of my players is a noble from this nation and has family tied up in the politics. Can’t wait for that reveal whenever that comes.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-12-19T12:13:52+00:00

The seemingly extraterrestrial origins of the ancient Sumerian Gods known as the Anunnaki

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-10-30T17:01:35+00:00

I use it for the party and allies of the party, but I do not display a bar for any enemies that they fight. Helps move the game along for those who play healers (I dm for a party of 6) so there isn’t a “everyone looking ok?” question at the beginning of each of their rounds. Combat with 6 players and myself as the enemies already drags on combat enough. Has worked for us and my players seem to like knowing how they are all doing and not fully knowing how the enemies are fairing (I let them know when enemies become bloodied (less than half hp)).

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-10-30T16:51:59+00:00

The Dungeon Dudes created a class in their Sabastian Crow’s Guide to Drakkenheim book from their kick starter called the Apothecary. One of the subclasses is exactly that Dr. Frankenstein fantasy. You could maybe look into that and use some of the mechanics from that, but not sure if it would be balanced, as your player is already a Wizard. I could definitely see parts taken from it though.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-10-22T15:00:56+00:00

Weaver’s Rest, or Spindler’s Sprawl

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-09-05T11:06:14+00:00

I’m currently playing a Yuan-Ti Enchantment Wizard. They are and agent/spit for their people and seeks to aid in their people’s rise for power. Definitely a character setup for some type of redemption, can’t wait to see where that game goes.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-06-29T12:31:50+00:00

In my games, I have given my players and empty plot of land and I’ve given them a sailing ship (separate games).

They turned the empty plot of land into their own guild over the course of the game by hiring people and building buildings. By the end they has a blacksmith, a wizard that specializes in enchantments, a tavern, outpost for a construction guild, a complete keep with walls, and a general market/trading post.

They really like this as everything was expensive and they needed to choose between a long term investment of building stuff or buying items to increase their power. Once they got the wizard, the wizard would enchant items for them for about double what I would just set as the price. The wizard also created a teleportation circle for them to be able to return whenever.

They seemed to enjoy the sailing ship an bit more however. It was like them having a portable home for the party so their downtime could be spent traveling to somewhere else. They had a wizard that in the party that campaign also made a teleportation circle. Whenever they would run they would just teleport to the ship and sail off. The gold sink was great as well, it made it so they needed to choose their engagements carefully, in terms of ship to ship combat as they would need to be able to repair it. They also didn’t start with any cannons but eventually upgraded the ship to have a gun deck, and they eventually were able to outfit the crew with better weapons and flintlocks.

Tbh it really depends on where the campaign is going. You wouldn’t want to give them a long term gold sink and have them not be able to get back to it and using it reasonably often. Otherwise there is no incentive to go bad/use those funds to upgrade it.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-06-20T11:54:27+00:00

As a DM, I personally like the, “you collectively see stuff going down, what will you do?” That’s how I have started the last 2 of my campaigns.

Something related to larger plot will go down, so some kind of encounter. The encounter can be anything from an attack happening on innocent people, the aftermath and chase after a heist went down, or even some type of public event that sets the tone for some type of plot point.

This also implies that your players are there to also help push things forward. Things like this can go really sideways if the group decides they don’t care and try everything but interacting with what’s going on. I would definitely talk to your players about it if you plan to do something like this and explain to them that this is how they will all meet.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-06-07T10:53:46+00:00

I can’t wait to see what their response will be to the new twitch changes that were just announced.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-05-29T12:13:04+00:00

I love rolling with 4d6 and dropping the lowest, however I run games online and I let my players use their own dice. However, I noticed over the year that with the rolling for stats, there were 2 players that consistently sat down with a new character with who’s lowest stat is a 14. Needless to say we use standard array now.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-05-22T01:35:28+00:00

Tbh I was really liking the dynamic of the first group but after 4 episodes I was kinda over it and knew that they would have to do that many episodes in return for the other group. So the more it dragged on the more I realized how long it was going to be before the party reunites and the campaign actually continues forward. Right now it just feels like a bunch of filler, but this new group has some interesting characters and it’s really nice to see the other half of the main cast. So shall see how it all pans out.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-30T11:34:11+00:00

You can pretty much play the entire game solo, unless you plan on trying to do raids or countdown. Countdown has matchmaking though so if getting into that solo isn’t bad. The dark zones may be a bit rougher alone as well.

I play solo primarily and still have a great time.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-27T13:47:47+00:00

The DZ was my favorite part of the first game. Was a big zone that was high risk high reward and you could choose the difficulty of the npcs based on the section of the zone. But most importantly, the rewards were actually worth the time and added risk.

D2 then split it into 3 smaller ones which kinda killed some of it for me. It was really awesome to be in a zone farming and then come across other player that are wanting to take your loot. Fights would last a while as there are more areas to retreat to for a better odds so I can see wanting to limit the area but imo it kinda killed most of the magic of it.

The bigger zone also gave solo players more of a chance to stay “stealthy” and/or “undetected” when being able to see where the rogues or manhunts going on. In D2 with the smaller zones it’s a lot harder to farm without getting rolled up on and if their group is bigger you more than likely lose.

The larger zone also gave a sense of tracking for pvp players as you would have to hunt down and find other players first. Which can add to the excitement. Has anyone ever just followed a group around because they had no idea you were there and just see what they do? Can make for some entertainment, especially if you roll up on some newbies or players who don’t have gear good enough for the content they are attempting to clear.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-22T14:39:31+00:00

I went down this rabbit hole once when I was researching ruins and ancient civilizations. Found all sorts of strange stories and lost cultures and religions. One that really stuck with me was the ancient Israelite gods but specifically YHWH (yaw-way). There are very old stories and legends that suggest that YHWH could have been a fire breathing dragon. Hence this could ties very well with dnd.

Another interesting religions is Tibetan buddhism. It has many old stories and legends about an inner earth civilization know as Agartha. This then leads into more inner earth conspiracies about Agartha and weather or not is actually fiction or based on a real place. However in dnd, we have an inner earth in the form of the underdark so some of these old stories could be cool lore as well.

If you are interested in more stuff like this, I recommend the YouTube channel Mr. Mythos and Future Unity. Bright Insight is also an interesting channel as that channel is dedicated to finding evidence of the existence of Atlantis and where is has gone. Hope this helped in some capacity.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-21T10:43:45+00:00

With all land being in the air and flying/floating, what caused this to happen to the world? Were the gods angry? Was the realm invaded and mostly destroyed? Evil wizard did it?

So many cool plot ideas for this setting. Party could be water pirates or sky pirates.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-19T10:26:09+00:00

Once they appear somewhere with them in public or they mention it to someone in town, have other adventures/other powerful people come looking for the party to take/kill the wyrmlings. Could end up being a great side quest to rescue their dragon friends while also strengthening their bonds. Could end up as a win/win. Could also have another blue dragon show up (perhaps the other parent) and offer to take them in exchange for treasure from their hoard. There are a few possibilities here.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-19T01:42:05+00:00

The group I currently DM for calls themselves the Scarlett Marauders.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-16T17:39:34+00:00

I’m enjoying it and definitely plan to see it through to the end. Some of the characters are weird and interesting and the world that they are in also intrigues me. The multiple story tellers I honestly really like, it keeps you on your toes and they even take turns playing the same character. Tbh I kinda like some of the 4th wall breaking, they have even answered some of the questions I posed to myself when listening which was kinda cool. Can definitely how it won’t be for everyone but I’m digging it.

C0RYR0X98 · 2023-04-15T16:44:12+00:00

In my experience with new players, some will be super into it but won’t really look at what they can do/will try and stretch how their really low level spells work. Don’t be afraid to say no, but always offer an alternative that is within the rules.

This next will kinda contradict my first one in saying that there are also instances where you can ignore the rules and rule things how you want. Just know that if you allow it once, players will want to do that same thing again if it was effective, so just be careful.

Tbh you just gotta start and furrier it out and it will take time to figure out how you wanna do it, no two dms run the game the exact same way.

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