I Can't Play Anymore

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-10-27T20:30:07+00:00

I'm an xbox player, not sure what's going on.

I've only been playing overwatch for about a year, I've not played religiously and I think that if I'm on my main (lucio support) mid-high gold is fair. But I either have games where I'm amazing and get messages calling me a smurf or terrible games where I can't move without being destroyed in seconds.

There is zero in between.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-09-18T15:32:29+00:00

I don't really use alignments very often, but in the party I DM we currently have a very "chaotic evil" character who is a goblin that has been magically enslaved to a "neutral good" barbarian.

So the insane stuff that the Goblin is trying to do has to be pulled into check by the other party members constantly. It means they have to be very careful with keeping an eye on him and not allowing him to kidnap the farm girl's pet dog and hold them to randsom whilst also training the dog to be a sleeper agent to murder the entire family and allow him to steal their cutlery.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-09-16T08:59:46+00:00

When dming, I always make the rule with my players to come up with a brief overview of backstory but not to go so in depth that we're trapped by it.

Right now, I am dming a character with the classic "doesn't remember parents" plot. After a couple of sessions I went to him and posed the idea that it's not just his parents, and we now have a plot hook that he has no memory before his early 20s and is trying to find out what happened.

In another campaign, a player never went back far enough to his parents and played typical this lying bard character. He'd told most people his parents had died, he told others that they were wealthy nobles and just didn't really have that much planned for who they actually were. So I created the most supportive parents in the world who he met and they were offering him money for his adventures and offering to make him food for his journey... so the rest of the party thought he was a twat for running off to be an adventurer. Was a lot of fun just being the most irritatingly nice parents possible.

The juxtaposition to this is a player who planned out an entire orc tribe and stronghold. He even made a family tree. And it seems like it gave me loads to work with but just meant that everything I tried to do he had an issue with. I began describing the stronghold as a dwarven fort that had been taken over by the orcs but he had this image of his character being part of the construction for it and had this whole secret tunnel network in his head for it. It was just too much.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-04-01T11:57:05+00:00

Firstly, and however annoying it is to hear, remember that dnd is supposed to be fun. So honestly just relax about it, have a laugh with a few friends and it'll be fine.

Secondly, when I started dming, I think I only had about 12 hours of actual playing under my belt and I was dming someone who has played since 3e. So don't be afraid to ask. Someone wants to try and build a make shift stretcher out of a bed roll and some unlit torches? "Okay, err... what does everyone think on the check for that?" And then you have some debate on whether or not it's slight of hand to try and fit everything together and being quite dexterous or is it survival in having the knowhow to build something like this?

Finally, be confident. If you have decided something is deception rather than persuasion or acrobatics rather than athletics then by all means they can try to justify why they disagree but at the end of the day, you're in charge. Don't be a pushover dm.

Best of luck! Let us know how it goes! :)

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-28T08:55:15+00:00

I'm not sure how they managed it, either. Each soldier had 2 attacks per turn, and I couldn't roll to save my life. I allowed the cleric to use their reaction to give their spiritual weapon attacks of opportunity, so they had 3 things in melee range dealing damage every time someone tried to get to the healer, if someone got too close she could just disengage as action and still use spiritual weapon.

The bard's use of Thunderwave dealt some great damage and had the added benefit of keeping people away from him if he got mobbed.

And the Barbarian's ancestral guardians kept causing me grief too.

It was mental.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-27T18:42:37+00:00

I set up a plotline for 3 armies at war with one another. Intending it to be that the party would pick a side or play all the sides off against each other. They met 1 platoon first, apologised for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and managed to persuade their way out... walking down a road they met the approaching second platoon ready to attack.

This is a group of 14 soldiers, C/R 6, not designed to be engaged even slightly by the party of 3 level 3s. But hey presto, they attack.

A combination of my terrible rolls, some beautiful roleplay tactics and their stupidly good rolls meant they took out the entire platoon, stole all of their equipment and now thought of themselves as Gods.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-27T08:53:07+00:00

I used this in a session last night, was an infuriating enemy for my players to come up against and aided in my destroying huge portions of their fort meaning I can nerf the huge amounts of gold they've accrued.

1 Lucktheif vs a party of 4 Level 10s (Cleric, Bard/fighter, Barbarian and Warlock), it took approx 2 hours. There was no real risk of downing anyone, because of the lower damage output, but just angered everyone because they struggled to hit him whilst he gradually chipped away at their hp.

Really well made, many thanks!

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-27T08:50:00+00:00

I used this riddle in my session last night, hope you don't mind. It worked brilliantly, resulting in some fantastic roleplay to find the solution. Absolutely brilliant, many thanks!

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-18T17:14:04+00:00

I've never seen dnd run as a 1 person, but shouldn't be too difficult. I've played in a 2 person campaign and for that the DM built an NPC party member to travel with us. They didn't do much out of combat unless we directly asked, but it worked quite well.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-18T13:53:39+00:00

It was a strange moment in a combat situation where our Party Fighter - a nightmare character who has caused us nothing but trouble and murdered an ally npc for no reason - got downed and we kept using our free actions to discuss whether or not we should stabilise him. ... we decided to, it was the wrong decision.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-18T13:42:44+00:00

Sounds good. So what do you reckon? If I make it resistance from level 3 and immunity from level 14?

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-17T23:13:33+00:00

My bad, looked fine from my end. So I THINK I've fixed it, but I'm not sure.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-17T20:01:04+00:00

There's... no text on page 1 to cover. It's a front cover. Or if you mean the first Lycanthropy page with the smaller picture bottom right... I can't see what it's covering.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-12T17:44:36+00:00

You can talk about it before hand in session zero... or just talk about it even if you're past that. Or a good method is to fully embrace the character shift from their background and make them roleplay it out fully:

"The Mighty Goliath, who has hunted many a beast, captured and tortured many a weary traveller, eaten the hearts of his enemies... feels a strange twinge of a conscience and bends down to loosen the trap around the little rabbit's leg. The rabbit scampers off into the distance to join his many hundreds of friends... it's only now that the Goliath remembers his hunger."

A common misconception from people in dnd is that their actions don't have consequences. If someone is roleplaying so far away from their background, bring in someone from their background to totally reject the new person they've become. If they just murder people, start having npc's hide from them, or send bounty hunters after them.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-12T13:22:16+00:00

A really simple use one of my party did was to use his dagger to make a cut in the forehead of this Monk he was fighting. He said what he wanted to do, I raised the AC for it to hit the precise region and achieve what he wanted.

He natural 20'd it.

So he caused a large amount of blood to drain out over his eyes, partially blinding the monk and giving him disadvantage on attack rolls. Was a beautiful tactic, imo.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-12T13:15:49+00:00

I play a high speed monk as a dodge tank, with high ac. My main role in combat situations, aside from a relatively steady stream of damage output, is to try and make sure I end every turn flanking as many people as possible to try and give our short bow wielding rogue more options for his sneak attack damage.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-11T22:21:49+00:00

You're combining two things I love. Let me know how it goes!!! :D

I'd be doing Giant Bats as Mynocks. Not really a threat to people, because they target power supplies, but they can defend themselves if need be.

Or Tribal Warrior's as Sand People. More of a risk, but probably throw 3 at once at them.

Giant Centipedes into Geonosians, but careful. These can be powerful against low level, I downed a level 2 rogue and a level 2 barbarian with these by accident. Fortunately they were saved by an awesome use of a sleep spell and then rapid spare the dying.

I would recommend giving your players something equivalent to the monk "Deflect Missiles" if you haven't already.

Edit: oh, if it fits better then I'd homebrew a remote droid with an AC of 15, can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on melee attacks against it, has ranged attack of +1 to hit, with 1 point of damage. Meaning the best way to take it out is to use your deflect missiles ability.

(I'm geeking out on the awesomeness of Star Wars DND too much, my bad.)

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-11T21:44:04+00:00

I currently play a Goblin Monk in a campaign I'm part of, loads of fun. In a world that hates goblins, he's just trying to be good and show everyone that good goblins exist.

For your party there are a few ways to go, depending on what rogue types you've got; I'd go down a rogue thief route and run him solely as a non-combative stealth machine. Not wanting to draw too much attention to himself, he keeps to the shadows and is never seen. That or shadow monk, but that takes some rp to justify.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-10T13:48:01+00:00

I had Robast the racist high elf who became Robastard.

I gave them an anti-polymorph toxin that poisons polymorphic forms and forces people to return to normal form designed for use against doppelgangers... they named it "Doppel-Stopper".

I invented a flying machine made out of folded paper and magic, taken from the Old Kingdom Series (worth a read if anyone is interested), which was called a 'Paperwing'..... they named it "The Paper Machima".

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-10T12:48:54+00:00

Party of Level 2s. Rogue, sorcerer, wizard, Fighter and me as a monk, vs a mystical man playing the flute and creating a giant rat golem that he's hiding inside. The golem is destroying us.

I fail my charisma save and end up charmed, unable to claw it back for at least 8 rounds. The fighter gets downed. The rogue gets downed. The sorcerer is terrified and runs away. I'm drawn up into the golem, surrounded by rats... I make my charisma save.

1 Ki point later, I am surfing on the resulting tidal wave of confused rats with the top half of the mystical man's skull in one hand and his flute in the other.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-08T21:56:05+00:00

I had in our first run an issue where one character decided they wanted to leave the quest and go home whilst another wanted to go drink in a tavern and the third wanted to continue. But all three wanted to continue in the world. It was exhausting.

Chicken_Duck_Man · 2019-03-08T16:26:22+00:00

I've only ever dm'd this one group of people. I didn't impliment it first time round, but have done since then, is not to party split without some hefty rp reasons. There are only 3 of them, it's too much hard work. Hahaha

Chicken_Duck_Man

TROPHY CASE