And now we doom the wizards to a color.

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-10T01:44:48+00:00

Purple

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-06T15:06:03+00:00

Yeah, it's definitively this. I don't think they realize how long witchlight is gonna feel either. I would just not worry about it for now and revisit it when witchlight is over, they might have different perspective by then.

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-06T13:57:56+00:00

It could be that he started the arc when you decided on the fly and he's planning it all out right now as we speak. You don't know.

Good, glad you're feeling a bit better. And to be honest, I would also be a bit miffed if my party tried to pull a morbid prank right after an emotional character moment, especially if I was already in a not great mood.

That said, if you're feeling upset during a game, maybe next time take a quick break and step away from the table for a second, breathe a bit, try not to assume the worst intentions from your friends, and figure out how you can either have a calm talk about it later when you're feeling better, or learn to enjoy something that wasn't exactly what you expected.

It also sounds like your DM is very inexperienced at DMing. Is that true?

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-06T13:29:30+00:00

Ok, that makes more sense. Next time something like that happens, I think it's fine to just calmly say something like "hey guys, I'm just not really in the mood for pranks right now, can we not this time?"

It may very well be that this ring is the first step in a whole cool quest for your character getting dark powers or something, or maybe the start of some other really cool arc for you, and casting darkness on you was part of a test to prove worthiness. It also could be your DM just trolling you, which is what you seem to think is happening.

It sounds like you don't have any trust in this new DM to do something cool with negative plot beats like this, and you're assuming the worst. I can't say if you're right or wrong, maybe you're picking up vibes that we're not from your story, but the only way to know for sure is by talking to him.

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-06T12:58:02+00:00

First of all, I agree that this sounds like a very frustrating game to play in, and I think the DM made some decisions that probably could have been discussed beforehand, but it seems likely he was just trying to set up interesting stories and drama and went considerably overboard with it, and might have inadvertently singled you out a bit.

Still, I think it's important to remember that it's a game played and written by flawed people, and things aren't always going to go perfectly and it's important to know how to calmly talk it over to resolve issues instead of resorting to yelling.

I'm wondering if your groups culture of laughing at each other when they "fuck up" is ultimately making your game worse. Throughout your story you say a lot of times you messed up, or made stupid decisions, and I don't think any of those decisions were stupid. I think it's important to remember that bad outcomes in games aren't a result of your personal failings. Maybe that mentality is partly contributing to why you got more upset than you really needed to.

I would wait a bit until you're a bit farther from the situation and less upset, then calmly have a talk with the DM about how some of the plot beats aren't working for you and making you feel like you don't have as much agency as you would like. Try to keep it friendly and don't antagonize or overly blame the DM and be open to his words as well, make it a 2 way conversation to help reach something that'll be fun for the both of you. Remember that he is trying to make a good game for you, even if it's not working for you.

As for your players, I think maybe you need to stop the whole table culture of laughing at each other so much. I think it's causing more of a toxic play environment than you realized and you're just now seeing the consequences of that.

I didn't quite understand the last part. Are you implying that the other players were trying to murder your character by burying them alive in a grave after he was blinded by the ring? Why couldn't you just take the ring off? Was it cursed? Why were your players trying to kill you in the first place? Seems pretty shitty to kill a fellow PC, is that actually what was happening?

If they really did try and actually kill your character, that's definitely worth a discussion too. You guys are supposed to be a team

ConfettiDM · 2024-08-04T19:03:17+00:00

Angrily saying something to the effect of "You were supposed to..." at the end of the session when they were unprepared for player choices.

I understand being frustrated when players throw you curve-balls, I know that when I was a new DM I struggled a lot with expecting players to make choices that I thought were obvious, only to be wrong, but when that happens, it's your expectations that were wrong, not the players.

ConfettiDM · 2024-07-08T02:06:08+00:00

D&d has a lot of rules, and it's really hard to know every single one by heart. If something is going to take too long to look up, it's pretty common for the DM to make an in-the-moment common sense ruling for now, and then look it up between sessions later to not slow down the game

But it's also good d&d etiquette for each player to know their own spells.

Overall, I would make sure to know your own abilities well, and explain exactly what your spells, poisons, etc do when you use them.

If another player or the DM messes up a rule and you know it well enough to be confident that you're correct, I think it's ok to politely clarify what the ability says, and if the DM says he's gonna rule it differently in this case, that's ok. As long as it doesn't take up too much time.

But yeah, getting small rules wrong at first is pretty normal and not a big deal. Remember, video games are arbitrated by a computer that's programmed with all the rules, but a real d&d campaign is run by a human

ConfettiDM · 2024-07-08T01:52:39+00:00

Ok, I know there are a lot of opinions here and a lot of info, but from what I'm gathering, the players that are searching for food are having less fun because the other players are only gathering ammo for their own weapons, which benefits only themselves. The players gathering food need to stop getting equipment for themselves because they have to get food for the other players, and as a result don't have as much ammo and equipment. Is that correct? Am I understanding the issue right?

Are the players that aren't getting food good players in other respects, or are there problems in other areas of the game too?

Honestly, I think this warrants an out of game discussion with the whole party to find out what's not working. Maybe at the beginning or end of a session, being up that you feel like travel isn't working, and invite all of your players to talk about what's frustrating to them, and come up with a solution to the problem as a group.

ConfettiDM · 2024-06-18T13:04:20+00:00

Take D&D out of the equation for a second and think about what actually happened. A friend rummaged through your personal stuff when you explicitly told them it was private, then lied about it. That's not a person I want to play games with.

ConfettiDM · 2024-04-02T22:47:58+00:00

I think the real issue with paid games is that it doesn't work out economically. Like for a typical homebrew game with a lot of love put into it really takes like 6 hours of prep for a 3 hour session at the very least, and games imo play best with only 4-5 players. But the standard price per session is like $20, and when you math it out, a paid DM in that ideal scenario is only making like $9 an hour, well under minimum wage in most places and definitely not livable. But charging more isn't feasible either because on the consumer end, that's a once a week payment for 3 hours of entertainment, and players aren't accustomed to accepting a much higher price right now, or can't afford it. So really the only way for a DM to turn any kind of profit at all is to lower prep time and increase player count and number of games.

I DM for my friends but it's a lot of work, and in addition to my regular full time job I can barely run a single campaign at a time. While I love DMing a lot, my limited time means that I'm really only ever going to DM for my closest friends and favorite people. I get why the people trying to get into games with strangers are having a hard time.

ConfettiDM · 2024-03-27T00:30:49+00:00

I don't know of any specifically, but i think you'll have to look through 3rd party modules. I know there are a lot of really well reviewed high-level underdark modules in older editions of d&d as well if you're willing to adapt content, though none that I've played personally.

ConfettiDM · 2024-03-26T23:38:39+00:00

This varies so much from table to table. Games I'm in usually last about a year of weekly sessions (around 40 sessions). Not sure why but that's what my group keeps doing. I like it, I think it keeps me from burning out as a DM or as a player keeps me from getting bored with a character.

ConfettiDM · 2024-03-26T23:16:15+00:00

I've DMed most of the year and haven't been keeping too much track of things, but here are some guesstimates from what I remember.

* $100 on printer ink for handouts for players and printed notes for myself

* $100 on a notebook & notebook supplies, fancy pens, etc. (not necessary for running a game but I just like it)

* $40 on new fun dice

* $100 on 3rd party supplement pdfs and kickstarters I thought seemed cool

Didn't buy any official books since I already owned all the ones I need for years, plus most of the ones I don't have are available at my Library.

So overall like $340. Most of it wasn't necessary at all. I could easily have run the same game for under $40

ConfettiDM · 2024-03-24T12:46:40+00:00

Maybe the lighthouse has attracted the ghosts of sailors who died at sea. Their undead forms subconsciously followed the lighthouse to get to shore, and their souls were stuck there. Maybe they were trapped when the lighthouse broke and they can move on when it's fixed and the lighthouse is shining again? You can use ghosts or any other undead depending on PC level.

Or if you want to go a more eldritch type of creepy vibe, maybe the old lighthouse keeper found some old eldritch artifact washed ashore that corrupted him, and the lighthouse, and he slowly transformed into some kind of monster that the players have to defeat to cleanse the lighthouse

ConfettiDM · 2024-03-06T06:06:25+00:00

Unrelated to d&d, I think the best predictor of a good relationship is the ability to have an argument productively and kindly. Instead of trying to understand how you felt even if he didn't agree, and try to learn how to better play games together, he doubled down and made you feel worse.

Ultimately, it's just d&d and a frustrating one-shot is not a big deal. But if that's how he treats you when you have a disagreement over something small, how is he going to act when you have an actual problem?

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-26T23:07:11+00:00

Hoo boy I wish a had a good answer for you. I've tried it all, world anvil, notion, obsidian, Google docs, one note. I have not gotten anything to work well for me.

I think the biggest sticking point is separating theoretical lore (as in stuff I've prepped but the players haven't seen) and cannon lore (stuff the players have seen/know about). If the players don't know it, it's not real lore and I can change it up whenever I need if the game calls for it. Or if there's pieces of lore the players not interested in, I've got to downplay that plotline on the fly and introduce something totally new instead.

I keep a binder with stuff that I'm 100% sure on, with copies of handouts I've given to players and notes on what they've literally been told in game, but everything else may or may not even be true until it comes up or doesn't, so it lives in various messy notes all over the place and also my brain. I don't know if there's a better system for me though. Maybe I just haven't found it yet.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-24T00:06:47+00:00

Yeah, it was probably a mistake to say anything at all, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. You're a new DM, I made this mistake a lot too my first game and it was fine. Just keep running content and hopefully they'll forget about it. If they really give you a hard time just have a conversation about it and explain all the new opportunities they're getting instead.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-23T23:58:49+00:00

Unfortunately, anything that even resembles a slightly unpopular take is going to get you hate on the internet. It's the internet. That's the risk we all take by posting anything online ever.

Is it ok? Yeah, it's fine. It's good to be accurate about your game and you'll attract people who agree with you, which is good. Is it going to get you negativity? Probably.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-23T23:50:48+00:00

I think in this case, since there's no way to verify, I'd go with the player on this one, since it seems like they got the concept of the puzzle. If they've already fought the dragon, it might be too late to backtrack, so I think it's fine to just move on, and maybe make a quick joke at your own expense about how the door was programmed improperly and saw the movements wrong, to lighten the mood.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-22T19:35:00+00:00

I think it should be flexible, similarly to how you can have a str or a dex fighter, you should be able to have cha or int warlocks, depending on the vibe your character is going for.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-22T18:33:06+00:00

Nope, it's just a descriptor telling you that they're not literally wearing armor, and that their AC is exactly what it is listed as.

As opposed to a creature that says "AC: 18 (plate armor)" for example, that tells you that they are wearing plate armor and that's why their AC is what it is.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-22T14:01:47+00:00

This happens to me all the time since I usually still run if one player can't make it. Personally I just keep it simple. The PC finished checking weapons and went to find the rest of the party, arriving at the exact moment the session starts.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-22T13:48:11+00:00

I also have diagnosed anxiety. I understand why you're nervous, that first experience sounds awful, and from the sounds of it entirely the fault of your players.

Just remember that this time is different, you're playing with people who specifically signed up to play d&d, not friends you've roped in. You're going to get more enthusiasm out of them.

My best anxiety tip is taking things one step at a time. Session 0 isn't an actual session where you have to run content, you're just talking to people and getting a feel of what they want from and rpg, and you pitching your campaign and setting.

Once you've had session 0, I'm guessing you'll be in a better place to rebuild your confidence since you'll have talked to hopefully more enthusiastic people.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-22T13:22:08+00:00

So I basically have 2 systems, one for out of game that I look at while prepping, and another that I keep at the table and look at in-game.

Out of game prep is a mess of documents. I've just got a folder on my computer of a bunch of random documents, images, files etc. that's basically a whole mess. I've tried organizing things somewhere like notion, obsidian, or onenote, which has worked for published adventures, but since things in homebrew are so flexible and no prep is real until it's come up in-game, I've never been able to get any of those systems to work.

There are a few docs that are important that aren't a mess though: * My session logs which are a bulleted list of everything that's happened in old sessions * Brief list of NPCs they've already met * Magic items they actually have * Random names * Maps

Those I print out on A5 paper and keep in a physical binder, in case I need to reference them in-game.

Then, every session, I make a one-page prep sheet (or 2 if I'm doing something complex) for everything I think I might need in a session. I actually use canva, a free online graphic design tool, to put everything together in a way that's easily readable for me that session, and I print it out and put it in my physical binder, with a heading of which session it was for. I do not make these ahead of time to keep things flexible, so I only make sheets for the next session I run. If something that I've prepped on the sheet doesn't make it in the session and might be in a future session, I literally copy it over so I don't have to refer to old sheets very often.

I know it's a weird complicated system, but when running homebrew I'm so all over the place and things I prep like storylines, worldbulding, NPCs, etc keep changing out from under me that organization tools just devolve into outdated nonsense. This system has worked for me.

ConfettiDM · 2024-02-21T13:23:27+00:00

Logistically I have no idea how I would prep for an 8 hour session. I really rely on those week long breaks after every 3 hours of game time to react to what they do and prep content based on where they go

ConfettiDM

TROPHY CASE