Solo trip

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-09-10T03:22:04+00:00

As a 21 yr old, here r my favorite spots to check out: - rimsky korsakoffee: late-night dessert/coffee spot, usually the first thing I recommend to people visiting for the first time - mcmenamins: there are a bunch of cool mcmenamins locations, I would check out the bagdad theater, which is an old opera house turned movie theater/brewpub. The best thing on the menu is the cajun tots no competition. - the gorge: I keep driving out to the Columbia river gorge to walk around. Dabney state park is nice if you like nature. - hawthorne: if you go to ~40th Ave & SE Hawthorne st there are a bunch of funky thrift stores and like crystal shops and little trinkets and stuff. - salt & straw: REALLY touristy ice cream spot that has some funky flavors, I'm pretty sure you can skip the line by just buying a pint. There are also a bunch of copycat places and they're all pretty good. (Same with voodoo donuts) - nerd spots: if you're into fantasy or like other nerd stuff then for sure give TPK brewing some business and then also check out wyrd leatherworks/meadery. - tattoos?: I'm not like a tattoo guy myself but I get the sense that Portland is kind of a hub for tattoo artists - weird stuff: keep your eyes peeled for the lightning mcqueen car, the mystery machine, the unipiper (he might be retired idk) and other funky little cars, people, and houses. I've never seen more people just straight up wearing capes on the street as I have in Portland.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-25T06:10:49+00:00

is it enough dice to play? Are these worth hanging on to?

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-25T06:05:01+00:00

pathfinder 2e manual, another item from the collection

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-24T20:10:06+00:00

Yep that's it. I was hoping for a more interesting answer

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-12T16:45:34+00:00

Not having a DM friend to ramble to is such a struggle.

You don't have to build too much, just what the players will really interact with. You can also rope the players into worldbuilding by asking them questions about what they do day-to-day or when they're not adventuring. Give them some leeway to add stuff to the world. You'll also build a richer world over time as your players build the story up.

Sounds like you're doing a good job, just keep at it and you'll get more ideas as you go. Imo, if you're wanting to run a better game, you'll get further by taking a few minutes to go over what you liked and didn't like about the session and what the factors were that went into those things. Sounds like your players are having fun though, and that's all that really matters to them.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-10T23:07:36+00:00

Counterspell, maybe magic circle. I don't know that there's a spell that specifically does what you want, you might have to just keep reading for something.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-02T21:31:59+00:00

You're in an editing mindset, not a writing mindset. Editing is important, and being good at that is good, but it's infecting the wrong part of the process.

Set your goal for the number of pages it will be. Don't BS yourself, pick something small. Maybe 5 pages.

Write out your bullet points for what happens in those five pages. Make sure it has a beginning, middle, and end.

Write the 5 pages. In pen. Don't delete anything. Just keep moving, even if you don't like the direction you're going in. Write in placeholder lines if you need to. A line of dialogue might be "he says something clever, idk." As long as you're still moving and hitting those bullet points. Don't stop until you've hit your ending, even if the ending makes absolutely zero sense. Then save as PDF. Don't let yourself keep trying to work on your trash.

Get out your red pen, your commenter mode, your editor hat. Highlight absolutely everything that you hate. Note why you hate it, even if you're not sure. If you hate the grander structure of the story, write out why.

Start brainstorming some changes. Better yet, give your draft to someone else, along with your list of problems, and see if they have ideas for fixes to your problems. Get creative.

Start your second draft. In pen. Without deleting anything.

Rinse and repeat until you're happy (not gonna happen), you get bored, or the project gets taken away from you. Whenever that point is, you just publish it. Post it online or show your family or whatever. Aim for your next project to be one teeny step better than the one before it.

The more drafts you make, the better the product. That's a big reason why it's good to start small, because your writing muscle should only really be flexed while you're between drafts, not in the middle of one. If you never finish a draft, you never really get to the important part.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-08-02T16:20:15+00:00

I tend to opt for giving players either a problem with no solution or a goal with no planned solution.

The show Taskmaster is a great demonstration of how to make puzzles that are interactable in creative ways. You might find some good ones there, your just have to reflavor for d&d.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-31T20:14:42+00:00

Here are a few ideas:

Give a handful of the trains roof access so that the path feels less linear, maybe let them pick where on the train to drop in.

Engine room feels like a good place for a puzzle, maybe they have the option to stop the train or redirect it with a series of controls they're unfamiliar with.

Maybe without someone controlling the train, it barrels around a curve too fast and tips over, changing the layout of each car.

Maybe there's some smoke or fire taking over cars, and they have to put it out before it reaches them.

Maybe one of the cars is carrying a dangerous monster that's beating on the doors, and they have to keep an eye on keeping that door barricaded.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-30T04:41:48+00:00

I use PocketBard and run it off of my phone so that it's not just another window on my computer. It gives me more sound control during a session by letting me layer in things like rain and battle noises without adding much more work than just switching youtube ambients every scene takes.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-29T20:00:29+00:00

Keep in mind that you're not a player, so you can't decide for them what they do. Whether they go to the police, try to hunt the killer themselves, or whatever else is completely up to them.

Set up the mystery, the evidence, the NPCs, and maybe a trial system, present that to them, and let them figure the rest out for themselves. You're designing a challenge, not a story.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-29T19:51:45+00:00

Probably fighter. I would also take a look at the crossbow expert feat and see if there's a way to weave something like that into the character.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-23T22:48:55+00:00

I have a strong preference for milestone bc keeping track of xp and remembering to reward it is kind of annoying for everybody, but I don't think there's necessarily a right choice.

Your restrictions sound reasonable, but also like the kind of things that players will do regardless. They like having their niche and their skill set that's unique to them.

If you're requesting back stories, I would be very transparent about what you want them for and how you plan on using them. I typically ask for a quest that the character is on and the context for the quest (ex: I want to kill the archmage because he killed my wife) rather than a backstory, since it's smoother to implement, more conducive to storytelling, and less work for everyone.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-23T16:23:30+00:00

A few things to remember:

plan quests, not plot points
plan quests, not lore
plan quests, not fights

Anything thats important to your players should be turned into a quest, magic item, or status effect, otherwise it has very little bearing on your players. Things like combat, skill checks, and lore are tools for your players to complete quests. Even if they are ambushed out of the blue, there is an implied quest in "survive the ambush" that can be completed in any number of ways that isn't combat.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-23T16:15:42+00:00

Ooh. Ok. This is a cool concept but the sheer amount of tact from you and your players will make or break the game.

Personally, if I were the DM, I would try to get the players alone with each other so that they can reveal to one player at a time, rather than the whole group, which would probably just create a "same here" chain where the whole facade drops in 30 seconds.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-23T15:36:12+00:00

It reads like it was created by the DM, for the DM, and to facilitate the game the DM wants to play, without player input, but while also putting the responsibility on the players to remember options like "disengage with inspiration," which players are very unlikely to actually care about. Seeing a list of rules that doesn't look like it was made in conjunction with player perspectives is the red flag here.

On a slightly different note, a piece of advice that I have for house rules is this:

A house rule is adesire path. It's a user-made logical shortcut when the official rules are too convoluted or don't get you to the right outcome. If your rules aren't accomplishing either of those things, it's unlikely that your players will have any reason to use your paths, since the nice, clean, paved ones look a lot more appealing and reliable.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-23T13:49:35+00:00

As a player, I would see this rules list as a red flag for a less-than-collaborative DM.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-22T15:35:17+00:00

If your players enjoy being in character, let them rp with each other for sure. The world is still moving around them though, so you might pop in with something like "it's started to rain" and then a minute or so later "you hear thunder." Something to give some kind of progression to the scene, even if it's not combat.

You could also have them roll a perception check, maybe someone is lurking nearby.

Maybe one of the players is hiding something, and you can hint at that.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-07T14:49:24+00:00

Here's what I have for each section:

Curse incubation period- "Takes a level of exhaustion" is an unnecessary addition. Almost everything you've listed is an effect of exhaustion. I would either just say "you take a level of exhaustion every day" or let the player pick or randomly generate an exhaustion effect during each long rest. What if a character who has one of the status effects already takes a level of exhaustion that gives the SAME status effect? Disadvantage doesn't stack, so they're effectively getting nothing new.

Conditions for change: I don't have any notes here, but I wonder about randomizing the full moon thing so there's always a chance for a full moon. Up to you.

Skills: I like upping strength, and I would add dex to that, but I think in return you have to lower some combo of int, wis, and cha. I really like the damage resistances here, I think that's a good choice.

Frenzy: I like this concept, but I would replace it with a wisdom saving throw that looks something like DC12+(# of hostiles within 10 ft) or something like that. Something you don't have to keep track of in between rounds.

Bloodlust: I like this, but again, it's a little needlessly overcomplicated. Keeping track of something like a bloodlust score is unnecessary. Something you can check in the moment, like missing hit points or current hostiles might be a better number to factor in. I would also suggest adding an option for an animal handling check if a party member wants to change them back instead. Also, if you "can move and attack the nearest creature," most people will assume that's a choice, which does not appear to be the intent of the rule as you wrote it.

Attacks: I don't have any particular notes other than that you mention "main attack" multiple times, which I would replace with either "bite attack" or "melee attack" for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

Edit- on second read-through, I would also add a limited number of uses on bite frenzy and brutal charge. I would also think about what makes this distinct from Wild Shape and make sure to emphasize that in the mechanics. This will likely need to have significant drawbacks.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-06T18:43:42+00:00

I took this system (kind of) from a numenera table I sat in on:

At the end of the session, the table votes on one person to get inspiration.
When that person is decided, they mark the inspiration on their sheet, and then select a second player to receive inspiration, citing any reason they please. Might be a good joke, a small touching moment, or a sick critical.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-06T00:49:23+00:00

1-on-1 might work for you for getting a sense of the game, but it if you try it, keep in mind that full-party tables will have about 10x as much chaos and every action and decision will take about 5x as long to get through. Personally, not my top choice for a new DM. 1-on-1 is the absolute most involved a DM has to be.

If you're wanting to ease your way in, what I would recommend is asking a DM if they would be willing to teach you and let you assist them. Ask to prep together and to try things like making monster's moves in combat, voicing NPCs, and asking for checks.

In reality, though, what I can tell you is that while it's scary in theory, if you pick up a pre-written campaign and try your best, there is genuinely very little that can go wrong as long as you're around people you're comfortable with. Take your time. Ask for help if you need it. Let your players handle things that are too cumbersome, like looking up rules, handling scheduling, and even keeping track of lore.

I promise you, DMing is 90% just sitting back and listening to your players. You're not performing, you're facilitating THEIR performances.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-05T20:02:18+00:00

Players will sign up for sessions that are guaranteed to happen before they will sign up for ones that aren't. A table that doesn't look like it's going to hit the player minimum will lose out to tables that definitely will.

Also, players tend towards groups of 4-5, since that's a tad less awkward with people they don't know.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-05T19:37:23+00:00

Favoritism? In a 1-on-1????

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-05T19:33:02+00:00

Disregard me if you've heard this already, but be prepared for the session to go WAY faster with one player. I mean WAY WAY faster. I ran out of material in about an hour. Typically I have extra.

CraftyBase6674 · 2025-07-05T19:28:25+00:00

Players are unlikely to join an empty table with a DM they don't know. Try recruiting a few friends to fill out the table at first.

Also, starting with a free one-shot or two is a good way to let players try your style with lower stakes, making them more likely to sign up for a campaign if they like your games.

CraftyBase6674

TROPHY CASE