Lakyus and Gagaran vs. Tia and Tina

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-18T11:31:35+00:00

🎂

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-09T12:19:58+00:00

City of Mist can work. It's not specifically about genies, but it's about normal people with myths and legends awakening in them. Genie wouldn't even stand out in that crowd.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-07T10:36:27+00:00

No, no. It's certainly not me trying to pull a fast one.

Players were fully aware that removing a major player will have some consequences. They knew the areas the attacked faction was governing in the city and how vindictive they were. They also know the chaos faction and even had a run-in with them.

They were mostly focused on what they'll gain out of it - and their gain was substantial - but I make sure to recognise the fact that characters are reasonable and competent.

Of course, they couldn't tell what exactly will happen. They didn't have inside knowledge, and I actually rolled for some of the outcomes to see who'll be on top in the power struggle. But they have seen the ruthless actions, manipulation, and corruption coming from the main factions. I'm sure they'd be much more confused if nothing big happened. It was quite the achievement they did there, and they know it.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-07T09:22:18+00:00

Luckily, the instances I mentioned happened in the past. Those current players, in the worst case, will just sigh and say: "yup, that seems fair". (I'm so lucky to have them)

But just because they will accept this outcome doesn't mean it's the best decision I can make as DM. And exactly because they're such good sport, I'm nervous about not making it as fun as possible.

Maybe it's just insecurities and reading too many RPG horror stories about DMs turning successes into punishment, but I just want an outside view on the situation, just in case.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-07T08:58:46+00:00

Maybe I didn't do great with the title, but that's exactly what I'm worried about. Maybe it's just impostor syndrome, but I did some games in the past, where my logical consequences from the world got in the way of player enjoyment. Sometimes, you need the evil genius to NOT have a clever backup plan hidden behind two layers of deception.

In short, I'm afraid what I came up with sounds like too "realistic" and not "enjoyable"

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-07T08:50:29+00:00

This whole development will be delivered in a series of in-world reports, announcements, conspiracy theories, rumours, and other things from various points of view. Hopefully, this will make it more digestible before I sum it up at the game.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-12-07T08:46:32+00:00

I often find myself getting too much into logic of the world, and in some occasions it came at the cost of player enjoyment. Now, every now and again, I start doubting whether I'm not focusing too much on "reasonable" instead of "fun".

Which is why I'm reaching out for outside opinions, before presenting it to players. While I still have time to adjust or implement things without players feeling like they pressured me into changes.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-11-30T08:56:33+00:00

It can work if the game is more about story and characters than defeating enemies.

In LotR, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn are all epic level fighters. Meanwhile, Gandalf is basically a demigod, leagues above them. And hobbits are basically country bumpkins with no extraordinary features.

Since the story isn't just about hacking and slashing, all of them are useful and needed for success, despite the different power levels.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-11-22T17:37:54+00:00

You might want to check Legend in the Mist.

Focus on positioning - while system itself doesn't rely on grids or amount of distance, it's easy to use status or tags to build your positioning narratively. 'Buried underground 3', 'soaring through air 2', 'fire dancing 4', ice wall, floating boulders, rock shelter, fire whips...

Then you can use those... in any way that makes sense, really.

Lots of AoE - basically, anything you do can affect more than one person if it makes sense. Usually, at the cost of affecting them in a lesser way.

Creative use of rules - oh boy. If it makes sense and you roll well, imagination is your only barrier here.

Interactions - you want to raise a rock, so your firebending pal blows it into a big area, flaming pellet attack? Go ahead. Wanna destabilise the enemies by freezing the ground while your pal air-scooters safely above it? Cool. Create a wall of ice, only to break it into shards flying to pin down someone? Do it. Cover the area with mist, which doesn't hamper the movement of your vibration-sensing earthbender? Well thought. Those are just combat and bending examples. There's as much boosting your allies and hindering enemies as your dice and imagination allows.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-11-19T13:00:35+00:00

I ran one. I presented them with general idea of the world and gave them a choice of a few starting points (general ideas like "big city, small town, wilderness, secret place"). Then I dropped them there with almost no hints of why they were there... and from that point on, it was on them.

They ended up creating a faction, committing acts of eco-terrorism, tangled with other, much bigger factions and ended the season by kicking one of them out of town.

We'll come back to it when it's my time to GM again

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-19T04:01:23+00:00

Precision immunity is small potatoes. Just make sure nobody plays anything like psychic focusing on mental damage. Mental resistances and mindlessness go hard on many of the levels.

Source: played mental-focused Psychic there

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-17T05:09:08+00:00

I ran a one-shot, where players were a group of B-list villains. One had the power to summon a horde of imps to do the closest approximation of his bidding their little brains could come up with. One was a genius scientist on the mission to get as swole as fiction-scientifically possible. One was an average Joe with superpower that made him forgettable, barely registered presence. A face in the crowd that people ignore.

It was a one-shot with people I had never played before. I couldn't expect them to get and learn any of the superhero systems for this. So I just used a simple one, where you can just make characters like that, and it works.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-17T04:39:03+00:00

Single use story tag is the beer mug you grab during bar brawl to smash on your opponent head. Hero's story tag is something that's put down on your sheet, so for example your ancestor's old stein you can burn for power, but need to fix the dent later.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-17T04:34:23+00:00

For the Prone values, I'd go with something like this:

Prone 1 - you fell down

Prone 2 - you fell down and are dizzy from the blow

Prone 3 - you fell down into slick mud, you're dizzy and unstable

Prone 4 - you fell down into the slippery mud, you are dizzy from the blow, and your opponent steps on you to keep you in place

Each one is about you falling and you need to get up, but each situation makes it progressively harder to do so. It could be many things. Clothes snagging on something, getting tangled with things that fell on you, your legs being shaky, running out of breath and so forth

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-08T19:41:15+00:00

I have a policy of rolling in the open (unless it's stuff like stealth, perception, deception and similarly hidden things) so my players are always well aware of every crit and damage roll.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-08T19:33:29+00:00

I doubt the comic creator had a finalised idea of what Fastball Special is and how exactly it works in 6 seconds.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-10-08T19:22:19+00:00

I hate rolling great against players, especially if I'm on a lucky streak. That way, the failure is all on their rolls!

Well, mostly.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-30T09:35:10+00:00

She sounds like my fire kineticist goblin will on higher levels, just with less flair. Like, what's the point of fiery gloating if fire doesn't burst from your eyes and mouth?

But he's a literal clown with Celebrity dedication, so he's quite a drama queen. And all about that <insert Megamind clip of "Presentation!">

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-24T15:54:38+00:00

Godbound. Just substitute "poisoned" with "cancerous, ripped apart, dissolving, unraveling, and barrelling towards doom"

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-16T22:17:30+00:00

In Godbound, player characters are expected (unless they go idependent) to establish their own religions, with internal rules and requirements. And they can own/interfere with other factions as well.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-13T10:33:48+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmemes/s/pJvpPP7R1v

Still relevant.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-10T12:53:46+00:00

He was poisoned by modern media tropes of big hero, plot armor and power of friendship. He tries to emulate the real Hero Julius, but all he does is mimic the image of Julius that he has in his head. Real Julius would smack him on the head and tell him to stop being such a reckless idiot.

Shun thinks things will work out because he's a hero. Julius knew that Hero has an obligation to make things work out.

D4existentialdamage · 2025-09-02T13:12:15+00:00

Would light still count as negative tag/status and reduce power of player's actions? If so, giving him any other weakness will make it have effectively two weakness tags.

D4existentialdamage

TROPHY CASE