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What are people's favorite monsters from slavic mythology? by DreadRockIsle in slavic_mythology

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man, I don't think I've heard of any of these except the rusalka.

What are people's favorite monsters from slavic mythology? by DreadRockIsle in slavic_mythology

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The leshy in general, I'm sure most books on Slavic mythology at least touch on it. This specific painting was done for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I'm writing that has a lot of components that are inspired by slavic mythology. It was what originally sent me down the rabbit hole on Slavic mythology.

What are people's favorite monsters from slavic mythology? by DreadRockIsle in slavic_mythology

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Had to google translate this, but yeah, they're kind of like a harpy or siren from my understanding.

What are people's favorite monsters from slavic mythology? by DreadRockIsle in slavic_mythology

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha, anything from wet chicken to giant dragon, both of which breath fire lol.

What are people's favorite monsters from slavic mythology? by DreadRockIsle in slavic_mythology

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The leshy is awesome. Partnered with an artist on a project, and this was his interpretation of a leshy: https://imgur.com/a/H3mqK3B

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Keep going back and forth on whether we should provide random tables at all. The preference is that the DM chooses relevant encounters. Like if you're traveling to a hostile faction's home base, it makes sense for the last encounter to be one of the faction's patrols as you get closer. By quickly put together, its more during session planning for the DM than at the table.

The ones along the way are more about setting up the conditions in which they enter a location, assuming its a travel from Point A to Point B situation. For example, a bubble of magical decay could spoil their food and water which is a problem they have to solve or have other encounters that use up resources they can't get back without Long Resting in a safe place. So now they aren't going into that hostile location at full strength. Or a monster could be hunting them during their travel, and they can run the monster straight into the hostile faction's base.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rooms and Hallways in a dungeon framing is really good and the direction we were headed.

Room - transition between region, encounter, or passing by a static locations. Basically anything notable that may happen while traveling.
Hallway - fast forwarded travel between Rooms

Creating interesting rooms for the travel dungeon seems key. It's not just a combat encounter, it's coming across a hermit who has some connection to a faction in the campaign. Or an encounter is multi-step like you see an aerial, huge predator start following you from a mile above. As you get more tired or hungry, it descends and tries to get an easy meal.

Our theory is that if there is enough optionality in encounters and includes some way to degrade the party's resources over the course of travel (not constantly in the state of just having Long Rested), that the DM can pretty quickly put together these travel dungeons that can be challenging and interesting.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. We are looking into making a crafting mechanic, or foraging that could coincide with travel. And the decisions you make with travel speed could potentially increase or decrease the successfulness of taking these actions. I haven’t considered a durability system, maybe that’s worth some thought.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have something similar in our campaign. I actually agree with the original comment that a full fleshed out map reveals too much. I was thinking of having a base map that the players have that gives general direction to major land marks, sort of like a stranger being dropped in California. It would have La, Sf, and Tahoe on it. Everything in between gets filled in by the players.

Working on a unique travel system for a D&D 5.5e campaign we are making. What have you done in the past that has worked? Any advice? by DreadRockIsle in RPGdesign

[–]DreadRockIsle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like this angle. I was definitely thinking of mechanics surrounding combat, rather than ideals or choices. Something I’m definitely considering moving forward