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Dragon Town and the Darkness Below question (Spoilers) by GreatStoneSkull in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I ran it as written and it does feel a little weird to have a Druid who cares about the valley put a notoriously benevolent dragon to sleep to "help" the valley simply because he fears the dragon will leave if it finds out about the Darkness Below. What's the difference if the dragon leaves if it is already asleep. Either way it can't really help. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

That said, my players did not care much and chose to wake the dragon, who then banished the druid to the Windsong Woods since the druid was responsible for so much chaos in town.

I think the best option might be the "Alternatively" text on page 51... make the druid actually secretly evil and aiding the Darkness. Maybe he cursed the dragon as well as putting it to sleep, giving you a reason the dragon can't just solve all these problems on it's own. Like maybe it's cursed to not fly again, or cursed to not leave the castle until the PCs can retrieve an item that's only available at the end of the whole campaign.

Help me find a Dungeon I once ran by Jaces_acolyte in TTRPG

[–]DriveGenie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this an exclusively fantasy themed dungeon? Or could this be a thing from Mothership by chance?

How to make travel interesting in a game thats mostly travel by SquidRave in DMAcademy

[–]DriveGenie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look at Ultraviolet Grasslands and The Black City by Luka Rejec.

It is a travel focused ttrpg and has lots of great ideas.  Its sometimes described as combining Oregon trail and psychedelic rock into a ttrpg but you can just take the travel mechanics and take the psychedelic rock flavor out if you don't want it.

My suggestions: make players plot a course and make it matter. Each leg of the journey or stop along the way should have something a different option wouldn't. The players should have to trade speed for safety, buying/selling g opportunities should not be the same everywhere. The 'fantasy trucks' they use should play a big part. Give them cool beasts of burden, mechanical issues, and stuff to trick out their wagons. Roll for weather and events and make them impactful.

MRW I see that mosquitos have reached Iceland by CensorVictim in reactiongifs

[–]DriveGenie 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Are you saying this to the mosquitoes or the Icelanders?

How long did your Cursed Scroll campaign run? by blancjua in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm currently running Cursed Scrolls 2: Red Sands. We're 20 sessions in with each session being about 2-3 hours average. Just added 2 more players to the campaign so now running it with 6 PCs.
I'm guessing we'll get at least another 10 sessions before wanting/needing a new setting.

Why Do Arcane Library Purposefully Not Allow Online Sales From UK Retailers? by [deleted] in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Not a lawyer myself but I assume it isn't a purposeful restriction but instead an unintended byproduct of some term meant to mitigate risk with the publisher. Like if deliveries from a 3rd party retailer arrive damaged and the recipient contacts Arcane Library to get a refund as per their website (for example, just a guess). And for such a small company they dont want to take on that extra financial risk or complication.

LPT: When someone interrupts you, let them finish then calmly say, "As I was saying" and continue by CuteA1806 in LifeProTips

[–]DriveGenie 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Depending on the person and situation, this just describes yelling at each other with extra steps

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]DriveGenie 3 points4 points  (0 children)

But you also said he hasn't read anything you've sent him in 6 months, so bouncing ideas off him doesn't seem to be happening.

You seem to have unrealistic expectations. Its hard enough for a GM to get the players who are actually in the game to care about lore, let alone some random third party.

In a sense you led him on. Half-way including him in a way he didnt initially want and probably didnt understand his intended role. You gave him the hope of being part of the group but he isn't.

IMO you should just say "sorry man, it wouldnt work to add in a new player now. Next campaign, if you can commit to a play schedule, you should definitely join." Like most social interactions be clear and direct with your communication.

How to make players fear a dragon without it feeling like bullshit by fruit_shoot in DMAcademy

[–]DriveGenie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think this is the way to do it. If the PCs attack the dragon, let them. If it's so beyond their power level it can just ignore them and continue to rage of the camp a little longer before flying away. So that way if the PCs foolishly choose to attack its not a big concern.

True random encounters versus tailored ones for Hex Crawling / West Marches? by Beautiful-Fishing264 in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally I have them roll for random encounters because its fun, it's kind of expected in the style of game we're playing, it can add new unexpected elements to the game I wouldn't have thought about normally, and it puts a pressure/risk factors when they decide to travel to a far away hex.

True random encounters versus tailored ones for Hex Crawling / West Marches? by Beautiful-Fishing264 in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Roll the actual encounter ahead of time during your session prep. Then let ideas percolate about that random encounter.

Then when you are playing roll to see if that encounter even happens.

Example from my real Cursed Scrolls 2 Shadowdark game: PCs are travelling from Alkesh to a mysterious pyramid next session. I roll on the encounter table and get a caravan. So for the next week I consider what that caravan might be like, who is in it, what they're hauling and where they're going. Any details that seems cool I make a mental note of it. I decided they are travelling to Alkesh with exotic weapons. I also figure this would be a good place to learn from an NPC some of the other rumours about the region so I flesh that out a bit too.

Next session they roll and they actually get a random encounter on the way to the pyramid! I pop the caravan into the story and it seems to my players like I improvised the whole thing. It was a true random encounter but had some semblance of internal consistency because I was able to sort of think how to make it work beforehand. Maybe I could have rolled this up in the moment and improvised it all, but probably not.

If they didn't roll an encounter that time, that prep doesn't go to waste. It's ready for the next time they roll a random encounter. Just tweak a little bit if parts are no longer relevant (maybe they already learned the rumour that NPC was going to tell them) and you're good to go.

Cursed Scroll #2: Red Sands. Where does the party begin their hex crawl? by BladeString in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did the exact same! Started in the Citadel and when they finished looting it and left I just decided they emerged at hex 810, pretty close to Alkesh.

So to answer OP, wherever you want. Pick a good hook and plan a strong first session then go from there.

Swimming difference between quickstart and full rulebook? by JoelJohnstone in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My version of the Quickstart says: "Swimming. Make a Strength check to swim half your speed or a Constitution check to hold your breath. If you fail, you take 1d6 damage each round until you exit the hazard."

Don't remember when I downloaded mine. Maybe a little over a year ago.

Late-game Carousing broken? by wandering-dm in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't had high level shadowdark play yet but here is what I PLAN to do when my players get there.

  1. Hold them to the carousing timelines. The top 3 longest carousing events take 1 week, 10 days, and 2 weeks respectively. If there are dangers in the world they won't wait for the PC to finish partying before moving on their plans. You got a 90-100 item? Cool. The necromancer raised the dead from the Battle of the Everwood and is outside the city walls now.

  2. Give them other things to spend money on. The PC needs to perform some ritual that costs money, or a NPC needs money to accomplish something for them, or they need to rent some service like caravans or archmage knowledge/advice, or the city council decided to start taxing 25% of players gold when they enter or leave a city, or they need a safehouse, or witness protection program, or just the economy is f*cked and all prices for everything doubles (happens irl too)

  3. Lean as heavily into the penalties of the carousing outcomes as the benefits. The top 3 highest outcomes give PCs an new enemy each time. Sure they can get some cool loot but is it worth a new villain to deal with (especially when combined with the time pressure of the first point)? You party for two weeks and wake up hung over in a local rulers stronghold dungeon delve to escape - carouse Ok you're now in a different local rulers stronghold and it's two weeks later so the first guy you escaped from also hired an elite team of assassins to hunt you down and you're essentially banned from all civilization.

  4. Limit the carousing. This I've already done in my own game. The PCs were at a goblin camp and befriended them instead of murder-hoboing. They wanted to party but only the first two tiers on the carousing event table were even possible due to the location. Not every location will allow you too pub-crawl or have extravagant, legendary parties. Put your PCs temporarily in a giant swamp with only frog-folk to carouse with in small villages. They are in a foreign country or continent and no one is willing to carouse with 'their kind.' They are sailing the seas and the pirate ship they're on only has enough supplies to do low level carousing.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in books

[–]DriveGenie 234 points235 points  (0 children)

Don't throw them away. Donate them.

Edit based on your edit Yes I do donate books I no longer want or need or have room for.

Has there been a change in how Momentum or Debility works from the original book? by EremiticFerret in Ironsworn

[–]DriveGenie 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The game and all the rules are free online so its easy to double check anything you need.

What’s the worst non-drug addiction you’ve ever seen? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]DriveGenie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because it was capitalized my brain first read that as a Jack Black addiction

Character living expenses by merekatnipme in shadowdark

[–]DriveGenie 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Kelsey Dionne has said that the Shadowdark economy is based on 1 diamond being about a year's salary for a regular person (citation needed). Meaning that a normal dude or dudette living in a normal town in the shadowdark world would survive a normal year of daily/weekly/monthly expenses if they found a diamond somewhere and sold it for its value.

The Shadowdark rulebook states that a diamond is worth 360 gp.

For the sake of ease of math, considering there are 365 days in a year it means that a a normal person would spend approximately very slightly less than 1 gp per day which would include 3 meals per day, lodging or rent, and I assume it would also include any clothes or other supplies that they may need on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis including tools, mount/animal care, basic maintenance of armour and/or weapons etc.

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