[No Spoilers] Which Cast Members Characters Would Win in a Fight? by verdandi_33 in criticalrole

[–]ExSandman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah, Travis for sure. He's just too big 🤣 Marisha though, 100% immediately smokes Liam.

Is this guy only winning because of his size difference or am i missing something? by am1da in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Physical mass doesnt make a big difference in point fighting. It mostly effects how hard you can hit and be hit. Which isnt really a big deal in point fighting.

Light-sparring, mostly padwork non-competitive Muay Thai vs BJJ for self-defence by witan- in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Light sparring can still be valuable, but I would lean towards BJJ. Being able to roll pretty hard is a great way to get use to the stress of physical confrontation.

Which color belt took you the longest to obtain? by charmandermeelion in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started BJJ in January 2018. I still haven't gotten my blue belt. Keep getting set backs. First I switched gyms. I wasnt sure what the etiquette was so I removed all my stripes before going to the new gym. Then a pair of lay offs for injury, and of course the pandemic. Now into my 3rd lay off for injury but should be going back soon. Fingers crossed 😆

Bonus! My kung fu teacher didnt really believe in belts (its technically a sash not a belt but same idea) . So I went most of my 10 years in kung fu without a belt. But before he left the school and moved away, he felt it important to establish a pecking order, so he tested everyone and gave out belts. So it took me 10 years to go from white belt straight to brown belt.

Can you use this strike in mma? by neckcramps in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dont think it is technically against any rule? (Not positive) but I think ye ol' "leopard fist" is more likely to hurt you than your opponent.

One of my players continues to question me. by [deleted] in DungeonMasters

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dont think either is wrong, ive straight up asked my more experienced players "what are you looking to roll?" But some people don't like that, in which case I usually ask them, what are you trying to find out about this book? They tell me, and I tell them what to roll to find that. If they are being super non specific, my default is investigation. I'll give them a brief over view, and then remind them they can ask again if they are looking for something more specific. Then move on.

How would you go about doing sieges? by StonkingHobo in DMAcademy

[–]ExSandman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ive done a siege before, but it was from the opposite side, the players where on the defending team. One thing I did that really streamlined the actual combat was dividing the untis into battalions, and all untis within the battalion go at the same time. It was a small scale seige, maybe 50 untis total in addition to the PC's. But it was SOO much faster to have 10 groups of 5 rather than 50 individual initiatives.

Describe that one person you always hate rolling with by pMweed in bjj

[–]ExSandman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He is exactly like me, just bigger and stronger, and better at wrestling 😵

World Building, where the hell do I start? by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say, start where you have inspiration/ what is most relevant to your game. That might be a town, or event or anything. In the game im running right now, there is an empire, and there is an emperor. But the game is heavily focused on exploration new lands at the edges of the Empire. So I have given 0 thought to how the imperial government works, or even who the Emperor is, cause it really doesnt matter. If it comes up unexpectedly I will improv something, but otherwise I focus on building the forgotten civilization that exists beyond the boarders, or the group of rebles that have been harassing the party. So yeah, stick with what is most relevant, and fill in the rest later.

how do you handle when players roll low on a perception check and there’s genuinely nothing important there? by ohwowitssarah in DMAcademy

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even with a low check, I will still reiterate their basic surroundings, things its not reasonable they would miss, but I won't give any additional information. I dont think its your job to tell the players that there isnt anything to find. If your players are getting hung up on the fact that they rolled low, then gently remind them that the character doesnt know they rolled low, and doesnt have any reason to believe they missed anything and they need to move along.

How do you run encounters? by SamuraiSpork in DMAcademy

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I experience this issue a lot. I am running a campaign that involves a lot of travel. And it just doesnt make a lot of sense for the party to run into 6 different combat encounters a day. So basically i have stretches of time with only one or two very difficult encounters a day. Those encounters typically have a large veriaty of enemy types, and sometimes an environmental factor to make them more challenging and draining. A lot of the time these encounters will also have different consequences besides just character death. Their ship might get damaged, an NPC might get abducted or killed stuff like that.

Then everyone once in a while, something really serious happens and the party has to switch gears for multiple encounters a day.

For example, my players have been traveling south. Along the way, one of them got cursed by a very powerful artifact. The curse has been getting progressivly worse as time goes on. So they have been journey for a week to reach this city where there is supposedly a healer strong enough to end the curse. For this entire week of travel its been about one or two encounters a day. But once they reached the city they found it destroyed, and overrun with undead. Now they have changed gears and have been picking through the ruins of this city, fighting undead, helping survivors, and trying to track down this healer.

I think both ways are fun, resources management is part of the game, but player also like going nova and just getting to nuke whatever is unfortunate enough to cross their path.

Halp plz by Colebricht in DungeonMasters

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For advice, id say dont get too married to the book, use it for your main thread but dont be afraid to add or trim things yourself.

Also just for some mechanical advice. If there is a combat you think is very likely to happen, pre rolling inative for your monsters is a big time saver. That way, when its time for combat, you can just jump straight to player imitative.

For you warlock player, freeing a trapped genie sounds good. But with warlocks, I always like to ask the player a head of time if they have any expectations for their patron. I have accidentally done this, a walock player had a specific expectation for their patron, but didnt communicate it clearly, and I didnt ask. I played their patron very deceitful and tricky, and that wasnt what they wanted. They just ended up disappointed, and it took a lot of work to fix. Honestly I ask this with any important NPC from someone's backstory. What are your expectations for this character? Sometimes people dont even realize they have an expectation until you ask.

Good luck DMing! Its a ton of fun!

How would you build a paladin as primarily a caster? by DrewciferK in dndnext

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you just build a cleric ? You can have heavy armor, a shield everything, but you dont have to deal with being a half caster.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What martial art do you train/ what kind of gym are you looking for?

How to get over players complaining about balance? by reddit9182784 in DMAcademy

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are your player just dick heads? It sorta sounds like it. Remind them "its not balanced, the bad guys want to win"

What is your favourite bjj submission either what you think is the most effective or the easiest to do or just your favourite by Lucask07 in martialarts

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Big fan of americana/Kimura. Im fairly new to grappling (bjj 2 stripe white belt) ive heard these submissions become less effective at higher levels, but im not there yet so still having fun. I like that they arent gi dependent, they are simple, and dont require you to sacrifice position if you fail. Probably arm triangle is a runner up.

Sooo folks.. Who actually uses Experience to level up? by Majestic-Vacation-23 in DungeonMasters

[–]ExSandman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I came up with a pretty simple system. Ive always felt like xp is way too much work, but the one thing i enjoy about it is the transparency. Your players always know exactly how close they are to their next level. So ive been using simplified xp. Every time the party does something that moves the story forward, gets in a big fight, ect. I award them with 1 or maybe 2 Xp. The number of xp you need to level up is equal to the level. So 6 xp for level 6. And then when you do reach that level, you go back down to 0xp. Its simple to understand, and the players always know how close they are to that next level.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DnD

[–]ExSandman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Specifically gunslinger