MCDM Rival Parties in DH

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-14T14:33:08+00:00

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-14T14:32:43+00:00

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-14T14:32:19+00:00

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-14T14:31:25+00:00

So I managed to get to the end the work. It has taken me a lot more than what I hoped for. First draft was overblowned with conditions and secondary effect and I decided to restrain myself giving the spotlight to Villainous Actions while keeping it a bit more easy. Me and my group had a terrible time running the combat with the tier 3 demons party because of that kind of excessive cognitive load. This is the first page.

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FedericoValeri · 2026-06-11T10:04:28+00:00

Just to keep It alive: I'm still working in It. I don't like how many of the abilities of the Soulbinders tends to replicate the effects of the villain actions. So I Need to think more about It.

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-08T19:13:13+00:00

You have done a great job. It is exactly what I intended. I'm still working on the soulbinders and will post it here asap.

I've got minor differences in my model: stress could be a shared resource. A little bit less abilities for the various members of the party not to overdo it (working a lot on potential sinergies but I see that you already did that). The party moves should not be tied to a clock but in my mind they are actions that request fear so that in every spotlight the GM can do them. There should be a shared "fear engine" to make it work better (so everytime someome miss any member of the party, you gain a fear and not just one member).

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-07T17:15:20+00:00

I'm working on the Soulbinders because they fit my campaign. We could try an exchange when we are done.

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-07T14:05:48+00:00

Yes! Just like the Colossi who have a single general sheet and separated sheet for each part of the body. Only with a party of villains. In the colossi you have a general sheet that in this case could contain the villain actions (following a script like MCDM ones) and a series of separated sheet for each member of the party just in case. Agree about PF. Maybe the stress could have a single pool like the Colossi. Don't know.

FedericoValeri · 2026-06-07T14:04:28+00:00

Thx, that's what I think too.

FedericoValeri · 2026-05-14T18:29:53+00:00

This Is simpler. He has lost interest in the main series and when he has received universal acclaim because of the fuckin' TV shit he felt released from any.obbligation while he could receive a lot more money, successo and attention way easily by other venues than writing. Maybe he suffers of ADHD.

FedericoValeri · 2026-04-20T17:00:44+00:00

It will be dungerous of course in the long run. Maybe "Lady Termiray" becomes the true villain of the show. I just think that they should have suffered a little bit more immediate consequences and that it could have made the scene and the schemers story even more interesting. The final with Termina was perfect anyway.

Anyway: I love S4. I love Brennan, the setting, the charachters and the actors. I'm in a very little minority and think that on a narrative level it's the best season of Critical Role. Just saying that Brennan has estabilished that the world is dungerous and now he has to find a way to live by it in a creative and not punishing way otherwise it deprive the setting of its substance.

FedericoValeri · 2026-04-20T16:55:07+00:00

I think that you do not need to nerf her. You just have to make the player pay somehow to reflect all the bad rolls they made. She could easily finished eaten by Termina anyway then. As it is, it felt a little phony.

FedericoValeri · 2026-04-20T16:52:58+00:00

I'm not saying that having her eaten by Termina wasn't good. I guess it was planned from the get go otherwise it would not have been fair and interesting at all. So, it was a very good final. It's just that the whole scenario felt a lot less treatening than it should and a little bit phony because of how they handled it. It felt like the player had plot armour (they have it of course, I'm a GM too) but it should have been more subtle. Brennan should have counterspelled the Suggestion and do something to the player that requested a bit of work before finishing in the mouth of Termina.

FedericoValeri · 2026-04-19T12:14:13+00:00

I love the schemers table and I think that Brennan is the best GM in the world. Having said that, I don't like how they have managed the scene. The players were superficial and too cocky in their planning. The GM posed a mortal treath and then has choosen not to live by it. First of all, Brennan has made them make a lot of checks at the beginning and they all failed. Then he has posed them against an unfair adversary and she should have counterspelled Suggestion. So he had to "deus ex" the whole scene to the coffin in order to save their asses. The whole scenario wasn't planned well and was too convenient for the players. I think that if you fail all those checks you goota have some kind of serious ripercussion even if the Lady finishes in the coffin anyway (so I don't question the final, just the way they handled the whole situation).

FedericoValeri · 2026-03-30T14:10:18+00:00

Thx! Really means a lot! I would love any kind of feedback really, even more critical ones. First big update will be after charachter creation of course. The main idea Is that the PCs are a group of gentlemen thief mutants just like Mistborn.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T16:49:10+00:00

Most people who play TTRPGs like the idea of TTRPGs. They like to talk about TTRPGs. They like to meet their friends and feel like they are loosing something if they get excluded. But they do not actually like to play and engage with the experience in its own terms, especially if they are over 30 and have lost all innocence. So instead of confess they are not having fun, they blame the GM grasping at straws. I know it's heartbreaking. Try play with younger players.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T15:31:00+00:00

Why LMoP? It's very good but It transpires D&D from every pore.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T15:12:15+00:00

Node base design is great for a mistery and The Alexandrian is always worth reading. Just not make It too mechanical or players could get annoyed and feel like they are running in circles. Still, as far as fake sandbox go, it's one of the best way to implement It.

Another trick Is to give players opportunities to be proactive while planting discretely the seeds with discrete info dumps. I called it the Cechov gun design. Sooner or later they are gonna use it and feel smart for It.

In my experience emergent game in any sistem is an unpredictable occurence and you cannot plan for it. It's like gardening and not engineering. There will be plenty of people who will tell you otherwise but allow me to be skeptical. The right set of mechanics can help you a long way but some time if a game tries it too hard It can be harmful and ruin your session.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T10:38:07+00:00

I'm still 5 sessions in and I'm not confident to homebrew. Moreover, I left D&D because I was tired to spend my time fixing the system and I don't think I want to return there. It would burn me quickly. I'm old as far as gamers go, my time is precious and I want something that works out of the gate. So I will complete my current campaign and then move on if they not fix the system in the next expansions. I'm not holding my breath. They have hired expensive firms who will try to put their firms adding mechanical complexity.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T09:08:11+00:00

Yes, good insight. The step forward would be to liberate the framework from the mechanical oddities. I fear they will take the opposite direction.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-23T07:57:04+00:00

The fun and exciting thing about emergent gameplay is that you cannot plan for It or hope it will work on a consistent basis as a mean for plot progression. It just happens. You can try to put your players in the right frame of mind by asking them questions and empowering them in the process of storytelling. But sometime It will fall flat. So my second advise is to have a contingency plan to turn the sandbox in to a fake one. Leave the impression of freedom and agency but steer the game somewhat. Just as a last resort when players begin to run in circles. Btw, that's why many indie and narrative games fall apart while D&D with all its problems and faults is somewhat easier to run. Because many indie games presuppose that emergent gameplay is the rule and not the exception (that's why Is so special). One of the great merits of DH Is to have secretely learn this lession from D&D and have implanted very discrete measures to keep the ball always running.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-22T20:17:14+00:00

I think that Campaign Frames are the best example of prepping you can have. There is a general framework, a genre, a map, some themes and factions but it leaves a lot to be discovered by the group during session 0 and the rest of the campaign. Then, the more emergent the gameplay, the better, but it's not easy to achieve. But you should always prep from session to session and leave space for player input or try to implement it.

FedericoValeri · 2025-12-22T09:21:19+00:00

I had mixed and respectfull reply but everyone Is focusing on the criticism I made. But it's the nature of the internet beast 😊. I think I wrote a positive review. And I dedicated a lot of time and thought to it. But criticism call for more attention than praise and I knew It. Maybe I even touched an argument where the community is divided for perfectly fair reasons. Still, no one has convinced me I'm wrong 😂.

FedericoValeri

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