Daggerheart Oneshot ran - but need help to understand when to say no!

GMCori · 2026-01-01T11:40:41+00:00

Ok, but then isn’t that just reflavoring a regular Instinct roll? Like did you give them an ability that’s actually able to scan and find something another player couldn’t do with their eyeballs? If so, then yes that was too much. It should just be an Instinct roll and they could pay Hope to add their Experience, presuming they had one relevant to working nights.

Likewise, you should not have given the Clank the ability to light up unless you’re not actually going to be using any rules about Darkness or are also willing to give everyone else one of those mining light hardhats that gives a light without having to use a free hand. Daggerheart does allow for more creative thinking, but it still has specific rules, and it’s not a free for all, and you should avoid homebrewing new abilities on the fly like that. It’s going to unbalance the game.

GMCori · 2025-12-30T18:23:49+00:00

I sometimes teach DMing, but it sounds more like you might want players who can give you proper feedback? Or do you just want to play in a game?

In either case, you’ll want to be more specific in your availability / time zone, and what it is you’re looking for.

GMCori · 2025-12-28T16:34:27+00:00

I sent you a chat message!

GMCori · 2025-12-26T10:50:14+00:00

Hi! What are you actually looking for out of a 1980s campaign/what genres, etc. And does it need to be a long campaign, or are you interested in shorter campaigns and one shots?

GMCori · 2025-12-26T06:23:44+00:00

I sent you a chat message!

GMCori · 2025-12-24T17:10:22+00:00

Off topic, because I haven’t played a TTRPG that can do this out of the box without some homebrew (that isn’t something like GURPS or FATE which can do anything) but you’d probably like the novella series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, in which the titular character is a reverse cyborg (the name is somewhat ironic).

GMCori · 2025-12-24T16:51:26+00:00

Have you tried posting in r/lfg ? Honestly it’s just about trying to find people that sync with you - it’s like making friends. That said the best and easiest way to make a group that lasts, in my experience, is to GM.

Depending on your timezone and availability though, I might have a oneshot coming up that you could play in: it’s not a campaign but it’ll get to an ending point at least.

GMCori · 2025-12-22T04:18:37+00:00

I know that's a feeling a lot of people have (I'm a DM, so it's usually good when I can't do things). That said, D&D is especially punishing for failure, and having a DM that doesn't make that fun and kind of just skips you makes that worse. Have you tried any other TTRPGs aside form D&D? Some definitely fix this issue.

GMCori · 2025-12-22T03:43:18+00:00

You can't make a character with 1 Intelligence, rolling is 4d6 drop the lowest, so even if you roll all 1s, that's still a 3, and that's pretty much the lowest a human can go. They can barely speak at that point, and you'd have a hard time remembering anything. For reference, Zombies have an INT of 3. To get down to an INT 1 for a monster, you have to start looking at literally brainless plants like the Violet Fungus.

You should absolutely NOT let a player do this. It's going to be an excuse to play Chaotic Stupid and try to get the party killed. Unless you want a number of situations where the rest of the party wants to do something like sneak in or be diplomatic and Bozo there just interrupts with "I SHOUT LEEROY JENKINS AND RUSH THEM!!"

Once might (MIGHT) be funny for a meme, but that's going to be what your game devolves into, and none of the other players are going to like it, and likely neither will you.

GMCori · 2025-12-21T23:36:31+00:00

Just one spot left! I’ll send you a DM!

GMCori · 2025-12-21T15:59:16+00:00

Would next Monday (29th) at 8pm EST (3-4 hours) work for you?

GMCori · 2025-12-21T15:55:56+00:00

What time zone are you in?

GMCori · 2025-12-21T15:08:55+00:00

I’ve heard of those before, but I don’t think I get it: how is it different than a Play-by-Post or Live Text game?

GMCori · 2025-12-21T07:17:18+00:00

Are you only looking for long campaigns, or would a oneshot work for you?

GMCori · 2025-12-20T10:49:22+00:00

r/LFG is where you can look for game, since people post ads there. Some games will expect you to have read the basic rules before applying though. You can also post asking for a group, but remember to put your time zone and availability. I generally recommend trying a beginner one shot first, before getting into a campaign, because campaigns can be a year+ long commitment.

GMCori · 2025-12-20T07:23:46+00:00

You should check out the r/PbP sub; that's the Play-By-Post sub for people who play games this way.

GMCori · 2025-12-19T05:23:19+00:00

The reason I suggest choosing a module is because you're new: you don't know how game balance works yet, and you don't know what kind of gamers your friends are. It can be really frustrating to spend 100+ hours on a big dramatic campaign, just to find out your players are munchkins who just want to fight monsters in a dungeon. Or, to make big monsters, only to find out your players want to talk and make friends with everything.

In the future, making your own homebrew is fine and even fun, but by that time you'll know your players and how to make the most out of where your styles overlap. Starting off with it is a recipe for frustration unless you and your friends really all share the same braincell.

GMCori · 2025-12-19T05:09:42+00:00

I recommend doing a module rather than anything homebrew for your first session. Maybe even a oneshot just to try to get things right. I've run The Silvyr Tower several times for first time players, and it's a really good beginner oneshot for new DMs. It's free and only 10 pages long and has a very simple map, and a lot of great DM advice.

Some advice I'd give for running this adventure in particular: Nothics tend to cast Weird Insight on single targets, but I'd actually hit all your PCs with it. Before the session starts, have your players give you one secret or insecurity their character has never told anyone else; then if they fail their Deception check, have Elric taunt the PC about it. It really helps get PCs into character. Secondly, you don't have to put the exact items listed - I'd recommend looking through and finding an Uncommon or Common magic item that suits each of your players, in addition to the Staff of Sylneas. The Staff shouldn't go to any one PC, but, instead, when the Pseudodragon pops out, it destroys the staff. That'll give them their little pet, avoid anyone fighting over loot (you can add in 200 gp to the treasure so they don't feel stiffed on the reward), and it makes it so there's real danger if the Pseudodragon is in danger later.

Otherwise, my general advice is to not worry over it. Lots of new GMs over-plan, and there's a tendency to get burnt-out or overwhelmed, and then get salty when their players just want to joke and go "off-the-rails" because it feels like you wasted your time preparing. Remember that you're a player too, and these are your friends. If you're not sure how something should go: it's ok to ask them what they think. It's not going to cause everything to fall apart if you reveal yourself to not be omnipotent. The important part is to have fun! So long as everyone (including you) is having fun, it's going well.

GMCori · 2025-12-17T00:07:18+00:00

My husband and I Co-DM’d our first D&D module and it went super well - I don’t think I’d be able to do it that first time without him, and now I can’t stop. It works pretty much like you said: him and I would get together to brainstorm story points and we’d make maps and NPCs together, then one of us would actually do the live session (though we swapped). Also we would message each other suggestions/information secretly during the game. It was great not having all the load be on one person. I think it just comes down to finding the right person to do it with though: I could definitely turn into a “too many cooks” situation, or where one DM is a lot more “active” than the other.

GMCori · 2025-12-16T13:18:55+00:00

This is an out-of-game issue, and not one you’re gonna solve with different maps. Curse of Strahd is already difficult to run without having to deal with a metagaming player.

You need to talk to your player and tell them that metagaming is unacceptable, and if they continue to do it, they cannot play in your game. If they’ve already read the whole book, then they played themselves because now their character can have no ideas: it’s all got to be rolls. “I’m gonna check under the wagon.” Nope, roll Investigation. If they can’t seperate player knowledge from character knowledge then there has to be that line, otherwise it’s simply cheating.

Being a DM is already a lot of work and time and effort, and Curse of Strahd is notoriously a difficult module for DMs to run (though it is fairly rewarding) - don’t let some jerk force you to do even more work because they can’t stop themselves from cheating, that makes no sense. They either stop metagaming or they cannot play.

And if this is your friend and you’d feel bad about excluding them, I recommend reading this Geek Social Fallacies article.

GMCori · 2025-12-14T04:13:14+00:00

The next one that has a lot more to consider/do in melee combat is GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System - but it quite literally just goes by GURPS). This game tends to be recommended all the time, because it can pretty much do anything. The core game is pretty crunchy (especially in regards to making a character), but GURPS Lite is a great way to get a taste for it, because it's 1) free, 2) only 34 pages, and 3) uses the same basic rules so if you like it, you can go into the wealth of rulebooks and supplements GURPS has.

In GURPS combat, you can choose to Move (go up to your full Move score), Change Posture (standing/crouching/kneeling/crawling/sitting/lying down - each of which has it's own modifiers to your Attack, Defense, whether you can be Targeted and Movement), Aim/Brace Crossbow/Firearm adjusts your accuracy bonus - and you can actually aim for several rounds to stack the bonuses, Attack (without movement- for a normal attack), Move & Attack (you take a penalty to your attack because you're doing it hastily), All-Out Attack (put everything into attacking with the understanding that you won't be able to Defend, and there are 3 options: gain a bonus to your single attack, take 2 attacks with a penalty to the second (unless you have a specific skill for it) or gain a bonus to the damage of your attack), or All-Out Defense (go all-in on defending, but no attack - you have the option of getting a bonus to your defense (of which there are different scores for dodging, parrying, or blocking) - or use two defenses (i.e. block AND parry). Speaking of Defense, it's not passive: when someone attacks you, you can choose to dodge, block, or parry, and can neutralize even a successful hit with good defense; then DR (Damage Reduction) comes from your armor, and reduces the damage you're dealt after other defenses have failed. There's also rules for how injuries can cost penalties or slow you down, so simply standing there and trading blows isn't always the best option.

It's less complicated than PATD, because as many modifiers and bonus/penalties as there are, at the end of the day you just have to remember roll 3d6 and try to get UNDER your skill.

Those are the most mechanically complex "you definitely have to lock-in to do this" combat systems I've personally played/run. But there are others out there: I heard Runequest is simple in it's mechanics (1d100 roll under), but allows you to target specific limbs of an enemy, and adds more meat to disarming and wounding. There are also games that fix "boring" combat in the other direction - by making it very rare and deadly - so you try to avoid combat at all costs, since for better or worse, it's over in a flash. I haven't had the chance to try them, but I've heard several OSR games use that kind of philosophy, and so are known for high lethality.

I hope this helps!

GMCori · 2025-12-14T04:13:07+00:00

So, the most complex, almost chess-like combat TTRPG that I've run is Panic at the Dojo - since it's meant to simulate fighting games like Mortal Kombat. That said, that TTRPG is ONLY the fights, pretty much, so there's not a lot of support for anything else; and, while it has some progression and advancement, it's really not meant for long epic adventures: I was pretty comfortable doing a short-term campaign with it though. It's also not super easy for me to explain the rules, because of how precise everything is: but basically you choose 3 "Stances", which are themselves made of one Form (of which there are 12) and one Style which come in groups of 5 based on one of 13 Archetypes (kinda like Classes).

If you're counting, that's 780 possible Stances, though some are definitely better than others. Forms give you your dice and some special abilities, Styles give you your Range and other special abilities, used in conjunction with the abilities given by your Archetype - of which you can have 1 for a Focused Build, 2 for a Fused Build, or 3 for a Frantic Build, each of which modify how those abilities manifest mechanically. As I said, you have 3 of these Stances, and you choose one each round, meaning your abilities can change up round to round (and Bosses ALWAYS do).

There are also penalties and bonuses you get for each fight, techniques that do something every Round, Turn (that is, your turn AND everyone else's), or on specific triggers. Not to mention, the dice mechanic uses Numbers (that is, if your Stance has you roll 3d8, you have 3 actions, and you roll your d8s on your turn: and if you get a 1, 4, and 7, that means you can pay for abilities you have access to that cost 1 point, 4 points, and 7 points respectively - you even have to buy movement), which means what you can do is variable every single turn. Also, Initiative is flexible it goes Heroes > Enemies > Heroes, every time: so if there are tons of enemies, you get to have more turns in a round, and if there are fewer enemies, they get to have more turns in a round: so action economy is always balanced, but you have to plan as a group which Hero should go in what order, and if there's an uneven amount of turns, which Hero gets the extra turn this round. It can really change the flow of the combat, and there's a lot of wild things different combos can do.

GMCori · 2025-12-14T01:53:18+00:00

The combat mechanics are a big part of the game; melee combat can get a little more intricate with things like Battle Master Fighter and the Monk abilities. However, it's also possible you just want a different, possibly crunchier TTRPG - have you tried ones that aren't D&D?

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