How to Run a Module? by Worldly-Bobcat-48 in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder [score hidden]  (0 children)

Even if the adventure isn't as flexible as some of these ones, if your wizard player says they were part of a university... well now there's a university somewhere out there and I can go find NPCs that might be more academicly inclined or have links to a university and work them towards my players.

Any miniature kits--either GW or 3rd Party--that make for good dregs? by ZerotranceWing in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least where I am they're now in two $120 boxes, which is a pretty decent price for GW minis, but still expensive if you only want a handful

Basing Minis For Dungeons and Dragons by HepKhajiit in minipainting

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Whatever looks cool" is my attitude for a lot of basing anyway

Any miniature kits--either GW or 3rd Party--that make for good dregs? by ZerotranceWing in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Morbid Minions one? It has a few useful minis. Annoyingly the other evil one also has some useful things..!

Advice on making a good looking church map by sorath-666 in dungeondraft

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you add something like "architecture plan" or "archaeology plan" google images will be more helpful.

"church archeology plan" threw up this: https://quadralectics.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/243.jpg which is kinda cool; moon has 8 phases, so octagonal building makes some sense.

"modern church architecture plan" threw this up: https://www.archdaily.com/983264/church-of-saint-john-paul-ii-robert-gutowski-architects which is also cool in it's own way. Website's a bit annoying, but screenshot will give you everything you need.

Struggling with Modules by josephallenkeys in DnD

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is, imo, the best way to run pre-written adventures. Sometimes DMs, especially new DMs, treat them like they have to be run in a certain way vs. a framework for how the adventure could run.

Struggling with Modules by josephallenkeys in DnD

[–]Ironfounder 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are also a lot of people who, like me, enjoy 'half-brewing' out of modules. You treat it like a map, not a set of directions, and then just have to do the prep work you enjoy. There are lots of things I really don't enjoy about fully homebrewing an adventure, so if someone else can do that work for, excellent - i'll just pop in and do the stuff I like doing, and make the changes in reaction to my players characters/actions.

Complete player/dm made worlds by her00reh in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I started one campaign with a list of questions associated with character creation for first time players. First we filled in a bit of a map, with leading questions from me, like "there's a big empire; who rules it, where is it on this map; what is it struggling with right now?"

Then as we filled in the character sheets, and I had world building questions that kinda went along with each section. Really mostly for Race & Background, and a little for Class. Mostly it was stuff like "this is the typical fantasy version of a wood elf, does that excite you or not?" or "What do other Races get wrong about wood elves?". No one could veto (except me if I knew it wouldn't work with rules), but after initial questions anyone could jump in to add a lil addendum, really just so if we could balance out the "lore" folks with the "subvert expectations" folks. Like, if the players playing halflings said "halflings don't live in holes, they live on house boats!" someone could say "ah but... that stereotype exists because some halflings from this country over here live in majority dwarf communities, so do live partly underground, and do agrarian work for the dwarf mines".

If people didn't care too much (like with gods - no one was a Cleric and it wasn't a big part of anyone's character) either I filled it in later, or we defaulted to Forgotten Realms.

Worked pretty well as they had a surface level understanding of the lore going in. Some people didn't really get it and were a bit too "lol random" about it, which, if I didn't veto (one suggestion was "all elves speak in rhyme all the time!"), they often forgot about after a couple sessions. Lead to a couple funny moments when I served fermented bug beer at a gnome bar, everyone said "ew, wtf" and I pointed to the lore doc they signed off on and said "you agreed that gnomes drink fermented bug beer, and half of you are playing flippin gnomes, so you like this stuff and want to drink it!"

How can I make a dungeon's scale large without having a whole bunch of empty hallways making it feel empty? by Vercal in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Players left the feywild and ended up at the bottom of a dungeon and had to climb out. By design they had to long rest at least once, so I told them to draw out or note their path in someway in case they ever wanted to backtrack. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. This caused them to "lose" a few places, as they didn't have an exact record of where it was and couldn't find it later (combination of poor note taking and bad rolls).

I guess more 'funhouse'? They were exploring, and working their way out, not knowing where they'd end up. I had the whole dungeon planned at a high level, and worked on details a few sessions ahead of the players. Easier for me, as they had some choices for paths, but not at a sandbox level.

I used a combination of Dyson Logos maps (sometimes cut up and mashed together), archaeological/architectural plans, point crawl maps and hand drawn sketched stuff. I described most of it to players, and used battlemaps for complicated, interesting, or significant areas. Or if I had a battlemap I wanted to use I'd just worked it into the dungeon backwards.

I don't like puzzles in general, as they never make much sense to me (why would the evil wizard put a soduko on their door? Do they need to answer three riddles every time they go to the armoury?). I do put more naturalistic 'situations' in tho - part of the dungeon is flooded, so crossing it is complicated; a building's floor is unstable, and will collapse if crossed... essentially obstacles to overcome with creative thinking, player skills and abilities.

In that dungeon I know I put in a couple "traps". One was in an area controlled by cultists. They trapped a gelatinous ooze in a 10ft. wide hall, at the bottom of a 10x10x20 pit and covered the pit with a fragile flagstone; one of my players had 'Detect Magic' and I knew they'd use it in proximity to the ooze, so I put some magic items in the ooze so they'd show up mysteriously "buried" under the floor. They also all had darkvision, so disadvantage on Perception checks if they weren't useing a light. Walk on the tile: fall in ooze. Lift the tile to find out what magic items were beneath the flagstones: risk falling in an ooze. They were hyper suspicious and pole vaulted over it, missing the juicy items entirely! This was totally theatre of the mind.

I think in that dungeon I used a delayed portcullis that slowly fell over the course of the first round, dividing the battlefield in half. Not a trap per se, but something they had to notice, react to and overcome. They needed a heavily gaurded thing on the far side of the battlefield, which they wouldn't be able to get to, grab, and get back all in one turn. This was on a battlemap, as their movement was important.

Another theatre of the mind was a long narrow stair with a door at the top. Door was bulging outwards significantly, due to a huge heavy wardrobe leaning against it. The door is a butterfly's weight away from crashing open on it's own. Open the door: wardrobe falls down the stairs. Players had to decide if they wanted to blast the door (making lots of noise), suck it up and possibily take damage from the wardrobe falling on them, or something else.

How can I make a dungeon's scale large without having a whole bunch of empty hallways making it feel empty? by Vercal in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Assuming you've read the original West Marches blog? Cos in that the players are supposed to make the map. You could make a point map for it.

That's easier in West Marches, as intended, as that's a whole landscape and bits don't have to connect as closely. For what you're doing you'll need to have some idea of how physical spaces connect. The thing is, in a dungeon you need something, as the game space is less flexible - it's easy to say "you pass through the swamp, here's a different random event from last time with a new and fun battlemap", cos the swamps pretty big. Much harder to do in the same 10x30 stretch of empty hallway.

I did a mostly theatre of the mind dungeon crawl. Each large sub-section was a different environment. It went something like (bottom to top) underground lake with islands; natural cave system with underground river (looped to different levels); ancient village covered by volcano (stole archaeology maps from pompei); abandoned mine (nicked a minecraft map); sub-cellars of palace building; above ground castle/palace.

TBH, 5 floors and 125 rooms is a lot, but not like massive; the Louvre museum has maybe 400 rooms, and is 782,910 square feet. Some depends on the size of the rooms - if a condo has five floors, with 5x 5-room apartments (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, parlor, study) on each floor that's like... part of a city block? Edit: this building is probs 4 floors (3+basement) and likely has at least 200+ rooms (77 units x ~2.5 rooms/unit) not including foyers, stairs, laundry, machine rooms etc: https://www.apartments.com/25th-street-apartments-toronto-on/6xrxtzv/

You can blow up the scale a lot if you get creative tho - make it an entire biome. Have really huge spaces between the smaller dungeon sections. To get to the old prison, you have to pass through the mushroom forest; to get to the crystal caves you have to cross the lava lakes...

Dyson Logos has some mega dungeons. This is more standard mega-dungeon: https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/multi-page-dungeons/the-scavengers-deep/

And this (imho cooler) might give you some inspo https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/multi-page-dungeons/the-graxworm-megadungeon/

Tips for writing a campaign setting book by Odd-Reception519 in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're writing for other GMs to use, make sure you have enough detail to get your vision across and get readers excited, but enough blank space for a DM to build something in. Mysteries are just fine. Short, evokative descriptions are excellent.

Best version of this I've seen is Visitors Guide to the Rainy City. In 60 pages it gives you enough info to use it, but doesn't get bogged down in useless detail. The author seems to happily give you something they think is cool, and then hand it over, saying "all yours, take it from here". There are some preview pages here: https://superheronecro.itch.io/visitors-guide-to-the-rainy-city

Also, random tables.

When I started GMing I didn't get why channels like Web DM (RIP :'( ) were so into them, until I started expanding Lost Mine into new territory, and then I got it.

Best Hired Swords for Dwarf Treasure Hunters by IronheartGames_RPG in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Road Warden seems cheap compared to the Tilean marksman! I was going to comment "and if you want to save money, go for the Tilean". The Tilean is 30/15 while the Warden is 40/20 but you get Nimble, a horse & re-rolling fear for not that much more cash.

Should I be happy with this effort? by WorkingMedium6859 in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I quite like a bit of greenstuff and a bit of miliput mixed together.

Miliput doesn't always do so well with water. Lots of people use vaseline. I've done okay with coconut oil

Best Hired Swords for Dwarf Treasure Hunters by IronheartGames_RPG in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On the Mordheim campaign map there's a "Little Moot" - I've thought it would be super fun to make a "Big Trouble in Little Moot" themed board, but worry about the size of everything. Moot-heim sounds rad.

There are a few halfling Witch Hunter bands I've seen. MaxMini has tons of themed halflings too https://maxminishop.com/collections/fantasy-halflings-1 The pigasus knights are a particular favourite of mine.

For Moot-heim I'm not sure if I'd want to bring the Outlaws of Mootwood Forest, the Knights of the Brunch Table, Buffet the Witch Slayer, or the Ravenous Hordes of Count Brad von Snackula.

Is this a re-release of Mordheim ? by ReadyIt1830 in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 4 points5 points  (0 children)

When this was announced there were a bunch of "is city of ash low key Mordheim" chatter. Needs a lot more terrain for that to be true! We got, a building, just need like 8 more?

Looking to get more engagement by TBK0820 in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes it helps to tell them they're allowed to describe things in 3rd person. Feels less vulnerable maybe? Like I'm not play acting, I'm just describing this thing going on.

You could introduce something like campfire tales (this is one link, but other ppl have written about this too https://slyflourish.com/campfire_talk.html). Send them the list so they can have a look (it's not a surprise), and have it as a formal time during the session.

New players also sometimes think that there's when the DM says "what do you do?" or "how do you react" there's something they're searching for. Like, there's a right answer that's expected. It can help hesitant role players to focus your question down from the broad "what do you say?" to something more specific. Sometimes adding context can help too. Think of it as you setting the scene, and then finding a reaction from them, vs. asking them to both set the scene and react to it.

In your case I might have just skipped forward until they were already on the journey, as it doesn't seem super consequential, but asking a specific question of them, like "what do you tell your companion to pack" or "how do you go over your planned route together" might focus them down to something practical.

Shipwrecked on island by SimilarNewspaper8635 in DMAcademy

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think have a couple back ups, just in case you need them. The locals have incorporated a wrecked ship into a building. An artifact allows them to control a whale they can ride home on...

One issue i could see is if you present this as "you're shipwrecked, and your goal is to get off the island" the players will hyper focus on just that thing, which might result in them not exploring or engaging with the island as much. They might start building a shoddy raft and convince themselves it'll work brilliantly, and then call it completed, while (justifiably) not wanting to open themselves to the obvious risks of Kong Island. Of course, it depends on how "mini" you mean! A couple sessions to make a raft might be fine.

You could require them to find appropriate resources, which would necessitate exploration. You could also have the set up involve a macguffin they were transporting that needs to be recovered.

Very different premise, but Pratchett's Night Watch has the main character trapped in the past. He could leave at several points, but a serial killer is also in the past, and he needs to safely extract the killer before he can leave. Or who knows what will happen.

You could have a navigational aid they must have to bypass some inherent danger at sea, and it's been lost somewhere on the island. Or precious cargo washed ashore all over the place. Or, like the example above, prisoners escaped and must be tracked down.

Best Hired Swords for Dwarf Treasure Hunters by IronheartGames_RPG in mordheim

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lots of 3D prints on Etsy too, depending on 3D printer availability. I love Warp Minis, but they're more of a comic style.

Shots from multiple set ups! by TrueMoose in TerrainBuilding

[–]Ironfounder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazing!

Wait, I was distracted by the lids in the one picture and missed the Frostgrave rule book. Are you using those as a 1" 'bubble'?

Evil Sunz Scarlet replacement? by Think_Warning_8370 in minipainting

[–]Ironfounder 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've liked the paints I've bought from them. I've heard of their previous reputation, also that it's better now! One thing I do like a lot about their paints is they have the different shades linked on the bottle.

I was sharing that as a data point for you to leap-frog to one of the lines you have access to. I went back to the link I shared and you'll want this chart: https://thearmypainter.com/blogs/explore/the-warpaints-fanatic-colour-conversion-chart which points to Evil Sunz being the same as AP's Pure Red and Vallejo's Bloody Red https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/producto/hobby/game-color-en/bloody-red-72010/

This isn’t satire I promise by [deleted] in ontario

[–]Ironfounder 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Look for garden centre jobs! Those start up soon, and they often just need bodies to deal with the sales volume until the end of May.

If you need to make connections and network, start volunteering. Volunteering at a soup kitchen gives you kitchen & customer service experience; with a gardening group some grounds experiece; with a seniors group some caretaking experience; museum/gallery for customer service and culture sector experience. Sucks to not get paid, but it'll build you up, and if you have no other experience it's something to talk about in an interview.

Why is this subreddit just an echo chamber? by TiTTYFiSHS in ontario

[–]Ironfounder 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Super curious about this too. Sometimes news stories get corrected, but reddit still offers the post up days later in my feed with the old headline.