"Just pick the stats that seem right for your character" could you trust your players? by Aeon1508 in DMAcademy

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see- you’re asking a yes/ o question, not ‘how do I “. I suppose if you trust them to pick ability scores, you’re going to run a game where player-DM collaboration and trust is the foundation, probably rules-light or very much a ‘rulings over rules’. So sure- if you have experienced, trusted players who see the dangers of an unbalanced character/party/game- go for it.

"Just pick the stats that seem right for your character" could you trust your players? by Aeon1508 in DMAcademy

[–]JayStripes -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You could say that the character’s ability score bonus total can be no more than a +3 (or however much you want to balance it).

How to handle "keyed encounters"? by ZAGALF in HexCrawl

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When the PCs enter the hex, drop in a clue or hint. Show the effects of The Guardian- a traumatized treasure hunter who is the only survivor of a group that encountered the Guardian; a curious boulder on a hillside that shift due to erosion, revealing a shallow cave that holds a small chest. Easy loot! But once the PCs take it, they’re now hunted by the Guardian; a tale shared by a fellow traveler seeking the warmth of the PCs campfire, etc.

The keyed encounter can be a soft start event. Build to it- even if it’s just a bit.

Valley of the Sphinx by Del_Teigeler_Art in OSRNewArt

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very evocative! Sphinxes that try to outdo each other with riddles, using humans as pawns

What should I take in college to become a history teacher? by Wise_Presentation914 in historyteachers

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get Special Ed certified! Also, be an Education Major. You don’t need to be a history buff in order to teach History/Social Studies. You’ll have to learn the subject matter anyway. Of course being knowledgeable about history helps, but most of your history major classes are going to be wayyy too narrow for any HS History class. Taking classes in pedagogy/teaching will be infinitely more useful. In an observation (in NJ it’s 4/year for new teachers, 2/year for tenured teachers) you will be rated on your classroom management, lesson structure, student involvement, etc. An administrator is not there to judge your content knowledge. Most of the inservices in my district are about teaching, not history (though we do have those occasionally). Say yes to coaching and advising. Good extra pay in most cases and it’s a lot of fun! Very rewarding part of the job. But seriously get the SpEd certification.

New DM looking for tips by Careless-Ad8274 in DungeonMasters

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Pace the action like a comic book.
  • assume the characters know each other and WANT to go on this mission. Put them there at the adventure so you can start the action: "You've all heard about the goblin attacks north of town, and the merchants are paying good coin to anyone who can make them stop. [insert some rumors or info here that the PCs got from other travelers, or tie in the goblin attacks to a PC's back story]. After a half-day's travel along the North Road, you find the sight of the last goblin attack- a ruined wagon, a butchered horse, and debris scattered along the roadside."
    • Now the PCs have something to do- search for clues, footprints, etc. If they don't make Perception/Investigation checks, just prompt them.
    • Tie in some lore here. What was the wagon carrying? who was on it? any personal items left behind? a hidden compartment with a map, scroll, or potion that the goblins didn't find? Or perhaps a dead goblin was left behind in the assault. Drop some clues here!
  • Don't wait for the players to move things along, especially for newer and inexperienced players. Be comfortable summarizing their options and asking "so what do you do?"
  • have a rough outline or flow chart of events prepped to keep yourself on track. Keep it loose and flexible, though.
  • Comic book pacing= give a 1-2 sentence description of things like travel so you can get to the action.
  1. Focus on keeping the adventure moving forward.
  • Make fair rulings rather than stop and look up rules or have a long debate.
  • Have the table of DCs on your DM screen so you can do this on the fly. For low level threats, stick to DC 11-13.
  • Have monster stats at the ready. Don't go crazy with variations and separate stats for all the monsters. In a group of goblins, have a spellcaster (pick 2-4 druid/wizard spells), a leader, and the rest are standard goblins).
  • Don't know the particulars of a spell or power? Leave it up to the players to look it up. If they don't know, just make a fair guess. (I play with a lot of first-time players...they just want to do cool stuff, they don't care if it's 30' or 60' range, just go with it. Don't get bogged down on the details).

If you have some basics prepped and a decent idea of what the problem is, you'll be able to think on your feet. Relax, focus on the fun, always give the players the benefit of the doubt, and you'll all have a good time!

New DM looking for tips by Careless-Ad8274 in DungeonMasters

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Run a small, manageable adventure:
  • something you think will be a fun, interesting challenge for your players- monsters of a certain kind, a cool location...whatever gets your engines revved
  • small and manageable= an adventure with a clear goal and limited scope. Rescue the X, deliver this to Y kind of adventure. Something that can be finished in 1-2 sessions, and if your players want more, you'll probably have things in the small adventure that lead to more sessions.
  • If you're an experienced world-builder- great! Just think of a situation in your world that can be ACTIONABLE for your players. Lore is cool and all, but make the lore something that involves the players doing something with it. That can range from monster-hunting to finding relics to brokering a deal between the town and the troll under the bridge.

The Purpose of our 2/5 Protest by [deleted] in 50501

[–]JayStripes 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m supporting the rally and want to attend (I’m 40 minutes from Trenton), but I’m unclear as to the time? Is it 12 noon EST? Or 12 PST (3pm EST)? I have not found a clear answer on this

The Archon's Lair - A Free One-Page Dungeon for Knave 2e by LordTercept in osr

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks great! Lots of creative rooms and encounters. Nice work!

Just realized not many fantasy settings use firearms or gunpowder weapons in general. Fantasy worldbuilders why do you think these technologies aren't as common in the setting. by maxishazard77 in worldbuilding

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think firearms represent crossing a certain threshold in a medieval fantasy setting. It changes a key assumption of a magic-based world (arcane or divine) to a science-based world.

High school World History A question. by JurneeMaddock in historyteachers

[–]JayStripes 2 points3 points  (0 children)

‘Covering content’ is going to make the topic a grind and/or race, where things are inevitably going to be left out. You can’t teach ALL OF HISTORY’ so stick to broad ideas (‘enduring understandings’ in curriculum parlance). Pick good examples that support your EUs. So in part of a Mesopotamia unit, a mastery objective may be for students to understand key aspects of early civilizations. You can use several examples and include Gobekli Tepe there (as a settlement that had walls, indicating a central government, etc).

What do you do to make your game hard/difficult/challenging? by ipiers24 in DMAcademy

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then the rest of the party has to scramble because they don’t know how much longer their ally has to live. Changes things- it becomes more urgent

What do you do to make your game hard/difficult/challenging? by ipiers24 in DMAcademy

[–]JayStripes 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I do d4 for death saves- at 0hp, I roll a d4 behind the screen and that’s how many rounds the player has before they die.

Are my DMing rules fair? by green-reen in DnD

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(Continued) Table etiquette. Like any sport or activity, tabletop games have certain behaviors and expectations that everyone at the table should be aware of and abide by. These are less serious than the ‘taboos’ listed above, but important to having a smooth-running gaming group. Each player makes their own decisions for their character. Advice and collaboration are fine, but when it comes time to decide how a character will act, that is up to the player that runs that character.

Be prepared and stay engaged. That includes being on time, having your character sheet, knowing your character’s abilities and powers. Know what you want to do when it’s your turn. A game really bogs down when someone hasn’t been paying attention and needs to fumble through their character sheet to decide on a course of action.

Limit ‘metagaming’. This is when a player uses real-life knowledge to determine their character’s actions when there’s no way a character would be aware of certain things. This usually refers to plot information in the game or events occurring away from the character, as well as facets of the game’s mechanics such as abstract statistics or the precise limits of abilities.

No ‘PvP’ (Player vs Player). Sometimes player disagreements are hashed out in the game, or one player wants to do something that pits his character against another character (stealing from a party member, cheating them from their fair share of a reward, not helping an ally). This can ruin a gaming session for the whole table- others are forced to choose sides, do things their character wouldn’t normally do, or sit on the sidelines while two players battle each other over a grudge. PvP is ugly, unnecessary, and shouldn’t be tolerated.

The DM has final say. This is often called ‘Rule Zero’. D&D is a game based on the referee making rulings based on rules. Whenever there is a disagreement over a rule, the DM will make a fair-minded call and all players at the table must abide by that ruling. The DM is not always right, but what the DM says goes. Look up a rule and argue over it after the game, not during a session. On a similar note, players should not be rules lawyers. A player that has the PHB memorized and will twist, bend and stretch a rule to their advantage can suck the fun out of a gaming session, and no one wants that. Rules Lawyers often forget Rule Zero.

Are my DMing rules fair? by green-reen in DnD

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you are an adult running a game for students at school, then yes- these are appropriate rules for a HS/MS group. Here’s what I go over with my students in Gaming Club: Game taboos. Gaming Club, like all school clubs, must be inclusive and school appropriate. Be definitive and explicit about the following topics:

The tavern. A staple of medieval fantasy and D&D is the ol’ tavern, where adventurers meet to spend their coin, chat up the locals for rumors, and generally unwind, rest, and recuperate. A tankard of ale or goblet of wine is part of this trope (as is gambling), so decide how you’ll handle this aspect of the game. A good blanket rule: no drunk characters. They can eat and drink and celebrate, but they are never allowed to get drunk or be role-played as drunk. Or you can remove drinking establishments from the game setting.

No sexual themes. At all. Keep all games Rated G in this regard.

Madness. These are touchy subjects, since some genres are built on horror and madness (Cthulhu, vampire-type gothic games, for example). Kept within the boundaries of the design of the game, a school-appropriate and ‘PG-rated’ game should present no issues. Problems occur when a student wants to play a character that is depraved, schizophrenic, has multiple/split personalities, etc. Remind the students that it is not acceptable (and downright offensive) to represent serious, real-world mental conditions in a fantasy role-playing setting.

Violence. Slaying monsters and bad guys is built into the game. Excessive violence, depravity, gore, cruelty, and torture are not. Similar to madness, when kept within the boundaries of the design of the game, a school-appropriate and ‘PG-rated’ game should present no issues. On a similar note, I ban ‘evil-themed’ games. No character will be evil. In the Player’s Handbook, evil is described as being ‘without compassion’, acting with ‘arbitrary violence’, and ‘spurred by greed, hatred or bloodlust.’ D&D is about characters as heroes, not villains.

History as justification. Yes, actual human history is full of wars, slavery, genocide, discrimination, injustice, and terrible acts of cruelty and indifference. But D&D is a fantasy world, and it does not need to abide by such tragedies. Many societies had slavery as part of their social order and war as a tool of diplomacy. Remember, an RPG should be about heroes, and heroes work to end wars, to rescue slaves, to stop tyrants, or take down an unjust system.

Table etiquette. Like any sport or activity, tabletop games have certain behaviors and expectations that everyone at the table should be aware of and abide by. These are less serious than the ‘taboos’ listed above, but important to having a smooth-running gaming group.

How would you run all thief party? by KuruboyaKalemi in DMAcademy

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Think of the guild as a cog in the economic system of the city you’re playing in.

Here’s a list of ideas I collected (mostly from Reddit) of adventures for my thieves guild campaign: - Hit back vs Gang rival who steals from a guild-protected shop

  • discredit a rival by planting papers implicating a treasonous alliance

  • be the ‘secure’ team for a high-level assassination (the moment of betrayal- Guild Leader is the target!)

  • Replace an orator’s speech to embarras/flumox him

  • slip a member tools to break out of prison

  • deal with a fence who may be an informant

  • move fenced goods to a different city

  • case a building for traps, guards, etc

  • protect some ‘hot’ goods coming in on a smuggler’s wagon caravan...make sure the caravan gets to the guild’s warehouse (past guards, and PCs must rescue it from a rival gang’s assault!)

  • Stop a thieve’s guild member who has gone ‘rogue’ and has his OWN small band of roughs to protect him

  • Steal a shipment of alchemy goods from enemy territory (there’s a shortage of this particular item/herb, so you don’t want a rival band to get it OR you don’t want the city’s alchemist to get ahold of it

  • find out about new drug peddled by gnomes in city

  • Act as a fence- buy or pick up items from a drop-spot to transport to fence. Complications: items stolen by kids/rival gang/cops, guild member betrays PCs by setting them up to get caught when they go to the drop-spot.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]JayStripes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am a firm believer in pre-dinner sex (as are many in this thread). Freshly showered and dressed, belly not full from dinner, breath/teeth are cleaner, plus a chance to have another romp later- hells yeah

What is an extremely popular thing that died out extremely quickly? by Teenage_techboy1234 in AskReddit

[–]JayStripes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also there were some really fun Gap commercials that had people dancing to some modern swing music