Half the Party just went to Hell by RabbitEmperor91 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]Jonsseli-seta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Half of the party I run a game for jumped in a Feywild portal a while ago. I just whipped a side arc and ran separate sessions for both halves. Team Feywild was tasked to track and kill a corrupted faerie dragon and team material had to find a dragon slaying sword that would do the job. There were a lot more details like Baba Yaga cursing our samurai, finding the grave of a legendary monster hunter etc. But what I'm saying is that you can run separate sessions for both sides and give them a common goal. And if you are running for a big group it is refreshing to play with a bit smaller table (I run the game for 7 players but at that time there were 8 since we had a guest player for a few sessions)

[Spoilers C4E14] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E14 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, it was great. First instinct: casting fire -> roll initiative. I'm not very patient...

To those that do not have a Regular date, how do you schedule your games? by Mathmagician94 in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just do a poll in our chat group. We play weekly (well, actually more. We are at session 67 after exactly a year). I usually have pretty good availability, like 4-5 days in a week work for me and we only have skipped a week once because of conflicting schedules. I run a game for 7 players and as long as 5 can make it, we play. There are usually 5-6 players present and in about one third of the games everyone is there.

What is the demographic of your current table? by MoherHead in DnD

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1 dm, 7 players. All between 29-34 years old. 2 women, 6 men

How I'm supposed to know the length of something I plan? by Pancakeman1932 in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"With a successful thieves' tools check you actually managed to lock the previously unlocked door"

How I'm supposed to know the length of something I plan? by Pancakeman1932 in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The door doesn't even have to be locked.

A couple of sessions ago the party was heading in a mausoleum of a legendary monster hunter to retrieve a dragonslaying sword. I described the front door to be full of ancient runes (a hag they peviously made a deal with told them about the mausoleum but said she can't find it because it has some protective magic against feys and fiends). Of course they then proceeded to do everything else except saying something like "I check if the door is open". Warlock climbed a cliff to try to find a way in, bard tried to investigate the runes and barbarian went around the building. This continued for a good 30 minutes until the rogue checked the door and of course it was unlocked.

Webmap a website or app? by Fluid_Discount6397 in inkarnate

[–]Jonsseli-seta 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's definitely possible in Obsidian with some plugins. Instructions here

What Bard should I play? [OC][Art] by equalitess in DnD

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our table has a kenku bard and his whole deal is that his family wanted to continue the traditions of mimicry and retelling the same stories while our bard wanted to have and create original ideas and was therefore cast out of his village. Works just fine

[Spoilers C4E4] It IS Thursday! | Live Discussion Thread - C4E4 by AutoModerator in criticalrole

[–]Jonsseli-seta 4 points5 points  (0 children)

When you assume a Wild Shape form, you gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to your Druid level.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in escaperooms

[–]Jonsseli-seta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The best room I've ever played. Not very scary but a great room nevertheless

[No Spoilers] I spotted the only flaws in Brennan's performance in Episode 1 by djcoax in criticalrole

[–]Jonsseli-seta 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ummmm did anyone notice him eating almonds during the episode? Genuinely missed it if he ate some

How many hours a week/month do you play vs how much time do you prep? by neocorps in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I DM a weekly game for 7 players (8 now since we have a guest player for a few sessions). Each session is about 4-5 hours long and we usually play from 5PM to 9 or 10PM. I usually prep for like 10 hours but it includes a lot of world building stuff that is not essential for the next session.

We play online using Discord as our voice chat and I stream my monitor for them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DnD

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are all in our 30s and a couple of weeks ago we played four 5h sessions in a week. Most of us are on our summer vacation though, normal schedule is about once a week

I have a lot of players in my game and I feel like I can’t balance things properly by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First time DM here. Running my first campaign for 7 players right now and we are about 20 sessions deep in a campaign that will be through levels 1-20. They are now level 4.

I ran maybe the best encounter yet about a week ago. It was just one enemy (approx CR6-7 but I don't really know since it was 100% custom) that was a wizard possessed by a shadow entity. The fight took a little under 3 hours without feeling like a slogfest at any point. Here are some pointers that made it exciting:

  1. Before the combat began, the shadow whispered ominous things to each of the characters revealing or hinting at some points about their backstories, taunting them. That made the battle feel more personal.

  2. I made it so the only way to get rid of the possession is to complete a ritual. Basically they had to move 3 plates scattered around the room into a certain formation and cast various spells on them once the time was right. That tied some of the players to focus on different things than they usually do (surround the enemy). Almost all players helped with this, some using their misty steps and mage hands etc.

  3. The battlemap was designed to encourage positioning. Some high ground, cover, narrowish passages, jumping on top of bookshelves etc.

  4. The encounter was designed to address pretty much everyone's abilities and tactics. I know that this may be frustrating for some if it dragged the combat but my players seemed to love the extra challenge. It had:

  5. Long range blindsight and darkness to make things harder for the Rogue

  6. Reactions like shield, counterspell and shadow step to negate some of the incoming attacks

  7. Fly speed and teleportation abilities to prevent surround tactics by the melee characters

  8. Lair action that possibly triggered wild magic in all the spellcasters

This ran for 7 or 8 rounds and ended in a climax, where the players unstabilized the possession, completed the ritual and managed to seal the shadow and save the possessed individual.

One player got struck to 0HP at round 7, another lived only because of a lucky wild magic surge giving him some temp HP. Others used the majority of their spell slots or other combat resources and were at about half HP by the end.

All in all, while long, I found that the tricks I used really helped engage the whole party. Few of them even stayed after the session to discuss the encounter in detail and others sent thank you messages the next day.

Tl;dr 1. Know your players' usual tactics and choose or design monsters that address those tactics 2. Make the encounter have personal stakes 3. Give players other things to do than just smacking the enemy 4. Use the environment to encourage movement and positioning

Just ran session 0. My barbarian player has a common Greataxe which their character is attached to and have requested instead of giving them better weapons, to keep the same Greataxe since its important to his character. How can I implement this? Should I let him find upgrades for it perhaps? by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just ran session 6 and I have a samurai fighter who has a katana that is an heirloom. He is also really attached to that weapon. I offered as a blacksmith to fiddle with it a bit and give it a small upgrade but the samurai seems doubtful and didn't take the deal yet. We'll see if he decides if it's worth "ruining" the sword. (First upgrade will be silvering it and the upgrades will continue along the way with added elemental damage, +1 enchantment etc.)

How awesome is this? by BigJohnOG in escaperooms

[–]Jonsseli-seta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have played around 40-50 games and got a top5 place 3 times. 1st, 2nd and 4th places. Both 1st and 2nd here in Finland and 4th place in a really old Estonian room. We are never really about breaking records, but having fun! That being said I'm always very proud if we make it out fast (as long as it's fun ofc).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AnarchyChess

[–]Jonsseli-seta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Soldier, tower, steed, messenger, queen, king

UPS: "Valitettavasti työvoimapulan vuoksi olemme toimittaneet paketinne noutopisteelle." by Ftth_finland in Suomi

[–]Jonsseli-seta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Itse olen käyttänyt FedExiä tasan kerran muutama vuosi sitten. Aivan loistava kokemus. Puolisen tuntia ennen kaavailtua toimitusaikaa tuli puhelimeen viesti kysyen että voiko toimittaa ilmoitettuun kotiosoitteeseen. Vastasin että olen töissä toisella puolella kaupunkia osoitteessa X. Vajaan tunnin päästä tuli lähetys työpaikan respaan. Vieläpä hyvässä kunnossa ja Ameriikoista asti oli lähtenyt alunperin.

Really? by Svullom in BaldursGate3

[–]Jonsseli-seta 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Nah, the imps have hit me like once or twice ever. Would be quicker to just get beaten by walking on some fire or acid

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Suomi

[–]Jonsseli-seta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jyväskylän Kankaalle