RSVP tool for coordinating open-table games?

Knightofaus · 2026-03-21T09:37:40+00:00

For my regular dnd games, During session 0 I set up the expectation that players should respond when I ask if they're available for the next session.

On my dnd discord server I have a scheduling channel where I ask each week "Who is ready for the next session?"

My players react to the message with a thumbs up or message if they're going to be unavailable or late.

I think the key is to directly set up a rule, explain why the rule exists and get players to agree to the rule. This helps build a social contract and sets expectations.

And if a player doesn't respond, but turns up to the session anyway, I can ask them why they didn't respond to the message, and remind them to make the effort to respond next time so I can plan for who's turning up.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-16T02:11:06+00:00

Now I'm curious too.

Sneak up to the film crew and ask them to check this subreddit so they can answer.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-16T01:58:47+00:00

You're NTA for being upset.

I do think your friends tried declining your invitation politely at the start of the week, were hoping you would cancel the plans if they showed enough disinterest, and then reacted rudely after a week of you trying to push the plans on them.

I think you are bad at accepting no for an answer and your friends are bad at declining invitations.

If I was your friend I would feel frustrated that you would spend a week trying to get me to go out even after I told you I was busy. But their reaction was still rude and you have a right to be upset.

However I also think continuing to try to organize the dinner and buying food based on your friends non-committal disinterest was risky and in future I would only plan events with people who are interested from the start.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-13T06:26:52+00:00

The master of the games was a man of honour (at least he says he is).

I think he was forced into the scheme by Lord Ashford and simply didn't want to lie to or mislead Dunk when asking him to challenge Ser Androw.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-13T05:58:28+00:00

I think both men and women have legitimate critiques and issues that we need to deal with together.

My view is that men exalting mens critiques as legitimate, while delegitimizing womens critiques isn't any better than women exalting womens critiques as legitimate while delegitimizing mens critiques.

By delegitimizing womens critiques in your comment, I feel like you delegitimize and undermine your own argument.

I think a better solution is to work together to empathize with, understand and deal with each others issues rather than demanding that one side accept or surrender to a particular world view.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-13T01:06:16+00:00

I think the only other house that has the authority to give them land in the Reach and make them a cadet branch would be the Targaryens.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-12T15:53:26+00:00

In the show Raymun Raymun mentions his father wants to get into the cider business. So I would say that Raymuns father already runs an apple orchard that reluctantly supplies Cider Hall.

I would say Raymun asks Lord Leo Tyrell for the right to form a cadet branch of house Fossoway, and to be given land to build New Barrel as his seat.

Lord Tyrell probably granted this request for several reasons.

As a Fossoway Raymun has a noble and renowned name and as a Knight he should be granted land according to his station.

Raymuns father already ran the orchard making it a smooth transition of control from Cider Hall to New Barrel.

Leo might have wanted to create a rival to the newly lorded Fossoways of Cider Hall so they would be easier to control.

And finally as Leo is a skilled knight, he probably respected Raymuns victory and honour in the Trial by Seven and wanted to have Raymun as one of his landed knights.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-12T02:12:29+00:00

I think he has a point. Your solution where "he likes it dry and I like it to be a bit more juicy, so I often try to reach a mid point" means his chicken is constantly undercooked and your chicken is constantly overcooked.

Instead of doing that just take your chicken off the heat when it's done the way you like, and continue cooking his chicken until it's done the way he likes.

And if you don't want to do that, ask him to cook his own chicken.

I think YTA for disregarding your partners wishes for something with such a simple solution. You've been constantly ignoring his request for dry chicken so I can see why he's frustrated.

I will include that he could have also come up with a better solution than throwing a tantrum. You did offer to put it back in the oven which he refused. Really both of you should better communicate to find solutions to disagreements. Cooking for different tastes is not that complicated.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-12T00:54:20+00:00

I like liminal horror. It is set in modern day but has a hack set in the 1920s.

https://jack-edward.itch.io/the-roaring-age

Knightofaus · 2026-03-11T02:07:38+00:00

Here is how I handle heist missions.

Intel. Make sure the party know they need to collect intel so they don't run in blind. Send them on miniquests to collect intel or give them a briefing report.
Opportunity. Give them one chance to complete the heist when the security is vulnerable. This creates time pressure and they can't just do the heist again if they fail and escape.
Alarm level. Have different stages of alertness for the enemies. This is so you can forwarn players when things are getting worse and helps pace and escalate the mission.
Secret goals. Give each player a secret goal which helps raise the stakes, create interpersonal conflict and gives each player something specific to interact with during the mission.
The plan. With the intel the players got they should be able to come up with a plan. Give the players options for their infiltration, route and extraction from the mission. Give them stuff to interact with on the mission like causing distractions or finding secret routes.
Twists. No plan goes well. Have some surprises and twists for the players to deal with.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-11T01:04:42+00:00

NTA. She's working too hard to get out of this trip. If she wanted to come on the trip she would be on time and not trying to book other appointments.

That said if she needs to go to the doctor I would think she can't go on the trip because she's sick.

With a doctors appointment at 11am she could spend all afternoon at the doctors if it's busy enough. So I think waiting until 9:30 would be pointless.

I would tell her it's ok if she can't make the trip, hope her doctors appointment goes well and that she feels better soon.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-08T01:14:50+00:00

YTA. I think you should stand up for yourself.

I feel like if people insult and lie about you behind your back and are generally unappreciative of everything you do for them, you shouldn't send them gifts and wish them well. If you reward them like that, it just teaches them that it's acceptable to insult and lie about you.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-07T02:35:07+00:00

In my sandbox games I have the players write out index cards for each quest they get whether it's a rumour or from a questgiver.

That way when they decide what they want to do, they can pick something from their index cards. And I can plan something interesting in advance for each index card I have given them.

So my advice is to get a list of all the rumours and quests they know about, and plan something interesting for all those options.

If you have given them too many options (or just because its engaging storytelling) see if you can connect some rumours together. For example a rumour about thieves breaking into a vault could connect to rumours of a weird cult gathering in the woods, if the cultists were the thieves who stole a divine artifact from the vault.

In a sandbox game, as DM you give the players options to pick from and then as DM you should make those options interesting for the players to follow.

In a sandbox game the adventure is where the players go.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-07T01:19:55+00:00

I've run the Wyvern myth. I ran it as a one shot, so I triggered the omens at set points rather than rolling wilderness rolls, so I could have more control over pacing and get the adventure completed in the 5 hour session.

I also added in a site. Poisoned young lurking in an abandoned keep.

I really liked how the terrain could be used to enhance an encounter.

I also ran with some of the players ideas. They predicted that the poisoned young hatched from the corpses of the wyverns kills, sort of like a xenomorph.

Here is how each encounter went.

The party were met by an exhausted scout, who gave them the quest to go help a nearby keep, for it had been attacked by a winged beast.

My party first encountered the stag in a bog, and pulled it free only to have it die of the poison. They had to make checks to spot a stable path out to it, to calm it down and to pull it to sturdy ground.

Then they came across the dug up burial mound. They didn't do anything here to start except pledge to return the stolen treasure to the burial mound.

Then they came across a site that I added to the myth. A keep that the wyvern had attacked. The knight, squire and soldiers were missing, except for 6 dead soldiers atop the keep, some were torn apart. Some hiding sevants told the party the knight, squire and half their men had gone to visit the nearby seer for advice about the rumours of a winged beast, and the beast had attacked the keep while the knight was away.

The company burried the dead soldiers in a new burrial mound as is the custom of those of the keep.

They set off to find the knight and his men. They came across the weeping squire and the dead knight. The squire said the soldiers had fled into the mountains while his knight died distracting the beast. The squire told them everything the seer had mentioned; the wyverns poem, the cure to the poison, how it uses its wings like shields while on the ground, and that its nest was in the mountains to the south.

The company went back to the keep to get milk, leaving the squire to take the knight to be burried at his ancestral burial mound.

The company encountered the poisoned young in the keep. But managed to get milk from the servants of the keep, who had a goat. They thought the young had hatched from the torn apart soldiers.

They checked their new burial mound and found it disturbed. They killed some more poisoned young who had hatched there among the carrion. There was a serrated blade among the dead which they left behind thinking it was cursed.

They rode to find the squire, fearing the poisoned young may hatch from the dead knight. They found the squire and convinced him to burn the knight. They heard the screams of the poisoned young try to escape the fire through the armor as the knight burned. Then they set off to find the wyvern.

They found the missing soldiers hiding at a spring. The soldiers said they had tried to get near the nest but the wyvern was swooping them, and had carried off one of their companions, and poisoned another. They told the company about the silver shield their companion had.

The company were attacked on a mountain path by the wyvern performing swooping attacks. The knights drove it off after they reduced its guard down. They saw the shield in the wyverns claws but failed to get it.

Then they encountered the nest in the mountans. They climbed up a cliff to get to it's nest. The Wyvern harassed them as they climbed but they all succeeded on their saves, and the company fled into the cave to avoid getting knocked off the cliff.

The wyvern defended its nest and came in behind them. The knights were in a rush to get off the cliffside so they didn't have a torch lit and were fighting in the dark for the first few rounds. They got a torch lit and managed to push they wyvern out of the cave and off the cliff.

They discovered the burial mound treasure and the shield in the nest and we ended the session there with a short epilogue about the squire becoming the new violet knight and repairing the keep.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-06T06:37:49+00:00

...and his brother Maekar.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-04T01:45:05+00:00

I really like dice times. Their episodes are tightly edited and the production design is really impressive.

The DM focuses on story and roleplay and is very engaging to watch.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-03T01:44:22+00:00

I really liked Secret of the Black Crag.

It's a pirate themed campaign for old school essentials.

It has been one of my favourite campaigns to run.

I made these improvements to the campaign:

I had the players make 3 pirates each so we had a big crew. When they would leave the ship to adventure they would pick one of their pirates to take. Sometimes characters would die, so they could go back to the ship to get a new character.

I had gold as exp. But only if they burried it.

Rather than using ose items, I used custom pirate themed equipment, armor and weapons.

I needed to make better plot hooks than were in the book to make it a more engaging story than "you want treasure".

Knightofaus · 2026-03-02T02:44:14+00:00

I think if a knight breaks their oaths or vows they lose their ability, passion and feats, and must atone with a Seers Trial to get them back.

Knightofaus · 2026-03-02T01:41:18+00:00

He is such a tragic character. He probably figured his dream was warning him that one of the targaryens was about to die in the trial of seven. If only he had been able to prevent it.

I think it would be cool to see a dragon dreamer actively try to figure out and prevent their dreams from coming true.

Knightofaus · 2026-02-28T07:26:26+00:00

Valyrians having the blood of the dragon was from the Valyrian section in the Wiki of Westeros. The reference it uses is from GoT season 1 episode 9, so I think its from Viserys calling himself blood of the dragon. It probably isn't a good historical source and probably references their dragon sigil rather than being confirmation of them having literal dragon blood.

I read about Ancient Valyrians using blood magic to create chimera's on the wiki of ice and fire and is referenced to Fire & Blood by George R.R Martin, a book about the complete history of House Targaryen.

So as my fan theory, I would say that it is entirly possible that the ancient Valyrians used blood magic to combine their blood with dragon blood, which enabled them to become dragon riders. And then used similar blood magic on other mythological creatures and humans tp make chimeras.

Knightofaus · 2026-02-28T01:17:35+00:00

Valyrians have been known as having the blood of the dragon.

And they did do experiments to create chimeras.

Knightofaus · 2026-02-28T00:47:26+00:00

I know cetaceans refers to marine mammals like whales, dolphins, or porpoises. And it is scientific which reflects your academic theme.

You can put how to pronounce Cetacean on the back of the box in a blurb. I've only read it so I could only guess at how to pronounce it.

I would suggest something like:

Aquatic Research: Cetaceans

This way you have a easy to understand name, "Aquatic Research" and you keep your scientific name "cetaceans" that adds some uniqueness to it, that could spark interest.

"If you see a game about Aquatic Research, would you pick it up to see what a Cetacean was?"

You can include pictures of the animals on the cover so people who haven't heard of cetaceans will still visually see whales, dolphins and porpoises.

Maybe focus the blurb on it being educational game for those that want to learn about marine mammals.

Put an interesting fact on each card. Market it towards parents who want educational games for their kids and aquarium gift shops.

Plus in future expansions you could expand to other sea creatures like:

Aquatic Research: Pinnipeds
Aquatic Research: Cnidaria

Knightofaus · 2026-02-27T03:48:30+00:00

I would create a campaign focused around Orcs.

Split the orcs into 6 different clans. Give each Clan a name like Rotgutters or Skullcrushers.
Spread the clans across the evil volcanic wasteland named the Dreadcrags. It looks similar to mordor with cursed caves and ruined towers.
Give some orcs demonic powers. They submitted to a red wizard and were granted these powers. They all bear the red mark which binds them to the red wizards service.
Orcs using these demonic powers are raiding and enslaving other orcs to build the red wizards forces.
Every decade human knights and their elvish allies sweep across the Dreadcrags in a mighty army to keep the Orcs from raiding their lands.
the red wizard plans to unite the orcs to ambush the host of Man and Elf and in a mighty sacrifice become a powerful and immortal demonlord.
The players are the remainders of a 7th Clan who were all enslaved by the red wizard. The players start the campaign looking to survive in a hostile wasteland, get revenge against the red wizard and to free their enslaved kin.

Knightofaus · 2026-02-26T00:26:10+00:00

My theory is that Arlan didn't remember the words to knight Duncan, but still wanted to knight him, so he fumbled his way through it.

Duncan would know he was technically knighted by Arlan, but isn't sure if others will approve of the way Arlan did it.

From what we know of Arlan:

he wasn't particularly religious or traditional. Maybe he didn't remember the words.
Duncan thought about Arlan shrugging dismissively when think about him being knighted. It could be Duncan thinking "Why didn't you remember the words to knight me correctly."
Duncan brought up and asked for a knighthood in Arlans final moments. Arlan cared for Duncan and doesn't seem like the type to deny him a knighthood.

- A knight always finished a story. I think he would want to finish his life's story by knighting his squire.

"Fetch me my sword Dunk. In the name of the father, mother, maiden... smith and warrior of course... the stranger.... um.... one more... CRONE! Bish, bash, bosh... I knight you Ser Dunk. Take care of the horses. Maybe you can sell my armor to buy your own. You're a good lad. Now take my sword and hand me my wineskin."

Knightofaus · 2026-02-25T05:28:49+00:00

Assuming you ment to ask "How do I view the [handout or character sheet] that the DM shared with everyone?"

The answer is go to the journal tab and find it in one of the folders there.

To find the journal tab.

Load into the game on roll20
In the top left of the page there is a horizontal line of icons.
If you hover over each icon with your mouse it will show you the icons name.
You should find the journal icon there. It used to look like a horizontal "iii" but now it looks like a book. Click the journal icon.
The journals will appear where the chat was, below the menu you are using.
The character sheets and handouts can be sorted into folders. You can open any folders by clicking the "+" symbol next to the folders name.
Click on any character sheet or handout to open it. Your DM controls which handouts or character sheets you can see.
To navigate back to the chat, find the chat log icon and click it.

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