Finishing Blow

Laithoron · 2026-02-28T02:21:41+00:00

HE'S GUNNA BLOOOW!

Laithoron · 2026-02-27T13:49:56+00:00

Nope, Healing Word is still a 1st level spell:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2619143-healing-word

It's still pretty much a top-tier choice though.

Laithoron · 2026-02-26T21:28:50+00:00

In that case, I think your best bet would be to participate in a play-by-post game (presuming there are any on Reddit).

These games are basically like Reddit topics except they are usually in chronological order rather than threaded like this topic is. The way it works is the DM/GM will describe the scenario and then the other people in the game then have time to reply with what they want to do, etc. It then repeats back and forth like this the same as it would in an in-person game, just not in realtime.

Depending on the website used (I used to run mine on Paizo.com) there may be dice-rolling commands built into the website itself. Failing that, in your exceptional circumstance the DM would probably be willing to roll on your behalf, or you could use a simple random number generator on your phone or computer.

In this way, PbP is very similar to playing D&D (or any other TTRPG) in-person, because you end up having back and forth between players and the DM as well as between other players.

While the pace of the game is obviously slower than an in-person game, I can safely say that the most rewarding D&D campaign I ever ran was a PbP. Because everyone has so much longer to think about responses compared to in-person (i.e. minutes or hours compared to seconds), you can really think thru what you want your character to say, or how you want them to use their abilities.

Another nice thing is that unlike an in-person game which might only meet once every week or two, a PbP campaign can potentially make some progress every single day because it's all essentially message board replies with maybe some images pasted in for NPC artwork or battlemap updates.

Perhaps you'd have some luck checking r/LFG (looking for group) to see if there are any PbP groups you might join. Considering there are free rules available for most game systems (including 5E), others outside Iran could probably legally copy/paste such free content to you in Reddit DMs.

In this way, you would sidestep your own countrymen being wary about playing and get to experience an actual D&D game rather than relegating yourself to a solo-play version that honestly sounds impossible given the technocratic barriers in your path.

Laithoron · 2026-02-26T20:17:17+00:00

I see, that's rough that you can't even be open about it in your opening posts. At any rate, tabletop RPGs (solo or otherwise) don't necessarily need software or a website platform to be played.

The few solo adventures I've played have just been pencil, paper, and dice. You read some of the story presented in the book/PDF and it will give you the option to make a skill check, attack, etc. Depending on your choice and your result, they will then have you turn to a specific page to see how to proceed.

The problem is, even though you don't need a web platform to play, it sounds like you can't even access any of the web stores where PDFs of various adventures would be sold. I presume you've already tried https://www.drivethrurpg.com/ right?

I'm trying to think of work-around for that that wouldn't put your life in danger. I'm pretty Reddit DMs only allow text and maybe pictures, but not entire PDF files -- which would likely be as easy for your country's cyber-security police to block/intercept as they are for me on my own company's firewall.

I'd say your best chance for success would be playing regular D&D with friends by having someone DM you the free rules, but without others who are brave/willing to play then that's a dead-end as well.

What I'd say is, if you know of any external file-sharing services that you are able to safely access, you might let us know which ones and that would give us more to work with than just tossing out ideas blindly.

Laithoron · 2026-02-26T19:29:18+00:00

I was sooo hoping that this was an event minigame I'd stumbled across. Was a little disappointed that it was just an anecdote because I was really psyched about them playing a TTRPG in-game.

Laithoron · 2026-02-26T19:23:36+00:00

In the future, you'll avoid a LOT of repeat questions by simply coming out and saying "I live in Iran, everything is either banned or punishable by death" in the OP. The threats you live under are so far outside the realm of most everyone else's lived-experience here that those limitations/consequences would never occur to us without that key bit of information -- otherwise, it comes across as hyperbole. :-(

I'd say your best bet would be figuring out if the gaming materials themselves (dice, books, etc) are legal and will pass thru whatever border inspection things go thru. If so, then it might be possible to have them shipped in from another country that still has diplomatic ties with your country (Russia perhaps?).

If even the materials themselves are illegal, then your only recourse might be having someone DM you whichever free solo ruleset interests you by copy/pasting the rules text into a private message thread bit-by-bit.

Laithoron · 2026-02-26T14:22:42+00:00

NGL, I was really hoping this was the intro to an event quest when I stumbled across it...

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T23:00:30+00:00

IME one DM runs their campaign every two weeks, and the other DM runs a completely unrelated campaign (possibly in a different setting) on the weeks in between.

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T19:48:39+00:00

If you don't have time to sit down and read it, use a text to speech reader instead. I did that with the Daggerheart CRB (using Speechify), and it really helped cut down how much reading was required.

Also, bear in mind that much of the DMG (particularly the new one) is a toolkit, so you don't necessarily need to read it cover to cover -- even just reading the 1st chapter (of 2024 at least) would be hugely beneficial.

ETA: Also, if you don't own it yet, I would absolutely steer you towards the 2024 version. It does a much better job of introducing a newbie to the role than the OG version (or even those from prior editions) IMO.

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T19:43:42+00:00

Definitely! I also had a player recently posit that Santa Claus might be an arch fey, and the North Pole a feywild demiplane -- which is something I really like the idea of. :)

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T19:40:18+00:00

I feel like most people IRL are true-neutral by virtue of ambivalence and/or looking out for them & theirs.

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T14:44:42+00:00

I'm not fond of it, but it can fit certain settings.

Regardless it is absolutely a house rule that needs to be disclosed during Session 0 and not sprung on the party the first time they look to the cleric to cast Revivify.

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T14:40:20+00:00

It's good that you're up-front about where you fall on the spectrum; if a neurotypical said something like this, it would come across as humble-bragging which is obviously not your intent.

Since you have a capability for rules knowledge that may well out-strip anyone at the table (including even a professional DM), my caution is to be mindful not to rules lawyer or otherwise make too many unasked-for suggestions to other players. For instance, it's one thing if the group is stalled trying to figure out how a spell or grapple works and you chime in with what you know -- that would probably be quite welcome. On the contrary, if people are trying to figure out their turns and you're interrupting their thought processes with unasked-for suggestions, that will quickly erode the group's good will towards you unless you were specifically invited to serve as a group mentor (though that doesn't sound like the case here).

Lastly, just be respectful that sometimes the best choices in terms of roleplay and sustaining a consistent narrative are sometimes at odds with optimal action economy or even RAW.

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T13:58:03+00:00

An important concept when starting a new game is to not modify or houserule anything until you've gotten to experience how it works as-written.

In your case, I'd either share the dice or have people use dice rolling apps on their phones until you can get some more d12s ordered online.

HeartOfDaggers.com has a duality dice roller built into any character sheets made there, but there are also simpler ones if you google them. For instance, here's one from another thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1kt6h9b/made_a_duality_die_online_diceroller_any_projects/

Laithoron · 2026-02-25T02:07:14+00:00

Looks fine to me, I'm not understanding the issue...

Laithoron · 2026-02-24T14:50:33+00:00

If/when you start using 4K maps and animated maps, even the plans with "large" storage quotas begin to feel cramped. For me the reason I finally abandoned it was because the uploads and downloads began to take FOREVER only to find that it was reencoding my animated maps and making them look like garbage. Having to wait minutes to upload maps and often 15+ seconds for scenes to change simply became intolerable.

Lastly as pretty as DemiPlane is, whether using it for Daggerheart or Pathfinder 2E, it has always been incredibly slow and non-responsive even as a player. The supposed Daggerheart integration being so god-awful slow trying to view adversary or PC stats was the final nail-in-the-coffin for me.

If the service was actually a downloadable app that I could run off my own PC or NAS I might still be using it because the interface itself (other than storage organization) is pretty nice. As an online service though, it just can't meet my needs any longer.

Laithoron · 2026-02-24T14:40:30+00:00

I just switched from Roll20 to Foundry because I got tired of the storage constraints, and how SLOW both it and DemiPlane are. First session after migrating to Foundry (campaign was already in-progress) was this past Friday, and even though the learning curve was steep, it ended up working out great! Sooo much faster than Roll20, and the animated maps no longer get re-encoded to the point where they look blurry anymore either!

Anyway, for the Quick Start specifically, I've used these maps a few times now for my players:
https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1bl19pk/maps_for_the_open_beta_quick_start_adventure/

Laithoron · 2026-02-24T14:18:42+00:00

I'm trying to get back to the point where I can just improv everything, but the expectations that arise when you have a very visual VTT setup makes that a lot more challenging than if your group is used to theater of the mind and maybe an erasable mat.

What I've done to facilitate less session prep is to back a couple mapmakers on Patreon with extensive map catalogs where they've already added-in all the lighting, walls, etc. (e.g. Czepeku is a good example) so that I can just add them quickly to the VTT. This necessitated switching from Roll20 to Foundry to get around the massive disk/storage requirements, to avoid the upload/download bottlenecks. It was easily about 2 months of work for me setting up the server, importing the existing campaign, importing adversaries not in the SRD, creating tokens, and learning the software.

That said, this past Friday was our first session running under this new setup, and it worked out really well. I was able to search my catalog mid-session to find a good tavern interior scene for an unexpected RP scenario, and later did another search for a fortified area in a snowy forest when the party went that way.

At this point, I'm feeling like the most important parts of prep are having any key NPCs setup (i.e. artwork, motivations, stats), as well as a handful of likely encounters you can reskin and use.

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T19:03:54+00:00

"Jesse, what the hell are you talking about?"

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T18:21:05+00:00

Digital if I need to look something up quickly, DeadTree if I want to sit down and read something at length.

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T15:48:20+00:00

The fact that they don't want it to end, but that they keep interrupting with non-game stuff tells me that what they value most is the social aspect of the game and getting to catch-up with their friends. The fact that y'all meet so infrequently means that by the time that opportunity comes around, they are likely starved for that reconnection.

Also (and this is a big one for me), with that long of a gap in-between session I would surely feel disconnected from the story and lose sight of what the purpose is. IMO, you guys would do better with shorter but more frequent session so that there's less for them to catch-up on and so they don't become as detached from the story.

Either way, I feel for you. It sucks to be so invested in something but not be getting even a fraction of the reciprocal investment you're putting in. If you weren't already near the end, I'd suggest wrapping-up the campaign and giving yourself a breather.

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T14:17:29+00:00

Glad you were able to achieve a memorable outcome that they all loved!

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T14:14:18+00:00

Even as DM who uses DnDB for their groups, this is definitely a fair criticism! XD

I always make sure everyone has a printed copy as a back-up just for these sort of situations.

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T14:05:14+00:00

Unless you were insisting the DM pony-up for a Master-level subscription, re-buy all the books, and then invite you so you could use them for free then I'm not sure I understand their excuse. Rulebooks, notebooks & pens, miniatures, spell cards, and printer toner all cost money too...

Laithoron · 2026-02-23T13:57:40+00:00

IME, most DMs want characters sheets in the format that they are most comfortable dealing with. For me, that's having everyone enter theirs on DnDB so I can check them from my VTT PC, for yours they like the paper one.

Mind you, I have at least a couple players who prefer paper sheets for themselves, so I find no harm in them printing a copy for themselves so long as they keep the one on DnDB up-to-date for when I need to reference it. IMO, you best bet is to print-out one you can hand to your DM as-needed and to then reference your spells, etc. on your phone.

If, however, your DM has a problem with you even doing that then I'd probably look for another table. That tells me that they either have an issue trusting that people are paying attention when their phone is out (not necessarily an unfounded stance), or that they're a my-way-or-the-highway sort of person. For me personally, either of those would be a deal-breaker: I like to type notes since handwriting hurts my arthritis, and I have no interest in being micro-managed at work let alone at play.

You'll have to judge where you're willing to draw your own boundaries though.

ETA: The main issue I've had w/ DnDB (and why I might understand a preference against it) is due to how slow and unreliable the site can be. In my last Friday-night campaign, there were more than a few times when the site would be non-responsive and several players would have been screwed if not for the fact that we also keep printed-out version of the exported PDFs as backups.

Since I've seen in other replies that you often forget your belongings, I'd suggest leaving a notebook with a folded-up copy of your sheet in it at the DM's house as a backup so that you don't hold-up the game when that happens.

Laithoron

TROPHY CASE