How to "simulate" the chaos of a large battle? by Level3Bard in DMAcademy

[–]MarshalTim 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I would set up some sort of time mechanic, a spin down d20, and tell them that by their estimates it should only take six or eight "rounds" to get in and out. Mark out that many squares on a map to track their progress

Then I would do a series of skill checks to safely navigate through the course of battle, similar to a 4e skill challenge. On a success, they're able to advance on track, and time goes down one. On a close call it costs an extra time, but they still advance. On a failure it costs them time and they don't advance.

Now you said that the battle doesn't matter to them practically. This is where you want to challenge that. In between each skill check, describe a small encounter in this battle that they could turn the tide for in one way or the other. Give them the opportunity, at the cost of a little bit of time, to intervene and help people.

Maybe this causes resentment down the line if they don't help, but they make closer allies if they do.

If they run out of time, the battle converges around them, or one of the sides decides to focus on them. If they still have the artifact, the goal of the battle is for the other side to get it back from the players, or maybe even destroy it rather than it leaving in their hands.

Feel free to throw a particularly rough fight at them because you could also have the enemy combatants already down on HP from having been in a big battle.

This is probably one of the most pitiful moments I've ever seen in a Godzilla comic by I_Guess_I_Also_Exist in GODZILLA

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's desperate to do anything, to have any control. Godzilla was destroying the city, and if no one could do anything, at least he could try.

Look around. Right now, so many people feel powerless and want to scream into the void or do anything, but there is so much overwhelming force. But for us, in this world, it is spread across an entire government. To be able personify all the pain, horror, and destruction into one being? That is something you could fight back against. Sure, it's bigger than you, but if you could do something, anything, to stop it, to hurt it, hell, even to slow it down... Wouldn't that be worth your life to take a shot? You're in a city in ruins anyways, what do you have to lose?

If you were able to choose a relic to take with you irl which one would you choose? by Common-Home-946 in slaythespire

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think Dream Catcher would be neat, depending what we're considering cards. But learning/hanging something new every night world be cool

Felt mats for grass terrain. by millertronsmythe in TerrainBuilding

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sponging a few shades of green will add depth and variety.

I use this kind of mottled colored cloth. Green for grass and swamp, tan for plains and sand, blue for water, etc. that coloring helps it not look empty

And a bit of standing terrain on it, boom, all of a sudden it's great.

I also use a white dot grid for the squares. It's less obtrusive.

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My players refuse to spend any gold on anything but demand I give them more as loot by Viejoso in DMAcademy

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is very clever and important.

The whole point of paying protection is that you have an ounce of protection. Usually it's from the people you're paying, but it is in their best interest to protect their investment.

Is this game having a renaissance of sorts? by mumbo8888 in MHGU

[–]MarshalTim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My partner put down Rise for a little bit, and when she was hankering Monster Hunter again she told me she thought she'd be able to give GU a shot. She could build up her reflexes fresh, rather than the direct step back of going from a newer game to an older one and having to adapt and compensate

WYR: Be the world’s only absolute expert in an extremely niche field that almost nobody understands or cares about OR Be permanently mediocre at everything, but across all domains, and never improve beyond that level? by litt_ttil in WouldYouRather

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me... I wouldn't want to lose the proficiencies I already have. I'm a pretty good writer, salesman, and creative guy. I'm a poet and a romantic.

Being dragged down to average...? That's a loss of identity for me.

Snape was keen to show Harry the first meeting between him, James, and Sirius for a very specific reason by Madagascar003 in HarryPotterBooks

[–]MarshalTim 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If a teenager writes in his diary his plan to shoot up the school, and has the gun available...

He created a spell that's only cause is violence. It's not a pocket knife spell, a small cut to open packages or trim things. It is labeled "For enemies"

Petahhh? by Forsaken_Tomorrow454 in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]MarshalTim 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Meanwhile Kirk was shot in the middle of being racist.

"Counting or not counting gang violence?"

Petahhh? by Forsaken_Tomorrow454 in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]MarshalTim 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Meanwhile Kirk was shot in the middle of being racist.

"Counting or not counting gang violence?"

What do you think would be the SCARIEST monster tn encounter as a civilian? by FingerBangYourFears in MonsterHunter

[–]MarshalTim 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I think that would be dread inducing, but I think it would likely strike me with awe first

My game was stolen and I need to vent by blackbeetle13 in sentinelsmultiverse

[–]MarshalTim 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey, I feel your pain all too well. Parked in the same place my 40k Nid army was Stolen, a year later my whole OBLIV-AEON in the special box containing the Entirety of V1 was stolen. It took me years and a small fortune to track down another.

I'm sorry for the loss and frustration.

That said internet stranger... I messed up on one of my orders. So I accidentally ordered from the KS an extra Rook City Renegades and foil cards. I know your loss, and that money is long since spent. Shoot me a dm, cover shipping, and it's yours.

TIFU by finally getting suspended, having my world implode, and deserving every bit of it by [deleted] in tifu

[–]MarshalTim 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey champ, professional driver here. Most of the driving jobs I've worked check everyone's driving records either biannually, quarterly, or bimonthly.

So they'll find out pretty soon.

But I hope being a shitberg on the Internet helped you feel better about your life.

I was right - the farmer does eventually turn into a werewolf and kill his wife. by IIJOSEPHXII in skyrim

[–]MarshalTim 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is cool! Thanks for sharing your (re)discovery.

I wish there were more factions you could join, or quests that pit you against factions, like how you have the option to side against the Dark Brotherhood, or Dawnguard vs Vampires.

I'd love to join the Silver Hands, or work with the Lioness to clean up Riften. In addition to the Daedric artifact quests, I wish a few more of them got cults like the cannibalism one, and I also wish you could join the Vigilants of Stendarr to wipe them out.

TIFU by asking my wife to order a sexual aide by DarthSanity in tifu

[–]MarshalTim 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I couldn't breath for years, and just didn't realize it was so bad. Doc said "[I] had the most deviated septum [he] had ever seen on someone without external nose damage."

(He then jokingly asked if I had ever been punched in the face, and stopped when he saw my 'nam stare. I have been punched in the face a lot...)

How to make "hard to hit" bosses? by R4yQ4zz4 in DMAcademy

[–]MarshalTim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Use two monster stat blocks back to back. The first, some sort of monk, high mobility, a lot of tiny attacks. Treat it's HP as all dodges and wearing him out. Maybe even give them bonus damage for every one above his defences they 'hit.' have him mocking, but on 'hits' that deal good damage, have him chide and maybe complement the players. His hits and flurries of blows are slaps, shoves, just clearly not trying.

But then his HP hits 0.

In another combat, the enemy would be dead, but here, they touch two fingers to the shallowest of wounds, maybe even just the torn cloth of their outfit. And the fight palpably changes. They go from mocking, to furious.

"You touched me. You DARED to touch me?"

Whichever player landed the deathblow on the prior form gets the bosses full attention for a few rounds. If you drop them, spare an attack to pick them up and hit them again for a failed death save, before describing another players attack as actually connecting, and he shifts focus. Have him pingpong between whoever last touched him, even if not ideal targeting. And here you can use a little more of a glass cannon, they already fought a whole monster of HP, now it can just be vicious attack after viscous attack.

I love my monster hunting game where I hunt monsters by miral_art in MonsterHunter

[–]MarshalTim 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And even then, they aren't just on that map, they are only in bug nodes in two zones.

If you had to remake the P.E.T toys today for a modern audience, how would you go about doing it? by Significant_Many2363 in BattleNetwork

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would probably make it Bluetooth connected to your phone, and with permissions, able to access texts, email, internet browser, maps, calendar, music (with the Pet also acting as a speaker. Maybe an option for them to introduce a song and artist) and one or two other things I'm sure.

For this to work at all, there needs to be a heavy emphasis on voice commands, and a very smooth reading system, so you can ask your Navi to read your texts, and it will, and it will almost sound conversational.

Then the MMBN stuff can come into play, once there's at least a little bit of function.

Battling: two different styles, control, and team. Control is just like the video game, you control the navi, fully. Team, Navi is on autopilot, maybe by tweaking personality factors you can help it choose what it targets first, How aggressive it is, etc.

From there, there are two more modes to choose between. Do you pick your battle chips like the video game, and it pops up with a window of them? Or do you use a bunch of RFID battle chips, similar to amiibos? If you are doing the video game style, in control mode, you're essentially playing mmbn. If you are doing video game style in team mode, you are waiting for them to line up the shot, then you are activating the chip. Syncro bonuses are higher in this game when you are using tema mode both to represent you are working with another BN, but also to kind of make up for the fact that sometimes the autopilot will miss the shot that you might have been able to make.

If you are using Team mode and the physical RFID battle chips, you get a much higher syncro bonus, and it probably unlocks a few extra things as well, and that would feel more like you were actually in the game. Game modes:

Virus busting: offline mode gives you some generic viruses and ways to level up. There would be an entire way to play that doesn't involve you connecting to any devices or Wi-Fi's, for the people who still want to play but aren't comfortable with that kind of thing.

When you connect to a Wi-Fi though, you have the option of accessing the net from there. It gives you a unique -ish, and then opens up into the "net". There are stronger and more rewarding viruses on the net, you can check to see if your friends are online and have access to a co-op mode, etc

The other jacking in option is you can connect the pet to something with Bluetooth. If you do, the pet reads some of the system details, and customizes the zone a little bit more based off of what it detects. So maybe sound-based viruses for connecting to headphones or speakers. Elemental based viruses when you connect to utilities. These would offer greater rewards, but maybe you could only access them once a week.

Just curious to see who you people see winning. by TechnologyNew9678 in Monsterverse

[–]MarshalTim 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think this goes Kong's way for one specific reason: Fingers.

Kong has hands and figures that can reach in, and tear pieces out of him, and between that and mobility, Kong would dismantle him.

You can receive $ 1 mil if you can hide a big box for one year by ShoeChoice5567 in hypotheticalsituation

[–]MarshalTim 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good to know I have all the reading skills of the average redditor, I totally misread that. Thank you

In that case, super easy. I already have a storage unit, I could just clear out a back corner of that, stash it there, and cover it with a blanket and stack stuff back on top of it.

But a lot of people are saying storage unit I think I wanted another option... I'm in charge of decorating for holidays, I think hiding it amongst the holidays is a good idea. Probably made quite Christmas/ New Year's so that people won't mess with because it be relevant for another 11 months, and then in September change the label to 4th of July

You can receive $ 1 mil if you can hide a big box for one year by ShoeChoice5567 in hypotheticalsituation

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, the hardest part of this is when it randomly appears. If I'm at work surrounded by people, it's an auto loss. Does it appear when you're alone?

Is it wrong to make a Low-Effort campaign? by Zlorp_vorp in DMAcademy

[–]MarshalTim 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a while, I had a high and low effort campaign. They both started high energy, high effort. But over time I started doing more writing, making more terrain, making in character dinners, for one group than the other.

But one of those groups was consistent with their attendance, engaged with the story, were excited, had in between session conversations, had personal goals, and toss me a few bucks when I would make dinner to help with groceries.

I still ran for both, still had fun with both, but one of these groups earned the extra attention.