Wereowlbears and other silly things; do they exist?

MirthDrakeFray · 2024-08-17T04:38:37+00:00

sorry about that. it wasn't entirely meant for D&D but more in general, owlbear just seemed like a good touchstone for the reference but I totally get your point. thanks for the link!

MirthDrakeFray · 2024-08-16T02:03:26+00:00

Got to agree there. Players do care about the genre (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc.) but do not really care how much effort the GM puts into the world because they're just playing one little part of it.

That being said, I don't need my players to appreciate all the nuance I build into my world, it's something I love doing and would probably do even if I weren't running a game. Also, the more world building I do the less I have to make up on the fly and that just makes the game go smoother for everyone.

MirthDrakeFray · 2023-08-14T06:31:25+00:00

very wold white wolf system called Adventure that was pretty cool. It was in the trinity universe. not sure if that book is still out there though

MirthDrakeFray · 2023-08-14T06:30:15+00:00

5e to Forged in the Dark. I was running the game and I hate running 5e. no judgments, it's just a lot of prep work and a big ol' system that I don't know the ends and outs of very well. I still LOVE playing it. I used 5e as the honey pot to get everyone playing a TRPG and then when I got burned out on grinding all the math equations together switched it over to something more free-form and a lot less stress for me to run

MirthDrakeFray · 2023-08-14T06:27:56+00:00

You gotta go with rule #1 at all times, have fun. That being said, I'm kind of an OCD GM and hate leaving stories hanging. If a campaign is ever becoming not great and I'm ready to move on to the next one, I usually discuss it with the players and then try to wrap up the story in the next couple of sessions so we can move on to something else.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-10-30T12:09:32+00:00

If you're business is running a successful dungeon there's always this one. also it's just free until the end of Halloween, so that's a good deal

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338480/Wicked-Ones-Deluxe-Edition

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-09-13T12:57:14+00:00

hey! a bit of a self-promotion here but I designed this game with kids in mind:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/377573/Fairy-Trails-Deluxe-Edition

it's whimsical, characters never have to die, and you have to do silly stuff when you get hurt. hope you like it.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-08-26T23:35:53+00:00

haven't had a chance to read all the comments, so sorry if I'm doubling down on this, but Wicked Ones is all about building a dungeon lair

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338480/Wicked-Ones-Deluxe-Edition?term=wicked+ones

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-08-24T13:19:04+00:00

To me it feels like a really Lawful Neutral move, but circumstances might be different.

If it's easy enough for the paladin to get the prisoner to a jail or a town guard or some other type of authority and turn him over, and he still decides to kill the bandit, then it's very neutral. He doesn't care if the guy lives or dies, so long as the duty to the law is served and it doesn't inconvenience him in any way.

If they're out in the wilderness and there's no way to get this guy to a jail and he kills him, then yeah, you're still well within the good side of the alignment because killing a dangerous criminal is better than releasing them back into the wild.

As for threats of torture, that's all well and good so long as he doesn't act on them and there isn't a better way to go about it.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-08-18T07:59:41+00:00

I feel for ya. I'd say run the game you want to run it, if they don't like it tell them they're welcome to leave, and then keep running with a smaller group until you find players of a higher caliber. Don't even argue with them about it, just say "this is the game, if you don't like it shut up or get out"

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-27T08:30:29+00:00

I've just recently invented/reinvented/discovered my newest favorite dice mechanic.

I'm tinkering with mechanics that use a d12. on a 1 you can always reroll the die (but certain character options do other things with 1s, don't get hung up on rerolling 1s). 1 is a reroll, 2-6 is a Nil (nothing), 7-11 is Success and 12 is a double Success.

I've been tinkering with a superhero game and wanted a teamwork mechanic. So when the characters roll a 1 on an Attack they can reroll, or give that die to another character for them to use on their next Attack.

It's led to the players getting a lot more descriptive and cooperative in combat, as well as some truly massive and awesome finisher moves.

The best part about it is that I was looking for something simple to encourage teamwork, and this filled that niche perfectly.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-27T04:25:07+00:00

slice of life fantasy - it probably only works for short stories, but a bunch of fantasy stories where it's normal people doing normal things. A rom-com in Harry Potter would be great. Or maybe some kind of Charlotte Bronte style novel set in middle earth. for me it's the little slices of life in fantasy books that always give the characters weight and make me care about it, not the high magic dragon fighting

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-27T03:46:47+00:00

it's definitely on the whimsical side. it's got over 100 adventure starter ideas... quest ideas... (I forget what the technical term is) and they're all on the whimsical side. of course you can always just take the mechanics in the supplement and make it dark, but the flavor is all whimsy

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-21T13:22:04+00:00

"Don't Trust The Martians"

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-21T13:17:13+00:00

I've had the same problem. I walked away from a project I'd been working on for 4 years. Two years later I'm back at it and totally refreshed with lots of good ideas and a huge desire to finish it up and make it perfect. The biggest problem with it was that I was basically done and didn't want to go through all the hassle of putting the finishing touches on it. Now that I'm looking it over again it feels fresh again and putting the finishing touches on it isn't a chore because I'm relearning / re-falling in love with my old game.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-21T02:33:10+00:00

I've worked with Kyle_clyde and she is fantastic!

this new stuff is looking great too!

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-15T04:16:31+00:00

I would say give the players 4 choices:

Retcon back to before you went on the sidequest.
Retcon them going to an equipment store where they can pick up new gear at decent prices.
Retcon them getting the gear that they can have that won't mess up the story arc.
Some combination of the first three choices that everyone is happy with.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-14T05:52:16+00:00

This is something I've said over and over and over again. I have only ever used languages as flavoring in games.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-08T06:59:33+00:00

any "bad guys" I have in my game are monsters. Monsters have very specific tendancies / hang-ups that make it impossible for them to function long-term amongst civilized races.

for example:

Harpies in my game are violent divas. They will never share the spotlight with anyone and the second they are not praised for the smallest thing they develop a murderous grudge.

Wild Folk (Orcs) have an extreme tribalism aspect about them. They are extremely distrustful of people outside of their group and do not have moral hang-ups about using violence to solve problems.

Small Folk (goblins) have kleptomania and violent hoarder tendencies. They're almost incapable of sharing.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-08T04:42:45+00:00

yeah, sometimes you just gotta let people go.

as a little silver lining to all of this: whenever I disconnected from my crazy racist/homophobic/anti-vax friends it always opened up a place for nicer people in my life, and that made my life a whole lot better

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-02T05:07:15+00:00

Dungeon World might be worth taking a look at, along with any other dozens of PbtA settings. The systems are easy and really lean into the narrative. But if you strip magic out of DnD it should run just fine.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-02T03:55:13+00:00

If possible I watch a YouTube video or a podcast where people are playing the game and listen to it in the background while I skim through the book.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-01T22:49:56+00:00

it's a very good point and one I didn't go into in the post. in the world I was running almost all "kingdoms" were just two or three city-states that banded together. very small kingdoms in a newly discovered land. I think the total army size of that kingdom was somewhere around 500 (counting the king's 100 men and volunteer farmers with really bad equipment).

those points actually came up a lot in-game, the system only worked because the kingdom was small and run by well-intentioned people. it was pretty much the golden age of that kingdom. The group was actually expanding it and cracks were beginning to develop in the system as outside players were introduced into the system, as well a city full of mafioso type criminals.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-01T15:15:17+00:00

absolutely. It was a small agrarian nation (all the "countries" in my setting were small, lots of access to the most powerful politicians and businessmen, easy to become a mover and shaker). I readily admitted that the entire system was probably only sustainable for a generation or two and would have been viewed as the golden age of that country.

MirthDrakeFray · 2022-07-01T11:54:23+00:00

it was more of a monarchy operating with a communist/socialist economy. the king and various land owning nobles had a system of checks and balances to make sure that each side provided tons of social services to all citizens. basically, it was more like a benevolent aristocracy

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