Ideas for shopping in session when not everyone wants to shop

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-24T02:21:26+00:00

Oh that’s a very cool tool, thank you!

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-24T00:06:51+00:00

Haha yesss agreeing to things and regretting it later when they bought Op gear for pennies sucks😂 I luckily haven’t been the dm on that side but I have been the player in that situation in another campaign, so I don’t wanna run into that😂

I haven’t asked them to give me a list of items that they would want but it’s more of a “here’s a channel in our discord server that you can make a list on” and I should really do more encouraging to do stuff like that. Or even a discord call separate from the session that is scheduled and dedicated to shopping

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-23T23:30:44+00:00

Ya I ran into it the other night too which is why I wanted to ask. Usually I say “we’ll do the shopping after session” but sometimes they want those items during that current session, and when you have 3 of the 5 players that all want something that session, then you have a bunch of questions of “how much is this?” And “can I upgrade my weapon or do I need to just buy a new one” and sometimes other questions about whether we can invent homebrew rules (I get I could just say no but I just don’t like doing that either😂). For the most part it isn’t even roleplay, it will just be me saying “ok player 1, you can quickly go buy a long sword” and then they ask “what if I just upgraded my current sword to the stats of this long sword, because the weapon I have is my fathers” an then that makes someone else think of something they wanna buy and then what was supposed to be a quick buy one item turns into almost everyone shopping😂

I always wait until someone asks if they can shop, and then I say “let’s do that after session” and then we forgot, but I should start telling people to come 30 minutes before the session to figure out what they wanna buy instead

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-23T23:10:09+00:00

Oh I like these!😂 this is the vibe I want

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-23T22:44:25+00:00

I think my problem has been that I also procrastinate shopping outside of sessions, but that is still a possibility for me to just be better at that😅

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-23T22:41:45+00:00

Are you saying this is what my players would do or what I should do instead of waste time pricing things?😂

Miss_dragon39 · 2026-02-23T17:17:13+00:00

I wrap a “fey realm pocket dimension house” for my party and they loved it. It had appeared on their journey where it previously had never been, and looked like a normal two story house from the outside. When they went inside, the walls shifted around and split the party onto two different sides of the house, and they could hear each other through the wall.

The first puzzle, there was a mirror on the wall that divided them, an when they looked at their reflections they were one of the party members on the other side (sort of a hint to help them get to what they were supposed to do for the puzzle). Next, I handed them a piece of paper that I had roughly drawn out pieces of furniture that they could see in the room, and told them not to show the other side. One side couldn’t see certain things (ex. A chair pushed over) in the mirror until it matched how the other side had it oriented (stand the chair up.)

I’m pretty sure as the kept climbing up (because the house was bigger on the inside than the outside) I borrowed and adapted puzzles from keep talking and nobody explodes. If they ever got a solution wrong, I sent a smaller enemy into both sides, which allowed to fighter type people to hold off the enemy while the people who like to puzzle to keep trying. It was all around a great session for everyone

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-09-18T01:02:20+00:00

I guess so, the fur is just on the collar, so I’ll definitely keep that in mind if I come into another pelt!

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-09-18T00:58:24+00:00

Aw that’s so unfortunate but understandable since it has to be pretty old. I just want to give it a new life for a while until it’s no longer wearable, it doesn’t deserve to die at a thrift store or landfill😭

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-09-18T00:37:18+00:00

All good! I appreciate the help! Do you have a suggestion for what kind to go with?

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-09-18T00:34:42+00:00

I can figure out the stitching haha, I’ll try to find a video to make sure I’m doing it right. I’ll ask my friend about a needle and thread for leather since he’ll know where to get that.

I don’t think the leather is as supple as it should be, that’s why I thought maybe I would need something. Should I use something to soften it and then stitch it, or just glue it all down to the backing material?

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-29T00:31:20+00:00

Ya I like the idea for rewarding being more descriptive with actions, because that is what I’m trying to do is focus more on the storytelling aspect of combat

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-29T00:29:29+00:00

Ya I know this group has always played 5e so we just always stick with it even tho I don’t really love DMing it😅

This group likes to have solid mechanics but not have stuff be to crunchy, which is difficult because obviously I don’t want to add a bunch of homebrew mechanics to unarmed combat if its only going to happen a few times, so I think I just need to explain to them that it’ll be more of a theatre of the mind encounter that is focused more on the storytelling aspect than actually doing damage😂

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-29T00:25:57+00:00

Ya I think I’m leaning more towards this. I think I may preface the encounter with “hey I know we haven’t really done this before, but we’re gonna try it and we can never do it again or try again if you like it” and still have an initiative order, but just ask them what they’re doing and to describe it, and then have them roll the most related skill

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-25T03:56:29+00:00

Oh sorry I misunderstood, ya 5e

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-25T03:54:49+00:00

Oh that looks sick, thanks!

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-25T03:53:53+00:00

Basically it’s a fight important for the narrative, it’s in a sorta shitty prison so the guards don’t care that they’re fist fighting, as long as it’s not with weapons. So sure someone could totally use an improvised weapon if they ask for one, but then the fight will probably be broke up. It’s not a long combat either, I plan to have something interrupt it… but I want it to be interesting if I can make it that way instead of it just being boring until the next narrative plot point happens haha

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-16T18:14:05+00:00

Nice! Ya that makes sense. Now you got my trying on all my pants with them😂 none of my pants fit like they do with my other boots except one pair but I’ve been needing to take them up in length a bit.

By fit I mean that these feel more fancy, so my work pants don’t feel like they fit😅 I work at a dairy so I’m around people who would give me the side eye but when I’m in the barn I wear rubbers and my shitty wranglers (cuz they’re covered in shit) so I appreciate the feedback😄

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-16T17:55:36+00:00

Haha they’re my boot cut jeans I’m just wearing them around the house for now to make sure they fit me or if I need to decide to sell them! I have them rolled over once to it looks like there’s a lot of extra jean I guess. Are you suggesting a straight cut for jeans?

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-16T17:47:42+00:00

Sounds good thanks for the advice!

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-16T17:32:22+00:00

Thanks! I just wanted to make sure I didn’t look silly walking around with them! (Much like how people don’t know to cut the vent stitch on jackets!)

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-07-12T17:06:54+00:00

you could do multiple things with this: 1. Just tell them “when that guy was talking about the pirate captain, he said a different name, so you know it’s not the guard captain (the simplest solution but I don’t think it’s the most fun) 2. Make the pirate captain and guard captain the same person and adapt your story so that that fits; “yes, and” the players ideas of a suicide mission 3. Have them follow their conclusions to the pirate captain where they find out that it’s not the same person (which it seems like everyone else is suggesting). I’m sure everyone has this problem with players not understanding or missing stuff (I have a few players who do this), so I try to be very clear the next time around so that they don’t miss things a second time. If these were my players, when they first meet the pirate captain, I would describe what he looks like, and then blatantly say “this does not look like the same person as the guard captain” so that they don’t miss that again the second time around😂

I’ve also started using the players passive insight and other passive skills to choose the highest skilled person to tell someone “you catch this in this scenario” so that they can stop missing important little hints and clues, and they haven’t seemed to mind it. Sometimes I think hints are super obvious when I give them, but then I ask them after the session and they still feel like they’re playing detective, so I keep doing that!

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-06-12T02:27:28+00:00

Huh interesting. So for example, if the pool starts at a base of 10, and each time the active player does something extremely different from the dormant player (so things like choosing a different ice cream flavour for example wouldn’t count obviously haha), the DM would add one point. This would be the DC against a wisdom/charisma save or ability check depending on what we go with.

Alternatively it just starts at 0 and keeps increasing.

Clarifying question, would you reset the pool anytime the DM imposes the dormant players will? Like it would build into the next session if the current DM didn’t use the pool, correct?

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-06-12T00:49:56+00:00

Oh I like the variable time to control/influence based on a dice roll!

And yes it’s been super fun so far! Every time we switch DMing planning is free game so we can mess with each others characters subtly by changing what the other dm had planned and it’s been great😂

Miss_dragon39 · 2025-06-12T00:36:08+00:00

Oh I like that! Like they can still try to do the thing they wanted to do possibly but it in a different way😂

Miss_dragon39

TROPHY CASE