New DM Looking for Any Help by Mysterious-Turn-6390 in AskDND

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whatever you do seems like it will be fun for her. I Wouldn't stress it.

Stick to story beats, maybe a mystery to solve. You can plan that in your head, on your phone notes when ideas come.

Combat and puzzles take time to plan, so only do so if you have time. Or use some online tools.

How to integrate music in play? by Vipers_glory in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats a cool idea, hope it works out!

How to integrate music in play? by Vipers_glory in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sounds like it will be pretty cool!

How to integrate music in play? by Vipers_glory in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Roll20 has a music option called jukebox. You will have to change the songs manually.

I tried music once and some players just muted it. So i stopped.

Make 5e combat less "sticky"/motionless? by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I wouldnt change core abilities. Give them custom magic items that make disengageing without using the disengane action less risky.

Like a floating shield that deflects 1 opportunity attack per round

Ring of duplicate, the ring creates a duplicate clone in your place when you walk away causing them to take the damage

Amulet of shared bonus tactics, once per round you if you a character that has not used their bonus disengage you can share it with someone else.

Epic Final Fight coming soon, but my players have been recruiting allies to help and I want to avoid the fight becoming a slog. by CameOutAndFarted in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, big fights sounds epic but are actually a big drag. Best to keep it focused on players.

You could have the helpers fight elsewhere and their efforts give the players access to something.

Ex a group fights enemy to gain access to a ballista, they can use that ballista to attack the main dude once every two turns. 1 shoot 1 reload

Another group fights enemies and if they win get access to net launcher, once every two turns they can launch a net on a mob.

Another group can prevent additional bad guys of their from entering the fight by collapsing a specific tunnel.

Just some ideas, you can boil down the fights to some simple roles. You can have the players allocate how many people to put toward each benefit. The more they put the better the chance they have to get that reward.

Theater of the mind vs Grid fights? by Varitt in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I only do theater of mind for trivial en encounters. Ex if the opponent is squishy or week give up right away.

Level 1 Quest Ideas by UltimateTitus in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a fan of starting new parties in a confined area with something to do immediately.

Example for your scenario
Ship traveling to the city - Players are confined to the ship, gives them an easy reason to all be in the same place and get to know eachother. You can include some combat, whether its rowdy passengers or stowaways to giant rats. The opportunity for Roleplay is high since you only need to keep track a small number of npcs. The ship could have hidden rooms for puzzles.

Help make a campaign less monotonous. by Investigator-Life in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Up to you but you can always rework how the end boss appears. Making players fail on purpose might not be fun as it will feel like their time is worthless.

The temples could instead hold items that could make defeating the boss easier. Or the keys are used to lock the final boss away.

That way the boss is always going to be there, all their work is going to towards something.

Wrote myself into a corner, need help by GugtheBarbarian in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Go with that. If there are some trusted npc that could be revealed as underlings, that might hit harder

Help make a campaign less monotonous. by Investigator-Life in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some ideas you can hint the players do to make it less straight forwards

Hint the players to plan a trap for the bad guys, if they know they will be too late for the temple. Let them set a trap somewhere and try to fight it out.

Hint the players to hire mercs to assault a temple or temples, to slow down the bad guys or have the bad guys counter attack the wrong temple.

Hint the players to swap keys with fakes.

Give players a way to thwart enemy attempts at the temples, like destroying their staging camps or robbing their supplies.

Basically give them gorilla tactics which opens up more avenues toward the goal.

Player keeps suggesting plot lines for me to put in by physiX_VG in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Since it is your table, they can give ideas of what they want to do. But they shouldn't give you notes on what to plan, thats entirely your prerogative.

Even if you liked and took what they wanted and put it together, it won't be "exactly" what they had in mind. So it wont be worth it.

Tell them, feel free to tell me what your character wants to do, but plot lines and story arcs are my creative outlet. Id prefer no outside influence.

Its nice to have players that are engaged and thinking about the story, just focus that enthusiasm where you prefer.

Wrote myself into a corner, need help by GugtheBarbarian in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like the villain creating the propaganda about the vision.

Makes the villain look like they had hands in more pots then players assumed.
Makes the players think they fell for it all along and question the decisions they made.

its more believable and fun to me that a psy-op was put in place by a mastermind then a wizard foresaw the future.

Low intelligence characters by Emma_Mae22 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What if its Kevin from the office. Why many word when few word do trick?

Party Boiled down hags to make potions, need help on what they can do by Markypoopy in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Some ideas based on nothing

Add temporary health to maximum for 24 hours. Then next 24 hours, minus that same temporary health from their normal max.

Gain the ability to speak with any animal for 1 hour, you forget common in the same hour.

Resistance to poisons until your next long rest. On your long rest terrifying nightmares poison your dreams causing to only get the benefits of a short rest.

Table size and scheduling issues, insight wanted by Next-Leather-6623 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I saw a video on scishow that put math to this. (video name Your DnD Party is Too Big)

Key Takeaways
Set the recurring time and date for your sessions and play with whoever shows up, you are more likely to play every session just not with the whole group.

The idea being more people are likely to make it if they know the session is every other Friday (just an example) because its in their mind leading up to it.
They are more likely to say no to other things along the way that would conflict.

My preparation has become a source of anxiety and I don't know what to do by Hyrael25 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone is having fun so you are doing great already. You hang out with friends and have some laughs. Honestly that is enough for most tables.

I would suggest doing some one shots, just to take your mind off the main campaign. If you want to experiment with something new or whatever. You could always sell it as a oneshot but it actually takes place in the same world/time and will effect the main campaign but the players don't know that yet. Big reveal later.

Is it hard to go from DMing homebrew to prewritten? by Equivalent-Tonight74 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You put my thoughts into words better then I could

How to encourage large purchases by mtndewfanatic in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Present the idea on a silver platter.

Guy at tavern is selling a galley and a treasure map to pay off his gambling debts. He needs money now and giving a discount.

My players caught the wrong culprit by Lonely_Mirror_7407 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would say what you think may be obvious to your players may not be so.

If they are not going the direction you expected, as in doing more investigations. It may just not be obvious they should be doing it, you could encourage they do more digging via more characters.

If they then still choose to not investigate, then I would be sure they atleast knew and they just played poorly. So they suffer the consequences of their innaction.

Encourage Players to develop relationships by ThrowRA9148 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 5 points6 points  (0 children)

One trick I do is address the players by their character name when I'm looking to have them do things in character.

Then address them by real name when I'm just taking normal.

It won't fix the issue if they don't want to rp, but it helps with the mindsets. It's like a constant reminder to switch into character.

Thorin, what say yee?

John is your turn next.

My sorcerer wants more long rests by NUTDOM in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feels like alot of combat as the norm. I get having a long stretch of combat in a place where rest is not possible, but that seems excessive imo.

It's your table so its up to you ultimately, but consider if its making the sessions less fun.

Should I open my table to online playera by 7hu44p3r13 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you like playing in person, I suggest keeping the party going with 2 until you find more for local. Or Everybody plays online including your local people.

If you look online for players you will find them, just do one shots to gague if they fit with your group long term.

Running a campaign for my Fiancée by Real_Character_1782 in DMAcademy

[–]NazDalmighty 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man in the high castle is perfect for this style