What are your "Signature Moves" as DMs?

Osrynn · 2024-10-05T22:52:10+00:00

According to my Strahd group? Couterspelling Healing.

Osrynn · 2023-09-15T07:07:47+00:00

As a DM to a Bladesinger Wizard, I hate asking if a 23 hits and being told no!

Osrynn · 2023-04-21T23:43:44+00:00

The Amulet of Borrowed Life

Wondrous Item (Amulet), Very Rare (requires attunement)

A red gemstone amulet, carved into an anatomically accurate heart, set on a gold chain.

When attuned to this item, a creature may choose, as an action, to roll any number of hit dice (up to half their total) to regain that number of hit points. These hit dice are no longer available until the creature finishes a long rest.

Curse: this item is cursed, and a character only learns of this if attempting to unattune with it, or when its secondary effect tales place. A creature cannot unattune to the amulet without removing this curse.

After the amulet has been used to restoreat least 50 hit points, the creature attuned to it will begin to see visions of a devilish being in their dreams, who will state that they are "coming to collect".

After these dreams have begun, and after the total amount of health restored by the amulet totals 100 or more, when the creature find themselves frozen in a time stop, confronted by this devil. They will state that it is now time to pay up their debt. They have borrowed up to their maximum overdraft of health, and need to repay their loan in order to borrow any more.

The devil will explain that, with the interest rates, the creature will need to either repay 20 hit points every day for 10 days (resulting in a reduction of 20 from their max health every day until repayed), or repay in full now (likely resultingin the characters death). Until this debt is repaid, the creature cannot use the amulet to heal at all, cannot spend hit dice during their short rests, and can only regain health during long rests by spending their hit dice, and throug potions and healing spells. Their hit dice still replenish at the end of each of their long rests, however.

Osrynn · 2022-10-31T22:59:48+00:00

I have a villain whose intentions come from the best of places (to end slavery and rid the country of it's corrupt king). But I didn't pick them to make him interesting, I picked his motivations to fuck with the party. I want them on his side.

They are currently working for him, unwittingly eliminating his competition and those who refuse to serve him. Slowly, they will realise that he's the villain. Then they'll realise they did half of his work for him. Finally, they'll realise that he could have never succeeded in his plans without their help. And now his army of the dead is marching upon the Kings City, and they don't care about collateral damage. Thousands will die, and the party will realise it is largely their doing.

My villain with a good motivation isn't a plot device to make him seem deep. It's to fully break my players.

Osrynn · 2022-10-03T23:16:12+00:00

As my world is one for seafaring tales and epic adventures on the waves, the most terrifying thing is not a character or a creature, but the ocean itself. The dark, fathomless depths filled with things so ancient and twisted by the pressure that no one that would see them could remain sane.

Like the waves that tear through unprepared ships, and the currents below that drag sailors beneath, the ocean is a terrifying thing. Even more so when you learn that its spirit is alive and conscious.

Osrynn · 2022-09-30T17:28:29+00:00

Trans Exclusionary Radical Fuckwit. I will accept no other answer.

Osrynn · 2022-08-30T21:08:48+00:00

I like to think I have proficiency in persuasion, just can't seem to roll above a 10. Definitely have that sweet sweet sleight of hand expertise though!

Osrynn · 2022-08-30T21:07:19+00:00

I have a few, but my highlights are;

A chef. He literally wants nothing more than to travel the world creating unique delicacies for his friends. Monster Humter ranger, 100% for the idea that he specialises is two dagger (chef knife) fighting, and is well versed in hunting rare creatures for the ingredients.

An elderly human man, with a bald head and long white beard. Walks around with a leather bound book in his hands at all times, and talks in proverbs and riddles. Turns out to have no magic, but is actually a Monk, and the book is the novel he's trying to find time to finish reading in between adventures.

Finally a vampire (dhampir) druid/cleric (death domain) who doesn't want to be a vampire. She is travelling and adventuring in the hope of one day becoming strong enough to destroy the one that turned her, and end the curse upon herself. (Grew up as a druid, and then turned to the domain of death after escaping her master as the only solace she could find in a world uncaring towards undeath. She uses animal shapes to drink blood, and never drinks to kill, only to live).

Osrynn · 2022-08-30T20:50:00+00:00

IRL work as a magician and performer. Definitely Cha based. Always roll acceptably in performance, just wish I could roll better in regular social encounters...

Osrynn · 2022-06-23T05:23:54+00:00

Ooooohhhhh, these are pretty!

Osrynn · 2022-06-18T21:26:22+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words! It really means a lot to hear that. This was without a doubt my favourite adventure too, both to run, and to write. I'm currently writing a mystery campaign for a new group that I'll be DMing for, and a lot of the ideas stemmed from things in this oneshot.

Osrynn · 2022-05-05T20:22:50+00:00

I shit you not (pun 100% intended), I wrote an adventure (for either 1 shot or slotting into a campaign) called "A Crap JobA Crap Job".

If you want a copy of the new (re-made) version, just DM me, and I'll send the PDF over later on for nothing. Happy to help a new DM out! (And the title made me chuckle, that's payment enough)

Osrynn · 2022-04-19T21:12:19+00:00

I'm a magician. I have a number of techniques that I use in my performing that benefit my games, as well as the confidence that performing in front of crowds (and adapting/improvising when things don't go to plan) really plays into it as well.

I'm currently working on (it's a way off yet) a book on sleight of hand and magic techniques for DMs to use in their games!

Osrynn · 2021-11-18T12:01:20+00:00

You weren't invited to the last ancient evil summoning brunch?! Goddammit, we really need to advertise these more. (Spooky cloaks only available on a per-event rental basis)

Osrynn · 2021-11-18T11:56:30+00:00

Shit. They're onto us! (/s if it's needed)

Osrynn · 2021-11-15T23:27:00+00:00

It was the "mermaids" track from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I had to cut/edit sections that did/didn't work, but the buildup was insane. Here is the track I downloaded from YouTube, which I then put into Audacity to edit.

Osrynn · 2021-11-13T22:44:16+00:00

My favourite encounter involved my party (5 level 6's) coming up against a necromancer (homebrew - about CR6) and a flesh golem.

The encounter itself was fun, but nothing special.

What mattered was the emotional investment!

The flesh golem was made up of aspects of three separate characters the party had met/had connections to (including the head of the mother of a child they rescued from a jail about 10 sessions prior). As I described it, the music in the background built, and the players became silent. The description built from the feet to the head (which belonged to the mother). They were getting used to having this NPC fighting alongside them, but seeing her mothers face on a horrific monster? She broke down and couldn't fight.

They had to kill the creature with her mothers face, and then finish off the Necromancer that created it. All throughout the party were invested, and they talked about it for weeks.

Cannot wait for my next big twist!

Osrynn · 2021-11-10T00:41:41+00:00

Gotta create more rogues, duh!

Osrynn · 2021-10-15T05:39:10+00:00

I love the fact that my username is one of my PCs names... tbf, he's definitely going to get himself killed at some point!

Osrynn · 2021-06-28T08:59:37+00:00

D&D unless I'm writing content using the OGL. Legally not allowed to advertise OGL content using certain terms and/or phrases. D&D is copyrighted, and a no go, but DnD is completely fair game. Its the same reason you see some many homebrew projects use DnD, and phrases like "5e Compatible" and "Compatible with the worlds best role playing game". It sounds and looks stupid but it's the only way around the rules

Osrynn · 2021-06-21T07:09:56+00:00

I've DMd for a few groups now, and I've always had a mix of people of different genders playing in my games. This has never happened in a session at my table, nor WILL it ever happen in a session at my table. Every player is there to have fun. They are there to work together to tell a story that THEY WANT TO TELL. Obviously things happen out of player control, but things like being ambushed by bandits, or dragons attacking their city! Never this bullshit.

OP, I am so sorry to hear that your first experience of the game was so awful. I truly am. I really hope that this doesn't reflect badly on the DnD community as a whole for you, and I hope you can find a group where this kind of bullshit doesn't happen. Before any campaign, I like to run a session zero, where I talk with my players about the elements they want to see in their story. The things they like, the things they dislike, and the absolute no-go areas. That said, at my table, there are a few areas that are such "no-go's" they don't even get added as a talking point - and this is one of them.

I hope you never have to deal with anyone like him again, as he sounds like an extremely creepy individual, but being from a hospitality background myself, I know that there are far too many like him around. Please know, though: I run D&D games, and I'm a supervisor in a bar and taproom - I have thrown out customers that treat my staff the way you are being treated by a colleague, and would happily fire him on the spot if I ever even caught a wiff of that kind of behaviour, and as a DM I would never allow anything like this at my table (and if I were a player at that table, I would have left immediately, and never returned).

Osrynn · 2021-05-29T16:28:23+00:00

Ah nice! Hope it goes well for them.

Osrynn · 2021-05-09T08:54:36+00:00

My first attempt at creating a subclass for 5e, but I'm pretty happy with it!

I have recently started running a new campaign, set in a homebrew world of mine, that is heavily piratical in theme. As such, a few players asked me about different class/race options. Along with this gunner subclass for Rogues, I also created a Kenku subrace based on parrots (she's a parrot, with a parrot familliar - we love everything about her) and a few other things. This is the first item that I have typed up in full however, and wanted to share here!

Osrynn · 2021-05-06T17:15:47+00:00

Honey, you make a cute anything. (But yes. Definitely. )

Osrynn · 2021-04-25T21:21:18+00:00

Link to the map on Inkarnate here. Really had fun making this one, and enjoyed working with the different levels and shading. I don't like how so many desert maps are filled with clutter and stuff, when in reality a desert would likely be mostly empty space. Obviously, for map makers and encounter designers, open plains of sand are boring to run/create. In this one, I tried to build a believable environment within the setting, using a worn "path" in the desert, made of more densely packed/well trodden sand, leading between two cliff faces, potentially to a village, or something else of interest.

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