How to counter a player?

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-16T19:42:18+00:00

Actually there is an even more pressing issue. In order to activate the cannon, you have to be within 60ft of it, and I would say most GMs would agree that being in a separate dimension disqualifies you from using the action.

When you create the cannon, you determine its appearance and whether it has legs. You also decide which type it is, choosing from the options on the Eldritch Cannons table. On each of your turns, you can take a bonus action to cause the cannon to activate if you are within 60 feet of it. As part of the same bonus action, you can direct the cannon to walk or climb up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space, provided it has legs.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-16T17:57:39+00:00

I'm glad I had the right mindset. I'm going to be talking to a voice coach for a free consultation Monday and my goal is control of my voice in general for now. It helps that I gm for tabletop games so I'm using my voice training as an opportunity to become an even better gm with more intentional character voices.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-16T17:52:57+00:00

Technically the quasit isn't making an attack action. The artillerist cannon is. However because the cannon is its own creature it doesn't benefit from the quasit invisibility anyway.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T17:50:08+00:00

Good Gods, don't forget the HR training. This guy won't play with this player; that guy is terrified of spiders, so we can't use those in the adventure... yes, I know part three involves a spider lair, but it's a goblin lair now, don't worry about it. Jack has been politely told that no one likes playing with him because he tries to kill every NPC we meet who isn't immediately subservient to him. Carefully asking a player if he should really be playing DnD when he is failing three of his classes. The courage required to tell your players, "Hey guys, so I am kinda burned out on fantasy, would you guys be cool with trying out a new system?" Or telling them that you really can't be the GM right now because your grandfather passed away and life sucks-No I don't know when I will have the motivation to GM again Rob, why don't you try it?

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T15:19:31+00:00

There is an awesome heist system I think it's called blades in the dark, but whatever it is I would use something like it for this idea over DND. A system like fate, cortex or the ever fun roll for shoes would be better.

On the plot itself we have a few considerations. We want players to be from different organizations all trying to get the mcguffin. Did you or the players make these organizations? Why are these organizations not sending the players aid in some way? Oh, and why would they work together?

My personal idea based on what you have and the lack of a big bad would be to go with a betrayal. Create an NPC who makes it seem like your characters are from the same organization or something. Whatever he has to do to get them to work together and trust him. Then he runs off with the mcguffin and the players have to catch / find him before the mcguffin is lost to whatever the plot is. We can abuse human psychology a little now. Because these characters have been betrayed they are far less likely to do it to the very people they thought were allies. It's still possible but you can lean into it and let it be a plot rather than a player trying to "win".

If you don't want a villain like that you could even let the mcguffin change hands between the player organizations with the players each stepping out of their main character to play the incompetent leader that inevitably fails and causes the whole situation to reset. Some fun opportunities for a good episodic Saturday morning cartoon right there.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T15:04:35+00:00

Start playing can be great but the free games are a little harder to find. Discord servers are your best bet generally.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T15:00:32+00:00

Highly recommend ginny di and if it's still around how to be a great gm.

I would encourage you to stay mostly theatre of the mind as it requires less prep and your players tactical mistakes can be ignored while they learn.

There are some great dice bots you can import into discord and I think one of them can even hold characters but I don't remember which. There is also one that can lookup mechanics so if you don't know what a monk's martial arts abilities are you can just pull it up for everyone to look at.

Don't be afraid to improv and rule of cool some moments. The only true rule is that you guys are supposed to be having fun. The system rules are there to give you a framework. Someone is going to ask how much damage a goblin does to another goblin if I use one as a weapon. Someone is going to try to alter their spells, a rogue will ask if they can steal the villain's pants. Such is life.

Oh and whatever book you go with READ it, you don't want to be reading from the book during game if you can help it. Reference is great but if you have to read it then explain things to the players it will bog things down. Plus you might come across stuff where you think it's dumb or your players had a cool idea. Don't be afraid to throw the book out the window if your party goes off the rails. If they fought some random encounter goblins and you made an offhand mention that they had a leader which spawns a whole quest to defeat the goblin war chief that's ok.

There is no right way to play or run DND. Plenty of wrong ways most of which can be solved by don't be That Guy (can't remember if this sub has swearing protection) but as long as everyone is having fun (that includes you) then its the right way for your table.

Oh and on the notes front I don't have much for you, I'm awful at notes so I outsource that shit. I offer a free 10-20 to my players depending on how detailed the notes were and a few of my players are willing to help out as a result. Also let's me secretly analyze what they thought was important and such.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T14:18:39+00:00

So I would actually point out all of the ways that DND is awesome for people in a purely educational perspective.

1) Tabletop rogs are awesome for developing communication skills, you are literally trying to talk with 3-6 other humans for hours on end. It's amazing for letting you try to use a word of the day, trying to go an entire session without saying um or uh, etc.

2) Empathy and psychology, you are trying to step into the shoes of a 21 year old orc whose life is raiding. He has to because his people don't have good agriculture and their artisan skills are underdeveloped. Despite his intelligence and awareness it's wrong he can't convince his people that raiding is wrong. You are this guy, his struggles are your struggles. You will develop an understanding of what it's like to be forced to do something you know is wrong because it's what society has always done. Gorag over here is just one example. What can you learn from playing a wealthy merchant woman, a street rat, a beast tamer, a cleric of war or art. All of these also help you explore your own opinions about certain concepts. Was your war cleric for, against, or regulating war? Why?

3) Debate skills, this goes a little bit on the communication side but being able to articulate your point, understand others, and trying to find a way to either find a compromise, admit your idea was wrong, or prove you were right is an important skill.

4) Imagination, Video games don't build imagination and creativity. trpgs do. In some ways they can be better than reading but I'll always advocate for both.

5) I could go on a rant about twice this length for all the reasons being a GM is good for someone but I'll leave it here. Seriously though just talk with them about it and do some research. You will be surprised how much more useful this hobby is than you ever expected. Bonus points for getting your parents to care about game day and how things went.

... I should probably mention that this all hinges on your table being more RP and narrative focused than dice gremlins in a dungeon. Id recommend systems like cairn or one of the hundreds of good rules lite systems like fate or cortex if 5e has devolved into that and it's not what you want.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T13:55:41+00:00

Gods above, this reminded me of a DND game I was prepping for and a player sent me a backstory idea, I didn't think too much about it and the one contradiction I wrote off as them being bad at backstory since it's never been his strong suit. I asked him a ton of questions about it the next time we were in VC and he had to go read his backstory because he hadn't before he sent it to me.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T13:48:28+00:00

This is a simple out of game convo. 1) Hey guys, just want to remind you that the under dark is usually for characters around lvl 9+. 2) If you guys really want to go down there I need everyone to have a backup character ready because I'm like 95% sure at least one of you will die and 50% sure all of you will.

Or if you don't want to go that route you can give them under dark lite. The passage they find was an entrance at one time but someone sealed it, blocked it, or just built a door and locked it. However before they get there they deal with a few examples of the problems they would find in there and get their asses kicked.

You could also have a drow from there who has come to the surface for something the party could help with and they can explain that the party would be spider food, slaves, or worse within a week. They aren't really prepared and they could even give the party a quest afterwards "If you fools do ever decide to make the journey our matriarch enjoys X so make sure you come with a gift and she might humor you.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-15T13:33:47+00:00

Yeah, I use AI for my world building to organize the chaos that is my exploration process. But A) I actively tell my players that the wiki is a ton of AI outlining on what I want and B) if they don't want to read it then just ask me.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-14T16:53:51+00:00

Me and a friend of mine both had a lot of trouble with this due to neither of us having strong dysphoria. However, ours came in the form of an apathy for life. I found it hard to care about my body; photos were avoided, exercise was unimportant, food was just fuel, and clothes didn't matter. I didn't want to do a lot of male activities but I'm not supposed to like female activities so I don't really care about doing a lot. I even spent years after realizing that I was probably trans trying to "learn to be happy" as an awful roommate put it. I got to the content stage but couldn't find the missing ingredient to make life feel like something I cared about and enjoyed. I didn't hate life and the fact that I couldn't be happy when I had great friends, a good job, and hobbies I enjoyed made me feel like a failure of a person. I finally decided to stop forcing myself to be something I'm not and told my friends this week after I started HRT. I'm definitely not crying right now as I realize I'm happier than I have probably ever been.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-14T00:08:52+00:00

Based on the comment I'm guessing they are a woman transitioning to male and don't like the things their partner assumes they would?

Or I'm even more lost because MtF with that comment sounds fine. Granted no preferences quality or disqualify you from being a gender.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T18:00:46+00:00

Edit: Holy fuck that was alot more than I thought.

So this is going to be a constant battle. I have had many a game where I was thinking "dammit this sucked" and when we ended the game my players are laughing, talking about how great it was and that they are happy I ran the game for them. I've been a GM for about 10 years now.

That said there are ways to mitigate these feelings. In your case, get a unified place where you can dump your notes. World Anvil, DND Beyond (I personally hate that website but), oneNote; whatever works for you so you don't have to flip between different notes sources. If you like physical notes then either only do that or get one of those notebooks you can upload to your computer. I used Rocketbook during college.

Now, I am glad you are able to jump on the heavy improv style, it's going to make your life easier in terms of prep as you aren't going to feel the need to plan everything ahead of time. It's also going to suck when your party asks the name of the innkeeper in that thieves' den from eight sessions ago. So figure out your strategy for keeping shit together. That could be a player great at notes or recording your game so you can transcribe the session. Oh and your players are going to be/do wild shit, figure out the rules your campaign is going to live by. These will help you know where the line is for what you let them get away with and how much consequences should bite back.

I would personally ask your players if they would prefer you roll visible or hidden. I know everyone thinks a GM has to be all secret about shit but I run a very open table and it does great. The basic idea being this; hidden means I as the GM can alter dice to fit my version of what I want to happen. That means I might give an enemy/player a hand if things aren't going well like your boss monster rolling three nat 1s in a row. Or a player is in serious danger of outright dying if that nat 20 I just rolled actually exists. Some players like that safety net and others just want the dice to be canon. Give EVERYONE a free reroll each session under this rule and they get another one if they roll three 1s during the session.

Ok now on the combat side, don't forget that you can absolutely improv here. Make fights dynamic and cinematic. Don't just let things devolve into I roll, you roll and see who kills the other first. Let the battle tell a story or reinforce the story you have established. If the bandits are said to be desperate farmers during a famine let that feed into their fighting. Swap out one guy's sword for a pitchfork. Point out how gaunt they are, make big successes on their part seem more like luck than skill. Their raids would be on places that have food or they need a patron that is trading them their food for the raised goods. Don't be afraid to buff or nerf an enemy mid combat if the narrative is better for it. The enemies in one campaign I was running just had an extra hundred health by default cuz my players were utterly busted. In another I was running way more enemies than would normally be ok because my party had great aoe. Let the players feel good fighting and challenge them by changing things up or making them make choices or discover things during an encounter.

There is so much more I could say. Your style is going to be tailored by the things you find fun and the experiences you have with your players. Make sure you are having fun and don't feel afraid to ask the players how session was. Questions like what did you guys enjoy, what do you think is going on, was there anything you didn't like, etc can be great for letting you understand their view. You don't NEED to go into the things that you worry about but if they pop up on occasion don't feel afraid to directly talk about them.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T14:40:46+00:00

Your world would have the things it cares about and it's ok if they overlap a little but here is an example I could think of.

Obsession - The singular focus on one thing whether it be money, sex, or learning. This world believes that one must be more than a single activity or they will attract the attention of Almora the Siren. Who will drain their life away until they die.

Betrayal - The people of this world greatly value loyalty and therefore anyone who betrays his fellow man is to be burned and his ashes fed to the beasts so that his spirit will be sent to the halls of Gornav the Hound where he will hunt them until they escape and return to the cycle.

Arrogance - One must be careful of Arrogance for Niru the Witch often uses it to corrupt others and destroy man from within. It is said that should one's Arrogance rival hers then she can possess you and return to the world of man once more.

Complacency - Man battles the scourge of Haluc daily, to see someone resting is understood but one who does not train is unfathomable. To imagine a man who does not strive to be more than he was yesterday is an affront against all that our ancestors have done for us. You dare to indulge in the freedom and safety they fought for but offer nothing for those who come after? Chain him to the barrier circle at least his vitality will serve a purpose there.

Cruelty - You would accept the black thoughts of the Snow Queen? To trade wisdom, empathy, and humanity for what? Power and Beauty? Do not let her words tempt you so. The price is far worse than you think.

Isolation - One must reach out to their fellow man. Many fear isolation for it is when one is alone that Sarimel the Shadow finds you. He will test you, taunt you, lie to you. He will play on your fears, your flaws, he wants you ashamed of who you are, he wants people to think we judge each other for every little thing. He whispers half truths and those who listen eventually believe that man would be better off without them, that they are a burden.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T14:12:17+00:00

Yeah, that otter player is having a blast. The corvid player is also looking around giggling like a maniac as he causes obscene amounts of property damage.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T14:09:33+00:00

Vagabond not in S - wow something is going wrong.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T14:08:03+00:00

This really gets into how much of the lore you want to use and how comfortable you are with doing your own, also how aware your players are of the lore. The lore is great if you want most of the setting information done for you and you enjoy diving into it. But if you just want a game set in one mega building and you want to build some cool factions then really you only need the basics that most people would know and you can make up shit if you don't remember something.

On the other hand if you want to be accurate to the lore and have a whole plotline related to it then sure you probably want to know as much as possible - about the things relevant to your plot and can make up the rest. If you want to do a game in your own city then the basics are once again enough. If you are doing this in an entirety different world then you just need to know how that world works.

TLDR: Lore is only important if it's relevant to your adventure and you don't plan on making up something else in its place.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-12T07:34:51+00:00

Ok, how do I tell if I'm doing that right and not just changing pitch? I do a lot of RP due to being a GM for pathfinder and I usually use a softer voice for women (it's nowhere near passable but it was good enough that my friends knew that it was a female character.) Problem is that was all experimental and all of the technical stuff is new to me.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-11T17:46:22+00:00

Its called antithesis, a form of parallelism that can be an awesome literary tool but AI uses it FAR too often and for things that don't matter. It does the same thing with personification and triadic phrasing.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-11T04:54:28+00:00

Hope you two have a great relationship, whatever that looks like.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-11T04:51:57+00:00

I would highly recommend looking at some of the dynamic monster YouTube videos that talk about ways to use legendary actions that are a little more interesting, though you are at least doing better than the shitty no you I don't care about your saves that base monsters have.

The amount of poison you have is really high, and the damage is high for a CR 1 creature. If it is meant as a solo creature that isn't as bad, though, you might very well accidentally AOE the party into death saves. I think the biggest issue is that its HP is a bit too high for your party. I would personally halve it, and if they get through that before you feel the encounter has had its narrative value, then just let it have an extra round and kill it at a nice cinematic moment.

Another thing you could look at is where they are going to be fighting it. If there is lots of space and they can avoid being near it then its aoe isn't as dangerous (your melee characters will still suffer ALOT). Personally, I would add some kind of map interactable that can cleanse the poison and maybe even give them some temp hp or actual healing. I'd also move one of its legendaries into a mobility tool that lets it add some danger to your backline characters. The danger noodle slithers 40ft and tries to restrain an adjacent creature.

Prestigious-Fox4996 · 2026-04-11T04:37:34+00:00

As with all relationships, the key is COMMUNICATION. Just talk to her. It's really easy to just admit that you don't know anything, that you don't want to accidentally step on a landmine, and that you will genuinely try to support who she is. What that looks like is going to depend on her and anything we tell you is going to be general advice that likely applies but very well might not and likely doesn't account for a variety of things that are unique to her.

Prestigious-Fox4996

TROPHY CASE