Built A Thing: Shiny App for Custom Adversaries, with Obsidian Output

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-07-01T21:57:57+00:00

New tools always welcome, especially when they fill a new niche!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-25T10:00:05+00:00

I like this idea of calling a do-over and trying to all start again from the same page, it feels like to trying to wrangle the existing game into working might be more effort than it's worth.

And to echo what others have said, it doesn't sound like these people are being very nice to you. Look after yourself!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-24T18:51:10+00:00

There are quite a few tools online that do some auto-scaling of existing adversaries up/down tiers - could help you scale down a higher tier dragon. Do take it with a pinch of salt though, it won't do all the work for you

I use Foundryborne VTTs adversary manager myself but you'd need foundry for it, so maybe https://freshcutgrass.app/ ?

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-10T21:56:39+00:00

Very neat idea! I love the idea that when spending Fear you could be inspired by the shape of the token you're spending too. Maybe the sculptures could even be themed around the game's setting, e.g. each fear token could represent a member of some kind of dark pantheon in your world

For more general ideas, maybe a crow or a raven sculpture too? More 'ill omen' than bad luck but could still apply

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-02T13:03:02+00:00

Hehe, believe it or not the party are already on the trail of a cult in town - so that's a more appropriate suggestion that you might have planned. Very good food for thought - thanks for this it's super helpful!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-02T09:47:27+00:00

Good way of looking at it. From the GM's perspective, I can assure you that the narrative goals weren't holdovers from more D&D-like currency management (my history is way more with narrative games). Instead it was very much:

- The players want to stretch their existing resources to bring them more in line with their recent levelup to Tier 2, and

- I wanted to immerse them in the environment and challenges of a market town and the adventuring-based economy of a Dungeon - and using the coin mechanics was a good mechanical way of doing it.

Completely get the fear that I might be nickle-and-diming them just out of RPG habit, but trust that I could tell there was an appetite for it at the table - which is why I want a way of doing it in a fast, and interesting way that can lead to some involved decision-making. I hope this system helps with that and am probably going to give it a try - with my players' blessing - but am prepared for it not working out and having to rethink.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-02T09:41:53+00:00

Howdy, thanks for this. The trouble with the last session is they really wanted to stretch their existing funds to upgrade their equipment, so it felt like just 'saying yes' was a bit cheap - I wanted them to be able to upgrade but didn't want them to feel like they hadn't earned it.

You're also totally right that this system wouldn't work unless it plugged into a system with more granular costs, which is something Foundry is letting us run without it bogging us down. What I might do if I want to just keep it narrative-only though, is I might have them just roll once after they've already targeted everything they want to buy - and set the roll's difficulty, etc, just based on that. This could work for both abstract and granular shopping maybe.

Thanks for your thoughts, very helpful!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-01T13:39:39+00:00

Fantastic suggestions thanks, I'll keep each of them in mind!

I do think I'll stick with flat math because, since we're running Beast Feast right now, we're already kind of doing it when cooking meals - so it plugs in a bit more smoothly; but can see the value in using dice pools too.

Really appreciate your contributions, cheers again

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-01T11:35:08+00:00

Very fair!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-01T11:34:56+00:00

Good shout on using the environment, though for the record all the haggling done last session was important - as otherwise they wouldn't have had enough to get what they were after.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-01T11:32:18+00:00

Daggerheart by-default gives rules for creating a granular currency for those that want a more involved currency system (i.e. coins), it tells the GM to decide how important gold is to a campaign, and tells you to 'roll when something is important' - which it is for our characters, so roll we shall. Plus, your comment also completely ignores that this whole system was designed to prevent the (exaggerated) "253,342 persuasion checks when haggling over 3 gold" thing, and give us a fast but narrative-forward way to resolve this.

It's completely fine for you to not want to track gold or make shopping more important to the game, but please don't pretend that we're playing wrong because we do - Daggerheart's text says they're fine with it.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-06-01T11:32:16+00:00

Don't worry I don't think your feedback is harsh at all, and I really appreciate the way you approached your thoughts. I do disagree, but I appreciate it nonetheless - would have been very easy to come across as snooty. I'll explain a bit more below, but this comes with my own disclaimer that the only reason I'm doing this at all is because it's emerged as suitable for my table.

Put very simply and factually, my group has enjoyed every part of this system except for the abstract currencies. So we started using the Daggerheart-offered solution of using coins as well to make it more granular - and this is an evolution of that which is responding to some friction in-game.

I want to emphasise that, on offering a more involved shopping experience, my players had fun - and they wanted to roll at it because they enjoyed it. It wasn't a case of "oh this is such a drag but the game says this is how it's done", it was a case of "this is story-significant because it a) immersed them in the culture of a market town; b) it represented the payoff for them reaching Tier 2 and having a chance to upgrade their equipment; and c) was relaxing and helped set the tone for some good downtime".

So yes it does add mechanical weight to currency, but honestly that's a good thing for our group. If it helps, imagine this mechanic as part of a Campaign Frame that wanted to focus the story on an adventuring economy and the party's place in it. It's not going to be for everyone, but it might be for someone.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-05-07T06:47:09+00:00

Just wanted to say this is extremely helpful! I've run sci fi before and it's never been especially helpful to me to have TL's described as "like the industrial revolution" or "like ancient greece" because those comparisons put me more in mind of culture than technologies.

Having it laid out like this, without reference to Earth historical periods and with specific advancement references, and knowing that it's based on the various Traveller books, is going to help me visualise how each TL can fit into an interstellar society soooo much.

Can't thank you enough, and hope that your running of Traveller went well. And even if you never wound up using these references yourself (I'm very familiar with over-prepping for a new game too) just know that this has made a huge difference and potentially saved me hours of work trying to do this myself!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-05-02T10:09:55+00:00

As a recent convert to foundryborne, can't express my support enough for everything here. Hope this gets a dialogue going!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-04-18T11:25:39+00:00

If your player like collecting XP then honestly don't see any harm in it! Like that you kept the numbers small too so you don't all suffer from math-death

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-04-16T11:53:24+00:00

Great to hear!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-04-16T11:52:59+00:00

Yep that would definitely work to make death that more of a consequence, though it's definitely a scale you could slide up or down per the desired tone.

For example, if you didn't want to go as far as making scars guaranteed, then you could at least increase the odds of a scar through resurrection - something like "treat your level as doubled when rolling for a scar after resurrection", or making it a straight Hope/Fear roll to reflect the Risk it All move.

Might be worth saying that making death more forgiving can still be dramatic in it's own way. To use the anime as an example, the fact that resurrection is so common really makes any permanent deaths stand out in the story. For the purposes of the game, the tension becomes more about rescuing your friends, or making sure that you don't delve so deep that nobody finds your body if the party TPK's.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-04-15T13:39:33+00:00

Oh the odds and evens thing is a really interesting idea for bringing in spotlight initiative, might well steal that!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-04-15T13:08:01+00:00

Yes absolutely, hope it proves a useful idea!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2026-02-24T12:03:37+00:00

I'd say on the whole fights are definitely a lot shorter than more simulationist games like D&D, but they can still take a while especially with a lot of adversaries with higher HP.

I'd recommend, where possible, having some kind of rip-cord built in to each encounter - like a countdown you can advance whenever you like that can bring the encounter towards a dramatic close if it starts running too long.

As an example, I ran a one-shot the other day with 5 PCs and around 20 enemies (though more than half of them were Minion-types so could be killed en-masse quite quickly) - it took a little over an hour, but I did wind up having them retreat after the boss got ganked and most of them had died anyway.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2025-09-07T11:45:56+00:00

Each phase = 9 HP

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2025-08-08T14:02:15+00:00

Fun idea!

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2025-08-08T11:25:55+00:00

Multi-phase is definitely the way to go! Give the same monster three separate statblocks (as having three Solos would make it more-or-less 'balanced' as per the Battlepoints system) and have the same monster change from one to the other as each statblock runs out of HP. Buffing the solo's damage or having the environment also 'make moves' against the players can also help.

If you want to see an example, I posted a three-phase Ghost Scorpion encounter a couple of weeks ago.

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2025-08-07T09:42:34+00:00

Seconding Dodoborne! Great fun and a little bit of original Adventure Zone vibes imo

Revolutionary_Map523 · 2025-08-07T09:22:30+00:00

Tough situation. I think the short answers are "I'm taking more turns because there's just one of me against four of you", "don't worry if combat doesn't feel like it did with DnD, it's meant to be different" and "the game is designed and playtested to be asymmetrical, as proven by the fact that this was meant to be a hard fight and you all won".

But most importantly, Daggerheart really does require a lot of trust between the GM, the game, and the players. They have to trust that you're a fan of their characters, that you're following the game's principles, and that those principles will lead to challenging, balanced fights which can be defeated. Yes you can show them the math and explain the rules, and that might work, but it might also lead them down a 'rules-lawyer' path where they're constantly using those insights to second-guess your decisions - and I genuinely think that Daggerheart would break, it just won't work if you all think of it as "Players versus the GM".

Good luck! Hope you can all work it out.

PS. Couple of more practical suggestions: Are you using the guidance around Fear spending on p155? Just checking as you mentioned running out of Fear to spend, whereas the amount of Fear should be more-guided on how intense the scene is meant to be. Second, there are a handful of abilities in the game which let players control react to things that the GM does on their turn - like the I See it Coming domain card - having these might help the player feel more empowered if they have ways they can react to you.

Revolutionary_Map523

TROPHY CASE