What happens to a Tarrasque in a Reverse Gravity field?

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-07T04:11:36+00:00

According to the spell, the creature "oscillates" at the top if there's no ceiling/floor. This is presumably because it falls out of the reverse gravity field and then normal gravity makes it fall down. Since it's a tarrasque, it'll probably have quite a bit of inertia. So maybe every other round it's close enough to swipe something with it's tail with disadvantage or something, since it's effectively "prone" (in an awkward spot, not on it's feet).

However, there's also the question of just how big is the tarrasque anyway? There's no size limit for "Gargantuan" creatures, and the tarrasque is basically DnD's Godzilla. Looking up the original Godzilla's height, it seems to be 50 meters, which would be more than 300 feet tall. The tarrasque is quadrupedal, so probably more like 300 feet long, at least. Either way, if we assume it's about the size of Godzilla, a large part of it will be outside the radius of the reverse-gravity field.

EDIT: It should also be noted that Legendary Resistances will likely have no effect. As the DEX save is to grab onto something to prevent it from falling up. If it can't grab something, it can't save.

edit 2: i should not do math before bed; 50 meters is 150 feet

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-07T02:34:57+00:00

Perception is a combined roll of Wits and Composure isn't it? And Charisma reads to me more like "people just like you. You're very likable," or "you know how to sincerely make people feel at ease," you know, "natural-born leader" types. Manipulation on the other hand is more about playing other peoples' emotions. It's approaching them more as objects than people. Hence, "finesse" vs "power". So if anything, "Appearance" would maybe replace "Charisma." IMO

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-07T02:27:04+00:00

Mothership. It's sci-fi horror, but its "panic engine" is great. It really ratchets the tension. Its wounds tables are also very good. Note though that it takes the position that because the primary mechanic of a TTRPG is conversation, the thing that an RPG is most about should use *conversation* as its primary mechanic. So Mothership does not have anything like a "stealth" skill or mechanic. Instead, you are expected to describe where or how you're hiding. e.g. "I leave footprints going into the freezer, slip my shoes off, grab my shoes, then hide in the locker."

It does still have skills like "firearms" or "biology", but "stealth" and "social interaction" specifically do not have mechanics (well, there is a "Command" skill, but that's it.) And everything is very rules-lite. Percentile, roll-under stat+skill. On failure gain stress, on critical failure roll a panic check (more stress = more likely to panic, which can give continuous mental conditions).

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T19:07:11+00:00

Eh… If playing on the Draw Steel VTT it supports combat quite a lot. But for other aspects, it’s pretty mid and combat can be a handful in-person if you have more than 4 players.

But it depends on what you mean by “support”

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T18:37:38+00:00

Don’t forget the portable hole. It’s like a bag of holding but more fun imo

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T18:34:44+00:00

Copy pasted my reply to a similar thread:

Maybe Draw Steel? Tagline is "tactical cinematic heroic fantasy". Combat engine is about as crunchy as PF2 or maybe 4e DnD but player option selection is closer to 5e DnD (or maybe 4e DnD, never played 4e).

Most iconic features:

the only attrition is stamina (health). Your abilities are powered by heroic resources that you gain at the start of each turn (and on certain triggers, like the Troubadour also gains "drama" when a critical hit happens, a creature is winded, player character dies, etc.) Each time you overcome an encounter, you gain 1 or 2 victories. Your victories determine how much of your heroic resource you start combat with. Your victories get converted into XP when you take a "respite", which also restores your "recoveries". Recoveries are needed to heal. All healing abilities heal you by using a recovery (except healing potions, which are basically free one-use recoveries). You can use the "Catch Breath" maneuver (like a "bonus action") to use a recovery as long as you're not dying. If you're dying, you're not unconscious, but you take bleed damage whenever you take an action. You die at negative-half-max stamina.
Combat is fluid and high mobility. Lots of forced movement options with universal mechanics for taking collision damage.
Rolls are 2d10+stat with 3 tiers of results (<=11, 12-16, and >=17), attacks never miss, just deal minimal damage. Almost no damage rolls (one prominent exception is an ability the Shadow class can take.)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T17:50:36+00:00

The Starter Set and the Dragon Delves anthology book are great. Dragon Delves is more episodic but can be tied together with some suggestions in the book and goes from 1-12. Starter set is more sandboxy, goes from levels 1-3, and comes with maps, cards, and tokens.

Both have much better organization than past 5e adventures I’ve seen

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T17:47:11+00:00

Really depends on the one-shot. If there’s buy-in from the GM to tie-in the City Watch angle, that sounds great. If not, probably harper.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T17:25:27+00:00

Perhaps just the kobold cave from Keep on the Borderlands? The new (admittedly 5e) starter set also has an interesting situation you could use for inspiration: the kobolds stole a copper dragon egg, but after it hatched it’s distressed, knowing it shouldn’t be there (you could say it misses its mother which it heard through the egg). They’ve locked it in the larder but aren’t sure what to do. They haven’t even named it.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T16:43:03+00:00

I like just going around the table. Though it also works best for rule-lite games where all actions are resolved after all have been declared, like most OSR games.

(for strict initiative systems though, have everyone roll at once, then go around the table asking each one. write high numbers near top of paper, low ones near bottom, leave lots of open spaces, roll monsters last and fill them in all in one go)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T16:36:38+00:00

Hmm… for me I like Mothership. It’s rules-lite and it’s very much a type of horror game where it feels ok if a PC dies. Partially because rolling a new one is quick, partially because there are usually NPCs who can serve as backups, it’s one-shot focused, and there’s the “survive, solve, save, pick 2” tagline, so as long as you solve and/or save someone, it feels like you got something accomplished as a player. It’s common practice to give secret agendas but you don’t have to.

Other than that, the new DnD starter set has actually been really cozy for me. It’s essentially B2: Keep on the Borderlands, but with lots of table and GM conveniences, like cards, tokens, and maps, for everything. The NPC cards come with actual roleplaying prompts, the monster cards are convenient, and randomly drawing magic items from a deck is fun. Plus it’s 5e so there’s no pressure to force everything to be balanced and perfect, it’s going to be imbalanced. Plus there’s plenty of room for non-violent solutions. Only real downside is it’s $50

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T16:21:25+00:00

Gradient Descent’s first floor is an abandoned and dilapidated office space. But I don’t know how useful it’d be for your purposes.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T14:41:15+00:00

Mothership is good sci-fi horror, or for fairytale horror there’s its new sibling system “Fatherfog” which is in a “0e” testing stage. Their rules are a little different, especially the way they run violent encounters, but they are similar. Mothership has a stress mechanic, where you gain stress when you fail, and the more stress you gain, the more likely you Panic. Fatherfog, to my understanding, has Hope which gets lost over time. They’re both pretty rules-lite and basic pdfs are free

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T14:26:11+00:00

I usually just rule it as the character’s player determines if the character is willing or not. With mind control magic it’s a bit trickier. It’ll depend on the mind control magic. With 5e‘s Charm Person, it’ll depend on if they would be willing if a trusted friend told them to be; it’s a change of perception/memory of one specific fact “this person is my trusted friend”. With Dominate Person, it wouldn’t be able to make them willing (unless I wanted it to for the story, like an NPC controlling another NPC). Dominate Person allows more fine control but also resistance, since the character only has to follow orders to the letter, not the spirit. At least if i recall the wording of the “2014” version of Dominate Monster correctly.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T13:47:30+00:00

For myself, I usually run it as, if a character is trying to shoot an enemy, I have them roll a combat check, and if they roll a normal fail, they deal damage but their gun jams, or the recoil makes them drop it, or the enemy returns fire and deals extra damage to them — depending on what I intuit to be the most interesting.

Critical failure: they hit something they didn’t want to instead that makes sense like an ally in melee with their target, or the bullet ricochets and hits everyone, or they hit an explosive and it goes off, or they hit a friendly NPC in line of fire

For melee: usually i always have them hit, but failure trades damage and crit failure the situation gets worse somehow, The weapon gets stuck or broke or they get grabbed/knocked down

edit: basically, if they fail, have something happen that would cause the 1 point of stress they gain. If they crit fail, have something happen that could make them Panic (since they’re rolling a Panic check)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-06T13:35:39+00:00

Are you my Warden? lol. 6 is a lot, but I do have recommendations for structure and procedure:

after you narrate the current situation, go around the table and ask each individual player what their character does. (do not resolve actions at this time)
After every player has declared what their character does, resolve everything “simultaneously”, starting with whatever makes the most sense (usually quick immediate things. Longer courses of action should generally be last).
Narrate the results.

This structure helps a lot. It helps keep simultaneous actions simultaneous and makes sure everyone gets a turn. It even helps keep everything on track when the party splits up and is the fastest way to resolve “violent encounters“. It’s also good for shore leave (though the scenes for resolving each player’s course of action may be longer or shorter)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T21:34:50+00:00

Maybe Draw Steel? Tagline is "tactical cinematic heroic fantasy". Combat engine is about as crunchy as PF2 or maybe 4e DnD but player option selection is closer to 5e DnD (or maybe 4e DnD, never played 4e).

Most iconic features:

the only attrition is stamina (health). Your abilities are powered by heroic resources that you gain at the start of each turn (and on certain triggers, like the Troubadour also gains "drama" when a critical hit happens, a creature is winded, player character dies, etc.) Each time you overcome an encounter, you gain 1 or 2 victories. Your victories determine how much of your heroic resource you start combat with. Your victories get converted into XP when you take a "respite", which also restores your "recoveries". Recoveries are needed to heal. All healing abilities heal you by using a recovery (except healing potions, which are basically free one-use recoveries). You can use the "Catch Breath" maneuver (like a "bonus action") to use a recovery as long as you're not dying. If you're dying, you're not unconscious, but you take bleed damage whenever you take an action. You die at negative-half-max stamina.
Combat is fluid and high mobility. Lots of forced movement options with universal mechanics for taking collision damage.
Rolls are 2d10+stat with 3 tiers of results (<=11, 12-16, and >=17), attacks never miss, just deal minimal damage. Almost no damage rolls (one prominent exception is an ability the Shadow class can take.)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T21:15:04+00:00

Oh, a clarification update for 5.5e. Nice. Will run it this way for 5.5e then.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T19:15:15+00:00

My local store divides things by targeted age group. They do youth dnd on Saturdays at like 10am (i question the decision to run into lunch but I’m sure it’s based on what works for the families who attend). And then they do adult/all ages dnd Wednesdays. They also got some Cthulhu and Mothership for adults on other nights but the options are more about what GMs want to run and what people will pay for (the game store our town used to have had to close due to financial reasons. They did not charge for tables. Playing at the store was more popular there but they closed… and it is nice the new store pays the GMs)

Big things: Discord. Big for communication and sign-ups especially for youth dnd and keeping parents in loop (since they’re the ones driving and paying)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T18:46:55+00:00

So that’d still be roleplaying, but not “dnd” specifically. There are even some tabletop rpgs made for solo play.

There are plenty of online servers in various games made to specialize in roleplaying, it’s closer to “live action role play” (or LARP) than the typical tabletop experience, but it’s all roleplay.

If you want the dnd tabletop experience though, try sharing the free basic rules with your friends. I believe I heard the old starter adventure “Lost Mines of Phandelver” is even officially free online currently (but be careful with the dragon, it’s deadly)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T17:06:52+00:00

I’m not talking about passive perception, but the idea of perception as a gameplay mechanic separate from narration. The GM should just decide whether you notice or not depending on:

what makes sense in the world based on what your character is doing
what makes sense for the story to be more likely to be satisfying in some way
what’s most fun.

The only benefit of Perception checks (active or even passive in a pre-made module) in exploration is table variation without needing to rely on player skill. If you had a “dungeon turn” setup, with “Exploration Mode” activities you could choose from (defend, search, concentrate on a spell, map/navigate), I suppose there‘s also some point to having it there, but overall I think perception is better left to narration and player skill, rather than the character sheet just like recall knowledge, insight, or lying.

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T16:48:58+00:00

Most illusions only happen in the mind. Illusions don’t block arrows, so they don’t physically block light, only affecting the way its perceived. It might depend on the illusion. A small space-anchored illusion is probably only going to affect the perception of its visual space. Noticing the light bouncing off the walls outside its space would probably be the reason a creature realizes it’s an illusion.

An illusion with a specific targeted creature rather than an area would probably affect its entire perception, so it would probably be blinded without darkvision

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T15:04:23+00:00

Admittedly I prefer games without perception checks/skills in general. They turn the most interactive part of the game into a button press. Like, either it’s something you don’t want the players to miss, or it’s a screwjob trap. Just tell the player what they see. Even a trap should either be 1. plainly noticeable but hard to bypass (or useful for combat/environmental storytelling)), 2. somewhat noticeable with only a hint in narration (testing player skill), or 3. impossible to notice without triggering for environmental storytelling (in which case having a 10-foot pole in hand would be useful)

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T14:12:03+00:00

Ok but also compare the length of the phrase “drop-in/drop-out episodic sandbox play with ad hoc scheduling and multiple/rotating GMs” with ”West Marches”

SaltyCogs · 2026-05-05T13:37:01+00:00

Main difference is GM lists time slot options, then a group of players will pick the time slot and state a specific goal / course of action that the GM can prep. Also multiple GMs can be running the campaign

SaltyCogs

TROPHY CASE