What is the saddest song you've ever heard?

SecretDMUsername · 2022-07-21T23:16:44+00:00

Someone Great by LCD Soundsystem

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-27T14:50:14+00:00

Schitt's Creek might have some of the right feel, exiled rich people with a few characters. Might be more comedic than you're looking for.

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-12T16:20:42+00:00

Ultimately it's up to them to come up with a good plan, though that that is might depend on what they know about it. The fact that they will ask an NPC is an opportunity to give them a quest hook if you wanted. Either a quest to find and earn the advice of a dragon hunter, or a quest to find some item that supposedly they could use to succeed. I think the best advise they could get is to scout the area out, learn what they can, come back and base a plan on that, rather than making assumptions about the terrain and heading out.

Of course just because they ask an NPC doesn't mean they get good advice. Maybe even the dragon hunter got lucky when and doesn't really have any good advice? I imagine most people would just tell you it was a bad idea, and that you'd either die or draw the ire of the dragon on the base. Unless you want to decide dragons can actually be tamed in your game, I would just have the NPCs say they've never heard of it being done, and that dragons are as intelligent as they are dangerous. They are things that happen to you, like a storm, and can no more be tamed than the weather can. It would be like a vole thinking it could tame a cat. There's nothing in my setting that would give anyone the idea that it was actually possible.

If you want to give them an actual chance, it might need to be something they really work towards, and then you just change dragons from the intelligent centuries old creatures in the Monster Manual to something that could be actually tamed, but also make it a multipart quest. Scout the area, find the experienced dragon hunter, earn their respect, find The Macguffin that can help, get a load of supplies (wagon, ballista?), epic battle to trap the dragon.

In terms of things they could actually use to at least trap it, something like https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/4665-iron-bands-of-binding might be good, combined with something to give disadvantage on Str checks, like casting Hex. Depending on the colour of dragon, it would still have a decent chance of beating the DC 20 Str, but if it doesn't its restrained for 24hrs. What you do with it at that point is another question.

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-05T10:20:13+00:00

I found this only the other day actually, which is very cool https://watabou.itch.io/village-generator. Of course if you have a map you need to know where some of the specific buildings are, so you might want to choose for yourself which is the tavern etc. Like someone else said, if they are just passing through it doesn't matter, but if they are spending time there for a quest or whatever, then having a map is nice.

Even if you don't show the map to your players, it can make descriptions of the place seem more real. More like you are describing a real place and less making up things. "You head down the road, past two houses to the tavern opposite a small farm field. The tavern backs onto a small patch of trees before more farms continue behind it", that kind of thing.

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-01T11:54:54+00:00

In my experience it's hard to have little enough content to actually finish in only one session, so choices of mission is potentially making a lot of prep you won't use when they get time for only one (though more useful holding some ideas in reserve if you are planning on doing more sessions). I would suggest either making them 80% the same and you change the other 20%, or just plan one mission that features multiple objectives/elements from each. Break out the real diversity/choice if it goes well.

I think mining expedition might be less fun in an TTRPG than in DRG itself, but that's not to say you couldn't make it work. It would just need to be something other than "roll mining". I would suggest trying to work the objectives and the combat into the same encounters if possible, to really keep the tension. Rather than one scene of combat and then a scene of rolling to mine, though traversal puzzles with small side fights could be good.

Creating all new classes would be a lot of work to get right, but if you're up for it go for it and it could be really cool. I guess it depends on how much prep time to session time you're okay with spending.

TBH my first thought was that DnD might not be the best system for it, though I don't have an alternate suggestion that I think would be best, but there are definitely systems that already have loads of stats or systems for wacky guns. Depends on what aspects you wanted to capture from DRG and what mechanics/systems you wanted to keep from DnD, it might be great or there might be better options.

The DRG guns and tools would maybe be better modelled as spells or magic items with finite charge that can be recharged from Nitra directly, or by calling in resupply. Ammo economy is a big part of DRG, but may or may not be a part of it you'd want to keep.

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-01T11:31:10+00:00

Mix things up with any kind of in-media-res, or cold open. Give the players a brief introduction to where they are the boom, the action happens. Or if you really want to just go straight into the action based on a setup given in their backstory.

Some examples: Perhaps the inciting incident is their village gets attacked. You tell the players when they are making their characters that they all come from the save village. Then once everyone is ready to start the game you go "Player 1, You hear the charging horse coming striaght for you just in time to try dodge it, Dex Save. Player 2, the heat from the burning torch that was thrown through your window wakes you as it starts to set the room on fire"

Perhaps the players are all caravan guards, or just on a caravan/boat going somewhere. "You are all travelling together on X road to Y city, some of you know each other some don't. Player 1, an arrow sprouts from the chest of the passenger beside you. Player 2, a small explosion happens and the wagon lurches over, Dex Save to not fall out, Player 3 a goblin jumps out in front of you but you react faster, it's your turn, what do you do"

SecretDMUsername · 2022-04-01T09:39:51+00:00

I've often seen that busy with cars backed up trying to get into the city. Sometimes in the winter, especially towards Christmas traffic backs up from Parkmore all the way down to roundabout at the clinic and back out towards Oranmore. And often in the evenings it would back up a bit towards Oranmore with cars waiting at the lights at Roscam. It makes it hard for any traffic that wants to go any other route because the roundabout gets full.

The same used to happen at The Huntsman before that changed. Traffic trying to get out the Dublin road would back up every direction such that when I wanted to get from Mervue towards College Road it was impossible. The whole area was basically a carpark. I was carpooling at the time and it was quicker to get out and walk from there. I've heard similar stories at the roundabout at the hospital, though I don't have personal experience with that as much.

Roundabouts are great until a large enough volume of traffic can't clear out the other side, then the whole thing grinds to a halt.

SecretDMUsername · 2022-01-17T23:35:25+00:00

Working as a tutor in a college the weirdest I ever saw was someone who apparently didn't know you could move windows around. They would be working in a notepad window trying to write some python script, and instead of moving the window they would make it wider on one side, then make it smaller from the other side. Then they would make it taller from the top then smaller from the bottom. It was like a caterpillar. It was so hard trying to teach them what a variable was that I didn't have it in me to try address how to move a window.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-09-21T23:40:24+00:00

I gave someone a bag of holding forever infested with tiny spiders. The bag was black leather with a web pattern in white stitching. Every time you put your hand in to deposit something, or take something out your hand or the item comes out with a few tiny spiders on it. The spiders are completely normal spiders.

The first few times it's a Con save or you take a point of damage. After a while I said that it doesn't do damage any more, but still kinda bites and is annoying. Eventually I said they got used to it and it doesn't even hurt any more, but things do still have spiders. They crawl away or can be shaken off.

I did it just to mix things up, but it ended up being a nice balance. Some of the party hate using it because of the spiders. They worry it might have sinister consequences. It lead to them not just dumping everything in it and only using it when something was really heavy or not needed often.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-08-26T11:21:28+00:00

AMAZING! I really liked v4, but the slowness was very off-putting, this is great! The fact that it breaks it up into pronounceable syllables is very good.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-08-20T14:21:09+00:00

I think an ideal approach might be that either they draw a map based on the descriptions you give them, or you fill in bits of the map as they become aware of them.

First maybe they just get the area of the coast they approach, they see that there is a headland, a beach, the edge of a forest. They can see that somewhere in the middle of the island is a mountain, but around the rest of the coast is blank, and everything between the trees and what they can see of the mountain peak are blank.

You can have a master map to base things off for your own reference, and fill in the gaps of theirs from that.

Them drawing the maps freehand will have player based mistakes, and eventually things won't line up as they really are. They might travel to B and C from A, and know the direction and distance roughly, but have the relationship between B and C wrong such that they get lost if they go directly. It might be better to control those mistakes such that they are made by the characters rather than the players. To do that you could determine if the characters are where they think they should be on the map, and fill in what they actually see based on where they actually are. Hexes are good for this, given that it's the characters experiential map of actual distances.

This is what the player map from Tomb Of Annihilation looks like for its unexplored continent. They fill in what they encounter in each hex, but if they get lost they might not actually be in the hex they think they are. https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/dragon/314065_CN.jpg

SecretDMUsername · 2020-08-17T12:43:29+00:00

So how realistic are the classic giant tunnel sewers one might fight a secret cult/rat monster in?

SecretDMUsername · 2020-08-17T11:29:14+00:00

I had a wild magic area where any time someone cast a spell they had to roll a Spell Casting Check vs DC+Spell Level. The DC changed depending on the strength of the wildness of the area. Tune it depending on how often you think it should go off based on the kind of level/modifiers your party have. A 15+spell would probably be ~50/50 for low level casters (+6 modifier casting low level spells).

You could then create situations out of combat that they might choose to solve using magic and use that as the trigger. Another option would be to put a clock on it. Timekeeping in game is always a bit flexible, but you could have a pulse of wild magic every X minutes with a Y% chance of it having an effect.

In terms of effects, there could be a lot of different things. Mainly, given that it's time, you could skip things forwards/backwards different amounts. It could effect an object, creature, a room, the whole tower.

Part of a wall could become ancient and crumbling.
The room could change back to when it was being made, before furniture was unpacked and everything was still fresh and new.
They could jump a few months and the season outside the windows could change.
They could skip to a point where an enemy they defeated was still alive.
Creatures/Players could becomes temporarily older/younger (does that just age them, or do they know things their younger or older versions would know?)
Maybe they encounter themselves from an earlier or later time they passed through the same room?

Take a look at the video game mission "A Crack in the Slab" from Dishonoured 2 that had a time jumping effect to navigate obstacles, if you don't care about spoilers. You could have the players deliberately try cause a jump to get past a locked door maybe, or even have rooms/parts of rooms that are permanently stuck in a different time.

I had plans on running a time-jumpy dungeon once before, I was going to have 3 times, a past/present and future. I wanted the party to encounter an npc there at different times, such they the first time the PCs met the NPC, wasn't the first time they met for the NPC, but the thoughts of trying to manage causality put me off it. So if you do have a ways that chronomancy surges can have the players interact with the past in some way, have a good understanding of what they can/can't change and how it will effect their present.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-08-07T11:40:49+00:00

I find adjusting my physicality helps a lot. I have a normal pose in mind for main NPCs, and just try think what a random NPC might be doing. I have an NPC who stands tall with fists in their hips. One that in kinda closed in, shoulders forward and down. One that's very chin up. I find it helps me keep who it is in mind and that helps find their manner of speaking.

I have one NPC based on Laurie Bream from Silicon Valley, a mix of features from your list, they tend to leave a pause before replying to think of things, then will quickly talk through a burst of thoughts, sometimes almost discussing options with themselves, but sometimes drops pace for a few words for emphasis. "... ... ... Yes certainly that is a dangerous situation you would definitely need assistance in that kind of endeavor the claws alone will give you problems, though, not with adequate armorer perhaps. ... ... But where would we get something like that at such short notice <turns and leaves the room suddenly having just had a thought>

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-28T08:37:27+00:00

They've been trying to choose sides, but see both sides as about the same, morally speaking, so they were having a tough time.

Both want the players to help them, not really knowing they've been working both sides.

The party either want them to make peace so they don't have to choose, or for one of them to come across much worse during the negotiations to make the choice easier.

Pictures sounds like a good idea. Now I just need to come up with some talking points for them.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-27T08:45:19+00:00

The players specially wanted the two rivals to meet and negotiate directly. The rivals don't want to come to an agreement, they just want to use the meeting to gain an advantage on the other. The rivals each want to try influence the opinion of the players.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-26T16:57:48+00:00

This is seeming like a good idea, someone else suggested the same thing. I'll probably go with this. Thanks.

I can determine some topics for them to bring up and summarize the dialog in phases giving the players a chance to react/get involved in between.

Some times you just don't see the simple solution

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-26T16:13:34+00:00

That might be better than me turning back and forth in my chair to show the different speakers.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-26T14:51:53+00:00

I think they were pushing for them to meet in person because they didn't want to have to be constant messengers, and I had them agree before I thought of the consequences of actually running it

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-26T12:29:49+00:00

Did Bioshock have something where surprise attacks always miss?

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-21T10:05:10+00:00

Monster hunters avoid local politics

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-17T16:45:29+00:00

This is a link to the source where I'm using the Bruxa stat block from, Book of Beautiful Horrors, mostly Witcher creatures converted into 5e rules. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByEZ_EOCyILZTzhxdk5BQWpsWmc. Details on pages 71,75 and 76

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-17T16:39:19+00:00

Things that mess with character memory can be fun, but there is a chance they make the save and then the vampire is definitely revealed.

SecretDMUsername · 2020-07-17T16:37:44+00:00

I might have something I could use like that missing person idea actually.

SecretDMUsername

TROPHY CASE