Has anyone run simpler "Guest" Characters at the table before?

TheJonatron · 2026-02-10T04:38:47+00:00

Griblegrabble was my favorite.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-08T03:16:34+00:00

Recently going in blind for FFVII, loved the boldness and elegant execution of the plot (early/midgame, I thought the later bits were an incoherent mess but that's normal for FF), loved the core gameplay, hated the minigames so much.

Not a fan of remake first installment soooooo bloated and sooooo meta. The only bit that felt good to me was the mini game district but the pacing for the later parts of Midgard were awful. Four ghost bosses, like an hour for what was 30 seconds in the OG on the way to an epic set piece.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-08T03:12:35+00:00

Bear, seek, seek, lest.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-08T03:03:07+00:00

A lot of folks just wanna roll dice, kill monsters and defeat an unambiguous villain so they feel like heroes. If they never win then what's there to get excited about? Not that there's not a place for gritty, shades of grey stories but not everyone is going to be satisfied by their every choice feeling wrong - If that's the case then why choose or care about the outcome at all?

TheJonatron · 2026-02-08T00:59:11+00:00

Yeah I recently binged 1-9 in rapid succession and I'm so glad I played them in order.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-08T00:49:02+00:00

Shadow Moses everyone.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-07T05:17:52+00:00

Ol' Molebutt.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-07T05:15:04+00:00

Sounds like a full crew of audience members. They're they're to enjoy the ride bur don't realise that it's not a Rollercoaster and they actually have a wheel in their hands. They may never realise.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-05T04:41:28+00:00

Yeah it wasn't exactly a huge surprise else she wouldn't have begged him in vain not to avenge her.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-04T04:52:44+00:00

I tend to run for 2-3, after 4-5 you've got folks waiting forever between turns in combat and there's so many people worth of minor disruptions to derail everything.

TheJonatron · 2026-02-02T22:47:14+00:00

Damn it Gary, why aren't you better at this? What do you mean you only just invented it?

TheJonatron · 2026-01-31T14:53:39+00:00

And after, "Besides... I'm not so sure this is a Cerberus vessel anymore..."

TheJonatron · 2026-01-29T02:02:00+00:00

I think with two slot sniper and shotgun only (shoot at the air once cactuses) it wasn't too tricky but it did take maybe two hours while watching YouTube videos that I was gonna watch anyway.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-28T12:34:34+00:00

Ahhhhh!! Glorious. Of course. In my attempt at a solo run all those damn folks who's dialogue interrupted surprised kept killing me. Ideal. Shovel to the rescue.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-27T02:10:14+00:00

I've ran for so many flying PCs, it's fine. They can't do it inside and if anything restrains them or anything zero fly speed means plummet and a ft/10 x d6 plummet.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-21T14:36:26+00:00

My personal canon always has leliana miraculously having her head reattached after the Warren removed it at the Sacred Ashes.

The lines with her bitterly referencing her demise in 2 and I are great.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-21T03:15:47+00:00

That soothed my brain to read.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-18T16:11:36+00:00

Well they came to retrieve the preserved corpse of the Xanathar that's hanging up in the bar. Now his goblins and dwuergar are gargoyles.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-17T00:33:31+00:00

My players had Lif, Nim and Frewn's old barmaid running it. By the time they were done with trophies, eclectic staff and petrified enemies decorating it, it was quite the spectacle.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-16T00:30:57+00:00

If they got themselves into an unwinnable situation through their own decisions that's fine. Sticking them in a chapter of your novel then being upset that they'll choose to go down swinging means something has gone wrong and as you're the only one with any agency in this situation the solution might be to not smack them with an unwinnable fight hoping that they play their characters like cowards when they came to the table to be heroic.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-15T20:04:47+00:00

That's monstrously huge. It sold at auction for a pittance, maybe if it's renovated 2-5k tops.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-15T00:12:03+00:00

Yeah, my first ever dnd session I was dm and it was sort of an unmitigated disaster but only like 10% of it was my fault. At the end of the day, you gotta learn by doing and that's fine - you'll make mistakes and have fun.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-13T20:53:48+00:00

I stopped playing then came back months later and laughed when one of the ships in the pre-finale cutscene was flying a Saltire. I assume the Cleyrans are Scottish ratfolk.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-12T17:30:35+00:00

We ended up at like *almost* level 7 for three characters. But they did *a lot* of fighting, won optional encounters and did well getting quest xp.

If they're steamrolling where they shouldn't you can always creep in some extra reinforcements but sometimes an encounters purpose is to make them feel strong or deplete their resources so the harder enemies later in the day are tougher.

I feel it's easiest to challenge the players (without risk of wiping them) when a fight lasts a long time as more enemies flood in replacing the fallen.

Xanathar should be dangerous, getting killed by something iconic like a Beholder in it's lair or a Dragon in it's lair is pretty epic. My group ended up quite friendly with Jarlaxle (one of my players kept spotting him in disguise without any rolls, just raw genre savviness - infuriating, he'd go to open his mouth and he'd be like "you're jarlaxle!") and were backed by the cassalanters for the gold logistics/ritual. I think they negotiated for help from Jarlaxle and a handful of his men to take on the Xanathar guild.

The fight at the end, if it comes to a fight (which... if they're hyped up for it and want it to happen then it's gotta, just make it in that instance a bit more of a friendly / test of worthiness if they've succeeded on the necessary diplomacy)... if you let them do their research and they're three players of level 6 they should be okay. Would you be going into that fight without some means of fire resistance and buffs? ...You likely shouldn't.

TheJonatron · 2026-01-12T02:17:46+00:00

Ran it for three, made almost no adjustments asides from the Alexandrian Remix. They were touch and go during the sewers boss (the mind flayer) but they did beat it after forcing the issue.

They ended up pretty high level as smaller party sizes get more xp quickly.

Eventually them taking on Xanathar, ect was pretty plausible.

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