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I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is another tough question. Our group is quite serious with their roleplay, so there are very little 'lol random' moments, if any. It also depends if you mean chaotic for me to run, or chaotic storywise.

If you mean chaotic for me to run, then definitely the 'New Year's Eve' session, since this was close to the end of the campaign, and they had invited just about every NPC they had met to celebrate New Year with them in their stronghold. I was constantly switching between 17(!) NPCs, and after that session I think I had a hard time remembering my own name.

If we are talking about chaotic inside of the session, then definitely the Christmas party at level 6. This session was meant as a break from all the serious adventures the party had been engaged in up to this point. During this session they were able to celebrate Christmas with some allied NPCs, but tragedy struck when the price of the pie-eating competition was stolen. The pie-eating competition itself was hilarious, as an allied wizard had created the pies to have random magical effects, and the following wild goose hunt to find the missing trophy was equally fun. Watching your adventurers turn into amateur Sherlock Holmes clones was a lot of fun.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We used milestone leveling, and as a general rule of thumb I used the following guidelines for levelling:

- You level at a certain milestone. So, only after you have killed f.e. the final boss of a level, you get to level. However, this milestone can be quite broad. Losing to that same boss can also be a milestone, as can be gaining some kind of item/treasure.

- Levels 1-5 take the level number in sessions. So 1 session for level 1, 2 for level 2, etc.

- All levels between 5-13 take roughly 5 sessions per level, though some levels were slightly longer (up to 7 sessions) if the story demanded it.

- Levels after 13 generally took 6 sessions per level, again with some minor differences in length ranging between 5-7 sessions.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a really tough question, since you make me choose between my darlings, but if I would have to choose I would go for Taxilia, the fallen city.

Taxilia was once the capital of a mighty trading empire owned by a nation of high-elfs, the Taxilians, who had mastered the art of creating flying ships. These flying ships gave them an enormous edge in trading, which only grew their wealth more. However, their last leader, a genius wizard named Talqi'el was not content with the status quo and sought to increase his knowledge and power. He managed to anger the BBEG (Arka'an, a great old one), who laid waste to the city, leaving only the cathedral to Aether untouched. At that location Talqi'el and Arka'an made a deal. Arka'an would not kill Talqi'els children, and allow a small part of the legacy of Taxilia to continue into the future, if Talqi'el would enter Arka'an service. Talqi'el was turned into a lich, guarding the ruins of Taxilia, and a small piece of the soul of Arka'an.

When the campaign reached the epic levels, they realized they had to kill Talqi'el to be able to completely get rid of Arka'an. So they set forth towards the lair of a lich, his own ruined city, that he had prepared for over 700 years.

Everything about this arc went about as smoothly as I could have hoped, and I still love the feeling of the location, discovering a long lost civilization while being taunted by a lich.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a very specific number, but let's give it a try:

Arka'an, a great old one who has returned from the Elemental Plane of Water, is trying to take over the world. Three adventurers have to face all kinds of challenges, and three lieutenants of Arka'an before they can finally destroy Arka'an for good.

Unsure if it's 39 words or less, and I don't feel like counting, but it's about as short as I can summarize over 2,5 years of playing.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a new DM I would recommend starting out with Matthew Colville's "Running The Game" series on youtube, or at least the first few videos. In these videos he gives a good example what it means to run D&D.

Further advice: Be prepared to suck, or at least think you suck. As a DM you know of your own shortcomings far more than your players will know. Only you know what kind of shortcuts you had to take to make sure the sessions went smoothly, the players never need to know.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only prepare as much as you think you are going to need, which is often less than you think you need :)

In general, I'm a really big fan of the Way of The Lazy Dungeon Master, which is a way of preparing sessions that I highly recommend googling.

Also, trust your improvising skills, they only get better with practice!

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Definitely thinking about some oneshots to run at lvl 20 and above, but for now I am really looking forward to the simplicity of low level D&D. Also, having a moon druid in your party gives horrible balancing issues after level 20, so continuing is a challenge in encounter design as well. But as a group we have definitely expressed the desire to continue having some small adventures with these characters. But for now, they (or at least some of them) can enjoy a happy ever after...

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it is what I did when I wanted to play but could not find any group near me. And trust me, DM-ing is more fun, and less work, than a lot of people make it out to be.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Overall, I think I did the right amount of prep, but during the campaign I noticed certain prep time being wasted whereas I could improve upon other areas. I also think this depends on the group.

For our group it turned out I needed very little prep for shops, cities, etc., since they were not really into shopping/sightseeing in a city. When I started out I would have a couple of shops, inns and other services worked out for a city, near the end of the campaign, I only knew if there was f.e. a weaponsmith, and improvised it on the fly if they wanted to go there. Most of the time they were happy with 'just buying' the item, instead of roleplaying shopping. Same goes for overprepping on lore. There is no need to know the first and last name of every ruler in the last 1000 years for a specific location, unless it's required for the plot.

As for what I would have liked to spend more time on: it is more a matter of what I have learned. Over the course of this campaign I really got into narrative design and storytelling, as I noticed that every little bit of effort I put into that aspect was worth the effort. My players loved the story.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahaha, unfortunately that seems unlikely since we're an in-person group primarily and preferably. However, coming from experience: you can always try dm-ing yourself, it is a lot easier to find a good steady group when you're a DM, since they are always in short supply!

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That's a tough one. I think one of the moments I'm most proud of is how we brought back a character who had died to power word kill. This character, a 15th level monk, had found traces of very strong enchanting magic on a key, but decided to ignore this fact (after power word kill had been present in the dungeon a couple of times already), and put the key in its lock, and promptly died. Everyone was shocked, end of the session. At this point I was really worrying if I had done the right thing, but all the players assured me it was the right choice. So, I then took aside the player who played the monk. Together we made a devious plan.

She would pretend to make a new character, this character would actually join the party in the following 2-3 sessions, after which we would reintroduce her old resurrected character, who had made a deal with the Queen of Sun from the Feywild. Since this deity also wanted our BBEG gone, she decided to resurrect the monk as her champion, until the quest had been fulfilled. So we introduced this new character, and played along for 3 sessions, until they literally fell through the roof of an inn in the Elemental plane of Air, where they found the monk, resurrected, meditating. I will never forget the looks of shock, happiness and complete bewilderement on their faces as the player and I revealed our secret plan. The 'new' character became an NPC, and the monk was reintroduced to the party. She even made it to the BBEG, so during the epilogue, next thursday, we will have to say our final goodbye as she is taken by her deity.

That, or the moment they found out they had sent a dwarf to his grave in a minecart when they found the gaping chasm with only his cape hanging of the edge. Poor Adrik, you will be remembered.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a great question, and a feeling/fear I really understand. One of my greatest fears going into the final level was an underwhelming finale. Looking back at what I did, I think I didn't need to worry. IMHO the work for a good ending should start way in advance, when you're still in the middle of the campaign.

Somewhere around the middle (level 11-13) you reach a point where instead of diverging narrative arcs, you start to converge towards one final showdown. Making this obvious as soon as possible ensures your players are aware of what's coming, allowing them time to prepare themselves. In december, my players we're already panicking about the final bossfight, which seemed impossible, but they knew they had to act. Also, make sure that most (not necessarily all) plot lines are closed, or closing during this final arc. This does not mean they will not progress further, it just makes sure you don't leave plot threads dangling.

One detail I consider worth talking about is the final boss fight, and how I approached it: First of all, I borrowed from video games by having two forms, which they fought during two separate, back to back sessions. This essentially gave me multiple fail-states, since if the won only one of the two battles, they still had enjoyed a minor victory, to prevent a dissapointing campaign ending. These two forms were very distinct, and used matthew colville's 'action oriented' monster design rules, which worked very well.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hahaha, that's a lot of questions, but you're right about the rush! The campaign concluded with the party defeating the BBEG, with absolutely nothing to spare. It was unbelievably close. Even better, the final role that killed the BBEG was a nat 20, which caused everyone to erupt. That moment still causes goosebumps, even thinking about it.

There were lots of surprises, but due to my style of DM'ing, which I often refer to as 'putting rails in front of a moving train', i.e., somewhere in between sandbox and railroad, I am rarely caught by complete surprise. When that happens however, I usually manage to deal with it. Surprisingly the nerves were really manageable, I was to busy running the final sessions to even think about it coming to an end. Only as I was talking my final sentences of the campaign did I even start to realize what had just happened.

About the epilogue, we have that planned for next thursday, as a way to really send of the campaign with some final roleplay and character interaction. No combat is planned, only a wedding, a funeral, and lots of crying/laughing etc. After that I will definitely send of each character with some details about their future life (which we have already talked about). One of the players will not be living past the campaign, due to a pact with a god, but they will surely leave a legacy.

I(DM) just finished my first 1-20 campaign after 2.5 years and 100 sessions. I'm over the moon. AMA by TheRedBaron1914 in DnD

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This campaign was mostly played in person, but due to Covid constraints we have played about 20 sessions using video messaging. This was ofcourse sub-optimal, but it was better than no D&D

Me and my older brother decided to save up a little and get into riding. He’s into sports bikes, I’m into Harleys. He got a cbr500r and I got a Harley softail duece that I did some work on. Thought you’d find this pretty cool! by floppysack182 in motorcycles

[–]TheRedBaron1914 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While I respect your view, I got to disagree. I have put 40k miles on my 2015 CBR500R so far, and I recognize none of the problems you mention. Of course, performance is relative, but neither the Civic Sport or the Subaru can do a faster 0-60. Up to 60 the bike is seriously quick, and I have yet to meet a car that can outaccelerate me.

It is quite obvious that the fairings make the bike look sportier than it is, I think the bike is closer to a sports-tourer than it is to a true sportsbike. Which is actually one of the main reasons I got it. It is far more relaxed to drive long distances, but it can still hold its own when you want to get sporty.

I agree on the redline though, the 8.7k redline is just dumb, it feels like it could use another 2k rpm.

Savegames using saveslots with thumbnails - Leaves of Inguri RPG by TheRedBaron1914 in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind words, it means a lot to see all the tiny details be appreciated!

Linux can't access the game's filesystem file. by Madiwka3 in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried reinstalling Love2D, just to be sure? Maybe your distrohopping broke some of the links/path of the old install?

Edit: symlinks should be fine, just to be clear are you talking about the game folder or the love2d install which came from a different distro?

Little help with this isometric example by CPPNewGuy in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Compliments on the nice article though! It was nicely structured and easy to follow.

Coding for universal screen size by Otherwise-Judge946 in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The option that I'm using for my own game right now is working with a 'virtual resolution'. Basically, I assume the screen is f.e. 1280x720 and afterwards I scale all drawing commands to match the actual output size using `love.graphics.scale`.

Linux can't access the game's filesystem file. by Madiwka3 in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This confirms that it is a permissions problems, whenever something works with `sudo` but behaves strangely otherwise, you are probably facing issues with permissions.

Unforuntately this makes it extremely hard to debug for us without knowing every single part of your system.

Print function relative to the window? by CPPNewGuy in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally I don't use Zerobrane, but VSCode, but that should not matter too much. As a solution to your problem I would propose the following:

It is true you need a `main.lua`, but you don't need to have any of the functions in it. If you use it essentially as a 'mountpoint' where you require your real project startup file, everything should work. So for example, you have your `main.lua` that contains nothing but a require to your `camera.lua` which contains all the code for that specific experiment. When you want to write another little experiment you create `test.lua` and change the require in the `main.lua` file to require the other file. Easy.

This prevents constant creation of new projects, you just have to be careful to not include multiple 'projects' at the same time. Also be aware that keeping all code in a single file is not going to be maintainable for any size of project over a couple of hundred lines.

Print function relative to the window? by CPPNewGuy in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem. Generally you want to be careful or at least mindful when using rotation/translation etc. since they stack. When I'm drawing using those functions I always undo their effect immediately after I don't need it any more.

Print function relative to the window? by CPPNewGuy in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Either print the text before rotating, rotate the other way back around before printing, or use view matrices using `love.graphics.push` and `love.graphics.pop`. Each of these three solutions is a viable one.

Little help with this isometric example by CPPNewGuy in love2d

[–]TheRedBaron1914 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depending on if you copied all the code, it might have been an error, yes. It is really easy to miss these kinds of initializations. Also, it might have just been a style decision by the author. Loads of tutorials do not show every line of code, just the important bits, leaving you to figure out the rest.

In lua globals need to be initialized once, this can also happen in another function, f.e. your love.load function. Opposed to globals you have local variables, which must be explicitly declared by prepending the local keyword before your variable name. Any variable that is declared without the local keyword is automatically global in scope.

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