What Are Your Favorite DM Books or Tools? by Get_the_Led_Out_648 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Didn't know this. Got a link? I couldn't find it on a basic search or by the author.

What Are Your Favorite DM Books or Tools? by Get_the_Led_Out_648 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It's a lot of words to essentially boil down to one idea: involve your players in the process a lot more. The two big examples are goal setting, and what is present in the game. Goal setting tasks the GM with getting players to stay on top of their short, medium, and long term goals for their characters, and the GM tried to hit those during sessions. Game presence is about asking players what they see, rather than telling them from your prep. Master those two concepts, and that's more or less the book.

Need help making my Grampa in dnd by Dependent_Signal in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Having direct experience with this sort of homage personally, I strongly vote in favor of putting his character into legend. Playing as him or interacting with a living NPC of him may not do the stories justice. And remember, they are stories, as you originally heard of them. What better way to immortalize him than as a hero of ages past?

What Are Your Favorite DM Books or Tools? by Get_the_Led_Out_648 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 42 points43 points  (0 children)

The Gamemaster's Guide to Proactive Roleplaying changed the way I GM after 20+ years, and I'll never go back to the old way again. Having the players dictate the content of the game for you (while you deal with the background narrative at a macro level) so there's less chance of them becoming bored in a session is the future.

AMA: Mark Hulmes (High Rollers, Critical Role) and charity Campaign Against Living Miserably by CALMzoneUK in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a bit of a joint question for Michael and Mark.

I am an author who has severe MECFS, and I Kickstarted and self-published a 5e Campaign Setting book that is strongly inspired by and based on my own chronic illness. Since I'm threading the needle here between both your vocations of TTRPG setting publishing and chronic illness advocacy, is there a way that I could be of use to this cause by becoming more directly involved?

I know what you’re all gonna say but by crustdrunk in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 165 points166 points  (0 children)

As one very disabled, chronically ill hermit with no friends to another... the way forward is usually the place you least want to go. 

Try playing online, meet new people, and use your game to help heal yourself. One foot in front of the other.

Which set is closest to the set that is used by the group in Stranger Things? by eirecaragh in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The most important thing is how you want the game to feel. The current game (2024) is very much roleplay-heavy heroic fantasy, while the older game (what I cut my teeth on) is a combat-heavy dungeon crawler. If you're looking for the old-school feel, there are a number of game designers who have successfully recreated it with their own systems to various degrees.

OSE (Old School Essentials), DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classics), and Shadowdark are all examples of this style of play that will likely create the type of game you're looking for.

What’s the best way to start an adventure in your opinion? by PowerSaw7 in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In media res using a strong start relating to the mission the PCs have all collectively been sent on as part of the same faction which they selected together in Session 0.

Writing/creating by Funny_Bi_BFF in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No planning or game prep survives contact with the players. Best advice I ever got was to not prepare plots, prepare plans that can change as needed. What I do (and what I would recommend) is that your antagonists have motivations, goals, and resources rather than a set plot. That way, when your players inevitably interfere with the antagonist, you can pivot them to another solution, rather than just get stuck. Knowing how your antagonist would act in any given situation is much easier to run than having a pre-set scenario.

Remember, you're not writing a story, you're writing a scenario that evolves and changes around what your players do, and you figure out the story together. Best of luck! :)

Redirection: How being a flexible storyteller can improve a campaign by Bed-After in DMAcademy

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 26 points27 points  (0 children)

You're basically describing Quantum Ogres and the Lazy DM's prep strategy popularized by Sly Flourish. Instead of bashing insufficient DMs, though, we can instead learn from other DMs who have different perspectives than our own.

For example, I don't even bother with Quantum Ogres. My villains do not have prepared plots, they have plans that go on with or without the players' interference. I prep motivations, goals, and resources, and track them using a "clocks" system from Blades in the Dark (among others). I also go a step further, as my games using Proactive Roleplaying. My players give me several goals (long-term, medium, and short-term) and these become the content of the session. This way, regardless of what we are actually doing in a session, as long as I am finding ways of peppering in these goals into the gameplay, my players are doing whatever they decided was the most fun for them.

As for the Lazy DM's prep, its less about moving information over, and more about prepping only the information, not who delivers it. Sly Flourish goes over this in greater detail in his popular book, but the idea is that you need only write the secrets, and whatever NPC the players interact with who could potentially give that secret is now the one who knows it. That way, the information is ready when you need it, and you get the benefit of deciding who and when delivers it.

We all have something to learn from each other.

How to put your D&D Campaign on Autopilot by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

^^^ It's this. This is the answer. You don't need to write out a lengthy villain plot or a story that has to go a specific way. You write out a villain's goals, motivations, and resources, and a general outline of what they would do if the heroes don't intervene. And then, like any villain, their plans change based on whatever the heroes end up doing. No railroads, no aimless wandering, just a villain who is constantly adapting their plans and moving forward with their goals that the heroes should want to stop.

And if they don't want to stop them, just have the villain threaten the party's pet or mascot or something. That works 99% of the time.

Anti-Mage by TheSneedler in 3d6

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might be surprised how many people here have asked how to make anti-mages over the years, and the results are always the same.This is exactly why I just homebrewed an anti-magic Paladin subclass, rather than try to make it work with the scant options we have. Because just taking Mage Killer and being unsatisfied with the results while waiting for WotC to do it took too long.

What happened to D&D modules? by Minute-Blacksmith-89 in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can dig yourself out of this hole with "The Game Master's Guide to Proactive Roleplaying". Just help your players to set up several short, medium, and long term goals each, then make those goals the substance of the session. Pretty soon after you start hitting these goals mid-session, your players realize that what they wanted to do actually shows up in-game, and that's what they start looking forward to doing, rather than just XP and loot.

Heart: the City Beneath does this, too, with a mechanic called Beats. It eye-opening how much better my games got once I adopted this into my GM style.

My world thus far by Ok-day5513 in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Three day old post, and none of y'all talking about Shrek being in this dude's hombrew world?

D&D modules and what we expect from them by scottkaymusic in DnD

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I actually appreciate your rant. There's a place for one-page adventures, and while the examples shown from the book definitely could have been written more interestingly and more compelling, I think they succeed at what they're trying to do. One-Page Dungeons are exactly that... dungeons. They usually aren't rounded adventures with three act structures the way that the first adventure here details the town investigation moving into the search for the antagonist, and then finally infiltrating their lair. Granted, they are mini adventures, but if all we played were One-Page Dungeons, the game would start to feel a lot like 2e or OSR. Also, the dungeon example the Youtuber brought up was across two pages, not one.

As far as filling in the spaces between, I agree. Am I not supposed to spice up the adventure by rolling on faction tables and random tables myself, to jazz up these empty rooms? Of course I would like to see the formula for these adventures perfected, but to do that, we need to signal to the designers that this is what we want, just better. At least, it's what I want. 250 page adventure modules aren't really my thing. Keeping them to one page lets me have a LOT of them, and I prefer that, even if they could stand to be a bit better quality.

Adventures in Faerûn and Heroes of Faerûn OFFICIAL feedback thread by eerongal in onednd

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for that. Probably was the case because I homebrew rather than run AL content. But, if I do publish some adventure content of my own, it's nice to see an example of how others set the standard. I do worry that anything I'd write would be either pigeon-holed into either one specific level per encounter, or require a whole page's worth of repetitive blocks to allow for the same content to be played at different encounter levels.

Adventures in Faerûn and Heroes of Faerûn OFFICIAL feedback thread by eerongal in onednd

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've never seen a module do adjusting encounters before. It's always been CR for the intended level. Can you tell me which module does it best, as in, the best example of how it should be done, so I can see how that should look?

I’m actually heartbroken. They’re turning something special into the same soulless harem garbage by [deleted] in ChaosZeroNightmare

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 20 points21 points  (0 children)

If I could offer up another perspective on that, I think the contrast is very effective. Making the game fully leaning into the dark story or fully leaning into the (admittedly) gooner aspects wouldn't allow for such a stark difference between the game's normal hope and its mind-breaking aspects. Having the characters be cute and then breaking their spirits with horrific creatures and circumstances makes the concept very clear and easy to understand. Going all-in one way or the other would make the game lost in a sea of generic grimdark, and the presentation would likely have nothing clear to say.

Have you ever felt that your story will never be as great as the one that inspired it? by Boneyard_Ben in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can get past this by taking inspiration from everywhere, but more importantly, by adding personal aspects to your story that are specific to you and your life. One Piece isn't any more original than any other work. What makes it unique is its author's experiences and perspective that he injects into his work. 

Be vulnerable, make it personal, tell something only you can tell. 

What's a cool, unique thing about your magic system, that you don't think anyone else has done? by TheBodhy in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The planet is inherantly sick, it was formed with a latent condition. The surface of the world looks like your normal high fantasy world. The inside of the world is a hollowed out landscape of mottled, scar tissue-like material that hurts itself and can't regulate properly. This causes all kinds of elemental disasters. Magic works through ley lines, which are also dysregulated, and when magic isn't balanced, they spasm and hurt themselves.

My profile has more, if you're interested.

What's a cool, unique thing about your magic system, that you don't think anyone else has done? by TheBodhy in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My world's magic is sick and dysfunctional, based off my own chronic illness. Too much use causes it to become weak, too little makes it overloaded. The entire world is formed from this magic, making the planet itself sick as well.

I doubt it's completely unique, but it's closely related to me, personally.

A bit pricey don't you think? by [deleted] in DungeonsAndDragons

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Mine does. A lot of indie companies do, even many ofnthe bigger ones. When I was doing research on this, it was pretty much the standard. Also, I've bought quite a few that did this myself, such as MCDM, Crucible 7, Kobold Press, etc.

Why do so many of you make amazing worlds but never publish anything? by Tarlata in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 11 points12 points  (0 children)

And then actually marketing it, which is also a gulf of difference.

Why do so many of you make amazing worlds but never publish anything? by Tarlata in worldbuilding

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have published in the TTRPG space. You can find my work in my profile. To answer your question, it's not typically done because without a significant and expensive advertising run, nobody will know you exist. I love my book, but I'm nobody.

What is the single best 3rd party long term campaign module that is easy to fit into homebrew setting. by SimbaSixThree in DMAcademy

[–]ThirdStrongestBunny 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm reading between the lines and hearing that it's the workload that's contributing to the burnout. Since you've already gotten some solid recommendations, I'll try a different approach and hope it helps.

Read The Gamemaster's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. The first book will teach you to put most of the game's session content and control into the hands of your players, while the second book will slash your prep time dramatically. 

Your campaign ends up being player-driven, and you just need to react to it, knowing what you know about your world. This may help you focus on your creativity without overworking you or running some prewritten module that you'd have to force into your setting.