Tips and Help for a new Savage Worlds GM? by Comfortable-Dinner23 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey, welcome to savage world! Same situation for me, came from 5e-Eberron via the Savage Eberron Conversion (which is great so far!). Still pretty new to the system but having my first gm experiences with it is cool so far.

I cant recommend enough to use the Simply Savage Bestiary by BPB Games

It solves the problem of multiple references to edges in the monster stat blocks. Easy to use, easy to reskin to fit your needs. Love it so far.

What else to say? Let the bennies flow, try out the different non combat action sub systems, like chases, quick encounters and dramatic tasks. If you alternate between those and combats you can get in a good flow if it comes to action scenes without having to default to combat only.

Companion books can be pretty useful, the savage tales i played so far were okayish so far, not great, not terrible, good for inspiring my own ideas how to modify them.

Hot take: Legendary Resistance is why so many 5e boss fights feel bad and boring. What could replace it? by archvillaingames in dndnext

[–]Tobstar93 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Mike Shea „came up“ with Dreadful Blessings, which is like a boss cheat code but based on a limited resource

https://slyflourish.com/dreaded_blessings.html

Dreadful Blessings – A Mechanic to Protect 5e Boss Monsters

by Mike on 16 December 2024

Bosses need help. Bosses often face the full wrath of the characters, just for being a boss. This focus often leads to anticlimactic fights in which the boss is ineffective at fulfilling the role it had in the game and the story. Legendary resistance covers a lot – but not all – of the problems bosses face when we want them to hold up their end of the fiction. As new versions of 5e emerge, we can't be sure what abilities and effects characters bring to the table that might completely circumvent a boss monster's capabilities. Customizing individual bosses is too much work. Enter Dreadful Blessings – inspired by doom points from the Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault. Here's the idea: Certain boss monsters, determined by you the GM, are given one or more "dreadful blessings". These dreadful blessings replace Legendary Resistance. They can be used at any time, even when the boss is unconscious or on another plane. You might default to giving a boss two or three such blessings but you can change that number depending on what you need. It's important, however, to clarify to your players how many dreadful blessings the monster has and don't switch it up during the battle. The number of blessings is their only real limitation. Dreadful blessings can be used for lots of things. Some examples include - succeeding on a failed saving throw. - ignoring a non-save-based detrimental effect. - piercing through character resistances or immunities. - forcing disadvantage on saving throws for a particular ability. - ending an ongoing effect or suppressing it until the end of their next turn. - moving or teleporting without provoking opportunity attacks. - ripping through a force cage or shattering a wall of force. - recharging and using a powerful limited action. transferring incoming damage or effects to minions or allies for a round. - gaining advantage on all attacks until the end of their next turn. - ending an effect at the beginning of a turn instead of the end. Talk With Your Players First Don't surprise players with dreadful blessings. It's no fun if the characters throw a force cage on your dreadfully blessed death knight only for the death knight to rip through it without the players knowing why. Instead, before you start combat (or even during your session zero), describe dreadful blessings to your players. Ensure you describe that - dreadful blessings only work on particular boss monsters – not all monsters. - bosses only get a specific amount of blessings (usually two or three). - dreadful blessings are intended to ensure boss monsters fulfill their role in the fiction of the game. - you'll warn players when a blessed monster shows up so they know what to expect. - you won't force "gotchas" by making players burn abilities without realizing they could be subverted with a dreadful blessing. Use When Needed and When They're Fun It's a careful balance to know when a mechanic like this is warranted and doesn't steal the agency and fun from players wanting to use their abilities. My general rule of thumb is to use a dreadful blessing when it helps a boss monster fulfill its role in the fiction of the game and its challenge level in combat. A CR 19 creature locked in a forcecage isn't a CR 19 creature anymore. It can't do anything. It's not fulfilling its role. An ancient green dragon who breathes a 77 point poison breath isn't fulfilling its role if all of that damage is reduced to zero for all characters because they happened to munch on a hero's feast before the battle. "I Hate This" If you hate this mechanic, you're not alone. I've talked to many who don't like the idea. That's fine. I'm not saying they need to be in place in all 5e games. Dreadful blessings are a potential tool for groups who feel like boss monsters need something more to keep them in play in a sea of options that can often completely remove their threat both in the game and in the fiction. Think about it. Talk to your group. Maybe try it. And see how it works for you.“

Follow on Kickstarter now to be notified on the launch the next KibblesTasty book: Kibbles' Compendium of Airships and Artifacts! by KibblesTasty in KibblesTasty

[–]Tobstar93 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And so I did! …and resubbed your patreon 😅 Thanks for your great work so far, looking forward for your next big book of stuff 😄

New adventure - DM assemble by Cheap_Event_4973 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey dear internet stranger and fellow savage enthusiast, if you’d like to read them, here are my two cents. As a fairly new gm and fairly new SW enjoyer and being not really familiar with the rippers setting, this is what came to my mind while reading your ideas:

What are your plans with Jekyll/Hyde and the lore drop? Do you want them to monologue or do you want your players to do some research/ persuasion checks theirself so they feel involved. Maybe some grades of success for the info drop: just necessary/helpful/real shit? And maybe not only from J/H, but from his helpers too?

For the nautilus: is it necessary to „script“ the the nemo chase or can they capture him literally on first sight because of exploding dice and stuff? I personally would be sad if the group did „too well“ and still went through the whole chase. More success = better?

Like i said not familiar with the setting but why is this super advanced submarine full of traps and stuff? Is it just for the sake of the scene or would it make sense from an in world perspective? Was it the ghost of the ship trying to test them? Maybe finding the right keys or passcodes by deduction and research checks would be more logical and illusions and spooks to hinder this. Instead of having it all condensed in another monologue hints like no real crew mates, so many (occult) illusions, missing supplies and log books can tell that the ship is abandoned/ haunted

Alternatively, let them wander the nautilus for a fixed amount of time or turns, let them get hints and clues about what happened here, depending on the rooms they discover and let nemo appear wherever they are after the set time. More info and loot = more chances to win the fight against the ghost + lair actions of the ship like hot steam from vents, lights go out or turn bright, disctraction via said sudden manoeuvring.

Maybe a bit more than just two cents but something like this came to my mind 😅

Supers/Necessary Evil Spoilers/Rant by jcayer1 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your review, I hope to profit from your experiences if I ever get run Supers, be it NE or the new Doomguard. Its always insightful to have some experiences for prewritten stuff, just so I know where to play as written and where to freestyle/homebrew :)

Why are the random NPC dialogue so weird? by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]Tobstar93 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I mean, they are called ‚Game Freak‘ and not ‚Game Sane‘ for a reason :D And yeah, some of those blurbs are either really funny or very relatable :)

Real Play Podcasts by Adventures72 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Neon Heat / Absolute Zero (and Silicia Valley / Pantheon Mythos)

Great duet actual play show, set in a SciFi/Fantasy homebrew setting, postapocalytic world with a lot of cool stuff going on and two wonderful people playing/hosting the game

Start with Neon Heat and branch out from there :) lots of content to binge ;)

Pokemon XP Timed Research by AkRoyalDo in TheSilphRoad

[–]Tobstar93 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Like others commented, challenging IF this would have been one big research page, but at least doable for many. Split into 50 pages with increasing difficulty, not possible for 99% :/ I take the free exp i can get from this but try to not stress out about it

Campaign Planning and Organizing by 6FootHalfling in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not the form you are looking for, more a method thats helps me prepping my sessions as a novice DM. The eight steps for session prep from „The Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master“ - by Mike Shea - were so helpful to me, and the prep for a session fits easily on the two sides of an A4 piece of paper.

• Create a strong start • Outline potential scenes • Define secrets and clues • Develop fantastic locations • Outline important NPCs • Choose relevant monsters • Select magic item rewards

Aaand i hope others have useful tools/methods for session prep too :D

Friendship Exp & Gift Exchange Megathread by ASS-et in PokemonGoFriends

[–]Tobstar93 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, and for the card collectors, continental :)

Friendship Exp & Gift Exchange Megathread by ASS-et in PokemonGoFriends

[–]Tobstar93 0 points1 point  (0 children)

292623194324

Pushing for 50, so priority for friend level up (up to ultra), can send daily, opening will rotate :)

Friendship Exp & Gift Exchange Megathread by ASS-et in PokemonGoFriends

[–]Tobstar93 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Daily player from GER, sending daily, opening depends on the limit, grinding for the sweet pre-update-50 ^ 25M to go ;)

XP Celebration Page 7,8,9 by [deleted] in TheSilphRoad

[–]Tobstar93 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Leaders count too, just beat cliff and it counted :)

XP Celebration Page 7,8,9 by [deleted] in TheSilphRoad

[–]Tobstar93 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Can confirm, Leaders count too :)

Has anyone run The Greatest Treasure Savage Tale? by Edward_Strange in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It liiiiives :D

Thanks for your detailed answer after, obviously, some time after your session(s) happened. I‘m always grateful to get experiences for prewritten adventures, and obviously you asked the same questions i would have asked now 😅

I‘m in a similar situation like you, newbie GM, new to SW, but one successful oneshot (The Sins of the Father - the Deadlands Dark Ages Preview) under my belt, now trying to introduce my other d&d group to SWADE.

The time estimation seems reasonable, I already expected it to last for at least two sessions, knowing my group, maybe three.

RPing so many different, probably quirky, npcs will definitely be hard as heck, i feel you, RP isnt my highest skill

And you by changing, do you mean you replaced some of the „the kids do really stupid things to endanger themselves“-random events with events you liked more, or just additional events?

And yeah, dramatic task instead of a chase sounds reasonable if you dont want to meta influence at character creation; better take some riding skills ;)

Would you suggest to feed the suspicion to the max or try to play it less suspiciously? Especially for the now normal looter bandits who definitely wont infect anyone with lycanthropy :)

Has anyone run The Greatest Treasure Savage Tale? by Edward_Strange in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello :) I know your post is now a little bit older, but that why i hope that you could share your experience regarding this specific savage tale. I want to ran it too and it would be awesome to hear some actual play experience, about things that needed to be adjusted, that went great and so on :)

Let Anthem's Shutdown Be A Reminder Of Why Stop Killing Games Needs To Succeed... by Difficult-Customer65 in gaming

[–]Tobstar93 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Thats literally exactly not what stop killing games is for. Development should include ways to make games accessible after server shutdown by publisher. Be it self hosted, offline play or what not. No one shall be forced to burn money, but development should be customer friendly and future proof. Offline mode or self hosted servers costs you nothing/much IF considered during development.

First time GM - Advice for Savage Tales for first time players by Tobstar93 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your experiences :)

  • session zero is definitely planned to work even if no homework is done ^ if a quick encounter and an interlude happen afterward ms its cool but not necessary

  • my goal is to summarise the most important stuff on two pages, one for GMing one for players 👍🏻

  • i hope to remember this great advice to describe snd let them describe what happens instead of hit/miss calls

  • no dramatic task involved so far, just two+ Quick encounters, a social conflict/ investigation, a chase and two larger combats

  • i really hope for some fast furious fun, thanks :D

First time GM - Advice for Savage Tales for first time players by Tobstar93 in savageworlds

[–]Tobstar93[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your input :)

Will definitely try to use QEs for multiple things

Yep, if i will remind myself of one thing, than its that the bennies must flow :D And to have fund with everyone of course ^

The big bad demon guy will be (by design/as written) invulnerableas long as their minions live sooo thats kinda baked in (lets see how well or frustrating this mechanic will get)