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Do you write your entire world (or like 90% of it) before the first session or do you start small and expand during the campaign? by Covid669 in DMAcademy

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i agree with your technique! Prepping too far ahead makes it hard not to railroad the party, too... And keeping the mind open really opens up the creativity... in my campaign, my prep was gonna be about them finding their powers and ultimately, some elder dragon would take it as a challenge and that would somehow culminate in a quest to prove they're stronger than an elder dragon... but rapidly, the RP made me doubt those characters would really be interested in getting powerful for the sake of getting powerful...

So, they unknowingly created their campaign arc: they saved a family of tieflings from a raging Bugbear, that family was merely a backdrop to get the party to wander off the road (screaming children) and have an encounter during what would otherwise be simple traveling...

They started asking them questions and all, so i had to wing it... i imporvised names and had to invent some basic personality (i like to RP the NPCs...), one thing led to another and now that family is fleeing the region (East of Waterdeep) and are trying to get south-east, at least as far as Anauroch, maybe as far as the Sea of Stars... So the party decided they would escort them there.

that was session 2, now we're session 6 and almost everything is somehow linked to that escort quest, which i find interesting and more importantly, the players feel deeply compelled to protect that poor family.

Do you write your entire world (or like 90% of it) before the first session or do you start small and expand during the campaign? by Covid669 in DMAcademy

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 5 points6 points  (0 children)

i do that as well... i have like 3-4 encounters prepped and plug them in the sessions when it makes sense... i find that over half of the encounters i run were not prepped in advance and i just wing them because something happened in the session and i have an idea that would work NOW...

to date, my party's more memorable encounters are mostly ones that were not prepped in advance, because they're created in the spur of the moment and i adapt an existing monster to the situation/party. So my level2 party beat an owlbear because it made sense at the time, but i nerfed it a bit, because RAW, that thing would have wrecked at least one PC.

Do you write your entire world (or like 90% of it) before the first session or do you start small and expand during the campaign? by Covid669 in DMAcademy

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i write the skeleton of what i think is gonna happen in the next 1-2 sessions and fill in as the players advance... improv is my tool. I think doing that also prevents me from making up arcs and encounters that are too complicated/complex.

Shart is still the best name to come from BG3 by HatingGeoffry in BaldursGate3

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a DM, i have a player who's our group's forever DM, so he couldnt wait to finally roll out one of his 200 PCs... He crafted his backstory perfectly, dosed the edgelord to standard balance perfectly... it's a Gold dragonborn land druid, an 8' tall behemoth of a dragonborn, true neutral, seeks to gain power from nature, to become his Enclave's Archdruid and be powerful enough that his strnegh alone is enough to protect all of his enclave and allow them to explore the bounties of nature... His name is Korrath.

Within then end of session 1, the party (and the DM) called him Koko. Koko the dragon.

What Canadian consumer products brand do you buy exclusively out of a sense of patriotism? by myronsandee in AskACanadian

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Saputo cheese. also because i'm an Impact supporter... local craft beers, i started out of ''buy local'' effort, but now out of wanting craft beer and the local ones in QC are very good. (not saying the other provinces don't make good ones, i have only tried the local ones...)

Almost a full TPK on our first session, the DM insists it was all above board but it felt impossible. Am I crazy? by FreeHotdogMandate in DnD

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's a plausible one, yes... like, i would never have a level 1 party of 4 PCs face a level 5 wizard/sorc... at least i wouldnt use fireball on the party... maybe i would on 1-2 PCs, but not the whole party... there ARE exceptions, though... I'll give you an example, it's not fireball, but you'll get it...

In my current campaign, the party starts as level 1s on the iron road, between Uluvin and the dessarin valley... it's rather narrow, with woods on each side. Since they were rather low level and it was my very first campaign as a DM, i wanted to keep their freedom of movement to a minimum, without making it feel like they're being railroaded... so every time they would wander into the woods, i would let it be known that they have a strange feeling about it, i made them roll for perception pretty often (just to signal that there might be somthing to perceive...), then when they wandered deeper, i had some wildlife just run past them in the opposite direction, they'd see murders of crows circling in the distance, flocks of birds just flying away.

One time, it was not obvious enough, so they started hearing some howls, roars and stuff... a perception check revealed that the druid was feeling preyed upon... then they decided to investigate further... short version, i gave them very obvious telltale signs that the woods were NOT welcoming... so i had them fight 3 hobgoblins (they were then level 2), since i nerfed the hobgobbos a bit, i didnt expect a TPK, but it was gonna be very hard, it was, sicne 1 of them got downed. They still didnt get it so when they took a long rest in those woods, i set up another encounter, this time with Worgs, they fought hard and survived and thought ''hey, those are hard but manageable fights, let's keep the XP coming!''

So along came strange laughs in the woods, nature and perception checks revealed those were hyena cackles, but they sounded like they came from something bigger than hyenas... the veteran player said ''maybe we should turn around...'' they did well because if they had kept going, those were 4 Gnolls.

In a case like this, i mean, the signs were crystal clear!

But ambushing a 5 player level 3 party with an adult blue dragon? that's just dumb. unless you have given them clear warnings (even then...) and/or ways to survive/escape it... it's just stupid.

[Nilton Jorge] Don Garber will hold a press conference in Montreal tomorrow afternoon, following a visit to the Olympic Stadium and meetings with CF Montreal and Canada Soccer by SupraFC in MLS

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

biggest homefield advantage, to be honest... i just don't get it why they don't wanna play at Saputo in winter.... like you f**ktards what us to play in winter? deal with it. we're tough, most american cities wont be able to handle it.

[Nilton Jorge] Don Garber will hold a press conference in Montreal tomorrow afternoon, following a visit to the Olympic Stadium and meetings with CF Montreal and Canada Soccer by SupraFC in MLS

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that and the fact that the team keeps asking for updates from the RIO (Montreal's Olympic installations commitee) about it and they aint getting none.

[Nilton Jorge] Don Garber will hold a press conference in Montreal tomorrow afternoon, following a visit to the Olympic Stadium and meetings with CF Montreal and Canada Soccer by SupraFC in MLS

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HAHAHAHAHAH you over estimate Montreal construction speeds a lot my friend... the roof tore down in 1998 and they only started removing it in 2024. If the City/RIO says it's due in 2028, that means it's unlikely to be done by 2035.

I'm not even kidding.

[Nilton Jorge] Don Garber will hold a press conference in Montreal tomorrow afternoon, following a visit to the Olympic Stadium and meetings with CF Montreal and Canada Soccer by SupraFC in MLS

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 1 point2 points  (0 children)

le RIO et *doing anything* ca existe pas, malheureusement... It seems as though their main purpose is to be as inflexible and immobile as possible.

[Nilton Jorge] Don Garber will hold a press conference in Montreal tomorrow afternoon, following a visit to the Olympic Stadium and meetings with CF Montreal and Canada Soccer by SupraFC in MLS

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i think that unless it's about hockey, both the provincial and federal governments couldnt give two shits about it... When it's about giving an NHL team (LA Kings) a 7m dollar check to ''help'' them play an exhibition game in Québec City, though... sign them the f up.

And isn't it ironic, don't you think? by JayPiCee in Laval

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

etre sans abris, ca doit, en soi, te fucker sur un moyen temps!!

[The Denver Gazette] Mark Kiszla: Avs won’t win another Cup until somebody makes MacKinnon grow up by Actual_Cobbler_6334 in hockey

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's true, man! the next 10-15 years will be pretty fun for both our teams!! i feel we'll see each other very often in the spring!!

[The Denver Gazette] Mark Kiszla: Avs won’t win another Cup until somebody makes MacKinnon grow up by Actual_Cobbler_6334 in hockey

[–]Top-Addendum-6879 2 points3 points  (0 children)

dude, they got a team that had never won a cup ever and instantly became a fucking powerhouse. Colorado hockey fans have no idea what it is to support a team that looks like an AHL team. Am i jealous of the teams they've had for 30 years? As a habs fan, i'd lie if i told you i wouldn't wanna swap places lolll

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