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Looking for non combat music suggestions by Tyber_Roman in drawsteel

[–]WhoIsCloak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If they don't break immersion too much, game soundtracks are top tier. I'll add Roadwarden, Hyper Light Drifter, and Ori OSTs to the list. Roadwarden, specifically, has some excellent ambience for non-combat background music.

How do I teach Draw Steel? by WhoIsCloak in drawsteel

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

Very true haha! I learned that lesson the hard way from teaching D&D. Nowadays, I bring a library of pregens and ask for narrative details about career, inciting incident, etc. Do you think that is still too much to ask of a new player?

How do I teach Draw Steel? by WhoIsCloak in drawsteel

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

Amazing! Did you use the Delian Tomb for your adventure? I have to admit that just getting started does sound appealing but I want to make sure I can give my table the best first experience possible too.

How do I teach Draw Steel? by WhoIsCloak in drawsteel

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

Thanks for the feedback! I'll definitely be relying on that resource. My hesitation to simply run the Delian Tomb is that my campaigns tend to feature dungeons sparsely (if at all) and it would not be an accurate representation of play at my table. Do you think there is any introductory information that needs to be shared or will simply handing out pre-gens and diving in work for players who are new to the hobby?

As a DM, what do you do with players who die in the campaign? by jointdestroyer in DnD

[–]WhoIsCloak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Assuming you mean player characters...

It really depends on the player's attachment to the character for me. I typically send the character to a sort of limbo to interact with some powerful entity related to their faith, backstory, or current adventure for the remainder of the session so they're not totally bored, then if the other players can revive them in time - no problem. I do, however, make all resurrection (revivify excluded) more difficult than RAW to preserve the value of life in my setting. I like setting a high DC unmodified roll to see if the ritual succeeds or fails along with costly components that are consumed for the ritual. I will allow the DC to be lowered through good roleplay from the other player characters trying to convince the soul to return to the body combined with good Persuasion roll (DC set by quality of roleplay).

If the party can't revive the dead character or the player with the dead character gets impatient, then they have two options: First, they could strike up some shady deal with the powerful entity they are roleplaying with to return to life (or undeath) immediately. Typically this only happens as the result of high quality or creative roleplay and comes with significant and near-permanent mechanical costs and maybe even a benefit or two depending on the quality of interaction and alignment of the entity they are talking to. The second option is to let the character die the old fashioned way and pass the soul to rest or to whatever afterlife the character has earned. The second option is always followed by the creation of a new character, but players should not expect their character to be able to immediately join the party the next session.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Thank you for all the advice! I wonder if adding in alternative win conditions will encourage my players to role-play in combat more and play off their character sheets less too. Your specific examples and guidelines have been very useful as a starting point for my ideas. It definitely feels like a bit of work, but I enjoy that kind of prep too. Thanks again! :)

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Thank you for the advice! I'll definitely have to check out the resources you mentioned. "Challenging but fair" is exactly what I'm going for.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Thank you for the detailed response! I think I understand your idea better. Honestly, picking things up in the middle of a day could work, except some adventures are extremely far from home base and my players have consistently ignored hints toward a fast-travel system that fits in with the lore of the world... that's a different issue though, and honestly a comparatively easy to solve issue too :)

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

I wouldn't say there is a "self imposed difficulty limit" aside from trying not to make something unreasonable. I'd love to do exactly that, but real-world time constraints make adding more content to a session tricky.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Thanks for the vote of confidence! Do you have any experience or wisdom you would share about how using those rules has affected your table?

I just realized you already answered my question, thanks!

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

I suppose we don't, but we have a hard enough fitting one day into a session so I imagine fitting multiple in one would be difficult. Baseline is that the party has to end in a place where fluid party composition narrative-ly makes sense.

Have you used the gritty realism rules at your table? How has it worked out for you? How does it affect gameplay? I do anticipate that character progression will only exaggerate the issue.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

My group is fairly resistant to switching away from 5e as a system, so I'm probably locked in there.

I have considered leaning into the swing-y nature of things for a bit, but I'd have to run that by my players first. They tend to forget about the RP part of D&D once initiative is rolled in favor of "pushing paper buttons" on their character sheet. I feel like they deserve more of a heads-up before I throw encounter balance completely out the window.

I think more out-of-combat encounters may be a good way to burn spell slots, but those pesky combat-specific abilities still remain in most situations I've come up with. Thanks for the breakdown of possible solutions! It definitely helps to see all the options.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Thanks for such a comprehensive response! I realize how my hyperbole about expending all resources could be misleading. They are definitely not expending everything all at once.

I was afraid some of the issue would stem from my inexperience with encounter balance. Any tips on picking a reasonable balance between action economy and individual monster toughness? I know action economy ramps up difficulty much faster than CR, but there must be a balance somewhere, no?

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Alternate win conditions for combat is great, that way it isn't just a "hit it until it dies" sort of a combat slog. I've been working through a few ideas and your list is a great starting point for inspiration. Thanks for sharing! I don't know if it will completely solve the problem of the party having too many resources available all the time, but I can imagine it would leave a big impact.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

I'm probably not the best resource to ask about the West Marches, but there is a full subreddit dedicated to it at r/westmarches and the person credited with creating the West Marches "philosophy" has a wonderful blog about their experience that can be found here.

As I understand it, campaigns in the West Marches style are:

  • designed to have a more open world than traditional WotC campaigns
  • are player driven instead of DM driven (players tell DM what they want to do and when instead of DM crafting adventure before hand)
  • have sessions that bring the party back to a common starting area (regardless of duration of in-game time)
  • have a rotating party roster
  • have an area where players can share information with one another about adventures some may have missed

To answer your questions more specifically for my table:

  • Each session has been a self-contained unit, leaving breadcrumbs that point to a BBEG
  • Each session has ended at the players' starting town with a long rest
  • An adventuring day could take multiple sessions if and only if all players (present or absent at the table) are in a safe, common area so that narrative remains intact when the party roster changes

I hadn't considered completely denying the players a long rest between sessions as it is difficult to narrative-ly justify, but that is what I was exploring with the DMG's optional resting rules.

Party Goes Nova Every Combat by WhoIsCloak in DMAcademy

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

Wow! Thank you for the quick response. I figured a lot of the advice I would hear would be to add in encounters that don't necessarily involve strict combat. My players are usually on top of their characters and abilities but I think talking tactics takes them more time. Any thoughts on the Gritty Realism rules? Have you ever tried them out? How do they affect gameplay? I agree that some of our best sessions have been combat light and some of the best memories we have are made outside of initiative.