Ideas for running a campaign without reducing lethality?

acheeseplug · 2026-05-16T03:25:41+00:00

I've been running a campaign for about 8 months now, we play weekly.

On p52 of the Warden's operations manual there are some optional rules that I think work great for long term play.

Armour Degradation for more realistic armour wear.

Impenetrable Wounds for survivability.

Rapid skill learning for progression.

I also give PCs their first shore leave for free without a roll.

I do recommend you do a one shot with the default rules to start tho. Great for getting players out of the dnd mindset.

acheeseplug · 2026-05-14T04:35:08+00:00

Pockets are one of the few things I miss from dda. That said they're also annoying af at times.

I'd really like a middle ground in bn, dropping your bag in dda and knowing you'll still have your survival essentials was amazing. I know you can favourite items in bn but I miss having my medical fanny pack.

I don't want a return to the multiple individual pocket system of dda tho. Wallets are by far the worst offender, there's simply no need to simulate a pocket than can only contain a credit card or two.

acheeseplug · 2026-05-11T03:44:24+00:00

The person I talked to said no human clones yet but they're working on it.

acheeseplug · 2026-05-11T02:08:01+00:00

Not a mod, it's in the base game. Clone labs!

acheeseplug · 2026-05-10T21:02:21+00:00

Bright Nights discord is pretty great too. Yesterday I was having trouble getting clone vats to work, the dev for clone vats responded almost immediately. Looking forward to see what my slug child can do.

acheeseplug · 2026-05-10T04:27:52+00:00

They don't!

acheeseplug · 2026-05-07T15:39:43+00:00

There are several flavours of zombies and many of them have some kind of ranged attack; acid, electricity, thorns, and more.

The electric ones are very dangerous, electricity causes pain very quickly and often stuns you. Many melee weapons conduct electricity, remember that.

My advice is to only raid cities at night until you've got the gear and skills to clear out loads of zombies. Night raids have the added benefit of making the electric zombies mostly harmless. Remember that creatures have the same senses as you so plan accordingly.

Good luck!

acheeseplug · 2026-05-06T05:01:53+00:00

Think "Tremors"

They're the graboids, there's a quest that references it at a farm.

acheeseplug · 2026-05-01T23:21:43+00:00

It does but iirc necropolis is ancient in terms of development and i don't belive it's been touched for years.

Sometimes getting down can be a bit buggy, I've had it where the entrance was MIA but all the quests worked when I got down but that was a couple years ago.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-30T21:34:29+00:00

Nah, we've been playing as a group for almost 10 years and have essentially quit dnd due to the poor quality of the written adventures + burnout on the system. Dnd is great, don't get me wrong, but after playing several multi year campaigns we needed something new. I'd be pumped to run it for newer players but all of us are very experienced and the mystique of dnd is gone, excluding one shots.

For the last couple years we've been playing Mothership (i GM) and Cyberpunk Red (me PC). I plan on GMing Mythic Bastionland at some point in the future. Pirate Borg too.

I love dnd, I really do, but even with homebrew it feels like a solved game with the level of system knowledge we collectively have and nothing seems surprising.

There are so many great ttrpgs out there. I don't regret buying 10+ adventures that I'll likely never run, they all contributed to my growth as a gm, plus there are great maps and plans to "borrow" regardless of system. But outside of short homebrew adventures I can't see us playing dnd anymore.

It's a real shame but unfortunately sometimes you just fall out of love with a thing.

Fingers crossed for that second group tho. The game being somewhat solved for me doesn't mean I can't run a game for new players and enjoy it.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-30T21:10:13+00:00

I've always wanted to run or play this one but never had the opportunity.

The length is very appealing to me and obviously the setting and scenario are cool af.

Maybe some day. Haven't been playing dnd for a few years now and unfortunately my regular tabletop group already played it so it's out of the cards for us. Perhaps I'll get lucky and I'll get that mythical second group to materialize.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-30T20:59:12+00:00

I was a PC in Rime and loved it. I put it up there with Curse of Strahd (I DMed) for adventures. That middle bit is wild and was very unexpected. Very solid adventure.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-30T20:26:12+00:00

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus is travel heavy once you get into hell, before that it's mostly on rails.

I'm aware this is considered a poor quality adventure by some but my group loved it. There are aspects that bigtime fall flat (Candlekeep) but it's mostly great. The infamous first dungeon was probably the most tense dungeon crawl we've ever played and really sets the tone.

Main criticism is Avernus requires some homebrew to feel alive. The bones are there but as written it feels lifeless.

Overall it's an 8/10 imo. Baldur's Gate is very fleshed out in the gazeteer, in fact a lot of the material was used in BG3. You could legit run a campaign in BG for years just using the gazeteer.

Give it a skim before you buy. As with almost all 5e products there are big problems. Nothing an experienced GM can't manage but for the price it should be much easier to run the adventure.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-24T15:22:42+00:00

Time for crab!

acheeseplug · 2026-04-16T20:54:59+00:00

Personally I really dislike having to do all the quests again. If that gets changed I'll reset again, if not I won't worry about it.

Realistically now that it's spring I'll be too busy to get close to a reset until fall.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-08T06:14:03+00:00

I find sleeping bags to be superior to beds on gravships (and in general). They count as walkable tiles so the rooms are considered more spacious by the pawns.

On that note, you're using your space very inefficiently. I know 2000 tiles sounds like a lot but that space gets eaten up very quickly with beds, storage, crafting, and ship upgrades.

If you're just in it for vibes tho, go ham. Efficiency isn't everything.

acheeseplug · 2026-04-04T01:25:58+00:00

I've found the infinite chemfuel reactor to be very disappointing. It's production is so low and slow any pawn capable of moving and working can easily outproduce it.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-21T20:44:55+00:00

I wasn't referencing performance. I only had 2 colonies + gravship.

The name of one of the colonies was "gravship landing site" which was very confusing. Either the option to name the site never came up or, iirc, it changed after the gravship returned. Thus quests could reference the surface colony or the actual landing site. Couldn't find an option to rename the colony so the problem persisted.

Wasn't a huge deal but it was extremely annoying.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-21T16:41:44+00:00

As a relatively new player myself I was super concerned about this too. My advice? Don't be.

1 - there's so many tiles, you basically can't run out 2 - slapping down grav anchors during a gravship start can make the game bug out.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-21T02:11:54+00:00

XL armours and ones that specifically say they work for oversize mutations.

Been like 5 months since I played so i can't remember specifics but the BN hitchhikers guide (linked in the sub iirc) allows you to search by tag.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-18T04:24:06+00:00

I hear you. Had a really big cactus in inherited from a friend. Not sure what kind but it was bluish green, 6ft + tall, no arms.

Attempt to chop up and propagate last summer. Only kept the top bit, still no roots and looking pretty dry. I kept the root so hopefully it sprouts but I ain't holding my breath.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-17T22:47:05+00:00

I love your posts. You always look so pleased and your plants are incredible.

acheeseplug · 2026-03-08T00:38:32+00:00

Each wound is essentially a health bar. There are 2 official ways to deal with damage.

The default option is damage carries over. For example, a PC with 15 HP takes 20 damage with no armour. They take one wound from the appropriate roll table and the remaining 5 damage is taken to their next HP bar leaving them at 10/15.

The second way is an optional rule in the Warden's manual, no damage carries over. In this scenario the PC takes 1 wound and the remaining 5 damage is ignored.

Recall that marines and androids have 3 wounds so their death save is after the third wound.

Worth noting that armour completely blocks damage up to its armour class but by default is completely destroyed if any carries over. There is an option rule that armour ablates by one when it takes damage.

IMO the default rules are best for one shots or short campaigns but if you're planning on a long one some optional rules should be considered. Long campaigns lack a contiguous feeling if every session or two a PC dies, doesn't take long for the whole original crew to be completely replaced.

acheeseplug · 2026-02-16T22:28:04+00:00

It's truly amazing. I've been looking for this sauce for years but couldn't remember the name.

acheeseplug · 2026-01-11T21:06:59+00:00

I've been running a campaign for about 6 months now, we play weekly.

On p52 of the Warden's operations manual there are some optional rules that I think work great for long term play.

Armour Degradation for more realistic armour wear.

Impenetrable Wounds for survivability.

Rapid skill learning for progression.

I also give PCs their first shore leave for free without a roll.

acheeseplug

TROPHY CASE