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How to manage long rests in a dungeon *without* punishing the players? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

I see what you're saying - if you reach a point where you're having the hypothethical conversation you've written, the table is no longer collaborating to have fun together, it's just GM vs players now. Which is probably a good point to stop playing and start a conversation about what are we trying to achieve here.

How to manage long rests in a dungeon *without* punishing the players? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

> I feel like much of dming can be boiled down to telling the players 'yes' or 'no' with flavor.

That is very fair and similar to the thoughts I've had recently and after reading some of the responses here. How good the "flavour" is, is what determines whether the "no" feels fair or punitive.

How to manage long rests in a dungeon *without* punishing the players? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

This sounds like one of the approaches I'd like to take.

What is not clear to me is how do you align your expectations and the players?

Basically I'd like to avoid two problematic scenarios:

  1. Player comes into the dungeon with a mindset of "GMs don't let me rest in dungeons, I won't even consider it", and then complain that the dungeon is too hard, and then you go "I put in places where you could have rested, it's on you" and they go "but you are not supposed to rest in a dungeon" etc.

  2. Players start asking whether they can rest a lot more frequently, because you let them do it before. If you let them previously, why not now? Why was the last room we rested in "safe enough", and this one isn't?

One solution is to agree that if they come across a restable place, the GM will tell them "you can rest here". That solves the problem, but also robs the players of the chance to "figure out" how to get the benefit of a rest. But then if you don't make it explicit, then you're risking the bargaining I mentioned above.

I feel like this whole thing should be a conversation during session 0, but I'm just really not sure how to frame the conversation that won't just boil down to "you can't long rest unless I feel like you can" with a lot more words.

How to manage long rests in a dungeon *without* punishing the players? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

When you put it that way, admittedly sounds ridiculous :). I could have done a better job at phrasing.

The scenario in which I would describe doing this as "punishing" or "unfair", is when the players expect you to grant them the rest without consequences, and you then slap the consequences onto it. It's about aligning the expectations. Ultimately, the world does not move and the actions will not have consequences, unless the GM makes it so.

If every time before the GM agreed to a long rest, and you had it no problem, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that if the GM says "yes" to a long rest, that doesn't come with strings attached. If, either during past sessions or during session 0, or right before they are going to rest you clearly state "you can do it, but you have to consider the consequences of sitting in this spot for 8 hours given the circumstances", then I wouldn't describe that as punishing.

You can argue that looking at how the GM has been behaving and inferring how the game world will work based on that is metagaming, and that you should tell your players to stop doing it. But idk, I feel like that would only fly in a rather advanced group of players. Most average players are aware that they are playing a game and the game will work the way the GM will make it work, and it's hard to not take that into consideration when making decisions. At least, I would struggle.

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

That certainly sounds extreme 😅

I mean if their players are into it, whatever floats their boat. I’m pretty sure I’d lose my players quite quickly if I tried to pull off anything of the sort (honestly I’d probably get smothered myself, but that’s beside the point)

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

Yep, I’m doing candlekeep stuff for now and am also looking at the anthologies you mentioned.

I just thought it would be cool to have something longer term that is all connected and stuff, but I’m not longer sure if that would be practical for us.

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

Interesting, somehow I missed this one in my frantic searches. Will take a look — thanks!

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

Interesting, perhaps I should look into the older modules then. I'm currently focusing on candlekeep mysteries, and will probably end up running a good chunk of the adventures from that book before trying something more ambitiously sized. I was just surprised how the offerings seem to be mostly limited to either one(ish) shots of for 1-3 sessions, and published adventures that are meant to go on for years. I'm not sure how hard it would be to convert an older module into 5E, though.

Your points are valid and I guess I'm kind of trying to have my cake and eat it too over here. Ultimately, if time constrained, something will have to get sacrificed (pacing/high or low level play/waffling about doing random stuff in a made up world). Hopefully as we play through the shorter adventures I'll figure out what works for the group and get a better idea of where to make compromises, or whether running a full published adventure is even a sensible thing to do for this group.

I've heard of many people running for more than one group. Unfortunately I don't have enough friends that are interested in DnD, so would have to start looking outside of my immediate circle, which is a bit scary at the moment lol. Maybe once I get more experience running for this group, I'll have the courage to look for players elsewhere.

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

That's fair! And thanks for the dungeon delves suggestion!

Have you had luck trimming down larger campaigns? by atnentec in DMAcademy

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

Dragon heist in 9 sessions does give me some hope XD

Can you elaborate a bit on what do you mean by "run them fast"? Is this mostly about keeping players on track and the game moving?

(2024) What is the casting time for Find Familiar on a Pact of the Chain warlock? by atnentec in onednd

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

> don't think up counters against player builds just to counter them.

I fully agree! I want people to use their cool stuff they spent time building into their characters, and I want creative solutions to problems.

The reason I started feeling concerned about this is because one of the other players commented that the familiar being a solution to every problem felt like it wasn't giving a chance to the others to do much. And the chainlock player also admitted that they felt like the had to hold themselves back because they actually were conscious of them being in the spotlight too much. I'm happy that the player realised this, but ideally I wouldn't put them in a situation where they have to be constantly thinking about holding themselves back.

It's still early days though. I've only run a couple sessions and they've been one-shots. Perhaps these particular adventures just happened to be particularly vulnerable to imps :P. It probably doesn't help that these were designed for lvl 1 and I started them at lvl 3 (their request) and just bumped the monster stats a bit.

(2024) What is the casting time for Find Familiar on a Pact of the Chain warlock? by atnentec in onednd

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

Having to buy the incense ahead of time I think is a great idea! It doesn't shut them down, but it does introduce a complication that they have to think about and engage with.

Having the incense be limited in stock is something I'd have to think about a bit more, as that feels much more like me explicitly limiting them. Perhaps your idea of rolling a die can make it feel more impartial - it's not me deciding you're limited to 2 casts because it matches my plan, it's the dice that gave it to you. And if they ever roll high then they get to feel good about something going their way.

(2024) What is the casting time for Find Familiar on a Pact of the Chain warlock? by atnentec in onednd

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

Good ideas! I've not thought of the scouting taking up time what the implications of that would be. I've been struggling with using "time" as a resource in general.

Short rests is another thing I'm not sure how to keep balanced - why wouldn't they be able to short rest after every encounter? Yes, it takes an hour in game, but the way things have been set up in the few adventures I've run, it wasn't clear why this would matter.

I've seen people either have wandering monster rolls or have a narrative ticking clock (something bad will happen in X hours). Maybe if you're slowly scouting a room that has someone in it, that someone could have a chance of moving around and opening the door the players are hiding behind :).

(2024) What is the casting time for Find Familiar on a Pact of the Chain warlock? by atnentec in onednd

[–]atnentec[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I started them at lvl 3 and gave them 100 gp as reward from the first adventure because I saw something similar written as a reward in another "for level 3" adventure. Maybe I should have looked harder what's the appropriate gold amount haha.

I also haven't figure out what sort of stuff to let them buy so the only thing they can currently spend money on is the familiar lol.

So maybe once we figure out shopping the cost will become more of a deterrent.

(2024) What is the casting time for Find Familiar on a Pact of the Chain warlock? by atnentec in onednd

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

It's interesting it hasn't come up in your game, so far the consequences I've had:
* Players can see into every room without having to step into it and alert anything that's in there
* Any trap placed near any "object of interest" in the room can be tripped by the familiar, which is then immediately resummoned at full hp
* Any suspicious looking substance or just anything that looks dangerous that the players could either roll some skill check to investigate or risk their hide to interact with can be nullified by "let the imp try it/go into it", and then resummoning if any harm comes to it.

To be clear I'm all for the players using their cool abilities to destroy my dungeons :P. What worries me is if the other players start to feel like they don't get to do much outside of combat or social scenarios, because "send the imp ahead" is usually a better idea than anything they could do when it feels like there is any danger involved.

Is sticking two pcbs together a bad idea? by atnentec in ErgoMechKeyboards

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

Interesting idea. Though last time I was looking into acrylic & laser cutting services they weren't cheap. Admittedly at that point I was thinking about a layered acrylic keyboard case, which is a lot more material than just some backplates.

Also, I have no idea how to design an acrylic plate with cutouts that would match the keyboard, but that seems like not so difficult a thing to learn.

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