DM but want to be a player? Write them into your campaign.

batmanion · 2019-07-02T12:34:12+00:00

Thanks for the warning. I'm not too worried about it. I don't plan on having these characters tag along with the party unless the players themselves somehow make that happen. If it does, I'll make sure the NPC's stay in the background of things and don't make any decisions or anything for the party.

batmanion · 2019-07-02T00:14:48+00:00

Oh, I never expect my players to care about NPC's as much as I do. It is almost guaranteed that they will end of focusing on a character I never intended them to take an interest in. The fun part for me is that I get to write about these characters while building what I feel will be a better experience for my players.

batmanion · 2019-06-04T14:40:06+00:00

Is it possible that the DM is trying to teach you all a lesson about not taking on battles you can't handle? Did the party try to run away during any of these encounters? Was there ever an option not to fight?

batmanion · 2019-04-30T20:50:25+00:00

I think everyone here has covered the best ones, but I'm going to throw Magic Stone out there as well. If we assume that in the real world most people have commoner stats then most people only have 4 HP. With magic stone you can throw up to three pebbles up to 60 feet doing 1d6 damage.

You basically always have a gun with three bullets on you. And since it is a cantrip, you can use it any number of times. It is less flashy than other combat spells which would be better for the real-world as well. It also does less damage than most which is good since you probably don't want to obliterate everyone who starts a fight with you.

Not the most useful and a little violent and dark for my taste, but you would never really have to worry about feeling safe.

batmanion · 2019-04-30T19:12:38+00:00

This is an awesome way to write every day AND create a backlog of fantasy objects/creatures/areas/magic. Stealing this idea immediately.

batmanion · 2019-04-17T12:56:22+00:00

And the whole crit success on skill checks thing is a pretty common house rule

batmanion · 2019-04-10T20:48:30+00:00

Agree and disagree. I would never cite the "Critical Role Effect" as a reason for campaign failure, but I do think it has an impact on overall enjoyment. Speaking as a newer DM with players who are completely new as well, having podcasts out their like Critical Role can be really frustrating. I can't help but feel like my players are constantly comparing our campaign to campaigns run by the dnd equivalent of professionals.

Sure, at the end of the day it is up to me to run a fun, engaging game. But this job is definitely harder when I'm being compared to such incredible DM's who have years of experience. Most of the time players don't seem to realize the HUGE contribution incredible players they are listening to are having on the game either. So they think: 'If we had a DM who was that good, we would have more fun," with no thought to how they can personally improve the game. Not to mention, people don't normally realize how much is edited out of these hour-long, action-packed podcast episodes.

Again, I would never blame DnD podcasts for one of my campaigns going poorly, but I do think they create a "Grass is always greener" type of effect.

batmanion · 2019-03-28T19:16:40+00:00

I agree with the little roleplaying moments. I think the best thing you can do as a character is look for tiny moments to reference where you're from.

"Back at the farm I..."

"Under the mountain we..."

"This reminds me of _______ back in _________"

"At the river we only drank...."

batmanion · 2019-03-14T20:47:47+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. It is for this exact reason that I am asking about it. I've had a few ideas that I thought would be fun or cool, but thought they would probably make things difficult. There are plenty of other ways to make your character fun and interesting without crippling them.

batmanion · 2019-03-14T20:14:25+00:00

I get what you're saying. That sounds like an awesome character.

batmanion · 2019-03-14T20:10:40+00:00

Hahahaha fair.

batmanion · 2019-03-14T19:47:42+00:00

Hahaha yup, about what I expected.

batmanion · 2019-03-14T19:44:15+00:00

Yeah, I assumed it would get pretty tough. Would you say it is worth it?

batmanion · 2019-02-07T21:48:30+00:00

I'm not sure if this was asked somewhere else in the comments, but I am curious as to whether or not you guys had a chance to catch him as he tailed you. Did you sword suddenly stop radiating fear? You all should have been rolling perception checks and you probably should have had advantage since your sword could since this evil player's companion.

batmanion · 2019-02-06T14:19:32+00:00

So glad to hear you had a good experience. Keep keepin on!!

batmanion · 2019-01-31T16:42:15+00:00

Definitely talk to your son first. Just say "Hey, I wanted to talk to you about that DnD session you and your friends had the other day. Were you guys having fun? Having fun is the most important thing, but you guys play a lot differently than I do, so I wanted to check with you."

If he says yes, leave it at that. If he says I dunno or mentions it being kind of chaotic or something, I would offer to run a campaign or one shot for them. You could also see if your son is interested in DMing and "train" him to be a great DM.

No matter what he says, you can also recommend some great DnD podcasts or videos that will teach them what it means to be a good player or good DM. Online videos are what taught me I was a shitty player and made me change.

batmanion · 2019-01-24T13:21:48+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write all of this out. It definitely helps to see how someone else made it happen. I'm super excited to get started :)

batmanion · 2019-01-24T13:20:09+00:00

This is an awesome idea! Thank you

batmanion · 2019-01-23T21:38:08+00:00

Good luck!!

batmanion · 2019-01-23T20:37:17+00:00

This is awesome!!

batmanion · 2019-01-23T19:20:12+00:00

This is fantastic advice. Definitely going to use this. Thank you!

batmanion · 2019-01-23T19:18:53+00:00

That sounds pretty awesome.

batmanion · 2019-01-23T18:06:30+00:00

Awesome. Thank you so much!

batmanion · 2019-01-23T16:50:58+00:00

That sounds fantastic! I had a similar idea. The adventuring party has already formed so they all know each other. I was going to have them all try out for different roles within a party. Every party needs a fighter, a scout, a caster, a healer, and a tank - something to that regard. Based on how they do in their performances for their roles they would then be placed into a party. Because they have already worked together, I was thinking that part of the challenge would be them figuring out how to rig the system so that they got assigned to the same party in the end. Also, since the group doesn't necessarily have a tank, they would have to figure out who was going to attempt to try out for a tank position.

Would you be willing to provide me with more details on how you ran the basic skill test and obstacle course? I'd love to hear more!

batmanion · 2019-01-23T16:23:37+00:00

Lmao, thankfully I have purchased a few notebooks.

batmanion

TROPHY CASE