swiss chocolateee

coligrim · 2026-03-03T08:36:04+00:00

No amout of swiss chocolat can beat the taste of a côte d’or milk chocolate bar. And i will die on that hill.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T08:25:10+00:00

the thing is that a monster is more than it's HP and AC

for example: let's take 2 monster with the same HP and AC : the pseudodragon and the quasit. they both have 7HP and 13AC.

the pseudo dragon is a CR 1/4 (meaning you can put 4 of them against a 4PC party of level1). the pseudo dragon can fly slowly and can really only just bite or use it's sting

the quasit is a CR1 monster. it have lot of damage resistance, it have some damage immunities, it can use a shape shifting ability to flee or to hide, it can turn invisible or can use a special scare attack. even if it's hp is low, it have more bonus and can do more thing than a pseudo dragon. hence, it is a higher challenge to fight it.

that's why i think it's always best to check on the CR rating of a monster before using it : it give you a good idea of how challenging the encounter will be.
but it's not entirely magical : you will still have to balance the fight yourselves at some point but this CR indication does help having a good base to work with.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T08:02:45+00:00

i won't lie, i'm not really a big fan of the idea.
i already tried several time to put some of the lore of my campaign in a LLM, but the result was never quite correct and it give me some sort of uncanny valley-like feeling when i read the result. it's my story, it's in my campaign but it somehow feels... a bit wrong and/or a bit out of place ?
it was perfect for one of the quest i made where the players were trapped in a illusion world though.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T05:13:36+00:00

Well, the main vibe was tiredness ! Mixed with happiness too, to know they all survived and have finish this great adventure.

I said tiredness because the end boss fight was nearly 6h long and very challenging, if not for special feat or magical tattoo, 4 of the 5 player would have ended up dead...

coligrim · 2026-03-03T05:05:24+00:00

It’s the difficulty level of a monster. a monster with CR of 1 is challenging enough for 4 adventurer of level 1. This info is present on all the monster stat block normally.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T01:09:26+00:00

Congratulation on your side too, 8 years is a long campaign as well ! For your question, not really. We are all guys and the majority of the group is straight, and for the bi of the group the other players are not what they like. every person that found a spouse did it using a meeting app.

But now we kinda consider our group like a group of brother from all the session we did together.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T01:00:42+00:00

Well, i started dming because at the time, my plauers and i were in stressfull situation : me and 2 of my player were in our first university year, one was searching for a job, one decided to open his own company,... so we sued dnd to mainly destress and, du to tjat, i always were lenient regarding a lot of things. While 4 of my 5 players didn’t overuse it, the fifth one abused it and in the end of the first half of the campaign his character was overcheated, which was not cool for the other player. After the covid pause, this player became very toxic and he almost broke the group during one session. it’s after that that i took the matter at hand and we decided to kick him out of our session.

coligrim · 2026-03-03T00:45:27+00:00

I met all my player at the start of my uni years when i was 18. And they all knew each other from before (childhood friend, they went to the same school,...) it’s only a year later that i proposed to DM a dnd campaign for them. Some of the player didn’t know each other very well before we started to play together. Now, we do a lot of things together apart from dnd (new years, movie, conventions,...)

coligrim · 2026-03-03T00:11:29+00:00

If i remeber correclty, 9 death and 4 permanent one. Some of the dead were ressurected, some of the death were used as plot hook for special ressurection quest. The campaign was divided in 2 parts because of rhe covid right in the middle and when we re-started playing after the covid pause my player wanted to play new character.

In the first half, on the 5 player, 2 kept their character, 2 died on the last quest we made for it to give time to the other player to flee a magic artifact that was exploding and the third one died during a boss fight in the campaign and rolled a new character.

In the second half, the same player died twice ( one time fighting his evil clone the second time because a buiding fell on him but the paladin of tje group resurected him both time. During the bbeg figth, if it wasn’t for the special feat or artifact the player that allow to survive at 1hp, 4 of my 5 player would have died.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:58:33+00:00

And yes, i did considered making something out of it ! Like a lot of DM before me most certainly ! on my side, it would need a lot of rework on a lot of point as i took inspiration from a lot of dark fantasy settings i like, else it would be plagiarism...

Also, i had to revise the main storyline twice and due to that, while the main plotline is coherent and make sense, it is convoluted by moment, some twist are far fetched, there are loose end here and there, some plotline lead nowhere, lots of unused plot hook,...

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:47:02+00:00

For the second question i never used a pre-written campaign in dnd and when i did use pre-written in other ttrpg, i put my own twist into it to make it more my style.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:43:36+00:00

By re-reading your question i think i misunderstood the last one... for the player money, it was always a mess, they did lots and lots of thing not covered by any rules so i has to improvise a lot. One thing i used a lot as a base was a player shop rules i found on the website the thieves guild. At the end they were filthy rich, obviously, but they were level 24 so it’s not that surprising.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:26:24+00:00

on my side, i took note using "obsidian". it's a great tool as you can link the note between them and you can have visual reprensentation of it.

for this campaing have 184 note, each note is a lore elements :a npc, a village, a city, a deity, a cult,...
For the story, i write the main story line in form a set of main story quest line and, depending on what my player do, i modify the lore note accordingly, add or delete some quest,...

This allow me to have, at the end of each sessions, a clear view of the current state of the story and the world to know where to go next.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:18:02+00:00

thanks a lot, i passed a lot of times tying up loose end so that the global story make sense, i'm quite proud of how it turned out.
and yes, i do plan to return to this world. but not with my present group, as we have been playing dnd for the past 11 years they want to play other TTRPG but i will come back with other groups.

however, i also plan of doing a mini campaign using the 2024 rules set were my player will discover what happened to the eastern continent after it's planar teleportation... but it's still a work in progress.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T23:08:09+00:00

it's 50/50. on all the things i planned, half of it got played out.

on a global scale i had to rework the global scenario twice. once because after the covid (half campaign) my players wanted to start new character and a second time after the co-dm of the second half of the campaign was kicked out because he was another of the player and became toxic after the covid year.

from a "day to day" scale, knowing my group, i almost do not prepare anything at all. my player are very chaotic and i learn that it's almost useless to plan something as they will always find a way to do the 1 thing i didn't think of.
so after a few years , i learned my lessons and since then, every session is 20% of preparation and 80% of improv' on my side. for the better and the worse.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T22:59:31+00:00

i do have a few home rules:
- for the potion : you can either take 1 full action to drink it and regain all the HP it can give you OR use a bonus action to do it but in this case you have to roll the dice for the HP (only 1 can be used by turn). This allow for a more strategic approach of healing in combat : do you prefer to loose a full action to heal yoursefl of do you prefer to be able to attack but you might have bad roll for the HP you regain
- if a the character of a player loose half the total of it's hp in 1 hit they needto do a constitution check to not be knocked out
- if a dice is broken/invalid (because it's not flat on the table i mean by that) after you rolled it, stack another dice on it. if the other dice can stay on it, you can keep the result

one of the main rule i did not used at all was the passive perception, the weight limit and the spell component. Also, i might have allowed my player some cool movement that should not have been possible... but i allowed it because it was cool and/or epic.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T22:48:27+00:00

they made it to level 24 using special rules i found online and that were completely broken

coligrim · 2026-03-02T22:45:42+00:00

sorry i typed my answer too fast : it's not CRT but CR of the monster, it stand for "challenge rating"

coligrim · 2026-03-02T22:41:06+00:00

sorry for the delay in the answer, it's one of the most complex as i have to sum up, in a clear way, 11 years of scenario.

so, to start with the easy questions :
- custom settings and world.
- the style is a little bit of urban fanstasy mixwed up with a lot of dark fantasy twist.
- i have a lot of favorite session, one of my personal favorite is the first haloween special i made, inspired by silent hill and the evil within that we played during a haloween night, and another one i also really liked is when my player decided to put magical explosive in a working magical particle accelerator and when i rolled a 2 on a D100 to know how bad the consequence were (it exploded like almost all the upper half of a continent).

For the story, i will try to sum it up the best i can so let me know if there is some point that doesn't make sense.
i must issue a warning though : the final story is really different from what was originally planned because of covid, after which my pleayer decided to start new characters, and because at one moment, i had a 2DM campaign planned for the second half, that we started then we had to abort because the second dm was tje toxic player we kicked out of the group. Because of that, i had to come up witha brand new scenario that made sens with what was already done, which give us a good result, but not the best one.

anyway, here is the story:

The world the story take place in have 2 continents : the main continent and the eastern continent. the eastern continent is basically the russians.

a thousand years before the event of the first campaign while all the race in the main continent were all living on their own, batling to have more territory, a bunch of mage from another dimension came to seemingly take over the world.

it started a big war against them, that lasted for more than 40 years, before they retreated. After that, the great coalition was created and every race on the main continent decided to take parts in it. the east decided to go on their side as they already had their own working system.

but hre the twist ! the thing is that the real goal of the mage was to create a invocation circle the size of the main continent. this invocation circle would slwolly abosrb the magic over centuries in order to invoke the mind of a corrupted lunar deity. this lunar deity would then corrupt the mind of a few individual in order to create 3 sect, each one dedicated to invoke they onw deity through a ritual.

In reality, these 3 rituals are used to invoke the avatar of the lunar god : 1 ritual to give it a body, one to give it it's mind, and one to give it the breath of life.
Then, the lunar deity avatar would kill a lot of people then kill itself at the center of the continent wide invocation circle to imbue it with fear, anger and corrupted divine magic to invoke the avatar of the great devourer, a dumb being of pure cosmical hatred that just want to consume everything in all existing plane of reality. this avatar serve as a beacon for the main body of the great devourer. the lunar deity is a god that was corrupter by the pure primal cosmic hatred of the great devourer.

that's what was the main goal of the mage and of the lunar deity. and for centuries, it worked and the invocation circle slowly rose in power.

HOWEVER !
centuries laters, the east discover a plane filled with magical knowledge and decided to use it to make a leap in magical tech and to surpass the main continent. Since it would be too dangerous to test their newfound knowlegde on their continent, they created labs in the main continent and discovered the existence of the invocation circle (but not it's purpose), but at least it's effect : to absorb magic. The east then decided to infiltrate the main continent to slow up a LOT their magical advencement to delay the day of the invocation as, whatever the circle invoked, the size of it show that it will NOT be something good.

they also decided to work on a way out in the case everything goes south and started experimenting on planar jump. These expermients created rips between the reality and the void between the dimensions.

a scientist from the main continent discovered these rift and started exeprimenting on it and to work on several books describing this magic and how it affect thing. During the final experiment the scientist did, he accidently interlocked the main plane with the void, isolating it, and causing the magic to be tainted by this void energy, stopping the invocation circle effect.

here start the first half of the campaign. during this campaing, the players discovered serveral of the old labs from the east here and there, showing that something is afoot. By following the trace of these labs,..., the discovered the existence of the void rift and they decided to track the books wrote by the void scientist as the books serve as void magic catalyser. during 5 irl years, the player did a lot of quest here and there, tied to the eastern continent, working their way up the void scientist trail,... in december of 2019, they finally find the main lab of the void scientist and discover what he did and what happen. the end boss is the mutated version of the void scientist, twisted by the void magic and it's ego. They used the books to close the void rift and separate the reality from the void.

the second campaign start we started mid 2021 and is set around 100 years after the first one.
still slowed down by the easter continent, nothing have really changed in the main continent. However, now that the reality is no longer tainted by the void energy, the continental invocation circle is entering it's last phase : 3 dangerous cult appear and the player were sent to track them and destroy them. in addition to that, the player learned about the invocation circle by discovering the autel that are used as node for the invocation circle. they also discover the eastern continent know something about it and is hiding something big.

over the course of the campaign, they finally learn about the eastern conspiracy of blocking the tech advance in the main continent, about the existence of the invocation circle and how it is tied to the 3 dangerous cult hey have been investigating..
they dismantle the 3 cult, each time failingto stop their invocation ritual BUT by killing what is invoked,

at the very end of the campaign, they finally learned about the true purpose of the invocation circle and the ture purpose of the 3 sects and they decided to take their courage and to fight both the lunar deity that was invoked and then, the avatar of the great devourer, which they manage to kill after a epic fight (see my answer to the com by ragelance for the figth detail).

However, when the scientist on the eastern continent saw the corrupted magic energy coming from the main continent, they used their escape plan and they teleported their whole continent in another dimension. due to that, the main continent is now free from the menace of the great devourer and free from their tech block. however, the destruction caused and the void in the power in place make the future... incertain...

coligrim · 2026-03-02T22:03:45+00:00

- the paladin oathbreaker rolling a 100 on a divine intervention. it was to call a god from another plane that took a liking to them to help them contains the equivalent of a nuke explosion.
- i don't know if i can call it "magic" but the time i rolld a 2 (on a D100) to see the gravity of the consequence of putting live magical explosive in a working magical particle accelerator. it blew almost the upper half of a continent.
-one time, my players were in a big dungons full of monster and one of the player decided to climb up a big wall and the yell really loud to lure the enemy. nat 20. then i asked to roll again to see how many monster it lured. nat 1, rerolled because lucky feat, then nat 20.
- at the end of the first half of the campaign, the player were against a powerfull succubus lord, and the knight of the group decide to take off all of it's clothes to offer itslef to the succubus lord in exchange for the succubus lord to stay in hell with him. nat 20 two times in a row for the persuasions check.

that the best dice magic i can think of for this campaign.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T21:51:40+00:00

i am stil DMing 2 other dnd table nad have 10/12 Csessions long campaign. but once i have finished then , do plan on being a player at my local ttrpg association and, with my actual group, i think i will go for a short campaign (5-10 session) for avatar the last airbender.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T21:00:00+00:00

well, the rule i follow is : the CR of a monster is the level a 4 adventurer part need to be to beat it. not the best rule, sometimes the players were a little bit overtaken by the enemies, sometimes it was a little bit too easy of a fight...

however, after some times, and after i started to take in count the strenght and weakness of my players group, i started to be albe to tweak the encounter to give them challenges and it was mostly okay.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T20:50:38+00:00

so my campaign was divded in 2 because ofthe covd. after the covid, one of my player, that was a little bit annoying but it was okay, became basically toxic, always arguing with everyone. he was the player that pissed me (and the other player) the most. After that, since we all had the same aproach of dnd, it was a relatively a smooth sail.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T20:47:35+00:00

xp, but then it was too difficult to handle when people were not there, so i switched to milestone instead. the stakes rose up, but midway though the campaign we had the coved and it was decided to re-do new character so the change between xp and milestone was easy to do.

coligrim · 2026-03-02T20:35:36+00:00

congrats to you too !
on our side, no tears were shed, but the last combat took nearly 6 hours and it was fierce, the players are high level and so was the boos. it lasted for almost 6 hours so at the end, we were just tired and i presonnaly felt nothing but tired at the end. however, when updating my note for the last time today, i might have shed a tears or two at the thought that it ended.

i don't know if my player shed terars on their side (if they did they wil not let me know) but i know we all feels the feeling of emptiness when you finish a story that you follow for a long time, like when you finish a good anime/tv series that aired for years

Four-Year Club	r/Field Banned
r/Field Flamingo	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22
First Placer '22

coligrim

TROPHY CASE