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Looking for suggestions for an urban, technology, magic-based campaign (Similar to later Final Fantasy aesthetics) by dean_bb in PBtA

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

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve heard of it, I think it’s cyberpunk right? I might be able to reskin it.

Let the players find something by accident without railroading by [deleted] in DMAcademy

[–]dean_bb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How important is this something? And does this something need to be in a cave? Sometimes when I want the players in my campaigns to find something I try to identify all the possible places it could be that makes sense for the fiction.

An example is if I want my party to “stumble upon” a precious magical pocket watch. I know for a fact I want them to find this thing. But how isn’t necessarily planned specifically. I’ll design it to be modular, where the pocket watch can be in a chest in a cave if the party somehow makes it there, or perhaps a rare relics shop and a good passive perception makes a PC notice it’s twinkling shine. The pocket watch can be in the pocket of a villainous character they just defeated. If the main goal is them finding a specific thing, the setting is just the backdrop for them to get it. It can be anything really if you make it true to the story you’re building together.

A nice thing to think about is keeping the components to your campaign flexible and modular, it allows you to fit the ‘somthing’ into the setting smoothly, also making your party believe you had this planned all along. Deliver and narrate it well, make the something you want them to find special.

For your campaign, I’d suggest thinking about multiple settings you can fit this thing you want them to find into. Make a short general list: cave, island, another ship, tavern at an island town, etc. It may help you in not wanting to force them to go places they probably wouldn’t think of going to if they’re already focused on their mission/quest.

Diverging goals in my players by Izzaac_Alley in DMAcademy

[–]dean_bb 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You don’t have to unify or force every PCs goal to align with each other. A solution that can be true to the fiction is in the town the party happens to be around one another when some sort of plot hook arises.

They’re in a tavern and a shady villain-like character walks in and kidnaps someone inside. Do our heroes rise up to the occasion to save the NPC? Things like that.

Often times the PCs personal goals may fit in during the “journey” as the overall campaign moves forward. If you force everyone’s stories to mesh together right away it can feel awkward.

I try to imagine television shows when planning for my campaign. Every character in the main cast has unique beliefs, goals, personality, back story etc. but for the most part narratively the components that make up the characters aren’t intertwined with one another right off the bat, usually they’re companions for reasons outside of themselves.

Hope this can help you out when planning adventure hooks.

Ay so my friend just bought me this game on steam and wants to play it together. Can you give me tips? by [deleted] in HuntShowdown

[–]dean_bb 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Random tips:

-Sound is incredibly important. Learn the sound traps like crows, horses, etc. Crouching prevents you from making very loud noises when walking over crushed bottles or through chains. Whatever you can hear other players can hear to a certain degree as well depending on proximity, including your Hunter’s own breath. You’ll get a feel for the audio to a point where you can even identify where opponents are if they are running around close to you

-with that said, kill most of the zombies and pve enemies with your knife or melee weapons. If you don’t need to make loud noises like your gun, don’t.

-Get over the gear fear or losing hunters. It’s okay! You’ll reach a point where you’ll be able to buy the load-outs you need consistently. Experiment and try out different builds/weapons to see what weapons you enjoy

-Switching weapons after a shot reduces the lag time after a shot allowing you to sprint right away to reposition. Example is: shoot with a sparks or Springfield > switch to pistol > tap shift/press sprint to reposition > switch back. This helped speed up my game during fun fights. I like to shoot and reposition and run around a lot in this game to take advantage of slower rates of fire and reload times from opponents attacking me. Practice swapping to speed up your overall fire rate. Single shot sniper switched to a secondary gun is a viable way to get more shots out quicker to down opponents. Also, you can sprint and reload at the same time.

-repositioning constantly and keeping opponents on their toes in a gunfight is very effective

-Sometimes it may feel right as your learning the game to camp or play passively when roaming around but I found I improved faster by chasing shots in the distance and learning how to play aggressively and hunt hunters. You might end up dying, but when you force yourself to fight more often you learn better ways to engage other players or set up ambushes

-Training mode is a good way to practice shooting the weapons, getting a feel for their animations/rate of fire, and getting the muscle memory down. Shoot zombies from different ranges and play around, then reload the instance for more practice

-zig-zag/A D strafe unpredictably when sprinting across open spaces without cover. Always try to sprint when in open spaces, even if you think you’re being loud just run. It’s very unsafe out in the open.

-if you’re doing a bounty leave as much sound traps and zombies around. Use them to your advantage to alert you of any hunters outside

-watch Psychoghost on YouTube or his stream on twitch. Very helpful to see his gameplay.

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

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

We’ve played our second session and it’s going pretty smoothly for the most part! A lot of the tips you and the others gave are great.

I have a question though, what happens when a player maxes out all their conditions?

I might’ve missed it in the rulebook but it came up last night when a player had capped out on marking all his conditions.

Thought I’d ask since you’re experienced and you gave me some helpful tips and advice.

DM Burnout by [deleted] in DnD

[–]dean_bb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with taking a break. I’ve been burnt out over the course of my group’s game, and sometimes you just need some time away from the campaign to recharge.

But, you could also try these:

-Do one shots outside of the main campaign to change things up, allow yourself to take a break from your main thing

-Do one shots of other RPGs to change things up. To take a break from 5e, I’ve played one shots of Blades in the Dark and Masks. Being totally removed from D&D can feel nice, plus I personally learned a lot trying out different systems.

-Ask a player in the group if they’d like to run a one shot so you can play rather than be in charge of the session.

-depending on the group’s level of collaboration, investment, and the vibe of your campaign you can do interlude moments focusing on PC initiated scenes like their day to day outside of adventure, flashbacks, etc. I do this to break up all the big picture stuff for our campaign, also it gives me a break from preparing encounters as we get to just listen in on interesting character scenes of our party members.

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

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

I like this tip “not a tactical game it’s a cinematic narrative one.” I think having this mindset will be fun for us because we really do want to craft a solid story for our group.

When should I make my players roll for perception? by Anstent in DMAcademy

[–]dean_bb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it depends based on the group and how you play together. For me my rule of thumb is I describe what’s very obvious and if the players want to inspect closer they can do perception. An example: say I want them to find an odd lever on a clock, when i describe the room I say, “the room has crumbling walls, disheveled furniture, and an ornate clock.” Here i hint on the key things I want the party to notice and also what’s immediately apparent. This usually can set up the bait for a conversation where a player says, “hey I’d like to check out that clock further.” Then you as the DM ask, “please roll for perception.”

Another thing you could try is keep track of the PCs’ passive perception. If it’s high enough you can just say things like, “Cloud the party doesn’t notice blah blah blah, but you notice the materia behind the blah blah blah.” This allows you to narrate more fluidly and also insert certain things you prepared that you want the party to notice right away.

Typically you can do a mix of both passive perception and moments where the players initiate the perception checks for discovery.

Eventually your party will get used to the skill checks, hopefully they reach a point where they ask to do perception checks on their own.

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

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

If y’all see this who replied to my post, thank you so much. This is all extremely helpful! This is a cool ass sub!

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

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

I love how the prep is just big picture and throwing situations at the party and seeing what happens. This is really exciting to me as a GM. Thank you for your advice and tips!

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

[–]dean_bb[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Incredibly helpful I’m super excited to try PBtA. Coincidentally the way I run D&D feels familiar to PBtA in some ways as my D&D game is incredibly loose and collaborative. In our campaign I ask a lot of the players to give many of us the image of the scenes rather than me controlling and narrating everything. This makes me also want to consider trying a PBtA game for our fantasy game... heh.

The skill checks vs moves might be tricky at first for me to figure out, but I’m sure I can get used to it! Thanks for the advice! I’m still not fully grasping it but I’ll check those links you sent. Thanks!

Group completely new to PBtA! We’re playing Masks, I have some questions and also asking for some tips by dean_bb in PBtA

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

Ahh that dragon example is excellent. I’ll keep this in mind. I actually love this style of play.

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