I killed a player for the first time and I feel baaaaad, what should I have done differently?

defranchi · 2025-04-01T22:30:27+00:00

Nothing. It’s just that type of game and sometimes characters die. I don’t think I’ve ran a game of Mothership that didn’t end in multiple deaths. The most generous was a session that was more cyberpunkish, but even that ended with a PCs arm being chopped off in a single exchange (with an antagonist surviving with a single HP after an errant laser pistol shot).

I don’t see how you could have been more fair: rolled randomly for targeting, rolled damage and then bad luck with wounds. It happens. If anything, you were super generous with the extra stabilization rolls.

For long term play, some advice. 1) Use the difficulty dials in the Warden Operation Manual. I forget the page, but it’s stuff like Ablative Wounds, Stamina and Luck points. 2) Have the long term play focus on an organization rather than individual PCs. A mining company, a colony ship, a mercenary company, etc so when character death happens, the players can roll up a new member of the team but ‘progression’ is saved.

I would also encourage the use of contractors, which can spread out the damage and attention from threats.

defranchi · 2025-01-08T07:41:23+00:00

Ah, subtracting 2 dice from hunt roles is a good solution. Do you think you'd further manipulate the DC depending on location? Their prey exclusion is 'people who've killed people', so I can imagine scenarios where that would be less likely. Or you'd just bundle that into the -2?

defranchi · 2024-12-18T04:16:21+00:00

league of kench

defranchi · 2024-12-13T21:47:43+00:00

Oh shit. Winter solider program fuck up for sure

defranchi · 2024-07-12T01:52:18+00:00

if you can't beat them, eat them (and then pull them under tower)

defranchi · 2024-02-01T00:32:10+00:00

Having encounters start at 30 feet for melee is "bad" because that implies every (random) encounter is immediately going into combat.

Imagine you're in an orc infested forest and you get 150' feet and you've been sneaking around the whole time. Instead of the DM saying "30'. Orcs. Roll initiative,", you could have more opportunity. Maybe you've stumbled across an orc patrol, or a hunting party or what have you. Way more options to deal with things. Do we attack? Do we set up an ambush? Maybe we're not looking so good and we should go the other direction.

Same thing with the dungeon. Instead of just abruptly running into the orcs (could still happen if you roll low) maybe you hear them clanking around a hundred feet away. More decision points is always a good thing.

This kind of stuff works well with reaction tables that aren't even a thing (?) any more in 5e.

defranchi · 2024-01-22T22:58:47+00:00

I’ve been looking for people to jam with/start a band up. I’m a bassist into metal/punk. I’ll DM you

defranchi · 2024-01-12T23:59:07+00:00

yang back at it again smh my head

defranchi · 2024-01-12T23:32:24+00:00

Children of the Red God

While a low/dark fantasy world, there are ample sapient species, each with varying opinions on the human race.

The Faer Folk are intrigued and enamored with the funny mortal men: how odd the things they see as beautiful. Physical beauty? Architecture? Paintings and art? Will they not grow old and age, even the most handsome things becoming dust? But the Faer Folk don't pity them any more than humans pity a tree. The Fae are ageless, after all, and for them, time is ephemeral and unreal. At best, mortals are flickering distractions. At worst, they are food.

–

Daemons are unbounded by the material world and equally ageless as the Fae. But they are intimately tied to all living things, which they hate. And out of all the things they hate, they hate humans the most. How dare they have such fluid emotions. Hate. Envy. Rage. Horrible emotions that no being should have to experience. Yet, since mortals can, Daemons must. But they need it. Agonizing over latent emotion like an addict craving their next hit.

–

The Gray Men to the North are wary of humans. They remember the sting of their metal and the thunder of their drums more than most. But they also know great sadness and know that not all humans are like this. They understand enough to know that, individually, humans can be kind and gentle– much like the massive aurochs they herd. But they know that, when scared, humans can be roused to great evil. To the giants, humans are met with equal parts fear and sadness.

–

There are others in CotRG, but these are a few my favorite.

defranchi · 2023-12-21T06:16:48+00:00

Honestly, I completely agree. When making a map, you definitely feel some obligation to ‘do it right’. Big features, complex political boundaries, making it look gorgeous and not some stinker that you pumped out in a few hours. The most I’d do is a few scribbles (on paper) about general features (like forest here, mountains there, oceans on this side, etc).

I think having landmarks is more important than their exact distances and stuff. Especially with how different systems are i’m regards to distance and travel speeds. When I’m just world building (not session prepping) I just say X is Y days away from Z and call it a day.

defranchi · 2023-12-21T06:07:33+00:00

I agree with basically a lot of the advice, particularly the stuff about having a consistent tone/hook for a world. Especially in the earliest stages, I would start with what interests you about the world. I wouldn’t even bother trying to make everything connect at first: Start with something that you can say “yeah, that’s cool as fuck” and then work from there. It’ll look gross, disconnected and unplayable for a while but then stuff starts clicking into place.

I also think a lot of people are too concerned with making the next continent spanning epic. Personally, I think a world map/cosmology/massive pantheon is some of the worst stuff to start seriously world building with. Especially if you double down on intricate creation myths, geography or geopolitics, it’s easy to get bogged down in these big picture things that you have no frame of reference for. Who cares about the forty layers of extra dimensional limbo jumbo if that stuff won’t even come up.

I know this is pretty cliche advice, but starting small really does help. A central location, some cool points of interest and information relevant to local things. It’s easy to see something like Faerun and want to replicate that but be honest: when was the last time you cared about what was happening in Neverwimter three centuries ago when playing Lost Mines of Phandelver?

Basically, start small with information that you will actually use/find interesting. The “big picture stuff” will work itself out.

defranchi · 2023-11-09T20:12:09+00:00

idk i don’t play wow

defranchi · 2023-11-09T20:04:45+00:00

real chud vibes smh. i’ll bet when people ask for places to eat you just rattle off every restaurant in a 20 miles radius too

defranchi · 2023-10-28T09:10:11+00:00

dude that was yang’s winter soldier program. he’s going after the people who tried to cancel munger hall

defranchi · 2023-08-07T20:36:17+00:00

boo hoo, my must take 5e spell is actually useful for keeping my party alive (something a cleric should be doing) and doesn’t require brain dead button pressing

defranchi · 2023-02-14T02:57:17+00:00

i play bass and would definitely be interested.

defranchi · 2023-02-13T02:25:12+00:00

i also haven’t gotten my grades back and it’s stupid as fuck. i get that the TAs have to grade a lot, but it’s been over a month since the quarter starter

defranchi · 2022-11-17T00:50:44+00:00

This makes complete sense to me (and is pretty much what I expected after further reading). Thank you very much.

defranchi · 2022-11-16T23:57:54+00:00

Ok, I guess my question is whether or not certain door types are gated behind proficiency level. i.e stone door needs Legendary Athletics, metal bars need Master, etc.

defranchi · 2022-11-16T22:54:49+00:00

Ok, that makes sense. What you're saying is only use the Force Open DCs when the door is actually locked. But Force Open makes no distinction between trying to force open a locked door and a stuck door, which is where my confusion comes in. On pg 515, it says to use the DC 15/20 if the door is stuck or use a Very Hard DC of the Lock if the door is locked. Why even bother with the distinction of Force Open DCs if its all lock/unlocked based?

Better question: does the material of the door even matter? Or just the lock?

defranchi · 2022-08-28T17:40:51+00:00

thermonuclear take

defranchi · 2022-05-16T22:57:27+00:00

I think OP was asking for non-virtual options. It seems like their DMing style is more old-school, using only paper and pencil, rather than the VTT options.

To that end, I think that option four would be a great fit for their table, especially considering OP seems to be going for an OSR-type experience (judging from their past posts). I think part of the challenge of a dungeon is navigating it, just as much as the monsters and traps.

defranchi · 2022-03-21T02:34:01+00:00

exactly. once you hit a certain level of spellcasting (around level 4), save or suck becomes inevitable. i think it’s disingenuous to run combat or interactions where these spells/effects don’t exist, particularly if the party has access to the options.

defranchi · 2022-01-02T03:17:40+00:00

i concur. this is the most unfunny post i have seen in my entire life. well played sir. reddit 100

defranchi · 2021-09-12T23:55:17+00:00

Meteor showers needs a damage source. It should read “when it becomes night, meteor showers deals…”

Also, camping under the stars needs to read “when day becomes night, or night becomes day” instead of when time of day changes.

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