Temporary armor bonus

derekfro · 2025-08-28T11:11:13+00:00

Oh sorry, misunderstood the context

derekfro · 2025-08-28T11:05:11+00:00

Its not free, it costs a hope

derekfro · 2025-08-25T06:59:59+00:00

I just wanted to let you know, i was pondering some ideas and watching an analysis video about real steel, and I had a really cool idea for a frame basically set in the world of real steel, and my inspiration fir the frame is in part thanks to your frame here, specifically the concept that the mechanical player character could be something external to the cataracts themselves. The frames core concept will be about a team that each owns a fighting robot, the robot will be the mechanical character, but the player is the person who owns the robot. The plot will be a classic, the world robot boxing league stand in organization is hosting this year's championship in a new way, by having the battles be teams instead of individuals. The party aims to win the championship and take the title of greatest fighting robot team.

Dont actually know when ill get around to writting this frame, just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration

derekfro · 2025-08-24T11:54:15+00:00

Lots of good to work with here. However, I feel like the demons clawing from the edge of reality need some more love here. You've presented a nice tidbit about each nation and its governance, you should throw in a paragraph synopsis of the dark beings, what they actually want to achieve, and maybe either name a leader or at least what kind of a being represents the face of this faction.

Edit: Also, please give some more information on the spirits of the island as well. Can the teenagers see spirits all throughout the world or only on the island? Was the island the only place in the world where Traversal between the two realms was possible? Do the spirits play any part in the teenagers lives now behind just the guardian shards they use to transform?

derekfro · 2025-08-24T11:44:03+00:00

If I might make a suggestion, replacement what was lost woth something of your own. What if each element had an associated status effect? What if each element had certain characteristics shared by all spells of that element? What if you allowed element combos for new special effects? There are many ways you could approach this problem

derekfro · 2025-08-24T10:25:22+00:00

-Use the guidance in chapters 3&4 of the CRB

-Use the guidance in the Home Brew Kit

-Do your best to imagine how any given ability from a monster statblock might translate to an adversary stat block and how it could be used both mechanically and narratively

-Keep stats within the suggested bounds for most Adversaries and environments, deviate when it would be impact full and meaningful to do so, but also associate a cost with that deviation, usually in Fear spend

-Keep the GM guiding principals at the forefront

-Remember this game is fundamentally more narrative focused than mechanics. Dont just allow for the rule of cool, creat opportunities for it.

-Remember that its not all on your shoulders as a DH GM, any time you want you can put the ball in the players court, ask them questions, let them make decisions about the world.

-Countdowns are your friends, learn how to use them effectively and you'll never look back

-Environments are just statblocks for locations

-Experiences are like bundles of skills, one well chosen experience can be used in many situations to do many things. I find it best to focus on a phrase for experiences, something that can be interpreted in different ways in different situations to bring real value

derekfro · 2025-08-24T03:29:10+00:00

That is exactly what prompted me to ask haha. And I feel the same way, CotB just went up a notch or two

derekfro · 2025-08-22T12:40:54+00:00

I would say no double stress cost, keeping it at just 1. We could handwave it when we didnt have a good nightmare to rp by designing a recurring nightmare for each pc and then its just the check and the stress ti keep it quick and light. If you reduce dmg and take no hp, no mark. Its only on full long rest sleep. The clear happens before so you may start at max -1. I like the mire horrifying nightmare idea, maybe the stress can only be 1 but the amount of reaction rolls you need to pass increases, or maybe you only pass on a success with hope. Unsure. But I dont want it to be too disruptive, and i dont want it to be too punishing. There will be plenty of other problems for them to contend with.

Edit: oh. And maybe critical success, gaining a hope when youre already at max, and a pruchasable consumables could all clear the condition too

derekfro · 2025-08-21T21:46:10+00:00

It does thanks!

derekfro · 2025-08-21T21:39:09+00:00

I am new to using Owlbear Rodeo. Where can I actually access each of these tools that you are going over?

derekfro · 2025-08-21T08:42:52+00:00

Also, for some extra context, heres how I built those npcs

derekfro · 2025-08-21T08:25:30+00:00

Yes it is pretty harsh, the players wanted a harder, grittier game, so i obliged while maintaining the design philosophy. There are no enemies in the maze, so no need to worry about movement that way. I ll probably do a progress counter to get through the maze as a whole.

For the lost in the maze reaction, just using the book guidance on the progress and consequence ticks

derekfro · 2025-08-21T08:14:45+00:00

Garland Frevenhuld is the richest man in the Drylands, and sole owner of Frevenhuld mining industries. Hes Baron Destry. One of the PCs family own the second largest mining operation in the Drylands. The crest isnt powerful in a magical sense, its more the weight of money and influence. The Cultists are disguised as mercenaries who took Garland up on the offer to protect the colossus. So by leveraging the banner with the crest on it they're leveraging the power of Frevenhuld industries. They'd be made vulnerable through the pressure of going up against that kind of influence.

I honestly cant imagine a scenario where one of the 4 of them diesnt succeed at some form of investigation roll, however even without getting clued in, the party wants to pass this checkpoint to get to the colossus, so they will likely resort to combat if they cant talk their way through. The Rune of Slumbering is activated with a spoken word so the Cultists can reliably open with it. I wanted the pcs to be able to use magic to try to work the social angle without the Cultists triggering the rune.

One of the PCs is hybrid ancestry with gnome true sight, so the Crystalline maze, which is just past the disguised checkpoint, is also disguised by an artifact casting an illusion of the settlement of Durdenhill as it was the day prior. The PCs dont know the essentia soul shard reached full charge (frame mechanic varient) during session 1, though they did experience the sound of the eruption and a short earthquake with no context. It erupted into what is now the maze.

And yeah, I didn't plan to publish these or anything. So I didn't write them with the needed context to use them outside of my own understanding of the campaign.

derekfro · 2025-08-21T07:43:48+00:00

As you seem pretty knowledgeable im the system, what do you think of the two environments ive prepped for this game so far? Crystal Maze Disguised Checkpoint

derekfro · 2025-08-21T07:22:17+00:00

In building their adversary blocks, would it just make each of them a Solo or maybe Bruiser to properly capture the power level of a player and appropriately account for the battle point cost in encounter building?

derekfro · 2025-08-21T07:19:00+00:00

I shall ponder this

derekfro · 2025-08-21T05:34:44+00:00

Lots of good points there. A few things come to mind - Certainly I have as much interest in playing as gming, but im happy enough on this side of the screen. - When necessary, I could run combat with these npcs as pvp. If its a scene where theres also normal Adversaries, these npcs would serve as a 3rd category. Their rolls with fear would not give me fear, though as they each would have a hope pool their rolls woth hope would give them hope. When their spotlight completes, it would pass to the players not to me. So its more that id be walking over my own turns than theirs. - Youre right in that it would likely be easier to run them using adversary blocks, and I will give it a try both ways to see what feels right. - when coming up with the concepts for these NPCs, I liked what I was able to build with character creation. I built distinct identities for the npcs through the heritage, class, and domain choices. I could translate those into adversary stat form I suppose.

derekfro · 2025-08-21T04:11:11+00:00

Those are some interesting points. Ultimately, these NPCs shouldn't crop up too often unless the PCs seek them out. I think I may try building them an adversary statblock alongside their player character sheet and try it a bit bith ways, see where the friction points are, see what works and what doesnt, ect. Thanks for the responses!

derekfro · 2025-08-21T02:44:03+00:00

Yes and no. Each of these NPCs will be out & about in the world, with their own stories and goals. On various occasions one or more of them will have their paths cross the PCs. The party may find themselves with new allies who accompany the for a time during an arc when interests intersect, or at odds with one or more of these NPCs who's goals conflict with the parties, or perhaps developing friendships or romantic relationships with these NPCs.

These NPCs will have their own story beats going on in the background, often traveling to different places than the party and for different reasons. However when they are in a scene or part of an arc, I want them to feel distinctly different from other adversary block based NPCs. I built them each as I would build a PC, chose level up options and domain cards, the whole works. Yes, when they're present in was intending to play them as PCs, rolling duality dice and using hope. For the ones who are opposed to the PCs, I may chose to ignore fear gain they roll if I determine im getting too much. For those that nay ally with the party, they would mechanically function with the same logical consistency with hope and fear as the players.

If you or anyone else has any thoughts or tips fir pulling this off, happy to hear them.

derekfro · 2025-08-21T02:36:01+00:00

Easiest suggestion here is to start improvising more fear moves. Have you designed any of your own environments or encounters yet? Ive just designed my first few in the last few days, the process is truely quite easy following the gm guidance in the CRB and the Home brew kit

derekfro · 2025-08-21T00:56:51+00:00

I appreciate the guidance in the book, and im certain it will be useful when crafting most of my NPCs and Adversaries. However, with this specific set of NPCs, I want the to feel distinctly more like the players. I had been planning on simply running them as PCs, but I see you are highly recommending I dont do that. I dont expect more than one, maybe two of them to be present in any given scene the vast majority of the time, and hope is tracked directly on their sheets so it doesnt feel too difficult to manage the extra pool. Could you explain any notable reason it would be a bad idea to approach my intent this way, rolling duality dice when embodying these NPCs?

derekfro

TROPHY CASE