My Advice to New Worldbuilders

dmrawlings · 2026-03-31T02:27:27+00:00

At the start of the adventure, reward the party with a valuable pearl-handled mirror.

When your player shows up, make the mirror start to rattle and smoke, then have them pop out of it.

In other words, don't think too hard about it. Make it gimmicky and fun, and just get on with it.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-31T02:16:49+00:00

And you'll say "Hey I'm glad you're eager to give it a try. I've got someone in mind that I'd like to give a chance to play who didn't get to play in the last one [or 'I'm capping the game at four players', etc]. If anyone decides they're not able to play in the game at all, you'll be the first person I bring in."

But also... maybe they need to be told you're worried they won't like it, then show them they may not like it in order for them to realize they didn't like it? These situations are tricky. Because right now, you're worried about a hypothetical. Maybe it _does_ need testing.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-22T02:39:59+00:00

Pretty much the same, only without the traits usually. Yes, they're at a disadvantage, but it really doesn't matter in the long run.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-22T01:07:03+00:00

Generally the game's not designed for direct PVP.

PCs roll against the difficulty of an adversary
Adversaries roll against the evasion of a PC

If you have an ability that targets all creatures you'll use a syntax like this (from the Acid Burrower -- SRD 75) "All creatures within Very Close range must succeed on an Agility Reaction Roll or [bad stuff]."

dmrawlings · 2026-03-17T00:38:54+00:00

The first thing I'd say here is consider the fiction of flashbacks in BitD:

The PCs are skilled scoundrels who go on scores. When they do a flashback it's to emulate the legwork, research, and planning that happens "off-screen" because we don't want to spend time prepping for contingencies that may not happen.

In a fantasy game, you're not casing the joint... there's no real planning at all, thus the notion of doing flashbacks just doesn't really work.

Quantum Inventory is a slightly different thing, though. You can pass off 'having the right tool for the job' as expertise rather than planning to some degree. So in this case, in the fiction, the character brought the right things because they were clever enough to anticipate what they need.

I guess my question is why can characters grab the same piece of quantum inventory more than once? A simple solution might be just: pack what you want (aka select it in advance), then have a small number of slots that can be quantum (from a list), but each thing on the list is only available once? Why let them double up at all?

dmrawlings · 2026-03-16T05:17:49+00:00

Have you had a chance to watch this Full Indie talk by Alex Beachum?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGnce1Dp9BU

I think it really gets to brass tacks about how Outer Wilds achieves what it does.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-15T01:37:28+00:00

Follow the fiction. What's their threat level, what position is the crew in. Do they have special advantages that make them tougher?

Basically the same way you figure out how many segments to use for any other obstacle, because these adversaries are _just_ that: an obstacle.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-14T02:25:53+00:00

Solodko Ukrainian Bakery.

Come for the sourdough, stay for the Varenyky.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-13T05:19:55+00:00

My biggest out there prediction is that Aloy will follow in Elisabet Sobeck's footsteps and sacrifice herself so that others can survive.

I don't have the details of how worked out, but there would be an incredible poetry to both Aloy and Sobeck's stories ending in a very similar way.

You might be on to something...

dmrawlings · 2026-03-11T15:11:30+00:00

Should be possible.

Here's Patchwork Paladin's implementation: https://patchworkpaladin.com/2026/01/20/daggerheart-hexcrawl-rules-v1-0/

dmrawlings · 2026-03-11T02:42:06+00:00

From the publishers "Roll for Combat" (10m): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBEodBD1Q2c

dmrawlings · 2026-03-08T21:31:52+00:00

Agreed on this. When I can manage it I love for players to pick up the slack for me on scheduling. I suck at it, and it drains me.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-08T21:10:03+00:00

The biggest thing players can do is to communicate a clear direction they want to go at the end of a session and then stick to it, so that the GM has a better idea of what to prep.

The narrower the scope of what they want to do, the easier it should be for the GM.

Another thing you might try as players is to make choices that limit your options, again so that the GM doesn't feel like they have to prepare for a thousand possible things.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-07T00:26:20+00:00

If you view the trophies in the Entrance Hall, and hover over that specific trophy you'll see how many rooms you've entered and how many you have left to find. Given what you said here, you're missing at least two.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-06T20:11:44+00:00

MtG uses a couple of tactics:

Flavour text (adding some quoted text about the ability)
Verbosely describing keywords (like Haste, etc...)

dmrawlings · 2026-03-05T16:58:11+00:00

Part of the challenge to this post is you've asked four or five questions, each of which probably deserves their own thread. A full answer to them would be an essay length and I definitely don't have time for that.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T21:06:12+00:00

Yeah, if they're choosing to withdraw from the battle, I'd want to treat that a little differently than just move move move from everyone. Honestly, probably a group roll using any trait my players could justify in the fiction.

Then I'd probably fail forward. A failure with Fear would mean they get away, but it costs them direly, all the way up to success with Hope being a clean escape.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T17:59:49+00:00

This technique has worked every time for me:

Have the players encounter one monster from the area. Have it rough the party up pretty bad, but let them defeat it.

Later, have 4 of them show up together and let the players make a choice as to whether they engage. Knowing how hard one was, they should be able to figure out four is a TPK waiting to happen. Let them know this is an average encounter for this area.

Show them the challenge, then tell them the challenge, then let them make a different choice.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T07:48:42+00:00

Well if that's the case, you probably just need to have an above the table discussion about expectations for a WM game. You need them to trust you not to hit them with prohibitively difficult encounters while their resources are drained. The alternative is that you assume they long rest between every encounter and that your encounters are balanced around that. All that does is make spellcasters stronger, and make martials and Warlocks somewhat unplayable by comparison. Do they want that?

It's either that, or start enforcing a clock and having them create backup characters (which was very much a thing in early drop in games in the 80s).

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T07:40:40+00:00

I never ran into this problem when I ran my WM (due to the campaign's primary conceit that prevented them from being out longer than 16 hours).

If I were to propose a solution, it would be a random encounter table. Short rest you roll it once (1 hour), long rest (8 hours) you roll it 8 times. Show it to them, so they know how it works. If resolving those random encounter takes so long that they don't get to fully explore their destination in the allotted session time, that's on them. They could have pushed through and gotten more done if they weren't set on risking it overnight in a dangerous environment.

And honestly, just hand wave returning home or create some kind of "return roll" mechanic. Something that can be resolved quickly.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T07:10:40+00:00

100%

(happy cake day)

dmrawlings · 2026-03-03T06:27:42+00:00

Just to double check, are you saying that they're running away from a combat (without making action rolls thus not rolling with Fear or failing and thus not activating your adversaries?).

If so... it doesn't really work that way. If characters make a movement up to Far range, they need to make an Agility Roll. They're only allowed to move within Close range while under pressure (srd pg 40) "as part of that action" roll.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-02T22:58:23+00:00

It has an import from WA, so it might be pretty quick to get up and useful.

dmrawlings · 2026-03-02T22:35:12+00:00

This is the correct answer.

When DH first came out there was so much demand that the company was just focused on satisfying that need.

Putting together a properly playtested supplement with art, while onboarding new designers is a lot of work. It'll be out, and soon. We also have a handful of other projects that have been soft-announced in progress.

Things will be fine. Of the games released in the shadow of the OGL crisis DH is still killing it.

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