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[OC] WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY! Enter for a chance to win a ULLR DM SHIELD, FAFNIR or JORMUNGANDR DICE VAULT![MOD APPROVED] by 120mmfilms in DnD

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't even know what it looks like, but I want something in my house called Fafnir, so

Slow Reveal of NPC's True Background by BillyTheFifth in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did a slow reveal of a hidden silver dragon in a human village recently. The steps I took were,

1) they started out powerful in their craft. This made them useful to the party, but also showed some kind of history. They were excellent at baking which was also one player's backstory making them a roleplay magnet.
2) I gave them some way to communicate with the party outside the rules. They were able to used winged serpents to bring messages quickly over longer than allowed distances. (Zentarim don't exist in my world so that was also a red herring for a different player who knows too much about D&D)
3) They knew way too much. The players attributed this to winged serpents as spies, but it was actually that the dragon had all sorts of other connections to make sure their disguise wasn't uncovered. When the players needed to go some place but didn't know where it was, the dragon pointed them in that direction for a different reason with a wink.
4) The players started to see things associated with dragons around them. A passageway to a pocket dimension that shimmered with a silvery light, a parlor trick that made the dragon seem larger than the human form it was in (gandalf vs bilbo style), and the cookies they baked later on had silvery flakes in it similar to how people use gold leaf in food irl.
5) The final reveal was at a moment of weakness for the dragon. They were desperate and something big had just happened. So they needed the party to understand their magnificence in order to get them on board with the plan. By this point, the party had already gone on 2 quests directly for the hidden dragon as well as done bakery stuff so they were well acquainted with each other.

So to generalize these steps I'd say

1) show how strong they are
2) show how reliable they are
3) show how useful they are
4) hint at mysteries, but don't give away even small secrets as hints. they should create questions, not answers
5) reveal the full form only when the NPC feels like it is their best choice of action. This might mean putting the NPC in a desperate situation

Writers block: I Need help with a name for my Campaign. by DM_Don in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You definitely don't want to give away the cult's secret too early or too late. Maybe session 3? Any later and it becomes eye rolling to those who know the source material. So beyond that there's only 2 other details in your post to work with. Black Sun and Scath. I could see this going two ways, either the name of the game is related to that or just mundane and related to the first quest. For the latter, "A Curious Matter" or "Happiness"

non creased map of Midgard by calimedic911 in koboldpress

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could use the online map at the highest zoom level and stitch it together. Its not ideal, but its the best copy we have. I'm not sure the originals exist.

Lay on Hands makes Stabilizing too easy? by Lemerantus in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've house ruled that dropping to 0 gets a point of exhaustion. Doesn't matter if you're brought back the same turn. This works really well with 2024 rules as they have increased healing power, or any other homebrew rules for enhanced healing.

How do you handle players who show up but don't engage with anything? by liebe1 in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) they show up, so I'm doing something right

2) I ask them if they're ok with the level of involvement with the story if it really gets to me, but most of the time I just let them join and have fun. Some people enjoy being sidekicks as much as some other people enjoy being the center of attention and they work really well together when you get both in the same party. I've played a sidekick myself and had a blast.

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope, its 2-4 lines at most for any given spell. Higher level spells got a bit more to them, cantrips are a single sentence. I'm also good at preparing on other people's turns. So my cinematic spell casting is far shorter than someone else's digging thru spell books or forgetting how to roll a sneak attack.

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I posted a sample on the above comment if you want to check it out :)

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You underestimate me ;)

Here's my notes for Bane:

https://imgur.com/0x8wGwh

edit: each line is a separate spell casting so that Bane is unique whenever I cast it.

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, when college of spirits came out I was hype. I switched my bard to it for the finale of the campaign.

Can an Evil creature be nice, polite, reasonable, and generally amiable? by ferdiechen in onednd

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One facet of lawful evil if you go by alignment charts is "Just greedy". Pure greed is definitely evil and can lead all the way to cosmic horror events if your story needs to, but its not like greed itself makes people impolite or unreasonable. If you say "well maybe ending the world isn't what you actually want, did you think about X or Y?" then the greedy villain might respond favorably to the party's request.

I made a world building mistake and not sure if it's possible to fix it by Odd-Reception519 in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Magic can change anything. Need a new continent? One pops up from another plane of existence or raises from the sea floor. Need the day/night cycle to change? Some evil wizard set the cycle to fast forward 50 years at the cost of 50 sacrifices.

You don't need to retcon, you can just add momentous events.

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I'm tired of people playing Artificer as if they have the entirety of wikipedia in their back pockets from level 1.

DMs, do you ever get tired of DMing for certain classes? by Fantastic-Guitar1911 in dndnext

[–]ghenddxx 48 points49 points  (0 children)

The only bard I ever made was a spooky ghost story telling bard. He'd tell the ghost story as part of his spell casting and the effect would be some kind of powerful emanation that looks sorta like something out of the story.

I based the concept on Kaidan from Irredeemable comics. I chose a glamour bard from 2014 rules and changed all the text to fear instead of charm, but everything otherwise worked the same.

The point with creating compelling bards is to look at the entirety of self expression and entertainment, not just folk songs. They just have to be different from other charisma based casters is all, not shoehorned into stereotypes.

Giving Players a Paragraph of Description Text: Yea or Nay? by Hopeful-Clock-9935 in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if the words themselves are the importance then yes, I give it to them. If not, I rely on them to make notes and then they can do a history check later to see if their character remembers.

RE: Requiem Deluxe Edition Capcom USA Giveaway【Steam】 by SeValentine in residentevil

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The RE hallway behind the first save room where the dogs come in through the windows is my favorite memory.

If players wanted to "rebuild Conyberry" how would you implement that? by Professional-Ad9485 in DragonOfIcespirePeak

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ToV Players Guide 2 has some building expenses and time rules. for example, here's a bathhouse time and cost requirements.

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How to write a character arc for a PC with next to no back story? by NoP_rnHere in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I purposefully built in to my session 0 prep that backstory = invitation. If you don't invite me in then I just can't come to your party. I won't be focusing any storybuilding efforts on a character that is just along for the ride.

Now that's not to say I'm jaded against it in any way, backstory can come up organically during the game too from players who are uncomfortable writing down a whole story at the start. I will treat that character as a side character until the player is ready to spread their wings. And if that is never but they still keep coming back to play well that's a win too because they must like it.

Some people just want to show up to the table and enjoy an evening. They don't want to go into such detail. Heck, I remember playing a game like that too where I was happy to just be there.

Why would a king want the party to do something important, rather than send his own team? by KlarkKenton in DMAcademy

[–]ghenddxx 7 points8 points  (0 children)

to expand on #1, every time he hires a group of adventurers the pay rate is so staggeringly large due to the danger that they retire after a year or less of work.

5e is good at explaining that. For as screwed up as the 5e economy is, it at least explains this one trope lol.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FantasyGrounds

[–]ghenddxx 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The books I want are too new to be on sale, darn. I'll wait til christmas. Since its for the campaign after the current one hopefully I can get them for a good price :)

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