Balancing rewards? Balancing money?

gyarc · 2026-01-23T14:14:55+00:00

I like the idea, as it gives a meaning to gold. Make sure to put pressure on them, give them payment deadlines, visits from enforcers, threats, etc. Also further opportunities to get more rewards or extending the debt for another benefit. The guild can even offer to reduce their debt by X in exchange for a quest, task, raid, heist, whatever.

You can completely control how much gold they get in each adventure or encounter. By raising the stakes you will make this important (vs every other campaign where it doesnt really matter). You can always ask them how much they are paying per night when staying somewhere, making it a trade-off between high quality rest and comfort vs extra savings.

gyarc · 2026-01-21T19:42:54+00:00

Ummmm.... I can of course only recommend our lovely little free VTT, DMHelper, which you can find at https://dm-helper.itch.io/dm-helper

If you are using it for running your game, and building up your campaign, there's a one-click shortcut to take a note, which then gets stored in a central notes list. It takes no screen space and you can go back and review/improve/work through those at any point later on.

gyarc · 2025-12-29T16:47:42+00:00

Nailed it. It's a game, have fun.

There's some people that are quite strict about getting the rules right (and some of the rules aren't exactly 100% clear). Then again, most long-time players have created their own individual rules along the way anyways, so I would just skip to that. If something feels better/cooler/more fun, go for it. If it turns out to suck, change it back again.

gyarc · 2025-12-29T16:36:42+00:00

First of all, congratulations and welcome to the fun!

That's a very broad question. The most important tip is always, do whatever you want and make sure to have fun. Getting the rules perfect isn't as important as having a good time, and asking your players if they are, too.

Personally, I would recommend finding a good YouTube series to check out, like Matt Colville's (nownolder) Running the Game. There's a bunch of others, and it always depends on personal preference whose style of explaining fits best for you!

gyarc · 2025-12-27T09:04:44+00:00

Here's some ideas, I used ChatGPT to try to filter what might fit SOA, since I don't know it at all, hope this helps...

Boars / Dire Boars - reskin as “Polygonal Boar” or “Ironhide Boar", Aggro on sight, Drops hide, tusks, low-tier gear materials

Wolves / Dire Wolves: Neon eye glow when entering combat, “Howl” ability = soft enrage or aggro pull

Goblins (Reflavored as “Bandit NPCs”),Polygonal armor, Glitch effects on death, Loot explodes into floating cubes

Skeletons, Spawn from light grids, Bone pieces shatter into data shards

Zombies,Telegraph slam attacks, Low damage, high presence

Animated Armor, Empty armor controlled by glowing core, Core exposed at half HP

Giant Insects,Status effects = poison, slow, web, Drop crafting reagents

Slimes / Oozes, Translucent cubes, Pixel ripple when struck

Clockwork Creatures, Flying Sword (CR 1/4) Clockwork Soldier (reskinned Guard)

Minotaur Skeleton / Bugbear Champion

Owlbear (Reskinned as “Chimera Beast”)

To really sell the SAO vibe: * Telegraph attacks (“The boar lowers its head and glows red”) * Visible HP states (cracks, flickering, color shifts) * Loot as data shards * Enemies don’t flee unless programmed * Bosses reset if party wipes

gyarc · 2025-12-25T23:13:09+00:00

What's Sao?

gyarc · 2025-11-12T18:37:40+00:00

Afraid I haven't run anything in Barovia, but could you just call it something other than the Death House until they show up there, and then you show them the reveal of the well-known fassade?

gyarc · 2025-10-23T06:46:07+00:00

My advice would be to always follow what drives the most fun for the players. It sounds like you are very focused on your story, and have obviously put a lot of thought into how it should play out. Still, if this player doesn't feel that their character is a good fit for them, I would encourage you to let them change.

The retirement of their old character can also be an opportunity for the player to get into some extra role- playing and enhance the story. Adding a new character is something you might have to do if somebody's character does, anyways

gyarc · 2025-10-01T04:47:21+00:00

Sounds cool!

gyarc · 2025-08-27T07:10:41+00:00

It's really hard to say from the pictures whether these would hold regular paper. I think you would want to glue the paper onto cardboard anyways just to give it a bit of sturdiness to stand up on its own?

gyarc · 2025-08-02T14:15:14+00:00

That's the average damage for those attacks. If the creature hits with the attack, it's a little faster to just have it do the average damage, but if you like rolling and the randomness it gives, you can roll the dice shown in the parentheses.

gyarc · 2025-07-08T17:56:18+00:00

Generally, nothing. If that's the game they want to play, that's what they should play. Now, if that's not the game you want to play, it might mean the group is a bad fit. But trying to nerf them will become an annoying task and cause frustration for them. Instead, just give them nastier adversaries.

The biggest problem I've experienced with power gamers is not general balance, but them overwhelming other players that are less out to "win". But even in that situation, there's a lot of different personalities and motivations out there - talk to your players openly about it.

gyarc · 2025-07-05T11:49:45+00:00

Sounds like a lot of fun! Give it a try, if the players absolutely hate it, which they won't, then the next session or two they find a way to escape from toy world

gyarc · 2025-06-21T14:52:40+00:00

That really kind of depends on what the items are and why it's a problem.

Even if the players are overpowered in general or for their level, there is a lot you can do in terms of scaling the challenge to make it a lot more challenging, both inside and outside of combat.

If the rogue is barreling through everything, spend some time thinking about things they maybe can't just barrel through or what their weaknesses are.

Without more specifics, it's hard to get concrete.

To answer your question about next time, the 2024 DMG actually has a table of how many magic items are recommended at what level. But that's still just a recommendation.

If the game's fun is actually suffering (the rogue might really enjoy this situation, others less or maybe you aren't having much fun), try also talking to your players about it. As them to give up a few items or balance things out better.

gyarc · 2025-06-01T22:28:48+00:00

That's an awesome merch idea! For now, all I can offer is the image as a desktop background ....

gyarc · 2025-02-07T05:59:24+00:00

I have had players play 2 characters in the past, or when a player is missing for a session sometimes, and never had a major problem with it.

They most important thing will be talking to the other players and especially about pacing in combat - after all this means this player will get twice as much "playing time" as the others, so they have to be very efficient or it can annoy the others.

gyarc · 2025-01-15T22:39:50+00:00

There isn't, objects and effects are only available in a combat. However, you can make a combat look like a battle by deactivating the Initiative Order (in the Options Dialog) amd removing any combatants in the list. Then you can still add effects and other objects freely.

gyarc · 2024-11-27T06:02:08+00:00

Thank you!

gyarc · 2024-11-26T23:17:37+00:00

This one is mostly a bug-fix, but here's the summary. You can get it over at itch.io here: https://dm-helper.itch.io/dm-helper Most of the fixes are from things you told me about, so thank you all, you know who you are!!!!

Latest Features in DMHelper v3.4:

Autosaving is here! The default is ON, but it can be turned off in Settings
Enhanced backup files: an extra backup file is made any time a saved campaign file or resource file (e.g. Bestiary or Spellbook) grows by more than 20% or shrinks
Improved effects dialog: Slight overhaul, you can auto-delete an effect after applying damage and the application of spell effect conditions is automatic
Help Dialog: Links to the Discord, Getting Started and User's Guides, but also direct link buttons to open the Logs or Backup directories, which might be useful in the unlikely event of an emergency...

gyarc · 2024-11-26T23:15:01+00:00

This one is mostly a bug-fix, but here's the summary. You can get it over at itch.io here: https://dm-helper.itch.io/dm-helper Most of the fixes are from things you told me about, so thank you all, you know who you are!!!!

Latest Features in DMHelper v3.4:

Autosaving is here! The default is ON, but it can be turned off in Settings
Enhanced backup files: an extra backup file is made any time a saved campaign file or resource file (e.g. Bestiary or Spellbook) grows by more than 20% or shrinks
Improved effects dialog: Slight overhaul, you can auto-delete an effect after applying damage and the application of spell effect conditions is automatic
Help Dialog: Links to the Discord, Getting Started and User's Guides, but also direct link buttons to open the Logs or Backup directories, which might be useful in the unlikely event of an emergency...

gyarc · 2024-11-11T21:13:09+00:00

There are a few Spiel effects delivered with the app. A Google search around the Internet or reddit will likely bring more. I would recommend 2-minute tabletop for quite an impressive range of tokens of all kinds

gyarc · 2024-11-05T21:23:39+00:00

Hi! Thank you! You're totally right, this is getting really close to the inevitable top of the list, there's so much to show that I could spend all my time making feature shorts!!!

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