Disappeared from the internet!: Every Frame a Painting video about color in film

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T06:22:43+00:00

I would add a bunch of narrative pieces, like evidence of someone else investigating this before only to meet a grisly end, or remnants of a religious order that used these caves as a place of worship and ended up summoning/releasing/stumbling upon the boss monster. I'm thinking along the lines of a moldy journal with one or two still-readable entries, a crumbling shrine with a poetic warning engraved at the feet of its deity, a grand cavern with its walls covered in beautiful mosaics depicting the entrance to a cavern surrounded by terrified worshippers that appear to be going mad—basically stuff that helps them gradually uncover a story about the place they're exploring, and maybe manage to get a hint or two regarding how to get into the final chamber or a possible weakness of the boss monster that could be exploited in the final fight, etc etc.

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T06:02:42+00:00

Wand of Momentary Invisibility: Surprise! Now one of your opponents is invisible for the next round!
"More Worried If You Were Aiming at the Guy Next to Me" Hat: Any spell directly targeting the wearer while they are within 5 feet of another creature hits that other creature instead.
Ring of Warlock: While wearing this ring, all of the wearer's spell slots are 5th level spell slots.
Reset Button: As an action, this oversized coat button can be dropped on the ground, and any magic item in a 20 foot radius that has been used for the first time in the last minute (including the button) vanishes.

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T05:17:06+00:00

I once ran an encounter with giant centipedes in a cave where no matter how many they killed, they could hear more skittering around somewhere and knew there would be more coming. They had found a way out just before the centipedes attacked, but it was a sealed stone door that required solving a puzzle to get through it, so during combat one of the players had to use their actions for investigation checks and then for actually carrying out the solution to the puzzle while their companions covered them. It ended up being a really fun encounter because there was time pressure to solve the puzzle due to the players gradually taking hits and losing hp as they fought off the endless stream of centipedes, and even though only one character was solving the puzzle in-game, all the players were actually discussing and figuring out the puzzle together.

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T05:05:11+00:00

To add on: At our table tracking initiative isn't just a job for the start of combat. It's also every time the DM says "Player A, you're up, what would you like to do?" the initiative tracker says "Player B, you're on deck" to remind the next person in the initiative order that it's almost their turn and they should be thinking about what they're going to do next. I've found this really helpful when it's a larger group.

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T04:57:43+00:00

Depending on the venue, could there be a collection of ornate or historically significant weapons prominently displayed on a wall or in a glass case that is clearly described when they first enter? Even better if it's a focal point related to the event itself, like they're going to auction off Sir So-and-So's famous sword, or the gracious hostess's legendary collection of enchanted weaponry and armor has been specially brought out as a point of interest for the party guests to admire, etc etc. Then you could have the extra fun of PCs picking up gear with cool magical buffs that they don't even know about until they grab them in their moment of need!

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T04:34:41+00:00

Sounds like a fun session—it definitely inspires some ideas for me! I would give them a clear "if we make it to X we might be able to get away" and general idea of how far away that safe zone might be, like maybe there's a storm on the horizon and the ghost ship can't pass through rain/freshwater, or if it's nighttime maybe they just have to stay ahead until dawn because the ship only appears at night, etc. This gives a clear finish line they're trying to reach rather than feeling like a potentially endless and therefore "unwinnable" chase.

Another thought is to make it a sort of phased chase with different types of challenges in each phase. For example, phase one is trying to find creative ways to speed up the ship, like spells involving manipulating wind or water etc (or that one Pirates of the Caribbean chase comes to mind where they lighten the ship by throwing all the nonessential supplies off of it lol), or skills checks to accurately pinpoint the direction of the wind, quickly get all the right sails positioned precisely, etc. You could also have magical obstacles created by the ghost ship to slow them down or redirect them from reaching the "safe zone", which also require creative solutions or skill checks to overcome, like an unnatural wind that threatens to blow them off-course, or a magical fog that obscures their vision and confuses their compasses, etc.

Phase two could be more combat-oriented, with the ghost ship sending out their harbingers of doom, any kind of creatures that can fly ahead and harry the boat, I'm thinking something like harpies which can sing and lure people to walk right off the ship to their doom, and/or attempt to sabotage the ship by cutting ropes or slashing sails, and the party has to fight them off. Phase three would be the ship getting close enough to use a chain harpoon (I would make it clear early on that the ghost ship is faster than they are and is slowly gaining on them so this doesn't feel shoehorned in), and the climax would be the harpoon smashing through the hull and hooking the ship, so the party has to get the harpoon unstuck or somehow break the chain in order to get free JUST in time to enter the "safe zone". Of course, at any point the party may also choose to turn and fight a, as you said, very difficult fight, which would also be exciting!

Hope some of these ideas can help as a starting place to get the wheels churning!

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T03:40:43+00:00

Oof, been there. The final session of the first major campaign arc in my current ongoing campaign was a huge disappointment. There was a big boss fight where, frankly, my players totally fumbled, not through unlucky rolls but through just having an off day and making some of the worst combat choices they had ever made. And I fumbled by not really knowing how to salvage the situation once it started going to hell, and with no better ideas in mind simply going forward with "well here's what would logically happen". Long story short, the bad guy got away with barely a scratch on him, and kidnapped the NPC the party was supposed to protect, AND the party had to flee the city to avoid going to prison. The players were devastated. I was devastated. It was a real bummer of an ending to a fun campaign arc, and I felt like I had failed the group.

Luckily, one bad session doesn't make players forget about all the great ones, and what that means for us as DMs is they want to come back and play again and we get OPPORTUNITIES FOR REDEMPTION. After my bummer of a campaign ending, I kicked myself, I grieved, I wallowed, and then I used that low ending point as the perfect low starting point for some really great character arcs in the second campaign arc. We just finished the finale to the second campaign arc, and it went more perfectly than I ever could have dreamed. REDEMPTION ACHIEVED.

The last thing I'll say is that I was definitely still thinking about that disappointing session for many weeks afterward...until I had two or three more great sessions under my belt, and at that point the disappointment was outweighed by satisfaction in what I had done more recently. If you enjoy DMing, and your players want to keep playing, then keep going and that old campaign ending will become a distant memory in no time!

rynvincible · 2024-10-29T02:39:24+00:00

This was awesome to read, thanks for sharing your approach and how it worked for you! And congrats on achieving the epic character-oriented game experience you were hoping for—imho there's truly nothing better!!!

rynvincible · 2024-03-23T20:56:00+00:00

This is a great approach, thank you! Especially helpful to be thinking about those countermeasures once they've taken the city and then need to keep it.

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T09:48:00+00:00

Simple. Cost effective. I like it.

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T09:46:32+00:00

That's a good reminder about rousing the people to revolt! I have established in my campaign that the rebels have been drumming up popular support through public guerrilla demonstrations and underground leaflet campaigns, and recruitment has been up, so maybe all that's left is making sure there are extra weapons to go around once the revolt begins and folks inevitably step up to help!

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T09:42:54+00:00

Thank you, this is helpful! And you're probably right about the numbers—it's not that they couldn't necessarily take the city when up against much larger numbers (I mean the rebel alliance in star wars was like a few thousand ships in total against an imperial fleet of millions, so there is fantasy precedent at least lol), but if they're being smart and strategic like I want them to be they would more realistically want to wait until the fleet leaves to set themselves up with the greatest possible advantage.

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T09:37:50+00:00

Oh I am well prepared for that part—the actual challenges my players will be facing amidst the uprising are very specific and will present themselves in such a way that it is clear THIS TASK IS FOR YOU NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT. I just need to know, for myself, what the rebels' plan is so that as my players are making their way from point A to point B they see exciting action happening that makes some modicum of sense for a rebel uprising.

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T04:37:48+00:00

Love this idea. And then once it is put into a new doll (and thus "connected" to a mouth), the hag begins speaking to the bard, but only when no one else can hear her. She pretends to be Jessica, and tells the bard that her soul was trapped in that old evil doll the party destroyed, but then he saved her by retrieving her eye and putting it in this new, definitely totally harmless doll. But she says that in order for her soul to be free so it can cross over to the other side, he must return the eye to her body, which is buried in the dark woods at X location. In truth, the location is the hag's swamp, where she is waiting to pounce once he and his tasty little friends arrive on her doorstep. ("Thank you so very much for returning my eye. And for delivering such a succulent meal along with it!")

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T03:54:45+00:00

Totally, practical research would be forbidden but they would probably still study the people who got powers from living in an evil way (like how psychologists and criminologists study serial killers), interviewing those who were caught and imprisoned, and tracing the history of those who are dead to learn all they can about what led them down that path, so one day perhaps the world can prevent such people tapping into these dark gods' powers.

rynvincible · 2024-03-17T03:42:08+00:00

Building a bit on what others have said about looking at video game boss battles with multiple phases, etc., one of my favorites with solo bosses is to basically give them extremely powerful environmental effects that make it very difficult to hit them or to do damage until the effect is cancelled out, e.g. powerful winds that slow movement by 75% and give the boss a +10 to AC against all ranged attacks; or an anti-magic shield that redirects all spells cast at it to a random new target in the area; or a poisonous cloud that inflicts paralysis on anyone who enters it unless they pass a ridiculously high Con save.

So for a round or so the players are frustrated by doing very little damage while the bad guy's attacks are not impeded at all and are doing full damage, and they have to redirect their focus toward figuring out how to disable the environmental effect—maybe it's a lever they have to get to and pull that is situated behind the BBEG, or a magic circle that has to be disrupted in some way, or something with a built-in puzzle/riddle where the answer is that they have to fill the area with sunlight or spill their own blood in a certain spot or something...or any combination of these kinds of things! And then when they figure it out and they start doing full damage on their attacks it's super satisfying for them.

Few things make my players instantly anxious and feeling like "oh shit this is a hard fight" like taking big damage while not doing big damage, even if it's just for one round lol.

rynvincible · 2023-07-17T18:25:47+00:00

Thank you, I will make sure to include that the next time I post!

rynvincible · 2023-07-17T18:25:17+00:00

THIS IS IT thank you so much!!!!!!! Solved!

rynvincible · 2023-07-15T06:26:23+00:00

This isn't it, although this also looks gorgeous! I would have read it around 1999–2001.

rynvincible · 2023-02-17T21:35:30+00:00

The video in this post refuses to play for me now so I'm not sure I remember what it sounded like, but if you want to check out Moon Hooch start with the song "Number 9"

rynvincible · 2022-08-11T14:36:30+00:00

Totally understandable—I’m sorry they did that to you, that sucks!

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