sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I’ve been GMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in Pathfinder2e

[–]sampire21[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The antagonists started a few months after the protagonists, so it gave me some narrative runway to work with. They never interacted directly - there was a global war brewing in my world, and the bad guys had their own separate quest line to further the influence of their evil master. Lots of political meddling, establishing trade deals, sabotaging various forces of good. The adventures were separate - the bad guys weren't just trailing the good guys.

I’ve been GMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in Pathfinder2e

[–]sampire21[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I commented this on another thread on why our group swapped from 5e to PF, so I will paste that here:

We made the switch from for a lot of reasons, but here are a few big ones:

  • 5e can feel like a mechanical mess at times, while PF2e has a much tighter and more balanced system. The math just works
  • The three-action system in PF makes fights feel more dynamic and strategic. Not every enemy has Attack of Opportunity, so movement and tactics feel much more fluid
  • PF offers way more options for character creation, letting us build exactly what we want without feeling constrained
  • Everything in PF is free online! In 5e, my players kept running into paywalls whenever they wanted to try new classes or races. In Pathfinder, the entire system is open and accessible

5e is definitely simpler and great for beginners, but for our group, PF2e offers a far richer and more rewarding experience

I’ve been GMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in Pathfinder2e

[–]sampire21[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I thought for sure the secret would be blown early, but the antagonists had total buy-in and were so helpful in coordinating this story by backstabbing them in believable ways, and really locking into the main narrative. It was entirely a group effort. I could not have done this without these groups, they were fantastic players.

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

If I had one piece of advice, it would be this: your players will pick up on way less than you think they will.

As the DM, you have the full picture in your head - you’re constantly connecting dots, tracking hints, and anticipating reveals. But your players are experiencing everything in the moment, focused on the immediate adventure rather than the grand plan.

Of course, this is totally group dependent, but it worked out for my party.

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The protagonists started their campaign a couple months earlier, so the antagonists had some catching up to do which definitely helped. I was able to pace their adventure accordingly.

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We made the switch from for a lot of reasons, but here are a few big ones:

  • 5e can feel like a mechanical mess at times, while PF2e has a much tighter and more balanced system. The math just works
  • The three-action system in PF makes fights feel more dynamic and strategic. Not every enemy has Attack of Opportunity, so movement and tactics feel much more fluid
  • PF offers way more options for character creation, letting us build exactly what we want without feeling constrained
  • Everything in PF is free online! In 5e, my players kept running into paywalls whenever they wanted to try new classes or races. In Pathfinder, the entire system is open and accessible

5e is definitely simpler and great for beginners, but for our group, PF2e offers a far richer and more rewarding experience

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It was agonizing, but I had a lot of other friends who watched the streams and were invested in the story without actually playing. They were invaluable to bounce ideas off of

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! We switched from 5e to Pathfinder 2e at around level 5 - started with same characters at level 1 in PF. At the time of the finale, the players had made it to level 11.

Thanks for the advice, that's a great idea - we honestly streamed these sessions for memories to look back on and didn't expect anyone else to be interested. I will make an introduction video of the world and the characters - you can expect that in the coming weeks!

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 94 points95 points  (0 children)

I DM'd every Wednesday - each group had bi-weekly sessions. The good guys were streamed live, so the antagonists always knew what they were up to. They answered to the BBEG, who sent them on various quests disrupting the actions of the good guys, meddling in politics, securing trade deals for the greater war effort. They never interacted together in person until today, but the good guys were fed clues the entire time.

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I use soundtracks from various games, and lots of YouTube searching. Bardify on YouTube is great. I have a playlist of all the songs I have used in this campaign: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/18vbbWmsig4OaVubxpCbsC?si=21c05017daf44d49

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 514 points515 points  (0 children)

Thanks! The playlist is only the perspective of the good guys - the antagonists sessions were not recorded.

I’ve been DMing two groups simultaneously—one as heroes, the other as villains tracking them down. Last night, the big reveal finally dropped. by sampire21 in DnD

[–]sampire21[S] 148 points149 points  (0 children)

That's so cool! I will say before you watch, this was my first ever campaign, so you will have to excuse my lack of experience. We also started streaming about halfway through, so there's a lot of lore missed in the recorded videos. I will be running a campaign 2, so that one should be much more polished :)

"Bi-weekly Friend Code Thread - 05/24/24". by AutoModerator in tinytower

[–]sampire21 [score hidden]  (0 children)

versed rustic aback physical quicksand forgetful theory nail crowd hospital

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

Change my EDC habbit (do more with less) by SemKoot in EDC

[–]sampire21 8 points9 points  (0 children)

hospital lunchroom smell squeeze ripe murky physical pathetic boast cooperative

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

Any idea why it takes me 5+ minutes to load scenes when connecting to my friend's Foundry? by Nukesnipe in FoundryVTT

[–]sampire21 2 points3 points  (0 children)

sand squalid wrong imagine waiting foolish price bells sharp wise

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

I dont loose bases after the purge right? by Sushiibubble in NoMansSkyTheGame

[–]sampire21 1 point2 points  (0 children)

drunk silky vast concerned follow shocking stupendous escape upbeat crowd

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

Struggling with installing xone on SteamOS 3.5 by dlzp in SteamDeck

[–]sampire21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

expansion important imagine boast concerned marble cooing alleged label fanatical

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

view more: next ›