DEPENDABLE ELF FIGHTER FROM A HALFWAY HOUSE WHO LOOTS EVERY KILL BUT LEAVES ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THEIR BURIAL
.... I'm an ok dude!
So tomorrow is a big day for me. Despite trying a couple times to get something off the ground, a D&D get together is happening tomorrow night with my daughter, her 2 friends, and my wife in a party with me as a DM. I've had my daughter play a couple times but that's it however Critical Role lit a bit of a fire in her and now she's straight up excited!
Using Matt Mercer's converted Gun(Fun)Slinger for my daughter (half-elf), my wife will be a Vistani Bard, and my daughter's friends will be a Dwarf Assassination Rogue and an Elven Evoker Wizard.
I'm probably giving them a Brown Bear as a "tank" who is actually a cursed, permanently stuck druid in disguise. This way I don't have to control an NPC and the bear will mostly just obey commands.
Pulling out the Dwarven Maze pieces for this one as I want to keep up a great impression.
That bear idea is the best version of a DMPC you could go with, but I would recommend not using it. A 4 PC party is probably the sweetest spot you can have, and in baseline 5E there really is no tank outside of a feat combination that lets you stop somebody's movement once per round.
I'll bet your combat will flow more nicely if you just let the 4 of them loose and you just concentrate on the DM side of things. If your bard is melee she can be the one to set up sneak attacks for the rogue, and a gunslinger and wizard can do their own thing.
I guess it's probably a good idea to skip the DMPC/bear. I know 5e doesn't have a TANK per say, but they don't really have a heavy HP character on their team so it had me worried a bit, I guess. But they all are starting out at level 3 (so that people can pickup their specialization and can have more HP).
I might have the bear idea on the side as @JustTee mentioned but leave it be and see how it goes with the 4 of them.
Either way, I'm excited. I'm more excited that they are all excited. I got them to play a couple times in the past but life gets in the way but now they seem genuinely stoked which just makes ME stoked to put on a good show. On top of that, it's a group of thirteen year old girls who are wanting to down this and anything I can do to encourage them, I will.
Plus, it let's me setup a safe space for them to just have a good time. And it lets me control their first group D&D experience in a fun environment over a bunch of horror stories I hear from some girls trying to get into the gaming scene. This way, their first experiences are positive and if they ever run into those awful situations/negative stereotypes, they know those AREN'T the norm and not the only way to play the game.
However it also puts a bit of pressure on me to be on top of this. I have to make it fun and compelling. I've ran 3 or so games with my daughter before. And only 1 each for her friends (they all three haven't played at the same time yet). The light-hearted, comedy aspect they all greatly enjoy so I got that going. But as mentioned, my daughter has grown inspired by Critical Role so I know she's at least ready for an actual, overarching plot as well.
So I'm trying to figure that out. I think Curse of Strahd is a bit too dark atmosphere wise for the first go so I'm thinking of lifting some story ideas from old games they haven't played yet along with my own ideas mixed in.
DEPENDABLE ELF FIGHTER FROM A HALFWAY HOUSE WHO LOOTS EVERY KILL BUT LEAVES ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THEIR BURIAL
.... I'm an ok dude!
So tomorrow is a big day for me. Despite trying a couple times to get something off the ground, a D&D get together is happening tomorrow night with my daughter, her 2 friends, and my wife in a party with me as a DM. I've had my daughter play a couple times but that's it however Critical Role lit a bit of a fire in her and now she's straight up excited!
Using Matt Mercer's converted Gun(Fun)Slinger for my daughter (half-elf), my wife will be a Vistani Bard, and my daughter's friends will be a Dwarf Assassination Rogue and an Elven Evoker Wizard.
I'm probably giving them a Brown Bear as a "tank" who is actually a cursed, permanently stuck druid in disguise. This way I don't have to control an NPC and the bear will mostly just obey commands.
Pulling out the Dwarven Maze pieces for this one as I want to keep up a great impression.
That bear idea is the best version of a DMPC you could go with, but I would recommend not using it. A 4 PC party is probably the sweetest spot you can have, and in baseline 5E there really is no tank outside of a feat combination that lets you stop somebody's movement once per round.
I'll bet your combat will flow more nicely if you just let the 4 of them loose and you just concentrate on the DM side of things. If your bard is melee she can be the one to set up sneak attacks for the rogue, and a gunslinger and wizard can do their own thing.
I guess it's probably a good idea to skip the DMPC/bear. I know 5e doesn't have a TANK per say, but they don't really have a heavy HP character on their team so it had me worried a bit, I guess. But they all are starting out at level 3 (so that people can pickup their specialization and can have more HP).
I might have the bear idea on the side as @JustTee mentioned but leave it be and see how it goes with the 4 of them.
Either way, I'm excited. I'm more excited that they are all excited. I got them to play a couple times in the past but life gets in the way but now they seem genuinely stoked which just makes ME stoked to put on a good show. On top of that, it's a group of thirteen year old girls who are wanting to down this and anything I can do to encourage them, I will.
Plus, it let's me setup a safe space for them to just have a good time. And it lets me control their first group D&D experience in a fun environment over a bunch of horror stories I hear from some girls trying to get into the gaming scene. This way, their first experiences are positive and if they ever run into those awful situations/negative stereotypes, they know those AREN'T the norm and not the only way to play the game.
However it also puts a bit of pressure on me to be on top of this. I have to make it fun and compelling. I've ran 3 or so games with my daughter before. And only 1 each for her friends (they all three haven't played at the same time yet). The light-hearted, comedy aspect they all greatly enjoy so I got that going. But as mentioned, my daughter has grown inspired by Critical Role so I know she's at least ready for an actual, overarching plot as well.
So I'm trying to figure that out. I think Curse of Strahd is a bit too dark atmosphere wise for the first go so I'm thinking of lifting some story ideas from old games they haven't played yet along with my own ideas mixed in.
The Tiamat adventure to me seemed most high fantasy and least dark of the 5e published stuff so far.
I guess it's probably a good idea to skip the DMPC/bear. I know 5e doesn't have a TANK per say, but they don't really have a heavy HP character on their team so it had me worried a bit, I guess. But they all are starting out at level 3 (so that people can pickup their specialization and can have more HP).
In 5e all of the classes actually have some decent protective elements (if they so decide to use them). As well as a variety of ways to regain HP.
I would not be too worried if you don't have a tank character unless the lot of your party is non-dwarven wild mages who don't take shield.
@Nyht A Helmed Horror shield fighter that takes voice commands is pretty easy to use if you think it that important. That's what I used in a 2-man group; it just stood quietly and everyone just thought it was a dude in armor.
Reading through some of the old 1e adventures, Cult of the Reptile God was pretty good.
1. Players enter town for any reason (easiest is they get a job to find someone).
2. They talk to villagers, some who talk about abductions, others say "everything is fine, leave us alone", and a few others are absolutely crazy.
3. Normal people advise players to sleep at Inn #1, which is a normal inn, and to investigate the abandoned Inn #3. Crazy villagers tell players to sleep at Inn #2, which is trapped.
4. If the players investigate Inn #3, they're attacked by lizardfolk and find documents about shipments of prisoners to a lair in the swamp.
4.1. If the players sleep at Inn #2, the innkeeper and his buddies plus some lizardfolk attack the players in their sleep.
4.2. Any players defeated in this way get abducted and taken to the swamp lair.
5. Lair is filled with lizardfolk, and townfolk who have been mindcontrolled. Documents reveal that mindcontrolled people are returned to the village, people who resisted are killed.
6. Fairly simple dungeon ending with a spellcaster Naga who hides in the water.
Story ends with a big ol' pile of gold and killing the naga (or maybe there was a statue or something) breaks the enchantment on the townspeople. The book it self has a lot more meat and fat, but that's more or less how I ran it. If the players aren't interested in the abandoned inn, have them go to the church to find that the clergy has mostly disappeared aside from one guy who's enchanted.
I guess it's probably a good idea to skip the DMPC/bear. I know 5e doesn't have a TANK per say, but they don't really have a heavy HP character on their team so it had me worried a bit, I guess. But they all are starting out at level 3 (so that people can pickup their specialization and can have more HP).
I might have the bear idea on the side as @JustTee mentioned but leave it be and see how it goes with the 4 of them.
Either way, I'm excited. I'm more excited that they are all excited. I got them to play a couple times in the past but life gets in the way but now they seem genuinely stoked which just makes ME stoked to put on a good show. On top of that, it's a group of thirteen year old girls who are wanting to down this and anything I can do to encourage them, I will.
Plus, it let's me setup a safe space for them to just have a good time. And it lets me control their first group D&D experience in a fun environment over a bunch of horror stories I hear from some girls trying to get into the gaming scene. This way, their first experiences are positive and if they ever run into those awful situations/negative stereotypes, they know those AREN'T the norm and not the only way to play the game.
However it also puts a bit of pressure on me to be on top of this. I have to make it fun and compelling. I've ran 3 or so games with my daughter before. And only 1 each for her friends (they all three haven't played at the same time yet). The light-hearted, comedy aspect they all greatly enjoy so I got that going. But as mentioned, my daughter has grown inspired by Critical Role so I know she's at least ready for an actual, overarching plot as well.
So I'm trying to figure that out. I think Curse of Strahd is a bit too dark atmosphere wise for the first go so I'm thinking of lifting some story ideas from old games they haven't played yet along with my own ideas mixed in.
The D&D starter set is actually pretty solid, encounter wise. It's a bit dull in the beginning (Goblin Ambush! -> Lots of Goblin Fighting -> Bandits! -> More goblins and hobgoblins!), but overall not too bad. In my own game, I've spruced up the Thundertree area, and have a plan to sprinkle some maps to the Underdark, as well as seed some leads for stuff my players built into their character backgrounds, and see where we go from there.
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
Not all characters can regain HP, unless you mean health potions.
Not true, all characters can spend their hit dice during short rests to regain HP.
Hit dice are rubbish though.
You're going to be running around with effective disadvantage on whatever you rolled for Max HP after being hurt, unless you have a healer of some sort or another form of healing (potions / fighter-monk second wind).
In my party of non-healers it seems like we need to long rest every second fight purely because we take damage but have no real way of taking it off.
Edit:
Very much preferred healing surges healing 1/4 hit points straight.
Yeah, part of it is really low level. I get to play tonight; neither the druid nor the cleric prepared a healing spell, so HP is a strictly limited resource - if we take more than 2-3 hits each, we die or have to flee or try to long rest. At this point I'm the only one with hit die left, and there no other HP coming.
Very much preferred healing surges healing 1/4 hit points straight.
4e characters are robust gods compared to 5e. Like most of them had surges sufficient to heal themselves up twice from 0 with the tough guys pushing into three times. That's with no bonuses from helpful Bards or Clerics.
Not all characters can regain HP, unless you mean health potions.
Not true, all characters can spend their hit dice during short rests to regain HP.
Yup and that is a huge buff healing wise. In older editions even for downtime healing you needed priests/druids/bards actively casting heal spells that required long rests to regain.
The hit dice heals make it so your healing spells/abilities/potions are mostly needed for in combat healing or for helping somebody who was drastically wounded after a fight.
I've said it before (probably) and I'll say it again, 4E healing surges are objectively better than 5E hit dice.
I certainly think it better fits the sword and sorcery fiction better. Though D&D has been this thing for so long the fiction has started to warp towards it.
Using some of the enemy stats from the Starter Box back but they are starting out at Level 3 and I'm going back to what my original concept was, after some debating.
The adventure will primarily take place in the Feywild and have heavy aspects of fairy tale themes (albeit a bit twisted and slightly darker as they are older).
Some things are going strange in the Feywild with aspects of the Dreaming spilling into the Feywild and the party will have to work with both Courts (and eventually pick a side) and help to seal up the portals to the Dreaming that are splitting open.
13th Age uses the same "recoveries" which is basically just 4E healing surges, and there is absolutely no question that it's a better system for healing.
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
So the Cleric can use a quick action on her turn to let an ally heal, but that ally is still using their recovery, so you still have a resource of your own to manage. But the Cleric also has a daily spell cure wounds which is also a quick action but lets you heal using a free recovery instead. Awesome. Then our commander/paladin multiclass party tank/support guy can use a command to interrupt your turn and let you rally as a free action. It still uses your "free rally" for the combat, so to do another in the combat you'd have to make a save, but it saves action economy. And you're still using your own recoveries so there's agency in it for each PC.
It's pretty perfect, because combats last a little longer and are a little tougher for a party with no healer because the group has to use standard actions to rally if they really need to mid-combat which means less standard actions dedicated to doing damage and ending the fight, but they're also still perfectly capable.
Compare with say 5E where even if you have a healer, the only real efficient use of healing is throwing out healing words with bonus actions, and realistically unless the game is house ruled you won't even do that unless the person is unconscious. And the fact that the iconic spell cure wounds is almost never a good choice to cast in the middle of a combat tells you there's a real problem that makes playing healers way less fun in that game.
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
This is, hands down, my favorite part of the 4E Healing Surge implementation.
So I started a Homebrew campaign last sunday that started off plenty fun; Got an interesting mix for my players and I took the liberty of giving each of them a character specific boon (I'll list each one in case people are curious) that I thought was appropriate for their characters
My players:
Varis, half elf fey pact warlock with a noble background. He was given a choice between noble ettiquette (which would make him more knowlegable of courtly manners, politics and other matters of the aristocracy) or Prominent pact holder (his patron would be more active, chatty and potentially helpful then most) and decided to go with the prominent pact holder for extra RP stuff.
Odile, Aasimar bard with acolye background. This 14 year old girl got a choice between bardic knowledge (basically an extra lore skill that could be applied to literally anything for information) or a greater guide (similair to the Prominent patron, the Angel who acts as her guide is extremely powerful and knowledgable and gives advice sporadically but this is tempered by it's lack of comprehension of mortal society). Once again, opportunity for RP stuff won out.
A wood elf Druid with a sage background. Since the player wanted to play the part of a sort of biologist, his options were a book with pictures and notes for animals from a distant land (thus allowing him to start with some extra shape options for creatures he wouldn't normally see) or a communication ring he could use once per day to talk to a fellow researcher who had access to a library. This time, practicality won out over RP stuff and book it was.
An outlander Dragonborn ranger. This one was a little more tricky, but I offered two options that seemed appropriate based on the interests of the player and his build; The former was that he could get the stalker build, which would make him better at tracking and watching prey whether that was a deer in the woods or a thief in a crowded city, while the latter was what I called rat build (the dragonborn was somewhat runty at a mere 5'11 and 205 ponds) and would have made it easier for him to escape bonds or squeeze through tight spaces that were at least as big as his head. While both were tempting, he went for the stalker trait, feeling that it was just a little more right for his character.
The party disembarked from a ship that they had been passengers on into the small port town of Sweetwater, a name which was surely a joke considering how the streets were stinking mud and most of the locals were just listlessly wandering about their daily routine, so the party decided to make for the nearest pub. Being the decent bunch that they are, they take a moment to stop a public lynching of a tiefling girl accused of being a witch who immediately gloms onto the party.
Shortly after they get a meal of mutton stew and cider, a gentleman comes in and tells them that they look like an adventuring party and that the village headman would be willing to pay for their services. Money always being of practical value, the group headed there and learned that undead were beginning to emerge from a nearby crypt and behaving rather strangely; they'd move in a straight line away from it before walking back. While the behaviour didn't seem immediately threatening, it was somewhat distressing for the town and as such the local priest of ilmater had prepared a hallowing ritual scroll so that they could keep the dead from power walking about and even sent along a guard from the town (a big half orc who wreaked of booze) to act as a guide. In review: opportunity to loot a crypt, get paid 100 gold, freeby extra muscle and out of stinky mud town and all hey probably need to do is dope smack an amateur hour necromancer.
With no random encounters en route, things were looking like they were going to be just the best until they reached the crypt, noticed that yep the doors were open and that their was a dead dear nearby that something had been munching on. A quick investigation by the ranger revealed that something with long claws had gutted the thing moments before a pack of ghouls led by a pair of whights popped out of the nearby woods. I had expected the party of 2nd level characters with 2 npc helpers to mop the floor with the adversaries and hoo boy did it not go as planned. Specifically, the party saw two of it's party members (the moon druid and the ranger) get paralyzed super fast and in the case of the ranger before they had a chance to do anything . Adding insult to injury for the poor druid was that after getting beaten out of bear form, he found himself poisoned by ghast stench causing him (while he was crouched on the ground like a bear) to gag and not be able to properly vomit from the ghast stink.
Much apologies were needed by virtue of the fact that while the party struggled with their dice rolls (the ranger was knocked unconscious after failing multiple saving throws) the NPC's who I hadn't intended for anything beyond plugging percieved holes in the party make up (Caster and Tank) were obliterating everything in their path. I knew that the dice gods were trolling the table super hard when the ranger expressing disgust at the state of affairs with his D20 rolled it in my directon claiming it was useless; a test roll on my part caused it to turn up a 20 which I ruled was the result for his first death saving throw.
With the ghoulies dispatched, the party descended into the tomb where they noticed within the first floor most of the 20 alcoves were empty, and those that weren't contained skeletons who's jaws were moving in sync. a moment later, one of them stood up beside the warlock who blasted it with an eldritch blast which plainly hurt it for a moment before it began descending deeper into the tomb, ignoring the befuddled caster.
Following it down, the players came across a pair of deat tmb robber, who had died with surprised and scared expressions on their faces. A careful inspection of the bodies revealed that they had wierd scar patterns on their chests and backs where the flesh looked aged and withered. As an interesting little note; the players chose to not help themselves to the pilfered bag of jewelery
The sub-sub basement contained a ghost of an old woman huddled in one corner, struggling to keep her mouth shut and who tried to pantomime answers to the players questions before vanishing and causing a skeleton to rise and begin descending to the bottom of the crypt.
At rock bottom of the crypt, the players were greeted with quite a sight; the Old woman's skeleton was literally walking in a circle and tearing itself apart and apparently quite a few other skeletons had done similairly, as their was a clear circle of bone surrounding a pyramid of skulls (all of which were still chattering there teeth in a specific simultaneous rhythm) with one on top leaking smoke from it's eyes and red ambient light filling the area. For future reference, I will call this "The Good Times Room." The Aasimar while looking over the room heard a voice in her mind saying simply "caution", and after she utterly failed at a religion check to see what the hell this thing could be, she went blind for a second as an image was burned into her mind:
This, coupled with a worried observation from the tiefling that this looked really dangerous prompted the players to take a moment and gather their spell resources with a long rest; a potentially dangerous move, but they took steps to set an alarm spell on the steps to The Good Times Room and barricade the main entrance to the crypt so they were able to sleep peacefully and head back down.
Once back down there, the party breached the circle and to begin working on the hallowing ritual (the warlock and the bard decided to try and group their efforts with Arcana and religion respectively to work through it), and at about this time:
Specifically a spectral figure appeared with wildly distorting appearance and making a constant buzzing sound (that matched the rhythm of the skulls) and appeared to be moving with all the fluidity of an MMO running at 2fps and apparently really pissed off at the players for disrupting the circle. Fortunately for them, the players rolled like bad asses on initiative and were able to come out swinging at this thing while the warlock tried to read through the scroll as quickly as possible.
Early attacks of a physical variety didn't seem to bother it much (they still caused damage, but the lack of any actual physical substance and the spooks diminished brain power meant that hitting it with a big hammer wasn't nearly as visually satisfying as you might think) so some of the players resorted to lashing out with magic when possible and got much more appealing results. Of particular note for the short fight (it didn't even go 3 full rounds) was the sense of calamity for the players, as the spook struck the warlock and life drained him for 14 damage that he learned a moment later couldn't be just healed back (Also, he was able to make out that the ghost was actually cycling through multiple forms quickly and that it was repeating a phrase endlessly), the Bard recieving council from her guide and taunting the ghost into attacking her (the warlock was super salt that she both resisted the necrotic damage also made her save), and also the ranger coming up with a clever solution to the spook that I hadn't considered (shooting the skull at the top of the pyramid) that I totally would have let slide if he'd done it.
Still though, the players defeated the spirit and completed the ritual, meaning they would be able to get a sweet 100 gold (totes worth it) when they got back to town, though there was the mystery of the phrase the thing had been saying lingering with them: "That which was can be again".
Side thoughts with this:
1. I really liked the choices that my players made for characters for this campaign; the party very much fits the british isles vibe of the Moonshaes, and all of them were doing a good job of playing to character. Also, I forsee a lot of fun with the two respective voice in head personas due in no small part to the difference between them; one is a pixie and the other is a greater angel.
2. The NPCs worked like a charm; Braelyn worked just fine as a tank and gave hints as to depth (they've gotten a sense that he may have been a knight but he's also drinking the cheapest booze you can imagine though never enough to actually get drunk) while Hope did well offering magical muscle and leading to a great deal of confusion as to what she actually is; they've seen her throw around a lot of elemental magic that is cast in bizzare ways and odd side effects around her, a sense that she doesn't want her powers and that according to the crowd she was arguing with someone they couldn't see while speaking in toungues.
3. They handled the lynch mob with no mess; Varris used his pack power to mass charm the crowd and convince them to leave peacefully instead of beating the holy hell out of them.
4. I always like to start a campaign as a side quest, since it gives the players a chance to get used to each other and the setting while it gives me a chance to feel out the party's overall personality and this seemed to work well for the session, though I did leave them with a simple phrase that will be a plot hook for the greater story.
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
This is, hands down, my favorite part of the 4E Healing Surge implementation.
Yeah, I mean they figured out a way to have healers get to heal people while also doing fun stuff like damage, and without making them be too powerful because the resource used to power the heal still belongs to the person being healed. It was brilliant. I didn't like 4E overall, but they did specific things pretty perfectly. For what 4E was designed to do, it did it immaculately. And thankfully, 13th Age takes basically all the things I liked about 4E and leaves the parts I didn't. There's games for everybody these days. =D
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
This is, hands down, my favorite part of the 4E Healing Surge implementation.
Yeah, I mean they figured out a way to have healers get to heal people while also doing fun stuff like damage, and without making them be too powerful because the resource used to power the heal still belongs to the person being healed. It was brilliant. I didn't like 4E overall, but they did specific things pretty perfectly. For what 4E was designed to do, it did it immaculately. And thankfully, 13th Age takes basically all the things I liked about 4E and leaves the parts I didn't. There's games for everybody these days. =D
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
This is, hands down, my favorite part of the 4E Healing Surge implementation.
Yeah, I mean they figured out a way to have healers get to heal people while also doing fun stuff like damage, and without making them be too powerful because the resource used to power the heal still belongs to the person being healed. It was brilliant. I didn't like 4E overall, but they did specific things pretty perfectly. For what 4E was designed to do, it did it immaculately. And thankfully, 13th Age takes basically all the things I liked about 4E and leaves the parts I didn't. There's games for everybody these days. =D
Like you say there really is a game for every group pretty much. If nothing else Kickstarter has allowed a lot of systems and interpretations of the genre to see the light of day that would otherwise be buried somewhere.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Alright, I need to make a D&D product gripe/ask a D&D product question, and I can't think of a better place to do it.
The new plastic miniature set, Monster Menagerie 2, has new Grick miniature in it. Confession: I have a completely unhealthy love for Gricks. There've been a few models released over the years, and I've collected multiple handfuls of each. For reasons.
Seeing this new release, I immediately went to purchase a bunch. I then discover this figure is considered a Rare.WTF? Is there any explanation for that?
I got them in the mail today! Eagerly, I opened the package...and was met with the most curious sight. Here's a picture of all the different D&D Grick minis side by side, with a Human Cleric for scale:
Guess which one is the new sculpt!
I really, really don't understand what went into deciding that a Medium-sized creature in virtually every MM entry (barring the Grick Alpha in the 5e MM, which is Large) should end up with a new figure that's not hardly as tall as a Halfling, and a quarter as thick!
Does anyone have any idea why this figure is so small? Was there a Grick in some recent book or adventure that is sized Small?
As much as I love the mini's, the latest batches do seem to have some serious scaling issues (Consider the giants we saw up thread; they looked to be much larger then they should overall).
Yea, the hill giants out mass creatures that are supposed to be twice their height and like 12 times their mass. The minis look great by themselves but putting a Storm Giant next to them and it just all goes to hell.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
That's not a lack of consistency in scale. That's a complete lack of proper scaling. Like, multiple people had to work hard to fuck that one up. Especially given there's multiple examples of prior art!
Maybe it's a baby grick?
Certainly doesn't look like the 8 foot long, 200 pound tentacle snake that Google tells me it should.
I'd guess that the sculptor got a picture of it without the size and figured "Hey, looks like a snake, we'll make it about that size".
I'd love to use these as baby Gricks, cutting a bunch off their bases and rebasing them into swarms. But as a rare, and going for blind-box-rare figure prices on the secondary market....ugh. I still might, but that will get expensive quick.
Generally, from conversations with WotC on their boards over the years, the rarity is driven by a couple of things, including (but not limited to) how detailed the sculpt is, how many painting steps it requires, and how many they figure the average player is going to use.
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
I printed basically every monster from the 13th Age three core rulebooks on cardstock using a PDF template somebody else had made. Then I bought like 20 little stands, and I just pull the ones I need for any given fight and stick them in there. They're like generic pathfinder pawns basically. Total cost was like $40 and about 8 hours of my time. I'm glad I did it though, it's nice to have a visual representation of what the players are fighting, and I don't do the mini collecting thing.
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
13 cents each. Pretty sure a couple dollars will buy ya some toothpicks and a tiny drill.
Not that it isn't a good idea, just that 3D printing seems a bit overkill there.
When I actually got to thinking about it I realized laser cut wood would be the better option, and easier to make, package and ship. They also lend a slightly higher quality feel than plastic.
I backed the kickstarter for this wooden ball bearing roller coaster last year, and it's all laser cut wood and VERY well made. The nice thing is the pieces were designed not to pop out of the board they were cut from until you pressed them out, so the company just shipped the whole sheets in the box and you punch them out as you build the coaster.
Maybe throw in some laster cut line art monsters as well and you could have a nice set of gaming pieces.
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
13 cents each. Pretty sure a couple dollars will buy ya some toothpicks and a tiny drill.
Not that it isn't a good idea, just that 3D printing seems a bit overkill there.
When I actually got to thinking about it I realized laser cut wood would be the better option, and easier to make, package and ship. They also lend a slightly higher quality feel than plastic.
I backed the kickstarter for this wooden ball bearing roller coaster last year, and it's all laser cut wood and VERY well made. The nice thing is the pieces were designed not to pop out of the board they were cut from until you pressed them out, so the company just shipped the whole sheets in the box and you punch them out as you build the coaster.
Maybe throw in some laster cut line art monsters as well and you could have a nice set of gaming pieces.
Yea, I sorta want a 3D printer but use one professionally so I'm well aware of the work and various issues and ultimately I just don't care about minis that much.
Getting my hands on a 2D laser cutter though would be much higher on my list. Though it might be challenging to slit them in a way that could hold a cardstock piece upright. Maybe with a slit down the middle thing. *shrug* For awhile I've wanted to do a nice set of generic wooden tokens with like α, β and other symbols for different groups on them. It'd be pretty easy to make those look classy and the programming shouldn't be a silly amount of work.
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I think I might look into this. I have a friend who arts that I might be able to conscript for the minis, and I do logistics/manufacturing as a living and am computer savvy enough I can probably figure out design for a 2D laser cutter.
Reading some of the comments on that printer were...not encouraging.
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
13 cents each. Pretty sure a couple dollars will buy ya some toothpicks and a tiny drill.
Not that it isn't a good idea, just that 3D printing seems a bit overkill there.
When I actually got to thinking about it I realized laser cut wood would be the better option, and easier to make, package and ship. They also lend a slightly higher quality feel than plastic.
I backed the kickstarter for this wooden ball bearing roller coaster last year, and it's all laser cut wood and VERY well made. The nice thing is the pieces were designed not to pop out of the board they were cut from until you pressed them out, so the company just shipped the whole sheets in the box and you punch them out as you build the coaster.
Maybe throw in some laster cut line art monsters as well and you could have a nice set of gaming pieces.
Yea, I sorta want a 3D printer but use one professionally so I'm well aware of the work and various issues and ultimately I just don't care about minis that much.
Getting my hands on a 2D laser cutter though would be much higher on my list. Though it might be challenging to slit them in a way that could hold a cardstock piece upright. Maybe with a slit down the middle thing. *shrug* For awhile I've wanted to do a nice set of generic wooden tokens with like α, β and other symbols for different groups on them. It'd be pretty easy to make those look classy and the programming shouldn't be a silly amount of work.
2D Lasers should be able to alternate depth of cut, right? Maybe do 3/4 depth slit down the middle, and a smaller cross cut, so you can do a card stock X at the base?
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
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Replying to you and @JustTee
I guess it's probably a good idea to skip the DMPC/bear. I know 5e doesn't have a TANK per say, but they don't really have a heavy HP character on their team so it had me worried a bit, I guess. But they all are starting out at level 3 (so that people can pickup their specialization and can have more HP).
I might have the bear idea on the side as @JustTee mentioned but leave it be and see how it goes with the 4 of them.
Either way, I'm excited. I'm more excited that they are all excited. I got them to play a couple times in the past but life gets in the way but now they seem genuinely stoked which just makes ME stoked to put on a good show. On top of that, it's a group of thirteen year old girls who are wanting to down this and anything I can do to encourage them, I will.
Plus, it let's me setup a safe space for them to just have a good time. And it lets me control their first group D&D experience in a fun environment over a bunch of horror stories I hear from some girls trying to get into the gaming scene. This way, their first experiences are positive and if they ever run into those awful situations/negative stereotypes, they know those AREN'T the norm and not the only way to play the game.
However it also puts a bit of pressure on me to be on top of this. I have to make it fun and compelling. I've ran 3 or so games with my daughter before. And only 1 each for her friends (they all three haven't played at the same time yet). The light-hearted, comedy aspect they all greatly enjoy so I got that going. But as mentioned, my daughter has grown inspired by Critical Role so I know she's at least ready for an actual, overarching plot as well.
So I'm trying to figure that out. I think Curse of Strahd is a bit too dark atmosphere wise for the first go so I'm thinking of lifting some story ideas from old games they haven't played yet along with my own ideas mixed in.
The Tiamat adventure to me seemed most high fantasy and least dark of the 5e published stuff so far.
In 5e all of the classes actually have some decent protective elements (if they so decide to use them). As well as a variety of ways to regain HP.
I would not be too worried if you don't have a tank character unless the lot of your party is non-dwarven wild mages who don't take shield.
Either/or. Though Hess all characters get hit die
Reading through some of the old 1e adventures, Cult of the Reptile God was pretty good.
1. Players enter town for any reason (easiest is they get a job to find someone).
2. They talk to villagers, some who talk about abductions, others say "everything is fine, leave us alone", and a few others are absolutely crazy.
3. Normal people advise players to sleep at Inn #1, which is a normal inn, and to investigate the abandoned Inn #3. Crazy villagers tell players to sleep at Inn #2, which is trapped.
4. If the players investigate Inn #3, they're attacked by lizardfolk and find documents about shipments of prisoners to a lair in the swamp.
4.1. If the players sleep at Inn #2, the innkeeper and his buddies plus some lizardfolk attack the players in their sleep.
4.2. Any players defeated in this way get abducted and taken to the swamp lair.
5. Lair is filled with lizardfolk, and townfolk who have been mindcontrolled. Documents reveal that mindcontrolled people are returned to the village, people who resisted are killed.
6. Fairly simple dungeon ending with a spellcaster Naga who hides in the water.
Story ends with a big ol' pile of gold and killing the naga (or maybe there was a statue or something) breaks the enchantment on the townspeople. The book it self has a lot more meat and fat, but that's more or less how I ran it. If the players aren't interested in the abandoned inn, have them go to the church to find that the clergy has mostly disappeared aside from one guy who's enchanted.
Not true, all characters can spend their hit dice during short rests to regain HP.
The D&D starter set is actually pretty solid, encounter wise. It's a bit dull in the beginning (Goblin Ambush! -> Lots of Goblin Fighting -> Bandits! -> More goblins and hobgoblins!), but overall not too bad. In my own game, I've spruced up the Thundertree area, and have a plan to sprinkle some maps to the Underdark, as well as seed some leads for stuff my players built into their character backgrounds, and see where we go from there.
Hit dice are rubbish though.
You're going to be running around with effective disadvantage on whatever you rolled for Max HP after being hurt, unless you have a healer of some sort or another form of healing (potions / fighter-monk second wind).
In my party of non-healers it seems like we need to long rest every second fight purely because we take damage but have no real way of taking it off.
Edit:
Very much preferred healing surges healing 1/4 hit points straight.
4e characters are robust gods compared to 5e. Like most of them had surges sufficient to heal themselves up twice from 0 with the tough guys pushing into three times. That's with no bonuses from helpful Bards or Clerics.
It is a huge change in tone of the average game.
Yup and that is a huge buff healing wise. In older editions even for downtime healing you needed priests/druids/bards actively casting heal spells that required long rests to regain.
The hit dice heals make it so your healing spells/abilities/potions are mostly needed for in combat healing or for helping somebody who was drastically wounded after a fight.
I certainly think it better fits the sword and sorcery fiction better. Though D&D has been this thing for so long the fiction has started to warp towards it.
The adventure will primarily take place in the Feywild and have heavy aspects of fairy tale themes (albeit a bit twisted and slightly darker as they are older).
Some things are going strange in the Feywild with aspects of the Dreaming spilling into the Feywild and the party will have to work with both Courts (and eventually pick a side) and help to seal up the portals to the Dreaming that are splitting open.
Even if the party has no healer you get to recover some HP after fights, and even inside of fights using rally.
The true beauty of it for me at least is that you're still using your own resource to heal (most of the time), but having a class that lets you do it inside of combat without using your standard action to rally is a force multiplier, and the cherry on top is that the person giving out the healing generally uses their quick action to do so, so they still get to slap somebody with a hammer or cast a damage spell or whatever if they want.
So the Cleric can use a quick action on her turn to let an ally heal, but that ally is still using their recovery, so you still have a resource of your own to manage. But the Cleric also has a daily spell cure wounds which is also a quick action but lets you heal using a free recovery instead. Awesome. Then our commander/paladin multiclass party tank/support guy can use a command to interrupt your turn and let you rally as a free action. It still uses your "free rally" for the combat, so to do another in the combat you'd have to make a save, but it saves action economy. And you're still using your own recoveries so there's agency in it for each PC.
It's pretty perfect, because combats last a little longer and are a little tougher for a party with no healer because the group has to use standard actions to rally if they really need to mid-combat which means less standard actions dedicated to doing damage and ending the fight, but they're also still perfectly capable.
Compare with say 5E where even if you have a healer, the only real efficient use of healing is throwing out healing words with bonus actions, and realistically unless the game is house ruled you won't even do that unless the person is unconscious. And the fact that the iconic spell cure wounds is almost never a good choice to cast in the middle of a combat tells you there's a real problem that makes playing healers way less fun in that game.
This is, hands down, my favorite part of the 4E Healing Surge implementation.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My players:
The party disembarked from a ship that they had been passengers on into the small port town of Sweetwater, a name which was surely a joke considering how the streets were stinking mud and most of the locals were just listlessly wandering about their daily routine, so the party decided to make for the nearest pub. Being the decent bunch that they are, they take a moment to stop a public lynching of a tiefling girl accused of being a witch who immediately gloms onto the party.
Shortly after they get a meal of mutton stew and cider, a gentleman comes in and tells them that they look like an adventuring party and that the village headman would be willing to pay for their services. Money always being of practical value, the group headed there and learned that undead were beginning to emerge from a nearby crypt and behaving rather strangely; they'd move in a straight line away from it before walking back. While the behaviour didn't seem immediately threatening, it was somewhat distressing for the town and as such the local priest of ilmater had prepared a hallowing ritual scroll so that they could keep the dead from power walking about and even sent along a guard from the town (a big half orc who wreaked of booze) to act as a guide. In review: opportunity to loot a crypt, get paid 100 gold, freeby extra muscle and out of stinky mud town and all hey probably need to do is dope smack an amateur hour necromancer.
With no random encounters en route, things were looking like they were going to be just the best until they reached the crypt, noticed that yep the doors were open and that their was a dead dear nearby that something had been munching on. A quick investigation by the ranger revealed that something with long claws had gutted the thing moments before a pack of ghouls led by a pair of whights popped out of the nearby woods. I had expected the party of 2nd level characters with 2 npc helpers to mop the floor with the adversaries and hoo boy did it not go as planned. Specifically, the party saw two of it's party members (the moon druid and the ranger) get paralyzed super fast and in the case of the ranger before they had a chance to do anything
Much apologies were needed by virtue of the fact that while the party struggled with their dice rolls (the ranger was knocked unconscious after failing multiple saving throws) the NPC's who I hadn't intended for anything beyond plugging percieved holes in the party make up (Caster and Tank) were obliterating everything in their path. I knew that the dice gods were trolling the table super hard when the ranger expressing disgust at the state of affairs with his D20 rolled it in my directon claiming it was useless; a test roll on my part caused it to turn up a 20 which I ruled was the result for his first death saving throw.
With the ghoulies dispatched, the party descended into the tomb where they noticed within the first floor most of the 20 alcoves were empty, and those that weren't contained skeletons who's jaws were moving in sync. a moment later, one of them stood up beside the warlock who blasted it with an eldritch blast which plainly hurt it for a moment before it began descending deeper into the tomb, ignoring the befuddled caster.
Following it down, the players came across a pair of deat tmb robber, who had died with surprised and scared expressions on their faces. A careful inspection of the bodies revealed that they had wierd scar patterns on their chests and backs where the flesh looked aged and withered. As an interesting little note; the players chose to not help themselves to the pilfered bag of jewelery
The sub-sub basement contained a ghost of an old woman huddled in one corner, struggling to keep her mouth shut and who tried to pantomime answers to the players questions before vanishing and causing a skeleton to rise and begin descending to the bottom of the crypt.
At rock bottom of the crypt, the players were greeted with quite a sight; the Old woman's skeleton was literally walking in a circle and tearing itself apart and apparently quite a few other skeletons had done similairly, as their was a clear circle of bone surrounding a pyramid of skulls (all of which were still chattering there teeth in a specific simultaneous rhythm) with one on top leaking smoke from it's eyes and red ambient light filling the area. For future reference, I will call this "The Good Times Room." The Aasimar while looking over the room heard a voice in her mind saying simply "caution", and after she utterly failed at a religion check to see what the hell this thing could be, she went blind for a second as an image was burned into her mind:
This, coupled with a worried observation from the tiefling that this looked really dangerous prompted the players to take a moment and gather their spell resources with a long rest; a potentially dangerous move, but they took steps to set an alarm spell on the steps to The Good Times Room and barricade the main entrance to the crypt so they were able to sleep peacefully and head back down.
Once back down there, the party breached the circle and to begin working on the hallowing ritual (the warlock and the bard decided to try and group their efforts with Arcana and religion respectively to work through it), and at about this time:
Specifically a spectral figure appeared with wildly distorting appearance and making a constant buzzing sound (that matched the rhythm of the skulls) and appeared to be moving with all the fluidity of an MMO running at 2fps and apparently really pissed off at the players for disrupting the circle. Fortunately for them, the players rolled like bad asses on initiative and were able to come out swinging at this thing while the warlock tried to read through the scroll as quickly as possible.
Early attacks of a physical variety didn't seem to bother it much (they still caused damage, but the lack of any actual physical substance and the spooks diminished brain power meant that hitting it with a big hammer wasn't nearly as visually satisfying as you might think) so some of the players resorted to lashing out with magic when possible and got much more appealing results. Of particular note for the short fight (it didn't even go 3 full rounds) was the sense of calamity for the players, as the spook struck the warlock and life drained him for 14 damage that he learned a moment later couldn't be just healed back (Also, he was able to make out that the ghost was actually cycling through multiple forms quickly and that it was repeating a phrase endlessly), the Bard recieving council from her guide and taunting the ghost into attacking her (the warlock was super salt that she both resisted the necrotic damage also made her save), and also the ranger coming up with a clever solution to the spook that I hadn't considered (shooting the skull at the top of the pyramid) that I totally would have let slide if he'd done it.
Still though, the players defeated the spirit and completed the ritual, meaning they would be able to get a sweet 100 gold (totes worth it) when they got back to town, though there was the mystery of the phrase the thing had been saying lingering with them: "That which was can be again".
Side thoughts with this:
1. I really liked the choices that my players made for characters for this campaign; the party very much fits the british isles vibe of the Moonshaes, and all of them were doing a good job of playing to character. Also, I forsee a lot of fun with the two respective voice in head personas due in no small part to the difference between them; one is a pixie and the other is a greater angel.
2. The NPCs worked like a charm; Braelyn worked just fine as a tank and gave hints as to depth (they've gotten a sense that he may have been a knight but he's also drinking the cheapest booze you can imagine though never enough to actually get drunk) while Hope did well offering magical muscle and leading to a great deal of confusion as to what she actually is; they've seen her throw around a lot of elemental magic that is cast in bizzare ways and odd side effects around her, a sense that she doesn't want her powers and that according to the crowd she was arguing with someone they couldn't see while speaking in toungues.
3. They handled the lynch mob with no mess; Varris used his pack power to mass charm the crowd and convince them to leave peacefully instead of beating the holy hell out of them.
4. I always like to start a campaign as a side quest, since it gives the players a chance to get used to each other and the setting while it gives me a chance to feel out the party's overall personality and this seemed to work well for the session, though I did leave them with a simple phrase that will be a plot hook for the greater story.
Yeah, I mean they figured out a way to have healers get to heal people while also doing fun stuff like damage, and without making them be too powerful because the resource used to power the heal still belongs to the person being healed. It was brilliant. I didn't like 4E overall, but they did specific things pretty perfectly. For what 4E was designed to do, it did it immaculately. And thankfully, 13th Age takes basically all the things I liked about 4E and leaves the parts I didn't. There's games for everybody these days. =D
Like you say there really is a game for every group pretty much. If nothing else Kickstarter has allowed a lot of systems and interpretations of the genre to see the light of day that would otherwise be buried somewhere.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
The new plastic miniature set, Monster Menagerie 2, has new Grick miniature in it. Confession: I have a completely unhealthy love for Gricks. There've been a few models released over the years, and I've collected multiple handfuls of each. For reasons.
Seeing this new release, I immediately went to purchase a bunch. I then discover this figure is considered a Rare. WTF? Is there any explanation for that?
I got them in the mail today! Eagerly, I opened the package...and was met with the most curious sight. Here's a picture of all the different D&D Grick minis side by side, with a Human Cleric for scale:
Guess which one is the new sculpt!
I really, really don't understand what went into deciding that a Medium-sized creature in virtually every MM entry (barring the Grick Alpha in the 5e MM, which is Large) should end up with a new figure that's not hardly as tall as a Halfling, and a quarter as thick!
Does anyone have any idea why this figure is so small? Was there a Grick in some recent book or adventure that is sized Small?
Certainly doesn't look like the 8 foot long, 200 pound tentacle snake that Google tells me it should.
I'd guess that the sculptor got a picture of it without the size and figured "Hey, looks like a snake, we'll make it about that size".
I'd love to use these as baby Gricks, cutting a bunch off their bases and rebasing them into swarms. But as a rare, and going for blind-box-rare figure prices on the secondary market....ugh. I still might, but that will get expensive quick.
Generally, from conversations with WotC on their boards over the years, the rarity is driven by a couple of things, including (but not limited to) how detailed the sculpt is, how many painting steps it requires, and how many they figure the average player is going to use.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Regardless, I've bought eight more Gricks (cheaper than the first batch, even) because I have problems, but eff it.
Wonder if the DM's guild would accept an adventure delving into a massive Grick lair...
I guess you get what you pay for. Seems to go double for new tech like 3d printers. A couple more generations and they should be usable for making your own minis.
On the other hand, even if it is a rough print, maybe a good paint job could make a passable back row grick.
I think a cheap 3D printer would be real nice to make good tokens, or stands where I can put printed out monsters on. Print out some monsters in color on a good heavy cardstock and have custom bases for them that are numbered and stuff? That would be great. Maybe have some holes in them for colored toothpicks to indicate status effects?
Fuck I should start a kickstarter on that.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/parts#keyword=stand
13 cents each. Pretty sure a couple dollars will buy ya some toothpicks and a tiny drill.
Not that it isn't a good idea, just that 3D printing seems a bit overkill there.
When I actually got to thinking about it I realized laser cut wood would be the better option, and easier to make, package and ship. They also lend a slightly higher quality feel than plastic.
I backed the kickstarter for this wooden ball bearing roller coaster last year, and it's all laser cut wood and VERY well made. The nice thing is the pieces were designed not to pop out of the board they were cut from until you pressed them out, so the company just shipped the whole sheets in the box and you punch them out as you build the coaster.
Maybe throw in some laster cut line art monsters as well and you could have a nice set of gaming pieces.
https://tinkineer.com/product/product-2/
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Yea, I sorta want a 3D printer but use one professionally so I'm well aware of the work and various issues and ultimately I just don't care about minis that much.
Getting my hands on a 2D laser cutter though would be much higher on my list. Though it might be challenging to slit them in a way that could hold a cardstock piece upright. Maybe with a slit down the middle thing. *shrug* For awhile I've wanted to do a nice set of generic wooden tokens with like α, β and other symbols for different groups on them. It'd be pretty easy to make those look classy and the programming shouldn't be a silly amount of work.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
2D Lasers should be able to alternate depth of cut, right? Maybe do 3/4 depth slit down the middle, and a smaller cross cut, so you can do a card stock X at the base?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain