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[D&D 5E] Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

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Posts

  • AnialosAnialos Collies are love, Collies are life! Shadowbrook ColliesRegistered User regular
    Blindness?

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    .
    Delzhand wrote: »
    L

    But I'm really proud of the "telegraphed attacks" homebrew rule. When it reared back on its hind legs and took no other action on a turn, the rogue moved away and the paladin said on his turn he was was going to trust in his shield and attacked it anyway.

    One way to do this; while respecting the fact that a monster should still be dangerous. Is to have them take those actions which produce responses with the monsters allotment of legendary actions. Sometimes you wills still want to move/attack. But legendary actions are a great way to tip off players to what is going to happen.

    Plus it means that sometimes not all the players will be able to react to an incoming "boom" and so the threat still feels real.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    edited June 2018
    So my group of 5 lvl 3s decided it was imperative to investigate the Coffin Makers's shop in Vallaki at 11pm in the evening...
    After having slugged out a few rounds with Izek in the town square earlier (they started messing with the stocks whole he was in the square AND with
    Ireena
    in the party)...
    And not having had any healing or rest because why not, Milivoj was a pushover so whatever right?

    Well....
    They wake up the owner pounding on the door, pretending they want to buy a coffin at .. 11pm. He tells them to go screw. They break in. He tells them the bones are upstairs (truth!) They make him go first in marching order. He walks up to the boxes and flips a lid open yelling about the party being here for the bones. Roll initiative.

    The cleric got a lucky turned undead where i rolled like shit so 4 vampire spawns were out of commission from the get go. In an effort to corral the other 2 the party chucked fire at the floor (alchemist flask), realizing a bit too late that doing so in a wooden building full of wooden coffins and coffin making materials might not go well. The rogue broke off from the fight to look for the bones (found 8 rounds into the 10 round turn undead). The party managed to focus fire one vamp, the other was at almost full hp because their one source of radiant dmg (the cleric) save DC is still a lvl 3 one heh. They managed to get away into the night with the bones, and 3 vamp worth of XP (i judged that two of the CCed ones snapped out of it too late to get out of the burning building due to the iron lattice bars the book says are on all the windows.)

    I was impressed how well they failed forward. And i continue to not have fudged any rolls.

    Oh and they had also met Rictavio at the inn (and then decided they don't need a rest) who is apparently a reference to first edition DnD which i never played but they all did so they squaled with delight like school girls at this.

    Smrtnik on
    steam_sig.png
  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    edited June 2018
    We just tackled the Coffin Maker's shop last night too!
    It was our Cleric's first chance to use the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. It is so overpowered. He had the highest initiative, suddenly 5 Vamp spawn were paralyzed. My Bard had the next turn and cast Shatter in the corner of the building. It hit a few of the vamps, but more importantly it shattered the boarded up windows and let the sunlight in. So now the majority of the vamps were held in place and in sunlight.

    At that point we steamrolled the encounter. On the next initiative round my Bard spent his action playing a wicked lute solo.

    Ken O on
    http://www.fingmonkey.com/
    Comics, Games, Booze
  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    The card reading for this group said two of their treasures are in Castle Ravenloft. The one that is not, is the one without a combat use. GL!

    steam_sig.png
  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    Ken O wrote: »
    We just tackled the Coffin Maker's shop last night too!
    It was our Cleric's first chance to use the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. It is so overpowered. He had the highest initiative, suddenly 5 Vamp spawn were paralyzed. My Bard had the next turn and cast Shatter in the corner of the building. It hit a few of the vamps, but more importantly it shattered the boarded up windows and let the sunlight in. So now the majority of the vamps were held in place and in sunlight.

    At that point we steamrolled the encounter. On the next initiative round my Bard spent his action playing a wicked lute solo.

    Just a note on sunlight in Barovia.

    From CoS p24...
    By the will of the Dark Powers, the sun never fully shines in the lands of Barovia. Even during the day, the sky is dimmed by fog or storm clouds, or the light is strangely muted. Barovian daylight is bright light, yet it isn't considered sunlight for the purpose of effects and vulnerabilities, such as a vampire's, tied to sunlight.
    Nevertheless, Strahd and his vampire spawn tend to stay indoors most of the day and venture out at night, and they are subject to sunlight created by magic.

    Basically everyone in Barovia is suffering from seasonal affective disorder all year around.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    Aw damn. No idea if my Gm missed that or just let the sunlight work because it was cool. I'll totally bring it up to him though.

    http://www.fingmonkey.com/
    Comics, Games, Booze
  • IvelliusIvellius Registered User regular
    If anyone plays on Roll20 or thinks you ever might, they just put out their Charactermancer to guide people through (5e) character creation. It's such a nice little tool to have integrated.

    Me elsewhere:
    Steam, various fora: Ivellius
    League of Legends: Doctor Ivellius
    Twitch, probably another place or two I forget: LPIvellius
  • DenadaDenada Registered User regular
    Ken O wrote: »
    Aw damn. No idea if my Gm missed that or just let the sunlight work because it was cool. I'll totally bring it up to him though.

    Either way it does sound like a pretty cool moment. I likely would have let it happen even if I knew about the sunlight thing. Similar to how I let my party's druid cast Thorn Whip, then wild shape into a bear before she did the pull effect so that she could pull harder because she was a big strong bear. Definitely shouldn't have worked by RAW but it was cool and I said so at the table. "Technically that's not how it's supposed to work but that's a cool idea so it works."

  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    yz1yoxbv110r.jpg

    After the failure last week of having to transfer a map to 8.5x11 paper I decided to make some interlocking dungeon times based on Wyloch's design. I'm less concerned with theming them, so they're a lot faster to churn out. Which is good, because if I've done my math right, next week's dungeon is 9400 square feet.

  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    I love how this looks, I might have to make something similar to map out rooms when combat is going to take place. I would paint them with some regular floor/forest floor/cobble stones/sand just to add some visuals to spark the imagination of my group (who are all very visually minded) It also opens the door for some interaction with the environment (as in, moving tiles around in a lair to display stuff like shifting sands.

  • WassermeloneWassermelone Registered User regular
    There used to be a tone of play by post games on here - did 5e kind of kill that or did it move to roll20 or?

    My wife and I are in a real life game but would also like to join an online game as well and if there are any people here are running that would be more ideal than just rando roll20 games :P

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    There used to be a tone of play by post games on here - did 5e kind of kill that or did it move to roll20 or?

    My wife and I are in a real life game but would also like to join an online game as well and if there are any people here are running that would be more ideal than just rando roll20 games :P

    I don't think it's 5e, so much as it is a combination of real life getting in the way for both GMs and Players and real time online methods of play being easier to use.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited June 2018
    It's a shame though. I kinda like the pbp format.

    Yes, it's much slower but it's a different type of game experience. One that could lead to more thoughtful roleplaying, befitting from having time to think about what your character would say or do instead of blurting it out at a table where everyone is watching you.

    It also provides a gaming filler to keep you going in between IRL or online sessions. Or even the only gaming people can fit in when they can't carve 3-6 hour blocks of time away from their real life responsibilities.

    I think more of us should be running pbp games. :)

    Steelhawk on
  • ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    It's a shame though. I kinda like the pbp format.

    Yes, it's much slower but it's a different type of game experience. One that could lead to more thoughtful roleplaying, befitting from having time to think about what your character would say or do instead of blurting it out at a table where everyone is watching you.

    It also provides a gaming filler to keep you going in between IRL or online sessions. Or even the only gaming people can fit in when they can't carve 3-6 blocks of time away from their real life responsibilities.

    I think more of us should be running pbp games. :)

    I would be totally down for a pbp.

  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    I'm in.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited June 2018
    Finding players is never the issue. :)

    Steelhawk on
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Finding players is never the issue. :)

    Someone get the straws out.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    The problem with PbP is that DnD in general is not designed for it. The game is sequential and that makes simple things like combat and skill challenges take forever. Anything that requires back and forth input; anything that requires sequential input etc just takes too much time unless people are always at their computer and almost always ready to respond to a prompted post.



    Vampire could make an OK system for a PbP game*. But you would still have to abstract combat into skill challenge rather than a sequential system.

    The second problem with PbP(more prevalent in vampire to be fair) is that people are shitty writers.

    *I don't have a plot yet, but if anyone wants to brainstorm how to make such a system work in the framework i had envisioned i would definitely be interested.

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  • DenadaDenada Registered User regular
    I miss all the PbPs too. I used to run them pretty regularly but I stopped when I couldn't keep up with posting and managing maps and stuff. Work just got way too busy for me to be able to pay as much attention to PbPs as I wanted to.

    One of these days I'd like to run another one. I have a great deal of fondness for the format.

  • ChaosHatChaosHat Hop, hop, hop, HA! Trick of the lightRegistered User regular
    Maybe doing something like Dungeon World or something more narrative would be better suited to the format.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    The problem with PbP is that DnD in general is not designed for it. The game is sequential and that makes simple things like combat and skill challenges take forever. Anything that requires back and forth input; anything that requires sequential input etc just takes too much time unless people are always at their computer and almost always ready to respond to a prompted post.

    Meh. If you know that going in, and can be ok with the much slower pace of game, it's just fine. So what if a combat takes a day or two? A former here is likely logging on and posting multiple times a day anyway. What's one more thread to follow.

    From the GMing side of it though, that's usually just as much work as it is in any other format. Plus needing to be able to do some image hosting and map manipulation. That might be second nature for those of you born and raised on the internet, but that is not me. I had to learn (and a bare minimum at that!), and it wasn't pleasant but it was worth it, imo.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Even here what usually happens is that combat takes weeks. The reason it does has to do less with how often you pay attention to the thread and more to do with how times sync up. Player 1 goes and then player 2 goes and if they're not ready for each other then player 2 is offline before player 1 goes.

    Anything that is directly sequential has significant problems. About the only way to fix it is to make combat have two phases, a player phase and an enemy phase and players can take their actions at any point in the phase (and are encouraged to be pro-active and so go first, rather than waiting for allies). Even this wildly changes how combat works in DnD though

    wbBv3fj.png
  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    I know it takes a lot of impromptu planning. If you'd eliminate random combat encounters and reduce trash mobs to just the significant encounters, you could resolve combat in Roll20, post the battle log on the forums and then continue with pbp as per regular. The time investment would be comparable to playing a round or two of TF2 with friends in the evening. Just gotta find players in the right timezone who are willing to plan some time off in the evenings to be on Roll20.

    Obviously the campaign should be low on combat-crap, but I think it could work.

  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Session went well yesterday, the monk convinced the frost giant that her people weren't worth rejoining, they would never get the ring of winter and if they did it would turn the other giants against them in unison. I'm not sure how we arrived from there to the monk and the giant flirting and then fading to black (and then the monk having to make some saves to not literally be crushed to death by an increasingly inebriated giant as the night went on). Morning rolls around, and with daylight, within visible range from the party's encampment is a snoring frost giant on top of a monk clinging to life

    Then they found a beholder cave and engaged it in combat for no reason, 2 characters died horribly and the beholder ate one of them after killing him while laughing, the giant spent the entire fight getting crowd controlled until finally making a save and putting out the thing's central eye with a rock throw crit. The party's ward, who recently was taken over by vecna, also bit the dust - bringing vecna and the yuan-ti's plans to a screeching halt. She's got a clone back in Nyanzaru but now it's just going to be an angry elf teenager (one who has gained the new trait: "I WILL GET REVENGE ON PARTYWARLOCK")

    So the warlock is on borrowed time until the remainder of the party figures out she's into some dark magic shit and planned to betray them, the gunslinger is a small pile of ashes, the bard is a stone statue being dragged through the jungle, and the party's guides think they're all idiots for chasing a beholder into a system of caverns

    Next week: The Sewn Sisters (hags) will have A Proposition for them

    override367 on
  • CarnarvonCarnarvon Registered User regular
    The main and most important problem with PbPs is that it's focused entirely on character and story-based personal investment, and then people just fucking disappear.

    Like, if people could have the decency to say "Hey guys, I'm bored. Later!" then, you know, that'd be amazing. I haven't had a single PbP, across multiple forums, not end with the DM or two/three players just ghosting in the middle of some shit.

  • DenadaDenada Registered User regular
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    The main and most important problem with PbPs is that it's focused entirely on character and story-based personal investment, and then people just fucking disappear.

    Like, if people could have the decency to say "Hey guys, I'm bored. Later!" then, you know, that'd be amazing. I haven't had a single PbP, across multiple forums, not end with the DM or two/three players just ghosting in the middle of some shit.

    Yeah that's the real problem tbqh. All the other stuff (the slow pace, having to change rules for the format, etc) are just part of what a PbP is. They're only a "problem" in the way that riding the bus being slower than driving is a "problem". It's an expected part of the format.

    But players (or DMs) dropping without a word is the pits. PbPs live and die on momentum and losing a participant kills that momentum.

  • BlindPsychicBlindPsychic Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Let me ask, I'm sure there's no wrong/right answer to this, but: How much information do you share with players outside of sessions as far as the direction the campaign is going? I'm kind of running an episodic homebrew campaign (as we had with a one shot and now I'm just continuing things) As its basically based in a port city and the players have access to a ship, I can move locations around and have more location based quests and then have them return home to resupply and such. The issue is we're at a crossroads right now, the party having defeated the Oni I had talked about previously (killed it with fire), and the last session ended so hastily I couldn't in-universe present their paths to them via a job board, so I just laid out the options to them OOC. My plan then, is instead of going to the job board, they'll just be met by a representative handling the mission at the docks and have them transmit the job directly to them so they can get on with it but still get to RP with the quest giver.

    Would it be going too far to talk about mechanically what kind of game they should be expecting? (for instance, a Mission to take out a Pirate King will be like a MGS infiltration mission where they'll be dropped in enemy territory and left to their own devices) I feel like its only fair as part of the give and take of prepping things...

    BlindPsychic on
  • hlprmnkyhlprmnky Registered User regular
    Let me ask, I'm sure there's no wrong/right answer to this, but: How much information do you share with players outside of sessions as far as the direction the campaign is going? I'm kind of running an episodic homebrew campaign (as we had with a one shot and now I'm just continuing things) As its basically based in a port city and the players have access to a ship, I can move locations around and have more location based quests and then have them return home to resupply and such. The issue is we're at a crossroads right now, the party having defeated the Oni I had talked about previously (killed it with fire), and the last session ended so hastily I couldn't in-universe present their paths to them via a job board, so I just laid out the options to them OOC. Would it be going too far to talk about mechanically what kind of game they should be expecting? (for instance, a Mission to take out a Pirate King will be like a MGS infiltration mission where they'll be dropped in enemy territory and left to their own devices) I feel like its only fair as part of the give and take of prepping things...

    I would say that occasionally "checking in" to see what kinds of things are working well, aren't working well, and what the players want, mechanically, out of the next chapter of the story is a brilliant idea, unless there is strong disagreement in your group that you are having to manage. I don't mean by this analogy to say that players are childlike and DMs are adults (exactly), but if "should we go do McDonald's or Taco Bell?" leads the kids in the car to a screaming melee every time, the smart parent will eventually start just saying "hey let's go to McDonald's" and then another time "let's all go to Taco Bell!" without opening the floor to debate.

    _
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  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    Go with your gut! It sounds like you can trust your players with meta-info, so give them that additional information to give them the chance to pick what kind of story they would like to go through next. Sounds like it'll be smiling faces all around.

  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Let me ask, I'm sure there's no wrong/right answer to this, but: How much information do you share with players outside of sessions as far as the direction the campaign is going? I'm kind of running an episodic homebrew campaign (as we had with a one shot and now I'm just continuing things) As its basically based in a port city and the players have access to a ship, I can move locations around and have more location based quests and then have them return home to resupply and such. The issue is we're at a crossroads right now, the party having defeated the Oni I had talked about previously (killed it with fire), and the last session ended so hastily I couldn't in-universe present their paths to them via a job board, so I just laid out the options to them OOC. My plan then, is instead of going to the job board, they'll just be met by a representative handling the mission at the docks and have them transmit the job directly to them so they can get on with it but still get to RP with the quest giver.

    Would it be going too far to talk about mechanically what kind of game they should be expecting? (for instance, a Mission to take out a Pirate King will be like a MGS infiltration mission where they'll be dropped in enemy territory and left to their own devices) I feel like its only fair as part of the give and take of prepping things...

    I will literally tell a player everything from where we are in the campaign on to its conclusion if I feel it is necessary for them to know where they are headed so they don't get super disappointed if something doesn't come up or if they picked up an important plot point.

    Like i gave one of my players a big plot point today because he inadvertently built a character we can lash straight to it... that plot point is like a year or more away from now but we're definitely going to build around it.

    It also helps that i know that player will probably forget the plot point i gave him

    I generally ask players how much they want spoilers or not, and they know not to use the spoilers irresponsibley.

    Sleep on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Denada wrote: »
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    The main and most important problem with PbPs is that it's focused entirely on character and story-based personal investment, and then people just fucking disappear.

    Like, if people could have the decency to say "Hey guys, I'm bored. Later!" then, you know, that'd be amazing. I haven't had a single PbP, across multiple forums, not end with the DM or two/three players just ghosting in the middle of some shit.

    Yeah that's the real problem tbqh. All the other stuff (the slow pace, having to change rules for the format, etc) are just part of what a PbP is. They're only a "problem" in the way that riding the bus being slower than driving is a "problem". It's an expected part of the format.

    But players (or DMs) dropping without a word is the pits. PbPs live and die on momentum and losing a participant kills that momentum.

    Nah.
    Biggest problem is typing a post takes too long.

    If it didn't take an hour or so to type a PbP post with some sort of character social interaction (as opposed to just I roll dice I hit) then I'd be less likely to ghost and would post more often.

    I need to get a speech to text program specifically for PbP.

    Like, compare PbP RPGs with any of the PbP boardgames.
    People don't ghost in the middle of even the year-long TI boardgames, because the requirements to post are not nearly so high.

    discrider on
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Denada wrote: »
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    The main and most important problem with PbPs is that it's focused entirely on character and story-based personal investment, and then people just fucking disappear.

    Like, if people could have the decency to say "Hey guys, I'm bored. Later!" then, you know, that'd be amazing. I haven't had a single PbP, across multiple forums, not end with the DM or two/three players just ghosting in the middle of some shit.

    Yeah that's the real problem tbqh. All the other stuff (the slow pace, having to change rules for the format, etc) are just part of what a PbP is. They're only a "problem" in the way that riding the bus being slower than driving is a "problem". It's an expected part of the format.

    But players (or DMs) dropping without a word is the pits. PbPs live and die on momentum and losing a participant kills that momentum.

    I absolutely 110% agree with this. This lack of committment and/or rudeness in just ghosting without give your other players/dm a "thanks but no thanks" is the worst.

    And I can proudly say that I have run two pbp's on these forums to completion. I prod the players to act often and have checked in via PMs to make sure everything is cool. Communication is key.
    discrider wrote: »
    Denada wrote: »
    Carnarvon wrote: »
    The main and most important problem with PbPs is that it's focused entirely on character and story-based personal investment, and then people just fucking disappear.

    Like, if people could have the decency to say "Hey guys, I'm bored. Later!" then, you know, that'd be amazing. I haven't had a single PbP, across multiple forums, not end with the DM or two/three players just ghosting in the middle of some shit.

    Yeah that's the real problem tbqh. All the other stuff (the slow pace, having to change rules for the format, etc) are just part of what a PbP is. They're only a "problem" in the way that riding the bus being slower than driving is a "problem". It's an expected part of the format.

    But players (or DMs) dropping without a word is the pits. PbPs live and die on momentum and losing a participant kills that momentum.

    Nah.
    Biggest problem is typing a post takes too long.

    If it didn't take an hour or so to type a PbP post with some sort of character social interaction (as opposed to just I roll dice I hit) then I'd be less likely to ghost and would post more often.

    I need to get a speech to text program specifically for PbP.

    Like, compare PbP RPGs with any of the PbP boardgames.
    People don't ghost in the middle of even the year-long TI boardgames, because the requirements to post are not nearly so high.

    No offense intended @discrider , but that's your problem with pbp's and not a problem with the pbp format. The format is what it is. Poor sportsmanship (for lack of a better term) is what you engaging in and that is a big part of them problem.

    Again I mean no personal disrespect to you, but this a prime example of how NOT to play a pbp rpg. Don't join if the game is not for you.

    Steelhawk on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    <_<

    I'm not sure you've got the right quote from that tree there @Steelhawk

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    Indeed. I agreed with @Carnarvon and @Denada and not with you @discrider :)

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    Indeed. I agreed with @Carnarvon and @Denada and not with you @discrider :)

    Cool.
    Then, it's not that I don't want to play, or that I've found it boring.
    It is that I eventually find it hard to set aside an hour+ to update.
    It drains.

    But of course I do not find that out until several months into a PbP.

    I suspect most people who ghost get to the same point.

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    So yeah, I don't think it's my problem, but rather PbP is not a good way to RPG, and IRC, Tabletop or real life is just better.

  • JPantsJPants Registered User regular
    discrider wrote: »
    So yeah, I don't think it's my problem, but rather PbP is not a good way to RPG, and IRC, Tabletop or real life is just better.

    Some folks like myself don't have the ability to play IRL, or the time chunks to commit for IRC/Roll20 style games, despite really wanting to. PbP is better than nothing. So far I've only played in one PbP game (fizzled for some reason i can't recall) and I personally enjoyed the hell out of it and didn't find the posting part of things to be particularly difficult or time consuming. But that was only a single game and it didn't get too far so my perspective is limited.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Sure. And that's a fine opinion to have. Not digging the game is fine. Not liking the format is a-ok. Real life sometimes gets in the way and one doesn't have time to post anymore.

    That's not the problem. Ghosting is. Please don't ghost. Have the decency to tell your DM and fellow players that you're done. That act itself will go long way to stop games from dying. The momentum lost is the killer. Someone having the decency to respectfully bow out gives the rest the group options to move on, find a replacement or whatever. Sitting there day after day and week after week waiting around for a ghosting member of the group, that is what kills the game. The other, active, players are left in a holding pattern and there's no blame to them for losing interest while waiting around for the date who just stood you up.

    Steelhawk on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Well, perhaps you have a different definition of ghosting than I do.
    Mine is 'not posting every week'.
    Which still kills the momentum, but doesn't outright kill the game.

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