I really wish that "Forgotten Realms" had been the name of it's own game, instead of a campaign setting.
Because it should really be, like, five or six campaign settings. Just each different region is it's own thing. Faerûn could be the default setting, and then add on Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and maybe even something like Conan: the Barbarian, with a very low-magic focus.
I've been spending some time today developing my new setting's pantheon. It's got a mix of gods from 4E's core pantheon (including some that were detailed later as dead gods), a renamed alternate take on Asmodeus, a Greyhawk god combined with a dead 4E god, two Forgotten Realms gods of wealth combined into a single entity, a goddess from the obscure Jakandor setting, and a divine incarnation of Orcus.
Major Deities
- Astilathor: Neutral. Goddess of mining, trade and wealth. Associated with fighters, rogues and sorcerers.
- Haramathur: Lawful Good. God of protection. Associated with paladins and fighters.
- Lirr-Laeris: Neutral. Goddess of the arts, spellcraft, sorcery and luck. Associated with bards, rogues, sorcerers and wizards.
- Nesumnee: Neutral Good. Goddess of healing and redemption. Associated with clerics and rogues. She is the daughter of Zehir.
- The Prime Architect: Lawful Neutral. God of law, elements and artifice. Associated with artificers and wizards. The sole primordial to join the ranks of the gods.
- The Raven Queen: Neutral. Goddess of death and the Shadowfell. Associated with clerics, druids and warlocks. May be the sister of War Mother.
- Sagawehn: Lawful Neutral. Goddess of law, conquest and civilization. Associated with clerics, fighters and paladins.
- Torog: Lawful Evil. The god of imprisonment, torture, curses and the Underdark. Associated with clerics, paladins and warlocks.
Minor Deities
- Ashmodai: Lawful Evil. God of sin. Associated with warlocks.
- Tenebrous: Chaotic Evil. God of undeath. Associated with clerics, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards. The reincarnation of Orcus.
- War Mother: Neutral. Goddess of war, nature, and disasters. Associated with barbarians and druids. May be the sister of the Raven Queen.
- Zehir: Neutral Evil. God of assassination and secrecy. Associated with rogues.
I always wanted to do a riff in Diablo meets 4e's cosmology, where there aren't any actual gods, just the Angelic Host of the Astral Sea. Each domain ruled over by an Seraph dedicated to a particular ideal. And all of them are Chaotic or Neutral Good, except for the "triumvirate" which would be 3 LG Seraph who operate in unison.
Demons would still be of the Abyss, and Devils would basically be locked into one realm (the 9 Hels), where the other angels locked them up to keep Asmodeus from conquering all of the Astral Sea. Asmodeus's domains would be Law, Conquest, and similar.
i guess it makes more sense in older or more resource oriented games where keeping track of time and resources would be considered important parts of play, like slowing down and needing to use another torch
or if you're going to check for traps, you also roll on a low-chance random encounter table to see if a goblin patrol or slime or something stumbles upon your party
or the GM just notes that an hour has passed by and pretends to be keeping track of time behind the GM screen or something so that players get paranoid about an unknown countdown
i suppose this is just GM 101 stuff in that you're supposed to present players with meaningful choices aside from 'is there trap? (y/n)'
and my question would be: does the DMG or other supplements have guidance for this kind of thing? Like, GM instructions on how to keep traps interesting, or how to incorporate them into adventures?
The DMG is a little sparse on traps. It gives you some tips on how they should look/sound/work, but doesn't really give you a philosophy of how to use them. Xanathar's has a whole section on it that I didn't read until just now but has some good advice. But GMing 101 isn't just about reading the text, there's a class discussion part which is the real meat of the course. My philosophy on traps is that they can be boiled down into two groups: those that support an encounter and those that are the encounter. When you use a trap to support an encounter have it complement other aspects of it. For example use a trap that restrains or creates difficult terrain for an encounter that features ranged attackers. Use one that creates or simply is dangerous terrain for a big monster that likes to shove as a bonus action. Or use something like a fire trap with enemies immune to fire to give them a little more oomph. Basically when you use traps in this way instead of additional creatures you're setting a variable level of encounter for your players: if they find and can mitigate the trap the encounter will be much easier. If they don't then the encounter becomes much harder. Using traps in this way promotes a kind of system or narrative mastery where you reward your players for pattern recognition and problem-solving. The thing to be careful of is to first properly highlight that traps are a thing in the ways I wrote above, and to second use them sparingly or back off if your players become too cautious and play slows.
When you use traps as the encounter you're presenting a different kind of challenge to your players than the usual combat focus. In this case the characters are more than likely going to need to use a combination of skills and magic and usually a good dose of critical thinking instead of their regular combat routines. To succeed here you need to make the stakes very clear, and you need to make sure that all your players fully understand their environment before they start committing to actions. Consider the most basic example: the 10' long spiked pit. It's obvious (no one fails to notice the spiked pit), the stakes are all understood (you'll get seriously hurt falling on those spikes), and the objective is clear (get to the other side). How exactly the party accomplishes this will be up to them, but it's probably not going to be by making attack rolls.
Things that I would shy away from are singular hidden traps that are extremely difficult to detect and do nothing more than deal damage outside of an encounter. If you're going to use them I would make the first one deal low damage (or no damage at all) to serve as a warning to the PCs, and then I would integrate them as part of the dungeon so they became somewhat expected. That can be a fun change of pace if used sparingly.
One design I like is a single entrance into an area with a series of easily detectable traps that you have to do something annoying to avoid, like stand on a series of spots on the floor or take spike damage. Long hall with a bunch of them... then later, the party is faced with a situation where they might need to flee back through it and suddenly the easy traps become a lot more of a problem.
I got my first accidental recurring villain this way!
The party bypassed a trap without disabling it. Further into the tower, they fought a group of bandits who were living in the tower and knew how its traps worked (and how to avoid triggering them, something the party had neglected to figure out). The leader ran, and the party chased him...until they got to the trapped hallway they couldn't safely follow him through.
So they gave up the chase and finished the dungeon. Meanwhile, the bandit had taken the prize-winning bull the party was supposed to be recovering (and had left tied up outside the tower), returned it to its owner, and effectively turned in and took credit for all their miscellaneous quests in town (including...the reward for getting rid of the bandits).
Then he skipped town with the money, turning up later in a couple other adventures before they finally killed him. To date, I've never had a party hate any villain quite as much as that one.
+39
Options
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
That is someone you string up on a tree. You don't give them the mercy of a quick snap of the neck like a normal hangman's noose. you start them on the ground, put the noose around their neck and then pull them up and let them strangle.
It's not as if expressing your horrible homicidal fantasies is acceptable in polite society.
What are RPGs for if not dreaming of ways of horribly main and kill people?
+4
Options
ShivahnUnaware of her barrel shifter privilegeWestern coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderatormod
Hey everyone! I have selected what I'm going to run for my siblings (this), and I'm pretty happy with it. I have never DM'd before, and the way this is all put together should make it easy (and I'm skipping the "everyone meets each other" bit via "there is a big tournament/festival in town, but there have been attacks in the wild, so you all ended up in the same caravan to get here and are bffs. Now hug."). With that all said, I'm pretty nervous. Other than avoiding railroading, are there things I should keep in mind? Tips that people wished they'd heard before they DM'd the first time?
Hey everyone! I have selected what I'm going to run for my siblings (this), and I'm pretty happy with it. I have never DM'd before, and the way this is all put together should make it easy (and I'm skipping the "everyone meets each other" bit via "there is a big tournament/festival in town, but there have been attacks in the wild, so you all ended up in the same caravan to get here and are bffs. Now hug."). With that all said, I'm pretty nervous. Other than avoiding railroading, are there things I should keep in mind? Tips that people wished they'd heard before they DM'd the first time?
You are all there to have fun, remember that is your primary goal. For one off games, don't sweat the rules too much. If you don't find an answer in under a minute, make a decision and move forward unless character death is on the line. The players are meant to win, your job is to make them think they might fail while they win.
Also, remember there's a difference between good railroading and bad railroading. Saying "you can't do that" too often is a sign of bad railroading, but the worse one is saying "you must do this."
But, especially if your players are new, they'll sometimes need you to step in to remind them of what they're doing or give them a hint in how to proceed, or things like that.
Just remember. Bad railroading forces players to stick to your script. Good railroading just makes sure to end the scene when it's a good time to end it.
One thing that's easy to transport to any setting is Kennings, which are basically poetic metaphors that are other names for things. In hindsight, maybe Diablo 2 magic item naming conventions are entirely based on this. Mind. Blown.
Just by changing the word choices or how NPCs talk you could really get your players steeped in your new Nordic flavor.
Complex kennings: yo dawg, I heard you like kennings, so I put some kennings in your kennings so your indirect references can be even more indirect. F'in' skalds.
+4
Options
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
Someone sell me on non-4E angels (and archons and guardinals and whatever else).
Here are what 4E angels are like:
- Angels have blank faces (other than the eyes) and a trailing mist in place of legs.
- They came into being at the same time as the gods in the Astral Sea.
- Angels serve every non-CE god. Most do not have just one god they are loyal to but instead will serve one for a time before moving to another, carrying any outstanding obligations towards their former master with them (except where they would interfere with their new master).
- Pride themselves on being trustworthy, loyal and selfless in service to the gods.
- Angelic titles refer to the function an Angel is serving (for example, an Angel of Wrath is a foot soldier in divine armies).
- Fought against Elemental Archons, who served a similar role in the Elemental Chaos and were designed by the primordials using Angels as inspiration.
- Devas are former angels who reincarnate continuously in the mortal world as human-like beings. Their original incarnations did this to help protect it, and any Deva incarnation who strays from this path is in danger of being reborn as a Rakshasa.
- Devils came into being when the angel Asmodeus slew the god He Who Was to become a god himself. As a non-CE god Asmodeus is eligible to be served by angels, but he prefers to employ the Devils of his domain.
- Angels oppose elementals and demons unless given a very good reason not to attack them. Devils are largely tolerated in the Astral Sea, which both Angels and Devils call home, but Angels in service to gods who oppose Devils will fight against them in the mortal world.
I plan to carry this take on angels forward in 5E and just keep ignoring the other celestials, but I thought I'd give someone else a chance to change my mind.
All of your angels should in one way or another be like Christopher Lambert's Raiden.
+5
Options
MsAnthropyThe Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the RhythmThe City of FlowersRegistered Userregular
Hey everyone! I have selected what I'm going to run for my siblings (this), and I'm pretty happy with it. I have never DM'd before, and the way this is all put together should make it easy (and I'm skipping the "everyone meets each other" bit via "there is a big tournament/festival in town, but there have been attacks in the wild, so you all ended up in the same caravan to get here and are bffs. Now hug."). With that all said, I'm pretty nervous. Other than avoiding railroading, are there things I should keep in mind? Tips that people wished they'd heard before they DM'd the first time?
You are all there to have fun, remember that is your primary goal. For one off games, don't sweat the rules too much. If you don't find an answer in under a minute, make a decision and move forward unless character death is on the line. The players are meant to win, your job is to make them think they might fail while they win.
Along with this, I will say that you should embrace player ideas as long as they are somewhat plausible and interesting. Like, if they ask “Is there a boat nearby?” and what they want to do is cool and plausible, there should totally be a boat nearby, even if you didn’t think there was one beforehand.
I really wish that "Forgotten Realms" had been the name of it's own game, instead of a campaign setting.
Because it should really be, like, five or six campaign settings. Just each different region is it's own thing. Faerûn could be the default setting, and then add on Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and maybe even something like Conan: the Barbarian, with a very low-magic focus.
It's actually like 20 different settings; a combination of over fixation with the sword coast and hipsterism ("pshaw, FG is done to death and Ebberon is almost in the same place, I'm gonna go do Birthright!") tend to disuade people from digging into the setting and seeing how rich and nuanced the setting can be.
Like, I would fucking adore seeing a campaign set in Cormyr with a focus on politicial intrigue between the nobles and the crown, or The struggle by the high king of the Moonshae isles to reunite his shattered realm, or see the witches of rasheman duke it out with the thayan archmages, but we won't get that because the writing team keeps either jerking their nostalgia boner or setting there adventures in the sword coast.
+2
Options
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
DM: Okay, now that each of you has arrived in town and met an NPC, you’ll control them with your characters in this giant fight.
*two hours of combat later*
Us: Hot damn we survived. The only people that died were all of the NPCs we used as pawns for our protection. Pretty smart of us to use them like that.
DM: EACH ONE OF THEM HAD A UNIQUE QUEST FOR YOU.
Us: ...
I mean...they would have had their quest rewards on their bodies, right?
I really wish that "Forgotten Realms" had been the name of it's own game, instead of a campaign setting.
Because it should really be, like, five or six campaign settings. Just each different region is it's own thing. Faerûn could be the default setting, and then add on Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and maybe even something like Conan: the Barbarian, with a very low-magic focus.
It's actually like 20 different settings; a combination of over fixation with the sword coast and hipsterism ("pshaw, FG is done to death and Ebberon is almost in the same place, I'm gonna go do Birthright!") tend to disuade people from digging into the setting and seeing how rich and nuanced the setting can be.
Like, I would fucking adore seeing a campaign set in Cormyr with a focus on politicial intrigue between the nobles and the crown, or The struggle by the high king of the Moonshae isles to reunite his shattered realm, or see the witches of rasheman duke it out with the thayan archmages, but we won't get that because the writing team keeps either jerking their nostalgia boner or setting there adventures in the sword coast.
A write-up on the Jakandor deity I'm adapting, War Mother. This was primarily written with 4E lore in mind, but I'll adapt it more to 5E's as I learn more about it.
War Mother
- Goddess of Nature, Tempest and War.
- Allied with the Raven Queen and the Elder Spirits, especially the Primal Beast, the Grim Harvestman and Whisper.
- Associated with Barbarians, Druids and Fighters. It is said that she created the capacity for barbarian rage, or even the violent impulse itself.
- Most commonly worshiped by hunter-gatherer tribes of humans, shifters and goliaths. Elves do not often revere her because of her prohibition against ranged weapons.
- Advocates acting respectfully and honorably to others that enjoy her protection, such as fellow tribespeople, primal spirits and predator animals. Anyone or anything else most prove it deserves respect.
- Is displeased by the use of ranged weapons unless they are brought to bear against a flying target. Ambushes are also considered cowardly. Spells granted by her or the Elder Spirits are symbols of her favor, but other forms of magic are distrusted at best.
- Opposes forces that seek to alter or destroy the natural order, including undead, aberrations, demons, most primordials and even many gods.
- Cares little for worship, but demands respect from the hunter-gatherer tribes she favors.
- Believes that predators in the mortal world prepare its inhabitants for greater threats. The primal spirit Whisper, who advocated welcoming many varieties of monsters into the natural order, is among her allies.
- Welcomed the spirits of elemental calamity into the world so that they could become part of it as Elder Spirits capable of challenging mortal civilization.
- Created the first werebeasts from her own mortal champions by giving their souls over to the Elder Spirit known as the Primal Beast. It is said that some of her faithful can exercise control over werebeasts, or at least prohibit them from attacking those under War Mother's protection.
- Some of the tribes most devoted to War Mother yielded the first shifters.
- Several myths refer to War Mother and the Raven Queen as mortal sisters from a long-vanished tribe. War Mother's followers have never confirmed if this is true, and most of the Raven Queen's followers deny it.
- Often considered a harsh deity, even by her faithful. Most city-dwellers are more likely to praise Elder Spirits such as Tree Father or the World Serpent than they are to praise the goddess War Mother.
I'm planning to look into lore related to Kord and Melora to use for War Mother as well.
Hexmage-PA on
+2
Options
MrVyngaardLive From New EtoileStraight Outta SosariaRegistered Userregular
I mean...they would have had their quest rewards on their bodies, right?
What?
Whaddya mean this isn't the evil campaign? They were so breakable!
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
So waaaaay back in the 3.x days, I was all about me some Wee Jas. Probably cuz I was lonely and had a thing for red heads and at some point saw some fan art that was ... inspiring.
Anyway a friend and I sort of retconned Wee Jas as the goddess that Asmodeus had overthrown. She was on the chaotic side, free spirited, loved magic, and, in secret, would frequently grant bits of power to Warlocks. The deal was basically that in exchange for their power, they also took on a piece of her essence. Well, after she was "slain" that ended up being her salvation, and part of her essence was able to reform itself into a Faewild entity known as the Queen of Thorns, who became the consort to the Rose King. The rest of her essence would wind up creating the Raven Queen.
Basically Wee Jas sort of became the de facto source of both Fae and Shadow pact warlocks. The goal is to use her pacts to basically allow her to temporarily conjure an armada of warlock souls for her to use to reclaim her thrown from Asmodeus.
So waaaaay back in the 3.x days, I was all about me some Wee Jas. Probably cuz I was lonely and had a thing for red heads and at some point saw some fan art that was ... inspiring.
Anyway a friend and I sort of retconned Wee Jas as the goddess that Asmodeus had overthrown. She was on the chaotic side, free spirited, loved magic, and, in secret, would frequently grant bits of power to Warlocks. The deal was basically that in exchange for their power, they also took on a piece of her essence. Well, after she was "slain" that ended up being her salvation, and part of her essence was able to reform itself into a Faewild entity known as the Queen of Thorns, who became the consort to the Rose King. The rest of her essence would wind up creating the Raven Queen.
Basically Wee Jas sort of became the de facto source of both Fae and Shadow pact warlocks. The goal is to use her pacts to basically allow her to temporarily conjure an armada of warlock souls for her to use to reclaim her thrown from Asmodeus.
I don't remember where this was, but I remember seeing a claim that the Raven Queen was conceived as a cross between Wee Jas and Hel from Norse mythology. I also heard Zehir was once going to be called Set, possibly after the Set from Conan the Barbarian.
Is it just me, or are people far more likely to invent new gods for their campaign settings than they are demon lords and such? I assume it's because gods will have more impact on a setting and its characters' beliefs than Orcus or whatever will.
Having just said that, I did decide to take a page from both Planescape and Ghostwalk and make Orcus into a god, but primarily so I could replace him as demon lord of undeath with Sylbarax, a former exarch of Zehir turned demon lord turned undead puppet of Orcus who was only ever mentioned in the Tomb Demon entry of the 4E Demonomicon. I just love yuan-ti and figured a cult of them dedicated to a serpentine demon lord of undeath undermining the god of undeath would be fun.
I like the idea of demon lords being constants and the gods of various material plains being ever changing.
As if the denizens of the Planes give a shit about your petty gods who are worshipped on one plane. Opposed to Asmodeus or Orcus or even goodly ones like Bahamut who are revered across all the planes of existence.
The problem with traps is that players have practically infinite hp out of combat. A party with a rounded pool of skills and proficiencies will have about a 75% chance of finding/defeating any basic trap. There's also no penalty for walking into every room and saying "I SEARCH FOR TRAPS".
Earlier editions, where traps were common, had answers to all of these problem; limited healing, opportunity costs for being good with traps, and timed combat encounters.
To fix traps (imo) you need to make them not deal HP damage, harder to defeat, and punish over-cautiousness while not making the players feel like there are no right answers.
Get back to me when one of you guys figure that out.
The problem with traps is that players have practically infinite hp out of combat.
Only if they aren't operating under any sort of time constraint. Even if it's a first-level, leisurely "let's explore this creepy abandoned tower" type deal, they still have to worry about provisions and a proper place to sleep and such.
The problem with traps is that players have practically infinite hp out of combat.
Only if they aren't operating under any sort of time constraint. Even if it's a first-level, leisurely "let's explore this creepy abandoned tower" type deal, they still have to worry about provisions and a proper place to sleep and such.
"You guys only brought enough food for three long rests."
Actually, THAT abstract sort of resource management might not be the worst in a delving game.
The problem with traps is that players have practically infinite hp out of combat.
Only if they aren't operating under any sort of time constraint. Even if it's a first-level, leisurely "let's explore this creepy abandoned tower" type deal, they still have to worry about provisions and a proper place to sleep and such.
"You guys only brought enough food for three long rests."
Actually, THAT abstract sort of resource management might not be the worst in a delving game.
To be clear that's about 3 pounds of food per person by the way
In the PHB/DMG (cant remember which one right now) it clarifies each person needs a pound of food and something like a gallon of water a day.
The problem with traps is that players have practically infinite hp out of combat.
Only if they aren't operating under any sort of time constraint. Even if it's a first-level, leisurely "let's explore this creepy abandoned tower" type deal, they still have to worry about provisions and a proper place to sleep and such.
"You guys only brought enough food for three long rests."
Actually, THAT abstract sort of resource management might not be the worst in a delving game.
To be clear that's about 3 pounds of food per person by the way
In the PHB/DMG (cant remember which one right now) it clarifies each person needs a pound of food and something like a gallon of water a day.
Makes sense, you need a quart of water spending all day lounging in the shade doing fuckall. So 4x that for wearing armor and fighting and exploring? Sounds about right.
Sure, the monsters living in the dungeon have to eat and drink as well, but there's no guarantee what a goblin is willing to eat is something an adventurer can stomach.
MrVyngaardLive From New EtoileStraight Outta SosariaRegistered Userregular
There's always the black pudding to fall back on, if you don't mind the acidic digestion.
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
First off, a buddy of mine had a character die today, harder then i thought possible; He rushed into a room with a closing stone door to flip a switch, which opened a trap, causing him to fall onto poisoned spikes, and then being redirected to some sort of mass grave when he tried to dimension door out, and then being sucked into an orb of annihilation when he tried to activate another set of levers.
My suggestion to him was that going forward he roll up a conjurer since I think our party is about done sacrificing characters to this ungodly campaign (I've never seen this many deaths in a single campaign; we gotta be up to and around 18 and we're only halfway done) and as such The new plan is to send in Hordes of monkeys to interact with every possible gewgaw; This tomb is going to be Bergenbelsen for Bonobos by the time we're done with it.
Also I walked away from the table so that I could help two new players make characters and came back to find that my character was now a zebra.
The other thing though that i wanted to point out, is that I came up with a great idea for a trap for players: Bad Berries. Going back to an older game concept of inverted spells, bad berries are left about by malevolant druids, faeries and rangers as a trap for hapless travellers and effectively do the exact opposite of a good berry, inflicting a point of damage and an exhaustion level.
First off, a buddy of mine had a character die today, harder then i thought possible; He rushed into a room with a closing stone door to flip a switch, which opened a trap, causing him to fall onto poisoned spikes, and then being redirected to some sort of mass grave when he tried to dimension door out, and then being sucked into an orb of annihilation when he tried to activate another set of levers.
My suggestion to him was that going forward he roll up a conjurer since I think our party is about done sacrificing characters to this ungodly campaign (I've never seen this many deaths in a single campaign; we gotta be up to and around 18 and we're only halfway done) and as such The new plan is to send in Hordes of monkeys to interact with every possible gewgaw; This tomb is going to be Bergenbelsen for Bonobos by the time we're done with it.
Also I walked away from the table so that I could help two new players make characters and came back to find that my character was now a zebra.
The other thing though that i wanted to point out, is that I came up with a great idea for a trap for players: Bad Berries. Going back to an older game concept of inverted spells, bad berries are left about by malevolant druids, faeries and rangers as a trap for hapless travellers and effectively do the exact opposite of a good berry, inflicting a point of damage and an exhaustion level.
First off, a buddy of mine had a character die today, harder then i thought possible; He rushed into a room with a closing stone door to flip a switch, which opened a trap, causing him to fall onto poisoned spikes, and then being redirected to some sort of mass grave when he tried to dimension door out, and then being sucked into an orb of annihilation when he tried to activate another set of levers.
My suggestion to him was that going forward he roll up a conjurer since I think our party is about done sacrificing characters to this ungodly campaign (I've never seen this many deaths in a single campaign; we gotta be up to and around 18 and we're only halfway done) and as such The new plan is to send in Hordes of monkeys to interact with every possible gewgaw; This tomb is going to be Bergenbelsen for Bonobos by the time we're done with it.
Also I walked away from the table so that I could help two new players make characters and came back to find that my character was now a zebra.
The other thing though that i wanted to point out, is that I came up with a great idea for a trap for players: Bad Berries. Going back to an older game concept of inverted spells, bad berries are left about by malevolant druids, faeries and rangers as a trap for hapless travellers and effectively do the exact opposite of a good berry, inflicting a point of damage and an exhaustion level.
That bad berries thing is dope
Like, just imagine: you and your party have been going hard and long trying to get away from a green dragon that is stalking you and then this kindly old druid leads you to a safe cavee, introduces himself, all smiles and offers you some good berries to help alleviate your aches. Now, you and your friends are rocking an exhaustion level already because like I said: you've been running for hours. So of course you eat them and then can do nothing but eat shit as the druid wildshapes into a sparrow to go find the dragon while you struggle to do anything with two levels of exhaustion.
Posts
Because it should really be, like, five or six campaign settings. Just each different region is it's own thing. Faerûn could be the default setting, and then add on Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and maybe even something like Conan: the Barbarian, with a very low-magic focus.
- Astilathor: Neutral. Goddess of mining, trade and wealth. Associated with fighters, rogues and sorcerers.
- Haramathur: Lawful Good. God of protection. Associated with paladins and fighters.
- Lirr-Laeris: Neutral. Goddess of the arts, spellcraft, sorcery and luck. Associated with bards, rogues, sorcerers and wizards.
- Nesumnee: Neutral Good. Goddess of healing and redemption. Associated with clerics and rogues. She is the daughter of Zehir.
- The Prime Architect: Lawful Neutral. God of law, elements and artifice. Associated with artificers and wizards. The sole primordial to join the ranks of the gods.
- The Raven Queen: Neutral. Goddess of death and the Shadowfell. Associated with clerics, druids and warlocks. May be the sister of War Mother.
- Sagawehn: Lawful Neutral. Goddess of law, conquest and civilization. Associated with clerics, fighters and paladins.
- Torog: Lawful Evil. The god of imprisonment, torture, curses and the Underdark. Associated with clerics, paladins and warlocks.
Minor Deities
- Ashmodai: Lawful Evil. God of sin. Associated with warlocks.
- Tenebrous: Chaotic Evil. God of undeath. Associated with clerics, sorcerers, warlocks and wizards. The reincarnation of Orcus.
- War Mother: Neutral. Goddess of war, nature, and disasters. Associated with barbarians and druids. May be the sister of the Raven Queen.
- Zehir: Neutral Evil. God of assassination and secrecy. Associated with rogues.
Demons would still be of the Abyss, and Devils would basically be locked into one realm (the 9 Hels), where the other angels locked them up to keep Asmodeus from conquering all of the Astral Sea. Asmodeus's domains would be Law, Conquest, and similar.
I got my first accidental recurring villain this way!
The party bypassed a trap without disabling it. Further into the tower, they fought a group of bandits who were living in the tower and knew how its traps worked (and how to avoid triggering them, something the party had neglected to figure out). The leader ran, and the party chased him...until they got to the trapped hallway they couldn't safely follow him through.
So they gave up the chase and finished the dungeon. Meanwhile, the bandit had taken the prize-winning bull the party was supposed to be recovering (and had left tied up outside the tower), returned it to its owner, and effectively turned in and took credit for all their miscellaneous quests in town (including...the reward for getting rid of the bandits).
Then he skipped town with the money, turning up later in a couple other adventures before they finally killed him. To date, I've never had a party hate any villain quite as much as that one.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
What are RPGs for if not dreaming of ways of horribly main and kill people?
You are all there to have fun, remember that is your primary goal. For one off games, don't sweat the rules too much. If you don't find an answer in under a minute, make a decision and move forward unless character death is on the line. The players are meant to win, your job is to make them think they might fail while they win.
But, especially if your players are new, they'll sometimes need you to step in to remind them of what they're doing or give them a hint in how to proceed, or things like that.
Just remember. Bad railroading forces players to stick to your script. Good railroading just makes sure to end the scene when it's a good time to end it.
Complex kennings: yo dawg, I heard you like kennings, so I put some kennings in your kennings so your indirect references can be even more indirect. F'in' skalds.
All of your angels should in one way or another be like Christopher Lambert's Raiden.
Along with this, I will say that you should embrace player ideas as long as they are somewhat plausible and interesting. Like, if they ask “Is there a boat nearby?” and what they want to do is cool and plausible, there should totally be a boat nearby, even if you didn’t think there was one beforehand.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
It's actually like 20 different settings; a combination of over fixation with the sword coast and hipsterism ("pshaw, FG is done to death and Ebberon is almost in the same place, I'm gonna go do Birthright!") tend to disuade people from digging into the setting and seeing how rich and nuanced the setting can be.
Like, I would fucking adore seeing a campaign set in Cormyr with a focus on politicial intrigue between the nobles and the crown, or The struggle by the high king of the Moonshae isles to reunite his shattered realm, or see the witches of rasheman duke it out with the thayan archmages, but we won't get that because the writing team keeps either jerking their nostalgia boner or setting there adventures in the sword coast.
I mean...they would have had their quest rewards on their bodies, right?
What?
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Neverwinter Nights 2!
War Mother
- Goddess of Nature, Tempest and War.
- Allied with the Raven Queen and the Elder Spirits, especially the Primal Beast, the Grim Harvestman and Whisper.
- Associated with Barbarians, Druids and Fighters. It is said that she created the capacity for barbarian rage, or even the violent impulse itself.
- Most commonly worshiped by hunter-gatherer tribes of humans, shifters and goliaths. Elves do not often revere her because of her prohibition against ranged weapons.
- Advocates acting respectfully and honorably to others that enjoy her protection, such as fellow tribespeople, primal spirits and predator animals. Anyone or anything else most prove it deserves respect.
- Is displeased by the use of ranged weapons unless they are brought to bear against a flying target. Ambushes are also considered cowardly. Spells granted by her or the Elder Spirits are symbols of her favor, but other forms of magic are distrusted at best.
- Opposes forces that seek to alter or destroy the natural order, including undead, aberrations, demons, most primordials and even many gods.
- Cares little for worship, but demands respect from the hunter-gatherer tribes she favors.
- Believes that predators in the mortal world prepare its inhabitants for greater threats. The primal spirit Whisper, who advocated welcoming many varieties of monsters into the natural order, is among her allies.
- Welcomed the spirits of elemental calamity into the world so that they could become part of it as Elder Spirits capable of challenging mortal civilization.
- Created the first werebeasts from her own mortal champions by giving their souls over to the Elder Spirit known as the Primal Beast. It is said that some of her faithful can exercise control over werebeasts, or at least prohibit them from attacking those under War Mother's protection.
- Some of the tribes most devoted to War Mother yielded the first shifters.
- Several myths refer to War Mother and the Raven Queen as mortal sisters from a long-vanished tribe. War Mother's followers have never confirmed if this is true, and most of the Raven Queen's followers deny it.
- Often considered a harsh deity, even by her faithful. Most city-dwellers are more likely to praise Elder Spirits such as Tree Father or the World Serpent than they are to praise the goddess War Mother.
I'm planning to look into lore related to Kord and Melora to use for War Mother as well.
Whaddya mean this isn't the evil campaign? They were so breakable!
Anyway a friend and I sort of retconned Wee Jas as the goddess that Asmodeus had overthrown. She was on the chaotic side, free spirited, loved magic, and, in secret, would frequently grant bits of power to Warlocks. The deal was basically that in exchange for their power, they also took on a piece of her essence. Well, after she was "slain" that ended up being her salvation, and part of her essence was able to reform itself into a Faewild entity known as the Queen of Thorns, who became the consort to the Rose King. The rest of her essence would wind up creating the Raven Queen.
Basically Wee Jas sort of became the de facto source of both Fae and Shadow pact warlocks. The goal is to use her pacts to basically allow her to temporarily conjure an armada of warlock souls for her to use to reclaim her thrown from Asmodeus.
I don't remember where this was, but I remember seeing a claim that the Raven Queen was conceived as a cross between Wee Jas and Hel from Norse mythology. I also heard Zehir was once going to be called Set, possibly after the Set from Conan the Barbarian.
Is it just me, or are people far more likely to invent new gods for their campaign settings than they are demon lords and such? I assume it's because gods will have more impact on a setting and its characters' beliefs than Orcus or whatever will.
Having just said that, I did decide to take a page from both Planescape and Ghostwalk and make Orcus into a god, but primarily so I could replace him as demon lord of undeath with Sylbarax, a former exarch of Zehir turned demon lord turned undead puppet of Orcus who was only ever mentioned in the Tomb Demon entry of the 4E Demonomicon. I just love yuan-ti and figured a cult of them dedicated to a serpentine demon lord of undeath undermining the god of undeath would be fun.
As if the denizens of the Planes give a shit about your petty gods who are worshipped on one plane. Opposed to Asmodeus or Orcus or even goodly ones like Bahamut who are revered across all the planes of existence.
Earlier editions, where traps were common, had answers to all of these problem; limited healing, opportunity costs for being good with traps, and timed combat encounters.
To fix traps (imo) you need to make them not deal HP damage, harder to defeat, and punish over-cautiousness while not making the players feel like there are no right answers.
Get back to me when one of you guys figure that out.
Only if they aren't operating under any sort of time constraint. Even if it's a first-level, leisurely "let's explore this creepy abandoned tower" type deal, they still have to worry about provisions and a proper place to sleep and such.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
"You guys only brought enough food for three long rests."
Actually, THAT abstract sort of resource management might not be the worst in a delving game.
To be clear that's about 3 pounds of food per person by the way
In the PHB/DMG (cant remember which one right now) it clarifies each person needs a pound of food and something like a gallon of water a day.
Dungeon delving is hungry, thirsty work.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Oh actually, we also got hit by that damned trap in the first cave of LMoP. That one was a doozy
although purify food and drink purifies everything in a 5-foot radius sphere, which is big enough to purify a looooot of food and water
Yes, otherwise it would be pretty silly.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
When life hands you goodberries
you make goodberry-ade
I'd drink it.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
First off, a buddy of mine had a character die today, harder then i thought possible; He rushed into a room with a closing stone door to flip a switch, which opened a trap, causing him to fall onto poisoned spikes, and then being redirected to some sort of mass grave when he tried to dimension door out, and then being sucked into an orb of annihilation when he tried to activate another set of levers.
My suggestion to him was that going forward he roll up a conjurer since I think our party is about done sacrificing characters to this ungodly campaign (I've never seen this many deaths in a single campaign; we gotta be up to and around 18 and we're only halfway done) and as such The new plan is to send in Hordes of monkeys to interact with every possible gewgaw; This tomb is going to be Bergenbelsen for Bonobos by the time we're done with it.
Also I walked away from the table so that I could help two new players make characters and came back to find that my character was now a zebra.
The other thing though that i wanted to point out, is that I came up with a great idea for a trap for players: Bad Berries. Going back to an older game concept of inverted spells, bad berries are left about by malevolant druids, faeries and rangers as a trap for hapless travellers and effectively do the exact opposite of a good berry, inflicting a point of damage and an exhaustion level.
That bad berries thing is dope
Like, just imagine: you and your party have been going hard and long trying to get away from a green dragon that is stalking you and then this kindly old druid leads you to a safe cavee, introduces himself, all smiles and offers you some good berries to help alleviate your aches. Now, you and your friends are rocking an exhaustion level already because like I said: you've been running for hours. So of course you eat them and then can do nothing but eat shit as the druid wildshapes into a sparrow to go find the dragon while you struggle to do anything with two levels of exhaustion.