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[Roleplaying Games] Thank God I Finally Have A Table For Cannabis Potency.
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I agree with Devoutly Apathetic. 5e players would probably find Heroes of the Fallen Land and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom easiest to grasp in terms of class design and complexity of play. I would only add the PHB or Option books if there is a concept they absolutely can't find any other way. I would probably use the Rules Compendium and Monster Vaults as my main DM guides. Reavers of Harkenwold appeared in the DM's Kit Boxed Set--given the prices I have seen on that I would recommend seeing if you can get it in pdf from RPGNow/DriveThru.
2nding Monster Vault as the definitive monster manual for 4e, though there are also builders online that can help you build challenges from scratch easily. Threats from the Nentir Vale has more stuff to show you how you can tweak monsters in the system to make them fresh and weird while still in the spirit of things.
Reavers of the Harkenworld is levels 2-5 and is an excellent module. You'd also do well getting a copy of the Red Box for the "Twisting Hallways" adventure to take them from level 1 to level 2, and Madness at Gardmore Abbey (My personal favorite adventure out of the whole line) to take them the rest of the way to 10. From there, it gets slightly more season to taste, depending on if the players take to the game of course.
The source code for the extension can be found here.
I do want to add that Monster Vault: Threats of the Nentir Vale is almost half campaign guide for the default 4e setting, too. It's not just a monster manual, but goes a lot into the various enemy's motivations and it provides a ton of hooks on which adventures or story arcs could be based. A definite recommendation for someone who is building their own Heroic Tier adventures in that setting.
I really wanted the Nentir Vale book because of the D&D comic I did not know it was from Forgotten Realms as I kind of avoided that series
I got the books for 5th earlier this summer but due to my very ugly summer I really did not get a chance to do much with them other than read. I have tons of ideas for villains even some I took from a comic you cannot really post most of the time
The Learning tree would be a great villain to sneak in as no one would expect it
I am stealing that immediately.
I used to run games almost 100% out of the Rules Compendium when I was doing 4E at the games store. It's a really nicely condensed and indexed how-to game bible.
The later skill challenge system makes them pretty straightforward, transparent, and easy to handle; definitely use that.
What do you mean by "the later skill challenge system"? Assume the total information I have about 4E is just what's been expressed in the last few pages...
I'd also just like to thank everyone for sharing their info and experience with 4E. It's been a little overwhelming (as expected), but at least I have a couple places to start.
It's sounding like Rules Compendium + DMG2 + a monster vault to start learning how to run, and PHB1 / some of the Heroes Essential lines to give players options.
Also, it's not that my players don't want complicated options. That's one of the many reasons why we're considering a system change in the first place - most players find lack of options in combat means combat is uninteresting mechanically, and that's disappointing them.
To be more explicit:
Player concern for changing systems:
Spell casting is exceedingly fiddly, spell slot system is annoying (warlock needs short rest, other casters need long rest), battle options limited / obvious choices every round, creative options in combat limited to what they can come up with based on battlefield descriptions. I think they want more defined, concrete options that spark creativity. I try to suggest things, and when they have zany ideas, I try to go with them, but I think they hesitate because they kind of see it as a case of less optimal choices lead to death.
GM (me) concern for changing systems:
I'm mostly just looking for easier encounter design math that works. I like to run a game that's a bit crunchy mechanically (I enjoy Dungeon World, but more than a session or two of it and I'm left wishing for a bit...more), interesting tactically, and can run with my expectations. If I throw an encounter at the party that's supposed to be easy, I'd like it (barring any insane die rolls) to actually end up being easy.
I keep being told that 4E sounds like it's more up my alley, so, that's where I'm heading. So far, I've liked running Blades in the Dark (my players were 50/50 split on it), loved running Lady Blackbird, was meh on running Dungeon World, and would love to run some Stars Without Numbers.
The wizard had previously condensed these high Tides from this city into a usable object, an icy spear that cancels fire magic and movement abilities, but there had never been a good time to use it - about 2 months later, he used it to counter the captain's specialty - summoning a typhoon. The cursed dark knight, who traded the ability to be healed by others for massively increased health, got something that increased that healing even further. He absorbed about ten arrow shots to the chest in a very Boromir manner, but still stood at the end, and got the final blow. The healer of the group, an escaped necromantic test subject, augmented her most powerful healing spell with the ability to execute low-health enemies, halving their opposition at a crucial moment.
The battle started with the pirates' ship pulling out of the harbor with their loot, but then an ally from a previous adventure, a massive whale, showed up and teleported the ship on top of them (which the players managed quite well, considering). They finally, after 1.5 years real time and 3 months game time, got paid for their first big job, and got a boat they need to name. Freedom from any semblance of rails! (Except the incoming apocalypse but hey, who's counting right?)
As printed in the initial release, skill challenges were sorta-baffling and didn't really flow well. They issued a revised version of the system (in DMG2 I think? Someone else will know for certain) that was in force by the printing of the Rules Compendium which makes a lot more sense / works better in practice.
Having said that, if you have people who don't want spell slots / combat based on a menu of options, 4E may well not be the game your players want. If someone starts complaining about how everyone is Wizards now or something, you'll know it's not going to fly. If their objection is more to the fact that the rules for how things are executed is inconsistent between classes, 4E will go down very nicely. It's quite unfriendly to outside-the-box moves, though.
Yup. Skill challenges are a great concept with a really bad implementation that... well... got a bit better, but never quite good. I would suggest watching Matt Colville's video on using them in 5e:
Also, for anybody thinking about running custom-monster fights with one enemy versus a party of PCs, I would suggest looking at the Angry GM's series on 4e boss fights: https://theangrygm.com/series/4e-boss-fight/
Nod. Get treat. PSN: QuipFilter
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/110212/H1-Keep-on-the-Shadowfell--QuickStart-Rules-4e
It's not perfect but is way, way better than anything published for 5e prior to Tomb of Annihilation. Lots of stuff worth reusing even if you don't run it as-is.
The source code for the extension can be found here.
Actual Plays: Marvel's Agents of STRIKE, Star Wars: Kingdom of the Force, Mage: the Awakening * RPG Moods
I usually don’t recommend Keep because it can feel a bit grindy without a little bit of fine-tuning (Monster Vault stats and the Orcus Conversion have sanded some of the edges off of it) that you may not feel comfy doing your first outing.
Twisting Halls was designed later in the cycle and so uses the experience from earlier outings to make an experience more in line with 4e’s potential.
As noted though, that said, with some care, Keep can be a very good tutorial dungeon to let players learn the basics and can present some fun challenges.
(I gave the players a trio of choices at the start and they went with this. Looking forward to see which branch they choose to take)
Ok, so Rules Compendium is the most up-to-date DM facing book of rules and systems and things? If I just used that + Monster Vault, would I be missing anything from DMG2 that's important?
As for the players, it's definitely more the second, coupled with them not really knowing when to use up their big powers and such.
I totally stole it (and the printable .pdf maps) and reworked it into an adventure for the Iron Kingdoms RPG and my mid-level party. Bogrin all over level 1, Undead Thrall and their Necromancer on level 2 and then at the very bottom I made a new crypt map and had an Orgoth death knight and some of his retainers (I showed my party a pic of Nightmare from Soul Calibur as a reference) that was feeding the Necromancer above their secrets in a bid to be freed from their prison.
It was pretty fuckin' baller.
Rules wise, the compendium will be the last version that was released.
DMG2 is more a great read for the ‘soft’ side of running D&D campaigns, lots of advice on things like structuring group-driven games, designing interesting encounters, customizing monsters, and running higher level games. (IIRC, it’s the only official D&D book Robin Laws ever worked on, and his contributions show.)
EG: I am very fond of ICE's Middle Earth Roleplaying which was a variant of Rollmaster. It works very well for Middle Earth, much better than any edition of D&D for example. But MERP/Rollmaster definitely would not work for most fantasy settings. Middle Earth is very peculiar and different from most fantasy settings in important ways (it is just about the lowest of "low magic" for example).
The source code for the extension can be found here.
It ensured that my players were always aware that they weren't just the sum of their powers, and would always be up for toppling columns on bad guys, cutting chandelier ropes, setting stuff on fire, Billygoats Gruffing dragons ("Oh you don't want to eat us, there's a party half a mile away with loads more treasure") etc.
Hey! I think I've established pretty strongly in this thread that I'm more than willing to destroy games and bend their mechanics into unnatural shapes!
I am playing a straight up sword-and-board chilvaric knight from a feudal world. He’s a former Rough Rider and has weird superstitions and quirks about stuff like not using chainweaponry because they sound like the machine spirit inside them is angry at him, saving the last tenth of his meal as a figurative offering to his former liege (which is less gross than the published quirk example of spitting out the last gulp of food), and touching the threshold and making the sign of the aquila at every place they sleep in. I’m trying a Shakespearian approach to his language.
fe: Also at 20 intelligence (in a D100 system where player starting average for stats is 30) he is very, very dumb. Feudal worlders take a hit to their intelligence and then I got a divination during character creation that lowered it even more in exchange for more weapon skill, something Feudal Worlders get a bonus to, but I rolled kind of meh on relatively. I like to think that when he was in the Imperial Guard, a techpriest fruitlessly tried to explain that the chain rurring sound was a good thing but he just kept remembering one time he was scared by an angry barking dog as a lad and insisted the machine spirit must hate him. Although I dislike one-note "dumb" characters so he's not going to be a bumbler. He might be the guy to charge a machine gun nest with just a sword in one hand, a shield in the other, and a prayer on his lips and think he'll probably be fine. Also since DH2E doesn't punish "primitive" weaponry as much as 1E did, I'm starting with near max the amount of armor you could get, and the shield adds +2 to the arm holding it and the chest so most standard weapons have to roll above a 7 to scratch him there. The shield also adds a good bonus to parrying so I got a head start on other characters that need to pump XP into dodge or parry to reliably negate damage. Mid to late DH is a heavy evasion based meta. It is the nature of a game where the GM can get upset at you not dying and send a tank at you. Furthermore, with the feudal world bonus "At Home in Armour", I don't have to sacrifice agility for any armour I am wearing, so I can dance and dodge about the battlefield in my current plate, and even heavy power armour if he lives long enough.
FE2: I usually play jaded asshole types so I want Sir Lansrick Chaucer to be an idealistic knight fully into chivalry like Straight Outta Camelot even if (when) it kills him in 40k. Well, idealistic, but not naive. Like feeling super priveleged to serve the Inquisition, treating his inquisitor as his proper liege lord, generally trusting his fellows in arms (unless they’re a fething witch), defending the weak, being steadfast to all heavenly virtues, etc.
FE3: also one last thing as a dark spot on him: horribly bigoted against psykers (way moreso than the average person). He doesn’t understand them, he will always go after one in a frothing hateful rage in battle, and doesn’t even realize that navigators and astropaths are a thing and are necessary. I will have to take the Hatred talent against them when I get enough XP to do so which raises your weapon skill against a specific group.
Mine TTRPG blog http://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/245017
I'm not aiming for crunchy, so much as... crispy?
Suggestions?
I hear GURPS is good for your generics if you want more D20 flavored stuff.
Mine TTRPG blog http://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/
You want D&D-like in space? Stars Without Number, every time.
The Fifth Age. As close to 5E as possible.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9weYkvEU386Z0wyM0p2Q2NfVEE/view?usp=drivesdk
The classes themselves are not strictly 5e, but I'd put my neck on the line to call it Crispy.
https://www.icrpg.com
Recently had a go at running Ravenloft for my group in the FLGS. 2nd ed Ravenloft. Everyone died by the end of session 2, evil won and we all had a decent time of it.
The next GM then decided that intelligent undead murdering a peaceful town and turning them into their minions wasn't horrible enough and said "screw it, Call of Cthulu time". So out of the frying pan and into the existential fire. Wheeeee!
-The players named their new ship the Forward Unto Dawn and sunk a lot of money into upgrading it.
-They held interviews for a first mate position, and decided on the deep-sea explorer Samson over the rough-and-tumble golemancer Karyn, the experienced pilot Nadeshiko, or the privateer all above board I assure you Jasper. What they didn't know is that each one is working for a different faction trying to keep an eye on them. I think the one they picked should work out, mostly, maybe?
-They had an enchanted gorget made for their giant falcon.
-They fenced a powerful magical artifact that no one actually wanted or understood very well via their contact with the Spider, a notorious crime lord; this is definitely not going to come back to bite them at some point. On the plus side, this will give them a big in with the super rich and some serious underworld cred.
-The party heads off to rescue? the mage's nephew Rashid, who has been expelled from his university for not showing up to class and is not answering his mail.
Bonus image while searching for bird armor:
It’s like an episode of It’s Always Sunny. Lots of tedium between the good or even awesome moments.
Maybe I make my adventures too open ended so the players run around trying to do stuff I have to make fit into getting to the next part instead of sliding into the next part.
They think they’ll ambush gangsters before they distribute a new haul of illegal weapons, but it ain’t gonna do shit unless they take out the source. The gangsters have multiple drop points and smugglers around the city.
Maybe if they don’t push it, and next time choose again to not follow the obvious next part of the adventure then that’s it and we move on. They just get to face mooks in future adventures with OP guns the players can’t use without fear of getting punished or killed.
Mine TTRPG blog http://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/