so yesterday we had our normal Friday session but rescheduled and ended up going extra long with a dinner intermission
the giant serpent setpiece went well and was overcome by slicing one of its wings open
it crashed into a lake
(if anyone wants to know how i did that fight mechanically i am happy to share)
then the party took rightful ownership of the great fortress and the ranger allowed the dark elves to stay and live under him, the newly anointed lord
got to bust out Strongholds and Followers
then had great character moments with everyone that culminated in retirement of one of my original four characters (one had died along the way) leaving just two of four of those childhood friends in the party
and now they have traveled by teleportation to the monk’s homeland to attend the funeral of the monk’s late master
pretty insane how much things changed in the span of that 5 hours
What happened?
in what sense? if you mean the character moments, just a lot of culminations of plans and bargains made
the campaign started in their home village in Nowhere Land and as they’ve traveled across the continent (to rescue the elf’s kidnapped parents) war broke out between their home country and the land they were traveling through
so after the cleric died and was reincarnated as an elf Paladin he finally decided it was time he returned home with his new elf girlfriend and deliver the news of the other character’s death to his family
ah, the encounter on the back of the great serpent
essentially the body was the map, and they were near the end of the tail clinging on
the serpent itself had three initiative counts, each one tied to the dragon head attached at the opposite end (blue green and black)
on each head’s turn they would either attack with a breath weapon (if it was up) or do something to guide the body in flight
over the course of the encounter i had it do a barrel roll to shake everyone off, I had it fly down and skim the tree cover, and then after the hole in the wing it crashed into the lake and died
as far as how i envisioned victory going i didn’t have a firm idea in mind; i gave various parts of the body different health pools and resistances and immunities, and the players had to scale over this thing’s back to get to those more vulnerable spots
some of the party were dislodged because they tried to hit the underbelly; they could have also gone for the heads, but the ranger and monk decided to YOLO and cripple the wings
the only one who took major damage in the crash was the ranger; the two casters teleported to safety before they hit the water and monks are monks and immune to gravity
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
So the last session of my campaign went relatively well.
The guy I mentioned before who defeated my intended final villain agreed to a team-up against the other PCs. However, I screwed-up very badly by somehow forgetting I could use legendary resistance to negate a banishment spell, so the intended final villain sat-out the final battle.
The battle went on pretty long and one of the players had to leave (plus another couldn't make it). All that were left were the traitorous Wizard protected by Invulnerability, the Paladin protected by Armor of Invulnerability, and Geryon (who was being controlled by the Paladin via his true name).
The Wizard formed a truce with the Paladin and they both contacted Asmodeus with a deal; if the Paladin defeated Geryon in single combat he would sell his soul to Asmodeus in exchange for being made the new Lord of Stygia. Asmodeus accepted, the Paladin defeated Geryon and became the new Archduke of Stygia, and the Wizard trapped Geryon's essence to sell to a demon lord named Ahazu the Seizer in exchange for being granted ownership of an Abyssal layer and the ability to become the demon lord of that layer.
The intended big bad of the campaign became the feebleminded jester lich of the new demon lord's court. Meanwhile, the new ruler of Stygia began a war against the Plane of Water in revenge for piracy of souls from Stygia.
EDIT: I feel like I learned a lot through running this campaign. Most of all to feature my main villain more often rather than keep him in the background all time.
Started playing again and joined a game where the DM has created his own Ravnica campaign and three groups are separately going through the same world in one grand story.
I’m playing a Dimir, so there are usually side RP happening in between sessions so I can report stuff and get secret type missions (since can’t do that in front of the whole group).
After the last one, find out that the ring I got is a means to communicate to others once a week and that I’m supposed to line everyone up to defeat some major BBEG.
Now my question, how do I RP this to avoid meta gaming? I want to try and have my Wizard do what he’d think helps them win but also want to try and keep my out of game knowledge of the other groups out of it since my character doesn’t know anything they are doing.
Now that you have a means of communication between the groups, doesn’t that mean that you are now able to find out all that you need about the other groups in-character? That way you’re not metagaming, just using the tools at your disposal.
How does that play for the character who lives in the magic danger world of which he’s already in the guild who is all about spying, so he knows there are a lot of people you can’t trust.
Player instinct says start figuring people out because I know they are working towards what I am, but character wouldn’t know that and I’m wondering if the for a while he’ll need to be cryptic and try to keep lines open while sharing very little actual info.
I'm looking back over my first completed 5E campaign now to see what lessons I should take from it. Here's what I've got:
- Make it more difficult or less desirable for the party to take a long rest so they won't be attempting it in a villain's lair.
- Try using higher CR monsters earlier.
- Utilize downtime and crafting more often.
- Make exploration and time keeping more of a priority.
- Create magic item load-outs for major villains that counter the classes they are weakest against (example: ring of radiant resistance for a fiend to lessen smite damage).
- Make role-playing notes for NPCs, like some sample phrases for likely events or how they would react to being disrespected
- Figure out a better way to organize and set-up for the game.
- Create more opportunities for tool use and other non-combat features.
- Use more spellcasters.
- Give most legendary monsters parry.
How does that play for the character who lives in the magic danger world of which he’s already in the guild who is all about spying, so he knows there are a lot of people you can’t trust.
Player instinct says start figuring people out because I know they are working towards what I am, but character wouldn’t know that and I’m wondering if the for a while he’ll need to be cryptic and try to keep lines open while sharing very little actual info.
Maybe I’m just overthinking it.
You're overthinking it. The DM is giving you an in-game reason for the parties to be able to coordinate. You should make the choice that furthers this endeavor.
"My character would/n't do that" should always be strongly tempered by "this is a game with other people and certain conceits need to be made."
It's like how if every character in a movie was totally logical, every movie would be about 5 minutes long.
Thanks. It's helpful to hear that from someone else, because it's been pretty freaking awesome to think about how to coordinate this (it involves magic ring that can communicate to 8 books, and I won't know who has the book except through what we write back and forth), and I generally just don't want to screw it up.
I was given a title by my guild contact (contact? Superior? Not sure how guilds work fully yet), so I planned on using that to remain anonymous, but at the same I'm trying to think of how I could write something without actually lying, so at that point where I need to reveal myself no one can say "You lied!". And I also think given it will be two groups of actual players pulling a "Well Actually" isn't going to fly.
I'm more trying to write the first message to play to the "I'm a quest giver, save the world!" type thing, but also see if I can get them to respond with literally any info that would help me know who is who.
I'm most concerned that apparently there are 8 books in total. 4 books active, and only 3 parties. And I know my party doesn't have a book yet, so potentially 2 listeners that I might not want listening.... (unless it's NPC groups that are supposed to help maybe).
my game was mostly successful, we only spent 2 hours on druid's personal stuff, however near the end he asked "is my character going to get to do anything else this session?" and I said "probably not?" and he just got up and left without saying goodbye
my game was mostly successful, we only spent 2 hours on druid's personal stuff, however near the end he asked "is my character going to get to do anything else this session?" and I said "probably not?" and he just got up and left without saying goodbye
what a dick
Ok, Seriously. You should inform that player he is not welcome and is removed from the game and your table.
That's inexcusable behavior and is incredibly rude to you and every other player there.
If D&D isn't a group activity where you're excited to see what your party mates are up to then I do not know why you bother other people. Tell him to write a book.
he seemed upset at how hard I was pressing the steering wheel on his shit
"I want to go the feywild"
"You have no idea how to get to the feywild"
"I want to find fey then to get to move into my woods"
*after about 1 month of downtime* you find a wild elf village that directs you
*some charisma checks later* hey fey bro you want to move to my forest?
Idk... that sounds really dangerous... orcs in the mountains?? ehh Ill think about it
Then he gets the answer later on (theres a lot of RP in between each thing) that a village of kercpa will entertain his idea of nurturing the forest, but they're going to move in the park in the village rather than the forest that he has his heart set on being HIS forest - miles outside of the town the party owns. They're still going to help regrow the forest 20 miles outside of town that the orcs burned down, but they wont *live* there
This way his shit still happened but it's going to be in a way that interacts with the party. I get why he left, it was really late, but like... how hard is it to say "hey it's getting really late, if I'm not needed for the rest of the session is it cool if I take off?" like a normal person
He's not a normal person, he is either in desperate need of medical attention or is a fantastic jerk. Either way, I really cannot understand why you're letting such a guy in your house to ruin your game night.
yeah honestly we all know social skills are extremely difficult for some folks in the hobby, and if we read it charitably maybe he suffers from some severe issues in that arena
or he's just an ass
either way it's not your responsibility to cater to or fix it unless you want to, and the way he just jumped in as a ride along would have been a no go from square one
I was given a title by my guild contact (contact? Superior? Not sure how guilds work fully yet), so I planned on using that to remain anonymous, but at the same I'm trying to think of how I could write something without actually lying, so at that point where I need to reveal myself no one can say "You lied!". And I also think given it will be two groups of actual players pulling a "Well Actually" isn't going to fly.
I'm more trying to write the first message to play to the "I'm a quest giver, save the world!" type thing, but also see if I can get them to respond with literally any info that would help me know who is who.
I'm most concerned that apparently there are 8 books in total. 4 books active, and only 3 parties. And I know my party doesn't have a book yet, so potentially 2 listeners that I might not want listening.... (unless it's NPC groups that are supposed to help maybe).
From what I remember of the Ravnica setting way back when the first MTG block there came out (so, dated information, take with the appropriate portion of salt): first rule of Dimir club is, don't tell anyone else you're Dimir. Figure out another guild you could plausibly be a member of, and tell everyone you're that. Boros seems like a good pick, they're basically the police, so that should line up with being the "quest giver". Izzet would also be reasonable if you're flinging around a lot of elemental magic.
I was given a title by my guild contact (contact? Superior? Not sure how guilds work fully yet), so I planned on using that to remain anonymous, but at the same I'm trying to think of how I could write something without actually lying, so at that point where I need to reveal myself no one can say "You lied!". And I also think given it will be two groups of actual players pulling a "Well Actually" isn't going to fly.
I'm more trying to write the first message to play to the "I'm a quest giver, save the world!" type thing, but also see if I can get them to respond with literally any info that would help me know who is who.
I'm most concerned that apparently there are 8 books in total. 4 books active, and only 3 parties. And I know my party doesn't have a book yet, so potentially 2 listeners that I might not want listening.... (unless it's NPC groups that are supposed to help maybe).
From what I remember of the Ravnica setting way back when the first MTG block there came out (so, dated information, take with the appropriate portion of salt): first rule of Dimir club is, don't tell anyone else you're Dimir. Figure out another guild you could plausibly be a member of, and tell everyone you're that. Boros seems like a good pick, they're basically the police, so that should line up with being the "quest giver". Izzet would also be reasonable if you're flinging around a lot of elemental magic.
Boros are more the army/MPs, Azorious are the law makers and police. Depeding on context orders coming from the Orzhov Syndicate might also make sense (church/bank/organized crime syndicate)
I’m not planning on including that if at all possible just because I don’t want any of the players to have a clue a player is the behind the screen as opposed to DM action.
Hoping to play an interested 3rd party up until the point I need to reveal in person.
he seemed upset at how hard I was pressing the steering wheel on his shit
"I want to go the feywild"
"You have no idea how to get to the feywild"
"I want to find fey then to get to move into my woods"
*after about 1 month of downtime* you find a wild elf village that directs you
*some charisma checks later* hey fey bro you want to move to my forest?
Idk... that sounds really dangerous... orcs in the mountains?? ehh Ill think about it
Then he gets the answer later on (theres a lot of RP in between each thing) that a village of kercpa will entertain his idea of nurturing the forest, but they're going to move in the park in the village rather than the forest that he has his heart set on being HIS forest - miles outside of the town the party owns. They're still going to help regrow the forest 20 miles outside of town that the orcs burned down, but they wont *live* there
This way his shit still happened but it's going to be in a way that interacts with the party. I get why he left, it was really late, but like... how hard is it to say "hey it's getting really late, if I'm not needed for the rest of the session is it cool if I take off?" like a normal person
Is this guy not the ride for two of your other players? Did they bail too? Speaking of your other players.... Have you talked to them about a new member of the group? Was anyone consulted on adding a new member? Have you checked in, now that this DB is here, on how they feel about it? If not, you should. The final decision is yours, since its your game and your house. But you should check in with your group for their thoughts.
One of my groups BiL's in now a member of our group. But when it happened he made sure to tell us all, "Hey, my sisters fiance wants to come sit in on a session. Is that cool?"... and we were hesitant, because we have long history together and our own quirks, but we're not pricks and so we said "Sure?" and so R sat in, played with us and it was good. And since at the time I was the DM I made sure to hit up each one of the players afterwards to ask, "How about that R guy? He was pretty cool. Should he come back next time?" Luckily for R, we all agreed he was a good dude, and so now we have a new member of the group.
I can pick them up and drive them home so that's not an issue
It's kind of an issue.
Where you drinking that night? Did you have kids or something at home who would be disrupted if you had to drive some people home who already had their ride home sorted out?
Sure, maybe it was not a hardship for you, and you are happy and able to do it. The fact remains that this guy is a jerk and rudely bailed not only on your game, but on his own friends who now no longer have a ride home.
oh no you misunderstand, he took them with him, he just gestured for them to get their stuff, repeated that "he's not going to get back to us" and left with them while I was still talking to the remaining players about what was going on in the city after they released the Lord of Murder
oh no you misunderstand, he took them with him, he just gestured for them to get their stuff, repeated that "he's not going to get back to us" and left with them while I was still talking to the remaining players about what was going on in the city after they released the L O R D O F M U R D E R
Boot Him From Your Game.
That's so much worse than I first thought. He has made it abundantly clear he doesn't respect you, the others at the table, or anyone but himself.
What actually happened in my game was fun (background information: much earlier the party freed a pre-spiderqueen Araushnee, goddess of song and divination, from an egg shaped amber crystal - this has generally worked out for them)
After the introduction to their students and instructors (I made them do the "please stand up tell us your name, age, where you're from, and something about yourself, it was great because we alllllllllll hate those, but they had to do it in character), the druid was summoned against his will and planar bound as the nature instructor for the semester (he might? be salty about that, but he didn't even try to resist), everyone was shown around. The party remarked that the age group of students was 9 to 35 but that the lounge's unseen servants would serve alcohol to anyone regardless of their age - the response being "if a student performs poorly due to intoxication, it is their responsibility, a draught of restoration can be purchased in the commissary at the expense of one demerit"
no one has asked what happens if you get too many demerits yet
They attended two classes on the first day before being allowed to study or relax as they see fit, introductory enchantment and necromancy. The enchantment teacher cracked open his lesson plan, shook his head, referred to it as "propoganda" and put it in his desk and announced he'd be doing this off the cuff. He went over all the different things you can do with enchantment magic, one of the players was talking about inventory management to another player and I treated it as if they were whispering back and forth ingame - so the professor Dominated both of them (enchantment wizard) and made them dance on their desks like monkeys and start badly singing, he demonstrated other enchantment spells like Modify Memory and gave a detailed and stern instruction that no good wizard should ever get caught using enchantment spells on another citizen of the republic. The student textbook on enchantment however, had a lengthy list of laws that can be broken by wizards for misusing enchantment, and that if the professor did that to the two students outside of the school, that could carry a 5 year sentence to be forced to work enchanting magical items for the army as punishment (the professor is a douchebag, this is made entirely clear in the roleplay)
The next professor, the necromancy teacher, was much more reserved and started off with a big lecture about the ethics and legality of necromancy. That spells that animate the dead should only be used if absolutely necessary and not just for simple convenience - there are more benign magics if you just need an assistant. Everyone was kind of relieved that not every wizard here seemed to be an amoral mad scientist. Then the professor had a gurney brought in with a fresh cadaver on it, a student from a previous class who didn't pay attention to warnings and found herself triggering a quite lethal trap, blowing herself in half. The body was roughly stitched together and he explained that this would be their subject for the year - and slightly horrified them as he sheepishly mentioned that they've all technically agreed to donate their bodies to study should any of them die on campus and be beyond the grasp of a simple revivify
My first wrinkle from the players, the cleric sauntered up to the front of the classroom, pulled the sheet off the body, and asked me "hey they stitched this thing back together, and you said it was Gentle Reposed immediately after death - do I think I could do a better job putting it back together with mending, the tools in this room, and my healers expertise?"
well sure, give it a go! He rolls a nat 20 on medicine - making the total roll a 29. The class watches in horror and fascination as one of their fellow students essentially reassembles the blown apart hamburger that is this body's midsection into something more intact-looking, the slack-jawed professor wordlessly hands a scroll of revivify (every one of these guys has one of those close at hand, and yes I let wizards use divine scrolls and vice versa) to the cleric who brings the girl back to life - who vomits up viscera, starts screaming, crying, and falls off the table running off into the hallway
The cleric turns to the class and says "and that's why necromancy isn't evil" and sits back down
I am always so, soooooo happy when the players take the initiative to add to what I'm doing
After that the rogue snuck off, past some traps, was nearly sliced clean in half by a trap that's basically the monofiliment wire from johnny mnemonic (and would have been, if not for Evasion!), snuck into the secure room, and lo and behold saw two of those god-egg-things from earlier in the campaign. Woudln't you know it, but she knows how to open these things as well. So naturally she convened the mages and instructors and told them what she kn... HAHAHA nooooooope, she cracked one of them open, letting loose the avatar of the god of murder, who promptly killdozed his way out of the school. No students or faculty died, they let the golems take the punishment, and a bunch of soldiers in the city, but that's where we ended the session
Good times, except for druid's player being a shitbird
Edit: the girl that got brought back to life was carried home by the fighter, sobbing not because she died but because she failed and was expelled. The fighter also delivered a letter from the headmaster to her ecstatic parents - a bill, 750 gold pieces for the revivify scroll, and 5 gold pieces for the cadaver they lost when she was brought back to life. To the parents this was basically a bill for a million dollars but, hey they got their idiot daughter back from beyond the grave.
Played the first session with my Knowledge Cleric archaeologist. We fought a lot of goblins, so Sacred Flame was hard to hit with (didn't take Toll the Dead since I didn't think it fit the character), but I did make good use of the Dodge action to mitigate some damage.
Hit level 2 and got my Channel Divinity ability. Can grant myself proficiency in any skill for a short time. I already know how to flavor it, instesd of just asking my god to grant me knowledge of a skill, I'll ask to be granted the wisdom of any number of historical figures I make up, really play into the histort buff mentality. For example, if I want to do Animal Handling, I might say something like, "Deneir, please grant me the wisdom of Urgo Wolf-Father, who tamed countless wolf packs to defend his tribe from marauders".
The more I think about it, the more the guy sounds like a narcissist. Just the right amount of charm to wedge himself into any social gathering, but without a single thought given to the feelings of anyone but himself. The fact that 2 of your players would just walk away from your table, because he told them to is a bad sign. The longer you let him enter your house, the likelier it'll get that he will convince other players to leave your game. Narcissistic people don't handle rejection well and will manipulate others to get what they want.
Playing armchair psychologist isn't even necessary, the person has been rude and disrespectful to the entire group enough that removing him from the game is going to improve the experience for everyone, players and dm.
The more I think about it, the more the guy sounds like a narcissist. Just the right amount of charm to wedge himself into any social gathering, but without a single thought given to the feelings of anyone but himself. The fact that 2 of your players would just walk away from your table, because he told them to is a bad sign. The longer you let him enter your house, the likelier it'll get that he will convince other players to leave your game. Narcissistic people don't handle rejection well and will manipulate others to get what they want.
my other players hate him and want him gone as soon as possible
The more I think about it, the more the guy sounds like a narcissist. Just the right amount of charm to wedge himself into any social gathering, but without a single thought given to the feelings of anyone but himself. The fact that 2 of your players would just walk away from your table, because he told them to is a bad sign. The longer you let him enter your house, the likelier it'll get that he will convince other players to leave your game. Narcissistic people don't handle rejection well and will manipulate others to get what they want.
my other players hate him and want him gone as soon as possible
Then, as much you are not looking forwards to doing it..... you know what you gotta do.
part of it is that like, my campaign is a good deal more dark than he seems to have thought going in? He seemed pretty upset that the necromancy class had a dead student brought in to practice necromancy spells on
I mean it's supposed to be fucked up, but it's the kind of fucked up everyone else signed on for - that kind of thing happens when you insert yourself into a game without having a conversation with the DM ahead of time. For all he knew he was stepping into a my little pony version of FATAL (he didnt even know it was 5e when he showed up!!)
That seems like par for the course for a necromancy class in a wizard school, imho. Certainly no less insane than anything that happened at Hogwarts. Like the fact that their competitions, tournaments, recreational activities, and curriculum regularly expose children to mortal danger, but they need a signed permission slip to go to town and buy candy. And the entire magical society thinks this makes sense.
He made bits weird too, like there only being one shower, he raised a stink about how inappropriate that was and nobody else had even spared a thought to a room in the tour they probably wouldn't ever describe using
Its true the place only has one shower room, I tried to figure out why since I am basing this off a wizard school in a module, and I came to the conclusion that if students were concerned with modesty, they better coordinate shared usage of resources with other students or learn a simple spell of concealment
he also focused on the dead body being nude under the sheet and made that weird: "they're really just displaying a nude body to a bunch of students some of them kids", well no they're not displaying anything there's a sheet on it, and I hadn't thought about that but you clearly are...too much
edit: I'm not trying to imply he's a pervert, I mean he might be, but he tends to overly focus on any detail that would be strange or upsetting to a real person in that world, he wants very detailed mental images of every room and NPC and overly focuses on certain things, like before him nobody's ever deliberately mentioned that a village didn't have clotheslines in it for drying clothes "do they just never wash them?" making me concede "sure yeah they probably have clothes lines, I wasnt thinking about that when I described the village". He also likes to know what everyone is wearing, shit I cant get by without describing where people shit
part of it is that like, my campaign is a good deal more dark than he seems to have thought going in? He seemed pretty upset that the necromancy class had a dead student brought in to practice necromancy spells on
I mean it's supposed to be fucked up, but it's the kind of fucked up everyone else signed on for - that kind of thing happens when you insert yourself into a game without having a conversation with the DM ahead of time. For all he knew he was stepping into a my little pony version of FATAL (he didnt even know it was 5e when he showed up!!)
Okay, so I know there's 3 sides to every story and all, but even a generous interpretation of this guy's actions leaves you fully justified in dumping his ass.
Man up and kick him. Do it over text if you have to. Say this: "I have discussed with the other members and a majority vote has decided that you are not a good fit with this group. I wish you luck finding a party that will better suit you."
You even have plausible deniability about being the bad guy with those words.
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The bolded thing you would be happy to share
essentially the body was the map, and they were near the end of the tail clinging on
the serpent itself had three initiative counts, each one tied to the dragon head attached at the opposite end (blue green and black)
on each head’s turn they would either attack with a breath weapon (if it was up) or do something to guide the body in flight
over the course of the encounter i had it do a barrel roll to shake everyone off, I had it fly down and skim the tree cover, and then after the hole in the wing it crashed into the lake and died
as far as how i envisioned victory going i didn’t have a firm idea in mind; i gave various parts of the body different health pools and resistances and immunities, and the players had to scale over this thing’s back to get to those more vulnerable spots
some of the party were dislodged because they tried to hit the underbelly; they could have also gone for the heads, but the ranger and monk decided to YOLO and cripple the wings
the only one who took major damage in the crash was the ranger; the two casters teleported to safety before they hit the water and monks are monks and immune to gravity
Yea, you can pre-order the reprint right now, which also comes with the PDF.
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The guy I mentioned before who defeated my intended final villain agreed to a team-up against the other PCs. However, I screwed-up very badly by somehow forgetting I could use legendary resistance to negate a banishment spell, so the intended final villain sat-out the final battle.
The battle went on pretty long and one of the players had to leave (plus another couldn't make it). All that were left were the traitorous Wizard protected by Invulnerability, the Paladin protected by Armor of Invulnerability, and Geryon (who was being controlled by the Paladin via his true name).
The Wizard formed a truce with the Paladin and they both contacted Asmodeus with a deal; if the Paladin defeated Geryon in single combat he would sell his soul to Asmodeus in exchange for being made the new Lord of Stygia. Asmodeus accepted, the Paladin defeated Geryon and became the new Archduke of Stygia, and the Wizard trapped Geryon's essence to sell to a demon lord named Ahazu the Seizer in exchange for being granted ownership of an Abyssal layer and the ability to become the demon lord of that layer.
The intended big bad of the campaign became the feebleminded jester lich of the new demon lord's court. Meanwhile, the new ruler of Stygia began a war against the Plane of Water in revenge for piracy of souls from Stygia.
EDIT: I feel like I learned a lot through running this campaign. Most of all to feature my main villain more often rather than keep him in the background all time.
Started playing again and joined a game where the DM has created his own Ravnica campaign and three groups are separately going through the same world in one grand story.
I’m playing a Dimir, so there are usually side RP happening in between sessions so I can report stuff and get secret type missions (since can’t do that in front of the whole group).
After the last one, find out that the ring I got is a means to communicate to others once a week and that I’m supposed to line everyone up to defeat some major BBEG.
Now my question, how do I RP this to avoid meta gaming? I want to try and have my Wizard do what he’d think helps them win but also want to try and keep my out of game knowledge of the other groups out of it since my character doesn’t know anything they are doing.
Any tips? I’m very rusty and need some direction
How does that play for the character who lives in the magic danger world of which he’s already in the guild who is all about spying, so he knows there are a lot of people you can’t trust.
Player instinct says start figuring people out because I know they are working towards what I am, but character wouldn’t know that and I’m wondering if the for a while he’ll need to be cryptic and try to keep lines open while sharing very little actual info.
Maybe I’m just overthinking it.
- Make it more difficult or less desirable for the party to take a long rest so they won't be attempting it in a villain's lair.
- Try using higher CR monsters earlier.
- Utilize downtime and crafting more often.
- Make exploration and time keeping more of a priority.
- Create magic item load-outs for major villains that counter the classes they are weakest against (example: ring of radiant resistance for a fiend to lessen smite damage).
- Make role-playing notes for NPCs, like some sample phrases for likely events or how they would react to being disrespected
- Figure out a better way to organize and set-up for the game.
- Create more opportunities for tool use and other non-combat features.
- Use more spellcasters.
- Give most legendary monsters parry.
You're overthinking it. The DM is giving you an in-game reason for the parties to be able to coordinate. You should make the choice that furthers this endeavor.
"My character would/n't do that" should always be strongly tempered by "this is a game with other people and certain conceits need to be made."
It's like how if every character in a movie was totally logical, every movie would be about 5 minutes long.
God it feels good to be playing D&D again.
"Hi there! I'm Lexi, your magical journal pal! It looks like you're trying to coordinate an adventuring party: would you like some help?"
I'm more trying to write the first message to play to the "I'm a quest giver, save the world!" type thing, but also see if I can get them to respond with literally any info that would help me know who is who.
I'm most concerned that apparently there are 8 books in total. 4 books active, and only 3 parties. And I know my party doesn't have a book yet, so potentially 2 listeners that I might not want listening.... (unless it's NPC groups that are supposed to help maybe).
what a dick
Ok, Seriously. You should inform that player he is not welcome and is removed from the game and your table.
That's inexcusable behavior and is incredibly rude to you and every other player there.
If D&D isn't a group activity where you're excited to see what your party mates are up to then I do not know why you bother other people. Tell him to write a book.
"I want to go the feywild"
"You have no idea how to get to the feywild"
"I want to find fey then to get to move into my woods"
*after about 1 month of downtime* you find a wild elf village that directs you
*some charisma checks later* hey fey bro you want to move to my forest?
Idk... that sounds really dangerous... orcs in the mountains?? ehh Ill think about it
Then he gets the answer later on (theres a lot of RP in between each thing) that a village of kercpa will entertain his idea of nurturing the forest, but they're going to move in the park in the village rather than the forest that he has his heart set on being HIS forest - miles outside of the town the party owns. They're still going to help regrow the forest 20 miles outside of town that the orcs burned down, but they wont *live* there
This way his shit still happened but it's going to be in a way that interacts with the party. I get why he left, it was really late, but like... how hard is it to say "hey it's getting really late, if I'm not needed for the rest of the session is it cool if I take off?" like a normal person
or he's just an ass
either way it's not your responsibility to cater to or fix it unless you want to, and the way he just jumped in as a ride along would have been a no go from square one
From what I remember of the Ravnica setting way back when the first MTG block there came out (so, dated information, take with the appropriate portion of salt): first rule of Dimir club is, don't tell anyone else you're Dimir. Figure out another guild you could plausibly be a member of, and tell everyone you're that. Boros seems like a good pick, they're basically the police, so that should line up with being the "quest giver". Izzet would also be reasonable if you're flinging around a lot of elemental magic.
Boros are more the army/MPs, Azorious are the law makers and police. Depeding on context orders coming from the Orzhov Syndicate might also make sense (church/bank/organized crime syndicate)
I’m not planning on including that if at all possible just because I don’t want any of the players to have a clue a player is the behind the screen as opposed to DM action.
Hoping to play an interested 3rd party up until the point I need to reveal in person.
Is this guy not the ride for two of your other players? Did they bail too? Speaking of your other players.... Have you talked to them about a new member of the group? Was anyone consulted on adding a new member? Have you checked in, now that this DB is here, on how they feel about it? If not, you should. The final decision is yours, since its your game and your house. But you should check in with your group for their thoughts.
One of my groups BiL's in now a member of our group. But when it happened he made sure to tell us all, "Hey, my sisters fiance wants to come sit in on a session. Is that cool?"... and we were hesitant, because we have long history together and our own quirks, but we're not pricks and so we said "Sure?" and so R sat in, played with us and it was good. And since at the time I was the DM I made sure to hit up each one of the players afterwards to ask, "How about that R guy? He was pretty cool. Should he come back next time?" Luckily for R, we all agreed he was a good dude, and so now we have a new member of the group.
It's kind of an issue.
Where you drinking that night? Did you have kids or something at home who would be disrupted if you had to drive some people home who already had their ride home sorted out?
Sure, maybe it was not a hardship for you, and you are happy and able to do it. The fact remains that this guy is a jerk and rudely bailed not only on your game, but on his own friends who now no longer have a ride home.
Boot Him From Your Game.
That's so much worse than I first thought. He has made it abundantly clear he doesn't respect you, the others at the table, or anyone but himself.
After the introduction to their students and instructors (I made them do the "please stand up tell us your name, age, where you're from, and something about yourself, it was great because we alllllllllll hate those, but they had to do it in character), the druid was summoned against his will and planar bound as the nature instructor for the semester (he might? be salty about that, but he didn't even try to resist), everyone was shown around. The party remarked that the age group of students was 9 to 35 but that the lounge's unseen servants would serve alcohol to anyone regardless of their age - the response being "if a student performs poorly due to intoxication, it is their responsibility, a draught of restoration can be purchased in the commissary at the expense of one demerit"
no one has asked what happens if you get too many demerits yet
They attended two classes on the first day before being allowed to study or relax as they see fit, introductory enchantment and necromancy. The enchantment teacher cracked open his lesson plan, shook his head, referred to it as "propoganda" and put it in his desk and announced he'd be doing this off the cuff. He went over all the different things you can do with enchantment magic, one of the players was talking about inventory management to another player and I treated it as if they were whispering back and forth ingame - so the professor Dominated both of them (enchantment wizard) and made them dance on their desks like monkeys and start badly singing, he demonstrated other enchantment spells like Modify Memory and gave a detailed and stern instruction that no good wizard should ever get caught using enchantment spells on another citizen of the republic. The student textbook on enchantment however, had a lengthy list of laws that can be broken by wizards for misusing enchantment, and that if the professor did that to the two students outside of the school, that could carry a 5 year sentence to be forced to work enchanting magical items for the army as punishment (the professor is a douchebag, this is made entirely clear in the roleplay)
The next professor, the necromancy teacher, was much more reserved and started off with a big lecture about the ethics and legality of necromancy. That spells that animate the dead should only be used if absolutely necessary and not just for simple convenience - there are more benign magics if you just need an assistant. Everyone was kind of relieved that not every wizard here seemed to be an amoral mad scientist. Then the professor had a gurney brought in with a fresh cadaver on it, a student from a previous class who didn't pay attention to warnings and found herself triggering a quite lethal trap, blowing herself in half. The body was roughly stitched together and he explained that this would be their subject for the year - and slightly horrified them as he sheepishly mentioned that they've all technically agreed to donate their bodies to study should any of them die on campus and be beyond the grasp of a simple revivify
My first wrinkle from the players, the cleric sauntered up to the front of the classroom, pulled the sheet off the body, and asked me "hey they stitched this thing back together, and you said it was Gentle Reposed immediately after death - do I think I could do a better job putting it back together with mending, the tools in this room, and my healers expertise?"
well sure, give it a go! He rolls a nat 20 on medicine - making the total roll a 29. The class watches in horror and fascination as one of their fellow students essentially reassembles the blown apart hamburger that is this body's midsection into something more intact-looking, the slack-jawed professor wordlessly hands a scroll of revivify (every one of these guys has one of those close at hand, and yes I let wizards use divine scrolls and vice versa) to the cleric who brings the girl back to life - who vomits up viscera, starts screaming, crying, and falls off the table running off into the hallway
The cleric turns to the class and says "and that's why necromancy isn't evil" and sits back down
I am always so, soooooo happy when the players take the initiative to add to what I'm doing
After that the rogue snuck off, past some traps, was nearly sliced clean in half by a trap that's basically the monofiliment wire from johnny mnemonic (and would have been, if not for Evasion!), snuck into the secure room, and lo and behold saw two of those god-egg-things from earlier in the campaign. Woudln't you know it, but she knows how to open these things as well. So naturally she convened the mages and instructors and told them what she kn... HAHAHA nooooooope, she cracked one of them open, letting loose the avatar of the god of murder, who promptly killdozed his way out of the school. No students or faculty died, they let the golems take the punishment, and a bunch of soldiers in the city, but that's where we ended the session
Good times, except for druid's player being a shitbird
Edit: the girl that got brought back to life was carried home by the fighter, sobbing not because she died but because she failed and was expelled. The fighter also delivered a letter from the headmaster to her ecstatic parents - a bill, 750 gold pieces for the revivify scroll, and 5 gold pieces for the cadaver they lost when she was brought back to life. To the parents this was basically a bill for a million dollars but, hey they got their idiot daughter back from beyond the grave.
Hit level 2 and got my Channel Divinity ability. Can grant myself proficiency in any skill for a short time. I already know how to flavor it, instesd of just asking my god to grant me knowledge of a skill, I'll ask to be granted the wisdom of any number of historical figures I make up, really play into the histort buff mentality. For example, if I want to do Animal Handling, I might say something like, "Deneir, please grant me the wisdom of Urgo Wolf-Father, who tamed countless wolf packs to defend his tribe from marauders".
Can't wait to play again.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
my other players hate him and want him gone as soon as possible
Then, as much you are not looking forwards to doing it..... you know what you gotta do.
part of it is that like, my campaign is a good deal more dark than he seems to have thought going in? He seemed pretty upset that the necromancy class had a dead student brought in to practice necromancy spells on
I mean it's supposed to be fucked up, but it's the kind of fucked up everyone else signed on for - that kind of thing happens when you insert yourself into a game without having a conversation with the DM ahead of time. For all he knew he was stepping into a my little pony version of FATAL (he didnt even know it was 5e when he showed up!!)
Its true the place only has one shower room, I tried to figure out why since I am basing this off a wizard school in a module, and I came to the conclusion that if students were concerned with modesty, they better coordinate shared usage of resources with other students or learn a simple spell of concealment
he also focused on the dead body being nude under the sheet and made that weird: "they're really just displaying a nude body to a bunch of students some of them kids", well no they're not displaying anything there's a sheet on it, and I hadn't thought about that but you clearly are...too much
edit: I'm not trying to imply he's a pervert, I mean he might be, but he tends to overly focus on any detail that would be strange or upsetting to a real person in that world, he wants very detailed mental images of every room and NPC and overly focuses on certain things, like before him nobody's ever deliberately mentioned that a village didn't have clotheslines in it for drying clothes "do they just never wash them?" making me concede "sure yeah they probably have clothes lines, I wasnt thinking about that when I described the village". He also likes to know what everyone is wearing, shit I cant get by without describing where people shit
Okay, so I know there's 3 sides to every story and all, but even a generous interpretation of this guy's actions leaves you fully justified in dumping his ass.
Man up and kick him. Do it over text if you have to. Say this: "I have discussed with the other members and a majority vote has decided that you are not a good fit with this group. I wish you luck finding a party that will better suit you."
You even have plausible deniability about being the bad guy with those words.