dnd-discussion

[paper portal]

its pretty close to optimal but thats one of those like 5 way multiclass builds

[humble cairn]

Mechanically speaking the general niches that exist in 5E are: Damage, Utility, Support, and Control.

[sly crest]

tfw you can never turn into a blink doggo

[paper portal]

druid barb cleric monk sorc or whatever

[humble cairn]

My Summon Fey is a Blink Puppy!

[serene jolt]

Flavor is free!

I have a druid who "turns into drakes and dragons", flavor wise.

[hoary totem]

As a wizard: Screw that I'm all of it

[paper portal]

id say just damage control and support, utility can generally be grouped into one of the latter two imo

[humble cairn]

I love how the Blink Puppy can chomp on an enemy and then give them the puppy dog eyes and Charm them.

[paper portal]

wizard is mostly control and damage tbh

[sly crest]

control = crowd control and utility = outside-of-combat, yes?

[paper portal]

but yeah you can do any of them with any class

[humble cairn]

Utility is how I classify specifically non-combat solutions to problems.

[humble cairn]

Control = Hindering enemy actions and yes Utility = out of combat solutions.

Restrained, Frightened, Disadvantage on attacks, all these are Control options.

Healing, Advantage, movement speed increases, defense, AC .. Support options.

[sly crest]

I'd call all those forms of crowd control; they keep an enemy from attacking so you can fight something else

[hoary totem]

charm person 😄

[humble cairn]

Charm person is a specific spell that has both Utility and Control benefits.

More Utility, probably since it breaks if you attack them, but I have used it to Charm tank before.

Charm an enemy, then stand in such a way that you prevent them from using their abilities to harm your party.

[sly crest]

I like how Enchantments can either be an alternative to violence or carte blanche to do some really messed up stuff lol

[humble cairn]

If I stand in the middle of my party and have charmed someone, they cannot use Fireball on the whole party.

[sly crest]

"I cast Charm Person...now, I compel you to do the chicken dance!"

[humble cairn]

Ehh ... maybe don't do messed up stuff? Unless you know the comfort level of the players at your table.

[sly crest]

I mean in theory

[humble cairn]

Charm person doesn't actually mind control people.

[sly crest]

darn

[limber trail]

It makes them friendlier to you but it doesn't force them to obey you

[sly crest]

First session is tomorrow. There's still a lot I don't know.

[limber trail]

Hey, you'll learn as you go

[humble cairn]

It does make it impossible for them to attack you or harm you, though. Which is how I allowed my party to escape once. I use Charm Person and then body blocked the hallway. They couldn't attack me and couldn't move me (in 2014 grappling was explicitly a type of attack) so my party could run away.

[minor cargo]

Screw you. I'll charm people to do things they normaly wouldn't do.

Call to make an appointment.
Respond to texts that are days old, even if it's just a "Sorry, I saw this but can't reply for a few more days."
Tell a friend that they're thinking about them, even if they have nothing to talk about.

[sly crest]

mood

[viral kraken]

when was the last time you cast Sending to your mother? eh? this is the thanks she gets?

[sly crest]

I text her all the time, I swear!

[modern sentinel]

Hi guys! I haven't played in years, I forgot a LOT and my first session is soon. Any tips?

[limber trail]

Go with the flow and don't be afraid to ask your DM and fellow players for help if you need it

[flint ledge]

I mean charm person specifically words it that the target is friendly towards you for the duration. (doesn't say the same about your companions though)

[humble cairn]

Right, they can still try and attack your party. Best you can try to do is body block, which works in the case of things like Fireball.

[sly crest]

I'm out for now

[humble cairn]

Also if the hallway you're blocking is narrow.

[flint ledge]

That is true. I mean reasonably speaking in some cases you might be able to convince the person not to attack your party

[modern sentinel]

Thank you

[humble cairn]

And you'd have advantage on that roll if your DM allows you to make the attempt at all, which is not guaranteed.

[sturdy tusk]

-# Dumb question maybe
But Fire Bolt, If the Enemy is like 130 ft away [I alr walkked 30 ft towards them, still 130 ft], Can I Still use Fire bolt? Will it be disadvantage?
Fire Bolt range is 120

[humble cairn]

For future reference "How does X rule work in Y situation" is a question for #dnd-rules, but this one is easy enough. Spells simply cannot affect anything outside of their range. So you simply can't hit something 120ft away with a Fire Bolt.

[sturdy tusk]

Ah, Ok, Thanks!

-# I'll ask in DND Rules Next time

[short brook]

Do you think a spell that hits the limits instantly dissipates or it'll keep going but fizzles out enough that it doesn't do anything

[sturdy tusk]

Prob it'll keep going but fizzles out enough that it doesn't do anything

[humble cairn]

This is flavor, so it is up to you to decide.

[short brook]

Ya, i'm asking for your opinion

[humble cairn]

Different for each character. If I'm making a Wizard who alters reality through very precise formulae, the spell would probably disappear right at the range. If I'm making a pyromancer sorcerer with volatile powers it would definitely just fly off.

[plucky kettle]

Guys... 5.5? Really???
What is it going to be in 10 years when we update it again?
5.24 worked perfectly, but you guys screwed it up...

[hidden spindle]

Its only for DDB... but slowly making its way

[paper portal]

itll be 6e next

not the first time we've had a .5

[plucky kettle]

No... 5e is the last and now only version

[mystic crystal]

🤨

[paper portal]

if you insist

[plucky kettle]

They said there won;t be another edition

[short brook]

6e huh... another decade until then

[paper portal]

where'd you get that from?

[plucky kettle]

They said no other version ever...

[tender fossil]

They've said a lot of things Dave backtracked on

[viral kraken]

bad news, we are still on 5e in 3030

[mystic crystal]

Didn’t they say 5E was the last edition lol.

[humble cairn]

Official devs, actually.

[paper portal]

probably

[tender fossil]

They also said they were going to be making 5th edition modular and opening up all of the old settings. Among other things

[paper portal]

huh interesting

[mystic crystal]

Yo where’s the 2024 necromancer. I’m in desperate need to slow the game ALL the way down so I can play with MR. and Mrs. bones

[tender fossil]

It took some 9 years to get us greyhawk. Now apparently resetting is going to be heavily supported due to them bringing back people associated with it during the TSR days

[rough basalt]

The High Magic book this fall (September iirc)

[mystic crystal]

😈

[undone rain]

And then we got 5.5E a few years later lmao

[serene jolt]

Why is it recommended to get the shield spell on a Moon Druid if you'll only be using it outside of your Wildshape?

Just generally curious.

[mystic crystal]

Personal opinion most of the 5.5 rulings made the game better

[rough basalt]

Well the people who said 5e was the last edition intended 5.5 to just be updated 5e like PF2e Remastered

[undone rain]

Looks pretty good to me so far

[humble cairn]

These comments were all concerning the 2024 update.

[lyric viper]

"5.5" is also not a new edition.

It is 5e.

[tender fossil]

It was basically a rules patch. Unfortunately according to sales it's not a popular one most people are more than happy you just keep their old books and applying the changes instead of buying the new

[humble cairn]

During the whole process of updating Fifth Editions with the new 2024 rules, the company said their intention was to stay in 5E and that the updates were explicitly not a new edition nor a signal of transitioning to a new edition.

[undone rain]

So what just 5e and a half

[rough basalt]

If it were a video game you could say it's the 2.0 update

[tender fossil]

It still didn't address many of the issues that plagued 5th edition

[rough basalt]

That fixes all the launch issues that weren't fixed up until that point

[lyric viper]

Not even that
It's 5e the same way TCoE and XGtE and MPMM is 5e

[humble cairn]

It's just an update to 5E that is still 5E.

[mystic crystal]

2.0 Starfield 😮‍💨

[knotty pasture]

We'll one day get 5.5.5.5e

[minor cargo]

Depends on who you ask, but IMO shield is one of those spells that is really good for its level. Your read is right that if you're mostly in Wild Shape, you don't get much use out of it - but as something to keep "in your back pocket", it's really useful and can come in clutch.

[rough basalt]

It's basically just compiling all the fixes to 5e while completing the foundation fixing

[plucky kettle]

exactly. That's why 5.24 fits so good. If they made another update this year, then we're talking 5.26

[humble cairn]

The 2024 rules is still 5E is the long and short of it. "5.5E" is a labeling convention.

[rough basalt]

For example 5e had more of a class divide than a martial caster one so the new corebooks buffed the weaker classes and gave everyone better tools.

[tender fossil]

Fifther edition. It is the fifthest of all additions

[viral kraken]

i am fine with whatever naming convention. after the 5e wars of 3012 we all got chips that prevent us from being upset about what 5e is called

[rough basalt]

The rules weren't well written in some areas leading to constant arguments and loopholes so they made stuff clear for the most part.

[humble cairn]

Yeah, "5.5E" was Beyond just using the convention that they felt the community was using. Which is what they must be seeing from their end.

[plucky kettle]

now what are they going to call it the next time they update? 5.5.5???

[rough basalt]

5e 2 /j

[short brook]

5.½E

[viral kraken]

5.75e

[knotty pasture]

5.5e 2, electric boogaloo

[tender fossil]

5²

[mystic crystal]

5E.5.1.1.26.7.8.9

[rough basalt]

Nah 5.75e will be Pf3e

[humble cairn]

Who knows, it seems they will follow what the community overwhelmingly uses.

[plucky kettle]

yeah, they really screwed it up...

[humble cairn]

Is it that big a deal?

[knotty pasture]

Well no its like Dota 2, every patch from there on out starts with 7.x

And that didn't really cause issues, just have the number go up

[turbid vessel]

I wonder if there really is such a thing as "too big to change" with this stuff
Like, with all the brand deals, live shows, content that bases their foundation on 5e, how much would have to change to comfortably shift to a truly new edition

[serene jolt]

Okay so it's not "needed" like a lot of guides say but great when you need it.

[lyric viper]

Also reminder that "5.5" is a community term adopted for D&D Beyond to avoid confusion over just legacy Vs not legacy

[serene jolt]

My starting feat I took was tough because more HP is good

[rough basalt]

I'm guessing they'd have to remove all classes and move towards a "you roll d20 to see how well something happens.

[viral kraken]

2 Dungeons 2 Dragons is the next edition clearly, then D&D Faerun Drift

[plucky kettle]

well damn, in that case the comunity really screwed it up...

[lyric viper]

It's not the official term used for the 2024 core boks

[rough basalt]

I don't think they can really streamline it any further without removing core aspects of dnd, at least to a degree a new system would be warranted.

[minor cargo]

TTRPG of Theseus

[humble cairn]

If they're truly going to stay in the 5E environment forever they're going to have to adapt in other ways that do not constitute edition changes. Perhaps having big rules changes that are gigantic optional packets, like big genre changes to allow the game to be played in different genres like Romance or Modern, etc. That's just off the top of my head.

[woven flint]

Hello, lovely friends

[limber trail]

Hello Mr Tokii

[rough basalt]

They might just go in reverse

[paper portal]

im not your friend >:(((( /silly

[woven flint]

Mr?
Ya tryna make me feel elderly?!

[still plover]

Oi!

[woven flint]

Guess I'll weep...

[rough basalt]

6e will be 4e
7e will be 3.x
8e will be 2e

[paper portal]

yep sorry you gotta

[woven flint]

Oh.. uh.. hey Mr. Smith .w.

[serene jolt]

Xbox code

[turbid vessel]

I'm satisfied with the state of 5e right now, I don't think we need a new edition. That said, in a perfect world id advocate for making new editions for the love of the craft, not for popularity
Such is consumerism 😔

[limber trail]

You have played an old man in 93% of the games we have played together

[woven flint]

Hey...
Just because I play Old men doesn't make ME an old man

[limber trail]

Mr is a sign of respect, not necessarily age

[still plover]

I wouldn't mind seeing a toolkit that really laid out a trio of strong themes and gave the advice to crafting your own. Real dev notes stuff.

[woven flint]

Artanza is old
But he's hip and jive or whatever you youngsters say!

[limber trail]

is he?

Nah artanza isn't too bad

[rough basalt]

I just can't think of what they could do to make a new edition

[woven flint]

Artanza kinda dislikes that the rest of the group are lowkey criminals, but he'd never snitch on them

[rough basalt]

That wouldn't drive away the people who cant read the rules already and wouldnt rip out what makes DnD, DnD.

[limber trail]

Hokrun's.... not that much of a criminal

[turbid vessel]

DnD tries to be a lot of things, which has as many pros as it has cons

[limber trail]

Hokrun is in the greyer side of things, there's people who are more criminals (imos)

[woven flint]

Hokrun is like
10% criminal

[still plover]

I feel it's more it doesn't, but folk think it can.

[rough basalt]

You make it crunchier, you might bring back old fans who liked it when it was crunchy.

[woven flint]

Anyways, I'll be right back 🧐

[turbid vessel]

I mean more where its mechanical focus is, rather than default theming

[rough basalt]

But then the people who can't read which are a lot more will go ballistic online, using words they don't understand, calling for WotC to be shut down.

They take out what makes dnd, dnd and nobody whose gonna buy books plays it.

[minor cargo]

Yeah, the d20 system is versatile.
Fire and forget (Vancian casting) is versatile.
The concept of classes and subclasses is versatile.

[crimson gulch]

Ahhh, epic game last night, another PC death to deadly foes

[turbid vessel]

Look at Lancer. It puts itself out there as the Mech Pilot and Combat system. A specific subsection of sci fi. Meanwhile DnD tries to take in every corner of Fantasy storytelling that it possibly can

[rough basalt]

And doesn't really do it that well

[crimson gulch]

yep, and it works great for the vast majority of players like that

[rough basalt]

I'm just not a fan of stuff being where it doesn't naturally belong.

[short brook]

What specific section of fantasy would you even go for DnD

[still plover]

This is where folk run into problems. D&D is built for "heroic fantasy roleplay." Anything else is like taking the family car around Silverstone.

[rough basalt]

High fantasy that's just right amount of complexity without being too crunchy

[short brook]

Is it not that already? At least it feels that way to me, though I guess i'm not versed in all things table top

[rough basalt]

If I wanna have fantasy species in a cyberpunk setting, I'd rather just use the ruleslite shadowrun hack or take the time to learn shadowrun instead of put in all that work to make a Frankenstein'd 5e work just barely.

[minor cargo]

I usually describe D&D as "colonialist fantasy" - which I think is very charged and I need to think of a different way of describing it.

What I mean is, "D&D is a game where you and your crew use violence to go to an unexplored place and take things."

Again, that's very charged and paints a D&D adventure in a really negative light, which isn't my actual intent.

[limber trail]

DND isn't that broad of a game, it just exists in a genre that's really open to being flavoured in different ways, well enough. As an example, DnD isn't actually great at horror, but it can do horror well enough to make for a more accessible horror experience than better horror systems (which is where, for example, curse of strahd comes from)

[rough basalt]

DnD is described as a gateway tabletop game and that's a good way to put it.

[humble cairn]

After 50 years, D&D has made itself it's own subgenre.

[rough basalt]

You can be content in the gateway but if you wanna take paths down more specific roads, you can and you should try.

[short brook]

I feel like DnD horror feels like Resident Evil or Dead Space yeah it can be scary but they're absolutely trapped in here with you not the other way around

[crimson gulch]

dnd is the gateway and the path, and there are a few tiny off ramps if you look for them

[rough basalt]

For example if you really wanna be scared in a tabletop, you're not gonna get that without a DM that excels at horror.

[turbid vessel]

Probably the Apex of specificity are those tabletop games designed around simulating 1 specific battle in history

[crimson gulch]

DM skill makes or break the experience 100% no doubt

[limber trail]

I do enjoy that due to the width of DnD as a system, my games are able to also be pretty wide. I can run political intrigue one week, a dungeon delve the next, a huge travel montage the week after, and things kinda work. There are systems that are better individually at all of those things, but DnD as a system is able to do all three of those things (and many more) well enough

[rough basalt]

Meanwhile in CoC for example, the Keeper can be decent and still be scary cause you're just an ordinary person.

[crimson gulch]

if you want your players in dnd to feel fear, you mainly need to just do things RAW and have long adventuring days as intended by the system

[rough basalt]

You're not "oh eldritch horror? I roll 4 attacks, that's 2 crits, uh 180 damage total"

[still plover]

(I feel this and would like to discuss further at some interval)

[minor cargo]

My games are very similar.
But even then, during the "political intrigue" games, we kind of engage with the system less than in combat. Even just measuring the number of rolls her hour, combat is definitely more of a "D&D time", if that makes sense?

[crimson gulch]

my players last night feared death around every corner, and it was this close to a TPK. had one death

[plucky kettle]

Well done...

Now that's a great DM

[rough basalt]

I'm someone who needs stuff to be clear and structured.

It's why I mainly avoid ruleslite systems

[limber trail]

I do fully agree with that, and it's probably one of the things I'd like to see touched upon in the future. My games are also very similar where the political elements are a lot more narratively driven and a lot less mechanically driven

[short brook]

i like games with substance but maybe not that much substance, DnD hits the ratio for me

[rough basalt]

So when 5e is Frankensteined so that your Fighter is making 8 Salvos with your Quadrocket Launcher into a Gangoons armored car I'm starting to wonder where I'm at.

[plucky kettle]

Rules are good until they don't make sense and the rules lawyers come out...

[minor cargo]

I think a possibility would be to introduce a D&D bolt on.

You could call it the &X series.

D&D**&Politics**.
D&D**&Romance**.

But that's getting pretty abstract haha

[turbid vessel]

You usually find more mechanically driven intrigue in "camp" systems that dive really deep into a specific theme. A lot of PbtA games do this, like Monster of the Week and Apocalypse World

[short brook]

That's definitely where you should just learn a different system...

[hidden spindle]

Play pretend... with rules

[atomic kayak]

There's a difference between feeling fear and the system doing horror well

Its (relatively) easy to make dnd as a system cause fear

It does not do horror well

[crimson gulch]

hard disagree, It does horror very well if you let it

[atomic kayak]

Thats the thing, the "if you let it" is proof of why it doesnt

[crimson gulch]

the Most popular module book for 5e is the Horror one curse of strahd, people love that one

[rough basalt]

It's popular because it's talked about a lot online.

[crimson gulch]

yeah, if you let it by not handwaiving things in the rules like so many people do

[minor cargo]

I find myself having to do a lot of work to make "horror" (what it means to me and my group) work in D&D. If I want horror, I typically go to like Ten Candles or something like that. It's less work for me.

[rough basalt]

Even if you don't handwaive the rules

[atomic kayak]

CoS is certainly talked about a lot.

But a lot of that also stems from it being one of the only early modules. So there's a large amount of (well placed and otherwise) nostalgia

[rough basalt]

It still relies on the DM making the scene horrifying and the players willing to be horrified.

In 5e which most people treat as a superhero fantasy system. A lot of players aren't willing to be horrified

[crimson gulch]

Curse of strahd is also the Top ran module of all time on SPG, its the most in demand one on there and has been since that platform launched

[atomic kayak]

Again no, its not because of that. You are describing things that make people "afraid" - they do not really enable horror

[atomic kayak]

Yea again, thats because of the early release of it

[crimson gulch]

Horror is a genre designed to elicit fear, dread, and shock and HO boy does dnd do that

[short brook]

is that not the same thing lol

[rough basalt]

SPG is also probably the only way some people actually get to finish CoS

[atomic kayak]

Its easier for something to be more popular and have more talk about it when its been around longer

[tender fossil]

Horror is incredibly difficult to pull off because you have to get into their heads

[rough basalt]

Cause the average player won't stick around when they realize CoS isn't a goofy fun ride.

[short brook]

CoS is so peak man

[atomic kayak]

Especially with how common it is for people to talk about how much they/their DMs changed CoS to ""actually make it scary""

[tender fossil]

CoS was because it was almost a one-to-one conversion of a very good module to begin with they just bolted on some extra stuff

[woven flint]

The horror of CoS is the circumstances and the crimes of Strahd, if you ask me

[tender fossil]

I6 consider one of the greatest modules ever. So they updated it to 5th edition they lost none of the elements that made it great

[rough basalt]

And players need to be willing to engage with that also.
A lot of people only wanna play CoS cause it's "popular"

[atomic kayak]

Partially yes.

As said, as a system, dnd works against horror. You are able to make people "be afraid" of things with the system, but the system does not do much of any work to enable horror

[tender fossil]

If a DM plays strahd smart, the party never stands a chance. He is far more powerful than each of them individually and they are on his turf

[short brook]

How does a system enable horror?

[rough basalt]

Like every time I've tried CoS I've had at least 2 people turn the horrors of barovia into jokes every time something bad happened which made the other players not wanna play cause it kept messing with the tone.

[woven flint]

Strahd could also just.. be stalking the party the entire time
He literally has nothing better to do lol

[rough basalt]

By not allowing the PCs to just kill everything in their path for one.

[short brook]

Limiting power for sure makes sense.

[tender fossil]

It's also classic Hickman design with the enormous map, and a lot of the traps split the party

[rough basalt]

Like a lot of people who dislike horror play Resident Evil cause it's about kicking horrors ass in most of the games

[short brook]

^

[tender fossil]

It's easy to get lost in the castle, and he can isolate individual members

[atomic kayak]

Thats because that is the case. The horror (of which frankly, there isn't actually a lot) in CoS comes nearly entirely from setting.

There is a singular aspect regarding stalking that isn't setting related (technically) that encourages some degree of horror, but that element is also by far one of the most changed when people discuss the module because the system works so hard against the stalking inducing horror on a system level

[short brook]

me.

[crimson gulch]

dnd does that with a plethora of scary monsters, Dreadful lands and plots, a great set of tools to increasue the pressure on players and get them to invest in their charicters before Dashing them upon the crule rocks of barovia

[rough basalt]

You're a 6'5 haymakering giant Zombies

[short brook]

Getting beat to death by a broom scared me for sure

[rough basalt]

It's hard to do horror when you got a party of Chris Redfields and Leon S Kennedy's

[tender fossil]

The old supplement domains of dread did D&D horror right. With each domain getting far worse than the next and playing on all sorts of individual fears

[rough basalt]

Like the final strahd fight without alterations is just Strahd getting beat to death while he screams and cries

[atomic kayak]

Again, "scary monster" is nebulous and not indicative of a system supporting horror.

And the tools of the system don't induce horror. They can induce mechanical fear, but they do not encourage dread

[tender fossil]

It's not that hard. Look at aliens or predator. Put them in an environment there completely unfamiliar with, take away their toys, let them realize all their training means nothing

[woven flint]

Draga Salt-Biter my beloved

[rough basalt]

See but you're not supposed to be without your toys in dnd.

[tender fossil]

He's not my favorite Dark Lord but there is one pet puts the fear of starvation in you

[rough basalt]

It should only be temporary bits

[atomic kayak]

Which is part of the issue yes

It goes against the system. Because the system is built around those things.

You are getting towards some of the reasons why the system doesnt do horror well

[rough basalt]

Basically without going against the system you need serious dm skill and invested players

[crimson gulch]

they sure do when you are running your game with the proper performance as dm, i just started my 4th run of Curse of Strahd 2 weeks ago, we have one player death so far and everyone is feeling the horror.

[tender fossil]

You change the rules to fit the setting never change the setting to fit the rules

[crimson gulch]

im not changing the system or the plot at all, im just delivereing it properly

[minor cargo]

(I feel like the term "horror" is not well defined for everyone in this conversation... 👀)

[atomic kayak]

A lot of the stuff that is being descibed as ways "dnd does horror well" is stuff that is explicitly (or implicitly) going against the system

If you need to go against the system to enable something, its not something the system does well

[short brook]

Everyone has their version they think of

[fast latch]

I’m really proud of my newest character name

Lusci Fletcher, an Aarakocra

Lusci comes from the scientific name of the nightingale and Fletcher just means arrow maker

[crimson gulch]

Horror is a genre designed to elicit fear, dread, and shock, thats what im using and that is Delivered on 100%

[atomic kayak]

Part of why I have been expressly using "being afraid" and "horror/dread" separately

[rough basalt]

That's because you're a highly skilled dm

[atomic kayak]

"Im afraid my character will die" (because of mechanical reasons) is not the same thing as horror

[crimson gulch]

Yep, and curse of strahd was the first book i ever ran, and running that first taught me how to do it well

[crimson gulch]

im afraid my charicters story will be over, and having the player visably shaking IS horror

[atomic kayak]

A lot of what you are describing as "reasons dnd does horror well" urizt, is just "afraid my character will die because of mechanics", not horror

Ex: "use longer adventuring days and other rule stuff"

[rough basalt]

I've never seen a PC scared of dying at least that I can remember

[crimson gulch]

your players dont care about their charicters? then the game falls flat

[rough basalt]

Mostly just getting mad then quitting

[short brook]

I mean, imo, being afraid of your character dying can be both

[crimson gulch]

regardless if its horror or any other type of quest

[woven flint]

I feel like for ACTUAL horror there should be consequences worse than death

Losing ones mind
Being possessed
Getting cursed, etc

[rough basalt]

Some people just don't care about their pcs

[atomic kayak]

But anyways yea

If you need to go so heavily against what the system assumes (which ironically, is something mentioned in VRG when trying to make horror work in 5e) to do something, then inherently the system does not do that thing well

[fast latch]

Just looked him up

He’s so SICK

[rough basalt]

Either because they don't get invested or because they don't mind dying

[woven flint]

Aye, he's a lad

[crimson gulch]

that is SO wild, people care so hard in my games

if that is a peice you are missing from your games, Players Caring, then no wonder you think you cant make them feel horror

[knotty pasture]

Outside of half joke characters I care about mines quite a fair amount

[woven flint]

You see, I don't mind my characters dying

But my Fighter drew the Rogue card and Sora (The Dm) hasn't revealed who hates him yet,
And that's horror: suspense, dread, not knowing.

[rough basalt]

I mean I can't make people care

[short brook]

I think it's crazy to not care about your pcs like that, I want to see my characters make it out man, whats the point if you don't care.

[still plover]

Preferential recruitment, Session Zero?

[minor cargo]

If it helps, I think horror games like Ten Candles and Blue Beard's Bride can be helpful to shape up how horror can be expressed in more ways than just what D&D can do.

For example, in Ten Candles, you actually don't care if your character dies. You are told right away that they will die by the end. That tension is gone. The horror comes from the atmosphere you build together (using mechanics of the game).

In Blue Beard's Bride, yes death is part of the "horror", but there's a lot more going on there - and it's charged in a very specific theme that can absolutely cause "bleed" (and often tries to do that).

[flint ledge]

Imagine Asmodeus hating you

[rough basalt]

Yeah, but you don't know for sure how people will act when their PC dies until it happens.

[woven flint]

I don't think it'd be to that extreme because I didn't draw Devil/Fiend or whichever one it was that makes a Demon or Devil your nemesis

[rough basalt]

I had a player in my games for months who said he was fine with dying and when his Ranger got obliterated by the dice he rage quitted

[tender fossil]

It depends on how you do it. If I'm pressing my luck in the dice come up short I understand. If you have the dragon swoop down and breathe on my character seven times in the combat and only my character I'm going to get angry

[flint ledge]

Oh yeeha that was the fiend card specifically

[atomic kayak]

Its actually somewhat funny how many things VRG talks about are things that go against basic assumptions of the system. Its at least good that they recognize how poorly the system works for horror.

If you want the easiest example of what I am referring to - the survivors thing. The simplest way to induce horror in 5e is to give you a character who can't do basically anything and is expressly intended to be killed. A lot about this little minigame throws out a ton of system stuff because the system at large does not enable horror well. The minigame is there to induce horror as a background element before you actually start playing with the real system (ie:actual characters)

[woven flint]

You don't have to worry about me
If Orizontas dies fighting, that's how I'd rather him die lol

Remember how Jabal went out like..
Second session of Nealens campaign? Lol

[rough basalt]

Fire mage hit squad called the incineration corps sent by your number 1 hater

[woven flint]

Oh jeez...

[atomic kayak]

Yea the survivors thing from VRG is similar to Ten Candles in that way - theres a chance you live but are meant to die

Like I said, its something that expressly throws out a lot of the system because the system otherwise doesn't enable horror well

[woven flint]

Should've been a Gold Dragonborn Dex Fighter 😔

[atomic kayak]

Im just not very sure how this is such a controversial statement tbh

If you need to go against the system to enable something, its not something the system does well

[rough basalt]

Just send a letter and say you prefer the Lightning mage squad, the Shock Troopers

[woven flint]

"Hey, can you kill me with Lightning? That'd be really cool! Thanks, cya!"
-Signed, Orizontas, totally not a Bronze Dragonborn

[rough basalt]

He reads it and he's like "shit. That's all you had to say."

[woven flint]

I remember for the longest time I said Orizontas was a Copper Dragonborn for whatever reason 💀

[rough basalt]

Got confused

[woven flint]

Maybe one of his parents was a Copper Dragonborn, idk

Me when I realize I need to Flesh Out his parents because they're still alive and live in the same country as we're Adventuring

Eh, should be easy, they're a family of farmers

[rough basalt]

Hmmm

[crimson gulch]

If they are officaly published options they are a part of the system for one.

[woven flint]

Don't you kill Orizontas' parents
You already killed his horse! /silly

[atomic kayak]

No offense, but you have been near completely ignoring everything Ive said so I don't have an interest in continuing the convo with you

[crimson gulch]

No I haven't ignored you, I have responded disagreeing. And we can leave it there if you like

[atomic kayak]

You have, but yes I do not want to continue with you

[rough basalt]

I'd argue its not, its just the truth that it requires alterations to the games intention for heroic high power fantasy to enable horror if you're not really good at dming and having players who get scared from being out of resources.

The reality is more players are willing to complain or just go afk soulwise about being out of resources rather than be in character about being tired and worried of more danger.

[crimson gulch]

thats an Ettiquet problem more than a system problem right there

[rough basalt]

True but the system is designed around being powerful, a superhero.

[crimson gulch]

and the system has everything you need to make sure that there are enough challanges to make that not feel like enough

[rough basalt]

So when you tell people that come to 5e cause its superhero fantasy that they die to a possessed broom they get angry

[tender fossil]

That's more of an attitude of the players. They've added horror elements to the game before and it's considered one of their best settings when it originally came out

[crimson gulch]

That has not been my experience at all, and thats a shame that thats what you have gone through

[rough basalt]

When it came out, combat itself was extremely dangerous and that danger made it natural to be scared of danger

[atomic kayak]

Saying it comes down to good vs bad DMing is both disingenuous (because it doesn't come down to that) and wrong.

As mentioned, I think when the book about horror talks so much about parts of the system to ignore or completely change to enable horror its a good indicator the system doesn't do horror well

[tender fossil]

They added mechanics that had the what price power element, dark gifts had drawbacks, magic didn't work right, the players couldn't go wherever they wanted, power wise they were always in danger of being bugs on a windshield

[crimson gulch]

Combat in 5e is still very dangerous, my kill count this week is a level 17 warlock, a level 2 fighter and a level 7 paladin.

[umbral girder]

Silver dragons like to collect rocks they think are cool.

[rough basalt]

For example, is Supernatural horror? Sometimes but mostly its about guys with actual plot armor from god running over creatures of myth and legend and never dying permanently. That's what 5e is past a certain level which is pretty early on.

[woven flint]

I MUST be a Silver Dragon

[umbral girder]

Silver Dragons also have dozens of portraits of them with their friends of their lifetime as well

But also are rarely ever in their lair

[rough basalt]

And as the scales in that show got bigger and bigger there was no horror aspects left

and 5e is a system where you start out able to fight stuff that common people would make legends out of fear about, and quickly are able to just basically beat them to death

[minor cargo]

Supernatural is a great example of how horror is a really wide net! And how it can change over time based on the audience/players.

It's doubly relevant because Supernatural is a really queer story and so is D&D.

[flint ledge]

You totally are...

[rough basalt]

Yeah Supernatural starts out with being dramatic, scary bits with comedy relief, but as time went on, it became mainly drama, big spectacles and comedy. Not that its an issue but I feel like it relates to dnd

First couple levels you're able to fight most commonplace horrors and survive and you quickly get strong enough to where you can make ghosts cry uncle

5e PCs are like if supernatural didnt have the whole episode or two of trying to solve the issues to kill the monster and was just Sam and Dean grabbing ghosts and monsters and punching them to death with brute force

Less "Oh god what are we gonna do?" and more beating a ghost so badly it somehow looks as if it was a corporeal person beaten to a pulp "Thought you could scare me could you? Arti pop this dude!" gun shots

[atomic kayak]

5e is Supernatural once they got the angel blade

No thought, just kill

[tender fossil]

Or the Colt

[rough basalt]

Ye used to be to kill a demon was a legendary revolver with only a few rounds left

[tender fossil]

Then they discovered how to make more rounds for it

[rough basalt]

Then they can just kill angels with regular tables and stuff

its actually a perfect representation of 5e

[tender fossil]

So change the theme of the games. Challenge the players. Give them monsters they can't defeat without figuring out how

[rough basalt]

You start out needing some special stuff to brave slightly stronger foes then you just keep getting more and more powerful to the point those strong foes are helpless victims in the face of you

[rough basalt]

I'm pretty sure that'd go against the system tho.

[tender fossil]

Did the system is flawed fix it

[rough basalt]

They removed non-magic so you couldnt end up useless if the dm didnt give you magic weapons

[crimson gulch]

you dont have to change the system to do that, theres so many monsters that can fit that bill now

[tender fossil]

I'm not saying change the system unless you need to for setting to work. I'm saying design adventures to challenge the players

[uncut zenith]

VRGTR did a good job of showing how the system can work for horror-themed adventures, even if the system itself is designed for high fantasy

[crimson gulch]

Agreed, a good challanging adventure can evoke such deep horror

[rough basalt]

Naturally, but what challenges players in horror ways can easily end up going against the systems intention if you don't know what you're doing

[tender fossil]

Players will get the most fun from overcoming the hardest challenges. Restrictions make settings better.

[rough basalt]

For example taking away everyones stuff so they cant do anything at all

Sure its horrifying to be helpess but players are probably gonna leave that game

[knotty pasture]

Part of me likes the idea of tables with subclass bans

[tender fossil]

Most horror is investigation. You have to figure out how to kill the big bad. Because what you have doesn't work. A lot of times you have to figure out who the big bad is

[crimson gulch]

100%, my TOA hardcore run was 3d6 stats in order, phb only and fear and horror was a constant companion

[knotty pasture]

Force everyone to go out of their comfort zone

[tender fossil]

PRECISELY

[rough basalt]

Cause a lot of people will sign up for stuff they think is fun and find out they dont enjoy it then ghost

[crimson gulch]

and now on my 4th curse of strahd run, my 2 sessions so far have been Deadly and filled with fear

[rough basalt]

and when one person ghosts theres sometimes a runaway train effect where everyone just quits

[crimson gulch]

they actually came and checked on is in the private room last wednesday

[atomic kayak]

That was part of my earlier points

VRG does it well - by explicitly and expressly telling you to change (or remove) chunks of the system because the people who made that book (at least somewhat) recognized that the system doesn't it well

[rough basalt]

Ye I forgot about that but opened it up and yeah it tells you to change the system

[tender fossil]

5E has a reputation for being pillow fisted. It doesn't help that magic items rarely expire like wands

[uncut zenith]

There’s also stuff like the new Fear rules in the 2024 DMG to help really nail down the fact that the PCs aren’t immune to being scared of the things around them. If I was running a horror game, those Fear rules would be at the ready at all times.

[tender fossil]

Go back to the original Ravenloft and steal some of the rules from there

[rough basalt]

Cause 5e isn't about being spiderman constantly nerfed by writers. Its about being Superman in the stories where theres no kryptonite to stop his reign of terror on bad guys

[crimson gulch]

you dont have to nerf player abilities to challange them, i hate nerfs

[umbral girder]

Yep

[rough basalt]

Well i didnt say nerf players

I said spiderman is a very overpowered hero thats constantly nerfed when in 5e you're that overpowered and aren't and shouldn't be nerfed

[crimson gulch]

yeah, i was adding into your comment about spiderman being nerfed by writers

[umbral girder]

Sometimes a good 90d6 AOE damage over two rounds is good to make your players feel concerned

[rough basalt]

oh forgot the overpowered part

[crimson gulch]

everybody gangster till the meteor swarms start falling

[umbral girder]

Shame Sora wasn’t there. But evasion probably would have negated half that dice.

[umbral girder]

It wasn’t meteor swarm amusingly

[rough basalt]

Times I feel like I've evoked fear at the table was purely with narrative

[umbral girder]

It was 3 death knight aspirants spamming hellfire orbs and destructive waves

[rough basalt]

Actually

[tender fossil]

Having a monster that can only be hurt by the McGuffin is a time-honored horror trope

[crimson gulch]

i weave the narration in with the mechanics to enforce the nessisary mood

[rough basalt]

I think the reason the fear landed that well in the scene I'm remembering is specifically cause they were all in single digit hp with literally no resources left

[tender fossil]

Nothing scares the party than a first turn alpha strike from all of them that accomplishes nothing

[crimson gulch]

that is a perfect moment to evoke fear

[rough basalt]

But that happened cause they had 1 boss fight in the morning and 11 encounters up to that boss fight

I imagine ill never replicate those conditions

[minor cargo]

(You might enjoy Quest RPG. You start with 10 HP and the max never goes higher. 👀)

[rough basalt]

Ooo

[crimson gulch]

my game last night, 3rd session on this same adventuring day.
we have had 9 combats and the boss fight is next

[minor cargo]

Most enemies have 1 HP. Some tough ones have 2 HP. Boss characters might have 3 HP or maybe more. It's pretty slick tbqh.

[crimson gulch]

those are the conditions that 5e thrives in

[rough basalt]

My current two campaigns are hexcrawls so challenges are influenced by the worlds conditions rather than longdays

like wednesday night, they had to get a cloak back from an npc who was captured by bandits and it was in a canyon that started flash flooding due to a storm

[tawdry sentinel]

The happy level of stress where you think it might all go sideways but you're able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

[rough basalt]

So ledges were sketchy

bandits broke out a bridge underneath the paladin but good rolls kept them from the water below

[tender fossil]

You want the characters breathing heavily, looking around to see who's left, and all of them wondering how in the hells did they manage to survive that

[rough basalt]

Rowan snuck back to Sigil for some of those street vendor food to try and convince Soth but didnt get back in time

[crimson gulch]

Yep, this right here, the desperation in their voice, the hesitence, the drawing of straws to see who pushes open the next doorway

[rough basalt]

He may be John Death Knight but has he ever tried Lady of Pain's Pizza?

[crimson gulch]

Furthermore, Horror is getting even more great support soon here with the New Ravenloft book, it will continue to be the most popular genera of DND games

[rough basalt]

I'm looking forward to the Ravenloft book

[crimson gulch]

me too!

[umbral girder]

has no mouth or tongue

Also he might have.

[tender fossil]

Now the question is do they update the Ravenloft book to address the issues people had with it or is this just going to be a reskin of the last one

[umbral girder]

Soth was a planeswalker

Then he got bored and went home.

[rough basalt]

Do you think he believes you can outpizza the hut

[tawdry sentinel]

I quite like the sentient curses in the other ravenloft book so more of that would be cool

[tender fossil]

Does he have to scream?

[crimson gulch]

its not just a republishing of Curse of strahd, its new material

[hybrid willow]

Is the Pugilist class good?

[rough basalt]

my belief is that its an expansion on the original book like Eberron Forge

[umbral girder]

I love that Strahd once had a dragon. The Lord Soth walked in and killed the dragon then left Barovia

[umbral girder]

Maybe. #third-party might help.

[rough basalt]

Its just reprinting the old options too alongside it like Eberron forge

[hybrid willow]

Thank you Riolu from Pokemon

[crimson gulch]

Horror subclasses are in there for sure, and Cuthulu

[rough basalt]

I think they said theres more info on each of the darklords too

[umbral girder]

Strahd is also in that book

[tender fossil]

Thank you public domain edritch horrors from beyond

I can't wait for the section on Meriadoth

[rough basalt]

After reading Heir of Strahd i want more info on the "regular" woman whose like Strahd from Lamordia who also terrorized a woman she "loved"

[umbral girder]

Viktra Mordenheim right?

[rough basalt]

Ye her and strahd dap each other up over harassing a single woman forever

[uncut zenith]

Yeah I imagine the new Ravenloft book is gonna do for VRGTR what Forge of the Artificer did for RftLW

It’s more of an expansion, not so much a standalone

[rough basalt]

Lamordia is pretty cool

[umbral girder]

Strahd: “I love her and will have her at all costs.”
Viktra: “I love her but she has my property and I want it back.”

[rough basalt]

Make sure your martials all have non-magical weapons

The Rustys are hungry

[crimson gulch]

i hope its a bigger book than forge of the artificer

[uncut zenith]

Yeah Lamordia’s probably my favorite Domain of Dread. But I’m also shamelessly a sucker for Frankenstein

[rough basalt]

Same

Heir of Strahd was a good book

felt like i got more than i paid for

[umbral girder]

Love the ending. Good book.

[crimson gulch]

RIP Chuck Norris

[umbral girder]

Has left us to continue his fight with Segata. Rip to a legend.

[crimson gulch]

Oh, Gen con is going to have details about the Season of champions as per the WOTC press relese at gary con

[timber turtle]

What's the best way to steal someones weapon, only way I know is the command spell to make them drop it

[rough basalt]

Opening my third eye.
Champions of Athas: Dark Sun Players Guide
Adventures of Athas: Dark Sun Dungeon Masters Guide.

[humble cairn]

Disarm Maneuver from Battle Master, then object interaction to pick it up.

[still plover]

Battlemaster can do a disarming attack.

Or, y'know, knock them out and take it.

[humble cairn]

Steal it while they're eating in a tavern or something.

[crimson gulch]

Incapacatate or paralyze them and take it, or Grab it and yank it away

[tawdry sentinel]

Disarming has an optional rule in the 2014 book I think?

[rough basalt]

ye i forget what it is

contested strength?

[tender fossil]

Just have the rogue pickpocket it

[rough basalt]

my books are spread all over my room, i dont remember where the 2014 dmg went

[paper portal]

real

[crimson gulch]

yeah the optinoal rule for disarming in the 2014 dmg was attack roll VS Athletics or acrobatics

with Disadvantage on the attack roll if the target is holding it on 2 hands

[rough basalt]

Ah

[crimson gulch]

and you still have rules for breaking objects in 2024, so you can just Wrek enemy wands and weapons

[still plover]

Ask real nice if you can borrow it, then run away.

[woven flint]

the real gentlemanly way of stealing a weapon

[limber trail]

“Oh, what a wonderful blade! Might I have it for a moment to inspect the craftsmanship?”
*dimension door*

[fast latch]

I have Official DM Permission to play a seduction character.
This.
Will.
Be.
AWESOME.

[woven flint]

What

[lyric viper]

Just a wee preemptive reminder to keep things age appropriate for the server.

[river vector]

DM will make every NPC a succubus or incubus

[serene jolt]

It made me uncomfortable when the DM made my character kiss an NPC that has a charm thing.

I'm not a fan of Succubus monsters. XD

[crimson gulch]

Wild that the adnd 1e books said ages 10 and up with some of the things in there

[opaque tusk]

The 80s was a different time

[serene jolt]

Especially hag lore

Holy heck that's a can of worms

[tender fossil]

Us 5th graders back then love games that let you kill people with acid

[fast latch]

I’m playing a Barogue (Homebrew subclass plus Swashbuckler) and I got permission to seduce people as long as I don’t make it weird

[woven flint]

That sounds.. icky.

[river vector]

My Monk player kept saying he would seduce the serial killer, but never actually made any moves.

Now he says he will seduce the guy who keeps possessing people.

[undone rain]

Old dnd sure was smth

[tidal pulsar]

I’m seeking assistance… I need help choosing a class for my Owlin dhampir… i cant choose between monk, fighter and ranger

[undone rain]

Glad its improved by now atleast

[limber trail]

What version are you playing? If it’s 2024 I’d heavily recommend monk, it’s a ton of fun

[tidal pulsar]

As in edition? I think most recent (idk I’m extremely new)

[river vector]

If Monk actually tries seducing the crazy guy who keeps possessing people, I will have him laugh in his face. Any other ideas?

[tidal pulsar]

Make the monk get killed, completely unavoidable outside a Nat 20, just dead

[river vector]

Doesn't sound like much fun for Monk, having his character get murdered for saying words.

[limber trail]

It sounds like you need to talk to the monk outside of the game more than anything. Just be clear that it’s not super cool and that you’d like for it to come up less in the future

[tidal pulsar]

But funny moment

[odd shuttle]

Yikes

[tidal pulsar]

Yeesh I’m joking man

[limber trail]

Instant death isn’t always super funny for everyone involved

[silk hare]

what are your favourite transportation spells, especially below 7th level

e.g. "teleport" or "planeshift", but what are your "alternatives" for that if you have to get out quickly over some bigger distances?

[river vector]

Oh no I'm fine with it. It's just funny, to imagine Monk trying to seduce a lieutenant of the BBEG.

Like that would NOT work.

[silk hare]

I mean theyll probably just attack the monk no?

[tidal pulsar]

Make the guy possess the monk and make him walk out the door

[odd shuttle]

What's bbeg

[tidal pulsar]

Big bad evil guy

[river vector]

Monk would need to be incapacitated and roll a wisdom saving throw.

[odd shuttle]

Oh ok ty

[river vector]

(Aka Hold Person then the lieutenant can use possession as a bonus action, two wisdom saves)

[rough basalt]

I kinda wanna start prepping strahd.

[tidal pulsar]

Wizard! Hit em with the eldritch cheese grater

[remote wadi]

Wanted to ask chat, is the Druidic Warrior Fighting Style that worth it?

[odd shuttle]

What's strahd?

[river vector]

Or be like "Yes let us go to this bedroom, away from all your party members, don't mind me pulling out this great sword!" Me: "Roll Initiative!"

[tidal pulsar]

Gn y’all

[rough basalt]

If you wanna be more druid then yeah

[river vector]

Dracula expy

[odd shuttle]

Sleep well

[remote wadi]

BBEG in a campaign named "Curse of Strahd"

[tidal pulsar]

It’s weekend tmr so I can sleep in

[remote wadi]

I guess, I just feel like the cantrip selection is a bit... strange

[odd shuttle]

Nicce I hope you get some zzz's

[odd shuttle]

Ohhh ok ok I see

[odd shuttle]

What's expy

[rough basalt]

He's DnD Dracula

[limber trail]

oh

I mean you know what the funniest option is then.
The monk is possessed.

[river vector]

I kinda wanna run strahd after this homebrew campaign. But I already said to my group that I would run VTM.

[remote wadi]

Create Bonfire, I can get behind that.

...but I don't know what else you could reasonably pick. Guidance, maybe?

[rough basalt]

I wanna run it but I don't have the money for the patreons I'll need.

So ima wait

[river vector]

Surely there must be free maps available

[rough basalt]

Sure but I don't wanna do all the foundry work myself

[river vector]

Has to be incapacitated and can roll wisdom saving throw.

[rough basalt]

There's a mapmakers who did Phandelver and Strahd and their stuff is amazing. Also they made maps for all the stuff that the official module doesn't give maps for.

[silk hare]

btw what are (for you) some important sess 0 topics?

e.g. I personally think discussing stuff like character deaths, general conduct, fade to black etc

[river vector]

Tone of the campaign, maturity level, gore, things like this

[limber trail]

Prompting players to talk about their characters and general alignments, broad goals, etc.

[river vector]

I was up front with my players that my campaign was dark fantasy, but not THAT type of dark fantasy.

[silk hare]

yeah ofc, just wanted to know what kind of things people e.g. felt were skimmed over/ would have discussed in more detail

[rough basalt]

I think anything besides like stuff that's only for the dm to know.

[limber trail]

I find a lot of players disregard the importance of “party creation” (which is creating some broad elements of your party ahead of time, like how you might make a character). They usually just focus on their own world. Get them thinking as a unit early

[undone rain]

Some people use the excuse of "dark and gritty" as an excuse to live out their dark fantasies sometimes jeesh. I like me some dark fantasy but not that dark yk

[rough basalt]

Like for my last s0 I had a player who has a checklist that was really helpful for mine.

Session 0s are something I struggle with.

[minor cargo]

On top of what you mentioned, I also talk about:

• Safety tools used at my table
• That we have a "debrief" at the end of each session, but don't go into the details (I only go into details at the end of the first session since it only matters then).

[silk hare]

what do u mean by "safety tools"?

[river vector]

AKA "That guy"

[silk hare]

as in how to voice their concerns?

[rough basalt]

I'll probably keep Strahd in the pocket until I start running paid since I'd probably only run modules for paid.

[undone rain]

I fear i know what you mean

[silk hare]

hm, what guy?

[undone rain]

That actually made me shiver

[rough basalt]

But I do wanna run a third game.

[river vector]

Everyone knows a "that guy"

[silk hare]

OH I thought they were talking about sth in particular here

[rough basalt]

I always get this feeling around this time of the week cause I don't have any weekend games.

[silk hare]

mb, didnt read the "A"

[undone rain]

I havent stumbled upon one yet luckily, r/dndhorrorstories is enough for me

[rough basalt]

I haven't seen them in 5e

[river vector]

Closest "that guy" that I've had so far was someone who didn't want to work with the party

She threw rib bones at them

Went off on her own, didn't introduce herself

[undone rain]

Oh yeah that girl

[river vector]

You remember? Lol

[undone rain]

Got a good memory at times lol

Lil miss powerbuild

[rough basalt]

Most of my "that guys" have been MC syndrome, and adverserial.

[river vector]

She had rewarded background for pure Power builder reasons. Made no sense for her character to have it

[minor cargo]

Oh, yeah. Safety tools are a way to "voice concerns" but they're a little more specific than that. In the basic rules, here's the section on Ensuring Fun for All. It includes some examples of safety tools like checking on "hard limits" and "soft limits" with themes.

My groups also an X-Card (plus others). This is a card that can be played non-verbally during a game to say "Hey, a line was crossed that I didn't bring up (maybe I didn't even know it was a line until now). Can we change it/move on?"

[river vector]

One of the highest rated RPG horror stories is about some guy who wanted to be son of strahd

[rough basalt]

The real curse of strahd is above table

[river vector]

There's another CoS one where DMPC was actually Sergei, strahds brother reincarnated, and his name was Connor and he had cool magic powers for some reason.

[rough basalt]

I have a safety tool thing in foundry for my games

Basically puts a marker next to their name and in chat

[feral fulcrum]

The real Curse of Strahd is his inability to enjoy Garlic Bread

[rough basalt]

It has an X-Card option I need to check out.

[crimson gulch]

Curse of Strahd is my Favorite Module, love running Horror

i actually ordered a print on demand copy of I 6 Ravenloft too

[rough basalt]

I plan to start running it this year hopefully

My current DM checklist is
Heighten my dm skills a bit more
Try paid and see if it's for me
Run at least 1 module (CoS or Phandelver)

In that order roughly.

[crimson gulch]

if you want to be sucessful as a paid dm i would put that last in that list, get a sucessful module campaign under your belt first

[feral fulcrum]

You may or may not want to wait for Horrors Within to drop.

[rough basalt]

True

Successful module campaign yeah that one is the hardest on that list /hj

[crimson gulch]

Charging money does not solve the issues that prevent a campaign from finishing

you need to do that beforehand

[rough basalt]

Ye it's not a cure all. Some people ghost even if they spend money.

[crimson gulch]

yes, Loads of pros get huge amounts of Churn and ghosting still

[rough basalt]

I just wonder how many years it'll take before I can finish a module

[crimson gulch]

quality players that are paying to play will have standards

[rough basalt]

I'll give it 5 years to run a successful module.

[river vector]

My first campaign is my homebrew, so far it's going well enough. The players are having fun, they tell me.

[rough basalt]

I just need something

Cause game cost keeps piling up

Ik its not a good mindset to have which is why I haven't pulled the trigger.

[crimson gulch]

stop spending money on things if your not running games yet

[rough basalt]

I am running games.

[crimson gulch]

what are your costs?

my biggest ones have been Paint for miniatures

[lavish flame]

im a book collector till I die

[rough basalt]

I pay for a couple patreons and monthly for a server to host my games as I don't have the best internet for hosting. (I live on a mountain)

[crimson gulch]

your paing for a discord server?

[rough basalt]

Tho the patreons aren't a constant thankfully

[crimson gulch]

those are free

[lavish flame]

maybe like a Teamspeak server, but if so, just switch to Discord trust

[rough basalt]

ForgeVTT it's Foundrys partnered hosting service.
Let's me run games with no internet issues.

[crimson gulch]

oooooh a foundry server

i cant stand that program, i run my online games with Owlbear rodeo its free

[river vector]

Owlbear is what I use, it is very simple and easy to get

[rough basalt]

The patreons I can hold off on paying if I don't update foundry which you usually don't have to unless it's a big one.

[crimson gulch]

yeah its a huge cost and its not worth the Squeeze

im running 7 campaigns, 4 of them are online 3 in person, and i spend maby 10 to 20 dollers a month on materials. untill a new book drops, which is 3 times a year tops

[rough basalt]

So far this year, I've spent around 50?

[river vector]

Apparently I shouldn't have started with a homebrew campaign, according to some people, but it's been nice so far.

[rough basalt]

That's a high estimate

[crimson gulch]

start where you like, we all have zero exp at first

[river vector]

Six sessions in, my players haven't fallen over dead, so something is going right.

[rough basalt]

I just really love foundry. I probably would've quit dnd without it.

At least dming but dming is what I enjoy a lot more than playing

[river vector]

I'm just glad all my players are DND noobs, like me

Means we grow together

[rough basalt]

My brain can only handle so much and trying to run a totm game made me unable to get a game started for around a year.

[crimson gulch]

yeah using maps to play is fun

[rough basalt]

Bare map just wasn't cutting it for me. I still found the amount of totm to be overwhelming.

[crimson gulch]

thats why i love owlbear, i toss in a map and tokens and its a digital substitute for the table in fron of me that i put my miniatures on

[river vector]

Been thinking of running curse of strahd after this homebrew campaign, but I already promised my players to run vampire the masquerade, so I have to figure that system out.

[rough basalt]

It's a system

If your players aren't big on combat they might like it

[river vector]

Tbh they are sort of in-between are the vibes I'm getting

[rough basalt]

Well debatable then

As in VtM you wanna avoid combat as much as possible.

And it's combat I've heard is clunky as well.

[river vector]

I think they forgot about me saying I would run it as well lol, better remind them

[river vector]

Why? Realism? Bullets hurt?

[tender fossil]

Because you have seven wounds

[rough basalt]

Also combat is a way to out yourself as a vampire

Which is the last thing you want to happen

[river vector]

I mean if you kill everyone who saw you, did it really happen?

[rough basalt]

If your fellow vampires don't kill you to keep them safe first, hunters and others will.

[tender fossil]

One of the things to remember with world of darkness there's always a bigger fish

[rough basalt]

And don't try to cast magic that couldn't happen realistically

[river vector]

I basically plan on adapting the old "Alien Hunger" module

[tender fossil]

Vampires can get away with vulgar magic mages can't. Then again if a mage wants to turn you into a living Jackson Pollock painting the cost and paradox really isn't that hard

[rough basalt]

Me when I try to cast a fireball but the common population believes fireball is fantasy so I get vaporized.

Mages magic system is just hilarious to me

[river vector]

Makes the most sense to me, since they wake up not knowing jack about the world of vampires.

[fast latch]

Hi all

What are we talking about?

[river vector]

My players also wouldn't know jack

Seems we got a bit off topic

[rough basalt]

For a free game module idk what I wanna run

[river vector]

My bad

[rough basalt]

I've tried to run Phandelver like 4 times

[river vector]

Phandelver I own but it looks so boring to me

[rough basalt]

It's a solid classic.

Nothing too amazing but not bad either

[river vector]

All you know if the main villain is that || He's a guy called nezznar who wants the McGuffin, then dies to a level 5 party in one round||

[rough basalt]

Personally I love it.

[river vector]

I guess room for homebrew

[rough basalt]

That's mainly why

I tend to make adjustments

[river vector]

I could run it

[rough basalt]

But I can't tell you how many times I've seen phandelvers 1st and 2nd level

As a player and dm.

[river vector]

After my homebrew campaign ends, just gotta finish this first, and it'll be a while.

[river vector]

What did they do?

[rough basalt]

Games usually die

[tawdry sentinel]

The other starter set modules have similar issues where the big bad is a bit of a wet lettuce.

Excuse me while we fight this 50hp dragon that has a very real chance of starting the combat asleep for a free surprise round and a guaranteed sneak attack crit.

[rough basalt]

Last time I was a player in phandelver the DM was adversarial

[tender fossil]

I only run it for new players as older players have probably memorized the first half of it

[rough basalt]

Then one game had the PCs constantly stealing from each other.

[tawdry sentinel]

We got 85% of the way through the final dungeon got to "about to do the boss fight" and then scheduling happened over last Christmas and we never finished it.

[river vector]

I personally would introduce|| nezznar early, in disguise||

[rough basalt]

One time I tried running, two of the player's wouldn't show up cause "they're sleepy" and would forget to turn off their discord online status showing they're playing video games.

[river vector]

Just say you don't want to play

I won't mind

[rough basalt]

Nah they're "want to play" guys

[river vector]

Of course you can't stay in the campaign if you act like this often

[humble cairn]

Rude, disrespectful

[tender fossil]

"let me know when it's my turn"

[rough basalt]

A type of problem player that pushes the dm to make games for them but they'd NEVER play in them

They're a lot more common than other annoying player types I think

The people who wanna be in games but never play them anyway. Not the subtype that pushes dms to make games for them to not play in.

But yeah idk how people complete modules unless they brute force through by revolving door players.

[river vector]

I hate communication with DND players sometimes

[umbral ice]

Guys I made a character, but I don’t think it looks good

[rough basalt]

I just don't think it's realistic to finish a module as a dm.
It's possible but relies a lot on luck, I'd argue even more than homemade campaigns.

[hidden spindle]

I'm sure it's great

[umbral ice]

Let me screenshot it

[river vector]

Trying to see if my DND group is open to playing multiple times per week

Because waiting an entire week is a bit of a drag.

[rancid brook]

Everyone wants to play D&D 2024, but wants to House Rule everything back to 2014? Has anyone come across this? It's fine if the party has never played, but all it takes is one person and things like the updated Surprise and Counterspell is out the window. I've tried to be assertive and players start dropping like flies.

[river vector]

Two players have told me they are available whenever

[severe rampart]

Lmao, RIGHT? 😭

Ehh, but it's sort of exciting

[hidden spindle]

Let them drop

[rough basalt]

I played with a couple dms who uses the old, doesn't bother me too much.

[river vector]

Gives me time to do heroforge figures I guess

[rough basalt]

Personally I like the new and if people don't wanna play with that they can find somewhere else.

[river vector]

Opposite for me, but same energy

Thing is no one responds to whatever I write in the server most of the time

I have to DM them

[kind gorge]

I've heard it discussed more so online and probably more so when 5.5 first dropped

"I want all the new benefits of Paladins (weapon mastery, channel divinity, ect), but I want smites to work the same"

stuff like that... it's a hard no for me

[rough basalt]

I think I might have to do Phandelver again

I really don't want to though

[river vector]

I considered doing phandelver as my first time DMING, but eventually decided to make my own homebrew world. Took two months, but it feels worth it.

Phandelver and modules feel .. limiting, honestly, just looking at them.

[blissful ibex]

the 2024 tables I play in generally do recency where everything that was reprinted uses the newest version
so you can still use stuff like tashas and xanatahars and the other expansion booklets nad the 2014 PHB subclasses that wern't reprinted; but the rules and everything are 100% 2024 and any references spells in the old subclasses use the 2024 version

I also play a 2024 character at a 2014 table and that works just fine; I use the 2024 version of spells and features and things and the items are all 2014; some most of the other plaeyrs are also on 2014 but I think another in on 2024 as well

[rough basalt]

My issue is maps mainly

[dapper cloud]

In the two big adventure modules I’ve run, I made so many changes that I probably could have just made a homebrew game for the same amount of effort, lmao.

[umbral ice]

Ok I’m done screenshot my character

[rough basalt]

I can't stand the normal provided maps

[river vector]

I heard about people homebrewing strahd a lot lol.

Interested in running that sometime

[umbral ice]

Wait

How do I send my character

[blissful ibex]

our DM added in the fears from TMA as a major driving force behind the horror aspects and it worked really well XD

[umbral ice]

I’m trying to, but it won’t work

[rancid brook]

It seems like it's just my tables. We use Meetup and have a long history of hosting games in the Greater Cincinnati area.

[rough basalt]

I wanna run another game.

[dapper cloud]

Check out #1029833015423143957 . Alternatively, I’m pretty sure Strahd homebrew has it’s own subreddit.

[blissful ibex]

do et!

[river vector]

Replacing "The Dark Powers?"

[delicate owl]

Not another oneee

[rough basalt]

I can't cause I have to run a module.

And I don't wanna run a module.

[river vector]

Thanks! I'm already on curse of strahd Reddit though. But I will check out adventure spoilers.

[blissful ibex]

Run an AL table c:

[still plover]

How come?

[rough basalt]

I need to get better at dming

[river vector]

I like vampires so I have agreed to do a VtM game after this homebrew, where the BBEG is a vampire. I'm also thinking about doing curse of strahd lmao.

[still plover]

What about a three session campaign? Three short adventures, one arc.

[rough basalt]

I don't know how to gauge that

[river vector]

Read a horror story about players acting like animals in curse of strahd|| at the dinner, spitting in his drink, throwing plates, cracking jokes.||

[rough basalt]

Only "campaign" I've finished I thought was gonna be around 10 sessions.
It was 3

[reef tundra]

Man I would love to destroy those players before never DMing for them again

[river vector]

Strahd killed one of them as an example

I would have killed them all

[rough basalt]

Idk how people run one shots or anything with a set session amount

[reef tundra]

Death is the easy way out

[rough basalt]

Cause of how much it staying a one shot or that session depends on the players

[glass cradle]

I am very sorry that i do not type about DnD right now but i want you to all warn you that this man @vale sage was my GM but apparently, he deleted our server, he blocked us and is not respoding anywhere. All i want from him are answers why he did that, why he left other servers when i called him out

[river vector]

You're right, give them the spawn treatment

They were like level five and acting this way to Strahd

[reef tundra]

Perfect, make them serve him

for eternity

-# I get worked up too easily by bad players 😭

[hidden spindle]

I've considered starting my campaign with 1 +1d4 Exhaustion levels

Thoughts?

[rough basalt]

That's brilliantly evil

[river vector]

You DON'T|| spit in strahds drink, are you crazy?! ||

[still plover]

Five Room Dungeon. Situation, location, opposition, complication. Keep it tight to the scenario, handwave the bits between adventures.

[rough basalt]

But then you get people who won't follow the situation, or take 5 years to roll one die.

[reef tundra]

When I do oneshots I list only two moments that I won't cut out, all the others are fair game to remove to get it done

[rough basalt]

That sounds like a good idea

[still plover]

The first part is something to cover in Session Zero. Player buy-in: "hey gang, this is a pretty focused campaign so I'll be giving you a problem each week to deal with and it'll hopefully all tie together. If you hear the adventure is in the forest to the south and all run off north to steal a boat that'll be you saying you don't want to play, because I have nothing prepared for that."

[rough basalt]

And if you're lucky that prevents that

[still plover]

Works in my one-shots.

[rough basalt]

I pretty much assume that I'll have at least one person treat the "don't do this" list as a checklist

[still plover]

5 years to roll a die, that's a different problem.

[humble cairn]

Unless it's specifically been discussed as a sandbox game, going out of your way to avoid the adventure prompt is a table foul.

[crimson gulch]

thats when you remove them quickly

[rough basalt]

Yeah, and then it's a domino effect.

[crimson gulch]

no, handle it well and everyone appricates pruning a problem player

[humble cairn]

Have you tried asking them to alter their character in a minor way at Session 0? Problem players will often push back extremely hard at this.

[rough basalt]

Nah, every problem I've had was pretty chill in s0

Least that I noticed.

[humble cairn]

Hmm

[river vector]

How would you, as players, go about finding the real body of a villain who can possess people?

[rough basalt]

I gotta wonder if they were just zoned out giving autopilot answers tho

[humble cairn]

So maybe something that requires real engagement?

[rough basalt]

Yeah my current ongoing games had Session 0s be a lot more than previous ones and Monday managed to survive a player pruning.

Tho Monday had issues starting from s0, but it came out well.

Maybe it's just a matter of keeping games going through the issues

[tawdry sentinel]

If it's a long term possession thing there could be a time when the main individual is sleeping or distracted or whatever and there's a small window real person can regain control

[crimson gulch]

Hey X,

You have not been Respecting rules X Y Z of my table and as such i am removing you from the game.

Hey Team,

I have made a change to the campaign that I believe will improve the experience for everyone, PLAYER X has been removed from the game.

Running a game to a high standard is something i take great pride in and as such i am closing their open seat for now until we can all discuss this change to the game.

thank you all very much and i welcome discussion on this matter.

Heres my basic message to deal with these situations, and every time i have done it the game has improved immensely and gone on very well. i generaly start a new table with 6 so if it shrinks its still fine

[river vector]

It's more like a temporary thing that the BBEGS lieutenant does to taunt and harass the party.

[rough basalt]

I haven't tried 6 players since my first hellish tries at dming

5s usually my limit.

[severe rampart]

Long term short term, and villain as in small villain or BBEG?

[jolly hound]

Someone opened the Pandora’s box of scheduling issues at my table

[crimson gulch]

going from 5 to 4 is fine too

[severe rampart]

it might be fun to let the player act that themself

[river vector]

Currently no player has been controlled by this guy

Don't want to rip control away often

Hmm

[severe rampart]

let them know they've been possessed, and give them the details, they can roleplay it as they want

[rough basalt]

6 seems like a foolproof way to make sure you get to s1 with enough players but if the unthinkable happens (all of them show up) that's a lot of PCs.

[tawdry sentinel]

I will generally just run sessions without people to prioritise the time of those people who do turn up.

People won't plan around playing DND every week if you won't be playing DND every week.

[river vector]

Maybe if someone gets possessed, they can see flashes of where the real body of the guy is?

[river vector]

They've heard me monologue a while, they know how to act this guy out

[rough basalt]

Maybe I just oughta do ToA

And try and run 6 again

Cause statistically, at least 2 will rage quit from dying.

[severe rampart]

Tomb of Annihiliation?

[rough basalt]

Ye

The statistics are based off Sora's Social Science Studies

[river vector]

He calls the party "rats" and is a smug prick

[still plover]

Personally, I would collect material components (hair, fingernails, blood) from the possessed and use them with a ritual (Arcana check) to start triangulating their last known locations, or see if I could dream quest my way into seeing the villain themselves.

But my two most mystically adept characters are both warlocks. Your table may vary.

[river vector]

Hmm. Table does have a warlock, this would be a smart way to do so.

Party has just abandoned the bodies so far

[still plover]

(Note: I'm also a fan of treating the PHB as the start of what you can do and am willing to let creative players go places and get stuff if it makes sense narratively)

[jolly hound]

Yeaaaah that’s typically how we do it but absolutely nobody is free on the same day as someone else

[rough basalt]

I kinda wish I could just decide on what I wanna run.

[river vector]

I liked reminding Warlock that he has a connection with a Lich King when a ghost appeared

Got to have my Vecna ripoff monologue a bit

[severe rampart]

I got a session in 11 hours (as the DM), gotta create my notes now so I don't forget

[river vector]

Wish I had a session in such time

Gotta wait a few days though

[rough basalt]

I gotta wonder how dms with a lot of campaign ideas decide on one.

[severe rampart]

roll a d20

[rough basalt]

I tried that. Doesn't work.

[severe rampart]

flip a coin, sad about the outcome? play the other idea

[rough basalt]

Usual way I get campaigns going is if I start recruitment and get players in so I'm forced to go through with it.

[still plover]

This is where the rule of three comes in for me. Can I put together three scenarios that line up, tell a story? Sure, let's go.

[rough basalt]

Cause once I have urgency to do something I can do it

[severe rampart]

forced to? is that fun for you?

[rough basalt]

It's just how it has to be

[severe rampart]

I'm not so sure about that, remember that both the players and the DM need to be enjoying the campaign

[rough basalt]

If I can choose freely then I'll keep thinking and nothing happens.

Oh I mightve misspoke then

I mean giving myself urgency so I don't just sit around thinking about stuff.

[severe rampart]

Ah I understand

[rough basalt]

Like my Wednesday game, I got recruitment started about 3 weeks prior to session 0.
So in those 3 weeks I got a country map, a city map, an encounter table, new lore, new brew.

I'm kinda like a pressure cooker

If I just sit there, nothing happens, but moment there's some pressure, I'm cooking.

[severe rampart]

a sort of "Diamonds are made under intense pressure" sorta mentality?

[rough basalt]

Yeah

[steady sentinel]

By the way trying to learn about the feywild and curious about it's gems

[still plover]

There's the FR wiki and our own #dnd-lore channel. Anything particular you want to know about?

[steady sentinel]

Well my one character is a fey and he's trying to figure out a ring since he's gonna be marrying someone and just trying to figure out what would be a good ring from the feywild

[crimson gulch]

i pick a book and plan it and set the time before i get players

[round bay]

Yo doomba

Need help gng

[severe rampart]

Please don't refer to me like that in here 😭

[severe rampart]

Privately message me, if this isn't a server matter

[round bay]

Alright

[severe rampart]

I don't know this guy

[still plover]

Ahh. Tricky! If it were me, I'd maybe look up some big names in the Feywild, pick one, confer with my DM about the chances of obtaining such a ring from one of them.

[dim wasp]

pew pew?

[knotty vine]

i have a question

what the most cunning prey in dnd besides humans of course

[turbid vessel]

Displacer Beast has gotta be up there

[knotty vine]

good choic

[hidden spindle]

Gelatinous Cube

[rough basalt]

I mean i had the game idea and the time ready but i got the players before I could stop myself

But I just need something pushing me to do stuff

Sometimes I can do it myself but motivated Sora is not a reliable guy, never around when I want him.

[steady sentinel]

True, from what I looked up, moon pearls seem to be the most prominent in the water of it. Another one was a shard of the feywild though I think I'll do a moon pearl cause that sounds really good on a gold ring

[haughty glen]

12 humans shrunken down and petrified then interwoven into a ring (the seelie and unseelie are two sides of the same coin)

[knotty vine]

i doubt a creature with 1 in int is very cunning

[minor cargo]

I did a similar prompt a few days ago but throwing it out yet again. 👀

Tell me about a cool gay/achillean NPC/PC in your game!

[frail wasp]

my guess would be a spoon

[woven flint]

Typical Rogue fair
Gloves of Thievery
Boots of Elven Kind
Etc etc

[rough basalt]

Whats Achillean?

[minor cargo]

It's the masc-coded version of sapphic. It's me being overly fancy when saying "gay".

[woven flint]

Achillean refers to a man or male-aligned individual who is attracted to other men and male-aligned people.

Is what I got

[rough basalt]

Ah

[umbral girder]

Like Achilles

Which I think the name is based on.

The question makes me realize I need to work on my NPCs more

[rough basalt]

Dunno actually

[umbral girder]

Closest I got was that Hunter and his husband in that Icewind Dale game I havent finished

[rough basalt]

I generally don't do anything with romantic relationships in my games, relationship or marital status only comes up in passing, unless its important

[woven flint]

also included PC's 🤔

[rough basalt]

Oh i missed that

[woven flint]

I know who your favorite gay couple is in your games Sora, for I think they're the only one too lol

[rough basalt]

Probably.

[umbral girder]

Only one big one I remembered was the Sorcerer/Rogue I played who is a bit hung up on his ex who left to be a soldier. (Who was also my backup character)

[rough basalt]

Good thing I'm thinking about this now, I almost made the mistake of starting prepping a spelljammer game

[hidden spindle]

Its so low, it's unpredictable!

[woven flint]

A spelljammer game with a fella the prefers to use regular guns because he likes the
Analog style and feel

Goggles of Night

[rough basalt]

The only npcs I have fleshed out that are LGBT+ are Bi/Pan/Aro/Ace

[umbral girder]

The only real recent one was when I had Strahd taking a bit of interest in Tokii’s character for the small adventure I had with him.

It was a 2-3 session adventure so I couldn’t delve much into it

[woven flint]

Gloves of Thievery give you a +5 to sleight of hand checks

Boots of Elven kind give you advantage on stealth checks

And Goggles of Night give you a 30 foot Dark vision

None of which.. are attunement items, I don't believe

[rough basalt]

I guess, Kenji, the Wandering Skeleton Merchant is.

[umbral girder]

Usually says in the ability.

[rough basalt]

Tho he's a very emotions kinda guy

[umbral girder]

Acererak is my Ace king.

“I just want to make death dungeons” dude

He has Ace in the name after all

[rough basalt]

Oh right

The General of the one army in my settings country for monday game is gay

[undone rain]

I kinda want to make like a lightning themed character, yk with lightning spells and such. Any suggestions on a class that has that while still being a sort of martial?

[umbral girder]

I need to work on making my own NPCs more often as I usually only use the ones modules have

[rough basalt]

I knew one of the empress's advisors was but i couldnt remember cause he hasnt made an appearance yet

[umbral girder]

2024 or 2014?

[undone rain]

2024

[woven flint]

Bladesinger (just grab lightning spells)
Tempest Cleric
Sea Druid (to an extent)

[umbral girder]

Warlock with Pact of Tome and Blade. Tome just so you get Sorcerous Burst

Plus Witch Bolt too

[rough basalt]

I'm listening to music to try and inspire spelljammer

[undone rain]

Gotcha, thanks both of ya

[rough basalt]

Turns out theres a free foundry module for a big community made supplement for spelljammer so thats nice

[umbral girder]

2014 has a lot less options for Lightning Martial so it’s why I made sure to ask

Of yeah also playing a Lighting using Dragonborn helps too

[severe rampart]

feels fun telling my players to prepare backup characters

[woven flint]

Could just go Elements Monk and purely use lightning damage

[rough basalt]

Well no spelljammer

Back to contemplating what to run

[dire swallow]

Is heliana's guide to monster hunting official content?

[umbral girder]

No it’s not under the official content tab of DnD Beyond

Forge of the Artificer as the last official book and the next one is the Ravenloft book in June

[knotty vine]

the new Heliana's guide reminds me of delicious in dungeon

[rugged hawk]

My personal but unpopular opinion is that if WotC's put it on the DNDB Marketplace for sale, it might as well be official

[dire swallow]

Shame the parasite warlock sounded fun

[rugged hawk]

As my own DM, I allow anything on the Marketplace - if WotC is making money off it, it's fair game IMO.

[rough basalt]

What if a player shows up with pathfinder items from the Pathfinder adventure? Or the Lord of the Rings classes (they only go to level 10 and aren't comparable to 5e PCs)

[idle oar]

Not D&D so may not fit in a D&D game

Might be adapted to work though

Can always check with the DM

[rough basalt]

I think it's 5e converted tho already, but the lord of the rings stuff is a different story

[rugged hawk]

Depends. Assuming it's from a marketed product, I'd probably just alter it enough to fit.

[rough basalt]

As it tells you in the product that LotR player options aren't meant to be mixed with 5e ones.

Since its a hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby sort of situation

[rugged hawk]

In which side's favor?

[rough basalt]

5e

5e PCs are the hydrogen bomb

[rugged hawk]

DIdn't wanna assume, but that's what I figured

[umbral girder]

LotR guys are so much softer

That’s why the 5e LotR book stops at level 10

[rugged hawk]

Obviously. Have you seen Legolas? The guy looks like Gimli's in control

[umbral girder]

The Balrog would show up and with a bad dice roll get ruined by a 4th level spell

1 lucky banishment with a level 7 PC ends that encounter

[rough basalt]

It'd basically be like if the LotR party had 3 Gandalf the Whites who weren't nerfed by LotR God to let mortals handle their own affairs

Level 20 DnD fighter showing up to helms deep and killing the entire army by himself.

[woven flint]

John Fighter vs the Armies of Evil

[rugged hawk]

It's just that one parody animation of Boromir not dying to countless arrows getting shot all the way to Mt Doom

[rough basalt]

Man I really wanna run spelljammer now

[rugged hawk]

Only to then get an arrow in the knee which topples him and the ring into the lava

[rough basalt]

But I got zero idea how to make a game.

[rugged hawk]

Well, first you start with spelljammer lore and aberrant horrors from beyond the Crystal Sphere....

[rough basalt]

Spelljammer and lore in the same sentence?

[rugged hawk]

....then you add in eldritch tentacles, spaceships, and giant hamters

[still plover]

Previously, on D&D:
#dnd-discussion message

[buoyant oar]

Spelljammer has lots of lore just none in 5e

[rough basalt]

I thought 5e removed it all

[rugged hawk]

My divine soul sorc still worships a 2e deity

[rough basalt]

So you'd go to forgotten realms.

[glossy otter]

Not the part they wiped put dark sun

[buoyant oar]

5e only removed crystal spheres and Phlogiston. It didn't remove anything else

[rough basalt]

Wasn't that all of it though?

[buoyant oar]

Run a campaign where the party goes to the Rock of Bral and meets with the leader of the Free Space Alliance Prince Andru and take back the stars against Vulkaran, Emperor of Known Space.

[rough basalt]

Like in the AAG the only two places mentioned are Forgotten Realms and Rock of Bral

[vivid pelican]

So, I kinda made a limit to what you can tame in my hunting campaign. I mean, if you tame a cave bear and then tame a bunny, the cave bear is gonna eat the bunny. Duh.
Just be smart and be careful what you tame

[glossy otter]

Ngl there was at one point I considered doing a spelljammer campaign that mixed iron lung with mad god

[rough basalt]

I'm half tempted to mix Alien and Dead Space.

[still plover]

Situation: while on a training voyage aboard a spelljammer, pirates strike and the cadets are left in command!
Location: high anchor above a moonlet that may have the resources they need to make repairs.
Opposition: the moonlet is occupied by a small mining crew, busy extracting the minerals needed to repair the main jib.
Complication: the moonlet is also occupied by dangerous burrowing worms who have a hidden nest somewhere.

[rugged hawk]

That's just landing the Millenium Falcon in a space worm

[rough basalt]

So you're saying I should rip off the random planet encounters from Mass Effect 1

[lone lily]

Hello guys

Im new

[glossy otter]

I did consider a hint of 40k where the corpse of a dead god was driving people mad

[buoyant oar]

Here is an fan map of the Arcane Inner Flow. With most of the locations from the SJ supplements and the Novels.

https://www.reddit.com/r/spelljammer/s/nBmtYir91y

[rough basalt]

Wait maybe that's actually the play

[still plover]

Why not?

[buoyant oar]

Spelljammer had a very respectable amount of lore. 5e devs just didn't care

[still plover]

They start with a broken ship, lost. First they fix it, then they find a port for directions (another scenario happens here), then they take on the pirates.

[glossy otter]

Tbh I never understood the lack of lore

[rough basalt]

You got a real good point I never thought about it but Mass Effect 1 probably is a good inspiration.

[still plover]

Three adventures, one complete arc.

[rough basalt]

People kept asking for it so they owned them by making nothing with the title attached

[glossy otter]

Like that was going to end well

[vivid pelican]

If anyone makes a naval/pirate campaign. Pls add "fire pots" to the campaign. All you need to make them is tar, pitch, resin, or bitumen in a brittle clay pot. It is very sticky. And because of its petroleum-based mixture, it is able to float on water making it slim to IMPOSSIBLE to put it out with seawater!

[rough basalt]

Could reskin holy water for them

Add a burning effect

[still plover]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/equipment/19-alchemists-fire-flask

[rough basalt]

Oh right I forgot about fantasy molotovs

[buoyant oar]

Spelljammer to me is the natural conclusion of the hyper focus of making sure that everyone could buy everything because every single release has to maximize sales. So, lore, Monsters, options and adventures. When you try to shove all of that into one product your page count towards each dwindles. And it dwindles fast.

[glossy otter]

Ngl naval campaigns seem to be a popular one, specifically one piece

[vivid pelican]

The thing about this is you can't put it out with water which makes it so cool!

[rough basalt]

They also made sure to show one of the four systems where Forgotten Realms is and point it out so you can go to the real setting

[vivid pelican]

Very good against sea monsters

Mmmmm... calamari....

[knotty vine]

creatures that are fully underwater have automatic resistance against fire damage

[rough basalt]

I love FR but I'm hoping the new team gives other settings as much love as they did FR in the right way

[buoyant oar]

Spelljammer has always been a transitory setting. The first supplements were, Realmspace, Greyspace, and Krynnspace.

[vivid pelican]

Ik but fire pots, because of their petroleum type mixture, can float on water and can't be put out with seawater

[rough basalt]

Ye but this time just being Realmspace.

[knotty vine]

yeah but it would still do max of 1-2 damage

[rough basalt]

Cause they don't care for Dragonlance

[glossy otter]

I do like we at least had stats for nautilods, despite being less than great

[vivid pelican]

I guess but damage is still damage

[knotty vine]

and if it gets unlucky it can do 0 damage

[rough basalt]

There's some good third party supplements on dmsguild for spelljammer

That's the nice part of a big community

[buoyant oar]

In all of its releases in 2e spelljammer actually fully developed with actual lore one star system.

[knotty vine]

cause half of 1 is 0.5 and since dnd always rounds down it gets reduced to 0

[rough basalt]

There's someone out there that'll care more than the devs

[knotty vine]

so that fire isnt the best in a water setting

[woven flint]

Nope, the minimum an attack can do is one damage

[buoyant oar]

The 2e star system that was developed beyond a passing mention was the Astromundi Cluster or Cluster Space

[knotty vine]

resistance can reduce damage to 0

[woven flint]

Imma reduce you to 0

[rough basalt]

True but at least there was something

[buoyant oar]

Even the Spelljammer Video game is set in Realmspace lmao

[rough basalt]

Naturally

[glossy otter]

I wonder if next year we'll get spelljammer electric boogaloo

[knotty vine]

legit if you do 1 damage and that creautre has resistance to that damage it does 0