D&D and other TTRPGs

[bold sinew]

if you actually ever want to become grappling god, this is the way

you will specialize in grappling, shoving, supplexing, spine breaking, strangling, elbow breaking, piledriving and more

(the feat is literally called Suplex)

plus it automatically gives you titan wrestler so you can do it against innocent little dragons

[novel eagle]

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2023Hostile

If you ever wanted to play classic Traveller, but didn't care for the setting (or how old the rules are), this is a great bundle. Uses the Cepheus Engine, which is basically "OSR Traveller".

HOSTILE is a gritty retro-future setting inspired by movies like Outland, Blade Runner, and *Alien *– a universe of harsh planets and toxic atmospheres – claustrophobic space freighters and brutal industrial colonies – ancient horrors entombed on icy moons – killer ETs, perfectly evolved to survive at any cost.

$20 USD for a shit ton of good TTRPG content.

[novel eagle]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/452790/Cities-Without-Number-System-Reference-Document

He finally did it: an SRD for the "X Without Number" games.

There will be a Kickstarter for a second printing of Worlds Without Number next month. After that, I'm hoping he does a revised edition of Other Dust ("Wastelands Without Number"?) and Silent Legions ("Horrors Without Number"?).

[keen sedge]

this isnt related to any conversation here but i bought the first laundry book on audible and its very good
gets a bit... im not sure if gorey is the word, but definitely some unsettling themes. i dont think its too much for anyone here, but im more or less completely desensitised to these things and its definitely there so i should mention it just in case. dont really want to spoil it so i cant go into detail
very good book tho

[novel eagle]

Oh yeah, the first book is a bit heavy on the body horror trope. The second is much more of a James Bond parody, and the third settles into more "this is how the magic works & how much British bureaucracy you have to deal with to stop it."

[keen sedge]

its also really fun when they're talking about high-end latest tech like palm pilots, pagers and windows XP
the book was written in 1999 so it makes sense, its just funny

[novel eagle]

Ha yeah. Very much a snapshot of the time it was written.

[keen sedge]

especially when the book is all about how technology is magic

which i love

[novel eagle]

Mhm. I definitely want to incorporate that into future games/stories.

[sage fractal]

what dnd class would Aragorn be

from LotR

would he be a Ranger or nah

cause most of the time he uses his sword rather than a bow

[keen sedge]

Rangers use swords

[lone widget]

Aragorn = ranger/paladin multiclass
Boromir = fighter
Legolas = ranger/cleric multiclass
Gimli = barbarian
Gandalf = wizard (obviously...)
Pippin = rogue/paladin multiclass
Merry = rogue/fighter multiclass
Sam = cleric/barbarian multiclass (he has some "I would like to rage" moments in both the books and the movies)
Frodo = druid/warlock multiclass (Idk, druids are one of the least likely classes to fight physically, so it kinda fits? As for warlock...the Ring, need I say more?)

BONUS ROUND:
Gollum = rogue
Faramir = ranger
Denethor = sorcerer/warlock multiclass
Saruman = wizard/warlock multiclass
Theoden = fighter
Eowyn = paladin
Eomer = fighter
Wormtongue = rogue
Sauron = evil oathbreaker paladin/warlock multiclass
The Witch King = fighter/sorcerer multiclass

[sage fractal]

oh would Saruman's patron be Sauron then since he's a warlock

[lone widget]

It's literally Morgoth in the books, so I would assume that guy.

And Morgoth is essentially Middle Earth's Satan, so yeah, the big bad guy.

[sage fractal]

right right

im a little rusty on my LotR lore

[lone widget]

Ooooh wait you said Saruman, not Sauron

[sage fractal]

yeah

[lone widget]

Yeah, Sauron would be Saruman's patron, Morgoth would be Sauron's patron.

[sage fractal]

epic

[harsh tendon]

Ranger.

[steep narwhal]

The ranger class is literally based on Aragorn

[prime nimbus]

I'm still mad Tolkien didn't make Aragorn an Argonian

[steep narwhal]

Gandalf is a sorrcerer/fighter. His magic is innate, he didn't study how to use it.

And he uses his sword a lot more frequently than his magic, aside from a few big nova moments and a handful of cantrips

Frodo is an underleveled fighter with a racial trait that gives advantage on wisdom saves vs domination. He doesn't have high wis but it carried him through some tight spots and failed spectacularly a few times

[prime nimbus]

Halfling luck

[novel eagle]

Gandalf is a fucking angel, rules don't apply to him.

[steep narwhal]

ur face is an angel

[novel eagle]

[sage fractal]

what class would Doomguy be, i was thinking maybe barbarian

[prime nimbus]

Barbarian

[sage fractal]

epic

[empty wagon]

paladin but very aggressive

[sage fractal]

idk about paladin cause Doomguy isn't on a holy quest

[steep narwhal]

He's a vengeance paladin

Daisy

[sage fractal]

true

[lone widget]

Yeah, vengeance paladin, but maaaaaybe with a multiclass into barbarian for the rage benefits?

And because he's Doomguy he can rage even with armor on because f*ck it.

[steep narwhal]

You can wear medium armor and rage. Half-plate is medium

You just don't get the AC from unarmored defense

[lone widget]

That's fair. Doomguy's arms aren't covered, so I suppose that's half-plate there.

Actually, speaking of unarmored defense, is it just me or are Tortles literally built to be barbarians? They have 17 AC from the start, and because they don't wear armor, they get the benefits from unarmored defense, meaning they can very easily reach 20 AC at level 1.

Because unarmored defense takes the constitution plus the dexterity and adds that to the AC, but because dexterity cannot be used with Tortles to increase AC, just having a +3 in CON can still be used in unarmored defense, if I'm reading it right.

[steep narwhal]

No, unarmored defense is 10+dex+con. Tortle armor is 17. When there are multiple options for AC, you pick just one. There is no overlap.

[lone widget]

Ah, damn

[sage fractal]

what class would Mario be

[lone widget]

Still, 17 isn't bad for a barbarian

Usually it's 15 or less

Mario would be a fighter, easily.

Actually no

Monk

He'd be a monk, since monks are all about punching and using their body and doing all kinds of physical stunts while fighting, like wall-running or jumping very high.

[steep narwhal]

Mario is a wahooyippeey-y-y-yahoowahaaa

[sage fractal]

but Mario sometimes uses a hammer in the Rpgs

[lone widget]

Monks can still use weapons

They just use it only rarely

[sage fractal]

yea that sound slike Mario

what about fireballs

[steep narwhal]

Four elements monk

[sage fractal]

waow

you guys thought of everything

would Luigi be the same

[steep narwhal]

Luigi would be a way of five elements monk because he's taller

[sage fractal]

oh

what about Peach

[steep narwhal]

NPC with a magic umbrella that lets them cast feather fall at will

[sage fractal]

why is she a npc :(

[steep narwhal]

Because she was originally a pc but then the player kept bailing so the GM had to keep saying she was just in another castle but they got fed up with it and just kicked the player

[sage fractal]

lolll

i was thinking Bowser would be a sorcerer or warlock

but idk who his patron would be

[steep narwhal]

Bowser has a creature stat block

[sage fractal]

but some of the manuals call him a sorceror

and what about when Bowser has to help Mario and crew to fight a greater evil

[steep narwhal]

NPCs use creature stat blocks

[sage fractal]

hmm i see

i think Wario would be a rogue

[steep narwhal]

I mean bowser only knows like three spells. Fire bolt, dragon's breath, and reduce/enlarge. He can use wands to cast dimension door and polymorph though, and clearly has the aptitude for stronger magic

[steep narwhal]

Arcane trickster who flavors all his spells as farts

[sage fractal]

OMG yeas

[sage fractal]

he can also punch real good

[lone widget]

Nah, Wario is a drunken master monk, and Waluigi is a rogue.

[steep narwhal]

Sure he has a claw attack

[lone widget]

Now what would Yoshi be? 🤔

[sage fractal]

hmmm

idk !

i dont know many classrs lol

[steep narwhal]

Yoshi is a literal dinosaur

[sage fractal]

yeah

[lone widget]

Literal intelligent dinosaur. With boots, a language, and a civilization.

[steep narwhal]

Yep

Dinosaur

[sage fractal]

have you guys seen how to speak Yoshi

[lone widget]

Yesh

[sage fractal]

you should read Super Mario Adventures it's so good

for a while i considered it the best non game Mario media but that title was usurped by the movie

[empty wagon]

Waluigi multiclasses into bard (using dancing to cast instead of an instrument) for the charisma but has horrible dice luck

https://tenor.com/view/waluigi-gif-15141752

[lone widget]

I mean, that tracks, he's surprisingly flirty and full of innuendos. He even crotch chops in Mario Strikers Charged.

[rapid nacelle]

Note that also, he probably would use his magic a lot more if the higher-ranking angels hadn't told him he can't: he was sent to Middle-earth with most of his Angelic powers and memories sealed away, with an explicit mission to guide and embolden the Free Peoples of Middle-earth to resist Sauron, not to just march up and deck him himself (despite both being the same class of angelic being, and thus, without restrictions, probably comparably powerful)

Dunno if that changes the equation at all

[wispy nebula]

So I am planning on GMing a Tails Of Equestria game. This will be with 6 players representing the 6 Elements of Harmony going through all of the scenario modules currently available.

All races from the books are available except Buffalo. I will be repurposing them as Yaks.

I already know Meganought wants to play, so all I need is 5 other brave creatures to heed the call of adventure.

This will be a voice chat game and cameras aren't required, but voice will be. I plan on starting this on October 1st and the games will be played on Sundays at 2pm CST for 1 or 2 hours (or whatever works according to work/school/sleep schedules.)

Please let me know if you're interested through DMs.

[novel eagle]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1570-d-d-beyond-maps-how-to-start-playing-today

[prime nimbus]

Neat

Do they have dynamic lighting simulation?

Not yet

I can't believe they didn't start by porting Curse of Strahd

[bold sinew]

CoS is a bit of a mess to port

Paizo puts a lot of money into not only porting the maps but making sure that they are high quality (original quality maps are always included in the VTT bundles, but you can tell it's a book map)

[prime nimbus]

It's sort of a mess to play

Curse of Strahd is my favorite adventure

[bold sinew]

CoS is FINE is the DM is competent (ie not me)

[lone widget]

That, and most people don't play it right at the start. It's more of an advanced module for people who have done D&D before.

So WotC would likely want to first port over some lighter beginner-friendly modules

[bold sinew]

as writen the module is a bit brutal at points and has some plot sinkholes

when I ran it I made sure that Strahd is always present in all the important locations except Amber Temple

[lone widget]

Hilariously, even as I say this, CoS is my first ever D&D module, lol. And it really shows with how...badly...my character is designed.

[prime nimbus]

It takes a lot of work to run properly

[bold sinew]

and always interacts with the party polite, amicably and threatening

[prime nimbus]

I ran House of Lament for you first. That one's not part of Curse of Strahd

[lone widget]

Oh really?

I thought it was

Most people treat it as such

[prime nimbus]

It's a different ravenloft adventure but integrated well

[lone widget]

Ah

[bold sinew]

he'd gift the party healing potions after difficult dungeons, help them when the party fucked with the hags, help them find the wizard, etc.

[prime nimbus]

Death House is part of Curse of Strahd

We did not do Death House

[bold sinew]

he only became openly hostile once they revealed they had the sun sword

going as far as destroying the sun of barovia to ensure he could hunt then 24/7

(they fixed it)

[lone widget]

Well, still, even for that my character wasn't designed well at all. No dump stat, terrible feat chosen, a hard background/backstory to fit into the module, etc.

[prime nimbus]

If you regret any character choices do not hesitate to ask me for a respec

[lone widget]

Poor Lutharin

[bold sinew]

the only big let down was that Strahd's statblock is a bit... lackluster

he falls over very quickly

[lone widget]

I didn't think you'd accept it, since it's usually a one-and-done deal.

Thus I never asked

[prime nimbus]

The goal of the adventure is to have fun, and it's sometimes important to not respec in order to preserve verisimilitude

But if it's too much of a problem for you I will definitely accept

[bold sinew]

I'm personally, not speaking for Flitter, incredibly accepting in respeccing and fixing up character sheets as long as I know it's happening

because yeah, it's about having fun

[lone widget]

verisimilitude

Welp, that's my new word for the day, lol.

In any case, it's not so much a "problem" per se, just something I wish I could've done better. It's a lesson learned more than anything. I'm still doing okay as the party's tank, and I'm not dead, so everything's still fine.

[prime nimbus]

As I see it, I already shape the adventure to the builds every player has, so don't worry about running something clunky as long as it's something you like

[novel eagle]

Yeah, that's why the new Phandelver release is one of the first maps.

[bold sinew]

Phandelver is honestly one of WotC's best adventures

probably because it's short enough that the writers do not have time to fuck it up

[novel eagle]

Wellllllll, about that

[bold sinew]

I will fight you on this

[novel eagle]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/marketplace/adventures/phandelver-and-below-the-shattered-obelisk

[bold sinew]

hand to hand

[novel eagle]

They expanded it

[bold sinew]

only d4s

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

they fucked it up

[novel eagle]

[prime nimbus]

I like the other beginner adventure

[lone widget]

[novel eagle]

I actually like the expanded stuff they added, but it might make the story too complicated now.

[bold sinew]

look

I've yet to see WotC go longer than 5 chapters without building sinkholes into the plot

[lone widget]

I don't see how exactly this f*cks anything up? Then again, I haven't played Phandelver before.

[prime nimbus]

Phandelver is a weird adventure.

[bold sinew]

like in that one adventure, where the players in chapter 5 find out that there is invisible spies in every town around the area, in service to a king that is ready to genocide the immediate zip code area for insanity reasons, that they have to take on an actual fucking god at level 7 and after that, with ABSOLUTELY NO PREVIOUS HINT IT'LL HAPPEN, are required to go diving into an ancient ruin in search of a mcguffin they had no idea existed and that is unrelated to the plot

or the one adventure that in chapter 3 tells the DM to "let them do whatever and if they get bored, introduce the plot again"

and then the plot is just a series of "go to place X, kill everyone, come back to home base to learn about place X+1"

[prime nimbus]

Oh that adventure is the worst

Thematically cool but poorly made

[bold sinew]

Candlekeep is great except if you want to run it as a campaign because it gives you 20 dungeon dives and says "now draw the rest of the owl"

[lone widget]

That is something I'm wondering: if you're making a completely homebrew campaign, do you actually plan out a story to follow, or do you just give a basic premise, a main villain, and a "main quest" and setting and then let the player's actions and decisions decide most of the story as it goes along?

[bold sinew]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is actually good

I had a blast on that one

my druid once accidentally tunnel through 3 secret walls and then got the fighter banished to the shadow realm for the rest of the campaign

but sadly Level 18+ play in DnD is not terribly engaging

[prime nimbus]

Both techniques are valid but if you want to make it in reasonable time you want at least a good amount of flying by the seat of your pants

[bold sinew]

so that campaign petered out a bit

[novel eagle]

Pure homebrew, you're best to come up with a vague story and let your players go nuts with it. They will go off in random directions, and it can be best to run along with it.

[bold sinew]

tbh depends on how you GM

[lone widget]

Gotcha

[bold sinew]

I like writing the big plot points that I expect to hit

[novel eagle]

Once the players are more comfortable, you can ask them if they want to do a more structured story and see if they're willing to follow along.

[bold sinew]

and then just sorta "all roads lead to rome, lets draw some roads on the map together"

[prime nimbus]

I'm still playing Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We're in the funhouse dungeon level where you fight a beholder without magic items

[bold sinew]

oh I remember that one

I was a druid with sunbeam so the beholder did fold like wet paper once they failed the save against being blinded

blind beholder is really just a punching ball

fighter and tank played ping pong

[lone widget]

Because I am planning on crafting a homebrew campaign of my own, custom world and all, but I'm stumped on really how to start the adventure and how to make sure the party reaches certain points without them going too far off the rails to cause the story to just fall apart.

[prime nimbus]

My players DID NOT want to part with their magic items so I just stopped pulling punches

[bold sinew]

I think the important one about Mad Mage is that you can always give halaster a gun

[prime nimbus]

Mecha-halaster

[prime nimbus]

Don't worry too much about this. This will happen. It's part of the experience

[bold sinew]

look

all I'm saying is I have a stat sheet

my sunday gm for madmage was amazing with halaster, he was all the crazy and then some

there is absolutely no reason he wouldn't have a gun

he'd have a gun for the lols

[bold sinew]

you start in a tavern

[prime nimbus]

Halaster is just Ice King from Adventure Time

[bold sinew]

he iiiiiisss

[lone widget]

One of the ideas I had was to give each region of the world its own "main quest", and that only that quest is active based on where the party wants to start their adventure. For example, let's say they start in the, oh Idk, spooky forest region. The main quest is then related to a lich who seeks to become a god so that he can reign over the world, or something.

And then for the desert region, the main quest becomes kind of like a Mad Max/Tomb Raider-styled adventure to stop some cultists from bringing about the end of the world.

And then for the pirate region, the party starts in an airship that is attacked by ghost pirates, or something.

[bold sinew]

tell your players that they're part of an established group of young adventurers and they've been called to the tavern for a mission

give them a simple bone, like a rat extermination, so everyone gets to know eachother (rip of the Paizo beginner box, the intro adventure translates great to other systems and contains enough to busy players for 1-3 sessions)

I will defer to the paizo method of story writing

your first two missions will not be big related to the actual story

they are for group bonding (or group "bonding", depending on party)

after that, make a mission that both introduces a hint at the overall goal but also something smaller to do at first

like, not immediately tell them to go fight the lich

[prime nimbus]

These are good ideas but remember that no plans survive first contact with the players. Always be ready to completely change every plan

[lone widget]

I get that, and none of this is actually set in stone. All I've got right now is the name of the world.

[novel eagle]

My preference is to give everyone options for why they would want to be on the adventure, and some NPC or group that has either tasked them with doing it or gave them the directions on how to achieve their goal. Then you start at the point where everyone in the party (if they don't already know each other) would converge on the way to the start of the adventure.

So Phandelver, for instance, has options for characters to be hired to escort a wagon to the starting town, others who are explicitly hired to go help a certain NPC in the town, and a few that may be part of an adventuring organization that's going to investigate rumors in the town.

[bold sinew]

no, they get tasked to exterminate some undead that holed up in a nearby old church ruin, so they can go there and possibly collect hints about a new necromancer in the region but also find that the church was being used by the local vampire lord. Once the lich undead are gone, the vampire lord will fly back in and reward them for clearing his church (on top of the actual quest giver rewarding them separately, the vampire lord is just thankful)

this gives you A) the party knows about the vampire lord there and can work towards defeating that guy

and B) they know someone more powerful fucked with the vampire lord

[prime nimbus]

The best part of Phandelver is Venomfang

[bold sinew]

basically, your starting quest should be contained (escort the wagon) and it can lead to them being involved in something bigger but only on the sidelines

the escort mission in phandelver gets you involved with the goblins and bugbears, but it doesn't immediately drag them into the bigger story

[novel eagle]

Yeah, Phandelver starts with "escort the wagon" then throws in a complication. You can either investigate the complication, or just go on into town and come back later (or completely ignore it).

[bold sinew]

unless you really trust your party to not "I sit edgily in the corner" rogue one sheet, you can start with them not being a group, otherwise I strongly recommend just saying "you're already a group"

I can also recommend to think of it as gating the actual story behind levels and only letting them glimpse at a spoiler for the next one when they complete their current side story

[lone widget]

All of this is...very overwhelming at the moment.

Eventually it won't be, I'm sure

[novel eagle]

Oh yeah, that's a big one: have a Session Zero where you all sit down and talk out what you want the game to be. Nothing is worse than starting the adventure only to find out one person wants a deep roleplaying experience, another wants to just whomp bad guys and take their treasure, and another wants to pick fights with the other PCs for giggles.

[bold sinew]

ie, at level 1-4 they deal with the rats and the zombies, but meet the vampire lord at the end
level 4 to 8, they deal with vampires, then learn about the lich, but also where one lieutenant of the lich is
level 8 to 14, they can deal with some lieutenants of the lich and then learn where the lich actually is
level 15 to X, they go up against the lich

[novel eagle]

(No one ever makes it to level 15.)

[bold sinew]

If you introduce the lich right away, the party might be like "well we gotta grind those levels" or "this is hopeless we are underleveled, let's leave"

[lone widget]

What if I want it to go to level 20?

[bold sinew]

don't plan for it, 15+ in DnD is, as mentioned, a bit silly

you will find it very difficult to present a good challenge to players

aim to complete the story around level 15 to 17

[novel eagle]

There's a reason most campaigns end around level 10-14. That's a very long time to play a story, and past that the power levels go exponentially higher. You're basically god-killers at that point, and it gets hard to make an appropriate challenge.

[bold sinew]

with bounded accuracy, the difference between level 15 and level 20 isn't that big either

a level 15 party can take on the tarrasque with a bit of grit and planning

and a default lich, for example, isn't that good at combat

like, they fold easily

[lone widget]

Alright, then at least level 17 so that spellcasters can get their level 9 spells.

[lime tusk]

in 3.5e, our best games ended at 17 and 27

[prime nimbus]

Just give them a 9th level spell equivalent magic item early

[lone widget]

A magic lamp that allows them to cast Wish once and only once?

[lime tusk]

and the finale of the level 17 campaign involved summoning the entire level 27 party, which actually worked really well because the level 17 characters were almost all designed around buffing other characters, and suddenly we had these really big weapons we were all familiar with and could buff up, and it was this glorious ridiculous over-the-top fight

[prime nimbus]

A deck of many things

[bold sinew]

a deck of many things, if played well, can start campaigns

and with played well I mean stack the cards

[prime nimbus]

If played well it can end campaigns

[bold sinew]

also don't be afraid to experiment and crazy

if it goes wrong, take notes and improve

and my best tip

a really really good BBEG fucks with established rules

[lime tusk]

particularly because the level 27 party had 2 casters and 4 melee-heavy characters (fighter, rogue, barbarian, and ranger) -- and all 4 of them benefitted heavily from the level 17 party's bard and from the sorcerer's illusions (enemies couldn't tell who was who, and in at least one case were fooled into attacking the fighter thinking she was the squishy bard.)

[lone widget]

That main thing I want is for each player to have as much fun as they can for as long as they can

[bold sinew]

one of my best boss fights I've done was The Time Worm (spelled like this, with capitals)

it's an outer being that feasts on wounds in time, appears when people travel in time and alter major events

[lime tusk]

a really good BBEG should push the boundaries, but also the party should be able to use what they're good at. Sucks to spend 19 levels working up your illusions and then the BBEG and all of the minions are illusion-proof and you're like "um well I guess I cast ... magic missile?"

[bold sinew]

it's main ability is to strike at players using positions they've been standing on in the past, achieve flanking with itself, hit into the future and reverse the order of initiative (initiative runs up instead of down)

oh and it can eat happy endings

[novel eagle]

Yeah, that's a good point. The PCs should be stars of the show, provide challenge but don't just nerf their favorite trick into uselessness.

[bold sinew]

that player hoping to get married to the princess and live happily ever after? yeah nah, that future has been eaten and digested, it no longer exist and is outside the realm of possibility

[lime tusk]

the PCs will show you what they want from the game.

[bold sinew]

and I let the player know that their character felt that happening

[novel eagle]

Oh man, that is an awesome opponent

[lime tusk]

if defeating the Time Worm restores those futures, that would be a cool opponent. If not, I don't think I'd like playing under a DM who used a mechanic like that, because that's not what I want out of the game.

[bold sinew]

it was gone

the players had already time travelled to fix a rather big problem (end of the world)

[novel eagle]

It'd be good for a tragedy game, but yeah, other games that would be devastating for the player.

[bold sinew]

and I told them that the consequences will be severe

[lime tusk]

one of the keys to being a great DM is knowing what your players really want out of the game and figuring out how to make that happen.

[bold sinew]

and the character that it happened to was a tragic character, they were trying to get happy marriage with another player, but they already have faced several issues to that ever being a reality

I basically put the chances of a happy ending from "1%" to "0%"

[lone widget]

Would've broken me as a player, tbh...

[lime tusk]

yeah, it might work for your specific players. If a DM did that with me, I wouldn't play for them again, because that would be violating what I expect from the game.

[lone widget]

Yeah, it all depends on what your players want. If you told them that this could happen and they accepted it, that's one thing.

[bold sinew]

and tbf in your game you can make it so that there is a chance to restore the future

either by defeating the worm or by going on another quest to restore the future

[lime tusk]

like, I'm not looking for a game where the DM crushes my character's dreams. I am looking for a game where the DM creates challenges that make my character's dreams and aspirations better.

[bold sinew]

you can use the missing happy ending as the cause for more story

make it feel more earned because they fought through hell and back to get to it

[lime tusk]

yeah, if it's "missing" in the sense of being a plot hook rather than "missing" in the sense of the DM deciding it's perma-gone

[novel eagle]

Yeah, it's definitely a difference in playstyles. That said, we should get back to providing GT advice.

[bold sinew]

well in this case it was perma-gone but everyone was good with that but I was always willing to be like, if the player feels like they need to get that happy ending back, I'll give them a quest for it

I have a very soft and permissive GMing style, but I'm also happy to see how many times I can make a characters spine crunch before they break, so that they don't feel like they got the success gifted to them

yes

we should go back to advice

the advice of the above remains; BBEGs should break rules

[lime tusk]

in one of our games, resurrection was much more difficult if you couldn't get to someone within a minute or so of dying. Like if you couldn't hold their soul near their body, the quest to restore them was an entire campaign worth (which could be done offscreen) and basically cost the character doing it an entire age category (as the resurrecter and the resurrectee basically did a divine adventure in a pocket dimension to see if they were worthy of succeeding.) We all knew this was the setting, so when a key character's father was killed in a battle where we couldn't save him, a key part of his epilogue was "he's going to do this quest with-and-for his father" -- and the player decided not to even state whether the quest succeeded, since the point was the afterlife-time with his father.

[bold sinew]

rules like "game rules" (initiative order) or like "trope rules" (they GM generally shouldn't do this) and the party's task is rising above the challenge and beating it to a pulp

(Think of it like the Prime Souls boss fights in Ultrakill, you have to earn the privilege to even try to fail at them)

[lime tusk]

BBEGs shouldn't be easy. They should provide new challenges. But they shouldn't subvert the game to such a degree that everything the PCs have built towards ends up being irrelevant. The players showed you what they want out of the game in part by how they built their PCs.

[bold sinew]

yes

@lone widget if you want another fun BBEG that the players could have a campaign about, I have the Slow Creeping Death (actual name, cringe name)

A construct. It moves at 10ft every second round. It cannot be damaged by normal means but only by extraordinary amounts of environmental damage (dropping a mountain on them) and each source of damage will only work once. They must do it 6 times to make it possible to terminate it.

Once it tracks someone, it will never ever give up. It is smart, so it can use traps and environmental help itself. Like causing rockfalls and such.

or setting explosive traps

it's slow enough that you can just walk away, but it'll always catch up eventually

[lone widget]

So, kinda like the immortal snail?

[bold sinew]

Immortal Snail with the power of one-punch-man

[lime tusk]

except that it's not quite immortal, it's just nearly immortal

[bold sinew]

it does 10d6 damage and ignores immunity (turns into resistance, always deals minimum 10 damage)

at low level it's terrifying, so I would introdue it in a way where players can get an impression that fighting it at low level directly is a dumb idea

and the damage source immunity means they will have to get creative

you can only drop a mountain on it once

only put it in the center of a magical nuke once

etc.

like a Terminator

[prime nimbus]

It's like an Inevitable but you can't kill it.

[lone widget]

Ultimately, while most of this advice did help me gain more perspective on how DMing is like and how to start the adventure, I still don't think I'm any closer to actually creating the world, the BBEG, and the rest.

Still, thanks for the advice, especially in regards to level-scaling and ideas on how to create a terrifying BBEG.

[prime nimbus]

All you need to do is make the next session

[bold sinew]

start small

kill some rats

[prime nimbus]

Long term planning is nice and all but it's just a bonus

[lone widget]

[bold sinew]

and just see where the wind takes you

ideally, take an existing world

homebrewing a world is hard

put it into "Harry Potter with the serial number filed off"

or Discworld

etc.

something you're familiar with and file of the serial number

[lone widget]

Harry Potter's world is ass, and I don't know Discworld, lol.

Creating my own world might be harder, but it gets more of my creative juices flowing and doesn't impose limitations.

[bold sinew]

you can steal just a world map

put your own stuff and things on it

tbh big advice

steal and thief everything

there is so many cool things out there you can put into your world

don't worry about things making sense, that can be partof the world

[prime nimbus]

True

[bold sinew]

I can also recommend to just look at what other GMs will handle things like

doesn't have to be Matt Mercer

Brennan Lee Mulligan is also a great one

he loves making crunching sounds with player characters

or Adventure Zone, which is very free style and shows a great way to be like "well we'll be sticking to some of the rules, probably"

[lone widget]

I'm currently watching High Rollers, JoCat, and Critical Role. Critical Role is all about the chaos, hilarity, and drama; High Rollers seems to be more about high stakes and mystery (but I'm only at the very beginning of their second campaign so I'm not entirely sure how it'll go); and JoCat is all about the coziness, silliness, and being truly player/beginner-friendly.

I've also got a D&D channel for DM tutorials that I'll be watching: The DM Lair.

[bold sinew]

I can also recommend Zee Bashew

[lone widget]

All of them have different playstyles (although High Rollers and Critical Role are similar).

[bold sinew]

he is more of an old iron GM/player, so he gets very creative with things

[lone widget]

Oh hey, he's the gnome wizard dude from JoCat's Crap Guide To D&D videos. :P

[bold sinew]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6nIsdMGZLo

yep

he's got a very deep knowledge of a lot of systems and brings some fresh stuff into 5e from other systems and understands a lot of the rules very deeply (and knows what players will generally try to argue)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZCIh_3b5K8

Puffin Forest is also fun

he GMs and plays, and usually ends up in shenanigans but has some great inspiration for world building in there

or just general ideas for shenanigans

[prime nimbus]

The girl with a monkey character

[lime tusk]

ok, so my broad advice:

• decide (with the players) what kind of adventure you want. Do you like epic combat? Mystery? Political intrigue? Heroic, morally ambiguous, evil?
• select a general type of enemy that fits with that. You probably don't want political intrigue zombie-world unless you're really good at weaving a clever story. But you can do mystery and epic combat in a zombie world (figuring out what caused the zombie outbreak; fighting giant hordes and the monsters that have been loosed in their wake)
• select a BBEG who fits with all of this. Are the zombies under control of an undead dragon? A lich? Accidentally released by an experiment with bad safety protocols, and maybe your BBEG is the mad scientist at the center of it all?
• then just start making stuff. Generate a (partial) world map. Name a few locations that scale as you go (villages, towns, cities, strongholds). Brainstorm fun fights, locations, NPCs, references, etc.
• then start running stuff. You can always fill in gaps later, or shuffle things around, or throw away something that sucks.

[lone widget]

Regarding that first point, that's why I had the idea to make the "main quest" of the campaign region-specific. The region you start in dictates what story you'll follow and what villain you'll be up against. You can still visit other regions so you're not stuck in one, and the story may even bleed out into the other regions, but each region-specific story will follow a specific theme (mystery, political intrigue, dungeoneering, high stakes combat, roleplay-heavy, etc.)

[prime nimbus]

I tried that but my players just wanted to play Curse of Strahd and never leave

[lone widget]

Don't look at me, I thought that was what we were going to do in the first place, and I had no idea what I was doing.

It's still fun though

[prime nimbus]

Yeah I'm having a lot of fun

[bold sinew]

tbf if Strahd is played with character, not many reasons to leave the thirsty incel alone

[wispy nebula]

Starting next week, I will be doing Character Creation for the MLP game Tails of Equestria. I currently have 2 players and need 4 more to have all the Elements of Harmony. Please DM me if you want to join in!

<t:1696186800:R>

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/sVX-XXJ5W9c?si=UocoByCRZHWedJMC

[novel eagle]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/featured.php?promotion_id=RPGCyberpunk_23

Big sale on cyberpunk-themed TTRPGs, including Cyberpunk RED, Hard Wired Island, and Carbon 2185

[sage fractal]

https://x.com/beetlemoses/status/1707832410052714952?s=46

beetle moses (@beetlemoses)

Likes

4100

Retweets

342

Twitter · Sep 29, 2023, 6:59 PM

[wispy nebula]

Unfortunately I haven't gotten any new people that want to join in on the ToE game I want to run. So I'm going to extend the start date to Nov. 5th

If you are interested, please DM me or @ me to let me know. I currently have 4 slots open and I want to have a full cast.

[novel eagle]

I wish I could, but my schedule is just too variable. Sorry.

[keen sedge]

Oh right, I couldn't start tomorrow anyway as I'm at a con, so that works for me

[wispy nebula]

[harsh tendon]

I only do pbp campaigns unfortunately

[novel eagle]

https://x.com/flamesrising/status/1709570506846834979

Flames Rising (@flamesrising)

More than 150 Ravenloft D&D PDFs are on sale for Halloween over at @dms_guild! The sale includes classic TSR as well as #DnD5e community content adventures.
Details here: here: https://t.co/q8PzSgs32n

Twitter · Oct 4, 2023, 2:05 PM

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/VIJSH0F31VI?si=Xj1LNZUQsPJmnQRc

[novel eagle]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/272195/Ponyfinder--From-the-Ashes?affiliate_id=511870

Deal o f the day, From the Ashes for Ponyfinder. Basically their Fallout: Equestria book.

I highly recommend it, it's amazing.

[harsh tendon]

Is that PATHFINDER? lets GOOOO

[lone widget]

Ponyfinder, but yes

Ngl, I really don't like how they made Ponies in Ponyfinder very gangly and "realistic", rather than just keeping them as they are in the show.

It makes them less unique and less...fun, somehow.

[novel eagle]

Eh, they had to file off enough of the design to not get sued by Hasbro.

[lone widget]

I suppose

And I also guess that there's nothing stopping you from just inserting the normal Pony designs into the character creation

[harsh tendon]

I'm confused

Is it PF1E?

[novel eagle]

PF1E, Starfinder, and D&D 5e compatible rules are all included, but the vast majority of the book is lore.

[lone widget]

So basically it's compatible with whatever playstyle you want

[novel eagle]

Note that some of the lore may not make sense if you've not read the original Ponyfinder setting.

[harsh tendon]

oh, I see.

Is there a Ponyfinder PF1E rulebook or

[novel eagle]

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/125583/Ponyfinder--Campaign-Setting

[lone widget]

404 Not Found

[novel eagle]

Try that, sorry, I'm trying to do three things at once

fucking preview site, I can't edit that out

[lone widget]

Yeah, works now

[agile musk]

Not mine, but thought it fit here

[keen sedge]

Huh
I don't love the picture the the words are funny

[novel eagle]

This gives "Disadvantage on Concentration checks" new meaning.

[novel eagle]

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106783/night-s-black-agents

Night's Black Agents, a vampire/superspy mashup game, $4.99 USD on sale. If you ever wanted to play The Bourne Identity but with vampires, this is the game.

[novel eagle]

Amazon is doing a big sale today, there's some D&D books for $16-20 USD, instead of their retail $50.

[harsh tendon]

nice.

[lone widget]

Doesn't look like a sale to me. :/

Well, I suppose Monsters of the Multiverse is on sale, and I think I'll get that one, but the other two aren't.

[novel eagle]

Prime Day is mostly a USA thing, sorry. 😦

[lone widget]

:(

[novel eagle]

You could maybe have PK or Denzy order some for you & just send them the money?

[prime nimbus]

Smart

[lone widget]

Nah, it's not that urgent.

[novel eagle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGmGMBeB8_M

[prime nimbus]

Magic Mouth is the circuitry in Factorio

Has many, many uses and can do almost anything, but you're not smart enough or creative enough to actually make it do anything useful, and also it's turing complete.

[keen sedge]

oh yeah
like all utility spells
if you're creative, you can do oh so very much with them
personally, im not creative enough

[prime nimbus]

That's why it's a ritual with a small cost

You can freely experiment with it however you like, as long as you either spare a slot to pick it as a wizard spell, or the DM gives it to you in a book

[keen sedge]

the closest i've been to being creative with my spell casting is using prestigignation and thaumaturgy as impromptu stage decorations and pyrotechnics

[bold sinew]

I will remind that a single casting costs about 100$ in real world money

[prime nimbus]

Correlating fictional currencies with real money is a fool's errand unless it's been meticilously designed to be a reasonable represenation of real life

[lone widget]

Generally speaking, most D&D players are millionaires or even billionaires once you count up all that gold and platinum.

[bold sinew]

okay to put it differently

the spell costs the same amount of money that an honest laborer would make over a D&D week (10 days)

since a single gold piece is supposed to be roughly the average income of a laborer

a party having 30 gold is essentially a months worth of income in their pockets

millionaire level of relative wealth is achieved by having a mere 10000 gold, which pathfinder expects a party to manager by like level 10

high tier players would be ranging in at 10M$ to 100M$ roughly speaking, yeah, possibly even going towards billion depending on game and what the party does

that is only counting however liquid assets (aka everything they have on them and their spare pants), not other assets like land, titles, etc.

[lone widget]

Critical Role's players are able to just casually blow through like 70000 gold a day by the time they reach level 17.

[bold sinew]

though adventuring is expensive, considering most of that money will be spend on adventuring gear

well keep in mind

that is the money that adventurers are supposed to have ON HAND

like, carry around

[lone widget]

Yeah, they casually carry around hundreds of thousands of gold.

And platinum

[bold sinew]

this is the wealth table of pathfinder

the party currency is basically to be divided by four to give individual player wealth

(or just look at the additional PC column)

[lone widget]

Then again, Matt Mercer is very generous with how he gives treasure. Anyone adventuring at his table is kinda expected to loot every body and everything they come across, and each time they do they gain like 50 gold.

[bold sinew]

honestly, if you properly level-gate items it's not an issue

the treasure table in pathfinder is basically only a minimum recommendation

it says "everything assumes they have ATLEAST about that much money"

though in reality your PCs will be about 60%-80% of that value because they don't immediately make money after buying YET MORE EXPLOSIVE BULLETS

there is no problem giving the players a lot more money

in my storm king's thunder campaign (and I still loathe the WotC writing on this one) I basically at some point gave the players 1000 PP and turned all treasures into unique magic items

because frankly, money might buy cool gear but artifacts you can only get from bodies

they never struggled having appropriate gear, which I prefer

I set a serious tone and mistakes are punished, but I will give my players every possible chance to beat the odds

[lone widget]

Seems pretty balanced to me

[bold sinew]

I mentioned it before here but I like running it where the players will have to claw victory from the jaws of defeat with skill and grit

but you can't do that if the jaws of defeat give you a broken axe

[steep narwhal]

This is why items like the coinbox of holding exist

[prime nimbus]

I started my Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaign by giving my players their cut of the 500,000 gold they got from the Dragon Heist campaign

At level 5 it was entirely too much money, but it worked out!

[lone widget]

...Holy SHIT.

Flitter, if you ever decide to run that module for our group after CoS, make sure we go through Dragon Heist first.

[prime nimbus]

The two modules are designed to flow into each other with a little bit more ease than any random module, but

Dragon Heist is a fucking pain to get right

There are so many moving parts and Waterdeep is complicated

[bold sinew]

tbh in Curse of Strahd I would have zero problem giving players half a million gold

[novel eagle]

I'm reading through the new Phandelver book when I get a chance, and it looks really neat.

[prime nimbus]

Yeah but in Curse of Strahd there are hardly any shops and the book recommends prices up to five times higher

[bold sinew]

that's the joke

[novel eagle]

https://vxtwitter.com/MichaelJSayre1/status/1701282455758708919

[prime nimbus]

Fucking

I need a thread unroller

This guy doesn't know how to structure sentences for Twitter

Following up my thread from the other week, I've seen a lot of people talking about issues with assuming "perfect knowledge" or 'Schroedinger's wizard", with the idea that the current iteration of PF2 is balanced around the assumption that every wizard will have exactly the right spell for exactly the right situation. They won't, and the game doesn't expect them to. The game "knows" that the wizard has a finite number of slots and cantrips.
And it knows that adventures can and should be unpredictable, because that's where a lot of the fun can come from. What it does assume, though, is that the wizard will have a variety of options available. That they'll memorize cantrips and spells to target most of the basic defenses in the game, that they'll typically be able to target something other than the enemy's strongest defense, that many of their abilities will still have some effect even if the enemy successfully saves against the spell, and that the wizard will use some combination of cantrips, slots, and potentially focus spells during any given encounter (usually 1 highest rank slot accompanied by some combination of cantrips, focus spells, and lower rank slots, depending a bit on level).

So excelling with the kind of generalist spellcasters PF2 currently presents, means making sure your character is doing those things. Classes like the kineticist get a bit more leeway in this regard, since they don't run out of their resources; lower ceilings, but more forgiving floors. ```

There are other directions you could potentially go with spellcasters, though. The current playtest animist offers a huge degree of general versatility in exchange for sacrificing its top-level power. It ends up with fewer top-rank slots than other casters with generally more limits on those slots, but it's unlikely to ever find itself without *something* effective to do. The kineticist forgoes having access to a spell tradition entirely in exchange for getting to craft a customized theme and function that avoids both the ceiling and the floor. 

The summoner and the magus give up most of their slots in exchange for highly effective combat options, shifting to the idea that their cantrips are their bread and butter, while their spell slots are only for key moments. Psychics also de-emphasize slots for cantrips. Of the aforementioned classes, the kineticist is likely the one most able to specialize into a theme, since it gives up tradition access entirely. Future classes and options could likely explore either direction: limiting the number or versatility of slots, or foregoing slots. ```

A "kineticist-style" framework requires massively more work and page count than a standard class, so it would generally be incompatible with another class being printed in the same year, and the book the class it appears in becomes more reliant on that one class being popular enough to make the book profitable. A necromancer *might* be a pretty big gamble for that type of content. And that holds true of other concepts, as well. The more a class wants to be magical and the less it wants to use the traditions, the more essential it becomes that the class be popular, sustainable, and tied to a broad and accessible enough theme that the book sells to a wide enough audience to justify the expense of making it. Figuring out what goes into the game, how it goes into the game, and when it goes in is a complex tree of decisions that involve listening to the communities who support the game, studying the sales data for the products related to the game, and doing a little bit of "tea reading" that can really only come from extensive experience making and selling TTRPG products. ```

There

It's still pretty clumsy but this is a bit more readable

[harsh tendon]

this is how I learned kineticists were in 2e

[steep narwhal]

The collection grows

[novel eagle]

I picked up a couple more books while Amazon had their sale this week.

[steep narwhal]

I don't have Prime anymore so it didn't do me any good

[novel eagle]

Ahh

[steep narwhal]

I just picked up Phandelver (the last one to complete the collection at present) yesterday

[novel eagle]

I got that one, reading it is a hoot. This thing is wild.

[prime nimbus]

Oh, you mean the new Phandelver?

[novel eagle]

Yup

[novel eagle]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/palladiumbooks/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-and-other-strangeness

They're reprinting the old Palladium TMNT RPG

No PDF version, two physical print books + other print stretch goals (dice, minis, etc.).

[keen sedge]

No PDF version
that kinda sucks

[prime nimbus]

It's okay because I wasn't planning on buying it either way

[keen sedge]

well, i wasnt gonna say it, but...

[novel eagle]

Yeah, apparently someone at Palladium is really anti-PDF, and there may be rights issues involved (ie. the company only has rights to physical prints & renegotiating might screw them over).

[rapid nacelle]

Oh sweet, I have a yo-ho copy of the original on PDF

[prime nimbus]

They're free to provide other digital formats

[novel eagle]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1594-celebrate-the-lgbtq-community-with-dungeons

[steep narwhal]

Goddammit I just paid rent

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/roll20-bundle-software

HUGE bundle of tabletop RPG content for Roll20

[prime nimbus]

Wow, the screenshot capture tool in my browser is broken

Either way, it retains the names

It's all bundles for various non-DnD games and assets, plus a one month subscription, and more stuff come november

[novel eagle]

Mhm

Several bits for Pathfinder and Starfinder, a Fate bundle, several map / asset packs, and the Fallout RPG.

[dusk dome]

howdy ho

i got a campaign i'm running. Its a living campaign, which means its open to rp in between sessions which are sing-up based and feature rotating cast. it takes place in a video game isekai world where all the characters are female, but the players that play those characters (in universe) do not have to be. I'd drop a link here but the server itself is 18+ so DM me or ping me if youd like an invite

[steep narwhal]

This has some flags of being not appropriate for manechat

[dusk dome]

how so?

[novel eagle]

This is a SFW server, we do not want 18+ only content here, or advertised here.

[dusk dome]

if that's what you want

[dusk dome]

little weird tho

[novel eagle]

It's not weird to want to keep adult advertisements out of a 13+ SFW server. Drop it.

[dusk dome]

yeesh so hostile, I thought you people were all about kidnes and stuff

[novel eagle]

We're about kindness, but also about protecting our users who expect a SFW environment. Please drop it.

[dusk dome]

im willing to but you just came off as really aggresive

[novel eagle]

Because I'm acting as a moderator. And since you won't stop discussing it, sit in timeout for an hour.

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/fEUkyl0U8IM?si=-Th53g55yVloom0I

[lone widget]

What's AD&D?

[novel eagle]

oh god

Okay, so

D&D started out as a simple set of role playing rules on top of a war game. It eventually became more directly an RPG broken into sets for various levels of play. But that made it complicated for tournaments/convention play.

Gary Gygax decided to create a version specifically for that style of play. He called it Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D.

That version became preferred over the old one (now called OD&D).

It eventually was revised into AD&D Second Edition (2e), and 3e dropped the “Advanced” title entirely, since OD&D was obsolete.

Those old editions (OD&D. and AD&D 1e/2e) are notoriously deadly, especially at early levels.

[lone widget]

So it's basically the original mega-difficult style of D&D but with modernized rules and lore?

[novel eagle]

Basically, yes. Though we’re talking “modernized” for the early to late 80s.

[lone widget]

Ah

So still pretty old

[novel eagle]

Very. 3e was the early 00s.

[lone widget]

...In the context of the game, I mean.

[novel eagle]

I still have a soft spot for 2e

[lime tusk]

I really enjoyed 3.5e

4e was too much bookkeeping and not enough epic

[prime nimbus]

The best parts of 4e were about minimizing bookkeeping

Like the minion system!

[lime tusk]

yeah, minions were great. But the action economy led to a lot of like ... "what minor actions do I have? How do I combo these things up?" that I found just killed banter for the players because they were so busy trying to plan moves.

[novel eagle]

I loved 4e, personally. It definitely could get overwhelming with the different effects and options though. If the VTT has worked out, I think the game would have been received better.

[novel eagle]

Minions and Bloodied were my favorite innovations. Though I liked them standardizing mechanics, so everyone knew what it meant when you were Slowed, or whatever.

[lime tusk]

I thought 4e showed a huge amount of promise, just didn't deliver

like minions were great, bloodied was great, having move/standard/minor actions was great, but what happened as you built up capabilities is that it became almost like a combinatorial nightmare to figure out like ... can I create a way to move to here, attack this guy, not provoke any opportunity attacks, and hit with a really big strike?

we made our own "lite" version that limited characters to 2 encounter and 2 daily attacks, along with 2 utility slots, but then changed them to have a recharge mechanic, so it played a lot more like "this is my character who has these particular capabilities he busts out frequently" instead of "I have 19 different attack powers that I have to keep track of"

[novel eagle]

13th Age was basically 4e-lite, created by one of the designers behind 4e. There's rumors they're going to be doing a second edition Kickstarter by the end of the year.

[keen sedge]

4e had a lot of incredible ideas but ultimately dumbed the game down to a boardgame hyper optimised for close-quarter dungeon play

5e did a decent job ov balancing complexety with simplicity, a low enough skill floor for new people to get into with a decent skill celing for experienced players

[novel eagle]

I just wish 5e had kept the tight terminology of 4e, instead of the "let's put descriptive words in the spell that aren't actually called out in the list of effects, people will figure out what it means."

[lime tusk]

I did find 5e a lot better, but unfortunately didn't get to play it for very long

[steep narwhal]

4e would have sold like hotcakes if it hadn't been called "D&D" (also also if Wizards didn't fuck up the licensing)

[keen sedge]

I think I have to agree

[bold sinew]

Pathfinder Second Edition ripped out a lot of parts from 4e without taking on the difficulty of book keeping

the rarity system helps in keeping things simple; all things tagged common can be handled by a GM who read the GMG and knows most of the tags

Uncommon usually means the GM will have to know some minor extra rules, but no edge cases

Rare and higher is stuff the GM will have to know some of the edge cases of the rules and understand them well

same goes for the player

[keen sedge]

Huh

Neat

[novel eagle]

Hm. So the new Player Core and DM Core are due in November, Monster Core in March, and Player Core 2 in July. Tempting.

[prime nimbus]

"Player core 2" is such a name

[novel eagle]

yeah.

[prime nimbus]

You'd expect there to just be one core, not an extension of a core

[novel eagle]

I get what they're going for. These are the new core books for the Remastered edition, so they want to tie them together. But they probably just should've named them Remastered or something.

[novel eagle]

God the Paizo website is so fucking broken

[unreal oracle]

Their website is terrible, the way the handle pdfs makes you not want to buy from them as well.

[coarse pasture]

https://youtu.be/xhiFAxgr680?si=Xj7cP8kBbY_r0Lxi

[novel eagle]

Huh, so apparently Lost Omens Divine Mysteries is going to replace Gods and Magic for Pathfinder Remastered Edition.
https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6siff?Lost-Omens-Special-Recap

[novel eagle]

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/457996

D&D Extra Life charity PDF book

[steep narwhal]

tfw no POD

[novel eagle]

IIRC, DMSGuild doesn't make PoD an option until a certain sales threshold has been met.

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/uKuI-O2WMDQ?si=GBFoEE2Hfd4wTYts

Older video, but a good overview of D&D's history and all the different edtions, plus some suggestions for retroclones (aka modern adaptations of each edition).

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/roll20-bundle-software

This bundle now includes Roll20 modules for

• Cyberpunk RED
• Starfinder
• Star Trek Adventures
• Dune
• Fallout
• Tales From the Loop
• Fate
  and bunch of additional content for Starfinder & battle mats.

[prime nimbus]

Oh yeah they were updating the bundle later

[novel eagle]

My copy of the PF2e Revised Player Core book shipped, so I've got the PDF. Need to read through it.

Let me know if there's anything you want me to tell you about (keep in mind I never really got into PF2e when it came out, so I can't really compare).

[harsh tendon]

So I'm having a magical university campaign, my players have each chosen some electives. Is there a software anyone knows of that will allow me to make a class schedule for their electives that doesn't include any overlap where the same teacher or student would be in 2 places at once?
Because I'd do it myself but it seems like it could be a lot of work and I do not want to if a computer can do it for me.

[keen sedge]

just give the teachers a time turner

[novel eagle]

[harsh tendon]

The students are the far bigger problem.

Also if every single student and teacher was using time travel for their daily cirriculum I think the spacetime continum would blow up on the spot

[novel eagle]

"Welcome to Orientation Day! Here's your diploma, congratulations!"

[harsh tendon]

wait wait wait I think I have an idea
Order the actual classes over the course of the week so no two classes, in general, happen at the same time
Then overlap can't be a problem and you just show up to whatever classes you signed up for

[unreal oracle]

Are they really going to call DnD5e2 just Dungeon and Dragons?

[prime nimbus]

Better than One DnD

[hollow grail]

Hasbro hires the head of microsoft marketing and branding and this is the result

[novel eagle]

Officially, 5e has always just been "Dungeons & Dragons" with no number.

5e is a fan naming

[hollow grail]

D&D.
1 D&D
D&D 360
D&D One

[unreal oracle]

DnD Series X

[novel eagle]

Fun fact, 5e was code named "D&D Next" during playtesting. "One D&D" will likely be the same.

[prime nimbus]

I sure hope so

[hollow grail]

D&D i9-654k-f210

[novel eagle]

I expect Hasbro will just call it D&D, and fans will come up with their own name for it.

I personally prefer D&D 5ae (anniversary edition), or D&D 50 (for the 50th anniversary), but those are probably too close to 5e.

[harsh tendon]

wait are they really?

[harsh tendon]

Why not just call it 6E?

[steep narwhal]

It's just a rules revision to 5E

It's less severe than the revision between 3.0 and 3.5

[novel eagle]

Yeah, at best this is 5.25e but that doesn't roll off the tongue.

[prime nimbus]

5r

[lime tusk]

5++

[unreal oracle]

5¼ Edition is a fancy title.

[novel eagle]

https://vxtwitter.com/wizkidsgames/status/1724502954273603723

[novel eagle]

https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq

[hollow grail]

?

[novel eagle]

Pathfinder 2e Revised just came out and they just published the errata.

[unreal oracle]

I think I am going to start PF2e soon.

[novel eagle]

I've ordered the new Revised books. Waiting for them to ship.

[novel eagle]

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SR3Mega

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SineNomine

[novel eagle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HhpE7Dl_9g

[steep narwhal]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/5th-edition-mega-bundle-gygax-kobold-and-friends-more-books

[prime nimbus]

Really, Critical Rolls?

[lone widget]

[novel eagle]

https://www.youtube.com/live/4ln78tTLGdU?si=GlUsa7j3L8pjPGXG

[novel eagle]

The US Postal Service is making D&D stamps for 2024
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2023/1130-usps-reveals-additional-stamps-for-2024.htm

[harsh tendon]

That's cute

[prime nimbus]

https://youtu.be/UpNy4C7Ftmg

[steep narwhal]

can I use acrobatics for the mustiness
This is too real

[harsh tendon]

makes me think of when a check is somewhat open ended so i'm like

"Tell me what skill you want to use for this"

and they're like "hmmmm profession (baking)" and it's like... "ok tell me any skill but that one"

[last scroll]

Minecraft is coming with DND now? hell yea!

[novel eagle]

It's a bit old, but yes, they ported some Minecraft monsters to D&D 5e rules.

[steep narwhal]

Two years later, my memento mori d20 finally arrived. Made from fragments of human bone

[lone widget]

Dude, that's hardcore... O.O

[rapid nacelle]

Indeed... But 2 years?

[steep narwhal]

Yeah Artisan Dice are notorious for long processing times. This is ridiculous though, now that this order is complete I'm really done with them

[agile musk]

Just took that long to source a victim the materials~

[steep narwhal]

I mean yeah probably. It's not linked on their homepage anymore and the product page says they're on backorder so they're probably havunh some sourcing issues.

I just wish they'd fucking admit that once in a while instead of ghosting me until I blast them on social media.

[rapid nacelle]

Did they ever say where they get the bones from?

[agile musk]

[steep narwhal]

Retired medical cadavers

[bold sinew]

murder

[lone widget]

Holy shit. Jocat is retiring from content creation after being harassed online. https://www.jocat.net/

He's apparently been doxxed, sent violent threats, and mocked by people he once respected.

[bold sinew]

That’s awful

[novel eagle]

Dammit

[steep narwhal]

FYI TitanCraft is having a free download weekend. You can design any mini with any part (part of a premium pack or no) and download the STL for free until Monday.

[harsh tendon]

in my cyberpunk game

poor guy suffered the classic "natural causes"

[novel eagle]

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/how-call-of-cthulhu-took-over-the-rpg-scene-in-japan.915986/

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/CEOs5J4ECOM?si=aFHY3BaaD2a63o2j

Rather informative stuff.

[prime nimbus]

Oh it doesn't list Festhalls.

Ed Greenwood was fucked up

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/nWYTf47NWrc?si=yZS8EXK50xIPqHVs

[keen sedge]

i'd like peoples opinions on this, parlty out of curiosity but mostly to prove a point to my brother (also thats me in the screenshot i forgot its my char name not my screen name)

[prime nimbus]

Seems reasonable to me, but someone praying could be saying anything.

A merchant would not be offended if someone offered moral support in real life, even though it did grant an advantage in haggling

[keen sedge]

to me, a spell, even a cantrip, is something thats clearly a spell being cast, especially one that requires concentration
if i was, say, gearing up for a running race and saw one player getting an obvious guidance from a preist i'd be pissed, in the same way i'd be pissed if one took a potion of haste

to me both things are the same kind of thing

[prime nimbus]

I have no problem with a student taking caffeine for an exam

Not every performance enhancement is undesirable or anticompetitive

[keen sedge]

sure

but coffee is something thats as common as dirt in this world

if coffee was a luxury item that only a few could get ahold of, you might treat it differently

i suppose that depends on setting

[prime nimbus]

I would not.

[keen sedge]

in the judge dredd universe for example, coffee is a restricted drug! tho thats obviously an extreme example

[prime nimbus]

Studying is not a competition, and so any performance enhancement that does not harm you is good regardless of how hard to get it is

[keen sedge]

im gonna give two different hypothetical situations here, jus to give a clearer example of my thinking:

situation A: we're about to go into a shop to sell our loot, so the cleric casts guidance to help our face with his bartering before we go in
situation B: our face is currently selling our loot to the merchant, and in front of his face our cleric casts guidance to boost his check

there are a lot of things you could add here to complexify the situation, such as the merchant being experienced in people trying to pull that kind of thing on him and using his own guidance source or being aware of the spell or whatever, but what ever you perceive as being an "average" situation here works

[prime nimbus]

Yep, in both situations it should be fine because Guidance is not a bad spell

[keen sedge]

oh really?

ill grant that RAW thats how its written

so i realise that its all DM, player and setting dependant

[harsh tendon]

If casting guidance in a race is allowed, then casting more powerful buff spells would also be allowed

So you need to decide if whatever you're doing accepts magic or not

[steep narwhal]

Also you have to consider how magic-aware your setting is

[harsh tendon]

Like in my world there's a local sports league that the players participate in sometimes and magic is absolutely not allowed, to prevent people from doing silly things like teleporting the ball into the goal or flying or putting the other players to sleep.

[steep narwhal]

Like, no one in Greyhawk is gonna bat an eye at someone tapping your shoulder and saying a "quick blessing"

Because magic is not common

OTOH everyone in Eberron uses magic in little ways, so it's like the entire society is juicing all the time and it's just normal

[harsh tendon]

The opposite might be true, magic has an obvious visual effect so it's clear you're casting something, and since magic is not common it might freak them out.

[steep narwhal]

Which, again, depends on the magic awareness of the people in the setting

[harsh tendon]

Well you need to ascertain as a DM if someone seeing something they don't understand would cause ambivalence, fear, awe, panic, etc

doesn't matter if you've already determined they don't know what magic is, that doesn't automatically dictate their reaction to it

[steep narwhal]

I mean yes

They are individual characters

"Not everyone will react the same way to seeing X" is just, like, basic storytelling

[keen sedge]

some magic
and not unclear if guidance is one of those kinds of spells

to me, vocal component for example means "a series of words, phrased of other vocal noises specifically and obviously designed to trigger this effect and this effect only"
you cant make it a "you got this" because you'd trigger the spell every time you said that phrase
maybe im wrong with that interpretation, but thats how i always see it
you could vary the volume, and subtle differences could be taken into effect, but in general a spell is like inputting a line of code on a pc
other people might disagree with this, and i also personally see bards especially to be the fucking weird exception to that rule and do whatever they feel like whenever they feel like it

and the pc code comparison is somewhat apt because there are a variety of ways to type code and different coding languages and execute programs in general

wizards for example could do the magical equivalent of doing raw code, but warlocks get a series of programs installed and just click run
sorcerers are using a mac

[harsh tendon]

Afaik all magic has an obvious "magical" effect.

I am 100% sure that's how older editions did it, any type of casting had some sort of visual and audio effect that was described by the book as "obviously magical casting"

[keen sedge]

see thats my take on magic, unless stated otherwise or it makes no sense for the spell
you cant hide magic being casted without soecial abilities or some other method

[harsh tendon]

I dunno about 5e but I know 3.5E had metamagic/feats/abilities specifically for hiding magic

and those would obviously be useless if magic was by default stealthy

[prime nimbus]

5e does too.

[steep narwhal]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/call-cthulhu-chaosium-inc-books

[novel eagle]

ohshit

That's an incredible deal

[novel eagle]

https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-character-sheets/

https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-adventures/

Free character sheets and adventures, if you get the bundle.

And an investigator generator online:
https://www.dholeshouse.org/

Aaaand the wiki, because why not:
https://cthulhuwiki.chaosium.com/

[wooden swan]

it’s funny that I see this when I’m trying to look for an rpg that’s not Runequest lol

[novel eagle]

I personally prefer Delta Green for my Lovecraftian shenanigans, but this is too good a deal to pass up (and they use compatible systems).

[wooden swan]

Yeah. I’m just in a weird spot where I don’t have the time commitment for a really chewy game and I’m still unfamiliar with TTRPGs, and my most recent attempt at a playgroup ended up being a group of ardent Runequest nerds who love the first release game and all of its lore. So “Your Glorantha may vary” very much doesn’t seem true, and getting shoveled supplement after supplement trying to put a character together was intimidating

[novel eagle]

Ah. Yeah, you probably need a system like CoC then, that's fairly easy to grasp while you get the hang of it.

[wooden swan]

One of my friends recommended space kings, and idk how fast it plays but I found one called Ironsworn that explicitly supports single player play - so it could be as flexible as I need it to be

[novel eagle]

I'm not familiar wth Space Kings.

Ironsworn is a good option if you want to try solo play.

[wooden swan]

Space Kings is a light and humorous space opera themed game with simple gameplay that plays off of card draws rather than dice rolls. It seems really easy to pick up

[novel eagle]

Neat! I'll have to look into that.

[rapid nacelle]

Me when I'm looking for someone who plays an RPG other than D&D/Pathfinder

[keen sedge]

THERE ARE NO RPGS THAT ARENT D&d/pATHFINDER

im keeping the capitalisation errors lol

also /j if that wasnt obvious

[novel eagle]

I've actually been getting into the "x Without Number" books lately. There's:

• Stars Without Number (sf/space opera)
• Worlds Without Number (fantasy)
• Cities Without Number (cyberpunk dystopia)

[keen sedge]

i've tried those and didnt enjoy them
tho the DM i had was... not great so that probably didnt help

[novel eagle]

Ah. Yeah, bad DM can make it unfun.

[prime nimbus]

THERE ARE NO RPGS

[rapid nacelle]

SIEMBIEDA SENDS HIS REGARDS

[wooden swan]

I haven’t had a good game since Flitter hosted one years back

The last one I went to was at someone’s house who smoked weed inside and was strict, lore heavy Runequest. Before that it was this really weird 5E campaign at someone’s house who had like thirty dogs and was basically a gmod animation in rpg form. With John Cena, Thomas the tank engine, and other pop culture characters involved. Before that it was a mouse guard game that fell apart after session one, and me trying to DM the module from the 5E starter set

[keen sedge]

im lucky to be in two great games right now with flitter and ember as DMs
they've both easilly been the best DMs ive ever had

great parties too

[prime nimbus]

You're still invited, by the way.

[rapid nacelle]

What concerns me about DMing is... How do you "keep the party on task" without seriously railroading them

[wooden swan]

Thank you Flitter. It’s just scheduling and time commitments make it really hard

It’s why I’ve been trying to find solo RPGs or ones that have really short session times - I want something I can easily play in what little off time I have between work, gym, and classes or meetups I attend

[novel eagle]

Three things in my experience:

1. Listen to what they want to do, and fit that into the game. That gives them an interest in keeping things moving.
2. Be willing to toss your plans for now, and go with the flow, then bring back your planned encounter in a different context.
3. Most importantly, have a "session zero" where everyone talks about what they want to do, what's fun for them, and what they do not want in the game. Make sure everyone's on the same page, so you don't have 4 players wanting to be heroes saving the world, and one person who wants to be The Joker.

[rapid nacelle]

[novel eagle]

One of the best anecdotes I came across was a GM who had a complicated boss encounter set up, lots of minions and things to happen in the room... and the PCs just killed the boss on turn 1 with a lucky attack.

So the GM set that encounter aside, let them have the easy win, and used that same general boss fight later (scaled up to match the PCs) when they got to the next big milestone. The players had no idea, because they never got to see the complicated bits.

[rapid nacelle]

Nice 😄

[steep narwhal]

I let the group derail a little and then just go "so anyway, about that world-ending calamity..."

[keen sedge]

That's not important tho

[steep narwhal]

Managing the whereabouts of your cabin boy is more important

[keen sedge]

It was the swords that took the longest I think lol

[steep narwhal]

Those goddamn swords

[keen sedge]

We have them now, no more delaying and makework

[rapid nacelle]

... I have so many questions

[keen sedge]

we kidnapped a stableboy from his home, went on a 10 week cruise on a bote to another continent with him officially being a cabin boy, then took him to a drow settlement and left him with the head drow to get instruction on magic
we left him there for like a year i think before finally contacting him again on the first continent and getting him to teleport over to us
then we left him with another wizard for a few weeks for more training
he's level 13 now, we're 15
details are a bit fuzzy, this all happened over the course of irl years
oh the drow village we left him in? no-one spoke common, he didnt speak undercommon

also we left him with no money

[rapid nacelle]

Ohhh o.o

[rapid nacelle]

... Y'all were MEAN

[keen sedge]

i say "kidnapped" i eman we actually did offer him a job, but everything else just kinda... happened

[rapid nacelle]

"Look, things got real exciting real quick OK?" energy x3

[steep narwhal]

I mean he was an adult and you did pay him a stipend

He just had to learn undercommon from scratch after being dumped in Moonhollow while you went off to crash a spaceship into a mountain

[keen sedge]

Excuse me, we crashed the spaceship into a mysterious bottomless pit thank you very much

[harsh tendon]

Delta Green mentioned 👀

[novel eagle]

I love the setting, really would like to play/run a game. I've backed most of the Kickstarters for the newest edition.

[harsh tendon]

it has really good prewritten adventures

except for the first one in the gm book, the tutorial adventure

that one SUCKS lmao

"When your players enter the room, sanity damage. When they see the monster, sanity damage. If she speaks, sanity damage. If she hits them, sanity damage. If they hit her, sanity damage. When they kill her, sanity damage."

[novel eagle]

I mean, it gives you the right feeling for the game.

[harsh tendon]

yeah I love introducing my players to the system by unavoidably killing them if they take any actions at all

I'd like to point out if you metagamed to have prior knowledge of the encounter it's still impossible to resolve it without taking sanity damage at least twice

||One for being there and one for killing her, and that's assuming you know the "ideal" solution is to just roll up and drop gasoline inside and blow her up.|| Which like, why would you know that?

[novel eagle]

Spoilers

[harsh tendon]

And that's assuming you don't see or hear her because that also does sanity damage to you

[harsh tendon]

sorry. it is in the handlers guide tbf but I'll mark it anyways

[novel eagle]

Yeah, there's people here who might play later, so better to not give away the secrets.

[harsh tendon]

(The real secret is to not play that tutorial adventure in the Handlers Guide)

[novel eagle]

I'd run it as a one-shot, either before the campaign starts, or as something in between other games (like if not everyone can make it & you use pregens).

[novel eagle]

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/19aw2qm/whats_your_goto_rpg_system/

[wispy nebula]

LMAO

[sage fractal]

im watching Honor Among Thieves and im in love with the fat dragon 🥺🥺🥺

[keen sedge]

It's an amazing scene

Whole movie is damn great

[lone widget]

I reeeeeally hope we get another one. Maybe not as a direct sequel but rather a "different campaign" in the same world.

[bold sinew]

"Hey I know we don't know eachother but your faces look familiar" - The new characters, played by the same actors

[prime nimbus]

The same world being... Faerun?

[lone widget]

Yes, still sorta waking up.

[novel eagle]

Unfortunately, it sounds like it didn't make enough of a profit for the studio. Chris Pine was really pushing for a sequel though, maybe he'll keep nagging them.

I absolutely adored it, it really felt like a session of D&D.

[steep narwhal]

Themberchaud canonically exists in the Forgotten Realms setting with a ton of lore behind him

And now I am far too large to ever leave. Even if I tore the entire place down around me, I could not claw my way to the surface from here. Instead, I remain buried in a prison of my parents' making, far beneath a sky I've never seen.

[prime nimbus]

If only he invented dimension door

[steep narwhal]

Dimension door doesn't come in bariatric sizes

[prime nimbus]

It has no restrictions on your own size

[steep narwhal]

Shh

They just don't make em that big

[novel eagle]

https://www.delta-green.com/2024/01/the-agents-handbook-reaches-a-new-dead-drop-foundry-vtt/

[rapid nacelle]

Get the boi some Slimfast!

[steep narwhal]

Or just greater image

[rapid nacelle]

No I think he wants to be able to leave his cave

He should be able to do that

[steep narwhal]

Teleport would be able to do that RAW

Give our chonky boi some 7th level slots

[rapid nacelle]

... Oh wait no he's kind of an asshole x3

Apparently that's typical of red dragons

[steep narwhal]

Well yeah

Typical of most chromatic dragons

[rapid nacelle]

As opposed to... metallic dragons IIRC?

[steep narwhal]

(on the Flanaess and Faerûn anyway)

[rapid nacelle]

Basically if the dragon's chrome plated, they're usually friendly :P)

[novel eagle]

Yeah, Chromatic = Evil, Metallic = Good, and the others we don't talk about.

[rapid nacelle]

... there's others?

[novel eagle]

Oh god yes

Gem dragons, elemental dragons, at least four or five other types.

[steep narwhal]

Fairy dragons

[rapid nacelle]

And are the metallic dragons the only ones that aren't generally dangerous?

[prime nimbus]

They are good aligned

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/JVu5V-vcX00?si=7qoibQ5n3w8Mis7Q

[steep narwhal]

Gem dragons are neutral IIRC

[prime nimbus]

(depending on the setting the alignment can be strict or just a guideline)

I like alignment to be strict

[rapid nacelle]

For a second I thought that thumbnail was Illuminaughti o.o

[novel eagle]

Pointy Hat is great

[steep narwhal]

In Eberron the dragons don't have predefined alignment

[novel eagle]

One of the reasons I adore Eberron.

[steep narwhal]

Nor in Exandria IIRC

Other than the Chroma Conclave and their associates

[novel eagle]

Eberron is just... the best D&D setting, IMO.

[rapid nacelle]

Personally I tend to prefer when alignment is a guideline. Even the best person is just one bad day away from doing something horrible

And even races that are stereotyped as cruel and evil can have exceptions

[steep narwhal]

One of the most goodest characters in my ongoing D&D campaign acts against the party because they're lawful stupid

[prime nimbus]

Well in Faerun specifically there are creatures that have an inherent alignment they cannot stray from, (even though they can justify all actions within their alignment) and creatures whose alignment is open.

[rapid nacelle]

Which might be very difficult for adventurers o.o

[novel eagle]

My personal preference is for certain Planar beings to be hard-coded to their alignment, and that's it. Everyone else is free to make choices, unless they somehow make a bargain/get cursed to be Planar-aligned.

[rapid nacelle]

How do you ascertain the alignment of a dragon and live to tell about it?

[steep narwhal]

Talk to them

They're intelligent beings

[novel eagle]

Unless they're white dragons, then they just eat you.

[rapid nacelle]

Assuming they don't just roast you on sight (if evil)

[steep narwhal]

I mean most creatures don't have predefined alignments in Eberron

[prime nimbus]

Post video of a silver dragon saying "What are thooooose?!"

[novel eagle]

Yeah, that's one of the selling points of the setting.

Also, gods being unknowable / possibly not existing.

[steep narwhal]

Or also possibly literally the ground

[rapid nacelle]

I like the Rifts setting because it rarely sets "hard" alignments

[steep narwhal]

Anyway I have 16 paper minis to cut out for my session tonight, see ya

[rapid nacelle]

What it tends to do is say "the majority are this or that, but sometimes you'll get one that's this"

[novel eagle]

Yeah, that's more of D&D 5e's default now.

[keen sedge]

me playing a char from eberron in embers game:
FOOKING MURDERIZE THIS DRAGON DAMNIT

[rapid nacelle]

Sometimes you'll get a hard "all [creature] are [alignment]", but that's the exception rather than the rule

[steep narwhal]

Tasha's did a lot of that and ended up homogenizing a lot of the character choices to "human with round ears" or "human with pointy ears" or "short human with round ears" or "human with red skin"

[keen sedge]

(i didnt know that dragons are not naturally aligned in eggeron and thought it was evil, so that was out of character, sorry ember)

eggeron? spekking hard

that wasnt intentional the second time goddamn

[steep narwhal]

Green dragons are naturally evil in Greyhawk

[rapid nacelle]

Wurds triky

[keen sedge]

yeah but i wouldnt have known that

[steep narwhal]

Efferil has memories from both Eberron and his past/stolen life on the Flanaess

[keen sedge]

...true

thats my excuse

anyway got irl things, must dash

[steep narwhal]

The princesses are powerful, not omniscient or omnipotent

[prime nimbus]

They are omniamabilis

[steep narwhal]

Completely worthy of love?

[prime nimbus]

Yes

[steep narwhal]

Hey in my canon they too actively participated in ||R̵̄͗e̷̓͝D̵̛̒á̶͐C̴͗̕ṫ̵̚E̵͊d||'s downfall

[prime nimbus]

Looks behind spoiler box
Prudence

[steep narwhal]

Plot twist

[novel eagle]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/01/dungeons-dragons-the-rulebook-that-started-it-all-is-50-years-old/

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/2Iat_gzqqyY?si=Mp8USlRaIMW9J8lx

[prime nimbus]

1- The basic rules.

https://dnd.wizards.com/what-is-dnd/basic-rules

[novel eagle]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dyskami/besm-retro-second-edition-rpg-plus-besm-4e-expansions

[novel eagle]

https://foundryvtt.com/article/dungeons-dragons-arrives/

Finally

It is now possible to designate a particular Group actor as the "Party" and add your player's characters to it. Having your player characters grouped up in a Party enables effortless automation of experience, currency, and loot distribution as well as DM-friendly automation for skill checks and saving throws. For example, hovering over any passive skill check will show you who in the party passes or fails the DC.

[prime nimbus]

neat

I'm trying to move one of my games to Foundry

Though my executive dysfunction means it's a slow job

[novel eagle]

I hear that.

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/cyberpunk-red-2024-r-talsorian-games-books

[ember dagger]

.

[steep narwhal]

Don't do that.

[ember dagger]

I'm sorry

[prime nimbus]

People sometimes do this because they don't know you can join threads without making a message in them

(just click hold the thread name)

[steep narwhal]

Or click the visible "follow thread" button

[lime tusk]

or just say something that's on topic like "ooh that's a nice book bundle"

[steep narwhal]

Ur mum is a nice book bundle

[novel eagle]

[ember dagger]

Where can I find this discord server if it's still exist?
The reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/ilyik9/im_a_dm_whos_new_to_mlp_and_putting_on_a_pony_dnd/

[steep narwhal]

Perhaps check out Equestria Daily with adblock turned off to see the ad

[ember dagger]

I don't see any ad about a discord server there. that's why I asked the question in the first place.

i know it's been 3 years

[steep narwhal]

At this point there are probably dozens of servers like that, I don't know that we have a way of singling out which one they're referring to

[ember dagger]

do you know any good one?

[steep narwhal]

Please don't ping me when I'm right here

[ember dagger]

I'm sorry

[steep narwhal]

I'm not in any of the public ones so I can't help there. Let's see what disboard says

A search on Disboard for "MLP tabletop" comes up with one result with a fairly healthy number of users. That's probably the one you're looking for

[novel eagle]

I know the guy who makes Ponyfinder is running a game of that on his server.

PF2e version, I believe.

[steep narwhal]

David Silver has a server? Neat

[novel eagle]

Yup!

https://discord.gg/jXt7XckD

[steep narwhal]

Mod aboose

[ember dagger]

do you know any server that 5e-centric, more centered around mlp canon and active?
I know these are too specific. but I wanna know if you could recommend any. 😅

[keen sedge]

ponyfinder would be a better place to ask

that specific game is pf2e but the system is built for 5e too mand im sure there are other people playing games there

[novel eagle]

Yeah, Ponyfinder is built for PF1e, PF2e, and 5e (also a smattering of Starfinder for some supplements). That's the best place to ask.

One day I'll get around to running a Tails of Equestria game.

[ember dagger]

most of the session LFG board I saw in the server are paid sessions. so I thought it might be rude to ask for a free game.
I'm new to TTRPGs scene in general.

[keen sedge]

the vast majority of sessions are free, its not rude to ask

and if they find it rude, then they're assholes

[ember dagger]

and I thought it might be rude to ask about other server there 😅

[keen sedge]

see my last statement

[ember dagger]

yes

ok I'll try

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/VMC_kcUKdhw?si=kkJtNJ8tZCrklbCg

[novel eagle]

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1660-dungeons-dragons-turns-50-see-how-were-celebrating#2024-phb

Release dates for the new core books:

• 2024 PHB = Sept 17
• 2024 DMG = Nov 12
• 2024 MM = Feb 18 2025

[steep narwhal]

How many people are gonna actually pick those up though

[novel eagle]

It's D&D, lots of people will.

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/jbCjUrNQvS8?si=6VM7ELqxTYpHJKei

Humblewood is now on D&D Beyond

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/paranoia-25th-anniversary-rpg-mega-bundle-mongoose-publishing-books

[sage fractal]

https://fixupx.com/lego_group/status/1759623921005982013?s=46

[lone widget]

Duuuuuuuuude

This is gonna ROCK

[steep narwhal]

I beg your pardon

[lone widget]

Imagine if they made a Lego D&D game that follows the movie but plays like Lego Lord of the Rings, with side quests and open worlds and such. That'd be so badass.

[keen sedge]

...ok a lego D&D game sounds awesome

[novel eagle]

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/curious-cats-of-mau

[steep narwhal]

Meow

[final wedge]

Got these on sale for $15 on amazon

[novel eagle]

Oh nice

[pale wing]

Hello

I used to play D&D billion years ago and I just opened a box with everything I had and spent half an hour marveling on all the memories I used to have and just.. swimming in the ASMR of my dices ❤️

I feel like the little me would really appreciate if I try and go back to it

[keen sedge]

there's even some pony themed (but specifically not mlp) homebrew supplements called ponyfinder

[steep narwhal]

Yes there are indeed

[pale wing]

Is it known how different they're going to be?

[novel eagle]

They've been putting out playtest rules all last year. The basic gist is that they're still the core 5e rules, but the classes will be updated quite a bit, the DMG will get better layout & advice for new DMs, and the MM will be organized better for finding specific monster stat blocks.

[pale wing]

So it's going to kinda be D&D 5.1?

With how theyre updating classes?

[novel eagle]

Yeah, basically. It's not a full new edition, it's not even really 5.5e, but it's definitely a rework and reorganization. Old adventures will work just fine, and even some of the stuff from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything will be part of the core.

[pale wing]

Oh I should have mentioned I think, I stopped on D&D 3.5

[novel eagle]

Ahh. 5e will have some familiar bits, but it works fairly differently. It's not as feat-oriented, it's harder to get into a trap build.

[pale wing]

Can it be predicted when the 6th edition will come?

[novel eagle]

Sooooo that's a loaded question. Because WotC have hinted that they basically want to transition D&D closer to a service model, where they don't do full "editions" anymore, but keep tweaking the current system every few years. We may not ever get a 6e.

In fact, they don't officially call the current edition "5e." It's just "Dungeons & Dragons".

I'd say the new books coming out this year are a good place to jump in and try the new system.

[pale wing]

That's really interesting

Especially that they just call it Dungeons & Dragons now

[novel eagle]

https://comicbook.com/startrek/news/star-trek-adventures-second-edition-core-rulebook-strange-new-worlds-prodigy-starter-set-gen-con/

[steep narwhal]

https://csol.montecookgames.com/

[novel eagle]

Ooooh, he opened it?

I wasn't particularly impressed with the original iteration of the system, but this is more interesting.

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/fg27kxWKo2c?si=KOospjFXNd3vA2vf

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/dune-adventures-tabletop-rpg-modiphius-books

[steep narwhal]

Lol uses branding from the most recent films, uses artwork based on the 1984 film

[novel eagle]

I have a feeling the game got licensed before the film had even begun shooting.

[unreal oracle]

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/online-activities/the-lost-universe/

A tabletop adventure from NASA.

[lone widget]

...Huh.

[unreal oracle]

This adventure is designed for a party of 4-7 level 7-10 characters and is easily adaptable for your preferred tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) system.

[final wedge]

Space

[prime nimbus]

Wink wink DnD

[steep narwhal]

Well, it's kind of DnD, though on a quick skim I didn't really see anything that directly forces that on the players. It's weird that they provide a level guide, since very few numbers exist as hard rules, though terms like "skill check" and "DC" pop up and a d20 and d6 are used once each.

I kind of wish they had committed to it, but I think they didn't want to deal with the OGL or the intricacies of Creative Commona

[bold sinew]

the level guide roughly translates to "mid level characters"

ie, "whatever system you have, just run it with some mid-level characters in a normal-to-large group"

[lone widget]

Are...are they actually making a Lego D&D video game? https://fxtwitter.com/lego_group/status/1767234105333166452

I thought it was just Lego D&D sets, but now I'm wondering if it's a proper game.

[steep narwhal]

Hopefully

The Lego games are excellent

[final wedge]

You could probably make something out of the prefab stuff in the books yeah

[novel eagle]

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/1bdqvph/im_riley_roll20_founder_in_residence_lets_talk/

[pale wing]

Minecraft Dungeons but it's LEGO

[novel eagle]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/warhammer-fantasy-roleplay-enemy-within-more-cubicle7-books

[novel eagle]

https://youtu.be/Ve7lFJT2UoM?si=u-aXrTrw7UtnHUtT

[final wedge]

Thats one fancy orc

[prime nimbus]

My party are fighting this

[final wedge]

Big bird

[lone widget]

Big blind bird now. :P

[prime nimbus]

They have fought it off!

[steep narwhal]

Rocs fall everyone dies

[lone widget]

Every D&D campaign in a nutshell:

[steep narwhal]

[bold sinew]

checks out yeah

[sage fractal]

https://fixupx.com/lego_group/status/1770122056060833861?s=46

[lone widget]

Ah, so it is just sets. Oh well, it still looks awesome! I hope we someday get a Lego D&D video game.

[sage fractal]

360 dollars....

[lone widget]

Yeah, just saw the price. Jesus Christ...

It would go very well with the other Castle sets though, now that I think about it

The blacksmith, the castle, the market, etc.

[novel eagle]

Yeah, the specialty sets are usually expensive.

[lone widget]

Tell me about it. Worth it for the Ornithopter though.

Plus, the quality of the specialty sets is usually extremely good. They throw their best designers and engineers into the same room and tell them to create pure artistic masterpieces, and they manage it every single time.

[bold sinew]

https://natetreme.itch.io/mecha-dudes

new mech TTRPG discovered

the rules seem relatively simple

[novel eagle]

Rolling a 1 to succeed seems really harsh, NGL.

[steep narwhal]

I direct you to the second-to-last rule