Pens and Papers

[Ruki]

Dragon Heist takes some work, but it has lots of options for homebrewing some things (all of chapter 2 was that for me). But the villains don't really come up too often... and there's no actual heist! So I am going to have my players do a heist on the Xanathar to get one of the keys to unlock the vault. After we're done with this, I'm thinking of starting one of the other campaigns (Avernus or Frostmaiden? Maybe Stormking. Who knows!)at level 5 so we can keep the characters.

 

How's Frostmaiden? That one looked cool. 

[Chris the Human]

On 01/12/2020 at 14:11, thepunkrockicon said:

So in a couple weeks or so, I'm going to be embarking on what is definitely my most ambitious campaign to date. As a DM, it's been a lot of crazy work, but I'm thinking almost everything can be reasonably reused for a different group. I just have some long term ideas that I really hope we play long enough to have come to fruition

What's the premise? I ran a super involved, low fantasy, high-RP game set in an East Asian setting last year that ran for eighteen months. It was a blast and a really nice change from swords & sorcery, but damned if it wasn't a lot of work to run.

[Chris the Human]

36 minutes ago, Rukaru Shida said:

How's Frostmaiden? That one looked cool. 

Just saw this part.

Frostmaiden is very cool, but horribly structured. Its sandbox style isn't really conducive to players actually finding or connectin with the central narrative, which means a lot more DM work.

It's also hindered by the fact the apparent main villain is somebody you deal with in chapter five of a seven chapter book, which causes a bit of a weird transition in the middle.

[Ruki]

21 minutes ago, Chris the Human said:

Just saw this part.

Frostmaiden is very cool, but horribly structured. Its sandbox style isn't really conducive to players actually finding or connectin with the central narrative, which means a lot more DM work.

It's also hindered by the fact the apparent main villain is somebody you deal with in chapter five of a seven chapter book, which causes a bit of a weird transition in the middle.

Oh, weird. What happens in 6 and 7?

[Chris the Human]

1 minute ago, Rukaru Shida said:

Oh, weird. What happens in 6 and 7?

Once the players defeat Auril, there's a bunch of stuff about a half-buried Netherese city.

There are essentially three primary antagonists: a duergar trying to build a dragon, Auril, and this creepy city. It's all rather freeform, which is a bit weird when it is sold as a big battle against Auril.

[Meacon Keaton]

11 campaigns is unreal. I play in one and a half (one-night only games, every month or so) and that’s me just playing. But if you’re getting paid for it, there’s not much better ways to make some dough.

[Chris the Human]

23 minutes ago, Meacon Keaton said:

11 campaigns is unreal. I play in one and a half (one-night only games, every month or so) and that’s me just playing. But if you’re getting paid for it, there’s not much better ways to make some dough.

It has definitely made my year much more bearable, both financially and to help with the isolation. My wife and I came here as part of our honeymoon and got stranded, and while we've made a few friends, multiple lockdowns and our tight budget have meant staying in is a necessary evil. Having a D&D game 6 out of 7 days helps with that.

[thepunkrockicon]

13 hours ago, Chris the Human said:

What's the premise? I ran a super involved, low fantasy, high-RP game set in an East Asian setting last year that ran for eighteen months. It was a blast and a really nice change from swords & sorcery, but damned if it wasn't a lot of work to run.

That sounds interesting as hell. I don't want to give away too many details on my game, cuz a couple people on the board are playing in it, but the basic premise is that the PC's are the Senior Officers of an army for hire/mercenary guild during a contract to kill the personal Artificer of a tyrant who is slowly conquering the world. I've always wanted to run a mercenary centric campaign, with the main characters being in charge of essentially a large army, where they can delegate out other contracts for lower ranking members, and MCDM's The Chain stream gave me a lot of inspiration to work it into it's own narrative.

 

The most interesting part of the game is probably that I'm actually running 2 versions of it simultaneously. It's likely gonna be starting sometime mid to late January, but I'm running one version for a few offline friends who are relatively new to D&D, and then I'm running it for some EWB peeps and a couple friends I have that are more experienced at the game. I'm gonna run the same game, with the same challenges and combats, and make YouTube campaign diaries discussing the differences. I'm planning on letting the campaigns gradually change based on the different decisions of the two parties, which I think will lead to two very different experiences.

[Ruki]

Accidentally almost did a tpk. Action economy is busted.

[Chris the Human]

5 hours ago, Rukaru Shida said:

Accidentally almost did a tpk. Action economy is busted.

CR is busted too.

Almost TPKed one of my ToA parties with a 'hard' random encounter (their only encounter of the day) when two ankylosaurus zombies and two girallon zombies almost massacred them.

Wizard got critically hit for 37 damage while down to 9 hit points for an instant-kill, two others were unconscious, and I had to have an NPC intervene to avoid a complete disaster.

[Ruki]

Replaced one player who kinda just smoked bombed.... new person is already super enthusiastic and into it.

 

Just ended the session as they are infiltrating Xanathar’s lair to steal a goldfish bowl. A level 5 party.... in a Beholder's lair. This is gonna go well! It's supposed to be a heist, not a dungeon crawl.

[Ruki]

On 27/12/2020 at 23:16, Ruki Returns said:

Replaced one player who kinda just smoked bombed.... new person is already super enthusiastic and into it.

 

Just ended the session as they are infiltrating Xanathar’s lair to steal a goldfish bowl. A level 5 party.... in a Beholder's lair. This is gonna go well! It's supposed to be a heist, not a dungeon crawl.

They actually did REALLY well. Avoided most of the dangerous rooms, only had 3 combats. One where they destroyed a skeleton minotaur, one where they obliterated a high level mage (it was CR7!) and a grell, and one with a CR9 fighter... which dropped one of their party in a single hit. WHo they then abandoned to escape with the fishbowl. 

 

Soon, the assault on Trollskull Manor. And then delving into the vault!

[Meacon Keaton]

My group has suggested I DM a one-off session (so four-ish hours). I only just started playing last December, so this could potentially be a train wreck. Luckily it’d be just a one night train wreck.

[Ruki]

 DMing is hard, but rewarding. It's mostly just trying to keep track of everything while making sure things flow smoothly. 

[Ruki]

@Chris the Human, any experience with Storm King's Thunder? My party has decided to move onto that after the finale of Waterdeep next week (ended tonight as they laid eyes on the 500k gold and the dragon in dwarf disguise).

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Traveller continues with much enjoyment. We're close to the Rift (a mysterious part of space, an important part of various long campaigns) and are about to meet with the corporation who are going to hire us to go on the big campaign after some flirting with some adventures nearby (including a gross body horror gloop on a cursed planet that we travelled to on a Rifthauler previously).

 

The last few sessions have been based on a mining planet, very much a "hive of scum and villainy". Topped up weapons and equipment and having some scuffles. Good times.

 

 

We're also rolling up some dnd 5e characters to give our Traveller GM a chance to play for once. The plan is to play dnd every now and again as a fun "night off" for him. My daughter will join us from time to time. She went halfling druid, our Traveller GM went human paladin, other friend went dragonborn bard so I took half elf rogue.

Set-up feels both fiddlier and less enjoyable than Traveller but I think I like what I've gone for with my rogue. I much prefer sci-fi to fantasy but it'll be fun to go drinking in a tavern and stealing from dodgy blacksmiths no doubt.

[OctoberRaven]

I really need to find a group willing to play on Sunday or Monday nights. I miss having a tabletop night. Playing CP2077 has really given me an itch to play Shadowrun in particular but I'd be up for w/e really.

[Chris the Human]

On 18/01/2021 at 11:47, Ruki Returns said:

@Chris the Human, any experience with Storm King's Thunder? My party has decided to move onto that after the finale of Waterdeep next week (ended tonight as they laid eyes on the 500k gold and the dragon in dwarf disguise).

It is one I haven't had a chance to play around with yet, sadly!

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I just launched a West Marches game a few weeks ago. Started with five players doing a single one-shot into the wilderness. Now I've got 22 players, running 3-4 sessions of adventures a week, and loving it. Something really fun about a player-driven, open world rather than the rails of a campaign.

[Ruki]

22 players? That sounds unwieldy.

[OctoberRaven]

and yet, probably still has shorter combat than some HERO encounters I've played.