D&D V6 - Edition jokes don't really make sense anymore - Games

Bleh, I'm facing a horrible feeling of D&D starvation. For the past few weeks we haven't had a game for either of the two I'm in due to a variety of reasons. It seems to be a common occurrence that the games wind up cancelled for something or the other. I've been considering taking another stab at online D&D, but joining a game with strangers is just off-putting.

[QUOTE=Crimor;51918792]You're getting your whores mixed up, Bunraku are the people brain washed with BTL's, not sexbots.[/QUOTE] Well, I mean for them to go into Combat sim instead of Sex Worker sim on the fly.

[QUOTE=ntzu;51918945]Can you play chess well yourself (well enough to emulate someone with 19 intelligence)?[/QUOTE] This is the easiest part actually, I've done it a lot over the years. Just have a good chess game in the background with an AI set to whatever you think will challenge (or crush) the players, then copy the moves your players make to the game and as the GM play whatever the AI does. You never tell them you're doing this though, there's no need—just don't be a shitlord and brag about your genius level chess skills after.

remember that really old post i made where i was talking about my party travelling with a necromancer BBEG? she finally got reveled and made a really big entrance "your party member has reveled her true necromancer ways and before her stands her entire army on the burning steps of the palace!" said Uundead army was: Two Orc warbosses and Orc raiding party a drider two shambeling mounds a gibbering mouther A FUCKING UNDEAD SILVER DRAGON roughly 1000 standard undead humonoids And the barbarian half orc who still loves her and has sworn to protect her. vs 5, level 4 players they tried to power through the army [B]WHHHHHHYYY[/B]

if you put an encounter in front of a party 9 out of 10 times they will attempt it regardless of how dangerous it looks, because the assumption is that either the encounter is winnable for them in some way or that losing the encounter is part of the story and something will occur to advance the plot the majority of players will not expect to be presented with an encounter they are not supposed to take part in

Yea, especially in heroic fantasy, there is a very strong expectation of either them being able to handle it, or that some manner of cavalry will arrive just when it seems like they might lose That and PC's despise running from fights unless it was already part of the plan, further reinforcing this tendency

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;51921755]remember that really old post i made where i was talking about my party travelling with a necromancer BBEG? she finally got reveled and made a really big entrance "your party member has reveled her true necromancer ways and before her stands her entire army on the burning steps of the palace!" said Uundead army was: Two Orc warbosses and Orc raiding party a drider two shambeling mounds a gibbering mouther A FUCKING UNDEAD SILVER DRAGON roughly 1000 standard undead humonoids And the barbarian half orc who still loves her and has sworn to protect her. vs 5, level 4 players they tried to power through the army [B]WHHHHHHYYY[/B][/QUOTE] What ended up happening?

The only instance I got my players to even 75% not fight the opposition when they're outmatched was when they saw a god straight up murder another one in front of them. And then the last guy got dropped into the void between dimensions for trying to fight her after literally everyone warned him in and out of game that it would not go well. To his credit he was doing exactly what his character would've done from the day he made him until the day he had to make a new one. Because barring a method of divine intervention (that isn't the god he mildly irritated) physically being in the void with him, he ain't getting out of that one. At least he doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe though, so he has all the time in the world.

[QUOTE=Archimedes;51918923]I'm spitballing ideas for a quest and could use some feedback. Here's the basics. Suggestions?[/QUOTE] Maybe someone managed to wrap the headband around the giant to reason their way out of being killed? [QUOTE=_Maverick_;51921755]remember that really old post i made where i was talking about my party travelling with a necromancer BBEG? she finally got reveled and made a really big entrance "your party member has reveled her true necromancer ways and before her stands her entire army on the burning steps of the palace!" said Uundead army was: Two Orc warbosses and Orc raiding party a drider two shambeling mounds a gibbering mouther A FUCKING UNDEAD SILVER DRAGON roughly 1000 standard undead humonoids And the barbarian half orc who still loves her and has sworn to protect her. vs 5, level 4 players they tried to power through the army [B]WHHHHHHYYY[/B][/QUOTE] Best thing to do is have the unwinnable encounter kill something/one established to be stronger than the party.

One idea I've heard about when it comes to unwinnable fights, or the party diving into any fight they see, is the use of "flags". The guy was talking about how when the party he was DMing for would look to start a fight that was not planned and fairly difficult, or beyond the scope of their abilities (when they would ignore the warnings), he would set a little red flag on the table. All it meant was that fight was effectively unscripted. While they still fought through sometimes (and one) more often than not they reconsidered. It's difficult (past a point) to get it across to players that fighting might not be the best idea with description alone.

I tend to mercilessly crush players when they make moves like that. Run, surrender, or cheat somehow. Then again, They're mostly WoD games, so being crushed under a bigger guy's heel is rather natural.

Another issue is that as a player, I'd feel bad leaving a fight someone had planned for us to do. It's not always obvious to one side or the other that a fight should or shouldn't happen. It can be really hard to convey one's intent correctly on either side of the table. Not running from an army does seem a little extreme, though. [editline]6th March 2017[/editline] But if they choose to fight and die, so it goes.

Yeah, you have to take your players' mindset and culture into consideration when crafting encounters, tailoring it for them but without removing player agency. Some people will pretty much always fight to the death even if it's clear they're really outmatched, they'll typically complain about how imbalanced the encounter was afterwards - people that tend to view TTRPGs as strategic puzzles will view a defeat as a shortcoming on their end or as the odds being stacked against them rather than the fact the encounter was one they were never intended to succeed at and would instead need to circumvent or just retreat from. [editline]7th March 2017[/editline] In my opinion mercilessly crushing people isn't really any fun for anyone unless you're a grognard masochist that thinks that Isle of the Ape, Tomb of Horrors or Castle Ravenloft is your idea of a good time. I personally don't have a lot of time for that "Gotcha!" style of GMing, in my previous experience an adversarial relationship between players and GM is complete poison to a good gaming atmosphere and culture.

[QUOTE=Ogopogo;51922534]One idea I've heard about when it comes to unwinnable fights, or the party diving into any fight they see, is the use of "flags". The guy was talking about how when the party he was DMing for would look to start a fight that was not planned and fairly difficult, or beyond the scope of their abilities (when they would ignore the warnings), he would set a little red flag on the table. All it meant was that fight was effectively unscripted. While they still fought through sometimes (and one) more often than not they reconsidered. It's difficult (past a point) to get it across to players that fighting might not be the best idea with description alone.[/QUOTE] He would literally put a tiny red flag on the table? Personally I don't really like the idea of knowing when my DM is going off book, or vice versa, it sorta kills the immersion to to think "the railroad doesn't want us to do this" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm being close minded, but I dunno, just doesn't seem right.

[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;51924415]Yeah, you have to take your players' mindset and culture into consideration when crafting encounters, tailoring it for them but without removing player agency. Some people will pretty much always fight to the death even if it's clear they're really outmatched, they'll typically complain about how imbalanced the encounter was afterwards - people that tend to view TTRPGs as strategic puzzles will view a defeat as a shortcoming on their end or as the odds being stacked against them rather than the fact the encounter was one they were never intended to succeed at and would instead need to circumvent or just retreat from. [editline]7th March 2017[/editline] In my opinion mercilessly crushing people isn't really any fun for anyone unless you're a grognard masochist that thinks that Isle of the Ape, Tomb of Horrors or Castle Ravenloft is your idea of a good time. I personally don't have a lot of time for that "Gotcha!" style of GMing, in my previous experience an adversarial relationship between players and GM is complete poison to a good gaming atmosphere and culture.[/QUOTE] See, that's actually a pretty relevant point when it came to the D&D 5e session I was playing in this recent Sunday. Our captured a traitor to the Sultan, then took him into the palace to get a reward. However, the thing about our party is a TL;DR, we were conspiring against the Sultan to get his most treasured artifact from him. We got into this harem place, and they offered fruit and wine- no big deal. My character didn't take either fruit or wine- he wasn't interested in pleasantries. The Sultan comes in, says "do you like the poison, my friends?" DM tells everyone to roll a Constitution Save. I ask why I did, because I didn't drink the articles he claimed that were poisoned- "The lipstick that the escort kissed you with is what was it, yes." And I got a bit miffed there, because not only was it a very hard DC Save (25, frankly [B]impossible[/B] for my own character and hard for the other 3 characters in there), but it was something I wasn't even given an opportunity to resist against (nor would I have a reason to in any normal case, because my character is [I]that kinda guy[/I]), and it kinda almost caused a 4 player death right then and there, as we basically watched the Sultan and his consorts interrogate us (we could still speak but were paralyzed otherwise) in what was described as a "cinematic cutscene" by the others not involved. I mean, thankfully, we were indirectly prepared, as both our Rogues were fortuitous enough to be outside and have our Sorcerer's familiar give them a bit of a tip on how the plan was going wrong, we weren't [I]out of play for long[/I] (about 40 minutes worth), and we weren't murdered immensely for falling for the trap, but it was one of those "eh" situations on my end. However, it resulted in some of the party who got caught to deflect lots of their antagonistic thoughts towards the DM, and not any of the good kind, which stressed our poor DM out. In the end, I applauded the DM's play of it all, as it actually gave us a very good reality check and also [I]rewarded[/I] the two rogues for appeasing their anti-social selves, giving them a chance to shine and break us out, but it was rather icky on the tongue in the moment. Worried that our game is going to go into some OoC-fighting about the scenario. And surprisingly enough, we didn't choose the "fight into death" scenario of trying to confront the Sultan in his homeground- we decided to actually [I]escape.[/I]

[QUOTE=MaxisOp;51925303]See, that's actually a pretty relevant point when it came to the D&D 5e session I was playing in this recent Sunday. Our captured a traitor to the Sultan, then took him into the palace to get a reward. However, the thing about our party is a TL;DR, we were conspiring against the Sultan to get his most treasured artifact from him. We got into this harem place, and they offered fruit and wine- no big deal. My character didn't take either fruit or wine- he wasn't interested in pleasantries. The Sultan comes in, says "do you like the poison, my friends?" DM tells everyone to roll a Constitution Save. I ask why I did, because I didn't drink the articles he claimed that were poisoned- "The lipstick that the escort kissed you with is what was it, yes." And I got a bit miffed there, because not only was it a very hard DC Save (25, frankly [B]impossible[/B] for my own character and hard for the other 3 characters in there), but it was something I wasn't even given an opportunity to resist against (nor would I have a reason to in any normal case, because my character is [I]that kinda guy[/I]), and it kinda almost caused a 4 player death right then and there, as we basically watched the Sultan and his consorts interrogate us (we could still speak but were paralyzed otherwise) in what was described as a "cinematic cutscene" by the others not involved. I mean, thankfully, we were indirectly prepared, as both our Rogues were fortuitous enough to be outside and have our Sorcerer's familiar give them a bit of a tip on how the plan was going wrong, we weren't [I]out of play for long[/I] (about 40 minutes worth), and we weren't murdered immensely for falling for the trap, but it was one of those "eh" situations on my end. However, it resulted in some of the party who got caught to deflect lots of their antagonistic thoughts towards the DM, and not any of the good kind, which stressed our poor DM out. In the end, I applauded the DM's play of it all, as it actually gave us a very good reality check and also [I]rewarded[/I] the two rogues for appeasing their anti-social selves, giving them a chance to shine and break us out, but it was rather icky on the tongue in the moment. Worried that our game is going to go into some OoC-fighting about the scenario. And surprisingly enough, we didn't choose the "fight into death" scenario of trying to confront the Sultan in his homeground- we decided to actually [I]escape.[/I][/QUOTE] This guys' poison was brewed in the heavens if it's DC 25. At that point it's obvious you're just trying to knock out the party so why even bother with a save. It's the same DC as a Solar's spells.

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;51921755]remember that really old post i made where i was talking about my party travelling with a necromancer BBEG? she finally got reveled and made a really big entrance "your party member has reveled her true necromancer ways and before her stands her entire army on the burning steps of the palace!" said Uundead army was: Two Orc warbosses and Orc raiding party a drider two shambeling mounds a gibbering mouther A FUCKING UNDEAD SILVER DRAGON roughly 1000 standard undead humonoids And the barbarian half orc who still loves her and has sworn to protect her. vs 5, level 4 players they tried to power through the army [B]WHHHHHHYYY[/B][/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Mellowbloom;51921783]if you put an encounter in front of a party 9 out of 10 times they will attempt it regardless of how dangerous it looks, because the assumption is that either the encounter is winnable for them in some way or that losing the encounter is part of the story and something will occur to advance the plot the majority of players will not expect to be presented with an encounter they are not supposed to take part in[/QUOTE] I had a Fallout game once where the very first session was, as you might expect, intended to kind of catapult them into the events of the game. They were on a train running through a wasteland and got stopped by a gang/faction turf war going on at the junction yard. The train gets hit with an explosive, the party piles out of their carriage, and I describe the fight taking place across the yard with an emphasis on the unusually well-equipped groups duking it out with plasma weaponry and fancy gear and tech they'd never seen before, all that kind of shit. The very first thing the first player does is draws his rifle and opens up on the nearest target. No idea who these people are, what they're equipped with, or even where the party is at, he just starts shooting. He got his ass handed to him and the other party members were able to drag him off and heal him but it just... absolutely astounded me. He later said he thought I basically put them there to be attacked. I've told this story to other people and they agreed he was being ridiculous but some of the comments I'm reading here kind of put it in a little more context.

[QUOTE=Spacewolf;51921801]What ended up happening?[/QUOTE] ended up having to have be rescued i don't MIND characters dying, but this wasn't mean't to be a battle it was meant to just show off what they'll be facing later. so one of the parties most [B]HATED [/B]enemies gives them a way out and they finally take it after about 6 rounds of combat

The whole too tough to win fight thing reminds me of when our party was split up in a city doing our own tasks, not somewhere you'd expect any major fight. Then, our DM sent like some NPCs he made that were like 2 levels above us to "assassinate" us. Or rather, like 3 of us out of 6. The fight was made for all 6 of us, but even though we were split he still sent the fight after them. I was the party's healer and I wasn't around, so the NPCs up and near slaughtered them. We had to go and get two of them resurrected because they had died. We had no reason to suspect this would happen, and the DM did it just willingly while he knew our party was separate and without any healer or help. He later retconned the fight and need to resurrect because he realized how absolutely BS it was, but it was still pretty shitty. Even lamer watching a few members of the party get murdered and have nothing to do while it's going on.

[QUOTE=TectoImprov;51924843]He would literally put a tiny red flag on the table? Personally I don't really like the idea of knowing when my DM is going off book, or vice versa, it sorta kills the immersion to to think "the railroad doesn't want us to do this" or something along those lines. Maybe I'm being close minded, but I dunno, just doesn't seem right.[/QUOTE] It's not just off the book (he said he was quite fine going off the book or the routes he planned) but going off the book in a fashion which left them in situations beyond their capabilities, or at the extremes assuming everything went absolutely correct. He sort of meant it as a sort of sixth sense/sense of unease/hesitance for the characters (which is sometimes hard to describe or portray), not that they shouldn't fight or pursue their plan, but they should make sure of their course of action before doing so.

Ok guys I'm starting up a homebrew 5e campaign most likely at the end of this month. I've been watching Samurai Jack lately and I wanna start off session 0 with the party being thrown into the future by the Warock Nicolaj Helfend who somehow made a pact with the primal being of time (elder pact with some modified time bending spells.) He'll trick the party to clear out a dungeon with him to uncover the site of ancient power where they'll (hopefully) try to sabotage his ritual to open a portal to the prison plane of Yllth'khiraach the eternal where he slumbers beyond Time. When they interrupt the ritual a rouge blast of eldritch energy will hurl them 20 years into the future (Where my evil is law!) And now they gotta get back (Cue Samurai Jack theme.) This will start the Campaign proper. The world is now corrupted by strange powers. I'm gonna aim at a lovecraftian Innsmouth type setting with eldritch corruption seeping into the land and people. The Warlock Nicolaj is now the master of the land, and they must uncover his old notes and research to recreate the accident that threw them through time, and reverse it, to undo the future and save the past. The laylines of the stars only align for this every ten years and they have to work against the clock to not miss their window of opportunity. What do you guys think?

[QUOTE=xeo xeo;51926784]Ok guys I'm starting up a homebrew 5e campaign most likely at the end of this month. I've been watching Samurai Jack lately and I wanna start off session 0 with the party being thrown into the future by the Warock Nicolaj Helfend who somehow made a pact with the primal being of time (elder pact with some modified time bending spells.) He'll trick the party to clear out a dungeon with him to uncover the site of ancient power where they'll (hopefully) try to sabotage his ritual to open a portal to the prison plane of Yllth'khiraach the eternal where he slumbers beyond Time. When they interrupt the ritual a rouge blast of eldritch energy will hurl them 20 years into the future (Where my evil is law!) And now they gotta get back (Cue Samurai Jack theme.) This will start the Campaign proper. The world is now corrupted by strange powers. I'm gonna aim at a lovecraftian Innsmouth type setting with eldritch corruption seeping into the land and people. The Warlock Nicolaj is now the master of the land, and they must uncover his old notes and research to recreate the accident that threw them through time, and reverse it, to undo the future and save the past. The laylines of the stars only align for this every ten years and they have to work against the clock to not miss their window of opportunity. What do you guys think?[/QUOTE] It's more involved than how it went down the first game I ever played D&D. We were all gathered in the tavern introducing ourselves and I decided to detect magic. I detected something magical behind the bar and the party's all inquisitive about it and shit and eventually we get the barkeep to give us his magic box and pry it open. Sucks us into the astral plane where we float around for a while before coming back to find X amount of years had passed. No but it sounds good though. I might have increased the amount of time into the future personally (maybe like a century)

[QUOTE=Glent;51926795] I might have increased the amount of time into the future personally (maybe like a century)[/QUOTE] Yeah I know, but I want this to be the starting arc of a larger campaign. I'm gonna introduce the older versions of NPCs to the party and when they finally get back they'll meet the younger versions and hopefully already be endeared to them. If I throw them too far I'm worried that they'll feel that the entire first arc was a waste, because if everything goes well, everything will be reset when they get back to the original timeline

Quick Session Recap of Tonights Game. It's long and complicated so here's the gist: [quote]Our party is underwater, and see a group of good merfolk attack a ruin guarded by a group of Marrow. After the Marrow kill the attackers, the sole surviving Marrow is jumped by our party with our Sorcerer casting Charm Person. Our DM diden't realize that this spell should have not worked on an Abomination, and the Marrow fails its saves. The creature happily believes we are a band of cult initiates and brings us inside alongside the body of the Merfolk Prince. Here's where things get weird. The Marrow rolls two nat 20s (19 with its -1 cha) when it comes time to explain to the other Marrow guards that we are new cultists. We are toured through their dungeon, with the whole party too nervous to break the facade. Eventually we reach the point of no return where the Marrow delivers the Merfolk Prince to a Sea Hag, a Human Cult Leader, and two other Marrow. The hag leaves with the body, and around this time the spell fades. We panic. The Fighter pulls out the Rod of Rulership he found previously and uses it on the three Marrow. They all fail their saves and now believe that he is their trusted ruler. The Fighter gestures to the Cult Leader and shouts traitor with his one breath of air. The Cult Leader doesn't last a round. The Sorcerer, acting as the Fighters translator with his Alter Self spell, informs the Marrow that their human allies are planning on betraying them. The Marrow are told to go cleanse the dungeon of them while the party proceeds to enter the Hags lair, finish her and her personal guard off, and then sneak out in the chaos using their one use of Dust of Disappearance. We return the Prince, foster a burgeoning alliance with the Merfolk, and retire to the land with the intent of never going back to the goddamn ocean any time soon. The End.[/quote] We all had a laugh about it afterwards, and the DM lamented that if he'd realized the Charm Person spell should have failed we would have gone through the dungeon as normal.

I believe players should stick to character as tightly as they can (without ruining it for others) I usually have backup plans if they don't want to do x so... I'll gently remind players that yes, I will put up enemies they'll likely loose to. Just because it's an option doesn't mean it's a good idea. I feel that, if players feel like they need to forget their character and drag themselves along my plot, I've failed as a game master.

I got invited last minute to a new D&D game by the Retired Navy Vet and it was fun, for the most part. The Navy Vet was playing his usual "Honorable, but can be a scumbag" schitck, with a snazzy new "Dwarf racist against elves" swing on it. His racist comments against the elf wizard in the party made up like 60-70% of his banter and I can't deny that it does get slightly annoying a bit. I'm playing a Half-Elf rogue who was formerly a spy for some place I haven't figured, but then things turned into Burn Notice and now he's lost it all. Currently we're just playing the Lost Mines to help the other people get adjusted and stuff, and it's sorta hard to go through it without pointing out the stuff that I already know from playing it before. But, all in all, it was some fun. I'll be meeting with the DM before the game next Wednesday to bring my rogue up to 2nd level because this group had already played a single game before this one, and they needed a rogue. Now the main thing to do inbetween now and then is get my figure painted and ready.

Sometimes people take time to flesh out their characters so a lot of new characters are initially one dimensional. Heard headed dwarf jackass is usually a really common one. If it gets really irritating or toxic just bring it up to him and ask to tone it down a little. Try to have fun with it if you can. There's a lot of ways you can engage with a player like that and maybe either have some fun at his expense ("If it would sooth your tone, I would happily purchase you some Elven robes like our Mage friend has, as you seem to covet them so. I think you'd look rather dignified in them.") or just generally give him a little shit back like a haughty elf would. Glad to hear you're having fun!

hey fellas. you might remember my last week's story: the barbarian, named SMURGA, raged because he lost his beard by a mild magic surge, so he proceeded to beat the sorcerer up. the party could not stop him non-lethally because he rolled really well on his saving throws, so they eventually put him down for good. well, this saturday's session will start with them looting the barbarian's corpse. so i figured i'll throw in a folded up parchment, which when opened will reveal the following children's drawing: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ydNlLYQ.png[/t] i expect remorse

[QUOTE=MenteR;51934086]hey fellas. you might remember my last week's story: the barbarian, named SMURGA, raged because he lost his beard by a mild magic surge, so he proceeded to beat the sorcerer up. the party could not stop him non-lethally because he rolled really well on his saving throws, so they eventually put him down for good. well, this saturday's session will start with them looting the barbarian's corpse. so i figured i'll throw in a folded up parchment, which when opened will reveal the following children's drawing: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ydNlLYQ.png[/t] [B]i expect remorse[/B][/QUOTE] I highly doubt you are going to get remorse, just sticky fingers.

So this sandbox dnd game my group colletivly runs and plays in has taken its first step up. One player has amassed a huge amount of wealth and can feasibly build a castle with enough gold to staff it. I also pointed out he could literally just buy out the little frontier town we start it and become the lord of this region. So... do you guys have any sources you reference for the structure of medieval lordships and nobility.