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

[QUOTE=plunger435;52641806]200 is a little expensive for a simple dice tray tbh[/QUOTE] Excuse you it was 250 for a dice tray and holder with magnets! I don't regret it at all but yeah the price hurts. I even did their lottery which is actually cheaper than buying those two seperately... Oh well at least I can roll in style

so me and my DM friend are wondering, and I figure it'd be worth asking people who might know from experience; is paying the ten bucks for a Roll20 subscription worth the money? are any of the features really worthwhile?

[QUOTE=TWKUK;52642250]so me and my DM friend are wondering, and I figure it'd be worth asking people who might know from experience; is paying the ten bucks for a Roll20 subscription worth the money? are any of the features really worthwhile?[/QUOTE] In my opinion and as someone who has both DMed for and is a player on roll20, yes for the dynamic lighting alone. It's easier to do complex rooms or cave systems than fog of war, plus you can add tension with it if the party breaks line of sight with each other.

[QUOTE=plunger435;52641806]200 is a little expensive for a simple dice tray tbh[/QUOTE] It's cool, but it's also like... really easy woodworking. Like intro to woodworking level stuff. Purpleheart is pretty nice wood though.

[QUOTE=TWKUK;52642250]so me and my DM friend are wondering, and I figure it'd be worth asking people who might know from experience; is paying the ten bucks for a Roll20 subscription worth the money? are any of the features really worthwhile?[/QUOTE] I mainly use it for the API scripts and bigger storage space. If you think you would use the features, then yes it's very much worth it

Have this little gem plucked from /r/dnd. [img]https://i.redd.it/4agto5oqmgjz.png[/img]

So with the 30th session of my DnD 5e campaign, I finished the stream layout that I posted earlier this week in time for today. [url]http://twitch.tv/sax850[/url] plz do check it out and give me feedback

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;52643042]Have this little gem plucked from /r/dnd. [img]https://i.redd.it/4agto5oqmgjz.png[/img][/QUOTE] That owner is such a tool, lol. Its 4th edition D&D. Sure its out of print, but its not like they burned all copies of one of the bestselling RPG systems of all time. I dont even like 4E, but dont call your customer an idiot for expecting you to have it.

Here's the VOD for the session incase people didn't catch it live. [URL]https://www.twitch.tv/videos/171941490[/URL] [editline]3rd September 2017[/editline] fuck my merge, my bad. [t]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/292009980310323200/353984594384519168/unknown.png[/t] Here's an art based on a thing that happen in the session.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52643934]That owner is such a tool, lol. Its 4th edition D&D. Sure its out of print, but its not like they burned all copies of one of the bestselling RPG systems of all time. I dont even like 4E, but dont call your customer an idiot for expecting you to have it.[/QUOTE] so they should, what, scrounge in the garbage bins for some extra copies? They can't get new copies of the game, [I]its not in print anymore[/I]. That's like saying carrot farmers are stupid idiots for not bringing corn to the farmer's market.

So I love my DM and all the work he puts in, but it seems like he's been out to fuckin murder us since day 1, no holds barred. As a level 3 party w/ 4 PCs, in one fight we went up against 2 dire wolves, 2 bugbears, 2 orc berserkers, and an orc shaman. That's a CR of 13 for a level 3 party. We nearly died and he must have been fudging the rolls to prevent us from dying because the berserkers were missing an awful lot of their attacks. I'm the cleric so I was forced to heal people for all my turns (and I don't have selective channeling because I want to spec into brewkeeper later and my feats are precious). Then last night as a level 3 party of 5 PCs, we fought two minotaurs, two bugbears, and a greataxe Orc. That's a CR of 13 again. I was once again forced to heal party members for every turn because 1 round was enough to reduce 3/5 party members to less than half health. He seemed offput by the fact that I was convinced that we were going to die. We didn't, so I imagine he again was probably fudging rolls. We only end up having one encounter per night because each one takes like an hour. That's a combo of new players and I think how difficult every encounter has been. I asked him about it and it turns out he's been adding our CR together instead of using the average. He's also a fan of Matt Colville (who says CR is bunk) so he's been trying to scale down higher level monsters for us to fight. He's new to DM'ing so he doesn't have the feel for how to scale down yet, I think. I'm hoping that he might stick to the CR system a bit closer now that he realized he's been nearly murdering us every session. What kind of enemy groups should we be fighting at level 3 in Pathfinder? How many separate fights should we have per 3-4hr session? We're hoping not to be close to death every encounter and move through them a bit faster. It feels like a pacing problem... if every fight is near TPK, then no fight feels particularly epic at all.

You should tell him that not every fight needs to be a full-fledged encounter and definitely not every fight should be near TPK. Fighting doesn't have to serve the story, but there should be a story to give context for the fighting. If you are constantly fighting, it would likely lead to players not really understanding why they are fighting so much. Depending on the setting, you should likely be running into a lot of lower level folk who you might get into brawls with etc. Some enemies might choose to run away after part of the battle. Somethings here to read about: [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/63tqar/reflection_on_running_better_combats_also_howdy/[/url] For myself, I really just guesstimate which monsters to put in the encounter. What I do however, is if I'm worried about the battle being to easy I will hold some effects or creatures in reserve to splice into the combat mid way. If I am worried about the battle being too hard, then I will hold some beneficial terrain elements or inter-monster dynamics in reserve. I just try to give myself leeway in either direction, so that I can adjust on the fly (partially because I can never be certain whether I'll have 2 players or 5 players to worry about). If we have a legit fight with multiple enemies, it can take the entire 3 hour session. I have had a fight take 6 hours before. The players didn't seem to mind. Partially because the enemy was a boss they had been working their way to for months, but also because I try to add a couple unique elements to each battle (usually something partially magical) and occasionally stages. Occasionally there are battles where they have talked their way out of mid-fight and saved tons of time. Something I have been experimenting with lately has been combining puzzles and combat together, so people can straight up fight, but they can also think up strategies to solve secondary objectives to make the fight easier or other things. Oh, and mix in random non-combat challenges. For instance, my players spent an hour frantically healing, stabilizing, and digging out 2 of them from a big pile of boulders which they accidentally dumped on themselves. It was a hairs-width from killing half the party, and I don't know if we have ever had a funnier or more intense moment as everyone rolled 2 or 3 crit fails. -- On a different note, my Bag of Holding filled with Giant Spiders trap went well...

[QUOTE=Jrose14;52647333]so they should, what, scrounge in the garbage bins for some extra copies? They can't get new copies of the game, [I]its not in print anymore[/I]. That's like saying carrot farmers are stupid idiots for not bringing corn to the farmer's market.[/QUOTE] Youre missing my point. Im not saying they should carry 4E. Im just saying they shouldnt call a customer an idiot for expecting them to have it. And theres a lot were not seeing in that review. People dont just leave negative reviews for lack of inventory. Almost certainly the owner and the employees are elitist know it all twats like they are at so many local game stores.

In my last session, there were anomalies (ala Stalker) that would enchant a random piece of equipment causing it to become alive and aggressive as well as anomalies that would teleport you randomly up to 10 feet in any direction (including into walls and stuff). The wizard in the party had that magic bag that allows you to randomly summon a small beast. He got a small cat, which walked out of the bag. He then proceeded to make the air ahead of him smell of fish and guide the cat around to be used to "sniff" out anomalies. Meanwhile, a more brash character just took off, grabbed the cat to pet it, and somehow got lucky enough to avoid 4 anomalies before stopping. The wizard chased after to retrieve his cat, but didn't follow the exact path. What happened after was that the brash character accidentally stepped into a teleporting anomaly, got shot into the air and landed on the cat, squishing it quite thoroughly. The wizard ran forward to scoop up the cat, but stepped into an enchanting anomaly. I rolled the dice and it ended up enchanting his gloves right as he picked up the cat. The gloves became alive and angry and proceeded to start forcing the wizard to punch himself in the face... while still holding the squished cat. Another character's armour became alive and he had to start punching himself in the chest to "beat the demons" out so to speak. We had to think for a second whether the living armour would have an AC or not...

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52647457]Youre missing my point. Im not saying they should carry 4E. Im just saying they shouldnt call a customer an idiot for expecting them to have it. And theres a lot were not seeing in that review. People dont just leave negative reviews for lack of inventory. Almost certainly the owner and the employees are elitist know it all twats like they are at so many local game stores.[/QUOTE] Have you ever worked in a customer facing role? People will leave negative reviews because they didn't like your hairstyle let alone because you don't stock something that's 5 years out of production.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52647457] And theres a lot were not seeing in that review. People dont just leave negative reviews for lack of inventory.[/QUOTE] Have you ever worked in retail?

[QUOTE=UzumakaiPatch;52647535]Have you ever worked in a customer facing role? People will leave negative reviews because they didn't like your hairstyle let alone because you don't stock something that's 5 years out of production.[/QUOTE] Fair enough. But even still. I wouldn't call the customer an idiot for expecting something that it would not be unreasonable for them to carry. All a comment like this does is push non-gamers further away from the community. Not everyone has a detailed knowledge of what or what should not be in a game store. Calling them an idiot for expecting them to know everything is insane.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52647556]Fair enough. But even still. I wouldn't call the customer an idiot for expecting something that it would not be unreasonable for them to carry.[/QUOTE] Again, how exactly is it reasonable to expect a brick-and-mortar games store to stock books for a system that went out of print 5 years ago?

It's not like you can't order shit on amazon either, especially outdated, out of print books. 4e is recent enough you can probably still get good deals on it too, unlike older editions where they're becoming collector's items (which always skyrockets the price to hell)

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;52647573]Again, how exactly is it reasonable to expect a brick-and-mortar games store to stock books for a system that went out of print 5 years ago?[/QUOTE] I'm saying it's not unreasonable to think a games store would carry any edition of D&D. The customer might not know what's up regarding how out of print it is. Not everyone can be total dorks like us and be totally up to date about what the newest edition is. It's like going to McDonalds and ordering a McRib a few months after it's been out of stock. Sure, it's not unreasonable for McD's not to carry it, but it's not unreasonable to believe they'd have it in stock if you've only been to McDonalds while they were carrying the McRib. Ya get me? I'm not saying the customer is right here. Far from it. I'm saying the store owner is wrong for calling him an idiot.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52647749]I'm saying it's not unreasonable to think a games store would carry any edition of D&D. The customer might not know what's up regarding how out of print it is. Not everyone can be total dorks like us and be totally up to date about what the newest edition is. It's like going to McDonalds and ordering a McRib a few months after it's been out of stock. Sure, it's not unreasonable for McD's not to carry it, but it's not unreasonable to believe they'd have it in stock if you've only been to McDonalds while they were carrying the McRib. Ya get me? I'm not saying the customer is right here. Far from it. I'm saying the store owner is wrong for calling him an idiot.[/QUOTE] It's more like the customer went in expecting a McRib didn't see it on the menu and then instead of asking about it decided to camp outside the Maccie's telling everyone how shit this particular McDonald's is because it wasn't on the menu.

[QUOTE=BrickInHead;52647337] We only end up having one encounter per night because each one takes like an hour. That's a combo of new players and I think how difficult every encounter has been. I asked him about it and it turns out he's been adding our CR together instead of using the average. He's also a fan of Matt Colville (who says CR is bunk) so he's been trying to scale down higher level monsters for us to fight. He's new to DM'ing so he doesn't have the feel for how to scale down yet, I think. I'm hoping that he might stick to the CR system a bit closer now that he realized he's been nearly murdering us every session..[/QUOTE] If he is planning out stuff in advance, he could look into using a website like kobold fight club. 2 Dire wolves alone is a medium difficultly encounter according to the rulebook way of calculating difficulty. What he gave you (assuming I'm looking at the correct entries) would be just shy of a deadly fight for a party of 4 level 7 characters.

Hey everyone, I'm looking for two more players for a shorter or potentially longer S.T.A.L.K.E.R. based tabletop campaign in Roll20 using a currently-in-progress 100% homebrew document. Game will be held every Friday starting at 18:00 UTC. Schedule is negotiable if everyone matches. You can find the current rulebook and data listed here: [url]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UHQO7aZZ60WGye8Q_Xtqg04DcaqAFp39Hi4Nt3zadiM/edit?usp=sharing[/url] Further details and links will be provided through personal contact. If You are interested, please message me either via FP private messages, Steam( [URL]http://steamcommunity.com/id/croguy/[/URL] ), or through Discord (croguy#2782)

[QUOTE=croguy;52647878] You can find the current rulebook and data listed here: [url]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UHQO7aZZ60WGye8Q_Xtqg04DcaqAFp39Hi4Nt3zadiM/edit?usp=sharing[/url][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Small vodka[/QUOTE] Unacceptable for any Stalker expedition.

[QUOTE=gufu;52647955]Unacceptable for any Stalker expedition.[/QUOTE] Yeah tbh it's just for tight inventories. Always buy the large one.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52647457]Youre missing my point. Im not saying they should carry 4E. Im just saying they shouldnt call a customer an idiot for expecting them to have it. And theres a lot were not seeing in that review. People dont just leave negative reviews for lack of inventory. Almost certainly the owner and the employees are elitist know it all twats like they are at so many local game stores.[/QUOTE] Your view of the subject is as narrow and myopic as the review, seeing as you don't know either parties, and the game hasn't been in print for YEARS. "It's my personal favorite" isn't a compelling reason to stifle production lines, but oh hey social media and unlimited criticism text fields. [quote] endless 3rd level murder hobos [/quote] Your DM needs to do three things since he has no idea what he's doing. 1. Observe a low level gaming session as neither party member nor DM and examine what works and what doesn't. 2. There are shit tons of leveled encounter lists on the interwebs for ever major system, and there are probably even sample encounters from anecdotal or play by play stories to go over. 3. Plan an entire encounter with [b]no combat[/b], and plan for that have[I] enough engaging content to take up an entire evening.[/I] If they have to throw combat at you every instance of possible gaming, you're and they are going get bored rather quickly.

Because I might be starting to run my own D&D games soon, my dad got me the 3rd party D&D rulebook "Ebonclad" for my birthday. It's all about thieving and assassination and stuff. It's pretty interesting, and will make a great addition to any theft-based campaign.

[QUOTE=27X;52648549]Your view of the subject is as narrow and myopic as the review, seeing as you don't know either parties, and the game hasn't been in print for YEARS. "It's my personal favorite" isn't a compelling reason to stifle production lines, but oh hey social media and unlimited criticism text fields.[/quote] For fucks sake. Please read my comments on this site. Everyone seems to think I'm saying the customer was right to leave a negative review that just said "You should have 4E." I'm simply saying that the owner was WRONG to call him an idiot. We don't know the full story, for sure, but I've read counter-arguments by businesses in which I agreed with them, but their snarky wording and overly sarcastic language seriously turned me off. If the owner posted that entire thing but left out the last sentence, hell, just left out the word 'idiot', I'd be fully on board with him. I know it's just one word, but it totally changes the tone of his post.

[QUOTE=27X;52648549]Your view of the subject is as narrow and myopic as the review.[/QUOTE] You have this amazing ability to say things I agree with but in a way that makes me feel I should completely change my viewpoint.

It's just unprofessional. Making fun of rude and stupid customers in the employee circles is one thing, but it's another entirely to make fun of them to their (metaphorical) face. This is coming from someone that works retail. I'd be fired if I started insulting customers even if they were rude to me first because you need an air of professionalism with a job.