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

[QUOTE=DeVotchKa;53030259]I've been talking with a friend about settings and tropes and I've come to realize that while I love the "lost technology/ancient civilization" kind of tropes, I have one glaring, serious issue with them and that's that there's very few of them that actually advance as civilizations. The only one that Ivan really think of off the top of my head, though I'm sure more will be added or suggested, is Mass Effect. While none of the species in that universe really understand Prothean technology or anything, they grew to understand ME fields and jump their technology forward because of it. Even Warhammer 40k has some innovation to it, despite the loss of STCs. This is kinda exacerbated by my playing Elder Scrolls Online lately, it takes place a millennium before Skyrim and basically nothing has changed since, technology-wise. With exceptions, basically nobody understands Dwemer or Ayleid technology, there's been practically no progress in experimenting with magic and applications beyond utility in combat, healing, or making lights, no attempt for full contact with Aedra or planehopping, there's barely even been any change in architectural styles. It irks the shit out of me, by Skyrim I'd expect at LEAST a basic understanding of combustion and electricity, which would be made massively easier by magic, but there's nothing. And it's not like Bethesda is a stranger to this style of stuff, people in Fallout have some semblance of understanding of pre-war technology, though that's a rant in and of itself. I dunno, I didn't intend for this to be this long but it really bugs me that so many settings out there have this sort of trope and yet such a small nunber of them ever have their peoples make significant progress as cultures and species. Feel free go mention settings that DO progress, I'm sure there's a lot I don't know about.[/QUOTE] In TES the Dwemer were punished with extinction for their technology and general dickishness. The gods in the Elder Scrolls universe really don't like mortals upsetting the status quo on their own. Other settings, can't really comment.

How do you guys treat combat? Im running Tomb of Annihilation and a lot of the time it feels like they just throw an encounter in there because its expected, but it feels unwarranted. I feel like, unless its related to the story, the combat shouldnt be there.

[QUOTE=JeSuisIkea;53034475]- A very long post -[/QUOTE] That was a joy to read I've been wanting to do something similar for a while now that my players have reached a break in the main story. Any tips for murder mystery, what kind of hints did you drop and why did the party miss them?

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;53034564]That was a joy to read I've been wanting to do something similar for a while now that my players have reached a break in the main story. Any tips for murder mystery, what kind of hints did you drop and why did the party miss them?[/QUOTE] Thanks, glad someone read my rambling. To be honest a lot of it got built up and fell together in my head while I was doing it, which is generally how I run my RPs. I started knowing the Doctor's basic backstory and that he was the murderer and threw it together from there. The tips they missed entirely were the Doctor having had all of the dead as patients because they never really investigated these people past their crimes and deaths, his obvious distaste for most of them because they really didn't talk all that much to the Doctor, they never bothered trying to find out what the Inquisition might know because they hate them, and they only decided to get the information the City Guard had towards the end (which would have helped them jump forward a bit but by then it was all redundant) because I reminded them the City Guard had their own investigation. They also didn't pay attention to the guardwoman talking about the man and the orphanage and went wandering around the city for half an hour with no idea what to do until I dropped a dozen hints about it and it clicked in their head. Any other questions about it? If you have any more specific ones I might know how to answer better.

After not playing since July or August of last year, I've gotten a group together. DM + 3, we'll hopefully be starting next week. Finally.

How much time do you guys average between sessions? My group and I have a really tight schedule so we sometimes only manage one game every few months as it is. I feel like once a week I'd burn out real quick since prepping for just one session as a DM is a lot of work in my experience since I homebrew everything.

[QUOTE=Spacewolf;53036074]How much time do you guys average between sessions? My group and I have a really tight schedule so we sometimes only manage one game every few months as it is. I feel like once a week I'd burn out real quick since prepping for just one session as a DM is a lot of work in my experience since I homebrew everything.[/QUOTE] My Saturday game averages 3.5 hours, my Sunday game averages 5 hours. Overall, my games tend towards 4 hours(counting past games), but that was largely because we tended to start at like 8pm GMT, and I had one or two European players.

My entire party decided we'd have the session tomorrow and I have not finished preparing the aforementioned SIR BONES THE GRIMM'S WILD RIDE. Anyone have any good puzzles and such they can drop on me? I want it to mostly be puzzle and trap based, with a few combat encounters sprinkled in. The theme being that Sir Bones is pretty much either murdering them completely on accident or that he wants to take them out because he wants them to join his swinging party in the after life and thinks they'd like it more.

[QUOTE=Spacewolf;53036074]How much time do you guys average between sessions? My group and I have a really tight schedule so we sometimes only manage one game every few months as it is. I feel like once a week I'd burn out real quick since prepping for just one session as a DM is a lot of work in my experience since I homebrew everything.[/QUOTE] I was the same way, but then I learned that the solution was to stop prepping so much. I have a bunch of ways to streamline balancing stuff like kobold club, I use maps from other places so I dont make my own. And then when even that became too much I just started running a module, Tomb of Annihilation. If youre a gm and you havent run a module, I highly reccommend it. I’ve gmed for 5 years and its been such a learning experience for me.

My copy of Xanathars Guide arrived today, i'm reading through and loving the options. I want to let my group know about their new options, as i know some would be into it. (Weeaboo Samurai and Barbarian with a Stand) Problem is after playing the first session with them, i went home and now our only contact is online, so is there a better way of relaying the info than just typing it or reading it out. I'm not really comfortable downloading a pdf or something like that.

[QUOTE=jackattack;53037168]My copy of Xanathars Guide arrived today, i'm reading through and loving the options. I want to let my group know about their new options, as i know some would be into it. (Weeaboo Samurai and Barbarian with a Stand) Problem is after playing the first session with them, i went home and now our only contact is online, so is there a better way of relaying the info than just typing it or reading it out. I'm not really comfortable downloading a pdf or something like that.[/QUOTE] I've bought a copy of Xanathar's Guide myself recently as well. I ran into the same issue since we don't play often in person, so what i ended up doing was just scanning some of relevant sections my party was interested in and shared them privately on the condition that they didn't redistribute. A lot of the material in Xanathars Guide is just repolished UA material as well, like the downtime activities section and a few of the different class archetypes introduced. If people got questions about what stuff you're using, you could point em that way first and then give any additional corrections as specified in the new book.

[QUOTE=jackattack;53037168]My copy of Xanathars Guide arrived today, i'm reading through and loving the options. I want to let my group know about their new options, as i know some would be into it. (Weeaboo Samurai and Barbarian with a Stand) Problem is after playing the first session with them, i went home and now our only contact is online, so is there a better way of relaying the info than just typing it or reading it out. I'm not really comfortable downloading a pdf or something like that.[/QUOTE] Go to /tg/ and then go to the 5E General. Pm me if youre confused.

[QUOTE=lockdown6;53037224]our groups accomplish so little that a session's worth of preparation lasts months[/QUOTE] Same, I planned a starter session on this little island and I expected that they'd be off it by the end of the session. It was a year real time before they left it.

Next session for my party is a big dungeon of an ancient city Proper old school traps like swinging blades, boulders, darts etc. And for one of my party, it's her first [U]ever[/U] dungeon exploration The task, is to escort their scholar through the labyrinth so he can lead them to the treasure He knows what dangers they'll face and a rough layout of the dungeon, but doesn't know how traps are triggered or what might have moved in, in the mean time. Do you guys have some interesting trap ideas I could throw at lvl8 players?

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;53043274]Next session for my party is a big dungeon of an ancient city Proper old school traps like swinging blades, boulders, darts etc. And for one of my party, it's her first [U]ever[/U] dungeon exploration The task, is to escort their scholar through the labyrinth so he can lead them to the treasure He knows what dangers they'll face and a rough layout of the dungeon, but doesn't know how traps are triggered or what might have moved in, in the mean time. Do you guys have some interesting trap ideas I could throw at lvl8 players?[/QUOTE] Huge/Gargantuan Mimics, arena trap ([I]forcecage [/I]+ [I]summon monster[/I]), shrinking room, false disintegration ([I]major image [/I]followed by [I]dimension door[/I] to elsewhere in the dungeon)[sp]or real disintegration, your call :v[/sp], rolling ball of doom. [editline]11th January 2018[/editline] Hm, so I'd like to recap what's happened during my previous few sessions with my halfling aristocrat/rogue in my friend's game. [TEXT BLOCK] Backstory; my halfling is part of a merchant guild by trade, but recently set off on his own because he was unhappy with the guild's use of slavery as a market. Despite this, he still has quite a few moral flaws involved with profiteering whenever he possibly can, but otherwise doesn't go out of his way to bring harm to others (True Neutral, yay). He is absolutely not meant to be in combat, so I've focused on trying to create an enterprise both for him and as a way of contributing to the party warchest. In addition, one of my friends, a paladin, has taken an oath to protect me from danger and corruption, so we butt heads a lot in-character. The campaign takes place in a seafaring area. During a recent trip to a neutral trade city, I was looking to forge a trade agreement with a powerful merchant. He invited me to a masquerade at his manor, so naturally I accepted and convinced them to allow our paladin along as well (he is technically a noble). The remainder of the party enters the manor through other means, illegally. The session ends with an attack on the merchant's life by devils, which is thwarted by our party's collective effort. The merchant angrily kicks everyone out save for me, and brings me to his private quarters to discuss a deal (despite all that's happened). That's the moment I'm teleported to Hell with the guy and discover he's actually made a deal with (other) devils himself and want's to bring me in on a contract. In and out of character, I'm loving this, because I might get a better deal than expected [I]and[/I] become super evil/powerful at the same time. The other players don't know that that's my final goal, so when the paladin realizes I'm on another plane of existence (b/c his oath), they activate a teleporting charm we discovered sessions prior to bring me back to our ship. So now I think, ok, I've missed out now, but I can still have him meet me somewhere else. I send a message to the harbormaster and we set sail. Fast forward, we're sailing to a claim I've staked in the ocean where an old volcano has left an obsidian glass spire. This is the enterprise I've been working on for several sessions, mining obsidian and selling it to a contracted merchant. I've since found another merchant (one without connections to Hell) and am right as rain. As we approach the claim, we discover the crew I'd hired for the job has been butchered and the obsidian they've collected is gone. At that point I spill the beans that I gave the evil merchant the location to finalize a contract, and realize, in retrospect, that was a horribly poor idea. I declare my undying vengeance on the evil merchant, and decide this is moment to change some aspects of how my character sees the world. So now, after excavating the remaining obsidian, we've been able to turn a huge profit despite setbacks. Because of this profit, I'm moving forward with my secret plan to seal my vengeance through creating a soul trapping jar that triggers upon the merchant's death. My DM explained that souls in his world will naturally go to "heaven", but corrupted souls go immediately to a specific evil deity. So I've decided, if souls have such weight, the only way he could repay me for my grief is his soul.

You want traps, I'm your man. Here's some classics - a bridge where every other step or so (or some other determining factor, possibly a puzzle) is false and will snap under pressure. A white statue holding a large valuable item (such as a gem, a chunk of gold, or a magic item) covered by a waterfall - there's a lever next to the statue that turns off the water, but the statue is white phospherous causing obvious results. A trap that sprays oil onto the party. Doesn't sound bad at first, but then another sprays sawdust or flour into the room and sparks it off. A step on a spiral staircase that causes it to turn into an oiled chute - this can do many things. Perhaps the chute itself is coated in envenomed razor blades, perhaps the bottom of the chute has a deep pit with spikes at the bottom or is filled with hungry sharks. A simple 5 ft wide pit that's 30 feet (or more) down. Has a ladder on both ends allowing one to go up and down (the pit, perhaps, has supernatural darkness cutting off sight at about 10ft down, making it suspicious). It's an easy jump for most PCs - however, there's an invisible wall of force halfway across, so jumping will cause them to hit the wall and fall down into the pit the hard way. A room with what looks like an enormous fiery pit at the center with 5ft. wide walkways around it - it is an illusion, and the center is safe after a short distance, while the walkways themselves lead to trapdoors that fall into the fire. A hallway has a boulder at the end, seemingly motionless. However, as the party walks along, they start to weigh down a pendulum and cause the hallway itself to angle up and up, eventually both blocking escape and causing the boulder to squash them - this hallway may have multiple exits based on how it's oriented so it's a good trick for dungeons even without the trap. Many, many, MANY more traps can be done with simple pits, springs, spikes, and uses of chemistry. It gets diabolical when you add magic to the mix. For magic, you can do things like cause an intense desiccation field in an area - enough that it causes even magical potions to be reduced to dry ingredients in an otherwise empty bottle. It might cause some minor harm to party members, but the important thing is that it can be combined with creatures that are fiery, making extinguishing the flames more difficult. A short tunnel through the water leads to an important destination. Looks simple enough, a short swim out and back to retrieve, say, a key needed for progression. The key is held in the grip of an icon of a wintery divinity or demon - when they enter the water again, both ends freeze over with thick ice. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL - most traps should have indicators! While it's fun to trigger them ruthlessly, it's not much fun for the players if they have no warning at all (nor is it fun if they just know where every trap is 24/7 like in 5e but that's another story). Indicate, for instance, the chute trap by the signs of a trapdoor at the bottom and clawmarks or bloodstains on the steps. Some traps are self-cleaning, some are one-offs, and those wouldn't leave much indication. However, all it takes to get people paranoid as hell is to have a single trap activate down the first hallway they travel through - preferably a dud. That's enough to already alert them to danger, and the signs I mentioned should be a strong indicator that something's wrong.

Ive been thinking about player death a lot. Basically, in DnD 5e its really really unfun. You spend 2-5 turns bleeding out and then youre done. For some games this might work, but for most it doesnt. I’ gming a game, and im thinking about a “final sacrifice” turnshould be allowed, where after its confirmed that youre dying you get one final action. You regain all daily spells/abilities, and every action you do is an automatic 20. Thoughts? Its OP obviously, but thats the point.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;53045723]Ive been thinking about player death a lot. Basically, in DnD 5e its really really unfun. You spend 2-5 turns bleeding out and then youre done. For some games this might work, but for most it doesnt. I’ gming a game, and im thinking about a “final sacrifice” turns should be allowed, where after its confirmed that youre dying you get one final action. You regain all daily spells/abilities, and any action you do is an automatic crit Thoughts? Its OP obviously, but thats the point.[/QUOTE] I love it so much I'll be using it I just asked my players, all my players love it too.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;53045723]Ive been thinking about player death a lot. Basically, in DnD 5e its really really unfun. You spend 2-5 turns bleeding out and then youre done. For some games this might work, but for most it doesnt. I’ gming a game, and im thinking about a “final sacrifice” turnshould be allowed, where after its confirmed that youre dying you get one final action. You regain all daily spells/abilities, and every action you do is an automatic 20. Thoughts? Its OP obviously, but thats the point.[/QUOTE] Should be mixed with the current rules. You can either wait the three turns to either stabilize yourself or be easily reacued. Or before you even make your first death saving throw you can decide then and there to die, but get those actions you listed, I’d say this one should negate any resurrection spells though.

So my buddy Haxxer has been working on something extremely neat, a fantasy calendar website where you can create your own calendar for whatever campaign, setting or world you use. There is even presets like Forgotten Realms etc, I found this very neat and I'm using it for a campaign I'm about to start and I thought you guys might find it handy too! Here's the r/dnd post about it: [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/7pzehz/fantasy_calendar_generator_is_now_live/[/url] Otherwise a direct link would be: [url]https://www.fantasy-calendar.com/[/url]

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;53045723]Ive been thinking about player death a lot. Basically, in DnD 5e its really really unfun. You spend 2-5 turns bleeding out and then youre done. For some games this might work, but for most it doesnt. I’ gming a game, and im thinking about a “final sacrifice” turnshould be allowed, where after its confirmed that youre dying you get one final action. You regain all daily spells/abilities, and every action you do is an automatic 20. Thoughts? Its OP obviously, but thats the point.[/QUOTE] Dumb question but... what if I use that one final action to heal myself?

[QUOTE=gufu;53047744]Dumb question but... what if I use that one final action to heal myself?[/QUOTE] That's one of those things that is entirely against the spirit of the action, so I'd say no. Personally I don't feel that dying is a big deal anyways. It's not fun, sure, but in 5e ESPECIALLY dying should rarely come up unless you seriously have fucked with the wrong enemies, what with 3 saves vs death allowed to stabilize, even 1 point of healing bringing you back up, and a cantrip that automatically stabilizes you (as well as an easy as hell Heal check that practically anyone can make). If you did want to use it, mixing the rules as plunger says would be the way to do it, with the obvious caveat of no healing allowed (or resurrection) - it's a heroic death, a final sacrifice that lands you in your ideal heaven in theory. Resurrection spells require willingness on the other end to return, and I'd say that you got your real reward in heaven. Why return to a strictly inferior life?

[QUOTE=Chronische;53047793]That's one of those things that is entirely against the spirit of the action, so I'd say no. Personally I don't feel that dying is a big deal anyways. It's not fun, sure, but in 5e ESPECIALLY dying should rarely come up unless you seriously have fucked with the wrong enemies, what with 3 saves vs death allowed to stabilize, even 1 point of healing bringing you back up, and a cantrip that automatically stabilizes you (as well as an easy as hell Heal check that practically anyone can make). If you did want to use it, mixing the rules as plunger says would be the way to do it, with the obvious caveat of no healing allowed (or resurrection) - it's a heroic death, a final sacrifice that lands you in your ideal heaven in theory. Resurrection spells require willingness on the other end to return, and I'd say that you got your real reward in heaven. Why return to a strictly inferior life?[/QUOTE] And on top of all those ways you can use a single charge of a healing kit no checks required to instantly stabilize someone else at 0 HP.

[QUOTE=gufu;53047744]Dumb question but... what if I use that one final action to heal myself?[/QUOTE] You heal yourself really damn good then proceed to die anyway.

[QUOTE=UzumakaiPatch;53048105]You heal yourself really damn good then proceed to die anyway.[/QUOTE] You heal your self so well that everyone believes you're still alive, a doctor takes a look as well and in his eyes your corpse appears to be a perfectly healthy and living person. The party decides to prop the body up in a local tavern, it eventually becomes a local celebrity because it's so good at listening to people's problems and partying. It can hold down drink better than anyone, everyone wants to party with it because of this.

Just finished up the first game of a new group i've started for online play consisting of my sister and another friend. Their first "adventure" consisted of tracking down some street urchin who's been stealing clocks from a rich clockmaker and then killing the guy who was making him do it. Everyone had fun and I'm sure it'll get better when I track down some other people to join us

So I'm introducing a couple of friends to DnD for the first time. They've always wanted to try it out so I thought I'd use the Starter Set Campaign to get them into an easy simple campaign. I wanted the game to feel intuitive and I always felt for beginners it was much easier to get into Tabletops with actual figures. Alas I'm broke as shit so i decided to remake the maps on graph paper and draw up and build my own Miniatures out of card stock paper and black binder clips for the base. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. [T]https://i.imgur.com/ygyzNQW.jpg[/T] [T]https://i.imgur.com/t6HioXD.jpg[/T] [T]https://i.imgur.com/9bjdFRS.jpg[/T] Thinking about making colored digital versions that are cleaned up. Possibly give em out for free when I'm done. Waddya guys think?

They look amazing I would to use them too

Dude those are awesome. I'd be so psyched if a dm I played with went through the trouble to do something like that.

[QUOTE=_Maverick_;53046278]I love it so much I'll be using it I just asked my players, all my players love it too.[/QUOTE] Oh sick! In case you want quantifiable rules for it, I made up a little handout to give to players. I've changed a lot of the rules to clarify stuff and keep it in the spirit of the 'Final Stand' [t]https://i.imgur.com/1xbSCAx.png[/t]