Lets Talk Pen & Paper RPGs (All systems welcome!)

[xRECKONERx]

No, he's an Ork so he is SINless. Literally my highest cost gear/item was a max quality fake SIN. He never worked for the organization directly, just did the "dark" jobs for them.

I also bought gas masks, because of course my party won't and that'll give me a great "ya bunch of fuckin' morons" moment.

[xRECKONERx]

Our party so far is:

Reck: Private Eye ex-security guy
UT: Big beefy chick whose mother was a stripper and hates all men (literally took points to make it so her "thing" is jumping off high places & crushing people)
Nuwen: Decker cat burglar
Esurio: Some kind of spellslinger
Pie: not sure

[Garmr]

Really want to play a d&d 3.5 with a psion

[Garmr]

Looking for a dnd mod for for 5 edition.

[hasdgfas]

We continued our Pathfinder campaign today. I haven't been consistently updating here, but we had a solid start to the session, with some great RP between members of the party starting with one of us trying to murder a lieutenant of the Kellid leader we were there to talk to because the lieutenant had killed one of her own men. Some fantastic RP to talk him down and then, once he was talked down, calm him down even more.

It stalled out a bit after that with a bunch of stuff more focused on another character who's played by someone who's not as into the RP as the others, but next time we should get back to everyone else .

[Glork]

RIP Rorin and Knid. We knew ye well.

Full recap of last night's session to come.

[Claus]

So, new year, start of the new campaign!

In the last session, the group discovered that Yeemick, a goblin that they let escape in one of their very first adventure, had found some sort of artifact cache, and was now terrorizing all the lands south of Baldur's Gate. The party decides that it is time to end this unfinished business, and for that, they group back in the paladinate of Ethuriel.

First things first, as the party arrives in the Ethuriel, the people there, who were until now throwing daily feasts for the party's paladin, have a rude awakening when they discover who the hero's friends are. The party at this point consists of a Demon worshipping warlock, a druid who is raising a black dragon, and walking everywhere on full cult-of-the-dragon regalia, a half-orc who is now king of the Lizardmen in the mere of the dead, and an elf thief. All riding black wyverns.

The guards in Ethuriel hastly say their goodbyes to the dragonborn paladin and tell him to not come back, like, never.

The players are surprisingly okay with this reception, and move on to the hunt of the goblin king. There are two witnesses for the most recent attack, a young adventurer, and the paladin's holy horse. For some reason, they ignore the young adventurer and question the horse. Based on the horse testimony ("we were ambushed by the goblins on the roads south of the forest of sharp teeth"), they decide to approach the forest from the north.

The forest is roughly the size of the kanto region, and very dense. Because of this, they abandon the idea of an aerial search, and go down and try to track the goblins. They soon find a hunting trail, which leads to a small group of very haggard looking hobgoblins. They easily defeat the hobgoblins, take one prisoner, and feed the rest to the wyverns. Interrogating the prisoner, they find out that the hobgoblins, who used to rule the south side of the forest, were kicked out by the goblins with their magical fire wands. The party forces the surviving hobgoblin to guide them back to the goblin's area.

A 15 day travel follows. The wood of sharp teeth has its name for a reason. While they manage to keep their heads low most of the time, they do have a close encounter with a hydra, and manage to avoid the territory of the werewolf tribe (although the druid wants to chat with the werewolves after the goblins are dealt with). They finally arrive at the goblin's territory, and are promptly ambushed at night. The party is surrounded by sickly looking goblins, with white patches in their green skin, and holding weird looking iron wands. The leader of the raiding party is riding a very large bipedal lizard. The fight is brief, and the party emerges victorious, but battered by the goblins new weapons. They grab the strange fire wands and... stash them in their backpacks!

The next two days, they keep a very low profile as they approach the former hobgoblin castle (pass without trace is a broken, broken spell). The castle is a ruin, crawling with goblins and human slaves. They observe the castle, and think about attacking it at night, but at twilight, a large group of slaves and goblins leaves the castle towards a hidden trail. The party follows the group, and after about two hours tracking them through the woods, they are spotted. They easily defeat half the goblins, while the other half dives into the woods and prepare for a guerilla style counter attack. And that is how our session ends.

Spoiler: coming up in the next session:

[Oman]

I am DMing my first DnD game in like...five years(?) on Wednesday. Friendly Local Gaming Store asked if I was willing to help after I mentored a dude or two during my first game in *forever*.

Level One, 5e, I'm pretty confident that I can run the game. The biggest concern I have is that I'll have a mix of experience (from never ever to pretty familiar) and that I may have up to seven players, which is a lot to give them all the time and focus they need to feel *awesome*. I also don't know any of them, so God knows what wild mix of player types I'll have.

I'll try to do a fun writeup, mostly focused on my own decision making and how that affects the players, and I how I can learn to be better. But overall I'm going to drown at least a little bit The key will be to keep that drowning at least a little secret.

DMs of MS.net, feel free to give me your best pieces of advice <3


As a side note I spoke to the store owner about joining her DM team and after the half-hour of chat she offered me a job as well. Christ.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

Get to know your players, drive the story forward, but don't be afraid to digress and improvise. The best stories are those that combine the crunch of the mechanics and the free form of being able to change the story with your characters influence.

More or less, if the game is a well oiled train, don't let it go off the tracks, but don't be afraid to allow the players to divert the course through their actions.

[Oman]

Get to know your players,

This is the part I'm most concerned about. When you've got experienced players they can say "yeah I love investigations and I like combat to be quick" or "I'm all about the tactical wargame." And I can say "I'm a 'Yes' DM that looooves the Rule of Cool. You think of somethign to do and I'll do everything I can to make it happen, it might not always turn out the way you wish but it'll happen." There's like...a short-hand between you, in the language of the game. That's hard without a basis in the game.

[Claus]

The best (or at least the quotiest) advice I have ever heard about Dming was: When in doubt, throw the dice and shout!

As for 5e specific advice:
- advantages and disadvantages are your friend
- If you want to throw a player a bone for an idea, give him a +2
- Characters lv 1 and 2 are more fragile than they appear. They become sturdy lv 3 on.
- Encounters with many monster are way more dangerous than an encounter with a single monster of equivalent cr
-you cannot buy power with gold. Give it freely to your players, and give them the means to live large
- mages can be amazingly interestIng opponents, but you got to use them right - I have a great link about this, but on mobile right now.

Good luck, Oman!

[Claus]

Oh, and for a campaign, never, ever give your players magical AC bonuses.

[FakeGod]

Run a game in which you yourself would enjoy as a player.

[Oman]

-you cannot buy power with gold.

Magical weapons? Armour? Mercenaries? Spells? This seems counter intuitive.


And why no magical AC bonuses?

[Claus]

-you cannot buy power with gold.

Magical weapons? Armour? Mercenaries? Spells? This seems counter intuitive.

The 5th edition DMG recommends that you do not sell non consumable magic items, and I endorse that recommendation.

Non magical armor is limited to AC 20ish, and their use restricts class abilities. Buying spells is also restricted by how many of those you can cast per level.

In general, it is a common "complaint" that in 5th edition RAW, gold will not take you very far, power wise.

Mercenaries is something that makes the group more powerful, but does not make individual characters more powerful. I'd classify them as a roleplay purchase more than a power purchase, unless you are running a strictly old school kind of game (and since you mentioned rule of cool, I am assuming not). Go crazy with mercenaries, yarrr!

And why no magical AC bonuses?

Third and fourth editions were balanced on higher attack bonuses competing against higher AC, and both scale up as the game progresses.

Fifth edition throws that away in favor of what is called bounded accuracy. Namely, attack bonuses are expected to cap around mid tens, and AC around low twenties, for highly skilled/armored characters. The scaling occurs at damage/hitpoints instead. Check the stats of high level, non legendary monsters. A paladin on heavy plate and a shield honking AC 21, 23 with spells is a big deal in 5e.

That is why a horde of goblins is still threatening at high levels, they can nick a characters' hitpoits over time. And that is why giving your characters a dinky +2 AC ring will upset the game system more than giving them a staff that lets them ignore one attack per day.

[Oman]

<3 I love you man, great advice.

[Claus]

<3 you too Oman.

BTW, back to game reports: We halted our DnD game in April in the middle of "Rise of Tiamat", because I got a bit too busy to DM. The group was lv 9-ish, just captured the dwarven wyrmspeaker. The Cult of the Dragon sounded the Dragonhorn in retaliation -- cliffhanger ending!

We are now playing SLA Industries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLA_Industries), using Savage Worlds rules. SLA is a dystopian fantasy-cyberpunk world written in the 90ies. Our group is a subcontracted security detail of a hyper capitalistic society being paid to maintain the status quo by any means necessary. My character is the psychotical bio-engineered squad-leading mage hanging on the edge of supreme power over the pleb, and supreme powerlessness under "The Man".

Also, I managed to convince the other players to name our group and characters after ponies :3

[animorpherv1]

So I'm in this campaign, and the GM says we're playing with gestalt characters. I'm running a ranger + rogue, and let me say this. Stealth and Acrobatics may be my favourite skills in the entire game. Not only can you not see me, but when you do, I can run right through your attack range without taking AOOs!

[Oman]

Okay ran my first game today. Five players, one had played some 3rd edition D&D, one hadn't even seen Lord of the Rings, the rest were on zero D&D but familiar with fantasy tropes. Ran Suit of Mists 1 - Shooting stars or whatever dumb fucking thing it's called. Stolen Fire Wand

Absolute blast! They're so unique and think so wonderfully. I had to do a lot of prodding with my adventure hooks because they were all running Pregen'd characters and didn't have *motivations*. We got there in the end, through a fun DM substitute saying "maybe you could do this or talk to this person" just to edge them toward it. They eventually jumped in, had a blast. Claus I took your advice and gave them gold when they tried to bargain up the price.

New players play so differently and so interestingly. When faced with fire-thistles that they could jump over, they used the dragonborn's ice breath weapon to freeze them all. The fighter decided to play as a coward and might end up classing into bard because the front line is so dangerous, the barbarian grabbed bats and bit their heads off instead of attacking them. Everything was just my favourite. They were so smart and so dumb and their enthusiasm was phenomenal.

Things I really want to improve for next time: More character and personality to the town. I want them to love this place and see it as home and safety. And that I'm going to burn it to the ground, or just make leaving it a real emotional time.

Of the five characters, I got 3 AWESOME moments.
The barbarian ripped a bat in half with his teeth, a new player asked as the bat latched on to suck his blood "What do I roll to Ozzy Ozbourne?" Fucking stitches. He did it too! TWICE! He's keeping parts of bats as trophies and if he doesn't trophy everything he kills from now I'll be so angry. I'd really like it to play into a animal totem barbarian in the future.

The rogue found a cool thieves' cantstone - basically a small innocuous rock that is going to lead him to a treasure of some sort later on, this was one of my favourite moments. They convinced the townspeople to pool their gold to pay them and I said to the rogue "You spot something on the table that is worth something, but it's not valuable enough that anyone else spots it." and he goes "Something thievey? A key?" "Yeah, not a regular key though, a small stone that is marked with the thieves' cant. You know these can lead to easy marks, a good sale, or stashed goods." So now, two or three sessions down the road I can bring that up and give him a cool moment. It's a promise to be fulfilled.

The Dragonborn sorcerer was right at the end, the boy is being held aloft by wild magic and they can't think of a way to get him down. "You're not feeling the burn against your face like everyone else is, which is weird because you're usually much more sensitive to fire. It's like it passes over you, or around you instead." "I approach the boy" "Like standing in a wind tunnel, you can feel the energy around you, it's familiar, but distant. An arc of arcane power leaps from the tip of the broken wand and tickles your scales. If you had hair it might've put them on end, but all it does it kind of buzz your scale. You know this should be tearing you apart, but this chaotic magic is just...kind of harmless against you." "I reach up and press my hand through the force bubble around him and bring him down to the ground." "Your hand enters, or more accurately the bubble parts ahead of you, and when you touch him the boy is stilled." "i take the broken wand from him" "As you grasp both ends, you quiet the wand. It's rage may have been great for this young boy, but in your hands this is more like a toy. You cast more wild magic than this on a whim." And it was just this roleplay moment where I didn't actually know how they were going to turn this power off, and then I had this brainwave that the sorcerer could be unaffected and she just....oh man she leaned in so hard and was just enraptured by this idea that all of this arcane power was controllable, but only by her. The look in her eye was all of the reward I needed.


I would've loved to have gotten the other two good moments but if I can set up, or fulfill a promise for three of the five, I'm happy to take that as a win. The cleric is my next goal. She's the absolute newbie and she's been the POWERHOUSE in combat. I want to give her something divine that acknowledges that power or speaks to it somehow, maybe a mission from her god to smite some shit. She's just such a lovely enthusiastic girl and I want her to feel empowered and driven. Taking ideas on this


Um absolute blast. I really like my party, and I really can't wait for them to have some personal motivation and to start fulfilling some of this promises I've begun to make (and make so much more!). Taking down Strahd will be just one bonus.

[Claus]

Oman, Fantastic! Great game report!

The Dragonborn sorcerer was right at the end, the boy is being held aloft by wild magic and they can't think of a way to get him down. (...)

I loved this!

The cleric is my next goal. She's the absolute newbie and she's been the POWERHOUSE in combat. I want to give her something divine that acknowledges that power or speaks to it somehow

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0456.html

What every cleric need is an opposite cleric. Make the villain of the next game be a cleric of a god opposed to her. It doesn't even need to be in the title of the adventure. They track whatever baddie they need to track, and when they reach their lair, a symbol is splashed in front of the cave. No one knows what it means at a first glance, except for her. Oh yes, she has seen this before, and it feels her with determination.

Alternatively, I did this to the druid in my game with great results: They went after a ruined cave. Getting there, the druid figures that it is the remains of a shrine to his favoured god. After cleaning up the cave, he decides that he wants to restore the shrine. I give him a shopping list and a hefty gold figure, and he was happy to tally his treasure to hire the masons, preachers and workers necessary to restore the shrine. (Although this idea is probably better for a group that has already accumulated a small pile of gold).

For a more "evil" idea, which probably does not apply to your group, but might inspire you: Another player in my group was a demon-worshipping warlock. After gathering a lot of gold to restore the only shrine to this almost forgotten demi-god, the demon rewarded her with a ritual: She could sacrifice a living creature, and would receive a boon that increased one attack's damage by 1D6 x the CR of the creature sacrificed. This bonus could not be accumulated, and the shrine could not be moved from the base. This gave the player an incentive to capture at least one powerful enemy every adventure.

By the way, are you liberally using inspiration? Players cannot accumulate inspiration, and it is a single reroll, so I give it to my players whenever they do something cool at the table. This is another "cheap" way to reward them.

[Oman]

Yeah I give out inspiration heaps. Whenever I'm impressed. I love the cleric idea about finding something she has to restore, to invest that time (though maybe not gold) and I think it's a good plan. I'll cut something up and give them a plan. Great idea

[Oman]

My second game had only two of my expected players. Which was frustrating. The team of five that we made up were okay but I was just on the back foot all game. Also it way three people who have never played before, and I just...didn't execute nearly as well as I wanted. I'm going into this one with a LOT more prep, especially for questions and character developments that I want to make.

My party also robbed a merchant and I want to punish them for it but I don't want to just say "you're good characters you don't do that" or "You're evil aligned now". Any suggestions on how to deal with player decisions that deviate from characters?

[Claus]

Do you want to punish the players or the characters, and why? Were they just being "LOL murderhobos!", or did they feel justified to do it for some reason?

[FakeGod]

Why would they put down "Good" for alignment on their sheet and proceed to rob people?

Do they know what "Good" means? Maybe they meant to write down "Evil" and made a typo?

[Oman]

Do you want to punish the players or the characters, and why? Were they just being "LOL murderhobos!", or did they feel justified to do it for some reason?

I think it's a mix of the "shoot and loot" style of play mixed with a general perception of a lack of consequence. New players, not understanding that this world can and will have consequences.

Suit of Mists, they're tracking stolen Gemstones. They find them, being traded to a travelling merchant. They immediately set on them with weapons. The merchant tries to hide but his bodyguards fight back. They kill one of the bodyguards, get the surrender, then take anything of interest from the merchant's cart and all the gold that he has on him.

Because they're new players, I want to punish the characters because I want them to understand that A) actions have consequences in this world, and B) that the money they stole wasn't generated, it was taken from someone. I want to punish them so that it feels like a world, not like a playground for them to steal from and kick sand in people's eyes.