The party had defeated their last dungeon and were busy playing pranks on each other all while doing downtime activities from Xanathar's Guide. Yes, if the PCs want to mess with each other, texting me the DM on the sly that they have found and placed a live badger in their fellow's bed at the inn, I'm going to allow it. Not only that, I'm going to push said pranks farther than they intended them to go, 'cause if they want to mess with each other, I want to see the blood and fur fly. I am a fickle deity of this tiny existence, and I like my entertainments. And maybe they'll tire of it as the campaign drags on, but I honestly think it's going to get much worse amongst the players before anyone calls for a truce. Plus, no one in the party has any long term wants or desires for their characters yet, so it keeps them interested in the game while I shuffle bits around for the next dungeon.
Lessons learned on this adventure:
- I as the DM can taunt one of my players into charging his character into situations that he would be better just holding back and waiting. Yes, that particular lesson went both ways - the player learned they should not listen to everything I (the DM) tells him for I don't have the party's best interests; and me for learning that not all the important social interactions happen in the game world between the PCs and NPCs.
- Feeding your players before the game, especially if your wife learned how to make really good TexMex, really keeps everyone focused and enjoying the game. I've been trying to get them to work together and, as a party, bring lunch in for the game sessions. That seems like too much work, however, even if they don't have to feed me (I gotta feed the wife and kid, anyway, not worried about food for me), and so I've had to drive that train. Not every weekend, but still, eating meals every now and then together as a group helps to bring everyone together and they didn't complain a bit about coming early.
- Yes, Mr Ranger, you are the sneaky, stealthy death, but if the party isn't in TPK danger territory, I'm not playing the bad guys as dumb enough for you to kill them all without getting to strike back. Yes, they don't detect you, but when arrows fly out of the darkness and drop one of their fellows, the rest are taking cover so you can't shoot them. It was a fabulous plan, but they heard enough of your fight in the next cavern over to treat you as a threat. You have to let the other players have fun, too.
- The rules are there to keep a level playing field. The DM, however, is not beholden to your level playing field. Don't get angry when the DM ignores the rules in favor of a more entertaining game. Be thankful the game is fun and the DM is not asking for a DC 5million Con Save or die instantly because of "reasons".
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Monday, June 18, 2018
5e Game - Part 7
We played once again this past Saturday and while the party wasn't as challenged as the two games before, they still teetered on the brink of disaster. Fourth level PCs on the cusp of fifth level would find two separate groups of 3 CR 1 monsters a mere walk in the park, but all 6 CR 1 monsters at once, followed immediately by a huge, fiendish spider? Tasty. As a DM, you pray for mistakes, and I saw a few last Saturday. Still, in the end, they triumphed and felt good about it.
Lessons learned, or at least pondered, this weekend. The party's enjoyment level as a whole is worth far more than any one player's enjoyment level. One of my players, being a bit of a munchkin, was asking after multiclassing, which is admittedly horrible in this edition. Now, I'd love to fix it, and had an idea to bring any multiclassed PC more in line, power-wise, with his fellow uniclassed PCs. The problem boils down to that my solution is too easily misused and the multiclassed PC is then too powerful rather than not powerful enough. It would fully work... if everyone in the group wanted to multiclass, then I'd just throw higher CR monsters at them and call it good. But if just one of them does it and becomes super-powerful, then the others might have less fun, or die fighting tougher monsters (also not fun). I'm still sitting on the idea, which I may use if they ever get to 20 and not want to retire, but for now, we're sticking with how multiclassing is laid out in the PHB. And resisting the urge to go back to 3.5/Pathfinder, which came closest to getting multiclassed PCs right I've seen.
I don't care what it does for the randomness of your die rolls, but a dice tower (my first real 3d printer project, and a huge success) is a GM's friend. "The monsters in the rooms prepare to strike, roll initiative!" And then the players look at you with worry in their eyes as you drop 6 d20s down the chute and they realize they hadn't gotten a solid count (or even ID) on said monsters. Forget rolling group initiative, when you want to scare them roll it individually and watch them wet their seats when they hear how much plastic you're throwing down. You don't have to print yours like I did, many affordable options are out there for you to buy, but they are an easy (and free, found many on Thingiverse) first project if you want to get into 3d printing.
Again, going back to enjoyment level - I don't care how you interpret that vague sentence in the PHB, I said you weren't stealthy enough, and the spiders were ready for you. And you killed them anyway and the whole party had fun doing it. You sneaking up on them and killing half of them in their sleep would be cool to you, but the others would have been bored out of their skull. Just enjoy the ride while you can, there will be plenty of ups and downs over the weeks/months/years you will be playing this PC.
Sorry, hoping to get some pics up next week of the table and our accoutrements. Don't worry, it won't be all 3d printed terrain by then, this stuff takes a long time to print.
Lessons learned, or at least pondered, this weekend. The party's enjoyment level as a whole is worth far more than any one player's enjoyment level. One of my players, being a bit of a munchkin, was asking after multiclassing, which is admittedly horrible in this edition. Now, I'd love to fix it, and had an idea to bring any multiclassed PC more in line, power-wise, with his fellow uniclassed PCs. The problem boils down to that my solution is too easily misused and the multiclassed PC is then too powerful rather than not powerful enough. It would fully work... if everyone in the group wanted to multiclass, then I'd just throw higher CR monsters at them and call it good. But if just one of them does it and becomes super-powerful, then the others might have less fun, or die fighting tougher monsters (also not fun). I'm still sitting on the idea, which I may use if they ever get to 20 and not want to retire, but for now, we're sticking with how multiclassing is laid out in the PHB. And resisting the urge to go back to 3.5/Pathfinder, which came closest to getting multiclassed PCs right I've seen.
I don't care what it does for the randomness of your die rolls, but a dice tower (my first real 3d printer project, and a huge success) is a GM's friend. "The monsters in the rooms prepare to strike, roll initiative!" And then the players look at you with worry in their eyes as you drop 6 d20s down the chute and they realize they hadn't gotten a solid count (or even ID) on said monsters. Forget rolling group initiative, when you want to scare them roll it individually and watch them wet their seats when they hear how much plastic you're throwing down. You don't have to print yours like I did, many affordable options are out there for you to buy, but they are an easy (and free, found many on Thingiverse) first project if you want to get into 3d printing.
Again, going back to enjoyment level - I don't care how you interpret that vague sentence in the PHB, I said you weren't stealthy enough, and the spiders were ready for you. And you killed them anyway and the whole party had fun doing it. You sneaking up on them and killing half of them in their sleep would be cool to you, but the others would have been bored out of their skull. Just enjoy the ride while you can, there will be plenty of ups and downs over the weeks/months/years you will be playing this PC.
Sorry, hoping to get some pics up next week of the table and our accoutrements. Don't worry, it won't be all 3d printed terrain by then, this stuff takes a long time to print.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
5e Game - Part 6
I have some bad news folks - I did not perform a TPK on my party in yesterday's game.
Like I said, it was a dire situation, and the players had gotten themselves into it, but I had made mistakes too (all noted in my lastrant post) that I rectified. The players arrived nervous, tense, even prepared with new PCs already rolled up and ready to go. Once I had wound the clock back and fixed my errors, though, the players saw the way out and drove towards their escape as hard as they could. They survived the encounter and the rest of the day's adventuring with only a couple of them going down to sub-zero hit points.
Lessons were learned, however. Lots of fire based, sub-1 CR creatures can go from annoying to deadly, especially if they continually set the entire party on fire. Magical traps hurt and so any chests that the rogue can't see anything wrong with but are covered in arcane symbols needs to also be checked by the mage. Area effect spells that fill available space are not as cool as you think they are in small rooms directly preceded by hallways with corners in them. "Yes, you can cast fireball at anything you can see, but that room isn't big enough for a 30' circle, just as a friendly warning." The mage does have the highest INT stat, but that doesn't mean he can actually pass an INT check (because on those he hasn't rolled over a 5... ever).
I apologize (or you're welcome) for this post being so short - I just got in a 3d printer this weekend and spent most of the weekend messing with that. I hope to remember to take pictures of my game table this next weekend before I get a lot of 3d printed terrain and minis to show how easy and inexpensive it is to make a decent gaming area for your players. For those on a budget, check out Rich Burlew's "A Monster for Every Season" paper minis, and if you want to get into 3d printing, you should watch the video below. Not the only option out there, but it's what I purchased and I can already attest to the quality of the prints.
Like I said, it was a dire situation, and the players had gotten themselves into it, but I had made mistakes too (all noted in my last
Lessons were learned, however. Lots of fire based, sub-1 CR creatures can go from annoying to deadly, especially if they continually set the entire party on fire. Magical traps hurt and so any chests that the rogue can't see anything wrong with but are covered in arcane symbols needs to also be checked by the mage. Area effect spells that fill available space are not as cool as you think they are in small rooms directly preceded by hallways with corners in them. "Yes, you can cast fireball at anything you can see, but that room isn't big enough for a 30' circle, just as a friendly warning." The mage does have the highest INT stat, but that doesn't mean he can actually pass an INT check (because on those he hasn't rolled over a 5... ever).
I apologize (or you're welcome) for this post being so short - I just got in a 3d printer this weekend and spent most of the weekend messing with that. I hope to remember to take pictures of my game table this next weekend before I get a lot of 3d printed terrain and minis to show how easy and inexpensive it is to make a decent gaming area for your players. For those on a budget, check out Rich Burlew's "A Monster for Every Season" paper minis, and if you want to get into 3d printing, you should watch the video below. Not the only option out there, but it's what I purchased and I can already attest to the quality of the prints.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
5e Game - Part 5
Talk about a cliffhanger - yesterday's weekly game ended early, due to one of my players having to leave the table early, right about 5 rounds from me performing a TPK on the group.
It was the perfect $&^%storm of the party ignoring the hints I was dropping, the mage using up his spell slots to read runes that didn't hold any information after already figuring out what they were for the first time, and also said mage failing his spell check to cast a fireball he didn't have the levels for and it exploded on the entire party (more on this in a second, though). And let me tell you, I dropped SO MANY hints - a rough sketch of the dungeon drawn by an escaped slave that included the words BIG BAD in the appropriate location; "accidental" mentions that they are facing a drow cleric and her minions (not just the one they can see when they enter the room); "no, it's not been 16 hours since your last long rest, but you could definitely take a short rest" was ignored; I even let the ranger tell me his Primeval Awareness ability works in a way it doesn't (which will be fixed next game) and marked the map they were using to track and showed them there were even more monsters leading up to the Big Bad and in the Big Bad room itself.
The party is deep inside a drow cleric's Spirit Guardians spell (half movement inside 15ft of the caster, plus 3d8 damage every round, Wis save for half damage), the mage is out of spells, everyone is very low on HP (the rogue had gone down from the fireball backlash and been pulled back up with a medicine check and a quick application of Potion of Healing, but still not a lot of HP), and then there are the 3 quaggoths that have yet to enter the fray. Pretty dire, right? Fortunately for the party, though they don't it yet, I made a few mistakes right at the end of last adventure, and those I will fix. Namely I couldn't for the life of me find the scroll mishap table in the DMG - pg140 - so the fireball won't hit the party, maybe; I will give the mage back his few casts of Comprehend Languages I really didn't realize he was wasting; and my notes are that the cleric is being escorted by grimlocks (CR 1/4), not quaggoths (CR 2), so those will also change.
The situation is still very dire, even with the changes I am going to enact, but I'm not going to deus ex machina a rescue for the party - I made my mistakes, but the party made theirs, and they have well and truly stuck their foot into the bear trap. They're going to have to get themselves out of this mess, or TPK. Now, I'm not totally heartless mostly because a TPK means I gotta rewrite the first 6 levels of this particular campaign (yes, yes, I'm "grand theft game mastering" and using a couple of pre-made adventures, but still), so while I won't pull a deus ex machina, I may merely capture whichever characters go down in the ensuing stampede (the players have talked mostly of escape and evasion, not standing their ground to the bitter end) and allow the party to enact a daring rescue after they've regrouped and maybe gotten some backup from the locals. Or I'll have a thrilling tale of a TPK and the next adventure I'm working on next week. sigh
It was the perfect $&^%storm of the party ignoring the hints I was dropping, the mage using up his spell slots to read runes that didn't hold any information after already figuring out what they were for the first time, and also said mage failing his spell check to cast a fireball he didn't have the levels for and it exploded on the entire party (more on this in a second, though). And let me tell you, I dropped SO MANY hints - a rough sketch of the dungeon drawn by an escaped slave that included the words BIG BAD in the appropriate location; "accidental" mentions that they are facing a drow cleric and her minions (not just the one they can see when they enter the room); "no, it's not been 16 hours since your last long rest, but you could definitely take a short rest" was ignored; I even let the ranger tell me his Primeval Awareness ability works in a way it doesn't (which will be fixed next game) and marked the map they were using to track and showed them there were even more monsters leading up to the Big Bad and in the Big Bad room itself.
The party is deep inside a drow cleric's Spirit Guardians spell (half movement inside 15ft of the caster, plus 3d8 damage every round, Wis save for half damage), the mage is out of spells, everyone is very low on HP (the rogue had gone down from the fireball backlash and been pulled back up with a medicine check and a quick application of Potion of Healing, but still not a lot of HP), and then there are the 3 quaggoths that have yet to enter the fray. Pretty dire, right? Fortunately for the party, though they don't it yet, I made a few mistakes right at the end of last adventure, and those I will fix. Namely I couldn't for the life of me find the scroll mishap table in the DMG - pg140 - so the fireball won't hit the party, maybe; I will give the mage back his few casts of Comprehend Languages I really didn't realize he was wasting; and my notes are that the cleric is being escorted by grimlocks (CR 1/4), not quaggoths (CR 2), so those will also change.
The situation is still very dire, even with the changes I am going to enact, but I'm not going to deus ex machina a rescue for the party - I made my mistakes, but the party made theirs, and they have well and truly stuck their foot into the bear trap. They're going to have to get themselves out of this mess, or TPK. Now, I'm not totally heartless mostly because a TPK means I gotta rewrite the first 6 levels of this particular campaign (yes, yes, I'm "grand theft game mastering" and using a couple of pre-made adventures, but still), so while I won't pull a deus ex machina, I may merely capture whichever characters go down in the ensuing stampede (the players have talked mostly of escape and evasion, not standing their ground to the bitter end) and allow the party to enact a daring rescue after they've regrouped and maybe gotten some backup from the locals. Or I'll have a thrilling tale of a TPK and the next adventure I'm working on next week. sigh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)