jounniy @ jounniy @ttrpg.network

Posts

14

Comments

85

Joined

1 yr. ago

So he’s pretending and his companions don’t notice, or they all are?

Yeah. But I'm really not a big fan of that. The strategic nature is a part of DnD. If you remove that you end up making it less engaging, since you just shoot sh*t into the abyss, hoping it might do something, or not. Thats not particularly fun to me. Not knowing things is interesting, because you can figure them out, or have to plan and think to work around what you know and don't know.

It just feels... pointless if you never understand what's going on and also have no way of figuring it out. You just go somewhere vague, do something vague and accomplish something vague.

That may be fun for some people but its not what DnD was designed for or what I hope to get out of my games. Thats why I also don't recommend using it in every game as a general rule.

I really don't like that. Its not taking agency away from the players most of the time, but they:

• Sometimes have situational bonuses you might not know about
• Rerolls/temporary bonuses they may like to use (Like Inspiration, oder lucky)
• Might feel cheated should they ever find out, since you kind of used their character without informing them
• Generally like rolling the dices themselves, as it creates a feeling of excitement and ,,action".

Only problem I can see with that is, that passive scores take away from the randomness attributed to DnD but I generally agree with you. I also don't like rolling checks for my players.

Still worse, since you don't know how low you rolled. If you get a 11 on an attack and miss, but you have a bardic inspiration and you know a 14 hit last round, you can safely assume that your chance of success is reasonable, while the inspiration would be wasted if you rolled 7. It just takes away from the strategic nature of the game.

I really don't like this, since it makes shield a blind shot, for the chance of making an attack miss. Wich is not a big deal for characters with high AC (since +5 is enough to make almost all attacks, that would otherwise hit, miss instead), but for characters with low AC it is. So the nerf doesn't really work well.

Besides: It makes it even harder to do something I really like: figure out things about the monster by ,,reading" their roles and thus adapting my characters strategy.

And lastly it makes the PCs feel... babysitted, since the DM does not seem to trust them and just plays the whole thing for them. (Why even bother rolling any check yourself if the DM can just do it all the time?)

Who?

I did. Please don't tell me I fucked it up.

Thats brilliant.

Big disclaimer for a fantasy-world. Whenever someone wants something only vaguely defined, make sure they clarify it. Always!

It's super easy, barely an inconvenience.

Thats why you talk to more experienced DMs, before you start DMing.

Bold of you, to assume the players do ever have time, when we the games supposed to be going.

I'm equally impressed and frightened.

Thanks. Campaign has been great so far.

And we'll see about the other sites. I make no promises, cause I tend to forget them. Remind me again, when part two comes out. (or if it does not, in a week or so)

It definitely is. DM is amazing too. We're having a lot of fun (only play every two to four weeks Though. Scheduling is our nemesis)

Okay. So first things first: this is a homebrew cyberpunkworld, with some magic here and there and a lot of races designed by the DM (afaik at least. Never saw them elsewhere), like Odasi (basically rocket from guardians, but with more steampunk and the ability to teleport), Segorians (ageless "slimes" made out of fluid they can control, with the ability to change their shape to a certain degree as the see fit. They're also resistant to blunt attacks but vulnerable to disintegration), Tamorians (humans, but with grey skin, a 1000 year lifespan and the ability to have a small cloud of mist around that is solid and transparent for them, but untouchable and view-blocking for anyone else. They can also control said mist telepathically) and lanlebs (humanoid snails, producing a form of acid, that makes them able to climb walls. They also have a kind of shell, but are not able to live inside of it), with some Humans, Dwarfs, Gnomes, Vedalken and the like somewhere in between. We're also using the techanomancer-textbook for subclasses and feats and the DM created a whole new list of weapons (+ 2 damage types) to fit the setting.

Our campaign started, where another ended, as 4, of the 5 former players had to leave, due to character deaths/scheduling issues. At the time the two other players and I jumped in, the group consisted of: My character - Odasi wizard (technomancer) talented hacker, as well as student of arcane arts and computer science. Never been in a real fight before. One of the other newbies - segorian fighter (toxic avenger) a somewhat crazy and very reckless drug dealer, who cares little about others and knows almost every substance you can buy in town Second newbie - Tamorian paladin (vengeance) I know very little about him to be honest, but as far as I pieced together, he's a former soldier with a not so low kill count (and a very good representation of a lawful neutral character, if I've ever seen one). Remaining old player - Tamorian ranger (no subclass) giant edgelord by the time we met him. Only PC death so far. Player who joined later on - Lanleb druid (subclass yet unknown to me) former employee of the aforementioned casino and surprisingly chill about the crazy stuff around him. Also has a cybernetic shell, that basically work like a bag of holding.

Setting: Universal sector two (solar system) - Therobias (planet consisting of radioactive wasteland, only source of a very valuable metal called azidium) - Querl (advanced metropolis, built unter a protective energy field in order to mine said mineral) - radiot 4 (prison a few miles outside of Querl, designed to lock away the most dangerous of criminals serve a cover up for the giant space monster, thats imprisoned there) Characters were level 2.

At the very beginning of the first (technically fourth, if you count the ones we missed) session our characters arrived a the radiot. They did not know each other and everyone of them was there for a different reason. (My Odasi for partaking in the phoenix-strike. The greatest hack into the systems of Querls government ever). To speed it up, we spent three sessions plotting a plan of escape (in that time, our ranger challenged the local gang leader to a fight and got killed), getting to know some of the other convicts, more than once fighting with the guards (the other characters), hacking our way to a plan of the prison (my character), getting thrown into solitary, where the imprisoned being offered us help in exchange for us freeing it later (other characters), removing nanobots from our paladins body by shocking him with a guards weapon (the segorian fighter) and some other stuff. Was a wild ride. During all of this, we managed to level up and my odasi got himself the invisibility-spell (will be important later).

For stealing a guards weapon the segorian (cell mate of my character) went into solitary yet again, where he would be under the constant effect of a disintegration-machine, very close to dying every second. Since it was the second time he was taken there and the guard captain announced (like half a day earlier) that every misbehavior would result in death, my character decided he had to scout the prison and at least find out, if the segorian was still alive. So he used a mix of minor illusion and hacking in order to freeze the camera pointing at his cell, turned invisible and (with his racial ability) teleported out. He then went on to explore the complex for almost 2 hours, somehow never rolling below 15 on his hacks to open the locked doors (DM eventually said I did not have to roll anymore, since my character got it by now) and finding every room except the one he was looking for (the control room). After discovering the sad puddle our segorian was by the time the odasi found him, my character disabled the two reactors powering up the station in order to save his life, resulting in every cell in the prison opening. While my odasi and the slime managed to escape the poisonous gas the guards pumped through the prison, so it might stop the rioters and worked on a way to blow up the "front door" because it prevented them from leaving with on of the trucks, the paladin sneaked/fought his way through a majority of the prison, somehow found the control room, deactivated most of the prisons safety measures (making our escape even possible), eventually got to the cell holding the being (this cell was filled with very aggressive neurotoxin, mind you) and (by an absurd amount of good roles) managed to set this being free, as he had promised. While this abomination started to tear down the prison, the paladin barely made it to the docking bay and the three of us (+two NPCs we dragged along) took of from the radiot 4, starting our long ride back to the city, as the whole thing and anyone left alive was completely and utterly destroyed by the monster.

Thats the first part of the story. Feel free to ask, if you wanna know anything, I'll answer to the best of my abilities. If you are still interested and willing to wait I'll post the second part as soon as I can.

I see. Been a while, since I read the sourcebooks. Thanks.

Never show this to my players please.

Lets call it the best justification I have for the horrendous crimes I commit. You better accept, as my zombies won't be as reasonable, as I am.