Sky island swashbuckler. Set on a floating archipelago where people travel by airship, the party are each given a classic swashbuckler motive and set to adventure.
I don’t care specifics or ruleset. I just want the heroes to throw a villain over the edge and let him fall a thousand feet into the ocean.
No, the world is enormous and you only need to worry about a small part of it. There is literally nothing over there, and no reason you’d want to go there. The game is over here. Leaving this area is the same as leaving the game, which you are free to do.
I think better advice in that situation is to find players who want to play the game you’re running. It might be fun to make a tunnel-exploration campaign, but I’m running that dungeon over there. We’ll do the tunnel thing another time.
Also, to rephrase your dad’s advice, know enough of the world to be able to add shit where you need to. I don’t even know if the world is round, but I don’t need to. If the players are in a church, I’ll make sure to know the popular religions in case I need to roleplay as a priest.
A few favourites from the Alexandrian:
I found a map-making site that is, let’s be honest, shit. The maps it makes can only ever be “good enough”, and never great. This means I don’t waste time trying to make them great, and can actually finish the dang things. Plus, if the players decide not to go to the noble manor, then it’s no big loss.
This idea goes for a lot of the game, actually. If you spend less time on the story, then it’s no big loss if the plot takes a tangent. And they probably weren’t going to be as invested in a forced narrative as they would be for something more organic.
Makes sense. One of those “it’s easier to add than subtract” things. I probably won’t do that, but if it works for you, then that’s good.
Sorry, why did you need to math your hit points? Were you not keeping track already?
Nah, dragons have a higher charisma score, legitimate power of their own, and can convincingly pretend to be human.
Just gonna leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTtpi7gJO7XN3wMsO-loEEBHaP4yT9afx
DC20 hasn’t even come out yet, but I am looking forward to it!
There’s a bit in Darths and Droids where Jim uses an ability to reroll dice in order to cheat at dice.
Ben: That’s on your sheet? Why haven’t you used this before?
Jim: Nobody’s rolled any dice before!
GM: We’ve been rolling dice since the campaign started!
Jim: Oh, those dice.
“I was wondering how I was able to describe so much of the room without you lot interrupting me…”
It also applies for when a bard is fond of haunted mansions. Note: I tend to play bards.
I don’t really get how my comment is aggressive, since all I did was point out a type of problem GM. There’s a suspiciously defensive reply to it that tries to paint it as aggressive, but I disagree.
Yes, you can make players pre-plan. You nudge them.
The timer encourages speed by penalising a slow, methodical approach. You might avoid the penalty by pre-planning, or you might avoid it by taking a simpler action every time. Both make the game move faster, but one makes the game less fun, especially for players like me who enjoy a good shenanigan.
Why does it matter how much time everyone takes? Outside of an argument that shouldn’t happen in the first place, why would you need to know? Remember that everyone’s moving at a different speed because there’s a timer, so you can only measure post-timer, not pre-.
The GM tried to fix long turns by bringing in a timer. The first problem is the long turns, and the second problem is the timer. Pre-planning solves the problem of there being a timer.
That is a long fucking comment to ask why someone ELSE cares so much.
If literally everyone at the table wanted a timer in place, is it even necessary? Isn’t everyone already motivated? Or was it a majority vote and there’s a single person you’re not having a very necessary conversation with? Beyond that, who was the one to suggest the timer in the first place?
You said they looked up fireball 6 times in a session. Maybe you were being hyperbolic, which would weaken your argument. If not, then they must use that spell a lot to need to look it up so much. And given it’s a simple spell, they must be double-checking the numbers, so they have something in mind for it.
Your biggest benefit to a timer, and your biggest flaw with a nudge, were both about being responsible for the game running smoothly. You’re the GM. That’s your responsibility. It’s everyone’s, but the GM is afforded greater power by their position, and with great power…
Yeah, that is a small detail. It’s very small. Insignificant, even.
You said the timer fixed the problem. I corrected you, pointing out the timer only prompted the actual fix for the problem, and that’s not guaranteed for every table. You called me a snob. I don’t feel that upset about it.
I can fucking tell you run a 30 second timer. This is absolutely the mindset of someone with a 30 second timer.
I find it interesting that you say “the onus is on [the players]” as a benefit, because the main problem you listed for actually talking to them is that they might say you were at fault if you forget. You want it to be that, if anything goes wrong, it’s only because of what other people did. You don’t want to be responsible.
And yet, something did go wrong becaue of your actions. You want everyone to have quick turns, so you set up a timer, and one of your players is using fireball over and over. As if it’s a default action they took due to being rushed. Like I said would happen in the first place.
(Oh, sidenote? Calling someone a snob, then insulting people for being slow or forgetful, is pretty fucking hypocritical)
That’s not the point of the timer. The point of a timer is to cut off people taking too much time. As a side effect, people are pre-planning their turns so they don’t get cut off by the timer. The solution is the pre-planning, which does not need a timer, nor is it a guaranteed result of a timer.
There was a problem, and in trying to fix it, the DM created a second problem. The players then found the actual solution to the first problem to avoid the second. The DM then took credit for fixing the problem.
Do you remember that episode where Homer became Mr Burns’ assistant, and was so bad that Mr Burns became more independent so he wouldn’t need Homer’s help? It’s basically like that.
I like shenanigans characters, where you always have a trick up your sleeves. I’m not a super-powerful D&D character in real life, so it will take me a moment to come up with those tricks and put them in my sleeves. As such, I think of turn timers as a problem, not a solution.
I saw advice which was just that, whenever someone starts their turn, give a nudge to the person next down the line. That way, they’ll have more time to plan before their turn starts, and it’s not like they were doing anything then anyway. Way better.
Oh, and you can see the steps. Bioware condensed the mental stats into cunning, giving them space to add magic and willpower. Then the RPG needed to add two new stats just to keep cunning from being too bloated.
Then they made Fantasy Age, which is the Dragon Age RPG without Dragon Age, and they immediately got rid of the magic stat.
Completely agree. I’m pretty sure the best campaign premise has people going “I’m listening” in 10 words or less.