So about to finish Storm Kings Thunder with my group. I want to try different mechanics for my next campaign since I won't be using an official module. Still consider myself a new DM.
Has anyone here used downtime in their games? How about time management? I really want to try keeping track of both since they interest me but I'm lost on how to include it.
So about to finish Storm Kings Thunder with my group. I want to try different mechanics for my next campaign since I won't be using an official module. Still consider myself a new DM.
Has anyone here used downtime in their games? How about time management? I really want to try keeping track of both since they interest me but I'm lost on how to include it.
Wow that was fast, how long did it take your group? I started one in June that was bi-weekly so we've only gotten about 15 sessions in with lots of people dropping in and out and we're only just about to reach Everlund and 'unlock' the teleportation circles from the Harpers.
Wow that was fast, how long did it take your group? I started one in June that was bi-weekly so we've only gotten about 15 sessions in with lots of people dropping in and out and we're only just about to reach Everlund and 'unlock' the teleportation circles from the Harpers.
We finished the starter set quickly and ended up doing SKT with the same characters. Somehow there have been two seasons a week. I love it. Short session on Tuesday's and long one on Saturday's.
By finishing shortly I mean maybe mid January. I'm reading about well any mechanics I'm interested in introducing but would appreciate some info or tips from people who use stuff like downtime in their campaigns or time management.
Hey gang, not sure how kosher this is here, so if it's not I'll remove it. But my friends and I recently started up an actual play podcast using Monster of the Week. It's about a punk band in a beach town taking monster hunting jobs to pay the bills. We're 6 episodes deep and I'm really proud of what we've made so far. If that sorta thing might interest any of yall, here's a LINK to listen to the show on all the big podcast apps (iTunes, Spotify, Pocketcasts and a few others)
i promise im not gonna make a habit of self-promoting this show here, but we're now 8 episodes into this podcast and if any of yall have maybe a long drive or something coming up for the holiday and want something new to check out, hope you might consider giving our show a shot!
It's honestly pretty hard to find high quality podcasts that aren't DnD/Pathfinder based. One that I often see suggested (though it didn't stick with me personally) is Friends at the Table podcast. They use a quite a few different systems throughout their seasons.
Pretending to be People is a pretty great Delta Green campaign. They're all playing small town cops in way over the heads. The begining is a little rough with mystery overload, but I've enjoyed almost every episode of it.
It's honestly pretty hard to find high quality podcasts that aren't DnD/Pathfinder based. One that I often see suggested (though it didn't stick with me personally) is Friends at the Table podcast. They use a quite a few different systems throughout their seasons.
Been reading the released PDF version of the mech RPG Lancer and I am -really- itching to wanna play this. It's essentially Titanfall The RPG. Quite loving the customization options to mix and match all the different frames of mechs, weapons hardware, systems, A.I Systems and whatnot into getting your very own unique mech. It's also quite a bit far out there so you're not controlling chonky robots ala. Battletech but much more fantasy style mechas with cloaks, predict the future through intensive battlefield simulation, abilities to teleport, go Macross Missile Massacre and whatnot crazy stuff. There is a free extra slightly-larger-than-a-person mech that is essentially Erin Jaeger from Attack on Titan with Vertical Maneuvering Gear.
Also the setting is pretty darn interesting. Sci-Fantasy-Far-Far-Into-the-Future kind of stuff.
There is a totally free version (mostly intended for players) that you can download if you're curious about it. It omits the NPC, GM and setting sections but includes everything else, art included which I didn't expect.
Been reading the released PDF version of the mech RPG Lancer and I am -really- itching to wanna play this. It's essentially Titanfall The RPG. Quite loving the customization options to mix and match all the different frames of mechs, weapons hardware, systems, A.I Systems and whatnot into getting your very own unique mech. It's also quite a bit far out there so you're not controlling chonky robots ala. Battletech but much more fantasy style mechas with cloaks, predict the future through intensive battlefield simulation, abilities to teleport, go Macross Missile Massacre and whatnot crazy stuff. There is a free extra slightly-larger-than-a-person mech that is essentially Erin Jaeger from Attack on Titan with Vertical Maneuvering Gear.
Also the setting is pretty darn interesting. Sci-Fantasy-Far-Far-Into-the-Future kind of stuff.
There is a totally free version (mostly intended for players) that you can download if you're curious about it. It omits the NPC, GM and setting sections but includes everything else, art included which I didn't expect.
The art is done partially by one of the designers of the game who also has a webcomic called Kill 6 Billion Demons that is quite recommended. So if you're into the art, read that comic.
The mech variety in the book is lovely.
All of them are of course just suggestions to what it can look like, people are free to design their mechs however they like. Which is, as said, a big part of the game.
Really loving the look of Lancer. I have the free version and wanna dig through to see what's good. I know they put a large part of the lore behind the paywall, but is there at least enough here for players to work off of?
Really loving the look of Lancer. I have the free version and wanna dig through to see what's good. I know they put a large part of the lore behind the paywall, but is there at least enough here for players to work off of?
Actually, there is a lot of stuff available outside! I saw that they still have the Lore Reference book from the pre- release drafts of Lancer up on itch.io so that is available for download
Actually, there is a lot of stuff available outside! I saw that they still have the Lore Reference book from the pre- release drafts of Lancer up on itch.io so that is available for download
Hi TTRPG era :) I like never post here but wanted to be able to post about nerves without my wonderful dm or fellow pcs worrying.
I've been playing Out of the Abyss (with a ton of homebrew thrown in) for a little less than a year now (we're all grad students so we did have a break for summer but otherwise pretty consistently weekly) and this week we're having a long session where we hit the mid point of the campaign--
getting to the gate to escape the underdark, and the ilvara fight associated with it
Our DM has let us know this will be by far our most difficult battle, and he'd be genuinely shocked if we didn't have multiple people go unconscious or die (we've never had anyone die except someone who graduated back in may since we play in person and they were moving)--so we've all been discussing/planning accordingly for weeks. He's been more than happy to give us cool items and small buffs as we've gone through the dungeon to get to the final battleground. Most of our party is looking good and genuinely I love the personalized items and buffs he's given out! I feel like most of the party is really equipped--except for me.
You see, my character is a divine soul sorcerer--and the god she got her powers from is about to die and is trying to take back whatever power he's given to give himself some extra strength for his duel for his life. Which means I've had my spell slots and abilities slowly sucked away from me--going into the final fight, I have a maximum of 10 spell slots (I usually have 14) and will wake up missing 5 sorcerery points (out of 9). It's fair to say this is a pretty massive nerf.
On top of that, I recently jumped from having no temporary madness to having permanent madness (i'm not sure how other dms do this but our dm has always had it stack to 3 points of temporary before it goes permanent), resulting in any time I cast a restoration spell, I have to roll to see if I even cast it.
I know all of this stuff is being done for plot--and I usually would 100% be on board. But I am the only real healer (we have a paladin but he's not great at remembering to heal) and this is a crazy fight and sometimes with the whole god shit my PC's magic just doesn't work and so I'm deeply worried because I'm so attached to our whole party. I would be so sad if someone died because my pc, and my pc alone, has gotten shat on. I also am kinda worried about the battle--I'm gonna have to be a lot more cautious than everyone else about going ham, which is sort of a bummer.
There's also just been a lot of bad plot stuff going on with my PC so I'm just a little frustrated. The DM is a good friend and knows how much I care about my PC and has ensured me it will pay off in the end so I trust him but god do I feel nervous going into the fight. My whole party has absolutely banded around helping protect my PC (who is super squishy--at lvl 9 I have 53 hp and 11 ac) for the fight, but I feel bad about being a liability.
Hi TTRPG era :) I like never post here but wanted to be able to post about nerves without my wonderful dm or fellow pcs worrying.
I've been playing Out of the Abyss (with a ton of homebrew thrown in) for a little less than a year now (we're all grad students so we did have a break for summer but otherwise pretty consistently weekly) and this week we're having a long session where we hit the mid point of the campaign--
getting to the gate to escape the underdark, and the ilvara fight associated with it
Our DM has let us know this will be by far our most difficult battle, and he'd be genuinely shocked if we didn't have multiple people go unconscious or die (we've never had anyone die except someone who graduated back in may since we play in person and they were moving)--so we've all been discussing/planning accordingly for weeks. He's been more than happy to give us cool items and small buffs as we've gone through the dungeon to get to the final battleground. Most of our party is looking good and genuinely I love the personalized items and buffs he's given out! I feel like most of the party is really equipped--except for me.
You see, my character is a divine soul sorcerer--and the god she got her powers from is about to die and is trying to take back whatever power he's given to give himself some extra strength for his duel for his life. Which means I've had my spell slots and abilities slowly sucked away from me--going into the final fight, I have a maximum of 10 spell slots (I usually have 14) and will wake up missing 5 sorcerery points (out of 9). It's fair to say this is a pretty massive nerf.
On top of that, I recently jumped from having no temporary madness to having permanent madness (i'm not sure how other dms do this but our dm has always had it stack to 3 points of temporary before it goes permanent), resulting in any time I cast a restoration spell, I have to roll to see if I even cast it.
I know all of this stuff is being done for plot--and I usually would 100% be on board. But I am the only real healer (we have a paladin but he's not great at remembering to heal) and this is a crazy fight and sometimes with the whole god shit my PC's magic just doesn't work and so I'm deeply worried because I'm so attached to our whole party. I would be so sad if someone died because my pc, and my pc alone, has gotten shat on. I also am kinda worried about the battle--I'm gonna have to be a lot more cautious than everyone else about going ham, which is sort of a bummer.
There's also just been a lot of bad plot stuff going on with my PC so I'm just a little frustrated. The DM is a good friend and knows how much I care about my PC and has ensured me it will pay off in the end so I trust him but god do I feel nervous going into the fight. My whole party has absolutely banded around helping protect my PC (who is super squishy--at lvl 9 I have 53 hp and 11 ac) for the fight, but I feel bad about being a liability.
First, let me say that this post made me simultaneously feel for you (for the nerves) and also smile because the nerves mean that your group, DM included, have must have collectively created a great story so far for you to be so invested. To feel those feelings is a good thing, though it may not seem so now.
The latter is what I would suggest you try to focus on when the nerves take hold of you the most. It's an incredible thing to become attached to your character, your party, and your collective story. Try to think of and take hold of that. No matter how things go, the journey is where the joy is. Though your entire party has the potential to go so much further, sometimes that's just not in the cards and ultimately all their fates will be decided by the dice. That's not to downplay agency but to point out that even if everyone makes all the best choices and even if your character was at their full potential, sometimes the dice just won't go your (collective) way.
So do what you can. Make the best choices you feel in the moment (don't doubt yourself). It's ok to feel those feelings of apprehension and worry. Do your best to not fault yourself and try not to fault the DM or the story. Go into the session and do your best. Stay true to your character. And together with your party and your DM, you'll all find out where the next part of your story goes.
First, let me say that this post made me simultaneously feel for you (for the nerves) and also smile because the nerves mean that your group, DM included, have must have collectively created a great story so far for you to be so invested. To feel those feelings is a good thing, though it may not seem so now.
The latter is what I would suggest you try to focus on when the nerves take hold of you the most. It's an incredible thing to become attached to your character, your party, and your collective story. Try to think of and take hold of that. No matter how things go, the journey is where the joy is. Though your entire party has the potential to go so much further, sometimes that's just not in the cards and ultimately all their fates will be decided by the dice. That's not to downplay agency but to point out that even if everyone makes all the best choices and even if your character was at their full potential, sometimes the dice just won't go your (collective) way.
So do what you can. Make the best choices you feel in the moment (don't doubt yourself). It's ok to feel those feelings of apprehension and worry. Do your best to not fault yourself and try not to fault the DM or the story. Go into the session and do your best. Stay true to your character. And together with your party and your DM, you'll all find out where the next part of your story goes.
thank you, this was super helpful to read and really true as well 😭 we're going in with a lot of good plans, banked up inspiration (our dm let's us stack), and a full rest. At this point it's up to the dice to tell us what happens.
i also did send my dm a message just to make sure I wouldn't be just 100% useless (as without magic I...don't really have any combat prowess LOL I invested the rest in being a face + tactician) during a mild panic attack (not about dnd—I broke my laptop the night before a final and started to spiral haha) and he assured me again it'd be great and I'll enjoy myself. So feeling a lot better about it.
thank you, this was super helpful to read and really true as well 😭 we're going in with a lot of good plans, banked up inspiration (our dm let's us stack), and a full rest. At this point it's up to the dice to tell us what happens.
i also did send my dm a message just to make sure I wouldn't be just 100% useless (as without magic I...don't really have any combat prowess LOL I invested the rest in being a face + tactician) during a mild panic attack (not about dnd—I broke my laptop the night before a final and started to spiral haha) and he assured me again it'd be great and I'll enjoy myself. So feeling a lot better about it.
I'm glad that you found it helpful and that you're feeling better about the session. May the Dice Gods look upon your party favorably and most of all, have fun!
We had our big midpoint session before winter break. A 10 hour session with about 8 hours spent in amazing combat with amazing terrain and minis our dm truly fucking outdid himself on. Our DM did such an incredible job of tying together our story and everything we've done and making it special. An NPC we helped out MONTHS AGO who was at one point enslaved by our enemy showed up to assist us in killing her. A child who was the target of a different NPC companion's rescue mission begged him to save us before he ran off because off the kindness and care we had shown him. Our long term NPC guide (who we had been separated from for a while now but deeply cared about) showed up at the last minute to save our asses. The temporary nerf paid off in the biggest way possible for extreme lore and flavor mechanics. He obviously spent so much time thinking about what we had accomplished and how we got there and it honestly was just incredible.
For the most part, my group played out of their mind. Everyone barring one person was an absolute fucking team player and everyone got a cool moment and I was honestly getting emotional bc you could tell these character genuinely cared about each other and wanted to protect each other. I healed about 700 HP (we were in a place with high magic so spell casters got some extra spell slots later into the fight) and kept my whole team alive and I'm ;.;
We managed to make it out alive with every member of our party except our NPC guide (my PC's love interest as well) which was heart breaking. He literally sold his soul to be able to make it to us in time + save us (which he did--he has a special space swapping homebrew skill, and used that to swap places with me and take me out of danger so I could heal up our dying party) and once we had finished the battle tried to run away. We only had a minute or so to set everything up, so the rest of the party set it up while my PC went over to beg him to come with us, removing herself from the travel platform. He spent his turn getting onto the travel platform, space swapping with my character to get her to safety, and was taken by his new patron, Asmodeus.
We got to the surface after 7 ig months and 11 real life months in the underdark--over our 1 month irl break we'll be doing smaller rp for our 3 ig months before we go back into the underdark to deal with the Demon Lords. My PC has a personal task to tack on; finding and killing Asmodeus, and freeing our NPC guide after all he's done for our party and specifically her.
We had our big midpoint session before winter break. A 10 hour session with about 8 hours spent in amazing combat with amazing terrain and minis our dm truly fucking outdid himself on. Our DM did such an incredible job of tying together our story and everything we've done and making it special. An NPC we helped out MONTHS AGO who was at one point enslaved by our enemy showed up to assist us in killing her. A child who was the target of a different NPC companion's rescue mission begged him to save us before he ran off because off the kindness and care we had shown him. Our long term NPC guide (who we had been separated from for a while now but deeply cared about) showed up at the last minute to save our asses. The temporary nerf paid off in the biggest way possible for extreme lore and flavor mechanics. He obviously spent so much time thinking about what we had accomplished and how we got there and it honestly was just incredible.
For the most part, my group played out of their mind. Everyone barring one person was an absolute fucking team player and everyone got a cool moment and I was honestly getting emotional bc you could tell these character genuinely cared about each other and wanted to protect each other. I healed about 700 HP (we were in a place with high magic so spell casters got some extra spell slots later into the fight) and kept my whole team alive and I'm ;.;
We managed to make it out alive with every member of our party except our NPC guide (my PC's love interest as well) which was heart breaking. He literally sold his soul to be able to make it to us in time + save us (which he did--he has a special space swapping homebrew skill, and used that to swap places with me and take me out of danger so I could heal up our dying party) and once we had finished the battle tried to run away. We only had a minute or so to set everything up, so the rest of the party set it up while my PC went over to beg him to come with us, removing herself from the travel platform. He spent his turn getting onto the travel platform, space swapping with my character to get her to safety, and was taken by his new patron, Asmodeus.
We got to the surface after 7 ig months and 11 real life months in the underdark--over our 1 month irl break we'll be doing smaller rp for our 3 ig months before we go back into the underdark to deal with the Demon Lords. My PC has a personal task to tack on; finding and killing Asmodeus, and freeing our NPC guide after all he's done for our party and specifically her.
Wow that's so awesome! I'm so glad everything paid off in a satisfying way and that the DM put in what sounds like a major about of work to homebrew the module and tweak it to incorporate all the character's backstories in a cohesive and meaningful way. It's something I strive to do but I've found it very difficult and am frankly just scared that my players will think my 'writing' and ideas are garbage compared to the module, so I've been hesitating for a while. Hope you manage to kill Asmodeus, that seems like an big task to take on.
Wow that's so awesome! I'm so glad everything paid off in a satisfying way and that the DM put in what sounds like a major about of work to homebrew the module and tweak it to incorporate all the character's backstories in a cohesive and meaningful way. It's something I strive to do but I've found it very difficult and am frankly just scared that my players will think my 'writing' and ideas are garbage compared to the module, so I've been hesitating for a while. Hope you manage to kill Asmodeus, that seems like an big task to take on.
He's done a really good job but he's said it's a lot easier because a lot of us just came in with a very basic idea of what we wanted out of our characters--like 2 paragraph backstories, just to sort of give him an idea of who our character was--and then he talks to us about some ideas he has and we okay them (without getting too many spoilers) and he just runs with it. I also feel like he understands our characters incredibly well. We were once hanging out and ended up spending about 2 hours talking about just my PC and my DM gushed about how much he loved her and her arc.
I will say I am absolutely certain your players will love your writing--I play in two campaigns (one run by my SO + the other I was talking about run by a close friend) and both DMs have confided they're always nervous about implementing their own stuff--but honestly, every single time they've gone off module, I've loved the sessions more than usual. It's really apparent to players you've worked hard on it and care about it and they'll def appreciate it!!
Haha It'll definitely be an end game task--but it's a goal to work on for the group!! And will probably be a source of conflict (given our Paladin is sworn to one of Asmodeus' goons haha).
(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not, so please point me in the right direction if it's not.)
I was wondering if there was an Era LFG thread/discord where we could put games together online? I'm on the Pathfinder and Tabletop discord channels, but it's rough finding a game that fits exactly into my timeframe/what I'm looking for. Any help would be awesome.
(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not, so please point me in the right direction if it's not.)
I was wondering if there was an Era LFG thread/discord where we could put games together online? I'm on the Pathfinder and Tabletop discord channels, but it's rough finding a game that fits exactly into my timeframe/what I'm looking for. Any help would be awesome.
I'd be interested too! However I would assume Era would have a smaller population of players compared to the wider open discord communities available, so I don't know if your success rate would be much higher if you have a specific timezone or niche you're looking for.
I'd be interested too! However I would assume Era would have a smaller population of players compared to the wider open discord communities available, so I don't know if your success rate would be much higher if you have a specific timezone or niche you're looking for.
I think it's less finding a time zone issue for me and more that those peeps are really into PbP, which I'm not a huge fan of. I think it could be cool to try and get some games going around here, but I have no idea how to really start.
(I'm not sure if this is the right place for this or not, so please point me in the right direction if it's not.)
I was wondering if there was an Era LFG thread/discord where we could put games together online? I'm on the Pathfinder and Tabletop discord channels, but it's rough finding a game that fits exactly into my timeframe/what I'm looking for. Any help would be awesome.
I'd be interested too! However I would assume Era would have a smaller population of players compared to the wider open discord communities available, so I don't know if your success rate would be much higher if you have a specific timezone or niche you're looking for.
I'm a mod on a pretty good small tabletop discord community, I can send anyone who wants to check it out an invite (PM me). Most people are in the american time zones, though we have about a dozen or so European folks, so you can probably get a game going in most time zones. It's mostly D&D 5e, but folks are open to other systems and some DMs have been doing experimenting with pathfinder and Warhammer (Fantasy and 40k). It's a bit quiet for the holidays, there's still one shots being run at the moment, but I know of at least 3 DMs planning to start a new campaign in January after the holidays wind down.
I'm a mod on a pretty good small tabletop discord community, I can send anyone who wants to check it out an invite (PM me). Most people are in the american time zones, though we have about a dozen or so European folks, so you can probably get a game going in most time zones. It's mostly D&D 5e, but folks are open to other systems and some DMs have been doing experimenting with pathfinder and Warhammer (Fantasy and 40k). It's a bit quiet for the holidays, there's still one shots being run at the moment, but I know of at least 3 DMs planning to start a new campaign in January after the holidays wind down.
Just ran my first 5E game using Roll20, also the first time for most of my IRL group interestingly enough. Some quirks aside, the interface didn't take long to get used as a DM, though I will need to get monster tokens ready for next game. All I had to do this time was run a rather involved skill challenge standing in for warfare rules; players handled the hobgoblin raid in style, though not with Seven Samurai-ish stakes quite yet.
It's good to have someone playing in my group who also DMs and has quite a bit of ambition. She's already asking me about backstory plans and how they'll tie into exploring the larger world beyond the campaign we're doing. We're also going to jump on the LANCER bandwagon soon via one-shots, which should be fun.
Just ran my first 5E game using Roll20, also the first time for most of my IRL group interestingly enough. Some quirks aside, the interface didn't take long to get used as a DM, though I will need to get monster tokens ready for next game. All I had to do this time was run a rather involved skill challenge standing in for warfare rules; players handled the hobgoblin raid in style, though not with Seven Samurai-ish stakes quite yet.
It's good to have someone playing in my group who also DMs and has quite a bit of ambition. She's already asking me about backstory plans and how they'll tie into exploring the larger world beyond the campaign we're doing. We're also going to jump on the LANCER bandwagon soon via one-shots, which should be fun.
Are there any Era people who'd want to run Descent in Avernus? Running two campaigns now and I'd love to play through something on weeknights. I own everything on D&D Beyond currently and have an active sub.
Hi everyone, new to the site. Absolutely love DnD, been a semi pro dungeon master for about 5 years, put enough into it to effectively call it a side business. I specialise in homebrew settings, and build custom expansions to the game to offer my players. I'd love to talk shop with everyone, got any epic character heights during role play you'd like to share?
My group just did Tomb of Horrors (5E rules, but I'm basing the challenges on the 1E version). Oh boy....
Long story short: remember that thing that the Tomb of Horrors is most infamous for? Well, that happened!
I started the adventure with the group arriving at the hill with the tomb. They had to find the obscured entrance themselves. It took about half an hour (and some hints from me) before someone thought of poking the sandy cliff that hid the entrances. Half of the party wandered off, thinking the entrance had to be somewhere else.
They found an entrance, but it was a fake with a sliding block that would seal it off. The PCs disarmed the trap and revealed that the doors at the end were false. However, the PCs did not believe this was a fake entrance, so they tried all sorts of things and just would not give up! I basically had to tell them that this was a fake entrance and they had to find another one. They even triggered the sliding block, arguing whether the trap might have opened a new passage. I think we spend an hour of real life time exploring a 60ft tunnel that lead nowhere
Rather quickly they found the real entrance. It was a long corridor with a mosaic floor with a tile path and some pit traps, and all kinds of painting on the walls. A couple of the PCs kept asking about the paintings, so I had to improvise. They triggered a couple of the pit traps, but those did little damage. They desperately tried to figure out a pattern in the position of the traps, but there wasn't any.
Finally they neared the end of the corridor. The tile path forks there, on path going into a misty archway and one path going into a green devil face with a pitch black mouth. As soon as they saw the devil face they said: Lets not go in there, Terrible idea etc. I thought they knew what is was, because its sort of infamous: the pitch black mouth contains a sphere of annihilation.
They were discussing which way to go. They tried to illuminate the mouth, which didn't work, so they though it would be magical darkness. Someone sent a dancing light into the misty archway and back. One PC kept saying they shouldn't go into the devils mouth.
And then...
The druid wildshaped into a badger (who usually does weird, impulsive things) says: "I jump into the devils mouth". I describe how the badger jumps into the mouth, its body disappearing in the darkness when it touches the sphere. I dont tell the player anything. but he keeps silent. The party waits a bit, calls for him, but no response. The halfling (buddies with the druid player) goes: "I also jump in". Similar description as before. I do not want the whole party to die here so I say: "you dont hear any sound coming from the mouth". Party thinks it might be magical silence, one argues that they should stick together and follow the other two, one keeps saying it's a really bad idea. The usually silent player also says he jumps in. I try to give them one more clue. I make him roll an Acrobatics check to see whether he would only be partially engulfed by the sphere (Because his character is a lot more bulky than the previous two). Nope, he rolls high and goes in smoothly. Two PCs remaining, one of them intimidates the reluctant one into jumping in as well and succeeds. Of course the last guy does not just jump in. He first puts his leg into it, I describing him having this weird sensation in his foot/leg when it enters that immediately stops. He just shrugs and pushes himself into it. Finally I tell the party that we have to stop here because all their characters are gone for the purpose of this adventure.
Since we planned multiple session, we are going to play again soon with a brand new party.
So the entire party killed themselves by jumping into the sphere of annihilation. I thought about the sphere and how I would give hints so that they wouldn't all just crawl into it and die. I didn't expect this to happen.
Four of my friends and I, are diving into the Pathfinder beginner box this upcoming friday. None of us have any experience playing a tabletop RPG let alone DM. I was willing to take the roll of DM because i didn't expect anyone else to volunteer but someone luckily did.
Like I already stated none of us has any experience roleplaying and to be honest i really don't see my friends going for it. If there is going to be any roleplaying at all then i suspect it will be very shallow.
The only reason we ended up here is because we had a ton of fun playing Gloomhaven and it kind of made us crave something more intricate. The idea of being able to create your own class with tons of spells and abilities, the idea of more tactical combat and more engaging battles with higher stakes and other stuff like that are just some of the reasons that we are going to try this out.
So my question is: Can you enjoy DnD or in this case Pathfinder (1st edition with less rules due to this being the beginner box) with there being little to no focus on roleplaying, and most of the focus being on the combat and things related to that?
How did you guys play your first sessions? Did you happen to jump in with a group that was already experienced? Did you start from scratch with some friends like I am going to? And if so, did you roleplay alot at the start?
Would love some answers to my questions and could also really use some advice.
So my question is: Can you enjoy DnD or in this case Pathfinder (1st edition with less rules due to this being the beginner box) with there being little to no focus on roleplaying, and most of the focus being on the combat and things related to that?
How did you guys play your first sessions? Did you happen to jump in with a group that was already experienced? Did you start from scratch with some friends like I am going to? And if so, did you roleplay alot at the start?
Would love some answers to my questions and could also really use some advice.
DnD and Pathfinder are heavily focussed on combat and dungeon crawling. Both work well in a setting where the main goal is to explore the dungeon, kill the monsters and get the loot. A lot of adventures are structured like that. Roleplaying as in playing a character isn't required to have fun in those situations. You can just start with everyone getting to know the system.
You can try try out some very basic roleplaying scenes if you want. Have the characters enter an inn/tavern and ask them want to want to drink/eat. Have them the meet someone who gives them a quest. Have them return to the questgiver for their reward.
I started tabletop rpgs with DnD (3.5, Pathfinder is based on it). I played with some people who had some experience with it (no idea how much though). I played my first character basically as myself. Most of the other characters were relatively simple iirc: barbarian who couldnt control his temper etc. I remember we had to find and kill a werewolf. We found its lair, the entrance was riddled with bones. What happened next was a 15+ min conversation about what we should do with the bones. The cleric/paladin wanted to bury them, the druid didn't because letting the bones stay there was natural or something. Our DM stopped the conversation by having the werewolf jump into the group, surprising us and slicing the NPC bard in half after a crit.
So my question is: Can you enjoy DnD or in this case Pathfinder (1st edition with less rules due to this being the beginner box) with there being little to no focus on roleplaying, and most of the focus being on the combat and things related to that?
How did you guys play your first sessions? Did you happen to jump in with a group that was already experienced? Did you start from scratch with some friends like I am going to? And if so, did you roleplay alot at the start?
Would love some answers to my questions and could also really use some advice.
You absolutely can enjoy DnD and Pathfinder as more of an action/battle based campaign. The systems support it well.
My first session was with players more experienced than I was and they leaned into the RP which I enjoyed because the RP is what I was personally interested in and enjoy the most. It still took me a bit to find my character and feel comfortable with the RP.
I'm not familiar with the Pathfinder beginner box adventure but if your group isn't super into the RP aspects and the module has points where RP feels necessary to advance the plot/progression, then just change it how you see fit right there on the spot. Don't be afraid to change those details if you think it will make the game experience more fun for your players.
So my question is: Can you enjoy DnD or in this case Pathfinder (1st edition with less rules due to this being the beginner box) with there being little to no focus on roleplaying, and most of the focus being on the combat and things related to that?
100%. If you just wanna crush monsters and barely make your characters people, freakin' go for it!
Hell, you could just pull a Sword Art Online and pretend you all got sucked into the world and now you're you with all these powers.
If you find you really love just dungeon crawling and being murder hobos, check out the Pathfinder Super Dungeon, the Emerald Spire. https://paizo.com/products/btpy8yqx
Thanks a bunch for the replies guys. I feel more confident that this is going to be a succes now. My dwarf cleric is ready for action. Not sure if his deity is going to like his murder hobo ways though.
Thanks a bunch for the replies guys. I feel more confident that this is going to be a succes now. My dwarf cleric is ready for action. Not sure if his deity is going to like his murder hobo ways though.
Thanks a bunch for the replies guys. I feel more confident that this is going to be a succes now. My dwarf cleric is ready for action. Not sure if his deity is going to like his murder hobo ways though.
For what it's worth, this is already roleplaying. Even in straight dungeon crawls, I think it's fun to give your character a little bit of personality. The other aspect to dungeon crawls that I think is worth bringing up is actually the problem-solving side of it. It doesn't have to be 100% combat simulator with dice rolling. Traps, puzzles, villains, and other NPCs can result in some interesting choices that really don't require all that much roleplaying.
Side comment and not a direct response to Brohan at all:
Ever since the Critical Role bomb went off a few years ago, the term "roleplaying" has become increasingly synonymous with fleshed-out backstories, voices, etc. Don't get me wrong, I adore the show and it inspired everyone playing in a game I'm running to make a really RP-focused campaign. I just feel like so much of the expectations around D&D has become CR, when roleplaying doesn't actually have to be that complicated. E.g., I played in a game where my character was on the run from the law. I never really gave a deep backstory around it, but it gave him a flaw that he had a serious distrust of law enforcement. This resulted in some pretty fun and interesting moments, even though most of the party wasn't actually doing things "in character" most of the time. I never did anything wild with it, either. Just a little bit of flair to add to the story.
