Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Tyranexx They were some of the younger players, so I let them learn the hard way. I started the campaign by reminding everyone that they were playing a game and that in the game there is a chance of dying. It helped that I got a natural 20 on the wizard on the surprise round, that shocked the few with experience. So did the realization that I was applying Passive Perspective and Passive Investigation (heck, the fact I was even using investigation).

I feel that when someone makes a foolish choice early in the campaign, it's okay to let them suffer for it. However, the pain was going to be less than if they were into the campaign. My plan was to injure and if they insisted on continuing capture their characters. Since it was the first dungeon, the worse consequence outside of insta-kills was always going to just be defeat without death (the goblins are bandits, not necessarily blood thirsty killers).

If the party is defeated, they would have woken up in the woods without their gear and without any idea where they were at. The game would have shifted towards them just surviving the journey to town and possibly trying to recover the wagons (the supplies would have been taken also). The townspeople would be less friendly towards them and they would most likely have to deal with only simple gear being available in town. This would put some stress on using their utility skills and backgrounds to attempt to earn some coin to resupply with some very basic gear.

The goblins themselves would have relocated knowing that a score that big was going to bring unwanted attention to them. This would have forced them to move on with some secondary quests to get started that I would have pulled from the Essentials Kit. I think all of that makes for fascinating opportunities to grow their characters.

@Darknyht Apologies for a couple of typos in my last post; I'm normally a better proofreader, but I was on mobile and my autocorrect is either too touchy or not touchy enough depending on the hour.

Seems like you're starting your group off...Well, not easy per se, but I'd say "tough but fair" when taking the ages into consideration. There's no other way they'll learn after all, especially since there are some merciless DMs out there. At least the Goblins are bandits and not assassins (or crazy Cult of the Dragon members for that matter). I'd be curious to see how a situation would play out with this party should they be defeated in that manner; that can really open up some ingenuity for the players. I'm sure it was mentioned before, but is the whole group starting off at level 1?

@Tyranexx I typically have enough typos of my own in my posts that I miss, so don't worry about it.

Everyone is starting off at level 1. The goal was to get through the cave and to town for a level up. There are only a dozen goblins, a few wolves and their boss in the cave so it is not supposed to be difficult. Had they approached it with any sort of strategy other than rush in loudly with bright lights it probably would have played out differently.

Typically I don't like to design for the players to outright die in most situations. I lean more towards comic book story telling than hardcore, grim dark story telling. There are times that death is on the line, but those times are generally clearly laid out. Accidental deaths are also always a possibility when dice rolls are involved. But usually, any player deaths will be the result of their own poor choices (sometimes heroic ones) or inaction.

With the two wandering off alone, I asked for clarification of what the party was doing and gave them a moment to discuss before locking it in. I typically do that in general to make sure I do not misunderstand someone, so it isn't necessarily a hat tip of trouble either. When out of combat, I try to have everyone give me an idea what they are trying individually, and then resolve them at the same time. I feel this helps the more extraverted overrunning the introverted players because they jump into the conversation with their ideas quickly.

@Darknyht Ah, so they charged in guns a-blazing then. Not the best move. Still, it doesn't sound like there are any permanently dead characters yet, and the group is still learning. I'm also glad you don't seem to be the TPK-happy DM type (though I think this is mostly a meme anyway) and didn't intend to imply that as such, if it came off that way.

It also seems like you gave the group ample opportunity to change their course in advance. Talking things through is always important, especially with a group that's learning. 100% yes on the personality types too. I tend to lean towards introvert but am now (mostly) better at inserting my own opinion when needed.

@Tyranexx Having their only healer leading the charge up the cave passageway was probably the funniest part of it. I am not sure they realize the power of Advantage and disadvantage yet. Having the goblins attack from the darkness or dim light gives them such a huge tactical advantage over the players when rules are applied.

Darkvision lets the players see in darkness as if it is dim light. Perception checks in dim light are made at disadvantage. So the goblins moving and hiding makes them hard to find with a perception check. If they are hidden, attacks they make have advantage while attacks against have disadvantage. The real fun will be when they realize that the Goblins have not been idle the past hour of rest and have setup some new basic traps to discourage the players from returning.

@Darknyht WaitWaitWait...The healer ran in first?! Oh boy. I would've loved to be present for that one. Sounds like they definitely need to learn group roles better, but sounds like you're pushing them in that direction, even if it might be a hard lesson. Hopefully some of the players make very good rolls despite disadvantage if they're in dim light or darkness (depending on the race and any abilities that grant Darkvision or the equivalent). They'll definitely need to plan past "run up and hit things".

@Darknyht @Tyranexx Been awhile since I posted. But just a quick update on my gaming habits. So my roommates son who's coming to visit her for the Christmas holiday turns out to be a D&D player as well so I was asked create a one shot for us to play when he visits. Nothing major just something that we can do in a few hours.

Since I was on bed rest for a few days, due to a medical emergency, I was able to come up with something. It does of course have a holiday theme to it which I think will be fun. I instructed to my players to make level 10 characters. I figure this will give them a chance to play around with higher level characters plus will make the adventure a bit more exciting.

The story I am going with is that the group is an already established party so that will cut down on introductions and such, and has recently taken a job for a local lord.

Once I get update with characters I will post here, as well as when we play the adventure.

Hope you guys holidays are going good as well.

It's been awhile since I've posted in here as well. We were gonna try to meet a couple weekends ago, but one of our hosts became ill last second. So no updates from me either.

@Tasuki That sounds like a pretty fun one-shot! How many players will there be, or is that TBD as well? I've enjoyed the one-shots I've participated in, though that number isn't high.

I'm usually pretty busy this time of the year, but all is going well so far. I hope your holidays are doing well, ignoring the medical emergency. Hopefully it wasn't anything too crazy.

@Tyranexx Its going to be 5 players plus me the DM.

I know that this can be a crazy time of the year to meet up. Not only do you have the holidays bit also cold and flu season.

As for the medical emergency it wasn't too bad. I had developed diverticulitis but the doctors caught it in time and I was on antibiotics and such. I was in the hospital for a few days but it didn't require surgery thank god.

@Tasuki Holidays have been busy at work and home. I haven't managed a session with either group since the last time I posted. My one friend seems to be eternally trapped on late running jobs on Tuesdays, and schedules for the holidays have wrecked the other game.

Sorry to hear about the medical emergency, but I am glad it sounds like you are recovering. I have way too many family members that deal with that particular issue, so you have my prayers and sympathy. I dread the day it finally comes calling for me and my love of popcorn and nuts.

@Tasuki A pretty good group size then. Not too big or too small. As for my group, I suspect we'll be waiting until after the holidays now. I was completely unavailable this last weekend for one. This coming one is quieter so far, but after that...no availability for a good while.

Oof...My well wishes and prayers. Glad the doctors caught it in time and that you're well on your way to a full recovery (if not already). Best of all, no surgery was required, so hopefully the bills aren't too crazy.

Hi all! I didn't know there was a DnD chat on here!

I'm currently DMing a small group every other Saturday in a homebrew campaign, it's going to be fairly short, as I can only give time up until our baby is born.

@Darknyht @Tyranexx Thanks guys. Yeah I am on the mend now just need to watch what I eat now and try to stick to a high fiber diet. As bills going, insurance took care of it so I don't need to stress over that. But yeah it sucks now cause I can't have popcorn, nuts and chunky Peanut butter which is the only way I will eat peanut butter.

@Classic603 Welcome. We usually play pretty regularly but it seems that all of our games seem to be on pause due to the holidays. But still feel free to post what's going on in you campaign or ask questions or maybe even an idea or two. It's always nice to share stuff with other D&D players.

@Tasuki No bill stress is a huge plus. The no popcorn and nuts...not so much. I could give up the former if I had to, but some nuts would be harder. Though I'm generally not picky when it comes to nut butters as long as they lean more natural.

I said that yesterday and managed a session that night. We joked it was a Christmas miracle since the one guy was home and I was able to rig a way for another to use my desktop via his iPad to connect to foundry.

We continue to explore the castle looking for bones. I found a magic mace and have started using it, although being Curse of Strahd it is just as dark as the spear. The damage falloff between two handed spear and mace isn’t that bad (1D6+5 vs 1D8+5). It will also work as more flavor of my multi-classing into Wizard. (I play a battle-smith Artificer for those just joining)

The session itself was short with us getting caught up in a battle with a bunch of skeletons. The combat only lasted three rounds, but that consumed most of the time we had. Still creeped out exploring this place.

@KitchenCadet I currently DM a game for my kids and their friends, and play in a game with my friends that my friend is DM'ing. We generally play pre-made campaigns because the truth is none of us have the spare time to invest into world building as we all have kids and other obligations. Your idea isn't a bad one, just not really practical for my situation as one group is playing Curse of Strahd and the other is playing Phandelver and Below.

I remember when me and my friends were able to run for hours weekly, but we also didn't have families, jobs and other obligations. I spend more time these days driving kids to and from various activities, and my primary group I play with is now scattered across the country (from N. Dakota to Central PA). While Foundry does a good job of facilitating our play, it is not without its tradeoffs.

@Tasuki Holiday one shots can be so much fun. Especially if everyone is willing to just roll with the silliness of it. I always joked that I would play a Tortle Celestial Warlock named Nanna Gora, the Weaver of Life that focuses on feats like Chef and Healer along with summoning spells from her Tome of stories.

@Darknyht I remember those days. Back when I was in high school and even a bit afterwards my group would play easily for 8 hours a day or so with little breaks in between. Then the adult thing happened, people got married, had kids, started full.time careers etc etc. It wasn't till about 20 years later that we all connected again (we stayed in touch throughout the years) and our schedules aligned that we could even play again when we could. It was a far drop in time to maybe 4 hours a week due to life obligations. Definitely wish at times though that we could go for 8 hour sessions again lol.

@KitchenCadet Ravenloft is its own setting. It's a demiplane and yes it can connect to other planes it really doesn't effect them to the degree, except maybe the disappearance of a being, such as when Lord Soth was pulled from Krynn or Azalin from Oerth.

But yeah it can connect with other worlds but it's its own setting.

@KitchenCadet If we wanted to go that route, I am sure me and my friend could work something out. But to what end? The only person that would really understand the connection would be me as I play in one game and DM the other. That just seems like a lot of navel gazing for little benefit to anyone else.

With the game I play, it is the excuse for us to hang out and BS for an hour or two. We play seriously but if I don’t record what we did most likely we would struggle to remember between sessions (DM included). The game isn’t the important part of the night.

In the game I am DM’ing, the ages range from 9-15. I am not trying to build a world, but to introduce them to a game I enjoy playing. The goal is a good time for all. The story framed by Wizards and adjusted on the fly by the me and the players is good enough without going that deep.

As I said, it is an interesting idea but not a practical one for my situation. I have known others that have run dual campaigns where each group was the heroes of their campaign but the villains of the other (every good villain thinks they are the hero of their story). However that is a little beyond what my talents as DM will allow.

As for favorite dice, the ones that roll well for me and bad for the other side. Other than that, numbers my old eyes can read clearly.

Really excited after tonight's session. We managed to secure a valuable treasure and complete another key event in the quest. With this level up, I have become a Level 7 Battle Smith Artificer/Level 1 Wizard. My character had found a spell book called "The Libram of the Fecund Void" while exploring a ruin and with this level up has officially started his journey to honor and rebuild the Order of the Silver Dragon. He has declared his oaths. The goal for him now is to defeat Strahd (and other evils of the land) and recover the lost artifacts and knowledge of the order. His hope is that his fellow Eldritch Knight can be convinced to join him in this cause.

This is my first time multiclassing in a game, so I am interested in seeing what happens. The roleplaying flavor of my character will be a focus on ritual spells primarily, with conjuration as a secondary focus. When I hit my next level of Wizard, his arcane tradition will be the Order of Scribes (reflecting his desire to accumulate mystical knowledge, forge magical devices, and train a new order of protectors).

This sets my character on his final path towards a showdown with Strahd while allowing him assist in the others completing their personal goals.