/tg/ - Traditional Games

> does this happen to anyone else every single time?

There's a reason that DM's are alternatively referred to as referees. You're in charge of the rules and informing the players how the world around them reacts to their actions. Thus the most important part of your job simply cannot be prepared for, you are a reactionary source of information for the players, you can't referee them until they're playing. You're doing it right.

I've found that NPC don't even need fully fleshed out backstories, motivations or beliefs unless for whatever reason a particular NPC's information on that front is relevant to what the players are trying to do. a simply knowing whether or not he wants the players around or not and what his current short term and long term goal is is enough for 85% of the NPC interactions players have. You can make up details on the fly as they become relevant, you don't have to know information the PC's will never learn so why bother spending time to make it up in the first place?

I'm not currently running any games and am taking an extended break from playing.

>does this happen to anyone else every single time?

Somewhat. I tend to do a decent amount of prep-work in terms of putting shit together, but I keep things very loose. I don't like moving things around once placed, but I might dick around with what is/is not. Keep in mind this is mostly for actual adventuring sites - For in town and such, I keep a list of a few NPCs and really only flesh out one, maybe two.

>What games ya running, lads?

Homebrew OSR. Kind of slowed down thanks to the summer, though. Had to end at a very unfortunate point last time due to a player needing to not miss a train. They did some really stupid shit (specifically, one of them did a very stupid move, and the others went with it instead of letting him pay the wages of sin) and I'm fairly sure they're about to underestimate what's coming and going to get wiped. I hate favoring players, but I don't really have a way to punish one player who was a retard out-of-game when everyone in the group was culpable in-game.

Well, I suppose that's old-school gaming, though.

>>385927

Well, what are your players into in terms of villain plots and stories they like?

To make their early kobold killing days feel linked, I'd recommend having something their involved in. I.e. Someone has been orchestrating them to cause havok for X reason.

It's not essential however, as the party doing "pest control" can be enough for someone to ask them a bigger request that snowballs as they uncover shit.

It really depends if you want the story to link from step one or two.

>>385969

Others are more qualified to answer this, but IMO:

If the party doesn't have an overall quest, then they need one ASAP. Even if the quest giver has to walk up to them and put it in their lap (or get them into a fight) then do it.

Usually the first idea would be making the quest "impossible". I.e. a building with top notch security the party can't crack with an assault or sneaking in with what they have. Players should be smart enough to ask around for better gear, services of people, or information to make the quest possible. If the players don't know to do that of their own volition, have the quest giver (this one time) recommend they do so, and they can't due to needing to keep away from that sort of thing, or give themselves as much distance if it all goes south.

>>385969

If they won't initiate action then the world should. Have some NPCs start shit or have some event take place that demands a response. Have somebody steal something or whatever.

>>385969

Make them think it's their idea by offering disguised opportunities. Instead of expecting them to ask the bar tended if he's got any quests, have them overhear him angrily complaining about the shit he can't deal with right now. Instead of telling them to go after a certain NPC, have that NPC either take something from them, or be directly related to another motivation a player character might have given you.

Taking something from them can be as simple as "that NPC bought the last delicious food thing your character wanted". I once had PCs almost killing each other in the first session because one of them bought the last order of bacon from the bacon cart before they had even been introduced to each other. Players are petty and stupid and they will go to great lengths to get revenge for dumb shit.

Another idea you can use is to take a look at their skills and builds. See what they built their character for, then present them with something where they can use that specialty. Expert marksman? They see a flier for a new shooting range. Gambler? They overhear talk of a card game happening tonight. Stealth operative? Keep out and Private Property signs on an important looking building.

Also, if your players are fucking around on their laptops and phones, just tell them to cut that shit out. They all agreed to get together to play a RPG, so no fucking around on electronics and gossiping like retarded school girls. If they are bored, that's their fault. If they created characters without goals or motivations, that's not your fault.

>>386406

A lot of the time you just gotta fucking bluff and pretend like this was ALL TO PLAN and just bullshit some stuff up to stall while you actually make up the rest of the story

make up a side-story to deal with before the main guy is brought back

>>385927

Here's your story hook:

One of them has a map to an old tomb, which has been untouched for centuries and has Treasure (TM) in it. They can use this Treasure (TM) to throw frat parties or do research or whatever.

>>386406

The main key to flexibility is thinking in terms of people. Treat factions as people, but with a swarm sub-type, and sometimes internal conflict. If your game is event based (i.e. this will happen on this day) you will lose track of it. Instead, figure out your major NPCs, put down their goal, what will let them accomplish it, and what tools they have.

Let's assume a town. This town has a problem of a small demon cult. It has a local priest, a village elder, a scholar, and a bard. In this case, Beelzebub is sealed outside of town. One day he will be free, in 100s of years. There is a ruin with the Great Fly Catcher in it, which is the tool to beat him back, but also the tool to free him.

Cult Leader

>Goal: Free and Worship Beelzebub

>Means: Get the Great Fly Catcher

>Resources: Wizard powers, an entire cult, knowledge

Priest

>Goal: Free and Kill Beelzebub

>Means: Get the Great Fly Catcher

>Resources: High level Cleric

Village Elder

>Goal: Keep Beelzebub Sealed for now

>Means: Destroy the Great Fly Catcher

>Resources: The village itself

Scholar

>Goal: Collect a rare artifact and then go home

>Means: Get the Great Fly Catcher

>Resources: Mid-level Mage, Lots of money

Bard

>Goal: Survive

>Means: Get Money

>Resources: Mid-level Bard, Info on where the Great Fly Catcher is

The PCs might learn from any of these individuals about the Great Fly Catcher, and find that all of them want it for their own reasons. So for instance, if we look at this, we can say "Scholar" helps bankroll the PCs to get info from "Bard", to go get the Great Fly Catcher. The cult is already digging around for the Catcher, and will fight to keep the PCs from it. The Priest or Elder would act accordingly once they have it, depending on what they do with it. The Priest, for instance, might kill the Scholar once the PCs sell it to him, then unleash the Beelzebub and exorcise it. And might fail, forcing the PCs to clean up. Lots of things can happen.

Do that sort of thing, and it's much harder to suddenly be caught off guard.

Have any of you ever struggled to give your PC's a challenge in combat?

It seems like no matter what I do to make their enemies strong, handicap them, or use advanced tactics, they breeze through combat encounters I set up for them.

How have you guys managed this in the past?

>>386868

Set up some other goal besides "kill everyone" so they can feel like losers when they fail. Or give them Vorpal blade.

I've never auctually really played or made anything for a Pathfinder/3.5 type system. I'm trying to set up a romp through a fallen city and have no idea how to handle shit like loot distribution and purchasing power for more item dependant characters. Are there any loot tables or baseline guides that could make pulling this shit out easier?

I had set up a fairly simple puzzle encounter. The PCs were in a rioting village and needed a boat to get the hell out. All but two rowboats had been burnt and the ones left were hoisted up by a crane. The crane had a missing crank and a riddle type thing pointing then to the blacksmith to get it.

They solved the puzzle by having the Barbarian go to town on the main support, toppeling the thing and getting the boats.

Is there any advice for creating locate the thing/move the thing puzzles that PCs won't just smash or fly over? Telling them the thing doesn't break would just feel cheap.

>>386881

>Telling them the thing doesn't break would just feel cheap.

And you know, roleplaying games are not point and click adventures. You may think that you made a puzzle, but what you described was not one. I dont know anyone who would think about that and say "well, lets go into the town to negotiate production of a fucking crank with blacksmith! See? The broken thing even points to it! It wants to be repaired!". That shit would be crazy talk. What kind of player and what kind of character would say that? These people are not to be trusted, because they are fucking insane.

Using smoke to find an invisible object in a room is a puzzle. Finding giant stash of stolen weapons with a compass stolen from a pirate captain is a puzzle. Finding a magic key in giant pile of regular keys by melting them is a puzzle.

>>386868

I don't try to. I put what I want where I want and see how they react. If something looks too big or dangerous that stay away. If it doesn't look so dangerous then they sometimes don't, and that's not always a good idea. They're rightly terrified of magic-users, since a single Charm spell on the wrong party members means bad things happen.

>>386879

Don't play shit systems.

>>386881

Never plan on a solution. Present problems and let them figure it out. Hell, make situations, don't think at all about how to solve it. Sometimes there isn't a solution. Let yourself be surprised sometimes, though.

>>386905

>Never plan on a solution. Present problems and let them figure it out

this is some of the best advice you can receive as a GM.

I don't think of solutions for puzzles or traps or anything I put in front of my PC's anymore, because I know they'll do that for me.

>>386907

Seconded.

Though if you have a mystery you may need to work how it happened, and how it was covered up/the truth is not know or misunderstood.

If you want to prevent people being mind-fucked into confessing, you need to consider that as well.

>>386905

>Never plan on a solution. Present problems and let them figure it out.

This is some of the worst advice you can receive as a GM. Have at least one solution planned out, or else you'll need to improvise when the players are being extra stupid and get stuck, and what you improvise is probably gonna be boring and transparent compared to a solution that is actually thought-out and clever. Don't be a lazy GM.

>>387016

>or else you'll need to improvise when the players are being extra stupid and get stuck

No you won't. Because - and this is important:

Never plan on the players solving something.

Not rarely. Never. If you present a problem, assume that it does not get solved. Every secret door will remain hidden. Every cleverly constructed encounter will remain unmet. If the players can't figure it out, too bad. Move on to the next challenge.

I have zero trouble planning shit or improvising on the spot when my devilishly crafty players inevitably fuck my plans up, but pacing is where I wither and die. I can't pace a session or plot arc to save my fucking life. Good thing my players are extremely adaptive and never get bored, but I'm doing a really shitty job or keeping a good flow of action and narration and I'm certain they know too. How can I get better at it?

How 2 win at GM.

Step 1: Get alcohol.

Step 2: Drink alcohol.

Step 3: Improvise.

Step 4: Drink a little more alcohol

Step 5: ????

Step 6: A winrar is you.

It's been a long time since I last GM'd let alone actually played any tabletop games.

>making a homebrew system to play with a few people

>CoC-esque rules with magic system for a medieval setting

>letting people give me input on the rules

>one guy immediately wants to make an overpowered wizard character

>spends several days trying to rules-lawyer me into letting him have every spell in the game at level 1

>try to politely tell him I’m not going to do that

>he then says something along the lines of “I’m a wizard so I’m supposed to be overpowered and you’d know that if you played RPGs”

>put my foot down and tell him I’m not letting him make his shitty mary sue

>he ragequits

This was the first time I’ve ever had to deal with “that guy” before the rules for the game were even decided on.

>>386868

>Have any of you ever struggled to give your PC's a challenge in combat?

yes and no

>ST exalted game

>players are all alchemicals stuck in Creation

>they're all essence 2 or 3, not very well optimized or good at working together

>one is supposed to be a great figther...

>supposed to

>at one point they have to steal some big magical obelisks because reasons

>its guarded by an army, they do some good leg-work to neutralize that issue

>but there's a Dragonblooded abbot and his gang of mortal munks, and his brickhouse of a second in command

>MFW I built the abbot to be a decent challenge in a fight

>once the fight gets going, abbot throws ONE punch and gives the fighter PC two lethal healthlevels of dmg (nothing serious)

>except the PC was wearing superheavy armor, so the dude thought himself invulnerable...

>so the player character shits a brick and basically runs off like a bitch

>the sneaky assassin character tries to fight the abbot, but has far less defences, so he gets rekt real good - also runs off

>TL:DR - I tried to set up a decent combat encounter, but the best combat player pussed out the moment he got a scratch, leaving the other fighter to get rekt

>>387813

It also as an "Euthanasia" mode whenever people fall unconscious or try to surrender to it.

That it loudly declares whenever he is about to use it.

>>387819

Make sure that says something like "This is a kindness"

high-five your players if they catch the reference

>>387851

>>>/test/

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>387853

<<66789

>>387853

I got a 15. mate deleted his posts

>>387996

Personally, I think just sticking to the base rules is easier.

When someone will come up asking "Wait how does this works?" you can easily go back to the rules and check how it actually works rather than trying to remember the ruling you yourself had in place.

2e has the beautiful gift that it actually makes sense and works as intended, as opposed of being written like 5e where every other line of text is an incomplete description.

>>387996

>>388298

This sounds pretty cool. Might want to use an Retroclone just for the ease of use (Swords and Wizardry tends to be my goto here). I would try to include things that the players think are cool but try to keep that classic style (roll under stats, probably ascending Ac for the ease of use, tables tables tables)

>Fledgling DM

>Ran a few post-apocalyptic one shots with my family and a short Sword & Planet campaign with some friends

>Want to get a new game up and running but can't decide between a fantasy game set in Yoon-Suin or a post-apocalyptic game set in WV.

Anyone want to weigh in?

>>388517

Yoon-Suin is cool. The guy who wrote it is also working on a new supplement for it right now, so you have the potential to get more content to work with pretty soon, as well. I recommend.

>>388517

>Having a family willing to do this.

I envy you.

>>388528

I’ve had a lot of fun messing with the randomness of generating a setting and filling in the gaps so that might be the path I take.

>>388555

Admittedly they were hesitant at first but since most of them enjoy board games it wasn’t too difficult to bridge the gap.

How do I make cities as interesting as possible? Only one of my players bothered to act surprised at the reveal of a massive holy city, and the rest simply went "Woah" and "Cool".

>>388621

The problem isn't necessarily that your cities aren't interesting enough - it can be argued that the problem is just as equally that your other players are jaded/burned out and don't get excited by things like your one player does.

>>388627

Yeah that's fair, they've played their fair share of rpgs. At least I'm trying yeah? And even then, I can think up more shit about the cities for me to have fun with that they won't care about.

>>388621

My players tend to not care about beautiful settings, but perk up the more insanely stupid the design of a setting is.

>>388695

You're in an efficient Hive that produces desk chairs for the Administratum

>Players looking at their phones

The Hive is extremely mismanaged and for some long forgotten reason, they fire a Titan arm cannon which shuts off all the power for 5 minutes every hour

<Players throw their phones onto a couch

>>388869

give them some breathing room, I used to do this but lots of players are played out by the end of the session as apposed to gm's who if things went well often psyched up by the end. Maybe send a survey /choose your own adventure/ feedback for next session/arc thing to the players over the next few days.

>>388610

I feel you buddy I can't even get my family to play fucking checkers with me because they always lose since they refuse to pay attention to the fucking game.

>>388906

It's not that they don't pay attention to the game, they just refuse every time I request to play something.

>>388869

Just ask for it?

For my players I go "Feedback, please" and explain them each time that feedback helps me improve things.

It doesn't always works but it's better than utter silence.

>>388949

Did you even read beyond the first sentence?

>>388953

What was her name, Anon?

>>388958

This shit right here is why you should never play games that use a skill system to justify results. The reaction system from B/X is the best social reaction system devised - it determines if initial disposition is favorable or unfavorable, and that's it. Using skill checks to resolve that sort of shit is cancer, and if your game goes to shit from it, you deserve everything that happens.

>>388951

I did but many issues with /tg/ DMs is that they aren't really clear with their wording.

They make threads about "How do I deal with this guy" when talking should be the first thing one does, rather than finding subterfuge or playing mind games.

For example

>I want them to tell me my shit sucks so I know which areas to work on.

Did you tell them this specifically?

If so then nothing else can help you, if asking directly doesn't work there isn't much you can do.

>>385969

Try seeing what they do on their own for a bit and then drop in plot points that are unavoidable and force them to change up their behavior.

During my most recent campaign, we were playing Only War, the group was part of a pdf force for an Agri world that was in the middle of a genestealer cult rebellion. They had a Chimera but were caught behind enemy lines and were wasting time driving around looking for a way to get back to the main force. So after a bit, I noticed the party was getting bored and had an anti tank mine blow out their track. Then I noted that they could see a small village in the distance. They dismounted and walked to the village and I gave them a small firefight and had them find a cult haven in the basement of an imperial church. They were happy to be doing something other than being ordered around by the player who was the chimera driver. I even gave them some more gas for their vehicle in the village so everyone was happy.

The overarching plot I had built was that of a genestealer cult invasion, with a final goal of having them meet a xenos inquositor and escape as part of his retinue as the Tyranid invasion began. That was my overarching campaign plot, but I gave them a lot of leeway and tried to not get in their way, but when you see players getting confused, bored or trying too hard to do something you don't want them to do (yet), you need to just snap your fingers and put something in their way that forces them to do something different. Sometimes a player may get upset at this stuff, but most players typically go along with it relieved to finally have something substantial to do.

>>388964

Granted, the way he rolled and what he said, as well as his RP, did some-what justify it

he rolled a deception after the persuasion saying he wanted to start a family with her and got really high with that as well, and then just jumped out a window and ran away

>>388967

Yeah, I've specifically asked them to tell me things they didn't like during the session so I'd know to improve for next time, and nine times out of ten they tell me I didn't do anything wrong, which is factually incorrect.

>>389045

the fans/people being entertained by something are actually in a terrible position to judge something critically. RPG's are all about getting caught up in it, not taking good notes to give back the dm (you can think of all the shit we argue about as fans here and how nothing gets done because of this. This is why good playtesters are rare).

>>389045

I don't know what the fuck you call it, but this seems to be some kind of natural in-built problem with a lot of people. You ask them what they want, and even if they do want something, they'll say they don't know. You ask them for feedback and they give you nothing.

I tried multiple times to pressure my friends, men and women I've known for over a decade, what kind of game they want to play in. What kind of campaign or theme of game.. and they couldn't think of a damned thing. I hate having to twist their arm just to get them to tell me that they want a generic actiony adventure.

>>389076

They're probably enjoying things just fine, they're just shit when it comes to articulating an opinion on something complex and subjective like how well someone GM'd a game. Unless you've fucked up in a big way, that is.

>>389095

Or they don't want to risk offending the person that runs the game with critiques.

>>389076

Just be blunt about it man.

So I'm running the Skull & Shackles campaign in (((Pathfinder))), and one of my players didn't like that the evil sorceress attacking their pirate base suicided instead of sticking around to give her sob story and be redeemed by his 18 inch Charisma score. So I boosted her level and changed a few other things around, and now it turns out she was holding back the whole time to make sure the PCs would follow the treasure map on her back after she died (and resurrected into her clone) and make a lot of trouble for the sahuagin king who was controlling her with a combination of Dominate spells and keeping her little sister hostage. She finished the king off herself with a Disintegrate, thanked the PCs for being unwitting pawns, and Gated the whole party to the Elemental Plane of Water so she could rescue her sister and ransack the treasure horde for herself. They have 8 hours left on their Water Breathing potions.

>>390019

>Players bitch that they're not getting railroaded properly

>Throw them off the rails and into certain death

>Well this is what you wanted

Also

>18 inch charisma score

>>390023

There's actually quite a lot they can do to survive. The captain speaks Aquan, so they can communicate with most intelligent outsiders, there's light from a chunk of the plane of fire that fell through dimensions, a gigantic city built on the underside of an ice floe roughly the size of Australia, and there's a landlubber's district kept in a giant air bubble. The marids who run the city pride themselves on hospitality, so the PCs might be able to score a Wish back home in exchange for a quest or two.

>>388869

ask them one on one outside of the context of the game table

I regularly ask my players for feedback, what they like about the campaign, what they hope for their characters, their predictions for the future of the campaign, etc.

I just always do it when we're talking and naturally the game would come up in conversation and ask them directly.

My DM is taking a break and I offered to run and they asked me to run world of darkness. I don't really know anything about the system but I've flipped through the book and it seems pretty dope. They've rolled up basic humans who don't block out super natural shit. They have a support group that meets after AA.

I've got kind of a backbone to various campaign ideas. There's a secret society feeding this support group stuff they want randos looking into. They're assholes, supernatural somehow too. One of the players admitted to a phobia of sasquatch, so he might be running the secret organization. I dunno, we'll see where it goes.

The first arc is based on those Promethian guys. Their whole goal is to become human and there's some kind of ritual or something. Point is, this particular one is just going to set up clinics in LA and take hunks of humanity from people in exchange for "The Miracle Cure". The first adventure is a retreat to a ski resort where they have to shit through time share seminars before the guests can have fun. Obviously the "success stories" turn into monsters. I want to mess with creepy transformation body horror stuff.

The idea is that it goes 4 days and each days more people go missing and things get weirder and scarier. I'd like the whole thing to end with the resort on fire and them thinking its over, then toss the whole grand opening of miracle cure clinics a couple sessions later. Any ideas?

Why the fuck are players so lazy? I love my players but Jesus Christ it's like pulling teeth to get them to submit anything on time.

>Character Creation

>Tell them to ignore starting gear, and just make a request for any gear and weapons they want.

>As long as it makes sense from a story perspective I'll give it to them.

>create a google doc spreadsheet that has all the info and stats for the weapon, so they don't have to pour through the book to relook up special rules.

>each player gets their own equipment tab so they can just click on their name and see all the gear they have.

>Even offer to make custom rules for gear and weapons.

>All I ask for them is to submit requests by Tuesday night and in a certain order so I can get it all sorted for next session.

>Only one fucking guy has gotten me their gear list.

Am I being a dick if I don't let them have any gear until the session after this week's if they don't have it submitted on time?

So, more than once I've come across this situation as a GM that one character just basically becomes invincible or makes the party invincible. The problem is that I cannot argue this because the rules allow what they're doing.

It just ends up being too much stuff in my plate and I end up losing intrest in running the game and kill it.

I feel like I should just relax and letting them do what their characters are good at but I fear they'll also lose interest because I'm not clever enough to set up a situation where they're actually facing a challenge.

Anyone has any advice to better my GMing?

>>391956

The character/party has basically become cosmic/god-tier, so start throwing equally broken cosmic shit at them. Feel free to cheat on some rules to make it challenging and set up for the campaign to end on a note of either apotheosis or flying too close to the sun.

>>391956

And I really don't wanna be a faggot and just nerf everything because I can't handle it.

For those who know about or invest in the Overlord anime/manga, what system do you think would be best suited to run within that setting?

>>391957

I know the GM is supposed to do the lion share, but what is a reasonable demand to the players?

>>391956

>Grows too powerful

>King gets worried that they're going to steal his throne

>Partially insane, cannot be reasoned with except very high charisma

>Even if he is "convinced" to support the characters, bandits and assassins seem to be more common.

>>391956

Look at One Punch Man or Psycho Mob 100.

Those two animes (and manga) represent very well the issues overpowered god like characters have.

>>391984

It really depends on the kind of game you want to play. In my campaigns the players have to be engaged, take notes, be proactive and have a backstory. The backstory doesn't have to be a big one, but if they give me something to work with, like a lost relative, I will give them some kind of payoff. Those taking notes get the right ideas faster, if someone is acting on his own accord to help a NPC, this NPC stops being Bob the guard and gets a detailed backstory and something they only discovered because they acted.

Award those who are engaged and sometime in the future they won't need incentives.

>>389070

I've been in the fortunate position of never having been a forever DM so I can say from my extensive amount of time as a player a lot of the times the things I'd like to do or the ideas I might have are kind of irrelevant and most of the feedback I would have when asked as always very positive, even if there were things I genuinely didn't like because as a player the events that occur in an dice-based make believe boar game about elves and wizards ranks very low on the over-all priority list of shit I care about in life. If the DM managed to entertain or engage me for 25% of the game session and keep me from becoming completely disinterested for the other 75% of the time that was all I really needed.

It's like when you watch a movie and you like what you watched but if anyone asked you to critique it all you can think is "it was good, I liked it". Why exactly I liked it, whether it was actually what I wanted to watch, all of that stuff is irrelevant, the movie wasn't something I wanted to write a dissertation on as much as it was something I wanted to not have to write a dissertation on and just enjoy and be amused by it.

>>392863

I'm actually of the opinion that backstories are irrelevant at best and distracting at worse. If a player absolutely must have a backstory then if it isn't absolutely boring or described in three or fewer sentences I won't allow it. If a player wants to play a character that wants to have lost their love to a wandering vampire or was a member of a rebel army or anything even just barely above "I was a dirt farming peasant" then I'd rather work that in as something that happens in the campaign and can serve as an adventure hook for the party to handle together. That's just how I prefer it though.

>>387068

Anyone?

>>387068

Use a rough 3 act structure to get a feel as to when things should escalate. Act 1 should be an introduction to a problem. Act 2 should be a complication that exacerbates the problem to its breaking point. Act 3 should be about how the players have handled it and the fall out. You don't have to railroad the players into it, but I find working with a framework helps you adapt to your player shenanigan's because you will understand "when" things are supposed to happen as opposed to "how". Hope this helps.

>>387068

>>392887

The problem with pacing is a hard one to solve and not all things I'm going to list will necessarily work for you but have generally worked well for me personally.

>Keep turn order for everything

Seems kind of weird especially when out of combat but I find that it keeps the flow going. If they want to shop treat it as their action for the turn. Resting at an inn? That's their action for the turn. Getting info from the NPC? That's their action for the turn, etc. Is it super gamey? Sure, but it keeps things flowing fairly well. Just figure out how long an action actually takes and the rest comes without issue. In combat it'll usually be a matter of seconds but in town it could be hours or even a day per action.

>Timers

Keep the action flowing by always putting pressure on the players in some form. Don't have them just enter a room and wonder around it if you want them to get a move on or if they're meant to be feeling the danger around them. Roll a die or pick a number and in that many turns something happens. What's that something? Anything that puts pressure on the players. Enemies spawn, lava starts filling the room, the ancient weapon of doom starts powering up. The important part is that they have a limited time to do what they want or something bad happens. Doesn't have to be instant death but it does have to make them wonder if sticking around is the best idea. Having to make them choose between life, death, and treasure within a limited timeframe is always a sure fire way to keep things tense and moving along.

>Ending turns after the action is completed

This is an important one that I find that lot of GM's for one reason or another don't do. Maybe it's because they don't want to come off as rude or pushy but I find that nothing slows down games quite like a player completing their action and for whatever reason, whether it's because their description goes on for too long the GM starts over explaining things or the group goes on a long tangent it doesn't really matter, the turn doesn't tick over like its supposed to. A friend of mine GM'ed a oneshot that took 4 almost 5 hours to complete 4 rooms. I ran that oneshot before myself and it took me about 2 and a half hours to complete the same stuff. The longer it takes to complete something in real world time the more agitated it makes people on average and it causes a lot of pacing issues. Now I'm not saying you should stop ALL silly banter or overthetop description. All of that is part of the fun of a shared tabletop game. But in between all the laughter point to the next player and go "Mighty Warrior what do you do?" before you end up going for 10 minutes straight about the same thing.

>Goal Posts

Treat every adventure as a mini-arc with a clear beginning, middle, and end planned along with some contingencies/quick thinking to figure out what happens if they don't follow the plan as players are a random bunch. Start in place X, do thing Y, maybe plot twist, End up in place Z. Likewise have every adventure act as the beginning, middle, and end of a much larger meta plot that adds and achieves something much more in the larger scheme of things. It's a pretty basic and simplistic way to handle plot pacing but it's a good way of learning what works and doesn't work for your group and campaign.

Hope this helps you!

>>392878

I'm actually of the opinion that backstories are irrelevant at best and distracting at worse. If a player absolutely must have a backstory then if it isn't absolutely boring or described in three or fewer sentences I won't allow it. If a player wants to play a character that wants to have lost their love to a wandering vampire or was a member of a rebel army or anything even just barely above "I was a dirt farming peasant" then I'd rather work that in as something that happens in the campaign and can serve as an adventure hook for the party to handle together. That's just how I prefer it though.

Eh, to each his own. I understand that not everyone likes backstories.

I like backstories because it connects the PC's and by extension, the players to the world before their adventure actually begins. Where they grow up, what they did, things like that, that you can integrate into the campaign, like meeting a fellow mercenary from the same outfit, or someone who a wizard met during his studies, things like that, or receiving news from home. Who wouldn't try to save their home town from invading enemies, especially after he set out to prove himself. Or the duality of having the players aid an npc that had bad dealings or vibes between it and one pc. Things like that. It gives life to PC's outside of the pure player character's actions.

A lot of my players seem to catch on more easier if i dangle some backstory stuff in front of them. While they usually don't do jobs that doesn't pay in cold hard gold, they always find a place to help out a fellow that their character had previous dealings with.

Well, as for "boring" shit, that really depends on your idea of the level how different you want your players to be from the general populace. "Being a pheasant/lower birth" is essentially most of the people's backstory/childhood in middle ages. It's what you do with the fact or what twist you put into it that makes it unique. Local war/rebellion happens. A poor harvest hits, and being the largest child, pc get's sold into slavery. Get's taken up by a wizard after noticing his talent. Discovers a secret artifacts on a cold summer night. Gets kidnapped by a witch or druid looking for an apprentice. And that's not mentioning meanwhile "mundane" events like making friends or comitting a prank so big the whole town knows.

I dunno, just brushing off "dirt farming pheasant"as a boring background doesn't sit well with me personally.

Generally i just like having my characters defined in the world they are in. Have history. Motivations are fine and dandy, but if you have actual things to back it up with, the better. Another way to put it (in my eyes) is who your character becomes. Just like how you are who you became through life, the characters become the pc's players play with their prior experiences in life. People aren't "just" good natured or dickish. They become good natured or dickish for some reason.

Well, that's my take on it really. I like to work things out with my pc's. Atleast from where they hail from, 2-3 people they know closely, 1-2 antagonistic people, and their big event that changed their life course+a short description of their actual backstory, though that's at the least.

>>392966

In Napoleonic era France? My first thought is that they might try to whip the peasants up into a frenzy through misinformation. Spreading rumors the Duke is a vampire or some shit.

In their position I would probably go public with the potential benefits of the chest freezer and call for it to be given to the peasants for free, in light of their generations of service. Trying to force the Duke to give up on his potential future profits in the face of a bunch of angry peasants demanding the thing either cheap or free would be enough for me, but I don't know your players.

>>392967

The three players are:

The merc: Player is a pretty passive guy. Character uses a Magitek rifle and likes money. He's not much to worry about. I've played a couple games with him in the past and he's only ever been a supporting character.

The medic: Slightly strange dude who is quiet outside of the game. Known him for a while. The type to say the odd really weird or out of place comment and laugh to himself. Character sees himself as a surgeon, but I call him the medic since his methods are mostly "knock them out and cut them up". He refused to take a magic background, so he uses a very limited array of magical tools to heal. When things went into the industrial territory, he instantly complied and has been working with the engineer to make whatever he wants happen.

The engineer: the brains of the operation. Player is relatively new to me, but is from another group that medic played with. This is my first game with him. Seems to be a bit of a power gamer but he's decent at role play and pretty smart. Fun guy, but dangerous ideas are surely floating around in his head. Character is a tinkerer and an armsman. I thought he was going to be the guy maintaining or upgrading equipment, but he seems to have other plans.

>>392971

>dangerous ideas

???

>>393126

How else would you describe the shit Players come up with? Would it have been better to say "outlandish" or something?

I wanna be a GM to relieve our ForeverGM.

This of corse leaves me with HOW? Its a lot but I really dont know how much to plot out or make maps of, or even how in depth to go through given our group tendencies to go offrails.

Are there good resources for this? System wise I was thinking UA 2nd Edition or maybe some Zweihander pre-fabs.

>>392971

It does sound like the tinkerer is going to try and drive you into an "inventing shit" campaign. But the more immediate issue involving the Duke could play into your hands if he's an enemy of !Napoleon, or otherwise involved in some sort of conspiracy that would make it more convenient for your party to throw in with the military.

>>393148

Using prefabs or core campaigns for your first couple of games is not a bad idea. They allow you to learn what sort of content you need to have on hand, and what you can do without.

In my experience, players never keep the campaign modules on the rails for long, so even with them you will need to roll with the punches.

If you are super not confident, just run a one shot, like a raid of some wizard tower or something, to feel out how your players are joining to act and get some experience under your belt.

>>393197

Not a bad idea.

Setting is mid to late Napoleonic era, 1810 to 1811. This gives plenty of time for partisans or traitors to have formed groups and alliances in back alley deals.

The Duke was intended to be in league with the empire, but he's not been developed much in game so there is no retconning required to implement that kind of thing. I'll have to think on it.

Next session is Saturday. I'll keep you guys posted on any interesting developments.

>>393197

Sage for double post.

I forgot to mention not being afraid to speed things up if you feel things are dragging out. Combat taking too long? Offer some environmental events to have anyone in range wiped out. Or have enemies flee or retreat in an unfavorable position. You don't need to kill every last goblin like they are the imperial Japanese.

>>393231

Just be aware that while you may get them to join up with the army, the party'll probably gravitate hard towards military R&D then.

>>393148

I strongly recommend you run some 1-shots to get your feet wet. I went through that process before becoming a regular GM and it really helps to not have to worry about the over arching narrative and just get used to running about 7-10 characters in an encounter. Getting your plot derailed for the first time is a lot easier when you already know the other parts of DMing from the simple one shots you've run.

>party fights 6 orcs and their mounted war chief with full splint armor

>only has a mage and 8 friendly outlaws on their team

>kick the orcs into the dust

>players fight three skeletons brandishing rusty swords and padded armor

>keep missing and nearly die

What is going on? Are their dice cursed during certain celestial events?

>>393345

>What is going on?

Sounds like your players are boned.

>>393345

Anon, dice are shit mechanic-wise.

>>393644

Amber fuck off.

>>393345

>magic casters are squishy by nature

>magic caster proceeds to destroy an entire platoon of enemy forces with a single spell while undetected

>>385657

>I've been doing this for all my sessions lately, I guess I'm past the "meticulous planning" stage of GMing.

I learned not to plan the hard way like, 3 sessions in, when my players decided to headshot gratuitously their only clue in the middle of a crowded disco while she was relaxing with some friends and was completely unarmed. I then got rules-lawyered and flashbanged into accepting a 10 actions turn without NPC being able to fight back because apparently, getting off the ground was an action, picking up a weapon from the ground was an action, and moving was an action in a system where none of those things are actions

It was almost two years ago and I am still salty and traumatized

>>386907

Really an eye opener, I'm sure it will help me lots with the planescape campaign I'm preparing

>>393978

Seriously, don't fucking do that, it's terrible advice. If you make a puzzle, you'd better have at least one solution to it, otherwise you're gonna have to make one up when the PCs are too stupid to figure it out, and that's going to be inherently less thought-out if you don't plan for a backup.

Don't be lazy.

I'm going to be running Mutants and Masterminds relatively soon. My only problem is, I've never played it before. I've played other systems but I'm not so sure about how this is going to go.

My main concern is not being able to properly balance encounters, and villains. What would be acceptable to throw at a group of 4 PL 8 characters?

>>394094

Assuming extremely limited circumstance, as in the villains don't have a terrain advantage or hostages. On PL with equivalent or near equivalent numbers to the party is good for normal encounters, PL+2 is the weakest "single enemy" fight you should have, PL+5 is final boss. Minion characters are just there for extra attacks, don't put too much value on them as far as "challenge".

In my experience, on PL is usually equal to on PL for this system, aside from certain powers. PL+1 is great if you want a duel that you're likely to win, but two players will pile drive him. PL+2 usually requires two players to beat. PL+3, 3, and you get the picture at this point.

Oh, and house rules I used in second edition? Snares are treated as minions. If it fails the save it's broken, don't listen to the SRD if it says ANYTHING else. Also, Mind Control gets a save every round unless they pay for a +2 Extra that makes it an "every day" save.

Fucking cheap ass save or die is what they were.

My Pathfinder Party pissed off a Cult of Dagon by destroying some Driftwood Totem they found on the beach (The Inquisitor decided it was heretical and burnt it). Long story short, they're now stuck on a ship out in the ocean and the crew has disappeared. They'll have to sail the ship themselves, but I'm struggling to think of a relevant skill for them to roll against. Any suggestions?

>>394192

Untrained Wisdom is how I'd do it. The skill for actually sailing the ship is Profession (Sailor) in Pathfinder.

>>394195

Sounds good. I'll throw in a couple of STR checks for whoever gets made to do all the heavy lifting ect.

What's an appropriate way of giving a dungeon/tomb a strong vibe of "They really didn't want what's in here to get out".

>>394274

Have several false entrances to deter treasure hunters. The locked and sealed entranceway, once found, has warnings against breaching the place for there is a great destructive power here, written in every possible language, like the Onkala spent nuclear fuel repository IRL. Inwards facing traps the deal damage (if whatever needs to be sealed can be damaged) and outwards facing traps like Symbol of Fear. Sealed door after sealed door after sealed door. Collapsed tunnels blocking off the lowest levels. Finally, all of the magic spells possible upon whatever is meant to be locked in. Make it clear the builders of this pla e spared no expense in doing so.

Newbie DM here.

I'm wanna start a campaign with DCC. I'm not too surr about the setting it comes with, do you guys think I can set it in Warhammer fantasy without much issue? I really like the setting and I think fits well with the super lethal nature of DCC.

>>393994

Disagree. No plan survives first contact with the players. Moreover, if the players are too stupid to figure out the puzzle then having a solution to it isn't going to help because they'll too stupid to figure that out too. Maybe have a workaround but plans, more often than not, work against the players because it dis-incentivizes different approaches to a problem. If the players decide to smash down the wall rather than solve the puzzle, then okay, but if your plan is for them to work out the puzzle you're going to be naturally resistant to any of the alternatives that the PCs come up with.

>>396046

Backup plan known as TPK usually works without needing anyone to figure anything out.

>>393994

>Seriously, don't fucking do that, it's terrible advice. If you make a puzzle, you'd better have at least one solution to it,

Which might lock you into thinking that there couldn't be other solution.

Im done with fudging. Im making all attack rolls in the open.

>>396154

you need to have a little old friendly hive lady completely show them up in the investigation department and write holovids about it (the murders not the incompetant investigators).

>>385657

>Player always makes really dumb character ideas

>Intentionally does stuff to annoy NPC's

>First character was always having his pet snake climb in peoples clothes

>Second character was trying to hypnotize every fucking NPC

>Latest character is a detective, but confiscated a characters gun for no reason

>Got it wrecked

>Constantly uses mind controlling powers to be a nuisance

>Later an eldritch cult asked him to kidnap a person for them

>He went to that person (another PC) and told them the cult planned to sacrifice them

>Other player goes 'well, my guys already spooked by eldritch shit going on, my character is going to book it out of town'

>Suddenly the idiot is trying to convince the cult victim to come to the cults temple like he's in on it

>Has now decided he is in on it

>Spills all of this in front of another PC, who is also a detective

>Instigates a PvP fight

The sad thing is, I almost convinced myself I could talk to him and turn him around to play more seriously, but then I remembered how many people I've already done that with and how it just isn't worth my time because reality is, it's going to fail.

It seems there are no active DnD groups in my college campus, and somehow the guidance counselor is encouraging me to start DMing.

I need to make a linear introductory dungeon and stat-out a party of pre-mades (mostly humans and elves so I can attract players). I have a checklist of mechanics I'll be discussing which I'll splice into the dungeon exposition, which I will then separate into scenes. And so it goes: exposition, then combat, then exposition, then trap encounter, then exposition, then combat, etc. with mechanics explanation in-between. It's nothing too complicated.

Of course, the dungeon is just a one-shot. The real pay-off is when I get some other schmuck to DM. The plan is to get a core group of DMs to somehow divide the work in world-building. Given that both ComSci-game design and English majors are present on-campus, hopefully there are people who would bite.

>>396314

Can you elaborate on this? Seems like you're just stating a fact that, while interesting, doesn't seem to be asking anything specific. Are you even looking for a response?

>>396304

I don't mind the occasional PvP, but its this kind of provocative behaviour that people don't like.

One of my big problems is how I'm going to explain to him why he's been uninvited. Reality is I know he won't change even after I explain to him what he's been doing wrong.

Good books on gamemastering?

>>396314

Read:

https://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-cant-find-any-players.html

>>396364

1e dungeon masters guide or master the game by gary gygax.

>>396382

Is Master the Game in any of the troves?

>>396327

>Are you even looking for a response?

Not really. I'm just really nervous as I've only DM'd a few shitty sessions back in high school, so I'm venting a little on the internet. Also, I'm procrastinating on doing the dungeon by going on /tg/, though there's no need to rush.

I might've expected a response to the fact that I'm looking for other potential DMs on campus, when the most likely scenario is me becoming a lone Forever DM.

>>396367

This is a good motivator.

>LotFP

kek.

>>396400

Hm. In that case, what I usually do is identify one or more players who has a good knowledge of the rules to be an "Assistant" of sorts who can be looking up rule queries etc while you keep the game moving forward. This takes a lot of pressure off you as the DM and also gets your "Assistant" more open to properly taking over as the DM if needs be.

As for world-building - why not open that up to your fellow fa/tg/uys? World-building threads are always good and are usually more active than any other thread.

>>396410

>Assistant

Yeah, that's a solid plan. I think my preferences for a game tend more towards rules-heavy-ish (DnD 3.5 and Exalted 2e), so someone to help me not fuck it up is welcome. Of course, the people I've scouted so far don't seem to be familiar with any ruleset, which is why I'm going with a sort of tutorial dungeon. I'll probably be running that dungeon multiple times for different sets of people to see who are the ones most interested in DMing. Then I'll be getting them all together to see what we come up with as a group.

>open up to fellow fa/tg/uys

That's a given. You guys are classy and awesome.

Of course, I'm also looking for the motivational factor of somebody IRL hounding me to finish my part of the DMing, especially if that other person is also a DM. A group setting seems to have more obligation for me. On the other hand, interacting with a bunch of anons on the internet feels lighter, and seems more susceptible to goofing off on my part, which I also need from time to time.

>>396398

Why wouldnt it be?

>>396411

Why not compromise some on the worldbuilding?

We start a thread here, and make a discord chat or something and bully slash encourage you .

>>396400

>>LotFP

Exactly. If even Raggi can get a group put together, you have no excuse.

>>396304

Nothing really happened. Im just sick of coddling my players and having to balance the game on the fly. A gm is also a referee and a judge so i might as well be completely fair.

>>396459

Eventually, geez. I'm still in the process of finding people, and I have to see if they'll actually enjoy my style of DMing.

pls no billy

>>396415

Which one?

>>396566

Look in the archive. I think theres one that has specifically dm tools and things.

>>396615

Just checked all the ones going back to april. No die.

Pathfinder 1e GM here - how do I stop Inquisitors fucking my day up repeatedly? Defiant luck and Inexplicable luck are a really nasty combo, and Domain: Protection is annoying as fuck on a character who already has 20 AC!

>>385657

Nice image, faggot.

>>>/facebook/

>>396743

>How do you handle a player with system mastery?

Let them. Players should be rewarded for clever solutions. That reward is they don't die.

>>396709

Do you think facebook actually comes up with memes?

>>396746

Additionally, try to encourage it in other players. Don't let them all slump around the table and play dumb murderhobos who just swing their weapon and cast their strong pewpew fireball spells at enemies. Give them problems that can't be solved with anything but system mastery.

>Party full of newish players

>Guy rolls bard, doesn't give his character any reason to be an adventurer, just a wandering minstrel

>Introduce him while party are looking for bad guy in the middle of night

>party abducts and tortures him assuming he's the one they're looking for

>then force him to join party

>later on

>enter dungeon

>trips every trap possible, never lets the rogue inspect anything before he touches

>finally learns his lesson

>fighter sets off a trap accidentally but dodges

>bard not so lucky

>skelingtons ambush after rocks fall on bard

>dead bard.jpg

>fighter tries to save bard

>rolls 1

>hits bard

>action surges

>1

>really hits bard

>later his pet dog is used to test out poisonous gas filled corridor

What a brutal, irrational world I've created

"Irony" has poisoned the minds of too many people and I want to do something sincere.

TV/Netflix/non amateur stuff on YT and co (and even that can be highly cancerous, needs to fucking die.

"Ok guys, real talk", the magic incantation.

If you hear this, or worse, use this, then you are in the presence (or are one yourself) of future sucide victims.

>>396010

KEPN KLO

>>398001

What are you dming your games for then?

>>398001

What else are they supposed to use your flexibility for? Why are you DMing? What are your problems? Why was it deserved?

>>398001

It seems like GM advice that everybody gives but nobody actually follows, but it's often a good idea to sit down before the game begins and figure out what everyone involved wants out of the game.

It's easy to get caught up in the moment when you have a game written and you've got a group together, especially if you struggle to find people in the first place, but it's a lot easier to adjust your expectations and compromise before everyone's made characters, and before the GM gets bitter at everyone treating his serious, horror-themed Call of Cthulhu game like an 'unprompted burning New England to the ground and emptying high powered rifles into the survivors because one of the players thought someone looked a little fishy' romp.

Even if it means people decide the game isn't for them, turning them away before the game begins means that there's no hard feelings about making a character, having it approved, and getting yelled at eight sessions in because you're not roleplaying hard enough.

>>398784

>there is a major difference between being using flexibility with the rules and abusing the good will the dm's showing you by taking advantage of such flexibility to bullshit your way through something that should ultimately have grave consequences.

Just post the story already.

>>398816

This is vague to the point of uselessness. You really sound like an unfun faggot.

>>398816

I'm kind of curious, but would you mind revealing the system at least?

I'll be running my first session ever about a month from now, how prepared should I actually be? I've heard of people being on both extremes of the scale, where should I fall on that as a first timer dm?

>>401853

Depends entirely on your level of experience with games, your group, the kind of game and system you're playing, and all kinds of other variables. At the very least, you should know the rules well enough to play the game without having to flip through the book every few minutes and probably be able to make up some shit on the fly, because chances are nothing you plan will goes as expected.

>>401853

You should fall wherever gets you to plan games that make your players keep showing up. After that, you'll find out where you want to fit in and how you play.

>>401854

I have a moderate amount of experience, all of it with this group, one of my friends homebrews, and I know the rules well enough that I could answer any question that comes up (Also the guy who made the homebrew is going to be a player and is willing to answer any questions if I have any)

>>401855

Should I just over prepare for my first one then and adjust from there?

>>401859

>Playing as gods isn't balanced

Sure it is, when the enemies are gods as well

/tg/, I'm at a bit of an impasse.

I've been running my game for a while now - a little over a year. We're coming up on our 25th session, and our pace can be described as... glacial. I namedropped the bad guy at the end of the first session, and the party has spent a couple months in-game thwarting his plans. They know that he's basically a bandit warlord with seemingly unlimited resources who wants to conquer everything around him to rebuild civilization. They've destroyed his bases, taken out his subordinates, and repelled one of his sieges. Every time they get close to him, they decide to fuck off in a completely different direction. They've never even seen this guy before.

My issue is that I'm not sure if "recreate civilization" is a good enough motivation for my main bad guy. It's kind of thematic, since the PCs all have ties to the civilization vs nature conflict, but I worry about these things. On my current trajectory, he's just going to keep amassing bandits, conscripts, slaves, and magical items until he takes over this section of the continent. That's acceptable, but I grow weary of him being the shadow over every plot. How do I suitably introduce him in a way where my players will be more impressed than by my usual rather colorful NPCs? He's already destroyed the hometown of two PCs, so I think encountering him on a battlefield is too plain.

>>402130

Addendum: This guy is the archetypical anime villain. Charismatic, over-the-top and incredibly ambitious with the ability to fly and punch holes through people. Arrogant to the point of weakness, yet intelligent read: DM fiated enough to stay one step ahead of the protagonists.

>>402137

That's all good and useful advice I'll steal for future villains, but I don't think that's this guy's style. He's an enhanced human who was kicked out of the lost civilization of the underground and went up to the surface to gather as much power as he could. He doesn't even go by his given name anymore - he is only known as King, and his name heralds violence and terror. He's personally led an army of dipshit bandits to scourge the countryside unopposed, and nobody has been able to stop him since this setting is post-apocalypse and there is no civilization. The highest authority the players know is the mayor of the town they started in, and he's the only guy in charge of anything for miles.

King has no use for deception or cunning - everyone will know who he is, what he stands for, and they'll either let him rule or die trying to stop him. He likes to enslave children in particular so he can teach them what life truly is: subservience to him.

He's about as vile and evil as you can get without crossing into weird sex crime stuff or ritual sacrifice.

One thing I forgot to mention: he doesn't actually know who the party is. He doesn't even know a group of adventurers are behind all his plans getting fucked up, because his second in command has delusions of grandeur and hasn't told him about any of them yet. Big man thinks he can handle them himself. He can't.

This is unrelated to my previous posts about my villain, but this is something I can't find much discussion on, so here i am again.

My players are following up on a lead: King's been going to a seer to have him read his future - a proper course of action for any warmonger. When my players get there, I'm almost certain that they'll ask the guy to read their futures, too.

So how do you handle NPC divination in your games? Obviously I can't be very specific or it all feels quite railroady, but if I'm too vague then it's obvious that I'm just making it open so I can make it fit later. Does he see them doing stuff I'm pretty sure the players will want to do anyway? Do I have him tell them he's too tired to do any auguries? Is this all just a bad idea?

>>402188

>What's the story behind the seer?

That's a solid question and the first one I need to answer.

My setting is a pastiche of East Asian bullshit I like, and I try to base most things off of real-world concepts and extrapolate from there. As a result, the closest thing to a "god" is a Buddha/Jade Emperor analogue, the first emperor of the only empire to ever exist and the only man to ever achieve enlightenment.

I have also entirely ripped off the concept of kalpas. I didn't even change the name. The universe happens in cycles, people reincarnate, and things happen slightly different from the last time. Generally, seers and oracles are people who are able to see into previous kalpas and relay the history therein. I got that bit of inspiration from Lexx.

I guess the question now boils down to "how do people do that"? Meditation seems a little too obvious. After doing a bit of research, it looks like the Chinese and Hindu were really big on astrology and elementalism when it came to telling the future. The Japanese were similar, but had more of a naturalistic and material view of things, also using the earth to divine things.

So, what does all this result in? I like the idea of this guy being quasi-nobility, having studied from a line of oracles extending back hundreds of years. I also like the idea of sacrificing something to see the future, so I'm thinking an effigy of the person to be divined should be offered, but it has to be made from a rare, treated root. Of course, he can only do this when the stars are aligned to help empower his prana to the precise degree. Maybe some there's some dancing, seizures, and incense for effect.

Okay, yeah, I think I can work with that. Does that sound too cliche?

>>402139

>Do they stop growing when they become a vampire?

While vampires don't age like a human would, some vampire fiction has them aging as a vampire, growing more demonic as time goes on.

>Can they have kids?

Generally speaking a vampire having a child would be a sign of the end times in a lot of vampire fiction. Also note that apocalyptic lore goes well with vampires, I'm really a fan of how VTM used antediluvians (ancient vampires from biblical times rumored to return one day as a sign of the apocalypse and to devour their progeny).

>>402195

What if seers are the only people who remember their past incarnations? That could explain why they can access knowledge from past kalpas.

In order to do that, to access previous knowledge, they might have to do any ritual you want them to... But they would only access knowledge their previous incarnation had.

This could explain why everything your seer knows about the PCs is vague: it might be based on hearsay, or might just be made up on the spot, or the PCs might not have been important enough in the previous kalpa, or what have you.

>>402232

I really like that idea, but I don't think it'll work within my setting. There is reincarnation... but you reincarnate as the exact same person in the next kalpa. What you did in the last one will change the circumstances of your birth and life, but only in slight ways. It's sort of like a giant cosmic game of telephone where you aren't very different from your last incarnation, but you 1000 yous ago is completely unrecognizable.

That being said, I agree with your idea of some more limitations being put upon divination. What if they can only look back one kalpa and no further? That way they still see the most relevant information, but things can and will have changed since that kalpa, which accounts for both the free will of the PCs and any errors between continuities.

Was thinking of having a psionic group of enemies/cultists that kidnap people and then a band of them target the party at some point if they get split up

Anyone got any additional ideas on how to flesh that out

>>402380

Why are they kidnapping people?

>>402382

to lobotomize them and turn them into free labor of course

>>402380

Do they have members high up either in government or religious temples?

Why would they target specifically the group? Is it because they're outsiders? High likelihood of magic items? Contracted out because they were causing a ruckus?

Are they part of a slave trade? Or do the lobotomized workers get funneled into, say a mine/archeological dig, where they are sacrificed if they are no longer useful?

>>402380

>>402414

Don't wait for the players to split up, since it's rewarding bad play (though even that's debatable since there are rare occasions that can be fun for ambushes like you said- and then the rest of the party can come and help a round later).

So is the tower a weapon (lasers a'la Death Star/Sauron's Eye), or an amplifier for psionics in the cult? Or even both/other ideas I've not thought of?

In any case, it could be a rare artifact(s) or genius in X field is needed to complete the tower's function.

You could also have fun with the underdark if the local Drow don't like them (players can RP and negotiate help from them, while keeping in mind what Drow are like. Enemy of my enemy and all that). Or keep it simple and have them as the first line of defense.

>>402500

I wasn't thinking of a full split, but rather like "they leave behind the mouth breathing retard barbarian because he can't go to anywhere fancy" and then he just gets KO-ed or dragged into an alley way by shady people and then the party would have to find him/the mega retard would have to figure his way out of his confines, and from there the party would get a lead on the psionic people

>>402500

How is splitting up bad play? There are lots of situations where it's applicable, and you can still jump between people in combat and people not in combat.

>>402427

Treat crafting as a sidequest. If its a considerable upgrade to what they have, make it a full blown quest.

Make a recipe for what they want. Tell the PCs exactly what they need. Don't make it complex, just one or two things.

Next, give hints where (or who) they can find the parts from. Draw a circle on your map even. If its something mundane, then MAYBE the PC can find it in a shop. Maybe. But for the most part, make an encounter planned around the part.

If other PCs express interest in owning a similar item, then consider dropping multiple parts for the encounter.

Keep in mind side quests will distract from the main story, which means the party might split up if they really want to craft something. My advice is let the party decide what they want to do, don't interfere, but don't encourage it. It'll be a pain in the ass when you're DMing several encounters at once, but the party will feel this pain too.

>>402561

All good advice, thanks.

>>402518

I had a game where my players would split up every single session and I had to make increasingly bullshit excuses to gather them every time we played. I'd rather kick myself in the nuts than inventing one more excuse for players who regularly split up for the sake of splitting up.

>>402518

But you can't jump, because time moves differently in and out of combat. The pacing is all wrong.

>>402573

>back to knifefight robin

Why wouldnt you use the writer designed/assisted rpg of dresden files for you know dresden files.

>>402579

Well chummer I will admit Dresden Files is a bad example, its more straight up X Files or Millenium but the bad guys are /x/ and the aliens are the darkest figments of human psyches.

Secondly my question was in regardsto the system, not the RPG which is one of many made for it. The Dresden Files system comment has nothing to do with what I asked but thanks for the (You) anyways.

>>402577

Obviously doing it all the time is a pain in the ass, and fighting separately should be difficult enough to discourage them from doing it too long.

>>402578

You're the GM, aren't you? You control the pacing. As long as something interesting is happening at both ends, then you just need to keep using cliffhangers so everybody's on their toes waiting for what's next.

>>402584

Simple: Don't get hung up on the minutiae

Paint in broad strokes, make sure the individual elements that matter most are well developed, and make up the rest as you go along. Tap your players and have them give you some input as you go. Ask them questions and then fold their answers into your plot. Never lay your entire hand on the table and simply re-write your cards when it's necessary, so it always feels like the plot is moving forward organically, instead of grinding shit to a halt when the players don't do what you want.

>>402584

Just play your fucking game, you autist.

>>402584

I just improvise.

I don't say "there's a farmer here who was born at age 16" or dumb shit like that, I just go "there's a farmer".

Then I improvise.

Time to play the farmer?

I take a single minute to remember what is happening around the place and that's the farmer.

Goblins are raiding?

The farmer's is pissed... or if I feel like it, scared and paranoid.

What type of cultures?

I consider the general area the players are in and go with that stuff.

You should always have a general plan for your campaign but keep the smaller things up to improvisation.

>>402596

>Not helpful.

Because you're too busy opining about how hard it is to run a game to run a game. Stop worrying about running the perfect game and just run anything. Anything at all. That's the most important step, and whining on the internet won't help you there.

How do you encourage players to be smarter during combat?

In all encounters I’ve seen the entire party just goes full force. Occasionally the casters will heal or do support spells like haste, but for the most part its “keep attacking until dead”.

I understand that’s a thing for most RPGs, but I would like to see more elegant strategies and plans executed. Poison a cow and lure it into a den of werewolves. Get the big bad dragon out of his lair. Make defenses for the horde of goblins approaching. Things like that.

>>402636

Beat the shit out of them until they start acting smarter. You may need to kill a few of them before they take the hint.

>>402636

I'm the guy who made this.

>>387769

It's basically like a very high level demon, minus the summoning.

Oh and every 50 points of damage (or less depending on the model) it cumulative receive it immediately casts a fireball centered on itself.

Feel free to deal all the damage you want, hope you're counting however or you'll eat shit.

Bottom point is: give them enemies they cannot brute force mindlessly.

I find it works best when there are threats, rather than obstacles.

Another example was this:

>players block an entrance

>entrance is tight to the sides but ceiling if 15ft high

>fighter in front, caster in the back

>caster just skip their turn

>fighters just keep hacking away

>two warrior enemies are being picked off one by one

>first one drop his weapons

>gets ready to give the second one a boost

>second one jumps on the first one

>is boosted

>thrown in the air

>falls in the backrows

>druid who had skipped turn eats several punches to the face and gets a disease from said warrior enemy because he bit her

Moral of the story?

Smugness is expensive: make sure you can afford it.

>>402675

>members could initiate battle to gauge its strengths/weaknesses, then escape to form a plan.

i would be careful with that. Players have a tendency to push their luck and ignore dangers in tougher battles in favor of attempting to win. Essentially, always assume your players are overconfident.

For tougher foes, you may want to integrate fear rolls (can be found in the DMG), which essentially says that against an overwhelming foe, players must make a wis save throw, and if they fail, they become frightened (get a bunch of negatives). That would probably be an alright way to make the players be vary of such creatures and escape (they probably won't fight with such a disadvantage.)

Ok, what's the most painless way to get a group into a new system?

We were planning on doing a Play-By-Post game, but everyone's schedule and school got in the way. Now we have the time, and since we're all online... I need ways to get people to learn Fate Core as painlessly as possible.

I've got videos, I've summarized the mechanics for them... Anything else I can do?

>>402874

Easiest thing to do is have a sit down powwow and just talk about the system. Your doing play by post so I dont know if you have a vent/discord/skype or chat client or mailing list or whatever, but just get some time around the dtart of character creation and see if you can answer any questions they have.

I just found an incredible trap for d20 games.

>requires nothing more than a permanent source of air pressure and very basic mechanical knowledge

>can lay a floor of ungrouted tiles over it; they'll sink once it's activated, along with whoever's standing on them

>turn it off when the enemy is shin, knee, waist, chest, neck, or hair high, as the situation needs

>use exotic forms of particulate matter to achieve super nasty effects on top of immobilization and suffocation

>never has to be replenished aside from the air, which is free as air; throw new tiles down at most.

Normally you'd need an extremely expensive combo of spells to achieve this kind of effect. You can dummy it for the amount of plumbing that goes into a bathroom via this technique.

I'm getting tired by the fact that my player don't get the amount of work i put in the campaign. Is working on a campaign actually worth it? I mean most of them would only notice the lack of maps.

>>403449

As someone who has had 3 campaigns in a row completely fucking fall apart, largely due to lazy uncommitted players, I'm giving myself a vacation from planning serious, elaborate campaigns. I'm running a really light and barebones game that is still getting canceled every fucking week, so I'm just making up shit as a I go. Most I've done is write down some NPC names and loose ideas, like "Planet of Skeleton people" and "Gang of Space Raiders called The Beasties Boys"

>>403449

Players are naturally lazy, simple creatures. Most of the time, as long as they're engaging in their power fantasy, everything else is just window dressing.

What do you mean, their character doesn't really line up with the setting you've made? It's not really a big deal, man, right? I mean, who wants to read all the stuff you've come up with? They're trying to play a game here, not read a book.

Less sarcastic answer: Nobody is going to care about your campaign as much as you do. It's a sad fact of life all worldbuilders must understand and overcome. You can only hope that your enthusiasm bleeds through into your game and your players both pick up and respond to it.

>>385657

No.

Sometimes? Yes

But I have a lot of stuff very expansively detailed

>>403599

>it's quicksand

Did you watch the video? You sink much faster in it than quicksand, but still can't swim in it, and the whole mass can alternate between liquid and solid with the flip of a switch. A wizard up to his shoulders in it can't use somatic components, even with a penalty, if you solidify the space around him. It's not that it makes you sink that's dangerous; it's that the trap user can so instantly change the functional phase of the material. Like it's just sand. There's no give-away that there's a trap. It's an actual earthen floor, that instantly becomes liquid, and then solid again once you're inside it. And without a shred of magic.

>>403926

Either he adjusts his game to fit another player in it, or he tells this other person that the table is full for the time being, but he will let them know when a spot opens up. Chances are one spot will open up sooner or later, but you don't get everyone hyped up and invested in the game and then kick one of them out because some other cunt wants in.

>>403926

5e is for babies anyway, you really shouldn't need to cut anybody. Six people is nothing in an easy system like that. Tell your DM he's a faggot.

>>403929

>>404595

The DM ended up letting everyone join since T had experience before and could always help him out, but the game is still full of faggotry. Since this is more "DM and player faggotry" at this point, I'm not posting anything else on this thread about it.

>>>/404606/

>>403449

It's really only recommended that you plan the campaign in broad strokes and only keep the details 15 minutes ahead. You still have to record everything and reusing specific grid formations is recommended, only make new stuff for specific set pieces.

>>385657

>First session

>Did a couple of weeks of prep for art, map making in photoshop, plot, music etc

>Despite asking players to get me backstory, chasing them up days in advance about it, one player didn't do anything

>Meant to be a semi-cinematic intro to plot

>Decide to roll for some important things that I should probably not roll for

>Almost completely botch it

>Players having a hard time engaging

>Session 2

>Put almost no effort going into it

>Literally draw some lines on the ground to represent rocks and put in a couple of stock trees

>Generic goblin fight

>Ends up being a close fight, a little bit tense

>Two players convince the others to spare the goblin leader and they recruit him

>One of them is a wise martial artist who wants to turn the goblins life around

>This is followed by some even more great character interaction and important decision making influenced by the plot

Apparently things are going good now.

>>404663

every campaign needs some time to find its footing with the group and the DM.

My original plan for my campaign was for it to my a globe trotting traveling campaign with the PC's traveling the world to save it.

Game starts with them on their journey to the first major city-state on the wild continent they're going to, but get shipwrecked. On their way to the city, they decide to adopt a street urchin, get a wagon, and start making plans to start a tavern in the city and getting themselves entrenched in the city.

Am I disappointed in this change? Not at all. The PC's have decided what they want from the campaign, basically explicitly told me, and I can still have fun with telling the story I want to tell.

The secret of being a good DM is letting the PC's go where they want and do what they want, but it just so happens that wherever they go and whatever they do happens to be related to the story and furthers the story. You have find what your PC's want and let them go after it, and use that to drive the story. When the PC's are going after something they actually really want, that's what gets them most engaged.

>>419254

>Quick note, 2020 has a few strange rules that are integral to the story. One is that a character can take multiple actions, but each action makes the check harder, taking -3 off of all of your subsequent rolls.

Had to cap that to 3 in my homebrew rules after a cop managed to 1HKO a boss character by chaining 7 actions and then he complained when the boss tried to fight back and did more than two actions in her turn, one of those a non-action according to Cyberpunk rules.

>>385657

>>decide "fuck it, i'll improvise the rest"

>does this happen to anyone else every single time?

I've been running a campaign for three years like that.

I've been burned out on GMing for so long from dealing with a shit group, that I found a non-shit group, offered to host, and now I feel like I'm a fucking newfag and don't know what to even do.

Pro tip: If you ever host a campaign against your will because people really want you to, but you don't personally care, don't take any bait. Don't take the mental health b8, don't take the "we're friends, aren't we?" bait, and sure as fuck don't think about how if you charge money you might at least be motivated since hell, you can spend that money so you have some fun.

Don't fucking do it, it'll kill your interest in the hobby if you get forced into a shitty group or GM for a shit one, and feel like you have no other choices, then you'll get out of it eventually and just feel like you have no energy when it comes to this sort of thing.

How important do you guys think it is for you to maintain verisimilitude with your players? Do you explain to them how bosses work beforehand, so they know what they're getting into? Hint at it in character for them to figure it out? A mixture of the two?

How transparent should you be with your players about what's going to happen?

>>419489

Immersion is mostly everything for two of my four players. They don't know stats, hp or anything that isn't theirs and can't be explained ingame. When it comes to bosses I like hinting at what can happen in general first in a controlled environment before upping the ante.

>>419493

Have you ever considered that immersion is arbitrary?

>>419493

I'll explain this further. The boss will start out alone and use it's special abilities sparingly. But after it has cycled through them and the players know about them, combinations will be made.

There is also how I don't care one bit about sticking to books. Not that what I do is better, no, but I simply enjoy the freedom of it.

>>419495

It might be, yes. But they seem to be immersed. So much that they've somehow turned a 3.

>>419497

Fucking phoneposting. Sorry.

They've somehow turned a 3.5 campaign into a narrative one with their actions.

Anyone ever put meta-narrative themes, characters and stories woven into your campaign?

There's a gnomish bard in my campaign who is obsessed with the PC's (yandere-tier) and being the one who tells their story and writes their ballads. This is because he's not a normal denizen of the world they're in, but rather a meta-entity that is aware that they are the protagonists/main characters and their story is the story of the world. They've already killed him because they thought he was creepy (fucking ganked him expecting him to fight back lol), but he's gonna return because he's not actually a mortal entity of the world they're in, but rather he is a meta manifestation of the game telling the story of the PC's.

The campaign also ultimately ends (depending on the choice the PC's make) with the BBEG realizing that his existence is tied to the PC's, and that his ultimate destiny was to be defeated/saved by the PC's, and he realizes he is a villain in a story as he dies.

>>419615

>pre-planning the ending

Fuck your railroad.

>>419685

>Is it really railroading if the PC's go where they want and do what they want, but wherever they go and whatever they do it also advances the story?

Yes.

There is a way to get what "you" want without railroading, and it's by setting goals for your NPCs, and having them use the PCs. In this case, the PCs still essentially have freedom of action, since at any point they could decide they don't want to do fetch quests for Dr. Dipshit anymore. And at that point, you have to phone it in and find something else to do. Playing a tabletop game is not about telling a story, it's about playing a game. The story is created collaboratively as a side result. If the GM is a faggot trying to "tell" a story, or who has some sort of higher idea of himself as "storyteller" rather than the person managing the game, then you have a huge problem at the table.

>>419692

but if i am a faggot trying to tell a collaboratively written story, and everyone is having a blast, what's the problem at my table?

>>419693

If a Chinese farmer who has never had contact with foreign (western) civilization is happy because he gets food every day and his clothes don't have too many holes, does that mean his quality of life is high?

>>419685

>>419632

I have a theory:

Railroading is a symptom of (but not exclusive to) bad games. If the mechanics, world, and equipment are exciting enough then railroading becomes unnecessary/too difficult to get away with.

>>419693

There is no collaborative storytelling when the story has already been decided.

>>419731

How is railroading a symptom and not a cause of bad games?

Treat your retarded players like the shit they are.

Whoops, you fucked up. Make a new fucking character.

Oh you want more characterization? Too bad. Eat shit.

>>419813

>bragging about doing the same shit for 8 hours

Don't do that.

>>419857

Depends on the players usually or what you allow to setup, but yes typically players will try to go for creative solutions because of the nature of the game.

>>419842

No, it's about not being repetitive, cunt. Doing ANY ONE THING for an entire session is poor form. Don't brag because either:

>A. Your players fucked around on their own for 8 hours and you barely did anything

OR

>B. You actually planned for them to sit around doing the same thing all day and they did it

Neither of these makes you or your group look good.

>>419857

If you think that's whack, then you really need to get out more. Read a fucking book or something.

>>419902

Most stuff a player would do when given the opportunity typically isn't in a book, if he thinks that's weird just he waits until they really get going with the weird trinkets he'll throw at them.

Does anyone else have players who forcibly stop the music player on their own, regardless of what the others or the GM himself thinks? Because I have encountered at least two players like that, both good friends of mine, but they don't seem to be able to stand the music I play and continuously stop the player without asking.

>>419989

That happened to me once, but I was deliberately turning the music up every round because they were fighting sound-based opponents. Towards the end, we had to yell at each other just to converse. It was great.

>>420291

FUDGE with a grid system and cover/overwatch rules is probably what you are looking for. Cyberpunk 2020 is XCOM as fuck, but it's pure autism.

>>420345

I've had a lot of difficulty getting into systems heavily reliant on freeform descriptive elements like what FATE/FUDGE does, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll check over them again for anything useful. And, yes, 2020 is thematically close, but I'd have better luck winning the lottery than getting them to play it.

>>420388

I've never actually tried 4th Ed. I'll take a look at it.

Here's a more general question that's bugging me, now that I'm making some Egyptian-themed pyramid dungeons and the like. How does everyone handle secret rooms and puzzles? I don't want to simply have them roll perception for every entrance and door, and most of the time room searches are only prompted by my mention of it or through a direct perception check, and hiding them behind puzzles just causes me more headaches with puzzles (namely, having to think more up, amongst others).

>>420406

The power of puzzles, and a suspicious empty space in a grid map.

>>420406

>secret rooms

You can literally steal from video games.

>notes explicitly or implicitly talking about secrets

>like history of all architects and their families killed after completion of the project

>giving them a weird ass key/crystal/"klaatu verita nektu" magic phrase that unlocks a treasure chest/lock/portal

>that doesn't just takes up space if they didn't find the secret

>literally give a tutorial floor

>only way to proceed is to find the secret passageway

>or Indiana Jones' father's journal, that gives hints to what is to come

Secret rooms are like traps. Sometimes, they need to be downright be shown to let the players know what they are getting into.

If its the single player you're talking about. You can also play with passive scores. Normally, people only use passive perception to notice small details, or enemies. A passive intelligence check can mean that the layout of the floor doesn't make sense. A passive equivalent to survival or tracking can notice tracks that lead nowhere. A dwarf might notice stonework is weird. A thief might know rumours about treasure. A bard might know legends or songs about said treasure.

>>420408

Worse is a properly detailed map, with a portion blacked out or covered, and stays blacked out.

>>420406

>Here's a more general question that's bugging me, now that I'm making some Egyptian-themed pyramid dungeons and the like. How does everyone handle secret rooms and puzzles?

I do OSR-style play so it's pretty easy:

For generic secret doors that I don't care about (i.e. just ways for the baddies to maneuver easier and to hide a little bonus treasure) you can passively notice them if you have a racial bonus (elves, etc.), but otherwise, it's by searching. If you spend a turn searching a 10ftx10ft area, it's 1-in-6 chance. Each turn is a chance for a wandering monster, and eats up your time (10 minutes), so you can't afford to just scan ever space; you need good reason to suspect something is hidden (i.e. a suspicious gap in the map).

However, that's just for generic secret doors. For special ones, or ones that hide important things, I designate a mechanism in advance. You have the same chance to find it by just rolling the device, but if you specifically call out an action that triggers a result ("I wist the deer's antlers") then you don't need to roll; you figured it out by being clever enough. I tend to accomplish this by putting in things that can be interacted with, like statues or bookshelves, and using them as the basis for the trigger. The combination of these two mechanisms rewards clever thinking, but still lets you stuff like secret passages all over that just use basic 'press the wall lever' tricks, and the like.

On that note: When the players enter the room, I tell them what they see. If they see, they see it. No rolls to say 'you notice X in the corner' if it's in plain sight; let them fiddle around and mess with stuff. This helps out a lot with puzzles and the like, since it turns everything into a sort of puzzle to interact with.