/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>423433

I hate third-wheeling, but I generally sit across from them. If both of them seat themselves across, that's on them. Usually I'll sit with the guy, so the girl has more space.

>>423433

The correct answer is to refuse to go with them as the third-wheel. Just stay home.

>>423433

>having real life friends instead of just some people you know online

That's where you fucked up.

I'm looking for a specific greentext. It was about a dragon who, at the advice of an accountant, starts to take tribute from the villagers rather than pillage from them, which gradually evolves into the dragon charging places for his protection and investing his hoard into increasingly complex financial apparatus. Anyone have it? I don't recall the name.

>>423609

have you tried printing up all his spells/active abilities on a sheet and put it in front of him so he will not forget ?

>>423610

We do things on roll20, so his sheets always actively in front of him.

>>423609

When he says he has "nothing to do", remind the faggot that he can quite literally do "everything a person can do" plus magic or whatever. Then put repeated scenarios where utility functions or role-play (not rolling a fucking Diplomacy check - if your game has social skills, you need a new game) are needed until he dies enough times to figure it out.

>>423516

>>423503

It's rude to turn down an invitation. Even if it ends up being awkward for me if there are people who take the time to want to keep company with me then I should thank them properly for it by letting them indulge their concerns. It's like when somebody gives you a gift you don't really want, you don't tell them to return it, you thank them and accept it. Letting people think they are doing something nice for you can be just important as them actually doing something nice for you.

>>423511

That's generally the formula I've favored, I'll keep doing this one then. Thank you.

I'm planning on trying DMing for the first time, what's some stuff I should absolutely have prepared for my first session? I'm definitely going to have less than I want because I'm the type of faggot who doesn't want to start unless everything is perfect, so I'm just going to go ahead with it, but what's some stuff I absolutely shouldn't skimp out on?

>>423609

Maybe after a session you could tell him what he could have done. For example: "you could have used Spider-Climb to get over the wall in that fortress", or "Magehand could have given you the chalice without going through all the trouble they did." Remind them they have items they can use like rope or whatever. I assume the player is new to roleplaying. Maybe you can give hints like that during play as well. Sort of as a tutorial until they learn. Or ask "do you have any spell that could help you get over this obstacle?"

>>423656

What game is it? Is it a ready made world, or are you making your own?

You at least have prepared a quest or some problem they have to solve. A few significant NPCs' personalities and motivations thought out. The stats for the enemies they are likely to fight.

If it's your first time running a game, keep it simple. For example they are hired to retrieve a stolen macguffin from the bandits. They start in the home of the quest giver, a tavern, whatever. He tells them what to do. They go on a journey. Think a few waypoints where something interesting happen. Not necessarily combat. It might be broken bridge they have to cross. A roleplaying encounter where they meet other traveler, a tavern where they meet interesting people, or refugees from a neighbouring county, setting up a possible future scenario.

Then they reach the bandit's lair. Maybe they have to do some investigation to reach it first. Make up a simple map for the bandits' lair, how many bandits are there, something personality and skill wise to make the boss stand out.

Also make sure the player characters have motivation to join the adventure, and don't end up killing each other on the way. Not a good idea to have a lawful good paladin and a chaotic evil murderer-rapist in the same party. The worst offending kind of PC is one that simply doesn't care about doing stuff: "I don't care about helping the lord/merchant. The reward doesn't interest me. Nor do I want to help my party members. I'll just stay in the tavern gambling/reading books."

>>423659

>What game is it? Is it a ready made world, or are you making your own?

DnD 5e. The setting is a shitty tiny penal colony on the fantasy version of fantasy Australia where every day there's a risk the evil shit in the forest might bowl over into the town and kill everyone. The first quest will be the PCs getting drafted into the yearly venture into the forest to cut down trees to get fresh wood to repair the walls and shit. They'll have to defend NPCs carrying trees away. Sounds like I have most of it ready, I just need to get a battle map and enemy stats really

>>423660

Sounds reasonable. I suggest think of a few personality quirks for the NPCs they'd be protecting. If there's a big group of NPCs with them, give a couple of them a name and a basic personality. Make something happen roleplaying wise both to explore the personality of the PCs, and to create an atmosphere of normalcy before the monsters attack.

>>423661

>Make something happen roleplaying wise both to explore the personality of the PCs, and to create an atmosphere of normalcy before the monsters attack.

Thanks for that, I definitely would have forgotten that.

>>423662

It's good if I was useful. I like your scenario btw. Simple, but not overly cliched. Something that manages to stir the imagination.

>>423671

I came up with the entire setting idea because I hate how every fantasy story is always solved by some Mcguffin that immediately banishes evil. Instead I'm trying to make something where the players get to slowly push clear evil away in a way that they like instead of some stupid Destined Heroes plot or something.

>>423695

How the fuck are you supposed to plan out what you're going to buy if you don't know how much the shit you want costs?

>>423696

Fuck if I know. I can understand not discussing rare random loot, but plate armors are relatively common. It's something the FUCKING TANK OF THE PARTY, WHO IS LOOKING FOR A BETTER FITTING ARMOR RIGHT NOW should know.

>>423695

"Metagaming" is just a bullshit excuse by bullshit GMs who can't come up with their own monsters and adventures. Get out of that shitty game, the GM probably runs pre-made shit.

>>423695

Your DM sounds fucking retarded, but as DM he's allowed to make retarded rules.

Is there a rule of thumb on how to make a monster tougher and how much that increases it's CR in DnD? If I just want to say "this is a tougher version of the same monster" but can't find a slightly buffer version of it, what can I do to make them stronger without accidentally fucking over my players?

>>423708

Extra actions.

>>423708

The real world isn't balanced, and combat is a bloody horror. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Disregard balanced encounters.

>>423711

I'm already trying to make the encounter super hard, I don't want to accidentally slaughter my PCs.

>>423712

>I don't want to accidentally slaughter my PCs.

If it's "too hard", they can just run away?

If they're literally too stupid to run, they don't deserve protection.

>>423719

Because of plot reasons if they run they die.

>>423745

Wow, and here I am complaining that my PCs are too dumb to run. Here we have a GM too dumb to allow his players to run. Bizarre.

>>423787

It's basically the only time in the campaign they won't be allowed to run so I can set up the campaign properly. I need them to make sure they fight and win so they understand how the things they do will effect things.

>>423799

>I need them to make sure they fight and win

Why the fuck are you asking us any of this then? You've already decided the PCs are going to win. There's nothing more for us to tell you. You don't need to make the monster tougher because your intention is for the players to beat it, so why are you fucking bothering us with such a dumb question? You can't fuck them over in this scenario.

>>423800

Because going solely off book rules for monsters, my options are either to swarm them with 19 fucking smaller enemies, or two decently sized ones. Either way the action economy will fucking obliterate one of the sides. And this will probably be the only combat for the first session, so I don't want them to fucking tear through it. So the question still remains if anyone has any tips on how to modify monster stats and keep a good handle on where the CR for them is, and if all you want it to fucking sit here and debate my plans with me trying to prove that you're a smarter DM than me instead of answering the question and being helpful you can shut the fuck up.

I want to plan out a character whose primary focus in battle is rendering girls naked without inflicting significant damage. (think Issei from Highschool DxD, only far more perverted and evil). Assume primary opponents are going to be PC characters, meaning magical equipment, armor, optimized saves and access to spells.

Stuff from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition would be best fit, but anything in any edition of DnD, PF would be good to as I can try to adapt it 3.5.

Looking for abilities, feats, skill applications, magic items to be on the look out, by themselves or in combinations, that can be applied to this goal.

>>423708

Through DM magic give a standard monster damage resistance to the most common type dealt by your party. Presto, it now wont be killed instantly and has a chance to fight back

>>423905

You can't actually stop Sleight of Hand in 3.5, only notice it, against someone able to consistently DC20 checks (trivial if focused on).

How should I do perception rolls for a player character to see if he notices a background detail?

a secret roll I make based on his perception and if it's successful just weave its outcome and on failure I omit the detail, or should I ask a mystery/specific value roll and when it fails I just say "never mind"?

>>423946

Perception shouldn't be as a roll to "notice something". That's shit adventure design - the players should be able to find whatever is in a room or other site by interacting with the environment and turning up results. Don't roll dice for that stuff. Example:

>I open the drawer.

<Inside is a locket and a photograph.

>I open the locket.

<Inside is a picture of a man and a woman.

>What's the photo?

<Same two people, nodding and waving.

>I feel around the desk and knock on it, looking for any hollow spots.

<You find one on the underside, behind the central drawer.

>Great, I shine up a light. Any way to open it?

<There's a small keyhole.

>I try to pick it.

<Great, roll to pick locks.

>I passed. What's inside?

<There's four small wads of cash. In total, about $2500.

>Nice! Glad I checked.

Alternatively, maybe the lock picking failed, and you'd need to pry open the underside with a small axe, at the risk of damaging any fragile goods (if there were any). Or the key could be hidden somewhere else, encouraging a bit of backtracking. This is good adventure design.

Boring adventure design:

>I roll for perception. 23.

<You find a locket, a photograph, and a keyhole on the underside.

One of these encourages actual interaction and role-playing, the other skips past that. This is why you should describe to players what they sense or find, based on how they do it, rather than based on die rolls. It also removes the bullshit of "fudging" to make sure you get certain results - the onus is on the players.

You should make use of perception only as a means of countering stealth, or picking up details. Perception to hear what's on the other side of a door, for example, or as a means of noticing the movement of an invisible or near-invisible creature. You can also use it for general things - finding that there's a brick on a stone wall to activate a secret door, for example. But that should still require a declaration of "how", such as "I'm feeling along the wall".

>>423804

>>423745

Whenever you have to justify something because of:

>plot reasons

You've already decided that you're not running a game, you're running an interactive story. It's possible to give someone advice to help with a game, because a game is something that is possible to lose. However, an interactive story isn't something you can win or lose, except by the arbitrary rules put in place by the person writing it. You have sat down and decided you need an enemy that your players must beat, and will beat, and want help on making it challenging. Going to people asking for game design advice on that is useless, because you are not running a game. What you need is writing advice on creating tension, and set-writing advice on how to frame an action scene, since that's clearly what you're intending to create.

If you come back asking for help on how to manage a game then that will be another matter. But when your present state is "I'm going to railroad my players into this point, and then railroad their options at that point, to create my story" then you're not giving anything to work off of.

>>423946

Tell him the fucking background detail. You can do secret rolls for hidden shit to see if the character catches what the player missed, but you should tell them everything they can see and interact with in the room. Details are important in tabletop games... or at least they should be.

>>423961

>You should make use of perception only as a means of countering stealth, or picking up details

that's what I intended since I want the PC to have a missable chance at catching an NPC who's hiding in plain sight.

>>423944

Thank you, I completely overlooked that skill. For some reason my mind went to things like Sunder or looking for magic to actually destroy worn equipment. Looking up on PF, i see Sleight of Hand (out of combat only), Steal and Disarm for in-combat equivalent.

Does D&d3.5 have an equivalent of Steal?

are there any rulebooks that give more info/uses/DC examples for Sleight of Hand and Steal?

What's the absolute lowest possible point in the Forgotten Realms?

>>404539

How do I get rid of the elf in the corner? She is disturbing my browsing of the catalog.

>>424033

Tell her she looks pretty.

>>424033

Same way you get rid of any elf.

Is there any way in 3.5 for a druid to scale up existing wild shape forms? As in taking a large creature and making it huge?

>>424033

>f12

>third row "Filter Styles"

>background-attachment: fixed;

>unclick the box

>>423609

Have an NPC, allied or opposed, in a similar position and using said options. Either he'll notice they're worthwhile, or you'll notice they're really not.

>>419414

Oh shit, the wall of text.

Best formula I've ever had for my campaigns.

1. Railroad an intro, based on an element you want to exploit, a genre you want to use, an enemy they want to defeat, a catastrophe they need to prevent.

2. At the end of the intro, have hints on how PCs can achieve the goal. Path they can choose but don't need to. Make the railroad a road system, if you will, with possibilities to go off road.

3. Have generic enemies ready (wolves, highwaymen, undead, insects, cultists...) you can easily flavor and send their way.

4. Watch them go and provide the input they need. Once in a while, introduce new elements. Watch what stick kn what they find and how the theorize and use that. Distract them with sidequests and obstacles.

Other tricks:

> Don't plan too much in advance.

Whole cities of Shroedinger. It is okay if a town has and has not a mages' guild until the knfo is relevant.

> Go 3Ys deep.

Both for lore deepness and sidequest potential, when choosing an element for your bg, ask yourself why that is. Do the same with the reason and the reason's reason. It provides depth, solidity and encourage creativity.

> Use anything and everything players give you.

Family ties are not kidnap material until other PCs met them and grew attached to them. If PCs have grudges, turns out the target of that grudge is an element of your plot. And if they like or like to hate an NPC, re-use it.

Small town flgs is starting a warhammer 40k league with all newbies. I am also new to the game. Whats an easy team I can build to cheese out the most wins with as little work? The biggest roadblock is the dickhead store owner who has to spike every event in his own store to avoid giving out as many prizes. It's like a pokemon gym with a bald spic for a leader. He plays dark eldar with a bunch of planes.