Holding up the line
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don’t most people start out in level 5?
You guys start out as lotr heroes? I guess we’ve always liked the ‘aaaah, I’m about to die and I have no magic items!’ campaigns. I know it’s not “true,” but it always feels like we get better roleplay by having people not be able to just be big, bad, can’t-be-hurt-by-the-guards folks. Every time I’ve been in a different group where people get powerful, arrogance over ‘npcs’ is inevitable.
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Yeah, you make a personal spellbook. No PHB spellbook. That way you only have 4 or 5 pages to thumb through. If you can’t devote that much personal time to the campaign, you can’t devote that much time to the campaign.
Yeah, this is especially useful for classes that prepare their spells from a longer list, like wizards or clerics. I like to use revision card size notes for each spell, so then when we long rest, I can just rifle through them and physically take the ones I’m choosing to prepare. It is more faff to make the notes than for sorcerers or warlocks, who only have to prepare a few notes each time they level up, but it massively streamlines sessions
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Tenant does such a good job with the role that I legitimately had a hard time watching him as other characters for a while after. Kilgrave is so fucking vile on so many levels, but is still a fully fleshed out awful character by the end, and Tenant absolutely nails it.
I think my favorite episode was the ‘kilgrave tries to be a hero.’ Like, there were so many perspectives that could be taken, and all of them had valid points. They did a good job with it. It also… did have a dark comedy/joke to it. The exasperation of the two main characters as he struggles through the hostage scene was humorous.
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I know this may be a joke, but I have used timers to great effect in the past. One instance comes to mind:
My players were looking for a missing child. They suspected a kidnapping. The Druid had transformed into a wolf, and was using scent to track the suspected kidnapper. The trail led them to the edge of a lake. In the middle of the lake, they could see a man in a rowboat. He had rowed out to the middle of a lake, and was in the process of dumping a squirming sack overboard. The players heard my description of how the sack hit the water, floated for a few seconds while it thrashed around, then sank below the surface.
The players fell into analysis paralysis. Would it be best to row out and stop the kidnapper? Focus on retrieving the sack that obviously had the kidnapped child in it? Risk splitting the party to do both simultaneously? While they were bickering about what to do, I quietly started a timer and set it in front of my DM screen. It was a not-so-subtle “you’re all wasting time arguing while a child is literally drowning” reminder.
The party saw me set the timer down, a silent beat passed as the realization hit, and then the entire party immediately sprang into action. Everyone piled into the rowboat on shore, while the paladin was asking to make a strength check to shove off and get the boat into the water. He rolled a natural 20, so the boat skipped a few times across the surface before the warrior took over rowing with a constitution check. He rolled a natural 19. They made it to the middle of the lake very quickly. The Druid wildshaped into something aquatic (I think a dolphin?) to go diving for the child, while the warrior and sorcerer piled into the kidnapper’s boat to prevent his escape. While all of that was going on, the paladin was making constitution saving throws to swim out to the middle of the lake (in heavy armor, I might add) to be on standby in case the child needed healing.
I didn’t actually intend on using the timer for anything. But the simple fact that I had it running pushed them into action. It was a powerful reminder that their characters wouldn’t have the time to fully analyze the situation and arrive at a plan of action by committee.
This is a great example of the effectiveness of using a timer.
In addition to streamlining the session, I’ve found that it is also a massive help for roleplaying. Our party was once put on the spot in a similar way, and we ended up making choices that we deeply regretted. However, it was the kind of situation where there were no straightforwardly good choices, and we’d have probably agonised over the consequences either way. Our DM spurring us into action meant that we experienced the analysis paralysis (and subsequent regret) in-character as well as out of character
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I think this whole situation improved considerably when everyone became invisible. See? No one is around now, combat complete
But I, the barbarian, really wanted to hit someone with my axe this turn
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They chose to create an account on .ML and you wonder why they’re obstinate and annoying? Are you new to Lemmy?
I don’t really go on other networks, is there drama about .ml?
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I’ve always started lvl 1, I didn’t even know ppl started at higher lvls
The GURPS equivalent of D&D/Pathfinder starts you out at the equivalent of level 5-7 by default. There’s options for lower powered delvers, but the default assumption is that people want to play established characters.
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I know this may be a joke, but I have used timers to great effect in the past. One instance comes to mind:
My players were looking for a missing child. They suspected a kidnapping. The Druid had transformed into a wolf, and was using scent to track the suspected kidnapper. The trail led them to the edge of a lake. In the middle of the lake, they could see a man in a rowboat. He had rowed out to the middle of a lake, and was in the process of dumping a squirming sack overboard. The players heard my description of how the sack hit the water, floated for a few seconds while it thrashed around, then sank below the surface.
The players fell into analysis paralysis. Would it be best to row out and stop the kidnapper? Focus on retrieving the sack that obviously had the kidnapped child in it? Risk splitting the party to do both simultaneously? While they were bickering about what to do, I quietly started a timer and set it in front of my DM screen. It was a not-so-subtle “you’re all wasting time arguing while a child is literally drowning” reminder.
The party saw me set the timer down, a silent beat passed as the realization hit, and then the entire party immediately sprang into action. Everyone piled into the rowboat on shore, while the paladin was asking to make a strength check to shove off and get the boat into the water. He rolled a natural 20, so the boat skipped a few times across the surface before the warrior took over rowing with a constitution check. He rolled a natural 19. They made it to the middle of the lake very quickly. The Druid wildshaped into something aquatic (I think a dolphin?) to go diving for the child, while the warrior and sorcerer piled into the kidnapper’s boat to prevent his escape. While all of that was going on, the paladin was making constitution saving throws to swim out to the middle of the lake (in heavy armor, I might add) to be on standby in case the child needed healing.
I didn’t actually intend on using the timer for anything. But the simple fact that I had it running pushed them into action. It was a powerful reminder that their characters wouldn’t have the time to fully analyze the situation and arrive at a plan of action by committee.
Hah, I accidentally did this!
Party was following up on a report about a missing person. They slipped into a mansion, and I described numerous automaton guards patrolling the hallways and watching choke points. I also mentioned offhand that they could hear a machine upstairs somewhere, very slowly building to a crescendo.
I intended this to be a stealth mission, where they would suborn a few guards, get eyes on the target, and preposition themselves to enact a rescue. No, as soon as they “heard” the machine, they tried to talk past the first guards, and when that failed, blitzed their way through the whole mansion, under heavy fire, figuring out where to find the hostage based on what parts of the house had the most guards!
It was absolutely my fault for accidentally making it seem more urgent than I intended, but I found it hilarious, and they had a blast!
(Edit) It wasn’t a machine noise, they were hearing a recorded message from another room, over a mechanical thrumming - I forget the details, but it was something about “(suspect) is your friend, you should trust (suspect)”, over and over. I intended to mention that they could hear the hostage clearly resisting, but got distracted - so they decided the hostage was already succumbing to mind control.
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The GURPS equivalent of D&D/Pathfinder starts you out at the equivalent of level 5-7 by default. There’s options for lower powered delvers, but the default assumption is that people want to play established characters.
Ah, interesting. I’ve only played a few campaigns, mostly 5e. The one pathfinder/2.5e was very confusing when it came to leveling up lol.
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OwO
I’m trying to remember, mimics are intelligent, aren’t they? I wonder how much of a campaign could be built, or even just a single night’s session, around a person who is feeding people to (a) mimic(s) because they are in love with them. And then, depending on the group, you can get quite lurid or horrific with the details.
Of course I love the mimic! They are everything to me!
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