So I introduced a quest to save Dave Gnoll of the Fae Fighters who was captured by some bandits while the band was enjoying some time exploring the coast south of Waterdeep (they were hired by A Perfect Cantrip to lessen the competition). In order to have a reason for the band to be there, I created a Battle of the Bards music show with several bands including A Perfect Cantrip, Wizard Eat World, and The Casting Pumpkins.

Now the two bards (level 5) want to enter and compete. I am envisioning this being a skill challenge with rounds maybe DC 18 to start and as the rounds move up the DC goes down if the crowds like them (the crowds will warm to them every completion of a skill check).

I am wondering what the prize should be? I was going to go with:

• monetary (1000 gold?)
• a golden instrument (or maybe some artifact with a silly mechanic)?
• some agent wanting to sign them

How would you run something like this?

I have a player who is an experienced player while I am a new(ish) DM. Our party consists of path of Devotion Paladin, Bladesinger Wizard (the player), Thief Rogue, College of Eloquence Bard, College of Whispers Bard, and Battle Master Fighter. It’s already a strong party and the two bards can throw a wrench in a lot of stuff.

My campaign is doing a time jump (homebrew) of 2-2.5 years following the end of the original Phandelver. The wizard (who is a Changeling) is asking if he can pick up the following rituals during this time jump:

1. water breathing
2. unseen servant
3. tensers floating disk
4. phantom steed
5. magic mouth
6. leonmunds tiny hut
7. illusory script
8. identify
9. gentle repose
10. find familiar
11. detect magic
12. comprehend languages
13. augury
14. alarm

My response to him was as follows:

“I want to be a yes DM, but also you’re so low of level that many of these will subvert a lot of potential enemy actions. It feels like a little too much utility for [level] 5. With two bards, it’s already ridiculous with what you all can get away with.”

I did say that I am willing to let him have a few though.

Am I being too strict? If not, how many would you allow?

Has anyone done this in a campaign? If so, how did you run it - same as ghost possession I'd assume?

My groups last session was maybe the best in the 15 month campaign we've been playing (they just hit level 7 at the end of it) and I feel like I did a few things that really helped.

First, some general advice. I knew that this session was kind of the crux of several plot elements. I needed to introduce them to the next arc of the campaign, wrap up a missing NPC, and deal with the fact that one PC was being held captive.

I started my planning for the session by writing a list of the different factions involved - the players, the orc tribe who's fortress the session would take place in, the Astral sages, a group of wizards who pull the strings of government using their divination abilities (the missing NPC is an important member, and was being held captive by the orcs), and the cult the players have been dealing with (2 factions really, since the cult is breaking into 2 sides).

Once I had these listed out, I specifically wrote how the motivations of each group applied to the situation. In my case, one side of the cult wanted the missing NPC to thwart the rival side, the rival side didn't need him so they didn't care. The orcs feared his power so would be happiest if he died, and the players fear him, but know his value, so they hoped to save him.

Having these motivations figured out for this situation made it much easier to role play any NPCs that had a part in the session. It also made sure I wasn't missing anything as I gave out information about the next arc throughout the session. Finally, it made the next piece of advice much easier to implement.

Going into the session, the party was split. One PC was being held captive, 2 were inside the fortress, confronting the orcs, and 2 were stuck outside the fortress after a troll and a cave in split them up from the other two.

In the past I have struggled with handling a split party, but some matt colville advice has changed that for me. In fact, a split party is an awesome tool to maintain pacing throughout a session, and is now one of my favorite conditions as a DM.

For this session, I prepared by listing a sequence of scenes that could happen for each group of players. Having an idea of the motivations for the different factions was really helpful here. For instance, one side of the cult was coming to the fortress to negotiate their taking of the missing NPC. This gave possibility to multiple scenes for the group outside the fortress. The missing NPC was being interrogated by the orcs, which gave some scenes for the captive player. Even the idea of a scene with one group of PCs inside the fortress as the 2nd group made their way inside was nice to have in my back pocket.

Having these scenes listed out served a few purposes. First, I listed with each scene a piece of information to deliver during the scene. Second, I knew I had several important scenes that I needed to deliver - having a physical list allowed me to quickly find a scene and cross it off when it was initiated. Third, anytime I wasn't sure what to do next, I had a list of scenes I could pull from to make sure story kept moving forward. The last, and most fun for me, was regarding pacing. I would let a scene play out with one group until it either lost momentum, or until it became very tense. In that moment, I could move to a scene with a different group of PCs. This allowed me to build and release tension as the information was delivered and the PCs muddled their way through confronting the orcs, joining them, replacing the cult party who came to negotiate, reuniting most of the party, finding the NPC and PC who were held captive, killing the orcs, and releasing the captives.

I'm certain that having these two preparation tactics will make future sessions more exciting while helping me to feel more prepared. I think it can do the same for your table!

Tldr; make sure you know the motivations behind your factions for any big encounters, and come up with a few scenes for each group of a split party to allow you to switch back and forth easily and maintain pacing during a session.

Early on in my current campaign my players were sent on a quest by a wizard friend of theirs, he gave them a sending stone so he could keep in contact with them. After that quest ended my players got a nice big downtime, 1 month. One of my players, who owns a tavern, asked to dedicate that downtime to finding some more sending stones, one for each player and the pairs to be held by the barkeep NPC she employs. I rolled on the tables in XGtE and got a price that they could afford.

Are there any unforeseen downsides in letting them spend all their money on sending stones? I know this effectively gives them party wide telekinesis but since they're using this NPC as a telephone switchboard (literally how they pitched the idea) I can reserve the right to say he's busy and can't forward their messages.

I decided to give them the stones and then ran a session, they got separated for a few minutes and spent most of it talking through that npc to each other instead of trying to solve the problem that separated them. They've implemented a rule that he needs to write down what they say and relay the message exactly. 10/10 it was quite funny. Try doing this with your players.

I'm running a newly created campaign (2 sessions yet), and my players asked, if they should check the new contents, or am I planning to migrate to the PHB 2024 edition.

Any thoughts? Are you guys planning to move?

Which do you prefer? I've been using milestones in my campaign, but can see why XP could be cool to use.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/25172652

Background:

I'm running the Pathfinder 2e Abomination Vaults adventure for a group of 5 players, though I've set it in my own homebrew setting and have not shied away from deviating from the published adventure. I'll try not to, but I may let slip some minor AV spoilers

The players have just reached the end of book 1, and are about to go into book 2. At this point, about a month of in-game time has passed since the adventure began, and one week into the adventure there was a big supernatural event which made big news around the town that the adventure is set in. I like to play up the verisimilitude of the setting by having NPCs and the world react to the things that happen, as well as to the passage of time.

One thing I've come up with which I'm excited to see play out is that enough time has passed that word has spread around the local area about this megadungeon that has been discovered near the town. The players have been telling everyone who will listen about this heretofore undiscovered complex. In my mind, this would mean that other parties of adventurers would come to the town with the intent of doing the same thing the players are doing: looting dungeon, killing baddies, leveling up, getting rich and famous.

I've created a rival party of five adventurers of the same level as the players. This rival party is called "The Vanguard Edge" (or simply "The Edge"). I've spent a chunk of the last few days making notes on how to RP and employ The Edge. Here's what I've got so far:

The party is likely to try to join forces with The Vanguard Edge. This should never be possible.

The Edge don't follow the same rules as other NPCs. Think of them as a group of DM-controlled player characters. They know the rules of adventuring and they think like players.

The Edge are not villains. They are fundamentally "good guys", but their goal is to eat the party's lunch. They want to go into the Abomination Vaults and find all the cool loot first

In general, the Edge fulfill the negative stereotypes that most people have of adventurers. They are demanding, dismissive, and arrogant. They flaunt their wealth and brag about their exploits, they get bored when they go too long without fighting something. They sometimes speak in slightly more metagame terms, such as talking about their hopes to "level up" and "gain experience".

If the party ever shares useful information with The Edge, they will look at it with some skepticism. The members of the Edge would never dream of sharing Intel with other adventurers.

The Edge will occasionally have reached certain places first. This should be used sparingly, and only when it is a real gut punch for the party. It should be easy to tell where they have been, because they are completely unsubtle in their approach to adventuring.

Sometimes the implication of treasure can be added to the adventure, but with the added implication that the Edge got to it first. Maybe Abomination Vaults doesn't explicitly mention treasure in some room, but there was some in there, and the Edge already took it.

If an encounter is about to turn into a TPK, the Edge can show up to save the PCs. But they will never let them live it down.

Those are the notes I've made so far on how to use this new element of my campaign. I'm curious if anyone out there has any thoughts, either in things I've noted or things I've missed. I'd love folks to give their feedback

Thanks in advance!

last post linked here: https://lemmy.world/post/15519782

First of all, thanks for all of the advice on the last post. You all definitely got the gears turning for me. I just had the session and wanted to make an update post on how it went.

I started the session off with the players moved into a cell and restrained. the core members of the cult remained behind to deal with the issue while the majority of the cult left to get set up somewhere else. meanwhile Sorcerer arrived at Clerics tavern and told the barkeep, who grabbed some weapons and some roughnecks and headed to the cults hideout with Sorcerer. The cult pumped the party for information, using a zone of truth spell (whole party beat the save DC so the cult got no useful information out of this, except one player let slip the name of Sorcerer). The cult then decided to sacrifice these party members which took some time because its a whole ritual. Just as they finished the Sorcerer showed up, interrupting the sacrificial ceremony. A fight broke out, Druid and Rogue managed to slip their bonds and Cleric was freed by the barkeep who also dropped a bag of weapons so everyone was armed. Temporarily outgunned, the core cult members made an escape, leaving behind a few clues explaining their master plan. the party is now firmly in control of the situation with the villains having to bide their time and regroup while the party looks for a macguffin that should spoil their plans. (now to decide what that macguffin is...)

this isn't going to become a campaign diary or anything, I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone for letting me leech your ideas.

The following all happens in a town and the nearby surrounding area.

So my party, hereby referred to as their classes are currently third level and have infiltrated a cults hideout, they went there looking for Rogues friend and snuck in with disguises and managed to bluff their way into where the friend was being held. She was in a holding cell. After some deliberation they devised a plan to cast silent image and sneak her out, they couldn't manage to pick the lock and Cleric smashed the door in, this was heard by nearby cultists and they decided to just make a break for it. The cult massively outnumbered them and the party got surrounded. Sorcerer, who is an Aasimar and can fly at 3rd level, flew past everyone and escaped while the rest of the party surrendered. We ended the session there and Sorcerer told me after the session that they plan to go to Cleric's tavern to get the barkeep and any tough looking patrons to form a quick mob.

The conundrum here is that I can't think of a good reason for these cultists to not just kill the party aside from that's not fun. The cult is aware that one of them escaped is probably going to bring the law down on them, so they'll also want to leave. If I was them (and in a way I am) I'd probably kill the witnesses and bail.

Any advice?

Hey gang.

I'm running a campaign where the players are looking for eight magical items, once owned by eight powerful mages representing the eight schools of magic.

Right now – through the power of Plot™ – they're looking for those items for an influential but shadowy collector. They're supposed to deliver the first batch of three items together. When that happens they'll find out that they were inadvertently helping a criminal collector. A representative of a historical society will tell them that these artifacts belong in a museum.

And here's my problem: I want them to have these magical items, which of course have cool powers. And I don't know how to do that.

My plan right now is, that the museum isn't interested in the actual powers, they just want to display the items for their historical relevance. So they'll magically pull these items apart into two identical ones, where one retains the power and the other the history of the item (scratches/wear and tear).

I am not completely satisfied with that idea, because it seems far-fetched and I'd like to hear your ideas, if you have any, on how to resolve this.

Thank you and a thousand dm'ly kisses to you all.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11298431

I've been a DM for about 3 years, and have predominantly run one-shots and short campaigns in DnD5e and PF2e. I have a player who persistently builds primary caster based characters, but then won't do anything in combat but "I stab it with my dagger." They rarely use cantrips, and basically won't cast a leveled spell unless I suggest it immediately before their turn. They seem to enjoy playing despite the fact that they're far too squishy to be a front-line melee character and don't utilize most of their class features. I've talked with them explicitly about how their play style seems to be discordant with the kind of play they want to do, and that maybe next time they should try a paladin/champion or a fighter/rougue subclass with some minor casting. They agreed at the time that sounded like a good idea, but low and behold showed up to the next one-shot with a primary caster, and over 3 hours of play and 3 combats never cast a single spell, including a cantrip.

I enjoy playing with this persons as a whole. They are engaged in the fiction, and are particularly engaged during exploration activities. They tell me they also find combat quite fun, and they are requesting I run a mega dungeon in the near future.

As a general rule, I like to let people play how they have the most fun, but issues have arisen with this play style. Namely, all of my TPKs have been associated with this player charging a squishy character directly up to a significantly stronger villain and continuing to stab it with a dagger until they went down, significantly hindering the party in the action economy and resulting in a TPK. I feel I have to intentionally weaken all of my encounters to keep the party feasible in the face of such mechanically poor combat choices.

What else can I do to help drive this individual towards melee builds, and/or help encourage them to change their play style to better suite the caster classes they choose?

I'm interested in adding turning to a game I'm running (I've talked to my players so don't worry,) and I've been wondering how some people do it, so please share.

What is the best way to determine this? Is a flat number best, or should it be based on one of the user's ability scores?

For those of you who don't know about this yet, this is Fast Character! Quickly generate a DND 5e character for your campaign! As a DM, I've been using it to make NPCs in an army that my characters are fighting against.

I hope you can find it as useful as I did :)