This is the absolute funniest shit I've seen in years.
I run a regular game and play a regular game, and both DM and play one-shots at a time. It's my turn to DM some one-shots, and I've picked up Candlekeep, calling the unformed party the League of Librarians.
My players, bless them, have decided, just for shits and grins, to all play barbarians. It's a goddamn *fascinating* exercise in DM'ing, both from a balance perspective and a story perspective. We start on Sunday with a murder mystery and good god, I cannot WAIT!
This is the absolute funniest shit I've seen in years.
I run a regular game and play a regular game, and both DM and play one-shots at a time. It's my turn to DM some one-shots, and I've picked up Candlekeep, calling the unformed party the League of Librarians.
My players, bless them, have decided, just for shits and grins, to all play barbarians. It's a goddamn *fascinating* exercise in DM'ing, both from a balance perspective and a story perspective. We start on Sunday with a murder mystery and good god, I cannot WAIT!
Wizard Barbarian casts FIST!
Rogue Barbarian sneaks up behind enemy wizard...splits him in two with one shot.
Monk Barbarian tanks everything and then hits back with fists.
Cleric Barbarian slaughters enemies, then gives them last rites.
Interesting challenge for a DM, as they're going to steam roll most conventional fights, but have very little defence against anything more unusual.
I'd maybe propose that they do not have any duplicate races, and maybe also give them a free feat pick for the added variety. This would also give the possibility of one or two of them having at least some limited spellcasting from race or feat for a bit more out of combat utility.
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Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
So had our first session over the weekend with a heavy dose of homebrew. Told players that the point of this game was to do more rp'ing, rather than optimization/power gaming, and it was a TON OF FUN.
The scenario involved the five barbarian players being introduced as custodial staff at Candlekeep, remnants of Candlekeep's last armed legion to disband (on account of the rise of Baldur's Gate and subsequent protection), dumb as hell, continually screwing up their jobs. The party is screamed at by their supervisor, a high-level sorcerer, and then sent to grab their carts and help Arch-Wizard Matreous in a disused part of the library. Open to a dark, disheveled library battlemap, where the party meets a single steam mephit who hisses at them. They attack it, and up pops five more - and then a black pudding and an air elemental. Tough battle but the party succeeds- only to find out they murdered the deep-cleaning crew, and interrupted Matreous' three-day ritual she was working on, having to start over. Frustrated supervisor loses it; Matreous pelts the party with books, one of which getting caught between one barbarian's glutes- which turns out to be the Candlekeep book that leads to the meat and potatoes of the Candlekeep 7 module.
All the players bought into the premise and the idiocy quotient of the rp'ing was very high- and fantastic. Five morons insisting they were smarter than everyone else while trying to figure out what to do with the book since none of them could read. It's been an absolute blast.
As far as combat goes, I rejiggered the monsters to make them more challenging for an all-combat party.
I love scenarios! You set it up, the players knock it down. Less options for roleplaying because you're setting the terms, but for a group less used to rp'ing, it serves as a permission structure and a focus to help everyone get into the story.
So had our first session over the weekend with a heavy dose of homebrew. Told players that the point of this game was to do more rp'ing, rather than optimization/power gaming, and it was a TON OF FUN.
The scenario involved the five barbarian players being introduced as custodial staff at Candlekeep, remnants of Candlekeep's last armed legion to disband (on account of the rise of Baldur's Gate and subsequent protection), dumb as hell, continually screwing up their jobs. The party is screamed at by their supervisor, a high-level sorcerer, and then sent to grab their carts and help Arch-Wizard Matreous in a disused part of the library. Open to a dark, disheveled library battlemap, where the party meets a single steam mephit who hisses at them. They attack it, and up pops five more - and then a black pudding and an air elemental. Tough battle but the party succeeds- only to find out they murdered the deep-cleaning crew, and interrupted Matreous' three-day ritual she was working on, having to start over. Frustrated supervisor loses it; Matreous pelts the party with books, one of which getting caught between one barbarian's glutes- which turns out to be the Candlekeep book that leads to the meat and potatoes of the Candlekeep 7 module.
All the players bought into the premise and the idiocy quotient of the rp'ing was very high- and fantastic. Five morons insisting they were smarter than everyone else while trying to figure out what to do with the book since none of them could read. It's been an absolute blast.
As far as combat goes, I rejiggered the monsters to make them more challenging for an all-combat party.
I love scenarios! You set it up, the players knock it down. Less options for roleplaying because you're setting the terms, but for a group less used to rp'ing, it serves as a permission structure and a focus to help everyone get into the story.
The best part of this is that as the players open up to the idea of more RP you can tune the campaign. Don't be shocked if the party winds up spending an hour trying to figure out the best way to open a portcullis or drawbridge that has direction written next to it but no handy pictures to help them!
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This is the absolute funniest shit I've seen in years.
I run a regular game and play a regular game, and both DM and play one-shots at a time. It's my turn to DM some one-shots, and I've picked up Candlekeep, calling the unformed party the League of Librarians.
My players, bless them, have decided, just for shits and grins, to all play barbarians. It's a goddamn *fascinating* exercise in DM'ing, both from a balance perspective and a story perspective. We start on Sunday with a murder mystery and good god, I cannot WAIT!
Wizard Barbarian casts FIST!
Rogue Barbarian sneaks up behind enemy wizard...splits him in two with one shot.
Monk Barbarian tanks everything and then hits back with fists.
Cleric Barbarian slaughters enemies, then gives them last rites.
I LOVE this idea!
Interesting challenge for a DM, as they're going to steam roll most conventional fights, but have very little defence against anything more unusual.
I'd maybe propose that they do not have any duplicate races, and maybe also give them a free feat pick for the added variety. This would also give the possibility of one or two of them having at least some limited spellcasting from race or feat for a bit more out of combat utility.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Meat Party!
One cast of Hypnotic pattern will ruin the party though!
So had our first session over the weekend with a heavy dose of homebrew. Told players that the point of this game was to do more rp'ing, rather than optimization/power gaming, and it was a TON OF FUN.
The scenario involved the five barbarian players being introduced as custodial staff at Candlekeep, remnants of Candlekeep's last armed legion to disband (on account of the rise of Baldur's Gate and subsequent protection), dumb as hell, continually screwing up their jobs. The party is screamed at by their supervisor, a high-level sorcerer, and then sent to grab their carts and help Arch-Wizard Matreous in a disused part of the library. Open to a dark, disheveled library battlemap, where the party meets a single steam mephit who hisses at them. They attack it, and up pops five more - and then a black pudding and an air elemental. Tough battle but the party succeeds- only to find out they murdered the deep-cleaning crew, and interrupted Matreous' three-day ritual she was working on, having to start over. Frustrated supervisor loses it; Matreous pelts the party with books, one of which getting caught between one barbarian's glutes- which turns out to be the Candlekeep book that leads to the meat and potatoes of the Candlekeep 7 module.
All the players bought into the premise and the idiocy quotient of the rp'ing was very high- and fantastic. Five morons insisting they were smarter than everyone else while trying to figure out what to do with the book since none of them could read. It's been an absolute blast.
As far as combat goes, I rejiggered the monsters to make them more challenging for an all-combat party.
I love scenarios! You set it up, the players knock it down. Less options for roleplaying because you're setting the terms, but for a group less used to rp'ing, it serves as a permission structure and a focus to help everyone get into the story.
The best part of this is that as the players open up to the idea of more RP you can tune the campaign. Don't be shocked if the party winds up spending an hour trying to figure out the best way to open a portcullis or drawbridge that has direction written next to it but no handy pictures to help them!