Quote from BoringBard >>

Anyways, what was the best piece of homebrew that worked well in your guys' games?

Of everything I've homebrewed, the thing my party loves the most is the utterly silly Rod of Cake, a rod which turns ordinary objects into cake that still looks exactly like the original object. Basically, this meme

Quote from Wysperra >>

Just because somebody doesn't post large text blocks like SirTawmis or AEDorsay or The_Summoning_Dark doesn't mean they aren't a real person.

I think I just got known for rambling.

Wysperra you already know me so well. (Shortest post from me ever?) :D

This made me laugh!

Quote from BoringBard >>

Quote from SirTawmis >>

OK - to veer away from talking about chatbots or whatever and try to keep this fun and on track...

What was the coolest moment one of your characters - or, if you're a DM, one of your players - did, that's very memorable to you?

I have so many fun memories playing D&D. The link in my signature about your party's worst mistakes leads to some of them, but long story short, running around crazily in a goblin infested cave was fun, even if it was stupid. Burning down taverns is a great idea too. Letting armed and hostile orcs into a guarded city to "chat" caused a really fun series of events to happen, and playing the first adventure in Candlekeep Mysteries twice - both times with a group of crazy murderhobos - bred for some really wacky, cool, and fun scenarios.

Heh - I have got to hear more about the Crazy Murder Hobos. Usually, Murder Hobos, unless everyone, including the DM, is cool with the idea that it's going to be sheer chaos and murder.

Quote from BoringBard >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

I mean, I *do* post a lot of long blocks of text...

Welcome to the Forum Essay Writers club lol. Jk, that's not a thing. Sorry if what I said earlier was unclear, it was addressed a now deleted comment by someone who only posted once to this thread, which they did to talk about resources for understanding the Open Game License (this thread is not supposed to be about that!).

Anyways, what was the best piece of homebrew that worked well in your guys' games?

 
my best homebrews have always been strange, lol.

I made Pennywise a demon. That was refreshing and set a tone that has held regarding demons for over 20 years.

I created a purple people eater. There is a whole thing about them, and when I say “Mites” these days in my games out come the big guns, lol.

the wand of wisps and whimsy was pretty dirty trick I pulled. Three uses casts a light spell. Fourth casts the momma wisp upset her kids are gone. After that, it literally decides on its own to do things for no reason other than it is bored. And the only way to get rid of it is to feed it another wisp.

I am more well known for stuff like the first two in my group, though. I get a seed, and then I make it into something crazy. Like Mites being purple people eaters with a really simple but effective basis whereby if they get enough to eat, they get pretty big.

the big version more closely resembles the results in a Blondie’s Rapture.

I am really keen on “going to the well” on a lot of stuff — so digging into stuff like why Slavic vampires must count rice or mustard seeds.

Quote from BoringBard >>

Anyways, what was the best piece of homebrew that worked well in your guys' games?

My favorite has to be a monster I created called a Sand Shark. Not the normal, swimming sand shark. But something inspired by Star Frontiers.

I talked about it in another thread. Will bring it here -

So in Star Frontiers they have "land sharks" - and I took the idea into my D&D world.

Except it's sharks that simply swim through sand as easily as sharks swim through water.

So they're fun to throw at the party in the desert (where they are currently). While submerged they have partial to full cover (depends if the fin isn't visible).

They do a "breach" where they can leap out of the sand and attack, and move (similar to the "fly by" ability where there is no attack of opportunity if they move away during the attack)

They do a lot of damage on top of that, should they hit. 

And they have the Sahuagin ability - anyone who isn't full HP - they have advantage to hit. (Called "Blood Frenzy")

Now keep in mind, the party who keeps running into these things, are level 9.

But take normal monsters and give them a twist. For example, trolls take extra damage from fire (which stops their healing). What if they encounter trolls, where this isn't true. But rather, it's cold damage that actual stops their healing by "slowing down" the healing process?

You can throw off experienced players with just small things like that.

A different thread suddenly reminded me of the Dream Park series of novels. I did a series of three adventures based on the Games within those. Damn, that was a long ass time ago.

Quote from BoringBard >>

Anyways, what was the best piece of homebrew that worked well in your guys' games?

I can't say 100% what the best homebrew I used in my game was, but my favorite was a category of biomechanical fiends I made called The Rusting, that had opened up a portal to their plane (a sort of clockwork-industrial-fleshy-hell) in a cathedral; in retrospect, they were probably a bit undertuned, but my players were too enamored/disturbed with my descriptions of body horror to truly notice.😁

Also, there was a certain satisfaction I had when ending the session after they defeated the boss in that area, and asking my players, "So, what did you guys think of the Wire Mother?"😝

Quote from BoringBard >>

As a side note, am I the only one who feels like a certain user - who just made a totally on-topic post - could possibly be a ChatBot?

Said really obvious bot is back in some other threads this morning, still riffing on the thread title for its "responses"

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Quote from BoringBard >>

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Heh - I have got to hear more about the Crazy Murder Hobos. Usually, Murder Hobos, unless everyone, including the DM, is cool with the idea that it's going to be sheer chaos and murder.

Both of the adventures with Murder Hobos were one-shots, so there weren't any lasting consequences from the players playing crazy characters. The way Joy of Extradimensional Spaces works is that the players quickly get trapped in a sandbox dungeon that they then have to escape. In the first group I tried this adventure with, we weren't able to get through it and couldn't find time to continue with the adventure later. That being said, the players were just robbing everything and nearly died by trying to kill every single creature they met.

The second group finished the adventure, and we had a great time. There were two characters in the party, and since the adventure was for four level 1s, I let them make 2nd level characters so that they didn't just immediately die. The troop didn't start out looking too evil, but they eventually got annoyed with how weak some of the helpful NPCs were, and so they proceeded to murder as many innocents as they could.

Apparently, my squeaky high voice for some of the kind. friendly guys was too "annoying". Perhaps I'm just an evil DM... The fact that I dream of running a False Hydra says something interesting about me.

Gosh, we nearly fell to page 3. That won't do

Question for the day: are you a note-taker as a player? How do you prefer to keep your notes: paper or plastic in a Word doc or the like? And for the DMs, how do you keep your session notes -- in a carefully organized notebook, on your tablet or laptop, or (like me) in a bewildering, chaotic mix of the two?

Question for the day: What is the character archetype you want to try, but just have not yet?

For me, one of these days I want to get around to playing a real dumb character. Not simply someone who is kind of an idiot but has enough charisma or wisdom to compensate, but your classic “muscles instead of brains, functionally illiterate” type.  Waiting for a one-shot to do that though—I find the strength-based classes generally dull and wouldn’t want to commit for a protracted campaign. 

Edit: Looks like someone else had the same “can’t let this fall to page three” idea I did!

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Gosh, we nearly fell to page 3. That won't do

Question for the day: are you a note-taker as a player? How do you prefer to keep your notes: paper or plastic in a Word doc or the like? And for the DMs, how do you keep your session notes -- in a carefully organized notebook, on your tablet or laptop, or (like me) in a bewildering, chaotic mix of the two?

 
When I first started DMing, I took a bunch of notes after session, but, over time, found I never referenced them and memory alone proved sufficient. Now, the only thing I jot down post session are NPC names I made up on the fly, since (usually stupid) names do not tend to stick with me post-session in the same way events, dialogue, and character decisions do. 

As a player, it has likewise been a long time since I took notes—but I think that is more due to not being all that emotionally invested in my recent campaigns as a player.  I’d probably jot down important people and place names, etc. if I were in a campaign I was more interested in.

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Gosh, we nearly fell to page 3. That won't do

Question for the day: are you a note-taker as a player? How do you prefer to keep your notes: paper or plastic in a Word doc or the like? And for the DMs, how do you keep your session notes -- in a carefully organized notebook, on your tablet or laptop, or (like me) in a bewildering, chaotic mix of the two?

I am bad girl: I write my notes in the margins. Though usually I have a set of 4 by 6 index cards, with one for ongoing plot points, one for character points, and one for things i need to remember, lol.  The rest is on the fly as I may do a highly detailed set up the detail is to support improvisation.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Question for the day: What is the character archetype you want to try, but just have not yet?

For me, one of these days I want to get around to playing a real dumb character. Not simply someone who is kind of an idiot but has enough charisma or wisdom to compensate, but your classic “muscles instead of brains, functionally illiterate” type.  Waiting for a one-shot to do that though—I find the strength-based classes generally dull and wouldn’t want to commit for a protracted campaign. 

Edit: Looks like someone else had the same “can’t let this fall to page three” idea I did!

I get lost in the woods here -- Class and archetype are not synonymous to me.

I want an official witch -- highway, hedge, or hearth. and not a wiccan or new age witch.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Question for the day: What is the character archetype you want to try, but just have not yet?

I don't think I've ever played a pure of heart, pious, oblivious to nuance, nauseatingly righteous, stick-up-their-ass holy warrior (paladin or cleric, either would do)

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Gosh, we nearly fell to page 3. That won't do

Question for the day: are you a note-taker as a player? How do you prefer to keep your notes: paper or plastic in a Word doc or the like? And for the DMs, how do you keep your session notes -- in a carefully organized notebook, on your tablet or laptop, or (like me) in a bewildering, chaotic mix of the two?

I've tried to take notes during sessions and it just doesn't work in my brain. I play online and if I try to take notes on what's happening I end up unable to pay enough attention to what's being said, completely ruining the point of taking notes in the first place. Luckily I'm playing via Discord servers and we have "Group Notes" channels that we all contribute to.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Question for the day: What is the character archetype you want to try, but just have not yet?

For me, one of these days I want to get around to playing a real dumb character. Not simply someone who is kind of an idiot but has enough charisma or wisdom to compensate, but your classic “muscles instead of brains, functionally illiterate” type.  Waiting for a one-shot to do that though—I find the strength-based classes generally dull and wouldn’t want to commit for a protracted campaign. 

Edit: Looks like someone else had the same “can’t let this fall to page three” idea I did!

You know, I've never played a brooding rogue with a tragic backstory. Or really anyone with a tragic backstory; my characters have had their parents alive and well. It's basically a meme but it could be fun to play with the trope sometime.

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Gosh, we nearly fell to page 3. That won't do

Question for the day: are you a note-taker as a player? How do you prefer to keep your notes: paper or plastic in a Word doc or the like? And for the DMs, how do you keep your session notes -- in a carefully organized notebook, on your tablet or laptop, or (like me) in a bewildering, chaotic mix of the two?

So - when I do my planning, it's scribbling in a notebook. Nothing is set in stone. I literally just think where the party is, flip through some of the "Monster Manual" type books, see what monsters are in that area; and then lay out a potential story for encounters, and find ways to potentially weave it into the bigger arching story.

But the actual notes (I mentioned this before) - since, the pandemic - my games have gone remote - I now record my game sessions. At the end, save the MP3. Then listen to it, and put the notes on the website I have for my game. Then send those notes to the players via the Discord channel.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

Question for the day: What is the character archetype you want to try, but just have not yet?

 

For me, I typically do the Warrior types if I am playing (for ease)... like, Rangers are my other go to. And I am currently playing a Tiefling Paladin.

But the one thing I've - in all my years (we're talking first edition D&D!) - I've never played was a Wizard. Straight up Wizard.

But.

I am in an upcoming Dragonlance game, where I am finally going to play a Wizard (White Robe, Evocation).

Let's see how it goes.

I'm a notetaker by habit in all things, so yeah, I take notes in game wherever I am at the table.

Achetypes, that's a good one.  Since I most DM/GM, I can't think of an archetype, and I think we're talking personality/role archetypes rather than subclass's based on Caerwyn's post.  Oh, maybe playing a PC's child.  I've played children in game, but to play a PC's offspring at any stage of life, whether a Popeye's Sweetpea or Arthur's Mordred, that might be interesting.

Actually I don't really know if Sweetpea's Popeye's child, I don't think it's every been made clear in the Popeye universe, and I'm not going to suffer though another Fandom interface to look it up.