Question for the day, somewhat related to yesterday's: how much do you enjoy having real-world references creep into your D&D, and in what ways?
I ask because in another thread I mentioned the homebrew magic item my party seems to love the most -- the Rod of Cake, which turns ordinary objects into delicious cake. It's a gag item based on this trend which I gave to a character on her player's birthday
A little late to the party, but honestly real-world references and both in and out of character shenanigans are why I DM. Back in my dark days of the adamantine railroad I was always mad at my players for going off script, but in the last few years I am capable enough to lead them through the story without railroads. I then realized it is not fun for me if everything goes exactly as I planned it.
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DM for life by choice, biggest fan of D&D specifically.
My table doesn’t use minis because we don’t find them necessary, don’t find it really adds anything to the game, don’t have room for a giant table for them, and don’t want to spend the money on them. Plus we find dots on a whiteboard just as useful, and generally think our imaginations provide better cinematics for us. Now, I know that doesn’t hold true for everyone out there, but it works for us.
Good question
It depends. I have a decent collection of them, but 90% of my minis and tokens were gifted to me by a cool neighbour. I personally wouldn't usually go out of my way to buy a super-detailed miniature, as they're super expensive. In fact, up until recently, I used Lego minifigures and bricks for minis.
Sometimes I run D&D via roll20, so I obviously don't use minis then. I'm considering buying some wooden meeples for generic enemies.
I'm trying to move more towards using theatre of the mind, but my players are very tactically-focused so I end up using minis/tokens anyway.
I cut my teeth on TTRPGs with no minis, so I'm quite happy playing without them
That said... the game I DM is still a mix of people playing in person and over Zoom, and there are some combats that simply work better if the group has a common visual point of reference. Trying to add a VTT to that mix would be a nightmare, so erasable maps and minis (and my camera phone joining the meeting on a small tripod McGuyvered onto a coffee tin) it is
Plus for Christmas last year I let them all design their own Heroforge minis and bought them for the group
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
so...for those of us that use tokens, even commercially available ones... what do them count as?
a big ol box of stamped plastic tokens is a great savings and still helps players visualize the context of the field. but they're not as detailed or glamorous as a mini.
For most of my games - not. This is simply because most of my games are online. That being said, I love using minis and I recently started getting into 3D printing, so I am hoping to get more in-person games going so I can make full use of it.
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I love painting minis and own two 3D printers. So yes, minis.
I DM online games, but I use a dry erase map and upload pics of position changes because I loathe making digital maps. I usually just use d6s for baddies and indicate the PCs with their initials, but for special fights, I bust out minis for baddies and important NPCs. I also gifted all my players with custom-made and painted miniatures of their characters when we finished the campaign.
As for map v. TOTM, I am too disorganized a DM to go sans map. If I can see where people are, I remember things better. That, and my players and I like to be very strategic with movement, so they prefer visual aids to imagination.
Played TotM in 1 and 2e, switched to minis in 3e, which kind of needed them -- or maybe wanted them more than needed them -- and I've not switched back. I like seeing the battlefield and making the tactical choices during fights, and minis lend themselves more to that playstyle. Plus, I am blessed with a DM who has an epic collection of Dwarven Forge, and enjoys painting them, so it just looks really, really cool.
I don't play any of the published material campaigns -- been playing way too long since that Ranger died on a kitchen table in 1979. (snow, uphill, both ways, yada yada)
I am strictly homebrew -- but I have no problem taking cool ideas and playing with them. I am doing playtesting of 6e, and I am developing out and playtesting a new setting that is very different and based in part on the settings of the last four decades I created.
I run about three different groups, overall, with one of them every two weeks and the others one week a month, doing a really basic set up that involves a town and the dungeons around it.
All of this is really just biding time while I finish out this year working on the new setting, which is almost a complete and fresh deal. 20 classes, redid races, blah blah -- goal was absolutely no influence from the original influences and inspirations for AD&D (1e). Both I and the players wanted something that takes cues from a different kind of stuff -- basically the rule is nothing from between 1920 and 1980. In practice, it is nothing between 1910 and 1990. No Tolkien, no Moorcock, no Howard, no Burroughs.
Full campaign, through level 20. That guidebook stuff? Mine is presently about 300 pages, with the player's handbook coming in about the same size, and we use magic points so that means a book for magic of 230 right now, and then some big differences in monsters so that's coming in at around 500 pages because of the format (200 monsters).
been four years so far, this will make five, with start date for the new campaign (and two groups of 9 players each) being January 6th 2024. They all know the inspiration for the first adventure at first level: Stephen King's IT. And that game wise, Pennywise is a Demon.
among the things I have had to work in are magical girls, gunslingers (based on both Stephen King's Gunslinger and Charlaine harris' Gunnie Rose series'), witches (highway, hedge, and hearth), and now I am being faced with the challenges of "since we got you to put in the machines from Horizon Zero Dawn, can we get you to do robot girls based on the warforged?".
between the books and the anime, the spell point system was pretty intense a change, and even that needed some changes to meet the basic needs -- including a more developed elemental spell set up. Not gonna lie -- I am on the forums for the first time as a way to avoid writing on it, lol.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Question for the day, somewhat related to yesterday's: how much do you enjoy having real-world references creep into your D&D, and in what ways?
I ask because in another thread I mentioned the homebrew magic item my party seems to love the most -- the Rod of Cake, which turns ordinary objects into delicious cake. It's a gag item based on this trend which I gave to a character on her player's birthday
I am not sure that I can avoid references like that.
8 or so of my players I've known for 40 plus years, and they brought their own folks in, so we have not only real world references from them, but I am famous for using popular films and tv shows as storylines, and come on, who wouldn't gasp at a chance to have a bad guy monologue using some famous speech?
My new Goblins include a straight call back to both the LOTR films and mix it with the last Mad Max film -- Fresh meat and Witness me. And I cannot count the number of references to marvel films or films I know most have seen on like Netflix.
the hardest part is that I have to save a lot of them for next year.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
My table doesn’t use minis because we don’t find them necessary, don’t find it really adds anything to the game, don’t have room for a giant table for them, and don’t want to spend the money on them. Plus we find dots on a whiteboard just as useful, and generally think our imaginations provide better cinematics for us. Now, I know that doesn’t hold true for everyone out there, but it works for us.
I play virtually these days, so minis are a no. And we are using either teams or Zoom, so it can be a bit of a challenge. But I have been known to grab my tiny collection and lay them out on a large piece of paper that has one iPad pointing out it on a tripod and done it that way before. So...
not really, but if it gets pretty hectic?
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I use minis for combat, and sometimes for exploration and role play, but often I set up a scene on the board and then forget about it. For example, I might start to prepare minis for a forest combat and then realize my battle map is still on the village from two hours of NPC interaction and wilderness navigation ago.
We use minis. They may not always be the exact right minis (i.e., if it's a huge sized monster and we don't have that mini, we'll use whatever huge sized mini we have on hand). But I've found them invaluable for combat; it certainly helps reduce disagreements or misunderstandings, and it's great knowing exactly where everyone is in relation to everyone else.
I NEVER used minis for 1E and honestly, at this point, I can't imagine playing purely theater of the mind. Minis are a must at this point.
My table doesn’t use minis because we don’t find them necessary, don’t find it really adds anything to the game, don’t have room for a giant table for them, and don’t want to spend the money on them. Plus we find dots on a whiteboard just as useful, and generally think our imaginations provide better cinematics for us. Now, I know that doesn’t hold true for everyone out there, but it works for us.
We use a mix of minis and tokens. I've got a mess of Pathfinder Pawns that I can use if I ever end up running a game. We're all very tactically focused, and we use things like flanking rules, so being able to look and see where things are relative to one another is essential. Also, toys are fun.
Okay, somewhat related to yesterday’s question, online games or in person games and why?
In-person games, hands-down. Nothing can compare to sitting around a table with a bunch of nerds, rolling dice and telling stories together.
That being said, most of my games are played online for convenience. I prefer using physical books and dice so I usually do that, while everyone else uses digital sheets.
I find that playing in-person not only ensures people are actually paying attention to the game, but also makes combat easier to run.
Okay, somewhat related to yesterday’s question, online games or in person games and why?
If I had to choose betwixt the two, I’ll always pick in person. There’s something about gathering around a table with friends and family, rolling some dice, and sharing in the simple joy of delving some dungeons and slaying some dragons together.
That said, awful as these last couple of years have been globally, the rise of remote games has been a nice silver lining. Zoom and Discord have opened up a whole new way of playing D&D, allowing friends to gather around a table virtually, even if separated by hundreds of miles. It might not be the same tactile experience and will lack a number of important social elements like the sharing of food and drink, but I’ll take a good online game over no D&D any day.
Okay, somewhat related to yesterday’s question, online games or in person games and why?
Given a choice, in person, every time. But I like to host things, and make food and give out little things, lol.
Mostly online right now, but prepping for a short series of in person with a particular cre -- and of course the yearly 20 hour game in October. That is always in person.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Right now I'm online, mainly because my players are geographically split though we have been talking about having a meetup where we can finally play together in the same place. Speaking as a DM, there's something special about watching your entire table go quiet and start listening intently as you start setting the scene for the session.
A little late to the party, but honestly real-world references and both in and out of character shenanigans are why I DM. Back in my dark days of the adamantine railroad I was always mad at my players for going off script, but in the last few years I am capable enough to lead them through the story without railroads. I then realized it is not fun for me if everything goes exactly as I planned it.
DM for life by choice, biggest fan of D&D specifically.
Good question
It depends. I have a decent collection of them, but 90% of my minis and tokens were gifted to me by a cool neighbour. I personally wouldn't usually go out of my way to buy a super-detailed miniature, as they're super expensive. In fact, up until recently, I used Lego minifigures and bricks for minis.
Sometimes I run D&D via roll20, so I obviously don't use minis then. I'm considering buying some wooden meeples for generic enemies.
I'm trying to move more towards using theatre of the mind, but my players are very tactically-focused so I end up using minis/tokens anyway.
[REDACTED]
I cut my teeth on TTRPGs with no minis, so I'm quite happy playing without them
That said... the game I DM is still a mix of people playing in person and over Zoom, and there are some combats that simply work better if the group has a common visual point of reference. Trying to add a VTT to that mix would be a nightmare, so erasable maps and minis (and my camera phone joining the meeting on a small tripod McGuyvered onto a coffee tin) it is
Plus for Christmas last year I let them all design their own Heroforge minis and bought them for the group
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
so...for those of us that use tokens, even commercially available ones... what do them count as?
a big ol box of stamped plastic tokens is a great savings and still helps players visualize the context of the field. but they're not as detailed or glamorous as a mini.
For most of my games - not. This is simply because most of my games are online. That being said, I love using minis and I recently started getting into 3D printing, so I am hoping to get more in-person games going so I can make full use of it.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I love painting minis and own two 3D printers. So yes, minis.
I DM online games, but I use a dry erase map and upload pics of position changes because I loathe making digital maps. I usually just use d6s for baddies and indicate the PCs with their initials, but for special fights, I bust out minis for baddies and important NPCs. I also gifted all my players with custom-made and painted miniatures of their characters when we finished the campaign.
As for map v. TOTM, I am too disorganized a DM to go sans map. If I can see where people are, I remember things better. That, and my players and I like to be very strategic with movement, so they prefer visual aids to imagination.
Played TotM in 1 and 2e, switched to minis in 3e, which kind of needed them -- or maybe wanted them more than needed them -- and I've not switched back. I like seeing the battlefield and making the tactical choices during fights, and minis lend themselves more to that playstyle. Plus, I am blessed with a DM who has an epic collection of Dwarven Forge, and enjoys painting them, so it just looks really, really cool.
I don't play any of the published material campaigns -- been playing way too long since that Ranger died on a kitchen table in 1979. (snow, uphill, both ways, yada yada)
I am strictly homebrew -- but I have no problem taking cool ideas and playing with them. I am doing playtesting of 6e, and I am developing out and playtesting a new setting that is very different and based in part on the settings of the last four decades I created.
I run about three different groups, overall, with one of them every two weeks and the others one week a month, doing a really basic set up that involves a town and the dungeons around it.
All of this is really just biding time while I finish out this year working on the new setting, which is almost a complete and fresh deal. 20 classes, redid races, blah blah -- goal was absolutely no influence from the original influences and inspirations for AD&D (1e). Both I and the players wanted something that takes cues from a different kind of stuff -- basically the rule is nothing from between 1920 and 1980. In practice, it is nothing between 1910 and 1990. No Tolkien, no Moorcock, no Howard, no Burroughs.
Full campaign, through level 20. That guidebook stuff? Mine is presently about 300 pages, with the player's handbook coming in about the same size, and we use magic points so that means a book for magic of 230 right now, and then some big differences in monsters so that's coming in at around 500 pages because of the format (200 monsters).
been four years so far, this will make five, with start date for the new campaign (and two groups of 9 players each) being January 6th 2024. They all know the inspiration for the first adventure at first level: Stephen King's IT. And that game wise, Pennywise is a Demon.
among the things I have had to work in are magical girls, gunslingers (based on both Stephen King's Gunslinger and Charlaine harris' Gunnie Rose series'), witches (highway, hedge, and hearth), and now I am being faced with the challenges of "since we got you to put in the machines from Horizon Zero Dawn, can we get you to do robot girls based on the warforged?".
between the books and the anime, the spell point system was pretty intense a change, and even that needed some changes to meet the basic needs -- including a more developed elemental spell set up. Not gonna lie -- I am on the forums for the first time as a way to avoid writing on it, lol.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I am not sure that I can avoid references like that.
8 or so of my players I've known for 40 plus years, and they brought their own folks in, so we have not only real world references from them, but I am famous for using popular films and tv shows as storylines, and come on, who wouldn't gasp at a chance to have a bad guy monologue using some famous speech?
My new Goblins include a straight call back to both the LOTR films and mix it with the last Mad Max film -- Fresh meat and Witness me. And I cannot count the number of references to marvel films or films I know most have seen on like Netflix.
the hardest part is that I have to save a lot of them for next year.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I play virtually these days, so minis are a no. And we are using either teams or Zoom, so it can be a bit of a challenge. But I have been known to grab my tiny collection and lay them out on a large piece of paper that has one iPad pointing out it on a tripod and done it that way before. So...
not really, but if it gets pretty hectic?
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
My group uses minis. They help us visualize the battle, and they are fun to touch and move around, like rolling dice.
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I use minis for combat, and sometimes for exploration and role play, but often I set up a scene on the board and then forget about it. For example, I might start to prepare minis for a forest combat and then realize my battle map is still on the village from two hours of NPC interaction and wilderness navigation ago.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
We use minis. They may not always be the exact right minis (i.e., if it's a huge sized monster and we don't have that mini, we'll use whatever huge sized mini we have on hand). But I've found them invaluable for combat; it certainly helps reduce disagreements or misunderstandings, and it's great knowing exactly where everyone is in relation to everyone else.
I NEVER used minis for 1E and honestly, at this point, I can't imagine playing purely theater of the mind. Minis are a must at this point.
We use a mix of minis and tokens. I've got a mess of Pathfinder Pawns that I can use if I ever end up running a game. We're all very tactically focused, and we use things like flanking rules, so being able to look and see where things are relative to one another is essential. Also, toys are fun.
Okay, somewhat related to yesterday’s question, online games or in person games and why?
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In-person games, hands-down. Nothing can compare to sitting around a table with a bunch of nerds, rolling dice and telling stories together.
That being said, most of my games are played online for convenience. I prefer using physical books and dice so I usually do that, while everyone else uses digital sheets.
I find that playing in-person not only ensures people are actually paying attention to the game, but also makes combat easier to run.
[REDACTED]
If I had to choose betwixt the two, I’ll always pick in person. There’s something about gathering around a table with friends and family, rolling some dice, and sharing in the simple joy of delving some dungeons and slaying some dragons together.
That said, awful as these last couple of years have been globally, the rise of remote games has been a nice silver lining. Zoom and Discord have opened up a whole new way of playing D&D, allowing friends to gather around a table virtually, even if separated by hundreds of miles. It might not be the same tactile experience and will lack a number of important social elements like the sharing of food and drink, but I’ll take a good online game over no D&D any day.
Given a choice, in person, every time. But I like to host things, and make food and give out little things, lol.
Mostly online right now, but prepping for a short series of in person with a particular cre -- and of course the yearly 20 hour game in October. That is always in person.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Yeah, what all those folks said.
Right now I'm online, mainly because my players are geographically split though we have been talking about having a meetup where we can finally play together in the same place. Speaking as a DM, there's something special about watching your entire table go quiet and start listening intently as you start setting the scene for the session.