One of the elements of the game I run is that the characters have "specials" they can use, much like an ultimate move that's open to storytelling in its application. The trade-off is that when they use one, I get a Dark Inspiration die to use as I see fit, for better or worse. When we stream the game, there is a way for the audience to force me to burn one of the dice.
What I'm trying to develop is a table of sorts that will help dictate how that die will be used...nothing terribly specific, as it's always contextual, but something like "an important piece of information is revealed", or "NPC immediately betrays party"...something along those lines. I'm trying to develop one table for "good" outcomes, and another for "bad".
Has anyone out there used something like this before?
Thanks!
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Voice Actor | Dungeon Master | Storyteller
DM for Team X, an official franchise of Acquisitions Incorporated. New games stream on Sundays @ 4 pm Eastern on EatDrinkRoll, podcast available on Spotify, Google Play Music, and iTunes
I haven't used anything quite that specific before ( particular Character specific special maneuvers ) - but something somewhat in the ballpark.
I had a bowl of "fate dice" on the table ( black d20s with red numbers ). Any Player could use the dice to roll with advantage, or even re-roll, any d20 roll, using these dice.
The downside was that they had to keep the dice, and the GM ( me ) had the right at any time to use that dice to impose a re-roll or a disadvantage roll, on any d20 roll, and reclaim the dice back to the pool.
The idea was to allow Characters to make heroic efforts to turn failure into success, but you can't cheat fate, and ultimately probability and fate would have to balance ( in retrospect it's not totally unlike the Paradox mechanic in Mage: The Ascension ).
That was the idea anyway :) My Players were so paranoid about when I might decide to "balance the books" and use the "fate dice" against them, than none of them would use them for advantage :)
Only semi-related, but I think that allowing the audienceto influence the flow of game is an idea that you should really think through carefully.
What is the most entertaining for the audience is not always what makes the most sense in world - and some people will try ( and possibly succeed, at least some of the time ) to use the mechanic to sabotage Players, because they can, and some people like to just watch things burn.
It could possibly lead to adversarial Players-vs-Audience situations ( which is a new one to me! ), if the mechanics are not designed to prevent that sort of thing.
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Good morning fellow DMs!
One of the elements of the game I run is that the characters have "specials" they can use, much like an ultimate move that's open to storytelling in its application. The trade-off is that when they use one, I get a Dark Inspiration die to use as I see fit, for better or worse. When we stream the game, there is a way for the audience to force me to burn one of the dice.
What I'm trying to develop is a table of sorts that will help dictate how that die will be used...nothing terribly specific, as it's always contextual, but something like "an important piece of information is revealed", or "NPC immediately betrays party"...something along those lines. I'm trying to develop one table for "good" outcomes, and another for "bad".
Has anyone out there used something like this before?
Thanks!
Voice Actor | Dungeon Master | Storyteller
DM for Team X, an official franchise of Acquisitions Incorporated. New games stream on Sundays @ 4 pm Eastern on EatDrinkRoll, podcast available on Spotify, Google Play Music, and iTunes
Example downtime activities in Xanathar's Guide to Everything looks like it would be a good starting point for this:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/xgte/downtime-revisited#ExampleDowntimeActivities
I haven't used anything quite that specific before ( particular Character specific special maneuvers ) - but something somewhat in the ballpark.
I had a bowl of "fate dice" on the table ( black d20s with red numbers ). Any Player could use the dice to roll with advantage, or even re-roll, any d20 roll, using these dice.
The downside was that they had to keep the dice, and the GM ( me ) had the right at any time to use that dice to impose a re-roll or a disadvantage roll, on any d20 roll, and reclaim the dice back to the pool.
The idea was to allow Characters to make heroic efforts to turn failure into success, but you can't cheat fate, and ultimately probability and fate would have to balance ( in retrospect it's not totally unlike the Paradox mechanic in Mage: The Ascension ).
That was the idea anyway :) My Players were so paranoid about when I might decide to "balance the books" and use the "fate dice" against them, than none of them would use them for advantage :)
Only semi-related, but I think that allowing the audience to influence the flow of game is an idea that you should really think through carefully.
What is the most entertaining for the audience is not always what makes the most sense in world - and some people will try ( and possibly succeed, at least some of the time ) to use the mechanic to sabotage Players, because they can, and some people like to just watch things burn.
It could possibly lead to adversarial Players-vs-Audience situations ( which is a new one to me! ), if the mechanics are not designed to prevent that sort of thing.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.