Quote from MidnightPlat >>

 

Question: Physical dice rolls.  Do you prefer they be contained within something like a tray or tower, or do you encourage the "Stranger Things" style "shooting" of a d20 like it's a game of craps, or somewhere along a spectrum between those two poles?  (Waiting for someone to say they insist roles take place between two poles).

On the rare, weekend long session when we all gather together over the two six foot long folding tables with bedrolls, blankets, and pillows scattered around my cramped house and breakfasts every morning, we usually just set out a placemat about 12 inches in front of each player and that's for their rolls. I have a screen, so I don't get the extra space, but I do have two side trays for papers, sooo...

Next one of those is not until July right now.We are expecting it to be a shakedown cruise of the new rules -- six months early.

Some of my players have the little folding dice tray, I have a special felt lined wooden one that I put in front of the screen for "those rolls". 

Online, I have six players that use dice towers, and the rest just use the space in front of them or those dice trays.  One player has a dice cup (it is his fifth in four decades) that he shakes and sets down, then lifts the cup up to see the roll. Never seen him do anything other than that, lol. It is also how he stores his dice, so the dark secret is that every time he rolls he rolls all his dice, lol. he is the lone "non-goblin" among us long term players -- the rest of us buy dice once in a while if they catch our fancy.

I am going to try out both a dice cup and and one of those small folding dice trays that snap together at a playtest session next weekend.

Tonight was kinda rough. Sorry, I need to get it out.

So, sadly, we have reached the end of the current campaign.  There are about two sessions left, and they are currently crossovers now (I have different chunks of the player group each week).

average level right now is 18. The lich lord that runs the dungeon is dead in all of the groups, and now it is fall out from the lifeblood of the small villages and towns being knocked out. (side note, the "mist at the end of the world" that appeared about three months ago is starting to break up and fade, and one group found out that the end of the world is no longer the end of the world).

A group of gnolls and wolfmen broke out of the dungeon and wiped out a village. The druid found a piglet a while back. Has been caring for and taking along this piglet everywhere, including the dungeon. Is a pretty good size now. But last week, she and the piglet became the only survivors of her group, and she has gone off in search of one of the other groups -- turns out the piglet is a prophesied critter that an Arch-devil wants. 

The battle tonight was three hours in game time. All to protect a pig. It should have been doable, but like I said it is the end, and everyone is going out in blazes of glory. Tonight we lost the entire party. again. Only there were no survivors. The Druid sacrificed herself by direct assault on the archfiend, and her last words words were "save the pig". The party had been pushed back beyond the mist wall and found themselves as a massive cliff, on a promontory that overhands. The second party wizard ran in to save his sister when she was overwhelmed, and decided to cast earthquake, which meant that he needs enough actions to do so -- was three rounds, since he was moving at the same time. So the cleric hopped in and starting protecting him, and she went down under a hail of fire arrows that burned with infernal fire, a weakness of hers.

The spell went off, and the entire promontory collapsed into the waters below, taking and killing the almost all of the party.

The Pig survived. As did a Sorcerer. And she was able to Banish the archfiend, but one of his minions still managed to get her in the end. As she died, the last og the party groups hae arrived, and now they stand before a horde of 200 fiends with a Pig with a broken leg to protect.

This party's druid is the one that found out about the prophecy, and is determined to save the pig, for if they save the pig, they bring about a better world.

The rest of the parties are a little freaked out -- they expected to go to their afterlives, but instead are in a Liminal Space, and some dude named Erishu is talking to them about it. They will be reborn. New lives, but there is no telling if they will remember what and who they were before.

Only it all comes down to the last of the three players, and Erishu is letting them be shades for the final showdown.

It has been a really wild trip, as the fiend has destroyed a lot of the countryside like a natural disaster, and the world that for so long ended abruptly now goes on beyond to a new horizon.

I haven't cried at the ending of a session in years, but I couldn't help it. The kids (used loosely, these are late 20's/early 30's) really went all in on the "noble sacrifice" the groups decided on as the end game. The final group is two folks over 55, 2 40's, and three under 20. One Wizard, no clerics, a Paladin and a Druid, and Fighters.

We have played these characters for three and four years.

It is a hard goodbye.

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

 

Question: Physical dice rolls.  Do you prefer they be contained within something like a tray or tower, or do you encourage the "Stranger Things" style "shooting" of a d20 like it's a game of craps, or somewhere along a spectrum between those two poles?  (Waiting for someone to say they insist roles take place between two poles).

I roll dice when I vote at the polls... (I kid, I kid, was making a joke about the "two poles")....

Ahem. As for me - for a DM, I prefer a container of some kind. It's way too often that the dice falls off the table, or gets caught on some ledge or book and it's not clear what it landed on. I don't care how big the container is - but something with "walls" - so the dice don't go spiraling off. This also helps keep the game moving, rather than someone rolling a dice all the way across the table and waiting to see what they rolled. Contained areas make it quick.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

A group of gnolls and wolfmen broke out of the dungeon and wiped out a village. The druid found a piglet a while back. Has been caring for and taking along this piglet everywhere, including the dungeon. Is a pretty good size now. But last week, she and the piglet became the only survivors of her group, and she has gone off in search of one of the other groups -- turns out the piglet is a prophesied critter that an Arch-devil wants. 

 

Hold on. A piglet that's wanted by the big bad? Are you purposely using some influence from The Black Cauldron? (Linky to my Youtube channel playing the game, by Sierra On-Line that was made for Disney, way back in the day, when Disney made the original animated movie based on the book) - where the story is literally about the Horned King (the big bad!) who needs the piglet (Hen-Wen) to complete his dark, evil spell.

I usually use a dice tray.

If not I roll on the battlemat if it padded.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Hold on. A piglet that's wanted by the big bad? Are you purposely using some influence from The Black Cauldron? (Linky to my Youtube channel playing the game, by Sierra On-Line that was made for Disney, way back in the day, when Disney made the original animated movie based on the book) - where the story is literally about the Horned King (the big bad!) who needs the piglet (Hen-Wen) to complete his dark, evil spell.

  The Disney thing was an absolute travesty. I Black Cauldron was a pretty dark story and Gurgi was NOT some cute creature.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from SirTawmis >>

 

Hold on. A piglet that's wanted by the big bad? Are you purposely using some influence from The Black Cauldron? (Linky to my Youtube channel playing the game, by Sierra On-Line that was made for Disney, way back in the day, when Disney made the original animated movie based on the book) - where the story is literally about the Horned King (the big bad!) who needs the piglet (Hen-Wen) to complete his dark, evil spell.

  The Disney thing was an absolute travesty. I Black Cauldron was a pretty dark story and Gurgi was NOT some cute creature.

Read The Chronicles of Prydain series as well, I assume?

In the same channel (aforementioned/linked) - when I made a video to discuss which game I was gonna play, near the end of the video I show the series of books.

I remember enjoying the cartoon when it first came out because I hadn't read the books yet, because it'd come out in 1985 and I was knee deep in The Dragonlance Chronicles. But after seeing the movie and discovering it was based off a book - I went and purchased the books back then, and read them in proper order (The Black Cauldron being the second in the series). I still enjoyed the Disney movie after the book - but they clearly cut and spliced and changed things around. But, that's been true of every book to movie. Whether animated or not.

While I did not use the Cauldron, i did use the gaelic tale that lies beneath, lol. It was a "trigger story" -- i this case, it was triggered by the death of the Lich that created and had been maintaining the dungeon -- and *that* was drawn from the Cabin in the Woods film and the sacrifice of innocents on their own terms; the Lich's bargain and the dungeon kept feeding souls to the Archfiend.

and to really drive just how wide ranging things can go, the name of the pig is Wilbur, and he is some pig.

If they save the pig, the "edge of the sea" becomes the riverside of a mile wide river as the old setting's detritus settles into a space in the new world, lol.

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

 

Question: Physical dice rolls.  Do you prefer they be contained within something like a tray or tower, or do you encourage the "Stranger Things" style "shooting" of a d20 like it's a game of craps, or somewhere along a spectrum between those two poles?  (Waiting for someone to say they insist roles take place between two poles).

 I built my own dice tray specifically to increase the clicky-clackiness of my shiny math rocks. A table just doesn't make my dice goblin heart jump for joy quite like a wooden dice tray does.

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

Two years ago (almost to the day), we were in the middle of a nasty combat in Rime of the Frostmaiden. Surrounded, stuck underground, outnumbered 3-to-1, low on spells and resources - just awful. So my fellow players and I are freaking out (me more than anyone), and the DM asks what we want. I quip, "That monster to die instantly and all of us to be back at full health."

The next turn in combat, a giant spectral tree bursts into existence. Its roots spear the monster dead instantly, and from its boughs comes a soft rain that restores all of our hit points. DM turns to me and says, "Happy birthday." Best gift from a DM ever.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

 I have this druid who found an egg with legs. It is a large egg that has not fully hatched, only the legs are out so it can walk around. I have no idea what it is yet, but I can't wait for it to hatch.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

I once ran a character that didn't like his party members very much, He was always camping away from them, moving behind them, going ahead of them. Never left them, always had them in sight, but the behavior freaked everyone out, and eventually they stopped trusting him. In an "open dungeon" (terrain stuff) one time he found a trap. He marked it, called back that there was a trap there, moved around it.

The party didn't believe him, and when they triggered it and the entire party was caught up in a huge net, they blamed him and even said he set the trap.

Before he could free them, he was set upon by the kobolds that had set the trap. Not many. Only a measly 20 of them. He was a 7th level Thief. Should have handled them easily. This was, however, 1e era. So squishy. The cleric multi wasn't all that useful back then for armor because it clanked.

Through a combination of lucky as hell rolls on my part (and I am sure some fudging on the GMs)  I survived the attack in part because the kobolds were distracted by the yelling, trapped party. 

The gift was a tiny carved house that allowed me to carry a home that existed in a pocket dimension, so I couldn't be disturbed, and that weighed as much as a house when I was in it, so it couldn't be lifted and moved about. So the party that didn't trust me and that I didn't like very much eventually realized that "not very much" did not mean "at all", and that I did care about them, they were just really annoying. Eventually I let them all into my house and we stopped having to worry about random encounters at night in the wild.

I should mention that that character was killed by a Storm Giant about ten sessions later when he tried to save a paladin from being smushed. Instead, two smushed.

This is also why I generally don't play. I actually role play hard, always slightly off, and I absolutely suck at puzzles. Very much a "that is a door" type. Even when the mimic tries to eat me.

My first 5e DM picked me as his successor when he had to step down as DM. He gave me the confidence (and the adventure module!) to give it a shot, and I've had a lot of fun in the DM role since. I've also followed his example and offered to let other people run as well. At this point there's just 2 players in the group who haven't DMed with us yet. Thanks Ian!

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

 

I once ran a character

Ya learn something new every day.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

I am typically the GM in most games. In my Out of the Abyss and Curse of Strahd where I was a player - but characters ended up with Dawnbringer.

I was in another game (same GM from Curse of Strahd) where we got no magic items (was just a quick session). That GM also ran us through Phandalen - and I don't recall anything that stood out.

Way back when, one of my games when I first started playing D&D (1st edition) - my friend at the time, Tim - his brother John was a few years older and DM'ed for Tim and I. I made a Dwarf (Fighter) who worshipped Thor (because I was into the Thor comic by Marvel way back when) - and so I got - I want to say it was a Lucerne hammer - and the top was detatchable - and could be thrown and would return (like Thor's hammer from the comic). I think that's really the one thing that's stuck out.

Me, on the other hand, I dish out homebrew special items like I have a clearance sale going on.

Quote from Quar1on >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

Question of the day: What was the greatest or most appreciated "gift" a GM ever gave you?

 

I once ran a character

Ya learn something new every day.

It only took six months to get me to agree. So I guess I wanted to?

Question: Is there any Table Top RPG you play (other than D&D... and maybe Pathfinder, since it's very similar)? If so, which one? If not, is there one that interests you? If you are playing a different one, what is the appeal? If you're not playing another one but interested, what is the appeal?

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Question: Is there any Table Top RPG you play (other than D&D... and maybe Pathfinder, since it's very similar)? If so, which one? If not, is there one that interests you? If you are playing a different one, what is the appeal? If you're not playing another one but interested, what is the appeal?

Right now, nothing. On occasion for something wacky, we will do a Paranoia one shot using the original ruleset.

I want to do a Paranormal Urban Fantasy game.  That is, today, except with mythicals and such. Something based on the Hollows, Jane Yellowrock, Soulwood, that kind of thing. I hear that Dresden Files is ok, but looking at it I don't like the mechanics.  Not much else out there. Folks be throwing shit like Vampire and shadowrun and stuff at me and that just tells me they don't get the genre.

Odds are about 35% right now I will just make one myself once I finish Wyrlde, lol. I read a lot of it because it was the suggested source material, but I didn't use the setting style stuff, just ideas from them.

So a setting style like that would be fun for me. And by the time I finish the setting, I will pretty much have the rules for it like 80% done because I can just port some the Wyrlde systems over. The big challenge is The City -- mapping that out will be a complete nightmare.

Anything else I could do much the same -- I am a setting based sort, not a system based one. And Sorta big on action-adventure.

Quote from ChoirOfFire >>

My first 5e DM picked me as his successor when he had to step down as DM. He gave me the confidence (and the adventure module!) to give it a shot, and I've had a lot of fun in the DM role since. I've also followed his example and offered to let other people run as well. At this point there's just 2 players in the group who haven't DMed with us yet. Thanks Ian!

 This is awesome. Supportive DMs are absolutely gifts to new DMs. Way to go, Ian and all the other DMs who have inspired and encouraged us!

A related question for the thread: Do any of your groups do rotating DMs - whether in the same campaign, switching off for new campaigns, or for occasional one-shots to give the usual DM a break?

I had periodic respite one-shots with my last group to help me cope with bouts of burnout, and anyone who wanted to DM something could step up and do so. For my new campaign, I'm thinking of having a regularly scheduled respite one-shot every quarter, with an expectation that each player in the group will run one. All of us are DMs or have DMed in the past, so I expect the motion will carry pretty easily when I bring it up in session zero.

I love when players DM, especially if they've never done it before. Not only do some of them get the bug and join the dark side (as well as appreciate what nonsense they put me through, lol), I adore seeing their creativity play out on the other side of the DM screen. 

Idk if this counts, but I've been playing Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion with some friends every few weeks. It's very cleverly designed. Idk how they did it but it seems like every single mission is the closest close call you've ever seen, where if we win, it's always by the slimmest margin imaginable.

I want to play Dying Earth, because its rules revolve around your characters being mean and having this constant push-pull of trying to get one over on each other and NPCs. There's barely anything for fighting but there's a lot for like, making someone want to fight you so bad that they forget to use the full title of the local lord and get themselves arrested for libel.

I also wouldn't mind playing Lancer, because the robots are cool and if you die there's a good chance your parent company made a clone of you for backup. I'm skeptical whether the mecha space opera genre is as ripe for tabletop roleplaying as the fantasy adventure genre is, but I wanna find out.