Dungeon Scrawl just released into open beta https://dungeonscrawl.com/
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Isometric! What I’ve wanted all along
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i got bite marks this week. it’s a game about werewolf pack dynamics! having conversations where the pcs are emotionally vulnerable is rewarded, there’s a mechanic for the pack alpha to assert dominance and force other players to take actions they might not want to, and various interesting ideas like that.
there’s also a page in the book that suggests ways to make the players feel more like a pack, stuff like eating a meal together but no-one starts eating beore the alpha does, everyone dressing in a certain way for sessions or wearing a matching accessory, stuff like that.
it seems like the kind of semi-cultish, semi-ganglike behaviour that made american parents so scared of dnd in the 80s and wod in the 90s, but it’s actually in the game? interesting.
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uh-oh it’s my brother-in-law who loves Werewolf: The Apocalypse and cop culture and not in that order
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this week will mark a full year of takeover on my sibling and is campaign setting! someone is rolling their second round of characters. the last game got Too Real and i guess someone took a character death hard. now i have to condense a year of aimless plotting into some kind of finale or segue for another DM. this is the most succesful table ive ever ran, but i just wanna play brancalonia.
man i gotta come up with gods for a warforged paladin.
Tried this out, copying some old HeroQuest maps
tbh the hardest part of this was learning how image import & linked styles works
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Oh, this brings me back.
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Forgot to give an update on the Dark Sun campaign: I went insane, teleported the party to a lich, used my infinite power to do pretty well against it, then the lich broke my attunement to the dark lens ORB, and I died trying to re-attune to it. Campaign wipe. Was a real fun one!
We then moved back to the Eberron campaign, where my grung got resurrected using the Revived rogue subclass. We journeyed into the Mournelands in a Annihilation-inspired S.T.A.L.K.E.R. like haunted zone, and are wrapping that up tomorrow.
Next campaign is Planescape, which I’m expecting is going to involve dimension-hopping.
Character is going to be a mind flayer, created via ceremorphosis, who lost a fight to an old Gith monk. The monk, rather than killing her, true polymorphed her into a githzerai. They now are indebted to the monk for not killing them, and through gritted teeth agreed to help the gith combat the mind flayers. Since she’s severed from the elder brain, and has a weak physical body with very little psionic power, she’s terrified of any kind of physical danger.
Thinking of doing like 2 levels of Wizard for the “remnant psionic powers” angle, with all mind-related spells (i.e. Friends, Minor Illusion), then the rest some kind of monk or fighter? Drunken Master monk could be played as “she’s horribly clumsy but lucky”, which could be fun. Arcane Archer also looked like it had some fun creative potential, and it would make sense she might go ranged to stay away from harm.
Definitely more interested in creative combat options than damage output. Martial classes are hard to make anywhere near as fun as the spellcasters.
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Oh I misapprehended when you were talking about this in discord. If you’re starting with wizard and moving to physical, why not parlay your intelligence and roll arcane trickster or eldritch knight? AT has infinite shenanigan potential and EK is extremely tanky which could play into your character’s physical fear
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Just seems like the combat options available to AT or EK are so slim. Ugh, I wish martial classes were more interesting.
I did arcane trickster once and man, beyond the spells, all you can do is sneak attack.
Arcane Trickster by Level 6
Arcane Trickster:
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Sneak Attack
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Mage hand stuff
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(lvl 6) Spells: 3 cantrips, 4 spells
EK has no abilities, you can just stab and tank. Does have spells though.
Eldritch Knight by Level 6
Eldritch Knight:
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Action Surge
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(lvl 3) Can’t be disarmed
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(lvl 6) Spells: 2 cantrips, 4 spells
Drunken Master is pretty low on abilities too. Would fit the Gith theme though.
Going 2 levels into Wizard gets me my spells, but, yeah, I dunno, I don’t play Wizard much. I’d have to see if there’s spells that don’t require an actual skill check to succeed.
Drunken Master (lvl 4), Wizard (lvl 2)
Drunken Master (lvl 4)
- Flurry of Blows with Disengage action
- Dodge
- Disengage/Dash
Wizard (lvl 2)
- 3 cantrips, 3 spells
Still feeling like Arcane Archer gives me the most creative options on the martial side. If I dipp 2 into Wiz I get the fun out-of-combat spells.
Not really in-theme particularly much but, would be fun maybe.
Arcane Archer (lvl 4), Wizbiz (lvl 2)
Arcane Archer (lvl 4)
- Action Surge
- (lvl 3) Arcane Shot: 2 Uses
Banishment Arrow
Charm Arrow
Explosive Arrow
Wizard (lvl 2)
- 3 cantrips, 3 spells
My Kenku is now Ranger 5/Cleric 2/Rogue 1 and I’m honestly having a blast with this character. I’m sort of a Swiss army knife and fulfill a lot of roles (or provide backup for others).
Leading the party through the wilderness? Check. Covert surveillance? Check. Healing the main healers when they fuck up and get taken out? Check. Buffing the Tank? Check. Doling out big damage at range? Yessir! You name it, Scribble the Kenku does it.
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Had the worst game i’ve had for a while this week.
The session before the party were trying to sell an illicit substance and ended up fighting the people they were dealing with. But it turns out the criminal element were in league with the authorities in the town, so the next day we got taken in by the guard to meet the local lord. Who is now forcing us to do something dangerous for them.
I hate this trope. All my agency disappears and now it feels like nothing I do matters because probably the DM will fudge it to stop me getting killed in a task i’ve been forced to do.
To be fair, I’m not sure what the DM is supposed to do in this kind of situation, where the party messes with powerful NPCs who could destroy them. Essentially we hit a fail state, and making us do stuff is the punishment. The alternative is killing us or trying to take us into custody, taking our stuff and throwing us into gaol. I think i probably prefer that? If we end up dead or in prison i guess the game is over without more unlikely machinations.
In this partiular case it would be difficult for the DM to do anyway, as there is an overriding goal for the campaign, and living in prison for several years probably scuppers it.
Also i should say i’m in the minority in the player group, and the other players wanted to do this sub-adventure anyway, so it’s basically my problem.
The main point of this post was meant to be “What does the DM do when the players have annoyed Powerful People to the point that realistically they would kill or imprison the Player Characters?”.
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always wanted to do a jailbreak arc
Roll sleight of hand to pass a shiv to the cleric in the lunch line
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Oh I meant take your x levels of wizard and then transition into AT or EK. More spells!
I think you underestimate the “mage hand stuff.” So much opportunity for tomfoolery in and out of combat…
I guess I didn’t understand that you wanted access to “martial abilities” that weren’t themselves spells; I just thought you wanted access to more total abilities and therefore was thinking about maximizing your spells (while still retaining a physical core). Of course at a sufficient level of abstraction “martial abilities” are indistinguishable from spells, and flavorwise Arcane Archer shots are explicitly magical.
If you really want martial-flavored abilities that aren’t magical in nature, you might wanna try Battlemaster fighter instead. Most of the maneuvers still work with ranged weapons, only a couple specify melee.
Sufficiently advanced kung fu is indistinguishable from magic.
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brb developing Vancian pugilism
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Definitely misunderstood, yeah, you’re right - 3 arcane archer, 3 arcane trickster gives me everything I’m looking for: Lots of fun spells, the arcane spell-arrow shenanigans, and a pretty viable damage-dealing build that’s in-theme with the scaredy-cat psionic idea.
I’ll start with the Arc Trickster, go ranged until 3, then switch over to Arc Arc fighter levels for the remainder of the campaign.
Actually going to go with the Martial Adept instead of Sharpshooter, as insane as that might sound, because now I can trip people and distract them when I’m not using my magic arrows.
Here’s what I ended up with:
That looks funnnnn
Looks like the first thing we’re doing is Tomb of Annihilation, which… we’ll see! Dungeon-diving isn’t necessarily my favorite part of D&D, but, the puzzles can be fun.
Tomb of Annihilation was inspired by the classic adventure module Tomb of Horrors , “a lethal dungeon made by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax himself”
God, Tomb of Horrors was like… maybe my least favorite D&D thing I’ve played so far.
Gonna hope Annihilation is less tedious and more exploration-focused.
it’s not
don’t play it