ohfuckamimic

[ohfuckamimic]

Newsflash

I've relocated my D&D blog to a new one. Go to @ask-the-dm

[ohfuckamimic]

Conciousness and Patterns P.t 2 (and a little bit about immersion)

For the next part of this discussion I’ll be telling you the use of giving your creatures and mobs a sense of conscious and how it enhances the immersion and combat of an enemy encounter. For creatures this is different though. These are more or less mindless beings that just have the intent to hunt and kill. Their motives differ and their abilities make the combat a fun experience. But after the third werewolf you might want some diversity in your werewolves. And not only in Hp and abilities. This is where giving your creatures a different personality and different behaviour plays in. Now when I say “give it personality” I don’t immediately give them feelings and a sense of existence. This can be as easy as changing its gender, a male creature might act completely different then its female counterpart. This can also be useful in sessions. Maybe your crew is on a quest solving the missing person problem at a small village near the edge of a forest. They soon find out that they are dealing with rogue hellhound that has settled in the forest. Picking of strangers to feed on. However his movement is erratic for a hellhound standard he shouldn’t be eating so much people and it’s starting to get out of hand. The players investigate and found out that the creature has a lair in a cave on a small hill. They follow it and find a hellhound. They see that it’s wounded and that it’s female. Turns out she had just given birth to a small group of hellhounds. She ‘s doing anything to feed the hungry pups. If the players engage the beast the fight is pretty much the same as all the other hellhounds they fought. But this time the creature tries to protect its offspring at all cost this makes the fight more interesting they can try and kill the mother head on, or they can kill the offspring first. Each will have a different outcome if the creature is wounded or dead. If it’s offspring is alive it’ll try to flee the battle with it when she gets too wounded. On the other hand if you kill the pups then you find yourself in battle with an enraged mother hellhound.  For that you could add  D4 damage or something that gives it an edge. This immediately gives a choice to the players and also plays into combat.

So as we can see this makes the encounters of a species a little bit more interesting. It’s not much but it’s the detail that immerse players into your world. And that’s what I personally think is the most important in a session. Giving the feeling of a living and breathing completely different world is what makes tabletop roleplaying games so unique. But I’m drifting of.

Now for creature patterns. You might confuse this with consciousness but patterns are more like embedded routines and behaviour. It’s less irratic and more consequent then using consciousness to spice up creatures. For example having a creature that lives at night. Let’s improvise one. I’ll go with blacklings, hulking creatures of the night with sharp claws to climb trees and with enhanced nightvision.  This creature has its stats and buffs and abilities and some cool lore. But what does it do during the day? Where does it sleep, how doest hunt, what does it eat are all pattern related things that could make the encounter more interesting. So for example the creatures need to hunt a blackling down. But they don’t have the slightest clue where it lives or what it does. This makes that they’ll have to hunt the creature down rather then just making a walk through the woods and making perception checks. The player could visit a library to read more about blacklings or maybe the player can ask a druid for help. It immerses the player and gives a real feeling of hunter vs prey. This makes the players think more out of the box it’s not all about doing the right moves during a encounter it’s about actually thinking as if you are really there.  Your actions have consequences and that gives a certain level of difficulty to the game. And I think this is what some more experienced players really want. But it’s not that there is an elite I think each player is the same but living in another world makes your view of that world different and the more you play the better you’ll understand that world. And that’s what gives a player experience. Not the amount of sessions you’ve played but your enthousiasm to submerge yourself into another world and the effort you put in trying to understand that world.

Also I’ve been getting a little feedback to my posts and I realise this is turning into a worldbuilding blog rather then a roleplaying game blog. However I will keep doing it like this because I use worldbuilding in function of enhancing my Dungeonworld  sessions and give my world more realism and structure. But of course I also want to thank the readers for the critique and positive replies. All of them really help me find what the players like and dislike. So big thanks to you.

[ohfuckamimic]

Sentience and patterns Pt.1

(i’m halfway into this and it’s becoming a long read so i’ll be cutting it into two parts)

for this subject i’ll be talking about creating depth in your npc’s and enemies by giving them concsciousness. this is a very broad term so i’ll be narrowing it down into two parts: the humanoids and the creatures. But first i want to clear up as to why i think it’s important that you apply these things to your non-playables. Giving your npc’s a sence of awareness and their own thoughts makes for better dialogue, combat and immersion. why?

Let’s start with an example. a simple militia guard from a local fishervillage near the sea. Let’s call him Ted. now Ted is a simple guy he has a wife and 3 children. He does the night shifts around the docks and is in general known as descent guy. He does spend some long nights in the tavern from time to time indulging in the simple pleasures of life. now the players encounter Ted when they are on a quest about solving an illegal slavetrade at the docks. Now Ted is an honest and kind guy so when the players talk to him they immediately sense a feeling of simplicity and kindness. These give the players the idea that he’s honest. Now as the quest progresses they find out that the guards at the docks made a deal with the underground thief guild. The players now distrust all the guards they talked to. and Ted being the kindest of them becomes the most distrusted guard of the bunch. The players chose to shadow him. But first they ask when and where he is during the nightshift. 

it’s becoming clear that the life he leads now ties into the game in a deeper way. He isn’t just a guard he lives a life and has his own thoughts and goals. The players are now getting interested in his life. Not because of his personality but because he is becoming important because of the quest. He has habits and can be found at other places at certain times of the day. This makes shadowing someone more fun and they also start to learn his pattern. And this shows that he’s also not a mindless AI controlled thing the players can either talk or fight with. this means the players can also pass better judgement as to how he’s involved. Is he forced against his will to keep silent? Or is he the mastermind behind all the slaves being traded at the docks. now for the next part i’ll have to narrate the rest of the quest as an example:

So the party follows Ted for a day without getting noticed. the party follows him from home. he kisses his wife goodbye grabs his spear and heads to the harbor. He immediately starts smalltalking with other guards. he starts his shift and the players shadow him into an alley. They ambush him because they knew the alley is a dead end. One of the players intimidates Ted and his forced to tell them everything. He admits to being part of the conspiracy but only because there was good money in it for him. All he had to do was not patrol the western docks. The players let him go out of good will asking him to not be part of it any longer. the next day they venture to the western docks looking for illegal activity. they follow a few shady figures to a warehouse. The players choose to ambush them and expose them to the guards who were not involved. They clear out the warehouse in a small battle. Just as the dust has settled the corrupt guards walk in. They Demand they should leave or die. behind them is a heavily beaten up Ted holding his spear. his face is bashed in red and blue and looks like he was put straight by the rest of his Guard friends. The players heroically refuse and the battle starts. the players fight through it and a doubtful Ted is chosing which side to pick. One of the players yells about that he has to be a good man. For his wife and children. but allas the charisma roll fails and Ted can’t be pursuaded so it’s time to battle.

Here we see how Ted has become a key npc in this questline. but it was not intended. They made him important because they had to look past his spear and armor and see a normal human being for the furthering of their quest. now this part has filled the “immersion” and “dialogue” aspect of giving consciousness to all your npc’s. now the last part will involve combat. 

So Ted is being cornered by the players the chance of him surviving is small. He attacks and gets hit and starts to get wounded. At this point a human being with a wife and child who is nearing death does the only smart thing it can do. Survive. So instead of battling to the death Ted tries to run away. The players fail to stop him and he disappears at a local market. thus ends the quest. the thiefguild gets caught and the corrupt guards go on a trial for misconduct. the players now had a quest where they had to solve the conspiracy by getting to know the npc’s and their habits and personality. but the way the npc’s reacted is also different if it wasn’t Ted standing there in combat but Urdural the destroyer then he wouldn’t have backed out and fled. so these patterns show players how the outcome of a battle can end or go.

so this concludes the humanoid consciousness and patterns part 1. next i’ll write about creatures and their behaviour and how it makes things more interesting for immersion and diversity in combat.

[ohfuckamimic]

Magic items and the looting system

We’ve all been there. Standing victorious after a bloody battle at the catacombs. The creature has been slain, it’s grotesque body now lifeless and pale. The necromancer is no more and village is saved from the scourge of undead.

TIME TO LOOT! The most rewarding and fun part of any session. And for a Dm an interesting way to spice up future sessions. Today i’ll be talking about how to moderate, invent and reward your players for their heroics.

for magic items ill be discussing my personal item repertoir that i made in these 2 years (I'm a young Dm so there is alot of room for improvement). Most magic items originate from my campaign “Osmeria and the red danger” which is a completely homebrewed world. I had a problem with loot at a very early stage of the campaign which made me think twice about handing players magic items. My fault as a Dm is that i’m to lenient with granting loot. Because of that i have encountered many issues with these items and learned from the experience.

First of i started to categorize my magic items in two separete parts: enhancement and utility

Enhancement magic items give the players their extra edge ingame. These enhance stats or give new buffs and moves. For example: A platemail of lightning resistance with a +2 modifier on your strength rolls with the added buff “against all odds” which gives the player a constitution bonus when below half HP. This is an enhancement type magic item. These items are mostly worn by higher level enemies or bought for a really high price at a smith. And are more common in dungeons and quests then my “utility” class loot. For me enhancement magic items are a means to and end to make the players feel stronger and look cooler. its a necessary item group that we need to give to the for the sake of the stats and the whole meta of the game (it also makes you look badass and that’s really important).

The utility class is a way of spicing up encounters and making way for creative improvisation. These items are relics or special items that do not fit the enhancement category. For example the Eye of Strebor the hermit wizard is a small cube of permafrost ice that can freeze any liquid. The range of the freezing effect depends on how sad the thoughts and feelings of the user are at that moment. Or another utility item are my masks of Omolon a series of masks with each their specific use. When worn for longer durations the mask his power increases at the cost of the player his sanity and soul. And can give you powers like Telekinesis,heatvision or just basic anti-magic detection wards. These are more usefull then just stat enhancements and offer new and interesting approaches to encounters or plans. I also use these utility items to make new quests. My party started out with a high tier magic item for example. They are still unsure if it’s is something with evil intent. Or that it’s a high level magic item with a cool effect. Either way these are the two categories i made for my sessions. Of course you can mix and match between enhancement and utility, the masks of omolon are exactly that for example.

Now as for giving loot and how to moderate the flow of items the players get is a little more tricky. Like i said i tend to give players too much. It’s not that the players mind but dungeonmasters pick up on it quite quickly. You should always give a steady stream of options for loot, be it rare or common. Don’t make it so that every good item is stashed at the end and that the players can't find some descent loot along the way. Scatter and shuffle your items, make secret rooms that can also reveal new loot. Just don’t starve the player from their hard earned goodies, moderate and give accordingly.

[ohfuckamimic]

ALIGNMENT AND PLAYING AN EVIL CHARACTER

Alignment, every dungeonmasters archnemesis. For the players an easy choice and for us an eternal struggle as to how you make the party stick together. First of all this will be heavily subjective since i will speak my mind about every alignment i want to discuss and i'll be using references to players and their wrong or right way of approaching alignment. Even more so i think alignment should be abolished all together. Or atleast it shouldn't be such a deciding factor in a session. But ill talk more about that later. Alignment decides whether or not you play as a good person, a bad person, a regular person. Each has its own small variety, using the words chaotic, lawful and good. We all know its intended purpose so i won't go in detail here. But alignment is important because it teaches the player to act within a certain way of moral code. This moral code is what binds the player to that certain way of thinking. But being bound to something isn't necessarily good. Because outside the roleplay there is a table. With real people trying to achieve their goal. And alignment breaks this bond heavily when done wrong. Even the Dungeonmaster is a slave to alignment because it will decide how the players will react to the things he prepared. But the worst of all alignment can't be contained. you cannot interfere with the player his choice of playing. But this might divide the players sitting around that table. I had a time where i just went and had drink in a local pub while a chaotic neutral character was trying to attack a heavily guarded mansion head on. I was sick of his shenanigans and so was the rest of the crew. We ended the session and i felt such real hostility against the chaotic neutral player that now was recieving flack from everyone. He didn't do anything wrong he played in his alignment right? Wrong as a player there is a big difference between being an asshole and playing chaotic neutral. For some odd reason a chaotic neutral player always wants to fuck the party or the Dungeonmaster. I have no idea as to why but i suspect they derive pleasure out of pushing people to extremes. They in some sort of way think of themselves as the cool wildcard player. While in reality they just interrupt players and try to get as much showtime so that everyone knows how cool of a wildcard he is. These players must be handled with caution as they are a volatile substance to the whole party. Either have an out of character talk with them or just don't invite them over. No one in my experience ever played chaotic neutral right. So dont take those risks. Now i immediately pulled out the big chaotic neutral alignment and started saying how rubbish it is. But every alignment is. I had a game where the whole party was neutral or good except for a thief. His vice was collecting and selling rare artefacts from across the world and had a fair moral compass (atleast for a thief standard) However he had written that he was an evil character in his alignment. The other players started discussing what they should do with the artefact they found. The thief suggested curating it by a local thiefs guild. But everyone objected. They were all good after all, why should they enter a thieves den? It made no sense alignment wise. So they played in character really well but everything the thief suggested was being denied. But the players wanted to do it. But their in character good guy couldn't because of his alignement. It saddened me to see such a flashed out thief being disregarded by the team. however they were not at fault. I was. As a dm you want to have the people around your table to have a good time. If they didn't then you've failed your job as a dungeonmaster. Each one has their own character that they love and cherish. And you should give each of them as much fulfilment as the others. However if one is being left out the party chemistry shifts. At the end of my session we decided to uncannon the session because everyone had given up in the end. So what i learned from that was that alignment when not done right CAN BREAK GAMES. It is our duty as dungeonmasters to give each player a chance to develop and explore their character. But it is your duty as a player to look at the people around the table. And make sure that each of them has a good time. Not only you, everyone wants to say and do cool things but you need to respect others their choices as well. It's simple really. You don't interrupt them, you don't put the party in jeopardy because it just looks cool, you dont aggregate the dungeonmaster or try to push his buttons, you don't aggregate the party to push their buttons. Basicly don't be an ass no one appreciates it. And sometimes you can break alignment its not set in stone that you have to act like that all the time. Anyway this brings me to my conclusion of alignment. It's a good way to put people in the shoes of a person with another moral code however playing too hard within those bounds will lead to disagreeing and conflict. You should imagine your character and look at how you think it acts. And just play as that mental image you have of your character. Label it an alignment that fits that mental image. It doesnt have to be accurate because its just a lable. And there you have it. Now for playing as an evil character. Most evil characters are tough to play in a party because you are the person that does things that aren't right. But did you ever consider that you can be evil and stay on good terms with your party? Well i'll tell you how my chaotic evil paladin has evolved from an edgy mace flailing fuck to an epic harbinger of chaos who will do anything to save his companions. You need to see your players as assets or people of interest. You don't have to like them but you need to see the value of having them in a party. So protect your assets at all cost. So when push comes to shove you help them out. Also acting evil for the sake of being evil is just plain stupid and unnecessary. Justify your murders and evil doings. And no i don't mean justify as in "im an acolyte for the god of blood so i just slash innocent npc's. No focus it on other beings of evil or only kill those that no one will miss. Do it with the right intent and never let it bother the other players. You wouldn't wanna die by the hands of your fellow team because you just HAD to kill the animal companion of the ranger because you were hungry. The biggest insight you'll need is that you should know that evil is not nice for the party. And with that i mean out of character. Because being evil when done wrong is annoying, obnoxious and selfish and no one likes that in real life or in character.

[ohfuckamimic]

Bad Dnd dialogue in a nutshell

[ohfuckamimic]

THE FLOW OF COMBAT AND HOW TO COMPROMISE

Combat, the most prominent and fun part of roleplay. Today i will discuss the necessity of keeping the "flow" in combat and how to make a fluid fight sequence First of we need to see what that "flow" is. Flow is the continues development of combat. The actions that follow up and the pace of combat. When done right a good flow can make a goblin battle seem like fighting a frost giant. We should look at its pacing first. Pacing is the tempo with which the players and the monsters attack eachother. So for example a fighter slashes at a knight and the speed in which the combat happens is the pacing. So with a good party you'll see that they plan ahead that they try to benefit from eachother in combat so that it speeds up the pacing. For example right after the swing from the fighter he is open to an attack but the paladin of the party blocks the fighter with its shield. Meanwhile the wizard is preparing to shoot a magic missile in the back of the knight. This immediately feels like its happening fast. After that you need to keep the pace going. The paladin blocks the hit from the knight and hears the mage casting. With a failed constitution roll he gets grappled by the knight and gets used as a shield for the incoming missile. But the fighter follows up with a jab through the helmet of the knight. This combat is on fire. And it was because the players knew how to make it epic. But its not always like that and then it's up to you as dm to spark that creativity. Colour the area with items and objects they can interact with. It could just be a table or a pot. It gives them incentive to use things in the room and reward them when they do with a crit or with a stun. After a while they will not only see the monster in front of them but also see the room where it's in and search for opportunities. Engage in forcing creativity. Sure a naration of "i cut him sideways with my sword" does the trick. But say it again and a good dm will make the creature block it because it knew it saw that attack before. So "i slice in his armpits to sever the muscles in his left arm" immediately feels as a better narration. And rewards the party with an opening in the combat. As for the flow its up to you to make the monsters react in the same tempo as your players or the balance is lost. Make the reactions seem natural. Dont just say that a creature is bloodied. Narrate it trying to stand up with a painfull effort. Or how an assassin just recieved damage but counter attacks with one of the daggers the players threw in him. It keeps the fight going. So don't hesitate and narrate vigoursly. The more epic you make yourself sound the more the party feels like its a big deal. And they will react accordingly. So pace it well and find the rythm of each encounter. Being energetic is key here as a dm.

[ohfuckamimic]

Occult magic and how to make it original

Occult magic in his essence is corrupted magic that is usually forbidden. But most of the time the term gets blurred and we start stapling them to things that don’t fit the picture.

First we must look at its basis if we want to make a fresh and unique occult magic type and group. First we chose what kind of magic we corrupt. This can be holy, magical, eldritch and many other sorts of magic. Now turn it into a negative side of that magic. For this example i’ll take holy magic.

So now that we know its source we can develop it further. Now for this instance its holy so it’ll revolve around a god. Let’s take one real quick: Bemzuul the Snakegod. Now for this instance we want to see how its corrupted. We could make the Snakegod an evil entity and that’s why his holy magic is tainted. Or it could be that religious zealots are abusing his pure magic for evil rituals. This immediately makes things different.

After this we need to look at what kind of magic they use. This could be anything. For example to me Bemzuul the snakegod seems like a god that works around summons. So now the cultist will conjure poison creatures that attack the players. Or they work with snakes to ensnare people. Either way it gives your cult a niche of magic. Which makes them feel more unique and not just a demon worshipping bunch of bandits. Later they might run into an occult group that manipulates the flame of a red dragon. Turning the magic into black flames. Both are immediately vastly different.

Now for the biggest part: rituals. Rituals are the bread and butter of cultists. It makes them scary and ominous. Of course drinking blood from a skull cup or ripping someone his heart out is a tested and true way to hype up your players. But Remember that there are different ways. Spice it up. For example the altar of the snakegod is made from dried snakeskin. The cultists are rapped in scales and are able to shed skin. Their ritual involves making a human drink acid on their althar. And afterwards the molten pieces of meat are eaten by the cultists. Afterwards they shed their skin and regain their youth. So as you can see this is still an occult group but with small differences. Yet these changes give an aesthetic look that really adds to the experience. Essentially just make it different. Sure a war demon worshipping cult is fine. But after the 3rd slightly different cult. You start seeing cultists more as one thing. While it can actually be alot of things.

[ohfuckamimic]

INTRO AND HOW TO MAKE A LOW PROFILE CIVIL WAR

Hi, so today ill be talking about low profile civil wars and how to create the atmosphere and structure for it. First of i want to say that this is entirely subjective and open to discussion/interpretation.

Having a fullscale civil war is hard to incorporate into a world. Most of the time the party won’t be able to not get involved or it will simply hinder their goals to the extent of boredom. I will discuss in steps how i made mine and how my players are reacting to it.

First we need two opposite sides. Then we need to add their incentive and why it collides with the other groups their ideals. This can be anything. Be it political, economic, philosophic or religious. I went for Religion in my world. After that you need to make them “feel” different. Why? Many times both sides have the same reason and goal behind their ideals. In many games we sometimes get the feeling that picking a side doesn’t matter because they act the same or do the same as the opposite party (stormcloaks and imperials). So make sure to have distinctive and original end goals for both groups. For example that one group wanted to usher in the apocalypse and cleanse the world with their god. While the others strived to use their god too help the kings of the land and restore balance between the countries. These sides both have a goal but they don’t immediately feel the same. Of course we can divide these into good and evil but the questlines that these two groups have are immediately severely different. One will have you help the kings of the land in quests to cleanse it of corruption of evil in a glorious journey of valor while the other group questline would be delving into old dungeons to gather artifacts for a lost ritual that will destroy this world. Meanwhile both groups will stumble on eachother not by just disagreeing on their view but by what they’re doing to the world. This will give interesting encounters if the players have joined a group. For example if you are in a dungeon casting out a demon for a local baron but then you suddenly find yourself attacked by assassins who ask you for the runestone you found next to the slayed demon. This will make the conflict more around the players and less around the “you disagree with us so die” part of the civil war.

But of course this is when the players WANT to join this civil war. Many times players have their own set of goals and ideas. And the problems of this world might not bother them in their search for adventure. So here is how i made a civil war where it doesn’t hinder the players if they dont join a group.

First of all not all cities and countries pick a side. Civil war is not everywhere it shows itself in alot of places across the land but not every part is as involved with it as others. So make cities where the war did not come yet or make cities who plead neutrality. In any case keep your map diverse and not covered in battlefields and towns in turmoil. Make the players feel as if they are still in the dark about whats happening. they can go past it and not think anything of it or join without knowing but they can also ask questions and investigate this war. This brings me to my next part: insinuate. War shows itself in many ways. Not only by burning cities and corpses. Show a bunch of dwarves making a buttload of swords. Or Make a carriage of wounded soldiers pass by the players on the road leading away from a peacefull city. It will make the party wonder what happened and think what’s ahead of them. I did this in my session and a player told me he was grinding his gears off session thinking of what that carriage did there and where it came from. After a while you’ll know if the players will get involved by these signs or not. If not then you’ll have to play out the war behind the scenes. But you can’t just say it happened that would be irresponsible Dm'ing. So dont let players return to a city and then tell how it has become a giant crater in the ground. They will ask what happened and be interested. Or they’ll find it unfair because they couldn’t do anything to stop it. In any case it will be sudden and abrupt and it will halt your party their ongoing quest or goal. So when you let it play out behind the scenes make it look natural. For example sometimes a war ends itself if both parties are tired of fighting or if a 3rd party joins the battle. Or a military force puts them both down for causing unrest in the land. Or they can develop further. A town breaks down his church for a new one or a new race occupies a city. A new battlefield appeared or a king has gone missing. These will all lead to the civil war questline but they are also standalone quests. Finding a kidnapped king makes for an excellent quest even if the party is not involved in the antics of this civil war.

So to put it simply. A war is something that does not involve itself with everything in your world. Give variety to your Factions and make sure they feel different if players interact with them. Don’t shove the war into your players face make them curious about what’s going on. If they do not care for the civil war then find a way to make it feel natural as to how the war ends or develops without the interaction of the party. Its not only the party that can bring change in your world others can as well. But most of all don’t let it only revolve around the war. Not every town has to starve from famine. Not every city needs an royal assassination attempt. Not every outskirt needs an encampment.