#also yes I have a spell hoarding problem it comes with playing the game almost every day for 3 years

[abyssfriedphotos]

Hey, something you should know about days of music -

See these boxes on the second floor in the music shop?

They have spells that cost 1 candle. One is 3 shared memories, and the other one is a RANDOM INSTRUMENT SPELL

Why is that such a big deal?

You have a chance at getting a spell of an ULTIMATE GIFT INSTRUMENT.

I was shook because that happened to a friend last days of music event and didn't know if they were going to bring those spells back

Only can buy one of each but I think these spells will refresh everyday possibly. Will update post tomorrow if that is the case...

UPDATE: They refresh WEEKLY apparently which is kinda a bummer if they disappear after the event because you will only get like 2 instrument spells however if they stick around after event I will be happy so will update post again after days of music.

[carewyncromwell]

[Bill’s modified Cursed Barrier would allow its caster to keep anyone with a Dark Mark from entering a certain space. He demonstrated the wand movement for the assembled students so they could follow along with their own wands -- then everyone split into small groups and practiced it together.

When Bill felt confident about how everyone’s wand movements looked, he addressed them]

Bill: “Well done, everyone! Now all that’s left to give the spell a go.”

[He turned to Carewyn with a smile.]

[Carewyn grinned, striding up to the front of the class. Raising her wand, she slashed at the air in front of her.]

“Relinquo Mortis!”

[A bright flare of white light created a pretty, star-like shield around her like a bubble, before quickly dissipating away.

Carewyn gave Bill a frown.]

“...How do you know if it’s worked? No one here has a Dark Mark, so we can’t test it...”

[Merula whirled on Andre, opening her mouth as if to retort, but Carewyn ended up talking over her, looking both shocked and very disapproving.]

"Andre!”

[Andre was startled by the level of severity in her voice -- Merula was too.

Charlie shot Andre a reproachful look out the side of his eye.]

Charlie: “Not cool, mate. You gonna say the same thing to Barnaby next? His folks knew You-Know-Who too.”

[Startled, Andre glanced over at Barnaby, who looked hurt.]

Andre: “(upset) No! No, I didn’t mean it like that -- ”

[He looked up at Carewyn imploringly.]

Andre: “Carewyn, you know I wouldn’t think that -- I was just ribbing, I swear...”

[Carewyn crossed her arms, her gaze so piercing it could’ve rivaled McGonagall’s.]

“Maybe you were, but it wasn’t funny. Merula and I may not see eye-to-eye much of ever, but she is not her parents. None of us are.”

If Jacob and I were anything like Dad, we’d be pretty rotten people.

Tulip: “(gives a dry laugh) Ha! I’m certainly evidence of that.”

Tonks: “(cheekily) Me too -- I know if I were ever to procreate, I’d never name my kid something dumb like ‘Nymphadora’ -- “

[Some of the tension ebbed from the room -- Penny and Jae were both laughing, and Liz and Charlie were grinning. Even Carewyn herself spared Tonks a smile.

Andre looked down at the ground, abashed.]

Andre: “(mumbling) ...Yes, of course.”

[He glanced at Merula, clearly reluctant to apologize. Fortunately Merula’s focus was elsewhere -- she kept glancing from Carewyn to Charlie, as if she were still stunned that the two had defended her.]

Bill: “(levelly) Why don’t we go ahead and call it a night? I’ll see you all Friday, after your classes.”

[As the assembled students started to head out, Bill added,]

[Carewyn noticed Rowan watching, as if silently asking if Carewyn wanted her to wait for her. Carewyn gave her a small smile and wave.]

“I’ll see you back in the commonroom, okay?”

[Rowan smiled in return and nodded, before heading out with Barnaby and Liz. Carewyn also shared an offhand wave with Charlie before he headed out. Merula caught her eye briefly and Carewyn thought at first she wanted to say something, but Merula seemed to have changed her mind almost instantly and rather quickly shuffled out with Ismelda.

Carewyn turned back to Bill. His expression had lost some of the confidence and composure he’d shown in front of the others, making him seem a bit more vulnerable than before.]

Bill: “...Charlie told me...you talked him out of leaving Hogwarts, while you were practicing the Barrier spell with Penny and Rowan.”

[His voice was a lot softer and very grim. Clearly he’d been upset when he’d learned what Charlie had been thinking of doing too.

Carewyn’s eyes softened sadly.]

“I couldn’t have done anything else.”

If Charlie left now, I know he’d regret it. He’d miss out on finishing school, his family would be so worried -- and...I could never protect him from R, if he were that far away...

[Bill’s face broke out into a very small, warm smile.]

Bill: “For...supporting him...the way I should’ve.”

[He suddenly looked very guilty.]

Bill: “I’ve been throwing myself into my cursebreaking work to take my mind off what happened in the Vault -- with Rakepick...and, in the process...I completely missed how badly Charlie’s been affected too. Probably feeling the same things I’ve felt...”

[Carewyn’s eyes fell to the floor just to the right of Bill’s shoe.]

“...Yeah. Some of the things he said...did remind me of you a bit -- you know, when we were last in here?”

The anger and sadness -- the pain of being betrayed by someone who was supposed to protect us...

[Bill nodded solemnly.]

Bill: “I remember.”

[His voice then grew a little softer again as he gave Carewyn a weak smile.]

Bill: “I’m just so grateful that you were there for him, like you were for me.”

[Carewyn met Bill’s eyes, her face very serious even despite the gentleness of her voice.]

"And I always will be.”

[Carewyn knew how painful it was to feel truly, horribly alone. She’d had no friends growing up, so when her mother was busy with work and Jacob was at school, Carewyn had become very used to doing things on her own, whether it was finishing homework or playing one-sided games of jacks or checkers. It made her latch on that bit more desperately to her mother and brother -- made her hoard their attention and love that bit more every time --  made it so that when Jacob disappeared, her whole world came crashing down around her ears...

All of her friends at Hogwarts -- Rowan, Bill, Chiara, Talbott, Barnaby, all of them -- they’d made her life more than just obsessively chasing after the Vaults and Jacob. They’d given her the chance to care for them and solve their problems, which in turn gave her real confidence and made her happier than she ever could’ve imagined before walking through those castle doors.

Her friends gave her joy, even in the midst of so much danger and fear -- and for that, she knew she couldn’t let anything happen to them. Even if she had to lie to them -- even if she had to keep secrets and say things she didn’t mean -- she had to make sure they survived. If they did...the best part of herself would still exist.]

I promise. I’ll protect Charlie, and you, and Rowan, and Barnaby -- all of you. I promise I’ll take care of you.

Bill: “Thank you, Carey. My brothers...Ginny...they mean the world to me.”

[Carewyn’s heart ached with empathy. She knew exactly how Bill felt.]

If anything happened to Jacob...if anything has happened to Jacob, out there...

[The thought was too painful for Carewyn to bear. She shoved it down fiercely, unable to put the sentiment into words.

Almost as if on cue, Bill and Carewyn were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Percy, who dashed up to them looking very anxious.]

((OOC: DUN DUN DUN! XD Will probably compress the twins’ disappearance somewhat in my next roleplaying post so as to get to that dragon sidequest, but hey, I do love some Bill and Carewyn interaction. I’ll love it even more, though, when Carewyn can actually lean on Bill emotionally too sometimes...oi! Bill really can’t do much better than Carewyn to look after his brothers, though -- once you are Carewyn’s friend, she is your surrogate Mama Bear, no questions asked. XDD

Honestly, Andre’s little jab at Merula did feel really below the belt to me, did anyone else think so? I mean, it’s not OOC for him exactly, given his wit and critical nature, but...ow, dude! Still adore you to all get out, but I know your ex-girlfriend would have something to say about it, however much Merula still frustrates her. :P

The incantation I made up for Bill’s Cursed Barrier comes from the Latin words for “leave” and “death”...so yeah, it pretty literally means, “Leave, Death!” LOL. The Latin word “mors” is also used in the incantation to cast the Dark Mark, Morsmordre.))

[emmybluefire]

Accounting for Powerful Characters in RP Events

Story Time

So, towards the last couple hours of my shift at work, a rather concerning thought occurred to me: 

“I roleplay a dragon for a reason. But every time I enter the city, or attend an RP event, I’m not allowed to use it. Period. At this point... I might as well be playing a generic mage. That kinda sucks...”

And to be honest? I got a bit angry about it. To the degree that I even started verbally ranting about it to myself in the form of mutters. I just sat there asking myself: Why? Why is it that whenever I enter a RP event, I can’t play my character to the fullest extent? I’ve worked so hard to balance out them out. To make them fun, make them memorable... and yet, people still have yet to get the full experience. 

Dilemma

Every time I try to cast something like “Spellsteal” or “Counterspell” or even use the most basic of dragon abilities: “Dragon’s breath” I’m told “No. No, you can’t because it’d solve the problems in the event too quick! And it would be very unfair to others!” It’s almost like people just- don’t account for powerful characters. Ever. No, that would make things “Too Complicated” or “Too Easy.”

But that’s when this thought occurred to me: “Powerful characters being ‘too special’ and ‘A sign of bad RP’ and ‘A red flag that indicates an asshole player’: These thoughts have been so ingrained in our collective server conscious for so long that even guilds who say they’re alright with powerful characters still don’t account for them in their events.”

This often leads to someone having to constantly annoy the DM asking: “Hey. Is this okay? Can I do this or would it be too much?” and detract from the RP at large. And let me tell you, that’s not fun at all. You feel bad for annoying the DM, and the DM winds up constantly distracted from actually running the event. That needs to change.

Disclaimer

Now, before I get too far into this: I would like to say I understand the opposing argument. One character being more powerful than the others would, In fact, make things unfair to other players. It could, in fact, make things too easy. A character that can solve a complex problem with one spell does tend to remove the challenge the DM worked so hard to develop all too quickly. Games like D&D, 5e especially, face this challenge all to often once the characters get to certain high levels. It’s a problem so many people are unsure how to tackle. At least, in a conventional setting...

On one hand: You need to let your characters play true to how they would. On the other: It really sucks when your hard work is surpassed so easily. Many DMs are unsure what to do, and so leave things as is, and silently vent to their closest friends in the background afterward.

My post today isn’t here to argue against this argument. My post today is here to offer potential solutions to these dilemmas all DM’s and event runners face every day. So, without further Ado: “How to Account for Powerful Characters.”

“Flex Raiding”

This one is my first and foremost solution. The one that I, as a DM or Event runner, would personally turn to as my first solution. In MMOrpgs like “World of Warcraft” , the RP environment is so diverse, vast, and random that it’s rather hard to cater to everyone’s preferences. You have people who like playing silly mundane characters like Old Men, Young Warriors, Book Binders, or even just your average run of the mill Civilian Drunk. But in the same environment you also have people who like to play more grandiose characters like Grand Archmages, Grizzled War Veterans, Elemental Lords, Dragons, and things like that. Sometimes more than one pour into the same pot, so to speak. So when you run a guild or dungeon group that contain characters from all ends of the spectrum, it’s hard to find one particular “Rolling System” that would accommodate for all of those and have it still be fair. 

My solution? Don’t. Instead, here’s what you can do:

In some MMOrpgs, there’s a mechanic called “Flex Raiding” , it’s when the raid or dungeon scales to the number of players doing it at once, and the levels of each player’s character. One can, in some ways, apply this same principle to roleplay events.

Write a version of the event that would come to being if your entire group consists of “Powerful Characters” , A version of the event for when your group consists of just “Mundane Characters”, and a version for when you have a mix of both. It doesn’t have to (And shouldn’t) just be: Army faces hoard, and bellows into them head on.

This can manifest in ways such as: Your antagonists anticipated facing powerful characters, and prepared accordingly. Perhaps they tamed large, hulking creatures from the deep, and placed them among their ranks to aid the hundreds of soldiers. The powerful characters must focus on them to succeed, while the mundane characters keep the armies busy. Or perhaps they managed to cast a large defensive spell that makes it hard for even the most powerful characters to enter, and the mundane must find creative, mechanical ways, like siege engines, to get past it.

Your antagonists trapped the protagonists, and now the soldiers must defend the casters for as long as they can while they pool their powers together. Encounter ends once the casters succeed in casting a very large, devastating spell that annihilates all enemies around them, or the soldiers fail to defend the casters, and must retreat.

Or perhaps it is just a generic battlefield scenario, and all you have are the mundane characters to appose them. The limit for this is truthfully the sky. Your imagination. BE CREATIVE WITH YOUR ENCOUNTERS!

You prepare accordingly, and you’ll be able to run an event where everyone is able to play their part, and their character to the fullest extent. The downsides to this obviously are the level of preparation you have to do in order to make a viable “Flex Raid” ... and obviously the complexity. But if you get used to doing this, it’ll become much easier than it sounds.

Share the Spotlight

All (Well Written) Characters have strengths and weaknesses. Even the most powerful ones. All characters are an aspect of the player’s creativity. Everyone knows that. You could have a really powerful archmage, but they have a crippling phobia of rats. That very same powerful archmage could also be a ritualist caster, meaning that their really powerful spells take time to cast, taking them out of some attack rounds. Without that time, they’re just a generic mage. Little things like that. Of course I’m describing my own character here, but in that situation, your other party members could very much help you out. 

You enter a dungeon that’s infested with rats, and now the archmage is too shaken up to cast. In that situation, the spotlight would turn to the druid who’s able to talk to said rats and remove them from the scene, while one of the more soft-spoken characters work to snap the archmage out of it.

The warrior suddenly finds himself in the middle of an enemy tavern after failing at a stealth roll. At this point, the spotlight would shift to the bard and rogue who’d step in and form a charming distraction or convincing lie to make the patrons look the other way.

The party is asked to come up with battle plans for the impending war ahead but none have any idea how. All, save, for the warrior. He’s fought in wars before. Hell, he was once a general! He knows how to do this. The spotlight shifts to him as he lays his hands over the map and is very quickly able to find a choke point to slaughter the enemy from.

The party is surrounded by a hoard of encroaching goblins, and all seems lost. But at the last second, their draconic ally catches up to the rest of the group and bellows a large cyclone of flame onto the unsuspecting hoard. The spotlight then shifts to the dragon as the party now has an opening to escape their predicament.

Little things like that would help to make roleplay events far more dynamic, all inclusive, and fun for everyone involved. Powerful, OR mundane. Sharing the spotlight with everyone, gives everyone a chance to shine in one way or another. The downside to this one: Depending on the nature the groups you play with, this may require quite a bit of improvisation. But if you’re good at that? Well, what the hell is stopping you? XD

Creative Bosses

Ah yes. The Classic boss. The biggest, toughest, most badass motherfucker in the entire antagonist group. Perhaps even the one leading them all too. I mean, it is in their title right? “The Boss” Well, here’s the thing. MMOrpgs and turn based RPGs often execute them in a way that: “We need a bigger challenge? How do we do that... hmmm.. MORE HEALTH OF COURSE!” ... This, my friends, is a mistake. Especially when there’s much more powerful characters in the group you’re running with. Said characters would, “realistically” just melt through that ungodly amount of health.

All adding more health to a boss does is create conflict among a group, and prolong an event for far longer than it should be. Come on guys. We all have lives, we cant spend ten hours a week of it playing through an event that gets almost nowhere. Instead, what I’d suggest is to consider the following questions: 

-“What makes this ‘boss’, the boss?”  

-“What is happening to them that’s making them so impossibly powerful? Can it be stopped? How do you get around it?” 

-“Does ‘power’ always have to mean magical ability?” 

-“Do they utilize all the resources at their disposal? What’s stopping them form doing so if not?”

Considering these, and applying the answers to your “boss” makes them much more interesting and dynamic. It gives the players something to strive for, something to work together on as a group to figure out and take advantage of.

Your boss could just be a normal human war general, but who’s power come’s from his political influence and the men he has at his disposal. This makes the players strive to expose his corruption and unseat him from his political standing. The men at his disposal could also make it difficult to get to him as well. Get past those obstacles, and suddenly he just becomes a normal human that can be overpowered and arrested just like any other.

Your boss could also be a young, power-hungry elven sorcerer who’s only been studying for about a decade. But in that decade he somehow came across forbidden lore and is now attempting to conduct a ritual that makes him physically invincible. The players could find out about this and find him in the middle of this ritual. To stop the ritual and take away his invincibility, you can’t just cast a “Spellsteal”. The overwhelming power of such magic would tear anyone apart without proper anchoring. So to stop him, you have to destroy his ritual components and the magical crystals he’s siphoning from while he tries to stop you. The boss fight, at that point, would just be avoiding his attacks and his minions until you shatter all the crystals, and the ritual itself is the thing that destroy’s him. Not you.

Conclusion

Accounting for powerful characters, when done right, can be just as hard as it is fun and dynamic. All it requires is, if you’re willing to have a powerful character in the group, is to mold the event accordingly, and work to understand the strengths and weakness of each member. If they don’t show up then have a backup writ on hand for the non-powerful characters. It just takes a bit of care and consideration. I suppose the TL;DR to take away from all of this is: Be creative, consider the circumstances, and create rolls each character in your party has a chance to fulfill. That way nobody feels left out, or held back.

Thank you all so much for reading. As you can tell, I did a lot of thinking into this. I’m open to discussion, and questions should anybody have some. But overall, I feel I’ve said all I need. After all, the goal of this post wasn’t to tell you--step by step--how to account for a powerful character. Just ideas and suggestions to guide you on your way to greatness! ... Being over-dramatic of course XD. But yes. All of you, have a good day or night wherever you may be!

[hypexion]

Boomsday Project: μ Reveals

Everybody loves μ! In statistics, μ is used to represent the mean of a data set. Since everyone loves statistics, everyone must love μ. Tragically, this love may not extend to the following cards.

Hey look it’s a not great Discover card. Arcane Dynamo is pretty awful tempo-wise, since it’s a three mana body for six mana. And while grabbing an extra high-cost spell seems tempting, especially with the possibility of Legendary Spells, it’s not actually so good in practice. As it turns out, most classes have just enough spells that cost five or more to make Arcane Dynamo not able to always offer the best ones. And you usually won’t be able to cast the Discovered spell straight away even if it is the right one. Which means you might as well put the spell you want in your deck, and use your six mana for something else.

Having abandoned Hand Druid, Team Five have decided Mage will be the next hand deck class. Yeah? Meteorologist throws rocks at people or something, which is kind of underwhelming. You need at least six cards in hand before you play this to reach six mana’s worth of value, and that’s not great. Even with Mage’s decent card draw, you generally want to play cards and some point, not hoard them. Meteorologist also suffers from the fact that Mage has rather good AoE and burn options already, so they don’t really need a sometimes Cinderstorm on a stick.

Hey look it’s a terrible tech card. Sure hitting a Mech with E.M.P Operative is okay, but if your opponent isn’t playing Mechs this is pretty useless. Other tech cards manage to not suck when played without a target. Also this is an Epic, which is some really amazing dumb game design. You acknowledge that Mechs might be a problem, but make it so a large number of players won’t get the answer? Golakka Crawler is a rare and is more complex than this. Heck, all the neutral Silence effects are at common, are cheaper than this, and are probably going to be more effectual given all the Magnetic Deathrattles.

Do you ever wish Malygos costed two mana? Well, with Dreampetal Florist, that can happen. Is there even a point talking about the other ways this can be abused, given two mana Malygos? Combo decks have every right to exist, and I dunked on Demonic Project for being a terrible solution to them, but Dreampetal Florist is an equally terrible design. Look at it! It gives a seven mana discount! In DRUID! The only thing holding it back is the terrible 4/4 body, but Druid has enough ramp where a 4/4 will be an okay body against whatever non-accelerated minions your opponent will be playing.

Necrium Vial is two copies of Play Dead glued together, but for Rogue. So instead of being two or three mana, it costs five. Preparation has effectively destroyed the design space for Rogue spells. Except it shouldn’t - you can only run two copies of Preparation in a deck , and it’s actually fairly difficult to generate additional copies of it. Additionally, the best use of Preparation is take fairly costed spells and make them under-costed, rather than making over-costed spells playable. But Team Five keeps designing pre-nerfed spells for no good reason. At a sane price, I see Necrium Vial seeing some play, even if it’s just in niche decks. But at five mana, its own Deathrattle will be one triggering immediately.

Omega Mind gives your spells Lifesteal, which would be neat if Shaman didn’t already have Healing Rain. Sure, following this up with a Lightning Storm or a Volcano would be pretty good, but having to wait until turn ten drags this down. Like, a lot. Omega Medic has similar problem, but once you hit ten mana, you can just slam down Omega Medic and heal, whereas Omega Medic needs an additional enabler. Which probably won’t restore much more health than Healing Rain would have.

Mecha’thun is Hearthstone’s second alternate win condition, and boy is it a weird one. To attain victory, you must sacrifice everything, including Mecha’thun itself. In hindsight, building this thing was probably a mistake.

Sweet flavour aside, Mecha’thun is an interesting deck building puzzle - what’s the best way to play (or otherwise dispose of) every card in your deck, while being able to play and kill Mecha’thun? Maybe you’ll go for Druid, using a mix of ramp, melons and Naturalize to quickly dig through your deck and complete the ritual. Or maybe as Priest you’ll kill off Mecha’thun early, only to resummon it with mana spare for the slaughter. Wild opens yet more possibilities, with Emperor Thaurissan opening up new rites for Warlock, Warrior and perhaps more. Just don’t be dumb and use a Deathrattle activator - Mecha’thun is still a minion, so you won’t quality for that sweet, sweet enemy hero destruction.

Mecha’thun is also pretty okay if he ends up in your hand after you’ve become Doctor Boom. A 10/10 with Rush can backspace most minions in the game, and remains a viable threat once that’s happened, even without the ‘You Win‘ Deathrattle. Also could be a last-ditch, final-shot choice for a fatigue deck, where a 10/10 might just be enough to swing things to your favour, even if you can’t kill Mecha’thun for the instant victory.

This is what a Legendary card should be.

The Soularium is almost certainly busted. Drawing three cards for one mana is an absurdly good deal, so it could only come with a crazy drawback, like losing the cards at the end of the turn. If The Soularium didn’t discard, it would be Magic: The Gathering’s Ancestral Recall, which is one of the famous Power Nine. The Soularium will probably be a big hit in Zoo type decks, as it rapidly refills you hand, and if you’re getting cheap minions, you can play them immediately. And if you don’t play all of them, who cares? Just draw replacements.

Incidentally, this is an effect that’s appear on many, many custom cards. But unlike Myra’s Unstable Element, I don’t really see this being a Legendary tier effect. Yes, The Soularium itself is probably going to be powerful. But making it a one-of doesn’t really fix that - it just adds extra variance to drawing it. Also, the decks that would want to run this tend to the cheap side, and one card possibly making up half a deck’s dust cost is probably not that great.

Also some people think this could work in Control-style decks? Except Control and Discard mix like oil and water - badly, and also now there is an environmental disaster.

[dmsden]

The Left Turn at Albuquerque – Dealing with Unexpected Player Choices

Hullo, gentle readers. This week’s topic comes from Tech Burr (@DeafTech99) from Twitter. He asks for advice on “How to make plans for unexpected character choices (not getting clues or following your plot plan)” Thank you TB. Great topic.

To begin, I will say that I try not to have too strict a plot plan. Yes, my campaign has an overarching story, but my campaign and its NPCs aren’t the main characters – the PCs are. There should never be a plot out there that you’re so married to that you aren’t willing to put it aside when the PCs take things in a direction you didn’t expect. If you build your campaign like that, then one PC tweak can bring everything to a screeching halt.

In a similar vein, if you have a story that requires that the PCs find and interpret certain clues, then you need to have a backup plan. If there’s a riddle your players have to solve, or a mystery they have to unravel, and they’re not getting it, then you run the risk of having them never discover your carefully developed dungeon or finding the uber-treasure they need to defeat the uber-monster.

In this case, think about having events move forward, even if the PCs don’t get it, but possibly involve some kind of penalty. If there’s a secret door they have to find, and you need them to find it, have them find it, even if the dice say otherwise. Or maybe an NPC opens the secret door to exit into the room they’re in, sees them all, and sounds the alarm. They can still continue, but now the monsters are alert, and things will be harder. Or maybe the uber-monster explodes from the dungeon. Its exit reveals the uber-treasure…but it’s fractured! Now the players must go on a quest to fix the uber-treasure, while the monster rampages, leaving devastation in its wake, and perhaps harming places or people the PCs care about.

I find that it’s pretty much impossible to predict everything that PCs will do. As a fine example, I think back to an encounter from my 3rd edition campaign. The Oracle of Chance was willing to aid the PCs, but it also set them up in a battle against other versions of themselves (A classic D&D trope). The idea was “You’re the result of one set of chances…but here’s who you might have been with another set of chances. If you win, you continue to exist, but, if you lose, the other set of chances go into effect, and you’ll be erased.” So everyone was fighting for their very reality.

In my mind, an out and out fight was the only solution, but Cotterpin the wizard had other plans. To him, his other possible self (Flange the wizard) was like a brother he’d never had. So he expended a wish to make Flange as real as he was. Sure, this wasn’t how a Wish spell technically works, but it was so intriguing. So I let it work. And now Cotterpin *and* Flange were free to help the rest of the party defeat their own reality doppelgangers.

This wasn’t something I’d planned for, but I was willing to roll with it. Not only did it make for a memorable moment, but it also created an important new NPC for the campaign, one who became quite pivotal down the road.

I guess what I’m leading to is…there is no answer. If the players go in some offbeat direction, you just need to be ready to roll with it. This is one of the things that makes D&D the awesome game it is. I’m always frustrated when I’m playing a video game, and I can think of a solution to a problem, but it isn’t the solution the game designer had in mind, so there’s no way to make it work. In D&D, the DM can say, “Hmmm…not what I had in mind, but I don’t see why not” and let things move forward.

Now, that’s not to say you can’t hedge your bets. I was listening to a podcast recently which put the idea forward of a “DM’s Spellbook”. The idea is to fill a binder with generic pieces to help you improvise when necessary – maps, NPCs, monsters, treasure hoards.  For example, if the PCs decide to break into a prison, you might have a map for a gatehouse, stats for some guards, and so on.

Another useful tool is the “break”. If the players throw something super offbeat at you, look at the time. Is it almost time to wrap up? End game a little early. That way, you can really think about the ramifications and come back at the next session ready to roll. If not, call for a bathroom break. Take a moment to think about the situation. What can you do to string things until the end of game? Roll with it until you can end game, and then come back the next session armed for bear…so to speak.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to move forward when the players throw something crazy at you. For further exploration of how I handle things like this, take a look at the following previous articles:

All Aboard: https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/161554911912/all-aboard

Go With the Flow: https://dmsden.tumblr.com/post/156726144712/go-with-the-flow-the-art-of-improvised-dming

[sleepymarmot]

Skyrim liveblog: more Dawnguard rage and even more mods

Oh great. I installed a mod that makes quivers compatible with backpacks, decided that the several day long modding session should be over and I can go back to playing... And then I noticed that Serana's stupid Elder Scroll is considered a quiver and now is attached to her butt too. Cue an hour in Creation Kit trying to make her a bow with an ES model to wear. She fucking wears that butt scroll even if I delete it from her inventory, and refuses to wear anything else, even when I add it to her fucking outfit. Why does that quiver mod affect her but mine doesn't?! Ugh. It's as if this character is in the game specifically to spite me. Fuck off.

Well, at least I looted some stuff! Finally found the fort with the Bound Bow spell tome. It's completely against the idea of the character, and it's not as strong as my normal bows, but fast and fun. Dwarven condenser (steam staff) still haven't tried.

"I've seen that dragon before" and by that I mean "I have subtitles on and know that name from the internet"

Hell yeah, I can wait before the next part! Aka give Serana a ride home.

Solitude

After 138 hours of playing, earning 100000 gold, and becoming a Thane in three holds, I finally reach the capital! Exciting!

Wow, imperials really like beheadings, don't they.

Whoa, what a fancy tavern!

I love how distinct the interior style is.

A dude walked up to me and started to talk about his "master" and madness. Sigh. It's going to be Sheogorath, isn't it? 

"Blessings of the Eight Divines" oh i see...

"We appreciate worship in all its forms" ha

And the temple is unlike anything I've seen before in the game, like the city in general.

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Just as I was glad to see the final battle of a dungeon end, my stupid followers decided to attack each other and Serana fucking murdered Uthgerd. Fuck! You!!!

Can't find anything to activate a bridge, think that maybe this dungeon doesn't have a shortcut, use Clairvoyance and it leads me back the way I came, I can't proceed, google and turns out there is a lever I missed. What is even the point of this spell?!

Dawnguard

Finally I have reached the place of your imprisonment, poor Thorald! But first I must get rid of Serana.

Haha, she thanks you for leading her all this way here and apologizes that she'll have to go her own way after. Fine by me!

Btw, in hindsight it wasn't the best strategic decision to show an ancient and respected vampire the location of the secret vampire hunter fort... Whoops.

Harkon *turns into a gargoyle*: Don't you wanna be pretty like me??

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Guess who showed no finesse whatsoever in this rescue operation and just slaughtered every Thalmor on her way?

I broke like a hundred lockpicks off these master locks, and the prisoners don't show any gratitude or even try to escape...

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With a good stock of certain mushrooms and a set of 26% fortify alchemy armor, it took me ten minutes to grind from legendary 15 back to 80 points.

Whiterun

I have figured out the problem with my Lakeview interior: it's not Whiterun-ish enough. Not enough yellow and blue, too much red and dark brown. Now that I've been to Solitude, I see its influences on the Breezehome mod I'm using and it's starting to bother me, too. Where are my blue-yellow walls? The ivy is pretty but it's Solitude's style, not Whiterun's. Btw I miss the simple vanilla Whiterun rug design...

"Not here, I told you to meet me in Riverwood" What the fuck? I didn't even expect to see her here! I live here, you know! I'm a thane here, actually!

Hmm, I tried to replace one of the rugs in Lakeview with a Whiterun rug but it just doesn't fit in... I didn't even notice that I build a red-green-brown color scheme there!

Dawnguard

Aaaand the vampires found us. Which is clearly a part of the main plot and happens whether I took Serana here or not.

"The woman was a vampire" Wait, is that supposed to be news?! How???

"I should have kept her here until we were certain" Yes we should have!!

"They also have an Elder Scroll" That's also not new! Literally the first thing you can ask her is "Is that an Elder Scroll?" Who wrote this???

"And you didn't stop them?" I LITERALLY BROUGHT HER HERE. SHE STOOD RIGHT NEAR THE CASTLE. WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE THE ORDERS THEN???

I'm going to cry... Out of everything I've encountered in the game, this is the stupidest.

Innocence Lost

The entire internet says you don't get bounty for killing Grelod. I sneak in during the night, stealth kill her -- bounty 1000, a guard immediately attacks me outside.

Oh right. It was Constance. But Grelod was in this room during the day, and someone among the kids shouted "kill her"...

Okay, now it went well.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be an assassin. That way I'm going to help lots of children, just like you" Aw...

An unusual gem is marked "take", I take it -- it's interpreted as stealing. Good thing I saved 10 seconds ago...

A fine hour as a honest student of magic -- training with everyone, getting my money back by trading, making more enchanted shit, grinding my brains out... My enchantment is at 95 now: almost there! Didn't even touch the storyline.

Dark Brotherhood

Wow, Astrid dragged me from Winterhold all the way to Solitude!She's the leader? They don't have anyone better? Really?Wait, the DB sanctuary is so close to my home? Unacceptable!!The DB sanctuary is bugged. Not only the inhabitants can't move, which isn't a bad thing, but the word wall doesn't work. And its word is in the only shout I regularly use.. 

Dawnguard

"You wouldn't happen to have a dwarven gyro, would you?" I'm wearing dwarven armor, boots, gauntlest, and two modded dwarven items. Yeah, I think I can find a gyro too...

I thought she would send me on a quest to explore a nearby ruin before agreeing...

Finally, I can interact with the master archery trainer and fellow engineer!

Aaand she sends me to freaking Solsteim. I had to google that because it doesn't show up on the map. Apparently it's a radiant location...

Isran refused to talk to me, only after I saw Serana he told me to talk to her, then after I turned my head from her back to him he asked me to tell me what she said, as if we weren't all standing in a corner almost on top of one another.

No, Serana, I don't want you to come along, especially if it's "just me and you".

Vaermina

Smart Looter broke the Vaermina quest, looting the soul gem that I was supposed to take, so I got stuck.

LMAO Vaermina your bluff could have been more convincing if you didn't add "Vaermina commands you" at the end

Proudspire Manor

Okay, I bought Proudspire and I have a lot of questions.

Is the children's room really next to the entrance on the first floor? Not on the third floor near the master bedroom, not even the second?

Where is the housecarl's room?

Where is the kitchen? You know, the cooking pot where I can make stuff?

Aaaalright, so the kids' room does appear on the third floor. So what is the empty room with a bed roll, then? 

And the cooking pot is apparently supposed to be on the second floor, and is missing due to a Hearthfire bug.

"The housecarl's room in the basement contains an unowned bed roll, two food barrels, three food sacks and many crates, rugs and unused pieces of furniture. This doesn't get upgraded like normal when you become thane and the housecarl moves into the manor, unlike with other houses." Okay. Why the hell is this called basement when it's on the ground level and leads to the main entrance?

I finally decided to do something with my hoarding problem, selling old weak potions and trying to sort the rest.

Unique weapons -- weapon rack in my house

Upgrade everything I have to Legendary, then either sell or:

Pouch 1 -- clothes I might want to wear

Pouch 2 -- enchanted weapons I don't use (too weak or not my type) but don't want to sell

Pouch 2 -- one or two copies of every weapon I have.

Dawnguard

Wow, I fast travelled right to the entrance to the fort this time! Improvement!

Yes, Serana, I think it is my place to judge you! When your family's problems are that you feed on other people, they become other people's business!

"I'll buy whatever you're looking to get rid of" Sorine truly understands me...

Wow, Dawnguard has a special, second in Skyrim breed of dog that actually looks cute, not creepy! I actually want one, but only if they're invincible.

They're protected, not essential :( Maybe I'd take one but use console. Like I did on Uthgerd earlier today. It's impossible to play a destruction mage with a follower otherwise.

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Came to Winterhold to ask about the scrolls and train with Faralda, and she attacks me :( It's another bug apparently.

Okay, thanks internet, waiting for 10 days fixed it.

Dawnguard

"He might know where I can find an Elder Scroll for Paarthurnax" Uh? Are we mixing up quests here? I haven't even met Paarthurnax...

Screw you, Serana! Is it not enough to just tell my follower to stay here? Do I have dismiss her entirely? Normal quest givers just leave the follower behind automatically!

I dunno, Serana, I think this courtyard looks pretty nice...

Free the horse's soul and then bind it to yourself! What's the logic? Nice horse though.

Does "Tyranny of the Sun" means "The sun harms vampires" or "Vampires destroy the sun"? I think they've used this phrase in both ways...

I'm not sure how the Soul Cairn works. Are the souls trapped here only by the special means gained from the Ideal Masters? I thought at first that they're just victims of the black soul gems, but doesn't seem so.

Wait, so if the prophecy asks for a "daughter of Cold-whatever", then any female vampire who had gone throgh that ritual would do, right? Not only Serana and her mom.

I'm not sure summoning a dragon to Tamriel is a good idea... Aren't we killing them on sight, not the other way around?

Winterhold

I just realized that I haven't used Illusion at all, but it would be very handy for roleplaying a nice character! So, another level-up session. I planned to leave legendary-ing alchemy for Solsteim, but what the hell! Got destruction and illusion to 90.

Damn, I forgot about Paralysis! And alteration altogether, it's at 38! That's because Tolfdir is in a different hall, haha.

The Black Star

Well, now I don't know what to do. When I read about the quest, I decided that I'll give the Star to the priestess -- I'm not evil and I don't need a black soul gem. But rp-wise... That mage is right. Why should I help daedra?

Wiki: "If you reveal yourself as an agent of Azura, you will have to pass an easy-level Speech check or he will dismiss you outright" Easy-level! Ha! I have 100+ Speech and I failed the persuasion and had to bribe him!

Uh, why is the owner of this mill a vampire? Is that normal?

Heljarchen Farm

Damn, the Heljarchen farm is so well decorated! The shrine decorations just floored me. I've never seen that kind of thing before!

It's a shame that as soon as I arrived to claim the property, I encountered a bandit stuck in place -- navmesh conflict? Also the light is flickering weirdly in the cellar.

LMAO my own worker addresses me "What do you want, lizard?"

I could feel the framerate die after I planted all my stuff outside lol. I didn't even fill all the planters! I wanted more of them, but maybe it wouldn't be wise...

Filled the greenhouse with mushrooms. Sorry immersion! I need those!

Oh, so I CAN light the lanterns! The activator is not on the lantern itself but on the post. Weird, but okay. Would be nice if they auto-activated at night.

Is that the outdoor toilet? Why can't I enter?

I wish it had a proper forge, not just an anvil.

I wish I could pay workers daily.

Cabbage clips through the fertile soil. Yikes.

The Hideaway

Time to tend to my other modded house -- the Hideaway. It's kinda ridiculous to have them right next to each other, but I love both. It's so amazingly designed! I haven't even seen before most of the assets in it! What I don't like is that I can't display a shrine of Zenithar -- some garbage Daedra, sure, but not one of the Divines! It's not a huge issue obviously, I can use one in the farm or anywhere else, but it's slightly irritating. The kitchen and smithing areas are too dark, there's a visible texture clash outside (might be vanilla though), and it's weird to leave all this stuff protected only by a couple of wooden planks.

Dragons Keep

Dragons Keep is beautiful and very detailed. Yes, Skyrim looks like a country that prefers home education to boarding schools -- but I really want to get those poor orphans somewhere safe even though I don't have time for parenting! I'd like some lore basis for this luxury. Maybe it was personally supported by the High King, and now that he's dead, the Dragonborn can become a new patron and pay for upkeep, as well as entrance fees for any new student I invite. That would be a good money sink, and make the entire thing more plausible.

And I wish the children were more diverse instead of carbon copies of vanilla ones...

My build

I've taken the Necromage and Aspect of Terror perks, and I think my fire spells are now even stronger than archery against draugr! So I went through an entire dungeon with Incinerate in the right hand and swapping between Soul Trap and Incinerate in the left.

My progression is going as planned. After a lot of studies in the college, I became a skilled wizard who uses all schools of magic. When I get at least one other than enchanting to mastery, I'll proceed with the quest. I know how it ends, but not how long it is, so I'm leaving it entirely until I feel deserving of the title.

lmao bless stealth archery, I have completed the final room of the Potema catacombs in Solitude without even stepping into it, killing every draugr before it could spot me

Proudspire TNF

Finally got tired that there's not a single smelter in the capital of Skyrim and installed Proudspire TNF. Well, first of all, the interior is twice as big as the vanilla one. Which means it's finally fit for a thane (the vanilla house seemed not bigger than mine!) but breaks immersion severely. Both master and children's bedrooms have balconies in place of walls; and I thought the combined bedroom in Hearthfire was bad for privacy! The housecarl room is ugly like in vanilla. And there are leftover harvestables floating in the air, but the reset interior command got rid of that. As a smaller complaint, I don't like that it got rid of the snowberry vases and leather planters. And I need to throw out those trophy bases! Why the fuck would I need a monster corpse in my home?!!

But the crafting areas are pretty much perfectly designed! The achemy room has the full lab, which I prefer to the tabletop variant, uses the table shelf for ingredients in bowls and puts three wall shelves above it for the same; there's a wooden table connected to the lab, and the lectern is placed in the corner between the two workspaces. Ingredients have their own open shelf (I wonder if it respawns), the similar shelf with the potions is a container, and there's a potion display shelf; plus, several planters in the same room, and it's all next to the kitchen but is safely separate in its own room with a door. The enchanting station is combined with the armory, which is what I wanted to do myself, and there's even a set of weapon plaques hanging right above it, and it's all close to a library.

So I really don't know what to do. I guess I leave it for convenience's sake, though I saw a comment that uninstalling it may cause problems...

I finally bit the bullet and installed USLEEP/WAFR/CCF/CCOR. And because the latter instructed me to make a bashed patch, had to learn wtf is that. Please work...

Proudspire Manor

Magically, something fixed the housecarl room. Was it some bug fix? Or just because I left and reentered the house?

I'm trying to think of a way to make this floor plan a bit less insane... My ideas:

Revert the third floor's plan to vanilla

Create a cellar -- not a trapdoor, just another flight of stairs. Move the armory/enchanting, smithy, bath there.

First floor is now main entrance/lobby. Replace the door with the fancy model. Move the housecarl room back there: she's guarding the door. Move most of the bookshelves there from the third floor; couple of display cases/plaques/mannequins; some pretty plants.

What was the lobby on the second floor is now living room for the owners.

Alternatively, if the door cannot be replaced and all of this is impossible -- make the "real" entrances way more decorated and visible.

Lmao I accidentally selected & dropped the front-facing "backdoor" in positioner and now it's permanently open

King Olaf Festival

"When Vampires Attack" broke the burning festival -- nobody came, and the bard ran back into the building as soon as he lit the fire. Disabled the mod in the MCM, but there's no option to enable it again.

"Speech skill increases 15% faster" Ha! Should have done this quest sooner.

"I believe Sanguine will be pleased with this festival" Wait, did this dude just announce his daedra worship in the middle of a festival in a capital city?

Now what?! A guard walks up to me with "You there. What do you know about this?" There shouldn't be any dead bodies near here. Maybe dead vampires? I dunno. We repeated the same lines 3 times before he walked away.

190 hours into the game and 99 active mods later, I have finally downloaded LOOT! Well, the loading screens are just as long, and framerate even seems worse.

Arrive at Lakeview, start picking flowers from my garden, get attacked by Thalmor, vampires and wolves all at once. What the hell?!

Calcelmo wants me to bring him a dwarven metal ingot? All the way from Riverwood? Wut?

Now I thought something was wrong with Breezehome -- the cooking pot was off the center, and the housekeeping book was magic-themed for some reason. But from the screenshots on the mod page, seems like it's supposed to look like that? Okay.

Uh, why the hell did Clothing and Clutter Fixes change Farengar's clothes from normal blue robes + hood to some mismatched monstrosity?!

Installed HD maps, for some reason they have greenish tint.

Wow, something deleted the bugged old tree trunk of the Gildergreen! What was it, I wonder? USLEEP?

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Okay, so. I suddenly decided it's time to make Speech legendary. I had the ideal conditions:

A stack of potions in my inventory

All three barter buffs

Thief Stone

Well Rested

Bard College bonus to speech increase

Treebalance mod ready to be installed

Now I have so many free perks! Since I don't need price reduction, Investor & Master Trader don't need to be reselected after legendary-ing, and Treebalance removes a fence perk from the merchant branch. Now I can finally buff my Illusion! And then I can start putting points into crafting again! Also ice spells for the fire dragons, alteration for defense, and armor for utility.

If only Treebalance didn't have the Allure perk... I should learn how to edit perk trees. Since I'll never dare to ask the modder to do that for me... The problem is, it's for some reason a branching point in the mod, so the entire tree would need to be reworked.

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Last round I could create 36% Fortify Enchanting potions. Now it stops on 32% :( I don't understand why.

Hmm I wonder what I should bring to the Thalmor Embassy...

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Dragonkiller Cart Reloaded & Gypsy Eyes Caravan

The setup process of Dragonkiller Cart is so difficult... But when I set it up, it immediately improved my immersion. Now I know where I'm carrying all this crap! And then I could park it and scout ahead with invisibility/muffle. Time to put on illusion on heavy armor/cloak to make a peaceful traveller's outfit. And try to assign a housecarl to sit on my cart and guard it at all times.

What isn't as immersive is the way it tumbles around after fast travel or at the slightest sign of trouble.

Okay, when I started falling off a cliff and fast-travelled back to the word wall, my horse appeared but the cart didnt. When I came back to it, the harness somehow wasn't in the inventory anymore.

I still have no idea when Jaxonz Smart Looter works on horseback and when doesn't. Not sure why I'm not using Convenient Horses's auto-loot... But I rebound the manual harvesting to M2 and my life instantly became easier.

The dragon on the peak above Morthal was once again missing textures, and now even didn't give me a soul.

And finally, I'm in Morthal! Now I can pick up my unused housecarl and assign him to guard the cart. Though considering the horrifying loops the cart did on the rocky road down the mountain, I'm a bit scared to put someone in it...

Okay, I assigned my follower a seat, but how do I get him in there?

What the fuck? Where did the harness go AGAIN? Are they consumed after a day of use or something?!

A youtube video explained the problem: the followers are invisible if assigned to seats 1-2. Also, they only get on the cart if you do, and get off with you. So much for guarding my stuff!

When I tried to use Gypsy Eyes Caravan, it freaked out and was glitching almost for a full minute.

Well, here I can do what I want: assign a follower to drive the cart permanently, and either follow me or stay back. Even though I prefer the simple design of Dragonkiller.

Just as I felt happy that everything was finally working, Valdimar disappeared. And in the morning, rose through the seat and was on it again. Wut?

Okay, I left both carts at the Markarth stables, both set to "follow". Went into Markarth, then fast-travelled from there. Only my horse appeared, neither of the carts.

I'm back to the stables. Dragonkiller informs me that it needs a horse harness, again; also it's nowhere to be seen, its map marker is still in Morthal. Gypsy eyes has its wheels flying around it wildly, and it's unable to follow me.

Dragonkiller wasn't even at its map marker in Morthal; I have no idea how those work. Had to re-summon it, and it hitched the horse without a problem -- so the harness wasn't missing again, after all?

Okay, so turns out GEC has a next beta version, and the notes basically confirmed my guess of what was going on: when I fast travel to a city, the caravan attempts to do so too, and crashes horribly. I expected that the mod would be smart enough to park the caravan at the stables which every city has next to the entrance -- you know, like your normal horse!

And my max Fortify Smithing potion is now 130% as opposed to 145% last time. Why? Was it a beneficial glitch?

I put on my fresh max Fortify Smithing armor, made a lot of max Fortify Smithing potions, and finally sat down and improved every single thing in my inventory to the limit. I can breathe easily now.

I just remembered about Angi's camp! Just in time -- my archery is at 92. Damn, the last task is difficult...