/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>141856
Wont said mimic just eat him when he wears them?

>>142087
yeah, but not if the druid's already made a deal with them that they protect him and in exchange they get to eat everyone he kills

What kind of homebrew creatures have you guys created?

I am wondering was the cocept of giant evil spiders just a thing created in LOTR or did they exist in european mythos?

>>141856
I think there's something like that in the Dark Sun life shaping handbook.

>>141856
>>142232
Do they necessarily need to be mimics, or just abberrations?
Aberrant Druids could become impure princes, and wear a whole wardrobe of abberrant symbiotes.

>>142987
I DM 3.5e, so the creatures I create are mostly templated and refluffed existing creatures. It makes it easier to calculate CR of monsters and treat the party fairly.

>>145341
There's plenty of giant spiders in mythology. Them being especially evil was probably more of Tolkien's personal taste.

>>142987
>>145345
The "Pyroclastic Barghests" (see >>145336 → ) are my take on on variant Barghests for use in Red Hand of Doom. I decided to use traits of variant fiends to make them closer to Abishai, using the variant half-fiend traits on the old WotC articles. Igave them dragonspawn traits, using pyroclastic dragons, since Pyroclastic dragons are planar dragons of Gehenna. I won't go into specifics of their stats here since I still intend to use more of them in my ongoing campaign.

I've also made statblocks for several monsters in the past year, most of which I never actually got to use since the PCs didn't travel in the direction I expected them to or they ended up not being necessary to the plot. Examples include "Timber Wolves" (Greenbound Horrid Dire Wolves), "Lizard Queen" (Half-Abishai variant half-fiend Female Blackscale lizardfolk, Dragon Shaman 4), an "Ordained Zealot" (Greenspawn Zealot with the Monster of Legend Template, Cleric 1, Talon of Tiamat 2; casts as lvl 7 Cleric), and an "The Great Spirit Lion Ikelos" (Advanced Elder Ghost Brute Horrid Dire Lion, Evolved Undead, Spirit of the Woods).
I didn't actually use any of these guys, but I had their statblocks just in case I wanted to take the story in a different direction.

Red Hand Of Doom spoilers:
I'm also working on a certain multi-headed, tauric, monster-of-legend, half-dragon, fiendish lammassu to throw at my party at my party later if the time calls. And of course, plenty of variant Dragonspawn abominations.

>>145346
Yea its weird, most spiders in mythos are not evil but curent popular media makes them so. I'm trying to figure out how to put dark elves in my homebrew based on more real life myths and legend.

>>145348
Dark elves in mythos had nothing to do with spiders.
I think at some point they were actually synonymous with dwarves.

For DMs:
How do you keep your games moving? In my games (d&d) ensuring that the party gets to experience at least a set minimum amount of content (about 4 party-level encounters per adventuring day, and one adventuring day per session; social events count if skill is involved) is my highest priority as a DM. I can't stand games where the PCs just stand around talking and not doing anything, or when time stretches into infinity and twelve or sessions are spent in the same week. However, it can be difficult keeping things up to speed, and takes a lot of energy out of me. My sessions tend to go on for a long time, and once I get exhausted I find myself cutting a few corners to not-suck, particularly with NPC dialogue that I sometimes skip when not essential, but that threatens to make my games look like combat marathons and might bore my party in a different way. Keeping pre-written maps/stats/quotes/descriptions/flowcharts on hand helps, but it doesn't help with improvising.

Does anybody have some strategies to share for what makes a fun, action-packed, colorful and descriptive, dialogue-intensive adventuring session? I want to hone my skills to be a better DM for my next game.

>>145349
Are dark elves not a Original idea from DnD?

>>145632
Not at all.
Literally just search "Dark elf mythology":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6kk%C3%A1lfar_and_Lj%C3%B3s%C3%A1lfar

>>145636
Interesting, will see if i cant find more info on them.

By the way, you guys know any good books or what not about european creatures and legends/myths? I want to make my homebrew more european acurate and i need some good info.

>>145798
I usually just use wikipedia, but I've also seen a couple dragon magazine articles that sometimes give insights into the historic roots of certain races.

>>145344
Ok, now that I have more DnD experience and know the full deal with aberrations, I suppose that fits my characteristics. Idk, I just like the idea of somebody taking a druid hostage only for the druid's clothing to suddenly go fucking apeshit and kill everything in sight before calming down and putting itself back on him.

>>146968
>him
Fag

>>146969
Not everything is sex.

>>146968
Could work, just make sure its not overpowerd.

>>146968
What edition of d&d is this supposed to be?

Despite having a place to do it here, I tend to find myself drifting back to other forums to for fulfilling tabletop discussion. It's not that there's nobody here to talk about it with, it just feels like threads just don't stay active.

What would be a good way to facilitate tabletop discussion, for various games, on this board?

>>147497
Like, we have ttrpgs being played on this board, but virtually no discussion of them. I've tried making threads before, but I don't get very many replies.
I know the Horsefucker Pathfinder community is abundant, but maybe this site's username is just to thin to facilitate discussion...

>>147551
Perhaps, but while many anons play ttrpgs, not everyone cares to discuss the, self included
>literally playing dnd right noe

>>147552
What edition do you play?
I've been trying to get into Pathfinder.

>>147553
I've played every edition of dnd, including the 'advanced' ones (except 4e). I really like 5e, but 2eAd is my favorite (good luck finding players tho e_e).
Havent ventured into PF, heard good things about PF1 and mixed reactions to PF2

>>147554
PF2e is pretty well designed. Much better than D&D 5e, in my opinion. Not hard to play, and pretty well balanced. I really want to play more of it. I'm actually just about to join a Ponyfinder game in that edition.
I find that PF2e has a couple vague similarities to what was innovative about d&d 4e, except it's not full crappy pitfalls.
PF1e is similar to d&d 3.5e, improved in many ways and questionably changed in others. It's pretty fun.

I haven't played 2e, but I've read the rules. I like it better than 5e.
I've been aiming to play d&d 2e for a while just to get an authentic Dark Sun experience, although that's a quest that's been going on for years now... No other edition really represents Athas correctly, except maybe d&d 4e.

D&D 5e is my least favorite edition, tbh. I've spent a long time playing it and reading all of its books hoping I'd learn to like it, but that just had the opposite effect on me. It's just not my cup of tea, and I could go on for days about why I don't like it, but I don't feel like doing that now.
It is easy to get into though, which contributes to it's popularity. I think it's simplicity is highly overrated though, considering that nearly every 5e DM ends up writing half a book's worth of homebrew
and houserules just to make it enjoyable.

For D&D 4e, all I can really say is that an attempt was made. The edition flopped for reasons (primarily because it alienated 3.5e players and failed to create its own fanbase), but not for any lack of trying. I think some of its combat mechanics and abilities are actually pretty well designed. It's also very well balanced on a class by class level, with all classes being consistently good at what they do without overshadowing each other. However "balance" isn't always what people want out of an RPG.
I'd still gladly play a short game of it if I had the chance though.

We have indeed had a couple long-running ttrpg games on this board. I don't really consider chansites to be the best medium for most ttrpgs though. Most of the ones that have run more like unformal CYOAs.
Although maybe I should have a bit more faith in it and we could get more gaming threads running here. Not sure what a game on a chansite really requires to run smoothly though.

>>147556
>I don't really consider chansites to be the best medium for most ttrpgs though.
No contest, discord was the superior platform for managing a small group of intrepid adventurers. Once
Having said, I would much prefer a (notably delayed) anon forum to the potential risks of having everything axed cuz some zebra got his panties in a bunch over pale horses

>>147557
Discord is only good for voice, tbh. Most competent groups also incorporate an online tabletop of sorts like Roll20 or Foundry.
I am open to the idea of Anon forums only because I want to use /mlpol/ as much as possible, but I don't know how to really enable a quality game that runs entirely on /mlpol/. If anything, it would require a well thought-out system, and even then it can only realistically run at a small fraction of the pace of a typical PbP game (and boy are PbP games SLOW).
/mlpol/ has better potential to run /qst/ style games than ttrpgs. I just haven't heard of any interest in the matter.

>>147560
Mlpol is fine for a slow-paced, not 'sitting down and concentrating' sort of non-intensive game. Beyond that, meh, I dont recommend

>>147561
That's why I said it's better for /qst/ style games, or CYOAs. Other chansites do that pretty well.

>>147562
>/qst/ and COYA
Enjoy the cancer

>>147563
Wtf are you talking about? CYOAs are fun. And /qst/ has plenty of good content that actually works on chansite mediums.
Besides, a slow-moving "ttrpg" with almost no combat or exploration may as well just be a CYOA.

There was the Luftkrieg CYOA that sadly ground to a halt when /pone/ did. Maybe those threads are worth resurrecting. This site could use more original Aryanne content.

>>147563
What's not to like about collaborative storytelling?

Support this it needs to be a thing

>>147568
Why to atomize the poners?
/mlpol/ central s just fine. Or I missing something?

>>147568
What is this and how does it relate to ttrpgs?

How many of you guys play Ponyfinder and/or play any other ttrpgs that take place in Equestria or pony-themed settings?

>>147571
me, they are hard to find though. Really would like to try early D&D

>>147572
How early are you talking about?

>>147573
advanced or 2nd edition

>>147575
I've been looking into second edition a bit, but finding groups is tough. They do exist out there though.

>>147568
What is it?

>>147577
It looks like a twitter page.

What do you guys think of the 2e conversation handbook for Ponyfinder?

>>148198
Sorry, I have no knowledge of this, and therefore cant comment,... yet
2e conversion you say? Ima have to look that up
What are anon's impressions of using weighted scenarios to challenge the party? At times I like to pit the party against otherwise insurmountable foes, under the context of 'if you dont run/escape, you will be killed', to emphasize the fact that 'no, you cant just murderhobo your way through'. This could be anything from villains and adversaries, to a really pissed off group of soldiers/guards (often because of a rogue). The spirit behind it is to emphasize that the party IS the center of the story, but that doesnt give license to do anything they want, at least not without a very real possibility of death or consequence for foolish/haphazard choices.
In my games I want the players to be as motivated to try to avoid dying as a person likely would be in an irl conflict at the same level of risk.

>>148233
>At times I like to pit the party against otherwise insurmountable foes
No matter how clear you try to make the danger, at least half of the PCs will believe that the danger is supposed to be a challenge that they're supposed to overcome. Even if they know running is the better option, PC mentality encourages them to be "brave".
Of course, it's fine to do that, but you should have a backup plan for how you will react if the party does the opposite of what you want/expect them to do. For example, you could cause them to get captured, with a chance to escape later. Unbeatable enemies should also have nonlethal tactics at their disposal: for example, the overleveled werelion lich king in my most recent game was predisposed to be a cautious fighter since he had no knowledge of the party or their allies; his paralysis attacks would have likely incapacitated most of the party, and I had him prepare some extra spells that could explicitly incapacitate the elf and the dragon without killing them. If they lost, they would have been captured and tortured by the enemy bard. If they won, kudos to them. Either way the campaign would have continued.
>In my games I want the players to be as motivated to try to avoid dying as a person likely would be in an irl conflict at the same level of risk.
A good idea to do that is to do the overleveled encounter early on, on the third or fourth session. However, the objective shouldn't be to make the party run away, but to just let them throw themselves at the encounter and then watch them get captured. I wouldn't make the encounter too obviously overleveled either, but instead just deceivingly deadly (making it obvious will feel like railroading and will be unfun), like partof a group of seemingly weak goblins suddenly shapeshifting into half-dragon barghests. This way you can set expectations, and teach the party about the very real possibility of TPKs. The current module I'm using had an encounter like that, although I never really needed it since my enemy tactics were good enough to consistently scare the party for most of the game.
>avoid dying as a person likely would
Normal people don't crawl into dungeons full of skeletons to make a few hundred bucks; PCs are meant to be heroes, and risk dying like heroes, or fools. Death is a natural part of D&D. While PCs who kamikaze themselves at every danger may be annoying, it's also important to acknowledge that players should also be free to play their characters how they wish. If their choices result in their capture or death, so be it. Just make sure you've got robust flowcharts and you narrate well enough to make the dangers clear. Expecting players to make the decisions you want is just setting yourself up for frustration.
Enemies with nonlethal tactic options to capture the PCs are also a good method to prevent the party from being TPK'd at moments that would be inconvenient to your plot.

>>148233
>2e conversion you say?
The PF2e conversion for Ponyfinder, which was originally PF1e.
I say it converts really well, relatively. PF2e's modular and scaling racial abilities are pretty accommodating for pony races. You can have races that fly and races with innate magical powers without them being too front loaded.

>>148233
>as a person likely would be in an irl conflict at the same level of risk
In my experience, I have been more frustrated by characters who continuously run away and refuse to enter danger than characters who are too reckless.
Reckless characters can be replaced, but if the plot can't advance because PCs don't enter the cave the game grinds to a halt.

>>148198
Maybe this board needs a Ponyfinder thread

What's the best platform for online games? I've been trying to get savy with Foundry to improve my games, but I think there are some other electronic tabletops worth using. I'm used to using discord for voice chat, but I want to break my dependance on my site.
On the subject of voice chat (or lack thereof), what makes a good PbP game? I really believe that PbP games can be good and fun, but my personal experience with them hasn't been all that great, from both a DM and player perspective. They've in my experience been slow and inconsistent with rules, often frustrating because players get up and walk away during roleplay. I find that they seem to be difficult with mechanics too because combat become a slough, or the entire game goes full magic tea party.

>>148550
Probably matrix, mumble, and foundryVTT if you care about freedom.

>>148551
I care about freedom, but I also care about functionality.
I've never heard of mumble. I guess I'll try it out.

>>148552
Mumble is good... if your ping time is over 1 second (satellite internet) discord drops all packets over that, mumble does not.
Found that out playing ponyfinder... lul.

While the protocol for matrix is fine, as far as I know none of the clients have voice functioning very well unless its the element web browser client. Even then there is no push-to-talk which is super fail in my book.
There are no tech companies paying for any of the matrix clients development. So far its just one or three guys working on the client. Mind you there are like a dozen different kinds with a different focus for each.
Look for one that will work well for what you want and throw money at them.

I could pop open a mumble server though. Easy to do and uses almost no resources. Works well for voice communication within games of any kind. Heh, I have the domain area51.world I could use it for if you want.

Anyone know a good place to get players online? Do we have a ""Discord"" or whatever else thats better?

>>148703
I made a games matrix channel on https://mlp.chat - depending on how things go I might rename it to tabletop or whatever. For now there is not enough activity to have such a divide.

#games:mlp.chat

>>148704
Oh nice. Btw I know its not really the best but its the only version i have. Would anyone be interested in a game of DnD 5e?

>>148705
Depends how long the game would be.

>>148705
i think i have a version of pony finder in my archives.

>>148705
Do you have something in mind?

>>148708
>>148710
>>148711
If my mic works i wanted to try DMing a game of Lost Mine of Phandelver. Or if a game already exist maybe join. Honestly just want to try tabletops it seem like fun time.

>>148732
It is indeed a fun time.
I'd invite you to my current campaign, but it's already kind of nearing its end. I'm probably going to run a new one this winter though, and I'd gladly take players from this board.

Wonder if anyone here paints minis.

>>149012
I've painted them before, but I don't really buy them.

>>149012
Hell yeah. I 3d print my minis and paint 'em. Theyre alot more fragile/brittle than the old-school pewter ones, but they take paint alot better, and the price is right.

>>149014
Do you design the 3D printed models too?

Anyone of you know a good place for a leaf to get good price minis? The ones i get from wizkid are good but i wish i could prime them myself.

>>149024
It depends what kinds of minis you want.

>>149015
No, I just choose from what is free and available

The cover of the new 5e book was leaked.
Anybody care?

>>149298
Yea post it

>>149300
I thought of making a thread for 5e, but it would basically be a general and I never really felt like it or thought anyone was interested.

The cover was found in the source code of d&dbeyond, which once again shows how crap Hasbro is at protecting their property.
Looks like it's going to be a generalist book, like Volo's Guide, only with Dragons. The name on the cover is of course a Dragonlance reference, although we also know that this book features Gemstone Dragons, which don't fit into the mileau of Krynn at all; from that we can assume that it's not a setting book, but a generalist book. Basically 5e's Draconomicon. As for why they would invoke the name of Fizban, I can only assume they want to either milk nostalgia or possibly reboot a Dragonlance adventure book in the future.
All of the player content has already been published in UA. It's only a question of what they're going to nerf into oblivion.

>>149302
Them again, they're probably just using Fizban's name. They used Tasha for their last book, and they haven't said anything about Grayhawk whatsoever.

Don't you just love it when book writers name-drop characters from old settings and say a couple words like "yeah, you can totally play in this setting", and then proceed to not produce any content for the setting whatsoever? No modules. No maps. No nothing.

>>149302
>Basically 5e's Draconomicon
Gay! We need new maps and worlds.
>>149303
That’s even gayer. We even name drop in the first place then?

>>149306
WotC tries to get as much hype as possible with minimal effort. Name-dropping old characters and half-ass reviving old settings let's gets people excited enough to get a book printed.
Welcome to 5e.
>new maps and worlds
Lmao, no. That would require hiring actual writers to produce actually content. WotC doesn't do that in 2021.

Also, maps and worlds aren't worth very much on their own if they don't print any adventures to enjoy them.

>>149308
>>149309
True unfortunately. WOTC like all corporate stooges kill everything artistic and fun

>>149310
They weren't always this terrible. They've gotten lazy, or at least unwilling to hire writers.

>>149311
>they weren’t always this terrible
I’m not so sure. They were better at hiding their Disdain.

>>149312
I mean they used to actually produce books. There was a time when they'd pump out books full of mechanical content at least once a month.

>>149313
They just wanted shekels. The books were alright though.

>>149314
Tbh, with the most recent edition, the problem isn't just lack of content, but the game design itself. The game isn't modular enough for new character content to really enrich the game. Every feat and subclass it mutually exclusive with all of the previous feats and subclasses, so there's little that you can add to a character concept with a new book.
It's a shame. They tried to make 5e so "simple" that they quashed any room it could have had to improve. Too bad it's not modular like PF2e.

>>149302
Might get it if its a monster manual of sort. I always love those.

>>149318
Cant they just put new ""harder"" rules in some new books?

>>149323
They could, but they don't.

Favorite game?
What do you like about it to that other games don't do well?

https://www.enworld.org/threads/wotc-novels-non-5e-lore-are-officially-not-canon.681553/
Thoughts? I didn't think it warranted a thread.

>>149624
Homebrew seems better anyway.

>>149797
Elaborate.

>>148233
I'm bored, so I feel like inquiring this again, if you're still there.
What exactly is your experience with "weighted scenarios"? I think I've been in plenty of games that might have something similar to what you are describing, but I'm not sure.

>>149799
weighted scenarios?

>>149799
The thing about "weighted scenarios", as you describe them, is that they often include situations where the party has their backs to the wall and there is only one viable solution to the predicament. The problem with that is if there was no way of avoiding that situation in the first place, it's basically just railroading. Now, nobody likes railroading, but a little bit of subtle railroading to keep the game on track doesn't hurt that much. However, if the railroaded situation you create is "Do what I expect you to, or you'll be TPK'd", a variety of things could happen.
>1. The party immediately realizes that it's railroaded, and does what you want them to do (run away, negotiate, surrender, etc)
This is a likely scenario, but it's rather unfun when the players realize that they're not getting to make choices in the matter, which can lead to situation 2b (see below) if you do this more than once.
>2. The party recognizes it's a railroaded situation, but misinterprets what they are supposed to do (fight until expected help arrives, die with honor, kill the enemies' leader, distract the enemy and die while the rest of the party escapes, destroy the McGuffin, use up all of their resources, etc)
This is a situation you create for yourself when you give the party problems with only one solution. If there is only one solution in the situation, any other significant action has potential to derail the plot that you tried to railroad. As the GM, you are responsible for eloquently communicating the situation to the party; any inadequacy in making the situation clear is a failure on your behalf.
>2b. The party realizes that the situation is railroaded, and gets frustrated or antagonistic as a result, leading them to do something you don't expect them to (destroy the McGuffin, kill themselves, fight to the death in a show of 'bravery', join the evil side, exploit a mechanical loophole, sacrifice a key NPC, destroy the world, etc)
This outcome is more likely than you think. If you haven't been communicating with the party well, or you've frustrated them with your plot resolution, they're going to be unpredictable. Players who feel like they're being deprived of choices will try to create choices for themselves, leading them to subvert the plot and/or to the one thing you haven't prepared for them to do. Some players will do this without even realizing it, or just have a belief that they're supposed to outsmart the GM even when surrounded and supposedly out of options. This is something to watch out for, because players will never fail to surprise you in their plot-derailing ingenuity or equally-powerful stupidity. Cornered PCs can act like cornered animals, even if they don't realize they're cornered (see number 3 below).
>3. The party DOESN'T recognize that the situation is railroaded, and does the opposite of what you expect them to (fight to the death, destroy the McGuffin, join the evil side, sacrifice a party member, use up all of their resources in desperation, etc).
You can expect at least one party member to misinterpret the situation, so this outcome is rather likely.
>3b. The party is more optimized/powerful than you expected, leading them to simply bulldoze right through odds you thought to be "insurmountable" with brute force and clever tactics.
This happens all of time, but isn't really a problem unless you hinged your entire plot/universe on the the party's failure, which you should never do. If you don't want the PCs to murder the goddess of light, you shouldn't have put her there in the flesh (if it has stats, you can kill it).
>4. The party doesn't recognize the situation is railroaded, but still does what you expect them to.
This is the most desirable outcome, but notice how it's only one of 4-4 outcomes possible, and with 4-6 party members you can expect at least one player to try something whacky. It is also the outcome that requires the most skill as a GM, because it means getting the party to do what you want without letting them realize that they aren't the ones making the choices.

From what is listed above, there are 4-6 ways a party can react to any situation with "insurmountable odds", and only 1-2 of them are really any good. As a GM, you shouldn't really be depriving your party of choices, because when you do that you deprotagonize the players and worse you create the possibility of PCs frustrating you by defying your expectations. Not only is railroadinging in this fashion unfun, but it gets even worse when you realize that the party might not properly cooperate with the actions you are trying to force them into.

Of course, it's not always bad. This stuff happens in games all of the time, but you might be setting yourself up for failure if you rely on the PCs doing exactly what you expect them to.
>>149800
Idk. I might have just wasted 15 minutes typing the post above if i've misinterpreted Anon's post.
See >>148233

>>149800
I might not have understood what >>148233 meant, which is why I asked for his exoperience in the matter.

>>148233
>The spirit behind it is to emphasize that the party IS the center of the story, but that doesnt give license to do anything they want, at least not without a very real possibility of death or consequence for foolish/haphazard choices.
>In my games I want the players to be as motivated to try to avoid dying as a person likely would be in an irl conflict at the same level of risk.
How do you usually go about implementing this? Do you actually kill them, or do you not? What's the level of game lethality you're looking for?
Usually early deadly encournters that install fear of death in players are meant to set up the expectation that they could die, but also make them more okay with the potential of dying. PCs who don't want to risk dying wouldn't go on adventures in the first place: heroes are by their nature braver than usual.
Idk if you're even still alive, but I want to understand what you're getting at.

Anyone else here tried PF2e?
It's been growing on me. I was originally a 3.5e/PF1e fan, but I'm liking this edition.

Kek, I don't think any other deity takes such great lengths to defend her followers.
Look at this. Do not ever fuck with dead hobbits.

5e modules are such shit.