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I'm overworked, I look like this and I miss @ahdok
socksandpuppets.tumblr.com Socks and Puppets

4. Doctor Respect to our medical professionals.

Socks and Puppets

Credits to @ahdok@ttrpg.network for guessing my likeness after a few days of sleep deprivation.

How about you? which Konsi are you at the moment?

I'm assuming everyone knows Konsi and Ahdok, but if not there's plenty of their work here and on their profile.

Let's do this. ❤️‍ 😴

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The fighter learning a valuable lesson
  • I think Solasta felt more like a D&D campaign than BG3 to me.
    I wouldn't say it's better than BG3, but I liked you played more as a party instead of a protagonist with companions.
    Neither of those are gonna offer as much shenanigans and nonsense than a table can (or vtt).

  • Spellslot well spent
  • Well I mean, next time your party needs to escape from somewhere, book an escape room that has a theme that's close enough.
    There'd be no tabletop element, obviously no weapon or spells, although your players can still kinda roleplay in there.

    Most escape rooms around here already have their own little backstory and an actor introduces you to their shtick and sometimes interacts with you through the thing.
    If you call them ahead of time, they might agree to slightly alter their existing stuff to accommodate your story.

  • Spellslot well spent
  • I was gonna give you advice on trapping them, but then I realized you were talking about their characters and not the actual players.
    Then again, playing the odd session in an actual escape room might be fun.

  • When you're not sure what to say
  • Your party just met up for the first time at this retro restaurant and the robowaitress asks what you want to order.
    You don't have much in the way of company credits, so it's a bit awkward as you barely have enough for anything on the holomenu.
    [...] Luckily, your new patron to be notices and says they'll take care of it.
    "5 breakfast lab-bacon sandwiches" and waives his credstick.
    You don't know much about the guy, but even if this job of his doesn't pan out, a meal's a meal.

    The corpo ad plays loudly on the holo:
    Lab grown bacon is the closest thing to the real thing, 100% guaranteed
    A small disclaimer, barely big enough to be legible scrolls in and out too quick, you make out the words "purge", "reconstructed", "flavor", "simulation", befit the thing pops out of existence the robowaitress heads off on skates.
    It's common historical knowledge, so you all know that actual pigs were all purged in huge mobile incinerators more than a decade ago after a bad wave of swine flu, so who's to say what bacon was really like...
    Rumour has it that the "lab" in labbacon is actually for labrador meat, which... you're pretty sure is just an urban legend to scare kids into eating their synth-celery.
    As you wait, your new patron cuts to the chase "So, before I spill the details on this job, tell me about yourselves? I like to know new contractors"
    [...] /awkward roleplay [...]

    He eyes you suspiciously, like he's not quite sure what to make of y'all.
    "Alright, that's for us, I'm starving", he says with a big smile as the robowaitress zooms across the busy room with a big platter, expertly and effortlessly zigzagging between customers, bums and other hazards.
    Then there's a loud crash and a bunch of weirdly dressed, blindfolded weirdos appear out of thin air, flailing, swinging, dancing?
    They're chanting something you can't make out and they're dressed even more ridiculously than in these old holomovies you've seen (describe your old party, focusing on how out of place they are).

    The platter goes flying and crashing as they start stomping around, seemingly intent on fighting your meal for some reason.

    "Fucking Glitter addicts" Fixer McFixer Face mutters, standing up.

    Roll initiative

    On her turn, the robowaitress shouts a much louder, recorded message: "SIRS, THIS IS A WENDYS ™, DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY"

    (After a few rounds of chaotic fighting or fruitless attempts at getting the intruders' attention... they zap out of existence like they were never there, except for the mess.)

    The robowaitress resumes her programming, bringing you a mostly empty platter with sad, smashed bits of food scattered here and there.
    "Enjoy your meal, satisfaction guaranteed"
    As she says the word guaranteed, there's about 3 pages of legalese verbiage that scrolls in and out of existence faster than any human can probably ever read, classic. She storms off as soon as this blinks out.

    He picks at bits of thin leathery brown-greenish strips of pressed labbacon pulp, and whatever destroyed remains and sighs with a resigned look.
    "Well, I don't know what the fuck this was about, but it seems you can handle yourself, you're in."
    Getting his credstick out, he reserves the table for another half hour and orders a new platter.

    (Start explaining their first job/adventure)

  • When you're not sure what to say
  • It’s like when you go to an office social event and realize you only ever talk to these guys about work stuff.

    It's funny because I just got back from the office social thing and yea whenever we drift to something else than work... yikes.

  • Ask Game Masters @ttrpg.network BalanceInAllThings @ttrpg.network
    Noob DM running for a single player

    Title. I'm a noob DM, I've played some 20 years ago, never DM'd.

    So far, I've read the books, but more importantly, I've read and watched both Sly Flourish and Matt Colville so I think I got a handle on a few things. I mean, not really, but I'm a bit more confident in knowing that I'll mess things up, but roll with it. But... my first game would have a single PC who never played D&D, which isn't mentioned too often.

    Any tips on running for a single noob PC?

    My main concerns are:

    • a single 1st level PC can easily get wrecked by even a small number of goblins
    • playing a DM PC comes with important caveats
    • fudging dice can work but needs to be subtle enough, and not the only thing keeping the PC alive.

    Action economy means even lowly encounters would have a very thin line between boring/challenging/tpk. DMPC has its pitfalls, I'll need to avoid stealing their thunder and not become a leader/authoritative voice in the party.

    As such, I was thinking on running more of a cowardly follower type rather than some full-fledged customer-support-superhero DMPC. Not that it needs to be bland, but I feel it definitely needs to be following rather than leading. Helpful and engaging, sure, but that NPC's story shouldn't be the focus. I'd probably roleplay it, but have the PC run both in combat.

    I'm very confident they'd enjoy getting something like a pet from a Wondrous Figurine, but I feel like getting/rescuing that from a BBEG SBEG (SmallerBEG) in their first adventure is probably more fun and memorable for them than just getting that in their starting equipment on their character sheet. But I guess having them make a cool background story of how they got that might work too.

    Pros: The wondrous figurine is implicitly not a leader, helps on-demand when they ask for it, rather than when the DM thinks so. Unlike a pet, it never really dies, it just goes to the astral plane to kick their wounds and comes back purring. Having their beloved pet in an actual death situation is probably a red line for them, those will be discussed in session 0, but since I've been living with that player for 15 years, I already got a good picture. Cons: probably a bit much magic at that level, but I'm not too worried about them being more powerful. Needs a realistic intro.

    Not many cons tbh. If they have fun and I don't kill them outright I think that's pretty good. I feel it'd be easier to have them be a bit more powerful and find bigger challenges if needed... than it would be to scale everything 25%.

    So far... my plan is to inspire myself from Phandelver, but keeping it loose and as sandbox as I can manage.

    I was thinking on running a coward, possibly expendable NPC with them at first, at least until they complete the first goblin hideout. I'd change that to somehow have some of the goblins there using the reluctant figurine pet to torture Sildar (not unlike Drizzt' Gwenhwyvar to be honest). The figurine could have been a gift from the Spider to Klarg for capturing Gundren. Even then, I don't wanna plan too much and would rather find an organic way for things to happen. Getting the figurine earlier than Klarg could be helpful, but needs a bit of work story-wise. Maybe there's a goblin teasing it instead of the chained wolves in one of that first room, idk. It'd have to feel natural.

    The more I think about it, the more I think Gwenhwyvar was explicitly invented by Salvatore for Drizzt's first low-lvl single-PC campaign.

    Any input is appreciated. This post is way longer than it should

    Peace

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    BalanceInAllThings @ttrpg.network
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