Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

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The Rockafire Explosion said:
Not sure if this was already posted, mea culpa if so, but sweet Gruumsh 6E/One DnD or whatever the fuck they're calling it is so fucking gay. No more racial penalties! Everyone is good at everything! We all loved that part in Lord of the Rings when Gimli and Legolas were instantly friends and didn't need to overcome their deep seated racial hostilities and differences, they just insantly high fived and said "isn't it cool how we all have dark vision? Also, orc lives matter."

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Of course the hippie chick in the glasses is just standing around holding her hands up as everyone else does all of the hard work.
 
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Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.

But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve? Or maybe that isn't even a problem for your PCs because you're Rico Sauvé the DM and every second of your sessions are totally enthralling and/or because this 5E.txt problems.
 
A year ago a strange compulsion came over me and I just started buying all the Dnd 3.5 and Pathfinder 1e content I could find in my vision. I scoured book stores, thrift stores, garage sales, and game stores. I burnt quite a hole in my wallet and space to accommodate the new acquisitions and wondered if it was worth it

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After reading this thread above I now know I made the right fucking decision and I'll never need to look at any new editions ever again.

Now all I need is some decent maps and terrain, any suggestions?
 
Brain Problems said:
Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.

But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve? Or maybe that isn't even a problem for your PCs because you're Rico Sauvé the DM and every second of your sessions are totally enthralling and/or because this 5E.txt problems.
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I knew GMs who would do that for organized play. None of us really minded because they were trustworthy but they would typically either do it at the table before game began so we could see them writing the rolls out or they would come in with a sheet of paper with all the pre-rolled results and they would let the players see it at the end of the session.

I've never done it but if I were to run a d20 game in person that I wanted to maximize combat time for, I would do it.
 
Brain Problems said:
Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.
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I have thought about this before, but honestly it ruins the fun for me. Tossing the die and not knowing how it'll end up and how much I'll need to fudge to make it come up with the result I wanted is a big part of the game. The extra 5 seconds per roll adds up, but isn't worth trying to shave.

Try to save time/mental energy elsewhere. Have index cards for enemies with modifiers written out and such.

I HAVE pre-rolled damage sometimes when its something with a lot of dice. But honestly if I'd been on my dithers I'd have gotten a dice roller app to spit out a number.


Brain Problems said:
But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve?
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B/X. Otherwise embrace the suck.

NIGGO KILLA said:
Now all I need is some decent maps and terrain, any suggestions?
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VTT map assets I'm assuming?

Other than googling....
MapTool has some really solid assets in their "start packs" you can download in their program.
2-minute Table Top is a great resource as well - the only thing issue I have with their option (other than being a bit spendy if you want to buy their "everything" tier) is there is just. much. goddamn. STUFF. I haven't even sorted most of it.
 
Ghostse said:
I have thought about this before, but honestly it ruins the fun for me. Tossing the die and not knowing how it'll end up and how much I'll need to fudge to make it come up with the result I wanted is a big part of the game. The extra 5 seconds per roll adds up, but isn't worth trying to shave.

Try to save time/mental energy elsewhere. Have index cards for enemies with modifiers written out and such.

I HAVE pre-rolled damage sometimes when its something with a lot of dice. But honestly if I'd been on my dithers I'd have gotten a dice roller app to spit out a number.



B/X. Otherwise embrace the suck.


VTT map assets I'm assuming?

Other than googling....
MapTool has some really solid assets in their "start packs" you can download in their program.
2-minute Table Top is a great resource as well - the only thing issue I have with their option (other than being a bit spendy if you want to buy their "everything" tier) is there is just. much. goddamn. STUFF. I haven't even sorted most of it.
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Nah niggo, I mean physical when I'm in the fallout shelter when WW3 breaks out

I've been looking at the tenfold dungeons and they look neat but I don't know if they're worth it

 
NIGGO KILLA said:
Nah niggo, I mean physical when I'm in the fallout shelter when WW3 breaks out

I've been looking at the tenfold dungeons and they look neat but I don't know if they're worth it

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Oh. In that case, Chessex Vinyl battlemat and a pack of water-erase markers.
I have one that is like 15 years old and not well treated, still looks like new.

IF you can find them the 4e Dungeon tiles with a bit of stickytack can make your maps pop a little more.

If you're looking to go 3-D, Hirst Art Molds and a big bag of plaster of paris.
 
Brain Problems said:
Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.

But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve? Or maybe that isn't even a problem for your PCs because you're Rico Sauvé the DM and every second of your sessions are totally enthralling and/or because this 5E.txt problems.
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Implement the shock damage from Worlds Without Number (it's free). The gist of it is that even successfully fending off a melee attack (not a ranged attack) causes damage, and you can never deal less damage than your weapon's shock value.

As an example:
PC attacks goblin with a mace, but fails to hit. However, the mace has a shock value of 2, so the PC deals 2 damage to the goblin.
The PC makes another attack and hits the goblin, but rolls a 1 on the damage roll. However since the shock value of the mace is 2, the PC deals 2 damage to the goblin.
In order to deal shock damage you must meet or beat the enemy AC value. A weapon's shock value looks something like 2/12 where the 2 is the damage that is applied if the enemy AC is 12 or less.

There are also various abilities that modify 'shock damage'/'AC to overcome value', its a very fast combat system. I may have some details wrong, but that's the gist of it.

Edit: Also implement morale if you haven't already. (Also tried to make it more readable with some formatting edits)
 
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Brain Problems said:
Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.

But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve? Or maybe that isn't even a problem for your PCs because you're Rico Sauvé the DM and every second of your sessions are totally enthralling and/or because this 5E.txt problems.
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I've never pre-rolled combat as far as I know, but I have pre-rolled things before, which could have included combat. Basically writing down a list of results on a page and crossing them out as I used them. It kinda worked, but I stopped doing it, so I assume it was a wash.

As for tricks, I have far worse. Not rolling at all. Just making up the result I think would be most appropriate. Ignoring health, AC, and DC is another trick. If the player rolls high, he makes it, rolls low, he doesn't. This is handy if I want a specific outcome. "Oh, you rolled 19? The DC was 20, you just fail it." or "18AC boss. No one rolls more than 5 for the entire combat. Someone finally rolls a 12, it hits and that's the bosses' AC now." "The fight is starting to drag? The next hit on each enemy happens to be the last."


I also do the thing I've heard with different names like floating clues. Basically, you have a list of things you want the PCs to learn or discover that isn't tied to a specific location. Drop them in when needed. Iirc I got some criticism here when I mentioned it years ago, but it's a handy trick to know to keep the game flowing. My favourite example is the PCs are trying to solve a murder, and they should find a receipt from the waxwork museum in the victims possessions. It doesn't matter if the PCs search his coat pocket, his desk, the waste paper bin, or his cars glove box, they find the receipt, provided it makes logical sense.
 
NIGGO KILLA said:
Now all I need is some decent maps and terrain, any suggestions?
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If you're an artsy type, you could go old school terrain and carve it out of foam or make it out of craft wood. I played a ton of Warhammer 40k and fantasy when I was younger and all the terrain used to be hand made by people. Not really sure of places I could point for instructions on that sort of thing though. Old white dwarf magazine issues would sometimes have sections on making a piece of terrain.

You might also try going to a model train store or another type of hobby shop that sells premade buildings and foliage.

Brain Problems said:
Have any DMs here ever pre-rolled results for combat before? I've heard it can speed things up but seems like something that gets you thrown into a middle-circle of tabletop hell.
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I've never done that, but I have used the average damage value from the monster manuals for enemies that are supposed to die quickly. I used to run dudes with one hit point (ala 4e minions) and I would exclusively use that to save time. I still sometimes use it, but I kind of like to roll stuff as others have mentioned.
 
Brain Problems said:
But otherwise, do you guys have any tricks to stop sessions from grinding to a halt because a single combat encounter can take an hour or more to resolve?
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Play an OSR game and not a dogshit tranny acting simulator with character sheets that look like homework assignments. I would choose Knave or Cairn.
 
Re: 5.1 E removing racial penalties they might as well. There are very few races with them and they mostly just never get used because they ALSO don't get a racial benefit that compensates for it (exception: VGM printing of Kobold where they got 1 less attribute racial bonus than normal and daylight sensitivity BUT got pack tactics which made them the de facto best melee rogue for a while)

Compare Drow to vanilla elf in 5e. For daylight sensitivity (which was a full ass disadvantage) all you got was 60 extra feet of darkvision a cantrip and 2 1/LR spells

Then compare 3.5 drow to 3.5 high elf:

-1 to attack in daylight
+2 level adjustment

but you get

Scaling MR
An additional +2 racial bonus (and an additional +2 strength for females unless I remember incorrectly)
3 1/day spells
60ft additional of darkvision
2 favored classes instead of 1
1 additional language
 
Snekposter said:
A reminder that much like journalists, no matter much you hate Kender, it isn't enough.
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Kill kender. Behead kender. Roundhouse kick a kender into the concrete. Slam dunk a kender baby into the trashcan. Crucify filthy halflings. Defecate in a kender's food. Launch kender into the sun. Stir fry kender in a wok. Toss kender into active volcanoes. Urinate into a kender's gas tank. Judo throw kender into a wood chipper. Twist kender heads off. Report kender to Takhisis. Karate chop kender in half. Curb stomp pregnant kender. Trap kender in quicksand. Crush kender in the trash compactor. Liquefy kender with Black Dragon acid breath. Eat kender. Dissect kender. Exterminate kender with power word: Death. Stomp kender skulls with steel toed boots. Cremate kender in the oven. Lobotomize kender. Mandatory abortions for kender. Grind kender fetuses in the garbage disposal. Drown kender in fried chicken grease. Vaporize kender with a Disintegrate spell. Kick old kender down the stairs. Feed kender to alligators. Slice kender with a +2 sword.
 
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