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

[Techpriest]

Introducing a group to Mutants and Masterminds soon. Been wanting to run a supers game for ages and finally have a chance. Have quite the motley crew and am trying to think of a good introductory adventure to get them all together. So far we have...

A magic user who focuses on dimensional travel, ensnarement abilities and regeneration/resurrection with a typical "magic missile" bolt of force as his attack. Wants to be in service to Hastur.

A WWE wrestler who gets his powers from his championship belt. Standard super strong, super tough guy with an array of debuffing "rasslin' moves" nothing fancy.

A mutant who focuses on controlling light. Can bend light to become invisible, blind others, photon beam attacks, increase or decrease light and generate minor visual illusions.

A power armor wearer clearly modeled after Iron Man.

Any ideas or advice for a good first adventure that might entice everyone here? The campaign is going to be mostly Silver Age focused, with an occasional bit of Iron Age grimdark. I've asked the players questions and all of them want to begin as strangers to each other with no previous background or organizational ties. Thanks to anyone that offers their take.

Go for the classic “villain has abducted everyone for a reality TV show” plot. Make it hammy and actually WWE style: model the super villain after Vince. The villain isn’t necessarily super evil but he’s got a talent for escaping prison and hammy monologues. Maybe obviously not quite right in the head, but didn’t get the kind of therapy he needed/stopped taking his lithium.

That way he’s fun, memorable, reusable for small time adventures, and someone the player characters don’t necessarily feel like just punting into the sun, because he’s not pure evil, or really that evil at all. Hell, maybe the TV show is such a success that he gets an actual network syndicated ninja warrior style of thing. Super hero obsticle courses. Maybe later on the players need to help him because “he stole my death ray, and fixed it!” Where one of his doomsday devices that don’t work and do silly things like make coffee too hot to drink is repurposed into something actually dangerous by another villain and he’s mad about that.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

I've been looking at Reign lately and it looks pretty great. I played it once a few years back and its all about kingdom management. Still holds up as a lighter rules adventuring system though.

There's a second ed coming out, guess the kickstarter is the only place you can order it. Anyone else heard of it? Looks pretty cool.

 

[PL 001]

Go for the classic “villain has abducted everyone for a reality TV show” plot. Make it hammy and actually WWE style: model the super villain after Vince. The villain isn’t necessarily super evil but he’s got a talent for escaping prison and hammy monologues. Maybe obviously not quite right in the head, but didn’t get the kind of therapy he needed/stopped taking his lithium.

That way he’s fun, memorable, reusable for small time adventures, and someone the player characters don’t necessarily feel like just punting into the sun, because he’s not pure evil, or really that evil at all. Hell, maybe the TV show is such a success that he gets an actual network syndicated ninja warrior style of thing. Super hero obsticle courses. Maybe later on the players need to help him because “he stole my death ray, and fixed it!” Where one of his doomsday devices that don’t work and do silly things like make coffee too hot to drink is repurposed into something actually dangerous by another villain and he’s mad about that.

Thanks, dude. This sounds like a great springboard.

 

[Techpriest]

Thanks, dude. This sounds like a great springboard.

No problem. Other fun plots could be a Riddler/Mysterio hybrid who is targeting each of the players with little riddle crimes. Small time stuff. But it leads into some kind of convoluted scheme to discredit all of them and achieve control over the entire Tri-State Area.

Really Dr. Doofenshmirtz is a good model for a fun silver age villain, even if he was made for a kid’s show.

I could also see a dumb alien fighting tournament as a possible place for them all to meet. Everyone got abducted by the greys, now they need to get off the mothership.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

So in the campaign I am in, I sat back and mainly did support on top of a camel, using Spiritual Weapon to hit a slave leader after turning an angry raging dwarf into a seven foot tall raging dwarf who used a wolf as a bludgeon while enraging a barbarian and a monk, who clubbed people to death and punched people off camels. The warblade did weeaboo fightan magic and I nearly got pissed on by a camel and then proceeded to hack someone to death with a great axe. The caravan has two days left in the plains and then it's forty days in the desert. Thank goodness I can create water. I also took a look at my comrade's axe, and found out it's a family heirloom that has potent magic in it and is blessed by Moradin.

 

[RoflScholar]

So my younger bro got me into DnD, I have only played one session so far but I already decided to buy the books for the version we played which was 3.5. So far I got the main rule book and beastiary. I plan on getting some figurines and stuff, me and him are looking into building a custom game table as well. I just don't know if the quality will be very good lol.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Is it just me or are half the more powerful creatures in DnD 5e literally "make player roll [whatever]-save, or else he's instagibbed and/or taken out of the fight completely"?
Is this what whoever made these creatures considers fun?

I mean, sure, there's worse, but up till now, every major encounter was "[creature] shows up, roll for [whatever]-save... oh you didn't make it, you're now paralysed/under the creature's control/whatever and you can't do anything until pure luck makes you succeed the check."

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Look guyz! Another video series of people playing D&D! Now I can post in the YT comments about how much I like Pratzlfurgh, the sassy halfling thief!

And please, no comments at all about the make up of the gaming group. Stroll by any table at Origins and Gencon and you'll always see 4 chicks and 1 black dude comprising the adventuring party.

The Last Knights | Pathfinder: Knights of Everflame | Episode 1

A special thanks to Paizo for sponsoring this video. Get Pathfinder Second Edition here: https://paizo.com/pathfinder Five strangers board a caravan heading ...

youtu.be

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Look guyz! Another video series of people playing D&D! Now I can post in the YT comments about how much I like Pratzlfurgh, the sassy halfling thief!

And please, no comments at all about the make up of the gaming group. Stroll by any table at Origins and Gencon and you'll always see 4 chicks and 1 black dude comprising the adventuring party.

The Last Knights | Pathfinder: Knights of Everflame | Episode 1

A special thanks to Paizo for sponsoring this video. Get Pathfinder Second Edition here: https://paizo.com/pathfinder Five strangers board a caravan heading ...

youtu.be

I'm gonna put a $20 bill down and say that none of the players have a shred of charisma.

 

[Adamska]

We had to miss a week because of things, but we we able to show up for this one:

I'm not kidding. I actually unironically like the Wraeththu if you ditch the fluff given and make them a "genewarrior" lineage that were used by one of the Techno-Barbarian states or the Genesmiths of Luna.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I'm gonna put a $20 bill down and say that none of the players have a shred of charisma.

The DM is no Matt Mercer, that's for sure.
Edit: The guy who plays "Ikyulus", or whatever he's called, really tries to sound like that buff guy from Critical Role. Only black dude really sucks, it seems.
DM asks him to describe his character and all he has to say is: "I wear a mask, I am very large as you can see and the rest is my business". So I guess no clothes, weapons or gear, then.
The "Trying to impersonate a character's way of speaking from CR" seems to be a running theme, tbh.

 

[MrSugarcube]

First time delving into Mutant: Year Zero and trying to look into a suitable dice roller.
From looks of it it's a simple D6 with themed 1s & 6s for whatever die is being used.
Wanted to know if worth getting the main ones or just sticking with regular die and keeping track

 

[Belmont]

What's a good 6th level spell for a magic caster? At this point in my game(Pathfinder/3.5) My Silver Draconic Sorcerer needs either a good blasting spell(Like Dragon's Breath/Fireball) or a good debuffing spell(Like Bungle/Confusion/Black Tentacles).

My Role is the party spell caster and wonderous item maker, tips for wonderous items to make for my group are appreciated.
The party being Me(Sorcerer) two rogues(CG Half Orc/ CG Succubus), a barbaian (CG gnome) and a paladin (LG dwarf). I'd love some kind of tip to help me buff them with equipment.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

What's a good 6th level spell for a magic caster? At this point in my game(Pathfinder/3.5) My Silver Draconic Sorcerer needs either a good blasting spell(Like Dragon's Breath/Fireball) or a good debuffing spell(Like Bungle/Confusion/Black Tentacles).

My Role is the party spell caster and wonderous item maker, tips for wonderous items to make for my group are appreciated.
The party being Me(Sorcerer) two rogues(CG Half Orc/ CG Succubus), a barbaian (CG gnome) and a paladin (LG dwarf). I'd love some kind of tip to help me buff them with equipment.

Based on my experiences for spells:

Anti-Magic Field: Good for shutting down some particularly irritating spellcaster. Drop this, then let the fighter go in and spank the bastard.

Chain Lightning: Bonus points if you slap Spell Perfection on it and have Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus, as it amplifies those feats. Starting DC 20 Reflex save + your spellcasting attribute.

Disintegrate: For single target fuck-you, extremely useful against evasion monkeys.

Eyebite: A pretty good single target debuff that can be reused over and over as duration permits.

As far as gear goes, look at belts that buff physical stats. The paladin might also appreciate a +Charisma headband. Cloaks of resistance are always nice.

 

[Adamska]

Short Story Time video this week since two of us (me included) weren't available Saturday:

Also may get a supercut of our sporking Wraeththu so far at one point but that can't be confirmed fully yet.

 

[Crabbo]

Random question for the Gm/Dms out there.
What extra stuff do you do to enhance your game?


Im planning on getting some sound systems to play old might and magic music,
And have considered modifying the lighting (though that would be a hassle for reading, so its only a loose idea).
I am otherwise slowly printing out 3d magnetized tiles for better dungeon delving.

 

[Hummingbird]

Short Story Time video this week since two of us (me included) weren't available Saturday:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Aw7P9MeyonE
Also may get a supercut of our sporking Wraeththu so far at one point but that can't be confirmed fully yet.

Reminds me of these two ultra-loonies that I was playing X-Crawl with. (X-Crawl is pretty much what if dungeon crawling was an extreme sport in the modern world.) One was a ranger who tried to tame every monster that he came across and make it his pet. Even when he constantly critically failed before, he kept trying to get this Spinx to do that. I had the creature tell him that it wasn't working and I guess he just thought he was being wacky or something and kept going. So I had the Spinx fly away and since the other guy was being just as obnoxious, I ended the session early.

Don't get me wrong, loony-nes has it's place and a little can go a long way. There are times I've played the loony, but there is a time and place for it.

 

[Lurkio]

Random question for the Gm/Dms out there.
What extra stuff do you do to enhance your game?


Im planning on getting some sound systems to play old might and magic music,
And have considered modifying the lighting (though that would be a hassle for reading, so its only a loose idea).
I am otherwise slowly printing out 3d magnetized tiles for better dungeon delving.

Well, I enjoy drawing, so instead of painting minis I draw some of the stronger creatures/ "bosses" my party will face, print them out, and make "paper-mini's" out of them. There's a certain amount of customization you can add when drawing, but if you can't draw, buying mini's of certain monsters works perfectly well.

I also found people like when you buy a wet-erase D&D mat and draw out the dungeon so your players can better position their selves and know where they are and where they're heading, it also makes it easier on the DM so they don't have to guesstimate the distances between people. You might have to do some work-around to fit the map into the mat, but I've found it helps a lot!

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Random question for the Gm/Dms out there.
What extra stuff do you do to enhance your game?


Im planning on getting some sound systems to play old might and magic music,
And have considered modifying the lighting (though that would be a hassle for reading, so its only a loose idea).
I am otherwise slowly printing out 3d magnetized tiles for better dungeon delving.

If you need a light to read your notes, just clip a small flashlight/readinglight to your DM screen.

 

[Adamska]

Random question for the Gm/Dms out there.
What extra stuff do you do to enhance your game?


Im planning on getting some sound systems to play old might and magic music,
And have considered modifying the lighting (though that would be a hassle for reading, so its only a loose idea).
I am otherwise slowly printing out 3d magnetized tiles for better dungeon delving.

Before one of the sound systems for roll20 went under, I'd use it for music that I felt fit the area; now I mostly just use YT. Hell, I design a lot of ideas and concepts just by listening to music, envisioning the area, forms of enemies, or boss. I find I'm most creative when I do this.

I also usually fly by the seat, but for a campaign I sadly couldn't continue due to my own flakiness, I had a master document including my homebrew rules (mainly stats for mass combat and guns as it was a Napoleonic Era game) as well as lore in the world so far. That Master Document was useful to me and my players quite often.