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

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Dante Alighieri said:
DMs, when you're planning sessions what kind of tools do you use? Any tips and tricks?
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Granted, this is more for story-driven games like World of Darkness and such, but one thing I've been experimenting with a little thing to help me plan my campaigns (back when I had people to play with). I'd ask the players to tell me what they thought of certain NPCs in character. That way I know what works and what doesn't. Or to mess with them, I can use a character they underestimate for a more important role.
 
Dante Alighieri said:
DMs, when you're planning sessions what kind of tools do you use? Any tips and tricks?
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One thing I try to stay mindful of is when I go on a tangent while planning something. I'll start writing a story about a corrupt official emptying the local jail to sell corpses to a necromancer and end up wanting to write the legacy of kings in the capital city instead. Those tangents can be helpful later on, and they're always fun to go on, but it's good to keep things in perspective.

I recommend getting a piece of paper and writing down names and brief descriptions of some NPCs that might be involved in the adventure. Players tend to like to latch on to one or two of them so you can drive your adventures where you want by using them later. Usually by murdering them.
 
Mr. Manchester said:
I recommend getting a piece of paper and writing down names and brief descriptions of some NPCs that might be involved in the adventure. Players tend to like to latch on to one or two of them so you can drive your adventures where you want by using them later. Usually by murdering them.
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Yeah I've introduced a few NPCs to use for various things, just random odds and ends as well as more important quest-giving NPCs.
 
Dante Alighieri said:
Yeah I've introduced a few NPCs to use for various things, just random odds and ends as well as more important quest-giving NPCs.
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One thing I’ve been contemplating is how to implement allied NPC factions so as to provide a constant supply of quests while leading the party to endgame. That said, I am worried about how much one can guide a party to a goal and faction before it becomes railroading, especially when I’m seriously thinking of providing NPCs to assist the party on important moments like arc villains and battlefield combat.
 
I'm retarded when it comes to TTG, so I got a question

Is it possible to play one of these online?

Specifically Pathfinder
 
Frank D'arbo said:
I'm retarded when it comes to TTG, so I got a question

Is it possible to play one of these online?

Specifically Pathfinder
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Yeah, Pathfinder is one of the big ones so its pretty trivial to play.

Check out places like Roll20 for "basically in person" online, and places like Myth Weavers for Play By Post (text only on forum basically).

If you have a gaming group already playing over discord or something like it is also an option, Pathfinder has some bots that let you do things like hook up character sheets to a dice bot.
 
Frank D'arbo said:
I'm retarded when it comes to TTG, so I got a question

Is it possible to play one of these online?

Specifically Pathfinder
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You can do so on Discord if the server has the right bots. There are also VTT's kicking around (virtual tabletops) though avoid Role20, it takes them months to tell people they've been hacked and what was taken.
 
Elysian said:
My family have started playing board games on a Sunday afternoon and they have the most boomer tier taste in board games imaginable. If I have to play The Best Of TV And Movies again (or that other one that’s literally the exact same game in every way but all the trivia questions are about corporate brands instead of tv/cinema) imma throw hands. I’ve recommended superior games to them since but they don’t seem interested.

My kingdom for a board game with actual depth.
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What games have you been trying to introduce to them? I find that if you can figure out what it is they like about certain games and kind of steer someone in a different direction you can trick people into playing better stuff. Trivia games are trivia games but moving into more interesting party games with some sense of depth might work (codenames comes to mind immediately but there are lots of options).

Is there a board game thread?
 
Dante Alighieri said:
Yeah I've introduced a few NPCs to use for various things, just random odds and ends as well as more important quest-giving NPCs.
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Just another thought on NPCs. Reading monster entries and tossing them in as non-hostiles make fun NPCs too. Reading monster entries is a fun way to conjure up adventure ideas too.

I stumbled on this the other day and it's pretty much every monster entry from every supplement in 2e. The little habitat/society and ecology entries are good for just sparking ideas, especially. So if you find yourself having trouble coming up with ideas, just start reading monster entries and something should pop up.


I think it's just some random guy's personal d&d site and I'm pretty sure this might be something he just uses for his game, but it's better than a lot of resources I've seen.
 
Brain Problems said:
What games have you been trying to introduce to them? I find that if you can figure out what it is they like about certain games and kind of steer someone in a different direction you can trick people into playing better stuff. Trivia games are trivia games but moving into more interesting party games with some sense of depth might work (codenames comes to mind immediately but there are lots of options).

Is there a board game thread?
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I suggested Betrayal at House on the Hill a few times but they didn’t seem interested. We have Monopoly and Cluedo as well but my parents aren’t in the mood for those very often. There’s a couple of motor skill ones like Jenga and Kerplunk and also suspense-y ones like Buckaroo and Pop-Up Pirate that we barely ever play because my sister finds the anticipation of the thing popping up unnerving. The simple rule sets of the board games we normally play seem to appeal to them, combined with the fact that trivia games require little setup to work. We actually have Robinson Crusoe but nobody could get the hang of it and no-one besides me wants to play it again because of how ”complicated” it was. We have Cards against Humanity too but we only ever play it with the whole family at Christmas, I guess my parents aren’t super into its edgy sense of humour maybe? One of the games we’ve been playing recently besides the trivia ones is this one emoji themed card game that’s basically just Happy Families: Hello Fellow Kids edition feat. goofy challenge cards.

We recently got a trivia game called Outsmarted that’s kinda like a Trivial Pursuit knockoff that relies on an app to work. I like it better than the other trivia games we’ve played since there are questions about a variety of subjects that aren’t just tv/cinema/consoomer stuff and you can choose which way to go around the board while with the other ones it’s just one path from start to finish. Also since the questions are on the app they can be super current so when you get a current events question it’ll ask you about something that happened within the past few weeks instead of about some obscure news headline that happened like 5 years ago, which can happen with some trivia games where the questions are printed on cards.
 
Anonymus Fluhre said:
I tend to rely on my 3TB's of tabletop PDF's and 1TB of history PDFs. I have to have something for some form of game lying about. After that, I plan everything in RealmWorks or Campfire Pro.
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Where do you find your history material? I've been wanting to add some (slight) realism to my stuff and that would really help.
 
I was out of the loop with pathinder.
Did 2e came out? If so what is different?
 
For you veteran DMs, how do you write some impactful plot hook or twist that isn't seem as trite that will get your players to care in character?
 
Kyria the Great said:
For you veteran DMs, how do you write some impactful plot hook or twist that isn't seem as trite that will get your players to care in character?
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1. Know your players. It's really as simple as that. Try and figure out, not what you think their characters' motivations are, but what they think their character's motivations are and what their motivations to play this character are as well.
2. Foreshadow the twist. Not in a way that makes it super obvious- do it in a way that only makes sense when the twist is revealed. I would recommend reading Agatha Christie and other high-quality detective fiction writers, as well as closely watching The Sixth Sense (as much as Shaymalan has become a hack in more recent years, the twist in that film was very good).
3. Ultimately, accept that you can't compel someone to be invested, especially if this is an online game. Even in a decent group, there's always the chance that one guy ends up having their head somewhere else during the session you drop the twist on them for one reason or another and as a result doesn't bite into the hook.
 
Senior Lexmechanic said:
1. Know your players. It's really as simple as that. Try and figure out, not what you think their characters' motivations are, but what they think their character's motivations are and what their motivations to play this character are as well.
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To add to this, one thing I've always found that helps is to ask everyone to write down a few interesting hooks from their backstory at the beginning. One of the more group-oriented ways to do this is to use the FATE character generation rules during your planning session, specifically the round-robin backstory generation part. Not only does it make for a very cohesive party, but people are required to generate their own plot hooks (and some for others). You can then draw on those later and it will feel natural.
 
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