Really appreciate this inner look. I'm running a homebrew Forgotten Realms campaign in the Unapproachable East, and there's a place in this area's Underdark that's basically an ancient Egyptian mausoleum city that's mostly a city of 5k undead with 5 living souls in it (necromancers and wannabe liches), with a few powerful undead, and splitting the city up into factions that don't care for each other rather than a city of undead that all work together is such a good idea. I've got a bit before I get the PCs to this place, but having heard you talk about the Empire of Ghouls got me to pick it up awhile back, and I'm so excited to really get into this place.
When you mentioned “Fist Full of Dollars”, I began to think about “High Plains Drifter”, the ghost of the sheriff returns to enact revenge upon the town. Having it painted red and Hell being painted on the sign outside of town for the hired gun returning. Now I have not read this adventure but it inspires me of an adventure for characters that have died and before they return to the land of the living they have to go through an adventure in the Empire of the Ghouls! Thanks Mike!!!
Great timing - within a few sessions I'd like to introduce an evil port to my players, where all kinds of pirates, murderers, slavers are meeting, doing business. These tips arrived at the best time possible :)
Thanks for the great video! I am currently run a campaign based in an impoverished city that is entirely run by thieve's guilds. Not all evil, but definitely more dark than most.
One of my all-time favorite gaming arcs took place when I was running Eberron using 3.5. The party had to travel through Droam, the nation of monsters, and it was a blast! In my mind, I sort of used Addams Family logic - weird and violent shit is just normal there. I think my favorite detail that I came up with was when they attended a gladiator fight at an arena. There was a vendor walking up and down in the stands selling cheap throwing knives for the fans to hurl at the combatants. They were essentially thin stamped metal blades that did minimal damage and were -1 to hit, but you got 5 for 1gp (I think). Fun times!
I run Die hard for Teenage superheroes in Masks. They went off plot immediately because they had the agency to do it, and the spuerpowers to affect the situation. They, managed to get away with the McGuffin (a semi developed IA). So I changed the whole adventure on the fly from the Tower building to secure the other two copies that are in remote backup locations and it went wonderfully.
Sanjuro is the sequel to Yojimbo (and yes they're very similar in plot) My favorite movie to rip off for GM purposes is The Dirty Dozen. It gives the players an immediate, strong motivation for wanting to do the thing and gives them a reason to form a party regardless of their different backgrounds and values.
This is great advice for both an evil campaign and for heroes in an impossible situation. It reminds me of when everyone wanted to experience Menzoberranzan. I've been building a campaign setting with five slave owning monarchies fighting against the undead horde led by a lich who wants to be emperor. Who should the heroes help?
With regards to mikes suggestion of on call players (a few videos ago) does anyone know how that mechanically works? Do the on call players control the the missing players character, do they play their own character? What happens to the missing players character?
@@SlyFlourish so if I’m reading this correctly, if a player is absent their character fades into the background, if an on call play joins for a session their character fades into the foreground from the background? I get how having a character every once in a while fading into the background but I don’t understand how continuity can occur with a character that randomly pops up every once in a while. Or is that where we just go eh don’t worry about specifics
I usually fade missing players into the background even without an on call player. But some of my players can't get past not hearing the narration of their actions v I prefer saying the missing PC is still doing all the stuff they normally do but I'm not going to run yet another turn in a slow combat system to represent their actions. But if they were already in the middle of a fight I run the character for the remainder of combat rounds.
I find with my players alot of the time LG people and places are almost hated more than LE and NE. They seem to dig the whole NG to LE and to hell with everybody else. I really try to not lean into alignment but it normally ends up there anyway.
How do you run your dungeon crawls with Dyson maps and owl bear rodeo? Do you have the players inch their tokens inch by inch through the map or just narrate general movement then “zoom in” to their movement during combat
That was the softest, most enthrallingly beautiful "Hey friends, it's your pal Mike Shea" to date.
Smoky, sultry Mike Shea is not what I expected to experience today, but here we are.
Mike Shea ASMR when?
😂
Perfect timing! I like the idea about a safe place for the characters.
Really appreciate this inner look. I'm running a homebrew Forgotten Realms campaign in the Unapproachable East, and there's a place in this area's Underdark that's basically an ancient Egyptian mausoleum city that's mostly a city of 5k undead with 5 living souls in it (necromancers and wannabe liches), with a few powerful undead, and splitting the city up into factions that don't care for each other rather than a city of undead that all work together is such a good idea. I've got a bit before I get the PCs to this place, but having heard you talk about the Empire of Ghouls got me to pick it up awhile back, and I'm so excited to really get into this place.
This campaign, as Dm'ed my Mike, sounds awesome!!!
When you mentioned “Fist Full of Dollars”, I began to think about “High Plains Drifter”, the ghost of the sheriff returns to enact revenge upon the town. Having it painted red and Hell being painted on the sign outside of town for the hired gun returning. Now I have not read this adventure but it inspires me of an adventure for characters that have died and before they return to the land of the living they have to go through an adventure in the Empire of the Ghouls! Thanks Mike!!!
Great timing - within a few sessions I'd like to introduce an evil port to my players, where all kinds of pirates, murderers, slavers are meeting, doing business. These tips arrived at the best time possible :)
Thanks for the great video! I am currently run a campaign based in an impoverished city that is entirely run by thieve's guilds. Not all evil, but definitely more dark than most.
Dude! That was awesome! Thank you for your time and insight! Sharing your story is really helping me refine mine! Much appreciated
Good tips. I'm developing a low-level adventure in a city controlled by an evil church/cult, so I'll be using some of your ideas.
One of my all-time favorite gaming arcs took place when I was running Eberron using 3.5. The party had to travel through Droam, the nation of monsters, and it was a blast! In my mind, I sort of used Addams Family logic - weird and violent shit is just normal there.
I think my favorite detail that I came up with was when they attended a gladiator fight at an arena. There was a vendor walking up and down in the stands selling cheap throwing knives for the fans to hurl at the combatants. They were essentially thin stamped metal blades that did minimal damage and were -1 to hit, but you got 5 for 1gp (I think).
Fun times!
I run Die hard for Teenage superheroes in Masks. They went off plot immediately because they had the agency to do it, and the spuerpowers to affect the situation. They, managed to get away with the McGuffin (a semi developed IA). So I changed the whole adventure on the fly from the Tower building to secure the other two copies that are in remote backup locations and it went wonderfully.
Sanjuro is the sequel to Yojimbo (and yes they're very similar in plot)
My favorite movie to rip off for GM purposes is The Dirty Dozen. It gives the players an immediate, strong motivation for wanting to do the thing and gives them a reason to form a party regardless of their different backgrounds and values.
Pedestal from The Sinister Spire adventure is another great evil city with lots of factions in a cold war.
This is great advice for both an evil campaign and for heroes in an impossible situation.
It reminds me of when everyone wanted to experience Menzoberranzan.
I've been building a campaign setting with five slave owning monarchies fighting against the undead horde led by a lich who wants to be emperor.
Who should the heroes help?
“Soylent Green is people!”
With regards to mikes suggestion of on call players (a few videos ago) does anyone know how that mechanically works? Do the on call players control the the missing players character, do they play their own character? What happens to the missing players character?
slyflourish.com/handling_missing_players.html
@@SlyFlourish so if I’m reading this correctly, if a player is absent their character fades into the background, if an on call play joins for a session their character fades into the foreground from the background? I get how having a character every once in a while fading into the background but I don’t understand how continuity can occur with a character that randomly pops up every once in a while. Or is that where we just go eh don’t worry about specifics
I usually fade missing players into the background even without an on call player. But some of my players can't get past not hearing the narration of their actions v
I prefer saying the missing PC is still doing all the stuff they normally do but I'm not going to run yet another turn in a slow combat system to represent their actions.
But if they were already in the middle of a fight I run the character for the remainder of combat rounds.
Cool topix
That was ALMOST a Bob Ross LV hay friends.
I find with my players alot of the time LG people and places are almost hated more than LE and NE. They seem to dig the whole NG to LE and to hell with everybody else. I really try to not lean into alignment but it normally ends up there anyway.
How do you run your dungeon crawls with Dyson maps and owl bear rodeo? Do you have the players inch their tokens inch by inch through the map or just narrate general movement then “zoom in” to their movement during combat
Too late.
Already ran the city of Ghouls from 4e. Lordesdain I think it was.
Put it in the Night Below