GREAT GM: How to set Difficulty in Role Playing in a non-stats heavy rpg session - game master tips
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- How to you determine difficulty? How do you make it fair? How do you choose between +3 and +4? All the answers PLUS a NEW VIDEO FOR PLAYERS LAUNCHES EXCLUSIVELY IN TODAY'S SHOW
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"Players are naturally dumb... won't come up with all the solutions"
One of my most elaborate one shots (RP forum, so less formal) involved a room-escape type thing in a haunted house. I described the darkness of the hallway as the first PC stepped in. He proceeded to use a flashlight and the rest of the PCs (there were about ten, which I now realize was too many) used various tools to try to see in the dark or else stumbled around in darkness.
Not one, not ONE person thought to try turning on a light! I had the whole thing set up as a house of recent tragedy and ALL the lights still worked, but NOBODY thought to try a light-switch! XD
They've probably spent to much time playing in fantasy settings, Haha. I'll admit that the light switch doesnt even cross my mind when occasionally playing something modern like WOD.
not naturally dumb, they are chaotic stupid.
How often was it a modern setting they played in; they may have accidentally been stuck in a medieval (no light switch frame of thought!)
That's you being a shitty gm. You could just say: "There's a light switch".
Why did you make it dark if they can just turn on the light? All that does is force them to say a phrase of your choosing to get their intended effect.
The well timed thunderous roll! 16:10: "Let them then realize..." *thunder* "...the danger."
I hope to have those storms again. We need the rain and I need the dramatic sound effect ;)
the 'glassed a house' bit less than a minute later was also really strongly timed, loved that the storm rolled in harder as he got into the topic of destroying things as a show of power
Hehehehe...
D&D magic applied to real life?
Late to the party, but I have to add my story. Years ago, I was running a campaign in which the players were trying to unite the surface world against an invading drow force. The drow had developed a drill that would burrow up into any city and release scores of drow warriors, mages, and monsters. I was describing a tremble in the earth, windows shaking, pots falling off of windowsills..
And then an actual earthquake hit.
"the game is not about winning. it's about telling a good story. " I love this. such a perfect summary of rpg
I didn't realize that was real thunder in the background until you mentioned the weather in the end. I thought you edited the thunder for effect
Yeah I live on a ridge so the weather is fairly dramatic. It helps a lot ;)
Nono, you had it right the first time.
If a player thinks taking a level 1 character off to fight a dragon is a good idea just because they saw it, then they are a level 1 player.
Too true. lol
Your point at about 6:50 is just like a GM I had, we had a player punch a wall out of frustration, and he rolled a nat 20, and the DM says: "You break your arm, you are now unconscious"
+Snat Man Hahahahahhaa... in a fantasy setting that's priceless. But the wall should have crumbled around him at least?!
+How to be a Great Game Master you would think
Wow... That is cruel as a DM. I would have had him crit the wall and cause it damage. Having him break his own arm is a crit fail roll IMHO.
@@MrDmitriRavenoff That, or let him find something. Crits should matter, in both directions. It could have had him find a hidden cache with a few coins or maybe the clue that's missing, anything that could have made that moment even more memorable. And have the players wonder "what if he wasn't stupid enough to punch the wall out of the blue and crit?"
I was hosting a Pathfinder game, my first time out GMing. I decided to have the BBEG come in and shoot the dog+kidnap the princess in session 1. APL was 8. BBEG was a CR 29 monster. They had no chance of killing him.
I'd pre-rolled the BBEG's attacks on the NPCs so that I could act it out in advance, intended to have no less than 5 of them dead. BBEG had a swarm of zombies behind him. I expected the party to get to the VTOL and book it as fast as they could.
The barbarian facechecks the BBEG, who doesn't even see the party as worthy of using his weapon. Improved unarmed strike, does something like 50 damage total. The barbarian, an orc with a growth spell, decides that it's time to run.
So he turns around and literally picks up every single PC and NPC, leaps over a 20 foot cliff in the middle of the forest, runs through a swarm of zombies, DR negates their attacks of opportunity and sets the party down in relative safety.
The BBEG is mildly irritated now. So he fires off a fireball. He needs the Princess.
The druid party member spends a hero point to cast whatever spell it is that lets them bring up a tactical rock wall. The BBEG's fireball is denied Unreal Tournament Redeemer style.
The witch casts dimensional door, taking the Princess and much of the party to the VTOL, which takes off and moves to pick up the rest of the party.
The BBEG realizes he's been had. He fires off a home-rolled dominate person on the Princess, a high-level magus with a hammer. A single party member realizes what happened just before the Princess starts tearing the VTOL up. The VTOL drops down to 15 HP.
The party succeeds the DC for a dispel magic check (20% chance of success), everyone else boards, and they book it with everyone intact.
Next session I give the Princess a greater make whole to fix the VTOL/gunship and throw an encounter at the party. The barbarian gets a homing rocket launcher for singlehandedly thwarting my plans to murder my NPCs and promptly aims it out the back of the VTOL at a horde of 20 flying mooks, crits in the center, and vaporizes all of them.
Despite it completely changing the course of the story, I'm absolutely pleased with how things have gone. So I'd add on that a demonstration of power shouldn't cripple the PCs immediately as much as engender a visceral 'oh shit' reaction, after my BBEG pimpslapped the snot out of the Barbarian, he was able to figure out a unique solution to the problem he was faced with that completely changed how the game's going to play out.
It also made my villain that much better, because the PCs gave him all the reason to hate the party.
"Players, are, quite naturally, dumb. And I say this with the greatest of reverence for my players."
As a player, I am totally a drooling idiot. It's fun to get into trouble and have to get myself out of it. For example, I've had to deal with the fallout because I insulted a demigod. Not only am I stupid because it's fun to just do things, but because as a player the responsibility to be smart is diffused among the group and because as a player I operate off the few cards of the deck the GM shows you and my own expectations.
As a GM, I hold all the cards, and know my own NPCs intents, the machinations of the world and what exactly might lie ahead. (Even if I'm just going to be making it up in a few minutes.) It's not as hard to be clever as a GM, because you are not a group of people like the PCs are, and because by knowing every step of the way what's going on you have no way of misinterpreting information that you yourself made up.
“The Danger” followed by Thunder from outside @16:13. Guy you are a master of the moment!
Had a similar situation with following the dragon(it was a copper dragon, that's important later). I cooked up a Kobolt cult that worshiped the dragon, and had the players run into them on the way up the mountain. Of course they couldn't resist a cave full of CR1s that worshiped the big bad they were stalking.
It was 4 lvl3 players vs. about 20 basic kobolt fighters and one lvl4 cleric. They spent the session methodically picking off kobolts as they snuck through the temple cave, which I filled with plenty of warnings: murals devoted to the dragon's power filled with images of its fire breath razing whole villages, it flying off with a knight in its talons - horse and all, ect...
Eventually, they found the priest in the main room. Righteous in their cause and unwilling to flee, they had a hard fight there that left them all with single-digit HP and all their daily spell/abilities burned.
They took it like champs and realized that if kobolts gave them this much trouble, the dragon was going to kill them. So I decided that these kobolts worshiped the copper dragon by hording copper coins and piling them around an alter to the beast.
Entering the locked door behind the priest's throne, they found said shrine, buried in copper coins: 10,000 gold worth of copper. It was a lot of fun watching them figure out how to move 10 hogsheds worth of coins down the mountain (Between destroying a wagon, having to hire every mule in the town, and general spillage, they managed to get 80% of it) Then I got to torment them a little more when they realized there wasn't enough gold in the village to convert it. Leaving them literally anchored to a pile of metal. Nothing makes players want to move like making them feel trapped.
Lucky for them... it was a fishing village, and there happened to be a captain (in love with a local girl, and trying to buy a farm) in a hurry to sell his rather nice fishing boat, and there was a large port town a few days sail away where they could sell the boat for gold(at a small loss because they were in a hurry to sell).
End of the day, they were in a bustling port city. Each of them had 1k more gold than they'd had the day before, and they'd made a few new contacts in the seafaring world.
Wow, this would have annoyed the shit out of me. Not cool.
Just one point to enhance the already fantastic advice in this video: hit points are there for a reason. If a villain's or lair's single attack, trap, magical effect, or whatever knocks off a third to a half of the hit points of the characters caught in range, that is a critical teaching moment. As in nature, where many poisonous things will make creatures that eat them sick without killing (the monarch butterfly comes immediately to mind), PCs losing hit points when they do something foolish is a fantastic teacher for your players. At least as long as an escape route is left open (see #4 in this excellent video), so that the players can survive to live and learn another day.
Of course, you can also drop character and just tell them outright that you weren't planning on having them do something right now. That can really save a lot of time and Wile E. Coyote levels of silliness, or constant player second-guessing. Call it "Common Sense" or "Intuition" or "Precognition" or whatever is most appropriate for the characters and the setting if you must stay in character for some reason (and if the system has mechanics for things like that already available, provide them to the PCs somehow - make it mandatory), but however you finagle it, directly addressing the issue tends to keep lines of communication open between GMs and their players, at least in my personal experiences, which just makes everybody so much happier in the long term.
Ha! In my current campaign, we had a new player join us. The party had already been up against one minotaur, & learned how nasty they can be when it gored & crushed their trainer. New guy plops in 3-4 scenarios later, re-skinned minotaur with minions and an explosive device. He doesn’t understand why the players are using ranged weapons, “I got this”, & charges in.
He rolled a Nat20 to crit, but the minotaur released the explosive too. He & char died, and, all their stuff toasted too.
Lesson learned! Everyone, including the new guy, always asking more questions first!
You're right about 4th ed. D&D. The only thing I took from it was the concept of the minion in the spirit of a redshirt or Stormtrooper. I really enjoy enjoy throwing minions at my group as a warmup for a game. However, when they get complacent one of those stormtroopers/red shirts, is suddenly able take a hit without dying and striking back.
And that strike back can sometimes turn things around. I recently had a zombie minion somehow survive an attack, to add a feeling that the encounter was not a walk through, and attack a player. It bit him and after the encounter I threw in a little favour text about how the wound hurt. The group panicked, believing I had decided to use "Romero Zombies" against them and their bites were infectious. They immediately went searching for a cleric able to cast 2nd level cure spells and a supply of scrolls/potions. And all because a 1 hit dice zombie got in a bite.
I never disavowed them of their mistake. It made them enjoy the game all the more.
+Andy Simmons Sounds like you don't need to watch my videos! I am always amazed at how players pick up on certain things and then believe them true. It is always fun to watch.
No, your videos are excellent and beyond entertainment value, they have a great deal to offer even experience GMs. The concept that the villain is after something and the players are out to stop them is a brilliant concept of perspective. Its certainly helped me in writing my scenarios in the last couple of weeks. My favourite RPG is Call of Cthulhu, and in that plot is everything.
Andy Simmons That is excellent Andy! Glad I could assist, and would love to know how you sustain Cthulhu games over campaign length, or are they once offs? (I only play Cthulhu at con's.)
Hi. I checked out your other channel and it's really good. I also replied to your question about Cthulhu campaigns by email to baconbrpg@gmail.com as it was quite a bit to write. I hope this is okay.
Awesome! I'll get the goblins to let me see it :) and hopefully respond!
If the PC's try to attack a big bad or something, I usually let them fight it. I don't kill them, its more like they attack him and he gets cinematic immunity. I usually either make his AC incredibly high so they can't hit him, or give him damage resistance so that they can't hurt him. after a few rounds the enemy will get bored and drop the PCs to 0 HP then leave. Afterwards I just let them wake up in a nearby town, their unconscious forms being found by a local.
That way they get to fight the enemy they want to fight, but its clear after that fight that they aren't strong enough to stop that guy. I wont have the enemy show up for a while after that, giving them time to follow breadcrumbs and get stronger.
On the subject of Superman, it's more about how he is trying to set an example for everyone else, not lording his strength over others and believing that everyone has a capacity for good and can be redeemed.
Another method for balancing sandbox fantasy campaigns is to allow the players to acquire a valuable map of the campaign area around their home base, with specific locations marked so the challenge rating is obvious: Goblin Warren, Troll Den, Castle of Morag the Lich, etc. Low level players can then select the easiest adventure site first and work their way up as they gain levels, without the GM having to railroad them or tweak encounters. Each game will "self balance" based on the player's decisions.
Thunder rolled, it rolled a 6 -Discworld
So:
Difficulty = base difficulty +lesson taught -story needs
+Lluc Potrony Sounds about right... high maths! :)
My favorite examples of roll difficulty comes from Stars Without Number. It involves walking across a greased tightrope on your hands and making a weapon out of an alien bath attachment. :)
Great thought provoking advice as always!
This is awesome, I've shared your channel with my group and some friends that also play with other groups. You're videos tackle a lot of the issues we have where fun isn't nurtured within the story so thank you so much for sharing your experience.
+im Tyler That's Awesome, thank you! Glad to be of help and here's hoping your experience is improved!
Great show as always man! When I determine difficulty of ability checks I like to use logic. For example last night my players had to get down a shaft that was more then 150 ft straight down. In the system I use rope is only 50 ft. So they set up a way that the player most skilled in climbing ( who would probably know how to get unskilled players down a wall) go first setting up pitons for the other players. To adjust the difficulty I made it so the last player had to give me strength checks to pull the Pitons out and pass it down to the climber so they set up a bit of a leap frog (if he failed to do so since they didn't have a crowbar they lost one of the 10 pitons they had). However, this allowed the player who would never pass a climb check to not have to roll for it. Instead I gave them things such as "You notice a strange tickling sensation rolling over your shoulder onto your neck, as you look over you see to feelers rubbing your cheek they are attached to a rather large centipede. Give me a save to stop your self from letting go of the rope as you try not to panic". This in turn made it a very nice skill challenge for the group such as you had in the first ep of bacon.
+robert goodwin And you got it in one! You made it fun! You used dice to build tension but let them tell a story to make it fun!
I love your series; excellent work with your stone room! I do not agree with the statement "Players are dumb" - I have found adding the word "Most" to the beginning of that statement is more accurate. Myself and other GMs who have been running games for decades know our way around the inside of a GM's mind and we are also terribly cautious. I say terribly, because I've played several games where fellow GMs want to tiptoe everywhere. Overall, I find it best to "know your players". In a tournament or con setting, I make sure my difficulty setting is flexible as I adapt it to the players.
Viewing a challenge as a lesson is a great approach. Another fine episode!
+thedreameater I have very fine and smart players and I agree with you - know your players - when I say dumb, I mean that they are not 'there' its up to their individual interpretation of the scene and the descriptions to understand what's going on. Because we're all wired different that interpretation is often wrong. Hence me driving the point that players are dumb - they need many many different clues to make sure that one sticks and get's through. I guess I shouldn't say dumb, I should say... human :)
How to be a Great Game Master Your intention was on point. Making the statement that players are "human" may have come across as vague and for the majority of viewers, you need to be clear - which you were.
Again, keep up the great videos; I enjoy them immensely.
It has always been my formula/philosophy that the Players are the Heroes of the Tale. There will be sweat, there will be tears and there will likely be blood, but they will survive to Chapter 2. Before they relax in this knowledge, I jump in to add that this is my intention, but dice have no interest in my intentions. Dice will boost players to glory or defeat with rude randomness. Behind my screen, I fudge rolls all the time, in hopefully subtle fashion, to fulfill that Primary Intention. But, dice out there on the open table for all to see...
+Murray Lindsay Agreed totally. Gary Gygax - a legend in my mind - said 70% survival chance, but it must only appear to be 30%. And of course dice... always dice...
Good Video! :) The way i did it with my 2 level 1 party, they went into their first dungeon to retrieve a map from a cave that lead into an ancient city where undead are everywhere, they fought 1 skeleton and 1 zombie and realised that they were quite strong for them, then I had a knight at the end, who tore through 20 undead, they didn't feel like fighting him xD
I love the thunder in the background. It really adds to the video. :D
Hey a few good points!
A few ideas from myself towards this topic.
Be consistent, it is always in our heads. So I do agree that you can skew the DC of their Task depending on how you want the story to develop but you should also be consistent with your story telling, if something is hard it should be still hard next week if a similar/same situation arises.
If your players are so "stupid" to just dont take a look and want to jump a 200 feet chasm let them fall down break a few bones as they hit water down there and then they can either try to climb up or find a tunnel down there.
+DummyUrD I couldn't agree more! Consistency is the art and the subtle magic that have to try to create. You make a good point one worth repeating!
I love the sound of the storm in the background.
It's water, ordinary water. Yes. Ordinary water laced with L(esson)S(tory)D(ifficulty).
I have always gauged difficulty by entertainment value, even if it derails the story a bit. My groups tend to like tangents while working towards the main plot. They tend to be explorers.
I'm lucky my players do all in their power to be conflict avoidant unless it's suggested to be the "only" option, like say stealing something big means there will be guns blazing if they don't suddenly develop amazing stealth capabilities. Even then they try to use stealth approach as long as possible and count on having an easier encounter when they're detected. :)
1st edition 7Th Sea gave us The Brute Squads, where groups of five minions go down like bowling pins when hit. Great fun!
Actually, they made another weakness for Superman that I quite like. They made him (and Supergirl) especially vulnerable to magic. So magical means become that much more difficult for him to deal with.
This reminded me of when, while playing Tyranny of Dragons, while down are most powerful party member, we were given information about a high ranking cultist among the group we were traveling with. Well we thought it was intended to be a confrontation and source of further information so we all got together and created an elaborate plan attempting to trick information out of this cultist and the short of it is that we all almost died. Our GM later told us that the information we received was just supposed to be foreshadowing for the faaar future, like SEVERAL levels away, and we were never even supposed to see them and we ended up stretching what was a paragraph in the book to the whole session. Ah, good times.
During the second session of a campaign I'm running for some classmates, they came across an island where they found an ancient temple and lost tribe of elves. While exploring the temple a procession of the elves found the party snooping around the temple to which our Pirate decided to shoot a crossbow bolt at the elf's priestess. Needless to say when one of her bodyguards caught the bolt in what the Pirate perceived as slow motion, the party got out of there.
Keep it up, homie! Your videos are great tools to even the most seasoned DM/ST.
Thank you for being system agnostic :)
Everything's saturated in dnd 5e :P Love dnd and a lot of stuff is transferrable, but nice to have someone call me a GM :)
PS Cypher System for the win woowoowoo
The "minion" concept is something we use in the rule system I've made. Any "non-important" NPC will be defeated (not necessarily dead) if they're dealt a serious wound (mechanic of wounds, light, serious or lethal). Any important NPC or player will be able to keep fighting with a serious wound.
Savage Worlds has a similar concept to minions, wherein normal enemies only need one wound to take down, and big bads need 3 or more wounds to take down. It makes the big bads feel big and really dangerous and important.
+KamiKiller Never played Savage Wolrds. Sounds like fun!
Lesson = Story = Difficulty are you talking about LSD
On a scale of 1-10, my friends' "charge straight ahead" rating is 1000. They can achieve PC death in systems where it's almost impossible to die. :) Still, I feel I've learned a few useful tricks, so thanks for this video. :)
+fairytalejedi FTJ Throw minions in to slow them down and then give them a good demonstration! Also head over to Bacon RPG on the channel and get them to watch How to be a great PC!
How about an agent of the almighty creature or even a lower level agent that provides that challenges the characters but losses in the end with the big bad leaving right away and the higher tier agent leaving mid-way because it's agent will "take care of these pesky heroes!"?
YOU ARE A SORCERER OF STORY AND WEATHER! 16:10
+Sean ossu Hahahaha... story maybe. Weather... my studio is a cottage outside. after recording I had to run 60 feet in that insane weather... it was master, I just a wet, wet, man. lol.
How to be a Great Game Master the timing of the thunder is perfect though
Loving the videos. Can't stop watching. I'm planning a fast paced 3rd edition mutant chronicles. Characters aren't superheroes but are much more capable than run of the mill npcs. I thought of minimising rolls in favour for good quick planning and descriptive role playing for mainly combat. Guy. So you think that this is a good idea. Or should I try something else?
Another excellent video
Sacrificed an 8th level paladin to let the party escape. We were supposed to be there, and had a shot, but our thief flubbed every trap we came across.
Only time I ever played a lawful good character. He was good at what he did, and died well. However, I am better as the rogue or monk. Hide, backstab, running battles. Best way to win against an overwhelming opponent.
If it was noble then it was worth it. Still damned sad!
Only time I ever rolled 100% on the dice. It fit the character I had built and the 100% got the lightning bolts from my deity, destroying this guy and his keep. Mercenary bastards that we were, my companions started looking for loot immediately after. For that, our DM wouldn't let the heathens resurrect me and I had to start a new character.
LOL ... looters...
8:59 I've seen Spoony's video on Dragons so I know exactly where this is going XD
...
Also;
NPC: Get inside quickly, the weather is dangerous in these parts
PC: Screw you! I'm not going inside that creepy ass mansion
And then I made two of the heroes roll for Reflex Saves to avoid being hit by lightning.
...
It was a bit rail-roady, but it was my first campaign ever so I was new to the whole GMing thing. Still, I think it was a good example of how you can use rolls to present the players a real physical danger (If you don't make this roll, you're gonna get hit by lightning!) rather than a wishy-washy "Oh... The lightning strikes a tree and it blows up, but the players are fine because they have lots of plot-armor."
It also goes back into Difficulty = Story = Lesson. The intention was not to get the characters struck by lightning, it was to tell them that they are standing in the middle of a violent storm and they are not, in any way, safe out in the open. And no points of damage needed to be applied to do it because the Difficulty was set quite low, and the lightning wouldn't have done THAT much damage to level 3 characters (Not that they knew that).
Great Video.
I love your view on the game.
I hated the minion enemies. Once I found out there are things like them in the game combat had no tension. If I can kill one of them with one hit then it goes to figure all 10 of his buddies are one hit kills too. It just kills the fear. No fear no fun in my opinion.
In my experience game masters tend to make things at least of normal difficulty or harder. Like there is never something easy in the world. I realized it in the extreme when i had a 50% fail chance to use a simple ladder. Most of the time in systems which introduce negative and positive mods, no mod at all is handled like the easy way, when in reality no mod at all is still a hard cookie to swallow.
I think my players are an exception with regards to intelligence. I'm often sent a page-length plan for their latest operation. I'm pretty sure they spent three sessions amassing an army for a single operation. They were right to do so.
+Lewis257 That sounds AWESOME! I hope you capitalize on it and make their plan work wonderfully right up until it doesn't... lol.
+How to be a Great Game Master well of course, and their latest scheme is ripe for disaster. they'll learn not to mess with the Death Korps of Krieg!
All Hail the Emperor! Love hearing these kinds of stories so keep it coming :)
I dunno, I'd feel pretty defeated if an alien told me, "Sod off! you're not important!"
+kenthed45 lol... you'd be the few who didn't rebel at the notion and go out and try prove their worth. Of course - aliens might not say - Sod... - but let's say (just to be clear as I'm bad a reading sarcasm or serious statement ) it was how Smaug treated Bilbo Baggins. With bemused tolerance. But there was no doubt that Smaug was too dangerous for Bilbo or the dwarves to attack. (in the book and the film).
4:10 Excuse me, sir, I rather enjoy physics, calculus, and vectors quite a bit. However, as a GM and setting writer, I will avoid it like the plague at the table, and only use it sparingly in preparation when it helps the story.
I have been watching a ton of your videos to help prepare myself for my first session GMing a grand campaign. Sorry I forgot which video you talked about this in but I have a question about starting your campaign. You said there’s many great ways to introduce the characters and the one that really caught my interest was the prologue. I’m playing 7th sea and I was going to make he prologue a kind of dream for the character that is a “fate witch”. My plan was to not tell my players it’s a dream until they’re all dead at the end. At this point I would probably end the session and say the real game starts next week! Is this a good technique or do you think it would scare my players. I have a good mix of experienced players and 2 pretty much first timers.
Your inclusion of Sci fi painting a picture of going after a super powered race
First thing that came to mind, Spock VS frieza lol
tl;dr if I want it to happen, but they roll low, they succeed but something bad happens. If I don't, and they roll high, make it kind-of happen. Trying to break a wall, gets a Nat 20. Congrats, you didn't break a bone, and you made it a little ways towards breaking all the way through
I set the difficulty after the roll. I simply ask, in my head "Hm, How's that 18 gonna go..."
Example: my player figured out that there was a secret door, somewhere on a wall (he heard a noise, if it was a fully solid wall, it should've been dampened was his thought process) he told our paladin to bash the wall.
Paladin ran and rolled a 2 (9 after mods) I said he succeeded (I wanted him to succeed) but he took 2d6 damage, as he had failed the check.
Beautiful advice, thank you!!
As long as it's helpful I am happy :)
This one helped fantastically!
8:05 to be that guy you’re actually wrong because of very specific circumstances (darkseid’s omega beams) but i understand it was an example.
There was a ship like that in my game..... OMFG moment 1 was when it first apeared... it was so big that it stopping alone sent out shock waves that threw the station they where on out of stable orbit and did a good bit a damage. 2 it blew up a city and destroied the station they where on like it was nothing... 3 it was causing mass devistation while they where escaping the city and it took two super dreadnaughts showing up just to damage it in a noticable way...... yah they ran away
Subbed! Great advice.
Never tell me the odds...
I'd be strapped to the dragon with the armour and great weapon...
By strapped I mean hanging from my belt by its claw, with at least a piece of the armour I would need and well, I'm not really sure how this weapon works... But I'm prepared as best as I'll every be... and my party has my back... Right?
TrollDust Detox I can see it. A big ass paladin, hanging upside down from his belt being grasped in a flying dragon's claw, screaming, and randomly swinging a greatsword even though he's hundreds of feet off of the ground.
My star wars has either been too easy, which it has been how badly, and or some of my friends are very lucky. One in particular is very unlucky. Always seems to get hit. But 2 of them have never taken any damage at all. Im going to have their jedi general npc leave so I can really see how they fend for themselves.
Great video as always, one question, When will the following of "How to build your world" will come out ?
Thank you
+Alroc123 Next week! I've had too many requests for it. I did kinda stop half-way because I didn't like the format. But lots of people have asked for it - so next week!
Love the advice, thank you for the video. Quick question though. When handling those big epic encounters down the line, how does one make sure it feels epic? Do they have various stages of move sets and powers that they unveil as they get lower in health? What is your preferred method of conveying this?
+Timotie I can see the title: How to make Epic battles... it's a good question and one I'd like to answer in a video. However the best suggestion would - look at how films make the epic battle epic. Return of the Jedi has a 35+ minute epic battle ending. The 300 is basically a movie about one epic battle. So you are right - it's stages of difficulty. That's mostly why I ignore monster stats and values :)
I would (for what it's worth) offer my general tactic for this kind of thing... It's an older fashioned approach, but the unfortunate part of looking to cinema is that...well... we're not the cinema. We only have a limited resource to begin to approach that kind of atmospheric control... SO I would suggest you check out theater as well... Particularly, you might be well advised to look into singular storytellers and even check out a few, any chance you get.
For myself... Music to fit the scene is usually a great idea. It's not always at hand, but when it is, you're almost a damned fool if you don't make use of it. Keep the volume under control, but soundtracks from epic battle-scenes in movies (yes, cinema... I know) might help with that audio trick of sneaking through the ears to the subconscious while you get to work...
Now, for the nuts-and-bolts WORK... Get up from your chair for epic scenes. You're no longer just narrating a story about a group of blah-blah-blah... Don't be afraid to gain a little volume of your own, but watch the "tone" of your voice. It should stay relatively normal, just raise the volume and project the idea of THIS IS EPIC! Move about as you explain what's going on. If you talk about the left flank, move in the general direction where the flank should be and wave your arm to show you're gesturing to several hundred or thousands of people... or monsters.
Point to the sky (ceiling?) when you're introducing the air-battalion and wave a hand forward (right at the players) and down as the dragon's and their riders swoop out of the sky. Shout the orders that the commanders might be giving their troops... Use your mouth for some sound effects for the catapolts being pulled to "the ready" and the fibers and ropes creaking and straining as the force they're under threatens to snap them at any moment... Roar for the rush of fires racing across the fields. And move almost like an interpretive dance as you tell about these things. It doesn't have to be perfect, but put BIG BIG ENERGY into the act, and your players will feel BIG BIG ENERGY come out of it... THEN you have an EPIC encounter... mass battle or not.
...and sometimes, it's fun just to play with the theatricals a bit and see the reactions. :o)
nothing says "run away" to a PC better than lopping off one of their limbs
Ah I see you have my kind of motivation ethics!
It's all fun and games until someone's carrying around his head under an arm. :o)
Especially apropos in star wars campaigns.
In the second game i ever played, we were three players and the GM has set up a giant demon that was supposedly invisible. One of the players attacked this demon anyway, so we had to help him. Low and behold, the GM gets three nat ones during this fight, and never gets more then ten ,while we, the players, gots two nat twenties. So we end up slaying this Demon, even though there should have been no way in hell that we'd live through that. But that's the beauty of deis I guess
You know this sounds like something that a tpk could teach and a easier manner.
I'm running a commercial module for 1st level players and unfortunately the first level party did not succeed in the dungeon on the first try. One member is complaining that the difficulty level is inappropriate and that im an unfair DM because I made the adventure too high of a challenge rating. Is it possible that you could make a video titled "How not to be a Crybaby Player?".
3.5e is the best edition that i have played thus far
Wasn't Minions like that previously introduced by Mutants & Masterminds?
actually does help a lot one of the problems I run into is that my players are way better at optimizing then I am meaning that the difficulty in combat is usually scaled-down a bit just cuz I can't keep pace do you have any advice for me then
Epic tips!
Pretty sure it wasn't D&D 4e that came up with the idea of minions. I remember them in FGU's Bushido back in the early 80s.
Thank you for the advice. I've known about 1 hp minions, but I never quite thought of using them to prevent the players from doing something silly that would get them all killed. Though, I would like to ask if you have any advice on actually rewarding players. How do you balance giving them rewards that feel satisfying without turning the players into Super(wo)men and yet letting them feel satisfied with what they got?
+May Tsuki I think this is a great question - and one that I'd like to answer in a video. It's a fine balance and I had a horrid reputation at one point for giving too much and then taking it all away in the next session - a hard lesson! Watch this space.
One of my players decided to jump out of a window onto his horse while being discovered during a robbery. He was wearing plate mail. The horse died.
Damn, that weather
this guy had a delightfully Pleasant British accent
It's actually South African :P
"We never want to use that math stuff."
*me, a Physics major*
quick question- My group is new to tabletop RP and I have had to assume the role of GM. My biggest question is when is it appropriate to kill a player. I have one guy who has the immorality complex and I have tried to show him multiple times that he is squishy, but he isn't getting it. I don't really wanna kill off a player, but honestly I refuse to keep up with their health and when he is always rushing into battles with super powerful enemies I honestly don't know what to do.
Depends on the kind of game you are running. Double check if it could be a character flaw. Maybe they are playing the character that way on purpose.
You can have a "near death experience" occur and have them take a permanent injury as a result such as loosing an eye or arm or hand as a kind of warning to see if that allows the player or character (or both) to realize the error of their ways...
Or just actually play the game where enemies are all defeatable if that's the way the players want to and are having fun! Maybe they want to feel immortal, powerful and heroic! I disagree with one point in this video; a group may actually want tall fights to be winnable. So it's possible to win but not always easy.
Perhaps discuss this at session 0 /pregame or between sessions.
If i'm uncertain or the consequences of a roll is exceptionally dire i like to use a "yes or no" roll (coin toss). For instance, the dragon does +50% hp damage, does the PC lose a limb? What do you think about this? Players seem to like it as they get their 1 last chance but its a complete toss up so it feels like the work of "fate" rather than me punishing players (at least from their perspective).
+SomeForeignGuyStudio That's an interesting take. I like the idea in one sense, but in another if you've given them all the warning, and they rolled badly for a few rolls, isn't that fate already speaking? I'm nervous to add MORE rolls to a game. On the other hand - if you have like the 'Death' coin that could be pretty amazing thematically. I'll see what my players thing (always a good measuring stick) and see what they say.
+How to be a Great Game Master i use it very sparingly (once a session, if that) and only on something that would dramatically and permanently effect the PCs. I tend to keep rolling in general down to a minimum so it doesn't seem excessive to add a coin flip here or there. Thanks for your input.
Fair point. I'll let you know why my players think. I'm always keen to try out new rules or ideas :)
Where would you ballpark moderate difficulty, percent wise? 50% chance of success, 60% chance, more? I suppose it depends on the game and the needs of the story, but I'm curious if you've got any rules of thumb.
+NickCybert Gary Gygax - the creator of Dungeons and Dragons - said it should feel like 40% but in actually be 80%. Not sure if I agree I think it should be reliant on story and tension.
Actually.... I've played where some players and myself preferred to make all challenges beatable.... And most videogames have all challenges beatable by the players and they are popular..... In fact i think you need to actually WARN the players in session 0/ pregame that NOT all challenges WILL be beatable and they may need to run or flee or wait until later because I tend to notice MOST players ASSUME they can and should be able to beat ALL challenges they encounter as their default assumption. I implore everyone to warn the players before playing that this world exists ASIDE from the players and has challenges beyond them at their current level. Seriously WARN them. Otherwise it may end very badly......
After warning a group I was DMing for several years ago they all looked at each other and with a look, turned back to me and said. "Actually instead can you make it so that every challenge you give us CAN be beaten by us instead?" And they all agreed so I agreed and we actually had tons of fun! Let me be clear they still could have lost (there were still challenges) but I never made anything IMPOSSIBLE to beat or overcome appear at all and we were all fine with that!
So no great Wyrm dragons flying overhead when they were low leveled, etc.
Other than that good tips.
I would rephrase
"lesson = story = difficulty" to
"difficulty = lesson / story".
What are your thoughts on doing a "session 0" for a campaign?
+Christian Haile Love session 0. It helps players get to understand their character dynamic rather than their numbers. It focuses on story... my personal focus :) But I would make sure that is short - so that the players don't get frustrated at being fairly vulnerable.
A great Story wins the game
So what I'm getting from this equation you're putting up on screen is....it doesn't matter what level the players are or what they're trying to do: it should be easy if it lets them access story and hard if they think they're getting too big for their bracers. You've got a lot of good advice on your channel, but I could not disagree with this more if I tried. I'm not about to give my players a DC 15 for, say, an attempt to climb a sheer vertical wall with no handholds and no tools...simply because there's a story point on the other side of the wall. The difficulty in my games will always resemble the actual difficulty of the task.
Part of that is for consistency. Good players will learn to expect difficult tasks to be difficult and easy tasks to be easy, regardless of story. And smart players will plan for that. They'll go buy a spider climb ring to scale the wall, or a passwall scroll to walk through it, or something like that. Or they'll get a grappling hook and....et cetera et cetera. You say "most players are stupid"; maybe it's a hang-up of mine, but I can't cater to stupidity. I want to make you think, not make you assume everything will work out no matter what you do.
I didn't read it that way. I read it: don't give the players unclimbable wall if the story tells that they have to cross it.
Stats heavy doesn't difficulty easier- d&D have quite a lot of low challenge rating monster which are actually difficult to deal with. Put enough stats into a situation and some of those are going to conflict.
The title needs to be reworded. You are speaking about how to support a spesific type of game. Looking at this from players and GMs that enjoy a highly simulationist type of game (like a game using GURPS or something) then this is like nails on a chalk board. Also, those that value the "G" in RPG more they too will have issue that you are assigning TN based on narrative reasons.
What you are saying isn't bad in of itself but it would benefit your viewers to know which type of games this tip is geared towards.
+Keaggan Point taken and accepted. Apologies for the confusion. I did not anticipate people watching this video before my others. If you had you would have learned that I hate the 'Game' part of role-play as it implies winners and losers, values, scores etc. But point taken.
How to be a Great Game Master No apologies needed. It's just a point of clarification so your viewers will get the maximum benefit from your hard work.
Without the the "Game" part than we are JUST improving/story telling. Fantasy version of Whose Line Anyways or cooperative story writing.
The "game" part doesn't mean winners and losers it just means which type of 3rd party tools do we want to use AKA resolution mechanics. These could support very gamey ideals like D&D or extremely loose one like Lasers & Feelings. Also these tools determine which aspects of an RPG we will be focusing on. Combat? Dialog? Espionage? World Building? Crafting? Adventure? Grit? Survival?
Each system created may highlight all, some or just one of these to greater and lesser degrees.
Thus the "G" part of RPG isn't the issue it's that we (as GMs & Players) don't have enough tools to explain our preferences, goals & desires because the genre has stagnated for decades by being dominated by a single franchise that focuses on a very specific type of RPG.
The word RPG and "the 800lb gorilla" are almost synonymous in many peoples minds.
Sorry for such a wordy comment lol
You are quite right and I agree it has been dominated quite heavily by a single system. And I think it's for historical reasons that it reigns. However FF and others are releasing great alternatives that really offer totally different approaches to RPG's which is good. I think over time they'll gain traction!
what if your players ignore the escape and charge anyway. Do you then kill off a PC as a lesson??
Provided there is enough warning and 'wisdom rolls' or whatever system you use to help guide your players away from stupid ideas then yes, if it makes sense. But it must be a clear and obvious result of their choices, not your choice as GM.
The reason I ask, is because I can see my players doing just that, ignoring everything that came before, and charging in anyway.
It happens. It really does!
TheDryfus - If they have been warned and they charge anyway, ignore the chance to retreat and get away and even the offer of the other side to give up, then go the full nine yards. The next time they will surely remember.
Do all american RPGs use a level/ranking system? I never hear anyone speak of levels in Sweden as it relates to tabletop RPGs, but on the contrary I barely ever hear any americans *not* speak of levels.
Merci maître
+JdR Ludiste - Paul Artwork I wish I could respond in French but alas I am not that skilled! Thank's for watching and here's hoping you subscribe for more!
4th Edition D&D did not invent the minion. It was Bushido in the late 1970s.
Fair point. Could I then say 4th Ed. Popularized the minion concept?
:) Well, you can certainly say it, your very articulate. But... LOL
The concept has been used by a few systems before D&D 3.5.
But, I will grant you that it has become part of the awareness of our hobby in no small part thanks to D&D 4th Ed. It is a very popular system and far more people play it than others.
By the way, thanks for putting it to well worded rants the message I have been unable to give to my current group. In decades of play I have never had a group quite as problematic as the one I have now, and lack the clarity to explain what I have taken for granted for far too long.
Great channel.
Do I tell the Pc`s that its a minion?
Coming from American school system. "Yeah... all that...stuff... they "taught" us in high school. Definitely." 3:44
...No. Riding a horse at a walk is a TEN difficulty, and most people have enough common sense to ride a walking horse, and take ten.
There are some people who CAN'T ride a horse at a walk.
I disagree. I'd rather let the players set the story. On their way to hunt down the dragon, set before them obstacles such that they level up enough before they actually reach their goal of finding the dragon. Have the dragon become the main quest.
Ah then it is merely a matter of quest duration you're arguing here. And I agree with you and it's a good thing to capitalize on because it means more adventures right! So I like your idea, but it can't happen all the time, otherwise it becomes routine?
I would say that it is a routine that I'd be comfortable with, as a GM. Since I set the story, I could simply take one of two routes. Either have the dragon become the main baddie, or the largest henchman in the main baddie's arsenal. Therefore still driving the story as it was intended, and appeasing the player's sense of control and desire for grand adventure. I see it as a best of both worlds. Alternatively, have it be that what they thought they saw was actually a dragonfly LOL.
Have all difficulties available... somewhere.
Give hints in the rumors as to the difficulty level... if they are dumb enough to challenge an ancient red dragon as level 1 adventurers.... roast them.
How to infect players with lycantrophy without them knowing it straight away...?
+Rusty Screwdriver If it's delivered by a bite then simply have the player roll a con save (or whatever value they have to avoid being infected). Then if they fail don't say: You're infected. Just nod and smile and jot it down somewhere. On the first full moon - have nothing happen, they forget about it. The virus takes a month to incubate. On the SECOND full moon - BANG. Fur fangs and blood. But remember to take your time. Don't rush it.
+Rusty Screwdriver - It also depends if the werewolf gets any bonuses or disabilities while in human form. Many movies and books have this. "Ragnar" is unwittingly infected. As the lycanthropy incubates, you slip in some comment during one meal that those apples taste like bland horse manure. There's usually a -3 penalty to fight in the dark. "Except for Ragnar. Only -1". And there's the classic as dogs, horses and other domesticated animals become increasingly skittish around Ragnar.
"I control the rolls, thank you very much."
No. Wow, no! If you're going to roll you have to let the roll fall and deal with the outcome. If not, don't roll and just dictate the story. Fudging dice rolls is the worst.
+dmgpunk It depends on how you see the use of rolls in your game. If you see it as being the 'change' effect for both player and GM then yes play it as it lies. If however it's a tool to create tension/comedy/drama/tragedy - then by all means change the number. I play with a massive die. It's impossible to hide. The modifiers I assign to the rolled number are however mine to command. I won't let a great story end because it rolls a failure. I will use it to inspire story - drive the plot forward. Having said that - there are a lot of GM's who feel as you do, and it makes the tension in the game much more like Russian Roulette - which is entertaining in it's own right.
No trolling, not looking for an argument, just trying to understand.:
If you're going to change the number to fit your design, why roll at all, why not just dictate the outcome?
dmgpunk Don't think you're trolling :) So why do players roll dice? To see if they can manipulate numbers to succeed. Why make it hard for them to succeed? So the reward is satisfying. Why must a GM roll dice? Does he care if his NPC succeeds his test? Does she get a sense of satisfaction from nuking the party? The answer should technically be no. So then what are the numbers for from the GM's perspective? To create tension for the players - are their numbers good enough? That's point number one. Point number two is those rolls should determine NPC action (spot, listen, sense motive etc.). So I don't fudge my numbers all the time. However what the rolls should not do - is change the story in a manner that is unacceptable to me. I like seeing what the dice suggest should be the outcome of a roll. However if those rolls get in the way of my story I will change it by adding modifiers etc. Does that make sense?
It makes sense, yes. Thanks for taking the time to explain it. I'm say I agree, but if you and your players are happy to play that way then story on! ^___^