I remember the time the party voted to NOT go resurrect my characters companion(construct), who was the party's mascot who died as a result of the bbeg setting off an emp on his death. It has been years and im still upset that the dm wrote an entire campaign for us to break into heaven to get the soul of this companion, and the party said "no, we wanna do anything else". I quit this party recently after years of repeatedly being voted out of doing anything for my character
I don't think that a boss encounter relying on the party having drained resources is an example of "poor encounter design". It's not creative, sure, but attrition is a core feature of DND combat. It's clear, even by their own admission, that they just don't like the combat. That being said, love the DMs and game designers who make better encounters than that.
Dming is hard for some people, I know every time I DM for my campaign I leave feeling exhausted, good but drained because even though my players like to RP a lot... They still require direction. They might want to RP with one of the crew or the NPC I dropped on them. Last few sessions I've had to look up magic items because they came across an astral dragon magic item shop. We only play once a month and I couldn't imagine doing more than that because as a new DM who put herself in a high level campaign with 6 players it's so hard to run everything especially with ADHD. But I love it and I wouldn't change anything about it because I'm passionate and so are my players, but that doesn't mean it isn't difficult.
I'd argue that draining resources isn't just good for balance, its good for creative thinking in combat. When you're missing your go to tools, you are forced to think outside the box. For example. The group I play in recently got into a fight with an adult red dragon. We had previously gone through a dungeon and fought a different adult dragon in that same adventuring day. We had basically no resources left other than what the fighter and druid got back on a short rest. I was playing a sorcerer with fire bolt and shocking grasp as his only damage options. I ended up going over my sheet multiple times and eventually landed on an item our dm gave us for Christmas. A pinecone that turns instantly into a 10 ft. tall pine tree when thrown. It was just meant to be a fun thing where we could put a nice little tree down somewhere. Instead, it got thrown in a dragon's mouth and absolutely messed it up. Never would have tried that if I had spell slots but it ended up being a campaign highlight for me.
24:52 - If you need to drain resources to make a later combat challenging, your encounters are poorly designed. 34:58 - DMing isn't hard. (Titlecard) 42:11 - Goblins and Orcs are put on this plane to be slaughtered. 47:56 - PC death isn't inherently bad. 53:46 - Running away is okay! 58:47 - Most players don't want a sandbox game. They want the illusion of one.
In regards to that last question, "railroading" is a term that gets tossed around so much that its lost a lot of its meaning. To me the line between a linear story and railroading comes down entirely to the players having agency. Even in a sandbox, dropping story hooks, encouraging players to go to certain places, talk to certain NPCs and engage with certain events isn't railroading, but FORCING them to follow the plot by denying them the choice not to or by making all of their choices meaningless would be.
So with the first story am not sure how i feel. Primarilly cause i have mook encounters but not to drain a party of the resources but cause my games often have pulp vibes with the party fighting the minions on the way to the boss. But i find if the party get to recharge before a boss fight is up to them, do they long rest or do they rush in and surprise the boss, do they fight everything that moves or do they sneal in after lots of planning and prep. Like it may be the style of games I run and play in but like i have never heard of encounters JUST to drain rescources, and like especially ones that a party through their agency could avoid
I am intrigued because the idea of running a game not being hard feels like an alien concept. There are so many layers to game running and I find if unlikely that anyone finds every aspect to nor be at least a little difficult.
The first NPCs my party met in my campaign were an Orc and a goblin pair of guards based on Colon and Nobby from Discworld. To establish they're people in my setting
My players like sandbox episodes/sessions. If I give them time and space to mess around and explore without barriers of my own plans, they have a blast but then do want me to direct them on where to go/guide them back to the tracks for the meat of the story. I don’t think they would enjoy an entire sand box campaign and I think it’s a misconception that a lot of players have! Sandbox can work but it’s also leads to a lot of “well now what? What are we doing? Where are we going?”
Most GMs do not want a full sandbox game either, lol. A lot of people don't really know what to do when given total freedom, and it is hard to make a sandbox world. Either you make a million things that no one gets to, or you make too few things in a direction your players don't wanna go and wind up having to wing it. But then expecting good emergent storytelling from just that is another whole thing from people who may not in fact be professional voice actors or authors. I feel like you need *some* structure to the game, or else it is just a lot of aimless wandering around and fighting random monsters from tables.
I shall go vote for you! Such good pride entries. Yeah I have to agree I’m glad paladin is only getting one smite as it can get so out of hand. I know a lot of people seem to hate that change but it’s probably because they are paladin players, so I can understand that. Great as always
Ngl the genuine disgust at killing a child npc is a little much no? Theres literally no dofference between the child and an adult goblin except the stats are slightly lower. Its all just numbers on a page.
I remember the time the party voted to NOT go resurrect my characters companion(construct), who was the party's mascot who died as a result of the bbeg setting off an emp on his death. It has been years and im still upset that the dm wrote an entire campaign for us to break into heaven to get the soul of this companion, and the party said "no, we wanna do anything else". I quit this party recently after years of repeatedly being voted out of doing anything for my character
Bully is the only one not allowed a chocolate pillow.
not even as a little treat?
I don't think that a boss encounter relying on the party having drained resources is an example of "poor encounter design". It's not creative, sure, but attrition is a core feature of DND combat. It's clear, even by their own admission, that they just don't like the combat. That being said, love the DMs and game designers who make better encounters than that.
Dming is hard for some people, I know every time I DM for my campaign I leave feeling exhausted, good but drained because even though my players like to RP a lot... They still require direction. They might want to RP with one of the crew or the NPC I dropped on them. Last few sessions I've had to look up magic items because they came across an astral dragon magic item shop. We only play once a month and I couldn't imagine doing more than that because as a new DM who put herself in a high level campaign with 6 players it's so hard to run everything especially with ADHD.
But I love it and I wouldn't change anything about it because I'm passionate and so are my players, but that doesn't mean it isn't difficult.
I feel this so hard!!!
I'd argue that draining resources isn't just good for balance, its good for creative thinking in combat. When you're missing your go to tools, you are forced to think outside the box.
For example. The group I play in recently got into a fight with an adult red dragon. We had previously gone through a dungeon and fought a different adult dragon in that same adventuring day. We had basically no resources left other than what the fighter and druid got back on a short rest. I was playing a sorcerer with fire bolt and shocking grasp as his only damage options. I ended up going over my sheet multiple times and eventually landed on an item our dm gave us for Christmas. A pinecone that turns instantly into a 10 ft. tall pine tree when thrown. It was just meant to be a fun thing where we could put a nice little tree down somewhere. Instead, it got thrown in a dragon's mouth and absolutely messed it up.
Never would have tried that if I had spell slots but it ended up being a campaign highlight for me.
24:52 - If you need to drain resources to make a later combat challenging, your encounters are poorly designed.
34:58 - DMing isn't hard. (Titlecard)
42:11 - Goblins and Orcs are put on this plane to be slaughtered.
47:56 - PC death isn't inherently bad.
53:46 - Running away is okay!
58:47 - Most players don't want a sandbox game. They want the illusion of one.
In regards to that last question, "railroading" is a term that gets tossed around so much that its lost a lot of its meaning. To me the line between a linear story and railroading comes down entirely to the players having agency. Even in a sandbox, dropping story hooks, encouraging players to go to certain places, talk to certain NPCs and engage with certain events isn't railroading, but FORCING them to follow the plot by denying them the choice not to or by making all of their choices meaningless would be.
Me with my penultimate gun ready to snipe....... Good
I've had hard encounters that have a second and harder phase and I've given the players the benefit of a long rest between the transition
So with the first story am not sure how i feel. Primarilly cause i have mook encounters but not to drain a party of the resources but cause my games often have pulp vibes with the party fighting the minions on the way to the boss.
But i find if the party get to recharge before a boss fight is up to them, do they long rest or do they rush in and surprise the boss, do they fight everything that moves or do they sneal in after lots of planning and prep. Like it may be the style of games I run and play in but like i have never heard of encounters JUST to drain rescources, and like especially ones that a party through their agency could avoid
I am intrigued because the idea of running a game not being hard feels like an alien concept. There are so many layers to game running and I find if unlikely that anyone finds every aspect to nor be at least a little difficult.
The first NPCs my party met in my campaign were an Orc and a goblin pair of guards based on Colon and Nobby from Discworld. To establish they're people in my setting
My players like sandbox episodes/sessions. If I give them time and space to mess around and explore without barriers of my own plans, they have a blast but then do want me to direct them on where to go/guide them back to the tracks for the meat of the story. I don’t think they would enjoy an entire sand box campaign and I think it’s a misconception that a lot of players have! Sandbox can work but it’s also leads to a lot of “well now what? What are we doing? Where are we going?”
Eek! I did not expect to win.
Most GMs do not want a full sandbox game either, lol. A lot of people don't really know what to do when given total freedom, and it is hard to make a sandbox world. Either you make a million things that no one gets to, or you make too few things in a direction your players don't wanna go and wind up having to wing it. But then expecting good emergent storytelling from just that is another whole thing from people who may not in fact be professional voice actors or authors. I feel like you need *some* structure to the game, or else it is just a lot of aimless wandering around and fighting random monsters from tables.
I almost feel like sandbox games are better suited to GMless systems tbh.
Not just the men is just the anakin skywalker meme lol
ITS CLOGGIN TIME!
I shall go vote for you! Such good pride entries. Yeah I have to agree I’m glad paladin is only getting one smite as it can get so out of hand. I know a lot of people seem to hate that change but it’s probably because they are paladin players, so I can understand that. Great as always
Patreon mentioned 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
🎉🎉🎉
Ngl the genuine disgust at killing a child npc is a little much no? Theres literally no dofference between the child and an adult goblin except the stats are slightly lower. Its all just numbers on a page.
Congrats to the winners! 💜