#5E Adventure

[tadfools]

Op disabled rbs but they’re right and more people need to read this a few times over

[fantastictalesofadventure]

Some Olympics Shooting x D&D/TTRPG memes for ya'all!

[theoutcastrogue]

MATT: When I ask for persuasion or deception on your end, when someone's rolling insight on you, that's an opportunity for you to be honest and choose persuasion. That way, when the opportunity does arrive that you are deceiving somebody, the person that's rolling insight doesn't know whether you are or not.

AABRIA: I've taken that from you, by the way. I love that. I was like, persuasion or deception, don't say which.

MATT: Yeah, the player chooses, they just say a number, and then whether you're deceiving or you're not, if you succeed over them, then you get to give the information you want.

BRENNAN: That's slick as hell. And that's what I do now too. Stealing that right away.

MATT: We all steal from each other. Make us all better.

— Adventuring Party: All About The Ravening War S12E04: "The Mystic River Episode"

[thepringlesofblood]

in honor of the suffering game graphic novel coming out, I would like to introduce this argument from the podcast (suffering game pt 3) that got cut from the novel (understandably)

In the first battle in Wonderland, Taako wants to cast the spell "Flesh to Stone" on a regenerating poisonous slime.

Griffin disallows this, saying that slime isn't flesh.

Justin retorts that the slime is its flesh.

Travis argues that since the slime is sentient, its slime counts as flesh.

Where do you stand?

Other considerations brought up in the argument:

if the slime has skin, does that make it flesh?

Griffin notes: "if this thing had flesh it would be a bag of skin full of fuckin’ goo." to which Justin replies "What’s holding it together then, Griffin? Surface tension?"

The spell description uses the term "flesh".

Considerations I came up with:

Merriam Webster defines flesh as "the soft parts of the body of an animal and especially of a vertebrate"

the spell description for Flesh to Stone (as of 7/23/24) reads "If the target's body is made of flesh, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw."

ik griffin's the dm so whatever he says goes, this is about the argument itself, not who gets to decide what happens

clarifications below

clarifications

if you agree/disagree for multiple reasons listed, pick the PRIMARY or MOST IMPORTANT reason.

if you think flesh-to-stone could work on a slime, but not in this instance, you can pick "depends/nuance/secret 12th option"

ignore for the moment whether Taako had the spell slots for it. we all know he casts too many 6th level spells in the suffering game for it to be kosher. we're choosing to ignore that.

the adventure zone also generally ignores material components so we are too (his arcane focus would act as a substitute in this instance anyway, as the components are "a pinch of lime, water, and earth")

[glutenfreehimbo]

Stat a D&D Character

How it will work: After the results of the poll is done, I’ll rank the stats with the most votes and match then to the appropriate the D&D 5e standard stat array number (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8)

If this gets popular enough I might start a side blog where we make a D&D character 100% based on polls, but for now… enjoy.

Please reblog to increase sample size.

[beebundt]

shattered

[heroes-feasting]

haven’t seen this posted here yet

the ‘dragons’ part of dnd got me interested originally, but it was the fan creations like taz and critical role that really drew me in and kept me around

what a god awful decision

[tristansfreezingtheirbrain]

I recently exposed my current Dungeon Master to The Magnus archives. And based on the session today… I fear I’ve made a big mistake. I fear for my characters lives and the lives of their friends more than ever before.

In short.

Don’t let your DM listen to Magnus Archives. They get too many ideas. It’s frightening

[whitneyzombie]

Oops I dropped the link to my personal file collection I use to supplement this.

It would be a shame if someone found where I keep the nerdy things I've compiled, along with lists of other resources. It would be silly if I left pdfs for Eve of Ruin, manuals, the now 66 card deck of everything, and maybe more out in the open.

Since this is actually what I use to organize and store files, there aren't listed sources of where everything came from. I might be able to help find some things, too.

[booba-saur]

Tell me why naming my DND character is by far the MOST stressful process

Backstory? YES!

Character Avatar? YES!!

Character sheet? No problem

Choosing spells? Done

Name?..... Umh [ noises of panic and distress as I try to look for that one website page with the Greek vocabulary that I opened 5 minutes ago among all the other 11 tabs (each containing: character name generator, backstory, background, list of Celtic baby names, DND forum abandoned by humankind in 2014 and YouTube with the entirety of the FFXIV soundtrack)

[fantastictalesofadventure]

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞! 👀 👀 👀

[capt-loverboy]

First // latest Merle :]

[5ecardaday]

Swordtember 2024, Pt. 1

So, Swordtember. An event I'd always wanted to participate in, but lacked the artistic talent (and time) to do so. Well this year, I've decided to do my own twist on Swordtember-- 30 days of famous pop-culture swords, all given full 5th Edition write ups. You can see the first four days of that here-- from Kingdom Hearts, to Adventure Time, to Soul Calibur. It's quite a spread!

If you'd like to see a couple more, as well as keep track of these as I release them, you can do so over on my Patreon! I'll only be posting every 3/5ths of what I make for the month here; the rest will be exclusive to anyone who follows me (but not strictly anyone who chooses to monetarily support me) over there.

[the-southern-cereal-king]

Dadlands is going to do much wilder now that brennan has achieved dadhood

[beebundt]

camilleinktober day 6: a long kept secret

moment from our campaign.... meeting the little ice boy ❄

[dailyadventureprompts]

Writing Mysteries for tabletop games

It’s no wonder I’ve had a lot of requests for how to write mysteries, compelling adventures that account for the party’s choices are hard enough to write on their own, to say nothing of what happens when the challenge you’re having them face off against is meant to be a brain teaser.  Mysteries are difficult to get right, too obvious and it’s not a mystery at all, too difficult and your session will run up against a brick wall. Finding that middle point isn’t just a matter of gearing the numbers a certain way or preparing the right number of clues, it requires doing a certain amount of work to understand the story of the mystery as a mechanism both in its initial construction and in how it’s presented to the party.

Characters: At it’s core, solving a mystery is a character study, how the life of a perpetrator led them to have a particular set of drives and restraints, and how a very particular set of circumstances led to those drives running wild and destroying other people’s lives in the process.

The cast: notice how the previous entry referred to characterS? A mystery is an ensemble piece and since a person can generally remember up to seven things at once, it means you get to include up to seven detailed or semi-detailed characters to play with in your drama (including victims). That isn’t to say that there can’t be bit players in your story, but its a good idea to associate them strongly with one your main cast. For each major character you either have to give them a reason why they’d want to commit the crime, or a piece of evidence that ties them directly to it. Likewise, they all need to have a secret/hidden motivation, which will guide how they act as the mystery proceeds.

Placing clues: mysteries leave clues like a bomb leaves shrapnel, with the tricky business being that a good portion of it ends up buried in the wall and it’s hard to tell which bits are the bomb and what parts are just the mundane objects that got caught up in its explosion. Again, following our rule of 7, we can further set out that about half of the clues at each stage of the investigation will be hidden, while another will be obvious, while separately 2/3rds of the clues are going to be either red herrings ( complete dead ends) or only be helpful in fully discounting one of the suspects.

On the Clock: Taking a page out of my own advice when it comes to running a fancy ball, you’re going to want to have your mystery plot occur over a strict timeline, which will change who’s available to talk to and what clues are revealed over the course of the investigation. Generally time sensitive evidence will be worth more, while evergreen evidence will exist to provide context to other clues, or need to be paired together to make real progress. Shifting the timeline along also means that NPCs can enact their own plans, whether it means pursuing their own investigation, altering, uncovering, or destroying evidence, or attempting to escape.

Wheels within Wheels: Often mysteries are nested together, as the fallout of one wrongdoing goes on to provide the motivation for another. A party who’re investigating will likely receive evidence that’s a jumble of their main mystery and its nested mysteries, and by solving these lesser steps the party can either shed a light on motives or help discount other avenues of search.

Consequences: Just like every other d&d adventure, one of the most important steps is making the party care about the adventure and its outcome. They have to be at risk of losing something they care about, or have already lost it and are looking for revenge. This can be anything from a promising job opportunity, their reputation, an npc they enjoy the company of, or their own freedom. Likewise, you need to have an idea what happens if the party fails to solve the mystery. How does it affect the heroes, or the characters that are part of the mystery, or the world at large?

Feel free to check my mystery tag for more inspiration for your own games, or my dm advice tag for more of my highly specific ramblings on how you can become a better dungeon master