Last night i DM'd our monthly game with friends.
The game had been building up to some good ol' dragonslaying and they spent most of the evening running quests in order to stock up on dragonbane weaponry and gadgets, believing (rightfully so) that they'd need extraordinary ressources to fight a dragon.
I have allways been a firm believer in that dragons should fight intelligently, as they are after all very smart creatures.
Once the fight started the dragon laid out a smokescreen (Red dragons have smoke vision in pathfinder) used ventrilloquism to disguise auditory clues to its location and snuck up on the party, whom meanwhile were barred from looking at the battlemap due to poor visibility, in order to minimize metagaming.
What followed were a fight where the players attacked random squares, got out of line of sight from eachother with no real way to rendesvouz, several of the players got flung to far reaches of the lair, or into pits of lava and had no real way of finding their way back to the battle except to move in the direction of the noise and take 5 foot steps, in order to not eat a ton of attacks of opportunity from the dragon, in case they accidentally strafed through it's threatened area.
They still won.
My point is that i got some very constructive criticism from a player afterwards; He told me that the dragon fought how a player would fight if it knew it were going to be ambushed, and while an effective tactic - limiting, hindering, hampering, confusing, seperating and preventing players from doing what they wanna do is enormously frustrating to the players.
Basically being disallowed to play your character effectively...
I think he's very right in that regard.
My question to you GM's of TG, is: How do you construct some nice hard fights that empower the players, make them feel like heroes, while still presenting a big challenge?
Have you constructed anything that might qualify? Any tips? Any nifty psychological tricks?
>>55211449
>having friends
>>55211449
I agree with this. The issue is that removing any amount of a player's toolset is frustrating.
Look at video games. Anything where the player can get stunned, frozen, etc, where they can't move or do things tends to be one of the more frustrating aspects of a game. An underwater timed escort mission, for example, is annoying because you remove the ability to go at your own pace.
I've been playing a lot of XCOM 2's newest expansion, War of the Chosen, and how they've made the new Chosen adversaries works well IMO. They empower the villian, but don't take away from your units.
So a lot of the effects can be the same, but it's how it's presented. Being immune to conventional weapons feels extremely different than sending your mundane weapons to an alternate dimension. Being invisible is very different than making a smoke screen.
While mechanically the same, it's less "oh he took that toy away from me" and more "this guy has more toys that we do"
>>55211509
I guess that's right, internalizing the enemy's strengths would be a good way to do it.
It can still be frustrating if you throw everything and the kitchen sink at someone to no effect.
Perhaps gradually inneffective defenses? Invisibility that gets less and less effective the more blood is spattered?
Frost resistance buffs that visibly weaken the more frost damage you pile on.
Describing inneffective attacks as still irritating or distracting the monster, even though mechanically they have no effect.
Alright you scurvy sea dogs and lily-livered, land lubbers. Be postin' ye pirate related character artwork, least ye fall under the pirate curse.
Also feel free talk about any pirate related /tg/ games ye wish to talk about.
>you scurvy sea dogs and lily-livered, land lubbers
Lore wise what is the best color to be?
>>55210994
White certainly has its privileges.
>>55210994
I'm usually pretty blue, myself.
>>55210994
Depends on what you value in life, probably.
Spite Edition
Previous: >>55204873
RESOURCES
>Official Site: Contains deck building rules and the current ban list.
http://www.mtgcommander.net
>Deck List Site: You can search for decks that other people have made. Authors often have comments that explain their deck’s strategy and card choices.
http://www.tappedout.net
>Plenty of decklists and primers.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh
>Statistically see what everyone else puts in their commander decks based on what is posted to the the internet.
http://www.edhrec.com/
>Find out what lands you can add to your deck, sorted by category, based on a chosen Commander’s color identity.
http://manabasecrafter.com/
CARD SEARCH
>Official search site. Current for all sets.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/
>Unofficial, but has GOAT search interface.
http://magiccards.info/
>Thread question
How do you feel about Stax elements? Irritations that keep people from playing, or necessary breaks on out-of-control board states?
First for Iona did nothing wrong
>thread question
A-OK
>>55210516
>How do you feel about Stax elements?
Love 'em. Love playing 'em, love playing against 'em. It's a puzzle to solve when you're against it
why didn't you put the discord link in the op?
We're Retarded Edition
>Unearthed Arcana: Three-Pillar Experience
http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA-ThreePillarXP.pdf
>5etools:
https://astranauta.github.io/5etools.html
>/5eg/ Alternate Trove:
https://dnd.rem.uz/5e%20D%26D%20Books/
>Resources Pastebin:
http://pastebin.com/X1TFNxck
>Previous thread:
>>55197470
What's the stupidest question you've ever seen a player ask you/your DM during a game?
Hey /tg/! Mike Mearls here, just here to inform you that this month's UA is an alternate Lifestyle Expenses table.
>>55210615
2/10, too much overlap with the Downtime UA. Try again.
>>55210615
No no senpai, you've got to think even MORE useless, that could still be used for westmarches campaigns.
It also isn't nearly as condescending as the last two.
How about a guide on how reflavor spells?
Hey, quick questions from a newbie trying to get into board games.
I've got a group of up to 5 friends and we're looking for board games to play.
We really want to play Dungeons and Dragons but it's somewhat intimidating - what would be some good beginner and intermediate games to build up to that? And what are some interesting beginner games in general?
Also... board games are kinda expensive, we're all in college and don't have huge amounts of money to spend. What are some of the best games in terms of value, and what are some of the best places/times to get deals on board games?
Thanks for any replies, sorry if I asked any stupid questions.
You could look at the official D&D board games. They are solid dungeon crawlers for "Only" ~$60 each. If you want A LOT of content for your money, you could buy Gloomhaven which you can nab for $100 online. It has a big overarching campaign along with the general dungeons and looting that you would expect.
If you want to play a proper RPG you can play GURPS Lite. It is rules lite so good for beginners, and free so great for poor college students.
>>55210663
Thanks for the tip about GURPS Lite, never even heard of GURPS but it looks cool.
>>55210460
DnD 5e is pretty easy to run and easier to play. DnD 5e basic is free and a good starting point if you want to try DnD.
Savage Worlds isn't bad if you want to try a genre neutral game and play a pirate or western campaign.
Thin your paints thread?
This is a Primaris Apothecary, by the way. If the paint job has rendered it unrecognizable.
>>55210358
>buy £9001 model
>paint it with fingerpaints
>>55210358
Daily reminder everyone would be much happier if they spent only 25% of their total miniature budget on miniatures and the rest on getting them professionally painted
>>55210543
Yeah, but then I wouldn't get to paint them, and then what's the point?
Greetings
>>55210357
>henlo
idgi
>>55210357
Henwo madafuckwa
>CE isn't "Sup fags"
It's like you aren't even trying OP
I need some dice. Preferably ones that look good. Where should I buy them?
https://www.awesomedice.com/KPL01703
q-workshop.com
>>55210344
look up Steve Minty
his cards are the best, but his dice are really nice too.
Why is 40k the only thing I care about anymore?
>>55210326
Because you have aspergers syndrome
>>55211359
The meme or the real thing?
>>55210326
Cause you're a fascist longing for a leader and a purpose.I'm not even /pol/ing right now.
Get in here and get ready for the shitstorm that is going to start when gangs start fighting kill teams.
Necromunda is coming out and there is still a chance they might use 2nd edition rules.
It looks like it might be a dual box with board rules and 3D rules. We can only hope for the best.
Holy crap this is looking like a pile of crap. I hope they have 3D rules but that book looks oddly thin.
I can feel the disappointment in the room.
>>55210907
Shit lazy CAD miniatures, shit lazy CAD board...
Odds of the rules being better than the original very slim.
At least there's some hope that they'll make some nice overpriced 3D terrain as an expansion ... which hopefully the chinese will get casting quickly.
How would you rate the hobbit as a rpg campaign? (The Book, not the movies)
>>55210197
I need a system first.
Really really really really fucking fun.
A bit weak in letting all the players do stuff tho.
>>55210218
Rogue Trader
/tg/ give me all your fictional metals and elements!
Post their name, origin and properties.
Fantasy or Sci-fi does not matter.
I sometimes toy with 'madjrium', chemical symbol Mj, in settings that have magic. It's a thaumoelectric metal--push a magical gradient across it, and it creates a voltage. It also has a distinctive purple sheen, the same way that gold is yellow or copper is red-orange. The only big problem with the stuff is that it's radioactive, with a half-life on the order of a few million years, due to having an atomic number of 126 and island-of-stability optimists winning the lottery.
>>55209775
I don't have a name for it yet but it's a green rubber substance that is able to pass through itself. This allows for doors that require suits of the same materiel to pass through.
>>55214894
If it can pass through itself, how the fuck do you make anything out of it?
I'm playing a 'knowledge is power' themed Rouge/Assassin/Duskblade in 3.5 set in Eberron.
I have Knowledge Devotion and what to max it out by taking Arcane Disciple & Lore of the Gods.
From what I can find, the ONLY knowledge domain god in Eberron is Aureon, correct?
I'm not playing a strictly evil assassin and Eberron is lax on alignment in general but but someone like the Shadow seems like a better fit thematically. The theme of the character is a skilled Changeling, Rouge/Assassin with a fascination with knowledge and magic, who believes a knife in the right man's back can do more good than two dozen righteous paladins but is also conflicted if he just tells himself that to justify is own actions.
------------------------------------------
Arcane Disciple: Choose a deity, and then select a domain available to clerics of that deity. You can learn to cast the spells associated with that domain as arcane spells. Prerequisite: Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, able to cast arcane spells, alignment matches your deity's alignment.
Lore of the Gods: +5 insight bonus on all Knowledge checks. If you worship a deity who grants access to the Knowledge domain, the bonus is +10 rather than +5—even if you did not choose that domain.
>>55209681
bump for interest
.
>>55209681
>This OP pic
>themed Rouge/Assassin/Duskblade
>in 3.5
>I want to worship an EVIL god
Neck yourself
>>55209702
Thanks, you curious about the build or simply the possible lack of any knowledge loving deity outside of the good guy god?
r8 my cac. also cac thread or whatever
>>55209477
2/10 not enough cluttered wall of text
>>55209477
Closer to "destroy target 4 star or less monster or deal 1500 damage to your opponent."
>>55209477
If you can only activate 1 per turn why not >Target 1 monster with 1500 def or less; destroy that target.