D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

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Sly Boots
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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:48 am

Are you coming up to a place that could be a natural hiatus? You could always suggest they take a break for a few weeks, and then just see if anyone mentions starting it up again. It might be that if they aren't fully engaged they're just happy to let it slide.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Wrathbone » Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:56 am

Cheers - yeah, by chance they have just finished a campaign arc so it could be a good time for a break. I might do that and explain that work's been a bit mental and I need a break.

I'm not sure it's even that they're not engaged (with the exception of one player who I honestly think is just too shy to quit :lol: ), it's more that they're adverse to role-playing. After the last campaign they were clamouring to know when the next one would start, so I think there's a desire to play - it just doesn't come across in the game. It might just be that I'm the wrong DM for their style of play.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Raid » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:03 am

I'm good for this evening.

I feel like just telling them that you're a little burnt out on DMing would be the best course of action. You can leave out the parts about it being because they're not engaging with the work you're putting in and tell them it's work being busy if that helps. There's no reason they have to know you're still continuing with another group.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Mantis » Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:48 am

All good for tonight.

Sounds a bit like your other group should be playing something other than DnD. Have you considered something more straight dungeon crawly with more emphasis on battle mechanics? Hero Quest or something similar. Alternatively, you could hugely strip back the RP elements of your current campaign and run more combat encounters. Personally I don't think the combat system in 5e is good enough to hinge an entire game on it, the RP is what makes the experience complete for me, but your group might appreciate a more streamlined game.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Bird » Thu Mar 09, 2023 1:18 pm

I can do a session tonight for sure, looking forward to it!

It doesn't sound like it would hurt to just have the conversation with your other group, see what they think is working and what isn't, see how engaged with it people are feeling and put it across that it's quite a lot of effort to DM if they're not enjoying it? I can't see why that would hurt anyone's feelings.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Wrathbone » Thu Mar 09, 2023 2:26 pm

It's partly because running two weekly campaigns is probably not sensible for someone working a full time job. :lol: It was fine last year as I was a player in our campaign, and the year before I was running them a customised version of a published campaign, so while there was work involved it was mostly just setting up maps and stuff rather than the effort of creative work. Now that I'm running both campaigns in my custom world, ours I think is working really well whereas the thought and time I put into it for the other campaign seems to be going nowhere.

I think that may be the clue to the solution: run them a published campaign that takes minimal prep and can still be fun for everyone. I might suggest to them that I take a couple of months just to have a break then come back with some simpler campaign options.

Thanks for all the advice chaps! :)

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Mantis » Thu Mar 09, 2023 9:49 pm

Great session today. Loving the intrigue so far. It's interesting seeing how much more of a conundrum things are trying to come up with solutions when the Unmentionables would have just intimidated everyone for information and then go in guns blazing and killed the mysterious henchmen to reclaim the box.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Sly Boots » Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:02 pm

Being on the squishy side as a party really incentivises you to come up with creative solutions to obstacles :lol:

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Raid » Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:38 pm

Yes, I really wasn't keen on sending Farley in on his own into what could very well be a smuggler's den full of pirates for all we knew.

Incidentally the stuff we did with Kuraku this session really does feel game-breakingly powerful, and what I don't want to end up doing is cheesing every puzzle by bamfing him into an unoccupied space that I have no way of seeing and then misty-stepping myself by using Kuraku's vision. I know rules-as-written it works, but I've no problem if Pete wants to add some limitation, like I have no way of knowing whether there is actually a space on the other side of a wall for example, so risk killing the familiar by trying it. Opus is quite fond of Kuraku and would hesitate on using him that way if there were other options (and to be honest I don't want to monopolise our play time either).

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Mar 10, 2023 7:24 am

We could say that if you can’t see the summoning point then it carries some risk, a bit like Nightcrawler in X-Men 2. Maybe a DC15 arcana check for it to succeed, with a failure causing Kuraku to be de-summoned from being wedged in a wall or similar? I.e. If it went wrong, you’d have to re-cast Find Familiar to summon him again, which I think takes a little while.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Raid » Fri Mar 10, 2023 10:37 am

Yeah, I think that works.

I think I'm going to have to spend some time poring over the spell lists and picking out what I'd want to buy before the next session, probably limiting myself to just one or two as I really want that bag of holding for... reasons. I'd seen comments that being a wizard was expensive, but I'm realising it's more a "look at all the toys I could be playing with!" rather than necessity.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Mantis » Fri Mar 10, 2023 11:11 am

Just thinking about what we discussed at the end of the session last night regarding your other group and just generally being burned out, Pete. If at any point you fancy a little hiatus from our campaign to give yourself a few weeks break from planning, I've started prepping a short adventure that could be run in the interim. Might not be needed for a while, but the option is there if you fancied it. I'm deliberately keeping this one more focused than the Lady Fortune so that it won't take more than 4-8 sessions to complete, partly to test myself in restraint but also because it'd be ideal for a scenario like that if you wanted a bit of time off.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Wrathbone » Fri Mar 10, 2023 3:23 pm

Cheers, really appreciate that - for now I'm fine though. :) I expect at some point I might simply need some time to do more complex prep and figure out where the campaign's heading, so if/when that happens that could be an opportune time.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Raid » Sun Mar 12, 2023 5:26 pm

So I've been working on this on and off for a few weeks. I wanted the first proper image for the campaign to have something of Pete's in too, so I asked him a few questions about Halton's Rest thinking I'd set it outside the Weary Wanderer or something. In the end I couldn't come up with a composition I liked, and eventually settled on the entire village and southern side of the market lake. So, presenting the entirely non-canon "Postcards from Opus", which I may end up making into a little series.

Image

Dear Mother and Father,

I hope you are well and aren’t worrying about me. I’m not sure how long I have been gone, but I have been trapped in a magical library and accused of murder and also I am a wizard now and I may have a mystical destiny which is very exciting. The painting is of me and my new friends (we are all accused of murder together) and Halton’s Rest which is where we are staying. Mr Corvus did not understand why we had to pose for the painting and Mr Farley earned some money while we waited. Money is what people here use instead of food and animals and tools.

I am trying to find my way back to the forest, but I do not know where it is. The world is very big and it turns out there are lots of forests, so it is difficult to find ours. I hope the elementals are not causing too much trouble, and I hope to see you soon.

Opus (on the Greywood)

P.S.: The letters man did not know how to get this to you, so I will send it as soon as I can.


In case anyone's interested, CSP lets you record a timelapse which you can export when you finish a project, and just for a change I remembered to select it for this one, you can find it here if you fancy seeing the process.

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Re: D&D Campaign 2: D&D Harder

Post by Sly Boots » Sun Mar 12, 2023 5:42 pm

Haha, nice! I think you've captured Corvus' world-weary exasperation perfectly :lol:

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