u/VendettaUF234

So.....really weird question I know, but this sub seemed appropriate. I'm looking for a decent but not ridiculously expensive piratey hat to wear while GMing, and I've seen tons of folks wearing them in actual plays and at cons. Where is a good place to get one that isn't crap? I got a costume one off amazon but its pretty garbage and I'd prefer to not waste my money again. I would love any suggestions....I'm looking for something made of actual leather or fabric....not card/paper costume level stuff.

Did anything ever happen with this? Are there still plans? I still see it coming soon on the website.

Does anyone have some solid world building for the town of Marin's Hold in the Gloaming? I have a game setup there this weekend and I haven't sat down to flesh the town out yet. If anyone has a starting point or some solid NPCs / POI's they've built they don't mind sharing, I will shamelessly steal and use in my game. Thanks for anything anyone is willing to share!

As a DM, Im terrible at taking session notes. I pro.ise myself I'll do it, get my notebook out, start the session....and then realize 2 hrs in I have been so wrapped up in running the game I haven't written anything. Has anyone tried recording their sessions audio and using a tool to summarize the session? ​what tools did you use? How successful was it?

When you run always on i iterative, do you go to each person, ask the what they are doing, resolve, then move to the next player, or ask everyone what they are doing then resolve at once. I found asking 1 person and resolving, that it seemed like the player team were able to get too many actions in a 10mintue turn as players would often build on the knowledge of the previous person. Should each players action be a dungeon turn, or should I ask everyone then resolve....or something else.​

Hello,

Was running Shadowdark this last weekend, The Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur. Its my first time in a long while running an old school style dungeon crawl. One thing I noticed is my players were fairly careful, checking things for traps and secret doors. I was rolling for random encounters, but they just didn't come up. I found myself telling the players more than once, no there is nothing there. Most of the best exploration based video games make exploration fun by rewarding it. There is something at the bottom of that suspicious well, or over that weird cliff, or behind that waterfall. I have been tempted to add a trap/treasure/monster in a spot the players searched just to reward their diligence in searching even though its not listed in the module. I'm curious how people feel about this. It just seemed like there was an awful lot of back to back nothing that was happening while they were searching. It tempted me to say, you sense there is nothing left in the room to push them forward but that felt really unsatisfying.

I will be running a music and art themed dungeon for 5.5e next week and am looking for some good ideas for unique and on theme magic items. Everything from utility items to weapons and armor appropriate for a level 4 party.

I'll start!

Painters Pallette - This +1 shield looks like a standard wooden round shield but is splattered in bright colorful pigments. Touching a weapon to one of the splotches grants that weapon +1d6 damage of the chosen element 3x per day (op?)

Any awesome ideas you have? Share them with me.

I would very much like to graduate from needing the safety blanket of pre-written modules, and to be able to come up with my own adventures that have the same level of quality of prewritten stuff. I've read several advice columns etc but I think what I really struggle with is coming up with something from nothing. I have some themes or ideas, but I have a hard time actually coming up with a compelling scenario. I've never been good at spring-boarding my own ideas, but I am good at fleshing out modules that already give me a solid premise. I have never really considered myself a creative person but want to work on it. Does anyone have any suggestions or strategies they use to help them come up with adventure ideas?

https://www.meetup.com/adventures-of-central-florida/events/314272289/?eventOrigin=your\_events. I had 2 late cancels today. If you are in the orlando fl area come play at Layton gaming 12pm ​

I've run 3 one shots of mothership now, fully expecting players to die. However, I've only had 1 death save in all of my games, and they lived. I'm not sure if its my natural 5e hesitance to kill people or possibly I'm missing key rules or doing something wrong. Or maybe my players have just been really proactive, creative and lucky. I do have a tendency to forget to roll the opening fear check..... And I'm not exactly clear on when I should have players roll sanity vs fear checks in the game. Perhaps I'm just not having them roll enough in general to trigger panic effects. I really enjoy leaning into the philosophy of "Is there any threat? no... would your character know how to do this? Yes? then you do it no roll". However, I feel like my players are starting to not take threats seriously and lean way more into old habits of using guns....or not wanting to play classes that do not tend to start with guns/weapons. In my intro I'm going to try and emphasize more the idea of using the environment and being creative, and that some monsters should not be fought head on.... but what are some strategies you have used to help emphasize lethality? Any advice?

I will be running So You've Been Chump Dumped this weekend for an open table. Anyone have any advice or gotchas on this module? Do you think I can make it fill up a 4hr slot (I run new players through char gen, and that usually takes 30min or some before we start). I'm a little worried about how to describe the carnivorous sponge in a threatening way. Any advice on how to portray it attacking?

I have been successfully running open 1 shots of mothership at a local game store for 2 months now. My original goal was to gather a group willing to run a multisession campaign. I have been too successful. I now have a group of 6 that wants to play. My preferred size is 4 for horror games and honestly any ttrpg, but that means having to cut 2 people from the campaign .

Any strategies for playing Mosh with more than 4 that can keep the tension and speed of the game high? Would you run with six or cut down to 4?

I really like the style of system map shown in the wardens manual. I can obviously hand draw something, but would like to make something nicer looking for player facing. Im not super familiar with art tools and wanted to ask if people had suggestions on something easy to use that can easily replicate what is shown in the wardens guide (jump lanes, orbits, etc)

Hello,

I will be running Plant Based Paranoia this weekend for an open table one shot. I like to use secret objective/mission for my players to help them sort of quickly form an idea of what their player's goals are in the one shot and tee up some conflict. I think it also helps them answer the question of, why don't we just leave when shit goes bad.

Teamster

A loved one or close friend went to work for Gemini Biotech at their secret lab on Demeter-3. Your ship (The Jericho) encountered the distress beacon and has been redirected to provide support. You desperately want to find out what happened to them. Name the person/relationship.

Marine

You have been granted a homing beacon. After one too many "containment breaches" in civilized space, we are growing concerned with how its affecting the company bottom line. In the case of a emergency situation, activate the beacon and a tactical nuclear strike will launch from the Jericho on the beacon's position. This should only be as a final option. You will have 20 minutes from activation to the arrival of the nuclear payload. (Debating if this is too much, but I like the idea of the marine having the failsafe). Maybe help me workshop the reasons here the marine has it.

Scientist

Gemini Scientists were rumored to be working on exciting new methods to regenerate limbs before going dark. Please retrieve any note, lab work, or samples you can of their process.

Android

The Demeter-3 facility is rumored to be run by a prototype AI system. Retrieve and return its core to corporate.

I'd love to have more options here based on the vibe I get from the player's characters. Do you have any ideas to flesh these out more, or ideas for different objectives that might lead to cool gameplay.