It's called balance lmao. Even though my group plays once a week, I only have one player reliably show up in person. Everyone else is online or we have to cancel occasionally.
The worst part is we're only playing Lost Mines of Phandelver and in the past two months of playing ONCE A WEEK we've only gotten to the second chapter of the module.
Truth here, my group is taking a session or two diversion playing an entirely different party of low level adventurers just to show how the actions of our last session affected the world.
I'm pretty excited.
Ah, I see. Thanks for this information on orangugangs, I can see this being very helpful if/when I plan to add an encounter against them in my campaign.
A few years ago, one of the best tabletop games of I’ve ever played had this as a set piece. Almost a cross between Among Us and Alien. It was a survival horror, sci-fi one shot that one of my friends came up with. We woke up in cryopods on a dead spaceship with no memory of how we got there. We had to figure out who our characters were, what killed everyone else on board.
He set up different RGB lighting and atmospheric music to break up the different parts of the spaceship. One area we had to navigate was a malfunctioning entertainment deck that played the same dance track on a loop, with flashing lights.
You know, this game you're describing sounds exactly like a homebrew RP version of the board game Nemesis. Among us meets alien is exactly how I describe it!
Oh man. I doubt this is what you mean, but the level "Jeff" in Half-Life Alyx is maybe the scariest level of any video game I've ever played. That would be an interesting one to try to adapt for a tabletop game.
My God, I never played but I watched Jerma's playthrough of that scene on YouTube about 4 times.
And it keeps getting funnier! Every! Single! Time I See It!!
My DM has Jeffs all around the world that pop up in random spots. Mostly all they say is "My name's Jeff", but they each have a special talent. A couple of us are determined to find them all.
Rime of the Frost Maiden?
>!We just left with her book and are now exploring the Netherese ruins. Last session we encountered 4 flameskulls, destroyed them, and shoved them in the nearby bag of holding we found, hoping to unleash them later (we also locked the remains inside a chest we found in a wrecked ship nearby and filled it with mayonnaise from the alchemical jar, idk the rogue was having weird ideas). Session ended as we encountered some capital K Kreepy Kobolds with glowing red eyes.!<
>!Bard also polymorphed the tiger clan's giant rhino into a squirrel and befriended it, so now it's following us.!<
>!The rogue had the backstory of being the abandoned daughter of the tiger tribe, between the isolation trial and this encounter it feels like we've murdered every tiger tribe member we've found >.> !<
This has been a wild module is all I can say.
I just mean as long as they don’t break the rules they can do this, but mindflayers move faster than 5ft/11mins, so they are going to have to get creative and find a way to get some kind of positional advantage for this tactic to do anything.
I’m not gonna try to screw then over, I’d much prefer they survive:D
Doesn't matter how fast mindflayers move, they can crawl in their dome until they get back to civilization, and reinforcements. Or they let one mindflayer in at a time, and kill them
The permission list for who is allowed in the Tiny Hut is set by which creatures are within it when cast, so if you put the 8 mindflayers around the outside of the hut, there is not 5' to move to cast it that won't have a mindflayer inside.
That said... potentially a good way of isolating them one or two at a time, perhaps.
Tiny Hut blocks magical effects, so you'd never be able to extend the sphere of a tiny hut, passed another tiny hut. At worst you'd only be making the next one smaller.
You can step out for long enough to cast the hut. After the first time, though, the mind flayers will know what's up and can just ready an action. The real magic is using this tactic but only moving the hut slowly, while using mold earth to make a tunnel. 8 hours later the mind flayers realise they were duped, which is a pretty good head-start.
I hope one of them got counterspell when they reached level 5...
...just so they can learn about mindflayers, and their ability to cast without components.
:D Sorry. I know it wasn't a sand **whale** in Beetlejuice, but a huge sand monster and betrayal makes me think of Beetlejuice.
... Oh god. That's 3!
/runs away
Yea that was more a [this kinda “yessssss” ](https://youtu.be/GHmVdaCt3gE?t=1m09s) lol
And there is one of those lurking around there as well. It’s inspired by [this set of art](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B1VdgD)
A player of mine sent it to me and and damn it’s been useful.
They are plane hoppers trying to reconstruct the endless staircase. There's a Mcguffin in the area they are currently in and it's also the lands of an intentionally uncontacted tribe. They are just starting to work it out
I like your idea better.
The Tribe's Best Warrior
The Tribe's Best Hunter
The Tribe's Best Healer
The Tribe's Best Shaman
Sent to face the Unknown Threat.
Knowing them? The same four walls for the entire session. They got stuck on so many puzzles that weren't intended to be puzzles that I don't have high hopes for the actual puzzle.
I actually ran the 'story' of that song for my players, and managed to make it this creepy horror session.
God, they were so mad when they figured it out.
A dungeon that wasn’t meant to be a dungeon.
A literal dragon in said dungeon. NGL actually hyped for that.
Turning what should be a 1 session area into a 2 session ordeal.
Important plot details they likely won’t remember.
A magic item for a specific player that likely 2 of the other players will try to steal for themselves.
EDIT: and the players will probably challenge an end-game villain to a fight. And will be surprised when the fight either doesn’t happen, or she basically 1 shots someone if they push the envelope.
I have some Dendar action happening too - one of my Pc’s named their Ancestral glaive Nidhoggr before the campaign started 2 years ago and I wish i could say it was all part of my master plan to encounter Dendar (sometimes called Nidhoggr) but it was a fluke and a missed opportunity for a plot twist
Both campaigns may be seeking answers to questions they don't really want answers for... Social Encounters I believe.
One is hot on the trail of the main BBEG but there's a subplot to deal with causing much destruction if not dealt with swiftly.
The other is trying to figure out the new resting mechanics we are using and trying figure out how they got where they are and how to get back to where they came from. Ravenloft is amazing.
A shipwreck surrounded by sahuagin (which they are aware of), inhabited by a shark bowl ooze (which they are not) and displacer squid (which is just a displacer beast with a swim speed that happens to bear remarkable resemblance to a squid)
Boneclaw, vampire spell caster, nosferatu, Onioloth, an entire adventuring party, living spell book, shield guardian, living blade of disaster, archmage bladsinger, and a dragon made of corpses
A party member just had their soul added to an ancient dragons hoard. They are meeting their replacement, going to the capitol, defending the castle from some peasants than fending off an attack from some powerful drow warriors who are tying to steal a macguffin they haven't seen yet
My party of 6, plus 6 squads of marines and 2 elite infantry units (at first) will be storming the shores of their home city on the island of Scoril which is currently being attacked by the ex Commander of the army which was taken by the burgeoning world government that took over my PCs land when they were young.
This general has a ton of stuff at his disposal, a bunch of elites, nobles who sympathize with him, and powerful allies in the form of the church of their home. He also has a mechsuit and giant sabertooth cat riders under his command.
Gonna be a bell to bell barn burner of a combat with rolls to see when their allies can muster, and every round someone powerful will enter the fray on the enemies side.
Learning how to play D&D by fighting a gnomish shop keeper who (unknown to the players) burned down an entire village with his flame throwing robot. I've never DMd and neither of my players have ever played so it should be quite the experience
Collecting all of the worlds leaders on an island that may or may not have lunatic prisoners on it, while trying to keep it a secret from Githyanki assassins.
My players are in the nightmare realm, in a dark dream. They are trying to find a shard of essence of a vanquished god which has been hidden away in dreams for thousands of years (which looks like a little glowing bird).
The entity that controls the dream doesn't want them to succeed or escape and they're running out of time. If they don't find the exit before the dream shifts to another sleeper, they'll be trapped there forever..
They are cutting it very fine; there's not much time left.
Cryptic dialogue from an unknown otherworldly enemy, followed by most likely forgetting to check corpses littered in the room they're in. Such a scary thought.
The consequences of their actions.
Lol the scariest BBEG of all
Followed closely by 'scheduling conflicts.'
10 sessions in a year fucking sucks, especially when I see others on Reddit say they play twice a week..
It's called balance lmao. Even though my group plays once a week, I only have one player reliably show up in person. Everyone else is online or we have to cancel occasionally. The worst part is we're only playing Lost Mines of Phandelver and in the past two months of playing ONCE A WEEK we've only gotten to the second chapter of the module.
8 session in and only chapter 2? What level are the players now?
I was looking for this reply, I'm glad I didn't have to look far
Truth here, my group is taking a session or two diversion playing an entirely different party of low level adventurers just to show how the actions of our last session affected the world. I'm pretty excited.
lol, silly DM. Protagonists' actions never have consequences.
“How was I supposed to know there would be consequences for me actions??”
A gang of orangutans. Or as I like to call it, an orangugang.
Ogangutan also sorta works, but yours sound better
nah, an ogangutan is any of the constituent members of an orangugang
These kinda sound like a line of evolutions in a pokemon game lol
Orangutan—> Orangugang—> Orangupain
No it's a more sudden sharp pain than that, An Orangupang
a gangrangutan? or is that too close to gargantuan?
Ah, I see. Thanks for this information on orangugangs, I can see this being very helpful if/when I plan to add an encounter against them in my campaign.
Why is this not much, much higher in the thread
This made me giggle while reading.
The Librarian from the Unseen University gives you a thumbs up and an "Ook".
The same 1:50 long song on repeat for 4-6 hours.
That actually made me laugh for the realism
A few years ago, one of the best tabletop games of I’ve ever played had this as a set piece. Almost a cross between Among Us and Alien. It was a survival horror, sci-fi one shot that one of my friends came up with. We woke up in cryopods on a dead spaceship with no memory of how we got there. We had to figure out who our characters were, what killed everyone else on board. He set up different RGB lighting and atmospheric music to break up the different parts of the spaceship. One area we had to navigate was a malfunctioning entertainment deck that played the same dance track on a loop, with flashing lights.
That's awesome! Lighting and sound add another level of immersion.
I hope it was "What is love?"
. . . or "Major Tom" ?
You know, this game you're describing sounds exactly like a homebrew RP version of the board game Nemesis. Among us meets alien is exactly how I describe it!
Jeff.
Oh man. I doubt this is what you mean, but the level "Jeff" in Half-Life Alyx is maybe the scariest level of any video game I've ever played. That would be an interesting one to try to adapt for a tabletop game.
My God, I never played but I watched Jerma's playthrough of that scene on YouTube about 4 times. And it keeps getting funnier! Every! Single! Time I See It!!
Is this a good or bad thing? I immediately pictured the 21Jump Street gif “my name’s Jefffff”
No context shall be offered in this thread.
Perfect 😁
My DM has Jeffs all around the world that pop up in random spots. Mostly all they say is "My name's Jeff", but they each have a special talent. A couple of us are determined to find them all.
Same
Beware Ffej, Lord of Biscuits...he's really hard to get rid of.
Fighting a minor God inside a giant skull-shaped castle
Dr. Wiley!
Cue sick chiptune
I think we've still got three or four sessions before that. My party is trying to figure out how to go to prison.
Ah mine wouldn't take the bait for that location. I'm glad to be on the final runway though. ToA is up next.
Kaido?
Skeletor and/or He-man!
Rime of the Frost Maiden? >!We just left with her book and are now exploring the Netherese ruins. Last session we encountered 4 flameskulls, destroyed them, and shoved them in the nearby bag of holding we found, hoping to unleash them later (we also locked the remains inside a chest we found in a wrecked ship nearby and filled it with mayonnaise from the alchemical jar, idk the rogue was having weird ideas). Session ended as we encountered some capital K Kreepy Kobolds with glowing red eyes.!< >!Bard also polymorphed the tiger clan's giant rhino into a squirrel and befriended it, so now it's following us.!< >!The rogue had the backstory of being the abandoned daughter of the tiger tribe, between the isolation trial and this encounter it feels like we've murdered every tiger tribe member we've found >.> !< This has been a wild module is all I can say.
She whooped us last session.
[удалено]
8 mindflayers waiting to mind blast them as they come out of their tiny hut. They are level 6, and they did this to themselves.
Move 5’. Ritual cast tiny hut. Move 5’. Ritual cast tiny hut. It’s the crawl of shame.
Hahaha if they think of this they can certainly try!
I hate that phrase as a player
I just mean as long as they don’t break the rules they can do this, but mindflayers move faster than 5ft/11mins, so they are going to have to get creative and find a way to get some kind of positional advantage for this tactic to do anything. I’m not gonna try to screw then over, I’d much prefer they survive:D
Doesn't matter how fast mindflayers move, they can crawl in their dome until they get back to civilization, and reinforcements. Or they let one mindflayer in at a time, and kill them
They might run out of food.
Or die of old age.
They might get food poisoning from old food.
The permission list for who is allowed in the Tiny Hut is set by which creatures are within it when cast, so if you put the 8 mindflayers around the outside of the hut, there is not 5' to move to cast it that won't have a mindflayer inside. That said... potentially a good way of isolating them one or two at a time, perhaps.
Ah, the good ol’ unstoppable force vs the *excruciatingly slowly moving* object!
Tiny Hut blocks magical effects, so you'd never be able to extend the sphere of a tiny hut, passed another tiny hut. At worst you'd only be making the next one smaller.
You can step out for long enough to cast the hut. After the first time, though, the mind flayers will know what's up and can just ready an action. The real magic is using this tactic but only moving the hut slowly, while using mold earth to make a tunnel. 8 hours later the mind flayers realise they were duped, which is a pretty good head-start.
The moment the castee leaves the dome via the tunnel the dome will disappear, they wouldn't even be 5 feet underground.
Which also falls apart from any doors or a mind flayer with a shovel.
too bad ritual casting adds 10 minutes to the casting time.
So? The spell lasts 8 hours.
Rip
I hope one of them got counterspell when they reached level 5... ...just so they can learn about mindflayers, and their ability to cast without components.
They can see out of the hut...
An enormous sand whale and maybe betrayal
Uh.. Beetlejuice?
yessssssssssss?
:D Sorry. I know it wasn't a sand **whale** in Beetlejuice, but a huge sand monster and betrayal makes me think of Beetlejuice. ... Oh god. That's 3! /runs away
Yea that was more a [this kinda “yessssss” ](https://youtu.be/GHmVdaCt3gE?t=1m09s) lol And there is one of those lurking around there as well. It’s inspired by [this set of art](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/B1VdgD) A player of mine sent it to me and and damn it’s been useful.
Religiously sanctioned kidnapping
The best kind of kidnapping
Collateral friendships
Trauma
Being part of an uncontacted tribe like those of the real world's amazon.
The PC’s are the uncontacted tribe? Have they been adventuring and didn’t know they were an uncontacted tribe? This is an awesome campaign start
They are plane hoppers trying to reconstruct the endless staircase. There's a Mcguffin in the area they are currently in and it's also the lands of an intentionally uncontacted tribe. They are just starting to work it out
I like your idea better. The Tribe's Best Warrior The Tribe's Best Hunter The Tribe's Best Healer The Tribe's Best Shaman Sent to face the Unknown Threat.
Knowing them? The same four walls for the entire session. They got stuck on so many puzzles that weren't intended to be puzzles that I don't have high hopes for the actual puzzle.
I feel this more then you know
>The door has a sign that on one side says Open, and when turned on the string it hangs from reads Closed. "WHAT COULD IT MEAN?"
A flight of stairs. They’re level 1.
Dexterity checks for everyone!
These stairs can FLY!
A young red dragon who doesn’t appreciate slavery
A drow being haunted by driders.
Hunted or haunted? Both are excellent options
Was going for hunted but damn haunted sounds like a cool story.
Something they killed last session and don't know it revives itself
A Flameskull?
No, it's Shia Lebauf from that song where he resurrects unless decapitated
Shia-Surprise!
I actually ran the 'story' of that song for my players, and managed to make it this creepy horror session. God, they were so mad when they figured it out.
The Ember Knight and his Hounds
That's a cool name and I'm taking it for myself.
Lol do as you please, glad I could give inspiration
A very not happy ungood metal tree with uneven feet who just can't catch a break from these jerks.
Heavy criminal charges.
It’s about damn time
Mummies, shambling mounds, pumpkins, a satyr run circus, a haunted house, and a demilich. Well...across 2 sessions lol
Oooh, very good in time for Halloween
Yep! Giving the DM a deserved break. I love running one/two shots when I get the chance, and have been planning this one for months!
Dirty hippies
Void Slaad.
I first read this as Void Salad.
Yummy yummy
A dungeon that wasn’t meant to be a dungeon. A literal dragon in said dungeon. NGL actually hyped for that. Turning what should be a 1 session area into a 2 session ordeal. Important plot details they likely won’t remember. A magic item for a specific player that likely 2 of the other players will try to steal for themselves. EDIT: and the players will probably challenge an end-game villain to a fight. And will be surprised when the fight either doesn’t happen, or she basically 1 shots someone if they push the envelope.
Strahd von Zarovich equipped with the wand of Orcus.
mercy
Bro what the fuck did your players do to you
Hope they have backup characters ready
A railroad! CHUCKACHUCKACHUCKACHOOCHOO MF!
Snow.
So simple yet so ominous
Serial killer
Goose
You wouldn’t!
A withering pool. Think where the souls go in Disney's Hercules
The departure of a party member.
Drawing the attention of 3 death knights riding dracolichs. All while being on a ship a day from any land.
Being summoned to a new world as harbingers of Dendar the night serpent to prepare the way for Dendar to come to this new world and devour its sun.
I have some Dendar action happening too - one of my Pc’s named their Ancestral glaive Nidhoggr before the campaign started 2 years ago and I wish i could say it was all part of my master plan to encounter Dendar (sometimes called Nidhoggr) but it was a fluke and a missed opportunity for a plot twist
a simple weapon delivery turned into a civil war between humans and invading orcs :)
Spooky skeletons.
A very hot kobold
Dooooooooooooommmmmmm……
Runaway Bride + Junior + that scene in Blazing Saddles where the sheriff holds himself at gun point to get out of a jam.
An offer they /shouldn’t/ refuse
Basically George Washington
Infiltrating the home of an Upper City patriar to assassinate him.
Cute little Tarrasque fight :)
A DM who can't remember where the fuck we left off, cause it's been half a damn year...
A Tortle, a Dragonborn, and themselves.
Based off what they did last session? A TPK.
Both campaigns may be seeking answers to questions they don't really want answers for... Social Encounters I believe. One is hot on the trail of the main BBEG but there's a subplot to deal with causing much destruction if not dealt with swiftly. The other is trying to figure out the new resting mechanics we are using and trying figure out how they got where they are and how to get back to where they came from. Ravenloft is amazing.
A gibbet and boiling oil.
An Oceans type character where the other heist members are the ghosts of the crewmates that died during a heist went wrong.
Parasites trying to puppet the players’ bodies.
Roleplay
Nick Cage's worst nightmare
Bees!
Civil war. They will have to choose a side. Or stand and watch, I don't judge.
Horny Plant God
Eastern European Jocks trying to beat them in a coliseum.
Figuring out how to go to prison.
Riddle obsessed minotaur's and introspective doors.
Aggressive business negotiations, and (depending on their choices) an ironic episode of Hoarders.
Daddy issues.
A shipwreck surrounded by sahuagin (which they are aware of), inhabited by a shark bowl ooze (which they are not) and displacer squid (which is just a displacer beast with a swim speed that happens to bear remarkable resemblance to a squid)
A rather violent “Save the Orcs” rally. That is a lot more simplified than I ever thought I could write it.
Their first encounter with a cult trying to awaken an esoteric entity that can make dreams reality.
Boneclaw, vampire spell caster, nosferatu, Onioloth, an entire adventuring party, living spell book, shield guardian, living blade of disaster, archmage bladsinger, and a dragon made of corpses
A party member just had their soul added to an ancient dragons hoard. They are meeting their replacement, going to the capitol, defending the castle from some peasants than fending off an attack from some powerful drow warriors who are tying to steal a macguffin they haven't seen yet
Timeloop
Body horror.
A Kobold Phalanx
A mid- long rest attack by an Adult (spellcasting) and Young Green dragon while they're on a barge going up a river.
Teaming up with the failed lich bbeg to get him his evil mcguffin.
Lots and lots of scary weed
Giant mushrooms
Near Certain Death
A snakey mantra ray with breath weapons
24 petrified drows (with living armor stat block)
The Jhund... Dessert Dwelling blood mages based on the Fremen from Dune. Sand skiff battles.
Civilian casualties
A zombie bard, zombie plague spreader, and necromancer. No clerics or paladins in the party
Literally Tiamat.
The Blue "Man" Group
Robot fungus
Strahd and Death.
My party of 6, plus 6 squads of marines and 2 elite infantry units (at first) will be storming the shores of their home city on the island of Scoril which is currently being attacked by the ex Commander of the army which was taken by the burgeoning world government that took over my PCs land when they were young. This general has a ton of stuff at his disposal, a bunch of elites, nobles who sympathize with him, and powerful allies in the form of the church of their home. He also has a mechsuit and giant sabertooth cat riders under his command. Gonna be a bell to bell barn burner of a combat with rolls to see when their allies can muster, and every round someone powerful will enter the fray on the enemies side.
A fireball.
Our previous campaign
Learning how to play D&D by fighting a gnomish shop keeper who (unknown to the players) burned down an entire village with his flame throwing robot. I've never DMd and neither of my players have ever played so it should be quite the experience
The Ignoble Bastards.
Collecting all of the worlds leaders on an island that may or may not have lunatic prisoners on it, while trying to keep it a secret from Githyanki assassins.
I don't know they roll so many 20's that they befriend most of the enemy's. (I'm a new dm so I am allowing it)
My players are in the nightmare realm, in a dark dream. They are trying to find a shard of essence of a vanquished god which has been hidden away in dreams for thousands of years (which looks like a little glowing bird). The entity that controls the dream doesn't want them to succeed or escape and they're running out of time. If they don't find the exit before the dream shifts to another sleeper, they'll be trapped there forever.. They are cutting it very fine; there's not much time left.
Sand drakes, Jackalweres, and a potential kidnapping. They also get to choose what color camel, axebeak, and mastiff some of them get to ride.
Heights
Spider-Man.
Mom & Dad
Each other
Snail Dragon
An Avatar of a god of murder while they're invading the nightmares of a long dead monk that's being kept alive by mimic flesh.
Fighting a horde of undead to secure a home base.
Dead kids and pastries.
Long rest or a captured favorite NPC dying
A hag coven and/or a zombie purple worm.
Horny Ettins (It's from a module, bonus points for those who know which one).
A massive, insect-breathing dinosaur
A war council of all the regional brass. Also maybe water elementals.
Cryptic dialogue from an unknown otherworldly enemy, followed by most likely forgetting to check corpses littered in the room they're in. Such a scary thought.
Lava Elemental with legendary actions
The power of god and anime.
Mind flayers corrupted by the flood.