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dooley's picture

The Farsea Swamps

A map of the Farsea swamp in current Faerunian canon.

As campaigns go, I have a few that I'm especially proud of for their place in my growth as a story teller.

With the end of the current storyline on the horizon, I am proud to say thus far I've expertly handled each plot point and respective pay off and am excited for the next few sessions and what they'll offer in emotional rewards.

When we watch movies, read books, understand poems, and hear music, our emotions are being compelled. These things give rise to something in each of us. Memories, trauma, joy, anguish, and so forth.

When, as an artist in any medium, you can evoke emotion of your viewer, listener, or in this case, player, you are affirmed I think, as an artist who is doing what an artist must, and expertly if you are aware of how and why that emotion is being evoked, or invoked.

I'm proud of how this campaign has turned out because I set out with a specific goal in mind but not a specific path of how to get there. I, like the players, had a point of origin and didn't know where the path ahead would take me. I would do my best to write to the needs of the players and the needs of my characters and their arcs but especially to the goals of the story and how that works back upon our players.

It can be challenging to provide players with a compelling experience every session, but that in itself is not necessary. Show up, do your best, don't be attached to the results. It behooves you to do your prep, be assured of the direction you wish to go, and do your damndest within reason to provide your players with ample reason, direction, pedigree, and ultimately agency that they choose to follow the story at hand rather than do their own thing as so many memes complain or make light of.

When we look at what a story is and how it should involve players, I have, I think found a great way of delivering to my table, the necessary points for building their own backstory within a framework that allows me the freedom to tell my story while letting them tell theirs.

So how did I do this in my current campaign?

The first thing I had in hand was a reason for everyone to work together. The characters in this case all work for a patron. When it comes to writing their characters, I set forth a simple set of tenets which includes: A) No orphans, B) No evil (any alignment is fine), and C) No external third party canon and UA is case by case.

Beyond that, players are told where their point of origin is and what that point of origin is but asked why and how they got their. They fill in those gaps with some point form at the least and we're off the the races.

Now the big trick in providing for your players, a reason to follow your story, lies in reviewing that material and working with it. Sometimes, despite reviewing the material, you may find yourself surprised.

In my current campaign a half orc character blind sided me off the start with the statement that they were motivated to seek out support for their tribe. I had read over the back stories and already had the idea that they were working with the patron as that fellow was in return providing their tribe with salves, draughts and ointments. It was a trivial thing to impress this upon the player to their surprise and pleasure, and thus that character and player both have a foothold in the world and story.

Along with the point of origin, what I do is provide my players with a few simple points on why they might be somewhere. In the case of my Siphoners campaign, one very simple reason it that they were looking for work and found it with the patron. Another is that they're hiding away from the world. There were several other options, including one who chose to be a native of the swamp, thus has difficulty communicating with humanoids, but has no issue navigating and communing with other swamp denizens.

Each of these players and their characters is addressed on a case by case basis but the trick is always to keep things broad and then focus on specifics that provide the player with the bare minimum they need to build upon.

A story teller that front loads their players with too much may stifle players, and then find themselves asking why the characters seem drab or bland.

It is important to remember where art and design sit apart in story telling and games mastering. Art, says something different to everyone who experiences it. Design, says the same thing to everyone who experiences it. Operating a tabletop game for a crew of players exercises both and you must always let your players express themselves as their story is not their story. Their interpretation of your story is in fact their story.

Philosophy aside, the key to a good story is the objective. Every good story should have a goal, and meaningful stages. Your job as the story teller is set the goals that you want to reach and ensure you provide the steps for your players to get there. In my campaign, the patrons business is threatened by a rival and the crew is tasked with delivering evidence of the rivals wrong doings to the lord of the region. Let's break this down. We have an organization the players have a meaningful foothold in, a clear and meaningful objective for the players, and a clear and meaningful opposition. In short, we have the beginning of a robust story where the players have the foundation for emotional investment.

It's easy to get lost in flowery talk when it comes to story telling. Philosophies, perspectives and pontificating run abound amidst those who fancy themselves the expert playwright and director. I'm not exception I suppose. I like to think though, that after a decade of running weekly semi public games, I have something to show for it.

As we move to finish out this campaign and start the next, I look forward to setting the plot points for my next few weeks and working through them with my players. Should be a good show!

dooley's picture

WeaveWright

The hand of Mystra

I've released an adventure that you can have a look at here.

I decided to challenge myself some years ago to write a small module that folks could use to build an epic series of adventures off of.
I wanted to build a premise and context with characters that myself or others could easily inject (hah!) into their D&D story and build off it for high level campaigns.

I don't assume I'm alone in saying that it can be hard to produce a convincing small scope high level campaign objective. Something with large enough stakes that it matters to the players, without requiring upheaval of your world. Moreover, I wanted to provide something that would focus on the truly epic scale, that is gods and goddesses, and provide something specifically entailed for magic users.

I feel I've achieved this here in this small bundle which provides a mish mash of ideas in the hopes of doing all the aforementioned. I hope this work provides you and your players with a good bout of fun.

dooley's picture

To cage the bat?

What is the goal of my role?

I'm seeking to provide entertainment for both you and I.

I'm building a web of stories as a story, and having my fun along the way because that's the deal: Everyone gets to be a part of the story, me especially.

(S)He who runs the game, sets the tone and plays the role of the world, but the world has to be consistent and make sense.

In short, it may be bullshit, but it's my bullshit, and it's consistent.

Polished Turds.

DM bullshit is as time honoured as player fuckery and as long as ying and yang chase one another, so to does a team of players romp upon whatever story a DM has in store.

My responsibility as DM is to provide cohesiveness, and direction. I choose to add a slew of NPCs and political stuff to make things "interesting" while some players would decry it as unnecessary or over utilized..but with less eloquence.

Likewise, the players, in their own right, get to fashion the framework provided them into a ..whatever they can come up with.

You really get the whole range of expectations and intentions if you play long enough.

From the power player who is running a numbers game to the point they're border line cheating the system, to the power player who wants the world from level 1 (I'm a savant!) with little to (usually) zero role playing (although they usually tout being the best role player evarr, in the history of role players, evarr).

Okay, so I'm ranting; but here's my point:

Titular Article Title is Titular.

I could have caged Mitch's character Helbrim.

I could have attacked him with the robo dudes, or swarmed him with insects, spiders, etc; I could have had a single giant spider chasing his bat form until he fucked a roll and was found out.

I could have.

Should I have?

Put it all on fuckery.

It's a gamble, but sometimes, you just let the players have it.

Instead of a sensible wall (the elevator was riveted shut, remember that?), I decided, fuck it, let's let Mitch through to scout the area.

Y'know why that is? I trust Mitch.

I trust Mitch to get through the tunnel, get out the other side, and go tell the party about it. That's what Mitch excels at, and knowing my players is one of the important facets of my role.

Lack of Detail.

He's a bat, bats have good vision. Better then people at night. Y'might say they have darkvision. Say to 60 feet? 120 feet? Still not going to see the bottom of the cave.

The Camp and the Metal Men.

One thing that bugged me, in reviewing the session, is the disjointed detail. I know part of it is based on character context, and me wanting to (hamfistedly) deliver the point of their existence, and making them a thing is a basic story telling strategy.

Thunder came across a pile of parts and Kale encountered a chair load of half assembled metal man parts in the smithy, and Helbrim tracked the influence they had across the camp.

Helbrim had a natural 20 and is a druid, Thunder has an insanely high perception score as a rogue, and finally Kale rolled decently, and is a decent mage who dabbles in a lot of bizarre stuff.

So why am I delivering the way I am.

Let's talk about that.

Helbrim as a druid is tracking for whatever influence, especially the magical side of things.

Thunder is tracking for the physical presence of interlopers.

Kale is looking specifically for his own interests.

There is nothing right or wrong about anyones direction, but the point is this:

Everyone, despite score, is going to encounter contextually appropriate things.

Rolling a natural 20 doesn't mean you discover ALL THE THINGS, it means you absolutely do not miss anything within your tests context. The room, the lock, the tree, the whatever.

If you're rolling to eat pussy, you're going to eat THAT pussy really well. You're not going to eat EVERY pussy really well. Likewise it doesn't mean you'll eat the same pussy really well the second time.

Pussy is organic. If it were a lock, maybe I'd let it go.

Did I mention I run an adult game?

Dooley, you're ranting.

Right, so my point in all this is that I know what I'm doing and blah blah blah?

No, I'm providing context to my decisions. I'm clunky sometimes, but I trust my players.

There's a mixed bag at play here and I loved the directions from all sides, and I mean that. If it weren't the table it is, the chemistry wouldn't be the same, and for a guy like me, the chemistry is what it's all about.

Viewership and Injections

I like the injections for what they provide, and I have not forgotten the bees.

The honey storyline has fallen to history now, along with the Brightwoods, and etc; I intend to resurrect the bee influence, but right now I want to focus on providing everyone a nice, and simple dungeon crawl.

The bees, as a tool, are Pauls to command (and remember to command for that matter). I don't want to overtake Paul and his character with injections, but everyone paid for a thing and I believe that it should be a thing.

For now, they're just makin' honey, until such time I deem that the Queen Bee needs something.

The viewership is through the floor; and as a small D&D stream, what is typically in the high teens (seriously, if I break 20 it's a red letter day) is in the low tens.

I equate that to better weather (hence why most of my Cali crowd has disappeared).

It sucks, but it is the way of it every year and it'll pick back up as it gets too damn hot to do shit outside.

I will say this: I keep wondering if injections are a thing I should even bother with or if my viewership is too jaded to use them.

The Wile E. Coyote syndrome is real. Let's consider: WEC would use every ACME product in the catalogue to catch the RoadRunner. He would only ever use each thing once. He never used anything more then once and he never mixed it up. There was never a rocket sled leading to a -- oh whatever, you get the idea.

I have to go make dinner.

Folks, don't get disheartened cause I shot down your injection. Don't get butt hurt like it's personal. If I'm being dumb, just explain it in chat and try injecting again.

Anyhow; good talk everyone.

dooley's picture

Another fine Friday and welcoming a new player.

Chess is a game best played cold..?

So as the weather cools down, the game has a shuffle of chairs.

Fletcher joins the game as a player and young version of Mitch. Seriously, I'm somewhat concerned that if Mitch comes back to play, it may cause a time conflict, a phase dimensional rift, or a sequel to Primer; so maybe not all bad.

Game was a good little romp, simple and traditional.

Adventure!

Last Episode

We start off with the continuing saga of our heroes, the saviours of the Cloud Spires; now with drill, engineers, and somewhat of a plan (sic: trusting that the engineers and by extension, the DM, have a plan), they venture towards their objective, the underdark of a distant mountain range.

Previous session, the adventurers started out transported to a small shrine nested in a divut carved from a mountain in a new mountain range some mountain ranges away.

Traveling along a mountain path connecting the shrine to a nearby tower, they found another phylactery hotwired with a long stretch of cable leading down to the underdark regions within the mountain.

Following their way out the main entrance of the tower compound, they met with Svirfneblin guards, who after a brief skirmish, introduced them to their leaders at a city of Svirfneblin. Here they were confronted with a morale choice of wipe out the Svirfneblin by destroying their shield, the wiring apparatus, and resultantly, their source of power and heat. They used to rely on lava flows through which they would vent the heat to drive their engines and warm their environs.

As luck would have it, the Svirfneblins in this distant range also had a portal gate. For those who aren't aware, these are somewhat like Stargate gates, upon which runes can be inscribed to reach other gates. The process is easy, but can be messed up, and gates can be locked to prevent incoming from another gate. Being that Vane was familiar with the gate system and knows the 'address' for Royals Peak c/o Temple of Sun & Scroll (the), he subsequently phoned home.

Othello deferred to the party, who was a mixed bag of "let's help them" and "I dun give a fek." The helpers won out 2:1 and the necessities were procured through some meetings and discussions.

Vane, traveling further through the gate system to the Fire Giant city within the Cloud Spires volcano where he learned that the Svirfneblins of this area had methods for burrowing that would prove useful.

Thurrass'X used his influence as a saviour to conduct discussions with the Esquee family and establish a research group of their engineers.

Yesterdays Episode

Today we picked up a new player, Fletcher, who fills the role of Kale, an ex CoS soldier serving duty with the Esquee family as their volcano drop specialist and 'Engineer guard.'

Regrouping at the Temple of Sun & Scroll, the party consisted of Vane, Thurrass'X, Kale, two gnome engineers, three human engineers and a halfling engineer along with a large (described as Zamboni-like but was ever shrinking in description as the game proceeded) machine. Being lauded by Pograff for a brief moment, they proceeded to the portal chamber some moments later and transported away to the distant mountain range a half an hour later.

Meanwhile, Ivor, trains Ralph with a nat 20 to not be a cock up; and then receives invitation to a banquet ball being held that evening from his mother, by his mother.

Although Ivor doesn't know it, it is to be a gala affair by Lucretia fundraising for the rebuilding of the damaged city walls and to suggest a change of contract for the Ketterrogs to watch the new wall; she cites, "As we have seen the shorcomings of the military leadership in our recent tragedies, and as we continue to deliver us from dangers brought from these outside forces, we wish to take a more proactive approach to the protection of our citizens."

Now over the course of the two days that Ivor is focused on his military; Vane and Thurrass'X procure the engineers and drill from the Svirfneblins and Esquee's respectively. During this time, Lucretia's aides overhear a conversation and mother hears about the Esquee's being petitioned by one of the saviours to save a distant kingdom. She sends one of her personal aides to inform Ivor of the impending mission and implores him to join the cause so the Ketterrogs can expand their influence and position. This leaves Ivor a choice, go to a banquet ball, or join the mission which is leaving.. twenty minutes ago.

As he prepares to dash out, the sudden and unexpected birth of his baby black dragon comes about.

A short while later, Ivor wraps the psionically capable and very influenced dragon around himself and together they make their way after the would-be spelunkers.

Adventure Rising

Those headings are getting small.

Okay, so the party finally assembles after some "comical" chase, in the underdark beyond the Svirfneblin city gates.

When they arrive, the players don't inquire about Othello, and Othello after two days, is off doing who knows what; the guards send a runner to retrieve their shamans procession and the players make their way through the city streets towards the main gate.

Some of the guards escort up until the procession meets with them; the engineers inquire for a map which the shaman's already arranged for them. A brief conversation later, the Svirfneblins have informed the engineers of where all the old venting hardware is located and what they think as happened to the old flow. The engineers don't bother relaying any of this, and the adventurers dun give a fek. A guide by the name of Q'ouni (K-oh-nee) accompanies them throught the gates and into the darkness.

They travel some hours until they reach a bridge stretching across a chasm, the guide and map accurate thus. Their guide informs them that the stretch ahead is a bit of a hunting ground with various races preying on one another. Subsequently, as they cross the bridge, the rumbling of the drills treads summons giant spiders, who manage to stymie the entire session. Imagine my surprise.

Will the players successfully route the lava? Stay tuned to find out!

Good Session

The session felt a bit long in the intro, but it got things done. I was hoping to have two combats however the first combat, being the giant spiders, ended up lasting some two hours in itself. With an hour remaining, I adressed the suggestion left in Fizzy_Toes' stead, of having a scary something hit the players.

Surprisingly the players focus fired for a grand 100 points of damage, leaving the scary thing with naught but 50 points.

Given it was as late as it was, I had already decided that the engineers were going to use the drill upon the creature if the players didn't do it first.

So that brought us (much to my chagrin) to the end of the session, some five hours later.

Next session should prove interesting with the continuation of the escorting of the drill and engineers.

dooley's picture

Canon and the future of the stream

I'm back down to one stream a week and have been diligently working to develop the canon behind the Cloud Spire Chronicles, fleshing out the facets of my world as time permits. It's not difficult to write this stuff, given much of it has already been portrayed or hinted upon, hence has a position in my mind from which I'm pulling it.

As always, what's difficult is finding the time to do it.

What I need to focus on soon is cartography and for that I'm visiting the world building sub reddit to do some studying.

Gaming is serious biz.

I'm making the effort to create a world that makes sense. A world that people can feel, living and breathing around the characters at the centre of the story.

More GoT, less Monty Python.

Injections? What injections?

I have yet to find the time to create a menu system for the injections system and the system itself seems to have fallen to disuse.
In truth, I get so few injections despite all the mention of it that having the system on the screen seems a big joke at times.

dooley's picture

Better-r-r-r-r economics

So I looked into some economics structure and in due course, I will have this whittled to a table

https://dungeonmaster.ca/wiki/economics

Thoughts?

Don't post emojis from your phone yet, it will crash the comment form.  I am actively on that issue.

dooley's picture

CloudSpires : Season 2

There are a number of new WIki entries coming in the next few days to help establish what's been happening over the six months leading up to tomorrows game. I'm fitting this in as best I can between work and such so bear with me folks.

6 months have passed since the saviours of the CloudSpires ventured to the depths of the volcano and quelled the impending eruptions.

The Royals Peak Church of Oghma, with the help of Daed's outreach and the now allied beast races, successfully identified the corruption that had caused the Fire Giants to ignore their duty of protecting the temple within the volcano and with the support of several great houses, the saviours, headed by the primogeniture of the Ketterrog family have set to cleansing the mountains of the few remaining points in which the cultists had entrenched themselves.

This season, I'm opening up a different form of gameplay that the viewers can get down on.

CSC: Contracts

Ivor Ketterrog is now a chartered bad ass with his own crew but they need work! You the viewers can provide them work and that means submitting jobs that will need the Ketterrog organization to send troops to assist. As a result, Ketterrog's crew will gain experience and gold in payment for services rendered.

Just add plot points in the usual manner and mark them as CSCC or Contract. They'll be introduced at the next earliest opportunity.

dooley's picture

Bones 4 is live

Crazy. I got the email notifying me that it was live and by the time I clicked that link we were into Wave 4, with over 3k backers with $300+ thousand bucks pledged.

I've dutifully pledged as much as we could from the table collection to the kickstarter so we can expect to get boxes of miniatures shipped over in a few months.

It's well on it's way to 400k now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-4-mr-bones-epic-adventure

dooley's picture

Sunday

I haven't abandoned the idea of operating online games, but my Sundays have been taken up by IRL issues.

Notably, last night we had lost power in my neighborhood.

I spent some time trying to convert the site database so I could accept unicode emojis however I need a bit of help from my service provider so I'm awaiting their adjustment of the drivers I use for the mysql system.

dooley's picture

Facebook.

Thought I'd just write a quick article about my experience attempting to be a good samaritan DM on the D&D Facebook group.

There's a lot of folks out there who profess to be players in need of a game to attend. A lot. I used to see their posts in the group when I was on Facebook (I've since deactivated my account as I was spending too much time on Facebook).

A month ago, I posted to the Facebook Dungeons & Dragons group and stated that I am a Dungeonmaster who would be willing to DM an online game for anyone who wished it. No commitments, no wierd requirements.

Just a webcam and a microphone so you can be part of my stream.

A lot of excited people responded and I asked their availability and made a spreadsheet of all the respondents and said I will try to organize some games.


Quite a few people! Oh how will I dungeon master for them all?

I decided to run a Thursday game and a Saturday game despite the fact I was (at the time) operating three other games. I let folks know what was going on and made an event and told folks to sign up.

Of the respondants, when it came to committing I had very little response. One fellow marked himself uhh.. 'Interested' for both games and attended neither. One fellow claimed he was available all the time and yet didn't have a webcam (didn't stop him from trying to attend the hangouts).
Two people ultimately attended the Thursday game which turned out to be a great session with a cool story. I was surprised and pleased with the end result. Another great example of what Dungeons & Dragons can be!

When Thursday concluded, I informed the players that I would not conduct any more organization and that if they wanted to continue playing they would have to organize the playership and let me know, and I would continue to operate campaign. The players followed up to tell me they had two other people ready to go!

For the following Saturday game, I had two no shows, and one disappointed player.

The following Thursday, nobody showed up, nobody messaged me, and nobody played.

The Saturday after that, I didn't receive any messages, and subsequently went about my day unabated.

I dun care.

I'm not butthurt about any of this and I'm not trying to be smug in writing this. I do want to document the effort and the result though.
There's a lot of people who profess that they would love to play, but the bottom line is the reason they're not playing is because they're either not making the time, they're being flaky, and ultimately, they don't appreciate the opportunity provided. Yet folks wonder why 'Professional DM' is a thing?

To those who would say, "But Dooley, life gets in the way sometimes!" You're right, and that's fine. If folks are busy, I get that. When folks don't remember the game, don't message me before or after, and leave me wondering, that's not "life getting in the way," that's just folks being flaky.

Would I still be willing to operate a game for any of these folks? Not for free.

Moving forward I'll be taking payments to pay for my time involved. A monetary commitment of $10USD per player should ensure that when folks say they'll attend, they attend. As a working father of two, I have better things to do then be flaked upon.

More to the point, I offered to do it for free and was met with the outcome I saw; so far as I'm concerned, those folks have forgone their opportunity to play in my games for free.

Think I'm being unfair? Sound off in the comments.

dooley's picture

Plot points, wiki entries and characters can now be designated a campaign

At repeated request, I've implemented a field on the respective content that will allow folks to designate the campaign that the information belongs to.

None of the systems can currently filter by campaign; I'll implement that when I need it.

dooley's picture

Player involvement. The great challenge.

Recently, my players have been awesome and populated a slew of material on the site.

I also added a few articles.

This weekend I'll try to remember to include a recently updated listing so folks can see at a glance, which sections of the site have received recent TLC.

Joe has sent in the doings of Ivor Keterog prior to leaving the city. This will save a lot of time and allows me to gloss the gameplay with the ten minutes of exposition necessary with the really important decisions premeditated, meaning shit flows smoothly. And at my age, I'm really noticing when shit doesn't flow smoothly.

Creative constipation is a really serious problem and can occur in cases as we'll see tonight where Joe has provided his doings upfront, so everyone else will have to behave reactively. What I want to avoid is giving Joe too much spotlight as the other characters are just as important but the story is veering and I don't want to pigeonhole the story. While he does have a writ and the has officially been made the leader, the Star Trek movies are not about the Captain, they're about the bridge crew.

The constipation occurs when too many people aren't sure what they want to do and aren't sure who should make any decisions, hence they will may defer, ultimately falling to me and whatever I've written thus, which isn't really great because it's is effectively copping out; pulling a Sandler and Clicking forward, if you will.

I've got a great journey lined up for the adventurers today and with their newly commandeered airship, they will be able to reach their target quickly, making (hopefully) for a night rich in adventure and tension.

I'm expecting that with all the Canada Day bonus XP, I'll be seeing some injections, and maybe this weekend I'll get that menu system figured for easy buffs and curses upon the player, as Johnny's been suggesting.

dooley's picture

[How to] The Covenant of Silver drop

A prevalent part of my campaign world is airships and the sky in general. Terra firma is know to be a desolate place rife with untold horror.

CoS soldiers are feared because they can infiltrate any structure with an entry or landing zone exposed to the sky. CoS extractions have a high success rate for their ability to get in and out before the enemy is even aware of their presence. Dropping from an airship, they can be on top of a target within seconds and using boots of jumping they can glide away at high speeds as en effective escape method.

Conducting a drop assumes that a character has a Convenant of Silver drop cloak, which is effectively a primitive but magically imbued wing suit. The cloak is tied at the shoulders and has stirrups of leather stitched in the cloaks corners.

The cloak must be attuned and CoS soldiers are known to guard their cloaks with adoration, some even naming them and treating them as a loved one.

When the feet meet the stirrups, the cloak stiffens slightly, creating a wing behind the individual. Different cloaks can form into different patterns, all of which are designed to be functional. Once attuned, the cloak can be mentally controlled and guided.

Gameplay

Keep it simple.

Whenever a character fails, they have to recover. This means making the same check at a disadvantage each turn until they succeed. How many rounds do they have? I'll answer that with another question: How far away is the ground?

Keep this in mind: Wingsuiters die in real life, but not as many you might think.

Flowchart of a Drop

Initial Drop

Athletics or Acrobatics DC 10

Akin to a diver dropping backwards off a boat. Success means everything goes good. Failure means you're starting off recovering.

Recovering

Athletics or Acrobatics DC 10

When you screw up during the drop, it means you're tangled in your cloak, you missed a stirrup or both the stirrups, one of the stirrups came off for some reason, you got a cramp in your leg, or one of your shoulder snaps came undone.

Recovery means getting untangled, getting your feet in place, fixing your shoulder harness, etc; failure means you continue tangled and fail every obstacle on the way down. If this means crashing, you crash. Critical failure means you get disadvantage on your next recovery test as things have now gone from bad to worse.

Challenges

Perception or Insight DC 15

Sighting obstacles properly while falling affords the character advantage. Failure doesn't incur any penalty; critical failure, is up the DM. Natural 20 is a pass on the next test, or perhaps advantage on all tests in the drop. This is active, not passive.

Athletics or Acrobatics DC 10-15

Obstacles between the characters and their target are what make the drop fun for the whole family.
Try to imagine heroic soldiers dressed in heavy armours made of woven umberhulk fibers hurtling among floating islands with trees, passing airships and skiffs as they soar towards a target.

Each obstacle should make sense, don't ever repeat an obstacle, not even as a sandwich element.
Yes, this means your entire asteroid field could be one test, but let's break that down.

The asteroid field is made of a lot of different types of asteroids; let's pick the best ideas we have and wax over the rest.

Asteroid field: Characters rolls athletics or acrobatics as they begin the drop, they can perceive if they so choose, the dodge most of the asteroids with another athletics or acrobatics roll, there's a giant worm that sprouts out of one of the asteroids and it attacks two of the passing characters (roll at random), come upon landing area and roll athletics or acrobatics for landing.

It should be noted that landing zones may vary in difficulty given what the target may be.

Otherwise,that's literally it.

dooley's picture

We did a role playing

We had a session with a remote player and it was good.

A two man game may seem like a weak start, but it's a good way to warm yourself up to a new concept.

Technical difficulties aside, I think it went over well, I've just got to figure out how to curtail my Linux handicap.

In other news, I'm adjusting the camera arrangement, yet again:)

Stay tuned; see you Wednesday!

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