D&D General Sandbox style: Rumors say a +1 sword is in a cave nearby. Go get it?

[DEFCON 1]

It’s a magic sword, and it’s in a dungeon. Yes, I’m going to go get it and no, it doesn’t matter what system it is.

Even if the system is Paranoia? That sounds like a quick way to lose a couple clones.

 

[TiQuinn]

Even if the system is Paranoia? That sounds like a quick way to lose a couple clones.

I have never played Paranoia but I imagine that’d make for a real interesting session!

 

[DarkCrisis]

I have never played Paranoia but I imagine that’d make for a real interesting session!

Friend Computer: “Troubleshooter, a sword is an unauthorized weapon. Friend Computer has provided you with authorized items. This can only mean you are incompetent or a traitor. Perhaps a mutant who just loves sharp objects? Perhaps you are just unhappy? Obviously defective.”

wall hatch opens and a laser gun slides out and promptly disintegrates the Troubleshooter.

“Happiness is mandatory.”

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

One of my DMs seeded a story about a great hero (which we could find out more about his deeds) who had lost his true love and committed suicide. His legendary armour was reputed to be at the bottom of the cliff under the water or in a cave accessible when the tide went down. If you could find the which cliff it was.

The campaign was too hectic and we had no time to explore extra seeds and it ended in tragedy (see my story in the tragedy thread) but, to this day, I still wonder what that armour was.

To me, that’s how you seed an adventure.

 

[Umbran]

And when you do hit, your damage is going up by a percentage based on what damage the weapon normally does. In the case of a longsword that normally does d8 damage you're adding 12.5% by tacking a +1 on there.

Eh.
If you roll a 1 on that d8, a +1 doubles the damage.
If you roll an 8 on that d8, the +1 is 12.5%
On average, a d8 weapon does 4.5 damage. The +1 is then 22.2222%

Do you all now see why I didn't get into damage?

 

[Bill Zebub]

Eh.
If you roll a 1 on that d8, a +1 doubles the damage.
If you roll an 8 on that d8, the +1 is 12.5%
On average, a d8 weapon does 4.5 damage. The +1 is then 22.2222%

Do you all now see why I didn't get into damage?

Yeah I didn’t check his arithmetic on that.

Also, this is a D&D forum, so probably the character already has at least +2 damage, which changes it again.

 

[DarkCrisis]

You guys are will hung up on the +1 thing. I would hope any DM would say something like "Magical sword". I was just short handing +1 as to what the DM would likely give plus what the players might expect at low levels.

 

[Reynard]

You guys are will hung up on the +1 thing. I would hope any DM would say something like "Magical sword". I was just short handing +1 as to what the DM would likely give plus what the players might expect at low levels.

Right.

Look, the promise of a magic weapon at low levels in most previous versions of the game would be too good an opportunity not to at least investigate.

 

[aco175]

If the local Duke posted a want ad to the message board offering 100gold to go fetch his grandfathers sword from his crypt, the PCs would be all over it- but not for a +1 sword. C'mon, it is a quest and in a sandbox they can take it or leave it. If you wanted them to take it and they didn't, maybe have another group of PCs come into town with it and boasting about it and now nobody went to recover it before now. That will show the players how sandboxes run. Then, when the players decide to kill the other adventurers and take the sword make sure the other party showed it to everyone in town so that the townsfolk will know where the PCs got it.

 

[SkidAce]

If the local Duke posted a want ad to the message board offering 100gold to go fetch his grandfathers sword from his crypt, the PCs would be all over it- but not for a +1 sword. C'mon, it is a quest and in a sandbox they can take it or leave it. If you wanted them to take it and they didn't, maybe have another group of PCs come into town with it and boasting about it and now nobody went to recover it before now. That will show the players how sandboxes run. Then, when the players decide to kill the other adventurers and take the sword make sure the other party showed it to everyone in town so that the townsfolk will know where the PCs got it.

I did that once. And to make matters worse, the adventuring guild that did the quest was "The Noble Hunt".

Nice folks, kinda insufferable. And the PCs HATED that they were rich kid adventurers, for no other reason actually*.

*The Noble Hunt donates to the poor, saves villages, protects the innocent etc. Again, nice folks.