Recent content by JohnSnow

I really loved Wild Magic when it was introduced in FR Adventures, and so I share your frustration that it is now mostly a "Sorcerer thing." I personally am drawn to the characterization of magic as "(barely) harnessed Chaos" as it is presented in The Witcher, Warhammer Fantasy, and Dragon...

Water, wind, or animal power, either directly, or pulling some kind of cable to chain that the cars can latch on to. As those who know anything about San Francisco's cable cars can tell you, the gearing can get very complicated, so you can definitely hand-wave that.

That's more or less it. Nonhuman PCs are not necessarily going to be as readily motivated by "save the (human) village" scenarios. Effectively it comes down to: "motivating a group of outsiders is different from motivating a group with stronger ties to a particular community." "Save the swamp"...

Aarakocra: Legacy of Dragons. ;)

Well my initial plan for this game was to do a Shadowdark: In the Gloaming campaign because it actually offers a Witch class - before I realized excited newbie would LOVE the complexity of 5.24e, so I may pilfer some of Kelsey's ideas. Hey, steal from the best, right? So, yeah, undead, fey, and...

Thanks for the plot tips! Those are super-helpful! As for the Harpy, I started planning to just use a Fairy and change the spells, then I glanced at a few home-brew Harpies, and then I was like: "Well, the Aarakocra already has flight, and talons, so it's soooo close, but Gust of Wind (a...

I need to remember when I'm prepping that we're allowed to screw around with monster statistics (and names even more so).:devilish:

I have occasionally thought about taking the Shadowrun setting and putting together a campaign that I'd run using the SWADE rules (plus Fantasy and Sci-Fi companions). It's certainly flexible enough to run it, and one could tune up the lethality/maiming rules with relative ease. I haven't...

Honestly, that's probably a much better way to play it. makes note Not to mention that there would be something amazing to having experienced players encounter a troll, and try to make short work of it, only to discover it is impervious to fire, and they have to work out that it's vulnerable to...

My first instinct was that. I'm just worried it very quickly feels a little too "Shrek." But maybe that's okay. :ROFLMAO: I was kinda torn between there being some valuable resource in the swamp, or some kind of magical corruption taking it over that has to be stopped. In the end, I may use both.

FWIW, Gary was so convinced that player skill could not be fully separated that he didn't think experienced players should ever share the table with complete newbies going on their first adventure, because the newbies would be robbed of the "voyage of discovery" that is the challenge of learning...

My answer is: "It depends." I just got persuaded to DM a game for a total newbie, her bestie and a few other friends. This is a full-on free-for-all game, because my excited newbie has been enticed to play after watching a totally gonzo Dungeons & Dragons liveplay show (Dimension 20's "Dungeons...

Okay, so... I have a friend who's desperately interested in getting into RPGs after watching "Dungeons & Drag Queens," and for various reasons, I figured 5e (2024) would be the best fit for her, although my own preferences lean more towards Shadowdark/OSE minimalist game these days. But she's a...

I wonder how much we glossed over the notion that henchmen were intended to be along as extra bags of hit points and melee attacks so that the adventuring day could last longer. Like the random soldiers who went with Perseus in "Clash of the Titans," nobody expected them to make it, they were...

Before I read back through the last 8-20 pages to catch up, did someone cast "Thread Necromancy" recently, or has this thread I started 9 months ago just kept ticking along? Because if so....dayummmm.