Recent content by Pamphylian

All great options! But I'd also want there to be the option of repairing a wrecked ship (for money), or taking out a ruinous high interest loan to acquire a ship at an earlier level than I'd expect. Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages, all (including getting the treasure...

Yeah a magic shop that you just walk buy downtown is kind of demystifying. A wizard with a particular item that maybe he will part with for a price, or a shady dealer with a few magical artifacts with a negligible chance of being exactly what a player wants might work. But I think there are a...

I admit to liking a bit of domain play and proper war gaming in D&D sometimes but I think I basically agree with this. But I don't see big ticket items as antithetical to high adventure, but complementary. The intent is not for players to be pouring over spreadsheets, but rather to be thinking...

This is something I (aspire to) solve in the opposite way. I want to give treasure more meaning by providing increasingly impactful things to spend money on. I want PCs spending boatloads on ships, strongholds, magical research, powerful spell casting, crafting items, sage advice, hirelings and...

Hard to beat the Stymphalian Birds - bronze maneating beaks that pierce armor but are trappable in corkwood, launchable metallic feathers, poisonous dung....possibly transfigured daughters of an Arcadian prince, live an impenetrable marsh, cleverly frightened from their reed-bound lair and...

Treasure-for-xp all the way. At least as the bulk of xp. Haven't found anything else that balances ease of accounting, motivation, and open-endedness about which strategies are incentivized. As a player, finding treasure that gives you xp feels sublime - you've connected with something primal...

It is interesting to see the change between TSR editions and 5e in Tiny Hut: (e.g. here) - what is now impervious was once vulnerable to the extremes of temperature, wind, missiles, etc. Interesting partly because, unlike many spells, which get weaker in the WotC era, the "survival" spells (Tiny...

Edit: double post

I'm jumping to the depths of a deep thread here, but this sort of stuff is why having a good collection of random tables by terrain type to fall back on when your players inevitably go in a direction you didn't plan for is such a wonderful thing. Even the blandest "4d4 Kobolds" -> straight to...

Doom 3 and it's flashlight also comes to mind. I think it had both fans and detractors. I fully agree, D&D can benefit from these tense moments. It doesn't need to in every table, every stuation, or every level of play, but it benefits from having them as part of the possible game space.

In my experience, these gameplay contrivances can contribute gameplay value, narrative value, and verisimilitude when done well! The former two because imo the essence of both gameplay and narrative in an rpg is player choice and the feed back of tension and consequence, and these contrivances...

Trading one third level spell (Create Food and Drink) for another third level spell (Fireball) AND Conjure Dire Turkey Flock, all to get a charred likely mildly carcinogenic mess seems rather inefficient! I'd allow it! Even more so the 4th level Ice Storm, as I'd enjoy the water capture schemes...

My synthesis of these two positions, which I both agree with, is that the purpose of darkness mechanics is to adjudicate darkness, and this is usually ultimately as a tool to heighten tension. Simulating well enough that it is a challenge when you'd expect it to be a challenge and that it can be...

Well, fair enough! I am always open to specific horizon-broadening suggestions. I don't think I am a spiritual boomer, though I'll admit the pillars of my fantasy aesthetic preferences are not far from some combination of 70/80s scifi/fantasy book covers and 19th century romanticist...

Outstanding, thank you! My google-fu was not strong enough. The nooks in the crevasse, only visible from certain other nooks or by climbing, are quite compelling here. Almost Jaquaysian.