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  1. p_johnston

    GMs: What Could You Use Right Now To make Your Life Easier/Better?

    1) time is the biggest. Just more downtime where I'm not drained from work/life to prep and play. 2) a slightly bigger room/table. The place we play is good but between snacks, laptops, dice trays, etc it leaves very limited room for any decent sized battle map and usually involves lots of...
  2. p_johnston

    Does Your Campaign Have a BBEG? Does it Need One?

    1) currently one campaign has a BBEG and the other has a BBEB (big bad evil book) with various sub bosses in each. 2) campaigns don't need a BBEG but (for me at least) need a goal. Killing the BBEG is just typically a simple one to set up.
  3. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) When it all goes wrong

    Might write more later once I'm off mobile but at a glance sounds like you didn't do anything (to) wrong. At the heart of it the PCs went into an organized den of intelligent beings, killed some of them and then waited 8 hours for the missing people to be noticed and the rest to organize. Long...
  4. p_johnston

    The AI Red Scare is only harming artists and needs to stop.

    The main difference with with all of those is the replacing technology wasnt reliant on the work of the people using the old technology. AI cannot create anything new. It can at best rehash whats put put into it in different ways. Which means AI as a technology needs artists to exist and...
  5. p_johnston

    The AI Red Scare is only harming artists and needs to stop.

    The fundamental difference between using AI to train images and a human using those same images for inspiration is originality. AI cannot add anything new or original to the work to make it transformative and it's own. Its just rehashing images and patterns in imitation. Humans when when using...
  6. p_johnston

    Trailer Fallout - Official Trailer

    So I was talking this over with a friend (both loved the series) and I came to the conclusion that
  7. p_johnston

    Dragonlance Lord Soth’s stats and CR

    Yeah Looking at the stat block its not great for any 4 man party. At levels 9/10 (even assuming they somehow get at him with full resources) 1)he can legendary a 6th level Banishment. Thats almost gauranteed to take out at least half the party unless countered. 2) he has a firball that will...
  8. p_johnston

    Critical Role's 'Daggerheart' Open Playtest Starts In March

    Quick thoughts via mobile (might do more in depth later from home) after discussing it with a buddy last night 1) love all the player/gm advice stuff. Having safety tools and inspirations for the game up front awesome. Same with making session 0 and character connections part of the base...
  9. p_johnston

    D&D General How Do You Like Your In Person Tactical Setup?

    1) for quick and easy combat encounters I do theater of the mind or just randomly set the player/enemy tokens out on the map without drawing walls/features just so we can get a sense of distances. 2) for important/planned/boss encounters I'll take draw out the room on one of my dry erase map...
  10. p_johnston

    Let's Get Weird!

    Oh another was the Iron Gods campaign i ran. I gave one player a magic dagger that let him rerell any D20 but he had to roll on a modified wild magic table. By the end he was a blue skinned, armadillo plated clone of another player with no shadow who was cursed to eternally wear a magic...
  11. p_johnston

    Let's Get Weird!

    So a couple of campaigns ago i was running Vampire the Masquerade. At one point one of the characters caught a mountain lion in a trap and didnt have any weapons to knock it out/kill it. So they used the lion as a speed bag beating it unconscious over several rounds.
  12. p_johnston

    D&D General Weird space adventure ideas

    So ive started a new campaign with my group using the Star Wars 5e system but in a custom setting. The tone is goofy fun with serious moments (Starstruck Odyssey, Gaurdians of the Galaxy, etc. Just a bit short of Futurama). I was wondering if the community had any ideas for slighly goofy/silly...
  13. p_johnston

    How long should a gaming session be?

    My hroup tends to go somewhere between 4 and 6 hours with an occasional 30 minute meal break. Personally i can occasionally do longer if im really into it but i find that the average session at about 5-6 hours my mental reserves and energy start to flag (im also forever DM which i find takes...
  14. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) What, if anything, bothers you about certain casters/spells at your table?

    Also now that I'm home and can both type and look up spells let me put up a full list (note I'm not saying all these spells are a problem and have to be changed. I'm just saying that the way they are currently implemented means they probably make the game weaker/less fun overall) Guidance-...
  15. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) What, if anything, bothers you about certain casters/spells at your table?

    To clarify my problem with shield isnt that it breaks the game (though im not a fan of how effective it is) so much as it warps it. Every arcane caster is going to take shield because its good at first level and only gets better with time as 1st level slots become less important. That means PC's...
  16. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) What, if anything, bothers you about certain casters/spells at your table?

    1)multiple summons for pretty much the exact reason Zardnaar stated. 2) spells that are so good/impactfull that its a spell slot tax/people are multiclassing just to get that one. Shield being the biggest offender, counterspell to a lesser extent. 3) most save or suck spells (hold person...
  17. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) Can I use action surge in the middle of another action (between attacks when attacking with extra attack)?

    I did manage to track down which particular line likely led me to thinking that way. "On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed and take one action. You decide whether to move first or take your action first" seems to indicate to me that it's intended that you complete your action...
  18. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) Can I use action surge in the middle of another action (between attacks when attacking with extra attack)?

    So the first question to ask is "Can a person take another action in the middle of the first action?" and I would say "no, unless otherwise stated to be able to." (I will admit it is not explicitly stated to be so but seems the most reasonable interpretation of the rules to me. it is a given...
  19. p_johnston

    D&D 5E (2014) Can I use action surge in the middle of another action (between attacks when attacking with extra attack)?

    So i have two thoughts on this. Reading the book do i think the rules intend for it to be allowed? No. My personal interpratation of them is that the multiple attacks must be taken together unless something states it can come between them (movement, reactions, etc). So if im trying to follow all...
  20. p_johnston

    D&D General What's your best D&D tip (50 words or less)

    Lots of good advice here already hitting the big points so ill try for a slightly nore niche one. "If your part of a long running group try mixing up your seating arrangment or even where you play." With my group i find that they've been playing together so long they can get into ruts in...
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