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Hi all, I'm about to begin DMing Starfinder after 41 years of D&D, Traveller and other games. One thing I'm kind-of bummed out about is that PCs and NPCs have little to no incentive to use combat maneuvers since they are DC KAC+8 to succeed. Even with Advanced Combat Maneuver, it is still DC...

I haven’t read all the responses, but I do agree with many I have read that if the party and DM (together) decide to change objectives that don’t call for killing, PC behavior may change. Mission objectives like, gather intelligence, find and rescue, steal necessary object, explore unknown...

I get scared when my pc is placed in an unusual or deadly environment. Like when a giant crocodile bites, grapples, takes the pc into the water and begins go deeper. If I can’t hold my breath, yikes. It also scares the other pcs. I’m also afraid of traps and hazards that combine within...

My all time favorite is wizard. I love utility and playing an intelligent character. I actually like the game within a game, conserving spell power for when it is needed most, and picking which spells to prepare for each day’s events. I also love finding and collecting new spells for my spell...

Here’s a Genesis song ( I’m a huge Peter Gabriel/Genesis fan as you can probably tell by now) that I have always wanted to run as a part of a campaign. - “The Fountain of Salmacis” From a dense forest of tall dark pinewood Mount Ida rises like an island. Within a hidden cave, nymphs had kept...

In our campaign it was less than our manhood. Lol.

How about a full album? When I was a teen (early 80’s) our DM made an entire campaign using the full The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album by Genesis. It was epic - Creepy underworld, strange encounters, a race against time, chases, a stolen item (by “a super sized blackbird that sure can fly”)...

Evil villain and minions. Sometimes having to find that evil villain through the course of a campaign. Betrayal by an NPC that was thought to be an ally. The phrase, “roll for initiative!”

I let them explore the Port area first and have some fun with dino races. Then I had them go get a charter from the Faction at Fort Belarian. They decided to explore from there so I modified the adventure so that they had to go to the other forts to find word about the commander (I forgot his...

First, I refresh my memory about past and what may come up next. Sometimes, I outline a few alternative paths or contingencies. Almost always, I like to make a quick cheat sheet for some notes on NPCs that the PCs may meet. (Personality, Motive, Distinguishing Features).

Currently, we are finishing Tomb of Annihilation and players are at 10th level now. Depending on how things work out, they may get to 11th. After this, I’m going to begin a new campaign from level 1, probably based on Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

5E is easier to DM. Eliminating little modifiers and making the core lean, using rulings not rules simplifies the DMs job. I find it much easier to let the narrative and story, and roleplaying take front stage in my campaigns and it seems much easier for me to prep. I can use the dice when it...

Great points about failure. When players understand failure adds drama, tension and sometimes leads to other paths that are very interesting, roleplaying becomes so much richer. This is a great discussion for a “session 0.” I like when failure also leads to a new choice. In one of my last...

It is so cool to read through this thread to see all the great fantasy books people have read, many I also remember reading as well. For me, it was D&D and fantasy novels simultaneously. I used the list of influences Gary Gygax made way back and read so many. My favorites back in the day were...

Dungeon delves are terrific for online play with VTT for a few reasons: 1) Visually, using map and tokens really feels right in those settings. 2) It is easy to break up sessions into smaller moments of exploration so you can have 3 hour sessions or 1 hour sessions as you wish. Sometimes with...

In my campaign, I had the nothic telepathically speak with the Dwarven cleric in the party. He would say how disappointed Moradin was with his performance and such. It creeped the player out. Then, the nothic tried to get the cleric to jump off the cliff to show his faith. The player was...

I’m using Fantasy Grounds. I like how the msps and pins make it easy to run adventures. The combat tracker works well to handle initiatives and everything looks very polished. I tried roll20 but for some reason it was less responsive on my computer. I also use FG Unity, but that’s testing...

I don’t use flanking rules, but if I did, and I was using ToTM, I might give the creature/pc trying to flank a dex check vs dc 20 to see if they get into a flanking position. If they fail the check by 10 or more (or roll a nat 1) they tip off their intentions and can only attack that creature...

The only thing I remember was that we had an exploding crit. If you rolled a nat 20, you rolled again. A 2nd nat 20 was 4x damage and another roll. A Third nat 20 was instant death. 3 consecutive 20’s only happened once in 4 years. My wizard threw a dagger at a T-Rex type monster mostly...

I like the idea that they could be more random, based on pc or monster type. Elite 4 in 6 chance at any time (high levels). Trained 2 in 6 chance (Mid levels) and Pee-on 1 in 6 chance (low levels) i also like the idea that more than one attack per turn could also be possible. I hate when...