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  1. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    Star Wars Universe - why is military training so ineffective?

    The Stormtroopers on the Death Star are purposefully inaccurate. (Leia: "They let us go. It was the only reason for the ease of our escape.") The plan was to make it look good, but the heroes had to escape to lead Vader back to their Rebel Base. And here's an interesting article about modern...
  2. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    HBO Rome 2 Octavian actor switch. Why?

    I think another aspect is that originally, they were intending to have a Season 3 ... but when they realized that wasn't going to happen, they had to accelerate plans and do the time skip. I suspect the transition would have happened between Season 2 and 3, had they been able to stretch Season...
  3. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E [5E] How to Spend 1 Million Gold

    I feel like that scroll might be what's causing their "end of the world" problem. Assuming there's a magic item economy, just go to town buying rings of wishes or decks of many things or wands of wonder, and see whether any of those help solve the problem?
  4. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E How are you using Tales from the Yawning Portal?

    I'm using the dungeons in my homebrew campaign, with tweaks and customizations. They're the prisons for a pantheon of gods that have were defeated by a titan working with a coalition of elder horrors, aboleths, and a traitor to the pantheon. My campaign was using various old modules from B/X...
  5. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Your one best piece of GM/DM advice?

    My advice... Recognize that gaming is like a roller coaster; some sessions are going to be amazing, some are going to lead to blahs. Not everyone around the table is going to experience the same ups and downs, either. If you have a great session, don't fall into the trap of "chasing the...
  6. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Is it ok to split the party?

    I might suggest, instead of 1 on 1 sessions (unless those really work for you), doing short runs with the main PC, and the other players taking supporting character roles? That keeps some of the energy and dynamic of the group going, while still focusing on the efforts of the character trying...
  7. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E LIFE DRAIN (Specter, Wraith, Wight, et al)

    Despite years playing Advanced Squad Leader (and some time playing Magic the Gathering), I've become less of a stickler for precise rule wordings. From the SRD, "At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points." I figure the Life Drain effect, despite using the word "finish"...
  8. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Training to Level Up

    I've been using the training rules in my current "sandbox" game and it's been interesting. It's definitely given a sense of time passing, since instead of them going from 1st to 4th in the space of a week, they've taken most of the Spring season to get there. It's allowed me to introduce NPCs...
  9. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Are solo monsters weaker in 5e?

    Given that the range on Acid Splash has a range of 60', and the Tarrasque causes fear out to 120', there's a pretty good chance you get off one shot, move away (so it won't be able to reach you) and never get back into range because your horse gets too afraid to close range anymore. Or your 1st...
  10. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E So which adventures/campaigns have you played so far?

    Did a run through the Lost Mines of Phandelver, followed by a short attempt to do Princes of the Apocolypse. Then I started running a sandbox homebrew using the old B, X and U series modules as the bones of the soup, but flavoring things up with my own touches. Finding it pretty easy to use...
  11. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E 3d6 in Order

    I'll bite... Str 10, Dex 12, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 7, Cha 10 Rather amazingly average results, though definitely pointing to Wizard. This has the feel of a High Elf sage, with a tendency to pry into things better left un-pried. Random roll comes up Astronomer, so now I see him as someone who's...
  12. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E About spell scrolls table

    Right above the table... "The level of the spell on the scroll determines the spell's saving throw and attack bonus, ... as shown in the Spell Scroll table." So if you read that Scorching Ray (2nd level spell) scroll, you make your attack rolls with a +5 attack bonus, instead of whatever your...
  13. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Is Conan in 5e?

    By the Rippke chronology, Conan's first appearance has him clad in corslet & mail, having used a shield, and swinging a sword... "Both were tall men, built like tigers. Their shields were gone, their corselets battered and dented. Blood dried on their mail; their swords were stained red. Their...
  14. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    Ran MERP, Comedy ensued

    MERP Campaign #1: Premise was that we were playing an alternate Fellowship of the Ring. Campaign started in Rivendell with the Council of Elrond, and the Hobbits being NPCs. The wrinkle of the game was that the Ringwraiths hadn't been destroyed at the Ford, but instead were leading orcs from...
  15. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E How do you regain INT after an Intellect Devourer attack?

    Well, in a case like that, I'd probably suggest not using Intellect Devourers as opponents. Or any creature that would inflict any kind of damage that would require some kind of healing/restoration that the party may not be able to access in the tempo you'd want the game to maintain. By...
  16. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Encounters and NPC/Monster Strategy Thread

    I like a lot of the advice given here. I try to give my monsters personality. Goblins tend to be chaotic swarmers, running about and ganging up on targets, then fleeing when things go bad (I've been using slightly modified B/X morale rules), as likely to attack the guy with the big axe as the...
  17. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E How do you regain INT after an Intellect Devourer attack?

    This is a grand idea. Turn the cure into a side adventure / quest. Or Halloween it up ... they find a wizard who assures them that he can transplant the Intellect Devourer into the skull of the cleric, zap him with some lightning and restore his intellect.
  18. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    Name Some Swashbuckling RPG's That Are NOT 7th Sea

    Just to add, one of the cooler features of Lace & Steel is that social dialogue is treated like combat as involved as any sword duel.
  19. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E [+] What are your favorite things about 5e?

    My favorite things (not a complete list) - my 10 year old son really enjoys the game and finds it easy to understand the rules and what his character can do (doing a character in Pathfinder bored him). - my play group gets disappointed when we play something else, and had 3 out of 5 of us...
  20. MARCVS AVRELIVS

    D&D 5E Stealth

    All I know is that my car keys must have a pretty high Stealth skill, because I never seem to see them even when they're sitting in the open on the corner table where I forgot I dropped them when I came home, even though I just spent 10 minutes failing my Perception checks to find the damn...
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