RangerWickett
Legend
Narrative description and player mood can do wonders for having a certain feeling in a scene, but there are times when I wish for game mechanics to support a certain vibe.
Case in point, I had a campaign where the party had spent multiple adventures escorting an apprentice air elemental wizard to visit sites that were rich with elemental air energy, because she needed to be ready to replace her aged mentor in a council that was responsible for balancing the energies of the world. A tree the stole voices. A hilltop that sang. A hurricane that stopped just off shore and hadn't moved in a year.
And on a 'Christmas' episode, the party found a chubby holy man who normally rode around in a reindeer-pulled sleigh to deliver food for the midwinter feast. But a nearby town was besieged by a small goblin army, and he couldn't get through. A few friends of the party had gotten taken prisoner by the goblins. But with the combined power of the priest's blessings and the air magic expertise the apprentice had gained in her adventures, they were able to grant the power of flight to the party (and the reindeer and sleigh) for one evening, even time for them to deliver supplies over the battle lines to keep the townsfolk going until reinforcements could be brought in to free them.
We were playing 3rd edition, and if you recall that game, movement was pretty restricted. Opportunity attacks abounded. You could not split movement before and after an action.
But during the "delivering presents on Christmas Eve" scene, rather than use the normal fly rules, I told them that
When have you had a session where some special mechanic evoked a rare mood or feeling?
Case in point, I had a campaign where the party had spent multiple adventures escorting an apprentice air elemental wizard to visit sites that were rich with elemental air energy, because she needed to be ready to replace her aged mentor in a council that was responsible for balancing the energies of the world. A tree the stole voices. A hilltop that sang. A hurricane that stopped just off shore and hadn't moved in a year.
And on a 'Christmas' episode, the party found a chubby holy man who normally rode around in a reindeer-pulled sleigh to deliver food for the midwinter feast. But a nearby town was besieged by a small goblin army, and he couldn't get through. A few friends of the party had gotten taken prisoner by the goblins. But with the combined power of the priest's blessings and the air magic expertise the apprentice had gained in her adventures, they were able to grant the power of flight to the party (and the reindeer and sleigh) for one evening, even time for them to deliver supplies over the battle lines to keep the townsfolk going until reinforcements could be brought in to free them.
We were playing 3rd edition, and if you recall that game, movement was pretty restricted. Opportunity attacks abounded. You could not split movement before and after an action.
But during the "delivering presents on Christmas Eve" scene, rather than use the normal fly rules, I told them that
- they had a fly speed of 60 (enough to get almost anywhere on the map); and
- the flight magic basically granted them a +10 bonus to any efforts to bull rush someone; and
- they could bull-rush one time during their movement each round for free, even pushing upward if they wanted; and
- if they wanted to bull rush or make multiple attacks, they could split up their movement between them, and they wouldn't provoke opportunity attacks from anyone whom they had attacked; and
- before or after they took their action they could fly a free 10 feet that wouldn't provoke opportunity attacks at all.
When have you had a session where some special mechanic evoked a rare mood or feeling?