Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Argyle King" data-source="post: 7652676" data-attributes="member: 58416">I'll have to give it some more thought.  Some of the obstacles presented  aren't as prevalent in the other games I play as they are in D&D.   That's not to say those other games don't have problems; they do, but  what you mention about long grindy combats tends to be (in my  experience) somewhat unique to D&D for reasons which are born of the  system and not from the concept of exploration.  What follows is a  collection of random thought; things that came to mind while trying to  contemplate the question more as I was typing this.I agree that  mapping programs take work.  Some of those programs are awesome, but  they somewhat require that you have a solid idea in mind as to what your  world looks like.  I'll be honest and say that -when I have time- I'm  something of a detail freak.  I've had to start breaking myself of the  habit of over-preparing so that I'd have more time to spend on other  things, and because I wanted to force myself to learn some of the DM  skills for winging it and improvising.  If you have a good idea  in mind about what your world looks like, but one that is not quite  solid enough to be fully mapped at the level of detail a mapping program  would provide, that is where I feel doing things the old fashioned way  starts to become better.  If I have a general idea that I want part of  the world to be a large arid wasteland in which nocturnal goblin  marauders and poisonous giant scorpions dwell, that gives me something  to work with.  I then can ask myself questions about the fact that I've  established, and let the answers I come up with flesh out the world  further.  Does this arid wasteland follow some semblance of the same  geographical rules as what is found here on earth?  If yes, I can  reasonably assume there is a rain shadow -meaning mountains in a  particular direction- or some other factor (depending upon the type of  desert I have in mind.)  If no, why?  Is it a magical effect?  If so,  maybe it is artificially created by a desert witch who desires an age of  perpetual heat and dryness.If I reach a point where I have  little to no idea about what should happen or if I just want to (as the  DM) be surprised, I think the idea of random encounter tables starts to  shine.  The "problem" with random encounters is one that you mentioned  -they may take a long time, but that is again something which is  somewhat due to the mechanics of the game system being used, and not an  inherent property of the idea itself.  If we're talking  specifically D&D 4th Edition, I think skill challenges are a good  way to handle it.  Perhaps random encounters cause the trip from point A  to point B to simply take longer.  Perhaps some healing surges are  lost.  Perhaps a future planned encounter is made more difficult because  the BBEG's scouts see the PCs and inform him that they're coming.  The  range of possibilities is pretty broad.  Though I do agree that it is  somewhat unsatisfying.  It's a conundrum which is difficult for me to  answer...  Do I choose a method of resolution which is possibly less  satisfying or do I choose one which eats up game time?  ...or am I stuck  ditching the idea of random encounters completely?  Do I try playing a different game system which may possibly work in a way which is better suited to some of the things I want to do?As I'm typing  this, a thought occurred to me that this might be an area in which I  might steal the narrative dice from Star Wars: Edge of The Empire for a  moment, and roll those to add some context to the situation.  Success  would mean the party succeeds at getting to where they are going;  failure means failure.  However, if you're unfamiliar with those dice,  I'll explain that they do not have numbers on them.  They have symbols  which mean success and symbols which mean failure, but there is also the  concept of advantage and threat.  You might roll a successful check,  but also roll a lot of threat symbols which means you succeed at what  you were trying to do, but something about the situation around you is  threatening to you in some way.  So maybe you successfully navigate to  where you are going, but you attract unwanted attention in some way or  perhaps a party member sustains a minor injury of some sort.  It is also  possible to fail a check, but generate advantage.  So perhaps you get  lost, but stumble into an abandoned keep which would make a nice base of  operations.  It would take some work to figure out how to generate a  dice pool (in SW, your characters skill helps determine how many dice to  roll) and translate the idea into D&D stats, but I think it would  work.  I also think it would work for other games.  (As a side note,  Obligation is also a concept I'm thinking about stealing from  SW:EoTE.)  One of the resources I've found myself using a lot is  found right on the WoTC website.  Vicious Venues is a great place to  find some pre-made things to plug into your game.  It may not be easy to  find now that 3rd Edition is two editions removed from being current,  so I will provide the link here:  <a href="https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/vv" target="_blank">https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/vv</a>There you can find a  wide variety of ideas to plug into a game.  You need not necessarily  use the ideas as is either; I've had success with looking at those as an  initial motivation, and then changing some of the details to better fit  what I wanted.  Sometimes, all you need is to give the creative wheels  of your mind a slight push to get them moving, and then the rest flows  naturally once the game gets moving.  While Vicious Venues is a great resource, it is also important to realize that resources are useful no matter where they come from.  I play a variety of games, and I have a variety of interests outside of tabletop gaming.  Those interests; the games I play and the things I do are resources as well.  I might pick up a cool trap idea from a Skyrim dungeon for GURPS fantasy game, or perhaps I like the way the Dwarves are portrayed in Dragon Age: Origins and decide to create an alien race which has that mentality in a sci-fi game.  I remember years ago using the story line from the Halo games while running D&D 3rd Edition.  Sure, I had to change some things and make some modifications, but it worked surprisingly well.  Instead of the Covenant being aliens, they were aberrations from a different dimension, and, instead of using spaceships and slipspace drives, they used arcane portals to invade the world in search of a religious artifact; viewing the races of the prime material realm as being demons who needed to be eradicated before they (the aberrations) could embark on The Great Journey.  You'd be surprised how much a simple minor change to a well known idea makes it seem like something completely new to your audience (the players.)  For example, you may not have noticed that the idea of a desert witch mentioned a few paragraphs ago was completely based upon Jadis (The White Witch) from The Chronicles of Narnia; all I did was associate the idea with an arid desert instead of snow and ice.  Looking back across what I've written; what has grown from a small thought which I believed would only be a few sentences, it seems to me that I still have not really answered the question I suppose, and I'm veering away from what I believe is the intent of the thread.  For that I apologize, but I'm not sure what to say when asked what my favorite "gadgets" are for the exploration portion of tabletop gaming.  I try to use what I know.  What I know is constantly evolving.  I visited the Grand Canyon earlier this year, and -while I had seen pictures of it and knew what to expect- it was mind blowing to stand there and see it for myself.  It opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me when it came to imagining my own worlds and what might be found in them.  Obviously, this varies, and what I know and how much of what I know is applicable can be modified by the game I'm playing.  Some of the things that make sense in a particular edition of D&D might make less sense elsewhere due to differences in how the game worlds work via mechanics.  (Note: I'm someone who believes system does matter to some degree.) If we're talking strictly gadgets in the sense of programs, iPads, and the like, I'll admit to being unable to provide an answer which would satisfy others.  I'm admittedly behind the tech curve of the world I live in.  I'm not inept at using technology; I have a smart phone, an XBox, and a variety of other gadgets, but I simply do not use a lot of it compared to what seems to be the growing norm in the world around me.  This is especially true when it comes to tabletop rpgs; I still prefer to make my D&D characters by hand; with a pencil and a character sheet.  Though, I'm interested to hear what others do.  I may learn of a gadget or a method I do want to use.  I'm always open to the possibility of adding things to the toolbox I have available to me in hopes of running a successful game.</blockquote>

Verification