In which we un-randomize random encounters

 at least during "travel."

Here's how we've BEEN playing it:  drawing from Uncharted Journeys and a few other sources all cobbled together I have the players roll a d20 and a d6.  The d20 determines the encounter and the d6 determines when it happens.  

There are roughly a dozen TYPES of RE during travel.  Rest related.  Food related.  Bumps in the road.  Caravans.  Travelers in trouble.  Bandits.  Monsters.  A few others.  And what I've BEEN doing is ...winging it.  But you can only have so many muddy sink holes, last adventurers and greedy bandits.  

UJ uses a very mechanic heavy approach.  Party members assume "rolls" on the trip.  Depending on the type of encounter a given roll makes a skill check that then determines how the party rolls to respond to the encounter.  Party rolls.  Results applied.  Move on down the road.  Game-able n stuff but not terribly "satisfying" during the session.   I've tried prepping a 4e style skill challenge but those are difficult to spin out spur of the moment.  So I need to come up with something "different."  After 50 years of a game there just ISN'T much different.

One of my players suggested "give us two minutes to come up with a solution and THEN adjudicate it."  Which is nice for player buy-in and participation.  So here's what I'm going to do this week.  As part of my prep I'm going to design THREE RE's for each general type (thus putting a dagger in the heart of the "random" part.)  I'll incorporate the UJ method and layer in some 4e skill challenge stuff.  It'll be more detailed and granular than it needs to be BUT - it's what my table has asked for and once the initial chart is designed I'll only need to replace those that are used.  Some weeks there will be NONE!  

More lonely fun.

In which we review another product

 No session this week.  We were s'posed to get Biblical Destruction type weather.  Didn't happen.  But

rather than having my party (one of which was oot anyway) drive through Revelations we cancelled.  And then the weather didn't happen.  

But I DID have something worthy of comment and I'm trying to get a bit more regular around here so there's this.  I'm not a fan of the dScryb product.  I don't really feel the need for someone else to give me box texts for stuff.  Interesting idea and likely fills a niche (as evidenced by its continued existence) but not for me.  Then they added MORE stuff I don't really need.  Maps.  Ability to REQUEST descriptions and maps.  Then they went and did it.  They added a sound library.  I tinkered but it was never to the point that for ME it was going to replace Syrinscape or Soundpad.  And then they added "Opus."  And several of the youtubers I watch did promos. And a free 30 day trial was offered.  So I wandered by again.  Signed up for it.  Spent a little time with it and confirmed my priors and forgot about it.  Until the bill came for the FULL YEAR at the TOP TIER!   

I IMMEDIATELY email the company to beg and plead to have the charge backed off.  This was less than 15 minutes after the charge went on.  Within another 15 minutes I'd heard back from the FOUNDER of the company!  The charge had been backed off immediately but he also wanted to open up a dialogue.  What didn't I like, etc.  He walked me through some stuff, gave me another 2 weeks free, answered questions and carried on an email correspondence for about ten days.  And won me over.  Helped along by BobWorldBuilder's video.  After another two weeks of conquering the learning curve (realizing how to build playlists and blocks and stuff .... figuring out that the sound effects were likely useless) I agreed to sign up.  

Reviewed the pricing.  I'm taking the "Composer" option as it provides JUST the sound stuff, which is all I really need.  The BIGGEST reason I'm paying for it over free Soundpad is the personal service from the freakin' FOUNDER .... and the fact that it has perhaps a crap-ton more options.  That might also be the biggest hurdle here.  Too many choices can be as big an issue as not enough but we'll see.  I've put together two blocks to use next week and will likely assemble one or two more.  And I'll be back with an after-action report.  But for now?  Not bad.

In which we get swarmed by bees

 Yup.  Bees.  Party of 6.  Average of 5th level.  And a dozen swarms of bees.  Two each in fact.  Theater of

the mind.  Lot's of dropping below 0 and MED checks and heal spells and bad rulings and stuff.  But as is the case with many sessions we did a lot that we'd never done before so the virgin territory provided most of the problems.

First the new "hits not HP" system.  Most users recommend rounding down.  But nooooo.  I couldn't do THAT.  I rounded up.  "It's only 1 more hit" I thought.  Yes.  But one extra hit over a dozen beasties with an AC of 14 has quite an impact.  So rounding DOWN from now on.  Otherwise the system worked quite well.  Next - the tactical adjustments.  Party had been complaining that since everything was attacking from a distance they could usually pick it apart with the expert marksman ranger and a smattering of spells.  So this time they stumbled on a honey thief being absolutely DESTROYED by angry bees.  And the clouds of apian hell descended upon them with great fury.  Those little buggers went earlier in the initiative order than the plodding ogre's and giant spiders had been.  Throw in the fact that they have damage resistance to most weapons and this thing became a SLOG.  Glass cannon forgot he had a magic wand.  That didn't help.  When he DID go down (quite early) I noted that the bees were no longer attacking him.  But nobody in the party acknowledge this.  And nobody tried to run!  'Cause they're heroes, dontcha know.  This was attributed to the fact that they couldn't really SEE what was going on.  So retreating wasn't an option?  Well, OK.  No more TotM.  Haven't run one of those in months anyway.  

A few other mistakes. Too many swarms.  Nine or ten woulda been better than 12.  One to the "low" characters, two to the high ones.  Mike Mearls recently recommended managing the action economy by avoiding using monsters that have move total actions per round greater than three times the number of players.  That number would by 18 for this encounter.  The bees can move and attack.  So nine swarms woulda worked better.  Lesson learned.

The LAST mistake (?) I made was in my treatment of Temporary HP.  I was treating it as healing.  It isn't.  So we'll avoid the yo-yo effect that we saw last night.  

So I gave the party what they wanted.  And then they didn't want it any more.  The fighter was barely touched but had trouble dealing damage.  The cleric did some healing and utility work and had a BALL trying to figure out what the optimum action was every round.  Druid took a beating and did OK but her spores were less than effective.  Two wizards took too much damage early to be as effective as they'd like.  And the ranger?  Without his +11 archery ability he was more or less worthless and NOT happy about it.  Party worked well as a unit, found a few holes in their procedures, and now know what they need to add/improve.  Which will lead to meaningful decisions.  

Not bad for a two-hour slugfest that didn't HAVE to happen.

In which we end one test and begin another

 Hit points.  Been here a little bit before.  The XDM experiment was .... fun .... but kinda became wet

tissue paper at higher levels (5th and 6th.)  No problem with BBG's hanging around but the mooks became worthless and they were needed for BBG support.  Stuff was too easy.

So here's what we're (meaning "I'm") swinging to.  Kinda using Lazy DM's Forge of Foes to assemble combat encounters.  Some more development of the math.  Good starting points.  And I'm following Professor Dungeon Craft's suggestion of using Hits instead of Hit Points.  

In a nutshell: take creatures (average) HP, divide by 10 and round up.  A character hit is 1 hit.  A crit or sneak attack is 2 hits.  A spell attack is 1 hit per spell level, +1 if the caster is over 6th level.  MIGHT try rounding down instead of up if it gets too tough.  Will switch to MAX HP rounded down if it gets too easy.  This is only DM facing.  PCs still get the detailed treatment.  

Also.  A few weeks ago my table kinda swung into a thing of a meta-discussion after the session.  Been productive.  And I know exactly what they want - or at least what they think they want.  So they've been getting some "odd environmental" challenges in combat - mainly line of site stuff.  Which has de-buffed the ranger a tad.  They're outside most of the time so encounters are usually in the woods so 40-160 feet range.  And the party's picking them apart as they "close."  It's the edge of the razor.  Wanna scare them and push them but not kill them.  How does a hydra sneak up on a 6th level party in the woods?  Gotta get em back underground too. 

In which we revisit the Quantum Ogre.

 My attempted wanderings into the "open game" world has been, to say the least, wonderful and

productive.  I currently have a big story arc (which was NOT there at the outset) that the players asked for.  I have a secondary arc that loosely ties into the big arc to provide an occasional diversion.  And EVERY session provides the opportunity to drop plot hooks which may or may not tie in to either of those arcs.  

Short digression.  About a year ago the party had completed a long commute.  Two sessions of travel along a major trade route.  Four random encounter checks every day.  Natural disasters.  Medical emergencies.  Goblins.  And dozens of caravan wagons.  At the conclusion of the trip one of the PC's observed "it was kinda fun I guess but there were no plot hooks."  Another member of the party pointed out "we walked by dozens of people every day.  Every ONE of them likely had a plot hook of some type.  I didn't pursue them because I wanted to get here but there was no reason for you NOT to."  And that was the end of the discussion.  

 Justin Alexander has popularized the concept of the Three Clue Rule.  Essentially you make a rule available three different ways (or places) to ensure that it's found.  No one refers to them as Quantum Clues.  But aren't they?  Then there's Schrodinger's Troglodyte.  Before the players interact with the adventure everything planned by the DM is not fixed. It is only after the players interact with the adventure does anything become real and so fixed.

So, if the players explored 15 rooms of a 20-room dungeon, skipped the boss troglodyte room, leave and never return, then for now, only those 15 rooms are real. Dare I suggest that only the things the PCs interacted in those 15 rooms are the Chekhov’s Guns (from the story POV) and everything else including the boss troglodyte might as well not exits (from the story POV). At best those things the PCs missed exist in a Schrödinger’s Cat-like state of not quite existing.

And so it is with plot hooks.  If one applies the TCR only to those clues needed to advance the story then all other facets of DM prep are Schrodinger's Troglodyte.  Let's say I prep three potential encounters for my party:  placating a green dragon, fetching some phase spider spindles and guarding a grove from a cyclops and his buddies.  In keeping with the TCR I have multiple ways to set the hook.  Weavers.  Crazy old hermits.  Local lords.  Caravans.    If I plant one and they take it so be it.  They need to be couched as maybes and possibilities.  If they ignore it I can pocket it, file it away and throw it in front of them again in a month.  Because they're in Schrodinger's box with his cat and his troglodyte, both real and unreal.

So while the general view of the Quantum Ogre is that it's a bad thing, robbing players of their agency, I'm thinking Schrodinger's Troglodyte is a GOOD thing because it renders the players agency irrelevant while maintaining it?  That's CAN'T be right, but it SEEMS right.  Ideas?

 

 

https://dmsescritoire.blogspot.com/2021/08/in-which-we-attempt-to-slay-quantum-ogre.html

In which I don't get a nibble

 

and the session STILL runs itself!

As foretold I rather unceremoniously dropped half a dozen plot hooks at the start of the session.  The hook for the primary and secondary story lines was dropped first along with a cryptic poem (emailed to them at the start of the session as my printer decided it no longer had ink!) and an item in a box (presented via the picture affixed to this post.)  The rest of the hooks were tertiary and to at least some degree class/race/character specific.  But the party latched on to one and clamped down like grim death.  "A heretical sect has produced a new translation of the book of the cleric's faith and must be hunted and captured. Those that do not recant are to be exterminated."

So off they went with our diminutive halfling Twilight Cleric in the fore.  So it took a while to get there.  A clearing in the woods.  The stone outline of the beginnings of as worship site.  A rough altar.  And a dozen followers.  The first hour or so of our session was spent talking to NPC's and weighing their options.  The NEXT hour was spent at the site with our cleric discussing theology with the leader of the sect.  I had done NO research on the topic.  I knew damned little about the deity worshiped by the cleric.  But I knew enough to respond to his questions and to present enough of a difference between what the cleric believed and what the sect was proposing as to make a difference.  The whole thing had a distinct "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin" feel to it.  Is the sacrament the ACTUAL blood and body of Christ or is it symbolic?  The other two players and I engaged in some pleasant meta banter while the cleric feverishly read everything he could find on the interwebs, thinking I'd dug up some theological dilemma in the lore of some other setting.

And he found one!

And it was DAMNED close to the bushwa I had been slinging about  to keep the session moving.  After about an hour of THAT I realized I needed to do something to move the session along or else the entire evening would be filled the cleric and I sitting on tree stumps discussing philosophy.  NOT the stuff of legendary fantasy.  So I put it to the cleric - recant or exterminate?  He tried a persuasion check (high CR and with disadvantage) and failed.  At which point all hell broke lose.

Six PC's and a dozen religious zealots.  How long would it take to fight out at YOUR table?  Twenty five minutes.  Considering that half the party had just advanced a level and included four spell casters was not bad IMHO.  Each party member succeeded in plinking off 1-2 opponents quickly.  The cleric then strode the battlefield dealing the death blows to the remaining heretics.

About a hundred coins, a ceremonial dagger, and eight uncut stones.  The stones are "interesting" because it marks the first time I've given uncut stones as treasure.  They'll need to find a lapidary to turn them into gemstones.  I'll see how that goes.  About 1/5 of a level in XP with an additional 1/10 to the cleric.  I'll use the travel back to let the two wizards discuss the item that they were given at the beginning of the session and see if I might rekindle interest.  

One last concept introduced: I'm going to allow each PC to declare their own quest or goal and we'll agree how much XP it's worth.  Our ranger was quick to take the bait - "hit ten targets in a row during combat or competition, for XP worth 1/10 of a level."  Done!  Keep in mind he's 5th level with his father's +1 bow and a quiver which bestows an additional +1 so he's looking at +11 to hit.  We're looking at almost a 60% chance of success.  That'll be fun.  Looking fwd to seeing what the others come up with.

In which they get what they asked for

 Table's been going for over three years now.  Third campaign.  First two ended in TPKs.  After each did

an exit interview and tried to incorporate the responses into the next one.  They were pretty good with everything except the over-arching plots.  They didn't want one.  "We wanna be itinerant monster and treasure hunters."  And they wanted a little more political intrigue.  And one wanted some big military stuff.  Maybe.

So I plopped them onto a corner of the planet ruled by noble houses with a complex web of interrelationships and intrigue.  Lot's of one shots and exploring.  And it seemed well received.  Until last session.  We ALWAYS spend a bit of time discussing the meta-game but after our last session they lamented the lack of a BBG and big plot line!  I was throwing two or three plot hooks at them every session, tailored for their class and backstory.  They knew they could pass on any and do whatever they wanted.  I was usually able to riff off their decisions.  But now five levels in they've decided they want the thing they didn't want!

And.

In each of the prior two campaigns I had an "out" adventure.  Something to run if someone couldn't make it or if things went south early.  First one was a book of fairy tales that pulled PC's in.  They fought the big bad wolf and Rumpelstiltskin and encountered the Bremen town musicians.  They liked it.  Second one was a demi-plane in a tapestry (lifted from Pathfinder.)  They liked it too.  And they wanted another one.  So it's tough when good ideas fall in your lap and then you're called upon to duplicate the result.

Anyway.

Spending this weekend spinning up a BBEG, an overarching storyline and a recurring diversion.  And I have one.  IF YOU'RE AT MY TABLE STOP READING THIS NOW.  Recurring diversion is a compass that opens gates to small demi-planes where I'll drop small strange worlds or 5-room dungeons with ever increasing CR monsters.  AND there's an AI nested inside of it, which siphons off magic and event energy and decides to evolve.  Hence the BBEG.  And lots of factions want control of it.  Which is the adventure arc.  So I'm done.  After reviewing every Pathfinder Adventure Path, D&D published campaign, the twenty steppers designed by Sly Flourish, and a raft of tired ideas on Reddit and other sites.  

But.

The party will be happy (I hope.)  I've advised there will be a raft of plot hooks next week and one of them MIGHT be the Big Arc and one of them MIGHT be the Recurring Diversion.  So we'll see how it goes.