Current Events > DnD playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hey guys.

I just bought a DnD Essentials Kit to try out with my gf. I've played a bunch of RPGs before and she wanted to try, so I figured we could try this because I've heard a lot about how simple DnD is. And there's a lot of content.

Would you table top RPG fans be interested in hearing about the progress? We're gonna play one-on-one sessions starting tomorrow.

And we could make this a general RPG topic since I haven't seen one for a while.

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Sure.

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Sure. If you end up liking it, I would highly recommend seeking out a full group or getting your/her friends into it. D&D is the most fun when you have a group.

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I agree that a group would be fun, but I'm kind of curious how one-on-one will work. One huge advantage is that it's very easy to plan. Finding a time when a whole group is available is always tricky. For example, I'm playing Delta Green in a group right now and there are several months between the sessions.

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• Have fun
• If you're unsure about a rule and don't know where to find it, just make it up. Don't hold up the game looking for stuff
• If you're the DM, read the whole thing before you start. Well, at least to where you want to stop. You said you're doing a One-Shot, so read the whole thing

I play alone a lot [Sad, I know] and I use this and just dungeon crawl -

https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/dungeon-map/

Gives you the map and fills in what is in the rooms.

Your player[s] are looking for a side quest to do or you, as the DM, need a quest idea, just roll here - https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/random-plot-hooks-generator/

I just rolled

• The deserts in Cir have been slowly, but steadily, expanding. The sages agree that the desert should be holding steady, and the nobility is worried that it will allow the nomads to expand their unofficial territory in the center of Cir. The PCs are hired to investigate any connection to rumors of a elemental earth worms that have recently migrated from the outer realms.
• A mysterious Goblin raids the town at night, striking and seemingly vanishing without a trace.
• Members of a coven have infiltrated the city's populace and are working their black magic.

Or I could just roll again. Combine that with the random maps, and I can create my own little adventure with my character. Roll random NPCs, loot, plot twits, traps, ect, ect. Helps me because I'm going solo so I can't spoil myself. But it very much helps new DMs come up with stuff as well

Bookmark it

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a 1-person adventure seems... hard

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averagejoel posted...

a 1-person adventure seems... hard

As in adventure difficulty or as in Role Play? Yeah, I'm usually dead before I get too high level, but I can set my level to whatever I want if I want to do harder quests. Just roll up a character on Beyond and then roll up a quick adventure or dungeon. Role Playing is easy, some times the adventures/battles can be hard

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

I would definitely read the topic

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yeah man i love dnd
i left the group i was playing with a while ago cause they were assholes tho

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Bad_Mojo posted...

I play alone a lot [Sad, I know] and I use this and just dungeon crawl -

https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/dungeon-map/

Gives you the map and fills in what is in the rooms.

Your player[s] are looking for a side quest to do or you, as the DM, need a quest idea, just roll here - https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/random-plot-hooks-generator/

That's a pretty interesting site, thanks! Don't think I'll be needing it for this one, but maybe in the future.

averagejoel posted...

a 1-person adventure seems... hard

Yeah I'm a little worried since she's gonna miss out on opportunities to role-play. On the other hand, the times I've played one on one with a GM have all been quite excellent. And I've done some reading on tips for one-on-one play as well so I'm not going in cold.

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scar the 1 posted...

hat's a pretty interesting site, thanks! Don't think I'll be needing it for this one, but maybe in the future.

The site has free One-Shots as well

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I've never tried 1-person adventure before.
Honestly, i don"t think i'd like it.

I did DM a one-shot a few days ago.
It took 7 hours.
I loved it but it was mentally exhausting.

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I had a session going with a few friends but we moved it online during the pandemic.

Honestly I'm not nearly as engaged during the online sessions and can't get into it at all. I think DnD is an in-person thing for me.

ROBANN_88 posted...

I've never tried 1-person adventure before.
Honestly, i don"t think i'd like it.

I did DM a one-shot a few days ago.
It took 7 hours.
I loved it but it was mentally exhausting.

I would say give it a try. It has its ups and downs. For example, you make progress a lot faster. Each encounter can be turned into something really intense. Etc.

And to be clear, I wouldn't say this campaign is a one shot. It's a collection of adventures for levels one through six, and there are follow up campaigns up to I think level 13. I really like the format! Very short descriptions so it's easy to prep. And it already has some balance suggestions for single players.

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So the campaign we're playing is "Dragon at Icespire Peak", and we just finished the first quest.
Gf is a Cleric of the Tempest domain and has an elven warrior sidekick. They went to an excavation site to earn a couple of dwarven treasure hunters that a dragon has come to the region. What followed was a looting of a ruined temple, fighting two jelly ochres, then on the way home they ran into two orcs.

Went pretty well, but it was a short adventure with minimal RPing. I had to severely tone down the encounters and traps because they were not suitable for level 1 characters. Gf would have died like three times at least if I didn't switch to lower damage. But it was a good intro to exploring dungeons. Now she's learned to always look for hidden exits, and to be wary of ambushes and traps. Next two adventures can be solved without fighting if she wants. I think I accidentally both have her exp and a milestone level up, but I'm thinking that since she's a newbie and playing alone, it doesn't hurt to have an extra level.

We're using dndbeyond for character sheets which is nice but annoying. Everything is behind a paywall and we're not interested in paying so much for both of us, when I already have access to the rulebooks and stuff via friends. But it's really convenient to keep track of stuff! Will try to also use roll20 in the future so I can show her a map in a convenient way.

And overall I'll say that DnD has me conflicted. It's very nice in some regards, but spells and classes are a mess compared to my favorite game, Symbaroum. If she enjoys playing, I'll probably try to move us to some hybrid where I adapt DnD modules to Symbaroum rules.

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tag

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Putting a bump here just in case. Not sure we'll have time to play today. I'm quite looking forward to the next quests. One is a mystery where a Mimic is hiding in a Gnome community, which seems really fun. The other is just fighting or negotiating with a Manticore to have it stop harassing the potion maker. I'm really hoping she picks the Gnome one, it's the goofiest quest in this thing

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We actually did have time to play today!

So gf started off with the Manticore quest, which in hindsight is pretty boring. It's essentially you arrive at the quest location, and the Manticore is already there trying to kill the person you wanna save. Then you either kill the monster or bribe it to go away, and that's it really. So she managed to make it go away by healing its wounds and giving it 10 days' worth of food. Pretty uninspiring.

Then off to the Gnome quest, which turned out to be quite difficult for a complete beginner. You traverse a network of caves with Gnomes in them, with a little bit of fighting and a little bit of persuasion. Then you find that the king has locked himself in because a Mimic is hiding about, eating the Gnomes one by one. He refuses to open until he's convinced the Mimic is dead. The player's objective there is actually just to bring back a magical item, so they can finish the quest any number of ways. Gf managed to (after some gentle nudging since she was stuck) trick the king into believing that a piece of rope was the Mimic corpse, and she got a Wand of Pyrotechnics as a reward. She's now contemplating if she should actually look for the Mimic at all or just go back. It's pretty tricky since I'm a new GM and not really used to new players who don't really know what they can do. We had to stop there so we'll see next time what she ends up doing. I'm advising her to try and think what her character would want to do (a chaotic neutral cleric). But it's a pretty fun quest, all in all. If I end up being a GM more often, I'll definitely reuse it.

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scar the 1 posted...

We actually did have time to play today!

So gf started off with the Manticore quest, which in hindsight is pretty boring. It's essentially you arrive at the quest location, and the Manticore is already there trying to kill the person you wanna save. Then you either kill the monster or bribe it to go away, and that's it really. So she managed to make it go away by healing its wounds and giving it 10 days' worth of food. Pretty uninspiring.

Then off to the Gnome quest, which turned out to be quite difficult for a complete beginner. You traverse a network of caves with Gnomes in them, with a little bit of fighting and a little bit of persuasion. Then you find that the king has locked himself in because a Mimic is hiding about, eating the Gnomes one by one. He refuses to open until he's convinced the Mimic is dead. The player's objective there is actually just to bring back a magical item, so they can finish the quest any number of ways. Gf managed to (after some gentle nudging since she was stuck) trick the king into believing that a piece of rope was the Mimic corpse, and she got a Wand of Pyrotechnics as a reward. She's now contemplating if she should actually look for the Mimic at all or just go back. It's pretty tricky since I'm a new GM and not really used to new players who don't really know what they can do. We had to stop there so we'll see next time what she ends up doing. I'm advising her to try and think what her character would want to do (a chaotic neutral cleric). But it's a pretty fun quest, all in all. If I end up being a GM more often, I'll definitely reuse it.

As a DM, you have a couple of options. If she leaves the Mimic alive(which is likely what a chaotic neutral character would do, after all they got their reward) if she ever ends up going back to this gnome village she might find it completely devastated. Or you could have a gnome that knows she didnt kill the mimic follow her around seeking revenge, or possibly a gnome rogue sent by the king because they obviously will eventually find out that she didnt kill the mimic. Or any other possibilites that you can think of for consequences for the actions she took.

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Yeah that's a good idea! I'll probably settle on something like a Gnome survivor who will seek vengeance. There's no good reason for her to ever return there. And it would be nice to actually have a sort of rivalry going on. Either that or I'll save that character idea if I start playing with someone else and I want to bring them together somehow.

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She may have to return if you ever move away from 1 shots or start a group. You can keep all of this is your world as part of your world building.

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

She may have to return if you ever move away from 1 shots or start a group. You can keep all of this is your world as part of your world building.

Yeah that's true. I was thinking mostly as long as I keep to this campaign as well as the two follow-ups, I don't think there is a return to Gnomengard there.

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scar the 1 posted...

Yeah that's true. I was thinking mostly as long as I keep to this campaign as well as the two follow-ups, I don't think there is a return to Gnomengard there.

Never say never in D&D. If/when you move away from one shots you will have to come up with your own quests. You could have an NPC need something from there down the line forcing her to go back and with it being decimated she'll have to look for clues as to where they may have fled or it could become infested with monsters and is now a dungeon. There are limitless possibilities that you can do with this. D&D is all about the players actions and the consequences they can have on the world you built. Just make note of her actions and come up with possible things that may or may not spring up from them. That is one of the most important things with DMing a campaign.

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Yeah you're right. These adventures are as much practice for me as it is intro for her. I've only ever been a GM once before so I can definitely tell that I need to get better.

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Hell yeah dnd

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Daily bump. No games today, and maybe not tomorrow either. Meanwhile I thought I'd throw out a question.

Do you have any quality of life home rules that you use? For example, I'll happily reward players who come up with clever solutions to puzzles by making the DCs a little easier. That way I figure it's a little more satisfying to be clever.

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If a player makes a very convincing argument but rolls poorly I'll likely let it slide, just like if they make a very poor argument they will have to roll a little better. Not much different than your puzzles rule.

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scar the 1 posted...

We're using dndbeyond for character sheets which is nice but annoying.

you might look at myth-weavers as a place for a less featured but more accessible character sheet. also it's free

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Sackgurl posted...

you might look at myth-weavers as a place for a less featured but more accessible character sheet. also it's free

Interesting. I'll check that out tomorrow. One really neat feature of dndbeyond was that they had info on all the spells and feats and stuff, but it turned out most of it was locked. I understand that the game isn't free, but it feels bad that every player has to pay huge money.

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Pre game bump. We're finishing the gnome place tonight, and maybe attempting another quest maybe

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I can't wait to get back to playing in person. Online just doesn't do the same

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Alright, so first thing that happened when we started was that gf completely ditched the gnomes, lol. I'm glad she did, because her reasoning was that her chaotic neutral cleric just wouldn't be interested after they had already received a reward. I'm definitely making a gnome NPC out for revenge later on.
Then she went to save a farmer who was held captive at his ranch by some orcs. Since she used her Thaumaturgy cantrip in a pretty clever way to draw them out, I gave her some small advantages in the fight. Turns out she really didn't need it. She essentially one-shotted two orcs with her Shatter spell, since the Tempest domain lets her deal max thunder or lightning damage once per day. Then it was just cleanup.
Before she freed the poor farmer she looted his house and found a Mithral chainmail stashed away, so when he was going to reward her with it he couldn't find it and assumed the orcs took it.

Pretty stoked to do more quests, since now they're going to be ramping up in difficulty a little. Next she's probably going to fight some wererats, and they're immune to non-magic damage. She has tools at her disposal to deal with it, and I'm curious to see if she manages to figure it out. In her very first quest I gave her a Whetstone that casts magic weapon. And she has spells as well as the Sacred Flame cantrip so she should be fine.

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So, reading through the material, I hadn't really realized that (of course) wererats can turn players.

What do you guys think? If she gets bitten and infected, this is what I'm thinking: She gets to make a choice, either resist the curse, meaning she can keep her current alignment and stuff, but during the full moon she loses control of her character. Or, she embraces the curse, meaning she turns evil (and has to RP evil), but retains full control of her character at all times. Either way, she'll have the whole stigma of being a wererat to deal with. She would likely need to kill her sidekick and get herself a new one who is evil. Do you guys have any experience with letting players be lycanthropes? Wererats are pretty OP, so it should come with significant RP costs at least...

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the remove curse spell usually resolves it

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Well sure. If she doesn't want to be a wererat I'll figure out a way to have a quest giving her access to Remove Curse. Heck she might even get access to it herself once she gets level 3 spells. I was thinking more to offer her an alternative, and wondering if you guys have any experience with lycanthrope player characters.

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Pre game bump. I've bounced the wererat idea with some DM friends and they had pretty good and positive feedback. Here's hoping she actually chooses that quest, and that she manages to get bitten. Her CON is pretty good so you never know.

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Alright!

She went to a gold mine that had been taken over by a small band of wererats calling themselves "The Whiskered Gang". This, in my mind, gave me plenty of opportunities to infect her. Sadly she slaughtered all the rats! But her sidekick got infected, so I ended the session giving her the choice to be willfully infected or kill her sidekick (but imma make the sidekick survive either way).
Essentially the conditions are that if gf becomes a wererat, she and her sidekick will have as their agenda to rebuild the Whiskered Gang in the region. She'll have to roll saving throws now and again when interacting with normal people, or they'll start to grow suspicious. Essentially she becomes more powerful but has to be lawful evil with a fixed agenda set by me, and acting like a normal person in town becomes difficult.

All in all she's tempted by the offer and will have until next time to decide what happens. I think it's a pretty fun twist that adds some spice to the campaign. And it would play really well into the revenge seeking gnome, seeing as a shapeshifter killed his whole community.

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Another bump. Next session is probably Sunday, earliest. She's inclined to take the offer and become a wererat. I think it'll introduce some really nice options for doing stuff between adventures as well. Once we're done with this Dragon at Icespire Peak campaign, there is a follow-up one where she gets to settle in a city and help develop it. Giving her a secret wererat society agenda fits really well with that.

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Ha ha ha, that would be awesome. You could eventually turn this character into a villian for a future campaign, if/when she starts a new character

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

Ha ha ha, that would be awesome. You could eventually turn this character into a villian for a future campaign, if/when she starts a new character

Right? I'm pretty excited. And there are some battles that seemed pretty tricky but will get a lot easier like this. I feel like it'll be easier for me to scale up the difficulty rather than scale it down. And it'll feel like, bigger, if encounters don't have to get scaled down so much.

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Bump, keeping this alive. Hopefully we can play tonight but let's see

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A bit off topic but did anyone try the LotR mod to DnD? I love LotR so I'm very curious

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OK now we did another quest. Since she and her sidekick turned into wererats, it was a piece of cake. I'll have to tweak some future quests to deal with this. One thing that I'm doing is having the gnome seeking revenge be a rival adventurer who doesn't suspect her yet. And if that gnome turns up at quest locations, she won't be able to freely shapeshift without risk of being discovered. But I'll also sprinkle in more magic damage/silvered weapons etc.

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Me and gf will be apart for a couple days now. Maybe the topic will die, it seems interest has waned a little. We're about 2-3 quests of from the end.

This makes me really want to find a group of my own so I can also play

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Well if the topic dies and you start another one tag me. I've been enjoying reading the updates.

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IfGodCouldDie posted...

Well if the topic dies and you start another one tag me. I've been enjoying reading the updates.

You got it.

Meanwhile I can talk a little about my plan. So now that gf's character is OP, I need to tweak things a little. Some of the enemies worship a storm god, so giving their attacks extra lightning damage is no biggie. I'm kind of considering changing the immunity to resistance, but at the same time I'm also considering instead to raise the cost of polymorphing:
- Limit the number of times she can change during a day
- I introduced the gnome rival as a kind of rival/sidekick character. If something turns out to be too difficult, the rival (who is also doing quests) could show up. That adds a huge risk of being discovered

Another reason why I added the rival is because of advice from some friend DMs. I really want a cast of recurring NPCs, and I don't have that at the moment. So I'm thinking a rival adventurer duo for starters, and then add a patron/boss of the wererat gang she's assembling, and if we keep playing the follow-up campaign there will be a town council to deal with. And that should be plenty. I'm definitely overplanning things but that's also kind of fun.

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This all sounds like a lot of fun. I've wanted to get into DnD and even bought the 5E book some years back but haven't had the opportunity to play it. Something like this sounds like a relatively simple way to get started playing though, so maybe I should suggest it to my girlfriend as well haha

Have you thought about rolling a character yourself and playing with her in that way as well? Or will you purely be a DM? I feel like it might be fun to do the former in theory for the co-operative aspect, but not sure how feasible it really is

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I'm planning on rolling the rival as things progress. She also has a sidekick that uses sidekick statblocks included in the campaign. They're based on some Unearthed Arcana publication. I'm a bit hesitant to involve my own rolled character too heavily since she's really supposed to be the hero of the campaign. It feels like it would be easy to have my own character get out of hand and just steal the spotlight.
Besides, I'm already struggling to roleplay as the sidekick while also DMing hehe, so I think it just would be really difficult as well

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Bump. Bought a proper headset today so that at least, if I want, I'll be able to play remotely without the bad laptop mic. Problem is most groups on reddit are US based and might be tricky schedule wise. Maybe language wise too

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Try r/lfg_europe

Though while that one is Europe based, expect to get no reply at all if you make a "Player looking for group" thread, but you'll get a ton if you make a "DM looking for players" thread.

Would it be weird to do a "the CE Swedes" game?

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