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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 17, 2017 7:43:09 GMT
just so we're clear here... by 5 hour preparation i mean actually coming up with the story and prepping maps for it. Sgain, you talk with premade adventure in mind. i dont use those i create my own. i dont like reading a book and reading it to make it my own just isn't great. though i liekd playing that starter set when we first started on 5e. aside fromt hat i create my own adventures. that includes that i have to create my own maps. i have to create my own props. and hand outs. that takes a lot of time. figuring out the encounters and all. thats the 5 hours i take. thats not even counting what i did crafting wise. though i mainly dont have to do it anymore since i got pretty much all i needed.
also remember that i move around. something most of you dont do. we are playing pretty much an hour away from our home. well me its 10 minutes to go the gaming store. but some of my players literally have to travel 30-45 minutes to come to the game. i arrive about an hour before the game so my players who have questions for characters and all can have my time. i also take the time to choose my possible monsters for the session cause usually i dont know if they are going to go down that path but when i do. i prep for it about an hour before game time.
as for burn outs... 20 years of DMing and at a time, 3 game sessions per week with 3 different groups. not a single burn out. i'd play all week if i could. unfortunately between jobs and players not able to attend im stuck with 2 sessions per weeks and im fine with it. of course 1 of them is me playing the other is me dming. but yeah... never had a burn out in 20 years. white page syndrome, sure ! but burn out ? never !
all in all, as said before life > gaming. talk to your players, its your game after all.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 16, 2017 9:27:23 GMT
you should look at Savage Worlds - way easier to DM than any of the D&D line of games. I got totally burned out of d20 based games with 3.5 and even though a few of my pals love 5th, they aren't running games with it, just playing. So they don't have to put all the work into the game that a GM does. I've savaged (converted) most games in a few hours and with the online resources kicking around it's pretty easy to convert any campaign to SW. Or, take a break, recharge and see if you're still into doing all the work. a game is as much trouble as you want it to be. a system is not harder then any others. its hard only if you put way too much effort into making it perfect. something all DMs shouldn't aspire to do. i barely ever put 5 hours of game design on my friday game. thats how much i put playing the game once were there. if you need much more then that to create the stuff, then something is awefully wrong with your preparation. of course i happen to put more times per week then that, but thats just how dedicated and loving my job as DM. so i dont care. not to mention that work is not done on a whim since most of it go for my homebrew world. but session wise... i barely ever put more then 5 hours work on it per week. like mattcolville said... its not the job of the DM to know everything about the players characters. you dont have to know what charcaters can do, they do. not you as a DM. so do yourself a favor and stop putting all the rules on yourself. in the end even if the rules aren't right. the goal is to have fun.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 15, 2017 20:00:31 GMT
VR is already a reality. there is numerous table top games existing where players can literally roll dices on a table. you can have virtual sheets and put down virtual minis from a library. Mike Mearls passes most of his time with groups on the VR systems for 5e. there is even live interviews with Crawfords, Mearls and one other i dont rememeber. never tryed it cause i dont have any VR system here, but i heard it is awesome.
to me though, you can never get the feeling of table top with friends. programming definitely would of made my day easier back in school and the 2E system. if only i had anything else then a smart calculator.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 15, 2017 19:53:00 GMT
the snail is definitely neverending story. you know the turbo snail.
as for the flail snail, good job. really looks like the one in 5e !
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 15, 2017 19:48:23 GMT
too much work is too much work... while i love D&D a lot. life always have to go before gaming, thats what i always say. you should explain to your players why you need the day off. its your table not theirs. if my players wanted to play so badly i'd tell them, go ahead play, by yourselves, i wont be there. thats what i would say.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 13, 2017 19:00:45 GMT
just so you guys knows. all company making browsers including firefox are dropping the whole plugins things. so if your browsers starts acting up lately, it is normal that means the website needs updating to html 5 otherwise it wont stay compatible to other companies soon.
for now firefox is the most compatible browser. all others have problems and have been since the last year or so.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 13, 2017 18:56:41 GMT
oh i like black as well. hence why im pro black base. but... soemhow the black makes my vision blurry after a while.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 13, 2017 18:54:41 GMT
I found myself a great technique to make fire.
its quite simple... #1 put some hot glue where you want flames. #2 let it set for a few seconds. #3 poke it with a toothpick. #4 pull the hot glue up to reveal the flames. #5 hold there to let it set entirely. #6 cut out any excess you dont want.
makes great flames. really love my fire elementals and am about to do the same to my golden lions and hell hounds.
really love the air elementals. though i understand the point of being able to put a mini inside it. i wouldn't just let it be a tornado.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 10, 2017 7:28:11 GMT
the pebbles would have been great if they were much much smaller. the black background is also very good, but it kinda make a void which to me is distracting. as i said th epebbles would have been awesome if they were to scale with the dungeon and not just a very zoomed in pebble collection.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 5, 2017 14:32:09 GMT
i just love a good fight, but my players hates it when they are always on their toes. they literally said they like to steam roll some minions as well. so im basically forced to let them steam roll a bit before going crazy on them. all that said when we first started with the starter set. my flameskull in wave echo cave openned up with fireball, so what they thought would be a walk in the park ended on first round when the flameskull got top init and just put both the warlock and cleric down to 1-5 hp. they both ran off making the fighter forced to run as well. didn't help they were down two players at that time as well.
overall, the starting adventure was a lot of fun, i never did anything with glassstaff though. can't wait to see what you do for your players next. also glad you like the 5th edition. one thing i always thought about D&D is that while things can get too powerfull for the players. if it is too easy for them, then its mainly the DMs fault. 5E isn't too easy. 3.5 was though. this is why i like 5e. its a cool mix of things.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Feb 5, 2017 14:05:42 GMT
i hate people the word waste though... if you liked it and enjoyed it, then the time is never wasted ! 8)
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 30, 2017 21:41:32 GMT
it will be hard for you to overcome AJ monster Ecology vids. they are so detailed. though i wish he had better audio in his vids.
as for yours, its cool keep going some good info in there !
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 30, 2017 21:29:51 GMT
no you are not, days of the tentacle is awesome !
as for jennifer... this is why i hate realism... most monsters wouldn'T even come close to reality. not considering most monsters do not even exists. again i'm gonna say this much about you... you are way too perfectionnist about your stuff.
the creature is pretty fine as is, and i can tell you... the players wont see it that way if you pop that monster on the table. dont throw it away.
i too think its a mistake to try and make perfection.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 30, 2017 21:24:28 GMT
Syrinscape and Battlebards are apps designed for TTRPG musics and sounds.
otherwise im using just regular windows media playlist for d&d games.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 30, 2017 21:18:25 GMT
OMG Clay face !!!
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 24, 2017 5:12:39 GMT
Oh the fun when players just ignores the rules of engagements ! mine were at least trying to talk the bugbear into not killing gundren. of course the warlock was inside and speaking while telepathically telling other players to prepare for ambush. but when they tryed to get their plan in. a voice from behind a little openned door came out and a drow told the bugbear, they are preparing an ambush. at which point initiatives hapenned. unfortunately for them, the bugbear rolled pretty high on init and they rolled low. so gundren was knocked unconscious and dieing. with two death saves from the blow. a morning star really isn't a good weapon to slash a throat. still they were able to save him, thanks to the healer of the group and a well timed holy word.
must say that, even though i dont like pre made adventures because they feel too much like they are too linear in their stories... i will say the satisfaction and role playing are much better when you actually have a script.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 24, 2017 4:58:39 GMT
There is also D&D Commands which has boxes of minis for armies. like i could get the undead box for like 30$ and thats like 20 or something undeads that would of gotten. has anybody checked those to see if it was worth buying those for larger armies ?
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 23, 2017 11:58:25 GMT
Well i do the same now... but im trying to add more depth by also trying to create some archetype which are basically just swaps of abilities between things. exemple im playing an NPC which is a sorceress but with a cleric domain and a cleric spell list. basically a divine sorceress ! makes for a great healer considering cur wounds with metamagic distant spell. but it doesn't have the versatility of clerics.
in any case 5e is well started now. but seeing the number of unearted arcana betas in the last 3 months... i think they are doing a second PHB for this years book. can't wait to see the artificer and mystic become the new classes.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 21, 2017 13:26:31 GMT
I read all your stuff still... though we do not see eye to eye. i like reading your stories and the prep too. even made me want to do the same and make a thread about my group... but i dont trust my homemade stories too much. but keep going, you got a few readers XD
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Post by DnDPaladin on Jan 16, 2017 18:54:21 GMT
players wont ever see the difference. those who dont know the water thing won't in any cases. i agree with jennifer why create different stuff when just repainting the same stuff is doing the same job.
i like it jennifer !
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