Sometimes I feel I should make my own clone of DnD. I like the basic concept of tactical combat and exploration in a fantasy world, but DnD is rather cumbersome and isn't really good at representing all the tropes of heroic fantasy adventuring.
Then again, a lot of sorrowful tales start with "I should make my own clone of DnD"...
@GreySage I think the good ones start like “I should make a clone of D&D, but based on game(s) X, Y and Z which I also know”. But then I'm not a D&D fan to start with, so mixing something else in and giving a tight focus tends to be an improvement in my eyes…
@kviiri What other games in that direction have you looked at and found insufficient?
I'm by no means a DnD fan either, but the game tickles me right in some ways. I found myself surprisingly fond of DnD 5e after I accepted it as a combat-heavy action packed romp instead of trying to force it into a too narrativist framework.
@Anaphory Dungeon World, in terms of heroic fantasy, but it lacks proper tactical combat which I'd like. Savage Worlds has tactical combat, but it tastes rotten to me in other ways.
Torchbearer implicitly encourages no party splits, and while the combat-scripting takes seriously getting used to it, I use it in Mouse Guard and find it decently fast.
@Anaphory I can see the reasoning behind avoiding party splits, and I'm open about disliking party splits to my parties both when GM'ing and playing. But I feel the lack of mechanical support for them is odd, given their prevalence in fantasy fiction.
@kviiri The problem is structural. At the end of the day, no matter what system you are using, you are a bunch of people around a table (or a digital table). Any party split necessitates that at least some of the people around the table are NOT contributing at a given time, which just isn't fun.
@GreySage You could set it up in a way that involves communication capabilities (sending stones?). It doesn't solve the lack of action problem, but it could alllow at least for involvement.
but yeah, party splits are generally very very very long bathroom breaks for those not active.
@GreySage Yeah, I know. That's basically the reasoning. Then again, DnD puts a weirdly minimal amount of effort into actually discouraging party splitting or making them work.
You could handle a party split by ending a session with it, and having two separate game days, one with each sub-party until they finally meet up, at which point you reunite.
@GreySage There's a lot of things that imply party splits. Spells that plane shift only one person, for instance. Good luck not party splitting when one goes ethereal :)
@NautArch Eh. People come to game night to play the game. They don't come to read the DMG. Plus, if they want to rp talking to shopkeepers or just play out the interaction of buying things, they're SOL. Also, they will pick stuff that you don't want them to have.
Probably the worst GM I had was a guy who was fairly clueless about the rules of the game but a very "traditional" guy. No exp for missing players, for instance - and if there was a party split he'd physically split us into two groups to avoid us spoiling each other on what the other half knew.
@kviiri We have some oil of slipperiness, and still haven't found a use for it. One dude said he was going to try to drink it, and we joked about the possible result
Like, either the city has it or it doesn't, and it has a price on it for a reason, give me your list of buying/selling, I give you a list of yes/no and how much gold you get.
@NautArch We figured that if our rogue drank it, he would get uncontrollable diarrhea or some other such thing. I think we might end up spiking somebody's drink with it to see if it has that kind of effect.
Considering how much the DM laughed at that assessment, I think it has a good shot of working
Our party's "general store" is actually a department of the local Heroes' Guild. As such they often get freebies related to their quest at hand... silver weapon against lycanthropes, or wands and potions for extra firepower and staying power.
Now that they're being pestered by a Night Hag, they'll need to ask for something to ward it off.
The Night Hag is something different and new for me: it's an open background quest that keeps pestering the party during their other jobs until they decide to get rid of it.
Luckily their boss/questmaster is familiar with Night Hags (and even this particular individual) so quality exposition can be provided.
@Shalvenay Finished my round-robin campaign in a stretched session that got quite bogged down in memery near the final boss fight. And the final boss rolled very poorly too!
I had received a whaddyacallit letter that you have to pick up at the post office to confirm you received it... from a large law office. I couldn't pick it up that day nor yesterday because Ascension Thursday is a public holiday.
I was spooked that I was being targeted for some legal action and the stress was with me for the whole session. (It turned out to concern only a merger of a company I own shares of)
I'm waiting for one more re-open vote for my question, or feedback about how to improve it, to get it re-opened: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/100133/how-can-i-compare-the-damage-gain-between-bless-and-faerie-fire?noredirect=1#comment237619_100133
esp. now that another user commented that they seem to have an answer
@kviiri yeah, but there are a few gems: with a few bard levels, you get inspiration/cutting words, which don't req concentration; blindness doesn't req conc; neither does command (which can be quickened to trade your bonus action for the enemy's action + debuff)
but.I have to say, Plant Growth seems pretty amazing—great catch!
@Khashir Indeed, Inspiration dice are my main support tool.
I like Bane too, even if it's one of the more boring spells in a sense. And heroism rocks too, at lower levels in particular. Our Bear totem Barbarian gets really impressive staying power from it.
Playing a caster in 5e is weird... levels 1 and 2 are very limited in terms of slots and from level 3 onward they're just plentiful.
@Adam More is always more, but I haven't felt really starved after level 2. I run out occasionally, but I don't feel I run out too soon... if you get what I mean.
The two or three slots at the first two levels leave no room for frivolous spellcasting at all.
@Adam Yeah, might depend heavily on the group. We usually have reasonably short adventuring days... even though I tried making longer days for my sub-campaign.
I like Vicious Mockery too, even if the damage output is shoddy. The attack disadvantage strengthens my idea of my character being an enabler for the rest of the party.
My group has two casters, me (a cleric) and a wizard. The wizard blows through all his spells as quickly as he can, without fail. I try to save mine. Between the two of us, it averages out to a reasonable amount of spells used per encounter. Though if it was just him, we would probably clear two rooms in a dungeon before he ran out.
I'm our party's sole healer for the next sub-campaign, since our Paladin's player is mastering. I need to be a bit more careful about when to use my slots.
Especially since we're also one high-AC tank short too!
Very easy to do, ask yourself one simple question: is a teammate unconscious? - Yes: Cast Healing Word - No: Don't do anything that involves healing people Really things only deviate from that formula when you start getting into mass heals
Creature damage usually outstrips healing potential: meaning that a creature will do more damage faster than you can heal it all back up (Unless you use some really powerful spells). So, usually the best way to minimize the damage your party will take, is just crush your enemies before they have a chance to crush you
re: split parties. It's a lot less of a problem if you're using a low-impact system where actions get resolved quickly and easily.
My parties split up all the time in Fate, Lady Blackbird, Great Ork Gods, etc. Mostly we just keep the same "go around the table and ask each person what they're doing now" structure; nothing says you have to group everybody's action resolution order by in-game location.
