@Zachiel What I've seen successfully is to add effects into the initiative order, including a countdown of their turn duration
@Zachiel If you're using roll20 then tracking per-creature buffs/debuffs/resources/etc is easy to do. If you're doing in person, it's a bit more bookkeeping, but what I've done is label all tokens individually
@KorvinStarmast well, I presume they don't hate each other to the same degree at least? they both have,... other things to worry about now that they didn't back then
but yeah I won't presume to say they love each other now XD
@MikeQ Yeah. I have had some enemies with conditional abilities that trigger in certain conditions and I fear I forgot some. I need a better organization of my character sheets with everything they can do in a turn.
@Zachiel Ah I see. I've definitely written here (in chat) about writing abridged character sheets for NPCs. Only includes the important info (AC, saves, hp) and usable abilities. Leaves out all the passive-effect feats and features.
I don't know those rules specifically, but I do know that Pathfinder leans toward information overload, and simplifying the information for yourself can make the game easier to manage
e.g. In combat, it doesn't really matter whether Goblin Fighter #3 has Weapon Focus, Toughness, Dodge, etc. Instead just specify their attacks, hp, and AC.
Organize the stat sheet by active abilities (attacks, spells, etc), triggered abilities (auras, etc), and passive stats (hp, AC, saves, etc)
I'd also suggest simplifying NPCs when you have many of the same type
like an encounter with 6 alchemist NPCs, that's going to be a huge pain tracking their bombs, extracts, and so on. So instead I simplify that each resource is usable once, or at will. And that's it.
Things I think I missed last fight: a conditional +4 AC (Mobility), a penalty to hit and saves if not near to someone (I factored a +1 bonus in the main stats figuring that they wuol have been able to dash to their place, but the players forced the encounter in corridors and used smoke bombs so they couldn't get in place)
Maybe I should have each enemy use his own file
Instead of scrolling up and down the same txt looking for people
@Joshua of course, if you want a city wiped from the map completely -- hard to beat a Naglfar in siege for that job. (also known as an orbiting delivery vehicle for production lot quantities of thermonuclear warheads)
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, blacklisted website in body, body starts with title and ends in url, pattern-matching website in body, potentially bad asn for hostname in body, +3 more (493): of people had been by Diqzvism on rpg.SE (@doppelgreener)
@PremierBromanov A diff tool would be great for the books, particularly because there were at least a few changes to the corebooks that aren't noted in the errata (such as Action Surge being changed to remove the confusing wording about bonus actions that made people think it meant the opposite of what it actually did), and a few changes noted in errata (the wording in the errata changed, at least) but not marked as new.
Even the D&D Beyond staff were initially confused about some of the changes (e.g. the new errata changed the wording of the monk's Deflect Missiles, but the errata no longer mentions the range). I think that (as I suggested to them) they just went through and checked against the new books.
Skipping the personal reasons, I think the person is basing this on a certain problem player style and then overgeneralizing it
Basically, if the player is being disruptive and wacky because they're bored, then that's a problem with the player and the game. Really has nothing to do with the character.
Shouldn't discourage players from opting for quirky, unhinged characters, especially in fantasy worlds where most gameplay involves murdering stuff, and most storylines boil down to "wizard shenanigans"
> It is hard for people to get into a game and feel comfortable, either because it is their first time ever or their first time at a particular table, or whatever.
^ this?
The plots and settings in many fantasy TTRPGs are often hard to take seriously in the first place. If the point of the game is to have fun, then it seems... unintuitive, maybe, to expect participants to be serious
Framing the game's setting is a big part of communicating expectations
If someone tells me the game will feature 7 foot tall lizardpeople in wizard hats who can shoot lightning and turn people into sheep, then I will not expect it to be a serious game
Sometimes I've seen DMs try to make the game more "serious" by injecting it with 30cc of grimdark tropes, but too late after the fantastical silliness attitude has set in
But a group being willing to revisit their assumptions and recalibrate the game mid-campaign is, I think, most important.
Trying to go grimdark to "fix" levity is... a bad fix, partly because it completely misunderstands the relationship between seriousness and grimness, but mostly because it's one person trying to steer many people without getting their buy-in.
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(I just read an article about Cleverman which gives some good insight into "serious" vs "grim" by comparing the stakes and issues in Cleverman to the stakes and issues in Snyder's DCU.)
Tonight I made a pesto with scarlet frills (a kind of mustard green), walnuts, sunflower seeds, garlic, parmesan, grapeseed oil, and a bit of salt and pepper.
@kviiri I wish Nightmares of Mine were easier to find, because I think it's extremely useful for anybody interested in understanding how to facilitate RPG tone of any kind.
Talks about how it's easier to break tone than to maintain it, and easier to maintain it than to restore it.
