The D&D thread

So this year's Halloween event was fun. It ended up with way more Young Frankenstein references then I anticipated. Which was welcomed lol. One of my friends was sitting there yelling "put the candle back". And it all ended with a blue dracolich that was being used for its electrical magic affinity trying to kill us.

And some quick backstory. Long time ago my friend who plays a dwarf warlord got a hammer we made called the crazy hammer named after his clan the crazy hammers. It's pretty much just Wulfgars returning warhammer. But now he's built his char around throwing and hammers. So I had the dracich kill him but the hammer which is sentient took the blow to save him. and sacrificed itself. So about 20min go by and I have the hammer come back as like this sonic boom from the sky. So I had it absorb the lightning attack and is now the hammer of thunderbolts. So now he's sorta thor lol

Rajaah said:

I have a ton of the manuals and modules from the first edition way back in the day. As a kid I found a huge pile of them in a corner of a dusty moldy basement in an apartment complex, abandoned by somebody. I'm betting they're worth a lot now, it's like a two-foot high stack of books and modules.

Don't have anything after first edition. Have always been curious to get ahold of later Monster Manuals and see what's different, but I haven't done that.

I did stumble across Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes today and looked through it. Wow, a lot is different. The part of old-school D&D that interested me most was always the Nine Hells / Abyss and the Devils / Demons that inhabit them respectively. Looking at the tome today, apparently they had a huge war with each other, which is the kind of thing I would plot out as a kid. Half the Hell rulers are women now and there's a highlighted notation on how Devils do not conform to human ideas about gender, which uses the term "assigned gender". So I see D&D has been slightly infected by SocJus. It isn't enough to bother me and hell, back in the day more of the Hell rulers should have been women already. Glasya is bad-ass.

Looks like Beelzebub finally tried his uprising against Asmodeus and got smacked down, losing one of his two planes. Mephistopheles, on the other hand, the one I EXPECTED to do an uprising, has instead been chilling and researching and laying low this entire time.

Tiamat is no longer the "ruler" of Avernus, but still resides there. We're actually two rulers later now: Bel the Pit Fiend took over, then was knocked down a notch by Zariel the fallen angel.

I haven't gotten to the Demons part yet, but it looks like Baphomet has replaced Demogorgon as the strongest Demon, possibly. Demogorgon is still around, just second-fiddle. I think.

Just reporting in as somebody who hasn't followed The Plot in ages and is getting up to speed.

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Yeah, I just toss all that horseshit out and run a 2nd edition world with 5e rules. My players love it.

Rajaah said:

I have a ton of the manuals and modules from the first edition way back in the day. I'm betting they're worth a lot now, it's like a two-foot high stack of books and modules.

Tiamat is no longer the "ruler" of Avernus, but still resides there.

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It depends on what it is. Some of the old content isn't nearly as valuable as I would have expected it to be, but you're correct that some of the old stuff is quite valuable. The condition, like most collectibles, is extremely important. As is the print run. 1st print runs are worth A LOT.

I really thought my 1st edition DMG and PHB were going to be worth at least a few hundred dollars each, but my 5th or 6th print-run books can easily be found for less than $100.

On average, 3rd edition books are the most valuable. Probably because they're peak in terms of quality. I have almost every book from 3rd edition and I still regularly consult them. Some of them are absolutely timeless, like the Draconomicon.

As to the lore:

Yep, a lot has changed, but you've pretty much got a handle on the 'modern' era. It's sad and funny that Tiamat isn't much more than a glorified guard dog these days.

DirkDonkeyroot said:

Yeah, I just toss all that horseshit out and run a 2nd edition world with 5e rules. My players love it.

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Pretty much this.

The timeline for the campaign I'm running now is 1495 DR, which is current for 5e content. However, I don't really think it makes a bit of difference to my players. None of them are particularly familiar (or likely care) about the year/era. It's mostly for my enjoyment of the game.

However, to be fair, I've deviated a bit from traditional Forgotten Realms lore and labeled the current era the "Age of Discovery" where many aspects of the so-called "Forgotten Realms" are being discovered.

The party found three ways to tackle the main quest and unlocked something else entirely and way out of the way by doing something creative enough to think worth investigating, and the party balked. After awhile I summarized options and still no decision. Then I assigned them numbers and rolled a d4. During that, a player who was quiet the whole time passes the DM note. His tabaxi was no longer with us. He snuck off to one of the destinations and unlocked dialogue without us there.
Another person went to the market.. yes. This person later declares that he's rolling for insight during a fight. Oh?! Did he find a cool way to join us? No, he wanted a discount on Rings of Warming...
Two of the ladies babbled, one received a text and left early.
And me and mine took the train which incidentally took us to where the tabaxi ran off to.

The fight was cool and all, but f these players lol

slippery said:

This is what has kept me from playing D&D more over the years, not wanting to go through the trouble to find a good group

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Jesus Christ, yes.

The hardest part of playing D&D is finding a group of people that get along, aren't idiots, and show up every week.

As a DM, it's relatively easy to fill up a group, but I find filtering through the trash/flaky people to create a stable group, incredibly exhausting.

Exhausting enough that I occasionally allow players, that annoy the absolute fuck out of me, to keep playing if they get along with the other people at the table.

However, I have had players that make me dread every coming session. And their shitfuck attitudes have even had me considering quitting the campaign entirely, but rather than punish the other players, I just remove the individual prick and carry on.

Another is staging.
My place is clean, but they make it dirty
Their place is already dirty.
(another place is too small, another in another state {boggles me they drive almost 2hrs to play}, two others have uncool roommates)

anyway.
I'm playing Blood Hunter in Barovia and the class is wonky but fun. I house ruled some things to make it more streamlined.

Grabbit Allworth said:

Jesus Christ, yes.

The hardest part of playing D&D is finding a group of people that get along, aren't idiots, and show up every week.

As a DM, it's relatively easy to fill up a group, but I find filtering through the trash people to create a stable group, incredibly exhausting.

Exhausting enough that I occasionally allow players, that annoy the absolute fuck out of me, to keep playing if they get along with the other people at the table.

However, I have had players that make me dread every coming session and their shitfuck attitudes have even had me considering quitting the campaign entirely, but rather than punish the other players, I just remove the prick and carry on.

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Thinking about the worst of it, I reached out to some gamer friends to see if they played. The one that did said their group hadn't missed a Monday session for the past 9 years - their characters were in their lvl50s they said - blew my mind; was like, do some of ya'll want to play Fridays? lol

Conefed said:

Another is staging.
My place is clean, but they make it dirty
Their place is already dirty.
(another place is too small, another in another state {boggles me they drive almost 2hrs to play}, two others have uncool roommates)

anyway.
I'm playing Blood Hunter in Barovia and the class is wonky but fun. I house ruled some things to make it more streamlined.

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I can see staging as an issue for some folks, but I've almost always played at my house so I don't have to deal with a lack of room or dirty space.

Fortunately, I've never had anyone mess my house up during a session. Though, I have had a million spilled drinks. A few of which have ruined a few books, but nothing else.

As far as driving 2 hours to play -- Wow. That's some dedication. The players must truly love D&D and/or the campaign is really good. If I were the DM of that game, I'd be flattered but I'd also feel a lot of pressure to make every session perfect.

I've been thinking of a travel method:

City is 5 checks away
The Mountains are only 1 check away and then 2 checks from there to the City
Town is 2 checks away

Where do you choose?
Then choose player at random to roll vs. survival, nature, perception, etc.
Do that a number of times equal to the number of checks away a location is.

Each check is a potential mini encounter

Pathfinder... weird question but when you're googling for a quick rule or answer, is there an abbreviation for Pathfinder? or pathfinder 2e?
Do you search "flat footed AC pathfinder" or is there something else I'm missing.
Meaning DnD I typically do "spell cost 5e" or whatever 5e or 3.5 and get what I need. Pathfinder i typically type out pathfinder but get weird results.

Dashel said:

Pathfinder... weird question but when you're googling for a quick rule or answer, is there an abbreviation for Pathfinder? or pathfinder 2e?
Do you search "flat footed AC pathfinder" or is there something else I'm missing.
Meaning DnD I typically do "spell cost 5e" or whatever 5e or 3.5 and get what I need. Pathfinder i typically type out pathfinder but get weird results.

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Just use this website. Otherwise, as you say, just type in "flat footed AC Pathfinder" and the one that has d20pfsrd is the site you want to look for it.


Then you scroll down to flat footed.

So one of my players asked me to do a one off Christmas adventure. I've never done a Christmas d&d before. And I was also asked to include krampus in it lol. So now I've got to think up some not the usual Christmas shenanigans. Oh and a few Christmas themed items as well.

bigmark268 said:

So one of my players asked me to do a one off Christmas adventure. I've never done a Christmas d&d before. And I was also asked to include krampus in it lol. So now I've got to think up some not the usual Christmas shenanigans. Oh and a few Christmas themed items as well.

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Steal the plot to jingle all the way just replace the toy with a powerful artifact, you play sin bad as the main powerful
antagonist. Then you have to team up to defeat Krampus who wields said artifact.

something like a weather control device that creates eternal winter or go cheezy and make it cursed artifact, you gaze upon it and want it but once you hold it you only think it does something cool. Basically it inspires greedy and capitalism instead of true Christmas spirit charlie brown style.

Or go dark and make Krampus kidnapping and murdering children, read the room on that one though as many don’t handle that kind of thing well.
Can be part of a mob that “knows” it is the witch in the forest and yall murder her even though she or the small group of them is innocent but before they die the release Krampus upon the region as payback.

spoiler it was the unsuspecting local baker, butcher, sheriff, or mayor etc the whole time.

Nothing says Christmas like murdered children.

Old man loves the children. Child disappears no fault of his. Town kills the man during Xmas/Winter Festival. He comes back as Krampus. Deep down he still loves the kids so to punish the town he steals children and sticks them in ornaments. He's close to them and people are punished.

Mission can be discovering what truly happened to the original missing child. Showing the towns people how they fucked up. Finding a link between which kids are missing based on the poeple who killed the old man. Convincing Krampus to return the children. This is the nicer version if you want it darker just go wild.

bigmark268 said:

So one of my players asked me to do a one off Christmas adventure. I've never done a Christmas d&d before. And I was also asked to include krampus in it lol. So now I've got to think up some not the usual Christmas shenanigans. Oh and a few Christmas themed items as well.

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I did this last year. Pc's hunted got a tip on the location of an item they wanted, followed a map to a giant house arrived into the side of a mountain. 10 foot cyclops named "Koolken" yells at them from the attic window to go away. When the Pc's try and get in... its Home Alone time! (inspired/stolen from a d&d podcast)


Here's a spattering of notes I had-

Things Koolken yells -
“This is my house. I have to defend it.”
“Keep the change, ya filthy animal.”
“You guys give up? Or are you thirsty for more?”
“Oh no, I’m really scared!”

List of traps-

Hurled Bricks- +10 to hit 1d6+5 damage
Hot door handle - 1d8 + 2 damage
Crossbow in mail slot - 2d6 damage
Alchemist fire above door - 1d6+3 and ongoing 1d4

Koolken has blow darts, +8 to hit, 1d4+1 damage
Base of Stairs is sticky - DC 18 str to move through each square.
Buckets of copper (keep the change) - +10, advantage if someone stuck, 2d10+5 damage
Stairs are greezed, dc 18 Dex to climb, 1d6+2 falling damage
Caltrops at top of stairs - 1d4+1 per 5 feet

Dining room has tar and feather trap - dc 15 to avoid or embarrassing and disadvantage to perception

Kitchen door electric - 2d10 +5 damage
Trip wire at top of stairs - dc 15 perception or fail
Ball bearings on basement floor - dc 12 dex to not slip per 5 feet
Evil Furnace shoots flames dc 16 dex save or 8d6 damage, half on save
Drops large iron down chute - dc 15 dex to avoid or 2d10+5 damage

Giant tarantula in upstairs bedroom

Door handle to attic triggers cart to come crashing down, 2d10+5 damage

I sat the house up with a dumbwaiter he could travel in, plus secret doors, as well as giving him some teleport ability (I want to say he would swap places with a Pc, getting away and placing them in more danger, but its been a while). Basically, I made him tough and hard to pin down, while making the 2 story, plus basement and attic, house hard for the PC's to navigate and full of traps.

When the PC's finally cornered him and he was basically toast, the ground started rumbling as a dozen 10-20+ foot cyclops arrived outside, shouting "Koolken, can you ever forgive us!? We were already at the Bloodpits before we saw that we had forgotten you, we're all so sorry!" at which point he looked at the PC's and shouted back that he was fine, and that his new friends had been keeping him company. Koolkens father ended up giving the PC's the item they wanted for keeping his son safe and happy, and the PC's ended up staying for a big holiday feast and party with the whole family.

I think it went really well, PC's cracked up and loved it, and you could easily swap it out to be a family of devils (Son of Krampus maybe?) or whatever to fit your world/story.