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So I heard you guys like D&D
My DM just sent me the following great tactic for use in a D&D campaign: the Peasant Railgun. What do you think about it? Any other impressive tactics that you know about (whether also available on the 1d4chan wiki or otherwise)?
Interesting, but no DM I've ever played with would let that through.
I thought you might like an anecdote from the last campaign I played in (4th edition).
I had a tiefling wizard, who was fairly skilled at illusion magic. I had a familiar which could exist up to 1 mile away from me, and my character also had a fixation with bears, so I had a spell that let me assume the form (sights/sounds/smells) of a bear by default, though I had no bear actual abilities like claws or teeth. (I based it around my character's written backstory)
The party enters a town, where we are confronted by at least 10 guards, all with orders to bring us to the king. The rest of the party is ready to go see the king, but I need more, and balk at following the guards' so easily. I eventually used deep speech on one the guards (in frustration, no idea why I tried it), which spooked them.
The shit hit the fan when I cast an illusion spell that made 3 copies of me that they couldn't kill for the next hour, which by default made me also go invisible. Then my familiar (who was still outside the city) and I switched locations.
Freaked out townspeople, 3 rampaging bears who cannot be killed (but who do no actual damage either), and me, gone.
The party was screwed.
I, on the other hand, was so out of danger that I could rest and reset my daily abilities, lol. I did so, and went back and broke the party out of the jail they were eventually taken to.
At the end of the night, the DM asked me to leave his game, as he had not anticipated the town fiasco, and had to wing the whole thing, and he did not appreciate me throwing a wrench into the story like that.
I haven't played D&D in a long while. I need to find a campaign here in San Francisco that has a wheelchair accessible location.
As a DM I would love for shenanigans like that to happen more often. Winging it is one of the things a DM needs to be able to do, and being asked to leave a campaign for it sounds a little... sad.
Definitely, the most fun I've had as a DM is when players take the story to an unexpected place. @Bear's DM sounds like they only wanted to have "their" fun and if you don't like that, well, it's just too bad you can't play here. Though, with that kind of attitude @Bear is better off not in that game.
My favourite tactic to give myself some more time if I have no idea anymore is to have a short 5 minute break for the players to refrsh drinks and snacks or go to the toilet. That gives me a bit more space to plan a few possibilities and prevents me from being overwhelmed.
What an absolute tool. A DM who can't come up with something quickly (and has the gall to not appreciate the flavor you brought into the session) shouldn't be DMing. It's not just their story, it's yours too.
Tyil's DM here. I would never let him use it. He just likes to think I would.
[edit because I pressed enter too soon]
An earlier party I played with did have a goblin tinker, though! He was brilliant, and loved explosives. At one point he was riding on the back of our Ranger's bear and wanted to make an explosive.
"Sure, go ahead." I said, and asked him to describe how he would do it.
He went on to tell us how he would take gun powder, pour it into a cloth sack, and light it. "Are you very sure?" I asked the player - which was a clear sign that he might have needed to rethink his strategy. He said yes, with a big smile, and I answered "Boom!"
He went to blow his hand off, and burn the bear badly. While initially it looked bad, it turned out he had wanted an excuse to remove one of his hands anyways, because he wanted to attach his rifle as a prosthetic.
You can use @Amanatil to link to the user's profile. This might also notify the user being linked to in the future, but doesn't yet iirc.
There is an old comic strip called Murphy's Rules that deals with odd implications of rulesets (I think it was in Pyramid).
Never played it, always been fascinated by the concept. Not sure about how I would go about finding a group for it, especially as a beginner.
Hi there.
D&D is really easy to get into. Starting off you don't even need to pay a penny.
Check if your area runs Adventurers League games. That's D&D's official organised play scheme. Many hobby stores and other nerdy hangouts host them. It's arranged so that people can drop in and out of games session-to-session with no commitment, so newbies are encouraged to join.
Alternatively you can get a few friends together and run a game yourself. Again, completely free. All you need to do is watch the first three episodes of Matt Colville's Running the Game series, after which you'll have everything you need to run a session.
If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me them whenever.
-LTADnD
Checking out a hobby store might be my best bet. My friends are not exactly enthusiastic about the idea of playing D&D, I am really the only one in the group that genuinely enjoys playing board games in general. I would love to start one when I am in a far more stable situation, hopefully by then I can find people already interested in joining. Thank you for the tips! In the upcoming weeks I will check out some hobby stores and see what they got going on. If I have any questions I will make sure to ask you, really appreciate the encouragement.
I had a couple people around me who were also interested, so I didn't have much issue finding a group. Since I started, I've been invited to join a couple other campaigns with other friends as well, which I had to turn down due to time constraints. I wonder how someone in your position would go about finding other people to start a campaign with. Joining a group of random people that you don't know doesn't seem like the kind of setting that would be as enjoyable as a group of friends you already know.
Yeah, I have asked around and while my friends don't play it people that I know as acquaintances don't seem that excited for me to join their group because it seems to be a thing close niche friends do. Considering I have not been able to really settle down it doesn't seem to be something I will be able to do for a while yet.
Ah, the infamous Peasant Railgun.
It's based on two flawed assumptions of D&D:
The rules of D&D work for the purposes they're written for but they aren't realistic. There's no reason beyond ease of use and balance that - for instance - surviving a sword hit leaves no lasting wounds, or you can get back to tip-top shape just by sleeping.
As such, the rules don't conform to physics. Likewise, physics - beyond the most base level - shouldn't apply to the rules. Instead D&D should always be played as an inaccurate simulator who's players correct for verisimilitude before either the rules make it unrealistic, or the physics make it unwieldy and unbalanced.
The Peasant Railgun somehow does neither of these things. Its writer arbitrarily went too far in both directions to make a comedic outcome. It is, however, just that and I hope it's never been used in an actual game.
All that being said, there actually is a weapon of mass destruction buildable in game with a lot of effort. [The Arrow of Absolute Destruction]. It is in the spirit of the rules and doesn't stretch any mechanics. It does, however, take a lot of time and resources to craft this one-use 10' Radius nuke.
-LTADnD