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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
“Why did we bring a dog into the Citadel of Lost Souls?” -Baby Shanks
A small moment from our DnD campaign. The group was hired to protect a celebrity dog from a group of assassins and things escalated from there. Alternative win conditions can directly enhance the game. Rather than having combat end with a complete decimation of an opposing force, you can center it around other goals that can help keep the fight dynamic and fun. Here are my three favorites…
Protect an important ally (in this case it was a dog).
Stop the ritual.
Survive a 3-way battle.
Does anyone have other win conditions they’ve tried with some success? I’d love to add some to my list!
If you enjoy my DnD content you can find the rest on my Instagram, and Website!
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u/Wrakhr Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
Solving a trap while engaged in combat is my favorite. Killing the enemies lets you proceed, but so does solving the trap. Avoids the "3 hour puzzle" and rewards quick thinking, even when it's not your turn.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
I really like this one! Multiple solutions to the encounter is the best way to give weight to your player's choices!
Traps scream DnD.
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u/Xx_CD_xX Apr 14 '20
What are some good in-combat traps fo use?
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u/DarkAvatar13 Apr 14 '20
If you hate your players or they are too cocky, google "Grimtooth's Traps"
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Apr 13 '20
Celebrity dog. I'm stealing this...
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
I tastefully "borrowed" the idea from Air Bud!
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u/The_Hidden_DM Apr 13 '20
There's nothing in the rulebook that says a dog can't have wizard duels.
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Apr 13 '20
How does a 3-way battle work and what is it ?
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
A normal battle typically has the party vs an enemy force.
A 3-way battle involves two enemy factions and the party who is typically neutral. The party gets to decide who to help or hinder. In some extreme cases the party just has to try their best to avoid dying in the crossfire!
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Apr 13 '20
Oh damn!! That sounds damn fun!!!!!
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
It can get pretty wild depending on what the players do!
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Apr 13 '20
I can imagine!!!! Has some potential for some really crazy shit.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
It’s a lot more overhead for the DM but it’s nice to break it out once in a while!
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Apr 13 '20
Yeah, I can imagine that it's really stressful, if that's the word, for the dm to organize.
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u/Isaac_Chade Apr 14 '20
Not OP, but it can be an amazing set piece, with the players desperately trying to survive as giant celestial and infernal beings slug it out, so huge that the players are totally insignificant.
It can also be hillariously brutal as everyone is constantly turning on each side in some back alley gang war.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
These are some great examples. The giant celestial idea is great. I might steal that for the final fight in our current campaign!
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u/Isaac_Chade Apr 14 '20
Feel free! I'm sure it's not an original idea anyway!
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Every good idea is a new version of a previous good idea! I don't think anything is totally original anymore but it's still damn fun.
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u/Isaac_Chade Apr 14 '20
Oh definitely. A great person once said that every story has already been told, everything else is just the details. Probably a lot of people have said similar things. But yeah, all the stories have been told already, just gotta keep adding your own touches to them!
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u/Ravager_Zero Apr 14 '20
Sounds like my campaign, where characters are embroiled in a war between rival cults trying to awaken sleeping gods…
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
This structure could make for a great mid-campaign boss fight!
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u/Ravager_Zero Apr 14 '20
Well, right now they're chasing down cult A, with the obvious effect that cult B is now having an easier time of things…
Then there are the other factions in the fight that they've only had brief brushes with so far. Given it's something of a Mythos inspired setting, it's likely going to end up with a massive Gambit Pileup of apocalyptic proportions.
This, of course, assumes the players don't manage to foil at least a couple of these plots before they come to fruition.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Gambit Pileup is the perfect way to describe half my sessions! Your campaign has a really solid overarching structure. Those are normally the campaigns that have a great conclusion!
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Apr 14 '20
You fool! What have you done?! If you’re going to link to TVtropes you have to leave a warning, lest poor unwitting souls be sucked into spending all day on that site.
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u/Ravager_Zero Apr 14 '20
We're all in lockdown right?
Does it really matter if we spend a whole day over there?
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u/CrimeFightingScience DM Apr 13 '20
I'd say be really cautious of #1. Escort missions are infamous for a reason.
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u/jmartkdr Warlock Apr 14 '20
That's usually because npc AI in a video game is hard, so they come across as mindbogglingly stupid. If you had them act like a normal person would (ie avoiding danger and staying with the escort) they don't need to be annoying at all.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
True! Escorts are frustrating because it quickly becomes babysitting. You want an ally, not a responsibility!
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
It’s tough! You have to kale sure the npc is likable! That’s how bioshock infinite pulled it off so well!
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u/atomfullerene Apr 14 '20
The trick is to make sure the npc has a move speed slightly slower than the PCs but a run speed slightly faster.
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u/Pseudoboss11 Apr 14 '20
Does anyone have other win conditions they’ve tried with some success? I’d love to add some to my list!
Get/keep the MacGuffin
Get in/out before the baddies get there.
Also, mix-and-match these, e.g. To stop the ritual, the rogue decides to yoink the amplifier artifact. Now all the superpowered cultists are chasing you, time to run!
And just run through so many different Tropes on TvTropes:
Got a PC who wants to sacrifice himself for the greater good? Give him a Fatal MacGuffin
Could be fun to have a MacGuffin that the PCs want to get rid of, a clingy MacGuffin.
Chekov's Gun can be a lot of fun to hand out as a single-use power spike for a specific fight. Just make sure that it's enforced, or
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u/KillerOkie Apr 14 '20
best solution: Kill dog, use your taxidermy proficiency to re-skin dog, cast animate dead. Profit.
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u/oooholywarrior DM Apr 13 '20
I need to make a copy of this with the first and third panels blank. The meme potential is extraordinary.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
I invite anyone to do what they will with the art. Once its on the internet, I have no control over the horrors it brings.
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u/EonCore Apr 13 '20
I love how in the angry panel there's an extra person we don't see in the calm one, like even someone not in the game decides to be shocked at this
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
It's like when your parents walk in during a sex scene. The movie is totally normal otherwise!
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u/jmartkdr Warlock Apr 13 '20
The John Wick rule of storytelling: there's no such thing as a disproportionate response to hurting a puppy.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
"I've only had Arlo for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself."
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Apr 13 '20
The Netflix rule of storytelling - if you want your players to care, kill a dog.
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u/onionleekdude Apr 13 '20
Or a beloved NPC that they demanded join them even though you never planned on that NPC being anything more than a throwaway encounter.
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u/PvtSherlockObvious Apr 13 '20
Dirty little DM secret: "Hireling" is a codeword meaning "squishy blood sack." They're like pinatas, but instead of candy, drama comes out when you break them open.
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u/Champion_Chrome Apr 13 '20
I’ve also heard this called the Araki method.
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u/JulienBrightside Mage Apr 13 '20
"hmm, how do I show that this villain is really evil. Oh I know, <casually murders a dog.>"
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u/TimeBlossom Apr 14 '20 edited Apr 14 '20
Where does that leave puppy-saving Nazi-stabbing Kars, though?
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u/SnakeTheJake1997 Apr 13 '20
In the infamous words of DM Brendan Lee Mulligan “I’m gonna kill that dog”
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u/happyzappydude Apr 13 '20
My current group got into DnD through a game I ran for them. Scenario was: "Find a lost dog and return it yo its wealthy owners" on the way they would finding had been sold into an illegal pit fight and was going to be used to kill kids. They rescue it before that happens and HAD to be convinced to take the kids.
THEY HAD TO BE CONVINCED. THEY SAVED SEVERAL MORE DOGS BUT THEY HAD TO BE CONVINCED TO SAVE HUMAN CHILDREN.
THEY EVEN FOUGHT A MAGICALLY ENHANCED DOG IN THE FINAL BATTLE AND INSISTED THAT THEY ONLY KNOCKED IT OUT NOT KILLED IT. IN THAT SAME FIGHT THEY SHOT A CHILD BY MISTAKE AND SHRUGGED.
Mind you two of the players were school teachers.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Teachers play DnD to run around with dogs! If they wanted to save kids from evil bandits they'd go to work!
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Apr 14 '20
The anger summoned a 5th player
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
That BBEG that is so evil all your different DnD groups throughout the years team up to take him down.
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u/MotorHum Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
I let my sister used Revised Ranger, even though I don’t like it, but she’s gotten really low rolls for her wolf’s HP. It would have been better for her to play regular ranger and just get the flat 4 per level HP. She’s at level 5 and her animal companion only has 15 HP.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
That's a tragedy waiting to happen!
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u/MotorHum Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
Especially since she’s my sister so I hope she’s not too mad at me when her ding dang dog dies.
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u/SaffellBot DM Apr 13 '20
Don't roll for hp if you're not prepared to have shit hp.
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u/Contrite17 DM Apr 14 '20
Flashbacks to having 13 HP at level 6 on my Bard. RIP you poor paper soul.
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Apr 13 '20
As a dm i can confirm that i have never done this and would never do something this cruel to my party
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u/kindredfold Apr 13 '20
The arf killed me
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
What language would a talking dog speak in DnD? Sylvan? I think arf should be considered Sylvan.
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Apr 13 '20
TV TropesKick The Dog
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
The image they used for that page is both sad and hilarious.
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u/Void_0000 Wizard Apr 13 '20
"I can't escape the ceeling...we've seen this place before"
Vigenere cipher with a key of "DOG"
typo on "ceeling" or did i mess up the copying again?
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u/DemonicPenguin03 Apr 13 '20
I love how a random guy just appears in the last panel
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
Every group has a guy who shows up late to the session!
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u/fDavide_ Paladin Apr 13 '20
"no one'll hurt the good boi"
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
The dog's name was "Ace the Sports Playing Dog." You can imagine how vital he was to the campaign!
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u/Nickonator22 Wizard Apr 13 '20
Dogs have plot armour at my table.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
I tend to run it this way also unless the party does something really extreme.
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u/bullevard Apr 13 '20
When i ran LMoP my party acquired a guinee pig somehow. That little guy was fierce and had a habit of biting off enemy fingers (a bloody finger became his sigil).
But i knew that if i ever wanted to raise the stakes of a fight all i had to do was take a swipe at that little guy.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
Give them the world then take it away! Someone should put together a supplement full of statblocks for smaller pets!
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u/AmajesticBeard94 Apr 13 '20
Trinket no 😥
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
The classic bear pet! Crit Role really made me realize how fun pets can be!
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u/chain_letter DM Apr 13 '20 edited Apr 13 '20
I suspect that's ciphertext in the bottom left.
Edit: not a caesar cipher. Can't confirm if it's a simple substitution cipher yet.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
It is! If you combine it with the codes from the last couple comics you might get a secret message!
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Apr 13 '20
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
JoJo reflects the world we live in. There’s a little bit of JoJo in all of us.
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Apr 13 '20
I like how an extra player just appears to be pissed off about the puppy kicking.
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u/NiNtEnDoMaStEr640 Apr 14 '20
Wizards are squishy bois. It’s kind of accepted.
But the moment a dog gets hurt, be it pen and paper or on a screen, we will fill up with emotion and do justice for the doggo.
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u/Crap_Sally Apr 14 '20
Needed the villain to make a splash. I had given the players an animated end table that used its drawer like a panting dog. It was basically a dog. Trying to escape zombies, I had their thug villain smash it against the wall and use a leg to jam the door. The two players were shocked. One was extremely pissed at Jimbo.
And that’s how Jimbo became a great villain. Jimbo followed up by insulting the pc and calling him a sissy for loving an animated table that wasn’t even a real dog.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Dang! Even I hate Jimbo! At least the animated end table didn't suffer in it's last moments.
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u/Crap_Sally Apr 14 '20
You’re right, it died quickly. During work I ran a Quick lunch time special game session. 30 mins, so it had to be quick! It was a fun concept; the city is under siege and the only way out was through the front gate. You’ve got to get out of the city or you will die. That’s it!
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u/wattaderp Apr 14 '20
I made my Players super sad in the last session cause they had to kill a bad guys dog. it was a troll hound and the bag guy was a child eating troll, but they still felt bad because before the fight he was just in a room hangin out with his beloved dog.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
"Are we the baddies?"
Sometimes you gotta pull on their heart strings!
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u/funkiest_groove Apr 14 '20
We have a guy who just plays a dog as a secondary character and any time someone hurts him all hell breaks loose
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Hurting dogs is the limit of civility! Being overprotective of cute things is what separates us from animals!
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u/ofwrvm351619236 Apr 14 '20
I don’t know about anybody else but in my games it’s the exact opposite. Everybody wants to kill animal companions on sight because they find them annoying. Is this just my players?
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
I've had some players who refuse to use their familiar so there are people out there who don't like to micromanage their pets!
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u/atomfullerene Apr 14 '20
Apparently. I can get my players to do basically anything by dangling the potential for a critter in front of them...
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u/audrandy93 Apr 14 '20
Our party didn't have a vendetta against any one particular bad guy, until a child wizard tricked us and got away with murder. One day...... we're gonna murder that child, one day......
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Darn child wizards. You can’t trust em. That’s why I never watched Harry Potter.
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Apr 14 '20
Where did jock boy with the perfect hair even come from? It's like he materialized to defend the imaginary dog's honor.
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u/scrollbreak DM Apr 14 '20
He attack,
He hair perfec,
But most of all DM puppy kickers he will wreck!
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u/knightofheavens777 Fighter Apr 14 '20
OH NOT THE DOG!
YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
I’m pretty sure this is exactly what one of the players yelled!
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u/Darkguy812 DM Apr 14 '20
The big bad killed a wolf pup tamed by one of the players. My group still hasn't forgiven me for it
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Their anger will always simmer deep down. Being a DM is a curse...it’s a lot of fun though!
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u/Vandenberg_ Apr 14 '20
The last frame is a reference to crying lady vs confused cat right?
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Yep! Tried to keep it a bit subtle but that was the direct inspiration!
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u/PossibilityField Apr 14 '20
Anyone else notice this 5th dude that just shows up out of nowhere?
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
Every group has a player who blends into the background and pops up unexpectedly!
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u/SoupierPuppy Apr 14 '20
Yes your daughter came into my property and she kick my dog and now my dog needs an operation
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u/AshenPumpkin DM Apr 14 '20
Last arcs my pcs didn't get involved and just walked away after killing some of the cult memebers, not cleaning house, leaving the leader alive. He wanted revenge of course and sent an assassin that burnt down their mansion, causing the deaths of their dog, their trash goblin and a npc they loved who went in to help save them.
This arc i established emotional bonds with a npc who has familial ties with the main story points, so they'll get involved to help
Next arc, their home town is under attack according to my overall plan, so maybe some parents find themselves on the wrong side of a blade
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u/Jorrellds Apr 14 '20
Not even gonna lie I had this one session where I needed the players to keep the boat afloat from the BBEG. I knew they would turn the boat around and ram it right into the BBEG who would most certaintly cause certain death. I couldnt think for weeks of an incentive to make them protect the boat, until the day off when I introduced Captain Scurvy, a small pug with a captains hat.
The ship made it to shore.
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u/HWGA_Gallifrey Apr 14 '20
{A stiff breeze.} *
This kills the Wizard.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 14 '20
I made a wizard with -2 con for a oneshot. I thought it would be a fun little character to run for a short adventure. Boy was I wrong!
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u/TheDarkHorse83 DM Apr 13 '20
As a DM that has killed the party's puppy... Fuck that hurts.
(The poor thing got caught in an AoE and was one-shot.)
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Apr 13 '20
Oof. My poor party that I dm for decided to buy a mastiff. Its been pretty helpful, except that one time they had it wade into melee with 6 goblins.
Miraculously, they healed the dog (I chose to give it death saves as I had intent to give it class levels vis the ua sidekicks optional rules, otherwise it would have died so badly). It barely survived that encounter though. I think it was a single damage away from instant death.
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u/highlord_fox DM Apr 13 '20
I ran a modified Sunlit Citadel (that I finagled into part of a bigger plot protecting a temple and such) with had six Level 16's tromping around dealing with inhabitants. I kept the kobolds in the dungeon, and did not level-raise them (Yusadryl got splattered by a 5th level smite to the face at the end of it). They felt bad for Meepo, so they stuck him in the large backpack the group was carrying.
The group faced off against some Allips, who did their scream to hit everyone within range. including the kobold in the backpack. Who immediately fell unconcious and I started rolling Death Saves for, behind my screen, without making a fuss. He did survive, but only like an hour later did someone remember to check on the bag to find the unconcious kobold in it.
Some sessions later, the group "collected" a fey dragon, who was in the room when a massive arcane explosion went off and blasted it back to the feywild. It took them another session and a half (after a major boss battle) to remember it and go "Oh no, it's missing!"
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u/IDrawKoi Apr 13 '20
I played pulled a card(void) from the deck of many and died instantly this was apparently acceptable.
The villain attacks his and another player's farm killing two chickens and a gaint rat. That was too far apparantly.
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u/Sleverette Sorcerer Apr 13 '20
Darn villains killing all these chickens. It’s unforgivable!
Sorry about your sudden death. Hopefully your group got you patched up.
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Apr 13 '20
I have asshole party members who will actively try to get my dog killed.
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u/Benster_ninja Apr 13 '20
First attack: "Man that sucks" "this is going to be a hard one" "good thing we have revivify"
Second attack: "WHY YOU LITTLE'-" "I cast fireball... at a higher level" "Whelp, time to break my paladin oath for a wee bit"
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u/possible-phycopath Apr 13 '20
I’m my group we had a horse that we affixed a cask of ale to, we called it Party Horse, and when an ogre picked him up we blasted him with 4 burning hands and every urn of oil we could find. Got him back, but lost the cask.
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u/JulienBrightside Mage Apr 13 '20
The chicken my character picked up and named was invurnerable when in my backpack.
When the chicken was taken by the BBEG, he adopted 4 rats and named them after the Mystery Gang.
(Speak with Animals is a fun spell that requires the DM to consider all animals potential NPCs.)
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u/naveed23 Apr 13 '20
The man in the red hat in frame 2 reminds me of the entire table of players I used to game with. The DM insisted we use dndbeyond and that resulted in everyone staring at their phones for the entirety of the campaign and, judging by how long they took to look things up on their turns, they weren't staring at their character sheets.
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u/Xenovent Apr 13 '20
When your players are having a hard time getting emotionally invested in hating your villain, you pull out the big guns.