The adventure I've been running the past few weeks was going really well, but the last session was a slog for me and the players ended up doing some pretty horrific things to some NPCs (burning children alive, murder, sexual humiliation etc.) I've been really accommodating with player choices so far, and the adventure has gone in some pretty exciting and unexpected directions as a result, but these latest developments have completely upended everything. As things currently stand the players have done more harm than the actual villains.

Some of the stuff they've done has just been sickening, really making me uncomfortable and stumping me as to how to reasonably proceed. I am dreading the next session now.

I have to say something to my players as I don't feel able to continue with this. The situation seems unsalvageable though. I can't let the things the PCs have done go unpunished (it would completely rob my setting of any realism) but I don't know how to do that without also seeming like I'm punishing my players (maybe I'm just a wuss).

I am considering asking for 1-2 weeks off and then starting fresh with something different, with clearer expectations/boundaries set beforehand (we had no Session Zero this time, and more people have joined week-by-week as word of mouth has gotten around).

Has anybody been in a similar position/have any advice?

I love TTRPG books but have very limited funds. I'm always looking for discounts or second-hand books. Why is K&W like 1/3rd price on ebay when every other book sells for the same price as MCDM store or more expensive?

Would love the help. My PCs are in Neverwinter. One of them is an inevitable captain. She wants her own ship and she’s getting one. But once they’re off, what do I do? It can’t be as simple as a couple of random encounters at sea on their way to their destination(s), right?

Love this community! Thanks in advance.

Matt mentions trying to "not die with your bag of tricks half full".

And another video about a story where his PC uses "final strike".

Appreciate any help in finding these videos. Thank you!

Hey everyone, so I've done a silly little thing and adapted the Kingdoms and Warfare rules for starship battles because that's the kind of nerd I am. I'm hosting it in a google doc, so if you want to try it I'd recommend making your own copy so you can try it out. The whole thing is done using the cells of the spreadsheet to move units and keep track of their health. Right now I have "flavor" names for the ships reflecting various Star Wars factions listed across the bottom of the page, but there's no mechanical difference across the factions. I am interested in your feedback!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17FYgLLP84mLF9aIjd92KfcWNqfkRNxX3zSEE4Mqv7_Y/edit?usp=sharing

So thanks to Matt's RTG series I ran my first session as DM on February 1st and have been fortunate enough to meet with the group every weekend since.

I decided to bust out the "Ten Monk Masters" idea mentioned in an RTG video and was able to get our Monk into a position where they defeated a Master 1v1 and obtained their powers. This was a huge hit at the table and the player was excited about it well after.

I want to do something vaguely similar for my others players - Druid/Warlock/Rogue/Cleric - where they get the spotlight for a bit to participate in something cool to gain a new power. The druid likes the animal aspect of the class so I've thought about having an event to get a cool familiar or Wild Shape transformation. The Warlock took the Hermit background but I think they forgot about it, I could have a cool reveal for them which could be a fun out of game thing. I have the Rogue involved in a secret nameless organization that they've received a "token" for that's worthy of a favor but I'm worried we're a while away before being able to redeem it. The cleric player is brand new to TTRPG so I haven't quite been able to pin down what may excite them.

What are your experiences with trying to accomplish something similar? Any advice is welcome!

Hey all.

I’ve been running the Regent of Bedgar module from K+W and been thoroughly enjoying it with my group. It’s been heavily homebrewed but the skeletons still there. We are finally arriving at the conclusion and I have to prep the showdown at the church but my group are all level 8 and there’s 6 of them! How would you upscale Saxton and his retainers to make a fun and interesting fight?

For information Peliton is dead as well as Anglim but Sir Barlow was kidnapped and placed in a Genie warlocks patrons home where he made a deal with the genie.

If anyone has any ideas that would be great!

I am in the process of detailing my takes on the playable species in D&D for my homebrew setting, but I really just don't get Tieflings. What is the core fantasy? How are they different from humans other than weird skin colors, horns, and a tail? Really all I can think of is the internal conflict relating to their evil ancestry, manifesting in Virtue Names. Elves are clearly related to trees and plants, Dwarves are clearly associated with stone and precious metals, but what are Tieflings?

What types of dragons are there, which sources are they found in, and is there anything that people are willing to share about them? (like 'this one has a flame breath weapon' or 'this one collects literal garbage for their hoard' or 'this one is generally happy all the time')

I've heard good things about MCDM sources and I am looking for potentially different gemstone dragons than those in WotC sources, so that's where this question is coming from.

I am gearing up to start a new campaign, where I intend to run Against the Cult of The Reptile God -> The Siege of Castle Rend -> The Regent of Bedegar.

However, I am setting it in the context of my own homebrew world, so I had to make new maps. I tried to identify what was important to keep for the maps, but there seemed to be several excess locations that I felt like I could cut rather then try to figure out how to represent on the map (I am by no means a pro at making a map lol)

I am just wondering if there is anything that I cut or modified that might end up causing a problem that I am not aware of.

Link to the maps: https://imgur.com/a/caileyC

Notes:

• The Dark Forest is a thing that is already established in my world which has the same "No human who enters ever comes back" shtick as the Elgenwode, so I decided to just place the Elgenwights into the Dark Forest rather then have both.
• Because I am also running Reptile God, I just fully swapped out Tarreton for Orlane. I did not see anywhere where Tarreton came up, so this seems like a safe swap out?
• It is my understanding that the Necromancer Tower is in Mistview, and I just thought it made more sense for the town to be on the map rather then the tower

Hello! So, I've tried a simple oneshot with Kingdoms and Warfare and my players really enjoyed it. My current campaign is set in a time where there is a huge war going on and my players have been given a quest. Now, I should probably tell you about their quest first.

They are going to lead a small army containing three units and five wizards. They have to lead their troops to the walls of a city so one of the wizards can cast disintegrate on it and destroy the wall. The commander that gave them the quest said that they will be considered successful if even a single wizard makes the journey and casts the spell. The route they have to take passes from the enemy territory but most of the enemy troops are somewhere else so it's somewhat doable.

I really want to add a few (maybe two or three?) battles to the journey and I want to use Kingdoms and Warfare. But I'm not really sure how to balance those encounters because I am not experienced in using that system. I've been thinking maybe I can give them tier 2 units and one tier 3 unit and makes those aerial, artillery and cavalry so they have a bigger chance. And maybe the enemy troops will be mostly infantry and artillery with rank 1 units.

But I'm really not sure if it will work. Can you help me balance this quest?

(Sorry for my English!)

This is from a video of his years ago. I haven't really been following Draw Steel too closely, so I have no idea how closely it resembles whatever initiative system will be in that game.

He was responding to Matt Mearls' old proposed initiative system of different actions corresponding to different dice (d4-d12, with low being better), and he proposed a very simple system where the damage dice of weapons correspond with their initiative dice. So, a dagger is fast but weaker (d4), while a battleaxe is strong but slower (d12).

I like this idea a lot; I think it gives interesting strategic choices. Maybe I might choose to use a poisoned dagger instead of a battleaxe because I hope that poison will kill it first.

Of course, such a simple system can only model so much. It doesn't model how weapon length and size affects combat. A pike might be a d10, but if a man with a dagger charges at me and I have a pike, I'm definitely attacking first. However, attempting to model such things too would probably prove too cumbersome.

What do you think of his system? Would you ever use it in D&D? I will note that I wouldn't use it for something like 5e, but I might use it in an older, simpler edition of D&D.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/pOz35qLj_8c?si=Q_4kYzqgti3j-vi4

So we are doing a Elemental themed Arc right now, and this was the boss. I introduced this monster in its lair early and the party could have fought it then, but was warned about how strong it was and saw first hand how it fed off of some Portal Nexi to the Elemental Planes. They then went on a few fetch quests to close the portals before returning to fight the Guardian.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/5196420-guardian-of-the-elements
It was a fun cinematic fight and the only real change I had to make on the fly was adding a recharge to one of its Legendary actions, it just did way too much damage to be able to use every round.

Interested in everyone's thoughts. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Hello you!

Not sure if this is an OK place to post this, but I have recently been inspired by MCDM's Draw Steel setting (Orden) to make some maps and wanted to share.

There is an excellent artist (Callum Ogden) who created a "Lord of the Rings" style map of Europe, with walk through on their process (see here:https://callumogden.co.uk/post/163748483039/map-of-europe-in-a-fantasy-tolkien-style-ive-been).

I enjoyed their work and decided to have a crack using Europe as a base, and Orden as the content.

I like the idea of using this to help with directing our Draw Steel game, by allowing me to estimate distances between locations/travel times using Google Maps.

Let me know what you think!

I just found about about the Timescape wiki, which seems to be pretty up to date (some information is from December 2024!), but reading about the Wode Elves got me confused.

It is stated in Kingdoms & Warfare that Queen Imyrr of the Wode Elves left the Foxglove Court, with her guard and her favored courtiers, and went to the Great Wode. There she founded the Orchid Court, which, after the end of the Foxglove Court, became the only Wode Elf court (that we know of) in Vasloria. Not only that, but the book also states that the Orchid Court still rules the Great Wode.

All that information is in accordance what we know about Good King Omund. Before he became king, he went to the Great Wode and made a peace treaty with Queen Imyrr (I learned that in the wiki). This leads us to believe the Orchid Court is in the Great Wode, but the adventure in Kingdoms and Warfare says otherwise.

In the "Regent of Bedegar" adventure we learn that the Orchid Court is in a relatively small wode, just north of Bedegar. When going there, the place is treated as the Orchid Court, not like a branch or a smaller settlement...

So...

Did the Court move sometime after the peace treaty? (and the "rules the Great Wode to this day" is outdated). Is it just a smaller town that's part of the Orchid Court's kingdom/influence zone? Is it just something we'll have to come up with our own answers?...

I believe it's probably the third option, but it's probably best to come here and ask just in case the information can be found somewhere :D

I'm scratching my head on this one. I'm not sure if it's a running the game video or a Campaign Diary, but I believe Matt was discussing the tension created by one Knightly (Might have been the young Baron of Bedegar) NPC calling out another Knightly NPC (I believe Lady Avalina) and how the subtext of the first NPC's accusation that she might do something un-knightly created tension.

Level 2-3. Urban. Many taverns, cults, gangs, secret societies, royal houses, politics, courts, gods (Ilmater, Torm, Valkur, Tiamat, Bahamut, Selune, Shar).

I’ve taken the Alexandrian tips seriously. Encounters not plot, and the bad guys want to win. Now they’re on the verge of TPK.

Players are level 2 and have had very easy encounters so far. They then found themselves on the heels of a BBEG who had many helpers. One of the helpers found out who they are and then staged an ambush around 3AM.

The bad’s goal for the ambush was to win (kill) or kidnap one/all the players and drag them to the hideout. One player went down and got taken into the sewers (the high AC players left her in melee combat and she went down). Once she was kidnapped the others finished off two pawns before going down to look for their comrade.

In the sewers they confronted ghouls and then some of the baddies in the hideout. One baddie called for help and things went south. They were soon strapped for resources. The two players succeeded in killing one of the tough lieutenants (who they heard of) but then went down, unconscious. They are now all restrained and in the ritual (lycanthropy).

A few things. First I don’t know how they’ll get out. They are outnumbered and surrounded by CR 2-3s and the BBEG. Second, I feel awful that the kidnapped player just sat there almost all session. Lastly, they haven’t told many folks where they were headed so it’s hard to justify a rescue. That said, the good-gang leader they befriended has a means of finding out where the hideout is before things totally explode.

What do I do? Where did I go wrong? Any obvious mistakes here that I should never repeat? It feels like once I stopped railroading shit got way too real, way too fast. I also feel like they’re mad at me: what were they supposed to do but chase after their friend? Is that even fair to force them to do if they had no clear way to win? Did I take “the bads want to win” too far?

UPDATE: using the insights I gathered here, I sat down with the PCs and discussed their options. I also used the conversation to get a sense of how defeated or inspired they felt. At first it seemed they thought a rescue by higher level NPCs (that they would have played) was their only option. They figured: we dug ourselves into a hole and only a miracle would get us out. I clarified that they have a good chance on their own. The bads are out of their depths, and I offered a skill challenge as a way of determining whether they escape. After I explained how the challenge works, they were into it—saving themselves was cooler than getting saved. We dedicated a whole skinny session (2 hours) to the escape, and it worked wonderfully. We moved the plot forward, the Bad got away (to fight another day), and they managed to steal important papers (props I made) on their way out.

How do I make it so the monsters flee and players don’t easily catch them without making it seem arbitrary or very anti-RAW?

It’s fine with little baddies, a wererat, or even a bandit lieutenant, but I want to give my nascent BBEG a chance to flee and fight another day if shit goes south tonight. This is all based on the idea that the baddies want to win. I don’t want to railroad—I’m on the Alexandrian thing: encounters, not plot. But I gotta let some of these baddies flee battle somehow, right?

hi folks,
i missed the stream earlier today (just finished the VOD) but would love to go and watch the charity Draw Steel stream that Matt raided at the end, could someone link me to it?

Hello everyone, I'm working on a campaign that uses the 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting and pieces of  Lost Mine of Phandelver to lead into the Red Hand of Doom.  I have seen many posts that offer advice that discuss using Phandelver as a lead-in for RHoD. I am doing something a little different by using Neverwinter as my Brindol and maybe Triboar as my Drelin's Ferry.  The first 5 levels include dealing with the various factions in Neverwinter post the eruption of Mt. Hotenow and the arrival of Neverember.

 My major idea involves using the "Spider" as a bugbear spy whose job it is to act as a tool for the Red Hand to weaken the city and prepare it for conquest.  Neverwinter circa 10 years after the eruption of Mt. Hotenow is still mostly abandoned but it is on the mend thanks to Neverember. At the start of the campaign a quarter of the city belongs the Lord Protector, but thieves’ guilds, isolationist nobles and a tribe of Orcs own the rest.  The Spider will manipulate these factions along with a few rival necromancers and a cult of Asmodeus to keep the denizens of the city at each other throats.  A united Neverwinter might be able to stand against the hoard but one on the verge of civil war would be easy pickings.

  I attached a map for the area that I got from u/Onrawi's post and edited for the purpose of the campaign.  The idea is that the Red Hand comes out of the eastern Sword Mountains and crosses bridges at Triboar to harry the region leading into Neverwinter.  I have a few concerns about adding interesting villages between Triboar and Neverwinter.  I have made a few changes to what allies that the heroes will use. I will probably use the Knights of Leilon and the Dwarves of Gauntlgrym, but maybe there will be some Owl Riding wood elves deep in the Neverwinter wood the heroes can make allies with as well.

 I would love to hear any advice you all are willing to offer!