Von Web DM

31 Gedanken zu „20 Dimensions of DMing with Brennan Lee Mulligan! | D&D | TTRPG | Web DM“
  1. First Edition (and later 2nd Edition) made "magic-users" so OP that DMs knew that if they let their magic-user players get past level seventh, their players would eventually take over the world. But also it took years to earn enough XP to get to those levels, whereas a Thief could level up quicker, but never was in the danger of taking over the world. That's why Killer DMs existed, and why it was so satisfying to play a spell-caster with 1d4 HP per level. That balance doesn't exist in later editions, and changes how the game works… but there are times when some of us who started playing back in 1979 really miss those old brutal games.

  2. Watching this just reminded me of how improvised my second pathfinder game was. With things that constituted GM errors, with overfunding a pc, and giving us a lot of empty land that nobody was around. With the overfunded pc being used to flush out cash to start a town, and the land expanding into my pc's masterpiece while being mostly mediocre as a business minded party member. It was my favorite campaign, from 1 to 17 or 18. Though it ended because we couldn't develop high enough level encounters, and had that city producing and expanding rapidly.

    Almost makes me want to try at running a game again, and just sit down, make a framework, and watch it break.

  3. It just occurred to me that a possible solution to Brennan's "PC who wanted the plucky paladin who isn't that strong, but that's a mechanically terrible choice and probably won't be that fun to play because D&D doesn't have a pluck mechanic" would just be to say "this paladin attacks with their longsword using their charisma and that represents them using their pluck rather than their strength" and literally just swap out which ability they use to attack with. I know that's much more of a 5e type solution with the way they really encouraged rules hacking and DM agency in design and probably would be sacrilege to any veteran 3.5 or older player, but would honestly completely bypass that problem imo.

    I've heard Brennan tell that story on the D20 Adventuring Academy podcast and that solution straight up did not occur to me until just now watching this.

  4. Having watched mostly Perkins, Mercer, and Crawford, I'm happy to say that (ahem) I'm taking a Mulligan on my next series. I've only seen snippets of Dim20 and this interview, but wow, I'm all in. Look at the big brain on Brennan!

  5. Brennan and I are roughly the same age, moved from NY to LA within a decade of each other, and have the same basic mix of Scots-Irish heritage. He looks like he did 10 years ago, and I look like I have a road map of the world drawn on my face.

  6. Just to comment on character creation, I've always used the classes as a guide and not a hard fast set archetype. By that I mean I use the class mechanics as a frame work to create who I want, I've had an idea of an archeologist/tomb raider/cartographer type so Gloom Stalker with levels of Rouge to create that. In a 3.5 Ebberon campaign I built a character who eventually went into the Thief Acrobat Prestige Class but he was a copy of the Crimson Pirate made famous by Burt Lancaster because I loved the tumbling and flips they did when I watched the movie as a kid. And my Tumbling skill was off the charts.

  7. I like relistening to these episodes and considering the question of "how is it that my character wants to stick with the party" or "why would all of us go on this adventure together":
    My players are really good at creating characters that have history with one another. A married couple, old friends, used to serve in the same army etc.
    But if you/your players are struggling I highly recommend just stealing the History part of the Monster of the Week playbooks. They are free online.
    When you create a character you are told to pick one option for each other character and the options range from "you somehow keep running into one another" and "you are friends from school/work" to "they once saved your life and you owe a debt to them" and "they are at heart a truly righteous person and you swore to keep it that way"
    If you have a list of options while looking around at the other characters it is much easier to make up a connection.

  8. Every time I hear about Brennan's childhood, I'm so happy that there are parents out there that support their children so wholeheartedly. He was reinforced with wonderful morals, but free to explore what he enjoyed. It sounds so wonderful to grow up with that.

  9. At the end of a years-long 1-16 campaign, I let them fast-travel behind enemy lines by being rocketed through a plane of memory. Every round, a major moment from thier past appeared. The guy who killed the first PC in session 2 or 3 all the way to the recent dragon fight., back to back to back. all the way up to the second most recent boss. It was cathartic to see how far they'd come, a trip down memory lane. Until the VERY end it was never an actual threat, but they got to feel badass as a leadup to the final boss.

  10. @Brennan ! You have deff been affected by a plot hook! Your whole dnd experience started somewhere, right? You're just in the middle of your plot, so you can't really see the scope of the plot. You're on an insane arc!

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert