The Best RPG Ideas @actuallybestrpgideas - Tumblr Blog

I should probably keep planning my campaign but what if instead I overhauled the 5e mob fight mechanics to involve actually rolling dice instead of just looking at a table

actuallybestrpgideas

Calculate roll needed to succeed (e.g. if I have a +2 to hit an AC of 13 then I need to roll an 11)

Rolling exactly that roll means 50% of the mob hits (rounded up)

For each number above the successful roll (e.g. rolling a 12 when you need to roll an 11) is another 5% added on to how many hit (55% hit), same going down (rolling a 10 means 45% hit), rounding up

Roll advantage/disadvantage as normal

actuallybestrpgideas

Heres the 2 spreadsheets I made, top one is for calculating what % of the beasties hit, bottom one is just for easier maths so you don't need to calculate what 35% of 11 is off the top of your head. Open to feedback of course

actuallybestrpgideas

I should probably keep planning my campaign but what if instead I overhauled the 5e mob fight mechanics to involve actually rolling dice instead of just looking at a table

actuallybestrpgideas

Calculate roll needed to succeed (e.g. if I have a +2 to hit an AC of 13 then I need to roll an 11)

Rolling exactly that roll means 50% of the mob hits (rounded up)

For each number above the successful roll (e.g. rolling a 12 when you need to roll an 11) is another 5% added on to how many hit (55% hit), same going down (rolling a 10 means 45% hit), rounding up

Roll advantage/disadvantage as normal

I should probably keep planning my campaign but what if instead I overhauled the 5e mob fight mechanics to involve actually rolling dice instead of just looking at a table

is it weird to give my D&D players a survey on how i can improve as a DM because i feel im not doing enough to engage them all in the story and i dont actually know what they want from me in D&D

#dnd 5e #dnd #d&d #last session felt really awkward and i want to know how i can improve #but also i lowkey want some of them to meet me where im at with DMing and roleplaying #it kind of feels like some of them only have a vague character idea and just want to do combat #and the others have a more solid character and want to do more roleplay #and i dont know how or even if i can balance this #i just want to tell a story with people #i wish i didnt have to tell the whole story myself but...#also if youre the one player of mine i know follows this account im not bitching about you youre my favourite person to DM for in this part

On the one hand as an aspiring clown I'm morally opposed to the evil clown archetype. On the other hand imagine a tiny Spelljammer ship with 50 Space Clowns in it

#spelljammer #dnd 5e #d&d

Ever heard the expression "a wizard did it" to describe world building you don't want to come up with a long-winded explanation for? Have the party meet the wizard that did it.

#dnd #rpg ideas #dungeons and dragons

actuallybestrpgideas

Actually while I'm ranting does anyone have any advice on dealing with a party where every person seems to have a different idea of what we're playing

Person who is here to min/max his characters and has every rule, class, feat and spell memorized

Person who is obsessed with Critical Role and Baldurs Gate 3

Person who is here to scroll tumblr on their phone during combat

Person who thinks this is Barbie Dream Panther Adventures

Person who needs to be reminded every single turn what dice to roll for his attacks and also which dice those are

oncieofficial

The GM is the one who's supposed to be setting expectations for the game they're running, not the other way around. I understand the desire to wanna please your players at all cost, especially if they're your friends, however this is not going to do you any favours in the long run.

Main thing you need to consider when trying to solve this problem: Do you actually want to play a TTRPG or just have some hangout time with your buddies?

There's nothing wrong with either of these, but if you just wanna hang out with your friends and the TTRPG aspect is causing issues I suggest just dropping it and setting up a movie night or something else the rest of the group would be interested in. It'll probably end up being more enjoyable and will require less effort on your part. All around a win-win.

If you're more interested in actually running a TTRPG however I strongly suggest having a talk with your group about the kind of game *you* wanna run. Then the players can decide on whether they're interested in staying or leaving. Make it abundantly clear that leaving the campaign is not equivalent to leaving the friend group. If someone is still concerned about being left out from a group activity you can still talk to them about the game without them needing to actually be a part of it so they stay "in the loop". You'd be surprised how many people actually enjoy hearing other's D&D stories more than playing the game themselves. It's like getting a highlight reel of the session, which I feel like might be appealing to your tumblr-browsing player in particular.

If you're worried that none of the players you have right now won't be interested in playing the kind of game you'd like to run, don't be. Statistically speaking there are far more players than there are GMs. If you just release an announcement looking for players where you explain what kind of game you'd like to run it would surely gain a lot of engagement, especially if you do it here on this blog.

actuallybestrpgideas

There's... a lot of assumptions going on here. I'll do my best to clear things up but there's definitely a lot of points you made that just aren't relevant.

Firstly, I did my best to set expectations and posted this on my Facebook wall.

All the people who replied and joined the group are all friends of mine, but we're not exactly a friend "group" (although we did all know each other beforehand due to shared social groups). If one person leaves due to various reasons (which I have had in previous groups) its not like they're being excluded from being friends with the rest of us.

The main outcome I want is to tell a story and play a game with friends. I have no idea how else to share these expectations beyond what I've already done. There also isn't anyone else I'm friends with IRL as far as I'm aware who is both interested and available to play D&D with me, and I struggle too much with playing online vs in person to want to run something virtually (and I'm not gonna doxx myself on this blog, sorry).

#theres so much in this assuming im a lot better friends with people than i actually am lol #im glad thats a thing that can be assumed about me #i guess its my fault for having the 5 most different players possible be the only people who wanted to play with me #dnd 5e

Actually while I'm ranting does anyone have any advice on dealing with a party where every person seems to have a different idea of what we're playing

Person who is here to min/max his characters and has every rule, class, feat and spell memorized

Person who is obsessed with Critical Role and Baldurs Gate 3

Person who is here to scroll tumblr on their phone during combat

Person who thinks this is Barbie Dream Panther Adventures

Person who needs to be reminded every single turn what dice to roll for his attacks and also which dice those are

#i am enjoying running dnd this is fun i am having fun #i should probably talk to my players about this #i should ask them what they all want to get out of d&d because it doesnt feel like our goals are aligning #only two of these players have lore i can work with as a DM for their characters #well three of them but the third is from a magic the gathering setting and im worried about getting it wrong ;_;#the other two have like a one or two sentence character description and thats *it*#again would this be solved by just talking with them? probably

I'm a huge advocate for physical character sheets and reading the phb and stuff, especially when it turns out two separate players in my d&d party fucked up their character sheets when making it in DnD Beyond.

First one is missing most of her important cleric spells including toll the dead because they weren't on D&D Beyond and the other just had to have a more competent player basically re-do her entire character sheet because she didn't have any gear or stats and her ranger subclass was listed as hunter even though she's a beastmaster because beastmaster wasn't an option? They're all in the PhB which they all have free access to (the competent player has a physical 2024 phb and I have a pdf that I can give them), plus all the rules and stuff they need are literally free online.

#dnd 5e #why is it missing basic character creation stuff?!#dnd beyond

no-where-new-hero

obsessed by the existence/function of the Bronze. here we have a place that’s just basically a club, but frequented almost exclusively by the high-school, underaged population of sunnydale, so presumably none of those colorful drinks are alcoholic, but it’s not a kid’s space so angel and giles can just come and go and party along without anyone snarking about it, and there are just endless basements for people to get eaten by vampires in, but no one is apparently doing drugs in them.

when people say (queer) teens need more third spaces they mean the Bronze

probablyfunrpgideas

In my friend’s Monster of the Week game we had a Bronze analogue that was just called “The Metal”. We’d have our characters go there to meet up with disreputable types and learn about metaphorical underground activities (as opposed to the literal underground activities of ghouls and big wax monsters).

Put a Bronze in your game! Want to have a scene where you celebrate a hard-fought victory while listening to C-list local musicians? Want to glare at your harpy rival from across the crowded room and wordlessly summon them for a confrontation in the cluttered back alley? Want to break down from overstimulation which is also a metaphor for the stress of being the Chosen One? The possibilities are endless!

hopefullygoodrpgideas

In the last Masks game I was in, we met at a club called The Brass that didn't serve alcohol because alcohol licenses are expensive. Instead they served novelty sodas made out of whatever ingredients they could get for cheap and then the good ones off the rotating list became permanent. Smash cut to my character being introduced as the one person willing to actually drink the pork soda. This became an icon of the entire game, both The Brass and also its extremely questionable beverages. Give your Bronze substitute something questionable, something where if you weren't teenagers and had more agency you'd be somewhere else in order to avoid it. Give your teenagers pork soda.

#prev forgot to mention she was going to make pork soda IRL and subject us to it and then never did

The party is getting ice cream in an underwater city with their tour guide and his two younger siblings. What happens next?

#I know what happens but I'm also open to suggestions #The party witnessed their tour guide doing some kind of blood magic carving something under a wharf #and also met the two younger siblings when the older of the two was dressed as a sea monster and chasing the younger one through the streets

probablyfunrpgideas

Monster Idea: A chimera with the head of an eagle, tail of a stingray and the body of a peacock mantis shrimp (which is just one thing.)

Surprise your players with a beast that can spot them miles away, skitter up to deliver a supersonic punch, and then avoid being surrounded with swipes from its razor sharp tail barb! These creatures lurk in shallow marshes, tide pools, and mangrove shores where they can hide and hunt for fish. But they’re not a natural species - if you see one, look around and you’ll find an evil wizard’s lair nearby. The Unerring Shrimpray is designed to be a guard and occasional familiar for masters of transmutation and thaumobiology.

actuallybestrpgideas

If someone can stat this up I'll put it in my game

#The party is currently underwater and I think this sorta beastie would fit in with that vibe

Struggling a bit with planning my D&D campaign because I may have written myself into a corner.

Ok so the basic gist of this campaign is the party acquired tickets to an astral riverboat tour and they're primarily tourists as well as adventurers. So far they've travelled to an undead themed tourist trap town with a fake haunted house that turned out to be real, a carnival made out of candy that was actually a pocket fey realm that trapped them, and currently they're in a vegas-like city that's on an oasis in a caldera that's being taken over by a hivemind controlled by a fallen angel.

Party is currently level 7, will be leveling up to either 8 or 9 after they defeat the angel. Putting spoilery stuff below a read more because I know at least ONE of my party follows this blog and I don't want to spoil things for them.