So, I think I'm finishing the second biome (taking off quests, level 10, fully upgraded gear, etc) but I've been avoiding ship combat because, well, I suck at it. So I wanted to ask the hive mind which is the best ship and which are the best cannons, accessories, etc., to add to it so I can be a proper terror of the seas and not just a landlubber 😛
so, I'm 40+, I'm not much into art, though I used to copy drawings on a drawing tablet daily for a couple years (I quit because my shoulder started hurting while drawing). For my birthday, I was gifted a block for watercolor (25 blank pages) and a simple watercolor kit.
I'm not a 100% newbie to art, though I'm quite near (I attach screenshots of a few copies I've made. The original, on the right, is NOT my drawing, I just take whatever I find interesting and copy it, my copy is the one on the left. These copy drawings are for my personal enjoyment in making something and I don't post them anywhere).
My question then, is: what can I do to start getting into watercolor? Any youtube channel you could recommend, or exercises I could do to start getting into it?
As a medium, is it reasonable for a beginner to try and make copies of other drawings, like the ones I have posted?
Thanks a lot!
The lovely people in this subreddit have given me TONS of great ideas for my current campaign, so of course I'll abuse that and once again ask for their help!
At the moment, the PCs made a deal with the Big Bad so they got a crapton of treasure but gave it the tools to break the world open. This is relevant because this world is a prison for an entity of extreme power, sealed in by archangels thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, since the worls is sealed, instead of going to the afterlife, all souls go to the bottom of the sea forever.
The archangels deemed this necessary for the wellbeing of the multiverse as a whole.
My plan is: the big bad will manage to release this creature -thus causing apocalyptic damage on a multi-continental level- but the chains binding this world are too strong, and the only way to break them is to kill the archangels themselves, which would also free the creature.
Do you think one side could be considered good/ the other side considered evil in this situation? Or would it be a case of good versus good where both have fair points? I'm trying to go for a grey area here, and I'm unsure if I'm managing it.
As always, thanks a ton for your help!
I recently wrote a post about how to fight on the back of a kraken. What ended up happening was the bad guy offered the PCs a crapload of treasure in exchange for the McGuffin... And they accepted, fully knowing that they wanted to break the world to free everyone. So now I'm not sure how to continue the story. They have a few allies they've made along the way, but time is extremely short.
I see several options, none of them satisfactory:
- Say "well, the world gets destroyed, better luck next time" and start a new campaign, which feels completely anticlimactic.
- Invent a reason why the bad guy can't just go into the giant magical storm, use the mcguffin to disable it and then release the creature it is holding... Which feels contrived and kinda deus ex-machina-esque and could reduce the feeling of urgency. Though it kinda makes sense that the bad guy will need time to amass his armies and overwhelm whatever defenses that place has.
- Having a servant of asmodeus or other infernal powers appear and offer aid, which also feels like a deus ex machina.
And, another question: I was thinking of giving them a list of possible options they have they might not have thought about (for example, early in the campaign they got access to a deck of many things, and they know where it is), but I am also ambivalent about it. On one hand, it might help them focus and clarify their thoughts. It could also, however, mean I'm underestimating their own intelligence and removing agency from them.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and apologies for the long post.
EDIT: I feel I didn't give them enough context on their options. They thought it was either they gave the item up or die; I realized too late I presented the context incorrectly. The bad guy came on top of a kraken, saying he wanted to negotiate. He didn't threaten them or tried to coax anything else out of them. He is somewhat honorable and has a past with another PC, so if they refused to negotiate I was going to have him just leave and wait for them to die naturally before just taking the macguffin, but they clearly didn't feel it that way.
So, in today's session my players (level 9) will have a first encounter with the kraken and its controller, who are the end bosses of the campaign. The idea is to have the controller challenge the PCs to a duel with underlings of his for control of a certain artifact. I don't want them to face the kraken and boss yet since it'd be a TPK for sure (it'll take place in the high sea, so the kraken could just take the ship and sink).
The fight would take place on the kraken's back, which leads me back to my question: what are some fun things that could happen to make the fight more exciting? I'm thinking the kraken could act in a very limited way, hindering but not attacking directly.
Thanks a lot for your help!
I'm DMing a pretty free-flowing short campaign of 5E: I don't take the rules too seriously, players advance one level per session, a setting I created, etc.
The campaign is sea and pirate-related. One of the PCs is a monk whose monastery was destroyed by the kraken, so now he wants to destroy the creature in order to obtain closure. They're level 9 now, so I think it's a good place to have them face the kraken once before they actually fight it on the grand finale.
I had two plot twists in mind. One was that the person responsible for the destruction of the monastery was another pupil (the PCs best friend), who wanted to break it in order to be free of its shackles, and now roams the sea together with the creature.
The other was that the monastery's abbott knew the monastery's destruction was inevitable and decided to fuse his soul with that of the kraken, in order to give at least a semblance of direction to its destructive fury.
Do you think these make sense, or would you go for something different?
