r/DMAcademy

Hi all!

I've been trying to find some youtube tracks for vocal tavern music, think your local bard singing a song for a full tavern. Sadly though, youtube will only really offer me AI-produced songs which I would rather avoid even for temporary backing sound for a scene (On top of just having modern instruments randomly.)

Does anyone have some good songs that fit the tavern bard background music they like to use, or better yet a playlist they use in their games they might share? I could go purely ambient and will if I can't find any, but for this specific bardly tavern im making vocals are pretty key. Thanks!

Every day, I see questions about what to do after the PCs have killed some town guards or otherwise broken laws. Maybe it's the algorithm serving them up to me because I comment on them, but I think it deserves a ​post.

It's certainly possible to have adventures in a city or other civilized area. My current campaign takes place entirely within a city. But it needs to be handled with care.

Talk to your players about expectations and specific preferences. If your preference is that they don't ever kill guards, tell them that. If they're "free to do anything, but must accept the consequences" lay out a bit of what those consequences can be and how to have fun during them. And be prepared yourself to follow through on those consequences. Or, if you can't, but still want realism, give yourself some wiggle room.

That's basically the advice. Here's why I think it's necessary.

Players have egos and often make characters that are extensions of those egos. Town guards are usually created to indicate or impose restrictions on PCs, and so it might seem like PCs, especially good-coded ones, wouldn't fight them. But guards that are the least bit unhelpful, or who challenge the PCs, get in the way of that ego, and give an incentive for PCs to intimidate, slug, and eventually kill them.

For better or worse, D&D characters are designed with destructive capabilities in mind. The default assumption is that they'll be confronted with foes that any reasonable person wouldn't mind seeing killed. Setting aside how problematic that can be, subverting it for a town adventure, without setting clear boundaries on it, is asking for this kind of trouble.

Anyway, I suppose this won't really affect anything, and will probably spur some arguments, but it had to be said. ​

Yesterday evening, my players fought the BBEG of the first act of our campaign: the cult leader of a group of depressed dudes worshipping a big ancient evil snake… Nothing very fancy, but still, my players enjoyed it.

They said the atmosphere was great, they loved my narration, and they praised all the interactions I gave them with NPCs for the final session. But the fight itself felt very plain.

I know I’m more of a roleplay-focused DM, but I felt really disappointed that the conclusion of a 15-session arc was that easy.

To sum it up, the fight was very long, boring, and not that threatening. The “biggest” move we (the players and I) remember is when I cast Banishment on the cleric (the only healer), and that was it.

The fight lasted almost 3 hours. Three hours of attacks that felt like white bread, three hours without any real tension. It got to the point where even I joined my players in joking about their opponent.

Just to give more context, my party consists of four level 6 characters: a Life Domain cleric, a Great Old One warlock, an Assassin rogue, and an Evoker wizard.

So, I’d like to know if anyone has ever been in the same position. Is there some kind of math I should be using to build the perfect balance between hit points and damage output? Or is it just that I gave out too many magic items/potions ?

I am running a campaign that has a decent mix of roleplay, exploration, and combat. My players are generally smart and creative. They often try to talk their way out of fights or use stealth to bypass encounters entirely. I love that about them most of the time. But every now and then, the narrative really needs a combat encounter to land properly. A villain reveal, a set piece battle, or a moment where talking should not work. The problem is, when I put them in a situation where I think combat is inevitable, they still try to avoid it. I do not want to railroad them or take away their agency. But I also do not want every major confrontation to end with a persuasion check. How do you signal to players that this is a fight they cannot talk their way out of without just saying no to their ideas? Do you just let them skip every fight and adjust the story accordingly? Looking for a balance between player freedom and narrative stakes.

My organizing skills are one of my weak points. I often end up frantically looking for my stats blocks, my prepared monolog, rules check, NPC info and etc.

I have a GM screen, computer, ipad, notebook and stack of handouts ... it turns to chaos sometimes and takes away from my strong points. Improv, pacing and storytelling.

What do you have in front of you during a session and how much of that setup you need to prep every session??

I have a party of new players and I'm planning a questline that will take them to lvl 5, but I want to figure out the boss first and theme it around that. One idea I had was taking the Gorgon from the Monster Manual and reflavoring it to be the two Colchis Bulls from greek mythology. Would that battle be too hard? Too easy?

I'm also open to other boss battle ideas for 6 lvl 5 players. I considered doing a young white dragon cause it might be nice to see a dragon in the game called dungeons and dragons. I also considered doing 4 elementals (water, fire, air, earth).

The party is a fighter, a paladin, a rogue, a bard, and two sorcerers.

Hi!

So, we are 2 DMs and 7 players (but most sessions there are 5 players). We play through Discord and so far it has been great when it comes to roleplay, however fights get boring easily, because:

1. Half of them are new to the game, so they usually take longer in their turns, and

2. Keeping their attention is way harder, especially because we don't play with camera on.

Me and my partner DM have been talking about ways to optimize the whole thing to make it more interesting, and also to keep the players focused, however we don't know what can or can't work because we don't play irl. Any advice is highly appreciated

I've been working on a new adventure for my players and the start of the campaign is intentionally chaotic and provides a lot of potential leads to chase. I have something like 6 things immediately putting pressure on the players. The opening of the adventure presents a scenario where everything that can go wrong did go wrong.

I don't want to overwhelm them with choice, but I also want them to have the choice to pursue any lead that feels the most important to them.

Up until now I've largely run more linear adventures or only provided one or two plot hooks at a time. I think providing a lot could potentially be a bad idea, but my goal is to create a more sandbox-like adventure that spreads out from a chaotic beginning.

Maybe I should be doing something to seriously underline only one or two of these major plot hooks at once? Yada yada over a few of them but provide some extra detail on a couple of others?

Edit: I think including the context that the adventure is a time loop and that choosing to pursue one hook over the others won't necessarily lock players out. I'm just trying to find a way to minimize information overload and choice paralysis so that things are digestible and fun for them.

Hello everyone :)

I'm looking for ideas for traps, that a group of Kobolds living below a house in a big city could have set up to chase people out of their lair.

The kobolds in question have been chilling there for a while now. They've put up traps in the house to alarm them if anyone enters and in their cave to chase would-be intruders away, but they don't really want to hurt anybody. They just don't want to be kicked out (since the cave is technically on someone's property), and I would like to have some traps where the PCs can notice after a while that nothing tried to actually kill them.

One thing I have in mind is a pit trap, deep enough to maybe hurt a bit, but not be dangerous, and in the house, they had metal buckets full of water on the doors and put up pyramids of empty metal cans in a way that someone who's not careful while opening the doors (due to expecting traps) would kick them over, making a lot of noise alarming them to hide.

The leader of the kobolds is a little magically gifted and prepared the rooms with the Magic Mouth spell, which he uses to threaten intruders and make them believe there is a powerful being in this cave

I find that I struggle with terrain-based activities more than anything else. Here's how it usually goes. here's a big cliff, you have to climb it, okay you have a rope and rolled a 14? cool you climb it. oh you have a rope but rolled a two? I guess you fall. Try again, I guess?

How do I make terrain challenges that feel meaningful and exciting but also aren't just up to the dice, or so easy that all players have to do is grab a rope? One of my party members is like a mountaineer IRL and I think he'd have a lot of fun interacting with terrain, so I'd love any advice. thanks!

My players are all attending the Gods’ Day festival for different reasons is it a bad idea to right a little scene of the reason they’re attending and their travel to the festival before the session. How much of an intro do you typically give your players?

I’m in the early stages of my next campaign, a home brew adventure in Faerûn.

So far my notes are “Rakshasa was killed by member of a noble family. She has now returned as a wealthy and influential merchant. She plans to use this influence to slow all trade with the noble’s city, ultimately driving the family and city to ruination.”

Is this enough for a multi-level/year campaign? Probably a lot of side quest type things dealing with the rakshasa’s guild in a slow build up/reveal of the rakshasa. But I’m worried it’ll feel like side quests instead of having a clear goal.

Is this a viable plot? Am I overthinking it all again? Any tips? Thanks fellow DMs!

We're playing Pathfinder 2E. I like it. The players were excited. They had wanted to play it for a long time with someone who knew the system. I often hear them talking about how bad their last GM was and how he made game-breaking rules on the spot because he didn't know the actual rules. I play with all of them in Dark Heresy as a player.

I thought, sure, I wanted to play some more PF2, and they have known each other for a long time. They are friends (I think?). What could go wrong?

Even before session 0, I knew something was off. They had more than a month to create their characters. I didn't receive any backstory or character information until the day before session 0, even though I had been hearing for such a long time about how much they wanted to play. I just assumed that they had one or two characters they wanted to play as.

Bear in mind that we were still playing weekly in another campaign, so they could have talked to me or messaged me. They only asked me about class interactions or asked if this class guide was good.

---

Session 0 went well. I told them what they could expect from me as a GM. They wanted to be sure that I would not be like their last PF2 GM. They told me which classes they wanted to play. No one talks in the group chat. I think my biggest mistake was telling them, "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it while playing". I mean, I did, and the players I ran a campaign with before did too.

Now we're three sessions in and I'm already tired. They seem to be enjoying it. They all participate in RP and no one dominates. That feels good. But when it comes to the actual mechanics... I've run campaigns in this system before, but never with a group that makes me this tired.

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All the names are fake.

There's Mike, who introduced me to these folks. I played with him in Vampire and Mage. He was the GM and I was a player. He's cool, but he just can't read. He reads text and assumes he understands it. Recently, he sent me screenshots from the book to argue with me about how my ability in Dark Heresy works, but the same screenshots prove him wrong. The same goes for PF2: he sends me part of an ability and says, 'It works like that'. He just can't accept he is in the wrong and need to prove that he is the smartest in the room. Thank goodness we like him, because... oh man!

Derek is a clever player with a good imagination, but he overthinks his turns to the point that combat with three low-level enemies took over an hour. His turns can take up to 13 minutes. It was probably my fault too. I wanted to give them as much time as they needed, and give tips mid way. But if they all take 3–13 minute turns, combat could take two sessions. He and Spike constantly complain about their last GM in PF2 and say that he taught them the wrong, imaginary rules. But they both read guides on which class feats to take. They have already planned what they will take at level 10 (they are level 2) and what they will respec into. They also seem unable to listen and make the same mistake after I have just explained why it is a mistake. They ask for explanations of rules or advice that sometimes take up a lot of sessions. But they never send me anything between sessions.

Josh is really weird. He still hasn't given me his backstory or even image for his character. I understand. He is busy. But while some people put in any effort, Josh doesn't.

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At this point, if three enemies took that long, what would happen if I dropped more? Or someone with unusual interactions? I initially found it amusing that in Session 2, there were numerous enemies, mostly engaging in combat with other NPCs for the sake of the cinematic. Enemy turns were fast and automatic. They mostly walked, attacked and threw DC. Mike didn't even know how his class ability worked (he was sending cropped screenshots on discord, in the middle of the fight instead of sending them to me in Foundry), he told me that I should have a backup plan in case combat takes too long... Now? I'm not so sure. Do I just give them one enemy?

It's been a long time since I've had doubts about how I run games. On the one hand, I understand them. I've already explained multiple times how something like grapple works to other people. But for them it's the first time. I get it. I want to be compassionate. And I know sometimes I might even sound annoying. But I've never encountered people say they don't rules, yet who think they know. And before session 0, I given them basic rules to read and cheat sheet.

Should I tell them to learn the basic rules? Or at least what their character can do? How to do that so they don't feel... stupid(?) Should I run a Beginner Box inside one of the cities for them? Or should I just be chill about it? Should I skip their turns if they take too long?

At this point I hide my ego and just ask for advice so my players and I can have fun.

Tried this on my players. It's surprisingly hard even though the effort needed to prep isn't that much.

Write a sentence you want to hide in the note. Count the letters. Prepare a X by X -grid that fits the letters. Make sure the sides are equal (change words around a bit to fit them).

Put the first letter in the the right-most column's last row. Second letter on top of it, to the second last row, etc. Basically, write from the bottom to the top, right to left.

Use capital letters, no spaces, use "+" as sentence break.

End product looks like letter mess, in which it may have small accidentally occurring words here and there. Nice red herrings for players to obsess over.

You can leave it to them to solve whenever.

Hi all,

I have a rare in person session coming up (our group only gets to meet in person about once a year) and I often try to incorporate something a bit unusual on top of switching away from roll20 to minis for the session.

I had a fun idea that I could somehow I corporate a sort of blindfolded taste game into the session.

My initial idea is that the party would run into a situation where they had to mix up a potion or something in order to progress through a quest. Something like they need to craft an antidote using the apothecary workshop of a druid who had nearly perfected the recipe but is now dead or missing; they can get some clues from searching the place but then have to recreate the recipe...

On top of this I would then blindfold the players whose PCs are making the potion so they have to guess which of 3 things they taste is the correct ingredient. for example they may find a clue suggesting that ingredient a smells slightly orangy. then they would taste lemon, lime and orange juice and select one for the potion. Rince and repeat for other ingredients. I'd run it like a skill challenge so everyone gets a go.

does anyone think this could actually work and make sense in a fun way?

Any ideas or pointers?

Cheers.

Hi all, and thanks in advance for any insights you might have! Hoping to throw this at my three Level 8 players before they enter the Climb, a squad-based combat tournament with a final plot-critical boss awaiting anyone who reaches the top. My hope is to encourage creative skill-use while providing benefits strong enough to tempt them to risk wasting parts of their turns. Thoughts?

"In a world with Collective Manifestation, the roar of the crowd is more than merely inspirational — it can provide tangible benefits to those it champions. Crowd Favor is measured on a sliding scale ranging from +3 to -3. Combatants may spend their bonus action (for a straight roll) or action (for advantage) to Grandstand, allowing them to roll a skill check of their choosing vs DC 15 to attempt to win the crowd's approval; as with any skill challenge, the participant must justify and describe their chosen skill use, with bonuses or penalties applied to their roll based on creativity, originality, and situational suitability. If successful, the Crowd Favor scale will move one point in their team's direction. If the scale stands at plus or minus 1, each member of the favored team will have a luck point available to spend on their turn; at plus or minus 2, each member of the favored team will have either a luck point or an extra bonus action to spend on their turn; and at plus or minus 3, each member of the favored team will have either a luck point, an extra bonus action, or an extra action to spend on their turn. Finally, any team that wins three matches while at maximum Crowd Favor will be automatically eligible to advance to the next bracket of the Climb."

I'm preparing a campaign with a strong element of politics.

I have seen all 3 videos that Matt Colville has on the subject (several times each, in fact). This is what I have so far:

>

>There are 18 realms in the continent (not every realm has to come in play), realms have built alliances according with their interests (In truth, these alliances or factions will be the protagonists of the intrigue more than the realms themselves).

>one very powerful and influential Archmage (the chessmaster) will just disappear, so that he can't influence the events.

>Some factions will ally with each other (despite normally being enemies) against certain individual realms to make a coup.
A secret organization will take down several kings (and some of their heirs) guaranteeing chaos and leaderlessness.
Chaos will erupt and it will lead to war.
In the middle of all of this, the players will be doing quest for some seemingly harmless guy. While hearing of all of these events.
At some point, they will find themselves "rescuing" a kid who turns out to be the missing heir to one of the kingdoms. at that point, I hope they will understand that they are in the center of the whole conspiracy, and become more engaged with the whole plot.

>At that point, they will be able to chose the path to follow. Either keep the kid or turn him over, investigate the disappearance of the Archmage or go for the shady questgiver, or to side with one of the kingdoms or one of the claimants to the throne, or whatever they would like to do at that moment.

Please, give me your opinions and advice; as well as any resources that you think it could come handy.

Edit: formatting

Hello everyone!

My party took a major divergence and ended up on Mount Celestia, which I had not planned to happen this early in the campaign. Ive been doing a bit of research and have yet to figure this out. I’m aware that all enter as the lanterns, but it seems that the types get more rare as you go up, and rule over others. Am I simply missing something?

Its not super important, as the party will be staying themselves, but I do want to make the setting feel ‘right‘.

Also, what would be the best place to read up on more information. Thank you!

One of my PCs has themed his barbarian around skateboarding and really wants there to be a skateboard competition.

I’m looking for brainstorming of things to include.

The competition is being overseen by The Chairman of the Gnar: an aracockra named The Hawk.

Looking for ideas of:

- names/styles of skaters to include in the competition

- challenges for him to accomplish

- ways for the rest of the party to influence or support the challenge (wizard, ranger, and bardlock)