One thing that I feel like the new editions of the game have moved towards is the notion of encounters must be balanced. CR for monsters, the ability of player characters to virtually smash and hack their way through most everything has led to the era of story and adventure path gaming. This is all kind of crap to me, but why is that you say?
Well gang, life is tough...daily at my corporate push button job there are times I cannot resolve issues with my standard practices or operations, you have to get creative, seek help and adjust on the fly. Roleplaying games should not be any different, what fun is it to just attack and hack every encounter to death?
So...how do we fix this...especially for 5th edition which has certainly made the entitled generation of characters much more over-powered than they should be? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Make your games more of a sandbox. Move away from the adventure path, tell a story type of gaming. Your players will develop their own leads, their own backstories through play and experience. Just give them a world and a few set places to play with and expand on that through play.
2. Place unwinnable encounters and monsters in your world. Obviously don't place these right outside of town or do....maybe that cave on the edge of town holds something dark and deep that should not be discovered. Those warnings in the tavern had some merit. Have encounters that the PC's cannot immediately win, they will run away hopefully, remember that encounter and seek ways to go back and win it. Trust me, most players are dying to know every little secret and when they do find a creative way to resolve it, reward them. You can even do this by ramping up the number of creatures encountered...5 kobolds, no sweat....50 kobolds waiting to ambush the party as they exit the dungeon, now we're talking.
3. Power up your PC's with magic items, not feats. This one is a little tougher with the newer editions of the game, but you can certainly house rule as needed for your tastes. In my games, there are no feats, but I allow my players to attune to 5 magic items as opposed to the standard 3. This motivates to go into those dark and dangerous places, poke around where they shouldn't, and hopefully discover those items that push them over the edge.
4. Change your monsters. This is a fun one...we all have that one player in our group who's memorized the monster manual, knows what is coming the moment you describe what their character sees. Adjust the stats, the abilities, hell even the look of your creatures....that group of goblins, give them players abilities and levels, then sit back and watch the confusion and panic.
Hopefully this plants some seeds to go challenge your players, the game is much more fun when it is challenging. When your players have to get creative, suffer, and work hard to overcome, those are the stories that will be told years from now around the gaming table.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Monday, November 11, 2019
Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting
So the group survived their encounter with the Dead Light when last we played. I had wanted to do a long term CoC campaign, but I've found the game sets itself up to be better played in scenario / module to module based games. This past Friday, I took the group through the classic module "The Haunting".
First, let me just say, I love the simplicity of this module and the fact it combines the great investigation elements of CoC along with a really great encounter to wrap up the module. I feel as if any group starting out in CoC should start here, just a really great and fun scenario.
The investigators are tasked by a Mr. Knott, landlord of a reputed haunted property to investigate and "cleanse" the house if needed. It is strongly recommended to route the players through the multiple avenues of researching and investigation prior to them going to the house itself. Information can be gathered at the local library, Boston Globe (newspaper filings), or City Hall. With a little bit of background, the group should hopefully learn the fate of the house's most recent occupants, along with its most notable resident, one Mr. Corbitt that was supposedly buried in the basement of the house....creepy...I love it.
At this point, the players can likely go directly to the house or visit a church associated with Mr. Corbitt, the Church of Contemplation for a bit more background information. My group of course choose to go directly to the house without doing any research, which was met with some ghostly apparitions and attacks, which prompted them to retreat and do a little investigation before charging back in, lesson learned! I should also note, that my group plays online via Discord voice chat and the Roll20 online tabletop application. I recently bit the bullet and subbed for a plus account to try out dynamic lighting and it was a huge hit for this module. Have the character tokens setup to show lighting as if carry a flash light as they inched their way through the house really added to the experience.
Once at the house and ready to evict Mr. Corbitt for good, the players are haunted by experiences throughout the house....radio turning on, lights flickering, ghostly noises and worst of all, an animated bed which managed to knock one of my players out the window for a near kill. Eventually the players will discover the basement of the house and a false wall built within containing the body of Mr. Corbitt. If they aren't careful, the spirit of Mr. Corbitt can psychically manipulate the use of a knife to literally stab the players in the back before they can breach in the inner sanctum of the burial chamber. My players carefully found the knife making a key check to wrestle away from the ghostly hands before it could do any damage.
With the way to the burial chamber revealed the final encounter and climax of the adventure is afoot. Mr. Corbitt will raise up from grave prompting sanity checks and using Mythos magic to thwart the group including dominate person which almost got my group killed...so close...they escape this time. Overall, a really great and simple module and best of all I believe this is free in the CoC 7th edition quick start rules. Go get it and run it!
This will be the last of the CoC scenarios for a bit for my group, we've decided to start a long term 5th edition D&D campaign....Rappan Athuk! I'm so excited to run this mega-dungeon, it's going to be fantastic....for me that is....my players....not so much hahaha!!!!
First, let me just say, I love the simplicity of this module and the fact it combines the great investigation elements of CoC along with a really great encounter to wrap up the module. I feel as if any group starting out in CoC should start here, just a really great and fun scenario.
The investigators are tasked by a Mr. Knott, landlord of a reputed haunted property to investigate and "cleanse" the house if needed. It is strongly recommended to route the players through the multiple avenues of researching and investigation prior to them going to the house itself. Information can be gathered at the local library, Boston Globe (newspaper filings), or City Hall. With a little bit of background, the group should hopefully learn the fate of the house's most recent occupants, along with its most notable resident, one Mr. Corbitt that was supposedly buried in the basement of the house....creepy...I love it.
At this point, the players can likely go directly to the house or visit a church associated with Mr. Corbitt, the Church of Contemplation for a bit more background information. My group of course choose to go directly to the house without doing any research, which was met with some ghostly apparitions and attacks, which prompted them to retreat and do a little investigation before charging back in, lesson learned! I should also note, that my group plays online via Discord voice chat and the Roll20 online tabletop application. I recently bit the bullet and subbed for a plus account to try out dynamic lighting and it was a huge hit for this module. Have the character tokens setup to show lighting as if carry a flash light as they inched their way through the house really added to the experience.
Once at the house and ready to evict Mr. Corbitt for good, the players are haunted by experiences throughout the house....radio turning on, lights flickering, ghostly noises and worst of all, an animated bed which managed to knock one of my players out the window for a near kill. Eventually the players will discover the basement of the house and a false wall built within containing the body of Mr. Corbitt. If they aren't careful, the spirit of Mr. Corbitt can psychically manipulate the use of a knife to literally stab the players in the back before they can breach in the inner sanctum of the burial chamber. My players carefully found the knife making a key check to wrestle away from the ghostly hands before it could do any damage.
With the way to the burial chamber revealed the final encounter and climax of the adventure is afoot. Mr. Corbitt will raise up from grave prompting sanity checks and using Mythos magic to thwart the group including dominate person which almost got my group killed...so close...they escape this time. Overall, a really great and simple module and best of all I believe this is free in the CoC 7th edition quick start rules. Go get it and run it!
This will be the last of the CoC scenarios for a bit for my group, we've decided to start a long term 5th edition D&D campaign....Rappan Athuk! I'm so excited to run this mega-dungeon, it's going to be fantastic....for me that is....my players....not so much hahaha!!!!
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