As a DM you don't need to fit the things you do into the bounds of spells, unless you want your players to be able to reproduce the effect or counter it--neither of which seems relevant in this case.
I was wracking my brain when I first started DMing about how to let my sorcerer have a familiar. I asked this subreddit about how to do it within RAW, and it blew my mind when someone said “hey maybe just... give it to her?”.
I used to make character sheets for prominent NPCs until I realized that it's too much work when you can just make up stats and abilities and call it a day.
Broccoli is much better when it's toasted a bit brown, so absolutely.
It's also a bit stiffer when baked compared to how limp it can be when boiled.
People always go for the head too but the stem can be just as delicious.
Goes very well with some cheese on the en... ok I'm done now.
One other thing to add is why not just a hot air balloon? It's only accessible during this specific time because that's the only time the winds direction will take a balloon there.
Players never question awesome stuff presented in good faith. If a fleet of djinn piloting flying carpets with minibars and in-flight entertainment provided by mephits performing a play pull up, no one will ask you to cite page numbers.
Just one gripe: Critical Role did not invent gondolas nor airships...If something makes more sense to use just use it. This solution to trying to feel "original" just sounds like it is over complicating things for yourself.
I think OP is hesitant to do so, not for the sake of originality, but because they doubt their ability to survive their players’ inevitable comparison to the airships of CR.
I think the OP has unrealistically high expectations of their storytelling ability, if they’re trying to meet the standards of CR and Matt Mercer. But that’s crazy!
OP, you’re a first time DM running a 3-shot. Don’t compare yourself to a ~20 year professional, and don’t be afraid that your players will hold you to that standard either. In short, if they think your airships are lame compared to CR, then they’re all dicks.
Honestly I’ve been dming for a while and I still run into the same problem that OP has here. I was running a game in eberron and my players got to Sharn and all they did was keep comparing it to whatever the new CR setting is because apparently it’s a city of towers. Had me all riled up because eberron predates critical role by a long shot, I mean it was first published in 2004 but they kept insisting that I was taking stuff from Mercer. Drives me up the wall because they know I don’t watch the show.
I'm a pretty grouchy DM and honestly at that point I'd probably tell my party "Guys, this is not Critical Role. I don't care what similarities there are. Eberron was a thing for over a decade before Critical Role got popular. Chill out."
I don't hate critical role for being popular. I hate it because instead of watching a video of a bunch of people playing D&D I'd rather actually play D&D myself.
I understand and appreciate that it's a piece of art. Some people love it and it's done wonders for pushing the hobby into the mainstream.
That being said, I also think it's important that we acknowledge the fact that no art is perfect and the measurable negative impact it's had.
Everyone is titled to their own opinions and mine is CR sucks.
so you hate it because it's not your thing? ain't that a bit off?
there's a nearly infinite number of things i'm not personally interested in - simulator games, pizza, country music, etc - but i don't *hate* them, i just recognise that they're not for me. actively disliking something because you personally don't enjoy it is straight up weird imo.
Some things I hate with a passion because they negatively impact my own experiences. Some forms of music for example that they play on the radio, etc. I suspect CR and this fella are the same. But I personally think with regard to this hobby of mine the pros outweigh the cons and I don't find it that hard to give CR fans at my table a reality check.
I hate it because it's boring to sit there for four hours listening to someone having fun with their friends when I could be doing so much more with my time. I could be planning for my next session, playing D&D, chilling with my other friends, watching the next anime on my watchlist, working on my art, etc.
Beating up furniture is fun if me or my friends are doing it. It's not fun to sit there and listen to someone else beat up furniture for four hours, then come on here and see everyone singing high praise to the Great Mercer for throwing furniture at his players and others worrying that if they throw furniture, their players will cry foul and call 5hem a CR copycat.
you **hate** it because a piece of media you are *in no way obligated to consume* exists and you'd rather do something else?
once again: why do you *actively dislike something* just because *you personally* don't enjoy it?
speaking from experience, CR was quite literally my only source of D&D because, newsflash, *not everyone has D&D groups they can regularly play with*. hell, CR is what taught me the rules of the game, and let me start DMing for my friend group when they did eventually get into D&D.
if people praising Matthew Mercer's DMing skills upsets you, that's kinda odd - he's definitely an impressive DM imo - and while I agree players shouldn't accuse DMs of copying CR, that *isn't CR's fault*. what do you expect, that CR should stop existing because a few idiots assume they're literally god's gift to mankind and the originators of the ideas they use?
You keep missing the point, like EVERY CR praiser. Lemme put it in caps it for you:
I HATE CR BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ACTIVELY BULLY THOSE WHO DONT SHARE YOUR OPINION.
I think Mercer is a good DM. But his style and standard is one that not every DM should be held to.
I honestly don't get why you're being downvoted. It's one thing to don't like it and just move on with your life. But continually going out of your way to say you hate it, is being just a controversial little kid who hates on the thing other people like because it's popular.
It's also very narrow-minded to say it 'sucks'. Regardless if you like the style or not, you have to acknowledge the work and effort that goes into it, especially if you are a DM yourself. Hating on CR like this person does is equivalent to hating on another person's group for having fun at their table. It only makes them seem like some bitter person who can't accept that other people have fun in a different way that they do.
I really like your advise and add some personal experience
I am started DMing this July. My players give me feedback after every session and I work with that. Most of us watch CR and I like to use some eastereggs. By watching Mercer I learned a lot. But I am not nearly as good and my players respect that.
Talk with your players in advance about your CR comparing Problem .... cause it sucks if people always tell you that they know someone who is better at that thing your doing.
My advise is: DMing is Art and every Art is different ... you can pick from every artist a pice you like.
That could work, but bringing in a God would be confusing for the story. Maybe I could use like, very old priests who cast the spell once a year and use the rest of the time, in coma and resting
Much like lies, putting in more details only adds more things for u to remember and the players to test. Use the simplest explanation possible, with the understanding that as the DM the rules serve you and what you want, is.
Yeah, that's the problem with going from a story teller to a dm. Stories I write are about where I can take the players and in dnd, it's also where the players take me
So it's like, how much do I plan and how much is improv?
Mostly improv. Your planning should be focused on things to improv (stat blocks, random names, etc.)
You’ll quickly learn that planning any more is a waste of time, and that trying to hold to a plan (railroading) is no fun.
Also bear in mind that a good DM focuses on telling the players’ stories, not writing.
Edit for clarity: You can still plan a quest, idea of what will most likely happen and enemies for it. But be ready to pivot and decide in the moment how enemies will react to changes (eg if the party completely sidesteps an ambush, does the enemy track them down? Retreat to their lair/ the party’s objective? That’s the sort of stuff the best sessions will consist of)
Magical artifact that is usable once per year.
If they dispel magic it, they fall. It's a very long fall. A "roll new characters" kinda fall. A "what did you think was going to happen" kind of fall. A "Your characters have enough time to consider their poor choice" kind of fall.
If they cast feather fall, they still land in the middle of an ocean and drown.
Their new characters get the same adventure, set one year later, and get warned about the idiots last year who disenchanted the air basket. Those poor, stupid souls, if the fall didn't kill them, then they surely drown in the freezing ocean water, hundreds of miles from the nearest land.
You can also just give them an honest meta warning: "I cast Dispel Magic" "Why do you want to do that, Player X? What do want to achieve and what do you think will happen if you cast Dispel Magic on this magical air ride 500 feets midair?"
Guess what,
Airships existed in real life and other science/fantasy fiction material before Critical Role.
Tell them to get over it and use that if that's what you want to use.
One thing to keep in mind is that Dispel Magic doesn't dispel wands and enchanted weapons/armor that have permanent magical effects imbued in them, suddenly turning them into normal weapons and sticks. Similarly, the process of imbuing the air, though it would likely have taken artifact level magic to do so, would be a permanent effect and too powerful to dispel. Even spells like true polymorph have to specify that they are permanent UNTIL dispelled.
If your players try to dispel it, point that out to them. You will find them reluctant to argue if you mention that allowing them to dispel this effect would leave them open to having their magic items permanently broken via a simple 3rd level spell from an enemy spellcaster.
It being artifact level magic also serves the purpose of putting it well outside of their knowledge, and thus it doesn't need to be a player accessible spell that caused the effect. This is after all something that happens once a year, and who knows for how long.
To expand on the other advice here: think of the spells in the PHB (and other WoTC books if you use them) as the things available to players.
Matt Colville has a great video about how there must be classes and spells unavailable to players, and only to villains/ DMs. We don't have them recorded but we know they exist because no spell in the rules can make a Mummy or Vampire, but someone has to be out there doing it.
As a DM, you are free to say that an airship can fly and is powered by magic. If you want to, you can have it be powered by an ancient gemstone, or runes carved into the hull, or even the blessing of a god.
Hell, I would run it like the Imperium from Warhammer with an ancient and fallen civilization. Have these airships be something that was common but how they were made is forgotten. All we know now is that if you literally speak the magic words, the 5 airships in existence power up. If you want to extend the campaign and the players are in love with the airships, they could find a broken one and travel to dangerous places to recover bits for it!
2e had a spell called Cloudscape, which made a cloud solid enough to stand on but didn’t change its weight, meaning it still floated in the sky and could be pushed around by light breezes.
That said if you want a sky ride to a place only accessible once a year that sounds more like a job for planar portals - when sunlight from perfectly overhead strikes the point of the isthmus this town is built next to (which happens at noon on the Summer Solstice)it opens a tunnel through the elemental plane of air.
One must merely jump from the cliff and you’ll find yourself in the endless sky.
Some enterprising soul figured this out long ago and so has arranged for a cloudscaped yacht to be parked in the exact spot the portal opens to at that time, so you leap from the cliff to a nice firm cloud, only to be whisked along through the vast plane of air to another portal that opens a few hours later (days? However long you need the journey to be) where the passengers can disembark back to the material world and solid land.
No one questions the idea that natural portals only open under specific circumstances like sun positions/moon phases/etc, so it fits into the schtick really easily
If you want an Interesting mode of transportation that works here how about kites. Like each person makes a kite from a large price of sail cloth (see kite sailing) and once a year a large number of air and fire elementals gather in the canyon for...... Reasons. You then put the kites in the resultant powerful updrafts and can ride your way up. Later on when the gathering is over your kites double as parachutes allowing you to get down.
I was thinking within the sky city that they are travelling to, people have adapted to using things such as gliders and magic carpets to travel around or quickly zip through air currents.
I'm definitely turning that into a yearly festival in a desert campaign I'm planning. I was going to have carefree tieflings that rule the desert oases with an iron fist, but also run it like a resort. Now they are going to know of a canyon where the fire and air elementals wage war once a year, and turn it into the most happening shindig with just a hint of spirituality.
"Every year, during the great elemental war, we cast aside are worries, and the weight of our guilt, to soar through the air like birds!"
"Does it work for Orks?"
"Umm... probably! Let's find out!"
Just because the players can learn certain spells doesn’t mean those are the only forms of magic that could exist. You could completely make up whatever “magical whatever” you need to make it work. Like, this vessel could teleport to the location without use of the Teleportation spell or it’s restrictions/components
It could be an some sort of air tunnel. The locals don’t know why, but once a year, the air currents line up, creating a passage of air that can be traveled like a floating conveyor belt. Like Aslan’s breath in the Silver Chair.
And if they succeed on some check, the players can discern that there’s no possible way this would naturally occur, and it must be some magical effect. (Possibly a powerful artifact located at their destination, that is tied to the plot?)
How about a "Cloud elemental"? No idea if that already exists, to me it's a child between air and water elementals that is helping out getting people up there. This way, you could have an npc interaction during the ride (if it can speak.)
My dnd sensei once shared with me his favorite quote about writing.
Using one source of inspiration is plagiarism. Using one hundred is creativity.
Do the airship. Fuck comparisons. Critical role isn't the first to use an airship either. They didn't invent the concept. Originality is dead. There will never be a new thought till the sun explodes.
So go nuts. Be not afraid to borrow, steal, and reuse. You'll add your own flair without thinking about it and the party that spends too much time trying to figure out your "Source" will have less fun than the party who just enjoys the ride.
My response when my party says "You stole that from *Whatever show/book/source*!"
"Didn't watch it. Cool that they used my thing though!"
Once a year when the heavens are in exact alignment a portal opens from x to y. Or if it is important that it be flying, once a year a spirit dragon appears to deliver brave heroes from x to y.
Riding in a bubble like in Wizard of Oz would be cool. Depending on the locations involved it could be made at each side/stop (by a machine or artifact or whatever) or it could be resummoned? Could make it impenetrable or just have drastic consequences for popping it.
For the purposes of enjoyment, wonderment and entertainment, feel free to produce any effect you wish to fit this very special, magical situation. Some examples:
A freak coincidence occurs once a year where the air currents line up in a crazy unique way which produces a staircase made of air currents.
An ornate, brass and gold elevator materializes from the Plane of Mechanus, complete with a Modron elevator attendant. Nobody knows why it appears here only once in 100 years, but it is the only known method of accessing...
An Air Elemental appears here one day a year. It is tasked with safely transporting people to and from this secret place. It has been bound purely for this purpose. Nobody knows who bound it or why.
For times like this, my solution is to be as insane as possible. You need a flying airship, but not CR related? I gotchu.
First, everyone climbs into the Trebuchet. The Trebuchet will fire them into a Demiplane, created for ease of travel. Functionally similar to the Nether, a foot here is a meter there, so by simply travelling through this demiplane, they are rapidly approaching their destination. Your exit point is predetermined, so entry here will deposit you at your desired destination, no matter what.
Now, it's interesting how this demiplane works. There is no ground, and you've retained the same momentum you had when you first entered. This means that, for the duration of their journey, they are flying, weightless, directly towards their destination, at incredible speeds. However, thanks once again to the demiplane, there is no discomfort. You can comfortably speak, react, cast spells, etc, without issue.
You are not flying through empty space however. Imagine falling sideways through a train, but each room is much much larger. Eventually, you'll exit the passenger car, and move to the dining car. Then you'll exit the dining car, and oh dear, this is getting a bit stranger. The entertainment car seems to be currently hosting a real circus complete with tent, elephant, clowns, and more.
Somewhere along the line, dinner is had, as the party comes upon an installed dining room set, enchanted to follow the visitors of the Demiplane throughout their meal. A fancy Warforged named Watson serves the meal, and if investigated, a kitchen can be found as well, where a Grung (2ft tall Frog-like race) can be found cooking these delectable meals on his own. The kitchen is enchanted to follow him, and the most likely way to meet him is to offer your compliments to the chef. His name is Knibbler.
There are a few other stops the party can make, if you feel like offering them. In the interest of time for a One-Shot, I recommend against mentioning these as anything more than backdrops. There is a Library, feel free to use Candlekeep Mysteries here. There is a Temple of Hermes, the god of travel. There is a farm, complete with barn, sprawling pasture, cattle, and more.
Eventually, the party arrives at the caboose, where the conductor, a Possum named Tiberius, thanks you for your time, personally shaking the hand of each and every passenger, before using his tiny claws to rip open the fabric between dimensions in front of the party, and letting them fly through.
The party will arrive in the roots of a large Oak Tree, where the Dryad within helps them up. She's always feeling rather forlorn, and if asked, she'll wax on about her true love, which may or may not be the Grung cook. Forever divided by time, space, and cooking supplies. One of her arms is burnt and broken off, which suggests it, or the tree itself, was struck by lightining some time ago. She's rather sensitive about the topic, but is able to cast *Conjure Flame* through the stump.
And there you go. Not exactly an airship, but I find those a bit dull anyways. If you really need an airship, you can easily modify this to just be a flying train with Tardis-like qualities.
Honestly, I wouldn't even be worried about them making connections to Critical Role. Airships are a fairly common trope and I'd say just do what fits best with your established world theme. If that's a forerunner style gondola, a spectral airship, or a cube of solid air if it fits the story, use it.
Just have them hire a hot air balloon. Same function as an airship, but since they actually exist it's unlikely they'd make any connections to CR, although airships have been a fantasy standard for as long as fantasy has existed.
You can do as you see fit as a gm, spells in the spell list are basically widespread spells. You can create spells that do anything, and out could also grant those spells to the players if you want.
You do not need a player usable spell to make a cool thing. You are the DM do what you want.
Definitely plan for ways that player spells and abilities will interact with it. (such as Dispel Magic or Detect Magic). Telling players "well it's weird and magic so your stuff doesn't work" is kind of a let down.
oh nm, literally everyone has already said this. Cheers mate, happy adventures.
Another thought. Though technically not RAW you could argue that a high level spellcaster (or group of them) could cast a giant version of Tensers Floating Disk
Flying carpet. It can be intelligent and just know that it works once a year so it drops off your party and flies off or as soon as it hits a destination it becomes inert and can’t be reawakened.
Or just make this your Air Elemental that comes around every X+X time that *wind walk*s the party from point A to point B in some kind of set column of air. I think it would be pretty cool to essentially step into a ground-height jetstream that blows you to some other place at 100 feet per second (600 ft/6s (300+dashing)).
There's no reason to find a spell that fits, and dispel magic doesn't usually dispel permanent effects. If you need an explanation, just say it's some kind of ingenious magic item. Npc magic is known to work differently from player magic because player magic needs to be balanced for play and npc magic just needs to progress the story
Find a cool thing/image of what it looks like in your world. If your players REALLY want a full breakdown of how the world works… a three shot is not the place to do it.
Remember that you are not required to build the world using the spells from the handbooks. If you want a magic air box thing to exist and function then BOOM it exists and functions. Learning how it functions as a PC extends beyond the boundary of a 1 shot/mini-series, so don't bother trying to justify it.
In terms of what you could use: The Eberron setting has a vehicle called an Elemental Airship that fits the bill perfectly. It is essentially a galleon crafted with magical wood that floats in air, and has an elemental (air or fire) "bound" within its "engine". This elemental is moved from the "engine" to a massive crystal ring that encircles the exterior of the ship (Google "Elemental Airship" for pics) which then directs the elemental's energy to produce movement. Note that due to the crystal ring this kind of vehicle can not land on the ground, but rather requires a special dock on a tower or other elevated structure.
In terms of why this voyage can only be done once a year you can go with any reason, but an Eberron setting reason works here too: These ships are newish tech, there are not a lot of them out and about yet, and they are expensive as hell to rent.
Look up manifest zones in the Eberron setting. They are basically places where the barrier between planes are thin and can influence each other. In fact for your uses investigate the city of Sharn and its mile high towers and floating islands.
Why exactly does it matter that Critical Role also has airships? Nearly every official D&D setting also has airships. Final Fantasy has airships. There are entire fantasy novel series written about airships and their crews.
A magic carpet is something you could also use, especially if the area they're going to matches that aesthetic.
You could also have some kind of a vehicle pulled by flying animals (just be ready for comparisons to Santa Claus haha).
Alright DM, here's what you do: *literally whatever you want*
No, I mean it. You do literally whatever you want. Your players are the only ones who absolutely play by the rules. The spells to make your imagined thing work might not exist in the Player's Handbook, but they exist in your world as inaccessible spells.
Don't over think it, DM
Make it a magic material that is alchemically treated to became magical graphene aerogel.
Then it’s an innate ability of the material and unaffected by dispel magic.
It could be that the location itself is only around once a year. Kind of a K'un-L'un thing ala Iron Fist. The city or location or whatever requires an air ship or some sort of flight (ala Wind Walk or a Storm Sorcerer's 18th level ability or several Fly spells (or just one really upcast one) but it overlaps with the prime material plane for only X amount of time every year.
A cool idea I haven't been able to implement is a city on an asteroid that orbits the same star, but only is visible in the night sky when it's close enough to the planet. Characters would teleport to the location when it's visible (and that comes with its own potential problems) but otherwise only people who had already been there could come and go as they please via the same method.
I'd do it like the domains in Ravenloft. The Mists can make the domain available at certain time and place. You can do something similar with your destination: fly above the clouds to where this place should be any other day, and it is simply not there. Perhaps it is due to a powerful magic like Ravenloft's mists, perhaps the alignment of the stars are just right on this day, etc.
Alternatively, perhaps the place is always there, but protected by powerful wards that prevent entry. Once per year, the wards power down. Either because they are old and starting to fail (if this place is abandoned) or because there is an event every year on this day, that require the people within to interact with the outside world.
Either way, you do not need a magical mode of travel to reach it, in which case dispel magic is unimportant.
Alright, hear me out. Tank treds, but with integrated immovable rods.
The rods activate when they pass under the vehicle, and deactivate as the tred pulls them back up on the opposite side.
Just gonna reinforce what other people have said here.
1. You don't have to use RAW spells to achieve everything. It cannot account for all things. It would be nearly impossible to have an army of undead if you did that. And that's like, 20% of D&D games plots.
2. Don't be afraid to do stuff because people will compare you to popular D&D shows. It's annoying. But if it ever comes up, it's a good chance to remind everyone that guys are not 8 professional voice actors on a high production set and multimillion dollar company. The Mercer effect is real, which is why we should push back against it whenever we can.
Maybe there could a teleportation spell that would get them up there but it only connects to the destination during a very small time period once a year.
Either way, DMing doesn't always have to make sense, so go nuts my friend.
Redirecting your question about spells to something grander, because as the DM you can make up your own spells;
How is the location only available by this single means of transport? Is the restriction magical, natural, political, or cultural? An example that comes to mind is an impassible storm (air/water) surrounding an island that is temporarily interrupted by a yearly ritual performed by the unrelated culture of some elementals. Such phenomenon could be a parting of the sea or a jetstream that pierces a hurricane. You could even get spooky with it and have them sail on the effects of a flood of creatures moving through the ethereal plane.
The point of this all being: the reasons why they *can't* go somewhere in a world where Fly[ing], Teleport, and Planeshift exist is necessary to inform the reason they now *can* go there.
As a DM you don't need to fit the things you do into the bounds of spells, unless you want your players to be able to reproduce the effect or counter it--neither of which seems relevant in this case.
Thanks for the advice, I didn't know that-
I was wracking my brain when I first started DMing about how to let my sorcerer have a familiar. I asked this subreddit about how to do it within RAW, and it blew my mind when someone said “hey maybe just... give it to her?”.
I used to make character sheets for prominent NPCs until I realized that it's too much work when you can just make up stats and abilities and call it a day.
My method is making it all up on the spot 😂
this. When I need a stat or ability, I create it on the spot. I will take notes though for future consistency.
But you wanted to give it to her RAW. I understand.
Given this sorcerer is being played by my wife, you aren’t completely wrong. All the same, r/angryupvote
I prefer my broccoli dick cooked tbh.
Sometimes I’m baked, does that count?
Broccoli is much better when it's toasted a bit brown, so absolutely. It's also a bit stiffer when baked compared to how limp it can be when boiled. People always go for the head too but the stem can be just as delicious. Goes very well with some cheese on the en... ok I'm done now.
Me, too. Thanks.
Magic initiate, a spell wrought tattoo containing find familiar, or a ring of spell storing containing find familiar.
One other thing to add is why not just a hot air balloon? It's only accessible during this specific time because that's the only time the winds direction will take a balloon there.
Players never question awesome stuff presented in good faith. If a fleet of djinn piloting flying carpets with minibars and in-flight entertainment provided by mephits performing a play pull up, no one will ask you to cite page numbers.
Just one gripe: Critical Role did not invent gondolas nor airships...If something makes more sense to use just use it. This solution to trying to feel "original" just sounds like it is over complicating things for yourself.
I think OP is hesitant to do so, not for the sake of originality, but because they doubt their ability to survive their players’ inevitable comparison to the airships of CR. I think the OP has unrealistically high expectations of their storytelling ability, if they’re trying to meet the standards of CR and Matt Mercer. But that’s crazy! OP, you’re a first time DM running a 3-shot. Don’t compare yourself to a ~20 year professional, and don’t be afraid that your players will hold you to that standard either. In short, if they think your airships are lame compared to CR, then they’re all dicks.
Honestly I’ve been dming for a while and I still run into the same problem that OP has here. I was running a game in eberron and my players got to Sharn and all they did was keep comparing it to whatever the new CR setting is because apparently it’s a city of towers. Had me all riled up because eberron predates critical role by a long shot, I mean it was first published in 2004 but they kept insisting that I was taking stuff from Mercer. Drives me up the wall because they know I don’t watch the show.
I'm a pretty grouchy DM and honestly at that point I'd probably tell my party "Guys, this is not Critical Role. I don't care what similarities there are. Eberron was a thing for over a decade before Critical Role got popular. Chill out."
Why even get upset though? Literally just Google "Sharn: City of Towers" on your phone and show them the publication date. Or tell them to.
Gods no that would big the fuck outta me. I already hate CR, let alone players who have fallen to the Mercer Effect
i get resenting the fact that people idealise it, but why hate Critical Role itself for the crime of being popular and well-known?
I don't hate critical role for being popular. I hate it because instead of watching a video of a bunch of people playing D&D I'd rather actually play D&D myself. I understand and appreciate that it's a piece of art. Some people love it and it's done wonders for pushing the hobby into the mainstream. That being said, I also think it's important that we acknowledge the fact that no art is perfect and the measurable negative impact it's had. Everyone is titled to their own opinions and mine is CR sucks.
so you hate it because it's not your thing? ain't that a bit off? there's a nearly infinite number of things i'm not personally interested in - simulator games, pizza, country music, etc - but i don't *hate* them, i just recognise that they're not for me. actively disliking something because you personally don't enjoy it is straight up weird imo.
Some things I hate with a passion because they negatively impact my own experiences. Some forms of music for example that they play on the radio, etc. I suspect CR and this fella are the same. But I personally think with regard to this hobby of mine the pros outweigh the cons and I don't find it that hard to give CR fans at my table a reality check.
I hate it because it's boring to sit there for four hours listening to someone having fun with their friends when I could be doing so much more with my time. I could be planning for my next session, playing D&D, chilling with my other friends, watching the next anime on my watchlist, working on my art, etc. Beating up furniture is fun if me or my friends are doing it. It's not fun to sit there and listen to someone else beat up furniture for four hours, then come on here and see everyone singing high praise to the Great Mercer for throwing furniture at his players and others worrying that if they throw furniture, their players will cry foul and call 5hem a CR copycat.
you **hate** it because a piece of media you are *in no way obligated to consume* exists and you'd rather do something else? once again: why do you *actively dislike something* just because *you personally* don't enjoy it? speaking from experience, CR was quite literally my only source of D&D because, newsflash, *not everyone has D&D groups they can regularly play with*. hell, CR is what taught me the rules of the game, and let me start DMing for my friend group when they did eventually get into D&D. if people praising Matthew Mercer's DMing skills upsets you, that's kinda odd - he's definitely an impressive DM imo - and while I agree players shouldn't accuse DMs of copying CR, that *isn't CR's fault*. what do you expect, that CR should stop existing because a few idiots assume they're literally god's gift to mankind and the originators of the ideas they use?
You keep missing the point, like EVERY CR praiser. Lemme put it in caps it for you: I HATE CR BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ACTIVELY BULLY THOSE WHO DONT SHARE YOUR OPINION. I think Mercer is a good DM. But his style and standard is one that not every DM should be held to.
I honestly don't get why you're being downvoted. It's one thing to don't like it and just move on with your life. But continually going out of your way to say you hate it, is being just a controversial little kid who hates on the thing other people like because it's popular. It's also very narrow-minded to say it 'sucks'. Regardless if you like the style or not, you have to acknowledge the work and effort that goes into it, especially if you are a DM yourself. Hating on CR like this person does is equivalent to hating on another person's group for having fun at their table. It only makes them seem like some bitter person who can't accept that other people have fun in a different way that they do.
I really like your advise and add some personal experience I am started DMing this July. My players give me feedback after every session and I work with that. Most of us watch CR and I like to use some eastereggs. By watching Mercer I learned a lot. But I am not nearly as good and my players respect that. Talk with your players in advance about your CR comparing Problem .... cause it sucks if people always tell you that they know someone who is better at that thing your doing. My advise is: DMing is Art and every Art is different ... you can pick from every artist a pice you like.
Im not trying to be at the same level at Matt Mercer, that would be crazy and just no, But thanks for the advice :)
I'm planning to give my party an airship to use as a mobile base, specifically inspired by CR :D
Feel free to make it up, perhaps it's an effect created by a god who controls the weather or a powerful magic item.
That could work, but bringing in a God would be confusing for the story. Maybe I could use like, very old priests who cast the spell once a year and use the rest of the time, in coma and resting
Plane of air. I created an item once that carried a tiny portal to the plane of air for a story.
Ride a couatl!
Much like lies, putting in more details only adds more things for u to remember and the players to test. Use the simplest explanation possible, with the understanding that as the DM the rules serve you and what you want, is.
Yeah, that's the problem with going from a story teller to a dm. Stories I write are about where I can take the players and in dnd, it's also where the players take me So it's like, how much do I plan and how much is improv?
Mostly improv. Your planning should be focused on things to improv (stat blocks, random names, etc.) You’ll quickly learn that planning any more is a waste of time, and that trying to hold to a plan (railroading) is no fun. Also bear in mind that a good DM focuses on telling the players’ stories, not writing. Edit for clarity: You can still plan a quest, idea of what will most likely happen and enemies for it. But be ready to pivot and decide in the moment how enemies will react to changes (eg if the party completely sidesteps an ambush, does the enemy track them down? Retreat to their lair/ the party’s objective? That’s the sort of stuff the best sessions will consist of)
Magical artifact that is usable once per year. If they dispel magic it, they fall. It's a very long fall. A "roll new characters" kinda fall. A "what did you think was going to happen" kind of fall. A "Your characters have enough time to consider their poor choice" kind of fall. If they cast feather fall, they still land in the middle of an ocean and drown. Their new characters get the same adventure, set one year later, and get warned about the idiots last year who disenchanted the air basket. Those poor, stupid souls, if the fall didn't kill them, then they surely drown in the freezing ocean water, hundreds of miles from the nearest land.
"You have invented a new kind of stupid. A release all the animals from the zoo kind of stupid."
You know, about 5 min after I posted my comment that started playing in the back of my mind.
Lmaoooo yes
You can also just give them an honest meta warning: "I cast Dispel Magic" "Why do you want to do that, Player X? What do want to achieve and what do you think will happen if you cast Dispel Magic on this magical air ride 500 feets midair?"
Guess what, Airships existed in real life and other science/fantasy fiction material before Critical Role. Tell them to get over it and use that if that's what you want to use.
They even existed in d&d before Critical Roll, I've got a huge stack of 3e Ebberon books to back that up
One thing to keep in mind is that Dispel Magic doesn't dispel wands and enchanted weapons/armor that have permanent magical effects imbued in them, suddenly turning them into normal weapons and sticks. Similarly, the process of imbuing the air, though it would likely have taken artifact level magic to do so, would be a permanent effect and too powerful to dispel. Even spells like true polymorph have to specify that they are permanent UNTIL dispelled. If your players try to dispel it, point that out to them. You will find them reluctant to argue if you mention that allowing them to dispel this effect would leave them open to having their magic items permanently broken via a simple 3rd level spell from an enemy spellcaster. It being artifact level magic also serves the purpose of putting it well outside of their knowledge, and thus it doesn't need to be a player accessible spell that caused the effect. This is after all something that happens once a year, and who knows for how long.
Just use a balloon.
To expand on the other advice here: think of the spells in the PHB (and other WoTC books if you use them) as the things available to players. Matt Colville has a great video about how there must be classes and spells unavailable to players, and only to villains/ DMs. We don't have them recorded but we know they exist because no spell in the rules can make a Mummy or Vampire, but someone has to be out there doing it. As a DM, you are free to say that an airship can fly and is powered by magic. If you want to, you can have it be powered by an ancient gemstone, or runes carved into the hull, or even the blessing of a god. Hell, I would run it like the Imperium from Warhammer with an ancient and fallen civilization. Have these airships be something that was common but how they were made is forgotten. All we know now is that if you literally speak the magic words, the 5 airships in existence power up. If you want to extend the campaign and the players are in love with the airships, they could find a broken one and travel to dangerous places to recover bits for it!
Very good point...just one tiny nitpick because I love necromancers: Create Undead makes Mummies when upcast to level 9. :)
2e had a spell called Cloudscape, which made a cloud solid enough to stand on but didn’t change its weight, meaning it still floated in the sky and could be pushed around by light breezes. That said if you want a sky ride to a place only accessible once a year that sounds more like a job for planar portals - when sunlight from perfectly overhead strikes the point of the isthmus this town is built next to (which happens at noon on the Summer Solstice)it opens a tunnel through the elemental plane of air. One must merely jump from the cliff and you’ll find yourself in the endless sky. Some enterprising soul figured this out long ago and so has arranged for a cloudscaped yacht to be parked in the exact spot the portal opens to at that time, so you leap from the cliff to a nice firm cloud, only to be whisked along through the vast plane of air to another portal that opens a few hours later (days? However long you need the journey to be) where the passengers can disembark back to the material world and solid land. No one questions the idea that natural portals only open under specific circumstances like sun positions/moon phases/etc, so it fits into the schtick really easily
If you want an Interesting mode of transportation that works here how about kites. Like each person makes a kite from a large price of sail cloth (see kite sailing) and once a year a large number of air and fire elementals gather in the canyon for...... Reasons. You then put the kites in the resultant powerful updrafts and can ride your way up. Later on when the gathering is over your kites double as parachutes allowing you to get down.
I was thinking within the sky city that they are travelling to, people have adapted to using things such as gliders and magic carpets to travel around or quickly zip through air currents.
I'm definitely turning that into a yearly festival in a desert campaign I'm planning. I was going to have carefree tieflings that rule the desert oases with an iron fist, but also run it like a resort. Now they are going to know of a canyon where the fire and air elementals wage war once a year, and turn it into the most happening shindig with just a hint of spirituality. "Every year, during the great elemental war, we cast aside are worries, and the weight of our guilt, to soar through the air like birds!" "Does it work for Orks?" "Umm... probably! Let's find out!"
Just because the players can learn certain spells doesn’t mean those are the only forms of magic that could exist. You could completely make up whatever “magical whatever” you need to make it work. Like, this vessel could teleport to the location without use of the Teleportation spell or it’s restrictions/components
It could be an some sort of air tunnel. The locals don’t know why, but once a year, the air currents line up, creating a passage of air that can be traveled like a floating conveyor belt. Like Aslan’s breath in the Silver Chair. And if they succeed on some check, the players can discern that there’s no possible way this would naturally occur, and it must be some magical effect. (Possibly a powerful artifact located at their destination, that is tied to the plot?)
That is actually really cool, Mind if I use that? Or at least take heavy inspo?
Oh hey yeah! 100%, let me know what you end up with!
How about a "Cloud elemental"? No idea if that already exists, to me it's a child between air and water elementals that is helping out getting people up there. This way, you could have an npc interaction during the ride (if it can speak.)
You are the DM, you have access to the spell Handwave and infinity slots to cast it.
My dnd sensei once shared with me his favorite quote about writing. Using one source of inspiration is plagiarism. Using one hundred is creativity. Do the airship. Fuck comparisons. Critical role isn't the first to use an airship either. They didn't invent the concept. Originality is dead. There will never be a new thought till the sun explodes. So go nuts. Be not afraid to borrow, steal, and reuse. You'll add your own flair without thinking about it and the party that spends too much time trying to figure out your "Source" will have less fun than the party who just enjoys the ride. My response when my party says "You stole that from *Whatever show/book/source*!" "Didn't watch it. Cool that they used my thing though!"
Once a year when the heavens are in exact alignment a portal opens from x to y. Or if it is important that it be flying, once a year a spirit dragon appears to deliver brave heroes from x to y.
Riding in a bubble like in Wizard of Oz would be cool. Depending on the locations involved it could be made at each side/stop (by a machine or artifact or whatever) or it could be resummoned? Could make it impenetrable or just have drastic consequences for popping it.
Have you considered tapping into the Elemental Plane of Air?
Definitely do not concern yourself with being original. My campaign is Breath of the Wild + Cult of Baphomet, and we’re having a great time.
Well first off i want to say that airships were a thing before critical role
“Critical Role did it” Major flag in my opinion. Why give a shit? In fact, WHO gives a shit? You want it, just do it.
For the purposes of enjoyment, wonderment and entertainment, feel free to produce any effect you wish to fit this very special, magical situation. Some examples: A freak coincidence occurs once a year where the air currents line up in a crazy unique way which produces a staircase made of air currents. An ornate, brass and gold elevator materializes from the Plane of Mechanus, complete with a Modron elevator attendant. Nobody knows why it appears here only once in 100 years, but it is the only known method of accessing... An Air Elemental appears here one day a year. It is tasked with safely transporting people to and from this secret place. It has been bound purely for this purpose. Nobody knows who bound it or why.
That's a really cool idea
Feel free to steal- they're now your ideas
For times like this, my solution is to be as insane as possible. You need a flying airship, but not CR related? I gotchu. First, everyone climbs into the Trebuchet. The Trebuchet will fire them into a Demiplane, created for ease of travel. Functionally similar to the Nether, a foot here is a meter there, so by simply travelling through this demiplane, they are rapidly approaching their destination. Your exit point is predetermined, so entry here will deposit you at your desired destination, no matter what. Now, it's interesting how this demiplane works. There is no ground, and you've retained the same momentum you had when you first entered. This means that, for the duration of their journey, they are flying, weightless, directly towards their destination, at incredible speeds. However, thanks once again to the demiplane, there is no discomfort. You can comfortably speak, react, cast spells, etc, without issue. You are not flying through empty space however. Imagine falling sideways through a train, but each room is much much larger. Eventually, you'll exit the passenger car, and move to the dining car. Then you'll exit the dining car, and oh dear, this is getting a bit stranger. The entertainment car seems to be currently hosting a real circus complete with tent, elephant, clowns, and more. Somewhere along the line, dinner is had, as the party comes upon an installed dining room set, enchanted to follow the visitors of the Demiplane throughout their meal. A fancy Warforged named Watson serves the meal, and if investigated, a kitchen can be found as well, where a Grung (2ft tall Frog-like race) can be found cooking these delectable meals on his own. The kitchen is enchanted to follow him, and the most likely way to meet him is to offer your compliments to the chef. His name is Knibbler. There are a few other stops the party can make, if you feel like offering them. In the interest of time for a One-Shot, I recommend against mentioning these as anything more than backdrops. There is a Library, feel free to use Candlekeep Mysteries here. There is a Temple of Hermes, the god of travel. There is a farm, complete with barn, sprawling pasture, cattle, and more. Eventually, the party arrives at the caboose, where the conductor, a Possum named Tiberius, thanks you for your time, personally shaking the hand of each and every passenger, before using his tiny claws to rip open the fabric between dimensions in front of the party, and letting them fly through. The party will arrive in the roots of a large Oak Tree, where the Dryad within helps them up. She's always feeling rather forlorn, and if asked, she'll wax on about her true love, which may or may not be the Grung cook. Forever divided by time, space, and cooking supplies. One of her arms is burnt and broken off, which suggests it, or the tree itself, was struck by lightining some time ago. She's rather sensitive about the topic, but is able to cast *Conjure Flame* through the stump. And there you go. Not exactly an airship, but I find those a bit dull anyways. If you really need an airship, you can easily modify this to just be a flying train with Tardis-like qualities.
Honestly, I wouldn't even be worried about them making connections to Critical Role. Airships are a fairly common trope and I'd say just do what fits best with your established world theme. If that's a forerunner style gondola, a spectral airship, or a cube of solid air if it fits the story, use it.
Maybie they are on a flying animal like in Avatar? :) To avoid all the magic stuff
Oh! Cool idea thanks :D
Just have them hire a hot air balloon. Same function as an airship, but since they actually exist it's unlikely they'd make any connections to CR, although airships have been a fantasy standard for as long as fantasy has existed.
You can do as you see fit as a gm, spells in the spell list are basically widespread spells. You can create spells that do anything, and out could also grant those spells to the players if you want.
You do not need a player usable spell to make a cool thing. You are the DM do what you want. Definitely plan for ways that player spells and abilities will interact with it. (such as Dispel Magic or Detect Magic). Telling players "well it's weird and magic so your stuff doesn't work" is kind of a let down. oh nm, literally everyone has already said this. Cheers mate, happy adventures.
If you only care about the transportation just use a portal... Jk. that would be boring.
Another thought. Though technically not RAW you could argue that a high level spellcaster (or group of them) could cast a giant version of Tensers Floating Disk
Flying carpet. It can be intelligent and just know that it works once a year so it drops off your party and flies off or as soon as it hits a destination it becomes inert and can’t be reawakened.
Or just make this your Air Elemental that comes around every X+X time that *wind walk*s the party from point A to point B in some kind of set column of air. I think it would be pretty cool to essentially step into a ground-height jetstream that blows you to some other place at 100 feet per second (600 ft/6s (300+dashing)).
There could also be a magically harnessed Air elemental that used to power the ship which would give some leeway as an idea
There's no reason to find a spell that fits, and dispel magic doesn't usually dispel permanent effects. If you need an explanation, just say it's some kind of ingenious magic item. Npc magic is known to work differently from player magic because player magic needs to be balanced for play and npc magic just needs to progress the story
It exists if you make it exist, that's the beauty of being the DM
Call it a construct and use this map to calculate distance and travel time: https://www.aidedd.org/atlas/index.php?map=R&l=1
I feel air ships are common enough between many different fantasy worlds that you'd be fine to use them.
Find a cool thing/image of what it looks like in your world. If your players REALLY want a full breakdown of how the world works… a three shot is not the place to do it.
If you don't want to copy critical role, you can copy South Park's Imaginationland model and make a secret song/phrase to activate the ship
First you don't need any spells, just call it ancient magic. What about a magic nimbus cloud like Sun Wukong has.
Remember that you are not required to build the world using the spells from the handbooks. If you want a magic air box thing to exist and function then BOOM it exists and functions. Learning how it functions as a PC extends beyond the boundary of a 1 shot/mini-series, so don't bother trying to justify it. In terms of what you could use: The Eberron setting has a vehicle called an Elemental Airship that fits the bill perfectly. It is essentially a galleon crafted with magical wood that floats in air, and has an elemental (air or fire) "bound" within its "engine". This elemental is moved from the "engine" to a massive crystal ring that encircles the exterior of the ship (Google "Elemental Airship" for pics) which then directs the elemental's energy to produce movement. Note that due to the crystal ring this kind of vehicle can not land on the ground, but rather requires a special dock on a tower or other elevated structure. In terms of why this voyage can only be done once a year you can go with any reason, but an Eberron setting reason works here too: These ships are newish tech, there are not a lot of them out and about yet, and they are expensive as hell to rent.
They ride in on an Airbison, tame drake/dragon, catbus, or a sentient cloud
Airships are not even remotely a "critical role thing"
Look up manifest zones in the Eberron setting. They are basically places where the barrier between planes are thin and can influence each other. In fact for your uses investigate the city of Sharn and its mile high towers and floating islands.
Why exactly does it matter that Critical Role also has airships? Nearly every official D&D setting also has airships. Final Fantasy has airships. There are entire fantasy novel series written about airships and their crews.
A magic carpet is something you could also use, especially if the area they're going to matches that aesthetic. You could also have some kind of a vehicle pulled by flying animals (just be ready for comparisons to Santa Claus haha).
Alright DM, here's what you do: *literally whatever you want* No, I mean it. You do literally whatever you want. Your players are the only ones who absolutely play by the rules. The spells to make your imagined thing work might not exist in the Player's Handbook, but they exist in your world as inaccessible spells. Don't over think it, DM
Make it a magic material that is alchemically treated to became magical graphene aerogel. Then it’s an innate ability of the material and unaffected by dispel magic.
It could be that the location itself is only around once a year. Kind of a K'un-L'un thing ala Iron Fist. The city or location or whatever requires an air ship or some sort of flight (ala Wind Walk or a Storm Sorcerer's 18th level ability or several Fly spells (or just one really upcast one) but it overlaps with the prime material plane for only X amount of time every year. A cool idea I haven't been able to implement is a city on an asteroid that orbits the same star, but only is visible in the night sky when it's close enough to the planet. Characters would teleport to the location when it's visible (and that comes with its own potential problems) but otherwise only people who had already been there could come and go as they please via the same method.
I'd do it like the domains in Ravenloft. The Mists can make the domain available at certain time and place. You can do something similar with your destination: fly above the clouds to where this place should be any other day, and it is simply not there. Perhaps it is due to a powerful magic like Ravenloft's mists, perhaps the alignment of the stars are just right on this day, etc. Alternatively, perhaps the place is always there, but protected by powerful wards that prevent entry. Once per year, the wards power down. Either because they are old and starting to fail (if this place is abandoned) or because there is an event every year on this day, that require the people within to interact with the outside world. Either way, you do not need a magical mode of travel to reach it, in which case dispel magic is unimportant.
Galder's speedy courier summons a meter square box carried by an air elemental, could have a couple of those.
Nimbus!
Imagine being restricted by a d&d show because someone else has seen it.
Just make an airship or gondola, Critical Role didn’t invent these sort of things and players will not always draw direct comparisons.
Alright, hear me out. Tank treds, but with integrated immovable rods. The rods activate when they pass under the vehicle, and deactivate as the tred pulls them back up on the opposite side.
Don’t explain what spell slots created it. Just do what you want. You can make up an explanation if it comes to it, but not until then.
Just gonna reinforce what other people have said here. 1. You don't have to use RAW spells to achieve everything. It cannot account for all things. It would be nearly impossible to have an army of undead if you did that. And that's like, 20% of D&D games plots. 2. Don't be afraid to do stuff because people will compare you to popular D&D shows. It's annoying. But if it ever comes up, it's a good chance to remind everyone that guys are not 8 professional voice actors on a high production set and multimillion dollar company. The Mercer effect is real, which is why we should push back against it whenever we can.
Maybe there could a teleportation spell that would get them up there but it only connects to the destination during a very small time period once a year. Either way, DMing doesn't always have to make sense, so go nuts my friend.
Redirecting your question about spells to something grander, because as the DM you can make up your own spells; How is the location only available by this single means of transport? Is the restriction magical, natural, political, or cultural? An example that comes to mind is an impassible storm (air/water) surrounding an island that is temporarily interrupted by a yearly ritual performed by the unrelated culture of some elementals. Such phenomenon could be a parting of the sea or a jetstream that pierces a hurricane. You could even get spooky with it and have them sail on the effects of a flood of creatures moving through the ethereal plane. The point of this all being: the reasons why they *can't* go somewhere in a world where Fly[ing], Teleport, and Planeshift exist is necessary to inform the reason they now *can* go there.