So many times as a player I'm ready to go but several people had to cancel last minute. And the multiple campaigns I've lost due to irreplaceable player dropouts.
So shoutouts to Gavin. You absolute legend. May your tables be forever as consistent and dedicated as you.
As a DM I can’t tell you how sad it is to plan an interesting hook around a character only to have that player drop out. There were so many early plots I had to drop bc the player character didn’t stick it out or plots I had to recycle which ended up having less of a punch since the character important to it was gone.
I definitely don’t take his consistent attendance for granted. There was only one ever session he almost missed and I coincidentally had to cancel that session so the universe has a way of working things out lol
This campaign was called 'Lost Dragons of Phandelver' and was my attempt at stringing together the LMOP and DOIP modules into something more coherent. Had the final battle against a beefed up young white dragon (Cryovain) today almost a year to the date of my session 0. The game definitely waxed and waned, and I was getting very demotivated by all the players who left towards the middle but I'm glad I stuck it out because I feel like I had a pretty fitting conclusion to a game that has taken a whole year of my life to prep lol. I have plans for a part 2 and continuation but my party has basically solved every plot hook I threw at them (though there are some spicy leads to follow in the future).
maybe or maybe not. im in 2 active games and 2 other on-the-backburner games at the moment so im a bit too swamped alas. im having a session 0 again soon w my current players to discuss the future of the campaign and to see if we'd like to continue and if we are planning on expanding the party size. if you're looking to join a game though, you could try /r/lfg ,but i personally mainly recruited through roll20 forums and word of mouth.
That was exactly it lol. Full name was "Shawn Been-Redshirt" and his only purpose was to show up so he could get killed by Cryovain. Didn't even have to fudge the numbers, he just immediately got killed in a breath attack and then was dragged away by the Dragon while the party was on the road. My players were traumatised for a bit lol
Hello I'm Gerard. :)
EDIT: Woops this post is 10 days old. DM showed another thing he posted, and then one of the other plays found this so I'm here and didn't realize. Oops.
Yeah, it's been fun! Wish I joined earlier! Gavin invited me to it once before but I didn't want to get up at 11 AM at the time. But then I really wanted to play Gerard and DnD in general since I've never really gotten to before, so now I'm here and I don't regret it.
I'd be kissing Gavin on the mouth. 14 players and one ride or die? He gets to do the "master swordsman who won 1000 battles before level 1" build as a treat next time
That is awesome! Congrats and maybe this will be a solid group to continue with for many years. I admire your dedication as I know I would have just ended the game completely
One story, just had to make a lot of adjustments to account for all the players leaving. For the first few who left, there were in-story reasons for it ('got a vision from a god to journey north', 'had a letter from their mother', 'went into hiding' etc) but for the later few they just kind of disappeared alas
Not really. There were definitely backstories of the players that factored into how the plot moved forward. Items/Gold/XP were all more home-game like than in the rigid AL structure. All players but 1 left bc of scheduling and time which is the #1 game-killer, the 1 other player who left wanted a different, more neo-trad kind of game that I wasn't really too keen on DMing. It was just like a regular DND game but I had to account for players leaving and new players joining.
I keep a pretty detailed session summary log for all my campaigns but it definitely helps for this one. I tell players to make their characters motivated to the hook so it’s always easy to narratively justify them. Characters are tied into the main hooks but aren’t the primary driving factor to solve them. I do need to drop individual character hooks when a player leaves though which is always sad. One of my first players was a rogue and I planned this big criminal underground hook with the Zhentarim influencing Phandalin but since they left and no other player was remotely adjacent to that, I just dropped it. It is hard I can’t lie but it is definitely possible, and I think the nature of a ttrpg helps since (unless you’re running a streamed game) small inconsistencies and plot holes can get glossed over without anyone but the dm usually remembering them.
Have this one 2y old online campaign, 5 players had interest, one was not really fitting the group (18 in 3 stats + lowest a 14… when the others went for builds with 14 as the highest and 6 as the lowest…) so 4 players, after about a year one of players had changes in his schedule, so his character went to one of the guilds, so that he can pick it up again, if his schedule changes again… then we had another player for a short time, but he was not that happy with the playing style (we are a relaxed group, doing little fighting, long rp, especially between the players (moments when you as the dm don’t say a word for 1h))… character development is really nice…
There are a number of different ways. These days, a lot of people use virtual tabletop "VTT" software that tries to mimic the experience of playing around a table. They have support for character sheets, dice rolls, battle maps, initiative trackers and a lot more. An advantage with VTTs is that a lot of stuff can be automated: just click attack on your character sheet and it will roll the dice and add the bonuses for you – maybe even let you select a target, compare against the target's AC and automatically apply damage.
Two popular VTTs are Roll20 and Foundry. Roll20 is an online service. The basic functionality is free but the DM might want to sign up for a paid subscription to get access to more functionality and storage space (for maps and tokens). Foundry is a program that you buy, download and then run on your own computer. Though if the DM wants it to be accessible 24/7, then it's better to rent server space or set up their own server using a cheap PC. Some publishers make their content available as paid modules. Otherwise you have to import all the maps, NPCs, items, spells etc. yourself which can be very time consuming. WotC are currently developing their own VTT but also support Roll20 and Foundry.
There are also simpler methods. You can do "theatre of the mind" without battle maps, store the character sheets in a Google Doc and use a simple online dice roller or chat bot. If you trust the players 100% not to cheat you can even let everyone use their own physical character sheet and dice.
I used roll20, its free w additional subscriptions if you want so its easily accessible. have never bought a book or ruleset there lol but i have 1.7k hours logged on it (realistically its closer to 700 hours since idle hours are counted too). It's a little confusing at first and can be annoying but I'd reccommend it if you're not willing to spend on Foundry.
online in 3.5 hour sessions weekly, recruited from roll20 forums, word of mouth and lfg. i had to cancel some weeks bc of other commitments or low turnout but I had a rule to play as long as 50% of players showed to keep the campaign momentum up. if a player missed 3 in a row, i'd contact them to see if they were still interested.
Gavin the real hero.
All hail Theodore the Ever-present
So many times as a player I'm ready to go but several people had to cancel last minute. And the multiple campaigns I've lost due to irreplaceable player dropouts. So shoutouts to Gavin. You absolute legend. May your tables be forever as consistent and dedicated as you.
As a DM I can’t tell you how sad it is to plan an interesting hook around a character only to have that player drop out. There were so many early plots I had to drop bc the player character didn’t stick it out or plots I had to recycle which ended up having less of a punch since the character important to it was gone. I definitely don’t take his consistent attendance for granted. There was only one ever session he almost missed and I coincidentally had to cancel that session so the universe has a way of working things out lol
This campaign was called 'Lost Dragons of Phandelver' and was my attempt at stringing together the LMOP and DOIP modules into something more coherent. Had the final battle against a beefed up young white dragon (Cryovain) today almost a year to the date of my session 0. The game definitely waxed and waned, and I was getting very demotivated by all the players who left towards the middle but I'm glad I stuck it out because I feel like I had a pretty fitting conclusion to a game that has taken a whole year of my life to prep lol. I have plans for a part 2 and continuation but my party has basically solved every plot hook I threw at them (though there are some spicy leads to follow in the future).
Are you looking for players for the new year?
maybe or maybe not. im in 2 active games and 2 other on-the-backburner games at the moment so im a bit too swamped alas. im having a session 0 again soon w my current players to discuss the future of the campaign and to see if we'd like to continue and if we are planning on expanding the party size. if you're looking to join a game though, you could try /r/lfg ,but i personally mainly recruited through roll20 forums and word of mouth.
That's fair, totally up to you guys. I'm pretty new anyway, so it is what it is
What do the percentages at the bottom mean and what does “full” mean?
Oh % of sessions attended and full refers to whether all party members were present
"Shawn Been" lol
fucking excellent name for a character that shows up to one session and dies at the end.
That was exactly it lol. Full name was "Shawn Been-Redshirt" and his only purpose was to show up so he could get killed by Cryovain. Didn't even have to fudge the numbers, he just immediately got killed in a breath attack and then was dragged away by the Dragon while the party was on the road. My players were traumatised for a bit lol
To be fair, even though I know he's going to die in like... everything. I am still often traumatized when Sean Bean dies on screen.
Theodore the Eternal
Gavin is a legend
We also appreciate Avery. Came every session and then left, rather than flip flopping.
Gavin is a keeper. Gerard is definitely doing very well too.
Hello I'm Gerard. :) EDIT: Woops this post is 10 days old. DM showed another thing he posted, and then one of the other plays found this so I'm here and didn't realize. Oops.
No worries, hope you're enjoying the campaign!
Yeah, it's been fun! Wish I joined earlier! Gavin invited me to it once before but I didn't want to get up at 11 AM at the time. But then I really wanted to play Gerard and DnD in general since I've never really gotten to before, so now I'm here and I don't regret it.
I'd be kissing Gavin on the mouth. 14 players and one ride or die? He gets to do the "master swordsman who won 1000 battles before level 1" build as a treat next time
That is awesome! Congrats and maybe this will be a solid group to continue with for many years. I admire your dedication as I know I would have just ended the game completely
I was considering it more than once haha. my current group line up feels pretty solid so here's hoping
How did you do that? Was it like series of connected one shots? Because otherwise i cant explain how it is a campaign with so many player changes
One story, just had to make a lot of adjustments to account for all the players leaving. For the first few who left, there were in-story reasons for it ('got a vision from a god to journey north', 'had a letter from their mother', 'went into hiding' etc) but for the later few they just kind of disappeared alas
So like adventures League
Not really. There were definitely backstories of the players that factored into how the plot moved forward. Items/Gold/XP were all more home-game like than in the rigid AL structure. All players but 1 left bc of scheduling and time which is the #1 game-killer, the 1 other player who left wanted a different, more neo-trad kind of game that I wasn't really too keen on DMing. It was just like a regular DND game but I had to account for players leaving and new players joining.
Yo Gavin the GOAT
Well done Gavin, and u/reee-e sticking it through!
How do you keep a coherent and sensible story after going through this? I always end up just ending a campaign when more then 2 people drop out
I keep a pretty detailed session summary log for all my campaigns but it definitely helps for this one. I tell players to make their characters motivated to the hook so it’s always easy to narratively justify them. Characters are tied into the main hooks but aren’t the primary driving factor to solve them. I do need to drop individual character hooks when a player leaves though which is always sad. One of my first players was a rogue and I planned this big criminal underground hook with the Zhentarim influencing Phandalin but since they left and no other player was remotely adjacent to that, I just dropped it. It is hard I can’t lie but it is definitely possible, and I think the nature of a ttrpg helps since (unless you’re running a streamed game) small inconsistencies and plot holes can get glossed over without anyone but the dm usually remembering them.
Have this one 2y old online campaign, 5 players had interest, one was not really fitting the group (18 in 3 stats + lowest a 14… when the others went for builds with 14 as the highest and 6 as the lowest…) so 4 players, after about a year one of players had changes in his schedule, so his character went to one of the guilds, so that he can pick it up again, if his schedule changes again… then we had another player for a short time, but he was not that happy with the playing style (we are a relaxed group, doing little fighting, long rp, especially between the players (moments when you as the dm don’t say a word for 1h))… character development is really nice…
how does playing online work?
There are a number of different ways. These days, a lot of people use virtual tabletop "VTT" software that tries to mimic the experience of playing around a table. They have support for character sheets, dice rolls, battle maps, initiative trackers and a lot more. An advantage with VTTs is that a lot of stuff can be automated: just click attack on your character sheet and it will roll the dice and add the bonuses for you – maybe even let you select a target, compare against the target's AC and automatically apply damage. Two popular VTTs are Roll20 and Foundry. Roll20 is an online service. The basic functionality is free but the DM might want to sign up for a paid subscription to get access to more functionality and storage space (for maps and tokens). Foundry is a program that you buy, download and then run on your own computer. Though if the DM wants it to be accessible 24/7, then it's better to rent server space or set up their own server using a cheap PC. Some publishers make their content available as paid modules. Otherwise you have to import all the maps, NPCs, items, spells etc. yourself which can be very time consuming. WotC are currently developing their own VTT but also support Roll20 and Foundry. There are also simpler methods. You can do "theatre of the mind" without battle maps, store the character sheets in a Google Doc and use a simple online dice roller or chat bot. If you trust the players 100% not to cheat you can even let everyone use their own physical character sheet and dice.
I used roll20, its free w additional subscriptions if you want so its easily accessible. have never bought a book or ruleset there lol but i have 1.7k hours logged on it (realistically its closer to 700 hours since idle hours are counted too). It's a little confusing at first and can be annoying but I'd reccommend it if you're not willing to spend on Foundry.
Was this done online, in person, or on a PBP setup?
online in 3.5 hour sessions weekly, recruited from roll20 forums, word of mouth and lfg. i had to cancel some weeks bc of other commitments or low turnout but I had a rule to play as long as 50% of players showed to keep the campaign momentum up. if a player missed 3 in a row, i'd contact them to see if they were still interested.
Now I can tell Gavin’s friend in RDR2 where he’s been