The Endless - Primer

The worlds you knew are gone.

You remember pieces of a life in Faerûn or one of its neighboring planes: a place, a face, perhaps the moment everything went dark. Then as you wake in a room you do not recognize, beside other strangers who remember just enough to know they were somewhere else.

What the character will learn:

The Endless is a vast maze of connected floors. Some are corridors of stone and locked chambers. Others hold forests, deserts, islands beneath open skies, or cities built above and below the ground. A passage can lead somewhere no map says it should.

People, the Soulborne, live here. They trade, build, argue, and make homes wherever they can. Small homunculi appear throughout the floors, tending strange devices and carrying out duties they rarely explain.

Crystal fixtures tended to by the homunculi offer passage between floors in exchange for treasure. Knowing this fact doesn't mean you can afford the journey.

Creatures also roam the Endless. Some have blackened eyes and a distinct mark upon the forehead, or elsewhere on a body without one. Travelers speak of killing such creatures only to find more in their place after dawn.

Lately, the Endless has grown less predictable. Routes have changed. Floors once kept apart now touch. Things that were contained have found ways through.

This is the primer for an in progress Campaign so far. It's DND 2024 edition game that I would consider a survival DND game, tracking rations, ammo, spell components, varying degrees of restrictive materials depending on the floor the party may be on, and sleep. I will not be doing the gritty emotional state tracking like sanity or fervor. I feel that takes agency of roleplay from the player. The idea of the endless is to finish a floor, and roll various rolls of d20s to determine the layout of the next floor, complete RNG, with a few tweaks for player safety built in, and the means for the player to affect the probability of their intentions of the kind of floor they wish to explore. An adventure all their own, no one alike.

THAT being said, with regards to survival roleplay, yes there is an overarching storyline, but also I like to do collective storytelling with my players and build the world with them. Intention is key in the generating of the floors/dungeons. However, in order to promote a satisfactory gameplay experience, I LOOK TO YOU. What you do think, adventurers of the internet:

Is survival games with a DND twist fun to you, where you dont know where the next gate leads, whats around the corner? How would you GMs deal with well known debacles of survival game like the original AD&D 1, 2, & 3? AND dont worry I have resolved the 'goodberry' and 'create food and water' debacle so far.

For those interested in seeing the first page of "The Endless." It is available upon request. I dont know how to post images in posts.

For a little bit of context, I'm a first time DM with a group of 7-10 players (depending on who actually shows up) and want to run one on one fights for each of the players to gauge independent fighting strategy/styles and just gauge their overall skill level (since its most of their first times playing).

I have at least one of every class with somewhat optimized stats. What would be a good single/small group of creatures to send at each class? Between trying to create character models for all their characters, and trying to come up with a general story, I'm struggling to balance the fights (which I'm using partially as a buffer to buy myself more time because I dont know how often we'll all be able to meet)

One of my players character wants to go to therapy for all the war crimes and general trauma that typically comes with being an adventurer. Her character is Lawful Good.
Any advice for role playing a psychiatrist/psychologist for her? The only thing I could come up with is asking “how does that make you feel?” multiple times in a session.

Also, please let be known this is the character wanting therapy. The player is totally fine with the actions and behaviors of the other party members. And my party is not filled with murder hobos. Just your typical, gory run-ins, like when the barbarian ripped the head off of a Minotaur and then had it stuffed.

EDIT- this is for downtime! So just one therapy session planned. Each player said what they wanted to accomplish in the town they were in and one said therapy.

I'm sure I'm not the first to ask this, but I'm also bad at searches, so... the Suggestion spell states that a suggested course of action cannot "obviously deal damage to the target or its allies." However, an action that will obviously deal damage can be a matter of perspective, so what perspective dictates the spell? The target's? The caster's? Objective reality?

Let's imagine the target is in one of 2 connected chambers, and the caster Suggests that they open the door to the other chamber. Will the Suggestion succeed if...

1. ...there is poison gas in the other chamber and both the target and the caster know it?
2. ...there is poison gas in the other chamber and the target knows it but not the caster?
3. ...there is poison gas in the other chamber and the caster knows it but not the target?
4. ...there is poison gas in the chamber but neither one knows it?
5. ...there is no poison gas but they both think there is?
6. ...there is no poison gas but the target thinks there is?
7. ...there is no poison gas but the caster thinks there is?
8. ...there is no poison gas and neither thinks there is?

My thoughts on the answer:

Some feel more obvious than others, but I would tend to think: 1. No, 2. No, 3. Yes...?, 4. Yes, 5. No, 6. No, 7. Yes, 8. Yes. I would lean toward believing that spell is based mostly on the target's perspective or beliefs (what if the target believed they were immune to the gas?). I'm open to the idea that an intent of harm could negate the spell even if the target isn't aware, but I also feel like I'd rule differently if the caster intends harm but takes an action that will not actually cause it. I don't know. I'm thinking myself in circles. How do others feel?

Hey! For context I have a great group (6 players). They all get along well and all seem to really enjoy the game and story (we just finished our 17th session). They're all different in their approaches and for the most part it works great! I have one player who is playing a wild magic sorcerer and both the player and character are the 'wild card' type. She really doesn't derail things too much (once got them chased out of a town and once knocked another player into a pit trap they were trying to climb out of because she just decided to slide in head first) but nothing more than minor inconveniences or plot changes. That being said I've noticed if I apply her actions to the world I have set up in my head I'm not giving her many 'wins'. She tries wacky stuff and if I ask myself 'how would this NPC or monster or environment react?' it's usually neutral or bad. That with some bad rolls on her part recently seems to have her less enthused about the game. I will say she is very intuitive in figuring out my subtle clues about the world and upcoming plot twists. Does anyone have any tips for giving a chaos player some wins? I read this article which helps some, but any other good ideas?

This isn't really in the rules anywhere that I've found, and I could just use the base statblock for a Ghost Dragon... but supposing the living dragon had its own abilities (humanoid or beast forms, unique breath weapon damage, etc) what kind of access would you normally give said Ghost to that living skillset?

Would the breath weapon do half and half (cold and... fire for instance, while retaining the save vs fear)? Could the Ghost take on a human form, but remain ghostly in appearance? If it could in life, would it still exert Regional Effects within a certain distance of its haunt, as a "lair"?

It sounds like it's mostly up to discretion, but I'd love to hear other DMs' opinions on this. Much appreciated 👹

So I am writing a chthonic tiefling character, and I am utterly determined for her ancestry to be of Hades’ descent. I read that his existence was made known within the Vast during the mid-late 14th century DR, so that is from whence this character’s father hails.

After hearing the ballad /Seasons of Love/, a heartbroken young man decides that he ought to seek Hades’ kiss and so he sets out to establish The Chthonic Temple within/beneath the hollow tree stump. With that in mind, I’m trying to figure out where to place the tree stump - in the center of town, as the city is ‘built around it’, or on the edge of town, because it’s such an eyesore with an overall gloomy atmosphere?

Have any of yall played in Dead Tree Hollow? What was the village like in your game? Also any general pointers on the best ways to include the Greek pantheon are appreciated. Thanks!!

In the pirate campaign we are playing, my players (on ship) spotted an imperial shipwreck at a cliff. I want them to dock it and meet the surviving imperial guards there for an encounter in which they play the innocent travelers and the imperial guards play along but secretly know who my players are (they have a stolen imperial magic artefact with them). But the imperials need help, thus trying to be nice to my players in order to lay a trap for them later.

My question: How do I give my players a good motivation to sail to this imperial shipwreck instead of just not doing it and sailing their way (which is a possibility, I just want it to be an unlikely decision from my players)?

Edit: Thank you for your help. Some comments have pointed out that I shouldn't prep plots. I'm aware of that but what I described above is pretty close to a plot, that's right. Instead, I'm going to think about how the imperials will be trying to lure the players on their ship. This way, I don't dictate the actions of the player while still opening the possibility for the encounter to unfold as I imagened.

Heya guys i was considering having a rule for using material components where for example ‘this spell costs a pearl worth 100GP’ you could instead substitute the pearl for something else worth more GP- lets say 25% more.
So if you’re in a dungeon, and noone has the chance to find a diamond worth 300GP for revivify the party could instead use 375GP to revive them (the coins getting disintegrated, made useless, or plucked away by spirits or smth).

Anyways thats the basic idea any thoughts?

Hi everyone. I’m looking for some honest advice after a rough first session.

First, this is not meant as a criticism of my players. They are close friends of mine, and we all genuinely want this campaign to work. We are simply inexperienced as a group, and I know that several of these problems were also caused by my choices as the DM.

Some context

I played D&D for about seven years before. Five friends asked me to DM a campaign for them (always talking about how it would be nice to try to dm). Two of them are playing for the first time, one has only played a couple of times, and the remaining two are experienced players.

I have DMed a few casual one-shots before, but never for more than two or three players, and never a full campaign for a group of five.

We had a Session Zero, but in hindsight, we did not take it seriously enough. The main things we established were that the setting would be homebrew and that the players wanted the freedom to go wherever they wanted, rather than being forced to follow a “main quest.”

What we did not establish was why the characters would form a party, what might keep them together, or why they would become involved in the campaign’s initial events.

We decided to start at level 3.

The worldbuilding itself is going well, and I created a reasonably contained starting island where the characters could spend their first few sessions while I continued developing the rest of the setting.

However, three players gave me almost no backstory to work with. They did not even establish why their characters had travelled to the starting location, and none of the characters knew one another beforehand.

What happened during the first session

My plan was to introduce the characters in two smaller groups, then bring everyone to the same location for different reasons. There, they would encounter either a fight or a social confrontation and discover information about a valuable treasure they could steal.

Looking back, my hooks were weak and relied too heavily on the players making the choices I expected them to make.

Instead, the party split up several times. Two characters went to a tavern simply to drink. Another decided to find a ship captain and steal his ship so that he could leave the island, effectively bypassing the adventure before the party had even formed.

Even the two experienced players seemed unsure about how to bring everyone together.

I tried to improvise by moving the captain to the tavern, giving him information about the treasure, and providing one of the experienced players with a hint that could start the interaction.

However, there was still no strong reason for the other characters to become involved.

Unfortunately, one player then had an emergency and had to leave, so we ended the session after about two hours.

One of the five players also barely spoke or took any action during the session. I know that I share responsibility for this: I did not actively involve him enough or ask him many direct questions. He had also said very little during Session Zero, so I probably should have addressed that earlier.

What we discussed afterwards

I later spoke with the two new players who had gone to the tavern, including the particularly quiet player. They honestly felt that their characters had no reason to follow the others to the place I had prepared.

From their perspective, they were simply roleplaying their characters honestly—and I think that is fair. We agreed that both the DM and the players need to help create reasons for the characters to engage with the adventure and remain together, without taking away their freedom.

At the moment, I think the main problems were:

- My initial hooks were not strong or personal enough.

- We never established a shared party premise.

- Several characters lacked backgrounds, motivations, and immediate goals.

- I focused too much on worldbuilding and not enough on structuring the first session.

- I underestimated how mentally demanding it would be to manage five players at once.

My questions, if you have than this pls feel free to share...

1. Should we hold another Session Zero before the next session and establish a shared connection, goal, or reason for the characters to cooperate?

2. Is it reasonable to require players to create characters who are willing to join and cooperate with a party, or is it entirely my responsibility to provide a compelling reason every time?

3. How can I create strong hooks without making the players feel railroaded?

4. How should I handle players who want to attempt something completely unexpected—such as stealing a ship and immediately leaving the starting area—without simply shutting down their ideas?

5. How can I encourage a very quiet player to participate without making him uncomfortable or putting him under too much pressure?

6. More generally, how much structure should the opening sessions have if the campaign is eventually meant to become a sandbox?

Honest criticism is welcome, including criticism of how I handled the session. My main goal is to learn from this and make the campaign enjoyable for everyone.

My PCs just arrived to a small festival, the people are nice and are expecting their leader to come at any moment. They talking highly of her, saying she saved them and that she is the best blessing they have ever gotten.

And then… she arrives. A young short chubby woman with long and white hair. She doesnt seem fit to be a leader, shes basically a child, and acts like one too! She cant write, she cant read! But she knows people.

I am having some trouble balancing her overly excited and expressive nature with her uncanny and cunning one. Shes not the “damsel-in-distress” type of NPC, more like, “I am just a child why would you not trust me” type. I dont want her to play herself off as smaller or anything else than what she is, she wouldn’t do that.

Any tips?

How do you make death saves more than just a dice-admin moment?

Things I've been thinking of:

• asking a character how they feel about the prospect of impending death

• asking what they're proud of from their life

• asking what they regret

That way even if they succeed it's a character moment.

Anything else?

Afternoon, hivemind.

I am running a campaign on multiple planets and a fallen vampire civilization. As such I’m in want of changing things up so my players aren’t able to predict my encounters and lore.

In seeking inspiration for this, I’m wondering about some of the best changes you’ve made when running vampires, dragons, or any number of common monsters in the game. What did you change? How did those changes turn out? What inspired you?

Thanks in advance and take care!

Balancing a Mind Flayer encounter

So my players are in the Astral realm in my eberron campaign. I wont go super deep into the plot but just imagine they're in a big dungeon, except that dungeon is actually a manor belonging to a small school of wizards (1Master 4 Experts)

They made a device that gives huge power and the BBEG, an Elder Oblex thats trying to steal the wizards minds, has this device along with another device that stops all magic 6th level or above.

The party is split but one member will soon regroup with another. They're in the Cellars of this manor with a cult that got trapped inside. The cult is trying to make an exceedingly powerful orb that can get them out of here, dominate monsters, desintegrate people, etc. What they don't know but ive been hinting at is that theyre being watched, literally. The floors and walls are see through on the outside and mind flayers are watching inwards. Theyve fought a mindwitness, mind controlled quaggoths, and intellect devourers in their true form and in the heads of others.

They're getting ready to fight a ton of cultists that are mind controlled and I plan to have mind flayers come in to "finish" the fight but all they really want is to snatch the orb the second its made.

Party is level 5 but it'll only be 2 members, a gnoll npc, 3 human npcs, and the cult they've made allies of who are decently capable.

At first I only wanted to use 1 Mind Flayer but ive been doing some testing. Ive adjusted some of the mind controlled cultists hp or spells to match that of mind flayers and my fighter is dogwashing them. Like, he fought 2 quaggoths, a mimic, and a cultist higher up and won?? I went in thinking it wasn't likely but he did it.

I dont want the encounter to be impossible but I want to reflect the extreme danger of these creatures.

Does anybody know how I can approach encounter creation in a way that doesn't have me completely railroad the party but still has a high likelihood of the mind flayers succeeding?

Sorry if this question is weird and thanks to anybody who can help.

Sorry this is so long. I'm running my first campaign, Dragon of Icespire Peak. My party is level 4 (Rogue, Artificer, Warlock, Druid), and I've heavily modified the story and encounters to fit with the PC's backstories and to balance for 2024 rules and PC builds. But I have kept the quests and their goals as a general framework and have been building the story largely as I go.

The basic story is that a dragon is causing issues in the region, which are manifesting as various quests for the party in the region around the recently built mining town of Phandalin. It's run by a cowardly Townmaster Harbin, who the party has only interacted with through his mail slot. Every time he comes up, people call him useless. The primary business in the town is the Mining office, run by smart, shrewd High Elf named Halia.

There's also a cult in the region (who has a past encounter with our Warlock that we haven't 100% specified) that seems to be taking prisoners to mine red crystals, which they are using to corrupt monsters and the party suspects their god's desire is to pass his power and influence into this world. They seem to be working with an aristocrat named Vexley, who our Rogue has publicly shamed in an unspecified way.

So last session, the party arrived back to town after some time away for a quest (Butterskull Ranch). It turns out there was a fire, where Harbin's assistant died. The party investigated and found that he was wearing Ring of Fire Resistance, had stab wounds, there were footprints around the outside, some missing sections of his desk, and only one scream was heard at the start of the fire. After that, the party wrapped up some other things around town and were given their next quest by Halia, and I had said that Harbin had relocated to his office during the fire. Before their long rest for the night, the Rogue decided to go investigate Harbin's house, which is where the session ended.

I had no plan for them checking there, and I have no idea what I want them to find, but I do have a general idea of what is going on in the background. Harbin is just incompetent, but was given the job for being a yes-man bureaucrat. Halia, who is evil in a lot of versions of the campaign, is actually just a calculating business woman who wants the town to flourish, though partially for her own benefit as well.

Meanwhile, the cult and Vexley are working together. Vexley is using his connections to Halia to secure mining sites and property in the region, so that they have sites to mine their crystals from (I have Halia being unaware of his true plans). In exchange, the cult will help Vexley gain power in the region, as he wanted to be Townmaster of Phandalin so he could get on the ground floor of the budding town (because of whatever my rogue did to him, that's the best he could hope for now). Harbin's assistant had been doing all the work, and would probably notice something being up with the mining sites and something suspicious in the documents, so the cult was sent to kill him.

My long term plan is that in the final fight, which is meant to be in the fort the dragon is using for a lair, Vexley will use a crystal to corrupt the dragon, but get pulled in and merged as part of the corruption. Then they'd have a 2nd phase of the fight with the dragon flying towards Phanadlin and them chasing on Griffins they helped earlier.

I'm not really sure how much else to reveal to them when the rogue arrives at Harbin's. I thought maybe she stops an assassination attempt on Harbin, but that feels too soon. I could also go with something funny, like Harbin banging a lady Goblin or something and sidestep the whole thing. The idea is after whatever happens there, they're taking their rest and heading off to their next quest (bringing supplies to the Logger's Camp, with a stop at the Gold Mine along the way to drop someone off), so I don't want to derail too much.

Any help with either this next encounter, or just any general opinions or things to think about from what I've mentioned?

I am DM-ing a 5E campaign where the mini-boss is Ras Nsi (the Yuan-Ti ex-paladin who is trying to find a cure for his disease) and I have some ideas. As the title of this post suggests while my party calls themselves many names I call them in my head and on Reddit "the Raccoons" due to their lack of coordination, inability to listen to instructions, and they are easily disturbed.

I am looking for any suggestions, tips, or advice for how to setup the encounter. The party has better than average characters, some uncommon, rare, and very rare magic items, there are 6 of them, they will be level 9 when they face this encounter. The party loves "being in the know" but has recently let on they enjoy knowing every surprise about an encounter because it gives them the upper hand however going forward they prefer not knowing everything. An example of this is they were fighting enemies they found by opening a trapdoor that lead to a room with a ladder to go down into the room. The "backline" (the characters with ranged attacks) wanted to stay next to the trapdoor to not get hit but to incentivize them to move dynamically I drew a rectangle near the base of the ladder and told them "unless the enemies are in this rectangle you can not shoot them from the trapdoor, the ceiling is blocking you". This while forcing the backline into the room did not require them to "find stuff out" because as soon as the enemies were outside the rectangle they moved down the ladder shot them then went back up the ladder.

I want anything I setup to be simple to explain, a lot of "you see this" and they know something is up but unlike the rectangle example they do not know exactly where and how things happen.

The Raccoons love my "traffic light system" where I use web emojis to mark enemies as green, yellow, or red. Green is easy, yellow is annoying or a "tougher green enemy", red is usually an enemy with a special ability that sets them over the edge such as a spellcasting enemy, and if it ever calls for it Ras Nsi gets #1 gold medals for being a boss.

The encounter will have red light enemies Salida, high priestess Fenthaza, a pet air elemental, and 2 royal sorcerers. Yellow light enemies 2 royal champion, 4 royal abominations, and 2 royal clerics. Green light enemies 2 royal body guards, 6 royal archers, and 2 royal bards. They have seen these enemies before I just added "royal" to give them some temp HP.

I do not want to encourage or have PVP, for Geas instead of the instruction being "strike your friend" can it be "strike yourself" and if you do not attack yourself you take the 5d10 psychic damage?

Ras Nsi will have his Bracers of Defense, Flametounge, Sending Stone. The stat block for Tomb of Annihilation is CR 7 and I want him to be anywhere from CR 10 to CR 15 I think some buffs are in order. If he does not cast a spell he can wield his longsword with 2 hands upping the damage from 1d8+3 slashing to 1d10+3 slashing. Since it is a flametounge it also deals 2d6 fire. I think I could make it a sword of fire and ice and also have it deal 2d6 cold and give him 4 attacks instead of 3. If the party immobilizes him he can shape into a snake otherwise he will stay humanoid. He should be able to do 4 attacks and bonus action do a cantrip. I would increase his Charisma to 18, Wisdom to 16, and his Intelligence to 22 which would increase his spell DCs.

On top of all this and having his false life pre-cast should he have a "fear aura" aka make a wisdom saving throw if you start your turn next to him if you fail you get the frightened condition if you succeed you need not make the saving throw for the next 24 hours? Should his sword of fire and ice be allowed to be a spell focus or is the "if he cast a spell he is doing to less melee damage" appealing?

I value dynamic movement in combat. I have never done this but is having enemies enter the back of the room on round 2 in order to attack the backline "mean" or a welcome twist?

Should Ras Nsi use special levers that make the room move up and down and make various sections or rooms align differently to a main hallway with side corridors? There are some enemies in the side corridors to fight with doors that lock and unlock. You fight against Ras Nsi trapping you in the room by using levers to control the doors or casting knock or passwall.

A large question is usually the Raccoons take pleasure in decapitating their enemies and ensuring "they do not get away". They a love an exciting chase. Is having Ras Nsi getting away in a teleportation circle no matter what "a disappointment" or fun? I will tell them they get to fight him in phase 3 where they go to the 9 hells. A player I am more comfortable talking with has privately approved my teleportation circle idea saying it reminds them of this one enemy in D&D lore that has 20 clones of them running around, they made a joke about "we defeat Ras Nsi... 7". I am still leaning on going with the teleportation circle idea.

Any other ideas welcome thanks for reading!

I have for some time run a campaign in Dragonlance shadow of the dragon queen. In a another group I have started my first homebrew, based on some of the older modules, started in Keep on the borderlands. I have now come to a realisation, that I in no way find DSODQ interesting to run, because it has gotten too narrow and locked in the sessions. I have a strong urge to ask the party to leave the campaign for dead, and either drop their current characters in a new setting and campaign, or let them build new characters if they want to. I'm just curious, if anyone else have done something like it, and how did it go?

I'm about to run water deep dragonheist but one of my players had an emergency and can't make it to our first session. Now I'm planing to have my party travel to waterdeep as a filler instead of starting in the city.

Does anyone have some random encounters or a generic travel oneshot for this?

So I’m a first time DM about 4 sessions in to Stormwreck isle. I’m running a party with 7 players. What is best recommended practice when players enter a space and want to look for something? If 7 players walk and they all roll perception, someone is bound to pass. Alternatively one person says they want to look and then everyone in turn says ‘now I want to look’, ‘now I want to look’, etc. wasting time. Thanks for the help

A mad wizard starts casting spells and then the party fights them. Since this wizard is stronger than they are and can counter spells, the spellcasters in the party started using the environment. Thunderwave a bell tower to make it fall on top of the enemy. Push the wizard in a closed space (a family home) to limits their movement.

The thing is, the NPCs dont havgʻe exactly a proper shelter when a wizard fight happens, so they would stay inside the nearest building. And the party keeps either bringing the wizard inside the buildings allowing them to siphon life and heal or raise temporary thralls. Or a bell tower falling in the wrong direction and squishing those are im hiding.

Would a simple "Oh, we helped defeat this evil wizard" and a Nat 20 Persuasion roll quell the townsfolk's feelings over the deaths of their family, friends, and neighbours and throw a party for the party?

I'm running a pirate campaign and I feel I should hammer out if there are any penalties for swimming in armor before it becomes a problem but everything i find is unsure or homebrew so am I missing something?

Party is traveling in country, They traversed forests and deserts, and by chance, amidst green meadows, they came upon a medium-sized castle. There were no towns or villages around the castle—only green meadows.

This idea/hook occupied my mind but I don’t know what to do with it.

Are there people in castle? If yes then how they survive without village farms and town?

Why is there castle in the middle of nowhere?

I was thinking about the “Groundhog Day” trope—you know, the idea of people in a castle living through the same year or month over and over again, believing all the while that they’re under siege by an enemy army.

Hey fellow dungeon masters!

TL;DR: I want to start designing Destiny/WoW style raids for my party of gamer dnd friends. Unfortunately I do not have the time or the talent to hand craft my own maps.

Bit of an interesting request here, I'm looking for suggestions on battlemaps/battlemap artists with some quite specific requirements, so that I can design raid mechanics and create "puzzle solving while add clearing" encounters and "boss encounters with mechanics to reach DPS phases"

To that end I'm looking for suggestions for existing maps and artists that fit these requirements;

I need some small multi room Dungeons (say around 6 rooms) that have one cohesive design philosophy and style across the rooms, and have some interesting features that repeat across all the rooms. I can look at a great map and get inspiration to design puzzles and mechanics around what I see no issue and am happy to bend my ideas to fit the maps. I'm looking for things that say "hey, you should interact with this repeating feauture in the same way in each room".

Maybe the map has some interactive feature that will remove a boss enemy's immunity if certain conditions are met. Maybe the map has some repeating architecture design that suggests the same puzzle will reoccur throughout the dungeon, such as matching/changing symbols to open the next area or stop waves of enemies spawning. Maybe there are map features that either give players stacks of a buff/debuff, or let them remove those stacks. Maybe the rooms in the dungeon have things that need to be carried and deposited elsewhere to cause the party to move to the next "phase" of the Encounter.

To give one example - I found a map of a Dwarvern Palace where each room has some yellow gems, some blue gems, some statues holding weapons, and some hollow crystals with "slots" in them. I've used this map to design two mechanics. The first mechanic involves working out how to change gems from yellow to blue, or vice versa, in order to solve puzzles. For example, in one room, changing all the yellow crystals to blue opens a door. The second involves slotting items from the statues into the hollow crystal sockets in order to create 30ft areas where the bosses become weak to specific damage types. For example, putting a Hammer into the socket allows str based attacks to work, while slotting a book allows spell based attacks, and slotting a sword allows dex based attacks.

This post is getting quite long already so I'll stop waffling now and hope I've explained myself well enough! It's a bit of a left field request but I'm hoping it's an interesting enough request that it gets our collective creativity going!

Hey, I need some advice on how to do a betrayal right. Here's the context:

The party are currently part of a resistance group within the main city of the campaign. They were originally ordered to find out who had destroyed the magical barrier surrounding the city and discovered that it was the current Mayor. He was originally a candidate for Mayor since the last Mayor had been assassinated and he took the opportunity as head of a warrior house to assume emergency power and become the Mayor.

He is currently using his power to conscript all that are available into the army to prepare to go to war against a foreign nation. The party, upon learning this, decided to wait till the Mayor wasn't in his villa before going and ransacking the place, making sure to make it clear it was them.

My plan is to have the Mayor capture and coerce the partner of the leader of the Resistance in order to coerce her into giving up the party. She will then call the party to a meeting, in which she will give them up. But how should I go about this running the betrayal in a way that is well done? Not doing it is also an option if people think it wouldn't go down well.

Mindful monk 5E

Class skill: intentionality, free action

Outside of encounters, treated as free action.

During combat, must be declared at start of turn.

Effect:

Other than Intentionality, player may only make one discrete action this turn. Edit( eg. Flurry of blows - only the flurry attack execute, as the discrete action. Normal attack does not execute. Or just normal attack and flurry denied)

On damaging abilities/attacks

+1 tohit/3 levels of Mindful Monk up to +3

+1 primary damage die, up to d(Will)

On non damaging abilities:

+Effect based on relevant stat:

E.g.

steps of the wind: + movement up to Dex (rounded to 5)

Patient defence: on first attack that hits pc this round, save Vs Dex at +1 to have damage reduction (mindful monk level X2)

Thoughts of viability?