The Other Three-Point Stance
Dec. 8th, 2023 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebeI haven't really been on my A-game this week, especially emotionally. I think I've let the lack of free time get to me so right now everything feels like an obligation instead of a joy. I have an Unlicensed Adventures game tonight that I've barely prepared for, and it feels bad to be staring down an evening with a largely improvised adventure when I'd really like to start developing a sense of momentum, of closure.
On that front, I think I need to bail on World Anvil. It has potential as a worldbuilding repository but the pages aren't formatted well and so much of it is hidden behind a subscription wall that you're constantly reminded of all the stuff you can't do because you're not paying. While I'd love to be a subscriber, this concerns me about my ability to share written content with my players and folks who've been following along on Twitch this whole time.
So it looks like I'm back to making game templates in Google Docs. I do wish Scrivener had a browser-based version that I could use but we'll just have to see about transferring the Google Drive documents into the program once they're done. I'll also need to find a good character sheet stat-block for it so I can finally migrate the PCs there. I'd love to get information about say, average to-hit, average damage, that sort of thing, so I can make tweaks to balance combat a little more.
The general consensus is that the 5E challenge rating system is...well, garbage. :) I'm not sure how the math works out, but what RAW says should be a hard/deadly challenge often ends up being a cakewalk for my crew. They do have a lot of magic items and (I think) a heftier-than-average AC but either my tactics or my monster selection is seriously lacking. I can't seem to find that balance making an encounter challenging but fun.
My idea is to take a look at my PCs and average out their AC, to hit, damage output and HP. So if the party's AC is, say, 16, then I know that for my enemies to have a shot at hitting them their attack should at least be +6. Conversely, if my party's to hit averages out to be around +6 or so, then I know that my monsters should have an AC of 16-17 at least in order to provide the right amount of challenge.
Ultimately what I want is to have the per-round damage output roughly even between the PCs and whichever monsters they encounter. If an enemy group has, say, 40 HP and my PCs do 10 HP/round damage on average, I can anticipate the fight will last about 4 rounds. In that time, my monsters should do enough damage to drop one PC at least. It's a good basic rule of thumb that hopefully will give me a more consistent foundation for building encounters. And from there I can add attacks, powers, spells and wrinkles to bring an extra challenge to the group.
But that's just one pillar of worldbuilding. I really ought to complete the world map -- or at least a quick version of it -- so I know where things are and what I'm working with. From there I can build on the backstory of each PC to make connections to the metaplot and *then* begin building story from there.
I'll have to spend some time this weekend really diving into this to get it settled. I know it'll be slow going at first (and maybe for a while), but...it's past time to get this down. I'm looking forward to spending some time deep-diving into this world.
On that front, I think I need to bail on World Anvil. It has potential as a worldbuilding repository but the pages aren't formatted well and so much of it is hidden behind a subscription wall that you're constantly reminded of all the stuff you can't do because you're not paying. While I'd love to be a subscriber, this concerns me about my ability to share written content with my players and folks who've been following along on Twitch this whole time.
So it looks like I'm back to making game templates in Google Docs. I do wish Scrivener had a browser-based version that I could use but we'll just have to see about transferring the Google Drive documents into the program once they're done. I'll also need to find a good character sheet stat-block for it so I can finally migrate the PCs there. I'd love to get information about say, average to-hit, average damage, that sort of thing, so I can make tweaks to balance combat a little more.
The general consensus is that the 5E challenge rating system is...well, garbage. :) I'm not sure how the math works out, but what RAW says should be a hard/deadly challenge often ends up being a cakewalk for my crew. They do have a lot of magic items and (I think) a heftier-than-average AC but either my tactics or my monster selection is seriously lacking. I can't seem to find that balance making an encounter challenging but fun.
My idea is to take a look at my PCs and average out their AC, to hit, damage output and HP. So if the party's AC is, say, 16, then I know that for my enemies to have a shot at hitting them their attack should at least be +6. Conversely, if my party's to hit averages out to be around +6 or so, then I know that my monsters should have an AC of 16-17 at least in order to provide the right amount of challenge.
Ultimately what I want is to have the per-round damage output roughly even between the PCs and whichever monsters they encounter. If an enemy group has, say, 40 HP and my PCs do 10 HP/round damage on average, I can anticipate the fight will last about 4 rounds. In that time, my monsters should do enough damage to drop one PC at least. It's a good basic rule of thumb that hopefully will give me a more consistent foundation for building encounters. And from there I can add attacks, powers, spells and wrinkles to bring an extra challenge to the group.
But that's just one pillar of worldbuilding. I really ought to complete the world map -- or at least a quick version of it -- so I know where things are and what I'm working with. From there I can build on the backstory of each PC to make connections to the metaplot and *then* begin building story from there.
I'll have to spend some time this weekend really diving into this to get it settled. I know it'll be slow going at first (and maybe for a while), but...it's past time to get this down. I'm looking forward to spending some time deep-diving into this world.
