How to Make Your Games More Deadly

How to Make Your Games More Deadly | RPG Mainframe

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Күн бұрын

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@OwlCatStudios 11 ай бұрын

The foreshadowing aspect of something being incredibly deadly is a remarkably important piece of this whole thing. Look at well designed video games as an example of introducing you to something dangerous without it being fully dangerous: a drop that would kill a character but there is maybe health right at the bottom or something that catches you almost at the bottom of that fall or a powerful ally being destroyed by an NPC or boss monster to demonstrate the severity of the situation without unfairly hitting your players with something that might be the end of their favorite character.

@Cxdfc 11 ай бұрын

9:30 Wow, You have conditioned me to expect the intro to dramatically end with **“THE RPG MAINFRAME”** I thought the letter would end with something like (spoliers): “even through the emaciated , thimbly demonic body… Mr McCormick spoke incessantly into my mind, a hollow whisper that drones and echoes like dynamite to wake me from my night terror… the last words… the name of that cursed object… *“THE RPG MAAAAAAIIIIIIIINFRAAAME”* [que acoustic guitars and thunder]

@Smittumi 11 ай бұрын

I could happily listen to Hank's horror fiction all day.

@Grimlore82 11 ай бұрын

Have you listened to his others? Phenomenal!

@ianwallace5118 10 ай бұрын

“You fool, Warren is DEAD!” Really enjoyed the story. Fantasy Craft had a useful mechanic for lethality. Damage saves instead of hp to make defeating monsters more capricious. And there is an attribute called ‘mook’ that caused auto fails to the damage roll. I have experienced a large number of new players, brought in by 5e, who are very resistant to player death. They feel they have put time and effort into the character and see their death as a waste. One player has outright played an ‘across the multiverse’ character as the exact same person in 5e, Shadow Run, and Paranoia.

@kelvinvalleyart 11 ай бұрын

Like the spooky and very atmospheric intro. Reminded me of HP Lovecraft or MR James in particular. Coincidentally was watching some of the Ghost Stories for Christmas, first broadcast by the BBC here in the UK in the early 70s. Incredibly atmospheric and ominous. Often ending with encounters featuring the 'sudden lethality' you discuss here. 😱😈💀

@ChBrahm 11 ай бұрын

Wow nice episode man. Me and a friend from work a few months back were workshopping something like this. This dude was a DM in his own table and was making this "Dragon Hunters" campaign. He wanted to come up with a kinda "Rogue Dragon" that might operate as friend or foe depending on the situation. But as parties tend to do they hit everything that moves immediatly. And once an encounter starts it´s hard to stop it unless they are being bulldozed. So thats what we decided to do. We made a Dragon who used 4 Swords. (one on each hand one on the tail and the last on its mouth). Multiattack from a armed dragon so basically instadeath in most cases. But this dragon needed the weapons because he was weak. Kind of a "permanently wounded beast" scenario. The DM wanted the players to have an ally but not one that would just carry the party and at the same time an enemy that could be defeated but that would show the maximum extent of his damaging capabilities before falling. I just talked to him to ask what happened so far. Apparently the players and it did have a truce though sadly the Sword Dragon died to a breath weapon of another dragon. 4 swords tall as houses now mark the grave site of Astaroxatl the Dragon Knight of Turkmenat At least his crazy damage output was enough to persuade the players into diplomacy which was the plan so mission accomplished. DM still sad that he wanted the dragon to last a bit longer into the campaign To know now that this concept has so many more uses. I´ll apparently finally have a table after years of me not playing so I´mma make full use of these ideas you presented here. Thanks man

@Game.Master.Allen83 11 ай бұрын

First of all, love the Lovecraftian story time! Second, these are really great tips. How do you make zombies, skeletons, even goblins/kobolds a deadly encounter? Make them 1 hp, but make their attacks lethal. Have a horde of zombies all 1hp so now it's a mob vs just say 5 or 6. Give them advantage and or a high bonus to grapple, so it's more likely they will succeed, slowitheir speed and causing them to get swarmed. Their attack hits hard! So getting up close and personal might not be the best course of action. Using terrain, long ranged attacks, or even just evading them might be better. Sounds fun!!

@Xplora213 11 ай бұрын

That intro was utterly horrific 😨 well done

@mtmroc 11 ай бұрын

This intro was fantastic. Reminds me of Bulldozer by Laird Barron (I think). I’m commenting now before even listening to the rest.

@Jergal1 11 ай бұрын

The intro are always EXCELLENT!!

@OwlCatStudios 11 ай бұрын

As always, great suggestions. I've seen (and run) combats that turn into a boring roll miss roll hit still alive roll miss roll miss roll hit still alive roll crit still alive but just barely roll hit oh so close roll miss roll miss roll hit it finally dies situation. Low HP keeps things interesting on both sides of the equation. Thanks for keeping this whole series going and not letting the almighty algorithm decide the wisdom you want to share.

@t888hambone7 11 ай бұрын

Wonderful advice! I’m gonna try low hit points with damage thresholds! And I’m also gonna try the sudden lethality.. with a warning of course.. I’ll return and report