The Other Precondition

If "The Mists of Lamordia" does indeed come to a satisfactory end by the end of June, I will consider running another campaign, after a sufficiently long break. That said, I have one other precondition for doing so: I need to come up with a campaign.

Right now, I have several half-baked ideas for a campaign, but nothing that immediately grabs me. I know I want something shorter in scope, something much more episodic, and also something low-level and easy to run. But I'm yet to hit on something that really inspires.

And that's what I need: a solid premise for a campaign that I want to run, plus a suitable "side dish" to both make the campaign stand out and also give the characters something to do beyond just killing things and taking their stuff.

Another Week of No Games

The session of "The Mists of Lamordia" intended for today was cancelled due to several no-shows, meaning that this is another week of no gaming. Because of several holidays, the next session is planned for the 28th of April.

Meanwhile, "A Quest for Memory" has missed several weeks including this week. We're scheduled for next week, and after that we're looking at the 20th of April.

All of which is unfortunate, but not disastrous. That said:

• I estimate that "The Mists of Lamordia" has about six sessions. I'm thinking that if we don't get though it by the end of June, that's a sign that the scheduling is just too difficult, and it's time to call a halt to the Work Game - that is, there won't be a next campaign.
• If "A Quest for Memory" doesn't resume by the end of April, I'm calling it a day on that one, too. I'm also thinking it's time to bring that towards the endgame, regardless.

A Thought About Halflings and Narnia

I was musing about halflings the other day, and one of the random thoughts that popped into my head is that they'd be an ideal way to model all the various animal-folk that populate the Narnia stories - Mr Beaver, Reepicheep, and so forth. Amongst other things, that would solve the perennial problem with strength scores and small characters, since so many animals are proportionately stronger than humans.

That said, I'm disinclined to change the depiction of halflings in Terafa at this stage (as I'm broadly happy with their story there), so I'm not entirely sure where, if ever, I would use this idea.

Another One for the List

A couple of weeks ago "The Mists of Lamordia" reached the milestone of 10th level. It's likely that this will be the final time the party levels up this campaign, though it's just about possible that they might once more. Either way, this means that this campaign can be added to the very small list of campaigns to reach double figures - and it's the first 5e campaign to make the list.

As a reminder, I believe there are now five campaigns in this category:

• There was a very old Dragonlance/Spelljammer 2nd Edition campaign that ran to 15th level.
• My first full 3e campaign made it to 12th level, I think.
• The highest level I've ever run to was "Shackled City" in 3.5e. The characters were 18th level in the final session, and would have reached 19th had we tallied the XP at the end.
• Also in 3.5e, "The Eberron Code" ended with the PCs at 15th level.
• And now, "The Mists of Lamordia" is a 5e campaign that has reached 10th level.

After the Mists Part

With "The Mists of Lamordia" coming to its end, I've started giving some thought as to what comes next. I must admit, I'm sorely tempted to call it a day at that - hang up the mantle of DM and walk away. But the players seem to be really keen to keep playing, so maybe...

Three  things are pretty clear though:

1. I'll be taking a lengthy break before starting the next campaign. Certainly until we're back in the office, and probably a good bit beyond that.
2. We could really do with some additional players!
3. The next campaign needs to be a good bit simpler, or at least more episodic, than either "The Mists of Lamordia" or even "Storm King's Thunder" - both of those campaigns just had too much lore and too many moving parts for players to keep it all straight.

Assuming we do play on, I have some stuff concerning character generation to put forward:

• We'll generate our own "standard array" during character generation - basically, we'll go around the table rolling 4d6-drop-lowest once each until we get 6 stats, and then everyone will have those to use.
• We'll need to expand the options of class and subclass quite a bit, allowing the Artificer and probably all the subclasses from Xanathar's and Tasha's. With the Bard and the Sorcerer, in particular, we've kind of done the PHB options to death.
• I'd really like each PC to have a different class this time! Having two FIghters in the first campaign and two Sorcerers in this has not been ideal.
• I'd also really like each player to choose a race they haven't used before (with the exception of human - that's always an option) and a class they haven't used before.

But none of that answers the biggest question: what to do? Something different, I feel, but what?

"Check for Traps"

Back in the day, the Thief class had an ability to Find/Remove Traps. As the name implies, this gave them a percentage chance to detect a trap, and then a similar chance to disable a trap once found. In 3e, this was generalised to a skill check, which by the time of 5e has become Perception.

Unfortunately, this approach has made the handling of traps, on both sides of the screen, really lazy - before opening a door, walking down a corridor, or whatever the PCs declare that the Rogue "checks for traps", the DM calls for the inevitable skill roll (and then another to remove the trap), and we're done.

And it's deadly boring, just slows the game down to deal with traps that are usually not there anyway, and then we move on.

As far as I can see, the answer to this was provided in "Xanathar's Guide to Everything". Unfortunately, after providing that answer the book largely shrugged its shoulders, left the implementation of that solution to the DM... and nothing much changed. Busy DM's, or at least I, just didn't have time to do things much differently, and the tools probably aren't going to be taken forward in 5.5e, which will probably tweak the PHB material but leave the DMG mostly alone. Which is annoying, but there it is.

The solution that they outlined was that 'simple' traps should basically look like spells - a short stat-block at the outset followed by a description of the effect. What they don't mention, although it is present in their sample traps, is that each trap should indicate what signs are available that show the presence of the trap - a tripwire, pressure plates, broken walls, etc etc.

The second part of the fix is that it should not be possible to "check for traps" - traps are too many and varied for that action to make sense anyway. Instead, the PC should simply be checking the door, corridor, or whatever. This then leads to the same Wisdom (Perception) roll as is currently the case.

However...

A successful roll should also not reveal that the character has found a trap. Instead, a successful roll reveals the appropriate signs that indicate the trap is there - it is down to the player to then deduce the presence of a trap from those (or, possibly, use an Investigation roll for more information).

(This also solves one of the big problems with Passive Perception - it will no longer defang many or all traps due to them being automatically detected, but will instead allow the character to merely spot those signs automically. Much more satisfying.)

The big problem, though, is that very few DMs really have the time (or, often, the expertise) to work through the details of building the telltale signs of the trap, work out how these connect to the larger mechanism, and integrating them into the adventure. It would be really great if there were a book, some sort of guide for Dungeon Masters, that ran through the process and then provided not just a handful, but actually dozens if not hundreds of examples of all levels...

Bloodied

One of my favourite rules from 4e, and one of the ones I was most sad to see go in 5e, was the Bloodied condition. This was basically a shorthand that indicated that the character or monster had been reduced to half hit points - it was also the point at which the creature was visibly weakened by the punishment that it had taken.

This is still a term I make extensive use of in my D&D games, as it remains useful.

But one of the things I particularly liked about the Bloodied condition, and something that is harder to build in on an ad hoc basis, was those few cases where Bloodied had an actual effect - perhaps a monster would lose access to some particular weapon when Bloodied (as an arm is severed)... or perhaps they become more powerful as they become more desperate. And, conversely, perhaps a monster enters a berserk rage when fighting an opponent that has become Bloodied.

I do like those effects, and I do try to build them into 'significant' monsters that I build. Anything to make combats, and especially longer combats, more than just a slog of hit point attrition!