#the-anonymous-bean

Hi, everyone! I’ve been absent from PRMI for a long while thanks to busy college reasons.

But, thanks to COVID-19, my Spring Break has essentially doubled and all my classes are going to be over virtual, Skype-like applications for the rest of the semester. Needless to say, I’m going to be having a lot of free time on my hands and easy access to my own computer for a while.

The last week or so, I was thinking about how a lot of tabletop games usually have societies based on species/race: i.e. a human kingdom, a dwarf kingdom, a half-dragon kingdom, etc. But with all the community talks around COVID-19, I was thinking how societies are usually built more around shared ideals than geneologies (especially in a world where skin-tones would matter relatively little compared to entire species differences).

And then, I thought to myself, “it wouldn’t really be races that determine societal belonging but classes.”

This has probably been done already, but I’m going to make a few posts about this.

Society for Knights, Samurai, Noble backgrounds, etc.:

Largely reminiscent of our world’s feudal societies. One overarching ruler controls a large supply of some desirable good (land, gold, food, etc.), with “classes” and relationships of superiority and servitude built into “who’s supplying whom.”

The members of the lowest class will, contrary to our world, likely have a fairly decent living with or without their production of the desirable good being necessary. With many tales of adventurers besting the most unlikely odds on sheer luck (a la natural 20s), the higher-ups would know better than to cut corners with even the most peasant NPC.

The “nobles” of these societies will likely want to discern their higher-class kin from the crowd (for whatever reasons), so expect some sort of communication learning curve: the lowest classes speak common or a similarly popular and simple language, while the higher classes can be signified by more complicated syntactical rules, added gestures, etc.

Failure to adapt to these rules properly will have you sticking out like a sore thumb, and cause consequences ranging from making the party awkward to being named an impersonator and marked for death.

The lowest classes might create the desirable good, or maybe their societal superiors just want them to housekeep/garden/maintain the city for them, while the higher classes control and oversee transactions of said desirable good. As such, there would be room for artisanal members of the community like blacksmiths, potters, seamstresses, etc. But chances are these beings will only be interested in the desirable good unless some other event distracts them (such as, no one’s going to really care how much land you have if there’s news of a nearby dragon who can reduce it all to kindling). Thus, any artisanal member who wants to stay in business will need to find a craft relevant to the desirable good: if the good is some food, potters will sculpt containers specifically for it and blacksmiths will forge tools to eat it with; if the good is a kind of enchanting magical force, blacksmiths will be swift to create applicable weapons and armor while seamstresses will hurry for clothing that can store (and possibly show off) the force’s colorful mana.

As I said, I’ll try for more posts with other class-centric societies. This is just all I’ve gotten in the three days I’ve been free of school so far.

So please send us some asks here, whether you’re requesting specific class societies or you want something completely new. I’m going to have way too much free time on my hands during this quarantine episode.

Happy gaming as always, sweethearts, and it is GREAT to be back!

oh, buddy. i still freak out a little when i see birthdays past 1999, and i ain’t even remotely old enough for that to make sense

anyhow,

a.k.a. the Murderhobo’s Natural Predator.

You know what’s fun? Setting up powerful enemies to destroy your party of murderhobos. You know what’s even more fun? Hiding these powerful enemies in plain sight.

This idea has probably been done repeatedly, but I just want to bring in a few of my own ideas for a few different Murderhobo situations.

Option 1: Hiding amongst the weak.

a.k.a. Marble Bunny application

Does your game have a “Beginner’s Mook” like Dragon Quest slimes, Goombas in the Mario series, or Kingdom Hearts’ basic Shadow Heartless? The most basic enemies that are meant to be the first encounter for the players? Do your murderhobos enjoy slaughtering these monsters - or any monster for that matter - in genocidal abundance?

An old friend of mine once introduced me to what he called the Marble Bunny application: essentially, take these two sprites:

The White Bunny

and the Marble Bunny. Now I added some animation and color differences, but the point of the application is that a weak, beginner mook and an extremely powerful monster are virtually indistinguishable... until someone tries taking a swing at it. Then they watch in horror as what looks like just a White Bunny takes zero damage, hunts them down like a dragon, and hits like a train.

This application can be taken in cross-species or cross-animation paths as well: imagine the party sees what appears to be a farmer out in the field.

What ought to happen: PC: I go say hi! :D DM: On closer inspection, it is not a farmer but rather a golem fashioned to look like a Scarecrow. What happens to Murderhobos: PC: I shoot the farmer with an arrow. DM: Instead of dying, the being simply lifts its arrow-pierced head to stare right at at you. It is a golem, and it has just found its master’s next threat. Roll for initiative!

Side note: this can also be a nice incentive/perk for your players who just like to make pets out of monstrous enemies. It’s like adding Shiny- or IV-Hunting to your game for them!

Option 2: Logical Arguments

a.k.a. “What else did you expect to happen?”

Obviously, sometimes the roleplay itself can give reason to certain advantages. Paladins are effective against the undead, magic and ranged attacks are superior to melee combat, etc. But don’t forget: such lore can give advantage to special monster or NPC cases against murderhobos.

Some examples:

Murderhobo attacks a blacksmith? Congrats, they just pissed off Will Turner. He’s trained with the swords every day to figure out what needs cleaning, repairs, etc. and now has advantage with (and against) every weapon type in his shop.

They attacked X students at a school for magic? Great, the only reason they were off-campus to begin with is because they’re the X best students of the top class, and will quickly reduce the murderhobos into smoking ash.

Your murderhobos want to assassinate the king for rule over the entire kingdom, instead of negotiating a piece for a quest reward? Congrats, one of the townspeople loyal to the king ratted the party out, the assassination turns into an ambush, and either the party pays with their lives, or run for what remains of their lives. Negotiation was too challenging for the players, so now it’ll never be on the table again.

Your combo- and DPS-loving murderhobo wants to test their combos on an innocent traveling group? Such pilgrims are usually guided by the magical and religious... like diviners. At some point, the combo artist swings their sword and has the blade caught by the future-seer. Your precious combos mean nothing to one who can see your every move.

Final word: Sorry I’ve been gone for a while, you guys. Emotionally bad times recently, plus nearing the end of college and worrying about internships and/or jobs.

Hi, everyone! Mod Beany here, and uh..... while reading the D&D 5e player’s handbook, imagining character ideas and such... ..... I think I found an exploit to make animated objects permanently animated.

Just in D&D 5e, though. I checked my older brother’s old 3.5e PH and the exploit doesn’t work there. Sorry <:3

BUT ANYWAY, for context, here’s how 5e’s Animate Objects spell works at base level (as in when used by a 5th level spell slot):

Animate Objects takes one action to cast, and effects normally last (wink wink ; 3) for either one minute or as long as the caster has concentration, whichever happens first.

A 5th level Transmutation spell for Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards.

The spell can affect up to ten “targets” within the 120-foot range.

Objects within range can assume a variable number of “targets”: Tiny & Small objects count as one target apiece, Medium objects count as two targets apiece, Large objects count as four, and Huge objects count as eight. No object of size greater than Huge can be animated.

Objects selected become creatures you control until spell wares off or their hit points reach 0. While within 500 feet of you, you can use a bonus action to give any one command to any number of the animates. If given a command, they’ll try to fulfill the task. Else, they will simply defend themselves from hostile creatures. (Simple enough)

While animated, the objects count as construct creatures with HP, AC, attack, Strength, and Dexterity dependent on their sizes (see Animated Object Statistics table on page 213 of the fifth edition player’s handbook or via Google), a Constitution of 10, a Charisma of 1, and Intelligence and WIsdom of 3. If the object has legs, it has 30 ft running speed. Else, it can float off the ground and has 30 ft flying speed.

Now, while all this is nice, what kinda bummed me out is that they only last 1 minute at best.

... Then I got two pages later..... and saw something very interesting... in the 5e Awaken spell. Which is as follows:

5th level Bard or Druid transmutation spell. Verbal, somatic, and a material component of “An agate worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes.” Pricey, I know.

Casting time is technically 8 hours, but that’s just in “spending the casting time tracing magical pathways within a precious gemstone.” After tracing the agate, the spell cast time is basically instantaneous.

The target must be a plant or beast of size Huge or smaller (where have we heard THAT one before?)

Target must have no Intelligence score or its Intelligence must be of 3 or less (BARELY within our working range).

Target gains Intelligence of 10, the ability to speak one language you (the caster) know, and - if a plant - gains senses and mobility in its various planty parts like that of a human. The GM chooses the stats other than Intelligence appropriate for an awakened plant.

The awakened beast or plant is charmed by you for 30 days or until the party does anything harmful to it. When the charmed condition ends, the awakened one can choose whether to remain friendly to you based on how you treated the awakened while it was charmed.

So, to recap: Awaken gives independent, sapient life to a creature of size Huge or smaller with Intelligence score 3 or less, if any. Animate Objects allows a spellcaster to, for one minute max, to create a bunch of creatures out of Huge or smaller objects with default intelligence and wisdom of 3... So, it could readily be argued that using, if player X is a bard, sorcerer or wizard and Y is a bard or druid, Y could cast Awaken on one of X’s animated objects and make the object permanently animated. With enough GP or magically chargeable Agates lying around, the party could make their own cast of Beauty and the Beast living furniture!

FAQ/Some counter-arguments I’ve already prepared:

“Awaken doesn’t work on Animated Objects because they have to be a Plant or Beast-type monster, and Animated objects are Construct-types.”

That is true, but the D&D official campaign Out of the Abyss has its own fallacy of having Awakened Zurkhwoods. Zurkhwoods are said to be mushrooms, despite being listed as “Huge Plants” in the monster manual. So yeah, I think a bit of leniency on the “beast” side of the equation can be forgiven if Wizards of the Coast thinks a fungal species can count as an entirely different Taxonomical kingdom. Plus, the 3.5e Awaken doesn’t even say “plants:” only 3.5e trees can awaken alongside beasts. So, if the official spell definition has already broadened that way, I don’t think it’d be too wrong if we expanded it beyond Beast-type monsters ourselves : 3.

“Wouldn’t the Animated Objects, even if they’re awakened, kind of die after the Animate Objects minute was up?”

I feel like Animate Objects is less “animation” and more “puppeteering:” you sacrifice a bit of your mental power (hence concentration) to guide and control the objects. The way I see it, Awakening one of the animates not only gives the animate its own life, but also frees it from the Animate Objects constraints: it won’t die when the minute is up, and since the caster doesn’t control it anymore, the caster can animate another target(s) in the awakened one’s place.

“Why doesn’t the spell work in 3.5e?”

Mostly because of how Awaken works in 3.5. As well as the casting time going from 8 hours to 24, there’s no agate component in the 3.5e Awaken. You actually have to be within arm’s reach of the one you want to awaken for a full day. Unless your DM would allow a “magic battery” system like the Agate plays here, the Animated Object wouldn’t be animated long enough for the 3.5 awaken to work.

If you’ve got any more arguments, feel free to reply to this post or shoot us an ask here at Probbaly RPG Mechanic Ideas. The ask box has been empty for a while, I’m gettin’ a bit lonely here anyway :T

So I’d read a story about an RPG where the DM/GM/Game’s runner had a propensity for setting up traps in such a way that it wasn’t as simple as “You step on a pressure plate and get embedded with an arrow.”

It was more along the lines of “In his rage, the half-elf stomps hard enough on the pressure plate to get shot with an arrow” or “The gnome mage was able to detect the trap, but going through the doorway showed no consequence for her... T’was only after the much heavier half-orc walked through that anyone noticed the pressure plate.”

It’s been a couple weeks since I read it (my apologies for being gone so long, by the way. School’s been busy), so I can’t recall where I found the story. All I remember is that it was a dungeon where the door to the “boss monster” wouldn’t open unless the party doused the torch before placing it in the nearby sconce. What followed was essentially a boss battle of a party with limited windows of light against a nightvision/darksight boss monster in a large, dark cave. The boss battle started as a strategy puzzle of using the few light sources to blind, hurt, or otherwise gain the upper hand against the beast, eventually (like a video game boss almost) evolving into finding ways to get more light into the room until the dark creature was killed by it.

This is a good way to be cheekier with your dungeon design, get more creative and interactive ways to fight boss monsters and making their battles seem like something out of a video game, and it helps encourage your party to ACTUALLY R.P. in your game. Improvising and acting in-character gets easier with practice, and they’ll get a lot of practice in while they figure something like “setting the four clocks in the room to these specific times to unlock the Psychotic Lord’s private study” out.

So, how have you all taken an extra step to get extra creative puzzles?

Most of the ways I could think of basically require your DM’s assistance in the matter, unfortunately :T

There is the usual “Ability Score Improvement” that can come from a class reaching about every fourth level (meaning one at level 4, 8, 12, etc., depends on the class). Of course, it’s between you and the DM if your scarecrow could adopt classes since, in a way, it is a monster.

I don’t have the 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, but a quick google search revealed that - according TO the DMG - DMs can use an Ability Score Improvement as a substitute for “Epic Boons,” boons rewarded as advancement for characters who’ve already hit Level 20/the level cap.

Although not technically permanent, I have seen DMs and GMs across all kinds of tabletop games that have made loot/equipment that boost Intelligence or other abilities while worn.

If you and the DM have already tried all these textbook HANDbook examples, here’s a few extra ideas from Beany’s noggin : 3

Soon as I read you’re a living scarecrow, a certain Judy Garland movie popped into my head. Maybe you could bring up an idea with your DM about running a Wizards of Oz campaign. Heck, even make the campaign a dream in Scarecrow’s head like the movie was all in Dorothy’s dreams; make it a fun one-shot campaign where everyone else makes their own colorful characters with something to ask of the wizard, and in the end the only evidence the one-shot ever happened is Scarecrow’s still got his brains.

If Scarecrow is more made of metal or wood, maybe you could play it in something of an android style, where Scarecrow’s intelligence is determined a bit by his biotic/animated side and a bit by certain parts of them: a computer in his head, perhaps? Or magic runes looking suspiciously like circuitry carved into his wood? Then this opens the DM’s options up to adding fetch sidequests based on rumors that a new part PERFECT for Scarecrow’s computer has been rumored to reside in the next town over.

If Scarecrow’s life is still pretty fresh in your campaign, perhaps treat him like a newborn child a bit: I want to say Pinocchio, but I feel like the movie CHAPPIE captures this more in its earlier parts. Have Scarecrow learn by watching, where his Intelligence has a chance at going up based on witnessing someone/something cast a spell, make a check, etc. that requires a certain level of Intelligence. If the DM wants to limit this option a bit to avoid overpowering, maybe have the Scarecrow’s learning be based on the person making the INT check; if they fail the roll and don’t tell Scarecrow “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” how is Scarecrow not supposed to take an Intelligence deduction because he thinks he wasn’t taught right/success from wrong/failure?

Kinda off the CHAPPIE idea, maybe Scarecrow could gain knowledge from others not by watching, but listening. Have Scarecrow be like a curious child, with a big wide world out there that he’s ready to explore and understand to the last detail. If the party doesn’t have any big bad to take care of, maybe Scarecrow goes off to the library, finds a school, or even just sits and listens to the stories of an old woman knitting on her front porch. Scarecrow essentially relies on the kindness of strangers to hear about basic social protocols, mortal rights (can’t just say human rights here emotions, friendship, and the occasional bit of magic or strategy to boot, overall making him a more competent adventurer and even closer to a living, sapient mortal.

If the campaign’s more evil-inspired, Scarecrow could get….. a bit dark with his acquisition of knowledge. Scarecrow is animated but (maybe, based on DM’s explanation) not biotic: he can’t grow his own brains.…. but with a scythe enchanted with bits of zombie, aboleth, or mindflayer….. “Well, it’s not like the monsters, commoners, etc. were using their brains to begin with, were they?” Maybe Scarecrow could read minds/memories, hear stories, etc. to gain a bit of “experience” towards having a brain, or maybe he could just take the whole brain by force, getting a lot more knowledge for a little blood on his patchwork hands.

That’s all I can think of for now. I also had an idea that maybe the Scarecrow, having stood watch over crops for most of his inanimate life, might be “one with nature” enough that he could commune with plants or even just crops to aid in some of these ideas. But yeah, with the DM’s say-so, you can think of a lot of ways a Scarecrow would search for Intelligence by just considering the sources of knowledge around them in the world.