"My DMs always say im INFURIATING!" 😂

Pronouns. Dear lord. Pass.

Sorry but you realy need a second cam to show books... Having to wait more than 7 min to see inside one of the book less than 5 sec. But book sheets is to shiny because of your lights to have good views... you're video is mostly just showing yourself, talking, talking, stutter, talking. showing a little few sheets... Sorry but it's not fine...

I'm getting Dr. Who vibes from this class

At the end, the set DC is like ICRPG target numbers. Speeds things up a lot.

I would really like to run a One-shot or something where its a psuedo-Mythic Age adventure, and everything is just mythological creatures... Especially those Mesopotamian creatures... Hydra, Cyclops, Sphynix, Wights, Wraiths, etc etc etc... Go full Ray Harryhausen on an adventure! ...I might do that, should my copy of ToV ever arrive...

Always enjoy a classic hydra encounter. Especially when you can increase the scary nature of it.

I think the D&D 5e vanilla hydra is disappointing for its CR. The TotV one is probably closer to its allocated CR.

There's a pretty good campaign setting / adventure from Dungeon Crawl Classics called the Chained Coffin. It's set in the Shudder Mountains which is basically Appalachia for D&D. If your players are hesitant about switching to a new game, you might consider running this for them and then, if they enjoy it, introducing the idea of running an Old Gods campaign. You could also incorporate elements from OGoA into Chained Coffin to warm them to it.

using this system ten years ago in an open campaign in my FGLS, after ten years i can say you can easily remove the initiative roll: divide playersin pairs, then the first pair go, the monster group go, then second pair go. Sometimes monster are divided in two or more groups, sometime a specific monster group go first, sometime you have more then 4 players, but you get the point

Im gonna try this with my players 😄

Nice!

This was a badly needed and concise video! Thank you.

Players seem to be extremely resistant to teamwork. Everyone has their own thing. It is almost like the players think it diminishes their importance. I had been giving players the option. Maybe I will just do an entire session like this to force something to happen. Then i will know for sure if they hate it

I use this system and my group likes it.

I once proposed a number of different initiative systems to my players to help speed up combat. One of them was essentially this system. They universally looked at the options and quickly said "All of these look worse." The only thing I do on the DM side is to group monsters into 1-5 groups (depending on how many there are), and that speeds up my turn.

The real Appalachia is as scary (or more scary) than the podcast/rpg presents. For example when you go hiking in the woods if you hear someone call your name ... Don't answer! There are tales of skinwalkers, ghosts, werewolves, another things in those woods.

I think the simpler the initiative system, the better. I group all monster and have the players go clockwise or counterclockwise. It's concise on the monster side but it's still granular on the player side. I've been thinking of some ways to further homebrew this and your video have good insight on what's missing

It’s closer to the movie Cool World. Check it out.

I came up with the same solution to making initiative more engaging at my 13th Age table after playing the Cypher System and Shadow of the Demon Lord. The only difference is that I have the players roll against the monster initiative DC (10 + monster initiative bonus) at the beginning of each round. I hand out a large token for "fast" characters, and a small token for "slow" characters. When they take their turn, the hand their token back. It became second-nature after a sessions, and runs really fast at the table. I love how much more cinematic our encounters have become since making this switch.

Lore please

I'm starting a new sea based campaign using the ToV rules. Can't wait once they get to that level to run this adventure!

Can you make a video explaining every void spell?

🤔 Kendo, your voice is soft and Marc is very loud as I am watching on KZfaq.

Well, I muted at 7:18 because you said GTFO and just in case our group gets there … Mystery maintained! I have always been pleased with KP adventures so I know this will be no different!

Markessa was a ship captain in the DL dragonlance series of modules back in the ‘80s if I remember correctly. I wonder if that is where they got the name for their sea captain?

Nobody can agree on how to pronounce sahuagin so don’t worry about it. I like the ugly yellow top BTW This adventure seems perfect for my nautical pirate campaign.

I didn't think that ToV did Tiers. I thought that was a CS thing. Sounds like a Lovecraftian adventure. The fish-people even look like they have a family in Insmouth, if you know what I mean.

12:29 Ah, dude... Thats just a normal shark here in Australia! LOL! Had to pop the pdf open and read through when I saw you had a video out on it... this actually seems like a good adventure; alittle too wordy for my liking...I miss the days when the *key* points of a chapter could be summerised by a few bulletpoints. But, yeah... I feel like I should organise these into their level sets, so I can run them once all the ToV stuff arrives... might make for a fun game! BTW... How awesome is the Epic Boon for the Fighter? Add your STR or DEX SCORE to the damage each turn! If the Fighter has a Belt of Giants (Storm), thats 29 unnegatable damage!!! On top of, what? Average 24 damage by then, times four from Multi-attack by level 18... 96 damage + 29 *true* damage! Average! Man... I cant wait to run some stuff for my players with this... gonna get crazy with it... gonna use the Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex books too! LOL!

Game I designed has an initiative system where the monsters have a stat called "initiative" that is between 2 and 5 depending on how quick and ferocious the monster(s) is. The PCs roll a d6 , those who roll better than the monsters initiative go before it, those lower go after. Same numbers go simultaneous (thus even if monster is killed that round it does have its attack completed and vise versa). Circumstances can change the monsters initiative #, such as environmental conditions. I have a character class called Captain that can give a number of PCs (equal to charisma modifier) a +1 to initiative due to his battle commands, which is very potent.

I picked up Ptolus at GenCon 2023 (well, my wife did as a birthday present), and it is the most fun I've ever had DMing. Literally everything you need is in that book. Players want to find a bathhouse? No need to risk looking like you're completely winging it - there's one in Rivergate and one in Midtown. Messenger services? Transit fare? Details on gambling games with mechanics? Details on periodic festivals and sporting events in the fields north of the city? Holidays? A chart of random daily/weekly events to spice up your session *just because*? Banks? Barbers? Tattoo parlors? Printers and binders? The book literally has it all. Not just the name and location of the shop, but the name, demeanor, and character of the NPC who runs it; almost all of whom have some kind of interesting quirk, trait, or hook. My players are continuously delighted and astonished when they ask for something, and I say, "Yes, give me a second" and open the book. Because they know it's real, and they love discovering how many obscure, weird little things they can think of that Monte Cook thought of first. I really don't enjoy running campaigns from a book, but I love, love, love running a campaign with a setting book like Ptolus.

Given the current weather conditions in NW Europe, an underwater adventure is rather fitting. Btw, the art is far superior to the stuff that WotC has planned for the 2024 update of 5e.

I can't wait for their first physical collection of tov adventures

With there party comp I'm not surprised they were bleeding out first combat. Very little synergy so it's not surprising.

It can be faster yet by not rolling for Initiative ever, simply running combats in Dexterity score groups order. For example, Le Rouge Rogue has an 18 Dex, and our Goblin Fighter has a 16 Dex, so they both act together before the Hydra, 15 Dex. Those with less than 15 Dex act together after the Hydra. Y'all have to decide what to do with party members who have the same Dex as the foe(s). Act together with the first group of party members? Roll off? Act with the enemy?

Looking forward to giving this a (one)shot! 😂

Title alone sounds ominous and amazing. Cant wait to see what cool modules they come up with.

I've been doing this the last few games and we love it! Slight difference: We roll initiative, I tell the number to beat, those players who beat it act together first, then ALL monsters go based on average initiative, then ALL players go, etc. It can be 'swingy' but I think that adds excitement and danger.

Cypher System starter box went on pre order today

4:30 there's no medium armor. Just No armor, Light armor and heavy armor! Good stuff tho

MEANING

I LOVE this!! I am running some games this weekend and I am going to share this with the tables. If they are willing to try it, we’ll do it! 🥳🥳🥳

The thing that always makes me wonder is: why should we speed combat though? D&D having a slower pace is an ok thing. It is a social experience, people should be able to zone out, crack jokes, eat a snack etc. but also: take their time before making their tactical decisions, trade ideas etc. I get that there are lots of people who enjoy a more fast paced game. But I feel that it kills something that is unique to the experience, it being majorly successful as a decompressed experience in a time where people are developing shorter and shorter attention spans.

The way I go about it is; slowest player describes their intention up until the fastest, then rolls happen. Players listen to each other because they can work off what others are doing. So, in effect, it's all happening in the same 3 seconds or so, with the fastest player able to 'know' more about what is happening around them. It's maybe a little harder for a GM since you need to keep in your head the scene as a whole as it moves and changes with each completed action. I have found players to more decisive with their intentions instead of waiting to see what happens with the last action and then deciding what they will do. The big thing I have done to cut out a lot of time wasting is not bother with hard-rules abilities. You'll be surprised how much you can get done when there isn't pssing about with books, and reading of skills and all the rest that comes with it. Stops a lot of power-gamer jank too. (its all description and character based.)

More cypher content please. ❤

Spit it out man!!!!

Rashemen is personally one of my favorite parts of the Realms, so this was awesome.

Do you make the initiative rill every round? Or just once at the start of combat? Seems like every round makes it more unpredictable and fun

Can't wait to play