https://forum.obsidianportal.com/categories/general-discussion/p30/feed.rss Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:20:02 +0000 General Discussion Discussions on Obsidian Portal Community Forums en-CA https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2509/brainstorming-dm-ideas Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:15:35 +0000 Dranis230 2509@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2517/le-ballet-de-l-acier-recap Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:28:22 +0000 Black_Vulmea 2517@/discussions
It's interesting to see it all laid out this way, as one narrative.

Mike aka Black Vulmea
"_Le Ballet de l'Acier_":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/le-ballet-de-l-acier - swashbuckling adventures in the age of the Three Musketeers and Captain Alatriste
Featured Campaign of the Month - August 2011]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2522/time-to-start-whoring-again Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:55:46 +0000 nightstorm 2522@/discussions http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/cincinnati-by-night/adventure-log]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2521/dreams-and-dragons Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:47:25 +0000 RobertBenton 2521@/discussions
Locations:
Dreamscapes are a realm of exsistance all their own, created by unconsious minds of dreamers. However most people only dream of locations that they know of, with a few skewed or shifted details. This is why lucid dreaming is even an available practice for just about everybody. Very few people dream of places that don't exsist, with visual or literary artists being the most dominant people being able to. (I dream of a place that doesn't exsist. It is a city with grass plains on 1/3 of its borders, and forested mountains on 2/3. This is whats know as a "Static Created Dreamscape." A fictional place that repeats itself in the unconsious mind.) So what that means is the Dreamscaped World as a whole, for everyone on Earth, is only slightly larger than earth itself. Now lets look at the last demographic, those who don't dream. It's been shown that those who don't dream still have the same brain patterns of those who do, which means that the Dreamscape World is probably plagued with zones of nothing. Kind of like in the Neverending Story.

Inhabitants:
When you dream you fill your dreamscape with inhabitants. It's something we do on a primal level. We are built to be social, and we feel frightened when alone. So, in order to ensure peaceful rest dreams are populated to our individual comfort levels. For some, like me, that means sparce population. For others however that could mean hundreds of people. To top that off, most people only have 2-4 definitive characters in a single dream. That could mean a dream where dreamer and 4 defined characters are in a space with hundreds of faceless static background characters. Lets call them "shells". Now lets head back to the "creation dreams". If you create your own Dreamscape, more than likely you create fictional creatures/people/objects as well. (I have a static villian in my dreams called Morphos. His original form is that of a shaggy blue and teal chinese style lion statue with glowing white eyes and a grossly over-comical smile. Like "Aku, Shapeshifting Master of Evil". Also true to his Aku like qualities, he is a shapeshifter. His only tells are the eyes and smile.) These creations stand out and are fantastical in nature, form horrific and obvious to sublime and subtle. We will call these "Ideas" just to have a point of reference

Dreams as a Seperate Reality:
What if after we create this Dreamscape, it never went away, as though it was indeed a seperate reality. One every sleeping person shared in. What's more, what if after we finished our dreams and woke, all the characters we created, both Shells and Ideas, stayed in the Dreamscape and just exsisted there, now free of our minds subtle influences? Most would be terrified. And what's worse is the next dreamer will add to the population, and the next will add, and the next etc. etc. The nothing zones will wipe out alot of the Shells and some of the Ideas, but that is still a startling population boom, with a space that almost never grows!

Super-Static:
If a person dreamt of a Idea for years and years eventually the Idea would gain a consiousness of its own. This would allow it to traverse the whole Dreamscape and even interact with other Ideas from other areas of the Dreamscape, and possibly even appear to other dreamers.

Theology of sleep:
There are plenty of gods of sleep, such as Morpheus, Hypnos, and Phobetor. However they are a startling few compared to the gods that rule over the physical plane. And not only that, but theirs is population that grows by millions daily. Seeing their subjects suffer would lead them to try to rectify the problem.

Breaching the norm with dreams:
Either the gods of sleep or super-static Ideas would eventually discover the conduit to pass from the dreamscape to the physical world. This would start a revolution, and an invasion. A benevolent Idea may start brining weak Ideas barraged by nothing on all sides (A budding artist dreams while in the surrounding neighborhood, a mojority have dreamless rest.) would carry the Idea to this world so that it may live in peace and learn to grow. On the other hand Phobetor, god of nightmares, would use Nightmarish Ideas(Such as my own Morphos) to launch a war against an unprepared and outnumbered world of mortals.

I have more to say on the above subjects, but it's difficult to describe without appearing to repeat myself. So lets look to the practical use of Dreams in todays D&D.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2198/cyberpunk Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:37:27 +0000 Baalshamon 2198@/discussions
I am going to use the packages you put up to create NPC's that work for a mega corp or are members of a wealthy gang.

thanks
-Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2516/fantasy-art-depicting-heroes-of-all-backgrounds Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:37:51 +0000 GamingMegaverse 2516@/discussions http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sarahdarkmagic/prismatic-art-collection]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2478/made-a-table-for-hallucinations Sun, 25 Mar 2012 03:39:51 +0000 AnthonyDluzak 2478@/discussions
In our 2nd Edition AD&D game, one of my players has an Amulet of Sleep Protection. He also has a Death Curse on him that affects him while he sleeps - a witch tortures him in his dreams with various nightmares (a la Nightmare on Elm Street) and prevents him from getting proper sleep that effects his stats, healing rate and ability to level up (house rules).

So, the PC has recently learned the Amulet will prevent him from at least having his nightmares (they are growing in severity and he is losing hit points while sleeping) so he has put it on. On the third day of sleep deprivation, he will begin to have mild hallucinations. They will increase in severity till the 7th day in which I have to roll on an Insanity chart.

I could not find a chart for hallucinations, so I developed my own... Please let me know what you think, and what I may do to make it better!

Hallucination chart:

3rd Day (Level 1 Hallucinations) – DISTURBANCE.
ROLL 1d4 – Number of hallucinations for the day.
ROLL 1d6 for each hallucination.
1. Visual
2. Hearing
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch
6. Perception
ROLL 2d12 for each hallucination to determine time of day for each one.

4th Day (Level 2 Hallucinations) – TROUBLE.
ROLL 1d6 – Number of hallucinations for the day.
ROLL 2d8 for each hallucination. Both rolls are combined into one hallucination, duplicate rolls are rerolled.
1. Visual
2. Hearing
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch
6. Perception
7. Command
8. Somatic
ROLL 2d12 for each hallucination to determine time of day for each one.

5th Day (Level 2 Hallucinations) – ANGUISH.
ROLL 1d8 – Number of hallucinations for the day.
ROLL 3d8 for each hallucination. All rolls are combined into one hallucination, duplicate rolls are rerolled.
1. Visual
2. Hearing
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch
6. Perception
7. Command
8. Somatic
ROLL 2d12 for each hallucination to determine time of day for each one.

Since the time is random, I have no idea what will be going on at that time during the game -- so I will be creating the hallucinations based upon the situation that comes up. I think that could get real interesting.

Let me know your thoughts, guys!

_May your die always roll high and your figures never topple_
-Anthony
"Legends of the Middle Ages":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/legends-of-the-middle-ages]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2515/peg-s-new-web-site Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:16:14 +0000 SquidAndCrow 2515@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2511/final-battles Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:10:26 +0000 KenSee 2511@/discussions
So, I was wondering, do you all have any epic final fights that you wish to share? This will be my first so I am kinda nervous about doing it right.

Thanks!
Ken See
"Paths of Destiny":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/paths-of-destiny-ken]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2500/death-of-a-player-character-no-one-was-actually-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-post Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:35:06 +0000 Baalshamon 2500@/discussions
Steve

"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2448/proud-of-my-new-map Mon, 05 Mar 2012 05:33:28 +0000 AnthonyDluzak 2448@/discussions
If you have a few moments, I would love to have you check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/legends-of-the-middle-ages/maps/show/28429

I apologize for the cut and paste... I'm not sure how to post links in forums.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2467/wanting-to-start-a-table-top-mass-effect-d-d-game Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:09:31 +0000 Dameon_Raneara 2467@/discussions
I have a list of classes that will be used and an idea of their hit die for the class, but it is incomplete.

Solider (d10)
Adept (d4)
Sentential (d?)
Engineer (d?)
Infiltrator (d6)
Vanguard (d?)

As for weapons I want to use the ones from all three 3 games, and yes I mean every weapon that could be used, but I do not have an idea on how much the base damage for each weapon would be.

As for skills and class powers, I think either going with ME1 power tree or ME3 power tree and as for skills stick with the 3.5 class and cross skills.

So far this is what I got, any help and or ideas on this will considered and greatly appreciated :D]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2488/ipad-applications Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:10:35 +0000 twilightkamui 2488@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2496/why-is-there-no-easy-to-find-information-on-turning-of-auto-renew-in-the-faq-s-section Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:49:27 +0000 wadehone 2496@/discussions
I get VERY frustrated with sites / programs that make it difficult, or 'hide' how to cancel, subscriptions - I can only assume that this is in hope's that people don't put forth the effort, to cancel, and they continue to be charged. Instead, what it creates is a paranoia amongst users about signing up for 'auto renew' subscriptions.

Please make an entry in your FAQ section about how to subscribe, and how to 'un-subscribe' I feel that it will help in the long run, and not make this endeavor look 'shady' (which it's not, of course - I love Obsidian Portal and what it is doing for the RPG community. I just want to feel like 'turning it off' is easy to do if I so desire... I get nervouse other wise.

Thanks, and also, can some one please point me to information regarding un-subscribing? I'm sure it's simple - I just couldn't find it.

Thank you,

zWolf -out.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2490/free-games Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:22:23 +0000 Baalshamon 2490@/discussions
-Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
"Duskreign's CotM December 2011":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/wyrmshadow/wikis/122011
"OP CotM January 2012":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2012/01/star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2487/socio-political-aspects-of-a-canabalistic-society Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:07:02 +0000 Baalshamon 2487@/discussions
~Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
"January 2112 CotM":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm
"Duskreign's CotM December 2011":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/wyrmshadow/wikis/122011]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2362/destructive-players Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:25:27 +0000 Baalshamon 2362@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2476/cellphones-laptops-and-other-devices-distracting-from-game Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:38:52 +0000 JaymesBolton 2476@/discussions
Since I do use my OP site for a lot of things in game and use messaging to send players secret information that the rest of the party shouldn't know ( the joy and headaches of having a sneaky character) I do not want to completely disallow electronic devices( and my players would revolt). And I am looking for suggestions besides just "talking to them about as reasonable adults". And it is happening in other games ( we have 3 different games a week with different GMs and RPG systems) so I know it is not just my game. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Jaymes

"Changing History":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/l5r-changing-history]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2473/planning-games Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:31:41 +0000 Burnttoastking 2473@/discussions
So I got fed up with it and announced to the rest of the group that I would no longer be involved in scheduling games, I've been doing it for years and in my opinion its someone else's turn. Now one of my players is saying I still should schedule the games since I'm a GM and thus should be responsible for when the game happens. My argument is that the GM is in charge of creating the game, not necessarily deciding when the game should happen. They disagree, so here's the question I pose to you all, should game planning fall solely on the shoulders of the GM or should it be a burden that's shared.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2456/5th-edition-dnd-too-soon Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:53:35 +0000 ninjazombie42 2456@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2470/how-to-make-a-downloaded-background-fit-all-screens Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:32:51 +0000 uktena66 2470@/discussions
I downloaded an image to my campaign and used it for the background. It fits my widescreen almost perfectly. But then I noticed on my square screen at work the bottom of the image is cut off and the image repeats. Looks awful.

I use this template from Arsheesh.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2326/should-random-encounters-be-level-appropriate Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:36:36 +0000 ninjazombie42 2326@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2465/what-is-the-simplest-rpg-system Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:55:17 +0000 ninjazombie42 2465@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2460/draw-vecna-day Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:48:23 +0000 Baalshamon 2460@/discussions https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2461/tool-for-generating-treasure-merchandise-in-a-fantasy-campaign Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:11:38 +0000 bluesguy 2461@/discussions
"Inspiration Pad Pro is a free program you can use to generate all sorts of things for your campaign. Generate names, town information, encounters, treasures - you name it! Inspiration Pad Pro uses text files called 'generators' to tell it how to generate information for you. You can create your own, modify existing generators, or just use the ones included with the program as-is. Because of this, it's easy to customize generators to the needs of your own specific campaign."

I have taken my spreadsheet information and turned it into a set of text files that can be used by IPP. Here is the blurb in the include Readme file that I have included with the zip of my files:

This zip package includes the files necessary to generate treasure in a Valdorian Age campaign using the InspirationPadPro2 tool. You can download a copy of the InspirationPadPro2 tool from http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm. It is a free program and it is very useful.

These random generation files have been "tuned" for the Valdorian Age campaign material. They have also been further "tuned" to fit my version of the Valdorian Age Campaign Material.

After you have installed the InspirationPadPro2 tool, locate the directory C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2. You will then need to copy the Common\va directory to C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2\Common and Generators\ValdorianAge directory to C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2\Generators

When you start the InspirationPadPro2 tool the Valdorian Age should be one of the options.

The ValdorianAgeTreasure.ipt file is setup to generate many more mundane items than a typical fantasy campaign treasure pile. My players like finding 'useful' things in the treasures they come across.

It is very important to realize the Valdorian Age is a campaign world where monsters and magic are extremely rare. How often items show up is based on this rarity and the costs reflect the rarity as well.

One area where there is a great deal of detail has to do with the bookbinder.ipt file. My players are very interested in books in the campaign world. Their characters will spend coin on books. So I have created a very complex book generator. It is highly customized to the campaign world (people, locations, etc).

To adapt this material for another campaign the following files will have to be changed:

1. coins.ipt - This generated is highly skewed to generate copper and small amounts of silver coins. Finding gold coins has a 1 in a 1000th chance of occurring.
2. colleges.ipt - These are the magic colleges. The outcomes have been adjusted away from certain types of magic (Black Magic, Conjuration, Elemental, Necromancy, Shamanism, and Witchcraft) and towards other types (Alchemy, Song, Divine, Wizardry, Divination, etc).
3. historictimes.ipt - This is very specific for the Valdorian Age campaign world. Extensive changes need to made here for this file to work with other campaign worlds.
4. holidays.ipt - This is a simple file to change
5. oldgods.ipt - List of deities in the Valdorian Age and it will need to be changed for another campaign world.
6. people.ipt - This is another area that will require extensive changes for another campaign world.
7. places.ipt - This is another area that will require extensive changes for another campaign world.

There is at least one bug in the files. There are times when a "Novel" is generated but the 'place' that should be generated with the novel's title doesn't appear.
=============

You can find the zip file at "ValdorianAge.zip":http://www.jcdisciples.org/files/ValdorianAge.zip]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2454/rpg-business-model-advise Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:14:41 +0000 despot9 2454@/discussions
I'm in the process of designing a Role Playing System. I am beginning to seriously consider what kind of financial model would best suit me as a startup and I was hoping to get some opinions from potential customers.

What I'm thinking is inspired by a few games on the video game market. Specifically the Mount and Blade game. What they did is release the game for a low cost while it was in Alpha and used that money to fund the further development with people who paid for the game at the low cost getting the new content as it was created. As the new content was created the cost for new customers went up until they were eventually at the "final release" level.

Do you think something like this could work for a table top Role Playing Game. Specifically for a PDF version. Say the Alpha version of the book is $1 and the final version of the PDF is $10.

The game would be playable from the earliest version even if not as pretty as some RPG's out there. The main reason I would consider this is to raise money to hire the artist I would want to hire.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2415/what-makes-a-truly-memorable-villain Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:00:08 +0000 EricAusley 2415@/discussions
(As always, we intend to incorporate this online discussion into our episode so please make it known if you do not want to be quoted or have your name aired.)]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2429/a-blog-of-d-and-possibly-d Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:14:54 +0000 Idabrius 2429@/discussions
I tend to deconstruct things a lot, and so many of my conversations with friends focusing on dismantling jokes, books, history, and the games we play. Since I feel like D&D has moved so far away from what I (and most of my friends) want it to be, I thought it might be neat to post some of those thoughts in essay form.

It doesn't hurt that I am also working on a Player's Guide to Arunë, a sort of digest of the massive campaign wiki and hand-written notes that are so overwhelming as to absolutely put off any new players. Hopefully I'm going to post it up on RPGnow for a few cents a download, making it available as a resource to whoever wants to read it, for whatever reason whether to mine it for ideas or actually to use it for themselves.

My original intention was to actually write an AD&D magazine and release it once every two months along the order of Kobold, but I couldn't get enough writers and artists involved to make it do-able. So here, instead, are some of the thoughts that would have gone into "The Grognard." Hope it is at least entertaining, even if it is hackle-raising in some of its assumptions!]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/1171/designing-fantasy-countries-and-cultures Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:52:44 +0000 gnunn 1171@/discussions
This past weekend, I decided to sit down to try and flesh out a list of countries that will be included in my subcontinent of the Westerlands. I decided to use a technique often practiced by fantasy authors like David Eddings and Robert Jordan, which is to unashamedly base my fantasy cultures on actual ancient civilizations.

Unfortunately, I found myself running into a combination of issues... namely:
# My understanding of the variety of ancient cultures is mediocre at best.
# The realist voice in my head keeps asking, "How varied would these cultures actually be if they are so close together?" while my creative side keeps screaming back, "It's fantasy! Jerkface! I can do what I want!"
# I have described the region of the Westerlands as fairly settled in the past, but part of me really wants to make it more of a Tolkienesque realm where settlements are separated by large tracts of dangerous countryside... again, cue the realist vs. creative argument.

To help break me out of my block, I wound up writing down a list of real-world European cultures that I could use as models for my cultures and then created a list of things that each culture would be known for (e.g. They are a naval power, they are savvy merchants, they make excellent longbows, etc.)

This helped but I'm still feeling a bit blocked, so I pose the question:

What techniques do you find helpful for creating a variety of distinct/unique cultures to populate your campaign world?]]> https://forum.obsidianportal.com/discussion/2436/sex-at-the-rpg-table Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:29:00 +0000 GamingMegaverse 2436@/discussions The original "post":http://nevermetpress.com/sex-at-the-rpg-table-a-dicey-proposition#.T0wTOvWAYoo uses the fact that his fiancee is at the table as the main reason not to have sex or romance involved in his game. I don't have my wife playing, but in my game we do have a husband and wife as 2 of the players, and it has not gotten in the way. I will admit that it has not been as graphic as it used to be (the wife joined 3 months ago), but romance and sex, sometimes even gratuitous sex, still occurs in my game. How about others of you?
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
"Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011]]>