Newbie questions

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Snarkythekobold
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Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 10:00 am

Newbie questions

Post by Snarkythekobold »

As a young dude, I only played D&D and that session was on a phone (with a long twirly cord that could stretch outside) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also played the HeroQuest and DragonStrike board games growing up and really enjoyed those. Recently, my oldest son became interested in D&D and wanted the basic set as payment for some of his chores. But as I was searching Amazon, I came across BFRPG and am so glad that I purchased it.

We recently played our first session. It was just a small dungeon that I whipped out on graph paper. We were just trying to get some of the rules down before we played with some of his friends. We had a blast. What started as a simply a dungeon exploration to find loot ended up in the death and resurrection of two characters (my youngest got teared up and so I had to give them a chance to revive his character!), making an alliance with a kobold and goblin who had been kidnapped by a group of bugbears and used to explore the cursed dungeon, and an eventual raid on the bugbear camp to get revenge. It was great and we had all sorts of fun.

Anyways, here are the questions:

1) How far can characters "see" in regular daylight?


2) What do you think about the placement of secret doors? We recently played a module in which a secret door was placed along a long corridor in a dungeon full of long corridors. What are players supposed to do . . . search every non distinct wall? That sounds pretty boring.


3) What are your thoughts on long, windy dungeons? We recently played a module with such a dungeon and it got old . . . fast. Also, there were tons of rooms that did not have anything significant in them. They would search (not knowing if the search was successful or not) and then move on. It was pretty boring.


I bought all of the modules on Amazon and intend to play through them. But we actually had more fun doing a simple quest that turned out to be something way more. And the way that it turned out to be more was by simply following the rules. What is your experience?

Sorry for such a long first post. Thanks to all who have contributed.
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Hywaywolf
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Hywaywolf »

How far can a character see in daylight? I don't know if that is addressed in the rules but i doubt it.
Seeing would depend on so many inputs that I think its best to just wing that. How good is your vision, how big is the item you are hoping to see? Is it over the horizon and if so how tall is it? how elevated are you? The horizon is 3 miles away for a 6' person and your eyes can see things much further than that. It just depends on the size of the item and if there is anything obstructing your sightline.

As for secret doors, bring an elf. They get a 1 in 6 chance to notice a secret door just by walking past it. Also, unless the door just goes into a single room without any other exits you will probably encounter the door from the other side later on where it won't be so secret looking. And you know, the thing about secret doors is that they are secret. Which means they aren't supposed to be found easily. A good GM will use them to sneak NPCs behind the player, or after the players discover it later they can sneak up on NPCs.

I hate long windy dungeons with nothing in them. They are boring.

Try the Adventure Anthology modules. They are a collection of small adventures more like you described.
Snarkythekobold
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Snarkythekobold »

Thanks Hywaywolf, I didn't think of secret doors that way. My thing was that I would hate to have a dungeon crawl with success depending on whether or not the players searched every wall or not. I think I just need to read/play some different modules to see how that they are best utilized.

The sight question had to do with outdoor explorations. I think, instead of being too technical with it, I will just wing it on outdoor explorations. I guess that it is a learning process on how technical/ loose to be and still keep the game fun.

I just received the Adventure Anthology modules in the mail today. I think I will try one of those next.
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Hywaywolf
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Hywaywolf »

I agree that it would be poor design to have success hanging on whether or not the PCs found a secret door along a 100' corridor in a dungeon with dozens of 100' corridors. In fact, if that character isn't an elf I would lean heavily toward the finder having read the module before playing.
Snarkythekobold
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Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 10:00 am

Re: Newbie questions

Post by Snarkythekobold »

Instead of posting a new thread, I thought I would ask another question that I have here.

Do monsters get attack bonuses? And, if so, how do you determine it? (also, where is this info located in the 3rd ed. book?)

Thanks
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Dimirag
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Dimirag »

Yes, they get an attack bonus, the table on page 46 gives the attack bonuses for the classes and monsters by level/hit dice.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
Drawing portfolio: https://www.instagram.com/m.serena_dimirag/
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Metroknight
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Metroknight »

Quick rule of thumb I use: HD = attack bonus. This only works up to 8HD but for learning purposes it works rather well.
Snarkythekobold
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Snarkythekobold »

Thanks for the answers. The quick rule of thumb is very helpful.

Another question: do monsters ever get bonuses on initiative.

Also, can monsters set off traps?

For example, my youngest son (who likes to just charge in and has already croaked once) just blindly opened the door into a room full of monsters, some of them with bows pointed right at them. We stopped the game at that point because it was getting late but they were talking about running away and bombing them with a flaming vial of lantern fuel when they ran out of the room. Could the monsters, in a rage, run out of the room and fall into the trap that is located at the doorway?

Also, if the pit trap is triggered, how can the party get around it? I'm sure that they will come up with an imaginative idea and I am the kind of GM that awards creativity. It's all about fun anyways. But I was wanting to know the thoughts of some more experienced GM's.

Thanks!
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Metroknight
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Re: Newbie questions

Post by Metroknight »

That is mostly left to the GM of the game to decide if there is nothing in the monsters description, imho.

I have used half of HD as initiative bonus in some of my games but I also use 1d10 for the init dice also.

I had monsters set off traps and suffer the effects but most monsters, intelligent monsters that is, would know about any traps in their territory and are probably the ones set them up or maintain them.

Pit traps could be leaped across like a broad jump or if someone described it, parkor style aka bouncing off the wall next to the pit. I had players use a rope and grappling hook to scale down the pit (when it is to deep to just drop down into it) then back up the other side with their characters. I had one very observant player remember about some construction lumber a short distance back in the dungeon and the group built a quick simple platform (one board wide but two boards long) to stretch across it.
Snarkythekobold
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Joined: Mon May 28, 2018 10:00 am

Re: Newbie questions

Post by Snarkythekobold »

When players do something like using a rope and a grappling hook, do the players have to roll for any special ability?

In our last game, one player was trying to throw a rope and grappling hook up a 20 ft. tower in order to provide a rope for another player who on top (the tower was on fire and a bugbear was climbing up the steps to get him). I had her roll for special ability, although I think rolling for dexterity or something like that would be good as well.

Or do you just allow them to throw it and consider it a success?
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