DM decision help

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cbarchuk
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DM decision help

Post by cbarchuk »

Just finished a session with an epic final battle where 1 character died, 2 are unconscious but stable with 1 left standing.

Not sure what to do here. The 1 character is the only one left and the local village is a days journey away. He can't drag his two compatriots back to the village himself. Does it make sense to allow him to go back to the village to get help leaving his 2 unconscious buddies alone till the following day. Would they even be able to survive that long? What do you think? I don't want to be too harsh here but at the same time realistic if there is such a thing. :D
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Dimirag
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Re: DM decision help

Post by Dimirag »

Look like a TPK hard to avoid situation If the big bad is still standing...

The character could leave his teammates... but they'll run the corresponding risks...
You could save the pc's with some army arriving at the last minute, but I'm not fond of the "mommy hen" gming style.
You could let things happen as they come, players will learn that combat on OSR games is not always the solution as it tend to turn lethal easily and the GM will learn to gauge combat beforehand and modify if needed on the run.
If there is no danger around or in the near future and they are near a route someone could be just passing by with their cart and take pity on them, and become into a new adventure seed...
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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cbarchuk
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Re: DM decision help

Post by cbarchuk »

Well the final boss is dead. It was a Skeletal Black Dragon. Boy dragon breath is lethal. Combine that with poor saving throw rolls and characters were taking damage like crazy. The lone survivor was the thief...lol. The Fighter/Mage failed her death save and died. The Dwarven Fighter and Halfling Cleric are at 0 but are stabilized. So the whole dungeon is cleared at this point. I could say that the Village Mayor, worried about the fate of the adventurers, decided to send some militia their way. Does that seem corny? These were level 5 and 6 characters.
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Dimirag
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Re: DM decision help

Post by Dimirag »

If the situation does not feel out of place go with it, or with a second group of adventurers (with no stats), and give the chance to the F/M layer to grab one of this new individuals as his character and use the rest as henchmen or supporting npc's...
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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cbarchuk
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Re: DM decision help

Post by cbarchuk »

I'm wondering if the F/M can be raised. Can elves be raised from the dead in BFRPG? Maybe there's a local priest in town or something. How much does raise dead cost anyway? I'm sure it's not cheap.
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Hywaywolf
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Re: DM decision help

Post by Hywaywolf »

If they are at 0 hit points but stabilized then why don't you let them rest there for a week to get that hp back. Then they can walk back to town. They can haul the dead wizard back and pay a 10th level cleric to raise them from the dead. The corpse has 10 days to find such a cleric so that leaves 3 days after the rest period so they may have to find a higher level cleric if it takes longer to get back to town. This also opens the party up to do a major service for the cleric if they can't pay.
Binding the wounds of the dying character stabilizes him or her at zero hit points. Non-magical healing will require a full week to restore the first hit point; after this, healing proceeds at the normal rate.
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minstrel
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Re: DM decision help

Post by minstrel »

I'd let them live or die, according to how your rules for unconsciousness work.

But if you want to throw them a bone, some random ideas:

Are they in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere near a road? If the latter, have a caravan be nearby (maybe the thief can see it traveling by from the dungeon entrance and race to catch them) and allow him to pay the caravan master for passage.

Or put some loot in the dragon's hoard that would assist. A couple healing potions would be the easy choice. Level 5-6 sounds a bit low for high powered gear, but it was a dragon, so it's not too out of the question. Magic carpet, helm of teleportation, big bag of holding (assuming they can breathe inside) could all work too.
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Hywaywolf
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Re: DM decision help

Post by Hywaywolf »

Just thinking here but why are you trying to solve the problem for the players? You don't have to make a silly trick to save the party. Everything they need to survive this is contained within the rules. What have they proposed to do? They do have copies of the rules and any optional rules you added, right? The way you described the death situation it looks like you are using the save vs death optional rule. The players can read about that and see that after a week they will get 1 hp back and be mobile again.

No matter what they do roll random encounters just like you would during a normal game. So say the thief chooses to go to town to seek help, he is alone so you use his movement rate rather than the party so he should get their faster. I would even let him move faster since this is known territory and he is rushing. So roll a couple random encounters and instead of throwing a monster at him, let the encounter table hold some sort of help ranging from a party of high level clerics on a pilgrimage, a party from the village checking on the group, someone who will take half their loot to rescue them, to a shepherd boy who will run back to town to seek help. Probably should throw in some bad things as well that they can choose to avoid at a cost of time.

Or if they stay where they are base your encounter rolls on how safe the players hole up somewhere. Solid room with one entrance the thief can defend if necessary.

But the key is, let the party decide what they want to do and work with that. Don't just fix it for them.
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cbarchuk
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Re: DM decision help

Post by cbarchuk »

Hywaywolf wrote: Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:54 am Just thinking here but why are you trying to solve the problem for the players? You don't have to make a silly trick to save the party. Everything they need to survive this is contained within the rules. What have they proposed to do? They do have copies of the rules and any optional rules you added, right? The way you described the death situation it looks like you are using the save vs death optional rule. The players can read about that and see that after a week they will get 1 hp back and be mobile again.

No matter what they do roll random encounters just like you would during a normal game. So say the thief chooses to go to town to seek help, he is alone so you use his movement rate rather than the party so he should get their faster. I would even let him move faster since this is known territory and he is rushing. So roll a couple random encounters and instead of throwing a monster at him, let the encounter table hold some sort of help ranging from a party of high level clerics on a pilgrimage, a party from the village checking on the group, someone who will take half their loot to rescue them, to a shepherd boy who will run back to town to seek help. Probably should throw in some bad things as well that they can choose to avoid at a cost of time.

Or if they stay where they are base your encounter rolls on how safe the players hole up somewhere. Solid room with one entrance the thief can defend if necessary.

But the key is, let the party decide what they want to do and work with that. Don't just fix it for them.
Yep I am using the save vs death rule in which the Elven F/M is the one that failed it. The group is aware that it would take a week for the Cleric and Fighter to regain 1 hit point. Right now they've decided to just make camp within the Crypt and live off of rations for a week. That's as far as we got before the session ended.

The adventure we were playing is the Deathcrypt of Khaldun from the Adventure Anthology 1 book. The adventure itself doesn't mention anything about wandering monsters or random encounters. Since the party has cleared the entire crypt is it considered safe for them to rest in for a week without any issues? I assume it's my decision but most of the adventures seem to contain a wandering monster table if in fact one should be rolled. But honestly If I was to add some it certainly spell the end of the lone thief trying to protect his injured comrades.

Right now the party is held up in the final room and the party is as follows:

Level 5 Dwarven Fighter - 0 HP but stabilized
Level 6 Halfling Cleric - 0 HP but stabilized
Level 5 Elf F/M = KIA
Level 7 Human Thief - Alive but injured.
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Hywaywolf
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Re: DM decision help

Post by Hywaywolf »

I meant rolling encounters to see if help comes, not to see if the thief gets killed :) That allows some randomness rather than just saying. "Ok, you sat there for a week, then walked into town and raised your MU from death. yay. "
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