DungeonCraft: Live from Adhesive Tom's Summary (Patreon)

DungeonCraft: Live from Adhesive Tom’s September 9th

This is a summary of the questions & answers:

RE: all of Cthulhu. Tom remarked that H.P. Lovecraft has few female characters but noted Cloque House has lots of them. PDM opined that Lovecraft did not care about characters so much as ideas, so his characters are unmemorable and interchangeable. PDM writes for his players and most of them are female, so he thinks more about players than what Lovecraft would do.

Why was the Warhammer video so popular? I dunno. The performance of the Warhammer review was great but the views on the Call of Cthulhu reviews was terrible. Why? No idea. It’s not for lack of trying. I’m just do going to keep making videos. Some will hit and some will miss. That’s the business model.

What’s the backstory of how you got connected with DM Scotty and DMG?

Scotty and DMG reached out to me. We get along well. We are working on a top-secret project, to be released (we hope) in November. 

With player facing rolling, how do you handle large amounts of damage or a villain casting spells? — would the DM roll all those dice, or would the player add it to their handful?

Yes, PDM rolls damage so the players don’t have to fish for dice and slow the game. Keep the gaming moving. 

Have you ever tried play-by-post? If so, what'd you think?

Nope. I don’t even like remote platforms. If I have to, I use Zoom.

Can you organize your Patreon page so that there is a link to all of your PDF documents and create a link to your video library with titles linked to the videos?

I will ask her Mrs. PDM to look into it. She’s the Patreon/FB/t-shirt department. Please be patient—Patreon is not the most intuitive platform. But we’ll look into it. 

Can you PLEASE type up a PDF Summary of Highlights following your Patreon Videos and Q&A sessions for Crowdcast Videos from here on out?

I’ll do my best to type something up. (This is that something)

How do you handle player death in your long running, high level games? Say one of your older groups sixth level characters got masticated for instant death while saving the dwarves. What is your process for introducing a new character at this stage in a long running campaign?

The most deadly encounters come last, so the new character will be introduced next session. New characters come it at 2 levels lower.

How can I change your simple system if gaining 10xp but having a simple hack to make it different for different classes? Have you given that any thought? Do you have some tips to guide me? PDM is revising his XP system right now. It will be included in Dungeonhack. 

Is there a d20 equivalent to Dungeonworld success system? I was thinking of rolling 2d10.

It won’t work because 2d6 results in a bell curve of 6-8. PDM discusses this in his masterclass video: “How Dice Work” 

Have you tried the Savage Worlds initiative system? Have you taken other ideas from other systems? I have read Savage Worlds but don’t use their initiative system—although I want to reread it now. I steal liberally from other systems. Recently, I’ve come to love DM Scotty’s Luck Dice and so does Adhesive Tom. 

My Player wants to be a dual wielder. How would you handle that?

I’d say you get disadvantage on both attacks. Two reasons: First, as Lindybeige will tell you, dual wielding wasn’t a historical thing; it’s a John Woo, Quentin Tarantino thing. Second, if it’s TOO good, everyone will want to do it. But every DM and game is different. Do what’s right for your game.

I have a player who loved RP but constantly talks himself out of the adventure hooks. What do I do? 

A good hook has two elements: 1) an objective 2) a time limit. If a hook is too open-ended (“All the birds in the city are dying; the wizards are really concerned.”) don’t be surprised if the players wander off track. A hook like, “The merchant’s daughter has been kidnapped and the outlaws are going to kill her in 24 hours if the ransom isn’t paid.” will be much more effective because it has a clear objective and imposes a specific time limit.