How tf do I pronounce that*
I don’t know if you’re joking, but just for fun: Press-T-digi-tay-shun
It’s artifact level - a cantrip simply doesn’t work on it. When the players ask why, you just tell them they don’t know - neither can anyone in the town/city whatever they’re in.
The rust is removed, but there’s significant chunks missing due to the rust settling in. It is still unrecognisable and needs restoration.
Or something magical based on what the artifact does
improv intensifies
I learned that best things come from the right balance between preparation and improvisation. And that balance is approximately 20-80 respectively, at best. I figured that as a DM, I’m also playing, so I roll with my fellow table partners, as the story is unexpected for me as is for them.
Yeah. At this point I try to prepare scenes rather than plots, so hopefully I’ll be able to use my painstakingly prepared battlemap later, rather than not at all.
But it’s fun when the players throw a total curveball, and I need to come up with something on the spot.
Thats DnD, though. You’re not the narrator, you’re the benevolent god allowing the story to unfold.
I played recently with a newer DM who had written this complex story and kept trying to weave in obvious set pieces for us. At first, I played along, but when we started to go off track, he introduced an omnipotent NPC to help keep us on his path. I was done at that point. I’m not here to listen to a story.
If I find a clue early, I understand it might not make sense until later.
Going by your entire comment alone.
I have juuust the right youtube video for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkXMxiAGUWg
Twist: You think this is the legendary lost crown of Foo? Some rotten trash you grabbed in a dungeon just happens to be the thing you’ve been looking for all this time? Pull the other one! It’s been so ravaged by time that none of the markings or engravings are clearly visible. Best you can hope for is that some merchant will buy it off you for scrap.
Even if the PCs think this is the lost crown of Foo, only the kingdom’s last grandmaster artificer can conduct a conclusive test. Assuming you even find them, it’s not like they take appointments from any dirty old adventurers off the street.
I…uh…wait…ummm…hold on…wait…
If you’ve railroaded your campaign that much you’re a bad GM. It’s not your story, it’s your players story.
I hate this take a lot, I’m gonna be honest. I don’t care if his game is so on rails that it’s set on the fucking orient express. As long as the players are having fun with the game, and the GM is having fun with the game… that’s a good GM.
So a player that told you from beginning what he wants to do, which doesnt fit into your story, should they be forbiden to participate?
Do you just assume the worst in everyone you meet? How exhausted are you with the way you think?
What you said does not follow from the post you responded to. In any way. Why would you assume that? That’s like me randomly asking if you kicked a puppy before posting your comment… wait, d-did you?
How is this in any way railroading?
The DM determined that A) the players would find this crown, B) they would not clean it when they found it, and C) it would get cleaned at some point the DM decides later, whether the players wanted it to or not. Good for a book, bad for D&D.
…
A) this makes no sense to describe as railroading, apparently finding anything plot or backstory related is railroading?
B & C) Players not doing what a dm expects isn’t railroading. If the dm then turned around and said “no you don’t do that” or decides to make it impervious to prestidigitation, that might fit the definition.
Railroading is removing player agency and not giving players choices. Players just doing something unexpected that throws you for a loop? That’s called DMing.
My main point is that the DM gave them a crown but then for some reason panicks when they do something very mundane with it. It implies the DM has a rigid story set, rather than a sandbox for the players to explore.
Rollercoaster are fun yet have rails.
Are you even a GM to allow yourself such snap judgment? But for you know, we GM/DMs are not your employees RPGs are a group collaboration.
Having your complex plot get fast forwarded because of a cantrip, priceless 😆😆😆😆😆
I once fast-forwarded a complex plot through a GM-sanctioned bit of fluff.
The party had been invited by their uncle who turned out to be recently murdered when they arrived. Of course they investigated. At one point I had my character wrote a letter to the rest of the family to inform them of what was going on. I actually produced the letter as a handout. Since I had no idea about the date I asked the GM and he told me to pick anything in summer.
The GM s happy with the handout and it was deemed canonical.
A few sessions later he noticed that I had picked something ahead the end of the summer and the bad guys’ plot was about to kick off at a specific date right after summer ends. So suddenly the adventure went from “careful slow-burn investigation” to “mad rush to the location of the finale”.
Oops.
Couldn’t they have gone the other route and made the villain’s plans a year later? But sounds like it was a lot of fun the way it was run!
The idea was to have some kind of urgency but only once the players were far enough to understand the basics of what was going on. To that end, the date was supposed to be vague so that the GM was free to say “you figured out that the ritual will happen right after summer ends – which is in less than a week”.
Then he forgot that the timeframe was vague when I wrote the letter and told me to pick a date.
Unfortunately, this cut out a side plot where our party would’ve hired another party to hunt down some artifact. That artifact retroactively got downgraded to a red herring for time reasons.
On the other hand, we got an absolutely precious scene where the one party member who wasn’t magic-affine and didn’t want to be involved with any supernatural stuff had to ride an unnaturally fast six-legged half-demon horse in order to catch up with the bad guys.
Also, it cut down on all the “three wizards and a vintner have breakfast and discuss the state of the investigation” episodes. We had a lot of those.
On the other hand, we got an absolutely precious scene where the one party member who wasn’t magic-affine and didn’t want to be involved with any supernatural stuff had to ride an unnaturally fast six-legged half-demon horse in order to catch up with the bad guys.
Ardo still thinks that we should just leave this whole mess to the sun god’s holy inquisition and get the fuck out of town, thank you very much.
We once skipped an entire chapter of “Out of the abyss” by saying “nope!” and running out of the city!
The DM introduced all the factions in the city, we realized they were all conspiring against each other, and they all asked of us to collaborate with them (against the others)… Instead, we stole a ship in the night and sailed away!
Only afterwards the DM told us it means we skipped a full chapter he had worked hard to prepare!
Only afterwards the DM told us it means we skipped a full chapter he had worked hard to prepare!
The more time a DM spends preparing something, the less likely the players are to play along
the rust scales begin to fall and as the entire party squints to see the results, ROLL FOR INITIATIVE AT DISADVANTAGE (fuck a few dragons will get me out of this shit)
The crown completely disintegrates, as it was rust all the way through
Sorry, Mario, the real crown is in another dungeon.
the real crown was the XP we collected along the way
The real mario is the rust we collected along the XP
Easy. He needs to roll 100 on a single d20 or the spell fails and creates a big neon sign above the player characters head that follows them everywhere and reads “annoying little shit”
My GM solution: the rust is actually blood, and the crown needs a fresh coating to activate its narrative. If need be, make it belong to a certain bloodline, such as royalty.
DM: Scribbles a note “Without the rust it seems like a serviceable crown, but not too fancy.”
Note to lost heir: “You see the crown and you think as it… looks at you. This should be your crown. You wants it. They shouldn’t keep it from you. Steals it, hides it, it came here for you”.
DM: “Probably worth some gold.”
The player: GUYS! I’M A KING NOW!!! BOW TO MEEEEEEEE!!!
What metal is the crown made of?
The spell only works on iron and iron-heavy alloys. An advanced version of the spell exists but the players don’t have it yet.
Technically, rust can only occur on iron-heavy metals and alloys. Otherwise it’s just called oxidation.
The difference with “rust” is that rust will eat into the metal and change its shape, while oxydation only changes the surface color and texture.
This is not true. Oxidation is a broad type of chemical reaction involving the loss of electrons. Rust is a type of oxidation, much as a square is a type of rectangle. Oxidation can occur on the surface level (tarnishing of some metals, passivation of aluminum) or throughout (combustion). Rust actually only occurs on the surface as well, but the iron oxide is less dense than the metal and it increases the available area of the surface exposed to oxygen.
Yeah… Reading back my comment, it was badly written… I know rust is a type of oxydation, but that’s not what I wrote!
Lol thermite is my favorite oxidation & rust remover reaction
Ah yes, removes the rust, the object, and the table it was sitting on…
Well, not quite. Rust eats into iron because oxidised iron is larger and much more brittle than unoxidised iron, physically ripping itself out of place.
Many oxides arent that much larger that their base metals and form a nice patina protecting the metal underneath, like in aluminium.
Other oxides destroy the structural integrity of the metal and eat into it, forming corrosion. Rust is just corrosion specific to iron.
I didn’t know of other type of oxides that eat into the metal like rust does…
But it’s true that a “rusted crown” implies that it is iron-based, so the cantrip should work!
