Friendship is Dragons
Updates Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Page 1637 - Dungeons & Ponies, Part 12
Author Notes:
Notice: Guest comic submissions are open! Guidelines here. Deadline: February 20th.
(Pop-out)
13 Comments:
On one hand, I've been really tempted to run a logistics-heavy game where half the challenge is figuring out how to lug the golden idols and sacks of coins out of the dungeon, back through the desert, and over the mountains to where you can spend it. I particularly like the emergent idea of burying your own chests of supplies or treasure to get back to later. On the other hand, that sounds like something I'd like to play solo as a video game and would be miserable for a group in play.
The good news is, if you want to do this, D&D has had that as a part of its mechanical base since nearly day 1. There's a reason Tenser's Floating Disc is a spell!
Given the OOC context, I can't help but wonder if Spike's poking fun at Celestia. Especially after the Sombra incident.
Forty years of technology later and my first thought on panel 5 was "What are cell-phone/microwave-relay towers doing in this setting?" On closer look my thoughts are "That's taking 'Ships of the Desert' a bit too far" (since the party seems to be in a rather parched wasteland and not near oceans).
I personally think that the trick to making Survival challenges interesting is to have them be SHORT term.
Sure, there's the good old 'wandering through a desert' bit, but that's sort of... one dimensional. Either you know how to survive in the environment you're in (without supplies- remember, removing the party's supplies is basically step one of good survival adventures) and you'll eventually get out, or you don't, and you die in a week.
What you WANT are short-term challenges.
Sinkholes. Storms (BIG storms. That last for days). Being hunted by something too big and bad to fight (Shai Hulud, anyone?). Fey forest mazes. Volcanoes. Tidal waves. Earthquakes. Shifting tunnels underground.
Stuff that you can't _fight_, but that require the players to succeed-or-perish _quickly_. (Or which inflict long-term problems on them.)
Another one is setting up a time limit, and then using 'lost in the woods' or 'very far away' as a way to run the clock down, and let the players try and figure out a solution. (Make sure to pepper the landscape/history with options, though.)
Sure, there's the good old 'wandering through a desert' bit, but that's sort of... one dimensional. Either you know how to survive in the environment you're in (without supplies- remember, removing the party's supplies is basically step one of good survival adventures) and you'll eventually get out, or you don't, and you die in a week.
What you WANT are short-term challenges.
Sinkholes. Storms (BIG storms. That last for days). Being hunted by something too big and bad to fight (Shai Hulud, anyone?). Fey forest mazes. Volcanoes. Tidal waves. Earthquakes. Shifting tunnels underground.
Stuff that you can't _fight_, but that require the players to succeed-or-perish _quickly_. (Or which inflict long-term problems on them.)
Another one is setting up a time limit, and then using 'lost in the woods' or 'very far away' as a way to run the clock down, and let the players try and figure out a solution. (Make sure to pepper the landscape/history with options, though.)
If the party doesn't get the hint, let them see, off toward the horizon in the direction of the rising sun, the glass begin to bubble. The region of bubbling glass slowly creeps toward the party.
How fast can they find or construct shelter? Or can they travel faster than the heat, if they are not headed for it?
I used a simple logistic in my campaign they have to buy supplies could use magic to make sure it was okay and could loot from the enemies. Only in a few case when the players like and wanted a more serious management I used. same from survival/environments no great issue except when it's a part of campaign setting. ( Like in Brazilian Tormenta )
When I was a kid watching this series, I never wondered about the orbital mechanics of this world; does it revolve around both suns, or tightly around one? Two-star solar systems are very unstable!
It's simple: As the setting was Greyhawk inspired, you can assume it's geocentric.
I love that this comic has gone full circle in the most wonderful way possible.
At first it was a bunch of D&D gamers playing as the ponies, now those same gamers are playing the characters from the CLASSIC D&D cartoon. I LOVE THIS!!!
At first it was a bunch of D&D gamers playing as the ponies, now those same gamers are playing the characters from the CLASSIC D&D cartoon. I LOVE THIS!!!
Guest Author's Note: "It's a personal favorite technique of mine to have NPCs call out the crap of other NPCs. It's not a technique that you can always get away with (because at the end of the day, as a DM, you wrote the other character to have that very crap in the first place), but when it works, the players get to revel in joking about what just happened both in character and out.
On the other end, a technique I don't especially like is survival type challenges. It's just not a form of gameplay I especially like to get into as a DM. I personally find that long-term survival challenges, like wilderness traversal, result in a few too many arguments about micromanaging things like rations and what sorts of saving throws are necessary. I understand why others like it, because I dig that sort of thing when I'm playing a video game by myself, but for group settings...it just doesn't appeal to me.
The actor prefers social snark and dislikes getting dirty who could have guessed."