r/DungeonsAndDragons • u/pantslively • 1d ago
This is approximately the relationship of most D&D groups, right? OC
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u/cknappiowa 1d ago
It’s perfectly normal in my Sunday game for some of us to be running late, or to spend a while just BSing since it’s the only day we’re all together and most of the players are family.
We set a soft start time around 7 and then actually get started at 8, and it’s almost a given that at least one person will arrive with about $30 worth of snacks or DoorDash pizza before we even sit down.
I personally turn these attempts at bribery down. I am indeed fueled by the game itself, if not necessarily their anguish alone. Well, that and high ABV beer.
The anguish just comes naturally as they realize that when it comes time for combat the initiative is ridiculous with 11 of them plus the higher than normal CR mobs I have to run to keep them occupied without bloating it even further with several more small mobs.
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u/ashkestar 1d ago
Eleven!?
Good lord, even for a chill family game, that sounds intense.
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u/Purpslicle 1d ago
Suddenly that $30 worth of snacks doesn't seem so extravagant.
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u/cknappiowa 1d ago
It is when pretty much everyone just ate dinner. The three teenage boys tend to end up scarfing them all down themselves.
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u/cknappiowa 1d ago
Combat rounds take a while, but they’re short, intense fights that rarely break 5 rounds. The biggest deal is making sure to drop big monsters on them instead of lots of little ones, and the more varied the stat block the better.
RP time just gets crazy because we have a nice mix of long time roleplayers and to the point task oriented ones.
It only really goes off the rails when they have wildly different ideas to resolve a situation or the bards decide to blab all their secrets to really shady people.
It helps that we’re playing Turn of Fortunes Wheel and the glitch mechanic means they’re more willing to take outlandish risks and more likely to meet really absurd characters. I’ve been primarily a Planescape DM for a long time, so this campaign really lets me cut loose.
In all it’s great fun, and I wouldn’t trade it for a smaller game for all the world.
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u/ashkestar 15h ago
It sounds amazing. I don’t think I could do it (even as a player - most of my current group is adhd as hell so not talking over each other is challenge enough with 4 or 5) - but it sounds like an absolute blast. Good work!
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u/DiscountAcrobatic356 1d ago
11! Damn you gotta weed out the stupid then. Our party is 4.
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u/cknappiowa 1d ago
Nah. They’re all family and good friends and we all just get each other really well. The only thing that slows down is combat time per round, but it balances out well enough because they’re relatively brief but intense fights lasting maybe four to five rounds each.
Scale up the threats and scale down the number of mobs and it flows well enough, costs them plenty each fight, and keeps the threat of death on the table in spite of the overwhelming initiative advantage a party that big naturally has.
I wouldn’t want to do it in 2e or 3.5, but 5e makes it pretty simple to change up an encounter on the fly or with a little prep time.
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u/anmr 1d ago
I wouldn’t want to do it in 2e or 3.5, but 5e makes it pretty simple to change up an encounter on the fly or with a little prep time.
It's exactly the same amount of work in each of those systems - you arbitrarily adjust enemy number / composition and their stats.
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u/DnDMTG8m3r DM 7h ago
I ran 3.X with 12… thank goodness I had a sub-dm who handled combat so I could focus on literally everything else.
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u/DerpsAndRags 1d ago
All of this, except my players usually bring strong drinks, because I get more generous with those.
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u/HaElfParagon 1d ago
No. As the GM I am early, because I want to be set up and ready once people arrive.
What'll happen is, one player will be just as early as me. They're usually the best player, most attentive and makes it obvious they're enjoying the game and are engaged.
Next, the people on time. They like the game, the enjoy playing, but they don't take notes, contact the GM out of game for any reason.
Then, the people who are a few minutes late. They barely pay attention, if at all, and when they finally do they ask you to reiterate the last 15 minutes of playtime. They constantly forget everything (in my game, our cleric recently forgot what god he served, completely, like couldn't even take a guess), and they generally give off an energy of they'd rather be anywhere else.
Then finally there are the flakes. You're lucky if they show up an hour late, but usually you either start without them, to which they get offended and then refuse to come out of spite, or you start an hour and a half late because they decided to take a day trip out to lake placid and that's when they can finally make it, but you as the GM learn this 30 minutes AFTER you were supposed to start and you call them asking where the fuck they are.
There'll definitely be some roster changes moving forward after this campaign ends.
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u/wc000 1d ago
In my experience it's more;
-we have a rough eta?
-shit sorry I thought it was tomorrow, I've made other plans
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u/HaElfParagon 1d ago
I recently had one. 30 minutes after we were supposed to start, we call. "You coming anytime soon?"
"Sorry, took a day trip to lake placid today. We're on our way back. We'll be there in about 90 minutes."
We were so fed up we told them don't even bother showing up.
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u/black_hole_sun-99 10h ago
My group it's usually people saying we have to cancel the session for the week and then I make the sarcastic remarks about tearing them in half because I can't properly convey that this game is essentially the only thing i look forward to during the week and it's usually the only time I'm able to play with friends
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