JeffFor the GMs out there, are there any campaigns you've wanted to run but haven't because you weren't sure you'd do a setting or genre justice? What would you like to try to run? What would you need to feel comfortable enough to try?
Gregor@cynical13 The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.
I haven't read the adventure but just looking at the summaries, I don't think I could pull off the sense of playfulness and fantastic that would be required.
Looks like fun though. Very tempted to play it.
@gregor That one does look like fun. Personally, I find it harder to keep things dark rather than light.
If you're into listening to or watching actual play shows, I'd recommend Not Another D&D Podcast (NADDPOD) or Dimension 20's Escape from the Bloodkeep. Murph and Brennan are both good at keeping light moments in sessions and rolling with player shenanigans.
I find some of the actual plays are great for picking up tricks on how to improve my own GMing. I don't try to directly emulate professional GMs, but they are good at showing you how to maintain pacing, make rulings that are fun and fair, and for creative new ways to use systems.
Cenbe@cynical13 Empire of the Petal Throne.
@cenbe That's one I've seen mentioned a lot over the years but I haven't gotten to read.
Pitty MAR Barker's legacy has been tainted by some of his views.
epicanis@cynical13 A couple of them, actually:
One would see the PCs as members of the city watch in a Waterdeep-like place, as part of a special group dedicated to dealing with adventurer-related matters: stopping muderhobos, investigating overpowered barroom brawls, tracking down criminals before meddling adventurers get there first and murder them all and ruin or steal the evidence, etc.
Another involves the PCs somehow marked such that they’re targets for a special summoning spell. The whole campaign would revolve around various beings learning the “Summon Adventurer” spell and dragging the PCs off to deal with their problems at often-inconvenient times.
A third would have the PCs all be kobolds, honored to serve an incomprehensibly powerful dragon-being. The PCs are a subgroup who Mighty Shangrook thinks have particular potential and are designated to deal with matters that require some degree of subtlety (because if Mighty Shangrook has to deal with the problem personally, the solution often ends up being a huge smouldering crater). Kobolds are pretty fragile for a lot of the jobs, but Mighty Shangrook has a variety of ways to restore favored servants to life as long as Mighty Shangrook is pleased with them. Disappoint Mighty Shangrook and you may be reincarnated as a sewer rat, or abandoned to death entirely. Part of the schtick here is the potential to send a party out to deal with a problem they’re substantially underpowered for but may complete anyway because those killed along the way can return to try again. (I actually started an attempt of an origin/backstory for this one in prose but it’s delayed so I can keep up the regular installments of Empirical Gnollage.)
Mighty Shangrook's Troubleslayers | Royal Road
Mighty Shangrook, the demon-dragon-demigod, has been contentedly living in isolation from the world for centuries, dabbling in magical research, taking very long naps, and breeding "fancy" kobolds the way an ordinary eccentric might breed goldfish (but with more alchemy). When some adventurers find out about the alleged immortality-granting artifact (...)
@epicanis I would play in every single one of those campaigns.