DM Spice
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Except when the dms use it as a way to target characters to kill them like what just happened to me toda
That's a pretty serious allegation. If you feel you have been mistreated contact the team so we can sort it out.
All DM's are different and do different kind of things. I personally like to see people use tactics and RP to help thier party through a spawn. I like making very difficult spawns and making players think about how to overcome them. If you charge into the middle don't be moaning when you die calling the spawn over powered!
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I like making very difficult spawns and making players think about how to overcome them. If you charge into the middle don't be moaning when you die calling the spawn over powered!
We have his MO! Hah!
Personally, I enjoy being spammed with bestially overpowered spawns, or titanic creatures that require a lot of thought and running around to defeat. HOWEVER, if such is thrown at me, I would appreciate customized* or special loot at the end to make the players involved feel rewarded for their significant accomplishment.
*Customized: This does not need to be an awesome +2 sword of Trom. I went on a spiced "Don't Lose Your Head!" quest with Matriarch DMing once and was rewarded with a cute little +3 Hide ring that had its name altered to something instead of "Magic Ring." That, for me, makes it worth spending hundreds, maybe a thousand or two in consumables. Now, admittedly, something with utility for those in the group is always nice. A +1 double-axe of Gruumsh as a reward is neat, but for a group of wizards…not so much. The absolute best kind of reward from spice is tailored to have at least some minor utility for those in the party, especially if it has religious significance (like a Holy Strategist finding a ruby chess piece amulet).
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What Neolithic Heartbeat said is so true. Custom loot doesn't have to be something that does much more than add something special to a character. Rp or story-wise more than mechanical enhancement is what I was thinking of.
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Basil.
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I enjoy the kind that does not block your quest mid-way with OP monsters or the kind that suddenly ambushes you.
I prefer when DMs either unexpectedly possess an enemy or NPC and build around the quest plot to make it more flavourable and fun or when they do similiar things to people on exploring trips and make it into a small event that ends then and there. Giving away plot hooks works too, but I rarely get around to follow up on them, and it often ends up being only one character taking it all anyway.
I prefer more story over more loot. I also prefer more story over more monsters/exp. But thats just me, I guess. Stopping halfway just to stand around chatting idly will be upsetting too since buffs will run out and the quest will turn out a lot more expensive. So preferably something that is fluent and doesn't force you to stop and talk for an hour or something that offers an alternative take on the quest and a different way to solve it.For instance: as you enter the bandit camp to free the kidnapped boy, someone beckons you from the shadows of the trees. They lead you into a small copse, usually hidden and tell you of a secret passage through the woods that leads to the back of the camp. You follow the small hidden trail and encounter some difficulties underway, but in the end come out with the drop on the bandit chief.
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Except when the dms use it as a way to target characters to kill them like what just happened to me toda
That's a pretty serious allegation. If you feel you have been mistreated contact the team so we can sort it out.
All DM's are different and do different kind of things. I personally like to see people use tactics and RP to help thier party through a spawn. I like making very difficult spawns and making players think about how to overcome them. If you charge into the middle don't be moaning when you die calling the spawn over powered!
I like to see spawns that make sense with whats going on or have an introduction to explain their presence. If fire giants start hopping up alongside beholders and demons in a sealed crypt full of undead, I'd have to question the intent behind it. (Said example hasn't occurred to my knowledge, and is obvious hyperbole). If I want some major mechanical challenge with handwave or no explanations, I'd go play on an action server.
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@cadiz_stoker:
i enjoy any spice, assuming that in RL i have the time and attention to be able to go with it. i hate having to go afk when there is a dm waiting on me!
the reward of spice is the spice itself rather than any loot or xps really, that is a bonus.
I think I can completely agree with this; often the 'loot' at the end, if any, and unless it fits my character like a glove, I'll pass on or pass on to a character that it seems more suitable to.
I enjoy the kind that does not block your quest mid-way with OP monsters or the kind that suddenly ambushes you.
Stopping halfway just to stand around chatting idly will be upsetting too since buffs will run out and the quest will turn out a lot more expensive.
Mostly agree with this too, although these kind of sudden blocks tend to mess up OOC time more than the IC timing for me, as I tend to use up 'buffs' in a conservative way, so actually something like this will 'prove me right' being conservative.
P.
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@Black:
Except when the dms use it as a way to target characters to kill them like what just happened to me toda
That's a pretty serious allegation. If you feel you have been mistreated contact the team so we can sort it out.
All DM's are different and do different kind of things. I personally like to see people use tactics and RP to help thier party through a spawn. I like making very difficult spawns and making players think about how to overcome them. If you charge into the middle don't be moaning when you die calling the spawn over powered!
I like to see spawns that make sense with whats going on or have an introduction to explain their presence. If fire giants start hopping up alongside beholders and demons in a sealed crypt full of undead, I'd have to question the intent behind it. (Said example hasn't occurred to my knowledge, and is obvious hyperbole). If I want some major mechanical challenge with handwave or no explanations, I'd go play on an action server.
I second this. If the 'spice' doesn't fit the setting it's being tossed into - or this isn't any reason behind it other than mechanical challenge, I grow very tired very fast. I'm all for a good hard fight, if it means something.
Edit/Add-on: I think it was Matriarch, who gave us some great DM Spice yesterday on the Tychan crypt. Found an IC way to hit us with a little bit of pre-spice healing, then introduced some additional challenges to the quest as we exited with a slow build-up to a climactic ambush at the end. It was challenging, and required good teamwork and some consumables to beat, but at the same time it was all done very smoothly and was introduced in a way that really enhanced the experience and gave us a chance to RP the extra encounters.
Kudo's.
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I enjoy Savn spice.
All over my face.
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I love spice regardless of my condition. It can only be a bonus. But death against OP foes with a negligible bonus/reward is a real bummer. I prefer DM spice outside of quests though. More choices and variety.
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Spice for OP spawns and minor loot\ supplies to keep you kicking, DM quests/events for anything lootwise above the norm and mega death if you decide to just wordlessly hack your way through it IMO, of course with difficult spawns to burn up some supplies and or expees in return for the greatly increased effort a dm has to put in just to run such an event.
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For me, the best DM spice was always the ones that managed to pull whatever your group was doing into whatever the big server wide plot was at the time. You're doing Ashby Sewers and as your'e going along you run into odd creatures that are giving instructions to the orcs and at the end, there is a "evil plot NPC" making a deal with the Ashbys that teleports away when you are close to capturing him in the final fight.
This, IMHO, was the best way to involve people in what was going on with the server. It only makes sense that if I'm trying to take over Arabel, I get some inside help, so yes, outside evil bad guys will try to co-opt inside evil bad guys.
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For me, the best DM spice was always the ones that managed to pull whatever your group was doing into whatever the big server wide plot was at the time. You're doing Ashby Sewers and as your'e going along you run into odd creatures that are giving instructions to the orcs and at the end, there is a "evil plot NPC" making a deal with the Ashbys that teleports away when you are close to capturing him in the final fight.
This, IMHO, was the best way to involve people in what was going on with the server. It only makes sense that if I'm trying to take over Arabel, I get some inside help, so yes, outside evil bad guys will try to co-opt inside evil bad guys.
I always thought the Ashby's end was rather ignoble and left a vacuum that has gone entirely unfulfilled. They were an established presence in the region, with a full scale storyline and reason for their recurring maleovolence, while not becoming a true full on city threat like an army, or some epic super-magic apocalypse.