DM Note – Rollplay Sidekick

DM Note #5

Rules for Horse Riding

This refers to Episode 5 Agora Core: Escape.

The conclusion of the episode involves the party trying to escape on horseback. Pevel’s attempt has to be a series highlight.

This leads me onto today’s topic. How do you decide how capable a Player Character (PC) is at riding a particular creature?

In version 3.5 on Dungeons & Dragons, there was a Ride skill, and so the simple way to determine if you could successfully ride a creature was for the player to roll a d20 and add their Ride skill number to the total. If this was equal or higher than the Difficulty Class (DC) total that the Dungeon Master (DM) decided on, then the player would have succeeded. If not, the player failed to complete the task, in this case, ride a horse.

In the 5^th edition (5e) of Dungeons & Dragons there is no such thing as a Ride skill and no set way of determining
the skill according to the Player’s Handbook. Instead there are a series of ability-based skills that PCs can be proficient in – proficiency is a bonus number added to particular skills. Here is how I applied the ability-based
skills to this task.

As the horses were no familiar with the players, they had to see compatible they were, in other words, how comfortable the horses were being handled by a PC. I used the skill Animal Handling (a Wisdom-based skill) for this. However, even if a horse is comfortable around a PC, that doesn’t make the character agile enough to be a rider. So the second roll I believe the players should do is an Athletics check (a Dexterity-based skill) to see if they could
successfully get onto the horse and balance whilst the horse moves. Both these challenges can be done against a Difficulty Class determined by the DM. If the PC and creature have a history together I wouldn’t ask for a check to be made as the rider and horse already have this level of understanding and ability.

This was my solution to this challenge. In the finale (episode 5) to Series 1, I just got the players to roll animal handling as we were running short of time. To further save time, there were two levels of Difficulty to the rolI – 15 or above to start riding in 1 round (6 seconds) and 10 or above to start riding in 2 rounds (12 seconds). In the case of Pevel his desperate second attempt was more desperate and needed a swift move, so I got him to make an additional Athletics Check as well to pull it off.

So how do other DMs and groups work out their riding skill? Let me know.

This is the end of the DM Notes for Series 1. I hope you’ve enjoyed the content and found some of them useful. Stay tuned for Series 2 later in the summer.

DM Note #3

Visions

This refers to the third episode of Agora Core:

I spoke briefly in #1 about characters having backstory and how in Agora Core, the players were allowed to create their own. In part 2, the characters experienced visionary dreams which they could partly manipulate if their minds were alert enough. This was the first time that I tried to interact with their backstory. Based on the information they provided, I could work some information in that either shed light on a past experience or about events that will happen soon. A good example of visions in roleplay is in Titans Grave, and also Critical Role.

It is hard to say how much the players digested of this information because they were in the middle of a mission at the time. The cause of the visions themselves is a longer plot arc that is playing out in the background for now but it provides a way to give the players insight.

Will Orix go after Vian, the boy who he had helped to expel from magic college?

Will Ikki be visited by his kind and have to face the Trial of Talons?
Will Hector face an assassination attempt for having stolen a precious medallion?

Will Long ever find his leader and prevent a disaster from befalling his clan?
Will Nomo be tempted to visit the site where he was attacked and burned by an orc and where he witnessed a monk burying an artefact?

Will Pevel overcome the demons of his childhood and be able to face conflict head on?

This is what the visions were for; to ask questions of the player characters and see if they pay heed to the warning of thing to come or want to pursue an answer for themselves.

DM Note #2

How far down does the rabbit hole go?

This refers to the second episode of Agora Core:

The journey between the towns of Nis-Ton and Mid-Nis was designed to be 2 episodes at most, adding some intrigue, action and a chance for the Player Characters (PCs) to get to know their characters better along the way. This episode was part 2 of their journey. The intrigue was to create a room in the inn where they were to rest for the night that had a sign on it which said ‘Keep Out’ and a quiet wailing noise…

This side quest could have stopped there. They had no need to snoop, and yet they snooped. Once inside the room the windows were boarded up and there was no visible source of the wailing sound. Orix’s curiosity got the better of him and he stabbed holes into the paintings on the wall. They found a hole…

The hole had spiritual entities living inside it. Having got this far, the prepared sucker-punch was that if they stuck their head inside the hole they would have to pass a wisdom saving throw or be possessed by an animal spirit and behave oddly for a time until the group could seek clericial aid. The players, however, wanted to find the source of the wailing. They wanted to see how far down the hole went…

From now on, the plot was completely off-book, with Long in very real peril having dropped off the pages and into the abyss.

The resultant actions and decisions took the group on a very different path to the one originally planned.

As a DM this was an exciting challenge – how much would their employer, Elstan, suspect and how would he react? What consequences would this have when the group reached the town of Mid-Nis? In such situations the DM is roleplaying as much as the players are. Their employer is a Non-Player Character (NPC) with a motive and resources of his own. I decided that he would have been in the next room to the merchant Lanir and so would have heard the group force entry and attack him. As a response, he would have sent a message ahead to the town guards through means of a messenger bird to request the group’s arrest. They were no longer trusted by their Employer, Elstan, and through his actions they would no longer be able to enjoy Mid-Nis Festival of the Clans and would face a trial, which could result in their execution.

DM Notes #1

The Meeting

This refers to the first episode of Agora Core:

It is a conundrum, because however original your plot may
seem, you need to contrive a reason for a group to form. How should they begin? Perhaps there is a backstory connecting some
or all of the players. An example of
this approach is in Will Wheton’s Titans Grave where character backstories are
discussed and secret bonds are disclosed to the Games Master.

Another simpler approach is a reason that attracts the
players to one spot, such as a call for adventures and the promise of riches
for successfully completing a mission. I
decided to loosely follow this second approach, bringing the group together at
the docks of the town of Nis-Ton. Their
reasons for being there were their own, but each was looking for an
opportunity; perhaps to earn more money, perhaps for adventuring, perhaps they
hoped to escape the land of DaNis altogether.

In much the same way as Character Creation, I left the
players to choose their reasons for being there. This has both advantages and
disadvantages. The main advantage, as I
see it, is that they are in total control of their characters and can develop
them organically. I can then suggest
paths for them to follow during the roleplay but they can choose where they go
from there. The main disadvantage is
that they are complete strangers and they have no bonds to each other or to a
central plot. The introduction of Long
mid-way through this episode highlights the loose bonds between the characters.

What worked really well at the docks was that the players
grasped the situation quickly and decided that there was an opportunity worth
exploring. They then advanced the plot
with their actions and dice rolling.

The finding of a horse and cart was a single line plot
that developed because Hector did not roll well when perceiving where to look
for a horse and did not ask anyone. So
rather than go straight to the transportation store, they successfully deceived
a resident and took their horse. Then
they had to deal with the transportation store for the cart. In this case, the characters of Nomo and
Hector started out being civil and ran an errand for the store owner; collecting
flowers that grew on the cliffs ledges, but when that didn’t work out they
resorted to tossing him over the side of the cliff. Hector is definitely a bad influence on
Nomo! The interesting part is that they
had already secured a horse and cart but decided that they needed an extra
horse! The poor store owner needn’t have
been so roughly discarded! But this is
what makes roleplays so interesting – you never know how players and plot will
interact!

A lovely moment was when Orix decided to pay special
attention to the horse they commandeered and named it Loki. I liked that personal touch, which he also
displayed when creating the Weasel familiar.
Another character-driven bonus was the strange friction between
man-of-the-wilds Long and the dry-witted drow Hector. Long simply didn’t trust Hector. To be fair to Hector, if someone threw a warhammer at me I would not warm to them either!
Still, it is moments such as these that make each party unique, for
which I am very grateful.