Hands down one of the best sessions I ever ran was when I had a one-off Christmas episode. My gaming group at the time consisted of running for my two kids and four of their friends. All between the ages of 13 and 15. Inspired by TV shows like Iron Chef, I had them all fall asleep and enter a shared dream where they were transported to Christmas Kitchen. To your point, this made clear that as a one-off there were no repercussions. Three of the players acted as the contestants who had to come up with three dishes, an appetizer an entree and dessert. Describe to the other three players who are the judges, what ingredients they were putting into their dishes and how they were preparing them in full improv. Each of the judges then tasted the dishes and made comments. Improving the reactions and modeling their responses after the celebrity judges from popular cooking TV shows. They freaking loved it! Everyone was engaged the entire time and the competition was fierce. We had a blast!
So I actually had a really curious situation last session. I’m running a campaign for my friends and it’s been a few years now. At last, we arrived at the character arc for our Barbarian, which I was really excited for. Throughout the campaign, the party has been having encounters with this secretive and mysterious organization known as the Order, which manipulates affairs all over the continent, and what the party doesn’t know is that one of the top executives of the mercenary group that the Barbarian belongs to is, herself, an agent from the Order, who has been selectively altering the information that the top brass works with in order to steer the mercenary group into doing the Order’s bidding. With that context, in this part of the campaign, there is an annual event that all members of the mercenary group attend, and the party is also there. Subtly, throughout the sessions, I had the undercover Order agent meet with the Barbarian and manipulate him into believing that the Infernals are trying to do something to the mercenaries. Because he trusts her, he reveals another player's secret: the Tiefling in the party has an Artifact that the Hells are looking for (and so is the Order). Next session, the Tiefling finds herself framed for attacking one of the mercenaries, a NPC who she was getting along with, and decides to run with her. Thanks for reading up to here, now's the important part My Tiefling player is really paranoid, and running through the woods, when the Barbarian player comes charging in looking for whatever "Demon" was sighted in the woods striking one of their own. Now's the reveal that it was the Tiefling Warlock that did it, and I expected to see some conflict, or contradiction. The Barbarian chose his loyalty to the group, and instead of considering the possibility of a set up, he chose to attack and capture his party member, prompting a PVP encounter. I was willing to let it roll, but I lost a bit of control when my Tiefling player was trying some creative forms of escaping but being shut down by the rules lawyer, who was also im the encounter. It proceeded that the Barbarian and the Rules Lawyer, who are minmaxers, would overpower the Tiefling completely, and she seemed very upset about it, so I ended the PVP saying she was captured alive, and after the session had a bit of debriefing with the players to ensure everyone was ok. This kind of situation is really hard to manage, because usually I will let my players play however they like, but suddenly they are turning it against themselves in a way that's really not fun for everyone. Thankfully, all is well now… and I'll let the consequences of their actions hit them jn the face next session. Thank you for your time
What a coincidence... Just came home from a session with a couple of guys new to D&D, and PvP came up within the first hour 😄 Something to think about until next session, thank you for the video 🙂
One of the most memorable PVP game was a mixture of Diplomacy and D&D. Everyone was a rogue. We were all from rival guilds. The in session antics were heist missions with individual sub missions for players to accomplish. The time in between games was set aside for players to make and break alliances, plot and strategize. Whose guild will survive in a chaotic world where authoritarian kings and nobles are losing power to wealthy merchants while religious elites, politicians, kings, and merchants wage subtle and all out war. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, and the friends I played this with were the same ones I play Diplomacy, Risk, and Axis and Allies with. If you got friends who you can do it with, it is a rewarding change. If you don’t have friends like that, don’t do it.
The way I run Character Vs Character when it has to happen in game: If it’s a situation with two PCs having an argument or altercation in game (Please be sure it’s just in game), have the players state what their character is trying to accomplish here and agree to what is at stake: then they can just do a Flat Roll and whoever rolls higher wins. Roleplay this out and let the player that lost the roll submit to the other with no penalty or attrition (You don’t REALLY want to hurt your friends in arguments). If they don’t like the results of the physical encounter, they shouldn’t have picked that fight! This is nice and easy because it plays to everyone’s strengths and evens it out, letting Fate decide. I say it plays to their strengths because a warrior would use his strength or combat prowess, a wizard would use magic and logic, a rogue would use cunning and subterfuge, a cleric or paladin would use their words or force of personality to end the conflict. Example would be that the Wizard yells at the Rogue that the gem they found is evil and needs to be destroyed! The Rogue states his goal is to keep the gem and either sell it or harness its power. The Wizard states that he wants to take it and destroy it. If both agree to the terms, they can roll play out how the conflict starts, then they both roll a flat d20 and whoever rolls higher wins. Roleplay it out and describe the incident. Now, if they want to play a PVP campaign, then I would really suggest using a different game to play that out, like a simple miniatures skirmish game with rules that they can agree to and are more codified. This would be in situations where PVP is the main thing.
You just gotta be willing to let your character die. I've had my party straight up murk me on multiple occasions and those were some of my most memorable experiences playing.
Ya I don’t like PvP when I play or DM If I’m running the game the thief doesn’t steal from the other members of the party. Make believe fight like you talk about would be interesting
Hands down one of the best sessions I ever ran was when I had a one-off Christmas episode. My gaming group at the time consisted of running for my two kids and four of their friends. All between the ages of 13 and 15. Inspired by TV shows like Iron Chef, I had them all fall asleep and enter a shared dream where they were transported to Christmas Kitchen. To your point, this made clear that as a one-off there were no repercussions. Three of the players acted as the contestants who had to come up with three dishes, an appetizer an entree and dessert. Describe to the other three players who are the judges, what ingredients they were putting into their dishes and how they were preparing them in full improv. Each of the judges then tasted the dishes and made comments. Improving the reactions and modeling their responses after the celebrity judges from popular cooking TV shows. They freaking loved it! Everyone was engaged the entire time and the competition was fierce. We had a blast!
So I actually had a really curious situation last session.
I’m running a campaign for my friends and it’s been a few years now. At last, we arrived at the character arc for our Barbarian, which I was really excited for. Throughout the campaign, the party has been having encounters with this secretive and mysterious organization known as the Order, which manipulates affairs all over the continent, and what the party doesn’t know is that one of the top executives of the mercenary group that the Barbarian belongs to is, herself, an agent from the Order, who has been selectively altering the information that the top brass works with in order to steer the mercenary group into doing the Order’s bidding. With that context, in this part of the campaign, there is an annual event that all members of the mercenary group attend, and the party is also there. Subtly, throughout the sessions, I had the undercover Order agent meet with the Barbarian and manipulate him into believing that the Infernals are trying to do something to the mercenaries. Because he trusts her, he reveals another player's secret: the Tiefling in the party has an Artifact that the Hells are looking for (and so is the Order). Next session, the Tiefling finds herself framed for attacking one of the mercenaries, a NPC who she was getting along with, and decides to run with her. Thanks for reading up to here, now's the important part
My Tiefling player is really paranoid, and running through the woods, when the Barbarian player comes charging in looking for whatever "Demon" was sighted in the woods striking one of their own. Now's the reveal that it was the Tiefling Warlock that did it, and I expected to see some conflict, or contradiction. The Barbarian chose his loyalty to the group, and instead of considering the possibility of a set up, he chose to attack and capture his party member, prompting a PVP encounter. I was willing to let it roll, but I lost a bit of control when my Tiefling player was trying some creative forms of escaping but being shut down by the rules lawyer, who was also im the encounter. It proceeded that the Barbarian and the Rules Lawyer, who are minmaxers, would overpower the Tiefling completely, and she seemed very upset about it, so I ended the PVP saying she was captured alive, and after the session had a bit of debriefing with the players to ensure everyone was ok.
This kind of situation is really hard to manage, because usually I will let my players play however they like, but suddenly they are turning it against themselves in a way that's really not fun for everyone. Thankfully, all is well now… and I'll let the consequences of their actions hit them jn the face next session.
Thank you for your time
What a coincidence... Just came home from a session with a couple of guys new to D&D, and PvP came up within the first hour 😄 Something to think about until next session, thank you for the video 🙂
That's awesome!
One of the most memorable PVP game was a mixture of Diplomacy and D&D. Everyone was a rogue. We were all from rival guilds. The in session antics were heist missions with individual sub missions for players to accomplish. The time in between games was set aside for players to make and break alliances, plot and strategize. Whose guild will survive in a chaotic world where authoritarian kings and nobles are losing power to wealthy merchants while religious elites, politicians, kings, and merchants wage subtle and all out war.
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, and the friends I played this with were the same ones I play Diplomacy, Risk, and Axis and Allies with.
If you got friends who you can do it with, it is a rewarding change. If you don’t have friends like that, don’t do it.
The way I run Character Vs Character when it has to happen in game:
If it’s a situation with two PCs having an argument or altercation in game (Please be sure it’s just in game), have the players state what their character is trying to accomplish here and agree to what is at stake: then they can just do a Flat Roll and whoever rolls higher wins. Roleplay this out and let the player that lost the roll submit to the other with no penalty or attrition (You don’t REALLY want to hurt your friends in arguments). If they don’t like the results of the physical encounter, they shouldn’t have picked that fight!
This is nice and easy because it plays to everyone’s strengths and evens it out, letting Fate decide. I say it plays to their strengths because a warrior would use his strength or combat prowess, a wizard would use magic and logic, a rogue would use cunning and subterfuge, a cleric or paladin would use their words or force of personality to end the conflict.
Example would be that the Wizard yells at the Rogue that the gem they found is evil and needs to be destroyed! The Rogue states his goal is to keep the gem and either sell it or harness its power. The Wizard states that he wants to take it and destroy it. If both agree to the terms, they can roll play out how the conflict starts, then they both roll a flat d20 and whoever rolls higher wins. Roleplay it out and describe the incident.
Now, if they want to play a PVP campaign, then I would really suggest using a different game to play that out, like a simple miniatures skirmish game with rules that they can agree to and are more codified. This would be in situations where PVP is the main thing.
thanks for the comment!
Great video, I like your take on it. I might have to run a pvp event some time with that kind of idea in mind. =^_^=
You just gotta be willing to let your character die. I've had my party straight up murk me on multiple occasions and those were some of my most memorable experiences playing.
you've been killed by your own party on multiple occasions? Why?
🥳❤️👍🏿
🥳❤️👍🏿
PvP is ok if everyone is aware it is happening.
Ya I don’t like PvP when I play or DM
If I’m running the game the thief doesn’t steal from the other members of the party.
Make believe fight like you talk about would be interesting
give it a try!
Dang! Gonna get the first comment!!
congrats!