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Lycanthromancer
2010-02-23, 11:56 PM
Sometimes, no matter how eloquent we are, words simply cannot do justice to what we see in our heads.

What pictures represent the kinds of things you wish you could get your players to see when you describe them?

(Please, put your pics in tags so pages don't take forever to load, and if you got it from an online source, please add in a link and a short description.)

This one's from a webcomic, The Dreamland Chronicles (http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com). It would fit so well in an Eberron-esque campaign, or perhaps in a kingdom with a large gnomish population:

[spoiler]http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g111/Lycanthromancer/2006-10-16.jpg

Pictures are worth OVER NINE THOUSAND!!! words, so let's go.

FishAreWet
2010-02-24, 12:42 AM
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7553/ohgodepic.jpg

I wish. I wish.

Lycanthromancer
2010-02-24, 12:44 AM
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7553/ohgodepic.jpg

I wish. I wish....the hell is that?

The Tygre
2010-02-24, 12:49 AM
...the hell is that?

The best thing ever. Specifically, the ending of the second Gurren Lagann movie, which completely redid the last battle.

Katana_Geldar
2010-02-24, 12:52 AM
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs49/f/2009/193/4/1/Asteroid_Field_by_Caspau.jpg

Best part? This scene actually is in my campaign (http://boards.theforce.net/games_rpg_miniatures/b10196/30615544/p2)!

NEO|Phyte
2010-02-24, 02:30 AM
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1929/1185754932878.jpg

Haberdashery
2010-02-24, 02:34 AM
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z147/psychoticpope/still8.jpg

Greenish
2010-02-24, 02:58 AM
...the hell is that?Giant mechs (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumongousMecha) that run on Rule of Cool (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool). Note the scale: the lil' whirly things around them? Galaxies. :smallcool:

Occasional Sage
2010-02-24, 03:59 AM
From comic conversion of Lovecraft's Dreamquest: (http://lovecraftismissing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/dream-celephais-400x333.gif)

Satyr
2010-02-24, 04:28 AM
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Jacques_callot_miseres_guerre.gif

http://www.habsburg.net/uploads/pics/tblAusstellungTextBilderDateinameBild_gross33.jpg


I want a campaing based on the thirty years war. But my players don't have the stomach for it.

dobu
2010-02-24, 04:48 AM
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Jacques_callot_miseres_guerre.gif

http://www.habsburg.net/uploads/pics/tblAusstellungTextBilderDateinameBild_gross33.jpg


I want a campaing based on the thirty years war. But my players don't have the stomach for it.

oh the famous "frankenburger würfelspiel" (frankenburg's game of dice). that's pretty cruel :)

Ormur
2010-02-24, 05:06 AM
Speaking of Germany, environment like the Alps or impressive architecture is something I have a hard time conceiving of in as grand a scale as I'd like, let alone describe. As an example I'll give you Castle Neuschwanstein

http://www.deskpicture.com/DPs/Places/Neuschwanstein.jpg

Or Moria as pictured by Alan Lee

http://fantasy.mrugala.net/Alan%20Lee/Alan%20Lee%20-%20La%20Moria.jpg

Heck, all the visuals in LotR.

Edit: and of course the Tiger's nest monastery.

http://successco.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/15/taktshang.jpg

The Dark Fiddler
2010-02-24, 05:30 AM
Pretty much any of the pictures given in this post. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7707638&postcount=11)

I'm gonna try anyway, dammit. The Slender Man deserves to be spread.

Hiisi
2010-02-24, 06:10 AM
Ermm, why only wish we could put this stuff in our campaigns? Just print the picture and show it to the players :smallbiggrin:

Not that hard.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-02-24, 06:11 AM
Ermm, why only wish we could put this stuff in our campaigns? Just print the picture and show it to the players :smallbiggrin:

Not that hard.

Because then they know you stole it, of course. :smalltongue:

Also, ink can get expensive.

BooNL
2010-02-24, 06:34 AM
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1929/1185754932878.jpg

Where is this from?

OverdrivePrime
2010-02-24, 07:38 AM
http://images.vizworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/page01_img_05.jpg
Say what you want about James Cameron and Avatar, but the world of Pandora is an absolutely beautifully imagined campaign setting.

I've been primitive camping in the Olympic national part rainforest and continually try to describe the setting to the city-bound guys and gals in my game group. I just can't do it justice. Even really good photos don't do it justice.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w219/mwellenstein/Sci_Fan/OlympicsForest.jpg

I have found that there's a lot you can do with a simple 3D rendering program such as Bryce to portray the campaign world you're having trouble describing.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-02-24, 08:32 AM
Here are two ways that using the picture is not stealing an idea:

If you were talking to me (as I imagine you were, since I was the only one I saw mentioning stealing) I was joking, as indicated by the :smalltongue:.

Tyndmyr
2010-02-24, 09:07 AM
I have never seen a scene which I wished I could put into a campaign....and didn't.

With adaptions to fit, sure, but distill what's cool about it, and figure out how to work it in. The entire party fighting in freefall? Awesome. I direct you to eberron and it's life preservers. Six rounds to grab on, then the ring acts as if under a feather fall. Only holds four people. Run with it.

Giant robots? Cmon...if you can't work giant robots in D&D 3.5, you're not even trying.

Tokiko Mima
2010-02-24, 09:22 AM
http://xda.xanga.com/218c9367c5434179966048/m137472545.jpg (http://xda.xanga.com/218c9367c5434179966048/m137472545.jpg)

Though I've definately been trying lately. :smallcool:

Saintheart
2010-02-24, 09:24 AM
Giant robots? Cmon...if you can't work giant robots in D&D 3.5, you're not even trying.

Observation: especially when you have an available stereotype to work from, meatbag.

:smallbiggrin:

Totally Guy
2010-02-24, 09:43 AM
I want to put in the "Not Penny's Boat" scene from the season 3 finale of Lost (except in my version it would make more sense). But, you know, not allowed to railroad everyone.

hamlet
2010-02-24, 09:50 AM
:smallbiggrin:The Second Defenestration of Prague, sans manure pile.

Satyr
2010-02-24, 09:52 AM
What's wrong with the manure pile?

hamlet
2010-02-24, 10:16 AM
What's wrong with the manure pile?

Meant that the subjects of the defenestration lived through the experience. I would consider it a failure on the part of those doing the throwing, personally.

Plus, I'm evil, vindictive, and mean spirited, so I would take joy in game having NPC's (and maybe a PC or two) fall to their horrifying doom out a 50 foot window.

Satyr
2010-02-24, 10:40 AM
You think it is more meanspirited if they die then if they have to live with the fact that they only survived because of a pile of feces? After crawling out of said feces?
And there will come the time were the living envy the dead, because the living will be terribly humiliated.

valadil
2010-02-24, 10:56 AM
Physically I can put anything in the game that I like. And I take great pride making things work that other GMs would give up on. But there are two kinds of scenes I fail at.

Hostage threats. You can't put a dagger to a PC's throat and expect them to take it seriously. They'll look at their HP and realize they can deal with 1d4 damage. Unless you're actually putting the PC in the dragon's mouth it's really hard to have a tense negotiation where someone is actually threatened. I think this can be fixed by running a game that isn't d20 based though.

Movement based challenges. They just don't work all that well in a turn based system. In particular I'm thinking of a trapped corridor with all sorts of nasty stuff to dodge, like flame jets, darts, whirling blades, and of course a giant rock rolling after you. The closest I came to this was to break up initiative. You started acting on your init. Each square moved lowered the initiative counter by two. Traps went off on certain numbers (ie flame jets went off on every third init point, blades on every fifth). It was way more complicated than it should have been and the players still had no trouble positioning themselves just right to avoid every single trap. Would have been awesome in a video game though. I don't think any turn based game will do a good job with real time physical challenges though.

Another scene I want to do is to crucify a PC. No idea why, it just seems awesome. I think this could be done, but I haven't had the right combination of guts/chutzpah/irreverance to actually do it to someone.

hamlet
2010-02-24, 11:01 AM
You think it is more meanspirited if they die then if they have to live with the fact that they only survived because of a pile of feces? After crawling out of said feces?
And there will come the time were the living envy the dead, because the living will be terribly humiliated.

Yeah, that's all true, but I've learned a number of things over the years. Players won't hate you for killing their characters as much as they will for letting their characters survive, but rolling multiple times on the disease and parasite charts in the DMG and forcing them to live with the results of that for long periods of time.

DM: You are thrown out the window and plunge fifty feet to the ground. Luckily, your fall is broken by a large pile of manure and you only take *pause while dice roll* 17 points of damage. You are now coated in cow feces.
Player: Whew, that was lucky I suppose. Just dust myself off and . . .
DM: *rolling many dice*
Player: What are you rolling for?
DM: Don't worry about it at the moment . . . *more dice* Oh dear . . .
DM: *two weeks of gametime later* Your character is unable to rise from bed due to a very nasty case of the flux. You take 5 points of CON damage, two of which are permanent. Mark those down and adjust your hit points accordingly.
Player: I hate you.
DM: Bet you wish you hadn't pissed off the paladins now don't ya?
Player: I hate you so very much.

lesser_minion
2010-02-24, 11:24 AM
By the D&D rules, landing in a manure pile doesn't really change the 5d6 damage that much, however - it's just 4d6 + d6 nonlethal, IIRC.

If you were going to die from the fall, now you get to spend several minutes unconscious in a pile of manure. That ought to be fun...

For movement based challenges, mostly it seems like the rules expect you to evoke things with epic description while just rolling tumble checks to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity from the traps.

Also, a dagger to the throat deals instant death, not 1d4 damage. The problem is that it takes a metric tonne of fiat before it's even possible to slit a character's throat.

hamlet
2010-02-24, 11:34 AM
By the D&D rules, landing in a manure pile doesn't really change the 5d6 damage that much, however - it's just 4d6 + d6 nonlethal, IIRC.

If you were going to die from the fall, now you get to spend several minutes unconscious in a pile of manure. That ought to be fun...


AD&D rules in play.

Plus, the circumstances weren't exactly being chucked out a window so much as sliding down the privy shaft of a garderobe (latrine) and into a cesspit to escape a squad of guards in a stronghold full of paladins after getting discovered thieving from the treasury. The paladins and priests involved refused to apply disease curing abilities due to lack of ability to punish said party members, whom they knew were responsible but couldn't prove it, as their only means of punishing the crime.

Wouldn't have been a tremendous issue except for a surprising act of altruism on the part of the player in question who insisted that, after the party's own cleric had managed to fix up two others infected with nasty diseases, to continue on with the mission alone, that he would "tough it out" and catch up later on. Would have worked, too, if the poor unlucky bastard didn't fail three consecutive saving throws. The character, in the end, kept a nasty recurring illness that couldn't be gotten entirely rid of, though he did go on to be one of the most memorable characters of the time.

The player still has not forgiven me for it, especially after I pointed out that if he had just walked up and ASKED the paladins for what it was he needed, they most likely would have agreed and he never would have had to go for a jaunt into a cess pool.

Ormagoden
2010-02-24, 11:54 AM
http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g111/Lycanthromancer/2006-10-16.jpg

Even before you see the city proper you can hear the river and echoing waterfall that cuts through it. Alabaster walls line what used to be a cliff side the polished stones reflect the afternoon sun. The shadows of colorful birds play across the cliff wall as they take flight from a perch below the falls.

The city itself is small and the buildings are intriguing. Their are some made of metal and stone in the shape of a house. Atop each building a spinning wheel turns on a metal frame. as the wind changes direction the wheels turn to face it spinning quietly. Other buildings are tall three or two story affairs girded with wood and plaster. The streets are lined with greenery that sways in tandem with wind and wheels.

Watching over the small city is a grand and tall castle. Made of the same white stone that lines the cliff walls; the bright and beautiful architecture draws the eyes spiraling up towards beautiful round stained glass windows and ruddy red conical roofs. Verandas and stairs connect a dozen towers of varying heights; the main portion of the structure has a set of stairs circling its entirety leading up to oblong windows perfect for viewing the flights of birds that often can be seen around the castle.

A few of the towers have long railed and arched walkways for receiving airships. Just as your eyes are drawn to them a slow moving vessel is making its way towards the top most airship dock. Beneath it a flock of white birds are making a wide turn toward the juniper and oak trees in the distance.





...the hell is that?

Nothing to see here move alone, move along.

NEO|Phyte
2010-02-24, 11:58 AM
Where is this from?

Sadly, no clue, found it on /tg/.

Totally Guy
2010-02-24, 12:13 PM
Another scene I want to do is to crucify a PC. No idea why, it just seems awesome. I think this could be done, but I haven't had the right combination of guts/chutzpah/irreverance to actually do it to someone.

There's a trait in Burning Wheel called Aura of Martyrdom. It rewards a player every time the character takes some action towards getting themselves sacrificed/killed for their cause. When the character eventually dies their remains are worth major reward points and can also be used as an antecedent in enchanting some major things.

That would be such a good game to run.

Occasional Sage
2010-02-24, 12:55 PM
Sadly, no clue, found it on /tg/.

Doesn't matter where it's from. It makes me want to look for my old Shadowrun books and cyber the ******-*** out of a dragon!

Ormur
2010-02-24, 01:05 PM
It's not that I can't show my players a picture of a cool scene and tell them this is what they see, it's more that I'm picturing something in my head that I can't find a picture for or don't have the talent to draw or describe. I'm also afraid I don't have a good enough imagination to think up exactly how I'd like things to look like. It would be really nice having a bunch of concept artists working to draw scenes and places for my campaign.