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  • Battlepoints averages for your table vs mine?

    Jeffery Estes
    Jeffery Estes

    Coming from D&D 5e I evaluated the Battlepoints vs CR as my primary frame of reference and I found the Old Gus DH SRD guide very useful to help teach me how to build an encounter.

    Old Gus Battlepoints Page (SRD)

    CALCULATE BATTLE POINTS

    Start with 3 × the number of PCs + 2 Battle Points. Modify the results, depending on the type of encounter:

    I tend to run larger tables like 5-8 PCs so my Battlepoints tend to skew from 17 to 26 and after my last few fights I'm now running the BP value much higher than the formula suggests to make those challenging/deadly fights feel closer to what my table is used to from D&D. I do this mostly out of habit and my table doesn't mind and kind of missed those longer fights but I'm trying to find that magic sweet spot where maybe I'd less D&D and more Narrative Action Film Scene so fewer points but more judicious use of Fear and Tension scene management. What has your experience been like at your tables especially compared to how it felt in whatever system you were playing in before DH.

    Replies

    4
    Jeffery Estes
    1 week ago
    Also are you linking encounters to your campaign and or adventures or just using the Encounter page at https://heartofdaggers.com/encounters/
    Jeffery Estes
    1 week ago
    I've recently made HEAVY use of the campaign feature. I haven't made much use of the adventure tools yet but that's mostly since I run adhoc on the fly sessions so prepping in a sandbox worls ends up as wasted prep for me in general. My last D&D campaig ran for close to 11 years and 70% of my prep was wasted. Now with DH I'm running much less prep and the Campaign Notes & Lore is where most of my prep goes for Items/Places/NPCs etc. I am building more generic encounters and linking those in the Campaign tool but I'm trying to "be better" and do more with adventures when I know what is actually coming next from the last session.
    Ginger Bug
    yesterday

    I'm just starting a Daggerheart campaign, so I'll have to get back to you on how the encounter balancing system works. These kind of systems are challenging, and in past games I've found them at best to be a general guide, but I usually end up not using much because they don't work well for my group. I think it's really interesting that DH's is set up in such a way that the numbers don't change with the tier, which will be super-cool if it works. I wonder at the lack of specificity of going by tier instead of level, but I haven't tried it yet.

    I wanted to post here because this is an interesting topic, and I'd like to see any replies. I'll try to remember to come back with an update after I have some experience with this (first session is later today).

    As far as making encounters, for this first session I used the encounter builder on FreshCutGrass, which was really nice and easy to use. However, I'm running on Foundry using the Foundryborne module, which has its own encounter builder that is also really nice. I ended up using that to make the encounters in Foundry (using what I'd built in FreshCutGrass), so I'll likely use the one in Foundry from now on to save a step.

    Jeffery Estes
    today

    @Ginger Bug I too initially used FCG for encounter mgmt and I loved their tool as well. Their homebrew community is VERY active. I was also a Foundry user but stopped using it when my last D&D Campaign ended and made the active decision to use a lower effort less prep heavy VTT. If I was starting D&D Over I'd just use the Encounters plus Map Tool on DDB. I'm currently using Questportal as my primary map hosting tool and Owlbear Rodeo as my backup.

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