Pacing the Hunt - Desperation & Danger Storyteller Tips for Hunter: the Reckoning 5th Edition

A set of four Hunter dice, two orange regular dice and two black Desperation dice, showing the range of results with standard d10s underneath showing equivalent rolls.

One of the most obvious things that distinguishes the 5th Edition World of is the shift from standard d10s to ten-sided dice with icons that correspond to: 

• 1-5 = Blank/Failure
• 5-9 = Success 
• 10 = Potential Critical Success.

The basic mechanic is that players roll a number of dice equal to the sum of an Attribute, like Wits, and a Skill, like Investigation. They hope to get a number of successes (6+ on a standard d10) to match or exceed a target difficulty. A pair of critical results (10s) makes a critical success and each of those counts as two successes, so that a roll of 10,10,9,3,2 would be 5 success, one for the 9, two each for the 10's.

Each game has a set of special dice, used for Hunger (Vampire), Rage (Werewolf) and Desperation (Hunter) that add additional complications. For Hunter, the Desperation Dice have what would be the "1" side result in Overreach or Despair, while Vampire and Werewolf have their own thematically appropriate complications on both successes and failures.

In Vampire and Werewolf, the Hunger and Rage dice track an individual PC's Hunger and Rage, replacing the old Blood/Hunger and Rage tracks from previous editions. They serve as a Push Your Luck kind of mechanic where a player can risk getting more Hunger or Rage to fuel their supernatural powers—a mechanic which I find to be an elegant replacement to the mere resource tracks of previous editions.

What sets the Hunter Desperation Dice apart from Hunger or Rage dice is that they are tied to a track shared by the entire Cell (Hunter party) and not any single PC. This ties into one of the two Trackers that are unique to Hunter in the 5th Edition World of Darkness games, Desperation and Danger. This means that instead of individual players managing their Hunger or Rage, it's the Storyteller of a Hunter game who handles these important mechanics.

For a Storyteller new to Hunter, this can be tricky, the core rulebook has only a couple of pages covering the mechanic without much advice at all on how best to use them. It took me several months of running Hunter before I realized that it's best to think of them as tools for Pacing the Hunt...

Sample 5e D&D Google Document Template

 

I'm gearing up to start a new online Waterdeep Dragon Heist game, and since I was adjusting the previous google document template I use for my online 5e D&D games, thought it was a good time to make a template that could easily be shared. 

Click here to create your own copy of the Antagonist Relations 5e D&D Google Document Template.

I've touched on using a google document for online games before, way back in April 2018, and this version of the google document has almost two additional years of refinement. Feel free to adjust it for your own use. Clicking the link will create a copy that you can modify and share with your players as you want.

Notes and comments about the document follow...

Roll20 Tips and Tricks for GMs

If you haven't already, go ahead and read my post of Roll20 Tips and Tricks for Players. Much of that post also applies for game masters either directly or as good advice to pass onto your players. The rest of this post focuses on Roll20 from the perspective of a GM organizing and running a game.

• Stay on top of prep/have backup options
• Remember that if you’re using digital maps and tokens, you need to try and prep those just as you would using miniatures and a erasable grid mat. It’s handy to make sure you have a selection of tokens “just in case” when you need a random fight with goblins and a blank Roll20 page ready to go.
• Have back up audio
• As nice as many other things in Roll20 are, I’ve never been able to get roll20 audio to work for more than three people at a time. For a long time we used Google voice chat, but lately I’ve used Discord for both of my ongoing online games. In any case, it’s worth having a back-up plan for audio in case a certain service isn’t functioning at game time.
• Have an attendance policy
• I learned this the hard way, but it’s good to have an attendance policy up front that covers how many players are needed for a game “quorum” and the expectation for players missing games and notifying the GM beforehand. 
• It’s also worth considering a policy that covers when a player is considered to have “abandoned” the game, so that the GM can look for a replacement player.
• Here is the attendance policy that I’ve come up with for my games.
• With the episodic nature of the campaign, players can miss the occasional session without issue. If possible provide the DM notice, preferably 24 hour notice. PCs not at a session will not receive XP
• Abandoning the game - If a player misses two sessions without notifying the DM beforehand or if they miss three of any four sessions on a rolling four session basis, they will be considered as having abandoned the game.
• Quorum -The DM will consider any three players a quorum to determine if there are enough PCs to play a session.
• Google documents
• Yes, I already talked about google documents for players, but I want to second this for GMs. While I use the handouts available in Roll20, they are difficult to utilize for longer text or for things you want available to refer to when not in game.
• There are four main documents I have for my online game in google documents, a Player Information Packet, a shared notes document, a group inventory and XP chart.
• The XP chart is fairly self-explanatory, but handy for games where PCs aren’t levelling at the same time.
• The group inventory is likewise fairly straight-forward, though other games might have a player maintaining it instead of the GM.
• The shared notes document has the high-level info on each PC, proficiencies, spells, etc, so that players can easily see what the other PCs have before they put slots towards a particular proficiency. I also have the upcoming sessions listed and its where the players have put notes about NPCs and session notes.
• Finally, the Player Information Packet is locked so that I can edit it, but players can comment. This is the document were I include all the house rules, character creation rules, attendance policy and information I want to make sure is available for players to reference.
• Map hints
• Cover up room numbers, traps and random spots with white squares, or another color that blends into the map well. 
• If you're using Fog of War, consider making your lines a medium-dark grey, rather than black. It makes it easier for players to see the difference.
• Remember color blind players when you're choosing colors and avoid using just red and green as you prep your maps.
• Be careful about what layer you're on. There are three layers: map & background, tokens and objects and GM overlay. While it's incredibly useful to have all three layers, I've found myself forgetting to switch back to the token lair and accidentally dragging my map over a half an inch, revealing all my carefully hidden room numbers and secret doors. 
• Consider a published scenario with map and token pack.
• When I had a player move away temporarily I tried to run an online Curse of Strahd using the module pack from Roll20. While the game unfortunately fell apart due to scheduling conflicts the module pack made running the game incredibly easy. It was fantastic to have all the maps, handouts, tokens, monster/NPC stats and adventure notes at my fingers in Roll20 itself.
• If someone wanted to try GMing for the first time I would highly recommend this as it lets you concentrate on running the game instead of doing lots of uploading of tokens, maps and such. It also makes it easy to improvise as you can utilize what's built into the module to prepare random encounters.

Has anyone else found any other great Roll20 Tricks?