A Quick Pugwampis Question

[Sean C. Macdonald]

Hey there, I'm running this campaign in a couple days and I'm looking over the posts on the forum and I keep seeing posts like this:

'I commend the introduction of Pugwampis - my players' first reaction when the encounter was over was "I hate these things!" and they don't even know about the unlucky aura.'

How are the players unaware of the 'unlucky aura'? Don't they have to roll 2 dice and choose the least of the two? So wouldn't they know?

Or are DM's rolling a second die behind the screen and taking the lesser of the two numbers and then just saying "Well you would have hit, but you got some sand in your eye, that's unlucky."

Thanks!

[delabarre]

Sean C. Macdonald wrote:

Hey there, I'm running this campaign in a couple days and I'm looking over the posts on the forum and I keep seeing posts like this:

'I commend the introduction of Pugwampis - my players' first reaction when the encounter was over was "I hate these things!" and they don't even know about the unlucky aura.'

How are the players unaware of the 'unlucky aura'? Don't they have to roll 2 dice and choose the least of the two? So wouldn't they know?

Or are DM's rolling a second die behind the screen and taking the lesser of the two numbers and then just saying "Well you would have hit, but you got some sand in your eye, that's unlucky."

Thanks!

I allowed the party wizard to "figure it out" with a Knowledge (Arcana) roll -- that he succeeded on both dice. This allowed him to maneuver outside the AOE and fire ranged attacks inwards at the pugs, which really turned the tide.

[Githzilla]

I let them figure it out quickly in the first pugwampi combat. This way the players can roll their own dice, knowing how it works.

If you are interested in keeping it hidden you could have them roll a second d20 only if the first one succeeds.

[DMFTodd]

I had my players roll the dice. They knew something weird was going on, knew it was being unlucky from my description, but didn't really know it was from the pugwumpi. It wasn't until the second encounter in the monastery that they figured out the pugwumpis caused it and that it had a range they could move out of (and they figured that out just by luck).

[Lord Pel]

DMFTodd wrote:

I had my players roll the dice. They knew something weird was going on, knew it was being unlucky from my description, but didn't really know it was from the pugwumpi. It wasn't until the second encounter in the monastery that they figured out the pugwumpis caused it and that it had a range they could move out of (and they figured that out just by luck).

I too had my players roll the dice. In hindsight, it would have been better if I had rolled for them if they succeeded the first time, but I have some really sharp people who figured out the effect pretty quick.

And as DMFTodd's players, one of them figured out from the ones in the kitchen that it was a 20' range.

[Moonbeam]

My players never figured out that there was a range to the unlucky aura... hehe ;)

[stjstone]

I think I would collect 5 d20 rolls at the start of the AP and use those in order for there second roll. I think they may figure it out before the 5th roll, but no way will they get it on the first one or two rolls.

Player : I rolled a natural 20.
GM: Sorry that's a miss.

Oh yea!