Weekly Update - 151 (Patreon)

Normally I would include a preview of this week's comic, but... it's a moment I've been building up to all year and I'm not sure what part of it I can crop to avoid spoilers, so... have a Riley sketch instead!

I'm TRYING to make this new schedule a habit. I'm trying to be more consistent. I'm trying to improve my workflow and make more time for drawing and writing... all the while it WON'T. STOP. SNOWING.

As a result, I've spent an unprecedented amount of time outdoors this winter, shoveling the driveway. I'm not supposed to be outdoors! I'm not an outdoors person.

I'll admit, playing in the snow IS kinda fun though.

Comic this week? It'll probably kill me but yes.

Drawing: Page 165

Playing: WoW, AoW3 (because they announced AoW4 and I can't wait until May)

Reading: Mistborn

Ramble:

I warned you I was gonna blather on a lot about flying players in TTRPGs, so I'm just going to continue that for now. Mostly because the next part was already written and I can save a lot of time by copy-pasting it. (Except... I still had to go through and edit each individual word because I'm like that) Remember that these rambles are supposed to be literally whatever's on my mind at any given time, and it should come as no surprise that I'm a huge nerd. :P

So flying is a fun fantasy, and I'm a huge proponent for it being allowed in a fantasy game, and despite what a lot of people seem to think, I think it can be fun for both the player and the GM to do so! Here’s how:

The best times to allow your player(s) to fly:

Around town - In town, flying is basically just fast-travel between POIs. The player might avoid the GM's planned “ambushed in an alley” encounters, but they'll also probably be separate from the party, so if the GM springs those encounters on the party, those player might be caught without their air support, making a trivial encounter suddenly slightly more risky.

An enemy that’s tracking the flying player also might have a much easier time watching where they go and what locations they fly to. While the flying player would also have a much, MUCH harder time noticing they are being followed because the hunter is probably only one of potentially dozens of such gawkers on the ground.

The GM can also seed story bits around town. Remember the GM has total control over what exists in this world, what the flying player can see and what catches their attention while they're flying around, so the GM can use that to advance their plot! A bird's eye view of the city can catch a lot of things that players might otherwise miss. A big pile of bones hidden behind the barber/meat-pie shop, for instance, or zombies amassing at the gate on the opposite side of town. A demon portal on the bluffs. The dragon off in the distance that is ravaging a herd of sheep. Many such things are much easier to spot from the air, than from the streets in-between tall buildings.

Scouting - The party is most likely going to designate the flying PC as the scout. It’s practically expected. So it should be allowed, but honestly, I think scouting from the air is just as risky as scouting on foot, if not riskier.

From the air, a flying player can gain a much broader viewpoint of our surrounding area, but they're probably a lot more likely to miss small details, tracks, broken branches, signs of a scuffle, or other small clues. They can see further, but the distance from what they're looking at is also much greater, and it shouldn't be assumed that they have eagle-eye vision just because they have wings. Their view of the surroundings from the air is also potentially masked by trees, buildings, jutting cliffs, ruins, large dunes and they'll probably be a lot less likely to see through illusions just because they're much further away.

Also, there’s no cover in the air, and anyone could see THEM a lot easier and watch where they go or land, so that can be used to give away the party’s position or their camp, and maybe that ambush up ahead realizes they’ve been spotted and decides to change their position or tactics.

In combat - The most OP thing about having the ability to fly is probably being immune to melee-only enemies, but there’s fun to be found in the fantasy of hovering mid-air, slinging spells or projectiles and reigning death from above, out of reach. There’s plenty of ways to threaten a flying player, however, or force the player to take cover if you find them employing the same tactic in every battle. Enemies could be equipped with nets, bolas, snares, magic or even the tried and true bow and arrow. I would argue it's wise to include at least one such threat in most encounters. If the party manages to neutralize those threats, however, then taking to the air and raining death from above upon the remaining enemies should be a totally valid option. Consider it a way to reward the party for tactical teamwork.

Any time it doesn’t matter - Say the party is just traveling somewhere and there’s no encounters planned along the route, there’s no harm in letting the flying player arrive a few minutes early and then forcing them to wait for the rest of the party to catch up. They certainly don't HAVE to catch the tail end of a notable conversation or spy the dispersing of a scandalous pairing due to their early arrival, but even if they do, it probably won't make a huge difference overall. The players can choose to do with that information what they will anyway. Or if the party is sitting around resting or other downtime and the flying player wants to stretch their wings a bit by flying circles overhead. There's no harm in allowing this. The fantasy of flying is more fun than the actual mechanics of it, in these cases. The GM can choose to integrate their story with it any way they want to, but if it doesn't actually matter, let the player fly.

In general - The flying PC is (should be) always going to be invisibly tethered to the party, and they share some of the responsibility to make sure they don't stray too far from the other players in the game. For me, if I ask to fly around, chances are it’s more to embrace the fantasy of playing my character, rather than trying to gain any sort of gameplay advantage. Obviously different players will play the game differently, and some players prefer to try to min-max everything rather than embrace the roleplay fantasy of their character... but entire chapters have been written about that in the various player and GM guides of various systems, I don't think I need to get into it here.

If the GM is looking for ways to nerf a flying player, consider that for a creature well-accustomed to flying, other forms of movement like swimming, even walking, might prove more challenging, simply because they weren’t designed for it or they aren't as practiced with it as they are with their wings. Bats in particular are useless on the ground, aside from a few particularly impressive species. So the GM might consider imposing different movement penalties on them when they're NOT in the air. There’s no reason a creature that flies or has wings for arms would be just as capable as a creature that is ground-based when it comes to ground-based tasks. In this way, flying can actually be more of a handicap than not in a ground-based society setting.

Flying on its own doesn’t necessarily guarantee bonuses either. I mention this because it seems like some people are under the impression that, by default, being in the air should grant +2 or Advantage or whatever, because it's high ground. The GM is not obligated (depending on the system of course, but I would argue the rules are more like guidelines) to give circumstantial bonuses to being up high or having the high ground if it's making a player too powerful compared to the others at the table. Make it a special thing, save it only for those cases when the advantage is clear, but don’t make it the default.

Anyway, this is already long, next week I'll share my GMing strategies for ways to control or limit flying for those times you don't want the player to be able to abuse their gift in certain places (like boss fights, trap rooms, vampire castles, etc.)