tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25984979246232424072024-03-05T20:50:06.084-06:00Xine Fury's Campaign JournalsA place for my thoughts on D&D and other RPGs, as well as detailed accounts of my roleplaying sessions.XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.comBlogger440125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-43335332403438948832023-10-22T16:56:00.003-06:002023-10-22T16:56:56.619-06:00Praktas Essentials - Mountain's Toe and Axeholm<p> <b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 10/22/2023</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Praktas Essentials, Session 3</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Matt</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Quosh</b><i> (Alan):</i> Half-Orc Barbarian</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b style="font-size: 14.85px;">Rayna</b><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (<i>Mandi</i>): Half-Elf Bard</span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Nymeria </b>(<i>NPC</i>): Wolf</span></span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Today they managed to get through 2 quests.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Mountain's Toe Quest</b></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">They had to escort a man named Don-Jon Raskin to some mines, which ended up being overrun with wererats. Rayna attempted to talk to the wererat leader, but a fight was inevitable. The PCs slaughtered most of the wererats, including the leader, and made a deal with the final survivor. After this quest, the characters leveled up to level 4.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Axeholm</b></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">They were tasked with clearing out all the dangers from an old Dwarven fortress.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">First they encountered two ghouls, which was pretty easy for them. Then they went upstairs and fought some spiders, which gave them more trouble, but they survived. After that they took a long rest, then spent more time exploring the two levels. A banshee scared them off at one point, and they involuntarily fled back to the lower level. The fought a few more ghouls and a stirge, then prepared to face the banshee again.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">This time it was a little tougher because they ended up fighting the banshee and four ghouls at the same time. Quosh and Nymeria faced the ghouls while Rayna fought the banshee. First Nymeria went down, then Rayna, right as Quosh finished off the last ghoul.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">It finally came down to Quosh - who was down to 3 hit points, versus the banshee, who was down to 4. The next hit from either side would determine the outcome. But Quosh prevailed, and saved the day. They still had to fight a pair of stirges before the quest was completely done, but after facing a banshee, that was nothing.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">They returned to town and rested up.</div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-73902577489183171442023-10-15T13:56:00.002-06:002023-10-15T13:56:35.240-06:00Praktas Essentials - Butterskull Ranch<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 10/15/2023</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Praktas Essentials, Session 2</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Matt</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Quosh</b><i> (Alan):</i> Half-Orc Barbarian</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b style="font-size: 14.85px;">Rayna</b><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Mandi): Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div>Continuing this catch-as-catch-can practice campaign. Today was a short session, with the PCs only fulfilling one quest from the mission board.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>On the ride out to Butterskull Ranch, the PCs saw the white dragon for the first time, as it flew overhead. Then they <span style="font-size: 14.85px;">heard a pained howling from the woods to the north. They went to check it out, and found a pack of wolves in a clearing. All but one of the wolves were dead, and the survivor was injured. It looked like they'd been attacked by the dragon.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Rayna healed the surviving wolf, while Quosh used his Animal Handling skills to gain its trust. The wolf then joined the party, following them the rest of the way to the ranch.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When they reached the ranch, they found signs of battle. The farmhouse held six orcs, all in different rooms about the house, three on each floor. The PCs peeked in one window, and accidentally caught the eye of one orc. He went outside to fight them, and the PCs managed to kill him without attracting the attention of the other orcs.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">They peeked in another window, and decided to get the next orc's attention to hopefully take them out one by one. Rayna used her Wand of Pyrotechnics to get its attention. Unfortunately she forgot to read all the instructions first - in addition to a light show, it also makes a noise that can be heard up to 300 feet away. All five of the remaining orcs were alerted, and started running around the house looking for the noise.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">They fought one of the orcs through the window, while the rest moved down the stairs and made their way to the front lawn. Still, they managed to control the fight to where they only had to face one or two orcs at a time. They also had a lot of luck with the dice, so Quosh was the only one to take a lot of damage.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Once all the orcs were finished, they found the ranch's owner tied up in the basement. He gave them an additional mission of finding his lost cow. Then they returned to town for a well-deserved rest.</span></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-40677352729773936382023-09-12T19:50:00.002-06:002023-10-15T13:55:10.912-06:00Praktas Essentials<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 9/10/2023</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Praktas Essentials, Session 1</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Matt</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Quosh</b><i> (Alan): </i>Half-Orc Barbarian</div><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Rayna</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Mandi): Half-Elf Bard</span></span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">A couple of good friends have been wanting to give 5e a try lately, so I’m running them through 2019’s Essentials box set.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We spent the first hour getting all the equipment to work and building the characters. Later I realized I was doing character creation the hard way, filling out PDFs when I should have just used Roll20’s character creator. Next session should go a little smoother.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The session started in the town of Phandalin. The rumors in town centered around a white dragon that has been terrorizing Phandalin and the surrounding areas. The dragon has really upset the local ecology. For example, the dragon drove the orcs out of one area while making its lair, so the orcs invaded another monster community, and those misplaced creatures invaded another area, and so on.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The dragon obviously has to be stopped, but that’s not going to happen for a few sessions. In the meantime, the PCs have their hands full with smaller quests related to the dragon activity. They checked the job board and took the following jobs:</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Umbrage Hill</b></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">The characters went to Umbrage Hill to do a wellness check on a woman who brews healing potions. When they arrived, they found a manticore attacking the brewer’s windmill. A manticore is a bit of a tough opponent for two level one characters, so when the battle started going downhill, I adjusted the monster’s stats a bit. I reduced its hit points by about a third, reasoning that the brewer had already damaged it a little bit. Also I reduced the number of attacks it could make in a round – Maybe the manticore was tired.</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Gnomegarde</b></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">The PCs were sent to visit a local gnome community, to see if the gnomes had any magic items they could spare to defend Phandalin from the dragon. When they arrived, the found that the gnomes were in a state of chaos. One of their kings had gone mad, and a mimic was terrorizing their tunnels. The PCs found the mimic disguised as a wine cask, killed it, and calmed down the king. The gnomes awarded them with three magic items, two of which they got to keep.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Dwarven Excavation</b></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">They did not complete this one. They were sent to warn some dwarven miners about the dragon, but when they arrived, the dwarves asked them to kill some ochre jellies that infested the mines. The first jelly they fought split apart and took out both PCs, though they did get it down to 4 hit points. While they were unconscious, two dwarves came to their rescue, finishing off the jelly and reviving the characters. The dwarves then sent them back to Phandalin, where they collected their reward for warning the dwarves.</span></div><div><br /></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-51265901518707231512023-05-13T07:19:00.001-06:002023-05-13T07:19:09.831-06:00Blood Samples<p> I've just published my fourth "book," though this one is just a collection of six short stories. It's called <a href="https://books2read.com/u/mqNgD1">Blood Samples</a>, and it's a prequel to my other books. It's also free on most e-retailers (99 cents on Amazon). You can get it here: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C54YWH5Y">Amazon</a> <a href="https://books2read.com/u/mqNgD1">Other Stores</a></p><p>If you like it, please check out my other books here:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://books2read.com/ap/8N19Lr/Xine-Fury">Xine Fury's Books</a></b></span></p><p>And if you haven't already, make sure you check out my writing blog:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://xinefury-bloodhunters.blogspot.com/">Bloodhunters Blog</a></b></p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-80743900216436110042023-05-02T08:47:00.000-06:002023-05-02T08:47:15.049-06:00Playtests and Other Updates<p>Since I haven’t been gaming lately, I haven’t been posting much on this blog. But I have been keeping up with the hobby, even if I haven’t been playing.</p><p><b>Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves</b> is a really fun movie, for both D&D fans and non-fans alike. I’m sad that it isn’t making as much money as it should. If you haven’t seen it yet, please go. If your theater no longer has it, buy the blu-ray when it comes out. They need to know that there’s a market for this, so they’ll make more <i>good</i> D&D movies. You can read my full review <a href="https://1958fury.blogspot.com/2023/04/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves.html">on my other blog here</a>.</p><p>I have been following the playtest, though I haven’t had a chance to try it out. As expected, there’s a lot in there that I like, a lot that I don’t, and some improvements that seem more complicated than they needed to be. Overall I think it’s an improvement, but I’ll reserve judgment until I get a chance to play the final product.</p><p>As usual, these playtests bring out the worst in the RPG community. With every update, the most vocal idiots whine that “D&D is now RUINED!” Guys, this is how playtests work. They brainstorm, you test, you report, they fix. This is not a final product, this is just how they find out what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t like one of their ideas, <i>test it first</i> (some ideas sound bad on paper but work well in game), then fill out their surveys. But stop spamming Twitter and Reddit with how much you hate every proposed change.</p><p>I love the idea of tying ability scores to something besides race. Yeah, I know we’re going to see a lot of campaigns where the party’s halfling is stronger than the party’s half-orc, and I don’t care. The strongest guy I know IRL is about a foot shorter than me. I have no problem believing that a halfling who grew up bodybuilding could outwrestle a half-orc who grew up studying literature.</p><p>Plus, I’m so sick of seeing the same race/class combinations all the time. Tiefling Warlocks. Halfling Rogues. Half-Elf Bards. Whether you’re a min-maxer or not, it’s always felt like you’re better off picking the race that has the bonus to your prime stat. Changing how you get your ability bonus opens up a world of creativity.</p><p>What’s that? You prefer your fictional world stick to the tried-and-true tropes, where half-orcs are stupid and elves are scholars? Great! Build your world that way. But recognize that the PCs aren’t meant to be average examples of your world’s population; the PCs are the standouts. The party’s half-orc wizard probably became an adventurer because his own people didn’t accept him. This doesn’t hinder your world, it helps it.</p><p>Okay, but should races even be called "races," or should they be called species, heritages, ancestries, bloodlines, etc? First off, I fully support the change. It’s more future-proof. I’ve heard all kinds of arguments about whether race is more or less accurate than species, but being a fantasy universe, our English definitions don’t really apply. But the bottom line is, some people are bothered by calling it “race,” because it has negative connotations. It’s a tiny change that doesn’t affect gameplay, and makes some people feel better. Call it “bowing to the woke mob,” if you want, but you sound like a jerk.</p><p>That said, I’m honestly not sure it matters. Whatever they stick with, it’s only going to be called that in the Player’s Handbook. Most existing players are going to keep calling them races. It’s too deeply ingrained in our language. I called it races for most of this blog, and I’ve preferred species for years. It’ll take several generations of players before the new terminology takes over. But they have to start sometime, now’s as good a time as any.</p><p>The latest playtest had an interesting Wizard feature that’s causing some buzz, basically a new way to customize spells. Personally, I thought it was simultaneously too complicated, and potentially overpowered. I do like the idea of customizing spells, though, I just don’t like how they did it. But I also don’t play a lot of wizards, so I’m not the best one to ask. But I bet this version doesn’t survive the playtest.</p><p>I’ll say it again, for the Bard, I wish they’d implement an actual “bard song” feature. I’m tired of bards basically just being inferior sorcerers. Inspiration is not enough. I either want a buffing song that gets more powerful as I level, or a set of songs I can choose from (<b>not</b> bard-themed spells). Something I can start performing as the battle starts, that buffs all allies within 30+ feet of me, that I can maintain as a bonus action each round. For bard songs done reasonably well, check out the battle hymns in “<a href="https://www.levelup5e.com/">Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition</a>” (A5E). Their version is a little more complicated than I’d like (as is everything in the A5E book), but they’ve got the right idea.</p><p>I’ve been meaning to write a blog about the A5E system, but the truth is, I’ve tried twice to read the full rulebook and I always get overwhelmed. A5E is full of excellent ideas, it really is. Every page has something that makes me think, “I want to add that as a house rule in my own campaigns.” But as a whole, it’s just too much. I love 5e because of its simplicity, but A5E takes 5e and turns it back into Pathfinder. That’s great for some people, but it’s not why I play RPGs.</p><p>Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I recently self-published my third book, which you can buy <a href="https://books2read.com/ap/8N19Lr/Xine-Fury">here</a> if you're interested. I’m taking a break from writing for a couple of weeks so I can get a few things done around the house, and reorient my brain for my next big project.</p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-75741164399264696962022-12-10T16:47:00.001-06:002023-04-30T06:28:26.659-06:00Bloodhunters<p>My first novel is now available on the Kindle Store. If you're interested, you can purchase it here:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPPZXTGK">Bloodhunters v1: Bad Blood</a></span></p><p><br /></p><p>For more information on the series, visit my Bloodhunters blog here:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://xinefury-bloodhunters.blogspot.com/">Bloodhunters Blog</a></span></p><p><br /></p><p>But wait, there's more! In honor of releasing this book, I've also written a simple, free RPG based on the Bloodhunters universe. It's a skill-based dice pool game. It steals a lot of mechanics from other RPGs, but I'm not selling it, so bite me. If you don't like the rules, you might like the lore, or vice-versa, so feel free to give it a download. You can find the files here:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://mega.nz/folder/kMcVWSBZ#jBczPWFEdHUy2mG3AOsheg">Bloodhunters RPG</a></span></p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-70292796321272520392022-09-07T08:44:00.003-05:002022-09-07T08:44:58.240-05:00Note<p> Note: Sorry for the lack up updates. I've dropped out of my group for a while so I can work on a novel. I'll start playing again when I run out of words.</p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-28703880819773027792022-03-19T14:36:00.002-06:002022-03-19T14:36:45.998-06:00Daggerford Militia: Quit Hitting Yourself! Quit Hitting Yourself!<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 3/19/2022</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 26</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter (absent)</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider"</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya Bennett </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Today we continued our hexcrawl on the unfamiliar planet. We followed the base of the mountain. The alien sun had an exhausting effect on our bodies, but the mushroom milk we'd harvested earlier was good out counteracting this effect. Zeus, our guide, insisted we eat the hearts of our fallen enemies, to keep them from coming back as ghosts. We showed him how to cook food so it tasted better.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2CCRztnNQMOBbFTEm8FR_o6kRU51-IFvesXXSfwtzoF96Tpk20uH8Bha4no_5lP96nmMStmdW2U4uL5PlEs7vJLXkTZAT6QsIvtxHolVmADZMQI6XRM2Gs0SPJpdaRbiQlItNknOg2aGKNgGKGLQowUx_GJ8DayQT5xCVtX-acdTbaAOGA_TFI57BfA=s577" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="555" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2CCRztnNQMOBbFTEm8FR_o6kRU51-IFvesXXSfwtzoF96Tpk20uH8Bha4no_5lP96nmMStmdW2U4uL5PlEs7vJLXkTZAT6QsIvtxHolVmADZMQI6XRM2Gs0SPJpdaRbiQlItNknOg2aGKNgGKGLQowUx_GJ8DayQT5xCVtX-acdTbaAOGA_TFI57BfA=w193-h200" width="193" /></a></div>Our cooking attracted some gribbs (vulture lizards). They got a couple of good hits in, but we took a few out and the rest flew off. We decided to start sleeping during the day and travelling at night. During our downtime, Nikolice tried to figure out how to use the raygun gauntlet he picked up last session.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We saw another Kith patrol in the distance. It seems they were attracted by Nikolice's gauntlet tests. We decided to greet them and try to convince them we were gods. As we got close, one of them rushed forward and fell at our feet, groveling. They mistook Navine for their "chosen one", finally returned to them and ready to lead them to victory. Navine accepted her role as queen, and they awaited her orders. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We found a tomb that the Kith said was full of ghosts. We sent Azul and our guide to help the Kith hunt for some food while the rest of our party explored the tomb. Navine got shot by a trap, a black box that shoots death rays. Scouting ahead, Navine and Nikolice kept an eye out for more traps like that, and disabled the next one with an arrow. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Around the next bend we ran into a pair of Strekelions (big rat things). Once they were dead, we turned South and found a burial chamber. Navine found some tiles that looked like the same eight runes we've been seeing everywhere. They experimented a little pressing some buttons, until a door opened on the East wall in the chamber North of us.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The next chamber looked very sci-fi. There were six cylinders lining the walls. The door on the East side had more of those runes. Pressing buttons 1 and 5 opened the door. The next room held a large casket, and six pillars with levers. There was a mummified Kith in the casket, but he didn't look like a normal Kith. There were control panels on each side of the casket.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3EQ3SnI1TjlzCUbcOK2-tFBqCTyhaw_sPLtJn_vulbIdsfsJCupq184Vus3PlPH6AcKvUm4zX9KfS30l9LeOLvrDaLN7tLuVIZ6peRnm1XtGlp4_EOgNjE4F2i5Zdb2nfkhEbgCf4TV5XGppx6WQriPXZN-QRz1wLelAmJgzLsaYNL0mpeHTfjdgSgg=s976" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="976" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj3EQ3SnI1TjlzCUbcOK2-tFBqCTyhaw_sPLtJn_vulbIdsfsJCupq184Vus3PlPH6AcKvUm4zX9KfS30l9LeOLvrDaLN7tLuVIZ6peRnm1XtGlp4_EOgNjE4F2i5Zdb2nfkhEbgCf4TV5XGppx6WQriPXZN-QRz1wLelAmJgzLsaYNL0mpeHTfjdgSgg=w200-h134" width="200" /></a></div>Nikolice and Khemed stood at the control panels and pressed some runes. Then they started pulling levers. The room started to cool down, and the casket opened. The creature inside awakened. It had one one functioning eye, and one glowing eye. It spoke in a barking language, so Vanya cast Tongues. He asked us which house we aligned with, and what the status of his house was. He was very threatening, so we told him his house was fine. He identified himself as Sotark the Destroyer, and ordered us to accompany him back to his people.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Sotark requested green stones to restore his energy. Luckily we had some from a previous session, which he gladly took and used to power up. He appeared to be some sort of cyborg. He asked us to donate genetic material to create more soldiers. Nikolice, Khemed, and Vanya each made donations. Mutant clones of us grew in the tubes. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">One of the clones grew to fruition, and it was a horrible mess of a creature. Nikolice decided to put his clone out of its misery. The creature dealt acid damage, ruining Nikolice's rapier. Vanya's and Khemed's clones joined the fight. Vanya convinced Sotark to help us kill the rest of the clones. He turned out to be a hard hitter, and we were glad he was on our side... so far.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQjl54QdIZPJIIAQVH9gsnEAWj-IiC_2D8GLAK1STXoTxi8nNhIf1DMkCBJphqea-bvVaO106FLmWozgGPevKhbtD6xE9APHt6DfgvM9FXtkokdEArT6tPLhQ00vDorLlm85rVbnKNhcjCWT9MgVQ0462zEiMtJRk84Z1EvZwgOlOfNZ4PO1ewe92zGA=s757" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="757" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQjl54QdIZPJIIAQVH9gsnEAWj-IiC_2D8GLAK1STXoTxi8nNhIf1DMkCBJphqea-bvVaO106FLmWozgGPevKhbtD6xE9APHt6DfgvM9FXtkokdEArT6tPLhQ00vDorLlm85rVbnKNhcjCWT9MgVQ0462zEiMtJRk84Z1EvZwgOlOfNZ4PO1ewe92zGA=w200-h130" width="200" /></a></div>Khemed held his actions, because Sotark was doing just fine. But then Sotark ordered him to help, so Khemed let loose a fireball on the remaining clones... and Sotark, who was not pleased. On his next turn, he went after Khemed. Khemed went down, and on the next turn, a clone took down Nikolice. Vanya healed Nikolice, and Sotark finished off the final clone. Khemed rolled a 20 on a death save, returning to 1 hit point, but Sotark still believed he was dead. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice accompanied Sotark out of the tomb. The other Kith were back from hunting. Sotark asked them which house they served. Zeus said he was loyal to Vanya, and the other Kith pledged loyalty to Navine. Sotark started to go into kill mode. Nikolice stood between Sotark and the Kith and attempted to calm everyone down. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Sotark was not happy about this. We ended the session on this cliffhanger.</span></span></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-1040275904719177282022-03-18T07:34:00.003-06:002022-03-31T22:14:25.421-06:00Alien RPG<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfHoZgXHwQA8iL32q6HR4JNZ1iMND13k3Nb4sQJ5_NGLJZg3scLh69V9BohBvWwSRZMkTx3gbsOUh4wJf6BRdyeFTWrN591KfJI4NczrSEvNXNqsqx5fM5TaS6-PwRduSiae9bqjTTv1fHkD8LtElKou9Z10LLImyzw3krcKKlOS8Jk1JzzIxU8hWbyQ=s550" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="406" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfHoZgXHwQA8iL32q6HR4JNZ1iMND13k3Nb4sQJ5_NGLJZg3scLh69V9BohBvWwSRZMkTx3gbsOUh4wJf6BRdyeFTWrN591KfJI4NczrSEvNXNqsqx5fM5TaS6-PwRduSiae9bqjTTv1fHkD8LtElKou9Z10LLImyzw3krcKKlOS8Jk1JzzIxU8hWbyQ=w148-h200" width="148" /></a></div>Alien and Aliens are two of my favorite movies of all time. IMO, they’re the only two good movies in the series, and they’re nothing like each other. One is a slow, suspenseful horror film, and the other is an exciting action movie. They both feature beautifully disturbing creature designs, and a strong female lead. I love how the future is depicted as being low tech and dirty, as opposed to the immaculately clean Star Trek, where technology is basically magic.<br /><br />It’s not easy to make an RPG system that works equally well for both movies. If I’d been in charge, I might have focused on one or the other. But the Alien RPG (2019, Free League Publishing) makes a pretty solid attempt. I’d say the system works better on the suspense side than the action side, but so far I haven’t played it enough to really judge.<br /><br />In the Alien RPG, there’s two types of games: Campaign play and Cinematic play. If you’re only planning to run one-shots, then you don’t really need the core rulebook, and can get by on the Cinematic Starter Kit instead. Either style of play can be used for action or suspense themed games, but in my mind, the one-shot Cinematic games work better for horror, and the Campaign works better for those who want a marine-filled action fest. But YMMV.<br /><br />Alien RPG is a dice pool game that uses special d6’s. Regular d6’s work, but you’ll want a bunch of them, and you’ll want them in two different colors. The first set of dice is the “Base Dice”, which you use for skill checks. They are normal d6’s except there’s a special symbol on the 6. When you need to perform a skill check (which includes attack rolls), you roll a number of Base Dice based equal to your skill level plus the governing stat. If you get even one six, you succeed. Additional sixes let you perform “Stunts”, which are extra effects.<br /><br />Then there’s Stress Dice. A big part of the Alien RPG, and one of the elements that really helps it nail the feel of the movies, is keeping track of your character’s stress. Your characters can gain stress several ways, from taking damage to seeing a xenomorph for the first time. When you roll a skill check, you take a number of Stress Dice equal to your current stress level, and add them to your dice pool. These dice have the same special symbol on the 6 as the Base Dice, but they also have a facehugger symbol on the 1.<br /><br />So Stress Dice can actually help you, in that they give you more chances to roll 6’s. Just like how being under pressure in real life can sometimes make you more competent. But if any of your stress dice come up as 1’s, you have to make a panic roll. This roll might result in your character fleeing, dropping an important item, or even attacking a fellow teammate.<p></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For example, Bob has an Agility score of 4, a Range Combat score of 2, and his gun has a bonus of 1. His stress level is currently three. He wants to shoot at a xenomorph which is currently sticking its head in the door. Bob yells, “Eat this!”, then rolls 7 base dice and 3 stress dice. Among the 10 dice, he ends up getting three success symbols and one facehugger symbol.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Only one success is needed to hit the alien. The other two success dice can be used to perform stunts. Some of the stunts won’t apply in this situation, such as knocking the weapon out of your opponent’s hand. But one of them allows you to push your opponent backwards, so Bob uses this one to knock the xenomorph back through the open door it was standing in. For the other stunt, he just chooses to have it do one extra point of damage.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But since he also got a facehugger symbol, Bob has to make a Panic roll. He rolls a d6 and gets a 4. His current stress level is 3, so he adds that and gets 7. Looking at the Panic roll chart, 7 is “Nervous Twitch”, which causes Bob and his nearby companions to each gain 1 stress die. That could have been a lot worse. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There’s a little more to it than that (the opponent may have an armor rating that lowers the damage it takes, their wounds might spray acid when hit, Bob’s distance from the opponent might change the number of base dice, Bob could use his Fast Action to aim for 2 additional dice, the weight of all these dice might collapse the table you’re playing on, etc etc etc), but those are the basics.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />Personally, d6 games are usually a turn off for me. I’m a huge fan of 20-sided dice. But I have to admit that I associate unusual-shaped dice with fantasy, so Alien RPG’s d6’s do help set the futuristic mood here. Also, I’ve never really been in love with dice pool games in general. Honestly, the most recent Star Wars RPG (2012, Fantasy Flight Games) is almost incomprehensible to me. But I think Alien RPG pulls it off well.<br /><br />This is a very deadly RPG. Player characters typically only have around 4 hit points, while xenomorphs have about twice as many. You are not meant to survive melee encounters with an alien. This is a “run and hide” RPG, not a “kill everything that moves” game. That is, unless your party is a group of well-armed space marines, but even then you’re going to want to engage the enemy on your terms. In any event, if you find yourself face-to-face with a xeno and you’re armed with a wrench… just run.<br /><br />Death is interesting. Getting to zero hit points doesn’t kill you, it just requires you to roll on a critical injury table. Some of these injuries are fatal, some will put your character out of action for a few days, and some just leave you with battle scars.<br /><br />Combat uses cards to determine initiative. On your turn, you get a slow action and a fast action (or two fast actions). Distance is kind of vague, so combat grids aren’t really necessary. For the most part you just need to track is which characters are currently in which room.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />I tend to dislike encumbrance rules in RPGs. It’s not that I think PCs should be able to carry thousands of pounds of loot, it’s just that most of the time tracking weight is more tedious than fun. But Alien RPG’s encumbrance system is intuitive and easy. It’s based more on an object’s size than weight. You can carry a number of “regular-sized” objects equal to double your strength score. Larger objects count as multiple objects, and smaller objects count has half an object. “Tiny” objects (pen, ID card) can fit in your pockets and don’t need to be tracked. It’s a little thing, but it’s touches like this that win me over.<br /><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Reading through it, my first impression was that it looks like a "rules light" system. It’s really not, though. Sure, there are a lot of rules that won't come into play in every campaign, like the ones involving starvation, freezing, air supply, and so on. You put all of those aside, and it seems like you're playing with about two page's worth of rules. But when you actually start to play it, it does feel crunchier than it initially reads.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />Aesthetically speaking, the books are beautiful. The designers are totally committed to the theme. The pages have a black background, with most information in green “pop up” windows, like you’re using one of the computer terminals in the Alien universe. It’s full of timelines and space maps, with nice artwork and quotes from the movies. The book looks great on my shelf, and I’m proud to own it.<br /><br />But from a practical standpoint, the books are a little difficult to use. To preserve the aesthetic, they wasted a lot of pages. An entire page might contain a single paragraph, floating in the middle of a star field. Rules that ought to be on the same page are sometimes found 30 pages apart. At times I found the DM screen more useful than the rulebook, because it puts the most-used charts and rules in one spot.<br /><br />Even the “Cinematic Starter Kit”, which includes an abridged version of the rules, feels disorganized. It basically copies the most important pages right out of the core rulebook, aesthetic and all, rather than reorganize the rules in a more intuitive way. Look, I love how beautifully these books are presented, but I wish it included a quick reference book. If condensed efficiently, it would be a lot easier to find the rules you need when you need them.<br /><br />Even the bestiary section is presented in a confusing way, with a creature’s stats in one chart, but with special rules several pages away. During one fight, I kept having to flip back and forth between a xenomorph’s attacks, and what happens when they die. Unless you make your own monster cards, you’re going to be flipping back and forth a lot.<br /><br />Bottom line? Well, there is no bottom line, because I haven’t played it enough to really judge it yet. So far I’ve only run a single session for one player, and we hand-waved a few rules because we were still getting used to the basics. But the feel of the movies is there. It would have been very easy for them to just churn out a quick Traveller clone, but you can tell this RPG was a labor of love. This is a game for Alien fans, by Alien fans.<br /><br />If you’re torn on whether to buy the core rulebook or the Cinematic Starter Kit, I’d go with the starter kit. You get an abridged rulebook, some dice, cards, and more. And it’s usually cheaper than the rulebook. But if you end up liking the game, the core rulebook adds character creation, vehicle rules, a larger bestiary, and a ton of lore about the Alien universe. If you don’t care about having the physical book, you can buy the core rulebook a little cheaper digitally from <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/293976/ALIEN-RPG-Core-Rulebook">DriveThruRPG</a>.<br /><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">By the way, the module I ran was a short Cinematic one-shot I put together, loosely based on the Commodore 64 game, “<a href="http://1958fury.blogspot.com/2014/10/super-smash-bros-3ds-and-almost-good.html">Project Firestart</a>”. It’s not finished, but <a href="https://mega.nz/file/1UF22Q4B#Jvx-i_23eMUVd_NMnckf9iEzVaeyjSGpYIn4YsTDW-k">here</a> are my notes for the module if you're curious.<br /></p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-31857427308786516852022-03-05T15:39:00.000-06:002022-03-05T15:39:01.920-06:00Daggerford: Jenga! Jenga! Jenga!<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 3/5/2022</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 25</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider"</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya Bennett </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Last session we got beamed to another planet, befriended an alien, and spent some downtime learning about the area. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Our guide, a Kith who we call Zeus, taught us about the local customs. He said it is customary to eat your fallen foes, or they come back as ghosts. We also realized that this planet's sun is on the brink of going nova.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFstUcXc6GRk0gvYwl8t3u8PWNBOtcL0Upg10nn5zHZNPbIZYB812QdQk8dmXY6sLmqV2UJgL0Kmum-KOWTBp-o_QanlhUwTy4TwywbtVNaLNPBcr6CnSr5vvOnKME-9xuMlXaf8MYtyZQaC8P_ndnI5U5bq7kY58t6y4rxLHXdSXg8VPZD_NAXG4nmQ=s901" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="901" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFstUcXc6GRk0gvYwl8t3u8PWNBOtcL0Upg10nn5zHZNPbIZYB812QdQk8dmXY6sLmqV2UJgL0Kmum-KOWTBp-o_QanlhUwTy4TwywbtVNaLNPBcr6CnSr5vvOnKME-9xuMlXaf8MYtyZQaC8P_ndnI5U5bq7kY58t6y4rxLHXdSXg8VPZD_NAXG4nmQ=w200-h130" width="200" /></a></div>We started a hex crawl. First we headed Southwest toward a body of water. We saw a war band in the distance, but we managed to evade notice. We reached the lake, which seemed lifeless and smelled acrid. Zeus told us the water was full of ghosts. We saw a sleigh at the bottom of the lake. Nikolice tried to swim to the bottom of the lake to retrieve the sleigh, but found the water to be acidic. He used an empty potion bottle to scoop up some acid.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We reached the base of a mountain right as some storm clouds started rolling in. We found some caves to hide in, which turned out to be a burial site for ancient warriors. We saw some runes similar to the ones we interacted with in the previous session. Zeus helped us use the runes, opening up a passage. We decided to check it out.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">After the first right turn, Nikolice fell into a pit, but Khemed pulled him out with a rope. Around another turn, one passage led to a large round chamber. In the center of the room was a stone tower, which the DM described as looking like a Jenga tower. Nikolice investigated the room, and to our surprise, nothing jumped out to kill him. Khemed detected some magic, but couldn't identify what type.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwGs98-pxbPZsnkyyCrS6slgwfqmDezNHxzlCVAziyFWc1ZrZWpjYu5KXZjrgW4-TWEtIrPzcMcCLGaYNKkcYnY2o8-gzqaAvhI8L9pVLbxnqU9dlWD6RSQvV3SiJlbO1SjLgSe-SqmjiT6hXmkfl2NN0-FJ2wgB9Nw5-EfbZvGf_7rKmSoQpN0lpoDA=s915" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="915" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwGs98-pxbPZsnkyyCrS6slgwfqmDezNHxzlCVAziyFWc1ZrZWpjYu5KXZjrgW4-TWEtIrPzcMcCLGaYNKkcYnY2o8-gzqaAvhI8L9pVLbxnqU9dlWD6RSQvV3SiJlbO1SjLgSe-SqmjiT6hXmkfl2NN0-FJ2wgB9Nw5-EfbZvGf_7rKmSoQpN0lpoDA=w200-h138" width="200" /></a></div>Nikolice tried another door, setting off a trap. A part of the roof collapsed on top of him. Khemed started using telekinesis to play Jenga with the tower. As he pulled out one stone block, a mummified body fell out. It was loaded with loot: five gold necklaces, copper bracer decorated with runes, a two-handed sword, and three magic shards of green stone. We gave the sword to Zeus.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The rest of the doors were also trapped. By this time the storm had passed over, so we went outside. We attempted to identify the green stones, but didn't learn much. Nikolice attempted a psionic check, but just heard a psychic scream. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">A cloud of lizard vultures spotted us and started circling us, waiting for one of us to drop. We continued our hex crawl. A Kith scouting party spotted us and attacked. There were two Kith Warlords riding Strekelion (giant rat) mounts, and a whole bunch of Kith fighters. Vanya started things off by using her Axe of Thunder to cast Call Lightning. Khemed cast enlarge on Azul. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimjoMFc_MNnFd3s4NFxd2cJYVmZVUIkSsJq7DTRhsVC9TAwHyQU7j7gvbCYTKwldMlPPAltKvrj1_9NiiHl7GMUbYjy6NMx-i6a5fY_znsJr-yy3hRdpkCONb8TbQKDLTJFG0wpo31ZGPGwKVEwOr2B-ScrVvn93tq47qpyQAoD3GgreygD2Nq6rnHMQ=s805" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="805" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimjoMFc_MNnFd3s4NFxd2cJYVmZVUIkSsJq7DTRhsVC9TAwHyQU7j7gvbCYTKwldMlPPAltKvrj1_9NiiHl7GMUbYjy6NMx-i6a5fY_znsJr-yy3hRdpkCONb8TbQKDLTJFG0wpo31ZGPGwKVEwOr2B-ScrVvn93tq47qpyQAoD3GgreygD2Nq6rnHMQ=w200-h150" width="200" /></a></div>They fired a hail of arrows at us, peppering us with small amounts of damage. A Warlord surprised us by using a raygun. It took a few turns for them to reach us, and we took a bunch out before they got into melee range. As more corpses piled on the battlefield, those vulture things started landing and picking at the corpses. After the fight, we looted the raygun gauntlet from the fallen Warlord. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We took a long rest, during which Nikolice attempted to learn how to use his new raygun, and we ended the session.</span></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif"><br /></span></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-3108311700722798502022-02-19T15:36:00.003-06:002022-02-19T15:37:07.041-06:00Daggerford: Out Of The Frying Pan...<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 2/19/2022</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 24</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider"</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steve) Elf Rogue</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya Bennett </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span></span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Last session we retrieved the Elemental Key of Fire. We escaped the collapsing dungeon, only to run smack into a new danger. We started the session face-to-face with a Raksasha and a dragon. The Raksasha threatened us, demanding the Fire Key. Nikolice started pressing random buttons on the key, and the party was teleported...elsewhere.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Navine, Azul, and Nikolice found themselves in an unfamiliar room. There were two apparent exits, one leading up and one down. The doors had buttons on them, similar to the ones on the key. They went to one of the doors and experimented with pressing some of the buttons. Pressing the wrong combinations damaged them, but they finally found the right combination to open one of the doors.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">In the next room they saw a throne, with a body on it. They had trouble breathing the foul air. They quickly passed through the next door, where the air was fresher. They were outside, near the base of a pyramid. It looked like they were on a different planet.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-ZOHpIZtfQkscbr2MvtMSTKCbz3yDoiQ0zHmzFUo62A4UX7T3BBJ3DCUmws3nHcm9NK9n4SCKrE1AvzD8rbcBr4i7IJjGQGWAUN4ziNBIR1qy482kuB3Tg1psUP3rXrxhwQaJ5DVOlEkcA0PnEMyCsJzP8mnyuUbDKAIZq4VxemN0bjDyjJRxAklgxw=s984" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="984" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi-ZOHpIZtfQkscbr2MvtMSTKCbz3yDoiQ0zHmzFUo62A4UX7T3BBJ3DCUmws3nHcm9NK9n4SCKrE1AvzD8rbcBr4i7IJjGQGWAUN4ziNBIR1qy482kuB3Tg1psUP3rXrxhwQaJ5DVOlEkcA0PnEMyCsJzP8mnyuUbDKAIZq4VxemN0bjDyjJRxAklgxw=w200-h132" width="200" /></a></div>In the distance, they saw Khemed and Vanya standing in a battlefield, between two rival bands of bloodthirsty savages. They were white-furred beast people called "Kith". Khemed put some of them to sleep, and Vanya used her guitar to hit a few with lightning. The rest of our party was on top of a cliff, and attacked from the distance. </span></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">The two tribes attacked each other, and us. Eventually the last few opponents fled, leaving one sleeping Kith. We tied him up and took him prisoner.</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">He didn't speak any language we knew, so Vanya cast Tongues. We interrogated the survivor, and he mistook Vanya for some sort of "ascended being". While Vanya interviewed the Kith, a few party members decided to investigate the pyramid a bit more. Among other things, they found a magical device used for astral projection. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We attempted to take a long rest at the pyramid, but we were low on food and water. Vanya convinced the Kith to help us find some food and water. There were several kinds of weird mushrooms, which we experimented tasting. We drank some mushroom milk and killed a lizard for food. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">During our rest, three Strekelions quietly attempted to surround us. We managed to kill them in a few rounds, and harvested them for meat. We completed our long rest and ended the session. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7SMCsEdXDrmj-Cn-sk2Rg-azBu641LUZbEBTEmWZ_s7gN8SCbzAW_JT68xGAqy3Xpn3kB2i9v4dAB5K9dMF1oAJMLCo-qC6uYZ2rdOSLkz4amTEY42K_AaS5Qqg0Ijrujd6BMRLoFtnixwYtEX5oox7yP-Q0cTrBKhTYQOillsmpFYQD7PZ9lR1lsQQ=s1014" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1014" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7SMCsEdXDrmj-Cn-sk2Rg-azBu641LUZbEBTEmWZ_s7gN8SCbzAW_JT68xGAqy3Xpn3kB2i9v4dAB5K9dMF1oAJMLCo-qC6uYZ2rdOSLkz4amTEY42K_AaS5Qqg0Ijrujd6BMRLoFtnixwYtEX5oox7yP-Q0cTrBKhTYQOillsmpFYQD7PZ9lR1lsQQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-22910569457122924812022-02-13T11:14:00.000-06:002022-02-15T09:37:46.535-06:00Behold!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRiWi7H9fNly9hNskcr9STYw2AzSpR7uPkn8OPTYqfj2P0tRKTSmPGJgKyyw2Up8OLCNNBORxz3wfJIKNciCkuXMKPeidCj9bI7aP9z_BOJkkuVAJ_oql5jw7YHCCju34nR3PNXuvSdcomtDzVmC9huHolLqJHBZ4GjJY4KS_ukz24pYNchd62Sffd4g=s719" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="425" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRiWi7H9fNly9hNskcr9STYw2AzSpR7uPkn8OPTYqfj2P0tRKTSmPGJgKyyw2Up8OLCNNBORxz3wfJIKNciCkuXMKPeidCj9bI7aP9z_BOJkkuVAJ_oql5jw7YHCCju34nR3PNXuvSdcomtDzVmC9huHolLqJHBZ4GjJY4KS_ukz24pYNchd62Sffd4g=w118-h200" width="118" /></a></div>I love beholders. They've always been my favorite D&D monster, even before I'd played D&D. I just have a thing for eyeballs. Lately, I've been picking up multiple copies of Nolzur's Beholder miniature. It's just a fantastic miniature, and it's fun to paint. Every time I finish one up, I get an idea (eye-dea?) for another one. Here's the ones I've done so far. <p></p><p>First up, we have the Death Metal Beholder. My original idea was to make it look like the Death Star, but that didn't really work out. So instead, I tried to make the scariest, most evil-looking Beholder possible. Mostly black and silver, with red eyes, firing four eyebeams.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHYtXRwPmIf6u9ylqriMtUI0-HOLHwVxnMUIExVGZ_-gXbWTkjd-utgycXWiAIaBT6PKYN4tVAMEwPVPz20LkPL3cYfzwOgE_cXIumJZA_qkF2fsxezzTtqcu-wlJxRM37nYcjxu7kiqU4Rk0RaXkSIdoCY75XIVil06Quk56iiOvDN15MWMvXkJwJ0A=s3016" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3016" data-original-width="2096" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHYtXRwPmIf6u9ylqriMtUI0-HOLHwVxnMUIExVGZ_-gXbWTkjd-utgycXWiAIaBT6PKYN4tVAMEwPVPz20LkPL3cYfzwOgE_cXIumJZA_qkF2fsxezzTtqcu-wlJxRM37nYcjxu7kiqU4Rk0RaXkSIdoCY75XIVil06Quk56iiOvDN15MWMvXkJwJ0A=s320" width="222" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Death Metal Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Next up, we have the Pride Beholder. Black with rainbow plates and eyebeams.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGpOOrXeCL_QyFh_zPOr5FJv9c0jUh-r6GcqCwLUob5rIWrPBZZEEuUH6D8yroiTOEhm4idIuzKcvR3MXkbS9X73QcyWBDj7G3QaCzLOH5uWBb5_UaMONtnX5BHQ94ttlus5BOmrmvyfWu0svInaXnJf072H0ae5TKr3G0kNkBXcQh5EG6oSUlAtgTsg=s2756" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2756" data-original-width="2036" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGpOOrXeCL_QyFh_zPOr5FJv9c0jUh-r6GcqCwLUob5rIWrPBZZEEuUH6D8yroiTOEhm4idIuzKcvR3MXkbS9X73QcyWBDj7G3QaCzLOH5uWBb5_UaMONtnX5BHQ94ttlus5BOmrmvyfWu0svInaXnJf072H0ae5TKr3G0kNkBXcQh5EG6oSUlAtgTsg=s320" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pride Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKS53xDOFlPUzkoO-zrZt_eTCZJZ1XGlceU0wVEbXzcO7YNZ8J0gm1JGDJegvDchrEVwMASuuDoEuklHqNTaWAMtdjF0ZdMqDysoOERxgSw7sGUA1BRd0nAVLTIOpzUpuqKbeHQVpMHitnuVYv-AHyqi7SFlEwCj3jYLFKVKi0u774dwPkyzQeOseSbQ=s2996" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2996" data-original-width="2256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKS53xDOFlPUzkoO-zrZt_eTCZJZ1XGlceU0wVEbXzcO7YNZ8J0gm1JGDJegvDchrEVwMASuuDoEuklHqNTaWAMtdjF0ZdMqDysoOERxgSw7sGUA1BRd0nAVLTIOpzUpuqKbeHQVpMHitnuVYv-AHyqi7SFlEwCj3jYLFKVKi0u774dwPkyzQeOseSbQ=s320" width="241" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side View</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>This is the Pineapple Beholder. While painting one of the others, it occurred to me how much the back of this model looked like a pineapple.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxJZe7lo3_-LE7aoZh2A8wvMmfZBTG-kUyjyjtbvxNr2JTW5f_brCvk4tDH5kqlvz0OJ43svlz8mkVESyqtbgGusGhMOdOJ1TiBk0THCx9MC4qsQ6in9fjBSgN-1jBYencZBEDccs7PREhCJfc3TVRjC5asMvuiF_fGfnFCHij4UwBMdFCBh96Ggu6wQ=s2776" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2776" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxJZe7lo3_-LE7aoZh2A8wvMmfZBTG-kUyjyjtbvxNr2JTW5f_brCvk4tDH5kqlvz0OJ43svlz8mkVESyqtbgGusGhMOdOJ1TiBk0THCx9MC4qsQ6in9fjBSgN-1jBYencZBEDccs7PREhCJfc3TVRjC5asMvuiF_fGfnFCHij4UwBMdFCBh96Ggu6wQ=s320" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pineapple Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb2RPPvXamqbV4e1KvT2v9Ym0VsOE8rqxT3ZpjUVR0hzzJo7aolCrxNiedRvkWaGPkN-kg9okgU0fjaMeUnNVCkIUdGVgGwVXDjpHFmDUBcjOsfqLgf78pEJ-Rjn6SbMYxavoItDTgb622RbJgjJuUZ3aDWHBaWRbIhEdkRxehE8SXII9vsvB8BkZM2w=s2652" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2652" data-original-width="1848" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjb2RPPvXamqbV4e1KvT2v9Ym0VsOE8rqxT3ZpjUVR0hzzJo7aolCrxNiedRvkWaGPkN-kg9okgU0fjaMeUnNVCkIUdGVgGwVXDjpHFmDUBcjOsfqLgf78pEJ-Rjn6SbMYxavoItDTgb622RbJgjJuUZ3aDWHBaWRbIhEdkRxehE8SXII9vsvB8BkZM2w=s320" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="223" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back View</td></tr></tbody></table></div><p>Here is a Beauty Beholder. I stole the eyelashes idea from <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/comments/r7w2tw/beholders_want_to_feel_pretty_too/">this reddit thread</a>. More pictures of her <a href="https://imgur.com/a/uCZ6HoL">here</a>.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTW_pZU1dl2TBBqSnIyA9ijGbbkWXhjoZjIY9TExRoTgNAmBHr0abD2-jgcO8lyZhnMUmlHwvBiNLulgrHmlt_2PWexAtZbM-vOk6vtE0Rp4EnhRhd-VuFfhYq4WwnQKq-rN5EFLmU9mu2uFrsELX4ecTE9HxLpz3TCYPSxL0KNifw5iuRXRyX0FG8Mg=s2988" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2988" data-original-width="2084" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTW_pZU1dl2TBBqSnIyA9ijGbbkWXhjoZjIY9TExRoTgNAmBHr0abD2-jgcO8lyZhnMUmlHwvBiNLulgrHmlt_2PWexAtZbM-vOk6vtE0Rp4EnhRhd-VuFfhYq4WwnQKq-rN5EFLmU9mu2uFrsELX4ecTE9HxLpz3TCYPSxL0KNifw5iuRXRyX0FG8Mg=s320" width="223" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beauty Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyCDEBnC7vewsPiGJmUqAarKswVe96IVSMMXl-Jfw5t4L5P9BijUNmsw8Uf1EDcNkU3D8KaJ_3suGsCqQFcfdh73kaUnK594Sihe2ftNQ4KewEMtnEB25EtZ9BH34jXOmohFLz2Iy5cbIEoLSFjCwZPZ6zNRRl8ffkD-SvyA0i311IyKdSW3k0-rKxLw=s2308" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="2308" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyCDEBnC7vewsPiGJmUqAarKswVe96IVSMMXl-Jfw5t4L5P9BijUNmsw8Uf1EDcNkU3D8KaJ_3suGsCqQFcfdh73kaUnK594Sihe2ftNQ4KewEMtnEB25EtZ9BH34jXOmohFLz2Iy5cbIEoLSFjCwZPZ6zNRRl8ffkD-SvyA0i311IyKdSW3k0-rKxLw=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eyelash Close-Up</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Here is a Jester Beholder:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOrqO7S-gNjjxMPYSm9O1-TbQFq1Utg1QTMD-PNuUHTmN_n-CWTRypsCT7YL6ROb7SJpT7MwZ9HSlDx3oaiv-RYTwzmEVirO4QlM5wuWknHhZltjCeISYg0E7OljsSXpLb3TGb8HUDuI43VDsFSheSIdUj26QZarXXV-LwWTRhcyV_GIEP7LiAVwOKuA=s2976" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2976" data-original-width="2052" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOrqO7S-gNjjxMPYSm9O1-TbQFq1Utg1QTMD-PNuUHTmN_n-CWTRypsCT7YL6ROb7SJpT7MwZ9HSlDx3oaiv-RYTwzmEVirO4QlM5wuWknHhZltjCeISYg0E7OljsSXpLb3TGb8HUDuI43VDsFSheSIdUj26QZarXXV-LwWTRhcyV_GIEP7LiAVwOKuA=s320" width="221" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jester Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Here's a Joker Beholder. A lot of people have been painting this beholder model to look like the Joker, so this is my attempt.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBpHJGGFVEtvX3NiOb9dAAyLuoz95kc7en8rth-Xe5VjOPFwpcNNVcc9stg1KvccdRji5dqBc21C2eQ6AxFBNe0jUFGrQdXBFUPk89aOk74WOaM_5NjPYFOkQUpdDUWDE-JE5QrPtA7aLdr0qa2xjHBTW9c2i3PuuAMQEyJ0vS-v63MhLUCuvv6Lps1Q=s3104" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3104" data-original-width="2760" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBpHJGGFVEtvX3NiOb9dAAyLuoz95kc7en8rth-Xe5VjOPFwpcNNVcc9stg1KvccdRji5dqBc21C2eQ6AxFBNe0jUFGrQdXBFUPk89aOk74WOaM_5NjPYFOkQUpdDUWDE-JE5QrPtA7aLdr0qa2xjHBTW9c2i3PuuAMQEyJ0vS-v63MhLUCuvv6Lps1Q=s320" width="285" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joker Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6Q4zjE5BbykZbm0M4WWFLNnLKLhcPIUt1pcLEy6OcLGCy4ahewRigdeO_BV1Kie0Ilj6yfv79rbYrywChllgoNsC_NEAds3Z1_RThigbF3s2HBbN_k5GY1KcsngT8VVw1Wte-8_aI8bA3Ox-ilobk71TZh5jLYjVCF77uqN9KjBrzzdgZsQfhDwG3pg=s2948" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2948" data-original-width="2200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6Q4zjE5BbykZbm0M4WWFLNnLKLhcPIUt1pcLEy6OcLGCy4ahewRigdeO_BV1Kie0Ilj6yfv79rbYrywChllgoNsC_NEAds3Z1_RThigbF3s2HBbN_k5GY1KcsngT8VVw1Wte-8_aI8bA3Ox-ilobk71TZh5jLYjVCF77uqN9KjBrzzdgZsQfhDwG3pg=s320" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back View</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Finally, here's a Metallic Beholder. Originally I wanted to go for disco ball, but then I started thinking of Bubo the owl from Clash of the Titans. Anyway, he ended up a little bland, but I like having a metal Beholder in my collection.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghPIpsY5l5DFmtXvYa6-aEzSmjpcK2UsFkcNcJhQYA87aAX4vlt9mFLpfaJE4xr1yqCcwRRWLJG2SmYNRuP9hZT8He6lkOM-grXWXBpIKfclPnNlFSuI22-knRxQlWkIpELJqdkxAg9wB-vWMTorOnJa5rOUD2IhWqyY8taJWMN2TcRFOBllUG11qKRw=s2836" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2836" data-original-width="2012" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghPIpsY5l5DFmtXvYa6-aEzSmjpcK2UsFkcNcJhQYA87aAX4vlt9mFLpfaJE4xr1yqCcwRRWLJG2SmYNRuP9hZT8He6lkOM-grXWXBpIKfclPnNlFSuI22-knRxQlWkIpELJqdkxAg9wB-vWMTorOnJa5rOUD2IhWqyY8taJWMN2TcRFOBllUG11qKRw=s320" width="227" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Metallic Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Here's a group shot:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJPgx2aJgdcqR7XdBSk5KT6wmJyz2OpknKZnSNvxw_QpTjeOgGh5KHs3foEG2nVxT-If_qyrRDT6Vlv48nWOiJa6ZaHLDY6m7mwCO8IuFINRgiAXJZIwugs0BA5sbnG9QwVbAYba8SzvJMTLYHxNamYxJ1ukW5BRjvlZEzi86qHVljp9dgtNNk5h3v7A=s4204" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1572" data-original-width="4204" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiJPgx2aJgdcqR7XdBSk5KT6wmJyz2OpknKZnSNvxw_QpTjeOgGh5KHs3foEG2nVxT-If_qyrRDT6Vlv48nWOiJa6ZaHLDY6m7mwCO8IuFINRgiAXJZIwugs0BA5sbnG9QwVbAYba8SzvJMTLYHxNamYxJ1ukW5BRjvlZEzi86qHVljp9dgtNNk5h3v7A=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Group Shot</td></tr></tbody></table><p>As long as I'm here, here's one I printed with my 3D printer, using <a href="http://3dmag.org/en/market/item/8033/">this model</a>. It didn't turn out very well, but it was kind of a tasteless idea anyway.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh932YFcItGIJN9zuC4Zxkh5LXlM00NEboBHAEmKPzxgE0OOsFE4pXJ4fjhbPT7smjSqnhRlmlsXJF3WwNWp7-zzXeukTwbv_ukkk35dGdEFlXUqs8PdLSvKKxTYbyaos_pibRZ9EIhSXXDAX-YF0YjarMgjTqKGS6wkh07U831uTNacN7uDr2tDndLDg=s2544" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2544" data-original-width="1788" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh932YFcItGIJN9zuC4Zxkh5LXlM00NEboBHAEmKPzxgE0OOsFE4pXJ4fjhbPT7smjSqnhRlmlsXJF3WwNWp7-zzXeukTwbv_ukkk35dGdEFlXUqs8PdLSvKKxTYbyaos_pibRZ9EIhSXXDAX-YF0YjarMgjTqKGS6wkh07U831uTNacN7uDr2tDndLDg=s320" width="225" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coronavirus Beholder</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>All of these go really well with the pre-painted <a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/beholder-i-hardly-know-her.html">Beholders</a> I already owned:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifmoR7lW5HIew_I-Sg4zxaBA3J9u_8x6zbwFFK6eLmn5Wd2TEtKr3tH2w7E5-obH58k-Yjd8eg3d5CzuEHWJWKzd_aP7CUf8oo5AAFMTZWkMdu5Axi_g63cMycADk4ptF1DGmWhey9tDBJ1mfnRJW77Zj-uy20-WYKJKcfjLcQqqxwYGKF8toByKPbYg=s4196" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2464" data-original-width="4196" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifmoR7lW5HIew_I-Sg4zxaBA3J9u_8x6zbwFFK6eLmn5Wd2TEtKr3tH2w7E5-obH58k-Yjd8eg3d5CzuEHWJWKzd_aP7CUf8oo5AAFMTZWkMdu5Axi_g63cMycADk4ptF1DGmWhey9tDBJ1mfnRJW77Zj-uy20-WYKJKcfjLcQqqxwYGKF8toByKPbYg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-81156012796488980382022-01-22T15:56:00.002-06:002022-01-22T15:56:19.338-06:00Daggerford: Now Where Were We?<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: 1/22/2022</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 23</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider"</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steve) Elf Rogue</span></span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya Bennett </b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span></span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Last session, some bad things happened, probably. I dunno, it's been a couple of months. It ended with us fleeing Mount Illefarn, along with two Dwarf NPCs, and setting up camp nearby.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxVjHTflfV6UG-VM22xs_4WWgRAO9-ncJg_qdXWy5qiYzmLrq10dsXeMc1oE-RDgyOjhD-FfgZERovEbV78yFD964qZRrxCYGwkLQirVEghanb9kD-LBxwaIlKgS2Fh37ueHoVVAkHH_T9BiR41QJurOiwcQvavwgBAvx6nNBMpbuGW-uV2g-5XlHCPg=s1098" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1098" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxVjHTflfV6UG-VM22xs_4WWgRAO9-ncJg_qdXWy5qiYzmLrq10dsXeMc1oE-RDgyOjhD-FfgZERovEbV78yFD964qZRrxCYGwkLQirVEghanb9kD-LBxwaIlKgS2Fh37ueHoVVAkHH_T9BiR41QJurOiwcQvavwgBAvx6nNBMpbuGW-uV2g-5XlHCPg=w200-h166" width="200" /></a></div>Khemed and Azul met with some of Avrik's contacts, who mapped out more of the dungeon for us. While they were gone, Nikolice searched for some of our former allies, but only found signs of combat instead. Navine received word that there was dragon attack in the area. This somehow led to us planning how to lure a dragon into Mount Illefarn.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Postponing that plan, we reentered the dungeon so we could attempt to disrupt the portal. We tiptoed back up to level three, where Nikolice and Navine scouted ahead. They opened a door and heard some chanting. Around another corner, an Earth Elemental walked by, much more quietly than you would expect from such a large creature. Our scouts looked around a few more rooms, mostly finding abandoned areas and tombs.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">One sarcophagus had a false bottom, leading to a secret passage. Nikolice found another tomb at the end of the passage, but it had already been looted. Nikolice and Navine made to rejoin the party, reaching us just as the Earth Elemental reappeared.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjya6n3Zr_EIpnAtVnj5cw3pgKZyOmomsfqCCjXGP71Ft_ohn4CS5g6xh47BLcML8vOFh8o3fKKROLlqlkDBu4NLyw4fg7Ywe6Uy76jKsbtejh1KluH3O56UWlQ8wQn9IA46qg1XHG693QOuCYyrf-mPew7bAX-oVd0Gfz8Dt4KdED-2dHDNsa5f_Yekg=s858" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="858" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjya6n3Zr_EIpnAtVnj5cw3pgKZyOmomsfqCCjXGP71Ft_ohn4CS5g6xh47BLcML8vOFh8o3fKKROLlqlkDBu4NLyw4fg7Ywe6Uy76jKsbtejh1KluH3O56UWlQ8wQn9IA46qg1XHG693QOuCYyrf-mPew7bAX-oVd0Gfz8Dt4KdED-2dHDNsa5f_Yekg=w200-h157" width="200" /></a></div>The rock monster attacked, we fought it for a few rounds, and we turned that piece of schist into rubble. Our fight drew the attention of some zombies, who showed up just in time to take the Elemental's place in combat. Two Red Wizard Wights also came lurking down the hall. We held our actions until we could see the wights of their eyes, then blasted 'em.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">A Red Wizard - who we could have sworn we killed in an earlier session - joined the battle invisibly, only to run off when Vanya inadvertently hit him with a Shatter spell. Khemed took out several enemies with a Fireball spell. The Red Wizard took out one of his own Wights while hitting three of us, and continued to flee. Navine gave chase, and dropped the Red Wizard with an arrow.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">As we turned the corner, two Will-O'-Wisps showed up, and two more Wights came into view. Khemed and Nikolice ended up fighting the Wights, with the Wisps preventing the rest of the party from reaching them to help. Azul killed both Wisps, opening up the corridor so we could save the day. Behind us, one of our NPC allies transformed into the dragon we'd heard about earlier - "Chuth Elf-Taker". We have two elves in the party (one full elf and two half-elves, do the math), so we have good reason to fear a dragon who hunts elves. With laser eyes.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyxKnMcOkZvQ5Ja4ZFuAUm7y7YdcUP2dk8xtLHrhAQG8HF5-9xZtT1ONCqQo4xgt5ft37WzsmZzReGJyLyYQOxm0_igbYs3hrN4hictk4VkWDAEgXpGfAmt5rOFzGIvNosRwmrJw97BIgZ0d_G-SautHM5HmcIrzBomiathelnnh4BVp4nq4juqAYMtA=s682" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="682" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyxKnMcOkZvQ5Ja4ZFuAUm7y7YdcUP2dk8xtLHrhAQG8HF5-9xZtT1ONCqQo4xgt5ft37WzsmZzReGJyLyYQOxm0_igbYs3hrN4hictk4VkWDAEgXpGfAmt5rOFzGIvNosRwmrJw97BIgZ0d_G-SautHM5HmcIrzBomiathelnnh4BVp4nq4juqAYMtA=w200-h183" width="200" /></a></div>Nikolice headed for the Northernmost room, where the real Avrik (you know, the guy Khemed's been impersonating) looked perturbed at the disturbance. Navine fled West, in fear of the elf-eating dragon. Khemed turned invisible. Another wight came out of the portal to the North. Nikolice threw a bunch of alchemist fire into the room with Avrik and the portal, which disrupted the spell Avrik was trying to cast. The fire quickly spread.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Azul got the dragon down to bloodied, but then the dragon turned invisible. Avrik defended himself with a Wall of Force spell. More wights poured in from the North hallway, burning from the alchemist's fire earlier. Nikolice threw some random flasks into the North hallway, collapsing the doorway. The DM began dropping many, many hits that this floor was becoming an unsafe place to be. We fled, the dungeon collapsing behind us.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">As we ran, we found the corpse of the Dwarf King. He held a tiny chest, which Nikolice grabbed. It held a tiny silver hammer, which grew into a full sized hammer. As we reached the lower floor with the divine anvil, Nikolice struck it with the hammer, which revealed a brass heart. We took the heart-shaped object, which had several buttons on it.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgd0ZQmWSt30FJ6w9SI16zo3IJ8EviurYC-pio2tFwnywrWqno23tUCG3vw9xAu-vDiPtIjTAwuSGZTUWE4L1l3e1bh1_NcZ0UfeH8MZp_0uHtVAFVZRM3TcsM7SJMkQX9y5becgVbsx07BCn5Yud4fC44maMHeV8KxZBca3q2cc08Ov9sYhBWsJMkrEA=s616" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="471" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgd0ZQmWSt30FJ6w9SI16zo3IJ8EviurYC-pio2tFwnywrWqno23tUCG3vw9xAu-vDiPtIjTAwuSGZTUWE4L1l3e1bh1_NcZ0UfeH8MZp_0uHtVAFVZRM3TcsM7SJMkQX9y5becgVbsx07BCn5Yud4fC44maMHeV8KxZBca3q2cc08Ov9sYhBWsJMkrEA=w153-h200" width="153" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We finally reached outside, and the dungeon collapsed behind us. Before we could catch our breath, however, an NPC apprentice stood laughing at us, transforming into something terrible. The dragon Chuth also decloaked. We ended on that cliffhanger.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-90730392243780802962021-11-14T14:32:00.000-06:002021-11-14T14:32:00.564-06:00Afterthoughts: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight<div>Minor spoilers ahead.</div><div><br /></div>So, now that I've had a chance to read through the entire adventure, I wanted to talk more about "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure". I can honestly say this is unlike any D&D adventure I've played before, though whether that's a good thing is going to vary from person to person.<br /><br />The module seems kind of easy, to the point that you could probably stay level 1 and still complete the adventure. Every combat can be avoided, though sometimes the peaceful option isn't very obvious. But even when fights occur, most of them aren't particularly deadly. Several creatures are under orders to capture your party alive, or otherwise stated to leave downed parties alone. There's also tricks to end certain fights early, though some of them require insane moon logic. For example, Redcaps don't like receiving gifts, and will drop dead from anger if you give them a present.<br /><br />Honestly, a lot of Witchlight's logic doesn't make sense, and that's by design. It draws inspiration from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and a bunch of classic fairy tales. Stories where children fly by thinking happy thoughts, eating cake changes someone's size, and witches can be killed by a bucket of water. So when Witchlight has you trading your shadow to get your smile back, just remember that you are in an absurd land with its own laws of physics.<br /><br />There's not a lot for treasure hunters. Citizens of Prismeer don't seem to care much for gold, and mostly trade for trinkets. Sometimes more abstract concepts are used as currency, such as a happy memory or your ability to dance. There are a few decent magic items to be found, but serious treasure hunters aren't going to finish the adventure much richer than they started.<br /><br />There's hardly any use for mapping the overworld, because the landscape of each region changes. This is a great bit of flavor, but it also makes it easy for the DM to railroad players into going straight to the next plot location.<br /><br />I think it will require a special kind of DM to run this adventure effectively. I don't think I could pull it off. There's a lot to keep track of. Little things that happen in the first session become important much later, so you better write things down. The good news is that it reminds you to take note of certain events, and even includes a story tracker for you to copy.<br /><br />Even with the right DM, I'm not sure all players can handle it. This module is heavily geared towards roleplay. Hack-n-slashers will still have a good time bulldozing their way through the adventure, but they're going to miss a lot of what makes this module unique.<br /><br />At one point late in the story, the characters are forced to improvise a play. They're given slips of paper with lines they're supposed to work into their dialogue, making the scene feel like a game of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" In fact, there were a few spots in the module that reminded me more of Fiasco than D&D. This is a lot to ask of some players.<br /><br />It feels a bit short. I think most groups could get through it in 8 to 10 four-hour sessions. But roleplay-heavy campaigns can be deceptive. If a party really has a flair for the dramatic, they can stretch out some of the encounters for a long time. Even if it is short, replay value is pretty high. There's a ton of variables, so no two playthroughs are going to be alike.<div><br /></div><div>There is an interesting twist in the final chapter, regarding the true identity of one of the characters. However, this reveal won’t mean much to some players unless they are big fans of D&D lore. The DM may want to work in some additional references to the character’s other identity early on, if they want the twist to make an impact later.<br /><br />Honestly, this is the least “guided” 5e official adventure I’ve read so far. Several sections feel more like a programming flowchart than a story: IF the characters do “X”, THEN “Y” happens. Okay, that’s not uncommon for an adventure. But with most adventures, those are just side events to a mostly linear story. This adventure feels like nothing but a collection of flowcharts. You could probably play this one 100 times and get entirely different stories, but some DMs are going to feel lost running it.<br /><br />Another thing I’m wondering about. As always, the book gives the layouts of several castles and lairs, with dozens of rooms in each. But since this is such a low combat module, I wonder if players will be as thorough about searching every room. With no need to “clear out this level”, I wonder how many PCs will head straight for their objective and miss some of the more interesting roleplay encounters.<br /><br />Bottom line? I... don't know. I'm still lost. I'm not the best judge of an adventure anyway, but usually I can at least tell if I like a module after I read it. But this one really depends on DM and the players. It subverts the average adventure in so many ways, I can't tell what it will feel like to play it. It feels like an experiment, like they're testing the waters for more pacifist-friendly adventures.<br /><br />I don't know if I want to run it, but I would definitely like to play it sometime. The good news is, with all those variables I mentioned, I don't think having already read it will spoil it for me.</div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-56964081158549081272021-10-30T15:51:00.000-05:002022-01-22T15:58:01.002-06:00Daggerford: Run Away! Run Away!<p> <b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 10/30/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 22</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><div><div><b>Azul </b>(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter<br /><b>Nikolice Gomez</b> (Steven) - Human Fighter <br /><b>Khemed </b>(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard<br /><b>Navine/"Spider"</b> (Steve) Elf Rogue<br /><b>Vanya Bennett </b>(Matt) Half-Elf Bard<br /><br /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div style="background-color: white;"><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When we left off, we had cleared out some tombs, encountered Khemed/Arvik's "allies", and found a magical portal to Thay. We used the portal to send a letter to the Lich King of Thay, asking to meet him in Waterdeep (it wasn't my idea). Meanwhile, Azul noticed some fire elementals approaching from a room to the West. Roll initiative.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfWPQsw69mDBfihlgSZAGazq5WX_OaPPpcxD9bbjyP7FQzprdXHfiPQDqE-aHpsXX6sy1dOzRBAOvBbNy_23CB6Ck4em9H9t57EbdUlM4drNdpPgynqs25uJN5WcY3ZGrjPQkkvRPeV4X/s693/22-01C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="693" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfWPQsw69mDBfihlgSZAGazq5WX_OaPPpcxD9bbjyP7FQzprdXHfiPQDqE-aHpsXX6sy1dOzRBAOvBbNy_23CB6Ck4em9H9t57EbdUlM4drNdpPgynqs25uJN5WcY3ZGrjPQkkvRPeV4X/w200-h175/22-01C.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Shortly after the battle began, a Red Wizard showed up and joined the fight. The fire elementals set Nikolice on fire, and he climbed to the top of a statue. Khemed went down in flames. Azul hit all three enemies with his lightning breath. An Ice Devil showed up, answering our letter. It asked to see Avrik, and Nikolice pointed towards his unconscious form.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice leapt off his statue, flipping over a fire elemental and and attacked the Red Wizard. Shortly thereafter, the real Avrik Zaltos showed up with a couple of minions. It turns out the Ice Devil and the fire elementals were not friends, and they fought each other. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The Ice Devil killed one of the elementals, and the real Avrik cast Banishment on the other. Azul attacked the Red Wizard, but just took out his mirror images. Nikolice then used an action surge to hit the Wizard four times, who then fled. On Vanya's turn, she pointed the Ice Devil to its true enemy, the real Avrik Zaltos. The Devil took out one of Avrik's guards, but Avrik managed to banish the Devil. Azul and Nikolice pursued the lesser Red Wizard, and finished him off. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">One of real Avrik's guards, a Wight, attacked the party as we were regrouping. Azul charged the creature and killed it. At this point we knew we were being pursued by forces beyond our ken, so we started a hasty retreat. We had found some iron coins, and used them to open some safes. Azul found a jade frog statue and grabbed it; in other safes we found several unidentified potions, some gauntlets, and a battered copper chest. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglxGChDAmAxqv4Imfg7tJpKNdVXfC8pXWz5F0wf3r4k_OvyYA-ePv4gYZPmiaHPSM7sKhvg37yiuviTwmMmsbfwwiYWz0rFan2adwiV2RBuYbka9xLJm0TyWXiScPl7cjR_3DcLTbxvNPW/s481/22-02A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="481" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglxGChDAmAxqv4Imfg7tJpKNdVXfC8pXWz5F0wf3r4k_OvyYA-ePv4gYZPmiaHPSM7sKhvg37yiuviTwmMmsbfwwiYWz0rFan2adwiV2RBuYbka9xLJm0TyWXiScPl7cjR_3DcLTbxvNPW/w200-h177/22-02A.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>On level 2 we accidentally caught the attention of three earth elementals. Nikolice tried throwing random flasks at the enemies. Instead of fighting them, we fled towards a secret door we'd discovered a few sessions ago. We went outside, meeting a couple of NPC Dwarf friends of ours.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We took a long rest, and identified our loot. The flasks turned out to be Potions of Climbing, Growth, Fire Breath, and two Healing Potions. The gauntlets turned out to be Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which Nikolice equipped. The battered copper chest contained a smaller silver chest, which contained a smaller electrum chest encrusted with gems. Inside the electrum chest was a velvet Bag of Holding containing 200 platinum pieces and an empty flask. The Jade Frog was a Figurine of Wondrous Power.</span></span></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Thus endeth the session.</div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-9574510653698830342021-10-13T16:23:00.000-05:002021-10-13T16:23:09.006-05:00Why I Prefer 5eEverybody wants different things out of their tabletop RPG. For myself, there are two factors that tend to impress me: Simplicity, and lots of playable races. Which is kind of funny, because those two factors - while not incompatible - often represent opposite ends of a system's design goals. I mean, Pathfinder (1st Edition) had a ton of playable races once you got into its splatbooks, but I found the system itself a little too simulationist for my tastes.<br /><br />The reason I want a lot of playable races isn't because I play a wide variety of them. It's because it increases the odds of me finding a species I really love. I like fey creatures like Fairies and Dryads, plus I have a thing for cat people like Tabaxi. Rarely are these races found in an RPG's core rulebook, so a game has to be fairly prolific for it to include them.<br /><br />And the reason I like simplicity... well, that's mostly because the more RPGs I try, the more difficult it gets to keep all the rules separate. When 3.5 was current, I learned it inside and out. Parts of it were more complicated than they needed to be, but that didn't bother me at the time because as far as I was concerned, D&D 3.5 was the world's only RPG. But with each new system I learned, it became harder and harder to keep them all straight.<br /><br />I liked 4e at the time, because it was easier (for me) to create a character. While 3.5's classes all had their own sets of rules, 4e pretty much just had one set of rules governing all classes. Yes, a 4e fighter was slightly more complicated than a 3.5 fighter. But once you learned to play a 4e fighter, you could play any 4e class with ease. Unfortunately, 4e's drawbacks outweighed its simplicity, and that's when my groups began experimenting with other RPGs. <br /><br />I glommed right onto 5e. For my money, it's the perfect balance between options and simplicity. My experience may not be as varied as some, but I have played a decent range of games. I've played games with fewer rules, but they didn't have enough character options. I've played more complicated games, and it took over an hour to build a character.<br /><br />But here we get into the argument of "what even is simple, anyway"? I got into an online discussion a few weeks ago about earlier editions of D&D. I maintain that 5e is easier to learn, mostly because I've tried to learn earlier editions and found them to be about as easy as studying calculus. My opponents kept pointing out the page count of OD&D - instead of a giant PHB, its rules were confined to what was practically a pamphlet. <br /><br />And you know, that would be fine, except that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(1974)">OD&D</a> wasn't even a complete system. D&D's original release was more of a spin-off. It assumed you already knew the rules of two other games (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainmail_(game)">Chainmail</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outdoor_Survival">Outdoor Survival</a>). It didn't set out to create a brand new game, it was just a way to converting a mass combat game into a dungeon delve. <br /><br />But that's just trivia, and doesn't really prove my case. The truth is, what one person finds simple, someone else finds complicated. As far as I'm concerned, truly enjoyable tabletop RPGs started with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D20_System">d20 System</a>. Any RPG that uses THAC0, to-hit tables, or any system where having low AC is better, automatically loses all of its simplicity points. <br /><br />This is how you play an RPG: You roll some dice. You add some modifiers. You try to get a result higher than a target number. Boom, period, that's it, done. This isn't golf, high numbers are always better. I'm not blaming older RPGs for being clunky, I know it took a while to streamline the rules. Older RPGs hold an important place in history, and without them we wouldn't have the games we have now. They should be respected and honored, but I'll be damned if I'm going to agree that they're "simple". <br /><br />But again, that's just my opinion. Simple is in the eye of the Eye Tyrant. Personally I consider a system simple if it's easy for me to build a character. As long as you're not the DM, then you can learn most of the rules while playing. But building a character is one of the first things you have to do in a game (unless you're using pregens), and the process usually gives you a good idea of how complicated the system is going to be overall.<br /><br />In D&D 5e, I can build a character in 5-15 minutes, depending on the class. Magic users take the longest, because of spell selection. And sure, you can draw it out if you want to nitpick over your equipment or whatever. But it's still one of the fastest and easiest experiences I've had with character creation. I've played some retroclones that took even less time, but it came at the cost of character options. <br /><br />I frequent a lot of RPG message boards, and I see a lot of young people who want to start playing D&D, but find the size of the PHB intimidating. Most of them don't realize how little of the PHB you have to read in order to play. Sure, you'll want to glance through the races, classes, and backgrounds, until you know what you want to play. But you only have to really read the the race, class, and background you actually pick. That's probably less than 10 pages. That's enough to get your character started.<br /><br />You'll want to spend a few minutes in the equipment chapter if you don't like the default gear. If you play a magic user, you'll have to read through some spells and the rules on spellcasting. Personally, I'd just make my first character a fighter and save the more complicated stuff for later. You'll probably want to read up on combat (9 pages) and maybe the chapter on adventuring (6 pages), though you can learn this stuff while playing. <br /><br />Sure, it's more than you have to read to play Monopoly. But my point is, the majority of the book is stuff you can skip for now. You don't have to read all the classes, races, and backgrounds that you aren't going to play yet. There's nearly 80 pages describing spells alone. Even if you're playing a Wizard, you only need to read the spells you're thinking of taking at level 1. <br /><br />There's a big push right now to get people to try RPGs other than D&D. Honestly I'd love it if people tried more RPGs, but I find the movement itself to be kind of insulting and gatekeeper-ish. It's all "Only noobs still play D&D" and "Real gamers don't play a game just because it's the most popular" or whatever. Surely there's a better way to convince people to play your favorite RPG. Maybe you could try... I don't know... mentioning the names of the systems you want them to try? And then maybe explaining what's so good about them? You know, stop putting everything down and actually stand up for something?<br /><br />And every blasted one of them thinks they're putting forth this idea for the first time. "Did you know there's other RPGs besides D&D?" Well, duh, it's the 14th meme you've posted on the subject this week. If I didn't know before, I do now. But did you know that your geekier-than-thou attitude actually makes people less likely to try whatever system you're trying to push? And did you know that it's perfectly possible to try a wide variety of RPGs and still prefer D&D?<br /><br />Anyway, I'm not claiming D&D 5e is the best tabletop RPG out there, or that it's even the best version of D&D. "Best" is a nonsense word when talking about personal tastes; it's not like there's a best flavor of ice cream that all people can agree on. There are things even I preferred about 3.5, and believe it or not, there's even a couple of things I miss from 4e. And if I were playing a different genre, like sci-fi, there's a few other systems I'd look at first before trying to shoehorn it into 5e (though I do want to try Star Wars 5e sometime). <br /><br />But personally, for the kind of games I like to play, D&D 5e is my favorite. It's easy to learn and teach, character creation is fast, and it's flexible enough that you can make it crunchier if you choose to do so. Yes I've tried other RPGs. Yes I liked some of them. Yes some of them are better for telling certain kinds of stories. Yes I will continue to try other games.<br /><br />But when I say "I prefer 5e", it's not because it has the "Dungeons & Dragons" brand name printed on it, or because I'm afraid to try something new. When I say "I prefer 5e", it's because I've tried other systems and found them lacking something I find important, even if others do not. I realized long ago that my priorities are different than most people's.<br /><br />So sure, if you have any other systems you think I should try, comment below. I can't promise I'll be able to get a group together to try it, but I will at least read through the system with an open mind and give it an honest appraisal. Just don't be surprised if continue to prefer 5e. <br /><div><br /></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-45812755464673387612021-10-02T15:43:00.004-05:002022-01-22T15:58:18.976-06:00Daggerford: Speaking in Tongues<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: 10/2/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 21</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter </span><br /><div><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider" </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When we left off, we were exploring some Dwarven tombs. In one room we grabbed an idol, setting off a poison gas trap, but everyone got out of the room before taking any damage. In the next crypt, we found a skeleton made of gold, and took it. Another crypt contained hundreds of tiny diamonds, and three bizarre monsters.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxqtZSyTIt1muK5QRJCcjrQWszpHMUB-rVPW3hXmpJnX76UCubMTNO5rNr5E-RMZk02p4ZuZNirpnCkmnh2QZrkZczcabUlTerhNEz_rVsHDjiyuJ5zfpCqmim_gP1YCoJuTkMDbvK0qQj/s681/21-01C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="681" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxqtZSyTIt1muK5QRJCcjrQWszpHMUB-rVPW3hXmpJnX76UCubMTNO5rNr5E-RMZk02p4ZuZNirpnCkmnh2QZrkZczcabUlTerhNEz_rVsHDjiyuJ5zfpCqmim_gP1YCoJuTkMDbvK0qQj/w200-h138/21-01C.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The three Xorn gibbered in an alien language. Vanya understood them through a Tongues spell. They were more interested in eating the diamonds than eating us, but we weren't totally off the menu. We rolled initiative. These creeps could make four attacks per round, dropping Nikolice and Navine pretty quickly. Khemed dropped a fireball into the room, hitting all the Xorn but also hurting some party members.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">On Vanya's turn, she offered the Xorn a truce. They stopped attacking us, ate the diamonds, and left. We picked up a few bits of treasure and Nikolice's spleen, and took a short rest. In another crypt we found the body of a Dwarf wearing a gold Death Mask, but left it alone. The last crypt contained a very large suit of armor. It stood, wielding a giant hammer, and everyone fled the room.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6ewT8r17HP7Nkk4qatJPbC-NEztiZoscwrD_0-xI8-Dfs-6Hz-FMXRFvIGzG_WL0MG5w67Re7NUFjcVLd0dGbS2kyIQ1R7pw2aoV5px5VA3kc_ebhPSioEj_8p4oeJQx7I1tUpD-0eGg/s480/21-01E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="480" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_6ewT8r17HP7Nkk4qatJPbC-NEztiZoscwrD_0-xI8-Dfs-6Hz-FMXRFvIGzG_WL0MG5w67Re7NUFjcVLd0dGbS2kyIQ1R7pw2aoV5px5VA3kc_ebhPSioEj_8p4oeJQx7I1tUpD-0eGg/w200-h159/21-01E.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>It got stuck in the doorway, giving us time to get a few hits in before it reached us. Azul delivered the killing blow, releasing a swarm of zombie stirges, which Vanya took out with a Shatter spell. Now done with the tombs, we explored more of the dungeon.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">In one hallway we found a large marble door. Investigating the door, we realized it was trapped in such a way as to crush people who try to open it. In another chamber, we encountered a wary Dwarf. She saw we were carrying the gilded skeleton of one of her ancestors, and guilted us into giving it back. Pretty much done with this level, we headed for the stairway.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">At the top of the stairs, Navine snuck up ahead and eavesdropped on a couple of Red Wizards, who argued about whether Khemed was truly who he had been claiming. We went around the corner and engaged them in conversation. They asked a lot of leading questions, subtly testing Khemed, but we covered for him as best as we could. We split the party, with Nikolice and Navine sitting down to eat with the Red Wizards. Khemed, Vanya and Azul headed further into the hallways. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJvBzUICqXndpH__7kDiKBQ23uEqjM0Sr0uQnKGQJ1qtAkZVHrHqEa1s01s-uJIuLRJ6IPjuvd9XqLkfVcXhr43B1ggcPWWYt2SXsni_sSulVH4liHIuptiYb2sTMh65b3r3vn8q8gXxF/s706/21-02D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="564" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJvBzUICqXndpH__7kDiKBQ23uEqjM0Sr0uQnKGQJ1qtAkZVHrHqEa1s01s-uJIuLRJ6IPjuvd9XqLkfVcXhr43B1ggcPWWYt2SXsni_sSulVH4liHIuptiYb2sTMh65b3r3vn8q8gXxF/w160-h200/21-02D.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>In one room, four Dwarf statues appeared to watch us. To the North, a short hallway led to Dwarven barracks. A giant skull occupied one corner of the room, filled with green flame. <b>GREEN FLAME! </b> Khemed identified the skull as a magical portal to Thay. Khemed called for Nikolice, needing to use his abilities. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We had to call the session there. There is no game in two weeks. Next session should be 10/30.</span></span></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-45699188183003200592021-09-29T22:39:00.001-05:002021-10-04T21:18:13.386-05:00D&D Next Next<p>So, WOTC has announced that the next version of D&D will come out in 2024, ten years after 5e was released. From what they're saying, the new version will be 100% compatible with 5e, making it more of a 5.5 than a brand new edition. </p><p>Ten years is a pretty good run for a D&D edition. Third only went three years before 3.5 came out, and 4e came out five years after that. Hopefully 5.5 will be strong enough to last at least another decade.</p><p>To me, the longevity of a system's rules is one of the most important factors. When you ask your friends to play Monopoly, nobody ever replies, "You mean Monopoly 3.5 or 5e?" And really, that's what I want for D&D. I want a set of rules that lasts for so long, that it just becomes "D&D". D&D 5e had that sort of potential from the start, with its extra-long playtest and the "bounded accuracy" keeping the numbers in check. Now that they've had 10 years of errata, tweaks, and customer complaints, I'm hoping that 5.5 is strong enough to keep D&D the most recognizable name in tabletop RPGs.</p><p>I don't care if it outshines other RPGs. Different RPGs are better at different things, and that's great! D&D doesn't need to be the best RPG, it just needs to be the most accessible. Let people start with D&D, then move on to other systems once they know which aspects of tabletop RPGs are their favorite. People who want more crunch can try X. People who want even fewer rules can try Y. People who want a system more optimized for sci-fi, westerns, or modern eras can try Z. </p><p>In this role, D&D could actually benefit all tabletop RPGs, by bringing new people to the hobby. And honestly, I think they tried to do that with 5e. By simplifying the rules, and making an abridged version of the rules free on their website, they pulled in a lot of new players who might not have tried it otherwise. D&D has experienced a boom in the last decade, and while I know there were other factors (such as Stranger Things, and the general mainstreaming of geek culture), I do think 5e's simplicity was a big draw.</p><p>So what do I want to see in the new version? Frankly, I'm not the best person to ask. My ideas for RPGs are all over the place, and I have no idea how to make one that appeals to the masses. So let's start with the obvious: Integrate all the errata from the past decade, address the most common complaints, incorporate the new stat bonus rules presented in Tasha's, and put a better version of the Ranger in the PHB.</p><p>Beyond that, I want 5.5 designed in a way that appeals to newcomers more than the old guard. Experienced gamers already know about Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and a thousand other RPGs. If they're not satisfied with D&D 5.5 (and let's face it, they won't be), they already know what games they're going to play instead. While 5e tried to appease everyone by offering alternate rules all over the place, this time I think the alternate rules should be confined to the DM's guide.</p><p>I want Standard Array to be the default way to generate stats. I just heard some of you groan, but hear me out. Point buy and rolling stats would still be listed in the DM's guide as valid alternate rules. But Standard Array is the simplest way to generate stats. It could still list a couple of alternate arrays for those who want a more specialized character, and those who want more average numbers across the board. I would also like stat bonuses to be tied to class or background instead of race. The Tasha variant is fine, but it feels like a patch. </p><p>I want them to at least attempt to future proof their language. "Race" should now be called heritage or ancestry or something along those lines. Look, I don't personally think "race" is a dirty word; in fact I think the word makes more sense the way D&D uses it than the way real life uses it. But it is a politically-charged word, and it already was so before 5e hit the shelves, so WOTC has no excuse for ignoring trends. If they change it in 5.5, there will be some grumbling from grognards, but newcomers won't care. And newcomers are the future of the hobby.</p><p>This won't happen, but I want books divided by category. Instead of splatbooks that contain 8 new subclasses, 4 new races, 20 new monsters, and some lore, I want a book of races, a book of subclasses, and so on. </p><p>I'd like the Bard to have a specific "Bard Song" feature by default, or at least have a subclass in the PHB with that feature. Just a song they can sing, instead of Bardic Inspiration, that gives a small buff to one ore more members of the party. See the "Battle Hymn" feature in the EN Publishing's "<a href="https://www.levelup5e.com/">Level Up</a>" playtest for an example of this. I love Bards, but 5e's version never felt Bardy enough for me. </p><p>I want more app integration. Apps are probably the future of tabletop RPGs. I don't want to have to pay for the physical book and then buy it again on D&D Beyond. Have each copy of the PHB include a sealed envelope with an online code inside. </p><p>Beyond that, I think 5e is a perfectly lovely system, and I'm looking forward to the updated version. I hope they didn't shoot themselves in the foot by announcing the update so early. Early announcements like this have been known to be self-sabotaging, as consumers put off purchasing the current product in favor of waiting for the new version. I wonder what their book sales will be like for the next three years. Only time will tell.</p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-4799833524850986402021-09-22T12:37:00.005-05:002021-09-22T22:04:57.561-05:00First Impression: The Wild Beyond the Witchlight<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rcOriFYMl7KTh-JqQbQb9kc4WOfPtXP0sUon3TojcWHvCneURvYx8gjUUWNN1EZllsY0c29n9sW0KQrAOVd-8nwezrqEHB43-GYF8GfMPL0PxjDJALFNh1PiIJ6or0eLQ8XYAJ1DuFut/s1885/TWBTW.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1885" data-original-width="1452" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2rcOriFYMl7KTh-JqQbQb9kc4WOfPtXP0sUon3TojcWHvCneURvYx8gjUUWNN1EZllsY0c29n9sW0KQrAOVd-8nwezrqEHB43-GYF8GfMPL0PxjDJALFNh1PiIJ6or0eLQ8XYAJ1DuFut/w154-h200/TWBTW.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>I'm a sucker for the Feywild. While others might prefer the more grounded, "King Arthur meets Lord of the Rings" campaigns, I tend to favor the fairy tale aspects of RPGs. I don't always buy campaign books, but I knew "<b>The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure</b>" was going to be mine <a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2021/06/coming-soon-wild-beyond-witchlight.html">as soon as it was announced</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>So what's in this book? It's mostly an adventure set in the Feywild, with a few pages of Feywild-related character options. </div><div><br /></div><div>The introduction includes a chart of 100 Feywild-related trinkets, followed by two new backgrounds: <b>Feylost</b> and <b>Witchlight Hand</b>. Feylost are people who spent a few years of their youth lost in the Feywild. Witchlight Hands are people who work at the carnival where this module's adventure begins.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next we have two new races: <b>Fairy</b> and <b>Harengon </b>(Rabbitfolk). These races are slightly updated from their previous appearance in <a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2021/03/unearthed-arcana-folk-of-feywild.html">Unearthed Arcana</a>. Most of the changes are just wording, though the fairy did lose its "Fey Passage" ability from the UA. This book does not include the Owlfolk or Hobgoblin races from the same UA.</div><div><br /></div><div>The adventure is designed to take characters from level 1 to level 8, though you can start at level 3 for an easier campaign. I haven't read through the entire adventure yet, but supposedly every combat has a non-violent option, in case you want to make a pacifist run. However, only clever players will be able to find ways around every combat.</div><div><br /></div><div>The story begins at the <b>Witchlight Carnival</b>, a traveling fair that visits many dimensions. It only visits this plane every eight years, so there is some pressure to accept the quest before it packs up and leaves. While the theme is similar to the Carnival domain in <a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-domains-of-ravenloft.html">Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft</a>, they aren't related as far as I can tell (<i>Edit: Turns out they do share a connection, but they are not the same carnival</i>). So apparently there's more than one dimension-hopping carnival in the D&D universe.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two possible plot hooks. One involves the PCs looking for something they lost at the Carnival in their youth, such as their ability to smile or their sense of direction. In the other hook, a retired warlock hires you to find his missing patron. If you pick the first hook, the locations of the lost items are determined randomly (similar to the Tarokka reading in Curse of Strahd), giving the adventure more replay value.</div><div><br /></div><div>While exploring the Carnival, the PCs eventually find a Fey Crossing that takes them to the Feywild Domain of <b>Prismeer</b>. Prismeer is divided into three lands: Hither, Thither, and Yon. The adventure culminates in the centrally-located "Palace of Heart's Desire". </div><div><br /></div><div>After the adventure, there is a section on new magic items. Of note, there is a "Pole of Collapsing" that reminds me of Diana's weapon in the 80s cartoon. Then we have a section on factions of Prismeer, which describes important members of each faction. This includes some familiar faces from classic D&D, such as Kelek, Warduke, and Strongheart. I used to have some of their action figures, and I can't wait to see how they figure into the adventure.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next we have a section on monsters used in the adventure. It's nice to see the Campestri (happy singing mushrooms) again. It appears this book is full of classic D&D references, and I'm probably not even catching half of them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then we have some roleplaying cards and story trackers meant to make running the campaign easier. It looks like you're meant to photocopy these pages, so you can cut out the cards and write on the trackers. At least I hope people aren't cutting up their books and writing in them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally there is a fold-out map, meant to show to the players. One side is a layout of the carnival, and the other side is a general map of Prismeer. I'm not crazy about the maps, as they aren't really detailed enough to be useful, and including maps only hurts the resale value of the book when the maps inevitably get damaged or lost. Even tearing out the map leaves a sort of torn mess at the back of the book, but leaving the map in makes the pages turn funny... look, I'm just not a fan of removable maps.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I can't really comment on the adventure itself yet, I like what I've read so far. I do wish they had included more playable races, but it is meant to be a campaign book, not a sourcebook. Overall, I think the book is worth the money.</div><div><br /></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-4852304568311422482021-09-18T18:03:00.011-05:002021-09-18T18:07:42.811-05:00The Domains of Ravenloft Earlier this year I purchased "<a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2021/05/van-richtens-guide-to-ravenloft.html">Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft</a>" and posted my initial impressions. The largest section of the book described several of the more prominent Ravenloft domains. I saved this section for last, partly so that I could write my previous blog sooner, but mostly so that I could savor the book.<br /><br />As I said before, Van Richten's Guide has more for DMs than players. In fact, the majority of it feels like a book of writing prompts. When it's not offering tips on how to give your story a scary atmosphere, it's giving you once sentence plot hooks you're expected to flesh out yourself. The Domains of Dread chapter is no different.<br /><br />We're given just enough information about each world to jump start our own creativity. If you use this book - and no other source - to start a campaign, you'll probably take the adventures in directions the world builders never considered. You'll probably even end up contradicting established canon, but hey, it's D&D. All worlds are your world, to alter and expand as you please.<br /><br />Each domain gives examples of typical adventures in the domain. These are invaluable to me, as I sometimes have trouble seeing past a domain's main schtick. Seeing what typical minor quests look like helps me figure out how to craft my own. Otherwise, my mind might be stuck on defeating the Darklord.<br /><br />Here are my impressions of the domains presented in the book. Other than Barovia, I had no previous knowledge of these universes. I won't be surprised if my impressions are off, given the limited space each domain is given in the book.<br /><br />I've given each domain a rating between 1 and 5 stars. This should in no way be used to indicate the quality of the world, just my own interest in playing/running such a campaign.<br /><br /><br /><b>Featured Domains</b> - These domains are given about four to six pages each, with lengthy descriptions of their Darklords, geography, and sample plot hooks.<br /><br /><br /><b>Barovia</b> *****<br />Having already read "The Curse of Strahd", I didn't learn much new here. But for those who haven't read COS, there is a good bit of info here to get you started. Barovia is the ultimate horror domain. While it's primarily themed around Dracula-type stories, the domain is also home to werewolves, zombies, witches, and other classic monstrosities. This is the world I would reskin if I was running a "Castlevania" campaign.<br /><br /><b>Bluetspur</b> *** <br />Do you like mindflayers? This Illithid world is interesting, but it feels mostly geared toward one specific plot. Remember that <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Schisms_(episode)">episode</a> of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" where interdimensional aliens kidnap crew members while they sleep, so they can perform experiments on them? Well, here's an entire domain based on that episode. Of course it has more potential than that, but it still feels pretty limited as a world.<br /><br /><b>Borca</b> **<br />A domain filled with shady deals and social intrigue. It feels like a cross between a mob movie and a soap opera. I like the domain's two Darklords, they remind me of DC's Poison Ivy and the Toyman. I wouldn't be against playing in this world, but I wouldn't want to run it. I don't think I could manage all the complex manipulations. <br /><br /><b>The Carnival</b> ***** <br />This is one of my favorites, and I wish they had devoted more pages to it. It's exactly what it says on the tin - a traveling domain that takes the form of a carnival. It might work best in a low magic setting, where the characters aren't as jaded by wondrous sights. The domain's Darklord is not a person, but a sentient weapon, which is a neat twist.<br /><br /><b>Darkon </b>**<br />It's hard to get too excited about a setting with an oh-so-creative name like "Darkon". This is a post-apocalyptic domain, but it's not your everyday apocalypse. The domain no longer has a Darklord, and his departure triggered this world's doom. Now the land is divided by tendrils of impassable mists, making it difficult to travel between areas. The Darklord's absence has also left a power vacuum, and several powerful characters vie to fill that void.<br /><br /><b>Dementlieu</b> ***<br />The Darklord is a twisted version of Cinderella, who disintegrates people she believes are acting above their station. And yet every week, a grand Masquerade is held where poor people attempt to pass themselves off wealthy aristocrats. To these people, it's worth the risk of death to keep up appearances. It's a cool concept, but once again it seems to only lend itself to a handful of plots.<br /><br /><b>Falkovnia </b>**<br />A land beseiged by hordes of zombies, where survivors are forcibly conscripted into military service. The citizens know that their land is doomed, and would prefer to take their chances fleeing into the mists. But the domain's Darklord is an evil general who executes any who try to flee. Feels more like a war story than zombie horror. Reminds me of World War Z.<br /><br /><b>Har'Akir</b> **<br />A world inspired by Ancient Egypt. The Darklord is a mummy who is looking for a missing piece of his soul. It's not bad. I'm not a huge fan of desert settings, but there's a lot of potential here for massive dungeons, tomb raiding, and Indiana Jones style adventures. Just one of the suggested plot hooks - having the Darklord's soul split into several pieces, each in its own dungeon - could make for an entire campaign. <br /><br /><b>Hazlan </b>** <br />A world ruled by powerful, careless Wizards. Non-magical citizens live in fear of the devastations the Wizards cause, often in the name of experimentation. It kind of reminds me of the Dark Sun setting, except taking place before the apocalypse that turned it into a desert.<br /><br /><b>I'Cath</b> **<br />An Asian-inspired world that is divided into waking and dream lands. Conscious people fight for food during the day, and hide from ghosts during the night. Sleeping people share a dream where they are forced to do repetitive jobs to please the realm's Darklord. <br /><br /><b>Kalakeri </b>*<br />Tropical rainforests, political intrigue, warring factions, and nothing I found interesting. It has a spin-off world, Niranjan (in "Other Domains of Dread", below), which I found much more intriguing.<br /><br /><b>Kartakass </b>**<br />All the world's a stage, yada yada yada. A land of actors, musicians, and werewolves. Most of the domains are meant to be prisons for their Darklords, but this is one of the few where the Darklord isn't the most powerful being in the domain. As a Bard lover, you would think this would be one of my favorites, but it didn't do much for me.<br /><br /><b>Lamordia </b>****<br />I love this one. Basically an entire domain based on Frankenstein. Lots of steampunk tech and science gone wrong. Reminds me a little of my own <a href="http://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2011/01/itropa-campaign-setting.html">Itropa</a>. It also has one of my favorite Darklords. I'm not sure if I'd run a campaign set here, but I'm definitely stealing the Darklord and putting her somewhere in my next campaign.<br /><br /><b>Mordent </b>***<br />Ghosts, ghosts, and more ghosts. This is probably the second most well-known domain of Ravenloft, home to characters such as Rudolph Van Richten himself, and locations like the House on Gryphon Hill. Everyone who dies here becomes a ghost, so it's the perfect setting for a good ghost story.<br /><br /><b>Richemulot </b>**<br />It feels like the entire setting is based on the Black Plague. The domain is plagued with disease-ridden rats, with a Wererat organization behind the scenes. I like the Darklord, but the setting is just so-so. But it is timely - if you wanted to incorporate this past year's events into a campaign, this would be your domain. Not me, though. I game to escape reality.<br /><br /><b>Tepest </b>****<br />Another really good one. This one has elements of The Wicker Man, Children of the Corn, or really any "creepy little town" story. In a domain full of evil fey, one community is unusually friendly toward visitors. But soon the PCs notice the town's odd little quirks, leading up to a seasonal fertility ritual that culminates in a sacrifice. <br /><br /><b>Valachan </b>****<br />Another hit. Drawing inspiration from Predator and The Hunger Games, Valachan is a living jungle filled with dangerous plants and werepanthers. The Darklord forces victims to participate in a blood hunt called the Trial of Hearts. <br /><br /><br /><b>Other Domains of Dread</b> - These domains are given much less page space, usually just a paragraph describing the world and its Darklord. What I said before about writing prompts is doubly true here; there's just enough information to spark your imagination, but you'll have to supply the meat yourself. It's hard to rate these, since there's not much information there, but I'm still giving them stars based on how much they spark my imagination.<br /><br /><br /><b>Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail</b> ****<br />I wish this one had gotten more space. This is a mobile domain, a ghost train from Eberron that travels through the mists.<br /><br /><b>Forlorn </b>*<br />I Was A Teenage Dhampir. The Darklord is a perpetually young man who is a dhampir during the day, and a ghost at night. It tells almost nothing about the land itself, though.<br /><br /><b>Ghastria </b>**<br />Shades of Dorian Gray. The Darklord's immortality is tied to a painting, which he sometimes uses to absorb people's souls.<br /><br /><b>G'henna </b>*<br />Features a Darklord who sacrifices people to a fictitious god.<br /><br /><b>Invidia </b>**<br />A bad mother, a devious child, and a long line of servants who mysteriously disappear.<br /><br /><b>Keening </b>****<br />A spin-off realm of Tepest. Residents of a village intentionally deafen themselves so they don't fall victim to the wails of a nearby banshee.<br /><br /><b>Klorr </b>***<br />An apocalypse world. This is where other domains go to die.<br /><br /><b>Markovia </b>***<br />A land of sapient animals, the result of a scientist's strange experiments.<br /><br /><b>The Nightmare Lands</b> ***<br />Exactly what it says on the tin.<br /><br /><b>Niranjan </b>***<br />This was once a part of Kalakeri, but it became its own domain. In a remote monastery, a wizened sage offers inner peace to those who seek out this domain. Except it's all a scam, and those who fall for it are stripped of their possessions and lives. <br /><br /><b>Nova Vaasa</b> *<br />A nomadic tribe led by a Darklord with a split personality.<br /><br /><b>Odaire </b>****<br />Evil toys killed all the parents in a village, and now the children are literally ruled by a puppet dictator.<br /><br /><b>The Rider's Bridge</b> **<br />A haunted bridge leading who-knows-where, guarded by a headless horseman. Cool and creepy, but feels like it could just be an encounter in another domain.<br /><br /><b>Risibilos </b>***<br />A music hall featuring a cursed ventriloquist act.<br /><br /><b>Scaena </b>****<br />A theater that only produces bloody, deadly plays.<br /><br /><b>Sea of Sorrows</b> ****<br />A pirate ship with a cursed crew travels the waters between domains. There's a lot of potential with this one, and it could easily be worked into any Ravenloft domain that borders the ocean.<br /><br /><b>The Shadowlands</b> **<br />This feels like a corruption of the King Arthur legend, but it doesn't have enough information to get my imagination started.<br /><br /><b>Souragne </b>**<br />The Darklord is a sadistic warden who enjoys torturing prisoners.<br /><br /><b>Staunton Bluffs</b> ***<br />A neverending war, as a traitor is forced to relive the worst day of her life over and over. <br /><br /><b>Tovag </b>**<br />Once Vecna's champion, the vampire Kas betrayed his master. Now he searches the domains of Ravenloft to find his infamous sword, so he can face Vecna again.<br /><br /><b>Vhage Agency</b> ***<br />A single-room domain, the office of a detective agency. Everything appears black-and-white, and the detective/Darklord tracks mysteries across all of Ravenloft's domains. <br /><br /><b>Zherisia </b>**<br />A city where citizens are stalked by a doppelganger serial killer.<br /><br />XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-70215788630030835922021-09-04T15:41:00.008-05:002022-01-22T15:58:34.265-06:00Daggerford: Khemed is Sus<p> <b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 9/4/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 20</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter </span><br /><div><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider" </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When we left off, we were running around the halls of Dragonspear Castle, and ran straight into a jailbreak. Several humans, elves, and halflings were fleeing from Red Wizards and Undead. We changed perspective to see what Khemed had been doing at the same time.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">While we had been exploring last session, Khemed had been working with an apprentice wizard, who wanted to overthrow the imposter leader of the Red Wizards. The apprentice had mistaken Khemed for their true leader, so Khemed played the part.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The apprentice showed Khemed around their operations, including the prison cells guarded by wights. Khemed tried to bluff his authority over the wights, but failed. The wights attacked. The apprentice fired off a fireball spell, hitting all the wights and himself. The fireball also destroyed the cell doors, causing the prison break the rest of the party encountered at the end of last session.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPaQhfNPSKheQhdoQd0WUxfCpBaBeqmcGi6t4BdKRW3dWhJEDRQaISsrbZzT8wTwdno-zIJGbhg6U_x-J_BphfdgMQVDs2oDO2dFkzbN4GmxtWROFasV2kJmPbgAWXwFZBf1GivIwjwklE/s688/20-01B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="688" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPaQhfNPSKheQhdoQd0WUxfCpBaBeqmcGi6t4BdKRW3dWhJEDRQaISsrbZzT8wTwdno-zIJGbhg6U_x-J_BphfdgMQVDs2oDO2dFkzbN4GmxtWROFasV2kJmPbgAWXwFZBf1GivIwjwklE/w200-h175/20-01B.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div>The apprentice prepared to throw another fireball at the fleeing prisoners, hoping to raise them as undead slaves. Before he could fire, Navine fired an arrow at the apprentice. Khemed then pulled rank and ordered the apprentice not to fire. Finally... somehow... we managed to deescalate the fighting, and reached a truce. We took a short rest.</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We left our Dwarf allies and ex-prisoners in a room full of Dwarven ale barrels, and we accompanied the Red Wizards as we explored more of the castle. Navine scouted North to look around the corner, and saw where two wights were still guarding the Dwarven King's room. She fired off a shot at one wight, then ran back to the party. We all prepared actions, but the wights didn't attack us. Navine went back to the corner and looked again, but the wights were gone.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We headed back to the room where we fought all the suits of armor last session. There were a couple of doors on the North wall that allowed you to regenerate hit points and spell slots faster. We opened the doors to find some animated armors waiting for us. An imp joined the fight, but was taken out almost immediately. Khemed enlarged Azul, who fought two armors in a doorway. Nikolice killed one armor with a psionic strike, and Khemed killed one with a firebolt. Navine finished off the final one by firing a shot between the enlarged Azul's legs.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mQsMBcZV7m5nWW9qk2RAs-VcyYAbW1HGZLZo5WwL3CxU9Cb3O4acdJJ6YysspiTSTxpuhaFg6oZ-o3aEzzNW6SoV9YbWrNpBx9sSUQydy8DHFyoA7vU_FPgMZBSCtGJKAfaM2H5a41vo/s856/20-02B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="856" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6mQsMBcZV7m5nWW9qk2RAs-VcyYAbW1HGZLZo5WwL3CxU9Cb3O4acdJJ6YysspiTSTxpuhaFg6oZ-o3aEzzNW6SoV9YbWrNpBx9sSUQydy8DHFyoA7vU_FPgMZBSCtGJKAfaM2H5a41vo/w200-h174/20-02B.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya used the spell recovery room, along with the Red Wizards. She chatted with them, playing up Khemed's false identity. They were skeptical, but Vanya rolled high on her deception check. </span></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul and Nikolice used the hit point recovery room. Meanwhile, Khemed explored some of the nearby halls, discovering some barrels of tar. Once we were all rested, we headed South. In one room, Nikolice found a large, flat, iron coin. This was significant because we've found several chests with coin slots in various rooms.</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Then we spotted some giant rats peeking from around the corner to the South. Nikolice gave them some rations, but more showed up. Soon he had seven giant rats staring at him expectantly. He tried to tame them, but rolled badly. Then Azul used his dragon breath on them, and they fled. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWlfvJir5WroSlKHic5PTeFVYDBEwl7IUEGJjtZDOjI9kuMHc1zHd7T3Sz4YrnS2VbrKH-5iqFCG5kQsISpDbSarkAe8ZZ0zyMtg4AczEVpmE2cypLJ_qsXedjNFcss9BOMi1ilDPf011n/s756/20-03B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="276" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWlfvJir5WroSlKHic5PTeFVYDBEwl7IUEGJjtZDOjI9kuMHc1zHd7T3Sz4YrnS2VbrKH-5iqFCG5kQsISpDbSarkAe8ZZ0zyMtg4AczEVpmE2cypLJ_qsXedjNFcss9BOMi1ilDPf011n/w73-h200/20-03B.jpg" width="73" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div>We explored more hallways. At the end of one was a small room, with another one of those iron chests. There was also a hole in the wall, about Dwarf height. Navine saw someone staring at him through the doorway, but they ran off.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice put the coin into the safe, and it opened. It contained a Climber's Kit, a Healer's Kit, 3 flasks of Alchemist's Fire, a bronze merchant's scale, and a magnifying glass. We went back South where the rats had been, and found a secret door to the outside. In another hallway we found some stairs covered in rubble. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We returned to the hallway East of the regeneration rooms, and headed North. At the end of the hallway, another hallway ran West-East, with five doors on the North side. Each doorway led to a crypt containing a sarcophagus. The middle sarcophagus appeared to be opened. Nikolice and Navine went to the middle crypt and examined all the frescoes in the room. This is where we ended the session. </span></span></div></div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-52184717393692566162021-08-21T15:47:00.001-05:002022-01-22T15:58:46.871-06:00Daggerford: Navine Shot First<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: 8/21/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 19</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter (Absent)</span></span><br /><div><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider" </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When we left off, we had separated from Khemed, and found ourselves face-to-face with the venerable Dwarven king. We spoke to him for a bit. Vanya managed to offend him at first, but Navine was able to recover for us. The king told us a bit of the history of Illefarn. He told us that the halls were plagued with both ghosts and Red Wizards. We asked how he could help, but he didn't have much hope. He said if we took out the wizards, the ghosts would overrun the halls, and vice versa.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We asked if we could have some help against the Red Wizards, who were also looking for the same Fire Key as we are. He couldn't help, as he was bound by an agreement with the Red Wizards. But a couple of his subjects agreed to help us. We left the king to his depression, and explored more dungeon. Our Dwarven escorts dissuaded us from the Northeast hallway, so we sent Navine to scout ahead. The Rogue found a large empty room that looked like the site of a battle. We saw more stairs, but decided to clear out this level first.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We kept checking out more rooms and hallways. In a room to the Northwest, we saw a man in red robes, working on some masonry. He was accompanied by two Dwarf assistants, and the room contained ten suits of Dwarven armor. The wizard gestured us to wait, as he was engrossed in his work. Navine shot the Red Wizard.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VZqLBBbq9PUk4uJiHPyqLt0q8FsAm7SOJDkdlPPJJQW1JK2jsPMxsT0vsoUCdeq1J5DgsDnJYiG2d6AQEExXEioBavrIQLTwH0i1St_H7zgRi3A1YXWAbB7I7TfAlwHMLwCCSLT9iV3X/s897/19-01B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="897" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VZqLBBbq9PUk4uJiHPyqLt0q8FsAm7SOJDkdlPPJJQW1JK2jsPMxsT0vsoUCdeq1J5DgsDnJYiG2d6AQEExXEioBavrIQLTwH0i1St_H7zgRi3A1YXWAbB7I7TfAlwHMLwCCSLT9iV3X/w200-h138/19-01B.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div>Azul rushed in, striking the wizard twice. But then the suits of armor came to life, and surrounded the Dragonborn. Azul used lightning breath, hurting the wizard and killing one of his bodyguards. Azul escaped the room, but the wizard hit us with a fireball. The suits of armor stopped attacking whenever we weren't in their line-of-sight, so we tried to stay out of the room as much as possible.</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The wizard fired another fireball, then fled out the opposite door. We spent a few more rounds fighting the suits of armor. A couple of Dwarves approached us from the South hallway, acting suspiciously. Navine heard them speaking to each other using a Red Wizard dialect. The suits of armor were immune to Vanya's Vicious Mockery, so she helped to revive one of the NPC Dwarves who had been hit with a fireball earlier.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">With four suits of armor remaining, we decided to drop out of combat and leave the room alone. We headed toward the king's chambers, but as we reached that hallway, we saw two undead creatures guarding the front of the entrance. We sneaked past them and continued South. We heard a commotion further South, and went to check it out. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Navine scouted ahead. Several disheveled people ran past her, including some Elves and Halflings. Then she came across a chaotic scene involving Khemed, more wizards and some undead. We're not even sure which side Khemed is on at this point, but we ended the session on that cliffhanger. </span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDPf93hiCXkSN3XIT_QwCR4PbpE-KDxDWmb_TdUOlCrDeLIDNixMwp-HzG0RcBneYj-zgdMhR_ZpLJuyIpm_M3toOfjpJit2mzt75c1yPY0ESMDeiqh3QMumjseLcMXsLqrWQG4QB4tqf/s747/19-02A.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="730" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDPf93hiCXkSN3XIT_QwCR4PbpE-KDxDWmb_TdUOlCrDeLIDNixMwp-HzG0RcBneYj-zgdMhR_ZpLJuyIpm_M3toOfjpJit2mzt75c1yPY0ESMDeiqh3QMumjseLcMXsLqrWQG4QB4tqf/w196-h200/19-02A.jpg" width="196" /></a></div><br /></span></div></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-26636522327430619422021-08-21T15:43:00.001-05:002021-08-21T15:43:26.856-05:00The Ups and Downs of Metagaming<p>Usually, if someone talks about metagaming, they're specifically referring to the act of using out-of-character knowledge to give yourself an in-game advantage. For example, your character has never heard of the exotic monster you now face. But you, the player, has read the Monster Manual, and you know that this monster is weak to cold. Your character uses this out-of-game knowledge, and defeats the monster using ice spells.</p><p>Some consider this cheating, some consider it a necessary evil to speed up combat, and some just don't really care. But that's not really the point of this blog. Today I want to talk about some of the less commonly recognized forms of metagaming. </p><p><br /></p><p>Eleven years ago today, I played a D&D 4e session that took place on a zombie-infested island. I'm not going to link to the session, because I don't want to blatantly call out the problem player by name, but you can find my session recap if you look hard enough.</p><p>One of the players, let's call him José, was a bit of a rules lawyer. He had a reputation for being good at combat tactics, which is probably why he liked 4e so much. But he also had a tendency to pick fight over flight, even when all signs were pointing to flight.</p><p>In this session, scores of zombies converged on us, herding us towards a church. The plot required us to take refuge in the church. Tactics-wise, our smartest move would be seek refuge in the church. Common sense told us that we would be safest in the church. Really, the DM might as well have shown us giant red arrows floating in the sky, pointing at the church.</p><p>José would not be herded. He had total confidence that his character could survive hundreds, if not thousands of zombies. For him, D&D was about combat, so this was heaven for him. The rest of us were a bit less enthused by the endless hordes. Especially the squishy bard and warlock. </p><p>Since José wouldn't follow us toward the church, we climbed onto the roof of a house. A few zombies tried to climb after us, but they were incapable of making it that far up. We were safe to pick off zombies from a distance, with little risk.</p><p>But José wouldn't have it. He didn't want to climb onto the roof, because he didn't have any decent ranged attacks. But he also didn't like that he was the only one taking damage. So he resorted to psychological warfare - he gave us a guilt trip. "Your hit points are a party resource," he told us. "Now get down here and take your licks with the rest of the party."</p><p>Our bard and warlock were not designed for melee. The warlock in particular was a glass cannon. From the roof, he could take out three or four zombies per round. My bard wasn't quite as destructive, but her support abilities were still helpful to the other characters. On the ground, getting pounded from all sides, neither the bard nor the warlock would have lasted three rounds. But José, who considered himself a master tactician, tried to make us feel bad for maintaining our position.</p><p>And at the time, we did feel bad about it, and we even started to climb back down. But we somehow managed to convince him that our opponents were infinite, that this was more of a roleplay encounter than combat, and that he wasn't really earning more XP so much as bleeding out his own resources. We fled to the church and barricaded the door behind us, surviving to play another session.</p><p>"<i>Your hit points are a party resource</i>" burns me to this day. Not only was José's request tactically unsound, but it reduced our characters to numbers on a sheet. In a way, that sums up everything I didn't like about Fourth Edition. It's like it was designed from the ground up to make people think of their characters as data instead of people. </p><p>José's request was also metagaming, to a degree I hadn't previously experienced in a D&D game. Our characters weren't exactly cowards, but it still would have been insanely out-of-character for them to do something so reckless as to dive into a swarm of zombies just to get XP.</p><p>Of course, it was also metagaming for me to recognize it was a plot encounter. I knew early on that zombies would keep spawning forever, because the goal was to herd us to the church. But it was also the most logical thing for our characters to do, so that little bit of metagaming wouldn't have hurt the story.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since then, I've seen a lot of metagaming from both players and DMs, but never anything that dramatic. One thing people forget is that <b>metagaming works both ways</b>. Sometimes players act on knowledge they couldn't have had, sure. But sometimes the players are denied knowledge their characters should have. In both cases, out-of-game knowledge (or lack thereof) influences in-character actions.</p><p>One fun part of D&D is solving puzzles. Unfortunately, sometimes the players aren't as smart as the characters. It's always funny when character with intelligence as their dump stat <a href="https://1958fury-campaignjournal.blogspot.com/2014/07/shattered-star-bribing-your-way-to.html">solves the puzzle</a>, simply because that was the player who figured it out. But other times, the party is stumped even though some of the characters have 20 INT. </p><p>Of course, a good DM won't let the story grind to a halt over such a thing, and will give the players hints in exchange for INT checks, or have an NPC help them. But it can be frustrating playing a character smarter than you are, when most of the puzzles are designed for the players to solve, rather than the characters. </p><p>My point is, it isn't really metagaming for a player to ask for hints to solve a puzzle. The metagaming occurs when the DM requires an 8 INT <i>player</i> to solve a puzzle his 20 INT character should have figured out instantly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back when I hosted a NeverWinter Nights server, I had a lot of talks with other module designers. One of my designer friends didn't like the fact that the game showed the names of characters above their heads. From a roleplaying perspective, this allowed you to know another character's name before you had actually been introduced. He was looking for a way to disable that feature for his module.</p><p>I strongly disagreed. As I explained to him, NWN only had about ten heads for each race. This did <b>not</b> mean that humans only had ten different faces in Faerûn. The fact is, the characters had access to more data than the players did, because in-character, they could recognize each other's faces. Having our names over our heads was an out-of-character tool that actually helped players stay in-character.</p><p>I mean, what if two players happened to use the same head, and wore similar outfits? This actually happened to me on multiple occasions. If it weren't for the names over our heads, the rest of the party wouldn't have known who was who. Does this mean they were twins in-game? Obviously not. From the characters' point of view, they would have had completely different faces.</p><p><br /></p><p>One NWN server I played on was very strict about roleplaying. I liked the RP-heavy environment it created, but sometimes the moderators went too far and it actually broke the immersion. The moderators often complained that players leveled too fast, they spent too much time farming for XP, and that they treated death like a slap on the wrist.</p><p>They often threatened to make death more permanent, so that players would pick their battles more carefully. It sounds good on paper, I guess, but did they consider how often PCs got killed by lag? Or server crashes, or their computers locking up? I'd be pretty pissed if my computer crashed, and when I got back in my character was permanently dead, all in the name of "better roleplaying." There's nothing "in character" about that, just bad moderators.</p><p><br /></p><p>A more recent example is from my current Daggerford campaign. In an early session, my bard decided to fire a Shatter spell into a room full of centipedes. This turned out to be a bad idea, because another party member was in the room with the centipedes. So why did she fire? That's not like her.</p><p>Well, it's because we were using Roll20, and the other party member was occupying the same space as a centipede swarm. Roll20 displayed the centipede token on top of the character token. In character, Vanya definitely would have seen her teammate in there, fighting off the centipedes. The other players warned me it was a bad idea, but they only said that it was a waste of a spell slot. None of them mentioned that there was a party member in there.</p><p>When I realized my mistake, I told the DM that I wouldn't have done it if the player's token had been visible. But it was too late. I still think it was a bad call by the DM, but everyone makes bad calls now and then. The fact remains that my character would have made a different decision if we'd been playing in person, with miniatures. </p><p>Requiring players stick to decisions influenced by interface problems is a form of metagaming. Maybe not metagaming in the traditional sense, but it's still allowing out-of-game factors to affect the story. The format should never change the plot. </p><p>The bottom line is, while a little metagaming can be good for the game, most of the time it's a bad thing. But reverse metagaming - that is, letting out-of-character ignorance slow down the game - can be even worse.</p>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-27984870918333922002021-08-07T15:49:00.002-05:002022-01-22T15:58:55.982-06:00Daggerford: Splitting the Party<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: 8/7/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 18</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice Gomez</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span></span><br /><div><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider" </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Last session ended mid-dungeon, on a quest to find the Elemental Key of Fire. We were still hurting a bit from our last fight, so we took a short rest in the temple room. During the rest, we felt like we were being watched, and we could hear some movement from elsewhere in the dungeon. There was a large anvil in the center of the room, with "Praise Moradin" inscribed on it in Dwarven. Khemed cast Detect Magic, and discovered that the anvil was full of conjuration magic. We pondered trying to move the anvil, or interact with it in some way.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We tried striking the anvil with a hammer we found in a nearby room. A spectral Dwarf child approached us, and gave us a warning. "Shh! They'll hear you." After a bit more interaction, he ran off. We heard some other Dwarven voices from a nearby room. Azul peeked around the corner, and promptly failed a perception check. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVGM8nEvsBg9Fr58EmDAl_ilgc2rUrvZRnPT8n3Cs-8J76JHBcmF94SnSd8jMZG1ZVuLd00NZ2wVNFlyvWQCCOq7MygFkKBpVpKekDDN4Uh9o0iZCzYNS9Wdsj0vLN2xU6IgUH9B9MeJB/s673/18-01B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="673" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCVGM8nEvsBg9Fr58EmDAl_ilgc2rUrvZRnPT8n3Cs-8J76JHBcmF94SnSd8jMZG1ZVuLd00NZ2wVNFlyvWQCCOq7MygFkKBpVpKekDDN4Uh9o0iZCzYNS9Wdsj0vLN2xU6IgUH9B9MeJB/w200-h112/18-01B.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />A couple of Stoneghosts attacked Azul. One of them phased through the wall and attacked Vanya. After a couple of rounds, they both fled into the walls. We decided to explore one of the rooms to the West, where we found the remnants of a classroom. Azul heard another baby crying in the distance. We noticed that the ceiling of the room was bulging, like it was about to collapse.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">In another room we found a nursery, and some Dwarven picks in another. Then we heard the howling of Orcs running toward us. Several Clotskull Orcs and a Red Wizard quickly approached, and we rolled initiative. One attacked Vanya, and two went straight for Khemed. Nikolice pulled one Orc towards himself with his Psionic powers, and Azul finished that one off. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQlVFIuEYsdtvcX7EvsSOGjM5IdZj6cM2KWRiQobuni2w-ByJ53z8js5LiYZXHMIGg3qzOgiaK20ctPxv8sGCiMNvUqGI9JVYrJt9QARrqUohSn0q22a602NBIFn0H18Q8hO9YeJYD2T-K/s946/18-02B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="946" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQlVFIuEYsdtvcX7EvsSOGjM5IdZj6cM2KWRiQobuni2w-ByJ53z8js5LiYZXHMIGg3qzOgiaK20ctPxv8sGCiMNvUqGI9JVYrJt9QARrqUohSn0q22a602NBIFn0H18Q8hO9YeJYD2T-K/w200-h64/18-02B.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />The Red Wizard saw Khemed, looked afraid, and vanished. One Orc hit Vanya with two greataxe attacks, dropping her. Another one knocked Khemed down. The rest of the party finished off the Orcs, and helped revive the downed party members. Since two of us were out of hit points, the party retreated from the dungeon and looked for a safe place for a long rest.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">While resting, Khemed received a message via Sending spell. We managed to get through the long rest without any random encounters, and approached the dungeon fresh. We checked a few more rooms on the ground level, nearly triggering a total ceiling collapse. Then we approached the stairs. Azul set off an alarm spell, but we proceeded upstairs anyway. In the first room, there were some runes on the floor. Down the West hallway, a couple of Dwarves hunched behind a table. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Nikolice attempted to talk to them, and they shot him with a crossbow. Then he held up some gold, and they stopped firing. They gestured towards a North hallway, as if trying to warn us to be quiet. Then a fireball came from down the North hallway, grazing Navine and Nikolice. Some enemies approached from the North hallway. Three Orcs, an Ogre, and the Red Wizard.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjoygsEZIl89cKvQbIt0FB8MtmUk2jVmcMDxTIdni0otAZWrNwzvJ8K3lF0xulBzkbBh1lkmJQslgJDIZoQ4ox_qMWDeJUps4D1QzBmtjWcI-1amoQT_zHADTwCARMziBK6r9g136cNzR/s624/18-03E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="624" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjoygsEZIl89cKvQbIt0FB8MtmUk2jVmcMDxTIdni0otAZWrNwzvJ8K3lF0xulBzkbBh1lkmJQslgJDIZoQ4ox_qMWDeJUps4D1QzBmtjWcI-1amoQT_zHADTwCARMziBK6r9g136cNzR/w200-h178/18-03E.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />While the enemies were still clustered, Vanya fired off a Shatter spell, killing one Orc and damaging the rest. The enemies charged down the hall. On Azul's turn, he managed to hit three of them with his Lightning Breath. When the Ogre missed Azul, the Dragonborn used his riposte to finish off the Ogre. This left the Red Wizard, still down the hallway. Khemed approached the Wizard, who recognized him, and dropped a wall of fire behind him. We couldn't hear the discussion between Khemed and the Red Wizard.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">When the flames finally went out, Khemed and the Red Wizard had vanished. The rest of us ran down the West hall to talk to the Dwarves, who indicated that we should be quiet. Navine tiptoed off to look for Khemed, while Azul, Vanya, and Nikolice followed the Dwarves. The Dwarves didn't know much Common, but enough to communicate. We asked them what happened here, and the Dwarves answered, "Curses." The Dwarves gestured down one hallway and indicated that it held some prisoners. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Navine kept sneaking around and exploring the hallways, found a nest of giant rats, and avoided them. Another hallway led North to a large room. But before she could investigate it, some enemies in a South hallway spotted her and started to attack. She fled and hid. When one enemy approached her location, she sneaked past them and hid again. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Meanwhile, the rest of the party continued to follow the Dwarves, unaware of Navine's plight. Eventually they led us to the same hallways Navine was hiding in, and she rejoined the party. The Dwarves led us to a room containing a distinguished older Dwarf, who they introduced as the King of Illefarn. We ended the session on this cliffhanger.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWa6PQG04mU8y5ufCCmgBAjTOidZBUIQ3Ntgo4xVtKvW5JtnCDkTzzjB_a2kIuJcnXGyAEIW9qG8OqmoIXQcmyF-U7lAQNIKrThXVK4tBggi8cQJ9tkQoSbHKovwRNCfIlzot-mwPPV8Ob/s739/18-04D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="739" data-original-width="619" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWa6PQG04mU8y5ufCCmgBAjTOidZBUIQ3Ntgo4xVtKvW5JtnCDkTzzjB_a2kIuJcnXGyAEIW9qG8OqmoIXQcmyF-U7lAQNIKrThXVK4tBggi8cQJ9tkQoSbHKovwRNCfIlzot-mwPPV8Ob/s320/18-04D.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2598497924623242407.post-7619252190194328712021-06-26T15:43:00.001-05:002021-06-26T23:10:10.644-05:00Daggerford: Baby Don't Cry<p><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Game Date</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: 6/26/2021</span></p><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Location</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">Roll20</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Campaign</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Daggerford, Session 17</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">System</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="background-color: white; color: #cc9966; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; text-decoration-line: none;">D&D 5e</a><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">DM</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">: Mike</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Party</b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Azul </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Cliff) Dragonborn Fighter</span><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Nikolice Gomez</b> (Steven) - Human Fighter</span><br /></span><div style="background-color: white;"><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Khemed </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Rusty) Half-Elf Wizard</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Navine/"Spider" </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Steve) Elf Rogue</span><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Vanya </b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">(Matt) Half-Elf Bard</span><br /><br /><b style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Session:</b><br /><div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Last session left off with us traveling East, our eventual destination being Mount Illefarn to find the Elemental Key of Fire. We made our way through the wilds, until we came upon some Elven hunters. They were unhappy and suspicious due to the recent fires, but we persuaded them to hear us out. They took us to their camp, where we met our newest party member, Nikolice Gomez. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VVzpDCtni2AiZNdl14A1fYV8VFVnGI8-4TT-Dr7Dvthd0at5qTilTEAZMwoUiSzfwu3gZK4UzLItkaO0QSyZHZalOIUCs6NU9G__gPI9GuDu8UnR73qyzCgi4uq5mfg3z36ryjY3Fx_X/s736/17-Nikolice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="211" data-original-width="736" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VVzpDCtni2AiZNdl14A1fYV8VFVnGI8-4TT-Dr7Dvthd0at5qTilTEAZMwoUiSzfwu3gZK4UzLItkaO0QSyZHZalOIUCs6NU9G__gPI9GuDu8UnR73qyzCgi4uq5mfg3z36ryjY3Fx_X/s320/17-Nikolice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">They told us that they had been hunting for a sneaky dragon who had been picking off their Elves. We took a long rest and continued to Illefarn, traveling through heavy rain. On our way, we found some dead Orcs and climbed some cliffs, taking refuge from the storms in a building. We set out to explore the structure.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">While examining a dragon statue, Nikolice set off a trap, causing Khemed to fall into a pit. Nikolice used his psionic powers to levitate Khemed out of the pit. While we attempted to deactivate the trap, we noticed three Dwarves in an adjoining room. They turned towards us and accused us of being after their gold. Combat ensued.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-K9fNS_r5d5DNsdChuzeT7CZ5d_H8irQePGUHPz7ACUA-YYaEFsoGNG2pVbCb11E5OTybg06PK_w9jQtGi6CN8tR-aWvC0mUkS6eXCKz3U6mr4M690Cvr4cM0L_GXC1VuDUoIQ8j4KHNK/s900/17-01C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-K9fNS_r5d5DNsdChuzeT7CZ5d_H8irQePGUHPz7ACUA-YYaEFsoGNG2pVbCb11E5OTybg06PK_w9jQtGi6CN8tR-aWvC0mUkS6eXCKz3U6mr4M690Cvr4cM0L_GXC1VuDUoIQ8j4KHNK/s320/17-01C.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div>The Dwarves were actually "Stoneghosts". They used an attack called "Calcifying Touch", which could cause both damage and exhaustion. The fight began with Azul and Vanya on the wrong side of the pit. Azul handily jumped over the pit, but Vanya remained and fought from a distance. </span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The Stoneghosts also had the annoying ability to move through walls. After the first two were killed, the third one phased through the floor, ending the encounter. We fixed the trapdoor, and continued exploring. While playing more with the dragon statue's tail, we found a secret compartment nearby with some goodies inside - a potion and a gold necklace with a warhammer pendant.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">The next hallway split North and East, and we went East. The next room contained a dead Ettin, and the ceiling looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Nikolice walked around the edge of the room to check out a chest, which contained four 100gp gems and a Dwarven carving. The next passage led North.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We found some more dead bodies - Orcs, Dwarves, and an Ogre. We also found some little piles of sand, and noticed that some of the bodies were calcified. In another room to the East, we found a workshop, which contained an iron safe. The safe had a slot sized for a coin. Depositing a gold coin had no effect. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">There were stairs to the North that led nowhere. A hall to the West led to a four-way junction. The North hall led to a small room used for sculpting. We found some Dwarven script written on one wall. None of our party speaks Dwarven, but Khemed cast Comprehend Languages as a ritual. The words said "Gold Fever". </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">There were three statues covered in tarps. Uncovering the first tarp revealed a statue of a Dwarf in mid-leap, swinging a hammer. The next statue unveiled depicted a female Dwarf cradling a baby in her arms. The third statue was unfinished, but looked like it was going to be a tall, robed figure. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We went West, filling in the map. Down a South hallway we found a room with an anvil in the center. As we approached the room, we noticed that our Stoneghost was back, accompanied by two Shadows. Spider quickly finished off the Stoneghost, while the Shadows ganged up on Vanya. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG6G7oPtbeIaSWJtD6kRKvQ1ZGK_3XLHbP_c-mZHJnLZnU0MxpdqdpHPBQIZ_sPNzTpvkoHZfPa5GgrraboXF55CoKlcEl1C5QuVa43EJVsxunqQGpddSOGZAj52EmWCODjar-obZdmtr0/s732/17-2Shadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="732" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG6G7oPtbeIaSWJtD6kRKvQ1ZGK_3XLHbP_c-mZHJnLZnU0MxpdqdpHPBQIZ_sPNzTpvkoHZfPa5GgrraboXF55CoKlcEl1C5QuVa43EJVsxunqQGpddSOGZAj52EmWCODjar-obZdmtr0/w200-h156/17-2Shadows.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">Fortunately, they weren't that tough, and we had them down pretty quickly. We examined the anvil. It was covered in arcane runes, a few of which had been defaced. The runes translated to "Praise Moradin!" It looked like the point of the runes were to prevent scrying, and to prevent the anvil from being moved. Vanya used a Mending spell to repair the broken runes. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">To the North we found a room with a bathtub. Then we heard from crying from the South, and went to investigate. As we explored, a few more enemies phased through the walls. Three more Stoneghosts, a couple of Stoneguards, an Orc Zombie, and a Specter - the ghost of a female Dwarf who kept asking about a lost child. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJMJT0v3nprFn0y_dZxf2rbiKoclJjHoO4HgyFsuZRn4tWSq68LraQU3Q7rhbWAsYjqASpzch-pO9qDxuktmlWp3R4M_By7TX9P0RrH8RQGBgvIVsqjkcbRJvJTb4HNtFMDcYa2Rs5Yra/s715/17-02C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="445" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJMJT0v3nprFn0y_dZxf2rbiKoclJjHoO4HgyFsuZRn4tWSq68LraQU3Q7rhbWAsYjqASpzch-pO9qDxuktmlWp3R4M_By7TX9P0RrH8RQGBgvIVsqjkcbRJvJTb4HNtFMDcYa2Rs5Yra/w124-h200/17-02C.jpg" width="124" /></a></div>The party members were fairly spread apart at the begin of the battle, with Spider and Nikolice facing the Stoneguards and Orc Zombie in the kitchen, and the rest of us facing the Stoneghosts in the North hallway. Azul convinced the Specter that the child was elsewhere, but she returned after a couple of rounds. Azul offered to lead her to the baby. Meanwhile, Spider and Nikolice found a stone baby in the kitchen area, and began to deliver it to the rest of the party.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">We reunited the Specter with the baby, but her hands kept passing through it. She kept getting angrier and angrier, and we had to finish her off before she turned her ire back toward us. Nikolice picked up the stone baby, and took it over to the statue of the mother with child - which was now missing the child. He returned the baby to the mother's arms.</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.85px;">And that's where we ended the session.</span></span></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div>XineFuryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14456796153571363068noreply@blogger.com0