Just a teaser…more to come…
Beginning April 1st…something savage…something wild…more to come…
No joke…old friends return…roles rearranged…more to come…
Hammers will hit…Shaking systems and settings…more to come…
We’ll soon Find the end of this little Path of hints…tonight…approximately 7pm EST.
Official announcement below the break…
Continue reading →Well I’m on my way
I don’t know where I’m going
I’m on my way
I’m taking my time
But I don’t know where
Goodbye to Rosie, the queen of Corona
–from Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard by Paul Simon
Like so many DMs, my game went virtual due to the pandemic. We started first with Roll20 as our virtual tabletop (VTT), then switched to Foundry and we’ve stuck with it since. It has, of course, been a bit of an adjustment. While Foundry is an amazing tool, it is not a simple battlemat at the table. A battlemat upon which I can easily wing it with little to no prep as needed. Instead, I find myself prepping map after map after map of varying degrees of detail.
There are, of course, LOTS of resources online for maps and even adventures with fully prepared maps available. I support my share of Patreons for maps, but I find that I use relatively few of these–primarily outdoor scenes–as they do not match my need more often than not. Maps aside, I’ve also noticed that I am having to repeat myself waaaaay more often when describing a scene than I ever did when playing in person. It is easier, obviously, for a player’s attention to stray when playing remotely. However, I think the VTT map itself can be a distraction as players begin to focus more on the map than on the description being provided by the DM. Players can get too wrapped up on what is or is not on the VTT map, relying on it rather than the DM’s description.
It all leaves me longing for my old battlemat and the “before times” when I could quickly sketch out a room, rapidly draw the highlights of the room, and provide the appropriate description. And, of course, longing for the ease of “winging it” with a campaign and just making up a map as we go.
But, there may be the beginnings of a solution with a relatively new Foundry module (an add-on for the program) called Dungeon Draw that can get me closer to the old battlemat days…more below the break.
Continue reading →This is the happy house — we’re happy here
In the happy house — oh it’s such fun
We’ve come to play in the happy house
And waste a day in the happy house
–from Happy House by Siouxsie and the Banshees
D&D is a happy house. House rules are normal for D&D. Happy house rules! Like most DMs, I’ve got some house rules for out Nentir Vale campaign. They are actually relatively brief. In days gone by, I would often have lots of house rules. In days way gone by, I had a bit of a reputation with my players for rules tinkering all the time…even developing our own system for playing (a mashup of older editions of RuneQuest and Ars Magica). Nowadays, I’m not nearly the tinkerer that I used to be. Nentir Vale house rules below the break.
Continue reading →Cont[r]act is secret; is the moment when everything happens!
Cont[r]act is the answer; is the reason that everything happens!
Cont[r]act! Let’s make cont[r]act!
–from the 3-2-1 Contact theme song, butchered by yours truly
No, that is not a typo in the post title. This is a post about contract and not contact; I was just trying to be clever and reference an 80s educational show. Don’t judge me or my cleverness (or lack thereof) and please don’t ask how long it took me to come up with this title bit or how many bits I tossed before using this one.
Oh right, the post. So this post is about contracts…specifically the social contract that is implicit at any gaming table BUT should probably be explicit. It is essentially the baseline agreement between all of the players (DM included) for how a game is going to be run, be it a one-shot, a short campaign, or a long term campaign. It also provides an expectation for how the players and their characters will all behave towards each other during the game.
This notion of a social contract in an RPG has been discussed by LOTS of people. Here’s a nice (and relatively brief) discussion from RPG Museum: Social Contract. However, it is a very important topic. If players (including the DM) are not largely on the same page as to the social contract, it can lead to disruptions in play, hard feelings among players, or even players leaving a group. So I’d like to lay out some of the core elements of the typical social contract in an FRG game, using some of the elements identified in the discussion linked just above…below the break of course.
Continue reading →In the prior couple of sessions, the party had returned to Winterhaven to deal with the Cult of Orcus and the Bloodreavers. Kidnappings had continued, including six children. Our heroes had successfully attacked the main Bloodreaver camp, rescued some villagers, and returned back to Winterhaven. They set out for the Keep on the Shadowfell the next morning. Arriving at the ruins of the keep, they dispatched the hobgoblin guards and headed down some stairs to encounter and defeat additional hobgoblins. Exploring the complex below, they encountered various cultists, quickly dispatching some in their sleep and fighting others. We pick up with the search for the children and the attempt to defeat the cult after this fight with the cultists after the break.
Continue reading →When we last left the Vale’s heroes, they were on their way back to Winterhaven after having dealt with Talavi and the Winter Fey invasion. Word had reached them that things in Winterhaven had gotten worse, with more villagers having been taken (presumably by the Bloodreavers or the Cult of Orcus). So our heroes were traveling with all due haste when they came upon the scene of less a fight and more of a massacre on the King’s Road. Following a bloody trail and odd insect-like tracks, they came upon a “hive.” Investigating invisibly, Gandave entered and was quickly swarmed by kruthiks. This is where we will pick up after the break.
A bit of housekeeping details, as noted in a prior post, Evelyn is no longer able to join us. So Sulrinn has left the party to pursue her own agenda. We also have a new player, Adam, who has joined us. He is playing Aetris, a tiefling paladin, and having heard of the party’s deeds and Winterhaven’s need, has just tracked down the party.
Continue reading →So it is a thing to post desk pics online, right?
Our group is still playing our games online for multiple reasons and so I figured I’d share my setup. We don’t have a dedicated gaming space in our place. When we were playing in person, I’d move furniture around in our living room to make space for a few folding tables and various chairs. Similarly, we don’t have a spot for a dedicated gaming desk and computer. I’m also still working from home and so I need to be able to switch between a work setup and a gaming setup as needed. My “desk” is just a folding table and my work and gaming equipment are on separate wheeled carts so I can easily switch between them. The gaming cart is, of course, the much more interesting of the two. More, with desk pics, below the break.
Continue reading →I’ve had choices
Since the day that I was born
There were voices
That told me right from wrong
If I had listened
No I wouldn’t be here today
Living and dying
With the choices I made
—from Choices by George Jones
So this is kind of a companion post to the Time, Time, Time post (as well as something that I’ve posted about in times long ago). As described in the prior post, the players had a good bit going on. They had to make a choice…either go back to Nenlast and deal with the Winter Fey or remain in Winterhaven to deal with the abductions and Cult of Orcus. They couldn’t really do both. Because both of these “story lines” were going to proceed as time passed (rather than a “just in time” style of adventure), either the Winter Fey would continue to spread across the Vale or the Cult of Orcus would continue abducting villagers in their plot to open a rift to the Shadowfell. The players elected to head back to Nenlast and deal with the Winter Fey. Was this the right decision or was it a wrong choice? Answer below the break.
Continue reading →See what’s become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities
—from A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon & Garfunkel
D&D and time has always had a bit of an odd relationship. There is the old joke about thirty seconds of combat taking three hours to play through while a three hour hike is covered in thirty seconds of game play. Fifteen minute work days followed by 23.75 hours of rest. Spell durations. Days for crafting items or training or what have you. Lots of things about how long it takes to do things or how long things last…mostly in terms of the players characters. None of that is the subject of this post. Instead, below the break, let’s talk about time in terms of the flow of time in a game, the possibilities it engenders, and what may become of a campaign because of it.
Continue reading →Today’s post is brought to you by the letters c-o-o-l and r-u-l-e-s. Oops, there is a bit of overlap there with that letter “l”…wait, maybe that’s part of the point. Hopefully, we’ll get around to that by the end of the post. Hopefully. So 5e is a system with a set of general rules that are superseded by specific rules. For example, as a general rule, you can move up to your speed in a round and take an action. That action can be Dash which lets you move up to your speed again. Rogues and monks have specific rules that supersede this that allows them to move their speed again as a bonus action and still do something else with their action.
Cool is, well, doing awesome things, right? One of the fun things about an RPG like D&D is to have your character to do stuff that is totally awesome. There’s even the “rule of cool” that is all about letting players bend the rules when they do cool stuff. So how do these two things, rules and cool, interact in 5e and specifically how they are handled in a FRG game. More below the break.
Continue reading →