Good morning, people of the internet!
Today, I thought I'd start up a short article on reader opinions.
This will be the first of many, I hope.
Even if you just stop in for a second, feel free to leave your opinion. I enjoy reading comments on things, even if they are detrimental to my calm lol
So, today's "Ask the Audience" wants to know:
Which edition of Dungeons and Dragons is your favorite? Why is that? (this can include Pathfinder)
Which edition of Dungeons and Dragons is your least favorite? Why is that? (same here)
And, here's my input on the matter:
My favorite edition to-date is 5th. It combines so much that I like about the previous editions, but it also makes it so that I actually enjoy running a game for once. I don't have days of prep work. Things are so much more streamlined that I can just wing it.
My least favorite edition is probably 2nd. Admittedly, I have limited experience with it, but it is just so much more complicated than even 3.X that I sometimes end up scratching my head in the process of reading through the books.
As far as I know, the Praerus group is going to meet on Sunday. So, I will update you on their misadventure sometime next week if that pans out.
Until then- you know the rest :)
Friday, July 31, 2015
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 7: Back in Black
Hello, dear readers!
This week's update on the campaign is coming just a touch late due to not having my notebook with me at work.
Better now then not at all, though :)
This time, our characters included Ulic, Sabah, and Trinity from the earlier arc.
Eos has been retired for the time being and replaced by a character named Hecatonchires, a half-orc barbarian/fighter/warlock who has a thing for hands (his name means "hundred handed one," btw).
We lost one player from the game, and another one is out of town for the next few sessions, so his character will be introduced then.
------------------------
To begin, Ulic had just returned to the Arcanum and was told, almost immediately, to go back to Rosewood. A highly important prophecy was hiding in the caves below the town and it was imperative that he recover it.
Ulic set off and arrived in Rosewood at the same time as Bloodbane's caravan palace.
After Trinity finished making her potions, she decided to pursue the criminal syndicates of Rosewood.
Not to stop them.
To force them to follow her.
She tried intimidating someone for information.
Long story short, she wound up in jail.
And stayed there for most of the session.
Ulic, having an idea as to who might help him in his quest, decided to head towards the pub.
Sabah, who had spent the night getting all sorts of plastered, decided to head into town herself.
Along the way, the two crossed paths and continued to the pub, where Ulic told both Sabah and Angus that he needed some assistance for a trip back into the caves.
They both agreed to help. Angus gave the pair a list of names of militia members and other townsfolk that would be most likely to help out.
First on the list: a half-orc named Hecatonchires.
Before leaving, though, Sabah noticed a fellow cleric that was proselytizing about turning "away from the light."
If you recall, she is a follow of Pholtus, a god of the sun and light on Praerus.
With some quick words, she was able to remind the folk listening of the folly of trafficking with shadows and told the cad to leave. He obliged.
With that taken care of, they decided to try to locate the half-orc hermit.
At this point in the day, he had been trading and partying with the caravansary and was well past "illuminated."
When the other two found him, he was playing a beautiful glass drum in the glassblower's tent.
After some one-sided conversation (he replied with drum playing), Hecatonchires was on board.
And then the obligatory party scene was had.
And Trinity was still (blessedly) in jail.
The next day, Sabah woke in jail with Trinity.
Hecatonchires was alone in a tent in the caravan.
And Ulic had wound up spending his night with Sonata, the master glass blower.
With a little bit of asking around, the party reunited at the jail.
The guard was leery of letting Trinity out, but decided that the others would keep an eye on her.
When he was giving them their confiscated items back, Sabah's holy symbol was strangely missing. He told them that it hadn't been with her the night before.
With a quick search of the caravan, they found it laying face-up in the middle of the road.
When Sabah looked it over, she saw that someone had scrawled "I am Watching" on the back.
She didn't want those words blaspheming her holy symbol, so she asked Hecatonchires to fix it.
He wrote his own name under the words.
After this slight break in tension, the party gathered their remaining supplies and departed for the caves once more.
In the entrance, they passed by some goblins that were quite clearly three sheets to the wind and headed for the caravan to continue the party.
At this point, Ulic finished describing to the party why they had to return to the caves.
Thus, they climbed back into the pits. (Though, thinking on it now, why didn't they ask any goblins for a hint of the prophecy's location?)
At the bottom, they got their bearings straightened out and headed for a tunnel they hadn't explored previously.
This path led to some over large mushrooms that were blocking some sort of mining office.
Before anyone could fall for the clever trap, someone noticed that green slime was growing in the same area as the mushrooms.
With a call to her god, Sabah channeled daylight into the area and cleared the slime away, thus freeing them to proceed.
Unfortunately, the room was largely deserted.
Undaunted, the party returned to the labyrinth and chose the fork opposite the last one.
Here, they found the remains of a kitchen that was being used by the goblins during their campaign against the warforged of the area.
Having been at this for some time, the party decided that some refreshment was in order.
Hecatonchires, being the cook, went back to the mushrooms to wrangle some up for flavor's sake.
Ulic decided to scout ahead in the tunnels.
Trinity wanted to work with some acid she had gathered from the green slime so as to - you guessed it - weaponize it.
And Sabah decided to investigate the kitchen a little.
Not much happened for the rest of the party, but Sabah thought she saw shadows moving in the corner of her eye in the kitchen.
She approached, flames at the ready.
And then she was picked up from the floor.
A grell had been floating about, waiting for just such an opportunity.
Unfortunately for it, Sabah wasn't paralyzed and a scuffle ensued.
The grell tried floating away with her, but Trinity was able to jump up and join combat (though, only because she had reached a stopping point in her research...)
Trinity tried to throw her magic spear at the thing, but it missed by a wide margin.
Sabah was able to burn it and set herself free.
Around this time, Ulic and Hec heard the noises of combat and decided to investigate.
With some quick thinking, Ulic used his wand to create a web that caught the grell.
Sabah, knowing that these particular webs are flammable, was delighted.
The webs, now aflame, did nothing to keep Trinity from jumping onto the thing and trying to club it to death.
And that's how this particular grell died: screaming and burning.
Now, properly roasted grell in hand, Hec took the party back to the kitchen to make his famous "Brain over Brawn" dish. Whatever that might be...
And that's where we left off.
We should meeting Sunday assuming that nothing major happens in real life.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
This week's update on the campaign is coming just a touch late due to not having my notebook with me at work.
Better now then not at all, though :)
This time, our characters included Ulic, Sabah, and Trinity from the earlier arc.
Eos has been retired for the time being and replaced by a character named Hecatonchires, a half-orc barbarian/fighter/warlock who has a thing for hands (his name means "hundred handed one," btw).
We lost one player from the game, and another one is out of town for the next few sessions, so his character will be introduced then.
------------------------
To begin, Ulic had just returned to the Arcanum and was told, almost immediately, to go back to Rosewood. A highly important prophecy was hiding in the caves below the town and it was imperative that he recover it.
Ulic set off and arrived in Rosewood at the same time as Bloodbane's caravan palace.
After Trinity finished making her potions, she decided to pursue the criminal syndicates of Rosewood.
Not to stop them.
To force them to follow her.
She tried intimidating someone for information.
Long story short, she wound up in jail.
And stayed there for most of the session.
Ulic, having an idea as to who might help him in his quest, decided to head towards the pub.
Sabah, who had spent the night getting all sorts of plastered, decided to head into town herself.
Along the way, the two crossed paths and continued to the pub, where Ulic told both Sabah and Angus that he needed some assistance for a trip back into the caves.
They both agreed to help. Angus gave the pair a list of names of militia members and other townsfolk that would be most likely to help out.
First on the list: a half-orc named Hecatonchires.
Before leaving, though, Sabah noticed a fellow cleric that was proselytizing about turning "away from the light."
If you recall, she is a follow of Pholtus, a god of the sun and light on Praerus.
With some quick words, she was able to remind the folk listening of the folly of trafficking with shadows and told the cad to leave. He obliged.
With that taken care of, they decided to try to locate the half-orc hermit.
At this point in the day, he had been trading and partying with the caravansary and was well past "illuminated."
When the other two found him, he was playing a beautiful glass drum in the glassblower's tent.
After some one-sided conversation (he replied with drum playing), Hecatonchires was on board.
And then the obligatory party scene was had.
And Trinity was still (blessedly) in jail.
The next day, Sabah woke in jail with Trinity.
Hecatonchires was alone in a tent in the caravan.
And Ulic had wound up spending his night with Sonata, the master glass blower.
With a little bit of asking around, the party reunited at the jail.
The guard was leery of letting Trinity out, but decided that the others would keep an eye on her.
When he was giving them their confiscated items back, Sabah's holy symbol was strangely missing. He told them that it hadn't been with her the night before.
With a quick search of the caravan, they found it laying face-up in the middle of the road.
When Sabah looked it over, she saw that someone had scrawled "I am Watching" on the back.
She didn't want those words blaspheming her holy symbol, so she asked Hecatonchires to fix it.
He wrote his own name under the words.
After this slight break in tension, the party gathered their remaining supplies and departed for the caves once more.
In the entrance, they passed by some goblins that were quite clearly three sheets to the wind and headed for the caravan to continue the party.
At this point, Ulic finished describing to the party why they had to return to the caves.
Thus, they climbed back into the pits. (Though, thinking on it now, why didn't they ask any goblins for a hint of the prophecy's location?)
At the bottom, they got their bearings straightened out and headed for a tunnel they hadn't explored previously.
This path led to some over large mushrooms that were blocking some sort of mining office.
Before anyone could fall for the clever trap, someone noticed that green slime was growing in the same area as the mushrooms.
With a call to her god, Sabah channeled daylight into the area and cleared the slime away, thus freeing them to proceed.
Unfortunately, the room was largely deserted.
Undaunted, the party returned to the labyrinth and chose the fork opposite the last one.
Here, they found the remains of a kitchen that was being used by the goblins during their campaign against the warforged of the area.
Having been at this for some time, the party decided that some refreshment was in order.
Hecatonchires, being the cook, went back to the mushrooms to wrangle some up for flavor's sake.
Ulic decided to scout ahead in the tunnels.
Trinity wanted to work with some acid she had gathered from the green slime so as to - you guessed it - weaponize it.
And Sabah decided to investigate the kitchen a little.
Not much happened for the rest of the party, but Sabah thought she saw shadows moving in the corner of her eye in the kitchen.
She approached, flames at the ready.
And then she was picked up from the floor.
A grell had been floating about, waiting for just such an opportunity.
Unfortunately for it, Sabah wasn't paralyzed and a scuffle ensued.
The grell tried floating away with her, but Trinity was able to jump up and join combat (though, only because she had reached a stopping point in her research...)
Trinity tried to throw her magic spear at the thing, but it missed by a wide margin.
Sabah was able to burn it and set herself free.
Around this time, Ulic and Hec heard the noises of combat and decided to investigate.
With some quick thinking, Ulic used his wand to create a web that caught the grell.
Sabah, knowing that these particular webs are flammable, was delighted.
The webs, now aflame, did nothing to keep Trinity from jumping onto the thing and trying to club it to death.
And that's how this particular grell died: screaming and burning.
Now, properly roasted grell in hand, Hec took the party back to the kitchen to make his famous "Brain over Brawn" dish. Whatever that might be...
And that's where we left off.
We should meeting Sunday assuming that nothing major happens in real life.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Friday, July 24, 2015
Why U No Update?
Sorry for the enormous delay in posts, dear readership!
Normally, I work on the blog while I'm at work, but I've been stupendously busy due to having my job title change.
Sadly, only a horizontal move, not vertical.
However, my group is planning on meeting up on Sunday, so hopefully that will pan out.
In other news, I have finished work on the Incarnate class and made good advances on the Artificer and Tome of Magic class 5e conversions. So, feel free to use them at your leisure. And, remember, feedback is appreciated :)
I still need to finish the soulmelds for the incarnate, but that should be done in the near-ish future.
I intend to continue work on the Psionicist, even though WotC has pushed out the Mystic class in the most recent Unearthed Arcana. In part because I've already come this far, and also in part because I just want to finish it.
So, that's it for me. Hopefully there will be more to say after Sunday.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Normally, I work on the blog while I'm at work, but I've been stupendously busy due to having my job title change.
Sadly, only a horizontal move, not vertical.
However, my group is planning on meeting up on Sunday, so hopefully that will pan out.
In other news, I have finished work on the Incarnate class and made good advances on the Artificer and Tome of Magic class 5e conversions. So, feel free to use them at your leisure. And, remember, feedback is appreciated :)
I still need to finish the soulmelds for the incarnate, but that should be done in the near-ish future.
I intend to continue work on the Psionicist, even though WotC has pushed out the Mystic class in the most recent Unearthed Arcana. In part because I've already come this far, and also in part because I just want to finish it.
So, that's it for me. Hopefully there will be more to say after Sunday.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
An Interview: Dan Van
Hello, great big world!
Today, due to no progress on either homebrew content or the Praerus campaign (still updating/changing characters for the party), I will be starting my interview project.
And, to get the ball rolling, I thought I'd ask a few questions of Dan Van, the man playing Saito (though he plans on changing to a wizard during the next story arc). Whose birthday was also on Sunday :)
Without further ado, here's a transcript from the interview (done via Facebook, whole thing [sic] with very minor editing):
And there you have it!
As for this past Sunday, many laughs and raspberry-lemonade cupcakes were had.
We spent the whole time we would have normally gamed with 5e playing "Runebound" by Fantasy Flight instead.
I may do some sort of review here in the next few days for those folks that haven't experienced it yet...
Anyway, everyone enjoyed themselves Sunday. And that's all a DM can ask for :)
As previously mentioned, this coming Sunday is a no-game day (it's my 7th wedding anniversary and I have schemes in motion).
So, next week's update(s) might be... another interview? A review? Who knows.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor!
Today, due to no progress on either homebrew content or the Praerus campaign (still updating/changing characters for the party), I will be starting my interview project.
And, to get the ball rolling, I thought I'd ask a few questions of Dan Van, the man playing Saito (though he plans on changing to a wizard during the next story arc). Whose birthday was also on Sunday :)
Without further ado, here's a transcript from the interview (done via Facebook, whole thing [sic] with very minor editing):
And there you have it!
As for this past Sunday, many laughs and raspberry-lemonade cupcakes were had.
We spent the whole time we would have normally gamed with 5e playing "Runebound" by Fantasy Flight instead.
I may do some sort of review here in the next few days for those folks that haven't experienced it yet...
Anyway, everyone enjoyed themselves Sunday. And that's all a DM can ask for :)
As previously mentioned, this coming Sunday is a no-game day (it's my 7th wedding anniversary and I have schemes in motion).
So, next week's update(s) might be... another interview? A review? Who knows.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Lack of Update
Hello dear readers!
Sorry for the lack of any sort of update these past few days.
I haven't made any new posts but I have been working on updating/maintaining the homebrew items I've put up.
Particularly the 5e artificer, because it is the closest to being completely done.
Also, tomorrow is one of my player's birthdays.
But we have changed the plans slightly so that we aren't running the Praerus game.
Which means that I won't have an update on that front for about two weeks.
Instead, we plan to enjoy cake, friends, and Munchkin. And things of that nature.
I may get around to starting that interview project that I proposed a couple of weeks back.
Now, I have a question for you fine folks of the internet.
Subject is tabletop wargaming (Warhammer, WarmaHordes, etc.):
What is your number one problem with that particular hobby?
High prices on models?
Difficulty painting/modelling exactly the thing you want?
Problems with interfaction balance?
Problems with intrafaction balance?
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor.
Sorry for the lack of any sort of update these past few days.
I haven't made any new posts but I have been working on updating/maintaining the homebrew items I've put up.
Particularly the 5e artificer, because it is the closest to being completely done.
Also, tomorrow is one of my player's birthdays.
But we have changed the plans slightly so that we aren't running the Praerus game.
Which means that I won't have an update on that front for about two weeks.
Instead, we plan to enjoy cake, friends, and Munchkin. And things of that nature.
I may get around to starting that interview project that I proposed a couple of weeks back.
Now, I have a question for you fine folks of the internet.
Subject is tabletop wargaming (Warhammer, WarmaHordes, etc.):
What is your number one problem with that particular hobby?
High prices on models?
Difficulty painting/modelling exactly the thing you want?
Problems with interfaction balance?
Problems with intrafaction balance?
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated :)
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
My Spin on a 5e Artificer Class
Howdy, everyone!
I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th. I sure did, though several towns near mine had big fires due to absurdly dry weather in Washington these past few weeks.
I sure hope everyone is alright from those blazes.
Back to business...
My gaming group didn't end up gathering this past weekend. Which is a bit of a drag.
However, I did get a wild hair last night and decided to create something for folks to look over.
5e Artificer
As usual, this is a WIP. But it is mostly done up at the moment.
Created this in part because I don't quite like what WotC has done with the class, and because most of the other "fixes" I've seen aren't quite my style.
So, I just got some crazy inspiration last night and created this in about an hour's time at work this morning.
Please enjoy :)
As for the rest of the week, my group and I are hellbent on meeting, so we should have a new update soon.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor!
I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th. I sure did, though several towns near mine had big fires due to absurdly dry weather in Washington these past few weeks.
I sure hope everyone is alright from those blazes.
Back to business...
My gaming group didn't end up gathering this past weekend. Which is a bit of a drag.
However, I did get a wild hair last night and decided to create something for folks to look over.
5e Artificer
As usual, this is a WIP. But it is mostly done up at the moment.
Created this in part because I don't quite like what WotC has done with the class, and because most of the other "fixes" I've seen aren't quite my style.
So, I just got some crazy inspiration last night and created this in about an hour's time at work this morning.
Please enjoy :)
As for the rest of the week, my group and I are hellbent on meeting, so we should have a new update soon.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor!
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 6: Anal Beads of the Underdark
First, I'd like to apologize to anyone that this slightly-immature post title offends. My players wanted it this way, and it is strangely story related.
Secondly, I'd like to apologize to anyone that had to Google what anal beads are.
Now, to get on with the show!
Our players this week were Saito, Sabah, Trinity, and a-slew-of-NPCs-because-no-one-else-was-able-to-make-it.
-------------------
To begin, the party had just defeated the warforged and were taking a rest.
At the same time, Saito had recovered from being ill and asked the flumphs for directions to his allies. They were more than happy to oblige.
Saito arrived in the room that the spectator was guarding and did his damnedest to convince it to allow him to pass, but it wasn't having any.
Then Trinity showed up and tried to help, leading to both of them being locked out.
Thankfully, the rest of the party had finished patching their wounds and decided to exit the forge chamber.
Reunited at this point, the party decided to try to get more answers from the beholder about who arrived, when they left, and if they took anything. From this, the learned that:
Secondly, I'd like to apologize to anyone that had to Google what anal beads are.
Now, to get on with the show!
Our players this week were Saito, Sabah, Trinity, and a-slew-of-NPCs-because-no-one-else-was-able-to-make-it.
-------------------
To begin, the party had just defeated the warforged and were taking a rest.
At the same time, Saito had recovered from being ill and asked the flumphs for directions to his allies. They were more than happy to oblige.
Saito arrived in the room that the spectator was guarding and did his damnedest to convince it to allow him to pass, but it wasn't having any.
Then Trinity showed up and tried to help, leading to both of them being locked out.
Thankfully, the rest of the party had finished patching their wounds and decided to exit the forge chamber.
Reunited at this point, the party decided to try to get more answers from the beholder about who arrived, when they left, and if they took anything. From this, the learned that:
- the intruder was a friend, yet not a friend, to Vecna
- they killed the second spectator that was down there (hence the gas spore)
- they had arrived about two zemf (14 days or so) ago
- they left with some warforged, one of which was exceptionally large
After that hullabaloo, the party decided to head back into the tunnels.
But not before Trinity gave the parting shot "Screw Vecna!" and flipped the beholder off.
It became irritated, but neither of its eye-beams affected her before they rounded the corner.
Lucky for her, the spectator had to guard that chamber.
Once again in the branching tunnels of this world's equivalent of the Underdark, the party decided to try the tunnel directly across from themselves.
Down that path, they discovered a chamber with a single stalactite.
Not wanting a repeat incident with darkmantles, Trinity threw an arm from one of the warforged at the thing.
And it broke.
Because sometimes a stalactite is just a stalactite.
It was at this point that Saito's ears started to bleed.
Hazmi, resident necromancer and medicine student, gave him a one over and recognized this as signs of an oncoming madness that tended to befall those that stayed underground too long.
Saito was slightly worried, but bandaged his ears and soldiered on.
With a little bit of snooping, the party found that there was a narrow tunnel in the back of this chamber. Everyone could fit, but they would have to crawl through.
Ever the brave one, Trinity decided to head in first.
Sabah was close behind.
Saito saw Hazmi's nose turn into a carrot.
Saito saw Hazmi's nose turn into a carrot.
Once Trinity finished the crawl, everything went black.
Because sometimes darkmantles ambush their prey.
To make matters worse, the thing used its darkness aura, leaving Sabah in the dark too.
Thankfully, they were able to alert Saito that something was wrong.
Thinking quickly, he secured a rope to himself and crawled the tunnel, his plan to drag the other two back with him.
Trinity successfully removed the darkmantle from her head, but was still in pitch blackness.
However, she lost dear Squidsy in the exchange. Truly tragic.
However, she lost dear Squidsy in the exchange. Truly tragic.
This is when the anal bead reference becomes relevant.
Sabah grabbed Trinity and Saito grabbed Sabah.
He then gave the signal to pull.
Sabah didn't duck in time and knocked herself silly, but Trinity was able to contort herself quickly for removal.
The whole effect... well... yeah.
Anyway, thus extricated, the party healed Sabah and began lobbing spells down the tunnel.
Eventually, the darkness aura stopped.
The thing was dead!
But no one, not even the vindictive Trinity, wanted to return down the tunnel.
Thus, they tried another branch from earlier.
It was around this time that Sabah noticed that everyone's faces appeared to be covered in bark, thanks to her traumatic head injury and the curse of the tunnels.
Saito also noticed that everyone's faces had become similar to those of anthropomorphic snow people. Carrot noses, coal eyes - the works.
It was around this time that Sabah noticed that everyone's faces appeared to be covered in bark, thanks to her traumatic head injury and the curse of the tunnels.
Saito also noticed that everyone's faces had become similar to those of anthropomorphic snow people. Carrot noses, coal eyes - the works.
This branch led them to an ancient chamber that appeared to be a place where the dead were prepared for burial. Several slabs still had bodies on them.
"Fool me once" thought Sabah, who used turn undead.
The three skeletons in the room failed their saves and went screaming from the room.
Now properly secured, the party searched the room.
Not much was found here, though they did discover two paths leading down, further into the darkness.
Also, Trinity replaced Squidsy with Baelzabone, a tiefling skull from one of the slabs.
And the madness of the underworld made it speak to her.
Also, Trinity replaced Squidsy with Baelzabone, a tiefling skull from one of the slabs.
And the madness of the underworld made it speak to her.
A collective "yeah, no" later and they were back in town.
We then engaged in down time activities for one week worth of time.
The goblins came to make peace with the village during that time, which was well received by all.
Sabah researched more about Vecna.
Saito researched more about the making of the warforged in the temple.
Trinity made some perfume and came out slightly ahead in selling them.
And then the caravan palace arrived...
And then the caravan palace arrived...
And that concludes the first adventure for this campaign.
Pretty amusing overall.
At this point, I've given the players the option to start new characters if they so desire, or they can continue on with the same folk for the next part. So far, only Saito seems like he'll be out of the running, but we shall see.
Either way, we are advancing past 3rd level and we will pick back up at 4th level.
It is still in the air as to whether or not we will have our weekly meet-up on Sunday. It seems rather shaky, however, given that Saturday is the 4th.
On that note, I hope everyone has a happy and safe Independence Day!
Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :D
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