Back to basics

If you read this blog, you can likely ascertain my dislike for 5E. Granted it has some really good things, I love the character options and ability for my players to customize their characters with nifty mechanical customizations. What's really being lost though is the true development of the character themselves from a role play perspective. Hell, they even have mechanics for background now, though I've always felt that background should emerge through play anyways. And lord, don't even get me started on Pathfinder....I get it, some of the newer players love all of this crunch and cool character "abilities". The more I play though, the more that the B/X or BECMI versions of the game call my name for how much better they run dungeons for example.

I like to see my players engaged and putting thought into their actions, the more you hand over to a roll of the dice, the less fun and risk is being applied to the game. If you have not given it a try, there a ton of great retro-clones of the old rules out there these days. You can even get a POD version of the epic D&D rules cyclopedia...seriously, go give it a shot!

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist....a quick review

I am in the midst of running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, one of latest releases from WoTC, for my group. Here is a quick review and thoughts on this adventure. First off, you may have heard this in other reviews, but the adventure itself is not so much of a heist...think of it as a race against an enemy faction. This adventure is for characters level 1-5.

OK, so the adventure itself involves and immerses the players in the city of Waterdeep, a large city on the Northern Coast of WoTC's love-child the Forgotten Realms. Included within the adventure itself is a pretty lengthy gazetteer on the city itself describing the various guilds, history and people of the city itself. Pretty good information to help bring some more details and environment to your game, but certainly nothing required. The adventure embarks from the famous Yawning Portal tavern and basically rides the rails from start to finish. The DM is given the option of choosing from four villains that will oppose the characters throughout the later part of the adventure. Each of the big-bads are definitely a significant challenge for any group player character in this book....in fact...any party going head-on that them or entering their "lair" is going to get wrecked, guaranteed.

Much of the adventure has the players going from area to area within the city investigating the workings of a plot to uncover a vast fortune of gold hidden within the city, once the players discover the plot, it is a race to find this treasure before those with more nefarious plans reach it. Along the way, players will encounter the rainbow of inclusion which is WoTC D&D these days...I'll just leave it at that....did I meantin that you can make your own D&D game into anything you want already? OK, moving along...There are some good elements included in this adventure. The second phase of the adventure introduces the various Forgotten Realm factions (Zhentarim, Force Grey, Harpers, etc.) which take interest in the doings of the players, opening the potential to join and gain prestige with these factions. This has a very sandbox feel within the city and a skilled DM could have some great fun, pitting the interest of these factions against the various members of his party for some great inter-party role play and conflict.

The adventure is decent, but no where close to great...err really even good if we are being honest. A lot of railroad and heavy handed removal of player agency are worked into the story is a bummer. Again, book use at the table is just dreadful from a WoTC product, expect lots of page flipping to get in sync with maps and room descriptions where needed....Come on WoTC if you are only going to release one or two books a year, at least make them decent....the indie and OSR community are absolutely killing them as far as quality of content and book quality, it is not even close! If you're a huge fan of the Forgotten Realms or currently running a campaign set in that world, this book may be worth a pickup....if not....well, look else where.

Tomb of Horrors, B/X thoughts and recap, Part 2

When next we pick up the action as the party works their way though the Tomb of Horrors. After having decimated their numbers in the chapel, our next session started a few less players based on scheduling. The good thing is that this really is not an encounter based dungeon...the challenge is in the player skill and problem solving.

I have to say Gygax purposely placed a lot of got you moments in this adventure and there are several instances where a player could reasonably come to the conclusion that they had conquered the tomb....the crypt with the zombie Acererak being one such instance....my group managed to skip over this, finding the secret door before descending down to that encounter. That is another thing with the tomb, there are so many dead-ends if you do not find the secret door...using the Labyrinth Lord rules, this was often a 1 in 6 chance. If my group reasonably described their intentions and point of interest with their character was doing, I was fairly lenient with secret door discovery. There are much more nefarious and deadly things to encounter here...

On to the three vat room and the first key. The players managed to figure this one out pretty quickly, using the tools available to them to pull the key from the acid vat with minimal issues. I really loved these puzzle / problem solving rooms, I think more dungeons need these in some of the current modules. The problem of course being that, there is probably some stupid roll that said character make now without having to describe and solve the matter themselves....not a fan 5th edition! I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but things like this really show the dominance of the retro clones and older edition of the games. Simpler and more involved game play!

My group managed to breeze through the next couple of hallways, rooms and traps...screw you flying carpet, that thing was the MVP of this dungeon. The green slime room, was fun, but my group was on their toes and figured out the trap before passing through a likely instant death scenario. They had a strategy of basically sending the most durable / "less likely to die" party member ahead into the corridors and rooms and then trying to save them as the trap was sprung or after the effects had been applied. The guys were really lucky throughout in regards to some of the save or die situations as well, but that's part of the thrill of it.

One of the rooms I was most excited about, but turned out to be a total let down based on my groups adapting play style was the juggernaut room. But, in a way I was excited to see them learning and becoming true old-school role players...not much further, they were closing in on the final rooms of the Tomb of Horrors.....

DM advice: let the players make the story

Confession time...when I came back to the hobby about 10 years ago there was something I struggled with as a DM. I was guilty of being too heavy-handed with my story, my campaign....and I think this is something that not only myself, but others can relate to or have dealt with. 

This campaign, this fantastic world I had envisioned and worked tirelessly to create...full of cool, dangerous and exotic locations and people....You just want the players to see it all, know the story you've created, I get it. I wanted the same. But, don't do it...let the players chase after that wacky detail that you totally do not have prepared, let them kill off your finely crafted NPC (the one that guides them to the next part of the journey), let the story be theirs. 

This takes a bit of restraint and definitely the ability to improve and wing-it, but it is so worth it. In the end this will make the story that much better and rewarding for the players, as I ran my group through my Shadowvale campaign, this was something I definitely struggled with and at times there was a bit of removal of player agency, which to me in the cardinal sin of the dungeon master. 

But the more I've DM'd since my return, the more I've been able to let go and just let my players play in the world as they see fit. Jeff Reints blog and his recent book, Broodmother Skyfortress, have really helped to sharpen my skills in this approach. Don't be afraid to blow up and wreck your world! 

Inspiration for this blog from the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJPqB7DH94c&t=71s

Go check it out and support a great channel.

Christmas wishlist

It's that time of the year again...when we all gather with family, friends....share tales of yesteryear and ohh...what's that you say, where are my gifts? OK OK....let's talk about things we want.

So I'm currently backing several Kickstarters that I'm excited to get my hands on sometime next year...hopefully...Matt Colville's "Stronghold and Followers", "Demon City" by Zak S., and "Tegal Manor Returns" by Frog God Games. Those are the most notable releases that I'm aware of and excited for going into 2019. Outside of that...I may finally cash in several items on my drivethrurpg wishlist. Top of the list would be Dwimmermount and The Forbidden Caverns of Archaia. 

What I'm really wishing for is to keep my current group of players happy and motivated going into and through next year with our current campaign which is Waterdeep: Dragonheist...perhaps moving to the new Undermountain release Dungeon of the Mad Mage after that. I'd like to do start up another group either playing some more of the FFG Star Wars or running a B/X or Labyrinth Lord version of Barrowmaze as well. Those may have to go online though....we'll see.

So, what about you? Any items on the wishlist? What games are you wanting to run going into next year?

Tomb of Horrors, B/X thoughts and recap

So recently after our campaign of the Keep on the Borderlands wrapped up, I decided to a one-shot (2 session) adventure of Tomb of Horrors since none of my current players had ever run it. To give that true old-school feel, I ran the module using the Labyrinth Lord retro clone rules....which is basically B/X D&D. A couple of players hated this, they are just newer players who used to lots of character options and the ability to roll to resolve things, but this would be a good experience for them regardless and I was dead set on running this Saint Gygax intended.

The first part of the adventure involves the group just finding the correct entrance to the Tomb....located on a lonely hill, in the far plains of desolation, my group came searching for gold, riches or perhaps just a clean death. For the first session, I had 6 total players, I also let each player bring along one hireling or follower given their level for this adventure. The group really struggled at first with having to dig around and actually find the entrance to the Tomb, which spoilers...is on the side of the hill and must be dug out. One of my players had a flying carpet as one of the magic items I had randomly rolled up and they made several laps of the hill to no success. Right off the bat, this showed how the newer editions of the game had spoiled these players.

Finally they decided to dig around the soft dirt on the side of the hill....false entrance number 1 discovered! Gleefully heading in...most escaped when the trap was triggered, expect the pony and one hireling. This set them back again, they did not think to dig around in other locations on the side of the hill for some time, but eventually came back to discover....false entrace #2....RIP....actually no deaths here, they were much more cautious. Tossing rocks at the door and checking the floors. Nice work, they are learning, perhaps they stand a chance here.

Finally they were into the tomb....did I note that one of my players had a magic carpet....this is like the free pass for much of the dungeon. Working their way up to the green devil face and first misty doorway, we had our first save or die situation on the spike trips lining this hallway. Not sure how a lot of modern players feel about save or die's but honestly, my mentality is don't put your players in a situation where this has to become the outcome....they saved by the way. And I was proud to say the 10' pole was seeing some good use. No one decided to try out the green devil face...I was sad, but they testing out the misty doorway they pushed their one and only 10' pole in without solving the puzzle....that's a goner. They eventually figured out the puzzle on the misty gate and warped over to the orb hallway, skipping a fair bit of the tomb.

The interesting thing about Tomb of Horrors is the distinct lack of combat encounters, also no random encounters, it is basically negotiating death trap and puzzles from room to room. This is really a player challenge dungeon, which is really a lot on the DM to be specific about what is seen, known, I really worked on doing my best to present the information available for the players as they worked their way through. As the group worked their way through, we were both really in sync with descriptions and questions that arose from those, I have to admit they were doing a good job and making good progress...until we got to the chapel....

To this point, there had really only been one player death...Scott's thief had bit the bullet in the 3 chest room to the skeleton...one of the cleric's has raised him, so I guess technically he was still in the game. The chapel room contains two things of interest...another misty doorway, though this one is the gender swap trap and the glowing rock upon the altar. So...maybe they were a bit bored, but they immediately went for the rock...could this be the answer to all of the question in tomb...let's check.....NOPE. Upon the first check, lightning bolts shoot out down the chapel corridor....saving throws made....the rock begins to be pulse angrily, glowing red now....and yeah they hit it again....OK then....BOOM!!! An explosion this time in a 30' radius, there goes half the party...I was honestly surprised, they were doing so well....

We'll pick up the adventure in the next blog, will they clear the dungeon?....

The Shadowvale Campaign (thoughts) Part 5

Into the ruins beneath Eldermere....the party fleeing the blazing fire now engulfing the village above descend into the forgotten depths beneath the town. I had a few traps and encounters planned for the first level of this dungeon, but it was not overly large in concept. 5 rooms consisting of burial chambers and crypts of a long forgotten king. Each of the crypts set to provoke an encounter if messed with with a minor undead entity (skeleton) with the final crypt holding the champion of the forgotten king (skeletal warrior). Of course the group was out for the goodies so all of the crypts were disturbed, with final encounter with the skeletal warrior grinding their resources down a bit further. There was one last room remaining which contained the sarcophagus of the court wizard, along with the secret entrance to the second level of the dungeon....

I always love the dialogue that arises from a group debating how far to push their luck in a dungeon when their resources start to be consumed. This harkens back to the days of my youth running 1st and 2nd edition games...when those resources run out, death is not far behind for the player characters. They decided to push onward...the "boss" of this level was a specter which had beefed up a bit and included a mechanic in which only allowed the creature to be hit / damaged when exposed to direct light. The theme of light vs. shadow is something I wanted to introduce here and now, because it will be ongoing through the rest of the dungeon as well as the remainder of the campaign.

Have I mentioned how much I love undead, they are great creatures, I miss the danger of level drain, but 5E has some included the mechanic in their HP and stat draining abilities in some of the more powerful undead. My wizard-shadow specter could drain HP's and it made this encounter some lethal...the group was definitely caught off-guard by the shadow/light mechanic and I was able to drop the wizard before they could get their footing on the fight....he survived based on the death saving throws, but hey enjoy your new HP max of 4!

I digress....the group was pretty beat up at the point, but they did pick up this sweet sword off the skeletal champion...did I mention it was cursed? +1 to hit and damage, but if you do not spill blood every 24 hours for the sword to "drink" you take 1d8 damage that cannot be cured...have fun you murder hobo's! Have I mentioned how I love to reward my groups with cool, fun and usable magic items...this being my first campaign I had run in 5E, this turns out to be a bad idea in this edition, but more on that later.

The party decided to hole-up and take a long rest at this point, but I did have an encounter planned to foreshadow some of the shadows associated with the Book of the Shadowhorn.....don't forget, this is what they were here to find after all. The hope was to show that something truly evil, powerful and ancient was lingering here....this was the book. During the rest, I random rolled to see whose watch was affected...Petros, the warlock, he's evil by the way....during his watch, there in the darkness of the hallway something is moving swirling about, almost in macabre dance...risking a little more light, he reveals that innumerous shadows are floating and swirling about, too many to count as they withdrawal from the light. Mission accomplished as this set a sense dread upon the party, what were they actually up against here?.......

Waterdeep Dragon Heist, Session 2

We were back in action of 4/5 of the players present for this game, no Aaron (Avaros the bard) for this one...it may have proven costly. Fresh off the heals rescuing Raeynar Neverember from the clutches of the Xanathar guild, the group decided to call it a night, rest, regroup and set off to find Floon in the morning.

They played this part pretty cautiously, recruiting help from the Street Sweepers guild of Waterdeep, thinking they may have better information as to where Xanathar sewer hideout would. Thanks to some quick NPC random rolling, I had a crippled dwarf lead them down into the sewers and get them going in the right direction.

The first noted encounter is with a solo gazer prior to reaching the hideout. I'm not really sure what the point of this encounter is...maybe to ahold to the fact that Xanathar is a beholder....regardless, the group blew right through this, the only drama was them making checks to leap over the sewage channel to the other side, which some promptly failed. I took my time to describe the smell and just pure awfulness of this....fecal matter hanging on their robes, bits of torn and stained cloth wrapped around their legs, make it gross!

Reaching the hideout, things got interesting....first encounter is with some goblins behind arrow slits, with the hopes of catching the unwary in a crossfire. Some impressive rolls and Amber the cleric "getting her hands dirty" made this encounter trivial.....she through shit at them. Moving into the hideout, the next scripted encounter turned the evening sour for the group. A duergar and Xanathar thug waited to ambush the party. Invisibility and surprise attacks can wreck a low level party....case in point: Moving deeper into the hideout, when suddenly the duergar strikes the sorcerer from behind...I crit....one down. Initiative and the thug moves in engaging Brian's character Paul, the duergar, now enlarged, cuts down Amber the cleric....the thug is dispatched, but the party is seriously hurting and my dice were hot. Have I mentioned I make all of my rolls out in the open, I don't fudge the dice rolls at least. It's now 2 versus 1, the rogue goes down next....I'm really sorry guys. Paul managed to score a hit on the duergar and I had him drop, perhaps a little before his HP total said he would.

Death saves and Paul trying to stabilize those who he could was high drama with everyone watching the rolls...I love these moments at the table, there is no talking, just the sound of the dice spinning. They all lived, but Cody's was on 2/3 death saves with the last roll, sealing his fate...he lived. My hands were tied for a couple of hours in-game as Paul barricaded and hid the recovery party and himself...some random noises deeper in the hideout, could I possibly through a random encounter at the one upright party member....maybe not this time.

Now recovered they move deeper into the hideout, a quick detour to check out a hastily barricaded closet door...surprise, it's a slime! Amber goes down and is nearly pulled into the pit....barely spared. Which leads to the final encounter...

So let me pause for a second and state, I'm really not a fan of the recent WoTC releases and this encounter is pretty poor in my opinion. If I had to do it over again, I'd change a lot...especially the whole mindflayer part. I get they are trying to allude to more danger and sinister things at work with the Xanathar guild, but it's just kinda poorly done.

OK, back to it...Bloth the rouge sneaks ahead and sees a red-headed man being tortured by a robed half-orc while this otherworldly, almost alien like creature looks on, its tentacled mouth twitching in perceived boredom. The group did pretty well, not to meta this encounter and proceeded ahead despite the quite obvious danger. As the group enters, I had the mindflayer exit with a dismissive hand...deal with these...The group had no issues here and Floon...beaten and scared was saved. I have to admit, I modeled my NPC Floon from Adam Koebel's stream of this same adventure on the Roll20 broadcast of their games. In fact I model a lot of my NPC's from him, fantastic DM.

That about wrapped it up....the party headed back, Floon in-hand, to collect their reward from Volo.....surprise it's Trollskull Manor. We'll pick up from here when I run the next session. If I could change anything about this session it would definitely be to remove the mindflayer from all of this..its is just a little much and awkward. I'd also make some more consequences for delaying in getting to Floon...perhaps they just find him dead, I don't think this really impacts anything. The group is still going to get the house. Anyways, stay tuned, I've got some good things planned heading into the next session as I start to deviate a lot from the book.

Waterdeep Dragon Heist, Session 1

When the announcement came from WoTC about their adventure release for the year being Waterdeep Dragon Heist and the remake of Undermountain, Dungeon of the Mad Maze, my group is super excited so I decided that is what we would start as new campaign. If you have read any of my previous post, you know that I'm not in love with 5th edition like many players and DM's these days, but I want to run games that my players enjoy and have fun with and if that is what they like, so be it. I'm going to add my flare to any published adventure regardless.

We started the session with character creation as group, allowing the players to link backstories and fill in any gaps on their character ideas as a group. Plus, everyone likes to see the roll of the dice as a group. Players for the campaign are as follows:

Aaron playing Avaros (half-elf bard)
Brian playing Paul (human fighter and former Waterdeep Watch)
Scott playing Fairend (human sorcerer, phoenix bloodline)
Cody playing Bloth (human rogue)
Daniel playing Amber (dwarven forge cleric)

The only things I changed up with character creation for this campaign were that I awarded some homemade boons to the players who had completed our Tomb of Horrors one-shot (I'll do a separate blog post on this) and I had the players define belief, instincts and traits for their characters. The only way they can earn inspiration is through excellent roleplaying scenes or from using those beliefs or traits to put their characters in compromising situations based on what their characters would do....doing my best to add in some elements of Burning Wheel / Mouseguard into my games!

The group started in a tavern, the infamous Yawning Portal to be exact. The action starts right away in this campaign as a tavern brawl between two criminal factions, the Zhentarim and Xanathar guild, soon turns into a dangerous encounter as a troll crawls its way up out of the well leading into Undermountain....the look on their faces was pretty great, it was definitely an unexpected encounter and put them on edge right away. With some help from Durnan, the owner of the Yawning Portal, the troll and the stirges that accompanied it were put down and sent back down the well.

With the wheels turning on the adventure, Volo, whom was also in the tavern that night approaches the group following the troll encounter with an opportunity. He asked the group help track down and find his missing friend, Floon Blagmar, who had gone missing a couple of nights ago. Right off the bat, my group was trying to extort Volo for additional reward, but finally an agreement was reach and the group set off for the dock ward that evening towards the last known location of Floon.

So...one of the tools I'm using to help me run this adventure is the excellent Vornheim by Zak S. This book is invaluable for any city adventure for the random tables that are included. Any time my group goes off the rails a bit, I can pull upon this help with any NPC's or other wackiness I want to pull into my game...so back to the adventure....the group headed for the Dock Ward of Waterdeep which is a rougher part of the city. Saltwater, shit and dark alleys are the atmosphere here. With arm twisting and forceful persuasion at the Skewered Dragon, the group learned that Floon and unexpected guest, Raenar Neverember (son of Dagult Neverember the former open lord of Waterdeep) were followed by a group known Zhentarim leaving the tavern two nights ago.

With a heading of a warehouse also in the dock ward, the group set out again closing in on the trail of the missing Floon. So, let's talk about this next encounter. There are four kenko in the warehouse, members of the Xanathar guild, who ambushed the group whom had captured Floon and Raenar. Granted my group was not very stealthy, knocking on the door and generally being noisy, but this one turned deadly for them. By the time they decided to pick the lock on the door, the kenku had heard them and were ready behind cover...as Brian's character, Paul, entered in he was immediately gunned down by crossbolt fire. The next few rounds were pure chaos as the group tries to make their way into the warehouse under heavy fire, two characters were dropped and Daniel's character, Amber, was 1 HP away from an outright killing blow based on a lucky critical roll by me....but they survived. 

Exploring the warehouse they found Raenar, where Brian's character again was extorting and lying for some additional reward, noting it was his father that I had sent them to save him....well played, but he may be flirting with disaster if this keeps up. Before they could finish exploring the warehouse, the Waterdeep Watch finally arrived and after a tense stand-off they were allowed to leave with Raenar who advised that the Xanathar guild now held Floon and likely headed for the sewers nearby. This brought us to the end of the session, but we'll see if the group can indeed save Floon and how big will their reward actually be!

Long absent, but I'm back....

Hello All,

Been a long break from the blog posts, but I just started my group on a new campaign last night, Waterdeep Dragon Heist for 5th edition D&D, so it is a good time to come back and start posting. There is a lot of I need to catch the blog up on including a ton of new books to review, recapping the Keep on the Borderlands and Tomb of Horrors one-off adventurers I ran my group through along with just the state of table-top RPG's and the drama / infiltration of the SJW culture into the hobby which causing a lot of blow-back and rightfully so...anyways, look for some new posts soon!

Character Death

Back from a bit of a break this week, we'll be picking up on our Keep on the Borderlands campaign on Friday....the one where there was basically a TPK to close the previous session. I was thinking how important the threat and reality of character death is to a D&D game. I know that WoTC is pushing more story gaming and plot-armor for the characters these days, but the memorable encounters are those were death is a real and present threat.

My players would likely say that I am not a lethal DM, I always let the dice dictate the action in my games and since we've been playing 5th edition almost exclusively these past few years, there have only been a handful of times that character death was a danger. Those times though, were the most memorable.

Nothing sets the players on edge like watching one of the group get dropped. The 5E mechanic of allowing death saves makes it pretty difficult to actually die in these games, but the drama of letting the dice decide their fate in many instances is pretty fun. Everyone holding their breath as the D20 bounces across the table...

Some newer DM's will want to pull punches and lessen the blow on their players, but this is bad DMing...if your players walk into a deadly encounter, then make it deadly. You can't fight your way through everything in these games and sometimes running to survive is the best option. Your players will always remember that time that Joe's character fell into the pit of spikes or Sarah's character was consumed by the black pudding....and that's what playing is all about: having fun and a great story!

The Shadowvale Campaign (thoughts) part 4

So....the group arrives in Eldermere in search of The Book of the Shadowhorn. Upon arriving outside of the small village, the group notes the fires burning and general chaos. Something has already occurred, but before they can figure out what is going on. I launch them into an encounter...a group of zombies....now their heads are spinning, "what the hell happened here and what have we stumbled onto?"

So around this time, the group dynamic was shifting a bit. Two of the guys who were playing had some life changes that were forcing them to leave the group unfortunately and I was in the process of plugging those wholes since the group would be down to 3 people for a short time. Regardless, we ventured on...

Dispatching of the zombies, I next laid out the second the second phase of the encounter before the group could get their bearings. A dispatch of troops from the largest city in the area, Waterford, had arrived and now surrounded the group. The troops also had no clue of WTF was going on in the village, but seeing as how the PC's were the only living beings in site....they were persons of interest now.

The troops were led by one of the more important NPC's I had planned for the campaign, Calais. Modeled from my character from the MMORPG FFXI, he was a by the book, good-aligned and compassionate NPC that I hoped would be somewhat of a friend to the PC's as needed. 

Calais in all his FFXI glory

For now though, the PC's were surrounded and this group of guards wanted some answers, even though my players had none to give. I really like having these moral and somewhat unwinnable situations presented in my games. The players could run, give up, fight, lie....the players decided to comply and were disarmed and taken to the local tavern for questioning. Now restrained and in the presence of two guards, as the rest of the troops investigated the town, I gave the group a chance to escape...I was being somewhat of bad DM through this planned part of the campaign, I really hate being heavy handed. I prefer to rely on the random tables and players choices, but I wanted to force the players hands a bit here yet still get to the juicy pieces of this part of the encounter.

The players to their credit, took their first opportunity to escape. The guards reacted and to spread more chaos. I had zombies attack the troops outside which in turn set fire to the tavern that the group was held up in.....this encounter was pure gold. The environment itself was a hazard, the group had to think creatively since they were without their gear, and the guards....well they only really cared about getting out of this situation alive.

Each round, I had the fire grow and become more dangerous, until finally the group had no choice but to flee into the cellar to escape the fire. I had planned for this and had the notion to map out an underground passages that ran throughout the village. So into the labyrinth the group went....next session would be their next dungeon crawl and a new player would be joining to create an interesting party dynamic which would fuel the overall narrative of the campaign going forward.

The rules lawyer saved my character's life

I've had the privilege of playing in a Pathfinder game over the last year or so. My friend Cody has been running his first game as a DM and we've been playing through Rise of the Runelords. We've just started into chapter 3 and my character for this campaign is Kyrill Four-Finger, a degenerate rogue / mostly trap clearer in this group.

Our last session was played over the weekend, where most of the encounters occurred in the remote town of Turtleback Ferry. To briefly summarize, we're there based on some leads that we have encountered from a cult in the area, we believe they may be planning their next move in this area. We had a very humorous encounter with the town's priest while trying to determine his knowledge of the cult, but major encounter of the night occurred while we were out on the nearby lake searching the wreckage of a noted gambling boat that had recently sunk.

The party was split at this point and we were a bit melee light in a large gar (massive freaking fish) attacked us. The fight was going pretty poorly, our sorcerer had already been knocked out after being swallowed. My thief was in the water as well, attempting to save Aaron's character Zabi.

It was bigger than this, but you get the picture...

In the midst of all of this, my character gets gobbled up the thing as well. I basically had one round to live inside of it and my hope was to get a large sneak attack off to get clear of the monster and pull Zabi free....but that didn't happen....at least not at first. Both of your characters died and the session was about to wrap up....when Aaron, who to his credit is the most entune with the rules regardless of the game we're playing speaks and notes that technically the Gar would have lost it's dexterity bonus while I was inside of it and WHAM sneak attack applies. We rewound to the section and played it out from there....both of our character still didn't up knocked dead, but the group was able to claim our bodies and head back to the temple for some awkward roleplaying with the priest to get us both raised...good times indeed.

Rules lawyers tend to get a bad wrap from the RPG community at times, but I've always been a fan. As someone who runs games by the seat of my pants most times, I haven't always read every fine detail of each characters abilities. My motto is: "It is on the players to be the expert of their character". So thanks Aaron...Kyrill will be back to fight another day and likely run away next time!

So much to read, so many games I want to run....

So, over the holidays I went a bit of shopping spree for OSR material and books. Some items that I had been wanting for a while and some I just ran across and impulsed bought. With my campaign group on a bit of hiatus for the next couple of weeks while one of our members welcomes his 3rd child into the world, I'm hoping to get through most of it.

On the list are the following:
- Finish up reading Stonehell and the second book for the deeper levels (really loving this megadungeon by the way).
- Read the second book to ASE 2-3 megadungeon.
- Veins of the Earth: man I was shocked at the size of this tome, but reviews are fantastic and I have loved everything from Patrick Stuart.
- Fever dreaming Marlinko and Slumbering Ursine Dune. I've skimmed through both of these and I'm a fan. Want to read through all the way.
- Demonspore and Tomb of the Iron God by Matthew Finch.
- Finally I picked up Hubris and Peril on the Purple Planet from DCC, these really scratch from gonzo itch of late.

So that will keep me pretty busy for a while. I'm trying to decide if I want to work up a custom campaign world for the next campaign or run a megadungeon (and which one?!?!). Sometimes as if I get ahead myself as DM, always looking to the next thing, even though I love the campaign I'm currently running (Keep on the Borderlands) and I plan to insert some gonzo into that campaign in the form of Broodmother Skyfortress soon.

Anyways, if you have any suggestions for some other new release OSR material or favorite megadungeons, feel free to comment!

The Shadowvale Campaign (thoughts) part 3

Picking up where we left off. The group headed back towards Glasspring with mixed emotions. They had cleared out the perceived goblin threat, but that had only revealed a much darker force at work.

Going into the next session, I generally didn't have any set encounters planned for the group, unless they choose to pursue the Darius angle. They held up outside of town for over a day watching the comings and goings and noted that the town guard was much less active, in fact nonexistent at times. Finally they braved up enough to venture into town and confront Darius. While the group had been away, I had Darius release the town guard and take total control of the quiet town of Glasspring.

I have to give my players credit, they devised a hell of a plan to break into his mansion using disguises and trickery. Some of my most fun memories at the gaming table are just watching and listening to my players come up with these crazy schemes....great stuff!

The meeting with Darius was modeled much after the I6: Ravenloft encounter with Strahd (and really a lot of this campaign was borrowed as such from that module).

Not quite Darius, but close!

The group dined in a civil manner and Darius proposed an agreement to the group, to seek out and find the Book of the Shadowhorn (the key piece needed for him to challenge the mortal gods of the Shadowvale), in exchange for riches and ownership of the town. The group hesitantly agreed and Darius made the deal in blood by murdering the town sheriff, who was charmed, in front of the group. This was the first time the players (most of whom were new) had experienced a shocking and unexpected event in the game, it definitely had an effect on them. I feel like these elements are important in games to keep the super hero mentality in check...these are just normal people in abnormal situations.

With some guidance from Darius on the rumored location, the group immediately set out for Eldermere with the thought the book was located somewhere deep beneath that small village. After a bit of hex crawling and wilderness encounters, the group arrived at Eldermere only to find the village in ruins and it's population now turned to mindless undead...

I love Megadungeons!

Since I first laid my hands the Ruins of Undermountain boxed set when I was a kid, I've had this love affair with megadungeons. This has never really been a featured product from the likes of WoTC, but man the OSR has some great ones. ASE, Maze of the Blue Medusa, Stonehell, Barrowmaze, the list keeps going.

Hours of fun?

The new school of roleplaying shuns these a bit as story gaming has taken root, but I really think there is a great appeal in these products. So, what makes for a great megadungeon? Factions, uniqueness, high danger and rich rewards, alien and abnormal environments. Can I actually run an entire campaign using a megadungeon? Hell yes you can! Some of the best megadungeons have tons of creatures, npc's, items to mess with, adventure hooks, and central themes to resolve. With all of this, you and your group can still build and tell an amazing story of adventure and isn't what D&D is about at its core?

Session Recap: Keep on the Borderlands (01/19/18)

Wow! This one was a doozy, where to start? We pick up with the players just leaving the keep once again returning back to the Caves of Chaos to plunder and possibly resolve some loose ends from person at the keep. There was a pretty good turn out for this session.

Cody >> Kodar the drunk sailor bard (lvl 4)
Scott >> Gensher tiefling paladin (lvl 4)
Brian >> Yvelda orc monk diva (lvl 4)
Kevin >> Elmond human bard (lvl 4)
Daniel >> Nadar half-dragon paladin of deceit (lvl 4)

No encounters on the way to the caves and the group decided to go back to where they had left off, the goblin entrance and head towards the hobgoblin den. I had a surprise in for them though, since they had let the Redcap goblin chieftain leave on his own accord, I had it in mind they had contacted their bugbear buddies to set up trap to retake their part of the caves. Obviously the bugbears do not work for keep and the chieftain had given over several of his tribe to become slaves or meals for the bugbears. 

I had set up the immediate entrance to the goblin caves with a burning oil trap and barricaded both sides of the cavern to hopefully trap even nosy adventurers between a crossfire of ranged attacks while actually on fire. And bingo! The group decided to go this exact route. The encounter wasn't much an issue and they finally killed off the goblin chieftain before he could retreat back to the hobgoblin lair in a last ditch effort, but resources were tapped and this would come into play before the end.

The group then made their way towards the hobgoblin lair via the connection in the goblin caves. The hobgoblin had not had a chance to resupply from the previous days encounter when the group had freed their prisoners, but they were expecting them. The group battled through a couple of encounters and they actually managed to take a one hobgoblin, Pookit as prisoner.

There was some pretty hilarious roleplay as the group questioned him in a good cop / bad cop manner, and it was decided that they would bind and gag him and take him along....as a mascot....The group barricaded themselves in a cleared room and took a short rest. This is where something fortuitous would occur thanks to the random encounter table. During the rest I hit twice on the table >> 1d4 gnomes and 1 carrion crawler. I decided to have the gnomes be a rival adventuring group and I placed the carrion crawler near the hobgoblin caves entrance to the ravine. Gnomes slew the crawler and proceeded into the caves in a different route than the group. The group decided not to investigate the commotion down the hall.

The group finally made their way to the lair of the hobgoblin warlord overseeing the clan in this cave. Impressed by their ability to make this way, I had him attempt to parlay with the group to help expand the hobgoblin interests in the Caves of Chaos, notably in killing the bugbears. In the midst of this, Yvelda lost patience and attacked the warlord and off we went with the final encounter of the night....

So, I had not previously run hobgoblins in 5E previously, but they have a bonkers ability which can make for a pretty deadly encounter, Martial Prowess: once per turn can choose to deal additional damage when a melee attack hits an opponent with 5' range of an ally, dealing an additional 2d6 damage. Damn, that some brutal stuff. On top of this, the hobgoblin warlord has 3 attacks per round, along with the same martial prowess ability, on top of that the hobgoblin had planned for just this situation in case the party did not take the deal and placed two additional guards outside of the room.

This encounter was a bloodbath, for both sides really. Their rolls were really poor which did not help and the warlord slowly beat them down focusing on the softer player characters who for some reason were in range of him despite being restrained by one of the paladin's abilities. When things looked their darkest, Cody's character Kodar made a break for it while Gensher the surviving up right member slew 1 of the 2 remaining hobgoblins before being dropped as well.

I mentioned that Kodar saw the gnome party as he was fleeing from the caves. He decided to plea with them to help and they agreed for a share of the loot. We ended the session with people in the midst of their death saving throws, but I noted that the other group arrived in time to stabilize those who were down...next session will reveal just how "good" this gnomish group may or may not be, but this was essentially a TPK and the first one I'd DM'd in 5E.

Critical Role is not D&D

This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but Critical Role is not D&D. For all of the good that show does: bringing new people into the hobby and opening the doors for many players to view and learn about the hobby, it also does an equal amount of bad.

Hear me out, Critical Role is really just a over-produced, likely scripted, TV-show with D&D as it premise. Matthew Mercer, the DM of Critical Role, is in my opinion a great DM and story-teller, anyone would be lucky to have him run a game for them, but the show people are watching weekly is not so much a game as an ongoing produced show. Here is when the bad comes in regarding the hobby. New players and prospective DM's brought into the hobby by this show will expect this type of TV drama in their games: the voice acting of characters, grand elaborate stories from the DM, and produced drama outside of the actual play.

I recently had a twitter exchange between a newer DM questioning why his new players aren't voice acting and always speaking in first person at their games...their timeline was full of Critical Role fluff, this told me all I needed to know. Don't force your players into something they aren't comfortable with. If they show up, participate and have fun, then that is mission success.

Look....the fun of D&D for the DM is when your players are having a good time. It is not telling some grand story, write a book if you want that. The story should emerge organically from the interactions between the players and the encounters that the DM has laid out. Your game, as a DM, doesn't need to be full of rich history and some grand setting full or lore, let the players help define your world, let their choices have meaning in the setting.

The tabletop RPG hobby is probably in it's best place since the early 80's due in no small part to streams and live-plays such as Critical Role, but my hope is that those coming into the hobby will define their games in their own way, not based on something they watched Thursday night.

Tales from RPG games of yore

I was fortunate enough to grow up in a neighborhood with kids close to my age, whom I'd often press into service as players when I needed them for the games I ran in my youth. Fortunately and unfortunately one of these was my younger brother Paul. You see, Paul was the player who really didn't give a crap because he had better things to do....his characters were throwaways and his actions were the definition of wild card.

In one of the better campaigns I ran during this time, my brother had rolled up the group's Magic-user....a 7'2", 18 strength, don't fuck with this dude in a back alley Jenis. I suppose spell casting is just his side gig.

For one of the early adventures in this campaign, the group was looking for some scrolls in some generic ruins I had probably drawn up 15 minutes prior to the session. In the midst of all of this, the group somehow began to argue which direction to take.

Paul probably: "I saw some treasure to the west hallway, I don't give a crap, I'm going down there to get it"

Drew, playing the dwarven fighter: "We have to go to the east, the Wizard told us to go this way for the scroll."

Paul: "So what, I want that gold!"

Drew: "We shouldn't split up, it's not safe in here."

Me >> rolls for random encounter due to the yelling....nothing.

They continue to argue which leads to Drew stating that he's going to knock him out to move on.

Paul: "Come and try it mother fucker!"

Initiative is rolled and what happened next still gives me a laugh to this day. Keep in mind, this AD&D, Jenis the magic-user has 1d4 hit points. Paul, not one to back away from challenge insisted that he wouldn't use any spells (Magic Missile or Sleep would have won this fight quickly). Rolls were made and by the end of it, Jenis the magic-user had slain the parties fighter in single combat, in the middle of the dungeon with his staff. Drew was obviously pissed, but no one at the table could hold back their laughter.

D&D is a random ass game, sometimes the dice screw you, but there is always a story to be had...

OSR: My roleplaying love affair

Let's talk about the OSR. For those not in the know, OSR stands for Old School Renaissance and refers to movement in the RPG community to continue and expand upon the basis of 1st edition D&D. There are now numerous retro clones of the rulesets that have been published to date, my favorites are >> Labyrinth Lord, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Swords and Wizardry, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. The best part is that you can find most of these games for free through DriveThruRPG or their individual web pages.

What I love about the OSR is that it harkens back to my upbringing in the hobby. Gone are the min-maxing superhero characters, you play normal persons in abnormal situations. You are not able to plow your way through difficult encounters with character violence and abilities, you will need to think as a player...often encounters in the OSR are deadly, if you're fighting, you will soon be dying. This is true fantasy roleplaying, monsters seem scarier and deadlier, the world is more fantastic.

Everyone is looking for something different in their roleplaying games, but this is what I started in and this type of gaming is more what I'm drawn to. Credit to D&D 5th edition for bringing me back into the hobby, but the OSR is what has fueled me since and taken most of my hard earned loot in real life. Which brings me to another point, the amount and quality of content from numerous creators is amazing. Look at some of the LotFP products, their layout and craftsmanship is second to none. Books such as Maze of the Blue Medusa and the recently released Dark of Hot Springs Islands are both inventive and just stunning tomes to hold in your hands.

I've been slowing moving the groups I referee to the OSR through our play and adventures. Once our current campaign wraps up, I'll make the permanent switch over to the Labyrinth Lord rule set on something new and likely gonzo given my current taste. If you're interested, I've a few links listed at the top of the blog to get you started.

Curse of Strahd: Thoughts and reflections

I was fortunate enough to play in a year long campaign for Curse of Strahd that recently wrapped up. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this module from a player and DM perspective. I played a human paladin in this campaign, he was pretty stereotypical for paladins, the uptight lawful good-doer. 

Brennan Tattersall in all his glory

My DM was a first-timer, but he really did a great job for his first go at refereeing a campaign. Our group was a mix of players and classes, with some playing remotely as the rest of us gathered at the table, which seems to be an increasing phenomenon these day. Thank you internet!

So Curse of Strahd is essentially a rewrite of the original I6: Ravenloft from the Hickman's. The updated version (written by Chris Perkins of WoTC) expands upon the original opening a more sand-box type feel for the land of Barovia and can be run for PC's level 1 - 10. Their are numerous adventure hooks seeded throughout the adventure, but the primary driving point is the obtainment of items required to do battle with Strahd himself and possibly free yourself from the lands of Barovia.

Overall, I think this is one of the better releases put out from the 5E D&D line. The intro adventure "Death House" which our group did not play is one of the highlights of the entire module, it sets the tone and feel for Ravenloft. Horror and oppressive atmosphere are tough things to pull off in any published adventure, but the book does a great job adding tidbits which help with this like changing the flavor and use of certain spells to represent this feel.

Again with other 5E releases, the book is bloated with information on NPC's and locations which based on your groups decisions may require a lot of page flipping, but thankfully there is an excellent set of maps included with this book unlike previous releases. Any perspective DM's will definitely need to give it a good read through before showing up to the table. There is also the borrowed mechanic from the original I6 that randomly assigns the items used in the fight against Strahd to various locations throughout the map, this is done from the initial encounter with Vistani and Madame Eva's tarot card reading.

I was fortunate enough to play in a group and with a DM that presented us with lots of roleplay interactions as we worked to establish a home base of sorts in the town of Vallaki. As I mentioned previously, there is a lot going on in this town which could lead your PC's to go in a myriad of different directions. Our DM, did a great job of seeding these tidbits of information as we went along. Some of the highlights included the encounter with the druids while assisting the local winery outside of Vallaki, inter-political drama within the town with the current Burgomaster and those more aligned with Strahd, and the gonzo of the Amber Temple.

Throughout the adventure, Strahd will harass and test the players in various ways, but the culmination of the adventure of the adventure is the final show down with Strahd within Castle Ravenloft itself which is a fairly large dungeon by 5E standards. By the time my group had finally made our way to Strahd we were are armed with an assortment of powerful relics and powers, but also allies, this led to an easier than expected final showdown. Again, I still think the power-creep of 5E is way out of hand and this is just another example. If I was running this adventure, I'd continue to scale back the magic items and additionally buff the encounters presented, which my DM did.

All that being said, I had a great time in this adventure. Like most sessions, it comes down to the players and DM in regards to fun and I was lucky in that regard. I do have one complaint that is not related to the adventure itself, but a mindset / actions from another player who joined the group remotely. You may know this type of player, because I have seen many over the years. Since this player was playing remotely and rolling his own dice, he was held accountable to those results through trust. The same player who rolled up his character with 4 starting abilities over 16, one of which was an 18.....and seem to always land a success when needed.

Guys and gals out there, you don't need a super hero character to have a good time at the table. Those flaws make your character more fun and enjoyable to play, trust me. I have seen this a lot with new players and I'm not sure where it stems from, but his actions and rolls caught a lot of eye rolls from the other members of the table. This type of mindset is why I'm moving more and more to the OSR and running my own games.

The Shadowvale Campaign (thoughts) part 2

This is a follow-up to the previous post on the Shadowvale Campaign that I ran over the course of 3 years, recently ending. If you haven't read the previous post, you can find it here: The Shadowvale Campaign (The beginnings)

We were ready for our first session. My initial players were all new to role-playing games and we, myself included, were all new to the 5E ruleset. That being said, I wanted to go easy on them at first and ease them into some comfort for the rules and for their characters. The first session involved the festival and the goblin attack which draw the players into a much more dire plot, if they took the bait...and they did! Right off the bat I was pretty impressed with the power level of the 5E classes, this will be an ongoing theme as I make some mistakes throughout this campaign that pushed my players into the realm of extremely tough.

Sketched Shadowvale Area Map

The players wrapped up the first session by doing some investigation on behalf of the town sheriff Belor, part of which included the players on their own initiative meeting the main protagonist of the setting Mayor Darius. Perhaps they were more suspicious than I initially thought....during the course of the next few sessions, the players followed up on the goblin attacks by tracking the goblin tribe back to their home for their first taste of a D&D dungeon.

Goblin Caves (Straight from my notebook)

I had a set of goblin caves (pretty basic stuff) set up for the group that required them to find an entrance near an old farmstead, where the original owners corpses still rotted in the farmhouse now occupied by the goblins. I included a few side ventures within the goblin caves, as well as some clues that would tie in the plot towards Darius (the Mayor) being involved. Also, I included a human wizard (part of Darius's more trusted group) who had a lab within the caves. The highlight of this dungeon was the trapped roped bridge that spanned an underground river, the fall wasn't so bad, but the rushing water quickly submerged back underground which would prove near fatal to anyone falling in. 

The group surprised me in their eagerness to explore and interact with the numerous objects and rooms within the dungeon, including them absolutely annihilating the wizard in his lair. I also, had a few new members join the group in the midst of these caves. I wrote them into the story as being captives of the goblins. The conclusion involved a boss battle with the goblin chief and within his lair, where I had goblin lackeys hurling burning oil flasks down upon the group from a ledge over the main cavern. The goal was a dynamic encounter which I mostly pulled off.

In the end, the group had earned some loot, which they discovered was actually plundered loot from the poor citizens of Glasspring. I wanted to challenge their morals a bit as characters (do players even care about alignment these days?), they also had another piece of the puzzle regarding the bigger plot of the campaign. They were headed back to Glasspring for more answers....

Blood in the Chocolate: Review and thoughts

Recently I had the pleasure of the running my group through a one of shot of Blood in the Chocolate by Kiel Chenier from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. This adventure was the 2017 Ennie Award winning "Best Adventure". I converted this for use with D&D 5E since my group of players was most familiar with that system. This is adventure is a spin of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for the LotFP setting.

Our session was great, I had blast refereeing this one and the players felt the same, even though were some lamenting over a few of the poison effects, but those really helped to make the game dynamic and enjoyable. Right off the bat the random tables on the chocolate tasting effects hit my players as the group of Frenchmen that had hired them for this expedition let them sample a bit of the chocolate, I knew tonight was going to be fun.

The initial struggles my group had were with gaining access to the factory. Looking back, if I were to do another one-shot, I'd just start them inside the factory. My group actually experienced an almost TPK as they smuggled themselves in via the loading docks using a distraction from another member near the guardhouse. Also, two of the members were hit immediately with the Noxious Berry Curse during this encounter.

The fun, at least for the referee, in this adventure is watching as the group scrambles to "cure" and deal with these poisons as they are encountered through play. As my two players began to swell up with blueberry juice, they were trying everything, including have the other party members stab and slice them to drain them of juice, of course taking damage while doing so. This is A+stuff! 

The deeper the group moved into the factory, the more reluctant they were to touch or mess with anything. Mr. Chenier did a phenomenal job with this adventure, this was true horror in an almost comedic way and it wasn't mechanically forced upon the players. The group eventually encountered the villain of this module, Lucia De Castillio. She is not some magical beast or demon, she is just a shrewd-sexy and evil business woman. Ultimately, my group survived and took access to the factory, though some of the characters were forever changed by their experiences there.

Things that I loved about this book and adventure. The book layout is again fantastic from LotFP. Maps and tables on the inside covers (take note WoTC), great character building for Lucia, keyed locations in the book also include the portion the map they represent! LotFP has the absolute best quality of books and it's not even close. The poison effects are all horrifying and awesome! Anytime my group stumbled a check I was on pins and needles for what random effect they would now be dealing with, seriously this makes play of this adventure so good. Lucia is also a great villain, it's nice to see an non-typical and powerful woman for a change.

This is a perfect one-shot adventure for any group, seriously go find a copy and enjoy!

Session Recap: Keep on the Borderlands (12/29/17)

I am picking up these session recaps mid-stream on this campaign. To get you up to speed, we are playing 5th edition D&D. I initially had this group play through the Sunless Citadel (From the Tales from the Yawning Portal) converted to 5E. The group is a tad over-leveled for Keep on the Borderlands, but I have a few wrinkles that I'm tossing in to keep the game challenging. I should note that I'm basically running this straight out of the original B2 module.

The players for this session were:
Yvelda >> half-orc monk (Brian)
Nadar >> dragonborn paladin (Daniel)
Gensher >> tiefling paladin (Scott)

Player turn out was a little low for this one due to the holidays and people being away, but yet we persisted. The group picked up in the midst of clearing out the goblin warren of the Caves of Chaos. The goblins in my version are all red-cap goblins, meaning that they paint their hair with the blood of their enemies, but I play them fairly goofy and dumb, so most of the blood in their heads comes from their goblin buddies.

Let me diverge a minute and give my impressions of the power scaling in 5E player characters. They're too powerful! Just my opinion, but they are really a resilient bunch given the short rest options afforded to them. I've seen this in multiple game session in various campaigns, there is no fear in monster encounters once they reach the 3rd to 4th level and beyond, which leads to "lets kill everything" approach to play. To combat this, I try to flavor up my monsters a bit or toss in some unexpected abilities. In this session, the random encounter table did all of the work for me.

Back to the recap. The group pushed through a couple of large room goblin encounters making their way pretty easily to the chieftain's room. Many of the goblins had failed their moral check at this point and as the group based through the chieftain's barricaded door, these goblins were not looking for a fight. A few intimidate and persuasion (roleplaying checks as I call them) checks later and the group had cleared this section of the caves. They decided to take a short rest in the ogre cave and gather their loot before advancing, that's when I finally hit a random encounter and it was a doozy.

I rolled a 12 on a D12 >> Gelatinous Cube.

I had the cube waiting for them outside the cave pressed up against the wall, lead character Gensher missed his perception and he basically was one-shotted as the cube engulfed him pushing into the cave entrance. The next few rounds of combat were what make D&D great to me. Yvelda slowly chipped away at the hitpoints of the cube as I moved to engulf their hard earned loot, as Nadar did his best to pull Gensher out of the cube (barely accomplishing this). The two remaining members likely debated running with the loot leaving their companion to be consumed in the cube, but decided to stick it out risky life and limb. This is drama that no other game can simulate. Gensher survived making his final death save with a 2 / 2 split between living and dying...

They regrouped in the previously cleared kobold section of the caves and survived a long rest of random encounters, much to my surprise and disappointment. I'm telling you, really not a fan of the long / short rest mechanic in 5E...moving on they continued deeper into what they thought was the goblin section of caves, only to find out they had stumbled onto the hobgoblins. They don't have much trouble with the initial group of hobgoblins, even after I pulled the ones from the torture room down the hall. The group saves the hobgoblin captives, most importantly of which were the merchant and his wife. I tried to emphasis the horrors they had received at the hands of the hobgoblins and after a bit of convincing, they decided to escort them back to the Keep for a small reward. The merchant and his wife would have likely died on the road back had the group not decided to assist.

The party was likely needing a reset and to dump some loot at this point anyways, plus they had a quest item of sorts to turn into a general good merchant within the Keep. He had requested them find a lavish dress that had been stolen previously, his hope is to woo the barmaid at the Keep tavern whose husband was captured and currently MIA somewhere within the Caves of Chaos. I really love inserting a little conflict into the safe haven and the group took the bait on this one. In fact some members of the group are generally out to help the barmaid, while Nadar, who is a bit of chaotic paladin, is out to "assist" the merchant. There was a little drama between the two NPC's and now things are shaken up in the Keep. This was all great stuff and it is a open bit of story that the group wants to follow-up on when they aren't killing cave inhabitants.

We wrapped up, but I planted another story seed which I won't reveal just yet. I can't say enough how much I love my players, they are all fantastic role-players and they keep me guessing as a DM, evenings like this keep me fueled up to keep playing.

Sweet skeleton miniatures

I have to give a shout out to a recent purchase I made through the Facebook RPG Auctions group. Jeff Zahniser painted these sweet skeleton miniatures that I was lucky enough to win the bid on. 

Painting miniatures is something I've never really dove into. Most of the ones I own are of the prepainted variety, though I try to not to focus my games too much on their use. It's nice for my characters to have some representation of what is occurring in key encounters though.

Check these out though:

Needless to say, I envision some adventures in Barrowmaze just so I can put these guys to use!

The Shadowvale Campaign (The beginnings)

This will be a summary of the 5E campaign I ran over the past couple of years, named The Shadowvale. This campaign started in the Fall of 2015, I was new to 5E D&D and all of my initial players were all brand to role-playing games in general, in fact this would be their first game ever. I quickly familiarized myself with the rules, which I was initially quite impressed with, I feel that 5E harkens back to the 1st and 2nd edition of the game while keeping some of the character customization of 3rd edition...so win win to WoTC for that.

I had few notes that I had been working on for a homebrew adventure which would be the starting point. My initial points of emphasis were a sleepy border town, a corrupt and ambitious leader / mayor of this town, and a powerful artifact which use would bring about some questionable moral decisions for the group. Over the course of this campaign (3 years) I would have a few players come and go, but the central group consisted of the following:

Edric >> halfling cleric (Aaron)
Caedryn >> half-elf rogue (Brian)
Brugal >> half-orc fighter (Scott)
Trar >> human druid (Daniel)
Petros >> half-elf warlock (Rob)

Before play began, I continued to flesh out the world I envisioned a bit. These were all new players and I was still finding my feet a bit with 5E, so you'll see as this continues that I did not deviate from a lot of the standard fantasy troupes. A few other points I want to establish about this world were the following:

• Fallen gods. Though this would be unknown the natives of the world, the gods were living among them as mortals so to speak.
• Decline of the elves and dwarves. Both races were hidden away and the remaining population within the human culture were extremely low.
• Things are too quiet. The main protagonist, Darius, had discovered the hidden truth of regarding the Gods and he was going to make a power grab for godhood.
• The players enter the scene with things already set in motion, but not too late to "save the day".
• The artifact of power, the Book of the Shadowhorn, is ultimately evil, but it is the key to Darius's end-game.

I roughly formed up a map of the region, I'm certainly no artist as you'll come to find out.

Glasspring would the starting area and "homebase" for the PC's throughout the early part of the campaign. I was robbing a few itemsI enjoyed from the Rise of the Runelords adventure path for the start as well. The players begin in a festival, then an attack occurs allowing our heroes to be heroic, moving to an investigation phase. My hope was that they would start to grasp the rules and skill checks available in 5E. So, how did it go? Stay tuned.....