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!
Monday, December 17, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
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.....
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.....
Thursday, December 6, 2018
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
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?
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?
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
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 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?....
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