Monthly Archives: May 2019

In the wake of Pytheas – Session Zero Postmortem

D&D, post mortem, RPG

So Saturday saw my first session zero as a DM.

The players had before hand been given the one sheet about the campaign, albeit digitally (my post about it is here).

I’d created a cheat sheet for creating a character in D&D 5e. Which I had printed out earlier in the week. Sadly when I was printing out that, I should have also printed out blank character sheets. Something I didn’t think about until I was on my way to the session zero. Luckily Jonathan was able to save the day on that front.

Why did I want to go “old school” instead of using something like D&D Beyond which does all the heavy lifting for you?

I don’t mind tools like that, that make life easier. But before you start using one of them I think you need to at least create one character the traditional way. I think it gives a better understanding of the character sheet and how the various stats, modifiers etc on the character sheet are related to each other.

Also a benefit of doing it this way doesn’t rely on everyone having a laptop,tablet or smart phone to access their character. Or everyone has that stuff, or is comfortable using it. Plus a mobile is not the ideal device to use.

I did have to poo poo a couple of character choices. No goblin characters, and there was something to do with a ranger, that was detailed online (I think the person was looking at D&D Beyond). I had to remind them of the line from the one sheet that pointed to what was valid for our campaign. If it wasn’t in one of the books listed, they couldn’t have it.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Financial overhead for players. I know eventually I’ll pick up Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. And if I listed them as also valid some may feel they would have to purchase them as well. That’s a pressure that I didn’t want the players to have. And this goes double for D&D Beyond. I know there is a free part to it. But access to the majority of stuff costs.

Another reason is simplicity. The Players Guide can seem overwhelming as it is. I know I added in the Swordcoast too for players to use if they wished. But that added a little more to consider. But not a big overhead. Juggling between these two will be bad enough I think for new players, adding in more books would just be too confusing I think.

I really should have looked up advice on running a session zero. I was there giving advice when needed. Early on I tried to get people to talk about their character, so at least they had an idea what others were going for. That might have influenced their decision on what to play. I wasn’t going to say “oh you need a healer, fighter, etc”. If at the end of this they all had decided to play bards then that’s the decision we would have lived with, and I’d adjust the campaign to cater for that. Which makes it sound like I have it all planned out. I don’t. I’m working on the initial dungeon, and that is the extent of the planning so far.

But I feel I could have run the session better.

I think the cheat sheets helped.

I should have supported the usual suspect better in creating his character. I should have noticed earlier that he was struggling. Which is a major failing on my behalf. I did keep checking in during the session, and each time I was told they were fine.

At the end I took photos of the character sheets. So there are copies if things get lost between now and our first session. Plus I can pull off the info I need for my session prep.

So my first session zero I think I’d grade could do better.

Scythe Modular Board Announced

news

At the end of the month (29th May) fans of Scythe can preorder the final expansion for the game, the Scythe Modular Board from Stonemaier Games.

It’s not a well kept secret Scythe is my all time favourite game. So having the ability to shake things up even more. Wow. The replay ability goes through the roof. And it already scores high on that front with the other expansions.

The question I have about this is would it work with the neoprene mat? I suspect not.

But I’m excited about this. Can’t wait for it to hit. And if the Wingspan preorder is anything to go by, this will be in players hands before the end of June. But that’s a major assumption on my part. Naturally if you want to get it from your FLGS it will be in for a longer wait. It’s late Summer apparently.

War of the Spark Standard Deck Thinking

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s time for more thinking aloud about new deck ideas for Standard.

I’ve got a couple of deck ideas that have been kicking around my noggin recently.

The first is a black/white or Orzhov deck using lots of cheap 1 CMC creatures.

That was the original thinking. There are a lot of 1 CMC creatures between these two colours. Some have deathtouch, or can be given deathtouch and come in as 1/2 instead of a 1/1.

So my thinking for the initial version of this deck was to go with creatures that had lifelink, and have other cards that gave me a benefit for gaining life.

But because these small creatures will die easily I wanted to get a benefit from that as well.


Having a couple of chances to proliferate is also handy because that will allow me to pump up those creatures like Ajani’s Pridemate even more, and push up any Planeswalkers I have out.

God-Eternal Oketra is the “big hitter” for the deck. But sideboarding one or two of the black 6/6 flyers might be an option also.


I’ve not decided what removal spells to use. But at most that will account for 10 cards of the deck at most. Plus sideboard cards naturally. I’m thinking the sideboard will be mainly spells like duress or removal.

My main drawback at the moment is I don’t have any of the check or shock lands for this deck.

The second deck is returning to Simic to create a Simic Ascendancy deck.

An early if not the first version of my Simic deck had Simic Ascendancy in it, as did John’s merfolk deck. John tried to get it to work more than I did. If my memory isn’t failing me, I don’t think it made the cut into my second version of the deck. Eventually John also gave up on the card. The issue was it was too slow.

However with the re-introduction of the proliferate mechanic, I think it might just be viable.

This deck is not as advanced as the Orzhov deck. But I think I can get something together by the time our casual mtg night starts tomorrow.

Angrath‘s Raiders

D&D, RPG

WARNING TO ANYONE IN MY D&D GROUP: This has spoilers about the upcoming campaign. You may not want to read any further and experience the twists and turns as they happen. Assuming that is you come across what I am discussing in this post. It’s always possible you may never come across it.

Session zero is this weekend. This will be my first session zero as a DM. So once again I’m a little apprehensive about it. Not as much as I was for the taster session. But still the nerves are there.

However my thoughts aren’t really with that session zero. They are more with the start of the campaign and the first encounter and “dungeon”.

The plan is starting to formulate in my head. So now I need to start capturing those thoughts. Which brings us to this post.

From the player campaign intro sheet that I wrote (you can get it here) we know that the first encounter for the campaign will be the players and the ship owner and his crew. So I have that handled. Happy with that.

I’m thinking of having the players end up on a secluded beach somewhere. There will be cliffs too difficult to climb, trapping them on the beach. But they will discover a cave entrance. I’m toying with the idea of having an encounter on the beach with possibly a giant crab.

Naturally it would be handy if the players explore the cave. Inside they find it empty but at the back will be carved steps going up.

This will be the secret entrance to a pirate den (is that the correct word to use here?) And so the party will explore the den and fight some pirates, eventually they will emerge into a tomb. This tomb will be the secret room from the taster session. Yep they will be exiting the pirate den through the tomb of the Delian Order. There won’t be any goblins in it, just their decayed remains.

From there the party will… I’m not sure. So I have a plan, kind of.

Let’s go back to the pirates.

I had been wondering about what creatures to use for the first dungeon. Then it hit me this is a nautical, island hoping campaign. There will be pirates.

So naturally I’ve been sourcing pirate miniatures.

But my pirates are not solely humans. They are a mixed bag of races. I have human pirates, a dwarf, half elf, orcs, and some vikings (which are human).

Why vikings as pirates? Well I thought there were bound to be some in this band of pirates considering that a large part of the Moonshae Islands has a Norse influence. Which says to me viking. Or they look like them at the least.

The pirates do have a leader, and I’m blatantly borrowing the leader from MtG. The leader is Angrath the Minotaur pirate.


I’ve found a cool Minotaur mini to use for him.

Angrath is going to be a major character in this campaign. So I like the idea of introducing him early on. I’m also toying with the idea of having the half elf be his lieutenant. And also a recurring character.

I’d love to have a Vraska pirate mini also, as I’d love to have her as a character. But as I type that I’m thinking I can still do that. I can have Vraska and Angrath as two competing pirates, with the players always getting caught in the middle.

Now to design a pirates den!