Monthly Archives: November 2019

Update on planning session 4 #2

D&D, RPG, session planning

I forget which YouTube/blog I was looking at, it was probably the Sly Flourish one, but still I came across a link to this great website called Hexagonal Graph Paper PDF Generator.

Which was just what I was looking for.

As the screen grab below shows it allows you to generate a custom sheet of hexagonal graph paper to your specific needs. Mine was 1/2 inch hexagons on a landscape A3 page. Which you download as a pdf.


There are some pregenerated pages as well for visitors to download if they match what they are looking for.

I took the pdf the site generated and took it into GoodNotes, and then saved the page as an image so I could use it in Pixelmator.

In Pixelmator I created a new image using the one just saved. That way I knew it was an A3 sized image. Then in another layer I brought in the map of the Sword Coast. Which I resized so that each hexagon on the map represented 25 miles. Using the map scale was handy for this.

Below is a screen shot of part of the finished product.

The final image is A3 size and is something I can print off and use with the players for when they hit the high seas.

If you remember back in the post where I briefly summarised different options for making travel interesting I mentioned the D&D adventure The Tomb of Annihilation and the method they used within the campaign. This map would be ideal for that method. But it might have to be tweaked to take into account the greater distances travelled by ships. For instance a Keelboat can travel 75 miles or three hexagons in a day.

Sadly for the players we will probably have to play test one or two of the ideas I have as solutions.

We now have a date for the fourth session. Which is the last Saturday of the month, which also happens to be the very last day of the month as well.

Some late Halloween RPG suggestions

D&D, RPG

Yeah I know Halloween was five days ago, so this is a little late.

But hey give me some slack I only just came across these two D&D Beyond posts.

Yes you could argue if I had checked D&D Beyond last week I could have posted this in a more timely manor.

Although in my defence I did post about trying a fantasy horror D&D adventure for free at the start of October. So in a way I was ahead of the game.

However D&D Beyond now have a couple of articles about playing Curse of Strahd in a single session that can be played at Halloween as a one shot.

Sadly to make use of these two most excellent posts you will need a copy of the Curse of Strahd Adventure book. They also recommend (although not necessary) the Galeforce 9 produced tarokka deck, a sixty minute hourglass, a top down map of Ravenloft (they point to a battle map pack on the DM’s Guild).

Here are the links to the two D&D Beyond posts.

Strahd Must Die Tonight! How to Play Ravenloft in a Single Night

Strahd Must Die Again (And Again And Again)

But what options are there if you don’t like the Ravenloft setting or want a break from the D&D system? Hence why I’m not mentioning Pathfinder first edition and the horror scenarios and rules it has. Plus not sure if they are out in second edition. I don’t play Pathfinder.

Well there is always the Lovecraftian Call of Cthulhu RPG. Like all good RPG’s these days they have a Starter box set that allows new players (both to RPGs and the system) to dip their toe in the system for a relatively cheap price. Sadly it’s not entirely possible to try the game for free with a bunch of friends. But if you visit their page here, you can get the basic rules and a solo adventure (both in starter set).

Another alternative is Tales from the Loop RPG. “In this roleplaying game in the vein of E.T. and Stranger Things, you’ll play teenagers solving mysteries connected to the Loop. The game rules are based on Mutant: Year Zero.” Sadly I’ve not located a free way to try before buying. Personally I think that’s a mistake. Which as far as I can tell the following two recommendations also make.

For a more mature r rated RPG gaming experience there is Vampire: The Masquerade which might be worth a look.

The final option that is the FFG The End of the World Series of RPG’s. In particular the Zombie Apocalypse one. Which seems more appropriate to the time of year than alien invasions or machines taking over.

I wish there was more “you can try these or play these for free” above. I don’t like the idea of splashing out money for stuff that might only see the light of day once a year. Plus that free option is great advertising to get people to maybe buy into the system once they have tried it.

Prepping for a session and an amazing find

D&D, RPG

Every now and then it has been known for the YouTube recommendations to recommend a hidden gem.

This morning it recommended a doozey

I like seeing and reading about how other DM’s prep for a session, or what they have in their DM tool box and the contents of their DM folder. They are great for stealing ideas from.

Every DM is different, the way they prep, the tools they use and the contents of their folder is unique to them. What works or is useful to one DM may be completely wrong for another. Plus the way they prep, the tools and content is constantly evolving. So whenever you get to see what another DM does, it is always just a snap shot of what they currently do. Come back a month, six months, a year later and it can be completely different, or there might be bits you recognise.

Back to this morning. After I refreshed my recommendations page on YouTube, I scanned the thumbnails for something interesting to watch. There amongst the usual mix of football analysis, recipe videos, and boardgaming/RPG videos was one from a channel I hadn’t seen before aFistfulofDice about prepping for an RPG (here is the actual video).

Yeah I’d seen the videos of how Matt Colville (yep worked him into the conversation) and how he preps for a session. I’d read The Lazy DM books. So my interest was piqued for how this DM went about prepping for their sessions.

The DM/GM who produces the aFistfulofDice videos uses notebooks (who doesn’t? Even in this digital age they can’t be beaten for easy of use and portability). And a combination of the Lazy DM, the 3-3-3 method and they talk about the IARR method.

Now my prep workflow (yeah let’s use some hip sounding jargon) is very personal to me. I use this blog to record ideas, think aloud and one day possibly get some comments, suggestions, about my up coming session. I capture notes for the session in Scrivener.

The image below shows the project structure I have for the current campaign.

Each session has it’s own folder. Plus the general research folder. Which is where I capture any relevant notes to the campaign, like webpages with useful info on.

Each session folder then has several documents inside it that contain my notes for each of the encounters for the session.

One of the nice things I like about Scrivener is that I can export just the pages for the session as a pdf. I have total control of what makes it into the final document. Which for me is the notes for the up coming session.

My notes vary in detail for each encounter. If I’m using a new mechanic, like the exploration or group challenge in the previous session, my notes will be more detailed. Otherwise they can be just a handful of words. I have noticed that I have been writing less detail in the notes compared to my first session.

I also use GoodNotes as a general digital notepad for the campaign. I use Excel to keep an up to date table of the players stats. I did use it to record the stats for each encounter as well. But I’ve moved away from that now I have the monster cards. I just make sure I have the relevant card handy, and just track the individual monster hit points during a combat.

But that’s enough of my process for the time being. I can write a longer more detailed post at a future date.

I naturally went to the channel page for aFistfulofDice and found a video they had done on their DM folder. That was very interesting. Well to me it was, granted it may not be for most people.

That DM folder idea was like striking a rich vein of gold. It came across that they used the folder more as notes for creating adventures than running them. Although with the info there it has (and I’m pretty sure they have), could be used during a session to generate something on the fly.

The find (ok it’s not exactly hidden) of the Lazy DM cheat sheet with NPC and adventure hooks was a great one. I’m going to get that printed out and added.

In the video they use some tables from the dungeon toolbox from the Pathfinder Games Master Guide. So I went and got a digital copy and boy am I glad I did. This book is a gold mine of useful info for a GM. The running the game chapter alone is worth the price of admission as they say. It’s fairly generic guidance, and easily applied to other systems. There really is a lot to love about the chapter, from the adventure structure to the emergency game prep advice. And advice on TPK’s! Then we have some tools for GM’s. These are tables and charts to act as inspiration for a GM. These too are generic and usable in any system. The cultural titles tables are fantastic, want to know the Chinese equivalent of a knight? These are the tables to refer to. But my favourite table has to be Words Every Game Master Should Know. Wow. Love, love, love it.

This is just a wealth of info and inspiration. I will be talking about one or two of them in future posts. Yes Pathfinder is not D&D. This Games Master Guide is for the first edition of Pathfinder. Which happens to be based on D&D 3.5. With the Pathfinder second edition now out, it should be possible to pick up second hand copies of this on the cheap. But the electronic version is not that expensive.

Another source of tables to use while creating an adventure that the video used was the Dungeon Alphabet. I’ll look into that one, it sounds interesting and useful.

It’s been a good morning for being inspired.

Update on planning session 4 #1

D&D, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

This next session is going to be interesting, two new members join the group for the first time.

The hook has been seeded for the party to meet up with the new members. Where it goes from their who knows?

So planning wise I need to have more options planned than I would normally. Well I say normally, but considering how new I am to being a DM and this will be my fifth session (including the taster) as such, is there really a normal? I am still after all finding out who I am as a DM, learning a little bit more each session as I journey along that path.

But so far I have used the information from the previous session to guide which hooks encounter I prepare for next.

All I know is at the moment that the party are going to the tavern to meet the new characters. Will they help them with their caper? Which is to steal a boat from the docks that belongs to Angrath?

Luckily the Lazy DM Workbook (LDW) has a docks map I can use. I just need to populate it with pirates.

I have new hooks to seed during the session. One of which uses another map from the LDW. That will also use a puzzle. And I have found the perfect puzzle to use.

I’m trying to build up the tools I have at my disposal to make sure that things are not predictable, keep the players engaged and are hopefully fun.

Thanks to the players coming up with their own hook in the last session, I’m going to push that a bit more as well, and provide a poster to the players promoting a “royal rumble” type event where the winner gets some awesome magical prize. It will be a non-lethal event, no deaths, so if they get to zero hit points they are unconscious and removed from the arena.

The Dungeon Dudes have a great video on YouTube entitled “Five Low Level Magic Items for Creative Players in Dungeon and Dragons 5e“. I might present those five items to the players if they win in the gladiator arena, and get them to pick one.

But it really is useful watching videos like the Dungeon Dudes to get inspiration. Another one I found interesting and relevant to this campaign is their video “Five Deadly Low-Level Monsters in Dungeons and Dragons 5e“. An interesting list, and discussion for sure. I’d already got kobolds and the gelatinous cube in the index card box ready to call on at a moments notice. But the other three on the list I hadn’t considered. Well not entirely I had considered a swarm of rats at some point. But their suggestion of a swarm of rot grubs warranted further investigation. So off to Volo’s Guide it was. Wow what a nasty little creature. Something like that would need telegraphing big time before hand. I’d almost be clumsy about it having the party witness an npc being killed by them. Say have them in a tavern, in barges a group of farmers carrying a body. It’s still alive. They are calling for some-one to get a cleric. Have the cleric arrive too late, but describe what is happening to the body. Have other npc’s shout advice etc.

Luckily between starting this post and finishing it off I remembered that our druid can now change shape. So now I need to consider what beasts are scattered through out the campaign to feed that ability. At the moment they can chose an ox!

But this does present an interesting situation. Which will require me to discuss with the players before hand if they will be comfortable with the subject matter. That sounds all ominous, but not really. Just the considerate thing to do. Being in Mintarn and this being a Western European fantasy setting, one way to allow the druid to see a beast such as a bear is to have a performing one, or have them fighting other beasts in the gladiator arena. It presents a situation that the players will have to handle that has a moral element to it. And is definitely a subject matter that I’d like to as a DM to discuss with the players before hand.

On when the next session will be I started that discussion off on the Messenger group this morning. No one had made a move. And it needed starting. I also proposed a date in December also for the 5th session.

I’ve also mapped out when the players will level up based on each session being worth 2 points (remember we are using the adventure league way of levelling as described in the appendix of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything). It means our new players will level up the session after the others have. There will always be that little bit of drag.

Meet Thy Doom – on a single page

D&D, RPG

With the general election in full swing now, battle lines are being drawn. Lies and smears of the elite are being thrown at the threat they see from Corbyn. Which will only get worse as the election goes on.

MP’s shout sound bites into the void of social media, hoping that the half truths and out right lies stick. Aided by a compliant press unwilling to pull them up on it.

It’s all too depressing really.

The title of this D&D 5e homage to the video game classic Doom seems so apt.

So what we have below is a first attempt to make this a one page adventure.

It was definitely an interesting exercise trying to fit everything onto a single page. I did this version in Pages on the iPad. The results are so so at best.

So next I tried using Word on the iPad.

I’m happier with the results. But still not brilliant.

2020 The Year of Commander

magic, MtG, news

Wednesday was a big big MtG news day for Commander players.

Some what unusual for WotC they announced their product plans for the format months in advance.

Thanks to the Command Zone I can “borrow” their summary timeline from their announcement video. Ok “borrow” implies I may have asked. And I didn’t I just took it.

As you can see the Commander goodness kicks off in April next year when we get the Commander pre-cons early. Which is nice because they will have arrived just in time for my birthday. This time around we are getting five, yes five Commander decks. Which will be themed around the Ikoria set that comes out at the same time. Not only are we getting that additional deck, but there will be 71 new Commander cards spread amongst the five decks. Plus reprints. Oh and we can buy the new Commander decks prerelease weekend. Sweet.

The third quarter of 2020 sees two more Commander pre-cons released along side the Zendikar Rising set. These will be themed around Zendikar Rising, contain three new cards each. The major difference will be the packaging. There will be no large foil Commander card, and will be packaged more like the Brawl decks (apparently). These decks will replace the Planeswalker decks for this set.

For the last two years we have had Planeswalker themed spellbooks. They have been replaced with a green themed Commander Collection. Eight reprinted cards from the history MtG for the Commander player. I believe there will be a foil and regular version of this if I heard right in the video.

Then a biggie drops in the final quarter of the year (just in time for Christmas I bet) Commander Legends. Apparently this is draft meets Commander! 70 new Legends to build with. A booster box is 20 packs, with each pack containing a foil and two legendaries.

Along side Commander Legends comes two more Commander pre-con decks. Which get the same treatment as the Zendikar Rising decks.

So it looks like WotC are targeting Commander players in 2020. Not surprising it is their most popular format.

So if my maths is correct, over the year we are getting nine new Commander pre-con decks. That sees 83 new Commander cards. Add in the 70 new Legends from the Commander set, and that rises to 153 new cards. And we are not even taking into account any obvious new Commander cards in the regular set releases or any Brawl decks (we know it’s dead). That’s a massive number of cards to add.

I like that the four pre-cons out side of the big annual Commander release are meant to be starting off points, and not part of that designed to be played against each other design of the main release.

It also nice to see that WotC want to make it easier for players, especially new ones to get their hands on Commander staples. Does that mean we will get to see some of the more expensive lands reprinted, or the likes of Cyclonic Rift? I can see the recent Brawl cards that Commander players went crazy over making it into these pre-cons. I don’t think we will see any big reprints in the decks themselves. But Commander Legends is another matter indeed.

There is no doubt that this stuff will sell. I just hope they print enough to meet demand. To make it accessible for that new player they need product on shelves, selling at the retail price. Yes I know that WotC dropped MSRP, then put up the cost to distributors, and that ripples down the supply chain to the consumer paying more at the till. But let’s assume the set pre-cons should be selling for around £30, then they should not be being sold for £50, £60,or £90 just because WotC got the demand wrong, and didn’t print enough copies. Even if that was the case, and WotC did a large print run that still didn’t meet demand, which is likely. They need a second (even third) print run hitting stores ASAP after the release date. Eliminate that window of scalping, or reduce it to the shortest period possible.

You can read the official post which has the Command Zone announcement video and previewed art HERE.

In other big MtG news. Somehow an individual got their hands on a handful of Theros Beyond Death boosters, and posted photos of the cards.

I’ve had a brief look at the photos that are circulating on line to see what new and returning mechanics there are.

If you liked Sagas from Dominaria then you will be pleased to know that they are returning in Theros Beyond Death. Have to admit they are a bit of fun to play.

The Constellation mechanic is making a return. Does this hint that enchantments will be a bigger thing in this set?

There is an Omen enchantment cycle. Which has an appropriate colour etb effect, and then a 3CMC sacrifice the card to Scry 2, and they have flash.

Escape is a new mechanic being introduced that allows you to cast a card from the graveyard. You exile four other cards from your graveyard and pay the escape cost of the card to be able to cast the card from the graveyard.

One or two of the leaked cards look sweet. But the take home is the above really.