Category Archives: D&D

Dwarven Gate Progress

D&D, miniatures, RPG

I thought I’d just share the progress on printing the dwarven gate(s) that Duncan is doing for me.

The first gate has finished printing. Duncan sent me some photos of it assembled, that I’m sharing below with you.

Ok it is being held together by blutac. So once I glue/fix them into position it will fit more cleanly. This was only done to give me an idea of how they will look, and progress.

I have to say it looks pretty amazing. I really think when these get out on the table they have a wow factor.

Duncan has nearly finished the second gate. With all the hiccups worked out in printing them he’s raced through the separate parts that make up the gate.

Can’t wait to to get my grubby mitts on them, and more importantly use them in a game of D&D.

Return to Ravenloft this May

D&D, news, RPG

Tuesday WotC announced their next book release for D&D 5e, “Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft”.

This new tome is a campaign source book that will allow DM’s to craft horror themed campaigns for D&D in the expanded Domains of Dread (the first time in 5e).

Naturally there will be new stuff for players such as backgrounds, character lineages, and subclasses, themed for a horror setting. Plus dark gifts, trinkets, creatures and a brand new adventure.

I have to say that my initial impressions of the cover art were not favourable. It didn’t excite or grab me at all. Maybe the FLGS exclusive alt art cover (below right) will look better in the flesh.

With this release the recent on going theme for D&D of producing horror themed titles continues. It started with Rime of the Frostmaiden, and was followed up with the Curse of Strahd Revamped release. Ok Candlekeep Mysteries (out next on 16th March) does break from that, but hey who knows there might be a horror one shot in its pages!

I’m excited for this release (although I’d have been more excited about it being Dragonlance). Horror in D&D interests me. And I’m interested in what advice the folks at WotC will be sharing within the pages on running and creating horror campaigns.

“Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft” drops into your FLGS on 18th May.

You can read the full product description on the WotC D&D website HERE.

Some 3D printing currently in progress

D&D, Last Days, RPG

My friend Duncan is printing off a couple of Dwarven doors for me on his 3D printer. And I thought I’d share with you the latest progress photo he sent me.

This is looking pretty awesome. And will look amazing on the tabletop.

Duncan has also been printing other things for me too.

Despite having not played a game of it yet, Duncan is printing some new threats to use with Last Days, triffids.

Wait, Last Days is all about zombies you say.

And yes it is. However in issue 2 of Blaster, Ash Barker, the games creator, published rules called Last Days Evolution. These rule additions allow you to retheme Last Days. So instead of zombies you could have for example triffids, or xenomorphs.

Luckily there is a 3D modeller who did a set of triffid models for printing. Which I discovered by accident looking for 3D models for something else. When I saw them I instantly thought of the new rules. I could instead of playing The Walking Dead/Dawn of the Dead, now I can be playing Day of the Triffids.

I have fond memories of the BBC adaptation of the book from the 80’s. Which would account for why it’s sitting in my Amazon Prime library. Wasn’t too keen on the new version they did a few years back.

So I’m pretty excited about getting some triffids (which may or may not turn up as a threat in our D&D campaign) and using them in a game.

As I was writing this post the 3D modeller gave an update that they have updated their cylon models (see below).

They look pretty cool. I do prefer the classic 80’s tv show cylon to the reboot version. Although I do love the reboot.

And yes, Last Days and the Evolution rules could be used so that these fine cylons could be the threat.

The scenario would be the cylons have located Earth and launched an invasion, killing any humans they come across. Which would allow me to reuse the the stuff I have put together already to use with Last Days.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Galeforce 9 sell an Aliens board game called Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corp. Luckily there is no need to buy the game and it’s expansions to get the miniatures. GF9 kindly sell those separately. So along with using them for the Alien RPG (probably why they decided to do this), yep using the Last Days Evolution rules all of a sudden it gets an Aliens reskinning!

This two could use my current scatter terrain because in the classic Dark Horse Alien comic the xenomorphs did get to Earth.

However I need to start getting some reusable sci-fi terrain together for various RPGs which could be used with cylons and also aliens. But that project is for another day.

I love that Last Days is flexible enough now to cater for most people’s needs. It can be a 1v1 skirmish game, co-op, or even solo. It can be a campaign or one-off. It can be any theme you want now. Plus the Timelines rules from issue 1 of Blaster allow you to play in either modern or the Wild West! Although the article reads like there should be other time period examples as well, or that it was written as another rule book for the game.

I can’t wait to get this to the table.

From the vaults!

Blast from the past, D&D, Judge Dredd, miniatures, RPG

Chance is a funny ol’ thing.

It was by chance that I stumbled across some old miniatures in the bottom of a cardboard box, that I had totally forgotten I owned.

These miniatures are over 30 years old now! We are talking circa 1988-89. That was a period of my life that had more than its share of life changing events.

I really don’t know how I ended up with a painted set of Dark Judges. I must of had them for playing the Judge Dredd RPG. But I never did get round to playing it.

I most definitely can’t tell you for sure who painted them either. I remember my good friend Chris Thompson did some painting for me. I’m pretty sure he did the minotaur below. And most likely he did the others too. The one thing we can be sure of is I didn’t paint them.

But I’m not complaining. How ever these came into my possession back then they will be perfect to use with the Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 A.D. RPG now (assuming I can get people to play that is, or will it be like the original RPG for me?) At some point in the next couple of years EN Publishing will be making the Dark Judges supplement. I can’t wait for that to be released. These will be perfect.

The minotaur is for Bloodbowl, and that would be first edition Bloodbowl. Naturally I don’t play Bloodbowl now a days or since I first owned this miniature back in the day. However I think I’ve just got my Angrath miniature for my D&D campaign!

I have no idea what so ever why I ever got these two ninja miniatures. They do seem a tad on the big side. But I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

Finally the two unpainted miniatures are Gandalf and Legolas from LoTR. If memory serves me right they were part of a set that made up the fellowship of the ring. Where the others are I have no idea. Unlike the ninjas these two figures seem on the small side!

I think these bits of my gaming history from when I was studying in Brighton bring back some fond memories from that time. Memories that often get over shadowed by the more life changing ones that were happening at the time.

Back then I played MERP on a Wednesday afternoon, as the hobbit Dram. It was the role playing society that taught me the secret to making alcoholic jelly, and introduced me to LARPing. Good times. Care free times. Maybe that’s why I’ve backed Free Leagues The One Ring 2nd edition. It’s a different system to MERP but maybe I’m hoping that it will recapture those good times once again.

Essential DM Reading For D&D

D&D, DM/GM Tips

Who am I as a newbie DM giving advice? How do I know what to advise another new Dm needs to read and pay particular attention to from the core books?

Luckily the Dungeon Dudes talked about this in a video Christmas Eve. Yes I know this might seem a bit late to be telling you about it. But to be fair I wasn’t going to do a post about it. Then Sly Flourish did a post about reading material for DM’s and I thought you know what I should make a record of this for myself (and share it with others).

So I have screen grabbed the summary from the Dungeon Dudes video (link below) of the pages that they think a beginning DM should read. I added the image to the notes app on iOS (it seems to be my go to note keeping place at the moment).

You can watch the video HERE, or jump straight to the detailed good stuff that they put into a Google doc HERE.

Personally I think I have distilled a lot of this stuff down to a single A4 page!

I call it a cheat sheet, and is something I can refer to quickly (it’s something I keep wanting to do for the likes of Genesys or Judge Dredd too). It’s basically all the dice based checks as simple formula (as the snippet above shows). You can pick up a copy from Dropbox HERE (it’s a word doc so you can edit to fit your own needs if you want).

In the DM Guide there is the infamous Appendix D: Dungeon Master Inspiration with a list of books to “help you become a better storyteller, writer, performer,and mapmaker.”

However Sly Flourish recently (in the last couple of days as I write this) wrote a post with an alternative reading list for DM’s (link HERE). Which I thought was a particularly good reading list (with links), and not just because I had more than one of the books on the list (and felt a little smug having them already).

I like lists like this because they often suggest titles that I may never have considered or even known about. And new sources of inspiration and knowledge are always welcome.

I hope folks have found this a useful post.

Pointcrawls

D&D, RPG

Ever since Sly Flourish in his weekly DM Prep YouTube video mentioned and then started using Pointcrawls in his Eberron campaign I’ve been curious.

Being the lazy so and so I am. Instead of doing my own research on Pointcrawls, I decided to wait for Sly Flourish to write a blog post about them.

The waiting game paid off when Sly Flourish recently put up a YouTube video about Pointcrawls with links to articles that go into them in more depth.

I’ve embedded the video below.

So why am I interested in Pointcrawls?

Way back I wrote a post about travel and making them interesting.

Within our campaign we have land and sea travel.

For the land travel I have tried using The One Ring rules, or a version of. It went ok. For the sea travel I used a variation of the hex crawl rules from Tomb of Annihilation. Which also seemed fine.

But I’m constantly conscious of the players getting bored, not engage, or tired of the repetitive nature that these types of travel have.

Pointcrawls sound like from what Sly Flourish has said something I may find solves some of this. Obviously it will have its own drawbacks. Which I’m sure will become clear once I start reading the articles Sly links too.

And the one thing I can be sure of with current world events is I have time to look into this before our campaign resumes.

Quest Decks by Dice Dungeons

D&D, first look, new arrivals, RPG

Nearly a year ago now I backed a Kickstarter for these deck of cards to be used with RPGs called Quest Decks.

By there end of the Kickstarter there were ten quest decks unlocked. These decks covered various genres and types of missions:

” •  The Notice Board – Filled with traditional quests a party may find in a fantasy town.

•  For The Crown – Plunges your character into a world of nobles and intrigue. A chance at bigger rewards, but with higher stakes.

•  Into The Stars – This sci-fi themed deck will take your players on Interstellar adventures. Designed to work great for space-fairing games such as Stars without Number and Starfinder.

•  Grimm Adventures – Explore spooky crypts and dark secrets in this eerie, ghost-themed deck.

•  Coastal Threats – Great for coastal regions and seafaring campaigns. Explore docks districts and seek buried treasure.

•  Far-flung Journeys – Embark on quests that require distant travel that will take you beyond the edge of world.

•  Neon Dystopia – From megacorps to mechanoids, dive into the neon shadows of the future in this cyberpunk inspired deck.

•  Eldritch Omens – Bring a touch of madness to your game and investigate unknowable horrors with this Lovecraftian themed horror deck.

•  Uncharted Expanse – Take your sci-fi adventures to edge as you explore the outer regions space.

•  Partners in Crime – This deck will have you using all your wits and cunning to plan heists, shake down shop owners, and fight for territory.” (Taken from the Kickstarter page)

I backed for five decks of my choice (a decision based on funds, and interest), and the physical copies arrived a couple of days back. I’ve had the digital versions of the decks I chose for a while. But unless I was in a hurry to use them, printing my own copies to use didn’t appeal to me.

The nice thing about the digital version of the decks was the “bonus” content. These are pdfs that any DM would find useful. There were three in total, A Lively Encounter (tables to add depth to random encounters), 50 Plot Points to Add Depth to Your Side Quests, and D100 Names (can never have enough lists of names).

The decks themselves are fine quality wise. I’d have preferred maybe better card stock for the deck boxes and cards. However I plan to sleeve the cards anyway, which means the deck boxes are redundant and most likely for the bin.

Each deck consists of forty five quest cards, three blank cards, a quick guide card (although the Quest deck didn’t have this), and an advert card for more Quest Decks.

I’m looking forward to using these Quest Decks. Tie them in with some of the other decks and the npc dice, and it’s possible to create a random quest, dungeon, and NPC’s on the fly during a session. Or as inspiration whilst session planning.

What is old is new!

D&D, RPG

Well the new year is upon us and so far very little has changed from the previous year. It’s just more of the corruption, lies, ineptitude, shelfishness and just plain old incompetence.

My bedtime routine during the last few nights has consisted of listening to the 12 Days of Christmas Edition Wars from The Tome Show podcast. “In this special mini-series Brandes Stoddard and Sam Dillon take a deep dive into the Dungeon Master’s Guides from each edition of our favorite game.”

It’s been a fascinating look at the previous editions and this morning I finally got round to digging out the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 for D&D 3.5, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide for D&D 4.

There were a couple of things that the hosts mentioned that I thought sounded still valid for use with the current 5th edition. And I wanted to make sure I had them as notes to refer to later on when session prepping or running a session.

The first thing I added to my notes was the sidebar on page 30 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 2 for 3.5. This contains “Sample Move Descriptions” and “Sample Quips and Battle Cries”. I thought these would be something I can add instantly to my combat encounters (once our sessions start back up).

I also made note of the Prioritizing section on pages 32 – 34. This is all about what you can do preparing for a session based on how much time you have available to prepare. Although I’m a fan of the Lazy DM. It’s always handy having another opinion. Plus I thought at some point it might be an interesting exercise to contrast and compare the two.

Page 34 also has handy ideas on aids you can create outside of the session to help improvise at the table. Which cross references to a handy table on page 98 to create random tavern names. I already have plenty of tables to use for names. But I might look at the other suggestions in a post.

I thought the Random Politics table on page 86 looked very useful for its intended use of creating a quick political profile for a medieval-style kingdom. I can use this every time my adventurers discover/arrive at an island.

The 50 Rumors and Hooks on pages 88 – 90 to use within Towns and Cities looks handy for bringing them to life in my campaign.

Another long but handy list/table to have starts on page 99 – 101 is the 100 Instant NPC Agendas. This will hopefully bring my NPC’s to life and make them more memorable.

The Dungeon Master’s Guide for 4e had one page I wanted to add, and that was purely from what The Tome Show said about it. That was page 42. It talks about actions the rules don’t cover. When I saw this page I thought “this looks kinda familiar”. Indeed it did it looked similar to a page from the Lazy DM Workbook. And like one or two comments by me above I think it will be a the subject of another post comparing the two.

I should note that a fair bit of the advice on sessions, planning adventures and campaigns that isn’t system specific still is of use today.

Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit

D&D, RPG

I think it’s well known that I like generating random content and having tables to roll against.

My latest addition to the myriad of tables for me to use for inspiration while session planning or even during a session is the Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit from Roll & Play Press.

Roll & Play was published with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign (one that I sadly did not back), and was finally available to the public to purchase last November.

There are over 120 tables with in the pages that cover I would say the majority of a DM’s needs. The contents above give you a good idea of the sort of tables included.

I like that the tables use a variety of die. They are not just d20’s, but you will be using d8’s, d12’s, and d100’s as well.

Another nice feature of the book is that it is spiral bound. Which means it can lie flat or fold in half. The paper stock used is quite thick and robust as well. And should take rough handling, along with wear and tear of use from being lugged around in a bag really well.

Along with the many tables, scattered throughout is handy advice relevant to the table you are rolling against. Which in itself could inspire.

Roll & Play: The Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit is different from one or two of the books of tables I have because those were aimed squarely at session prep, whilst this sits firmly on the fence of being able to be used for session prep and during a session. With the emphasis on the during a session.

The Unhallowed temple of the Phase Spider

#randomdungeon, D&D, RPG

I can’t believe I forgot that I had another way of generating ideas for an adventure using random content from tables using dice rolls.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m a fan of Sly Flourish aka Mike Shay and his “Way of the Lazy DM” (that’s my words about it not his).

Each week on YouTube Mike uploads his twitch stream of his prep for his ongoing campaigns. Which are really useful to see the lazy DM principles at work, how another DM preps for a session, and their thoughts on the adventure they are currently running and D&D in general.

Mike has a Patreon (which popular content creator doesn’t?) One of the perks of being a patron (ie giving them money) is access to a regular updated document of Adventure Generators.

“These generators are not complete adventures. They’re intended to inspire you to develop your own adventures based on these themes. They’re intended to help you quickly and easily come up with a scenario that you’d want to run for your group.”

The current themes covered are “Adventurers for Hire”, “Dungeons Deep”, “Seven Samurai”, “Arena of Fate”, “Jaws”, “Apocalypse Now”, and “Dogs of War”. As you can probably guess from the theme names more than one of them has been inspired by a popular movie.

If you can’t decide even on a theme to use, you could always create your own table to roll against to select a theme before moving onto that themes tables.

For this example exercise I’m going to come up with a scenario that could be used in my currently on hiatus D&D campaign.

Although I think any of the themes would work within the campaign. We have already done an arena combat. So I’m ruling that one out for now. I’m feeling pulled towards the “Jaws” theme.

The premise for this obvious movie inspired theme is the following:

“A powerful beast of nightmare holds a settlement in terror. The characters are hired to cut through the threats of the wilds and hunt down the beast before it can kill again.”

There are six tables that I will be rolling a d20 against to create this themed scenario.

The first table is “What is the Beast?” I rolled a 9. Which means my big bad for this scenario is a “Phase Spider“. Not very nautical. But let’s see how this comes out.

The next table and question I am rolling an answer for is “What Makes the Beast Unique?” For this I rolled a 2. So the Phase Spider “Can turn invisible”. This beast is going to be one difficult so and so to get rid of when this combines with it’s ability to “…magically shift from the Material Plane to the Ethereal Plane, or vice versa.”

The Phase Spider needs a liar, and that is the next table “Where does the Beast Reside?” Unlucky for some I rolled a 13. So it looks like my party of adventurers will be venturing into an “Unhallowed temple”.

The next table/question we roll against tells me “Who Protects the Beast?” The d20 said 15. This came out with Devils protecting the Phase Spider. I like this a lot. It fits very very nicely with the previous tables result. Plus this gives an opportunity to make a “deal with a devil”.

Let’s find out what motivates the Phase Spider against the next table “What Drives the Beast?” Double unlucky for my adventurers I rolled 13 again. So the Phase Spider is the “Guardian of a disturbed tomb”. Wow these last two rolls have come up trumps for the liar.

The final table tells us “Who Else Hunts the Beast?” The dice have spoken with a 12. Which means some Trophy hunters are also hunting the Phase Spider.

So here is our adventure idea:

“The adventurers arrive at an island where a Phase Spider has held a settlement in terror ever since clerics disturbed it trying to recover holy relics from a tomb. The adventurers have been hired to hunt down the beast in it’s liar, a nearby unhallowed temple before it can kill again. But the adventurers are not the only ones hunting the Phase Spider, Trophy Hunters have been seen in the area. Rumour has it that the temple is guarded by devils.”

I went to the Dyson Logos blog and searched for temple maps. As you can probably guess there are a few temple maps to choose from.

The secret for me in which to choose is how big a map do I want to use, and does it look right for what I’m using it for.

I decided to go with the “Ye Olde Temple & Crypts” map.

I like that it has crypts. They speak spider lair to me.

The next step with the map is to follow the steps in this Sly Flourish post “Building Lazy Dungeons“. But that’s something for another post on another day.

So there we have it a quick adventure generated for my campaign. A third way of inspiring ideas!