Category Archives: RPG

Venturing into the Shadowdark #2

one shot, RPG, session planning, Shadowdark

With Saturdays D&D session now behind me, my thoughts are now turned towards Wednesday and the Shadowdark one-shot.

As hinted in the initial post that prep involves watching some videos by Kelsey (the games designer). Which I’ve embedded below for easy reference and rewatching for me.

These videos are great as a resource for some-one looking to try Shadowdark, and particularly the Quick Start kit with it’s included adventure.

I know that one player has already created a human priest character for the session.

I’m not sure which direction the other players want to go, whether that’s using precons or roll their own. I’ll find out on the night I suppose.

In meantime I need to try and create a version of the Shadowdark GM cheat sheet that I did for D&D.

Looking forward to playing this.

D&D Grp 2 Session 14 Planning #2

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

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

It’s the morning of game day. So it’s time to go through the Lazy GM (rebranded during the OGL Fiasco of 2023) steps to get ready.

But before I do that I was processing some last minute ideas for this session and future ones.

Yesterday I went to the online printer in the UK that I found (Doxzoo) and had the WotC plane shift booklets for Ixalan and Innistrad ordered along with a copy of a book I got off the DMs Guild on harvesting monsters (there is no print option).

I’ve been on the edge of pulling the trigger on purchasing the latest D&D adventure compendium Keys from the Golden Vault to get the gambling games rules.

However a quick Google got me those rules. So I can punt that decision into the future. So I have the ability to run Three-Dragon Ante and Life and Death during a session.

I like the idea of having this as an option to make visits to a tavern more interesting. I’m also toying with the idea of possibly using Life and Death today!

It’s possible that the lizardfolk the party will bump into will challenge the party to a game with some reward other than money as the prize for winning, such as a map.

I’ve also this morning ordered a copy of Three-Dragon Ante off Amazon along with a wooden box to keep the deck of many things in.

Obviously with Three-Dragon Ante arriving tomorrow playing that will be an option in future sessions. Whilst I could use the deck of many things today if I so wished. I think the mystery box will add to the theatrics when it is final found. Although I do like the idea of using it for the deck of illusions as well.

I’m also working on my own cheat sheet, slash riff on the generator tables by Sly Flourish for harvesting based on the pdf book I bought on harvesting. As I want to use harvesting of monsters more productively with the party seeing as they have been harvesting corpses! The hope of this sheet is that it will help me improvise harvesting during a session. Or during planning for a monster I stat out using the Folio of Fiends.

I also whilst skimming through the stuff about the latest WotC adventure thingy got reminded of the arcane lock spell. A spell that will be used either in this session or the next I think.

Right got to go and do those lazy steps…

Venturing into the Shadowdark #1

one shot, RPG, session planning, Shadowdark

Plans are afoot to run a one-shot using the free Shadowdark rpg QuickStart from Arcane Library (and available FREE on DriveThruRPG).

I’m a fan of Kelsey’s work. Like many others I backed her Kickstarter for the Shadowdark rpg. I went all in. That’s the rulebook, lots of additional content, GM screen. You know everything I could get basically.

Naturally I want to play Shadowdark.

Somehow Fenland Gamers has grown a small group of players interested in playing one-shots or short campaigns that are not only D&D 5e, but other systems. I think the driving interest is that they love playing RPGs however life doesn’t allow for the commitment to a regular campaign.

It’s that group of players that I’m arranging a session or two of Shadowdark.

I’ve had the fore-mentioned QuickStart guide printed out, along with the first three monsters Kelsey did as part of the Kickstarter, blank character sheets, and the precons. Oh and I nearly forgot an A3 copy of the map from the included adventure.

Now I’m busy reading the rules, and adventure. Plus watching the videos Kelsey did during the kickstarter.

I’m sure there will be another post (or two) before we get Shadowdark to the table. I’ll share initial impressions about the QuickStart then.

D&D Grp 2 Session 14 Planning #1

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

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

So I have a stat block for the Bagman (see last planning post) but I’m pretty sure that before I need that I’ll need a stat block for Rullus Hobb.

As the back of his npc card shows he’s a sorcerer. Sadly there are no official npc stat blocks!

The ideal time to use the Folio of Fiends preview.

I’ve also spent a morning playing with heroforge to create my take on an avatar of death, and one or two different Harengons.

I just need to buy the stls and get them printed.

My priority is multiple angels of death to use with a certain deck of cards!

I’ve also been approached by a player about another player joining the group.

We have room for one more. The group is currently five in size. A player has dropped out because of life stuff. Plus we are looking like we will lose one more due to other commitments that clash with the game now regularly happening on a Saturday again (thanks to my life events changing).

I kinda like the group size at four. It’s a nice size.

So this session will see a new player come along for a trial session to see if our game is a right fit for both parties.

Now I just need to work out how they can join mid dungeon!

Alice is Missing

game night, RPG

Last night Jeff, Diego, Charlene, and myself gathered together to play the ttrpg Alice is Missing.

Alice is Missing has become this mythical like experience that if you enjoy RPG’s you have to try. I think a combination of reviews and word of mouth have contributed to it achieving this.

A lot of this buzz is based around its unique mechanic of being a silent RPG played solely through text messages, plus the emotional experience the theme and collaborative storytelling give.

I’ve had the Alice is Missing rpg in physical and digital forms for nearly two years. I just never got a chance to play it.

Well that was until last night.

Plans were made, interest noted. Eventually after the usual song and dance to negotiate a date, we had all could make.

As the day got closer I watched and rewatched videos of the rules on YouTube.

The excitement and trepidation was building up.

Game day and I’m reading the rulebook.

“Oh bugger I need to print stuff off.”

Then my next thought was “have I got enough ink?”

Luckily this was not a last minute realisation and I had time to find out I barely had enough ink in the printer. I got the blank character sheets printed along with the game sheets and five of the posters before there was not enough ink.

I was spared a dash to Tescos. I had enough to go with.

On the drive over to Charlene’s humble abode my mind started to ponder things about our game that evening.

Was I in a good enough emotional place to handle the sort of subjects that could crop up during the session?

I’m still a bit fragile from the passing of Nan. Talking about her can be quite hard at times.

Just the previous day a friend told me they had cancer and was starting a course of radiotherapy. During our time together I couldn’t help noticing that I thought they looked a bit frail. It was certain moments. Not all the time. Maybe I was reading too much into what I thought I saw. I have to admit I was hit hard by the news. Obviously memories of my friend Ben came back to me.

Back when I did the first aid course for Tesco and we did the resuscitation bit of the training it really hit me hard. Memories of trying to resuscitate Dad and Nan came flooding back. I couldn’t fight back the tears. I had to leave the room.

I’d never for the life of me would have thought I’d react like that.

So knowing the sort of things Alice is Missing could go into, would I have a similar reaction?

I didn’t feel I was in the strongest emotional state for this game.

Sitting in the Asda car park near to Charlene’s I ordered Dominos pizza for us all as I waited for our agreed time to arrive. I’d said I’d provide snacks and pizza as Charlene was hosting.

That snack bit had seen me making a last minute dash round one of the stores I used to work in before it closed.

After a warm welcome from Charlene’s two dogs and the others arriving we setup.

I really like the setup process. The rulebook talks through the whole process for the facilitator, highlighting which bits need to be read out aloud etc.

We covered the important X cards, lines and veil’s safety tools. In a game like this they are a must.

The pizza arrived just before we recorded our messages for Alice.

After having our fill of pizza we finished off the setup and started playing in silence.

Wow!

The 90 minutes flew by.

It was such a compelling experience.

With the only sound being the official soundtrack that the timer plays it felt so weird initially playing in silence. The only communication via WhatsApp chat.

The silence added to the impact of a certain event.

I was surprised that I didn’t seem to have had the same emotional experience as others had had.

Maybe that was due to our personal histories or we didn’t go into graphic detail on what could be described as the more triggering subjects. Or the cards that we drew for the key moments. Or all of the above.

I was expecting a Twin Peaks or 13 Reasons vibe to the session. They start off with the death. Which isn’t how this plays out.

Whatever the reason we had a good time. We really enjoyed ourselves.

I’m glad it was Jeff, Diego and Charlene who were the ones I experienced Alice is Missing with, and it was not at the community centre. The place where you play it and with whom is key I think. There needs to be that element of trust and safety because of the games themes.

Anyway I’ll definitely play again, and glad I backed the expansion on kickstarter.

Grp2: When last we left our heroes… #13

D&D, D&D Grp2, post mortem, RPG

Post Mortem

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.

We were two players down this session. For one it was the second session in a row they had missed so I need to find out if they are still wanting to be in the group.

The second was due to illness. So instead of some-one controlling their character I made an excuse up that the character needed to rest after the previous sessions efforts and would catch them up.

Even so we started later than planned which meant a shorter session.

The party are still working their way through the endless warrens (or the Caves of Chaos map I am using for them).

This part of the campaign is a bit of a dungeon crawl. But not a slugfest for sure. They are getting encounters of some sort in most of the rooms on the map that are driven by the dungeon encounters deck.

I’d like to think that the players are having an interesting exploration of the dungeon that isn’t just a murder hobo slaughterhouse with a combat in each room.

In fact the only possible combat they could have had didn’t happen as the ogre failed the check and had to go off and eat the ogre corpse in a nearby room.

But the next session things are going to be more violent.

They still have no idea about the two fungi they are carrying. We’ll see what they will do with them. The temptation to say “just eat them for crying out” is just so strong sometimes during the session. But I resist and don’t give in.

Right I think that covers it for the session I’ll see you in the next session prep post.

Grp2: When last we left our heroes… #12

D&D, D&D Grp2, post mortem, RPG

A bit late. But better late than never.

The party woke up to their neighbour telling them that she was unable to find the jewelled idol she was planning to sell to pay them for getting rid of the rats. She suspected it had been stolen and had reported it to the authorities.

Further up the street there was a commotion and wailing when a dead body had been found in one of the houses. It was a mystery as to what had caused the death. But foul means were suspected.

The streets were also abuzz with the rumour that Rullus Hobb had kidnapped members of the Golden Council.

After a shopping trip to stock up on supplies the party headed off to the Endless Warrens in search of the hideout where Rullus Hobb was hiding with his hostages.

The party found an entrance to a cave that they suspect was the hideout. After fighting an undead drake, the party continued exploring the caves.

Post Mortem

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.

Has it been two weeks already? Time flies by.

But it’s nice to be back to a regular time to meet up.

On a practical level our session was less than ideal with things being a bit cramped. As the photo below shows instead of our usual two big tables giving us space to spread out. We were down to small tables and using chairs!

This was a session that was very much made up as I went along.

I seeded some plot lines such as the Bagman. But the one the party decided to go with was pursuing Rullus Hobb. Especially as it transpired he now had some of the Golden Council hostage. Which might also mean that Adel is amongst the hostages.

This has seen the party enter the Endless Warrens. For this I needed a map so I used the Caves of Chaos map from the classic Keep on the Borderlands module. I keep an A3 copy of the Caves of Chaos in my DM folder along with a two or three others just for this sort of situation. The version of the map I use is the one by Dyson Logos.

Obviously I needed to populate the section of the cave they were exploring. For this I was using the Objects of Intrigue – Underground deck. Along with the fumbled searches deck.

I like these two decks a lot.

The Objects of Intrigue deck did allow me to fill the rooms with “interesting” encounters that weren’t all about combat. From this the party have ended up with two large mushrooms that they haven’t discovered are rather beneficial to them if eaten.

I didn’t get a chance or more likely didn’t need to use the Pathfinder NPC deck.

I did use the jewelled owl puzzle which seemed to work ok.

Before the next session I need to stat out the villain plus the Bagman.

Two Kickstarter no brainers for DM’s

D&D, DM/GM Tips, news, RPG

Just thought I’d share a couple of no brainer kickstarters a DM should be backing at the moment.

The first is by Kelsey at The Arcane Library who has created her own rpg called Shadowdark RPG: Old-School Gaming, Modernized.

The tag line goes “Classic adventure gaming for 5E and old-school players alike! One book, all you need to play.”

I’ve wanted to try the old school stuff with some of the classic D&D adventures I have. I think this is the system I’m going to go with.

It looks rather cool. Plus you can try before you back as well with the FREE Digital Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set that is available on DriveThruRPG.

You can back it here on kickstarter.

The other no brainer is the latest in the Lazy DM series of books, Forge of Foes.

This is not a bestiary. This is a 128 pages by Mike Shea and friends that is all about creating your own monsters and running them.

Just like the Lazy DM Companion Kickstarter there is a 30 page (can’t remember the exact page count) sampler that is useful and allows you to create your own monsters right away.

You can back Forge of Foes here.

Both of these kickstarters are at a point where they are virtually ready to send to printers. So I’m expecting to get digital copies of these goodies not long after the campaigns complete.

D&D Grp 2 Session 13 Planning #1

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

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

So the Bagman has been seeded in the campaign. Which means I will need stats at some future session.

In Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (where they introduce the Bagman) they use the stats for a troll (from the Monster Manual) as it’s base.

Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons

Then they do the following to make the Bagman unique, and feel like the Bagman.

“With tactics and traits in mind, you think of your troll as an abductor and give it the Grappler trait of a mimic and the Amorphous trait of a black pudding so it can sneak in anywhere. Finally, you don’t think of the troll as a minion, but you give it the Alien Mind trait to reflect its tormented psyche.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Here are the relevant bits from the srd and Van Richten’s for those traits.

“Grappler. The Bagman has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.”

With this trait I do need to remember this rule from the Monster Manual for any player the bagman is trying to abduct and is trying to escape.

“GRAPPLE RULES FOR MONSTERS
…
A creature grappled by the monster can use its action to try to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the escape DC in the monster’s stat block. If no escape DC is given, assume the DC is 10 +the monster’s Strength (Athletics) modifier.” Page 11, Monster Manual

“Amorphous. The Bagman can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.” Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons

“Alien Mind. If a creature tries to read the minion’s thoughts, that creature must succeed on a Intelligence saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + the minion’s Intelligence modifier or be stunned for l minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

However in the Dragon+ issue 37 article about the creation of the bagman they drop the following that the “bagman should be an entity with high Stealth”.

So in addition to the additional traits that the WotC designers gave the Bagman I’m tempted to also give the Bagman this additional trait.

“Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.” Page 12, The Lazy DM’s Forge of Foes sampler.

Plus an additional skill of Stealth +7

Which I think gives the Bagman that high stealth ability they thought he should have. So that the Bagman can recreate the idea of “nothing’s more disturbing in a horror movie than when something horrible is in the background and the main characters don’t see it.” Dragon+ 37

Going by the “MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING” table on page 274 of the Monster Manual the proficiency bonus for the Bagman is +3.

But does the Bagman need to be an “elite” monster? An “elite” monster as described by Mike Shea in his uncovered secrets volume 2 (a pdf for patreons of stuff that didn’t make it into the Lazy DM Companion) “elite monsters are equivalent of two characters of their level”.

“Elite monsters have the following additional traits:

  • They have double the listed hit points.
  • They inflict double the listed damage.
  • They have one use of legendary resistance per day, letting them turn a failed saving throw into a success.

For that last one Mike describes Legendary Resistance as:

“Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the monster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.”

Let’s face it the Bagman will not be taking on the party with the aid of minions or any other creatures. So when they do finally face off against the Bagman he needs to be tough enough to last longer than a single round.

I think making the Bagman “elite” does that.

So that’s my initial thoughts for a hopefully easy to run Bagman. Now to just fit that all onto an Arcane Library blank monster card!

D&D Grp 2 Session 12 Planning #1

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

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

In a weeks time we should be holding our twelfth session of this campaign set in Sly Flourish’s City of Arches.

We should be back on track now for having the session fortnightly with the change of job.

After the last session turned into a side quest for those that could make it. It did give me the opportunity to give a bag of holding to the party. Which means I can start seeding in a session or two the bagman.

But at the moment I think the session will be an improv session.

At the moment the party are having a long rest, no idea what they want to do next.

I need to get some adventure seeds planted with them, and progress the main one about the cult, maybe even have the rival to Adel popping up.

In between lesson prep, and the #dungeon23 stuff I need to get my head round the direction of some of these potential threads.

I don’t know about you, but these session planning posts are very useful for me to go back and review what I was thinking.

I’m sure there will be at least another prep post this week. Catch you there.