Who knew DriveThruRPG was not only a great source of source books and modules for the various RPG systems out there, both official and fan made?

But it is also a source of 3D model files that can be used with 3D printers to print your own terrain etc to use in your games.

I stumbled upon this fact while I was looking to see if there were any sarcophagus available to purchase for use in this up coming noob session.

I was looking for the classic knight at rest design on the top of one, and a plain design. And if I was extremely lucky I wanted a knight statue as well. But an altar or plinth that a knight model could be placed on would also do.

My internet travels dug up a photo of the dragonlock models and system. It had a sarcophagus that looked plain enough for what I wanted, and a suitable plain altar. These looked perfect for what I wanted. The link took me to the DriveThruRPG page.

Ok the models were not free. That’s ok. People deserve to be paid for their hard work. Plus the price was very reasonable considering the number of 3D models you got. An added bonus was the coffin for me. They would be handy.

Whilst on the same site I was shown another sarcophagus design. This one was by a different designer but was perfect. It had that knight/figure laying at rest pose I wanted. An added bonus with the design was the lid flips to give you a plain design with candles on it.

At the moment I’m in the process of finding some-one to print 4 of the plain sarcophagus, one plain altar and the fancy sarcophagus for me. I’ve been given one quote that took me aback a little. But after the initial shock worked out about £5 a model which seemed more reasonable.

The funny thing is the players may never see these in the session!

PS DriveThruRPG is an expensive addiction

I was listening to a new (to me) D&D podcast (I’m in the process of trying some new ones by selecting sample episodes to see if I like them) and this particular episode was talking about halflings.

It was the reason I’d chosen it really considering I like playing halflings. And currently play a halfling wizard.

During the episode I couldn’t believe my ears when they mentioned a subrace of halflings called ghostwise. I really couldn’t believe them when the presenters said these halflings were telepathic! Wait, what?

So naturally I wanted to know more.

After a brief internet search I found out that the information I needed was in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.

In the side box that talks about the ghostwise it gives the following background for them. (This is quoted from the book itself)

“Ghostwise halflings trace their ancestry back to a war among halfling tribes that sent their ancestors into flight from Luiren. Ghostwise halflings are the rarest of the hin, found only in the Chondalwood and a few other isolated forests, clustered in tight-knit clans.

Many ghostwise clans select a natural landmark as the center of their territory, and members carry a piece of that landmark with them at all times. Clan warriors known as nightgliders bond with and ride giant owls as mounts.”

A halfling that rides on giant owls! OMG, that is soooo cool.

If your DM allows you play a ghostwise halfling, in addition to the other racial traits you get the following additional ones.

“Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by l .

Silent Speech. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language.You can speak tele- pathically in this way to one creature at a time.”

Why isn’t this in the Player Handbook? I’d most definitely have been a ghostwise halfling if I’d known that was an option. Dram the telepathic wizard!

It would be great if all the halfling information was collected into one place. Between the Players Guide, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes there is a lot of great background information about them. I imagine that all the races are in a similar situation.

I thought for the start of this post we’d look at the D&D 5e Starter Set.

This is basically everything (except pens/pencils and the friends to play with) you need to start playing D&D in a box. In a previous post I’ve already talked about being able to give D&D a try without using this Starter Set. Although you’d still need dice. But with an internet connection or app you don’t even need them. I came across this page on the WotC website the other day that simulates rolls from the various dice used.

But I digress. I’m looking at the Starter Set.

The Starter Set can be purchased for between £15 and £20. I got my copy from my FLGS at about the mid point of that price range.

In the box for your money you get a set of 6 dice, 5 pregenerated character sheets, a blank character sheet, the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, and a rulebook.

The rulebook is a nice 32 page summary of the basic rules needed by new players and dm’s to play the game. Naturally it’s not as comprehensive as the Players Handbook or the free pdf of the basic rules that WotC have on their website. The rules included doesn’t cover creating your own characters. However that’s not the point of this Starter Set. Which is to give you everything to start playing right out of the box. Besides if that’s something you want to do the info is in the free pdf already mentioned. But it does the job.

The supplied pregenerated characters of two human fighters, half elf wizard, halfling rogue, and dwarf cleric are standard fare and in my opinion a bit cliched. But I understand why they went with the tropes. It’s not the mix of classes I’m critiquing. Although a trope in itself, it’s also a good example of a balanced party for beginners. It’s the races that are used for each class I find unimaginative and cliched. For example why not have the halfling as a wizard? I play one. Mix it up a bit.

A nice touch on each of the character sheets is the background info on the race and class on the reverse side to the character stats. The background adventure info that gives each character a personal goal, defines their alignment and why they are at the start of the adventure, I love. A really nice touch. The gaining levels guidance is also really good. And guides the player up to level 5.

The Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure. A 64 page starting adventure set in the Forgotten Realms along the Sword Coast. Particularly south of Neverwinter in and around the Neverwinter Wood and the Sword Mountains. With the town of Phandalin acting as the base for the adventurers.

Our group are I’m assuming midway or just over midway through the adventure. Our sessions are about 3 hours long and are fortnightly. And we have been meeting up to play this adventure since July last year. Make of that what you will. Plus we are using our own characters not the pregenerated ones.

From a players point of view I’m enjoying the adventure a lot. It doesn’t feel like a railroad adventure, but more sandbox like. There are plenty of hooks to go off and do the adventures in the area. Which is what I like that illusion of choice. You can decide to act on the hook you get or not.

From a new dm point of view I’d have liked to have seen some player friendly handouts, such as a map of Phandalin. Maybe some pictures of the monsters players will encounter. Or how about some standees of the monsters to use? I’m stopping short of suggesting miniatures of the characters. Well we don’t know what sex that the players will chose. So 10 miniatures would just drive up the price astronomically and out of the intended audience and aim of this product. Or they could follow the Judge Dredd RPG guys and release a token pack for the Starter Set for players to buy.

The actual box for the Starter Set is twice as deep as it needs to be, and it’s why there is a bit of cardboard inside just to stop stuff rattling round. In this day and age of being environmentally friendly etc. there is no excuse for this sort of waste.

Overall this is a great option for those looking to get into playing D&D. It’s not expensive. So if your group of friends don’t like it you are not too much out of pocket. Although (and this wouldn’t be a post by me on D&D if at some point I don’t mention Mr Colville) my previous post (link in the second paragraph above) about the one-shot noob dungeon by Matthew Colville is even cheaper (FREE). Both great options for trying the game. If I was to recommend anything, I’d say try the free one-shot first, then if you enjoyed that, move onto this Starter Set.

Let’s see what shenanigans Dram and co have been getting up to since last we saw them.

After a short rest our band of adventurers looked for signs of the wizard formally known as Glasstaff.

A trial led north through the forest.

The motley crew followed the trial through the woods until they came across an abandoned camp site. Ace used his skills to determine that the camp was relatively fresh, the extinguished fire still warm. His best guess was that the person who had been here had left no more than a couple of hours before their discovery of the site.

More footprints led off from the camp site in a northerly direction, once again through the trees.

Dram and co resumed the pursuit of whoever was making the trial.

Shortly they came to the Neverwinter River. It was too wide for Dram to Misty Step across and avoid getting wet feet or having to swim across. So Dram paddled out into the river and then cast Misty Step to take him to the opposite bank.

As Dram sat on the opposite bank drying off, he watched the rather humorous crossings of his companions. Grull had tried tossing the gnome across the river. Only for the gnome to fall short and splash down into the middle of the river.

Their efforts to get out of the river were just as comedic. But eventually the others all got across to join Dram on the opposite bank, just a lot more wetter.

The pursuit resumed until they came across another clearing in the dusk of early evening. Four humanoid shapes appeared to be trying to dig up some graves.

Ace stealthy crept round to one side to get a closer look. Sadly at the opposite side of the clearing Grull wasn’t as stealthy. One of the humanoid shapes noticed him.

It attacked.

The chaos of battle ensued. Two of the humanoid figures attacked Grull. Dram from his safe spot let off a volley of Magic Missiles at those two.

Grull, the gnome and Ace just seemed to be standing there letting the attacking figures attack them! Dram was puzzled with this reaction of his colleagues. Surely they should be fighting back, defending themselves?

Dram cast Cloud of Daggers. The air in front of Grull was filled with spinning daggers. Exactly where the two attacking figures were standing.

Suddenly the paralysed heroes sprung back into life and finished off the remaining two attackers.

Closer inspection of the corpses afterwards revealed they had been fighting ghouls.

After getting their breathe back, and some patching of wounds. The party once again looked for signs of their quarry. But the path seemed to have come to a dead end.

After a brief discussion the party decided to head North to try and pick up the trail. again.

After about an hour they had still not found any sign of a trail. So they set up camp for the night.

The night passed quietly. Except in the morning Sarmyar and her panther had disappeared.

So the first session as DM hasn’t happened yet. It’s close. We had fixed a date but reasons meant that the agreed date fell threw.

Which means negotiations have to take place again for a new date.

In the meantime just on the off chance that Jonathan, Diego and who ever else took part in the one shot liked their experience and the job I did as DM I’d pitch a couple of campaign ideas to them.

But how to do it?

Oh yeah my go to guy Matthew Colville has some words of advice on this. After all I got the idea from him and this video.

Ok here is a link to my first attempt at a campaign pitch document for three D&D campaigns I wouldn’t mind running. DandD Campaign Pitch

I know it’s been quiet on here for a couple of days. Much to the relief of everyone I would imagine.

So what have I been doing? Not much really, hence the lack of posts. I did hit the video by Colville talking about the West Marches format for running D&D.

It’s an interesting idea for running D&D for a large group of players interested in playing the game.

The problem with the majority of Colville’s videos are that they make you want to go and try it for yourself. Which I suppose is the whole purpose of them.

Although I like the sound of running a version of a West Marches style game assuming that enough players are interested, in reality it’s not likely to happen in the foreseeable future. I’ve still to DM my first game (it’s getting closer).

However I did like the idea of a treasure map to give to the players at the start of the West Marches campaign. I think it’s something that could be utilised elsewhere.

So using Adobe Sketchbook I’ve decided to attempt to create a treasure map, and develop my rather poor drawing skills. It’s also working on my Sketchbook skills. An app that has been on my iPad for a long time, but I’ve not used. So there is a learning curve there too.

The plan would be to have two versions of the map. The initial basic map (minus the hexes) showing the general locale and maybe the location of one or two known landmarks/dungeons. It would then be up to the players to keep the map updated as they progress further out into the world. If they make mistakes on the map, the idea is not to correct them.

The second version of the map would be for me the DM. Naturally this will be more informative, have notes, and the hexes. The hexes will allow me to judge distance, set up zones/areas. It would also be the accurate map naturally.

The nice thing about this is it can be used in not just a West Marches game but also in a “regular campaign” at the start. It’s interesting that none of our party in the game I am a player has bothered to create a map. The first map we have was given to us!

So the negotiations begin to find a mutually agreeable date amongst the interested parties. A date has been suggested. Now the wait to see if people can make it. And if not the bit that’s more complex than the current Brexit negotiations, finding a suitable alternate date.

In the meantime preparations continue for whatever date is finally settled on.

You already know the scenario/adventure I’ll be using (thank you Matthew Colville for your services to DM’s everywhere).

So I thought I’d get some bits together to bring the map of the dungeon to life.

I managed to get some goblin figures, plus a goblin mage that will double as a goblin druid for this scenario. Plus I decided on the undead creature I’d use for one of the rooms, so I got a couple of minis for them. Luckily the Wizkids pack comes with two of them in a pack. Which is all I need.

I also made the decision that the reason for the adventures to be in this dungeon would be held in a cage. Once again Wizkids do a nice one of these.

I already had the big bad. Luckily for me I only need one of those. The other in the pack was broken (I wrote all about that last year). As I write this post I’m trying to fix the broken one. Just in case.

I wasn’t able to find a brazier that I liked. The ones that Wizkids did were with flames coming out of them. I wanted something that looked empty or it held water. In my travels I came across a scrying pool. But it was a 3D model only. I needed a 3D printer. The same modeller also had some loot markers that would be really nice to have also.

But the problem was I didn’t have a 3D printer. Luckily after a post on Facebook a friend offered to print them both for.

I picked those up today just before Standard Showdown (you’ll be hearing about that tomorrow).

It would have been nice to have a plinth and statue of a knight on it. But unlike the other stuff I have it’s pretty situational and it’s reusability is low. Although the plinth part with swappable statues would be cool and reusable.

A number of plain sarcophagus would be handy and reusable, plus a more fancy one with a swappable top. The top would have a figure on it, like a resting knight, or king. But I can live without these.

As you can see I’m looking at stuff that I can reuse, and trying to avoid spending money on stuff that I can only use once. Getting the maximum bang for my buck.

Sadly I don’t have a massive mini collection. I barely have any. So I’m going to have to cobble together something from what I have for the players. So I’ll check my two D&D boardgames and see what figures I can borrow for the session. To be fair, if this was going to be an on going campaign then I’d hope that the players would get their own figure to represent their character. Just like we have in the D&D game I take part in on a Tuesday.

I’ve sprayed the 3D printed stuff with primer, and some of the creatures. I may be lazy and just apply a wash. We’ll see how the mood takes me. Motivation to get painting again has been a hard thing to come by the past few months.

For those interested below are links to the 3D models that were printed for me.

Link to the Scrying Pool 3D Model

Link to the Loot Markers 3D Models