Still here?

Thanks for hanging in there.

We still have ten posts to go after this one.

Be strong we can make it.

I can’t promise it will be an easy ride. But once we get today’s post over it will be a bit easier.

Our #RPGaDAY2020 kick that noggin into gear inspiring word is…

Back in February in what was to turn out to be our penultimate D&D session before the Pandemic threw a giant spanner in the works. I wrote the following describing the events of that session.

“After having a hearty breakfast our ”heroes” were escorted by the City Watch to their newly acquired ship. Waiting for them onboard was Hoondarrh’s tribute, complete with two knights guarding it.

Before setting sail the party were informed Valdor had been kidnapped, and that the Tyrant was in the process of finding out by whom and where he had been taken.

Our party set sail, and after a slight detour during the night, the ship was attacked by sahuagin.

The battle was long and bloody. Eventually our “heroes” won through.

The sahuagins “boat” was searched to no avail. So it was set on fire!

And that is where our “heroes” were left about to continue the delivery of the tribute.”

I didn’t go into much detail about the battle with the sahuagins. Who are turning into a recurring bad guy for the campaign. This was the second time sahuagin had attacked the party. And it won’t be the last.

During the battle Kaiban the dwarf wizard jumped up on the railing of the ship.

I checked which way Kaiban was facing. This was important. He was was looking out to sea, facing the sahuagin boat and its occupants.

I then had a nearby sahuagin run up and push Kaiban off the railing into the sea. It completely surprised the players.

This now put Kaiban in a sticky situation. The pressure was on. They had to get out of the water fast. Could any of the party help? After all they had their own problems, like attacking sahuagin.

This had all come about from a player deciding to jump on the ships railings. A spur of the moment thing. It certainly wasn’t planned. I reacted.

I felt this was a natural thing for the sahuagin to do. Instead of fighting the dwarf, the sahuagin had decided to let the dwarf drown if they couldn’t swim, or have the “pet” sahuagin sharks finish off the dwarf.

It made the combat seem more interesting. It made the sahuagin seem more real. To me it was in keeping with the spirit of the sahuagin.

An opportune push added so much drama to the encounter.

Ok see ya tomorrow.

New toys have arrived that may or may not distract me from this self imposed extremely late participation in the #RPGaDAY2020.

New toys that hark back to my youth, the early Eighties, and the home computer boom.

So before I get distracted and lost down memory lane trying to recapture better, simpler days long past. Here is today’s word of inspiration…

“Investigation

When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge might also call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check.” Players Handbook

What the designers of D&D are describing is basically what we witness Sherlock Holmes do at a crime scene. Use that as a great excuse to rewatch the BBC update with Benedict Cumberbatch on Netflix.

I see the investigation check going hand in hand with the perception check.

“Perception

Your Wisdom (Perception) check lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your senses. For example, you might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear monsters moving stealthily in the forest. Or you might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are orcs lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.” Players Handbook

This is the “oh look what I’ve found”.

You may have deduced with the investigation check that an object might be hidden on or behind a book case from clues in the room. But the perception check will allow you to find that hidden object on the book case.

Let’s jump straight in and see what we have to inspire us today, the 19th day of #RPGaDAY2020…

Today I thought I would create a name for a tower using the locations table 1-1A from the Tome of Adventure Design.

The Black (rolled a 9) Tower of the Deceitful (rolled a 27) Horde (rolled a 55).

I need a map for The Black Tower of the Deceitful Horde. Now I could create one from scratch that is entirely my own. However I don’t really have the time to do that, write this post, and play with my new Pi 400!

So a good source for ready to use maps is the Dyson Logos blog. When you see his maps you’ll recognise them immediately. He has a distinctive art style that is very popular. That has earnt him some commissions with WotC that have gone in official products.

On the maps page you will see thumbnails of over 800 maps that he’s created. Scroll down until you see one that speaks to you, or meets your needs.

I went with the Sunken Tower map. It seemed the sort of tower a Deceitful Horde would have. A tower where a lot of it was hidden. Bigger than expected when first seen.

So I have a location and map!

But if I continue with the steps that Kelsey of Arcane Library wrote about in an email newsletter I need an adventure hook. So like Kelsey I will roll against table 1-6: Location-Based Missions.

I rolled a 52. Which is an infiltrate and spy mission.

So why does the party need to infiltrate and spy on the Deceitful Horde?

Like Kelsey maybe rolling against table 3-6: Big-Picture Backstories I might get an idea. I rolled a 33 and got “Inhabitants changed beliefs” I also saw the following on the table “After a religious or philosophical dispute”. I like the idea of combining the two. The horde was not always deceitful. Until recently the horde were a garrison of paladins. But a dark evil secret sect within the paladins seized control. Corrupting all to their evil plans. Since the coup the tower has gone silent.

The party have been sent to investigate what is going on at the tower. Previous attempts to find out have either never been seen again, or their corpses found horribly mutilated. The suspicion is something has happened at the tower but the local towns need to know what has happened.

So there we have a simple adventure idea based around a tower. That’s better than talking about Rapunzel, Jorinda and Joringel or The Two Towers. See ya tomorrow.

“I got a
Baby’s brain and an old man’s heart
Took eighteen years to get this far
Don’t always know what I’m talkin’ about
Feels like I’m livin’ in the middle of doubt
‘Cause I’m
Eighteen
I get confused every day
Eighteen
I just don’t know what to say…” Alice Cooper Eighteen

I hope you enjoyed that snippet from an Alice Cooper classic. Kinda sums me up on this blog. Obviously not the age part!

So here is our word of inspiration for this behind the times #RPGaDaY2020 post…

Meet my go to books for D&D that are not official WotC books.

These four books (which include my latest addition) are the books I turn to the most when planning my D&D sessions (when they run).

The Lazy DM books are a fantastic framework for planning a session without spending hours and hours doing so. Plus the workbook has some hand tables and maps that can be used during planning or more importantly on the fly during a session.

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing just complements the Monster Manual. Decide what creatures your party will encounter, then look them up in this tome. This will suggest tactics for you to use so that those creatures seem “realistic” and believable. The encounters won’t just be a fight to the death, or charging in. They will be much more intelligent than that.

This last book, also the newest addition, was a recommendation by Kelsey of The Arcane Library in one of her email newsletters. This book is full of useful tables to inspire your planning. Such as generating a location name, and a back story for the location.

What books are your go to none WotC D&D books?

Here we go again.

Another day, another post.

The theme for the seventeenth day of this thing I’m doing is…

We all like our comfort, being comfortable.

But for us to grow, we need to step out of that comfort and challenge ourselves.

For me that was becoming a DM.

Being a DM can seem daunting. Especially if you watch streaming RPG sessions such as Critical Role. The likes of Matt Mercer present impossible standards to judge yourself against. After all they have been doing it for years. Not to mention some sort of acting background.

But it’s another Matt that gave me the confidence to try my hand at being a DM. The first two or three videos of the Matt Colville Running the Game series were inspiring (they all are really). Plus he gave us a simple short adventure that we could run, with guidance on running it.

That adventure the Delian Tomb was my first D&D adventure that I ran as a DM. It was also a taster session for those that wanted to try D&D at our gaming group.

I think it went ok. The players seemed to have a good time.

Plus they were all keen to start a D&D campaign when I asked who would like to play on a regular basis.

Now I’m a bit of an introvert. I’m definitely not one for doing voices, I might be a bit self conscious on that front. In the past my voice has been described as a bit monotone (my O Level English Literature teacher told me that back in the day).

But no two DMs are the same. We each have our own style.

As a new DM I’m still finding my style.

However I am enjoying being a DM. Something I would never have found out if I hadn’t stepped out of my comfort zone.

The midway point has truly been reached and from here it is most definitely down hill.

This belated posts #RPGaDAY2020 inspiring theme is…

Without drama the stories we tell with our players would be boring and mundane.

However having adding dramatic moments to our encounters helps keep them interesting, unpredictable.

For me there has only been one dramatic moment in our current campaign (although maybe the players might possibly disagree) and that was the session where the party took part in a historical recreation of an infamous halfling battle at the Mintarn arena as party of a celebration organised by the Tyrant of Mintarn.

The dramatic part that I introduced to this encounter was having it gatecrashed by the red dragon Hoondarrh, demanding that the tribute is delivered early.

This was a big surprise for them. They had no suspicion that this is how the encounter would end.

A dramatic moment in an encounter doesn’t have to be having a big dragon appear. It could be as simple as enemy reinforcements arriving mid battle, a wounded member of the party taken hostage.

The dramatic moment is an unexpected twist.

I think dramatic moments like this should be used sparingly. Or they lose their impact because the players will be expecting them to happen. Keeping the players on their toes, wondering how the encounter will play out, adds to the tension.

Not great words on the subject. But still my simple thoughts. See you in tomorrows post.

Jinks!

I’ve been writing these posts now for two weeks.

I have to admit I have enjoyed thinking about D&D, and RPGs again. They have fallen to the back of the queue since world events threw a spanner in the works.

The mid point theme for my so late it will only just make it as part of #RPGaDAY2020 is…

This was a toughie, maybe the hardest so far.

But if I run with the definition of frame that means the size or build of a persons body, then things become a bit easier.

As the diagram taken off the internet shows if we do not use actual numeric values the size of creatures can be described as below.

A creatures size governs how much space it takes up on a map. But it also has an impact on how much they can carry. It also effects grappling and shoving in combat. And naturally the larger you are the harder it is to hide.

In the Genesys RPG they use silhouettes to describe a person or objects frame. As you can see from the table below taken from the core rulebook (page 109) there are a couple more sizes than the D&D scale.

Naturally there are sizes that go much much larger than those covered in D&D. After all Genesys is a generic system and theses silhouettes cover more than just living creatures but vehicles as well. And we know how large vehicles can get.

I do like the Genesys table. I like that I know from looking at it a dragon is considered as big as a zeppelin.

A final thought that cropped up as typing the above was “size of a…” the famous line said by Bez the Beast in the animated cartoon Arabian Knights before changing into the animal that he mentioned. It could be a mouse, elephant, horse. You get the idea. Which kind of reminds me of druids in D&D and their ability to take on animal form.

Nearing the halfway mark with these posts. Today’s theme is…

I thought that this was going to stump me.

Today’s word for me is inspiration for an adventure hook.

Back in 2011 there was a movie called The Eagle, starring Channing Tatum.

The basic plot summary is that it tells the story of a young Roman officer attempting to recover the lost eagle standard of his father’s legion.

The eagle standard of the Roman legions were their version of a banner. Banners in one form or another have been used by military regiments for centuries.

I think there are a couple of ways to use the basic plot of The Eagle.

The first is with a brand new party, the members of the party are all serving in the army of some kind, same unit, went through training together etc. Or they are ex-military and had served together. Which ever is chosen, it gives the party a common bond and a reason why they will be trying to recover the lost banner.

The banner they are trying to recover is from the regiment they are currently in or were serving in depending on the option they went with above.

The other way to hook them in during an existing campaign is to have them hired to recover the banner. Or they come across the site of a battle with corpses all over the place. They discover a soldier on their final breathes, who gets the party to promise to recover the banner and return it to the survivors/rest of their regiment.

Which ever of the above options is used. The party will have to infiltrate enemy territory , locate the banner, capture it and escape.

There is definitely several sessions of adventuring here.

Today’s big theme for this better late than never #RPGaDAY2020athon is…

Rest within an RPG is a period of time spent recovering, healing, sleeping, eating, reading, etc. Basically the mundane stuff that isn’t the fun stuff like fighting, looting, engaging in mental warfare in social situations.

It’s also time between adventures spent researching, building, crafting, recruiting. Activities that take many days to complete.

How these are handled by the different RPG systems out there may be varied but they all have the same purpose. To heal, replenish, and improve.

There has only been a couple of times in my paused campaign when there was any real rest for the party. Looking back at them, they were ok. The sessions that they occurred in were basically shopping trips. They could have been better.

I want to work on improving them. I think these two videos from the D&D sage Matt Colville need rewatching to help fuel my inspiration for improvement.

How do you handle rests, especially the longer multi day ones?

Cue the drum roll, the build up of suspense, for today’s “sure is late mister”, #RPGaDAY2020 topic…

“I’ll send an SOS to the world
I’ll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah”

Ok now that’s out of the system, and I’ve hopefully planted an ear worm, let’s get on with the real post.

For me I think a message is another way to deliver a secret or clue to the party. Whether it is something scrawled on a wall in paint or giving it a more sinister tone blood, to a messenger person running up and handing over a scroll. Although the messenger person could be replaced by a pigeon/owl/bat etc.

But to steal, sorry be inspired by something from Greek legend and movies like Jason and the Argonauts statues could come alive and have the Gods talk to a chosen one. Or like the famous seen from the Bible have a flaming bush.

Which ever way the message is delivered to the party, it will be something that may or may not help them with their current adventure, maybe even send them off in a new direction distracting them from their current task.

Once our campaign starts back up again. I have a message from the past that the party will discover in the form of a journal at a long lost dwarven mine. The plan is to have two copies of the text to give to the players. If one of the party discovers it that does not know dwarven then they get the dwarven rune version of the text. Which will just appear as jibber is to them. However if a dwarf or some-one who can read dwarven discovers it, they get the English version of the journal, with instructions that they need to paraphrase the contents of the journal to the rest of the party (if they wish to share it with them).

The journal will warn the party of the perils they will be facing if they choose to progress deeper into the mine. I borrowed the idea from Tolkien and Lord of the Rings when the Fellowship of the Ring come across The Book of Mazarbul. I hope that the players get and like this little Easter egg.

See you in tomorrows post.