Category Archives: session planning

One Shot Taster Session Planning #2

D&D, one shot, RPG, session planning

Time to share some more musings for the upcoming one shot taster session that I’ll be running on the 15th November.

More details are firming up about the session like the number of players. It has grown from an initial three interested people to five that should be coming along.

The plan is that this taster session will be about three hours.

Three hours seems about the ideal length to aim for. Especially considering that this session is a week night, and not starting before 7pm.

I’m still undecided about the adventure to run.

However back when I was preparing my first session for my current D&D group I looked into, and did use aid on the party in that first sessions dungeon.

This is something I plan to do again in this one shot. Along side making sure that if needed healing potions may be discovered. Hopefully this will avoid a tpk.

I’m also going to try out a time tracker to track the use of torches, spell duration, etc.

I have printed out an A4 copy of the dungeon map that is part of the Sly Flourish 1st Level Adventure Generator from his Uncovered Secrets Volume 2. It’s a handy little map to have in a DM folder anyway. But for now it’s ready for if I decide to go down the route of using the generator to create the adventure for the session.

That’s it for now more soon I’m sure.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #5

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.

The planned session had to be cancelled with life getting in the way of the majority of the players. Life happens, it can’t be helped.

Which means I have a bit longer to prep for the next session.

More time is always welcome when it comes to pondering, and getting things straight in my mind.

The main thing I need to concentrate on is the magic items that the party might come across.

I need to get some balance in what is handed out so that the non-magic users of the group don’t feel left out.

I’m thinking single use items, or limited use with a number of charges, maybe even an item that can get charges back. For the non-magic users specifically an item that gives a stat bonus of some sort.

I’ll share what I come up with in another post.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #4

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 been a morning of digging out stat cards for NPCs that the party could run into.

Ideally I’d be able to afford the Ptolus pdf and get the 5e stat blocks for the NPC cards I’m using.

But I don’t so the generic D&D stat blocks will have to suffice.

As the following description shows, the tower should be alive with magic users of all kinds.

“…archmage Savandra Thricecursed and her four mage apprentices administrate the tower, opening it up to sages, historians, wizards, sorcerers, and warlocks who seek knowledge of the world” City of Arches

Naturally the party if they do go to Kartan, Tower of the Arcane will meet at least one of the four mage apprentices, and most definitely Savandra.

Savandra will tell the party about the “Key of Choul” that is hidden deep in the towers vaults. The party will also learn that it’s also possible to “conduct sacrifices required to open the Gate of Choul”.

I think that the party will also find out that in The Endless Warrens is a “forgotten colossal undead cairn” that can be used to open a gateway to the realm of Choul if enough sacrifices are made.

Apart from the magic users, I want to populate the tower and the vaults and laboratories with appropriate creatures to encounter. I’m thinking rats (all sizes and numbers), various spiders, maybe the odd ooze.

Then I remembered that I have the Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. If I treat those vaults and laboratories as some sort of Frankenstein setting I can use the bestiary from that.

I like the idea when they enter that location with the hanging cages that contain skeletons that the threat actually comes from the boneless remains out side the cages. Or in the labs there are brains in a jar. Maybe some Gremishkas are running feral down there, or strigoi.

How cool would it be to have a swarm of zombie limbs come towards the party? These definitely make a change from the crawling claw. Which might make an appearance along with an animated sword.

A magic users lab is not a safe place.

Right time to get ready for work. Tomorrow it’s game day!

One Shot Taster Session Planning #1

D&D, one shot, RPG, session planning, taster

Yesterday my good mate Gavin expressed an interest in trying D&D.

Today along with Diego via messenger we arranged a date to hold a one shot taster session.

Naturally that means along side my regularly D&D planning I now have a second session to prep for (hence this and possibly other posts).

The first thing I have to decide is what to run for a session that ideally is going to run for about three hours.

The options I’m considering are the following:

  • The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order (by Matt Colville)
  • The Obsidian Skull (from the City of Arches)
  • The Goblin Ambush (from Lost Mines of Phandelver)
  • 1st Level Adventure Generator (from Sly Flourish’s Uncovered Secrets Volume 2)

The last option will involve a little bit more work for me, requiring me to roll against tables to come up with something.

The Goblin Ambush might be too short, unless it then runs into the Cragmaw Caves. Which would then be too long.

I will use pre-gen character sheets, most likely the official D&D ones. But which?

I could use the ones intended for Lost Mines of Phandelver, or the new ones intended for Dragons of Stormwreck Isle.

But I am tempted to try the pre-gen characters for Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Adventures, or (iirc) a pack of pre-gen character sheets I got off the DMsGuild that were recommended by Mike Shea in a video or blog post at one time or the other in the past.

These alternatives to the official pre-gens in many ways are better as they have more info on them such as spell details. Which cuts down on the need for a players handbook or having to constantly refer to it.

Along side which ever pre-gen sheets I go with I’ll be using the Wizkids 2D miniatures that just arrived. I should try and match up the character sheets to the minis in advance!

Well that’s my initial thoughts on this upcoming taster session. I’m sure there will be others over the coming days that I’ll feel compelled to share on here.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #3

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.

One thing I’m bad it is remembering specific rules, especially when I’m not using them all the time.

One such area is that of magic items, identifying them, and attuning.

So I’ve created these “handy” rules reference cards to have on hand.

I’ve also been searching that amazing blog Dyson Logos for suitable maps to potentially use for Kartan, Tower of the Arcane. I’ve found a couple that I like the look of. Whilst there I found the perfect map for the Temple of Three Sisters.

I’m not sure how the next session will go or where!

Obviously I’m thinking they might visit the wizards. So most of the NPC’s the party will come into contact with will be magical leaning. They might even bump into the legendary wizard Dram!

I’m also preparing for some magic items to go missing or leant to the party. Hence the reference cards above.

I am having a hard time matching up the written description of Kartan, Tower of the Arcane, particularly the following bit:

“An ironbound glyphed door on the first floor stands in front of a stairwell leading deep into the ground below where numerous laboratories and vaults of the dark wizards remain largely untouched.”

With the the side view map (see extract of that below).

It’s the laboratories and vaults. Unless I treat the hanging cages and the area below it as the laboratories and vaults, then I don’t see where they are. I think I need to sleep on this a bit more.

I’m still waiting on updated character sheets to transfer across for my notes.

In the meantime I’ve got some magic items to create!

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #2

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

With session 10 scheduled to take place next Sunday just before I go and visit Nathan. It’s time to continue thinking and planning for the session.

Which means a little house keeping first with a new look!

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.

Wizkids have started a range of 2D minis made from acrylic (or some kind of plastic) which are very reasonably priced. The D&D Idols of the Realms: Essentials 2D Miniatures – Player Character Pack just dropped through the letterbox.

Inside this thin packet (you should see the ridiculous oversized box it came in) you get the following 2D minis:

  • Male Human Fighter
  • Female Human Rogue
  • Male Human Wizard (Archmage)
  • Female Human Cleric
  • Male Human Bard
  • Male Dwarf Fighter
  • Female Dwarf Wizard
  • Female Dwarf Cleric
  • Female Elf Fighter
  • Male Elf Rogue
  • Male Elf Wizard
  • Male Elf Cleric
  • Female Elf Bard
  • Female Halfling Fighter
  • Male Halfling Rogue
  • Riding Horses
  • Skeletal Horse

The plan is to use these for sessions (naturally). Initially as NPCs but also when/if I run starter sessions for the players to use.

There is a sidekick pack as well that would be great to use as either NPCs or representing characters also.

The nice thing about these 2D minis is the portability, cost per figure, make these very attractive. They also look cool on the table. Sadly the drawback is if you want multiple of a particular figure you are screwed if all that is included is a single figure or just two. So it could get expensive buying multiple packs to get the number required.

I’m particularly after the D&D Idols of the Realms: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle 2D set. Which naturally goes with the new D&D Starter set Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. Why Wizkids and WotC didn’t do a deal to include these in the Starter Set I don’t know. Instead I’m having to wait for this set to arrive in the UK months after the starter set has hit the shelves.

I’ve also decided I needed to have better player notes for prepping and during a session. So I’ve asked for up to date copies of the character sheets.

For recording the character stats to use during a session I’m using the Arcane Library character cards which I will print out and slip into a Mayday Premium card sleeve or laminate. Not fully decided which way I’m going on that front.

As you can see I’ve scribbled a little extra info on the card to do with hit die and hit points, and their background.

I had been using index cards initially for this but I think these will be more useful, and easier to refer to during a session.

I’m not going to move away from index cards completely. I think index cards will be ideal for recording the characters background, and referring to during session prep.

Right that’s enough for this post. I’m sure there will be another before we gather round the table for the next instalment.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #1

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

My days off this week and I was ill with a cold. So instead of recharging my batteries and even gaming on one of them I was instead suffering, drinking hot lemon, and quaffing orange juice.

But enough of the life stuff what you are really here for is my session prep notes. Which means I need to copy and paste the usual non-effective disclaimer/spoiler alert stuff first.

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.

With Adele having done some research she will be all about stopping the return of the demon prince Ibraxus from the realm of Choul.

In the Sly Flourish City of Arches document (available to Patreons only) a lot of the notes I need for this are on page 32. They are part of another adventure idea. But the Choul stuff is perfect for my needs. They give a nice broad strokes over view which will see the party going through one of the arches to Choul.

I’d forgotten I had the Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated which will make providing a battle map for each of the floors of Kartan, Tower of the Arcane easier if needed.

I had looked at the battle maps but not found anything suitable I can use.

Naturally the party will be required to go “Down, down, deeper and down” into the depths of the City of Arches. It sounds very dungeon delving. But I don’t think it is in this case.

I’ve been doing an initial scan of the Monte Cook NPC cards for suitable cards to use as wizard NPCs for when/if the party visit Kartan, Tower of the Arcane.

I have updated (again) my checks sheet. The sheet I clip to my DM screen.

D&D Grp 2 Session 9 Planning #2

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

Ok let’s do this next bit one more time with feeling…

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.

Our session nine is this Friday evening. I’m going to be pretty knackered as I will have been up since 4am that day, with no chance of a little snooze before hand.

However in the meantime I still need to do my prep.

The party were left at location 3.

I have a new player joining this session. Which takes the group up to the maximum size I’d personally run with. They will be playing a water genasi. Luckily there is a water source for them to be found at in location 7.

However plot wise I think I can explain why they are there. During the week (in-game time) that these chambers were revealed the water genasi also went in to investigate and came across these pools of water and got trapped there by the cultists. I need to work on this a little.

The great thing about the City of Arches as the basis of the setting is it allows any species to be present in the game. So I don’t need to find a reason for them to be there, it’s just accepted that the city is a diverse mix of species from different realms.

I’m going to attempt to create my own monster cards so that I can have the stats easily to hand as I do now with the Gale Force 9 cards I have.

See you laters.

D&D Grp 2 Session 9 Planning #1

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

Do I really need to keep saying the following on these types of post? Shouldn’t it be taken as a given?

But just in case here is the boilerplate disclaimer.

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.

I’ve been looking through the pages of my copy of kobold press’ Tome of Beasts 2, and I’ve been really enjoying the experience.

The art for the monsters is amazing, and brings them to life. And really fires the imagination.

I am building up a menagerie of creatures I want the players to encounter. I already have the monster and npc stat cards from the Monster Manual in my DM folder that I plan to use, or can fall back on for a random encounter or two.

I really should look into getting the pawns that kobold press sell to go with this book. I think the only problem I have with this sort of product is you usually only get one of the monsters. Which isn’t very helpful when you want to run multiple of the creatures in an encounter.

Talking of 2D standee stuff there are also a couple of Wizkids 2D standee products I want to get my grubby hands on. Those being the Player Character Pack, and the Shipwreck Isle set.

At the last session Anthony very generously gave me three pre-painted Wizkids minis, the Viper Vine, Witchfire, and Gate Hellknight.

As pre-painted minis go I quiet like the look of these. The paint job isn’t going to win awards. But they are perfect for the table top. And more importantly I don’t have to paint them.

I believe these minis are for Pathfinder and the Maze of Death adventure (?).

So I need to get the Pathfinder stats for these minis and then convert to 5e.

But the players will be seeing these sooner than later.

More ramblings

D&D, D&D Grp2, Gloom Chronicles, life, the universe, and everything, Marvel Champions, rambling, RPG, session planning, still alive

Well just like politics a day in my life can be a long time, and things change.

The next session arranged for Saturday has had to be cancelled due to a union work thing that has cropped up.

However it looks like it may go ahead Monday (currently my day off!) evening instead. I’m still on lates next week, so I don’t have to worry about getting up for a damn early start the next morning.

So there is a silver lining to this cloud.

It would appear that soon (next payday) I will be jumping into the lcg from FFG, Marvel Champions.

Hence the new little icon thingy I’ve done.

I did enjoy the game when I did the “try before you buy” game with Gavin. And it is his copy with expansions I’m buying.

I also think this is a game I can play with Nathan that I’m pretty sure he will enjoy. I’m not sure I’ve played a co-op game with Nath. But I know just from the theme alone he will love it. And I’m excited that I will be able to play this with him.

Buying Marvel Champions does boot into the distance any decision I was going to make about getting into another FFG lcg The Lord of the Rings Card Game. Which does also appeal to me on theme alone.

We know I like the idea of solo gaming, and when I see a game can be played solo it does help sell the game to me. But when it comes to actual reality I very rarely play a game solo. I think I can count on one hand the games I’ve played solo. So I’ll never (ok I know never say never) play Marvel Champions solo.

Another given is in the coming months once Marvel Champions has joined my collection I will be catching up with the expansions I don’t have. It’s that whole Pokémon “got to catch ‘em all” thing.

Bugger they also have playmats for the game. And we know how I am about playmats.

I better order in a lot of sleeves. I usually go Mayday Premium with boardgames. But this technically is a card game so I may fall back to my other preferred brand Dragon Shield Matt sleeves. The ones I use for playing MtG.

Before I look for players willing to commit to playing the campaign version of Gloom, The Gloom Chronicles, I need to get the two expansions that I currently do not own.

Obviously The Gloom Chronicles uses the core game. But it also needs Unfortunate Expeditions, Unquiet Dead (need to get), Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall, Unhappy Homes (need to get), and Unwelcome Guests.

It’s a twenty game campaign. It should be possible to play multiple games a session. I don’t see it being much of a commitment, three or four sessions at most.

I’m very intrigued how Gloom plays as a campaign. It’s a story based game. Well technically if players are not into the story side can be played as just a card game. I know other games like Scythe, Pandemic, etc have campaigns that are tied together by an over all story. But that’s a story written by the designer. Gloom is a different animal altogether. The storytelling is part of the game.

I definitely want to get Gloom to the table sooner than later for sure. Especially around the end of the month. I don’t do Halloween but if that isn’t the time to at least play the game once I don’t know when is.