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.
Session 8 had to be cancelled at the last moment.
Luckily everyone was so understanding.
So session 8 takes place next Saturday. But due to my work rota and a 3pm to midnight shift, it is taking place earlier in the day. Which means our usual venue will not be open. Luckily Shane has said he will host session 8 at his abode.
I had been thinking of changing my Checks Sheet with more useful information.
Which I finally did today.
I changed the orientation of the page, added some more info such as death saving throws.
I like to think between this and the DM Screen I have enough information in front of me in a session to minimise having to refer to the players handbook or the DMG.
I also have, thanks to the very kind generosity of Shane I was given a copy of the Giant Book of Battle Maps.
This is the giant version of the Big Book of Battle Maps.
I do really like these battle map books. I must do as the Big Book lives in my DM bag.
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.
The players have finished the haunted house adventure. At the end of I let them level up. So since the last session they have been busy working out what new abilities etc their characters will have.
I’ve given the players some “homework” before this coming Saturdays session. Basically I’m advancing the in-game calendar by a week, and the players have been asked to come up with what their characters did in that week to gain all these new skills/abilities they have gained going from level 2 to level 3.
Before the party entered the haunted house a guard of the Silver Talons did drop the following adventure hook to them.
“The back walls of one of the villas collapsed into a series of chambers appearing to have once been a temple to a dark bestial god. The family owning the villa has gone missing and the Silver Talons seek discreet investigators to enter the temple and find any survivors from the collapse.” Page 14, City of Arches by Mike Shea
However the party has taken at least a day to work their way through the haunted house. They have took two long rests and a short one.
So my plan in the next session is to have the streets a buzz with the story of how a different group of adventurers are being proclaimed heroes for rescuing the missing family.
I have some homework too!
I need to go through and work out with the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure just what the party have found.
Which give some great opportunities for adventure hooks.
I’ve had some great NPC cards by Monte Cook Games arrive.
As you can see they have some great art, and system neutral info about the NPC on the reverse.
I like these sort of things. I have some Pathfinder ones also. They are great for bringing NPCs to life for the players. But also for inspiration to while preparing a session.
I do feel this next session needs to see Adel’s rival being introduced and making an offer to the party for the artifact they have.
Adel will be a bit miffed the party took too long getting back to her with the artifact.
Not sure how both will play out.
I like the idea of the party having to enter into a “mega dungeon” to get the next artifact. But that will be a single possible hook for them to follow up.
If the party decide to activate the watch and go through the rift/portal I need to chose or create a realm of dread.
Another hook will be a Harengon looking for adventurers to rescue their family or maybe protect their “warren”.
All I know about this upcoming session is it’s going to be very by the seats of the pants, reacting to what’s happening on the day.
Well thanks to life finding a way to throw obstacles in the way we are finally going to be having our next D&D session in our City of Arches based campaign this coming Sunday.
Which means I have some planning to do.
But first I’ll give the boiler plate spoiler warning.
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 that out the way let’s get on with the show.
This session should see the attic explored within the haunted house. Which will be the final encounter of this adventure based on the Ghosts of Saltmarsh.
Here the party will find a dreadful incursion (you can read more about adding these here on the Sly Flourish website) that is the source of the monsters they have been encountering, and needs closing.
So I can still use most of my prep notes from the previous sessions but I need to come up with hooks for what’s next. They had one at the start of this adventure. But will they remember it?
I finally caved and got a copy of The Wild Beyond The Witchlight.
The main reason is because I was after some Harengon (rabbit folk) NPC stats.
I’ve got the idea in my head that within the City of Arches is a community of Harengon. The only Harengon NPC stat blocks are for a brigand and sniper.
I want a stat block more in line with a commoner. I understand why there isn’t. However that doesn’t help me. Granted I don’t really need a stat block for an NPC unless they get into combat. So I might just try and come up with a generic Harengon stat block to have on hand.
The other advantage is that there are more monsters I can call upon, a fey trinkets table to roll against, and a feywild domain to visit!
I think with the monsters thrown against the party so far once this adventure has come to an end they will advance a level.
If you remember the first time this session was due to be run I had to cancel it due to work.
At the moment this and a Friday evening gaming session are all good to go.
Luckily the party are still exploring the haunted house. So there is very little prep to to do. I might come up with some more adventure seeds to drop.
I was hoping the physical copy of The Lazy DM Companion and spiral bound Lazy DM Workbook would arrive in time. But there is no news of the fullfilament having started. Still time I suppose.
Our sponsor for this post insists that I issue the following warning.
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.
After having to cancel the last session due to unforeseen circumstances. This weekends up and coming planned meet up is on.
I still have the bit of prep to do for it that I discussed in that first planning post. The plan is to do that Friday on my next day off.
In the meantime there is a remote chance that the Lazy DM Companion and spiral bound Lazy DM Workbook might arrive by then. At the tail end of last week delivery addresses were locked. So the sending out of pledges should be any day now.
I was going to say I got nada at UKGE rpg related. But I did in fact get something. The Little Book of Battle Maps was being given away free by the publisher to attendees of the expo. Probably to the annoyance of one particular stand that was trying to sell it for £9.
I’m a fan of the Battle Map books. I have two already. The big dungeon themed one lives in my DM bag. My last two sessions have used it as a generic battle map.
I’ll write another update Friday once I’ve finished the prep.
I had to cancel the session for this evening. Plus also the D&D session tomorrow.
Life as we all know has a way of throwing a spanner in the works.
Which it did Wednesday when I got home from work.
I had just walked through my front door, when mum called out from the conservatory (her side).
She had just fallen over hitting the wall on her way down.
After lifting mum back onto her feet, and checking her over. I told her off for not using her walking frame.
Her actual injuries were some bruising above an eye, couple minor cuts above her lip, and a badly bruised finger.
There appeared to be no concussion or broken bones. So it was making sure mum rested and took things easy. Whilst keeping a close eye on her.
Luckily I had Thursday off.
But to give mum time to recover I thought it best to give her a break from looking after two very demanding little fur balls this weekend.
The bruising is starting to go down. Especially on the finger.
So there we have it. No role playing this weekend. I do have to set a new date for the Paranoia session. The D&D will roll over to our next scheduled session.
Your security clearance may not be high enough to read this post.
SPOILER ALERT TO Troubleshooters! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming one shot. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
The introductory adventure [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE] really does hold your hand. It’s been a joy to reread it.
I’ve dug out the cards I’ll require for this introductory adventure. Which as far as I can tell reading through the adventure just the four item cards that it lists. Plus the action card deck. Oh and the all important “Number One Troubleshooter” card.
As the photo above shows I’ve also located and put to one side the rather lovely chunky computer dice that I got in the last Paranoia Kickstarter. These are so much more nicer than the original puny red computer die that came in the original Paranoia Kickstarter.
I had entertained for a day or two the idea of creating characters for the players at the start of the session. With a longer session I very well might have gone with it. I love how the whole process is a group activity giving each player the chance to influence the creation of the other players characters, creating tension and links that hopefully carry over into the game in a safe, healthy way!
So instead I’m going with the pregens from the Mission Book. There are five in the book. Naturally I’m going to have to nip into the library to print these off. I will give the players the opportunity to spend some moxie and/or clones to improve the stats of their character.
Sorry no great insights or anything interesting. My security clearance doesn’t allow me to share anything more!
Tradition and D&D law states that the following disclaimer has to be said. If it doesn’t apply just ignore it, skim read my ramblings and go find some more compelling, nay interesting content to read.
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.
A wise and clever DM/GM would schedule playing a completely new RPG system the week between their regular D&D session. Not the night before!
In my defence… no I have no defence I didn’t check before arranging. I just knew any new session couldn’t be on a Saturday. Which meant it could only in reality be a Wednesday or a Friday there is no gaming.
Luckily this next session is the continuation of exploring the haunted house. So not a great deal of session planning to do for it.
However there is a bit of house keeping to do, such as make a list of what the party found or could find.
Plus I need to start thinking of hooks to start hinting at. I quite like the one Mike Shea came up with for the Second Rise district.
“Hook. The back walls of one of the villas collapsed into a series of chambers appearing to have once been a temple to a dark bestial god. The family owning the villa has gone missing and the Silver Talons seek discreet investigators to enter the temple and find any survivors from the collapse.” City of Arches by Michael E. Shea
I can see a patrol of Silver Talons approaching the party as they exit the haunted house. Or even contact them via Adel.
I still need to decide how much Adel will reward the party for investigating the haunted house. What will her standard rate be?
While I’m pondering that I’ll end this post and see you next time.
In two weeks, well more like a week and a half time, if all goes to plan, I should be playing my first game of Paranoia as the GM.
But before I go any further I need to say the following.
SPOILER ALERT TO Troubleshooters! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming one shot. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
For this one shot session I’ll be running the introductory adventure [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE] from the Mission book that makes up my copy of the Ultraviolet edition of the Paranoia RPG Kickstarter I backed.
Part of my prep for the one shot will be to rewatch the MCDM YouTube video of them playing the introductory adventure.
MCDM plays Paranoia
Followed by rereading the adventure itself.
I have read the adventure.
But it was many moons ago.
The one thing I will say about it (from memory) was how “friendly” it was towards new GMs. It really does hold your hands and talks you through the rules at the appropriate spots. I really do wish other systems had something like this. However will I feel this way about the adventure once I’ve run it in anger?
The following is for a small, select group of people. For everyone else just ignore it and read on if so inclined.
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.
After searching Dyson Logos for a suitable haunted house map I narrowed it down to one, his Blackhall Haunt map. However there was a nagging feeling I was making a compromise somehow.
I then looked at the map for the Witch Cat Inn from the introductory adventure The Dance of Dreams in the Vaesen core rule book. I felt happier about the map. Maybe because it was a multi level building. I could definitely make it work plot/story wise.
For some reason I decided to do one final image search and my results took me to the haunted house map in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Wait I have that map already! I have the adventure twice in fact. I have the DriveThruRPG 1e printing, and it’s in the 5e Ghosts of Saltmarsh. How did I not remember this?
The haunted house map in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh needs to be annotated with where the planned monsters are located. What makes sense story, location wise on the map.
I’ll be adding the two monsters of giant weasels, and giant poisonous snakes, that the The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh has hidden outside the house to the possible encounters for the party. I hadn’t planned on having anything happen before the party enter the house. But this seems a good (ok good may not be the right word here) little surprise for them.
I finished the note that will be given to the players at the start of the session. Which is basically the plot hook for the session.
The finished note
Whilst I was on the page with the Blackhall Haunt map on it, there was a second map also, which did inspire me. The map was called Prior’s Hill. Truth be told I can see myself using this with either group (once the other groups sessions start up again).
Prior’s Hill map by Dyson Logos (link above)
“On the right nights, with the right rituals, you can open the portal on Prior’s Hill and climb down the stairs to the black dungeons below.” Or with the right relic I’m thinking. Maybe Adel already has that relic and needs the adventurers to go retrieve another more powerful and dangerous relic for her.
After listening to a recent Tomb Show podcast where they started going chapter by chapter through Izirion’s Enchiridion of the West Marches, I ordered a physical copy of the book.
I’m not sure where the practice of putting in a thematic disclaimer came from. But I know WotC do it with their books. This one continues the trend with one I found funny, and a very true warning. I may use it as small print on a note from Adel at some point.
Izirion’s Enchiridion of the West Marches Disclaimer
Ever since way back when I watched the Matt Colville video on West Marches I thought they sounded pretty cool. And most definitely thought I’d like to run one.
Maybe with two groups, and interest from others I could finally run a West Marches campaign.
But until that day arrives I’m pretty sure there is stuff in here I can make use of in both campaigns.
Right I have some miniatures to finish painting before this Saturday’s session. Laters.
