War of the Spark Prerelease Weekend Coming Up

magic, MtG, news


This weekend is a big weekend in the MtG world. It’s Prerelease weekend for the new set War of the Spark, and it’s also MagicFest London.

To allow vendors and the organiser to sell booster boxes and other War of the Spark products at MagicFest London WotC have relaxed the rules in the UK. So UK Stores can sell everything Prerelease weekend, and not have to hold off a week.

While WotC are taking valuable sales away from your FLGS, you are able to attend one of the many Prerelease events your FLGS will be holding.

In fact with all the top MtG players and competitive ones migrating to London to prove themselves, this is probably one of those times when the odds are in the favour of the average player to do well at their FLGS. While the cats away and all that over used cliche.

Oh and another token gesture thrown at the UK FLGS they don’t have to wait until midnight to hold their first Prerelease event this Friday. So many if not all will be holding an earlier Prerelease event also.

Me I’m attending my usual slot on a Saturday. Hope to see you there.

One Page Dungeon Contest

news, RPG

I was listening to a recent episode of The Tomb Show, that was a round table discussion with the brains behind the Uncaged Anthology and some of its contributors. It was an interesting discussion between those at the table. Well worth a listen.

But towards the end there was mention of a competition called the One Page Dungeon Contest.

So I thought that sounds interesting I’ll have a look to see what that’s all about.

Basically the name describes exactly what it is. A contest to create a RPG adventure that fits on one side of A4 paper.

If you visit the site you can find submission guidelines, there is a blog. But the most important thing to know at this point of time is that the deadline for entries for 2019 is 1st May. That’s not long if anyone is thinking of entering.

It’s something I’d like to try at least once. So maybe I’ll put something together for 2020. I’ll be more experienced by then.

Over on the DM’s Guild you can buy anthologies of previous years entries and winners ($3 per year). Which is probably the easiest way to get previous adventures. That price is dirt cheap. It’s also a good way to research what a winning entry looks like.

I look forward to seeing the entries for this year.

The players have spoken

D&D, RPG

You’ve read my thoughts on how my first time as a DM went. I think folks had fun.

So I shared the campaign pitch document with the group after the taster session on Saturday and also created and shared a google form to track responses.

The votes are in and the group has voted for…

In the wake of Pytheas.

So it looks like we are floating around the Sea of Swords and the Trackless Sea. Visiting the Moonshae Isles, Tuern, The Purple Rocks and all the other islands.

I’ve already started the player introduction document.

This campaign will be using the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, and The Ghosts of Saltmarsh source book (once released).

Looking for maps of the Moonshae Isles I stumbled across some adventures (4 in total) from the Adventurers League and a supporting region guide that are being used as the start of a new campaign called Rising Shadows. There is an old Dragon article that has some background info.

Although this next adventure isn’t set in the part of The Forgotten Realms I’m interested in. It does act as a useful inspiration for an adventure.

Shadows over the Moonsea

Naturally I do need The Ghosts of Saltmarsh for the finalised official rules for ships. However there is a ‘work in progress’ document that WotC used for play testing called Of Ships and the Sea. I’m going to assume that whatever finally appears in print will be some form of improved version of this. But this is enough to get started with.

There are also a couple of old AD&D supplements/adventures that cover the area too.

So with the extra information I’ve managed to dig up, the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide there is a lot of material to use for creating a campaign and adventures. And that’s before I even think of populating any undocumented islands with my own ideas or adventures that happen solely at sea, or exploring the depths of the Under Dark that exists here.


The boat above is the sort of vessel that I imagine them setting sail in from a small jetty in Saltmarsh.

The map does not do this part of The Forgotten Realm justice. I am so looking forward to exploring it with the players once they set sail.

The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order

D&D, RPG

Saturday afternoon saw my first D&D game as a DM.

As long time sufferers will know this had been in the planning stage for a few weeks now.

Overall I think the session went ok. I think that the players had a good experience. They’d like a campaign and to create their own characters. That’s a positive sign?

What follows now is how I think I did, areas I can work on.

I was a little apprehensive before hand. Let’s face it I’m not Matt Mercer, so there was not going to be any dramatics and voices.

A few days earlier in the week Jonathan kindly printed off my notes for the session (see the link below). The notes worked really well. I found having the D&D spell cards on hand was useful too for finding what spells did quickly.

I think the initial inn and getting the party hooked could have been better. That definitely wasn’t as smooth as it could have been. Nor as role play as it could have been. Describing the occupants of the inn could have been better, especially the other patrons. Which didn’t get introduced at all. I was hoping the players would mingle. It was then I’d describe them.

I also think the travel to the dungeon could have been better. My descriptions could have been more descriptive, and vivid. Bringing the travel more to life.

Once we hit the dungeon I was happier with the way things went. I revealed the goblins too earlier in the first room.

Also once again the description of the tunnels although dark, could have had reference to noise, and smells.

I felt that the dungeon up to the “big” boss room had been maybe on the easier side. Although the surprise attack by the goblin patrol straight after they thought the combat had finished worked well. They were due to appear at the end of the second round of combat. Which just so happened to be the point when the goblins in the room had been defeated.

The riddle worked really well, and the players solved it opening the secret door. The players nearly didn’t discover the riddle. If they hadn’t searched the statue they wouldn’t have found it.

Having the player stats handy was useful. As was tracking their HP. It meant if need be I could fudge the damage rolls. Which I did do once or twice.

I tried to keep a hands off approach, and let the players discuss and plan without me adding my two pennies, or push them in particular directions.

The Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated were affective and helped the players a lot.

Hopefully some useful links for those thinking of doing the same.

My notes for the session.

My campaign pitch document.

Link to my post with links to original files.

Spoilers and Casual Magic Night

Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

Yesterday apart from spoiling that the Planeswalker Gideon is the big name that dies during the War of the Spark. Going by the cards spoilt and flavour text Bolas survives and gets sent to a Prison Realm.

A Prison Realm where Bolas apparently will be spending eternity contemplating his defeat. I would also assume planning his escape and revenge.

But along with the story spoilers, WotC also released the deck lists for the two Planeswalker decks for War of the Spark. We are being given a Jace Simic deck and a Gideon Orzhov deck.

I actually might get the Gideon deck. Not because I like Gideon (I don’t) but because I like the card Gideon’s Company. It’s activated ability is something I’d not use. But I could see it going into the recent Challenger deck United Assault.

That uses Healer’s Hawk, Legion’s Landing to gain life and fuel the pumping up of Ajani’s Pridemate. Those same cards could also do the same with Gideon’s Company.

That’s why I like the card.

Sadly WotC for whatever reason decided you won’t get a play set of the card, but just 3 copies. So if you wanted to play that extra copy, your options are buy another copy of the deck or see if you can get it as a single.

About Yesterday Evening

Yesterday evening we held our first Casual MtG evening. It wasn’t badly attended for a first attempt at getting these back as a thing the club does.

I spent the evening coaching a friends son as he learnt the game and played various decks. Whilst his dad played some of the new Challenger decks I taken along.

Our opponent got a bit disheartened after my work in progress build of my Simic deck trounced their slither deck. The deck still needs some work to be competitive against my FLGS meta (which has a version of the United Assault deck, burn and aggro decks). Followed by beatings from the Lightening Aggro Challenger deck (I thought my under study was going to experience being mana screwed, but the mana showed up in time) and a pauper elf deck.

Along the way I was showing my under study how to best play some cards, like waiting and playing cards at the start of the combat phase, or at the end of an opponent’s turn. Explaining combos, especially in the elf deck.

I had altered the Deadly Discovery deck. It now has a single Golgari Guildgate. The other 3 that were taken out have been replaced with 2 more Woodland Cemetery and an Overgrown Tomb. It speeds the deck up. In an ideal world I’d have the fourth Overgrown Tomb to replace that final Guildgate.

It was a fun evening. Let’s see how attendance goes in 2 weeks time.

Humble Bundle 3D D&D stuff

news

Thanks to my friend Gav alerting me to this.

If you have a 3D printer or access to one, and you play D&D. Then you may want to get the latest bundle to hit the Humble Bundle site.


For $15 or as I write this just over £11 at current exchange rates you get a load of stl files for various 3D models of terrain, props, tiles, figures that can be used to enhance your D&D games.

I have to admit there are some sweet models here.

You can buy the bundle HERE. At time of writing this bundle has 13 days left to run. After that you missed it.

War of the Spark Spoilers I Like Part 2

magic, MtG

There are a lot of sweet looking cards coming in War of the Spark. I’ve already done one post boring you with cards I like the look of. Here are some of the other spoilers that caught my eye.

Plus I promise this will be my final post on the spoilers. Which for some will be a massive relief.

First up let’s look at a Planeswalker that shuts down burn decks until they take care of the Planeswalker. The Wanderer has been the subject of much fanboy speculation about their identity. I’m sure there will be a grand reveal at some point. Five colours in Standard? I’m sure some will try so they can play Nicol Bolas. I’m just not sure it’s that feasible. But Commander its much more achievable.


More Commander cards.

God-Pharoah’s Statue makes my Death and Taxes deck. Jace is the anti my mill deck. Although the idea of milling myself is intriguing. I think this is possibly the first Jace card I like. Kaya’s Ghostform I like for my Scarab God deck. Although I can see it used in Standard too. I might try it in my Golgari deck.

Dambreak is not only a candidate for the Horrors from the Deep deck, but also Atraxa. As is the Flux Capacitor, sorry Channeler. No Escape is definitely a counter spell for my Simic deck to counter that Jace Planeswalker I like above.

Tibalt is the anti life gain deck. That mono white Challenger deck, and the one Michael at my FLGS plays. This shuts them down. Gleaming Overseer is going straight to my Scarab God deck. Leyline Prowler gives Golgari ramp and life gain. I like this a lot.

Mono red Goblins has a new Krenko joining it. Is it good enough to be the Commander? Not quite but as one of the 99, oh yes. Nissa. I’m a Nissa fan. I like the static ramp ability. So that’s nice especially in my big green stompy deck. Weaponise lands, and then if you ultimate her protection against mass land destruction. Worth a slot I think.

These final two I’ve chosen are such sweet sweet Commander cards.


And that’s it from me on the spoilers. There are daily ones coming out, and I’m seeing even more cards I like. For me as a set from what I’ve seen so far there are plenty of cards to strengthen my Commander decks. Plus cards I think are standard playable in decks I currently play. What the set will be like for draft or sealed who knows? We’ll find that out once people are cracking packs and building decks.

Commander and Challenger Decks

Game day, magic, MtG

I was able to attend another Commander Monday at my FLGS.

This time I took my 3 decks in one box mono red box. Which is a mono red aggro deck with Etali as the commander, a mass land hate deck (that shares some common cards with the aggro deck) and a goblin deck with Krenko as the commander (which also has common cards with the other two decks). These three in one decks were joined by the Atraxa and Horrors from the Deep decks.

Etali and Krenko were victorious in the games played. Whilst Atraxa and the Horrors liked participating.

Krenko was helped when another player played Blood Moon. All of sudden in that game my goblins couldn’t be blocked! Yep I had Goblin King our giving all my goblins mountain walk. Each combat phase I was getting a 1/1 goblin token. That was a 2/2 with the buff, and finally with an artifacts out becoming 4/4. Krenko allowed me to get a few more buffed up tokens out to be able to swing in for lethal.

Etali and multiple combat phases got me the win. Blue has extra turns, red has extra combat. And this version of the deck has that as a main tactic. And it worked this time.

I did get to see a ninja deck with Yuriko as the commander. It was pretty cool, and in the two games nearly won both times. It was lethal. I should have looked through the deck. But the use of cheap unblockable creatures that you ninjutsu out was genius. Something I will be implementing as a tactic in my own deck once I get round to building it.

Last Friday saw the release of the 2019 Challenger decks. Which are a great product for noobs and returning players to get. Out of the box you get a ready to play MtG Standard deck that will do ok (be competitive) at a FNM. By that I mean you will win some games and lose some games, unlike previous products or the Planeswalker decks which have been uncompetitive decks for FNM (although fine for kitchen table games with friends).

For existing players Challenger decks are, depending on the decks, usually a cost effective way to get some cards for their own decks. For me and it may also be true for others I use them as a way to try different deck ideas/archetypes that I don’t normally play.

Take for example the Golgari deck Deadly Discovery in this new batch of Challenger decks. I’ve built a Golgari deck that I played at Standard Showdown. It was an aggro/mid range deck. Whilst John the owner of my FLGS also played a Golgari deck. One that used the undergrowth mechanic.

While John and myself were exploring our versions of Golgari, over on the pro tour circuit they were exploring another version/tactic. One that used the explore mechanic. And that’s why I got this deck, so that I too could try this version of the deck. It also has three dual lands (one shock land, and two check lands) in the build. They alone at the time of writing cover the cost of the deck. Plus once the deck or a version of it is no longer Standard legal those dual lands are real handy to have for Commander decks.

I did play the deck yesterday against the Lightning Aggro deck. And it was fun to play. These two decks played two games against each other and shared the honours. The game it lost wasn’t helped by the poor shuffling I’d done! I did like how the explore mechanic pumped Wildgrowth Walker and gained life.

The other Challenger deck I got to play was the United Assault. A mono white aggro deck. I’ve played against a similar deck in our Standard Showdown meta. It’s a fast deck. And I’ve not played a mono white aggro. So it was interesting and fun to play this deck. It is blindingly fast. Easily dealing with a red burn deck. Using the life gain to pump Pridemate is cool. Although annoying when on the receiving end.

Like last years initial Challenger decks WotC failed to provide the required tokens and emblems for the decks. Would it hurt them to do so? It’d add no noticeable extra cost to the product. These are fractions of a penny to produce and add. It baffles me why they still fail to do this.

What needs remembering that come September when the next block comes out the decks will not be legal in Standard. However I think that most players will have started making these decks their own, and started replacing the Ixalan cards in the decks by then.

I like these decks. They are fun to play, and can easily be upgraded to make the decks more personal. They are a great starting point for new players and returning ones. Fun to play against each other for casual game nights round the kitchen table.

You can read the thinking behind the Challenger decks and the deck lists here.

Thinking Aloud: D&D Campaigns

D&D, RPG

A while back I shared my campaign pitch document that I’ll be possibly sharing with the group if after trying the taster dungeon they would like to play some more (assuming also that they would like me as DM).

Naturally the creative process doesn’t just stop. Ideas come and go. So that they don’t get lost I could write them down in a notebook or I could torture you with them by sharing them on here. Obviously I’m going to do the later.

Army of Darkness (Big Dungeon)

I need to work out who the big Evil is that is coming back. Which means hitting the books and researching gods, demigods for The Forgotten Realms and finding a suitable one. Or if none of them grab me creating my own.

But I have come up with three possible locations for the dungeon.

  • The legendary subterranean dwarven city Gauntlgrym
  • Dread Ring fortress of undeath
  • Thornhold and the caverns of Clan Stoneshaft

If I went with Dread Ring I’d also get a villain the wizard Valindra Shadowmantle.

I’m pretty sure that the dungeon will be 3 – 5 levels deep. Plus any keeps and holds on the surface. I kind of like the idea of using the tomb that the party found and cleared out in the taster as a secret entrance to the dungeon.

In the wake of Pytheas (Islands/Ships)

I know how I’d start this one and it wouldn’t be in a tavern. The plan is to have the adventurers meeting up on a small jetty in Saltmarsh (location on the coast to be decided) waiting for a small boat to ferry them to a to be determined island and it’s annual infamous festival.

The small boat was the only one they could get, passage on all the larger boats was taken up. It’s a very popular festival. People come from far and distance lands to witness it at least once in their life time.

Found the following map online that will act as the world map for the campaign.

Some inspiration The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, Pytheas.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Sandbox)

Need to decide which town to base the adventurers in for this. Candidates are Phandalin (Lost Mines of Phandelver), Hommlet (The Village of Hommlet), Orlane (Against the Cult of the Reptile God), Keep on the Borderlands, Fairhill (The Crucible of Freya), and Winterhaven (The Keep on the Shadowfell).

Well I hope that was boring for you. At least you can tell me below in the comments “have you thought of…?”

All good things part 2

D&D, RPG

Here it is out of order, the first half of the D&D post from the other day.

From the way the dramatic retelling of events ended, it would be safe to assume that Dram left the party of adventurers.

Which mirrors the decision that I’ve come to, and that is I’m leaving our D&D group.

It wasn’t an easy decision. But after sleeping on it I know it’s the right decision.

So why or how did I come to this decision?

A couple weeks back the person playing Sarmyar left due to a change in life events. Which is fair enough. Life changes, stuff happens. It meant our group went from 6 in the party to 5 (not including the DM).

Last session I turn up to our scheduled session and there at the table was a new player. It was obvious that those there already knew all about this. It was a bit of a shock. And I thought a bit rude. I don’t think the player of Nick was comfortable with it either when he arrived. And also obvious that he knew nothing of it either.

It also puts you in an awkward situation. That isn’t fair.

Which brings me on to group dynamics before returning to this initial point.

Our play group is clearly split into two. One group plays a second D&D game on an alternate night and other boardgames/videogames together. Which is fine, not a problem. While the rest don’t. But it’s starting to seem cliquey.

The ones that knew about the new player were the ones in the group that plays together outside our session. In fact the new player was the girlfriend of one of them.

I thought I was being unreasonable thinking before a new person joined the group having it discussed and being asked how I felt. So in the middle of the night I checked with a group of DM’s on a discord server I belong to. It turns out it’s not unreasonable to be notified before hand at the least.

I know and accept that as a part of the hobby people leave and join a group through out a campaign especially if it’s one that has been running for a long time. It’s inevitable. But especially when some-one new is joining for whatever reason it should be discussed before hand.

It felt like game/group decisions were being made by a handful and not the whole.

At the end of the session one of the group then proceeded to congratulate me on participating more this session. I was so glad to have his approval, and said so sarcastically. But the only players he seems to rate on their playing seem to be ones not in the other gaming group. Because the other one he commented on was the only other none member of that group. No other players were commented on, despite one of his gaming group this week participating less than the rest of us.

I wouldn’t mind such comments if I felt they were justified, or he was some amazing role player. But like the majority of us he’s new to RPG’s and boy does he meta game. This session was super meta gaming. And by that I mean his character was doing stuff that was based on information it would not know. For me that kind of ruins a session a bit.

I’ll come back to this participating thing. Sometimes people have off weeks, or they don’t feel that session has the opportunities for their character. And if you feel that the person is not participating you chat to them away from the group, check that they are ok. There may be stuff going on in their life you have no idea about. They may as I said have felt the sessions are not giving their character the chance to shine.

I think this public praise thing at the end may be intended as being positive. But it’s not coming across as that especially with the “you played well but…” feel to it.

I feel better having said this. It’s a bit more in-depth than the bullet points I gave our DM when I broke the news to him.

Naturally there are two sides to everything, and my interpretation of events will differ from others involved. I try and be as factual as possible and remove the emotional side. But sometimes that’s harder to do at times. This being one of them. I also try and not make it personal and that is not always successful either. And as they say the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I am happy how I wrote him out of the adventure. We haven’t seen the last of Dram. I’m sure we will be hearing about his escapades on the blog from time to time.