#dungeon23 Week 3 Roundup

#dungeon23, D&D, megadungeon, RPG

It’s back to work and the varying shifts, and yet some how I’ve managed to get to the end of week 3.

The moving shifts such as three lates, a midday, followed by a couple of early shifts does take a toll.

Add in I’ve had to do stuff to get ready for starting a new job (more on that in a life, the universe, and coffee post).

Suddenly squeezing in this has been a challenge.

I feel as I’m coming up with these rooms that they are encounter light.

However this first level is meant for tier 1 parties, and story wise in my head is “controlled” by religious fanatics (priests, clerics, cultists, etc) loyal to the rising evil.

As we get deeper and closer to the rising evil we’ll see things get weirder and more monstrous.

I also don’t like my map until I have finished the inking on day 7. It’s only then that it comes together for me. Until then it doesn’t seem like a real map worthy of sharing.

Currently there is a Humble Bundle called “RPG Worlds by Kobold Press and Friends” going on that has one or two useful books for this challenge.

The one that sold it to me was Endless Encounters: Dungeons.

“Endless Encounters: Dungeons is an encounter and adventure generator for characters level 1-10 using the 5th edition game system!”

I looked at the sample pdf and instantly thought I want this book. In fact this has jumped onto my “I want a physical copy” list.

The others in this great bundle that I think will be useful for the challenge are Kobold Presses Vault of Magic, plus some bestiary that will be useful in sticking the megadungeon.

Change is a coming…

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

I thought I better post one of these “hey, I’m still alive posts”.

It’s been a busy week back at work.

After nine days off there is always that adjustment back to the routine of shift work. So I feel I’ve been extra tired it feels.

Plus the shift patterns this week has had me going from lates (that’s closing at midnight) to a mid shift, to opening up (that’s a 5:30 start).

That shift pattern is especially tiring as you get no downtime. It’s basically going to work, get some sleep, go to work. There seems no time to chill. To unwind.

However things are a changing on the work front.

Over the time I had off I got another job!

I hadn’t specifically been looking for one. But an opportunity came up.

One of my deciding factors in going for it and accepting the job offer was those shift patterns I described above. They are hard on me. But even harder on mum. They aren’t good for her health.

I discussed things with her naturally. Mums old school. Just like the Black Knight in the Monty Python and The Holy Grail, “it’s merely a flesh wound”. She said she could handle them. But these types of shift were a lot harder on her.

Apparently dog sitting my two little attack chihuahuas in combination with her dog and cat make it hard for her to get the rest she needs at her age. That’s my observation not hers. Although she does complain they keep her up and stop her sleeping (you should hear her when I visit Nathan).

So that was my deciding factor. I love my job and the folks I work with. It wasn’t an easy decision. But in the end mums health trumps everything.

Once I accepted the offer, and the agency negotiated an hourly pay rate (yeah seems the wrong way round I know) I was more than pleasantly surprised, taken aback, even shocked at my new pay rate.

So Tuesday on my return to work I handed in my notice.

Which means in two weeks time I finish at my current employer, and then a day later I start the new job.

Oh what’s the new job? Yeah I seem to have missed that bit out.

I’m returning to education and teaching computing and game design again.

So that’s a pretty big change I think you will agree.

I’m pretty excited about returning, but also sad because I really like my current role and work mates.

But more as things progress.

But as you can tell very little gaming has gone on this week. And the #dungeon23 post will be going up tonight.

However my physical copies of Ruins of the Grendleroot, and Fantastic Locations arrived at the start of the week.

I love the print quality of the soft cover books done by DriveThruRPG.

Until a crowdfunding project is run for the final version of City of Arches, I currently have two more books to get physically to have the Sly Flourish set.

I’m looking forward to dropping these into the campaign in the future.

That’s it for now. The tl;dr is job changing, not much else gone on.

Two days of gaming

Game day

Sunday afternoon saw Charlene, Ben, and Harrison met up with yours truly to play some games!

We started off with Tapestry and both expansions. Yes an “all in” game using the new Tapestry neoprene playmat that Stonemaier sell.

It’s a beautiful mat.

You can see below who played which civilisations. We did apply the appropriate civilisation adjustments from the Arts and Architects expansion.

Who played which civilisation in Tapestry

Now I should really be posting the three minute video of Ben taking one of his goes. But that’d be cruel. But he was beautiful minding it at the time.

In the end Ben’s Futurists ran away with the victory. Falling short of breaking the 300 point barrier. But still a final score of 282 was pretty impressive.

Our second and final game of the afternoon was another Stonemaier game Red Rising.

Back when Red Rising first came out I wasn’t grabbed by what I saw of the game play. At the time I thought the game wasn’t for me.

Reflecting on this I think it was I had one image of what the game would be based on what Jamey had initial described the game as. Which I thought sounded right up my street. Then the actually game play details game out and it wasn’t what I thought. Feeling a little disappointed I decided that this wasn’t a game I’d enjoy. So I never got it.

However now I’ve played Red Rising all I can say is I was wrong. This is very much a game I enjoy.

I liked it a lot. So much so my next order from Stonemaier will indeed include Red Rising (ok I took a break from writing this to order it, along with the playmat!)

Who played which “faction” in Red Rising

This was a lot of fun. How many more ways can I say I liked the game?

I loved that each player had a unique power.

I thought the hand management side was cool. Towards the end I didn’t want to play any cards as I wanted to keep them all. Mainly because they triggered off of each other for end game scoring.

I liked how once you play a card for its ability you then have the tough decision (potentially) of which card to pick up. The card you want may not be in the right column for you to get the reward you want. Then you have to decide which to go for.

In the end Charlene triggered the end of the game and got the victory.

This was the deluxe version of the game, and as usual the component quality was very high.

Monday was a gaming morning with Diego.

Our first game of the morning was Long Shot the dice game.

I really do like this game. I needed a game like this in my collection. If there was a choice between this and Camel Up, this would win hands down every time.

Next up we learnt Silver and Gold.

Wow. This is a fun, quick, flip and write.

It’s definitely not even close to being a heavy roll/flip and write.

This is a nice little filler game. Yep twenty – thirty minutes to play. That quick.

Diego just pipped me to the win.

Finally our morning of gaming was finished off with a game of Splendor Duel, and a big thrashing by Diego. Yep my streak of having never won a game of Splendor in all its forms continues.

A distinct lack of wins the last two days. But still had great fun playing with friends.

Oops I did it again, no title!

fps, nintendo, switch, video games

I have a blog post pile of shame.

Sitting in my draft folder are posts I started but not finished.

One day I plan to return to them and finish what I started.

A couple of those posts are the final two posts that complete my replay of Portal (which I need to finish, I am near the end) and my thoughts on playing the Portal boardgame. These two are a priority.

But even with those posts haunting me (we won’t mention my Alien isolation post). When a new arrival comes in like “I’m too young to die“ by Bitmap Books for me to read, new post ideas instantly jump to mind.

I’d love to do a series of posts playing through all the different versions of Doom that I have (on the Switch at the moment). Whilst playing the original I’d reread the books I have on the game, Masters of Doom, and DOOM:SCARYDARKFAST. Then as I bore you with my posts I’ll try and work in my personal stuff along with snippets picked up from the books.

I’d love. No really I would. To get my hands on both versions of the Doom boardgame, play them, and write about that experience to. But that is a pipe dream. Cost and available funds will be a factor stopping this.

I have similar plans for other video games I have books on to. Such as Final Fantasy 7, Tempest, Metal Slug series, Mario 2 & 3.

I need to revisit the Bioshock series and play the boardgame I’ve never got to the table.

Then there is Skyrim. I own it on the Switch but never played it until two days ago whilst at Nathan’s (I started the game, and now a couple of hours in).

Sadly my preferred publisher Boss Fight Books hasn’t done a book on Skyrim. And I’m not seeing any books out there that are similar to the sort Boss Fight produce or I have in my collection.

I’m not sure what I can add to the coverage of Skyrim. But we will see how that goes.

In the meantime I need to come up with a plan that enables me to finish some of those draft posts, and write new ones. Life would be so much easier with a big lottery win!

Growing as a DM – a plan

con DM/GM, D&D, flgs DM/GM, RPG

One of my personal rpg goals this year is to DM/GM (hopefully) a D&D game at a con or FLGS.

Obviously it’d be a one shot. Especially at a con.

I already have the Matt Colville Lost Tomb of Delian Order, or Sly Flourish’s The Obsidian Skull (from the City of Arches) that both make great single session adventures.

Plus I have a copy of the Frank Mentzer single map (Dyson Logo version) AND an A3 printout of the classic Keep on the Borderland dungeon.

Add in my copies of the Lazy DM Workbook and Companion are always in my bag. Which will be joined by his Ruins of Grendleroot and Fantastic Locations.

I nearly forgot my cards that allow me to generate dungeons completely on the fly. Plus the npc cards.

I could at the drop of a hat improvise a session. But as a DM I’m a long way off being that good.

However being a patreon of Sly Flourish I have access to some patreon exclusive adventures. There are three adventures that I have had printed out that potentially could be used at either a con or FLGS. But they are by the looks of them a couple of sessions minimum. One is aimed at a one on one session (DM plus player).

I also took the opportunity to print out the City of Arches source book as a temporary stop gap until an official version can be purchased (a Kickstarter is planned for later this year).

These have been added to the folder.

I’m not up to going through the official UKGE channels and running a session that people buy tickets for. So in the run up to the UKGE I will try to organise something informal at the show.

In the meantime if an opportunity comes up to run a session at my FLGS I’ll take it as that will help build my confidence.

#dungeon23 Week 2 Roundup

#dungeon23, D&D, megadungeon, RPG

Well I’ve made it through week two.

So here is the Instagram post showing the final inked version of the map that was created for week two.

How did this week go?

Well even though I was making the daily updates adding a new room each day. I didn’t share many of the rooms on Instagram this week.

This was mainly due to me not feeling they were worth sharing.

On the map drawing it doesn’t feel like the map has come together until I do the inking at the end. Granted it’s not the best inking by a long shot. But it does the job.

I feel that this week was less focused in my mind from trying to tell a story with the rooms. The aim was to have another way for a party of adventurers to get into the dungeon. Plus working out how that entrance connected up with the previous weeks rooms.

The events and items found in this section of the map felt half hearted. But I did feel they were thematic to this section.

I couldn’t think of any secrets and clues this week, maybe one or two will come as I draw next weeks rooms.

Looking forward to week three and seeing where that takes me.

Where I stand with D&D 5e and Current Events

D&D, news, rant, RPG

If you play RPGs, particularly D&D. Unless you live in a remote cave in Tibet with no internet, it will have been particularly hard to have missed the big controversy going on with D&D at the moment.

I’m not going to go over the whole OGL/Hasbro/WotC vs everyone thing. Others more informed have covered the subject much better than I ever could.

Let’s face it does the world need to hear yet another white, middle aged, male opinion/analysis on the subject?

Not really. But here we are anyway with a post by me touching on how this all effects me and the games I run, and will run.

I’m not going to stop running D&D 5e.

That includes when OneD&D gets an official release.

OneD&D I think will be heavily tied in with D&DBeyond and the unreleased virtual tabletop. Which will I have no doubt also be monetised in every way possible. WotC have admitted as much recently to investors.

I have no interest or desire to go digital and open myself up to being held to ransom to get access to content. Which we are now in reality.

I know WotC only bought D&DBeyond last year. When you buy a physical book (which I prefer) do you get it free on D&DBeyond or even a discount? Nope. You have to buy it again. However we know they can do this as they did it with the Essentials Kit (and that was before they owned D&DBeyond). But we’ve seen WotC be that cheap over in MtG and buying physical booster packs and precons and Arena. And we all know what I think of their nickel and dime piss poor ingame economy in Arena.

WotC believe in squeezing as much out of you as they possibly can. So it’s no surprise they have started/plan to use lessons learned from MtG Arena and the video game industry to D&D and its digital incarnation.

So I’m going to remain with 5e and my physical copies I own. WotC can’t take them away from me, or stop me using them. But I bet they wish they could.

I have enough official D&D books to run my own campaigns for years without buying another book.

Add in third party books I own like Kobold Press’s Tome of Beasts, the Lazy DM books, Sly Flourish’s City of Arches, Ptolus source book, plus others.

Plus I can house rule any OneD&D rules into my 5e game, such as the new exhaustion rule, that I like.

A quick aside. Let’s face it official WotC books have been a bit disappointing (especially the source books) the last year or two. Spelljammer was light on content for DM’s, Dragonlance was an adventure not a source book. For me Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft set a gold standard for 5e D&D sourcebooks, but Spelljammer was not even close.

Even with the current money grabbing, WotC crapping where they eat events. I’ll still play 5e.

It may impact whether my favourite independent 5e content creators such as Sly Flourish, Arcane Library (they have stopped) write adventures/source books for 5e. And that will be a great loss for 5e and future versions. And I’ll try and support them as much as I can.

This blog won’t be effected. It’s way, way too small. Plus it comes under fan content.

For the record I hate what WotC are trying to do. It stinks. I’ll support any effort to try and stop it.

Right I have a megadungeon to update.

Father Son Gaming New Year Edition Part Deux

father son gaming, Game day, game night

After tea last night Nathan and I did indeed play his favourite boardgame Star Wars Outer Rim and it’s only expansion Unfinished Business.

Nathan once again played as Boba Fett with the Crime Lord ambition. Which after the rather disappointing Book of Boba Fett seemed appropriate and in-line with the characters ambitions in that series.

I didn’t play Jyn Erzo but for a change I went with Doctor Aphra. A character I was unfamiliar with. But her ability was cool. I thought deep down Aphra wanted to be a Pirate Monach so that was the ambition I selected.

After taking an early lead on the fame track, and on my ambitions goals, Nathan soon started to close the gap on the fame track. It be a while before he made a late surge on his ambition goals.

In that time I quickly upgraded my ship and modded it so I stood a better chance of getting my ambition objectives.

A failed attempt to complete my goal of becoming the Pirate Monach was enough of an opening to allow Nathan to get his own attempt in to become a Crime Lord. Sadly that also failed. But my second attempt to become the Pirate Monach did not.

I snatched victory from what would have been a heroic comeback by Nathan.

It was a great ending with Nathan rolling six dice for my opponent in my final combat, and not rolling a single hit. I just needed a single hit to win. I got two. And I took no damage.

It was a glorious victory.

Today was my final day with Nathan before heading back.

After another relaxed start to the day. We played a learning game of Isle of Cats Explore and Write.

This is a flip and write that’s been on my radar for a while now. So to now have it in my collection and get it to the table with Nath is pretty cool.

I got some Cartographers vibes whilst playing the game. Mainly from drawing the polyomino shapes on the board.

How anyone fills all the rooms in seven rounds I have no bloody idea. Is it even possible?

I love the quality of the cards, and the linen finish.

I liked this flip and write. And definitely want to get this to the table again pretty soon.

Oh and I won.

I say this every time but our parting is always hard.

My mood wasn’t helped with the news of Lisa Marie Presley passing away yesterday. She was the same age as me.

I was a big Elvis fan back in the mid Seventies.

There has only ever been two times in my life when the death of a celebrity has really affected me. Those being Elvis and Steve Jobs.

I think with Lisa Marie it was a combination of the fact she was the daughter of Elvis, and the fact we were the same age.

It got me reflecting on my drive home on life, the universe, and coffee. Decisions made, not made.

I’m home now. Chilling out to some American Dad. Missing my son. Can’t wait until my next visit.

Father Son Gaming New Year Edition

father son gaming, Game day, game night

After a relaxed start to the day (which I’m totally allowed seeing as I’m on holiday) I taught Nathan how to play the two player game Splendor Duel.

As usual I didn’t win. If my bgstat app is correct (and why wouldn’t it be?) I have never, I’ll repeat that never won a game of Splendor in any of the editions I have owned or own! Bloody good job I enjoy playing it.

The rest of our day was taken up by a dentist visit for Nathan, cooking “not spaghetti bolognaise” (ask Diego why it was not the dish, ok adding baked beans, mushrooms, and using chorizo, may technically mean it wasn’t), and Nathan wanting to watch the evenings football match between Southampton and Man City.

Today saw us pop into town for a Burger King lunch and a visit the local boardgame shop.

I had gone there with the purpose of just getting the Mutant Genesis expansion for Marvel Champions. However the Storm character expansion joined it, along with the Agora expansion for 7 Wonders Duel.

As soon as we got home (after a coffee) we played an all in game of 7 Wonders Duel. That’s the core game plus the Pantheon and Agora expansion.

We both really enjoyed the game. Agora brings in a new decision, tactical element, and win condition.

Control all six senate chambers and you get an instant political win.

A victory I was one chamber away from achieving at the start of the third age. However Nathan only needed one more symbol for the science win. He was going first at the start of the third age, and was hoping for a science card as an option to buy.

Obviously the tension built up as I laid out the cards in the third age pattern. It was down to the last two cards to be drawn and placed. Indeed one of those cards was not only a science card but the sixth symbol he needed. Instant win for Nathan.

Yes playing with everything means the game takes longer to setup and play. But I think it’s worth it. I like the extra stuff going on. You can’t afford to not to be paying attention to what your opponent is collecting.

The area control element of the senate chambers is cool. Having the majority in a chamber gives you control and some sort of power up you get to use through out the game. Plus points for end of game scoring if it goes to the bitter end.

Yeah I think we’ll be playing all in from now on. Just need to get my own copy now.

Right time to make tea followed by Star Wars Outer Rim (Nath’s favourite boardgame).

An unexpected long journey

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

A three hour drive down to visit Nathan turned into a five hour plus ordeal when the M3 was closed after junction 4a.

It took half an hour to get off the M3 at junction 4. Then even longer as the back roads from Farnborough and Basingstoke became clogged with traffic. Especially as I got nearer to Basingstoke and the odd road works bought everything to a standstill.

But I eventually arrived at Nathan’s for the start of a few days with him.

This time I bought with me the latest roll/flip and write in my collection The Isle of Cats Explore and Write (plus the Kickstarter promo cards). Which arrived lunchtime. Yes it’s that new an addition. I think it also gets the honour of being my first game purchase of 2023.

I’ve also bought Trekking Through History, Rolling Realms, Castles of Burgundy the dice game, Alhambra the dice game, Riverside, Marvel Champions, Splendor Duel, and my bag of games.

Star Wars Outer Rim was already here. I’d bought that down when I was down New Years Eve.

As I’m writing this post Nathan is watching the Newcastle vs Leicester game whilst playing Iron Harvest.

Iron Harvest looks beautiful. And so it should considering it uses art by Jakub Różalski alongside the game assets.

Nathan is really enjoying Iron Harvest. Which I knew he would. He is a fan of the RTS genre. Nathan is a big fan of Command and Conquer series and the subsequent games it spawned.

For me if I had a PC to play Iron Harvest it would also tick a lot of boxes for me too. I also am a fan of the RTS genre, but I’ve been playing it a bit longer than Nathan. I loved Dune 2 back in the day. Iron Harvest shares the same universe as my favourite boardgame of all time Scythe. So you can see how it ticks a lot of boxes for me.

Now I don’t think I would have much difficulty getting Nathan to try Scythe. He just needs a big enough table, or to visit me for him to try it.

I now have three days with Nath. So you know there will be some father and son Gaming going on.

Catch you in the next post.