D&D CATCH-ALL because Baron is dumb

I've not found another D&D focused podcast either. However, Roleplaying Public Radio has been a good one and they do various systems.

I've been enjoying Total Party Kill recently

https://www.theincomparable.com/tpk/

mudbunny wrote:
Kehama wrote:

I've never played a true pen and paper RPG in my life. I'd love to get into some kind of group at some point.

I am working on getting a digital game (5E) going via Fantasy Grounds in the fall sometime. Goodjers will have dibs on spots.

Oooh, that sounds good. I found a few local games but the problem I have there is I'm a single parent and the groups meet during the week so my kid would have to be with me. If it was an online game during a weeknight he can just do his thing around the house while I play this.

manta173 wrote:

So I know this get asked in the various podcast related threads... but does anyone listen to D&D podcasts other than Adventure Zone? Once every two weeks is not enough for my driving schedule, and I want another 5e podcast. Critical Hit bores me and I am so far removed from 4e at this point I don't want to listen to it. Nerd Poker just isn't as good without Sarah and Sark.

I don't need them to be amazing... just entertaining and able to heard.

Even if you're over 4E, it's worth listening to Crit Juice just to hear how brilliantly the DM handles a variety of situations. The show tends to be pretty funny as well.

Geek and Sundry's 5E stuff is entertaining and there are sometimes famous folks on it (Ashley Johnson was one I think).

I've been watching the twitch streams after they go up on youtube from G&S, but I do wish it was in podcast form as I would prefer to consume it that way.

I have a long drive coming up at the end of the month and I will listen to all these suggestions.

I think that Wizards of the Coast has all of the Acquisitions Incorporated play sessions up in podcast format on their website.

Yup.

mudbunny wrote:

I think that Wizards of the Coast has all of the Acquisitions Incorporated play sessions up in podcast format on their website.

Yup.

Maybe I should go through them again as it has been awhile since I listened to the beginning.

manta173 wrote:
mudbunny wrote:

I think that Wizards of the Coast has all of the Acquisitions Incorporated play sessions up in podcast format on their website.

Yup.

Maybe I should go through them again as it has been awhile since I listened to the beginning.

The first ones with Chris Perkins is a real master class in how to DM.

It's particularly good if you have the module at hand so you can see how he's working with the material.

complexmath wrote:

It's particularly good if you have the module at hand so you can see how he's working with the material.

Ok... this is game changing... where can you get those modules?! I have seen a D&D NEXT version of mines of madness... I did not know anything was out there for the rest.

That may be the only one. After a few sessions, Chris started making up the adventures to suit the broadcast format.

Anyone want to enable me on a Thule pledge?

manta173 wrote:
complexmath wrote:

It's particularly good if you have the module at hand so you can see how he's working with the material.

Ok... this is game changing... where can you get those modules?! I have seen a D&D NEXT version of mines of madness... I did not know anything was out there for the rest.

I know he's done modified bits from Princes of the Apocalypse and Hoard of the Dragon Queen on stage with A.I.

2 weeks until I start Hoard of the Dragon Queen as DM. Also my first campaign. Exciting but intimidating. Any pointers?

BrandonCHFG wrote:

2 weeks until I start Hoard of the Dragon Queen as DM. Also my first campaign. Exciting but intimidating. Any pointers?

Search around on reddit and the general internet. A lot of people have fleshed it out between its release and now. Our DM is running a modified version so he feels more ownership and he is much more enthusiastic.

I recommend looking through stuff to see what others have done to get pointers, but really just go with the flow. We just circumvented an ambush completely by paying off a mercenary outside Greenist. Completely off the books, but a lot of fun to know our DM just went with it.

I really like Sly Flourish's advice on twitter but I haven't read through his guide as I don't want spoilers.

Thanks! Just read Sly's first article and there's some good stuff there.

My current DM wanted a break from DMing so I foolishly volunteered to run a second campaign. I already owned a copy of the Starter Set so I decided to just use that. This is my first time running a real campaign so I was mildly terrified.

Anyways, we had our first session last night and it went surprisingly well! We even had a new player show up who turned out to be a great addition to the group.
Highlights include:

  • Tavern Brawler Ranger grappling a bugbear and throwing him down a 30-foot deep hole. The Bugbear rolled a nat 1 on his saving throw and landed on his head.
  • Creative use of Feather Fall to save an NPC from plummeting to his death
  • The unintentional creation of Daav* the Goblin, a beloved and potentially recurring character.

*Pronounced 'Dave'. One player kept asking for the name of every NPC and I ran out of ideas.

It ended up being a lot more fun & less stressful than I expected. Looking forward to the next session.

Just remember, mutton, nothing is more important than the story you are trying to tell. You control everything, if something doesn't go your way, lie about it because your lies are their truth. Your players are the enemy and will do everything in their power to ruin your story and everyone's friendships. If anyone gets mad, it isn't your fault.

It's you vs. them.

Stay strong.

oilypenguin wrote:

Just remember, mutton, nothing is more important than the story you are trying to tell. You control everything, if something doesn't go your way, lie about it because your lies are their truth. Your players are the enemy and will do everything in their power to ruin your story and everyone's friendships. If anyone gets mad, it isn't your fault.

It's you vs. them.

Stay strong.

IMAGE(http://media.giphy.com/media/S3Ot3hZ5bcy8o/giphy.gif)

Wait, someone had Feather Fall ready to cast!?

What else are you going to have readied at first level?

The funniest thing about the Feather Fall incident (Starter Set spoilers):

Spoiler:

It was during the encounter where that goblin leader guy (Yeemik?) has Sildar hostage and wants to parley with the adventurers and convince them to kill Klarg. The thing is, they took a weird route through the caves so they'd already killed Klarg. If they just talked to Yeemik he would have happily handed over Sildar. Instead, the ranger shot him in the face, he dropped Sildar off the ledge, and the wizard cast Feather Fall on Sildar. Then they had a completely unnecessary fight with six goblins.

Totally pointless, but very entertaining.

McIrishJihad wrote:

What else are you going to have readied at first level?

I have never had a player ever use it or consider memorizing it. Personally I think that utility spells are the most useful, but I'm never a player (and my players never seem to learn my stance on this!).

oilypenguin wrote:

Just remember, mutton, nothing is more important than the story you are trying to tell. You control everything, if something doesn't go your way, lie about it because your lies are their truth. Your players are the enemy and will do everything in their power to ruin your story and everyone's friendships. If anyone gets mad, it isn't your fault.

It's you vs. them.

Stay strong.

I would subscribe to your newsletter (cause that is entertaining as hell), but I am pretty certain you're being facetious or you're secretly a monster.

IMAGE(http://www.kenzerco.com/Operiodicals/kodt/IMG_0103.JPG)

One nice thing about feather fall is that there's no provision for the spell breaking based on weight. So you could have the entire party use a single feather falling character/item as a parachute. It could also render siege weapons like catapults pretty much useless for a time. Should work for jumping across a wide gap or throwing something a ridiculously long way as well, since it doesn't affect horizontal velocity. Generally worded utility spells are the best.

Really, I think utility spells mostly suffer from the computer game effect. Which is that because it's nearly impossible to build functional utility spells into computer games, and that's where the bulk of most people's RPG experience lies, they're often forgotten by the average party.

^ Bingo.

I love the idea of utility spells because you can generally do stuff like that. But then you also have to be a master improvisationalist to think on your feet and go "oh, I can totally do this thing!"

I will admit that the problem with a lot of utility spells is that they're only situationally useful, while combat spells are nearly always useful in a combat-oriented game like D&D. So if you have only a handful of spell slots available, preparing combat spells makes a lot of sense. However, that's why spell storing items like scrolls exist. Outside of a potential emergency spell like Feather Fall that almost needs to be memorized to be useful, a mage could walk around with a backpack full of weird scrolls and totally break the game.

muttonchop wrote:

My current DM wanted a break from DMing so I foolishly volunteered to run a second campaign. I already owned a copy of the Starter Set so I decided to just use that. This is my first time running a real campaign so I was mildly terrified.

Anyways, we had our first session last night and it went surprisingly well! We even had a new player show up who turned out to be a great addition to the group.
Highlights include:

  • Tavern Brawler Ranger grappling a bugbear and throwing him down a 30-foot deep hole. The Bugbear rolled a nat 1 on his saving throw and landed on his head.
  • Creative use of Feather Fall to save an NPC from plummeting to his death
  • The unintentional creation of Daav* the Goblin, a beloved and potentially recurring character.

*Pronounced 'Dave'. One player kept asking for the name of every NPC and I ran out of ideas.

It ended up being a lot more fun & less stressful than I expected. Looking forward to the next session.

Daav's not here man... says another goblin opening a small door slit to the adventurer's looking for Daav.

muttonchop wrote:
  • The unintentional creation of Daav* the Goblin, a beloved and potentially recurring character.

*Pronounced 'Dave'. One player kept asking for the name of every NPC and I ran out of ideas.

Might be also working in a guest appearance for an adventuring group from the Rat Queens comic. Specifically, the adventurers known as... the Four Daves.

IMAGE(http://fangirlsarewe.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/rat-queens-4-2.jpg)

Goblin Daav was absolutely inspired by the Four Daves. They're the best.

The campaign already has an optional NPC goblin sidekick written into it, so I think I'll just swap him out for Daav. I already made sure Daav ran off in the appropriate direction when he made his escape.