Redesigning Encounters: Street Assault
I decided to play Street Assault differently than it was written; instead of an ambush as depicted in The Scouring of Gate Pass, the Black Horses planned an all out attack in order to capture Asher (whom they failed to attain in the first session). Also, looking forward, I saw that Kathor and Renard were in the same combat near the end of the adventure; I wanted to seperate the two in order to highlight each individually. Street Assault, known as Street Ambush in the adventure, is located on page 51 and consists of the following: Black Horse Lieutenant, Level 3 Soldier 4 Black Horse Bandits,...
Read MoreMusings on Our Seventh Session
The last month has seen a lot of changes to our roster. First, Brian went and got himself married, and then let his wife convince him to move to the other side of the country. This put a damper on the campaign, not only because we will genuinely miss Brian’s presence at the table, but also because his character was a linchpin the campaign was eventually going to revolve around; being a dragonborn, he was going to play a major role when the Bahamut and Tiamat plot waltzed into the forefront. Fortunately, we’ve built a solid campaign foundation that will focus more on the group as a...
Read MoreRedesigning Encounters: Spy Headquarters
The Spy Headquarters encounter was my favorite so far and not because it was a rewarding combat, but because it was almost completely bypassed by excellent roleplaying and more than a few lucky bluff checks. The encounter started off with the group convincing the Shahalesti that they were sent by Shealis to open the case of the vital military intelligence. I decided that I couldn’t let just one die roll decide the fate of what was supposed to be a difficult encounter, and so I whipped up a skill challenge. We were about halfway through it when I realized that I wasn’t going to...
Read MoreMusings on Our Sixth Session
Session 6 was a spectacular session! My closest friend and the best man at my wedding, Jeff Farnsworth, sat in as a guest player; he portrayed the role of Artimus, Rivereye’s old friend. This was lucky, as Brian was unable to make it out. Additionally, our session took place on my birthday—I am now the ripe old age of 32. Lastly, we lost Arender, finally outed as a spy for the Shahalesti government. He fell in combat against eladrin terrorists who were trying to undermine the King of Shahalesti, Lord Shaaladel. Best of all: though the session was eight hours, only one of those...
Read MoreMusings on Our Fifth Session
Session 5 of our War of the Burning Sky campaign was the best session yet! Not only did we get six hours of gaming in, five of those hours were solid roleplay; the session’s combat only lasted one hour. We finally hit the sweet spot of how long combat should last! Between Condition Cards, the initiative board, and a familiarity with their character’s powers, the players zipped from turn to turn with barely a moment in-between. Also: My marriage to Janelle Kann is less than a month away! Unfortunately, this means scheduling future sessions will be difficult as the excitement,...
Read MoreAn Essentials Perspective
Cody—resident player, tactician, and sometimes-MVP—took over the reigns for Seth on Sunday and DM’ed Session 4 of our Essentials campaign. He decided to run us through “The Broken Tower,” a series of three encounters suitable for five 2nd-level characters, from Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeon Delve. One of the exciting things about this venture was it was Cody’s first time at the helm. He not only did an awesome job as a first-time DM, he did an awesome job when compared to many long-time DM’s I’ve played with. Some of the things I...
Read MoreA Dark Sun Sandbox
A few weeks ago, I made a colossal DMing mistake—I had the players follow the DM, rather than let the DM follow the players. Here’s how the situation went down: In the War of the Burning Sky campaign I’m running, the characters were tracking down some vital military intelligence. Eventually, they discovered it was in the hands of an NPC named Shealis. They even found out where she was located. However, it was night, and the PC’s were low on hit points, powers, and healing surges—so they took an extended rest. The next morning, they woke to discover that another...
Read MoreMusings on Our Fourth Session
It’s been a busy spring for several of the players in my group, and the fallout of that is less time for War of the Burning Sky. Since I’m one of those weird DM’s that prefers every player be present for the campaign, weeks can go by without playing. My go-to excuse has always been, how would Lord of the Rings have ended if Frodo had called in sick the weekend they were supposed to toss the ring into Mount Doom? I guess Samwise would have had to do it… In the meantime, our group finished up the first adventure in Seth’s Essential’s campaign; hopefully there...
Read MoreAn Essentials Diversion
Over the past few months, Seth’s been running what we’ve come to call “The Essential’s Campaign.” In a nutshell, we all made characters from the options available in the two Essentials class books—Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms and Heroes of the Fallen Lands—and he’s been running the adventure contained in the Red Box. The main impetus for this diversion was we needed a game to keep us occupied on those weekends where someone was missing. Another great reason for prompting Seth to take up the DM reigns is that I never get to play. Don’t...
Read MoreMusings on Our Third Session
Things have been on a roll over here at the Green Household of Gaming. I’ve noticed that, after three sessions, things are getting smoother—and that’s taking into account our damn smooth start! The few kinks we’ve had are definitely being ironed out quickly and people are getting more comfortable with their characters. I also noticed that each time I write one of these, there’s much less listed under “Things That Could Have Gone Better” and much more listed under “Things That Went Great.” Session Summary Session 3 took place on Sunday,...
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