Dear Readers, I have told you about several of my games: My Tuesday Ingrates, my Sunday Adventurers League (currently running Spelljammer; lots of fun there!), my Monthly in-person game (this Wednesday, actually), my monthly Roll20 game, and lastly, my weekly Discord game. Whew!
With all of those games, two are online and the rest are in-person. Someone once asked me which I prefer. Here’s the breakdown:
In Person:
There’s a lot to be said for in-person gaming as most of us found out during the pandemic. To put it into perspective, I had 9 tables at adventurers league, including my own. Now, we’re at 5 and we might end up with a 6th. I’m not sure. In any case, as we all know, the pandemic hit the gaming world hard. The alternatives became much more prevalent, but we’ll get to that later.
In-person gaming has some serious perks.
First is the face-to-face interactions. Nothing can really beat this. Being with friends, sharing adventures, eating food that’s not good for you, drinking copious amounts of your favorite beverages, are all things that are better when everyone is together.
Then there is the use of battlemats, terrain, and miniatures. As you all well know, I love painting and using miniatures. Nothing beats using them on a battlemat or some terrain. I mean, do you remember my post about using the Spelljammer ship? Yeah, not much beats that.
Lastly, it’s the synergy of everything above that makes in-person gaming such a big draw to folks.
Online:
Although there are some real benefits to playing in-person, playing online has it’s perks too.
Firstly, distance is no barrier. I mean, my monthly Roll20 game is with one of my best friends, his brother, an old friend from where I used to live and game with, and others. And the best part? Most of them are not from the same areas. This means that we can get on Roll20 once a month and start gaming. Now, due to issues we’ve had with Roll20’s video and voice chat features, we use Discord to do our voice chatting. I’ve even used Zoom to play a time or two (or used it to bring in a remote player to an in-person game!).
Sites like Fantasy Ground, Roll20, and others still let you have cool maps/terrain-ish things to play on. This works especially with pre-written/published adventures you purchase on those platforms. For example, I own Rime of the Frostmaiden, Curse of Strahd, and some other adventures on Roll20, all of which come preloaded with monster tokens, maps, etc… For Roll20 (as I’m a Pro User), I also get the use of Dynamic Lighting, which allows my players to see only what their characters can see. A major benefit over even tabletop gaming.
Next, it’s relatively easy to use. When the pandemic hit, I was easily able to pick up my games and move them online. Some when to Roll20, while others went to/stayed on Discord. I can copy/paste maps into Discord, I can import or even draw maps in Roll20, and with software like dndbeyond.com, the Beyond20 browser extension, Avrae (in Discord), and others, I can get the same functionality as if I was playing in person.
Lastly, with sites like Roll20 (and other similar programs/sites), you can easily find players or DMs who want to play. I ran a pickup game of The Haunt last year. I even charged players to play ($5 per person) as I saw so many other DMs doing that, but wanted to make it affordable so more people could sign up to play. And that was a blast.
The only real disadvantage is, again, that lack of person-to-person interaction that gamers crave so much and that was so missed during the pandemic, and that benefit cannot be overstated.
Conclusion:
There are benefits and drawbacks to playing in-person as well as online. The pandemic showed us that, even though we are apart, we can still be “together” to play our favorite RPG games, whatever they may be. In-person gaming is considered the pinnacle of gaming, but online gaming keeps us connected where we don’t have that option.
Let me know what your favorite method of gaming is and why in the comments section below.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I know I had a post that I took down that said there’d be no post today, but I had some time to knock this out while waiting in the doctor’s office, so here you go! I guess there is something to be said for smart-phone access.
Dear Readers, particularly my DM/GM readers, we’ve all been there before. You look at your schedule and there it is, in black and white: your upcoming session.
And you haven’t done squat to prepare.
Worry not, as I have some things to help you!
First, identify how much time you do have to prepare! Is it an hour? A half hour? A few hours? This is what will determine your next steps.
If you have little time to prep, maybe even the day of, I highly recommend looking at something to run as a one-off session. This means something pre-written/built. The DMs Guild website (https://www.dmsguild.com) has literally thousands of pre-written, and many of them well-written adventures for you to run. And most of these can be read through a time or two and be able to be run quite easily. This is especially true when looking around a specific seasonal holiday, like Halloween or Christmas, although there are others. Another option, also from the DMs guild website, is taking an old adventure, and reworking it for whatever edition of the game you are currently running. I’ve found that many of the older 2nd edition adventures are easily converted to 5e with a tweak here or there. Many monsters from this era have been converted to 5e at least somewhere on the internet, and, worst comes to worst, can be easily statted out by either using something close that already exists, or by re-tooling something that remotely resembles it.
Additionally, nothing says “stalling for time” than a few random encounters (see one of my previous posts about using random encounter tables!). You can’t go wrong with having/looking up some random encounter tables. And they don’t all have to be combat encounters, either! Some can be as simple as a damsel in distress, and the party needing to help fend off some baddies, or maybe a merchant whose goods were stolen by goblins/orcs/whatever. Some could even be a wandering bard wanting to tell his sad tale (which is fun as it could lead off to other adventures later on down the road!).
If you have a little bit more time, I suggest going back to your outline (remember that bit of advice for campaign writing? This is why we do this!). This will tell you where you plan on going and how you plan on getting there. Sometimes, though, you may not have completely outlined the whole campaign. That’s okay. Then only work up what you need for the current area/adventure. Let me give you an example: I had an upcoming session, and I had no clue as to how I was going to get from Point A to Point B. So I did a bit of research on, in this case, unknown secrets, and found several interesting creatures: the allip and the berbalang. I knew the party was looking for information on something that going to a library wasn’t going to solve, so I had to get them the information in some way. Also, I had planned on the party, at some point, touching into Spelljammer territory. Then it hit me. The berbalang. They usually reside on the bodies of dead deities, floating in Wildspace. I then worked backwards from there. Where would they find information on a berbalang? Okay, where is a hub of information in Wildspace? The Rock of Bral! Sweet. How to get them there? A Spelljammer ship. How to get one? An ancient ship whose existence has been hidden by the gnomes that the party had recently saved. Add the fact that the ship is now in the middle of an undead graveyard, meaning that they have to fight their way to the ship, and voila! You have several sessions worth of play! I simply started sprinkling in some encounters here, and some encounters there, and I was set. In space, I had the party harassed by space pirates, twice. I had the party going through some good role-playing sessions on the Rock of Bral, where they went looking for information, picked up supplies, and otherwise tooled around. I also set up an encounter with an infamous band of evil adventurers (for those who are keeping up with the latest in the Ingrates, you know who I’m referring to! If not, keep listening, because they are a cool group).
Whatever time you have to plan, there are options for you. I know I’ve used all of the options above in trying to plan out adventures/sessions. I’ve thrown out random encounters (some of which I ended up tying into the main story), I’ve tossed out some prewritten materials (see my sessions on The Haunt for that Halloween-y goodness!), and I’ve expanded my story outline. Whatever it is that you do, keep on keeping on, as you are the DM and you have got this.
Check out this latest installment of the Ingrates, where they find themselves embroiled in mystery after mystery! Will they find their way through! Find out now!
Dear readers, here we are again with another painting update! Today, I got some highlighting done as well as painting his claws and nails. I’ll sign it up. Doing a little bit of touch-up work on his hands and fingers as I found spots that I missed. I did the teeth in what I can only say is a great job all things considered. Lastly, I painted the eyes a nice red with the vertical stripe.
See for yourself:
Isn’t he pretty?
I know I didn’t take the picture after I had it done, but his toe nails are also painted black.
I also made a decision as to how I’m going to deal with the basing. The friend of mine that did all the miniatures for the Ingrates will be doing the basing at my request. I want this guy and the other slaadi to be well done. I’m confident with the painting job, just not as much with the basing.
Next, we have our boy, Famine, who is a firbolg. Due to the fact that several of my players read this blog, I’m not saying anymore about him. But I do want to show the paint job. Here’s what I got:
After priming
Due to the fact that he is the incarnation of famine, I decided to go with a more moldy skin tone for him.
Personally, I think that it works very well. Apparently I have this propensity for taking pictures before. I’ve actually finished the miniature, so his legs aren’t showing having been painted. Believe me, they are painted. I plan on having more of him done by next week.
Well, that’s all I have for today. Thanks so much for joining me and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button!
Dear Readers, it goes without saying that a party’s effectiveness relies on effective party leadership.
Trying to not give anything away, the following statement was said at last night’s game (the Ingrates):
“Dammit! _________’s been gone for not even one whole session and everything is already falling apart!” Or something to that effect.
The party leader is no longer…with the party. Again, not going to say who or why, as that will be some SERIOUS spoilers, but it’s left the group in serious disarray.
The group, upon reaching their destination (again, spoilers), stayed together for a bit, met some interesting NPCs, and then proceeded to SPLIT UP!
There’s a song for that actually called “Never Split the Party.” The group knows this song.
And the player who used to have the character who was the party leader is playing a brand new character, a never-before-seen character who is unique in a variety of ways, and is still establishing his character as even a member of the party. Sheesh, did I have multiple calls for insight checks. Brutal.
In any case, the party split between the Temple District, the Market Square, and the Library. Then, after some shopping, searching, and…pretty-fying…one of the groups came across a long-time foe, tried to track them down, and proceeded to get absolutely wrecked. Like…downed and two death failed death saves, type wrecked.
Thankfully, another character was nearby trying to keep up with this other wrecked character, and fed them a healing potion just in time.
It was brutal.
The party was absolutely pissed. Pissed at the aggressor, pissed at the character that got wrecked, and pissed at themselves for splitting up when they absolutely KNOW better, especially when this had bitten them in the backsides previously (this is in a previous edition of “A DM’s Perspective” when Avery got shanked).
To add insult to injury, in the next episode, the rest of “The 5” reappeared, killing several party members who were caught alone, or in small, more manageable groups, thus furthering and reinforcing the idea that the group is directionless.
So, what to do?
Encourage the election/assignment of a party leader
This makes sure that there is someone to give direction to the party (since the party’s ship captain is unavailable as his player is currently engaging in other activities that take him away from the game table, and we are therefore making him the current Spelljammer, a.k.a., the pilot)
Help steer the party yourself
As the DM, you have a lot of leeway when it comes to how you help engage the group. Don’t be afraid to use it. There are lots of ways to do this, but for me, one of the most effective ones is tossing an encounter at them. In the session following the one above, the party still seemed to be floundering with their leaderlessness, and to get them re-engaged in the tasks at hand, I tossed another encounter with several of “The 5.” THAT got them moving! Frankly, I didn’t care what direction they went in, I just wanted them to get moving.
Do nothing
This is actually a very real option. Let them flounder until they get back on track themselves. I really considered doing this, but for the sake of the game and the podcast, I decided against it, using #2 above. There is a downside to this, as there is the very real possibility that some of the players may get bored and/or disinterested in the game.
Conclusion
Party cohesion is very important to the flow of the game and to the ability for a group of players/characters to work together. Without this, a party will flounder and get way off track, never advancing the storyline and possibly creating their own minor sidequests that have no bearing on the story whatsoever.
TLDR: Always have SOMEONE to lead the party
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I know I owe you, my Premium Subscribers, a new Ingrates preview, but there was an issue last night and it didn’t get posted. It will be up next week. Thanks for your patience.
P.P.S. – I want to remind everyone that, on our pages, we have our podcast episodes. I’ve been translating posts (or at least the ones that can translate) into podcast format for those who would rather listen to my posts!
P.P.P.S. – Also don’t forget to like and subscribe to The Blog!
P.P.P.P.S. – Lastly, don’t forget to get your Daily Dungeon Master Blog merchandise which can be found here. Remember that all proceeds go to helping make the Blog a better place!
Dear Readers, I know that it’s been…awhile…since I have done a painting update of any kind. Why?
Well, after that Elven Spelljammer Ship and the associated tree dock, I was worn out with painting!
But that is now past and I need to do some more painting and get back in the saddle, so to speak.
So here’s my new project: the red Slaad.
I have a blue one as well as a grey and death Slaad, but we’ll get to those when we get to them.
For now, let’s concentrate on what we have now.
Here’s what we are working with:
Based on the surface area we are looking at, I’m thinking that our newish Speedpaints will work great for the main part of the slaad.
Looking at my collection, I’m thinking Slaughter Red is the way to go.
It should give us a nice middle of the road red, with pinkish highlights and a deep red for the recesses.
Then I am going to be using Matt Black for the claws/nails/spikes, and a standard red for the eyes (with a black line for their snake-like pupils) covered in a glossy varnish to make them look more like eyes.
Then we’ll do some basing, and we’ll be done!
Of course, as you all well know, there will be… complications. It comes with the territory.
So, let’s get some speedpaint on this bad boy!
I’m fairly happy with how he’s turning out so far. I had to go back over it and touch up some areas that I had missed, like sides of fingers inside of thighs, things like that.
The only thing I’ve discovered is that just because it’s a speed paint doesn’t mean it’s speed dries.
I will have to wait till later to go back and do the other colors. But that’s okay. I’ll get some more paint on the other bits tomorrow and report back next week on the results.
Dear Readers, with the exception of a post here and there, you may have noticed my continued absences and sporadic posts.
There’s a reason for this: my mental health.
I’ve really been struggling lately, and I appreciate your continued love and patience.
That said, I’m going to try and post more often.
I’m SO behind in my “A DM’s Perspective” that I’m worried that I won’t catch up.
My video editor has been having technical difficulties making getting my Premium Content posts up and going (he’s been trying, God love him!).
And lastly, my depression has been getting the better of me throughout this whole ordeal.
So I needed a break.
The other night, this past Sunday evening to be exact, my daughter wanted to go see a movie and invited me along. I was surprised but excited. We hadn’t had a dad/daughter date in a long while. We went to go see Bullet Train. It was easily in my top 5 favorite action movies ever, up there with Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Boondock Saints, and Red. It was that good.
And I needed that sort of break.
To add insult to injury, I’m coming up on my birthday. It’s a number that marks me as being in/close to middle aged.
To say the least, I’ve been stressed out.
Some things I’m working on: getting caught up with my “A DM’s Perspective,” another painting project (personal project; after those monolithic projects [the spelljammer ship and the tree/dock], I really need to get back to my painting), releasing more Inglorious Ingrates episodes (episodes for the masses!), and another “A Player’s Perspective” for our more recent forays in the town of Arkham Falls for our “Kids on Bikes” campaign. In other words, I’m getting back to work!
Again, thanks for the patience and kindness in letting me take a break!
Dear Readers, I have been truly blessed with several things while running this blog. I get some exposure on other blogs, I get to post articles from other blogs, and I sometimes get asked to review a product or, in this case, adventure for folks.
Now. I want to put a disclaimer on this today:
IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY PLAYERS OR ARE PLAYING THIS ADVENTURE, STOP READING IMMEDIATELY, AS THERE MAY BE SOME SPOILERS!!
Ahem. As I was saying.
Move over “The Haunt” series, and welcome “Fear the Reaper” by Ammon Hansen! This person emailed me and asked me to look over their adventure and help give an assessment. Flattered, I did.
And let me tell you: I was impressed. And I am not impressed easily, when it comes to new adventures, especially from community-published adventures on the DMs Guild website (www.dmsguild.com)! I’ve been burned too many times with community-published adventures. They have been railroad-y, poorly thought out, or otherwise just plain badly written. Don’t get me wrong! I’ve found a few gems here and there, but I pay CLOSE attention to the reviews now. I mean, I got “The Haunt” from there, as well as “The Lich Who Stole Christmas” among others. Those are the exceptions, not the rule.
But this person…this person was different. They were asking for feedback before publishing! They wanted some input to make their product better! I couldn’t possibly have been more excited. Oh, I had my share of trepidation when they emailed it to me, believe it. I, frankly, was half expecting the drivel that I normally see on the DMs Guild website.
But no…absolutely not. I had found yet another gem! Sure, it needed some polishing, but a gem nonetheless!
After some back and forth, with some recommendations from yours truly (and, I’m sure, other DMs), they sent out a final copy to me that blew my mind. Here’s the premise:
Traveling through a thick, dangerous forest, you find the road ahead blocked by fallen trees. A heavy thunderstorm begins as the party backtracks to find a mysterious hotel, only to quickly discover the great evil housed within.
I mean, if that doesn’t grab your attention, nothing will.
As for the adventure itself:
It has a wonderful premise. Granted, the whole “the way is blocked, oh look, a thunderstorm, oh look an inn!” shtick has been done before, it really works here.
Now, the NPCs: I found them interesting and engaging. Even moreso once you see/find out the twist regarding them.
The horror level goes from 1-100 very quickly. I wish there was a little more build up to it, but based on everything else in the adventure, I get why Ammon did things this way. It really gets the PC’s into the action without dilly-dallying around. I can appreciate it.
The final reveal as to who/what the badguy(s) is/are is more than a bit interesting. It relied on a modified version of a critter, but that’s more than okay, as it adds to the mystery of the adventure, and the horror that accompanies it.
The best part about the adventure is that, while originally made for a party of level 5 adventurers, there is a chart inside that shows how to scale it. This is super useful for running it for higher level parties, although I don’t think it would be okay to scale it past, say, level 10 or so. Beyond that, it would be too easy to bypass the cool parts of the adventure. Personally, I think level 9 is the highest I would run this adventure at, and the level that I intend on actually running it for one of my groups (the Ingrates), and somewhere between 5 and 9 for my monthly group.
In any case, this adventure is WELL worth the purchase, and, again, can be found on the DMs Guild website here. I cannot recommend it enough.
Let me know what you think about the adventure in the comment section below, either now, or after Halloween (when I, too, plan on running it!).
Dear Readers, today (without too much context, as I haven’t caught you all up on the Ingrates’ shenanigans) I will show you all what the board looked like prior to the fight. Here it is, in all its glory, with all of the terrain:
That’s just the terrain.
Here is when we added the monsters (with faces cleverly edited out)…
As you can see, it turned out awesomely. And let me tell you, the fight was really touch and go for a minute. I had a lich in there for story reasons, and I had two death knights in there to give them urgency to get across the board. And then, in addition to the mass number of zombies and skeletons, new zombies popped up at the end of every round. It was epic.
The sad thing is, the party really struggled. I really thought they would start using some sort of teleportation to get to the ship. But they didn’t. They tried to stand and fight for a bit. Not sure why they decided to stand and fight against two death knights and a lich, but you can never predict what your players are going to do.
Additionally, and I won’t say which one, we saw one of the characters leave. Of course, we saw a new one join the party, but the story reason behind it was over a year in the making. I mean, this is something that that particular player and I had been planning since character creation.
And it was awesome.
Needless to say, the party was fairly devastated when that character left. But, there’s always the possibility that they return. That will take some work, but that character can return.
That’s all I have for today folks, so tune in next time to get some more updates on the Ingrates!
Today is the day that I get to finally showcase that ship that you all have been seeing. Today is the day it finally makes an appearance on my game table!
TODAY!!!
I am so very excited.
I don’t want to give things away, but the Ingrates are in for a HUGE set of surprises tonight.
Yes, pictures will be posted of all of the terrain, miniatures, and such that are going to come with the ship and the tree dock. I wouldn’t leave you all hanging with just a description! You should know me better than that…
But I digress.
Tonight is going to to be absolutely epic. I look forward to posting pictures, even if they are out of context (I’m a bit behind on my “A DM’s Perspective”, and my editor started a new job and is behind on the episode previews).
The party found themselves looking at a pirate base, with two ships docked, one inside the cave complex, and one in the cove. Deciding to assault the base, the party sniped the lookouts, and then entered the base. Seeing that most of the pirates were in the tavern inside the cave complex, the party blocked all of the exits, and set it on fire (this should sound familiar, as my party back in the days of Tomb of Annihilation did the same thing!), and letting survivors jump into the shark infested waters off to the side of the tavern.
Having dealt with this, the party destroyed one ship. They also freed the slaves that were being smuggled out of this location.
After freeing the slaves, the party, having no further leads, decides to head to Luniaraysk, to deliver more food their way. Along the way, they meet two people, one who has, seemingly uncontrollable tremors, and the other laughing heartily sporadically. Highly suspicious of the situation, where the response of the two is “it happens sometimes.”
The party heads onward, only to find out that Luniarysk has been importing slaves to eat, thereby fending off the famine that they have been experiencing. Seeing also that there is a large black tower made of an unknown metal is in the middle of town that they had not heard about previously. Deciding to assassinate the mayor to stop the nonsense and slaughter of innocents, they do so, causing the crowd to panic and disperse.
Investigating the strange tower, the party discovered two things: the party was confronted with four very powerful evil adventurers, that had “saved” the town from starvation (and presumably led the town to cannibalism), and on top of the tower were four crystals that negated their magic abilities and items. After the confrontation, the party left hurriedly, knowing that they were no match with these adventurers. Worse still, the party was targeted by a rod of some kind that they realized had the capability of cutting off the world from deities, including Falinora. Stripped of their magic and protections, the party fled.
Leaving that place, and with less food than they came (they contacted the spymaster to have soldiers come and enforce the idea that cannibalism was in no way acceptable, and hopefully with more food.
The party traveled then, to Bobuch, where they found that The Priest had been, helping feed the town, keeping them from starvation. The party inquired about the strange crystals that fell from the sky, and found that they had been dropped 300 feet down an abandoned mineshaft. The party went down and, using the shatter spell, destroyed the crystals.
Meanwhile, The Priest met with the party, who assured them that the effects of the strange rod were not permanent and would subside in a matter of days. After that time, he was able to repair Avery’s broken hammer, Angelus. The Priest explained that this item was called the Scepter of the Sorcerer-Kings. It’s appearance was unexpected and foretold dire consequences for the world. In fact, its presence cannot be seen by deities at all, and followers are only told of its appearance to be on the lookout for it and to seize it at all costs, to keep it from out of the wrong hands.
The party set back out, towards Pronk, having been told by The Priest that messengers sent to that town have not returned.
What lay in store for the Ingrates next? Stay tuned for another edition of “A DM’s Perspective”!
So, I saw the streams that many of you all also have seen. If you haven’t, here they are:
Okay, so it seems that they are not doing editions any longer. They are going to call it just “D&D.” They seem to be wanting to keep 5th edition as a base, and are now codifying many of the rules that most players already play.
For example:
They are doing the Nat 20 always succeeds, while a Nat 1 always fails, even with skills.
It’s interesting, to say the least.
Even better, since D&D Beyond has been purchased by Wizards of the Coast (WotC), they have released playtest materials for One D&D. I am loving it.
I won’t lie, I was a bit skeptical at first.
Then they talked about making an actual virtual tabletop. They talked about the whole thing where players “cobble together” so many things to play D&D virtually. As an example, my virtual players use D&D Beyond for their characters, then the Avrae tool for my Discord games, and the Beyond20 browser extension to port character rolls and usage to Roll20. That’s a lot of hoops to jump through.
Some things that the new ruleset are currently looking at codifying is that, on a critical hit, only the weapon damage gets doubled, not the sneak attack/smite/etc…
They are also codifying Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything‘s rules regarding character origins and creation. It’s…interesting. Especially since much of these options give a feat at first level. Then they add other things, like giving dwarves tremor sense while in contact with stone a certain times per day. Very interesting.
Conclusion
All in all, I am excited about this “new evolution” of D&D. Frankly, I love that they are simply building off of 5e, as it’s become a very popular system, and rightly so!
What do you think, Dear Readers? Let me know in the comment section below.
I appreciate your patience with me and my sporadic posting schedule. My healing has been going well from my surgery, but I have a significant number of life-changes as a result.
I am still dedicated to bringing you quality content and bringing it regularly. This month has just been a beast. And for that, I apologize.
Things to look forward to:
I saw the new D&D One video and frankly, I’m a have a bit of trepidation as well as excitement.
I’m feeling unease over this new “evolution” that they are discussing, but I’m excited that they aren’t doing editions any longer, whatever that means. I’m looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
And don’t worry, I plan on having a more detailed post about these new developments tomorrow. I just didn’t have time today.
All that said, I’m a total fan of WotC (Wizards of the Coast), as well as D&D Beyond, so I’ll end up buying everything.
Speaking of buying products, check this out for a preview of tomorrow’s post: they are, now that WotC owns dndbeyond.com, going to start offering what we’ve all been asking for: a combination of digital and physical copies all in one. Color me impressed. Granted, the price has gone up, commensurate with said offering, with the next book costing almost $60, but at least I’m getting both things. I’m willing to say, as the meme does, “Shut up and take my money!” It does seem that they are still offering just the digital option on dndbeyond.com, and for much cheaper, but I digress. I would also like to say that they are, for the new Dragonlance campaign setting, offering some sort of “Deluxe” option for about $160, but I want to know what’s in it before I toss that kind of money around. I may as well just go whole hog and buy the Beadle and Grimm Platinum Edition of the offering to get the miniatures, props, handouts, and such.
We’ll see.
Well that’s all I have for today, so stay tuned for more updates as I can get them out to you.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I know, for you Premium Subscribers, that I haven’t had a new updated preview of the Ingrates in awhile. My editor has been having some technical difficulties, among other things. I plan on making it up to you with a Premium Subscriber giveaway in the near future. Look forward to that. If you aren’t a Premium Subscriber, consider becoming one to get access to extra content and giveaways!
Dear Readers, I just finished reading the first two books (Astral Adventurer’s Guide and Boo’s Astral Menagerie), as well as the first two chapters of the included adventure, Light of Xsryxis. And let me tell you all something:
I am more than impressed, yet a little disappointed. Let me go over what I love first.
I’ll try not to give away any spoilers.
What I Love
First off, I am impressed by the artwork. It’s frankly stunning, with great visuals of monsters, ships, and other creatures. And the books are absolutely filled with them, but not to the point where it’s overwhelming.
Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast, all rights reserved by them.
Secondly, I am thoroughly impressed by all three books! The Adventurer’s Guide is chalk full of new playable races, feats, and even a couple of new backgrounds. Among the races, the Giff, the Plasmoids, the Hadozee, and the Autognomes are noteable. There are definitely other ones, like the thri-kreen, which were monstrous-only creatures, but are now playable races.
Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast, all rights reserved by them.
Next came the vast number of Spelljamming ships. There were such a vast variety of ships, each with their typical uses and racial (if any) origins. They tell you whether or not the ship can land on land and/or sea, if at all, as well as the number and types of weapons they carry. One of my favorites is the Shrike ship, as the vessel that I have been working on seems to be a variant of that!
Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast, all rights reserved by them.
Lastly, in the Adventurer’s Guide, is the treatise on the Rock of Bral. I love the general history as well as the descriptors of the location, not to mention how to incorporate it into your campaign world (to to speak).
It includes a poster map photo of the Rock of Bral, but since I got the digital version on dndbeyond.com, I obviously don’t have a physical copy of the poster map and will likely be printing it out for my players so that they have a reference to where things are. That’s my plan for Adventurers League in any case.
Lastly is the adventure itself. This is where I have mixed feelings…
First off, I absolutely love that each chapter ends on a cliffhanger. That is awesome. The adventure has some really good stuff, and the plot is very cool. The adventure hook is even better, getting the party into the action right from the get-go.
Lastly, I love how it comes into sections, broken out into three books. One is the player’s stuff with all of the new races and such. The next is the bestiary/monster manual for the setting. Lastly is the adventure that comes with it. Very handy breakout.
What I Don’t Like
This is where things get…complicated. As much as I absolutely love the plot line of the story, it doesn’t really seem to have much depth. It uses milestone leveling which is fine, but there isn’t much substance in between each level to justify (in my mind at least) a jump in level that frequently. According to the adventure, you level after each chapter!
To add insult to injury, it’s a relatively low-level adventure, ending at level 8. Level 8, Dear Readers.
That’s like…not even into the fun-zone of level 9.
Sure, there will likely be DMs Guild adventures to take the party beyond 8th level, but with what I am paying ($69.99 in the U.S.), I want a more robust adventure and more substance to the campaign setting itself.
Maybe it’s just me. I dunno.
Conclusion
Despite its flaws, I love the product. I am buying the alt-cover of the adventure/setting, mostly because it looks cool (in addition to having it electronically on dndbeyond.com). All in all, I’m fairly happy with this new setting.
That’s it, Dear Readers, that’s what I have come to say. My surgery went well, with zero complications. I am now in recovery and recuperation mode. Hopefully, I will be back to a regular posting schedule come this next week, as I come off my meds, as I am generally too hazy on them to do much.
Sorry, Dear Readers, there won’t be any significant posts for the week. My family and I are making preparations for my surgery on two days time and I am, go figure, caught in the middle of it.
I’m glad I could finish up the ship for all of you to see before it’s big debut. I’ll be working on the tree dock some more. Additionally, it’s been brought to my attention that I have a commission or two that I will be receiving soon, so be on the lookout for that.
So that’s it for now. I might have a Kids on Bikes update for you tomorrow if I can manage it. Frankly, I’m anxious about my surgery. Granted it’s pretty minimal, and as long as I follow my doctor’s orders I should be fine. But I’ll be there sheets to the wind on pain meds for the next week or so.
Dear Readers, I sent ahead and put in the final touches on the ship and it’s complete!
See for yourself:
If you haven’t noticed, I also painted the base/stand white. I was thinking about it being the color of the sky/clouds.
Still working on the tree…
Here it is so far…
Here’s the progress on the rocks:
As you can see, I still have some work to do on those mushrooms. I have not even started the bubble mushrooms yet. But that’s okay. I have some time. At least I got the ship done. That’s a huge breath of relaxation for me. I was worried about not getting the ship done in time. Here’s one last picture with all of the accoutrements on it in some really good lighting:
Well, that’s all I have for now! Join me next time for another update on the tree.
Dear Readers, I know it’s been a minute since I’ve updated, but I was doing a lot to prepare for my surgery that was supposed to be today. It got rescheduled last minute due to some stupid insurance reasons and will now be on the 3rd of August.
All that said, I have not been sitting idle. I have been working on the tree/dock instead of the ship, needing to get on that project.
Here are the results:
As you can see, I’ve done the tree itself in Oak Brown (including the railing, although I intend on doing a greenish dry brush to make it look like more newish wood growth), and the rocks below in Dungeon Grey (going to do some dry brushing of Ghoul Grey to get a good effect on it!). Then I used the Hardened Leather speedpaint for the “wood” decking/stairs.
Then I worked on some shrooms!
I ended up using Lava Orange for them. For the round bubble-looking ones, I intend on doing them in some sort of bright red with white spots. We’ll see.
That’s all I have today folks! Hope you keep up, as I will be doing a TON of painting before my surgery.
Dear Readers, I know I said I was going to give a Kids on Bikes update, but apparently, I’m caught up!
So instead, I will release another edition of The Inglorious Ingrates.
Enjoy!
P.S. – I’d like to remind everyone (and I’ll do it again throughout the week as to make sure everyone gets the message) that I am having surgery on this coming Monday, 25 July. As such, I’ll be taking that week off to recover. I shouldn’t need more than that, but if I do, I’ll let you all know in an update on my own health.
Dear Readers, as I write this, I am in pain. Not a lot, but my hand is cramping!
From what?
We’ll, all the painting I got accomplished today!
With no further ado, here is the Ranger, with basing done!
And just in time, too! We are scheduled to play our monthly game the day after tomorrow and I know she wanted her miniature for that.
Now for the part that really gave my hand some cramps: the ship.
As you can see, I got a lot of accomplished. I was able to finish painting the wooden parts of the wings and the tail fin. Additionally, I got the bow and front bottom fin done. Lastly, I was able to paint one side worth of copper studs. Let me tell you about those copper studs: there’s none of this painting over the whole thing with one brushstroke going on. I painted each and every stud individually.
Oh, and it gets worse! I have other studs I have to paint on the inside of the ship. Let me show you:
See all those studs on the inside edge? Yeah, those got to get painted. See those tiny studs on the planks of the deck of the ship? Yeah, those, too.
It’s okay though, because it will all have been worth it once my players see it. In all its glory. Which, ironically is coming up very soon. The player of mine that’s been deployed overseas, actually the one who plays Idris in the ingrates, is returning this month! Month! And just in time too. He has declared himself captain for life for any ship. The players happen to gain possession of. Which is interesting as I wanted him to be here for when the party eventually got hold of the spelljammer ship.
Speaking of spelljammer, the new adventure series comes out around August 16th. I’m very excited about it. And frankly, I don’t want to actually start the spelljammership stuff until I know the mechanics on how the ships work. Hopefully I’ll get some of that going with these new adventures. They’re releasing on D&D beyond called the spelljammer academy. They’re supposed to be four parts, and part one and two have already been released. So far, I’ve seen a glimpse of what the mechanics are on how to pilot one of the ships and I’m, frankly, excited about that. For those not in the know, back in the day, a wizard had to actually pilot the ship and had to use spell slots in order to do so. So I’m curious as to how piloting works now.
Only time will tell.
In any case, that’s all I have for you today. Join me tomorrow for an edition of “A DMs Perspective” where we’re going to talk about Kids on Bikes. And no, not the one where I play in, but the version that I am running while we are awaiting the new spelljammer content to come out. It’s going to be fun.
Ah… the holy cleric… The support caster of support casters at the beck and call every wounded warrior. They are squeamish around blood, in chapel on a friday night, and rolling their eyes at every joke. And for most people, no matter how powerful the class is (and it is VERY powerful) that sounds… boring.
It’s a problem the class has faced since the first edition. The stereotypical life cleric dwarf isn’t appealing to everyone. But with an immense amount of subclasses and deities, clerics are much more versatile than people think. With enough creativity, you can make this super powerful class look however you want.
With that in mind, here are 7 unique clerics from history as inspiration. Cleric’s that hardly match the stereotype of “the pious, feeble priest”
The Pythia – 8th Century AD – (Arcana Domain)
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Our first cleric, “The Pythia”, is actually a title, awarded to one of the many virgin priestesses of the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle was a temple that provided authoritative (and ambiguous) answers to the serious Greek questions of destiny and war. These women were chosen from the best families of Delphi, receiving honor, wealth, responsibilities, and freedoms withheld from all other women in Greek culture. So why was the Pythia one of the most powerful women in the ancient world? Because she could channel the will of the god Apollo!
To prepare to be a vessel of Apollo, the Pythia followed a sacred rite. After a purification period of fasting and bathing in the Castalian Spring, the Pythia would don a white dress and enter the temple. If the omens from a sacrificed goat were favorable, she would then enter the chamber (the “adyton”) and sit on a tripod chair over the crack in the earth that the “divine fumes” poured out. Upon inhaling the fumes, she would enter a semi-conscious trance and respond to questions from eager Greeks, sometimes in coherent poetry and other times with wailing gibberish.
While scientists speculate that the fumes were likely ethylene, methane and ethane gas, your cleric can certainly breathe in fumes of Avernus or Celestia, and be the only “unconscious” member of your party to thrive in combat!
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The emperor of the Greek Selucids, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, was determined to unify his kingdom under Greek culture. So in 175 BCE, he embarked upon a cultural genocide of the Jewish people. He prohibited Judaism, massacred resisting clerics, and desecrated Yahweh’s temple. Yet in 63 BCE, when the Roman Empire arrived, the Jews were a fully independent kingdom. How? Because Antiochus got “hammered” by a unique cleric, Judas Maccabeus.
Inspired by the prophets of old, Judas Maccabeus launched a revolt and quickly proved to be an exceptional guerilla tactician and warrior. Beginning in 167 BCE, he led bands of Jewish patriots through the hills, avoiding pitched battles and ambushing every chance he got. I His victories and numbers grew, culminating in the recapture of the capital city, Jerusalem. Ever the faithful cleric, he cleansed the temple, and rededicated it to Yahweh with sacrifices, a victory celebrated annually by Jews as Hannukka: the Festival of Lights.
Fun fact: in an early encounter, he killed the governor of Samaria and forever after used his captured sword as a symbol of vengeance. That’s one way to have your cleric wield a sword rather than a war hammer!
Julius Caesar – 100 BCE – 44 BCE (War Domain)
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Though forever hailed as one of the greatest generals ever, for a time Caesar was most important religious figure in all of Rome! Admittedly, its strange that Caesar was the cleric responsible for regulating public morals. After all, he was A) a womanizer on par with James Bond, B) one of the greatest military minds ever, C) a fashion-forward trend setter, D) a savvy politician, and E) a genocidal maniac (especially when it came to Celts).
Before Caesar could command armies, he needed to ascend the political ladder. For the Romans, everything political was simultaneously religious, and so Caesar’s first big break was that of Pontifex Maximus, the cleric of cleric’s in all of the Roman Republic. As Pontificus Maximus, Caesar was charged with maintaining the pax deorum (“peace of the gods”). He did this largely administratively, overseeing regulation of ceremonies, the calendar, and consecration of all sacred places.
But if you are inspired, you might need to change one tradition for a wandering adventurer: the Pontifex Maximus was not allowed to leave Italy!
Pope Sergius III 860 AD – 911 AD (Death Domain)
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For the Catholic Church, no cleric is higher than the pope. Though vaguely claiming to “lead the faithful”, in reality he has more power than any religious figure in the world. By his word bishops are elected, world wide councils called, and, on special occasions, he speaks with the authority of God. Every pope is required to be celebate, devoted to Christ and his church, full of love, humility, and wisdom. In Catholic history, a few pope’s are canonized saints, while most pope’s are considered good or bad. But few were downright wicked… like Pope Sergius III.
That’s the reputation you get when the church under your watch is referred to as “house of harlots”. Fully complicit in the power politics of Italy during his time, he was placed on the papacy by his benefactor Theophylact so that the papacy’s resources could be committed to his murders and wars. At best, modern historians refer to him as man lacking Christian virtue. But on the other hand, he is called a wretch, malignant, ferocious, a monster… it goes on and on.
So if you want a unique cleric, do what Sergius did before you join a party: strangle BOTH your holy predecessors and go adventuring without a care in the world!
Al-Ghazali 1058 AD – 1111 AD (Knowledge Domain)
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History’s list of ‘smart humans’ is full of clerics from all sorts of religions. But Islam lays the unique claim for founding the first place exclusively for smart people: the university/mosque of al-Quarawiyyin, formed in 859 AD in Morocco. Established during the “Islamic Golden Age”, intellectual centers like these flourished in pursuit of classical Greek knowledge. The age yielded geniuses like Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and inspired the Renaissance thinkers of Europe. But arguably, none of that would be the case without the Imam (Islamic cleric), Al-Ghazali.
Called the “Brilliance of the Religion” Al-Ghazali was a unique individual who sought spiritual fulfillment, wisdom, AND knowledge. Across 70 works he discussed early childhood development, education, law, philosophy, spirituality, economics, theology, spirituality, and legal theory. His most famous work promoted a form of “theological occasionalism”: the belief that the reactions we see in nature, like lighting a candle, fundamentally occur because God wills it. To our modern ears, that sounds a bit ridiculous. But in his medieval world, it blended religion and secular study into a harmony, ushering in an age where philosophy and science were free to thrive.
Needless to say, a Al-Chazali inspired cleric might need their knowledge stat to be higher than wisdom!
St. Francis of Assisi – 1181 AD -1226 AD (Nature Domain)
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In many ways, St. Francis of Assisi had a life that mirrored many Catholic saints: born into a wealthy family (check)… grew disillusioned with wealth (check)… turned his attention to spiritual matters (check)… devoted himself to a life of simplicity and prayer (check). All the boxes checked. But the gentleness, love, and simplicity of this cleric attracted others and exploded into the famed Fransicsan Order. But that wasn’t enough for St. Francis: he also tried to end the crusades by converting a freaking Sultan, and just prior to his death received “the stigmata”: the wounds of Christ on your hands, feet, and sides. Ya know, normal cleric stuff.
But on 29 November 1979, St. Francis was named the patron saint of… ecology. Why? Because he also LOVED nature. He regarded all creatures, not just people, as brothers and sisters. His legends include him preaching to birds and quelling the dispute between a wolf and a local village. To this day, many present their pets to their local priest to be blessed on St. Francis’ feast day! And for Christmas lovers out there: we have him to thank for the first live nativity scene in 1223 AD.
So if someone tells you to play a Druid instead, tell them you’d rather be a cleric who worships a god AND is one with nature.
Chandra Shekhar Azad (Hindu) – 1906-1931 (Trickery Domain)
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And finally, a modern cleric! Though an avowed atheist, Chandra Shekhar Azad did belong to the Brahmin caste: the clergy and highest caste within the Varna Caste System. Along with being advisors to kings, the Brahmin are the pujari (priests) that care for Hindu temples, perform offerings, and conduct ceremonies. Traditional Brahmin wear the spotless “sacred thread”, showing they maintain the highest purity standards through regular washing and vegetarianism. The Vedas, most ancient and sacred of texts in the Hindu religion, are memorized in Sanskrit and recited in hymns.
But Chandra Shekhar Azad’s heart rested in politics, not religion. He passionately opposed the social divides that promoted exploitation of fellow humans, and as a young man led “funding campaigns” for a nationalistic political group. And by “funding” I mean theft and robbery, including the infamous Kakori Train Robbery in 1925 and the attempted bombing of the Viceroy of India’s train in 1929. For 6 years, as the leadership was hunted down by British authorities, Azad hid by using numerous disguises, such as a beggar or a mechanic. During this time he nearly single handedly reorganized the party, strengthening its numbers and giving it a socialist, anti-caste purpose. He was immortalized by patriotic Indians when, refusing to be taken alive, he used his last bullet on himself in a shootout in Alfred Park, 1931.
History teaches us lessons: just because you are a trickster cleric doesn’t mean you can’t serve a higher cause than wealth!
There you have it: 7 unique cleric’s from history to inspire your next PC. Hopefully it is abundantly clear: there are A LOT of ways to play a cleric.
But I didn’t come close to covering them all. What are some alternatives for the domain’s listed? And for the domains I missed, what are you hoping I will touch on next time? Comment below and let us know!
A handful of questions guaranteed to keep role-playing fun for months on end!
Welcome 🙂
Allow me to speak on behalf of the entire Dungeons and Dragons community when I say we are glad to have you! Dungeons and Dragons is a social game, through and through, and we are always excited when someone is interested in joining in on the fun!
But with your first D&D session comes your first D&D character… and that might make you a little bit nervous. Starting something new can be intimidating, especially when that thing involves new rules, acting, and cooperating with people you might not know very well.
But you have no need to worry 🙂
Not only are there a wealth of resources to help you learn along the way, but it is surprisingly easy for a D&D beginner’s first character to be both fun and interesting to role-play for months on end!
If you are more interested in learning about weapons, gear, armor,rules, etc. click the links or try a google search.
But… if you are looking for a method that is guaranteed to result in a character you will LOVE to role-play through every adventure, then read on!
Table of Contents
“Good” vs “Bad” Characters
The 15 Questions
Cool Class?
Race/Species?
Purpose?
Growth?
Values?
Allegiance?
Family?
Personality?
Appearance?
Gimmicks?
Accent?
Hobbies?
Magic Item?
Backstory?
Conclusion
BONUS
“Good” vs “Bad” Characters
Before we create a good, interesting character, we need to know a tiny bit about what kind of game Dungeons and Dragons is. After all, a good chess player is a lot different than a good rugby player or a good mahjong player!
First and foremost: D&D is not a game where people ‘win’. There is no board, no victory points, and nothing to Jenga. It’s about using your imagination to tell a story and have an adventure with your friends.
Even though you cannot ‘win’, everyone can still ‘lose’… sorta. A ‘loss’ is just having a bad/no-fun experience. This can happen in all sorts of ways: people being on their phones, arguing with the DM, playing selfishly rather than compromising, not cast a healing spell when your friend is bleeding out in front of you… (ahem… Kevin…).
But there is one way a single player can ‘lose’: by creating a boring character.
Your “player character” is the person you imagine and inhabit to play that game. This player character can be a lot like you or very different from you, but regardless it is your character, not you, that is a star in the story.
And if your character is one dimensional or undeveloped, eventually you will get tired of this character. You’ll find yourself desperately hoping they somehow die so you can roll a new one.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a creative genius to create a good character. Usually no one has taken the time to explain to a first-time player how to create an interesting character.
D&D is a special game, and it takes some special insight to know what makes a character in D&D fun to role-play!
With all that in mind, here are the 4 goals for D&D beginner’s making their first character:
Easy to make
Relatable and fun to role-play
Interesting and Unique
Simple and straightforward (You don’t want a character too complex… it’s your first game after all!)
That might sound daunting, but trust me, it’s actually pretty simple!
What follows are 14 easy questions for you to choose from to help you create an interesting first character.
You don’t need to answer them all!
Just answer your favorite ones and fit them all together until you are happy… easy peasy!
The 14 Questions
NOTE: I have placed these questions in the order I feel is most helpful, but feel free to answer first whichever comes easiest! And even if you only use half of these questions, your character will stand out as interesting not only to you, but to everyone at the table!
What kind of player-character sounds Cool?
If you haven’t done this already, the first thing you as a player need to decide is what kind of things you want your character to do. Do you want to be a sneaky Rogue, knightly Fighter, or maybe a spell-slinging Wizard? We don’t need to know every rule and mechanic, we just need to know the basics of the class so it can inform the type of character we create.
If you are REALLY new to the game, I strongly suggest playing the Fighter or Barbarian; they are the easiest first characters for beginners. But if you are willing to put in the extra effort to learn about what makes them unique, the rules, and how spells work, then go ahead and pick whatever you like!
NOTE: I debated putting this step LAST! Often I will pick a class that sounds cool, then build a character, and then completely change the class to fit the character! So don’t commit to this too hard; all the classes in D&D are fun to play, so it is much more important to find a character you really connect with than a cool class.
What race/species are you?
This could be a whole other blog post, but long story short: there are lots of races in Dungeons and Dragons each with their own unique traits. But here is the secret: just as the class does not make a good character, same goes for the race! You can make an interesting character that is fun to role-play no matter what race you choose!
Your Dungeon Master will allow any of the first 9 races on this exhaustive list, so I would choose from those. But if you want to dip into something more unique, ask your DM what other exotic races from the list are in their world!
My three suggestions: 1) Don’t overthink… do what your gut tells you! 2) If your gut is uncertain, just be a human! 3) Just like your class, fit the race to the character, not the other way around!
What’s the character’s purpose?
Just like in the real world, the people of D&D want to contribute to their society. Your character is no different, and probably wants to help build a better world.
Think of some problems in the world: injustice, peace on earth, hunger, environmentalism… choose one “cause” that will resonate with your character… something for them to make their life’s work.
Once you land on something, let your Dungeon Master know, and they can help you integrate your player-character’s life mission into the adventure and world. It’s always easier to role-play when the world is designed a little more around your character!
How does your player-character need to change/grow?
This is the most important question you have to answer!
If your character is a part of a story, then they need some inner conflict to resolve along the journey. What do they most desire in life? What is the biggest problem that they struggle with? This is the heart of role-playing, and what will make them interesting after months, even years, of playing.
They may have a purpose to help the world, but this inner drive is the motivation behind that purpose. (Example: In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker wants to defeat the empire, but it is actually more important to him that he avenge his father that was killed by Darth Vader.)
And don’t worry: just because you pick how your character needs to grow does not mean you know the end of the story! Just like everyone else, you will be along for the ride, and get to see how your character becomes the hero they were always meant to be!
What are your character’s values?
Everyone has a shadow side. The pure hearted still harbor dark thoughts, and even the most evil people have shining spots of their hearts.
No matter what your character does or who they are, give them AT LEAST one virtue (hope, courage, etc.) and one vice (lust, jealously, etc.) that they regularly display and is a part of their personality. Nothing is as boring as a character that is 100% good or 100% evil, and nothing is as interesting as someone struggling with both.
Once you know the state of their soul, and how you want them to grow, I would choose their alignment: a simple classification to help guide your role-playing when you aren’t sure what to do.
Where does your PC owe allegiance?
While some people are true hermits, most people have their roots in society in some way. Allegiances can be lowly (local tavern, guilds, underworld thieves) or lofty (nation-states, religions, academies). Consider where your PC feels most at home and what groups might share their values.
And if your Dungeon Master is running your campaign in a homebrewed world, ask them about their world! What are the governments like? What factions did they create? Alternatively, you can tell them about your character, and they can suggest some organizations your character might be interested in!
Five major factions of the Forgotten Realms: Harpers, Zephyrim, Lords Alliance, Emerald Enclave, Order of the Gauntlet
What is/was their family like?
What are their parents like? Do they have siblings? Did extended family live in the village or nearby? Do they miss home, or are they adventuring to escape something unhealthy?
Lots of characters in D&D are orphans, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if your character has a big loving family, you can be sure that family will come up in the campaign. EVERYBODY remembers family drama and is interested to meet your family, even in imaginary table-top settings!
What is your character like?
Personality is a huge part of what makes your character interesting, but it is also another thing people tend to try to decide too early, or base off their class rather than their character.
But now, you have enough info on your character to think about their personality. What is it like to be around them? What emotions do they feel or cause others to feel? How do their values, struggles, and allegiances cause them to behave?
You are absolutely free to play a character that is exactly like you. Often it can make role playing easier. But don’t hesitate to create someone fantastical! Dungeons and Dragons is a magical wonderland, so usually you can disregard the feeling of “oh man… am I going too far?”
What does your player-character look like?
It’s likely that the characters in your party will be wearing some semblance of medieval attire. And since people cannot see your character, you need some distinguishing thing about them your fellow players can quickly remember. So be sure there is a single piece of clothing, something unique that helps them stand out.
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Maybe they have a red sash, or a unique hat, or a bright robe? Or maybe it is how they look, not what they wear! Maybe they have a long flowing beard, or braided hair, or a unique skin tone, or horns, tusks, or a tail! Whatever you choose, pick something that can quickly come to mind.
Do they have any gimmicks?
Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference. Maybe it’s something physical, like biting your nails, twiddling your thumbs, or scratching your head. Or it can be a personal catchphrase or favorite idiom. And there is a huge spectrum of good and bad manners… where does your character fall? These are things you can role-play to help your character stand out.
Small, interesting details like these can make your first character really come alive. If you can’t think of one, look at what you have so far, pick an emotion your character will probably feel a lot throughout the campaign, and assign a gimmick that will go with it.
How does your character talk?
For many people, especially beginners, this is the most intimidating part of both role-playing and D&D. And it’s true that people will get a good laugh as you try to figure out exactly how your character talks and sounds.
That said, I really want to encourage you to give it a try! Giving your character a unique voice helps the whole table collectively have a more vivid imagination. Even though they see you in your street clothes, they will hear your voice and see your character rather than you! It’s a part of the mysterious magic that makes D&D amazing.
So give your character a life outside of questing and adventuring. What interests do they talk about when they are not fighting? What pleasures to pursue when they are in town in between adventures?
Do they have a prized possession?
Being in a fantasy adventure, this goes without saying. Frodo has Sting, Arthur has Excalibur, Harry Potter got the Elder Wand. What special artifact or trinket does your character have?
Granted, your 1st level character probably should not have the foretold weapon of unimaginable power… but giving a weapon cool name or unique description is never a bad idea!
What’s your player-character’s backstory?
Yes…do this one last!
So many D&D players start with an interesting backstory and then build their character.
But often they get a character with a cool backstory they are committed to, but it actually restricts their creativity, resulting in something that is boring to role-play.
Look at the character you have so far that you know you want to play, come up with a short summary of their life that explains why they are the way they are and how they started adventuring. Honestly, a single 5-8 sentence paragraph is enough.
Mix and match, add and subtract from your answers and the backstory until you discover a character that you LOVE.
Also, you might create this character and realize they are strikingly similar to a character from your favorite stories, fiction or nonfiction… and that is ok! There is a good reason you resonate with that character. Put your unique spin on it, and then explore that character in a way only D&D can!
CONCLUSION
There you have it: 14 simple questions you can ask yourself to easily build an interesting D&D character!
If you follow these steps, I guarantee your first D&D character will be fun and interesting to play.
Not only that, but I promise your character will even become a favorite of the other players at the table!
Because if their clothes match their personality… and their values match their allegiances… and purpose match their personal issues… every part of them speaks towards another part.
This results in a well-rounded character that stands out from the crowd and just feels right!
And yet, like I said before, there is no “winning” in D&D! Whatever questions you choose to answer, no matter what your player character needs to be someone you enjoy role playing! No matter what, make sure you have fun, and once again, welcome to Dungeons and Dragons!
BONUS! Example Character
That’s right, I’m not done yet! Just to prove I take my own advice, here is an example player’s character (not an NPC!) that I fully intend to play someday soon!
Cool idea: I wanted a character to constantly enchant people, and I wanted to play a stereotype and support class… so horny bard!
Race: I want to REALLY stand out in a crowd, and a race that breaks the stereotype, so Drow maiden (a type of elf)
Purpose: To fill the earth with laughter and singing and dancing.
Growth: The reason she loves joy so much is she is running from trauma (a little histrionic). She needs to heal and learn to grieve.
Values:
Virtues: Joy, Acceptance.
Vices: Vain, Shallow.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Allegiance: the Seelie Court… sorta. Whoever she is in love with at the moment gains all her devotion.
Family: Adopted, in the feywild… as difficult to be in relationship with as she is, so left.
Personality: Bright smile and electric laugh, flirt (a little like Grushenka from Brothers K).
Clothing: Beautiful, long purple dress, stunning sunglasses, white hair, light grey/purple skin.
Gimmick: constantly resting her head in her hands as she listens… speaks in extremes
Accent: Maybe a little like Cruella Devill
Hobbies? Her one place of reflection is writing poetry… but she intimidates herself with it.
Backstory Born into a noble Drow house in the Underdark, her vengeful, jealous sister sold her into slavery. Suffered in bondage for years, but escaped from slavery. Was found nearly dead by a fey creature in the woods. Was taken into the feywild and for decades and decades forgot her sorrow by constant pleasures. Now, strangely unsatisfied with fey, is interested in returning to the material plane to experience what other mortals experience.
Hope that helps, and let me know that character you came up with… always fascinating to see how creative people can be!
Dear Readers, a sad, sad thing happened today. A thing I have been dreading since I got it:
I broke the Spelljammer ship.
Not to say it’s not fixable. But it’s just not the same.
So there I was, trying to put it back together for a picture for you guys so you can see the progress I’ve made so far. Before you see what else I was planning on doing. I reach down and clip the wing. And I broke off the wing. See for yourself:
I almost cried. I really did. Tears misted my eyes and curses at myself flew through my mind.
So instead of giving you a painting update on this, I had to glue it back together. And it’s not fitting back together as neatly as I would want it to. And I don’t know why.
So I sanded the spot where it went and I sanded the wing as best I could. And then I glued it back together. Here is the result:
You may not be able to tell, but there is a small gap in between the ship and the wing. I am infuriated at my own clumsiness.
So that’s a thing. Now I get to wait for the glue to cure before filling in the gap.
*sad and angry Daily DM noises*
It happens, I know, but it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.
Sorry for this, Dear Readers.
On to the other project: the dragonborn ranger. All I really have left is the basing.
So when I looked at the base as I had currently painted it, I noticed that the paint was rather thin. I was using the Army Painter Dirt Spatter to be the base underneath the grass that I intend on putting there. I still plan on leaving the Kickstarter. K blank so that it shows up in between the grass. At least, that’s my hope.
So, I put another layer of Dirt Spatter which still seemed a little thin and will likely need another coat. Additionally, I painted the heart on the base that points to the specific status effect that the miniature is going under. For those who are unaware, there are these bases that come with this line of miniature that have a rotating base that has various status effect ailments on it. It’s pretty ingenious to be certain. I’m not sure if I will end up painting that or not.
I also ended up painting the base of miniature that sticks out above where the status effect base is.
Here’s how it’s turning out:
She, too, is coming along nicely. I should have it done in time for next week when my monthly group is meeting. She is the character for one of the players for my monthly group. I’ll be excited to see what she thinks.
Well, that’s all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress!
Dear Readers, after I first purchased my Battletech sets, I had literally nobody to play with. Like, nobody.
Granted, I only played Battletech Classic at the time. It is, for those of you who don’t know, a slightly more complicated version of playing Battletech. And by slightly, I mean tons more complicated. Here’s a record sheet so you can see for yourself:
As you can see, there’s a lot to keep track of on this. There is heat, individual weapons, ammunition, armor, internal structure, and the list goes on and on. Then you have specific hit locations, armor for each location, etc… The bigger the mech, the more complicated it gets. The one pictured above is actually a simple light mech with primarily, if not all, energy weapons. The thing could run and shoot everything it has and still not overheat.
Additionally, you play on a hex grid that is not to scale for the mechs (it’s supposed to be some sort of abstract distance, not regular distance, so to speak). In fact, this play is referred to as “map scale.”
And I am guessing that many of you, Dear Readers, have zero clue as to what much of that means.
So there I was, wanting to play, and nobody to play with. Except myself. Yes, I played both sides against myself. Sad, I know.
Until I dragged my toddler into it. Yeah, yeah, I know he didn’t get all what was going on, but counting pips on the dice (it uses a couple of d6’s) was good practice for him.
Then I convinced my older son to play, my 18-year old. He said it was okay, but he wasn’t really into it, I could tell. For me, it was fun to just have something to do to spend time with my boys. I got my eldest daughter into it as well, but that was a similarly same song and dance.
Then I figured out what these other cards that the mechs all came with were all about. I’m talking about Alpha Strike.
You cannot imagine how excited I was when I figured out how to play that!!
Here’s a card from Alpha Strike:
This, my Dear Readers, is what I am talking about! If I played this mech in Battletech Classic, this would end up being one of the more complicated mechs to play.
But here’s what’s cool about Alpha Strike: everything is so simplified.
Heat isn’t even tracked unless your mech is targeted by something that would heat it up, like inferno missiles. The damage is based on range, short, medium, and long (although some aerospace fighters have extreme range? Maybe?), the movement is based in inches, not hexes, skill is a set number that determines how easily you can hit another target, and armor and internal structure is simplified to be all-encompassing, a generalized stay for the mech.
Literally, everything is easier.
Add to that, and now everything is mech scale! This means that, while somewhat abstract, it’s supposed to be more on scale if the mechs were standing in a battlefield together. This means that, instead of a hex grid, you can use terrain, just like you would for most other tabletop wargame. Terrain that you can maneuver around, jump onto or over, use for cover, etc…
Then I taught it to my toddler (he’s 4 1/2 now, almost 5), who has figured out basic tactics, simple strategy, has a basic grasp of the rules, and someone who loves playing “giant robots” with his dad.
Then there is my oldest son. After I introduced him to this ruleset, he enjoyed it much more, and we play some Thursdays down at the local game shop, where it is Battletech: Alpha Strike night.
I say all that to say this: gamers shouldn’t be gatekeepers, no matter what they play. Teaching others to play is a gamer’s way of welcoming more players, giving you more people to play with! Add to that, teaching younger people how to play, with patience and support, raises up the next generation of gamers to also have patience and support when they teach others out favorite games.
Dear Readers, guess what? My editor is back in action!! This is great news for all of you Premium Subscribers who want to get caught up with all of the Ingrates’ shenanigans.
In the mean time, while my editor is still working on episodes, here’s Episode 4!
Dear Readers, here we are again, with another painting update!
It’s still humid as all can be, so I am still having to wait in between coats before doing more. Therefore, progress is slow, to save the least.
Here we go:
I’ve worked on the other front wing as well, although it isn’t pictured.
I’m done with the dragonborn, except for the basing. I’m trying to use Dirt Spatter as the base and then use grass to base it. Maybe add a flower cluster. I do know that I am keeping the Kickstarter K mark alone, so that the basing leaves the K exposed in relief.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Here’s a top view of the Spelljammer ship:
I’m also working on the line below the row of studs (it’s hard to see it in any of the pictures), which is also going to be Oak Brown.
Apparently, I need to get this commission done, as I have another one coming in right behind it!
When last we left the Arcanes, they were at the Webber home, having just busted off the locks to the door, and were now presented with a hallway. The first room on our right (the west; we came in from the north) was a living room, with a good number of Catholic artifacts; crosses, crucifixes, and statues of St. Mary. Moving onward to the dining room, a disembodied voice told us to “Get out!” We promptly ignored that bit of advice and continued throughout the house, now hearing bumps and steps coming from upstairs. In the living room, behind a cabinet, we found a hidden compartment w/ 3 books – two schoolbooks (one in math/physics, and the other on history) and a journal with the initials JMC written on the cover. Looking inside, it was discovered that the journal was written in code. We continued hearing sounds from above. At sometime during this, we also found a silver key that we suspected belonged to the door inside the old Ford place, to the door we couldn’t get inside of. We also found a family picture with several names on the back:
Walter C. Eustace C. Constance C. Charles C. Desdanona C. And Kathrine C.
The next room, a coatroom of sorts, held a letter advising “Sister” to leave her home or she’ll get killed, dated 1933. Later on, we found a loose board that held a number of tin soldiers, all labeled with JMC on the bottom.
Having been through every door but one on the first floor, we were left with two exits other than where we came in: the stairs going up to the creepy noises we’d been hearing, and a door that we found out (after Goblin kicked it in) led to stairs going down. Heading down the stairs, Zane stepped on a bad stair and fell down below. Looking around, Anton found an ornate knife with old dried blood on it. Shortly afterwards, Zane found a broken section in the far wall in the basement.
Goblin broke through the section of wall only for the ornate knife come to life in Anton’s hand, and try to attack him and the other Arcanes. With quick action, the party put down the knife, breaking it.
Breaking through the wall, the Arcanes find the emaciated corpse of what we all believe to be Walter Corbbit, tied to a table. A fight ensued when Zane became possessed and Anton tried to get at the papers across the room. Kelly-Ann stopped the possession by stabbing the corpse with her own weapon. Unfortunately for Anton, the papers disintegrated upon handling.
Having been beaten up fairly badly, the Arcanes decided to rest back at the clubhouse. After some consideration, Anton remembered that Mrs. Locke, of the antique store, lives up in Old Arkham. After visiting her, we came across the initials AVC associated with her. A trip back to the library found an interesting link from her and old Man Ford.
Walter Corbbit had one surviving son, Charles. Charles had a son, Francis, and Francis had two children: James Madison Corbbit, and Abigale Virginia Corbbit. Which means Mrs. Locke used to be Ms. Corbbit!
Deciding to follow this lead, the party realized that we would need help and went to find Mr. Hodges. After searching, we found his car…being driven by Ms. Iris, one of the possessed teachers! She drove away out of town, presumably with Mr. Hodges in the trunk…
What lay in store for the Arcanes? What will become of Mr. Hodges? Where is Mr. Lyons when you need him?
Dear Readers, it is that time of year again. That time of year when the bangs, pops, booms, and other sorts of noises begin making me more than a little twitchy.
For those unaware, I am a combat vet, having served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I despise 4th of July for that reason.
As a result, the posts I had planned for this weekend are right out the window. I slept like absolute garbage last night, and don’t expect to sleep well for the next couple of days.
Oh, well.
That said, I’m going to try and get a post together for Tuesday, probably an edition of “A Player’s Perspective” for our Kids on Bicycles game. I’ll also try to get caught up on our “A DMs Perspective” for the Ingrates for Friday, and a Painting Update sometime in there as well, maybe Thursday. Tentative plans, to be sure.
Until then, I’ll be keeping my head down and trying to concentrate on other things, like a video game or something.
In any case, happy Sunday to you all, and I’ll catch you later in the week!
Dear Readers, We think we’ve gotten rid of the skunk. This is a wonderful thing as the air conditioning is able to be turned back on! Therefore, I was able to get some more painting done. You cannit imagine how much nicer it is in the southern heat having A/C.
But I digress.
Since the heat is less a factor now, I can actually get some real painting done! It is still humid as all can be, which means I have to wait in between coats of paint, which is annoying.
That said, I got some more painting done. Let’s talk. Dragonborn Ranger:
I managed to finish getting her painted, with the red highlights in the hair, using gemstone paints for both the undercoat and the top coat. Coat. I then went about using the fairy dust effect paint on the skin bits, giving it that sheen you’d expect from a gemstone dragon(born). Lastly, I went about shading the areas that I hadn’t hit with the Speedpaints. All in all, I think she’s turned out great.
See for yourself:
Once she dries I can go about doing the matt varnish, locking in the paint job and making it chip resistant, and then I can go about doing the basing. Since she’s a ranger, I’m really thinking about doing some grass with some bush or flowers around her base. The only downside of this spacing is that it’s going to cover up the K for the Kickstarter marker. The person having me do the commission says she didn’t care.
That’s all I have for today. It’s still hot in The room where I do my painting. Therefore, I will be limiting the amount of painting I’m doing unless I can get myself up in the morning when it’s much cooler outside. We’ll see.
Next time, I should have some good updates. As to my spelljammer ship. I’ve got a lot of plans as to how I’m going to go about finishing up the paint job on it. I’ve got plans for some more earth tones for the wings and sides. I’m still debating on whether or not I’m going to use gold or silver on the filigree in the wings.
Lastly, if you hadn’t noticed in some of the pictures, I am trying to repair a spot on one of the wings where my cat bit through it. To say I’m upset is to put it mildly. I’ve may have already mentioned that, but it’s worth noting I’m still working on the repair. See for yourself:
Stupid cat teeth marks…
*shrug*
She’s my spoiled brat so I have no one to blame but myself. Oh well.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I know updates have been sporadic, but blame the skunk.
P.P.S. – I’ll be out of touch at least the week of July 25th as I am having surgery that day. I’ll try to get as much writing done ahead of time as possible, but I can’t promise anything. It’s going to be major surgery, but I should be okay. If I go dark, though, I don’t want you to worry about me; I’ll be fine. Recovery will be a thing though. Frankly I am not sure my wife will even let me have my laptop!
Dear Readers, you cannot imagine how ridiculously hot it is in the room where I paint. To say that it’s hot. It’s putting it mildly as the relative humidity is also high. It feels like a hundred million degrees in here.
That said, I promise to do some more painting updates for you. I just can’t do much as I have to wait for the paint to dry which is difficult with how humid it is. That said, here we go!
As you can see, I worked on a number of sections on the bottom of the Spelljammer ship. It is coming along quite well. It’s a little bit of a daunting task to continue painting it, but I will persevere nonetheless.
As for the Dragonborn Ranger, it is coming along as well. I accidentally got a smudge of purple paint on one of the wings that I had to do a quick job of trying to cover. Hopefully you can’t tell.
I had to get the purple done so that I can do a light brush of red to go on top of it. As it is a crystal dragonborn, I’m using metallic colors whenever possible. At the very end, I intend on using, as I said before, fairy dust effect paint to cover all the skin bits.
For those of you wondering about my skunk problem, we think it might be trapped, but the trapper hasn’t come out to check the traps yet and nobody is brave enough to go into the house to check. Here’s hoping.
Hello, Dear Readers, I know it’s been a minute since I’ve given an update.
So here’s the deal: I have skunk living under my house. The place where I do my painting smells like skunk and is 100°. If we turn on our air conditioning, the skunk smell comes back worse andin force. It is beyond not pleasant.
To make matters worse, it’s costing me and I’m in a leg to get rid of it. It has been a lot to deal with. As you can imagine.
That said, while it was cool in the morning, I was able to get a little bit of painting done. Mostly on the airship.
I was able to finish the primary wings and back wings and got to work on the front wings a little bit. The hope is that I get to finish up with the prow and the front wings by the end of the week next week. By then the skunk should be gone.
Hopefully.
In other news, I have plans to buy the Platinum Edition of the new Spelljammer campaign setting from Beadle and Grimm. Once I actually get it, I plan on doing an unboxing for it. It doesn’t release until the 17th of August, so that’s still a bit away.
Additionally, in other news, I am having surgery in late July. This means that I likely won’t be providing any kind of updates for a little while. Most likely, if I am up to it, I’ll be providing updates in the form of DM stories, updates on the Ingrates, Kids on Bicycles, and maybe some DM tips or World Building. You know, stuff. I was planning on updating this last week. I still plan on doing those kind of updates, but the skunk thing is really doing a lot to interfere with life in general, let alone The Blog.
Lastly, you may have noticed I have stopped posting updates for you premium subscribers out there. The problem is that my editor has a broken laptop. Still. It’s not looking to get repaired until the end of July. That’s when the part is estimated to come in. So in the meantime, I’m going to start releasing old episodes of the Ingrates. For those of you who have not been in the know, this is our weekly podcast that I have been revealing sneak peeks to for the premium subscribers. You guys finally get to get caught up on the actual podcast itself. I’m very excited about it.
Well, that’s all I have time for today. Keep tuned in for when I finally get rid of the skunk and I’m able to do regular updates!
Dear Readers, I know it’s been quite awhile since my last update, but as we play this once a month, I don’t have anything to update you on but that frequently. That said, our GM for Kids on Bicycles game has had some family health issues lately that caused some delays in our playing. To catch up, I’m going to detail out episodes 5 and 6.
When last we left off with the Arkham Arcanes, they had just gotten the Titan’s Blood and their powers began to manifest.
For Kelly-Ann, she gained a further affinity with animals. For goblin, she gained great strength, for Zane, the ability to throw bolts of fire. For Jessica, the power of telekinesis. And lastly, Anton was given an affinity with casting spells under the tutelage of Mr. Lyons.
The last day of school presented itself, with a note left by Mr. Lyons for our band of plucky kids:
“Anton,
I will keep this short: your progress these past two days has been quite extraordinary. Your grasp of the arcane arts surely and greatly accelerated by your consumption of the Titans blood of Eclipse Lake. But now, I hate to say, we will have to continue your studies at a later date as I have to leave for a time. Some circumstances in Germania require Ms. Grey’s and I’s attention. Stay safe and do me a favor – keep a lookout for my niece and nephew. They are coming to Arkham Falls for the summer and will be arriving late tonight overseas from Britannia.
I believe you are having your school’s track and field on morrow. I have instructed them to meet you there. Please be kind… They will be out of sorts and will need friends. They are of a… Unique nature… Albino to be exact, so they should not be hard spot. Their names are Finn and Eliza O’Brien (No relation to Father O’Brien) and are your age. I told them to meet you at the gymnasium. Keep an eye on Eliza especially – she has had some difficulties in life thus far.
ML”
Also, I have looked into some of the details you provided me concerning you and your friends’ exploits in “The Woods.” I have discovered that James Madison Ford, owner of the burnt down Ford Manor, had a grandfather who owned another house located on Copps Hill in Old Arkham. Interestingly enough, ‘Ford’ was not their true surnames, but rather their true family name was ‘Corbbit.’ I am intrigued, as this family obviously holds the key to this ‘Nine Gates’ mystery. I suggest visiting the Arkham Globe or the public library for further information. Oh, and Anton, I left a little gift for you… Best of luck to you!
Be ever vigilant,
ML”
The surprise left behind was the Arkham Grimoire, with information about all sorts of things related to the town of Arkham Falls.
The group headed for Track and Field day, with much enthusiasm, realizing that, with all of the adults and crowds around, they had little to worry about from “the darkness” that has plagued them thus far. The day went well for the Arcanes, with many of them placing in the top, if not 1st Place for their events, such as running races, doing hurdles, javelin throwing, and other such events. Our group did very well, even as a team, for the relay races.
Afterwards, the group easily found the albino twins hanging out near the gymnasium and introduced themselves. Apparently, the twins had special abilities similar to that of the Arcanes, with Finn, a boxer, having extraordinary fighting ability, and Eliza having effects on time.
Soon afterwards, the Arcanes were approached by Mr. Hodges, a beloved history teacher, with a request to follow him into the school. Wary from their last encounter with teachers (albeit with black eyes), the party geared up with what they could reasonably carry inconspicuously (Kelly-Ann being conspicuous enough to grab a softball bat), and headed inside, where they first were in Mr. Hodges’ office. In there, they found a curious sight: a sigil that they’d only seen in The Lodge. Questioning him about it, he tried brushing it off, but when pressed, said that Mr. Lyons had requested that he keep an eye on us during Mr. Lyon’s absence.
Leading us to a classroom, with the Arcanes still on edge and ready for a fight, the teacher opened the door to a classroom, only to reveal that he was wanting to start a Dungeons and Dragons club, and wanted the group to help found it. Relieved, the Arcanes sighed a sigh of relief, only to have the lights go out, emergency lights come on, and the windows pulse with blackness. Telling us to be wary, went into the hallway, with the Arcanes in tow. Telling us that this was a dimensional rift of some kind, he began telling us how to end it when the janitor, in a crazed haze, attacked him, knocking him unconscious! It was then that several huge creatures came bursting out of a door to one side, blocking the kids from escape from that direction. Dealing with the janitor and the creatures were Finn and Goblin, holding the line. Backing up towards the other exit, towards the cafeteria, Anton began looking through the Grimoire for an answer to how to end this…rift, when he found that there would be a large set of sigils somewhere that needed to be disrupted. Turning the corner towards the cafeteria, Anton spied Ms. Iris, the biology teacher they had a run in with at the theater, coming down the hallway, chanting. Yelling for the group to be on the lookout for a group of sigils that enables this
Jessica was, in the meantime, searching Mr. Hodges’ person, looking for something that would help the Arcanes, when she found a length of stick, which she determined looked like a…wand?
Telling the group what she found, Anton called for her to give it to him, as he had some knowledge and understanding of the arcane arts. While the more heavy hitters of the group battled the two creatures, Anton took the wand and used it against Ms. Iris, unleashing a bolt of lightning that struck her in the chest, knocking her to the ground! Surprised at this, Kelly-Ann and Jessica pressed forward only to find Ms. Iris was not down for the count, as previously thought! Bringing her down, the three went into the cafeteria where tables had been pushed apart. Anton deduced that the sigils were in the middle of that area, and told those present to break the circle of sigils. Deciding to push the cafeteria tables across the sigils, Kelly-Ann and Jessica pushed the tables with all of their might, eventually breaking the sigils, which began to pulsate. Realizing that this was probably not a good thing, Anton yelled for the group to run, which they promptly did. An explosion happened, barely missing the group! When the dust settled, withe the exception of Ms. Iris and the janitor laying on the ground, everything was back to normal. Waking up Mr. Hodges, who expressed pride at the group’s prowess in this situation, told the Arcanes that he would take care of Ms. Iris and the janitor, and urged the kids to leave, giving them each an item, some sort of token, that when placed in their homes, would protect them and their families from “the darkness” and its ability to get access to them at home.
The group went each to their own homes and found places to put the tokens in place, while deciding to meet somewhere for yet another “sleepover.” This time, it was in the ballroom of Anton’s parents’ hotel, where Anton’s dad had been prepping for the summer tourist season.
The group during this time, had gone to the Public Library and, knowing the librarian, Anton asked for any information on the family name Corbbit, and the Webber house on Copps Hill. They were rewarded with several microfiche, some from the mid to late 1800’s, and two from the early 1900’s!
Armed with this information, our group had a couple of options and paths to pursue. Deciding to pursue the path of the old Webber place, the group set out early in the morning to go there.
Standing out in the park in the center of Old Arkham, the group saw an elderly man, whose house was next door. Deciding to be brave, the group sent Anton with another member (Jessica) to knock on his door under the auspices of a summer group project, to ask about the old Webber estate. While this was going on, Kelly-Ann, through the eyes of her dog Rufus, looked into the backyard only to find a strange statue of a pyramid and a hedge maze.
After speaking to the old man, who may or may not have bought the Arcanes’ story, who also told us to stay away from that place, they headed back to the park to deliberate on what to do next.
What will the heroes find at the old Webber House? Do they know anybody else in Old Arkham who can tell them about the Webber House? What will they find in the Webber House, particularly in one of the upstairs bedrooms?
Dear Readers, I am taking a break from the Spelljammer ship. It’s been really painstaking, and instead of being a calming activity, painting the ship has become a chore and a stressor.
Therefore, I’m working on another project: a friend’s dragonborn ranger.
Here she is, post priming:
I chose a white primer, as opposed to a grey (my usual neutral primer), on the recommendation of a friend that has used speedpaints, particularly the Holy White. He said, without a white primer, it greys out pretty bad. It greyed out a little, but not terribly. See for yourself. I’m not even sure you can really tell:
I painted the face, legs, hands, and wings with that particular speedpaint.
Next, I decided to work on the bow. I wasn’t sure what direction to go in, so I picked Angelic Green for the handle. It worked out well.
Lastly, I worked on the bow itself. I thought about standard brown colors, but rejected it in favor of True Copper. I think it will end up being better overall for the miniature.
After the miniature is completed, I intend on giving the skin portions a once-over with Fairy Dust, an effects paint that gives a “sparkle” effect to the painted areas. I think that this is likely the best course of action to make the gem dragonborn more…gemmy.
I think I am going to go about using standard browns for the armor (rangers and their leather armors), and sticking mainly with more traditional ranger coloring for that and her accoutrements.
What do you think? Let me know in the comment section below!
Dear Readers, I am so sorry for the exorbitantly large number of painting updates, but things have been hectic and myself care needs have increased, so what do I do? I paint! That’s my activity that I use to relax and calm down.
So recently, one of my players for my monthly campaign asked me to do a commission for her. I gladly accepted. This is a commission. I’m very excited to do. Her ranger is a crystal dragonborn ranger. She doesn’t have a miniature for her. She does not have a miniature for her drake, but when she gets one, I will likely paint that as well. If you can’t tell, she is a drakewarden. The party just hit level seven, so now her drake is medium size and she is able to ride it. Of course it can’t fly with her writing it at this time, but that time is not too far away.
Speaking of that player, the monthly game is going very well. The party is currently in search of a dracolich blue dragon, who lives in the northern deserts. It is rumored that he may have one of the sigils that the party is currently hunting after. When we left off last night, they were facing down a spirit Naga that was hampering their ability to travel through the mountains. It was a pretty creepy scene leading up to it.
How that session started, however, it’s a whole other ball game. Which should be impossible, the party faced off against a Balor that they mistakenly released from a tree too early. Like, much too early. I had it down as a plot point for later in the campaign, but the party wanted to screw around with the tree it was trapped in and mistakenly broke the tree. Unleashing the monstrosity.
Do you want to know what saved them? A wand of wonder. I ruled that I was going to roll the wands effects on a 1d100, and then roll the save, if any, for the Balor.
I rolled a 100. What are the odds? Well, I know the odds are one in 100, but it is extremely rare to roll a 100. Okay, this causes the target to become restrained and begin turning to stone if they don’t make a constitution saving throw. I roll the 1D20. I roll a natural one.
A natural freaking one.
It’s restrained and has crashed to the ground as it was flying back towards the party. The party started unleashing hell upon it. Then it had to roll its second save to keep from being petrified.
I rolled another Nat one.
Now, the odds of doing that is one in 400. So, yes, the party, at level seven, defeated a Balor.
Gah.
In any case, the painting projects are moving forward, ever on, to completion.
Dear Readers, I know how behind I am with these posts, so here is an attempt to quickly catch everyone up, so here it goes…And sorry for the wall of text that this will result in…
When last we left the Ingrates, they were being watched by an invisible figure that ran away after he was discovered.
Later that night, Winter, the party’s tabaxi bard, was contacted by someone from her past, her former lieutenant from when she ran a bandit troupe. He told her to meet him and to come alone. The party had issue with this, but, without their knowledge, she left.
After following his directions, she found a teleportation circle that deposited her into a cage in the bandit camp, firmly controlled by her former lieutenant and a mysteriously hooded figure.
After some watching and searching, the party located her, and Dacyria sent her familiar in the form of a rat to be with Winter, with a note that says “In case of trouble, kill me.”
The party got as close as they dared to the encampment with Dacyria casting Leomund’s Tiny Hut to house everyone in concealment for the night. During watch, the party happened to see a bat, out in the prairie, a strange sight, circling where they believed the bandit camp to be.
The next day, Winter overheard the bandits talking about another raid on the locals, and killed the familiar. Not knowing the situation, the party charged ahead, engaging in battle. The battle was a close call for several of the Ingrates, but they prevailed, with Winter’s former lieutenant and the mysterious robed figure getting away.
Having dealt with the bandits, and now having proof that the wandering tabaxi tribe (and Winter’s family) was not at fault for the raids, the town of Mopyl (MO-pull) let them free.
Finally free to continue on their journey, the party did so, deciding to head west to Statin (sta-TEEN), where along the way, they were beset by a young green dragon dracolich! The battle was won, and Aramil tracked down the beast’s lair, a hollowed out trunk of what was likely a massive tree (several times the diameter of a giant redwood tree). Inside was a considerable horde, as well as a shrine to Death. Seeing this affront to her goddess, Avery struck the altar withher hammer, Angelus, cracking, not the altar, but the hammer, which promptly ceased to work as anything other than a normal warhammer. Realizing that only The Priest could possibly fix the hammer, she vowed to find him to restore Angelus.
A little demoralized, the party continued on to Statin, where the city residents were lined up in front of the local lord’s, a Lord Tibor, estate, where families were being rationed out food. Dacyria, throwing her weight behind her noble status, bullied the man in charge of the distribution process into giving out more information than he was authorized to do in front of the masses, by way of a charm person spell, likely making an enemy of him in the process. In any case, the party was able to meet with Lord Tibor, to find out the situation: before the arrival of the Ingrates, the city had only enough to barely feed the populace for a few more days.
During this debacle, Avery noticed someone in the crowd…the “witch,” this time with a child that was months old, of Borest, whose house was burned down. Avery confronted her, first in disguise, where she got the full story: a merchant lord had passed through Borest, and had seduced her, leaving her with child, and refusing to take responsibility for the child, leaving her pregnant and without a way to support both herself and a child. In her desperation, she attempted to blackmail Borest’s mayor into paying her money so that she could support her child. Seeing the rest of the party, particularly Arkon, she fled, fearful of what Arkon would do to her after he burned down her home. After getting the full story, Avery let her leave in peace.
After this, during the handing out of food, someone made an attempt on Lord Tibor’s life, with a poisoned crossbow bolt. Lord Tibor survived the attack, but the party lost the tracks of the assailant.
With Lord Tibor safe, and deciding to do some shopping in town, the party was surprised to find a shop that was selling magic items, some powerful, for extremely cheap prices. Buying what they could afford, the party left happily, unsure as to the reason, but wary of all the strange crystals inside the shop’s ceiling.
That night, during watch, Aramil was charmed by a vampire lord, taking him away to be fed on. The party, after realizing that Aramil was gone, began to get ready to find him when they were accosted by a group of vampire spawn. The party, with the help of Oliver, tracked the vampire lord and Aramil to a crypt, where they confronted him and more vampire spawn, saving Aramil and looting the vampire’s treasure.
The next day, the party went to go find the magic item shop again, only to find that the building was vacated!
Needing diamonds for their revivify spells, Avery went alone to the gem shop, where she was attacked by a man in brown studded leather armor with a brown cloak, carrying a dagger and a rapier. Moving faster than she could imagine possible, the stranger stabbed her repeatedly, poison coursing through her veins, leaving her for dead, and stealing all of the diamonds she had purchased. The party found her, laying in a pool of her own blood, and healed her.
The party had a larger diamond that they then wanted to have cut down into smaller pieces so as to be able to use them for the revivify spells, the gem dealer directed him to his gem cutter. The elderly man looked very non-descript, and agreed to do the job, but once his hands were on the diamonds, he reached into his shirt, smiled, slapped his chest, and disappeared. Searching the building, the party found the actual gem cutter, dead, shoved into a closet.
Tracking the assailant this time, the party was able to see that he headed south, past the “offsite location” of the late Baron Mogumir, and towards where they had found that the pirate slaver’s base of operations was located.
The party suspected a trap, but decided to head south regardless.
What will they find? Will they discover who this assassin is? Tune in next week to find out!
Dear Readers, this is all I had time to write today, as I am prepping for the Ingrates tonight.
As you can see, the work on the bottom, the fins and exception, are done. I did the filigree on the bottom as well as the metal studs which I decided to, at last minute, make copper like the rest of the studs. All that said, I am considering doing all of the studs in copper. I don’t know. I’ll see what it looks like when I get to it. Originally I had visions of things. Gunmetal but the studs on the bottom are copper and the metal bands that hold the ship together on the bottom are gunmetal. I think I’ve well established that the studs should be copper. And because copper is a nice earthy toned metal, I think it fits well with the motif of the ship overall. Also, I repainted the bottom of the wings to try to make the brushstrokes disappear as best as possible. That….. Is going difficultly. To say the least. The challenge with painting larger miniatures is that it is very easy to have your brush strokes show through when you are painting large areas. It’s one of the reasons I have been avoiding painting some of my larger miniatures, because of this exact fear. This is easily the largest project I have ever undertaken from a miniature painting perspective. I’m really hoping that this one turns out very well. So far, it seems to be promising.
Well, that’s all I have for you folks today! Join me tomorrow for an installment of “A DMs Perspective” where I do my best to catch you all up on the shenanigans of the Ingrates. I’ll be trying to put together an edition on “A Player’s Perspective” to go over the antics of the Arkham Arcanes!
The Daily Dungeon Master Blog 
