The endless durp about "10-foot pole" gaming

 

"10-foot pole gaming" is a term I just made up. I could just say "old school" or "classic" or whatever. But I think the 10-foot pole thing as one of the more cartoonish elements of old DnD. Sure, it would have its uses in classic dungeons, or even in the woods to shove down a hole of an abrasive gopher. 

But the image of somebody with one in a dungeon, where there can often be tight squeeze turns (you ever try get a mattress up the turn in a narrow flight of stairs?). Always reminds me of Granpa Munster trying to get through the doorway holding his shovel and the angle requires a couple of tries. I always thought that a simple 5-foot-long quarterstaff would be about as useful. Tie a torch to the end for extra utility. I really feel the original including of this item in equipment lists was a wink and nod to the old saying "would not touch it with a ten-foot pole." 

But I was thinking about this stuff after about a week or so of sampling some of Erik Tenkar's vids. I like to see some of his takes on things going on in gaming and controversies of the years. But lately so much of it seems about how you are having "bad wrong fun" with your DnD while extoling the virtues of (very) basic DM and player styles. And how you are doing it poorly. Having fun? Fuck that. It's wrong fun. Shades of classic Dragonsfoot forum comments. 

I dunno. That asshat Chevy just 
reminds me of a Dragonfoot guy

OK, I like Erik and don't want to get harsh. And I have not watched all (or even half) of such videos he has been posting for weeks. Maybe he does more explaining in some other places. "Hey, this is pretty much about BX gaming and dungeon delving especially. Not to be taken seriously" 

Which would be fair enough, though I am kind of doubting that. So the good constable will start a video, often with one hand up pinching his fingers in a "that's a spicey meatball!" gesture. Then go into his "tavernsplaining" the topic of the day. Usually some fuddy old approach to doors and thieves and listening and retreating and mirrors and clerics are more than healbots and do theater of the mind hex mats ruin everything and henchmen and yada yada. 

"You don't want story. You want spikes to jam doors. You don't want feats and skills and dice rolls. You want a mirror to peak around a corner. Didn't you see Private Ryan? Thar's ah snipah up thar!"

A favorite was about how old school fighters were not all same-same. They should be defined by their weapon they find! Again, if this was just about how to play BX or older shit, it would be fine. It's that type of game. I guess I personally did not sample all the editions. As a little kid I got the three little books and the Monster Manual. Soon after it was 1st edition, and I stayed with it for decades. The boxed sets were all Toy r Us to me and my friends. It was outliers who had the boxes of "baby DnD" who were friends of a friend. I swear to god the one that comes to mind from my teens was totally "Butters" from South Park.

Not saying this is Tenkar, 
it's just my experience

And by the time I was in my later teens, I was kind of tired of the ol' dungeonarooni. Don't get me wrong, the surreal nature of underworld spaces with monsters and nasty magic had big appeal to me. But my GMing was evolving. I was enjoying having things take place in the city and on the road more than the moldy ol' dungeon slog. Outside of Underdark forays, the dungeons I did were smaller lairs and not of the mythic variety. Sure I would go back to old dungeons again and again, but it was no longer what it was all about. It's one of the reasons I had some older times in the character continuity of my setting be known as "The Dungeon Age." It was a time when we were really young and our characters mostly romped in dungeons. 

I think by the time I was around 17, I was more into higher fantasy. Sure, things could be gritty anywhere. But endless dungeon crawls had gotten old hat for not just me, but it seemed that is the way the general gaming populace was going, for good or bad. 

As an aside, I think that since our girlfriends played with us, or just more females in general as we got older, was also a factor. They might like action, but the endless slaying and dark tones was not overall appealing to them. Some might have anti-hero characters who were even capable of murder, but being either a murder hobo or a fearful poltroon spiking doors was not fantasy to them. Making up interesting characters and the development of them during play was far more fun than adhering to notions of "proper dungeoneering techniques." More on all that in a minute. 

Equipment will always be important to one degree or another to players, but being anal retentive as a professional climber prepping for Mt. Everest is not often a priority. Shit, I think though the characters in my last campaign were going to The Isle of Dread they didn't even bring sleeping rolls on the journey. 

I always loved the old dungeon notions, but after those early years the chill at the surreal had less impact on me. They stopped being spooky. Getting into blogging and the OSR around 2009 brought back some of those feels. But it was fleeting. For decades I acted like it was the be all end all. I kept wanting to do a dungeon slog every few years but would end up doing something bigger instead. Like The Night Below, which was for sure a giant dungeon. Though I do recall some characters did prep like a cave climber might for that. But there was a lot of build up to the descent. But still, that was mostly just a long rope, lanterns, and some rations. 

So Erik clearly does not like 5th ed or its players. I mean, when he mimics a 5th ed player there is a lot of eye rolling or using a goofy voice to portray them. At first I thought it was kind of mean, but then I remember I have done this in the past years and decades to goof on some DnD people. Though nowadays I try to be more a Buddhist in my kind understanding (often failing). 

Erik seems to allude to some con running he has done with some old school gew gaw, and the modern players who attended going all slack jawed mouth breathers as they were told there were no feats, skills, or superpowers. 

So maybe he has just had bad experiences with the kids these days not falling in line with proper professional dungeon crawler standard operational procedures, like Hulk Hogans "Hulkamaniacs not following his famous demandments..

Or is Erik just talking to the BX fans out there? And if so, how long have they been doing the hard-core mapping, door listening, mirror using, torch conserving, no background having, fuck feats and skills and rolls and full on dungeon slogs. Decade in and decade out. In my last long time face to face group I ran the three little books plus Greyhawk for a few session break from our 1st ed. And it was fun. I did a few sessions at the Socal Minicon during the salad days of the OSR (the actual one) and a local convention soon after. It was fun to revisit.  But good gawd, for that to be my DnD now? 

I remember years ago watching some footage at a con circa early to mid 2000's of Frank Mentzer running what looked like an ad hoc session for some various con folk (like 12 guys and 1 girl). He just had a couple papers and dice in front of him. It was clearly old school in nature, probably his boxed edition (bestselling version of DnD!!!). But you could tell it was old school, because it took like 45 minutes to map 30 feet of corridor, and another 45 of fumbling around with and gang-listening at a door. Yawn, and that is a capitol Y. 

So after several years of my journey with 5th ed, how does it fit my style? Well, I have been into character development since I was a kid. Not only mine, but that of my players. It's kind of my joy. To preside over something they find so fun. And as far as feats and skills, hell, when I was as young as 15 I was just having players make stat rolls for this and that for things that would probably nowadays been seen as a version of "skills." CHR for persuasion type stuff and seducing, WIS for noticing things (prob inspired by Runequests classic "Spot Hidden") or whatever. 

Erik seems to hate lots of dice rolling. But since my earliest days, it was the funnest part of the game. So I don't mind skills and feats or whatever. And all the choices and builds? It is interesting to me. Like I say I love character development. and Creativity. I come from a Superhero Game background since childhood just like I did for DnD. So these aspects of creating a character are right up my alley. Sure, I have seen the dudes who were candidates to be in my online groups who want to run their Half Beholder Half Minotaur Cyborg Ninja Gunsmith. I have learned to weed them out real quick. My vetting of strangers online has become a specialty for me. And I may scoff at Game of Thrones novel page count character backgrounds a bit, but they can be interesting a lot of the time. And why should I give a fuck if they want that? It gets them to ask about my setting. 

OK, I only pick at Erik Tenkar because I like him. I have been on his Discord for years now. But I am just a bit baffled at his nitpicks at 5th ed players. But also these videos are performance to some degree for streamers. I think it is not so much vitriol as much as it is a bit of mean playfulness. I dunno, there are a bunch of these vids up the last weeks and months, so go watch and you make the call. 

Since This post is already getting long, I will probably watch a few more and post about some things. Hex Mats vs Theater of the Mind kind of stuff. Also, Erik is doing these posts as part of a collaboration with the Greyhawk Grognard guy (I don't know much about him) and Joe the Lawyer. I have not watched a lot of Joe's stuff, but I did look to see how his line of thinking was compared to Erik. I was surprised to hear that much like me he came up old school but now runs 5th edition, and he works at keeping those games old school in flavor much like to try to, so I might want to post about one or two of those video commentaries. But for now, yeah, this is too long. So cheers and have a great weekend. 

And god bless the dice rollers! Its fun!

Isle of Dread - Sea of Dread

 

So the party is on the 2 to 3 week journey across the western ocean, heading to the sea of dread to adventure on the Isle of Dread. At the border of the sea of dread is a very large area that has a massive seaweed forest beneath the waves operating large blankets of floating seaweed on the surface. This area is known about, so the captain of the ship is aware of it. Not just a dangerous area because of potential large ocean wildlife that could attack, but ships tend to get stuck in these great blankets of seaweed, but it’s the time of year, early summer, where the seaweed breaks up for a while. So rather than take the three or four extra days to circumvent the area its decided to travel on through it.

And not long into that first day a ship that has been stuck in seaweed for a couple of weeks is encountered. The journal label will eventually find when they get in there says thusly..

Last date: two weeks ago

“This is first mate Prellis. I continue this ships log post death of our respected Captain Barrat. We remaining crew of The Black Gull, proud buccaneers of the West Pacific trade routes, are wounded and out of food and fresh water are fading fast. While looking for our own prey, We came across an Ottonese vessel far from its home waters, full of foreign pirates, and found ourselves in conflict with the devils on these most remotest of waters. They blasted our lowest back deck with a strange fiery missile from a cannon with the visage of a devils face. Then they came aside and we took to a brief man to man battle on our main deck. Our dear captain fought with the ferocity of 5 men, but he was felled by a backstabbing attack. The rest of us bravely rallied and the intruders retreated to their ship, preparing another cannon blast. We have no cannon, but we do have Silas, our ships wizard, who summoned a thick fog to cover our limping escape.

We were not pursued, and we soon knew why. It was nightfall, and in the chaos we forgot we were near the great seaweed rivers. We immediately got stuck in the thicker mats of the green weeds. With our lower level taking on some water. we cannot hope to escape. To get free into the open water would mean the Black Gull shall sink fast. We are slowly dying now of thirst, great hunger, and festering wounds. We have left the ships warchest in the cargo hold. Though the hold is more and more exposed to the sae, we care not. What good is coinage to the dying?

Last date: one week ago

I am the last alive, and my nightmarish thirst and hunger will soon do me in. Over a handful of days those of us left thought we could hear the captain's voice. Telling us we will rise again and once more wreak havoc on all living things. They say the seaweed forests are a place those who die may rise as the angry and jealous unliving. Is this how we brave seadogs of The Gull go into the darkness?

Now I alone can hear. I thought I saw him, a ghastly and foul figure. He said I will soon be at rest but shall rise again to hate all life. What a fate. What gods of good would allow this? "

Trapped in seaweed, undead and giant octopus haunted,
and waiting for characters to enter. 

So this western pirate ship was attacked by an eastern (Asian) pirate ship. Wounded and stuck in the seaweed they eventually are all dead and are now undead. Several zombies and the captain has become a wight. They await any living beings to enter the crew deck for them to destroy out of the hatred they now have for the living.

Once in there, the zombies all failed their saves against the turn from the Dragonborn cleric. But the white stepped up and is a little more powerful than typical so he put up a good fight. Also, since I’m treating the ship sort of like a haunted house every turn a barrel or a bunk would get thrown at a character. but they took care of everything quite easily then they made their way down to the cargo deck, which was partially open to the sea. Clearly the seaweed blanket was holding the ship up and keeping it from sinking the last couple weeks. But as the seaweed’s been breaking up, it’s getting a bit dangerous do to the breach. But the journal says the ships war chest is down below so down below they go. 

cool animated water effects (you cannot see)

So in the cargo hold an octopus has been accessing through the breach caused by and enemy cannon. As the ship is tipping a bit it is at a slant and the water around where the octo hangs out is about 10 feet deep. I used tentacles from the free online image library that I could stretch out to grab at characters. 

Gotta put on pants for the island. Centipedes
and other stuff can crawl up into your biznezz..

                                                    

The female Tiefling bard was caught, and with bad rolls was in real danger of being dragged under by the now wounded octopus. That is an instakill.

One of two drow who are on this trip. Going
to the tropics at the beginning of summer. It will be
bright and sunny a lot of the time. Smart. 

spring fishing look

but Jevan the drow coastal ranger jammed over, using a potion of freedom of movement and used his extra on Spira to free her. The octo sucked itself back through the breach to escape. This violent action of course caused the ship to go into full sinking mode, but they made it off the ship with the chest loaded with pirate treasure. They will open it up to find lots of gold and stuff beginning of next game. 

In the city sessions and this ocean voyage I have been using small random tables with like 3-5 possible encounters. For the city I would have items that had to do in part by what was going on in the campaign so far. Maybe an enemy or gang members they previously dealt with, or an NPC. For the sea voyage it was just this stuck ship encounter, a sahaguin attack during a storm, or a dragon turtle. I had maps and info to do any of it, and kept the details as basic as possible. I can always use one of these other encounters on the trip home. 

So next session its arrive at the island. Unless I feel like tossing another sea encounter in there haha.

Cheers. 

To the Isle of Dread! But not so fast..

 

The Opportunity to start a new DnD campaign happened awhile back. And by opportunity I mean that I did all the usual legwork to try to gather and vet for hopefully several players. And by legwork I mean the pain in the ass process of putting a group of strangers together for online play in Roll20. 

The looking for Players forums on Roll20 have really become a wasteland of Critical Role-trained younger people looking for Matt Mercer experiences, GM's wanting to run their weird homebrew such as a slasher film RPG, a very odd recent fad of players looking for a DM to run solo sessions for them, LBGTQ-only groups wanted, and the occasional stand out who seems normal and maybe based and might be a valuable player (more often than not they disappoint, so manage expectations). The latter is what I shoot for.

But this time I went outside the box and tried a couple other places as well. A DnD Discord that seemed promising, and also the DnD Beyond forums. Over some weeks I vetted and vetted and vetted. Were there the usual red flags? Hell yeah. I vetted harder than Jerry on Seinfeld vetted his dates (you know, like when Jerry rejected a lovely gal because she ate her peas one at a time?). 

But besides heavy vetting, I made some decisions to help me vet people within actual play (you don't really know until somebody is in your actual game and how they behave), and to kill some time before heading to the Isle of Dread. I wanted some solid, all in, players to go the distance with that. 

So with some help from an NPC patron, academic Merlot who I have used before, I got characters together to have mini adventures around the city proper. Go get some kobolds in the storm drains who stole an item of academic value. Go to nearby sea caves with von Tanmoor to look at some runes on a cave wall. Go to the undercity and to some old Acherian statues that granted things good and bad. 

Within that handful of sessions, a couple of players (damned window shoppers) came and went. But I was left with three solid players. Kris (the girl who was looking for a new group to play in and I contacted her to team up to make this group), an Englishman who apparently does not sleep. And a player who is running the first dragonborn in my games (you know, old school world turning 5th ed world). He also got a girl he knows from another game to come in several games later and she is great. And then another girl I think from the Beyond forums several games in who got right on the bandwagon. So yeah, two gals came in to play after those first session and are a great addition, and they round out the group well. After the session last night they swore fealty to the group and campaign and add a great energy. So yeah, group set. 

So the final adventures in the city before leaving for distant shores included a night at the opera, and just lots of city stuff. A night at a banquet; fighting assassins there and later in the streets. Spending most of their off time at Merlot's manor house lounging and partying in one of his dens..

Back in the day I had multiple campaigns that were taking place in the big city Tanmoor. But in recent years it has been more rural in my campaigns, so this was fun. Lots of emergent role play like those 7-8 hour sessions of old with face-to-face friends. Really, been like 5 years and 4 campaigns since I had any character or group hang out in the big city. I think even after all these many years city gaming is my specialty. Probably in part due to growing up on comic books and all that city action. 

So tickled pink with this group. Lots of chatter on the Discord. It feels like it could go awhile. And for the first time in a long time the girls outnumber the boy players. Ha. 

Merlot. The Patron. Have used him 
in other campaigns to bring PC's together for
"Endeavors." He's from oooold money, is a 
professor and all around academic. Has been 
gearing them up for an Isle of Dread visit. 

 

The coastal ranger. He is a drow. Heh. Drow. 

Rangering on sunbaked beaches. Eyes burning 

                                        out of his head

 

Tiefling bard. Very roguish. From rich human
family so an entitled mean girl. Throws charm
spells around like candy. Troublemaker? Well,
she got some of the party to help her pick pockets
at a special invitation opera house where the queen
was in attendance. 

                                

                                     

                                      

A gnome wizard and archeologist from

a large town a couple days from Tanmoor city. 

Seems sweet and friendly, but quickly kind of

got a bit corrupted by the murder hobos of the 

group. 

His origin is the that he was found in a 
shipwreck as a baby on the shores near the city. 
He got adopted by the clerics of Billick, god
of healing. Of low rank still, but he has been
a special child since he is the first Dragonborn
to be seen (or to be in in my games). 

 

 (cannot find the token version) 

Drow wizard. Lolth worshipper. Lawful evil. Presents 
as neutral. Calm and stoic. When the party ran to escape city watchmen
after a street fight in which deaths were involved, she was the only one 
not caught and arrested. 

So a nice diverse group. No humans though. But whateves. We entitled humies had our time in the sun. 

Cheers

"Official" D&D vs "Folk"D&D and the pitfalls of playing with strangers

(this post may qualify as a rant. Take it with a grain of salt)

 I've recently been seeing a bit of this lately, the use of the term "Folk" over the usual "Old School" designation.

"Official" is of course the rules (more or less) as written, while "Folk" is a name for people who rely less on whatever the current editions and settings are, and "do what thou whilst" hodgepodge gaming. I like the word Folk for this. The term "Old School" is getting, well, a little old. 

As a D&D person myself, this is sort of hypocritical I guess, but I find gamers, D&D players especially to often be an odd lot. I suppose I always considered myself Old School, but maybe less so in recent years. When I got hipped to the OSR (sometimes derogatively referred to as the "blOwSR") around 2009 or so, I got involved a bit. I started this blog not long after starting a 10-year group where I ran a variety of genres, but mostly 1st edition. I'd say about 60% of that experience was great, and the rest, well, often when more or less unfulfilling, and often the drizzling shits. I feel this is because it was gaming mostly with strangers. Sometimes weird ones. And I found this to my experience with the modern crop of players, especially gained on Roll20 forums. Maybe chock full of more oddballs than Grognard places like Dragonsfoot. 

Most of my gaming life since I was a teen was about me running campaigns, of various genres, for friends I already had. People who often had no real D&D experience. They came in fresh, and just wanted to enjoy the play without a bunch of expectations. Open minded. In any genre I ran. And these were my most happy gaming years. Dungeons and Dragons, Champions, Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, Traveller. Kind of a bummer that this was 20 years and more ago. 

As a teen I knew that playing at game shops or cons was not for me. So many of the people turned me off. 

So as far as 1st ed D&D was concerned, there was no arguing over rules or rulings, whereas in the groups of strangers that I ran for years later that was often the order of the day. So much of 1st was open to interpretation, it was an easy in for power gamers and rules lawyers to work their shitty magic. People who if you gave in to, would, like classic bullies, feel they could do more of it until you were worn down. They were so proud of how they viewed how things should be run.  It was one reason I treasured doing games like Champions or Call of Cthulhu. The rules were fairly clear. But eventually it would be back to D&D and "D&D People" and their particular peccadillos. It was often hard to feel like these people were friends.

When I moved to a new state it was a chance to sort of renew. I adopted 5th edition and had a couple of decent face to face campaigns, the first one was me being tapped to DM by my current beloved besties B and L. I was happy to more or less be turning my back on my old school roots. But my experiences going mostly online with Roll20 the other year was also decidedly mixed. It was mostly with strangers. Because of this I decided to hew close to the rules, but still, no matter the experience or age range, D&D players still seemed to have particular expectations, rather than just going with the flow of whatever the DM had in mind. 

 So, call them old school or new school, call them official or folk. The only main difference to me is that one wants rules as written, and the other ones want something more creative and distinct. But they still often seem to be odd people (yes, I am very much generalizing) with particular expectations. Such as "I want to run a cyborg minotaur gunslinger!" People under 40 on Roll20 are full of this kind of "hey, look at my cool character!"

But even if I stick with 5th ed, it will soon be a "folk" edition. One DnD is going to change everything. WOTC recently and very blatantly announced that the players are an untapped resource to be monetized, so part of their plan is microtransactions that themselves are well known as the drizzling shits of the video game industry. To play it is no longer the DM's who will need written material. Players will need to create online minis for their characters, and I can see a couple of dozen microtransactions for every aspect of it. Face, hair, clothing, every weapon or piece of armor. The colors. What the cost of this stuff will be is what interests me the most. In the past you could buy some paints for about 10 bucks, and a mini for about 5. Will your online mini cost you 30 bucks? 50?

But that is going in a direction that I am not at all interested in otherwise. 

Mostly it turns me off as there will be a lot more work for DM's, and likely a lot more costly for them. They will need to invest a small fortune in DND Beyond, as will the players. And as usual, you will be dealing with fickle players you often do not know along with the cost and time investments. For me, based on my hit or miss Roll20 experiences with the community at large, will it be worth it?

Nah, I will stick with Roll20 and 5th ed for now. Or maybe just try to get a campaign of Call of Cthulhu or a Superhero thing going. A break from D&D people. I think I am maybe starting to head towards being done doing RPG's with non-friends. I have a campaign of infrequent games I run for my local besties B and L, and my old player Terry, which is just great because it is just like those games of old for my friends. No weird expectations. Just D&D. A D&D game once or twice a month with true friends, with my favorite video games in between (this was a super banner year for video game), is starting to seem just right to me. I'm really kind of fed up dealing with strangers in gaming. 

So yeah, this will now be old school or "folk" gameplay for me. Until WOTC buys up Roll20 and other platforms and it is no longer supported. The time is maybe coming when if you don't want to invest in the official stuff, it will have to go back to face to face tabletop. Somewhere you don't need WOTC or their bullshit. That will be the true Folk RPGing. 

Maybe unfortunate for me, as I still feel I want to be retired from face to face. I have boardgames for that.

YMMV

Cheers

 much of 

The Encounter that what was meant to suck, but Didn't

 Besides my regular Roll20 campaign, "Trade and Turpitude," I've been doing a little campaign for my besties every few weeks. My old Friend and player "T" back in Los Angeles, and the younger couple who sort of adopted me when I moved to a new state, "B and L." I met them when they were looking for a DM to start a campaign, and when that campaign ended after maybe 15 sessions, I stayed friends with them because in all honesty they were the only players I didn't pretty much hate. Heh. And they were so good to me, I held on to them like grim death. They spend most of the year on the road travelling the country but were recently visiting town for a couple weeks. They took me to a couple of great shows, a showing of Ghostbusters with full orchestra lead by Elmer Bernstein's son, and a local theater doing Evil Dead the Musical. 

But while they are on the road we do some online stuff. Like digital Talisman, and now some Roll20.

I love B and L, but they are not what you would call outgoing players. They are fairly reserved. At least compared to my regular players in the other campaign. So after a couple of games in the campaign I showed them a "50 character questions" thing my player Mary gave everybody in the other campaign. Just basic things to flesh out a character. I even use it for some NPC's. I thought it would help B and L get a better handle on their characters, allowing them to be more at ease with basic role-playing. 

After a few weeks they hadn't done it. So I decided to "punish" them. Not really, but I thought I might put them through the ringer with a heavy role-playing situation that would test them, and maybe open them up a bit. But like a lot of chances a DM takes, it might well suck. But the point was to get them to come out a bit. I'm not looking for community theater, but its more fun if players can improv a bit with you. 

So I was going to be using a free Roll20 adventure for an easy-going session. It's called The Festival of Emerelda. It comes with a map of a whimsical fairground. 

Not a lot of content is there. The most obvious are some audio tracks featuring the halfling witch Emerelda and some of the festival event barkers, but they don't work great. In one instance uploading the tracks deleted all the other tracks in my Roll20 jukebox. 

As far as the festival, the contests involving drinking, arm wrestling, and other things were not really working for me as far as the rules and presentation of the games. But I mostly made up my own rules that suited me. The map has some things, like an owlbear chained up with a food bowl, and some Griffons in a pen, all things you can wing it to have some fun with. What interested me was a tent with a couples game, A Suitors Claim. The rules didn’t tickle me for this, so I decided to change it up, and at the same time put my reluctant role-players on the spot with it. 

T was running a fairly outgoing bard, but I would make an example of B and L. I would put them into this heavy role-play contest as a trial by fire. I decided to make it like a 70's dating game show. The party was divided up by two males and two females, so it was perfect. They were split into two sides and they would have to ask questions of each other. The audience would be played by me, and my reaction to the questions and answers would dictate the couple that would finally win. 

Each one of them got 5 questions of varying levels of intimacy, and each character would choose 3 of them to ask. Here are some examples of the questions I came up with:

1)      do you still have feelings for any of your exes? Tell me about it.

2)       What's the worst advice someone else has ever given you?

3)      What do you think happens when you die?

4)      Get up and Dance like your life depends on it for one minute.

5)      Lick a bar of soap.

 Describe the weirdest thing you've ever done while inebriated or impassioned

What's one thing in your life you wish you could change?

What's something you've done that you'd judge someone else for doing?

Put on womens clothing and walk through the crowd

Eat a teaspoon of mustard

I found a jazzy lounge type music in the jukebox to go along with the game. 

And it was on. So, I figured B and L would hem and haw and have a tough time with the improv. I imagined I would be cutting it off in 10 minutes, B and L having learned that they need to get more in touch with their characters just for the sake of role play. I mean, not so much to interact with me, but at least all the players need to be able to communicate openly with each other in rpgs. I got it going and was prepared for it to bomb. 

Here's the crazy thing. It didn't. OK, B was kind of hesitant. His male sorcerer was teamed up with Evador the female cleric, an outgoing rich girl. Seeing that B's shy sorcerer was having trouble with the questions, she assured him it was alright. She asked him the less embarrassing questions, not worried about winning the 50 GP prize money. This seemed to kind of spark an understanding between the two. Still, B rose to the occasion a bit, nicely answering a question about the most embarrassing thing he did drunk (getting naked on a chilly hunting trip).

T and L were far more outgoing. T was running her beautiful Elvish bard Xanthia, and L was running her male elf ranger Myrnigan, a character she created as being very dumb but a bit of a womanizer. With those traits I really wanted L to come out of shyness closet with this character, and with the help of Xanthia she did. Myrnigan and Xanthia asked each other the most challenging questions, and asked each other to perform outrageous acts, like duck quacking and dancing around for a minute. "Lick this bar of soap." They had such great fun with this and were highly entertaining. They of course won the prize. 

So what was supposed to be a minor encounter that bombed, this ended up taking most of the three-hour session! I never expected B and L to enjoy a game with almost no action, but they loved it. I tested them and they passed with flying colors despite my expectations. 

I take chances with sessions here and there over the years, doing something that I know has a decent chance of bombing, but it is so satisfying when your fears turn out to be unfounded. And in this case especially, a couple of reserved players came out of their shells a bit. Gotta love it. 

Cheers

Roll20 in-game chat makes me feel like a Twitch streamer

 

So, I think we are going on game 15 in my regular Wednesday night 5th ed game in Roll20. I could not be more pleased with how things are going. Despite almost everybody having more 5th ed and Roll20 experience than me, I have yet to lose a single player due to my shortcomings. I'd like to think its my old schoolish style and over 40 years of experience as a DM. But whatever it is I love this group. Good role players, respectful, friendly, funny, patient. It's all there. I may never have a group like this again, and it makes me want to get the most of it. 

One thing that is really awesome to me is the in-game chat box. I did not pay much attention to it for my first few games. But something it has come in really handy for is posting a spell or ability you are using, official text on the particulars. The player simply has to click on it in the digital character sheet and the spell or what not appears in the chat for me to look over. This along with the in-game compendium searcher has made it so I don't really need any books or paperwork at the table. And I use this as a learning tool as well. After a session I have one last beer (or three) and go over the chat box to bone up on the spells and things. 

And once I got in the habit of checking, I discovered something else the players are furtively doing there. They have an ongoing text chat during each session where they comment and discuss or make jokes on the current encounter or occurrence. You see, I'm too busy to always have that chat box open. When somebody makes a dice roll, I look quickly because that is where the modified number shows up. But I'm usually doing 5 things at once. 

But those chat comments. It's a special treat for me to go in after a game and see what the little dickens have been up to there. It's kind of a hoot, and a new thing I am experiencing, and extra pleasure, I never had in face-to-face games.

So, I'm not streaming, but this little feature makes me feel like I am. And it's yet another thing making me feel, more and more, that this is the format for me to DM in for good.

Two New subclasses - The Voor dwarf, and The Broken Aasimar

 

In my latest campaign (run weekly on Roll20), I introduced two NPC's. One is an albino dwarf long known in my game world as a "Voor," and the other a 5th edition specific race known as Aasimar. In this case, a sub-class I created of Fallen type I'm calling a "Broken Aasimar."

OK, first the Voor. Its less complex than the other and is actually a dwarf race that I came up with for my setting around 30 years ago or so. 

I honestly don't remember the specifics of introducing them into my world. I just remember a party from the city visiting a lone mountain sitting 3 or so days north. Once a small kingdom of friendly dwarves, some time centuries past a strange gas was released by mining there that engulfed the dwarves of Voor mountain and mutated them. They were bleached albino, and their bodies became a bit more emaciated in contrast to the usual stout dwarvish form. They lost passion for most things that bring joy to dwarves, and in fact lost a sense of emotion. Not becoming truly evil, just kind of sociopathic. 

I don't really recall why I didn't use Duegar or any number of fallen dwarvish races that came along with the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual 2. For whatever reason I did not delve into these alternate dwarf races until decades later. 

The Voor NPC in my current campaign, part of a duo the characters have come to call "The Odd Couple," is a young girl named "Demul." 

Demul and her friend Relanis are travelling musicians. But in Demul's case not a bard, but in actuality a Rogue. So far I have enjoyed her being underestimated. Quiet and always following Relanis lead, Demul discovered she had a strange power prior to the campaign while practicing playing a flute. When she plays a sinister tune on it (I've been humming the old Dark Shadows theme when she does it), a certain amount of undead come to unlife and begin attacking whatever living things are nearby. So far she has no control over them. Indeed, she seems to have a certain lack of control about using her power in general. She is obsessed with this ability, and dead things in general. And because, for certain reasons, the "Odd Couple" is following the party at a safe distance, Demul has brought dead things to life that the party has had to deal with. In the first session at an inn in town there was a stuffed bear in the bar. From a dark corner Demul player her tune, and the stuffed bear was the first fight of the campaign for the group. 

In the second game the party fought a troll on the road, eventually burning him up in fire. From the treeline, Demul played her tune and hey presto, the party were fighting a zombie troll. 

Her travelling partner, and mentor, is the 26 year old bard Relanis. Dressed very straight laced, and wearing half a face mask and walking with a cane due to childhood injuries, Relanis is secretly a "Broken Aasimar." One that became "fallen" due to her transformation happening during severe childhood injury.

Strait-laced townie Relanis

Hair down, out in the field 
travelling Relanis

A traditional Fallen Aasimar is an Aasimar that experienced some kind of emotional trauma that caused their Aasimar form to take on a more demonic appearance. Especially so in the case of a Broken Aasimar. Perhaps a bit cruelly, the Aasimar form of a Broken has no such injuries or disfigurement. 

Relanis' Broken Aasimar form

So Relanis and Demul follow the party around, slowly gaining suspicion. It actually took the party awhile to realize that they were responsible for the dead coming back to life after they killed it. And also that Relanis has an obsession with the Paladin (also secretly a Protector Aasimar) Callie, a lovely unassuming, cookie baking village girl who doesn't even seem like a paladin (she often uses a rolling pin in battle).

I think all the male characters are
around because of Callie.

One of the traits of my Broken Aasimar class is that they are in large part driven by nightmares as well as dreams, and also have a minor sense that somebody might be an Aasimar of some kind themselves.  Though in Relanis' case the nightmares tend to be about her childhood injuries, caused by her house burning down with her in it. But as soon as she saw Callie in the first game, she sensed something, that she may be Aasimar as well. Hence, she and Demul follow the party, usually at a distance, because Relanis wants to be around when Callie makes "The Change." 

This caused all sorts of suspicion, right up to this last session where Relanis asked the party to come along on a short adventure nearby ("we are musicians, not fighters"). In the goblin caves things started coming to a head. While Callie is a bit freaked out by "the Odd Couple's" attentions, its the parties grimdark Shadow Elf that treats them like crap, and since he hates undead, he has come close to drawing down on them when he learned Demul is responsible for all the foes coming back after a fight. There was a lot of tension in this session, especially after Relanis and Demul (hanging in the back) were ambushed by goblins and Relanis made the change to her Aasimar form. Relanis broke into sobs after changing back (the Aasimar form is not disabled and has no face burns, and Relanis wishes she could stay in that form), and instead of sympathy, the Shadow Elf still wanted to kill them. But the fighter Zip, who grew up in a small village with Callie, has a certain fondness for Relanis after she bought him a tavern dinner in a previous session. 

The inclusion of these two unique NPC's in the campaign has paid off as a nice side-interest thing, and I so look forward to where it is going. The party just turned 3rd level, so Callie should make and Aasimar transformation before too long. It will be Suprise for her seeing as the player has her clueless about that celestial blood, and maybe at that point she will understand why Relanis has such interest in her.  The party is none the wiser about her secret race. And my misdirection of having Relanis show a morbid interest in the Shadow Elf ranger has helped them remain clueless. I was a bit worried originally that I might blow it for Mary, the Callie player, by drawing all that attention then her stalker turning out to be an Aasimar. But it remains secret. 

I think I will make a quick post on the origins of "The Odd Couple" in this campaign. I actually have specific reason for why I included them. But for now, it's just fun to get some experience with Aasimir in my games, and to finally after all these years get to touch upon the Voor dwarf race with the inclusion of Demul. 

Roll20 & the Player Experience

 

With a new campaign that is promising, and a successful 12 or so campaign during the height of the pandemic the other year, I got the chance to sit down as a player in a Roll20 game.

A player in my game, who has been super helpful in guiding me into getting up to snuff with various Roll20 functions (charactermancer, initiative, etc), had scheduled a one-shot that some of her regular players could not make it to. I was invited. 

The kicker was it was a Sunday morning. We would play from 11-3. NOT my favorite time frame to game in. But I live right across from a park at a protected biophere of the River where, when the weather gets nice, all sorts of events happen, most commonly "fun runs." This one was for Mothers Day, and they shut down various streets nearby, and traffic goes from almost nothing to apocalypse for a few short hours. A good excuse to make a big breakfast and a pot of fresh ground coffee instead of the usual handful of drinkies, and chill out and learn some things. Well, actually, by around 130 I went for a couple of ciders. What the hell. 

The major score for me here was I had yet to experience Roll20 play AS a player. So when I run a session I'm not always sure how the players see things. But also in the course of play, I have to get to know the character sheet usage better and it was a great lesson in that regard. Some things I just muddle through in my own game are easier now. Sweet. 

It was a decent group to play with, mixed male and female an nobody annoying in any way. I ran a meat and potatoes basic fighter mercenary, and the others were the modern "look how cool my character is" more advanced types. But I didn't mind.  No big woop. 

The encounters themselves were classic dungeon stuff that surprised me. Though I think my new friend M is old enough to have played some older edition, I did not peg her as dungeon minded. But there we were. We dealt with a ghostly child and her playroom, a mirror with our evil selves on the other side, and in the end an owlbear attack for the characters who did not join us to fight those dopplegangers. Me and a halfling on the other side of the evil mirror, and the rest of the party quickly dispatched by the owlbear. It was a TPK. Split party 101.

Now, I don't often do one shots. But when I do I just try to have like three interconnected encounters. Just stringing things together. But I think M was working on a larger dungeon, and we just dealt with sections she wanted to tweak. 

Thats all good. It was a great learning experience, and I got a few laughs with my cool dry wit, so maybe I'll get invited to more?