Actual Play Stream of DCC: The Hole in the Sky

Our first attempt at streaming a tabletop roleplaying game. A group of Dungeon Crawl Classics newbies heard the summons of the Lady in Blue and met her at a cliff near the ocean where a mission of epic proportions was bestowed upon them. My deceased stamp got a lot of use.

How to Defeat Your Party (Without Killing Them) - Part 1

Our gaming group all started getting heavy into tabletop gaming as a result of 5E Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). We all started with the Starter Set where the players became acclimated with the mechanics by performing public services for Phandalin. Then they became interested with developing their backstories and personalities as they moved onto Princes of Apocalypse where they learned how their actions could leave an impression upon the world. Not long after it was a memorable journey battling and befriending giants in Storm King's Thunder. Though momentary setbacks occurred occasionally, the players started to see themselves as superheroes capable of just about anything with the roll of a die (or several in the case of those who have discovered the 'lucky' feat).

This was all fine and good until I gave them a crash course in original Dungeons & Dragons with the classic B2 - Keep on the Borderlands module. The first session proved deadly and showcased the style and tone of the predecessor to it all. Character death was a certainty. Victory was not assured.

Don't be fooled. This dragon does not care if you have Plot Armor +3.

The fact is that they loved it. Why was this the case? The drama of failure made it more exciting and intense. Suddenly retreating from a suicidal encounter was an attractive option that had not previously been considered. Life was precious and something to cling onto versus the relative comfort of knowing a resurrection spell was just a few thousand gold away. The thrill of risk and reward was instilled in all involved and made playing original D&D an exciting event every time we planned a session.

I had pondered this idea for sometime of how to bring this same type of experience into the modern version of D&D. When our group started playing Tales of the Yawning Portal, a collection of classic D&D modules reworked for 5E, I haphazardly came upon the solution. It wasn't "death" that made the original exciting; it was the prospect of failure that created the environment for a range of emotions that could be felt during a roleplaying game. Anticipation, disappointment, pride, determination, regret, etc. are all things that can only exist if failure is an option that the players believe could happen. In fact, character death was only exciting if there was a prospect of a story to be created from it.

Wiping the party as an exercise in the mortality of characters or to teach the lesson that nothing in the game is a guarantee is, in my view, a terrible way to get the point across. If the party wipes, the game is over. It is not satisfying and does not achieve the same result that 'failure' can provide. Character death can be a driving force to create new possibilities in the story, but only if the Dungeon Master knows how to navigate it in a way that is interesting and creates possibilities that would not have been available otherwise.

My hope is that this will become a regular topic that I can sound off on and share my experiences with. There has been an element of failure that has developed in each of the Yawning Portal adventures I have run and they have all been unique (some spoilers can be expected if you are to continue reading). Some of them were foreseen where I was able to plan for them and others were spontaneous and I had to improvise in order to reframe a party wipe scenario into something that could move the plot along.

#1 - Give the Enemies a Reason to Keep the Players Alive

My experience has been that enemies that toy with the player characters (PCs) and have nefarious intentions other than outright murdering the players tend to be more memorable and give them more cause to develop strong animosities towards them. A good villain has motives that go beyond being super evil and wanting to dominate the world. An even better villain sometimes blackmails or manipulates the players to implicate them in their schemes.

A scenario that took place while playing White Plume Mountain was that the PCs came upon a lair of a mass murdering knight named Sir Bluto and his forsaken crew. As the players entered his guard post I allowed a intelligence (history) check to see if they could identify him from a wanted poster they would have seen plastered all over Neverwinter during a recent visit. Sure enough they were able to recognize him as Sir Bluto, the guilty party wanted for the River of Blood mass-murder case. Their eyes lit up as they heard there was a 10,000gp reward for his capture (alive).

"10,000gp! That's a lot of money! Hey guys, make sure to take care when knocking this guy senseless" said one of the fighters as the party scrambled to get into position for the confrontation that was about to take place. The party was helplessly outnumbered and there was no way they were getting out of the fight without a few casualties. They managed to use non-lethal attacks to bring down the treacherous knight, but it was all in vain as Sir Bluto's eight minions were able to use the party's poor tactical position and their numbers to defeat them.

Party wipe. Could have been the end of the adventure.

Instead, fortune was with the heroes. Sir Bluto's knights were not the type to swear oaths of loyalty unless there was a hefty paycheck involved. Having heard the fighter exclaim the value of Sir Bluto's return to the authorities in Neverwinter, the knights were of a mind to make a deal. After all, they were all criminals too and could easily stroll into town and capture the reward themselves. With the precious magical items of the party and all of their wealth bagged up in a corner of the stone chamber where negotiations commenced, the knights proposed that they would return their belongings if the PCs would take Sir Bluto back to the Halls of Justice to collect the reward and deposit it in a hollowed out tree stump located at an abandoned cottage an hour and a half outside of the city.

There was no better choice that they would be offered, despite their attempts to negotiate. The fact was they had no leverage and this was the best deal they were going to be offered.

They headed to town and did as they were instructed. Though it pained most of them to have 10,000gp in hand that they would not be able to spend, the prospect of losing all their hard earned magical items from their previous adventures was an even tougher pill to swallow. They carried out the task and found the knights to be trustworthy enough to honor their agreement.

This course of events created a story. There was a consequence in that the party did not earn the opportunity to collect on the reward that could have been, and they missed out on the opportunity to take the loot the knights surely had. They also had to make a morally difficult choice in delivering the reward, tax money collected from Neverwinter intended to enact justice for the victims of the River of Blood massacre, to the main instigator's accomplices.

This event did not stop the party from trying to devise ways they could track down the conniving knights and get their revenge. But they soon discovered that the knights had abandoned their previous lair. And every time they started to speak about plans to seek out a diviner to locate them, it seemed an invisible stalker would lash out and put a halt to the conversation. Hmmm...perhaps the thread to a story to take place in another adventure...

Preview: B4 - The Lost City...in 3D

The idea of playing Dungeons & Dragons with 3D terrain has captivated our gaming group since we first laid eyes on events being run with Dwarven Forge at GaryCon. The inclusion of miniatures, dungeon terrain and other visual props is an exciting, albeit expensive and time consuming way, to bring the game to life and provide the players a powerful visual of what is actually happening. I myself am typically comfortable playing D&D using "theatre of the mind" as I loathe interrupting the flow of play to setup dungeon tiles or draw out maps. But when the conceit of an adventure is based around dungeon crawling and exploration through long winding hallways, its hard to argue that having a true physical manifestation of the dungeon on the page laid out for use with miniatures isn't badass.

Over six months ago our group completed their first foray into playing D&D Basic by experiencing the classic B2 - Keep on the Borderlands. The voracious appetite for more old-school gaming led to an interesting idea to construct the pyramid from B4 - The Lost City. If a 3D dungeon was to be built, it definitely made sense to start with this structure as it would be fairly self contained and had aesthetic appeal that went beyond just what was within the walls. What you saw on the outside is an awe-inspiring ziggurat which is able to allow the players to anticipate spatially what to expect from the labyrinth within.

The project began with the purchase of a 4' x 8' of foam board insulation. This was cut into sections that would serve as each tier of the pyramid. We measured 1" for each 10' mapped out in the module layout.

Once piece of advice for anyone who wants to try this project is to bear in mind not only the edges, but also walls the buttress up against other walls. You will need to take these into account for your measurements to work out. Depending on the size of the miniatures you are going to use, you also might want to allow a little extra give for hallways in particular as many of ours ended up being quite narrow by sticking with the 1" measurement per square.

The next stage of the project was using a HotKnife to cut through the foam board to hollow out each room. If you are ever going to try to construct a similar project, I would advise either making sure you have a quality knife or make sure that you pace yourself in cutting these out. My friend who spearheaded this project burned through two of them in the course of the project. We noticed that the hot knife sort of created a smooth glossy look upon the walls and recognized early on we would need to do something to fix that as it kind of clashed with the idea of walking through a ruined structure.

 A really cheap tabletop board was used for the floor. We etched out a grid upon each which had the dimensions of the tier that it would get attached to. Each tile also served as the ceiling for the tier below it, so that once assembled it would have the exterior look of the actual pyramid.

The next step was to begin priming the entire thing for paint. An interesting and unintentional effect happened with this process. The primer actually ate away at the foam board quite a bit; a serendipitous occurrence as it sort of created this effect of pockmarked ruined stone which dulled the edge of the smooth look created from the hot knife. Problem solved!

Once everything was primed, it was ready for some paint. It got a dark coat of some spray on paint to create a foreboding look. My friend who spearheaded the project also took the time to fix some of our miscalculation regarding the walls by using tin snips to cut out from some metal flats that he had to cut out walls and doors to fill out the dungeon.

My favorite part of the entire dungeon is the revolving passage way on the third tier. This chamber operates via a panel of buttons on other side that works as a sort of orbital elevator. A hole saw was used to cut out a piece of the foam board and then the middle passage way was cut into it. It got adhered to a piece of the tile and, using a ball bearing swivel caster, we mounted it onto the floor and it functions as a rotating chamber.

 Everything complete, the pyramid is now ready to see play! Tonight we will be playing a session with an anticipated attendance of 10+. Look for the update to come about how the experience went using a 3D dungeon. If you've enjoyed reading, please click the "follow" button on the right hand side near the top of the blog! You can also get updates by following us on Facebook or on Twitter.

Free PDF Preview of Adventurer's Almanac

Two weeks ago I wrote up a post discussing my thoughts about the Adventurer's Almanac, a GM resource book that is packed with ideas that you can toss into your home-brew game. Since that time, I have already used a number of the ideas in my games. Last Friday I got a lot of mileage out of a Dwarven festival summarized in the book (and came up with the Dwarven Keg Battle mini-game). It has come to my attention that Goodman Games has a free 17-page preview which gives a pretty good idea about what you can expect. You can get the free pdf preview of the Adventurer's Almanac over at Goodman Games here.

Concluding a Campaign

In the summer of 2015 when I saw a post on the Facebook discussion group of our local hobby shop from a father looking for a DM to run a game for him and his two kids. My group got together far too infrequently for my liking and I was looking to add another game into the mix. Plus, the prospect of DMing a game with younger players seemed like a lot of fun, so I answered the call of duty.

I even managed to find the prologue to the epic adventure.

My expectations were not very high that we would continue playing much past a session or two. I decided to kick things of with the D&D Starter Set, which I had read would be a perfect introduction for newer players. I also enlisted the assistance of a friend from my regular group to act as another player and assist with the teaching of the game as we embarked on our journey.

We met and rolled characters. On that fateful day, Eddgerin the Ranger, Quivin Hood the Rogue, Thia the Fighter** and Kane the Monk (Elves all) were born. They defeated the Redbrands, smashed up the local tavern and reveled in the many magic items that they came to acquire.

**Thia the Fighter unfortunately became a teenager at some point during the adventure, and thusly recognized that playing D&D with Dad was no longer cool.

They had just reached level 5, and they demanded more adventure. I segued them from their previous exploits in Wave Echo Cave and brought them to face the evil elemental cults in Princes of the Apocalypse. The group came into their own and even developed an identity as they started being referred to as "Collateral Damage," a nod to their prevalence for bringing superhero levels of destruction to the very communities they were trying to protect.

And so, the heroes waged their way through numerous obstacles and saved the world from elemental devastation. Here they were, seasoned adventurers at this point with level 15 characters. Well, there are is an absence of  D&D published adventures for heroes of this level. So I had to begin to write and research something that would be an appropriate challenge for this group of champions. A mega-dungeon was born and several sessions of play led the players into an extra-dimensional mountain where Drow were up to no good.

Eventually my pace of writing could not keep up with the adventure desired and we moved onto other games. But there was something wanting about the way things left off...I knew eventually I owed it to them to provide a proper conclusion to their improbable first D&D experience. I certainly had never known anyone who had actually finished a D&D campaign that had a final chapter. The games I was in always just seemed to go on and on until either the DM moved away or lost interest. I couldn't let this happen to such a fine group of characters.

The Heroes

Eddgerin the Ranger: The stoic elven ranger who was adverse to staying indoors, never gave up his weapons and was the MacGyver of knowing the practical uses for every piece of a fallen foe.

Qivin Hood the Rogue: Ambitious to a fault and often the inventor of schemes that were best left unsaid. Also coined the term "body sack" to mean any cloth container that could reasonably hold a body, living or dead.

Kane the Monk: The devout follower of Illmater and the voice of reason within the group. Also the only one trustworthy enough to hold onto the money, much to Qivin Hood's chagrin.

The Story

It had been some time since the players had actually played the game, so I invented a conceit to help them roleplay this: their characters came into the session with no memories of the past and none of their possessions. It was a risky move, as I half expected a minor revolt at this revelation but they were all good sports about it and trusted that I had a plan in place.

The story began in the center of a cylindrical valley known as the Shield Crater which provided shelter to a community of dwarves. All of the denizens of the valley seemed to regard the characters with familiarity and friendliness, as if they had all been there a very long time. Each character got an individualized introduction to the session where they learned important details about the culture and the daily life of their apparent home.

Mystery and Intruige

The story seemed to hook the players right away. They were quickly invited to attend the Festival of the Stonewife, a celebration of the dwarven deity of agriculture and stonework, where they found themselves in athletic competition during an event called the Dwarven Keg Battle. The morning after the festival, a little girl named Tah went missing. The heroes led a search and rescue mission up into the high reaches of the mountain in fear that a giant spider came down and took her into its web. Their search turned up nothing.

The subsequent day was even stranger, as all of the dwarves seemed to have succumbed to apathy at an alarming rate or had forgotten about the child altogether. Something was amiss. Qivin Hood started having strange migraines that were starting to put him out of commission. Eddgerin, having never learned where his actual home was, slept under a tree the previous night and saw something suspicious. The town watchman had been seen standing outside of town near the interior wall of the valley seemingly talking to the stone. After nightfall the party returned to the same spot to investigate and discovered a secret door. The watchman took notice and urged the party inside the hidden wall so that they could talk in private. It was there that it was revealed that the community had been infiltrated by mind flayers and they had succeeded in deposing the previous ruler, the great King Dorn Burgador. He suspected the heroes were beginning to fall under their influence too, and he provided the group with a peppermint smelling tincture that he instructed them to drop into their ears. As they did so, large squishy worms started falling out of their heads and onto the floor. It was gross and upsetting. The king had successfully salvaged the party's equipment from where it had been kept using his cloak of invisibility, and returned it to them so that they might slay the Elder Brain that hid somewhere under the village.

Puzzles and Traps

King Dorn Burgador pointed the party towards the schoolhouse, where he saw the mind flayers take the child, Tah. Once inside the party found a quaint classroom with several rows of desks and a larger piece of stone furniture clearly used by the instructor. An abacus sat upon the desk. While searching the desks, Eddgerin found a piece of paper taped underneath one that read "Today's password is BRAIN." Quivin Hood meanwhile found a hollow piece of floor, but no discernible way to open a trapdoor to get to the otherside. The abacus must be the key. Using it they moved its beads to represent the numerical equivalent to the letters in the password, and the door opened.

The first boss fight of the evening.

Once below, they fought their way into the hive of the Elder Brain. A massive cerebral cortex sitting in a pool of ooze with lashing tentacles, it put up a shield to defend itself and cast a dominate person spell on Qivin Hood, forcing him to engage his friend Eddgerin in combat. Kane was left to deal with the Ulitharid and the brain himself, taking an incredible amount of psychic damage for his efforts. The battle took the party to its limits, but at the end of the day they succeeded in defeating the elder brain and discovered the existence of a portal. Kane had read about this portal in a book earlier, which he knew was going to lead to a prison dimension which held an entity known as the Elder Elemental Eye**.

**The Elder Elemental Eye is a sort of confusing moniker used by a number of deities in D&D lore. Both Tharizdun and Ghaunadaur have used this name, and in my research on both I couldn't exactly nail down the lore. So, for my purposes I simply created my own agnostic "Elder Elemental Eye" that acted as a supreme god of chaos that existed before even the creator gods. My players didn't need a history lesson dropped into their conclusive game session.

Fighting their way into this strange dimension, they soon came upon a chamber where a plaque proclaimed that the heroes must follow the hues of the rainbow. Each pillar corresponded to that fond acronym for remembering the color spectrum: ROYGBIV. The pillars as they appeared seemed to correlate with many paths that would be true, and each seemed to lead to three separate ledges over a pool of acid. Kane was the first to cross. He passed over a red pillar and then an orange pillar with no problems. Once he touched down upon a yellow pillar, he noticed that it was actually covered in green slime over a red pillar as acid started to eat through his footwear. He yelled to the party to quickly navigate their ways over. It quickly became evident that stepping on the wrong pillars out of sequence caused them to begin to descend down into the pool of acidic liquid. Using a combination of spells and abilities, the party began revealing that many of the pillars were masking their true colors with slimes and oozes. They narrowly made it across the way to one of the doors, which they promptly entered, not wanting to stick around to find out if anything more terrible would happen in the prism chamber.

The Final Boss

After fighting their way through a chapel where Drow were sacrificing themselves to a red stone they proclaimed was energizing the Elder Elemental Eye so that it could break free from its chains, the party soon came upon a magical field called the "Veil of Purity." This phenomenon had been placed within the prison by Tyr, Illmater and Torm to ensure that only the worthy could come to this place to check on the security of its prisoner. Qivin Hood, the rogue, was the first to step through. I took the young player out of the room, so that he could not be influenced by the meta-game forces of the other players. All he ever wanted was to be the ruler of a thieves' guild, and he lusted after a number of powerful (and evil) weapons. After crossing into the veil, he found himself in exactly the guild hall he'd always dreamed of and a man who said he was his lieutenant showed him that they'd procured the weapons he desired. It was too much for a young man to resist, and he took them despite a reoccurring theme during the entire campaign that the weapons were pure evil and would corrupt their wielders.

When Kane stepped through the veil, he found himself on a snowy mountain pass. As he climbed up he came upon a cottage. Once he entered, he found himself speaking to a scarred and broken old man who sat tending a small fire. He told Kane that to defeat the embodiment of chaos and anti-creation he'd need allies, but he would only be as strong as their hearts were pure. He revealed that Qivin Hood's eyes lusted after power, and he was not strong enough to resist evil on his own. The old man asked Kane if he was willing to sacrifice his eyes so that Qivin Hood would have the strength to resist in the future. Kane agreed. As the world turned dark, he heard the voice of the old man tell him that Qivin Hood's tongue often spread lies and deceit, and he would need help keeping it under control. He asked Kane if he was willing to sacrifice his voice so that Qivin Hood could speak with honor. He agreed. He then suggested that Qivin Hood's hands could not help themselves but take what was not his and cause pain to those who did not deserve it (I could see the look of worry grow in the player's eyes at this point. A monk give up his hands?!?!?). He at first refused. The man sighed and admitted it was a lot to ask, and he only hoped that the Elder Elemental Eye could be defeated by those who only walk half in the light. As Kane turned to leave the cottage, he stopped. He agreed to the man's proposal. The man revealed himself to be Illmater, and he blessed Kane for his act of selflessness and bestowed confidence that the light would win in the final altercation.

Eddgerin, meanwhile, stepped through the veil and found himself in a hallway flanked by an alcove. Above it, a plaque read "Leave your worldly possessions here, lest they own you." Beyond the hallway, a beholder could be seen hovering menacingly with its eyes glaring at him. Eddgerin had a couple of beholder eyestalks on his person from a previous victim, and he made sure that they were seen being deposited into the alcove as he forfeited his weapons for the first time in the campaign. He walked down the hallway bravely and met face to face with the beholder, who had a riddle for him. "When we meet, you see nothing, but apart you will see it all." It blinked rapidly as they traded insults for a time. It did not take long before Eddgerin guessed the answer: eyelids.

The heroes successfully crossed the Veil of Purity and found themselves back in the stone halls of the extradimensional prison. Before them were a pair of huge adamantine doors with carvings upon the faces that showed grave elemental destruction sweeping the lands. The doors opened automatically and beckoned them inside. Upon crossing the threshold, they set their eyes upon a huge eyeball wrapped in chain. The suspension was caused by taught iron chain that held it up to three pillars of marble stone with empty depressions that looked to have once contained images of angels. Across the chamber, a former ally of the party, a dragonborn paladin named Fatalon beheaded an angel that was lying prone on the ground. As insanity filled their mind from proximity to this aberrant eye, the party attempted to stop Fatalon before he could successfully sever all of the chains binding the Elder Elemental Eye. The Eye's influence enlisted the help of Qivin Hood in severing its chains, and it seemed all was lost as four of the six chains became sundered. Kane dealt a deft blow to Fatalon and he fell to the ground, seemingly regaining control of himself for a brief moment. As he declared his regrets and apologies to the party, a surge of energy channeled itself from the eye into Fatalon's near lifeless corpse. Slime and ooze began to spill from his pores and cover his flesh, as large tentacle reared themselves out of the backplate of his armor. It seemed the Elder Elemental Eye was using him as its avatar.

The chamber which housed the eye ripped itself up from the foundations of the lair and the walls gave way. Soon the entire slab of stone the party was standing on was whirling through a cosmic vortex of purple and blue color like Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz. As the party dodged infernos created by the Elemental Eye, they dealt blows to this new adversary before them. It soon took flight and directed itself off of the platform, and conjured a whip which it relentlessly tried to use to pull Eddgerin off and drop him into the abyss. The epic battle that ensued nearly brought the party to their end, but a well placed shot from Eddgerin who was holding onto one of the pillars to keep from falling off into nothingness felled the avatar and brought the stone platform back to stillness.

A herald from the divine Triad soon appeared, and informed the party that the custodians of the Elder Elemental Eye had been killed. An evil this great would need new wardens, and the heroes had proven that they were more than capable of ensuring that the chains of the Elder God would not be undone. As the heroes agreed, halos began to appear over each of their heads. It seemed that fate had brought them to this place to sacrifice their freedom so that all of mortal life could live free from the shadow of the Eater of Worlds.

The End?

The Final Final Boss

I would probably be labeled a cruel DM if I denied a group that actually managed to make it to level 20 the opportunity to fight a common tarrasque. The unholy beast of monstrous desolation is notoriously challenging and something that my younger player has often fantasized about facing and defeating. So naturally, the Elder Elemental Eye used its last threads of energy he harnessed from his sacrificed followers to call it forth into the world. The angel bestowed upon the party the charge of stopping it from wrecking havoc on the world before retiring to their responsibilities as the custodians of the Elder Elemental Eye. I allowed them to bring in their level 12 characters from a since concluded campaign of Storm King's Thunder to aid them in this colossal task. The party returned back to the Dessarin Valley which was the site of the majority of their previous adventures and defended the realms before the ruins of Dragonscale Spire (formerly Feathergale Spire before the player's wrested control of it, and subsequently saw its destruction in a battle with Imix).

I won't go through the blow-by-blow, but the heroes were eventually triumphant after witnessing the deaths of their lower level characters. Looks like I got to wrap up two campaigns with one!

Creating a 5E Mini-Game: The Dwarven Keg Battle pt. 2

In my last post i wrote up the details to a mini-game called the Dwarven Keg Battle which was inspired by an entry in the Adventurer's Almanac describing a holiday named Dwergferi. Last Friday I tested the game out with a group of high-level PCs, and the experience definitely was an entertaining kick off to our campaign finale (I'll be writing up a play report for this session soon). What unfolded was a fairly dramatic bout of competitive athleticism that achieved the aim of both adding a bit of flair and immersion to the world but also a bit of wonky fun that gave the players a little break from the somber tone from the overarching story.

The Setup

The characters (Eddgerin, Quivin Hood and Kane) had found themselves stripped of their memories and living amidst a group of dwarves inside a cylindrical cone shaped valley. The confused players, all elves, seemed regarded as essential to the livelihood of the community. As they tried to find answers to their questions, the investigation was interrupted by a festival devoted to the worship and praise of the Stonewife, the chief deity for the dwarves here. The three babyfaces elves were feeling fairly out of place and insecure due to a cultural ritual known as the Judging of the Beards. A chance of escaping this cultural isolation soon presented itself as Eddgerin's friend, Cael Gargglestone, encouraged him and the others to enter into a competitive event called the Dwarven Keg Battle. They accepted as they eyed the small ioun stone floating in a trophy case with ambition.

The Game

The game begun with each team of three lining up 25 ft. from the center line. The referee was the village elder, a hoarder named Turdegga Holderhelm, and as she blew the whistle Eddgerin raced forward and got in front of the keg. He soon lost possession of it, however, and the dwarven team got a leg up and began passing it to one another and raced to the other end of the field. Quivin Hood cast a hold person spell on the running back with the keg, which caused Turdegga to blow the whistle and eject him from the field. He went to the sidelines to plead ignorance of the rules, and the game continued. The elven team was not in a good spot, as they were now down a player and the dwarven team was a mere 10 ft. away from scoring a goal. All around the field, the audience was hooting and hollering in satisfaction.

Quivin Hood, meanwhile, was getting no where with the referee. With all attention on the field and the anticipation of a goal, the clever fellow cast charm person upon the referee. Turdegga suddenly ejected one of the dwarven players, citing an extremely obscure rule that a player must refrain from flatulence while not in possession of the keg. The crowd was incensed, but none were aware of the magical influence, and instead assumed that Turdegga was either a terrible referee or had engaged in her own version of Deflategate and spent some time with the keg prior to kickoff.

Turdegga's logic under Quivin Hood's charm person spell.

Eddgerin came in from behind the keg carrier and grappled him, stopping his forward movement. It was at this time that Kane came in with a slide tackle and was able to knock the keg loose from the opposing side's hands. Kane and Eddgerin then finally hit their groove and began taking turns charging forward and then making lateral passes to each other to maximize their progress down the field. Suddenly, from seemingly nowhere, a member of the crowd came charging onto the field with a huge empty tankard that he was looking to fill. Eddgerin had the keg, and he narrowly dodged the oncoming crowd member by diving into the endzone, scoring a point for his side. Turdegga, still charmed, called for it to be scored as three points due to the interference of a crowd member. The stands of dwarves in attendance booed in incredulous rage. The opposing team ran to the referee to demand an explanation. The elven team won through a combination of magical manipulation and athletic prowess, and at the end of the day they were awarded the trophy which was an Ioun Stone of Mastery, giving +1 to proficiency bonus.

Eddgerin is going...going...GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

Concluding Thoughts

Things I would change: I think I would introduce some sort of contact between the players. The rule as it stood for this session was that you could only physically come in contact with the character holding the keg. Slide tackles to knock players prone and slow their movement down the field and grapples could add some different dynamics.  I also at the last minute changed the width of the field to be 55' instead of 45'. It would be interesting to try this with a more realistic sized field with a wider field of play. I think 330' x 230' would be more authentic. Adding a more versatile point system with a field goal could be interesting to add to a bigger field of play as well.

Was it perfect and balanced? Not by a long shot. The players involved were level 18, and what I'm learning about 5e is that its incredibly difficult to challenge characters at this level. But was it fun? Absolutely. Playing a modified version of dwarven rugby in a roleplaying game is surprisingly satisfying and the players added flavor to it that really made it come to life.

Having run this, I would encourage DMs to put some thought into a mini-game like this and give it a try. It was definitely a highlight and a memorable component to this story. This event worked really well because it involved all of the real elements you'd expect from a story event: the opposing team, the referee and the crowd played important parts. It also had parts to play for every character, the two more athletic characters were on the field literally doing the heavy lifting while the shifty arcane trickster was off on the sidelines conning the ref. 

What else could be a fun mini-game? Have you had any luck introducing or playing a mini-game in your campaign? 

Creating a 5E Mini-Game: The Dwarven Keg Battle

Two summers ago I started DM'ing for a group that included a father and his two children down at our local hobby shop. I never expected it to go past a session or two, but to my surprise it became my most prominent group and the one I'd put the most work into. As with any group that gets together with any frequency, inside jokes and long-running tropes begin to develop that are unique to the party at the table. One such trope has been with the party since very early in our game(which has gained the party name "Collateral Damage" for the superhero levels of destruction that seem to befall the townships they are attempting to protect). That one is the renowned and prestigious sport known as hacky sack. Seriously.

I don't exactly remember the impetus for its origination or why. But the players would often have their characters take a moment to hack. A mini-game for its own sake. Eventually the players were lobbying townsfolk to get on board with the newly created sport and to create rec leagues to promote its play. From Red Larch's "Better Red than Dead" team and the Waterdeep Wyverns, every community was represented. It became a plot all of its own.

What this taught me is that the party enjoyed mini-games and their relevance to the world they were playing in. For our upcoming game, the party is going to be honored guests at the Day of the Stonewife, a celebration of the plentiful stone which provides shelter and protection, and to the nutrients of the rock which when eroded provides food. The celebration is one of eating, drinking and plenty of games and feats of strength which are thought to entertain the Stonewife.

One of the events I want to include is a keg battle (an idea I took from the Adventurer's Almanac). The idea is that it is a rugby style game where teams of three face off against each other to try to be the first to gain 3 points. A point is scored when the keg is brought over the goal line over a 45' x 110' field. Here are some of the mechanics/rules I am thinking about implementing:

• The keg can only be rolled backwards, and not towards the possessing side’s goal. A character carrying the keg can attempt to move forward.
• A strength athletics check is needed to move with the keg. The number dictates how fast the character can carry the keg down the field.
• DC 12: 1/3 movement
• DC 15: ½ movement
• DC 20: Full movement!
• The keg can be stolen by attempting an opposed strength athletics check versus the creature carrying the keg. If the attacker succeeds, they gain possession of the keg.
• A player can attempt to force a creature to drop the keg by making an attack. If the attack hits the creature’s AC, the creature with the keg must make a DC 15 strength (athletics) check to attempt to retain control of the keg. If they fail the keg is dropped and rolls 10 ft. in a random direction.
• The keg can be rolled or passed. To do so, the player can simply make a ranged attack to judge accuracy. The AC will equal 13 plus 1 for each 5 ft. the barrel must travel. If the AC is not met, the barrel travels half the distance intended and is not possessed by the receiver. If a natural 1 is rolled, the barrel rolls twice the intended distance past the target.
• If the keg rolls out of bounds, the team that last touched the keg loses possession and it is regained by the other team and the game is reset from that point in the middle of the field.
• Keg too heavy? It has been pre-tapped and a character with a mug or wishing to drink straight from the keg can spend their turn drinking the beer within to help lighten the load (every time this is attempted it will give future attempts at carrying the keg a +1 to their strength athletics checks to move with the keg). Caution…spilling will result in a foul!
• Fouls: Players may not physically tackle or obstruct creatures who do not have possession of the keg. Other fouls include deliberately casting magic or cheating to gain an advantage. Doing so will result in the removal of the offending creature until the next point is scored.

Thoughts or feedback? Additional ideas that could make this fun? Better yet, what should the reward be for the winning team?

Enhancing the Yawning Portal

Mapping the Most Famous Tavern in D&D

Tales of the Yawning Portal features the famous tavern of Waterdeep that is built over the entrance to a mega dungeon from which it gets its name. It is a location full of interesting travelers with rumors to share and its walls are adorned with artifacts and oddities presented as proof of survival in the Undermountain. Despite all of the interest players might have for the tavern and the fact that it is literally in the name of the book, it is not as prominent a feature in the book as I had hoped. I have yet to meet a group of players that doesn't like spending considerable time causing shenanigans in a bar, so I have been using the Yawning Portal as a return point in-between the dungeon delving. 

The first thing I found myself longing for was a map for the tavern. It seems that there was a map that came with the 4th edition product Halls of the Undermountain. Using Dungeon Designer 3, I replicated the floor plans of that interpretation of the Yawning Portal. Check it out:

Feel free to use it for your own adventures in Tales of the Yawning Portal! Next time I will take a look at providing stats for Durnan, in case you have an experience like I did where some insolent patrons decide to cause trouble and need to be taught a lesson from the legend himself!

Adventurer's Almanac: A Goldmine of Ideas

"Adventurer's Almanac" by: Michael Curtis

Goodman Games just released a new product called the Adventurer's Almanac, written by Michael Curtis. This book is a 111-page system neutral game-aid intended to assist game masters by providing over 300 adventure hooks and ideas. The book is structured around a 13 month calendar which provides descriptions of events such as festivals, holidays, and adventure concepts that would be appropriate for the time of year. 

Like many game masters, I do from time to time fall victim to the fatigue of trying to come up with creative and new ideas for every session. This burnout is often the result of not enough time to prepare enough material for an entire session. While I am often able to pull off some improvisation to hold it together when this happens, it would be much more preferable to have some material on the bookshelf to draw inspiration from when I don't have enough time to peruse reddit or enworld for ideas to cannibalize from the graciousness of strangers who have been kind enough to share their work. This book is a perfect resource for both last minute game prep as well as long-term planning for an entire campaign.

Each chapter of the book represents one of thirteen months. Every month has an actual calendar that includes names of days of the week (typically named after an animal...I think my favorite so far is The Day of the Narwhal), events/holidays that occur, and moon phases. This book is perfect for something I have always wanted to include in my extended campaign that has been in existence since 2012. Measuring the passage of time and being able to point to exact days brings a tremendous amount of realism to the game. Another feature of the calendar is that each month provides an equivalent date on the Gregorian calendar so that a gamemaster can quickly describe things like weather with some level of confidence. 

Each month has a table of dates for that month and corresponding events and adventure ideas that could happen on each day. The rest of the chapter includes brief descriptions of these concepts. None of the entries go into extreme detail, so there is still a bit of work that will need to be done by the game master in order to fit these ideas into a running campaign. However, they 

There is a really cool idea that it is introduced fairly early in the book regarding character birthdays and astrological signs. The idea that is introduced is that a certain percentage (20%) of people born in a particular month share similar personality traits, enough so that people make generalizations about people from each astrological sign. If the role confirms that they have a personality trait associated with their astrological sign, then they roll percentile dice to determine if they will have a "positive trait" or a "negative trait." For example, for the month of Hardfrost positive traits include sociable, cleverness and bravery; negative traits include being predisposed to being a bully and violent tendencies.

While many of the events and hooks included are seasonal, just as many seem to just be interesting ideas that entire campaigns could be built off of. One entry entitled the "Invisible College" describes a judicial society that oversees the use of magic. If your murder-hobo group start lighting up each settlement they enter with fireballs, flesh this idea out to introduce some retributive justice to the world and set them straight. 

I have a big campaign finale coming up that I need to prepare for, and I have a strong desire to include a festival as a prominent feature in it. This book couldn't have come out at a better time, as I very quickly found a festival in the book that matches what I need perfect. What I want to present to the players is an Oktoberfest-like event that is supposed to be a way for a community of Dwarves to celebrate the season's agricultural harvest and mark the transition to focusing attention to mining. I thumbed through the Adventurer's Almanac for about five minutes and I found the perfect event. The description in the book for the festival of Dwergferi (during the month of Emberfade) describes a holiday that encourages friendly competition by means of the keg-battle (a rugby-like team event), the annual judging of the beards (how awesome is that?), and a ceremonial dance known as the Dance of Thunder and Flame. The entry for the festival also lends flavor to the meaning of the drunk-fest by explaining that it is believed that a dwarf's lifespan is correlated with the number of flagons they can consume. I hope to create some mechanical rules for each of these mini-games (which I look forward to sharing in a future post).

Final Thoughts

If you play primarily out of modules or are looking to pick up a supplemental book because you are looking for mechanics to accompany new ideas or random tables to roll on, then this one might not be for you. As a system-neutral book, you won't find specifics or statistics for things such as the Broadsword of Comedy and Mirth, a pun-producing sword that makes its victims succumb to fits of uncontrollable laughter. These specifics are up to the game master to design.

This is a great resource if you play a lot of homebrew games or have a campaign that is going to take place over an extended period of time. Most of the ideas presented are fairly shallow, and are designed to be jumping off points for the game master to flesh out the details and bring to life. Everything in the book is going to require considerable work on the gamemaster's part to put into motion, but the book accomplishes its goal of providing a nudge to any brainstorming session. It is also a neat way to bring a calendar into your game that can fairly easily be re-skinned to fit into your campaign world. All the fun you can have with character birthdays, random festivals when the story is getting too heavy, and a ton of ideas for quickly providing details to that session that you are expected to run in less than 24 hours.

Helping Players Roleplay: The Campfire Chat

I have had a pretty wide-range of players sit at my tables, all with different motivations for playing a game like D&D. Some players are really interested in their character and have written 20+ pages of backstory. Some really like mastering the mechanics of the game and learning how to maximize their effectiveness in combat. Some are just there to socialize and have a good time, and have little to no interest in learning the rules. There is no right or wrong reason to play tabletop games, what matters is having fun.

Roleplaying games often bring people out of their comfort zone. Its grownup make-believe, and it can feel a bit silly at first to be saying out loud that you are a halfling bard named Stumbleduck who is searching for the flute that the Great and Mighty Skidoosh crafted from the toenail of a fire giant. The game master (GM) should do everything they can to try to make these folks feel at ease, and provide opportunities for them to feel confident playing their character. When it comes to roleplaying, they might have some ideas of who their character is but are having a tough time figuring out how to bring those details to life. Many players are shy and are not going to have an easy time engaging unless invited. Its why icebreakers, love 'em or hate 'em, are necessary in real life; being prompted for an invite into the fun is sometimes all it takes to get someone to speak.

One of the tactics I have used in the past is presenting the party with a question they are discussing while they make camp for the night. While the fire is winding down for the night and the party is drawing straws for who will take the first watch, the party begins to open up a little and share their thoughts surrounding a prompt provided by the GM. If you are concerned that your players will feel put on the spot and not know what to say, this question could even be provided prior to the start of the session so they have time to think about it.

Typically, I like to ask questions that are meant to bring about character development. Good questions to ask are those that are dealing with values or morality, or a hypothetical on how the character might respond to a particular scenario. Here are a few examples:

• Talk about the most important person in your life
• What is your greatest fear? How did this fear develop?
• Does your character have any biases or prejudices?
• What is the most evil thing that exists in the world?

You may find questions like these are a little tough for a first-time player. In that case, it might be best to keep the questions simple. Providing questions that have a few options or choices built into how they would respond or more surface level questions may be less threatening for someone who isn't quite comfortable yet or hasn't given a lot of thought to their character:

• What is your character's favorite drink? What would they order at the tavern?
• What are three words to describe your character's personality?
• From what kind of social class does your character come from? Lower class? Middle class? Wealthy? Nobility?
• Is your character a team player or more of a loner?

What I have found can happen is a very organic experience where the players themselves (in character) begin to bounce conversation off of one another. They will ask follow-up questions and try to elicit more details. Together they will collaboratively begin designing the details and contributing to the story by bringing these characters to life. Sometimes the ideas that come from these questions will become prominent tropes that will help the players know how their character will respond to future scenarios. I once had a character who apparently had this strange sense of smell that had him pick up the scents of various creatures which his nose registered as various foods (for example, orcs smelled like roast beef). In future sessions, I could use this detail to clue him in on the lurking orc warband stalking the party.

Here is a list of questions I have started. Please feel free to share or submit additions! I'd love to expand this list.

Rewarding Roleplaying

Many of your players with not require an extrinsic reward for providing details of their characters, but it can be a nice perk to give the more mechanically minded players an incentive to play along with the campfire questions. In 5e this could be a point of inspiration, in DCC it could be a free luck point to burn, etc. Whatever you find that will motivate your players to help you to flesh out their characters is a worthwhile thing to include in your game.

Final Thoughts

Another thing that is important to remind players is that they do not need to talk in a funny voice. I'm probably not the best person to being pushing this piece of advice, as I often give my characters goofy speech patterns, but it remains true that one need only describe and talk about what it is their character is doing. They can summarize the content of what their character is saying, giving some notes as to their demeanor and any innuendo that they might be trying to encode into their speech. Invite the players to talk in the third-person. With practice and encouragement they will become more comfortable and confident in their abilities and will feel more freedom to enjoy the game.

The Amber Temple pt. 2: A Curse of Strahd Play Report (Spoilers!)

The Amber Temple

(**Curse of Strahd spoilers**) Hidden within the Balinok Mountains rests the Amber Temple, a vault designed to contain the evil remnants of long dead gods. It was here where Count Strahd first consulted with the Dark Powers of Barovia to negotiate a pact which led to his eventual transformation into a vampire. The party has received multiple warnings from Dr. Rudolph van Richten that this was a place to avoid, as it contains power too incredible for mortals to resist and does so at a cost to one's humanity.

Printed the entire Amber Temple to scale from http://mikeschley.com/

So naturally the group was going to go there, right?

The Party

• Reinhardt Gregarious - Human paladin of Bahamut. Wields the broken hilt that once belonged to Strahd's brother, Sergei, which he has learned to use to produce a blade of radiant light. Was killed and made a deal with the dark powers and now emits the stench of decay. Strahd recently had Vistani leave Barovia to kidnap his best friend, Lucas. Strahd left a coffin on the road for Reinhardt to find, within which was Lucas' dead body.

• Barzulan - Gnome warlock who is a bibliophile. Has a book he received from a mysterious stranger that depicts various eldritch runes. The book showed to him images of a temple, within which were many halls with amber doors. He has been seeking this since he arrived in Barovia. Also died and made a deal with the dark powers, leaving him with a feeling that insects are crawling underneath his skin.

• Lirean - Half-elf druid who has recently met her father for the first time, a brute of a man with a demon arm named Izek. Also learned that she may not be a natural born individual but may somehow have her origins as an animated doll crafted by a toy maker in Vallaki named Blinsky.

Why we are here

Previously, the party met a dusk elf named Kasimir Velikov, who is believed to be the important ally foretold in the Tarokka card reading to assist in defeating Strahd. Kasimir agreed to lend his aid, but insisted they visit the Amber Temple. He claims that it is where the Dreadlord first gained his powers, and the secret to his demise rests there. Reinhardt and Lirean had reservations, but Barzulan has been the fervent voice advocating that they visit the temple.

Rahadin's Message

The party rested with a group of mountain folk who were taking refuge inside the temple. During the night, a thud had been heard against the door that they had barred to provide them a safe night's rest. On the other side was a letter that had been stabbed into the door with a dagger. It was from the chamberlain of Castle Ravenloft, a dusk elf named Rahadin. He warned the party against trusting Kasimir, who he suggested was a murderer and was misleading them. Rahadin invited the party to find him at Castle Ravenloft, where he promised to secure safe passage from the realm so that they wouldn't torment Strahd anymore. Not trusting Rahadin, the party reassured Kasimir that they were committed to working together to bring about an end to Strahd's reign.

Using the doors to a hallway where they knew several flameskulls were lurking, they headed north. They made quick work of them and found the body of a deceased wizard who did not fare so well against the animated skulls. He was clutching a staff, which Lirean picked up. It seemed to instantly change her. Prior to coming to the Temple, she was not eager to come to this place of evil. Upon clutching the staff, her mood seemed to change and she almost seemed impatient to find the power to defeat Strahd that they had come seeking.

They found a stairway that led down. Entering into an enormous length of hallway with marble floors and walls carved seemingly from a single piece of amber, the party discovered many doors which proved impossible to open. One set of doors, however, were shattered and lay in ruin upon the floor. The party went to investigate and found four crazed looking creatures shuffling around within. Each had smooth purplish skin and a singular eye that dominated their heads. Reinhardt saw within them a shred of humanity, as if something in this place warped and changed them into the creatures they now existed as. They communicated telepathically and seemed to be digging into Reinhardt's mind for secrets.

Reinhardt promptly cast zone of truth. He asked "If I share a secret with you, will you promise to share a promise with me?" Two of the nothics replied with an affirmative, and two replied with a negative. The group groaned as they realized they had a situation analogous to the Labyrinth doormen who presented Sarah with her death riddle (sorry, too much Labyrinth on the mind lately).

Barzulan wanted to know what they were doing here. They said they came seeking the "dark gifts." They pointed to two amber sarcophagi in the room, and the location where a third once stood but it was now just a pile of rubble. They said they had released the essence of the long dead god from within and were gifted with powers. Barzulan pressed on...how did they get in here? All the other doors in the hall were impassable. They told the party they learned the password by digging into the mind of a lich in the upper temple. Barzulan wondered what the password was; they responded that it was "COVFEFE."

The party decided to leave the four creatures alone and they left. They tried to enter the main nave of the temple where a huge 40 ft. cloaked statue stood prominently. As Reinhardt stepped forward, a beam of sickly green light originating from the statue struck him and he fell to the ground, dead. The group drug his body out of the room and carried him back to the room where they rested the previous night.

At this point, I was pretty happy we had the NPC Kasimir with the group. I gave the player who controlled the dead character the NPC for the session with some pointers (in secret) about the character's motives, trusting that he would know what to do when the time came.

The party went in search of the lich. After circumventing an illusory dinner party, an enthralling statue, and a closet full of skulls, the party eventually met the lich. He invited him into his quarters but seemed quite absent-minded. He couldn't remember his name, and didn't even seem to know exactly who 'Strahd von Zarovich' was, but he did know that he was meant to share the secrets of the temple with those who came seeking them. He invited the party to his library to see if they could find something to help restore his memory.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Lirean found a book which contained a greater restoration spell. Although this was a spell quite outside her current natural abilities, with Kasimir and Barzulan's assistance they managed to pull it off and restore the lich's mind. He informed them of his name, Exethanter, and he shared with them that the amber sarcophogi below indeed contained immeasurable power. Lirean asked if any of them would allow the power to raise the dead, thinking of the fallen Reinhardt. He said yes, and he offered to escort them through the temple.

They took a grand staircase from the library to the floor below, where they found three amber sarcophagi resting. Exethanter mentioned that he has reason to believe one of the sarcophagi to contain the ability to bring the dead back to life. At this point, Kasimir rushed ahead to release the spirit of this sarcophagi. Upon doing so, he emphatically replied that he would not be using this newfound power on the paladin. He came here to gain this power to bring back his sister, a victim of Strahd's.

This was kind of funny since the player running Kasimir was role-playing the NPC that was advocating against resurrecting his actual character. He did a great job!

Kasimir Velikov explains himself.

The party did not dwell on this long, for one of the sarcophagi was speaking directly to Barzulan. It stated that it was his patron, the entity who saw to it that the book he possessed found him so that it would lead him to this moment. Barzulan consented to release his patron, whom he soon learned to be that of Orcus, the Prince of Undeath. In return, his patron gave to him the knowledge of how to become a lich.

Lirean would normally have resisted the power of these sarcophagi, but the staff she picked up off the dead wizard had changed her. She seemed powerless to the allure of limitless power, so she went forward and released the third vestige. Darkness seemed to enshroud her and a wicked expression came over her face. She, too, had learned something that seemed to change her demeanor and warp her mind even further.

So, one of my players turned evil. The Curse of Strahd book suggests that when this happens, the DM should take control of the character and make them an NPC. But I think that is a little boring, and as long as the player is comfortable playing an evil character I think it could be a cool story. 

"Exethanter, are you a good lich or a bad lich?"

The pursuit for power did not stop there. They continued to enter various resting places that contained amber sarcophagi and released the spirits inside, gaining power and losing themselves. Lirean gained the power of flight but also grew large skeletal wings. She now has gained a taste for bones and grave dirt. She also uncovered the ability to control lightning, but soon the left side of her face began to sag and the muscles seized to work. Barzulan gained the ability to inflict disease upon his enemies, but he gained a nasty stench that seems to follow him everywhere. They found power that would allow them to resurrect Reinhardt.

When Reinhardt returned to life, he was horrified by what his friends had become. He also discovered that he no longer had the Sunsword, and noticed that it was in Lirean's hands who was clutching onto it with power lust in her eyes.

Conclusion

Wow! What a crazy session. With Barzulen and Lirean stacked with incredible power from the Amber Temple, is it still a horror story or has the tone shifted into more of a Suicide Squad situation? What did Lirean awake in her mind when she touched the first amber sarcophagi? Will Reinhardt be able to find a way to redeem his comrades?