5E vs the OSR vs What is Best for Our Group

I've spent the last year working on combating my Gaming ADD so that I could run games that would last more than 2-3 weeks. I'm glad to report it's been working. My Deadlands game is 9 months in and sadly had to go on hiatus as one of my players is buying and moving into a new house.

We decided to run a different game while he is unavailable and I started looking at the OSR and 5th Edition. On one hand, I'm royally pissed at Wizards of the Coast for their shenanigans and would like to support creators who actually care about their audience. But on the other hand I have some players in this game that want to play 5E, have never gotten to play it, and love DnD Beyond.

I did some heavy thinking about this and what I came away with is that I tend to agree with many of the 5E changes that were made while also altering many OSR games to be closer to 5E. And when I look at what has been successful for me as a DM in the last 9 months  is focusing on story and fun over game system.

In fact, when I look back at my Gaming ADD it always comes back to finding that perfect system. The 3 games that come closest to perfect for me are Castle Falkenstein, Shadow of the Demon Lord and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Right or wrong, 5E captures my vision of DnD as a game designer. I like Bounded Accuracy and Sub-Classes. If I were designing DnD it would look a lot like 5E.

After looking at all of this I went back to 5E and for my players and for me it was the right decision. I'm not giving WotC any of my money and I'm picking up excellent 3rd party products. I'm also backing Kobold Press' Tales of the Valiant as I feel that Kobold is doing some of the most exciting work on 5E.

My group is invested in 5E and I'm invested in them. They are my best friends and it's great that I get to run a game for them. I still am angry at WotC and I'm sure that will affect things at some point but honestly, I have enough material for 5E to use the engine for years to come.

I hope someone knocks WotC off of their block but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy DMing my friends.

Dungeon Mastering 101: Its okay to not be okay

I have always dealt with Gaming ADD and as the primary Game Master for most of my groups it really bothers me. Between November of 2021 and about May of 2022 it was my turn to be DM for our Friday group and I ran 3 or 4 different games because I just couldn't stay focused. On top of that, I ran a game off of the rails because I decided that the direction the players took in sessions 1 & 2 were wrong and I railroaded them on a different path. After that 2nd session ended I knew I had just f#cked up. Hard.

Most of my inspiration as a Game Master has come from action movies and comic books. I like high action with explosive results that focus on the players and their characters. I want the players and their characters to be the stars of the show. But somewhere in the last few years, I started focusing on "challenging" the players and in all honesty started trying to kill their characters. I worried about Encounters Per Day and Challenge Ratings and The Math Behind The Game, things I'd never focused on before. If you grok those things or love things that is awesome, I just lack the brainpower to figure it out, I just don't find it fun, and it was contributing to my lack of focus in its own way to the games I was trying to run.

As I handed my time off to another DM in our group I honestly felt defeated. In the past I had run one 5E game from level 1 to level 20 and a second from level 5 to level 15 and I felt like I'd never have that experience again. 

It was then I decided that I would just start running a game and only focus on the first adventure. No promises beyond that. I also took a smaller number of players from our Friday Group to help make things more manageable. I love our Friday group. All of the players are amongst my best friends and having them has helped  me through some truly dark times in my life in the last several years. Unfortunately, there are eight of us and sometimes that is a lot. So I just saw who could make the other night and kept a cap on 5 of us.

I've been playing and running 5E for over 10 years now and it's a great game but I'm bored of running it. I have always loved Deadlands and while I had disliked Savage Worlds for not having Hit Points in the past, I have found that no longer bothers me. That first adventure took about 5 sessions, about 2 sessions per month and it felt SO good. We had very little combat in those sessions and that adventure's success reinvigorated my interest in running games. However, while I kept notes about future plots I still focused on this one adventure here and now. When I finished that first adventure I took a week to see if I had another adventure in me and I did. So we started the 2nd adventure next.

We are approaching the finale of the second adventure soon. After that we will break for the Holidays and I'll see if I had have another adventure I want to run.

For the finale I'm really focusing on the player's goals and their accomplishments. There are things I'd like to emphasize and throw at them but those haven't been priorities to their characters and so they stay in the toolkit, possibly for the future. 

I'm a lot happier as a GM again.

Yes, I had reached a point where I just wasn't sure if I could be a GM any longer and it really hurt my soul. I take pride in being a DM and I've always felt like I was a pretty good one and these little victories means an awful lot to me.

DMing is hard just from creative, organization, and logistics issues and its even harder as an adult running a company with a wife, kids, and grandkids. Not that being a player is easy for the same reasons. I'm really blessed that my group meets mostly once a week and that I've been able to eke out another session about three times per month with all of it in person.

If you are having a tough time as a DM you are not alone and while Critical Role has given us millions of new DnD players it has also asked many of us to be compared to Matt Mercer and most of us just aren't him.

And that is okay. 

If you are primarily a player feedback to your DM is essential and please keep in mind that there are things about the game that require a lot of time to work out and that means your GM is taking that time from something else in your life. And don't forget to let them know that you are appreciate them or that you are having fun.

My solution to all of this was just to break it down into smaller chunks and be honest with myself about my own shortcomings. That is never easy and it took time to have the courage to do it.

One last thing, sometime no gaming is better than bad gaming. I'm blessed in that I haven't had that issue in close to a decade, but sometimes you need a break and that is okay too.

I Ran a Shadowdark RPG One-Shot

Our regular DM had to work late and only about half of our group could make it so I ran a Shadowdark RPG one-shot last night. What drew me to ShadowDark were several features:

1) After playing a lot of Shadow of the Demon Lord versus DnD 5, I've come to enjoy rolling damage with few if any modifiers. I think it speeds things up at the table.

2) The Difficulty Classes are clearly given and they map to straight-forward percentage chances and range from 9 to 18.

3) Ability Scores drive the game and "skill" gives a PC Advantage on a Check.

4) It uses Ascending AC and a unified roll high system.

5) Spellcasters have to roll to cast a spell and as long as they succeed they continue to be able to cast that spell until they fail a check and it lost for the rest of the day. This also means that if a "Saving Throw" is required it is merely an Ability check by the targets.

6) Random Class Abilities, called Talents in ShadowDark, are gained as a PC levels on class-specific tables.

7) The game is easy to House Rule.

I think the adventure was a hit and my players, who are most familiar with 5E, grasped the mechanics faster than they did with Hyperborea 3E.

I made a 5th Level Witch, Warlock, & Knight of Ydris regenerated characters from Cursed Scroll 1: Diablerie!. 

My intention was to combine two adventures from Goodman Games' Chained Coffin for Dungeon Crawl Classics however, about three minutes in the PCs threw me a curve ball. They were hired to take the corpse of the son of a powerful member of the local Syndicate to a pool in the middle of the Nightwing Forest to resurrect him. Tancred Locke, however, was a real bastard and the PC's decided they didn't want to help him come back. Luckily, I had a bit of side stuff planned, including a meeting with an anthropomorphic raccoon with bifocals named Theodocious Took, who ended up becoming a forest spirit who could take over the body of any creature that ate his current body or who put on his bifocals. 

A good deal of the adventure, initially, was Theo promising them a place to live while the PCs discovered creatures whom Theo had grifted. We had a small combat that went well and the spellcasting system performed even better than I expected. Since this was a one-shot, the group's Witch ended up using various Forest animals as agents, spies, and assassins to eliminate and take over the Locke Syndicate. It got kind of absurd but the end, but we were all laughing a lot so I consider it a win.

Because our group is so heavily invested in 5E, I have trouble justifying an older version of DnD or its clones because at the end of the day they are all very similar in what they do. While I don't know that I could this group to switch to it over 5E long term, it is a game that I hope to use with some newer players in the future. 

I really like the blend of old school and new school that Shadowdark RPG offers and I look forward to the Kickstarter for it coming in March of 2023.

If you like any of the system choices I cites above I think you will love this game. If you appreciate streamlined designs and don't have a set favorite DnD-Adjacent game I think this game is for you. While I prefer ShadowDark over say B/X DnD, Old School Essentials, or Hyperborea 3E and I do think you could find things to add one of those game, I don't know for sure that you will find it that useful, but since the QuickStart is free and the Cursed Scroll 1 offers a great dungeon you can't really go wrong picking both up.

2021: The Year in Review

2021 was better than 2020 overall but once we hit October it sure has flown by. My family has been blessed and we have shelter, food, creature comforts, and are in good financial shape. I'm very thankful for all of that.

I was able to play online with two friends that I don't get to see very often but my crazy schedule kept us playing roughly once a month and I kept changing the game which included CEPHEUS engine, 5E, a Western RPG game based on Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a Star Wars game using a RuneQuest 6/Mythras hack.

I played in a DnD 5E Descent to Avernus game which was really great and after my Sun Cleric died in the first session I managed to keep my Divine Soul Sorcerer, Clete, alive through the rest of the game. It was an amazing game and I am lucky to have a group with multiple talented Game Masters.

I've been running a playtest of Shadows of the Weird Wizard and we are enjoying that, although Numenera has been calling to me with its siren song.

I find that I am more interested in testing mechanics than running a campaign and I'm really trying to fix that, to move on from it. Its always been a problem and I'm sure it is connected to my Anxiety, I think my previous medication helped with it a great deal more than my current one. I'm trying to figure out how to work on it because the moment I choose a game to run, which is harder than it should be, I immediately start noticing other games I'd like to try out and instead of focusing on the campaign I keep brainstorming ways to change to another system for the campaign. Its stressful and I'm just trying to look at the problem and work on it. Our group is taking a break at Christmas and New Year's so I'm hoping to use that time to just push through it.

I did run "one-shots" of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Hyperborea (2nd edition). I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures Death, Frost, Doom for LotFP and Rats in the Walls for Hyperborea.

In the last several years I've used modules almost exclusively and its something else I'm looking at. Until 5E I always ran adventures of my own design and I'm trying to get back to that. 

As a GM I find myself looking at fights differently than I used too and I think its mostly because of modern DnD and its "adventuring day". Since 5E is designed for multiple encounters and certain classes have a mix of short rests vs long rests I've found myself getting frustrated with X number of fights per day. I might be a fossil but I prefer meaningful fights with real stakes against Big Bads but I don't know if I can make that work with the 5E math, especially when I'm designing encounters to just drain resources. I think this is one of the reasons I daydream about running an OSR game because, in my head,  D&D editions before 3.X didn't have this requirement. Understand, this could just be me thinking the grass is greener the other side  of editions prior to 3.X

We will see what next year brings.

#RPGaDAY 2020: Day 13: Rest

        

 

Rest. When I was younger we would roleplay for hours and hours and hours. Whole weekends. Whole vacations.

However, around 2009 I took a break from roleplaying, a king of sabbatical. When I came back we would lay for 2-3 hours because we were playing at my store after hours and when the Magic: the Gathering tournament ended we wrapped up as well.

I really prefer 2-3 hour session and I don't think I could ever go back. Sometimes I wonder if some of the drama we had in those early days was because we were hanging out for 8-48 hours?

I find 2-3 hour sessions restful, they recharge my batteries after a long day, and it has allowed me to play in multiple game each week.

RPGaDAY 2020 Day 11: Stack

      

 

My Campaigns always begin with a sheet of paper detailing the names and important facts of the Player's Characters, the name of Prominent NPCs, and broad stokes about where they are and where they are going. I generally outline the direction I'd like to go with the story while also knowing that I'm going to prioritize a PC's goals over my story.

This means that as the Campaign grows I add more pages to the Stack with notes, more NPCs, maps, and magic items.

I've run two DnD Campaigns to Level 20 and my Stack of notes ended up being 30 to 50 pages. I'd like to tell you they were all neatly fit into a binder or all in a notebook of some kind, but generally they are simply blank printer paper that gets filled on both sides with bullet points I think are important.

It's an imperfect system, but it works for me.

#RPGaDAY Day 9: Light

    

 

I'd like to use this post to remind people of Swords and Wizardry Light from Frog God Games by Tenkar and Matt Finch. 

All the game you need in four pages. It doesn't get much cooler than that.

Dungeon Mastering 101: Listen More

I've written recently about some of the challenges I've been facing as a DM. I'm glad to say that I'm overcoming them and moving forward with a campaign I was pretty close to scrapping.

A key moment in our first session back to the DnD 5th Edition game was when the players decided to use guile and stealth instead of violence to overcome some sleeping chimera. I had this epiphany that these wonderful players at my table had enough creativity and drive to move the game along and all I had to do was shut up. I didn't have to bear this world on my back, the players were propping it up with boundless ideas and shenanigans.

It was very freeing for me. And it's allowed my to focus on the players instead of plots, which is something that has really helped me get back into enjoying being a DM.

Understand, every table is different, even every session. But if the player are keyed up and ready to move things along, its okay to let your ideas take a back seat to theirs. I've found when I do this, often I can still insert ideas I've had and their strengthened because their tied into the players goals and actions.

As an example, I came up with a plot line that looked like it wouldn't work with the current goals of the characters, but after a few sessions, I'll be able to return to it and the players laid the ground work for its appearance. How cool is that?

Dungeon Mastering 101: Confidence

I've been a DM for over 25 years. I've always thought of myself as being good at it. I try to make the table comfortable for others, I spotlight the players, and I want everyone to have fun.

But something strange has occurred in the last few months: I've lost confidence in myself. I'm sure part of it was the burnout on DnD 5E (I'm loving Savage Worlds in the Deadlands setting since the change). And I think another part of it was my switch over from being a DM who used 100% self-written adventures to nearly 100% published adventures. But I don't think that explains it all.

Its something I'm struggling with. Being a good DM is important to me and I have two awesome groups these days (and I even get to play in 1 of them). I figure if I can root out the cause of the lack of confidence, I can better work on how to fix it.

One thing I've noticed is that I've always been a very improvisation DM and that's something I've moved away from. Perhaps that was the first symptom?

I don't think DMs always get the credit they deserve. While its great to see people like Matt Mercer, most of us don't have his background or budget and I think it can set an unrealistic expectation for some within the hobby. Don't get me wrong, show like Critical Role are great for the hobby, but every DM is different and the fact they are willing take on the responsibility should earn them some love.

I wrote this in hopes of a) exorcising whatever demon I've got right now and b) to let others know that if they go through this kind of thing, they are not alone.

New Tech at my Table

I used my Christmas money to buy an iPad Pro (2017) model and got to test it out while DMing this past session.

It worked great. Since it's 12.9" its pretty easy to see and simply loaded up DnDBeyond and didn't need any books at the table.

I even loaded up a dice roller and experimented with using it, however, I found it faster to simply roll a d20, d6, or d10 when I needed it.

I don't regret spending for the Pro, I'm getting old and the larger screen size allows me to see things pretty well and it makes very large PDFs to read on. I haven't had a iPad since Gen 1 and this is a huge upgrade over it in terms of speed, HD, and processing power.

I'm a pretty happy DM, right now :)

Undermountain

A few months ago, I started running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. That portion of the campaign ended by having the Big Bad waste half the the party (I miscalculated how the player's would handle the situation).

I've moved the timeline along, and after a smallish dungeon with some big revelations, the players will be heading down into Undermountain within the next few weeks (the Holidays are tough).

I'm pretty excited. There were some interesting turns this past week. Several character made pacts with bone devils, who traded memories for boons. The players also found the dungeon they are in was created by an accord made by Hextor, Vecna, Bhaal, Mephistopheles, and Mystra to imprison an ancient aberration who was loyal to the Queen of Chaos. 

The players wiped out the duergar loyal to Mephistopheles and now its Mystra's turn to assign guardians.

They also found a talking pig and wizard's familiar named Homer. They are currently teaching him to cast spells with verbal components.

But mostly they were stocking up for their next job, heading into Undermountain.

I cannot wait. 

Dungeon Mastering 101: Good Ideas Should Be Carried Over

I've been running DnD 5E for about 7 years now (when you count the playtest) and one of the ideas it brought to my attention was using average damage for antagonists. It's less math at the table, less time, it's just cool.

However, when I run other games, I don't import this idea. Why not? It's serviceable, I enjoy it, it's a win-win. I'm sure other DMs are smarter than me and have already thought about this and did it, but it was a EUREKA moment for me this morning.

Currently, I'm running Shadow of the Demon Lord, another game I love, and as I was going over last night's combat, I started wandering why I wasn't using average damage? In many ways it's even easer than DnD, because you generally don't add anything to damage in SotDL. 

Then it occurred to me, that the only reason I don't is because the rulebook didn't spell it out. That's sad. I've been a DM for over three decades and I shouldn't need that spelled out.

If you happen to be like me and enjoy a rule from a game your currently running, go ahead and try importing it. I give you and myself permission to do so.

DnD Beyond: Two Weeks In

I've reached a point with DnD Beyond where I'm not using my print books any longer and hypothetically, if I had access to PDFs, I'm not using them either.

As a DM, I find the campaign feature works very well. It has Private and Public Notes which are easy to use and have simplified my workload.

The chat interface is great for Play by Post, scheduling, questions or simple discussions. For me it has replaced our Facebook group.

I really can't stress how glad I am I early adopted. The product, as it stands right now, is worth the investment to me and any further features will simply be icing on the cake.

I'm planning on slowly buying the additional monster and magic item sections of the various campaigns, about 1 each week, as they range from $3 to $6.

For me DnD Beyond is a 10 out of 10.

DMing: Magic Items

My first DM was very concerned about running a Monty Haul campaign and magic items were few and far between. This was ADnD 2nd Edition and I realize now that not only did it make our character's lives harder, but it also reduced customization of characters.

However, I find myself being tight on magic items, as well. But it's not for fear of my campaign getting out of hand, it's simply that I forget about them. Since I tend to either run my own adventures or go dramatically off course of published adventures, I find that I forget to add magic items as rewards.

I'm trying to rectify that and to give the Players some varied goods I'm considering going back to Old School DnD where some of the items have finite charges that don't refresh. I guess, it's my way of bring Monte Cook Games' cyphers into DnD on some level.

Additionally, I'm looking at using the concept of Legacy Weapons from DnD 3.5. Hopefully, this will allow me to spotlight characters as they explore the lore of their favorite item and will also give them some in-game rewards, as well.

On Being a Game Master: Player Buy-In

I have two gaming groups and absolutely zero drama, it's wonderful and very refreshing. However, one problem I've encountered a few times in the last year or two is the issue of Players buying-in to the game. I've mostly seen this from new players, but I'm sure it can be an issue for anyone.

I attribute it to the expectations of some players who are more versed in novels, cinema, and these days even DnD on YouTube.

Essentially, what I'm talking about are player's who are constantly expecting for me, as the DM, to provide their character with a reason to continue to adventure. Heck, sometimes they even expect the other characters to provide this drive. At my table, if you are setting there, the understanding is that you want to be there and to some degree so does your character.

It's great to have deep ties to the story being told and clear goals that your character is working toward, but those things are two-way streets. The person running the game needs help achieving those goals. When you sit at my table for the first time, I don't know if your an active or passive player. If you prefer deep roleplaying, exploration, or heavy combat, and honestly most of us want some or all of that at the same time and our preferences can vary depending on the session.

And at my table I'm deeply appreciative, if the players convey their goals and expectations, though I can't guarantee to address all of them immediately.

Additionall, sometimes your character's arc is completed or the character isn't what you expected, and that's okay. I don't want you playing a character you don't enjoy. What I want is for you to come to the table and realize you are running a character in a game. That you are going to work with the other players to have an experience and either shape the story in the direction you want to go or be willing to follow another character doing the same thing.

Finally, every table isn't for everyone. I've had players who didn't care for my DMing style and we all parted amicably after communicating and trying, it just wasn't meant to be.

Oakhurst: Dungeon Mastering Session 13

This is an Actual Play report (with my DM notes for the session).

The group headed to the Laughing Corpse to see Meegan and learn about Zeos the Necromancer (For continuity and to root the players to the setting I decided on the spot last session to put Zeos right under the player's noses. Meegan was an NPC a previous PC had had a fling with).

The group meets with a half-orc bartender and inquires about Meegan. She comes out to speak them and they bluntly ask her about Zeos. She asks them to meet her at table in a few minutes. The Wizard creates a magic circle to protect them from celestials, fiends, and undead as they wait (he asked if there was any way to conceal the glow to the magic circle and I allowed him to roll Arcana with a DC 20, which he passed). Meegan brought out food and ale for them and the talked about finding a way to meet with Zeos and why (only 3 of my 4 players ate and drank, I wanted to have them be drugged and offered them an Inspiration for going along with me. One player resisted and I told him he'd have to spend an Inspiration to avoid it, which he did not have. I stole this from FATE). 

The players succumbed to the powerful drugs quickly and woke up in an underground cell with an iron gate and a zombie standing guard. The stone of the cell had phosphorescent running through it, providing light. The zombie began to moan and a man with white-blond hair and crescent moon scar came into the room. The Ranger remembered seeing him at the Laughing Corpse (I wanted to introduce an NPC that could become a long-term adversary for the group and Meegan fits that bill. However, she isn't a combatant per se and so I created her right hand, Logriss, for that role). 

Logriss explained that Zeos would meet with them soon and would determine their fate. The players found that all of their gear had been taken (The spellcasters became extremely frustrated that their spell components were missing). After a bit of time, a very tall man in black robes that concealed his face entered the cell area. He inquired what business they had with him. The players said they required his services and learnt of him from Gargok Trou. He countered by asking why dungeon crawlers and agents of the Mayor would want his aid (It shocked the players that they had a reputation and they were Known). 

They countered that they found the Mayor inept and explained that he wasn't aware of the Necromancer. Zeos explained that he knew that and that perhaps he had eyes on the Mayor. After more negotiations he explained that he would allow them to live and leave and if they wanted to work for him he need a job done. He told them of the Karnak family that had fled Oakhurst and the destruction of the Prospector, their general store, but the Players explained that the Karnak family were wererats and that they burned the Prospector down and had discovered deep tunnels into the underdark and the ratmen who dwelt there, as well as other monsters. Zeos explained the Karnak familiy were not wererats and that the tunnels of the ratmen had a strange idol that his associates required. If they retrieved that then they should contact Meegan (The ratmen are one of the factions from earlier in the game that the Players seemed to have moved on from. That's okay, but I wanted to remind them that antagonists remain and that they are plotting and scheming).

Zeos then left with Logriss and had his zombies release them 10 minutes later. The Ranger began tracking a rider on a horse headed to Oakhurst, but they learned it was Logriss and had no clue where Zeos went. They also contacted Corkie the Cleric and warned her about Meegan and Zeos and asked her to keep an eye on the Corpse as they were heading to Northrun to seek the bedlam inmante who knew the location of Tomoachan. The Party then headed to the Firefly Inn they were staying at. However, waiting for them was Venture Captain Roland Van Zandt of the Pathfinder Society who had sent the original group into the Sunless Citadel. He was shocked to see that only the Ranger was still adventuring and offered him work on a Society Expedition. It would take them to the Lost Land of Morado, an hidden plateau to the South, in search of an artifact known as the Verdant Heart. The Ranger declined and Van Zandt offered him a sending kit if he wanted to join later, he also offered him a special pill to aid them in traveling to the Captains location, which the Ranger took (Van Zandt's role will become clearer as the game progresses, plus I wanted the Pathfinder Society to be reinforced as an active player in this world).

The Wizard cast alarm on his room, while the others slept. Several hours later a ratman attempted to kill the Ranger in his bed (I had this encounter planned before going into the session, again I wanted to remind them that their enemies were moving forward too. Of the group that went into the tunnels below the Karnak house, only the Ranger and Wizard are left and only the Rangers is left from the original party, hence why he is the target). While the Ranger was hurt severely he fended off the ratman and the group's decision to head out for Northrun was reinforced (I know it seems like I'm creating "quest hubs", but I want the Players to see that their achievements build reputation and the world is moving around them too, but in the end they decide which direction they go in).

After breakfast, the group met with the Mayor and offered to escort the 3 envoys from Spartansberg back on their way to Northrun, which helped pay for some of their supplies. The trip was uneventful and about a day's out from Northrun, they came across a Roadhouse, the Hare, whose owner, Tiara McClintock, was the heir to the chest they carried. They stopped and met Tiara and her husband Tode and presented her with the chest...

In truth, I have plenty of notes about the Hare and Northrun, other directions would have required more improvisation, but I'm serious about letting the players drive the plot.

Oakhurst: DMing Session 12

I'm going to try something new. I'm going to give insight into how I DM. Let me know what you think.

After closing the saga of Angelika the Hag, two weeks have passed (while that is my primary storyline, I want this to be player driven and a sandbox, so I always have 2 to 3 plotlines available. They are rough ideas, not really scripted).

As the session opens, the players have learned that Spartansberg, a town to the west is now under the rule of Gargok Trou, an orc. Meanwhile, the Paladin is researching Tomoachan and wants to head there because of the prophecy that the Blood War is about to reignite and the horn they need to stop it. Finally, the Wizard wants to fulfill the dead Sorcerer's promise to a spirit to find it's heir.


The group decides on Spartansberg (what I have worked up is that the coup was bloodless, that's it).

It takes several days to get there and the trip is smooth (I rolled each day for random encounters and nada. In my head I was prepared for a pure roleplaying session, so I didn't ignore the die rolls. When rolling for random encounters I decide what number or lower it occurs on a d10, ususually a 1 or a 2).

On the road, the group, an official expedition from the Mayor of Oakhurst with additional men for support, notices several supply wagons heading back and forth to Spartansberg. Each group contains a wagon driven by humans and escorted by warg riding orcs.

The group sees that there is no one working the fields and that there are plenty of people in and around the fortified keep that is Spartansberg. Orcs and humans appear to be working and training together (I took a few minutes to describe the scene and work up details, in my head I decided that the Lord Mayor had of Spartansberg was corrupt and had sold off most of the food to other cities and owed 2 mercenary companies money for foolish missions. He was lynched by the towns people while the orcs watched).

The Players move up to the closest farm house to spy, but find several women, human and orc, getting supplies from inside. The Thief knocks on the door, while the rest hide. An orc woman questions him and worries he's a brigand and uses magic to send up a flare. Quickly, several orc and human riders close in (I emphasized that there was cooperation amongst both races whenever I could).

The Thief revealed himself as an envoy of Oakhurst and the lead orc relayed Gargok Trou's mission to raise orcs from savages and throw off the yolk of Gruumsh. He was keen to set up a meeting with the Players (here, I emphasized how the orcs were clean, well spoken, regimented and worshipped a different god that none of them recognized).

The meeting was the following morning and the night was uneventful. All of the Players went into the keep where they saw that tents had been set up, as well as foodlines and training areas. Their liason, Rork, mentioned that families had been given priorities on real homes and that they were working on new agricultural techniques to grow food quicker and that Gargok was trying to negotiate with the 2 mercenary companies, but they were preparing for any eventualities (the players kept looking for "evil" and just couldn't find it).

They met Trou in a meager tent where he met and planned with his staff. Magic revealed his throne, staff, and chainsword to be enchanted. Gargok explained that he was a scro from the stars and that he wanted to bring a better life to the orcs of this world. They questioned him about getting the chainsword from Anglika, and he admitted that he wasn't as physically powerful as most orcs and needed an edge. They asked about the boon she refused and he admitted that he turned to the necromancer Zeos for it (I was suprised my players didn't press this more and didn't ask what he got from Zeos).

He explained that felt good that he would be able to put off the mercenary companies, that the grain that the Lord Mayor made contracts for wouldn't be honored (one of those was to Oakhurst) and that he didn't seek war, but wanted his people ready to defend themselves.

The Player's mentioned meeting zombie orcs and he admitted that his regiment was built from the best of seven orc tribes and that many were given to Zeos as payment for his services. They asked how to contact Zeos and were shocked that he used a pub in Oakhurst, the Laughing Corpse, run by Meegan, who they knew of (I had been looking for a way to bring Zeos back into the story and this worked really well).

The Wizard also asked about any McClintocks in the town and Troug found Brennan McClintock for them. The Wizard tried a ritual to put the ghost of Brennan's Aunt to rest, but they found out that she had a daughter, Evie, who owned a pub near Northrun (remember, I wanted them to head that way, but this gives them more reasons to choose that later. Additionally, when Brennan encountered his Aunts things, I emphasized how supportive and happy everyone seemed to be, this was further emphasized by the fact that anyone could receive any training they wanted, they were not locked into a class or profession any longer).

The group asked for several townspeople to return with them to Oakhurst to give testimonials about the new regime (the players, worried about enchantments felt this would give it time to wear off).

Oakhurst's Mayor Leng was stupefied at the news and asked the townsfolk from Spartansberg to stay for 3 days (the Mayor was frustrated at the news about the grain contract, but relied on the player's opinion that things seemed to be on the up and up, as frustrating as that was).

After several combat intense sessions, I wanted time to breath, roleplay and worlbuild. We got that. I created several leads based on player actions and helped get a better view of what was happening. Next session they intend to lead with investigating Meegan's connection to Zeos.

D&D 5th Edition: Training

I was reading a thread on RPG.Net about DnD 5th Edition House Rules and I noticed that one I've been using for awhile wasn't listed. So, I've decided to share it here. I don't assume it's groundbreaking, but it's one I like.

My House Rule is thus:
I will allow a character Trained in a Skill or Tool to automatically succeed on a Skill check. This mostly depends on the situation the character is in, usually there is no direct threat or there is an important clue I want the player to find. 

As an optional rule, if two characters are trained in a Skill that would help in their current situation, even if there is a looming threat (but not in combat), if they work together, they will automatically succeed, as well.

DMing: Random Encounters

I've been analyzing how I run games and figured that I'd share what I do and either help others or learn new techniques.

When I'm prepping random encounters, usually look a few monsters of various Challenge Ratings that are suitable for the environment the characters are dealing with (the 5E DMG is great for this) and have them set aside, out of the player's view.

I then roll for a random encounter usually every few hours of travel, about 1-2 hours of exploration, and once per short rest and 3-4 times per long rest. I do this by rolling a d6, with an encounter on a roll of 1 and sometimes on a roll of 2. If I roll a 6, not only does no encounter occur, but either the group finds a helpful resource or they are safe for this scene and I won't roll for the next random encounter. Any number in between, means nothing happens.

I like the d6 because I like the way it feels in my hand, silly I know, but it's true and its easy to quickly assign the significant numbers. It's the only rolls I make in secret, simply covering it from view with my hand. I'll admit, sometimes I roll simply to keep the player's on their toes.

I don't use random lists, simply because I'd rather have the stats for the threat available to me. Have 3 to 5 options is always nice and I generally have the strength of the encounter roughly formed, though I have problem adapting it on the fly.

If you have a way to handle random encounters, please post them!