Science Fiction, RPGs and other random hobbies

OK, I'm finally doing this. The second part of the summary for my first session of out of the abyss. I'm very sorry it took so long. Various things including Star Wars, Doctor Who, YouTube, Christmas, New Zealand, a computer that wouldn't turn on properly and laziness (mostly laziness) all slowed this summary down. But it's here now! You can read the first part of the summary here . After escaping captivity and eating a pacifist monk, the players and there nine other party members ventured into the Underdark. They were headed towards Gracklstrugh, city of blades, in the hopes that there would be a route to the surface there. I completely messed up with the travelling rules. Turns out, you're supposed to roll navigation daily to avoid getting lost. I just rolled for the random encounters. There were a few basic encounters, like a big ravine that they had to cross, and then there was an interesting one. A group of escaped human slaves, who had run away from Gr...

Just like premiers for TV shows are usually extra long (I think. I don’t watch that much TV), the beginning of my new campaign went for way over my normal 4 hours. It was probably closer to 7. Therefore, this… what exactly are these, anyway? Session reports? Recaps? Anyway, this one will be in 2 parts. This is part 1. Part 2 will be out in a few days (hopefully). I bought Out of the Abyss ages ago (2016), but only ran the first chapter. I ran it horribly. So, here we go! I began with my usual three players (the ones from the Planescape campaign). We had: ·          Robert as Mishann Duvahkin, a female Halfling Rogue (how original*) ·          Wayne as “Jake 😊 ”, a male Half-Orc Barbarian (also original**) and ·          Jason as Darrak Unqart, a male Hill Dwarf Wizard (slightly original***) *Sarcasm **Also sarcasm ***Not s...

My party went through the final session of my Fifth Age campaign the other day. You can read about the first two here and here , and see initial my thoughts on the conversion here . Also, I'm really sorry it took me so long to make this post. Now, here we go. We ran this session on Roll20, and it began with Cooper and Jeff receiving a transmission. As you may recall, the two heroes were last instructed to hunt down The Purger, a rogue synthetic that believed humanity was a virus that needed to be destroyed. Jeff and Cooper had been searching for a few months, but without luck. The transmission was from their employer, telling them that The Purger was assisting rebel synthetics on the distant planet of Charl. They landed there near a battlefield where the synthetics were pushing back a group of humans who were attempting to assault their base. Jeff and Cooper needed to steal a ship from the Synthetics so they could attack The Purger's ship, which was orbiting the planet. ...

I just played the second session of my mini sci-fi campaign (You can read about the first session here , and get the rules I'm using for it here . My review of those rules is here ). I'm really sorry it took so long, but lots of things were happening in my life that couldn't be avoided. I've set up with my players to do a weekly D&D game on Roll20 now, so I should be making posts like this one much more often. The plan is to do one more session of Fifth Age, then go through White Plume Mountain from Tales from the Yawning Portal . Now, onto the game! The players are: Cooper, a Synthetic (AI) Technician and Jeff, a genetically modified human operative (basically a rogue) The Players returned to the main planet in the system, to have a weeks downtime after escorting some miners and rescuing some people trapped on a space station under attack by a rogue Synthetic called The Purger.  After their downtime (Jeff won 60 credits on a slot machine!) we got i...

Sorry I didn't post last week! These stories are about my recent 5e Planescape campaign. I should note that most of the campaign was good. I am documenting the crazy bits here. Two of the three players were chaotic neutral. They played it like chaotic evil half the time. The other player was chaotic good. He generally played it like chaotic neutral. The players were: Primal Rage: A white dragonborn fighter (CG) Pain: A Blue Dragonborn cleric (CN) Ella:  An Elf Wizard (CN) In the first session we played, they ended up face to face with the main villain of the session and a couple of his thugs. They let him kidnap their employer (a nice old halfling lady) because they didn't like the amount they were being payed. A few sessions later, a wizard attacked them when they tried to steal from him after he invited them into his tower and agreed to make them dinner. He was under an enchantment at the time, and couldn't help himself. They killed him. A while later...

Hello! Thanks to the one and a half thousand people who viewed my last post. This blog is growing! Now, this post is my attempt to document all the crazy stuff that has happened in D&D games to me in the last year and a half. Let's begin with my first ever campaign: Campaign the First (AKA Why You Should Read the Rules) MY PLAYERS!!!! DO NOT READ THIS BIT!!!! IT MAY HAVE SPOILERS FOR AN UPCOMING CAMPAIGN!!!! I didn't know what I was doing! I hadn't read the adventure! I thought a damage roll and an attack roll were the same thing (It was 5e)! We were playing LMOP which, looking back, I see would have been a fantastic adventure if I had a little more experience. I don't remember everything that happened, but I'm pretty sure I tried to create an epic adventure, which ended with mind flayers awakening the Tarrasque and supercharging it with energy from the far realm. I had no idea whether this was a good idea or a bad idea, but I now realize it sounds pre...

Hello. This post is, unfortunately, not  a Dalek Photoshop post, which is easily the kind that gets the most views. This is an Internet D&D Questions post (the title kind of gives it away). Now, first up this time is  Stratusfear21 , asking what kind of books are required to start a D&D group. Answer:  You actually don't need to buy anything at first. You can get the basic rules for free, plus there are tons of free online dice rollers. If you want an adventure to run, you can either get something from the dmsguild  or get the 5e starter set , which has a truly incredible adventure (which I may write about soon here). As for the fallout question... Is fallout a book series or an video game? Because I have no clue. Next up, it's  OldFashionedLoverBoi , asking about a low level dragon fight. Answer: Well, you certainly shouldn't have anything more powerful then a young dragon. Maybe say that the dragon is wounded, and the PCs can deal ext...

I ran my first session of Fifth Age, the science fiction 5e setting , and it was pretty good. I was supposed to have 3 players, but 1 couldn't make it. That meant that the gunner had to be the pilot, and they had to install a system to act as co-pilot. The players were: "Cooper": A Synthetic (AI) Technician and Jeff, A genetically modified human operative (basically a rogue) We started off with the provided introductory adventure, and it went pretty well. They had to transport 50 clones to a mine so that they could replace a group of miners that were on strike. They spent all their money on repairs, and took off. They had to bypass an asteroid field about 5 days into the trip, but rolled really high and got through without a scratch. When they landed, the miners were turning into a mob, and attacked. After a few rounds of combat, they retreated to the ship and activated the laser turrets. The miners suddenly decided to leave shortly after that. Rud...

Hi, and sorry I haven't posted for a while. In this post I'll just be writing a bit about my soon to be campaign. It'll be another Planescape one, and I might end up writing about what happens in it here. Oh, and one more thing before I continue. This will have spoilers, so if you're going to be playing then GO AWAY! I TOLD YOU NOT TO READ THIS, SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! STOP READING RIGHT NOW! OK, now I've said that, we can continue. There will be three players; an Artificer, a Fighter and either a wizard or a sorcerer. My players tend to have a very "Kill everything" mindset, but I've talked to them, and I think They'll be fine this time. I think. There will be three main villains in this campaign. I might have it so that each player has a "personal" nemesis. I'm not sure yet. The three villains are the Cult of Tiamat (three guesses who they worship), The Necrotic Creators (they basically hijack souls and...

Alright, welcome back. This is my second time trawling the internet for questions to answer. And let me say, I enjoyed more then I thought I would. If I continue to enjoy it, that means I have a new hobby! 1. Tinker rogue weapon/tool ideas Wow, this one's really interesting. Let's see how many I can come up with 1) Alchemist's Fire: Not actually my own invention, but definitely belongs in the list. PHB pg148. 2) Smoke Stone: Little stone, fired from a slingshot. On contact, heavily obscures the area with smoke for several rounds. 3) Sticky Slime: Green slime in small glass jars. Throw at enemies and the glass will break, causing the acidic slime to stick to your target. 4) Endless String: Looks like a small ball of string. The more you unravel it, the more string appears.Able to hold much more weight then should be possible. 5) Skeleton Key: Magical key that opens all locks. Well, that wasn't as many as I'd thought :( . Oh well. 2. Planning a 5e Planesc...

OK. I decided, for something to do in my spare time (it does say hobbies in the title), to trawl the D&D sections of the internet and attempt to answer cool questions that were - in my opinion - never satisfactorily answered. 1. Where do the D&D 5e Books List Potential Curse Effects to Use for a Cursed Magical Item? Wow, I love this question. Well, not exactly this questions, but the fact that, now I realize it, there aren't many possible curse effects for magic items in 5e. Well, there are, but not many made for you. You have to come up with them yourself. The answer does a pretty good job of explaining it, but I want to challenge myself by coming up with at least 20 curse effects. Lets see what I can do! d20 Curse Effect 1 All mortals must succeed on a DC 14 wisdom saving throw to maintain any information about the item. 2 The item’s owner becomes attached to all their material possessions, and must succeed on a DC 12 wisd...