Scales of War: Adventurers On Ice!
In my short time of playing this edition, I've noticed a trend in WotC's published adventures. While most people I talk to seem to agree that encounters one, two, or even three levels higher than the PC's are pretty much the norm, given how resilient a party of heroes can be, the published modules tend to put a heavy coat of icing on that layer cake.
Sometimes literally!
-When Terrain Features Attack!
Really, when you get down to it, the concept of an encounter that takes place in extreme conditions is kind of cool. Imagine an epic swordfight, atop the ramparts of an old keep, rain pouring down and lightning flashing in the distance. Sounds awesome, doesn't it?
You can imagine the difficulties of fighting in the rain, as well as extreme wind and other factors. Characters using the environment in unusual ways, be it swinging from chandeliers to pulling off crazy Parkour-style acrobatics to out-maneuver their enemies.
Close Encounters of the Essential Kind! Week 5: Chain Reactions
To paraphrase Newton, 'for every action there is an equal, yet opposite, reaction'. Take Dungeons & Dragons, for example, in the game, your character enters an abandoned castle/dense forest/mysterious cave with his friends, looking for trouble (and loot!).
The Dungeonmaster presents you with a cunningly crafted encounter, using tricks, traps, puzzles, and yes, monsters, to oppose you. Sometimes the monsters are members of ordinary player races. More often, they are fantastic creatures with bizarre abilities.
Players and monsters encounter one another. The monster hits the player, the player goes “Oof! Medic!”. The Leader trivializes the damage as much as they can, and the player hits back.
Actions and reactions.
Now, before I get to my point, I do want to apologize for something that has been creeping into my blog posts lately. If you're going to review something, you need to stay objective. Unfortunately, I've been letting a few of my personal biases color my vision.
Close Encounters of the Essential Kind! Week 4
And finally, we come to the end of the chapter. The final encounter was technically harder than the last. There were four lizardfolk, another Dragonborn, and a recurring enemy*.
-Or so I gathered, I hadn't played in the previous chapter, so I had no real idea who this guy was.
The session opened with a skills challenge. Like most published skills challenges, it ended up being “everyone roll dice for a few minutes before we get to the next encounter.
Others have ranted about the way skills challenges are handled, and have more experience with them than I do, and I have very little to add. They always feel to me, however, like you're being punished somehow for decisions you made in character generation that have very little bearing on the game.
Consider this, in a month of Encounters, I've slogged through 4 fights, and one skills challenge. While you can build your character to be more well-rounded, taking points out of your combat attributes to buff up your skill checks, this is a small part of the game, and it really feels like you should focus on fulfilling the obligations of your role first, and worrying about skills second.
Session Recap: Chaos Scar and The Rejects
Remember what I said before about being ready to bring my A-game to the Chaos Scar?
Yeah. Anyways...
I seriously underestimated this adventure, and that's saying something. The Chaos Scar isn't just challenging, it occasionally borders on the ridiculous! I mean, yes, we did succeed, but it was pretty rough going.
The encounter begins as we scale down web-covered walls into the lair of the “ghost spiders”. Actually, we should have just used Benny's 100' of rope, but we failed to indicate our intentions clearly to Jeff.
(This isn't the first time something like this has happened; see my Scales of War report for details.)
Anyways, even as Jeff began to place the enemies, we ran into some trouble; a slime lurked among the webs, waiting to attack! It engulfed Sammo, Tim's Seeker, inflicting 9 acid damage, restraining him, and, of course, 5 ongoing acid.
Here we go again...
Heroes of Fate: Game Session Recap
- Image via Wikipedia
Scales of War being postponed this week, I was introduced to Tim's D&D Campaign (I have no idea what the official name of the campaign is!) early. Many thanks to Tim and Jeff for making this possible!
I do want to apologize in advance if I come off as a “rules lawyer”; I'm really trying to become a better player, and hopefully, a better DM, preparing for the day get behind the screen...not that I use a screen much.
There are times when it's ok to say “screw the rules, we're having fun!”, and that's never been a problem with me. I just like to know what the rules are, which puts me on firmer ground when deciding when to discard them.
And of course, I'm still prone to making mistakes. DnD as it stands now is a remarkably solid rules system, but there are still weak points and grey areas. We ran into a few of those tonight, but nothing worse than a mere stumbling block.
Gamma World Actual Play Podcast
Gamma World: Character Creation
If the podcast link isn't work, you can listen to the file here
Gamma World: Part 2
If the podcast link isn't work, you can listen to the file here
Gamma World: Part 3
If the podcast link isn't work, you can listen to the file here
Close Encounters of the Essential Kind! – Week 3
As promised, Tim was able to go to Encounters this week, and once again take over the Eladrin Mage, Berrian. I had made a Human Mage, Alaric, that I felt was superior to Berrian, but then it occurred to me; did the party really need two Controllers?
Well, technically, we already had two; the Ranger (Hunter) that Chuck was playing is billed as such. However, I haven't really seen much Control out of the build (more on this shortly).
Anyways, if one Mage makes Encounters too short, then two might be too much! So, just in case, I quickly threw together a second character. I haven't built a character this fast, well, ever! Even in my 1E/2E days, I carefully weighed every choice I had available. Most of my characters were Fighters, but once I allocated my stats, rolled for exceptional Strength (if I was so fortunate), decided on a race, selected weapon and non-weapon proficiencies, weapon specialization, Kit (the precursor to 4E's class builds), armor and equipment, name, and other miscellaneous things like height, weight, alignment, religion, and so on...well, let's just say I usually burned the better part of an hour!
Chaos Scar (Mis)Adventures: “Mud in the Water”
I'm going to open with a disclaimer; I, in no way, shape, or form, have any problems or issues with Jeff's Chaos Scar game, or his performance as a DM. I enjoy the game very much, and I, of all people, understand what a thankless job being a DM is.
You Sir, have my respect.
I do, however, have a few problems with how the Chaos Scar Adventure Path is designed. It's brutal, there's no doubt about it. I'm just going to hit some of the high points.
Close Encounters of the Essential Kind!
So this week I made my way to Peotone to play an Encounter. Quickly looking over the characters presented to me, I chose a Controller..in this case, Tim's Eladrin Wizard!
I mean, it's only fair, since he couldn't make it this week, right?
I got the feeling that there was important information left off the tiny card that served as the Wizard's character sheet (sadly, the poor fellow doesn't seem to have a name), but it was serviceable for the Encounter. Essentials has added a few fun toys to the class, such as Beguiling Strands.
Bonesnap’s Reflections: A Scales of War Adventure
When last we left our party, the Mighty Bonesnap had just been freed from an icy prison. At first the others were leery about the monstrous Bugbear, but after attempting to assist the group (after, of course, freeing himself), sharing with them a small cache of treasure, and generally claiming to be more useful to our heroes alive than dead, the party had a new Rogue.
Or did they?
As I've previously mentioned, Bonesnap was designed to be more tank support/controller than striker. With a group that has two Defenders (well, one pure Defender and a Hybrid), marking and locking down a single enemy with to-hit penalties didn't seem as useful.
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