DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

I did the math, I’ve personally been playing Dungeons and Dragons, the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game,  for almost exactly 25 years. Half of its lifetime. If we peek back 25 years ago the game was owned by the company TSR and the version I was first introduced to was AD&D 2^nd Edition, books owned by my friend’s father. We made a mess of it, I’m certain, but I fell in love immediately.

From there I watched Wizards of the Coast take the reins, and have played through the Third, Fourth, and now Fifth iterations of the game. Loving every edition for its own reasons. 3.X because it felt like the first edition that was “mine” not an inherited one from an older generation. I loved the supplement glut, especially the Complete line of books like Complete Warrior, or Complete Arcane. 3.X Prestige Classes were an absolute treasure that I don’t feel we have ever seen the like of again.

4^th Edition was, and is, better than few at the time ever gave it credit for and remains the only edition I’d ever go backwards to play. They tried something wildly different and it honestly worked, under any other name than D&D it would have been lauded. Sadly I always felt like the game started to break down under the weight of character and monster options when levels got truly high (many game nights became one long fight as players and DMs alike took way too long to figure out what to do under the many many options available!).

5^th Edition remains the amalgamation edition, or so I call it. A little dash of everything that has worked over the past 50 years. It is the most approachable edition of the game and that makes me happy as I have definitely entered an era where I am introducing more and more to this game than ever before.

I have too many stories over the years from playing and running games to truly get into, maybe another post could see me getting longer in the tooth on this subject. For now though I want to share what the good folks at WotC sent me regarding what this year will look like for the 50^th celebration of the game!

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Out of a small cobbler’s home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 1974, generations of dreamers and adventure-seekers were inspired with the publication of the first version of Dungeons & Dragons. The tiny black text and line drawings printed on those first pamphlets have grown into beautifully illustrated tomes, meticulously crafted physical artifacts, and comprehensive digitals tools all designed to enhance the core of D&D: Getting together to tell fantastic stories with friends and family. Now stewards of that legacy of imaginative play, Wizards of the Coast is poised to celebrate five decades of fantasy roleplaying in 2024 by engaging with fans at events around the world and offering games, entertainment, and products informed by the history of D&D to inspire generations to come.

Raise a twenty-sided die and Play Your Way!

“D&D has a rich history, an exciting present, and a great future,” said Kyle Brink, Executive Producer of the team making D&D at Wizards of the Coast. “This year we’ll be celebrating all three with the 50^th Anniversary of the first publication of Dungeons & Dragons. We’ll take you through the making of the game, bring some of the classic adventures to today’s play, visit the most iconic settings in the D&D multiverse, and kick off the future of the game with the new 2024 core rulebooks that are the heart of the game. We’ve been building up to this for a while now. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The year-long celebration kicks off in March 2024, when fans all over the world will be able to play the same adventure together inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons creators’ love of tournament-style play. Fans can experience an excerpt from an upcoming release, “Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth,” in game stores, at community centers, libraries, conventions like Gary Con and PAX East, on kitchen tables and painted scenery, in video chat rooms, and on D&D Beyond. Dungeon Masters will be available wherever fans want to play.

The D&D team has an exciting lineup of licensed consumer products with best-in-class partners, giving fans plenty of opportunity to show off their love of the game. There will be footwear and apparel from Converse, an official LEGO(tm) IDEAS building set complete with minifigures, and delicious treats suitable for snacking around the gaming table from Pop-Tarts.

But that’s just the start. 2024 will celebrate D&D with new ways to improve immersion with a 3D virtual tabletop and remove barriers to play through new features on D&D Beyond. D&D will be traveling to more shows and conventions in 2024 to celebrate along with fans.

The team has a lot up the sleeve of its Robe of Scintillating Colors that’s not quite ready to reveal, but Wizards of the Coast is excited to announce the following new products coming in 2024:

Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Adventure Campaign

For characters of levels 10-20

A high-stakes adventure in which the fate of the entire multiverse hangs in the balance. The heroes begin in the Forgotten Realms and travel to Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk as they race to save existence from obliteration by the notorious lich Vecna who is weaving a ritual to eliminate good, obliterate the gods, and subjugate all worlds.

Release Date: May 21, 2024

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977

History of D&D

The ultimate book showcasing D&D’s inception, including Gary Gygax’s never-before-seen first draft of D&D written in 1973, a curated collection of published fanzine and magazine articles contribute to D&D’s origin story. Each document is introduced, described, and woven into the story by one of the game’s foremost historians, Jon Peterson.

Release Date: June 18, 2024

Quests from the Infinite Staircase

Adventure Anthology

For character levels 1 to 13

This anthology weaves together six classic DUNGEONS & DRAGONS adventures while updating them for the game’s fifth edition. The Infinite Staircase holds doors leading to fantastic realms. It’s home to the noble genie Nafas, who hears wishes made throughout the multiverse and recruits heroes to fulfill them.

Release Date: July 16, 2024

Player’s Handbook (2024)

Player resource

Take your game to the next level with the revised 2024 Player’s Handbook. More player options, enhanced organization, and engaging additions to the fifth edition rules, make this a must have for your next Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Release Date: September 17, 2024

Dungeon Master’s Guide (2024)

DM resource

It’s never been easier to become the Dungeon Master than with the revised 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. Learn the craft from the experts in a cleverly crafted and accessible approach to running your own game. With more tools than ever before, becoming the master of your own multiverse will be a snap.

Release Date: November 12, 2024

Monster Manual (2025)

DM Resource

The revised 2025 Monster Manual brings you the greatest selection of foes to face off with your player’s characters than ever assembled in the history of the game. More options at all levels of play means more ways to provide the challenges that will keep them coming back to the table again and again.

Release Date: February 18, 2025

More information about these products will be coming as their release date approaches. Go to dndbeyond.com for the latest information and look for D&D at your local game store or convention. Wizards can’t wait to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of D&D with fans in 2024!

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Definitely an exciting initial announcement with more to come I’m sure. Not to get too into the weeds on the success of D&D but it may behoove Hasbro to keep looking at even more engagement with the property. Their yearly earnings didn’t look so hot with one exception, a little thing turning 50 this year. Let’s make it a fun one shall we? I may even try to pop into GenCon again, it has been a while!

-Melvs

Warmachine February Releases for Orgoth and Khymeara Rules Drop

Those of us who have embraced the fourth iteration of Privateer Press’ tabletop skirmishes game Warmachine, were in for a treat this week as the rules for the three new model kits, set for release in February, hit the Warmachine app. Two forces are enjoying the February releases, the Orgoth and Khymaera factions. Let’s look at the full list.

ORGOTH

First we see a new Cadre for the Orgoth, the Cursebound. The Orgoth Cadre offers up a total of eight models, led by a new Cursebound Warcaster Oriax, the Soul Slaver. In addition to the new caster those who purchase the kit will receive a character solo, Halexus, The Warlord, a Ravener heavy Warbeast(‘jack?), a Grhotten Keeper solo, a Grhotten Champion solo, and a three-member unit of Gnashers, the shock troopers of the Cursebound. MSRP is $109.99

KHYMEARA

The Shadowflame Shard Army Expansion is built around a new Warlock Nyxyan, The Stygian Coil. It also features three new solos Wraithwing Paragon, Spinner, and character solo Ryvyn, The Onyx Rampant. There will also be two three model units included, the Talon Lashers and the Wyrmspine Cinderbacks. MSRP is $129.99.

The Shadowflame Shard’s fun doesn’t stop at the army expansion though, a third kit will be available separately to users of this force. The character Warbeast Skylla, The Abyssal Fury. MSRP $12.99

I’ll start with the Khymeara additions. This is my first time diving into this new faction for MKIV, the official title for the fourth iteration of this game, these flesh-crafted dragonkin are new, living weapons, that now march across the surface world. This faction appears to be a mobile powerhouse. Nearly every unit and solo has some form additional movement associated with their abilities. Acrobatics, Side Step, Apparition, Reposition, it’s all there in the abilities. The Warlocks certainly have ways to help cohorts, units, and solos move about the board too.

The February additions to this force continue the theme. Nyxyan 1 comes with Apparition herself and the spell Shadow Step and Admonition for further movement options. She packs a Feat that will mesh very well with the warrior models in the force giving them all the benefit of her Prey ability, which moves to whatever target you fancy upon popping the feat. The Talon Lashers already have Gang to work with so adding Prey to a potential target will be quite damaging (and with 3” range on their chain blades and 6” of movement the potential victim list grows). The Wyrmspine Cinderbacks add some additional range to the Shadowflame unit list that focus on limiting movement of foes rather than being mobile themselves. Some choking ash from their fire blast can keep living warrior models from running and charging.

The Spinner solo comes packed with some utility. AOE effects like Smoke Bomb throws around cloud effects, and it even has an Acid Bomb with a 2” AOE but I think many will appreciate the Spinner’s ability to heal and, even more so, use Grim Return to bring destroyed grunts back to the field. On the other side of solos the Wraithwing Paragon is a simple little mechanodragon, the thing is just a brute, plain and simple. Cleave, Hyper-Aggressive, Critical Decapitation and speed 7 with a 2” range on its POW 15 Great Sword make it a dicey combatant. Rounding out the solos is the character solo Ryvyn 1. Ryvyn take being mobile to heart with Prowl, Reposition 3”, and especially Jump. Ryvyn can get in the mix quickly with a POW 14 spear as a weapon master and Thresher, plus using Mortal Fear makes it tough to pile damage onto that ARM 17.

The additional kit for the Shadowflame is Skylla 1. Skylla is essentially a beefed up Hydrix from what I can see, maintaining that useful d3 Regeneration but also packs Excessive Healing which, when used, grants Rapid Healing so the beast can remove d3 damage points every time it is damaged by an enemy attack, this could make for some staying power if the dice land in your favor. Three heads make for a lot of attacks and you can choose between smaller head options that can either focus on armor piercing or debuffs to enemy DEF. A crazy little addition makes both the melee and ranged attack from the central head grant Transfiguration, removing enemies boxed from play and returning your own lost Grunts to the action.

Fully unpaid endorsement but MM is the GOAT

I’m a late addition to MKIV. Having spent the bulk of my time playing in MKIII, and building some size-able Ret and Grymkin lists, I was a bit hesitant to move on. In fact I’ll fall on my sword here and reveal I’ve only played one skirmish under the new ruleset using just a 35 point Grymkin Prime Legacy force to take the field. I’m liking what I see though, and had the fortune to be in the right place at the right time at my local FLGS branch of Miniature Market. They had been provided a number of model kits to use with their customers in order to ramp up interest in the game. Now sadly, Miniature Market has stop selling physical models for Warmachine in their brick and mortar buildings (although they are still my go to for online purchases), and I was lamenting that to the store employees one evening which led them to recall their supply of these kits. I ended up walking away with a number of them to use and hand around to my friends who all still enjoy the game.

At last we get to the point of this little side story. I found myself interested in one of the new forces, the Orgoth Sea Raiders to be specific. Miniature Market did well handing me some kits because I went right back onto the website and purchased the Orgoth Sea Raiders Core Army Starter, a 50 point force to get you moving. Now with that in hand and the items handed out to me I’m ready to truly dive into MKIV! So… suffice it to say the February release of the Orgoth Cadre has me very interested.

It’s a start right? Probably needs that fancy new Cadre though…

Oriax 1 brings souls into the equation and a penchant for both Warjacks and Warbeasts (like the new Ravener addition). The souls Oriax gains through either the killing of living models in his control range or from his feat, Howl of the Abyss which grants d3+2 soul tokens, allow for a number of useful tricks. Gate of the Worlds spends soul tokens to move a friendly around, Soul Phase grants Incorporeal, and Vengeful Spirits allows Oriax to slam 3 focus points down on friendly cohorts for merely the cost of a soul.

Howl of the Abyss has the added effect of adding Shadow Bind to the Melee weapons of friendly Cohorts. Oriax’s spell list leans heavily toward debuffs, subtracting ARM, SPD, or even using Star-Crossed to add an additional damage die to enemy models in Oriax’s control range only to have them then drop the highest number rolled. Since my initial grab in this faction focused on Kishtaar, and her ranged prowess, it might be fun to grab up this Cadre just to add a little melee option to my group.

Oriax has decided to bring a curse bound Warbeast into the fray with him. The Ravener is melee powerhouse that can be treated like a Warjack allowing focus to be placed on it. This is an interesting addition to Warmachine and it is noted in the rules on the app that not everything related to Orgoth Warcasters controlling Warbeasts is finalized yet. The Ravener has Berserk so let him do his stuff away from your own. It cannot be targeted by spells, which is good and bad I suppose. It packs three melee attacks, a Gore attack with Beat Back as an option, A Mechano Claw with man Catcher, and its main weapon the Fell Cleaver. Fell Cleaver is a nasty little POW 16 attack with Weapon Master in tow.

Berserk is a common theme among the Curse Bound it seems. Two of the new solos pack the ability (and our new unit, but more on that later) the Grhotten Champion and the new character solo Halexus the Warlord. The Grhotten Champion seems like a mini me of the Ravener honestly, though 7 points cheaper. The Champion also has a Fell Blade with Weapon Master and POW 16 but they get to add Thresher, allowing them to attack anyone within reach. Oddly the Champion’s Fell Blade has an addition inch of reach that the Ravener doesn’t enjoy allowing for an even deeper pool of targets for Thresher. The Champion can heal with Blood Drinker (boasting a max health at 14), has Blade Shield to beat back pesky ranged attacks, Side Step and the same Spell Ward. I’ll be frank, 5 points seems pretty cheap for this guy, field allowance is limited to two though. Oh, and he’s tough! Grhotten Keeper seems a little tame when compared to the Champion, but comes with some utility. Critical Decapitation on its Fell Axe makes for some potential for big damage but a shield makes for solid ARM and the ability to use Shield Guard make this solo more defensive minded. Still likes to get in the mix with Primal Rage marching it up the field though.

Back to Halexus the Warlord. He’s Unstoppable, Tough, and loves souls. In fact, every soul up to his max of three adds more ARM and he can use those souls to take extra attacks or negate spells. If at any time he doesn’t feel like he wants them any more he can use a special action to transfer them, say to someone like Oriax. His weapon Deathgorger should make collecting souls easy enough with Weapon Master in tow. Shame his POW on that is only 14 but he can be beefed up by spells unlike the other solos here.

Rounding it all out are the Gnashers unit. A three grunt unit with Berserk, Blood Drinker and Spell Ward they fit right in with the Grhottens and Raveners of the world. They duel wield POW 13 Fell Weapons that are, of course, equipped with Weapon Master. They are Tough and also have Advanced Deployment and Ambush allowing for some tricky business with placement.

Looking back across these two factions there’s a lot to love, and I’m sure some tweaks will come down once the community gets a look at these rules. I was very hesitant about MKIV but Privateer Press is winning me over, these new factions maintain a nice connection to previous editions of the game while introducing interesting new things, not just new things for the sake of a changing edition. I love seeing something like Ravener popping up, a weird Warjack/Warbeast mix, and hope to see more of that, especially for Orgoth. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my rundown and I hope I can get my hands on some of this to unbox and discuss in February. Feel free to let me have it in the comments if you feel I missed something great about any of these models (or if you think I’m hyping some up too much), I’d love to hear from you!

-Melv

All illustrations are copyright 2001–2024 Privateer Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks contained herein including Privateer Press®, Iron Kingdoms®, WARMACHINE®, Cygnar®, Khador®, Orgoth®, Khymaera®, warcaster®, warjack®, Dusk®, and their logos are property of Privateer Press, Inc.

REVIVIFICATION!

Welcome back to the Geekery everyone! I, for one, am very excited to be behind the keyboard again. It’s hard to believe it’s been four years, almost to the day, since I last spoke to you all from the pages of this blog. A lot has changed for me during that time, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard. However, I deviated from this beloved hobby of mine only in the sense that I stopped writing about it. I never stopped playing. In the last four years I played games every bit as much. I started board game days at my church, played in a few TTRPGs, attended Geekway to the West every year it was available, and really developed and honed my skills playing Warmachine…that is, until the fourth iteration of their game hit and threw me off massively (something I’m sure I’ll delve deeper into as this blog continues to develop).

My son teaches Splendor at my church

Suffice it to say, I never stopped playing. I did however, phase out of the day to day loop of just what is going on in the gaming community. I’ve lost touch with all but a few folks I used to interact with almost daily about these beloved passions of ours, and as much as I’m excited to be writing again, I’m equally thrilled to catch up with old friends and hopefully make some new ones out of the newer generations of content creators and remarkers out there.

I’m not really sure where I expect this blog to go this time around, I certainly feel like I caught lightning in a bottle last time and can’t necessarily hope for the same going forward but honestly, I started this for fun in the beginning and that’s why I’m coming back. I’d love to do reviews of content again, always enjoyed reviewing something as big as a new Wizards of the Coast release or Warmachine model but also loved getting the word out there about people’s Kickstarter dreams.

I imagine I’ll weigh in on issues surrounding this niche arena of life, like the crazy dynamic of Dungeons and Dragons somehow having one of the best years in 2023 as far as pop culture recognition goes only to have Hasbro shoot that newfound goodwill in the back with a huge layoff of the very people who helped bring that to life! I’m not certain how many follow me (well honestly who even does follow me at the moment?) for my Warmachine commentary, but I’m definitely going to get into Mk4, Privateer Press’ newest iteration of the game. A ruleset that’s been around the better part of this year and crazily enough I only played my first game under the new rules this week!

One avenue I’d love to explore again would be helping our next generation learn more about tabletop gaming. Covid didn’t just shutter this blog of mine, it halted my work with my local library system where I was introducing preteens – teens to Tabletop RPGs. A little club at first with only two attendees this quickly grew to a regular showing of over 20 kids and spread to many other branches in the region. I’ve heard that it did survive in a way and became self sufficient so I moved on, but if possible I plan to try and either reconnect with the library and help out or, find a new way to bring in fresh eyes and dice rolls to the community.

This year I’ve introduced my kids to Dungeons and Dragons fully with a Campaign set in Faerun! It started as a homebrew and I’ve since driven it straight into Princes of The Apocalypse.

While I was away a Podcast group started by some of my friends from my hometown claimed me for a few years where I recorded their Friday Flyover View episodes. If you want to know more about local politics in the middle of America they are honestly an incredible resource. Check them out at The Heartland Collective.

I’ve always loved Video Games as well, even if I don’t write about them much. Here’s a few pics. I loved playing as Blanche when my buddies and I played our Golden Girls themed run through of Solasta. Also, I must admit, my friends and I run an Xbox based Minecraft realm where I take on ridiculous tasks like creating an inverted pyramid all the way to bedrock. This task…it took over a year folks!

Eberron: Rising from the Last War

I’m late to the review game here folks, but I’d never forget to do a write up on my favorite Campaign Setting for Dungeons and Dragons. Eberron!

If you want to get my thoughts right out front, Eberron: Rising from the Last War is great. Coming in at 320 pages it is very meaty, and long on assistance for the Dungeon Master. Has some excellent tidbits for players too. It’s pretty much what I expect to see from an Eberron Campaign setting book. We’ve seen this before in two previous editions of D&D. This setting in particular always does a great job of introducing the world, without getting long winded. You get the perfect bare bones rundown, and are then handed the tools necessary to run with it. That’s the book in a nutshell. If you want to run games in this Campaign Setting, grab this book and you’ll have all the setup you will likely ever need.

Now, let’s flesh this out!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t start with a toast to the alternate cover art. It is one of my favorites since they started down this road of providing such a thing. If you have a choice between the standard cover and the alternate it is really a no-brainer here. Vance Kelly knocked it out of the park. A perfect companion to this weird little pulpy, noir, high fantasy, steampunk world. Does everything you need to set the tone. As for the standard cover (pictured above) I’m not a huge fan, simply because it highlights an area of the world setting I never really play around in, personally I preferred the working cover art, which does make an appearance in the book at least.

Original cover art

The first part of the book spends some needed time introducing players to the basics of Eberron. The background of the world, and what to expect about play style. Eberron has always been set almost immediately after a shaky peace has been negotiated between countries that have been at war for a generation. This sets up a very conflicted world that really allows a DM to play around. With this many groups vying to find their place in a newfound world you can go in a myriad of directions. The best thing about how this has always been handled, and continues to be handled, is that there is very little hand holding for the DM. You get the info you need to create, but aren’t told specifically which direction to go with it. We don’t even get to know what caused the major cataclysm that instigated the world to sit up and force a peace! That’s on you to explore. It can make for a somewhat advanced treatment for a DM on where to go, some may need a little more help than that, but I have always appreciated the freedom to stretch my imagination some.

Chapter One kicks off some character creation stuff, and this is where player characters will be spending most of their time. This isn’t a tidbit chunk added to appease folks looking for a few new character options, here we get a solid rundown of the changes you’ll find for races of old, and four whole new races to look at.

• Changelings – Descended from doppelgangers these individuals can change appearances with ease. Often choosing a static humanoid form to be their day to day appearance because their natural form typically earns them nothing but mistrust. 
• Kalashtar – Tough to describe but they are essentially the blending of humans and psychic spirits. Certainly new type of race to play around with. In fact I’m reminded that I’ve never done much with them personally. Maybe that should change. 
• Shifters – Descended from Lychanthropes, can take on bestial characteristics in order to enhance their natural abilities.
• Warforged – Metallic constructs given sentience for the purposes of war. Where they fit in during a peace time their race has never encountered is up to the player. One of my personal favorite additions.

We are also given a new class to play with known as the Artificer. This is a classic Eberron class that approaches magic with a mixture of tech, often giving a steampunk feel to the style. The Artificer can currently advance in their roles as Alchemists, who delve into potions and other mixtures, Artillerists, that essentially bring a magical turret to the battlemat, or Battle Smiths who function almost like a combat medic. Overall the Artificer is very setting appropriate, but certainly a class for players who have a bit of experience under their belt. There seems to be a lot going on with this class and you’ll want to be prepped.

Another great element to the character creation chapter is the addition of Dragonmarks, which have always been a staple of Eberron, namely I like how they are implemented in 5e. In fact this is probably my favorite implementation to date. In 5e, choosing to take on a Dragonmark replaces your chosen racial/subracial traits. It basically pot commits you to the choice. Really forces a PC’s hand to make use of the role-play aspects of their chosen Dragonmarked house. Definitely a go-to for someone wanting to try something a little different that is setting unique.

Chapter Two delves into Khorvaire, the core of the Eberron world. Here we are informed on the major countries, organizations, faiths, etc. of the lands where the bulk of the action seems to take place in Eberron. At the center of this land mass lies the ever elusive, and highly dangerous, Mournland. The Mournland used to be the country of Cyre until a magical cataclysm turned it into a wasteland of horrific monstrosities and magical hazards. This destruction helped force the uneasy peace that keeps the other powers at be in check, no one wants such a thing to happen in their own backyard.

Anyone familiar with Eberron will recognize this iconic artwork.

Chapter Three highlights just one city located on the continent of Khorvaire. What can be so special about the city of Sharn that it gets a chapter all its own? Just to whet your appetite, the city is so massive it must be contained via magic to support it’s growth upwards rather than out. The city of Sharn is aptly referred to as the City of Towers for this reason. If you’re looking for the noir aspects claimed by lovers of this campaign setting here is where you might want to set down some roots. Shadows loom lengthy in a city where those above you get richer as the layers get laid. Mysteries abound around every corner as groups like the Boromar Clan operate like gangsters, or the Tyrants utilize Changelings for information dealing. I’ve personally used Sharn frequently for some excellent adventures. Truly a unique city for tabletop rpgs. The book gives some great detail on districts and organizations. Just enough for you to work with as usual.

Chapter 4 is the Dungeon Master’s toolbox essentially. Lots of great embellishment of villainous groups, and some morally gray ones at that. With the exception of perhaps the Emerald Claw most groups aren’t outright evil, they just find themselves at odds with what many would consider “good” when they start looking out for themselves. You’ll find details of places beyond Khorvaire here, some good maps, travel considerations, and more. Plus, lots and lots of random roll tables to help pad some stuff out. Rounding thing out, we are gifted with a nice little adventure, titled Forgotten Relics, for a DM to either use or peruse in order to get an idea of what an adventure in this setting might look like. Looks to be a one shot that could last two or three sessions.

Chapter 5 focuses on treasure specific to Eberron. Everything here is something you’d find unique to such a world. It isn’t the highlight chapter of the book for me but it is a nice added touch. With over 20 new magic items to dole out it will be easy to nudge one of these items out for the players.

Chapter 6 is a 40 page highlight of some of the NPCs and foes you might run into in this world. I’m always a fan of more baddies to throw at my players, especially ones fresh to a setting so they might not be privy to all the information about the beast. I mean, we need to know what lurks in the Mournland right, or the jungles of Xen’Drik? If the players are foolis…I mean brave enough to try and muck about in such places, I need to be prepared!

My opening remarks stand. Eberron: Rising from the Last War is a gem. One of the best additions to this particular edition’s line of books. If future Campaign Setting source books follow suit we are looking at some great content. It is doubly fun because I could see this book working for the player and the Dungeon Master equally (with a slight edge to the DM, which is to be expected). Quality books or no, the line of large campaign books we’ve seen of late are typically just a DM’s tool with little to offer the players. Here we have some added content that a player character will enjoy. Would have loved to see such a thing for Ravenloft rather than the adventure we received honestly, not that it was a bad adventure just left a lot of opportunity on the table.

I feel like Eberron: Rising from the Last War is a must have.

-Melvs 

P.S. If you’re looking for more Eberron lore to pad your adventures I’d suggest looking into some of the books from previous editions. One of the great things about never advancing the timeline for the setting is that those source books hold up. I personally love Sharn: City of Towers and Five Nations the most. Also, we are starting to see a full crop of Eberron support on DMs Guild (including the pdfs of the two books I mentioned above).

 

 

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

Baldur’s Gate. Just hearing the name of this iconic fantasy locale conjures the allure of adventure for so many who have spent time with the Forgotten Realms over the years. It is certainly fitting that this sprawling tale begins in the famed city. Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus starts innocently enough with the players simply aiding the city in ridding itself of some typical bad actors, but by the time events come to a head they find themselves far from home, and more powerful than they could have dreamed. How will they fare against the denizens of the first layer of the Nine Hells itself!?

Cover imagery by Tyler Jacobson shows the symbol of Bhaal in all its splendor with Zariel leading the charge.

Descent into Avernus (DiA) really is sprawling, certainly a roll back to campaign style printings that launched the supplements stylings of 5e. The adventure paths your characters will take in this book start things off at level 1 and should take them all the way to 13 before things are said and done. Going from street level goons in Baldur’s Gate to the big bads of the Nine Hells. A very satisfying arc. Lots of interesting choices to be made as well because there’s more than one way to skin a Tressym.

The alt cover by Hydro74 features Bhaal’s flame-ringed skull.

The book is almost exclusively geared towards the Dungeon Master, as one would assume with a Campaign of this length. The adventure itself is contained in the first 154 pages of the book. I won’t spoil the story for you, but I find the progression from street level to literal pits of Hell to be natural and well executed. Sometimes adventures this grand can feel forced, but this plays out like one would expect one of the better book series written in Fearun to play out. Normal men and women pushed more and more into fantastic destinies.

 

Before running the story the DM will want to delve into the Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer chapter so they can freshen up their knowledge base on this dicey Sword Coast town. Here you have fifty pages of details on governance , economy, the citizenry, and all the dangers your players may face. The city is splayed out over the pages in as much detail as you will likely ever need for this campaign and beyond. Almost worth the price of admission for this piece of the book alone if you just wanted background on another Forgotten Realms locale.

Lastly for the DM we have the appendixes. These cover some of the standard fare like new creatures and magic items that play right into this campaign arc but there are a few unique ones. Appendix A highlights something spoken of often in D&D but rarely given any kind of rules, a deal with a devil. I had a lot of fun reading this section, there is some frightening imagery surrounding these nefarious pacts, I particularly liked the descriptions of how a contract my visually be formed, like kissing a lemur tattooed with infernal runes marking the contract for example! Other appendixes go into infernal war machines, a menu written in infernal, and even some infernal script to play around with.

Player Characters aren’t fully bereft of options in this book, despite the main focus being on how to help a Dungeon Master run the adventure. In the Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer section the players will find character backgrounds, old ones given a bit of flare specific to the city and a new one called “Faceless” which focuses on characters who might don a disguise to hide who they really are as they take on the scum of villainry in the city! Following backgrounds there is a section unique to this adventure where characters are encouraged to roll randomly for a Dark Secret to add to their character’s history. Also, remember those Infernal War machines I kindof glossed over above? Well, they are seriously awesome and I hope all PCs get a chance to muck about in them. Mad Max eat your heart out (or maybe a demon and or devil will, who knows).

The team at Wizards of the Coast, with story consultants Joe Manganiello and Jim Zub, have cobbled together an excellent campaign here. Dungeon Masters wanting to run an epic game will certainly find what they need to do so. From the adventure itself to ways to bring that adventure to life with details of Baldur’s Gate and other lore, WotC has made it easy for a DM to bring game night to life for their players. Admittedly players don’t get much here in the way of concrete additions to the character sheet, but there are plenty of details included in the lore to help flesh them out. I find myself easily recommending this book for your table.

-Melvin

Along with these two excellent books I received some campaign specific dice and information cards on devils and demons, and an expansion pack for Dungeon Mayhem!

 

 

 

Salvage Operation Rewrite: A Ghosts of Saltmarsh Tale

Ghosts of Saltmarsh dropped at a very convenient time in my household. Summer’s approach means a lot of time opening up for my family. This meant I could actually run some Dungeons and Dragons for a change! Wizards of the Coast sent me a review copy of Ghosts, but I didn’t receive it until fairly late in June so at this point I’m fairly certain if you wanted a review of the entire book, you’ve gotten it elsewhere by now. So instead I’ve decided to focus on one adventure in the book, and the many changes I invoked before putting it in front of my players.

*WARNING* this post will contain spoilers for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure Salvage Operation. This is mostly for Dungeon Masters looking to run the adventure a little different than as written.

Salvage Operation, built for a party of 4th level or higher, starts with a great hook, years ago a local lord lost a boat with important documents aboard that essentially prove up most of his wealth. He hasn’t been fairing so well since. However, recently it has been reported that a ghost ship was spotted floating in the open sea five or so days out from Saltmarsh’s harbor. It has also been reported to bear the name of the very ship our lord lost at sea many years ago. In comes your adventurers. They are tasked with sailing out to sea, boarding this floating wreck, and retrieving the lord’s lost paperwork. Should be easy enough yeah?..

Obviously it won’t be or else where is the adventure eh? I loved the concept of this adventure and felt like it would set a great starting tone for my group. Especially since I was starting them at 4th level to make up for the last time we played for a while before having to call it quits. It does a great job of introducing the sea into the mix, and that was something everyone was craving. My only issue with the adventure? Almost none of the encounters on the ghost ship were themed in a manner befitting an adventure on the open seas.

Behold! The ghost ship “Emperor of the Waves”!

I’ll link my excel doc that has the mock up for these floor plans below. I just cut them out and glue them to foam board typically.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the original author’s concept, a mad half-orc druid has launched the ship off their original island seeking new ground to lay down stakes, I loved that skeleton of an idea. My changes were all wrapped up in who that druid was, and the types of critters he commanded. As written the half-orc druid reveres Lolth, and boy does it show. You have a creepy scene where spiders of all ilk roam over this ship. Swarms, Ettercaps, Giant Spiders, and Giant Wolf Spiders, the ship is lousy with them. It’s deeply disturbing, and haunting. I wanted things to be a little more nautical though so here are a few changes I made.

Spiders became crabs…and a few giant toads

I really liked the idea of the spiders crawling over everything, and wanted to keep that creepy vibe, so pretty much every instance of a spider became either swarms of crabs, giant crabs. These guys didn’t always pack the same kind of punch though so I also added a few Giant toads. Giant toads are great fun by the way, bite and swallow makes for some frightening encounters for players.

Webbing morphed into writhing seaweed

The spiders brought a ton of webbing, and that added some nice aesthetics I wanted to keep. For me it wasn’t a huge stretch to believe that our new ocean based druid (more on him in a bit) might use seaweed to help keep this wreck afloat by wrapping itself around broken timbers and clogging holes in the boat. The players were very uneasy around this slimy stuff. Plus it was easy to add difficult terrain where I needed. Slippery stuff!

Introduction to my Thanoi Druid, and his polar bear friend

I’m not always a fan of grabbing stuff from unofficial D&D sources but I was really into these Thanoi guys when I came across them. Essentially they are walrus people. Pretty barbaric types typically, but it seemed like a lot of fun slapping one in this adventure as our druid who revered Umberlee, The Bitch Queen herself, instead of Lolth. Plus I gave him a polar bear animal companion rather than the Phase Spider the original guy had. For this I had a fun pairing the Druid NPC stat block with the Thanoi one, cutting spells that just don’t thematically work as well and adding new ones like Ice Knife, and adjusting flaming sphere to be a ball of ice instead!

Lastly, that fight in the hold

In the original adventure the cargo hold, where the thing the players want resides, contains some ghasts that were originally sailors on the ship. This works fine but I went with something new here as well. In my narrative our Thanoi trapped a Sea Lion (not the cuddly type) below deck with the intention of trying to tame it for his purposes but has so far been less than successful.

This made for a suitable last fight for the players.

All of these changes made for some fantastic fun with the group. I have a lot of pretty cool resources generated from this as well. I’m happy to share them with you too!

Floor Plan for “Emperor of the Waves” – Boat QuarterDeck

Floor Plan for “Emperor of the Waves” – Boat Main Deck

Floor Plan for “Emperor of the Waves” – Boat Lower Deck

Floor Plan for “Emperor of the Waves” – Boat Cargo

MONSTERS – Salvage Operation

Krell – Thanoi Druid

-Melvs

P.S. Ghosts of Saltmarsh, on the whole, is an excellent book for DMs who want to add some coastal flair to their campaigns. If you’re looking to add things like boats, sea baddies, pirates, etc. into your games I’d highly tout this reference manual as a great accessory. 

The Fellowship is Broken

“Then it has all been in vain, the Fellowship has failed… Not if we hold true to each other.” – Gimli and Aragorn, LotR

It was truly an honor to be a part of this ride.

Hail to all those out there in the Geekery! I return from a long time absent with some bittersweet news. The RPG Academy Network, of which I was proudly a member, has disbanded after years of work in the community promoting gaming to the masses with information, fun, and creative works. It was certainly a grand experiment, one that I know forged a myriad of new friendships and helped highlight some truly creative producers of content. I look back fondly over the years I was actively involved and am ever thankful for the grace in which I remained under banner during the years I slipped away into a less involved state.

So what does this mean for the numerous podcasters, bloggers, and content creators involved? We shall carry on as we will, producing great stuff for our many followers. We will simply be doing so under our own steam for a time, though I imagine help will still be found from the friendships we have crafted if needed, it will just be a less sophisticated form of assistance. Every one of these groups can stand on their own merit, and I like to think that the Network played a good part in getting us there. We can keep that fire going easily enough though. Specifically related to our flagship group, The RPG Academy, they still plan to continue podcasting and AcadeCon is still a go!

I also want to stress that this is an amicable parting of the ways, frankly the stress and effort of running a Network is nothing to sneeze at and recently, with the growing needs of his own show(s), AcadeCon, and day to day life for that matter, I imagine our fearless leader Michael simply needed to step aside from the additional taxing work of managing a large Network of others. I can’t say I blame him. I certainly haven’t been very active of late on my own blog, let alone the Network.

If you are new to my site and find yourself wondering who I am referencing, check out my separate page now titled “Friends of MSG” where you can see a list of many of the talented folks I’m talking about. It was truly an honor to be a part of this ride. I want to thank Michael and Caleb for reaching out those many years back.

As for me? I’m hoping to get back into the swing of posting here. The break has been nice, and very much needed, but I enjoy what I do on this blog too much to simply walk away forever. Keep an eye out for future content, and remember the RPG Academy motto as you go about your gaming “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.” Truly some words to live by!

-Melvs

Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron

Before you direct you attention to the post below can I be so bold as to interest you in a gaming Convention? This November in downtown Dayton, Ohio The RPG Academy will be hosting AcadeCon for their 6th year! Registration is now live and you’d be hard pressed to find a convention this intimate boasting as many special guests as they do, games designers, podcasters, bloggers you name it! Plus, tons of great Game Masters and great games to play. Now, onto the post!

Anyone who has paid any attention to my work over the last few years knows I’m a huge fan of the Eberron Campaign setting. It’s the home of many of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons memories, namely my longest running campaign (a 4th edition run that I meticulously chronicled here). Since 5e hit the scene I’ve spent no small amount of time begging Wizards of the Coast to give us some kind of official content, outside of Unearthed Arcana that is, and not long ago my desires came to fruition! Even better, they went the smart route and tapped Keith Baker as Lead Designer. One can only hope this signals a trend of WotC granting folks the settings they yearn for.

Also, a huge thanks to  my good friend John Appleton, someone who truly loves the hobby and wants to spread that love, for purchasing the book for me simply to ensure I had it so I can introduce my love of Eberron to my library club. Thanks again John, the kids will love the setting!

Wayfinders was released digitally with a caveat that it is possibly still a work in process. No reason for concern in that regard though because once purchased you will have access to all the errata in real-time as they make adjustments to the book. From what I see though we have a wonderfully concise write-up of what we need to know in order to bridge The Dragon Between into this newest edition. Namely the fluff of Eberron is only touched upon in enough detail to ensure newcomers aren’t totally lost, but the mechanics are spelled out in excellent detail.

One of the best ideas Mr. Baker ever had with his setting was to make the timeline static. No matter how many editions this setting ends up rolling through it is unlikely we will ever see a version of Eberron set beyond the date 1001 YK, or rather five years after the official end of the Last War. With relative peace in such infancy you open up so many possibilities for a Game Master to make this world their own. All the lore details in this book are more than enough to work with and there are plenty of instances where we are reminded that certain things are left vague with purpose. You get to decode the story about some of the biggest events and people in this game.

 

Mechanics wise we get to see some things brought to life that I have really been waiting on. New races like Warforged, Shifters, Changelings, and the Kalashtar are certainly welcomed sights. If I ever get to play in a game, rather than run it, I might take another crack at my Changeling Reality Seeker concept or just run a Warforged again, always loved their unique place in the mythos. The rules for the Dragonmarked Houses look to be more interesting in 5th edition than I’ve ever seen them. We see a new Background called the House Agent that really adds flavor to someone going this route. The Dragon Marks themselves allow you to modify a chosen race as their abilities replace the ones you’d typically get. This seems like an excellent direction to run with while not allowing for those in the houses to seem overpowered. Lot’s of great versatility here.

 

A couple of other nice additions are a section on magic items, and my favorite fantasy city Sharn, City of Towers. In the magic items chapter we get a good look at what makes magic in Eberron so interesting. Namely, we get to see typical magical equipment, yes, but the best part is the flavor of it all. Eberron comes with a bit of Steampunk mixed with its magic so it’s no surprise that many of the creations here also feel a bit like machines imbued with magic rather than your typical mystical items. I really dig the addition of Warforged components. The section on Sharn, the city where I derived my twitter handle’s name from many years back, is exactly what you’d expect in a book that merely brushes the surface of the world. Personally I own Sharn: City of Towers, but I still loved the addition! What is new though are tons of brand new Backgrounds for Sharn, and some that were simply modified for the city.

Wayfinder’s Guide is an excellent mix of player and GM tools. Tomorrow I start my first adventure in years within Eberron, I’m even building off of the story arc created long ago with the Folly Investigations crew. Here’s hoping I can keep just as good of notes this time around. If nothing else I have some cool new 5e rules to work with, and a brand new table of players. What more can a GM ask for? Thanks agin to Keith and WotC for this wonderful gift to my gaming table. I hope to create some great stories!

-Melvs

 

Temple of the Spider – D&D 5e Adventure

Before you direct you attention to the post below can I be so bold as to interest you in a gaming Convention? This November in downtown Dayton, Ohio The RPG Academy will be hosting AcadeCon for their 6th year! Registration is now live and you’d be hard pressed to find a convention this intimate boasting as many special guests as they do, games designers, podcasters, bloggers you name it! Plus, tons of great Game Masters and great games to play. Now, onto the post!

Eric Ausley, of Gamerstable Podcast fame, has a certain flavor when it comes to his tabletop creations. Spend any time listening to some of the excellent Gamerstable audio dramas and you can pick up on some of his typical machinations. He likes to surprise his players with a vast array of unique NPCs and villains, that range from flavorful to outright depraved. He also likes to add plenty of dark and slimey to his work. Weirdly though, he has a way of toeing the line between outright grossness that would turn someone off and genuinely interesting, despite that touch of madness. I’d be really interested in what a team up between Ausley and Robert Schwalb would look like. Temple of the Spider is all sorts of Eric Ausley.

Eric Ausley’s “pay what you want” adventure Temple of the Spider, recommended for players of 4th level and currently available on Drive Thru RPG, takes you to some mean streets in a town best known for its mining (and corruption by the sound of it). It’s a grungy town that is simply brimming with political and mercantile intrigue, numerous forces are at play and the common folk are terrified of running afoul of pretty much anyone in power. The PCs represent some options for certain powers trying to get back an important asset that was stolen from them, and your players will be in for a wild ride.

Everything in this module is well crafted and easy to parse. It contains deep dives on NPCs and their motivations and some grim villains as well. All of this leads to a truly shocking final battle that you should certainly enjoy throwing at your players. For me personally I really dig the style that Eric has gone with here.

The adventure is written within a world of Eric’s own creation, Kaleteona, and what tidbits he lays out in this module it seems like a realm I’d like to explore more. I know it is the setting for his Tales of Valevictor games so it certainly holds interest for me. He has a plethora of new Character Backgrounds available here as well. That isn’t to say you couldn’t easily drop this into another setting. I am immediately considering what it would look like to run this adventure in the Cogs beneath the City of Towers, Sharn, now that we have some official Eberron content (a review on this is coming, I promise). Honestly the dirt and grim of the Cogs would suit this very nicely.

I’d suggest this adventure for a more mature audience, of course, but I’d certainly suggest it. Considering it comes with the “pay what you want” price tag you could technically grab it for free, but I typically pay something to the creators of these. You won’t regret your purchase!

-Melvs 

 

Gencon 2018

Good day everyone! Melv here, I know… it’s been a spell, but hey I have a treat for you! Please welcome to the page Gabriel Paduganan aka @LibraryRPG whom I was most fortunate to wrangle into writing up a piece on his Gencon experiences, and they sound like some excellent ones! I was more than happy to lend my Press Badge, for the quality of his writing and because of his work within the community through his library club run for kids (which obviously holds a dear place in my heart).  So sit back and enjoy! Oh, if you have a moment maybe check out Gabriel’s “Go Fund Me” page that is just shy of its goal. The proceeds help kids learn about Tabletop RPGs! -Melvs 

Let me state this up front:  I love games; I’m just not crazy about people.  Most folks are generally tolerable, and I love the gaming community, but I am an introvert through and through.

I’m a father of three children (eight, six, and three years old), and tabletop games have been one of our favorite methods of spending time together.  My older two kids love playing card, dice, and strategy games in all varieties. Their three year-old sister has become my personal dice roller.

I’m also the Dungeon Master for the teen club at our local public library.  For the past year I’ve been guiding younglings through the Lost Mines of Phandelver, and have helped a pair of my players to try DM’ing their own games.  Although I’m not participating in any of my own face-to-face groups at the moment, I’m active in several online RPG communities via Discord and Roll20. Presently, I’m either DM or player in Curse of Strahd, Lost Mines, Laser and Liches, Starfinder (organized play and adventure path), a D&D homebrew campaign, and Midgard.  Seeing that in writing helps me realize why I have very little time to do other things.

Going to GenCon had been a personal goal of mine for several years, but it wasn’t until mid-July that I decided that this would be the year to make it happen.  I’ve been volunteering at various conferences and conventions for over a decade, but rarely go to them as a member of the general public. I purchased a four-day GenCon badge, finalized travel plans and hotel reservations, pre-paid for parking, and selected a handful of events to attend.  It still wasn’t real.

A week prior to GenCon, I received a direct message asking if I’d be interested in writing an article for the highly-regarded Melvin Smif’s Geekery as their representative at the con.  This was literally a dream of mine.  In high school, I was on the newspaper staff and had aspirations of being a journalist before life happened and I decided to become a social worker.  I still enjoy writing quite a bit, but it is usually expressed in the form of campaign notes and character backstories. I’m a little out of practice for formal writing and have always tended toward being a long-winded writer; if you are still reading, you have my thanks and my apologies.

I live in Northwest Alabama; just over the state lines of both Mississippi and Tennessee.  It takes about 6 ½ hours to drive to Indianapolis by way of Interstate 65, passing through Nashville and Louisville and several lesser-villes.  I had planned on taking a long nap on Thursday evening, leaving my house around midnight, and arriving at GenCon early enough on Friday to pick up my badge before the morning rush of attendees.  Unfortunately, travel jitters made my nap ineffectual, and by the time I reached Kentucky I realized that it would be imprudent to drive any further. Somehow I managed to sleep better in the middle row of my van than I had in my bed at home; I managed a four hour nap at a rest stop off of I-65.

Travelling can be an art form, and I like to think that I’m fairly good at it.  I try to spend a little time researching local tips and tricks before heading to a new city.  As part of my pre-GenCon prep, I found that the common complaints surrounding attendance is parking in Downtown Indy.  Luckily, I was able to reserve a parking spot through ParkWhiz.com for $6.00/day, and it was less than a five-minute walk from Lucas Oil Stadium and the convention center.  I pulled into my pre-paid parking spot just after 8 AM, and was walking into GenCon just a few moments later.

Here follows a shameless personal disclosure:  I live with a chronic mental health issue, which results in frequent episodes of depression and/or anxiety.  There were several years of my life in which my worst nightmare was having to go grocery shopping for fear that I’d have to interact with other humans.  Thankfully, I’ve learned some excellent coping strategies and have an excellent primary-care physician. Unfortunately, I ran out of medication the day prior to leaving for GenCon and didn’t have time to visit the pharmacy before leaving town.

As I stepped out of the balmy Midwestern summer heat and into the climate-controlled atmosphere of the Indianapolis Convention Center, I began to panic a little.  Without the aid of my prescribed medication, I was venturing into the presence of tens of thousands of strangers, with no real direction as to where I needed to go or what I was expected to do, other than to submit a readable article at the end of the convention, and to not completely tarnish the good name of Melvin Smif in the process.

Yes, I realize that was a run-on sentence.  Hopefully it conveys the sense of anxiety I felt upon my arrival at GenCon.

Luckily, it didn’t persist very long.  With a healthy measure of controlled breathing and positive self-talk, I ventured into the massive crowd of humanoids, determined that I would not be hindered by my own biochemistry.  I navigated through the seas of geekdom to the press room and retrieved a badge to prove that I was, in fact, a Geekery representative, and was further directed to the customer service desk where I could request a refund for the general admission badge I had purchased one month earlier.  The money that was returned to my bank account will be important later: keep reading.

After picking up the event tickets for seminars and games that I’d pre-registered for, I made my way toward the exhibit hall to check in on a handful of companies that I’ve been following.  For the most part, I steered clear of the major publishers, preferring spend my time and money with smaller-scale and/or family-run companies.

• Weird Giraffe Games, based out of Huntsville, Alabama (near my home), were promoting Fire in the Library, a press-your-luck game that is currently in production.

• Junk Spirit Games, who have produced two of my favorite recent games, JunKing and By Order of the Queen, were showing off two of their newer offerings: Battle of the Bards, and Ravens.  They’ll definitely be getting more of my Kickstarter money soon.

• Bear Food, Inc., makers of the ubiquitous Exploding Kittens, have published several equally fun games.  My kids and I are big fans of Bears vs Babies. If creating fanciful beasts to combat mutant babies sounds like fun to you, I heartily recommend you check it out.

• Roxley Games was easily the largest company that I’d deemed a must visit.  They picked up Dice Throne from Mind Bottling Games during a highly anticipated Kickstarter campaign, and I commend them greatly for doing so.  Dice Throne was my favorite game last year, and I’m eagerly waiting for the upcoming release of Season Two.

I’d been poring over the exhibit hall map for a week before the con, mapping out my plan of attack so that I could make the most of my time and visit as many booths as possible.  Of course, there were several vendors that caught my eye and relieved me of my dollars. I picked up a paperback copy of the Pathfinder Playtest, as I prefer physical books to digital ones for reference purposes.  The Starfinder Armory was tempting, but the stack of books on my desk is already tall enough without adding another non-essential Starfinder title. There were so many dice and gaming supply vendors that I decided to skip all of them, knowing that bargain hunting would take too much of my time.

My favorite purchase was from the Wyrmwood booth.  By now, most gamers are familiar with their top-quality gaming accessories, including deck boxes, dice trays, and towers.  As an amateur woodworker, I have a lot of appreciation for Wyrmwood’s work, but my admiration goes much further. As I previously mentioned, I’ve been volunteering at conventions for several years.  My organization of choice is Take This, which provides mental health support and education, primarily for gamers and geeks of all kinds. Wyrmwood is also a supporter of Take This, and raises funds for their organization through sales of the Box of Hope, a token made from of one of the same sixteen species of wood that they use for their gaming products.  The type of wood each Hope Shield is made of is random, with a chance to receive a Gabon Ebony shield with a rare inlay. I had determined that since I wasn’t giving my time to Take This during GenCon, I’d purchase a Box of Hope to show my support. In case you’re wondering, the Hope Shield I received was made of Aromatic Cedar (one of my favorite species).  The Wyrmwood sales rep chuckled a little when, upon opening the Box of Hope, I immediately held the shield to my nose to make sure it really smelled like cedar (it did).

After I’d had my fill of the crowded exhibit hall, I left the convention center to check in at my hotel room and to catch a little nap before the evening’s festivities.  As a result of my refunded badge monies, and more than a little luck, I was able to purchase a single ticket for Critical Role Live. I’ve been a big fan of Critical Role since early in their first campaign, and have wanted to see a live performance for quite a while.  The Mighty Nein did not disappoint. In order to prevent spoiling the episode for any who haven’t seen it yet, I’ll refrain from further discussion of the live show, other than to say that it was one of the best events I’ve ever attended.

It was almost two in the morning before my head hit the pillow, so I decided to forgo my scheduled Saturday morning Starfinder Society game in favor of much needed sleep.  My brain and body were not pleased with me for discontinuing my medication regimen, and I was beginning to feel as if I developing a sinus infection. Convinced that I was not contagious, I ate an early lunch and headed back downtown for a day of organized play.

I had previously registered for three Starfinder Society (SFS) sessions with my Ysoki Operative (the Starfinder version of a ratfolk rogue), but, on account of my tenuous grasp on wellness, decided to cancel the early morning Sunday session.  As fate would have it, I was able to trade in my Sunday event ticket for the Saturday night Starfinder Special. During the afternoon session, I participated in a quick SFS game with an excellent GM, and advanced to 6th level. Of course, that meant that I also spent about an hour with the core rulebook, poring over character options, adding skill increases, and ensuring that my stats were all properly crunched in preparation for the evening session.

Rather than wandering around downtown in search of foodstuffs, I dined on granola bars, beef jerky, and an unhealthy amount of energy drinks.  Somehow I consumed no coffee during GenCon, but did not lack in caffeine intake. The remainder of my downtime between SFS sessions was spent searching for the Midgard RPG room.  For those not familiar with Midgard, it is a campaign setting for D&D 5th edition and Pathfinder, published by Kobold Press. They have designed or reworked a figurative metric ton of races, classes, backgrounds, feats, and spells for the setting.  The lore is rich and the character options are nearly limitless. I’ve been playing Midgard with a Discord collective for a couple of months, and wanted to meet one of the organizers in person to thank him for the many hours of work he has put into dungeon mastering for us.  Unfortunately, I was not able to locate the Kobold Press RPG room, despite several circuitous laps around the convention center. Sorry, Mike. I’ll shake your hand next time.

Knowing that the Sagamore Ballroom was soon to be awash with eager Starfinders, I arrived an hour early to get in line even though I’d pre-registered for a seat.  There were at least a hundred players waiting with generic tickets to join in the session, and I didn’t want to take the chance of being late and having my spot given to a walk-on participant.  I was seated at a table with six other players: a couple from Indiana, a trio of buddies from Illinois, and an individual player who proudly displayed his new Wyrmwood dice tower on the table. Our GM was a Starfinder convert from Pathfinder and had been running organized play Paizo games since their inception.  He was gruff and irritable, but had a fantastically snarky sense of humor.

The Paizo organized play system is well-written and executed.  The SFS special events, in particular, require dozens of tables comprised of 6-7 players to work toward common goals.  Once again, I’ll keep from discussing it too much so that I don’t spoil the module for those who want to play it in the future.  I must state, however, that the Paizo organized plan specials are the highlight of most conventions that I’ve attended. If you like playing RPGs, I highly recommend them.

The Starfinder session ended at nearly 1AM Sunday morning.  After walking back to my car, with sore feet and bloodshot eyes, I drove through Taco Bell on my way back to the hotel.  Apparently the good fortune I’d experienced at GenCon had run its course, as my hotel key card was no longer working, and I had to wait for thirty minutes for the clerk to let me into the hotel and my room.  I ended up sleeping too late again, and got back on the road an hour later than I’d planned. Preferably, I’d have stayed at GenCon for the final day of events, but I had to get back home for a weekly Starfinder campaign.  Priorities, ya know?

All in all, GenCon 2018 was everything I’d hoped it would be.  My modus operandi is to overbook my convention schedule, and then reduce the number of events I attend by necessity, whether due to more interesting opportunities, lack of sleep, or the realization that I’m not capable of being in two places (or more) at any given moment in time.  I recognize that there will never be enough hours in the day to experience more than a small fraction of what the Best Four Days in Gaming has to offer, but I feel that I did the best I could have in light of my physical and mental capabilities. Next time (probably not next year), I’ll try to do a better job of connecting with other gamers and creators.  I’ll eat healthier food (probably not). I’ll play more games, both RPG and otherwise. I’ll remember to buy gifts for my kids. Hopefully, I’ll remember to take my meds. One thing I know for certain, though; I’ll have a most excellent time alongside thousands of folks who share my passion for games.

-Gabriel Paduganan

I would like to once again thank Gabriel for sharing his unique perspective of Gen Con. What really sticks with me is how different the con is for everyone who goes and I truly relish giving voice to these stories on the years I personally cannot attend. Hopefully I can meet up with Gabriel at a future con (maybe Acadecon perhaps? eh? EH!?). One more plug if you’ll allow me, please check out Gabriel’s “Go Fund Me” , I highly doubt he even expected me to plug it but it’s good stuff! Trust me, I run games for library kids too. They need stuff and they are poor! -Melvs