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Characters: Redmond Frionbarr - Level 4 Bard Cadillac Monteau - Level 3 Ranger Za'vak Al-Hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Level 1 Fighter - This session introduces the player of Vamp's new character: Cadillac Monteau. He's a Ranger who comes all the way from the western land of Utahia. While Gene and Za'vak were exploring in the last session, Monteau rolled up into the village of Homble on horseback looking for Vamp. Monteau is a bounty hunter, with a mission to find Vamp Testy. After introducing himself to the mayor of Homble, Harold Koomer, and his wife, Monteau learned that Vamp had went north into the Fae Woods. He went to the top floor of the tavern/inn, the Swan, and polished his guns while murmuring to them. Note: Monteau's player uses the funniest character voice, with both a lisp and an underbite. Almost everything he said in his character voice caused me to laugh hard enough that I had to mute the mic. Redmond, meanwhile, was tasked with transporting Vamp's bod

In my current 5e campaign, Daemonium, one of my players made their character Gene Erikson a Battle Master Fighter. Despite some initial excitement we found that, in play, the class was a slog to use and didn't really add very much to the gameplay of the character. The issues I have with the Battle Master encapsulate some of the problems I have with 5e as a whole. - Fighters are my favourite RPG class and, for an RPG with a class based character creation system, they are the basis by which I judge the class system. 5e uses a subclass system, in which classes can pick a sort of specialization once they reach level 3 (Level 1 for some classes). The Fighter in 5e has three subclasses in the Player's Handbook (And a million more in the many supplements). You can pick Champion, Eldritch Knight, and Battle Master. Each of these add traits to the basic Fighter package. The basic 5e Fighter is defined by gaining extra attacks as they level. While other fighting man classes in 5e have a

 Characters: Za'vak Al-hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Fighter 1 Gene Erikson - Level 4 Fighter - The Hex Crawl in North Ambern continues. The party is searching through the Fae Woods and attempting to escort the Princess of Cashua to the Wood Elf kingdom. The Princess, Hildebrandt, is travelling along with the party and is a capable fighter in her own right. The previous session left off with Za'vak, Redmond and the Princess taking refuge in the Old Fort they found in the east of the Fae Woods. They opted to head back to the Orc Fort constructed on top of the hill in the morning (about half a day's travel to the west) and wait for Gene. Gene, the previous night, had gone off to search for Vamp Testy who had gone missing. He found the corpse of Dire Wolf defeated by Vamp, and followed its blood back to where Vamp had hidden. Gene found his friend's body by the river. It was riddled with stab wounds and covered in blood. Both Gene and Za'vak's party avoided encounters an

Characters: Za'vak Al-Hadim - Level 4 Paladin/Level 1 Fighter Gene Erikson - Level 4 Fighter Vamp Testy, The Monkey Sympathizer - Level 4 Monk Redmond Frionbarr - Level 4 Bard  --- The party's mission is to escort the Princess of Cashua to the hidden Wood Elf Kingdom. For this session, Gene Erikson was present for the first half and Za'vak for the second half due to scheduling. Structurally, the search for the Wood Elf Kingdom was handled with a Hex Crawl in the area of North Ambern. At the start, we had Gene, Redmond, and Vamp. The party picked up some supplies and set off from Fort Redmond (Redmond's player insists that it's called another name which I can never remember, haha. My bad brother). They were warned that a young hunter from the village, Tomlinson, had already left to try to join them on their adventure. Tomlinson is on the encounter list, so it's up to chance if he finds the party. The party looked out from the tower of Fort Redmond. They spied a m

No more human than you are beast To exchange the future for eternity is to become a Druid. Fall in love with the moon and turn your back on the churning of mankind.  When choosing your languages, you may select the tongue of beasts, birds, reptiles, bugs, and plants. You do not grow old, and your appearance changes with the seasons. Thick vegetation parts before you. A Druid may consume monsters, beasts, and plants to take on their features. This is called Gestalt. You may Gestalt a number of features equal to half your level. A Gestalt lasts for one hour. A single unit of food results in one Gestalt. One unit of food is enough food for one day. A lonely spider is not enough, you must eat handfuls. Gestalts: Bark - Gain defence as Chainmail, but beware of flames Claws & Fangs - Deal damage as a sword Crab Claws - Attack grapples Tentacles - Attack again with tentacles, very flexible Horse - Gain the lower body and movement of a horse Web - Flexible and sticky. You can expertly mani

I've been thinking about an alternative to the Magic-User/Cleric called the Priest. What makes the Priest unique is that when prepping spells they need to create Talisman which are then stored in their inventory. Talisman are made out of a special paper which costs 1gp per paper. A Priest also needs to have a brush and ink. Talisman can be lent to other players and, if the spell effect lasts indefinitely, they can be maintained for as long as the Talisman remains whole.  When resting, each spell slot can be used to make one Talisman. If there are any active spells out in the world, the Priest can choose to end the magic effect or maintain it. If they maintain it, then they do not recover the spell slot for that Talisman.  A Priest is able to accurately throw a Talisman up to 20 feet away. Allies can also hold Talisman and place them for the Priest, though the Priest must still activate the spell. Priests also have the ability to talk to the dead. They may put their hand on any corp

Recently, I finished my Masters in Chinese History. Nice! So, with lots of food to eat and no money to buy any, I looked for jobs and found that a Table Top RPG publisher was looking for East Asian themed adventures. I thought I'd apply and, lo and behold, the publisher was interested. So I wrote up a pitch for an adventure and general world building and sent them in. Even in the initial email exchanges I was already getting somewhat frustrated because the vision that the publisher and I had about what "East Asia" actually meant were totally divergent. "East Asia" in, this case, is really just a product of Western imagination. The goal really wasn't ever to create an East Asian world, but instead to create a fantasy of East Asia compatible with Western tastes. Moreover, the publisher was very interested in historical fidelity which is, I think, quite foolhardy in a game. So... I've got all this material now and have been thinking about finishing up a pol

Characters: Za'vak Al-Hadim - Level 3 Paladin/Level 1 Fighter Gene Erikson - Level 4 Fighter Vamp Testy, The Monkey Sympathizer - Level 4 Monk - Huzzah! A session report! As I've just created my bodacious blog you, dear reader, must roll with the punches and jump right into this campaign with little context. The Emperor Regulus, leader of the Aeon Empire, is attempting to conquer the world. The party is made up of individuals that have, for various reasons, joined the Kingdom of Cashua's rebellion against Aeon. Will they manage to survive? The game is run using 5e. In terms of rulings and play procedures, I take a lot from OSR games and FATE. I'd say there's a pretty good balance between gameplay and roleplay, with some players focused a little more on one or the other. In our last episode, Za'vak the Paladin accidentally burnt a child to death in the city of Portia. While some gods may weigh intent as more important than results in terms of ethics, Torm priorit