After erasing the dread priest Umtak Ktharl, the group decides to explore the tomb complex for lootsies. Featuring a priest immune to divine magic, disturbing potions, lots of spiders and a new Shroomian prince. Also my first experiment with Dwarven Forge terrain!| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last Friday's game started out chaotic! No strong start à la Sly Flourish, because I wanted to give the PCs freedom to decide where to go. I've a lot of backstories to weave into the campaign, so used the time in town to flesh out relations with mentors and contacts.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
"Hey, I'm thinking of playing a knowledge cleric with the linguist feat. What is the language used in libraries and so on?"| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Another wizardly order in Belswick. These Orders exist to control the commoners that are taught dangerous magic (the First and Second Estate would never sully their hands with it). There are reasons why wizards only know spells of levels 1 through 6. The Augurs and Diviners use their insight to help the crown and steer commerce. Meanwhile they secretly look for higher circles of power. | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
This started as a post on getting players to track how many rations they have, inspired by James Young at Ten Foot Polemic. See if you can spot where my mind took a side track. I maintain that the ideas below will stimulate zealous ration tracking.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last session of Belswick, the group decided to head back for the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, on orders from the manor knight Haine Kerjules to end the goblin raids on his farms.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
The Trail of Cthulhu sanity rules are| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Part six of a series of reviews and notes| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Country's mostly locked down, so we moved our Belswick campaign online. Session 17 took place over two solo sessions, a bunch of emails and a group session via skype (my first ever!). Below is a session report, and I'll write a quick post about I'm moving the game online while trying to keep a tabletop feel later this week.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Lair of the Lamb is an OSR style module by Arnold K. over at Goblin Punch. It's a funnel where players run a total of 12 characters through a dangerous adventure and see who survives to see daylight. Free to use and comes with Arnold's newly updated GLOG version, but can be run with other D&D variants as well. In this case, I used D&D 5e and grounded the place in my Bronze & Sand-"setting". | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
From the journals of Tilbørd, missionary Searcher priest of the Order of Olmadicians.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last session of Belswick, the group decided to head back for the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, on orders from the manor knight Haine Kerjules to end the goblin raids on his farms.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Part six of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
Part five of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
Part four of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
Part three of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
Part two of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
Part one of a series of reviews and notes| The Things We Do for XP
I just realized I haven't posted here in years and don't really have plans to start again. My writing itch is being scratched but good since I started new jobs as a science writer, and my group has gotten into the habit of quick summaries and highlights via Whatsapp instead of via this blog. | The Things We Do for XP
My group's regular Belswick campaign (medieval| The Things We Do for XP
We're taking a summer break from my| The Things We Do for XP
Last time in Belswick, the PCs negotiated for safe passage with a bunch of frost giants who'd lost their holy silver cup. These sessions they solve the riddle of who stole the Cup of Thrymm and get it back from a lake hag. Also: playing nice with Orcs, saving young love and getting adopted by a Roc.| The Things We Do for XP
Last time in Belswick, our adventuring party joined the Eagle Lances of the Rock, a mercenary company that's fighting off the invasion by nasty, possibly heretical and definitely semi-French Arrayne in the south. To open a new route for the company, the party is to negotiate safe passage with the frost giants of the southern snake mountains. Off you trot.| The Things We Do for XP
Last session in Belswick, the players vanquished Xiximanter the Lich and finally cleared the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Hoorah! Now they deal with the aftermath in a length downtime session, which ends with a double botch and sudden PC death. I already ran part of this haven turn for two players in a mini session for 2 players; this time, we pick up with almost the entire group - our wizard couldn't make it.| The Things We Do for XP
"What the fuck happened to your family's armor and shield?"| The Things We Do for XP
How does a lich manage to die at the hands of five level 6 rubes? Careful roleplay and following Keith Amman's advice, that's how! In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith sets out how to have a lich lay waste to adventurers in style - but also explains how a lich's arrogance can have it make critical mistakes.| The Things We Do for XP
EDIT: sold all of these!| The Things We Do for XP
Session two in a second campaign to my main rural/medieval Belswick one. This one is a city campaign following the adventures of three people of the rogueish persuasion as they navigate the joys and perils of the great city of Lankhmar.| The Things We Do for XP
Last session in Belswick, our band of luminaries got rid of the Brent-clones infesting the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, and killed the original Brent the bandit where he lay in the fungal cloning chamber. | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
...it only just now hits me that "Death and Dismemberment" abbreviates to D&D. Anyway.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last time in Belswick, the PCs negotiated for safe passage with a bunch of frost giants who'd lost their holy silver cup. These sessions they solve the riddle of who stole the Cup of Thrymm and get it back from a lake hag. Also: playing nice with Orcs, saving young love and getting adopted by a Roc.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Another session via Skype, with a separate laptop calling in to run the battlecam. Worked fine for us, except that I couldn't see all the players' video feeds and the sound kept glitching on me. Looking back, I hardly remember that. Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds? Maybe at some point. Skype is fine for now, and allows me to keep playing with paper minis and Dwarven Forge terrain.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
A week ago my group sat around a real table again for the first time in a year and a half - great fun and so much easier than playing remotely. I'll make this a very short summary, because I've still got a lot of writing to do for the third story in this summer "break" from my main campaign. Next up is a couple of sessions romping through spooky scary Ravenloft...| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
We're taking a summer break from my| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Over 30 sessions of this campaign, unbelievable! I'm still enjoying it, even though Planescape, Eberron, Star Wars and Delta Green are very tempting. So many campaign ideas, so little time. | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Much manoeuvering around the Arraynian woodsmen, who seem very in touch with each other, even finishing each others' sentences. Their leader appears to be a strawberry-blond woman in the habit of inhaling purple smoke, who claims to be a trader from Arrayne looking for a profitable route into Belswick. Or, you know, they could be a nest of psionics spies like the ones that murdered the group's last patron.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last time in Belswick, the players fought off assassins at the wedding of lord Haine Kerjules the Hedgehog and Olga the Widow - not succeeding in saving either of them (although in Olga's case, she'd been dead for a few years already). Now under the control of Haine's son Silas, fiefs Crossroads and Culfield are preparing to join the war of wider Belswick against southern Arrayne.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Last time in Belswick, my players worked their| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
It's time to get married! Lomin has been playing the role of long-deceased Lady Olga of Culfield, who was a close friend and didn't have heirs or relatives who could inherit. Now Olga will marry Lord Kerjules of neighbouring Crossroads to cement the region against coming war with southern Arrayne. | thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
After 22 sessions of Belswick, my group is roughly back where they left the Tomb of the Serpent Kings 18 sessions ago: mostly cleared out, but with all the interesting bits left for the next band of squatters to move in. Last session they attacked the front door, this session they dug deeper.| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
Super quick recap, because I have a lot on my plate (such as running not 1 but maybe 2 more campaigns on the side!)| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
LAST SESSION IN BELSWICK| thethingswedoforxp.blogspot.com
