Book review: D&D Tales from the Table: A campaign Archive

 

A Target exclusive, this little book is chock full of good ideas.

Normally I don't do book reviews on this blog, but because I am away from home on vacation during the Christmas season, I have to pause my examination of the 1e DMG and my attempts to formalize my streamlined version of D&D and instead talk about this pleasant surprise I found while "after Christmas" shopping with my mom this year.

We took a drive to her local Target the other day and while it was sad that the place was woefully devoid of D&D game manuals, which was not the case in previous years, there were a fair amount of marketing materials promoting "Stranger Things" from T-shirts to novelty mugs to books, but I was lucky enough to get my hands on the only copy left of this book, at a discount even! Needless to say I was happy with the purchase.

Now I must preface this post by stating that I am not obsessed, or even a big fan of the show. I did attempt to watch the first season a few years back, but found myself unimpressed by it, the story was serviceable enough, for a sci-fi show and a period piece, but there were anachronisms that turned me off it, most of which have been well documented elsewhere in print and on the web, and thus, I won't rehash them here, but the show also had an "X-Files" vibe that I could not shake...for some reason I just could not get into it, even though I love the "X-Files" and watched all 10 seasons of that show from beginning to end when it originally aired on Fox back in the day.

But I digress, despite the connection to D&D, "Stranger Things" just wasn't doing it for me, but I may give it another chance now that Netflix is dropping the last season as this year comes to a close. 

This book is definitely dedicated to the fans, and seems to be a love letter to the show and its dedicated audience. It is full of references from the show, and from D&D, the latter of which I know and the former which I am only vaguely familiar with, having only seen the bulk of the first season. But boy do they pack a lot of bang for your buck for the $35 retail price ($48 Canadian)! The book comes with cutout stand up figures of the characters if you want to use them in a home brew game and play as those characters, it includes a myriad of stickers with references to the characters, locations, and 80's related memorabilia and nostalgic sensibilities, and even a mini fold out map to illustrate locations in a D&D game, and even a series of stock cards with stat blocks for a few iconic D&D monsters, in the style of the AD&D Monster Manual from 1978.

This last bit is what attracted me to the book the most, and what convinced me I had to make it a part of my seasonal gaming haul. It is written from the point of view of the main characters Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair and Mike Wheeler and written in graph paper as though the kids themselves were documenting their game sessions in a campaign journal back in the halcyon days of 80s table-top gaming. 

As an aside, we sure have come a long way from those days when niche gaming and geek culture hobbies like this were the purview of shut-ins or reclusive, socially inept gamers living in their mom's basements. Pop culture elements such as "Stranger Thigs" or even the mega popular web series like "Critical Role" and "Dimension 20" have shattered these stereotypes and have made these type of games so mainstream, that the old categories have become trite and passe. That is only a good thing! 

Moreover, the book is an entertaining read for both fans of the show and for D&D gamers in general, cleverly written and illustrated with line art and the aesthetic evocative of the time period and the audience it is trying to capture and succeeds at summarizing the more esoteric rules of both the game's basic version and it's more advanced counterpart. 

For a game master, this little book can be a treasure trove of ideas to spark inspiration for home brewed games or entire campaigns embracing the older game systems, with great location maps drawn on graph paper, just like your daddy's D&D used to be in all its hexcrawling, dungeon exploring, monster bashing glory. If you are a D&D or TTRPG neophyte, this book actually teaches you the fundamentals of the game, as it was back in the 80s in all its glory, and if you already know the game, you can still be entertained flipping through its pages and admiring the crude, but charming maps, explanations of locations featured in the program such as the Upside Down, and even fully fleshed out character sheets for both B/X and Advanced D&D. The photo copied clipped images from the old Player's Handbooks and Monster Manuals are a nice artistic touch and a nostalgic inclusion in the material.

Flipping through its pages might make you want to play the OSR editions once again, like it did in my case, or transport you back to your boyhood or childhood if you are a Gen Xer or old enough to remember playing with these. 

I just need to know why the show's producers felt it necessary to radically alter Demogorgon's form for TV, but that is a topic for another day. The book is published by Random House Worlds and Wizards of the Coast. Stranger Things Season 5 is now available streaming on Netflix. 

Frankenstein AD&D: A more streamlined way to game

Holmes Basic was the first official Basic ruleset that simplified matters after the original game set dropped in 1974, but for our "Frankenstein" streamlined version of the game we aim to run, I will be using a combination of BECMI rules and the rules later introduced in 1e, for such things as combat, encounters and character creations. 

 

 Although I have neglected this blog in calendar year 2025, as we approach a new season and new year, I have decided to continue with more frequent updates but with two specific goals in mind:

1. Building a better, streamlined easier to run version of my favorite edition of D&D (Advanced 1st edition) 

2. A campaign diary for my D&D and RPG games which can serve for some guidance and DM advice and feedback from those of you who have played the game a lot longer, or DMed for a while now.

I should probably preface all this by saying that I am not a noob DM. 2026 will mark 4+ years of being behind the screen of a regular local campaign and I also run a roll20 game every other week, when I am not playing in one, but these have been primarily 5e games.

Frankenstein AD&D

The version of AD&D I want to run harkens back to the 1e days, those halcyon days of youth which for many Gen Xers such as myself, can be colored with nostalgic sensibilities but which undoubtedly has also helped define and shape what gamers, RPG gamers to be specific, call the OSR movement. 

I can't believe it's been several months (almost 10 to be exact!) sine I attempted an in-depth dive and look at the 1e DMG by Gary Gygax. This is the book I started playing with at age 13 in 1983, but have now come to appreciate with the benefit of a 50+ year filter, that I was looking at this book all wrong, as rather than adhere to all its esoteric contents and complexities, the book is meant as a guide and can be as malleable as you want it to be, tailored to each individual campaign or game table.

 So what follows then is a continuation of that initial post, but also a reconcentrated effort to take the best or most usable bits of that tome and apply that which I want to use in my games, while throwing out the rest. The same goes for the 1e PHB and the subsequent books like Unearthed Arcana and the survival and dungeoneer's guide, which I find provide us with a blueprint for proficiencies which in my opinion, are superior to the feats which arrived in later editions of the game.

But in order to arrive at a truly unique "Frankenstein" recreation of Dungeons and Dragons, I submit that additions must also be made, whenever they are of a beneficial nature. That's when BECMI enters the picture, the precursor to the AD&D game, but which in my mind does a superb job of introducing neophytes into the RPG and D&D action and mechanics. 

I realize that Holme's blue book basic was the first official basic ruleset, but I find BECMI to be more complete and easier to build a character and get a group going. So for our project, we are going to simplify the combat sequence found in AD&D 1e and utilize the much easier to run and digest combat sequence found in the BECMI player's book by Frank Mentzer, (starting on page 58).    

But let us return to the DMG and continue where we left off more than two seasons ago. Before anything else I will point out that I am absolutely using the secondary skills table on page 12 upon character creation, as this gives some structure and guidance to the budding character, not to mention wonderful role-playing opportunities, akin to backgrounds in 5e. I have discussed in that previous post the character age, aging and death mechanics and those will also be included. From there we skip to the brief section on the Paladin's warhorse, which is interesting (on page 18) but only if you allow paladins in your game, which were not a part of BECMI but are definitely a part of the advanced game. 

We will be skipping the section on followers for upper-level characters in favor of the rules for followers, mercenaries, NPC parties and hiring of specialists found on pages 24-27 of the Expert BECMI set, as I feel these are more clear and easier to digest than the convoluted guidelines for hiring these NPCs as presented in the DMG.

From here we jump back to page 19 of the DMG where Gygax outlines the thief abilities with greater detail than what can be found in the class description of the 1e PHB. 

The assassin subclass of the thief in 1e D&D

 

The last topic we will look at today to consider for possible inclusion to our game is the concept and rules for alignment. It is quite interesting to me that in Holmes, there was a system of five alignments: Good, Neutral, Chaos and Evil. This is in contrast to the nine-alignment system introduced in AD&D found on page 23 of the DMG. Alignment is more than a tool for role playing, it also dictates the creatures which can be found in the outer planes. (1e PHB p. 120) BECMI simplified it to three basic alignments: law, chaos and neutrality and also espoused the idea of a alignment language. I think alignment languages over complicate things, so I will not use them in our streamlined AD&D Frankenstein version. 

The videogamification of Dungeons and Dragons

Proficiencies were optional in the 2nd edition of Dungeons & Dragons

 I hate the way virtual sessions of D&D go nowadays.

You may hear me express this sentiment and automatically brand me as an old Gronard, with the usual contempt for 5e and modern versions of our favorite tabletop role playing game, but you would be mistaken.

As a matter of fact, I have been running a successful 5e campaign for over three years now, utilizing 2014 rules and only recently transitioning to the 2024 ruleset. 

When I state that I am not a fan of modern game sessions, at least the way they operate in VTTs such as Roll20 and Foundry, it is an overall complain of a player and game master mindset which I think has become prevalent in the table top gaming scene, but it is far from a holistic condemnation of this type of gaming mode.

So I will clarify through the filter of my favorite version of the game, AD&D, specifically utilizing the information found in 1989's second edition Player's Handbook by David "Zeb" Cook et al. 

To be more specific, I have been reading chapter 5 of that great book which deals with weapons and non weapons proficiencies and weapon specializations. I think this is a far more elegant and pleasing system than feats, which made their way into the game in 3rd edition a decade later, and which have become the defacto way for player characters to become more fleshed out ever since.

And to be clear, this video game mentality which permeates the modern scene isn't even a new thing, one could make the argument that it has been there for a long time. The problem (as I see it) is the way the game has morphed as a result of the proliferation of VTTs since around 2014 and the limiting way in which some players want to gain every edge in combat and other aspects of the game, sometimes to the exclusion of common sense in a blind allegiance to RAW (rules as written.)

 Simply put, I am a tad annoyed by the modern player's propensity to faithfully adhere to RAW when it benefits their character, sometimes ignoring common sense in the attempt to gain every little advantage. 

One recent example I can think of at the top of my head is a game session in which a player tried to use the command spell while in the process of interrogating an imprisoned NPC. The problem is that the prisoner at the time was unconscious or asleep, can't recall which. The player kept repeating and at first did not seem to comprehend, that using such a spell would probably not work because the prisoner was not conscious, therefore unable fall under the influence of the spell, or to realize what the PC was even attempting to do at the moment.

Sometime, a lot of time, logic has to prevail over RAW. 

I will go on the record here to state that I don't like feats. I don't like mechanics which give the PCs insane ways to become more OP or to gain advantages simply because WotC or whomever, has decided that it's more fun for players to be uber powerful beings, starting from level 1! 

As far as fleshing out a character beyond what he or she receives by virtue of their chosen race/class combo, I think proficiencies are far more pleasing to me than feats. 

For those who don't know, the way proficiencies work in AD&D 2e is depending on the PC's class, they earn slots while they level which give them the opportunity to add weapons proficiencies and non-weapons like carpentry, seamanship, and even stuff like swimming and stonemasonry. There are no bonuses as in 5e, at least not right off the bat, instead, a character can specialize in a weapon by filling in their slots and improving their mastery over time as they level up.

In terms of non-weapon proficiencies like tumbling, animal lore and tracking, when a character uses a proficiency, either the attempt is automatically successful (for simple tasks) or the character must roll a proficiency check. Each proficiency is tied to a relevant ability, (strenght, charisma etc) and this is what a character must roll.

I like this system over feats because the sheer amount of feats skewed towards making the character OP and superhero like in the modern game is not an option, instead this system allows for progression over time and allows for a more realistic and effective way of character optimization in my opinion.

As an aside, I will be making more game related posts as we head into the second half of the year and beyond. I always try to not let RL issues get in the way of fun discussions, but more often than not I fail to provide regular updates on this blog. That's something I will try to rectify in the coming days and weeks. 

Throwback Thursday comics: DC's Dragonlance

 

Dragonlance No.1, DC Comics, December 1988

In the fall of 1988, specifically December of '88 DC comics had in its stable of titles classics such as the Legion of Superheroes, Batman (where the iconic "Death in the Family" story arc was in full bloom), Green Arrow and Superman, but also adaptations and retrospectives like "The Prisoner" mini-series, "The Shadow" and of course, Dragonlance No. 1, based on the iconic novels and TSR game modules. 

Besides being a pretty innovative adaptation and start to the DL series when DC had the D&D I.P. (Barbara Kesel wrote in the letters page of the comic that in addition to the Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman classic, DC would also start to publish other D&D titles and adventures.) Dragonlance No. 1 for me personally is a bit of a time capsule of a great time in life, when I was a freshman in college going through the transition from H.S. to the quarter system as an undergraduate student at the UCLA campus.

What's fun and unique about the DL comics from that era is that editorial intended them to be more than a fun series based on D&D, they also had stat blocks and a map of the world of Krynn every fourth issue. Full disclosure, I only own the first two, so I am not really sure if this goal was achieved, to blend the series with a sort of gamemasters' supplemental tool, but through the exploration of this series over 30 years later, I aim to find out.

The first issue features background information on the Clerical Order of Majere with their mostly pacifist monks, lists the comic's protagonist Sturm Brightblade as a lawful good 8th level fighter with a THACO of 14 and with 47 hit points! At the time of the story told in the debut comic, Sturm is coming back from a five-year-long journey to discover his legacy. It also goes into describing why the Solamnic Knights like Sturm have fallen into disfavor in the world of Krynn, which is known by any fan of the novels or modules, but not necessarily well-known information to comic book readers not familiar with D&D in general and Dragonlance specifically. 

There are sidebars also included which describe two magic items presented in the comic: A Medallion of Majere and a footman's Dragonlance, different from the more powerful ones used by dragon-mounted riders. Issue 2 has stats for Lord Soth (with 59 hit points and a THACO of 12) 

The story found within the covers of issues 1 and 2 is a good introduction to the series and features appearances by Lord Soth and an old wizard who should be familiar to any Dragonlance fan. Plenty of action and "Gamerese" as well with the reveal of a High lord's blue dragon mount and a column by the late Jim Ward on the RPGA Network. 

These comics are fantastic and every fan of RPGS, D&D and comics in general should get their hands on them, they are easy to come by in back issue bins and on the web. 

Excited over running a few games using C&C game system.

 

I have given my current players at my table a heads up that the next campaign, series of games or one shots at my gaming table will be played using Castles and Crusades from Troll Lord Games. 

I am actually excited to run some games using this system. I purchased their PHB several years ago and it wasn't until recently that I pulled it out of the shelves and decided to really give it an in depth look.

Immediately I remembered what attracted me to it in the store that fateful day I purchased it on a whim: The old school aesthetics, the call backs to AD&D mechanics and OSR sensibilities with a modern coat of paint.

For those of you unaware, C&C has the distinction of being the last gaming project of the late, great Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons. You can really tell what would have attracted Gary to this game not that long ago. (I do believe that it dates back to at least 2004 if not a few years before that.) The best way to describe this game is as an amalgamation of familiar AD&D mechanics and the D20 system which was popularized starting in the year 2000 with D&D 3rd edition and games like Pathfinder 1e.

Not to go too deep into it but here are some things that make this game reminiscent of AD&D (1st edition with some 2e for good measure):

• Racial and class combos including the traditional races such as half-elves and half-orcs which are now missing from modern  D&D
• casting times for magic and spells
• Saving throws, more than those tied to skills in 5e and more than the three associated with 3.5 or D&D 3rd edition
• Situational modifiers in combat like back in the day and in 3.5 

The third edition elements are there with the movement rates which also make their way into 5e and stuff like an expanded alignment system, but the OSR elements are what intrigued me in the first place such as the use of individual experience progression, like in AD&D, the familiar abilities like Clerics turning the undead based on dice rolls and hit dice of the monsters and the limitation on the weapons they are allowed to use. Thieves (called Rogues like in 3rd) don't have a percentage dice roll on skills, but they do use the same attributes and abilities associated with that class like thieve's cant, sneak attacks, hide in shadows, etc.

In short, this game's aesthetic really gives me the nostalgic feels and does it twice: From the first time I picked up my AD&D books at Toys 'R Us prior to the start of the edition wars and again to the early aughts, I wasn't really playing 3.5 then, but I did play DDO and other video games which heavily borrowed or modified those mechanics from the pen and paper version of the game. Can't wait to try out a few games, the "Castle Keeper's Guide" (DM Guide as it is called in this game) is on its way! 

Character age and other game mechanics from 1st edition's DMG

My old 1E AD&D DMG by Gary Gygax.

 

The 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax is a mess! This statement should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows or plays the game of AD&D, or even has some passing familiarity with the core rulebooks which make up the main portion of rules for this system.

I have been playing in a weekly first edition campaign for over a year now and in order to understand the system better, I have endeavored to slowly digest the contents of the core books one at a time, starting with the DMG and moving on to the PHB, for no particular reason in this order, except that I am familiar with the contents of the PHB, which is slightly less hefty that the DMG.

I will do this mostly in an attempt to become more familiar with this book's contents. 

Of course, I say that the guide book is a mess because everyone knows it seems to jump from one topic to the next, in seemingly an endeavor to be as comprehensive as possible. It does a poor job of organizing said content, but I will attempt to digest most if no all of it, skipping around sections and doing my analysis piecemeal, rather than in one fell swoop.

Today I am looking at character age, aging and outdoor movement rates, which is an interesting discussion given the fact this doesn't seem to come up a lot in the modern version of D&D. 

So character aging is a part of character creation detailed in pages 14-15 of the 1e DMG. At the onset of each and every character's creation it is necessary to establish his/her age. There is a table for PCs and Henchmen, both human and non human. They are divided by race and class, while the humans get a table organized by the various classes. For example, I rolled for a half-orc fighter and his age turned out to be 15! Then I did the same for a human cleric and he turned out to be older at 19. 

What are the effects of aging in the game? Well, in the book Gary says the DM must keep track of a character's age after one is established, from game year to game year. The age categories are: young adult (for a dwarf this ranges from 35-50) to venerable 450 max for a dwarf, about 120 at the long end for humans. Calculating these affect attributes with a mature character adding 1 point of strength and 1 point of wisdom every game year.   

Unnatural aging is also common and mostly caused by spell casing or magical mans: casting alter reality for example, will syphon 3 year's from the caster's life, which getting hit with a haste spell would shorten a person's or creature's life span by a year.

This section of the book is followed by disease, which I don't even find fun in real life, so why include it in my game? the Book does go into death due to age. Indeed, the read texts: "Once a character dies due to old age, then its all over." 

The following section expands upon the characters' abilities which were first introduced in the PHB. It starts on page 41 and starts with a discussion of the Cleric's spells. Detect evil, detect magic, light and protection from evil. Light is caused upon the visage or before the visual organs of a creature, it will tend to blind it (rather as if a strong light were placed before its eyes), and this causes a -4 penalty "to hit," saving throws, and even armor class. 

Spell description for each casting class are explained for the DM's benefit all the way up to 7th level. 

A rather lengthy section on adventuring outdoors ensues, beginning on page 47. It is at this point that I need to mention that surveying these game rules as written will allow me to cherry pick those I want to bring into my games and those which I do not wish to use either because they seem cumbersome, are a bit vague, or superfluous or all of the above.  

A map is recommended for use by adventures in the outdoors, the scale being 20 to 40 miles per hexagon, with the GM dividing each large hex into blocks of smaller hexes, 5 across the middle or 5 across each face as desired. This is primary done for determining chance of encounters and they reference the possibility and mechanics of pursuit. 

Outdoor movement rates are given on page 58 of the DMG and procedures for getting lost and exhaustion results from movement without proper rest are also detailed. We will return to other movement rules including aerial, waterborne and underwater adventure guidelines, but after our next post which will further detail PC abilities. 

Tribunal adventures: EQ

Everquest Bristlebane my mmo home

 Nexus of Geek is back soloing original EQ. Watch me try to get my toons to level 50 and beyond.

Happy 2024: 3.0 DMG advice part 1

 

The DMG from the edition that changed the game irrevocably and ushered more "crunch"

It may be strange for me to be wishing readers a Happy 2024 in March, but the Nexus blog had been more focused on my mmorpg gaming late last year when I was trying to enjoy my Everquest and wow subscriptions.

I even had a post from January about my mmo gaming goals in 2024, goals which so far gave gone unmet due to the fact my internet connection has been quite poor since I moved in Northern California to my new place mind 2023. As a result, I have been recently trying to boost my signal, something not easily accomplished in rural areas, to be sure. So I abandoned most of my mmorpg gaming and have been primarily focused on running my weekly 5e game.

Last weekend I traveled to Santa Rosa where I frequented some used bookstores and came away with some really cool finds, among them was a pretty clean copy of the 3.0 D&D DMG and the 3.0 PHB at a very reasonable price. 

This led me to want to continue and pick up a project I started during the pandemic years, three years ago when I was examining all the printed DMGs dating back to the TSR era (As D&D has been my primary gaming hobby since the 80s; yes I am old) I thought it would be instructive, both to myself and others who may stumble upon this blog, to examine in great detail, chapter by chapter if need be, some of the information and sage advice available to DMs and wanna be game masters from the pages of all these wonderful and entertaining tomes. 

I had started with the more accessible 3.5 guide, but since I recently acquired the 3.0 guide in the aforementioned book store, I thought it would be fine to start with this one instead while concurrently comparing the info found in both. Do they repeat? Are there new nuggets of information presented in one that they didn't include in the other? Well let us find out.

From the first chapter, the authors advice DMs not to worry about teaching the players all the rules ahead of time. They suggest that all they truly need to know are the basics that apply to understanding their characters (i.e  how spells work, what AC means, how to use skills etc.) and they can pick up this information as they go along. This seems like sound advice when you consider how much more of a "crunchy" system D&D 3.0 and 3.5 are, compared to other systems like 5e and/or Pathfinder 1st edition.

There is a brief discussion of determining the style of play in your games and campaigns, such as what they call "kick in the door" style of play, advice on whether you should take a serious versus humorous tone (personally I prefer the former rather than the latter, but not to the exclusion of occasional mirth and in jokes at the table), table rules, how to integrate new players into an existing game or campaign, and other considerations for running a game including whether or not to use a DM screen, the role of computers in Dming, and the pros and cons of employing miniatures and counters.

An interesting aspect of this chapter is the inclusion of a section dealing with mapping. Mapping is a convention that seemed to be more integral to the earlier editions of the game and which has been somewhat lost in the modern era of virtual table top apps like Owl Bear and others. I remember reading the basic D&D BECMI manuals of the early 80s and even AD&D first edition, where it was recommended or encouraged that a player take on the role of "mapper." Again, this convention seems to have mostly gone the way of the dodo in modern times, probably due to the inclusion of detailed DM and maps for the players that are so detailed, most gamers make use of them without tweaking much, or without having a party explore an area on their own. The 3.0 DMG seems to encourage the older style, even though I am not sure if there were a lot of premade dungeons in this edition, versus the myriad of complex dungeon "hex crawls" of years past. I simply did not play the system enough when it came out in the early 2000s to give a more informed opinion.

As mentioned, this DMG seems to espouse the earlier convention in favor of the DM describing a layout of the place in as much detail as he/she/they want, including room dimensions and confusing maze like dungeons.

 

Before wrapping up this first part I will add that I will limit the scope of this analysis of D&D game guides to official TSR and WOTC products, even though I fully realize that there are many wonderful and helpful third party guides for novice, burgeoning game masters, but I do not own many, so I won't include them, with the possible exception of Sly Flourish's "Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master" since that specific reference is talked about a lot with high regard in the RPG community, and I actually own that tome. 

If you enjoy podcasts or audio discussions of geek culture topics, consider tuning in to www.kpfz.org an listening to my weekly show "The Nexus of Geek." Fridays at 4 PM PST. It is a diversion of mine which I do with my gaming friend and fellow geek Bo on the local community PBS style radio station, many topics that interest me from Superhero and genre film to fantasy fiction and of course gaming are presented. We welcome new listeners and fellow game geeks. 

Speaking of podcasts and/or non print material, I rather agree with this youtuber's take in defense of third edition.  Enjoy!

Video of the week: Which version of Wow should I play in 2023?

 

Force Gaming's video on Wow is my pick for video of the week, considering I am planning to play wow again in the coming year. First up, apologies for the very infrequent posts this season, but when RL gets in the way, social media becomes an easier way to communicate and to get my message across, especially when my Youtube hasn't been updated.

So I got the itch to venture back into mmos, specifically Azeroth. The main reason I had stopped playing it was due to the fact I was getting too many disconnects at my new place where the internet is not optimal. 

That and the fact I found a regular gaming group IRL for a weekly D&D table top role playing game session.

Prior to this I had been playing hardcore in non-official servers but Blizzard finally realized how popular (and lucrative for them) that game mode has turned out to be and they finally created official hardcore servers.

On the retail side, I leveled up my undead rogue up to 18, but I am interested in trying out Chromie time and replaying some of the old content, even though in order to do so you need to have at least one character at max. Nevertheless, despite having to start on Battle for Azeroth, whose starting zone is my least favorite one for horde, I managed to have fun chatting my friends on discord and enjoying some game time on Christmas vacation.

So which game will I play moving forward? I am thinking classic hardcore, even though it requires a subscription, that game mode is great for the same reasons I think D&D old school is great: A more dangerous game and therefore more of a challenge than easy mode. What gamer doesn't love a challenge if given a choice? In fact this type of permadeth gaming has been around for a while, I remember blogging about it in the past for games like DDO, for example.

I also heard that it was announced in this year's Blizzcon that the next three expansions of the retail version of the game will all be interconnected in terms of story. This is a mixed bag as far as I am concerned. For the little I played of BfA, the story wasn't great, it was just OK. The jailer is only a meh villain, even though what they did with Sylvanas was interesting. I don't admit to be very knowledgeable about that, although I really like the lore of the game, especially when it comes to the horde, that was never the sole sticking point of venturing in Azeroth for me. The interactive experience of figuring things out and later seeking out a guild to play with, that is the social aspect of mmos is what I mostly look for in these types of online activities.

"Season of discovery" mode is also interesting to me because I have not tried it out. The idea of discoveries in game is not new, I have encounter similar experiences in other games, but the way Blizzard is implementing with open world pvp events really appeal to me because I love pvp, but not necessarily pvp servers. Not to mention the open world pvp zones in classic and the progression servers where you can play Cataclysm and older expansions. 

I want social interaction in my mmo? Weird I know. I will have more to say about this in future videos. Happy Holidays to all. 

4E PHB vs. 5E which one is the better resource?

 I think the 4E nudges the current one by just a bit, what do you all think?

Emergent story and different modalities of D&D

image courtesy of Patrick O'Neill Riley, Britannica

 I am sorry that I have neglected this blog of late.

My goal for the balance of this last quarter of the year is to update more often with my ruminations and thoughts about the games I am running or am participating in.

These days that means D&D, 5e is still at the top of the mountain for TTRPGs as far as I am concerned and even though I will be taking a more detailed look at Wotc's UA for the new system they are going to roll out next year, or whenever, I have invested heavily into 5e, as have many others and I don't really see myself stepping away from it anytime soon, similarly to how it took a while to transition from 4e to 5e. 

Of course, things have changed a whole lot in the hobby in the last 15 years or so since we bid adieu to 4e and embraced the "new" edition.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. In some ways, some things have not really changed. For example, today I carved out some time to play at my local game store when I found out via text message that they were offering free space and tables at which to participate in regular games. 

When I arrived however, the guy at the counter told me that no one else had shown up, and after his lunch hour he was going to reopen to see if anyone showed up for a planning session. So this illustrates how hard it is to find a regular group initially, which has traditionally been a recurring problem to a lot of enthusiasts of D&D and games of a similar ilk.

Now it is immensely easier to find a game online utilizing digital platforms such as Owlbear and Roll 20, which is exactly what I will be doing tomorrow night as I have been invited to rejoin a group which is play testing the new UA classes and mechanics in a digital format. I engaged in this once before earlier this year before things became too hectic, but now I am carving out some time to do it again before the new system drops in 2024.

Different modalities of D&D and running game sessions

Recently I have become very interested in becoming a better DM for the group I have been running game sessions for now for over a year and a half. We play every other week, which sometimes feels like a lifetime when it comes to immersion and having a pause in the narrative, but in my spare time I was doing a lot of prepping and studying how others engage in this same exercise, trying to run the perfect game session. Nowadays rather than having a strict linear adventure, I am really wanting to run games with a more emergent story. I have learned a lot and will probably elaborate more on this topic as part of a more in-depth blog post.

For now, I will leave by saying, I am not sure who, if anybody, is reading this blog on a regular basis, but to you out there who may have stumbled upon it, welcome. And may the rolls be with you.

I do however want to share with some very interesting channels and forums which expand upon these topics which I find interesting starting with: 

D&D box sets: Retro component review

 A little over a year ago I looked at the 3.5 boxed set for D&D from 2006 by Wizards of the Coast and the 2010 set which went along with the 4e Essentials line. Both really nice boxed sets in my opinion and both better than then 2022 Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, if you are going by components and a few other factors. The best boxed set adventure for my money remains the 2014 5e Starter set adventure, it's hard to beat that adventure for both new DMs and players getting into the hobby, but as far as starter box sets go, these are some good ones. 

I will have a new video soon going more in depth into some of these boxed sets, but for now I enjoy looking back at this video, sorry for the quality, I was having trouble focusing using my new SLR at the time. 

Combat in 5e is broken?

 

I have been playing D&D 5th edition on and off for over two years now and have been DMing in a biweekly group since last June and I can honestly say that I believe I had more fun as a player than running campaigns, primarily because I believe the 5e combat mechanics are broken in comparison to older editions of the game.

Now I am no grognard, but I will preface this post by saying that I have played first edition games and ran some basic D&D games (mostly the Meltzer or what gamers call BECMI nowadays) and this is the version I seem to like the most, outside of AD&D first edition.

Why do I say that D&D 5e's combat system is broken? Well let's take a look at page 9 of the Rule book from the new starter set (which basically just condenses some of the key rules from the 2014 PHB) where combat is covered and you will find what I think is the biggest culprit: Step 4 which states that after rolling for initiative, each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order. The problem is that by the higher levels, (my players are level 7 now) they have amassed so many abilities and powers, that even a single monster with a CR a level below or above will present little challenge if played as written in their stat block. 

Well you might say that the answer for the DM is to have more of the same types of monsters attacking the party, but this is not always optimal in practicality or even possible due to narrative reasons. Today the party travelled north in the Forgotten Realms and squared off against a B'rohg which was about twice the size of one of the party members, our barbarian, whose pet is a two headed hell hound, never even broke a sweat. Even though the creature has the ability to hurl boulders from a great distance and does possess multiple attacks, it was no match for the party, usually the more members of the adventuring group in a fight, the bigger the advantage they possess due to the sheer number of turns vs. the creature they are fighting, even if the creature has immunities and multiple attacks. 

So in this case, a CR6 monster against a full party of 7th level characters did not stand a chance. Granted, it was only one creature, but usually the party is so much more powerful collectively that if you have a group vs. the characters, the results will be the same, only combat may take slightly longer because you are reducing the health of monsters with slightly over 400 hp instead of the long combatant with only 136.

So even if the creature were to attack with its rend power which can make 49-85 worth of damage in a single attack, it really doesn't matter if the creature rolls low on initiative and never gets a turn at bat. 

The B'rogh doesn't stand a chance even as an expert rock hurler against a full party if he goes up against them alone, even with its large stature and fearsome frame with multiple arms and multi-attack because the players are much more powerful at higher levels and they collectively have more turns to attack it. 

Health and dying

Another problem with 5e which has been well documented and which I won't rehash too much here has to do with the relative ease in which the adventuring group can heal and recuperate health. If they have a cleric in their midst, this procedure is even easier, but let's say that the character is reduced to zero h.p. and fails its death saves (unlikely because the game is set up for recovery of health vs. permadeath), spells can always bring the character back from the brink or even from death itself. What's worse, the short rest and long rest mechanics allow for faster and more effective heals and recovery of spell slots. Of course, in older versions of the game material components were required to perform some of the more intricate spells, but that has been mostly done away with at the DM's discretion. Mostly the spell caster will use a spell focus in lieu of required components.

Lastly, spell casting classes are a bit broken too, with cantrips being powerful at times and which can be repeated over and over without the need to spend spell slots. 

But for me, the most broken mechanic is still the unbalanced combat system. So much so that it has me longing to play BEMCI or a more challenging OSR version of the game. How do all of you out there ameliorate this faulty combat mechanic?

Retro vid: The 80s D&D cartoon. Memorial Day Weekend 2021

A little over two years ago I watched and reviewed the pilot episode of the D&D cartoon entitled "The Night of No Tomorrow"

Adventures in EQ's new Oakwynd progression server by a n00b player

was 'Horde of the Dragon Queen' really that bad?

Now that 5e is approaching almost a decade of in existence, I thought it would be fun to go back and take a look at the first module that was produced for the system back in 2014, "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" part of the Tyranny of Dragons series, which I think was intended to have been three books, but which for some reason ended up being just the two.

Last year when I was trying to complete my collection of published 5e adventures, I really wanted to get my hands on this and its continuation "The Rise of Tiamat" purely for the nostalgia factor.

I remember vividly playing with my 4th edition group in Texas, in the waning days of that system, and seeing this volume on the shelves of my local game store. I didn't pick it up then because we were still having fun playing the older system, but I knew eventually I wanted to check out these printed 5e modules.

This module didn't get (and to this day) does not get good reviews from DMs and gamers in general, so I am going to do a chapter by chapter read and see if it's as bad as advertised, or if the criticism is warranted.

I should probably start out by noting that I never play tested or ran this module with a group. I am a fairly n00b DM. In fact, that is my brand! Currently I am running an ongoing campaign with a group that has been going on for about 9 months now, which is the longest campaign I have run to date, but it is a mashup of the starter set adventures (Lost Mines, Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and Dragon of Icepire Peak) with Storm King's Thunder for good measure, but all with a spin I've put on the whole thing because I don't like running modules straight from the book. Many others do not like that style either. To each his/her own.

Strengths: What I feel are the strengths of this one

The setting of the story is the Forgotten Realms, really the first time Faerun and its familiar surroundings make their presence in the 5e system, a smart move by WOTC. Go with something people are familiar with and also it is a setting that easily ties into the Starter set adventures and the Sword Coast, which was of course no accident.

The artwork is really good and I like the paper, the pages have this matte print which seems to provide a better ease of readability than glossy pages. Maybe it is just me, but I prefer this to the glossy in other books. 

Weaknesses: Yes, it is not a perfect product or story. Then again is anything really perfect? Just from re-reading chapter one "Greenest in Flames" I can say that the NPCs are not really that memorable, they are serviceable for what they are, but few of them stand out as written. 

There is also an attempt to tie in the characters' backstories to the Tyranny of Dragons campaign by using hooks found in the book's Appendix A. Except this template's hooks aren't all that memorable or original. I think that the players could come up with better hooks, or at the very least modify some of the better ones found in the appendix to make them feel less shoehorned. 

I don't like the map of Greenest they provide in chapter one on page 10. Actually, it's a very poor map, it looks generic with very little detail. I do feel that the map in the starter set is better, detailing the town of Phandalin and an overhead map for the entire sword coast. The map should have been more detailed and easier to use, representing the key spots in the action. 

Another irritating thing about this chapter is that the formatting of the NPCs is not consistent. The convention in most of these 5e modules is that they used bold text to reference creature in the Monster Manual, so the DM can go look up their stats, but in this chapter some NPCs' names are in bold with no stat block or reference in the monster appendix (which is an odd mix of both monsters and NPCs), while others are just named without the bold formatting. It;s a bit confusing. 

One of the key events in this chapter is the adult blue dragon attacking. Except that this is all window dressing, it's all for show as the characters don't fight the dragon and hardly interact with it. The reason given for this is that the characters are first level and so the dragon just makes an appearance to attack or threaten NPCs, with the DM advised that its breath weapon could kill a 1st level character. Indeed, the Monster Manual gives an adult blue dragon a CR of 16 with multiple attacks and legendary actions.

 There is actually a lot of action in this introductory chapter, but the pacing seems off, a little clunky in some parts. The best bit is the raiders trying to set fire to the town's mill and the PCs asked to save it.

In the end though, it all devolves into melee combat with some mildly interesting NPCs and creatures. 

Next: Chapter 2 "Raiders Camp" Another bad map. 

She-Hulk series from Disney+ is mostly awful, but what do I know? I only read the comics

Variety article on She-Hulk finale. (SPOILERS)

I watched all of She-Hulk and then read this article. (see above link to Variety piece) SPOILERS follow if you haven't seen the show.

From the article: "Reading the script, it was so true. There’s so much resistance to a woman just existing in that space of superheroes. There’s always going to be that. I sort of anticipated it. It’s why I also feel it’s important. There’s such an entitlement to space held by certain people, and to even exist as She-Hulk is like a fuck-you, and I love that."

No, there is not a lot of resistance to a woman existing in a space of superheroes, if there were, we would not have characters like She-Hulk or Wonder Woman or the myriad of female heroes out there. There is resistance however, to a female superhero done wrong. "Captain Marvel" to me is a great example of a superhero done right by the MCU, even though there were trolls saying she was OP and all that. Get over it, she's OP in the comics too and always was!

Disney's She-Hulk is done wrong, mostly by an actress who does not embody the character (she feels more like someone reacting and spitting out dialogue than someone embodying a character.) When SMG played Buffy as an example, she made me believe she was Buffy, she gave the character life, this actress' portrayal is conversely mostly lifeless.)

Kevin Feige had a huge hand in that finale, which is probably why it's so poor. Why are producers shaping shows instead of letting talented writers do the work? She Hulk writers are not talented, Jen is such a great character but in this show she is reduced to a feminist parody of herself who hates all men. Even the one dude who was good to her in the end turns out to be evil and fucks her over, because of course he does, he has yy chromosomes.

Just about the best thing about that finale is a clever homage or reproduction of the Bill Bixby/Ferrigno series from the 80s, but the writes manage to miss an opportunity there too, absent is a character like Mr. McGee, the journalist. Bruce Banner takes his place dressed in Bixby garb from the intro. I think having a female version of McGee would have worked better, or maybe have one of the Intellegencia, but that's a minor nitpick when there is much else that is bad.

But apart from all that, the best these writers can do is break the fourth wall and that is a narrative device that is mishandled imo because in the comics it was used efficiently but here it is mostly used to insult the viewer, i.e. "Isn't it so clever? or we are using this technique or x y z is happening because of this...." just in case the audience doesn't get the simple gag, let's explain it to them.

In conclusion, if you want a good She Hulk series read the comics by John Byrne. If you want a really bad She Hulk series then give this show a go.

The Lich King rises again

My dealings with the Lich King as a faithful servant in game in 2022.

 

World of Warcraft was one of my favorites mmos in the 2000s, starting with 2007 but I never really got to experience the full impact of Wrath of the Lich King because even though I started playing after TBC, I was mostly a casual and doing low level newbie stuff and content. I played on and off from 2008 to about 2014 and then didn't really log on again until classic dropped in the summer of 2019. 

I distinctly recall playing a good chunk of it in 2007-08, staying up late on weekend nights doing dungeons or world and pvp. I recall how fun it was to make alts of the different races on the horde side. Even though I did buy Warcraft 2 when it was new, I never really got into the RTS as much as I did the mmo. 

This is a good time to get back into wow, or at least that is what Blizzard wants us to believe with the upcoming release of WoTLK classic later this month. 

So it is the hopes of the developer that they are banking on nostalgia when they had (arguably) their most successful expansion and they want us all to experience it, especially those of us who didn't experience it to the fullest. They are certainly making it easy as they gave me a free level 50 boost and have made Shadowlands free content, which they usually do before another expansion drops. Thus I have been playing Shadowlands and trying to get my warrior to max level, but really it is just biding my time until Classic WotLK drops. 

I have been thinking a lot about classic versions of games versus their modern counterparts because of my involvement with D&D 5e and the ongoing debates about game mechanics of old and new ones being added to that game, especially with the recent announcement of the One D&D playtest. 

And let's be honest, what is wow but a better version of the official D&D video games and mmos? I think DDO is great, but it never really captured the mainstream's attention or became part of the zeitgeist quite like wow did. DDO and Neverwinter are fun mmos in their own right, but wow was virtual D&D done right, if you don't believe me, remember how influential mmos and wow in particular were to the design of D&D 4e in 2008? That was not an accident. 

I suppose as long as there is legacy content in any medium, there will always be the possibility of debates about which version (or in the case of D&D which edition) was actually best. While I am not an old gronard or hating on 5e like many people do online, I do realize that these type of arguments will always exist and people will have their preferences about which version of whatever game they like best.

I will admit that I am a bit excited about another expansion launch, no I am not talking about Dragonflight, I am talking about Wrath Classic, we all knew it was coming after Blizzard made Classic TBC a thing. I really like the feeling of a full world and servers teeming with new and returning players and I think Wrath Classic will bring that kind of excitement back to wow. 

For the horde!!!

My list of the 8 best D&D 5e campaign settings ranked

 I wanted to make a video for my channel about this, but alas the best plans...etc. So in lieu of that I am making this post discussing all the settings that have been published by WotC since 5e debuted in 2014 and there have been quite a few, almost as many as source books (all of which I own) with three more coming our way in a few days with the re-introduction of the Spelljammer setting from the second edition days.

So remember this list is fairly subjective and totally my impression of the setting books so if you have a different ranking, that is totally fine and you are entitled to your opinion. Also for this list, I skipped Acquisitions Incorporated since it's such a niche setting and hardly anyone ever plays this from what I can tell, but I am putting Spelljammer at No. 8

OK, so now that we know the ground rules, here we go! Coming in at no. 7: Strixhaven.

Strixhaven A Curriculum of Chaos, Wizards of the Coast

As many of you probably know, this is one of three setting books based on Magic the Gathering, and in my opinion, the least interesting of the trio. I know some will disagree, but there is one thing this book and the others prove: That capitalism is alive and well in 2022 as these many setting books based on a relatively new setting to D&D (compared to Grayhawk or even Spelljammer for example) is proof that Wizards isn't shy about capitalizing on the ongoing popularity of its most successful property to date.

Coming in at No. 6: Ravenloft!

While it is certainly true that Ravenloft is one of the classic settings for D&D dating back to the game's second edition, the brainchild of the supremely talented and vastly underrated (imo) couple Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, who also penned the Dragonlance modules and novels based on that setting, here's the thing, while I love gothic horror and vampires, this setting is fairly limited to a specific genre, dealing with body horror and spooks and the like, a genre which isn't my absolute favorite in the vast multiverse of D&D.

Now don't get me wrong, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft has a lot to offer DMs and players, especially if horror is their cup of tea. 

New character options are very flavorful and interesting including the hexblood who are descendants of hags, the reborn which are essentially reborn creatures with some very cool skills and features due to the fact that they, much like Frankenstein's famous monster, are reanimated corpses or entities that have returned from the great beyond and of course the Damphirs which are neither vampires nor human but something of a cross of both. 

Coming in at No. 5 is the Sword Coast, the Forgotten Realms, which is the default setting for 5th edition, which is another reason it doesn't rank a lot higher on my list. There are many issues with the Forgotten Realms, another classic D&D realm but one which has been bled to death in 5e on purpose!

It almost feels as though this book, as thorough as it is with its descriptions of Fearun and the Forgotten Realms could and should have been twice as long, given how much history there is to all the locations dating back to second edition and early editions of the game. 

Want to see the entire list? Well I was going to type this all out but I am feeling lazy so how about we skip to the video version and save me all the possible Carpal Tunnel?