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? 

 

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle: Should you pick it up?

The new 5e starter set which includes the adventure "Dragons of Stormwreck Isle" dropped yesterday as a Target exclusive and if you are keen on watching reviews or unboxing videos of the product, there's a good number of them on the interwebs.

I have gone back and forth in my head whether or not to pick this up from WotC and to put in an order from Target because I do enjoy new adventure models, which is essentially what this is, overall if you are a new DM or player and thinking of getting this set, I would recommend against it, as you can pick up the 2019 Essentials Kit, which is a better value in my opinion.

I think I would only recommend this set to those among us who enjoy collecting RPG and specifically D&D stuff. I actually personally own the 3.5 starter box, the 4th edition red box and three of the 5e box sets WotC put out so far, the original 2014 set, the 2019 Essentials Kit and the branded "Stranger Things" box set. That last one was a gift though, not something I would have bought myself.  I have a link here to my Youtube Channel's video I recorded 8 years ago when the first 5e starter set came out if you are curious on my thoughts on that from back in the day.

I also recently watched a pretty good series detailing and ranking the starter set all the way back to the pre first edition Moldvay and Mentzer days to the current 5th edition and realized that the 2nd edition set may be the best one, but sadly I never picked that one up and would have to shell out some coin to get my hands on it.

Sadly, this set is a bit a letdown in my opinion, especially after the April preview video which Wizards put out hyping this thing up as some sort of gateway to digital content for n00bs. It's a head scratcher then that this set appears to only come with a sheet of paper which lists all the digital D&D related sites and links, without even including codes to discounted or free digital content which the Essentials Kit did have. 

Here is a short breakdown of the upcoming and recent releases from Wizards and my reaction to them based on my level of excitement about acquiring the product. 

• Monsters of the Multiverse: released May 17, 2022. Still not sold on this book, I already own "Volo's Guide to Monsters" and "Mordenkeinen's Tome of Foes" and they are essentially the same monsters with some new streamlined mechanics and tweaks such as the removal of racial bonuses. Also the lore is removed, no thank you, I will stick with the old books.
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel: released July 19, 2022. Also not sure about this one, on the one hand, the concept of real world myths which are different than the usual D&D fare of high fantasy and influenced by Dark Ages, Celtic, Norse and other familiar western mythologies is intriguing, and as much as I want to support the POC authors which contributed to this anthology of one-shots, I guess this doesn't pique my interest enough to want to run them or incorporate them into bigger and existing campaigns. Currently I am DMing and playing games in the Forgotten Realms, the default setting for 5e, so it makes more sense for me to incorporate one-shots from, say, "Candlekeep Mysteries," an anthology book that already sits on my shelf. 
•  Spelljammer Adventures In Space: August 16, 2022. I know a lot of people are hyped about this release, but other than the recognizable Mincs and Boo, I have no connection to this setting, as I did not play a lot of D&D in 1989 when 2e was popular (though I wished I had) I think if I wanted to play a space fantasy RPG I would have chosen to go with Paizo's "Starfinder" or something similar to it eons ago, but it's a personal preference. Not all that hyped about this release tbh. You can preorder the entire set on Amazon and other retailers for about $42 which is actually pretty cheap, considering adventure books run about $50 but I think I will pass for now.
• Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle.  released Aug. 1, 2022. I think I pretty much covered this one.
• Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen: release date, late 2022. This one was quite possibly the one I was mostly excited about, until I read that they had messed with the Kender and were open to making other changes to the Dragonlance lore. No!!! If they change too much, I am sticking to my 2e Dragonlance modules and books, especially the excellent 1e "Dragonlance Adventures" which is still one of my favorite old school campaign setting books.