Tabletop Fun

[Jay 2K Winger]

Spelljammer continued this week, minus one player (the minmaxer is at Disney World right now), but we pressed on. Our galleon was getting chased by this starmoth ship (literally shaped like a moth with crystalline wings or something), so we just mounted up to our ballistae (basically like giant crossbows) and started taking shots as soon as they were in range. While taking few hits ourselves (only one hit did any serious damage, and that took out one ballista), we took out all of their weapons.

And our party-- with the help of our wizard and artificer-- enchanted one of our last bolts by casting Enlarge and Darkness as it was firing, so this massive ballista bolt hit their ship for massive damage, while also trapping it in a big sphere of magical darkness. Oh, and our ranger's drake animal companion infused the shot with fire breath, so it did fire damage too. The DM had us roll an Intimidation check, which got a Nat-20. The DM described the starmoth's crew-- led by astral elves, but manned by hadozee (monkey-people)-- as suddenly freaking out, a cacophony of screeching monkeys reaching us.

The starmoth fled the battle at that point, and in true Sinistar fashion, I used Minor Illusion on my voice to bellow out a deep "RUN, COWARDS!" as they did so.

We ended up stopping play two hours early, because we'd blitzed through the encounter and the DM hadn't prepared far enough ahead for it.

Additional fun, when we took out the starmoth's first ballista, the DM described the weapon as basically exploding and sending its bolt flying up in the air. The wizard's player, just for funsies, rolled a d100, and said "If I get the 0/00, I want it to hit one of Scurvy's limes." The DM burst out laughing, and agreed. It didn't roll for it, alas, but we all agreed it would keep going and eventually hit something, someday. I paraphrased Mass Effect 2 by quipping, "And that's why Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in Wildspace!" sending the DM into fresh peals of laughter.

[Jay 2K Winger]

My D&D AL DM is doing a Spelljammer campaign now on alternating weeks, which I of course am participating in. I was tempted to play as a giff big game hunter with a blunderbuss, but opted not to because I wasn't sure what the AL rules would be about firearms. (For the record, the giff's name would have been Braxton Shale. I probably would have attempted an Aussie accent for him.) So I just brought back my now-level 5 hexblade warlock, rejoining our ranger, cannoneer artificer, and Wenbin the wizard from the Spelljammer Academy. (Scurvy's player brought back an older character of his, a githyanki warlock, because his character is from Wildspace.)

A new player joined us with a bugbear fighter with crossbow proficiency. I found out later that he was a competent min-maxer, but not an asshole about it. In the first round of combat at the start of the session, he rolled high on initiative (in part thanks to bonuses) and then-- thanks to crossbow proficiency and Action Surge and other bonuses-- fired his crossbow five times and wiped out two out of the six enemies on the field, and then seriously wounded a third. We did sort of jokingly say "Leave some for the rest of us!"

Partway into the adventure, as we're all hauling ass to get out of Neverwinter before the city falls apart due to Plot Reasons, this pack of thugs tried to block the way to the galleon, and their leader promptly got Telekinetic Shove'd by Wenbin off the dock. Ranger had told the DM he was holding action with a spell, and admitted afterward that if Wenbin had failed, he would have used Conjure Animals and summoned a herd of cows to drive them off. (My response: "That's some bullsh*t." The table gave some chuckles and groans in equal measure.) The thugs (boss included) were allowed onto the galleon as we escaped and took off. But Wenbin and my warlock both intimidated the thugs into behaving themselves with some well-chosen words (and a Minor Illusion by my warlock to make her eyes turn black), even roped some of the thugs into mucking out the donkey stables in the cargo deck.

(Side joke. After the donkey mucking stuff came up, the players started wondering why the captain had donkeys on her ship. I replied, "Clearly, the captain appreciates a nice piece of ass." To more groans.)

Yadda yadda yadda, things came up, like the fact the thugs knew what animals were in the stables without being told (Wenbin told them "there's some livestock in the hold" while recruiting them for mucking duties, but the thug boss told his cronies to "go clean up the donkey pens") and the galleon's captain expressly told us she didn't know them-- so we decide to interrogate them...

Warlock: "Right now, you're passengers. But it wouldn't take much to reclassify you as stowaways. And-- Captain, remind me, what do we do with stowaways on spelljammer vessels?"
Wizard: "Ooh, I know this one! They take a very long walk off a very short plank!"

It went very well, a lot of fun was had. With all of the sci-fi movie references we were throwing around, the min-maxer smiled and said, "I'm with my people!"

[Jay 2K Winger]

Forgot to post the end result of the Spelljammer Academy four-parter from two weeks ago!

So we get our Tyrant ship restocked and the helm installed so we can set out to go retrieve this adamantium meteor that landed on this beholder-controlled planet. We get there, with two NPCs manning the ship so the party can go find the meteor. It was taken from its impact site into this spindly spire of rock in the center of the disc-shaped planet. (Yes, I of course made the requisite Discworld reference when the DM described it, asking, "Is it sitting on the back of four giant elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle?") Anyway, we find the meteor in the middle of this room, in the center of a shaft of sunlight coming down from above, as two Spectators (lesser beholder-types) argue over who is guarding it.

We're all Level 4, and we do not want to get in a fight with these things. So our artificers fashion this chunk of scrap metal and put an enchantment on it to make it shine and gleam. Then our wizard, Wenbin the Magnificent, in a masterful piece of RP, steps in to arbitrate between the spectators. He first suggests a race between them, from the bottom of the spindle all the way to the top. He doesn't quite pass the persuasion check, so he keeps going, suggesting a test of strength, for the spectators to find the biggest, heaviest thing they can find, and carry it as high as they can. Still doesn't quite pass, so he keeps going, and this time successfully convinces them to race to the edge of the planet and around the underside. Soon as they're gone, we toss the meteor into the special bag of holding we'd been given, then haul ass back to our ship.

I turned to the wizard after we were safe and had to just go, "Wenbin, you magnificent bastard!" Everyone had some major compliments to pay to the player for that one, DM included, for some masterful roleplay.

The rest of the session involved us running into a damselfly ship crewed by pirates, the leader of whom confronted us and demanded we turn over an NPC-- one of the other students who had been sent back to the academy after the previous episode-- who turned out to be a traitor. We couldn't convince them we didn't have them, so a fight ensued between the githyanki pirate leader and their space-shark-narwhal thing that was their mount. We killed them, but their ship outmaneuvered us and got back to the academy first. By the time we got back, the fight was over, the academy had survived, but -- yadda yadda yadda, sequel hooks, we all graduate, get to level 5, et cetera.

The DM says he may run some Spelljammer adventures later-- the book just dropped two weeks ago-- and I may bring my warlock back for that.

Now I'm also joining up with another DM who wants to do a Curse of Strahd campaign, our session zero is this Sunday.

[Jay 2K Winger]

From the latest Spelljammer Academy session...

So our party is gathered to be sent on a retrieval mission, but we need to retrofit a captured beholder Tyrant ship with a spelljammer helm to pilot it. And (as per usual in a D&D game), things don't go smoothly.

First, someone trips a control or something, and the ship starts spinning in place, flinging everyone into walls and the floor while in the "spin cycle."

Once that's done, as we try to get the helm installed, our ranger says to the DM, "I'm going to go look for trouble." And they find it, while checking one of the lower decks, they find these mechanical spider-insect-things, and promptly get stuck in a fight with them. The party is split, because the ranger and one other character had wandered off to do this, while we were still busy with the helm. Many spell slots are expended trying to deal with these things before they finally get scrapped.

So then we try to get back to installing the helm, but the ranger goes and "looks for trouble" again, basically checking on the rest of the NPCs that are coming on mission, but were stowing cargo and getting a cooking station set up. When they get to the lower decks, the ranger finds them filled with smoke, the cooking station and some of the supply crates are on fire, and there are these goblin-imp things made of lava flinging fire around. The ranger sends their animal companion/familiar off to get help, so half the party is downstairs dealing with this, while the other half-- including me-- are still upstairs fussing with the helm.

When all is said and done, the lava-imp-things are dead, but so is an NPC officer, all our fresh food and water barrels are destroyed, and we don't know how the imps got on board. So we use our rocky-talkie (Sending Stone) to notify the bosun who dropped us off, and she's on her way back with backup. The party decides to stay on the lower decks, apart from two people who go up to deal with the helm. I describe my warlock as staying downstairs "to keep an eye on [ranger], make sure they don't wander off again." The ranger's player laughs and says, "I go looking for trouble--" and I snap, "No, you don't, stay where you are!"

Kinda crazy-chaotic session, but still loving it.

[EricKei]

I go back to the days of THAC0, myself D&D 5e has often been described as "simplified" as compared to 3.5 and its successor, The Edition That Shall Not be Named...and yeah, I have to agree, though the newer books have been introducing more and more stuff over time. I like it. The two editions, while both definitely being "D&D" at their cores, have very different ways of handling things, different approaches, and, as a result, appeal to two differing audiences who, nonetheless, share the love of the game in common. It's the execution and minutiae that separate them, but both are solid systems.

[Nunavut Pants]

I've been playing far more tabletop board games than RPGs in the past ... many years. Had a fun game of Terraforming Mars a couple of days ago. I think I placed third out of four people, but I enjoyed it. My Corporation's special power was basically one bonus Terraform Rating per turn (TR is Victory Points at the end of the game, plus income during the game, so that is powerful) so I built a large lead up until we counted all of the other VPs right at the end. Two of the others did much better than I on bonus points from cards at the end, and everyone else did far far better in points gained from spaces owned on the planet.

I classify the game as yet another thing I am not that good at but still enjoy!

[Jay 2K Winger]

I find the storytelling is the part I like, but having good people to tell stories off of helps considerably.

For instance, I recently discovered an indie game called "Anomaly," which is a tarot-based GM-less game. The basis of the game is the players are weaving a story about a team sent by a mysterious organization to investigate some kind of anomaly. It's inspired by things like the Magnus Archives and SCP Foundation. Before you start play, you collectively agree on basics-- setting, organization, and the anomaly-- without too much detail. From there, you take it in turns to build out the details and advance the narrative, using tarot cards as a base. Each player draws a card on their turn, which then references a prompt in the game booklet. You must resolve that prompt, and then take one of three actions for your turn-- a card action (which varies depending on the suit), start a project (which is just any action/event that cannot be resolved in one turn), or hold a team meeting (wherein all players discuss things from various perspectives). Build it all up to some kind of conclusion, etc.

I finally got a chance to sit down and play it with my roommate Road last week. (The game needs a minimum of two players.) We told a story about a research team (along with the security forces accompanying them) from the mysterious Phillip Howard Institute, sent to retrieve an anomalous rug from an abandoned mansion outside Philadelphia. Only, there were tensions within the team (the 2nd in command was a little salty he was passed over for promotion, and there was a rookie on the team), and they receive word that some urban explorers may have disappeared inside the mansion. And a series of ominous prompts from the cards led to things going south very quickly, as some kind of fiery entity began to emerge, trapped everyone inside the grounds, and was ready to slaughter them all. PHI were ready to wipe the entire site off the map to contain the situation, but then a strange outsider appeared, offered to rescue half the team-- but they could not choose which half, "that's the price"-- and they got teleported to safety.

Road and I were going off the same wavelength and we quickly realized when it was dramatically appropriate to end our turn on the narrative-- cliffhanger style-- and turn it over to the other. Without needing to ask one another, we knew how to add to the mystery and deepen the hidden lore without even referring to it, and leave things open for future stories, if we so choose.

We're considering making a podcast out of it, once we have the basics of the game down and have played it a few more times.

[Ghel]

I've played D&D 3.5 and 5th edition. Both can be fun. I find the fun is more about the players than the game system.

I've also played Fate, and liked it. Monster of the Week is also good, though a bit darker. I also like small indie games, like the Tearable RPG, where you write your skills on a single sheet of paper, and then tear through the name of the skill to use it.

[Ironclad Alibi]

A really fun game if you love the dungeon delving aspect of tabletop RPGs is WarHammer Quest. Good luck finding it though, the game is out of print. Some friends of ours MADE a set for Boyfriend for his birthday one year. You draw cards to build your dungeon one tile at a time and encounters are all randomly generated, as is your objective IN the dungeon. Combat is really straightforward, and the only dice you need are six siders. There's only one book, and it mainly has stats for the creatures you can encounter and lists of treasure.

I have Warhammer Quest, as well as the two adventure supplements and three character packs.

And related to that, also by Games Workshop, are the Hero Quest and Advanced Hero Quest games. Hero Quest came in two versions, American and British. They also had add-on quest packs and character packs. Hero Quest was sold by Milton Bradley in the US.

[Nunavut Pants]

Heh, the main referent for all of this to me is AD&D2E. (God I'm old!) But one of the fun aspects was always people joking. It was also one of the most infuriating aspects, at times. Especially when that part of the adventure was supposed to be serious.

Is P5e more of a "small-unit tactical combat simulation", or more of a "storytelling framework"? I've played in groups that went each of those ways before.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Hey, everyone has their own system they prefer over others, and that's fine. Pathfinder for you, 5e for me, maybe someone else prefers FATE, or WoD. S'all good.

[Kristev]

I strongly prefer Pathfinder 1e, and 3.0/3.5. 5th ed feels a little too much like a straightjacket. Nowhere near as bad as Pathfinder 2e, though. That game feels like nothing more than 4th ed reincarnated (some things we do not reincarnate).

But you can't go by me. I play druid medics almost all the time, because I hate combat and I hate clerics. Besides, it's always a scream to be able to make herbal remedies or convince a villain's animals that they are being abused and should help us fight him.

[EricKei]

Glad to see you and your group are having fun. That's the best part of it all ^_^

I'm hoping to get back into it; haven't had in-person games in a couple years, and I found out the hard way that attempting to play it (text-based/discord) online invokes my dizziness issues x.x

[Jay 2K Winger]

Finally got into Dungeons & Dragons recently. While D&D and other tabletop RPGs have always been a fascination to me (love worldbuilding stuff), for various reasons I never got around to actually playing it. Like a lot of latter day D&D fans, channels like Critical Role and Dimension 20 got me back into D&D specifically. I'd sort of lost interest in D&D because I felt there was too much emphasis on minutiae and such, but D&D 5e proves pretty easy to learn and of course very flexible for setting purposes.

Last year, the roommates and I had a brief attempt at playing before it failed-- folks just weren't available or whatever, as tends to happen-- and we're actually working on trying it again, but I recently discovered a tabletop gaming store opened in a shopping center nearby, and they not only offer tables and such for people to play on, but they have weekly D&D Adventurers League meetups. So I've started attending those. One of the DMs at the store is doing a four-part adventure in preparation for the upcoming Spelljammers release (D&D ... IN SPAAACE), so rolled up a new character (high elf hexblade warlock) and joined six other players. Among whom are a gnome wizard and a kobold artificer named Scurvy.

Session 1 had, among other fun, the wizard abusing Minor Illusion to mess up direction signs in the halls of the academy, and making an annoying dormmate believe their bed broke underneath them when they sat down. During an orientation/training lecture, as the characters are prompted to answer where they see themselves in a year's time, Scurvy answered (aloud, instead of in his head) "With my own ship, as a mighty pirate!" This prompted us to briefly wonder what his pirate sobriquet would be (Scurvy the Scourge? Scurvy the Merciless?), until someone suggested "Scurvy the Deficient." We broke down laughing, and he's used that as his name since.

After the climactic battle of the session-- defending the academy's head, Mirt the Moneylender, from a sabotaged shipment that contained nasty little spider-things-- Mirt finally disentangled himself from his bedsheets and drew his sword, and promptly caused his pants to fall down (because narrative causality/comedy says so), and just as the guards burst in. The wizard goes, "I cast Minor Illusion on Mirt--" (we all cringe) "--and add six inches."

We all broke down laughing again, which only got worse as we all started riffing on Mirt's name. (Mirt the Moneyshot, Mirt the Mirth-- no, wait, Mirt the Girth) The DM had tears in his eyes and declared that we'd all have both Bardic and Heroic Inspiration for the next session.

Session 2 didn't have anything quite as hilarious as the "add six inches" joke, though it did feature a joke as we ran a simulation of our ship investigating a wreck of another to retrieve the captain's log, and someone made a joke about "We've been trying to reach you about your spelljammer's extended warranty." Later on, someone else referred to a Sending Stone as a "rocky talkie," and then when hitting a gith pirate with a balista as a "gith-kebab."

I. Love. Dungeons & Dragons.