First Impressions - D&D 5e Starter Set

That's a green dragon. Yikes!

I picked the the D&D 5e Starter Set heavily discounted through Amazon Warehouse Clearance, mainly as I'm thinking of running an introductory game (or maybe mini-campaign) of Dungeons & Dragons with the kids. The copy I received had a battered box, but the contents inside were pristine.

Glossy magazine style books.

The box looks impressive, with an illustration of a green dragon that's pertinent to the introductory adventure. It contains a 32 page summary of the rules, 64 page adventure, five polyhedral dice and a set of starter characters. The books are full colour, staple-bound, but in a magazine style. The covers are no heavier in weight, and they're likely to damage.

Feeling cheated by the spacer.

The box is ~2 inches deep, but it is half filled with a spacer. That feels pretty deceptive. Of course, you could just chuck it away and use the space for your notes.

The rules are a competent restatement of the game, with some detail missed out, tailored pertinent to the starter characters presented. You do get pointed at the Basic Rules on the internet for further reference and character creation.

Missed opportunity.

The character sheets are boring, boring, boring. I'd have expected to have seen artwork for each character, but they've gone down the route of thicker white paper. They do have hooks to the adventure, but overall they're a missed opportunity. There should be something here to excite a new player.

The dice are middling quality, and will do the job. Better than the chits I got with Holmes Basic D&D back in the day.

The best part of this kit is the introductory adventure, "Lost Mine of Phandelver".  If I'm honest, it was the main reason I bought this as several folks had said that it was great introductory mini-campaign. It has a decent opening, some pseudo-sandbox stages, and a decent ending. There are notes on what to do next as well. Each part of the adventure has guidance for a novice DM. This is good. At the end of it, the characters will most likely be 5th level. The game showcases different ways to gain experience, which is good.

I liked the mini-campaign; it felt very much like a satisfying introduction to D&D to me. It supports the DM much better than B2 Keep on the Borderlands did; there's actually a plot here. Definitely competently done, and probably quite memorable.

It's a solid kit. I rate it 3 stars out of 5.

Why so harsh? If I'd paid £20 then I'd have felt massively disappointed by this kit. You can get it, shopping around, for £5 less. The spacer makes me feel cheated. The book's will damage easily. You have a limited sub-set of the rules. And the Essentials Kit is only £5 more expensive. It has a bigger adventure sandbox, more complete rules, a GM screen, maps, useful cards and dice. The books are more robustly made. Essentials is the Basic D&D replacement, the starter entry. Don't buy this, buy Essentials if you want to introduce someone to this game.

Unless you want 'Lost Mine of Phandelver'. And I'd definitely recommend it, as it is written well as an introduction, and is far more like a traditional D&D module than 'The Dragon of Ice Spire Peak' in the Essentials Kit. That feels much more like a MMORPG sandbox in structure. Of course, you could combine them. Mike Shea has written a guide on his blog about that.

Recommended, with caveats.

30 March 2020

First Impressions - Ruins of the Grendleroot (D&D 5e)

Spiral-bound print of 'Ruins of the Grendleroot'.

I picked up the PDF of 'Ruins of the Grendleroot' because I'm thinking of running it as an introductory campaign for the kids during this time of isolation. I printed a spiral-bound copy because I prefer that format at the table (lies flat and I'm happier about defacing a print like this rather than a real book).

The mini-campaign has ten adventures in it, all set underground in Blackclaw Mountain and designed to take characters from first through to fifth level. It's written by Mike Shea, who writes the useful and entertaining Sly Flourish blog. Mike has also published some excellent guides on DMing, which I'd recommend. They're based around D&D 5e but the principles will work in most games.

The characters have all travelled three days into the mountain to settle at Deepdelver's enclave, from which they hope to make their fortunes exploring the ruined city of Shadowreach and beyond. The mountain has been riven by the alien Grendleroot, mostly dormant at the moment. Needless to say, the Grendleroot is a key driver within the campaign. The mountain has layer upon layer of history, something which is touched upon through the scenarios.

There's a good framework for the characters to develop in; at the end of the first adventure, they should have somewhere to live. Experience is recommended to be by milestone rather than by killing things and stealing their loot.

The adventures are structured in a similar way, with a focussed top-level overview of plot, principal characters involved and the creatures/threats. It then details NPCs and locations with maps. I'm not a huge fan of the map style, but it's perfectly acceptable. The introduction to each adventure tends to be a little bit formulaic; most start with a random festival or gathering followed by some form of attack to drop the characters straight into the action. It's an effective route to engage everyone, but if I run this then I'll probably mix it up a bit.

Only one of the adventures gave me 'GM Shivers', making me want to run it immediately; 'The Vault of the White Queen'. The others are competent and hang together well, but are mainly traditional dungeons in style. However, if you're using the campaign as an introduction then that's not a bad thing. The most sandbox-like scenario is 'A Fistful of Copper', which is inspired by 'A Fistful of Dollars'. To be successful, the characters are going to need to negotiate or set rival gangs against each other; otherwise, they'll be overrun and die quickly. The climax of the arc could result in disaster for the inhabitants of the mountain and the world itself if the characters fail.

There are no stat blocks; the Monster Manual references are called out in bold. Mike makes regular use of combining or twisting standard stat blocks to make unique and interesting opponents.

The artwork is excellent; there are views of key settings and the NPCs are generally illustrated well. The layout mimics the 5e house style from Wizards of the Coast and is well executed. These are available as separate art files (along with the maps) as a cheap extra purchase. Definitely worth considering if you plan to run with a VTT.

The book rounds out with an appendix to help the player's build characters better linked to the mountain and also adds two new backgrounds and tweaks to others.

The second appendix is full of tools for the GM - locations, encounters, and artefacts.

The final appendix outlines 'The Rise of the Black Star', a way to expand the campaign up to Level 20, with a potentially world-shattering ending. I think that this would be really epic, but there are only initial plot ideas here. There's a lot of GM work to do.

The first adventure is available as a free PDF so you can see the style and try before you buy.

I'm not certain I'll run this yet; I've just picked up the Starter Set so will be skimming the Lost Mines of Phandelver and also looking at The Dragon of Ice Spire Peak from the Essentials Kit. However, recommended, a solid four out of five.

Lyonesse: Print Proof

510 pages of Lyonesse

Loz Whitaker just shared a photo of the print proof of the Lyonesse RPG on the Design Mechanism's Facebook page. I'm so excited that this is near to release. Can't wait for the physical copy!

Thanks to the vagueries of the alphabet, my name ends up first on the author list!

27 March 2020

WOTB: Cliff Dive Ram Kill in Type 64

Cliff dive kill with a second kill to finish it off!

WOTB: Foch 155 Ammo Rack fun

Ouch!

I quite like World of Tanks Blitz when I get a few minutes free. This shows what happens when it all comes together. Poor WZ-121.

Taking your RPG session online

I've been playing traditional tabletop RPGs over the internet for a while now. As a few people have posted about 'how do I do that' recently, I thought I'd write a little about my experiences.

Skype

The first platform I used was Skype, for a game of Hot War played using just audio. It was very much like a conference call. It was in the earlier days of DSL, and we did experience some challenges with dropout and stability. However, overall we learnt that you can have a great game online, but the way you do it will be different.

Note 1: People will lose connection; you'll end up with delays and need a bit of patience. This is more of a problem if it's the GM who is struggling to connect.

Note 2: You need to be more respectful as a player, and let everyone have the spotlight. It's easier to talk over people by mistake when you're lacking the immediacy of face-to-face contact.

Note 3: Use a headset as you're much less likely to miss things, have feedback or make it hard for others to hear.

Google Hangouts

For a long time, Google Hangouts has been a favourite platform for me to game with. It feels more like a traditional game, as you get the video images of the other players. You can also share handouts, pictures and maps with players with the share screen option. It used to be flaky every now and again, but these days we rarely suffer issues. You can switch the video off if you are struggling with bandwidth, although my experience is that it seems to be more all or nothing. You can get feedback or noise from people, so they may need to mute their microphone when not speaking.

The platform used to have a dice roller plugin, but this was removed, so you need to have trust to play with the platform. There are online dice rollers that can be used. The chat is usable, but it tends to be more commonly used for the snark and clever comments you see around the table in a normal game. There's no way of hiding messages.

I played Liminal with Hangouts this week and it was rock solid. I've played extended campaigns of The Esoterrorists and The One Ring with it too, so it's been the platform I've used most. You can use a phone or tablet at a push. Chromebooks usually need 4GB RAM to work well. In principle, the current version of Skype will be exactly the same as Hangouts as a platform.

Note 4: You may need to drop the video if bandwidth is limited.

Note 5: if you're the GM, you can share materials with players using the presentation tools.

Roll20

Roll 20 landing screen

Roll20 is a paid-for virtual tabletop (VTT). However, you can go a long way with the free level.

It has character sheets available for many games, and some of the bigger ones have made the rule sets purchasable and integrated to the game (for example D&D5e, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu). I have been running Curse of Strahd for 5e using this. I purchased the module which uploads handouts, NPCs, monsters, maps and the whole text as a searchable plugin. It allows the Tarokka cards to be drawn as well. The open elements of 5e are integrated, but you can buy the Player's Handbook and Monster Manual if you're a GM. These are shareable with a number of games and players, dependent upon the level of membership that you have. The base share is 5 players and 1 game. This means the players can reference it. 

Example integrated character sheet

The character sheet integration usually works so you can make dice rolls, cast spells etc, all of which report into a chat window. The platform has video and audio integrated, but they can be unstable. We usually use either audio alone or use Discord for audio.

As a GM, you need to be more prepared and upload handouts, maps and other elements in advance. For D&D you'd build the NPCs or monsters (which is why having the Monster Manual or a module available is useful to make this drag and drop). There is a 'fog of war' feature, and you can also add dynamic lighting at higher levels of membership.

Example VTT on Roll 20 for Curse of Strahd

I really like the platform for games where maps, or crunch, is important. However, I'd use Hangouts for lighter games. Roll20's base service is free, so I'd recommend signing up and trying it out.

I've run Alien and D&D5e, and played Coriolis and Heroic Fantasy using the platform.

Note 6: Discord often works better for audio than Roll20. I'd recommend using it. 

Note 7: If you're playing a crunchy game, Roll20 works well.

Note 8: Roll20 needs more preparation and time if you are a GM, but it does payback for it.

Note 9: A dice roller is integrated into the platform.

Note 10: The chat allows hidden messaging.

Note 11: As the platform is more visual, video isn't really needed. Just turn off the AV options in settings.

I happily use both platforms for different games and styles. I'd love to hear your thoughts on online tabletop roleplaying solutions.

21 March 2020

As the End Times approach

It's been a weird week. I've spent large parts of the work side dealing with COVID-19 preparations or the closure of the site which caught fire, including the unpleasantness of redundancy consultations. The ongoing deterioration in my parent's health is approaching another waypoint as well. At home, I've been reading a lot, enjoying the company of the family and catching up on sleep. I've found that the last month-and-a-half is starting to bite from a tiredness perspective, so I've had a few early (for me) beds to try and deal with that. When you're falling asleep mid-page and drop the book (or Kindle!) repeatedly, your body is giving you a hint!

Writing this as someone who has spent the last fortnight diving into government guidance for the coronavirus breakout and turning that into company policy, the last few days feel much more panicked and disorganised. The gov.uk guidance that has been developing logically over the last few weeks - for example, over travel - has suddenly been withdrawn, undermining the work that we've been doing to try to be consistent and ensure that the business can still operate. The armageddon moment for business-as-usual (or business-as-near-to-usual) is if schools are closed; for a manufacturing business, that makes things incredibly difficult. Of course, the health of our people is the most important thing, but we don't have the security that French employers have of knowing that their government will cover salaries if people are sent home.

The panic buying is shocking; Morrisons in Wetherby looks worse than Christmas. Admittedly, their supply chain and on-shelf availability are poor at the best of times, but the two times I've visited this week has seen virtually no detergents, pasta, rice, coffee/tea, tinned food, cleaning agents and toilet rolls. The shelves were bare in large sections. Watching other people's trolleys made me despair; I'm not sure that it's the town's demographic, but it was mainly the elderly shoppers with trolleys full of staples.

If the reports of aiming for 60% infection to develop herd immunity are true, it's a pretty cold decision, and BoJo's talk of many loved ones dying is definitely true. With an estimated death rate between 1% and 3%, that's 360,000 to 1,080,000 extra deaths from the virus (crudely). Now, that may well be an over-estimate, but it's going to be harsh.

Work continues to be all about the aftermath of the fire at Wakefield, but the focus has moved to the site closure and business continuity. Most of the next three weeks will find me sitting in redundancy consultations, which are never pleasant for anyone involved. However, it's really important to me that I be as supportive and sympathetic as I can to the people I talk to.

My mother's health has deteriorated further; my dad is now on four week's respite break as he's not coping well. He's sleep-deprived and struggling to manage with Mum's Parkinsons and associated dementia. It's time to start looking at long-term care options before he kills himself by over-doing it.

I've found solace in reading, and seem to have started an impromptu Iain M. Banks re-read on impulse. Time with Jill and the lads is also great; Jill's on the mend from a very nasty bacterial chest infection, which is good news. I also found myself diving deep into the Marillion back catalogue; mainly the material that has been recorded after Fish left (which I prefer), and especially the albums which I haven't listened to as much.

Nathan seems to be developing a really interesting taste in music; The Killers, NIN, Bring me the Horizon and Pet Shop Boys have all featured recently. I'm glad he's developing a broad taste in music.

I'm on an unplanned gaming break at the moment; Curse of Strahd finished for the time being and a gap until Graham restarts Coriolis. Jag has also had to put a gap in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e game we're playing to the end of March. I'm playing around with using Sly Flourish's Ruins of the Grendleroot as a taster campaign for the lads over the Easter Holidays. I fear that the various conventions that I was planning to attend won't survive the COVID-19 epidemic; as an organiser, I'm watching advice closely.

But I'm here, I'm healthy and mostly happy.

15 March 2020

Curse of Strahd - S1E07: "A Bonfire of Worgs" - Season Finale

SPOILERS BELOW for The Beast of Graenseskov

The party, a fourth session at Level 2. And no, they aren't levelling up until they complete some story milestones!

Ser Alys de Rouge (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral

Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.

Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good.

Roscoe Tosscobble (a halfling Cleric of Life, a follower of Diancecht, god of medicine and healing, former hermit and companion of Ser Adon), played by Jag (Jagusti). Lawful Good.

Ser Adon of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good.

At the end of the last session, we left the party camped with the Vistani having agreed to help find Ruzina's mother's body and return it to her people. There was also the shock news that Ruzina was the illegitimate daughter of Boyar Borje Volchykrov. A plan was made to re-enact the ritual that caused the curse to come to be the next day, as Sir Cedomir and his father had agreed to do so after Kel's eloquent persuasion which Gaddock had foreseen.

6th November
A cold, crisp morning found the characters, accompanied by Ruzina Nostrova, heading back to Volchykrov Manor without incident, despite the tuneful but loud singing from the group. On arrival, they collected Merje the Druid, his assistant Eralda the Herbalist and Father Fiofan and headed to the manor and the pub, passing the bonfire where the worg bodies had been burnt after they were slain the day before. After a few drinks, they headed across the small square and past the dias erected for the ritual. There was almost a party atmosphere. Today was the day that the Beast of Graenseskov would be revealed and slain!

A dark thought crossed Kelwarin's mind that perhaps Sir Cedomir would use this as a chance to kill his father and assume the lordship of Graenseskov, but he dismissed it as cynicism.

The ceremony began, re-enacting the execution of the Hag which brought the curse upon the people of the manor perfectly until the moment that the killing blow was meant to be withheld. Kel's fears were true as Cedomir lopped off his father's head, and his men (the Hounds) killed the Boyar's bodyguard. A fight developed, and Kel called down witchbolts from the sky upon Cedomir, only to be cut down with a crossbow bolt. Fortunately, Roscoe healed him. Ruzina and Father Fiofan proved to be very effective with shortswords and Cedomir was brought down. Roscoe stabilised him, but an angry Kel witchbolted him again. Ser Adon struggled against one of the Hounds, with Fiofan helping.

Cedomir started to tranform and became a huge Dire Wolf like beast; the Beast of Graenseskov was revealed. He howled, and answers came from north and south as Dire Wolves and a wolf pack started to pour into town. Panic ensued and the party focussed their attacks on Cedomir. Ser Adon moved to block the entrance to the square while Gaddock and Roscoe continued to support. The Beast, badly wounded started to flee, only to be cut down by magic. One Dire Wolf fled, and the other was slain by Kel and Roscoe with magic. The wolf pack was driven away by Merje (throwing fire and using his quarterstaff) and Eralda (casting rays of frost and sickness).

As the battle ended, a silence came other manor. A debate was held with Ruzina, who was persuaded to take over as Boyar, giving her people hope and a place to stay. Ser Alys dissented slightly, but kept her peace when Ruzina Volchykrov was acclaimed. The party ran late into the night.

Using magic, the sorceror, cleric and wizard soon found the ashes of Ruzina's mother.

A letter was found in the Boyar's possessions, dated two days before the Beast was slain.

Boyar Borje Volchykrov, I am displeased with the death of my servant at the hand of your visitors and you bear full responsibility. However, the interlopers have my attention and interest. Do what you can to send them to me. Do not fail me again. Strahd.

Roscoe consulted his amber jewel. It was drawn towards the letter, and towards the northwest, along the Old Svalich Road into Barovia proper.

The party rested and prepared to head deeper into the domain of Count Strahd.

____

GM Notes: This session was an extended fight scene, as the story of the Beast of Graenseskov came to a close (or so the party think). There were a lot of NPCs involved as that's what the story demanded, and my dice betrayed me, putting the monsters at the bottom of the initiative order. Chrome crashed three times, which was frustrating.

I need to consider disengaging more; it failed here, so the chance to use lair actions failed.
Because of this, the level of threat was very reduced.

The party levelled up to Level 3. Overall, it feels like they worked harder for it than the 'Death House' scenario would have required.

Loose ends?

• Where has Pretty Kolchya gone?
• Is the Beast really dead and the Curse broken?
• What will Strahd do next?
• How can the party escape this place?

The game will return later in the year, as now we have a break for a few weeks and then Coriolis!

 3rd March 2020

Books in February 2020

Still ahead this year...

Three books this February, and most of an Iain M Banks which I started to re-read on impulse. Considering I also prepared three roleplaying scenarios for Revelation 2020 and dealt with a major incident at work, I think that's pretty good going! You can find out which Banks next month or get spoilers on Goodreads.

Agency (William Gibson)
A new William Gibson novel is always a delight, and this one is no different. This is set in the same universe as 'The Peripheral', a place were it is possible to contact alternative time-lines where different decisions are taken. The main line is the first where this technology became available; by having it earliest, the alternative time-lines (or 'Stubs') are branches from it. This world is more than a hundred and fifty years in our future, in a universe where catastrophic climate change is held back by technology, and the world outside China is ruled by the 'Klept' (Kleptocrats, effectively those with power and wealth like Trump, Putin, Johnson and the Russian Mafia); democracy is long gone. AIs (the Aunties) run in the background, guiding and directing.

Some of the Klept have hobbies of meddling in Stubs, for better and for worse. The plot of this is around an intervention into a Stub where Brexit didn't happen and Hilary Clinton won the US election against Trump. A Stub that is threatened by nuclear war. The Stub was set on its path by a Klept who likes to build dark futures. A team is assembled which works through agents in the Stub, including a software specialist and a nascent AI, to prevent disaster.

I enjoyed this greatly; the writing is as good as ever and the plot interesting. I did find one of the plotlines a little frustrating as it spent a fair bit of time with a protagonist lacking agency over their decisions, being moved in a shell game to avoid detection. However, it comes together nicely at the end. I'm looking forward to his third book in this setting, as I'm interested where it will go. I can't help but wonder if the future China will be part of the story.

Recommended, enjoyable.

Bone Silence (Revenger, #3) (Alastair Reynolds)

This is the concluding part of the Revenger trilogy, the story of the Ness Sisters as they transition from innocents to feared space pirates and beyond... Set in the distant future where the eight planets of the solar system have been dismantled and turned into thousands of habitats orbiting the ageing 'Old Sun', a future where civilisation has expanded across the system, reached dizzying heights of technology and then collapsed thirteen times. A future where the technology of past occupations is used but not understood, and treasure hunters dig it out of 'baubles', abandoned habitats and tombs lost throughout the system. A future where travel is by solar sailed spacecraft between the worlds of the confederation. A future where pirates like the notorious Bosa Sennen prey upon bauble-hunters and shipping and aliens travel between humanities fragile worlds.

I absolutely loved the first book of the series ('Revenger'), but found the second harder work ('Shadow Captain'). This final instalment hits its stride pretty quickly and moves towards an ending I didn't quite expect. This is refreshingly different; while it's science fantasy at its heart, there's a great veneer of hard SF underneath it. While Reynolds said in his epilogue that he has finished with the Ness Sisters, I hope his fears that they haven't finished with him are correct.

It absolutely begs to be turned into a D&D (Black Hack) engined game; baubles as dungeons, aliens, robots and pirates.

Recommended.

City of Spies (Sorayya Khan)

An intriguing book set in the 1970s and spanning the time from the military coup in Pakistan to the burning of the American Embassy and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets, all told from the perspective of a teenage Dutch-Pakistani girl living in Islamabad and Lahore. Refreshingly different and autobiographical.

All One Tonight

All One Tonight

This album has seen pretty heavy rotation the last few weeks since the fire at work; I'm not sure why, but it's caught my mood.

All One Tonight is Marillion's live album for the concert they had at The Royal Albert Hall. Now, I'd considered getting tickets to go to see them there, but they sold out really quickly and I kind of dismissed it as being in London. As this recording shows, I missed out on what seems to have been a fantastic and special night.

The recorded is around two and a half hours; it includes the whole of F.E.A.R. and then a selection of tracks from the post-Fish history (i.e. most of the band's time and, in my opinion, much of their better output). Several of the songs are performed with 'In Praise of Folly', a string quartet, and other guests who are 'proper musicians'. This collaboration then led on to a studio album, 'With Friends from the Orchestra', of similar tracks being released last year.

It's a great listen; favourites like 'Easter' and 'Waiting to Happen' are superb and 'Neverland' sends shivers. The audience really gets into it, and the way they start to sing 'Go!' back to the band as they finish the track is brilliant. I'm tempted to get the DVD version of this.

Recommended.

Available from:
marillion.com store
amazon link

1 March 2020