I was jittery and a little bit nervouse when I walked up to the counter of Gamer's Haven after tonight's encounter at the store, not sure what the owner would say to this kid who had only been playing for a couple months and was years younger than all the current DMs, would he laugh at my proposition? Tell me to reconsider?
Nope. He handed me a packet, a set of markers, and the character cards with the words, "I was waiting for one of you guys to ask to DM," In reference to my group of friends.
I was still jittery on the car ride home, but now as I sit cross-legged on my bed punching out all of the monster markers, I've calmed down quite a bit. I feel chill, in control, and kind of cool.
I'm going to DM.
What this means for this blog:
No more speculating on the plot points for D&D Encounters, as that would sort of be unfair.
Future posts about D&D Encounters will be from the perspective of the DM, not a player character (but will, of course, be Spoiler Free about future encounters in the campain).
What this means for me:
I cleaned out a drawer as a specific place to put all of my D&D crap, as I'll likely be amassing more of it, and organization has just become a priority.
I need more dice.
I have to find a not-crappy looking way to jerry rig a DM screen by next week, and a good place online where I can buy a DM screen with my Paypal account for later (Paypal being the only place I have that much money stored).
I need to re-read my DM Guide book, this time without as much skimming.
I am nervous. But in a good way. I'm sure this is going to be fun.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Lidda Doodles
Lidda is Taylor's character. She's a seductive halfling assasin, like, the worlds deadliest three foot tall bundle of boobs. (more on her when I remember to write up character summaries for everyone). The seductive part is important for today's post, because it was heavily affecting Lidda's character design.
See the following:
The doodle on the right is my first impression of what Lidda should wear. I figured, she's an assasin. She's doing lots of ducking and tumbling and backstabbing, so her outfit while revealing needs to be practical for these activities. Then Chrissi, one of the girls we play with, heavily disagreed with me. She insisted my outfit wasn't slutty enough, and drew up something similar to the sketch on the left.
We argued for a little while, and in the end I decided to compromise. I figure if the top shirt/bra/thing is made out of hard leather instead of soft leather, the bikini top will hold the boobs in place just as well as a top with three more inches on the bottom, so I kept that. Then I agreed to shorten the pants to mid-thigh instead of knees, but not all the way to booty-shorts. Because booty-shorts make her look more whore, less assassin. And god-damn it, she is an assasin!
See the following:
The doodle on the right is my first impression of what Lidda should wear. I figured, she's an assasin. She's doing lots of ducking and tumbling and backstabbing, so her outfit while revealing needs to be practical for these activities. Then Chrissi, one of the girls we play with, heavily disagreed with me. She insisted my outfit wasn't slutty enough, and drew up something similar to the sketch on the left.
We argued for a little while, and in the end I decided to compromise. I figure if the top shirt/bra/thing is made out of hard leather instead of soft leather, the bikini top will hold the boobs in place just as well as a top with three more inches on the bottom, so I kept that. Then I agreed to shorten the pants to mid-thigh instead of knees, but not all the way to booty-shorts. Because booty-shorts make her look more whore, less assassin. And god-damn it, she is an assasin!
Friday, May 6, 2011
Lookit what I got!
Look what I bought!
Heroes of Shadow
Dungeon Master's Guide
Heroes of Shadow
Dungeon Master's GuideI have nothing useful to say today, but I'm busy doing my new-book-happy-dance, and thought I'd share the source of my glee.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
We be Dragon Slayers
Last night was the last encounter of the March of the Phantom Brigade campaign we've been running at the gamestore. I'd been looking forward to this for days, in that jumpy-giddy sort of way. It was finally the end, the moment when we would wrap everything up, save the town, make the world a better place.
(I get into the role playing aspect of D&D, if you haven't noticed.)
Our task: Slay the dragon Actherimos guarding the Arrow of Time.
It was a bit more complicated than that, but because I haven't blogged about this campaign before, I'll leave it at that. We had to slay a dragon.
And we did it in the most awkward way possible.
After slicing through the dragon's minions with little to no effort, their gore painting the stalactite encrystal ceiling in the most creative ways our DM could think to explain, the dragon roared up and pounded the ground, sending earthquake tremors throughout the room. It had been evident that this was a catastrophe dragon, so without worry of dragon breath scorching/freezing/melting our armor, we dove in weapon first, slashing at the deranged beast.
It did pretty much nothing.
The dragon retaliated by turning us to stone, trying to bite us in half, and pretty much destroying our line of defense. That was when the dragon made his greatest mistake.
The dragon reached out with his huge jaws to bite down on some tasty and slightly-mentally-challenged paladin, and his jaw hit true. But before the dragon could real back, the paladin forced his jaw open, grabbed his tongue, and started to crawl down his throat.
I'm not even kidding.
The paladin pointed his sword first, slashing at the monsters tonsils and the tender meat of his esophagus, gashing him open from the inside out.
To his comrades, this action seemed fool hardy. They watched his legs squirm as the dragon reeled his head, trying to bite off the human paladin's legs and swallow him whole.
Hagen tried to use his mace to shove the paladin all the way in, so at least he wouldn't be in danger of getting his legs bitten off, but it was to no avail, as the dragon was flailing too spastically for Hagen to get a good shot at the paladin's rump.
The battle continued in chaos for a little while longer, the paladin's ally's gaining combat advantage because the dragon was slightly distracted. The dragon did his best to bite down and swallow, and the paladin found himself slashing from the inside of the dragons throat. The plus side: his legs were no longer in range of the dragons teeth. The downside: he would suffocate soon if he didn't get out of there.
Winrock slashed at the dragons belly with his hellfire sword, trying to tear open his stomach and open up the dragons insides to some fresh oxygen and an escape route for his paladin companion, but while the attack forced great damage, it did not pierce far enough to puncture the dragon's stomach.
It was then that Hagen had a brilliant idea.
He prayed to Pelor and charged his mace with the crackling power of 2[W] + Dex. modifier Lightning Damage, and delivered a heavy strike with true aim and intense fury...
To the dragon's right testicle.
The electricity crackled through the dragons body, spreading from his unders, and his testicle caved in under the heavy blow from a spiked weapon.
He was left stunned, and a few other status ailments I can't remember.
It is then that a chill fills the room and the members of our adventuring company hear the menacing and familiar voice of a once-enemy turned ally, the great ghost Sir Vladistone.
"What... are you doing?" He asks with what our DM describes as shock and awe, as Vladistone has walked in to see the great dragon that killed him in a former life choking on a paladin and wincing in pain while a Warpriest deals Lightning damage to his balls.
We offer to give Vladistone the Arrow of Time so he can keep his wife from being killed in the past (it's a time arrow, it can do that), because for all of our highly rolled insight-checks, his motives appear to be honest. In thanks, he slashes open the dragons belly in the final damage-dealing blow, and calls off the ghosts that were attacking the city of Hammerfast.
The dragon horks out our paladin before he dies, and the paladin takes 20 damage from the combination of digestive juices and being horked into a wall. Vladistone thanks us, as insane as he thinks we may be, and leaves to do what he needs to do.
The paladin hacks off the Dragons head, and declares himself a Dragon Slayer.
...
All in all, it was an extremely fun (and funny) encounter to play through, and the end of the plot was satisfying enough. I will also never forget our profoundly different way of dragon slaying
(I get into the role playing aspect of D&D, if you haven't noticed.)
Our task: Slay the dragon Actherimos guarding the Arrow of Time.
It was a bit more complicated than that, but because I haven't blogged about this campaign before, I'll leave it at that. We had to slay a dragon.
And we did it in the most awkward way possible.
After slicing through the dragon's minions with little to no effort, their gore painting the stalactite encrystal ceiling in the most creative ways our DM could think to explain, the dragon roared up and pounded the ground, sending earthquake tremors throughout the room. It had been evident that this was a catastrophe dragon, so without worry of dragon breath scorching/freezing/melting our armor, we dove in weapon first, slashing at the deranged beast.
It did pretty much nothing.
The dragon retaliated by turning us to stone, trying to bite us in half, and pretty much destroying our line of defense. That was when the dragon made his greatest mistake.
The dragon reached out with his huge jaws to bite down on some tasty and slightly-mentally-challenged paladin, and his jaw hit true. But before the dragon could real back, the paladin forced his jaw open, grabbed his tongue, and started to crawl down his throat.
I'm not even kidding.
The paladin pointed his sword first, slashing at the monsters tonsils and the tender meat of his esophagus, gashing him open from the inside out.
To his comrades, this action seemed fool hardy. They watched his legs squirm as the dragon reeled his head, trying to bite off the human paladin's legs and swallow him whole.
Hagen tried to use his mace to shove the paladin all the way in, so at least he wouldn't be in danger of getting his legs bitten off, but it was to no avail, as the dragon was flailing too spastically for Hagen to get a good shot at the paladin's rump.
The battle continued in chaos for a little while longer, the paladin's ally's gaining combat advantage because the dragon was slightly distracted. The dragon did his best to bite down and swallow, and the paladin found himself slashing from the inside of the dragons throat. The plus side: his legs were no longer in range of the dragons teeth. The downside: he would suffocate soon if he didn't get out of there.
Winrock slashed at the dragons belly with his hellfire sword, trying to tear open his stomach and open up the dragons insides to some fresh oxygen and an escape route for his paladin companion, but while the attack forced great damage, it did not pierce far enough to puncture the dragon's stomach.
It was then that Hagen had a brilliant idea.
He prayed to Pelor and charged his mace with the crackling power of 2[W] + Dex. modifier Lightning Damage, and delivered a heavy strike with true aim and intense fury...
To the dragon's right testicle.
The electricity crackled through the dragons body, spreading from his unders, and his testicle caved in under the heavy blow from a spiked weapon.
He was left stunned, and a few other status ailments I can't remember.
It is then that a chill fills the room and the members of our adventuring company hear the menacing and familiar voice of a once-enemy turned ally, the great ghost Sir Vladistone.
"What... are you doing?" He asks with what our DM describes as shock and awe, as Vladistone has walked in to see the great dragon that killed him in a former life choking on a paladin and wincing in pain while a Warpriest deals Lightning damage to his balls.
We offer to give Vladistone the Arrow of Time so he can keep his wife from being killed in the past (it's a time arrow, it can do that), because for all of our highly rolled insight-checks, his motives appear to be honest. In thanks, he slashes open the dragons belly in the final damage-dealing blow, and calls off the ghosts that were attacking the city of Hammerfast.
The dragon horks out our paladin before he dies, and the paladin takes 20 damage from the combination of digestive juices and being horked into a wall. Vladistone thanks us, as insane as he thinks we may be, and leaves to do what he needs to do.
The paladin hacks off the Dragons head, and declares himself a Dragon Slayer.
...
All in all, it was an extremely fun (and funny) encounter to play through, and the end of the plot was satisfying enough. I will also never forget our profoundly different way of dragon slaying
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