Dungeons & Dragons

Shiny math rocks go clickety clack.

You forgot the d30



Also looks like I never mentioned it here, but I bought my first gaming book in probably years a couple months ago.



https://battlezoo.com/products/battlezoo-ancestries-dragons-hardcover

It's available for both Pathfinder 2E and D&D 5E, but unfortunately the Pathfinder and the 5E versions are entirely separate due to the amount of rules differences, so I ended up getting the Pathfinder version(as I found it because I was looking into the Pathfinder 2E Remaster at the time). One of the authors is actually one of the original devs for Pathfinder 2E so it's fairly balanced - the default concept is dragons nerfing themselves, because it'll let them grow more powerful far faster than a dragon's natural growth. After all, compare how long it takes say an adventurer to get to level 15 compared to a dragon getting to the appropriate age category to get that same power. So they a hit at the start to get even stronger later on.

As to why I got it, in Pathfinder you can blend any ancestries you want, and I realized this would finally let me properly stat out my half-dragon raksahsa character without houserules for the first time since 3rd edition(which I first made her)! And then ironically, once I had done so, I found that pretty much all her "racial" feats basically came from the dragon side with the rakshasa abilities being emulated fairly well between an archetype(how Pathfinder 2E handles multiclassing - as a series of feats) and her background. Which actually made me realize that it's also perfectly valid to see her as a half-fiend dragon, despite being raised by rakshasa and her true form being mostly tiger with dragon elements - because her mortal blood is dragon.

Anyways, I don't have the 5E version of the book(and I don't know that 5E allows for blending ancestries the same way regardless), but it's a pretty good book IMO if you want a dragon PC that doesn't outshine the rest of the party. There's also plenty of room for other origins besides the self-nerf; besides deals like Jasmine's, there's also mention of magical experiments as a cause, or a dragon bonding itself to someone else to save their life by sharing its life essence. If you want more dragon than just dragonborn, it's definitely an option. There's also like 50 different kinds of dagons mentioned in there, so that could be interesting too if you wanted more variety in that direction.

Yeah, d30 is about as old as the Zocchihedron. Impact Miniatures has also done some custom dice casting Kickstarters for things like d5, d7 (I have two different kinds of d7), d9, d11, d13, d21 (plus a d21 with all the consonants and a d5 with the vowels), and a d36 that has all of the 2d6 pip combinations in addition to the numbers 1-36.

---Dave, owns a lotta weird dice.

Well... that afformentioned insanity I mention... I HAVE thought up/been suggested options.

1) Goblin starts cult. Immediate suggestion.
- Initial pitch was his going mad, thinking he's a badass, and having an ARMY of madmen ready to lay waste to everything... not realizing he is just a level 1 gobbo.
- Further suggestion, and reminding me of the trinkets we rolled for (Fighter has the unknown holy symbol), suggested the Goblin to now be following/in the thrall of some sort of eldritch god of unknown alignment.
--- Should note, have had idea of a cult called 'the Circle'... which yeah, is a rip off from JLA: Brave New World.
2) Goblin gets scared straight.
- Goblin thinks he murdered his friends, is illiterate thus doesn't think he was 'chosen' runs off, grows beard, & disguised in robes just joins the local temple.
- All while THIS is happening, the cult called 'the Circle' is causing trouble, naturally making them think it's him, but it's not. Set up for unmasking and it's not him, the whole time they where passing him about town.
3) Goblin becomes Paladin.
- He's been Chosen, he must go forth and SMITE the WICKED! Cue NPC.
- Eventually it'll be revealed he was never chosen, that the party just effed with him. Cue existential crises.
"Waits.... Doby turns his life around for Nuffin???" *throws down weapons, double fingers the party, storms out of BBEG fight room and slams door behind him.

Thoughts/Suggestions?

I like elements of 2 and 3. The fake Circle cult, and Gobbo walking out on the party.

Happy (official) Birthday to D&D!

"We have just fromed [sic] Tactical Studies Rules, and we wish to let the wargaming community know that a new line of miniature rules is available."

With this letter, written by Gary Gygax to wargaming zine publisher Jim Lurvey, one of the founders of what would become TSR announced that a January 1974 release for Dungeons & Dragons was forthcoming. This, plus other evidence compiled by Jon Peterson (as pointed out by the Grognardia blog), points to the last Sunday of January 1974 as the best date for the "anniversary" of D&D. The first sale was in "late January 1974," Gygax later wrote, and on the last Sunday of January 1974, Gygax invited potential customers to drop by his house in the afternoon to try it out.

Click to expand...

(The last Sunday in January 1974 would've actually been the 27th.)

And I have a game session tonight!

Welp... session 4 of Lost Minds has gone off the rails.

Party rolled on in, delivered the cart loads of boosted merch. Kept goblin in cart hidden in gunny sack because. Tried to drop hints that stuff wasn't right... kid with a black eye, storeowners bit hesitant to talk, that kind of stuff. Lionsheild delivery and I made a mistake... while unloading and the shop owner talked to them, I put in two redbrands eyeballing the place, with her obvious reaction. This lead one of the rogues to tail them on the way back to the beerhall. Sure the shopkeeper spilled after finding out the Tabaxi is following them, but it was time to start ad-libbing like Robin Williams. They snuck across a back yard reacting to... something... set up obvious trap for rogue due to biffed stealthiness. Party in wagon showed up to rescue.... yeeting the goblin in for an airborn assault, but while her gunny-sack parachute failed, she stuck the landing & distracted the one guy enough (with a thrown rock) that she was able to solid-snake her way back in there.

Cue initiative.

Warforged Cleric blasts one on the left, then the fighter proceeds to mozel down the alley, new heavy crossbow in hand, and rolls 18 to intimidate them to surrender. Sunburned ruffian matched, but failed due to -1... the other one rolled a 3. He was down on the grounds sobbing incoherently and pissing himself. Toasty drew sword and stepped back, forgetting that this put him into the line of getting stabbed by a kitty cat, followed up by getting vivisected by a goblin jumping out of a gunny sack. Combat done. They surprisingly do not annihilate the whimpering prisoner. Quick ad-libing elaborating he's interning with the gang to help pay off his Bard's college loan, along with what little he knows about the goings on (intern). Fighter hires/adopts him, then they prep to raid the mansion... that they don't knows is the base, a full day ahead of time.

Cue the NPC.

In his ugly-crying gut-spilling, he had said they stayed away from the OTHER wagon. That she's crazy. This was the whole reason they snuck around the houses... to avoid a wagon with a big sign on it saying 'Pie Wagon'. Fighter by way of player is reacting with dread... urging everyone to get out of that alley and far away immediately. They almost loaded into the wagon when SHE makes her presence known.... with an overly happy 'Oh HAI', Nisha has popped out of stealth to sell her baked goods to the Tabaxi... despite the Cat not liking baked goods. She insists. Then, without dropping that smile, successfully intimidates into buying the pie. The figheter just takes it and they run back towards the center of town AWAY from a waving half-elf with an Unohana smile across her face.

End session.

Not sure how y'all feel about inserting a borderline DMNPC to railroad the away from premature escalation. Not even sure if I built her correctly according to NPC standards... she's just been optimized for a) stealth b) intimidation c) not dying. And yeah... the tabaxi was close to taking a jab despite me warning/pleading against it. She's supposed to be a seeming gag character that's really a thieves guild contact & healthy treat dispenser. It's funny, the Fighter thought it was going to be my Bard. (if it was her, it would have been the REO Pie Wagon).

Still, this leaves me at the dual quandary of a) making another NPC, and b) wither or not they've already escalated the turn of events. Book does say they don't run in with the redbrands for at least a day... but due to my chicanery 2 are missing. Logic would dictate that they go looking for them.... and with my experience from movies and tv shows... gangs like this will take the direct route in restoring the status quo by throwing their weight around.

Thoughts?

"No plan survives contact with the enemy" also applies to D&D games, or in other words, "No plot survives contact with the party."

Dekafox said:

"No plan survives contact with the enemy" also applies to D&D games, or in other words, "No plot survives contact with the party."

Click to expand...

This was pointed out at the end of session.

These arrived today, amazingly fast from the UK.





First picture - top to bottom, left to right
Second picture - left to right

Character name - Corazon de Ballena (real name Percival Milquetoast)
Player name - Andy Farrant
Famous for - Having nothing in his past to hide so please stop asking

Character name - Egbert (the Careless)
Player name - Mike Channel
Famous for- seeking redemption even though the company he keeps means he may never find it, having a -1 wisdom modifier

Character Name - Dob
Player Name - Luke Westaway
Famous for - Throwing the group's money into a pond, casting thunderwave while a comrade was still inside the AoE, killing a bunch of orphans while commanding a group of monkeys paw type skeletons (See video 12:25)

Character Name - Merilwen
Player Name - Ellen Rose
Famous for - Merilwen's meat grinder (see video 23:16), coining the phrase "don't be a Dob."

Character Name - Prudence
Player Name - Jane Douglas
Famous for - Eldritch blast! Eldritch blast! Eldritch blast!

If you were around a page ago, yes I already have Prudence. But I wanted the others and it was easier to just get the entire group rather than getting the other 4 separately. So I'm just giving the new one to a co-worker.

Huh, well that's unexpected.. and I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, assuming it goes through.


It's not just that site either, it's also on other chinese media from what I heard. I'm seeing other comments though that it could be from a mistranslation of the original Chinese stuff and that it's just just the Game IP rights they're trying to buy permanent access to, which could be cool if it means Larian can just go to town on future D&D games, as they seem to be the new Bioware.

If they are going for the whole shebang, it wouldn't be the first time apparently, as I just found out they own the rights to Conan the Barbarian itself, through owning FunCom.

*edit* Just a bit more info I just heard to add onto this:
It's originally from a Chinese tech aggregator site(not something gaming related) and it was indeed about the video games rights, NOT the whole kaboodle, and their source was supposedly some investment group called Snow Leopard that has "inside sources" inside Tencent and passed it on as a tip. They have been accurate in the past however on several other tencent things.

Wizards has put out a statement that they're not looking to sell the IP. Someone else went and looked into the Snow Leopard company a fair bit deeper, and it's looking like they're just a group publishing AI articles using info scraped from western sources, and the Roll from Combat guy got scraped somehow into their AI. There is ANOTHER Snow Leopard company based in Dehli, so that may be where the "they have been accurate" thing came from.

Weekly update for your entertainment.

Welp... Braith just stabbed a god.

Some context....

The Goblin proceeded to go looking for a temple in Stone Elemental-infested mountains in a 'dude, hold my beer' moment. Anto (our Dragon patron) mentioned it, the elementals, and how it had a bubble around it that would prevent any one/thing from flying over it.... and her scattered goblin brain decided to go check it out. While Braith & Kira did jobs in town, she was carried by raccoon-crows as close as she could get, fought off the Elementals, and found the temple and a Giant inside. A very ALIVE giant, who was clearly being held prisoner, as he asked her to free him.

This is a bit concerning... considering the fact that the Giants who previously inhabited this planet died in a massive cataclysm untold centuries before.

Normally, the little Gobbo would go 'OK' and proceed to let him go... but for once she was so UNFATHOMABLY AFRAID (and that says a lot) that she decided to run home to get backup. After much deliberation, we proceed to head back with the aforementioned Anto, our Undead Giant ally Ukbor, & the Local translator (so we can understand Ukbor). Long story short... this is Tefanni, Giant God who has been imprisoned & guarded by a pair of Marut for a millennium(?) for unspecified crimes... thing is he should have been paroled a good thousand years ago. Weighing the options (with one being he wants to kick Tiamat's butt) we decide to help free him. We just need to find the key to the lock keeping him chained up.

That key is God's blood.

Go through the likely suspects of the Local pantheon that he honestly hasn't sensed in ages. Might be locked up in a tower in the middle of nowhere, but he's still got some 'sight beyond sight' going. Though upon speaking of his sister, the god of nature, and specifically how her powers would manifest in an area... we get a clue. A while back we found a magical force-dome that only let a players soon-to-be NPCed Druid through. We popped on over thanks to the teleportation helmet, found the even screwier druid in there still. While being vague to him why where there, he does elaborate about a 'sleeping lady' inside of what looks like a holy bowling ball. Problem being despite Anto knowing what this shield is, there is no clear way to get through that won't nuke the planet. Braith makes the mistake of leaning up against it as the options are weighed, as Ukbor notices some 'shineys' Scree grabbed... and taps it on the bubble. It shatters like Glass. Literal glass. Leading a backflopping Braith to get a shard in her shoulder. Only 3 dmg but it hurts. It gets better. We grab the holy Bowling ball and leave without the Druid cuz... he crazy.

Get back and Tefanni is concerned at the current state of his sister. In this world a gods wellbeing is tied to those who believe in them. Despite his being forgotten, he's still got hundreds left, but her's are currently in the single digits. She is close to death at the moment. The ever impulsive Scree decides it's best to mercy-kill the god, and goes in with her holy-spoon... rolls a 3 on wisdom check... and is hit with such a psychic backlash that she is left sobbing on the floor for a good 20 minutes, utterly devestated over how she just tried to murder something as pure and beautiful as nature. Braith decided to try next, only this time taking a far more gentile approach. She took one of her magitech axes, and slid it down the side of the orb.

Nat 20 for Wisdom check.

(the following is a combination of the DM's narration and some of my own contributions)
The cut of the axe feels like sandpaper grating against Braith's very soul. Quickly, a golden liquid forms along the line of the cut. Quickly cupping her hands to catch it, the second the first drop hits her skin she can feel that she has made a mistake. With each after she can feel the weight of her sin growing heavier and heavier. Scree administers a healing potion to the orb's wound as Braith frantically locates the keyhole, and rushes towards the pillar with the cautious haste (I likened it to really having to use the can: you want to get there as fast as possible but you don't want to rush it and make the situation worse. Not my best roleplay there ). Upon finally pouring the contents into the lock she manages to take two steps away and doubles over before becoming violently ill.

Oh, she's also gained a -5 to all animal handling checks from slicing nature for the foreseeable future.

While Braith is.... indisposed, the others try to figure a way to help revive the nature goddess. Knowing she needs followers, Scree suggests the troll colony, as well as a bunch of tiny fae who she's made friends with. Braith gets drug back onto the ship by her legs and flopped into a hammock so the others may take off. While they go off to do some successful converting, Braith proceeds to just suffer from nausea, chills, 'burns' from exposure to gods blood, and escalated animosity from animals for the rest of the session.

If we got to extract any more god blood, somebody ELSE can do it.

Hope this is appreciated more here...

It's super cool but too expensive (and I've no where to put her).

tl;dr: A bunch of laid off folks who worked on the books on the digital side had to have their names left off of the physical books due to space reasons, but was supposed to be on the digital conversions in D&D Beyond, and their names have all been removed.

And per one of the former Senior Producers they did more than just convert print to PDF:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/1edd96h/_/lf6ff4c

And guess what WOTC doesn't have to do now?

Ironbite-pay these people.

So...WotC is kinda scummy people, huh? Kinda makes me regret a bunch of the money I've given them over the years.

Yeah... it's getting harder and harder to enjoy their stuff. Haven't bought anything from them in awhile, or even watched the D&D movie.