I was really itching to roll some dice after having to jump behind the screen last weekend at the D&D World Wide Game Day detailed in my last post. So I signed up for an LFR game. In case you’re not in the loop, LFR is an organized play program where players create a character and assign them to a specific region of the campaign world. There are modules for each region that allow your character to progress through the levels of play. There are adventures/games for early heroic level characters up to late paragon levels.
Dungeon’s Master recently posted duelling articles on the LFR with one taking a dump on it while the other highlighting its positives. The points made by the articles, both pro and con, are largely valid which I think leaves you with like most things in life in that LFR is what you make of it; particularly since no one’s got you balled gagged up gimp style in Zeds LFR basement. It’s kind of funny as Bauxtehude once told me that he only played in LFR long enough until he poached enough players to start his Shattered Sea campaign, so perhaps the current state of LFR in metropolitan Toronto is suffering due to his thinning the talent pool. It is a shame that he is so anti-LFR as he is an excellent DM. I accept LFR with all its flaws and limitations as it gives me the opportunity to be a player for a change whenever I can 
squeeze it in and is very light on the obligations which seems to suite me well at my current stage of life. Although, the one thing I think that is severely lacking in the LFR adventures is any kind of threat in the encounters. It is not necessarily bad DM tactics or encounter design, but seems more to the fact that these poor monsters are up against massively twinked out or gimmicked up characters. I really think that at a bare minimum DMs need to trick out the baddies with the new damage progression and monster statistics that came out in a recent errata. But I digress, I am going to DM an LFR module next weekend so I might make some changes to the module and I’ll let you know how it shakes out.
Well Back to the gamming and such. Whenever I play LFR I always bring several characters to ensure any needed roles can be filled. Essentially this means I will be playing either a defender or a leader, I don’t even know why I bother bringing a striker. I would like to say that I am just an eternal optimist but I think more realistically it is a touch of masochism. As I was in the processes of determining what meat shield I would be playing this week, I thought why not test drive one of the essentials builds from Heroes of the Fallen Lands, especially given the massive hyperbole that has washed over the internet in the recent months. I made a Slayer, Knight, and a Warpriest. I ended up playing Drax the Warpriest of Kord (all my LFR characters are named Drax) as the rest of the party consisted of 3 strikers, a defender, and a controller. I went with the Storm Domain, as it fit my character conceptualization of a badass bruiser laying some holy smack down. The Storm Domain is one of the spheres of power you can choose that flavours your abilities, the book states “Select the Storm Domain if you favour brutal attacks balanced against the cunning needed to effectively counter your enemies tactics”. I made Drax a human as I am fond of the bonus feat and bump to defences. Since I am of the feeling that a badass warpreist needs a badass weapon I used one of my feats to get proficiency with the bastard sword.
I decided to really emphasise the “brutal” aspect with regard to powers in fitting with my bad mofo theme, so most of the powers tended to grant allies extra damage on their attacks. This seemed to particularly work well with another Essentials errata, namely to magic missiles auto-hit. I really liked the at-will power “Storm Hammer” as it went off at +7 to fortitude at first level and you could use it while charging, which I took advantage of to hurl myself at my foes to bring the wrath of my god down upon them.
Overall, this build fit right in with the other core builds and was actually enjoyable to play, and the world didn’t implode into a black whole despite crossing the “streams”. The warpriest really plays like the strength cleric was always supposed to be but never got the love from WoTC, and I actually found that it played a lot like my first level paladin, but better somehow.
I have not played LFR enough to make an in-depth opinion either for or against, but one problem with LFR (and most public modules in all fairness) is there isn’t much reason NOT to twink your character, and in fact you are almost compelled to. This can really be seen in poorly made pre-gens, but even creating your own hero leaves little incentive to not go all out in favor of character flavor. One of the biggest aspects, in my opinion, of D&D is building the camaraderie between players and PC’s. The constant flux of players makes this difficult. With this in mind, making difficult monsters, ones with the difficulty you would normally play against in an encounter, even more deadly. In Halistar’s Apprentice (Encounters Season 1) a few of us regulars were able to pull off some great combos and make high risk/ high reward moves in combat because we knew the others had our backs. Needless to say, I understand their need to slightly dumb down the monsters. When I play with my regular group, we do appreciate the higher difficulty.
It is interesting that you usually fall back on the defender or leader, is this because they are your preferred roles or simply what is left? Leader is my preferred role, which works out well because there is general a dearth in the role. However, the most fun I had was when I was playing my shielding swordmage defender, a class I definitely recommend to anyone looking to fill a defender or controller position, or take the avenger route to fulfill a striker role. I thought the Cleric was a blast to play during Game Day, and well put together, especially for a pre-gen.
Back to gaming; let me know how well the Essentials builds go, as I am quite curious. I still stand by my decision to alter what is allowed in our Encounters sessions, but I am sure others will find it enjoyable.
In 4th edition I find that I usually end up playing a defender or leader because most people just want to play strikers, at least at the live play events I attend. I am not sure if I have any preference as i will find a way to enjoy playing any class. I keep wanting to play a mage but often switch to a defender or leader when they are lacking in a group, as you can usaully do okay without a controller but not so much withput a meat shield or healer. I must admit that I have enjoyed playing my straight up sword and board fighter as I have built him around the idea of being able to soak up damage, self-heal, and have high defenses then severly punish you for proviking an opportunity attack, taunting the enemies to attack him and mocking their weak efforts
I found the encounters in Encounter’s to be much more diffiuclt than in LFR, as I always felt the threat in most sessions of Encounters.
do you play in a home game as well as the Encounters stuff?
I have run a homebrew since 2000, shortly after 3rd edition was released. I have had different groups over the years, but all the PC’s become part of the world, so there has been a ton of recent history in the game, as well as all of the back story I have created.
I would love to get it published someday, but that is probably wishful thinking.
wow that sounds pretty awesome, so it is currently ongoing? any current storyline? different groups of players-how have you managed that? have you tried to publish it as there seems to be a lot of 3rd party avenues or even self-publish you can check out http://www.slyflourish.com and see how he has published stuff
sorry for the rapid fire questions
The storyline has essentially been ongoing since we started playing. Over time, the group has changed, but not all at once, so there is a bridge between new and old. At this point, I do not have any of the original people, graduation, marriage, new job, they have moved on, but all of the new people know everything, relatively, that has happened. And when an older player returns, they can witness how their character developed. I mentioned in another thread how Lord Galifis sacrificed himself for his people and the party, one of the new members found and turned in his sword and armor and received new weapons in return. That was a way to bridge old and new, plus, there are now statues and legends of Galifis’ heroics throughout the land.
Current story line… that is hard to condense it down to a manageable size post. So I guess I am going to have to break it into large pieces. The first is simply an NPC, but one who is incredibly important to the story. Donovan has been around since the first campaign, and he has grown considerably since he was first introduced. Here is the write up I have on him which is part of the packet I give to new players. Once I establish Donovan and a few other key parts, then I can actually detail what the current campaign is about. So, here is Donovan, and I will post more later if you are interested:
Donovan is a human of indiscernible age, and the curator of the Historical Libraria of Cyr.
Before the Arcane Wars, Donovan was a scribe employed at the Library of Queen Loriton, located within the city of Yith Kara. Over time, his impeccable knowledge of history and zealous work habit caught the eyes and ears of King Niemus, who requested of Donovan to care for his personal library. In exchange, Donovan received a salary far outstripping the head of the public library, and access to the family library within the palace, entrusting Donovan with the books and scrolls containing the secrets passed down by the Kings.
Within months of taking the position, the normally outgoing Donovan became a recluse, and was rarely seen outside of the library; only speaking to the visitors he personally requested attendance with, and turning away all others. Two years later, Donovan emerged from seclusion to resign his position and promptly left for Palanthas.
With months of hype and anticipation, Donovan opened the Historical Libraria of Cyr, which promised to be the most extensive library and collection of books ever assembled. Whispers began to circulate among the nations that among the books for public view would be old documents containing dark secrets, books of magic from the Silver Lands, and some of the secret documents from King Niemus’ library.
The greedy and the curious lined up for the grand opening. Rulers from all nations sent spies, scribes and book dealers to steal these ancient secrets, hoping to gain knowledge and power over King Niemus and the mighty Yith Kara army. Not only did the ruler’s men find the secret documents of Yith Kara, they found the King’s entire library recreated down to the last letter. Yet more horrifying, they found the same information on their own lands. Personal letters, records of espionage and assassinations, favorite recipes, true accounts of events hidden from public eye, monetary records, love letters and more.
The Historical Libraria of Cyr was the first library open with complete access to every document, to be freely read by anyone who walked through the doors, be it commoner or king.
Donovan’s select visitors during his time in Yith-Kara turned out to be hired scribes and spies whose sole job was to hunt down every book and document in the nations private collections, replicate and sort all the information in tomes to be displayed in his new library.
Within hours, diplomats began to demand return of their documents, and when Donovan refused, militia from every embassy within Palanthas marched on the Library.
Although neutral, the governors of Palanthas realized the potential for war between the upcoming nations, and sent their own military to surround the library. Hours after the grand opening, the Historical Libraria of Cyr was closed, locked and heavily guarded.
Two days later, the library vanished, leaving panic stricken guards and diplomats confused and disoriented.
It is said the library is in a magical pocket, with the only entrance and exit available to the ones personally invited by Donovan. His own spies continue to gather secret documents, but nobody knows how to enter the library to retrieve what is theirs.
wow that sounds really cool and very detailed, what tier of play are you in?
This is a brand new campaign with new PC’s. Everyone started at level 1, and they are now at level 3. I have this campaign planned through the Epic tier.
I took out the page numbers to make it more readable. They were there because there is a lot of missing information in these documents (intentional) that has been lost or destroyed.
I apologize for the length of this, but these two pieces are what sets up the entire campaign. And I admit a lot of this is just excitement to share my world with others, but, last epic post on your blog.
Day 42 of Year 701
This war has been brewing for years and the War of the Dragons has officially ignited on this day, Day 42 of Year 701 of the Second Age. Dragons and their followers rage battle in a civil war as the followers of Granvious, the Dragon King, take to the skies and the land. The amount of supporters, both Dragonkind and other, which Granvious has amassed, is staggering. For the first time, I saw red dragons battling red dragons, green fighting green, and brother against brother. Only Salistar has dared to keep the white dragons out of battle. The Silver Flame continues to burn bright.
Day 43 of Year 701
Ashardalon has sided with Granvious and serves as his general. The Dragon of War possesses extraordinary power and I fear his presence alone will turn the tide in favor of Granvious. Opposition against Ashardalon will result in heavy losses or a quick surrender, either way, it is not good.
Day 51 of Year 701
I lost many friends today. Ashardalon showed no mercy in his slaughter. I watched in horror as he ripped wings from our bodies and burned the flesh from our bones. When he finally stopped, the ground was littered with our dead, blues, blacks, whites, greens, even his fellow reds. I do not understand why he did not finish us all off, but he called off the attack. At first I thought there would be mutiny amongst his ranks as they wanted to continue the fight, but they did not challenge his command. I had my fair share of kills, but if the attack was not called off, we would have all been killed.
Day 62 of Year 701
The intentions of Granvious are finally clear but not unexpected. He wishes to ascend and become a god. If this happens, he will have the power to remove all of our magic, putting it all in his control to do with what he wants. We would be powerless to defend ourselves and the people of Azmere will be imprisoned. His will destroy all who fight against him and reward all that follow. To look upon the evil of our enemy is to see a broken and twisted world, without light or magic.
The battle is just beginning. Already we are rallying ground troops in Palanthas. I hear the people of the Silver Lands are also preparing for war. Every race on Azmere is already affected and they are starting to realize this will not end until one side wins. There is no surrender.
Day 108 of Year 716
The tide of the war is turning; the war clerics of the Silver Flame have proven to be very capable warriors. Their healing capabilities have proved invaluable and keep the troops in battle, making our smaller armies bigger than the enemies. Cryx has proven to be much more savage than I would have expected from a white, but the last three years has proven him more than capable of leading our armies.
Day 141 of Year 716
Salastar has fallen in battle. Moral amongst the troops is very low with his death and it is only a matter of time before Granvious doubles his efforts to capitalize on our loss. Cryx has assumed leadership in our fight and I cannot think of a better warrior to lead us. He is vicious, but he has compassion, a trait that will be lost if we lose. The lower species respect and trust him. The days will only get darker, the land of Azmere more scorched. I pray the war will end before there is nothing left to fight over.
Day 149 of Year 716
Palanthas has fallen to the Tor race but already man, elves, half-orcs and dwarves fight to retake the city. Palanthas, the four point’s of peace between the races stands as a symbol of what they are fighting for. They fight valiantly for their lands. I am beginning to believe dragons no longer have a place in this world.
Day 153 of Year 716
Granvious has become more powerful than I could ever imagine. The death of Salastar seems to have given him the power of the blues. I look at Cryx and wonder if he could become a liability.
There are new Tors. Their hair no longer brown, but a deep red, Granvious is empowering the lesser races with new abilities. These Tors possess a strong resistance to magic that the browns did not possess before. What perversions will he do next?
Day 172 of Year 716
The gods have returned. Cyr has come before us, enraged Granvious has begun to change the races. Kir-Shawn however is all too happy to lend his power to Granvious. The battle now rages in the heavens as well as on Azmere.
Day 178 of Year 717
Today marks a new race on the land of Azmere. The Dragonborn: a mix of man and dragon for Cryx to lead into battle. They are a gift from Cyr that is sure to enrage both Kir-Shawn and Granvious. The question now is how they will retaliate.
Day 179 of Year 718
Kir-Shawn was quick in response, waiting only one moon phase. The dimensional rift has been reopened near the Galifar Mountains. Tieflings have been brought over from the infernal planes. When Cyr had entrusted us to Azmere, we were forbidden to use our magic to reshape the lesser races, and now it is being done by both sides.
Day 181 of Year 719
The Dragonborn have proven to be very capable fighters and seem to have bonded strongly with the humans and dwarves. The half-orcs seem impressed with their strength, but there is definite caution in their dealings with each other.
Day 190 of Year 719
The Dragonborn have swept through Palanthas and helped reclaim the city. The Tieflings have also proven themselves in battle, there is so much bloodshed. The numbers of all races have suffered heavy losses. Ashardalon looked on as the battle raged, but he did not attack. I cannot help but be uneasy with this turn of events.
Day 93 of the Year 723
The Tieflings have proven to be strong allies much to the rage of Kir-Shawn and Granvious. Nobody else knows about this, but Cyr has agreed to meet with Ashardalon.
Day 100 of Year 723
I know nothing of what was discussed between Ashardalon and Cyr, but Cyr has ordered us to defend only, not to push forward.
Day 141 of Year 723
We are amassing our troops for the final battle. Cryx is leading the charge from the skies and the clerics of the Silver Flame and Guardians of Cyr-myth are leading the ground troops below. I have been commanded by Cyr to remain out of battle and to chronicle what could be the end of the world.
Day 142 of Year 723
The dragons remain in flight, hovering in lines across from each other and blotting out the sun. I cannot help but be in awe, even though I look upon the enemy. We are majestic race but have shown nothing but vileness. The dragons remain hovering as the Guardians of Cyr-Myth and the clerics of the Silver Flame engage in battle.
Behind them, thousands of arrows are let loose by the elves. The humans, dwarves and half-orcs race in with drawn steel. Fireballs, magic missiles and other devastating magic are cast upon the enemies. Tieflings and Dragonborn fight alongside each other. It takes mere moments for the horrors of battle to unfold as blood from both sides begin to spill.
And then the dragons charge. As much as destruction was occurring below, the lesser races neither had the magic, ferocity or killing power we dragons posses. The generals sit back, watching the carnage happen above and below. Cryx, Ashardalon and Granvious fly higher. The full threat of Granvious was upon us. With Cryx gone and no one to oppose him, his ascension would be almost guaranteed. Two against one; I felt a tremendous urge to join in battle, but the hand of Cyr commanded me to stay, to watch, to chronicle.
Cryx is a great leader and a savage fighter, but he is no match for Granvious. It was only a matter of minutes. Granvious must have commanded his general to stay back, as Ashardalon just looked on as the two fought.
Again I move forward, again Cyr holds me back.
And then it became clear to me, and I watched the betrayal unfold before us. Ashardalon moved in, fast and hard, slamming his body into Granvious’ chest. Granvious is quick though, and he lashes back with his spiked tail, tearing into the wing of Ashardalon. Cryx moves in scratching, clawing, biting and breathing ice into the face of Granvious. Ashardalon races flies above the fight and then begins a quick descent, slamming himself into Granvious from above. The two race towards the ground, Granvious fighting to free himself, Ashardalon not letting go. The ground quakes when they land and both law motionless. For a third time, I try to move forward, and for a third time, Cyr holds me back and so I continue to chronicle, and then Cyr moves past me.
With a touch like lightning, he places his hand on Ashardalon whose eyes open wide. He slowly lifts himself off of Granvious and for the first time I can see the chest swell and deflate, slowly, rhythmically. Granvious was not dead. The hand of Cyr reached down again, grabbing Granvious by the throat.
Day 145 of Year 723
Granvious lives through the mercy of Cyr, but we as a race are to leave through the dimensional rift in the Galifis Mountains, never to return. I too prepare to leave, but for a fourth and final time, Cyr holds me back. I am to remain, to chronicle existence on Azmere.
149 of year 723
They are gone.
Now a few quick pieces of info: There is only one god, but quite a few demi-gods. Demi-gods can only ascend in pairs. There are two on Azmere who are believed to be ascending soon, Zen (the lich lord) and Sarsha (the saint) Those two have been prominent throughout the years. Sarsha is dying, and the people figure when she is dead, that is when they will ascend. Turns out, and my group doesn’t know this yet, Zen and Sarsha are Granvious in his second attempt to become a god. It takes two to ascend, and that is how he plans on doing it.
Donovan discovered this while in King Niemus’ library and has been searching for all of the Dragon War and the The Exodus of the Dragon documents to stop the ascension.
In comes our group, individuals commissioned by an unknown source to do some dungeon diving to retrieve a book which will hopefully unlock more secrets. That is how they met, and how the campaign started. Now they have the first book, but nobody can read it, not even Donovan, and now they are on a quest to discover the secrets of the long extinct giant race who wrote the book.
Pretty soon, for the first time in 7000 years (world time) and 10 years of in game time, dragons are about to return.
that is pretty cool man and really creative, you really put a lot of work into this. I also like how you incorporated the dragonborn and tieflings into your world.
Long… very very long. We had a whole bunch of new people, which forced an extra table. I love that we had so many new people, but I had to train a new DM while running my game, which had a few newbies as well. I enjoyed myself, but I am exhausted.
Dark Sun had virtually no role playing, yet Keep on the Borderlands has a ton of it if people are willing to try. One of the new guys was amazing. Even though he used a pre-gen, he had a full character background and was asking in character, about events outside of the module. Threw me off guard at first, but then I ran with it and now his character has a brother in trouble with church of Avarda in Fallcrest and needs our NPC’s help to get his brother out. Has nothing to do with our campaign, but was awesome. Once he started role playing, a few others slowly picked up on some cues. We have a long way to go, but I think we had a very successful night.
The module is great, even though I only have the first four encounters, I have high hopes for the rest.
DDI was supposed to update the Character Builder today to incorporate Essentials, but since they didn’t, I felt even better about letting my players use the basic races and classes we talked about earlier. Still, one of my regulars through a fit about not being allowed to play a minotaur. I guess you can’t please every one.
How did your session go?
As ever, my trenchent commentary no doubt will leave you reeling with newfound insight. And it is thus:
When do I get to be a badass warpriest?? (In our current campaign, I mean.)
I don’t know are you ready to be a bad mutha..shhh shut your mouth….
if you want you can be a warpriest no problem, I think it would be better than the strength cleric we started you on before we ret-conned you to a laser cleric
Just a heads up… I mailed the Gamers movie today, so you should receive it soon.
thanks a lot Joyce I really appreciate it. how have things been going? how is your gaming? oh do you remeber the name of that cfc that got fired pretty quickly, she was in the office facing the exit,
Dorkness Rising is one of our (my wife and self) favorite movies. It makes us laugh, especially all of the ‘in’ jokes.
Our gaming group is called The Turkey and the Bard, which will make sense after you watch the movie.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
how did encounters go?
Sorry, posted in the wrong place the first time.
Long… very very long. We had a whole bunch of new people, which forced an extra table. I love that we had so many new people, but I had to train a new DM while running my game, which had a few newbies as well. I enjoyed myself, but I am exhausted.
Dark Sun had virtually no role playing, yet Keep on the Borderlands has a ton of it if people are willing to try. One of the new guys was amazing. Even though he used a pre-gen, he had a full character background and was asking in character, about events outside of the module. Threw me off guard at first, but then I ran with it and now his character has a brother in trouble with church of Avarda in Fallcrest and needs our NPC’s help to get his brother out. Has nothing to do with our campaign, but was awesome. Once he started role playing, a few others slowly picked up on some cues. We have a long way to go, but I think we had a very successful night.
The module is great, even though I only have the first four encounters, I have high hopes for the rest.
DDI was supposed to update the Character Builder today to incorporate Essentials, but since they didn’t, I felt even better about letting my players use the basic races and classes we talked about earlier. Still, one of my regulars through a fit about not being allowed to play a minotaur. I guess you can’t please every one.
How did your session go?
sounds like it went really well, that is pretty cool witht hte role-playing stuff. I have never been a big fan of minotaurs as a playable race but each to his own I guess. still it seems like he is missing the intention of the encounters session.
I had to stop playing in encounters after my wife when back from maternity leave, as it is just to diffiuclt to manage in the middle of the week. I am DMng an LFR module this saturday, I just changed the monster damage to match the July errata so we will see how that goes
not surprising tha the chartacter builder wasn’t updated. it seems that when there are core book that they want you to buy there is always a delay in the update because “it is so much information to add” that it just takes longer…or we wnat to encourage you to buy these books.
Congratulations on the birth of your child. I have a five year old who absolutely loves playing with my minis (nothing like seeing an elder red dragon and an umber hulk enjoying a tea party), but I understand how difficult it can be to schedule D&D outside of the home. Fortunately Grandma lives close by and is willing to watch her every Wednesday, or my wife and I would not be able to go.
The character builder allows goblins, bugbears, minotaurs and the like, which I am not fond of either. I actually feel rather raciest when I ban goliaths and other non basic races. You mentioned how incorporating tieflings and dragonborn into my campaign, I have to admit it was like pulling teeth to get me to bend and allow them in.
Which LFR module are you running? I have to admit, I have very little experience with LFR (or Forgotten Realms in general).
Thanks, were are expecting again in February so maybe I will be back in action for season 4.
the module is BALD1-4 Silent Streets and Vanished Souls. the adventure are generally eposodic i.e. the pc’s are together and given quest, 1 or 2 skill challenges 2-3 encounters then completion of quest.
I have uptaded most fot eh monster damage, but I am stuck witht he final battle as thier is a solo plus 4 standard monsters. the damage output on the solo seems a little low but I am a little leary of upping it too much. it is a solo brute 3rd level so per the july errata it should be doing 25% more damage per attack at its level. given the encounter mix it seems like it should be more of an elite. another thing i am unsure of is how solo’s are ment to be represented on that damage progression chart given that they are supposed to do the damge for 5 standard monsters.
With four other monsters, you are essentially pitting your group against a group of 9. This is fine, but maybe the lower damage of the solo will balance out the greater number of targets. With a group of 5 or 6, pinning them between a solo and a standard monster could be quite deadly. Either they concentrate on the little guys while the solo takes them down, or they concentrate on the big guy while the little ones pick away. Also, a solo can play more like one role than another. So if his damage is lower, are his AC’s higher, or does he have other abilities to compensate?
It can be time consuming, but you can always run through a mock encounter. I usually forget about terrain, and set up the players in an optimal position, and then roll my way through. It can’t be exact since you can’t predict rolls during the actual campaign, but it could give you an idea if you need to adjust HP or damage. If I find the damage to be a bit low, and assuming my roles are average, I go up one step in the damage output (1d6 becomes 1d8 and so forth).
You may want to build the encounter, using 5 or more monsters, without using the solo, and then yank five out and put your solo in. I wouldn’t worry about the damage chart, as substituting the solo for the 5 regular monsters should compensate for this already.
The damage output may be low, but also see often he would hit vs how often the PCs will hit him. If he lands twice the hits the PCs land, his damage is going to be much higher than what appears on paper.
I found that the solo was too low of a level (3) and secondary role was brute, so i forgot to adjust to the new accuracy for brutes leaving him struggling to hit mos tof the higher level pc’s. I am writing up the post about the session, I ended up running a table for 8, which made everything a litle nuts as ont he spur I was trying to figure out how many extra monsters to place on the grid
Yeah, I remember her. The one who shared an office with Annabella? Her name was Sara(h?). Why do you ask? Things are going well. Found a really fun place to work, but too bad it’s just contract. After all these years I’m starting to get the hang of biting my tongue
Haven’t gamed this month yet. Could definitely use it though. We can’t really seem to find a good chunk of time for a gaming session right now. We’re using a bit of the evening to sit down and watch some Battlestar Galatica (finally!) since all our friends have been bugging us to watch it.
I’m excited to hear what you think of the movie, so definitely let me know! I though it was hilarious, especially the references to the dead bards (you’ll see what I mean).
Chris was asking me about some of the people who got axed pretty quickly as some of the social workers are gettign thier 5 year award. I remeber watching her get fired and gettign the walk out…very awkward…she then asked me if she could use me as a refference. you should apply for any oppenings back here…Shilson is long gone
where is your new job?
thanks againf or the movie , can’t wait to watch it.
I remember that. Weren’t we all in my office when Sara stoically shook Shilson’s hand before marching out the door? I doubt I’d ever be allowed work at PCC again, since Shilson told me that she had talked shit about me to all the other supervisors…. but thanks for the vote of confidence
Does the photocopier need fixing again? 
I’m at the Rose of Sharon in Newmarket, working with pregnant teens and teen moms.
one of the most awkward moments ever
I thought it was only awkward for a split second, then it was mostly sympathy. I called Sara afterward to check up on her, but her hubby said she didn’t want to talk. Never heard from her again. Did you end up being a reference for her?
I heard from Tatianna for a few months after she was axed. She was really happy at her new work place… a catholic children’s mental health agency in Peel.
I got the video today..thanks a lot looking forword to watching it. currently suffering writers block and am struggling not poping it in here at work.
no I wasn’t her reference as I think I tild her I wouldn’t have been comfortable. i couldn’t have given her a very good reference becuaee I didn’t think she was very competent at her job
Playing the cleric because I’m open to anything and nobody else ever wanted to play one was pretty much my lot in life till 3E came out.
wwere you okay with that? what changed in 3e? was it that Clerics became uber tuff at higher levels and would out melee the melee guys.
I’ve never minded playing clerics; to be honest I never understood why they weren’t more popular.
As for the change with 3E, the first group I played 3E with included a power gamer who felt that clerics were the ultimate butt kicking class. He always jumped at being the cleric.
The group I have played with since then has been very adverse to DMing, so I have been the DM about 98% of the time; when I have gotten a chance to play there has always been someone else who is already settled in the role. (not that a second cleric is a bad thing, but there often is something else the party is in need of)
I know spells, melee, armor..I don’t get it either
It is a sad state of affairs for the Toronto LFR scene, but there is a counter movement in the works. Don’t tell anyone but it seems like the real play goes down weekends at DG, but I’ll have you know you wont catch me there.
I miss Drax, though now I understand that he isn’t the only one. You’ve shattered my world, doctor.
Drax misses you as well, I was bummed I had to drop out of last seasons Encounters, but life whattya yah gonna do. I hope things are well with you. how is your music going?
I am the worst with coming up with original names, it just really highlights my lack of creativity. it is brutal in my homegame, I usualy defalt to standard tropes. The key is crafting a distinct personlaity and style with each character, so Drax the warpriest was signifinatly different than Drax the paladin. although I have to admit that Drax the Golaith fighter was prety similar to Drax the Paladin, as I like my meatshields nice and dumb. Although I just joined a skype based game and my wizard is not named Drax, rather I am going with Sorrow…still sticking with a single name as trying to come with a last name in additon to a first name is like overly punishing.
Could you re-post the character backgrounds for your campaign as I could never get the file to load.
They campaign primer should be fixed now. One of these days that thing is going to make it to publication, slowly, slowly.
Creativity is a many faceted thing. B.B. King is famous for making one note sound good because he didn’t have the chops like other blues men. Tell a good story, make people laugh: you’re cooking with gas.
Hmmm. Finally something I can comment on. All the gaming analysis is over my head; but the B.B. King reference is not. Or rather, the idea that simpler can be way better in the right hands.
My example was a ZZ Top concert many moons ago. The opening act was one of those “shredder” bands from the 90′s… oh, the fading of memory… Ah! Extreme was their name, I think. Lots and lots of notes crammed into itty-bitty time-increments in a dizzying fashion which to me became quickly monotonous and unappealing. Impressive in terms of how fast and accurate the guitarist was; but ultimately dull and repetitive to mine ears.
Then the mighty ZZ Top took to the stage. Even I can play some of their stuff, which means it ain’t real hard. But it was so – I can’t take credit for this word; I learned it from a guy who was actually a contemporary of Billy Gibbons in the 60′s before ZZ Top – “tasty.”
The contrast between these bands became verily unto the Iron Hand of Torm, reaching down to smack me upside the head with the realization that – as Bauxtehude put is so well – creativity is a many faceted thing.
So now the burning question remains: would our creative MiddleAgedDM prefer to liken himself to B.B. King, or ZZ Top/Billy Gibbons? I would be highly curious to see him sporting a long beard…
one word….Prince
[...] a Cleric Reading The Middle Age DM’s article Essentially a Cleric was a reminder to me of how I frequently got shoehorned in to playing a cleric in games played [...]