Find Familiar

Hello! Sorry for the skipped week, but hey, holidays. Anyway, today I'm going to talk a bit about something new that's coming up: I'm going to start up a new D&D game, specifically geared toward offering a space for new players. That's right, in the new year I will be running an all-newbie campaign. This is something that's been in the back of my mind for a while now as something that I'd like to try for various reasons. One reason is that lately, particularly over the course of the past six months or so, I've found myself with an increasing desire to take care of people. My life isn't going great right now (if nothing changes, I'll be homeless in less than a year), which leaves me thinking, "If I can't help myself , then maybe I can at least help someone else ." Of course, since I'm poor, my options for offering that care are very limited. However, people can get something of value from gaming, and if I run a game, then m...

When I first started this blog, I talked about how part of what I'd be using it for is as a place to "think out loud" regarding my attempts to create a campaign setting for D&D  (or other fantasy RPG systems). Ironically, I've only been posting those thoughts if I've felt like I had "enough" for a post, or felt like I could tie it all into a topic or theme — if I could make it feel coherent. But you know what? The times I need a "thinking space" the most is when it's not  coherent, when my thoughts aren't  nicely packed up into a complete and well-themed post. This is one of those times. Brain dump incoming. Tieflings! Lots of people like them. I like them. They're cool, they're fun, they're colorful. Some folks play them as edgelords, some enjoy a sort of rebellious "I'm bad but not really" vibe, some people just wanna be purple. Interestingly, they have this built-in association with fiends, but I do...

Welcome back to the tale of my group's adventure through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist ! Naturally, this will contain spoilers, so if you hope to play this adventure without knowing what's coming, stop reading now. If you want to go back and read the first post in this series, you can do so HERE . Before we jump in, let's recap some characters. Also, be warned: there were character deaths in this session, so bail out if if you don't want to read about that. Here we go! The Party : Jabin Co Aldo — Tiefling aethermage noble (my character), one of the sons of Marco Volo. Ion Marko — Half-orc bard entertainer, one of the sons of Marco Volo. Scritch — Kenku monk urchin, long-time friend of Ion. Agar — Human monk acolyte, one of the sons of Marco Volo (was unnamed in the first session). Skystone Bloodlake — Tabaxi ranger guild artisan (jeweler), goes by "Sky" for short, friend and traveling companion of Agar. The NPCs : Marco Volo — Sent letters to Jabin, Ion,...

Last night's D&D  session did not go as planned. I wasn't entirely prepared, then even what preparedness I did have was thrown out the window about an hour in. Nevertheless, it seemed like the players had a fun time, and I'm not sure they even noticed the loading bar behind my eyes every time they asked a question. Today we'll take a break from the world-building stream of consciousness for an unpacking of a rather unusual (for me) gaming session. First, the backdrop: I'm running a homebrew game for a party of six. They just finished a dungeon and reached 4th level at the end of the previous session. That means they were at a sort of "checkpoint," ready to begin a new adventure arc. Unfortunately, I've been pretty busy and hadn't come up with anything yet. As the day of the session dawned, I found myself beginning to panic, trying to figure out what to offer a newly un-anchored adventuring party. About three hours before the game, I did h...

Hello again! To add some variety to my content (but mainly just because I want to), I'm going to start summarizing the sessions of a D&D  campaign I'm in. My group recently played our first session of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist , and I'm super into it. Obviously, this means that these posts will be full of spoilers, so if you don't want that, then you'll want to skip both this and all future "WDDH" posts. But if you've already played it or just plain don't mind spoilers, then read on! My Character I'm going to be writing about the sessions from the perspective of my own character, so let's start there. He's a tiefling named Jabin Co Aldo, born to a prominent noble family in Waterdeep. He's the bastard child of a non-tiefling noble mother and an unknown father, so he was punted down to the absolute bottom of the noble class, getting the smallest home in the ward and sacrificing much of the social privilege normally afforded ...

Elves and dwarves are probably the two most iconic protagonist races in modern fantasy, from Tolkien to D&D and everywhere in between. In fact, that pair is so  iconic that elves and dwarves go beyond actual elves and actual dwarves, showing up (by different names) in entirely different genres. For example, elves and dwarves exist in Star Trek  in the form of vulcans and klingons, respectively. The vulcans are portrayed as high-brow, robe-wearing intellectuals with old traditions and an affinity for the finer things in life. Elves. Meanwhile, klingons are loud, drink ale that's too strong for other folk, have a warrior culture, and are generally regarded as brash and unrefined. Dwarves. Elves and dwarves even make an all-human appearance in Avatar: the Last Airbender . There's an episode early in the series where the main group needs to cross a canyon, and find themselves babysitting two tribes of displaced refugees who can't get along with each other. The Gan Jin t...