Find Familiar

Hello again, friends! I'm back with another session summary of my "Welcome to Newbieville" D&D  campaign. As a reminder, here's the cast of protagonists: Belwarum  — dragonborn sorcerer, hermit background Tika  — elf rogue, outlander background  (absent due to illness) Lady Elka  — human monk, noble background Sir Thorin  — dwarf paladin, noble background (absent due to illness) We left off last time with the group resting after having fruitlessly staked out the swamp hideout of the arsonists they'd defeated earlier. This week's session picked up with the following morning, which involved checking in on the bakers' reconstruction efforts and then taking a tour of the newly renovated wizard's tower. They also brought the foreman to the shrine they found previously and got an estimate of 2,000 gold pieces for restoration and remodeling. Next, they headed to the municipal building. They were given a cash reward for their work in defense of t...

Hello again, friends! Today I'm back with another small-creator product review! It's a short-ish adventure module called The Lamp  published by Halfling Caravan Games. It's compatible with both 5th Edition D&D  and 1st Edition Pathfinder . You can buy it on DriveThruRPG HERE for only a couple of bucks. The author gave me a free copy for the purposes of this review. What's the product? The Lamp  is a 35-page adventure module, including a front cover and other necessary non-content pages (as is normal). Toward the back are several pages of stat blocks for monsters, featuring game statistics for both D&D  and Pathfinder . There are also several full-color maps illustrating the adventure location and the interior of the titular "Lamp," which is a dungeon tower vaguely resembling a lamp or candle, earning its nickname from local tourists. The basic idea of the adventure is that a small hot spring resort draws in tourists (and your adventuring party...

Hello again, friends! I'm a day late due to all the complications wrought by a week of car trouble, but I'm back with another session summary of the "Welcome to Newbieville" D&D  campaign! Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the beginning HERE . Here's a reminder of the player character roster: Belwarum  — dragonborn sorcerer, hermit background Tika  — elf rogue, outlander background (absent due to illness this week) Lady Elka  — human monk, noble background Sir Thorin  — dwarf paladin, noble background We left off last time with the party having cleared the dungeon that they found beneath the old shrine in the woods. This week, they returned to town to rest and sort through some of their loot from the dungeon. They also decided they'd like to finally meet the mayor in person (the knowledge of her recent meeting with Lord Davian had left them wary and suspicious), so they stopped in and were allowed a brief audience with her: an orc name...

Hello again, friends! I'm back again with the latest installment of Welcome to Newbieville , by all-newbie D&D  campaign specifically designed for teaching the game to first-time players. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read about the concept a bit HERE and check out the first session summary HERE . Here's a reminder of the current PC roster: Belwarum  — dragonborn sorcerer, hermit background Tika  — elf rogue, outlander background Lady Elka  — human monk, noble background Sir Thorin  — dwarf paladin, noble background Last time, Bel and Tika were absent, so Elka and Thorin did some scouting of a recently-discovered dungeon and nearly got themselves killed. This week, we started with a fresh new morning and the party getting up to speed with each other over breakfast. While absent and off-camera, Belwarum had spent the previous session's two days making healing potions out of the remainder of the herbs they'd gathered, and now they w...

Hello friends! Today I've got my second-ever product review, though this time it's not from the DMs Guild. I'll be reviewing The Demonplague , a level 1–20(!) adventure module published by Roleplaying Tips . They were looking for reviewers and I happened to see their call, so I thought I'd give it a shot! Now, I know I just laid out a reviewing structure the other day when I did my first review , but now I'm going to completely abandon it, at least for today. After working on today's review, I realized that what I laid out before might not work so well for an adventure module, so I'll reserve it for non-adventure DMs Guild content and do something else for adventures. Here's how this will go: I'll describe what sort of product it is (like being a 20-level adventure, etc), then I'll talk about some of its contents and what I liked or didn't like, and finish with an overall opinion of the work as a whole. Ready? Let's go! What is Th...

Hello again, friends! I've got some other content coming soon, but in the meantime it's time for the latest Welcome to Newbieville  session summary! This one got dicey, but nobody died and I'm proud of my blossoming players. At the end I'll be asking for advice, but first, the summary. Let's get into it! As you may recall from the previous session , our heroes had (mostly) cleared out an abandoned shrine in the woods that they found while gathering herbs for producing healing potions. This included discovering a stairway down into a dungeon, but they retreated to the village before exploring it. Between then and now, there were some hiccups: most significantly, two players had to bail because of bad weather, leaving us with only two. Additionally, our newest recruit decided that the barbarian he tried out was too boring and wanted to change it up. With only a single session of history for Grog the orc barbarian, we decided to just ret-con that it had been Thorin...

Hello again, readers! Yesterday was the third gameplay session of my Welcome to Newbieville  campaign, and I think we're starting to get into a groove! (If you're not sure what I'm talking about, check out this post . For a recap of the prior session, check out this post .) Let's dive in. There's been a little bit more participant shake-up since last time. Another player dropped out (the one playing Zaaz the gnomish bard) and a fresh newbie joined in. So here's the party roster at this point, in order of appearance: Belwarum — Blue dragonborn, former hermit, and brass-dragon-blooded sorcerer. He/him. Tika — Elf, formerly a wilderness-wandering outlander, now a rogue. She/her. Lady Elka — Human noble, now a sword-and-fist monk, likes the local cinnamon rolls. She/her. Grog — Orc (remember, my setting doesn't have "half-orcs" and the orcs are just another type of normal person) , ex-soldier, now a barbarian. He/him. Our story picks up t...

Hoo boy. It's been a bit, hasn't it? I've had the flu. I don't mean I caught a cold and called it "the flu," I mean I had full-on achy-shaky feverish flu for like a week. Finally starting to feel a little better, so I'm trying to check off some stale to-do list items, which includes this blog. Today, we'll get you caught up on the Newbieville campaign. There was no game this past Sunday (due to the aforementioned flu) but we did have a session the weekend prior. If you recall from the previous session report , we've only managed to get two players started (others ghosted me), so we had a party of two PCs: a dragonborn hermit sorcerer named Belwarum and an elf outlander rogue named Tika. This time around, after a bit of effort to replace the AWOL players, we added a couple of newer newbies, who produced a gnome outlander bard named Zaaz and a human noble monk named Lady Elka Atlas. Unfortunately, Tika's player wasn't able to make this ...

After two false starts, yesterday was going to be the first session of my Newbieville D&D  campaign, in which I gather some folks who haven't had a chance to try D&D  yet and introduce them to the game with a carefully-crafted homebrew adventure. Although not everyone showed, we did manage to have some actual gameplay, so that means it's officially time to start telling the story of Newbieville here on Find Familiar ! Last week (the second false start) exactly one person showed up, so I told her how the game worked and led her through making a character. Yesterday was a slight improvement, adding a second player to the list of "folks who have actually showed up so far." I explained the game, and helped her make a character as well. Thus, we currently have a two-member party: Belwarum  is a blue dragonborn. She's also a sorcerer, powered by the bloodline of a brass dragon. Prior to becoming an adventurer, she was a hermit. Tika  is a wood elf. She...

Hello again! I know it's been a while since my last post, which is the result of two things: being very busy, and troubles with getting the Welcome to Newbieville campaign going. Today I'll get you up to speed on what's going on lately, starting with the aforementioned Newbieville D&D  game. Newbieville was supposed to start two Sundays ago. Unfortunately, due to issues ranging from anxious children to scheduling miscommunications, that session had to be canceled. Tried again this past Sunday, and a combination of severe weather, car problems, and work schedule changes resulted in only one player arriving. I mention this because two weeks ago—back when it hadn't been so long since I'd posted—I was planning on having my next post be the big fancy kickoff for Newbieville. After the first missed session, I had a busy week, and figured that it would still make a good next post while being only a little late. Then this past Sunday happened, and Newbieville still ...

Hello again, everyone! It's been a while since I've posted my worldbuilding ideas, so I thought I'd head back to that for a bit. Today, we're gonna talk about the planes of existence. I wrote before about how there's a fairly ridiculous number of planes in "stock" D&D  worlds, and how I'd rather there be a smaller number. I've had that notion percolating in my brain for a bit, and I've got some ideas. The core of my ideas is this: what if the "material plane" was not technically a plane of its own, but rather the area of overlap between the other planes? Let's break it down. First, imagine a multiverse with only four planes. One is the Feywild, which I imagine as being full of life-force and nature magic and enchantment and so forth. I mean, it's literally named after the "fey" which is another word for faerie-type creatures. Another is sort of the dark mirror of the Feywild called the Shadowfell. This i...

Today's post briefly addresses a variety of topics, so let's get to it. Dragon Heist First and foremost, I don't have a session summary of my Thursday night Dragon Heist  game this week, because I wasn't there. Not long before the game, I was in a fender bender with a hit-and-run driver. I'm okay, and there's no damage to speak of, but it shook me up a bit and I needed some quiet time at home rather than a trip out to be around people. Hopefully next week I'll be able to get you up to speed. On the other hand, my wife's work schedule (and the fact that we only have one car) is complicating that particular game night, with the possible result that I'll only be able to attend partial sessions in the future. Stay tuned, but be prepared for the possibility that I might not be able to keep that up. Newbieville In other D&D  news, I've started gathering players for my newbies-only game that I've talked about before. Sadly, there are alr...

Greetings! A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the fact that soon I'll be starting up a new Dungeons and Dragons  game specifically for new players. I'm hoping to put together the group sometime this week, so I've gotta get this thing put together. Time for some more thinking out loud! Okay, like I said before, I'm running a homebrew game in which the PCs will all be fresh new adventurers moving to a small town where they hope to begin their adventuring careers. I've since decided that I'd like the campaign to have a little bit of a "finding a your place" theme. The town (which for now I'm nicknaming "Newbieville") is new and still trying to get established. The players are new to the town and new to adventuring, trying to find their place in life. I figure this means that Newbieville is partially under construction: when the PCs arrive, there's a functioning tavern/inn and a bakery and lots of carpenters and whatnot, but mayb...

Hello! After a hiatus for the holidays, my Waterdeep: Dragon Heist  group is back together for another session, so I've got the recap for your reading pleasure! Obviously there will be spoilers, so keep that in mind. If you're reading for the first time and want to start with the first session, you can find that recap HERE . Ready? 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. Skystone Bloodlake —  Tabaxi ranger guild artisan (jeweler), goes by "Sky" for short, friend and traveling companion of Agar. The Session : The previous session had ended with the survivors meeting up with Volo for the promised payment, only to have him pull a bait-and-switch and instead transfer ownership ...

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...