Rusty...

My second DM session went well.  Except the mapping.  I'm still rusty on things.  I had enough written to fill the night.  But the placing of the tiles was very time consuming.  The players were restless while I searched for the right tile.  Kinda sucked.  I'll be better next session.

But since the 1st lvl group just ended the night after meeting a "large" black dragon, a CR9 creature, it could have gone differently. But they were tasked to get her child back.  What started it all was the fact that they attacked a couple of kobolds they thought were trying to kill a baby black dragon, who were in fact trying to corral it to bring it home.

Capt'n Crunch Time...

It invariably happens.  When I'm DM, I usually draw a blank for the adventure until about a week before it takes place.  THEN the ideas hit.  and they hit with such force it knocks me down and I take 1d6 damage.

Ok, it doesn't hit THAT hard.  but the ideas, once flowing continue until I've got an adventure suitable for 6 players...  Sometimes I need visual clues to prompt me some more on ideas for this room or that.  Sometimes more sterner methods are in order.

Once it's woven, it'll be a good tale...  unless the players go off on a tangent not prepared for....  which they always do...

A different kind of Sea Side...

My D&D version is called Csighd.    This is a real Sea Side.....

This is of the English country side.   I have been hard at work making another map for Wings Of Glory, the Air Combat game from Ares Games.   My primary focus is the First World War.  I wanted to make a map that allows you to recreate bombing runs on England.  Mind you, I'm not going to have a map that takes you into London.  this is as far as you'll get into England.  You just can't make a map from satellite imagery from a place 100 years ago.  Using imagery from today, there are many anomalies on the map, specifically, Giant Power lines crossing the map.   It's tough to find a good area to make a map from, since there is too much modernization of the world.

This area is a good area, It's got a lot going for it.  It's got great areas for bombing, it's even got a nice "road" cutting through the map on the left side that makes for a good railway that can have a train running on it, where the mission is to shoot up the train, stop the supplies from reaching the front line..

The map eventually will be about 8 feet by 10 feet in size.   It'll be broken up into 4 actual maps of about 4 foot by 5 foot in size.  It's also going to be good for the WWII enthusiasts as well.  The detail on the map will be quite amazing.  even if you decide to make it even bigger.   The original map that I made from Dom's map  sized nicely to over 12 feet in width.  and I made it for only 4 foot in size!

A couple things that have to be done before I can even remotely release this imap.... so stay tuned in the coming weeks for it!

Richard....

I posted earlier about Richard joining my group in Valla Morr, my campaign world.  We'll, here he is in miniature format..

Base figure is Piazo's "Denizen of Leng" figure.  Modifications are removal of the pony tail, crown, and a new paint job.  Its not the best, but it works.

Check out the antics of Richard here:  

D&D Weekend

On Saturday, I sat down behind the screen, the first time in a long while.  I was a little bit rusty, but made it out ok.  My adventure planned was short, as I didn't know how fast the group would get through it.  Luckily, I could wing a little bit near the end.

The group fought Kobolds, the vile little reptilians that cause panic wherever they go.  Shier numbers are massive, yet their strength is weak.   they scare easily . Prone to fleeing the fight instead of staying for the slaughter.   In the end, the group found a baby black dragon.  It seems that the drow of the group has gotten to be friends with the dragon.  We'll see just how far along the creature goes with them, and how tolerant he is of the rest of the group.

I also introduced a special character to the group that might make appearances from time to time, or just might hang around just to be the comedy part of things.  His name is Richard.

  Only three players of the group know who this guy is and what he's about.  He's from a web-comic called Looking For Group  It's a great comic with lots of humor.  He's a Necromancer ad funnyman.  I don't want him to detract from the overall enjoyment of the game, but yet, he's already had some greay funny moments. Like when the drow chained him up and had his stay behind, somehow, he miraculously had unchained himself and was following the cleric around, right next to him, rubbing his shoulders during the combat and giving words of encouragement.   But when the drow saw him, he was still chained up.

We'll see if the group likes him and wants some comedy relief from time to time....

Valla Morr

OK, so my group wants me to DM.  I've dusted off the old campaign world of Valla Morr.  I've talked about that place already.  Hextor rules, elves as slaves, etc.etc.

The group wants to run as if their characters are not privy to the info that hextor is evil and needs to be overthrown.  So a quandary takes hold.  Eventually they will learn this, but I need to create adventures with evil and hextorian based in mind.

I've got tiles, I've got maps,  I went through my minis and trimmed down what I would take along to the game.  Now, for the adventure.  We've got many ideas swimming around my head.  I do know that the group is not a mystery solving group.  They are definitely NOT Mystery Inc.   Hack-n-slash and a bit of political intrigue is about right.  A good dose of RP to sweeten the plot, and toss in a curve ball once in a while and wha-la, game on.

We'll see if my dungeon mastering skills have faded or not...

Angelfire still exists....

Years ago I tried to create a website for my campaign world of Valla Moor.  This is my attempt.  I found it yesterday by searching for something and it popped up when I googled.  It's old, outdated, and has many spelling and format issues.  but at least it was there.

Campaign World of Valla Morr

Yea, not my best work showcasing the world.  the nice thing about it is the adventures are a synopsis of the game sessions we had.  I stopped updating at session 21.   there were many more sessions, including the attack on the slave camp, the fire elemental frenzy at Csighd, the flame woods adventures, etc. etc.

I just wonder a few things...

How many times do you get your players to work for an evil dragon?  Or for that matter, to have a dragon say to the party:   "Your friend looks dead.   can I eat him?" 

I remember a time when the party was caught on the side of the road by a blue dragon.  the dragon was of a much higher level than the party, they had no hope of killing it.  In fact, it was so brazen, it stomped a foot down on the party leader and told every to stop trying to attack or he would hill him.   The party ended up taking a job from the blue dragon, who wanted a black dragon's egg.   He never said why, they party obliged and got him the egg.   then the blue dragon fled with his new egg after mentioning what he was going to do with the egg.  The atrocity of destroying a village weighed heavily on the good aligned group that they sought to bring the blue to justice.

What a pity, he was such a great Big Bad Evil Guy....    unfortunately they did defeat the dragon, but at a great cost of life to the party.  I'm digging out the old campaign and dusting it off.  my group that I've been playing in has a DM that is burnt out.  they asked me if I would step up and DM for them...

Oh what they got themselves into.....  MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... 

Ahem.