Recent content by talien

Yah this is a whole topic alone. I will say that for speed purposes, what I do is literally give a content warning conversation top to bottom, listing violence, gore, family trauma, etc. to get folks comfortable. That said, a continually rotating group of new players means I have to flex -- some...

Honestly I never considered some of these things either, but it's really awesome bringing in players from all walks of life to join our table. I've gotten quite the education dealing with the public!

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Now that my weekly Dungeons & Dragons game is open to the public, the question of how accessible it is to anyone with disabilities is an important part of both the library’s mission to serve the public as well as making the game welcoming to all. Here’s how I think...

Crossbows & Catapults with actual cannonballs instead of discs, but fundamentally similar. Made for 28mm awesome terrain, which I painted and still have today!

Same. I bought almost all the adventures we played for AD&D at this ridiculously low price. I'd just buy everything (Because for a buck each, why not?). This is also how I got full Weapons & Warriors sets if I remember correctly, for very cheap.

Giamatti cancelled last minute due to...waves vaguely at U.S. The guests really are the highlight. Pretty amazing talent coming in, I assume because of its size and central location.

So glad you're back Darryl and so, so sorry to hear this. All my love to you and your family.

The Gateway to the Capital Despite being frequent con-goers on the East Coast, we'd never heard of Awesome Con. It's likely due to Awesome Con being primarily for celebrity autographs, with more focus on talent than fans. It also seems to move timeframes quite a bit -- this year it was in March...

I do try to make it fun in the sense that the "fast" character wants to feel fast. Sometimes they roll low. But then if they tie with a slower character/monster, the reroll makes it fun. It doesn't happen too often, but it does give the players a thrill of being "good at initiative" (which, for...

To be clear I don't mean the players don't know their initiative. I mean, keeping track of monster initiative plus the players when the table gets to 7+ size is challenging for me visually. Add in familiars (who for reasons I still don't entirely get, have their own initiative) and we're at 10+...

OMG yes. My tables crest 7+ players. Rolling initiative each round would be one more roll; the odds of me keeping track of everyone's initiative every round would be even more challenging. There isn't anything inherently wrong with tied initiative, but i'm not sure it adds anything to the game...

Becomes more important at 3rd level + in 2024 D&D because they've started making initiative matter in class-related ways. Two examples stand out. Alert Feat: Allows you to swap your initiative result with a willing ally, enabling a high-rolling character to put a lower-rolling character (like a...

Roll off, and then move whoever loses to one count lower (sometimes, this turns into a chain reaction so we have to make a judgement call). It's a good question though, no ties for anybody! This is where I got them from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F7X4J9JH

Managing a table of ten players is less like storytelling and more like air traffic control. In the heat of my weekly library sessions, the biggest threat to immersion isn't the monsters; it’s the dead air that creeps in when players lose track of the turn order. When a round takes twenty...

Thirteen...million...DOLLARS? I had to check three times.