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  1. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Enhancing "Rise of Tiamat" (Practical stuff to try at your table!)

    Someone earlier asked about where to get clean faction images for use with the portraits. They can be found in the D&D Fansite kit which you should be able to download from Wizards here: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/fan-site-kit Seconded on the Governor Nighthill portrait being Lord...
  2. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Small tweaks to improve Out of the Abyss [DMs toolbox; SPOILERS]

    Dig the library idea. If you have high level PCs from a prior campaign, it might make sense to have them make an appearance for the final battle, or as members of a prior expedition that have since gone insane after trying to fight the demon lords on their own. Useful as a random encounter...
  3. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Mapping Software Input [What's in your wallet?]

    Roll20 has a pretty robust interface for making maps, especially if you know how to use a graphics editor alongside it. Additionally, they have a good marketplace for buying premium assets if you can't find free stuff using their built-in search. Not sure how easy it would be to print off...
  4. vandaexpress

    D&D Goes to Work Part II: Professional Game Masters

    This was a fantastic article, Morrus. Bookmarking it for later reference. Two thoughts. Tax Benefits - A number of people have (correctly) asserted that it would be a rare situation indeed where one could make enough money from GMing to justify the opportunity cost of a typical 9-5 job. That...
  5. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Perform Skill: What's it good for?

    I would probably argue that it counts, if nothing else, as a profession for the purposes of earning money during downtime.
  6. vandaexpress

    WotC's Chris Perkins Talks About... Everything! Upcoming Storylines, Products, Staffing, Other World

    Sometimes I wonder if they overestimate the Forgotten Realms brand equity - I appreciated the breakdown of the campaign setting usage, but I think you're going to see a lot of bias in those numbers. I don't run Dark Sun because I have no official 5E Dark Sun materials, not because I have no...
  7. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Future format of books that mimic SCAG: Will you buy them?

    If I'm honest with myself: yes, probably. But... the only reason I would buy it is because this appears to be the only thing I'm going to get as far as official products and I absolutely love this game. This does not mean I'm particularly thrilled with the format or owning yet another physical...
  8. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Do you find Fantasy Grounds just too much of an investment?

    Yeah, I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm likely to buy the physical version of the book for ease of reading - the formatting in Roll20 is serviceable but it's not as easy to read as a physical book. Not sure if there's going to be as much cannibalization of physical book sales as they fear...
  9. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Do you find Fantasy Grounds just too much of an investment?

    I'm on the fence. I spent a ton of money on an ultimate license forever ago and never used it, ran with Roll20. I do a hybrid setup where I run a live, face-to-face game using electronic tools to enhance the experience, like digital battlemaps, pictures, etc. I felt like I had to do an enormous...
  10. vandaexpress

    SCAG Now On FANTASY GROUNDS VTT

    This is how I'm using it as well. For a while I was stumped on how to run multiple instances of it on my Mac using the steam install, but then I just ran a virtual machine for the Player-facing view. One question I have for you is the resolution on the maps. I've noticed that if I, for...
  11. vandaexpress

    Unearthed Arcana Light, Dark, Underdark - November's Unearthed Arcana

    I think this hits the nail on the head - different groups have different levels of competence. I completely agree with Celtavian's read of the situation. I saw the fighting style and instantly saw potential for abuse with polearm master. This may not be a problem for most groups. Mine tends to...
  12. vandaexpress

    SCAG Now On FANTASY GROUNDS VTT

    Excellent. FG's dev team has been on point with matching the actual release schedule. I've finally been getting around to fully transitioning from my Roll20 Mentor Subscription to FG, and stuff like this makes me feel more and more comfortable with that decision. Although I know it isn't...
  13. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E [CAMPAIGN] Out of the Abyss [SPOILERS]

    Love this checklist and thread, Celt. If my memory serves correctly, the guidance in the supplement is that getting lost means the party goes in a different direction for a random number of hours. I like your method much better of just penalizing them a day and boosting pursuit level. Much simpler.
  14. vandaexpress

    Mike Schley's MASSIVE Forgotten Realms Map From SCAG!

    Great job, Mike. Love your maps and will be picking up this one today, this will be the 27th one I've purchased directly from you, so while I can't speak for everyone else, I for one, am grateful that you offer all of your maps for sale independently. And I guarantee that I will buy literally...
  15. vandaexpress

    One of my players got married.

    As a DM, my motto has always been "No shame in our game." That said... not sure I would have had the stones to do this.
  16. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Princes vs Abyss

    This is great. I've saved it to my PotA stuff for when I do run it, sooner or later. Thanks for sharing.
  17. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Princes vs Abyss

    Thanks, yes. I tend to prefer having a 10,000 ft view of everything and lay down future plot threads and foreshadowing early on where possible. I find my players delight in figuring out those kinds of things and it helps give them something to look forward to. This tends to amp up my prep time...
  18. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Princes vs Abyss

    I don't see any for OotA, but I think the reason for that is because it's designed with level 1 characters in mind, whereas Princes has Level 3 characters as the starting point, I think. That said, my understanding is that a lot of the early parts of OotA rely on leveling through random...
  19. vandaexpress

    D&D 5E Princes vs Abyss

    Hey folks, I'm wrapping up an extremely off-the-rails "Rise of Tiamat" campaign. I currently own both PotA and OotA. My plan is to take 6 months off from DMing in order to prep the next campaign (I learned the hard way during HotDQ & RoT that I need to spend more time prepping before launching a...
  20. vandaexpress

    RPG Design & Arduous Research

    Hats off to you, Morrus. I used to maintain a database of stats for current/recent vehicles (I'm a car guy) and that was arduous for me. I can't imagine doing it for vehicles that aren't even around. This is fantastic. Glad to see I'm not the only one who geeks out to stuff like this, even if my...
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