Murder in Baldur’s Gate--D&D Encounters S15 S12

The penultimate week of D&D Encounters Season 15, Murder at Baldur's Gate, at Mercenary Market was a huge success.

Jack, Brian, Scott, & I got there early and had a fun Sushi dinner with our waitress Randy, whose real name may be Brandy, but Brian is insane, so I am not really sure. In any event, there is no way that you will please her phsycially, so it likely does not matter...

Brian spent most of his time listening to Pelor [or maybe Pantera] and ranting like a mad man. Scott finds this stuff very funny, but it may just be a giant waste of valuable adventuring time!

DM Will is running a very fun game.

John is one of the greatest Role Players of all time--he is playing Ivan the Half-Orc Barbarian who is somehow Scottish and generally ranting.

Here he is in action.

It is just fun to watch a kid having this much fun at a D&D Table.

And the table is good--we have a lot of room for everything. Including snacks.

Jack scored the only Crit of the night & we are still not exactly sure how the current critical hit rules work. We went with roll damage dice twice, do not apply Ability Bonus on the second roll. So with a long bow this was 2d8+3. Please leave me a comment if you have ideas on how Crits should be handled.

MtA Episode 43: Inside Pro Tour Theros

I listened to this while on my jog.

One of the things I really continue to enjoy about this podcast is the "Theater Kids" aspect that the hosts embody. They do a lot of spontaneous improv stuff that is very funny. Actually, sometimes it is not funny and all & is just hard to listen to, but that attitude behind it is completely charming & captiviating for me.

This episode covers Pro Tour Theros in a very random way, a Pro Tour that they went to in Aimes Iowa, and some general thoughts on current cards. Not the best topics for them--the are best when they go to local stores & meet friends for late night matches or discover some weird new part of Magic. Of course, as they become more experienced with Magic those discoveries become more and more rare.

A very fun podcast, even though I do really miss the old theme song.

Haste! w/ Special guest Smiles. Gamer Wisdom, DDI Goes Dark, Tabletop SFX, and More!

Another great episode of Haste which I listened to while on my jog.

I am impressed that they are still able to be podcasting as the reforging nears completion. 

It was nice to have a special guest on this episode.

Know Direction 70 - Late September 2013

I listened to this while sitting at a table at Taco Bell across from UCI while waiting for Jack to finish up at Water Polo.

I think that this is the only Pathfinder Podcast that I am currently listening to it--I really enjoy the hosts spirit and high energy. They have a lot of system expertise and combine that knowledge with some fantastic insight into not just the rpg industry and trends, but more importantly to the games that occur at the table.

The show notes do not really match up that well with what I remember listening to, but I do remember enjoying it.

Two Headed Donuts!

Special Halloween Edition of Tuesday Morning with Magic! Kate made this amazing decoration.

Lisa made muffins & we had donuts for the boys

The kids came charging into the house this week--they are starting to arrive earlier.

The kids card storage tools are still poor. I need some generic cheap tips on how to store cards so that the kids can move out of mom's Tupperware!

The Go tokens we use for counters is working very well.

Andrew, Matt, and Dylan had some one on one matches to start the morning

Alexander, Jack, and Derek all won, I think--kitchen side continues to be the strong side.

The kids all have iPhone's and have downloaded counters which is working very well.

I do still use paper and pen, mostly just so the kids learn how to do it for when we take the show on Tour.

Matt going Donut--in fact, all the kids went donut

. 

The kids had to wait until the one on one matches were complete before starting the Two Headed Giant match which was really what most of the kids are interested in. This is the reason that the come.

Jack is leaping out of his chair during THG!

But then Derek's green deck started to go off

And then Team J&M had to go back to the planning stages

Ruling on the Whip

Brian

and I

Met for Lunch at Veggie Grill in Irvine for some Magic: The Gathering & some trash talking

We also talked work & started gearing up for NaNoWriMo

Brian has a lot of cards in his bag

I am still running a very simple Rakdos deck

Brian has been crushing me lately with a UW Deck--it Mills, it has Planeswalkers, & it has some white creature spamming

We did have a tricky rules situation come up again. Brian was milling me and I had like 10 creatures in my graveyard so I attempted to use the Whip of Erbos

to pull a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out of my Graveyard

doing four to Brain. 

He attempted to respond to the Whip with Cancel

but I argued the Whip was using an Ability not a Spell. Brian agreed & took four--but I have no idea if this is the correct rulling.

We then we had a discussion about if there was any way to prevent the Whip from returning the Gary and causing damage. So, this weeks question, is mostly about "is there a difference between 'enter the battlefield' effects when a creature is cast as opposed to manipulated by some other Ability"?

Skull & Shackles Session 5

Reef & Lizard Folk Fun

This month's Pathfinder Adventure was at Scott's House. We are still working our way through the Skull and Shackles adventure path. But before I get to that, a little lunch!

Scott made Mexican Food, including amazing guacamole

All sorts of chopped up stuff to add to a burrito

And this amazing slow cooked chicken stuff. I am a vegetarian so I did not eat this, but the boys really enjoyed it! Strong move from the Pizza that we usually order.

We played in Scott's living room.

We had tons of space

I made the total rookie move & forgot my character sheet! Luckily I was able to level up a pregen Gnome Bard fair

There are lot of good online Pathfinder character sheets to use, Chase recommended this landscape style one, which I did not really like--still feels very cluttered to me.

I did remember my Crit & Fumble deck, which I totally love.

Mouse was in rare form this week--El Canejo is really turning into the party leader.

Cousin Dave was on fire--still playing this maniac pistol shooting pirate--he ads a lot to the game & does a really good job describing his attacks.

Chase's wizard continues to be the glue for the party--I have renamed him Cookie.

DM Scott was having a great time.

We are using a fairly old school mini collection with a lot of unpainted lead.

I drew some maps of the environments we were exploring this week. This is the hut that some undead lived in just outside of a fresh water swamp.

This is the Bone Wreck Isle that we are trying to rid of some Hag.

Cousin David got a crit

and then confirmed it with another crit

which is about as awesome as it gets.

Kryptonite had much less fun, ending the adventure hooked in place in pitch darkness in the middle of the Hook Lake--here was his response to Scott.