Dungeons and Dragons Encounters: July 2014

2014-07-31

Icosahedrophilia Podcast, Episode 204: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Part 5

This is another great episode from Southern California's finest gaming group.

This is a mostly combat related episode, which we have not had in a very long time, it is nice to see the players dusting off their character sheets and rolling some dice.

HJRP1211 Happy Jacks RPG Podcast Season 12 Episode 11

Here are the show notes

Your hosts: Stu and Stork, and Phil and Chris from Misdirected Mark Podcast.
Links mentioned in the show:
Queen City Conquest - Dangerous Space Jail - Return of Dragons - Unframed - Minions of the Source - Mechanical Bard: Ninth World Tales - Encoded DesignsShow Notes! We first talk about convention game prep, the importance of good pregenerated player characters and what makes a great pregen PC.
Lucas writes in asking about Yes, And during the creative process of campaign design. Email from Michael writes in about triggers, lines, veils and the X card. Jacob asks us to chime in about his concept for a timeline jumping adventure.
Andrew from Yorkshire gives us his thoughts on the social mechanics vs player agency argument. Bill writes in about several options for running sentient items as PCs. And Hangman shares with us the awesomeness of the They Live inspired RPG, All Outta Gum.

This is a good episode.

I did not know that Stu did not know Numenera and he really does not get into the why's here, but I found those comments interesting.

The Guys from Misdirected Mark are fantastic & bring a very different energy to the show--the talk of creating a con via kickstarter is very good.

After D&D Intro Pack War

The night started with some good advice for everyone

Brian had picked up some San Diego Comic Con swag--these Garruck sleeves were for Jack

And I got the White Black Intro Pack

This is Ronaldo's phone--he is an artist and is showing us some of his product work.

Here is level two judge Eric--it is always a good idea to have a Judge handy before Brian and I play

Brian had his game face on

I had my Jace mat out

I was crushed game one, but came back and won game 2 & 3. A fun post D&D Match of magic.

2014-07-30

Actual Play Dead in Thay--D&D Encounters S18 S12

We rescued our first Chosen!

Dead in Thay--D&D Encounters S18 S12

Another Wednesday of D&D Encounters at Comic Quest. The Dead in Thay season is already over, but we are a few weeks behind and still finishing up.

It started fantastic with a note on Brian's car at Pei Wei

I did not think his parking was that bad--he was over the first line, but not the second.

Brian got Jack some killer Garruck Sleeves from San Diego Comic Con--they match his mat:

I picked up a Intro Pack so I could start building my Black White deck--there were also a lot of free comics at the shop this week including some amazing Steven King book--the art is amazing, not sure about the story...

John has been painting Thomas' minis--this one came out really good

Victoria is using this cat ring as her mini

We had two tables --a six and a seven--and two DM's

The other table was rather subdued and rolling fairly quickly through stuff.

Victoria was back at DM Scott's table playing an Elf Ranger

Brian is playing a druid

Nathan was playing two characters--a rouge fighter & a a mage--he was basically the entire party!

John had his paladin, which at level 8 is just awesome.

DM Scott was ready to run

I had plenty of space, again.

I drew this great picture of the Shrine we found in the Pits of Extraction--there was a chosen of some Orc God floating between two pillars

We had a great looking party

We fought some zombies, a red wizard, a dread warrior, and a death-lock knight--not sure about some of these creature names, but they all felt old school & awesome.

We had a few crits

I think we have about two more weeks before we start the next season, but I need to spend some time this week getting organized.

2014-07-29

2014-07-28

Khans of Tarkir Clans

Klan information is coming out of SDCC

Abzan Houses [WBG]

Jeskai Way [URW]

Mardu Horde [RWB]

Sultai Brood [BGU]

Temur Frontier [GUR]

The Brood looks like the most fun for me, but since this is the year of white I will likely play Abzan

Day One of Read RPG Day in Public

A beautiful Monday morning, lead to a great Lunch Break to review anything I may have forgotten in preparation of what is to come!

2014-07-27

Yog-Sothoth

2014-07-26

Dead in Thay (Tome 237)

Here is the show description:

In this episode, Jeff and Tracy are joined by Sam Dillon, Eric Paquette, and James Introcaso to discuss the sequel to Scourge of the Sword Coast: Dreams of the Red Wizards - Dead in Thay.
This was one of the episodes we skipped releasing so that we could bring you the Mike Mearls, Wolfgang Baur, and Steve Winter interviews in a timely manner.

This is another very good episode--Sam & Eric bring a ton of information and issues to the table and really provide some great insight. James is currently one of my favorite D&D Commentators--a real fresh enthusiastic approach--very fun.

A lot of the issues that they raise, though valid, seem to miss some of the fun that this adventure is providing for D&D Encounters. Encounters has tried to do Dungeon Crawls a few times, but this one really is the best I have ever seen. Every week the tables are getting more and more crowded through the season--which I have never seen happen before [generally, attendance goes down during the season & spikes at the beginning of the next season].

Also, I think I got a lot out of this episode because they were reveiwing a product that I actually had some experience with--historically, Tome Show has reviewed stuff months before I see them, but lately they have been reviewing books and adventures that I have had my hands on which allows me to get a lot more out of the reviews.

Really like the direction this is going--unfortunately, Tracy's contribution is weak here again...as a cohost she seems to bring more confusion and awkward moments to the conversation than most of the guests....I am not really sure where she is coming from these days--it is like she has stopped playing D&D all together and is just offering social commentary...maybe time for a new cohost who is spending more time at the table.