This week in gaming ....

Tue: 

About a month ago I started running an open game at the local geekstore. First night we had 4 people. On Tuesday, 15 of them showed up....  

Never talked so fast in my life.

Also scored these marvelous manuscripts! I am most definitely running a modified version of Earthshaker! Having given it a skim, I already know that I'm going to have to rework the whole "organize a carnival for your domain" aspect, but I have such wonderful ideas. The naming convention in this thing also has to go. There is no way I'm going in front of a group and try to pronounce Vyolstagrad, Kolchitsky or Formiesias for two hours.  

But other than that its a real treat!  The rules and the maps for the robot are especially amazing. 

Wed

Only two more sessions before the end of term, so we're doing in the middle of the big push to the BBEG. Next session they level up to 5.  

\

Tonight

We continue our exploration of the Astral plane. SO happy I'm not DMing for a change. 

Mindflayer Tower, Level 2

Map by Dyson's Dodecahedron

This is not the final layout, but it gives me an idea of where the encounters are going to take place. The silver circle in the back is the acid cauldron where the electricity that runs the tower is generated.  

Did experience a few technical difficulties during the set-up phase. 

Last Session

A couple of photos from the last session of the term before the summer break. Here is how it all looked from my perspective.



Close up of the final slime pit with the Otyugh. Its pear and grape sauce with graham wafers as the floating mushrooms. Wish I'd taken a pic of this with more of the paper Minis.

Dwarf Cannon

Last, but certainly not least, Gorg the Ogren Fighter. Gorg's player was the quietest and I think, the last to click on how roleplaying games work. Once he did he added a lot of firepower and humour to the game. His most common request was for guns, which I'm not opposed to (especially if we go pirate), but its not something I wanted to introduce right away. Instead I came up with this, the Dwarven Bore Cannon.

This weapon is fashioned using the cold forging techniques known only to the Dwarves of the northern wastes. It is carried and fired under the arm, which requires great strength (Min STR 16+. See Requirements and Penalties).

Each piece of ammunition, called a 'Shot', is individually packed with an ammunition type packed with an explosive called 'firesalt''. Different ammunition have different effects, but beyond the frozen fields of the Dwarflands, they are very hard to find. Individuals shots can end up costing mush more than the cannon itself. Only characters who have +4 Proficiency, an INT of 12+, and training will know how to make and pack Shot.

Damage: variable. Average shot does 2d8 Fire and Bludgeoning Damage. Roll Dex save vs DC(=To Hit Role of the shot) to take 1/2 damage.

Range: 50', explosion affects all within 10' circle.

Requirements and Penalties: Player must have the Cannon Proficiency in order to use the device properly. Characters have never see one used before will have no idea what the device is or how to it works. Requires a STR of 16+ to weld, or else all attacks are made at Disadvantage.

 Loading and packing a shot requires one full Action (can only be fired every second round).

Rolling a 1: if a natural 1 is rolled at any time while handling a Bore, especially in combat, consult the following chart.
Roll D10
1-3       Dud - Ammunition is ruined and requires one Action to remove safely.

3-4       Missfire - ammunition is still live, but did not fire. Must be removed safely (DEX + Proficiency save vs DC 12) or else see Explosion! see below.

5-6       All Quite - Nothing happens. Make a missfire roll to remove shot safely. Also has a 25% chance of exploding on its own at the end of d4 rounds.

7-8       Wonky Shot - Fired ammunition spins off in a random direction.
        Roll D6, shot goes ...
         1    90 right
         2    90 left
         3    45 right
         4    45 left
         5    D4x10 feet directly ahead.
         6    Straight Up

9          Slide - Live and lit a Shot slides out of the barrel and lands at the shooter's feet. All characters within 10' must make a DEX DC roll of 12 to take half damage. Shooter must make a DEX DC roll of 15.

10        Explosion! - Shot explodes in the barrel. Does 2d10 damage to all within 10' radius unless a DEX DC roll of 14 is made. Shooter must make a DEX DC roll of 16. Weapon is destroyed,

The Black Tuba

Stephen the Bard loves getting into trouble, so I decided to give him something to get into trouble with ....

The Black Tuba
There are many legends as to how this terrible instrument came to be. Some said it was created by a jealous Halfling fortune teller to get revenge on the bard who' spurned her. Some say it was once welded by a great Hob bard who became sick and corrupted by evil. Others say it was bestowed upon a Halfling family by some unnamed dark power after they had performed some terrible service on its behalf.  

The tuba is not black per say, but is it badly tarnished and will never remain polished for long. When a special valve is played, the instrument releases a deep and somber note that will damage all those who hear it. This 'Death Note' can be played at any time, but costs a spell-slot.

Death Note
This note can be played by any spell-casting Bard character and requires a spell-slot to use. The death note does d6 damage per level of spell-slot used (ie, Death Note cast using a third level spell-slot would do 3d6 damage). Damage is necrotic. Range 20' cone. Characters caught in the blast are also rendered deaf for d4 rounds unless a CON Saving Throw is made (vs the Bard's DC).

If the damage from a Death Note kills an opponent (reduces their hp to 0 or below), the tuba will suck in the departing spirit of the dead. The CR (or level, in the case of an npc) of the absorbed opponent can now be added to either: to the Bard's Magic DC, OR the Bard's AC for one round.

The Tuba can not absorb creatures and monsters that do not possess spirits (skeletons, zombies, vampires, golemns etc. DM's discretion). It will still wound those vulnerable to necrotic damage.

The tuba can absorb up to a total of 10 Levels/Combat Ratings. The bard can, a Bonus Action, choose to put all, or some of that number into their Magic DC or AC (not both) each round. The bonus lasts for one round only and once the points are spent, they are gone until the Bard can absorb new spirits into the tuba.

As this instrument destroys living spirits, using it constitutes an alignment violation for all Good characters.

Dragonborn Spearsword

Scuffy the silver Dragonborn Paladin's goals have always been simple: Kill all monsters. In aid of this, I gave him a 7' tall naginata or glaive that I dubbed a 'spearsword', the traditional weapon of a Dragonborn warrior.

Damage: 2D6 slashing.
Range 10'.
Block: Adds +1 to AC (see Restrictions).
Restrictions: Must be welded two handed. Must have STR 17 or more to use properly, otherwise all attack rolls are made at Disadvantage and AC bonus does not apply.

The Rod of Varying Lengths

Peter the Thief's player has offered a lot of background for the character, including the possibility that he's royalty from a far-off kingdom. I was going to give him a ring that hints at this lineage, but ultimately I decided that would be quite the specific item to find in a side-quest. Then I started thinking about what sort of item might be useful to a thief. I really like this item, which may or may not have been inspired by the Ranger Pikes from Babylon 5 (Marcus lives!).

Rod of Varying Lengths
At first this item appears to be a thick rod of twisted wood about thirty centimetres long. When physically twisted, the rod will lengthen, becoming longer, but thinner the more it is twisted. The rod lengthens equally from both ends, meaning the person doing the twisting will remain in the middle of the lengthening object.

Baton Length

With a few twists, the rod can be lengthened into a baton or club. It can also be lengthened into a short staff (1.5m) or a long staff (2m). Beyond two meters, the rod is no longer rigid enough to be used as a weapon, but can be used as a thick cable for lengths up to 10m. Beyond 10 meters, the rod becomes flexible and rope-like and can be spooled out a full length of  20m.

The rod is a magical item and quite durable, having an AC of 12 and requiring 20hp of damage to sever, regardless of length.

As a baton or staff, the rod does d8 bludgeoning damage. Range 5'. Skilled welders (those with Simple Weapon proficiency) can quickly twist the rod, causing it to shoot out. This allows the welder to hit the rod at an enemy up to 10' away.

Once twisted to a desired length, the rod will remain at that size until twisted back, or if the welder rolls a Natural 1 while using it, at which time it will instantly snap back to rod size (automatically untying itself from any item or anchor). Twisting the item to a different length requires a Bonus Action.

Bladed Bow

Last night marked the end of regular play for the year. Next session we level up to 3rd and then we break for the summer. We'll be restarting next September.

The adventure ended (for now) in a slime pit with a pitched battle with a rapidly mutating otyugh. When it was vanquished, they dove into the slime to retrieve the lost dragon's horde.

They came up with some items I'd customed for each of the characters which they were suppose to use on the real Big Boss, but they'd spent too much time horsing around with Kandida's Miscellaneous Potion. We ended up with a fur covered thief, but didn't get around to the final fight.

Harrod, Gygax bless him, was never cut out to be the archer. A Half-Elf Paladin, he had poor stats and no predilection or skills to be an archer, but that's how the player ran him. He also happened to be a pretty good strategist and emerged as a real leader to the group, and I wanted to reward that. I'm adapting the Divine Archer archetype into a Paladin Oath of the Straight Arrow, but I wanted to give the player something he could use effectively if he wanted to come out of the back rows every now and again. Its not much, really but it packs better damage that he'd been doing with a regular bow.

Damage: Melee d10 slashing damage. Range d10 piercing.

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 8 - Game Night

Lighting detail. 3 mini-strings (about 30cm long) of flower lights. They run off batteries. 

The party enters the cave.... 

Battle with a roper.

The full and final layout! 

Paladin Oath of the Monster Slayer

At the completion of the Fungal Forest, the party will have reached 3rd Level, which means its time for them to choose their Archetypes/College/Swear the Oath. I'm pretty open and will allow anything from the PHB or Xanathar's Guide. 

Both Paladins in the party are being played a little off kilter. One has become, by default, the party's Archer. The other likes killing monsters. There are no Oaths that cover these scenarios for the Paladin class, so I'm hacking together a couple of kits using existing features from different classes. 

Why not a Divine Archer (Oath of the True Arrow) or a Dragonslayer? 

I did not write most of this, merely complied it from other class features. 

Art by Dawnweaver13

Oath of the Monster Slayer

Tenants of Monster Slaying

Courage

                Never fear to act.

By Any Means Necessary

My qualms can’t get in the way of exterminating chaotic beasts.

Restitution.

If beasts of chaos wreak havoc upon the world, it is because use I failed to stop them. I must help those harmed by their misdeeds.

MONSTER SLAYER SPELLS

3rd         Protection from Order and Chaos

5th         Zone of Truth

9th         Magic Circle

13^th         Banishment

15^th        Hold Monster

At 3^rd Level

Nature Skill

Add +2 to your Nature skill. You are now proficient if you were not before.

The Slayer’s Sense

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to peer at a creature and magically discern how best to hurt it. As an action, choose one creature you can see within 60 feet of you.

You immediately learn whether the creature has any damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities and what they are. If the creature is hidden from divination magic, you sense that it has no damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

Eye for Weakness

Starting at 3rd level, you can focus your ire on one foe, increasing the harm you inflict on it. As a bonus action, you designate one creature you can see within 60 feet of you as the target of this feature. The first time each turn that you hit that target with a weapon attack, it takes an extra 1d6 damage from the weapon.

This benefit lasts until you finish a short or long rest. It ends early if you designate a different creature

At 7^th Level

Choose two of the following:

Colossus Slayer

Your tenacity can wear down the most potent foes. When you hit a Huge or Gigantic creature with weapon attack, the creature takes an extra ld8 damage if it's below its hit point maximum. Vou can deal this extra damage only once per turn.

Giant Killer

When a Large or larger creature within 5 feet of you hits or misses you with an attack, you can use your reaction to attack that creature immediately after its attack, provided that you can see the creature.

Horde Breaker

Once on each of your turns when you make a weapon attack, you can make another attack with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target and within range of your weapon.

Escape the Horde

Opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage.

Multi-Attack Defense

When a creature hits you with an attack, you gain a +4 bonus to AC against all subsequent attacks made by that creature for the rest of the turn.

Steel Will

Vou have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

At 11th level

Choose One of the Following

Volley

Vou can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon's range. Vou must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.

Whirlwind Attack.

Vou can use your action to make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roIl for each target.

Magic Disruptor

You gain the ability to thwart someone else’s magic. When you see a creature casting a spell or teleporting within 60 feet of you, you can use your reaction to try to magically foil it. The creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, or its spell or teleport fails and is wasted.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

At 15th Level

Choose One of the Following

Evasion.

You can nimbly dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a red dragon's fiery breath or a lightning bolt spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail

Stand Against the Tide.

When a hostile creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to force that creature to repeat the same attack against another creature (other than itself) of your choice.

Uncanny Dodge

When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack's damage against you.

Slayer’s Counter

You gain the ability to counterattack when your prey tries to sabotage you. If the target of your Eye for Weakness forces you to make a saving throw, you can use your reaction to make one weapon attack against the quarry. You make this attack immediately before making the saving throw. If your attack hits, your save automatically succeeds, in addition to the attack’s normal effects.

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 7 - Cast of Characters

Just some of the characters and critters who will be inhabiting my Playdoh fungal paradise. 

The Murmuring Merchant. If you ever want to have a lot of fun as a DM, make a non-verbal NPC your players will want to interact with. This guy has good stuff to sell, but only communicates in grunts and blowing raspberries. 

A Mantango, one of the 'good' tribe of Myconids living in the fungal caves.  

The Dryad of the Baobob Tree is slowing being consumed and transformed by the myconids. If she completes her natural transformation she will become a Mycollosus, a living god-being. If she dies while the bones of the black dragon continue to poison her roots, she will become a Slime Giant and wreck havoc.

Lobstrose. The first NPC they meet appears to be a gentle giant, who tells them to be careful around Kandida, and that the dryad is dying and insane. In reality, he was an adventurer in the party that killed the dragon, but was left behind for dead. Trapped and mutated by the alien environment, he's become an embittered bully who rules over the Deathcaps. He blames the dryad for his condition, and wants her to feel continue the pain of dragon bones poisoning her roots. He's absolutely right about Kandida though.

Kandida the gnome alchemist. Let's just say that her potions have many, many, many side effects. Her three eyes don't always blink at the same time and the top one is rarely looking in the same direction as the other two. I played her as an unhinged version of Vanellope Von Schweetz and despite doing nothing but offering to help the party, they were utterly terrified of her. I'm quite proud of that. I stumbled across this picture and loved it too much not to use it. 

A Deathcap, the 'bad' myconid tribe. 

Found this picture of a baby mimic. Now I get my chance to find out if the playes are too young to know what the movie 'Alien' is about.  

A pussbug. Stinging little bastards and, when dead, useful as currency to certain non-verbal, and very hungry, merchants.

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 6 - Final Touches

The slime kit I bought was a complete loss and I had nothing to fill the slime-pit the night before the game. I had an idea to use jello cups, but I couldn't fine any in lime. I did fine these. Mmm, sweet, delicious pear-flavoured slime.

The last touch was three sets of battery powered LED sting-lights. A little darkness hides a thousand mistakes. I put a few of the standees I planned to use to test the sizing.  

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 5 - Build Details

You can really see the sugar/playdoh reaction happening here. The liquid in the upturned egg at the bottom-left is suppose to dry into crystals. It is a cool effect, but it takes days to really start to work. I've also put the aquarium plants in now and I really like how the look. 

To keep the playdoh from drying out, I washed everything in coats of white glue and water. Took a few tries to find a good ratio, but it worked.

Sprucing up some of the blander areas.The white stuff is drying glue.

I actually wrote a whole sub-plot for the 3 of these swirly eggs I stashed in the maze, but so far the party hasn't looked twice at them. 

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 4 - The Build Goes On

Starting on the Slime Pit, where the final showdown will take place. I'm genuinely pissed that I lost that set of bones somewhere between home and the game-shop, they were an inspiration for the plot. Have to come up with something before next session. 

This is some knock-off brand playdoh that I grabbed to test. It has a softer, but greasier texture to playdoh. It also pulled like taffy (something that playdoh doesn't do) which allowed me to do these ribbons. The trashcan is a candy container.

Lots of glow stones. My wife made the plant.

Trying something with the Easter Eggs. Bit boring at the moment.

All laid-out. 

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 3 - The Build Begins

The green pom-poms are just stuck with white glue. I later covered the spots with paint, which helped them stand out more.

I quite liked how this wall turned out, even if some of the jelly-beans kept popping out their holes as the sugar reacted the playdoh. The shell would start to melt and they'd slide out if they could. 

I did a couple of these root-like tendrils, but I as never happy with results. 

Cluster of plastic eggs. The goop is glow-n-the-dark silly putty, which I didn't end up using.

Glowing stones and yellow jellybeans. You can see here where the moisture in the playdoh started pulling the sugar out of the jelly beans. It actually produced a decent slimey effect.

I was running out of ideas at this point so I just crushed some green playdoh between my fingers and dropped it on a mushed blue wall.

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest 2 - Laying in Supplies

All in I figure I spent between 40-50$ on this. Honestly, its at least 10$ than I was hoping to spend, but its my first build and I chalk a lot of that inexperience. I ended buying too much of some things that I didn't need, and had to go back for things I didn't think of at first. Everything is from the Dollarstore or Walmart. 

The bulk of the project is made out of Playdoh and a bag of plastic Easter Eggs. The eggs had jelly-beans inside and I ended up making use of those as well.

Other purchases included:

-Growing Crystal kit and a Slime Kit. One was partially useful, one was not and neither was worth it in the end.

-Some plastic aquarium plants. The best purchase by far and I'm only looking to get more.  

-Mini-strings of LED flowers and required batteries. 

-Bag of glow-in-the-dark plastic pebbles. Good colour, lousy at the glow-in-the-dark part. 

-Paint, brushes, carving tools

-Silly Putty and a row of green-pompoms. 

Session XI: What's in the Box?

As expected, the night was spent in one big, long battle between the party, the pirates and the Gnoll slavers.

I began the session with the Chromatic Imps exploding out the back of the pirates' ship. Then things grew very quiet on the docks, and I told the party that they begin to hear this coming from the deck of the slavers' junk (Chinese sailing ship) ... I played the sound clip off my phone.  

There was derring-do, there was showdowns and sacrifice, explosions and swinging from the rigging, there were ninja style attacks and some glorious fails (the black Dragonborn captain of the slavers - who was suppose to be this big, scary tough guy - couldn't roll for beans. Though he did manage to spit acid right into Scruffy's face during the big show-down). One character went down, another finished with literally 1 hit point left. I call it a success.  

The fight ended with the slaves rescued (one taken on a hireling), the pirate captain dead, the ship on fire and the slavers escaping in their badly damaged boat (it might have been hit by lightning a couple times). 

But for all the party's tactics and bravery, they are not natural looters. They barely searched the empty mid-deck and found only one of the possible three chests I'd placed there (also missed the bag of gunpowder sitting on the stove, which accounted for one of the explosions) and didn't loot any of the bodies. I'm trying to give each character a  minor, magical item that isn't a weapon or armour, but they aren't looking around hard enough to find where I am hiding them in the game. Its an odd position to find myself in as a DM. 

Of the three chests I'd hidden on the mid-deck, they salvaged one. Peter the Thief flubbed three roles trying to pick the lock, so it remains unopened. Of the three chests on that deck, one had basic treasure (coins and gems), another had a magic item for one of the PCs, and the third was a party item rolled from the trinket table in the PHB. I haven't' decided yet which chest they saved...  

Next Session: The party has been hired by a Tiefling monk to retrieve his Sensei's magical trident from a dead dragon's lair. At least, they think she's dead ....

The Cheap DM: Fungal Forest Part 1

There are only three more sessions before the end of this term and I want to shake things up a bit before raising everyone up to 3rd level on the last session. Inspired by our new volunteer, I'm going to offer up a SideQuest: A chance to explore a small Fugal Forest beneath a dead baobob tree in the middle of a swampy lake. 

I was going to do the usual,' find some maps on-line' to use as terrain, but I wasn't finding anything that matched the pictures in my head. Then last Sunday afternoon I was out walking the dog when I found two plastic easter eggs lying under a tree in a public park. They had either been overlooked, or more likely, been ransacked of their goodies and then discarded. I liked their bright colours and their shape, and inspiration hit. 

I made a run to the dollar store to see if there were any holiday deals left. I found some spotted plastic eggs, so I grabbed a bag for test purposes (note: I'm gonna need two more bags). I also broke out the grid board I made a few months ago out of some laminate scavenged from work. I haven't had a chance to use the board yet, so I'm excited about that as well. 

Just laying things out to see what it might look like. 

Quick sketch of a map. It needs to look curvy and organic. 

Sketched out where the terrain is going go using thin masking-tape. The green square at the top will be eventually be a slime-pool. The tablet will have a image of a mushroom forest, possibly representing an entrance into another, deeper area if they want to keep exploring.

I wasn't sure what to do with these swirl-pattern eggs at first, but I think that standing them upright makes them look like markers or carvings made by the Myconids. 

I did mention the slime pool. Another dollar store purchase. 

The next step is gonna require a shit ton of playdoh. 

But What if I Want to be a Pirate?

End of the second term is just over a month away (the kids pay Autism NS a quarterly nominal fee to participate) and I'm starting to think of the next stage of the game.

Last term I gave them the options of a) exploring the city (city crawl), b) exploring the dungeons below the city (dungeon crawl) c) exploring the countryside (sandbox) and d) pirate ship (sandbox)

I wanted pirate ship, so of course they choose city crawl. Its been a lot more fun that I had expected, but its an exhausting amount of work building a city.

Next term I want to get them off the streets and try something new. The options I hope to introduce over the next few weeks include a) underground exploration (essentially Underdark though I call it The Nether Realm, b) a John Carter/Barsoom exploration of one of planet's 13 moons. c) a version of the original Curse of Strahd. This doesn't immediately hook into any of the current plots, but I've always wanted to run the module. I'm going to bait a hook and see if they bite. and d) Pirate ship!

Yeah, I still want to run a pirate game. If they'll let me, I will be using these links as references.

Concept art from Sea of Thieves

more Sailing Ship concept art