Creature Feature 1

The Sea Lion

From the Monster Manual: " A Sea Lion is a fearsome aquatic creature with the head and fore-paws of a lion and the body and tail of a fish."

The Sea Lion is nothing special in terms of combat, with a 1d6+4 claw attack and a 1d8+2 bite attack combined with the rend ability they are pretty standard fair as far as monster attacks go. There are no breath abilities, no level drains, and no spell-like abilities, just claws and teeth. The artwork and the glaring pun alone are enough to make the Sea Lion one of my favorite D&D monsters and for those reasons I have chosen it as my first monster for my Creature Feature.

The Worst Group I Ever DMed

I have been Dungeon mastering for a long time, I have seen groups come and go, some good some bad. Over the years however there has been one group that stood head and shoulders above the rest. To this day the single game I ran for them haunts my memories and sends chills down my spine whenever I am asked to DM for a group I have never played with before. What follows is a recount of that night and the horrors within.

Summer and Gaming

This month the Blog Carnival over at rpgba.org is hosted by Dice Monkey and is about summer and gaming. This is a rather wide open topic and can be anything about gaming in summer.

Please note that the below post is meant as satire. I love gaming and love the gaming community. The purpose of this post is to poke fun at the stereotypes we have all endure because of our hobby, as well as share a little bit of what happens at my local hobby store.

Making a Dungeon That Works

Exploring Dungeons is a staple of most fantasy role playing games. Generally speaking the word dungeon is used as a very broad term that describes just about anywhere characters may adventure. This could be anything from a series of caves to a castle floating high above the earth. These dungeons are traditionally filled with creatures for the players to fight as well as treasures for them to take. Plundering dungeons is fun and a great many nights have been spent looting deep beneath the bowls of earth, but making a dungeon can be a bit tricky. I wanted to give newer DMs a couple of ideas that might help ensure their dungeons are not boring and off putting to players. These tips are more about the feel of the dungeon instead of the actual layout itself.

Barbarians of Heavy Metal Kickstarter

Unplugged Backer rewards.

I was checking around Kickstarter this morning as I often do, looking  for something new, something exciting, something eye-catching, and then I found this. Barbarians of Heavy Metal, a role playing game where the players get to play Guitar wielding, apocalyptic metal heads, with mechs. I am so in on this one. Everything about this game screams classic 80s heavy metal fantasy album art. While I do find the setting to be interesting and as I read through their Kickstarter page it is evident that they guys doing this have a sense of humor and that is something you really need when developing a role playing game about 1980s metal music. The idea of the game being released on tablets, while an interesting concept honestly kind of put me off. I don't what to have to be the GM that has to tell everyone that they have to have an android tablet to role play with me. My other concern is that I don't have to worry about my character sheets bugging out, crashing and erasing themselves in the middle of a gaming session. Now they are offering a soft cover version of the game, called the "unplugged" version and that is what I will be looking at. Reading the questions at the bottom there is some concern over the programming knowledge of the people involved, however they did say that if something would happen and the app release would not work they will be doing softcover versions of the game for every backer. It seems that they people running the campaign are really into their product and very willing to talk to the community about the game. I would say check it out and if you are interested at all back them, I don't know that this would work well for a long term campaign but I think this would make a great setting for those one off games.

Tips for New RPG Players

I wanted to follow up on my tips for new GMs by posting a few tips for players new to the world of role playing. Being a new player in a role playing game can be hard and if you are not careful the veteran players around you will steal the stage and you have the potential to end up on the side lines so to speak and miss out on a lot of fun. As a new player if you keep the tips below in mind it will lead to a much more entertaining experience and leave you wanting more instead of wondering why you just wasted the last couple of hours of your life sitting around a table with these people.

A Couple of Tips For New GMs

If you are new to the world of Game Mastering (or Dungeon Mastering or Narrating, or whatever your game system calls it) the task before you can be daunting to say the least. It has been a long time since I started GMing but I still remember the first game of Dungeons and Dragons I ran. I did everything wrong, from skill checks to role playing in general I messed it all up. Over time I got better and today my players consider me one of their favorite GMs. Whenever we get a group together I am always volunteered to GM, I in fact cannot remember the last time I played a role playing game instead of running it. So without further ramblings I present you with a few tips to help get you through your first couple of games.