Game Bastardization Thoughts

Currently our group is having a lot of fun with 5th edition D&D in vanilla form. 

As always though a person gets to looking around for some fun ways to spice things up a bit. There is just something about character creation that seems lacking and a bit too optimal in my opinion. 

So as we get near to looking for a new adventure for my Wednesday night group which is nearing the end of the Lost Mines of Phandelver module I have been giving thought to running the Tyranny of Dragons (ToD) series, Horde of the Dragon Queen (HotDQ) and Rise of Tiamat (RoT). Having read through it a bit it looks like a fun pair of modules and to be honest I kind of like the low prep, I also run a full sandbox game which is high prep.

So here is my idea for rolling up the new characters:

1. Roll for race. This can be done with 1d10, any races with a sub-race gives the player the option to roll for it as well or play the race as it sits.
2. Roll for class, I am debating this a bit and instead letting them declare class before rolling stats.
3. Stat rolling 3d6 down the line, play what you get. Have toyed with the idea of each player rolling a stat for each other.
4. Incorporating the Hackmaster flaws list with each player having to take one flaw for their character.

We tend to play pretty lighthearted games with humor throughout and I figured it would add a bit different dynamic to the game, but I kind of question if this should be done on a ToD campaign or I should save it for a custom campaign.

Going to run it by my group of course, but if anyone has any input or thoughts on the idea I would appreciate the feedback.

Savage Worlds Has My Interest

Went out and bought the Savage Worlds (SW) core manual a bit ago and have probably read through it four times now. Each time I read through it I find myself falling more and more in love with it.

Initially I bought it on a bit of a whim after hearing one of my favorite podcasts talk about it regularly +Gamerstable and how flexible it was. Admittedly I was a bit skeptical because they made it sound too easy to use for any scenario you could think of. After reading it I realized they were actually under selling the system a bit.

Core book gives you anything you may need to run a game, obviously it has character build details like just about any other core book would. What it also includes is a wide range of vehicles, monsters, magic, feats etc. It also includes clearly defined rules for creating custom items, vehicles, NPCs, monsters and so on. The way it is put together is very intuitive and logical to my mind.

Being new to DMing I wanted something that was easy for the players and myself to understand, could easily be modified for any occasion and just got everyone playing quickly, this fits those requirements.

So I am know adding and yet another game night specifically for my daughter and her friends to play a zombie scenario game that begins in the town we live in. I am going to have them build themselves with minor modifications and turn them loose on the town. This will make mapping a simple process of printing off Google maps of the area and using local landmarks, businesses and even people they recognize in order to produce moral dilemmas within the game.

Enough typing, back to planning. I just can't say enough about the system at this point and can't wait to see it in actual play.

I miss playing in person

Seems a pretty basic statement but let me explain (you knew I was going to anyways).

Currently have two groups I am running in 5th edition D&D. One group is running through Lost Mine of Phandelver (LMoP) and another group stemmed from the first group that we casually are calling Off Day Delves (ODD). We have a player that can only make every other week so I drew up a map and decided to run a sandbox to keep the others gaming on a weekly basis.

It has been working out well and it has been a lot of fun, but we have been using Roll20 to do our gaming despite us all working together. Most of this is a logistical issue with space, children and fuel cost being a factor.

Let me say before this gets taken the wrong way that I find the amount of technology that makes online playing a reality to be amazing, in fact it has drawn me in even further than I may have through traditional measures. I played a variety of systems and game styles thanks to G+ and their chat client with people I met through various groups on G+ that I would have probably never even investigated. For that reason I am very appreciative of this technology existing. 

The problem I am having is that running a game as DM feels painfully clunky, like it is almost there but it isn't. Being that I have been running these groups for about 2 months now and it still feels disconnected to me.

I miss seeing peoples reactions, the table talk, conspiring among players, passing notes and the simple physical act of rolling the dice. It just seems muted playing digitally.

OK I have had a few beers so I am rambling a little bit, but I am pretty sure I am going to be running my Savage Worlds campaign in person only.

Ermagherd busy busy busy

I started writing this entry about two weeks ago and then got sidetracked again, I honestly feel bad about that as I had hoped to get back into regular updates again.

So let me catch you all up to speed with where I am at in my current gaming.

Started running a game of LMoP (Lost Mines of Phandelver) using the 5th edition ruleset. It has been a lot of fun so far and to add to the enjoyment my daughter is running her first character as well in the game and doing awesome with it so far. It did take her a couple games to get into it but she has got it now.

Anyways our group plays by way of Roll20 even though we all work together and live in the same town, it just works out better due to multiple reasons. We do plan to do some live gaming together but probably more during summer for BBQ and beers outside while playing.

Our group also has a player who can only meet every other week due to his band rehearsals (he plays jazz bass) and since the rest of us want to run weekly the obvious answer is to start an off week game of course. So this week will be our first off week game.

I am not sure what else to update with except that I am really liking the 5th edition D&D, something about it seems more inviting to new players and DMs. I think it is a the more stripped nature of the rules leaving a lot more to DM caveat or house rules and home brew. I am sure a lot of this is due to the  only books out currently are the DMG, PHB and the MM along with a couple published modules, but honestly I am not so sure that is the sole reason. I am not experienced enough to say with any authority though so I will leave that to more seasoned gamers.

The off week game is going to be fully homebrew and open world instead of directed. Kind of want to see what happens when I just let the players decide what they want to do. I have a variety of dungeons mapped and populated, plenty of NPCs to interact with and a city for them to start in. I figure some rat chasing scenarios to get them leveled up a bit and on the road to bigger things.

Oh well enough of my rambling, got some dungeon building to finish up and make sure I have my notes all ready for tomorrows game.