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Showing posts from August, 2011

Humor: Orcus's Little Known Ability

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Little known Daily Power of Orcus, Demon Price. Once per day he can summon scrubbing bubbles that follow his commands. Remember, they work hard so Orcus doesn't have to!

Adventure Gravy and Cornbread (A Gamer's Receipe for Success)

It seems inevitable in my games that when the PCs finish up the meat of an adventure--when the princess has been rescued, or the one ring destroyed--they start acting like a piece of cornbread at the end of a meal, sopping up the last bits of gravy from the adventure. In almost every game, there seems to be rooms the PCs skipped, or failed Search checks that leave them thinking they've missed something useful. In these cases, when the bulk of the adventure is over, my players at least, start retracing every step, rechecking every room, and researching every scrap of paper they can find. In times like this, part of me wants to call a time out and move on to the next story point in the campaign. At the same time, I understand as a player wanting to find all the loot, defeat all the creatures, or learn all the secrets. In trying to understand why my players behave like this (and why I behave like this sometimes as a player), I think part of this stems from the reward system bui

Gen Con: Aftermath - 3.5 Days of Gaming

This year, for the second year in a row, I got to attend the Mac Daddy of gaming conventions, Gen Con . If you're not familiar with this legendary convention, you certainly owe it to yourself to do some research, and then, hopefully, plan to attend next year's gathering. This year, due to some real life issues, I wasn't able to head out early for the con. It's typical for folks to start arriving Wed afternoon (or earlier in some cases) even though the convention doesn't start till Thursday. In my case, I didn't arrive until Thur night, having missed most of the first day. I was lucky enough to get over to the convention with plenty of time to get my badge and walk around the con. The Dealer's Room was closed at that time, but everything else was in full gear. That first night I even ended up playing one of the Dungeon Delve scenarios in the Dungeons and Dragons area of the con. Personally, I think the Dungeon Delve is a great way to sample 4e at a

Dragonlance Comics (Issue 28) - Featuring 2 Complete Stories

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It's been way too long since my last comic post (or any post for that matter). Luckily, this is a standalone issue so no previous storylines are referenced here. This issue contains two stories, one featuring a minotaur of the Imperial League, the other featuring a lowly hobgoblin questing to be the leader of his tribe. Sadly, while Myrella (the female wizard last seen in issue 16 ) appears on the cover, she does not actually appear in either story--already this issue is off to a bad start! The Path to Power The first story starts off with an arena combat where a minotaur, Cantavian, defeats another minotaur, Platius. Afterward, the Emperor talks with Cantavian and the leader of the Black Cloaks minotaur legion. Due to his win in the arena, Cantavian is grudgingly given support for creating a new unit similar to the Black Cloaks. Apparently this plan was originally the idea of Cantavian's cousin, who it turns out to be was General Axantheas (last seen in issue #25 ). W

Return to Blogging

I know I haven't been on this blog lately, but I'm working on several related items that I'll be writing about and sharing with you in the coming weeks. To that end, I'm going to try and write on a regular basis. I'm setting a goal of at least one post a week, while I continue to figure out how to juggle my games, my family, and my job. I just came back from Gen Con and feel re-energized about my D&D game and what I want to contribute to the community at large. Part of that will start within these posts.