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Father's Day Loot

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18 Jun 2018 11:49 - 18 Jun 2018 11:52 #275682 by Sagrilarus
Father's Day Loot was created by Sagrilarus
My Father's Day loot (each year I ask for them to not buy me stuff, each year I get a ton) more or less broke into two pieces -- Android Netrunner Draft Packs and Dungeons and Dragons materials more or less through a gift card.

The Netrunner stuff is well timed, likely to start selling out, and my oldest boy and I just dug back into the game after an extended break. We relearned the game more quickly this time, played more deeply and both of us were much more qualified to stick it to each other for the remainder of the session. This was during the May Getaway, the "Best Kind of Con in Gaming"™.

The Dungeons & Dragons stuff led off with the 5th Edition Monster Manual, which is quite plush. We've been playing 2nd Edition rules, largely because I had all the materials already and buying second copies of all the main books cost me about $50 total, instead of $50 each for new. But Father's Day brought me the new Monster Manual, plus a $100 gift card at the local store where I have 20% off due to prior purchases.

My boys have been looking forward to kicking off new adventures this Summer with me at the helm to start. (All three have proven fine GMs, but they look to me to set the machine rolling whenever we have a break in play.) At the store one of the employees recommended the hardback Tales from the Yawning Portal that includes seven ancient modules from the 70s and early 80s. White Plume Mountain, Tamoachan, Against the Giants, etc. A bit pricey, but with seven onesies in it the price works out to about $7 per, more or less the price I paid for some of them in 1980. Hard to complain and I know a couple of them are best-in-show for the era. The employee was surprised I knew them by name.

But I wanted something a little bigger, and had another $75 to spend with my 20% discount, so I kept looking and found another $50 hardback called Storm King's Thunder. It's a complete milieu and campaign, that features giants as its central antagonist. Giants are a creature that I very much like to present, as they are a more visceral, more relatable opponent (in a bad way) for most players of the game. People understand huge opponents that are human in shape. The book takes characters from 1st through 12th level, and it presents an entire world.

I've read about 20 pages in in preparation to run a game this week, and the back story is very good. This is the kind of thing I usually spend hours developing myself and there's a lot of detail included in the book (a cast of characters section and an couple of appendices help with the more esoteric details) and the idea is that the backstory will reveal slowly over time. Seems like an excellent product. I've read into the first encounter which appears pretty elementary and frankly, not terribly creative. But it's for first level guys and it's the start of the series, so you can't afford to be too complicated. It does have plot exposition built into it, and my boys have learned that they ignore that at their peril. Found themselves in a pitch black room full of vampires once because they didn't examine clues thoroughly. Some lessons you only need to learn once.


Sooooo . . . I'm considering rolling up to 5th edition instead of retrofitting this adventure to 2nd. It will likely cost me an additional $200 and I'm trying to decide if it's worth it.

I'll mention that a couple of the dungeons in Yawning Portal deal with giants extensively, so this is a good fit for side-excursions. Plus White Plume Mountain is a must-play for all D&Ders. I'll get that one in as well.
Last edit: 18 Jun 2018 11:52 by Sagrilarus.
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18 Jun 2018 12:36 #275687 by barrowdown
Replied by barrowdown on topic Father's Day Loot
I bought Stuffed Fables for myself. We spent Sunday morning painting some figures. My wife and daughter painted some of the hero stuffies, while I started working on the villainous ones. It was never intended that we would be finished so it largely amounts to a base coat plus a wash at this point. My daughter had a great time using papa's special paints instead of her craft paints. We played through a couple of pages of the first story (we decided to leave her wanting more instead of pushing until loss of interest set in). Afterwards, we ran around the house and acted out what had just occurred in the game. It was awesome.
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18 Jun 2018 13:06 #275690 by hotseatgames
Replied by hotseatgames on topic Father's Day Loot
I was given a Taco Bell gift card and told that I have another gift still in transit. I'm pretty excited to get a steak quesarito tonight.
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18 Jun 2018 13:33 #275694 by boothwah
Replied by boothwah on topic Father's Day Loot
The kids made burgers and we played Roll for the Galaxy on the patio until I was sated. Then I made the maternal unit participate in the video gaming she so despises, and we played a couple of levels of Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time as a 4 player co-op. Then we took the 20 month old for a walk down to the ice cream parlor. Finished the afternoon with a new bag of whiskey infused pipe tobacco and the girls played some Overwatch with me before bed. It was a really good day.
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18 Jun 2018 13:42 #275695 by Jexik
Replied by Jexik on topic Father's Day Loot
5th edition and its adventure books are generally pretty great products. I've had trouble keeping my group together after I changed jobs and ruined my schedule, but I got one group up to 5th level with the starter, that same group started a campaign of my making and got to 3rd, and a different group started the "Into the Abyss" campaign and got to level 4. The one thing I've found is that players inevitably end up doing something that the book doesn't expect, but since you're an experienced DM it shouldn't be too bad... it's just kind of trickier to go off the cuff when you don't know if you could be doing something just shouldn't happen in their plot.
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18 Jun 2018 13:49 - 18 Jun 2018 13:50 #275701 by Sagrilarus
Replied by Sagrilarus on topic Father's Day Loot

Jexik wrote: 5th edition and its adventure books are generally pretty great products. I've had trouble keeping my group together after I changed jobs and ruined my schedule, but I got one group up to 5th level with the starter, that same group started a campaign of my making and got to 3rd, and a different group started the "Into the Abyss" campaign and got to level 4. The one thing I've found is that players inevitably end up doing something that the book doesn't expect, but since you're an experienced DM it shouldn't be too bad... it's just kind of trickier to go off the cuff when you don't know if you could be doing something just shouldn't happen in their plot.


Given the choice I'd have the entire hardback read before I even started. But I don’t think I have time for that. But I think I can go through the first two big encounters simply by being one encounter ahead in the text as I go. By the time I’m done with those I should have the book.

Thanks for the advice.
Last edit: 18 Jun 2018 13:50 by Sagrilarus.

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