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Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

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Tasuki

@Tyranexx LOL yep same here. In fact that how.I got into WoW and MMORPGs in the first place.

Since life happened to all my friends that I use to play D&D with in high school I wanted something to fill the void. This was at a time where D&D was nowhere near as popular as it is nowadays. Back then you had to know people who played, it wasn't like now where they have Discord and VTTs and all that. Anyway a friend of mine told me about Dungeons and Dragons Online which was D&D's MMO and basically I figured it was the closest thing I am going to get to actual pen and paper D&D so I bought it and tried it. Played that for a few years but then they went Free 2 Play and added a bunch of Microtransactions and all that crap so I moved to WoW as another friend of mine was playing that at the time.

I played WoW for years until my PC died. But it was the lore that kept me playing WoW. I even have the WoW D20 Tabletop game, well at least the core book for it.

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Darknyht

The Raven Queen and Shadowfell is an interesting concept someone came up with. My character started with the Shadow-touched feat as part of his story was being exposed to the Shadowfell and being haunted by visions of dark shadows. Shadar-Kai were a little too goth for me to want to play as one, but they make interesting cultists and fanatics to go up against.

I am curious how your run on Strahd differs from mine. There is just so much variation that can happen depending on the draw of the cards and just what direction the DM takes things.

Darknyht

Nintendo Network ID: DarKnyht

Tasuki

@Darknyht From my understanding is that the Shadowfell was created because WoTC didn't own the rights to Ravenloft for a bit, they were under contention with Laura and Tracey Hickman so the Shadowfell was created as sort of a stand in for the Demiplane of Dread. Now that they came to an agreement with Laura and Tracey, they made Ravenloft as a demiplane of the Shadowfell.

I will keep the campaign posted here, as I said we won't be playing this week due to my work schedule. I am not quite sure how my DM has it set up of course but having knowledge in Tarot cards and such is going to make things interesting.

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Tyranexx

@Tasuki I'd forgotten D&D had an MMO; I've read about it before, but that was after my WoW days and after I swore off paying into MMOs (only to get pulled into the F2P WoW up until Lv. 20 on the weekends for a bit during Warlords of Draenor). I officially played WoW for about a year in high school, then took a break due to several life events, though a lot of it amounted to the craziness that senior year brings. I meant to take it up in college when Cataclysm launched, but never did due to still being quite busy. The game's lore, environments, and interesting quest lines are what kept me playing, but I disliked some of the newer changes introduced in later expansions. Not to mention some of the lore and characterizations became quite convoluted (This might be the internet over-griping a bit, but I disagree somewhat with the direction they took characters like Sylvanus and Garrosh Hellscream).

Hindsight is 20/20, and I now know that WoW borrowed many things from D&D, which in turn borrows many tropes from Tolkien and other fantasy writers, not to mention historic mythologies and pantheons.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx Yeah D&D actually has two MMOs now. There's D&D Online which primarily takes place in Eberron, though I have read, that they added a Forgotten Realms Expansion. That one is based off of 3.5 Edition and is PC only. Then there is Neverwinter which is on Xbox, PS and PC and that is based off of 4th edition. I have never played that one since like you I swore off MMOs after WoW.

I got into WoW right before the final update to Lich King dropped and played through Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. I just finished the final raid for Mists a few days earlier with my guild and my PC died, not quite sure how cause I don't know much about computers. I didn't bother fixing my PC or getting a new one because that was when the PS4 was coming out and I wanted to get back into console gaming again.

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Tyranexx

@Tasuki Interesting....The only "Neverwinter" I've heard of before this point was Neverwinter Nights, an early MMO that I learned of posthumously that I believe ran in the 90s; I didn't know about any unrelated games that shared the same name. I just thought other games were a continuation of that series.

I played WoW through pretty much all of Wrath of the Lich King. Others I knew IRL and I played on PVP servers, though I always preferred questing and PVE. I quite enjoyed the game but never quite got high enough in level with any of my characters to do any raids past the level 70ish range. Though part of me still regrets never doing Karazhan....Loved the lore and background of that place, especially the stage/play area. Getting groups together was way more of a pain then.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx Well, I had quite a lengthy response explaining the Neverwinter games but due to someone at NintendoLife not paying the bills, it appears I lost it. So I will summarize what I posted

The Neverwinter games arent related in anyway besides the name and setting.

Neverwinter Nights 1991 — The first online multiplayer game with graphics. The granddaddy of modern MMOs.

Neverwinter Nights Series — Two games by Bioware and Obsidian. Single player RPGs with play style similar to Dragon Age. In fact Dragon Age is a spiritual successor created when Bioware lost the Neverwinter license. These games are available on Switch, Xbox and PS4. Highly recommend if you like the Dragon Age series.

Neverwinter — An MMO created by Cryptic. No connection to previous games. Started out using 4th edition rules but an update changed it to 5e. In fact several expansions are 5e adventures including Tyranny of Dragons, Storm King's Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation and several others.

Edited on by Tasuki

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Tyranexx

@Tasuki NP, I know what you mean. I tried checking the site last night not long before your post's time stamp and was getting server errors everywhere.

Seems I was thinking of Neverwinter Nights 1991. I'd erroneously assumed the Bioware titles were related sequels or spiritual successors; honestly I'm surprised someone didn't trademark "Neverwinter". I'd be tempted to try the D&D MMO variant by Cryptic if I wasn't trying to stay away from MMOs lol. Especially since one of the adventures you referenced is Tyranny of Dragons, our current campaign hook.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx That's the werid thing with the Neverwinter games the only two related are Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 by Bioware and Obsidian. The other games are not related in anyway but the name.

I never played the 1991 one but I have played 1 and 2 which as I said are very good. I won't even touch the MMO since it's an MMO

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Tyranexx

@Tasuki I'll have to look up the Bioware/Obsidian Switch variants to see if they're for me. I've not played any of the Dragon Age titles, though I know a little about the happenings in Origins thanks to becoming very curious about one of the monster types found in the game (Broodmothers).

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Darknyht

@Tyranexx Dragon Age: Origins was fantastic but the sequel was messed up by EA's policies at the time (much like a lot of the games from around then). I played through that one every way possible and miss having it.

Neverwinter Nights 1 was also a favorite of mine with all the community created content for it, and it lived on my Linux laptop for years along with Diablo II. However, I have heard mixed things about the remake on Switch.

Bioware/Obsidian were such great companies back then and produced some really good stuff.

Darknyht

Nintendo Network ID: DarKnyht

Tyranexx

Looks like we might finally get to play D&D this weekend! Now that I've probably jinxed it...

@Darknyht Why am I not surprised that EA messed that up too? Lol I felt they killed the Harry Potter video games back then once they started developing those inhouse. I did look up the Neverwinter Nights port on Switch since my last post and reception seemed quite...mixed.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx I will be honest, I never played Neverwinter Nights on current Gen consoles and only played it back in the early 2000's I want to say and that was on PC. So I can't comment on the ports.

That's great to hear. Still not sure if I will be able to play this weekend, I will find out tomorrow when I go back to work. I am hoping we do because I want to explore the village of Barovia!

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Darknyht

@Tyranexx The Steam version seems to be reviewing better, but that is probably because PC was the original platform for it. I also imagine the community mods are still out there somewhere. If you want to dive in, that is probably the way to go. The system requirements are pretty low too.

Darknyht

Nintendo Network ID: DarKnyht

Tyranexx

@Tasuki, @Darknyht Duly noted. When/if I look up Neverwinter Nights, it probably will be on PC/Steam. If the system requirements are that low, I might even be able to play it on my current laptop. It has fairly decent specs, but it's starting to get up there in age and doesn't really have a graphics card (the onboard Intel HD graphics) meant for intense gaming.

@Tasuki Hopefully you get to play this weekend too. Barovia does sound like an interesting village going by the name alone lol.

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx Well we got to play tonight.

So to bring you up to speed. After being pulled into Ravenloft we met a Vistani tribe where we got our fortunes read and were told in a cryptic message why we were brought here. One of the tasks we were given was to find a tome in a den of wolves near a mountain lake. So after asking the Vistani if they had any supplies we could buy/barter off of them, we decided to head to the village of Barovia for supplies and to establish a base of operations and to get more info of the land and such. So after a few days of traveling and running into an encounter of wolves which I made quick work of with the Prestidigitation cantrip we made it to Barovia, where we managed to secure some lodging and information.

And that's where we left off for this session.

Edited on by Tasuki

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Daniel36

I am prepping a game for my kids and some of their friends. Excited to FINALLY get into it. Have been painting up miniatures and scenery for a very long time, first for Warhammer, later for Frostgrave, but never got around to playing, aside from a few one shots.

It's not going to be the D&D rules though. I am going for a slightly edited version of Knave, which is a lot simpler, which means it is simpler to run, and simple enough for my kids to understand. Looking forward to it.

Daniel36

Tasuki

@Daniel36 Intersting. I wasn't familiar with Knave, so I looked it up. It seems pretty simplistic which sounds great for new players. I personally don't like classless systems. Every time when I play a classless based game wether it's a video game, or TTRPG there seems to only be one "class" and that's the one where everyone min maxes everything and is the best at everything so there's no need for a party structure or no chance for players to shine on their own. Hopefully it works out for you and your kids.

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Tyranexx

Finally managed to play this weekend, though it was a relatively short session (~3 hours) due in part to the impending time change. No combat, but plenty of RP action.

The ogres took us to their boss, a storm giant who's more or less driving the floating castle we're now passengers of. Through negotiations, we learned it's mostly controlled by the Spirit of his dead wife. That was a decent conversation between him and the bard (my character isn't usually the negotiating sort and was off grooming her guard drake to the side half the time), and our still quite drunk Kobold Warlock embarrassed himself more than once. The storms giant's wife has telepathically communicated with the bard, though he didn't realize it was her and assumed our sorcerer used Message at one point. The storm giant is quite a conversationalist; turns out he and his ogre underlings are allowing the Cult of the Dragon to use the castle for their needs but aren't affiliated with them per se. He also isn't the brightest lol, but much better than the ogres. We learned that Reznir is on board, so we're quite keen to avoid the lower levels where most of the cultists are bunking.

The bard had the bright idea of bunking with the ogres, but we ruled that out quickly due to the smell. We then tried the nearby Kobold barracks, where one was kind enough to show us where a (giant-sized) guest room was located that we could use. Large furniture, but manageable. Our kobold also embarrassed himself at one point by trying to practice spear throwing with the ogres, then unintentionally became a projectile instead (some bludgeoning damage there lol).

So now our group needs to determine how to sabotage this operation and make Reznir look bad. Oh, and we learned in our info gathering that there's apparently a vampire lady roaming around at night. It was established that she is indeed different from the "Dragon Lady".

@Tasuki Sounds like a pretty fun session all told. A lot of roleplaying, but a bit of combat too. A nice mix! I love the versatility of Prestidigitation; what exactly did you do to drive the wolves off? A very bad smell? XD

Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

Tasuki

@Tyranexx Yeah I made it smell like the scent of a skunk that just sprayed since the wolves couldn't see us due to a fog, all they smelled was the scent of skunk. Which give us enough time to flee since we really weren't sure of the number of wolves.

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