Topic: The Dungeon and Dragons Thread

@Maxenmus @Snatcher I saw this trailer while I was cooking dinner, got it as an ad while having videos on in the background. Not only did it surprise me, but I think it looks great!

On another note, I've been dabbling with some of the Dungeons and Dragons video games. A few years ago, I got the Eye of the Beholder Trilogy as a freebie from GOG during a D&D promo, and enjoyed playing it. Also tried Neverwinter Nights, Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, and Chronicles of Mystara (latter I was surprised by because I didn't know the Wii U had a D&D game). I've liked them all so far.

@Sunsy I have been meaning to try one of the games for some time now, idk when but I will.

Who remembers that God awful Dungeons and dragons movie with the kid from childs play 3? Yeah that's a movie I'd like to forget. Hope this new one is at least somewhat less nauseating.

@Truegamer79 I remember parts of the 2000 one starring Jeremy Irons chewing the scenery so hard. It was released when I was at an age too young to even remember the plot of movies, but that part stood out for me... lol

@Snatcher Hope you enjoy them. So far, here's what I've experienced with the ones I played...

Eye of the Beholder Trilogy - old school dungeon crawler, where you and your party explore a dungeon, collect treasure and items, and solve puzzles.

Neverwinter Nights - 3D top down RPG, I want to say this reminds me a bit like Diablo. I can't think of a game to compare it with.

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realm - pretty much an idle game on Switch and PC that's F2P. Mostly one button attacking, it is an idle game.

Chronicles of Mystara - a beat 'em up that's like an RPG. That's the best way I can describe this one. It's a compilation of two D&D arcade games.

This is going by my experience dabbling with the video games, honestly I found something to like about each game. Never had the chance to play the actual table top game, so I can't speak about it, but I do enjoy the D&D video games so far.

@Tyranexx So after taking a week off (job schedules and such) our campaign will be continuing tonight. The players will finally be entering the dungeon!!!

How's your game been going for you?

@Tasuki Pretty well overall! We met last night, though only one of our characters saw any combat action; the Fighter that was brought in as a sub when one of the players forgot his sheet was goofily offed by a major intentional blunder (which the rest of our characters had no idea about until later). He was asked by one of the cultist leaders to help carry some treasure loot into the basement with some other minions. Task completed, he then "accidentally" stabbed a Bollywog, killing it instantly. Long story short, that summoned a mob of cultists and Bollywogs (who apparently have dibs on most of the basement, the guy dying spectacularly. So now that player is back to one character + their follower lol.

The rest of our group was summoned by the head half dragon lady running the show in this location, talked our way out of "Why did you bring this idiot enemy spy here?" "We brought him as a prisoner, one of your higher ups gave him a chance", etc., and were told we're basically under suspicion. So we always have a cultist babysitter. Great.

Two of our number were snuck out of our quarters that evening by the Lizardfolk, informing my character beforehand while she was working in the stables. They want to move against the Bollywogs + cultists and get them out of the swamp. We obtained plenty of information, not to mention the dragon lady cares little about justice and will probably end up offing us eventually anyway (She didn't get to kill the crazy fighter guy....Sore loser). We ended the session by planning to make a move the next night. Now we're trying to flesh out some details in a group chat on Discord lol.

@Tyranexx Sounds like an interesting time lol. Curious though, doesn't your DM keep a back of characters in case someone forgets their's? Most of my players have paper character sheets (except the two that live out of state) and I have a copy of all of there's on D&D Beyond. In the past I just had paper copies that way I could also keep track of the PCs AC, and stats like that without having to ask them every 5 minutes what's your AC?

As for.my campaign we were able to continue last night and the PCs finally entered the ruins. Upon entering the PCs were attacked by a pair of animated armor which they had no problem taking out. As they progressed through the ruins looking for the item they manged to fight a few Zombies and a swarm of poisoness snakes which two of the players ended up getting poisoned. They also manged to set of a fee traps but nothing they couldn't handle. They managed to get about halfway through the ruins before we stopped last night, with our Bloodhunter getter wrapped up by a rug of smothering!!

Hopefully we will be able to continue next week!!

@Tasuki We each have a paper copy of our character sheet, but that's pretty much it to my knowledge. Having a reference point would likely lead to less AC and similar questions! I'll likely suggest setting up a backup system of sorts just in case.

Sounds like the PCs in your campaign are making some pretty good progress in those ruins! Shame that a couple of group members were poisoned; do they need something special to treat it (spell, medicine, etc.), or is it cured by a long rest? Love the cliffhanger you ended on! The session before last ended with our Lizardfolk guide basically getting cleaved in two....

@Tyranexx The poison was nothing major, the were able to fight it off with a few constitution saves, if anything it caused a bit of damage.

We continued last night with our Bloodhunter wrapped up in a rug. Through some quick actions he was able to escape. The Bloodhunter has a special ring that let's him teleport home once per long rest and when he does, he disappears as he gets enveloped in hellfire. So he was able to do this as the group was trying to free him from the rug. As he did the rug caught on fire and the bloodhunter appeared in the corner of the room. Once that was done they were able to continue their search. While they were searching they came across another room that looked to be once a library. Sadly though it was flooded and any ancient texts were destroyed years ago. However the PCs were able to fish out a waterproof scroll case from the water while avoiding a giant octopus which contained a legend of an ancient Dwarven City (which is an adventure hook for another adventure the group may go upon). Finishing up with the library the group finished up this wing of the ruins and with everything cleared decided to bunk down in one of the unoccupied rooms for a few hours to heal up and regain spells, and that's where we ended for the night.

@Tasuki Some very quick thinking by that Bloodhunter indeed! Aladdin's Carpet clearly wasn't very friendly in this context. Shame avoid that library, though that waterproof scroll case was a neat find. They avoided the giant octopus? Did they sneak around it, distract it, etc.? I'm curious about that Dwarven City legend....I hope that's an avenue the group chooses to go down at some point. I don't blame them for taking a rest at all lol.

No word yet on when my group will next meet, but possibly this weekend since I'm unavailable next weekend.

@Tyranexx Well, after the blood hunter nearly suffocated from the rug the blood hunter is a little bit more cautious about entering rooms now lol. So upon entering the room he took a moment to survey the room and spotted the Octopus in the water. So he told the other members of the group about it. The fighter then pulled out a fishing net out of his backpack and was able to grabbed the scroll cases that way thus avoiding the octopus.

I having a feeling that they will explore that lead on the Dwarven City as they were discussing it before they went took their rest.

As a DM I like to give my players a sense of freedom and let them direct where they go. Yeah I plant the seeds on where they could go but in the end it's up to them if they go there.

When I ran a campaign. 20 years ago with most of the same players that are playing this one they had several leads that could be an adventure so I had several adventures prepared so which one way they chose, I was ready. The only thing was I would just adjust the stats on the enemies to coincide with their level at the time.

@Tasuki Hah, makes sense; I think most would be more wary after a near-death encounter! Some great thinking from the Fighter in regards to that fish net too; that sort of reminds me of earlier in our campaign when a member of our group fed a Roper some chocolate. Encounter avoided!

I like that sense of freedom you're giving them; planting seeds is great, but they could just as easily run into something completely off the rails. It's definitely reminiscent of those Choose Your Own Adventure books from back in the day. Seems like you've prepared for plenty of scenarios too!

@Tyranexx I just never really liked railroading players to be honest. If the players want to go into a Dragons cave at first level by all means go, you probably won't survive but, thats their choice. The world is theirs to explore.

Refer to post #87 in this thread for last session. A lot of this is still fairly fresh mentally despite a sleep cycle, so grab a drink and/or snack of choice!

Our D&D group met yesterday afternoon/evening, and our six hour session was QUITE interesting. We spent the beginning of the session finalizing plans; one of our PCs (half-elf bard) and an NPC traveling with our party (gnome with some Rogue/arcane trickster capabilities, lucky but squishy) was to do what they could in the kitchens, our Dragonborn sorceror (with "ninja" croc) was quietly helping the Lizardfolk in the forge, and my human ranger was out in the stables tending to the giant lizards the Lizardfolk ride and rigging the stables to "accidentally" allow the giant lizards to get loose at the right time. Our Tiefling paladin and her Kobold follower were still hidden in our quarters, ready to strike when the signal was given. Everything was laid out to go down the next evening. Problem is, laid plans have a tendency of going AWOL.

At breakfast the next day, a human caster affiliated with the Cult of the Dragon, along with a ton of new Kobolds - some heavily armed - showed up. Yay, more baddies to contend with. During breakfast, we could hear the head dragon lady (Rezmir; finally recalled her name) arguing with the other half dragon guy who showed up earlier (Landragosa, IIRC; this is the guy who downed my character at one point). Turns out he's NOT happy about being summoned back to the middle of nowhere. Problem is, he came into the hall where we were eating and recognized the Dragonborn (he failed his check, I passed mine). Didn't say anything and moved on.

In the stables later, one of the Lizardfolk informed my character that the chapel in the moldering castle had a secret item that could "help us" hidden in the black dragon head. The problem? Landragosa was currently in there. A passed Insight check revealed that I recalled seeing him previously near dragon shrines; turns out this male half-dragon is quite religious. I mentally filed the information away for later.

Come evening, right before supper....Everything went VERY wrong. The bard thought it would be funny to sabotage some of Rezmir's supper since she's served food before anyone else - think the chocolate pie scene from The Help - and detected that something was VERY off. Cue her, Landragosa, the cultist just under Reznir in rank (Boringrey or something like that; full elf), and the new human caster all heading towards the kitchens. Rather than try to pass it off on the other kitchen NPCs, he cast Invisibility on himself and the gnome NPC. Instantly, they vanished, saving the NPCs from needless death...I don't blame them from taking cover. The gnome fled up the stairs to the food stores temporarily, while the bard tried to sneak out...but their tracks on the muddy castle floor were spotted by Landragosa, who began swinging in the general area with a weapon...and scoring some hits. From previous experience, this guy hits HARD.

A lot of yelling and confusion, bringing my character and drake companion from the stables (they're actually indoors) and the Dragonborn and his croc friend from the door of the forge; the hidden paladin/Kobold could only hear echoes from the clamor in our quarters. I passed my perception check (Dragonborn failed again) and figured out what was going on based on the yelling and footprints. The Dragonborn cast Message and asked me what was up - we were within sight of each other - and I informed him as well as mentioned the hidden item in the chapel shrine. My original plan had been to quietly tell the group over supper. We kicked off the plan early. TONS of chaos and NPCs; two Lizardfolk piled out of the stables with eight giant lizards in front (I passed an Animal Handling check, otherwise this could've been hairy for my character as she was nearby), Bollywogs piled out of their nearby quarters, the Lizardfolk out of their quarters, and the newly arrived Kobolds also joined the fray. This whole time, the bard is trying to run towards the forge, and makes it there before Landragosa downs them - one character making death saves now.

To impede passage to the forge, my character cast spike growth over a wide area and got in a better position so that some of the enemies couldn't see me. A ton of chaos in the main room; I burned through my two level 3 spell slots to down several Bollywogs with two Lightning Arrows (wish I'd rolled the damage higher the first time, but that still helped a lot as they were grouped together), and the resulting shocks also did a bit of damage to Boringrey. He was not happy about it, so I fielded four Magic Missiles at one point...and that broke my concentration on Spike Growth (to mild irritation; it was up for three turns, but no baddies ever traversed it....). The Lizardfolk engaged Landragosa, the Bollywogs were mobbing in behind them, the Giant Lizards went for the Bollywogs, the Sorceror's croc was attacking Bollywogs...beautiful, beautiful chaos. Our Dragonborn Sorceror cast Greater Invisibility to get to the chapel and retrieve the item from the shrine (he was closest) which he eventually did...and the rest of us have no clue what was on the sheet the DM handed him lol. the Sorceror also threw out a Synaptic Static at one point, seriously affecting the Kobolds and Rezmir to an extent. He also threw out a Counter Spell to help the croc once.

What of the Tiefling Paladin and her Kobold Sorceror lackey? They're trying to fight through more Kobolds to get to the main room, but they're contending with an AOE darkness type of spell cast by Rezmir, who left the main room and is trying to navigate through that hall space now; we kept track of this on a separate marker board. Not sure if she's trying to escape or getting some more "help"....As for our Gnome Arcane Trickster NPC, she snuck back down from the food stores - now visible again - and is contending with some of the Kobolds and a skunk that one of the Kobolds (an inventor type) released....She got away from smelling rosy with Color Spray, but was ganged up on by some of the Kobolds.

...And that's unfortunately where we had to leave it for the evening. Being a Sunday, some of us had to work today lol. We took pictures of the marker positioning before packing everything up. The good news for the poor DM is that we took out quite a few NPCs at least...just not the ones that really mean business.

@Tasuki It seems to depend on the DM. Our current DM is pretty new to that side of the game, so I think for now he's happy to use existing material. He does have some unique "house rules" and has made some nice rulings. He isn't intentionally evil!...so far.

(Tagging @Themagusx1 as well for the campaign update)

@Tyranexx Wow sounded like such a great session you guys had!! I use the existing material as well, right now my group is wrapping up the adventure titled Frozen Sick and I am preparing one of the adventures from Tales From the Yawning Portal.

Speaking if which my players ended up finishing up the ruins last night and ended up finding the cure that they were looking for. The also came across a Wight who had ties to Orcus. The manged to defeat the wight after a fierce battle, which almost killed the Bloodhunter. Next session they begin their trek back to the town.

@Tyranexx that sounds like an awesome session, the chaos sounds great…..you really do have good sessions. We did not play last night due to cancellations, but we played last week. And things got crazy. The villain the group is investigating had an assassination attempt done upon him, but the group decided to save him, so they can continue figuring out what his plans, but win a little bit of magic they found out he is at war with soemthing called star scourge. It’s goimg to be interesting to see where this goes.

I did forget to mention that one of the Lizardfolk tried to stabilize the bard, but he failed; he wasn't exactly experienced with medicine unfortunately.

@Tasuki Oh yes, it was intense! And a nice tradeoff since most of us didn't see combat during the last session; we wisely held off from having a very long session before that since we knew we'd likely engage in a large scale battle soon....Just sooner than anticipated. "Frozen Sick" sounds like an apt description of the players' environment, and "Tales of the Yawning Portal" sounds intriguing too.

Sounds like some nice progress from your own group. Not only did they clear the ruins and get through a tough battle (Your Bloodhunter sounds like almost as much of a trouble magnet as our paladin lol), but they also found the cure! Hopefully they go the "wight" way back to town. Audience boos

@Themagusx1 A very good session, with a ton of action! I still wish I didn't burn through my two highest spell slots, but the results were good overall. Interesting that your group decided to save their villain despite the assassination attempt, but I understand their reasoning; due to my ranger's alignment, she probably would've done the same. If this guy is at war with this "star scourge"....That could be interesting indeed. Is he really a villain then? :thinking_face:

So Wizards of the Coast have revealed the next set for D&D

So by 2024 One Dungeon & Dragons as it's called now will combine digital and physical together. What they are saying is it won't be a new system but will expanded and update the rules of 5th Edition which sounds to me like an advanced version like the had with the older D&D systems. It will be backwards compatible with 5th edition.

Also they will be making so if you buy a digital copy of say the Players Handbook Digital you can also get a physical copy or vice verse so you won't have to pay twice if you want both versions.

Of course this means now that Wizards owns D&D Beyond it will be integrated into One D&D as well as a virtual table top system called for now, Dungeon and Dragons Digital, which would be used for maps and virtual minitures.

In all I am excited for this news it takes care of one of my gripes with 5th Edition and I really like how they aren't introducing a whole new system so my books now will still be relevant.

Very excited to see how it all turns out!!

@Tyranexx So apparently I have the chance to playtest One D&D (the next system of D&D see my post above) supposedly its suppose to be compatible with 5th edition but I shall see.