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Episode 22: Mirror of Mystery, part 3

This is the final part of our Halloween 2018 one-off adventure that Lucia created and ran for us, the Mirror of Mystery.

 

As long as we have a regular group that can all meet periodically to play, many roleplayers will gravitate toward campaigns: extended stories composed of related in-game events played out over many game sessions. But there is also the “one-off” game: a game that you play from beginning to end in one session. One-off games are a wonderful way to try something new, whether it is a change in the game’s tone, trying a new DM, playing a new character,  playing with an entirely new group of players, or sampling a different or new game system. Playing the occasional one-off game session can also help in blowing off some steam for the players and DM if they’ve been playing a long campaign, which might otherwise lead to burnout or stagnation.

 

As I (Harold) write this, we’ve been playing and recording our games for more than a year. We started on 11 November 2017, and it’s 1 December 2018 as I write this. I don’t in the slightest feel that I am even close to burning out, but we’ve also played several one-off games over the past year. It is only because this one was themed for Halloween that we present these episodes out of the order in which we played the game. Our other one-shots will appear in the podcast in the coming next few months.

 

What do you like to play for a one-off? What have you tried?

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Episode 21: Mirror of Mystery, part 2

We continue our Halloween 2018 one-off D&D 5e adventure, “Mirror of Mystery,” written and run by Lucia. Having defeated the shadow wolf, the party is preparing to leave the tower to return to the Quester’s Rest to determine what their next steps are.

 

The party is:

– Karol Vane Melboy, the avaricious noble with a luxurious mullet

– Jaboc Gardon, the human sorcerous forger

– Pumpko Boi, the homicidal artificer who wears only pumpkin shells as armor

– Tyranthraxus, the solar-powered robot who is resigned to live in the worst of all possible worlds

– Stumpy, the dwarf who just wants to never visit his family again

 

Lucia is curious about whether people would be interested to read and/or play “Mirror of Mystery” as a published module. Let us know if you’d be interested!

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Episode 20: Mirror of Mystery, part 1

Our last episode was from the middle of recording session 6, back in March. We have at least one more episode from that session, and at least as many more sessions of Guardians of Indir already recorded after that! But Halloween 2018 was a couple of weeks ago, and to celebrate that, at our last recording session, we offered the players the choice: they could resume Guardians of Indir (where we left off, on quite a cliffhanger), or they could play a Halloween one-shot. In the end they were intrigued and chose the one-shot…which Lucia designed and DMed! So, what we’re inserting here, in the midst of all the Guardians of Indir episodes (indeed, in the midst of session 6) is the start of this Halloween one-shot, so that it comes out at least somewhat close to the date of Halloween (if we waited and posted it chronologically with all the other episodes, it’d probably come out around Easter 2019).

 

As always, please let us know what you think. While our group has played several other games in previous breaks from the Guardians of Indir campaign, you haven’t heard any of them yet. So this is the first set of new PCs and new storyline you’ll hear as part of this podcast. How is that for you?

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Episode 19: “He bard that door.” (D&D 5e Session 6)

We’re back! Since releasing our last episode, we’ve had both Hallowe’en and the United States’ elections, which have kept us pretty busy. In this episode, taken from our first March 2018 session (recording session 6), we resume the Guardians of Indir Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition campaign with the party having just escaped dead things that were swarming out of the walls in the tunnels under Indir: Squeak, Vhisuna, and Klyde had fled into a dead-end room, while Balasar and Kantu had run through a gauntlet of attacks and traps back to the entrance. Will the party ever find their way back together?

 

Several days ago, our podcast was also added to Stitcher and Spotify. How did you hear about our podcast? How do you listen to our podcast? We’d love to hear your experiences, and also what you think about our game. In subsequent recording sessions, we’ve actually played other games, both with other DMs running D&D, and also other RPGs entirely. Perhaps you’ll hear some of those sessions soon…

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Episode 18: “Monster Fight!” (D&D 5e Session 6)

 

This is the second episode from our sixth game session, recorded 10 March 2018 (a long time ago!). This episode is doubly late, as Harold (who does the bulk of the editing) was out of town at a conference all last week.

This episode is noteworthy in that we see much more teamwork between the PCs than we have seen much in the past. At the same time, we also see a fairly cavalier attitude about abandoning one’s companions to look at something interesting, or to get away from a threat.

Seeing as how it’s October as we post this (more than seven months after recording!), a number of the players have been producing artwork as part of their Inktober challenges they’ve set themselves. Hopefully we will be posting some more of their artwork soon; you can always check the gallery for posted artwork.

Light continues to play an important part in the campaign, as only two of the characters can see even short distances (30′) in the dark. How do you handle light in your campaign(s)? Do torches burn out, or do they stay lit indefinitely?

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Episode 17: “When is a door not a door?” (D&D 5e Session 6)

This is the first episode taken from our sixth session, recorded on 10 March 2018.  So it’d been about four weeks since we’d all been together, and in the intervening time our only interaction was when Korben, Kaleb, Lucia, Blake, and Harold all met up at the 42nd annual DunDraCon convention (to paint minis and play D&D, mostly, though Harold ran two other games for convention attendees – one of The Taint RPG and one of Firefly RPG). So the group was a little more rambunctious than usual as we got started.

 

As we’ve explored the tunnels under Indir, we’ve been using a battlemat with markers for Harold to draw in the dungeon as the group explored. Or rather, Harold the DM drew the map first, then covered it completely with opaque squares of material that he would remove and replace as the party moved from one part of the dungeon to the next. So the party could only ever see a small part of the dungeon. As they weren’t bothering to map for themselves, they got a bit confused as to which way to go, which led to some hilarious disputes about choosing directions for travel.

 

When exploring a dungeon, how do you make sure that you don’t get lost or accidentally backtrack on yourself?

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Episode 16: “We need to mug two elves” (D&D 5e Session 5)

 

Here’s episode 16, in which the Guardians follow Balasar and find a mysterious and very valuable puzzle in the dark. It’s the third and final segment taken from our fifth recording session for this D&D 5e campaign, from February 2018.

 

February was a short month for the podcast, as the DM and nearly all of the players attended DunDraCon 42 instead of recording a second session that month as would be customary. We aim to record two sessions a month, but that’s been more of a guideline than a rule, particularly as in the Winter and Spring school schedules were tight. At least one of the players was in the midst of their final semester of high school and preparing to receive a diploma, figuring out college logistics for the Fall, and so on.

 

Dealing with puzzles is always an interesting challenge in RPGs, both for the players and the GM. Puzzles serve as an interesting challenge for the players, rather than for the characters, as characters pretty much accomplish everything else through role-playing or in-game mechanics. But a puzzle that is solved with a die roll isn’t really a puzzle, it’s a skill check or an attribute test. And that gambling element of rolling dice that’s so fun with combat is disappointing if used to solve a riddle, say. Players want to use their brains!

 

Or more want to use their brains, anyway. Some players don’t like puzzles or riddles, because they break character. A hugely wise monk should have no difficulty solving a riddle, but the monk’s player might. The PCs shouldn’t be stopped because their players are having a bad day or are just tired. So what do you do as a GM to entertain the players with puzzles without blocking the PCs from advancing the plot? You can make the puzzles optional, of course. The PCs don’t HAVE to open that chest, for example; the treasure inside would be helpful, but it isn’t required to complete the adventure. As an alternative, GMs can present players with a puzzle, let them stew over it for a while, and then – only IF they are unable to figure out the puzzle on their own – the DM can ask for a relevant roll to try to get a clue, a partial solution, or even the full solution to the puzzle/answer to the riddle. That way, the players get a chance to solve it, but the puzzle didn’t stop the game cold.

 

All that assumes, of course, that the PCs have all the pieces necessary for the puzzle…

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Episode 15: “I’m impatient!” (D&D 5e Session 5)

This is the second episode from the fifth session of All Ages RPG, recorded back in February 2018. It’s interesting to me to see how the Guardians’ personalities are developing: Vhisuna’s acerbic responses, Squeak’s droll wit interrupted periodically by the dark influence of an alien amphibian, Kantu’s gruff but persistent joking, Klyde’s avarice, and how all of them are struggling to put some brakes on Balasar’s impulsiveness.

 

Longtime listeners will have noticed by now that our treatment of the changelings’ powers differ rather significantly from the Wizards of the Coast Unearthed Arcana version. Changelings in this campaign assume the physical characteristics of the creature being copied, with reasonable accuracy. So for example, when Squeak copies Kantu, the changeling is able to fly, albeit with a great amount of effort (I like to envision Woodstock from the Peanuts cartoon). But Squeak cannot gain more than movement abilities; he could not imitate Balasar and then get a breath weapon, for instance, no more than he would get pack tactics when copying Klyde.

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Episode 14: “My shield is my lantern!” (D&D 5e Session 5)

Your friendly neighborhood DM here. For this episode, which is the second episode taken from our fifth session of the Guardians of Indir D&D 5e game (played back in February 2018), I wanted to include the kids a bit more. So I invited my children, Lucia and Blake, to record the introduction and epilogue bits for the episode. The result is…well, you decide. We noticed that there were a lot of crickets chirping outside yesterday, so I suggested Lucia would record her intro outside, to see if the mic would pick up the ambient sounds. Later, I made the same suggestion to Blake, but by the time he got outside, the neighbors had turned on their fan, and so it was mostly white noise. He came up with an…interesting alternative.

The resulting introduction and epilogue are fun, and Lucia provides an overview of what happened in the previous episode – a list of the high points she remembers – rather than a “this is exactly where we left off.” How does that work for you?

 

Finally, we’d love to get some feedback from you, related to how undead have been portrayed in the podcast. My take has always been that dead creatures are dead creatures, and you can’t tell that “this one is a skeleton/zombie/wight/ghoul/whatever” just from looking at it. They all look very much the same: corpses that move, so it”s the behavior that tells them apart. But then, I’ve always been reluctant to name monsters for the players, as I’m sure you’ve heard if you’ve listened to just about any episode of our podcast. I feel it limits the imagination. But what portrayals of undead have you liked in your games? Can dead things see and thus have blind spots? Can they thus be surprised by a character that hid in the shadows?

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Episode 13: “Don’t Beat the Dead Elf!” (D&D 5e Session 5)

This episode is the first episode from our fifth recording session, from January 2018. We return to the “present day:” with the party of Klyde, Vhisuna, Squeak, and Kantu looking at the entrance to a stairway leading underground that has mysteriously appeared just in time for the elves to escape. Meanwhile, Balasar is struggling to catch up from his adventure in monster surgery, following the trail of dead elves.

 

As usual, I had plenty of alternative titles for this episode:

“Celebratory Arrows”

“Is there anything I could steal?”

“Stop Dying So We Can Figure This Out”

 

Our next episode should be released next Tuesday.