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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.