Behind the Screen: It may be junk to some...

I was in the basement tonight moving around some of my gaming stuff and I came across a few oddities:

The Random d30

Also known as the "sling bullet", I got one of these from a random cup of dice from the Chessex booth at GenCon in my earlier years. I don't really know what its good for, but it does have the uncanny ability to appear in all its purple glory in random locations throughout our gaming space. Now that we're in epic levels, maybe it is time to start using it as a damage die.

The Lone Skeleton

I don't know if it was a promo or just a random miniature that fell out of the box away from its fellows, but there's a Skeleton miniature that seems to find its way to the bottom of my bookbag, or he'll occasionally show up to jab me in the foot unexpectedly during gaming sessions.

I should make a t-shirt that says "Danger! Severe Skeleton Damage." That'd be great.

Ancient Documentation of Worlds Past

I have a bad habit of taking notes that make plenty of sense at the time, but end up being strangely arcane snips of text like "three yellow amethysts open the device" or "75 +2 daggers". Occasionally, I will find something that grants some vague context to a certain part of a past campaign but this certainly speaks to a need for more organization on my part.

I've given passing thought to learning a form of shorthand so I can actually keep real notes during a session and not be all distracted writing, so maybe these notes won't lack so much context in the future.

My co-DM does not suffer from this problem, when he documents something I usually get a 10 page story complete with good punctuation, maps, and details. He's just better than me in that regard!

Sharing some "Getting Started" Advice

Over the past couple of weeks, the D&D Nerd has posted some great articles on D&D for Beginners. Regardless of whether you are introducing new players to 3.5 or waiting for 4E, these are some great articles to help explain the fundamentals and get new players into the game.

I encourage you to check out these articles if you are new to the game, or share them with someone who is.

D&D for Beginnings - Roleplaying 101

D&D for Beginners - Understanding Dice Notation

D&D for Beginners - Player vs. Character Knowledge

Beginner's Guide to Creating a D&D Character

Enjoy!

Another Post About Nothing

This comic about Seinfeld characters playing D&D (mirror here, it's getting Dugg) reminded me very much of this post on Seinfeldian magic items I did awhile back.

Seinfeld was never my favorite show in the universe, but I did watch it now and then and it did get me thinking a little this morning -- rarely a character shows up on that show that isn't put under a microscope and all their weird little idiosyncrasies examined in detail (and usually poked with a cattle prod, causing hilarity to ensue). I like it when D&D characters enjoy that same kind of character development. I frequently like it much more than I do the main plot of the story, which I'm sure is the source of at least six or seven aneurysms in Dante and the other DMs I've played with.

To wit: my favorite sessions are usually the first two or three, when the crap hasn't hit the fan yet and we're getting to know everyone, followed closely by the "break" sessions in the story where we usually follow one character's personal story (which may or may not be woven into the main story). But barring those weird times when we're all arguing about which direction to go because we can't figure out the clues laid before us, those sessions where we're not doing anything particularly "useful" per se are what I really look forward to, especially with a new character to play.

Making a character that has some strange personal idiosyncrasies, in addition to making everyday roleplay with your character more interesting, may have an impact on everyone's lives (good or bad!) in much the same way that the folks on Seinfeld frequently have misadventures because they're really freaking neurotic. I mean, they devoted half an episode to Kramer trying to defend himself from deadly birthday wishes. And I was enraptured.

I'm a believer in that the small stuff can be every bit as interesting as the epic. Characters should be more than a bunch of combat stat blocks! The difficulty, of course, is that as you get higher in level, the monsters you fight are optimized to be a challenge to people who are prepared to fight them. On several occasions (but especially with Bat Loaf), I've picked spells and items that weren't particularly combat-friendly and it cost me. It's just a fact of life that the vast, vast majority of D&D campaigns revolve around stuff killing other stuff and you need to keep that in mind before you go too overboard. If you don't, you'll quickly find yourself frustrated week after week.

But don't abandon the fact that you have a character to play. DM's -- let them! And try not to dogpile in the end battle on the guy that picked Percussion to give a little atmosphere to his nightly trysts with the barmaids. Dante.

Three Questions: Round 2 (resisting the urge to write "Electric Bugaloo")

Since the last one of these went so well, I thought we'd have a nearing-midweek Three Questions and see how it does in Prime Time. The rules are the same... treat this like a blog quiz, feel free to redistribute or just answer below by adding a comment.

Please notice: if you do choose to answer these questions on your own blog, drop us a line and let us know... we'll collect the links that arrive, some of the more colorful comment responses, and some of our own insights for a later post to be completed Whenever We Feel Like It (probably soon).

Without further adieu, the three questions:

1. What is your go-to character class, and why?
2. Have you ever played a pen and paper RPG remotely via the Internet, and how did that go for you?
3. Has someone ever been expelled from your gaming group, and why? (Change names to protect the innocent! We will not be held accountable for any skullduggery!)
   

Take whatever space you want to answer... the intertubes are large and wide and can withstand the extra kilobytes of text.

Remember, with answers come insight!

Ode to the Roleplaying Mom...

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought it best to say a few words about your character's mother. (No, this isn't going to be a series of "your character's momma is so fat" jokes...)

Sometimes nurturing, sometimes gone...

Often, your character's mother will fall into two categories: the nurturing type that readily awaits any update from their all-grown-up child, or sadly, she is dead and gone. Very rarely will she have some sort of mental illness or be the cold standoffish type.

This is where this post could diverge into a valuable discussion on how to give your character's mother some interesting characteristics, but I think I'll leave that one for when I'm in a less irreverent mood.

Another interesting thing about your character's mother: your arch-rival always knows where she is, and given the opportunity will capture her and hold her hostage. For this reason, I recommend your character giving ol' Mom a very valuable gift, if she is still among the living.




A necklace of fireballs, when you love her enough to give her the ability to do 10d6 damage. You know... to keep her safe from interlopers. Also, a few lessons on how to use it might not hurt so she doesn't incinerate her sewing circle showing it off. And sending her a letter from time to time wouldn't kill you, would it?