Level Up! — Episode #25: Listener Email and a New Campaign

Posted on February 22, 2012 by James Hamblin

On this episode, Benoit and I respond to a listener email from Dave, who is looking for advice on his infernal pact warlock.  We give him some advice for maxing out damage using Hellish Rebuke.

Then we talk about a new home game that we’re going to be starting with our local group.  We’ll be rotating DM’s and focusing on more “A-Team” style missions.  Benoit and I discuss the various characters we might make for this campaign.  Benoit also discussed this in a recent blog post.

As always, we want your feedback!  Leave a comment below, email us at podcast@rovingbandofmisfits.com, or send a tweet to Benoit or Hamblin.

 

Level Up -- Episode 25 [ 43:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (52)
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Weekly Roundup: New Homebrew Campaign Edition

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Benoit

This coming weekend, our group is going to be starting a new 4e homebrew campaign. A little Greyhawk, and a little special ops, we’re pretty excited to get going on it. If you want to hear more, stay tuned for our next podcast, hopefully going up sometime this week.

Kobold Quarterly posted its first article by WotC alum Steve Winter this week. He talks about lethality in D&D, and whether you should expect your character to survive until level 30. If you want more of Steve’s musings, he has his own blog at Howling Tower.

About a month ago, we posted an article on making an interesting solo in 10 seconds. Extended Rest tried the technique and blogged about it. See how it turned out!

If you’ve ever played one of those old school “text adventure” computer games, you’ll enjoy the Exits Are project. While not an RPG, per se, it’s very RPG-ish, and very cool.

Blog of Holding wrapped up its series “Playing D&D With Mike Mornard.” Check out all seven parts, they’re all good. (Mike Mornard played in Gary Gygax’s D&D game, as well as Dave Arneson’s)

What do you do when a party goal could be accomplished most easily by a single character? The Dungeon’s Master tackled the question this week.

If you’ve played Revenge of the Iron Lich, be sure to head over to Save vs. Death to leave your first impressions and memories. RotIL turned 1 this week!

Finally, check out the new animated webseries from ENWorld called “The Perturbed Dragon.” The prologue is currently up for your viewing pleasure.

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Who Wins The Free Book Edition)

The Hopeless Gamer had an amazing guest post detailing how to make a ravine for your miniature game terrain.  Say it with me: Arts…..And…..Crafts!!!

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Adding Continuity To A Multiple DM Campaign

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Benoit

Our play group is coming up on a gameday soon, and we’ve been kicking around what we want to play. We’re kind of LFR’d out for now, and we were thinking about trying out some new RPG systems. What we eventually settled on was a 4th Edition homebrew that uses Greyhawk as its world. We’re still discussing the finer points, but one of the main things we’re sure of is that we will rotate as DMs.

This got me thinking: how do you preserve continuity across a campaign with multiple DMs? It’s something I’ve written about before, but I began brainstorming again when we started discussing a multiple DM homebrew. Continue reading →

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Free Story Arc Introduction: The Temple of the Four Winds

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Benoit

Normally, when I plan a campaign, I plan big arcs. I think about what the final destination is, and maybe a few points along the way, but I let the players determine the path to get there. A few years ago, I had a story arc planned that I was calling “The Temple of the Four Winds.” It would end with the party making a journey to the elusive temple in the clouds to change the course of the world’s trade winds. I wrote up an introduction to the arc with the intention of emailing it to my group, but we never got that far. Since then, it’s been sitting on my hard drive doing nothing for anyone. I’ve decided to release it into the wild in the hopes that someone will find some use for it, even if it’s only a small bit of inspiration. Continue reading →

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Weekly Roundup: Did The Roman Empire Play D&D Edition

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Benoit

How old is D&D? Almost 40 years, right? Hmmm… think again. It seems the Roman Empire may have invented the d20. So, ok, maybe it wasn’t used for D&D, but it’s pretty cool to think that the d20 has been around since at least the Roman Empire. Which gets our imaginations going… what WAS it used for? (via Going Last)

There’s some news out about the upcoming Pathfinder MMO over at Geek Related that doesn’t sound too promising. In an MMO world dominated by WoW, how do you make your product different enough to stand out, while still making it something people want to play?

Troll in the Corner had a great suggestion to track what’s going on in your campaign, while at the same time gauging what plot hooks your players are interested in. Called “Big Open Questions,” it’s worth a read if you’re not sure what direction your game should go in next.

Next time you’re in need of a really quick random room, check out the two part table from Gamer Assembly. First, you get a room type, then one defining feature in that room. It’s that simple. Give it a try!

Of course, one thing that also might be in such a room is a Pink Dragon. That’s right. A Pink Dragon, complete with sparkles and rainbows. You know you want to click through…. (via That Robed Guy)

For all the old school Gamma World fans out there, the news out of D&D Nexus is good. Metamorphosis Alpha (Gamma World’s predecessor) is back in print at LuLu.

RPG Athanaeum gave us some ideas on how to “reverse engineer” 4e modules to be more like first edition adventures.

Over at the WotC community blogs, Wrecan introduced three additional pillars of D&D (the original three are Combat, Exploration, and Roleplaying), and Jester waxed philosophical on rules for roleplaying.

Finally, Twitter was abuzz this week with everyone’s “Fourthcore Villan Name.” Find out yours at Save Vs. Death‘s name generator.

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Postponed Game Edition)

Icosahedrophilia (say THAT five times fast…) had a very interesting article on the history of miniatures in D&D.  Specifically, how the rules, as written, supported (or didn’t support) the use of miniatures on a battle map.  Good read, even if you’re only interested in the general history of D&D.
(2/6/11)

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Gamma World Character Sheet

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Benoit

Remember your very first game of D&D? If you began playing in middle school (or even elementary school), there’s a good chance that your first character sheet was on a piece of notebook paper. I wanted to capture that nostalgia, so I sat down with a piece of notebook paper, and made a Gamma World character sheet in pencil. Continue reading →

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