25 October 2024: Playing on Roll20

     Roll20 is the VTT I use for my games. It has taken me a long time to get comfortable with it, and  still don't use things like dynamic lighting (I don't find it adds, and takes a lot of mental bandwidth to utilize). Some game systems--D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Castles&Crusades, Dragonbane--have compendiums available (DCC will have one soon, although my good buddy Ed has the initial roll-out and doesn't love it), while others do not. D&D5e has the best tools and support: the game is effortless to set up and run using that system, which makes sense because it is the biggest game out there, has tons of players, and deep pockets. C&C, which I am apparently ever on the cusp of running, has some support, but it's not awesome. No drag and drop tokens, for example, which means I have to manually add monsters. No drag and drop equipment or weapons. Not the end of the world, but time consuming. So as I've been kicking around the idea of a West Marches OSR campaign, I've been struggling to figure out which system to use to do it. 

    Meanwhile, Foundry VTT is by many accounts much better, and Troll Lords Games--the maker of C&C--are putting their development energies there and not on Roll20. I don't know if I have the motivation to learn yet another VTT, but if that's where the good stuff is going to be, I might have to. 

    Unrelated news: I sold a bunch of RPG stuff I wasn't going to use anymore, and got $425 in store credit at Noble Knight Games! I think my lot was worth more than that, but whatever. This is one way I can support my FLGS, even though it isn't local for me (I think they are in Wisconsin or someplace like that). I am looking forward to spending that money!

DCC, C&C, Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Me, Oh Me

 16 October 2024

We are coming to the end of my sword&sorcery themed Dungeon Crawl Classics game. The party is level three, and they are approaching the apogee of the questline: a confrontation in the Palace of Unquiet Repose as they struggle to retrieve the Opener of the Way. Last night--episode 17--leaves the party badly wounded and far from aid, so I'm not sure how they are going to survive. It's been a fun campaign. I had to adjust a bit with regard to how challenging the encounters have been, and last night a combination of harder monsters and very lucky rolls on my part turned the tide. I used some beefed-up giant desert scorpions and an undead necromancer who set a bit of a trap for the party, and it all worked brilliantly. So, the Radish Hoard is in trouble! Let's see how they get out of this one.

I have been learning a lot about the the old ways of D&D: the work of Dave Arneson, West Marches, hex crawls, etc. I actually started to read the original PHB, which is a fascinating look into a game that I used to play all of the time, but never played rules-as-written. I am thinking that I am going to create my next campaign with a strong OSR vibe and see how that goes. I know that I do not like the superhero, cozy-core vibe of 5e, although I do appreciate how integrated it is on VTTs. I think my next foray will be into Castles&Crusades, which I have written about previously but never run. It has an easy core mechanic, some updated rules, but retains the old D&D vibe. So...we'll see.