Gaming again

So I was playing a good old fashioned game of D&D the other week, and boy was I in for a surprise. I couldn’t remember the dang rules. I was seriously scanning through Player’s handbook for saving throws, rules on armor class and so on. It made think that perhaps I am finally done as a gamer. I was not that into the game play, and I felt somewhat annoyed with the other characters. Turns out that two of the are drow elves (on Mystara!) and the players only chose to this race in order to get the racial benefits.

Furthermore, these guys complained that there was too much story and not enough hack and slash! That is not really the kind of role playing I am into, so I am not too hopeful about the future. Be that as it may, I have agreed with the dungeon master that we will kill my fighter dwarf in a most violent manner, and I will create a new character, most likely a priest. I have never really played a priest so I am somewhat excited to make this character. All I need to do is find a good angle on this guy.

Big problems

So, my little conversion project is moving a long steadily, but I seem to have hit a couple of problems here.

My first issue is; if you gain a level as an Alchemist for instance, do you also get a spell level, just like if you gained a wizard level? I am leaning towards a No, since the character will attain a special ability, which is pretty powerful.

The second issue is; when you reach Circle 3, you have access to two abilities. Now, do you get the both of them, or should I split them, and basically add more levels to the prestige class? I am leaning towards a Yes, since it will expand the class in terms of advancement, however, it violates the tradition of the Seven Secrets of Glantri, in the sense that there are all of a sudden more circles than the original five.

What do you guys think?

New project

So, it turns out that I have some free time on my hands, and therefore I have decided to embark on another project, that might never come to fruition. I have started converting the Seven Secrets of Glantri into D&D 3.5 prestige classes.

Now, I am not a big rules guy as such, for me it has always been about the story and the role playing game. However, I love to gain a new level as much as the next guy, and I have always liked the concept of prestige classes. I think these classes allow the player to develop the character in new directions as the game moves forward, and that is always a plus.

I have been a huge Mystara fan for many years, and the Principalities of Glantri has always been my favorite Gazetteer. Since Bruce Heard started blogging I rediscovered that long lost game world, so I thought I would at least attempt to contribute a little bit. In order to avoid any copyright infringement I am not going to write a whole lot, you will have to find GAZ3 somewhere to do that I’m afraid. Of course, there’s always the author himself who might be persuaded to answer a question or two. I recommend heading over to his blog, it is really excellent.

Yeah yeah, I know, I am a fan boy.

Bruce Heard’s blog

My favorite Gazetteer is definitely the Principalities of Glantri written by Bruce Heard. It is probably the gaming product I have used the most throughout the years, so you can probably imagine  how cool it is for me to see that the man himself, Bruce Heard, has a blog.

Without further ado I present the link.

http://bruce-heard.blogspot.com/

Update: He’s on Twitter as well https://twitter.com/#!/Ambreville

Coolest handle ever!

Gaming session – Live

I am finally sitting down with my group getting ready to play a round of Dungeons & Dragons. We are playing in the Mystara setting, so not Dragonlance this time.

Right now we are trying to find our characters and remember the rules, so I have a little time to write a blog post. Luckily I keep my character online, so I could find my wizard right away. You can see my wizard here.

Check out the table. Gone are the character sheets replaced by software applications. The flowers are not our idea by the way.

First session completed

So we finished the first gamin session in about a year last night. It was not the longest session, which suited me fine. To be honest, it has been years since I pulled an all nighter.

So, we wake up in a wrecked ship with no recollection of how we got there. My wizard had no spell book, and none of the fighters had any armor or weapons. We are stranded on a little island with a light house, and true to our adventuring spirits we start to explore the island. I am not going into all the details here, but suffice to say here is that we found our equipment and and some magical swag. Furthermore, we ran into some sort of cult, which we decided to leave alone. We were outnumbered two to one, so we just let the worship whatever foul demon they wanted.

I accumulated enough XPs to advance to level 2, so now I have to actually fill out a character sheet and pick feats and skills. I am looking forward to it, since it always helps me to get a feel for my character. Unlike last time, I think this one will have to be somewhat of unlikeable guy.

Funny thing though. It turns out I was the only one who didn’t cheat with the dice rolls for the stat block. All the others had several 18s, while I have not a single one. The good thing about the 3.5 rules is that you get to enhance your ability scores as you progress.

All in all a fairly enjoyable evening, which we will repeat in about a month. And now I have two magic missiles pr. day. Good stuff.

Gaming session tonight

I am getting my gaming on tonight. For the first time in about a year and a half, my gaming group is meeting up again. As usual, we are playing in Mystara using 3.5 rules. I always likes the 3.5 rules, and Mystara is a classic setting, so I am happy.

The group is nowhere nearly as good as my original group(s), but it is all I can get, so I guess I am thankful for being able to play. The style is very hack and slash, with absolutely no role playing aspect to it. These guys have a computer game approach to the game, where it is all about the stats, the levels and the magical items. Fortunately we usually have a pretty good time, and who knows, maybe things will change a bit now.

I am playing a 1st level wizard from Glantri but since I haven’t played in years I cannot remember what spells are good. Being 1st level kinda solves that problem though, considering I only get to pick one or two spells. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to hide behind a bunch of big fighters and suck up some XPs.

I was thinking about keeping a gaming journal as we progress, but since I am due back at work in a week I am not sure if I will be able to keep it up. Here’s to hoping.

I am a gamer again – possibly

When my last gaming group called it quits about a year and a half ago, I assumed that this was the absolute last time I would ever get to play Dungeons & Dragons. Everybody in the group has a career, family and all those thing, so I figured we would ever ever get together.

Then what happens? The former DM sends out an e-mail, where he explains that work has sucked for him in a long time, and that was why he had to call it quits. Now things have calmed down quite a bit for him (thank you economic crisis) so he thought it could be good to get back together and role the dice. Everybody was enthusiastic and it seems that we will start a new campaign this May.

Unfortunately, we are not playing Dragonlance, but Mystara. I really like Mystara, because it was the first gaming world I ever knew, and because there is some really good material published for that world.

Anyway, I have to figure out what character to play, so if anybody out there has any good ideas let me know.