Lafe @lafe@mastodon.social

Last night we had a very satisfying #dnd session. It started poorly as two players cancelled at the last minute, but we forged ahead.

And had one of the best role-played encounters yet with this group. It did involve the (temporary) death of one of the absent players.

They used the story of their fallen friend to aid an ancient creature who ultimately made a small, but touching, sacrifice so that they could revive their fallen companion.

Real tears were shed. It was lovely.

#dmlife

Had one of those moments in last night's #DnD game where the party took an unexpected turn, and I improvised a magical travel system, created by the Sidhe (hey guys, we have the Sidhe in this campaign now, surprise!) through a fey forest. And it ended up being way better than my original plan.

Later, I was complimented on how detailed and intricate my planning and story-telling is for this forest.

"Aww, thanks so much! That means a lot to me!"

#dmlife

It's the little things.

A player wanted to test a feature of a new magic sword, to see what it did when it killed something. Lacking any enemies, they sought out a butcher shop to see if they could pay to kill a creature that was up to be slaughtered for meat.

The rest of the party, having slain obvious and potential enemies galore, was horrified when the animal was killed. This led to a spirited, in-character, debate.

I enjoyed every minute of it.

#dmlife #dnd

In my current campaign, I've been experimenting with going "bigger" on the story line.

The party have just reached level 6 and have already met 3 deities, are being pursued by at least 2 others, are trying to help one former deity re-ascend to godhood, have just befriended a dragon, and are just starting to realize that there are now people all over their world who are out to get them.

I was worried that a story like this might be too much. But so far it's been a lot of fun.

#dmlife #DnD

DMing two #dnd games this week.

One is an on-going campaign, where I've planned out the next several narrative beats already, and created maps and generally gotten ready for it.

Then three days later I'm running a one-shot for 5 8th level characters and I have no idea what I'm doing for them yet. 😬

#dmlife

Holidays: Survived
New Year: Survived

So far so good!

Got to play some #dnd over the break, and now back at work and wishing I was still on vacation.

I also took the opportunity to start drawing lessons, following the #pubdraw youtube videos from the #criticalrole channel. I'm terrible! But it's fun so far.

I was gifted some sort of scratchy-throat, achy sinuses kind of thing by a coworker. It's not enough to put me down, but it is surely annoying.

I am slightly under-prepared for my #dnd session this evening. But I have some lovely battle maps, and just need to guide my players into them... somehow. #dmlife

I've watched all of C1. And now I'm up to C2 E31. I'm only a year behind!

#criticalrole

It has been a *very* long week. But now I am sitting down, drinking wine, and watching #criticalrole.

The penultimate #dnd game of my first year-long campaign (in 5e) was successful! They destroyed the current form of the lich who was the BBEG, and they didn't even die very much.
They still have to retrieve and destroy the phylactery, which has its own complications, but things are looking pretty good for them at the moment.
Now I have to plan a good hero's welcome epilogue sort of thing.

During the summer doldrums, I started DMing a second #DnD campaign. Which was a great idea at the time. Now both groups are willing to meet almost weekly, and it has consumed much of my free time.

Definitely a good problem to have!

Fortunately the first (older) campaign is just about to fight the BBEG and that may possibly lighten the load a little.

I've finally moved *all* of my #DnD campaign notes (including all of my home-brewed world notes) into notion.so. The hierarchical organization has already made a great improvement. Now I need to investigate how to table-ize the information so I can add custom properties and query them...

I've been wrasslin' with finding a good note taking application to do *all* the things, and not cost too much (or anything).
Evernote and OneNote are both great. They do almost everything I want and have decent desktop/mobile apps. But Evernote lost me with the price increases, and the free version of OneNote has a few annoyances.
So I finally bit a bullet and am going all in on notion.so. s
So far it seems great. It cost a little money, but not much. Hope it works out. 😬

I am trying to eat healthier, but am an amazingly lazy cook. I picked up a new instant pot, and have tried a couple really really easy recipes. So far, it's been great! Super easy/lazy and fast.

On my walk from work to get lunch, I passed a big planter full of flowers, that was surrounded by humming birds getting a drink. Made my whole morning.

If they destroy the phylactery, they release the beholder. Kill the beholder, release the lich.
A trap locks them in the room and a timer for 20 real-time minutes until lava is released into the room and kills them all...
Most excitement we've had for a while!
They did make it out alive. 😁

#dnd #dm

Had good success with a puzzle I set for my players. It involved a beholder which was trapped facing a simple steel cage with its anti-magic cone active. In the cage was a lich, unable to escape the simple cage due to not having any magic.
The spell holding the beholder in place was "powered" by the lich's phylactery, off to the side of the anti-magic cone.

#dnd #dm

This is a pretty place.

Massive delays due to weather, surprise broken plane parts part way there, emergency landing at the wrong airport, long wait, then long bus ride... But I'm finally on vacation in Key West!