Outside the "Wars" Chat and Share

I thought I would make a thread where we can share interesting things/hobbies about ourselves, post interesting D&D resources ... or just meta game chat, character build stuff, etc ... I hate to take away game time but you are all such an interesting bunch of peeps so I thought this thread would satisfy my curiosity. I'll start by posting some content myself: I airbrush and paint miniatures. While I don't play Warhammer, I love painting the larger kits. Here are some of my progression galleries of various projects I've completed: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/R4LPw" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/R4LPw</a> Eldar Wraightknight <a href="http://imgur.com/a/G84vW" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/G84vW</a> Space Marine Stalker <a href="http://imgur.com/a/dDmWG" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/dDmWG</a> Dark Talon <a href="http://imgur.com/a/JgP76" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/JgP76</a> Creature of the Black Lagoon <a href="http://imgur.com/a/hfutf" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/hfutf</a> Mobeius' Big Frankie <a href="http://imgur.com/a/DFPar" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/DFPar</a> Iron Man <a href="http://imgur.com/a/aIB3K" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/aIB3K</a> Thing toy Mod (I often mod cheesy kid's toys and try to make them look ... cool? This was my first ...) Chris, I like to draw as well (no where near as talented as you) and was looking for a way to get into a tablet. I was thinking of a Jot on an Ipad or Surface Pro 3 ... but the Wacam tablets look great but the price is a little steep. Do you scan your art then ink/color? What programs do you use? Do you use a tablet?

I actually don't draw, I'm a comic book writer and run the company! Most of my stuff is on <a href="http://www.overtimecomics.com" rel="nofollow">www.overtimecomics.com</a> , I also write short stories and working on some novels!

Wow Trace you are super talented, I am impressed. For those of you who don't know, Trace also drew Vetari. If it's not too much to ask, at some point farther down the campaign, you should draw the party in action. Chris Garret, how do we access previews of your comics? Do you have to buy it before you can see it or are there visible strips for preview? About me, if you don't know already, everything interesting about me is at my website <a href="http://www.robjyayac.com" rel="nofollow">www.robjyayac.com</a> Besides what is described there, I have a sexy blonde twin girlfriend who unfortunately lives back in PA while I start my career here in OR. So I'm not single but live single and therefore have lots of free time to write and design cool prison maps ;)

Damn Trace, those figurines look incredible. Especially the Iron Man one. He's one of my favorite characters along with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. I'm going to have to get you to paint some figurines for my PCs when I finally convince my friends to play D&D in person. And I would love to see a battle scene of the whole party. Along with a trail of gold leading to a dark corner where Orryn is giggling quietly.

There's not much to know about me really. Or at least, not much that I reveal to people. As far as interests, I can go on all day. Books, video games, television, and movies are all at the fore front for me. I'm also labelled a hipster by my friends just cause I don't like hyped games like Destiny or Grand Theft Auto. I guess the same goes for a lot of movies at television shows too though.

Along with a trail of gold leading to a dark corner where Orryn is giggling quietly. LOL! & I live in Portland, Oregon : hipster capital of the west coast.

I am pretty boring by comparison. Besides working nonsensical hours building websites full-time, I lift weights for a few hours a week, play with my baby, plan and DM a different game, and am teaching myself a new PHP framework so that I can build a few projects I have been thinking about. I play video games too, given a spare 20 or 30 minutes. Ok, maybe not boring, just different interests!

You're not boring Rob! I also lift weights about once or twice a week, and do trail running at least once a week. I'm jealous you have a baby to play with, but I can say I wouldn't be ready for that financially yet.

Rob said: I am pretty boring by comparison. Besides working nonsensical hours building websites full-time, I lift weights for a few hours a week, play with my baby, plan and DM a different game, and am teaching myself a new PHP framework so that I can build a few projects I have been thinking about. I play video games too, given a spare 20 or 30 minutes. Ok, maybe not boring, just different interests! Boring? My life consists of school (Stats major heading into a Compsci degree), part time work (bus boy at Sushi restaurant), video games (Smash bros is awesome BTW guys), anime/tv shows and DND. While my life may seem boring to others on the outside, I quite like this routine that I have currently. I'm sure it is the same for you.

Belanor (Tam) said: part time work (bus boy at Sushi restaurant), I just pictured Belanor, quarterstaff on his back, running sushi plates to customers in a tavern. lol

DM Rob said: You're not boring Rob! I also lift weights about once or twice a week, and do trail running at least once a week. I'm jealous you have a baby to play with, but I can say I wouldn't be ready for that financially yet. You're never financially ready for a baby!

I am awesome at not updating here. But for me, I do computer security (defensive hacker, fix security bugs in code, yadda yadda). My free time is mostly at home with wife and new baby (she was born Oct 11), or hanging out with friends and family. I do enjoy me some video games but have had no time for that at all in the last few months. My wife and I love to travel and are looking forward to our next opportunity to go somewhere (though, probably close considering baby now!).

Hey guys, I wanted to share with you the progress on the world from my other game: The outside border of the map will probably end up at 3600 miles, which makes the visible area nearly 13 million square miles.

That's friggin' beautiful. I may have to hire you to design the cartography for my novel's maps in the next 6 months.

lemme know!

Hey guys, I have 1 space open in my game today at 1pm central time, anyone interested?

Hey Rob, how much would you charge for a world map such as the one above but with a little more detail in regards to settlements, points of interest, and text identifying as much?

Hey I'm curious if anyone has a 3ds and is interested in a free download code for the demo of monster hunter 4 ultimate. I got an email from Nintendo to get early access into the demo and they also gave me 3 extra codes. Anyone interested?

I am interested, but i have no 3DS, so it would be a waste.

Hey Rob we were talking about that trivia crack game. My username is novusignis so we can play each other.

I can't figure out how to add new people. I have it connected to my Facebook and so, only my Facebook friends are visible. Feel free (and this is extended to everyone) to add me on Facebook. Search for Rob Yayac ... if you can't find me it may be my settings so in that case tell me your Facebook name and I'll find you

Ahh I don't use Facebook, or any social media. Like I said, the only reason I even signed up for reddit was to apply for this game. You should be able to start a classic game with a friend, then you can just search for my name. That's how I started playing my other friends.

Sorry man, it's not working. Try searching for me @robjyayac I think

So I've got a pretty cool idea that I've been thinking about, and I'd like to run it by you guys in case you've heard of something like this or have even participated. My friends that I run a game for in real life love the idea of being evil characters, simply because they want to rampage through the world and do anything they want, including taking women by force, pillaging, murder, and worst of all, making disparaging remarks about an individuals mother and his lineage lol. So I think I'll let them play the evil party they want to be, but I've also considered running another campaign alongside theirs,but on roll20. That campaign would feature good player characters, and they were doing something or other and they've caught wind of the evil party and are searching for them to put a stop to them. Essentially it would boil down to pvp, and at this point I might continue the campaign on roll 20 so that I can show the battlefield as it moves, and then I can simply enter the tokens for my friends and they can make their turns in response to everything that's happening in real time. I might even give both parties a power jump, or simply start them at high tier levels already, simply so that the final fight is epic. Anyway, I still have a lot of details to suss out, but I figured I'd post my idea and see what the more experienced veterans think.

Marco G. said: So I've got a pretty cool idea that I've been thinking about, and I'd like to run it by you guys in case you've heard of something like this or have even participated. My friends that I run a game for in real life love the idea of being evil characters, simply because they want to rampage through the world and do anything they want, including taking women by force, pillaging, murder, and worst of all, making disparaging remarks about an individuals mother and his lineage lol. So I think I'll let them play the evil party they want to be, but I've also considered running another campaign alongside theirs,but on roll20. That campaign would feature good player characters, and they were doing something or other and they've caught wind of the evil party and are searching for them to put a stop to them. Essentially it would boil down to pvp, and at this point I might continue the campaign on roll 20 so that I can show the battlefield as it moves, and then I can simply enter the tokens for my friends and they can make their turns in response to everything that's happening in real time. I might even give both parties a power jump, or simply start them at high tier levels already, simply so that the final fight is epic. Anyway, I still have a lot of details to suss out, but I figured I'd post my idea and see what the more experienced veterans think. I've played in a PVP tournament before called Fourthcore Team Deathmatch : <a href="http://www.fourthcoreteamdeathmatch.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fourthcoreteamdeathmatch.com/</a> It is certainly fun but wasn't really my cup of tea, it becomes just a hack-n-slash of rules lawyers minmaxing. But you certainly LEARN a TON about powergaming and taking advantage of every little loophole.

That being said, I've been toying with the idea of allowing any of you who are interested to DM one session... any thoughts on this?

One thing I was thinking is a few of us really, really REALLY like combat. If we go through a session without a fight, we could end by splitting into teams as defined by DM Rob or going free for all, and all fighting one another.

Well I certainly don't want to create a pvp campaign. I was simply thinking having a set of PCs on a good campaign to counteract the evil PCs, then their final fight is against each other. I feel like that might be complicated though, so I i as also considering letting my friends play the evil PCs they want to, then I can create a party of good PCs who start at the same time they do and get star boosts as they do. Gain level ups and such at the same times, but I create them and control them. I just want them to understand perfectly that there's consequences to being evil and acting like public menaces, and nothing spells that more than showing the role of the ideal adventurer.

Rob said: One thing I was thinking is a few of us really, really REALLY like combat. If we go through a session without a fight, we could end by splitting into teams as defined by DM Rob or going free for all, and all fighting one another. Ehh, not really my thing. It would become too competitive and I want to foster a campaign of teamwork. I typically try to work in at least one combat per session but last time you guys avoided two.

DM Rob said: Rob said: One thing I was thinking is a few of us really, really REALLY like combat. If we go through a session without a fight, we could end by splitting into teams as defined by DM Rob or going free for all, and all fighting one another. Ehh, not really my thing. It would become too competitive and I want to foster a campaign of teamwork. I typically try to work in at least one combat per session but last time you guys avoided two. That's fair!

Hey Rob, do you mind if I use the teamspeak channel in order to host a game that I'm going to be leading on our off sundays? It will be from 3 to 7 pm central time. There isn't anyone else using the channel at that time right?

I was, but I haven't for a few months and won't be for the forseeable future.

Ahh I see. Well thanks for the heads up.

Sorry, i don't know if my words were clear, but I used to use TS on the off weeks, but I don't any longer.

No I gotcha. I just couldn't remember if someone was using it after all. I thought I was going insane.

Feel free to use it anytime. It only costs me $8.15 a month so it's like buying a burger. No biggie.

Thanks a lot Rob.

Tonight's session was a huge success I think. I was descriptive, made memorable characters, and introduced the pacing and realism very well. I also made a fun little way to have the characters roll for their stats, involving puzzles they had to solve corresponding to different stats. All in all, I feel confident that I did a good job as a noob DM. lol. I also want to post a map that I'm making for my campaign that will showcase the known world. It's still a rough draft but I figured I'd show you guys and make a post just to keep ya'll updated.

I'm glad I read more of the thread, I thought I missed a game! Glad yours went well man!

Thanks a lot Chris.

Good for you Marco!

Thanks Rob. I actually ran into the same issue that you encountered with us on our first session. I ended up preparing too much ahead, and my players were too focused on exploring the things I've described to them, and the lore I established for the campaign, that we actually didn't get to enter into the first combat session I set up for them.

You can never prep too much but also don't be afraid to change things up mid-way. Like if you feel it's getting too roleplay heavy and the players are itching for a fight, roll up a random encounter and throw it at them.

I just may do that. I've always been a big fan of lore, but more oral than written lore. The books and notes in Skyrim may bore me, but the audio diaries of Rapture are fascinating to me. So I'm trying to build a world from the ground up, with its own set of deities based on the 4 physical elements and the two moral elements. In addition, an original story, separate kingdoms and all that jazz. Its the same as you're doing with the portal wars, except I'm trying to give the players as much relevant information as possible because I've literally put them into the game, not their characters. So I figure in real life they'd need information to survive. Luckily, my players also like like as much as I do. Plus they're their kind of intimidated by the constant reassurances that this campaign is going to be leaning on hard and grueling. I've added a bunch of alternate features from the DM guide like madness, sanity, gritty realism rests and stuff like that.

I'm glad that you've taken on DMing, that's how this hobby continues!

Here is the final version of the map I made for my campaign. It's a Google Drive link because it ended up being large. I still don't have a full mastery of how to save images to make sure they look good but aren't massive file sizes. But just to ahead and download it to view. Hope you guys enjoy, took me about two weeks. And if you're interested Rob, I wouldn't mind making a map in similar vein for your campaign. <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwlroXKZ-lLgelgwVjhZN1ZiZWc/edit?usp=docslist_api" rel="nofollow">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwlroXKZ-lLgelgwVjhZN1ZiZWc/edit?usp=docslist_api</a>

Whelp, Marco has finally acquired a real copy of the DMG and monster manual, as well as the dungeon masters screen. And I gotta say, the screen is beautiful. They came in today, a few hours ago. In a week or so, I'll also be getting a lot of about 100 assorted figurines as well.

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;"Having exhausted all his sources of wisdom, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;and the boundless information sealed within his tome of DMG, &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Marco turns to the elders in this land of Tabletop, seeking guidance and answers" Lol anyways, I've run across a dilemma in my campaign and was wondering what you guys thought about it. Well not really a dilemma per se, but still bears asking. In essence, the party faces three enemies: a mad king, fearsome tyrant whose subjects actually believe he's got godlike power(like kim jong il/un), an actual god of darkness and shadows, and a father an son, former allies but revealed to be traitors.&nbsp; The party's objectives will bring them to a clash with each of these enemies, all of whom are working for the same goals, and even manipulated by the same puppetmaster. But I'd like the method of taking them down to be different for each one, simply for diversity and entertainment. I've worked out that the traitors are simply going to be killed. They have power on the scale of the party, albeit higher leveled, and so simply require normal combat. The king however, is on a whole other level. He actually gains strength from the hatred and fear he inspires in his subjects, and so with all of them supporting him he actually does have a measure of godlike power, albeit more in the vein of Sauron's combat prowess rather than a genie's cosmic wish fulfillment. With that said, I plan on having the party spread rumors, expose weaknesses, and generally sabotage his regime to crumble his support until he's back down on a mortal level. Much like what happened in SPOILERS&nbsp; The interview END SPOILERS So so far the two methods of taking down their enemies is straight combat, and sowing rumors to weaken an enemy before killing the king. But I can't seem to determine a third method of combat. Thus my question is this: is there anything in past editions of d&d, or any other rpg you guys have played, that could present an opportunity like this? Some way to take down an enemy that goes beyond mere combat? I mean the only thing I can think of is to set up some method of combat puzzle that will allow them to deal with the god in some way, but I was wondering if there was any other options that have presented themselves across your many games? Thanks for the considerations, and any help is appreciated.

For either the king or the deity, you could have part of their power tied to some artifact, either that needs to be destroyed ahead of time, or that is carried by the NPC and can be destroyed in combat. Perhaps a ritual of some sort that requires one player to be doing constantly to weaken the enemy? Maybe doing the ritual makes that player a target, so they decide, does a squishy mage do it and risk dying or does the take do it, effectively taking him out of combat?

In other news, I am back into Hearthstone, dos anyone play? You can find me on battle.net as DrOrpheus#1124 or <a href="mailto:rhlowe@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">rhlowe@gmail.com</a>