An Adventure in Aes

Welcome back! In my last post, we had looked into my work developing Kalgar's motivations, and

Dallas Kasaboski

added a lot of flavourful content. This time, we'll recount the session which followed. In this session, we journeyed back to Aes, Kalgar's homeland, to discover why some of the Doomguard's agents had not reported in some time.

Linking Combat and Skill Challenge

Dominic Matte

For a session I ran recently, I wanted to have a chase scene where the party needs to stop a spy who's gathered information on them. Long story short, a trap was set for the party at the bar by the military police, and once the agent realized he'd been spotted, he ran for the fort, starting a bar fight to cover his escape. 

I ran the encounter as a combat followed by a skill challenge, with the challenge's victory conditions determined by the result of the combat.

Developing Kalgar's motivations...

In our last post, our party of 3 had traveled to the Doomguard's Headquarters, learned about the

Dallas Kasaboski

structure of this secret society, and set off to Aes to find out more about their development of superweapons.

I also expressed personal concern over the lack of depth to my character Kalgar. Last week's session was great, but because I was still finding the character, I felt lost, or at best, unsure. Before we get to what happened this week, I want to share how I overcame this feeling.

The Doomguard's Headquarters

And the adventure continues! Last week's session was kind of a bottle episode, although I think after

Dallas Kasaboski

a week of fighting a dragon, anything else would feel a little slow. After 7 weeks of traveling, getting to know each other, and bonding as characters, we made it back to Chalybs, the city-state which is also the home of the Doomguard.

World Building: The Long Game

Dominic Matte

The D&D game I'm currently running, titled The Long Game, has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog, so I thought it would be a good idea to provide a quick overview of the world, and talk a bit about my approach to creating it.

Well, actually, Dallas convinced me it would be a good idea, but anyway, here's the first post.

The Long Game

...and hey, I didn't die, but I almost did!

Dallas Kasaboski

In case you're just joining us, we here at D4sign just started a new campaign, now revealed to be called The Long Game, and I was worried about my character's survivability. Surprisingly, we fought a dragon, yeah that's right, and it was one of the most intense sessions ever.

If you have been following along, or you just got caught up now, you'll probably get tired of me saying it, but every week delivers a fantastic story, flavoured by DM and players alike, and with some lucky dice rolls and ample strategy, we have survived some incredible experiences.

Just a sample of the excitement of this last session, here are the thoughts from the DM,

"Finished what was quite possibly the most exciting and intense D&D session I've ever run. I was on the edge of my seat, and I'm the DM!"

So, because of that, and because it's a habit, I've decided to provide updates on this campaign. For those who play, it will be a good reference. For those out there on the internet, we hope it will be entertaining and perhaps give you some ideas for your next fantasy/story/roleplaying experience.

World Building: Dealing with Dragons (The Long Game)

Dominic Matte

Dragons are troublesome. Not just to the player characters, but to dungeon masters too. They're not only extremely powerful, but highly intelligent as well. As a DM preparing a game, I feel that I have to make an effort to explain precisely what role dragons have in the world. Or, if dragons don't have a major presence or influence, I need an explanation as to why.