Game Situation

To continue the 4E campaign, I'd really like at least 1 more player -
and a semblance of when we'll be meeting to play. Wednesday nights after Serenity is probably not the best plan.
I'll be asking everyone involved (Tim, Ashlee, Max) about what they think, but feel free to contact me with ideas.

EDIT - Benton is still interested in playing, so maybe we're good!

Campaign Ends

Due to general lack of enthusiasm, the 4th ED D&D campaign is ending.

We are switching to a Serenity campaign.

Blog here -

http://serenityrpg.blogspot.com/

Delays on Chronicle

Jake stepped in and wrote out a nice entry for the chronicle for last session, but as Benton hasn't sent me one for the previous session I am kind of stuck.

I now have 2 sessions worth of encounter tracking and maps from Ashlee to post as well.

My apologies - they will appear soon.

Also - Episode Fun started up again on Tuesday. We should run, non stop, through Foo and hopefully all the way through Whee. Please check it out at www.wausaucomics.com/webcomics/ef

Thanks!

Incoming Mini's

This is the female elf druid I'll be getting today. It may be a good new mini for Sarah's Autumn Mist, the female elf shaman.













Here's the male goliath barbarian mini. Given that Tim's warden has a sword and not an axe this might be a better fit.















As Benton thinks my "Neo" tiefling cleric is a female figure, he may well switch back to the default he wanted - this male tiefling warlock to be his tiefling bard.
















Ace is a male half-elf warlock. The best we may have in the new set is a male half-elf warlock/fighter. Er. It'll be better, I guess, than the halfling sneak he is using.






And ah, perfection. Well, if you discount that Jake isn't using a bow with his male elf ranger/beastmaster with a falcon companion. This male elf ranger with an eagle on his arm is about as close to perfection as we're likely to get.






Unfortunately for Ashlee and Kyrie, there are but two dwarves in this set. Both male, both very un-druidlike.

Concerns on XP

It has been brought to my attention via more than one source that there is some concern about the distribution of XP - namely that those with jobs will gain a growing permanent lead on those without jobs.

I have a few things to say in response:
1 - I am watching the XP difference, and won't let things get out of hand. A character being a level or even two ahead of the party shouldn't be an issue, but a 3-4 level range difference in the party would be. I won't let that happen.
2 - Doing extra work during the game needs to have some benefit.
3 - It is my intention to have enough optional extra jobs possible that everyone who wants extra XP can gain it. I will unveil new jobs as soon as they are ready.
4 - If you don't care that much about XP and only want to enjoy the role-playing you shouldn't have to take on an extra responsibility, hence why no person is mandated to have an extra job.
5 - The jobs themselves help alleviate some of the work from me, the DM, but also helps keep players involved in the game even when their characters are not directly active in a given scene.

Also, understand that I personally have a concern that the party will level too fast with all the XP I am giving, but I am trying to balance that with a sense from some players of "I don't want to be level one again!"

To conclude, I am aware of the concern and I am monitoring it. More job options will be available soon. And I have my own concerns about extra XP.

First Session - April 22nd

With the player load-out and party build more or less ready, we will look for our first session to start on Wednesday April 22nd.

Ideally I would like us to try and meet at 5:30 pm, but I don't know how that works for anyone else nor if that's even easy for me to make. So until I hear otherwise we'll stick with our 6:30 meeting time for now.

Also - I have my basement rec room all moved about and remodeled. I should have the finishing touches (another table, everything lain out properly, etc.) by the 22nd.

Once everyone arrives and is settled downstairs I'd expect about 15 minutes to settle in and then about 15 minutes for pre-game ritual (DM presenting game info, eventual "Previously on..." and character changes, etc.) and then the game will be underway (ideally by 7, but hey, it'll get going when it does.)

I hope to see us get at least 2 encounters in per night (encounters need not be combat - a good acted-out RP session or a prolonged skill challenge count as well) and will be planning on stopping points so we can get people heading home by 11 pm at the latest.

Start getting me backstory for your characters, if you want it created and to be woven into the campaign story. If you don't want to create one I'll provide something for your character.

As Things Stand

To run my 4th ED campaign I would like to have 4-6 players who want to play, want to play with each other, and want to play by the rules in the campaign I put forth.

Recently I've had one player tell me they aren't sure they want to play anymore, and I was also told another player will be otherwise occupied in a couple months AND that player is going to play whatever they want as a result.

This causes me concern. Hopefully on Wednesday, on the last session of Benton's campaign, I can get at least some of these concerns addressed.

Flexible Scheduling!

As was discussed at this past Star Wars game on January 11th, trying to have a set day to meet is just not working out. Events come up, and most importantly job schedules are so flexible for many people.

In view of wanting a weekly schedule for the game, I propose we move to scheduling the game up to 2 weeks in advance and keep things flexible. On that front we need people to give schedules of when they are available regularly, and for those who do not have regular schedules they need to provide weekly / bi-weekly schedules.

I also put forth that having a "Primary" and a "Backup" date for gaming is a good idea to consider. We each try to find two times that work for our schedule and everyone else's. An attempt to let someone managing the game schedule (most likely me) to shift things around so no one player is shafted or inconvenienced the most.

I put forth the following for me as to when I can game most weeks (my schedule is pretty regular and largely controllable by me) -

Monday - Thursday nights, 6 pm until probably about 11 pm. Saturdays from about 6 pm on. Sundays all day. Friday (and to a lesser extent Wednesday) night is not the best for me. In the not too distant future (a couple months or so) Saturdays all day will be free.

Let's try and get working on everyone submitting schedules so we can start planning games!

Some More Thoughts

Listening to much D&D Podcasts, it really has sunk in for me that we should be looking at knocking out a combat encounter in under an hour, easily.

I'd like to get more gaming groups going, if only because of the two I'm in I'm lucky if the Star Wars one meets, an average, once ever month, and the D&D game is barely over once a month at this point.

I'm toying with the idea of running a Living campaign via the RPGA. Like a Living Forgotten Realms game, for example. Any interest from anyone?

Updates on My Campaign

Benton and I will be swapping soon our roles as DM / Player. I'll be running the sessions as I tried to before, with some more emphasis (on me, mostly) to keep things moving and lively, to get started sooner for more game time and yet still end the game sooner for those who need to go to bed.

Start getting character ideas sent to me, or talk to me at some point about them. I do want, as much as possible, to stick to the core books (namely - PHB) but I am listening to requests for outside options. No to anything Forgotten Realms as we are not playing in that world, to start. Playtest classes from the upcoming PHB 2 (Barbarian, Druid, Bard, etc.) are possibilities. No to races from the Monster Manual.

To start things rolling, Benton is looking at possibly a Dwarven Druid (Controller) or Tiefling Bard (Leader).

Finally, I am debating about hosting my sessions at my house. It would be more convenient for me and I would have things set up and ready to go before anyone started arriving. I have the room for it, and my dog is much smaller and I have no problem locking Molly away from where the people are.

More World Updates to Come

Our team warlord has presented me with some interesting back story as well as a bit of world design to add.

I'll start a series of blog posts about this world additions, converting the information provided to me into a more general text representing the knowledge that average folk of the world would know.