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D&December 2017 – W3D3 – Forests & Wilds

Whether it’s elven homelands, mystical forests of dreams, wild tracts or cursed domains of evil, forests play a big part of fantasy worlds. Most fantasy worlds are reminiscent of magical midevil Europe in the nature and flow. There are great cities and small towns, each surrounded by some area of farmlands. But all the areas in between are typically forests and wilds. For adventurers, there is only so much that can be accomplished in a city. Sure, there may be sewers full of monsters, corrupt governments, evil guilds of assassins or the occasional aberration like Undermountain beneath Waterdeep or the Necropolis in Wati. But for the most part what they have to offer is fairly limited in nature.

Thursday, December 21, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D2 – Underdark – Time For The Drow To Go

The Underdark is a dark and dismal place, full of creatures good and evil, though mostly evil. Mindflayers and drow are among the worst of the worst, but by no means all that dwells therein. A couple of years ago we completed a run through the City of the Spider Queen module. The module was a lot of fun for me as it gave me the chance to bring back my wizard Endeleban. It was also a chance to perhaps redeem himself a little bit from the path towards evil he had trod as originally transitioned from PC to NPC.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W3D1 – Feywild/Shadowfell

The Feywild and the Shadowfell are two parts of D&D that we really haven’t delved into much in our campaigns. We’ve had some dealings with faeries and nymphs and dryads, but never any kind of extended campaign dealing with them. I wasn’t really sure what the interest in such things was. They always seemed more annoying than anything. Whenever they were introduced into an adventure, they seemed forced and didn’t really fit. That is, until I started reading the Dresden Files novels.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D7 – Oddities – The World Serpent Inn

This is a really tough one. The fantasy universe is full of oddities of various types and sources. In creatures we have strange beings such as the were-mole and aboleth. In magic items we have things like the belt of gender change. The list of odd planar locations seems to have no end. But there is one oddity that has endlessly fascinated me since I first came across it: The World Serpent Inn.

Monday, December 18, 2017 | 3 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D6 – Spooky/Undead – The Lich

I’ve mentioned before that my favorite undead was the bodak. Read my various posts about Thelisn to see why. So I’m going to take this time to talk about my least favorite undead, the lich. Like dragons, liches are an overused trope in Dungeons & Dragons. They seem to be the go-to creature type any time someone needs a major bad guy for a module or story. It’s gotten to be tired.

Sunday, December 17, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D5 – Humanoid

Humanoids suck. They are the most boring group in any campaign. Be it elf, halfling, human, orc, whatever. Boring, boring, boring. The only thing worthwhile was when humans got an extra 1st level feat. That’s about it.

Saturday, December 16, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D4 – Celestial/Demonic – Fallen Angels

Celestials are a strange piece of D&D/Pathfinder. They are a necessary group, serving as the compass opposite to devils and demons. Sometimes they serve to provide context or boxed text to the characters. And lesser celestials can be summoned for a few rounds to fight in combat for your cleric. Aside from that, however, they seem to provide only one other value proposition to game play. And that’s when they fall.

Friday, December 15, 2017 | 2 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D3 – Abyssal/Fey

I may have mentioned once or twice that I hate fey. They’re nothing more than an annoyance. As for abyssal creatures, my favorite is probably the glabrezu demon. There’s just something about a half demon, half crab that can cast spells that is oddly amusing and appealing at the same time. Another part of it is the experience that my bard turned cleric had on Occipitus during the Shackled City adventure path. We had some fun interactions with a glabrezu, among other demons.

Thursday, December 14, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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Aeleon – General Timeline

The history of the new world can be divided into two phases. There is the time of the great exploration. For thousands of years after the continent was discovered, travelers came across the sea from the other three continents, each settling lands according to their people. Smaller kingdoms come and go, but four great kingdoms prevail in the east, west, south and center of the continent. The second phase comes after a great disaster that laid waste to the entire continent. Mountain ranges raised up around the center, cutting off access to the inner half of the continent. New islands raised up all around the outside. New kingdoms arose among the survivors that have stood to this day.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 | 4 minutes Read
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Benchwork

There are a number of approaches that you can take towards benchwork for your model railroad. And the approach that is right for one person isn’t necessarily right for someone else. This time I’m going to walk through some of the basic benchwork terminology and skills that might be needed for model railroading. What is Benchwork? What are we talking about when we refer to benchwork. In general, the term describes the foundation of your model railroad. In its simplest form, the benchwork for a small railroad could refer to the door or sheet of plywood that the railroad sits on. That sheet may or may not have legs on it depending on your preferences. For a shelf layout, it would refer to the shelf the railroad is built on and the brackets that hold the shelf up on the wall.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 | 8 minutes Read
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D&December 2017 – W2D2 – Too Many Dragons

I discussed previously my favorite draconic creatures so I won’t repeat that information here. Instead, I’ll take this time to discuss something I don’t like about dragons. There are just way too many types of dragons. CETEC ASTRONOMY In the beginning… the “dragons” part of dungeons and dragons referred to two basic types. There were the chromatic dragons (bad guys) and the metallic dragons (good guys). That was it. And even the metallic dragons didn’t come along until the Greyhawk set a little later that year. Sure, there were a couple of near dragons like the pseudo and the dragonne, but those didn’t really count as dragons.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 | 1 minute Read
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dndecember-w2d1

I’m not sure what creature I would call my “favorite”. We’ve encountered all sorts of creatures over our more than 20 year span of just the Wyrmfang Chronicles alone, let alone any other gaming experience. I guess that there are two creatures that stand out a little bit. Roper These things are vicious, deadly and tough. Many years ago our band of merry adventurers encountered one in some underground ruin somewhere. I forget the details now, but I remember we were afraid to face it. And that’s the proper attitude to take whenever you encounter a roper. With their incredible reach, multiple attacks and grapple/restrain abilities, they’re difficult to beat.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017 | 2 minutes Read