Curse of Sunder - Death House

In an earlier post, I mentioned Curse of Sunder, a homebrew version of Curse of Strahd that we've started playing and streaming once per week.

The Party
The players decided to create a party of from the Freelands, which means they are playing elves and goliaths.

1. Morad is played by an old friend of mine who streams the games on his gaming youtube channel. He'll be playing the elven fighter in the group, with a massive two-handed sword.
2. Ei'wyn is played by a friend who I started playing rolegames with years ago. He'll be playing the elven cleric in the group, a character specialized in knowledge and spellcasting.
3. Chrella is played by a new friend, a youtuber I met when working on D&Danmark. He'll be playing the half-elven ranger in the group, the scout.
4. Salogel is played by a new friend whom I met at last years charity event. He'll be playing the goliath bard in the group, the support character.

Streaming
We're streaming the games on various channels for two hours every week.

• Fanatic's twitch
• Pinkpulse's twitch
• Kiyev's gaming youtube 
• TreGangeRød's youtube

Furthermore, I'll also be creating short 10 minute videos where I remove all techincal stuff, irrelevant talking, and dice rolling (which I'm making visual instead). The videos are made so that you can listen to them as podcasts.

Session 1-3
The first three sessions covered the introductory adventure called Death House. The homebrew version is that the party was hired by an elf called Tilar Durst to recover his two grandchildren from the ruined city of Zehnos. I will try to avoid spoilers too much, since you can watch the videos here.

In short, the party explores Death House as it is described in Curse of Sunder, except there's another religion behind it. I changed the names to elven names, and use the house as a shadow crossing into the Plane of Shadows, which is where most of the campaign takes place. I also changed Strahd into a female shadar'kai called Sunder who is not a vampire, but has another dark secret.

The party avoids the house turning against them through very creative roleplaying at the end of the dungeon. They sacrifice a living being without sacrifing any party members, and appease the cult, which means the house doesn't attack them and they get to leave peacefully. For more details about how they do it, check out the videos.

D&Dalmose

I mentioned in an earlier blog about a 2 hour weekly session that I started running with children in my local community. We played 8 hours over the course of a month, and the project attracted a number of children. At one point there were 7 children at the age of 8-12, but usually there are 3 children who show up every single time.

Storm King's Thunder
The players created characters, and nearly every single player ended up creating a half-elf rogue. Fortunately, it is still possible to have a balanced game even without covering every single role. The party travelled to Nightstone to meet up with friends and family, only to find an abandoned city. The players started exploring the city, looting it, and killing goblins, until they reached the castle where they met the guards. They recruited the guards and returned to clearing out the town of goblins until the Seven Snakes arrived. Everyone made friends, but the Seven Snakes tried to trap the players and guards within the city. Meanwhile, the party started to assassinate Seven Snakes, who had spread out to secure the city. It all culminated into a fight, which was never resolved before we continued to the next adventure.

Lauritz' Campaign
The reason we stopped Storm King's Thunder is because one of the children wanted to try and be the DM. I had the pleasure of trying a real kid's game where the party had travelled to a city in search for food due to starvation at home. We found a tavern filled with food and a quest giver who was slain by the tavernkeeper whom we ended up fighting. The tavernkeeper used a device to close off the city so that we couldn't escape, but the quest giver had given us clues to how we could get free. This clue led us to a hidden prison with eight cells filled with monsters, traps, and loot. We have cleared the prison and reached the last chamber.

To be continued.

EkstraLiv not at Comic Con

I went through the basics of the charity event EkstraLiv in an earlier post where I also mentioned that we would be trying to hold the event at Comic Con in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, I was informed that Comic Con wouldn't be held in 2017, but has been moved to the beginning of May 2018. There have also been major changes on how we're preparing for the event.

Preparing for the Event
We started out with a project group of 4 who was trying to prepare the event for May in the hopes that we had the skill and ressources to be able to host two events in 2018. Unfortunately, one of the members gave up at the beginning of April, another member couldn't handle the deadlines and stress, which left 2 people with several months of work and 3 months delay. We will therefore stick to hosting only a single event per year.

This change in the project group also meant changes in how we're preparing the event.

• We won't be creating our own adventure, but will instead be changing a prewritten adventure to a homebrew setting. Furthermore, any DM attending the event will be able to run their own adventure and won't be forced to run the same adventure as the rest of the group.
• We won't be creating threshold goals, unless someone comes up with some good ideas.
• Every DM will be responsible for streaming their own game. Streaming won't be a requirement. Simply being a DM that plays during the event and gathers money for the Youth's Red Cross is enough.
• We won't have famous people at the event. We're still trying to recruit some famous danish people to create commercials for the event though.

We're still looking for more DMs. If you're interested, then sign up on the Youth's Red Cross' site.

Convention 
Since we're not bringing this charity event to Comic Con, I decided to investigate other potential conventions and found a tabletop roleplaying convention in Copenhagen called Viking-Con. It is a convention at the middle of October and they seemed very interesting in having us. I've given them our entire pitch and am now waiting for feedback from them.

Even though some of us will be hosting our games at Viking-Con, then it is still possible to host a personal game elsewhere, or even over the internet. Furthermore, it's also possible to host games prior to the event and gather money for the event.

Any questions should be sent to Jay_jayjay@yahoo.com

D&Danmark

Join us on an adventure. Experience Defiance in Phlan. Win giveaways from Dragon's Lair. Learn to play rolegames.

Those are the words for the trailer for the new danish D&Danmark youtube series. I was asked to help set it and be the DM for the game. In January, we recorded and the series officially started on saturday 25th February 2017.

I decided to run Defiance in Phlan because it's a good introductory adventure that many viewers may be able to relate to. We divided the five missions so that each player could upload a number of episodes to their youtube channels. Each mission was then divided up into 15-20 min segments to create episodes that would run until June 2017.

The five youtubers we've gathered are TreGangeRød, PinkPulse, MekanikerenDK, Tankeskud, and MikeTheNumbers.

EkstraLiv 2017

I've been running a yearly D&D 5e charity event since 2014. Since November 2016 I've been working on the EkstraLiv 2017 charity event. This time I've assembled a team of four to enlarge the event. Together, we've been able to make deals with the Red Cross, focusing on international children projects. We've also made a deal with Fanatic, a shop in Roskilde.

The project is far from done, and we're hoping to get approval to bring this project to Comic Con 2017 in Copenhagen. We'd then run eights hours on both days, and anyone with a ticket will be able to join the game for 4 hour segments by donating to the Red Cross. The game will then be run a little bit like Hunger Games, where people can donate to help their favourite players. We're aiming at getting some famous danish people to join us, everything from youtuberes, to Paradise Hotel contestants and maybe even Sidney Lee. We're also aiming at including Giveaways.

There's still a lot to do on this project, and our next large workshop will be on the 1st April. Until then, check out the draft of a potential poster for the event above, though it will definitely be modified and improved before it's officially launched.

The two campaigns I play

After having read "Stemmen fra Ådalen", "Sort Forsyning", and "Skizofrenia", I was inspired to write this article. Note that GamemastersDK is an english blog written by Danish tabletop roleplayers.

My two games
Both of my games are D&D 5e, and they are games that are starting next week from tuesday 7th March 2017. Both are set in my homebrew world of Aresia and focusing on expanding the tabletop roleplaying knowledge in Denmark.

D&Dalmose
At Fastelavn 2017 in Dalmose, I was approached by a family that had noticed some of my previous D&D work, and they asked me to set up some tabletop roleplaying games for the children in the local community. I've therefore set up a 2 hour session every tuesday that any children between 9 and 12 that can speak either danish, english, or french, can attend at Atkærcenteret in Dalmose.

The game will be based on the Storm King's Thunder D&D 5e adventure and modified to fit into my homebrew setting where the Tyranny of Elves reigns. The dragon leader Langdedrosa of the halfling jungle of Harken is manipulating the giants serving the elves in the hopes to split the government of the Tyranny of Elves in order to weaken it so she can invade Cimmeria. The first games will focus around the city of Nightstone where the players will clear it of goblins and rescue its inhabitants after it was attacked by giants.

Curse of Sunder 
I've assembled a group to plan a large D&D 5e event to take place at Comic Con in Copenhage 2017. We are largely advertising for this event, and as part of this, I've decided to host a 2 hour streaming session of a D&D 5e game with famous danish people once per week. The exact players will be announced next week.

The game itself will be the Curse of Strahd adventure modified to my own homebrew world. The players will find themselves in the Shadowfell, more specifically in the land of Daedaloth, which is being taken over by the powerful being known as Sunder. The players will travel from the ruined capital of Al'Rual where Sunder resides, and into the heart of Daedaloth, to the current capital of Hallalia and other cities. This will be a great example of how to modify a prewritten adventure to a homebrew setting.

The End

A year ago I started this blog. It was my attempt to keep up to date with new trends and technologies. Although Pink Pulse wasn't as large a part of the blog and youtube channel as I hoped, she still contributed. I also dropped the vlogs early in the process since it wasn't something that appealed to me although I did get an insight into it and learned a few things from creating them. In conclusion, I learned a lot about this whole project, but I don't feel that it's something for me, so this is the end of this blog.

What have I learned
I've learned a few things. If I were ever to use blogs more professionally, I would strive to write shorter articles. I also learned to add pictures, and then there's networking and advertising, which is the main thing to do if used in a professional manner. I learned that all of this is not something especially for me, but that I could do it and greatly improve if there was a proper incentive.

Favorite articles
The article I've gone back to the most, and shown/talked to people about most often, is my article about competitive D&D. We're hoping to set something up next year in Denmark, so we'll see how it goes. 

Worst articles
The worst article I wrote I think is my first project update (along with every other project update). These articles were mostly filler, had too much text, and no pictures. I would strive to stay clear of such articles in the future if I were to write another blog.


That's it for this time. Thank you for following and hope you enjoyed some of the articles.

D&D Extra-Life 2014

I've created a 5 min video that shows gameplay footage of our 2014 25 hour D&D 5e game for Extra-Life:

Part 1: 14:09
@00:16 the event begins and I present it.

Part 2: 16:45
@00:50 there's a scene from the invasion of Greenest, where Ravincal shortly describes what the players are generally playing.


Part 3: 20:59
@01:19 there's a combat scene from where the players are chasing after surviving halflings and get ambushed by a rearguard.

Part 4: 23:55
@01:50 a viewer donates to join the game. It's the first time he ever tries to play D&D. 

Part 5: 00:57
@02:19 at this point we reached our goal of $750 and I explain about this threshold along with the next threshold goal.

Part 6: 05:36
@02:50 we've been playing for15½ hours and one of our players fall asleep as the rest of the party infiltrate a halfling cave at an outpost where refugee halflings from Greenest has sought protection from the Dragon Army of Tharsis.

Part 7: 09:12
@03:21 within the halfling cave the players find the barracks, and blow the halflings to pieces with a fireball spell.

Part 8: 14:00
@04:19 we have reached the end and gathered $770 for the Seattles children hospital.


 

D&D 5e profession example

Yesterday I posted drafts for an overview of professions. Here are 3 examples of recipes (Alchemy, enchanting, and cooking). We'll create many more recipes in the future that we may gather and put on the DMsguild.

Name	Alchemist's Fire
Profession	Alchemy
Description	You create a mundane mixture in a flask that ignites into unstoppable flames when the bottle is broken.
Trainer	Any alchemist in any town of population >2000
Recipe	Common. Can be bought from trainers and found in possession of spellcasters and alchemists in the wild.
Ingredients	Glass bottle Flammable liquid, preferably oil or similar Soaked jute cork
Tools	Alchemist's Supplies
Cost	Ingredients worth 25gp. If the ingredients above does not cover the total cost, then consumable tools are required in the form of the remaining cost.
Time	10 days
Difficulty	Difficult (DC 20)
Reward	1 Alchemist's Fire
Failure	15-20 nothing happens. Below 15, the alchemist's fire bursts and the alchemist takes 1d4 points of fire damage, losing all ingredients and tools.
Name	Potion of Healing
Profession	Alchemy & Enchanting
Description	You create a magical mixture in a flask that heal wounds when drunk.
Trainer	Specific NPCs in specific towns, mainly enchanters, a few alchemists, and divine spellcasters
Recipe	Common. Can be bought from trainers and found in possession of divine spellcasters in the wild.
Ingredients	Glass bottle Healing herbs Divine magical spells such as cure wounds
Tools	Alchemist's Supplies & Herbalism Kit
Cost	Ingredients worth 25gp. If the ingredients above does not cover the total cost, then consumable tools are required in the form of the remaining cost.
Time	2 days
Difficulty	Hard (DC 15)
Reward	1 Potion of Healing
Failure	See the DMG for more information on failed magical potions.
Name	Delicious Meal
Profession	Cooking
Description	You cook a meal that is so delicious that it put your guests in a better mood.
Trainer	Almost anyone can teach you to cook a meal that you can personally improve to a delicious meal.
Recipe	Common.
Ingredients	Relevant and diverse cooking ingredients for the meal prepared.
Tools	Cook's utensils
Cost	Ingredients as described above.
Time	1 hour
Difficulty	Hard (DC 15)
Reward	1 delicious meal (gives advantage on social skills involving food)
Failure	10-15 normal meal; roll below 10 and the meal is horrible and have the reverse effect of a delicious meal.

D&D 5e professions

I'm currently playing in a D&D 5e game with a DM who is relatively new to D&D. He has started creating his own rules for professions, and when I reviewed them I noticed that they were extremely similar to the actual D&D 5e rules. I therefore rectified his text and sent it back to him. The image here is the first draft, and below is the second draft with my corrections.

 Professions

Learning professions:

You must be proficient with an artisan tools to know the profession. To learn a new profession you must spend 250 gp and 250 days with an appropriate teacher to gain proficiency with the relevant tool. 

Crafting Professions:

The following professions are currently available and require the corresponding artisan tool and proficiency to use the tools.

Jewelcrafting

Alchemy

Smithing

Leatherworking

Tailoring

Calligraphy

Brewing

Carpentry

Cartography

Glassblowing

Masonry

Painting

Pottery

Tinkering

Weaving

Woodcarving

Forgery

Poison making

Utility Professions:

Riding

Lock Picking

Cooking

Gaming

Performing

Navigating

Jewelcrafting:

Jewelcrafting allows a player to craft gems, dia­monds, and magical stones into necks, rings or other kinds of jewelery.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft the magical gemstones.

Materials are found within rocks or bought.

Alchemy:

This profession allows the player to create vials with different natural effects.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft magical potions, oils, and ointments.

Materials are found within herbs, creature parts, environment or bought.

Smithing:

Use this profession if you are constantly losing your gear, want new and better gear, or want prettier gear. Creating armor and weapons require the understanding of different materials.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft magical armor and weapons.

Materials often need to be refined and made.

Materials for this profession might be expensive and very hard to find.

Leatherworking:

Do you like the speed and agility provided by fine leather gear. This profession makes you able to create agile and light armor.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft magical armor and gear.

Materials are found in different animal hides.

 

Enchanting:

Would you like your weapon to have a magical property? Or your boots to give that added speed?

Refer to the enchanting rules below.

Materials are rare and unique to the recipe.

Tailoring:

Do you like fine fabric, silk, string and needles.

With this profession you are able to create wonderful stuff.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft magical armor and gear.

Materials are web, silk, string. Rare componants might be needed for greater creations.

Calligraphy:

Unlike enchanting, this profession allows you to bind spell scrolls directly to items.

The DC to create a specific item reflects the difficulty in creating the item. Combine this profession with enchanting to craft scrolls or imbue items with magical writing or people with magical tattoo.

Materials spell scrolls

Riding:

Mounts? Flying? More speed? Road Travle?

Taking care of animals? More Speeeeed?

Lock Picking:

Chests? Locks? Doors? Solving Puzzles?

Items? Cause, don’t hide stuff from me!

Cooking:

Great feasts? What part of the animal is great? + rep to people and factions

Well fed? Buffs?

Downtime (page 127 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide)
The campaign benefits when characters have time between adventures to engage in other activities. Allowing days, weeks, or months to pass between adventures stretches the campaign over a longer period of time and helps to manage the characters’ level progression, preventing them from gaining too much power too quickly.
Allowing characters to pursue side interests between adventures also encourages players to become more invested in the campaign world. When a character owns a tavern in a village or spends time carousing with the locals, that character’s player is more likely to respond to threats to the village and its inhabitants.
As your campaign progresses, your players’ characters will not only become more powerful but also more influential and invested in the world. They might be inclined to undertake projects that require more time between adventures, such as building and maintaining a stronghold. As the party gains levels, you can add more downtime between adventures to give characters the time they need to pursue such interests. Whereas days or weeks might pass between low-level adventures, the amount of downtime between higher-level adventures might be measured in months or years.

Crafting Magic Items (small excerpt from page 129 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide)

An item has a creation cost specified in the Crafting Magic Item table. A character engaged in the crafting of a magic item makes progress in 25 gp increments, spending that amount for each day of work until the total cost is paid. The character is assumed to work for 8 hours each of those days. Thus, creating an uncommon magic item takes 20 days and 500 gp. You are free to adjust the costs to better suit your campaign…

Crafting (small excerpt from page 187 in the Player’s Handbook)

You can craft nonmagical objects, including adventuring equipment and works of art. You must be proficient with tools related to the object you are trying to create. You might also need access to special materials or locations necessary to create it. For example, someone proficient with smith’s tools needs a forge in order to craft a sword or suit of armor…

Practicing a Profession (small excerpt from page 187 in the Player’s Handbook)

You can work between adventures, allowing you to maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day. This benefit lasts as long you continue to practice your profession…