(Part 2) Best products from r/mattcolville

Fuurin Kazan, its a samurai period drama that is about all of this and is super good. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0978029/ Its based on a book of the same name https://www.amazon.com/Samurai-Banner-Furin-Tuttle-Classics-ebook/dp/B007ECJEH2/ref=nodl_

Watching the drama is much better than the read but the main character Yamamoto Kansuke is a self-made siege/military expert and the setting is on a triangular power dynamic that’s perfect for political stuff. In a similar vein, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is also an excellent read.

I would probabbly change the game mechanics for this and use cards instead.

Cards and their corresponding actions:

|Card Value|Action|Beats|
|:-|:-|:-|
|2|Fast Attack|3 & 5|
|3|Strong Attack|4 & 6|
|4|Parry/Defense|2 & 6 |
|5|Dodge|3|
|6|Counter|2 & 4|

What you want to do is that you and your player both place your cards on the table with the backs up. Once both of you have decided, you turn your cards up and show your decision, then resolve according to the table.
The one who first wins 3 "rounds" wins the duel. (alternatively: the one who first reaches 3 wins in a row wins the duel)

This is a bit wonky but will probabbly give you a better result than a simple "I attack, you attack" pattern.

I got this idea from a card game called "Yomi" which is basically a beat'em up in card format. A living card game where each deck is one character, but you can use the decks as a regular card game as well. The game is much more sophisticated than what I wrote here of course, and if you want to have more options and different strategies, than I would suggest picking it up. It's really fun.
As a simple way to make duels more interesting in D&D though I think this table will serve you well enough.

> Should I let them build there own characters, or should I bring pregens?

This is up to you and your players. I’d ask each of them what they’d prefer. Personally, I would have pregens (or ones you’ve made) available as backups.

> As wargamers, we have TONS of minis, but no battlemat. Is there a cheap alternative? Do I really need one? I could pick one up at my LGS, but it'd be a bit more than I'd like to pay atm.

It’s not required. I know plenty of DMs who don’t use a battlemat.

I paid $35 for my mega mat so it depends on your budget. You can get a smaller one for $23.

Standard battle/megamats have 1 in. squares. You can find graph paper with that size squares at hobby lobby type stores or office supplies stores. You can get 8 ½ x 11 on up.

> I don't really want to purchase an adventure, but homebrewing the first game is kind of daunting. I mean, I know these guys would be perfectly happy being dropped in a dungeon and killing every last monster in the place without any kind of motivation whatsoever, but I really want at least some roleplay, if only to see how they react. I'd be grateful for any advice in this regard.

Dm guild is a very good resource for free campaigns or modules.

The state of Conan ebooks is REALLY iffy. Anyone can rip the text from Project Gutenberg, run it through Calibri and add it to Amazon. (Well, not exactly--but you get the idea.)

Compounding the problem is that these things get pulled all the time, usually for formatting issues. I have two different versions of the same Conan collection in my Kindle library, neither of which is for sale anymore.

My advice is: Either stick with free resources like Project Gutenberg, or shell out for the superb three-volume Del Rey Conan collection. These are the primo, A#1, fully guaranteed versions. The price is steep, but it brings a certain peace of mind that you're getting the real thing edited by actual humans, and not some machine generated nightmare riddled with mistakes. If you like turning pages, used physical copies are considerably less.

They also come packed with cool artwork.

But yeah, either go big, or go free (so you have nothing to lose). Anything in between is probably a cash grab.

In the US wrapping paper often has a 1" grid on the back side of it. It is basically the same thing as the gaming paper, but it may be a little harder to write on.

Alternatively, one great option that he didn't mention is a Gridded Easel Pad. They come in huge sheets that you can easily tear off. Not as cheap, but I am pretty sure you get much more paper with one of these than you do on a roll of gaming paper.

I've had a lot of fun with Diplomacy, though it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

If you're interesting in more realpolitik, CGP Grey's video "Rules for Rulers" (which you may well have already seen) and the book that inspired it, The Dictator's Handbook both view politics from the perspective of power. They're very useful for both understanding real world power politics and developing a setting driven by poewr politics.

I was going to suggest a triangular bracket too, but your idea to use a half-junction to make it removable is extra clever. You could actually do it again: split the lower section since you're already planning on bolting it in place. That would mean that removal doesn't require sliding it off the bottom, just removing bolts.

I think a triangular bracket like this is the best you can do without adding extra supports^() or stronger materials. It'll reduce the stress on the top horizontal pipe as much as moving the posts inwards by that much. It'll also remove some stress from the top corner connector.

You could also accomplish the same thing with an angle bracket, like used for shelving (example). Being metal doesn't really help any but it'd be hard to find one that reaches as far as you could get with PVC.

---

^() I assume an extra strut in the middle would be super awkward. You could also tie it to the ceiling with string. That's very simple but whoever owns the ceiling might not appreciate it.

It's not a D&D adventure, but an adventure for The 13th Age. It could be ported to D&D with a fairly small amount of work.

Look into Eyes of the Stone Thief (PDF). It's arguably the best written and designed mega dungeon ever written. It will change the way you think about designing dungeons. One thing to note, while it is a mega dungeon, the dungeon itself is not designed for you to go through it all in one go. You'll be coming and going a lot. This is a full on campaign and it's brilliant.

A note on price: It is expensive compared to a lot of adventures. Just keep in mind this is as long as any of the Pathfinder Adventure Paths. It's a 360 page campaign, not a 30-60 page adventure.

If you can find and are willing to convert it, Of Sound Mind is one of the best low-level adventures I've ever run. It has an amazing climax. I think it's worth the effort to track down and run.

OSM was a third party product in the 3e era; it's by Kevin Kulp (Piratecat) and Bruce Cordell. Here's the Amazon listing for it: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Mind-d20-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/1588461920

Yeah. I have the Rage of Demons screen for OotA. Has a nice map of the Underdark and some tables specifically from and for the adventure. And generally applicable to the Underdark.

Good investment? Depends. I love the art so ya also a bit of a collectors item. But you could just prep those tables into a Word document and have on a phone, tablet or printout and use with the standard screen.

I also have the Murder in Baldur’s Gate screen and I love it. Has some really good tables for running a large city. I hope they do the same for Dragon Heist.

I wouldn’t pay full price for the niche adventure screens but if you can find them on amazon for like 40% off or something, I think they are worth it.

My only major critique is the same as the standard screen: too much art and wasted space on the DM side. Especially for the adventure specific screen. There are 3-4 tables worth of wasted space that could have included other bits from the adventure.

Amazon has it for 12.50. Which is about what I paid for it last year. https://www.amazon.com/Gale-Force-Demons-Screen-Board/dp/B0195NPHPK

Hijacking your comment to post that [children's wet erase markers] (https://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Broad-Point-Washable-Markers/dp/B00NJGAJNU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1519783229&sr=8-5&keywords=crayola+markers&dpID=61FNeKhOE6L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch) are super cheap and work like a charm. Bunch of colors and they clean up easy.

What about adding frosted Christmas lights or LED strips to the legs of the rig for lighting? or Strengthen the rig by inserting some metal Shower curtain tension bars into the top long portions of the rig to provide additional strength? I'm just spit-balling some ideas. You could also improve stability by adding closet braces like this to the corners with some screws.

cool rig though. Looks like it gives you some great shots.

Matt has an obsidianportal wiki with some of the information on his world -

http://the-age-of-conquest.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page

It's not really a campaign so much as a world Matt has built up over the time he has been running the game - it doesn't really have a "plotline" to it and he makes up stories as he goes based on how he believes the world will react to the players and drops in modified versions of old modules he likes running.

He also has been writing a book series set in his D&D world in a different time period that are really good and can be great for inspiration.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OIBG44/ref=series_rw_dp_sw
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JQ20KOE/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

Yes, all of the above. I use varied random encounter strategies so that there's all sorts of things - combat encounters, non-combat encounters, interesting sites and natural features. Sometimes these build a narrative over time. Sometimes they're one-off.

I also seed the world with published adventures, and toss out those hooks as "rumors" the characters have heard about.

This is the most valuable resource I have for generating random non-combat encounters

http://www.ragingswan.com/gm-essentials/gms-miscellany-wilderness-dressing/

For more involved encounters, I use this:

http://www.ragingswan.com/gm-essentials/gms-miscellany-random-wilderness-dressing/

And for combat/monster encounters, I use Story Cubes to help spur my imagination.

https://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-318-Rorys-Story-Cubes/dp/B003EIK136

https://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-320-Rorys-Story-Cubes/dp/B009ZNJZV8/ref=pd_bxgy_21_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B009ZNJZV8&pd_rd_r=15M0S9ZSMMXFDKMMMH5W&pd_rd_w=WI7G0&pd_rd_wg=OA9tr&psc=1&refRID=15M0S9ZSMMXFDKMMMH5W

https://www.amazon.com/Rorys-Story-Expansion-Enchanted-Action/dp/B00S5BQLXQ/ref=pd_sbs_21_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00S5BQLXQ&pd_rd_r=476ZJY871JV7ZD9XQK4E&pd_rd_w=Uym2B&pd_rd_wg=rbe7v&psc=1&refRID=476ZJY871JV7ZD9XQK4E

You only really need one PHB. Normally my first sessions start with character building. Just pass the PHB around. The people who aren't making their characters should be thinking about what they want to play. Bring notecards so players can write down their more complicated abilities and spells. The only awkwardness will happen if multiple people need to look up spells or abilities. Alternatively, if your players are willing to spend a little money (maybe $10-$15) they can buy the class options they want piecemeal from D&D beyond. Even if you just use the free basic rules, they can still use the character builder.

Sharing dice will probably slow down the game more than sharing books. If you've got 20 bucks to spare, you should check out this dice bundle from Wiz Dice. When I got mine I got around 16 full matching sets.

Besides that, the rules for what a player can do an their turn in combat are worth printing.

A book I can't recommend enough if you're interested in building a familiarity with Indian/Chinese/Japanese type gaming is Oriental Adventures from 3rd edition era Dungeons & Dragons.

https://www.amazon.com/Oriental-Adventures-Dungeons-Dragons-Supplement/dp/0786920157

or the PDF version--

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/23426/Oriental-Adventures-3e?term=Oriental&test_epoch=0&it=1

They made a free setting called Mahasarpa as an Indian, Southeast Asian flavored realm, as well as Rokugan (in the book) the d20 version of the Alderac game setting is a great samurai era Sengoku Jidai-ish Japanese setting, if you're looking for models.

Sounds like a good idea, like everyone has said already.

If you can, get yourself a copy of the Draconomicon for getting more details on how the dragons are and live and what not, I can't vouch for other versions, but the 3.5 Draconomicon is written in a very neat way like an explorer/naturalist writing their observations in a journal.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Priest-Ratcatchers-Book-Matthew-Colville-ebook/dp/B003OIBG44

$13.42 seems more reasonable, though.