Month: January 2017

D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 50 Recap

We dive further into the Plunging Torrents, battling watery knights, icy mages, blood-thirsty fish, and mysterious tentacles.

Recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

Holy crap, 50 sessions! I knew “Princes of the Apocalypse was going to be a much bigger undertaking than the Starter Kit adventure, “Lost Mine of Phandelver.” This is by far the longest single campaign I’ve ever run, and we’re not done yet!

At this point the party has battled their way through at least half of three of the four final elemental dungeons. But only in the water dungeon, called the Plunging Torrents, do they actively approach the first elemental node of power. The source of all the elemental incursions wrecking the land. The gateway to the elemental planes beyond.

I made that sound exciting but what followed was actually a pretty mundane session as the party battled their way along what I realized was by far the most boring and straight-forward path in the dungeon. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 50 Recap”

The Expanse Is The Best Sci-Fi Show on TV [Polygon]

Read the full article on Polygon

Star Wars is once again the crowning king of box office blockbusters. Star Trek has been rebooted and revitalized for a new generation. In just a few months we will see the highly anticipated next chapter of Mass Effect, arguably gaming’s best sci-fi universe.

But with a solid cast, near-future speculative setting and a fantastic book series, no one comes close to achieving the level of sci-fi greatness on television of Syfy’s The Expanse. Here’s why you need to be watching when season two arrives on Feb. 1.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON POLYGON

D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 49 Recap

We rescue Rhundorth and escape the earth dungeon to rest and level up to 10, then tackle the water domain.

Recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

My players have been in an awkward situation for the last few sessions. They’ve reached enough experience to level up to 10. But one of our house rules states that the PCs can only level up after a Long Rest. Right now they’re knee-deep in the depths of an elemental dungeon, about three dungeons below the surface.

Due to “Princes of the Apocalypse’s” interconnected labyrinthine mega-dungeons, finding a safe place to rest has proven difficult.

In this week’s session, Talus used his Arcane Eye to scout out the rest of the Black Geode  – finding the indentured Rhundorth. The party rescued the dwarf before retreating back up to the Fane of the Eye to find a safe place to rest, level up, and decide where to go next. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 49 Recap”

Image Comics Final Thoughts – The Walking Dead: Compendium Three

With Marvel’s popular and successful foray into films with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve finally decided to get back into comics. I grew up a big fan of X-Men and other superheroes but haven’t really kept up since the 90s. Thus begins my grand catching-up of the last ten years of Marvel comics, events and stories.

Of course, occasionally I may even explore comics outside of Marvel if they come highly recommended or simply peak my interest. Like my gaming Final Thoughts, this will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned!

the walking deadWriter: Robert Kirkman

Artist: Charlie Adlard

Issues: The Walking Dead #97-144

 

I did it. I finally caught up to The Walking Dead show. And quite a bit beyond with this third massive compendium of comics.

The Walking Dead: Compendium Three covers a major transition in the style and story-telling of the comic. The war with Negan is the culmination of several volumes worth of stories, providing a very satisfying conclusion.

But the series doesn’t end there. Instead we get a big two-year time jump for society to rebuild and deal with the more mundane problems that entails. Near the end of the compendium an exciting new threat emerges that threatens everything they’ve built. Overall it feels like a much different comic than the previous 96 issues. Continue reading “Image Comics Final Thoughts – The Walking Dead: Compendium Three”

30 Games to Get Excited About in 2017 [Pixelkin]

Read the full list on Pixelkin

Every year is seemingly the best game ever for gaming. But 2017 will give us a new Mass Effect, new Zelda, and new Nintendo console with the Nintendo Switch. That’s an incredible lineup, and there’s even more to come, like Super Mario Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Indie titles continue to generate huge buzz as well, with games like Yooka-Laylee, Tacoma, and Night in the Woods coming this year.

Read on for our 30 most anticipated games of 2017.

READ THE FULL LIST ON PIXELKIN

Why Should You Get a Switch if You Own a Wii U? [Pixelkin]

Read the full op-ed at Pixelkin

The dust has begun to settle from the big Nintendo Switch Presentation. We now know the big main talking points. The price ($299), the date (March 3), and the launch titles (not much). There wasn’t anything very shocking, and the conference did a good job focusing on new games. But right now I’m not seeing a very good incentive to purchase a Nintendo Switch at launch, especially if you already own a Wii U.

At launch the Nintendo Switch will have five titles: 1-2 Switch, Skylanders, Just Dance, Zelda, and Bomberman. Skylanders released last year. 1-2 Switch and Just Dance are motion-control mini-games. Bomberman is a top-down party game. Only Zelda represents what we would call a core game – a true system seller.

READ THE FULL OP-ED AT PIXELKIN

D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 48 Recap

We delve further into the monstrous depths of the deepest caverns of Elemental Earth – the Black Geode.

Recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

My players often use standard shock ‘n awe, charge in the front door tactics. Many times when confronted with foes that are not immediately hostile, a fight ends up breaking out anyway.

I’ve been trying to steer away from this on my part, offering the PCs other ways and opportunities rather than just straight combat. My favorite RPGs, like the older isometric Fallout titles, offered multiple ways to get past enemies or tackle a challenge, with “kill ’em all” as only one possible solution.

This week the party manages to overcome two separate encounters without fighting. Well technically one fight did break out, but the party opted to end it fairly peacefully and escape.

The Black Geode is crawling with elemental evil, and the party pushes their limited resources to the limits as they make their way deeper into the crystal caverns. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 48 Recap”

D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 47 Recap

We journey deeper into the elemental earth dungeons, beyond a pair of tic-tac-toe playing giants.

Recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

Our heroes find themselves in the middle of a dungeon crawl of elemental evil. Due to the nature of “Princes of the Apocalypse,” they’re exploring a dungeon I don’t necessarily need or want them in, however. The solution? Give them a map with fairly obvious neon blinking arrows.

I’ve been known to pull out some DM cheats to get the players to go where I want. Directly railroading your players usually isn’t fun, but if your players are more frustrated than fascinated by directionless exploration (as mine are), it can be a useful tool to pull out a magically locked gate, or an incredibly useful map.

I had them find maps of both the current dungeon and the next one, the Fane of the Eye. They’d explored quite a bit of the Fane already, but hadn’t approached from the Earth side yet.

Meanwhile they were cutting a haphazard path through the Earth Temple. It was fun enough but with the prophet gone their main goal was simply getting down to the Fane, and from there start exploring the deeper Elemental Node dungeons. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 47 Recap”

My Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2017

We’ve survived the hellscape of 2016. But we also played a ton of really great games. Meanwhile 2017 will give us a new Nintendo console, new Zelda, new Mass Effect, and a ton of big Kickstarter indie games I’ve been looking forward to for years.

This is my annual Top Ten Most Anticipated Games List. If you’ve been reading my Top Ten Game of the Year lists you know how fun it is to compare these predictions at the end of the year. I predict that I’ll be much more accurate this year – since literally half the games on this list carried over from last year’s Most Anticipated list!

Continue reading “My Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of 2017”

D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 46 Recap

We fight our way through the monstrous denizens of the Temple of the Black Earth.

Recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

This week we continue cutting an effective swath through the Temple of the Black Earth. Dungeon crawling is what “Princes of the Apocalypse” does best, and I love when we get a chance to battle an encounter in a dangerous situation. This week: several bulettes in the middle of a giant chasm.

Whether the party decided to go North or South from their current position after the mud sorcerer in B8 would have greatly altered what would have happened this session. Since Kethra knew what was to the South – a chained up bulette, they decided to sneak their way down there. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Princes of the Apocalypse” Session 46 Recap”