Category: Tabletop

1,000 YouTube Subscribers!

A thank you to fans.

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I’m proud to announce that I have hit quadruple digits on my YouTube channel this month!

I’m incredibly thankful and humbled by all the fans. YouTube has a dubious reputation when it comes to community but for the most part the comments and live stream chats have been nothing but positive and fun.

I’ve been uploading videos to YouTube for years, beginning with poorly streamed Let’s Plays of video games with cheap mics, bad audio, and choppy video quality. It wasn’t until 2015 when I began recording and streaming our Roll20 RPG sessions that we really began to find an audience.

Some of you have been with us since Storm King’s Thunder began, others with Lost Mine of Phandelver and even a few of you still make reference to our Shadowrun campaign. The in-universe jokes, from the Graham Cracker Crew to zombie Tims to Jake from State Farm always put a smile on my face.

A few of you have been asking how you can support the channel and my work. I’ve been looking into some options and researching what methods work best, whether its Amazon affiliate links, Patreon, Ko-fi, or a YouTube partnership.

Rest assured that I will never gate our primary RPG streams behind any kind of paywall. Any monetary support would be purely optional, and help me produce more higher quality videos at a steady pace, particularly extra content like my DMs Guild Reviews, Roll20 Reviews, and board game reviews.

This whole venture began as a labor of love and an effective creative outlet. It warms my heart to see so many of you enjoying it along with us. We have more exciting things planned for the future, including our next D&D campaign where I return to the DM’s chair.

Thank you so much for subscribing to my humble channel, for leaving positive (or constructive!) comments, and for chatting during our weekly live streams. Here’s to the next 1,000 fans!

D&D 5E “Storm King’s Thunder” Session 54 Recap

We meet Countess Sansuri of the Cloud Giants and attempt to bargain for the magical shell.

Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!

Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

The 30-ft tall queen of the cloud giants strode into the room, carrying all the haughty annoyance that I had expected. She stopped, her mouth practically hanging open as she surveyed us standing there, our hippogriffs nervously pawing at the ground behind us. 

I took a deep breath and bowed deeply with all the respectful flourish I could muster.

“Your majesty,” I began. My mind was spinning. We were conch inspectors – no – we were hunting that foul group who just made off with her dragon. And stole all the treasure from her study! Those rascals. We’d catch them for sure. 

But we still needed that shell, and only she could summon it. Behind us Cressaro spoke up in a monotone that made me smile: “It is of the utmost importance that we retrieve the shell.” He was still under my influence.

I then offered to give her what she wanted – the location of some ancient dragon magic. The Countess began to slowly lower her guard. 

I was on a roll as she retrieved the magical chest, spoke the words, and brought forth the shell. “Tell it to me now,” she demanded, while holding the shell.

Before I could speak I felt my spell dissipate from Cressaro, its command full-filled. I instantly reached out with my mind to warn the others around me, starting with nearby T.I.M. <GRAB THE SHELL> I screamed into his mind.

Somehow the enlarged construct gracefully leapt forward and gingerly snatched the shell from her hand. Then the room exploded.

Storm King’s Thunder has been mostly bereft of large-scale dungeons, making it almost the complete opposite of our previous campaign. It’s ironic that when we finally reach a big dungeon, we skip almost all of the content.

Yet Lyn Armaal still took us a solid four sessions to get through, thanks to complex planning and strategy. We turned it into a heist mission, a rescue mission, and finally some hilarious diplomacy as we meet with Countess Sansuri, acquire the magical conch shell of teleportation, and get the hell out of dodge. Continue reading “D&D 5E “Storm King’s Thunder” Session 54 Recap”

DMs Guild Review: The Theocracy

Infiltrate a militant temple of Tyr to recover a magical artifact in this heist adventure for 11-16th level.

A review copy of The Theocracy was provided for the purposes of this review.

Designed by: JVC Parry

dms guild reviewJVC Parry is one of my favorite creators on the DMs Guild. He’s produced many quality one-shot adventures with neat ideas and well-designed miniature dungeon crawls.

“The Theocracy” is Parry’s latest adventure, and while the actual title is hopelessly generic, it offers a substantially deeper, higher level dungeon crawl with a unique, richly detailed theme.

The twist is that the “dungeon” is actually a Temple of Tyr (the Forgotten Realms’ militant God of Justice), and the PCs are tasked with retrieving an important magical item – hopefully without declaring war on a bunch of paladins, priests, and a gods damn angel. Continue reading “DMs Guild Review: The Theocracy”

Roll20 Review: The Twilight Child (War for the Crown 3)

Confront nightmare demons, traitorous guards, and a sinister cult in the city of Yanmass in the third adventure for the War for the Crown.

A press review copy of the module was provided. Find more Roll20 Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

The War for the Crown returns to an urban setting in the third Pathfinder Adventure Path module, The Twilight Child. It’s designed for a party of 7th level heroes who have completed the previous two modules, and they should reach 10th level by the end, making it a solid Tier 2 adventure.

The Twilight Child provides a bounty of interesting side quests within the mercantile city of Yanmass, and more importantly for a Roll20 module, plenty of quality maps to support them.

Continue reading “Roll20 Review: The Twilight Child (War for the Crown 3)”

D&D 5E “Storm King’s Thunder” Session 53 Recap

With the help of some stealthy subterfuge and a little well-applied drug use we rescue Felgolos the bronze dragon from the Cloud Giants.

Streamed, recorded and uploaded every week. Subscribe for our weekly adventures. Join us live on Fridays at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern!

Previously on “Storm King’s Thunder”

We heard the giantess’ voice ring out from somewhere beneath us. It was clearly magical, drawing every damn guard from the castle to her location. It meant our friends were in trouble.

We raced upstairs and hopped onto our hippogriffs. Korinn and I flew through the open hatch in the ceiling as I looked at back at T.I.M., whose magically enlarged body was attempting to grab onto a pair of unhappy hippogriffs at the same time.

We flew down to the lower courtyard of the cloud giant castle, which held a greenhouse and an elaborate, giant-size checkerboard with armored pieces. The giant in the garden was racing back inside the castle to heed the summons. 

Moments later we saw Halfred and Bryseis, riding a top a shrunken Felgolos, speeding through the air toward us. Behind them a horde of griffins raced after them. 

I predicted last session that this week’s castle exploration shenanigans would be fun and I’ll be damned if this wasn’t one of our craziest sessions ever!

Stealthily getting high with a manacled dragon, escaping the clutches of a giant queen, dominating the mind of another giant, and an aerial spell-slinging dogfight with a pack of griffins. It was so much fun that when our DM called break time, we had to inform him that no, it was in fact time for our session to end! Continue reading “D&D 5E “Storm King’s Thunder” Session 53 Recap”

DMs Guild Platinum Flash Sale this Weekend

The DMs Guild is featuring one of the best sales I’ve seen over the next four days. We already have the May D&D Sale this month, and spinning out of that is the Platinum Flash Sale. The Sale ends on Monday, May 14.

Platinum Bestsellers represent the top 1% best-selling titles on the DMs Guild. That doesn’t automatically make them best, but it is a pretty good barometer of quality.

All Platinum level titles are 33% off. Highlights include:

Other good deals include several notable Tomb of Annihilation supplements, such as Cellar of Death, Ruins of Mezro, and Encounters in the Jungles of Chult.

The Platinum Bestsellers Sale ends May 14.

DMs Guild Review: Monstrous Uprising

A review copy of Monstrous Uprising was provided for the purposes of this review.

Designed by: Alex Billiedeaux

dms guildThe Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition campaign The Rise of Tiamat briefly mentions several adventure hooks that DMs can employ that showcase the chaos and unrest from the machinations of the Cult of the Dragon. One of these hooks is a half-red dragon and his band of kobolds and lizardfolk, which the DMs Guild adventure “Monstrous Uprising” expands into a 10-page mini adventure.

“Monstrous Uprising: A Sidequest” is a designed as a 4-6 hour adventure for 7th-8th level heroes. It’s stated as a single-session adventure, but my own sessions rarely go over three hours, and there are multiple battles to be found here, including a mini-dungeon crawl.

While it’s designed to slot into The Rise of Tiamat, DMs could easily employ these villains in any adventure. Given that the Tyranny of Dragons campaign is nearly four years old, I suspect that will most likely be the case. Unfortunately there are several major issues that hold it back. Continue reading “DMs Guild Review: Monstrous Uprising”