Boardgames ahoy this weekend with a couple of old buddies. Drinks and morbid smoke abound while we prevented Nyarlathotep from breaking through the gates in Arkham Horror, I got my ass kicked in Blood Bowl Team Manager and total chaos mixed with infighting and betrayal in three different types of Munchkin (original Munchkin with a couple of expansions, Star Munchkin and Munchkin Impossible). Good times.

Last night introduced me to Shadow Throne and Birds of a Feather, two card-based, small-box games by Teale Fristoe.

Shadow Throne sounds like it's going to be a "sniff out the liar," but it isn't. It's a medium-paced card game of opportunism and intrigue. Birds of a Feather is a bird-watcher's multi-player Uno. They were fun, engaging, party-friendly games. It was nice to play two games by the same designer. They were satisfyingly different, but each showed a good understanding of what makes a short game fun. Namely, the experience in the turn wasn't so protracted that you had to wait forever to apply what you'd learned. Each round had a brief lull for scoring afterward that left a moment to reflect as you prepared for the next round. I like games that are able to be learned by the time the first game's over.

Afterwards, my friend said, "I like games that can be played in an airport. Those tend to be my favorite games." Our host said, "Do you know what J made me play in the airport? .. The Others."

I play D&D 5th every Thursday evening. We're currently trawling the Underdark; in our previous campaign we defeated Tiamat. I also enjoy boardgames and wargames, although I prefer the modelmaking and -painting side of the latter. Here in the UK we have a universities' roleplaying etc. championship and I'm the reigning champion in D&D 5th Ed and Large Model Painting. Uni of Nottingham won last year so we are hosting this year.

Neat, how does one become a D&D champion? By what criteria is that judged?

I'm going to be joining a new online 5E campaign. It's a "West Marches" style game, meaning it will have a large and rotating player group and instead of having a over-arching story it's based around a persistent environment, where players can participate in one-off adventures in a shared world without having to set a regular schedule.

It's kind of a cool idea, especially for an online game.

No idea! I wouldn't want to judge it. It's really subjective but you have at least two different GMs over the weekend so they talk to each other. Thing was, the second GM was from my Uni and I've known him for about 6 years (not really well, but well enough!), so I thought I'd be well out of the running. Apparently the first GM was really persuasive (and second GM isn't a pushover either).

Your game idea sounds really interesting: good luck! We ran games like that IRL when we had enough spare GMs to run oneshots every week for a fluctuating group and it worked really well

I actually managed to play an introductory mission in Space Hulk. It's really fun. I played the Genestealers and my host played with a timer. I managed to win. It wasn't exactly a cake walk, but significantly easier for me than for him. Fun game! I'm looking forward to playing on a larger map.

giving this thread a bump so it doesn't become forgotten
playing tomorrow!

Pretty good session! 5 hours long.

Time for an update of my D&D 5e 2nd campaign.

Played my 3rd game (keep in mind I missed one session but I got some XP anyway, good DM) with my Dwarf Paladin (turned level 4 midgame) Solstron tonight (or last night, it's 1 am here!) and it quite fun.

We managed to liberate the villagers from a pack of goblins and ogres who used giant rats as allies. The wizard almost died but outside of this, we destroyed everyone. The druid changing herself into a brown bear is badass. We then explored the caves and found ourselves at the mercy of a Black Pudding which basically destroyed Solstron. The DM gave me 1 inspiration for the way I managed to survive, got knocked down and got back up again. Basically managed to hit it with melee attacks which, well, made this a fun fight...!!!!! It also ruined my chainmail (-2 AC) and I'll have to look for something else or get it fixed on the next session.

This fucking thing: http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=black-pudding

We then went back to the village and decided to explore this old evil house. We found a shrine in honor of Asmodeus (not the mod) and the wizard managed to summon a Bearded Devil (who summoned one of his peer) so we got in a fight in a tight 20 feet by 20 feet room! It was time to unleash the full power of my divine smites (did 1d12 + 4 with my great axe + 2d8 of smite + 1d8 since it was against fiends) and it was pretty damn effective. My great axe (a family heirloom) did full damage against them. The heroes of this fight was probably the bard who decided to cast "Bane" against them and the wizard who used "Hold Person". I did a lot of damage but they gave me great opportunities to do it. We have a great party and I love this game

-Half elf druid
-Half elf ranged fighter 3/rogue 1
-Half elf bard (yes yes half-elves are popular...)
-Me
-Human wizard (illusion school)

Those motherfuckers were SENT BACK TO HELL: http://www.aidedd.org/dnd/monstres.php?vo=bearded-devil

I picked the Heavy Armor Master feat. I was thinking of picking Sentinel but I'll pick this one later on. For now, I need to be the best tank I can be! I did the job tonight.

Next week, it will be my wizard's turn to see some action.

Fuck yes. Way to heirloom smite. That must have been some wrathful cleaving. Are you switching characters each session or what?

No, two different campaigns. I'm a busy man!

And he wants me to run yet another one...

I'm pretty sure anyone who has time to play three concurrent D&D campaigns is about as far from busy as you can get.

I play every Satuday and the campaign alternates (they include 3 of the same people including myself) so 5 hours a week to a hobby you like isn't too much...

HB, pls make this happen!

I'd call that a good kind of busy. Every two weeks is a good schedule, too. That way you can do something else in the off week .. like another campaign. I'd lobby for an HB campaign, too. Fuck homework, I have backstories to write! (Actually, I did this the other day. Totally blew off a work period to read the core rulebook and chip away at my gay barbarian's backstory. Time well spent, I can tell you. I recommend the nerdiest of self-care techniques. They work!)

Tell me more!!!!

My friend's almost done setting up his campaign. I've only been able to play through twice (being DM the second time and learning the hard way that playing while DM'ing is hard as fuck, especially when inebriated), but holy fuck I'm so geared for him to be ready. His character is a Dragonborn rogue who managed to convince all of us that his name is Mark (it isn't), and he's all-in with the roleplaying part of it since he's making himself more of a chickenhawk than a true fighter by starting battles and then hiding behind the stronger characters (his wife's wood elf paladin, my half-orc fighter, and my buddy Mike's human fighter).

Met, I know 5e is considerably more streamlined than prior versions, but how are you enjoying it compared to older editions? It seems everybody I know is starting to pick up D&D with only some using 5e, and I'd like to try to get into other games but don't want to be entirely lost if I were to wander into a 3.5 campaign.

I've only played D&D 4e and there's a lot of discussion about the différences between 5e and 4e in the recent pages of this thread. Pretty much only Zelkiiro prefers 4e! I'd say that the main difference is that 5e is much more about roleplaying instead of telling you everything you need to do in a video game way.

I played some Pathfinder 3.5 with Hellblazer but not enough to compare the two but it seems to be in line with 5e.

Your party seems interesting. The dragonborn rogue seems cool! He should multiclass into a more physical class like fighter due to his high strength!

I really like the Paladin class right now. The lay on hands feature + the divine smites are a good combo. You're both a support and a damage giver character. I can't wait to find some plate mail to boost my AC to like 22.

lmao oglaf is the greatest

What the hell am I looking at? o__o

EFA

Something much better than D&D 4e, my man.

Not that I don't disagree, but that might start another one of those debates we all love to hate. To each their own says I.

True, I don't want to trigger Zelki again!

anyone ever play Mouse Guard? Thinking of picking it up

Hmm, I'd say it is more like 3.5 than 4e, tbh. 3.5-superlite, rather than computer-game-simulation 4e. Fundamentally it's all 'roll some dice, add some numbers' but 3.5 and 5th have a very similar Skills section and none of this Powers nonsense.

I'm officially aboard the Warhammer wagon again, for the first time in maybe 7-8 years. Digging out my old duders from underneath the bed. Painted my first model in ages yesterday while my buddy sat collecting his first army. Awesome. Nurgle Warriors of Chaos baby

Welcome back to a refreshing obsession. I wouldn't mind more (properly sized, and perhaps spoilered) model pictures in this thread.

Yeah, I've already spent an unhealthy amount of brain power on models and conversions and army lists and and and. Not obsessively, but when I'm kinda thinking of nothing in the train or whatever my mind drifts to warhammer again. I have a crappy fucking phone with a crappy fucking camera, but let's see if I can get some shots of the models I'm working on or maybe get my buddy to snap a few.

If I had infinite time and money and didn't suck at painting I would 100% bury myself in Warhammer so fast

Haha yeah if I were an immortal being with infinite wealth I'd definitely play Warhammer too

If I were the God Emperor of Mankind I probably would too.

Game Master tip; if you want to manipulate your players into doing something or going somewhere, just steal shit from them. Seriously, just steal something, anything, no matter how trivial or insignificant. It'll get them charging like dummies into the mouth of an eldritch monster if it means getting their stuff back

As a player I don't think I'd appreciate that.

I have some models from when I last collected, a lot of the core of an army, so I don't need to spend a -ridiculous- amount of money, just a lot of money. AND, very importantly, I'm almost only buying stuff after I paint what I have. That means that I can't spend too much at the same time. Besides, many many players dropped the game these last one or two years because Games Workshop totally and completely reinvented the game, so there are a lot of used models floating around for cheap, especially the older ones. My buddy just bought basically an entire army for 100 bucks, which isn't too bad, since he won't need to buy more stuff until what he have is painted, which will take some time. Spending on average 20-30 bucks a month on a hobby isn't too bad.

But yeah, it can be expensive as shit. We're really gonna be disciplined and not just buy whatever shiny new model comes out. That'll help a lot.

Oi, don't get the wrong idea; it was justified by the plot. I kinda had to make up a "filler episode" of sorts on the spot, and my players had a meeting with a smuggler pending, so after meeting with the dude and his underlings, they were led to a trap, knocked out, and had a treasure they had obtained several sessions ago stolen from their own house It was a lot of fun, but I didn't do it simply to piss them off.

Fair enough! I meant more the idea of having to make the players do something rather than them doing it of their own accord. But I know sometimes you have to prod people in a particular direction, or in your case create some content for the game. As long as everyone had fun it's all good!

In my most recent session I impulsively punched an air elemental prince in the face. For a moment it looked like my impudence might get the entire party killed, but we managed to escape and also plant incriminating evidence on him. FUN!

Also, finally hit level 8 and I could max my strength. Mmmm sweet, sweet +5.

Ha, I was going to post that oglaf strip. Good to see othersppreciate it too.

I'm in remission re Games Workshop. Im going to sell a bunch of my 40k stuff as the rules are justa total mess at the moment. Moved on to historicals which are great but sadly dont have the same player base.