Just Me Being Racist…. Halflings!

I say to you my patrons.. I cannot stand these people. They come into my tavern, deceiving my patrons, intimidating other small folk, trying to underpay for meals, and for some reason, think they are all the best thieves ever… yes my friends.. I am speaking of Halflings.

Halflings

This week we are going to look at another one of the familiar races in fantasy games. Halflings are the little folk of the world. They are called halflings in our world, but in others you may hear the term hobbits as well.

In Dungeons and Dragons Halflings are cheerful folk. They enjoy the protection of their homes and the comforts it provides them. They have hearts bigger than their little bodies let on, because they cannot stand to see any living thing suffer and they are also very generous to others. Their race is truly a good one.

They are a small race, usually standing about 3 feet tall, and a little thick around the middle weighing around 40 pounds. Because of their small stature, they have a knack for blending into crowds. They have spend their lives beings half the size of the creatures around them, and use it to their advantage to make themselves hard to find in crowds of people.

Sub Races

Halflings are split into 2 sub races. The first of which is the Lightfoot. These halflings are even better at hiding away from others. They are the most common of halflings and are prone to wanderlust, exploring caves, getting treasure, seeking fame and fortune.

Lightfoot have a special feature called Naturally Stealthy. This allows our creative halflings, to hide behind a creature that is at least one size bigger than them. This basically means they can run behind a human ally and attempt to hide once there. This allows them to be even more sneaky.

The other sub race is the Stout. These halflings are hardier and thicker than your normal halfling. They have resistance to poisons because of their hardiness. The Stout halflings have a special feature as well, called Stout Resistance. As mentioned above the Stout halflings have a resistance to poison. This ability allows them to have advantage on saving throws against poison and have resistance against poison damage.

Traits and Bonuses

All halflings get a +2 to Dexterity. Lightfoot will get +1 to Charisma while Stout will get +1 to Constitution. Because of their small size their land speed is slower than that of their bigger neighbors, coming in at 25 feet.

Lucky

Their first trait is Lucky. When halflings roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, they get to re-roll their die and use the new roll. This allows them to turn a stoke of bad luck possibly into a good thing.

Brave

They have advantage on saving throws about being frightened. Because of their laid back lifestyles they have, they tend to lead towards the calmer side.

Halfilng Nimbleness

Using their small size to their advantage, they are able to move through the space of creatures that are larger than them. This would basically be them running between a giants legs, or crawling between a humans legs while in super sneak mode.

Good Race/Class Combinations

Halflings make great Rogues. They already are great at sneaking, they get a bonus to Dexterity, this sets them up for being a great Rogue. They can also be great Rangers, Monks (yea, I said monks, think head butt to your junk), and I would even say Druid as well. I say Druid, because, a halfling riding into combat on your animal companion Mastiff, makes for a great fight scene!

My Opinion

The halflings in Dungeons and Dragons is just as awesome as they are in the Lord of the Rings series. Their small stature makes people underestimate them, and that is where they mess up. Next thing you know, bam, you are on the ground with a knife in you intestines. Oh, and I forgot, the most important thing about halflings. If you have someone strong in your group… that fighter just gained one heck of a ranged attack. This make the halfling in your group even more useful. Whats that? Cannot reach something outside of jump range? Throw the halfling. Whats that? No grappling hook for that rope? Give the halfling the rope and throw them up! With that said, I love halflings. I would put a lot of blame on the Lord of the Rings series for the original love for them, but after playing Dungeons and Dragons, sometimes you need to make a Barbarian Halfling just so you can be thrown on your foes.

Review: Sellswords

This week we are going to look at a game I picked up around the same time as Age of War and have not had enough chances to play it to give a good opinion of it. For those who missed the Age of War review see it here.

Sellswords, is a short card drafting game for two players that takes about 15-20 minutes to play. The players play with tile cards and build a 5×5 board by playing a tile each turn.

The Goal of the Game

Each player is going to play tiles on the field. At the end of the round the players will add their points up. They will then do round 2 and will add those points to the first rounds points. The person with the highest points wins.

How It Is Played

You will sit down and take the standard terrain tile, Asgard, and place it on the table. You can then take the other 3 terrain tiles and lay them off to the side. The remained card tiles, called heroes, will be shuffled together. Then 12 cards will be dealt from the hero pile. The first player gets to pick the first card, then will pass it to the other player who will pick a card and pass the pile back. This will happen until each player has 6 cards in their hands. Each player will pick a different color, blue or red, and will flip their respective hands to the correct color.

On your turn you will play a tile adjacent to another tile on the board. For the first turn, it will be Asgard. Each tile will have a number on each edge of the card and a name and ability towards the middle. You will compare numbers with all the cards that are adjacent to the card you place. If any of your numbers are higher than the enemy card they are placed next to, you will flip the card over so it has your army color. When you flip the card, it must stay in the same position it was in, just flipped on the different color side.

When you both have played your first hands you will then add up the tiles for the score, first by row, then by column. You will use the table below to score each row and column by.

Tile	Points
0	0
1	0
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	7

After you have added up your score you will write that down, then deal out the next 12 cards and follow this process again. You will score the cards for the second round then add that to your first score. The person with the highest score wins.

Abilities

To make this game a little more than a number crunching game, each card has its own unique ability that will allow it do something special. Some will add to their own attack score, or decrease the attacks of the adjacent enemies. Some have abilities that add to your score at the end of the round.

My Opinion

3.5 = Almost Captivating

The first time I played this game, it was late at night, and I had a long day and by the time I was done playing this game I was ready to throw my first score of 2 at it. Instead, I played it a few more times and ended up giving it my first decimal point.

After playing it a few more times, I actually do like it. The game is very simple. Lay down a tile so you beat the tile next to it. Okay, cool. This makes it easy enough for our light game enthusiasts. Then, for heavy gamers, they have the abilities on the cards. These abilities are gonna add to the strategy of the game because you will be thinking, okay I want this card to be under my control at the end of the round, so you will sit there and analyze for the best spot to put the tile.

There are also 3 extra terrain tiles to start with on your board. This in addition to the fact that you are only using 24 out of 50 hero cards, means this game will be different every time you play it.

Sellswords is a nice cheap quick game to pick up for two people who enjoy light strategy games. You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com.

Also

These tiles are much bigger than regular playing cards. Because of this, these cards would be able to fit all of the braille required to make the cards adaptable for blind players.

We Are Under An Onslaught From The Forces of Darkness

There is a great evil plaguing our little community in the Dungeons and Dragons world. We have players and DMs alike who anti new people! These D&D-ers have been seen bashing on new people in their groups saying that “new people slow the group down too much.” Some even to the point of saying that they do not want new people in this group. This is utter rubbish. These D&D-ers need to be taken back to their first game, that game where you were afraid to do anything not in the rules, where you took forever to come up with ideas to do.

Before I bash these people we need to look at D&D-ers. Most of us are nerds. Not the nerds of today who are actually “in” but old school nerds. Social misfits with high intelligence. Maybe you have social anxiety and it makes you a nervous wreck to be around people. Maybe it is more along the lines of you were not allowed into groups because you were so different. Maybe you just do not like people in general, not in a hateful way, you are just anti-social.

No matter the reason for your nerdiness, there was some point where we all heard of Dungeons and Dragons. Whether that was from friends, TV, whatever, we heard about it, then went out of our way to figure out how to learn it. Back then there was no Youtube to search these kind of things on (and keep in mind I am still under 30 years old). We had to find others to teach us. This means that yea, we were slow. All of us were slow at playing the game when we started off. This is not like playing war with a deck of playing cards. This game can be a bit tough for some people to grasp. I bet some of us “veteran” players still have our slow days when we have some massive brain farts (or possibly too much alcohol).

Now.. down to business…

Players

Hey! All players out there! It is your job to help new players learn how to play just as much as it is the DM’s job. In fact, depending on the size of the group, it will be you job even more so. Remember those first few games where you knew absolutely nothing about the game and someone had to teach you how to play? Extend that courtesy to the new players, just like someone did for you when you started. It is utter rubbish that you are so wrapped up in your selfish world that you cannot sacrifice a few game sessions to help out someone who could potentially be a new permanent part of the party.

Dungeon Masters

… and DM’s… I was very surprised when I saw DMs not wanting to have new players in the group. Without players.. well we DMs will not have a dungeon to master, so to say. DMs are guides to the players, no matter of experience levels. DMs are going to be the ones that the players are going to look to for advice on how to do things and the rules on how to do things. As a DM, if you know you will have a new player in the game ahead of time, set up a time to sit down with them together one-on-one and teach them. Show them how to make characters, give them a short tutorial campaign. You do not even have to plan something like that out ahead of time. Throw them in a fight to show them the ropes. Give them some skill checks, some perception, maybe picking some locks, smash in a door, just some basics.

We D&D-ers are a group. Together we work to pass the knowledge we have down to those of us who are new to the game. Without new players, our group could grow stale, and will eventually die off. There are parents out there teaching children how to play D&D right now, surely you can teach someone your own age how to play. Come on guys, we are better than this.

The Tavern Post 8/11/15

Hello patrons! This week will be heavy with Dungeons and Dragons! We will have at least three posts coming up this week that will be just about our favorite table top rpg. We will also have a review of a game coming up soon as well.

Just Me Being Racist..

This week for just me being racist, we are going to take an in-depth look at halflings. We will discuss the proud little folk who are often looked down upon in other lore, but from what we know of halflings, or hobbits, such as Bilbo and Frodo, they are not to be underestimated. They can sneak up on you before you even notice they are there.

Play-Through Party

This week will be our first Dungeons and Dragons Play Through Party. This week we will be featuring the Bard. We will take a bard character and run them through a few different scenarios to show how they work.

Making our Bard

Prior to that we will go through the process of making our Bard. This is the post that will go in-depth about the class itself, explaining their spells, class features, etc.

Keep an eye out on the board for news as we roll things out this week!

As you were good folk, back to your drinks!

Review: Dungeons and Dragons 5e Player Handbook

After looking over the Player Handbook the past few weeks I have finally come to a conclusion on a more education decision on it. Instead of telling you at the end like most of my other reviews I do here at the Tavern, I will tell you upfront, I love Dungeons and Dragons 5e Player Handbook. I will tell you why below. However, this review is not a review of the quality of the physical book itself. There are some people out there that have issues with their books falling apart from the binding in a few months. If you want reviews of that go to Amazon.com. This review is of the content of the book, i.e. the actual game itself.

Wizards of the Coast went out of their way with 5e to make it great. When they released 4e it was not released with love. I liked 4e. It had plenty of things wrong with it, but it was good. It was great at teaching new players, because it was much simpler than 3.5. However, if lacked content that was present in 3.5, such as spells, and real multi-classing.

In 5e Wizards, it would seem, tried to distance themselves from the shortcoming that was 4e. What they came up with was a combination of the good things from 4e and the amazing things from 3.5 and crammed it all together into one game. The brought back spells, multi-classing, the 1st handbook has all of the cool classes, like 3.5 did, instead of splitting them in between 2 books (4e). They brought back crafting. They brought back a certain level of creativity that 4e had left out.

Spells

The number one thing that I could not stand about 4e was the spell system. The spell system was broken, there were 3 cantrips that were usable outside of battle. The way that everyone had powers, it basically gave everyone “spells” the took away the awesome useful spells back in 3.5. In this handbook they brought back a modified version of the spell system that was present in 3.5. And when I say modified, I mean they actually made it better. Instead of multiple cure wounds spells, there is just one cure wounds that can be used as a higher level spell. On top of that, they got rid of spells per day. Which means that your spell casters are more useful.

Crafting

What’s that? A fantasy game, that involves wearing armor and swinging swords? Oh, you can’t make your own armor or swords? Well that is stupid. Well, in the Dark Ages of 4e, this is what we had to deal with. A less creative version of our favorite tabletop rpg. Now, crafting is back in full force. Even so, that certain classes and backgrounds get proficiency with certain artisan kits.

Animal Companions

Oh, I almost forgot animal companions. In 4e there were no animal companions, unless your DM loved you and wanted your lonely druid to have one. Now.. this problem was only half fixed in 5e. The ranger still can get an animal companion. However, the druid, is yet again, left alone and afraid in the cold-hearted world of the heathen nature haters. They do have a spell you can start off with that will let you tame an animal for 24 hrs and one that will let you add said animal to your team for 30 days unless you are harmful towards said animal. Basically, if your DM loves your Druid enough to make sure you are not cold alone in the harsh world you can have one.

With all of that said, I love 5e in general. The rules bring back a lot of the imagination that was kind of blocked in 4e.

And for that it gets…

5/5 = Wonderful

Wizards did right with 5e. That may very well be because they play-tested the crap out of it, then let us all play test the crap out of it some more. Whether that is why or not, it really is great. Anyone who was ran off by 4e, should give 5e a try. I guarantee that as long as you have liked Dungeons and Dragons in the past, you will like 5e.

Play-Through Party #2 Lord of the Rings: Journey Along the Anduin

Hello all! Welcome to the Play-Through Party. I will have my quest from last week, my wife, Megan helping out again. We left off with our heroes having made it out of the Forest and are heading towards the river this week.

For quick reference, here are the decks that we are using in this Play-Through:

• My Deck
• Megan’s Deck

Today we are going to be going through the Journey Along the Anduin quest from the core set of the Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game.

Setup

Megan’s opening hand was poor so she took her mulligan. She then got Faramir, Sneak Attack, Grave Cairn, Dunedain Quest,Dunedain Warning, and Bill the Pony. I got two Blade Masteries, Dagger of Westernness, Light of Valinor, Hasty Stroke, and Feint.

Emerging from Mirkwood Forest with an urgent message for Lady Galadriel, you must now make your way south along the Anduin River in order to reach the forest of Lorien. As you leave the forest behind, you notice that you are being pursued, and thus quicken your pace…

Setup: Each player reveals 1 card from the top of the encounter deck, and adds it to the staging area.

As you approach the location of a small raft stashed on the river bank, a fearsome Hill Troll emerges from behind a grouping of rocks, and attacks!

When Revealed: Search the encounter deck for 1 Hill Troll is one is not already in play, and place it in the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.

Players cannot defeat this stage while any Hill Troll cards are in play.

We each reveal our card from the top of the deck. I reveal the Necromancer’s reach, which does nothing at this point in the game, and Megan gets Evil Storm, which also does nothing. We then search the deck for the Hill Troll and place him in the staging area.

Starting Threats

• Me: 24
• Megan: 28

Turn 1-Quest 1-B

Megan draws Ever Vigilant. I drew Galadhrim’s Greeting. Megan is first and plays Bill the Pony. She then plays a Dunedain Quest and puts it on Sam. I will spend 1 resource to put Light of Valinor on Glorfindel.

Questing

Megan is sending her three heroes for a total of 7. She does her tactic of spending the extra resource from Theodred to un-exhaust Aragorn. I will send Glorfindel for 3, making our total 10. Necromancer’s Reach comes out and deals Sam and Theodred 1 damage each. Treacherous Fog comes out and is worthless because not Locations.

Willpower 10 vs their 1. Puts 9 progress on the quest card. Completing the quest, however, we cannot forward because of the Hill Troll.

Engagement and Combat

I will optionally engage the Hill Troll. Deal him his shadow card. I will spend Beorn’s Resource to play Feint, which makes the Hill Troll unable to attack this phase.

I will have all three heroes attack for a total of 9 attack vs 3 defense dealing 6 damage.

Ready and raise threats by 1.

Turn 2-Quest 1-B  Progress 9

• Me: 25
• Megan: 29

I am first now. Resource up and draw cards. I draw Westfold Horse Breaker. Megan draws Cram. I will play The Galadhrim’s Greeting to drop both of our threats by 2. Making mine 23, and hers 27. I will spend Beorn’s Resource to put a Dagger of Westernese on Glorfindel. Giving +1 attack all the time. +2 if the enemy has an engagement cost higher than my threat.
Megan plays a Dunedain Warning on Frodo and puts Cram with on Aragorn.

Questing

I send Glorfindel questing, Light of Valinor keeps him readied, and Megan sends her same three for a total of 10. Evil Storm comes out worthlessly. Pursued by Shadow comes out making Megan’s threat go up by 1, now 28. Mine goes up by 2 now 25 again.

Engagement and Combat

Hill Troll gets a shadow card. Beorn will block the hit from the Hill Troll, shadow card is Gladden Fields. Beorn takes 5 damage from the attack. All three heroes jump the Hill Troll and kill him.

Because of killing the Hill Troll, we move on to the next Quest Card.

After defeating the Troll, you are able to board the raft and embark upon a river voyage. As you depart, your enemies pursue, harassing the small vessel as you attempt to navigate the river…

As your enemies harass the raft, it is difficult to maintain the balance and effectively fight them off.

Reveal 1 additional card from the encounter deck each quest phase. Do not make engagement checks during the encounter phase. (Each player may still optionally engage 1 enemy each encounter phase.)

Refresh and raise threat by 1.

Turn 3 Quest 2-B

• Me: 26
• Megan: 29

Megan is first and drew another Warning card. I drew Dwarven Tomb. She plays her Warning on Aragorn, raising his defense to 3. I play my Dwarven Tomb to get my Galadrhim’s Greeting back.

Questing

We both send our same group, but Megan will send Bill for an extra 1, making our total 11. The Gladden Fields come out, The Marsh Adder comes out, and the last one is the Banks of the Anduin.

Total 11 vs 7, 4 go to the quest card. Megan’s sends us to the Gladden Fields.

Engagement and Combat

I optionally engage the Marsh Adder. He gets a shadow card. He has 4 attack I block with Frodo with 3 defense, Shadow card would increase his attack by 1, so I use Hasty Stroke to cancel it. I use Frodo’s ability to take the damage to my threat. Increasing it by 1 from damage, then another 1 from the Adder’s ability. Raising me up to 28.

Beorn and Glorfindel attack with a total of 10, thanks to the Dagger of Westernese, killing the Marsh Adder.
Refresh, raise threat by 1, plus an extra from the Gladden Fields.

Turn 4 Quest 2-B

• Me: 30
• Megan: 31

I am first, I drew Fortune or Fate. I play nothing. Megan draws, Dunedain Mark. She plays her Mark on Aragorn.

Questing

We both send the same people again for a total of 11. Megan uses Sneak attack to play Farmamir for his ability. Raising our total willpower by 4. Eastern Crows comes out, for its surge ability, The Brown Lands Comes out. Then Treacherous Fog and the Goblin Sniper.
Total willpower 15 vs 11 putting 3 on Gladden Fields, and 1 on the quest.

So we Travel to the Brown Lands, which explores itself upon arrival.

Engagement and Combat

Megan optionally engages the Eastern Crows, so I can optionally engage the Goblin Sniper. Megan plays Ever Vigilant to ready Bill the Pony. Eastern Crows is dealt Massing at Night, which gives it an extra shadow card for each player. The next shadow card is the Wolf Rider, which turns into another attacking creature to defend, which is dealt its own shadow card. Then the last shadow card for the Eastern Crows is dealt. It is Pursued by Shadow, which makes defending player choose and return 1 exhausted ally he controls to its hand. So bye bye Bill.

Aragorn takes 1 damage from the undefended attack. Megan uses Aragorn to block the attack from the Wolf Rider. Shadow card, Misty Mountain Goblins, which removes 1 progress token from the quest. Aragorn takes no damage, and the Wolf Rider goes to the top of the encounter deck.

I block against the Goblin Sniper with Frodo who has 3 defense vs the 2 attack. Shadow card is Despair where defending character does not count its defense. So Frodo is dealt 2 damage, and I move that to my threat, making it 32.

Megan discards Cram to ready Aragorn, and kills the crows. Beorn and Glorfindel maul the Goblin Sniper.
Refresh and raise threats by 1.

Turn 5 Quest 2-B

• Me: 33
• Megan: 32

Megan is first player again, draws Fresh Tracks. I draw another Galadhrim’s Greeting. Megan puts Bill back into play for free and spends 4 resources for Faramir. I spend 3 for Galadhrim’s Greeting for myself, making my threat 27.

Questing

Megan sends her 3 heroes, and uses Faramirs ability to get an extra 3 willpower, making her total 10. I send Glorfindel for 3, making our total 13.
Dol Guldur Beastmaster, Misty Mountain Goblins, and the East Bight come out. 13 vs 6 puts 7 on the quest card. Because we do not have an active location, we must travel to the East Bight.

Engagement and Combat

Megan optionally engages the Misty Mountain goblins, and I the Dol Guldur Beastmaster. Deal out shadow cards, two for the beast master.

The Goblins attack Megan, she uses Bill to block, and he dies. Shadow card is another East Bight, worthless. Megan plays Grave Cairn to give Bill’s 1 attack to Aragorn for later.

Frodo blocks the beast master, whose shadow cards are the Wargs +1 attack, and the Crows +1 attack making his total 5 vs my 3 defense. I will mitigate the 2 damage to my threat, making it 29, again.

Megan attacks with Aragorn and his attack of now 4, killing the Goblins. Glorfindel and Beorn attack the Beastmaster and kill him.

Refresh and raise threats by 1.

Turn 6 Quest 2-B Progress 10

• Me: 30
• Megan: 33

I am first player and draw, Elrond’s Counsel. I will spend my 3 resources to play the Galadhrim’s Greeting to drop us both by 2, making mine 28 and hers 31. Megan plays Hobbit Cloak on Frodo.

Questing

I send Glorfindel and play Elrond’s Counsel for free and raise his willpower by 1 for the phase and lower threat by another 3, down to 25. Megan uses her same move from last turn for a total of 10, making our total 14. Out comes Necromancer’s Pass, Dol Guldur Orcs dealing Glorfindel 2 damage, and Chieftan Ufthak.
Total 14 vs 8 puts the 6 on the East Bight we needed.

We travel to Necromancer’s Pass and I discard Blade Mastery and Fortune or Fate.

Engagement and Combat

I engage Cheiftan Ufthak and block with Frodo who has 5 defense against him. Shadow card, Gladden Fields, no effect. Frodo takes 0 damage. Beorn and Glorfindel attack for a total of 10 vs Ufthak’s 9 total defense and health, killing him.

Raise threats and refresh.

Turn 7 Quest 2-B Progress 10

• Me: 26
• Megan: 32

Megan draws Guard of the Citadel and plays it. I drew a song of battle and play West Fold HorseBreaker.

Questing

We send the same as last time for a total of 13. Out come the Dol Guldor Orcs, Dol Guldor Beastmaster, and Despair removing 4 tokens from the quest card. The orcs deal their two damage to Aragorn. The total threat is 7 vs 13. 2 Go on the Necromancers pass, then 4 go on the quest card putting us back at 10.
We go to the banks of the Anduin.

Engagement and Combat

Megan takes one of the Orcs on and I take the Beastmaster. Megan blocks with her Guard. Shadow card, worthless, enchanted stream. Dol Guldor Beastmaster attacks, Frodo blocks with 5 defense. Shadow cards Hill Troll and Driven by Shadow. I must remove the Dunedain Warning from Frodo. Frodo takes no damage. Megan kills the Orcs with Aragorn. Beorn and Glorfindel kill the beast master.

Raise threats and refresh.

Turn 8 Quest 2-B Progress 10

• Me: 27
• Megan: 33

I drew Quick Strike and Megan drew another Hobbit Cloak. She puts the Hobbit Cloak on Sam.

Questing

We send the same questers for a total of 13. Out comes Eastern Crows, surges a Wolf Rider, which surges an Enchanted Stream. Then a Necromancer’s Reach comes out and deals Sam, Theodred and Faramir. And finally the Misty Mountain Goblins come out.
13 vs 8 = 5 progress. 3 on the Banks of the Anduin and 2 on the quest. Banks of Anduin goes on top of deck.

Engagement and Combat

Megan optionally engages the Orcs and I the Goblins. Before dealing shadow cards, I Quick Strike the Goblins with Glorfindel. I block the Orcs with Beorn, taking 1 damage. Shadow card is banks of the Anduin. No effect. Aragorn “mauls” the orcs.

Table top banter at the moment summarized = “Well this quest is going horribly.”
Raise threats and refresh.

Turn 9 Quest 2-B Progress 12

• Me: 28
• Megan: 34

I draw Escort From Edoras, Megan draws Snowborn Scout. Megan plays the Snowborn Scout, putting a progress token on the Enchanted Stream. I play Escort from Edoras.

Questing

Megan sends her 10 again and I will send Glorfindel for 3 and Escort from Edoras for 4, making our total 17. Out comes Banks of the Anduin, Necromancer’s Pass, and more mother f’n orcs. Dealing 2 damage to Glorfindel. 17 vs 10. Finally completes the quest card..

The ongoing harassment from your enemies has forced your raft to the shore, and you must now confront their ambush head on. If you survive this attack, the path to the Golden Wood should be open before you…

When Revealed: Reveal 2 encounter cards per player, and add them to the staging area.

Skip the staging step of the quest phase for the remainder of the game.

Once there are no enemies in play, the players have won the game.

Goblin Sniper, Brown Lands, Wargs, and Evil Storm all come out.
We travel to the Brown Lands so it completes itself.

Engagement and Combat

We have to kill the Eastern Crows, Wolf Rider, Dol Guldor Orcs, Goblin Sniper, and Wargs. Megan plays fresh tracks on the Wargs as they come out. Dealing them 1 damage, and making them ignored during engagement phase.

Going in order for engagement checks: Megan gets the Crows, I get the Wolf Rider, She gets the Orcs, I will take the Wargs. Megan blocks the Orcs with her Snowborn Scout, killing it off. I block the Crows for her with Beorn and take no damage. Wolf Rider attacks, block with Frodo, no shadow effect, Frodo takes no damage. I block the Wargs with WestFold Horse Breaker, shadow card, Misty Mountain Goblins, no progress to take from, so worthless. Horse Breaker is gone.

Megan kills the Orcs with Aragorn. Beorn Kills the Wargs and Glorfindel the Wolf Rider. Goblin Sniper deals 1 damage to Faramir, and 1 to Frodo, which goes to my threat.

Raise threats and refresh.

Turn 10 Quest 3-B

• Me: 30
• Megan: 35

I drew Hasty Stroke. 10 turns too late. Megan drew a cram and uses it on Aragorn.

Questing

Megan sends her 3 heroes for questing so we break even.

Engagement and Combat

I engage the Sniper. I block Sniper with Frodo. Frodo has 4 defense vs 2 attack + 1 from shadow card, Dol Guldor Orcs. Frodo takes no damage. Megan blocks with Faramir, shadow card on Crows is banks of the Anduin. Faramir takes no damage. I maul the Sniper with everyone, and Aragorn shoves his sword up the crows poop shoot.

Wrap-up

Ending threats 30 + 35 = 65.
Total turns 10 * 10 = 100.
Total Damage 17.
Victory Points 14.

Total Score is 168. As bad as this game went, we have experienced worse with different decks.

The beaten and bloodied group finally escapes the clutches of their evil pursuers. Low on spirit, and gravely wounded they all retreat as quickly as possible, hoping to reach the Lady Galadriel before their wounds overcome them…

Dungeons and Dragons 5e With Guns

This month Dungeons and Dragons released a set of rules in the form of a pdf/download in Unearthed Arcana. This month is about Modern Magic. This pdf is a set of rules that helps give us some insight into how “spells” would work in a modern Dungeons and Dragons game. The pdf can be found here.

They also has an article in April that covered the same authored took the rules from 5e and combined them with the Urban Arcana rules to help make 5e armor that would work with the 5e rule sets. That article can be found here.

My Thoughts

I have been tossing around ideas about making my wife a version of Dungeons and Dragons that would combine a survival with a dystopian world. She is not into the fantasy theme as much as I am. However, she loves the dystopian theme in fantasy (The Hunger Games, Divergent Series).

So I am going to sit down and make a game world for her that will use fire arms, with limited ammo, that will be heavily reliant on survival and salvaging. I am shooting for a mix of the Divergent Series meets The Fallout Series.

These posts, along with pages 267-268 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, will help give me a way of handling, for example armor, and for handling which classes can use different types of guns.

I know this style of Dungeons and Dragons is not for everyone, just like Dungeons and Dragons itself is not for everyone. But for those of us who are into this style of game, these are a great bit of information.

As I start building stats, rules, and weapon information for my Dungeons,Dragons,and Guns game, I will post up what I come up with on here for those few who might like this style of game.