Watch our sessions live on my YouTube channel every Sunday night beginning at 9pm Central. Subscribe and catch up on previous episodes!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse” 

Sometimes your open world campaign may be a bit too open, or you sprinkled in a personal quest that was a bit too dire. Magical locked gates to the rescue!

I don’t feel great about it but it ultimately helped funnel my players into a much more agreeable path, especially after hinting how “Princes of the Apocalypse” is set up. Plus, I got to send them tumbling down a flight of stairs into a room with an enraged Umber Hulk. Fun stuff!

We picked up this week after the non-stop action at the Feathergale Spire that left most of its residents dead. The party swept through the rest of the now empty tower, seeing a few rooms on the ground floor for the first time.

Kalinaar made a dramatic show of releasing the last few hippogriffs in the stables, dumping oil all around and then lighting it all on fire with his dragon breath. A major structure like the spire won’t go down quickly but it did transform into a giant smoke stack as the flames did their work.

A much needed Long Rest later and the party continued to the Eastern part of the Sighing Valley. I realize that I made a slight tactical error in making one of the missing delegations a personal connection to Miri (her mother). Since Kethra found the note and talked to Thurl, they know the air cult holds her prisoner. Logically they want to go investigate immediately.

The problem is “Princes of the Apocalypse” is an open-world campaign without the built-in level scaling of a giant Bethesda RPG. It’s just me making the adjustments when needed. The surface keeps are all supposed to be handled first before the PCs get any deeper and start finding and exploring the respective temples. The keeps, of which Feathergale Spire is the lowest-level one, range from 3rd to 6th level, while the lowest-level temple is designed for 6th, creating a natural progression.

But there’s nothing in the book keeping players from just diving down from a cult’s keep into their temple and even beyond, other than running into much stronger foes and tougher dungeons. And frankly I don’t think those dungeons do a great job of telegraphing their dangers at the beginning.

Thus I was not wanting my players to dive into the air temple just yet, so I simply threw up a magical gate. Yeah, lame. The other reason is that each of these dungeons and locations takes a ton of time to build and implement into Roll20, even after purchasing the official grid maps. Having the players able to pick and choose creates a ton of work for me that is frankly exhausting. By throwing up a blockade I can eliminate at least one of those routes for now.

Of course I still let the players explore the entrance and fight off the air monk guards. I teased the air symbol and a magical key after Talus cast Detect Magic. They were stymied that they couldn’t progress but I think they ultimately understood my reasoning.

Thankfully they choose to go to the Sacred Stone Monastery next, which was the area I had most prepared for. It was the next closest location, having learned about it from capturing Larrakh in Red Larch. On the way I launched a Cult Reprisal called Tremors, which seemed thematically appropriate as they approached the Earth Cult. The Ankhegs were a fun surprise foe where the party had zero positioning and I rolled great on initiative, immediately bathing most of them with acid spray. Miri nearly went down if not for Talus’ divination dice.

It’s odd that the campaign introduces the Earth Cult so early through Larrakh, and again with the hostile dealings with Feathergale, considering it’s the 2nd toughest of the four. Luckily the PCs are all level 5 so they’re in line for it. By now they had deduced what the symbols meant and could identify the cultist markings. Lead by Kalinaar they entered the monastery after boasting about their defeat of the air cultists, and were lead to Qarbo. Qarbo sneered but recognized their prowess. He feigned respect and motioned for them to seek an audience with their leader, the Abbess of Stone (a fantastic title).

The party was pleasantly surprised that Kalinaar’s rare clemency paid off. I delighted in springing the trap – Qarbo pulled a lever and the stairs turned into a ramp, dumping the party into the basement below and releasing a half-blinded, very pissed off Umber Hulk into the room!

This was a fantastic moment that everyone was completely shocked by. Half the party fell prone but I rolled pretty badly for initiative (as did half the party). Kethra causes fits of further shock and laughter as she immediately ran away, crashing into the Eastern door and trying to flee!

The Umber Hulk was custom-modified by the Earth Cult – it lacked Confusing Gaze but had increased damage thanks to artificial claws. It also attacks three times per round and has about 100 HP, making it easily the single most challenging thing the party has every faced (other than Venomfang in the previous campaign, but that wasn’t a real fight).

One attack nearly killed Miri, while Talus tried to use Hypnotic Gaze. The beast barely made the save, and now the party was truly panicking. They were leaning on the Flight side of Fight or Flight, and ultimately decided to follow Kethra through the Eastern passage, hoping the Umber Hulk’s girth wouldn’t allow it to follow. Miri made it out thanks to Step on the Wind, but Kalinaar took a reaction hit trying to run – a brutal critical hit that killed him.

Except Talus used his second divination die to save his life. When it comes to PCs being taken out, the rules become much more flexible. Normally he has to declare to use the dice before I roll, but in this case (and in Miri’s fight with the Ankheg’s earlier) I let him use it afterwards, and he role-played his distracted wizard quite nicely.

Everyone made it into the Eastern passage, and Kethra saw that a crypt lie beyond. She was still wanting to flee – possibly deeper into the dungeon. But the others saw an opportunity to attack the trapped Umber Hulk from relative safety.

Umber Hulk’s can normally burrow with their claws, but this one had its natural claws removed, allowing the Earth Cult to keep it prisoner. Thus it was indeed trapped. However, it was also pissed off and had an opening (the crashed door thanks to Kethra’s crit on opening it) to work with.

I let it roll STR checks every round to try and break through, after it’s initial failure at burrowing. On the second attempt it made the DC 20 check and broke through, but by then it had taken a ton of damage, even with its damage resistance. Right when it crashed into the hallway it fell to the onslaught of attacks. I don’t feel bad as the fight was tense as hell already, and I enjoyed the PC’s tactical approach to handling the beast.

Now they find themselves in the dark bowels of the Sacred Stone Monastery, and I can plan much easier knowing where the party is. Probably with less deadly Umber Hulk traps. Probably.

Watch our sessions live on my YouTube channel every Sunday night beginning at 9pm Central. Subscribe and catch up on previous episodes!

Read the full review at Pixelkin

Available on Wii U

At its core Pokémon has always been a fighting game, albeit a turn-based one. Mapping Pokémon onto a traditional 3D fighting game makes perfect sense. Pokkén Tournament on Wii U has intuitive controls and a perfect difficulty ramp that successfully let Pikachu and company brawl in glorious HD.

Pokkén Tournament is structured like a typical fighting game. You select from a roster of a little over a dozen fighters and fight one-on-one with opponents.

Executing moves is similar to Super Smash Bros. Simple combos fire off various flashy attacks. Each fight is structured around two phases – a bigger 3D Field phase and a more intimate side-by-side Duel Phase. Knowing when to close in and when to back off is an interesting strategy. Different pokémon excel at different techniques.

Read the full review at Pixelkin

Read the full guide at Pixelkin

Greetings, Commander. The aliens continue their stranglehold over our planet. You and the brave men and women fighting for XCOM are our secret weapon. Many soldiers died bringing you these invaluable tips, so that others may live. Keep fighting and we’ll win this war. Good luck, Commander.

Know the Timing on the Avatar Project

The only way you can really lose XCOM 2 is if the Avatar Project is completed. However even when the bar fills up, a 20-day countdown timer begins. You get a bit of a grace period to immediately launch an assault on the nearest enemy base. Make sure you’ve been making the right contacts and always have a base to infiltrate when the counter gets too high.

Base Management

XCOM 2 is pretty forgiving when it comes to building your facilities. Prioritizing which to build first is largely a matter of preference. Build that Guerrilla Tactics School ASAP, as it provides the upgrades needed to field additional soldiers. Stick it in one of the top corners. You’ll also want your Workshop somewhere in the middle. It’s the only building that cares about adjacency, and you can staff an engineer to then staff nearby buildings via remote gremlins.

Read the full guide at Pixelkin

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse” 

When my players are roaming around the world trying to figure out where to go and what to do, I’m a nervous wreck. With dungeon crawls, however, I’m in my element. D&D has a lot of dungeon crawls, and “Princes of the Apocalypse” is no exception.

Each dungeon features some unique hooks, denizens, and geography. In the Sacred Stone Monastery it’s the nifty Umber Hulk trap I sprung last week. This week’s session was a bit less exciting. But I enjoyed my players’ nervously shuffling through the dark winding mines having been weakened and drained from the last battle.

The mines aren’t a terribly safe place to rest but my players needed a breather. Thankfully D&D 5E has the Short Rest mechanic, which seems designed explicitly to allow some mid-dungeon breaks without completely leaving and setting up tents.

I had a patrolling orog (slightly tougher orc) wander by but the PCs chose not to engage. Not every enemy sighting has to lead straight to combat, and I like giving my players as many options as possible – even if they simply choose the straightforward path most of the time.

The Sacred Stone Monastery’s basement is large but not very dense. There’s the Guardroom full of Jurth and friends, a crypt full of zombies, and the Umber Hulk. The book has a few tips for random encounters in the mines, but I didn’t want to over due it, given their already drained resources (thankfully Wizards get a few spell slots back after a Short Rest).

I decided to plug in the Violet Fungus as a fun little encounter, as they hadn’t fought anything like a sentient mushroom before. I clearly telegraphed the purple mushrooms on the map, and even had some nearby enslaved mine workers warn them. The prisoners gave them some info on the guards and captors, and the PCs told them to sit tight. My players are nothing if not practical, even if Kethra and Kalinaar both get them in trouble in their own ways.

They decided to avoid the crypt for now, especially after Kalinaar used Divine Sense to detect the presence of Undead. They deduced that the guardroom was in the middle, as the guards made a bit of noise. In the Southeast they found the Slave Pens, including one important piece of the main plot puzzle – Bruldenthar, the dwarven sage from Mirabar and one of the four missing delegation members.

The dwarf was able to relay a lot of important information including the delegation’s attack, their capture, the river pirates, Rivergard Keep, and the battle that caused the shallow graves the PCs found a few sessions back.

Armed with this information I went ahead and added Rivergard Keep to their map. They’ve basically bypassed the need to actually hunt after the delegation’s ambush site, which is perfectly fine. It’s important to note that the PCs are currently level 5, so skipping some lower level content or investigations works well. In fact they’ll probably reach level 6 after the monastery’s cleared.

That being said I definitely hope they head to Rivergard Keep next, given that it’s technically easier level-wise than Sacred Stone Monastery. I tried to push the importance of the lost books that Bruldenthar said was given to the pirates, as well as teasing that they were no ordinary pirates.

Once again they told the prisoners to sit tight, though I had a bit of fun with this scene. There are over a dozen prisoners and despite Kalinaar’s bellowing I had two of them try to just make a run for it. He had to physically tackle one and bring him back. Kalinaar loves his manacles and used them to shackle some prisoners together.

Things got a little goofy and fun as the others joined in using minor cantrips to try and remove the shackles, shackle other prisoners together, or otherwise distract Kalinaar’s rough treatment. I had Bruldenthar huff and remark, “These aren’t the heroes we deserve, but they are the ones we need.”

Another role-playing scene unraveled as the party entered the guardroom rather peacefully. Kalinaar wanted to break down the door, expecting immediate combat. He rolled an 11 so I had the door gingerly open normally. Jurth, the orog guard captain, barked out about the pass sign. The PCs sat there dumbfounded before someone (Talus I think) randomly made the earth cult sign. Jurth nodded and the scene unfolded into an awkward, sometimes tense dialogue session.

I sensed my players were completely caught off guard by the orogs’ willingness to talk. Kalinaar did a good job not technically lying but also trying to split the guards apart for an easier kill. He told them that something killed their prized Umber Hulk. I let one orog go investigate but the party didn’t capitalize, and he returned.

A few Persuasion and Charisma checks later and Jurth agrees to send an orog to escort the party up the stairs back to the monastery. Once the party reached the top of the stairs, they opened combat, quickly killing the poor henchman before Jurth and his ogre pet could respond.

I don’t think I’ve ever rolled so terribly in my life. Literally every single hit with the orogs and the ogre were a miss. Dice combat is funny that way, and it ended up being a trivial battle.  The PCs found the keys, some nice coinage loot, and a unique little treasure item I whipped up – a magical self-sustaining potted plant that casts Goodberry once per day.

This party is perpetually low on healing options (Kalinaar’s Lay on Hands is about it) so I don’t mind adding in a few potions of healing now and then, and something like this that could help them during a long dungeon crawl. I was hoping one of them would treat it reverently like in Leon the Professional, but instead Talus handed it off to Droop – a funny almost nonentity that still follows Talus around and is mentioned about once per session.

With nary a scratch suffered the party returned to the crypt. I modified things a bit here. Since I used a magical lock to seal the air temple (a total cop-out, I know) I didn’t want to do that here, as I want my players to meet [redacted].

Instead I put a dangerous Glyph of Warding there, and even gave out its details thanks to Talus rolling a 20 on Arcana check. Kalinaar saw a tomb that was meant for Samular Caradoon – the founder of his old Paladin order. The tomb lay ominously empty. Despite the warnings of Undead the party sauntered into the crypt and the zombies shambled to un-life.

Half a dozen zombies is little match for four level 5 PCs. However, Talus absolutely shocked me when he decided to use Mage Hand to trigger the trap!

I had the glyph infused with a Cloudkill spell as it seemed appropriate as a defense mechanism. More deliciously, zombies are immune to poison! This easy fight instantly turned far more interesting and challenging, as the PCs suddenly had to maneuver out of the way of the deadly poisonous gas as it seeped toward the North and West. At least two of them took the full brunt of the poison damage (lucky for them I rolled terribly for damage, 14 on a freaking 5d8), as well as some Attacks of Opportunity from the zombies as they fled its large area.

It was a pretty funny “ruh-roh” moment for Talus. Zombies make for fun meat walls with their Undead Fortitude but by themselves they prove little trouble. The party took some hits but the cloud seeped west and all was well.

I’m very excited for next week as I’m really looking forward to an intriguing role-playing session with [redacted], especially with Kalinaar and Talus. I also expect we’ll clean up more of the monastery proper, as the basement is pretty much done.

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Hey everyone,

Lately my ability to stream has gone down the toilet. My internet connection has never been great, but it’s always been good enough.

In the last few weeks, however, I can’t live stream without dropping about 80% of the frames. Anyone that’s tried to drop into our Sunday evening live streams have noticed how unwatchable that is. My upload speed remains the same and I’m unsure what the specific culprit is, but it’s not going away.

Since it also records and uploads to YouTube, it’s starting to drag the quality of our recorded videos down as well. The solution is to just stop live streaming altogether.

Instead I will record our sessions on Sunday evening, and upload them on Monday. The majority of our viewership and audience interaction comes from these archived YouTube videos anyway, and now the quality should vastly improve.

We really appreciate all the views and comments on our adventures and here on my blog. “Princes of the Apocalypse” is well under way and should last us throughout the year. If my connection woes ever improve we can try live streaming again, but for now you can watch our weekly adventures on my YouTube channel, and read about them here on my bog every Monday.

Read the full review at Pixelkin

Farming games have existed since the 90s with the likes of Sim Farm and Harvest Moon. In recent years many mobile and social games like Farmville have used the rewarding feedback of growing your own crops to great success. Stardew Valley puts them all to shame, and elevates the genre into something truly unique and special.

After creating your pixelated character you re-discover a letter from your dying grandfather inviting you to take over some farmland in a rural village. You leave your mundane office job and set out to Pelican Town to start a new life.

Read the full review at Pixelkin

Read the full article at Playboy

I love the Blizzard game Heroes of the Storm. But despite its growing popularity as an esport, I’d never cared much about the competitive scene. That all changed when I spotted my wife’s alma mater among the college teams on the bracket for Blizzard’s second annual “Heroes of the Dorm” tournament. I suddenly found myself tuning into broadcasts and cheering on my adopted team. I learned about popular strategies and costly mistakes. I watched scrappy underdogs win against all odds, while big favorites fell apart. I forged a love for insightful commentary, risky gameplay, and college rivalries. I became a fan.

Heroes of the Dorm is the first of its kind—a college esports competition broadcast live on ESPN2 and ESPN3. This year the tournament returned more popular than ever, and could be viewed on on Twitch, YouTube, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The Final Four and Grand Finale air today and tomorrow.

“Heroes of the Dorm is so cool because we’re from this culture that recognizes the growth of esports and how it provides a really positive form of entertainment,” says Adam Rosen, co-founder of college esports organization TESPA. “You tune into an average esports competition, you might not know who Evil Geniuses or Team Liquid are. You tune into ESPN and see Cal Berkeley vs Arizona State in the finals and you’re gonna have some affiliation with those schools.”

Read the full article at Playboy

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.

Thanks in large part to trade paperbacks and the digital convenience of Marvel Unlimited I can make relatively quick progress, and I’ll write down my Final Thoughts for each collection here on my blog. Like my gaming Final Thoughts, this will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned!

Writer: Christos Gage

Artists: Mike McKone, Sean Chen, Tom Raney

Issues: Avengers Academy (2010) #1-13

A Young Adult series starring the next generation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has been done before, as recently as Avengers: The Initiative. While the Initiative series was mired in large events like World War Hulk and Secret Invasion, Avengers Academy is given ample time to breathe and grow during Marvel’s post-Siege Heroic Age. The result is one of the best YA, coming of age stories in Marvel comics.

Avengers Academy stars half a dozen wide-eyed, super-powered teenagers, all of whom naturally developed gifts and were starting to get molded by Norman Osborn during his Dark Reign. When Osborn went down, these kids were identified as high risk, and the most likely to someday become super villains – a fun plot twist the kids themselves find out in the first issue.

Thus Hank Pym starts the Avengers Academy. It’s obviously analogous to the X-Men’s own School for Gifted Youngsters – particularly the excellent New X-Men comic that ran from 2004 to 2008. The X-Men’s school has been shut down since the 2008 event Messiah Complex, however. I’m glad to see Avengers Academy pick up the “young kids with powers” story, and do so incredibly well with it.

It starts with the students. The class has six students, and remains a small ensemble throughout the first two volumes. Each of the first six issues that make up Volume 1, “Permanent Record,” are narrated by a different student, letting you inside their head and identifying with their past, their anxieties, and their hopes for the future.

Veil can turn her body into gas, and is slowly dying thanks to Osborn’s experiments to augment her powers. She’s nervous and unsure. She’s doe-eyed for one of the instructor’s (Justice), highly impressionable, and painfully relatable.

Hazmat is radioactive and completely toxic, with a personality that’s understandably the same way. Not only can she not touch anyone, she has to remain in a special suit that cuts her off from everyone else. She’s desperate for a cure, and hides her vulnerability beneath a snippy attitude.

The electrically-powered Striker has an interesting backstory as the bastard son of a rich gold-digger, and a child predator survivor. He has some major impulse and aggression issues, but deep down has a good heart.

Finesse has Taskmaster’s powers – she can replicate anything she sees. She’s incredibly confident and smart but lacks human empathy, and wonders if she’s in fact a sociopath. Mettle was a laid-back surfer bro before his ability manifest in the form of hideous metallic red skin. He’s sensitive and kind, despite looking like a total monster.

Finally, Reptil is the de facto leader and has my favorite power – he can transform any part of his body into various dinosaur parts. How cool is that? He’s the closest thing to a traditional good guy in the team, but he constantly doubts his leadership.

The instructors are a classic list of B-team Avengers that writer Christos Gage nevertheless does fantastic work with – Hank Pym (who goes from The Wasp to Giant-Man, an even stupider costume), Tigra, Justice, Speedball (formerly Penance), Quicksilver, and Jocasta. Gage perfectly explores all the major issues surrounding these characters, from Tigra’s son with skrull-Pym to Speedball cutting himself to activate his Penance powers. The instructors, particularly Pym and Tigra, are given ample panel-time and fully develop into equally fascinating characters.

The plot of Volume 1 takes a back seat to character introductions, and the series is very well served by it. Initially the kids are taken aback by their supervillain-wannabe status. When they take a “Scared Straight” field trip to The Raft, half of them confront Norman Osborn, either ready to kill him or get more information. They learn from the experience, and I love that the focus is on their own ethical quandaries about what it means to be a hero.

The second volume, “Will We Use This in the Real World” gets really interesting as Gage continues to explore some hard-hitting topics. Back in New Avengers Tigra was captured and briefly abused and tortured by The Hood. The whole thing is on the internet and Gage doesn’t shy away from Tigra’s anger and shame. The kids find out, and half of them track down The Hood and beat him up – filming the whole thing for Tigra.

Naturally she’s furious and expels them, though cooler heads prevail. The academy is about learning, and the kids need to learn from such a terrible, decidedly un-heroic tactic. Themes of abuse, victimization, and revenge are treated with the utmost respect while still being compelling and interesting. Gage has shot to the top of my charts as an amazing writer that can tackle these very difficult, very real issues so eloquently.

Even when things get a little comic-book silly, the writing is still grounded in real teenage struggles. Veil decides she needs to redeem herself, and picks up where Pym left off in trying to resurrect Janet’s scattered atoms (she was killed during the Secret Invasion).

Of course it goes terribly wrong, and the person she brings back is…Korvac’s wife? I’m not terribly familiar with classic Avengers villains, but Korvac is your classic all-powerful dimensional cosmic entity. He’s Bad News, and shows up to abscond with Carina, who’s sick of his shit, heh.

It’s an excuse for all the Avengers to show up and battle him with flashy purple explosions everywhere, while the kids are escorted to a safe room. Carina has powers of her own, however, and plucks adult versions of all the kids’ bodies so they can battle Korvac. It’s fun temporarily seeing our dysfunctional team as full-grown badasses. It’s also incredibly sobering, as members Hazmat and Mettle are crushed to learn they’re still in their untouchable states – and Veil is nearly completely ghost-like.

Given how time stuff works in Marvel, Carina reminds us it’s just one possible future, and even when Striker is killed she can simply restore him back to his teenage self – though the result still freaks everyone out. Normally I roll my eyes when all powerful villains show up and battle our team, but the problems that are created from our young protagonists’ glimpse into the future is fascinating. Also, issue 13 is prom, and it’s one of the most fun bits of teenage drama I’ve read in a long, long time.

I was completely blown away by Avengers Academy. The disciplined focus on our six young heroes (or are they villains?) provides some amazing characterization and view points about growing up, sacrifice, and heroics. The art work is consistently vibrant and fantastic, even when the art changes hands. It’s an incredibly relatable read for any young person or adult who deals with anxiety, doubt, and finding yourself in the world. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse” 

The unexpected can make for some supremely fun and memorable moments in tabletop role-playing. It’s a two-way street. Players often do things that will take me completely by surprise, and part of the DM’s skillbook is how to react to that. Sometimes though, I can throw a fun monkey wrench at my players and watch events unfold exactly as planned – like Renwick the friendly lich.

This week my players had finished mopping up the Sacred Stone Monastery basement, and were intrigued about a well guarded door in the crypt. Having fought the zombie guards and survived the Cloudkill glyph, they prepared for a tough battle. They opened the door and were surprised to find stairs that lead back up to the monastery.

Inside was a lich. Renwick is a few centuries old and has a neat backstory involving the creation of the paladin order that Kalinaar once ascribed too – the Knights of Samular.

Weaving a player character’s background into the adventure is a very satisfying result, and something I’ve really worked on for “Princes of the Apocalypse.” Talus received portent visions of doom that helped lead them here. One of the captured delegates is Miri’s noble mother. And now Kalinaar has to wrestle with the implications of a lich who still believes in Tyr and his paladin order (don’t worry Kethra, your time will come soon).

The exchange went off perfectly. I telegraphed the lich’s quiet power as well as the plate armor of the order he still bore. He was agreeable and forthcoming once he realized the party wasn’t with the earth cult. Kalinaar went through a satisfying crises of faith. He ultimately was warmed over the lich’s Wise Man demeanor, and admitted his own dissatisfaction with the knight’s bureaucracy.

One important piece of advice I read about DMing is to give each important NPC a goal or desire. Not everyone has to have a major quest but if I bother including anyone in the adventure, they should have something important to say and a reason for existing.

In Renwick’s case, it was his brother’s remains. He had built a tomb for Samular and hoped to convert the entire monastery into a shrine and pilgrimage site for his beloved brother. Kalinaar had a few reasonable questions and doubts but soon sided with the lich. Especially after Renwick agreed to share some of his treasure up front with the party. Nothing says loyalty and friendship like sweet, sweet loot!

I couldn’t quite hand out awesome stuff to everyone but came pretty close. Kalinaar received an Amulet of Health – a huge boost to his stats that raised his CON from 12 to 19 – another 15 hit points at level 5! The party received a Wand of Magic Missiles that was briefly fought over but ultimately lovingly embraced by Talus the wizard. Some scrolls and potions were greedily gobbled up as well. The lich also offered his backroom for a safe long rest.

I had a lot of fun role-playing this ancient creature and the party was relieved to find a friendly face in the middle of this decently-sized dungeon – even a skeletal one. I’m very glad this sequence was at the beginning of a session instead of the end so I didn’t feel like we had to rush through it.

After the Long Rest the party dove into the rest of the Monastery. By now our heroes had gone through 3 Short Rests and 1 Long Rest since they were first sent down with the Umber Hulk. No doubt the monks should have realized the creature lay dead and the party free, but they still wouldn’t venture anywhere near the lich, and the mines are quite large.

I had a few patrolling guards in the hallways to reflect the high alert status of the monastery. The party played it pretty well, setting up ambushes and taking monks by surprise. But fighting in a hallway inevitably leads to at least some noise, and Hellenrae’s dojo was alerted. They spilled out into the hallway and created the most difficult fight of the night.

The Sacred Stone monks are basically just low-level player monks, but Hellenrae is a force to be reckoned with. She’s technically the boss of the dungeon, although not at all chatty. I described her like Daredevil – blind but totally badass. She proceeded to nearly pummel Kalinaar to death – he needed every bit of those extra hit points to stay on his feet!

They key maneuver was a Charm Person spell from Talus. I really like the way his wizard is played – always thinking outside the box and making each fight interesting and varied with stuns, sleeps, and other distractions. He’d yet to use Charm Person in combat and he was able to grab one of the monks.

Now I may have been a bit too generous by how much this monk was willing to quickly change sides and attack his former comrades, but it made for a fun moment and my players really enjoyed it – and ultimately that’s what role-playing is about.

Everyone was cheering as “Larry” dealt the killing blow to Hellenrae, after Talus unleashed the full might of the Wand of Magic Missiles at her. They cleverly used their temporary new friend as a font of information: relaying the layout of the monastery and its guards, as well as using him to bait others out of the room where our heroes could jump them. It was a winning strategy and the next several rooms of monks proved little challenge.

We made it about halfway through the Monastery. The total death tally was 12 monks and 1 monk boss. Both frontline fighters had to use the health potions they’d received from Renwick, and Kalinaar had to use Lay on Hands. It’s tricky finding that perfect challenge level but I think we hit it this week.

We should be able to clear out the rest of the Sacred Stone Monastery next week. The party has acquired Hellenrae’s keys, as well as a special glass contraption in the shape of the air cult. Many more paths await our heroes. Though with Kalinaar so starry-eyed over his new lich buddy (“hey guys we can feed these monks’ souls to Renwick!”) they may just stay and help with renovations.

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Read the full review at Pixelkin

In the 2014 sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise gains a power that lets him restart a day after his death. Each “run” he learns something new about the war against the aliens. Stories: The Path of Destinies features this same neat idea. The intersecting story works well, but repetitive levels and limited content prevent Stories from becoming truly memorable.

The world of Stories: The Path of Destinies takes place in a fantasy land of flying air ships and talking animals. You play as Reynardo, a charismatic swash-buckling fox. The mad emperor’s armies are bearing down on the rebel base. It’s up to Reynardo to make the right decisions to save everyone.

The story is told through a magic book you find during the prologue. After each of the relatively quick levels you’re given an important decision to make. Save a friend or find a weapon? Sacrifice the general’s daughter or appeal to your past relationship? It’s the video game equivalent of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.

Read the full review at Pixelkin

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!

Writer: Kurtis J. Weibe

Artist: Roc Upchurch, Stjepan Sejic

Issues: Rat Queens #6-10

I heaped a lot of praise onto Rat Queen‘s debut. The mixture of modern language and characters in a D&D-style fantasy world is sublime. An adventuring group of women with varying backgrounds, goals, dreams, and vices. While the plot is a little more simplistic, Volume 2 does a fantastic job giving us more of everything we wanted out of a follow-up.

Volume 2 is titled The Far Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth. It picks up directly after the drunken party our heroines Hannah, Violet, Betty, and Dee threw after their latest victory that saved their town of Palisade.

The after-party nicely encapsulates the personalities and situations of each Queen: Hannah is very off again-on again with sexy town sheriff (and former assassin) Sawyer, Violet sleeps with (and later begins a relationship with) gentle orc druid Dave (of the Four Daves), Betty gets back with her Ex and is a total hippie romantic, while Dee feels more alone than ever as she runs from her past.

Unfortunately for our heroines, the villains of the previous story were never actually defeated. While Gerrig and Bernadette’s evil partnership dissolved, they both escaped. Now Gerrig is sporting a death mask, a sacred artifact to Dee’s people that can control the veil between our world and the Cthullu-esque demons waiting to pour through. He blames Sawyer’s past as an assassin for his wife’s death. He captures Sawyer, ties him naked to a cross, and summons giant tentacle monsters to destroy the town.

The plot is a little too cut and dry, and it’s a shame we simply reuse the same villain, though with different circumstances. What makes everything so fantastic is the effect the abyssal demons have on people. Specifically trying to fight one results in going through a time distortion and reliving past moments of your life.

We’re treated to some tantalizing pieces of backstory for Violet and Hannah, including Hannah’s rebelliousness over her traditional dwarven family and Hannah’s outcast, bad girl childhood and teen years as a dark mage (and possible literal demon child).

Meanwhile Dee gets a surprise visit from her estranged husband – what! He seems really nice, but Dee is determined to run away from her people’s religion and culture. After seeing the demon monsters we can see why, though it’s also Dee that has to save them all in the end by killing Gerrig and donning the mask.

First the Queens have to fight through a fortress full of cannon fodder. It’s a glorious two-issue action scene not unlike the epic climax of the previous Volume. With only five issues per story arc (most comics do six) the story does feel a bit too streamlined but damn if the action isn’t absolutely incredible. It’s fun to watch the Queens use D&D style tactics together, like Hannah using a shield spell to protect Betty from ankles while she slides in and slices up a pair of guards.

The series also brings in most of the side characters from Volume 1. Rival adventuring group the Four Daves and half the surviving Peaches – Braga and Tiz. Oh and Lola, Sawyer’s second-in-command, who has the single most badass fight scene in the whole comic as she takes on seven dudes with some amazing king-fu action. If you ever had difficulty picturing the monk class beating dudes with weapons – Issue #7 is for you.

The focus remains centered on our Queens. The series is grounded by their mutual respect and camaraderie, which makes it such a fantastic take on a D&D-style adventuring party. I still love the use of modern language and copious amount of cursing. It helps make the story incredibly relatable even while magic spells are flinging off and demons are pouring though the sky. Our heroines laugh, cry, fuck, scream, and persevere. Oh, and there’s a lot more sexy time in this volume, but it always serves a purpose.

It helps that Roc Upchurch’s vivid art is so amazing (and sucks that he was arrested for domestic violence in late 2014 which ended his career on Rat Queens after issue 8). Stjepan Sejic took over art duties and I may even like him more, especially his more angular Hannah. I’m looking forward to Tess Fowler’s work on Volume 3 as well.

While the plot lacks the slow build-up, investigation, and shock villain reveals of Volume One, everything else is an amazing improvement. I loved the backstory glances for our heroines, the burgeoning relationships, the bloody action, the hot sex, everything. The Rat Queens are some of my favorite characters in comics and I’m absolutely on board for any and all of their crazy adventures.

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse” 

A live DM can enhance a dungeon-crawling experience above a typical video game offering. The obvious example is a dungeon as a living ecosystem rather than a static area, waiting for the players to stumble into room-by-room.

In this week’s session our party cleaved a bloody path through the remainder of the Sacred Stone Monastery. They traveled West past the original entrance and worked a large circle through the kitchens, shrine, and courtyard in the North.

Last week they were quite proficient at stealthily ambushing the monks. This time when a wandering monk rounded a corner, Kalinaar charged him heedlessly, right in front of the barracks.

From the point the party arrived until now they’ve Long Rested once and Short Rested, so more than enough time has passed for the resident to realize the Umber Hulk trap failed, and this adventuring group is loose somewhere. However they don’t have access to the lich’s lair, and people don’t exactly have cell phones in this age. I had one monk cautiously searching the monastery after he didn’t see anyone else around, and he was quickly slain.

However the commotion caused the duergar in the nearby sleeping quarters to open their door and investigate, starting a large combat encounter. It grew even larger as some nearby sleeping monks woke up. Choosing when and where to call in reinforcements is a very tricky balancing act, as the duergar alone count as a Medium encounter for a foursome of level 5 adventurers. I staggered the monks’ entrance into the fight to allow them to properly wake up and assess the situation.

Having another door open with foes inside added a fun dynamic to an otherwise static fight. Talus launched a Hypnotic Gaze at the duergar, stunning two of them, while Kalinaar teleported inside with Misty Step. Miri and Kethra held off the remaining duergar and monks as they emerged, with Miri’s Patient Defense saving her life on multiple occasions.

I made a point to mention the boarded up window in the duergar’s barracks, and allowed my players to role Insight or History checks to try and hypothesize about duergar and sunlight. I teased that there was definitely something there, but they didn’t explore it until there was only one remaining.

Then they got a bit cruel and experimental on our lone duergar, torturing the poor fool by shattering the wood and even casting a Light spell right on top of him. It actually fits Talus’ personality to callously experiment on things (and people) so that awarded him a point of Inspiration!

The party was rewarded with a third empty barracks that contained the loot chest for Qarbo the Black Earth Priest – mostly spell scrolls and money. PCs get a ton of money and not much to spend it on, it seems. Maybe I need to introduce wandering merchants and interesting magical loot they can actually purchase. Hmmm.

The dining area to the North was empty. My players were filled with a bit of hubris from the last fight and Kalinaar began randomly smashing plates, which caused the monks in the kitchen to investigate. And more combat ensued! They were surprised that I reacted to them making noise, but let that be a lesson to them!

Of course the monks were no match for them. I did like that Miri took some initiative in disguising herself as a monk with the robes and mask they found in the barracks, and attempting to trick the monks. This tactic was especially used to draw out Qarbo and his Black Earth Guards out of the shrine and into the dining hall, where the PCs lay in waiting.

Stealth and ambush can be an awkward thing in D&D 5E and takes a bit of getting used to. Successfully using Stealth (beating out your opponent’s passive perception) grants you a free bonus turn at the start of combat. We organized it by letting the PCs take the Ready action, which is basically Overwatch in XCOM. That way they could stand on either side of a doorway and attack anyone that came through.

Only Kethra and Miri got the proper checks to get off an attack and the Guards surged into the room. Qarbo cast Spider Climb to run along the walls inside, planning on laying waste to the pesky intruders. It was here that the change of location worked really well for the PCs, as he had to use his first critical action just getting into position.

Miri then used Water Whip at nearly full strength (expending I think 4 total Ki points) to deal 29 damage to him. He failed his DEX save but prevented his fall with his Unyielding trait. However, he was still concentrating on Spider Climb, and he failed that save as well. Thus he came crashing to the ground taking another 8 damage and landing prone. The Massive Damage (a rule we use from the Dungeon Master Guide) left him stunned and prone on the ground. Miri basically took him out in a single blow, holy crap!

The Guards proved slightly trickier as they’re just big and beefy, getting two attacks a round with some high AC and HP. Kalinaar took a particularly gruesome blow with a combination critical hit and second attack that hit him hard. Talus tried to use Charm Person at a higher level to get both of them, but targets gain advantage if they’re currently being attacked, which allowed both to make the save.

But with Qarbo down the Guards didn’t last too long, and the fight ended up being even easier than the duergar + monk battle earlier. It’s fun to see characters hit the nitrus like that on their abilities. While it’s a bummer when I don’t get to play with my toys as much, I know it’s empowering and fun for my players to show off their abilities and strengths like that. And that priest isn’t exactly a unique foe, anyway.

The party finished their giant circle of the monastery by heading out into the walled courtyard filled with gargoyle statues. Once again they were pretty foolhardy, with only Kalinaar casting Divine Sense (which doesn’t detect elemental-based foes). They went toward a door to the South and two gargoyles sprang to life.

The gargoyles ignored Miri since she was still dressed an Earth monk, but attacked the others. They’re basically slightly weaker versions of griffons, and despite their many wounds the party didn’t have much trouble with them. Kethra was glad she had that magic glowing dagger from the Tomb of Moving Stones to beat out their non-magical resistance, however.

And with that the monastery was cleared out. The party never went in the main entrance to the shrine (M8). They could tell the hallway was lined with gargoyle statues and decided to steer clear of it.

We discussed how they talked to Renwick the lich and told him of the monastery’s clearing, as well as returning to the prisoners in the basement and helping lead them out. Since some time had passed since they told them to stay put, I had half the prisoners escape on their own. Renwick was pleased with their actions and promised to keep the monastery clear. He also warned them of an ancient staircase in the basement that lead deeper into the ground, should the party want to venture there at some point.

All told the Sacred Stone Monastery took a little over three sessions to run through. It didn’t seem like a large dungeon but it was two stories and had a number of encounters. The party rescued Bruldenthar, a member of the delegation, and I awarded them 2000xp (as well as another 500 for freeing about half the slaves) for escorting everyone back to Red Larch. Bruldenthar begged the party to go to Rivergard Keep to retrieve his sacred texts he was traveling with, and added the location to their map.

The party also gained a mysterious blown glass air symbol key thingy from Hellenrae last week, as well as the key to the staircase in the basement of the monastery – so several avenues are open. And I may even open up a few more as they return to town….

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Good news everyone!

I’ve officially been brought on to help out with news posts for Pixelkin, a site that easily represents a good 75% of my freelance work. I’ll be starting out with one news article per day. I’m still cranking out my usual reviews, previews, interviews, etc!

Note that I won’t be sharing every single news post here on my blog. Instead I’ve built a News subpage under my Published Work section to keep an updated archive of my posts.

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse” 

We typically have our Dungeons & Dragons sessions filled with dungeon crawling and combat. But even the most video game-like D&D groups occasionally need a session to sell all their phat lootz.

With the heroes wanting to personally escrot the prisoners from the Sacred Stone Monastery to Red Larch, I decided it was a good time to provide them with ample options to spend their accumulated wealth.

D&D 5E solved the power-struggle quite elegantly with the Proficiency Bonus. The side effect is that magic items are no longer needed quite as much, and end up being more rare than ever before. Heroes still gain hundreds of gold after only a few sessions, however.

If you have a group that’s not particularly interested in the more esoteric role-playing side of RPGs, such as building castles or engaging in politics, it’s difficult to create a proper money sink. My personal solution was to allow them to purchase a few select magic items from their local Harper agent (Endrith Vallivoe), as well as potions of healing, greater healing, and even their own horses.

I used a combination of the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide to set prices and availability of the items. There were a little over half a dozen potions of greater healing and about a dozen potions of healing.

Everyone could buy either a horse or warhorse, along with horse armor. I let my players name their horses, gave them their own NPC character sheets and tokens, and let them roll for hit points. They were all delighted by this new addition, though I do worry I may have added too much complexity with mounted combat. More on this later.

As for the magic items, I mostly used some Uncommon items listed in the DMG, along with a funny item of my creation that sadly went unwanted:

• Pauldrons of Buoyancy – Striking yellow shoulderpads in the shape of a duck’s head with a fierce grimace. Grants advantage on Swim Checks and requires attunement.
• Cloak of Protection – A fine blue hooded cloak with gold trim that always stays immaculately clean. Grants +1 AC, requires attunement.
• Quiver of +1 Arrows – A leather quiver adorned with beads and feathers, full of 20 +1 arrows.
• Eyes of Minute Seeing – pair of bronze glasses with red crystalline shards that fit over the eyes. Grants advantage on Investigation checks that rely on sight within melee range.
• Keoghtom’s Ointment – Glass Jar containing five doses of a thick paste that smells of aloe. An action can be used to swallow or apply paste to the skin. Target receives 2d8+2 hit points and is cured of disease and poison.

My goal was to use mostly fun, utility items that where tailored to my party of heroes – a paladin, monk, rogue, and wizard. Uncommon Items are listed as being between 100 and 500gp, so I played with this and had the first person to inspect each item roll 50d10. Not exactly something that would be feasible in a real, physical setting!

The results ended up being quite average, with costs ranging from 254gp to 287. The PCs wanted to barter, however, and I let two of them sell their wingsuits, as well as Kalinaar’s Dragonguard he had found in Wave Echo Cave from the previous campaign. Using the DMG’s rules for selling items I had the sellers roll a d100 to determine how much Endrith would pay. Even at 1/4 to 1/2 cost they received hundreds – and in the case of Dragonguard – thousands of gold.

Miri bought the cloak, Kalinaar the ointment, and I knew Talus couldn’t resist spiffy crystal glasses. Kethra considered the quiver but ultimately passed. Three out of Four ain’t bad, and it seemed well-received.

Other than that I mostly treated Red Larch like a cutscene. I’ve learned from experience that this group doesn’t like to linger and explore a town unless there are clear reasons to. I mentioned the clean-up efforts from the sinkhole, the burning spire, the town’s political upheaval, and the worsening weather.

Most importantly, Endrith told them of another way they could get inside Rivergard Keep. I had used Brulendthar to emphasize the importance of traveling to the keep next, which introduces our third elemental evil faction. However to change things up and make it a bit more interesting, he revealed that Rivergard often resupplies via the Dessarin River at Womford. The PCs could commandeer a river boat and use it to sneak inside.

I spelled this all out for two reasons. One, my players seem reticent to tackle situations outside of the standard charge in and fight variety. Often they’ll discuss wild plans (usually involving Kethra’s insane machinations), but 9 times out of 10 vote for a straightforward assault. The keep is like a miniature castle, and a straight-forward assault could quickly become a slog of fights.

Two, introducing boats and a river instantly make for an interesting session. There are numerous possibilities for fun and inventive encounters on the river. It also makes for a spiffy rear-entrance if the PCs can pull it off.

I then panicked when the party all leaned toward the damn straightforward entrance on land. Now granted the overland path is much more straightforward – simply go back towards the monastery and a few more miles to the east is the keep and the river. Traveling down to Womford, however, is a solid day’s travel, then another day to travel up river. Plus, they’d all just bought horses and wanted to use them.

I already steer them quite a bit and I didn’t want to influence too much. But I would’ve been saddened to pass up the river opportunities. I assured them the horses could travel with them on a river boat and that finally won them over, as well as explaining the fortifications a keep was likely to have. All of this was technically through Endrith, but let’s face it – it’s the DM talking to the players.

I think for the most part my players have an understanding that if they follow along, fun will ensue. That being said, I do want to encourage them to seek slightly alternate routes and tactics to spice things up. I think we’ve hit a pretty good compromise thus far.

I also had a planned encounter on the way to Womford. Actually it was planned in case the PCs traveled to Beliard after the Spire, but it worked here just as well. I had a group of Crushing Wave Reavers and Bandits, lead by a Priest, in the middle of attacking a caravan.

The PCs rushed into battle. Kalinaar charged with his warhorse up a hill while Kethra and Miri sneaked around the side. Bandits are super weak and the PCs had the added benefit of NPC allies in the form of the surviving guards and caravan leader. It was here that I quickly realize the added mounts caused a lot of additional work on everyone’s part. Suddenly my PCs had to tackle using multiple character sheets – something I’ve taken for granted (Talus also gained a rat familiar in Red Larch, so he’s up to three sheets!).

I think everything worked out well, though the warhorse’s are decently strong, and Kethra and Kalinaar purchased top of the line horse armor for them. It wasn’t meant to be a difficult fight, but the PCs ended with nary a scratch on them.

The caravan leader paid them the dead guards’ wages. More importantly she pointed out the reason for their travel – the now dead Amnian merchant who was traveling to a gathering of druids. The merchant’s goods were marked with a strange elemental symbol that the PCs debated on. I added the location of Scarlet Moon Hall to their map, but noted that the gathering wouldn’t take place for a few more days. Rivergard Keep first!

The buying and selling of loot and horses in Red Larch took over half our time for the session, so we had to end it after saving the caravan. I’m stoked the PCs picked up on the river option and look forward to making it a memorable one!

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Read the full review at Pixelkin

In Elementary School we went to the computer lab to play Kiki’s Typing Adventures. It was designed for kids to practice typing. It was mostly boring and lame.

Typing games haven’t really broken out of their “edutainment” mold, so I was very skeptical in firing up indie typing adventure Epistory. I’m pleased to report that the Zelda-like RPG uses many successful gameplay designs and a fantastic art style to create something surprisingly memorable – all with just the keyboard.

READ THE FULL REVIEW AT PIXELKIN

Read the full tips guide at Pixelkin

Whichever version of Fire Emblem Fates you play, the biggest in-game decision has already been made for you. Your next decision should be reading these tips. Fates maintains the strict difficulty of its predecessors. Prepare yourself for an all-out war, and keep your new friends, family, and allies alive with these tips.

Expanded Weapon Triangle

Fire Emblem’s combat operates on a simple Rock-Paper-Scissors system with Axes-Lances-Swords. Fates adds ranged weapons into the mix, condensing magic into just a single category: Bows-Shurikens/Daggers-Magic respectively. Know which units and weapons are most effective at all times. You can always pull up the Guide at any time for a refresher, and double-check those up and down arrows in the fight summaries.

Examine the Map and Plan Ahead

Before each battle you can View Map to get a full perspective of the foes you’ll be facing and the general layout of the battle. Later battles can easily last over an hour. Take your time and analyze each enemy loadout and prepare accordingly. Lots of archers in a small map? Leave the fliers at home. Tons of cavalry? Equip those beast-killer lances. A wise 80s cartoon once said – knowing is half the battle.

Read the full tips guide at Pixelkin

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Previously on “Princes of the Apocalypse”

Sometimes you have to scrap ideas even before they really start. If you’re DMing a game of your own creation you have to play the role of both designer and editor. You create the content, then constantly modify and tweak as your players mess with it.

By utilizing a pre-published adventure, the bulk of the design is already done for me. I primarily do the editing work, which leads to a lot of customization and changes based on what I and my players like to do in a tabletop game.

In this week the party made it to Bargewright Inn, which includes a low-level “Side Trek.” I like that “Princes of the Apocalypse” uses extra content that’s completely extraneous to the plot and fills out the Dessarin Valley area quite nicely. 

In this case, however, I just couldn’t figure out how to make it work effectively, and ultimately scrapped it the day of our session. For those you that have played, or are looking through “Princes of the Apocalypse,” I’m referring to the New Management Side Trek.

It has a neat beginning but just kind of peters out at the end. I had some changes to more directly involve my players, but in the end it just didn’t feel like it would play out well. Instead I descried the area then let the PCs basically do what they wanted around the tavern.

I was pleasantly surprised that they all jumped at the opportunity for a bit of light role-playing. Talus cast Invisibility and awkwardly spied on people. Kethra sneaked around and looted some unguarded purses. Miri strode to the bar and ordered a fancy drink. Kalinaar jumped up on a table and ordered drinks for the entire bar, regaling them of the time they survived an attack by a green dragon in some infested woods. That definitely earned him a point of inspiration!

From a bit of fun I brought in Larry, the Sacred Stone Monk that Talus had charmed to be an unwilling but useful ally. Larry had even dealt the killing blow on Hellenrae back in the Sacred Stone Monastery. When the charm wore off, Kalinaar rolled 20+ on his Persuasion check to get him to leave and reconsider his life choices.

One of the nice things about tabletop gaming versus video gaming is I can make the world truly reactive to my players. In this case I had Larry quietly contemplating in the tavern, thinking about where to go next while laying low from any vengeful Earth cultists. The party had a nice little chat with him, and suggested he travel to Red Larch to help with the rebuilding efforts.

After a Long Rest at the Bargewright Inn they hopped over to the nearby town of Womford. I played up the area as a hive of scum and villainy, filled with low-lives and pirates. Thankfully I was able to find a reasonable battlemap to use in Roll20 as the heroes came up to the docks. Miri took control of the situation by ordering around the vagabonds, and soon they were talking to Shoalar Quanderil, captain of the nearby keelboat, River Maid.

Shoalar is a classic pirate and I played up his jovial yet violent nature. Miri tried to buy passage up the river. But once she offered a hefty sum (100gp!) Shoalar decided they were worth attacking and robbing. Half the dockworkers shouldered crossbows and attacked.

Bandits and thugs are little match for a fully rested party of level five PCs, and they went down embarrassingly fast. Shoalar was completely, and I mean COMPLETELY locked down by Talus’s Levitation and Counterspells. He could only watch helplessly as his crew was slaughtered, even when I had a few more bandits stumble out from the nearby tavern.

Interestingly the fight became a bit boring at the end, as Talus refused to let Shoalar down, and the rest of the party seemed unsure how to deal with him. I had him Misty Step so if Talus dropped him he would fall in the water. However, if Levitation ends the target floats slowly to the ground, giving the party some time to deal with him. A few awkward rounds passed until Kalinaar finally spoke up and offered him a chance to surrender, which Shoalar grudgingly accepted.

Usually the villains are fairly one-dimensional and pure evil, so I had a bit of fun making Shoalar more amicable. He acknowledged the PCs’ strengths and kind of adopted them as his new crew, even when they forcibly shackled him to the steering wheel (do keelboats even have rudders? Whatever).

I had two major encounters planned for the Dessarin River. My players had the interesting idea to stagger their Long Rest times, however, and keep traveling throughout the night. This actually made my night encounter way easier to spring. Shoalar warned them about traveling on the river after dark.

Before they had left, Kethra had entered the tavern and asked for any hired help in working the boat. I had her roll a Persuasion check, as well as a 1d4 and some haggling to see just how much help they would get, and for how much. She ended up hiring two workers for 5gp a piece.

Thus it was super fun for me to spring me trap by having a harpoon hurtle out of some bubbling water and drag a screaming hireling under. Roll for initiative!

Merrow are monstrous fish-folk armed with harpoons that can drag people into the water. It seemed like a really fun and different kind of encounter, as they would try to harpoon the PCs and drag them off the boat.

Too bad for me, it all went sideways! Miri used Water Whip to grab the nearest merrow and pull it onto the boat (crashing next to the sleeping, naked Kalinaar). Another merrow successfully harpooned Miri, but critically failed the STR check while Miri had a critical success. My players suggested that the opposite should happen and I agreed – Miri wrapped the harpoon rope around her arm and pulled the merrow up onto the boat!

I had the third one target his closest figure, which was the second hireling. I totally wasted a critical hit with max damage on the poor bastard, as he exploded from the hit. On subsequent rounds Talus’ Shield spell and my own terrible rolling prevented anyone else from being dragged off the boat.

The merrow were dealt with but the hirelings were dead. It was actually a funny way of making that situation fairly dire, and Miri ended up taking some heavy damage. She took the next Long Rest shift, and the following day another keelboat was spotted heading South.

This was meant to be another full combat encounter, but the PCs played it pretty smart. They hung low and kept Shoalar at the helm, with nothing amiss. I had him wave to the other crew, and they never ended up coming over to investigate. They didn’t really have a reason to.

Keeping Shoalar alive should also prove beneficial next week as they approach Rivergard Keep. I definitely want to reward my players for playing things smart rather than full-on assaults. They’ve talked to Shoalar and have a plan for entering through the river gate. How things play out from there will be anyone’s guess. We’ll find out next week!

Recorded every Sunday night, uploaded on Mondays. Subscribe for our weekly adventures!

Read the full review at Pixelkin

When I spoke to Black Forest Games at PAX South, they revealed that Rogue Stormers went through a major evolution during Early Access. It was originally devised as a standard action-RPG, but came off as too linear and boring. BFG revamped the gameplay, adding randomized levels and multiple characters. The result is an intriguing combination of side-scrolling shooter and rogue-like dungeon crawler.

The world of Rogue Stormers showcases a unique style called “Dieselpunk.” Dieselpunk represents an industrial World War 1-2 aesthetic. Black Forest Games applied this world of bulky technology to the medieval-like city of Ravensdale. A substance called “goop” powers all their diesel engines. It also turns the population of Ravensdale into monsters.

Read the full review at Pixelkin

I have finished another backlogged game via Rogue’s Adventures. You can read my latest Final Thoughts below and also on my gaming blog on Game Informer.

Developer: Harebrained Schemes

Publisher: Harebrained Holdings

Release Date: Aug 30, 2015

Franchise Fatigue. It happens to the best of them. Many times it’s a “it’s not you it’s me” kind of situation. Maybe you played a bunch of entries in a row, or maybe a sequel simply doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself form its predecessors.

I didn’t think I’d start feeling Franchise Fatigue in the Shadowrun games. Shadowrun: Hong Kong is only the third game after Harebrained Schemes resurrected the series through Kickstarter several years ago.

Shadowrun: Returns told a great story using a simple but effective turn-based combat system reminiscent of XCOM. It was very short and linear, however. Shadowrun: Dragonfall began life as a large expansion before being developed into a stand-alone game via a Director’s Cut. It was a vast improvement, with tons of varied missions and content, and an excellent cast of supporting characters and party members.

I loved Dragonfall, and Hong Kong is pretty much more of the same. That should be perfectly acceptable. Except the story is weaker, the characters not as interesting, and the gameplay now feels far too simplistic. Shadowrun: Hong Kong is still a fun game, but it’s just inferior to Dragonfall.

The story opens with your old adoptive mentor Raymond Black sending you a mysterious note to meet him in Hong Kong. I’ve loved the Noir plot devices and themes in the Shadowrun world, and it’s used to great effect in this opening.

You soon meet up with your fellow adopted brother Duncan, now a cop. Duncan ended up being one of the better characters of the game, with a passion he wears on his sleeve. The opening mission results in several deaths, and you’re suddenly on the run with a surviving group of Shadowrunners – a rat shaman named Gobbet and a dwarf decker named Is0bel.

The awkward plot structure of Dragonfall returns here. Shadowrun is all about going on missions to earn money. Unfortunately this means the main story often takes a back seat while you tackle a bunch of fun but self-contained missions. Hong Kong doesn’t really fix this. I made an effort to actually skip a few missions so I could get through the more interesting main story faster, but it ended up going in a predicable and tiresome direction.

I like when Shadowrun deals with Noir and cyberpunk themes like betrayal, murder, gang warfare, transhumanism, etc. I don’t like it when they simply do the big fantasy thing of demons, dimensional portals, and the end of the world. Shadowrun: Returns was guilty of this at the end as well.

Hong Kong‘s villain is also basically just this outside corporate figure, which is a big bummer. Instead most of your interactions are with your crew and your fixer, the delightfully surly older woman Kindly Cheng. She reminded me of Avasarala in The Expanse series – abrasive, cursing, and intimidating. She’s great.

Your fellow runners are used the same way as in Dragonfall. Duncan, Gobbet, and Is0bel are later joined by Rachter, a smooth Russian rigger and Gaichu, a ghoul samurai. Overall these characters just aren’t quite as fun or interesting as your crew in Dragonfall, and I found myself not talking to them nearly as much. Though Gobbet’s stories of past runs gone wrong were entertaining.

The writing and art is still fantastic. The art design has never been better. Nearly every area of the city drips with a steady rain fall and an impressive level of detail in every background. It does have the unfortunate side effect of highlighting the few things you can actually interact with. There are very few people and objects you can ever click on – an annoying limit that I’ve finally grown sick of.

Inventory and character management is still a mess as well. There’s very little loot and you still can’t manipulate your party member’s equipment until you actually loot something – which is very rare.

The writing remains a major hallmark of the series. I love the descriptive text and the dialogue kept me engaged in most scenes. Many runs have a twist or quirk thrown in that forces you to adapt – like a third party contacting me in the middle of a run to reveal that my client was setting up to betray me. Whom can you trust is a wonderfully recurring theme, though some missions worked much better than others.

A particularly irksome one involved the new Matrix changes. The Matrix is essentially Shadowrun‘s “future internet.” In the games it’s represented by a Tron-like level that only deckers can traverse. In Shadowrun: Hong Kong they added stealth mechanics, allowing combat to be triggered by enemy sight or manually by you. It rarely made any difference in meat space.

In the Matrix dodging these new little sentry patrols was a royal pain in the ass. Combat is still a slog as you have limited moves and only one character (who takes more than 1 decker?).

In the penultimate mission you infiltrate a megacorp building, which sounds cool. But most encounters involve holding off security forces while your decker has to go through the boring motions of Matrix combat.

The one change that was a welcome addition was each of your core party members has some cool unique weaponry or abilities (making it even dumber to spend your precious little nuyen on outside hirelings). Is0bel has a crazy awesome grenade launcher. Rachter can power up his awesome four-legged drone. Gobbet can use her rat totem to steal other spirits. It helps give them all unique flavors and helps make the familiar combat a bit more interesting.

I thought I’d love Shadowrun: Hong Kong because I dig the Shadowrun world and the previous two tactical RPGs. Hell based on the fun I had with those games I ran a Shadowrun tabletop game for a solid five months. But in this case the “same-ness” of the combat and structure felt more tiresome than fun.

I didn’t find the plot nor the characters quite as fun or engaging as Dragonfall, and the frustratingly limited UI and world are too annoying to ignore. I sincerely want to play more Shadowrun games by Harebrained Schemes, but they really need to evolve beyond making clones of the previous iterations.

PROS

• Retains the immersive noir-cyberpunk writing and art of previous entries
• Party members have fun unique abilities
• Lots of great new weapons, especially melee-based

CONS

• Too much “been there, done that” if you’ve played previous Shadowrun games
• Still very limited in inventory, interactivity, and combat
• Plot starts strong but devolves into lame “defeat the big bad, save the world”
• New optional stealth/ambush mechanics don’t work very well
• Matrix still sucks

Final Say: Another fun Shadowrun adventure, but overall weaker than Dragonfall as the series hits its gameplay limits.

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.

Thanks in large part to trade paperbacks and the digital convenience of Marvel Unlimited I can make relatively quick progress, and I’ll write down my Final Thoughts for each collection here on my blog. Like my gaming Final Thoughts, this will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned!

Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning

Artists: Miguel Sepulveda, Brad Walker

Issues: The Thanos Imperative (#1-6), The Thanos Imperative: Devastation, The Thanos Imperative: Ignition

The creative writing team of Abnett and Lanning enjoyed a string of major successes in the 2000s. They reshaped the entire Marvel Cosmic setting through awesome events like Annihilation, Annihilation Conquest, and War of Kings. They created the dysfunctional and fun Guardians of the Galaxy. They made Nova a central hero in all things cosmic.

And they made it all come together in The Thanos Imperative.

Like previous cosmic events and series, to understand The Thanos Imperative requires a lot of set up. The plot spins right out of War of Kings, which heavily involved every major cosmic faction: the Kree lead by the Inhumans, the Shi’ar, Nova, Blastaar, the Guardians of the Galaxy – hell even Silver Surfer and Galactus have to show up.

The bomb that was meant to end the war between the Kree and the Shi’ar ripped open a fault to another universe. Dubbed the “cancerverse,” it’s a place where death has, uh, died, and life has taken over without limits. It’s ruled by giant Cthulhu-esque tentacle elder god things, as well as dark cult version of all our recognizable heroes.

It all comes off a little dorky, especially as their leader is the dark version of Captain Mar-vell, a cosmic hero that has been long dead in our Marvel universe. They shout “F’taghn” a lot and wring their hands over killing death and establishing a foothold in our universe. It’s yet another worlds-ending catastrophe that brings all our heroes together.

What makes The Thanos Imperative work well are the Guardians of the Galaxy. The latter issues of their comic petered out a bit as they dealt with the cancerverse fault. Here they’re given a specific task – escort the newly resurrected Thanos into the fault. Thanos is the avatar of death, and his very presence upsets the balance in the cancerverse.

By giving them a clear goal the Guardians have a fun, dramatic journey as they fight over what to do with Thanos and battle the evil Avengers of the cancerverse (dubbed “Revengers,” oye). Having previously killed Thanos with his bare hands during Annihilation, Drax is especially not happy with the escort mission, and the two quickly come to blows.

On the other side is Nova and the major cosmic factions trying to stave off a full blown invasion of elder god things. There’s a nice back and forth between the Guardians’ mission and Nova’s defense force that keeps the action brimming along.

The Thanos Imperative has the distinct difference of only containing the six issues of its mini-series, plus a prologue and epilogue issue. Previous cosmic events included several spin-off series and tie-ins but here the action is focused on this one major plot line. It also means The Thanos Imperative is not quite as deep as previous events.

The most interesting thing to come out of the story is Thanos himself. For the first time in a very long time we’re treated to Thanos’ inner workings – his personality, hopes, and beliefs. I found it fascinating to read such a storied villain broken down into a despondent shell who simply yearns for death (both figuratively and literally – he’s still in love with the personification of Death in our world).

Nova creates his own Guardians-type team of cosmic badasses: Beta Ray Bill, Gladiator, Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, and Quasar. It’s all they can do to hold their ground while the Star-lord led Guardians team does the important work. I liked the little twists involving the Vision and Scarlet Witch versions of the cancerverse. Turns out they’re none too happy about the “Many-angled ones” and help our heroes reach their destination.

In the end Thanos lets evil Captain Mar-Vell kill him. Or at least try to – which summons Lady Death herself to restore the balance. The cancerverse is collapsing, but Thanos begins freaking out when Death ignores his pleas. The rest of the team gets out, but Nova and Star-lord get to have their little Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid moment, and knowingly sacrifice themselves in the end to keep Thanos at bay.

I had a feeling one of them would go down, but surprised both of them did. I figured it would be Nova since his story was kind of finished as the Nova Corp is now being re-established. But apparently we’re breaking up the Guardians team at the end as well. Sad.

At the end Cosmo revealed he was instructed by Star-lord to create a new Guardians of the Galaxy on the ashes of the war. It’s the team Nova had formed, and it’s a total sausage-fest. I can’t say I’m terribly excited about these figures, as many of them are far too powerful (like Silver Surfer and Gladiator).

The Cosmic stuff has had a problem with escalation, where every major event has had to be more insane and universe-ending than the last. The War of Kings at least had a ton of cool political factions and characters.

The Thanos Imperative boils down to “bad stuff is coming through a portal.” Abnett and Lanning do a good job making it fun and exciting, and Thanos is a neat character. The Guardians have a fitting final adventure and the sacrifices at the end felt meaningful (even though Star-lord at least comes back from it at some point).

But overall The Thanos Imperative is the weakest cosmic event I’ve read. It’s short and fairly self-contained, though you’ll still need to read through Guardians and possibly the previous events to have any idea of who these characters are. Thanos is a fun character and the art is decent enough, but the whole “cancerverse” thing is kind of silly. Hopefully that wasn’t the last run of the classic Guardians of the Galaxy team – I need more Rocket Racoon and Cosmo in my life!