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2 years ago ::
May 27, 2011 - 1:06AM
#121
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Date Joined:
May 25, 2009
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The What: Thursday Knights, a D&D4 livestream / podcast. How you may have missed it: Though the DM (Greg) has a thread here that he bumps most weeks, it quickly falls off the first couple of pages. Also I suspect that many people may think that they wouldn't enjoy watching or listening to someone else's game. What makes it so special?: The Thursday Knights run a great game. Excellent DM work with loads of mechanics, concepts and encounter ideas to swipe for your own use along with great collaborative storytelling / role playing in all situations- be it combat, skill challenge, character to character talks, etc. On top of that, if you can tune in live (7-11 PDT, every Thursday night) there's a group of regular, friendly viewers who love to 'talk shop' when it comes to all aspects of D&D and gaming in general. In short, it's the best show on the internet, and the audience is a great bunch of folks to hang out with for a few hours while chatting about D&D. If you do happen to swing by, feel free to say hello - I go by 'Thoth' in the jtv chat. Note: The June 2nd session has been rescheduled to June 1st (Wednesday), but the show is automatically archived shortly after airing. An audio podcast version is edited and uploaded as well, though the audio sessions are currently about 10-12 episodes behind.
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2 years ago ::
May 27, 2011 - 4:15AM
#122
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Date Joined:
Mar 31, 2010
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The What: Thursday Knights, a D&D4 livestream / podcast.
How you may have missed it: Though the DM (Greg) has a thread here that he bumps most weeks, it quickly falls off the first couple pf pages. Also I suspect that many people may think that they wouldn't enjoy watching or listening to someone else's game.
What makes it so special?: The Thursday Knights run a great game. Excellent DM work with loads of mechanics, concepts and encounter ideas to swipe for your own use along with great collaborative storytelling / role playing in all situations- be it combat, skill challenge, character to character talks, etc. On top of that, if you can tune in live (7-11 PDT, every Thursday night) there's a group of regular, friendly viewers who love to 'talk shop' when it comes to all aspects of D&D and gaming in general.
In short, it's the best show on the internet, and the audience is a great bunch of folks to hang out with for a few hours while chatting about D&D.
If you do happen to swing by, feel free to say hello - I go by 'Thoth' in the jtv chat.
Note: The June 2nd session has been rescheduled to June 1st (Wednesday), but the show is automatically archived shortly after airing. An audio podcast version is edited and uploaded as well, though the audio sessions are currently about 10-12 episodes behind.
I usually try and catch the show, it's pretty excellent and I will often turn it on when I'm playing video games and jump into and out of it.
They do spend a lot of time just talking though.
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2 years ago ::
May 27, 2011 - 2:09PM
#123
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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The What: Mini CountersHow you may have missed it: It's sold on a website I've never heard of before. What makes it so special? Mini Counters are surprisingly useful reusable numbers that you can stick to miniatures & tokens to keep track of which is which. Personal testimony: they're inexpensive, work great (stick firmly, easy to remove, no residue, no degrade in quality after frequent use, etc.) and have made a world of difference in keeping D&D combats organized.
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2 years ago ::
May 31, 2011 - 8:59PM
#124
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The What: Elder Arantham
How you may have missed it: It's one NPC outlined in one Dragon 364 article, with one power that makes it the most awesome NPC ever.
What makes it so special?: He has a power titled: Killing in the Name. Hands down, this is the most badass Rage Against the Machine reference ever, made doubly sweet because it's perfectly in flavour for Arantham.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 05, 2011 - 7:41AM
#125
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Date Joined:
Oct 25, 2007
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The What: At-Will WebchatHow You may have missed it: It's only a few weeks old. What makes it so special?: A really active channel (15-30 users on constantly) that includes D&D's A-list bloggers (Sarah Darkmagic, ChattyDM, Sly Flourish, et al.) on an A-list blog. It's a great place to get quick, solid advice from great DMs. The community is active and into 4e, but also diverse enough to chat about other games to use for inspirations (or just to wax nostalgic!). Overall, it's a great place to socialize with other people who adore 4th edition D&D! Stop by.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 05, 2011 - 11:05AM
#126
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Date Joined:
May 23, 2005
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The What: At-Will Webchat
How You may have missed it: It's only a few weeks old.
What makes it so special?: A really active channel (15-30 users on constantly) that includes D&D's A-list bloggers (Sarah Darkmagic, ChattyDM, Sly Flourish, et al.) on an A-list blog. It's a great place to get quick, solid advice from great DMs. The community is active and into 4e, but also diverse enough to chat about other games to use for inspirations (or just to wax nostalgic!).
Overall, it's a great place to socialize with other people who adore 4th edition D&D! Stop by.
We have a VT Beta tester irc chat as well and have since the beta restarted in March  But cant post the link to it here since well....its for the VT Beta testers.
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2 years ago ::
Jun 08, 2011 - 3:22PM
#127
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Date Joined:
Oct 19, 2008
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The What: Player Motivations (DMG 8-10, DMG2 42-49)
How You may have missed it: People seem to skip over things that tell them how they or their players like to play games.
What makes it so special?: It gives overviews of archetypical player motivations in the first DMG, and expands upon them in the DMG2 giving some suggestions of what to do to engage each specific type of player. What is a player motivation? Well, it's why they play the game in the first place, and much of the community seems to forget that each player plays differently. A group of players that have solely the slayer (not the class) and power gamer motivations aren't really going to give two shakes about "your damned RP nonsense". Meanwhile, a group of players that have solely the storyteller and actor motivations are going to wonder when they are going to "stop killing things and play the game".
Basically, this tells how to engage each type of player where they find the game most interesting. It also can help the DM to evaluate what they enjoy most about the game, and then give and take until the game is fun for everyone, or spot players whose play styles are so totally different that a compromise might never be reached. For example, a power gamer DM might not mind meta-discussion to happen at the table, but a storyteller probably would.
I find these motivations quite useful in targeting each player I have. I just have to remember that none of my players are purely one kind of motivation.
Conclusion: Many of the threads on this subforum addresses the worries of the DM, such as how to increase roleplay, stave off the constant drive to focus fire, the need to know or not know about items, worlds, powers, and if mechanical elements matter more than flavour. The answer, contained within these pages, is that it depends on the players and the DM, and their motivations for why they play the game. For new and old DMs alike, it is important to remember that not only are the reasons to play this game different, but how to play to those motivations are different.
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." --Bill Cosby (1937- )Vanador: OK. You ripped a gateway to Hell, killed half the town, and raised the dead as feral zombies. We're going to kill you. But it can go two ways. We want you to run as fast as you possibly can toward the south of the town to draw the Zombies to you, and right before they catch you, I'll put an arrow through your head to end it instantly. If you don't agree to do this, we'll tie you this building and let the Zombies rip you apart slowly. Dimitry: God I love being Neutral. 4th edition is dead, long live 4th edition.Salla: opinionated, but commonly right. fun quotes
Show
You have to do the work first, and show you can do the work, before someone is going to pay you for it.
If you can't understand how someone yelling at another person would make them fight harder and longer, then you need to look at the forums a bit closer.
quote author=56832398 post=519321747]Considering DnD is a game wouldn't all styles be gamist?
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2 years ago ::
Jun 11, 2011 - 6:28PM
#128
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Date Joined:
Jun 11, 2011
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The intent of this thread is to highlight things within any/all of the books that people like, be they a dungeon delve, a monster, a trap or a series of powers, or even a whole class, and showing why we think they are fun and or useful. The hope is to inspire people to pick up something new, or use something in their game that they didn't know about previously because, well, they may have missed it. Responses to these posts are of course welcome, but don't just focus on the one thing I post, please. Also, be respectful.
For a first example:
The What: The Unrisen, a group of monsters in the Book Open Grave (pg 186-187).
How you may have missed it: If you don't have the book, and if you have only seen the monsters in the Monster Builder toolset. For reference, they are: Vile Pet, Corrupted Offspring, Tainted Priest, Darkhoof.
What makes it so special?: well, these creatures are intended to be the accident of the Raise Dead ritual going wrong, and bringing back beings in a "Pet Cemetery" style evil manner. Sinister children, beloved animals and the like being brought back wrong has a lot of fun flavour, and could be used by a DM for a variety of reasons:
- Maybe some shmuck trying to bring back a loved one without the proper training, or with a "discount" (i.e. incomplete) Raise Dead scroll.
- Perhaps the PCs want to get an NPC raised, but the DM wasn't ever intending to have the NPC raised. Using these monsters (or at least using them as a base) could provide an alternative to a simple rasing; they were brough back, they seemed fine, but eventually they show their dark, evil nature.
- What happens if the loved one of a PC is raised improperly? What kind of ramifications of sanity come from having a child (for example) raised only to have to kill it with your own hands?
Conclusion: I loved the flavour of this creature, and am constantly on the lookout for a way to sneak one of them into my game to mess with the expectiaitons of my players. After all, there's nothing in the PHB that says the Raise Dead ritual can go wrong, but what if it does? What if it could?
For ease, following this format would be great so people checking this thread can clearly find the material they might want to use.
i think you are exactly right. why not? you can trip and fall on your sword, why not have a raise dead spell go wrong? many other spells have gone awry.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 01, 2011 - 7:21AM
#129
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2009
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The What: Crafting magic wants (PHB, pg 242)
How you may have missed it: It's a tiny paragraph before a bunch of premade wands are listed out or you only think about items found in the Character Builder.
What makes it so special: Any encounter power from a class that is naturally proficient in wands can be put into a wand as a daily power. And who says Tomes are the only implements that expand your power selection?
Too bad there aren't any guidelines in the book for what the lowest level a magic wand has to be to hold a particular encounter power. I'd assume if you wanted a level 7 power in a magic wand, it'd need to be at least level 7 though...
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2 years ago ::
Jul 01, 2011 - 8:30AM
#130
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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The What: Crafting magic wants (PHB, pg 242)
How you may have missed it: It's a tiny paragraph before a bunch of premade wands are listed out or you only think about items found in the Character Builder.
What makes it so special: Any encounter power from a class that is naturally proficient in wands can be put into a wand as a daily power. And who says Tomes are the only implements that expand your power selection?
Too bad there aren't any guidelines in the book for what the lowest level a magic wand has to be to hold a particular encounter power. I'd assume if you wanted a level 7 power in a magic wand, it'd need to be at least level 7 though...
Wow i missed that and i really like this new finding...i always loved those Wands charged with known Spell ! Thank you Estlor !
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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