Digital Arcanum 2.015

Yet another try at a daily blog

[selganor]

T-1 to the big day

Yesterday I experimented a bit with the rolling table and card deck (continued today) and I'm still not happy with them. 

I'll have to find a solution for that later. The first session will have to make do without an "in campaign" solution (i.e. just roll on the table)

Now just one little addition before tonight: the spells.

[selganor]

Preparation T-2

Cleaned up the PC tokens a bit so they are similar to my monster tokens and noticed that I'll have to prepare the Wild Surge table for our wild sorcerer.

Will check the other characters for special rules to incorporate into the campaign tomorrow...

[selganor]

First session T-3

I haven't made that much progress (spells for the caster still missing and I'm not really willing to stat a token that I might really need in a few months), but I mad a big breakthrough with understanding how tokens work.

Now I am confident I can run the first session without too much work during the session.

[selganor]

Preparing for the first test session T-4

Almost all tokens that need combat stats are done, only 3 tokens need some more abilities, but even those probably wouldn't be needed any time soon.

The last one has spells, so I'll probably have to find some tricks to list those for easy reference.

[selganor]

Preparing the first 5e session in T-5 days

Next monday I'll run the first session of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure and so far I still haven't done much work to prepare for the session.

I've read the adventure (or at least the first part) multiple times, have checked some suggestions of other DMs on how one could improve the adventure but I haven't really put much work on the Roll20 campaign file so far.

Today I intend to put all the files for the npcs/monsters up to Roll20, let's see how far I'll progress.

Update: All Tokens are uploaded, maybe I can also put up a basic framework for stats and the like.

Update 2: One monster is almost completely statted (only 2 macros and one feature missing), but I'll do the rest tomorrow. Hopefully I'll do all of it then, as I probably won't have that much time to work on the campaign till sunday.

[selganor]

Deja vu

Another new year has come and I still got this mostly dead blog.

Let's see what my goals are this year:

consume less media to have time to actually create something myself

keep my GW2 characters (which still exist) up to date on this blog

leave other free time to do something else completly 

So let's see how long I am able to keep these resolutions this year.

[selganor]

How to start playing Guild Wars 2 (part 1 of x)

While watching some “Lets play Guild Wars 2” videos of people who seemingly just installed the game and started it, I noticed that there might be some problems for people just jumping into the game. So here are my tips for new players: 1. Relax and take your time Unless you are in the middle of a combat zone, you usually have the time to look around and make informed decisions. Check out what the game has to say to you. On the right side of the screen are hints where your personal story leads you next (in green), what dynamic events happens nearby (in orange), which “heart quests” are current (and what to do to complete them) and so on. There usually isn’t much text to read in the game, but you should at least check out what is written on the screen (especially if you feel like you don’t know what to do next) 2. Don’t run away from events, join them Unless you are badly beaten (like with most of your armor damaged, still losing health from a previous hard battle, …) don’t avoid events. You usually get far more xp from them than from random grinding (killing random mobs, gathering materials, …). If you join the events that happen on your way along your personal story, you most likely get enough xp to keep up with the level requirement. 3. Get gathering gear and always gather At your first chance you should get all three gathering items (harvesting sickle, mining pick and logging axe) and always gather every material you come along (they are indicated on your nearby vicinity map).  Even if you don’t intend to craft stuff, many of the materials gathered can fetch over 10 copper each per item on the Trading Post. 4. If your inventory is getting full, get rid of stuff you don’t need The fastest and easiest way is “Deposit Collectibles” and all gathered materials will get deposited to your bank account no matter where you are. For other stuff, you might not always just sell them to merchants but maybe also check out the Trading Post (Key ‘O’ shortcut) and be surprised that some stuff sells for way more than the merchants will pay you. You can sell stuff from everywhere, but you can only get your money at trading posts in the game, so don’t sell stuff you need the money for right now and there. More tomorrow…

[selganor]

Another year, another try

Since I seemed to be too busy when I restarted this blog, I'll use the new year as a new reason to reanimate this blog (yet again).

For starters I'll try to compile nuggets of knowledge I found out (some only recently) while playing Guild Wars 2. 

[selganor]

Faeknight Colleen

Level 11 Sylvari Ranger

Though trouble may follow me, I overcome it with dignity.

The Pale Tree awakened me during the Cycle of Noon, and the most important of Ventari's teachings is: "Where life goes, so too should you."

While still in the Dream, I dreamed of the White Stag, and I'm called to find it.

[selganor]

Flamesinger Breaend

Sylvari Guardian 80 (Vigil)

Armorsmith 188 Weaponsmith 168

Weapons: - Sword  Fine 74 - Hammer Fine 76 - Greatsword Fine 69 - Mace: Rare 72 - Scepter Fine 76 - Staff Fine 66 - Focus Fine 80 - Torch Fine 63 - Shield Masterwork 38 - Spear Masterwork 77 - Trident Masterwork 64

Armor: - Head: Masterwork 71 - Shoulders: Fine 74 - Chest: Rare 80 - Hand: Exotic 80 - Legs: 74 - Foot: Fine 57

- Back  - Accessory: 15 - Accessory:  - Amulet: 28 - Ring: Masterwork 50 - Ring: 9

[selganor]

Wanda the Witch

Human Mesmer 80 (Order of Whispers)

Tailor 229 Artificer 152

Weapons: - Sword 80 - Sword Masterwork 80 - Greatsword Transmuted 80 - Pistol 80 - Scepter 76 - Staff 80 - Focus Exotic 64 - Torch Rare 80 - Spear 80 - Trident 80

[selganor]

Selganor Yoster

Asura Engineer 80 (Durmand Priory)

Chef 389 Huntsman 125

Weapons: - Pistol:  Masterwork 78 - Pistol: Fine 80 - Rifle: Fine 80 - Shield Fine 76 - Harpoon Fine 80

Armor: - Head Fine 78 - Shoulders: Masterwork 80 - Chest: Masterwork 80 - Hand: Rare 80 - Legs: Masterwork 80 - Foot: Masterwork 80

- Back Masterwork Unique (Full Memoirs) - Accessory: Fine 55 - Accessory: Exotic 80 - Amulet: Masterwork 57 - Ring Rare (Heroes Band) - Ring Masterwork 46

[selganor]

Silent Samira

Norn Thief 80 (Order of Whispers)

Jeweler 268 Leatherworker 181

Weapons: - Sword Masterwork 80 - Short Bow Exotic 71 - Dagger Exotic 80 - Dagger Rare 75 - Pistol Masterwork 78 - Pistol - - Spear Rare 80 - Harpoon Masterwork 77

Armor: - Head: Masterwork 72 - Shoulder: Masterwork 80 - Chest: Exotic 66 - Hand: Fine 80 - Leg: Fine 63 - Foot: Fine 76

- Back: Transmuted 80 - Accessory: Masterwork 80 - Accessory:masterwork 65 - Amulet: Masterwork 65 - Ring: Exotic 80 - Ring: Rare 62

[selganor]

Guild Wars 2

Here's a list of my Characters:

Selganor Yoster - Asura Engineer (Chef/Huntsman)

Wanda the Witch - Human Mesmer (Tailor/Artificer)

Flamesinger Breaend - Sylvari Guardian (Armorsmith/Weaponsmith)

Silent Samira - Norn Thief (Leatherworker/Jeweler)

I guess I'll compile pages for them with current equipment, things to do and so on...

But for now, onwards to Guildwars

[selganor]

Epic Table - First Impressions

Recently I heard on Jennisodes, that there's a new virtual gaming table available, but it's still in Beta.

Epic Table

The interview sounded promising and since this recently gone into open Beta I downloaded and installed it.

Installation was fast and easy, everybody who ever installs something on a PC can do it easily.

It takes some time to start up (at least on my PC), but that is about consistent with MapTool.

More later

[selganor]

Setting rules for Guild Wars D&D

Unlike any houserules modifying characters, these rules are a basis to emulate the "Guild Wars effect".

Rests during travels Travel through the "wilderness" doesn't allow for long enough rests to actually take an extended rest, so you can only take short rests outside outposts/towns.

Maptravel Once you reached an Outpost/Town you learn the information of the place's Teleport Circle, so you can travel with a simple Teleport Circle ritual from place to place. Some towns are situated in the middle of some conflicts and don't have a Teleport Circle, which means no maptravel to these places.

Sigils of Return I'm thinking of prividing PCs with some special symbols which they can use once per day to teleport themself (but not any other party members) to any already explored Outpost/Town

More later

[selganor]

Guild Wars for D&D 4 - basic design decisions

Another year, another try at playing D&D Guild Wars style.

Before I get into more details, here are some basic design decisions:

No houserules that affect the character sheet. You still should be able to use the Character Builder for your characters

No PvP, just PvE I don't really like the PvP parts of Guild Wars, so I don't really use them unless I am "forced" to.

At first, humans only The nonhuman races from Eye of the North I'll keep out of the plan for starters.

I guess I will expand these guidelines in the future.