Back from the brink!

It's been over a month sadly. A combination of factors meant that November was a complete write-off. First the internet went on us, until November 20. Then the laptop computer completely died, eliciting a several-hundred-euro bill to recover all our precious files (no, we hadn't backed up…)

A crushing schedule in work, plus multiple bouts of sickness that swept through the entire family in several waves meant that it was largely a month to forget. 

And I certainly didn't have much free time to blog!

But just because I haven't blogged in ages doesn't mean I should give up completely, right?

I DID manage to get a SMALL amount of gaming done and I thought I'd use this post to update you a little. I have some hard-earned time off work this week so hopefully I'll get the chance to add some more posts. In the meantime, here's what rocked my world and rolled my dice:

1) Dungeons and Diesel! One of the coolest things of the past month or so was watching Vin Diesel get back to his DnD roots. I'm not a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise (nothing against it, I've just not seen the movies) but I appreciate the star power of someone like Vin Diesel. Watching him join forces with the team from Geek and Sundry and the Nerdist to roll some dice was awesome. And you can really see Vin getting back into the swing of things, the critical hits are classic!

I wasn't sure what to expect from the video but it's not too long and really entertaining. If you've not seen it yet, check it out here: Vin Diesel Plays Dungeons and Dragons Extended Version

2) Matt Mercer! Linked to the above. I wasn't familiar with the Geek and Sundry or Nerdist guys before I saw the Vin Diesel vid. I was impressed by how laid back, cool and talented they all seem to be. Matt Mercer is my new favourite DM. He joins an eclectic mix of guys including Zak Sabbath/Smith, Chris Perkins, and Mike Shea who have inspired my game. His main talent seems to be keeping the narrative flowing and in this instance, PACING. 

I heard an interview recently where he said he was hoping to get a 90 minute game with Vin D, he actually got 25 minutes. And yet he managed to cram in three encounters! He knows when to up the ante, raise the pace, and when to end an encounter at a climatic moment. There was a lot to learn for family games where everyone needs to keep their attention span up. The casual player (like my parents!) will not sit and mull tactics over a 90 minute miniatures battle - we want to cram in as much action as possible! Watching Mercer at work really inspired me to tighten my DMing chops further.

3) Halloween Special! On that note, I ran a Halloween game for my wife and parents based on Mercer's scenario about the curse of Bronnbog (sp?!) 

We only had an hour or so to play but having seen this guy run it in 25 minutes, it was no problem! I even managed to squeeze in an extra encounter with a group of nasty, warty giant toads. The player all loved it and they especially loved the faster pace I set. I will now be looking to make each encounter last 15 minutes, tops. 

4) Slaying Lolth! As I mentioned before, I also have a "real" DnD group of more hardcore gamers who try and meet up a couple of times a month. This month we managed to find time for just one session, but it was a big one. All year I've been running a version of the DnD encounter adventure War of Everlasting Darkness, expanded and converted to 5e. It culminated in a huge battle against the Demon Queen of the Drow, Lolth, deeming the Spellcaves of Eryndlyn. With my son I built a massive game board using every bit of cavern terrain I could dredge out of our shed! That was NOT a 15 minute encounter I can assure you - it lasted almost four hours, but it was pretty cool and resulted in hard-fought victory for the PCs. With the characters edging towards 12th level it marks the end of the longest campaign I've managed to sustain (yes, 11 months, but I think that's longer than most these days…)

For some reason I cannot post any pics today, but I am gonna post this blog, just to break the radio silence. Adios for now….