D&D pre-game 5-12-18

The Argenian Wastelands

Lukas Fudderer had made it to the barren lands between the Twilight Fens and the coastline of the Sea of Shards. This was farther South than the old Lukas had ever wanted to travel. This new Lukas had discovered a love of adventure. Being able to physically hunt for and find the artifacts he had not so long ago only chronicled in texts back in the guild offices, was so much more rewarding. He had found lost tombs, ancient texts, ornate trinkets and fantastical magical items and the hideous creatures and traps guarding them. He has also formed a network of useful contacts and dare say even a few good friends.

He now stood atop a small hill overlooking his next adventure. A journey into the Argorian Wastelands. An area known for being  rocky, full of geysers, hot mud pools scrub brush and just generally inhospitable.  He reached into a pouch and produced a small notebook and map. He consulted both and then began to scan the horizon.

“Three days to Silver Town and then one or two more to reach the center. That shouldn’t be too difficult.” Lukas whispered to himself.

He quickly rolled up his map and stuffed it back in the pouch along with his little notebook. He then turned to face the two dwarves climbing up the hill behind him. One shirtless and wearing tattered overalls with a large floppy tan hat. The second is wearing trousers help together with various multicolored patches, a filthy tunic leather helmet that looks at least a size to big. He is also chewing on a cattail reed and whistling a tune. Both are shoeless with filthy beards, glassy eyes,  a bit of a slack jaw appearance and have an odor emanating from them that is a mix of unwashed body and swamp water.

Monsters: Deva

Angels, Celestials, Assimons are just other names for the creatures called Devas.

If demons and devils are the ultra-bad then the Deva are the ultra-good.

I hate the ultra-good! They are just so boring.

Devas are angels. Let me just toss that out there for the remainder of this post.

They have wings. They can be male or female. They are strikingly beautiful/ handsome. They were togas, loincloths or something sparse in the clothing related department. They are messengers for the higher powers of good. They have various orders they which they belong. They are also warriors for the higher powers of good too. There is nothing super shocking about the D&D version of angels that doesn’t match what we all learned in Sunday school, from movies, books etc.

Why no Devas?

X-Wing 2nd Edition is a happening sometime soon...

When this game dropped we instantly became fans.

It is really easy to learn.

The ships look good and the pre-paint job is pretty descent. I would never have painted these ships if they came unpainted.

The replay ability is fantastic.

You can get a good game in within an hour.

There is minimal set-up and tear down.

There is a ton of fanboy stuff here as all the known Star Wars ships and pilots are available to play.

It is big with the tournament crowd too.

Now they have announced a 2nd edition of X-Wing......and I couldn't care less.

Why?

Well I am not in the mood or market to buy the upgrade cards or whatever they use to make all my ships playable with 2nd edition. I have a lot of ships and multiple of Tie- Fighters and X-Wings. I can imagine the cost for converting will be stupid and you'll probably get one of each shop per box meaning I'll have to buy multiples to get all the cards I need for the ships I have. The thought of that and trying to put it to words just hurts my brain, let alone actually spending the money to do it.

They are adding Force powers to the game now?! No thank you. I prefer my Jedi with force powers on land with laser swords. Having Force power pilots just screams potential for unbalance cheese.

I can see this as not only a marketing ploy. Every ship in the movie, t.v. and book universe (old and new) is available. They need to pull in new players or force older players to buy new ships. Better make a new edition then. The old standard of if you're not growing you're dying in the business world.

This also feels like a fix to the tournament scene too. After looking at X-Wing at Adepticon the last two years and at GenCon, it seems there are a handful of very popular ships  and upgrades. This leaves a lot of plastic ships not being used/ bought. A new edition shakes all this up and forces new purchases at best and at worst at least new list building for those power combo ships/upgrades.

Monsters: Owlbear

This monster has appeared in every D&D edition. There is no definitive answer their history. They are a great threat for many levels. They are the single best amalgam monster that exists in the fantasy role playing world. Their name invokes head scratching in normal people and fear in lower level characters. We all know them. I love them.

Well the original design wasn't spectacular.....

Owlbears!

Why are they so awesome?


First they are a big brute critter. They can be a threat for quite some time. They can run as a single creature encounter. They can appear in a pair to be more of a threat. They aren’t too difficult for characters to hit, and at the same time they have a good hit point pool.

They are super easy to run. An owlbear appears and applies claws and beak to party. Rinse and repeat until it or they are dead. There aren’t any real tactics to use. Their motivations are simple: food, intruder, threat to nest and…that is about it.


They have a great look. I mean how silly and at the same time cool is a giant bear with an owl head? Very! Plus they reproduce by laying eggs. Another bit of silliness but at the same time fun. I mean intact owlbear eggs can be worth quite a bit of gold to the right person.

They have an unknown history. They were magically created, on purpose, by the wizard Thessalar. They are feywild creatures that have always been around. They were an accidental magical creation. Who knows how they popped into existence or where they come from.


They are a multi-game and pop culture monster. You know they are cool and iconic when many RPGs and video games have their own version of owlbears.

Avengers: Infinity War

After the 10 year build up to get Thanos and his shiny gauntlet on the big screen was it worth the wait?

Yes!

By the gods yes it was!

I don’t want to say too much about the film since there is some definite spoiler territory for the comic book uninformed.

Plot

Thanos and his Black Order, Cull Obsidian, Children of, are coming for the Infinity Stones. He knows there are two stones on Earth, one on Xandar, one with the Collector and one on Asgard. All he has to do is gather them up by destroying everything and one in his path to do it. It is up to the Avengers both the original team and the people who split off from them, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Spider-Man and Dr. Strange to stop Thanos and the potential universal destruction he could cause with a fully loaded Infinity Gauntlet.

The various little team-ups played off each other so well

Action

Way too much to expound upon without ruining the film. The last hour of the film is all action and it is amazing! Some of the best stuff they have done in the franchise to date!

Comedy

There are comedy hits like we all expect and they are needed in this movie. Without a subtle in-joke, word play like we have in all Marvel movies this would have just been way to dark, heavy and would have really been hard to watch. You know like most DC universe films as of late.

A Thor, Rocket and Groot movie would be amazing!