Session  5 : Well we had 2 no shows . The assassin and the gobo ranger . Trap and strikers where gone this session . This was a challenge encounter wise since we had no means to deal with traps and anymore then 3 monsters was a challenge .

Claw swarms I hate them . They took me down hot and fast had to hp boost first turn of combat then the dm realized they where going to kick our asses since we had no strikers . We also have no controller so i have to act as meat sheild control .

Archer boy did good for the most part . the warlord hybrid on his 4 character since we started seems to know the game thats good hes a lurker player so will have to see . I seem to throw some kinks in the dms plans since im Conservative on the using things placed in the areas we are dealing with stuff . The DM put oil ,grease , lard stores in the area where in right now . I saw the light bulb go off on the lurker at the same time as me when he read the stores off to the group . I figure we can blind fight the basilisk . But no way we can pull it off short handed . But i got an idea for that again . Maybe we can lure the basilisk to the bone room along with some of the tasty bits from the other rooms we havnt cleared .

Im of the opinion that fighters are worthless in 4th ed . The serve no combat purpose that i can see . Without the flexibilty of the 3rd ed skills its tough to make a fighter work for anything other then a meat sheild . Which is a waste since they gave rouges and rangers so much stiker powers . Strange that the combat trained guy only dishes out massive damage once or twice a encounter . In the end im not sure i like 4th ed . Ill play it because thats the options right now but if another group opens up that plays 3rd or pathfinders i think ill try that .

I dont really like the encounters feel to the game now .

4 session

DnD game 4 - Good session still not a group but it was good session .

The assassin was much better this game I would call him the MVP right ahead of the kender ranger who keep us untrapped in the magnet trap . The not so cool stuff basic ive deiced its the place where playing and the group mix that is causing problems . We got a 12yr 18-20 something and 3 25+ players . The 3 older player me include in that are not meta gaming to point . Sometimes i feel im running both my fighter and the assassin/thief since it consist hey remember trap roll not grab shinny thing . I think i said 5
time to check for traps and what not as we played or stealth your self . The dm sat the assassin next to him self so he got nerfed and machinic fixed the whole session :)  The 12yr old just cant focus unless there is combat and he his doing great but between him and the assassin they pulled off the insane move of the night .

We ran into a room we couldnt take easily monster wise . Our senior range player came up with a plan to send in the assassin dressed as a gobo since he was a gobo and create confusion between the kolbolds . It was a insane plan but it was the kender rangers instance to gather the crap leather worthless armor that no long term gamer would take .  So dressing the assassin in gobo monster rags and we sent him in with a confusion plan it was just great . Almost no player assassin would go this but some how it happened . In the end we only had to attack the big boss and not the peons . It was funny as hell and he pulled off the insane bluff roll .

It felt more like dnd today then ever before . And it was the thinking outside the box that made it so . Its possible we just need to play together more but im still not convinced dnd 4th ed really can handle it . We will see next week when we try to take on the Basilisk if the gm lets use think outside the bot or not . I got a insane plan to bag the head of the basilisk with rope and a blanket or two . so its just combat we are dealing with on that beasty . It may get one of us but if we go all out burning all major powers it should be interesting to see if we can do it . 

Broke down and bought a month of online dnd wizards builder . Well i know where the broken characters come from now . Its so easy to min max in that thing i would limit what you can build with there aka no sub history options and stick with one or two worlds . I still havnt figured out how the assassin broke his build but i will one of these days .

On the other end i built some way more broken shit then him ya me . Im playing a warforge next time around or some planes based race with melee spell slinging .

Ive been screwing around building out a world in google doc or drive now . I just wise there was a decent google photoshop i could use .

Week Two and Three

So my on going 4ed D&D game at the small game store . Week two was unevenfullly really other then the almost kill by the kolbolds do to distance . Week three was much wackier . This week I gave the kid some dice and some quarters to go buy his own dice . If your going to play have a set of dice there cheap enough or you can mooch some for keeps . The broken hybrid assassin gobo really doesnt know how to play thats part of the broken part . I ended up having to nerf his power because he wasnt using them the right way . He was using melee powers at range and range powers at melee lol . Im think my dm either doesnt care or doesnt get it .

Luck we have a uncaring or nice gm . group wise we broke 3-4 gaming laws .
Never divide the party
Never power abuse to get something funny to happen .
Never hand away a item to a npc
Deal with in room threats and searchs before running off .

Our good range (the kid ) and the assassin (broken character i nerf ) went all tangent after the combat .
The seemed to want to handle the encounter but they didnt ask for help or let the ones with skills in the object where dealing with handle the items they gained .
We had 4 things to do after the major game combat .

1. deal with the injured half-orc
2. figure out the orb things
3. follow either the orc or orb adventure .
4. loot the bodies of the dead bad guys .

What we end up doing .
1. heal but ignore the orc do to orb thing
2. hand the orb thing to a npc that came from another orb ( what the hell kid )
3. divided the party going after orb thing and dealing with the orc .
4 . failed to search the bodies of the enemies (what the hell )

The funny thing is the ranger (kid ) seemed to be the cause of all this . Me and the other most xp player decied hes the kender of the party . If its shinny and now it happens for him instead of stepping back and looking at the big picture . We where lucky the DM either doesnt care or is nice . i would of smashed the party as a dm . Maybe not kill them but make the think on choices . I think i would divide and strip the pcs of all they have on them . This would solve most of the problems of the party and force us to work together .

It was a funny game but it wasnt a good game on the player side .

DnD 4th edition My return to gaming  

So I made a contact on FB for a DnD 4th edition game with a hope leading into a Hackmaster campaign in the future . 

My take on DnD4 interesting with the models and battle-board . Takes some of the imagination out of the combat . I dont hate the board but i dont like it either . Its kinda of take it or leave it i dont care thing . Power and there role in everything you do combat wise in DnD 4th  . Im not impressed with the power system of DnD now . This system seems to loose something of the feel of DnD when combined with the battle board . Id like to play a combat without the battle board and see how it feels . Saving throws and Hit points . I like the earthdawn like to hit saving throws better then you roll a saving throw verse a number . The healing surges and what not are cool i dont have a problem with them and i dont have a problem with max hp at start or at level . 

DnD PHB 1 - Ive never seen a more poorly laid out book for character creations . I had to go to the index so many times to figure out stuff and i still think i got some things wrong because i didnt use the online builder . 3rd Edition did this better . With 3rd edition i sat down and created a character no problem but with 4th edition it was all over the book to create a character . I would say to WoTC to take all the PHB for all editions and have the same group of noobs create characters . 

It may just be the setting /dm im playing with but the role-playing part of the game seems to have gone away . Im playing in a game store right now and with a dm that was running encounters what ever that is but it seems to be more like a warband game then a role playing game . 

Group wise in a different setting i could see a better game happening . The gm doesnt seem to have full control in 4th Ed like old ed. 

I would like to see what the guy that invited me to this group can run he seems to have xp in games and a vision . 

On the other end of the coin i would love to run a 3rd edition game as im drawing way tomany game maps and creating endless worlds in my head . 

Gasparilla 2012

Gasparilla 2012 , a set on Flickr.

Pirate edit

Pirate edit, originally uploaded by Nightowl_280.

Ah pirate

4 part girl on bridge 3 edit

4 part girl on bridge 3 edit, originally uploaded by Nightowl_280.

cool shot of the girl that spotted me taking her picture on the bridge

Bird

DSCN0117, originally uploaded by Nightowl_280.

A brid in pass a grille florida

White tiger busch gardens

DSCN0075, originally uploaded by Nightowl_280.

white tiger at busch garden