Dungeons and Flagons | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Wed, 17 Jul 2019 12:53:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Dungeons and Flagons | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 10 Minute Marvel https://nerdologists.com/2019/07/10-minute-marvel/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/07/10-minute-marvel/#respond Wed, 17 Jul 2019 12:48:54 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3324 I’m going to be putting up articles on this from time to time and I talked about it on twitter yesterday. Dungeons and Flagons and

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I’m going to be putting up articles on this from time to time and I talked about it on twitter yesterday.

Dungeons and Flagons and the The Trilogies content is going to be going away. If/when we decide to do more Dungeons and Flagons in whatever way that might look, that content is saved and will be backed up, but it wasn’t worth the effort and money to keep those around. So in December 1st, those will be going away.

But at the same time, I want to announce 10 Minute Marvel (#10MinMarvel), a podcast where I talk about Marvel for 10 minutes. That includes a quick intro of the topic, talking about the latest Marvel news, and then discussing a Marvel topic. I’ve gotten two episodes recorded and released which you can find on Libsyn currently.

This first episode covers where I’m coming from as a Marvel fan and why I’m making this podcast. To just summarize it, I started in Marvel with the Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons in the early 1990’s but I didn’t start reading comics until the MCU happened. And I wanted to do a 10 minute podcast, so that it’s something you can listen to on your way to work or from work, every Tuesday, and so that it’s fast and not that much work for me.

Just to put it into perspective, Dungeons and Flagons would take about an hour to record an episode and 1.5 to 2 hours to edit it. So take that down to 15 minutes to 20 minutes to record, depending on how much I goof up, and then 30 minutes to edit, I’ve now freed up time for myself which is nice and is more sustainable.

But I also put up an actual first episode where I go on to talk about Captain America: The First Avenger and what I think about that movie. I don’t do much of a recap of the movie, which is probably something that I’ll do in the future. And I talk in the news about the panels that are announced for Comic Con this week.

The podcast will be showing up on iTunes and Google Play hopefully soon. And I’ll be looking at getting it up to Spotify as well so that it’s easier to find.

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Playing Your D&D Character – 201 https://nerdologists.com/2019/03/playing-your-dd-character-201/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/03/playing-your-dd-character-201/#respond Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:00:59 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2915 We’ve started going down the route of playing your D&D character, in 101, we talked primarily about how much you should stay in character, and

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We’ve started going down the route of playing your D&D character, in 101, we talked primarily about how much you should stay in character, and the expectations of being in character and differentiating in and out of character should work at the table.

In 201, I want to take it more into actually playing your character, bringing your character to life at your table, so it has a different voice than just your voice.

Image Source: Wizards of the Coast

I think it’s something that is pretty easy to do, have a character that sounds like you, acts like you, and thinks like you. And I don’t think that is a bad way to role play, sometimes, but there is much more that you can do beyond that to really play your character in Dungeons and Dragons and not just play yourself.

So, why do I think you shouldn’t just play yourself or your idealized version of yourself?

For me, I see role playing as an opportunity to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see the world from a different perspective. Now, I don’t mean that you should play a racist jerk because that’s different from who you are, you’re probably going to be annoying everyone at the table, but playing a character who has issues with another race and using that are an opportunity for your character to grow, can work well if done delicately. But even beyond that, you can play someone who has a different view of religion than you do, a different view of politics, of money, or murder hoboness than you do. Or in a different vein but equally as challenging, it can be an opportunity to play an extrovert when you yourself are in introvert, or vice-a-versa.

Image Source: D&D Beyond

That’s the theory on why you might play someone different than you and I encourage it, but how do you go about doing that and doing it in a way where it isn’t a stereotype?

I think a good starting point is to create a character who has a tick of some sort. It could be that they are extremely scholarly, or maybe they have a catch phrase (keep it short and use it sparingly), or some default fighting style (every character should have one), but more than that, something that you can always do as your character in a role playing situation. Or something that is interesting about them. In a one-shot game at a convention, I played a monk dinosaur who was observing the other dinosaurs in the tribe and using it as an anthropological study. When I needed a role playing hook, I would lean into that. Or in another game, I was playing a mage who dressed like The Dude from The Big Lebowski and did drugs, so when I needed a role playing hook, I’d channel that.

These are pretty simple hooks, but they gave me a way to always step back into the character. Another way to think about it is to compare it to learning an accent, or doing an accent. Most of the time there is a phrase or a word that you can use to do your version of an accent. It’s that thing that allows you to step into the accent, in the same way, these ticks or hooks are ways for you to step into playing your character. It sounds weird, but it’s going to be a faster way to role playing your character and a good way to jump start it. It also makes it easier to step into role playing someone who isn’t just like you, because you have that way to change your mindset.

I want to address one more thing about these hooks before I talk about combat again. And that is the idea of using an accent or silly voice for your character. This can be used well to keep yourself in character. Such as whenever you are speaking in that voice, you are in character, and when you aren’t, you are out of character. However, there are a lot of people who aren’t great at doing voices. If you’ve listened to Dungeons and Flagons, you can tell that I will do voices for NPC’s and monsters when I’m running the game, but I have a pretty limited selection of voices that I can do. So don’t feel pressure to do this for your character, and don’t compare yourself to Critical Role when doing voices, they are professional voice actors, they literally make a living doing voices.

Image Source: Encounter Roleplay

Now, I want to circle back to combat for a split second. I talked earlier about having your move. The default thing that you go with when you play your character. It’s important to have this a character not just for role playing, as it will become your characters thing, but also for the game, so that you can make combat go more quickly. I know for a lot of people, myself included, I prefer the role playing aspect of the game, versus the combat aspect of the game. And combat, if not done well, can end up being a longer part of the game than the role playing. So, the signature/default move for your character is there for two reasons. One, it does give that hook to get you into the mindset of your character in a combat. Two, and as importantly, it means in combat you are ready for your turn. If you know that you can always roll two attacks with your great sword, when it comes to your turn, you are ready to go. Sometimes you’ll do different things, but if there is nothing obvious and different to do, you can take your turn fast. That’s why I think it’s something that should be required by the Dungeon Master and players at the table to hold people to having that default move.

Now we’ve talked a bit more about how you can get into character and play a character who isn’t just like you. Next time I want to talk more about creating a direction and arc for your character within the game that you control.

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Building a D&D Player Character – 301 https://nerdologists.com/2019/03/building-a-dd-player-character-301/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/03/building-a-dd-player-character-301/#comments Mon, 11 Mar 2019 13:11:09 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2887 Back into building a D&D character. We’ve talked previously about the simplest ways to make a character that doesn’t step on other players toes, that

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Back into building a D&D character.

We’ve talked previously about the simplest ways to make a character that doesn’t step on other players toes, that fits into the game, and one that is fun to play.

Image Source: Wizards

Next we’ve talked about how you can use the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws to create some back story for your character. This allows you to really start creating a backstory for your character and your role playing. You can review 201 here.

Now we’re onto really delving into the backstory and what makes a good backstory. This will be covered in the final two posts about creating backstory and creating your player character.

When creating a backstory there are a few things that you should be writing into your backstory:

Image Source: D&D Beyond

Role Playing Prompts –
This is probably the trickiest one to explain, but basically you are looking to expand upon the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws that you’ve previously created or at this time create those along with your backstory to give you things to role play with. But now you get the chance to really expand upon that. If you have a flaw that you hate all goblins, well, now you can explain why you hate all goblins since they murdered your family and burned down your village. So as you develop your backstory, look to drop in those little tidbits of information to support the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Also, look to add in more role playing elements for you. You can create little pieces of story that are going to give your character a more rich background and more depth to role play with.

A Reason to Adventure –
This one is pretty straight forward. You need a reason to be about adventuring. If you spent your whole life on a farm and you are going to inherit the farm, why are you out adventuring? Or if you are a hermit in the woods who hates people, why are you adventuring? Give yourself a reason to be adventuring, and a reason to keep adventuring. If a bunch of goblins killed off your family and burned down your village, that’s probably a reason to start adventuring to get revenge and also a reason to continue adventuring after you get revenge because you don’t have a place to go back to. It doesn’t have to be that tragic, and with elves or other longer living races, you might adventure just to leave your mark on the world. But use your backstory as your opportunity to create a reason why you are adventuring and why you will continue adventuring with the adventuring party.

Image Source: Encounter Roleplay

Goals/Story Hooks for Your Character
Now, this is partially covered when you create your bonds as they can be things that is your characters goal, but work on adding in some goals and story hooks for your character that the DM is going to be able to use. It doesn’t mean that all of them will be used, but they are things that the DM can use if they want. In our example of wanting to get revenge on the goblins who killed your family, that’s a story hook that the DM can use. If you write that you’ve already taken care of the goblin in your backstory you’ve now closed off that part of your backstory and completed it already. The DM now can’t pull out your hate of goblins, give you the chance to track down the goblins and maybe have a change of heart about goblins as a whole. As a DM, I really appreciate those bits of mystery that people leave in their backstories. In the first season of Dungeons and Flagons, we had a great example of this as Ashley’s character was left somewhere as a young child and all she remembered from it was the stars in the sky. That gives me a ton to play with as a DM.

If you have, especially the first two added into your backstory, you are going to have a character that has a reason to go adventuring and a fun character to play. The last piece really allows you to be more a part of the story and have those story arcs that really focus in on you. If you are a player who wants to sit back and enjoy the story more, having less of those hooks is going to make it so you’re less involved.

Are there other backstory elements that make a good Dungeons and Dragons character? Have you done these while creating characters before?

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RPG – Epic or Small https://nerdologists.com/2019/01/rpg-epic-or-small/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/01/rpg-epic-or-small/#respond Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:51:22 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2762 As I’ve been thinking about finding people to run a new D&D game with, I started thinking, what sort of scope do I want for

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As I’ve been thinking about finding people to run a new D&D game with, I started thinking, what sort of scope do I want for my D&D game?

Image Source: Wizards

Do I want to do another epic story like the first season of Dungeons and Flagons where things are going crazy in the world and there are plenty of plane hopping and epic travels around the world and seeing new places?

Or, do I want to do a tighter more defined story that takes place in a single location over a shorter period of time?

That’s somewhat what the second season of Dungeons and Flagons was going to be, though I was adding scope to it to tie it into the previous season.

Now, I’m not going to say that there are either of them better than the other in terms of gaming, but they are both two very different things. And I would say that you should check with your group or give some game ideas, but I’ve been liking the idea of running that tighter more defined single location or small area story.

Why might you want to do one or the other of them?

Image Source: D&D Beyond

For the smaller story it’s easier for the DM and the players to keep track of what is going on. There are fewer crazy things happening, and fewer places to really track. There are also going to be fewer NPC’s. In a larger game you are going to have NPC’s from each city and town that they visit. With that though you are going to see a greater variety of characters for the players to interact with and are going to have to plan the story less, in my opinion, because you can always create a new location for what you need.

The advantage of a bigger game is that you can play the fantasy that people think of. People think of Lord of the Rings and Kingkiller Chronicles when they think Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy. They aren’t really thinking about a game that might be more similar to a Dresden Files book where it’s a more tightly contained story. However, if you think about it, Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor and getting rid of the ring would make a pretty boring D&D game, what Legolas and Gimli are up to would make a better game, so there’s a balancing aspect so you don’t have to rush through everything to make your characters the main story of the game.

So what do I want to do in my next game?

I think that I want to do a smaller scope game. I liked parts of what I was doing in Season 2 of Dungeons and Flagons, but parts I didn’t too well. The part that I didn’t love too well was the fact that I wasn’t always prepared enough for a small story game. I think that a small location game, I guess I should say over story, requires more planning and focus as I’ve mentioned above. And I was very used to winging it as I had some general beats through the first season I knew I wanted to hit, but beyond that, they could do whatever. The tighter game is a bit more focused and some might call it a bit more rail road, I would disagree with that assessment, but some people might say that. There’s a difference on limiting the location for the story and making the players doing certain things in certain order so the story progresses as expected.

What sort of game do you enjoy? Do you like the big epic game or the smaller game?

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Minis or the Mind? https://nerdologists.com/2018/11/minis-or-the-mind/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/11/minis-or-the-mind/#respond Tue, 20 Nov 2018 14:20:59 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2638 There are two main ways that you can play Dungeons and Dragons, and they primarily resolve around combat. Do you do combat in theater of

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There are two main ways that you can play Dungeons and Dragons, and they primarily resolve around combat. Do you do combat in theater of the mind or do you have a battle map with minis? There are some people that are going to prefer it either way, but that’s spoiling the ending of the article.

Image Source: Wizards

Theater of the Mind

With Theater of the Mind, the combat takes place in the peoples heads. If Jane’s Dwarf is charging the Vampire on the far side of the room, there’s nothing physical to represent you getting closer together, you are all just picturing what is looks like in your heads. The chandelier and balcony that might be in the room are also these concepts floating around. And if you need there to be two chandeliers instead of one, you can change that up on the fly.

Image Source: Forgotten Realms

That’s one of the big advantages of theater of the mind, if the player wants there to be a giant pile of straw beneath the edge of the loft in the barn, there totally can be. If the bad guys are in a tough spot, can they cut a rope and ride up to the ceiling as a chandelier drops to the ground?  You better believe they can do that. Your combat on a mountain can have everything that you want it to have, even surfing down an avalanche fighting the bad guys as you go until the avalanche peters out.

The downside to this is always, the question, are they in range? I really want to cast fireball, are the bad guys in range, how about for magic missile, how about for acid spray? Or someone having a different idea of what it looks like on the battlefield than you do. It’s something that as players and DM’s you have to be flexible and ready to describe what you see the battle looking like so that everyone can get on the same page.

Mini Combat/Tactical Combat

This type of combat takes place on a battle grid/battle map with minis of the monsters and the players so that they know where they are. Basically everything in the room is drawn out on the board. When you are planning out your attacks, you know where everyone is and can discuss strategy more so than you would in theater of the mind because the map is laid out in front of you.

The main advantage to this is that everyone knows precisely where everything is and how close they are to everyone. If they want to cast fireball, the player can see how many monsters they can catch in the blast. Everything in the room is also there so you can describe your actions more clearly if you aren’t great at remembering the details of what the place looked like or aren’t great at adding things on the fly, so it can help spark creativity that way.

The downside is that there are clearly drawn limits on the board. The hayloft that is partly over the barn is hard to have because you can’t see what’s under the hayloft. If there’s only one chandelier on the map, there’s one chandelier on the map. So nothing can be abstracted and if someone wants to try to do something, say run across a table and take a flying dive at a bad guy, it might take them a couple of rounds because that’s what the grids say, so you lose some of the cool moments of the DM being able to say, “You do that, give me a dexterity check to see how it goes.”

Image Source: D&D Beyond

Which is Better?

So, I said that either of them is fine at the start of the article, and after writing out my thoughts, I agree with myself still. Either of them is fine, it depends on the group and it depends on the situation. I personally primarily run theater of the mind because I don’t have to come up with anything extra. If there needs to be a combat because someone slapped the king, there’s no rushing to draw a battle map, the combat can just start. However, at the end of Season One of Dungeons and Flagons, we used a battle map and tactical combat. So I can make it work both ways. If I were to suggest something, I’d suggest doing primarily theater of the mind with a little tactical combat thrown in.

The reason I say that is because that makes your big boss battles feel more special. You have this visual aspect that makes that battle feel unique and special as the story winds down. But it also takes a lot of work off of the DM’s plate by having most of it being theater of the mind. When you are drawing a map or building terrain and buying minis it can take a lot of time, a lot of money, or both. Or, in my case, it can take a fair amount of artistic skill that I don’t have (yet).

But it really does come down to your group, maybe your group would have too much trouble wrapping their head around distances in combat if it’s all theater of the mind. I’ve been trying, as I play to set it up better where things are either in range or they aren’t, not to break it down into how many feet someone is away, because that means a whole lot more mental math for me, and I do enough math in real life as it is. Abstracting those things out can bug some players though, so be careful while doing that and know your group.

Do you have a preferred way of combat in D&D? Do you prefer it to be tactical or theater of the mind?


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City Building in D&D https://nerdologists.com/2018/10/city-building-in-dd/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/10/city-building-in-dd/#respond Mon, 01 Oct 2018 13:08:14 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2510 Building a city as a home base or where your adventure is taking place can be a cool thing to do, it can also be

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Building a city as a home base or where your adventure is taking place can be a cool thing to do, it can also be a daunting thing to do, because putting together a whole city can be a lot of work. I rarely go into a city knowing everything about it, even if I’m running the game. There are multiple reasons for this, from me not wanting to spend the time to giving the players more control over the shape and feel of the game. But you might want to lay out more of a city, if it’s very important to your game.

Image Source: D&D Beyond

When you start to build the city, first ask yourself, what is this city built around. In the case of D&D, most cities are going to spring up close to water for shipping purposes or along trade routes. That’s how most cities were founded in the real world for the large cities. You’re also going to have the smaller towns spring up along these trade routes. So, what is the primary good that’s being traded along this route? Is it going to be that there are a lot of different things coming down into a port city, so they have basically everything, or are you going to make this a city at the edge of a large forest that sends furs and wood down the river to a city along the coast with no trees?

To go along with trade, what significance does your city have in the realm that you are building. Is it a city that has a lord or lady ruling over it, but is under a king. Is it something that is near the border of two realms so it might be in a state of war more often than a city in the middle of a kingdom would be, though even in the middle, there could be land disputes around it. Or is it the seat of the king or queen of the realm and so it has that more heavily political atmosphere around it. Some of this will depend on the story you want to tell in the game, maybe you want the throne or politics to be further away from your game, if that’s the case, and you still want a city game, keep them away from the politicians and a long ways away from that.

Once you have an idea of the basics of your city, trade and political positioning,  you can move more into the finer details. You will want to consider the different aspects of the city such as crime, wealth, what sort of businesses are going to be common, what sort of education is there, what sort of power merchants have in the city, how common are temples, how much magic is there, and more. Now, that is daunting, so I tend to keep it pretty simple in my games.

Generally, I think it is good to know how much crime there is outside of thieve’s guilds or other sort of criminal organizations. A good criminal organization is going to keep other crime down so that they are able to operate more freely, and also to keep the law enforcement off of their back. An example of this would be John Marcone from the Dresden Files who keeps other gangs and criminal organizations out of Chicago. Yes, Marcone is not a good man and causes a lot of issues of his own, but he’s running a business of crime, and that is what a thieve’s guild would do in a city.

Image Source: D&D Beyond

The other big one is magic, how common is magic in the city, is it only tied to the temples, or are there shops set-up on street corners that are selling potions. There are going to be some cities that have more magic in them than others because of having a wizarding school or something of the sort in them. But you can also think about this on a grander scale as well. If you’re world is fairly low magic, you might then need to consider how special it would be if in a city you had magical items. That would have to be an extremely rich city, and most likely is going to have to be the seat of power for that realm. Or it could be that magic is mainly focused on those given by the divine, so clerics and paladins are accepted, but warlocks, wizards, and sorcerers might not be.

You can see how it is a bit daunting to completely build a city, so what are some things that you can do to make it easier on yourself.

You could have, as part of session 0, a brainstorming session with the players.  Together you can come up with what sort of city it is. There are several nice things about doing this or doing my next suggestion of asking players to help describe the city in game when needed. The reasons being that it takes pressure off of you to come up with everything for the city and it gives the players more ownership over the game and the city.

If you were to go with either brainstorming in session 0 or asking in game for help building the city, I’d consider having a few surprises. If you’ve listened to Dungeons And Flagons season 2, you’ll hear me asking for things, but there are certain things, like the underground city that had been there that they stumbled into that were meant to be surprises for the players. That will keep the world and city more interesting for the players when they realize that their characters might know the city well or at least parts of it well, but there are still surprises even for their characters that they didn’t realize were happening in the background.

The World of Dungeons and Flagons!

Another solution is to use an online resource. There are various things that will help you build your city, especially the layout of it and map it out for you that would be a lot of work otherwise. I haven’t used it much, but https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator makes a beautiful city and you can tweak it as you need. It would help you get up and running faster. There are also more detailed articles on building cities out there, but if you’re trying to lesson your work load, using something to generate the map would be very helpful.

Finally, you can just build your city as you need it on demand. Quickly figure out if this is a big city or a small city. Will your characters run into the politics of the city, and how much magic there is. Then just build it as you go, if you need a docks section of the city for a session, spend time fleshing that out. Flesh it out only as you need it and you’ll have a fully planned out city eventually. That can keep some pressure off of you at the start, but you’ll eventually have to put the effort in.

How have you built cities before for an RPG? What’s worked well for you before or do you keep them out in the country and in dungeons so that you don’t have to build a city?


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The Death of a Bard https://nerdologists.com/2018/09/the-death-of-a-bard/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/09/the-death-of-a-bard/#respond Fri, 28 Sep 2018 13:12:32 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2508 The party rushes into a cavern. Red glowing eyes stare at them from the blackness and they stop quickly. The bard opens her mouth and

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The party rushes into a cavern. Red glowing eyes stare at them from the blackness and they stop quickly. The bard opens her mouth and begins to speak but is quickly cut off as the dragon reaches it’s long neck out and chomps down, swallowing the bard whole.

Image Source: Wizards

What do you do? What happens in your game?

It doesn’t have to be D&D, it could be a Sith cutting a character in a Star Wars game in half, or anything like that. I’ll just mainly be talking about it in a D&D sense.

Image Source: D&D Beyond

Before you get to the point described above, as a group, you need to decide if there is going to be character death in your games. It is a part of every system, but just because it’s part of every system doesn’t mean that you have to use it. You can choose that you are going to have a more epic party or have some sort of resurrection option always available for the players. Or, you can decide that resurrections are extremely expensive in your games and that if a character dies, they are most likely going to be dead for all time. Maybe in the case of the dragon, if the rest of the party can kill the dragon or drive them off, they can steal enough from the dragon’s horde that they could get a spell done, but that would be about the only time they’d have enough money. But this is something to think about as a group or something to adjust accordingly in the game.

Now we’re at the point where the dragon has chomped down on the bard, in our scenario, how are you going to deal with this death exactly?

To me there are a couple of things that will influence this. First, is the player done with the bard, it’s possible, without knowing context, that the player fully knew that their character was going to die, because they wanted to play a different character. That’s totally fine to do in a game and totally acceptable for a player to want to do. However, I would limit it some so that a player who wants to play everything wouldn’t be able to play anything and everything that they wanted as that would hurt party cohesion (I’ll likely write a post about this later).

Otherwise, the other thing to think about would be, what sort of arc has led up to this? Maybe it was obvious what was going to happen, there were hints that they couldn’t try and talk to the dragon and the bard needed to do it anyways because they are a pacifist. So maybe it is a fitting end to a bard who was having troubles accepting the world and life style that she had joined. But if the story built up to this point, not just for telling the story to the players but also the characters own journey directed by the player, it might be a fitting end for the bard, even if she wasn’t completely ready to retire as a character. The story impact can sometimes be that important. This works especially well if you’re planning on going into a combat quickly and have an NPC would the party that the player can control for the battle. Or if you’ve warned the players ahead of time to have back-up characters who can join the game quickly. You don’t want a player sitting there too long, or if it’s a player who doesn’t like combat for some reason, try and keep them engaged somehow though, they may just be engaged in the story.

For example, in the first season of Dungeons and Flagons Finja was killed in the final battle before the end of that battle. Now, Kristen, who was playing Finja, isn’t someone who loves combat, and because the action and emotions that were going on in the scene and in the story were compelling at that point, it made a lot of sense in game for her to drop out of action and Kristen still enjoyed what was going on. I don’t know if it’s on the podcast, but we all agreed it was a fitting end for Finja who would definitely have sacrificed herself to stop a great evil from being fully realized. If we had continued with those same characters, I’m not sure that Finja would have wanted to be brought back or that Kristen would have wanted Finja to be brought it. It was a fitting end to Finja’s arc in the game.

Image Source: Wizards

Now, that isn’t always the case, maybe that comes out of no where in your game and it’s a character that the player is very attached to. If that’s the case, find a way, storyline wise to bring the character back from the dead. It could be that someone owes her a debt and will pay for the resurrection for her. It could be in place of a reward that is what the quest giver offers. It could be that a deity says that it isn’t the time or place for the bard to die. If I were to do that last one with the deity, I’d probably hint or give a prophecy about the time, place, or way the bard will die as that would be an interesting character development. Or you could also just end up making it a quest for the players to get back the bards soul. That would work well if you know you’re going to have that player missing for a couple of sessions, you could then have her bard be an NPC spirit in your control and play through that quest without advancing the main plot.

With all of these suggestions and ideas, you’re going to have to read the table. Depending on what has happened in your game, how the players are reacting, and how it was set-up, you’re going to have to judge it for yourself. Hopefully these are some tips that might give you a basis for handling character death at your table.

When you’ve had this happen to you in a game or caused it to happen in a game, a character dying that is, what have you done?


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Dungeons and Flagons Episode 14: The Lie and The Cheat https://nerdologists.com/2018/08/dungeons-and-flagons-episode-14-the-lie-and-the-cheat/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/08/dungeons-and-flagons-episode-14-the-lie-and-the-cheat/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 12:00:31 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2408 Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons.   Von’thre and Nori find out that what they think is happening isn’t quite what it

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Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons.

Image Source: Wizards

 

Von’thre and Nori find out that what they think is happening isn’t quite what it seems.

Syldi on the other hand has to spend some time with the enemy.


If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.


Our players are:

Ashley – Nori the Mountain Dwarf Champion Fighter

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Syldi the Half-Elf Rogue Thief

Clint – Von’thre the High Elf Divination Wizard

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)


Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

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Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.


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Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
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Dungeons and Flagons Season 2 Episode 13: Sideways https://nerdologists.com/2018/07/dungeons-and-flagons-season-2-episode-13-sideways/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/07/dungeons-and-flagons-season-2-episode-13-sideways/#respond Tue, 31 Jul 2018 12:00:37 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2390 Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons.   The best laid plans of Nori, Von’thre, and Syldi go sideways pretty quickly on them.

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Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons.

Image Source: Wizards

 

The best laid plans of Nori, Von’thre, and Syldi go sideways pretty quickly on them. What is the next twist and turn?


If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.


Our players are:

Ashley – Nori the Mountain Dwarf Champion Fighter

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Syldi the Half-Elf Rogue Thief

Clint – Von’thre the High Elf Divination Wizard

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)


Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.


Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
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Dungeons and Flagons Season 2 Episode 10: So Where are We Again? https://nerdologists.com/2018/06/dungeons-and-flagons-season-2-episode-10-so-where-are-we-again/ https://nerdologists.com/2018/06/dungeons-and-flagons-season-2-episode-10-so-where-are-we-again/#respond Mon, 18 Jun 2018 13:10:19 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=2334 Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons. After making some shocking discoveries deep in the underground, our adventurers begin to wonder if they

The post Dungeons and Flagons Season 2 Episode 10: So Where are We Again? first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Welcome back to season two of Dungeons and Flagons.

Image Source: Wizards

After making some shocking discoveries deep in the underground, our adventurers begin to wonder if they actually know there way back out of there.


If you have questions for Nerdologists: Dungeons and Flagons emails them to nerdologists@gmail.com or find us on Facebook or Twitter! We’ll be doing a recap and Q&A every twenty-five episodes.


Our players are:

Ashley – Nori the Mountain Dwarf Champion Fighter

Kristen (@Kefka73) – Syldi the Half-Elf Rogue Thief

Clint – Von’thre the High Elf Divination Wizard

The DM:

Peder (@TheScando)


Please give us reviews and let us know how you listen to the show!

You can find us on iTunes

Or on Stitcher

Reviews help with the algorithms that allow more people to find our show. Every review you give helps, and we thank you for them! We have three reviews currently on iTunes; once we get five, we’ll be able to see them, and properly thank those who have given us reviews.


Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

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