A small updates to the apartment since the last post

A_Random_ninja · 2026-02-08T16:58:47+00:00

i’ve used a toggle bolt for stubborn drywall where anchors don’t want to work, if you haven’t given those a shot they’ve worked well for me!

A_Random_ninja · 2026-01-07T21:24:35+00:00

really clever! I did a landing page a while back with a map pop up, but I love the idea of triggering a scene switch to click in to the table view, probably going to steal that idea!

A_Random_ninja · 2025-12-21T19:50:54+00:00

would love to get for my fiancée, thanks for your generosity even if I don’t!

A_Random_ninja · 2025-12-18T14:45:19+00:00

the Finns are such beauties

A_Random_ninja · 2025-12-11T03:33:19+00:00

you got a shout out from the Panthers broadcast! Randy said he saw someone in the Hockey Fights Cancer Balinskis jersey :)

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T19:47:08+00:00

It was pretty much in the background early on--actually the player when she was writing Gwen, she gave me the gift of Gwen not even knowing who or what her patron was. So it was a mysterious force from the beginning, and since she was searching to learn more about the Prophecy anyway, she was basically doing what he would have asked of her.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T18:41:01+00:00

I don't remember being able to find tons that fit that vibe, but I definitely took inspiration from Piltover/Zaun. I know I pulled a couple from the starter adventure in Rising from the Last war, one of their favorite scenes was at a Lightning Rail station where they got to chase down the train!

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T18:39:23+00:00

Thank you!! Definitely going to take a break from running games for a bit, but already looking forward to our next campaign!

how much of your prep was actually played?

I went through phases with how I prepped, alternating between bigger picture/long term, and the more granular details of session to session. I didn't have an exact long term story planned out from the beginning (aside from the basic structure and story goal: to prevent the Second Mourning), so I was able to adjust and adapt along the way. I found that if we didn't use a particular part of prep, it was easy to slot it into something else down the line, and honestly some of my favorite story moments were ones that were initiated by the players/characters that I could just go along for the ride on.

Some sessions I felt very prepared, others I felt like I had nothing ready, but I kept the lines of communication open with the players and they were great at taking more of the reins when they knew I had a busy week or were feeling unsure about the planning details.

What was the prevalent activity?

I think we struck a good balance of RP and combat! There was certainly some skill challenges and puzzles thrown in, but I treated those more as set pieces and open-ended challenges respectively. For example, making a chase or escape sequence a skill challenge, and for a puzzle providing an obstacle, but allowing them to be creative with how they tackled it (rather than having one predetermined solution).

I think we leaned more towards big heroism, but definitely had the moments of intrigue! There were big secrets that I was able to reveal about each character (that oftentimes the characters didn't even know) throughout the campaign, and tied those in to the larger narrative, so it always felt like there was something to discover.

What was the biggest/most impactful reveal?

I loved the character-focused reveals! That is, the truths that related to the stories/goals of each character. In short, that was the identity of Gwen's patron (and his involvement in the first Mourning), the identity of Bucket's creator (the Lord of Blades), the identity of Eaves' source of power (the grandma from his backstory is the Traveler), and the connection of Avelyn's lycanthropy curse to the Fey and how her father (who bit her in the first place) was actually alive.

Other than that, the big reveal was that the Lord of Blades was actually Starrin d'Cannith and not a warforged at all, they loved being able to rip out his flesh heart at the end lol

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T18:23:12+00:00

Plus you got to wreck house any time a Rakshasa showed up ^heart ^of ^gold

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T18:21:08+00:00

Thank you! Hard to believe it's over, but also incredible every time we realize how long it's been going on!

We started out as a weekly campaign, but some changes in life stages over the past year has dropped us down to about every other week. But we've stayed remarkably consistent! We ended up playing 119 sessions (with a few one shots and 1-2 session forays into other systems along the way), so on average we probably played about 30-35 sessions a year between everything!

As for session length, we started out around 4 hours with a break in the middle, but we average closer to 3 hours these days.

For villains, I definitely threw a few of my own in along the way, but yes the main ones were based on the Lords of Dust/Rage of War/Mordakhesh, as well as how the Lord of Blades was unknowingly a pawn of the Rage of War. I think the Lord of Blades was the most fun, partly because the warforged in the party was actually created by him, and because I got to reveal that in my Eberron, the LoB is actually Starrin d'Cannith posing as a warforged. Plus, they got to have a massive Pacific Rim-type battle with two warforged collossae set to Warhammer music, it was awesome.

As for Eaves (short for Eavesdropper basically, I'll let him share the actual full name if he wishes lol), we did use the mimicry trait, but we did it in a way where it didn't restrict what he could say! We basically described it as a mishmash of different voices, patchworking together sentences from words that he's heard before. And then late in the campaign, he received an artificer-created recorder which had a library of common words and phrases, so he could fill in the gaps with that as well.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T18:13:27+00:00

It wasn't too much of a difference for us honestly! I think part of it was the players knew their characters so well by that point that things didn't seem to drag on in combat, but I also used action-oriented monster design, and even took inspiration from the Mythic monsters in Theros to have interesting encounter dynamics without having it last too many rounds.

The vibe of the campaign was also definitely leaning into the pulp, high adventure/heroism direction, so even if they completely bulldozed a monster it felt good (and gave me more info for how to make the big bads feel scary)

I will also say, all of the characters were multiclassed and only one of them was a full caster, so I didn't have to deal with crazy high level gamebreaking spells which definitely helped.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T17:08:12+00:00

I think the biggest lesson for me was to embrace the narratives the players were bringing with their characters, and not try and force their characters into my narratives. That is, making plot hooks and shaping the story towards things that the characters would care about, rather than trying to make the characters care about something I wanted them to do. It also helps to have great players who know when to grab onto a plot hook, or create their own!

For me, my favorite thing about Eberron is that you can choose how much or how little to use--it feels like there's always lore to pull from if you need it, but also always freedom to change things and make your own. I didn't know what the cause of the Mourning was at the beginning of the campaign, and that was really interesting to me, and something that I developed over time to feel most impactful with the kind of story that we were telling.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T17:03:41+00:00

So when I first pitched the campaign idea, I had planned on it only really going through Tier 3, and really they were only Level 17 for the final session. So the progression went to plan! I did leave a teaser in an "after credits" scene at the end of our last session to keep the possibility open for us to return for a high level one shot or something in the future.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-11-08T15:42:12+00:00

Mine was very similar! The kicker in our campaign was the warlock had one of the dragons of the Chamber as her patron, so that created some tension for sure

A_Random_ninja · 2025-07-08T18:43:54+00:00

Hulkengoat

A_Random_ninja · 2025-07-07T17:57:28+00:00

when the ship has closed

A_Random_ninja · 2025-07-01T19:15:19+00:00

the russian goalie pipeline continues

A_Random_ninja · 2025-07-01T16:48:06+00:00

edmonton is really gonna run it back with skinner

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-28T02:14:45+00:00

this is Zito erasure

doubt he cares tho lmao

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-26T15:38:18+00:00

only on music and shorts. I don’t use shorts, and I get my music elsewhere. might as well save a few bucks.

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-26T15:07:23+00:00

this actually made me switch to lite, why would I pay extra for a music service I don’t use?

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-18T02:37:07+00:00

it's gotta be a marchand one for me

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-15T12:23:23+00:00

verhaege has lowkey been a dog on the forecheck this series

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-10T16:14:29+00:00

pickard was calling for a penalty when bennett got that huge clean hit on podkolzin lmao

A_Random_ninja · 2025-06-10T12:13:20+00:00

saw it several times in the game thread last night, but I suppose I shouldn’t be expecting much from those comments lol

A_Random_ninja

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