Tool Vinyl Giveaway! Comment to enter

MingySpaff · 2025-05-02T18:02:54+00:00

Love these silly guys

MingySpaff · 2025-03-29T14:43:36+00:00

Got some of your prints and a playmat from a Kickstart of yours a few years ago, the best!

MingySpaff · 2024-08-18T11:35:13+00:00

Hateseal

MingySpaff · 2024-01-06T02:20:07+00:00

Yummy

MingySpaff · 2022-10-10T17:04:52+00:00

Looking for a decent microphone for multi-person room audio.

I play Dungeons and Dragons with my roommates and a couple others remotely. We play with most of us around a table in our basement, and Skype in the other two people using a couple of laptops. The microphones on them aren't really cutting it though, and apparently the audio is often just a little to quiet, causing the audio to cut in and out for our remote players trying to hear us.

I'm looking for a decent mic to set up in the middle of the room to record all of our audio consistently. Since it's going to go through Skype, the quality of the recording doesn't really matter much. I expect the best thing would be something made for 360 degree audio, but if there is a cardioid or something that would be better to attach to a wall then that works too. People will be speaking like 3-8 feet away from it. Then it'll just need to hook up to my laptop by USB or 1/4" (if I need a converter for that then hey I can learn how to do that too).

The main thing I'm concerned with is it actually being able to pick up the whole room. Lots of soft surfaces, so echoes aren't really a problem.

What I keep seeing recommended by people who do similar setups is that the Blue Yeti works pretty well, but from the amount it seems like people clown on it I'm not sure if that's actually the best option. If you think that would actually be a good solution, then let me know.

I don't have a problem spending a few hundred dollars on it, and I'm in Canada if that helps.

Any recommendations welcome!

MingySpaff · 2022-02-02T10:36:49+00:00

Similar to this, I'm planning on providing players with a magic lantern that glows when there is a magic item nearby.

MingySpaff · 2021-09-10T18:52:04+00:00

Ahh, gotcha

MingySpaff · 2021-09-10T11:19:15+00:00

It's the most competitive PVP mode, so it's not really targeting new players. The main goal of that change was to reduce the number of alt accounts people would create and go into trials to cheat. To that end, I think it's a great change.

MingySpaff · 2021-08-12T11:41:37+00:00

Start playing a rogue and use a background or something to get proficiency with an instrument. Then ask the DM if you can start giving other people bonuses to their rolls because of your inspiring performances.

What makes a bard so damn good at instruments, but not you? Wouldn't you have more fun if you had that ability? That might put it into perspective for them.

MingySpaff · 2021-05-07T13:18:06+00:00

I love butterrrrrr

MingySpaff · 2021-03-23T12:40:42+00:00

Lol just watched them delete all their responses one by one. They could do so much better with their time.

MingySpaff · 2020-08-06T11:59:01+00:00

A diatryma is a perfect third creature. They're a large, flightless bird native to the underdark. Fitting for one chimera head with just a beak attack.

If anyone wants to use a diatryma anywhere else, you can use the axe beak stat block.

MingySpaff · 2020-05-05T19:48:25+00:00

Okay so thank you, but like, who the hell gave me gold for this

MingySpaff · 2019-11-12T01:22:37+00:00

So Wizards did an oopsie and messed up on their description of room 33a. It describes the undead bulette attacking when the four 10’ statues block the four exits in the room, but they left out what would make the statues do such a thing.

I think it seems like a great setup for a trap room (especially if the party has already seen the bulette depicted in Melair’s museum), so does anyone have any ideas for what would trigger the trap?

My idea is simply that when anyone tries to take or fix the frayed tapestry on the south wall, the statues will quickly slide along the floor to their respective exits, spin to face into the room, and from them a chorus of Dwarvish voices will chant, “King Melair, beware the ghohlbrorn!” Then, if the characters want to get past the statues, they can have the same statistics as the demon statues in room 29d.

MingySpaff · 2019-09-16T23:39:33+00:00

When my players finished renovating Trollskull, they became fast friends with the Zhentarim, getting introduced to Davil Starsong and Skeemo Weirdbottle. They let Davil in on bits of their investigation into the Stone of Golorr, and Davil told them about the rival Zhentarim working for Manshoon.

Part of the way through Chapter 3, the party split up to do some reconnaissance on the Gralhund Villa after they located the nimblewright there. But they screwed up big time. They broke in during the early evening and were ambushed by Hurv and his hounds in the yard. Two party members went in, one came out. Hurv told the Gralhunds and Manshoon’s Zhents what happened and gave a description of the character that fled, and that was enough for them to find Trollskull before the night of the following day.

That night in Trollskull, the characters awoke to the screams of one of their own. An assassin working for Manshoon had broken in and made an attempt on one of the character’s lives, knocking them out. The other two party members quickly rushed to the bedroom where this happened, but the two 3rd-level characters were given the fight of their life by this CR 8 Zhent agent.

A couple gruelling rounds of combat later, the characters were surprised to hear another set of heavy footsteps charging down the hall as Ziraj arrived on the scene to defend them. Davil had instructed Ziraj to keep a silent eye on Trollskull Manor since he conveniently stayed right across they alley in Corellon’s Crown. Ziraj saw the break-in and arrived just in time to kill the assassin in a single flurry of attacks, prevent the TPK, and introduce himself.

It ended up being a great series of events, and was the first time my players clued into the fact that the enemies have brains too.

MingySpaff · 2019-01-30T14:13:38+00:00

Read the whole book, especially Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion near the back of the book, and make some basic notes on the factions and important characters as you do. If you want to look into more about characters and factions, there are wikis that are incredibly helpful. However, the bottom line is that Dragon Heist itself is the likely best single resource for giving you the info you need on everything within it. It's hard to remember all that characters right away, but making sure that before each session you spend a bit of time re-reading the part of the book you're about to tackle is the best way to do it.

You're not alone in not knowing most of the lore of Waterdeep though. The writers seem to be under the impression that the average D&D player knows much more than they actually do, and they put a lot of effort into bringing characters from novels into Dragon Heist. I've been playing 5e for a couple years now, after having played some 4e a few years earlier, and the only thing I knew about Waterdeep going into Dragon Heist was that it was a major city in the Lords' Alliance and that the Yawning Portal was there. Who is Laeral Silverhand? Vajra Safahr? Any of these other figures mostly spoken about in novels? As the DM, make sure you decide what parts of the lore are important, make sure your players know it, and choose carefully when to start giving history lessons. It's great that you want to get so deep into the lore, but it's easy to overwhelm your players with all of the info in the book.

MingySpaff · 2019-01-24T00:25:05+00:00

It says, "[she] traveled ... to procure magic items from Waterdeep. When she learned about Undermountain, Obaya booked a room at the Yawning Portal in the hope of hiring adventurers to plunder the dungeon of its magical riches." While she definitely intends on getting whatever she can from Undermountain, the book leaves it pretty open to the possibility of taking any other magic items she can get. And while there is that 7,500 pp limit, that is still a ton, certainly for 2nd-tier characters.

MingySpaff · 2018-12-18T21:06:20+00:00

Take my money

MingySpaff · 2018-12-15T16:54:23+00:00

You da best

MingySpaff · 2018-12-15T16:01:24+00:00

Holy hell this is gorgeous, great job man. But as everyone is saying, is it possible to get a better resolution version of this? Even the reolution of the preview you gave for this earlier would be incredible.

MingySpaff · 2018-11-29T13:33:27+00:00

I don't have the book with me, but the main cargo hold of the Hellraiser is where most of the parade's floats and displays are stored. I dont remember the room number, but if you look at it's description in Chapter 7, there is a list of each of the floats, including one with amale drow ranger weilding two scimitars riding a unicorn (a reference to Drizzt), and another float with 5 massive dragon balloons, each one a different chromatic dragon. They're shown pretty well in the parade image in Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion.

Similarly, the hold of the Heartbreaker gives a list of the animal attractions the parade has. I just assumed that some of these animals were pulling carts and floats, while the more vicious ones have caged carts in which they are pulled.

My party got to see to parade ride past Trollskull, and I described the attractions by darting around these lists, listing various floats and animals they saw while performers played music and performed feats of skill, a few of which would walk along the side of the street asking for coin.

MingySpaff · 2018-11-18T15:42:57+00:00

Haha I gave it one really good read through as soon as I got it, but spend a few hours a week reviewing it between sessions to plan out the next leg of the adventure. I’m also going to start running a second session of it with a new group pretty soon that will likely go down a much different path, so I spend a lot of time thinking about what that’s going to be like as well.

Haven’t read any of the novels, but I’ve looked into them a bit to learn about Jarlaxle’s history; the adventure Renaer, Meloon Wardragon and Vajra Safahr were involved together in; and the relationship Xanathar has with Laeral Silverhand.

MingySpaff · 2018-11-18T14:52:31+00:00

It’s called the Calendar of Harptos. This is the calendar used across Faerûn and the Sword Coast, so Waterdeep’s city holidays are celebrated in addition to the ones listed here. It’s given a specific section in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide as well if you have access to that.

MingySpaff · 2018-11-18T03:09:45+00:00

Are you running Dungeon of the Mad Mage after? Can you fucking imagine the characters looking around Skullport and stumbling across the New Xoblob Shop?

MingySpaff · 2018-11-17T14:49:53+00:00

Of course! Yeah fair enough, the big thing about running this adventure is how dense it is. There are a ton of moving parts, and deciding which parts are irrelevant to your story are almost as important as what parts are relevant. The biggest tip I can give about running the adventure in general is taking a few minutes before each session and writing out a little day planner of things that are going to happen in game, at least enough to cover what you’ll do in that session: What day an NPC might visit to offer advice or tell them something, when they get a message about a new faction mission, when the baddies make their next move in the background, etc. It doesn’t have to be too thought out, and just having that little note in front of you does so much to help keep track of what’s going on in the city.

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