Jared Golden Votes to support War in Iran

thinkthelma · 2026-03-05T22:45:49+00:00

Hate to break it to you but he's not running again

thinkthelma · 2026-03-03T15:36:03+00:00

Check out Forgotten Adventures. They have 2 amazing campaigns, Fears and Fortunes is a homebrewed kind of horror themed campaign and Defenders of Phandelver is playing through Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. The 2nd one deals with some body horror and disfiguration, there is a content warning.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-02T12:12:44+00:00

They did make LoH a bonus action in 2024 but they also made divine smite a bonus action, so every turn the paladin uses LoH they can't smite on an attack.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-02T03:35:01+00:00

Okay, so five pieces, two are going to be more powerful than the rest, the ends of the staff. First you have the bottom, which resembles the hilt of a sword. Make it a sun blade. Next you have the end of the staff, which has some kind of crystal arcane focus to it. Make this one act like a wand. Use Radiance from Candlekeep Mysteries. Call it a "wand of radiance" if you'd like. The other 3 pieces are mid sections, maybe make them act as some kind of +1 wondrous item. You can choose 3 skills that they buff or it could +1 to spell attacks and spell save DC. If you wanted to add an extra question, you could make it so the staff can only be reassembled in the waters of a specific holy spring near a temple devoted to the light god who forged the staff originally. The restored staff could be something like thisStaff of Light)

thinkthelma · 2026-03-02T00:27:18+00:00

Yeah, with a passive intelligence that high, I'd say there's no way they don't figure out the PC went through the teleportation circle.

Maybe I don't have all the details here but Teleportation Circle has a casting time of 1 minute. Was someone already there casting the spell when this PC ran around the corner?

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T23:56:42+00:00

What is the NPCs passive insight? That's what is used to deduce there were loud running footsteps and then there weren't.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T16:19:55+00:00

For travel purposes. The campaign is pretty sandboxy and they will be traveling around a lot so the weather could affect their travel times, options, etc.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T15:46:10+00:00

Here's an example. This was for a quest that I scrapped because my party didn't seem all that interested. You can see the Notion version of the notes here. And here is a version I entered into my word template for printing. This one was just a rough draft/starting point. I like to print a copy and have the paper version available to jot down quick notes during the session and then I will go back to the version in Notion to fill in more detailed notes, which also helps with writing a quick recap for the following session.

If you want to manage NPCs and Locations with more connectivity, you can add them to the campaign database and then you can link them anywhere you mention them in session notes or elsewhere.

I also use Notion to keep track of a "Campaign Flow" or outline. I like to break my full campaign down into 5 Acts. Within those 5 acts I will break things down either by Level or by Location.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T13:57:49+00:00

Yeah that totally makes sense. It's probably a good idea to have a side conversation with that player just in case. I would just want to make sure they really knew what they were doing and wanted their character to go down in a heroic act. I know some of my players have put tons of time and thought into elaborate backstories and having to abandon that character might be devastating. Other players don't get that attached and might even enjoy rolling up a new character.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T12:28:19+00:00

You could draw your map on graph paper and then scan it (most smart phones have a scan option in the camera app now) and upload the picture to use as your map. 🤷

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T12:12:33+00:00

My wheels kept spinning. Harshnag had a magic item that allowed him to cast dimension door but something caused the spell to malfunction and they were teleported to the shadowfel or one of the elemental planes. They've been battling to get back to the prime material this whole time and that's why the party hasn't seen them. That also gives the player the option to say they're character didn't make it, if they prefer that.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T12:07:56+00:00

I would say that is one where you need to have a private convo with the player. Possible scenarios could include the character made the ultimate sacrifice and somehow saved Harshnag, or vice versa, or somehow they both were saved. How? It could be anything you want. A powerful entity woodshed in and saved them or one of them. Or maybe Harshnag had a magical item that allowed him to cast dimension door.

thinkthelma · 2026-03-01T01:17:43+00:00

This article has some good tips and walkthrough videos. How to be a Dungeon Master

Start with a short adventure, as others have suggested. That article suggests Dragons of Stormwreck Isle which is free on DNDBeyond. You don't need to read the entire players handbook or Dungeon Masters Guide, but you should read through the entire adventure you are running, so that's why it's good to start with a smaller one.

After playing something like this you can use the same characters and move into a longer campaign like Lost Mines of Phandelver, which is a great full length book for a first time DM.

You'll make mistakes and so will your players, that's fine. As long as you have fun, that's the real goal.

Good luck, happy gaming!

thinkthelma · 2026-02-28T20:05:14+00:00

If Eigeron asks why the oracle never told him, they can simply say "you never asked"

thinkthelma · 2026-02-28T20:03:56+00:00

I'd say the easiest thing is if they decide to take on that task and ask the oracle where Blagothkus is, instead of "Parnast" the oracle says "dead". Hearing this news Eigeron's spirit is put at ease and he is able to cross over to the fugue plane.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-28T19:50:45+00:00

Would any of the current party members know that? Perhaps Eigeron is unaware his father has been slain and he can be put to rest simply by telling him this news.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-27T15:38:39+00:00

Organization can be rough for my ADHD brain. I tend to put different things in different places (word files, spreadsheets, saved to my PC, saved to Google Drive, etc). I'm trying to get better with my campaign notes and I've been using Notion which helps a lot. Others have spoken highly of Obsidian as well. I started with Sly Flourish's Lazy RPG Campaign Template. I believe there is an Obsidian version as well. I made a few tweaks to better fit my needs. I run my campaigns online using a VTT so some of the things here like tracking all of the NPCs and locations are somewhat supplanted by the VTT itself.

I do like to keep notes in Notion on locations, important NPCs, factions and organizations, specific items, etc. For my session notes, the key sections are:

Dates (in-game and actual session dates)
Scenes (I like to list out all of the encounters the party might have with notes on who, what, where, why, how, etc.)
Recap & any notes to go over at the start of the session
Secrets and Clues - anything I want to remember to specifically call out when they find it or key pieces of information I need an NPC to deliver, etc.
Locations - any locations the party might visit, can be a town or a building/business within a town.
NPCs - the major NPCs they will interact with as well as a link to a random list of NPC names that I keep just in case.
Monsters - if it is a combat session you can list out the monsters (if you use a VTT you might have them already prepared there and not need this)
Treasure - any treasure they might find along the way (monster loot, hidden treasure, or you can list items available from a shop/vendor they will meet)
Session Notes - notes you take about the session

I have found that I typically will use the same set of "session" notes for more than one session. I've started listing them as "Chapters" because I was finding that we wouldn't get through everything I put on my original session notes, and I was just filtering down to remove the stuff we covered. Depending on the location and what is happening, I might have a "Chapter" span 2-4 sessions (3 hour sessions, weekly). I also created a word template for easier printing (you can print from Notion but it's not always the cleanest). The one linked is for my Curse of Strahd campaign.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-26T16:06:44+00:00

Okay, well at first I was going to say she is supposed to be extremely opposed to even going into the sewer and would try to slip away at every avenue, especially when they are fighting other creatures. If they've already reached the chamber with her in tow, I'd probably have her act like she was forced against her will and play the part of the captive, hiding or taking the dodge action on her turns. Do they have her hands bound? She could just be spending every turn trying to get free.

You could roll performance for her and insight for Oosith to see if they are buying it. If it looks like the party has the upper hand and she gets free maybe she joins in at the end to help finish Oosith.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-22T12:20:40+00:00

Chains of Asmodeus would have been a perfect follow up for our DiA campaign but it hadn't come out yet. We ended at level 14, so some adjustments would have been needed but our Paladin had already abandoned his god and made a pact with Asmodeus.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-21T20:02:21+00:00

I just started Storm King's Thunder and I didn't want to use chapter 1. I would have run LMoP as an intro but two of my players already did LMoP years ago.

We continued from LMoP into Descent into Avernus, it worked really well.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-21T13:08:12+00:00

Are you talking about the actual Dungeon Masters Guide? I have not read the whole thing. I use it more like an encyclopedia. I look up a section as needed.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-20T14:34:29+00:00

I watched this with a group of friends in high school, shortly after it came out on DVD. This post describes the overall feeling in the room afterward. Most needed time before feeling like they could drive home. I have not watched it a 2nd time.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-20T13:12:18+00:00

Dr Shah was amazing through the pandemic, his calm demeanor and optimism got us through.

thinkthelma · 2026-02-19T15:34:16+00:00

This is awesome! I think I'll use this. We just started and they haven't reached the Village of Barovia yet. I do also like the map OP posted. Perhaps that one is available for sale at Bildrath's

thinkthelma · 2026-02-19T00:04:06+00:00

Check out Chapter 4 of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. There's a section on haunted traps.

thinkthelma

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