weird layouts

I'm experimenting with new themes and customization right now, so please bear with me as sometimes things don't look 100%. It'll be back to normal soon.

Until next time...

The Legend of Drakukula

With Halloween just around the corner it's a perfect time to play a themed dungeon. I've always enjoyed theme dungeons. They are usually short and sweet and tend to be really silly. Tongue and cheek is a good way to lighten up a serious campaign.

I've been working on this dungeon for awhile now and I don't want to give it all away before I run my players through it, as some of them read this blog. But here is the adventure hook section of the dungeon. Just to give you all a bit of a teaser.

Adventure Hook
I love a party
Major Quest (500 XP)
The adventurers are a band of ragtag troublemakers who enjoy crashing high end parties for the food and the gossip. They heard about the party through the grapevine and couldn’t resist attending. The adventurers attend this party without adventuring gear, including armor and weapons.

A party isn’t a party until someone crashes it. You and your friends have become known throughout the city as the most notorious crashers of the elite soirees. After bribing a doorman and sneaking through the kitchen, you stroll into Lord Samdean Winchester’s grand ballroom, dressed in your best formal attire and ready for a night of drinking, dancing, and if luck is with you, creating more than one sordid social faux pas for the gentry to gossip about.

The Historian
Major Quest (500 XP)
Researchers at the local university, the adventurers learned that a rare book about vampires resides within the library of Lord Winchester. They convince Lord Winchester to let them look at it, but he insists that they attend his party first. Little do they know that they won't need the book.

The affair may not be your cup of tea, but there is no denying that Lord Samdean Winchester throws a spectacular gala. Rumors reached you and your colleagues that Lord Winchester possessed the journal of one of the vampires of legend: Drakukula. Little is known about this vampire save that he has a penchant for blond women and he idolized Count Straud of Ravenloft when he was alive. Access to his journal would be the scholarly discovery of a lifetime. If you have to sit through a party to get to the book, then so be it.

Good Ole Tavern
Minor Quest (300 XP)
Sometimes the way in is just to have the shady guy at the bar let you in. It's not as creative, but it certainly gets the job done. If the characters don't fit into a set of backgrounds that would allow them to do the above hooks, this one is good for all ages.

Dusty taverns are always good places to seek out adventure. You and your companions are enjoying a drink and a game of Three Dragon Ante while waiting for the opportunity to go kill some monsters when a hooded figure sits at the table with you. "You look like stalwart adventurers." The hooded man says. "I have an adventure for you. Take these party invitations and be at the mansion of Lord Samdean Winchester tonight. There's going to be a show that you won't want to miss." Without waiting for explanation, he stands to leave. "Oh," he says as he walks away, "dress nice".

More of the adventure to come...

Until next time...

I said the 20th of September....

...not the 20th of October. I'm a bastard it's true. But then I am still new to this whole blogging world and being able to focus on this task. Don't take my absence as a lack of interest, because I love talking about D&D. The move just took a lot longer than I thought to get me settled in.

So without further ado, I give you...a chat about D&D stereotypes.

Recently I've been looking into opening my own game store. You know the kind, because many of you (myself included) spent years inside one. These are the kind of stores that have Magic The Gathering cards, various board games, D&D books, as well as dice, Mountain Dew, candy, fold out tables and an odd smell that usually belonged to the guy in the sweatpants.



Many of us felt at home in these places. Not just because they reminding us of our basement hide-a-way (or the one we wish we had for those like myself who never had a basement), but because this was a place where we didn't have to care about anything else that everyone else cared about. We could just disappear into our fantasy worlds.

Unfortunately some of us ended up looking like this guy....

As a result the rest of us got branded with this horrible stereotype that we're all total losers. We're not all this way. Ya I don't look like Vin Diesel (who's on the other end of the spectrum from your typical gamer) but I'm certainly not that guy. Take a look at this picture:

Two out of the three people here are D&D gamers (hint, its not the lady). The bearded guy is me, and the other guy is one of my players. See how cool we look? Am I bragging a bit? Ya, maybe a touch. But I'm trying to get the point across that we're not all the kids in the first picture. Maybe we once were (God knows I was), but we aren't anymore.

I was thinking about this because if I'm going to open my own store I want it to be a place where the unwashed guy in the sweatpants can go, but I also want it to be a place where the girl in the picture above wouldn't be afraid to walk past without garlic and a crucifix. I was thinking that to do this I would need to make sure the place was painted nicely, and used real wood book shelves with a dark stain to make the place feel inviting. I wouldn't put those window decals everywhere and posters would be in frames. I have thought about offering more than Mountain Dew and Snickers for snacks(maybe a panini).

What would you like to see in a gaming store that would make you feel comfortable to sit and play in? What would bring your girlfriend or wife into the store as well? What would make them stay and have a drink and chat with friends while you game? If you're a girl gamer, what do you want? I would love to know.


Until next time...