David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

  • Gygax Memorial Update


    Brian is home for the holidays & found the following article

    which includes a picture of the proposed memorial



  • Rules Question–Arcane Trickster Sneak Attack Bonus Damage


    Does Arcane Trickster provide sneak attack damage?





    At the table we ruled no.

  • Rules Questions–Reckless Attack

    Can you make a ranged attack using Reckless Attack?


    At the table, we ruled no.

  • Actual Play Hoard of the Dragon Queen–D&D Encounters S19 S12

  • Rainy Day D&D

    Another big group at D&D Encounters at Comic Quest this week!
    First of all, at the shop, we are getting a lot of feedback that the player portfolios are tearing way to easily.


    I have a lot of work to do before Pano becomes reasonable.

    I get whacky shots or I get these real short shots.



    Clearly I am doing something wrong.

    Fun adventure with two very important critical hits!

  • Actual Play Hoard of the Dragon Queen–D&D Encounters S19 S11

  • Kobolds, Drakes, and Ropers! Three’s Company on Pie Night


    I have missed a lot of D&D Encounters this season–which is double bad because I am DM’ing, but I am not missing Pie Night!


    We started at Chipotle.





    And then headed over the shop to get our game on–there were nine players and we ran one large table–we had to conclude the boss fight in the Hatchery.



    We had all of our regulars — actually a lot of people were not there because of the Holiday–so we had some of our regulars


    And several new players



    Brian and I had a great time running–a fine RP light combat session.


    We ended up depowering a lot of the Monsters to make the session run more smoothly & I think everyone had a good time.

  • DM Summit


    For the DM Summit this week, which we have not done in a very long time, we went to Sanaya in Irvine which was recommended by Sam. It does ok on Yelp, but is really one of those places that is near where a lot of people work so it can have a cheap lunch buffet and do ok–the food was not that great, and the ambience of the place was suburban mall chic–just not my cup of tea.



    Discussion was primarily around new Blizzard releases and the glory of Blizzcon, the top five Christmas movies of all time, and current Super Hero TV shows–was really a fun time.



    We are struggling a bit with D&D Encounters since WotC seems to have abandoned us without material until March–we, like a lot of shops are likely going to just continue to run the Hoard of the Dragon Queen material, which should be fine.



  • 1st Annual Golden State Gaming Expo @ Comic Quest


    Ignoring the fact that you cannot have a First Annual Event, this Game Day at Comic Quest was a blast! 

    Kelly did a super great job setting it up, it was well attended, and there were a lot of smiles.



    I got there around 5:00 PM, could not figure out how to make Pano work on my iPhone, and did not win anything in the raffle.



    Inside there were a bunch of tables playing super cool games–lots of Indie stuff was being played which was really nice to see!


    I set up outside under the tarps–only in Southern California can we play outside, at night, in November!



    I ran the Defiance of Phlan adventures which are fantastic to run in these kinds of “Quick Con” situations–easy to bounce players in, action is fast, and the rules are not that important.


    I had about 8 players throughout the night & I think everyone had a pretty good time!


    I only had one Crit & the table DEMANDED we use the Pathfinder iCrit iPhone App, which may be my RPG Product of the Year!

  • Organized Play By Shelly Mazzanoble, Trevor Kidd, Chris Tulach – 20/10/2014 [D&D Podcasts]



    This is another great Podcast from WotC. Shelly is a spectacularly charming host. It is always fun to hear Trevor–I feel like he used to be around a lot more in the 4E days, but whenever I hear him he makes me smile. Chris is one of the all time great voices within the D&D Community–his enthusiasm for the hobby is always evident.

    The description reads:

    Chris Tulach joins the podcast to discuss D&D Organized Play and the Adventurer’s League.
    Looking for a D&D game? Or continuing campaign? The D&D Adventurers League is an ongoing official organized play campaign for Dungeons & Dragons. It uses the fifth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules, and features the Forgotten Realms setting. You can play D&D Adventurers League games at any place that features adventures bearing the D&D Adventurers League logo. You can create a character and bring that character to games anywhere D&D Adventurers League is supported.


    And if ever much worth listening to you if you play D&D.