David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

  • Vampires Suck Dead in Thay–D&D Encounters S18 S4


    We started this Wednesday by dropping Kate off at a Book Club party–they read Three Muskateers.

    Then we took out my Father-in-Laws trash cans.

    We got food at Pei Wei–I got the veggie lettuce wraps which were roll your own & I did not see the secret sauce until too late–not a good order. The Lemon Salad was recommended by the women sorting Reaper Mini’s at the shop, so I will try that next time.


    Scott was planning on DM’ing this week, but Brian, Chris, Jordan, John, & Trevor did not show–so we only needed one table this week. 



    DM Alan ran a fantastic game & there was tons of space.


    Thomas was back! He played the Bard and seemed to have a lot of fun.



    Jack’s pyromancer wizard was killed by a vampire–37 points in one round– a straight up slaughter!



    John & Bobby were back this week–they were the guys who decided to attack the vampire who was fine with letting us pass–evidently the vampire had our stuff.


    Victoria is back as well–she is playing an elf ranger who choose to pitch a tent during battle.



    Graph paper notes–I am out of paper on my legal pad.


    There are still a lot of Magic players at the shop. Legacy Wednesday.


    But we really did have a fantastic amount of space.




    Bobby did get a crit, but I did not get a picture of it.

  • DM Scott Introduction



    And the material is in my Drop Box.

  • Giant King Returns


    Another fun week in Vandale’s Garage


    I actually made Cameron laugh with my +6 dagger against Ogre joke–may be the first time I have ever made him laugh!



    The Giants started a ritual to prevent the king from returning.



    An evil force emerged from the giant.



    it raised a lot of dead guys.



    KUBA killed 5 minions!



    Vassa ran. A lot.



    A good time was had by all!


  • Actual Play Dead in Thay–D&D Encounters S18 S3

  • Enter the Doomvault! Dead in Thay–D&D Encounters S18 S3

    Another fun week of D&D Encounters at Comic Quest with DM Alan.

    Jack & I had dinner at home and drove down with plenty of time–the shop was very crowded with Magic players. We were able to snag the pole position table, but with three new players this week we may need to get more DM’s and table started for next week.

    DM Alan had some player hand out maps for this session & they were amazing!

    The table was very crowded.

    We did have some great mini’s and DM Alan’s continued use of paper constructed minis is fantastic!

    The shop sells Skittles & we went through a bunch of them–we are using the ‘new guy buys’ rule which really worked out this week.

  • Amazing art for upcoming D&D Next campaign

  • Changes to Public Play

    There are a lot of changes coming to public play–the most exciting is a very good red, white, and back color scheme. 

    And look at that Ampersand–may be the best that we have ever seen, no?

    The first real important change I see is a greater clarifications on the roles–we have players, DM’s, and Coordinators. I think Coordinators have not been getting nearly the same level of support as the other two roles & an increased focus on communication with the shop organizers is a very welcome change.


    Story first is a very good idea. I think it is representative of how most of us have been playing D&D Encounters for a while & improved focus on the story is never a bad thing.

    The introduction of factions is also brilliant–it is another great move that I have seen bring a lot of fun to the PFS tables. 

    A certificate reward system has been tried before–I think in theory it is a good idea, but it can be very hard to implement and often does not really add much to the action at the table…I am taking a wait and see attitude on this.

    Community involvement & more player input to the story has been the Gold Standard since Living Greyhawk, but I am not sure how important this will be at the beginning. My thoughts are that if the story goes well & the factions start to really matter then including more community stuff may work. Either that or just having random shops insert stuff based on raffles or something may work–you know a shop is chosen at random to design the boss dragon for season three or something…but again with this, I am taking a wait and see attitude–I would love to see it work, but I do not think it is required.


    Kick off events are ALWAYS a good idea–I would love to see a return to the Great Game Days of years gone past. Also, dropping the mini’s and other material on the Game Day would be fantastic. I really like a move towards integrating these with the Encounters seasons, when that was done in the past I think it really paid off.



    I am a huge fan of D&D Encounters not only as a way to draw in new players, a la Friday Night Magic, but also as making Wednesday the Day you Play D&D. I think that the routine of playing on Wedensday and knowing that people around the country are playing the same adventure as you was one of the first things that drew me to Encountes.

    I think we are moving away from Encounters being kind of central to the story and moving things more to Home Games which I think is fine, but I would like to see a lot of continued support for the Encounters Program and the DM’s that run it.




    This is the gold in the announcement, in my opinion. CON play is really where I expect to see a lot of growth in D&D and I think that the plan they lay out here is spot on exactly what needs to happen. Really looking foreword to this next year.

    Overall, I am extremely excited with the way in which Public Play is moving with the new edition. 


  • Actual Play Dead in Thay–D&D Encounters S18 S2

  • Blood Portal Beat Down [Dead in Thay–D&D Encounters S18 S2]

    Another great week of D&D Encounters at Comic Quest in Lake Forrest!

    We start out with some Magic & reviews of the recent Public Play announcement.

    And then Roll for Initiative!



    DM Alan is not kidding around


    Brian is-which comes as no shock to anyone.


    Victoria, who I now call Bictoria brought her friend Jordan–who evidently will be joining us next week–table continues to grow…


    Chris was a little late, but was on fire again this week!


    Scott is the man! His paladin saved the day…of course, he continues to crush me in chess, which is not good. At all.



    Jack, though not a fan of D&DNext is having a blast at the table casting fireball–see what I did there. Of course, this week he ran out of fireballs which reduced his fun…luckily he got an NPC who could ran death from above.


    Camera work was solid.


    Funny youtube video & skittles.


    The shop does have fairly great snacks–well priced & plentiful.



    Things started poorly for our heros–we were very much out classed.

    and as things went on they did not get much better–we really need to learn to work as a team!


    We did do a fairly good Role Playing job–and rescued everyone from the Acolytes or Apprentices to the Lich Wizard of Thay–I am not sure if they were Acolytes or Apprentices–I mean they had A’s on their shirts, but I do not know if I really know the difference…


    Our NPC back up saved the day!


    But it was a long tough fight.


    these home made stand up mini are working very well.



    No crits this week, but a lot of fun.

  • D&D Next Dungeon Master’s Guide