David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Public Play

  • Scourge of the Sword Coast–D&D Encounters S17 S2


    Another great week of D&D Encounters at Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa. 

    Richard had this creepy skull candle thing which he was using as a dice cup–putting the awesome back in D&D


    Brian’s wallet is very very fat.

    Here is the player list from our table
    Brian as the Human Monk, Charles Churches Chicken
    Thor as the Wood-elf Ranger, White Castle
    Scott as the Human Wizard, Hamburger
    Richard as the Drow Ranger, Unagi
    Jack as the Dwarf Fighter, Bill’s Famous Avocado Burger
    David as the Teifling Rouge, Umami
    Allen as the Halfling Fighter/Barbarian, Little Caesar.


    Richard had pained his own mini & done a great job on the basing.


    Scott was using this for his Wizard, which was not that great.


    Thor may have built his character around his mini–something that I know something about.

    Richard was on fire most of the session.


    Thor and Scott are still min maxing rock stars.


    Brian applauding my awesome Ninja moves.


    DM Curtis is having fun & Allen is clearly in the zone.


    I am using these white dice this season, which may not be the right choice for a ninja–I may need to do some shopping.


    I do have this fantastic new pencil.


    First encounter we fought Gricks! Good lord a classic. One of them permanently blinded Brian’s Monk.






    The other table also had a complete flight of players.




    My ninja did not do very well on his stealth to get into the Orc Camp–luckily Little Caesar was there to clean up after me.


    White Castle locked into the thick of it with the Orcs.


    Allen with a much needed late session Crit.

  • Actual Play Scourge of the Sword Coast–D&D Encounters S17 S1

  • Scourge of the Sword Coast–D&D Encounters S17 S1

    Another fun week one of D&D Encounters at Mercenary Market.

    There is a great overview of the material over at DungeonMaster.com

    Jack is still playing mostly magic & not that into D&D Next.

    Brian is bored of starting every season as a caravan guard.

    Scott was stoked–he is playing an interesting character and having a great time.


    Richard and Alex are completely the rock stars of this season. 


    Thor actually missed this week–which is amazing for a min/maxer of his caliber. 

    We had a huge table.

    I mean really huge–like ten players.


    I did have plenty of space and I am stoked with my new pencil.


    There was only one critical hit this week–it was a fantastic game changing attack to disable a guard and get us into Daggerford unharmed.

    These Character cards are always an awesome adventure aid.


    The map this season is one of the greatest maps ever created.



    I need new dice for my ninja.

  • Deck Tech Friday Night Magic 02/07/14

  • Friday Night Magic 02/07/14

    Friday Night Magic at Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa was a blast. It started with trying to solve this puzzle from the Hero’s Path:


    Luckily I had cheated and looked it up on bing, otherwise I would have never figured this out–I think that these puzzles need to be a whole later more simple.

    We drafted to Born of the Gods & one Theros which was awesome.

     Jack was in the other pod and built  a strong UW Heroic deck. He crushed me during play testing before things started.

    However my deck was fairly consistent in other games and I was able to pull out a 3-0 [6-1] record and take home a few packs.

    My deck was mostly a Wolf Pack which I am likely going to try to build out as a Standard Deck this week.

  • Swan Song’s Sudden Betrayal & Controlling the Remorhaz

    Last night at Mercenary Market, before D&D Encounters, Jack, Scott, Brian and I played some Two Headed Giant.
    Jack was playing his very powerful mono black deck.
    Scott has Red Green Creature deck that is very good.
    Brian was playing his broken deck which continues to suck.
    It is kind of this Budget Esper deck that does have a lot of removal, but no real win condition.
    Brian and I lost 2-0, but the worst part was that I was betrayed by Swan Song! I was able to counter a Boon Satyr flashed in at the end of turn, however I did not have anything to block the resultant bird when it swung.
    TRAGEDY!
     Curtis shows up to play some D&D Next.
    He is pretty stoked to be running this season, I think.
    Jack is playing Ratatoille the Gnome Theif & Brian has Bling the Human Bard.
    They both spend a lot of the game shuffling magic cards & are not that into the story.
    The party attacked the Cultist’s Lair this week.
    I actually remembered my dice.
    Jack got 5 on Flappy Birds!
    The other table also appears to be having a very good time.
    Mercenary Market does have plenty of space.
    I had a called 20 on a skill check at the end–but outside of that a fairly normal week of D&D Encounters. We did successfully control a baby remorhaz, which is a 1st edition monster I have no memory of ever fighting before:

  • Born of the Gods Prerelease

  • Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard–D&D Encounters S16 S7

  • Legacy of the Crystal Shard–D&D Encounters S16 S7

    Another fun week of D&D Encounters at Mercenary Market!
    Scott was in fine form playing Scar the Drow Ranger

    Thor is still playing Abadon the Dragon Born Chosen of Tiamet Death Cleric.

    Brian has a Human Bard named something like Bling–he is ridiculous & now has to always tell the truth or something.

    New guy Alan joined us for the first time–he was turned on to D&D via PAX and knew the rules better than Brian!

    A great addition to the table.

    DM Curtis was again behind the screen.

    We had drinks and lots of snacks this week–felt good to have skittles at the table again.

    I forgot my dice so I used Thor’s LofCS D20 and bought a new D20 from the shop–neither of them rolled well at all!

    However, I did open with a crit on my initiative which is always fun!

    This week was more fun then a lot of recent weeks–I think our table is just playing well together and having a lot of fun.

  • Big Dumb Two Headed Creature goes 1-2

    Another fine Friday Night Magic at Majestic Card Shop in Costa Mesa.
    I was at the kids table where the drafting was all over the map & I got tricked into drafting for value. again. Largely because of this card handed to me deck 2 round 4…up until then I was in Red Green and this changed my strategy completely…and late round draft changes are generally not a good move for me.
    Jack went with a Green White Heroic deck that did very well–I think he went 2-1 loosing first round to a red deck when he did not draw very well.

    Derek was at his first FNM and of course won! He was playing Green Blue and did really well in all of his matches.

    The adult table had some very strong players this week–Aggro decks are winning in draft–crusing mono black and mono blue strategies.

    My promo card was a Swan Song–so the night was not a total waste!