David Given Schwarm

Married, Father, United

Tag: Public Play

  • Legacy of the Crystal Shard–D&D Encounters S16 S0

    Everybody DANCE now!

    Yes! it is that time again! Week Zero–Character Creation Week! One of the best parts of the D&D Encounters concept of public play is that it brings wildly different people to the table–and at no time is this more fun than during Character Creation!


    I am a big believer in 4d6-the lowest for all stats. 


    This Season of Encounters we did this in a fun group way in which we went around the table taking turns rolling our stats in order–STR! DEX! CON! INT! WIS! CHA!

    Because of some truly horrible rolling I let the party decide if they wanted one bonus roll which they could use for any stat, but they would have to keep it no matter what. I made it one of those classic D&D Challenges in which the entire group had to agree & since their were 9 players and one DM I knew it would be a challenge to overcome the defiant ones…The party was able to convince even the most contrarian player to go for the reroll [a good sign for the coming season, as every DM knows]. The rolled the bonus stat & it worked out well for everyone.


    Jack, Jake, & Thor had a blast during character creation.


    Carlos was fairly new to the process–as were we all–we did not have a book just a mashed up collection of printouts and one tablet. Jake was using his phone. We really should have gone with Pathfinder or 4E that actually have books–using printouts is silly.


    Jack did do some great custom portraits for several players.

  • Exiling Hexproof Nonland Permanents

    Wednesday, I was playing a non standard white deck that Thor had built that was basically designed to make it impossible for me to attack him. It was beyond frustrating & I lost badly when he hit a win condition that if he had 40 life he won. I was at like 55 life [thanks to Devo] and he was at 46 or so when he cast the creature that gave him that attribute.

    In any event, before the game developed into old school magic silliness [something I am still struggling to learn to enjoy]  I had cast my Gladecover Scout

    And bestowed my Boon Satyr on her


    Thor cast Detention Sphere naming Boon Satyr.


    I argued that because the Boon Satyr was an enchantment on a hex proof creature it was immune. Thor laughed and I lost my Drizzt. 

    Was this the correct call?

  • Actual Play Murder in Baldur’s Gate–D&D Encounters S15 S13

  • Murder in Baldur’s Gate–D&D Encounters S15 S13


    Another wild week of D&D Encounters at Mercenary Market.

    Jack went big at Subway before tonights game, but was ready for his Elf Ranger to finish things.

    A poor picture of Brian’s Movember contribution.


    Scott and Jake are very much into the campaign. 

    The barbarian bros–Thor & John were in rare form this week.

    Again, I had a huge amount of space to run my character–even when we combined all the players on one table there was still way more than enough space.

    Jack is using this awesome mini which he picked up at Con earlier this year.

  • Ender’s Game Extra Life Fund Raiser

    As part of Extra Life, I tried to run a game of Numenera at the opening of Ender’s Game.

    Due to life, it did not really go as planned, but we did get in some great Magic. 

    Brian bought fifteen packs and we ran a three round draft with six people.

    Jack ended up coming in First Place! He beat me in the finals with his Mono Red Deck.


    My path to the finals went through Chase, who had not played paper magic in a long time & did not draft that well.

    And Scott, who had a strong deck that did not finish well against — he beat me like 28-4 and I won 5-3 and 6-2. In both of my wins he had me on the brink and just did not close. 

    I finally got to use my Game of Thrones kraken sleeves!

  • Ruling on the Whip

    Brian

    and I


    Met for Lunch at Veggie Grill in Irvine for some Magic: The Gathering & some trash talking


    We also talked work & started gearing up for NaNoWriMo


    Brian has a lot of cards in his bag


    I am still running a very simple Rakdos deck



    Brian has been crushing me lately with a UW Deck–it Mills, it has Planeswalkers, & it has some white creature spamming





    We did have a tricky rules situation come up again. Brian was milling me and I had like 10 creatures in my graveyard so I attempted to use the Whip of Erbos


    to pull a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out of my Graveyard

    doing four to Brain. 

    He attempted to respond to the Whip with Cancel


    but I argued the Whip was using an Ability not a Spell. Brian agreed & took four–but I have no idea if this is the correct rulling.

    We then we had a discussion about if there was any way to prevent the Whip from returning the Gary and causing damage. So, this weeks question, is mostly about “is there a difference between ‘enter the battlefield’ effects when a creature is cast as opposed to manipulated by some other Ability”?



  • Ender’s Game Game


    We are going to play Numenera in Line to see Ender’s Game at the Irvine Spectrum IMAX at 8:00 PM on Friday 11/01/13.



    Team Lower Table, one of my favorite Gamer Groups, has a tradition of playing D&D in front of movie theaters that goes back to the Harry Potter films–recently we have had huge games at Avengers, Hobbit, and even Clash of the Titans!

    This one will be amazing, not just because Numenera is an amazing system basically designed for public play, but also because we are going to raise money for CHOC as part of Extra Life. 


    As many of you know my son Jack has been receiving infusions for the last two years and this is a great chance to give back to an organization that has given our family so much.

    I will be posting updates here.