Project Table Top: Enjoying D&D 5E on a Budget

OK I am going to talk about 5th edition some more. This Sunday I am scheduled to continue playing the 5th edition Mines of Phandelver module which came with the new starter set, with a few changes.

You see, at our last gaming session my group and I had to stop midway because we were all still very unfamiliar with 5th edition rules. The main change will be that instead of my inexperienced self DMing, I will have one of my friends do it because, well he is just better at it and he has volunteered, thus freeing me to play a fighter character and kick some goblin butt.

This whole experience started me thinking that what I really would like to do, perhaps as an end of summer and going into fall project would be to take some of my old and classic D&D books, modules and set, specifically some of the info found in the 4E "Into the Unknown" book and incorporate the creatures and other material into 5th edition rules. Now wouldn't that be fun? It would take some work to be sure, but oh so rewarding.

I was vacillating on whether to pick up the new PHB, but seeing as it doesn't seem that long ago that I picked up both the Into the Unknown supplement and the 4E PHB, dumping $50 on a core book that isn't really essential for me to continue my game sessions seems a bit excessive and unnecessary. So I have decided instead to go the economical route and spend hard earned cash instead on some previously printed but still awesome material, most of which can be picked up online on this fanstatic website.

I can just see it now, how awesome would it be to be able to pull out a copy of that first edition Manual of the Planes and try to update some of the content for the new system? Can it be done? Anything is possible with a little effort and imagination and isn't that what D&D is all about?

BONUS: For light reading material this week, I refer you to the A&D comic book series published by DC Comics in the late 80s and early 90s and approved by TSR.

I recently picked up No. 33 "The Wager that Saved Waterdeep" for 50 cents (I know what a deal!) and will be devouring it tomorrow morning from cover to cover. I shall elaborate on it and other D&D reading material in subsequent posts, but suffice it to say that this comic penned by Dan Mishkin and featuring artwork by Jan Duursema should hold me over until the new IDW series comes out later this year.

Monsters! Monsters! Monsters!!!

Beholder from DDO 

Apologies for the lack of updates. Seems I have only been able to update after holiday or on holiday break, but as we move deeper into summer I hope to get a chance to play more. My dwarf paladin joined a guild last night!!

Lately I have been reminiscing about my youth as I dusted off my old 1st edition D&D books from the garage, it brought back a lot of old memories, some of these memories are the reason I play D&D video games today, and fantasy themed games and mmos like World of Warcraft and Dark Age of Camelot.

I can vividly recall sitting in the front yard of my parent's house as a boy, as I attempted to DM adventures for my brother, cousin and junior high school buddies, later carrying the hobby into my high school years, even though it was mostly a secretive activity back then. The jocks and popular kids would have branded you a nerd or geek and never spoken to you had they realized you were a DM, running strange adventures, much the same way geeks had been ridiculed these days, until the mass media started cashing in on the geek lifestyle through super hero movies and other ways to make money off the masses.

Well, one thing I think is lacking in DDO and which would make the game more fun is to incorporate some of the old classic D&D monsters into the game. I can't speak about later editions of D&D as I never really played them, but at least from the classic first edition Monster Manual and from Monster Manual II, even though I have encountered some of these monsters and foes in the game, like kobolds, Bugbears and even the epic beholder, a lot more from these classic pages penned by Gary Gygax should be incorporated into the flavor of the game in my opinion.

Of course, some might argue that the initial problem was that DDO is set in Stormreach, therefore precluding a wide range of baddies from popping in,simply due to the nature of the setting. Fair enough, but now that DDO is being expanded into the Forgotten Realms and beyond with the new expansions, there is ample opportunities to populate the game with some more of these classic creatures.

The developers did incorporate a bestiary in game a while back, which I thought was a magnificent addition to the game. In one handy resource, a player can look at the creature he has encountered in game thus far, and see how many of these kinds of creatures he has slaughtered by himself or with a party. DDO wiki also has this list of creatures currently found in the game. I can tell you that I have already taken down a great number of zombies myself through my DDO travels in Stormreach. What was significantly satisfying playing those old D&D modules back in the day, was each brought its own flavor and style to the given campaign being run. For example, "The Lost City" adventure module by Tom Moldvay introduced banshees, Cynidiceans and Werefoxes, which was not uncommon given the theme of the module. DDO needs to be able to renew itself and adding classic D&D monsters into the mix will give new players an introduction to these creatures and will make long time players such as myself feel nostalgic therefore more attached to the game. It's a win, win!!