#plus helped me create some homebrew events

[neondvcks]

i think i have finally finally figured out all the ways im tying my players' backstory elements into the plot and it has made me so happy but i cant tell anyone lmao

[tabletoptrinketsbyjj]

Running the Numbers: On Balancing Homebrew Masterwork Weapon Bonuses

Hey folks,

My name is JJ and since March 2017 I’ve been working on this blog of D&D related homebrew content for your looting needs. I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback from people and I’m very appreciative of everyone who has written to me or shared the tables on their own blogs or with friends and gaming groups. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has taken the time and energy to read through my tables, I know people lead busy lives and homebrew content is everywhere online. What I would like to talk about right now is balance for this blog’s homebrew material and how I decide what to include or not include in the tables and how that might help a DM justify using homebrew my homebrew material in their campaign without breaking the game or providing a wild power imbalance between their players.

To start off, I’d like to say that I have a decent background in RPG games in a variety of different systems with most of my time playing, Pathfinder, D&D 3.5 and 5th Edition. For balance purposes for this blog I have tried to be system neutral, talking about skills, benefits and mechanics in general terms so that the trinkets (Especially magic objects) can be easily worked into D&D, Exalted or Numenera alike. For general bonuses and negatives I have taken language from 5th edition D&D, namely the Advantage/Disadvantage system because I find it simple and straightforward. Since I primarily play D&D 5e now I gear a lot of the wording of objects towards it and d20 systems in general. Although this article can be used to talk about balance in a number of different systems, any specifics are usually aimed at D&D 5e.

While I'd like to talk about all of the different types of trinkets I have on my blog, this post will focus exclusively on Masterwork Weapons. While this concept was standard in D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder (And similar ideas can be found in other systems), it does not exist in 5e, which I find disappointing because I like the idea of an exceptionally crafted weapon that is mechanically better than average but weaker than a +1 weapon. To talk about masterwork weapons we should also talk about magic weapons so we have a clear comparison. Magical “+1 weapons” are a staple in D&D and are an easily benchmark for what a “standard” magic weapon looks like. A +1 weapon has four different bonuses that set it above a typical weapon, It grants a +1 on accuracy rolls to hit, a +1 on damage rolls, it counts as magical for bypassing the resistances of enemies and it is much harder to break or damage. When the concept was used in 3.5 and Pathfinder, a masterwork weapon gave a +1 on accuracy rolls to hit. In my interpretation, this means that the value of a masterwork weapon was about ¼ of a +1 weapon and I have tried to keep that in mind while writing. It is no accident that the first four masterwork bonuses are each different aspect of a +1 weapon. While researching what other people have done for their version of a homebrew masterwork weapon in 5e, the common theme I've found seems to be a +1 on damage rolls. Due to the bonded accuracy in 5e, a +1 on accuracy would be to strong and we’ll talk more about this later. A +1 to damage rolls for a price of 100gp (Which is the same price as getting a weapon silver plated) seems like a fair enough trade, especially if masterwork weapons are rare and can only be purchased in large cities or commissioned from master weapon crafters, requiring a side quest or roleplay scene. In short, I found a general consensus that a masterwork quality that grants a +1 on damage rolls is balance and therefore it will serve as the benchmark against which all the other masterwork bonuses are compared against.

Keeping “+1 to damage rolls” in mind as a benchmark for how strong I wanted a masterwork bonus to be, I created and cannibalized more than a dozen options for DM’s to use for introducing masterworks into their own campaigns. I will be going point by point crunching numbers to show how each bonus lines up with one another. For those that want to do your own math, feel free to use https://anydice.com/ or http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php to double check the work. I will be using 1d8 as an example for most damage rolls to make it a little more standard. For context going forward, a d8 has a minimum damage of 1, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 4.5. Please note that with one or two exceptions these benefits only affect the default weapon damage dice themselves, not additional dice such as sneak attack, divine smite or spell effects.

I will be going through one at a time through each Masterwork Bonus I currently have written up and talking about them and showing you how their specific benefit effects damage rolls so you as a DM have a better idea on how strong it actually is. To save space I have cut out the fluff descriptions of the Masterwork Bonuses but they can be read here if you’re interested.

Keep reading for a point by point analysis of the Masterwork Bonuses.

This paragraph outlines the Advantage / Disadvantage system from D&D 5e, because some of the bonuses use it. If you're already familiar go ahead and skip this. When a character is given help from a tool, other character, magic effect, etc. they gain Advantage on the dice roll made to accomplish the task. This means that they roll 2d20’s and pick the higher result to determine the outcome, thereby increasing the overall dice roll, slashing the chances of critical failing and boosting the opportunity to critically succeed. Disadvantage is the opposite, the player rolls twice and has to use the lower result increasing the odds of failing. The real great parts about this system is if a character has advantage and disadvantage, they cancel out and only one roll is made so you cannot get “super advantage”. If the character is gaining advantage or disadvantage from multiple sources he still only rolls twice and picks the higher result. This makes circumstantial bonuses very simple to apply on the spot and prevents players from having to calculate a +1 or +2 from half a dozen different sources at a time. Personally I like it because it’s quick and simple allowing everyone to roll fast and move on, in a game where play time is often hard to schedule. Plus, bonuses and deficits just cause the player to roll more dice in a game where players typically love any excuse to roll dice.

1, Precise: Grants a +1 on attack rolls to hit targets

In many systems a bonus to accuracy rolls can deal more damage than a boost to the actual damage rolls. Logically, more accurate attacks hit more often and all damage resulting from a hit that was only successful because of the +1 accuracy bonus can be considered extra damage. In D&D 5e this would bonus would probably be considered the most powerful due to bonded accuracy (Which you can read more about here) and would probably end up doing more damage than the +1 benchmark, especially if the wielder had class features such as sneak attack that further increased damage on hit.

2, Balanced: Grants a +1 to all damage rolls.

The simplest and most reliable damage dealing bonus. A flat +1 damage increases the minimum, maximum and average amount of damage that can be dealt by the attack by 1, making it a nice choice to quietly provide a small benefit for the player that can be added to the damage roll’s math and otherwise forgotten about. For damage bonuses, an average damage increase of +1 is what we are looking for in terms of power and serves as our benchmark.

3, Spellbound: The weapon is considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistances, damage reduction and other defenses.

This provides a nice compromise to DM’s who want their players to go up against more varied enemies that might have resistances or immunities to non-magic weapons but who don’t want the players to have a full +1 weapon yet. The weapon’s bonus will only provide a benefit when dealing with a small number of enemies (Like elementals, ghosts or fiends) that have that resistance. On the resistant enemies it effectively doubles damage (Compared to a non-Spellbound weapon whose damage would be halved by the resistant monster) granting the wielder and player the time to shine in combat. Against the majority of low and mid-level enemies such as humanoids and beasts who aren’t resistant to non-magic weapons, the weapon provides no benefit at all and is just as useful as a regular weapon.

4, Impervious: The weapon is five times more durable than normal, never breaks, chips or dulls as a result of casual use and is all but impossible to break or damage as a result of combat, even when targeted by enemies who attempt sundering or weapon breaking techniques.

This allows a player to feel comfortable in the knowledge that their sword isn’t going to explode on a natural 1, leaving them unarmed and useless in combat. Furthermore it encourages players to use the sturdy weapon outside of combat for roleplaying or problem solving reasons. Perhaps a war pick is used to dig a foxhole in rocky terrain, a warhammer is used to break down a door, a quarterstaff is wedged against a door to brace it, or a sword is used in place of a crowbar to pry open a stuck chest. Other than resisting being broken in combat, this bonuses has no real offensive capacity making it a great thing to give to your players with almost zero risk that it will upset the team’s power balance or make them too strong in combat.

5, Relentless: Instead of a single damage die when the wielder successfully hits a target, the player instead rolls two dice that equal the value of the original damage die and add the results together.

This grants the player the ability to roll two dice when they would normally roll one, which will probably increase their level of happiness right there. This is a good benefit for raising the minimum damage the wielder does, and in the event of a critical allows the player to roll a multitude of small dice, further raising the minimum damage dealt. If our 1d8 example die is turned into 2d4 with this, the weapon now has a minimum damage of 2, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5. This increases the minimum by 1 which is nice but only provides an average damage bonus of +0.5 which is not much, but can allow players to feel like they are getting more from the weapon than they normally would. Since this average damage increase is less than our benchmark +1 damage this makes it a balanced addition to the masterwork bonus list.

6, Superior: The weapon’s damage dice increases by one step to the next largest die.

This is a nice and simple benefit with a clear but small increase in damage potential. If our 1d8 example die is turned into 1d10 with this, the weapon has a minimum damage of 1, a maximum damage of 10 and an average damage of 5.50. This increases the maximum by 2 which allows for slightly bigger hits and provides an average damage bonus of +1. This has a slightly higher than normal damage cap but with the drawback of no increase to the minimum damage. Overall the average damage is increased by +1, the same as our benchmark and thus of comparable balance.

7, Cruel: Whenever the player roll a 1 on a die to calculate the weapon’s damage, they can reroll the die until they receive a result that is not a 1.

Like the flat +1 damage, this bonus was also very common on homebrew sites discussing how to implement a masterwork mechanic. Raising the minimum damage the player can deal on hit is a good things for them, since nobody wants to roll a 1. Applying this to our 1d8 example gives it a minimum damage of 2, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5. This increases the minimum by 1 which is nice but only provides an average damage bonus of +0.5 which is not much, but can provide the player a great sense of relief and excitement when they do roll a 1 and can reroll it into a much higher number. Since the average damage increase of +0.5 (Which is the same regardless of the size of the die) is less than our benchmark +1 damage this makes it a balanced addition to the masterwork bonus list.

8, Defensive: The weapon grants +1 to the wielder’s armor class / defense value / dodge rating or other system mechanic that decreases the chances of being hit with an attack.

Similar to Precise, making homebrew changes to the accuracy and armor class system can be risky for the mechanical balance of the game. In D&D 5e, a +1 to armor class is a big deal and hard to come by and the potential damage prevented by virtue of being harder to hit can add up. This kind of bonus is meant to evoke the idea or a parrying dagger, sword breaker or boar spear, deflecting attacks and keeping enemies at bay by nature of their design.  Although it doesn’t directly compare to our benchmark +1 damage, a Defensive weapon can be a Godsend to a squishy melee striker like a rogue or bard who would definitely appreciate the increased armor class.  

9, Vicious: Whenever the player roll a 1 or a 2 on a die to calculate the weapon’s damage, they can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2.

D&D 5e players should be familiar with this bonus because it is taken straight from the Great Weapon Fighting style. Due to this, lots of other people have done the math in detail and you can follow this link for nice graphs about the statistics. In short, this bonus on our 1d8 example keeps the minimum damage at 1, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5.25. That is only an average damage increase of +0.75 which is lower than our benchmark value of +1. It is important to note that the damage changes based size and number of dice and that if the weapon dealt 2d6 damage (Which has an average of 7) was affected by this, the average damage would be 8.33. An improvement of +1.33, which is slightly higher than our +1 benchmark.

10, Brutal: Whenever the player rolls the maximum result on a weapon damage die (I.e. a 6 on a six-sided die.), they can roll that die an additional time and add both results to the total damage dealt. This ability can trigger multiple times per turn but only once per attack.

This is one of the swingy bonuses that either provides either a lot of extra damage or none at all. Based on the concept of “exploding dice” from Shadowrun and some White Wolf systems, if you roll the maximum result, you’ll be rewarded with another die to add to the damage total. I like the idea of having a slim chance to do extra damage since it’s like a mini critical hit. On our example d8 there is a 12.5% chance (One in eight) to trigger the Brutal effect, which adds an average of +4.5 damage (Another d8) to the damage roll. This means that a triggering hit deals a minimum of 2 damage, a maximum of 16 and an average of 9 damage. Although this seems like a lot, remember that the effect only happens on 1 in 8 attacks, so if we take the 4.5 extra damage and average that across of 8 attacks it’s only an average of +0.56 damage per hit. This trend holds steady for different die sizes as larger dice deal more damage but less often and vice versa for smaller dice. A d12 grants an average of +0.54 damage per hit while a d4 grants +0.63. It is important to note that this math is conducted in a vacuum and wielders with the power to reroll damage dice (Especially 1’s and 2’s) can make this bonus more lethal. Though even if on a d8, if the wielder was capable of rerolled all 1’s and 2’s, it would still be 4.5 extra damage once every 6 attacks which is an average increase of +0.75. Since the average increased damage bonus will always be less than our +1 benchmark, I feel like this is a reasonably balanced effect. This can be more fun than a flat +1 to damage because it trades the dependable and boring damage would be represented by a 1d8+1, into an unreliable and therefore exciting 1d8+?, with the possibility on every damage roll of getting an 8 and having your damage explode into high numbers.

11, Mighty: Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit with the weapon, the player can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add the result to the damage dealt by the critical hit. This is in addition to the standard bonus damage of a critical hit.

Drawing on weapons mechanics from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder this is essentially the idea of an “increased critical multiplier”, which allowed weapons to deal more damage on a critical hit. In terms of damage output on hit, this is similar to Brutal but provides even less average damage per hit because critical hits are rare. In a d20 system where you only critically hit on a 20, you have a 1 in 20 (5%) chance to critical hit on every attack. If you use the example die, you turn the regular critical hit from 2d8 damage (Minimum 2, maximum 16, average 9) into 3d8, (Minimum 3, maximum 24, average 13.5) which does increase the average damage by 4.5 on a critical, but across 20 attacks it averages to +0.225 damage per hit. Comparing that to the benchmark’s +1 damage per hit, this masterwork bonus is very weak but makes up for it with spikes of high damage on critical hits.

X, Inexorable: Whenever the player rolls to determine the weapon’s damage, he may roll the weapon’s damage die twice and choose either result to use.

This bonus allows the player to effectively roll damage twice and choose the higher amount, essentially granting advantage on damage rolls. On our example d8, this bonus keeps the minimum and maximum at 1 and 8 respectively and changes the average to 5.81 damage. Although the minimum and maximum don’t change, the increased average damage by 1.31 per hit, which is slightly higher than our goal of +1. The improvement to damage is magnified by the size and number of dice. On a d12 it grans an increased 1.99 damage per hit and on 2d6 it’s a 2.34 increase. This bonus would also affect the additional damage dice from critical hits making this benefit very powerful.

Inexorable by our +1 damage benchmark is actually too strong to be a Masterwork bonus. To be honest, I added it in here originally to pad the original Masterwork list out to 12 entries so it could be rolled on a d12. Since it doesn’t belong here I have moved it over to the Minor Weapon Enchantments Table (Which was nowhere near ready at the time the Masterwork table was introduced), where it’s magical theme and stronger bonus better fits in.

12, Silvered: The weapon’s business end is covered in a durable layer of alchemically treated silver of incredible quality. Although unnaturally processed, the metal is pure and effective at dealing with undead, lycanthropes and fey creatures. The weapon’s grip also sports discrete bands of intricately worked silver which prevents the wielder’s supernatural enemies from handling the weapon and using it against him.

Silvering weapons is a staple in most RPG games that have monsters that are vulnerable to the metal. This benefit is similar to Spellbound as it really only has any benefit when used against a certain set of enemies and otherwise has no effect on a typical attack. The only change that this blog provides are the silver bands on the grip, preventing monsters from wielding it properly. If your system already has rules for silvered weapons you can just use those instead. See Spellbound for how it compares to the +1 damage benchmark.

13, Tactical: Using an action equivalent to making an attack or casting a spell, the wielder can attempt to perform one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers. Whenever the wielder could make an attack with the weapon, he can instead perform one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers... Furthermore, the wielder is able to take advantage of lucky blows and turn them into skillful maneuvers rather than simply powerful attacks. Whenever the wielder lands a critical hit, he can choose to cause it to be considered a normal hit instead and immediately perform one of the previously mentioned maneuvers (With advantage because of the weapon’s design) on the target.

I really like the idea of combat maneuvers, tactics and strategies in RPG’s that contain more than just mindlessly attacking the enemy. A frontliner who effective at tripping, disarming or grappling the enemy can be just as, if not more effective than a wizard specializing in battlefield control, because the fighter can do it more often. Unfortunately it can sometimes be hard to justify attempting maneuvers, as it’s often far more efficient to just focus on dealing damage, especially when both take the same type of action. This bonuses grants players an incentive to attempt maneuvers because they automatically gain advantage and gain access to a larger range of said maneuvers. Furthermore they can trade the extra damage from a critical for the chance to disarm / grapple / trip / etc. the target, which can let a player think strategically and provides some new combat options. As a roleplaying experience it can allow for better teamwork, granting a supporting bard a better chance of tripping an enemy, allowing the two handed fighter to attack the prone target at advantage as well as reducing their chance of escaping. This bonus doesn’t deal damage directly so it doesn’t compare to our benchmark +1 damage, but it does grant the wielder a few benefits and options at the cost of making a regular attack or additional critical hit damage.

14, Poisoner’s: Even a bludgeoning weapon that is normally difficult to poison effectively can benefit from the grooves, allowing it to deliver the offending material with ease. The channels are always positioned in such a way that a creature can apply a solid or liquid material (Such as but not limited to: poison, holy water, flammable oil or animal venom) in them without any risk of accidentally poisoning themselves (Even if they are not proficient with poisons) and taking no more time than usual to coat an object with poison. Furthermore, the recessed pathways protect the material from the elements, keeping it from drying or spoiling and after it’s applied, the material remains potent for an additional hour longer than normal before becoming inert. Lastly and most importantly, the virulent trenches are divided and spread out, allowing a single dose of poison to be delivered normally and effectively while still having some leftover in a separate groove. The number of strikes the weapon may make before the poison is rubbed off is increased by one. Alternatively to being spread out, the blighting substance can be confined to a single groove which will deliver its payload in a single concentrated strike which causes the victim to suffer disadvantage on the save against the material, or the PC can roll the poison’s damage twice and choose the higher result. The bearer who applies the poison chooses whether the material will be spread out over multiple strikes or if it will be concentrated into a more lethal hit (And if it applies disadvantage or increased damage) when the material is applied.  

This bonus provides a few benefits in order to allow a lower level PC better make use of expendable items like flammable oil, holy water or poison before magical weapons and stronger spells render them too inefficient to use in combat. The DM should feel free to adjust any parts of this bonus to better fit with the specific poison mechanics of their game. Personally I love the idea of poisons, oils and alchemical coatings appealing as concepts but at low levels they are often too expensive to buy and once you have the money you’re usually better off buying magic items since a large number of enemies are either resistant or immune to poison.

In D&D 5e for example, a vial of “basic poison” can coat up to three slashing or piercing weapon or up to three pieces of ammunition. Applying the poison takes and action and on hit the target must make a fairly easy save (A Con DC of 10, about a 50% chance of failure on average) or suffer as much poison damage as a dagger deals. Once applied, the poison retains its potency for 1 minute before drying. Overall pretty weak but could definitely be useful in many situations, especially ambushes rewarding players who prepare and think ahead. However this vial of three-use poison costs an exorbitant 100 gold pieces, the same value as a suit of scale mail and a greatsword combined. A PC with 100 gold at low levels might get a silvered weapon (Which is also 100 gold), get better quality armor, buy healing potions or adventuring equipment or weak magic items. The 5e Player’s Handbook list’s the cost of a hired mercenary at 2 gold pieces per day, so you could hire a bodyguard to fight for you for 50 days (Or an army of 50 for one day) for the same price as one vial of basic poison. At mid-levels, enemies will pass the save more than not, taking no damage and even if they roll poorly and fail, a dagger’s worth of damage is not a substantial drain on their hit point pool.

If we apply this masterwork quality to a warhammer (Since it uses our d8 example die) in conjunction with 5e��s basic poison we can look at the benefits. Normally you wouldn’t be able to poison the warhammer at all (It deals bludgeoning damage) but now you can and without risk of accidentally harming yourself. Rather than drying out in one minute, the poison will remain potent for 61 minutes, a fantastic improvement, allowing the player to apply it with a greatly reduced chance of it being wasted due to drying out before the next fight begins. The wielder can also choose to spread the material out among multiple grooves, turning a three use-vial into a six-use vial of poison, making it much more cost effective. Alternatively the player could choose to force the victim to suffer disadvantage on the saves to resist the poison or roll the poison damage twice and pick the more lethal result, making the poison more viable at higher levels.  

In short this masterwork bonus provides a number of small benefits and options to allow a PC to make poisons and alchemical weapon applications more fun and a viable strategy that offers the player a range of options, rather than an ineffective money sink. As this weapon does not deal damage directly it is hard to compare against the benchmark. The goal of this masterwork is to increase the damage deal by poisons and similar materials but it is weighed against the fact that the player has to expend gold or resources buying and using the poisons to actually make use of the benefits (As opposed to the benchmark “free” +1 damage on every hit) so it seems balanced to me.

15, Bypassing: A wielder who makes an attack with a weapon with this bonus ignores any and all defensive benefits that an opponent’s shield would normally provide.

This bonus attempts to reflect the real world weapons such as the flail, sica, shotel, and war pick, all designed to get around armor and shields in order to reach the tender flesh of the enemy. Although this benefit does affect accuracy rolls rather than damage, I would compare this more to the Spellbound or Silvered bonus rather than Precise. In my experience as a player, I rarely run into to humanoid enemies wielding shields and typical bestiaries and monster manuals don’t have a lot of shield using enemies. If your PC’s are mostly fighting undead, elementals, beasts and aberrations this bonuses will probably not help them. In the rare instance when they do come across a heavily armored fighter or blackguard paladin or other hard to hit foe, this bonuses will let the wielder bypass some of those defenses and let that wielder shine. Handing out this kind of weapon in a military or war campaign where it would be used regularly, would be comparable to handing out a Silvered weapon in a werewolf heavy campaign. Since it doesn’t deal damage directly I doesn’t compare to the benchmark and you can refer to the Spellbound and Silvered for how this bonus works in play.

16, Resounding: Whenever the player rolls a damage die he must roll a second confirming die of the same sort. If the second die is the same result as the first, the player is considered to have instead rolled the maximum possible result for that type of die instead of the current result.

As the fluff description mentions, getting a resounding blow that triggers the maximum damage is rare. The value of this bonuses is odd to calculate because as the maximum damage output of the die increases, the odds of actually rolling two of the same number to trigger it goes down proportionally. Over the course of 64 successful attacks with our example d8 (every variation of the damage die and confirmation roll), the effect only triggers 8 times (A 12.5% chance) and only 7 of those times actually benefit the wielder since rolling two 8’s is already the maximum amount of damage possible. Over the 64 hits, the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 28, an average increase of 0.44 per hit with most of the damage coming from when the player rolled low and would have done very little damage.

This table is a chart of each result of the 64 hits possible with a d8 Resounding weapon. The leftmost column is the damage roll while the top row is the confirming roll with the middle being the actual damage dealt. The bottom roll is the sum of the total damage from that column which is compared to 36, which is the sum damage total on a non-masterwork d8 over the eight possible hits.

To demonstrate on a smaller die over the course of 16 successful hits on a d4, the effect triggers 4 times (A 25% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 6, an average increase of 0.38 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d4 is 10 over the 4 possible hits.

On a larger die over the course of 144 successful on a d12, the effect triggers 12 times (A 12% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 66, an average increase of 0.45 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d12 is 78 over the 144 possible hits.

In summation, this bonus gives the occasional burst of damage at the cost of providing no benefit most of the time. It grants an average damage increase of 0.45 per hit (on a d8), which is well below our +1 benchmark in terms of balance.

17, Chargebreaker: If the wielder has not moved yet on his turn he can take up a defensive position, which causes his speed to drop to 0 until the end of his turn. While in this stance, the wielder is able to make an attack of opportunity with the readied weapon against an enemy that enters his reach. The bracing stance ends if the wielder moves, attacks or at the start of the wielder’s next turn.

Much like Tactical, this benefit rewards players who think strategically and offers them options in combat, like the ability to plant themselves and defend a key position rather than just rushing the enemy and attacking. This does potentially allow the wielder to make an additional attack per round, possibly doubling the number of attacks they can make. However these extra attacks come at the cost of all of the wielder’s movement during that turn, which can trap him in an inconvenient corner of the battlefield, not be able to move to reach allies, render him unable to retreat or not be able to place himself between the enemy and the more fragile party members. The wielder gains no additional benefit against creatures already within his reach and is potentially worse off against ranged attackers and mobile enemies, since bracing himself means that he is not closing that distance.  

18, Parrying: Using an action equivalent to an attack of opportunity (See Note) the wielder may attempt to parry an incoming melee attack, increasing his armor class or physical defensiveness as if he was properly wielding a shield. The wielder may benefit from the armor class bonus (Typically a +2) even if he is already wielding a shield. —Note: If your system doesn’t use attacks of opportunity use the following rule: Once the wielder parries an attack he is no longer able to do so until the start of his next turn.

Similar to Precise and Defensive, this is a bonus that deals with armor class and attack rolls. Unlike defensive however, this bonus consumes the wielder’s resources in the form of costing an attack of opportunity to use. A player could use this ability every time he is able to but doing so forcing him to give up on attacking fleeing enemies or striking when they are vulnerable. Furthermore, the benefit only applies to one melee attack per round so the wielder is still just as vulnerable to multiple attacks and ranged attacks. This bonus doesn’t deal damage so it doesn’t compare against the benchmark, but I feel that it provides a benefit to player’s without being overpowered due to its cost and limited use.

19, Strategic: These modifications greatly improve the wielder’s ability to resist trips, feints, grapples, pins, being disarmed, pushed, shoved and other combat maneuvers... Whenever the wielder is targeted by one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers, he can use an action equivalent to an attack of opportunity (See Note) to grant himself advantage on the roll made to resist the maneuver. —Note: If your system doesn’t use attacks of opportunity use the following rule: Once the wielder uses the weapon to grant himself advantage on the roll made to resist a combat maneuver, he is no longer able to do so until the start of his next turn.

Much like Defensive and Parrying, this bonus deals with making the wielder more resilient when facing combat maneuvers like grappling, tripping and disarming. These tactics can be brutally effective when used against PC’s and can make enemies orders of magnitude more threatening. A monster that can attempt a grapple or trip check with every successful attack can be far more deadly than one that deals an extra 1d6 damage on each hit. Like Parrying, this bonus consumes the wielder’s resources in the form of costing an attack of opportunity to activate which helps to balance out its use. A player could use this ability every time he is able to, but doing so forces him to give up on attacking fleeing enemies or striking when they are vulnerable. This bonus doesn’t deal damage so it doesn’t compare against the benchmark, but I feel that it provides a benefit to player’s without being overpowered due to its cost of an attack of opportunity.

20, Adaptable: When the wielder attacks, he may choose to have the weapon deal either bludgeoning, slashing, piercing or nonlethal / stun damage (See Note). Otherwise the weapon keeps its usual statistics and this does not change anything about the way the weapon operates other than its damage type.

This is probably one of the weakest bonuses on this list and provides more fluff and equipment management ease than anything else similar to Impervious. A PC now only needs to haul around their masterwork weapon and be capable of dealing several type of damage rather than a golf bag of different weapons for different resistant monsters. Like Silvered or Spellbound this would only be beneficial in a small number of situations. Even then, it’s not hard or even that expensive for a fighter to carry a mundane warhammer, longspear and longsword, (Plus one or two ranged weapons) it’s just annoying to have to for purposes of overcoming resistances.

21, Twinned: Whenever the player rolls a damage die he must roll a second confirming die of the same sort. If the second die is the same result as the first, the player adds both dice to the total damage rolled.

This bonus is very similar to Resounding in the form of the confirmation roll for extra damage. Similarly to Resounding, getting a twinned strike that deals the extra damage is rare and the value of this bonuses is odd to calculate because as the maximum damage output of the die increases, the odds of actually rolling two of the same number to trigger it goes down proportionally.

Over the course of 64 successful attacks with our example d8, the effect only triggers 8 times, a 12.5% chance. Over the 64 hits, the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 36, an average increase of 0.56 per hit with most of the damage coming from when the player is doubling their high roll.

This table is a chart of each result of the 64 hits possible with a d8 Twinned weapon. The leftmost column is the damage roll while the top row is the confirming roll with the middle being the actual damage dealt. The bottom roll is the sum of the total damage from that column, which is compared to 36, the sum damage total on a non-masterwork d8 over the eight possible hits.  

To demonstrate on a smaller die, over the course of 16 successful, the effect triggers 4 times (A 25% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 10, an average increase of 0.63 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d4 is 10 over the 4 possible hits.

On a larger die, over the course of 144 successful, the effect only triggers 12 times (A 12% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 78, an average increase of 0.54 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d12 is 78 over the 4 possible hits. Although DM’s may have some reservations on seeing the higher scale of this chart, remember that rolling two 12’s to deal 24 damage is 1 in 144 or a 0.69% chance.  

In summation, this bonus gives the occasion burst of damage at the cost of providing no benefit most of the time, with an average damage increase of 0.56 per hit (on a d8), which is well below our +1 benchmark.

22, Quickdraw: The bearer is able to draw the weapon as a free action whenever he rolls initiative as long as he physically capable of doing so… In the first round of combat if a hostile creature comes within the wielder’s reach (Or 20 feet for a ranged weapon) he is able to make an attack of opportunity against that creature but suffers disadvantage on the attack roll. Lastly, drawing and stowing the weapon is considered a free action.

This bonuses is supposed to allow PC’s to be able to evoke the incredible training and reflexes that come from a lifetime of having to react quickly to violent ambushes. For an easy comparison of what I imagine this looking like, take a look at Star Wars or Firefly. Characters like Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds carry their pistols in a low slung gunslinger’s holsters along their hips and are able to draw and fire within a second. This allows them to even out or even win fights before they have a chance to properly start. For a real life example look at videos of Bob Munden, a real life exhibition shooter has the title "Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived" bestowed on him by Guinness World Records. This Masterwork bonus enhances the PC’s ability draw the weapon as a natural reflex and instinctively (If not skillfully, hence the disadvantage) lash out at an enemy within reach.  If as a DM you are fond of ambushing your party, they will appreciate a weapon with this kind of bonus.

Damage wise, this bonus grants up to one additional attack at disadvantage per combat which may hit for some extra damage. Depending on the length of the fight, this may exceed the +1 benchmark or add nothing at all.

23, Unforgiving: When the player scores a critical hit with the weapon, he rolls all the dice associated with the damage as normal. After rolling but before damage is dealt to the target, the player may select any single rolled damage die of his choosing and that die will be considered to have rolled the maximum possible result for that type of die instead of the current result. —Note: This affects the weapon’s damage itself AND other sources of additional damage such as sneak attack, divine smite or spell effects.

I have seen this kind of this effect proposed as a variant critical rule for D&D, wherein anytime any PC or creature critically hits, the extra weapon damage dice are simply added in at their maximum result instead of being rolled. As it stands in D&D 5e, a player can score a critical hit and roll low on the dice resulting in a “critical hit” that deals less damage than an average hit. This makes the rare critical hits more potent by guaranteeing a high minimum damage. This bonus is all about raising the minimum damage on a critical hit, so that the wielder never rolls low and experiences a disappointing critical.

In a d20 system where you land a critical hit on a roll of a natural 20, you have a 1 in 20 (5%) chance to critical hit on every attack. If you use the d8 example die, Unforgiving turns the regular critical hit from 2d8 damage (Minimum 2, maximum 16, average 9) into 2d8[Dropping the lowest]+8, (Minimum 9, maximum 16, average 13.81) which does increase the average damage by 4.81 on a critical, but across 20 attacks it averages to +0.24 damage per hit.  Comparing that to the benchmark’s +1 damage per hit, this masterwork bonus is very weak but makes up for it with guaranteed high minimum damage on criticals, making each one a truly powerful blow.

24, Reach: Melee weapons with this bonus add 5 feet to the wielder’s reach when he attacks with it, as well as when determining his reach for opportunity attacks with it. Ammunition, ranged and thrown weapons all add 20 feet to their normal and long distance attack ranges. Melee Reach weapons are cumbersome in close quarters and the wielder suffers disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within 5 feet of himself. Ranged weapons and projectiles...cause the wielder to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within 10 feet of himself.

Again drawing from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder here is a weapon quality with a trade off in terms of benefit and drawback. Melee players who play a more mobile, kiting style with an emphasis of never being too close to the enemy will love this bonus. When surrounded by enemies however it forces them to attack at disadvantage or to drop the Reach weapon and fight with an inferior backup weapon. PC’s specializing in ranged combat will be able to hit targets father away but when in tight quarters such as dungeons, caverns or buildings, there may not be the option of being 15 feet away from the target in order not to suffer disadvantage on the attack roll because they’re too close. Even if that is possible, it forces that ranged PC to become more separated from the melee, leaving them open to ambushes, being surrounded or cut off from the rest of the party.

[lizzieart]

Hey!! As much as I'd enjoy the idea I doubt I'm worth that much to you, but I'd love to hear about the characters you've created and if they are based upon anyone you know or knew for the ideals behind them. Hope you get this soon I'm interested in your stories.

Well first of all bless you, and second you are already worth that much to me because you took the time out of your day to send me a message!  Seriously, thank you.  I am a lonely garbage can.  And third, yes, some of my characters are loosely based on people, but most are just based on traits I relate to and/or admire.

I’m going to put the rest of this answer under a read more; if you choose to read it, buckle up, ‘cause there’s a huge fucking wall of text below.

It all started with a homebrew one shot my friend Cait was running in the winter of 2013.  I had never played a tabletop RPG before (I’ll still say tabletop even though she was running it online), but I had always been interested in her worldbuilding and characters; it was a frequent topic of discussion for us.  Plus, I trusted her pretty much explicitly with my sensitivities, so even though I was anxious, I agreed to join up.  The campaign didn't start for a few months after, so I spent plenty of time asking Cait as much as I could (without spoilers) about her world.  After all, I was (and still am) a person who completely overthinks every little detail of something I’m into (yay special interest fixation).

Just some background on the setting; there are two groups of people in this world, magi and non magi.  Magi were heavily persecuted (like at the threat of death) for hundreds of years, but not so openly in present time (although this can depend on region).  The Havens is a city built almost exclusively by mages, for mages.  It was a fortress that provided sanctuary to mages during wars long passed, and in more peaceful times turned into one of the largest universities of the arcane in the Uplands.  There are other countries/continents other than the Uplands, but those have not been planned out at this time (to my knowledge).  Anything else world related I should be able to answer as we go along in the rest of this text (or if you send me another ask; though we’ll see if you want to after this lmao).

Saoirse was a real diamond in the rough for a while.  I knew my babe was in that mess of ideas somewhere, but it took a bit to figure it out.  I decided on a name first (I had been aching to use the name Saoirse), and I drew quite a few pictures of her before I settled on a design, but even that changed over time as I grew accustomed to drawing literally anyone else besides other white people.  I had educated myself and knew what nasty tropes to stay away from and made her a person.  She's a confident, powerful, mentor figure, and her exuberance for life and love of her family has gained the adoration of colleagues and friends alike.  She has her faults; she tends to overextend herself trying to help people or gets caught up in her work; but it all stems from a place of great compassion; she is dedicated to making the world a sweeter place.  To be honest, somewhere along the way Saoirse turned into everything I want and hope to be.  She has a family and friends who she is close to and love her dearly.  She never has to hide her feelings or work to earn their love.  She just has it.  Saoirse is a child of love in its purest form.  And she brightens up my life every day.

Brennya started out as one of Cait's NPCs, but a relationship grew between her and Saoirse after the events of the one shot.  Cait and I aren't always in contact due to life issues and school and work, but she let me keep writing interactions between Brennya and my other characters regardless (thank you).  Also, while it is a side note, have I ever mentioned that Cait’s absolutely brilliant?  She double majored in English and Geology and then got accepted into grad school right after that.  I love her.  So even though I can't (and wouldn't out of respect) claim Brennya is purely my character, I was allowed to continue writing for her.  And the way I write Brennya is honestly pretty personal.  Brennya is closer to the person I am currently... and have been in the past.  Brennya is loved now too, but Brennya was not born into love.  Love was conditional, a commodity contingent on success; personal worth built on actions and achievements, not being.  She grew to be a successful scholar nonetheless, but success rings hollow when you have no one to share it with.  She can be deeply cynical of the intentions of other people and readily manipulative of others (getting what she can from them before they have the chance to do the same to her).  She expects deceit and is truly thrown off guard when confronted with an honest person (like Saoirse).  She wants things like family and connection and truth, but has a hard time believing they exist for a person like her.  So she pretends that she is impervious to those feelings; that wanting those things is trivial in the span of existence; until she can no longer deny it.  When she meets Saoirse, it's not easy at first.  Being truly cherished at no expense of your own is difficult to understand for someone like Brennya (and for someone like me), but it is a truly beautiful thing if you can accept it.  Meeting Saoirse’s family is overwhelming for her at first too; they are an intense bunch; but they accept her almost immediately, simply because she makes their daughter happy.  Brennya acclimates eventually.  

Personally, though I’m still not in a great situation, I have healed from of a lot of bitterness I used to hold.  Seeing them happy inspires me to do better in my own life; realizing that while it may take time, it will ultimately be worth it.  And that someday I will be able to love and trust fully.

Anyways, the rest of them are a little more lighthearted in nature, I swear!!

Aoife is Saoirse’s sister and the middle child of the Keir siblings.  She’s the fun, flamboyant sibling; always jovial, super pretty, and damn good at making others feel welcome.  Aoife sees everybody as a potential friend.  Gods help you if you mistake her good nature for weakness though; she’s a powerful force to be reckoned with.  She’s a vital part of the Bluewater Town Guard, and she loves her work, preferring busy places like the town square or the docks, where her nature as both a protector and people person can flourish.  She also adores the town’s children and always makes time for them.  She lives in a house on the Keir property with her wife Mazneen.

Mazneen is my newest character, so forgive me for not having a lot on her yet (I’m trying to do something new while being culturally sensitive).  I also think it’s important for me as her creator to state explicitly somewhere down the line that she is a trans woman (representation is a high priority for me), but with the really angry and reactionary culture of tumblr these days, it’s really hard to create trans characters without someone getting upset (watch, someone will write a really angry callout for me not ‘performing her gender right’ or something…  well guess what buds, there’s no one right way for a trans woman to be trans!  BEGONE TERF!).  What else I can tell you is that she is outgoing and so incredibly sweet, and loves helping people see the beauty inside themselves like she sees in herself.  Mazneen is also a savvy businesswoman and trader originally from the Havens, and has family, friends, and business contacts there (I just haven’t gotten that far in her writing).  She currently lives and works in Bluewater with Aoife’s mother, Meirna, in her tailoring business (accounting and supply are her specialties).  They mostly make clothing suitable for cold climates like Bluewater, but occasionally produce some finer pieces on commission.  Their regular clothing is really popular amongst the whalers and even gets shipped to other parts of the Uplands.  They’re basically running something like a fantasy L.L. Bean if that makes any lick of sense.

Meirna, who I mentioned earlier, is the Keir siblings’ mother and the wife of Roarke.  She is a woman of great intelligence, tact, and grace; people used to tell her that had she not married a whaler she could have been a favorite of the Havens elite.  But she chooses to completely disregard this, and to this day she is more than happy with her life; she is still in love with her husband Roarke, runs her own well-known business, and has three very successful children.  I also have the inclination to make her deeply spiritual in some way; the Uplands actually has a few religions with a decent pantheon of gods, but I haven’t quite figured out the details of that yet.   Regardless of spirituality (or lack thereof), people look to her for comfort and guidance.

Roarke is the father of the Keir siblings and Meirna’s husband.  He’s a retired whaler but still an active part of Bluewater’s whaling guild.  Being retired certainly doesn’t keep him from being out on the water though; he just fishes for a lot smaller catch these days.  He loves the outdoors and has a fire for life that just can’t be tempered.  But he’s also a MEGA DAD.  Like the best Dad I imagine one could hope for.  He loves his family so much and he’s so proud of his kids and all their achievements.  Intense honestly just isn’t strong enough to describe the way he lives his life.  Roarke is the epitome of ALL THE TIME ALL THE TIME.  Just a huge dude with an absolute heart of gold.  Where else could Aoife have gotten it from?

Arlen is the youngest of the Keir siblings, and takes after his mother more.  His intelligence and patience are unrivaled; and his charismatic and comforting presence gives him the perfect bedside manner as a physician.  He studied at the Havens like Saoirse and Brennya, but with a focus on medicine instead of arcane arts and archaeology (Saoirse and Brennya's concentrations, respectively).  He’s an accomplished healer and has been instrumental in improvements made to Bluewater’s current health awareness and services.  He spends time every year to make trips to Snowshower, the large city northeast of Bluewater, and sets up a free clinic in the impoverished areas of the city.  He eventually ends up in a relationship with Rory after some time (still working on those details).

Rory also started out as an NPC.  He was originally the character that was Saoirse's call to action; a former student in a spot of trouble, and Saoirse just didn't have the heart to turn him down.  Except that the trouble he was in was, in fact, much more trouble than originally stated; a large debt with a notorious Poppyport (a city on the southernmost coast of the Uplands) crime syndicate, Redbloom (also can you guess their specialty lmao).  After the events of the job, Saoirse finds out that she's only thirded his debts.  Turns out he's got some serious impulse control issues and formed a gambling habit that, as you can probably imagine, got way out of hand.  He has an intense need to impress people with flashy displays, always trying to one up himself and others, but quite often these gestures fall flat.  Rory was chasing that dream of being famous and left Bluewater a few years back, only to become known as a fool.  And even though it was free publicity, bad publicity is only just publicity until you owe a crime lord his debts.  So Saoirse takes a risk and flees Poppyport, making her way back to Bluewater with Rory in tow.  Redbloom has no ties to a whaling town like Bluewater, it isn’t profitable enough.  So now he’s stuck in Bluewater for his own safety, and it would have driven him nuts if it weren’t for befriending the Keir family.  He still isn’t a huge fan of life in Bluewater, but his work and friendships keep him well grounded.  He eventually starts dating Arlen sometime into the timeline, but I haven’t written any of that yet; it’s only a series of ideas right now.  I do also want to look into writing a resolution with the whole Redbloom debt, but we’ll see where the story goes.  He’s always been…  A little all over the place.  He was a mandatory character and I really had to think about a way to work him into the story, and even now I’m still not completely satisfied.

I guess my main point is that I’m not nearly finished yet; I’ve only just begun getting bits of my story down, but I’m dedicated to expanding this family and their world and I just really love them all to bits.  And apart from their main story I’ve got some alternate universes I like to work on too, like their Dragon Age AU.  I’ve actually written quite a bit of meta and dialogue, and even drawn some for that one.  I haven’t really shared it with anyone yet though; haven’t figured out a delivery method that feels quite right yet.  I tried starting a blog for it, but it got stuck in the development phase a few months back.  Maybe I’ll try and figure that out soon.  I’ve just got so many ideas!  Anyways sorry for the wall of text and thanks for hanging in here with me with I figure shit out!  If you have any more questions I’d love to answer them! 

[cyborg-squid]

Ramblings #14

Ramblings #14: What works with Forgotten Realms and what doesn’t

Preface: I’m not an expert on DnD or the Forgotten Realms, I just really like them a lot, and I haven’t read much FR fiction beyond The Legend of Drizzt (finished book 6) and Brimstone Angels (finished book 4).

So, this weekend I was wondering about making my own homebrew DnD setting and went about trying to figure out how. One consistent problem i ran into was trying to think of how to accommodate some of the DnD races into it, both the playable and the monstrous. I know you’re allowed to do what you want in your homebrew world, but probably players would want to play as ones they know or find appealing. And if I didn’t include them, there would be disappointment. And then I realized what I was doing, with the help of a blog post I saw talking about creating homebrew worlds. What I was doing wasn’t making my own world, I was just trying to do my own take on Forgotten Realms. And that’s not what I wanted to do. 

So then I did some research on the Forgotten Realms and watched some really interesting lore videos. It honestly seems like there’s a world-shattering event happening every 20 seconds in the Realms. And a lot of the stuff is to accommodate changes to various editions and that sort of thing. But there is still a lot of cool information there, but players of normal DnD games probably aren’t going to find it. Most of these world shattering events were things that happened in a lot of the Forgotten Realms books or the various video games. And as far as creating a cool world where a bunch of different fantasy authors can tell their own amazing stories about knights and wizards, heroes and villains, gods and devils, and more, it works really well. While confusing as hell sometimes, it seems (from my somewhat inexperienced viewpoint) like it all fits together. That’s something that really works with the Forgotten Realms.

But most players, unless you’re someone who reads a lot of the Forgotten Realms fiction (like me) or someone who spends time looking on the wiki (like my friend Corey), you probably won’t know a lot of this stuff. And at least I feel, others may not feel this way, that to play in this world I have to know a lot about this world. That’s kinda why I got into the Forgotten Realms books (that, and the fact that the Dark Elf Trilogy was on a list of top 50 fantasy books, alongside some of my other favorite authors). There’s also the fact of all the edition changes, the big one being with how different 4th edition was. (Sidenote: 4th edition wasn’t my favorite and, as a game system, I’m a big fan of 5e, but 4th edition wasn’t as bad as everyone says. It had some really interesting classes, shaman being one of my favorites, and it’s where i first saw Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Goliaths.) When I was reading the books, I couldn’t tell when they changed edition. Hell, I thought Brimstone Angels started in 5th editions, with it’s focus on factions and ritual magic, but it turns out it started during 4th. People also end up having problems with how certain DnD races are portrayed, mainly drow and orcs. I used to say that their societies are the ones that are evil because they’re controlled by evil gods and their purpose is to create a good story about players of those races rebelling against those societies and stereotypes. In the Legend of Drizzt and Brimstone Angels, that works incredibly well! (Sidenote: Wish I had known that Brimstone Angels was more political intrigue focused rather than fantasy adventure style when I started it, that kinda threw me for a loop.) But some players, don’t want that, they might just want a race that looks appealing, interesting, or they just might like the stats. Or they might take issue with the fact that some races are designated as evil, and while I don’t entirely agree with that, I can see where they’re coming from. And with the interconnectedness of all the Forgotten Realms fiction, it can be a bit of a pickle to try and think and find out where the player characters fit into all of it. Plus, maybe you want to learn more about something mentioned during a session, but the stuff you find on the wiki is contradictory to what the DM said. While obviously what the DM says goes, it can kinda mess with the illusion that you’re playing in the actual Forgotten Realms. 

And, while I’m no expert on the history of Forgotten Realms, I believe it started as one guys homebrew world and DnD picked it for its official campaign setting and eventually writers started writing fiction in it and that’s what made the world and changed the world. Since it was moved out of a homebrew setting, it stopped being created by players and started being created by writers. And that’s where the problem is. As a setting for stories, both book and video game, the Forgotten Realms work very well and I really like it. But as a setting for players to run a DnD campaign, it is too caught up in itself, and while it might have room for player origins, it doesn’t leave much room for players stories. Now, while varying in quality, DnD’s published in the Forgotten Realms work relatively well, because it is a story designed in the world but is ultimately about your characters and their choices. But if you’re looking for a long-term setting to play a custom campaign in, you might want to look elsewhere or make your own.

[moontemple85-blog]

NPC Note Card database - Tutorial

Want to have a simple, yet potentially very extensible NPC database? This tutorial will show you how to use Google Sheets and Google Forms to make one, accessible from any device that can handle Google Drive.

Last year, I made mention of a NPC database that I wrote in Microsoft Access that would allow me to not only track the various NPCs, but also automate the generation of "events" that would affect the NPCs.

This approach to tracking NPCs was inspired by Tony Bath's Hyborea campaign and his book "Setting Up a Wargames Campaign". Tony recommended the use of index cards (this was written in the 1960s!) for tracking NPCs ("generals and personas") in the campaign. This was the method that Professor M.A.R. Barker used in his Tekumel campaign in the 1970s. According to Jeff Berry/Chirine Ba Kal, Barker had over 1,200 notecards of NPCs!

I've tried Obsidian Portal's NPC/Character tool. I tried using a homebrew Microsoft Access database solution. But neither really met my needs for something that was simple as a Rolodex of note cards.

Enter Google - specifically, using Google Sheets and Google Forms. It's not a perfect solution, but given that I use Google Docs extensively already for my campaign, it fits into the flow. And it is simple like the note cards!

This tutorial is going to show you how I did this - maybe you'll like it! It's pretty simple to set up, and aside from a couple of restrictions, I see a lot of possibilities! I hope you'll try it out and let me know what you think.

1. Go to Google Drive and create a spreadsheet (Google Sheet). (If you don't have a Google Drive account, it's pretty easy to set up.)

2. With the spreadsheet open, rename it to what you want to call your file. I called mine "NPC/PC Card File".

3. Now click on the Tools menu and choose the "Create a Form" option. A new tab will pop up in your browser with a Form created that has the same title.

4. Now you're going to create your card file fields. I wanted to keep this simple, so for now, I'm creating three fields - Name, Location and Notes. I want Notes to give me lots of room for free form text, but the other fields don't have to be too large.

5. For your first field, change the title to "Name" and the type to "Short Answer".

6. For the second field, click the "+" to the right of the form. In the new question, change the title to "Location" and the type to "Short Answer".

7. For the third field, click the "+" again. This question's title is "Notes" and the type is "Paragraph". This allows you to type in a lot more information.

NOTE: Before you close this form editor tab, see the URL in the browser address bar? Go ahead and select that and copy it somewhere, maybe to a Notepad or a document somewhere. You're going to need this URL in a minute.

8. Close the Edit Form tab and switch back to the spreadsheet. You will see that a new tab has been added to your spreadsheet, called "Form Responses 1". Go ahead and click on that tab and you'll see three columns named after the form fields you've created, plus a column called "Timestamp".

9. To test this out, refresh the page. Click the Form menu and select "Go to live form." A new tab will open with the form you just created! You'll be able to fill out your note card and submit it.

10. Go ahead and do so, then come back to the spreadsheet. If the entries aren't already there, they will appear in a few minutes as Google updates the response. Viola! You have created and tested your new card file.

Now this is pretty cool, but there are some immediate limitations. How can you go back and update existing cards? Can you modify the form to add additional fields, if you want? Can you modify the order of things, both on the form and spreadsheet? How can you use the data?

So I'll cover a couple of these right now. And another blog post to cover how to use the data.

You can go back and update existing cards... but it requires a bit of additional work to set that up. It's not quite as easy as just updating the spreadsheet itself.

Google allows people to go back and edit/update form responses, but they don't make it easy. You can't just modify the data in the spreadsheet. For whatever reason, Google has the responses stored elsewhere and uses that as the source of truth, even though you can see the responses in the sheet.

To do this in a simple way, we have to use some scripting that will automatically add a link to each row that allows you to click it and come back to the form to update the note card!

If you are familiar with programming, this will not be too difficult. If you are completely unfamiliar with coding, you can copy and paste all this and follow step-by-step to get you to where you need to be.

11. Insert a column between the Timestamp and Name columns. Title it "Update".

12. Click on the Tools menu and select "Script Editor". A new tab will open in your browser to a screen that looks like what you see in step 13.

13. On the right side is the editor area.

There's some code already there. Select all of that and delete it. Then copy what is below and paste it into the editor area.

var formURL = 'https://docs.google.com/forms/d/FORMID/viewform'; var sheetName = 'Form Responses 1'; var columnIndex = 2 ; 

function getEditResponseUrls()   var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(sheetName);   var data = sheet.getDataRange().getValues();   var form = FormApp.openByUrl(formURL);   for(var i = 2; i < data.length; i++)     if (data[i][0] != '' && data[i][columnIndex-1] == '')       var timestamp = data[i][0];       var formSubmitted = form.getResponses(timestamp);       if (formSubmitted.length < 1) continue;       var editResponseUrl = '=HYPERLINK("' + formSubmitted[0].getEditResponseUrl() + '","Update")'       // var editResponseUrl = formSubmitted[0].getEditResponseUrl()       sheet.getRange(i+1, columnIndex).setValue(editResponseUrl);      

Once you've pasted this, you have one thing to change. Remember that URL we saved earlier in step 7? It probably looks something like this: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/9abcb8NrHyezqnZ0q4IYfrGKo3KGn5vc_3b5FA3KDZxI/edit

The part of the URL in my example that is bolded/italicized is a form ID. It's between the slashes. You have to copy that form ID and in the code you just pasted, line #1, there's some text that says FORMID - replace that bit with the form ID.

So you go from this: var formURL = 'https://docs.google.com/forms/d/FORMID/viewform';

To this: var formURL = 'https://docs.google.com/forms/d/9abcb8NrHyezqnZ0q4IYfrGKo3KGn5vc_3b5FA3KDZxI/viewform';

(or whatever your form ID is... it's going to be different).

14. Click the File menu and choose the "Save" option. You will be asked to give a name to the project. I called mine by the same name as the spreadsheet/form: "NPC/PC Card File". Click the OK button with the new name and now the code is saved.

15. Now this next bit is a pain the rear. What we need to do now is to set up the function so that it can be used by the form and spreadsheet.

These next steps are what I had to do using Chrome as my browser. I don't know if you'll get the exact same thing in another browser, but hopefully something similar.

a. Click the Run menu, select the "Run Function" option and select "getEditResponseUrls". You should see a message pop up with something like below.

b. Now comes the weird part. Click "Review Permissions". A new browser window will open up and ask you to sign into your Google account.

c. Once you do, you'll get this big ugly message! Google tries to help people with security and warns them when they're doing risky things. Because you're probably not a verified developer through Google's services, you'll see this. But don't worry, we can continue!

d. Click the "Advanced" link. The warning window will expand a bit (you might have to scroll down). Now, click the "Go to NPC/PC Card File (unsafe)."

e. You will see a permissions window letting you know that this script will edit your spreadsheet (which we want, so we can can edit the data) and it will view/manage your form (which we want so we can show the form.). Click "Allow".

f. The window will close. You might see some quick updates as the function runs.. but nothing happens. That's OK! We're almost done!

16. We have to make it so that this script runs when you submit the form. To do that, we have to create a "trigger".

a. From the script tab, click the Edit menu and select the "Current Project's Triggers" option. A new tab will open up.

b. This new tab has a lot in it, but what you want to do is click the "create a new trigger" link or the "Add Trigger" button.

c. A form will pop up. Select "getEditResponseUrls" for function. Select "On form submit" for event type. The other fields should say "Head" and "From Spreadsheet". If not, make sure your form looks like below. Click "Save". It may take a few minutes, but you'll come back to the triggers tab and you'll see your new trigger.

17. OK, we are done with all the hard stuff! You can close the triggers tab and script tab. Go back to the spreadsheet. Click the Form menu and select "Edit form". A new tab will open with the form in it.

18. To the right on the form tab is a gear. Click it and you should see the Settings. Check the "Edit after submit" option and click save.

19. Now let's test this out! On the spreadsheet tab, click the Form menu and select "Go to live form" option. On the form, enter a new NPC and submit it. When you click back to the spreadsheet tab, you should see the following:

20. You should see the underlined "Update" link, click it - and you'll be able to go back and edit that NPC's card.

OK, now you have something useful! You can create and edit NPC cards. Just by using this spreadsheet and the attached form.

To add a new NPC record - just click Form/Go to live form menu, from the spreadsheet. To edit an existing NPC record - just click the "Update" link on the row of the NPC in the spreadsheet..

A couple of caveats:

1. You can go ahead and delete the first NPC record (without the link) - there's no easy way to go back and edit it so that the update link will appear. To do that, just right-click on the row number and select "Delete row".

2. If you edit the spreadsheet directly, those changes do NOT flow to the form or vice versa. You have to use the form to make edits. This is a limitation that I'm OK with, but keep that in mind.

Now, if you're like me, you'll probably think of a couple of other fields you might want to add that you want to track. Fortunately, with the form, you can do that.

Just remember - you have to make changes through the form. You can safely, add, edit, reorder the fields on the form. You'll see added fields back on the spreadsheet. Deleted fields or reordered fields won't make changes to the spreadsheet. You'll have to do that in the spreadsheet itself if you want.

You can also "hide" the Timestamp column. I did and everything still works OK. It just looks nice and the "Update" links are the left-most column.

I hope you'll give this a try and let me know what you think!

Source: https://chgowiz-games.blogspot.com/2018/11/npc-note-card-database-tutorial.html

[wineanddinosaur]

How Do You Say “Hoppy” in Arabic? The Brewer Creating Craft Beer Culture in Jordan

“Why do your beers taste like flowers?”

Most brewers would find this sort of question insulting, or evidence of some sort of flavor imbalance in their brews.

For Yazan Karadsheh, it sounded like a challenge. It demonstrated the vast divide between what he was brewing and the craft beer culture he needed to build in his home country, Jordan.

Karadsheh founded Carakale, the first craft brewery in majority-Muslim Jordan, in 2013. He was 34 years old. Beyond inaugural bragging rights, Karadsheh hoped to kickstart craft beer culture in his native land. To do so, he had to tackle financing and regulatory bureaucracy.

He also found himself creating language for beer in Arabic, searching for willing and able brewers in a country that is 95 percent Muslim, and educating consumer palates exclusively familiar with imported macro lagers.

Now, as Carakale is extending its distribution across the United States, Karadsheh has another lofty goal. He wants to demystify taboos and stereotypes about Middle Eastern people and lifestyles through the power of beer.

The roots of Carakale go back to a Halliburton oil rig in Colorado, where Karadsheh was working in 2006. “It was a lot of ex-military people, plus meth heads who’d spend their paychecks all on drugs,” he tells VinePair while sitting in a nook in Allswell, a bar in Brooklyn, N.Y. Allswell stocks Carakale’s signature blonde ale and its gose, which is spiked with salt from the Dead Sea.

“It was very quick for me to find out that was not my path for life,” Karadsheh says.

After three months, Karadsheh quit the oil rig and found himself in the midst of Colorado’s vibrant craft beer scene. He took a job in a homebrew supply store and watched YouTube tutorials about brewing. After cleaning kegs and doing manual labor in a couple of microbreweries, he began to explore the idea of opening a craft brewery in Jordan.

When he moved back in 2008, however, he discovered a series of barriers.

“The criteria to start a brewery is you have to be Jordanian, be a Christian, be well off, and you have to have an interest in getting into the beer business,” Karadsheh says. “It’s basically looking for unicorns.” Karadsheh is among the country’s Christian minority. His parents helped provide funding, he says.

While grinding through three years of pre-opening paperwork and bureaucracy, Karadsheh tested launch beers in his parents’ backyard on a 2.5-barrel system, and scouted for potential brewery locations in Jordan’s industrial zones.

He convinced one property owner he needed space to build “a science project for a university that was based on a dairy equipment prototype,” he says. He got the go-ahead and set up Carakale in a town near the capital city of Amman. The brewery’s name riffs on the caracal, a wild cat prevalent in Jordan.

In November 2013, Carakale debuted with a blonde ale characterized by a pop of citrus on the nose, followed by creamier notes of honey and vanilla. In a Jordanian market dominated by the likes of Corona and Heineken, Carakale’s signature brew was an anomaly. Locally, the expectation is that “beer has to be yellow, fizzy, and drunk ice cold,” he says.

Dealing with Jordan’s distributors was also challenging. Karadsheh calls his brand “super counterculture.” He recalls being met with questions about his beers like, “Why are they 20 cents more expensive?” and “Why do they taste like flowers?” Karadsheh realized he’d need to create a new beer culture in Jordan to succeed.

Carakale moved distribution in-house, training employees in craft beer advocacy. This involved blazing more trails.

“It’s an educational process,” Karadsheh says, “You need vocabulary in Arabic to describe beer, whether it’s “hoppy” or saying a “craft brewery”… These terminologies did not exist [in Arabic] so we had to create that vocabulary.”

Embracing craft beer’s inherently independent and hands-on spirit worked. Carakale beers are now available in 500 outlets across Jordan, and the blonde ale accounts for 70 percent of the company’s sales. What Karadsheh says he’s most proud of, though, is visiting a nearby bar and overhearing Jordanians talk about different styles of beer, debating pale ales against imperial stouts. (Whether or not they are talking about Carakale is irrelevant.)

Establishing Carakale in Jordan involved overcoming existing beer stereotypes — and bringing the company’s brews to the United States requires its own tenacity. Carakale is currently available in 50 restaurants and bars in New York, D.C., and Arizona, plus at the United Nations Delegates’ Lounge.

In an invite sent out in August 2018 for Carakale’s first official New York City pop-up, held in conjunction with North Brooklyn Farms, he outlines the company’s mission statement: “We want to re-introduce the Middle East through our brand by educating, enlightening and demystifying the taboos that dominate the discourse of the region’s people and culture.”

Randa Eid, a performer in the experimental electro band Luna Fox, serves as Carakale’s director of creative and culture. She grew up Muslim-American in Northern Virginia and joined Carakale after meeting Karadsheh on a trip to the Jordan brewery.

“A lot of people who just watch the news only have one viewpoint of the Middle East — that’s it’s war and tragedy and conflict. Demystifying means opening up,” Eid says.

And so Carakale sponsors events like art shows and dance parties. Its 2018 pop-up with North Brooklyn Farms featured the Egyptian drag queen Ana Masreya and projected footage of dance scenes from Arabic movies set to a mix of Arabic and American pop music.

The aim is to counter what Eid calls “people not knowing there’s that type of freedom of expression in the Middle East,” she says. “People really like art and music and movies — what better way to tell our culture than do it over a beer?”

Countries with a predominantly Muslim population are often assumed to be in opposition to alcohol industries. Karadsheh says this isn’t an accurate portrayal of Jordan’s beer scene. “I think, with humans, if you tell them you can’t do something, they’ll want to do it more,” he says.

Jordan’s population skews heavily millennial, and Karadsheh believes “most of them want change. A lot of them are artists and counterculture-thinking folk who want to preserve some of our culture but change the old ways and move on to something different,” he says.

Embracing its Jordanian identity has been key to Carakale’s success. At one point, the brand’s logo was written on beer labels in English. Karadsheh changed it to Arabic lettering when he realized that piqued drinkers’ interest. And, according to a bartender at Allswell, customers often ask to try Carakale after seeing that it comes from Jordan.

Like all good craft breweries, Carakale is committed to incorporating local ingredients. Karadsheh has yet to successfully find a way to employ camel lactose in the brewing process, he says, but he finds the most popular beers at Carakale’s pop-up events are experimental brews that feature traditional Jordanian cuisine flavor profiles, like an imperial porter infused with cardamom-roasted Bedouin coffee beans, a saison spiked with za’atar, and a red ale brewed with date molasses.

“Some of the dates come from Saudi Arabia,” Karadsheh, ever the countercultural brewer, says with a mischievous glint in his eye. “If they knew we were using it for alcohol their heads would explode!”

The post How Do You Say “Hoppy” in Arabic? The Brewer Creating Craft Beer Culture in Jordan appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/craft-beer-middle-east-jordan-carakale/

[gsmatthews95]

Thumbs up for serbia

Yo yo yo yo yo. What is up?? I am here in flesh but in writing on the blog as I forever immortalize my thoughts and conceptualise my memories in literature form for future generations and future me to revisit. So I left y'all on my butterz night bus to Belgrade last week. I finished writing mid journey, may I say the journey got all the more eventful. I couldn't sleep until the last two hours, great. 1 coffee at 6pm screwed me sadly, very bloody annoying. But yes after I left you we got to the border. Coincidentally I'd actually forgotten about this journey till I just revisited the last blog, so lucky I looked back. The border was long. A long night time border crossing in a bus? Shock. Never had one of those before. Probably some of my least pleasant experiences holidaying. They are always crap and stressful. This was no change. Firstly we waited on the Hungarian side for maybe 1.5-2 hours. I was wired the whole time cause of the coffee. Lucky I had an audiobook to help my sanity. Then the actual border. The Hungarians are apparently really strict on their borders I've been told. Something that was definitely not the case coming from Poland as I didn't even need my passport. This was the issue. My passport was in my big bag as I'd assumed (rationally given pur previous border crossings) I wouldn't need it and I didn't want the FAFF of having it on me. Mistake number 1. Someone said "use your drivers licence that'll work". It didn't work. I was sent back to the bus. I clambered into the hold to find my passport and had a border guard shouting at me in Hungarian. Cheers that'll help. The bus driver telling me I was holding the whole process up made me laugh given people were still getting their passports checked when I got there. Then an aggy look from the official as he begrudgingly let me thru. The next step of the farce. Getting back on the bus and giving the conductor pur passports. She, then having had them checked AGAIN brought them back, gave them back to people randomly. She couldn't say half the names and was left with like 5 at the end of unclaimed passports hmmmm. It was a fiasco. After that the journey was smooth to Belgrade where we continue our journey. Belgrade. A city steeped in history. A people so affected by war and strife. A culture so intertwined with that of its neighbours. Belgrade was a funny city. So parts were very grand, some were grey and grim from the communist era while others were of a more modern style. This was all testament to the rocky, turbulent history of Serbia. All of which we learnt on the free walking tour. Something I havent done in some time and our first in eastern Europe. I the guide was knowledgeable. He also like to talk. A lot. Lots of Information. May I pose a question of you? How much info is too much? Can there be too much? I think this may have been that occasion. It was a lot to take in but on our first day it was perfect to set the scene for this highly individual country. We enjoyed it greatly. But in the immortal words of Craig David re ee wind. When the crowd say no selecta. So I reverse. Our day began with the checking in at 6:30am urgh. Lucky we could do so but we had no bed so we slept on the sofas for 3 hours. Nice. To wake up in our new hostel. It was an odd one. Some very friendly nice people. But many... Different people. A few crazies and a few odd ones. The hostel was like a big apartment so it was cosy and sociable but like I say... Weird and a bit dirty. The day began though with a wander to the market where we saw people selling bits and bobs and some things you can only imagine they found in their attic or in a skip... No deal thank you. The greatest excitement from this journey however came as I found out how much the old Serbian men enjoy a game of chess. They love it. They'd all be crowded around a pair of players. Excitement in the air. Cursing. Cries of cheating. And jubilant smug grims when one had made a power move. With my recent redound love of chess I was engrossed. Safe to say Alina was not. I wanted to stay, to challenge these goliaths of the game to a match. It was intimidating and Alina may have killed me so I shrank away. Content with merely spectating this spectacle. To our surprise and joy this became commonly found throughout belgrade as these testosterone fuelled beasts fed their egos through brain straining sport. Immense viewing. Another little tit bit. You can buy 2 litre plastic beer bottles in Serbia. A beautiful creation up there with sliced bread, the wheel, sky plus and tiki taka football. They were a staple of our time in Belgrade and being so large you had to drink them fast before they got flat and warm. Fine mum I'll neck my beer. Our second day was buff. The sun was shining and we went to the beach. Huh? The beach? But Serbia land trapped? Some of our keen geographers may have been asking these questions. Very well done if you did, you get a cookie. However, being on two major rivers has allowed Belgrade to create an artificial stone beach. And being a stones throw from the city it is a perfect little get await. Ill be honest, it was busy. Still space to bathe tho and have a wee dip in the water. There were restaurants, bars, shops etc. We made do with our bread and dips tho. A good little day out and a chance to top up the tans, ideal. Our third day was uneventful as we took in the city and city and just vibed. Dont know what that means? Neither do I. I made it up. It was chill so we were all ready for our trip to nova varos and the countryside the next day. So you may have realised as keen readers that we have spent much time in big cities. We have. And we wanted to get out so we sent to brdo in nova varos in west Serbia. Off the beaten track so as to speak. This consequentially, is where I have been writing from although we are now in the bus to Bosnia woohoo. Edin dzeko here we come. Nova varos is tiny. A skiing town in winter and a chilled hiking town in summer kind of. We have been in the wilderness staying in a cheap home stay with a lovely woman who didn't have a word of English. It was very enjoyable. We wandered around towns and to a monestry In the mountains. It was very atmospheric and like I say, nice to get out of the cities. Yesterday was the day we saw a river. The uvac river. The home to the 3m griffin vulture. Ooooo. Wow. Big bird. There were also tonnes of eagles gliding around. They were all sick. The tour had us two and a polish couple and consisted of floating down the river as it meandered through the high up mountains. To describe this river it looked like your cliché geography GCSE meandering river as it swerved back and forth through these mountains. Buff. A very picturesque area that can only really be appreciated from up heigh. So we climbed. There was a platform maybe 200-300 metres up (it was hard to work out through the guides very disjointed english.). It was a hot climb as the temperature rose and the sun came out. 20-30 mins later we were there. Wow. What a view. AND we have the pictures to prove it ahahah. It was lush. We had a beer (a homebrew we think) at the top and then wandered down for the rip to the cave. It was a big cave. Very big. It was also very cold. Nicknamed the ice cave. Why? Two reasons we think. Maybe cause it was so cold. Or maybe cause of the vast numbers of stalagmites and stalactites all over the cave. They were very impressive even if we still can't work out which is which. This brought the end of the cruise as we sauntered home in the boat, a good little day out only marred by the scenes that morning. God that was a FAFF. We had decided to go the day before. Were told the time and price. Perfect. The man came the next morning and shock, the price had changed. There were taxi charges, entrance fees, another price because other people had pulled our of coming. Hmmm. I dont believe you. This whole encounter was made all the more tricky by his speaking no English. He spoke to a lady in Serbian. She translated to alina in German and she translated to me in English. Like a giant game of Chinese whispers. Long and stressful. After deliberation we went for it. Annoyed but it still wasn't expensive. Just like having a slight sour taste in your mouth. So you may be questioning the title. Bit weird. Is it relevant or has this kid just lost his imagination. It was actually alinas first contribution to this beautiful blog something she has been craving since the blogs glorious rebirth. So yes the last few days in nova varos have marked our reignited love for hitchhiking. Having only done it sporadically when I was 18 to 20 its something I'm glad to be doing again. Everyone here is very friendly and usually more than willing to pick us up. Since we've started there's only been one journey we had to walk having done it 6 times in the last few days with the most recent coming from a taxi driver as he said no. Stopped 10 metres up the road and reversed to let us in. Good lad. Like I say its been fin, saved us time and money even if we cannot communicate with anyone as none of them speak any English. Just lots of waving hands forwards and repeating the destination we need. A successful start in our eyes. The funniest was as we were stood on the side of the road hailing down anyone we could and a big Porsche zoomed towards us. We saw. Stuck our thumbs up. Hoped. Prayed. He speeds at us. We have little confidence with his speed. No signs of slowing down. He's past us. F off mate we think. I fume "of course he didn't stop, no one in a Porsche will ever stop". We look over. He's stopped. What's happened? Has he hit a child? No he'd found his conscience. He reversed and let us in. What a man. What a car. It was really comfy and spacious. We enjoyed it. But yes this is now a new chapter in our lives. The chapter of free lifts and hitching. Yay. Enjoyable. Here's to lots more. Anyhow I've rambled for ages and my fingers hurt. Writing this on my tiny crap phone is long. But for you guys I'd do anything. Love y'all. I'll be back in like four days. We won't be in Bosnia too long. Ciao (Thats bye in Serbian). G

[inamcmaster61-blog]

Learn The Tactics To Play Texas Holdem Poker Aggressively

I have learned a good strategy from a pro that has helped me in many cases when playing online. In general it is play tight, and then eventually loosen up and get aggressive. Play in stages; early, middle, late. This is in reference to the blind structure. The early stages are the low blinds, the middle stages are the increasing blinds, and the late is when the blinds are high and just a few hand can easily knock someone out. Banks are tops on my list because of obvious reasons. If you are working at a bank then you know what I am talking about. If you work at a bank and you are not looking for a job right now, you might need to. Banks are very fickle when it comes to the economy. With banks falling like Dominoes, it's very hard to sustain a job in banking long term, unless you are a chairman or on a board of some sort. Other than that, if you are considering working at a bank, you will want to be careful. They are not the most consistent lines of work. But, as time passes and the blinds increase, these smaller chips eventually are more bothersome than helpful. With blinds at $75 and $150, putting up fifteen $10 chips to pay a big blind is not convenient. Online poker rooms all offer a standard deposit bonus. The bonus is awarded to you when you make your initial deposit and the amount of the bonus depends on how much you deposit. The bonus is a percentage of the initial deposit amount. For example, a $100 deposit will get you an extra $100 with a 100% bonus or $200 with a 200% bonus. There is also a maximum limit to the bonus amount. I know, I know you might be a champ in your neighbourhood poker competitions or in your state play offs. But if this is your first time to play domino gaple online, you might be in for a big surprise. Do not get this wrong, playing online is exciting and challenging, but the lack of face to face encounter severely alters a player strategy. Thinking of calling a bluff online? Well, you should think again. That other person from Hong Kong or Russia might be up to something and you will not know it because you cannot see them. Another specific day I recorded 14 hands being dealt which resulted in four of a kind. I can safely and honestly say I saw more four of a kind hands dealt that 1 day than I have witnessed while playing live poker in over 12 years. You say, well that's the random dealing of a computer. You saying cards dealt in casinos by humans are not random? That everyone knows what's coming? I don't think so. A full slate of events are on the schedule for the weekend of May 13-15, beginning with the Meet & Greet Brews Cruise (part of the VIP exBEERience) on Friday, and culminating with the Top it Off Charity Golf Tournament on Sunday. Along the way get your fill of beer-centric happenings as you enjoy various contests, culinary demonstrations, and homebrewing workshops all set to the soundtrack of live local music. Plus, if you're feeling lucky, go all-in for your chance to win a seat at the WSOP by taking part in the Charity link judi poker. When making His all-important covenant with Israel one of the first things Yahweh did was to introduce His people to His personal Name, Exodus 3:13-15. He wanted and expected the intimacy that using His personal name would create. He called it His "memorial for all generations," Exodus 3:15.

[doxampage]

Gen Con Insider’s Guide: 50 Years of Gaming, and Growing Stronger

This week, we’re heading to the 50th anniversary edition of one of the world’s first and biggest gaming conventions: Gen Con. We’ll be there with some pretty sweet miniatures to give away — plus daily contests — at the Shapeways booth. To help you navigate the massive, round-the-clock event, we turned to veteran gamer and journalist Ryan Schapals from Nerdarchy for an insider’s look at Gen Con.

The year is 2017, the same year Blade Runner is set in, and here we are tossing dice and cards like it’s 1982. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Surprisingly, the tabletop renaissance is in full bloom, all thanks to the internet. Instead of rogue androids, we’ve got Kickstarter and print-on-demand fueling ambitious new tabletop games, and you can catch the best of them at Gen Con. Hard to believe it’s just two days away!

There’s nothing quite like Gen Con. While there’s an incredible wealth of great gaming conventions in the US these days, Gen Con feels like the most wholeheartedly focused on getting new and veteran gamers around a table to experience the best in tabletop. Walking the Vendor Hall, you’ll be overloaded by the sheer number of gaming possibilities.

You’ll find plenty of friendly faces on the floor ready to introduce to you to everything from the freshest take on Werewolf to the kind of strategy games that take all day! Outside of simply demoing every game that catches your eye, here are some of my favorite picks for Gen Con 2017.

Homebrews in the Gaming Hall

Did you ever wonder what kind historical miniatures games a historian might create? Look no further than the Gaming Hall at Gen Con. You can find all sorts of incredible games here, from giant-sized Catan matches to MTG tournaments all day, but the hot ticket here is the homebrew games. Walking the hall, you can check out some custom made castles and armies, strike up a conversation, and before you know it you’re playing a game like no other. And often these kind of games are free because you’re helping to playtest!

Battletech Beta and Pods

Full disclosure, I first attended Gen Con in 2014 with Harebrained Schemes and had an absolute blast sharing their games and making new friends. The Battletech Beta is here and you’ll have a chance to test it out before launch. Video games at Gen Con? Yep, that’s right. Time to break the rules and recommend one game that’s taken all the strategic fun of one of the most intense tabletop games and transported it to the digital realm.

Outside of HBS, there are also Battletech Pods in the gaming hall where you can hop in and get in on a first person ‘Mech destruction! Not to be missed. It’s like hopping into a time machine that takes you to the past and the future all at once. I keep returning to these pods each year because there’s nothing quite like them. They’re filled with knobs, levers, and pedals that actually function and need to be mastered if you want to stand a chance in the free-for-all. This is as close as you’ll ever come to actually piloting a ‘Mech!

The GM Improv Showdown

The number one event I’m looking forward to this year is the GM Showdown hosted by Open Legend, featuring Matt Mercer (Critical Role), Satine Phoenix (GM Tips, Maze Arcana), Shanna Germain (Monte Cook Games), Andrew Armstrong (DawnforgedCast), Brian Feister (Open Legend), and myself (Open Legend)! What can I say, I’m a little biased, but getting these many amazing storytellers and performers in one room and challenging them to run an adventure blind, with no preparation, is a one-of-a-kind experience.

Anything could happen! Expect the unexpected as each GM takes a round trying to control the chaos made by other players. Who will win it all in the first ever GM Showdown? Even if you can’t be there in person, we’ll be streaming the entire event for the gamers at home! Check it out here on August 17th from 3 – 4 PM EDT. And be sure to check out the Shapeways minis we get to use for all our events during the best four days in gaming!

True Dungeon

Every single year I’ve been to Gen Con, my biggest regret has been missing True Dungeon. I plan to fix that this year. There are few other events that are so completely unique to Gen Con. You embark on a live action RPG adventure with friends and strangers alike. I’ve heard it’s best if you can bring your own group, but it’s still worth checking out solo because of the sheer scale and madness of this dungeon delve.

You have to pick actual locked boxes, complete puzzles as a team, and memorize the planes themselves to succeed. There’s nothing this immersive anywhere else in the world. If you’ve ever wondered, how you, not your character sheet, would handle the perils of a fantasy adventure. With accolades from Patrick Rothfuss, Wil Wheaton, and Gary Gygax himself, this is a must-play experience.

Caffeine, Brews, and Bites

Last, but certainly not least, if you can, avoid the food inside the convention center. Head outside to Georgia Street and grab great bites and brews from local food trucks. And stay caffeinated with Bee Coffee Roasters. They’ve got fun themed drinks, awesome costumed staff, and the most solid good ol’ fashioned coffee near the convention. I could never handle all the hours of gaming without them!

And if you’re feeling real adventurous and looking for some late night activities, bring your friends out to the Cadillac Ranch to ride the mechanical bull and witness (or join in on) the line dancing!

There are near infinite games to discover at Gen Con and I wish I could include them all here, but be sure to wander the floor and share your findings. What are you looking forward to most? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re going to Gen Con 50, be sure to stop and say hi if you see me! I’m a master of taking blurry selfies. Here’s to 50 more years of gaming!

Shapeways will be in the Miniature Hobby Events section on Sagamore Concourse, giving away free miniatures for the Paint & Take and holding daily contests. See you in Indy!

See you at the Shapeways booth!

The post Gen Con Insider’s Guide: 50 Years of Gaming, and Growing Stronger appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

Gen Con Insider’s Guide: 50 Years of Gaming, and Growing Stronger published first on http://ift.tt/2vVn0YZ

[thekegtap]

Homebrew Clubs - Why You Should Join One

Have you ever hit a stumbling block when you brew? Have you ever started drawing blanks when trying to find inspiration on what you want to do next or how to tweak a current recipe? Maybe you just want to get someone else’s insight firsthand. What to do? Join a homebrew club!

I’ve been debating about whether to do this for some time. The closest homebrew club to me meets on Wednesday nights and I always had a prior commitment for that night. Now that I’ve moved a town over from my previous residence and have been away from that scene for a couple years, I found that Wednesday is one of the few nights I’m free. I’ve been invited repeatedly to join a club in my old stomping grounds – literally a 15 minute drive through traffic – so I thought why not? Let’s give it a whirl. I look forward to attending my first meeting with this new club and seeing how it turns out. Here’s another kicker – it’s literally two blocks from the gym I work for several days a week. Go on my off night, get a light workout in and walk over to the meeting, or vice versa. Boom.

credit: Tara Herberger of flickr.com

Why should you join a homebrew club?

Let’s go over this one point at a time. First and foremost, you get to drink beer. That in itself is a win. Secondly, you get to sample other people’s beer and share your own. In other words, you get to drink beer. Are you following me on this yet? Third, you build a bond with other brewers – this is really what it’s all about for me. There is a camaraderie among homebrewers unlike any other. The obvious, you both share a common interest – brewing and drinking beer. The not so obvious, there is an intrinsic value in developing relationships with people when you can create something from nothing, especially when you collaborate. Not to mention it makes you a better homebrewer by picking the brains of other more established brewers and learning what makes it work for them. Of course, there is the other side of that coin – being the experienced guy and showing newbies how it is done also helps you stay practiced. That or by simply going through the motions with your friends on a regular basis. Didn’t they once say “practice makes perfect?”

credit: Tara Herberger of flickr.com

Another plus for homebrew clubs would be the group outings/field trips t0 local breweries to see how they work and yes – drink their beer. Look, I’ll be honest. It may sound like this is just an excuse to get drunk with a new set of friends, but honestly being part of a homebrew club is like joining any other organization – you get to enjoy the benefit of learning what they do and how they work and you also get the benefits of trying out what they’ve made, along with submitting your own offerings. It also serves as a complete learning process. I know I iterated this before, but it bears repeating – who out there can tell me that they didn’t learn something new when they brewed with someone else, especially someone more experience? See what I’m getting at here?

When it’s all said and done, joining a homebrew club is beneficial in a number of ways –

You get access to more beer.

You get access to better beer.

You get to make new friends with whom you get access to better beer.

You get to make better beer.

You get to learn from others how to make better beer.

You get to make new friends with whom you can make better beer.

You get to attend more beer events and conferences.

You get to make new friends with whom you can attend more beer events.

Win/Win in my book. Cheers!

Find a homebrew club in your area: American Homebrewers Association Website

Beer = Social

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Homebrew Clubs – Why You Should Join One was originally published on The Keg Tap | A Latino Beer Blog Where We Drink, Brew and Tell