The Unseen Servant forums

"Interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons at our store? Come out and visit with us this weekend!

What is this meetup all about? The intent is to be a meet and greet to test interest, availability and willing DM's (or those willing to learn) for 5th Ed D&D Adventures League and / or Homebrew. Informal session to meet like minded individuals and answer questions on how organized play runs."

dmw71 wrote:I probably spent three-hours (no joke) building the character I'm (probably) going to use in the game...

dmw71 wrote:This second character took me about 1.5 hours to create, which is still a decent amount of time, but it was significantly easier the second time, after having gone through the process before.

• Our first session was back on November 16, 2017.
• Still have not met a second time.

• Receive two surprise monetary rewards -- one from my manager, the other from the account group I did the work for.
• Pull the trigger and use this new "free" money to purchase a bunch of 5e books I had been adding to my cart on Amazon (and Kobold Press):

  

  5e Sources.jpg (115.92 KiB) Viewed 8794 times

• The game had started a half hour before I arrived (even though I arrived before the starting time published on the website).
• It was an existing group in the middle of an active session... in an ongoing campaign.
• They halt their game to allow me to join; one of the players gave me a pre-generated character (a 3rd level mountain dwarf barbarian).
• Another good DM.
• While still Tier 1 characters, the fact that everyone was 3rd level or higher, with a lot more options available to use, this game gave me a much better feel for a 5e game.
• I was hesitant to use some of my borrowed barbarian's skills (e.g. rage, reckless attack, frenzy), but did a few times. (Enough to end up with level 2 exhaustion).
• Definitely a more powerful game than the AD&D games I'm familiar with.
  • I'm still not sure how I feel about this?
  • It's kind of fun to have more stuff to do, so I think I'm okay with it.
  • I'm going to force myself to silence my inner reservations and just go with it.
• DM tells me to create a new 4th-level character of my own (I returned the pre-gen barbarian) to use in future games.
  • This could be interesting!
  • Think I'm going to try a spell-caster since I have no clue how spell-casting works in 5e yet.
• Sadly, have a conflict next Tuesday and will need to miss their next session.
  • I actually cancel this other commitment (a once-per-month meeting at my kid's school on the third Tuesday each month, which I have been attending faithfully for the past 4+ years) in order to play D&D.
    • I recently helped them configure and set up live-streaming of their meetings, which are saved and can be replayed, so that helped make my decision easier.

• Need to self-impose some limits of time spent away from family to game before so wife doesn't do it for me.

• I created my own 4th-level character to use ongoing in this game (since I borrowed a pre-gen for my first session).
  • I wanted to create a character that can cast spells (maybe a cleric or a paladin?), but, as I discovered when attempting to create my first random 5e character, I'm really not familiar enough with how spells work in 5e and didn't have a chance to read chapter 10 on spellcasting in the PHB yet.
  • Elected to create something simple -- a dwarven fighter.
    • At 4th level, a fighter will have selected an archetype.
    • This does grant all kinds of extra features and skills for your character.
    • Yes, 5e characters can do a LOT more than 1e/2e characters can.
    • I'm okay with it.
  • Tangent: It turns out, the guy I borrowed the pre-gen character from last week is the father of one of my oldest daughter's new friend at school.
• While I don't exactly want to, I think I'm going to withdraw from the game held at my friend's gaming store. Playing in-person once per week is plenty, and this Tuesday night game is a lot closer, and meets more regularly.

• The DM is running a new module and is woefully unprepared:
  • It seems obvious that he's reading box text (and it's kind of obvious that it's the first time he's ever read it);
  • I've also found myself questioning some of his rulings (which is crazy given my lack of experience);
    • I want to look into a halfling rouge's ability to hide in the middle of combat.
  • I've come to suspect that the module is either designed for a less powerful group. "It is designed for a party of four to six characters, levels 3 to 5." It's not. It's a little disconcerting that our group, at 4th-level, seems invincible.
• My original group, which runs at my friend's gaming store, finally had it's second session tomorrow last Thursday (February 1, 2018).
  • Our first (and only) session in this game was back on November 16, 2017.
  • The game was cut short because the DM received a text that is son's temperature spiked to 104.7 and the wife was taking him to the hospital.
  • But it is a much better game! The DM is really good, and it's a good, smaller group of players and characters.
• I can't afford to budget the time for multiple face-to-face games on a regular basis (especially on top of my involvement here).
  • I was prepared to drop this occasional Thursday night game, but decided that I would rather just skip my Tuesday night game on the weeks when this Thursday night group meets -- we're next scheduled for February 22, 2018.
• My next Tuesday night game is tonight (February 6, 2018).

• Having the page open for my class, so I could actually see what special features I should have, with links to details about them, is very convenient;
• One of the guys loaned me the cards from his 'D&D Spellbook Cards Deck (Martial Powers and Races)' for my character's special features (since he was playing a different class and wasn't using them).
  • Having those cards out on the table was even more helpful
  • So I purchased my own set.