Right now it’s aeropress and it will remain aeropress until I make a shit cup or have a bad morning, then it’ll switch to v60 and repeat the same process until I switch to chemex. Then, eventually we will come full circle back to aeropress and start everything all over again. The circle of life. The ouroboros of my morning coffee, if you will.

My second cup of the day is and will always be an espresso.

How is the SH and the Shadwell Shadows? I’ve had that series on my to-read list for a while but haven’t touched them.

I went down a deep horror fantasy rabbit hole and I just came out of it. Now I am jumping back into discworld with Terry Pratchett for a while. I just finished The Fifth Elephant and I’m going to try to finish the watch series in the next couple weeks. I might sprinkle a few short stories in there for palette cleansers haha. Pratchett is always my favorite author to come back to after I do a deep dive on a different genre or author. It’s like a warm blanket that makes me giggle.

I don’t know if this counts but, I DMed the Dragons of Stormwreck Isle beginner campaign for my wife and some members of her family. None of them had played any kind of ttrpg and most of them weren’t super familiar with fantasy stuff in general, but everybody wanted to give it a try. They all made costumes, did a ton of research before playing, and got SUPER into roleplaying their characters. It was really cool to see new players get so into it, plus it made my first time running a game so much fun.

I really like Melvin!

Right now, I’m playing a changeling bard named Beer, in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. I went with the shadow touched feat and used magical secrets to access necromancy spells.

As a young changeling that did not have a home after being taken away from Khorvaire, he was raised by a family of halflings in Daggerford. Because of this he does not worship the Traveller like some other changelings. He learned at an early age to hide his true identity and to fit in as best he could. He noticed that most of the townfolk around him were happiest when they had beer, which is how he chose his name. Then again, what is a name but a collection of letters to remember a face? One without a face does not need such a thing. He learned quickly to have as many names and faces as he needed to get by.

The female halfling that raised him was a necromancer, so he learned early on that he had an interest in raising the dead. As a bard, it is useful to be able to raise your own audience at will, is it not?

He started performing at taverns in a way to both make money and learn about the people around him. He quickly realized this was his ticket to being “normal”. He found himself as a crew member on a merchant ship and worked his up to be the sailor of a rickety old vessel. He sailed for freedom and stole what was needed to help his crew survive. His charisma and charm have certainly worked in his favor.

Although performance is his strength, he am extremely introverted as Beer. Now, if he is Arodeyr serenading a village of half-elves, he is as extroverted as they come. If he is Bellen Strongfoot performing for a tavern of halflings in Ethdale, he will always steal the show. However, when he is far from the spotlight, he is reserved and his motives are highly calculated.

He is a becomer. He seeks life in many forms. He maintains a collection of identifications to fit in wherever he goes.

Currently, in our campaign he is a female tabaxi pirate named Sandy, which is short for Like Sands Through The Hourglass, So Are The Days of Our Lives. One of the other players made his character an incredibly low int and low wis tabaxi who keeps forgetting who Sandy actually is, so he is repeatedly falling in love with her even after showing him my true face multiple times. It’s made for some really funny interactions.

Classic Barb. Sounds super fun!

My group had 6 for a campaign and it was a bit of a slog, but once we found a good rhythm it ended up being really fun. We set some ground rules, especially for combat, where you had to be prepared and we’d set a time limit for turns. It kept the game rolling and kind of added a sense of urgency, which was an unexpected bonus. Plus, our DM was pretty lenient on things to let the game flow. He said he’d rather let some small things slide for the sake of time.

We also prioritized having a face character for non-combat situations and kind of had a buddy/group system when it came to exploring, looting, etc. That way you’re dealing with less instances of decision making that could potentially slow the game down.

As long as players stay engaged while it isn’t their turn and are prepared for their own, it should run smooth albeit a little slower. We had a couple players that were not super experienced and sitting down to explain the flow and order of things before hand helped them find their rhythm.

One added bonus of more people is that the excitement level increases in high intensity situations. It’s cool when someone rolls a nat20 with 2-3 other players, but it’s even more exciting when a table of 6 jumps up from an awesome roll or whatever.

Have fun and good luck!

That makes a lot of sense. I fully expect the city watch to play a big role haha. Good luck running yours, bud!

Thanks! Quick question about the factions. Is it crucial to have the PCs join a faction? It seems like a convenient way to filter information to them and add some flavor the game, but knowing the dinguses I play with they might end up avoiding joining any groups all together. Appreciate all the insight.

Right? I never understood the fun in lying in DnD.

We had a guy in our group who would find any and every reason to bail or show up late or leave a session early. When he would show up, he would just goes rogue (usually playing a rogue) and do his best to ruin the game for everyone else. There was a campaign a while back where I was playing a changeling and he/his PC knew. We were sneaking through a dungeon, my character changed into a goblin or whatever the enemies were to do some recon. He knew what clothes I was wearing and we had agreed on a signal. Also, most dungeon goblins aren’t wearing cool sparkly robes. He proceeded to sneak and kill my character saying “There was no way of knowing which was which”. It brought the whole good down. The DM said I could just bring the same character back, bla bla bla, but it just soured the game for me. I never understood why he acted like that, because it never seemed like he was having fun and it’s not like the rest of us were.

The other “that guy” that I know has gotten better, but he had a really bad habit of taking advantage of homebrew material and hiding or fudging stats/rules. He’d always argue that he could do this or that and would fight with the DM over how much damage he could do. It was just weird, because I never got the mindset of cheating in dnd. We’re all supposed to be playing the same game, chill out my dude.

Wow! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. I actually bought the Alexandrian Remix and ended up getting more intimidated than I was before, so it’s comforting to know that it might be too much.

I’ve been on the fence between running Xanathar or the Casselanters as the villain and I think you might have pushed me towards the Casselanters. I really like the story flavor that you described. Also, the sheer amount of villains/factions have been bogging me down quite a bit and it’s nice to know that I don’t need to deal with all of them. That seemed way too cumbersome.

Either way, I really appreciate the advice. Thanks!

That makes me feel better haha I figured I was overthinking it. Thanks.