Back in the Saddle

Uh, wow. I have not posted in almost a month.

This is mostly because we have only played once since my last post, a 16th level one shot run by Dan. It was a lot of good fun, I got to play the Dwarven Ranger I have been itching to play. Honestly it is just the dual wielding dwarf that pushes my buttons, whether it is a fighter or a ranger. . .something about using two uberweapons at a time makes me happy. Can't imagine why. Though my first ever character was a dual wielder. I have always liked the idea of it, and in 4e there is a lot more chance to make it viable. The parrying dagger combined with two weapon defense is just as good as a shield, and a lot cooler for me to imagine. What a nerd.

I didn't blog about the one shot because with the holidays eating up increasing portions of my free time and work and trying the warcraft free trial . . .blogging took a back seat. So did most things D&D, really.

I run again in two days. Luckily I have all my prep done. I have started putting my adventures together a level at a time, so I will run until the party is 5th. That way I can use the DMG's guidelines for encounters (3 at level -1, 3 at the party's level, and one at the level +3) plus add a quest reward and we don't worry about giving out experience. Everyone levels together whether they show up or not.

I am a little anxious about whether I will be able to get with it right away. A month long DMing break, compounded by ending on a cliffhanger, will mean that I am liable to make at least one stupid DM call. I have decided to call the end of the fight. Although Chelsea was taking a beating, the rest of the party was still doing. . okay. Jesse tends to run out of surges first, which you might imagine since he is the most frail of the melee types. We were going to have to rest anyways, so I decided that trying to pick this up after such a long gap would be a stretch. The party will start with an extended rest, and move on from there.

I also am moving to make a change about my stupid, stupid DM mistake from last session. Someone asked if we could keep our same boat and crew from the last adventure, and the waterfall made me say that no, we couldn't. A classic example of saying no when I should have said yes, and for no real reason other than it was seemingly impossible. This in a world filled with magic. I have since thought of a half dozen or so good reasons why the boat and the crew could have come, and I am going to bring em along. Why not, right? Building up cool NPC's is part of what makes DMing enjoyable.

So. . .I *will* be getting back on it. If there is anyone that was following along. I don't get much traffic but I do get some. Probably my mom or something. Hi mom!

Jay