5E Guide to filling out character sheets!

I was looking around on the web for better character sheets and these images came up in the google browser. I am not sure who did these and I take no credit for them, but its a really detailed explanation & break down of how to fill out a character sheet for 5e. 

I know sometimes its not easy filling out these sheets and this break down really helps with each spot on there, especially if you are brand new to the game.

The Evil GM - Introducing the Path of Legends Podcast

I've joined forces with the TSR Podcast Network, (http://TSRPN.com) to bring you the Path of Legends Podcast! 

This podcast is focusing on Dungeons and Dragons 5E, but with small twist to it, we will show you how to make it more deadly and have that old school feel to it.

Each episode, myself, +Erik Tenkar and +Sal Valente will dive into ways on how to make D&D 5e feel like AD&D 1e.

You can look forward to seeing custom creatures, spells and other things as we explore how to play.

You can find us on iTunes or go directly to our website http://pathoflegends.tsrpn.com/

Contact us via email pathoflegendspodcast@gmail.com

Call our voicemail line - 702-744-PATH (7284)

RFI 174 Recorded this weekend, Great show it was!

This weekend, I was able to sit down with two awesome guests, +Erik Tenkar  and +Timothy Brannan  to record yet another episode of the Roll for Initiative podcast. 

This week's show I decided to mix it up a bit with a small format change just for this show. We talked about a few (hot button) topics we constantly see around the community.

I do feel the show had that "newsy" and "the best damn sports show period!" feel to it as we chatted about the topics at hand.

The show is set to drop live this Wednesday, of course if you are a Patreon supporter, you'll have already heard this show, much like every show, early.

Topics we talked about:

Dungeon Mastering?
- Is charging for seats in a local game (none conventions) fair or just greedy?
- charging to teach newbies how to play and be a DM?

Patreon/Kickstarters?
- playing a simple AD during a podcast is enough, but asking and throwing in plugs more then once is that over doing it?
- Are Kickstarters hurting the hobby or helping?

Buying Books?
- Amazon vs Local Store

Forums vs Social media platforms?
- Which is more helpful vs less informative
- Which encourages more interaction and thoughtful comments?

The Face Mask of Horror - More Evil Goodness!

The Face Mask of Horror
By The Evil GM, Pulled from his Notebooks of Doom!

Now that would scare anyone!

This mask is made up from strips of burnt flesh, sewn together by silver strains of wire. The flesh appears to feel and look as if its still alive and squirming around.

When worn, this mask will put the fear of their god into them, as they must make a save vs fear with a heavy minus to stand their ground. The mask's magical properties, allows the view to see their worst nightmares each time they look at it. To stop the visions and fear, they must make a save each combat round, run or knock the mask off the face of the wearer. Knocking off the mask requires that a successful saving throw is made and then a called hit has to be made.

The Longer the character wears the mask, the closer he slowly becomes insane and keeps the mask on all the time.

The first time worn, it will work with no side effects and seem grand! After the 4th use, the Dungeon Master will have to make a secret saving throw vs spells for the character. If the save is a failure, when the player says his character takes off the mask, the Dungeon Master will tell the character, no his character feels as if he wants the mask to stay on, and that he enjoys the effects of the mask way too much.

From this point the player will know something is up, and can freely make their save with a penalty of -2 after 24 hours. If the save fails again, the character can try once more in 48 hours -4.

If the final save is not made, the character becomes insane and the mask is permanently affixed to his face as a part of his head.

The character can not have this mask removed during any phase, short of cutting the flesh on his own face, scarring him and possibly resulting in a system shock roll.

Ring of Sinking Depression, Gives Bonus to stat!?

Ring of Sinking Depression

by the Evil GM, pulled from his notebooks of doom!

Price:3,000 gp

Type: Ring

Weight -

Description:

This ring is simple in appearance, plain silver with small skull in front. It is easily identified by any level Magic User as a ring that will add a bonus to the wearer's prime stat.

When the user puts the ring on, they will feel no change, but when their mood changes (for the worse) the ring's powers will kick in, granting them its magical bonus (see chart below).

Simply, the more depressed and sad the character acts and portrays as a true emotion, the higher the bonus.

The twist of this ring, is the longer the character uses the power of the ring the harder it becomes for the character to come out of their state. This factor would not be identifiable by a Magic User at all.

A character that portrays and stays in the despair state for more then a few days, risks the chance of developing an insanity from the Dungeon Master's Guide... DM's Choice, Of Course.

The Dungeon Master will secretly roll the chances, starting at 50%, adding 10% each day.

Chart:

If the character is perfectly content, no bonus.

If the character is a bit melancholy, +1 bonus.

If the character is crying or sad, +3 bonus.

If the character is lost to despair,  +4 major bonus.

Ring of Healing or is it?? Muhahahah!

The Ring of Healing

by the Evil GM

Price:5,000 gp
Type: Ring
Weight -


Description:

This looks and appears to be a ring of healing granting the user the ability to heal himself 3 to 5 times a day, healing anywhere from 4 points to 24 points in a shot.

This item when identified will appear to be a ring of healing with the properties listed above, unless detected by a high level Magic User (15 and up). The real fun begins when the character puts the ring on, the ring reveals its TRUE self. The ring will work in stages as it slowly turns the character into an undead zombie.

Stage 1 - The character notices is that it will not come off at all and that he now has the ability to inflict wounds on others, instead of heal (as stated above, just inflict now).

Stage 2 - (after second usage of inflict) The character will notice he will gain healing from the infliction of wounds of equal value, if the character needs no healing, nothing will happen. The characters skin will slowly turn a pale color, and cold to the touch of others.

Stage 3 - Same as stage two, except now the character will be able to gain 5 temporary hitpoints that once lost will not return and will never go over the 5 threshold by accumilation. The character will notice (if prompted somehow) they will no longer need to eat or drink and only need 2 hours resting time. Once this happens, the character has one week of game time, otherwise this process can not be reversed, and then moves into stage 4 and if the ring comes off, the character will slowly die in 24 hours.

Stage 4 - Final stage, Character will stop breathing, heart beat will stop completely and will show all the signs of being undead now.

Shadow of the Demon Lord, The Perfect Evil Game..

In my quest to find the "next interesting game" for me, I started with Dungeon World, and I was excited about it. Then I really got into it, and I didn't like it, I didn't like it at all. I was very disappointed as I tried out the system and it fell flat for me and quickly lost my interest in the game, even though it had a huge community behind.

In comes, Shadow of the Demon Lord!

I was kind of iffy on the whole game, because I had not heard a lot about it and only saw it had a successful crowdfunding that went well over the requested money needed.

On RPGNOW, the game is quoted as:

The End Is Just the Beginning 

Sometimes the world needs heroes. But in the desperation of these last days, the world will take all those it can get: heroes, blackguards, madmen, and whoever else is willing to stand against the coming darkness. Will you fight the demons or will you burn it all down and dance among the ashes? Who will you become when the world dies?
Shadow of the Demon Lord® opens a door to an imaginary world held in the grip of a cosmic destroyer. Enter a land steeped in the chaos and madness unleashed by the end times, with whole realms overrun by howling herds of beastmen, warped spirits freed from the Underworld, and unspeakable horrors stirred awaken by the Demon Lord’s imminent arrival.
A complete tabletop roleplaying game in one book, Shadow of the Demon Lord provides everything you need to create and play characters, form groups in pursuit of adventure, and tell exciting stories with your friends. As well, the book gives Game Masters all the tools they need to create adventures, over one hundred foul creatures, a detailed region of the campaign world, and extensive advice to help run the game.
As the Demon Lord’s shadow creeps across the world, it creates the chance for heroes to seize their destinies and villains to accomplish their despicable goals. As you play the game, you and your friends tell stories about thwarting the plots of twisted cultists, hunting down and destroying bizarre demons, exploring lost lands, investigating weird mysteries, and so much more.

The game was designed by Robert Schwalb, who has designed various games in the last few years including Dungeons and Dragons 5E.

So this game, is designed by a good game designer in the field, has a very evil tone to it, has demons and death on top of that and the system is really simple! 

How simple you ask?

Roll a d20, and hit the target number along with adding your boons or subtracting your banes with the roll.

What's boons and banes?

They are 6 sided dice you'd roll along with your d20 that would tell you how many points to add or subtract from your rolls.

The boons and banes will be assigned to you by the Game Master depending on what you are doing, which can make your life easier or more of a challenge.

The interesting thing about the Boons/Banes system is that when you roll them, you pick the highest number of the bunch and use that. 

So for example if the GM says, "you will roll with 2 boons" and you will roll a 20 sider along with 2d6. You take your d20 roll, and then the highest of the two d6 numbers add it to the d20 roll. 

Done.

Well, that's it for now, I will explain Character Creation next time.

The Evil GM - Dungeon World is in my gaming house.

Just a random image of it, I don't own these, just the core!

So over the weekend, after talking a few people at my local gaming shop, I picked up Dungeon World. I haven't had a real change to play it or even read it, but after watching the folks play it, the game look really smooth and cool as hell.

Sadly the group has no room for me, as they are already 6 players and a GM. While I was sad, I was glad to see a Game Master whom knew his limits for a game, rather then say, "Oh just join us, and we can have fun."

He explained as he took down my number that he was very sorry, but he would contact me when someone dropped out and that he cared about the amount of time each player got at the table and how much time he could hold things together to keep it entertaining. 

I can respect that, a lot.

So with a farewell and leaving the gaming store, he gave me a few links to purchase the game pdf and also to start reading up on it.

RPGNOW had the book, so that was easy to remember and it was also easy to remember the SRD site, which I thought was awesome, because I can see how the game works with out having to buy it or waste my time reading fluff. 

Sorry folks, I hate getting into a book, reading all the fluff only to find out, I think the system is not to my liking or its not my cup of tea.

Anyhow, here is the website for the SRD in case you want to try out this D&D like game, that's played using only 2 d6's to roll.

http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com

THACO's Hammer AD&D 2e Trivia Game, Session 4

By popular demand, we’re once again showing the depth of our D&D knowledge (or lack thereof)! Join the host DM Glen, and the players DM Brian and Fulongamer as they square off in a mano y mano, 2nd edition geekery deathmatch!! After the round is done, they bring the show to a close with a round of emails.

Thaco's Hammer AD&D 2e Trivia Game, Session 4

The Evil GM - Converting favorite Cartoons/TV Shows to your games..thoughts on the topic.

Man, sometimes you get a great idea in your mind of a cartoon or TV show and you just want to convert it over to your favorite game.

So then you sit down to do:

• Tons of research of what you think would be cool to use in your game.
• Maybe watch a few episodes of that cartoon.
• Watch it again, this time taking notes.

Finally you realized you've done all this work and not a lot to show for it all, but you push forward.

Then suddenly you get stuck on trying to convert something or make something work in the world of roleplaying. 

This sudden stop makes you question what you've done before, so now you start going over what you already did. This makes you frustrated as now you are going over everything, until you get to the point you just say, "SCREW IT" and you don't bother with the entire project. 

Sadly now it just sits where you left it as you move onto something else in life.

This is what I heard from a friend last night while I was planning out the show notes for the various podcasts I do.

The only advice I could really give on the topic, is do your research, move forward and sometimes realize NOT EVERYTHING from a TV Show or cartoon can be ported over to your favorite game. Sometimes things will need to be made up on the fly or find a rule that fits it to the best of the games ability. Sometimes, somethings will just not fit with the game at all.

I wonder how many people start projects of converting something and just leave it because of a roadblock or something like that?