Day 16 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 16 – Favorite Aberration


Easily my favorite Aberration would have to be the Mind flayers (Illithids).

They are considered a psionic race, which is fun for me. Also they are just odd and would be creepy to actually meet in person. Their natural abilities make them a fun enemy, especially with their tentacles. Plus with their ability to remove the brains of their victims with their tentacles is just so wrong but so great at the same time.

One thought I have entertained off and on for a little while now has been to throw a Mind flayer Lich at the party to fight. It would be mostly pointless but so enjoyable on my end at least.

Day 15 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 15 - Favorite Undead Monster

Honestly my favorite undead creature would have to be a Lich. I love/prefer spell casters in general and the capability to keep the ability to cast spells in death is just too cool. The other bonuses and capabilities are a nice bonus as well. It does come with some disadvantages of course, but especially the phylactery and ability to be reborn if your destroyed are fun too.

Day 14 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 14 - Favorite NPC

Probably my favorite NPC was a random character I used in the evil campaign I ran. The players needed a little muscle (of sorts), well mostly an extra body to help them out for awhile. So I found a fun race in a random book.
Epakak is a Vril Fighter that joined the players at the behest of the Mind flayer they were working for (he is supposed to be watching them), but as the players are planning to change sides to help the dragon, Epakak is planning to join them as he prefers their company to the uncertainty of the mind flayer.
It is a weird race but fun to have around, especially if anyone stops by to play occasionally for a random game; it gives them an already prepared character to play with.

Day 13 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 13 - Favorite Trap/Puzzle

Honestly I've got something for both Trap and Puzzle on this one.

Favorite Trap is easy, it's not a specific trap exactly mostly just a concept. I enjoy pointless traps. For example if you open a door and see a chest or some other potential treasure container, you might find a trap or two before you get to the container. Then there might be a trap on the container, I usually don't lock them at least, but then there could possibly be something easy but annoying to fight when you get to the container (a swarm of something perhaps). After all of that though when they finally get the chest open there is a chance there might not be anything inside. It is annoying for the players although they usually groan and laugh about it; and I only do it rarely so as to not become too predictable and to not cause great annoyance. They don't get loot when I do it, but experience is still received so they are usually happy.

The puzzle one is something I only do rarely so as not to annoy and also because I don't always sit down and plan it out beforehand. I like teleporter puzzles. When you walk into a room and find a symbol on the floor or even if you don't see anything and just start jumping around, occasionally being separated in the process. I think some people find these annoying, although I love them.
My favorite was a set of rooms that had four teleporters along with levers which would activate and change various things when pulled, although some would instead set off a magical attack in the room or drop some sort of creature or creatures into the room for the party to fight.

Day 12 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 12 - Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

My thoughts on this are heavily influenced by the group I learned to play with and who I still play with at this time.
I enjoy both settings that take place in a city and ruins/dungeons.

Cities are nice because of the restrictions that it puts on your characters, along with the ability to use both the interior and exterior of the buildings around you to your advantage.

Dungeons I enjoy because if I take the time to sit down and draw one up before hand then I tend to make them full of oddities and some things that probably shouldn't make sense; but the players who have run through them seem to enjoy them quite a bit.

All in all I'm happy with most settings, although wilderness/outdoors settings I enjoy but the people I normally play with don't handle them as well.

Day 11 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 11 - Favorite Adventure You Have Run

I haven't been Dming a long time, so I've only actually run a few adventures so far. The one I personally had the most fun with, and I know the players had fun with was an evil character campaign I worked on for them.

It was based in Eberron and they were employed (forcibly) by a Mindflayer. They had fun with that although after a little while I needed them to get higher level before they continued on, so I found an evil Silver dragon in one of the books I had and I built a side story around him. They had a few other side stories when they were lower level also like being hunted by a resurrected character (who became a Silver Flame Paladin) they had previously killed.

I still find it funny and fun but it was the first long game I ran that I did not prepare every little detail before hand, and I learned I could handle that better than planning everything out meticulously. I get too distracted and I have to work too hard at times if I plan something and the characters don't follow it, so I found it easier to not plan things out except for simple things like locations, treasure, and what they will be fighting (although not when or where exactly).

I think the players had a lot of fun (I know a couple did for sure). They worked for the dragon up until they reached level 14, which is when we put the game on a temporary break so I could focus on school (that was when I first started back). We are going to start back sometime, possibly after we finish the current pathfinder game we are in at the moment.

The one fun thing I enjoyed was that the players decided they liked working for the Dragon more than the Mindflayer, and they were in the process of shifting their allegiance when we ended.

All in all it turned out well and was a lot of fun, although most people I mention an evil campaign to look at me funny and don't understand how I could have made it work without constant character fights.

Day 10 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 10 - Craziest thing that's happened that you saw

I haven't been playing for a long time yet, but I did have one thing happen that was interesting. I was DMing a game (actually an evil campaign I was running), and one of the players was getting a little overzealous with his ranger about killing things (or attempting to) before anyone else could get close enough to even join in.

Everyone was getting a little frustrated (me included as the DM), and we were playing in Eberron and they were headed towards the Mournlands to deal with something in there. They ended up spotting a Ragewalker which has a supernatural ability called Repel Missiles; which automatically turns any thrown or projectile weapon back upon the attacker. He attacked it full out as they spotted it from a distance, and almost knocked himself out in the process. Needless to say he at least learned to judge his opponent a little before going full out (but sadly that hasn't stuck around for long).

It sounds mean, but it wasn't intended to be, it was mainly meant to tone him back some, which at least worked for a time.