Hobby Thread

[zitothebrave]

Everyone has hobbies, why not talk about them?

My current top hobby is D&D, my Girfriend and I co-DM our group (we play my game one week, her game the next and repeat) we're closing in on finishing my campaign (this is a 4 year campaign and my characters are all level 18) waiting for probably May maybe June to finish it, trying to flesh out my final story beats.

But we're in it. Hard.

 

[striker42]

I've DM'd one game for a group of my friends and we'd like to do more but can't ever find a time that works for everyone. I'm currently building my own home brew campaign for when we eventually can have a regular game night.

What's your campaign about?

As for my hobby, I started taking up fabricating things out of EVA foam last year. It's the kind of foam they make those anti-fatigue floor mats out of. I've built a Mando helmet so far It wasn't great so I'm working on version 2 which I have higher hopes for.

 

[zitothebrave]

This campaign started out (was learning to DM) as an on rails adventure. The party was tasked to recover artifacts from these newly seized tyrants. All powers were based off of certain mythical powers that I was working on tying to another campaign I was running at the same time but then stopped later. After recovering the artifacts they had to defeat a lich who was looking to become a God and displace the current Evil God of Death. There was a potential arc there if they wanted to aid said lich. Anyway after that I gave them a little bit more leeway. I started crafting adventures off their backstory, and based on choices they made and where they wanted to go they went with the subplot of attempting to thwart a cult of Tiamat in releasing her from Avernus. We're in the endgame now where Tiamat is raised and they're descending into her temple to rebind her to Avernus before she fully regains her power. It's been nice because they've gotten to fight every Chromatic Ancient Dragon, they've gotten to fight a bunch o minor titans, and more.

 

[striker42]

This campaign started out (was learning to DM) as an on rails adventure. The party was tasked to recover artifacts from these newly seized tyrants. All powers were based off of certain mythical powers that I was working on tying to another campaign I was running at the same time but then stopped later. After recovering the artifacts they had to defeat a lich who was looking to become a God and displace the current Evil God of Death. There was a potential arc there if they wanted to aid said lich. Anyway after that I gave them a little bit more leeway. I started crafting adventures off their backstory, and based on choices they made and where they wanted to go they went with the subplot of attempting to thwart a cult of Tiamat in releasing her from Avernus. We're in the endgame now where Tiamat is raised and they're descending into her temple to rebind her to Avernus before she fully regains her power. It's been nice because they've gotten to fight every Chromatic Ancient Dragon, they've gotten to fight a bunch o minor titans, and more.

Nice. I was concerned you'd try to have them fight a fully powered Tiamat at first. Lol.

The home brew I'm working on centers around an island that mysteriously appears in the ocean. Various groups are competing to colonize the island becyof its resources and advantageous location.

The secret will be that the island was created by cultists in a botched ritual to break open the divide between the Abyss and the Prime Material Plane. Some of the essence of all the planes was pulled out and formed into the island. So there will be lots of creatures from other planes to fight, portals to other planes, extraplanar travel, etc.

All that while dealing with the political struggles between colonizing groups, colonies being attacked by creatures, and the cultists still trying to tap into the Abyss.

 

[Garmel]

This campaign started out (was learning to DM) as an on rails adventure. The party was tasked to recover artifacts from these newly seized tyrants. All powers were based off of certain mythical powers that I was working on tying to another campaign I was running at the same time but then stopped later. After recovering the artifacts they had to defeat a lich who was looking to become a God and displace the current Evil God of Death. There was a potential arc there if they wanted to aid said lich. Anyway after that I gave them a little bit more leeway. I started crafting adventures off their backstory, and based on choices they made and where they wanted to go they went with the subplot of attempting to thwart a cult of Tiamat in releasing her from Avernus. We're in the endgame now where Tiamat is raised and they're descending into her temple to rebind her to Avernus before she fully regains her power. It's been nice because they've gotten to fight every Chromatic Ancient Dragon, they've gotten to fight a bunch o minor titans, and more.

Is that adventure the one released by WOTC set in the Forgotten Realms?

 

[zitothebrave]

Is that adventure the one released by WOTC set in the Forgotten Realms?

Sort of, that adventure is basically more about stopping Tiamat from returning and breaking parts of the ritual, breaking said parts do things like reduce her max HP, and remove damage from her, and so on so forth. My party is going to face her basically at full wrath with a few tweeks because they'll all be level 20 and all have either artifacts or legendary magic items.

My world is a bit different, very limited, I'm not in love with it. Which is why I built a totally different second world. I build like a Hyrule type of world, and I wanted to build something bigger because it will make stacking campaigns easier. I don't love most of the WotC adventure modules. I'm running a pretty heavily modified Curse of Strahd, and I may steal some stuff from Candlekeep, but usually I take ideas for maps and things like that from the book. My hope for them was to follow the lead of the return of the Lich they defeated in the first part but they wanted to fight ancient dragons.

 

[zitothebrave]

Nice. I was concerned you'd try to have them fight a fully powered Tiamat at first. Lol.

The home brew I'm working on centers around an island that mysteriously appears in the ocean. Various groups are competing to colonize the island becyof its resources and advantageous location.

The secret will be that the island was created by cultists in a botched ritual to break open the divide between the Abyss and the Prime Material Plane. Some of the essence of all the planes was pulled out and formed into the island. So there will be lots of creatures from other planes to fight, portals to other planes, extraplanar travel, etc.

All that while dealing with the political struggles between colonizing groups, colonies being attacked by creatures, and the cultists still trying to tap into the Abyss.

They're getting a pretty fully powered Tiamat. I'll tweak some stuff, but not heavy nerfs. My party deals absurd damage. Have a fighter who can do up to 100 in a turn, like I'll probably remove limited magic immunity because aside from Spiritual Weapon odds are she won't be targetted by many spells 6th or lower anyway. And I've given them a ton of resources.

I like that homebrew, if oyu haven't read anything about the city Sigil you could probably steal some stuff from that. Also I would heavily have stuff from Mechanus be involved. Like if I knew about that, I would take a Clockwork Soul SOrcerer who's sent to the island to try and restore balance to it. Would be a heck of a hook.

My next character is gonna be such a ****, until she dies. I took the Aberrant mind Sorcerer adn if I live to 6th I'm gonna ruin people because I can cast Psionic spells subtlely using sorcery points and ignore material components. Which means I'm Dissonant Whispering people but they won't really know who's targeting them.

 

[zitothebrave]

Pretty simple one, my guitars, amps and pedals. Don't play as much as I should, but it is fun.

 

[Carp]

I've recently gotten into wood-working. Made my own work bench. I plan on building a few a storage bin for our back porch and a toddler sized lounge chair for the summer. But my next task will be making a custom cornhole set for my FIL for Father's Day.

 

[striker42]

They're getting a pretty fully powered Tiamat. I'll tweak some stuff, but not heavy nerfs. My party deals absurd damage. Have a fighter who can do up to 100 in a turn, like I'll probably remove limited magic immunity because aside from Spiritual Weapon odds are she won't be targetted by many spells 6th or lower anyway. And I've given them a ton of resources.

I like that homebrew, if oyu haven't read anything about the city Sigil you could probably steal some stuff from that. Also I would heavily have stuff from Mechanus be involved. Like if I knew about that, I would take a Clockwork Soul SOrcerer who's sent to the island to try and restore balance to it. Would be a heck of a hook.

My next character is gonna be such a ****, until she dies. I took the Aberrant mind Sorcerer adn if I live to 6th I'm gonna ruin people because I can cast Psionic spells subtlely using sorcery points and ignore material components. Which means I'm Dissonant Whispering people but they won't really know who's targeting them.

Do you expect any deaths in the final fight? I'm kind of split on that personally. As DM it's your job to make sure your players enjoy themselves and it's hard to enjoy a game without stakes. However, if you've taken a character that far only to die in the final fight, it can ruin the experience for that player. It's especially bad when you reach that point, hit a string of crappy luck, have some bad rolls and have to watch your character die, or worse, a TPK.

My current plan is to only tweak fights on the fly if I feel like I screwed up in balancing them. If I have a completely underpowered or overpowered creature that is entirely on me, I might fudge the numbers a bit to balance the encounter but that's about it. If a character dies, they die. It's the nature of the game.

I hadn't read about Sigil but I'm definitely incorporating it now.

You read my mind about Mechanus. I'm having a fortress/small city that was pulled from Mechanus. It's inhabitants will be malfunctioning which could make for some interesting encounters. The party will meet several NPCs who are trying to set things right. The ritual that created the Island will also have messed with the planes. Unstable portals between planes appearing and disappearing, creatures being corrupted as one plane bleeds into another, etc.

I'll definitely look into the Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. The party will probably need some help along the way as there are going to be some pretty nasty creatures coming in from other planes. For example, they're going to face a Kracken that came in from the water plane at some point.

Next time I play a character I'm going to try to build a character around crits. I'm still looking into it but it's going to be some kind of dex based elf/half-elf champion fighter. At 3rd level you can crit on a 19. Take elven accuracy and use finesse weapons so when I have advantage I can re-roll one dice. That would give me 3 shots at a crit whenever I have advantage. Still working on how to consistently get advantage. I would do a barbarian dip to get reckless attack but it doesn't work with elven accuracy as reckless requires the attack to be strength based and elven accuracy doesn't work on strength based attacks.

 

[chop2chip]

I have really gotten into mountain biking, running and gaming the past year. I loved all those things (sans running) before Covid, but I have had much more time to jump into these without the commute. It’s going to be an adjustment working in an office.

Gaming is the best though. It’s amazing how attitudes towards gaming has changed since I was a kid where gaming was associated with a waste of time for kids only.

 

[zitothebrave]

Do you expect any deaths in the final fight? I'm kind of split on that personally. As DM it's your job to make sure your players enjoy themselves and it's hard to enjoy a game without stakes. However, if you've taken a character that far only to die in the final fight, it can ruin the experience for that player. It's especially bad when you reach that point, hit a string of crappy luck, have some bad rolls and have to watch your character die, or worse, a TPK.

My current plan is to only tweak fights on the fly if I feel like I screwed up in balancing them. If I have a completely underpowered or overpowered creature that is entirely on me, I might fudge the numbers a bit to balance the encounter but that's about it. If a character dies, they die. It's the nature of the game.

I hadn't read about Sigil but I'm definitely incorporating it now.

You read my mind about Mechanus. I'm having a fortress/small city that was pulled from Mechanus. It's inhabitants will be malfunctioning which could make for some interesting encounters. The party will meet several NPCs who are trying to set things right. The ritual that created the Island will also have messed with the planes. Unstable portals between planes appearing and disappearing, creatures being corrupted as one plane bleeds into another, etc.

I'll definitely look into the Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. The party will probably need some help along the way as there are going to be some pretty nasty creatures coming in from other planes. For example, they're going to face a Kracken that came in from the water plane at some point.

Next time I play a character I'm going to try to build a character around crits. I'm still looking into it but it's going to be some kind of dex based elf/half-elf champion fighter. At 3rd level you can crit on a 19. Take elven accuracy and use finesse weapons so when I have advantage I can re-roll one dice. That would give me 3 shots at a crit whenever I have advantage. Still working on how to consistently get advantage. I would do a barbarian dip to get reckless attack but it doesn't work with elven accuracy as reckless requires the attack to be strength based and elven accuracy doesn't work on strength based attacks.

Umm yeah. I tied with a player on defeating her too. I've killed a PC a few times. Didn't do it early in the game where death was scary but I kind of regret it. All the heavy things are concerning, but I'm setting them up well. Rolls matter less IMO.

I generally run my combat with a healthy amount of improvisation. I tend to keep monsters alive until the death feels right. Similar with some rolls.I've fudged rolls heavily to add tension or stop deaths. To me as a DM while I want to let there be an amount of randomness, but I feel it's my job to move the story along.

The issue with critfishing on say a champion fighter, is there is a limit to it. They make pretty interesting dips, but you cna do better. I had a heavy hitter crit fisher. Oath of Vengance+Hexblade+Dualwielding, coupled with my party wizard hasting me meant by round 3 I was making 4 attacks at advantage with +proficiency to damage and crits on 19.

 

[zitothebrave]

I have really gotten into mountain biking, running and gaming the past year. I loved all those things (sans running) before Covid, but I have had much more time to jump into these without the commute. It’s going to be an adjustment working in an office.

Gaming is the best though. It’s amazing how attitudes towards gaming has changed since I was a kid where gaming was associated with a waste of time for kids only.

Gaming has changed drastically because people who grew up gaming became adults. It's akin to developing trends in sports. It's the people that grow up doing something some way (why the 3 point domination for example is pretty modern is a combination of modern statistical revolution made easier by fantastic computers and UI, but also years of coaches and kids realizing the importance of the 3 pointer)

 

[Tapate50]

Fly fishing

Want to get into rod building , but I’m fairly certain I won’t have the patience for it

Olympic lifting in addition to CrossFit classes. I like the complex lifts.

 

[zitothebrave]

Fly fishing

Want to get into rod building , but I’m fairly certain I won’t have the patience for it

Olympic lifting in addition to CrossFit classes. I like the complex lifts.

I'm guessing rod building must be about making a fly fishing rod.

Fly fishing is the one kind I think I would enjoy, but I hate eating fish. So why bother.

What's your favorite movement? I'm a basic bitch and I love to deadlift.

 

[Tapate50]

Cleans. Really love clean and most variety. If you ever want to be humbled... snatches will do
It

I deadlift fairly well for as sparingly as it’s incorporated and my size.

I meant fishing rod building. Rods for inshore and bass and such.

My son is a fishing nut. We were getting skunked til he found the lure they wanted yesterday. Ended up with several nice bass over 5

 

[Carp]

Fly fishing

Want to get into rod building , but I’m fairly certain I won’t have the patience for it

Olympic lifting in addition to CrossFit classes. I like the complex lifts.

Always wanted to go fly fishing. Looks so relaxing in the movies.

 

[Tapate50]

Always wanted to go fly fishing. Looks so relaxing in the movies.

Eh. It can be frustrating

 

[chop2chip]

Cleans. Really love clean and most variety. If you ever want to be humbled... snatches will do
It

I deadlift fairly well for as sparingly as it’s incorporated and my size.

I meant fishing rod building. Rods for inshore and bass and such.

My son is a fishing nut. We were getting skunked til he found the lure they wanted yesterday. Ended up with several nice bass over 5

Cleans are the one lift I’m just guaranteed to feel satisfied with after a good workout.

 

[zitothebrave]

Cleans are the one lift I’m just guaranteed to feel satisfied with after a good workout.

I've always half assed my cleans. Which obviously is suboptimal. But it's because of how strong my back is compared to my shoulders. Shoulders have always been kind of a weak spot for me. I've always been a through the trunk strength kind of guy. Overhead has always been a waste for me compared to back, chest, legs, etc.