Guy Kilmore

If you do go back to watch Season 1. Keep in mind, the quality is low in the beginning as they were just starting, and you are jumping in mid campaign, so you are kind of diving in mid stream.

Good Luck on the new game! I hope it goes well!

It was! I ultimately went my own way. When I GM, I have a hard time playing in other people's sandboxes. I wish I could, it saves me a ton of headache.

Wildemount has the Dunamancy Wizard School which I find kind of interesting. I liked a lot of themes presented in Eberron. My homebrew takes place in the equivalent of our 1860s or so. So the theme of magical manufacturing and such, where low level magic is very common. I like the Artificer class and I think it is Eberron that it makes its appearance. I used the options for Dragonmarks as Guilds are a thing in my world (I repurposed Dragonmarks for my own thing too). I have allowed the races. I have a player who is adoring playing his crafty Changling Rogue, and since it is online we have kept his true race a secret from everyone. I am having fun introducing a little bit of wild west/pulp/gritty adventuring in with my high fantasy. ETA: So I might not have taken many mechanics, but I have taken inspiration from Eberron.

I too have read the book for Wildemount and watching Season 2 of Critical Role. I have never run Eberron, but I read the book and yoinked ideas from it for my homebrew world I am currnely playing in. Like Poobah, I am willing to share my thoughts.

Yeah, I think it's because gunpowder at those amounts suck against one creature, might have been different against a group. At least by the book damage.

I agree he is not the best DM ever. I don't think Matt would agree that he is either. I don't really think anyone is. I don't think anyone can be the best DM in every group and situation. It is more, what does the table at want and need. His players have a blast and he does well by them. I do disagree with the bolded. He wants his players to surprise him. I mean, off the top of my head here are some examples.

I don't think Matt would say he is the end all be all of to it. He says a ton of good stuff about Matt Colville for instance. He is a very good DM for the table and his players. They have good synergy, appear to be enjoying themselves.

Critical Role is horribly addicting.

I have been in and out of Table Top RPGs for around 30 years now. I am currently DMing a 5e game over Discord. It was an in person game, but we moved there once the pandemic hit. It is going strong, I just started a new game in my homebrew world. The longest game I ran was in Pathfinder going from level 1 to 20, it took I think around 3 years or so, but it was an epic, crazy journey. I have run Dragon Heist, it requires a lot of GM adapting/improvisation to move it along, but it is a fun module. I am also a huge fan of Critical Role, I used to catch it live, now I catch the VODs over the weekend. Lastly, if people are looking at trying something new and less crunchy, I tend to do DnD for a bit, then dip into something else for a bit. Shadowrun is really fun, but SUPER crunchy, if you are going the other way FATE Core is a really fun abstract system. I think running it made me a better DM with it's mechanics. Powers and abilities are based on Tags which are really narrative descriptors, like if you are in a DARK, ABANADONED Warehouse that is ON FIRE. Dark, Abandoned and On Fire are the tags that you could use to influence the game with your character abilities through the use of FATE points. It really encourages joint story telling. I have a friend that is attempting to start up Ars Magica which is a more narrative troupe style of game set in Mythic Europe. It feels kind of fun. I am curious to try Monster of the Week. I also have Tales from the Loop and I am curious about it as well. Once I settle into my new job and figure life out, I may, may be interested in running something online.

Fair point on the latter. To the former, I don't think aging up the actors would be a point of contention though.

I am one of these new fans, I am watching it for the first time and enjoying it and Netflix has been advertising that they have the cartoon now on their site and stuff. So I guess, especially in the current environment, you'd think adhering to the diversity of the cartoon you are toting as your number one streamed show would be, well, in the conversation at least?

I am! I am glad I started it, it is good as people said it was, which is a rare thing. I probably wouldn't if we weren't in a pandemic. It even sucked my wife in.

I am watching the Animated series right now for the first time ever. And the tone of Aang vs the Fire Nation is super important in that levity. Aang can laugh at himself, the members of the Fire Nation really struggle at doing that (Iroh non withstanding, but again, he is an example of a healthy balance). Levity is essential to the theme of the story.

Man, Netflix, read the room a little.

This is pretty great news! I got to start carving time out more aggressively to read again.

As a long time lurker from back in the ezboard days, I really find it more enjoyable now to be apart of the discourse. So, Uh Welcome!