Author Archives: Donny Rokk
RotRL – Welcome to Sandpoint
Rise of the Runelords is one of the first adventure paths produced by Paizo for the Pathfinder RPG, and one of the most popular. My players voted on several options and they decided that they wanted to play this classic beauty. I got ahold of the Anniversary Edition and gave it a read.
Then, we gave it a play. You can find our Session One summary over on our World Anvil campaign page by clicking HERE!
I’ll go into the evolution of this campaign as we go along. Most of the campaign has been played over Roll20, and there have been issues with that as well. This session happened several months ago, but I’m posting it anyway for a) content, and b) continuity. I posted my last campaign, and there really isn’t alot of Pathfinder content online so I’m doing my part to spread the Good Word.
GM Thoughts
- This session revolved around getting the PC’s together and introducing some of the NPC’s from around town. They also met some characters who were not from the adventure path, but were actually from the previous Second Darkness campaign. They didn’t recall the characters until I mentioned it after the session.
- It was a good session in that it let everyone stretch their legs and roll some dice. The players had fun, and so did I… mostly.
- Right from the first session I knew I was going to have issues. I prepped for this session (overprepped actually – see my Party Time post) in record time. I thought I would like the fact that I didn’t need to do much of the heavy lifting with Rise of the Runelords. Unlike Second Darkness, Rise of the Runelords did not need any converting or fleshing out. It was fine to run right out of the box. It turns out I have a problem with this. That, coupled with COVID lockdowns and very little to do, got me twitching. I’d have to put my own spin on things because apparently I can’t help myself. But for Session One, I just briefly included a couple of NPC’s that were a nod to the previous campaign.
BlizzCon Cancelled Again
Okay, I really need to remember I have this damn thing. Blogging can lead to sanity, or at least a writing exercise.
Speaking of writing, let me regurgitate something someone else wrote regarding this year’s actual, physical, FOR REAL BLIZZCON (Spoiler – see the title of this blogpost):
Hello Blizzard community,
Several weeks ago, I shared an update about our uncertainty around holding BlizzCon this year. Since then, a lot has changed . . . and a lot also hasn’t changed. During this time, we’ve had many discussions about what holding a convention could look like in light of all the health and safety considerations we’d want to make. We’ve also talked about different paths we could take, and how each one could be complicated by fluctuations in national and local health guidelines in the months ahead. Ultimately, after considering our options, we’ve come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year.
We’re feeling deeply disappointed about this decision, and imagine many of you will feel the same. I truly love BlizzCon, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by everyone at Blizzard. We will sorely miss connecting with so many of you at the convention and “recharging our geek batteries” this fall.
But we will meet again!
We’re talking about how we might be able to channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with you in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings. We’d want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year. BlizzCon is also a stage for big esports events in Blizzard games each year, so we’re also looking into alternatives for supporting some of the high-level competition that would normally take place at the show.
We’ll tell you more about our plans as they develop—but in the meantime, we hope to see you exploring the Shadowlands, hanging out in the Tavern, pushing the payload (do it!), and wherever else in the Blizzard universes you may roam.
Stay safe and stay well,
Saralyn Smith
Whirlwind Barbarian, Executive Producer of BlizzCon Hello Blizzard community,
- From the BlizzCon Blog
Now this was posted back on May 26th. Yeah, I’m not exactly prompt with my “reporting”. So why post this now? Well today is my last day of vacation. I had nothing scheduled to do all day. Good day to play some World of Warcraft, right?
I didn’t log into the game. And, if I’m being honest, I didn’t miss it.
For the past ever, I log in and run the dailies for gold. I do that to buy tokens to resub, or to transfer/boost characters. But today I just didn’t feel the need to do it. And I think that had something to do with BlizzCon. Yeah, it was ok to watch the virtual show. But there’s just something electric about being there in person. And with little motivation to do much else in the game, that electricity was keeping me going. My battery is dead.
A break is good, and it might only last a few days. I’ll see how it goes.
But again, BlizzCon is cancelled this year.
Booooooo.
Rokk Talk 