Sean Does Games

The following is the first part in a set of blogs I'll be writing about Theophraxis, the gnome gunslinger I play on Time2TableTop's  Dungeons & Dragons 5e   The Infinity Tower  live stream. In typical gnome fashion his story begins long ago, certainly before his current adventures and in all honesty deeper back in time than any reliable memory can recall. Enjoy my ramblings and catch us every Tuesday night 6:30PM Pacific time on Twitch . In the Beginning Grand Ol' Tree was just a pleasant stroll from Around the Riverbend and an overnight's adventure to "The City." As far as gnome burrows went in those days, it was nothing special but those who called it home loved it exactly as it was. The burrow was so named because of the Ginkgo Tree that served as the community's gathering place. It was beneath this tree that Heranomus Frinkke Rexadalica Wister Klingle Dutterwedge Omnibeard of Spanks Lerone and his family sought refuge from a horde of und...

So, I was faced with a problem that I'm sure most other #tabletopRPG players face...the dice were not rolling as they should. In fact, on a fairly consistent basis and across multiple games for multiple players, they were rolling positively horribly. No amount of sweet talking, promises, or encouragement improved that behavior. Witness the following:  This lovely die rolled 1 every time my gnome gunslinger Theophraxis tried to use his rifle. We even caught this behavior on the Time2Tabletop stream for The Infinity Tower. And yes, I know it's a spin-down die. I don't care. That's no excuse. These naughty twins both decided to produce a critical failure on a roll with advantage during my own D&D homebrew campaign. ("Advantage" is a rule in D&D 5e that lets you roll two dice and take the higher of the two scores.) The player was not amused.   In the same game, this tag team teased the player into the false hopes of a critical succes...

Character Concept Package The character concept package is a collection of backgrounds, feats, equipment, and other role playing ideas related to a single concept. Materials in a package can be used by any character of any class. Though a particular concept might be race related, they can generally be used by any race as well. These packages are an idea I've been kicking around for a while now. I'm posting the first one here for beta testing and feedback. Eventually, I'll be publishing a final product on DMsGuild . I look forward to constructive feedback. Gnome Toy Maker Background Your imagination is rather fanciful, even for a gnome. That whimsy fills every aspect of your life, from the shoes on your feet to the cap on your head, the food and drink you prefer, and your general outlook on life. That energy shines the brightest in your tinkering. Your inventions are as unique, and flamboyant, as you. Though you can build just about anything, you focus on toys....

The following is an initial draft for an expansion to my  Epic Gnomish Inventing  guide available from the DMs Guild. These are rules for crafting non-magical items in Dungeons and Dragons 5e. I'm currently play testing these rules on Time2TableTop 's Infinity Tower series where I play Theophraxis, a gnome gunslinger. I'm posting the rules here for play testing and constructive feedback. Ultimately, I'll make improvements based on your comments and post the completed product on the DMs Guild. Nimble Gnome Crafting The Fraslins-Glinder method as taught in Epic Gnomish Inventing single-handedly injected a much needed dose of stability into the otherwise unpredictable (and some would say chaotic) world of gnome tinkercraft. Workshops adopting the process saw increases in productivity and improvements in quality while experiencing a decrease in non-fatal mishaps. More importantly, folks who only a few years before would have preferred rotting in the Shadowfell ...

One of the D&D campaigns I'm running is a called Skyfell. We meet once a month and this past weekend was the big day!  I enjoy being a dungeon master. It's not just because it's an outlet for my tendency to indulge in world building. I enjoy developing a challenge and partaking in the cooperative storytelling that emerges as a group of people work together to overcome that challenge. When everything works out, it feels as though all is right in the universe. A blind spot of mine as a DM, however, is not giving enough clues regarding the mysteries the PCs must solve. I provide plenty of NPCs to interact with but when the players start interrogating them I usually fail to disclose the important bits even if the players are asking the right questions. I think part of it is that I forget to drop the info; I'm caught up in the moment. Part of it is lack of prep; I have failed to work out exactly what each of the NPCs knows. Part of it is that I have a tendency t...

 I do love creating characters. On computer  and video games I can sink hours into fussing over the clothing. In tabletop RPGs, my character notes are more like origin stories.  That's why when I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons 5e I was tickled...that's right, tickled...to find a whole section of the Players Handbook devoted to backgrounds. It's also why one of my first Dungeon Masters Guild publications was a collection of backgrounds called Great House Servants and why I included a Backgrounds section in my Epic Gnomish Inventing guide. While backgrounds are valuable, especially given the additional game benefits they provide, I find them lacking as a source for a complete character concept. So I hit upon an idea for new content that I could publish to the DMs Guild. I'm tentatively calling it Character Concept Packages. Each package will include:  at least one background New feats  New equipment/weapons/magical items Suggested downt...

Hello. My name is Sean. I started playing RPGs back in the 80s with the Dungeons and Dragons red box set. I played some AD&D as well. But then I was away from it for a while. I played a handful of other pen and paper RPGs, such as Shadowrun, GURPS, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, Vampire, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Deadlands, and a few others. I got back into D&D because my daughter showed an interest in 5e a few years ago. I'm currently running a couple of D&D home-brew campaigns; one for my daughter and friends, a second for a local meetup ( https://www.meetup.com/dndnrpgs/ ) that takes place at a local game store. I'm also playing Theophraxis (a gnome gunslinger) in the "Infinity Tower," a Time2Tabletop live-stream on Twitch (come watch us every Tuesday at 6:30PM PST ...   https://www.twitch.tv/time2tabletop ). We're on YouTube too. I also create Dungeons and Dragons content for the Dungeon Masters Guild ( http://www.dmsguild.com/ ). I...