Local Gaming Store and Mutual Support

Is it ever okay not to support your local gaming store?

There's strong grassroots opinions to support your friendly, local, game store (FLGS). I agree that its great to have a local store for your hobby; somewhere to congregate with like minded individuals and peruse the latest and older products. These stores should be supported, otherwise we'll lose them.

But, what happens if the store doesn't support you? Or at least doesn't support you enough?

A little background, I recently moved to a new town with the one and only FLGS is right down the road. I was thrilled to finally have a store that wasn't an hour drive away. I quickly came to realize this store was not interested in supporting RPGs.

When I say "not interested" I specifically mean, he's not running games in store. I never even got a chance to offer to run the games. The idea seems to be a non-starter. Magic and Warhammer are no problem, but table top RPGs don't make enough money...end of discussion.

I hear what he's saying. The big money is in cards and miniatures. He does maintain a modest selection of RPG products, about a shelf worth of books, some minis and dice. No problem ordering anything I want, as well. But, we're not going to take an evening to try and bring RPG players (new and old) into the store.

It's his store, he can promote what he wants.

I want to support local stores, but I don't feel particularly drawn to going down the street and entering his brick-and-mortar to just order something, when I could just order it from an online store that a lot of times is just as much of a small business as the FLGS and much more interested in supporting my interests.

Should I feel guilty for not supporting my local FLGS that doesn't directly support my hobby?

Poisoned vs. Nauseated

I had a discussion over at a few of the Google+ groups this weekend. It concerned the lack of Nauseated in the 5e conditions rules. Presently, if you have a character that might be nauseated you do a CON save. If they fail, they get the Poisoned condition.

I have a couple issues with using Poisoned.

•  It’s not very fun to play. All Poisoned does is apply a Disadvantage to the character. That’s it? You roll twice while puking your guts out. We can do better than that, right?

•  A character becoming nauseated is not clearly explained in the rules. The only RAW concerning nauseated is a round-about mention in the Troglodyte’s Stench ability or the Stinking Cloud spell. Stench doesn't come out and say nausea, it’s just implied that you smell something bad and roll for Poisoned. Stinking Cloud does say nauseated, but the results are different than Poisoned.

• I simply don’t like using Poisoned for Nausea. Prior editions didn’t use it. They used Nausea.  For some reason they changed it for 5e. You can be nauseated due to poisoning, but you can’t be poisoned because of nausea. It doesn’t make sense to me.

I think nausea should be in a lot more adventures. There’s a lot of reasons heroes and adventurers might become nauseated, from dropping into a fetid sewer, seeing rotted corpses or eating bad food just to name a few. It should be a condition that creates a significant enough obstacle that the player needs to deal with before moving on, not just an increase to failure chances.

Here’s an idea for a house rule to deal with the Nauseated condition, I think it’s a little closer to the how a player would react if she was overcome with nausea.

Nauseated:
-  Apply three levels of exhaustion while being affected or around the cause of the nausea

-  Unable to consume enough food and drink to complete a long rest

-  a level of exhaustion per day+CON mod is obtained while nauseated

Tell me what you think!

Monster Monday! The Jungle Sludge

Jungle Sludge

Large Ooze; Unaligned

Armor Class 8

Hit Points 42 (6d10+12)

Speed 10ft, climb 10ft

STR                    DEX                    CON                    INT                      WIS                     CHA

15(+2)               6(-2)                  14(+2)                2(-4)                  6(-2)                   1(-5)

Skills Stealth +2

Damage Resistance lightning, slashing

Damage Immunities Fire, acid

Condition Immunities Poisoned, blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, prone

Senses blindsight 60ft (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 8

Languages –

Challenge 2 (450 hp)

Amorphous – The sludge can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Spider Climb – The sludge can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on branches, without needing to make an ability check.

Camouflage – The sludge can collect fallen material from the ground and coat itself to appear like a pile of debris. The sludge gains an advantage at stealth when it stays still while camouflaged.  An observant adventure may notice the surrounding area of the pile clean of any leaves or branches.

Actions:

Pseudopod – Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5ft, one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+2) bludgeoning damage plus 3 (1d6) acid damage.

Sticky – When the sludge is hit by a melee weapon, it can use its reaction to attempt to hold the weapon with a sticky substance that covers its body. The creature must make a DEX DC 12 save or become grappled (or must let go of the weapon). The sludge has advantage on attacks against the creature. The stuck creature receives 3 (1d6) acid damage while a body part is in the sludge.

This type of ooze lives under thick jungle canopies, where it is heavily shaded and the ground is covered in fallen leaves and branches. The Jungle Sludge has evolved a sticky, outer layer that is used to gather this deadfall and cover its body. Using this camouflage to disguise itself to resemble a pile of leaves, the sludge waits for prey to pass.

Magic Item: Monkey Scream

Magic Item:

Monkey Scream

Weapon (mace, small), rare (requires attunement)

This mace is created from a whole skull of a charmed baboon attached by enchanted sinew to a thick branch stolen from a great tree in the jungle protected by dryads. When the weapon is swung, air rushes through the open mouth of the skull and creates a loud shriek. When a creature is hit, that creature takes an extra 2d6 necrotic damage. Any creatures within a 30’ radius of the mace and that can hear when it shrieks must make a WILL DC 13 or become frighten for one round.

Monkey Scream is created by a coven of Chu’Mwarg witches only for the most powerful Chu’Mwarg chieftains. Using dark jungle magic, they enchant and attune the weapon to the chief.

Curse:  If anyone larger than a small humanoid attempts to wield the weapon or the weapon is taken out of the jungle, Monkey Scream will randomly shriek twice an hour for 1d4 rounds affecting everyone in a 30’ radius (saves must be made each time the weapon shrieks; if the save is successful, the individual is not frightened but has disadvantage on skill or concentration checks while it is shrieking).  Being carried in a container where the weapon is buried in soil and vegetation from the jungle will prevent the shrieking. Once removed from the container, the shrieking returns.

The Flame Princess Revealed!...sort of.

File this under, "Neat stuff to know from behind the curtain."

Sara Strömmerin, pictured below singing Piece of My Heart on Finland's version of the Voice, was the model in the reference shot for the slime attack of the Flame Princess artwork. 

The artist and model seemed to have nailed the facial expression. Pretty cool!

Chris Stapleton's "Sometimes I Cry"

You may not like country music and I understand that, but this guy deserves respect. He is a songwriter that the pop country singers turn to when they want a song with soul. He's putting out a debut album of his own soon. Take a listen and I think you'll hear what I'm talking about.

Fifth Edition Foes

The Fifth Edition Foes by Necromancer Games seems to have hit the streets in limited quantity. Over at ENWorld, people are saying they are able to download the PDF. The hardcover book is to come out in April. The opinions have been overwhelmingly positive, but these are the people that backed the kickstarter. I would expect only positive response at this point.

The cover promises "5th Edition Rules, 1st Edition Feel", by the initial comments and leaked teasers, this seems to be the definite direction they've taken the book. From what I can gleam from comments, the book seems to be filled with 300 or so 1st Edition Monster Manual and Fiend Folio monsters with some new monsters to boot.

The art is very 1st Edition. Lots of black and white pencil sketches (at least from what I can see from the leaks). Some reports are saying there is good mix of scary and goofy creatures. But, its all entertaining. (again from KS backers)

It's too early for me to do a review. I didn't back the book and don't have the PDF. I will comment on the price. That seemed to a HUGE thing for people when the WotC's 5e Monster Manual was released. This is a third party publisher using a lot of rehashed/reskinned material. It's priced at $45 bucks for the hardcover or $19.99 for the PDF at Frog God Games, significantly higher than the Monster Manual. I wonder how much success (or outrage) that will garner with the public.

edit: Changed the price of the PDF to the correct listed price.