The EPI-log

  Adventurers League is a standardised and regulated form of Dungeons & Dragons . It uses the rules as written in the official D&D books, so you don't need to worry about any homebrew rules. Character creation is limited to the Players Handbook and one other source, which means you don't have to worry about anyone making characters that are too game-breaking, as well as all the possible worlds you can end up in are all published D&D settings  To put it simply, Adventurers League takes all of the guesswork out of D&D. The stories are already written, the rules are plainly outlined, and everything is structured. So it is a great place to learn as a player and even as a Game Master  Each session is a short self-contained 2-4 hour story, though some will make callbacks to other stories you won't miss much if you can only come in once a fortnight instead of every week, unlike other games where it always feels like when you miss one session you end up missing ...

 Welcome to what is left of what is the rapid approach to Halloween night. EPIC Ipswich is proud hosts to Strahd VonZarovich and Adventurers League. They once again bid you welcome and invite you all to prove yourselves this Halloween at EPIC Ipswich.  Strahds Castle is taken over by Strahd.... and Strahd.... and Strahd again.... There's how many Strahds? All in his castle? Wow. Yup. Ah ha. Readers - I have just been informed that there is seven Strahd's in his Castle, each one representing one of the seven deadly sins! Can you eliminate this evil before the clock strikes midnight? Or will your corpse and soul forever be tortured for new adventures to find and be terrified? This is a multitable oneshot run by Adventurers League for level 8 characters made per the Adventurers League Character Creation. You may dress up- each of your Dungeon Masters are. Speaking of, there are seven volunteer DMs we really wish to thank: Quentin  Gottie Tarl Jacob Duffy Craig Bron for agree...

Despite the age of this blog, I have still not written a blog for every event we hold, EPIC Crafty Creative Day is perhaps the most prominent one I've missed.  What is EPIC Crafty Creative Day? EPIC Crafty Creative Day started off as a concept way back when EPIC first opened, the premise was to combine Trish's Crafty Studio and EPIC on one day a month, where creative parents could craft whilst their kids could craft on minecraft (yes that was way back when we ran a minecraft server in store). Over time it transitioned into miniature painting for games like Warhammer, D&D and such using the paint supplies from crafty whilst the crafty studio adopted a crop day structure. Both retail and space for EPIC Ipswich and The Crafty Studio will remain open all day as per usual. The price? The price? oh riiiight, the price! Yes that'd either be your mortal soul or ownership of your first born child..... KIDDING! It's free with exception to hiring supplies and purchasing a mini...

  If you're an active participant in our EPIC League on a Wednesday and were present at yesterday's game would've heard from the League's GM Daniel that after the current story arch, there will be some major changes to the league and it's structure as all the DM's have noticed and felt the slow decline in the leagues structure.  The DMs spend alot of nights planning and preparing for the league but with the actions of one table derailing other tables, different DM styles, different ideas on the availability one magic items, the disconnect in interpretation, communication breakdowns and the handicapped freedom that DMs get to have in the league - the burnout is real. To offer a transparent view behind our screens most of the DMs are tired and don't find joy in running on a Wednesday night anymore, the thing that keeps us going is the players and the enjoyment that get with every session. In saying this this isn't the first changes we've had with the l...

Last week we spoke about EPIC League via a recap of everything that happened in our store-wide campaign. Another good example of organised play is Adventurers League, sometimes referred to as D&D Adventurers League, similar to EPIC League in that there are multiple tables all running D&D at the same time. Adventurers League has been designed by D&D parent company Wizards of the Coast to have a series of side adventurers that run in tandem with their most recent module releases. Each adventure has situations that rely on the four pillars of playstyle - combat, role play, exploration and puzzles. Moreover, each adventure is designed to be played in one sitting allowing players to jump between tables with the same character and loot from previous adventures - this isn't just store wide, this applies to all Adventurers League Games everywhere! This comes with some ups and downs as you can't go off and buy magic items like in a homebrew campaign and can find some limitat...

EPIC League has been going strong at EPIC Ipswich since it's conception since I last wrote a blog recapping the events of our store-wide campaign in July ( You can read that article here ) there have been some ground-breaking changes! The Five Cults Story Line When venturing around their local area, each township started encountering problems with cults as their towns grew, so too did the attention on them. Baelfalls encountered the alien/reptilian cult of the Jade Fang - a cult that believes that the world should return to the natural rules of predation. Saltrock encountered the bizarre divided cult of the Cobalt Claw - a cult consisting of two ideologies, that order and chaos keep each other in check to achieve progress. This Cult loves mutating and experimenting on lesser beings to bring about balance. Darrohold has encountered the Pale Eye - a cult that always operates in groups of 3, answering to the whims of their mysterious Seer leader without question, they believe that not...

  EPIC Ipswich has reliably been running Dungeons and Dragons since our store opened, even branching out to make a kid-friendly event to train up the next generation of D&D Players. Dungeons and Wyrmlings (or as it is often referred to Kids D&D) made waves with kids creating unique characters of their own and taking them week in and week out to venture into different territories, levelling them up as they had done so. With the increased demand for the Dungeon Masters to run the games, bookings became inevitable, and even then the booking system has failed as parents no longer call the store to let us know when their child is next attending. Rant Incoming - feel free to skip to the next heading Speaking as a DM myself, the sheer frustration of not knowing which kids will be able to attend the game and then making up a one-shot on the fly as everyone is at a different level and experience became stressful. What's worse is the days I showed up expecting to run and found out my...

  Dungeons and Dragons is undergoing alot of changes in the upcoming year, however, despite my scepticism and fears about the game morphing the already established 5th Edition into other another Edition of D&D and still calling it 5E, there is still hope for longtime players like myself. 3RD PARTY CONTENT! What is 3rd Party resources and content? Simply put, D&D 3rd party resources and content is Dungeons and Dragons material published under the Creative Commons law of D&D parent company Wizards of the Coast (WotC). This material (as implied by the name) is published and created by a third party for the game of D&D but isn't official content made by WotC. Third-Party Resources should not be confused with general 'Homebrew' content, which has one author that has crafted some additional rules or content at home. There is a place for Homebrew in D&D but that however is not what this article is about. Third-party resources are curated and published by a team...

  If you have not been following the last week of Dungeons and Dragons  (D&D) or Magic the Gathering  (MTG), the parent company of both major games - Wizards of the Coast, just announced their next lineup of 2023 projects including the titles of D&D's upcoming books. Here's all the details we know about the upcoming releases. Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Dragonlance has been a long demanded set that D&D 5th edition returns too. Set in the world of Krynn, this setting has proven to be quite popular in previous editions of the game. What makes the module unique is that it takes place during the war of the lance and has a board game releasing alongside it that may be played independently or incorporated into your campaign. The board game " Warriors of Krynn " plays out alot of mass combats (something D&D as an RPG has failed to do accurately) and will enable players to move between the D&D RPG and Warriors of Krynn game with equiptment and...

 As mentioned in yesterday's post, parent company of Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast , broke the internet by revealing all their upcoming projects through 2023. The biggest news outside of the reprinting of 'The Legend of Drizzt' novels was the titles of their upcoming book releases and the Beta testing of their new D&D vision 'One D&D'. Heres everything we know about the in development One D&D. One D&D One D&D is a three stage release the first stage is a revising of the core 5th edition (5E) rules including the Player Handbook, Monster Manual & Dungeon Masters guide. These rules are all backwards compatible with current 5E rulesWhat does this look like? Monthly/Bimonthly releases of playtest material in Unearthed Arcana. The current version derives the Pathfinder second edition  of the character creation. Players can make up their own background (no generic ones anymore) and races no longer have bonuses to...

It was 2AM on the 19th of August and whilst the rest of my household was sleeping, I was watching YouTube. Am I a chronic insomniac? Yes. Am I currently typing this in my cardboard box that I now live in at EPIC? Also yes. Am I excited to tell you about the new and upcoming stuff from Magic the Gathering and Dungeon and Dragons parent company Wizards of the Coast?.... If you haven't been able to infer what I'm saying, Wizards of the Coast recently did a live stream to promote their upcoming material they're releasing for their major games MTG and D&D, this was at 2AM Australian Time on YouTube. Some super exciting things on the horizon for both games and some that left me scratching my head. There were the reveals of upcoming sets and books, guest appearances from Jimmy Wong and Ginny Di and some surprising reveals.  D&D Announcements Teases for the next edition of D&D codenamed One D&D  and brings together an updated version of core rules, backwards compa...

  For any Dungeons and Dragons enthusiasts the wait is over! For those who are confused as to why I have attached a picture of a soldier riding a dragon, with a hamster on his shoulder, avoiding the destruction of a planet, whilst a incorporeal humanoid is riding an alien fish to fish the alien fish - this article is also for you. What is Spelljammer? Spelljammer - for an oversimplified explanation is Dungeons and Dragons in space. The setting or style of game, Spelljammer, is the name of the spaceships that adventurers travel on to get to other solar systems. Yes these are like nautical ships and not actual rockets. They are called Spelljammers as they're powered by magic/spells.  Think of Spelljammer as a seafaring D&D adventure that takes place in the void of space with lots of aliens trying to eat you, highjack your ship, or take you prisoner. Whats new in this setting? A bunch! This setting is released in a 3 part book set that comes with its own DM Screen to help DM'...

WOWEE! Yup. That’s all that needs to be said about that. International Free RPG Day was a spectacle, to say the least, it was a phenomenal turnout! Now whilst I, unfortunately, couldn’t be in attendance or even video call in due to personal reasons, I have heard nothing but praise from patrons and nothing but groans of caffeinated Game Masters being mentally drained from running RPGs all day. One thing is for certain Game Masters – YOU DID AN AMAZING JOB! Whilst I’m not a detective, I may have heard a  rumour that a quarterly RPG day is being considered for EPIC Ipswich to hold more often. Seriously, that’s how popular Saturday was. Jon (who ran many a game of  Call of Cthulhu on Saturday) is launching a permanent game day for  Call of Cthulhu on Saturdays moving forward.   What Games were run? Free RPG Day was split into 4 time slots with multiple games per slot: 10 AM  – Cyberpunk Red ,  Call of Cthulhu ,  Iron Kingdoms and Tavern Hop 1 PM  –...

If any poor soul has been on the receiving end of my non-league games, you’ll know I love handouts in my D&D campaigns – so much so I wrote a recent blog post about it. After writing that blog I couldn’t resist pouring more of my unfinished thoughts from that article out somewhere. DON’T CLICK AWAY YET! Please bare with me, whilst this post continues off some of those ideas this is its own unique post and not a follow-up! My many passions coalesce into the hobby of D&D – Miniatures, Caligraphy, Creating, World Building, Storytelling & Acting. This is true for many other RPGs I love and adore, such as  Call of Cthulhu and my beloved  Fate Core System . Until EPIC came into my life, I didn’t nearly have the resources on hand to make these handouts and creative ways to immerse players at the table. Putting the “C” in EPIC EPIC as the name goes is an acronym for  E at  P lay  I nteract &  C create. The Crafty studio has most of the supplies. If...

If you have had what I hope you’d perceive as the joy of meeting me, you would know that my favourite game is Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), I LOVE THIS GAME! As a former theatre nerd – the combination of acting and props are nearly a no-brainer for me. Props in a traditional sense are used as symbolism and a manifestation of the world you act in. In D&D, however, it’s the latter that helps with my D&D Games.   The Job of a Dungeon Master As a Dungeon Master (DM), it is your job to describe the world in immense detail, I think of it as reading adjectives and verbs in a fictional novel to paint the scene. Describing how cold a sword hilt is or how wrinkly the leathery remains of a corpse are adds drastically to the immersion of your players. It beats the nondrescript “you pick up the sword hilt” or “The corpse is long dead”.   Props vs Handouts Whilst props are excellent to use for immersion in the theatre world, a player having a giant foam sword at the table and...

If you have frequented EPIC or enquired about Dungeons and Dragons, you’ve likely heard of  EPIC League and if you haven’t then be informed on what you’re missing out on!   What is EPIC League? EPIC League (EL) is a yet another form of organised play for Dungeons & Dragons… with a twist: Each table is a different town and adventuring party in the same world! This means actions and choices you make affect other tables around you! The story and adventures take place in the Demi Plane of Thoroz – outside the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Tal’Dorei or any other established D&D universe, though adventurers may originate from any of these universes. Adventurers and other brave souls are dragged through the veil by some unknown power and now must struggle to survive the harsh unforgiving landscape that is Thoroz.  The world is inspired by prehistoric Australia, dark fantasy, and the Dread Domains of Dungeons and Dragons (featured in ‘Curse of Strahd’ and ‘Van Richten’s Gui...

Unless you’ve been living in a different reality, you likely won’t have heard of Free RPG Day. The organisation  Gaming Days only formed in 2019 to provide Game Stores (like your friendly neighbourhood  E.P.I.C. Ipswich ), with gaming opportunities, as it stands they only have one yearly global event, the aforementioned Free RPG Day. 2019 was a great year to launch, but unless you lived in a reality where Local Game Stores (LGS) wasn’t affected by Covid-19 or lockdowns, this event likely never reached your ears unless you were part of the 1st Free RPG Day.   What is Free RPG Day? Free RPG Day is pretty much what it says on the label, its a Day when stores are given content and Role Play Games from some of the largest gaming publishers for FREE to run for their stores.   What Games have been announced this year? Starfinder: Skitter Warp, Pathfinder: A Fistful of Flowers Skitter Warp is a short #Starfinder adventure with 4 pre-generated characters to let you quickly l...