I made a new Speed and Accuracy Calculator to help us with Aces & Eights combat, which can get a bit convoluted. Its purpose is to help figure out your countdown and accuracy for your next gun action. Feel free to check it out. I’d be surprised if there weren’t a few bugs, so feel free to shout out if you find something. Feedback is welcome.
Wound Calculator for Aces & Eights
I just finished up the alpha version of the Aces & Eights Wound Calculator, which will greatly simplify the ridiculously intricate damage and healing system in the system. Go forth and check it out!
If you find any bugs, please be sure to let me know and I’ll fix it when I can.
2024 Wrap Up
Overview
Two of our campaigns have come to close with the end of the year. We ended our Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run campaign on an epic note, with our player characters saving the Rebel Alliance and getting revenge on the Empire. The campaign started in 2019, making it the longest running campaign we have ever run.
We also tied all all loose ends in our HackMaster: Dragon Heist campaign, finally discovering the titular dragon hoard as our characters live a lavish life of riches and fame. It was our first attempt at using the HackMaster system, which had a rocky start due to the myriad of rule changes, but it ended up being a rewarding experience for all.
Future Campaigns
Starting with the new year are two new campaigns, as mentioned in a previous post. Both are two new TTRPG systems for us, so there has been a lot of book learning in the background for the last few months.
The new wild west-era themed game will be starting this Saturday, as can be seen on the events page. It is Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, and it be a cowboy adventure taking place in 1887 in an alternate past where the United States was not quite so united. The exact details are still a mystery, so we’ll have to wait and see.
The other game is Fallout: New California, based upon the popular videogame series. We have people playing vault dwellers, ghouls, members of the Brotherhood Of Steel, and even robots. The campaign takes place in the alternate world timeline in 2240, somewhere in California. Stay tuned for more updates.
Highlights from Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run
Highlights from HackMaster: Dragon Heist
Random Photos
Successful Server Transfer
Well guys, it’s finally over. We have our website hosted on a new server. I want to give a particular shout out to Ash, Grant, and Andy for contributing to the server costs as seen below:
I’m glad to announce that I’ve been able to reduce our server costs from ~$13/month to less than $2.40/month. And we are paid off for the next three years. 🎉
I’m changing the look of the new website a bit, as we have had the old look for several years now. Time for a change. I’ll likely be fine-tuning the website appearance in the coming weeks as inspiration hits me, but if you guys have any ideas, feel free to let me know. In particular, I’ve been thinking that we could use a rework of our TableTopGuild.com main logo, if anyone is feeling particularly artistic.
A Tale of Two Campaigns
Overview
At the same time that we have recently ended two campaigns, we are starting two new campaigns in the new few weeks. Read more below for more info.
Ending Campaigns
Just recently, we ended two long ongoing campaigns: Grant’s Storm King’s Thunder (D&D 5E) campaign, and Brett’s Running Alive (Everyday Heroes) zombie campaign. Both were amazing and you can see some of the highlights below. The Storm King’s Thunder epilogue has been added to the notes earlier tonight. The Running Alive epilogue has been available for a while on our Game Notes page.
New Campaigns
We have two new campaigns starting in the next two weeks. This Saturday, Brett is starting his HackMaster Dragon Heist game. Next weekend, he will be running the long-running saga of our Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run.
Hackmaster: Dragon Heist
This will be a fusion of the HackMaster system mechanics with the Dragon Heist D&D module. It will be interesting, for sure. HackMaster is a whole new system for all of us, and can be daunting. Make sure to head over to our downloads page to take a look at the guides. Some of them are super handy.
Since it sounds like the entire campaign is taking place in Waterdeep, you might want to check out this awesome, interactive Waterdeep Map connected to the D&D Wiki:
In addition, we will be needing to use counters to keep track of what we are doing second by second in combat. I recommend those with Android phones go check out this Counter App to help in this endeavor.
Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run, Part 3
Our longest running campaign returns for its third season. For those who haven’t played in a while, feel free to check out what happened last time in the Star Wars: Smuggler’s Run, Part 2 Epilogue. Our band of troubled Rebels have just survived Hoth and have to navigate the dangerous universe they now find themselves in. At least they aren’t in another dimension anymore!
Highlights from the Campaigns
Below are some of highlights from our games.
Website Updates
Spent some time yesterday and today working on the website a bit. Have a few updates for you all.
New Downloads Page
We have a brand new Downloads page full of resources for our games. This includes character sheets, source books, links to Wiki pages and more! Make sure to register a username if you haven’t already to gain access, as only members can view the files. If you are already registered, login to have full access.
User Registration
I have moved away from password-protecting pages/game notes and towards being logged in to gain access to the aforementioned things. If you are already have a login, you are already set. If you don’t, get to it! I am now manually verifying users and will grant you access to everything on the website as soon as I notice the new registration.
We had almost 1000 bots signed up for the website before I knew it, so I had to add a CAPTCHA to a few places. Crazy.
Expanded User Capabilities
Everyone who signs up now will also have the ability to create posts and articles on the website after being verified. Feel free to check out my guide to posting if you are interested. Go at it!
Game Notes
All game notes are still viewable, but only registered & verified users can now edit them.
I know, CAPTCHAs are super annoying…
January Update: The Campaigns Continue, Christmas Party, Media Page Updates
Overview
Well, it’s been almost 3 months since our last update and we’ve been pretty busy. In our D&D Forgotten Realms campaign Storm King’s Thunder, we have started to touch upon the edge of war with the Giants when we aren’t busy leaving destruction in the wake of every town we visit.
In our D20 Modern Running Alive game, the player survivors are starting to piece together the cause of the mysterious apocalypse as we fight for survival against zombies, genocidal hillbillies, nuclear radiation, cannibals, and the upcoming weather conditions of winter.
The TableTop Guild Christmas Party was a resounding success as everyone gathered to feast and celebrate the season at local pub Monk’s Cellar. After feeding ourselves and running up large bar tabs, the group moved on finish up the night with a session of our 5E game as we took on an evil green dragon in the ruins of an ancient elvish city.
Many of our group members have continued to hobby out or discover usable models for our games. Shout out to Brin in particular, as he has been a workhorse for the last few weeks, finding and painting dozens of models.
Our friends at Hobby Badger have moved into a new, larger location. For those interested in visiting, feel free to check out the Hobby Badger Facebook page.
Finally, In the coming days I will also be doing a much revamp of our Media page. More details can been seen below.
Storm King’s Thunder
The Triboar Explorer Corp have continued their adventures, facing road bandits, sieges by Giants, bridge politics, detective work, and attempts to infiltrate flying citadels in a high stakes heist. For more details, make sure to take a look at the game notes.
Running Alive
Times have been tough for our group of apocalyptic survivors. Being chased from their home by a genocidal paramilitary group with a combat helicopter, everyone tries to find new roots in Rio Linda in a new compound next to Andy’s brother’s house. We have been able to survive as a group for 75 days, but not everyone in our group has made it. For more details of our adventures, make sure to take a look at our game notes.
TableTop Guild Christmas Party
Everyone got together to celebrate the season by having food, drinks, and gift exchanges at the Monk’s cellar. We then did what we do when we get together: play games!
Hobbying
Many of the TableTop Guild members paint or seek out miniatures to use in our games. Check them out!
Hobby Badger New Location
Anthony’s gaming store has moved locations. The transformation has been amazing. For more information, head over to the Hobby Badger Facebook page.
Congrats Anthony on the new location and great job decorating it!
Revamp of Media Page
I’m going to be revamping our Media page in upcoming days since it’s in dire need of some changes. Some of these changes include:
Direct Links to Source Books
I know that most of us have digital copies of many of the source books. I personally have a fairly large collection, and I know Brett has a large dropbox with resources for many of our play systems. Our server currently has 20GB of free of space that we are under utilizing and I figure we might as well host some of this ourselves. The current rulesets I plan to make available for download:
- 5E D&D
- D20 Modern
- Star Wars
If you want other systems available for public download, let me know in the Discord thread I plan to open in the coming days to gather opinions.
Personal Creations
I’m going to include an area for personal creations, such as art, 3D modelling of characters or items that we interact with in-game, etc. We have a talented group of people and sometimes we post really awesome stuff in Discord or FaceBook that eventually just gets buried over time in other posts. I want to create an area where we can sort of consolidate these creative works for posterity.
Any other ideas are more than welcome.
Closing Remarks
As always, if you are interested in creating posts or content for the TableTopGuild.com website, feel free to contact me (Patrick) and I can hand out a login. Also, don’t forget to click ‘Going’ to the D&D Movie event coming up in a few weeks if you plan to go. It looks to be at least mediocre – we can only cross our fingers it’s better than the majority of gaming movies.
Halloween Update: New Campaigns & New High-Tech Table
General Updates
It’s been a busy few months! Since our last update, the TableTop Guild has started not one but TWO new campaigns. Grant is taking the reins in running a bunch of us through the Storm King’s Thunder, while Brett has started a brand new original storyline in Running Alive, a d20 Modern zombie apocalypse adventure. In addition, we have a brand-new high-tech table with a 70” screen embedded into it. Finally, we have continued to craft more terrain and character models in our spare time to contribute to our growing collection of miniatures.
Storm King’s Thunder
We are six sessions into taking on the king of giants in Grant’s new campaign, taking place in the Forgotten Realms 1885DR, five years prior to our Tomb of Annihilation campaign and five years after the end of our Saltmarsh campaign. So far everyone’s characters are all a blast, and we already have one destroyed town behind us. For more details, feel free to see the new Storm King’s Thunder notes.
Running Alive
In a completely original campaign, Brett is running a Modern D20 campaign that takes place in contemporary times, but with a twist: there is a zombie apocalypse. We play ourselves as the world collapses around us. Like any good zombie apocalypse, danger can be found everywhere, particularly from other humans. You can check out the Running Alive Game Notes to catch up on the plot.
View the cinematic intro created by Andy:
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New TableTop Guild Table
Everyone in the TableTop Guild has contributed in some way to ensure we have an awesome new playing table for our games. Special shout outs to Brett for sourcing the TV, Jack for funding the custom protective covering, and Andy for doing everything from writing up the plans in CAD to ordering custom metal bracing for the TV and installing it all. Great work guys! Sam also contributed a series of programmable LED lights along the edges which has really contributed to the mood lighting during our miniature battles.
Newly Created Terrain and Character Models
Some members of the TableTop Guild have been steadily creating new models for our games. Check out a few below.
Stay tuned for further updates!
Ding Dong! The Lich is Dead!
After an intense, year-long campaign, the lich Acererak is dead. It was an intense survival game in which all of our characters shed sweat, blood, and tears. Not everybody made it out alive through the final fight, and their sacrifice will not be forgotten. Shout out to Brett Coker who DM’d like a boss and crafted a wonderful tale for us all. I’ll try to cobble together some of the photos we took during the last half of the campaign in another post.
Out with the old and in with the new! Our next campaign takes place against the Storm King! The Game Notes page has been appropriately updated. Time to start working on those new characters. The Storm King’s Thunder campaign starts in 9 days with Grant Reese at the helm. Looking forward to you all showing up.
UPDATES: Birthdays, Sad Farewells, Dinosaur Racing and an Awesome New Table
This post has been a long time coming, as it has been a while since there has been an update and much has happened in the last two months! First, with regards to our D&D 5E game, our adventurers find themselves staring their journey in the darkness of the Jungles of Chult! We have also somehow (miraculously!) all survived a whole three levels in Meatgrinder Mode. Yay for us!
Just before leaving (possibly forever) into the dark arboreal canopies that cover the majority of the continent of Chult, we decided to spend one last day in the warm, comfortable embrace of Port Nyanzaru ?, the last bastion of civilization for the foreseeable future. We went shopping for canoes for the long river journey ahead and grabbed a armful of quests in the process.
Desperately in need of coin for our journey, we made a final stop to the the casinos and bet on the dinosaur races! Many of us even participated:
The following week, we took on a ghoul bounty from Fort Belluarian with the help of our new druid guide Qawasha and his little sidekick Weed.
This post ends up on a sad note, as our long-time friend and playing companion Mikaela is moving away from the area. We are sad at your leaving at the same time joyous at to your new-found opportunities. Regardless, you will be missed Mikaela, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we always will have room at our table for you.
At the same time our good friend Matt has also moved before the start of the current campaign as well. While you might not have moved across the entire country, you are already missed during the games and a spot is ready for you at any time.
As Milo would say:
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May Cyrrollalee hold you in the palm of her hand.
– Old Irish Proverb