AKDragonFish3D

Today, I happen to be associating with other departments during a few work-related tasks and I asked one of them to give me a random word.  Today's word is DOWN.  As always, I will briefly define the word, then discuss how that word applies to tabletop gaming, fishing, and 3D printing. There are many definitions related to the word down.  I will use the first one from the Merrian-Webster Dictionary.  Down is defined as: Definition of down (Entry 1 of 8) 1a(1): toward or in a lower physical position, Don't look down.  Pull down the blind. (2): to a lying or sitting position.  Please sit down. (3): toward or to the ground, floor, or bottom.  burned the house down.  fell down Down Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster ------------------------------------------------------------------- When it comes to tabletop gaming, getting in a "down" position can mean multiple things, both positive and negative.  It would all depend on your perception o...

 Another day, another word.  This time I was given the word "Discombobulated" by a good friend of mine.  As usual, I will define the word, then write about how it relates to tabletop gaming, fishing, and 3D printing. According to Websters Dictionary, the word "Discombobulated" is defined as informally to be confused or disordered.  It is the past tense of "Discombobulate" which is defined as to cause or be in a state of confusion, upset, or disorientated. Discombobulate Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster As the word "Discombobulated" applies to tabletop gaming, I can think of two different instances where it applies.  The first one applies to Dungeons and Dragons and the second one applies to tabletop wargaming. First, the Dungeons and Dragons aspect.  There is a Confused condition, which is the most direct application to the character, and the spell "Confusion" which applies said condition.  Most directly, the target of the con...

TO DM OR NOT TO DM That is the inner war in my head right now, and I'd like to make it my Friday Night Fight blog post this week. Recently I've been at odds with myself about continuing to be a DM and to continue to play Dungeons and Dragons altogether. What is a DM? To bring things in perspective, for those that don't know what a DM is:  A DM, short for Dungeon Master, is the game's administrator, arbitrator, and referee all in one, with the game being an interactive story where the players (everyone else but the DM) goes about the story as administered by the DM. This requires a LOT of planning, understanding the game, and having good repour with those at the table.  Some of the aspects of DMing include, but not limited to: ** knowing the game world's basic (and sometimes advanced) mechanics, such as the whos who of the world, the "relative to Earth" time setting, what is and is not in the game world, etc. ** general tabletop wargaming and board game con...

 On this edition of Friday Night Fights, I want to write about a "fight" that is a little more personal.  This time, it is between my love of the game called Dungeons and Dragons and my perceptive view of others' views on the game. First, I want to make one thing perfectly clear:  I love this game.  It has allowed me to accomplish so much on the social levels that as a social outcast most of my life I would have never been able to do otherwise. It has encouraged me to allow my imagination to flourish.  From that imagination, a massive homebrew world was created, each continent, zone, region, biome, city, state, small town, run-down village, barbarian camp, past cultures, past histories, and the like to be fleshed out, little by little, over the course of 20+ years. However, in the light of Dungeons and Dragons becoming "maintstream," I have developed a bit of internal conflict I cannot resolve with myself.  It is this conflict that I will address and the re...

Introduction Greetings everyone.  I did not have anything worthy in my opinion of writing about for my weekly Friday Night Fights (FNF posts), so I asked my eldest for a word.  She gave me the word "Worms."   With my RANDOM WORDS posts for now and in the future, I will take a random word given to me by someone around me (family, friends, co-workers, etc) and then write about it as it pertains to the three main points of AKDragonFish3D:  tabletop gaming (board games, card games, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, etc), the over expansive topic of fishing , and 3D printing . Tabletop Wargaming First, I will cover tabletop wargaming as it comes to mind when I think about the word "worms."  There are three things off the cuff that come to mind. The first thing that comes to mind is a play on words:  "Worms" becomes "Wyrms" or "Wurms."  A type of dragon species, a Wyrm is a dragon with no arms and no legs.  The most prevalent example that sho...

 Friday Night Fights presents:  the Rival I know it's not Friday .....  life got in the way of me making my Friday Night Fights afternoon post. However, on Saturday I was just talking with some friends and the joys of D&D (along with a possible adjustment of game schedule / time for more players) when the conversation of hardcore metagamers came up. Now, at my table, i've had a few metagamers come and go.  It's one thing to want to build a cool character idea, but it is a completely different animal when you feel you must "win" at D&D, thus needing to make a "super optimum ultra badass." News flash:  most players don't like this.  Not one bit. I came up with a solution......  and before you start bashing me on this idea, as so many lovely people on various D&D Facebook pages have before you, calling me a bad DM among other things.... hear me out.  The solution is simple.  The solution is a rival. ___________________________ Step 1...

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS Customizing monsters in D&D I've always found it fun and funny to customize monsters in D&D and/or any RPG for that matter.  I feel it goes back to the core concept of giving my players a fun challenge, which is what I want to write about today.   I've been called out for being a overchallenging and arbitrary jerk to my players, and that, like this post, is a matter of opinion.  I'm just sharing how I do things and maybe it can help others do the same.  Oh, I also echo a lot of other DMs out there as well. BIGGEST RULE OF ALL IS TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE PLAYERS.  IF THEY STOP HAVING FUN, THE GAME STOPS BEING FUN FOR EVERYONE, DM INCLUDED. With that said, if you want to ramp up your combats, here are my suggestions: 1.  give your monsters "levels" in a class.   What do i mean by that:  there is an NPC section in either the DMG or Xanathars that helps you quickly generate an NPC for whatever reason.  There a...

 Hello everyone.  It's Mr. Jon again and for this little blurb of my brain, I thought I would start a segment called "Allow or No Allow" where I cover various different topics that most of the time I get heavily engaged in with discussions, arguments, etc.  I will also do video segments on my other social media channels regarding this as well. For this topic, I will be discussing my opinions on the Dungeons and Dragons topic of to allow or not to allow a player to have a natural ability to fly (meaning not acquired through experience, level, or magical means - aka they were just born with it). I will begin by saying this is a very hot-button topic as of recent weeks/months on most of the Facebook pages I follow that some of you reading this follow also.  People going back and forth about rules as written (RAW) vs. rules as interpreted (RAI) vs. DMs stifling creative freedom vs. DMs just allowing it and having to adjust to the spectrum. IN MY OPINION (because that's w...