Oof it’s been a while, eh? Since we are a bi-weekly podcast, skipping a release means a whole month goes by when we miss an episode. If you’ve seen our notice earlier this week concerning the delays, you know they were due to my health. I don’t want to put this at the forefront, but what is important is that we will do our very best to keep to our schedule and let our listeners know if an episode needs to be pushed back. We aren’t going anywhere, especially as we are getting close to the end of Arc 1!

As I didn’t do a GM log for episode 7 – Rock the Boat, I will do it here at the same time as I do episode 8 – Sinking Feeling.

Mechanics

Ammunition Tracking

As I mention in the episode, we play in “Hard mode.” What I mean is we are in a Gritty Realism setting. There are a couple of rules and mechanics that are added to the game for a more realistic and, let’s be honest, hard feel. The result is also a less high-fantasy world and more like a survival game. Resource management, be it spells and ability as well as food rations and ammunition become more important than a regular D&D game. Through the years, I’ve playtested different rules for my own flavor of Gritty Realism and one mechanic I’ve implemented is ammunition tracking.

Ammunition tracking is very inconsistent amongst D&D tables. Some count down every arrow or bolts, some don’t as it adds yet another thing to take care of. You could say my mechanic is even heavier than the regular rule which is every ammunition shot is lost. But since mine works in favor of the player, they often choose to use it. It goes as thus: for every ammunition shot, you can recuperate half, rounded down. The player needs to have the time to go on the battlefield and look for unbroken arrows after an encounter. As it is a precious resource, I often add a couple of bolts or arrows to the loot if the enemy used ranged weapons as well.

Firearms in Uncreated

Firearms made their first apparition in episode 7! Now, I want to say that I am not a gun enthusiast and I don’t know much about modern and historic firearms. It’s possible, almost certain, that there will be inconsistencies concerning them in the podcast. I did, however, do some research to determine what type of firearm would exist and how accessible they would be in a world like Uncreated. I knew guns were starting to be more in use by the end of the sixteenth century but not enough to make other weapons obsolete. I also kept in mind that Uncreated is a world with magic, so technological development would be affected.

In the end, I decided to keep things very simple mechanics-wise. I looked at stats given in the Dungeon Master’s Guide on page 268 and after looking at the historical range of weapons in 1550, I increased their range, which I found was limited compared to what they could actually do. Because the firearms have the loading property (an action is needed to reload the weapon, thus can only be used every other turn), I have increased their damage potential. Firearms were a big game changer when they started to be implemented seriously. By 1550 and after, weapons had wheel-lock firing mechanism which made for more reliable weapons as well as quicker recharge. As I am still imposing a heavy loading rule of one full action, I think increasing their damage potential is fair. The weapons can be used by anyone but the proficiency to use them to their full potential is still rare. This means that shooting with the weapon without proficiency is done using only a d20 without any bonus to hit and to damage. To gain proficiency a player must take the feat gunner, as found in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. There are two types of firearms, pistols and muskets and they have been reworked as thus:

Pistol 2d8 piercing 3 lb Ammunition (Bullets) (60/180), loading
Musket 2d10 piercing 15 lb Ammunition (Bullets) (80/200), loading, two-handed

Surprise Round

Aaah wouldn’t be nice to be right all the time and make no mistakes ever? Unfortunately, that is not how it goes. Dungeons & Dragons is a game with many, many rules and even if I try to apply them as correctly as possible, sometimes I am just wrong. When I relisten to our recordings and get the podcast ready, I sometimes groan as I pick up errors here and there. Wrong! Wrong! In episode 8 – Sinking Feeling, I made quite a big mistake in the first round of combat between the Vodyanoy and the Barovians. Did you catch it?

When combat starts with Zana swinging her Zweihander at the Vodyanoy while still invisible, I ask everyone to roll for initiative and I determine if there will be a surprise round. Let’s reread what the Sage Advice tells us about Surprise Rounds:

“The first step of any combat is this: the DM determines whether anyone in the combat is surprised. This determination happens only once during a fight and only at the beginning. (…)
To be surprised, you must be caught off guard, usually because you failed to notice foes being stealthy or you were startled by an enemy with a special ability (…). You can be surprised even if your companions aren’t, and you aren’t surprised if even one of your foes fails to catch you unawares.
If anyone is surprised, no actions are taken yet. First, initiative is rolled as normal. Then, the first round of combat starts, and the unsurprised combatants act in initiative order. A surprised creature can’t move or take an action or a reaction until its first turn ends (remember that being unable to take an action also means you can’t take a bonus action). In effect, a surprised creature skips its first turn in a fight. Once that turn ends, the creature is no longer surprised.
In short, activity in a combat is always ordered by initiative, whether or not someone is surprised, and after the first round of combat has passed, surprise is no longer a factor.”

I gave Zana her surprise round and also gave her advantage since she was hidden from the Vodyanoy, the Vodyanoy was surprised and skipped its turn as it was supposed to, but then I MADE EVERYONE ELSE SKIP A TURN. They should have had a full turn to move into position and start their plan. It could be argued that they had no way to know exactly when it would start since they could not look down, but they were fully aware of what was about to happen. At the time, no one mentioned it so it wasn’t corrected. We cannot change what has already happened but I thought it was important to point it out.

Setting

Narrator

We’ve had two more introductions by the “new” narrator. Once again I’ve had the help of poets to shape their particular voice. In episode 7 – Rock the Boat it was the poem “Untitled“ by the Russian Maximilian Voloshin and in episode 8 – Sinking Feeling I used “Dear Ukraine“ by the Ukrainian-Amerian Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach. Once again, you can see the originals and the slightly modified versions in italic.

Untitled

Fine threads (paint) sicken the sky
Wanting to (overtake) overcome the day,
(And night has tipped) Into my soul, into the lakes
(Into my soul, into the lakes.) The night has tipped.

I want to scream something. There is something I want to shout*
Into its dark, open jaws,
To bring my ear to it,
(Press up against it with my tremulous heart). To bring my heart close to it.

(You walk holding your breath,) You walk and do not breathe*
(The fields are freezing.) The land grows cold*
No, listen…do you hear it?
It’s the earth breathing.

I cling to the (grass). Silt
To be yours forever…
“I know, I know…I understand,”
Whispers the water.

The night is dark and starless.
Someone cries in their sleep.
Bottomless, it spilled over the waters,
And into me.

*I made no changes, but decided to take another translation by a different translator.

“Dear Ukraine”

I’m so far from your earth,
your dead, your suffering.
This expanse is nothing
but a singing wound.

Still, I reach for you, (Ukraine) Dremlyuchaya Mat—
as (I drive my children to daycare) I walk to where I need to go
and sob (in my car)on my way, then go on
with the day while you tug
and tear at me (Ukraine) Mother—thorn,
anchor, stone, seed.

I want your sunflowers to rise
across the water, fields and fields
ablaze. They’ll burn anyone
who dares to cut them down.

Dear (Ukraine)Earth, you are snowfall
and ash. Your water vapor and smoke
hang heavy in the air.
Even here, they soak the earth.
Take shelter, if only in this
song and soil, if only
for a moment, take shelter here.

Map of Lamordia

The team has put their hands on maps of Lamordia! As I have reworked much of the setting, it comes to no surprise I am sure that I have done the same to the map. As it’s important information that the players will refer to often in game, I want to share it with you as well. Here it is as well as my first iteration in pencil form. It is important to mention too that I have resized the world. In the episode 4 – A World of Difference, Alyosha tells the Barovians it will take 8 days to reach Vatyr from their current location. After I reworked the map, that number became 2 days. I told the players of the change, of course, and I will also do one on the podcast itself.

Map of the Grand Duchy of Lamordia - Uncreated Podcast — Click on the image if you want to download a full size version

The Vodyanoy

The last item on the menu, the Vodyanoy, of course! For this week, I am only sharing my artwork of the awful creature. In the GM Log of the next episode, you can expect more details about the lore and a full handout with its stats. Let me know if it’s any close to what you were expecting or perhaps worse?

Rock the Boat & Sinking Feeling - GM Log