gaming
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During Session Zero, our group began character creation. One of our players was trying to choose a focus and was having difficulty as the provided ones did not fully suit their character vision. As they describe their character concept, the joke was made “If only there was a ‘Cut a Bitch’ focus.” This led to…
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This time, we have a character in the End of the Institute campaign that has chosen the Junior Administrator role within the Institute. Here are the position perks created for this character and position: Technicality: Policies and rules are your bread and butter. Tasks involving navigating bureaucracy, legal matters, or regulation are eased by one…
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It’s always bothered me a bit how Armor Class (AC) is handled in 5e. It does a lot of heavy lifting just to boil down to a simple yes or no: hit or miss, all or nothing. By the rules as written, AC is a combination of your armor, your Dexterity modifier, and sometimes other…
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While we didn’t get a chance to finish creating characters for Strange Beginnings, the first story arc in my End of the Institute campaign, I had enough to go on to work on the perks a couple of my players would gain. The first character is an Investigator that will be taking the position of…
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One of the best Session Zero experiences I’ve had is now complete. We met some new folks, introduced the setting and playstyle, and kicked off character creation. Two of the eight players couldn’t make it due to family obligations, but we’ll be scheduling one-on-one catch-up sessions soon. The group responded really well to the MESH…
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Today is the day. Session Zero for The End of the Institute campaign kicks off tonight. With a possible player pool of eight interested people, a lot of thoughts are going through my head. This is especially true as we prepare to playtest the MESH playstyle in a full campaign setting. One thing I keep…
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As the days tick down toward Session Zero of my The End of the Institute campaign, I wanted to share how I plan to structure the session, the tools we’ll be using, and a few key things I’m keeping in mind. The Role of Session Zero Session Zero is more than just preparation. It sets…
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I am currently preparing for Session Zero of a homebrew Magnus Archives campaign, The End of the Institute, built using my MESH playstyle. If you are familiar with The Magnus Archives, the ending created endless potential for new stories, official or otherwise. It opened the multiverse and populated it with endless flavors of the canon…
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Most of us love tabletop roleplaying, but real life makes it hard to keep a campaign going. Jobs, families, shifting schedules… getting the same people to the same table every week can feel impossible. That is where the MESH system comes in. MESH stands for Modular Episodic Session Holarchy, and it is my attempt to…
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If you’ve found your way here, you might be thinking: “There’s nothing here.” And you’d be right. I’m starting at square one, setting up this platform, learning the tools, and figuring things out in my spare time. But content is coming. My plan is to start slow: share pieces of whatever project I’m working on,…
Mason Beck Fiction 