D&D in small town NZ

I've been a bit slack over the last few weeks and haven't done much in the way of gaming related stuff- work, study and a host of other things have been getting in the way. I have been keeping up with our regular weekly D&D games though- nearly 20 years for the main game I run. Nigel and Dale have been along for the ride that entire time and we've had a few players come and go. After a pretty stable line up for the last 7-8 years we've lost a couple of the regulars for various reasons and replaced them with Waimate John and a younger player Daniel. This new line up has gelled pretty damn well and is a bi ore focused than our usual train wreck (er, D&D sessions) but we still have  plenty of laughs which at the end of the day is the main reason I game. 

However, I have recently joined a couple of other games. Caleb, the son of Tony R down at the wargaming club is running a game via discord for a few of us- including Dave and Mike who have stopped our Tuesday game, well for the time being, anyway. Caleb is now back at varsity in Christchurch and so far playing via discord has been working pretty well.

The other game I've joined is a weekly (well, more like fortnightly so far) game down in Oamaru. I joined it as I was looking for something to do during lockdown and as I am down at the bach most weekends thought it would be an opportunity to meet some more gamers. It was run via Roll20 and now we are down to Covid level 1 it is mainly face to face. Most of the gamers in this group are new to gaming being brought into the fold by the 5e resurgence and the online streaming of D&D games. The players bring a lot of enthusiasm to the game and good to see not only new blood but gaming flourishing in small communities like Oamaru.

We've a number of groups gaming here, most of those I know are gaming with our of our regular wargamers and RPGers and stalwart of our Tuesday game (which he nicked named ADHD Tuesday's due to the way we totally screwed up almost every adventure we try- why let the story get in the way of having a laugh at the expense of another player character?) Nigel on various nights of the week, but there are a number of other groups going too. The guys also have a weekly board game night (Friday's) at Nigel's but as I mainly head to the bach after work on Friday I don't get much opportunity to join.

Anyway, the DM in Oamaru, Gavin has recently moved over from Australia. You've got to respect a DM who has a 2ft diameter beholder suspended from the ceiling  in his lounge as well as a mindflayer and a black dragon hanging ftom the wall- picked up from a gaming store that clsoed in Aust apparently. 

As for onlyminiture gaming related stuff I've been involved with in the past few weeks has been painting up a few figures for our role playing games. I got a few drow from Reaper miniatures and have a few other bits and pieces due. It has been interesting to see the new direction WoTC are heading with Drow (and Orcs). I've not really been too involved in the online discussions but there has been a lot of online noise over this by WoTC as they reassess their companies direction due to the current political and social movements.

Anyway just prior to the current furore I ordered a few drow figures from Reaper. They took a few weeks to arrive. I have been thinking about running some underdark adventures at some point (the famous GDQ series of modules are definitely on the radar at present).

I am currently running a 5E adapton of the classic 1E adventure the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.

All going well this may lead us into the Against the Giants series and if that works out an encounter with the drow could be on the cards so time to get a few miniatures...just in case. So lst week I painted up a small selection of drow, a couple of driders and a few spidesr- all Reaper Bones figures.

Craig