Legend of the Bones

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5E) burst onto the scene in 2014, taking a game that’d been around since the ‘70s and giving it new life. After a huge public playtest called "D&D Next," the creators wanted to smooth over old division and give everyone — whether you’re an old-school fan or totally new — a game that feels both classic and modern. D&D quickly stopped being just a niche hobby and it started becoming more popular, showing up everywhere: streams, podcasts, and mainstream pop culture (Community, Stranger Things, D&D movie). In 2024 the game system was given a major overhaul, providing smaller changes and fixes to various parts of the game. This is now known as Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 Edition (2024) Description In D&D 5E, the players create fantasy adventurers. From elven rogues to dragonborn paladins, while one player takes up the role of the Dungeon Master (DM). The DM is the one who builds and describes the world, acts and voices the non-player characters and controls the monsters and the world around them, acting as both the lead storyteller and generally the rules referee. The heart of 5E is “rulings over rules.” Instead of pages of complicated charts, the DM is encouraged to make quick calls and keep things moving, not letting rules stop the game in it's tracks. The game is built on the "Three Pillars": Combat, Exploration, and Social Interaction.  System Overview & Key Features The Core d20 Mechanic The resolution system is unified and straightforward. To attempt almost most action where the outcome is not clearly obvious and there is a chance for failure, the player rolls a 20-sided die (d20), and adds the relevant modifier (either from their main stat or their skill bonus) and the DM's set Difficulty Check (DC) determines whether the attempt was a success or a failure. Advantage and Disadvantage This is 5E’s defining innovation. Instead of making players calculate a dozen tiny modifiers (+2 for high ground, -1 for rain, +1 for a spell etc), the system or the DM simply declares whether the character has Advantage or Disadvantage on said roll. The player rolls two d20s and takes the higher result (Advantage) or the lower result (Disadvantage) and adds the necessary modifiers to the result. Bounded Accuracy In older editions, numbers got out of hand fast. With 5E the numbers increase at a reasonable rate. Armor Class (AC) and attack bonuses rise slowly, so even high-level adventurers aren't always guaranteed to overcome a bunch of goblins. Most encounters can still be a challenge, especially if the amount of enemies is high. The Proficiency Bonus A single, scaling number (starting at +2 and ending at +6) represents the character's training and experience. If a character is trained in using a weapon type, a skill (like Stealth), or a saving throw, they simply add their Proficiency Bonus to the d20 roll. Backgrounds Roleplaying your character is starts already at the character creation. Picking a Background (like Acolyte or Criminal) gives you extra skills and story hooks: Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, Flaws, all concrete details to play with. Resource Management (Rests) The game manages health and class abilities through a system of "Short Rests" (a quick one-hour break to spend Hit Dice and regain some abilities) and "Long Rests" (a full eight hours of downtime to completely heal and restore all spell slots and abilities). Subclasses While players pick a primary Class (like Wizard) at level 1, they branch off into specialized Subclasses (like the School of Evocation or the School of Illusion) typically between levels 1 and 3, allowing for deep customization while presenting progression through incremental steps as the character grows and levels up Additional links dungeonsanddragons.com - Official Dungeons & Dragons website Basic Rules (2014)  - D&D 5E free rules

Its gonna be May. /images/general-media/1778679800_avRWtoFC.gifThis is gonna ruin the tour... Well, it already is May - and its time for this month’s overview of what we have done during the last month. We would like to keep you updated as to how the platform is evolving and growing - especially since many of our updates might be something you have not noticed (you can read the last month's update log here). Birthday.. Of sorts It was the end of April of last year when we released the current version of Groupfinder. Partly. Most of you might not be aware that Groupfinder was first launched in 2021. We first created the platform for the Estonian TTRPG community to help our local players find groups and players more easily. And it was well-received and used, prompting us to keep working on it, improving and tweaking. /images/general-media/1778679949_qEWkiP3e.jpgHow far we've come since 2021.  Many years later, we decided to step it up a notch and redesign the entire platform and open it up to the world. More than half a year later, Groupfinder (now called Groupfinder, not Grupileidja) was finally released. It took us a few months before we were ready for the global audience. In september, we had our ducks in a row and we started spreading the word about the platform. Users from all over the world slowly started discovering the site and signing up. Gaining initial traction was a difficult task - users would not bother to use Groupfinder, because there weren’t users on the platform. A vicious circle that eventually was resolved thanks to our early pioneers, willing to give us a shot and posted their profiles and groups here. And now, a year later, we can see the platform has almost 6000 registered users with over 1500 active profiles and almost 700 active groups.    Players and systems During the last month, we improved player post creation - choosing the game system is now more visual and clearer. In addition - the process has been integrated with the Library. If a system exists there, it will be more visually distinct. As well as linked to the corresponding Library entry page. Hopefully more players will discover alternative systems to try out. /images/general-media/1778680166_bQADP9rj.pngChoosing the correct systems has never been easier. On Groupfinder The player profile page itself has also been updated and refreshed in multiple ways, making your profile a better calling card for you. Panel is Dashboard We used to call the homepage, the Panel. But we realized, that it didn’t make that much sense to most users. So it is now Dashboard. Not a huge change - but a change nonetheless. The dashboard also received multiple updates and tweaks to make things less cluttered and messy. Library is getting stocked During the month, the library has received multiple new entries. By multiple - I believe we can say well over a hundred new entries have been added. There are multiple new tools, video creators and podcasts/actual play entries for you to discover. Waiting for your next session? Perfect time to start enjoying an actual play series to keep the hype going and perhaps be inspired by the way other groups play. Article series “Covering the basics” We also started with an introductory blog series called “Covering the basics”. Something to guide new players taking their first steps in the hobby. Currently there is one for “Making a character” and one for “How to start as a Dungeon Master”.    And while not part of the series, you might want to take a look at the “Safety tools” article. Something to consider when starting a group with people you’ve never played with before. Tweaks & fixes We've kept a watchful eye on various bugs and problems that needed addressing. The mobile notifications were overly aggressive and at times got a bit spammy - we've told the messenger to calm down.  In messenger you can now react to messages, making it easier for you to agree upon a certain ruling or arrangement. Or, if you like, you can send an image of surprised Pikachu. Sending images in messenger is now possible. Sending a message to someone, but they just won't respond? Hover over their timezone on their profile and see what time it is for them. Maybe they are sleeping. Maybe you should also be? May-be that is all Thanks for reading this month’s update. We will keep on working on things in the background. You can join the Groupfinder discord server if you want to share some thoughts or problems with the platform.   And as always - if you have found Groupfinder useful in any way - be sure to share it with others. Either via a social media post, or just tell your friends about it. You sharing Groupfinder helps us grow. And with more users - more groups. Till next time.

Tune in weekly as a group of friends dive into the epic Wrath of The Righteous Campaign in this actual-play Pathfinder podcast. Combining riveting storytelling with mediocre attempts at humor, a group of lifelong friends roll dice, slay some monsters and fumble through the rules. Each episode welcomes you to the table every Tuesday 8 am EST. Links rss.com - Podcast feed youtube.com - Youtube channel discord.gg - Discord server