I’ve managed absolutely no MMORPG gaming this whole week: a combination of factors conspiring to keep me away from the hobby. Firstly we, unusually, were out socially two evenings in one week, a first for at least two years because of our very cautious approach in general to going “out out” since the pandemic started. We’re still cautious, though, and only go to quieter venues in small groups. I was listening to episode 197 of the excellent Dungeon Master of None podcast – about running convention games – and despite being thoroughly intrigued by the idea, I can’t imagine being comfortable going to a convention for a long time to come.
On top of that I’ve been prepping to launch a second run of my ongoing, published D&D campaign with a new group, and prepping to continue the first group’s run of the (still in draft) third module in that series.
Me being me, I can’t just rerun the adventure, I feel compelled to rewrite sections of it to have different themes and protagonists – kind of like an alternate history version of the same campaign. It may lead to improvements to the published modules or even a free supplement for purchasers of the original with the optional alterations. Lot’s of editing, idea generating and rewriting this last week. It’s fun but it takes so much time and is usually pretty intense, so sitting at my gaming PC / desk after is the last thing I want to do.
I have managed a few games of Gloomhaven with two friends, the campaign mode continues to keep us busy for short play sessions. We finally went back to a fairly early-on pair of missions that represent a story choice regarding a certain necromantic-themed NPC. The mission had us facing a growing army of undead monsters, getting to the NPC and stopping her from double-summoning new foes every round was the number one priority.
Thankfully the “get boss into a doorway” tactic worked wonders here, not least because she had no empty hexes near to use for summoning more minions. That and we had the distraction of a small horde of friendly guards that were remarkably competent – at least when the AI allowed them to do something useful.
We triumphed and had a blast on this mission. The mission design overall in campaign mode is more varied and unique than the random-feeling maps of guildmaster mode. I’d recommend a play through!
GamingSF 
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