1. DM Dave continued the theme of classic D&D monsters. While we did fight Fourth Edition monsters like darkmantles and kruthik, we also encountered one of my favorite oldies: the piercer. (The cut view of the piercer anatomy to the left is taken from one of my favorite Dragon articles.) Even better: my character, dragonborn warlord Sergeant Kesek, ended up getting taken to -1 HP by a piercer! (Luckily the eladrin wizard Tük-J'a Zephrus was nearby with a handy potion of healing.) Best of all, though, was the group's subsequent encounter with a knight polymorphed into piercer form by Mad Mungus. The ensorcelled knight's name was . . . wait for it . . . Sir Pearce. Imagine a piercer talking with a British accent, and you've got D&D gold. The session ended with Sergeant Kesek rigging up a perch on his back for Sir Pearce. No doubt hijinks will ensue.
2. I went completely paperless for this session, bringing only my dice bag, my Sergeant Kesek mini, my set of laser-engraved action point tokens, and my new 64 GB iPad. I had uploaded the PDF version of Kesek's Character Builder character sheet to the iPad via the GoodReader app's ability to downloaded documents from my Dropbox. (I also uploaded the Pages version of last session's notes and a PDF of the Fourth Edition Player's Handbook.) When I needed to consult one of Kesek's power cards, I'd just enter GoodReader. The rest of the time I was keeping track of initiative, hit points, healing surges, treasure, and XP with Penultimate, the most intuitive notebook app I've seen. While I suspect that things will be even more efficient once iPhone 4.0 comes out with multitasking in the fall, I didn't have any particular trouble switching back and forth this time around. The iPad worked like a charm!
2. I went completely paperless for this session, bringing only my dice bag, my Sergeant Kesek mini, my set of laser-engraved action point tokens, and my new 64 GB iPad. I had uploaded the PDF version of Kesek's Character Builder character sheet to the iPad via the GoodReader app's ability to downloaded documents from my Dropbox. (I also uploaded the Pages version of last session's notes and a PDF of the Fourth Edition Player's Handbook.) When I needed to consult one of Kesek's power cards, I'd just enter GoodReader. The rest of the time I was keeping track of initiative, hit points, healing surges, treasure, and XP with Penultimate, the most intuitive notebook app I've seen. While I suspect that things will be even more efficient once iPhone 4.0 comes out with multitasking in the fall, I didn't have any particular trouble switching back and forth this time around. The iPad worked like a charm!
