Letters from the Quarantine Zone: Pandemic Legacy March Recap

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Spoiler Warning: Letters from the Quarantine Zone is a recap of a playthrough of the board game Pandemic Legacy (an After Action Report, if you will), retold in-character. Though the series does not directly acknowledge game mechanics or cards, it references their content, and the events from the game described within will result in spoilers. This is a work of fiction. You can read the entire series here.

March, 2016

Sigh. Another month, another crisis. On the bright side, the media has begun to follow our activities and has really trumpeted our accomplishments in 2016, especially in the face of our severe budget cutbacks. For me, the tragedy is in the cost. It all could’ve been avoided if only this Presidential administration would give the Centers for Disease Control the funds we need.

In many ways, we’ve crossed a Rubicon. The CDC is no longer simply fighting disease; we’re now fighting public perception. First, we have added Essen to the ranks of panicked cities. Worse, we’ve got riots beginning in Osaka. Riots! In Japan! The CDC isn’t equipped to handle riots; we’re a civilian organization. We specialize in epidemiology and public health, not politics. This struggle has grown irrevocably political, and we are poorly equipped to handle it.

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Letters from the Quarantine Zone: Pandemic Legacy February Recap

LettersFromQZHeader

Spoiler Warning: Letters from the Quarantine Zone is a recap of a playthrough of the board game Pandemic Legacy (an After Action Report, if you will), retold in-character. Though the series does not directly acknowledge game mechanics or cards, it references their content, and the events from the game described within will result in spoilers. This is a work of fiction. You can read the entire series here.

February, 2016 

The media has moved on, but the Centers for Disease Control certainly hasn’t. The end of January saw us gain stable footing against the rise of four dangerous new diseases, but within the CDC, we all knew this was just the opening lines of a story that was yet to play out. And, wouldn’t you know, February proved us right.

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Letters from the Quarantine Zone: Pandemic Legacy January Recap

LettersFromQZHeader

Spoiler Warning: Letters from the Quarantine Zone is a recap of a playthrough of the board game Pandemic Legacy (an After Action Report, if you will), retold in-character. Though the series does not directly acknowledge game mechanics or cards, it references their content, and the events from the game described within may result in spoilers. This is a work of fiction. You can read the entire series here.

Early January, 2016

Well, 2016 is off with a bang. First there were fireworks, then there was sickness. I’ll say one thing: it’s never a dull day at the Centers for Disease Control. At least the weather has been nice here in Atlanta. The media is calling this the “January of our Discontent.” Clever. They don’t know the half of it.

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With Fantasy Grounds, Amazon Sales, D&D is Awfully Cheap Right Now

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If you thought Black Friday deals were just for big screen TVs and trendy consumer electronics you probably don’t need, think again: there’s a pretty sweet sale going on for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition in both digital and dead-tree formats.  Continue reading

Group Spellcasting: D&D 5E Homebrew Challenge

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This is not the Unearthed Arcana you’re looking for… via

Homebrew Challenge is an occasional column in which we develop a homebrew solution for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition in order to create additional player options, actions, or abilities. We discuss the challenge, the solution, the design principles we employed and ideas that we rejected, and the areas of concern that Dungeon Masters should keep an eye on.

The Challenge: Group Casting

The idea that a group of casters can combine their power into a single spell is as old as magic. It shows up in fiction in various forms, from Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth to a variety of psykers, heretics, and cultists in the Warhammer 40k universe. The goal here is straightforward: create a mechanic by which two spellcasters can combine their spells to achieve a greater net effect.  Continue reading

Total Party Thrill Podcast is Now Live on iTunes (with a Big Thanks!)

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I want to take a moment and thank everyone who listened to our preview episode and sent in their feedback. It was immensely helpful, and I-Hsien and I truly appreciate it as we try to make Total Party Thrill the best RPG discussion podcast we possibly can.

All of that effort and kindness has finally borne fruit, as yesterday we officially launched on iTunes, and only a couple days later than we anticipated! Our third full episode (Player-Centric Campaigns & Combat Medic) went up today, and we’ll continue a weekly Thursday release schedule.

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Total Party Thrill is a podcast for GMs and players where we discuss our campaigns in order to inspire yours. We draw heavily from a 3-year, level 1-20 D&D 5th Edition Eberron campaign. Each episode covers a particular aspect of game planning and playing, and we share tips and advice drawn from our own experience. Then follow us into the Character Creation Forge, where we build iconic character archetypes from outside traditional D&D using the D&D 5E rules.