I would really enjoy it if we could find our NPC Meat Shield and I could stop burning Healing Surges…

Hello all.  Been a busy weekend.  On Sunday, we played Spenser’s D&D campaign, the second session of Keep on The Shadowfell.  I have to say it was a fun adventure, but the beginning of it opened, with our NPC Minotaur fighter, vanishing. Why we do not know, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.   For the next few encounters, my Warlord, had to step up and be the Meat Shield for the party.  I learned a few lessons.  First, meat shield is a tough roll.  Second, in 4e when you drift out of your assigned role, your power index drops.

I did ok holding my own as the MS, but I found that my own Warlord powers were not as effective, as they work best in conjunction with a fighter type.  My Commanders Strike power was rendered useless as the Ranger (bow), Warlock, and Wizard really don’t have good melee attacks.  Same for my wolf pack tactics, though I did find it was useful to shift my allies away from creatures as I engaged them.  I also spent most of my Inspiring Word abilities to heal myself.

Later we found or new NPC party member, a Warforged Fighter.  Once we were paired up again, it was smooth sailing, and I was able to get into my Warlordly goodness.  By the end of the session, we had amassed some loot and a few magic items, and decided to vacate the dungeon for a while to head back to Winterhaven so that we could level up and get some new gear.  I am all set to trade in my chainmail for some scale mail.

On the publishing front, the GM-Fu book has been doing quite well downloading.  Word is from, fellow GM-Fu master, Vicki, is that we are at about 500 downloads, from all around the world.  Totally awesome.

Also, there have been a few articles about my GM Consulting business.  Check out the article at 6d6 Fireball, talking about the trend of RPG businesses, as well as my comment.  There is also an article by my fellow Gnome, Patrick Benson, on Gnome Stew, today.

This week, I am going to, at the behest of some fellow bloggers, re-run my Session Prep article series.  If you were not a previous reader of Encoded Designs, this is a three part series I wrote last year, that describes my techniques for session prep, and formed the nucleus for my contributions to the GM-Fu: Session Prep book.  They will start running tomorrow, and through the week.

So stop by this week and good GMing to you.