All credit to WotC when putting together 5E for figuring out how to make just about every class fun and interesting. When an inexperienced player like Sam Riegel can throw together something as goofy as a gnome bard and constantly be able to contribute, if not save the day, you've built a pretty solid system.

Having played a bard in 5E (as well as played in or run games that involved one) I have to say 5E is probably my favorite iteration of the class. You always feel like you have something useful you can do.

It's not that you can't make bad characters or that you can't make poor choices, but it's pretty easy to make characters that are good at what they should be good at. (The ranger in the group I'm running occasionally decides they're going to heal someone instead of shooting their bow for stupid amounts of damage, then gets disappointed when they heal less with a 2nd or 3rd level Cure Wounds than the party's Life Cleric manages with a 1st level. The cleric player picked the healing-focused version of the healing class, he's going to naturally be better at it than you. If he's not, something has gone terribly wrong.)

I love the Donjon [link] random generators as they can be an enormous time-saver/"whoops, I need a [blank] right now" tool but sometimes they're just whacky.

Tonight I needed to come up with the contents of a magic shop real quick and it gave me weapon's shop with an inventory of 3 tridents of fish command and two magical blowguns (+1 and +2, respectively.) At least my players had a good laugh as the shopkeeper groused about no one wanting these stupid tridents and how she's never using this supplier again.

Hello gaming thread! Long-time lurker, second or third-time poster here.

Would anyone be interested in playing through Pandemic Legacy (Season 1 or 2) here on the board? Technically both are 4-player games but since they are cooperative I think we might manage shared ownership over individual roles.

I'd be willing to act as host, setting up the physical board in my home, dealing cards, moving pawns etc. At the start of each turn I will post the current status of all game variables, and turn it over to the group for 24 hours of discussion. I will also take and post a photo of the board before/after each turn so nobody has to keep the entire map in their head. At the end of each 24 hours, the owner of that role decides on their move and posts their decision. (Obviously if it's a role which involves moving other pawns, get permission first.)

Fair disclosure - I'd be up for playing Season 1 or Season 2, but I have already played once through Season 1 and am aware of the high-level plot twists. I can't say with any confidence that this knowledge would benefit the group on a replay because there are a LOT of variables.

Fair disclosure 2: This could take a REALLY long time. If people aren't up for committing to a Legacy game, standard Pandemic could also be very fun. My gaming partners moved to a different state over the summer, and the local Meetup group plays at inconvenient times...I need a fix!

I'd be up for Pandemic.

Yay Gud! Anyone else?

I've never played it, so I'd need all the low-level explanation, but I'm up for it!

I'd be in for it, nice to be a player for a change. I own Pandemic but not Legacy.

I'm probably more excited than I should be about Critical Role starting their new campaign on Thursday. (Good time to jump in for newbies, BTW, since they're playing on a different continent a generation or two after the end of the previous campaign.)

Also, the group is a giant bunch of dorks (in the best way.) [link]

That will be fun. I got hooked on the first campaign which I'm not done listening to yet.

You'll be happy to know they're planning on trying to release the podcasts of the new episodes about a week after they air (rather than releasing them in giant blocks every so often like they had to do with the first campaign.)