#RPGaDay2021 - Day 3 - The Tactics of Falgor the Mighty

Day 3 of #RPGaDay, and the big word is TACTIC. 

I know D&D evolved from wargaming, I know I myself have tried to make minis a regular thing in the 20th Century, I know that's it's a regular part of the game for the last 20 years.  

But dammit, it makes the game too damn easy.  

Prior to our 5e online game on Monday nights,  I had basically gone on retirement from D&D since the onset of 3rd Edition. Other games piqued my interest, we all didn't have enough time to invest in consistent gaming session, and I certainly didn't have enough time to prep everything.   Rather, I focused much more time to historical wargaming.  That much attention to tactics made a occasional return to D&D much too easy.  It came to a head with my only time playing 4e.

Jumping into a game with my college roommate Steve and his high school friends.  We were all trying 4e for the first time, and as is tradition, I picked a generic fighter.    

It was some scenario involving gothic ruins, goblins, and a couple orcs with bows as the big bads.  For a group of casual and newbie gamers, this was more than enough, but for me, some Beautiful Mind style calculations kicked in on turn three, and I made some sort of flanking maneuver that not not negated any advantage the enemy had, but everyone felt like I was playing some cinematic ninja.  

The Hangover scene is a far better representation than A Beautiful Mind

For our 5e game, I was handed a elf barbarian with a basic backstory, Falgor the Mighty.  As he rose in level, I focused on a shock and awe style, keeping a careful eye to where the cleric was.  Once I reached both Primal Path additions, I went with Animal Totem: Elk, and the made things insane.  

Increasing my movement converted me from a tank to some GI Joe support vehicles, with missiles, lasers, and shit.   I was wading through hordes, disrupting any of their own tactics, and ending up on the rear flank.  It was pretty dope.  

Before the game was put on hiatus, my worst action was done while out skyship was docked with another one.  

Realizing that the other crew was minutes from initiating an attack, our party started to get into position.  Checking my movement and special abilities, I took a deep breath, pondered whispering "Leee-roy Jenkins!",  dashed across the gangway to the two guards, hacked one, pushed the other overboard to surprise everyone.  Winning the first formal round of initiative, my objective was the high ground: the crow's nest.  I know we probably missed some sort of movement rule, but even with getting slowed down by the rope ladder I managed to scale the mast before anyone could sound the alarm.  A crazed elf barbarian and a plummeting crew member was enough a distraction to allow the others to come over with tactical advantage.