The Chronicles of Thraxx – Episode 0-2 – An Odd Beginning

Written by Flamereptile

Written: 12/29/25

The Chronicles of Thraxx – Episode 0-2 – An Odd Beginning

Having (happily) put myself in the position of forever GM, I am often reminded that I have far, far more play time as a GM than I do as an actual player, and I yearn to play on occasion. It was only a few weeks ago I called a few of my local game stores to see when their open play nights for TTRPGs were. After running games at one store, now a bit too far of a drive to consistently go there, I was weary of the… characters that might be running the games.

Episode 0 – Not Where I Wanted to Start

Weary or not, I was given a time, date, and phone number for a fellow that was running a game that next Monday. I was anxious to hop in but also excited at the prospects of playing.

Now, you need to remember while reading this, I’ve been running games consistently for over a decade now as the GM. I have developed over that time a perception of the kind of game I might like to play in, whether it’s true or not, and expectations for what should happen before, during, and after you’re at the table.

When I reached out to this GM I was left a little confused and unsure. He said we would be playtesting the 2024 Edition, and playing RAW. Now I’ve skimmed the 2024 books, and listened to countless hours of commentary on them, leaving me unimpressed at best and a bit disappointed at worst. Our home games haven’t switched over, and we were unlikely to do so.

I wanted to play a Minotaur, and that was 86’d immediately. Seemed a little silly, but it was what it was. He also gave us the setting: the Doomed Forgotten Realms – the setting that happens if the players fail every 5th Edition adventure there is. A neat concept, but I was unsure how it would work. Finally, we were starting at 12th level.

Now there were some hangups while creating my character: poor, inconsistent answers in the chat, seemingly strict rules, and what was the worst: being told that at 12th level I wouldn’t be able to take any magic items because my character hadn’t earned them. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to go and play, but I figured I’d give it one game at least.

I rolled up an Orc named Thraxx. A proud Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue from a hunter/warrior culture. I wrote a whole system for gaining and losing honor while on the hunt, developed the bones of his whole culture, and wrote a neat little backstory for him… all to maybe play one game with these people and decided it wasn’t for me. I did eventually get to pick some magic items, and since I was told that the GM would be running difficult encounters I chose to boost my AC to the max while also giving myself some real damage making capabilities.

Thraxx was ready, and I was reluctant, but we were going to play anyway.

Episode 1 – An Amazing Surprise (12/15/25)

Now, I kind of hope that this GM doesn’t read this blog, at least the Episode 0 part, because it’s all uphill from here.

I arrived about half an hour early to the game that first night, hoping to claim a nice seat and maybe meet the GM and players before we start. I was pleasantly surprised to meet the GM, a really nice and enthusiastic guy who was eager to get me started. He was walking me through the whole of the game, how they played, and what they were doing with the gusto of somebody truly passionate about what they were doing.

Thraxx joined this party of odd ducks in the middle of a colosseum battle. At level 12, four of us fought a Dragon Turtle and a Dracolich, neither of which Thraxx would deliver the final blows to, preventing him from taking trophies. But that wasn’t the point… yet. I was having a crazy amount of fun! I hadn’t had fun like this as a player for… well nearly a decade when I was first drawn in to TTRPGs!

After these tough battles, the god of Orcs, saddled in his sleight pulled by two flaming boars, began to fly over the colosseum, throwing celebratory Christmas battleaxes to all the good orcs below. This was my time to see what I could really do in this game. What I could get away with.

I positioned Thraxx atop an outcropping, holding his Action to rip this “gOd Of OrCs” from his sleight and assert dominance. To my surprise, he did it. Through a few good rolls, Thraxx ripped him from his sleigh, slammed him to the ground, and tore his head asunder as a trophy. Brutal and maybe a little excessive? Yeah, but I was testing some bounds. And to my amazement, the table erupted in excitement, laughter and cheers! Thraxx would bring a new dynamic to the party, one a little more serious and a lot more brutal, but a nice dichotomy to the silliness already there.

I talked with the GM a bit after the game, thanked him for running it, and listened to his excitement about me joining and having Thraxx in the party. It felt good, and I’m thankful to have been included. I departed that night with dreams of brutality, and fantasy fondness.

Episode 2 – A Return to Excitement (12/22/25)

Surely lightning couldn’t strike twice, right? Wrong.

I arrived at the game the next week, skeptical that I would have as much fun for a second week in a row. Surely it was a fluke, right? Wrong again.

We started the session by finding out that the “gOd Of OrCs” Thraxx slew was the leader of the Orcs that patroned the colosseum, and they were in need of new leadership. Thraxx made a power move to start the game, slaying  a mammoth that was the symbol of their old, weak regime. They were dumbstruck, but fell in line.

Well that was fun. What’s next? We were given a quest with promises of greater foes for Thraxx to fight… he was in. We flew upon the party’s Roc to complete a sort of fetch quest. Go here, get a guy, find out his interplanar travel visa was rejected, promise to get it fixed for him… a little odd, but fun nonetheless.

We took a portal to the home of a fey queen, which was stuck in a time stop spell. We bypassed the strange guards, fed a fat giant with some big cake, and entered into a fight with a Jabberwocky.

Now the last week we fought a Dragon Turtle and a Dracolich, and not once did Thraxx feel threatened. He had a Cloak of Displacement and a 24 AC, so why would he? But during this Jabberwocky fight, which used the 2024 stat of an Ancient Black Dragon with a few of the Jabberwocky abilities from another book, it was different. By the end Thraxx was drained. He’d hit 0 and barely survived because of his Relentless Endurance. He’d been charmed and confused and felt a bit hopeless during much of the fight (stupid burble ability).

Honestly, the whole party was doing rough. We nearly TPK’d! But it was great! The stakes were high, our blood was pumping, all good things!

But there was one moment where it all changed for the better. Thraxx broke his burble (really it just wandered a little too far away) and used his Horn of Blasting to deafen it, freeing the party of its nasty ability. We made short work of it after that, but Thraxx (and I) felt like a hero! It was super fun, and one of the most memorable battles I’ve ever played. I even got to use a cheesy line like, “Thraxx isn’t trapped in here with you! You’re trapped in here with Thraxx!”

After the big battle a few clowns, I mean…, troublemakers walked in. A cleric, a mage, and a warrior, old names from old books. The smarted off to our nearly dead party, but seemed to not know that Thraxx was always rearing for a battle, and even while on death’s door he was hard to hit. While the party healed up, Thraxx claimed three new skulls for his belt. Even this little side fight was memorable.

We ended the game there, and I was met with the same kind of enthusiasm as the week prior. I thanked the GM again, wished everybody Merry Christmas, and went home, looking forward to what next week would hold.

Retrospective: Now, I’m writing this all in retrospective. It all happened a few weeks ago for me, and I’m checking my notes again before writing about it, but these are easily some of the most fun TTRPG games I’ve ever been a player in. I’m so grateful to have been able to find this group, to be able to play with them, and to look forward to playing with them. I’m still happily a forever GM, but it’s nice to be able to be a player as well.

Thank you again to the GM for running the games. I look forward to next week’s game, and to writing about how much fun they are. Until next time, thank you for reading.