Things I Learned Running a High-Level Drow Game

Friday, April 23, 2010

Wednesday night we finished session #3 of Exiles of Zirnakaynin, my high-level, all-evil, all-drow-noble campaign. This session started with getting James Jacobs and Rob McCreary caught up to the rest of the group, as they missed session #2 due to bad cases of the sicky sickies. Once sisters Alivorah (James) and Ylvirixna (Rob) reached the pleasure-haven drow city of Far Parathra, they were attacked by mysterious creatures that crawled out of the angles formed by the walls and floors of their hotel rooms. Similar creatures attacked the rest of the PCs at the end of session #2, and most of Wednesday's game involved six individual, simultaneous battles against these creatures, as all the PCs had split up for the night.

Things I learned in last night's session include:

  • Even a creature of the Mythos can succumb to a baleful polymorph if you try enough times (ook ook!).
  • Remembering you have Combat Casting can be the difference between successfully casting a ground-zero flame strike and eye-rolling failure.
  • 14th-level fighters and inquisitors can deal a horrendous amount of damage in one round.
  • Fast zombies make fine litter-bearers but poor obstacles against CR 9 opponents.
  • Letting a demon possess a PC sometimes means the PC goes crazy and destroys her sister's undead lackeys.

All photos copyright Joshua Frost Photography © 2010

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Chronicles

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Tags: Darklands Drow Exiles of Zirnakaynin Lovecraft Miniatures Monsters Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Playtest
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Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So ... you guys were having fun ... regular, normal fun ... with monkeys. I want to work at Paizo !

Contributor

And booze! Don't forget about the booze. Though Comrade McCreary is always at least a little buzzed.

(Paizo Publishing does not endorse drinking and gaming or any form of inebriated die rolling. Game responsibly.)


Looks like Jodi likes her coffee, too!


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

And booze! Don't forget about the booze. Though Comrade McCreary is always at least a little buzzed.

(Paizo Publishing does not endorse drinking and gaming or any form of inebriated die rolling. Game responsibly.)

I'd fear for the others at the gaming table if I had a bottle of Guinness in front of me... Bad Irish accents would be inevitable. Oi.

Contributor

Evil Genius wrote:
I'd fear for the others at the gaming table if I had a bottle of Guinness in front of me... Bad Irish accents would be inevitable. Oi.

Rob TOTALLY, absolutely really has one of those too. You don't get the "Mc" prefix on your name just for being the 1,000th customer at McDonalds. At least, that's not the only way.


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
You don't get the "Mc" prefix on your name just for being the 1,000th customer at McDonalds. At least, that's not the only way.

Do tell.


I think I'm wearing the long-sleeved version of the Italia shirt that Sean is wearing (assuming Sean is sitting at the end of the table). Viva Italia!


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Evil Genius wrote:
I'd fear for the others at the gaming table if I had a bottle of Guinness in front of me... Bad Irish accents would be inevitable. Oi.
Rob TOTALLY, absolutely really has one of those too. You don't get the "Mc" prefix on your name just for being the 1,000th customer at McDonalds. At least, that's not the only way.

Insert obligatory "Mc/Mac is Scots, and O' is Irish" reminder here. ;)


jemstone wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Evil Genius wrote:
I'd fear for the others at the gaming table if I had a bottle of Guinness in front of me... Bad Irish accents would be inevitable. Oi.
Rob TOTALLY, absolutely really has one of those too. You don't get the "Mc" prefix on your name just for being the 1,000th customer at McDonalds. At least, that's not the only way.
Insert obligatory "Mc/Mac is Scots, and O' is Irish" reminder here. ;)

Nope, Mc/Mac is Irish, just the north have of the country. As are kilts.

It makes me sad that Irish kilts disappeared, I'd love to have known what my family's one was.

And wow, I love the paizo office games! They always fire my imagination.

Super Genius Games

Dosgamer wrote:
I think I'm wearing the long-sleeved version of the Italia shirt that Sean is wearing (assuming Sean is sitting at the end of the table). Viva Italia!

Yep, that's Sean. And boy does he love his Starbucks.... :D

Hyrum.
Super Genius Games
"We err on the side of awesome."


vagrant-poet wrote:
jemstone wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Evil Genius wrote:
I'd fear for the others at the gaming table if I had a bottle of Guinness in front of me... Bad Irish accents would be inevitable. Oi.
Rob TOTALLY, absolutely really has one of those too. You don't get the "Mc" prefix on your name just for being the 1,000th customer at McDonalds. At least, that's not the only way.
Insert obligatory "Mc/Mac is Scots, and O' is Irish" reminder here. ;)

Nope, Mc/Mac is Irish, just the north have of the country. As are kilts.

It makes me sad that Irish kilts disappeared, I'd love to have known what my family's one was.

And wow, I love the paizo office games! They always fire my imagination.

Before we go way off topic, Northern Ireland was occupied by the Scottish Lords sent over to Ireland to ride herd over the Irish by the British.

Which is why Mc/Mac is present there, but not in the southern 2/3 of the country. We both win on technicality. ;)

That said... I wonder if Paizo still has the resume I sent them many years back shortly after they got spun out...

Doubt it. ;)


Do we have an official PF drow?

What do you guys use for your game?


We made drow nobles and added class levels.


jemstone wrote:

Before we go way off topic, Northern Ireland was occupied by the Scottish Lords sent over to Ireland to ride herd over the Irish by the British.

Which is why Mc/Mac is present there, but not in the southern 2/3 of the country. We both win on technicality. ;)

No, no, mac is actaully much older than that, its actually derived from the Irish word for son, which is 'mac'.

It's much older than england ruling Ireland, not that alot of Mac families in northern Ireland aren't of Scottish descent, but the word and its surname appelation is Irish, just like most of the genes of Scottish people who aren't Picts, i.e. most of them. That's why you'll find red hair in Scotland, red hair = Irish ancestry in Europe.

I'm Irish, I've learned this as I go along, I'm fairly sure its in Stephen Fry's really good QI book, the kilts thing is anyway. But yeah, Mac, O, Ní, and most Scottish clan names are Irish originally.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

KenderKin wrote:

Do we have an official PF drow?

What do you guys use for your game?

Yup; as Josh says, we're playing drow nobles. They (and the less powerful "standard" drow) are in the Pathfinder Bestiary.

As it turns out, if everyone plays the same race, then balance is hardly an issue. The GM can adjust the game as he needs to challenge any type of character, but it's easier when all of the player characters have a similar baseline of powers. All of the core races have that similar baseline. If you run a game where everyone's playing drow (as in this case), you STILL have a similar baseline (in fact, it's an even EASIER baseline to account for as a GM since you only have one race to deal with).

The only real problem comes when you have a discordant mix of races in a single party so that the power curve between players is so ridiculous that an encounter balanced for one player character is either a pushover for another or an auto kill. A situation where you have a human, a drow, a minotaur, an awakened tiger, and a rakshasa is a great example of how mixing monster races in a party is a terrible idea.


James Jacobs wrote:


As it turns out, if everyone plays the same race, then balance is hardly an issue. The GM can adjust the game as he needs to challenge any type of character, but it's easier when all of the player characters have a similar baseline of powers. All of the core races have that similar baseline. If you run a game where everyone's playing drow (as in this case), you STILL have a similar baseline (in fact, it's an even EASIER baseline to account for as a GM since you only have one race to deal with).

The same-race party is something I'm planning for my next campaign after Kingmaker. It's going to be based on Dwarf Fortress and involve a bunch of dwarves going on and establishing a fort using your kingdom rules (of course!) but altered a bit for cities built in mined-out tunnels and dangerous caverns. I can't wait to see the interactions & differences between the various dwarf characters. I imagine the intrigue amongst an all-drow party must be quite intense.

Anyways, all the talk about Irish v Scottish reminded me about another less serious, Irish related thing at my game table. There's a long standing, unwritten rule in my gaming group that involves players with Irish blood (which turned out to be over half of my players) having a special once-per-session reroll power, but they can only affect other people's rolls. Of course it all evolved out of a situation where one player was rolling poorly and I had to help him somehow, but now everyone's always begging each other for the luck o' the Irish when their dice become cursed...

Dark Archive

yoda8myhead wrote:
Looks like Jodi likes her coffee, too!

Like is an understatement!!! :o) I believe one was a coffee and the other was a Dark Cherry Mocha. But could have quite possibly been an Americano as well. Yum! I had also drank a couple Guinness (Or "Guinnei and Crystal and I started referring to it as).

And to respond to the "Remembering you have combat casting..." Comment...That was me. LOL! I'm a 14th level EVILLLLLLLL Priestess! It's awesome. I actually know for a FACT why I never liked playing clerics in other games--because they weren't evil! My character in this campaign, Verandia, is evil and can do the whole awesome negative energy channeling (selective of course)...it does a pretty good hit of damage! Flame Strike and Harm are turning up to be my favorites especially because Harm is at least 70 points of damage when they save for half! Woo! :o) My character is just starting to get into doing some Scrying as well, which is REALLY turning out to be something I like. It's her thing, and yes Rob I have all the components. LOL!

Spoiler:
And now I'm going to cast, "McGlitterdust!" ;o)

One thing I will say about this past session is that I truly would have liked to witness Josh's character creating a pet monkey. HEH!


vagrant-poet wrote:
jemstone wrote:

Before we go way off topic, Northern Ireland was occupied by the Scottish Lords sent over to Ireland to ride herd over the Irish by the British.

Which is why Mc/Mac is present there, but not in the southern 2/3 of the country. We both win on technicality. ;)

No, no, mac is actaully much older than that, its actually derived from the Irish word for son, which is 'mac'.

It's much older than england ruling Ireland, not that alot of Mac families in northern Ireland aren't of Scottish descent, but the word and its surname appelation is Irish, just like most of the genes of Scottish people who aren't Picts, i.e. most of them. That's why you'll find red hair in Scotland, red hair = Irish ancestry in Europe.

I'm Irish, I've learned this as I go along, I'm fairly sure its in Stephen Fry's really good QI book, the kilts thing is anyway. But yeah, Mac, O, Ní, and most Scottish clan names are Irish originally.

I'm Irish, as well, and got my history from my Grandfather and my Great-Grandfather, so I suppose they could have been biased against what they still viewed as an occupation, but you make good points. I'll go revisit my history books.

Back on topic, though, the Pathfinder game that I'm in with my best friend (which has stopped due to the GM having a life-crisis after his mom died), is in fact an all-Drow (non-Noble) game. There is no balance issue, unless you count the fact that it's also a Spelljammer game and we have to deal with psychotic Neogi Sorcerer's with the nastiest bloodline combinations in their clans possible. Eugh.


@jemstone: Yeah, that was pretty off-topic. Did you do much ancient irish history in Primary school? Where are you from in Ireland? I don't see many Irish people on here and I'm always excited when I do!


Hey, is that the game Tim is playing Phyxafein Azrinae? If so, my little ole character sheet is somewhere on that table! He's the first person trying out my Inquisitor automation with a mix of Drow and Assassin...


vagrant-poet wrote:
@jemstone: Yeah, that was pretty off-topic. Did you do much ancient irish history in Primary school? Where are you from in Ireland? I don't see many Irish people on here and I'm always excited when I do!

Third generation on my dad's side to be born in this country. Spent ages in high school and college learning up on things with the intent of becoming a history teacher.

Instead I ended up working for Yahoo and writing RPG's in my spare time for fun but no profit.

Feel free to hit me up on my profile's e-mail addy. Until these boards support Private Messages, that's the best we can do, lest we continue kludging up topics. :D

One of the interesting things in the All-Drow PFRPG game we're in is that we're still dealing with Anti-Drow prejudice - doesn't matter that OUR world was fostered by the Moon Maiden, every OTHER Drow in the cosmos worships Lolth and therefore we are pretty much shot at on sight. It's made for some pretty tense diplomatic roleplaying, since not every NPC in the universe is immediately nice and trusting with us.

Kinda nice.

Sovereign Court Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder

erian_7 wrote:
Hey, is that the game Tim is playing Phyxafein Azrinae? If so, my little ole character sheet is somewhere on that table! He's the first person trying out my Inquisitor automation with a mix of Drow and Assassin...

Indeed it is! And the character sheet is pretty slick, along with those nifty spell cards from Perram's Spellbook.

Amazing what a combo of Greater Invisibility, sneak attack, the inquisitor's Bane and Judgement of Destruction, plus the feat Vital Strike can do to slay heathens. Damage to the tune of 50-60 pts per round ain't too shabby!

Sovereign Court Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder

Evil Genius wrote:
I imagine the intrigue amongst an all-drow party must be quite intense.

Heh....you could say that.... ;-)

Since I'm channeling the essence of Robert McCall (the Equalizer) for roleplaying Phyxafein....

I. CAN. BE. VERY! INTENSE!


Timitius wrote:

Indeed it is! And the character sheet is pretty slick, along with those nifty spell cards from Perram's Spellbook.

Amazing what a combo of Greater Invisibility, sneak attack, the inquisitor's Bane and Judgement of Destruction, plus the feat Vital Strike can do to slay heathens. Damage to the tune of 50-60 pts per round ain't too shabby!

Cool! It's neat to see my small contribution to the game gracing such a table, I must say. I told my wife how geeked I was that the sheet was actually seeing play time in a game with SKR, James, et. al. She laughed at me, of course...but then she gave me some affirmation (as a converted gamer wife, she appreciates the game, but not as much of the lore).

Perram's Spellbook is definitely good stuff. I was fretting over how best to integrate a "spell book" function into my sheet, but for now I'm just going to point folks his way.

I'm wrapping up the eidolon automation now and that'll finish up the APG classes. It's good to hear the Inquisitor is working properly in dealing out death to the infidels!

Sovereign Court Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder

erian_7 wrote:
Cool! It's neat to see my small contribution to the game gracing such a table, I must say. I told my wife how geeked I was that the sheet was actually seeing play time in a game with SKR, James, et. al. She laughed at me, of course...but then she gave me some affirmation (as a converted gamer wife, she appreciates the game, but not as much of the lore).

That's not the only game where your sheet is used. Same table, though. I have been using it for Howell in the Shadow under Sandpoint campaign James runs, as well.

Good stuff, man!


Mmmmm, Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha...
No, no, no. Must...stick...to...skinny...vanilla...latte...

Sovereign Court

Oooooh, 3D terrain on the map, that looks awesome! Where'd those hills come from? Are they gridded?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Morgen wrote:
Oooooh, 3D terrain on the map, that looks awesome! Where'd those hills come from? Are they gridded?

They came from Sean's oven, actually. They're brownies.

Maybe.

Sovereign Court

I'm going to roll my saving through versus illusions, I disbelieve that!

Contributor

I used a hot wire foam cutter to build those hills. Mounted on MDF for strength and stability. Painted with dark brown acrylic paint (mixed with sand, for texture), then drybrushed with a lighter brown, then some spots of neon green and glow-in-the-dark paint to represent phosphorescent fungi (and so they shine in the black light!). I have a hex grid spray template for them but I haven't used it yet.

Not too hard to make, really. I'll do a tutorial at some point. I have five large quarter-circles (one of which is visible in the pic) and four ovoid pieces (all of which are visible in the pic), which gives me a lot of options for building areas, including multilevel stuff.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

I used a hot wire foam cutter to build those hills. Mounted on MDF for strength and stability. Painted with dark brown acrylic paint (mixed with sand, for texture), then drybrushed with a lighter brown, then some spots of neon green and glow-in-the-dark paint to represent phosphorescent fungi (and so they shine in the black light!). I have a hex grid spray template for them but I haven't used it yet.

Not too hard to make, really. I'll do a tutorial at some point. I have five large quarter-circles (one of which is visible in the pic) and four ovoid pieces (all of which are visible in the pic), which gives me a lot of options for building areas, including multilevel stuff.

You mean... they're not brownies?

Aw man... I think I owe you an apology once I get out of the hospital then.


James Jacobs wrote:
You mean... they're not brownies?

They're cakes! Delicious poison cakes!


Paizo comes correct with the beverages!

Dark Archive

Joshua J. Frost wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
You mean... they're not brownies?
They're cakes! Delicious poison cakes!

Whatever you all do, do not get in the way of Josh and his personal stash of cookies...it may just be the last thing you do!!! ;o)

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
Morgen wrote:
Oooooh, 3D terrain on the map, that looks awesome! Where'd those hills come from? Are they gridded?

They came from Sean's oven, actually. They're brownies.

Maybe.

I call them brownies because I have a hard time not relating things to food, especially brownies... I love sugar. LOL

Dark Archive

Dosgamer wrote:

Mmmmm, Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha...

No, no, no. Must...stick...to...skinny...vanilla...latte...

HAH HAH!!! Sound like me!

But at least the skinny lattes are good... have you tried their skinny caramel?

Dark Archive

erian_7 wrote:
Timitius wrote:

Indeed it is! And the character sheet is pretty slick, along with those nifty spell cards from Perram's Spellbook.

Amazing what a combo of Greater Invisibility, sneak attack, the inquisitor's Bane and Judgement of Destruction, plus the feat Vital Strike can do to slay heathens. Damage to the tune of 50-60 pts per round ain't too shabby!

Cool! It's neat to see my small contribution to the game gracing such a table, I must say. I told my wife how geeked I was that the sheet was actually seeing play time in a game with SKR, James, et. al. She laughed at me, of course...but then she gave me some affirmation (as a converted gamer wife, she appreciates the game, but not as much of the lore).

Perram's Spellbook is definitely good stuff. I was fretting over how best to integrate a "spell book" function into my sheet, but for now I'm just going to point folks his way.

I'm wrapping up the eidolon automation now and that'll finish up the APG classes. It's good to hear the Inquisitor is working properly in dealing out death to the infidels!

Tim showed me that sheet and it's pretty darn good!!!


Jodi Lane wrote:
Whatever you all do, do not get in the way of Josh and his personal stash of cookies...it may just be the last thing you do!!! ;o)

Hey! I shared my cookies.

I'll cherish the left hand I took from all of you, but I shared!!

Contributor

I didn't get any cookies. :(

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
I didn't get any cookies. :(

They had nuts in them.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Shesh, Frost. Rolling into a game with cookies you *know* the GM can't have? For shame! ;)

Edit: Oh, nevermind. I assumed poorly. :)

Contributor

Unless they have meat or bee stings in them, I can eat cookies.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Unless they have meat or bee stings in them, I can eat cookies.

Are you allergic to meat, or did you swear off of bees?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Unless they have meat or bee stings in them, I can eat cookies.

Nuts can be meat. Depending on the kind.

The Exchange

You guys have some awesome game tiles. I've never even played in a game with game tiles.

Sovereign Court Wayfinder, PaizoCon Founder

Things I learned in a Paizo Blog about things learned running a high-level drow game:

You can be a Mac, Mc, O', and a couple other things, and be Irish, a Scot decended from Irish, or just a Scot.

People like Starbucks Cherry Mocha. And Guinness beer. Dark stuff you drink is good.

Erian_7 makes a sweet character sheet builder.

Large items on a table that appear to be cakes or baked goods, but are not, still cause people to want to eat them.

Cookies can be shared with vegan GMs, unless the conversation invariably turns to what kinds of nuts have meat. Then everyone gets a bit uncomfortable.

Super Genius Games

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Unless they have meat or bee stings in them, I can eat cookies.

Or vegetables. Can't eat vegetable cookies either. :P

Hyrum.

Sovereign Court

Mmmmm. Meat cookies.

And Things I Learned Playing a High-Level Drow Game?

Elven zombie handmaidens don't stand up well against hounds of Tindalos, but bloody skeletal bone devil bodyguards do all right.

Don't leave your elven zombie handmaidens where your demon-possessed sister (I'm looking at you, James Jacobs!) can get at them.

Losing all four of your elven zombie handmaidens to a hound of Tindalos and your demon-possessed sister is a surprisingly emotional experience.

People that talk (and act) like the Monarch really need a Dr. Girlfriend to keep them in check.

Dark Archive

Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Unless they have meat or bee stings in them, I can eat cookies.

Bee sting meat cookies ...mmmm.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
I didn't get any cookies. :(

They knife was available for use. You needed to simply remove your left hand and give it to me and the pecan-walnut-chocolate chip awesome was all yours.

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