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Never fear... by the time the Age of Worms is finished, there'll be an awful lot revealed about Kyuss and his spawn. What? I can't read the last page first? ;-) May I ask how this particular calamity was chosen to be the next AP? Darts at 100 paces? Something someone in particular always wanted to do? Someone bit into a rotten apple? Just curious. ASEO out
Run something short and sweet like returning to her Druid Master's grove upon hearing of her masters passing to find the grove over run with goblins. Something you can run in an hour or two so that you don't over whelm her. Something in a terrain that favors her character (Druid), and lets her use her druid spells/abilities to their best affect. Something that she can "Win". Especially if she is used to video games. Maybe allow her to have a more powerful than usual animal companion. Just keep it short and simple, and roll the dice behind the screen so that you can fudge them id you need to. New players hate creating a character only to have it get smoked in the first or second encounter. I would not start her off with the Whispering Cairn! To complex, and to deadly, plus you will have to do a lot of work to tweek it so you can run it solo, and a druid is probably not the best character for it anyway. ASEO out
Age of Worms episode 1 took us to the Cairn of the wind dukes, so that the PCs could learn of the weird things in one of the mines via the side quest to recover the bones. Episode 2 took us into the mines to defeat the ebbon triad who think they have something to do with the Age of Worms. Episode 3 takes us to Blackwell keep, where we first encounter spawn worms. Episode 4 and 5 lead to Greyhawk City...? I guess I'm going to have to read the campaign background again. I'm not sure I really have any idea where the whole plot is going...maybe that is how it is suposed to be at this point. ASEO out
Personally, I like the varied oppertunities that multi-classing offers. However, as a DM who uses a lot of published adventures, I have to check each one to see if it requires a pure Cleric or mage of X level to be able to cast a perticular level spell to save the day or overcome the lesser globe of invulnerability or the creatures SR. Or, does it requires a disable device check that can only be made by a straight rogue with disable device maxed out. If those factors are considered, then I say multi class for the creativity. ASEO out
I am not too big a fan of big Dungeon crawls (a recent exception is Whispering Cairn, which I really enjoyed, though perhaps for its non-linear elements). I also like the outdoors and less multimultimulti room areas. I like a couple of sites of great variety and with ony a few "areas" each and with different types of encounters at each. That keeps me entertained. For low level adventures, I love Dungeon Crawls. They are also great for new DMs. I do agree, that they can be plot imapired. I thought that the Whispering Cairn was one of the best ones I've seen a long time. With it's side quests that take the plarty back out of the Dungeon, it was a real treat. I think that is what more Dungeon Crawls need. A variety of encounter terrain along with internal plot twists and character PC interaction. Under ground is fine, as long as there is more than kick down the door and loot. I had fun woth Depths of Rage, where an Earthquake changes the way back out. Lord of the Scarlet Tide was nice as well. I think it is nice when adventures have both location and timed encounters. ASEO out
What is the background of Kyuss, or where can it be found? All I know is that he was a necromancer with a cult following, and that he created worm filled undead that could spawn other undead. I'd like to know more. Was there a DRAGON article on him at one time? Other than the worms in his undead, I don't really see how he fits into the Wind Duke Vs Chaos plot so far in the AoW campaign, although I guess his worms feature in episode 3. ASEO out
The Red Hand of Doom by James Jacobs with Richard Baker An exciting super-adventure that pits heroes agains an army bent on domination. Rampaging hobgoblins and their allies threaten to destroy the realm and all who stand before them. Characters who dare confront the horde soon discover that these particular hobgoblins worship Tiamat, the evil queen of dragons, and eventually come face-to-face with her draconic minions.
128 page softcover, $24.95 This you James Jacobs? If so, care to share any additional details, like level range and that sort of thing? ASEO out
Rumor has it that the adventure will return to the Diamond Lake area in a future installment or two. ASEO out
as a player in the group it can definatly be a downer, Then take it player to player. "The DM puts a lot of work into this game, and you guys leaving early really leaves us holding the bag (having to play your characters and all) and detracts from the whole game." Or just refuse to play their characters in their absence. Or, maybe the whole game takes place in The Matrix, but none of the characters knows that. When the player unplugs, the chaacter just vanishes. Or give out Xp at the end of the session "Must be present to win" ;-) For me I guess I'd rather go with a small consistant group than a large erratic one. ASEO out
Hmmm I can see where late starts and early deaprtures would cramp you game. If you can do it without losing friends I'd say nix those that regulary get less than 3 hours of play in your 4 hour session. Another option is have those who are not around enough to play a PC run the monsters or a perticular villian for you. I've never played a villian as visciously as I've seen them played when I gave a player a chance to run one against the party. This is also good practice for a player aspiring to be a DM. If I recall correctly, you game has a fairly high mortality rate. Maybe if you limit your party to closer to 4 characters, you won't have to beef up the encounters and characters will last longer. That might also save you on prep time. I guess a final option would be to split you group, and play with each set every other week. That way you could possibly adjust the time for those who always have to leave early so that it doesn't impact the other players on those nights. How do your players who can make the whole session feel about those that are time impared? ASEO out
Well this group were the children of the first group of characters that all died in the Tomb of Horrors. When the first party all died, the players immediately rolled up new characters who they claimed were the ofspring of the ones who had just died. Their goal from level one was to gain enough levels to go to the Tomb of Horrors and claim their parent's lost gear. So, after mayn years of adventuring, they finally made their way to the Tomb of Horrors to reclaim what their parents had lost. Fortunately the Sphere stopped grand children characters from being rolled up because there was nothing left to claim. Come to think of it. Every time I've run Tomb of Horrors it has ended in a TPK...and yet the players still come back for more...and get TPKed in the next room...and then in the next room...and again the room after that ;-) ASEO out
The look on the players face when the trap went off must have been priceless. I've heard of curiosity killing the cat, but I've never heard of it killing the PC before. At least, not in such a hilarious way. Like the PC in Erik's playtest that forced the goth shick's hand onto the egg of Earth elemental summoning... The Sphere of Aniliation in the origional Tomb of Horors once ate an entire party I was DMing. They just kept leaping into it like it was some sort of portal. ASEO out
Some of it depends on whether you can afford to lose players. Another thing to discuss with them is the time of game play. Maybe start a bit ealier. I usually run sessions from 2 pm to 8 pm every other saturday. That seems to get the kitchen passes for the dads in the group. Some of it all depends on how often you play and how long, and how fast you want your game to move. It took my group three sessions to play Sunless Citadel, and 5 to do Forge of Fury. If we are doing a play test, We'll sometimes start earlier or play longer, but then we usually take an extra week off to let those that need to accumulate brownie points. We also don't always play the full 6 hours. If we come to a good session finishing point before 8pm, then I end it there, and everyone can use the remaining time to BS, help clean up, or update character sheets. ASEO out
First time in 25 years...luck bastard ;-) Having been DMing in the military community, I am very familiar with erratic schedules amounts my players. Here are some of the things I have done 1. If you have enough players, you can go with the commit to the game or leave. Or maybe have them play a reoccurring "Guest Character". I'm currently doing this with Greg Vaughan in my game. He is able to make a session every now and then. He plays a wandering Bard character that crosses paths with the party (Sometimes in the strangest places, but he is a bit of a crazy character, and always looking for a new tale to tell). He'll adventure with the party for the session, then wander off, or otherwise be worked out of the game at the end of the session. This works fine for a single character/player when you have an otherwise standing party. 2. I ran a campaign once where the PCs were all low level members of an adventure's guild. They even had guild tattoos. Whenever a player missed a session (which with field training and scheduled missions happened fairly frequently) or left a session early, their character would just vanish. "Poof". Only to re appear later (when the player returned). There was the added whole mystery of what was happening to these characters when they were gone, and sometimes (when a player moved away, something fairly common in a military community) the character would never reappear. Sometimes characters would reappear wounded/fully healed/or with some item they didn't have before, and they would always have no memory of the time they were gone. "What the hell is happening" became a continual side plot...What was happening was that higher level guild members had the ability to summon lower level guild members with scrolls and the like to do jobs for them kind of like a summon monster spell. A wizard might summon a fighter to stand watch while he studied spells in a dungeon. A Fighter might summon a thief to pick a lock, or whatever. The summoned character was compelled to do what the higher level guild member commanded. Some of the kinder guild members would heal the PCs or give them some sort of payment, the crueler ones would not. ...Would the PCs eventually figure out what was happening? Would they them selves become higher level guild members with the power to summon underlings...would they embrace that ability or fight against the guilds' abuse of initiates?
3. In my current game, if a player misses a session or has to leave early, they usually just let another player run their character. I have become fairly deft at removing and reinserting PCs into a campaign over the years though so hopefully when I do that it doesn't seem weird in the over-all story. 4. Sometimes I just run a side session with other characters. Players in my campaign each have about 5-7 characters that are at various levels and locations within my campaign world. If I'm down to two players and at a point where that branch of the campaign will suffer because of the lack of attendance, they I'll often just run a side session for the night for a couple of the characters of the players who are there. It is kind of like the non story line episodes on Star Trek or the X-Files. It also lets the players experiment with other characters and keep all their characters close in levels should they want to switch characters between adventures. ASEO out
10. I hear that one of the freaks escaped his cage at the Emporium. Crazy little b@~!#% called “Demon Boy.” Bright red skin, obsessed with fire, you can’t miss ‘im. Word is Shag Solomon will pay 100 pieces of gold to the first one what can turn ‘im in. Erik, Does this mean we will get some stats on the little crimson freak and some details of what he is doing in a game where he is not a hero?Do you plan on having NPCs come after Demon Boy in your game as a random encounter or added plot twist? ASEO out
The cool thing is seeing all the campaign journals, in different styles, with different characters, and from diferent perspectives, but covering the same adventure. I've always been interested in hearing how other games turned out. One thing I love about DMing is the 5th exit principle. Put a party in a room with 4 doors, and they will find a 5th way out of the room. It is that unplanned for aspect of D&D that keeps me hooked. To hear how other DMs handled the various encounters, good/bad dice nights, and added plot twists just further enhances the experience, and I often learn something that improves my game. Everyone playing the same thing at the same time...Priceless ASEO out
All Great ideas. I could see a PC posing as a prostitute to get to the Red Light lantern room...then scenes of the KODT rolling the Johns come to mind... I also think that since in this adventure the goal is to explore the tomb, that the party is likley to go everywhere, even if they have a red lantern and bypass the lower area on the first pass in favor of the the windy hall route. ASEO out
I had a player step out to go to the bathroom, and while he was gone another player played his character. When he returned it was like: Player 1: "So how are things going? What did I miss?"
ASEO out
Cool, I may have to try that. It reminds me of the time my barfing cat hacked on the Chalk board we lay on the table to play. One of my players was in the bathroom when it happened and had just returned to the table.
ASEO out
Does ANYONE have a way to stop the cheesy level loss method of information gathering? In parties of above 12th level, this is virtually foolproof. What is wrong with making a PC burn a bunch of spells (and their componants) to get the information from an NPC...besides if the NPC knows something then there is a good bet that the PCs are supposed to find it out one way or another anyway. If anything I would say that this is a great approach for Good parties to take...althougn maybe it ewuates to magical torture...but still the result is completely recoverable from. Now. for the role playing. What do they do with the prisobner after they gather the information? I guess you could have had the baddie give the info to the NPC via a coded method that required the NPC to make a will save to understand. As the levels are drained, and the Will save goes down, perhapse the NPC is no longer able to remember the coded information. ASEO out
They are not late with the Overload. They are just building the suspense. What showmen! While people wait, I recommend they check out "Order of the Stick" which can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=1 Now you have a Web intermission...Is it free? or is someone going to pay me for this bonus material? Speaking of which, Kyle (The Downer Artist) Web page is still down despite the notice saying it would be back up on the 25th. I want the money I didn't pay for his web page back. Is there no truth in the web anymore?
ASEO out
So that pretty much ended your problem? Or did he have a spare dog in his pocket. You could actually have fun creatively killing of his dog (which should be fairly easy with some area effect spells, or just creatures targeting it) each session. Make sure you know what all his feats are and that you understand the capabilities of each one. That way he can't pull one over on you. I would think that he should be getting a max of one charge per combat. The dungeon could easily have ladders, or caverns that are high enough off the ground that they are unaccessable to the dog. You don't want to make obvious that you are excluding the dog though. But this player has a very one dimentional character, that should be out of his comfort zone in 98% of all encounters. ASEO out
Gift horse..... mouth.... atleast they are keeping us updated... not pulling something like my girlfriend saying "not tonight... I have a headache"... My wife always says "Don't punch a gift horse in the mouth." Which I guess would perhapse a bit more rude than looking a gift horse in the mouth. She also says "The grass on the other side of the fence still has to be mowed"...and something about "Not counting your chinkens while you are still sitting at the table". ASEO out
Which could prove funny (in the evil sence of the word) if a group goes through great length/expense to procure one such lantern and have it not work. It could also be funny to run into an NPC who has a whole collection of the lanters that one of their ansestors procured over the years...This is someone they would of cource meet after having to hunt for the missing lanterns in the Cairn ASEO out
It all depends if you are trying to keep the GH feel. And even in GH, exceptions are the rule. I wouldn't think it would be hard to use either Oriental or Psionic characters/classes. Where you might have problems would be the lack (so far) of specifically psionic items, or oriental weapons. But you could easily change all or some of the weapons to their oriental counterparts if you were running this as an oriental campaign. I know several groups contain a ninja cnaracter of some sort. Also, Oriental classes don't have to necessarily dress in the steriotypical fashion. The Ninja may wear simple traveling clothes, and a Samuari may don platemail and use a Great Sword. Personally I like it when players in my game take the classes out of Oriental adventures...though few usually do. If they do, I give them access to the magic of Riokan (sp?) and other oriental source books. I think the clashing of cultures makes for an interesting roleplaying oppertunity in the game. As for Psionics, I've only had one player take a psionic class, and that was under 3.0. They just don't seem to appeal to my players...or my players aren't familiar enough with the rules, or have the books to play one. ASEO out
I would think the Emporium would be the perfect place for a red lantern to be hanging. True, But you want to make sure it is not something the PCs would have seen before they find the red Lantern in the Cairn...Unless you want to run a "Steal the Lantern from area X" adventure as a home-made insertion into the AP. ASEO out
MREs have gotten pretty good over the years...Although after the second month living on the 24 different meals you get pretty board with them. The old dehydrated pork, beef and potato patties are long gone. We used to chew on them like cheap jerky. Some of the new ones now have the snack "Combos" in them...of course they are labeled as:
We did get one box of Breakfast MREs...Stay away from the Ham and Cheese Omelet ::shudder:: The best thing I ended up with over there was a care package sent from some kind American citizen: 5 lbs of dark chocolate covered Espresso beans...Talk about hog heaven... Packed amongst packages of Wet Wipes and extra socks, they weren’t even melted into a huge blob despite temperatures of over 140. Thank you who ever you were... ASEO out
From the SRD... Whirlwind (Su)
Question 1: It says that creatures witha Fly speed may escape the Whirlwind with a save roll...Does this mean that non flying creatures can not escape? Question 2: If the whirlwind moves into a PCs square, the PC must save vs damage, and save vs being picked up. If the PC gets picked up, then the Whirlwind can eject the PC "Whenever" it wants. Does the PC just get spun out of the Whirlwind and left in the last square the Whirlwind left, or the square it is in? Question 3: Can the Whirlwind eject the PC from a height so that the PC takes falling damage based on the height of the Whirlwind? Question 4: If a PC is ejected from the Whirlwind in the same turn that the Whirlwind picked up the PC, can the Whirlwind (Perfect fly 60 ft) re-enter the PCs square and force them to make the two saves again? Possibbly picking them up and ejecting them again? Question 5: If A whirlwind is killed, do the PCs it was carring fall for damage? ASEO out
I agree this should basically only work in combat where the foe is spotted at long range in open terrain…something fairly rare in most published adventures. Also, this character is built only for this single attack, which may be great if you are playing a mounted warfare campaign. Against a Flying foe…something fairly common in outdoor adventures, this character is worthless…unless the dog can fly. Also if the character’s foes are grouped together, he may be subject to a bunch of counter attacks and weapons set vs charge. Thrown in spells, and this guy is meat. So let him do massive damage to a single creature…if the ground is flat, the range of combat is in his advantage, and the other factors are in his favor. If you game takes place on the Russian Stepps then this should be fine.
ASEO out
Jolly Ranchers as Dire Rats...You got to eat your kills. Also I've uses bullet casings when playing in Iraq. 9mm for small creatures, M-14/16 or Ak-47 for medium creatures, SAW or M-60 for Large. One player used a .50 cal tracer round as his Barbarian. Grenade rings made decient orcs. Another character used one of the mini Tobassco bottles out of an MRE as his Rogue. A kevlar helmet once made a high and very steep hill. The Rogue Character used a piece of broken marble from Udai's palace as his mount. Oh the joys of playing D&D in a combat zone. Silly Putty also makes good slimes/oozes and puddings ASEO out
I like that as well. I hope it is something that the other authors in the series take up. Just something like an Easter Egg for observent characters to pick up on. Maybe one hangs outside a tavern in The Free City of Greyhawk, or, like the first poster mentioned, Allustan has one...maybe after the party has found the red lantern in the tomb, they learn that he had a red lantern from the tomb in his hut all along... "Damn, Why didn't you tell us you had a red lantern from the Whispering Cairn? "You never asked" ASEO out
Yeah, my ninja only died 2 or 3 times during the playtest...I cant wait to see how Vyth fairs...This should be funny. ASEO out
I had a character that baught a Bag of tricks, that he thought he could feed from. He then discovered that the creatures vanished when they died...so he tried to knock them out and eat them alive... He always complained that it was like Chinese Food... "Well I ate a whole Badger an hour ago, but suddenly I'm hungry again." Now he is trying to see if he can get some spell that will make the creatures perminant. The Bag has had some other uses as well. "How deep you think that hole is?"
"What will happen if the beam of light touches us?"
"One diversion coming up. I drop a...woodchuck down the chimney." And there is always the popular "I throw a....um...an armadillo at the ogre" ... "What? My character has an 18 Strength. That should at least do _some_ damage". Another party caught without food considered trying to summon a creature and then eat it..."OH oh oh, Summon the Dire Squid. I feel like Seafood tonight!" ASEO out
In my playtest of episode 6, one of the characters was playing a ninja as well (Legend of the Samurai version). He was having a bit of a problem with the character type as well. After setting off every trap he came across, one of the other characters made the statement. “Dude! What are you? Like the worst Ninja ever?” To which he responded, “Have you never heard of Vyth?” ASEO out
I guess I can do a dire panda next. Lol
I thought that was a strange huge creature to make...Of course I have a 5 year-old son who has a Bizillion plastic Dinosaurs. Any time I feel like running a "Land of the Lost" adventure I just raid his toy bin. I'll admit though, the Behir is an awesome figure. I've been using the "Cavern Crawler" from Reaper as a Behir in my games...A la Lord of the Crimson Tide, But I'd love to get hold of the D&D Behir mini...for less than the $30+ I've seen it for online. Heck, the metal "Cavern Crawler" was only $15, and I'm a fairly good painter. I did manage to pick up a Grell as a single for $2. That’s a nice figure…I still laugh at the picture of the Grell in RtToEE. That sucker is Gargantuan. I also think the D&D plastic Grik is better than the D&D metal Grik. I've also found a place here in OKC that sells Mage Knight figures for $.50. I now use several of those in my game, and at that price, I can cut parts off of them to customize my metal figures if I want. I also tend to modify the D&D mini's that I buy as singles. I've never been a fan of having 10 identical Grimlock figures. A bit of Superglue jell, and I've swapped weapons with Mountain Orcs (I got a ton of these when I DMed at World Game day...The place I was running the game got like two extra shipments) Troglodytes, and used the extra weapons from War Hammer’s Mordheim sets. I also repaint figures so that each one is a little different. Someone was telling me that you can heat the figures in hot water, bend them and freeze them to create different poses. And that they will hold the new pose when they thaw. Anybody ever tried that? ASEO out ASEO out
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