Fang's page

For the past few years we've been using plexiglass over our battlemats and maps. It works great. You can use sharpies on it and the ink comes off with rubbing alcohol (91% works much better than the 70%), or you can use dry-erase and take it off with a paper towel. I have half a dozen sheets of plexi so I can draw up dungeon maps a couple of weeks ahead of time and they don't smear, even if the kids are messing with them.

--Fang

I used to do training, but as mentioned above, it becomes a real pain if you're on a multi-level-spanning adventure far from civilization. My players level as they earn xp--however, once they hit that magic number, they have to rest first (the normal 8 hour sleep period). At the beginning of each gaming session, I hand out an xp log that shows them where they are at. If they are getting close to the next level, I'll tell them that night to have their next level character sheets ready for the next session--that gives them a week to work on them, and prevents us taking a couple of hours out of the session for everyone to level up.

--Fang

Name: Demet
Race: Human
Class: gestalt fighter/rogue
Level: 11
Adventure: Shackled City, Test of the Smoking Eye
Circumstances: miserably failed Fort save when Myaruk the lich cast slay living on him

My brother was two minutes away from getting on that bridge on his way home last night. That is way too close.

--Fang

I own both CC3 and Dunjinni, and what's been said so far is right on. Dunjinni is pretty slow, even on a fast computer, but you can do some pretty nice stuff with it right out of the box. The learning curve for CC3 is much steeper, but you can do a lot more with it. For cities, CC3 is definitely superior.

--Fang

What helped me more than the DMG was having our group's previous DM playing while I was DM-ing. He was quite open to me taking him aside and saying, "Okay, what do I do with this?" or "How would you rule on this?" Now, after a year of DM-ing every Friday night and every other Sunday, I rarely have to ask him anything.

I also really liked DMG II. Lots of good ideas there.

--Fang

My Friday night group call themselves The Brotherhood of the Mask, after finding all those cool masks in the costume/prop room in Jzadirune. My Sunday group has only just begun Drakthar's Way, and haven't officially agreed upon a name, although the insufferable knight, Lord Algernon, has been referring to them as his squires, and for lack of anything else to call them, the Cauldron Chronicle has been referring to them as Lord Algernon and his Squires...much to the disgust/dismay of the rest of the group!

--Fang

Like Festivus, I also have two kids at home that take up a lot of my time. The APs have been a huge help. Our group loves them. We've been playing the "cobbled together" type campaigns for years now, and it's great to have a continuing story-line running without me having to devote hours and hours a week to it.

Bring on the APs!

--Fang

One thing I found helpful in adding flavor to the adventure was to have an in-game newspaper. When I want to drop a hint, or even plant one of the rumors from the list at the beginning of the hardcover, I do it up as an article in the Cauldron Chronicle. Every few game days, a new issue comes out. Some of the later issues have even featured aticles about the party, and even an interview with them. They got a huge kick out of seeing themselves in the Chronicle. I also would recommend rpgenius. Lots of good stuff there!

Good luck with it, and just remember--no prep work is ever wasted!

--Fang

Hey, Darkmeer, it's not unusual for the kids not to talk about school. When my son was in preschool, his standard response for "How was your day?" was "Fine." And that was all we could get out of him. He's eleven now, and he's still like that. We found asking specific questions helps, and my husband kind of makes a game of it at dinner, asking the kids, "What was the funniest thing that happened to you today?" or "What was the smartest thing you did today?" That kind of stuff. We get a lot more info that way than "How was your day?"

Glad things are going smoothly, at least.
You are still in my thoughts!

Peace,
Julia

Hey, Delvesdeep, I ran the Demonskar Ball over the last two sessions, and my group thought it was AWESOME!

The characters in our group are all from the wrong side of the tracks, so the rivalry with the Stormblades has been intense, and Annah and Cora have taken every chance they could get to make them look bad.

I called the etiquette teacher Madame Pumfrey, and fashioned her after the lady of the same name in the old BBC All Creatures Great and Small series (don't know if anyone remembers her….). She was very posh, and had this obese little pekinese dog named Trikki Wu. The party went to their first lesson painfully hung over (after celebrating that one of them had won the Crater Lake Monster hunt), and tripped all over the place to Madame Pumfrey's screeches of, "Hopeless! Hopeless!" This became the catch phrase for the first part of the session!

Highlights:
The rogue surreptitiously hurled hors d'oerves at arriving guests from the balcony, while the barbarian-sorcerer had a moment of panic as the hors d'oevres were served without forks, and Madame Pumfrey hadn't covered that, so he was frantically trying to figure out which fork to use…when he hadn't even got one!

The priest of St. Cuthbert and Jenya won the title of Mayors of Liduton.

The Bradly-Dipinshires were pompous, arrogant a**holes, and the party behaved admirably even though they were sorely provoked.

The barbarian-sorcerer was beaten by Dalam in the contest of strength, and fortunately, no one got covered in garbage. Soon after, Dalam passed out in his crater cake after drinking far too much of the bubbling cauldron drink, but after Lady Knowlern's warning, the party abstained (I was amazed!)

Everyone behaved remarkably well, right up until the Clash of Armies dance. Then it all went out the window. Cora was paired with the rogue, and Annah with the barbarian-sorcerer. After Cora's second attempt to trip him, the rogue tripped another guest and blamed it on Cora, then started telling people that she obviously couldn't hold her liquor. The barbarian-sorcerer got tired of Annah's attempts to make him look bad, and cast an illusion to make her look like she had a cow head. Annah fled to the ladies room with Cora close behind.

When it came time for the Demonskar Dance, the priest of St. Cuthbert performed beautifully, and impressed everyone, but when Annah was supposed to sing and present Alakast to Lord Aslaxin, there was no Annah to be seen. (She was sobbing in the ladies room still!) and Lady Aslaxin bravely attempted the Song of Heaven (butchering it, but everyone was too polite to say so), and handed Lord Aslaxin Alakast instead.

Now every time they see Annah, the party make mooing noises at her. The Stormblades are furious. The party is now planning to hire a troupe of puppet performers to put on a puppet show featuring the "Blades of Storm", which will be a parody of their performance at the ball. One of the players actually has written a script that he is bringing to the next session. I can't wait to see it.

So thanks for a couple of really fun gaming sessions, Delvesdeep. I sure I speak for a lot of us when I say that your hard work is very much appreciated!

Regards,
Fang

Well, I've never actually been to a wedding with a groom's cake (although a few souls have, in fact, been brave enough invite me to weddings, one of which was my own!), but I learned all about groom's cake watching the movie Steel Magnolias, in which the groom's cake was shaped like an armadillo, and was made of red velvet cake with grey icing.

I am still trying to figure out how to make grey icing...wouldn't battleship grey xmas cookies be grand?

--Fang

Just a note on Sunless Citadel here--I ran this for my kids, and my son (11) loved it. My daughter (9, and tender-hearted) cried at the end when they couldn't save the two adventurers who had been subverted by the evil tree. I ended up letting the party take the bodies back to town where the kindly healer was able to make everything okay. Not a big deal, but boy, I sure wasn't expecting that reaction from her!

--Fang

Good to hear you're home!
Hope things stay good now. You all deserve a respite.

--Fang

"D&D? Is that where you sacrifice animals and stuff?" ( <--she was completely serious... )

-Kurocyn

We had a gal who played in our group a few years back, and her husband was convinced that D&D was this evil, nasty game...In exasperation, she eventually told him, "Yes, we sacrifice goats every Friday night!" So from then on, whenever he called her during sessions, the rest of us would make goat noises in the background.

--Fang

That has been my Best Priceless Moment in SCAP so far, describing the beholder and watching the looks of stunned disbelief on the players' faces!

--Fang

Haven't been here for a while...sorry to hear things have gotten rough again. Darkmeer, you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers, and DON'T let anyone tell you that you and Mrs. G. should't try to be with your son 24/7. You guys are doing absolutely the right thing. I wouldn't leave my kids, either. I am thinking of you and sending loads of positive energy your way.

Namaste,
Fang

I was worried about this fight, too, but keep in mind that you can always have Fario and Fellian arrive to save the day. Alternatively, if things get too nasty, you can have Kaz start dealing subdual damage and just imprison them. My crew ended up taking out Kaz, but having a terrible time with Prickles. He took two of them into negative hp.

--Fang

Definitely skippable. My crew mowed through the goblins to the point where it was getting borin, and the extra xp it gave them made it kind of a headache in terms of them being too high level to make the beginning of Flood Season a challenge. I ended up having to up the CRs on the the bandits at the Lucky Monkey. If I run it again for another group, I'll skip it entirely. As mentioned above, the only crucial info is about the half-orc mercs, and that's easily taken care of.

--Fang

I was thinking about turning it into a Weapon of Legacy. I think somebody posted something about that on the RPGenius site, but it was much more complex than what I have in mind.

--Fang

Starting a new group on SCAP over Thanksgiving weekend. This group will include four new players and two veterans from my Friday night group, and will cover three generations, age-wise (running from 9 to 70). We have:

Sir Algernon Knowlern, human Knight
Fenton von Berthold, human rogue
Athira Wolfsong, elven bard
Thorik Gordrivver, dwarven cleric of St. Cuthbert
Amaril, half-elven sorcerer
Tessera, elven druid

Should be a blast!

--Fang

So glad to hear the good news!
I really hope Grey enjoys preschool.
Have a great holiday!

--Fang

Fatespinner, I feel your pain.

This past summer, I took over DMing duties for our group, which has been together for about seven years now. One of the things that has always bugged me about this group as a player was that although I really enjoy the RPing, some of the players don't—or will only do it if someone else gets them started. And our last DM (my husband) didn't really encourage it. It was fine if we wanted to—but he was quite happy to run a hack and slash session (which, let's face it, is easier prep work for someone who's got a stressful fulltime job).

One of the things I've been trying to do is encourage more roleplaying. I tried awarding XP bonuses, but like you said, some of the players just don't care. One of the things I've tried to do is to get into character and play the NPCs with distinctive voices, interesting accents, and a funky hat collection (I have a merchant hat, and town guard hat, a damsel-in-distress hat…) Two of the four players are responding really well to it, and the other two are not as interested. I'm really not sure what else I can do to get them into it, though.

Maybe someone else out there has some other ideas…

--Fang

As for who is good and bad... they're politicians, born with the desire to rule. So I don't feel much trust. I'm just voting for who I think will do the least damage and hoping for the best. For me it more about surviving politics.

It's sad, but that's about it. In over twenty years of voting, I don't think I've ever voted *for* anyone--but I've voted against a lot of people. I'll be going later in the day too. Our school district has this "Kids Voting" program that doesn't start until after school gets out, and my daughter wants to go.

--Fang

In terms of workload I plan on posting a document on everything written here on RPGenius once we have finished discussing all the intricaties.

At the moment though there is little changes you will have to make. I'll include a few Foreshadowing ideas below.

Wow. Thank you, Delvesdeep. Here I was getting ready to apologize for hijacking your thread with inconsequentials, and then you give me this...

You have been so much help to my campaign. I hope you know how much we all appreciate your work!

Shelbeleth was actually the first one I considered working in, because I figured--like you said--that he could be posing as a bishop of St. Cuthbert, perhaps come to Cauldron to witness Jenya's investiture as High Priestess following Sarcem's death, and then sticking around under the pretense of helping her become familiar with the duties of a High Priestess.

Thank you very much!

--Fang

When the PCs defeat Vhalantru , they uncover his desk and all his research on the Cagewrights, giving them a +10 bonus on research related to the Cagewrights.

That's another good idea.

--Fang

Oh, I definitely agree....that's why I've been following this thread....I'm just being lazy....looking at all those great ideas, and thinking, boy, it's already a ton of work, but this stuff would make it so much better...LOL! This is the first major campaign I've ever DM'd (other than a lot of one-shots for different groups through the years), and I never thought it would be so much work. It's as bad as writing a novel--all those story threads to hang on to!

Thanks again for sharing all your great ideas, Delvesdeep!
(I'm getting the Demonskar Ball ready to run in a few weeks--that is really wonderful stuff!)

--Fang

I've been reading all of the posts above with a lot of interest. Our group is only about a third of the way through Flood Season, so I have time to make changes if I want to.

But here's a thought--if a shady organization (the Cagewrights) is operating in the area, and has recently come to the area because it happens to be one of the few places where they can perform their ritual...doesn't it stand to reason that the PCs aren't necessarily going to have had contact with many of the bad guys before the finale? I mean, realistically, the Cagewright masters are busy prepping their ritual for most of the campaign anyway, so they aren't going to be that visible. I'm not sure that the PCs killing a bunch of bad guys that they haven't personally had contact with is all that anticlimactic. And if the Cagewrights are only in the area for this ritual, I can't see them being that bothered (or having time) to get that involved in the local scene.

Just my thoughts.

--Fang

Hey, get back on track, you guys...I want to read more about how great DMs are :)

--Fang the DM

They went in the lucky monkey through the front door

My crew did this, too--no sneaking around outside to find out what's up, no evaluating the situation, they didn't even bother to buff first, just: "I'm kicking the door in," from the fighter/rogue! As I said above, they were darn lucky.

--Fang

Sorry if I sounded preachy. Just a sore subject after watching my 10 yr old neice spend her summer "vacation" doing 100 pages of math problems and forced to read and write reports on a bunch of books that do nothing to help a young imagination soar. Girl spent most of the summer hunkered down writing about subjects that she had 0 interest in.

FH

Oh, but you're so right! I don't remember having homework every night in elementary school. "Homework" was what you didn't get done in class because you were goofing off or you needed extra help. (Of course, I am a product of the St. Paul (MN) public education system, which probably explains a lot!) I was stunned when my kids started school and I learned that a first grader was expected to do ten minutes a night of homework. WTF?

I want to do stuff with my kids in the evenings--play games or take them to interesting events or read to them....but there's either no time because of homework, or they are too brain-fried because of homework.

--Fang (ready to go on a CRUSADE)

Well between a metric humpton of homework and videogames you can make it so you never have to actually see your kids. For certain 'parents' I know, it's a dream come true.

I can never figure that out. Why have kids if you're just going to park 'em in front of the TV and let pop culture have its evil way with them? Don't get me started....

--Fang

Homework serves no purpose but to subject kids to a mental beatdown.

You're preachin' to the choir here, Fakey. I hear ya. My son wants to play chess with his dad in the evening, which I consider much more valuable than doing busywork for school. Does he have time? Most nights, no. My daughter, who is a budding poet and artist comes home in tears because there's too much homework and not enough "me time".

Thanks for the references. I will definitely check out those books.

--Fang

Made me smile, too. I remember fondly (and a little sadly) the days when my kids were little enough to fall asleep in my arms. I miss that.
Glad things are going okay. You're still in my thoughts.

--Fang

It was cold here (less than 30), and both my kids (9 and 11) had a ton of homework, so Halloween lasted a total of about an hour, and then it was back to work. A curse on teachers who assign homework on Halloween!

--Fang

September 15.
On this great day in history, Fang the Ferocious came into the world.
Does any more need to be said?

--Fang.

They made the big error to allow him to prepare himself with all of his potions while his baboons were keeping the pcs busy.

DK

My crew managed to surprise him, so he didn't even get to use one potion. They found him almost right away. They mopped up the bandits in the main bar, then found that door north of the bar, and two rooms later, there's Tongueater. Now I'm scrambling to get the Kopru Ruins ready for them for this week! I figured the Lucky Monkey would keep 'em busy for at least another session...

--Fang

The party are up against Skaven and the Harpoon Spider soon. I'm going to have fun with that one. :)

My guys are coming up to that, too. It should be fun--I don't think the players even know what a harpoon spider is!

--Fang

LOL! At the beginning of that fight, the fighter/rogue in my party was freaking out because he hit one of the baboons for 19 points and that wasn't enough to drop it.

--Fang

What about Todd Vanderboren? Is he still around at that point? I was just thinking, his chaotic nature would probably make him pretty ineffective at running an organization like the city guard, and he could be co-opted/dominated by Vhalantru and/or other members of the Cagewrights.

(of course, I'm only up to Flood Season and haven't analyzed the rest of the path in excruciating detail yet, so if I'm way off base here, just ignore me...)

--Fang

I used Skylar.

With impeccable timing, Delvesdeep inspires me once again!

--Fang

I didn't like that, either, party because it smacked of deus ex machina, and partly because it was made pretty clear that Triel has been very careful about not letting anyone find out where she's at.

You could allow one of the hillfolk or Alleybashers partying at the Lucky Monkey be one of Triel's guards from the ruins, and if the party decides to question them they might know. Or maybe one of the Alleybashers (or even Tongueater) has a crude map on him (just because the book says Tongueater is fanatically loyal and won't betray Triel doesn't mean he isn't above being so sure of himself that he doesn't even consider that his crude map might be a danger). Alternatively, the party could have Jenya use the Star of Justice to cast a divination, and make the answer fairly detailed. If you're not already in the middle of the adventure, you could have one of the characters meet Artus Shemwick in some other way, and find out that he's a good person to go to for information, so they end up approaching him instead of the other way 'round. Or if they ask around town, someone else might direct them to Artus (although then you're still left wondering how the heck Artus knows). You might even give them a chance to find a disgruntled Alleybasher hanging about Cauldron, someone who used to work for Triel out at the ruins, but quit and fled for whatever reason, who is willing to sell the party information. Maybe the Star of Justice could lead them to such a person.
*edit* or maybe Artus is Triel's ex-lover and he's just looking for a chance to betray her...

Hope that helps.

--Fang

After the session, I kept looking at Tongueater's stats and thinking, man, those guys were darn lucky. And you're right, Heathensson--now they're all cocky. Especially since they managed to avoid the fight with the Stormblades, who swaggered into the Tipped Tankard one evening to try to start a fight. My party traded a few insults with them and then the rogue got up on the table and very sarcastically presented the entire tavern with "Cauldron's Heroes". And the Stormblades got a light smattering of applause and uproarious laughter, because my crew are regulars at the Tipped Tankard, and all the other regulars know who the real heroes are. They left quite miffed, with plans to make sure the party gets invited to the Demonskar Ball, where they will be put in their place (a few rungs below Cauldron's muck shovelers).

--Fang

Oh, they took some heavy damage. It could have been very nasty. I was expecting to kill at least one of them! Imagine my disappointment. (Sob.)

...well, not really, but my party did hand him his butt on a silver platter. Lucky for them he fumbled his falchion, and before he could pick it up, the psion hit him with an energy stun, and he failed his save, otherwise things might not have been so rosy. I rolled three ones in a row. I'm retiring that particular die.

--Fang

Tonight I'm running Shackled City; the group will probably start Flood Season...they still have a little mopping up to do in Drakthar's Way.

The Sunday group is off this week--we only play every other week, due to schedules. They have nearly finished the Sunless Citadel, and are looking forward to starting Shackled City in a couple of sessions. My two kids (ages 9 and 11) are in this group, and they can't wait to start Shackled City. Tons o' fun.

--Fang

( For more on my take on the Cauldron Church of St. Cuthbert...

Jeffrey--I did see this, and I liked it a lot--thanks for reminding me about your background for Sarcem. I had forgotten the fact that he missed his wife so much. I used some of your ideas to help populate the church and give the cleric player some background on the people he knows. He is currently pursuing a romantic relationship with Morina Drakesblood, whom he feels a kinship with, as he is also wyrm blooded.

--Fang

Welcome to the boards!

Have you considered allowing the player to do a fighter/bard gestalt character? (With gestalt, you level in both classes at the same time.) That would give the character access to fighter feats, more hp, and better survivability. The gestalt rules are in the SRD. I've found them to be useful when you're low on players--we're running a Shackled City campaign, which is designed for six PCs, with only three players. My players didn't want to run two characters each, so we decided to use the gestalt rules instead.

Good luck with it.

--Fang

I guess I'm lucky--I have an intelligent, mature group of guys (late twenties to late forties), and if there's ever an argument about treasure distribution, it is always between characters rather than players--and it makes for some really fun RP. I just get to sit back and enjoy the show.

--Fang

I had the party burst in just in time to see tongue eater baboon friends finishing off the rest of Sarcem's corpse... just leaving the head (sans tongue).

*evil DM laughter*