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Posts
 Recent Posts
Noticed that the website for the podcast has changed locations and can't find the character build for Episode 8. It was called Order of the Viper. Can someone link me to the example sheets etc. for this build? It was discussed at length in this podcast in Episode 8: Kingmaker 1 Stolen Land with Tim Hitchcock. Thanks!
Ongoing local game in Wichita Falls, TX since 1985. We're looking for one or two additional players. We're playing Pathfinder, but are willing to dabble in other systems as a diversion from time to time. We average in our 40s, but will welcome anyone. No drinking. Smoking only outside. We play on Friday nights. We enjoy gathering and winding down from the work week as much as playing. Our campaign site is online at the url below as I also run some online games. Contact via email and we can exchange phone numbers when comfortable. Jerry
Is there a PFR Random Dungeon Generator like the one that was at the end of the 2.0 DnD DMG? Has anyone developed one? I know there are sites that will make a map for you. I'm talking about one where you roll the dice to see where the hallway goes next, what type of room is there, what is in said room, etc.
Someone asked about 3.5 vs. Pathfinder in an email. We're in a transition now from 3.5 to Pathfinder. There is quite a bit of "campaign material" that has to be upgraded. We've announced that we will start converting all characters to PFR in November, and we will officially become a solely Pathfinder playing site in January. So if 3.5 if your concern with the game, let it concern you no more. We are greatly looking forward to the changes. I'll even admit that it has been mostly fun and easy to update our original races, PrCs, classes, magic, etc....so far anyway. We're taking our time in the transition so that we do it right. When you have 8 permanent level 1 to 20 games [Forged will be #9] all in the same campaign world and a dozen or so pick up games going on at any time, there are some logistics to work out.
Greetings Gamers! Woldiangames.com is excited to announce that we are starting a new ongoing game in our campaign world/gaming community! It is called The Forged. This game will contain only dwarf characters and will take place in The Scab, a mountainous region full of natural wonders such as volcanoes and hot geysers. The dwarves of The Scab have been suffering since the glory days several millennia ago. Splintered into small clans, they struggle to retain their identity and purpose within The Wold. Adventuring groups have always been looked upon as frivolous by the clans. But could they be the answer to the splintered dwarven society? Only time and adventure will tell. To see the campaign material for The Forged go to: http://www.woldiangames.com/Woldipedia/index.php/The_Forged To see the legends and geography information for The Scab go to: http://www.woldiangames.com/Woldipedia/index.php/The_Scab To see the main website entrance go to: www.woldiangames.com The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those game sites that will disappear just as you are getting interested in the game and your character. So if you’ve been looking for that quality game that does not go away, we’re your site! The Wold is a D&D3.5 Original Campaign World [changing to Pathfinder in 2011], that originated in the early 1980's. It went online in 1997 and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information. We currently offer 8 permanent ongoing games and many other pickup games for those members who want more. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play by post occurs on our self-made java programmed message boards with their own dice mechanisms, and auto-archiving features. We offer a Message Board called The Giggling Ghost where our gamers can chat "in character" and head out for various “pick-up” adventurers. There is also a private board that allows the players to talk and discuss just about anything in an "out of character format." These boards helps us create that all important sense of community and friendship which is a part of any good group of gamers. Also added is a board called The Catacombs where all character shopping occurs and The Black Genie Center where all Woldians may go to help develop new original things for our campaign world. To visit the Games Page to check out the ongoing games, go to: http://www.woldiangames.com/games_index_career.htm Please contact me if you are interested in joining this new game or if you have any questions. I’ll be glad to help. Thanks for your consideration,
I agree with the posters above that this is a very interesting project. My only concern is that it doesn't address rarity. The DCs for an Orc should be lower than an Archon for instance. It also could be adjusted for CR. Lower level characters would know less about upper level monsters. Monsters with unusual origins should have a more difficult DC, because they come from places of origin that lower level PCs have, more than likely, not experienced. Again, nice concept.
Greyhawk. :) Greyhawk, in my humble opinion, is the most bland setting I know of. We respect it because it came first from Gygax himself, but it, like the core areas of Forgotten Realms is a generic "D&D template" setting. It has nothing to catch my attention and make me want to go there with my characters and imagination and experience those challenges. Sure, great stories can be told there, but the campaign setting itself does not flavor those adventures. I expect the campaign setting to be as creative and edgy as the adventures I want to run and play in. As I stated above, my two favorite campaign settings are Dark Sun and Ravenloft. You cannot play in those two campaign worlds without the setting itself coloring the adventure.
Beyond the good decisions and the best products we've seen for years, Paizo has one other very excellent thing going for them: ...A great relationship with their customers. These boards are a good example of that. They participate in the discussions here with us. They answer emails. The listen to what their customers want rather than tell us what we need. There seems to be more of a void between WOTC and their customers. And I guess at this point I should say, "Thanks Paizo."
Woldiangames.com is an online gaming community with over 100 players in various games. We play on message boards. Our game is 3.5 all the the same campaign world named The Wold. We have openings right now in an ongoing game named The Chosen of Domi. Domi is the god of honor and combat. He is the patron diety of three fueding races of Taurs: Minotaurs, Centaurs, and Liontaurs. (Yes we have homemade 3.5 versions of those races.) The band of heroes at the center of this particular campaign location are the "Chosen of Domi." Chosen by the god himself, they are tasked with uniting the three Taur Races. To check out our website, go to www.woldiangames.com If you decide to join, email me at gericko@gmail.com Thanks!
I can't help but wonder how much all the moves being made by Paizo, Necromancer, and Kobold Quartely among others is becoming widely known. Are these amazing business moves being watched only by those frequenting these boards? Are gamers only getting excited or supporting the companies and giving them a boost to sales? Could OGL 3.5, especially Pathfinder, become a true competitor to WOTC and 4.0? Inquiring minds want to know!
In a related vein, one of the other Necromancer Games dungeons had a cave covered with bat guano which had become very slick with all the dungeon traffic. My players ended up snowboarding through on shields taken from a nearby monster. Great moment that, especially when one didn't make it and had to slip and slide to the end of the passage. He was so "shaken" that he couldn't hit anything in the next battle. Plus the party wouldn't go near him.
Jack, Necromancer Games in one of their dungeon modules put three toilet seats in the middle of an unfinished room on level 1 of the dungeon. Name of it escapes me for the moment. Rappan...something. There were three books for the dungeon that came out separately. This was in the first book for the upper levels. One of the three toilets indeed was a mimic and it was designed to be more powerful than the party or at least very tough to try and initiate a chase and fight scene with the party being chased by the toilet mimic.
Personally I get tired of the bland "this one is like the next" campaign setting. Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms are different, but both mostly generic. Eberron, though not a favorite of mine, at least tried to be a bit different. So did Dragonlance in some ways. I still feel that the settings I've enjoyed the most to date are Dark Sun and Ravenloft. They challenge the players in different ways, both with strategy and roleplaying because the setting is unique and powerful in itself. So I'd like to see a campaign setting by Paizo or Necromancer Games that uses such a setting so as to outstrip all those generic settings out there that WOTC is so fond of now.
I like the prophesy and fortune-teller starter ideas above. I've started planning my next game using these ideas. I'm thinking of combining the two. A fortune-teller discovers through actual talent that the forming of this group has a history in prophesy. That creates a great mystery. Why this group? What are they destined to do? Can they change this destiny? What other forces are at play?
My latest online campaign began with the "friends and family" theme, with the tragedy twist thrown in. In the first module, while they were away visiting another prominent winemaking/vineyards family, I had the entire family of the players wiped out. The game then becomes a set of mysteries and conspiracies as the players find out that their family was not just involved in the wine-making business, but something much more sinister. Combining conspiracy ideas/hidden family purpose from DaVinci Code, plot tactics from TV shows such as Heroes and Lost, and high level intrigue from books such as Dune and Grass (by Tepper), the adventurers move from one discovery to the next. When I'd asked them what type game they wanted this time around, conspiracy/mystery/secret societies was the answer they gave me. I'd never done that type game on the long term before. So far, they seem to like it.
So have any companies other than Necromancer declared that they will produce 4.0 material to cover missing classes and races. On my site (woldiangames.com) are many gnomes, monks, etc. that are very beloved by their "players." If I can't offer them a solution then I will not be able to upgrade the site to 4.0, assuming that we want to. Yes, I know that we'll be rerolling stats from scratch, but the personalities that make up the true-character can remain. I've also thought it would be doable to study the pattern of how classes and races are designed in 4E (there is material on that already out in various places) and write our own. I could tell the players, "You want to keep your gnome? Great. Let's work on writing out the 4E class for that then." Comments?
I'm running a Dungeon Mag module Sat called Ill Made Graves from issue 133. It begins with a barbarian king's funeral. I am wanting some music to add to the roleplaying for this. Nothing wimpy. My first thought was to find a Russian Men's Chorus singing something like the song in Hunt For Red October, but couldn't find what I was wanting. The soundtrack didn't reproduce the acapella song as the russian sub leaves Russia as in the movie. It "arranged" it. Any other ideas? Something perhaps that just expresses the sentiment?
If the publishers of this game read this, can they let us know if they plan on putting out the four "corner" expansions for this version? I have the version of the game that has these expansions, and it sets the game apart from all others because of those and the dragon tower. This will make the difference as to whether I get a copy of the new version of Talisman and its hoped for expansions. In other words, I love the game, but have a copy and will not buy the new one unless it has the expansions coming. Could we also hear something about the miniatures?
As another said before, this looks like a good time to try another game. I'm disgusted. Why is Deadlands and even old Torg or Shadowrun sounding like sweet bliss right now? The only thing that even made me pick up my ears is "streamlined combat." For my group, 3.5 has been a morass of slowness in combat.
I can't even count the number of times that groups have formed in campaigns I've been a part of in mundane horrible ways. Examples of horrible: "You're adventurer. I'm adventurer. We're in an inn. Wanna form a group and be best comrades for life?" The DM says, "You all grew up in this small town and dreamed of being an adventurer. Now is your chance." ----- I'd like to start assembling a good list of unusual or more creative reasons/stories/ideas for groups to form in the first place. It could be a short scene designed to bring the group together, or it could just be a situation that is assumed when characters are created that is different. -------- Here's a try, however, I'm not feeling extremely creative this early in the morning: Scene: The PCs are all attending a mandantory probation meeting with the judge and the chief constable after being released from a week in jail. The judge is being difficult, preaching at the group. The chief tells a story about how he turned his life around by turning his natural tendency to want to pick fights and bully into law enforcement. This bridges for the party to start a similar discussion and form an adventuring group. Situation: Conscription--a recruiter for the King's army blitzes into town, carrying off every able bodied man to defend against the yearly orc raids. The army is shredded with the party being survivors all running in the same direction. -------- See, not real happy with these yet. I'd be grateful for others to add their wisdom to this.
I tend not to vote for the "normal/generic" campaign settings for things like this. I'd rather play in my own than someone else's generic setting--if I had to play in a generic fantasy setting. So if it's published, I prefer something different than the norm. Something I probably wouldn't have come up with myself on such a large scale. So Dark Sun got my vote. Ravenloft would be my second. Dragonlance the third as it's somewhat of a borderline generic setting. The storyline there helps move it from the center a bit.
I guess I'm qualified to comment here. I've both taught in the public schools and worked as a minister. I currently teach Reading in the 6th grade. First, I'm proud of our community here, in that so much good advice has been given. Those who think we're uneducated and "loser nerds" would be very surprised if they got to know us. Now as to the advice. I'd suggest only one thing further. When the parent comes in, take a simple reading of her bearing. You'll know when you greet her/him? what is on her mind. It will probably be genuine concern from something she's heard, or it may be to berate and condemn your program. If the former, then by all means, invite her to a session and let her see what you are doing. Show here the educational benefits, etc. Give her some of the periodical evidence of the benefits of roleplaying and oral communication and how it effects reading achievement. If the latter, diffuse her quickly and let her know her child does not have to participate. As someone said above, you cannot change someone who is emotional about D&D. Likely if she is taking this tack, she'll push to have the program removed. Remind her quickly and kindly that the program has invited parents to attend and asked for parental permission before the kids started participating, as she herself has seen. Your administrator should have no problem diffusing her further so that one person does not affect a successful reading program. If she is there to berate and condemn, do not let her get started. No parent can be allowed to talk to a teacher or administrator in a disrespectful or demeaning manner at any time. That creates an unsafe environment on school grounds. If you can keep an irate parent from getting worked up and instead have him or her talk rationally about it, usually, they are overcome and a consensus can be reached. There is value in using a single "instrument"--in this case D&D--to increase reading achievement with students. However, consider using other similar methods as well. Readers Theatre works wonders as the oral reading helps comprehension and reading visualization. Try changing the genre of the game as well. The d20 system makes it fairly easy to switch to a different genre so that the students get experience with roleplaying in various different storyline types. Then your club may get students to join that do not enjoy the fantasy genre as much as other types of fiction material. Others have suggested module source material for you. Try using something actually from the literature you're teaching in class. If you're reading Sounder, let them all roleplay training up their animals for a contest and show. If it's Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, let them play one of the characters in the book and take the story in different directions. If you keep the subject matter of the adventurers closely tied to your lesson plans and curriculum, there's very little anyone can say about it.
Grimcleaver, Doug, and Delveg have the right idea for sure. If you have trouble with making their ideas happen, try one of the two things below. First, when writing your adventure, if you are one who feels it must be all written out, write it out as a set of choices instead of linear. Decision points have two or three branches planned out for the most likely decisions. Consequences for actions planned. Don't write pages on this, but use two and three sentence summaries to guide your decisions so that they are not arbitrary. Second, with each NPC, place up to three "triggers" that start a scene/plotline if those things are triggered. Ex: Canong the Barbarian hangs out at the Warty Frog. Mention that he's there at the bar everytime the party enters or walks by. If the right question is asked, it triggers a scene. For instance, if asked why he's depressed, he will say his wife hates him. That leads to a scene with his wife coming in and serving him divorce papers written up by the cult she's joined putting Canong's kids in danger. Instant side trek. Just be sure to list such events when triggered, because you have to make sure that they: #1, don't overrule the main storyline.
For some reason, such tactics work better in a city or town. Having multiple storylines going (or an "A" story and a "B" story) make a city seem more alive and busy as it should be. Throw in a storyline offstage that the players just hear about, as one wise poster above offered, and things are very nonlinear as well as exciting and fresh. Plus it builds friendships with NPCs. Getting PCs to care about NPCs forms a strong motivation for your storylines. Hey Canong put us up and helped us hide from his wife's cult. We need to help him now that he's been set up by the Assassins Guild.
Thanks James for answering our question. :) Too bad. Shackled City is a blast! While I'm near the subject. I'd love to see the "Flame" modules that have appeared in Dungeon (Starting in #1) appear again, updated for 3.5 rules. I think there's been three? I remember that the second one was "Out of the Ashes." The First one was called "Into the Fire."
Has anyone had any problems or situations arising with Shackled City in the area of "making the campaign come alive" for the players? I have and thought I'd both share them and ask for others to post their experiences in this area. Somehow with this "canned" campaign, the players in my group never seemed to bond with the location and care about it nor its people. They simply acted as if we were playing a module, which we were. I have veteran players who don't usually take such a tack so I've never had to even worry about such a thing for years. So I mentioned the problem to them and announced that starting with the following week, the campaign was going to change. It would no longer be a canned campaign. It was now my campaign and it would be run Gericko style. The next week, I set several goals. I upped the drama. I gave them a good chance to make some "friends" in town that they would care about, who had taken risks to help the group. The combats included innocents and chances to be heroic. I made sure they felt appreciated by the cityfolk they interacted with. I set up a crush from one of the NPCs towards the big burly fighter. Thought he'd run from it, but he actually embraced it. Basically I encouraged the group through encounters to change from gold and adventure level hunting to adventuring for a cause. The campaign shifts from this focus to that at the low levels before tying things together in the storyline of the campaign. I needed something sooner than that to motivate my players to care about things. So I used the people of the city as the motivation. They sacrificed for the party, so the party would want to sacrifice and risk themselves for those they had come to know and appreciate. Every chapter now will include a list of things in the city that will help build that repore between adventurer and citizen. Now, has anyone else had to deal with making the "canned" campaign setting come to life? What problems did you have and how did you deal with them? etc.
Remember that printed modules are for YOUR benefit. Feel free to adjust the difficulty if needed. I would tend to start off with two or three planned encounters. The first one would be somewhat easy. I'd increase the difficulty of each encounter until I had a feel for what they could handle and what would be too much. Just do some math. Take a look at the highest attack bonus of each character. Set the ACs of your monsters so that they are hitting with a number that seems good to you. Usually, I set monsters so that the "damage characters" hit on a 10 or 11. This way I can bump up the AC of the opponents by 3 or 4 for the important battles when warranted. Then do the reverse. Take a look at the AC of the party and set your monsters top attack bonus so that the monsters are having to roll an appropriate number to attack. Compare this with the module. You should easily be able to see whether the opponents should be eased and by how much. Then you can adjust the xp to catch them up as well. I know this probably goes against the grain of some purists out there, but this is what I'd do. Enjoy!
I'd be a cleric of a god of merchants. Then as a side, I'd be an expert merchant who owned a magic item only store. Buying and selling items to the rest of ya will make me rich!!! Rich enough to buy that "rez" insurance policy so that each time someone breaks in and kills me for my money and items I'll be raised. ;) Sure I'd adventure, but I'd be rich enough when I started it to hire another priest with wands of Cure Serious to be my own personal healer. I REALLY don't wanna die. Oh, has there ever been a good lich? ::kidding:: ....I'm such a wimp!
I was working in a Toy Store in the mall in college back in 1980. A basic set showed up in the weekly shipment. What was this? Was it a game? Where should we put it in the store? We shrugged and stuck it over with the board games. Customers began to ask about it, curious about the art on the cover. So the boss finally said, "Jerry take this home, read the rules and figure this out. Just enough so we can tell the customers what kind of game this is." I took it home, opened it, began to read and by p. 10 was hooked, and somehow intuitively knew that this was the game that I had always yearned for. I brought a friend over and we played one on one. Been addicted ever since.
I have a Panasonic combo VCR and DVD burner. Lets you play and record both VCR and DVD. All I use the VCR side for is so i can convert some VCR stuff to DVD. Totally as easy to use as a VCR. Don't forget to go through the menus and finalize any DVD you've burned so you can play it on other DVD players besides the Panasonic. Yes, there are some DVRs (TIVOS) that also burn, but I found it much more expensive and much more to go wrong in one single unit, so I bought my TIVO[DVR] and my DVD burner separately. Use Monster cords or the best high end connections you can use so your copies don't lose quality from what you're inputing into the TIVO.
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