Gericko's page

Ended up using bagpipes at the end, preceded by some music from the Conan soundtrack. Thanks folks!

Riley wrote:

Greyhawk. :)

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.

The zine is great! It will grow because it is good.

I've viewed the tea leaves, dealt the cards, and watched the stars.

Kobold Quarterly will become Kobold Bi-monthly in 2009. Then in 2010 it becomes Kobold Weekly.

What? OK then. Monthly will do.

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 don't see a subscription here. Do you get the subscription from the magazine's site? Is it correct that you can only buy individual copies here on Paizo?

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?

Will there be a 4.0 OGL?

Just wondering because if so, then our favorite Classes and Races that were removed from the PHB4.0 will not be such a problem as d20 publishers will be racing to get these very needed updates to all of us.

It looks like we'll be in the middle of this 2nd Pathfinder when 4E comes out. When will Pathfinder switch to 4E?

And even more important, are there any plans to update the 3.0 Pathfinders to 4.0? I'd sing your praises from the highest mountain if you did that!

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.

The Wold: Online Message Board D&D3.5 Campaign

Greetings Gamers!

We are excited to announce that we have a few openings in various games right now. The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or 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, originating in the early 1980's. It went online about 10 years ago and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.

We currently offer 14 ongoing games with over 100 current players. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play 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." There is also several private boards that allow 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 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/

Please contact me if you are interested in joining us or if you have any questions and I’ll fill you in on exactly which openings are left.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry Phelps
Gericko@gmail.com
www.woldiangames.com

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.
#2, are closed to the satisfaction of the players.

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 too am curious about the hardcover. I am worried that nothing has been said up to this point. It's way past due.

Can someone at Paizo post here and put our fears to rest by announcing that there will be a hardcover?

Yah, we're good like that. :) It began as a 2nd edition campaign in 1985. We actually wrestled for awhile about whether to change over to 3.0 when it came out. We bit. I like the options that 3.0 and 3.5 present, but I do not like the way it suddenly seems to embrace power gaming. The rule set is too bulky and hurts roleplaying overall. The number of rules also makes strategy more of a "find the obscure rule" rather than natural evolving strategy to fit the roleplaying or combat situation.

Anyway, we've recruited several players from this message board. Good ones too. :) So if you're looking for your...

--Five-minute D&D fix--

Or you can't find a local group, email me and join our gaming community!

Jerry
gericko@gmail.com
woldiangames.com

Check us out at Woldiangames.com I also have a post above which gives more information.

14 Current games and over 100 players. D&D 3.5 by message board post. All games in the same campaign world. Nice community of online gamer friends.

gericko@gmail.com

Greetings Gamers!

We are excited to announce that we have a few openings in various games right now. The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or 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, originating in the early 1980's. It went online about 7 years ago and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.

We currently offer 14 ongoing games with over 100 current players. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play 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." There is also several private boards that allow 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 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/

Please contact me if you are interested in joining us or if you have any questions and I’ll fill you in on exactly which openings are left.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry Phelps
Gericko@gmail.com
www.woldiangames.com

Greetings Gamers!

We are excited to announce that we have a few openings in various games right now. The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or 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, originating in the early 1980's. It went online about 7 years ago and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.

We currently offer 14 ongoing games with over 90 current players. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play 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." There is also several private boards that allow 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 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/

Please contact me if you are interested in joining us or if you have any questions and I’ll fill you in on exactly which openings are left.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry Phelps
Gericko@aol.com
www.woldiangames.com

Hey Tak. If you don't find a local group, look us up on the web. We've been online since the 90s so we don't start and jump ship. We stick.

14 current games and over 100 players in our community.

Check us out at woldiangames.com and email me at gericko@gmail.com if interested.

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 also run a play by post site. We currently offer 14 permanent games and many other temp games (modules?).

We post daily rather than weekly. Takes about 5 min.

I'm curious. How does a weekly post work? How long are the posts and how do you adapt the D&D game for that setup?

Our players have found that pbp or message board posting as we call it, to be a great way to continue to play D&D when life gets to busy to play locally or you're in a location where you can't get a group started.

Oh, we're at woldiangames.com

And we're always looking for players.

If other pbp sites want to start cross linking, I'm interested in that as well.

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.

If you can't find a game where you are, give my site a look over. We've been online since the 90s and have over 100 players, most of whom can't find a face-to-face game to play in.

Sure the game's a bit slow on message boards, but it does serve to give you your daily 5-15 min fix of D&D. There's plenty to do: extra games offered monthly, campaign development, chat, etc. We have a very strong community who have come to be true friends in many cases just like those you game with face to face.

So, if you can't game locally, game online with us at woldiangames.com We'd love to have ya. We have current openings in several games (usually singles for games that are one person short) and we will be starting up 2-3 new games this spring and summer. Our games are long term and we now have groups hitting level 21 and retiring to start over again every year or so.

Greetings Gamers!

We are excited to announce that we have a few openings in various games right now. The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or 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, originating in the early 1980's. It went online about 7 years ago and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.

We currently offer 14 ongoing games with over 90 current players. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play 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." There is also several private boards that allow 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 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/

Please contact me if you are interested in joining us or if you have any questions and I’ll fill you in on exactly which openings are left.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry Phelps
Gericko@aol.com
www.woldiangames.com

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 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.

Diamond, check out my thread started earlier today. We have several openings in various games.

woldiangames.com
gericko@gmail.com

Greetings, check out my thread added today in this area. We have several openings in our various online games currently. One game is 10+ in levels, which was one thing you asked for.

woldiangames.com
gericko@gmail.com

Hey Justin, check out my thread in this area. We have openings right now in several of our various online D&D message board games.

Woldiangames.com

Greetings Gamers!

We are excited to announce that we have a few openings in various games right now. The Wold is here to stay! We are not one of those games or 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, originating in the early 1980's. It went online about 7 years ago and it has evolved into a very large website with several hundred pages of campaign information.

We currently offer 14 ongoing games with over 90 current players. There are a surprising number of women playing with us. In fact, several of our best DMs are women. Play 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." There is also several private boards that allow 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 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/

Please contact me if you are interested in joining us or if you have any questions and I’ll fill you in on exactly which openings are left.

Thanks for your consideration,
Jerry Phelps
Gericko@gmail.com
www.woldiangames.com

Thanks for the good discussion here friends. My group should hit "The Way" tonight for the first time. Some good contingency ideas.

The graffiti has proven to be very good as a hook. I have two prison guards (real life), a teacher, and an ex-marine in my group. Their characters love the "frontier-town" atmosphere of Cauldron and I've built that up somewhat above what's presented in the module.

Their real life persons, however, just can't resist the need to clean it up and make it a proper law and order town. Which is very funny to me since that is pretty much impossible with all the evil plans that are being directed at this location.

An example....they got out of the slaver's meeting without fighting, even though they were itching to do exactly that. This left the result that they rescued the children, but didn't stop the slaving ring.

So they will reappear at some point again since people are still being kidnapped. The Kidnappers have simply decided not to kidnap children again...not because of the party, but because of Orbius. ;) This gives me a future side adventure when I need one.

If I have to insert any new characters into the campaign after the start, I'll use DMG p.135 to set the max starting money for the needed level. Then I figure the min starting money for that level by setting it at 60% of the max.

Then just like for level 1, they roll for their starting money. I also make it more difficult for them to find a good deal or a rare item at the start, because they have not had the chance to become a repeating customer with any of the local shopkeepers.

If I'm setting a percent for a requested item to be available somewhere in the city, I lower it by 10% for new characters until their reputation begins to grow by completing a chapter of the campaign.

I too, in the past, have had the problem of character death turning into a windfall profit for the group. So I do as the wise poster before me suggested and let them keep relevant and necessary items, obviously needed for the storyline of the party to go on. All other items are sent at the expense of the party to the "absent family" or occasionally their "church." Such chosen items will be declared "party items" when obtained. If they are not declared as "party items," they cannot be salvaged from their dead companion.

I limit this by making the party justify to me why it should be a "party item" due to it's ongoing "story" value. At one time, when I have a more immature group, I had to limit them to 3 declared "party items." Luckily I have a more mature group now and they tend to be rougher on themselves than I would be towards them in this regard.

Thanks Jeffrey for the compliments.

I agree that there are NPCs included in the campaign that can offer advice. Use them!

However, note that the first obvious "good NPCs" they run across is a religious follower of low level who needs saving and a temporary head priest who is trying to find her own way.

Therefore, I plan on adding an NPC that will appear somewhat aloof who will begin gradually and without making it too obvious to advise the party. Perhaps even just a contact for the thief in the group.

I may make the NPC a retired rogue who has turned from his dark ways and therefore leads a lonely life with one eye over his shoulder for those who would cause him harm. He has lots of real life experience and can help them in a subtle way while they are of low levels. Then as the party advances, I can slowly reverse the role. He's aging, sick and needs their help in some way? I'm not sure I want to make him a former member of the Ebon Fold or something like that yet. I'm still pondering what I want his past to be.

Interesting situation. Seems like the campaign is set up chock full of NPCs you shouldn't ally with. Very few that you should ally with. So I'm not surprised that they make some unfortunate decisions regarding who to try and ally with.

It seems to me that the group may be calling out for help in the campaign. I'd tend to add a few "grey" characters, one or two of which might turn out to be "grey-good" like Aragorn in LOTR. Someone battle and life-hardened, yet can't let this young group fall for lack of direction.

Now this doesn't mean I'd spoonfeed all the information that they need. And I wouldn't make this NPC available all the time. The previous poster that said they need to learn to solve their own problems was right. But they may actually need to be taught how to do this in your campaign.

Or it could simply be that a few more hints dropped to set them on the right course may make the campaign more fun for them.

It also seems that they may be thinking of Cauldren as a place to visit instead of home. As time goes by, they need to grow to love the place so that they will want to save it. So if all their experiences are negative, this will not happen.

The campaign says that their reputation grows and they become more and more popular. Play this out in specific as you advance from scene to scene.

--NPC warns them of this or that with regard to the Last Laugh
--NPC offers them discount
--round of drinks bought for helping the orphanage
--wise old mage pats the young mage on the back and whispers "well done son."

Don't throw too much of this at them...all things must remain in balance. Just don't neglect this side of their growth in Cauldron.

The idea of a thief starting a security business is a great one. I may hint at this with the rogue in my party. We're starting Shackled this weekend. My thinking is that the more and sooner they become invested in the city, the more the plot lines and hooks will work to create great storylines.

I also like the idea of having a party member or two try to infiltrate the Last Laugh. This sets up the possibility of the party spying on the LL while the LL spies upon the party. Add to that the subterfuge by the High Mayor that mostly begins in Chap 4 and the party should be at least partially driving the action by that time.

I'm also working on some side scenes for whichever inn they decide to stay in (or apartment, etc.). This will become home for them and the NPCs that frequent this location or also stay there, etc. should become the inner circle of their contacts, friends, and people that they care about. Add to that their contacts at the various temples and we have a good start making the city a "home."

Has anyone invented some interesting NPCs for any of the taverns? More NPCs for the churches?