Joshua Goudreau's page

Just like the title suggests, I am looking to convert the Summoner over to 2nd Edition. I would like to do this as simply and straightforwardly as possible. If there is a simple wizard kit or something along those lines that will do the trick that would be great. I'd rather not have some complicated custom class if I can avoid it. I considered just using a specialist mage with an animal companion but that doesn't really capture the eidolon very well.

The reason I'm asking is I am planning on springing a surprise on my Pathfinder group by taking their character sheets and showing up the following session and letting them all know we are rolling the game back 20 years and hand them their characters in 2nd Edition. We will play a few sessions and really get the nostalgia kick. I want to remember what it was like to play the game back then and learn if it is only fuzzy nostalgia that makes me remember the old rules so fondly or if they really were pretty solid. Well, everything except THAC0, that is still counter-intuitive.

The group consists of a Paladin, Bard, Druid, Cleric, Summoner, Rogue, and Gunslinger. All of the classes except the Summoner and Gunslinger convert over smoothly. The Gunslinger I just rebuilt as a Thief with a musket. I'm not sure what to do with the Summoner, however.

I was reading the product discussion for Dragon's Demand and there was a lot of reaction and discussion about the new format. It got me to thinking and I wanted to pose a question/offer a suggestion to the developers and community.

Preamble
The 32-page format as it exists right now provides for some tight, little adventures (such as one of my favorites, Feast of Ravenmoor) but I, like much of the buying public it seems, favor larger modules with a tad more meat on their bones. This change to 64-page modules will likely make me more inclined to purchase them when one grabs my attention.

This shift makes good business sense for a number of reasons. As a former editor and publisher myself I know that it is far easier to produce a quarterly product than it is to produce a monthly or bi-monthly product. Also larger adventures sell better to the casual consumer and most publishers know that casual sales are where the money is. Subscribers are already fans and require little effort, while casual consumers require advertising and exciting and alluring products, etc.

Question
If there has been official word on these points I apologize. I keep up on the blog posts and read the product discussion but have not seen anything in particular.

The quarterly release means less adventures per year, obviously, and the concern over higher level adventures has been raised a few times. I am interested in knowing if this has been addressed by the developers. I understand that the new format is still very new so it may not have been considered yet.

There has been some community concern already about the lack of high-level adventure material. With less adventures per year the potential for there to be even less support for high-level play is very much a concern.

This being said, I fully understand that high-level adventures take more design and development time and do not sell as well as lower level adventures and thus do not make as much short-term business sense to produce.

Suggestion
I do not pretend to be a professional game developer but I am an avid fan of the hobby and a professional in the sales side of the industry so here is my suggestion.

Rather than a random and unexpected release format (content-wise not release dates), formula works for a reason and I offer this as a potential approach. With four adventures released per year and GenCon being a major event I am going to assume an August-November-February-May release schedule (though this is pretty irrelevant to my suggestion). I would suggest two low level adventures every year, perhaps when the APs launch in August and January, and one mid-level and high-level adventure on the off releases.

This will allow semi-casual buyers the predictability to know that at a certain time an adventure in the level range they prefer will be released and they can head on over to their local store or favorite online retailer and grab a copy.

This will also also allow for the community to have the kind of adventures they want, alleviating the lack of high-level support the Pathfinder line has currently.

Postamble
I got this idea when thinking of the format that Dungeon offered of one low, one mid, and one high level adventure every issue. There was something for everyone with every outing. i feel that has been lost somewhere along the line with a trend toward the better selling low level adventures.

If this format were to be adopted, or something similar with a wide array of level and play style support I would consider getting a Modules subscription instead of the grabbing one here and there as they strike my fancy. I am sure many agree though, admittedly, we may be in the minority.

What do you think?

I have a group who has recently decided they want to play some short sessions on the side while we take a break from the World of Darkness game I have been running and I got to thinking that PFS scenarios are designed for quick, fun sessions, plus a $4 price tag is hard to beat.

My players aren't interested in doing the game as PFS play, despite the fact that I tried to talk them into it. Using the scenarios as just adventure material is appealing to me but I am concerned that the methods for wealth distribution may become problematic.

The party will be collecting loot like a normal group of adventurers and not making use of scenario sheets like PFS characters. Is there a special way I should handle distribution of treasure if I make use of PFS scenarios?

I plan on handing out XP like PFS at a rate of one per adventure, so that isn't a concerns for me. Are there other concerns or pitfalls I should take into consideration?

If all else fails I can just run the adventures I already own, but this idea seems appealing to me.

I am looking for some good places to put firearms and firearm-based treasure in Rappan Athuk.

One of my players decided to play a gunslinger (musket master) and thus he has started with a firearm. I am looking for input on places/NPCs where I can place firearms or related gear within the adventure itself. Shops are obvious but I want him to be able to make use of the cool treasure that can be had from delving.

Now, that being said, I am running in Golarion so firearms are rare-ish and I like the idea of having ancient treasures in the depths of the dungeon but there is no reason to believe that delving gunslingers haven't gone inside and died. Or perhaps notable NPCs carry guns. The Cloister seems a logical place to insert some guns and perhaps firearms and fireworks amid the goblins in the Abandoned Bastion.

What do you guys think? If I could get some input akin to the adding firearms sidebars in Skull & Shackles that would be great.

I will be running Rappan Athuk soon and I want to introduce campaign specific traits in the same vein as the traits in the AP Player's Guides. I haven't yet started down the path of designing some so I wanted to ask the community at large for input.

I want to have one that is based around dungeon delving and grants darkvision but that's as far as I've gotten so far. The guides seem to offer about six to ten traits so I'd like to have about that many too. Any ideas?

I am looking for some advice and discussion about handling quests, delves, missions, excursions, raids, whatever you want to call them using a megadungeon as a setting.

Some explanatory text.

I have been asked very nicely to run a game alternating with the Skull and Shackles game I am currently playing. I have decided to accept the request and want to do a sandbox style game centered around exploration and quest-based adventuring. When this group is given room to stretch their legs and go about things their own way they seem to thrive.

So this leads me to a couple of options: Kingmaker or Rappan Athuk. I have spent the last few days reading a lot of reviews and product discussions and I am pretty convinced that Kingmaker will be fun no matter what, so discussion of that product is kind of moot. Rappan Athuk seems generally well received and I am hopeful about that product.

Both fill the need for me so I am really torn about which I want to run. Kingmaker offers the added element of kingdom building and universally positive reviews while Rappan Athuk has more adventure material for half the price tag ($40 for Rappan Athuk versus $84 for Kingmaker) plus it has the charm and nostalgia value of an old school megadungeon.

I will be posing the question about which the group would like to play but if they chose Kingmaker that in no means invalidates this discussion.

The purpose of this post is twofold.

I am looking for advice for my game but I am also hoping to provide needed advice for the community at large.

Normally I am not a fan of dungeons when they lean towards more than a dozen or so rooms. Now, I know what you're thinking, why would I want to run a megadungeon if I dislike running dungeons? The reason I don't like dungeons is the grind of moving room by room and door by door in an endless stream of Perception rolls. I hope to offset that by introducing a complex far too large to approach in such a manner and the introduction of targeted delves where the group goes in for a specific purpose and then leaves. This should transform the megadungeon from a place to be explored and searched by the square foot and becomes a dangerous location for adventuring.

I have done a fair amount of searching online for input and ideas on delves into a megadungeon and all I have found are a plethora of articles about this approach being how megadungeons should be run but almost nothing about ways to pull it off.

...and now we discuss.

So what are your thoughts on the megadungeon as a sandbox style quest based campaign? How would you approach the introduction of quests? What sorts of things would you have players do and how would you get them to the locations?

If I end up running Rappan Athuk it will be from levels 3-20 (as opposed to Kingmaker's 1-17) so advice for all level ranges are appreciated and encouraged.

I had the pleasure of finally getting to run Feast of Ravenmoor and it was a blast. I wanted to give a hearty 'huzzah' to Mr. Hodge for the evening of enjoyment that was had by all.

I ran it as a Halloween party and yes, I know it's nerdy that we sat around gaming as a Halloween party. I also know that it was two months ago but I use NaNoWriMo and a new job as the excuse for not coming on here sooner, but I assure you, the game was still lots of fun.

The remainder of the post contains mad spoilers.

I've had the module for a while and have wanted to run it for some time now. I was starting a World of Darkness game and jumped on the excuse to run this adventure. It got updated to a modern, non fantasy setting, but that didn't diminish any of the adventure. I placed the setting in a small Maine town during a Halloween/Harvest festival. The party attended and took place in a number of games and even enjoyed wrestling the greased pig.

The only encounters that were changed were the stirge fight at the beginning and the mutation of the pig. The lost pet became a dog but the party still helped the boy find Applesauce, who had slipped down an embankment and got stuck.

The feast became an old fashioned Maine style bean supper, or bean suppah as we say here in Maine. The party was shouting 'CULT!' after they were in town for only a few minutes and I considered them having a few beers with Keigler at his house and then go home, just to mess with them.

Ultimately the cultists attacked them at the farm and the party ran off through the old corn maze, which had the requisite maniac, and through to the ritual on the hill where they confronted Keigler, and dropped him with a rifle shot to the head only moments after he finished monologing. They were quite surprised when the giant, demonic mosquito burst out of him and attacked.

Ultimately, it was awesome and we all enjoyed playing it.

So you know how it has been said numerous times that a Paladin was the toughest class to play in this AP? Well, guess what I ended up playing...

It wasn't by design. I didn't sit there and go 'oh, we're playing Skull & Shackles? I'll be the pain in the ass that plays the paladin in the campaign where paladins don't mesh real well.' I'm not that guy. We started a completely different campaign based in the American southwest in the 1850s only as a Pathfinder-style fantasy setting. For various reasons I ended up making a paladin who was a cowboy, sporting cowboy wisdom and following the cowboy code (Gene Autry style!). Well, the GM decided to roll our characters back and reboot the game and start on the Wormwood after a rough night in Port Peril.

So I ended up being a paladin on a pirate ship.

It's been an interesting challenge so far and I have become 'a dangerous man to be keepin' company wit'' what with all the kicking in the captain's door and demanding he return to Port Peril to face justice for his crimes that I have been doing. Okay, I only did that once and I got a poisoned dart in the chest from which I am still recovering, but you get the point.

So far we've got quite the mutiny stirring on board the Wormwood and a band of cut-throats rallying under the banner of the Andoran (I'm Andoran now) cowboy, even if they don't understand what I'm talking about most of the time.

Has anyone else had the interesting experience of playing a paladin or running a group containing on in this campaign? We've just finished part one of the Wormwood Mutiny so no spoilers please.

I'm looking for some basic advice on ability/feat choices for a paladin I am currently playing. I haven't played a pally since 2nd Ed so I'm a little rusty. That Sorcerer 8/Paladin 2/Eldrich Knight 10 I played in 3.5 doesn't count.

The game is RP heavy and we don't need optimized characters and I don't want to blow the power curve but I still like to get the most out of a character concept. This is also the first Pathfinder character I have actually played since I am usually behind the screen. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

--

First Level

The concept is a light and fast two-weapon fighter. The game is a homebrew with an 'old west' feel so I made a gunslinger meets Apache warrior type. He is already in play and working quite nicely (when the dice cooperate) at first level. The game meets for a limited time weekly and we're using slow progression so I'd like to optimize for each tier of play to maximize fun; low 1-7, mid 8-13, high 14-20.

We are using the Core Rulebook only.

Aaron Proudheart, Human Paladin of Erastil.

Str 14, Dex 15 (13+2), Con 14, Int 5, Wis 15, Cha 16
That Int of 5 isn't a typo. Stats were rolled 4d6 drop the lowest arrange to taste. Given what I rolled I decided to let them lie where they fell.

I outfitted him with throwing axes to serve as melee and ranged weapons as well as studded leather to keep him light and fast.

With those stats clearly any optimization based on skills is right out.

Feats
1. Improved Initiative, Two-Weapon Fighting

So far this build has been working nicely with the exception of a sub-optimal AC (14) but I can improve that later with feats and magic.

--

Low Level
level 2-6

I'm a little torn on how to maximize his concept. I want to keep him a solid fast and light dual wielder but I need to improve that AC. Tentatively I have chosen the following abilities/feats:

3. Quick Draw
4. Dex 16
5. Two-Weapon Defense, Divine Bond: Weapon

I really want to take Dodge but that increase to speed that comes with Quick Draw is important. I'd also like to make use of Weapon Finesse early on but that may have to wait. I'm also not sure how useful Divine Bond is going to be since we have so far been outdoors and I bothered to purchase a mule as a mount (he's sensitive so be careful you don't hurt his feelings).

--

Mid level
level 7-13

I'm really not sure what to do here to keep the concept as solid as it is at first level. The abilities/feats to stay light and fast don't seem to remain easy choices. However, magic will factor in at this point with a ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, and magic weapons and armor.

My choices right now are:
7. Weapon Finesse
8. Dex 17
9. Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
11. Double Slice
12. Dex 18
13. Vital Strike

I'd love to get Cleave, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus but I'm not sure how to make it work.

--

High Level
level 14-20

At this point I'm pretty lost to keep him straight pally. Here is what I chose as of right now:

15. Improved Vital Strike
16. Dex 19
19. ????
20. Dex 20

--

Any thoughts?

I originally posted asking if interest for a Numeria AP existed here. It seems there is so I am well under way.

This thread is for discussion, input, requests, suggestions, contributions, complaints, etc.

Campaign Summary

Some Numerian Goodies

Here are some Numerian goodies to whet the appetite until I have some substantial adventure material; one weapon, one suit of armor, and one new monster.

The following items and processes are created using technological and arcane means known only to the Technic League. These items are not available on the open market.

Plasma Lance

Technic Armor

Servitor Zombie

Right now I am nearly finished with the first part of The Rogues of Caliphas called Keys to the Madhouse where...

As always, feedback is appreciated.

I was wondering if anyone knew of a site like Obsidian Portal that doesn't charge to upload more than one map?

I'm writing a fan-made Numeria AP and I am looking for a good place to upload all the adventures and maps and other goodies. Obsidian Portal seemed like a good option until I tried to upload my second map and it told me I needed a pay account. Needless to say this isn't going to cut it.

I considered using Blogger but the layout isn't the best for what I want. The forums here won't let me post maps. I'm not sure how useful RPGArchive will be for a work in progress plus it doesn't seem like anything new has gone up there in almost a year.

Any suggestions?

--EDIT--

Another option I thought of is to post all the text based material here and other forums and link to maps uploaded elsewhere like Google Docs or something but it seems like there has to be an easier way to do it.

On a personal level I don't care for the use of minis in a game and I have resigned myself to the fact that once I am up and running I will need to use them to run public PFS sessions and events.

However, I just realized that I didn't see anything in the FAQs or guide so now I'm curious if they are required, strongly encouraged, just the baseline assumption, or left entirely to DM fiat.

I signed up for PFS because I will be opening a game store soon and wanted to be ready to run events when the doors opened. A few weeks ago I ran Master of the Fallen Fortress for my regular group using the PFS pregens so I could get a feel for PFS play. (It was a lot of fun BTW.)

None of them have PFS accounts so can I claim that session as a PFS GM?

I am posting this question to see if the interest exists. Is there interest in a fan-made Numeria AP?

I have a campaign outline, campaign guide, and am about a quarter of the way through the first chapter of a Numeria focused AP that will go from level 1-20. I will gladly answer any questions and give details to interested parties. I'll even take suggestions. :D

I'd love to hear what the community thinks of the idea.

I was reading this thread --> I am a hyperlink <-- and got to thinking...

I was wondering if anyone had created a list of campaign traits like the ones that appear in the APs now for the folks that want to run Age of Worms, either in Golarion or the Greyhawk in all but name default setting.

It wouldn't be too hard to adapt the ones above but I was wondering if anyone had already done this.

Pathfinder has a ton of monsters that I think are hella cool and I absolutely love (Jaberwocky anyone?). I am planning some adventures and I'm curious what monsters do you feel are just plain awesome? Special emphasis on monsters that don't get much love.

I have been wanting to run Age of Worms since it was first published but I have STILL not had the opportunity. Hopefully I will very very soon. When I do run it, I want to do it right.

First off, I will be running it in Golarion using PFRPG, but those a moot points.

The big thing is I want to include the material in Elder Evils/Exemplars of Evil. The points to include that material is pretty straightforward as the ELs dovetail into the adventures without much fuss.

I also really want to include Tomb of Horrors, which if I use the 3.5 conversion that was released free on Wizards.com I can replace Gathering of Winds without much issue. Especially since I gather that is the weakest of the adventures.

I have a copy of the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set for AD&D 2E and I'd really like to allow the party to recover all seven pieces. I'm not really sure how to merge it together though. Rod of Seven Parts isn't a bad series of adventures (I played a 3.0 conversion a while back and have since read the whole thing) but it doesn't seem to mesh with the Age of Worms story at all. I am thinking maybe including pieces of the rod in various treasure loots but that seems too forced. I really want the quest for the rod to intertwine with the fight against Kyuss but be it's own subplot. I want the party to have to earn it instead of handing it to them as they go. I'm not dead-set on using the material in Rod of Seven Parts but that seemed like an obvious starting point.

Does anyone have any suggestions for including or building this subplot?

I've been reading about the brutality of this module but since I bought it and it looks cool I'm going to run it anyway. However, I only have three players that can commit, and I refuse to run an NPC. So are there any things that those of you more familiar with the module think I could change, either character-wise or module tweaks?

I considered upping their level to 4 or maybe granting more points for stats. Or maybe just leaving it as is and making them deal with it. lol

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

First off, I apologize if this thread is in the wrong place. It didn't seem to have a home in the PFS forums.

I have read that a metaplot runs through each of the PFS seasons so I'm wondering if people who know these adventures could identify which scenarios tell the metaplot for each season. I read the descriptions but I couldn't make much of a connection aside from some vague generalities.

I am starting a regular PFRPG game and want to run some short but loosely connected adventures to make up the campaign and I thought PFS scenarios might be a good fit, with some conversion obviously. Since I also am also planning on submitting scenarios I will be purchasing some to read and dissect anyway. If I can run them for my players all the better.

Any help in stringing the metaplot together would be greatly appreciated. I'm more interested in Season 1 and 2 scenarios at this point because Season 3 is still underway.

I am going to be running this series and after examining the XP it looks like it is designed for the fast advancement. Is the treasure distribution also designed for the same advancement track?

I did a forum search and saw this question posted many times but they were all quite old posts. So I ask the developers again, might we be seeing Psionics appearing in Pathfinder any time soon?

I have been running games since about 1990 so I've pretty much got GMing down. However, I just made the update from 3.5 to Pathfinder (I know, finally, right?) after a brief intermission with 4E but we won't discuss that.

Well now I have the opportunity to dive in with a whole new group of players I have never had the pleasure of playing with before (experienced roleplayers, however) and I want to put together a little set of adventures for them. I'd like to run an AP but I'm not going to make that level of commitment to a group of players I have never gamed with before and may grow irksome or flaky. In addition I have never run nor have they ever played Pathfinder though we are all VERY familiar with 3.5 so that shouldn't be much of an issue.

I considered the Falcon's Hollow adventures as I ran Hollow's Last Hope as the kick-off of my last campaign but I don't want to bother with converting over to Pathfinder if I don't have to.

I read a bit about the Crypt of the Everflame > Masks of the Living God > City of Golden Death series but it just wasn't grabbing me as it seems a tad too dungeoncrawly for my tastes.

I'd like to start with Master of the Fallen Fortress because it seems like a basic yet decent introduction to the game for newbies and a simple run at that. The modules that are jumping out at me right now are Feast of Ravenmoor and Carrion Hill and I think I'd like to build this path with them included.

So I'd like some input for you fine folks that are more familiar than I about these modules. What should I put in to the beginning? Godsmouth Heresy perhaps? Maybe something 3.5? Are there mergeable characters or groups or themes I might make use of? Pitfalls that may crop up if not planned for? I'd like to maintain a tone similar to those presented in the two modules I mentioned above.

I run games in my own homebrew world so locations in Golarion are unimportant and I'm probably going to group everything into the same location anyway. I'm just looking for something fun and easy that tells a bit of a larger story than just the stand-alone modules.

I'm looking for an adventure that is suitable for or scalable to levels 13-14. I'm looking for something that is kind of a spiritual sequel to Speaker in Dreams. So I'm thinking urban based with a kind of mystery and shadow organization or somesuch. I scoured my back issues of Dungeon and I thought about Vampires of Waterdeep but they look a little too dungeon crawl for what I really want.

I thought I'd present this to the forums here in hopes of getting some feedback. The adventure can be from anything 3.0, 3.5, or Pathfinder. I am willing to track something down if need be. I want something that will take characters through levels 13 and 14, but again, if I have to scale a little that is okay. I have all of the Paizo adventure paths so pulling from one of those is fine too as long as it's easy enough to play on its own. I'll even take stuff that covers a wider range if it's easily shrinkable.

So what are your favorite adventures that fall into that range? I'd rather avoid a dungeon crawl as the campaign I'm putting together is already pretty dungeon heavy but if it's awesome I'll consider it.

I bounced around about what I was going to run next and, after some careful consideration, I have decided to run Rise of the Runelords. I've been a little intimidated by this AP for some reason I can't really identify, I ran Shackled City with fantastic results.

So, I'd appreciate some advice from folks that have run this AP so I can know what to expect. I searched for other threads that were along similar veins, but I couldn't find anything specific. I've read through the adventures and have scoured the boards for advice and such, but any potential hazards, plot holes, suggestions etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some of the problems I have seen mentioned and how I plan on addressing them. I have seen some warnings of potential TPK moments and a general steep difficulty in the AP. To combat this I plan on allowing gestalt characters. I did this in Shackled City and it worked quite well. In addition my party will only be 3 PCs so this should help balance the party. I have also seen advice to foreshadow Foxglove and Ironbriar sooner so I will be doing just this, allowing the PCs to interact extensively with them early on.

Some problems I see and would like some advice on include the following. I don't like the fact that the game leaves Sandpoint for so long. I plan on moving the entire Magnimar section to Sandpoint, perhaps redesigning the city a bit to make it larger. I run in a homebrew world so redesign isn't an issue. Also the entirety of Chapter 3 will be placed considerably closer to Sandpoint, perhaps even replacing Turtleback Ferry with Sandpoint.

Perhaps I am not reading it correctly, but Chapter 4 slightly confuses me. The way it looks to me is that the campaign has a deep horror theme and then suddenly drops it in favor of a massive dungeon crawl with some giants. The theme and tone seems to shift suddenly. After that there is what looks like another massive dungeon crawl in Chapter 5. I'm not in favor of big dungeon crawls so any advice on combating this issue would be fantastic. I'm thinking of removing the entire Jorgenfist fortress but keeping the battle of Sandpoint, and just placing another chapter in the AP. Suggestions from Dungeon Magazine? The Styes perhaps?

So, big changes include gestalt characters and placing everything closer to Sandpoint to maintain focus. Any advice folks could give me would be great.

There has been lots of discussion about converting 3E era material to 4E, but I'm wondering how easy it is to convert the other way. Has anyone tried this?

I've been looking at the core 4E path of Keep on the Shadowfell to Prince of Undeath and for the most part I'm digging what I'm reading but I am not a fan of 4E mechanics. From the looks of it converting backwards shouldn't be too difficult but I'm wondering if there are any potential pitfalls that others have noticed in doing this.

2 obvious issues are the level range and experience awards. I would not be attempting a 1-30 level progression in 3.5 as 30 is the new 20, so to speak. So once I drop the level range to 20 levels the number of encounters per level is not equal, requiring more encounter to span all the levels, 300 level appropriate encounters in 4E opposed to approximately 260 in 3.5. So I will be dropping XP awards and just handing out levels at even intervals.

As well, if anyone is familiar with pitfalls or total dead spots in the story I wouldn't mind some heads up in that regard.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I am currently running Shackled City and my party is hurtling toward the end and will be hungry for another game right away. Naturally, I have been waiting with baited breath to run Age of Worms as a followup. However, yesterday, a wonderful idea came to me. My group of players are not hard core D&D fans, they like some variety, so my mind fell on Call of Cthulhu d20. I did a thorough read through of the AoW Overload synopsis and made some preliminary conversion notes. I merged Diamond Lake, the Free City and Alhaster into a single location and placed the setting in the 1920s in an isolated city of my own creation.

My question then, is if I run a fairly literal adaptation of this campaign, are there any major issues that may crop up? I know CoC characters are underpowered compared to D&D characters but given a little buff and edge they shouldn't die more than most CoC characters. But are there story elements that might come up that work great in D&D but wouldn't fit in CoC? Anything that will require major rewriting?

I had my doubts about the whole tournament thing but I decided to turn it into a kind of underground bloodsport competition run by mafia types. I'm still not sure about the smoothness of conversion for the whole Champion's Belt chapter.

The campaign has everything a great CoC campaign should have. A dark cult, a dead god returning, ancient alien ruins, remote archeological sites, bizzare creatures, vampires, possible destruction of the world, etc. The Lovecraftian elements of AoW is what drew me to the three Dungeon APs to begin with and I really can't wait to run this series. Any suggestions or words of warning from those who have run it would be greatly appreciated.

I inserted this little series of encounters into The Demonskar Legacy to make finding Alakast a little more interesting. It's not much but I thought some folks might get some use out of it.

In my campaign the party has encountered rabid animals in the jungles outside the city occasionally since the campaign began. I look at this as an unintentional manifestation of Admiarchus' will on the countryside. This side trek has one such encounter.

As well I used delvedeep's Adimarchus & The Cagewrights document for alternate foreshadowing. At the beginning of The Demonskar legacy I used the Necrocaunt encounter detailed in that document. This side trek assumes that this event occurred but could easily be used without it. This side trek also does not repeat the statistics of the Necrocaunts as they already appear in delvesdeep's document.

This event occurs as the party is preparing to depart Redgorge on the trail of Sir Alek. I moved the later encounter with Nidrama to springboard this little side trek so it need not occur later.

This was taken from my notes, modified slightly, so it is a little thin on flavor detail. I tend to describe things as they occur and so my notes can sometimes be little lacking. This is intended for a party of four 8th level characters.

My party is just now beginning Test of the Smoking Eye and I have been thinking that the template seems a little weak. I considered increasing it to reflect the power level displayed by other +1 templates. I was looking for some suggestions, or perhaps logic, for either making it a bit more powerful or why +1 is appropriate.

I downloaded the variant Smoking Eye template from theRPGenius.com but it is not quite what I would like. Input anyone?

When my players cannot all meet for Shackled City the rest of us play a side game. The game has been lots of fun and the party has raised to 13th level now. I began the game with a modified version of the Eberron adventure path and followed it up with Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. We finished that one a couple of months ago but I had already planned on what the next story arc would be.

There was something about the dark tone and creepy, Lovecraftian style to Greg A. Vaughan's Istivin: City of Shadows series of adventures (Dungeon issues 117-119). I did some simple conversions to my homebrew, like changing the name of the city, altering the history to coincide with the recent drow invasion in the last story arc, and redrew the hinterland map to reflect my homebrew world. Other changes were minor, such as in the end the party will be given control of the barony and become nobility.

We sat down and played through the first chapter Touch of the Abyss and it became one of the most memorable experiences we have had in a game in a long time. The party made their way through the city encounters quickly while making quite the display of themselves in the process. Soon most of the city was talking about the heroes that had come to the city and perhaps they would end the pall that had fallen since the drow left.

Before long the party was descending into the Deep Dungeons of Krelont Keep and the memorable scenes began. The first encounter the party saw the gargoyle statues and were convinced that they were monsters. The Reekmurk (advanced via the scaling the adventure suggestions) fell to the party's concentrated attacks fairly quickly. The party got thoroughly foul, except for the rouge with spider climb, attempting to get across the cesspit but eventually moved on. They then spent some time cleaning themselves so the stench would not betray their position to any guards later.

The party then walked straight to the Marquis and knocked him unconscious in only two rounds while making short work of the shadows. The party then, while lugging around an unconscious Quechard, walked right to the hezrou and made quick work of him as well. they scanned the rest of the dungeon quickly for treasure and made to leave, congratulating themselves for a job well done.

It was then they got hit with a surprise.

Back in the first room they were ambushed by advanced Malgothian Gargoyles as they crossed the cesspit. They took no precautions after being proven that the gargoyles were not monsters before. What ensued was a toughly disgusting battle royale with the "sh*t gargoyles".

The ranger was very nearly disemboweled by one gargoyle and managed to grapple with it for the remainder of the combat, while at a mere 4hp. We all feared the mighty Rowsdower might die... again.

The rouge battled one gargoyle on the wall and was finally knocked into the cesspit by the beast's breath attack. The thing dive bombed her as she swam for safety and missed. They then tumbled into the outflow tube and battled further, the gargoyle knocking the little rouge down to 11hp before falling dead finally.

However, it was the fighter that was really beaten on. Two gargoyles teamed up on her while her friends were occupied. One bull rushed her with it's breath and knocked her into the 'water' while the other pounced on her and attempted to drown her. She wrestled with the both of them under 'water' all while blind and holding her breath. Several times they nearly managed to knock her out and coup-de-grace her, which was their plan. Finally one was killed by the ranger and she was able to wrestle the other one back to a standing position where she could breathe and the ranger took it out with a volley of arrows.

Disgusted, filthy, but invigorated the party departed, still toting around an unconscious, Quechard (the fighter provoked two AOPs when she was forced to wade through the muck and set him down somewhere safely before joining the combat).

Thank you Mr. Vaughan for that encounter and a session that will live on in everyone's memory for years to come.

I read the thread about the fire elementals in Demonskar Legacy and I got to thinking about the session I played with my group today.

For clarification, here is my party, all gestalt:
Zilanya: NE drow lvl 4 rogue/sorcerer
Ragnarok: NG dwarf lvl 5 monk/barbarian
Grunt Meatshield: NE ogre lvl 4 barbarian/ranger
Brynna: NG elf lvl 5 paladin/druid

We are in the midst of FLood Season and the party arrived at the kopru ruins, which I turned into drow ruins to trick everyone into thinking there is a drow threat in the game. They debated for hours about how to get across the ravine after Grunt busted the winch and ended up just using the cage. They entered the ruins via the door in room 42 and mixed it up with some Alleybashers inside.

They then made their way directly to the treasury, for anyone without the map handy that is through rooms 45 and 46, both empty and into room 51, trapped, and into room 50 before turning left into room 52, the treasury. In room 50 there are six large monstrous spider zombies and this is where I noticed a possible issue.

The party after level adjustments and gestalt is the equivalent of EL 6 or so. The encounter is EL 5 and they got their butts whupped. I am running this from the magazines so it is designed for a party of four. They are where they should be for level, 5, and are also gestalt so they figure higher by a bit. From everything I've read I heard the difficult ramped up in the campaign but I was under the impression it wasn't until after Zenith Trajectory or so.

Judging by the ELs of the later encounters in the ruins am I in for a possible TPK later on? A simple encounter really kicked the crap out of them so will the specific encounters be more dangerous? Did anyone else have trouble with this dungeon? Am I in store for even more challenges later on?

My secondary group is currently running through Expedition to the Demonweb Pits and I ran across something that made me pause and wonder. There is a passing reference that says that Graz'zt, among his many titles, is the "Warden of Adimarchus".

Is this some 1st Ed reference I'm not getting? Did Adimarchus appear somewhere before Shackled City? I looked and the authors, Wolfgang Baur and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestral, are not any of the Paizo regulars as far as I'm aware so I'm wondering where this reference came from. Perhaps the authors were just Shackled City fans and wanted to make the reference?

Can anyone shine some light on this for me if there is more to the story?

I have been prepping Expedition to the Demonweb Pits for a secondary game to run when all the players from my Shackled City game can't make it. I am a DM that likes to assign set places for everyone to level up instead of awarding experience points and so I'd like some advice from people who have played or ran this adventure.

Due to the layout of the adventure I'm not clear on what levels are intended at given times. I am clear on the intended flow of the adventure and understand when players will be where in the book but I'm not sure what level they will be at any given time. In a more linear adventure layout it's easier to judge.

The beginning of the adventure also seems off to me where it talks about levels. The party begins at level 9 but it says that by the end the party will only advance to about 12. That doesn't seem right to me considering all of things the party does. It seems, awarding experience points a party will advance more than that, closer to level 18 than 12.

Without doing all the math out myself and studying ELs through the adventure can anyone tell me what level people were by the end? Also, if you remember, roughly what level you were at at various parts of the adventure. It would help me out a lot. Thanks.

-Josh

I suppose I should probably say a bit about the characters. There are four and all are gestalt.

Brynna (NG elf druid/paladin): Brynna was an orphan who grew up in the Lantern St Orphanage with her adopted thunder twin sister, Zilanya. Together they moved to Redgorge where they met and befriended the unlikely barbarian duo, Grunt and Ragnarok.

Zilanya (LE drow rogue/sorcerer): Zilanya's first memories are of her abandonment on the doorstep of the Lantern St Orphanage. She struggled to adapt to life among the "iblith" but soon found a bond with Brynna, her thunder twin sister. Together they moved to Redgorge where she continues to plot her takeover of the world.

Ragnarok (NG dwarf barbarian/monk): Born and raised in Redgorge, Ragnarok was raised a barbarian but trained in the martial disciplines of the monk by his parents. He made his own way in the town while working as a bouncer in the Redhead Miner's Inn. However, he found himself thrust into the horrors of the world when his parents were killed in a kobold attack on the mines.

Grunt Meatshield (NE ogre barbarian/ranger): Raised in the wild jungles Grunt was the only son of renowned demon slayers. When a cult of fanatics attacked his village he was left for dead. Alone, terrified and vulnerable the toddler found his way to the city where he was taken in by an elderly ranger. At first he refused to speak and was dubbed 'grunt' by other children. But the old woman taught him skill and cunning. In the years following her death he made his way to Redgorge and found a life for himself working the mines by day and spending his hard earned pay at the tavern by night.

The only ideas I have so far for backstory connections is that Ragnarok's parents were secretly members of The Chisel and the basement of his inherited house holds a secret underground railroad style room. I don't know what they did there, however.

Also Zilanya was left intentionally by the drow to live among the surface folk for some nefarious purpose. She doesn't know what it is yet... and neither do I. I changed the kopru ruins in Flood Season into drow ruins and decided they were some kind of advance base or listening post. As well I put a prototype of the Cagewright cages in there, smashed and useless, of course. I thought that it would be neat to say the cages were built from an ancient drow design and it was uncovered there.

Additional ideas for backstory related adventures would be great. Again, I don't have boatloads of time to write my own so I'd like to take one from an existing source, so long as it isn't too lengthy, a Dungeon article would be about right. I'm looking for things that are thematically similar to the main story arc.

There is a similar thread in the Savage Tide forum and I'd like to start one here too.

As a DM who has recently gotten underway on Shackled City I'd like to discuss some of the best moments you and your group had during the campaign. Feel free to share moments or encounters that you had a blast running or playing and will live on for years as stories told around the table of past games.

My party is wrapping up Jzadirune right now so they haven't had any such defining moments in the last three sessions but I'm sure they will come. Tell me about yours.

I made an extensive player's guide for my now running SCAP game and there has been a little interest in getting a copy of it. The file is too large to upload to an email server so I'm wondering if anyone that might be interested would have an alternative. Perhaps a posting on theRPGenius.com? I dunno.

I'll tell everyone a little about what is in my player's guide to maybe help you decide if looking at it is even worthwhile. I used extensive amounts of information from other guides and resources on theRPGenius so I don't claim full authorship. I did, however, modify the information to make it mesh as well as wrote a bunch of my own stuff.

I have made extensive modifications to the campaign and setting to fit a feel that I felt was more in keeping with what I wanted and what my players might enjoy. I created the tropical region The North Coast and plopped it down in my homebrew as a location for this AP. As well I removed Cauldron and replaced it with a heavily modified but thematically the same city called Caldera. I felt that Cauldron the way it was presented stretched the suspension of disbelief a little too much. But I also want to mention that I didn't change what made the city a compelling and interesting place to adventure in.

For more on my homebrew check out the incomplete Campaign Setting I have posted online.
~World Of Brandes~

If the player's guide ends up being of interest to people I will gladly share my chapter by chapter conversion notes to adapt the campaign to my homebrew. For example, the changes I made to the first chapter include starting in Redgorge with a modified version of The Burning Plague free adventure and moving the Malachite Fortress from an underground dungeon to a dockside warehouse complex.

I'm presenting this to give prospective DMs the opportunity, if desired, to do something a little different with the campaign without changing what makes it so great. Or, if desired, some idea for alternatives that can be picked and chosen as desired.

I chose to put this thread here because I am currently running Shackled City.

I created this site as a means of putting all of the information for my world in a place that was easily accessible to my players. I chose to format it in a manner similar to the campaign setting books released for 3.0/3.5 D&D.

The world offers a slight variation on conventional high fantasy but remains similar enough that fans of the genre will not feel left behind. It is a setting that embraces espionage and is stepped with secrets and mysteries. There are no dragons still alive after a massive war, now more than 1000 years in the past, that destroyed the world's society and history.

I hope someone can get some enjoyment out of the material I'm posting. Right now the site is still under construction so it's not very complete. I'm hoping it will get more complete and more refined as more information is translated from my notes to an understandable format.

World of Brandes

The characters were made and the game got underway. We played for about five or six hours and everyone had lots of fun. The three players made the following gestalt characters, Brynna (NG elven paladin/druid), Zilanya (LE drow rogue/sorcerer), and Ragnarök (NG dwarf barbarian/monk).

The party began in Redgorge amid the chaos of The Burning Plague, a free wizards.com adventure and was sent to Caldera (my reimagined Cauldron) to request aid from Sarcem Delasharn in the healing of Redgorge. On the road I used Olaf the Stout's travel encounters of a rabid ape and a standoff with the Stormblades. The party spent the Stormblades encounter hurling insults back and forth, a contest that the drow won easily.

Once inside the gates of Caldera the party was accosted by the Last Laugh thugs on their way to the temple. The thugs targeted the paladin instead of attacking a cleric on the street, I felt this made the encounter more personal. At the temple they met Sir Alek and the elf was quite smitten by him, kindred spirits that they are. He made fast friends and excused himself when they met with Jenya. She told them Sarcem was gone but she would send aid to Redgorge. She allowed them to stay in the temple and the following morning they saw Tervical and some clerics leaving. Jenya told them of the kidnappings and harassment by the Last Laugh and the party, except for the drow who spent the encounter scowling and muttering under her breath, promised to investigate.

It was a good time and I look forward to the rest of the campaign.

After spending some time reading in more detail the articles suggest at the beginning of Secrets of the Soul Pillars that the party may now begin to suspect Vhalantru of wrongdoing. Of course, this is also where the party finally strikes out at him and given everything it seems they should suspect him sooner.

Also, I am using delvedeep's superb alterations on foreshadowing (excellent work) and it implies the party is friendly with Vhalantru before Secrets of the Soul Pillars. This leads me to believe the line should be changed in Skaven's diary.

On an unrelated note I seem to be missing at which point the party receives Alkhast. It is mentioned that the party already wields Alkhast in the siege of Redgorge event so it must appear sometime during Zenith Trajectory or Test of the Smoking Eye but I'm not seeing it anywhere. I wanted to build a little side trek around retrieving Alkhast but I'm not sure where it should go.

My last campaign was an epic Shadowrun game that ran 16 missions and had an epic plot about an urban war in a cyberpunk Boston. The game was a lot of fun and I quite enjoyed the story that came out of it.

Would anyone be interested in such a thing? If there is interest I will put the work into making my notes playable missions and I can post them on RPG Archive or something. Post here if you would be interested in such a thing.

There have been plenty of conversations about the big adventure paths so I'm not as interested in people's opinions of those. I already know they all rock. :D I'm more interested in the shorter paths that have appeared in Dungeon over the years.

There have also been discussions on favorite issues of Dungeon and favorite adventures. Now I'd like to start a slightly different discussion and get input from folks that have more experience with these magazines than I do.

I have been quite impressed with the Istivin: City of Shadows (#116-118). I also have the issues that include Shards of Eberron (#123-#125), Vampires of Waterdeep (#126-#128) and Seeds of Sheehan (#145-#147) though I have not had the time to dedicate to reading them in detail yet.

So far, Istivin has been may favorite as I like the dark urban tone they offer. What does everyone else think? Any suggestions of paths I should track down? What were the strengths, weaknesses or highlights of the paths you played or read?

This doesn't need to be specific paths and could just be adventures that had sequels in non-consecutive issues. I'm interested to hear what people think.

Perhaps I am either blind, stupid or both but I cannot find the web enhancements for these magazines anywhere on the site. I want to get the ones for the issues I own but I can't seem to find them. I've looked through the store and performed searches but I'm still not getting anything.

With Wizards of the Coast taking control have the extras been taken down? I found a thread that said that content wouldn't be removed but that was from back in May.

Can someone help me with this?

I have seen that there is a bit of a lack of magic items available in Shackled City. I have also seen here on the boards that others have noticed this as well so I thought I would post my fix for this.

I began thinking that, knowing my players, they will take what they can buy in Cauldron or pillage from their victims, er, fallen foes. It is unlikely they will take the time to travel to Sasserine to purchase more powerful or expensive items so I had to think of a logical way to get them items for higher levels of power without blowing the game balance.

The solution I came up with is to use Legacy Items. For anyone who does not own Weapons of Legacy, simply, Legacy items are super bada*s magic items that start basic and get better as the characters advance in level but they need to unlock the powers of the items through certain, often expensive, rituals. These items balance with comparable cost items and will fill the needs in my game.

I have added a side trek to the game after Zenith Trajectory that will send the party to an ancient tomb to recover the treasure of a legendary group of adventurers. I'm using the updated Tomb of Horrors for this, scaling back the adventure from level 9 to level 7 or 8, and putting some custom, tailored to the party, legacy items as the final treasure.

To tie it together I am going to say that the adventuring party fought in some ancient demon war and Adimarchus, before his fall, was part of the party. His fallen friends' spirits want to see him redeemed and will give the items to the party knowing what fate holds in store for them. So, one of the party will be wielding Adimarchus' sword. This will also allow the party to learn, in bits and pieces as they research the items, Adimarchus' story and will allow for some more foreshadowing.

I thought I'd throw this idea out there for anyone who has been trying to think of a way to correct this problem without frequent party trips to Sasserine. If there is enough interest in this idea I can post something a little more structured for the side trek.

I have been taking considerable steps at prepping this adventure path for my group and have made extensive use of the fine work put forth by the folks here and at theRPGenius. However, I am running from the original Dragon articles and there seems to be some information in the hardcover that adds a lot to the game.

Can someone give me a list of the traits and any feats, prestige classes etc. that's exclusive to the hardcover? I have all of the issues plus the web enhancements but there still seems to be substantial info I'm missing. For example the added adventure material makes extensive mention of a dream trait, but that's not anywhere in the non-hardcover material.

Can I get some help?

I posted something a little while back asking for input on the AP series and someone posted a great thing about 'outs'. I liked the concept quite a bit and now I plan on doing outs in all my campaigns.

To put it simply an out is a place that a DM could end a game and have a certain amount of satisfaction and closure to the story. Places where the story resolves some major plot thread or shifts focus that things could be tied up easily and the campaign doesn't feel abandoned. Sure there may be more untold but the immediate threads are resolved. An out should be able to occur every six sessions or so. With 11 chapters in this path an out should occur every two or three chapters though I don't know if that's feasible.

I have been adapting Shackled City but have only completed Life's Bazaar (I've moved a lot of stuff around). There is an obvious out at the end of Chapter 1 but I was wondering what everyone else thought would be good places to call it quits if the game is dragging or going downhill.

For folks who have played or know the whole story shoot me some pointers.

-Josh

I have recently acquired a number of back issues of Dungeon and Dragon magazine and I have all of both the Shackled City and the Age of Worms adventure paths as well as several installments of Savage Tide.

I googled all three and have seen that reviews have been mixed. I don't want to invest the time and energy in a campaign that is going to bog and perhaps loose the attention of my group.

We all enjoy a lot of action, adventure and intrigue but extensive and tedious dungeon crawls get boring and will kill a campaign quicker than anything else. For example, the most successful and entertaining epic campaign I ran was the Dragonlance Chronicles. Those adventures had a great balance of what my group enjoys. On the flip side were the 3rd Ed module series. The site based adventures, read dungeon crawls, were entertaining at first but got tedious quickly and nearly killed the campaign.

As with everything I will be adapting this to my own world.

For folks who may play in the games please use a spoiler space if you include story elements. I'd like to hear from both DMs and players to know what your experiences and opinions of the campaigns were so I can decide if I should bother to try and run them. I especially want to hear from people who played them to completion.

-Josh