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I keep it tight. Core races. By core I mean Tom Moldvay Basic/Expert D&D core; Human, Elf, Dwarf and Hafling. I have been super open in the past but in my experience it did not really add to the game. As I have matured as a DM I have found that it is my job to be the monster(s), the players to be heroes(or anti-heroes). Your mileage may vary. Definitely put Hommelet near Sandpoint or Magnamar. Bigger town and even bigger city for Burne and Rufus to have support of nearby noble house(s). I don't know what history you want to associate with the abandoned moathouse but there was a series of conflicts between the settlers from Cheliax and the Shoanti. "Conquest of Bloodswone Vale" for more info, afaik. The suggestion of Falcons Hollow is a good one, if you have the Temple of Elemental evil Falcons Hollow does a great job as a replacement for the town of Nulb. I would also suggest Diamond Lake from the Age of Worms AP. Old school feel for sure. Kirth Gersen wrote:
IMPOSTOR! If you were old school like me you'd know it was Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha.
This! +1 Not really in order but ones that have stuck with me. The Falcon Hollow kobold trilogy. The Mad Gods Key. (Dun114) The Whispering Cairn. (Dun 120 something) The Tamerauts Fate ( Dun ?) The first three RotRL The Forsaken Arch ( Dun 120) Howl of the Carrion King I haven't finished reading it yet but I really like the Brinewall Legacy so far. The Madness in Istiven trilogy (Dun 117-119?) Thank you for asking for my favoites! Varisia has hulking bald barbarians, hot tattooed gypsies and a grip of ruins everwhere from a couple of failed civilizations. Whats not to love? APs are in Varisia because Varisia is cool. Kinda like California. Notice that Katy Perry sings about California girls not Iowa girls. Daisy dukes and bikinis on top? Check. Coveralls? Not so much. I don't know much about the sci fi sites in Washington, but my trip into British Columbia was WAY too short. The people were great, the sights were amazing. I really loved mountain biking on south mountain, Whistler was really cool (although their bike park wasn't open yet) and Victoria on Vancouver Island is a blast. Its more "victorian" than London. Great inspiration for a steampunk game.
Oh yeah about the Nor Cal section... There is a great micro brewery in Ft Bragg, a kick ass ice creme shop in Mendocino's tourist area (I can't remember what its called) and do not forget Bodega Bay where the movie "The Birds" was filmed. Don't eat at the Tides restaurant, there is a little shack outside of the restaurant that is cheaper and has better food. Pt Arena light house is cool and Pt Reyes is a neat section of coast. K. Threeshades, it is the way it goes. As Dark Mistress pointed out life gets complicated. I rock a three player group almost weekly but...we bail on two or three sessions every six or seven weeks. My Geeks are 25-39 in age if that's any help. What ever you do, do not take it personally. Things just get in the way. Don't get me wrong, I get bummed when we don't play, I start jonesing for the DM screen and itching to roll some dice. One thing that has helped our games is a "restart" if we miss three weeks or more. You don't even have to tell your players about it if you dont want to. I'll retool the adventure and start'em out all over again or move on with something different. (the arguement could be made that as we get older our memory starts to slip...)This helps a lot, I use recurring monsters/NPCs to keep flow and continuity but adventures or modules that take three decent sessions to get through seem to be best. Hope that helps. I've been gaming with the same basic group of people for nine and a half years. Soon after I usurped DMing the group with relatively new first and second level characters ran into an owlbear that schooled them pretty badly. I use owlbears as a test monster to gauge the players progress with their characters and as a group. They have taken to it with gusto and usually I am reminded every two or three levels or so to throw one or more owlbears at them. Kinda fun really. I will run a games with one player and I have several friends I will do that with. Maturity is required.
Hmmm.
This is from an eleventh generation Texan. My 2 cp.
I am in the process of converting The Crucible of Freya by Necromancer Games and The Whispering Cairn and Three Faces of Evil by Paizo to 4E. I will reserve my opinion on 4E until these have been played through. I agree with one of the prior posters that the PFRPG Alpha 1 release had a really cool skill system. I wish it had remained. I love the new half orc, I can't wait to play one. I didn't like the "re imagined" orc in the Pathfinder suppliment, I have grown tired of the raw seething horde of mindless killing frenzy. I am looking forward to release 3 as the Ranger and the Monk seem especially suited for a half orc character. As a DM I am glad that orcs aren't frothing thugnards and this opens up a few opportunities for classic villains. The half orc cleric of orcus in the Necromancer games adventure "The Crucible of Freya" has some lasting potential. We have used the new turning twice in our playtest. It has worked out well so far (2nd level-slow advancement). I really like that as a DM I can engineer more complex encounter with more opponents than before as the Cleric will still be the healing battery, but the players choice of spells is important not just a throw away ability destined for cure ____ spells. The next encounter is a third level cleric that channels negative energy... will the party survive? A 30 foot burst of 2d6 save for half is going to be eye opening. (an advanced Nirashi from Haunted Forest). I really like where this is going with conditions. However, a page with each condition in its own box like the Broken Condition in Alpha release 1 Pg. 43 would be great or... Condition Cards!!! That would be awesome! Having a nice color page with the various conditions on them would be cool, something we could have in a sheet protector for ease of reference. But a Condition Card the DM could slap down to tell me how much my character $^!#$ would be much more fun. I most certainly plan to buy the beta and the hardcover. I am even looking at going to gencon to buy and show my support for Paizo. So far it is as good a Unearthed Arcana and on its way to being as good or better than Arcana Evolved. I think those were the first to truely eclipse WotC as far as quality hardcover products go. Zombieneighbors, I disagree with you. A fifteen minute adventuring day is a result of poorly scaled encounters, or poor resource management. The root of this problem lies at that table. If you are so unhappy with spells per day then there are a number of non Vancian magic systems out there, why not use one of them? . I have seen wizards blow through their spells early and then have to rely on the rest of the group for the rest of the day. I have seen wizards conserve their spells until the rest of the party was too weakened (or dead) to continue. It is hoped that even a dungeon is a dynamic environment with NPC's that react and interact with the the players and the consequences of the players actions. K, I wanna play in your game. Seducing daughters of villains and other such RP sounds like a blast! I like the new grabble rules and when my party began the serious throw drown, the fight held bad guy who was then fair game to attacks from the other three party members. The necromancer character killed the bad guy with grave touch. I feel that so far DC 15 scales nicely. I would like to see greater grapple as a feat. TfaD, thanks for your info. I run a non psi game so this is cool to read. I actually like Concentration as a skill. I applied it to more classes, giving a +2 bonus to d20 rolls when used successfully. I used it with a iajutsu stuff from OA for fighters, a bonus to roguey things for Rogues, a bonus to spellcraft stuff for mages and Clerics. I also used it with the ritual warrior from Arcana Evolved. My group and I group are still figuring out the CMB grapple thing, making it more complicated than it is. But the half orc was able to get Grelm Hammerlock into a headlock and is now trying to depants him in the Travellers Rest inn (Haunted Forest adventure). I am all for killing characters with lots of little viscous gnome swarms when their 18th level mage must retire after a fifteen minute work day.
Resource management is a part of the game. I hope that it stays that way. I really dug the bonus feats for the RotRL characters. Something special at first level. If you could add chain mail bikini to the equipment list. I have two women at my gaming table and one will have her character buy it just because, and the other will hit me just because it is in there. Ok. I think maybe thats not such a great Idea. Of the Players guides you have published, RotRL is my favorite. It feels... "Greyhawkish" but not. I mean that in the best way I PROMISE!!!!
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