Molech's page

Cintra Bristol wrote:

- Greyhawk : 34

- Forgotten realms : 17
- Eberron : 13
- Dark sun : 5
- Spelljammer :1
- Ravenloft : 6
- Dragonlance : 5
- Al-Qadim : 2
- Maztica :
- Kara-Tur :
- Oriental adventures / settings : 1
- Mystara :2

- Scarred lands :
- Homebrew : 11
- Wilderlands of High Fantasy/City State of the Invincible Overlord: 2
- Birthright : 4
- The Styes: 1
- Council of Wyrms (v.3.5): 1
- Planescape: 2
- Freeport: 2
- Midnight :
- Ptolus : 4
- Iron kingdoms : 2

2 homebrew (long standing campaigns),

This will also really help at the end of Test of Smoking eye. Rakshasa, fire giant, insane clay golemn, Lich, betraying demon, all in a few minutes.

Wow, your PCs aren't in the habbit of rejuvinating every time they catch their breath's? Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to teach them this survival technique.

Have them walk out into the sand with Alek, even at half strength, thinking the fights are over. Then when they see they're stranded have Nab appear and start kicking the ever luvin s*@# out of 'em. They run back into the room with the mirror and close the door. Now, you'll have to make the door with some kind of still functioning magical lock -- no need to explain it to the PCs (shouldn't be too hard this was the entrance to a treasure vault -- locks from the inside are important). Then as they lay there bleeding have Nab start pounding the door to smitherings (little pig, little pig, let me...). The PCs will know he's coming through soon and will start preparing. Allow them to hear Nab's curses of frustration and then, after a pause, the incantations to some powerful spell of opening. They'll prepare faster. If they need more time to prepare then have Nab's first spell not do the whole trick. Anyway, you get the idea.

And your PCs will (rightly) never think a dungeon is over again and rejuvenate whenever they get a chance.

I don't know if this counts (it's not for me) but way back in late 80's I DMed a game with the usual suspects and a first timer who played a first level Thief. I had a horde of kobolds, goblins and such attack en masse and the experienced players all decided to climb up a large oak on a hillock to survive with arrows and such. Well the newbie Thief climbed up too but then decided that since they were just goblins and kobolds and such (they each died after 1 hit) he would jump down off the tree to the swarm and fight with his short sword.

So, 6 4th lvl experienced players in a tree,
50 or so goblins and kobolds plus
1 1st lvl thief on the ground.

And the bastard lived!!! try as I might I couldn't manage to kill that d*@!ed Thief. I kept rolling crappy for the 1 HD swarm and he kept rolling 18's, 19's, and 20's.

6 1/2 months ago I started a new group to help sate my addiction. 1 of my 5 players gamed for 4 months back in '03 but the others had never played; 1 had never even heard of D&D! So I taught my house-rules, helped roll up some PCs, loaned some novels and started wowing 'em w/ goblins, orcs, potions and an intelligent sword -- ahh, to be a newbie again! The group's 1st hated enemy were Kobolds (showed 'em the full page picture in the old MM - still the best illustration of Kobolds) and my newbies now connote these softies (after a 40% PK) with the same wide eyed terror the rest of us have of Drow. Ahh, to be a newbie again. It's been a blast.

Well a couple months ago I let them retire their first PC party (9th lvl) and start experimenting. I've run some stand alone Dungeon crawls and plot intrigues with higher level PCs and begun to expose them to a wider spectrum of the D&D experience. They're learning fast. Now their nemesis is a Rakshasa Priest of Vecna with ties to the 9 Hells!

Anyway, I'm starting this thread seeking advice and nostalgia for a campaign I'm about to start writing for them. We'll start it, 1st lvl, in late Sept and the campaign will be called... Ravenloft. None of my players have ever heard of Ravenloft. They have no idea.

So everyone, imagine you're about to do Ravenloft w/ some newbies; what are some things you would do? What scared you back in the day? I've thought about having their fortunes read -- just like the original. I've thought about just wisking them away like Jander Sunstar. In return for your help I'll let you know how I've started effective Ravenloft campaigns in the past to longtime, jaded players who know all.

You can make a large adventure or small adventure depending on how much you can add for the other classes to do at the same time. You could create a good sized dungeon crawl that the Wizard has learned was once a security measure for an older wizard's library.

You could run a large adventure where a magic item like a tome or codix that reveals its information or power or whatever as the wizard studies it more: perhaps during the adventure the wizard has to roll various checks to gain new info from it (info that will help the PCs solve the next problem on their plates) and the player group could be given handouts of certain parts of the tome or codix to decode or decifer like a puzzle, the answer to which furthers the PC's goals. The DM would make the adventure like a step 1, step 2 adventure.

Or the old cliche: start focusing on components. Instead of a stupid, unrealistic bag o' components, tell the Wizard he has to find all his components. He'll look at his prefered memorized spell list and decide what spell components he's likely to need on a regular basis and during game play will actively look for them. He will soon start to request a Side Trek or two to find a specific component.

Hope this helps.

It really depends on how much the wizards have to detail their 1 hour studying of spell books each day (or priests' praying). According to the rules that time is just to memorize the spells for the day but that really doesn't make sense so you could have wizards tell you more specifically what they are studying.

Ultimately, though, we don't focus on this because its not very playable; we just segway time -- like when PCs use the bathroom or groom themselves.

Try a Side Trek adventure focusing on this kind of stuff (gather components / find a mundane tome of knowledge) and it will remind the players of just what their wizards do when not in combat. One little adventure is enough for a lot of believability to the campaign world.