PulpCruciFiction's page

I just finished running Mad God's Key as a prequel to the SCAP, with four of my five players for the upcoming campaign using pregenerated characters.

Storywise, I introduced Shebeleth as Veltargo's boss, and the book will have contained information about contacting Nerull to free Adimarchus in case the soulcage plan fails. The PCs won't notice anything when these elements reappear, but the players should have a nice revelation, tying things together.

My biggest concern is that the players found the adventure EXTREMELY difficult - I had to fudge things several times to avoid a TPK, and even so Veltargo managed to kill the party bard and take everyone else into the negatives except the cleric. For the SCAP, we'll have another player and they'll have characters that they built personally, but should I work on scaling Life's Bazaar down to help them out?

Basically, in the early parts of the campaign, Alek is doing a lot of investigation outside of Cauldron - he spends a lot of time in Redgorge, for example. This is why he's not available for the events of Zenith Trajectory (and Flood Season as well, I think). He's also basically the MacGuffin of the Demonskar Legacy - he is tricked and then driven insane by some of the villains there, and the PCs spend the adventure trying to find him. When they get to him he is alive, but he and the PCs are attacked by a powerful demon who concentrates on killing him. The rest of the AP after that assumes that he is dead.

I agree with everything Frank said, though if the PCs can't prove that Ike was involved with the attack, I doubt he'd throw away the church's reputation on their allegations. Ultimately, it works if some of the town guard go to take him in and get obliterated, leading someone else to ask the PCs to do the job.

On another note, though Cauldron is a pretty enlightened city, it's still medieval period-equivalence we're dealing with. You could simply rule that there is no cause of action for emotional distress to get rid of the church of Pelor's claim. Also, keep in mind that here, as in real life, the wealthier party often has more leverage in the legal system. The church of Wee Jas can pound away on the PCs and anyone else with frivolous lawsuits using their enormous financial resources. Not that you need to include this element, but if the PCs are insistent on using the legal system to aggravate Ike, they could find themselves being sued for trespassing or hounded by tax collectors or other petty government officials, spurred on by the church of Wee Jas.

I'm a Joe Pesci-worshiper.

Actually, I'm a non-practicing, non-denominational Christian. I don't have a cohesive group as such, but I play fairly regularly with 1 Southern Baptist, 3 practicing Catholics, and a collection of non-practicing Catholics, non-denominational Christians, and agnostics.

Yeah, he's pretty crotchety about that kind of thing. They also adapted From Hell, I believe. For a guy that hates how people convert his comics into movies, he's sure licensed out a lot of them.

In his defense, it's not actually him that does the licensing. When most writers and artists do work for the major comic book companies, what they create is owned entirely by the corporation. Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. I'm not sure who published From Hell, but it's more than likely that it was not Moore who did the licensing on that one, either.

As for an upcoming Watchmen movie, I'm in the camp that hopes it never happens unless it's an extremely faithful miniseries. I think the group of people that are familiar with the comic is relatively small, and doing a big studio film version of it will more than likely just make all of them angry.

Threadjack warning: Also, to respond to what kahoolin had to say about V for Vendetta, I could sort of see where Moore was coming from with the remark about the film version being moronic. I really liked it at first, but when I thought back on it I was less impressed; I think they removed a lot of the moral grey area and made V more of a clear-cut hero. In a way, they made it almost into a commercial for terrorism, the way "24" is almost a commercial for government-sanctioned torture. When you have a government as obviously corrupt and oppressive as the one in the film, and you're enough of a genius to take that government on without doing any collateral damage whatsoever, then sure, blowing up Parliament seems like a great idea. Sadly, in real life, things are never that simple.

Anyway, if I had created something like that, I'd be upset if a lot of the ambiguity were removed to shift the emphasis of the message, too.

Sorry I can't be of much help. I bought the book and really enjoyed the setting, but I've never had the opportunity to play. Let me know how it goes!

I don't think you need to create a missing page in Keygan's journal - keep in mind that the skulks only kidnapped one of the Shackleborn by accident, so the Cagewrights would independently be targeting the PC's wife. As for when, you could do it during Zenith Trajectory - maybe part of the reason for sending them out to get Zenith is to keep them busy while the real kidnapping takes place.

I would definitely have the assassins take another crack at the PCs, at the least. At the least, they'll be looking to cash in and to get back at the characters for whatever wounds they received. Maybe they've even picked up some backup if your PCs had too easy of a time the first go around.

I really like that idea, Bram, and I might steal it for the future.

When I had just started out playing the game, I wrote a Valentine's Day adventure where the players had to stop Cupid. His love arrows had been switched out with real ones, and he'd been charmed so that he didn't realize it. When the PCs first tried to stop him, he shot one of them in the heart and then flew away giggling.

I would not recommend this for anyone else's use.

I don't really have any specific types of adventures that I'd like to see banned from the magazine. As long as it's well-written, I'm up for anything. Things like epic adventures aren't of as much personal use for me, but as long as they're not included every month I'm fine with them - an adventure can be a good read even if there's no current use for it, and by holding onto the magazine you can always go back for it when it will be more useful. For example, I don't currently play in Eberron, but you better believe that I'll hang onto Chimes at Midnight for when I do.

I just received the replacement copy of Dungeon #143. Thanks to everyone at the office for your rapid response - kudos to the Paizo staff once again!

In addition to some of the other motivations already listed here (variety being the major one), there are two other motivations that I've seen for playing opposite-gender characters.

The first, coming from when my friends and I started playing around age 12, is the idea of having control over an attractive member of the other sex. As pre-teen nerds, D&D was about as close as we were going to get to just about any member of the opposite sex at all.

The second, which is an approach taken by people I play with now (age 23), is that playing a character of the opposite sex creates some distance between player and character. This gives the player some more freedom to roleplay without feeling self-conscious - if you make a mistake or don't roleplay particularly well, you can attribute it to the fact that you don't understand the gender of the character.

Here's a related question that's interested me: when someone in your group is playing a member of the opposite sex and others tend to stick to characters of the same gender, has there ever been in-game romance where the players were both members of the same sex? I ask because I've never seen it happen personally.

Thanis Kartaleon wrote:

Simon Snowlock vs. Simon Belmont

Winner: Simon Cowell

Until Simon the chipmunk takes him out from behind. Those chipmunks have shifty eyes.

Slinky wrote:

EDIT: I don't think the "Yeah, but what's his code." thing really applies here. -IF- the paladin were responsible for what happened, it would have been a clear-cut case of deception, which cannot be allowed under any Lawful Good code.

I'm not so sure I even buy into the idea that deception in this case would be a hit to the Paladins honour. Its a friggen Spawn of Kyuss. It personifies evil. Really if a Paladin tricks a Demon into a room so he can kill it I see that as all to the greater Good. Its a Demon and beyond any hope of redemption. Its destruction furthers the cause of Good.

That is a good point, and tricking a demon in order to more easily kill it would definitely benefit the greater good, but, especially if they're using the Book of Exalted Deeds, it would be against the paladin's code to commit an immoral act, even for the greater good. A paladin is not Jack Bauer, though Jack will get the job done sooner. Where Jack would torture a badguy (or a puppy, for that matter) to get the location of a nuclear bomb, the paladin would have to let the bomb go off.

In this case I don't think that happened, though, given that the paladin wasn't trying to trick the demon.

I can't speak to the balancing issues, but you could tie some plot issues together if you have Dhor be the son of Dhorlot and Gau. That gives him some more emotional investment in the final battle with the Cagewrights - maybe his actual life's goal was to murder both of his godsforsaken parents...

Is it Rakasta or Rakshasa? I had always thought it was Rakshasa, but Rakasta seems more popular online.

EDIT: Sorry for the threadjacking.

I like the idea as an intro for little kids. Personally, if I were writing it up, I'd have Lord Licorice make a return at the end...I don't really think Gloppy makes a great BBEG, and Lord Licorice looked a lot more sinister to me as a kid. Also, I'd have Queen Frostine be an ally of the party's - maybe initially hostile, but they can get her to their side by agreeing to take on Gloppy, who's been polluting her sea or something like that.

Good luck with developing it, and let us know how it goes!

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions! I did manage to track down the original Harlequin, and it looks really interesting from what I've read.

As for your problem of sacrificing an ally, I don't think Kaurophon would count after the party turns on him. From what you said, it doesn't sound like they ever really considered him an ally, and any alliance they may have had was broken once they tried to kill him. If you don't want the PCs to have to sacrifice one of their own, you could have them set up a tentative alliance with another group like the rakshasa or the succubus, or just make sure that they have the couatl or the avoral guardinal with them at the end.

I'm a 3L at Harvard Law School - most of my gaming revenue comes from savings from my last summer job. I certainly wouldn't refer to myself as a know-it-all, though - the main thing I've learned at law school is that there is always a lot more to learn.

Not having seen the movie or read the book, I should probably keep my mouth shut, but check out the reviews on rottentomatoes.com. In short, they support Luke's criticism - at least five different critics point out that the filmmakers ruthlessly cribbed from Star Wars. I don't know if the book is the same way, though - other reviewers said it was much better.

Off the top of my head, I can only come up with a couple. I'll post again when I get back home for Christmas break.

The Dragon-Blooded - Exalted
Very well written, gave me a ton of inspiration. Ever since I first read it, I've been dying to play in a Dragon-Blooded campaign.

Milwaukee by Night - Vampire: The Masquerade
Not so much for its innate quality as for the use I've gotten from it over the years - my Vampire game that's run on and off since I was in high school is set here, and the NPC's are so actualized by this point that I feel as if I know them personally.

The Giovanni Chronicles - Vampire: The Masquerade
A great campaign, heavy on both action and roleplaying. The climax of the first book is absolutely classic, though I haven't gotten to run much more than that.

I love all of the ideas you're coming up with on this thread, they're going to be extremely helpful when I get to running this adventure. That last idea about getting the silver weapons on loan is particularly good; you can use it even if Drakthar actually turns out to BE a proto-vampire. That way you can reward the party for planning ahead on Drakthar, and still nail them with Tongueater.

One other question, though - if your player just wanted to be killed off and was willing to go over the top to do it, why not just let himself be killed by the character trying to stop him, instead of taking that guy down too? Cause he is what we like to call, here in Canada, a royal pain in the @$$. He thinks its fun to screw up any game he can, then he throws it in my face telling me that a " good DM " would be able to handle the unexpected. This is so traumatizing it might just push me to the drink....awww who am I kidding like I need an excuse.

Feh. If I were you, I'd be prepared...with lightning. ZAP! Actually, the funniest uppity-player story I've heard was the DM just saying: "You spontaneously combust. You die."

In all seriousness, though, if a player is chronically disruptive like that, I'd recommend having a chat with him about what everyone is trying to get out of the game. A good DM should be able to handle the unexpected, but a good player should cut him some slack and not do things just to mess things up.

Ok heres another scenario. Do you allow a player to bring in a new character cause he killed his original character off, just to play something different. My player had his PC go from CN to CE cause he knew I wouldnt allow him to play an evil character, and he wanted to bring in a new character. He accomplished this alignment shift by killing an NPC prisoner in cold blood, then deciding to see how well the village they were in would burn. During his little Roleplaying hissy fit, he killed a member of his party who was trying to stop him. Now how would you deal with this? Please dont look at this as a thread jacking cause I find all that was on here releveant to this situation.

I'd let the player bring in a new character, but with the understanding that he doesn't have to have a psychotic meltdown in-game to accomplish the same thing next time. If I have a player that wants to kill his character off to play something else, we try to work something out so that it might even serve the story. Otherwise, we simply retire the character and bring in the new one.

One other question, though - if your player just wanted to be killed off and was willing to go over the top to do it, why not just let himself be killed by the character trying to stop him, instead of taking that guy down too?

Our groups cleric worshipped an elven nature god of some type (I forget which one), and therefore did not have many ranks in Knowledge: Undead. We flubbed our rolls, and out characters did not even know Drakthar was undead. We went in with no silver weapons, and no other preparations. The fight was a total slaughter, and the DM was making hugely obvious fudges to avoid having a TPK and ending the campaign right there.

We had no silver after Drakthar, and when you head out to the Lucky Monkey, you don't know that there will be a Were Baboon present, so no silver weapons. The fight was very similar to Drakthar, especially with all the henchmen we had to deal with while fighting Tongueeater.

That's an interesting way to get around the problem, but one that I wouldn't want to have to rely on. For one thing, with situations like this, I like to allow players to come up with the solutions on their own - meaning that unless the character has really low Intelligence, I'd let them determine Drakthar was undead based on the graffiti if they could figure it out. I'd be more likely to force a roll to have them figure out that silver can be used on undead, since that seems like something players might know from experience where characters wouldn't. Even there, though, I'd let the characters get that information by asking around.

Would it be effective to have a rest period after Drakthar's Way, and then ask the players specifically what they're bringing to the Lucky Monkey? I would think it unlikely that you'd make it a habit of carrying silver weaponry around all the time on the off-chance that a were-baboon attack occurs, and as far as they know, all they're up against at the Monkey is a group of bandits. To avoid telegraphing that this is particularly important, you'd have to ask them about all of their equipment and enforce limitations before this adventure, though.

As several people on the boards have brought up, Drakthar and Tongueeater have the same weakness. Because of this, smart parties should be prepared for Tongueeater when they come up against him after fighting Drakthar, making what was once a feared encounter much easier. Was the intent to take some of the sting out of Tongueeater, or is there something you can recommend to keep him the terrifying opponent he once was?

Since there are a lot of Shadowrun afficionados on the boards, I figured this would be as good a place to ask this question as any. I'm looking to start running a Shadowrun game, but I don't have a lot of time to write up original material - are there any published modules anyone could recommend?

Hey Fizz,

There was a longish thread going over this very problem. Check it out here (sorry, I don't know how to link):

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/dnd/archives/5PCBaneP CsAkaCampaignKillers

Or search the message boards for "PC Bane." PvP has become a major pet peeve of mine thanks to the group I currently play with; it's such an issue that we have to ban it from certain games altogether, in spite of the cost that has on the realism of the game.

These are all great suggestions! Let me throw in the OST of Gladiator, composed by Hans Zimmer. The track titled "The Battle" is great for...wait for it...battle scenes.

I haven't actually read it, but I've heard that Wizards of the Coast's new adventure, Scourge of the Howling Horde, is very short and introductory. It's 32 pages long, but a lot of that is taken up by the new delve-format for the encounters. If you're a new DM, that could be useful for you as well.

I wrote a paper on the misperceptions of RPGs in modern culture last year - part of my focus was on psychological studies performed on gamers, all of which show no substantial deviations from control groups. I can post citations to the articles, though I don't know if you'll be able to find hard copies of them.

1. James L. Carroll and Paul M. Carolin. Relationship Between Game Playing and Personality. Psychological Reports, v. 64 (1989), pp. 705-06.

2. Lisa A. DeRenard and Linda Mannik Kline. Alienation and the Game Dungeons and Dragons. Psychological Reports, v. 66 (1990), pp. 1219-1222.

3. Armando Simon. Emotional Stability Pertaining to the Game Vampire: The Masquerade. Psychological Reports, v. 83 (1998), pp. 732-34.

Hope that helps!

Also, Ashenvale, it's great to know that there has been at least one other gamer at HLS in history (I went to your website when you mentioned that you'd gone to the best law school in the country to see what you meant by that)! I'm a 3L here now, and I wind up having to game with the undergrads at BC, which is my girlfriend's school.

And Deathstroke the Terminator was a ruthless dingo-killer.

Drogo, along with all of the other main characters from AGoT, are fully statted in the d20 setting published by Sword & Sorcery. He's listed as a Raider 10 / Commander 3, both of which are also explained in the book. Strangely enough, there is a prestige class called Bloodrider, but they didn't give him any levels in it.

Also, thirteen levels might not seem like much, but the game is very low-power - the most levels they give anyone is sixteen (Tywin Lannister).

I find that spelling things backward can actually lead to decent names sometimes - I had a Jedi Master named Marb Rekots, and a friend named one Amak Artus, which I loved until I realized what he had done (and even after that it was pretty cool).

Most of the problems I've had with names have been on the DM's end as well. We had a guy who would put absolutely no effort into NPC or place names, and I'm not just talking about ones that he had to come up with on the fly. This led to our Star Trek crew visiting the planet Ooban, and, later in the same session, another one called Naboo.

But my favorite story has to be from a group that I wasn't involved with - the player's name was Neil, and every character he made up was named after him. This led to some interesting conversations:

"Remember when Neil took down that villain?"
"Neil the paladin?"
"No, Neil the Jedi."

I've had some great times playing this game - I remember thinking that the character creation process was extensive enough to allow pretty much any kind of hero you wanted. However, I also remember absolutely HATING the system for it, specifically combat. I'm much, much more focused on story than rules when I game, so for me to notice how terrible a system is says something. If I remember correctly, it was basically just 2nd Edition D&D with hundreds more hit points in the form of SDC, meaning that even the most meaningless fights would wind up taking hours to play out. I remember that you could put five bullets into a thug before he'd go down for good.

Does anyone else remember frustrations with this system (or positive memories, for that matter)? My friends and I enjoyed the game, but I think it was more for the excitement of having a superhero RPG of any kind than for the game itself. Are there other superhero games that work better?

I'll steal Jason's format:

D&D (FR, Planescape, Greyhawk, Game of Thrones d20, and homebrews)**
Vampire**
Mage
Hunter**
Exalted*
Star Wars (WEG)**
Star Trek (Decipher)**
Kobolds Ate My Baby
Men in Black
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Heroes Unlimited**
Shadowrun**
EDIT: Marvel Super-Heroes Game - both the one with the cards and the one with point allocation
(also, I've played in home-designed games based on Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Wing, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII - I had a friend who was way into designing systems for the anime that interested him at the moment)

There are many, many more that I own and fully intend to run one day, but have not gotten the chance yet. Those that top that list are Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, Trinity, Werewolf, Wraith, Changeling, Spycraft, 7th Sea, and Adventure!

"The House of Broken Minds" has also been a locale visited by our gaming group on a few occasions (Dungeon 135). In our campaign, it houses an order of Loremasters and Diviners specifically interested in preventative oracles/divinations/prophecies to stop major disasters/deaths/wars/etc. Their main source of information (and the reason behind the name of the place) is a very insane young twelve year old boy who spends most of his time bound in the Circle of Madness. Sociopathic and violent, this boy is the younger brother of a PC, and the very first adventure that DM ran us through (we rotate DMs for our solo-session games) had us solving a string of murders and it turning out to be this young boy. He's got a terrible demonic possession/influence, and for the most part, we're trying to cure the poor kid, but in the meantime, the kid spouts prophecies at an alarming rate, and relishes the future deaths and disasters he sees. The order, who fly us in and out on their pegasus mounts, collect oracles (including evil ones, which are bound in the binding cells below) and steer our adventures (including the one I mentioned above, with the Elestial monks).

We've never yet been invited into the strange beam-of-light observatory at the top of the building, and the party cleric is starting to think that some of the bound spirits and evil creatures are gaining some sort of foothold among the wizards here, but so far, they've not steered us wrong.

I'm just waiting for the day when whatever evil it is that's starting to tug the strings comes forth - I hope it's the force behind the possession of the PC's younger brother, and we can save him, etc, but anything would be good.

I absolutely love this idea, and I may have to lift it wholesale for future use if you don't mind. Things like this are the reason I came to these boards in the first place, so my kudos to both Bram and Mr. West!

I only got to play through a few sessions of the campaign a couple of summers ago. I'm planning on picking up the hardcover in the near future and starting over with a new group of PC's. The group I had last time was:

Male Centaur Ranger
Male Human Fighter / Sorcerer
Female Elf Druid
Female Human Fighter

We made it most of the way through Life's Bazaar, though not all the way up to the BBEG. I sort of had a kill - my friend's wife was playing the female fighter, and got absolutely nailed by the grell in Jzadirune. Since she was new, I fudged dramatically and repeatedly to keep her alive, but then she's the one who basically killed the campaign by refusing to play anymore, so I retconned it and said that she had been killed after all.

There are a couple of second edition adventures that you might be able to use for your campaign. The first is called "The Reverse Dungeon" - it presents a few opportunities for PC's to play the badguys. The first section seems like it would be particularly good for you; the PC's play goblins defending a cave system from meddling adventurers. If your characters are orcs, it wouldn't take much modification to make that adventure work.

Another second edition adventure you might be able to use is called "The Silver Key." As written, PC's play adventurers who get polymorphed into orcs to go rescue a diplomat, if I remember correctly. You could switch it up and have your PC's play orcs in the city that have to root out the traitors, have the entire scenario reversed and have your PC's polymorphed into humans to rescue a member of their tribe, or at the least you could just take the setting of the orc village for your own use.

Hope that helps!

I'd like to second Doug's recommendation for the A Game of Thrones RPG. I'm currently in a campaign set in Westeros with very low magic, and I'm having a blast with it. Charging into a town filled with wildlings with only a nine-year old kid by my side was not one of my better ideas, but it made for a great session.

I have one question for you, Heath...how did the dingo meet its doom?

Ah, PvP. My arch-nemesis.

I have no problem with intra-party conflict, if it serves the story and is not done with the intention or effect of hurting other players' feelings. Think about your favorite ensemble show. How often do the main characters have conflicts, even ones that come down to violence? It can definitely make for compelling drama. When I was in high school, I had a group that understood that. Characters were designed to fit common goals, but played as distinct individuals. If they disagreed with one another about important issues, they let one another know. Only once did this result in character death, to the best of my knowledge. Same thing with party traitors - we had a Star Trek game where another PC was designed as a Cardassian spy, and the reveal was one of the highlights of the campaign, as he managed to kill another PC and cripple the ship before we brought him down.

The thing we all realized was that we were working together to tell a story. There weren't hard feelings, and we didn't take conflict in one game over to another.

Unfortunately, that doesn't sound like the situation you face - one which I have sadly grown accustomed to over the past year or so. The group I play with now is practically PvP-centered. Did that other kid beat you at Twilight Imperium? No problem, throw his character into a vat of acid in a D&D game for no reason. Not getting the impression that a guy you like is interested? Try to bring a building down on top of his head in game for spite! Likewise, we had an entire campaign structured around PvP - before the game started, the DM told us that another player was conspiring with demons, and that we'd need to take care of it in game. So the focus of the campaign became our struggle to take him down, which was made impossible by the DM's refusal to let him die until the final lame showdown.

The difference here is that the conflict is not motivated by the story. On the one hand, it's motivated by out-of-game frustrations, which is metagaming of the worst kind and will only lead to more hurt feelings. In the other case I mentioned, the conflict actually drives the story, instead of the other way around. This could be okay, except where the only person enjoying himself is the one causing the disruption.

Even stranger, many of the kids in the group seem to thrive on this warped atmosphere, to the point where several of us have been forced to ban all player conflict in game. I don't like doing it, since it detracts from the realism and cuts off an area ripe for good storytelling as I described above, but where it's such a distraction, outright banning it is sometimes necessary.

All that is, I suppose, my way of saying that if your group doesn't appreciate the PvP that's going on, you should ask your DM to put a stop to it.

I absolutely love the idea of the next AP dealing with a war between the races - there are so many interesting ways you could take something like that, both by allowing people to play out truly iconic battle scenes and by dreaming up twists to put on the most familiar ideas. I'm more than confident that the Paizo staff can keep it interesting over a 10-12 adventure arc. Elves/orcs works perfectly, because those two races are the archetypal light/dark dichotomy within D&D - as I said before, you'll get interesting games both by playing that straight and by introducing shades of gray.

As for Festivus' idea of having the PC's play orcs, I think it would be cool for one story, but it doesn't have the broad appeal to force everyone to play a team of orcs for an entire AP. I know the people I game with would revolt if I told them "Hey gang, I'm about to run a 1-2 year campaign in which you all have to be orcs!"

In response to what Mothman asked a while back, and though I haven't read the adventure, I believe "Man Forever" has some Batman references. What exactly they are, I couldn't tell you.

Not to worry, Sebastian. When I saw Greymalkin Academy, my first thought was the X-Mansion as well. I think equating a school training young wizards with the Mansion based on the name is quite an honest mistake. As I haven't read that adventure yet either, does the gruff character of Nogal that was referenced earlier in the thread actually exist?

Hey everyone,

Based on a concern raised by Aubrey the Malformed in the "Enough with the comic book references already" thread, I started thinking about references to classic adventures in Dungeon and recent WotC products. On the one hand, they're fascinating and extremely cool for people who've been playing the game since 1e. On the other hand, they could make newer players feel a bit left out. So I was thinking that it might be a good idea to centralize information on where those references arise and exactly what they're referencing. That way, newer players will have the opportunity to go back and catch up if they so choose. I'll start off with an easy example of what I'm talking about.

3.5 Adventure: Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
Source Material: Castle Ravenloft (1e)
References: This 3.5 adventure is essentially a remake of the classic first edition adventure; the setting and primary antagonist, Strahd von Zarovich, are the same.

That one was really obvious and stated in the adventure's description, but I'm both woefully behind on my Dungeon reading and a relative newcomer to D&D in general.

I personally don't mind references to outside media where they don't detract from the game. Obviously a DM can just call it Asteroid M Academy if he wants to have a more neutral name. I think the issue is less that the references are bad as a matter of policy - as in, they make the adventure worse or less enjoyable in and of themselves - and more that they can be kind of ham-handed or cringe-inducing in those that get them. More a matter of style than anything else.

I'm a little bit more concerned with what Aubrey pointed out about the references to old school adventures. That's more the kind of thing that I think can have an effect on the overall value of the adventure. I feel like in those cases, you're missing out on something important if you don't get the reference, whereas with things like comic book references, they simply add something extra if you do get them. I still think it's cool to pay tribute to D&D history through references like these, I just wish there was a way for newer gamers to clue in so that they can get the full experience as well.

- Greyhawk: 71

- Homebrew: 33
- Forgotten Realms: 31
- Eberron: 24
- Planescape: 15
- Ravenloft: 15
- Dark Sun: 13
- Al-Qadim: 9
- Dragonlance: 8
- Mystara/Hollow World: 8
- Spelljammer: 7
- Ptolus: 7
- Birthright: 6
- Iron Kingdoms: 6
- The Styes: 5
- Wilderlands of High Fantasy/City State of the Invincible Overlord: 5
- Kara-Tur: 3
- Council of Wyrms (v.3.5): 3
- Freeport: 2
- Oriental Adventures / settings: 2
- Maztica: 2
- Wheel of Time: 2
- Scarred Lands: 1
- Diablo: 1
- Everquest: 1
- Ghostwalk: 1
- Midnight: 1
- kingdoms of Kalamar: 0
- Sundered Reaches: 0
- Warcraft: 0

Added Archades's :)

+1 Greyhawk, +1 FR

Greyhawk for convenience's sake, though the setting doesn't play as much of a part as I know that it could. Being in school, as I'm sure many of you know, means that you have to take extended periods away from the game now and then, players constantly drop out, etc., so running games in the default world is just the easiest way to go. Hopefully once I settle down in one place for an extended period I can get a campaign with more of a focus on setting going.

On a related note, do any of you live in the greater metro Atlanta area? I'll be moving down there next fall and will be desperately searching for a game.

farewell2kings wrote:

I thought PulpCrucifiction's rant was pretty good.

I did too, although I'd be one of the guilty one trick ponies--human fighter with max to STR, wpn focus-bastard sword, cleave, whatnot...but I make it mine, man!!! I make it mine!

Like Liam Neeson on Tim Roth in Rob Roy...yeah bring your little rapier, cos I'll open ye up with the claymore!
Dunmaglas!
I wasn't gonna argue with him or nothin, though.

Thanks for the kind words Heath and f2k. I don't really have a problem with people having favorite types of characters, though. Just when those characters are pretty much designed to limit the fun of everyone else involved.