PulpCruciFiction's page

And not to hi-jack further, but where are you in the law school process? I vaguely remember you saying you were a second year; does that mean your doing the summer associate gig, clerking, or some other option? Just curious - we literal rules lawyers need to stick together. ;-)

I'm actually wrapping up my 3L year at this point. I opted to skip the clerkship step and go straight for the money, so I'm going down to Atlanta to work in the litigation department of a big firm. I'm hoping that the combination of a southern city and a firm with a lifestyle reputation will mean that I still have a couple hours a week to get together and game, but we'll have to see how that goes. You've probably mentioned it before, but what kind of law do you practice?

Ahem...yeah...WotC is at least stupid, though I'm not yet convinced that they're evil.

Lawyers have an ethical duty to defend even the guilty. They can't lie, hide evidence, put a lying witness on the stand, or do a bunch of other things, but there is an ethical duty to defend someone in this scenario. There's a range of arguments about why such a duty exists, but obeying that duty is not evil.

Of course, I would not want to defend such a person, and thus I do not practice criminal law. That being said, I am thankful that there are those who would.

Not to threadjack, but (as a law student) I agree wholeheartedly with Sebastian. Besides, if the lawyer in Fraust's hypothetical case refused to represent the rapist, all that would happen is that the guilty rapist would go to another lawyer and lie about his innocence. If all lawyers refused to represent the guilty, all defendants would be forced to lie to their attorneys and get substandard representation.

My plans are a little different. I like the idea of Embril trying to use the jar to free Adimarchus. However, instead of her just kidnapping someone, then failing to get Nerull's help and getting driven insane when she shows up on Carceri, I think it would be more interesting to have her go after the Smoking Eye PC's soul. Then, when she gets to Carceri, she can actually succeed in freeing him. This would require some more work on the part of the DM, as Adimarchus and Embril would probably then be encountered on Occipitus instead of Carceri (though I'd like to have the PCs arrive at Skullrot just in time to see Adimarchus freed).

I was planning on having Shebeleth escape the end of "Thirteen Cages" to make for a good boss fight, but I think the clones of Embril work just as well as the real one makes her getaway.

Yeah, there have been numerous studies done on the potential psychological effects of roleplaying games, and several criminal defendants have attempted to use RPG addiction as a kind of insanity defense to their crimes. Naturally, none of the psychologists have found any negative effects, and none of the legal arguments held any water. theacemu has listed quite a few resources that you could cite, but here are the ones I went over in that paper I mentioned.

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.

These findings were corroborated by my personal correspondence with a former director of adolescent medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine named Dr. Kenneth Schonberg, who found the game inherently harmless.

Michael Stackpole (the sci-fi writer) also wrote a pretty good defense of RPGs, available at http://www.rpg.net/sites/252/quellen/stackpole/pulling_report.html.

If I were you, I'd also be prepared to attempt to go above this social worker's head if necessary, as suggested by another poster in this thread. Most of the people I've come into contact with who began with anti-RPG mindsets were not open to reason.

Hopefully some of this information can help!

The Lord Mayor is a guy named Severen Nalavant at the beginning of the path. He's not very important in any of the adventures as written.

My prayers are with you and the rest of your family as well.

I almost had my first one this past week during the second session of "Life's Bazaar," but I went easy on them, both to avoid souring them of the campaign so quickly and to assuage my reputation as the killer DM of our group.

The PCs entered the grell's room, and though they all made their Spot checks, the grell won initiative. It swooped down on the party wizard, quickly paralyzed her, wrapped her up in its tentacles, and began flying away with her frozen form. The party tried bringing it down for a while, but had a great deal of trouble with it. Instead of coup de grace-ing her, I just had the creature bite her a few times and then drop her onto her companions, knocking one of them into negatives as well. It was a tense combat even after that, but they managed to finish the creature off.

Sir Kaikillah wrote:

I wouldn't know i haven't accomplished that feat yet. But we all have goals. Someday I will achieve TPK. TOTAL PARTY KILL. It just sounds like an achievment I need to attain as a DM.

Please note that I said random TPKs aren't fun. I said nothing about the other sorts.

8-)

Nice. I'm running the SCAP right now, and I think it would be hilarious to run them through a 2+ year campaign, only to mercilessly TPK them in the final encounter. "...Wow. I guess Adimarchus takes over. He probably leads a demon army and destroys Cauldron without you to stop him. Sorry."

Sadly, I'm not quite evil enough to make the odds against them completely impossible to overcome.

Skulks are freaking awesome. They definately live up to CR 2 and are, perhaps, a little tough even then. Minimun 23 on Hide and minimum 15 on Move Silently makes it rare for my group to ever even know they are there. Only Savel ever makes a Spot on them and usually has to use an action point.

I decided to use action points after reading the hardcover. Any group is going to need it because these adventures are really tough.

I initially balked at the "free xp" offered for Patch and especially for Ghelve (CR 3!). Without this xp, though, 1st level parties aren't going to level up to 2nd fast enough and there will be fatalities. My group has had some close calls already. They went to Room 44 pretty fast and fought the CR3 pulverizer as lst level characters. Action points kept them alive.

Another thing keeping them alive is Arcana Evolved's death and dying rules (based on Con and Con mod). Also, Savel took Quick Reconnoiter to help stay low on being ambushed.

I think anyone that stays with so-called Core rules is going to have a hard time.

Wow, I just noticed that skulks are CR 2 after you said that. My players cut through the first three skulks they've faced as if they were nothing. The one in Ghelve's shop rolled low on Move Silently and was then killed before he even got the chance to act; the first two in Jzadirune got their surprise round, did a total of 3 points of damage, and were then summarily killed.

I've actually been concerned about the characters leveling too fast! I've been stingy on XP so far - I only gave them XP for one of the door traps, calculated the skulks as CR 1 creatures, and didn't give them the XP for Ghelve (since it says to award XP if they befriend him or persuade him to make amends - they did neither in my game, just kind of made him feel guilty for his role and then moved on). I might increase the award for the skulks, but only if I manage to play them a little smarter, since they have no chance in a straight-up fight against the characters.

Congratulations on finally beginning the AP, Robert! I'm one session in and it's going well so far - make sure to let us know how well all the planning has paid off for you!

Pulp,

What is the problem? At first level a lot of encounters tend to be very one sided. This happenes when it only takes on hit to take a character out.

When my group went through life's bazaar, they likewise demolished everything. But in that case, the biggest contributor was the SCOUT. At low levels 2d6 wielded 2 handed is deadly for most encounters. I think my players barely came close to diesing in the entire 1st Chapter of the SCAP.

The BoNS is NOT a problem. Sure, it give the melee classes a bit more power (especially at low levels), but once they get to about the low teens, you will be glad you don't have a party full of Clerics, Druids and Wizards.

That's good to hear - part of it may come down to the fact that this is the first serious 3.5 campaign I've had the chance to run. I'm not planning on nerfing their characters or anything; if I feel it's necessary (like if they wipe the floor with Kazmojen), I'll probably beef up some of the later encounters to compensate.

BTW, sorry to everyone for threadjacking.

The third thing I dislike is the subjectivity of the world. Here's the deal - I don't care if the characters don't know how Magic really operates or who's at the center of the universe, I, you're ever loving DM (or Storyteller) want to know. And you don't have to make it definitive. Just give me a list of possible objective truths about the universe, and I can sort out which ones I like...

I haven't read the new version of Mage, but don't they answer your problem with the magic system in it? I had heard all magic comes from the fact that you descend from the people of Atlantis or something like that.

I'm having a similar problem with a game I just started, though I managed to correct half of it. I knew that one player was a powergamer beforehand, so I told him he could build anything he wanted, figuring that the other, far less experienced players would counterbalance him.

So the following week, I returned to find that he had essentially built three (of five) characters for their players, including his own, and two of them were severely twinked out (built using the Book of Nine Swords). They had also all rolled their own stats, and while not nearly as bad as the ones described above in this thread, they were all well above average.

Not wanting to mess with them too much, I let them keep the characters and classes, but told them that I had decided on 28 point buy and made them downgrade their stats accordingly.

After having played one session, the two BoNS characters are a bit alarming. I'm running "Life's Bazaar," and I don't think those two could go through it by themselves (the traps and lack of healing would get them), but they're making mincemeat of everything in their path thus far.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Not really a "loyalist" per se. I just bought Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised ed. used just to check it out. Really like it; not sure about the new WOD stuff. I checked out Werewolf: the Forsaken at the store and it looked kinda interesting.

So why did they change all the stuff in it?

As best I know, they changed things up for a few reasons. For one, as EvilTurnip mentioned, they had been sitting on an apocalypse story pretty much since the games premiered, and decided to finally pull the trigger on it. Also, I think part of the reason for changing things was so that they could make the games a bit more accessible - they generally cut out a bunch of the splats and got rid of a lot of the complicated history and politics.

I think if you want honesty you got to play honest. Your girlfriend spying is just sneaky, and demonstrates a lack of trust. What if she catches him cheating, are you going to tell everyone, "My girlfriend is a spy and caught you cheating." Boy thats a great way to establish trust.
Insist everyone roles where you can see. Let them no first thing As DM you have a right to ask for a re-roll. Be consistant for everyone and yourself. Let them see your attack roles and damge roles. If you want your players to be honest with thier rolls, you need to be honest with yours.

In my own defense, I wasn't planning on outing the cheater right there with cries of "My spy caught you cheating! Mwahahaha, my plan succeeded!" It would be more along the lines of just having her watch the player's rolls over the course of the first session to let me know if there is any problem with cheating. Then, if there is, I'd implement the roll-in-a-box rule without explaining exactly why.

I might just go ahead and start off with it anyway, though.

Cheaters also have lucky dice that the DM can't read. I have argued with many players on the unreadable lucky dice issue.

Is this a common method of cheating? The player in my group always talks about how her die is so lucky...the only problem is that it's very difficult to read it.

I'm starting the SCAP this coming weekend, and I really don't want to break trust by forcing everyone to roll in a box in front of me or something that extreme. I think I'm going to station my girlfriend next to this player to keep an eye on her rolls and signal me if she cheats, then implement some harsher measures once I get proof.

Finally, the complete lineup of my party has been settled. We've got five players:

Human Warblade
Human Swordsage
Half-Orc Cleric (St. Cuthbert)
Human Witch
Dwarf Rogue

The warblade and the swordsage are pretty twinked out, but the cleric and the rogue make up for it, I'm thinking. We'll see how it goes this Thursday when I begin running it!

Going over the DM Kill Board thread again, I noticed that you managed to take the cheating player's character out with a paralysis/fireball combo, ZeroCharisma, so kudos on that!

Also, to answer your question, Robert, the soulcage materials would first be shipped to the Ebon Triad's base in the Cauldron area. Upon completion, the finished cages go to the Cagewrights' stronghold deep under the volcano (I forget the name of it right now, but the PCs reach it in "Thirteen Cages").

Wait a minute, everyone. I think we're forgetting the REAL reason Vhalantru can't just bring the half-orcs in through the city gates...there's a 1sp per non-citizen entry fee! If there are 600 troops, that's 60gp. Come on, people, that's some serious cash. I mean, being in charge of the town treasury he could probably waive it or just pocket it again once the fees were paid, but who wants to go through the hassle?

I hope it goes without saying that I love this thread and plan on using a lot of this content. Thanks again, everyone!

Well, he can always impart the information in a cryptic riddle of some kind, though the spell would not allow him to refuse to answer until he's been resurrected. If you want to punish the players for selfishness, have Jared send them to the pit by way of the lair of some nasty creature.

I've never caught anyone cheating while GM'ing, though as a player I suspect that another player is a chronic cheater. She claims to have a "lucky die" which almost always rolls above 15, but on at least one occasion I saw her fudge a die roll - she rolled a 12, griped that she only had +1 in Spot, then announced her total of 15. We usually play around a coffee table, so a bunch of the players end up rolling off by themselves a lot of the time, but if I GM for this person, I plan to have an area designated for all player die rolls.

I really like your way of doing things, ZeroCha. I too would be hesitant to offend anyone, but sometimes you just have to let them know that certain things won't be tolerated at the table.

That said, the player ghetto mentioned sounds even worse than someone fudging a die roll. Reading the adventures beforehand basically negates the entire purpose of playing, in my opinion. My advice, if you really want to stop him from doing this, is to swap a treasure hoard in your next module for a sphere of annihilation. Poof, no more character. Next time you get the idea that he's doing the same thing, do it again. If you can stomach the problem, keep doing what you've been doing, but I think a tactic like that is pretty damaging to the game and should be treated as such.

Turbo Gorilla wrote:

My big concern at the moment is that I played in college with Tequila Sunrise and that it wasn't me dying over and over that got me kicked out, but instead that I'm a big jerk....

I'm confused. Are you saying that we know each other or are you just hypothetically putting yourself in the situation I described?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's joking that it sounds like the two of you might have been telling the same story from different sides. Your story was about intentionally killing off a jerk's characters to get rid of him. His story was about being let go because his characters kept dying. So the fear is that they didn't actually let him go because the characters were dying, the characters were dying because they wanted to let him go.

Personally, I've never given anyone the boot from a gaming group. My preferences with respect to gaming tend to differ from most of the people I currently play with, so if someone were going to leave it would probably be me. Since I graduate soon anyway, I've kind of resigned myself to either gradually bringing them around to my way of seeing things or just grinning and bearing it until this summer.

Poor Obad-Hai. Even Yondalla is laughing at him now.

Where is Manchester? I have an idea where Lakehurst is.

Manchester is right next to Lakehurst, only less infamous. It's just west of Toms River, and just south of Jackson. Pretty much in the middle of the Pine Barrens.

Central NJ here, paying obscene taxes and typing incomplete sentences.

What part of Central Jersey are you from? I'm from Manchester/Lakehurst originally, though I'm living in Cambridge, MA at the moment.

Ah, that shows what I know. Also, based on a little bit more research, it appears that Marvel issued a press release saying that the statement suggesting he was still alive is "not what it seems," and that Steve Rogers is in fact dead...for now.

To the poster who asked how the dirty deed was done: I believe he was shot in the head by the mercenary/villain Crossbones while heading toward the courthouse after being indicted on federal charges.

Also, from what I've heard so far, it's already been admitted that he's not dead within the comics universe. If I'm not mistaken he's in the super-powered version of Gitmo.

EDIT: Marvel apparently issued a press release claiming that the statement suggesting that he was still alive was "not what it seems," and emphasizing that Steve Rogers is in fact dead...for now.

If I remember correctly, his open attack on the nobility of Cauldron causes the Cagewrights to accelerate their plans and begin the ritual, which is why only half of them are present when the PCs arrive in Thirteen Cages. If you're worried about him wrecking the encounter, you can always just say that they had planned it that way from the beginning and get rid of him. Personally, I'm going to have him arrive after all of good RP'ing is over with.

Does the DC = damage suffered below -10? (e.g., DC 14 Fort save when at -14 hp)

I don't think the Bard was saying that you have to make a Fort save upon going below -10 hp. Instead, you just get your Fort save modifier as extra hp before death. So if I have a Fort save of +8, I die at -18, no roll required. I've heard of similar rules where you die at the negative value of your Con score, which I think is also a good way of doing it.

4 Redgorge - was it invaded or not?

That's a great point, delvesdeep. I think the AP assumes that the PCs manage to get the news of Alek's death back to Cauldron before Redgorge is invaded, but I'm wondering if you or anyone else did any work on a possible invasion plan.

I and others I know have tinkered with ideas for increasing the complexity of the game to achieve greater "realism," and luckily we typically forget to write the rule down and it vanishes. I've found that increasing "realism" often just comes down to relating a better description of the result of a die roll.

So wait a minute, none of you use rules for caloric intake like the guy in Cryptonomicon?

I too would have to go with option 2, though in addition to depending on the rule, I'd expand that to include rules that depend on the context of the game in general. For example, there was a thread about banning PvP in game on the boards a few months ago. Having been a member of a group that is obsessed with PvP to the point of harming the fun of other players, I can sympathize with such a rule even though I've never actually implemented one.

I posted this a while ago, and never saw it come up, so I'm posting again (so forgive me it winds up there twice).

As some of you know, I'm getting ready to kick off my SCAP campaign in a few weeks. So I'm reading the HC book right now. I'm in Zenith so far, and out of the blue, Celeste shows up. There is no information about her at all at this point in the book.

Wont the PCs have inquiries about her at the time of their meeting?

Who is she? Where did she come from? She has a membership at the cusp of sunrise obviously - is she a noble in Cauldron? Why does she care about these dwarves???

Finally, the prelude of this chapter states that since Valantru needs the dwarf captive due to him being the Shackleborn, he manipulates the PCs into going to rescue the dwarf for him. But if I'm reading it correctly, it seems to me that Celeste and Davked are the ones asking them to go save the dwarf? How is Valantru manipulating the PCs then? Did he ask Celeste to vie for the PCs help?

Thanks,
Robert

I'm pretty sure all of your questions are answered in the HC if you take another look, but I'll take a shot at answering them from memory.

Celeste was sent to Cauldron by "a powerful wizard from the north" who is left unidentified in the campaign. She's investigating the corruption in town, and has suspicions about Vhalantru. How she got involved with Davked is also left unexplained, though her concern for the dwarves could be explained either by having her claim that she simply works for Davked or by insinuating that finding Zenith is important to the forces of good in the city (which it is, but even Celeste doesn't really understand why).

Davked is not Davked at all - he's actually a doppleganger named Gortio, a direct pawn of Vhalantru's. So when the PCs turn Zenith over to him, he turns around and hands him over to V.

Ah, you know what? I didn't even think about Delvesdeep modified list of the 13; which is why his name didnt ring a bell with me and why I had to look him up in the book; that explains the mystery.

Hmmm, now I'll have to think of some other thoughts: I was going to have him be the mentor/master of the elven PC wizard (non-specialist) and wish to "get rid of the student for a while" so that he can continue to do research on the cages. So he was going to send the PC to look into the disapearance of Jasper Drundlesrput (gnome wizard) who was an employee/member of the academy. This way it looked like Louvel was doing something to help the academy; but really not caring. Then I was going to borrow your explosion idea to fake his death when people started prying too hard. The PC would think his master was dead (unkown that he was into bad stuff) and would find among his papers a portion of a picture that depicted a soulcage.

Then I was going to use the idea someone posted about Drathkar's way smuggling soulcage parts instead of mercenaries, and when the PCs...

First off, to answer your question about Skellerang, he doesn't really appear after Drakthar's Way in the HC. He does apparently work closely alongside Vhalantru and approves of the increased military presence and the addition of half-orc mercenaries to the town guard. The most resolution we get about him is a rumor of his suicide upon learning that Vhalantru and his allies were evil around the time of "Foundations of Flame." Personally, I think I'm going to take another of delvesdeep's suggestions and have Gau Kleeoch attack the city gates after the party at Rhiavadi Manor, killing Skellerang in the process (IMC, Kleeoch was the leader of a band of minotaurs that, along with the black dragon Dhorlot, attacked the city approximately thirty years ago; Skellerang lost his left hand in the battle but became a hero in the city and was promoted for it).

Also, not to put words in delvesdeep's mouth, but I think his intention with paring down the Cagewrights was mainly to remove the irrelevant ones. So basically, I think if you can work Louvel into one of your PCs' backgrounds, he still makes a great villain, and all of what you've listed above looks good without downgrading him to a henchman.

In my game, no one has any connection to the university (the arcane caster is a witch and not formally trained), so Louvel might wind up getting removed unless I can work him in some other way.

Just to be sure - this explosion and fake death to disapear is just something you've added to the mix? I read Life's Bazaar already and dont remember that being a piece of that module. Or does it happen later in the book and you're just moving it up a bit?

If it is your concept, I like it, and I know that he is a professor at the academy and have considered to make him a VIP in the PCs life who is a graduate of that academy. I'll have to pick your brain more as to when/why the professor does this. Was someone on to his schemes? Is that why he had to destroy the evidence/research?

Robert

The Bluecrater explosion was an idea of mine - it's not mentioned in the AP. Since none of my PCs have ties to the Academy, I had planned to use it as a mostly mysterious event (taking place during Life's Bazaar) that would only become clear in the end, when Louvel was revealed as a Cagewright. Skylar Krewis would have been investigating the murder, after having looked into some allegations that Louvel was practicing the dark arts in his classrooms late at night.

However, upon giving it some more thought, I believe I'll hold off on the explosion. I don't want to include completely random elements, so I'll introduce him as an NPC if the characters get involved with Bluecrater, then have him display paranoia about his research (into magical prisons) and then have the mysterious explosion occur. If they never bother with the Academy, I'll probably take delvesdeep's suggestion and replace Louvel altogether.

That is great! Shades of Palpatine manipulating Padme into getting him elected Chancellor. If I were you, I might try to let the party know that the election is going on and that the candidates are bad some other way, to avoid too close of a parallel. That definitely sounds like you've got quite a great reveal coming, though!

thanks for the input. Thats a idea for Lady Rhiavlaldi; using Lord Vanderboren would not work as one of the PCs is adopted younger brother of Todd; so making his "dad" the suspicious would not be good.

I'm of the opinion that PCs learning via Gather Info or otherwise that Lord V. 'bought' his way in to being a recent noble would raise major red flags in their suspicious bones; so that is the motivation behind introducing him early on as "just another civilian" as well as a lord.

I'm thining that after the PCs return from Jzadriune successfully during the downtime that the lord V. makes a "housecall" to Vanderboren manor to give his heartfelt thanks.

The six degrees of seperation being:

Vanderborens own the orphange. The children were kidnapped from the orphanage. One of the children (terem) is very important to Vhalantru. Vanderboren's younger (adopted) son is part of the group that saved the kids, thus aided in returning the prodigal orphan back to the the orphanage.

Lord V. visits the Vanderborens on a particular day to say thanks, but also 'spy' a little on the family that owns the orphanage that Terem is living at.

Nonetheless from the Vanderboren parents' perspective, they are beaming with pride now due to the son's heroics and that it has caught the attention of Lord V....

That could definitely work. I'm explaining Vhalantru's presence not as someone who came along and bought a title, but as a "satellite nobleman" - someone belonging to a noble family from another city who came to Cauldron to start his own branch of the family and make a name for himself as an individual. If the PCs look into it, they can find that the Vhalantru name checks out as legitimate, though this Lord V. has been out of touch for quite some time, ever since he left Sasserine.

Thanks for the input.

As for the explosion and faking death??? why?

Just curious.

Robert

**SPOILERS**

He's a Cagewright, and needs to leave the public eye (and at the same time destroy the research he was using the Bluecrater laboratories to finish). I was hoping to have a PC to connect to him, which would make it more significant later, but even without that element I'm going to leave it in as another weird thing that will tie into the Cagewrights' plans in the end.

Yeah, there's no index in the HC - a lot of general information is in the front of the book, but it's up to you to remember where it's referenced later on, or whether it is at all. Skie's Treasury, for example, has a detailed write-up in the beginning, then is basically left out of the adventures altogether.

As to your question, Robert, if you've read the beginning, you have basically all of the information there is on Bluecrater - it's not a big part of any of the adventures. I'm not going too far in depth on it in my own campaign, as none of my PCs have ties to it, but I am going to have Thearynn Louvel as a professor there who intentionally causes an explosion during Life's Bazaar to fake his own death.

Is there a point in the book when the PCs actually meet him (in human form) prior to the Ball?

What about the actual Lord Mayor?

I would like to have Lord V. make a positive impact on the PCs at some point prior to that simply be either being seen publicly at some point - perhaps at an inn or something.

Has anyone done this? what did you do and how did it go?

Players are genuinely skeptical of politicians in city-based games and I don't want suspicion automatically to arise towards Lord V. so I would like opportunities to use him as a friendly contact of the PCs before being actually involved in sending them off on missions.

Thanks
Robert

The first time the PCs can meet Vhalantru in humanoid form in the HC is during the Flood Festival; if a PC makes it up to the end of the drinking contest, they get to face off against him for the title.

I think introducing him earlier as a positive figure could definitely work. I'm still in the planning phase with my campaign, but one idea for you would be to set him off against another politician figure who comes off as more suspicious, possibly Lord Vanderboren or even Lady Rhiavadi. Personally, I'm going to introduce him first during the Flood Festival, but downplay him as a minor figure at that time, later giving more attention to his influence over the Lord Mayor.

Well, I agree that comic book writers/artists do get kinda screwed when it comes to new characters... the vast majority of those working for the mainstream comics are writing those new characters in the shared universe of the publisher. *

ie. Writer X creates 7 new characters (some heroes, some villains) while writing for DC. But he did so in the context of writing JLA (or whatever), and those "new" characters are placed in a shared universe that has been contributed to by tons of writers over the last 3 generations, interact with the existing characters and settings owned by DC, etc...

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but when a writer (of "real" books) works in a shared universe (ie. A WotC novel or SW novel, etc) they don't own the characters they created, or the movie rights to the story, because they are working in the shared universe owned by the publisher (or licensed to the publisher by the rights owner, which is essentially the same thing).

ie. Keith Baker is one of the creators of Eberron for Wotc, and he has written some novels for them. I'm pretty sure that even though he was the winner of the Campaign Setting contest, and has his name on pretty much every Eberron sourcebook.... he doesn't own the movies rights to any of the stories he has published for WotC.

Similiarly, if I write a SW novel, I'm pretty sure that Lucas will still own the movie rights, etc

* Of course, ownership and...

The fact that the universe you're writing in is owned by someone else is not the most relevant factor when you're discussing legal ownership of characters and whatnot. The really relevant thing is the contract signed by the creator. Most comic book professionals work through contracts that say something to the effect of "all intellectual property rights in any creations under this contract are assigned to the company." So if I write X-Men for a month and introduce a character, he belongs to Marvel comics. If they agree to publish another comic that I came up with on my own, as long as the contract specifies that the rights belong to them, the copyright again belongs to the company.

Similarly, if you have the clout, you can get a contract allowing you to write an established comic book and still get to keep the copyright in new characters you make up. Neil Gaiman had a contract like that with Todd MacFarlane, and wound up getting the rights to a few characters he created for the Spawn universe after going to court to sort it out.

The biggest problem in the industry is that very few people have that sort of leverage to use against the companies, and so just about everything published by Marvel or DC belongs to the corporation. The Image labels, if I'm not mistaken, are more creator-friendly that way.

Thanks for the info. I went back and read that adventure: it seems awfully big of a quest as a prelude to run it in its entirety; but I cant definitely see how it could fit into the campaign.

Gelve could easily be the guy that lost the key, too.

Robert

Yeah, the players weren't using the same characters they'll have for the SCAP, so they'll be restarting at Level 1 (much to their chagrin). I like the idea that Ghelve is the one who lost the key, but I didn't realize the potential for using this as a prelude until after we'd played a few sessions of it. Even so I think I'll retcon it and have Ghelve be the guy - I doubt any of the players will remember the guy's race anyway.

Just show them the books, give them a rundown on the type of adventures you were planning on running, and invite them to drop in on a session any time they feel the need. Perhaps even try to get them involved, as it's always good to get parents involved in their children's lives.

These are all great suggestions, and I think the fact that the parent in question has already signed the permission slip indicates that he or she is open to reason. That said, I've had encounters with people (namely my girlfriend's parents) who don't care what you say - they think the game is evil in some way. I showed them the books, pointed out how the misperceptions about the game started, etc. They kind of politely nodded and then told her they still didn't like it once I had left.

Not that I think this will happen in your case, but I just wanted to warn you that there are some people who will not credit what you have to say on the topic if it conflicts with what they've been told by their religious advisor.

EDIT: I wrote a paper on the misperceptions surrounding D&D for graduate school - if you'd like, I can point you in the direction of a few good psychological studies on the effects of RPGs, none of which show any kind of negative effect.

PC's Name: Eleyna

Race: Elf
Class: Bard
Level: 2

Circumstances of Death: Morningstar to the head, wielded by Veltargo, a cleric of Vecna.

Setting : Greyhawk (Mad God's Key)

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Mad God's Key is from Dungeon #114 (Sept. 2004). It's a first-level adventure in which the characters are hired to track down a special key on behalf of a local locksmith.

**Spoiler Alert**

The villains have stolen the key (which can open any lock) and a book from the city library that has a magical lock, and are planning to use the secrets inside for evil. The "Mad God" referred to can easily be Adimarchus, and I'm thinking the book should contain the Cagewrights' backup plan for freeing him in case the primary plan fails.