Stewart Perkins's page

To be honest I'm thinking of making a few changes, namely replacing Kopru with Mindflayers... My reasoning being twofold. Number one my players want to throwdown with some in a bad way so I'm dropping them in (with no previous attachments to the isle, ie no experience, they aren't waiting for them to show up) and the kopru are very much like the mindflayers anyway. but secondly it will make the whole drowning idea make more sense, as the kopru are aquatic and mindflayers are very much not. I'm thinking of dropping the numbers so the els match up and using the mindflayers of thoon as replacements so that I still have behemoths and the like. Also I will probably remove some encounters (namely oozes and the like as they aren't well recieved by my players) and maybe change a few other things around with ideas I've had. Maybe introducing a head mindflayer calling itself the Lord of Dread! :P We'll see.

Have you started revising the base classes yet (if your contemplation took you that route)? I was also wondering whether you would remain with OGL or try to 'pathfinderize' 'em?

Zincher and indeed all of the major npcs from the first few installments are winners in my opinion. Honestly after running the whole of the second darkness AP I wish it had stayed in Riddleport and dealt purely with the mob wars possibility and the few dark elves as just red herrings. If I ever run it again I probably will do that and focus on the relationship between Saul and Clegg and Lavender Lil. I mean just endless plot hooks and frameworks in these people. Clegg became my groups boss/rival for a bit at the beggining of the 2nd adventure and eventually even got a pc kill from a critical pickaxe during a downhill chase scene battle resulting from a failed ambush. Ah memories.

It's not metagaming. If my job were to kill monsters with swords and I lived in a world with werewolves, you can bet I'd invest in at least some cheap silver dagger. That's as sensible and grounded in the game world as the swordsman who carries a crossbow as a side arm.

And just because things happen one way in your game does not mean that it's tactically sound.

As for it being tactically sound, I never disagreed with that because, well frankly it is. If the players are playing a heavy DR filled game and the DM gave them a heads up or they know about the various DR in game (an Archivist in the group or a wizard/bard with lots of knowledges, etc) then by all means feel free to get one of anything needed. All I meant was I never see these situations in games I've ran or played, even with players who know what DR a monster has, they "forget" until such a time the characters learn what needs to be done. Then they start the collection. Frankly I don't see many monks to be honest and again I haven't seen those use anything more than unarmed usually. But as I said the monk, good or bad, is best left to another thread.

In the end VoP is like all of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness, feats and flavor that alter the game world assumptions, and for no other reason than this I find it best to examined and thought about before inclusion in a game. But that's just me.

And if Book of Exalted Deeds is in, then Savage Species is in, meaning the most basic item Monks need to even function at all comes in; the Amulet of Natural Attacks, which can hold weapon properties like flaming or corrosive. And the Monk standard for getting enhancement bonuses is Greater Magic Fang, rather than Greater Magic Weapon, meaning the +9-equivalent stand.

Further, a standard Monk is going to carry a cold iron and adamantine weapon of some sort (since Ki Strike: Adamantine comes too late), even though the weapon's not going to be any good; a 1d6 kama trumps a 3d6-10 unarmed strike, after all. Quicksilver or silversheen can be applied to any weapon to grant it the properties of alchemical silver, and unarmed strikes qualify as weapons.

The Monk may not use conventional weapons or armor, but she still relies heavily on magic items. Like Bracers of Armor. The Scorpion Kama lets you use your unarmed damage, and even dual wield for your unarmed damage. Ye olde ring of invisibility is a godsend for Monks. Everyone absolutely...

Secondly I honestly have never seen a monk played using the fighter golf bag of weapons trick. I know that alot of us plan for these things and resort to that, but most people just don't. Sure metagamers will carry laundry list of special gear, but I rarely see that and if I do it's because the DM overuses enemies with a specific DR or the player is one of those people who memorize the MM and can quote the weaknesses of said monster.

My last point is yes, those magic items are good for a monk. But VoP really shines in games that don't meet wealth by level requirements. WHat I mean is this, You look at any standard 3.5 game and the wealth characters actually find through the levels versus whats supposed to had and you'll find they differ quite a bit. Especially any modules or Adventure paths such as those in Dungeon Magazine. I have found that the players need to have their gear basically redone every few adventures in an AP or set of modules as they fall way behind par. In these situations VoP suddenly becomes outrageously good for the one guy who has it, and then comes in the rp ramifications for the poor people who may or may not want to deal with it. (in fairness the Rp consequences fall in line with the Paladin ones which is a thread all to itself.)

But those are my 2 coppers.

I agree with whats been said. I personally consider a sandbox as any game where theres a world setting and lots of random events happening with or without the pcs involvement like the real world. The action/story follows the pcs whether that means lots of killing of goblins in the local ruins, running packages from kingdom to kingdom, or setting up a merchant shop and selling wares(as boring as that would be). If the pcs are interested its important. I agree though it requires good improv, lots of ready prep to throw in, and most important involved self-motivated players.

See I see the Sylar as Nathan situation as what happened in the Exiles comic a year or two ago. They had a body stealing nasty called prometheus who who had reality manipulation powers steal morphs body but then trumped him by brainwashing him to make him think he actually is morph. So they have Morph/Prometheus there to have morph, but also the threat of prometheus' personality popping back and a god like villian smashing them at anytime. Same situation as Nathan/Sylar. But then again that doesn't shock me much as everyone said they felt heroes was based on xmen anyway and exiles is an X title. But I agree I like the premise and such and loved season 1 but I got tired of the same crap over and over, ESPECIALLY the stupidity of Peter and Hiro, and the inexplicable power switchings and loss and new ways to get nerfed. I mean its like were watching someones homebrew emerging supers game of Champions/M&M and the GM can't figure out what to do with the two players with strong powers (mimic and Time control) and keeps needing ways to nerf them, and worst of all the players aren't very good at thinking things through so they make mistakes, and to further complicate things at least one player cant decide what character to play (Ali Larter) and the GM has a pet GMPC they cannot let go of (Sylar). At least thats how I see it at this point. Oh and in this interpretation Claire is actually the skill based character (Noah)'s DNPC (Dependant NPC) they got extra points for having to save and take care of all the time. At least thats how I see the show.

So I'm heavily contemplating actually just building new base classes that are generic action movie classes but are cool enough to be 20 level classes and then take the advanced class concept into where prestige classes are and follow crafty games ideas for master classes and make them like unique identities semi developed by characters and setting. So just as an example off of d20 modern as is, Ill have the strong hero become the soldier class (but in the end i want it to actually be less soldier and more can represent any trained character), the fast hero becomes the Speedfreak, the Tough becomes the Bad A%%, the Smart becomes the Investogator, the Dedicated becomes the Ally (or something) and the CHarismatic becomes the Personality. These are just examples not final names.... As for the concept, I would fold some of the generic talents into the classes, and then use some of the grim tales stuff to increase the pull of abilities as well as some star wars saga converted talents. Beyond that I might do some skill monkeying, and use a more saga inspired skill theme. I know most of you are saying just play saga sans serial numbers. I thought of that, and contemplated it for a fantasy game and may still but in the end I want to go more into the 3.5 than saga resides so as to appeal to my player base and make it easier on everyone. These are just my thoughts.

Ps. if anyone has some cool names for base classes or some cool homebrewed classes of their own please feel free to post em!

I disallow the Vows and such for a few reasons, #1) because it seems like a crutch more than anything as far as roleplaying goes, being the mechanical reason to donate and be good rather than just being a character trait, #2) because my players who would use it, only do so for munchkanistic reasons... case in point, the first time one of my players was making a character he said the following " Can I use a feat from a book other than the ph?" "Probably I said, what book?" "Book of Exalted Deeds." "Vow of Poverty?" I asked. "Yes" he replied, and quickly I said "You were thinking a monk right?" "Yes, how did you know?" "I have heard of this feat." "Oh" he replied "I didn't know you would know of the feat, so I thought I would see if I could slip it past you."

This second exchange is why I am critical of things players want, because he wanted it purely for the comboness with monk, and not really any desire to add to roleplaying. Now granted that alone isn't enough for me to say no to a feat, because if so the fighter who builds up to weapon mastery or some other cool feat who does it to be really effective with his weapons is doing so for no rp reason, but purely a game advantage one. I said no because the player had heard it to be broken or thought it was and then tried to slip it by me.

Thank you folks, between all of this I can cobble something together appropriate. And I agree I looked at the players guide to Eberron and went "Uhmmm this is for players?" I felt it was more of a DMs guide to what to tell pcs when they ask these questions book....

They have crappy names, but they cover modern action movie archetypes very well--the damage-dealer, the tank, the fast-n-dirty guy, the nerd, the detective, the face. (And I don't think those names are very good either).

Besides my goofy plot is going to end up with the characters finding out they are all brainwashed sleeper agent assassins of a sinister post-Nazi terrorist cell who have basically been the instruments of armaggeddon and have to fight their former bosses to stop the plot they themselves put in motion. So in the beggining they have their "normal" identity abilities (ie low level base hero stuff) and as they level they remember their skills.... campy I know but I do love the classics.

So I have stated my inability to mesh with the d20 modern base classes, as such I am thinking on a generic base class that is the combination of all base classes the "hero" class. However in keeping it all together I would incorporate the characters occupation as their class. In the example for instance the hero base class has the strong hero base attack, the fast hero defense and charismatic reputation, a decent set of saves, and 8 class skills of the players choice. Then the occupations bonus class skills would add to the list, as well as more feats (all would get simple weapons). They player could then take any talents they would otherwise be available.

So I may run an Eberron game soon, as interest is there. I have a few players who play alot of DDO now that it's free and figured I would sort of cater to them. So what I want to throw together is a 4 or so page background primer with basics on races and nations and themes so for those not in the know they can get a quick basic investment into the world. I have the players guide but I feel that it is only useful for those who already have the basics and want a more in depth look at specifics. Anything like this out there, or what would be the most important things for players to know?

Thraxus wrote:

Dragging cannons around is a moot point. If you don't have the materials on hand to build a catapult, then you have to drag the materials around with the engineers and laborers need to build it. Even if you have the materials on hand, you typically have to build in sight of the enemy.

Not exactly. Cannons are heavy, well ones to lay siege are. To build catapults you only need to drag along a very small amount of metal. Lumber can be had from trees or demolished houses/barns/estates/etc..

Part of the tactics were to build them in sight of the enemy, to allow them to stew a bit, knowing that they were going to be bombarded.

Thraxus wrote:

Honestly, cannons are better used as a stationary defense or a naval weapon in a typical fantasy setting. Of course, a lot of the basics of military tactics go outthe window in a typical fantasy setting too.

They would be hard to protect and the gun powder would be even harder to protect. A fire creature (elemental, mephit, etc) could cause havoc. That doesn't even take into consideration sabotage by casters or even more mundane means.

Thraxus wrote:

Castles really should not exist, at least not as they a typically depicted. A large underground defense installation (aka a dungeon) provides better protection than a castle when you start factoring in magic and flying monsters.

I disagree. Most threats are not airborne, but can easily sit on an entrance to a dungeon. They can pour things into the dungeon (even water can cause problems to the owners).

Castles are visible deterrents as well as providing protection from ground troops. People take more pride in a castle than a hole in the ground.

Next Marvel Animation DVD

I'm sure this has been mentioned elsewhere, but it bears repeating.

If you like Hulk, Planet Hulk, Conan, sci-fi, or just Marvel in general then this looks to be a strong outing. Budget looks bigger and seems to capture scenes right out of the books.

Hopefully it is long enough to tell all the stories from the series.

Well, crud. Bought Carnival in hopes of running it for Halloween, but I just don't see a way to make it work for my evil party. Townspeople being killed? Harumph.

Does anyone have a clever way to make Carnival work for an evil party?

Does Hungry Are The Dead or Hangman's Noose work better?

Stewart Perkins wrote:

Aside from that there was this wierd movie I saw when I was like 9 that all I can remember is it was in a church and all these demons were running around and there was this scene were an elderly couple ascended to the belltower and then the old woman tears off the guys head and rings the bell with it. That movie freaked me out.... wish I knew its name.

The Church aka Demons 3 (directed by Michele Soavi if I'm not mistaken...I quite enjoyed it; some marvelously grotesque imagery!)

At least I think that's the one you're referring to....I could be wrong ;-)

Cheers,
Colin

I love yet hate horror movies. FOr me A Nightmare on Elmstreet has a special place and Krueger is top notch as a villian, but i was very young (think 2 or 3) when I snuck and saw the first one while my mother watched it and it messed me up for years.

Aside from that there was this wierd movie I saw when I was like 9 that all I can remember is it was in a church and all these demons were running around and there was this scene were an elderly couple ascended to the belltower and then the old woman tears off the guys head and rings the bell with it. That movie freaked me out.... wish I knew its name.

And while I wasn't particularly scared by the latest batch of horror flicks, The Ring gets a special mention for creeping me out as I was watching it alone at like 2am in my old basement bedroom and during the scene where all the water starts pouring out of everything Water starts dripping on my face in real life. I don't care how disconnected you are that will freak you out. Turns out my sister was mopping the living room above me, but man that made the moment for me....

Bill Lumberg wrote:

Big Thuga wrote:

Yellowbeard - A absolutely hilarious pirate comedy/farce. I dont know who's in it or directed it, but everytime I see it I hurt for days from laughing so much!

Nail that man's foot to the deck!

It also has the best murder scene ever filmed.
** spoiler omitted **

Is that the movie with the Hands Off!!! Scene in it?

Mistwalker wrote:

Any possibility of having the play filmed and posted somewhere?

We will probably film it. The problem is that stage NEVER translates well onto film. So it will look 10% of what it is live.

I thought about taking a day and trying to make some amateur video out of the play. But it is time consuming and, let's face it, the kids have other things to do at school. As much as I would love for them to do theater 24/7, there is music, math, writing, dance, visual arts, reading, science and social studies to do.....

I will make whatever is available to Paizo. BTW, my set is inspired by Wayne Reynold's (with permission, he is so cool) iconic goblin town painting.

So I'm looking at Hangman's Noose for this years halloween game, and at first was weary after reading coments here, but after giving it a once over have decided it will be perfect. I've done some legwork to change some things (removing non essential encounters to fit into a 4ish hour game session and refocus it... my players I tell ya) but I'm excited since last years Carnival was such a big hit.

Aubrey brings up a good point. I think part of the problem is that the plot part of the booklet is often not written very well. D&D adventure writing has been evolving toward a more technical bent for a long time. Initially there were no plot summaries at the beginning of the adventure so we could simply see the delve format as a further move in this direction. The problem I've seen with this is that the plot booklet has yet to do a really good job of remaining completely independent of the encounter booklet. To really understand whats going on it often seems like you know have to be familiar with both and they don't easily flow together in the DMs mind.
If they could get it so that the plot booklet was all the DM needed to understand the adventure and the encounter booklet was something the DM reviewed only when the players were going to actually play through these encounters in the next session then it might work but, as it stands, it seems like I have to somehow grasp both and link them together to actually understand things enough to feel I have mastery over the material I'm running. Its also hellish to modify this format for ones homebrew.

I was thinking of converting saga to use in a swashbuckiling renessaince style campaign, so your s&s saga conversion is a godsend for a baseline work... :P

Does anyone else have this?

I've avoided WotC adventures for a quite a while now unless they have Rich Baker's name on them (and I would also make an exception for Chris Perkins if he ever writes an adventure again).

I'm really wondering if this is the usual WotC style (grab random monsters of the right role and level and plonk them down together in an encounter without considering why the different types are co-operating) or most Paizo-ish (you know, where it actually has a plot).

Edit: I'm lost as a customer. There is time travel. I don't do time travel.

Actually currently as it stands to be tested and such, Magic is cast with spellcraft checks. DC 20+(3xSpell Level). As actual magic won't be available till 4th level or so the chances of success are easy until higher levels. The rub so to speak as of now is that casting causes d6 hp DRAIN/lv of the spell. However for every 5 you beat the DC it does 1d6 less. So a high level sorcerer throws around little spells with ease, but high level spells could still hurt or kill him. failing a check still alows the spell to be cast with a concentration check it just adds a d6 drain per 5 failed. The Actual caster class will have bonuses to spellcraft and a I'm thinking a lessening to drain similiar to damage reduction. The idea is appealing to me as it allows even lower level casters to attempt powerful out of their league spells but kills them very dead 90% of the time. It emulates fiction in that way imo. Also a Nat 20 basically ignores all drain, while a critical 1 is BAD NEWS... I'm thinking the level of the spell attempted will determine how catastrophic this is. I'm also making some spells into a catagory of rituals that have special requirements and add special ingredients to most spells to emulate that fictional system (you need displacer beast blood for blink or somesuch), and the higher quality items can lessen the drain or the spellcraft dc. It isn't perfect but I like it so far.

Well I decided to try something new and started a Myspace Blog for my players to explicitly state any crazy ideas they wanted to see. Some nifty things indeed, it helps to know my players actually want the kinds of things im wanting in the sense of magic, and scenes and whatnot. I highly recommend the idea to anyone who plans on putting something together.

As a side not I'm reworking some ideas for how to handle the characters, and am looking at options to incorporate d20 modern ideas (Base class/advanced class/prestige class) but in a new vein (Player defined base classes, advanced classes and prestige classes so to speak) as well as chaotic deadly magic system (im thinking casting spells drains the casters hp or some such that magic is rare and dangerous) and also making magic items into relics, all of them... never in the world will you see a +1 weapon, it will have a history and power to unlock... at least thats what my players want, so we'll see. Razor coast looks good too btw :)

Anyone have stats for a tougher alternat Vanthus? Anyone care to take a crack at some? I too agree his is probably going to get pwned by my 5-player party. I want the fight to be Memorable.

To my wife, chores are an excuse to putter around and put her brain on hold. She does not do them with a goal in mind; she does them just to be doing them. I've seen her sweep the bathroom floor, then pick up a dirty rug, dumping kitty litter all over said floor, and then sweep the floor again -- without any sign of frustration, or that there might conceivably be a more efficient order of operations. Because the end (a swept floor) means very little to her compared to the means. Indeed, sweeping twice instead of once ironically makes her feel like she was more productive that day, because she did more housework! At the end of the day, does she do a lot more housework than me? Almost certainly. But does it really need to take up anywhere near as much time as she spends at it? Not hardly.

here you go Gaming Paper

So as the title says, does anyone know of any large graph paper that is poster map size and falls into that needed 1"x1" grid format, preferrably a lightly colored grid so marker and such show up easier... I was just curious if anyone knew of a product like this.

I'm curious.

Please choose one of the following. I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate a little bit on your thoughts on the following question, if you would.

1) I am interested in a "Modern" Pathfinder RPG because:

A) I specifically prefer the rules conceits of d20 Modern (Fast Hero, Smart Hero, etc., talent trees, other mechanics stuff).

B) I am excited by the idea of a "Pathfinder" Modern RPG, regardless of mechanics.

If the game becomes as successful as it appears it may, something like this is definitely within the realm of possibility in the medium to long term.

Please pick one of the choices above and expound a bit on the way you voted the way you did.

Thanks!

I am all for Pd20Modern so to speak. I like d20M ok, but I never liked the wealth system well enough, and while I know it's blasphemy never liked the stat based classes. I have tried to essentially combine them down to 3 archtype classes being the warrior (Tough and Strong heros), the Rogue (Fast and Charismatic), and the Expert (Smart and dedicated) with a few of the talent trees moved around for good measure. It feels a little better to me as the classes feel more streamlined, and as a system I've tried to change things a little more to represent unique choices such as giving away base attack and save points every level (the player gets to assign them essentially choosing new BaB or which save to increase so as to custom build themselves). It isn't perfect but with the new PFRPG ideas (CMB is a biggy) I think it will work nicely. However if Paizo ever does their own book, consider it pre-ordered!

As has been stated, if you have mature players who can handle it AND you dont mind the conflict then yea the blackguard could fit. The key here is simply this. I would suggest having him "play innocent" so to speak as far as motives and alignment, pretending to be a knight of righteosness and such so that his "allies" accept him and he can keep an eye on him. The spy angle is nice if at level 18-20 things break down and hes found out, good roleplaying oppurtunities. More than likely the heroes will keep him in their ranks even after finding him out if hes proven himself, maybe even promising evening it up after the Big D goes down..... extra stuff for after the AP naturally falls from this such as smacking down him and his master, to even redeeming him, etc. I think having an evil pc in a controlled situation is ok. BUT we're talking controlled chaos, if its causing conflict or ill will or your players arent mature enough then fix it immidiately or dont do it at all. Thats the best advice I have for you.

They don't really have to mesh...each isle can have its own personality. One can be Cthuluesque, one can be all derringdo, one can be all derro, one can have claymation dinosaurs, another can have skeletons and zombies working the plantations in the bayou, one can be gnoll sausagemaker/slavers, etc. etc.

I agree that from a technical standpoint, partcularly in light of modern techniques,the film could use work. It reminds me of Red Dawn. When I saw it in the eighties I thought it was one of the best movies I had seen, Then when I watched it again a few years ago I was amazed at how I could ever consider something so bad to be a great movie. Highlande though, even with the cheesy effects and everything, still holds up for me, because it still has a story and character that I can relate too.

No but seriously I agree in that it is an awesome movie, cheesy effects and all. I love it despite of all its flaws (the Kurgan is simealtaneously one of the worst and best villians in my opinion).

(PS: David I mean that all in jest, and am not trying to attack you :)
Also, I agree 150% about Red Dawn being awesome when it came out but not so much these days. Honestly I feel that way about alot of stuff I grew up with )

I am thinking of going more victorian age adventures with this though, lower magic but more science fiction... or rather than actual low magic, making magic mysterious, powerful, and hard to get if you arent a nether-beast or its minions. Use the Cthulu-esque stuff from Freeport and ST, but tone it back so as to not be dead and crazy pcs every week. So as to swuitch between the old sinbad claymation monsters movies, and horror with Errol Flyn and co. swinging in out of nowhere... At this point the main problem is figuring out how to make these all mesh.. :P

Well as the tite states, its a project I'm working on. It isn't a literal translation by any means, but is heavily drawn from the AP. The idea is based on someone mentioning doing it in Shadowrun, but my searchfu is teh suck and I came up empty handed, so I thought I'd post. To get this started let me give some insight into my ideas for the project to clear some things up.

• I really enjoy CiniUni, and D&D but want to get away from D&D a little since that is all I've been getting to play (hardly a problem :P)
• I REALLY enjoy Post Apocalyptic gaming and yet cannot for the life of me get it together, Fallout 3 has drove me to try and make it work
• I have d20 modern and all relevant books, but somehow everytime I think modern games I don't want anything d20 (Barring Mutanst and Masterminds of course)
• I Dig CotCT as a whole, and think the epic story inside all the stats is timeless and translatable throughout genres, for more examples of other peoples better ideas than mine Immora has a d20 modern conversion going running this baby as a pulp historical game (Cause she's awesome like that)
• and Lastly because I want so badly to run a Post Apocalyptic game, yet have trouble putting together anything that doesn't feel like a dungeon crawl (which I don't want)

Having done all of that on to my ideas for conversion. The most important of my thoughts here (IMO) are how to make the setting mine, yet still capture the rich flavor and machinations of what the awesome authors did. So a brief look at my version versus theres.

• In my version of the post apoc world, Korvosa is New Avalon which was a city state founded by the now defunct Government of New Texas. Following pretty much the same path as the AP in that they are now an independant "country" with President Eodred and his wife the Vice-President (you know how she got that appointment)
• Iloesa is from the Reconstituted States of America to the East, and was the promising daughter of officials there and otherwise is exactly as per the AP
• The shaonti are/were a survivor tribe that lived in the ruins of the former city that New Avalon is now on top of (The City was Dallas)
• The Fangs of Kadzovan (Sp?) are a nanotech virus left over from pre-fall. They are an AI war machine that makes the host into a superhuman assassin, and enhances the host traits. It also somewhat has its own pre-fall agenda that is outdated and is confused. It works basically as does the magic but is scientific in nature.
• The Red Mantis are a Yakuza like organization
• The necromancer is more Dr. Frankenstein than anything
• Zerella is actually going to be an Artificial Intelligence Hologram, programmed by the woman before her death.... no cool harrowdeck or any harrow stuff here at all... pretty much all of that is gone.
• Black Jack is BATMAN!

Those are the thoughts I have right now... will post more and hopefully coherent thoughts as they occur.

Don't forget Rami has experience dealing with sword and sorcery shows. He did The legend of the Seeker based on Goodkinds sword of truth novels (and were nothing like said books)... He did Hercules and Xena.... So yea.... I like Sam, I do, and I do like the aforementioned shows, but at the same time.... Blockbuster WoW movie is kinda sceptical. I hope I'm wrong and it rocks hard.

RIFTS
One of the best post-apocalyptic worlds IMNSHO...the rules are cumbersome...the fluff is great.

Shadowrun
Great near apocalyptic setting. The world has changed, splintered and been transformed, but it's not quite fallen...yet. I think that's where Equinox comes in.

Also I love Shadowrun. I have played and own 1e, 2e, 3e, and own 4e but can't get behind the rules changes for some reason even though they look better streamlined. I think its the fact that I dont really grok the setting change well.

How to handle action scenes, and maybe some charts that give a good formulaic breakdown of dcs and dmg per level for random acts or stunts that make doing crazy epicly adventurous things worthwhile. If Full attack does more damage than swing on the chandelier and kick them in the head and is more reliable no one will do it. I want people to do crazy stuff. So some advice or something would be great. Thats pretty much my wants other than advice for running 1 or 2 players...

Rezdave wrote:

Stewart Perkins wrote:

I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps ... [as] it's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders.

Unless the pirates have a large slave population working the fields back in their isles, they're going to need food and such that they can't supply themselves. They may fish a bit at sea, but they're pirates and not fisherman by trade. Hardtack requires flour to make and cheese requires cows or goats and pastures or plenty of feed. Bacon-backs or jerky as well all require agricultural support, and that is work the pirates won't do themselves. So they need slaves and...

In my campaign, I have a nation of gnolls that import slaves and export sausage.

I like the idea of a gnoll nation.

Added stuff

By putting manifest in the pirate isles it forces nations from all over the world to have contact with the region as they bring their corpses to the gates of the underworld. Legitimate nations backing pirate settlements (much as britain did port royale) to rob from other nations makes for all sorts of political intrigue.

Stewart Perkins wrote:

I may have misled you with the statement "off the map". I meant it more along the terms it isn't on any maps ... [as] it's location is intentionally kept secret from those outside the islands to keep it "safe" from the empires it plunders.

Of course. Just like old sea-maps say things like "Here There be Monsters", I imagine that if you looked at various maps from the regions the pirates border and raid you would find that many of them say "Here there be Pirates", sometimes including "artist's renderings" of the islands presumed or even known to be out there ... somewhere. Of course, there is no accuracy to the actual shapes or number or locations.

However, they can't be entirely "unknown", not at the size and organization you're talking about. People would know pirates are there, presume that they are operating from islands or some undiscovered land, and it would be noted on several maps, if inaccurately.

Note that as engaging as the concept of "pirate isles" as a nation is, such a culture is not self sufficient. They still need contacts and fences and so forth in "regular" lands. There would be pirates who retire with their plunder to "live the good life" in a more stable nation of their choosing, there would be those who break the "pirate code" and are on the run from the "isles" back into regular lands, and of course there would be the corrupt port towns in which the pirates are welcome to trade their loot for needed supplies and no one asks questions about the origin of such "trade goods".

Unless the pirates have a large slave population working the fields back in their isles, they're going to need food and such that they can't supply themselves. They may fish a bit at sea, but they're pirates and not fisherman by trade. Hardtack requires flour to make and cheese requires cows or goats and pastures or plenty of feed. Bacon-backs or jerky as well all require agricultural support, and that is work the pirates won't do themselves. So they need slaves and...

If you have W2 River into Darkness, I think Bloodcove would be a cool pirate town to add to your list and there's a fair bit of information about the town in the module. (You can also check out the Bloodcove entry on the Pathfinder wiki.)

I have decided that each isle will be named after the Pirate captain who's fleet settled it. But in all reality it will be little homages to the sources of the isle and some inside joke. For instance the Isle that holds "The Free city", Cauldron, Sasserine, etc. will be called The Isle of the Hawk. It was settled by the Pirate Captain Guy Grax, and later ran by Lord Cook leading to a revitalizing of the population. The isle of Freeport will use basic Freeport history except that the original Lord will have been an exiled Samurai. They reffered to him as the Ronin of the Emerald Kingdom. :P
And of course Riddleport, et all is located on the Isle of the Golem, settled by Captain "Golem" Buhlman. With lots of other references thrown in for my own amusement (Lieutenants Jacobs and Mona, the secret backer of the captain the aristocratic Ms. Stevens... etc.). I think these kinds of things help set the tone for what I want, semi serious yet semi silly pirate adventures. I especially like the ability to turn up the serious or silly at a moments notice and tone it back aswell. I haven't been in a good position for that in a while.

Neat, but a center of trade shouldn't be off the map, it should be on the borders of lots of different maps, providing "exotic" goods to lots of different continents and empires (European, Asian, Meso-American, Arabian, African, Iroquois, Hindu-Indian, Land of Giants, Draconic Empire, Land of the Dead, Embassy of Hell, etc.).

A small amount of "history" of my setting (a work in way progress).

The pirate Isles are a conglomerate of 7 or 8 pirate "nations" in a large chain of islands far off the known map. They are thriving centers for trade and community, and pretty much everyone is welcomed there... except bounty hunters. The reason I said there are 7 or 8 nations, is that at any given time 1 or more of the nations will be at war with another nation, and according to the "rules" as set out by the founding pirates, no nations can go to war while still a part of the allied "empire". So the standard practice is to go to war over something small, drop out of the empire finish the war (with usually little actual death outside of whoever they wanted removed from power) and then rejoin the empire. In all truth, no one hardly ever knows who is at war with who, and most common folk and even the various pirates have no clue there was even a "war" most of the time, that's all beuracrats stuff.
Each island nation is originally the foundation of several pirate captains attempts to fortify their men and create a refuge of their own kingdom. These grew in to cities and towns, and a few are created through other accidents and happenstance.

I've been running a swashbuckling sea-based campaign for a couple years now. It's pretty fun. They fought halfling ninja-swashbuckler-invisible blades, 36 HD T-Rexes, gnoll pirates galore, vampire merchant princes, yuan-ti cultists, and are now on a mission to stop the moon from being crashed into the sea!

And they also were forced to hear me sing a re-working of "The Hero of Canton, the Man They Call Jayne"--re-worked to incorporate a PC's name as the hero.

Definitely want black powder pistols and muskets.

Well amongst other ideas. I definately will be using serpentfolk AND Yuan-ti in a terrotorial battle, aswell as ypur gnoll pirates and vampire merchant princes :P

I'm doing the same thing, but throwing in Manifest from Ghostwalk calling the entire region "The Phantom Isles" and calling it Ghost Sails. The manifest zone extends over the whole region of the Phantom Isles.
Why do I tell you this?

So that I can have Pirates, Ninjas, Dinosaurs, Zombies and GHOSTS! The PCs are going to discover an army of warforged because all it needs is Robots!

Good times. :P

So I had this brainstorm while stocking bananas at work (I work in a Kroger produce department) and was thinking about what I want to run in D&D, or rather the types of stories I enjoy running. I realized I love pirates, ninjas, theives guilds, city settings, and some jungle exploration stuff... cults and natives etc. I have long drifted from the old dungeon crawl, having found they tend to go too long. I'm fond of shorter set pieces framing a story. So my idea was to create this mix-mash of settings. The Pirate Isles will have Riddleport (Paizo), Freeport(Green Ronin), Sasserine(Savage Tide), Scuttlecove(ST), Overlook(Siege of Boradins watch 4e... system stripped), and of course the Isle of dread and Farshore(ST). These were my first idea places to base setting around. I also want an island nation that is eastern in nature to add Samurai and Ninja... and Yes at one point I want a big naval battle with Ninjas and Pirates... but that isnt the point. The idea is to build a giant sandbox that is more of a bath tub to play in, using all these sources together in harmony. So what all sources are available for these places, and what are some good adventures and addons?