Stewart Perkins's page

You have two groups in central ohio?

we are looking to get ONE together and you have two?

Jamie in Grv City

I have 2 in lower Ohio (P-Town!) so it's not that as hard to get a game in ohio as it sounds. (Although living near a college always helps!)

donnald johnson wrote:

its wierd the differences between all boy games and boy/girl games. my last group was an all boy game, and they would all boink anything that fit the general discription. this new group is a boy/girl group, and so far the subject hasnt come up at all at all. (although, it was pretty funny when a satyr grappled the girl swashbuckler and started hauling her away from a fight) its still a different atmoshere.

party:

boy player(age: 21ish, college student) boy rogue
girl player(19ish, college student): boy paladin
boy player (21ish, bartender): boy wizard
boy player (30, soldier, iraq vet): boy sword sage
girl player(20ish, college student): girl warlock
girl player(17, high school student): girl swashbuckler

boy dm (40, retired soldier, iraq vet, construction): boy dm

the only romatic bit that i have been thinking of is sending a nymph (not a real one, but maybe) at the paladin.

This got me thinking. The one game I DM has romantically involved PCs and NPCs. The players are all happily married couples, so there's no, um, undertone in the roleplay. In other games I've played in, with single people, there's almost no romantic roleplay, because it becomes far too awkward (ie. possibly meaningful).

The other game I play is all men - but all gay men (yup me too), and there is absolutely no hint of romantic roleplay at all. It just doesn't come up. It would probably f**k up table dynamics.

And now that I think about it, the only time I roleplay romantic relationships is with my female friends' PCs.

So...if anyone at the table could possibly be attracted to each other, just kill lots of stuff. If not, then feel free to roleplay romance!

;)

Don't feel bad, Ran a game once and it was HEAVY roleplay and i did this whole thing about one players character going insane due to the death of anothers (my sister, and it was a supers game) and there was a whole wierd feel out of nowhere, and come to find out later they slept with each other after a game session :P

I doubt jedi and the like will be much of an issue as the idea being pitched is rise of the empire to rbellion era. Not alot of Jedi still around, and mostly I think it will be alot of Bounty Hunter Fett wanabees and a squad of Han Solo impersonators. Personally I'm looking to play a Diplomat type who maybe branches out... or a droid (Think HK 47, but programmed to not kill :P)

Lots of villians come to mind. To be honest There always seem to be one villian who so urks the party they hate them. I can name some of them to the players and they instantly call out curses. I guess I'm really good at making a villian hateable or something. Like this Doppleganger who took the mayors children hostage, only to have the party call her bluff. 3 children and a mother lost their lives that day.... and a priestess in a pickle barrel. The group never did get her, had a spectacular fight in a wizards tower in which she spiderclimbed out the window 700' up and the party barbarian jumped after her intending to kill them both.... and rolled a 1 ><
Some days you just have to question people's sanity :P

So overwhelming like for the most part? I have the d20 stuff except for Saga, and while I kind of like it it's just too D&D feeling for me. We have been talking about making the setting from scratch using Mutants and Masterminds though, that would definately put all characters at an equal balance as far as overall strength (we're thinking prepackages as the only "restriction" )

Well as of right now I plan on Avner's role in SWW to be as is, just he's there on purpose to get an eye on the pcs and it's his man and himself that cause the sabotage and the imp, and his boy is ready to take the fall if caught. Avner has him all ready to swear he was sent by the Sharks as a test and he actually replaced the real manservent etc. Avner will of course have him "killed", but with a contengency Rez or Clone (not sure I'm thinking Rez) and what not due to the kind of money Avner has access to. He will then have his man teleport to them via some linked gate mirror things (can't remember the name) and plague the pcs the whole trip. He won't actually make a move until HtBM when stuck inland, when he thinks he has a good chance to get rid of them without any witnesses "They died in the wreck" But of course the pcs will probably kill or beat him in which case he retreats or contingency rez's and comes back for revenge later (thats when he comes riding Raptors or some such with the animal control crown or whatever)

As for Rowyn, She probably will be on Lavinia's Boat (Named for her mother as the Nixie burned during the first adventure and Lavinia had a new one commisioned for her trip) and her disgust with Avner will be quite clear (she has no clue as to his thievery ways, but he does hers) and the assassinations may actually come about (he goes to take her, she to assassinate him) and this may actually be some catalyst to blame her for all the wierd stuff.

Just a rough outline of what I'm seeing happening :P

Thank you sir, That will help very much :)

Well the title pretty much sums it up, I saw mention of it and Turin if you happen to see this could you point me in the direction of this I would love to see it! Thanks

Here are my Changes to the STAP so Far:
Avner is the leader of the Fen Sharks, the rival theieves guild of the Lotus Dragons. He is infatuated by Rowyn Kellani and tries to woo her at every turn but she spurns his advances. This infuriates him to no end, and as such he has secretly declared war on her budding guild. He has his lover, whom he settled for, Diamondback assassinate the Dockmaster and leave clues to indicate that the Lotus Dragons commited the crime. Furthermore as an act of revenge “Hammerhead” has sent his assassin to kill Rowyn’s “bootlickers” Being the twisted degenerate he is, he secretly hopes the “heroes” die and kill Diamondback so that he can be rid of her, as she has grown to close for his nerves. Two birds, one fireball so to speak. He himself a devoted follower of Hextor hopes to take Rowyn by force and with her rule the shadows of all Sesserine. Of course things never work that way, as the meddling agents of Rowyn and Lavinia will no doubt sour his plans, he’ll help “fund” Lavinia Vandorboren’s trip to the exotic locale of Farshore, where he hopes his manservants and himself to make final woprk of the meddling group.

The Stats for Avner and co. on “easy mode” are as follows (I use Notice in my own games, which is Spot & Listen combined. As such consider their spot/listen to be equal to their notice bonus, the same goes for Thievery [Sleight of hand and Open Locks] and Stealth [Hide and Move Silently]):

Avner Meravanchi CR7

Quenge Asper CR5

Banaby Chisk CR5

I will Post My upgraded ideas after I have done them if they indeed do need done, but this is where they stand as of right now.

I like it, though my players are on foot. Luckily I have been playing up the coming festival since the beggining of TinH, saying that it is like Mardi Gras and Independance Day. I mention people n clown costumes and banners and paper dragons similiar to Chinese New Year etc. But it has just been background so I don't think they suspect it to become important :P.

So a friend of mine is interested in running some star wars games, but wants to do something non-d20 if possible and we're looking towards the old West End Games d6 stuff, that I have heard from a few people were awesome. So any thoughts from people who have played/gm'd it?

Actually I don't think selling the place quickly would be even remotely possible, if they could sell it at all, unless it was cheap and the buyer was foreign to the area, the place has a local reputation of haunted horror and accidents and a nickname "the Misgivings", so Anyone nearbye would stay away. Not to mention the Seven would be more than angry at a group selling what they surmise to be theirs anyway.

Quick thought on Avner, for his initial stats I gave him 5 levels of rogue, but the big change was his stats, I bumped up his Charisma to 14 to represent him being a good liar and seducer of many noble maidens. Also as it stood he had a Bluff of +7 at level 3 with an 8 charisma.... with his max ranks would be 6 and he'd suffer a -1 penalty due to his assumingly haughty nature and end up with a +5 Bluff, and since he didn't have the persuasive feat my only other guess was some bonus due nobility? Well he works better as is but he and his two pals might get bumped a few levels by the time they actually become a fight or I may use Turins advanced Badass template (or whatever its called, cant remember) so we'll see. Oh and also I'm using the idea that he pines for Rowyn and Diamondback is his actual lover. They are a mirror of the kind of setup that Vanthus had with Brissa, and Rowyn. Adds good roleplay, especially if it works out that he kidnaps or even kills her later or somesuch.

The way I think it's going to go down is that the pcs catch up to to Harliss' first mate and some of the bullywugs and do said diplomacy, but the bullywugs are itchin for a fight and if good diplomacy isnt had fighting will be. Meanwhile the rest of the Bullyugs (including the shaman and the Chief) have already advanced to Town using boats or Giant frog mounts or somesuch (Probably Boats) so as to be the initial strike force and are doing the siege waiting on Vanthus or Harliss man to get there so everything happens but the reasoning is a little different.

As for Diamondback and co. I think I'm going to develop Avner as 8th Dwarf mentioned and set him up to be the leader of a rival guild to the Lotus Dragons, a far worse kind that may seem the same but ends up being worse and Diamondback and crew are his guildies, attacking the party because they are as I said before "Rowyn's Bootlickers". Avner gets reworked here and I'm adding 5 levels of Rogue (but I'm thinking dropping the Aristocrat entirely and then make him an assassin?), and making his 2 commoner buddies into a 5th level Wizard, and Rogue2/Fighter3 respectively. Although they get bumped up in level depending on when they become a pain in the party behind. Funny enough this makes them fairly useful if they'll break cover during HtbM (yea right). Assumingly they and their problems will come to a head after the pcs reach farshore, depending on the parties relationship with Rowyn at that point he might make a play to assassinate her and the pcs might confront him there. SO many ideas :P

Well as for the delay, I'm not too fond of railroading without good sense, so delaying them for the sake of making it go down as planned doesn't sit well overall, and the more I think about it, the more I'm left trying to decide why the mansion infiltration and bullywug combat is so important to the plot outside of save the Jade Ravens and further the pcs rep with Lavinia. To which I might have them meet the half-orcc and his bullywugs but the party finds out that the bullywugs already sent an advance that was to infiltrate and await there arrival and then the remaining bullywugs could be the advance group with the half-orcs place being taken by the chief or a general type. Feels less railroading than you get delayed and never catch him and accounts for them maybe even getting some help from him as Harliss' personal envoy and representative.

As for replacing Rowyn for Avner and then doing the Romeo and Julliete gone worse bit, I very much like it and never even thought about that.... not to mention the other zany ideas about him after his initial use on these boards (like the Avner on a dino with a big crown idea)

Hmm won't let me edit, but I forgot one more question. If the pcs are still semi-working for Rowyn and Lavinia (secretly) later when Rowyn is supposed to sneak onto their ship and plague them, who can I use to replace her and why? Just a thought that has occured to me.

So I have a bit of a pickle at this point, I have surmised some ways for this to work out but I'm looking for advice.

1) At the end of TinH, the group used good diplomacy and bartering to work out a deal with Rowyn, they aren't guild members but are somewhat partners. After everything it works in both parties interest and at this point they are working for both Lavinia and Rowyn, looking for Vanthus. As one of the players has interest in turning the Lotus Dragons into a dark force for good I see interesting roleplay here, especially since no one is too good for this to work and they know nothing of the assassinations and the like yet. But what does this do to the DIamondback scenerio in BG? Is there a good way to make it work and not be shoehorned? Maybe a rival thieves guild thinking the party Rowyn's bootlickers?

2) Speaking of BG, the party got to Kraken's Cove, fought through to Harliss and after helping her take down the savage pirates they talked with her, and made a diplomacy check. Wouldn't it be my luck they nailed a Natural 20, which we have had a s a long standing tradition as an instant success no matter the odds. So effectively they nailed the dc 40 diplomacy and got Harliss' info and one of her earrings. So since Drevoraz is only hours ahead of them, and alone while the party includes a ranger and are after him to stop his attack on the Vandorboren manor, what happens if they reach him? Would it be crazy of me to curtail it towards they can use diplomacy to talk him down but maybe add in some of the bullywugs and make it a big fight of Pcs and him vs. Bullywugs who are bloodthirsty? It just seems that he's super loyal to her and that since the earring is a pre arranged code that once shown to him if he hasn't made it to the city he may back down. What then?

I can see how that would be more expensive, and if the price went above the $15 as it stands it would quickly become too much, but Personally, as I like minis I wouldn't mind paying $20-25 for a map pack to scale for the adventures, But thats just me and probably not cost efficient enough to be feasible.

So am I to assume these arent to scale for use with minis and the like? that would make this an attractive add.

We haven't detailed how and when and why the elf to drow change occurs, apart from saying it happens to only the most wicked of elves. It also probably requires some sort of willing "sell your soul to the Abyss or a demon" level of thing as well. It's a RARE event; it's not something that would or should happen often, otherwise it would be a much more well-known condition. I'd guess that it happens maybe once every few centuries, in fact.

It won't be mentioned at all in "Into the Darklands" since it's a pretty important hidden plot element in "Second Darkness." We're actually not mentioning it AT ALL outside of the Second Darkness campaign for now, in fact.

I suspect that we'll have a bit more to say about it in Pathfinder #17, though, when another such event may or may not be set to occur...

Ah ok, I got from reading from the initial adventure history about the drow changes and how they were happening and thought it happened more than that, maybe just the way I read it. So just an EXTREMELY vile act would cause a change, and Demon influence is a must? Sounds good to me.

So it may have been addressed but I haven't seen it yet, but how exactly does the process of Elf to Drow work in game rules? Let's say we have an elf pc in a morally crooked group, what's the rules regarding whether that pc descends and becomes drow? Is it covered anywhere, or I guess this one is for James and co. is that going to be covered in the Darklands stuff or the AP itself, if at all? Just wondering.

Played Today and had a total of 5 deaths >< (3 players, 2 of which died twice)

Name: Athenia, Heriozu, Elorick
Race: Human, Human, and Elf
Class: Cleric 1, Wizard 1, and Fighter 1
Adventure: There is no Honor
Area: D25/D1
Catalyst: Lotus Thieves and Barbarian stupidity

Name: Actulick, Than Dorn
Race: Halfling, Elf
Class: Rogue 1, Fighter 1
Adventure: There is no Honor
Area: D25/D1
Catalyst: Reinforcing Lotus Thief and bad luck

I'll have to check those out. We did All of parrot island, and its ensuing roleplaying etc last session with a wizard, Barbarian and Fighter (all level 1) and had no deaths. Heck the zombies and the crabs were more deadly than the undead priest ><
There were lots of close calls and the party spent like 2 weeks down there surviving on their rations and whatnot as well as eating the crabs for food (was pretty funny). The total session was worth ike 600xp a player (and subsequently level 2 for the fighter and barbarian) so he missed out on 600xp which only seems like alot at this level so as Im not sure I could throw together a session for him to "catch up" that he wouldnt try and drag on into extra xp (hes good like that) so Im probably going to tell him sorry for now and kind of maybe keep a tally of missed xp and when enough has built up then do solo catch up missions...

Started the Ap 3 sessions ago, but most importantly had our first death 15 minutes in!
Name: Joshua Bo
Race: Human
Class: Rogue 1
Adventure: There is no Honor
Area: The Blue Nixie
Catalyst: Party splitting, and awkward planning.

The party met with Lavinia, got the story, and then decided on what next to do. The paladin refused her offer and instead decided to try and join the town guard (He's a once in 6 months kind of player, and I honestly have no clue what he was thinking ><) Meanwhile the barbarian went back to the noble district to get his gear. During which the rogue and a fighter went ahead and decided to go to the Nixie themselves and when they did whackiness ensued. The 6'3" rogue (he rolled it :P) snuck onto the boat and attempted to sap one of the thugs to take his place with disguise (Did I mention he was 6'3"?) and when he was caught he bailed into the dingy leaving the scale armor wearing fighter to bull rush a thug off the ship (rather amusing). Two more thugs rushed up from below and the fighter decided to bail into the water and under the weight of his gear started sinking. The thugs then took shots at the rogue in the boat dropping him like a bad habit, when he dropped his torch in the boat setting it on fire (it was at night). The fighter cut his armor to survive and upon getting to the top of the water saw the boat on fire and his new ally bleeding to death from arrow punctures he dragged him into the water and swam him to shore, where he sadly succombed to his wounds before they hit dry land. Not to mention the heartbreak of the fighter, and his sudden change of heart when he realized he could replace his scale with his dead comrades chain shirt. ><

(Way better feeling than the same player's warforged fighter's death in the previous campaign, he dove out of a 700' window of a wizards tower after a spider climbing doppleganger who was escaping, hoping to grapple her off and drive them both to their deaths but rolled a total of 8 to hit and I even gave him the +2 charge bonus for the hell of it!)

I didn't mean by anyway that there was anything wrong with this I guess I meant I was curious as to what the general feeling most had for the adventures themselves, more of a question of whether people felt they were rushed or not. I also agree that Gencon was presumably a big factor I hadn't really thought of. I was just commenting on the standard 3/month adventure rate were used to and the sudden 3 at the last week/moment thing. Just curious to see reactions to these is all :)

So I was going to post something along the line of how last week of the month and dungeon online had only produced the ap adventure and was shy of the normal 3 per mag we're used to when suddenly at the last moment they drop 3 this issue. I haven't read them and I am kind of speculative of their quality, but what is the general thought of this sudden drop of adventures?

It's ok, in and of itself I'm more towards the mindset of #2 myself. Especially with my college classes and whatnot (and other games). I just wanted to see if there were any quick and dirty ways of going about this. :P

I have to say I like the epic scale of the adventure and general feel of the action described, but I also concede to Logo on the points of the railroad track it takes as well as the semi confused mode of opperation. If you linchpinned that she hoped all the human armies would maybe DIE in the big fight and then when teleported as part of her big ritrual raised as an army of undead under her control it fixes that logical leap into an appropriate step I believe, not to mention I also agree on the Primordial issue, but thats very moot and all flavor (To me the whole Primordial vs Gods bit seems like theyre cramming greek mythology down our throats when we'd more than likely eat it if they just chilled but again thats me)

Another interesting Idea, especially for the Drow fanboys and girls (everyone knows at least one :P) would to be the all drow campaign that started that way, with the pcs as bottom of the totem pole types who for whatever contrived reason went against the plot of the drow, all traitor-esque. so in the end they not only are fighting their people but also the "pcs" who are trying to stop it who won't listen to their crys of "we're good guys!" so it presents opposition on all sides and makes them heroic for so many more reasons (even if theyre scoundrels). The neat idea is that they don't have to necessarily be good guys to be opposed for various reasons, maybe they like things how they are and don't want to actually destroy said world but conquer it? Just some thoughts spurned on by your thought I guess. Sorry for threadjacking :P

Stewart Perkins wrote:

So here's my predicament...

I realize this doesn't answer the meat of your post, but why not run the character as an NPC? Or have a different player run him?

While I understand that idea and am all for it personally, My players are of the mindset that it isn't ok. I guess they've had bad experiences with it under a few other DMs we know. So I'm looking for a way to work with him on this instead of against what he wants (which is not miss game time, xp, etc and not be autopiloted) :P

A new way to do the Savage Fever has been published..

So here's my predicament, At the end of part 3 (the Vandorboren vault) is where we left off last game session. The catch is I will likely have a missing player during part four, the Parrot Island section. My missing player (who has to miss due to work) has asked if I could run a solo sidequest to both explain his absence and catch him up on any missed xp. I told him I'd see what I could figure out and decided I'd see if any other Dm's who've ran the path before had any similiar incidents and how they've dealt with them. Also should I maybe make his sidequest similiar to the purpose of the parrot Island bit in that he's out to find Vanthus and runs afoul of maybe some Lotus Dragons? Anybody have any advice for good solo level 1 content that'll be challenging and engaging without instant death to the solo cleric?
Thanks

So I'm running STAP in 3.x but am thinking of adapting it to 4th for a second game aswell.... (I really like the story) and have so far had a few thoughts that, while not perfect are at least worth getting feedback on. So lemme know what you think?

Rhadogessa, either reskinning the choker or making it a level 1 solo lurker? I'm leaning toward the latter, and then using the standard pre solo version levelled up for later in TiNH.

and using Savage template as similiar to the elite templates in the dmg? I think this works but so many savage creatures to the fights, theyd have to be a level or so below the party (not bad actually). This template would give 2 to Ac and Fort,bonus hp per the elite rules, +2 squares movement, Darkvision, A bite attack as a minor action? that causes Savage fever (a minor at will, does maybe d6 +str and has Level +2 to git vs AC?), and Death Throws encounter ability (Encounter, Imiidiete interrupt, Trigger: Upon reaching 0 hp)Attack all adjacent squares Level +2 vs Reflex; d6+Con Acid damage. Squares become difficult terrain, and any who enter are attacked; Level +2 reflex, d6+con damage?

and Finally my "Savage Fever" Disease, with no actual ability score loss and damage the intelligence damage is kinda out, but it seems healing surges are key to these things now (and thus bad for npcs):
Savage Fever Level 5 disease?
Attack +8 vs. Fort, Endurance: Improve Dc 20, Maintain DC 15, Worsen DC 14 or lower.
Target is Cured <- Initial Effect: Target loses a healing surge and cannot regain it until cured, Target also starts to become insane <--> Each Failure indicates the target loses two more healing surges and cannot regain them until the target gets better, if all surges are gone move to final stage -> Final Stage: Infected Creature becomes a Savage creature and attacks all non- Savage creatures.

Anyway thats what I have so far, any suggestions?

Amusingly I had a similiar experience with this fist leg although way earlier, My party split up when going to investigate the Nixie... The rogue and fighter went by themselves and put the whole ship on alert. Things went poorly when the rogue bailed and the fighter stayed to bull rush a guy off of the ship. Then dove into the water and nearly drowned thanks to his armor. Really made things a pain since the ship set sail and the group had to do everything they can to catch up. :P

Good point, thinking about it I think they'll win, but the ship (which isn't theirs) will be damaged enough that it needs to stop in Riddleport to which the pcs have never heard of (Based on my players it's the best way to foster their roleplaying, trying to otherwise integrate them into the setting doesn't work with these guys :P) And then of course play to there rogue-ish natures (And none of them will probably be an actual rogue, it's just their natures :P) and in fairness I wanted to use the sahuagin because I love them and just don't see them enough (like gnolls, my favorite underused humanoids... just my opinion)

I'm thinking the opening game is going to set them all on a boat for various reasons when it is assailed by pirates (or sahaugin or somesuch) and eventually sank, the survivors (read: the party and maybe a few npcs) then kind of rowboat themselves and drift about and eventually end up in riddleport as the sort of cliffhanger, that should set me up fine as I'll actually have the stuff before the next game and plenty of time to get acquainted with it to boot. :P
In all fairness I've just decided that based off your suggestion, so kudos and thanks to you. :)

Ah so it's in a port city? Awesome, that gives me a little more direction so as to flow things, Thanks!

So I'm in an odd predicament. I have recently taken time from 3.x to try 4th, and while I liked it it just doesn't have the complete feeling 3.x and PFRPG have for me so I'm migrating back to what I love. As such after reading countless reviews and seeing what I have of their APs I have newly subscribed to the Ap and will be getting the first book next week. The problem I have is I will effectively have my fist session before I get the book and essentially I need a small bit of help in still throwing something together, but also not back my self into a corner away from the Ap so that it transitions smoothly. So my question is directed at any who already have it is, are there anything pre Second Darkness that just doesn't work? No deserts, no Sea going, or vice versa? Thanks.