Tasmanian_tiger's page

Weird, I didn't even think as roleplaying as a 'male' thing. Just more like.. well.. not gender-related.

I'm a female gamer. I started by reading Weis and Hickman trilogies, then I stumbled into AD&D. Yup, the first two groups I played with were all male. In the late nineties, I believe. Then I started to DM myself, asked friends and the ball got rolling. Now I'm a player in a CoT game with three females, two males. I have played all female groups. I'll probably be dm'ing the next campaign.

Fun fact: people randomly turning up and saying 'ah, you're from that roleplaying group!' And of course, my friend's daughter (nearly a year old) sitting with us while we were setting up. One can't start early enough!

:)

Aha, thanks for answering that! ^^

Heya,

yesterday I decided to subscribe to pathfinder roleplaying, starting from Bestiary 3. I had hoped to be able to download the pdf today. But it hasn't been added (yet) to my downloads.;)

In my memories, pdf's seemed to be added directly after purchase, I'm not sure anymore, how it goes with subscribtions.. so I thought to ask.

(That and because I'm not patient enough, hehe.)

Friendly greetings,

J. Van Tricht

I would like to add: yes! Yes and yes. I would love such a book too. I nearly always play pet classes (come to think of it). I would love just a clean write-out of everything, more options, more items.. more.. everything. ^^

I wish I had read this sooner. Hehe.

What I did was, scan in a part of the empty grid map (like one of the earlier D&D Miniature games, or just one you draw up on like the one of Paizo). Open the map in photoshop (or any graphic program with layers, like gimp). Paste the paizo image on a different layer. Make it a bit transparant, then resize until until the grid squares are the same size.

I finally have to add to the list. It was kinda ironic and made me feel bad as a DM. I was being a bit of a softie and after one heck of an incredible rescue (don't get me wrong, I always let the characters work, but I apparently have troubles killing them..) The player (one of my best friends) of this character said to toughen up.

You can guess what happened;

PC Name: Valerius (Lv 11 wizard)
Adventure: Gathering of winds
Location of Death: Outside the Cairne
Catalyst: Ilthane
Long Description: The party planned to surprise Ilthane when coming out of the Tomb. (They had been chased in it by her at the start of the adventure. I had buffed Ilthane up a bit, because the party existed of 6 characters and I had read of the one round Ilthane kills here.) Anyhow, they teleported out of sight, but still inside the Tomb, thanks to the sorcerer scrying on beforehand, they knew she was waiting. But she had taken hostages too from the village, complicating the situation. In the end they decided to attack from all sides, which left the squishies, invisible but vulnerable in the bushes, while trying to save the hostages.

Ilthane nearly killed the fighter, but then took wing and flew to the wizard who had taunted her when they ran at the start of the adventure. She sniffed him out and tore him to pieces.

After that, it must be said, the cleric did a big hit, Ilthane tried to flee flying (at 3Hp), but got downed by a lucky magic missile (! penetrated spell resistance), and crushed into the forest.

In the aftermath everyone was counting their gold for a true ressurection scroll..

But I still don't like killing characters.. but I guess I'll try this path for a while (since ressurection scrolls are more readily available).

Yes, reactions were mixed from denial ('but, what are we preparing for, there wasn't anything in there.), 'How can I sleep with that under the arena', to 'let's raise an army'.

The last one was particulary sweet, since the fighter first had to tell Ekyam they found his sister.. dead and then started 'please hire an army to fight this thing'. Poor Ekyam.. Xx

Tasmanian_tiger wrote:

Anyhow.. mostly milliput + greenstuff: gargantuan ulgurstasta;

Piccies:
pic1

pic2

Size comparisation:

size

For more sides of it, click through gallery:

gallery

Edited the links. It looks really good! As a player, I would know that I´m deeply in trouble if such a nightmarish monstrosity appeared. "Oh nOOO..."

Stefan

Last week, my players finally got to meet the Apostle (and are trying to raise an army after.. :P)

After playing the campaign for nearly a year, I found it fitting to try and make an Ulgurstasta, as a tiny.. big surprise. I never modelled before.. so erhm, well.. It isn't that great (though it's big). I nearly didn't finish him because the players were nearing the 'moment' too quickly and I ran out of greenstuff.

Anyhow.. mostly milliput + greenstuff: gargantuan ulgurstasta;

Piccies:

http://www.thylacine.be/Galerij/Models/Ulgurstasta01.jpg

<url>http://www.thylacine.be/Galerij/Models/Ulgurstasta02.jpg</url >

Size comparisation:

[url]http://www.thylacine.be/Galerij/Models/ComparisationSizeUlg.jpg[/url]

For more sides of it, click through gallery:

[url]http://www.thylacine.be/Pagina/Images/Ulgurstasta.html[/url]

For the players (that wander around here): thanks for sticking around, I hope you are all still having a blast! ;) And stop reading spoilers! XD

For Paizo, thanks for the campaign!

Right now, the players have only seen the 'thing', so no spoilers please, just in case. (Some of my group may only go to this thread. ;) )

Edit: How do you post links? D'oh!

Ok, thanks for the heads up. :-)

Tasmanian_tiger wrote:

Greetings,

I've put this order in on 31th december, it's still pending. Now, I was pretty sure that all items were in stock when I ordered, so I wonder what has happened? Is something not in stock?

Cheers,

Taz.

I apologize but it appears that one of the items on your order, the Vampire: The Dark Ages—Ashen Cults, is no longer available. I will cancel this item from the order so we can get the remainder shipped out as soon as possible.

Thanks,
cos

Greetings,

I've put this order in on 31th december, it's still pending. Now, I was pretty sure that all items were in stock when I ordered, so I wonder what has happened? Is something not in stock?

Cheers,

Taz.

To start, I'm DM'ing the Age of Worms adventure path, but really, it's the first time I've DM'ed something that large (or long) and the first time I've been faced with characters of this level. I tend to make a lot of mistakes, unintentionally and am a bit overwhelmed. I hope this some can help me on, thought I hope the questions aren't silly.

The last session, my players finished HOHR and nearly all levelled to level 9. While I tried to get a grasp of the Free City, I already had been faced with the problem of what they can buy there. I can't find the article right now (oh dear), but I introduced the wizard to the wizard guild written in Dragon, a few potion shops and such. But now I'm not sure what f.e. spells that you could buy on the market or take over from the library? I understood the Free City was one of the largest cities around, so most common, uncommon and even rare things should be available/findable (against a price).. or not?

So, I'm not sure what to put in shops, being it spells, weapons or armory. I'm afraid to just throw everything in, since well.. it seems a bit unexciting that everything just is there, against a price. But then again, it's a bit city, if you can't find it there, where else? I feel I'm probably missing something, be it from the manuals or articles about cities...

Help?

Greetings,

my apologies for bugging you all with this question. I only recently decided on what to do with my remaining subscription of Dungeon; taking up store credit. Today I checked up the option and looked around to fill in some orders. I wasn't given the option to use the store credit.

I assume it still has to be added to the account? I'm a bit clueless on where to look to find info on this. (I looked into the FAQ of the transition forum.)

So the question would be, how long does it take to add? Or, am I doing something wrong? The amount exceeded the given credit a bit, but I thought I would be able to add up through credit card.

Thanks for reading,

Taz.

_edit_ Of course, I just found the answer after typing this. >_>

I'm not entirely sure when we started, it must be around.. mid 2006? I started with the end of the second adventure, (I let it run over from a homebrew into AoW) and we are now at HoHR.. We try to play two times in the month, but, there have been a few months that I wasn't able to DM and during the summer months, we only played once.

That said, it's kinda worrysome that some players have asked me (in a good humored way) how far along they were. Ugh. I more or less answered once that.. well, it wasn't too far along (not past half, I believe I said). I got a look of disbelieve.

Now.. mind you, up until now, the players that had played D&D already, only played short stories and very short campaigns (one was in fact a story with five or so chapters, some very short, home made) and some hadn't played at all.

They did tell me (not when the subject of 'how long' came along), they are enjoying the campaign immensly and are excited on how it will continue and end.

Still, being the worrysome me, I can't help to feel a bit guilty when I start another chapter, that the 'big clue (aka Kyuss)' they are used to, hasn't come yet (and again). I never DM'ed a long campaign myself though.

And yes, when we will hit december 2007 with HoHR, we will be playing for a year. <_< But, that won't happen, since they are in the midst of the mindflayers lair and I expect them to finish that adventure one of of the following session. That or TPK. (They were very close a few times in there.. ugh.)

I'm holding myself a bit up at the thought of the speed they finished EaBK. I don't mind roleplaying that long though, and they (and me) are having lots of fun. So.. meh, I guess.

Real life situations keep coming in over and over (like two players leaving for a month long journey), I just can't play every weekend... and I try to hold onto playing twice every month.

I haven't had much PC kills. I mainly did homemade adventures when I DM'ed. AOW is the first (pre-made, if you like) adventure path I'm DM'ing. Maybe that's the reason I didn't have many yet..

Anyhow, I've never had to withheld myself that much as you did. (I'm sure I did here and there a little... when I was tired). But, I've had a similar group, with similar behaviour.

Mine was like lots of talking, no tactics.. even during battle half of the pc's was dwindling their thumbs not doing anything.

Until, unintentionally, they came at the Ebon Aspect.. nearly all resources depleted, including spells, healings etc.. not much hp.

The druid got ripped to pieces literary. The silence and terror that filled the room. (I wasn't enjoying it, mind you, I found it terrible as a DM.) First PC dead.. more to follow. The player of the cleric (I believe the only tactically sound mind then) was mumbling 'total party kill' 'total party kill'..

Shortly said, they came up with a plan, retreated in a nip of time, only justly getting everyone to safety.

After that, battles were planned out, people buffed and such.

To my group it was a wake up call.

_edit_ Though the group composure was different, they're heavy on fighter types too. Ouch. I hope that doesn't mean too much trouble further along.

RPGs are a social activity. Anyone that isn't contributing to others' fun shouldn't be there.

Period.

That's the baseline of it, to my perspective too. Now of course, it isn't that black and white. Sometimes things will happen that aren't fun for one character/player, but fun for the other. But they should never be big, like player kill, unless the other player (that got/gets) killed, agreed to it.

I've been in groups before that were very borderline (two characters really harassing the more weaker ones). I didn't DM those, but I try to avoid such things in my group, unless the players agree that it's part of the game they want to play.

Recently I'm having a similar thing in the group I'm dm'ing. No player kills, but more alignments bumping that could result in something worse. I've talked to all involved to try and find out what a.they found of the current situation b. where they plan to go with their characters story wise.

I wouldn't allow a player just to make a character to kill off other PC's in the group if they didn't agree with it..

But yes.. I can feel your pain. Maybe the DM has a plot ready to get killed character back up and convince the new comer?

In each case, it doesn't hurt to, subtel or not (as you see fit), to inform the DM of your worry and displeasure with the current course of action.

Bocklin wrote:

... half of the time we end up entangled in poorly run fights ...

... it still takes a lot of time, because most of the players are new to the game and need help ...

And there are the main reasons why D&D combats can grind to a halt. Fortunately, help can be had:

- Much of what slows the game is poor organisation. If the Fighter's player doesn't have his attack bonus pre-calculated, and has to do it anew for every attack, that's a lot of time lost over 10 rounds, even if each calculation is only a few seconds. If the DM's notes are poorly laid out, the same applies.

So, strongly advocate that your party adopts a standard format for character sheets (if you don't already have one). Ideally, this should be some sort of auto-calculating sheet, such as the Mad Irishman sheets. Also, get spell sheets (or spell cards) for casters, including page numbers for the sourcebooks.

Of course, having a standard character sheet format is useless unless they are properly filled in. Also, where calculations can be pre-done (such as Power Attack modifiers), produce cheat-sheets for that purpose.

Get your DM a set of intiative cards (or a whiteboard and markers). Try to give him a bit more space to lay out his notes. Get him a set of small post-it notes with which to bookmark spells in the PHB and such. And advise that he adopts the new stat-block format.

-- There's also a lot of book flipping involved in combat. This, of course, slows things down. Here's how to reduce the impact of that:

Firstly, any character who wants to use a special combat action (such as disarm) or cast a spell, or whatever, should look up the appropriate passages in the sourcebook. Then, when you announce the action, hand the open book to the DM so he can check whatever he needs to. (Bear in mind that the player's are only active for about 1/5 of the combat round, so have time to check things. The DM is busy the whole time, so doesn't.)

Spell cards and the Fiery Dragon "Battle Box" are both godsends in this...

Thank you for this interesting post!

Battles in my group tended to take ages when we started playing again. Though, when I started DM'ing, I wrote every world-aspect down, I didn't bother with tactics (simply didn't think of doing it.) Recently I started reading dungeon, and found the tactics sections for npc's/monsters very usefull. So I began to use them too for my games (though, they still need to improved a lot..)

I also started to write a summary next to each monsters/npc's spell/ability... To avoid having to look them up.

My group consists out of well.. three semi-experienced (including myself). The rest are all newbies. I have the same phenomen of a player, that is newer then me, but still already D&D for a year and a half and, isn't really interested in reading the rules. Though, she is a good roleplayers and enjoys D&D a lot.

Anyhow.. just said, battles tended to be exhausting. Last session an improvement happened (due to me writing down notes) and indeed, another player researching things while I was busy. Good point here!

All in all, battles tended to take long (I think I'm striking the 45min limit, not sure about the number of rounds).

Lastly, can you buy a box of spell cards somewhere? And what is the Fiery Dragon "Battle Box"? I had in mind of designing and printing out spell cards myself.. simply because it would really help battle along.

*sweatdrop* I just got issue 134 a week ago. -> Is from Belgium.

Thank you for your suggestions.

-a poll might be a good idea. I think I will try to aim for a preset day per week, as it indeed will give people the opportunity to set their schedule. Weekends tend to be taken up, however, I have two evenings I'm following art classes (in the week), another player also follows classes, and one other follows two other campaigns (though, pre-weekly, I think.)

-action points? What can the players do with them? It sounds like a good system. (Reminds me of something we tried once, but in a different context.)

No two gaming groups are alike. I'm curious to hear about the quirks that make your party/adventuring group unique.

For example:

1) Our AoW party shuns rope. This started in the Whispering Cairn when they discovered no one had purchased any upon character creation. They latched onto "no rope" as their defining party quality. All new characters joining were welcomed heartily if they had no rope, or were shunned until they discarded (or better yet) burned theirs. Every obstacle overcome without rope was a victory (imagine lame 'huzzahs' and high-fives).

3) Another example was from 2nd edition Dragonlance. We discovered you could heal more hps overnight with a comfortable bed. Before long, anyone with a decent strength was dragging along a cot everywhere. Sure this slowed us down...but sleeping was excellent. They began to figure prominently into our tactics too.

I didn't say it had to make sense ;) So let's hear what oddities set your groups apart. Let's keep it lighthearted, and not pick out obvious errors please (eg. carrying beds around).

J-

About no rope, while venturing into a complex of caves, my party discovered no one had brought a rope. They ended up using the whip of the rogue. Which leads me to the strange quirks, nearly everyone seems to insist bringing a weapon they can't use properly. Like the whip.. or a two bladed sword that nearly decapicated the cleric twice.

I usually use the abscent player's character as an NPC when in the middle of an adventure (for one or two games only). If I know in advance that the player won't be present for a few games, then I exclude his character from the adventure. All absent players don't get any share of "the XP pool" at the end of the game (the XP pool being 1/4 of all xp earned by the group divided by shares, which are won by being present, good role-playing, good ideas and even massive-damage-dealing-critical-hits).

Ultradan

Hmm, that's a good idea actually for the Xp. Plus also for the adventure.. I never thought of it. *sweatdrop* I'm usually bending and turning to get one players character out of the adventure if the player isn't there. Until I bump into an keeping it IC wall.

While I was again mailen, phoning.. shortly trying to find a date to get the group together, my frustration grew and grew. I browse and lurk on this forums and by general find a lot of good advice on it, so, I thought, to post here about my problem and ask how other groups set their D&D times.

First of all, I will try to not make this too long, but a short introduction of my group. I am the DM, but wasn't the DM for the oldest characters. That group fell apart, but we loved (three of us) loved our old characters (they had quite a history by then) so much, I decided to take the DM's roll for this and play my old character along with it.

It resulted in a few loose stories, here and there. Two other players joined and some more loose stories followed.

The consequence of these loose stories was, that I didn't have a 'preset' time. We didn't agree on a date in the week or something, I simply called/mailed when I had story, we found a date on which we all could and there we went.

Then already I had troubles getting everyone together if we couldn't finish the story in one session and it required a next session. Often, there were weeks or even a month in between. The problem usually was that one or two players couldn't make it.

Three sessions ago, a fifth player joined, a D&D newbie. One session ago, a sixth.. (he only came to watch, but asked if he could join.. of course I couldn't bring myself to reject.. sigh. That's another problem.)

By the time the fifth player joined, I was writing up ideas for a 'big' story arc aka, a campaign. (I'm now looking into using AoW campaign.)

Most of my oldie players (the first four, I played another campaign with them, with the same problems) are asking for shorter periods between sessions. I must tell, I would like to do this also, but I'm not managing.

-I have no set date (usually it's in the weekend.) As like in every two weeks saturday. Would this be a more handy thing for people's schedules? I don't like D&D becoming a 'must' do thing..but it's getting rather tiresome this way and most of the players also like shorter periods in between.

-How much time is there between your sessions? How do you handle it when one (or even more) player can't make it? (I tended to not cancel sessions if one couldn't make it.. but keeping in character is proving rather difficult.)

Hrm. How about the guy who has way too big of a facination with dragons? I've been playing this game for about 2 years now, and I don't like dragons. I think they're kinda overrated most times, but that's besides the point. There's this dude at the store I always go to, and he's the DM everyone makes fun of, yet people get so bored that they break down to do his 'campaign', but usually only once.

1st level. The setting didn't matter (to him) even though I usually see him paging through the realms book. 1st level.
1st level. Why do I stress this? At 1st level, Bahaumet came down in front of the PC's, handed them some mystical book (think book of exalted deeds or vile darkness, but for dragons I guess) and told them to take it to Tiamate. 1st level..

Another would be when one of my old players called me and said "how do you figure the xp to give when a 8th level guy kills a 27th level guy" or some outrageous level difference like that. I told him that shouldn't be possible.

"well, I was playing Dragon lovers campaign and my guy beat his npc" or some scat like that. I just shook my head and told him to quit. Then he went on about how the DM gave him an infinite bag of holding that is filled with gold that can never run out.

Oh, and the DM let his girlfriend play in his own game. Now, I have my girlfriend in my game, and for the longest time I was afraid I'd show favoritism, but I got over it after awhile. I guess he wasn't afraid, cause he made up the Half Phoenix race, and let her be one. SHE COULDN'T DIE! She was immortal! Now I know that immortality in D&D usually means you don't age, that you can still die under extraordinary circumstances and what not, but SHE COULDN'T DIE! What's the point?

Not to mention he would over load the game with FFVIII references, cause apparently the BBEG was Seifer. Did I mention I never played any of these? These are all horror stories others have told me? Sigh............ 1st level...

I'm afraid I'm also a dragon freak. When I started.. though the pc's didn't met one at first level.. (recall that was more of a detective story, no rolls, pure roleplay and questioning npc's :p) I do tended to drag them in too much. I've changed now, but they still pop up once and then.

Five outside me. I have found out I can't really handle more.. Now already there are players that are more silent if only they weren't in such a big group. I don't mind some side roleplay.. but it's hard to follow everything going on if I play with more then five pc's.. With fewer players characters tend to deepen out more. With some of my players at least..

I guess it depends on the players and characters they play.

We should write more things down.. I tend to forget them.

"I can ressurect people too," said our necromancer.

From the very food oriented cleric; "I cast divine flavor, wait, I mean.." (He actually mispronounced.. but was very in-character.)

I'm not too sure. Certainly not hack and slash (though I include battles too.) The group I dm now, has a fairly complicated out-game history. It started with a different dm, for three characters (including my own). But, we troubles with the dm after a while and lost contact. After a period in between, I started dm-ing along for the group, once switched with a friend of mine (also plays one of the characters.)

The first dm had a big roleplaying part, but we had sessions too where it was all hack and slash (though we rp-ed it out, after the twentied slayed kobold, got rather tired of it).

The original group certainly doesn't have a 'battle' against evil feel. It was very diverse, different personalities, with all different goals of why they would enter an adventure/quest. Now, we have three new characters (new players of my very old group) added, and the feeling of battling for the greater good is definitly coming up again. (More good aligned characters.) Though, every character still has his or her very own personality. The smallest thing or conversation can drag out to a real 'event' because of this. (Really tiring for the poor DM.. ;p) It's fun, because the characters feel very real.. but the downside is, that if one dies... oh my. One of the last sessions the rogue half elf (have been in the group from the start) was down to -9 hp. I can assure you, everyone jumped to the rescue.

Hmm.. I guess it's an all time discussion.

My group has been mostly female, with me dm-ing (female too).

When I started playing D&D, I played in a few groups where I was or the only female or we were at most with two. The first group I played in, proved to be a very nice experience to me. Experienced dm and no prejudice at all. The second was less.. well.. nice.

After a few years, I tried getting a few friends into d&d, (and my brother). In the end, now four of my friends (all women) are playing and I must say, I get to know more and more female around that play D&D that my ratio of players, if sorted by gender, has more women in it, then men.

About the differences in playing style, I don't think it's too gender related. I know two guys that roleplay everything out.. But then again, it's true my group is more roleplaying oriented.

Girls being more appearance based? Could be, but I don't think that's an obstacle here to play d&d. Most of the women I know, that got into d&d, tried it because they loved fantasy.

And yes, it's of course all tied into which group you get.

Hmm.. messy post, sorry.

Ok, just a short one....

If I give you experience points enough to level up at the end of the session, FOR THE LOVE OF HEXTOR level up your F*$cking character BEFORE the next session. I, and the other players don't want to wait 45 minutes for you to decide if you want to select sleep or fear as your bonus spell this level...WE WANT TO PLAY!!!!

My God, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with this problem.. It so freaking annoys me. There is one mage in my campaign that just refuses to level up between the sessions. At one time, she even didn't write down her spells.. grrr. Result, everytime we start a new session, I have to grr her and she has to grudgely level up while everyone is watching and waiting.

And yes, I'm at the edge with her.. believe it or not, she is a good friend of mine, she just doesn't she the 'necessity' of levelling.