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Posts
 Recent Posts
Yeah... Those hours-long combats are a killer. I'm finishing the last parts of Rise of the Runelords in the next few days (10-11 hours this Saturday, and another 6-7 hours next weekend) with my group. I suspect the final series of encounters (leading to and including the final boss fight) to last at the very least two to three full sessions... sigh. :P Ultradan
I always play with some background soundtracks, usually from movies. I find they really add ambience to whatever the players are doing. Nothing loud, just barely perceptible. These are some of my favorites... Steve Jablonsky (The Island, Transformers 1 to 3)
Also try these other movie soundtracks: Twister,
and most Tomb Raider games soundtracks. I have tons more, but I don't remember them at this time. Ultradan
In a case of boxers in a boxing ring, I would assume that the first round would be when the bell rings and both boxers hit their gloves as a sign of respect for the other boxer. So I wouldn't have them be flat-footed either. Although I imagine that boxers would have a feat that would render them immune to being flat-footed. lol Ultradan
In your example, there are two ways to interpret what's going on... (I assume the tunnel is dark and the adventurers have a lightsource?)#1) They hear skittering ahead, sort of catch a glimps of something moving, they're sort-of expecting something, then... (Here's where you roll for initiative and the melee begins)... Things start jumping at them from out of the darkness and all hell breaks lose. Hence losing the initiative and being flat-footed. In this case the DM ruled that the critters were ALSO aware of the PC group. #2) They hear skittering ahead, catch a glimps of something moving,... (Here the DM rules that the critters are not yet aware of the PCs and asks for initiative, and a SURPRISE ROUND begins)... The rogue moves to the back of the group, the fighter and the ranger both ready an attack (to hit the first thing that comes into range), the wizard casts Shield on himself, and the cleric 'Blesses' the group, then... Things start jumping out at them, but this time they were really ready for it. In this case, the group still lost the initiative, but got to act first in a surprise round before the critters got to them, and are not flat footed. So both scenarios are good. It's how I would rule it anyways. Ultradan
Am I getting this right? Whail of the banshee: 10hp of damage per level (no cap?). So if a wizard, say a certain BBEG, who's CL22 casts this, he 's doing 220 hp of damage to each of the 22 people (1 person per level) it can affect? That seems like a lot of carnage. Sound wrong for some reason. Ultradan
Hmmm. Then there's the big stuff... Say you want to become captain of a crab fishing boat (cause, crab fishing is your thing for some reason). How would one go about getting a boat? You can't purchase one, cause there's no money lol. Do you have to wait until another captain retires and gives his boat away? What if you want a new one? Then again, who would make these boats? Say you are given one eventually; Who says that you get to be the captain and not be the guy who grinds the bait? It boggles the mind thinkin' about this stuff... lol Ultradan
Knock 200 experience points every time he asks you. :D The min/maxer in him will eventually kick in and he'll stop asking... Ultradan
... Individual adaptive learning programs to maximize an individual childs potential. Have you ever wanted to learn about something? What if you had the freedom to do so? Personally I'd speak fluent Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Mandarin. Additionally I'd learn a lot more about technology and robotics. As it stands I have to spend far too many hours a day in a dull dead end job at a bank to pay the bills. Or maybe we'd all turn into those obese sloth-like chinese teens who do nothing but play on-line video games all-day. Hmmm... Ultradan
...Finally, I am tired of taking all this feedback at face value, only to find out that the person who was selected for the position has been with the company less than half the time I have and doesn't have nearly the equivalent of my education, experience, and skill-sets. But she has one thing I don't have, close friendships with the hiring managers. Take notes kids... If there's ONE thing I've learned over the years is this: It's not about how good you are, it's ALL about who you know. This goes for the convenience store workers all the way to high government officials. You want to go "UP" at work, then choose a work where one of your good friends is president; Then, and ONLY then, you'll be vice-president in no time. What? You don't know any? Well, then do like me: Get used to moving sideways. C'mon. Look above you. Can any of you really say that their superiors really know their stuff and are true examples of work ethics? No. Most bosses usually have no clue what's going on, hop how to fix things, or even go though a single daily chore (like put paper in the photocopying machine or change the ink cartrige on a printer). They're good at telling you that you don't perform well though (although they have no clue what the hell you're doing). I have totally lost confidence in good hard honest work. It NEVER (EVER) pays off. You always end up doing the work of three (cause you're that damn good), while those around/above you pretend to not notice. And, in the end, the company will chew you to a pulp and spit you out on the curb when you start costing too much. Ultradan
White Man's Burden starring John Travolta. That's exactly it. Thanks dude!! Ultradan
Wasn't there a movie made a few years ago in which they reversed the roles of white and black people in it... I think the story was about a white family living in a mostly black America, where the TV news folks were black, the rich celeberties were black, even the dolls and action figures in the stores were black. It was a complete role-reversal if you will... To show the rediculousness of it all. I'm trying to find the title of the film but can't come up with anything on the net. (Did I imagine this film? lol) I'm doing a research for work, on racisme and stereotypes. Ultradan
I found that it's more for the "get-together-with-the-guys" thing than it was when we played in highschool (mid 80's). Sure, we all like the game, and the stories, and all that... But now we just appreciate the one afternoon per month that we get to lose ourselves in my garage. What I'm saying is that, for us, it's not really the content or the system that's important, but more the company. We absolutely don't squable(sp?) anymore over trivial things like treasure or where the party goes next. We come in, sit down, have fun for six hours, eat, drink, and go back our seperate ways. Ultradan
Fun stuff: Just plain exploring: I remember in the begining stages of the first Tomb Raider game, when you could just walk and explore every nook and crany of this vast cavern/dungeon area. I rewarded you for doing so by putting extra medpacks, ammo, and save crystals in those hard to reach/find places. THAT's the feeling I want to relive again. New stuff: You've been here before, near the river at the bottom of the canyon... But for some reason, there's a cave here now. COOL!! Have random mini-dungeons pop up here and there from time to time. Common threat: Have a colossal dragon, or something, fly overhead in a random flight pattern. The world would be so huge that the chances of even seeing it would be minimal... But when, and if, you did, everyone would scatter and hide because it has a tendancy to use it's breath weapon (massive damage) at assembled crowds of PCs. Moving Foreward: Yeah, you can have bosses and dungeons that can 'respawn' when ou accomplish the goal of that encounter/dungeon (so others may accomplish them as well). But, once in a while, have something big happen that affects EVERYONE... A new island pops up, a volcano erupts, a massive hole apears where a famous city was thriving just yeaterday. Just some ideas... Ultradan
... I miss the simpler rules, and the fact that more was in the hands of the DM. I miss that it used to be enough to explore the Caves of Chaos....just because they were there. As a DM I miss having a module where I don't need to read about the motivation and family history of the lead assassin - who is just going to attack the players to kill, in one scene. This. I too miss those old modules, where you'd find a neat placed just stacked with baddies. You could stick those ANYWHERE in your campaign. I still own every single module I ever bought (must have hundreds)... Which I still use on occasion, for one-shot adventures, or mini side-quests. Like you said, the modules now days have WAY too much junk in them. Take tomb of Horrors; The intro to that module was one short paragraph on the second page, along with what you need to play and a word from the writer. Then 33 roms of meat-grinding bliss. lol (not to mention the picture booklet; which is what got me hooked on D&D in the first place). Ultradan
I too have started with the Red Box in the early 80's... Man what I would of gave to have access to a website like this for all my questions at the time!! What I miss the most is being able to play three to four times a week. Now a days, we play only once a month due to family and work schedules. Before we were really into building our own little worlds, making up neat places and inserting a module here and there (where they could fit). Now, with little time left to prepare this stuff, we're just happy to play (Thank God for adventure paths!!). The fun part now is just being able to buy whatever accessory we need if we feel like it. I transformed my garage into a neat little D&D room. We sometimes buy gifts for everyone in the group (Cool, new Pathfinder Player's Guides for everyone! Woo-hoo!!). Junk food abounds the area surrounding the table now. It's funny because we've turned it into a kind of running gag and see just how much junk we can bring to a single game. Some things brought in one game: 16 cheesburgers, two 24 packs of beer, chicken wings, fresh cold tomato pizza, chips galore, 5 two-liter bottles of pop, and three boxes of candy (you know those boxes around Halloween...). We don't eat/drink all of it, of course; But we try. lol Now it's more of a fiends get-together than a serious game. Don't get me wrong though... We come to play. We just have a blast every time. The wives still have no clue what we do in that garage... :D Ultradan
I totally agree with Devilstrider's comment. I feel the same way. Ultradan
I usually say yes to most ideas of the sort (if it doesn't screw up the game too much...). I think rewarding the players for coming up with plans and tactics (even corny ones sometimes) is a good thing in the long run. Of course, deny those that give the players an obvious upper hand; Like if they came up with a way to make tons of gold, or a cheap way to kill any monster. My desperate party once asked me if they could tie a lance at the front of an snow catamaran (same a the water version but made to "ski" on snow and ice) to try and charge a white dragon that was attacking a nearby fort. I told them that at least one character was needed to steer the boat in the right direction and that the chances of succes would be rather slim. They agreed, so the paladin of the group set a course for the dragon (who was on the ground destroying a keep wall). I told him to roll the d20 and get a real high number. The player stated that he prayed his god while attemting to steer and rolled the dice. Wouldn't you know it; He rolled a 20!! The whole table cheered!! (great times!) I said his character bailed out at the last minute, made him roll some dammage (3 or 4 d6s) and continued to describe how the catamaran crashed directly in the dragons' side. Although it ended up doing an incredible amount of damage, the dragon yet lived. Now the rest of the group came in and attacked the beast. He rolled a 20... What can you do. LOL. Ultradan
I've seen players pout and become miserable if they didn't get to play CONAN. I'm certain that you don't NEED to be great at fighting/casting to have a great Character. I swear, the next time I'm a player, I'll play a character that has no bonuses. Yeah, +0 bonus or lower! I'm SURE I'll have great fun ROLEPLAYING him. He'll become the hero that no one thought he could! Ultradan
A lot of players will have an image of what their PCs will look like at level 20. They build it (take feats, skills, add stats) towards that goal. I have nothing against that. Some of my player do it and that's fine with me. Usually though, those who build characters with the future in mind are also the ones who will be bummed if they don't get high enough stats. I'm not like that though. I'm the other way around. I don't mind having average and low stats. I like to roll and deal with what I have to work with. My PC will slowly evolve from that ordinary joe, to a hero (hopefully). I have no clue what I'll pick (feat wise, stat wise, and even class wise) at my next level... And I'll haven't the faintest idea what my character will look like if I reach level 20. I sometimes pick feats/skills that might help in the future (specially if I encounter a situation that would of been helpful to have during the last level). I might even pick certain feats just cause they look cool at the time that I'm picking. In the end though, I believe my characters have truly an organic feel to them. I'll have strengths and weaknesses. Maybe I like the idea that the ordinary man can accomplish great things, and not start with the idea that my PC was 'destined' for greatness. I'm for rolling stats all the way. The averager, the better! LOL!! Ultradan
But I do like that "count them as 1.5 and round down" explanation. I'll just need to check all of its iterations to make sure it works. :)You don't need to do that, it's obvious enough, especially seeing the using the 1-2-1-2 logic is doing exactly that. Spock touching the Horta: "PAIN!!... SO MUCH PAIN!!" Ultradan
We are presently in the middle of the last book and have played our 30th game last weekend. So I figure two, three, maybe four more (depending how the final battles go). So 35 would be a good estimate for my game. Keep in mind though that we play only like once a month, so to save time, I had to "narrate" some parts (like some of the wilderness treks between cities, and a few not-so-important encounters). I feel like I litterally sped through some parts. For an average game though, I would say about 40 to 45 sessions. Ultradan
Ah yes, the new D&D in 3D!! :D
Personally, I keep maybe 20% of my e-mails (which I promptly put in the appropriate file) and delete the rest. Seriously, why would someone keep an email from IT telling us that they will be conducting an upgrade on Saturasy night around 11pm?. Then about once a month, I delete all e-mails in my files that are two years or older. For my "personal" file (where I keep e-mails from friends/family), I clean that out everything older than three-four months. This exercise takes me about ten-fifteen minutes. (I've seen folks around here who HAVE NEVER DELETED AN E-MAIL SINCE 1997!!! ALL OF WHICH IS KEPT IN THEIR INBOX!!!!!!!) Ultradan
It's not just the powerpoint... It's the people who work with it. I work for the government. They race to issue the latest technology to old, techno-ignorant, workers who don't have the slightest idea how to use what they are given. They give blackberries to high-ranking folks who have no clue what to do with them (they just keep vibrating, reminding them that they missed about 786 e-mails). They have people who work on Excel who don't even know what a formula is; they just make these cute pages and insert the numbers by hand (or worst, try to incorporate that ridiculous "spreadsheet" in a Word document). No one has a clue how to format a document after writting text/a letter, so when you recieve something, it's usually just plain text, in seven different fonts on a wierd paper format that screws up the printer when you try to print it. I sit next to people who actually PRINT every e-mail they get. Ugh! Then there's power-point. Just text. Pages after pages of JUST TEXT... Why not just e-mail us the text so we could read it when we have five minutes? Is this hour-long meeting really pertinent? I actually wished that yesterday's meteor hit the earth... It would have saved me from 20 more years of work. Ultradan
What would be the benifit of handling two weapons, if you had to a)take a smaller weapon in your off hand and b)cut your strength bonus to x.5 for all the second attack with the smaller weapon? None. It would even be non-productive. Just hit twice with your primary weapon, right? Again, take the double-bladed weapon (or the quarter-staff) for example. You can hit with either end for your two attacks at your discretion (one can deal +1d6 fire and the other could deal +1d6 cold) without reducing your strength bonus due to "off hand". Now if you were to try and ADD an attack with said quarterstaff, NOW you would get the penalties associated with two-weapon fighting. Same goes for two swords being held. Ultradan
Hmmmm... Vellly Intelllesting! Ultradan
The way I see it... If you have a +4 base attack bonus, nothing prevents you from holding two long swords and having one attack with full strength bonus (with either one) in the round. This would be like wielding a double bladed weapon but having only one attack. If you have a +6 base attack bonus, you have two attacks per round, and can hold two swords, the first attacking at +5 and the second attacking at +1 using either sword, and both at full strength bonuses. Same as using a double-bladed weapon correctly. Should you choose to ADD an extra attack to this, it then falls under the two-weapon fighting rules and get the penalties that come with it (the off-hand half-strength penalty, the penalties for not having the two-weapon fighting feat, etc...) The is from the Pathfinder RPG site: "If you get multiple attacks because your base attack bonus is high enough, you must make the attacks in order from highest bonus to lowest. If you are using two weapons, you can strike with either weapon first. If you are using a double weapon, you can strike with either part of the weapon first." It seems pretty clear to me. Ultradan
I think what it all comes down to is: If you can make a +2 Magic Item (say Gauntlets of Strength +2), then you can make, or upgrade you item to, a +6 item (Gauntlets of Strength +6). The only thing stopping you is the cost. You don't need to wait to be at a higher caster level. Which I find ridiculous, but there it is. I also agree that the magic item making rules needs a complete overhaul. Ultradan
Use/devide the treasure as you would if you were playing Balder's Gate on the PC and had a stash of loot. In the PC game, you control a group of six characters. You accumulate treasure, including magic items, weapons and gold. You give the weapons and magic items to the one who can most benifit from it , sell the rest. The gold is then used to purchase more stuff that will benifit the group. If it's to buy a new sword for the fighter, then THAT benifits the group, as he'll be more effective in combat and the rest of the party will take less damage. I understand that each character at a gaming table is an individual, so just split the gold evenly at the end of the adventure (or when needed). But the magic items and magic weapons/armor should be given to those who need/want them first. That's how we do it anyway. And no one ever made a fuss about it either. Ultradan
A - Read the module and take notes. Have an idea of how the baddies will attack ahead of time so that things don't get bogged down when it's their turn. For A, B, and C, I'd say pretty much what Snobi just said. I usually copy/paste the enemy stats in a word document and print them to have handy when the fight starts (so I don't need to flip from page to page or have three copies of the Monster Manual opened on my desk). D, Just know your stuff as a player. Prepare your possible summons in advance, know how long an illusion will last, calculate all the DCs for the saves in advance. If you're fighter, learn the different attack modes, review the grapple charts, not only for you, but for other less battle-inclined characters who don't use these things often. I think it's everyone's job to help the DM push the story forward. Ultradan
Well, to me, I get as exited for a 250 000.00 car than as for a gold toilet seat. I find them both ridiculous. But that's just me. Ultradan
When we started Rise of the Runelords adventure path, I too was letting go of my homebrew campaign for Golarion. Back then, All I had was the first three books of the AP... With no real knowledge myself of what lurked beyond Sandpoint and the surroundings. So I told my players to make characters. And that these characters would start on a ship. This ship would have crossed a vast ocean, and the trip had taken many months to finally end at Sandpoint. That their characters were begining a new life in an unknown land called Varisia. That we would discover this new land together. And that's pretty much how I started my RotRL campaign. With knowing about as much about the land as the players did at level 1. Ultradan
I'm imagining Klaus taking out his D&D Red Box and explaining to the group about Thaco... Ultradan
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