WaterdhavianFlapjack's page

I think that it would be very nice if you supported Iron Heroes and other great D&D products that just happen to not be by WoTC. I think that most of your reader base would enjoy reading more about these products even if the articles are just excerpts to spread the word about them. I know that you are owned by WoTC, but it would still be nice to include content for products put out by other companies. How does everyone else feel about this?

WaterdhavianFlapjack

Well, obviously nobody is a big fan of IH. :)
But, one question I did have for Erik and all the Dungeon/Dragon guys: I read on Malhavoc Press' website about Dragon having material about Iron Heroes. Is this true, and if so, what material would you be having and when would it appear?

WaterdhavianFlapjack

DM: "The door before you is rotten and barley hanging on its hinges. "Keep Out" is written slopply on it in what looks to be dried blood, and there is a loud scraping noise as if something metalic is being dragged along the floor, eminating from beyond the rotten portal. What do you do?"

Player: "I press "Save Game" and kick in the door!"

ASEO out

Funny you say that. I recall in one of the campaigns that I had either DMed or played in, someone said that exact same thing!

WaterhavianFlapjack

First off, Erik, everyone, if there is any rule I am violating by talking about this, than please tell me. That said...

I recently got Iron Heroes and really like it. I think it is one of the best books to come out for D&D in a long time, even better than AE (which I don't think very highly of). But, I have not seen anything on these boards discussing it, besides one post on an AoW thread, so I would like to open up this thread to talk about what people think about it, how they will use it, etc.

For example, I am planning on running the FR adventure War of the Spider Queen using the Iron Heroes material. My players are eager to play drow, so I will have to find someway to make that work with IH. What about you guys?

Does someone have a map of the Emporium they want to share? Maybe..?

Emporium??

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I have to agree with Mark Chin - the world is what you make of it.

I *like* the plain vanilla ness of the Greyhawk setting - it drops into any campaign with little or no tweaking, and it gives newbies an easy-to-digest setting without going into the depth and crunch of say FR or Eberron.

I would hate to see this one go - it provided many a foundation for a lot of games, and with the popularity of the Greyhawk adventure settings (esp the Shackled City Adventure Path) in Dungeon, it would be a damn shame.

I agree, and I enjoy having all the adventure paths in Dungeon being a plain vanilla setting, so you can run it in GH if you wish, or you can easily convert it into FR or Eberron.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I've played GH since the late 1970's using only sporadic published materials throughout 2nd Edition; I've yet to even see any 3.0 or 3.5 d20 material on GH.

I don't know what people mean by 'bland', but I've played GH over FR, Ebberon or any other setting without complaint by me or player alike - the world is what the DM makes of it.

I learned years ago how to avoid playing the "buy the current rule system and keep our business afloat" game...

...Squad Leader, anyone?

My total expenditures on gaming materials over the years probably totals less than $100; not necessarily by choice, but I got by - and will still get by.

GH has been my 'Core Campaign Setting' for 25 years and nothing will change anytime soon - since whomever publishes with the rights will have absolutely no bearing on which setting I use or don't use.

M

I will admit that the misconception some people (like me) have about GH being "bland" is probably a result of people DMing, maybe for the first time, and not bothering to make up any background for a campaign, which they will just run as the "standard" setting. I agree that the world is what the DM makes of it, but FR and Eberron might give a DM more to work with, and even give them a little help in making the world unique without the DM having to make a campaign handout and do all the work themselves. So, basically, I prefer FR and Eberron because they give you a nice map and enough background information for the DM to work with without presenting the daunting task of making your own world (basically) from scratch.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

For the uninitiated, do you mind explaining the "Scarred Lands"?

WaterdhavianFlapjack

WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

Is it just me, or did the first intallment not cover enough about Dhusarra's hints. At the end of the first installment, it mentioned following her hints and investigating the Dungeon of the Crypt, but in the section detailing her hints, none of them mentioned this. Are her hints going to be further covered in her next installment, or am I missing something?

The hints that were given at the end of "Blood of Malar" were intended to get the PCs to chase Artor Morlin (instead of continuing their chase for Dhusarra). They can be found on page 75 of Dungeon 126.

While it's true that none of them point to the Dungeon of the Crypt specifically, any investigation of Artor Morlin should lead the PCs to the Dungeon of the Crypt eventually (see the answer to the question "Are there any known vampires active in the City of Splendors?" later on that page). More information and further adventure hooks are provided in the opening to the second adventure.

Thanks alot Jeremy. That really helps! Congrats on the excellent adventures, by the way.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I would like to see an adventure in Dungeon that is very role-playing focused. It seems to me that alot of the recent adventures are a nice mix or combat oriented. I like them also, but it would be nice to see if a role-playing adventure could be done for Dungeon. James, are you looking mainly for adventures in which combat plays a big role, or will you accept a good RPing type adventure?

WaterdhavianFlapjack

Is it just me, or did the first intallment not cover enough about Dhusarra's hints. At the end of the first installment, it mentioned following her hints and investigating the Dungeon of the Crypt, but in the section detailing her hints, none of them mentioned this. Are her hints going to be further covered in her next installment, or am I missing something?

Save for the "frogs in the moat" that reminds me too much of RttToEE, this is a pretty interesting and somewhat innovative adventure. I intend to run it at my next weekly session. Please use this thread to discuss the adventure.

I have a question regarding the adventure. If the PCs avoid a combat, such as by not freeing the elemental, do they still gain experience? If not, doesn't it encourage PCs to pick unnecessary fights with creatures simply because they know they can beat them, which leans toward being an evil act?

To be honest, when and if I run this, I will give the same amount if not more for avoiding combat say by roleplaying, but I will not award them XP if they just, for example, don't realize they could free the elemental or somehow don't visit that part of the fortress.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

DeadDMWalking wrote:

...Instead of an ad for back issues (which is silly, since we have all the issues since our subscription started) we have some nice "text-free" art, and it doesn't involve adding anything to the magazine....

I suspect that having two separate print-runs of the same magazine, just for one page, wouldn't be financially feasible.

I've got it! A laser-etched toaster proclaiming the awesomeness of Dungeon!

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I don't know if you have access to the 'Book Of Vile Darkness' or 'Manual Of The Planes'.

In BOVD you'll find detailed descriptions of the mayor demon princes (like Graz'zt, Demogorgon, Orcus etc.) and in MOTP you can find a list with the mayority of known demon princes.
Both books are 3.0 but great reads all the way...

Nope. Both are not high on my list of books to get. But, I'll at least look at them at my FLGS. Thanks.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

I am not at all familiar with the older adventures, but I was wondering how they compare to current products like City of the Spider Queen, and recent adventures in Dungeon.

You may want to take a look at Dungeon 116 which reviews the 30 of the "greatest" modules, and has some discussion about adventures from different periods.

15-20 years ago the adventures were less sophisticated than they are today, but then so were we :) Looking back with 3rd Edition eyes some of the early modules will seem quite simplistic, but if you look at them over time you can see the modern style developing.

Even when adventures weren't set in dungeons the style was quite dungeon-oriented, ecology & psychology weren't big concerns, it was "a world where demons were demons, dungeons were deathtraps, and assassins hung out in the Player's Handbook. The treasure was piled high and every room held a damn good reason to roll for initiative".

Early adventures were fun and, well, adventurous. How do they compare with modern adventures? Don't compare them, they're different beasts, enjoy them differently -- the early adventures were distinctive and individualistic, and at the time they stood out enough to stick in our minds for the next twenty years.

Thanks Callum. I might just have to get Dungeon 116. I think it would certainly help me understand more of the early years of D&D and how it developed.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

What would be nice (at least for me) would be to have a small article with a brief summary of all the demon princes to date, and maybe even add in some new ones. My reason: I am not at all familiar with the Demon Princes except for the articles in Dragon.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

Tatterdemalion wrote:

ASEO wrote:

...I actually had a player who had read the adventure I was running get so frustraited because I was moving traps on him that he actually said "No way man, the trap is on the other door, and it was suposed to be a shocking grasp trap, not burning hands"....

There are some people you just have to stop playing with :/

He actually reformed after that...and I ran several more obscure adventures and kept the tiltes of the adventures I was running well hidden.

ASEO out

There are advantages to playing in a group that doesn't read Dungeon and never buys published adventures (me being the exception).

WaterdhavianFlapjack

First, I agree. Eberron does need a large super-adventure. It probably needs several.

At this time, though, Dungeon's not going to be the place for it to show up.

Adventure Path III will be world-neutral in the same way that the first two were.

An Eberron adventure path would be great. But look on the bright side, which is that the world-neutral material could be made to have more of Eberron's flavor with a little work.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

WaterdhavianFlapjack wrote:

Did anyone actually buy BoVD or the good version(I forget what it's called)? It seems like a waste of money to me.

Yep, they were for this consumer. I cannot even say the books made interesting reading since I remember little or nothing about them other than they take up shelf space. I'll have to revisit them if I'm every laid out in the hospital for an extended stay. Otherwise...

Sounds fun. Heh. Heh.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I may be just repeating what has already said, but if so, I will just voice my agreement. I started playing D&D with 3.5, so I definitely do not have the, shall we say, older, perspective on Grayhawk & D&D in general. But, I have not even considered running a campaign in Greyhawk just because it seems to be bland. The deities are fine, but there is no map included with the players handbook, and the general mistreatment has just put me off. I would definitely want what is best for Greyhawk, just because I feel like I am missing out on alot of D&Ds history.

Okay, I'll stop ranting now. :)

WaterdhavianFlapjack

It would be cool if there'd be a 'Create A Demon-Prince'-contest or something like this.

Yes, I agree. Something new.

By the way, hello everyone. I just started posting, and have subscribed for about a year to Dragon, and just started a Dungeon subscription.

WaterdhavianFlapjack

I would like to add a vote for an epic campaign arc.Something that could be tied to an adventure path but does not necessarily connect to any particular adventure path.

I would also like to add that an adventure path does not need to place the entire world in danger, just enough of it to provide a frolicking good adventure.

I don't know if it's just a misconception, but I get the feeling that epic campaigns are more the realm of the min/maxer and that they take away all oppurtunities for roleplaying. Obviously, in some cases this would not be the case, but I'm wondering what other peoples experiences with epic campaigns are? The closet I have gotten is playing a 20th level which pitted us against a whole army with some dragons flying around.

Let's just say that didn't last too long. :)

WaterdhavianFlapjack

Solomani wrote:

Mature sealed content? Not thanks. BoVD seems more like something WOTC would want to avoid than actually publish.

:)

I'll be a little cynical and suggest that if there were some mystical "protection vs under 18s" guarding actual access to the BoVD that its publication might not be quite so viable!

But I basically concur -- official material should be PG or there abouts. If people want to evil-up their games they can do it, we don't need a rulebook telling us how to do it, crunchy bits (demon lords etc) could have gone into (for example) Fiend Folio.

Did anyone actually buy BoVD or the good version(I forget what it's called)? It seems like a waste of money to me.

ASEO wrote:

I bet we haven't seen the last of the Isle of Dread.

I'd also second or third or whatever the X4 X5 X10 series. Not only was it part Dungeon Crawl, part Overland Trek, but it also had the negotiating and alliance building aspect along with some large scale warfare. Also the Desert setting is something that doesn't get covered much.

ASEO out

The Master of the Desert Nomads was pure great for all the reasons you have in your post ASEO. Role-playing from inside the enemy camp was/is simply one of the best RP experiences ever.

GGG

First off, hello everyone. This is my first post, so if there is anything I need to know, please inform me. That said, the RPing inside an enemy camp does sound awesome. Being one of the younger readers for both Dungeon and Dragon, I am not at all familiar with the older adventures, but I was wondering how they compare to current products like City of the Spider Queen, and recent adventures in Dungeon.

By the way, Jaws, my group also rotates. It is very nice to change from DMing a huge campaign (right now I am close to the end of a Eberron campaign that I am running, that has taken the players from 1st to 13th so far) to being able to play a character and have someone else be in control of the story and world for a change!

WaterdhavianFlapjack