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The door opens by a set of magic conditions, so its a magic device by the definition that DnD uses. Assuming he got a natural 20 on a Activate Blindly check, his Charisma is high enough that he can hit the DC of 25 and open the door without the red lantern

So do you let the PCs bypass the trap because the party rogue is a chaos gnome with skill focus: umd and magical aptitude for a total modifier of +16?

My group did it with the first adventure path up. It worked out fine. In fact, we all knew a little more about what was going on, not enough to spoil any adventures, but enough to help keep things running smoothly.

It seems these swarms are giving everyone a bit of difficulty. My group did just fine. Our first session we did a lot of roleplaying in town (~4 hrs. game time) then they finally formed a team to head to the Cairn (this was a long session btw). They cleared out the first level and the architect's place before staring dumbfounded at the grinding, creaking, and moaning of the cylinder under the green lantern before it exploded in a burst of beetles. The goliath barbarian clubbed the mad slasher and then the group beat a hasty retreat, not having grenadelike weapons or area-effect spells. (I consider it rather unlikely that swarms can run. I really can't see beetles chasing down a creature as large as a human or a halfling.)

The wizard, being a former apprentice of Allustan, asked if he could copy burning hands into his spell book. Allustan now treats him as a fellow wizard and not an apprentice, so he told him he would allow him to do so for the standard fee of 10 gp, which he gladly paid. The other PCs went to the General Store to buy some acid. Loaded up, they headed back. I decided after failing to catch the party, the acid beetle swarm moved back down into the room with the others. Thus my party fought two acid beetle swarms and a giant bombadier beetle at the same time. But they made out just fine. No one even went unconscious.

I'm not a soft-ball DM either. I told the players at the outset of this campaign that I wasn't going to fudge a single die roll, and thus far I haven't. I also play my monsters to the full extent of their intelligent. In the case of beetle swarms this means going for the nearest standing foe and chomping down so the party has had little difficulty taking advantage of that situation.

I don't think the swarms are bad at all. I think the problem some groups are having is twofold. 1) Swarms that are played as moderately intelligent creatures (i.e. discriminating between more dangerous targets or spreading out to maximize damage area) quickly become far more challenging than their CR suggests and 2) sometimes the party just doesn't understand the better part of valor; i.e. don't stand and fight if you can't win.

Personally, as a player, I never have trouble with swarms because I play wizards almost exclusively and I always prepare lots of area effect spells specifically to deal with them. It only took one encounter with them (when 3.5 came out) for me to realize the importance of being able to deal with them at all levels.

Very good job. I enjoyed the read. I already provided my players with an intro in the form of a copy of the Diamond Lake backdrop (with all the secret stuff blacked out), but I may just hand them this as well.

I'm the GM of a rather unusual group.

CG Goliath Barbarian1
CG Human Spellthief1
CG Grey Elf Wizard1 (cliche, I know)
N Human Druid1 of Obad-Hai
NG Raptoran Cleric1 of Obad-Hai

First of all, there is a temple to Heironeous and St. Cuthbert in town. Not to mention Bronzewood Lodge has priests of Obad-Hai and the Cult of the Green Lady has their own clerics. There is nothing stopping the PCs from buying healing consumables. With all the priestliness around, it's fairly reasonable to expect them to be able to find one wand of some kind of healing spell around. Not to mention there should be a practically inexhaustible supply of potions and scrolls. The treasure level practically expects the PCs to use a moderate amount of consumables and they progress. On top of that, as my group discovered in the first AP, you don't have to fight <i>everything</i>. The PCs can blitz to the main encounter and take it out in one attempt if they desire. It's possible to finish Age of Worms and only be 2nd level if you get lucky and find everything you need to at the earliest possible event.

Hey Erik,

Does it suck having only PH deities to work with? I mean outside the context of Greyhawk, it's feasible these deities could merge. But given the history of the three deities, it's not likely at all. You'd think Tharizdun or Incabulos would be part of that action.

I will have to use some cut-scenes to push the time forward a month or two at appropriate times (such as when the players are training, traveling, researching, etc). Otherwise we might get the whole freaky deal with players going from 1st - 20th in a mere 3 weeks. I prefer our heroes' tale to transpire over the course of a year or so, to make it "epic" and realistic.

I've thought about this before. It does get rather unbelievable if the PCs are leveling up every day. However, I have found a way to deal with it. I do not require down-time per se. However, if the PCs level up, I reduce their experience award until they have rested for a week or two. So after they level up, they are tired and they don't learn as well from their experiences. Once they kick back and relax for a while they are refreshed. For example, after reaching level 2, the PCs begin to earn 90% normal experience. Upon reaching level 3, they earn 80% experience, and so on and so forth until they rest. I usually require about a week's worth of rest for each 10%. This is a nice way to encourage PCs to take some time off realistically without forcing them to.

So what time of year should the Age of Worms AP start? I'm only curious because I'm an anal retentive DM who likes keeping track of silly stuff like that. I prefer to start my campaigns at the end of winter (in Fireseek) that way the PCs get to experience three seasons of relatively good adventuring weather and by the time they get to winter they have some better resources to deal with the cold. However, I don't know if that idea will work for this campaign. Any future events that take into account weather, like Flood Season did in SC? What time of year (if any) did Erik Mona begin his campaign in?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking what kinds of treasure should be included for higher level PCs? Also, what level are your PCs? Knowing that would help enormously. I don't know if the sidebar gives any advice for increasing the treasure, but I suggest you look at the treasure tables in the DMG and add additional treasure of whatever kind is appropriate for your campaign to bring it up to the right level.

So what are the strangest concepts your players came up with for their characters and how did you work them in? I had a player who was really set on playing a raptoran from the Races of the Wild, but I was concerned about fitting the race into Greyhawk. I wanted the characters to all be local, but it didn't seem to me like there was any place nearby that really worked for raptorans. I think if they do fit into Greyhawk that they would inhabit mostly the western mountain chains, i.e. the fringes of civilization. But I needed a good way to work that in. I was also concerned about the power of a PC able to fly (once he's 5th level of course). So here's what I came up with. The character was captured in goblin raid when he was but a young hatchling. The goblins tortured him and cut off his wings to humiliate him. They quickly sold him off to wicked merchants who took him with them until they found someone willing to buy him. They found a buyer in the Free City, a mine manager named Tilgast who had pity on the poor creature. Tilgast allowed the character to purchase his freedom by working in the mines over a period of 10 years. Thereafter, he made his way to the Bronzewood Lodge and trained under Nogwier as a cleric of Obad-Hai.

What are your unusual PCs?

Well, D&D is from the perspective of humans after all.

At any rate, the half-ogre in Savage Species is a little over-powered for an LA of +1. The half-ogre in the Races of Destiny is much more balanced. The large size alone is worth a +1 to ECL.

The Faceless One is a male human wizard6 so I find it highly improbable that he has been around for centuries. Of course, he could be one of those personalities that gets handed down with the ages, but I don't see anything in the adventure or backdrop to suggest this. I also don't recall seeing anything about the Dourstone mine being around for centuries. I think the mine was built by Dourstone (hence why it's named for him) when he left Greysmere. The Ebon Triad is a relatively new cult in the whole scheme of things. I believe it states somewhere in the backdrop that the original cultists discovered an ancient tome not long ago (maybe 5-10 years?) and since then the cult has grown a bit. Last year, they caused a volcanic eruption in the city of Cauldron (if you played through the last AP). At any rate, Dourstone probably predates the Ebon Triad, but not the town.

Just started up the campaign tonight. Here's how it went.

The first character is a human (rhenee) spellthief whose family is respectable and well-known among the river folk. She's spent most of her formative years up and down the Selintan River and more recently her grandmother settled in Diamond Lake. She developed her uncanny abilities while training as an odd-job errand girl for Purple Prose at the Midnight Salute. She's a habitual liar and something of a rascal, but she has an innate goodness about her and harbors no ill will towards anyone or anything in particular.

The second character is a goliath barbarian who originally hailed from the Abbor Alz mountains. He came from a very respectable family, however when he became of marriageable age, he clashed with his parents over his choice of mate. They had selected a goliath girl from another tribe for him in interests of peace whereas he favored a girl from his own tribe. The altercation eventually resulted in schism, with "Stone" leaving his family in willing exile. He was poorly equipped to deal with the world and upon arriving in Diamond Lake others quickly capitalized on his simple and trusting nature. He was coerced into an unfavorable contract at Zalamandra's (the present day Emporium) and only after many years of work as a "strong man" did he manage to worm his way out of that contract. Once he did however, he was destitute and turned to the other thing in town he could to sustain himself, work the mines. By that time Smenk had arrived in town and due to his vicious business acumen, the poor goliath found it hard to find employment with anyone else. So for the last 10 years he has slogged away in the mines, hoping that one day an opportunity will arise to improve his lot in life.

The third character is a gray elf wizard who until very recently was apprenticed to Allustan. The elf harkens from Celene, the majestic land of the elves where his family thought it would be good for him to learn magic not only from elves but humans as well. He was enrolled in the University of Magical Arts in the Free City of Greyhawk and there excelled in his studies. Around the time he was ready to find a master wizard to take him on as an apprentice, Allustan had grown sick of the politics of Greyhawk and a chance encounter between the two took them to Diamond Lake, where they have lived since, Allustan slowly sharing with the elf the things he knows until such time that the elf is ready to set out on his own.

The fourth character is a human druid from Bronzewood Lodge. He has heard the stories in the lodge of strange unkillable undead and odd green worms that appear seemingly from nowhere. He has even seen a worm or two himself, though they were quite tiny and harmless at the time he did. He grew quite distraught at the unnaturalness of it all and sought counsel from Nogwier. Nogwier decided to send the human with another acolyte to the city of Diamond Lake to see if the people of that township have had similar problems and whether they know of any solutions.

The fifth character is a raptoran cleric of Obad-Hai, also from Bronzewood Lodge. His story is a tragic one. Having been captured in battle by goblins and taken from his home in the Abbor Alz mountains when he was but a youngling, he has never known much of his people's heritage. As a cruel twist of fate, the goblins mocked him and cut off his wings to humiliate him before selling him to crooked merchants passing through the area. The crooked merchants brought him to Diamond Lake where he was sold into slavery to the mine manager, Tilgast. Not seeing slavery as completely appropriate, Tilgast told the raptoran that he would allow him indentured servitude for ten years, during which he could work for Tilgast to purchase his freedom. He was still very young when he finally earned his freedom, and he was longing for spiritual fulfillment in his life. Using the small stipend Tilgast had given him, the raptoran made his way to the Bronzewood Lodge community where he met with Nogwier and began to grow in his understanding of the soul and its symmetry with nature. His devout and earnest nature worked to persuade Nogwier to take him on as an acolyte and teach him the ways of the Shalm. Now he is a member of the cloth and has been sent by Nogwier with a human druid to the town of Diamond Lake to see if they can insinuate themselves into the affairs of the locals and learn about the recent troubling events.

By working closely with the players, I managed not only to work in a lot of character hooks, but also tie them in closely with the town and its characters. Not to mention the party came together seemlessly, almost like it was natural and fated. Granted the guys in my group have all been gaming with each other for a few years and we know each other pretty well, but the story tonight coalesced in a way I've never seen before. It was remarkable to say the least.

It began with the druid and the cleric arriving at the Able Carter Coaching Inn, where they began to inquire about the happenings in the town. They noticed a reclusive ranger named Fester Trollump had taken up rather permanent residence at the inn and sought to press him for information, hoping him to be somewhat sympathetic to their thinking. After tracking him down one evening to the Feral Dog, the two approached him with questions about the region, undead, and the worms. Though the ranger knew little of the worms, he did mention Smenk had recently put up a new visitor in the old observatory just outside of town, a necromancer. Fester didn't know if it was a coincedence or not but thought it may be worth checking out.

During this exchange, a goliath sitting a few tables over with his chums from the mines overheard mention of Smenk (who he had grown to hate over the years) and something about a necromancer. It seemed the conversation came from a strangely garbed human, dressed in leaf-covered garments and hides, most assuredly one of those druids from Bronzewood Lodge, and a rather strange creature resembling an elf, but with feathers and down atop his head, both of them talking with the old ranger, Fester. Well, this was too much for the goliath's curiosity to bear, and he decided to approach the group. After explaining how he worked for Smenk and had an interest in seeing just what the old coot was up to, he offered his services as hired muscle to the Bronzewood Lodgers.

Of course, all this had not gone unnoticed by some of the younger patrons at the Feral Dog. Violet, a young rhenee girl with a penchant for drawing magic from others, was enjoying the dog fights with her friends when she noticed the old goliath (being the only one of his kind in town) talking to a couple of strange out-of-towners, likely Bronzewood Lodge folk as they certainly appeared too "wild" to be from the Free City. Curiosity definitely got the best of her as she decided to tail the group and see what they were up to.

Meanwhile, the wizard Throrethan had just been given the rest of the night off by Allustan to go and enjoy himself a bit. The wizard had recently been hinting that Thror's work as an apprentice was nearly complete and that it may soon be time for him to seek his fortune in the world. Allustan mentioned that a group of adventurers from the Free City had arrived in town last week and had been making no mystery of their intentions to raid the Stirgenest Cairn southeast of Diamond Lake. He suggested that if adventurers had reason to believe there was treasure to be found in a cleaned out tomb like Stirgenest, perhaps there were other nearby tombs that were also being overlooked. Allustan told Thror that he had heard on the grapevine of a tomb where local youngsters liked to go to spook each other and suggested that perhaps Thror could test his meddle therein, once he had found ample companions of course. In fact, Allustan said, there was a group of out-of-towners staying at the Able Carter Coaching Inn who had just arrived and were rumored to be looking for clues to strange events nearby. Perhaps they could prove beneficial companions. Thror nodded and took his things. Perhaps tonight may hold some wonders, he thought.

Just as Thror managed to track down the Bronzewood Lodgers to the Feral Dog, they emerged with their new-found goliath companion, followed in the shadows by a curious rhenee girl. After introducing himself and stating his purpose, Thror inquired if they group would be interested in his proposal. But before they could agree, the raptoran noticed Violet, who had crept up quite close to hear what they group was talking about. All this talk of adventure, raiding a tomb, and lost lore was exciting to her. Having been discovered, she decided to offer her services as a guide. As a matter of fact, she knew just how to find the Whispering Cairn, likely the tomb the elf had been referring to, since she and her friends had long used the place as a proving grounds for bravery by spending the night in it's hallowed halls. The group agreed to gather their equipment and meet in an abandoned mine manager's office just outside of town. The rest, as you know, is history.

I just started running AoW tonight for my group. I told them ahead of time I am not going to fudge a single die roll during this campaign either in their favor or against. I told them they must learn to survive by their wits alone and that there will be a price to pay for mistakes.

Since 1st-level can be a mortal time in a character's life, I have some cushions for them. First, we use the action points variant from Unearthed Arcana, although I only allow them to add a d6 to a d20 roll or to automatically stabilize. Second, I allow them to use RPGA campaign cards by spending one of their action points. I'm reporting this campaign to the RPGA after all so they can get reward points, so why not? This gives them a few extra options for those times when heroes just need to get lucky.

I'm not typically like this though. I usually view the story as the most important part of a campaign, and if a death in the party is not going to contribute to that story, I usually don't let it happen. On the flip side of that coin however, I may decide a death in the party (or some other similar kind of set-back) is a VERY good thing for the story, and I will go out of my way to make it happen (this is rare, I'm not that mean). Sometimes the players will foil a villain's plans so thoroughly that it is all the villain can do to make the PC's lives miserable. At such points I often find it necessary to ratchet the mortality of the campaign up a few notches in order to impress upon the PCs the true magnitude of their situation. However, I rarely condone permanent removal of a character from a game. For this reason I usually have "safety nets" to prevent low-level characters (the ones who can't afford raise dead) from dying.

So what's the deal with demon boy anyway? Is he a tiefling, or perhaps a diabolus from a recent dragon article?

The Demonomicon of Iggwilv has quickly become my favorite article in Dragon. I want more! At first I thought the Pazuzu article was a one-time thing, but I was really impressed once again with the details of Fraz' Urb Luu. I'd love to see this article as a more regular fixture in Dragon. How about detailing Soccothbenoth next???

Does Rich take it offline but put a whole bunch of them in an issue of Dragon? That's going to require a lot of pages, given the sizes of his comics, or you're going to have to shrink things down a lot -- and the visuals are an important part of the presentation.

=D The irony here being that someone thinks visuals are an important part of the presentation for a comic whose main characters are all stick figures. lol

Well, I don't agree with the original poster that the current comics in Dragon (and Dungeon) aren't funnie. I lmao every single time I read Dork Tower. And even though Downer isn't necessarily funnie, I still like it. However, I wouldn't mind it at all if OotS replaced Nodwick or Zogonia and whatever that other little comic is that I never understand or simply never makes a point.

I love having comics on the whole. Most of us gamers are geeks ( I know I am) and it's good for us to be able to laugh at ourselves once in a while. I think it's all in good fun and it adds a nice levity to the magazine.

I have an update to my situation. Around the time I started this thread I started putting out notices that I was starting up a new Greyhawk campaign that would emphasize role-playing over power-gaming and character development over munchkin development. I put the word out at a local game shop and a couple gaming clubs in town and eventually got together four guys for this new campaign. One of the guys I play with pretty regularly, and although he's rather quiet, he's a decent role-player and not dedicated to the idea of power-gaming. Another guy is an old buddy of mine I used to game with long ago who is a great role-player. Two of the guys I hadn't met before.

At the outset, I laid out some ground rules. Have fun, role-play, be on time to games or let me know in advance if you can't, and keep up with the storyline. I've been keeping a blog of the campaign to help with this. I've also offered role-play incentives, starting with backstory. Players who give me a great background get comparative rewards, including bonus feats and magic items. Sometimes these are just nifty (one guy got an everfull mug, appropriate since his family reveres Wenta, the Alewife) and other times moderately useful (one character included in his backstory that his mother left him a locket, I made it a locket of shielding). I also offer a 5% XP bonus if you bring a personalized, painted miniature to represent your character. I use Honor and Reputation rules from Unearthed Arcana and had them generate characters using an unusual rolling method designed to give them a couple good scores and at least one poor score. I also limited them to PH races (although I offered to let one player play a tiefling based on the background he developed as a scion of House Naelax).

I've also reverted a few rules in my campaign back to more of a 2e style. I've divided all the base classes into types: warrior, priest, rogue, and mage. Each player is allowed to learn only one class of a specific type. Hence, if your character learns wizardry, he can never discover sorcerous talent and vice versa. Multi-classing is closer to previous editions as well. Demi-humans have to multi-class from the beginning and keep their class levels even with each other (prestige classes are an exception). In addition, they can only multi-class if one of their classes is favored for their race. Humans and half-elves can pick up new classes at any time, but have to even up new classes with previous classes before leveling in the others again. I completely did away with XP penalty rules. In addition, I use a variant rule that keeps save bonuses from stacking up ridiculously fast (always hated that). Plus, only one prestige class at a time; finish the one you have before starting another, if I allow the prestige class you want at all.

Characters began the game not just at level 1, but level 0. They were allowed to select a class, but gained only half the benefits of that class (half the skill points, save bonus, spells, etc.) until they earned 500 XP. Not only that, I made them seek out trainers to complete their training. Now all the characters have ties in the city of Rookroost and feel like they are a part of a living environment as opposed to pariahs to the world.

The campaign has worked great so far. Everyone is enjoying themselves and the role-playing is excellent. They've clawed their way to level 2 and they've already had a shrine dedicated in their honor in a small mining town for heroic action. I got a lot of ideas for this campaign specifically from this thread and I appreciate the ideas other DMs have contributed. I plan to start up the Age of Worms campaign path next week with another group including one of the same players and I've used my current GH campaign as a guideline for how I'm going to start this one. I think it's going to be even more fun than the first campaign path was (which had a lot of power-gaming PCs but was still fairly enjoyable and quite epic).

Yes, Gestalt would have been my suggestion if someone hadn't beaten me to it. It works enormously well for a two-person party. One character should be a Gestalt Fighter/Cleric while the other is a Gestalt Rogue/Wizard. That would provide perfect parity in overall ability. You might also want to give them better than average ability scores. If you let them roll, do 5d6 (3 highest) or even 6d6 instead of 4d6. If a point buy, give them at least a 32 (although I hardly ever advocate a point buy). Allow them to start with max gold for the highest of either Gestalt class. You may also wish to give them a couple minor magic items to make things easier on them. A wand of cure light wounds with 10 charges will go a long way. At the very beginning, it might be a little rough, but I imagine after the first adventure they will be 2-3 levels ahead of the intended level for the campaign path, which should give them the edge they need to accomplish their tasks with such a small group.

I once had a campaign where I required every character to begin at 1st-level with a Neutral alignment, unless they were a class that forced them to be of a particular alignment, and even then, they had to be as close to Neutral as possible. This means only Paladins were Lawful Good (as it turns out, no one choose a Paladin) and other than Paladins only Monks are Lawful (one player choose to play a Monk). It worked out enormously well.

My reasoning for the campaign was that the player characters were all inexperienced and therefore mostly "undecided" on the moral and ethical axes. Only those who had undergone rigorous training and exposure to a particular moral or ethic (like Clerics, Paladins, or Monks) could have developed a non-Neutral alignment at such a young age. None of my players argued with it, and most really liked the idea.

I agree with Erik on this one though. I really like the alignment system for the simplicity it gives to an already complex game. Detailed descriptions of motivations and beliefs are better suited for novels. Alignment is a nice, concise way to get a basic portrait of a character across and I think that is a strength of the D&D game, not a weakness.

My opinion? Kill them. Kill them all.

But seriously, oftentimes players want to take unnecessary risks because they can't in real life. So ask yourself this question: is everyone (including you) happy with a game that constantly rewards heroics bordering on foolishness? But if you don't want to run a game like this, you don't have to let the party succeed.

My experience as a PC with Bhal-Hamatugin (sp?) was that stealth was probably wiser than frontal assault. That is usually the case with fortresses. Your PCs appear to have made their presence woefully clear and since the kuo-toa have had the opportunity to re-group, they have every advantage. If you aim to run a realistic (within the realm of fantasy) campaign, then the bad guys will likely slaughter several PCs, if not all. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you know your players aren't going to hang themselves for letting their characters die. If your players have a bad habit of doing this all the time, perhaps they even NEED it to be persuaded to play more intelligently. Some groups just like "break-down-the-door" action though. If that makes them happy and killing them every time they do it would bog down the campaign and make it no fun, feel free to adjust it as you wish.

Well, I read halfway through this thread and decided the discussion wasn't going to change much. So here's my take. I actually agree with GVDammerung's original assessment although I think the implications are a bit different. D&D simply appeals to men more than it does than women. But rather than suggest the game needs to change, I've come to accept the fact that men and women are wired differently. I like the game the way it is and wouldn't want to change it just to raise gender parity. I'm not talking about chainmail bikinis and sensual demonic consorts. I'm just talking about the focus of the game, high fantasy about heroes with big swords and powerful magics.

I've gamed with girls before. I like it because it encourages the males at the table to bathe and groom themselves, but other than that it doesn't have a big impact on things. My current group doesn't have the body odor/dissheveled appearance problem so I don't worry about it (I've only encountered this problem at conventions with people I have never met who I consciously avoid thereafter). They are mostly professional men with happy successful lives. A couple of us are college seniors (myself included) who will probably eventually become professional men with happy successful lives.

I would stop playing dungeons and dragons if it changed to a large extent just to attract female gamers. At least I wouldn't play new editions of the game. I like my game, and if girls wanna play, great! If they don't wanna play, that's great too! I enjoy my all-male group for a number of reasons I probably couldn't if girls were around (none sexist, it's just nice to hang with the guys).

Actually, the worms suggest, to me, aberrations. The ones on the cover remind me of the Wyste (MM2 and Speaker in Dreams) which is a CR 5 IIRC.

Here's a phrase you might want to adopt. "I can neither confirm nor deny that..." and just fill in the blank with whatever conspiracy theory the party has. Make sure you do this both when they are wrong and when they are right. What the player of the elf barbarian was trying to do was get you to slip up and reveal to him part of the plot. You did good in keeping a straight face. But if the PCs want to learn something from you, they will just have to ask their gods with contact other plane.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with the fact that your PCs are good sleuths. They don't need to be punished for figuring something out. If you don't like them meta-gaming, then simply tell them so. I don't recommend punishing them for it. If anything just ask players to keep meta-gaming to themselves.

You really need to ask yourself one question before you make a decision: are you happy with the way things are going? If you don't mind scaling up the encounters in each adventure and the players are having a great time, don't worry about it. Who cares if they reach epic level before the end? You're all having fun and that's the point. However I imagine you brought this up because you aren't happy for one reason or another. As a fellow DM, I know how much work it can be to scale up an entire adventure to accomodate the PCs, especially an AP adventure. It's often a lot of work, and although gratifying, you simply may not have the time for it.

If you aren't happy with the current situation, I suggest you simply run the adventures as they are written. As I pointed out in another thread, the XP system is self-correcting. The PCs will earn a lot less experience and probably only gain one level in the next adventure. Everyone wins in this scenario. It is easier for you to prepare sessions because you don't have to re-write stat blocks, the average party level balances back out, and probably best of all, the players get to sick back and relax a bit as they discover just how badass their characters are. I've found players typically enjoy this more than anything else.

The only snag you may hit with the above plan is if you, as the DM, become bored with this situation. "Ho-hum, the PCs win again." If you're a role-player, If this is the case I suggest making the encounters more interesting by role-playing them out a little more. You will easily have the time since your players will defeat combat encounters more quickly. With Demonskar Legacy, you have a great opportunity to role-play a lot of unique characters, which could prove a fun experience.

There's always deus ex machina; just assume the Ranger was tagging along but for one reason or another happened to have wandered off and stumbled back into the party as the next module begins. If the party has already begun the module and is in the Abyss, you can simply assume the player was momentarily incapacitated and the party took him with them.

The idea of letting the player play Kaurophon sounds really cool though, as long as the player is capable of playing an unusual character like that. Kaurophon has to be cautious with his spells and in some ways he may be a bit underpowered compared to the party. However he also has a number of unique advantages the party lacks unless you are allowing them to use a bunch of bizarre templates. If you know the player really well and think he'd do it well, you can go with this idea. But I'd be careful. The party will probably be suspicious of Kaurophon the whole time anyway and even though it's tempting to let him become a PC to dispel that notion somewhat, it isn't worth it if you don't think the player in question is up to the task. Kaurophon has to be played just right in order to have the right effect.

As others have suggested, you can just let him create a new character for this adventure only. Then when the party gets back to the Prime Material, they find his Ranger has had a couple adventures of his own (give him enough levels/treasure to catch up with the others and explain what happened during the party's absence). This can be a good way to hook the party into the next adventure "Guys, you won't believe what's happened since you've been gone..."

Ultimately, do whatever you feel will be best for the campaign.

This was a long time ago, but as far as I remember, it took us about four sessions of 5 hours each to complete the module. We were pretty beefcake though.

When we ran through Shackled City we had a Rogue/Temple Raider, a Fighter/Dwarven Defender, a Favored Soul, and a Warmage. The Rogue was the only character who died more than once (and the Rogue's player is probably to blame for both; he tried some crazy stuff). No one died at all until the third adventure. Even though our party wasn't exactly an iconic party, we had all the primary roles filled. Beatstick, scout, healer, blaster. In order to more effectively deal with undead, my Favored Soul had spells like searing light and cure spells. Based on my experience, I wouldn't suggest deviating from the formula too much. We had an incredibly difficult time with some situations because we didn't have the versatility of spell-casting provided by a wizard or a cleric. But at least we had the primary benefit those classes provide.

My group ran all the way up to Test of the Smoking Eye (part 5 I think) in this campaign before work schedules changed up to the point of making regular play impossible. There were originally four of us (including the GM) so we used a couple variant rules. First, we swapped GM duties. I ran the first module, another player ran the second, and so on until it came back to me. Whoever was GMing would also play their own character. Second, we used Gestalt characters (see Unearthed Arcana) until we converted to normal characters at level 7.

At the end of Life's Bazaar, we were all 4th level and loaded with loot. At the end of Flood Season, we were all 6th level and loaded with even more loot. At the end of Zenith Trajectory we were all level 8 and our loot was beginning to balance out. At the end of Demonskar Legacy, we were all 10th level and my character at least was right on the money for wealth by character level as listed in the DMG.

I attribute our success early on to our gestalt abilties. Having the benefits of two classes at once makes low-level characters spectacularly powerful, just like multi-classing is extremely beneficial to low-level characters in the short run (to a lesser extent than gestalt of course). Had we not been gestalt, we would have neglected to tangle with several encounters and probably wouldn't have noticed as much stuff.

Going back and looking over the mods at a later point, I noticed that there was a LOT of XP lying around. If a party of four characters is extremely thorough, I imagine them to be at least one level (probably two) ahead of the curve throughout the entire series and not to mention wealthy to boot. However, I don't think the adventure writers intend for player characters to be that thorough. They intend for them to meet their mission goals, then move on to the next adventure. If your PCs are very goal oriented, I'd wager money they'll stay right about where they need to be.

There really is no problem with letting PCs be ahead of the game though. The Shackled City is a tough campaign. There are several very Gygaxian moments in which your PCs will simply be overwhelmed and if they survive they should thank Istus for their fate. On top of that, the XP system is self-correcting. If your PCs get a little ahead, then they get less experience for the next adventure, meaning they won't get as many levels for that adventure as they did for the last one. And on top of THAT, there are sidebars with each adventure giving tips on adjusting the adventure for higher/lower level PCs. I wouldn't worry about PCs being ahead. I would worry about them being behind and add in a side-quest between modules if they need it to be at least the minimum level, either that or use the adjustment sidebars to power the encounters down.

I'm about to start up this Age of Worms campaign path and I thought it might be useful to start up a thread to discuss the running of the campaign as it pertains to Greyhawk.

First of all, I've noticed that Diamond Lake is as old as the City of Greyhawk boxed set. This means Diamond Lake is not simply a "generic" town developed only for this campaign. However, it may be that Diamond Lake simply has not been heavily developed before. Anyone recall reading about it before now?

Second of all, the module gives a lot of campaign hooks, but it essentially supposes the PCs have lived their lives in Diamond Lake and are seeking to escape the rigors of small town life (cue in Beall's song from Beauty and the Beast about how "there must be more than this provincial life"). That seems fine and dandy enough, but what about other possible character hooks. Suppose you have a character who wants to be associated with the Scarlet Brotherhood, or the Greyhawk Thieves Guild, or say you have someone who wants to take regional feats from Dungeon 315 or 319. Does anyone think it will be really necessary to presume the same basic background for every PC or doi you think it be a bit more flexible? Erik? Developers?

I haven't read the adventure because I intend to play it, so I can't really say whether it has a 1st edition "feel" or not. However I can say this, one of the things that typified 1st edition so greatly was an emphasis on tactical situations. D&D was originally an off-shoot of a wargame so it made perfect sense for the designers to enjoy a hack n slash style game. Therefore, if this adventure features a large number of tactical situations, puzzles, and traps, then it may have a very classic feel to it.

On a side note, one of the things that annoyed me most about 2nd edition was the fact that the rules were poorly implemented for tactical games. It was a system that left more tactical rules to the DM's whim and provided more tips and background for roleplaying. Part of the fun of D&D is the tactical aspect. I know some people who could throw the story out the window and fight combat encounters all day (not me though). I've found that as D&D has matured as a game, the tactical rules have become tighter (as I feel they should) and have left more of the story to the DM's whim. Many 1st edition modules have this approach. They provide a series of tactical simulations and rules for adjudicating them, while the setting for the entire adventure is left to the DM. If the group just wants to hack through it, they may, but if they wish to add a compelling story for why they are battling the dark lich they can do that too.

To put things in perspective, I'd like to point you to one of my favorite modules of all time: Vecna Lives! I realize some GH fans despise it, but allow me to elaborate on why this is one of my favorites. First of all, it's just a good read. The story is compelling and epic. You feel like you're part of the adventure just reading it. I find myself imagining myself in the place of a hero battling the evil cultists at every turn. Second of all, the module is very detailed. It provides lots of maps and DM aides to smooth the running of the adventure. But for all the love I have for this module, it lacks one thing: dungeons. There really isn't a single good dungeon (or dragon) in the whole blooming module, excepting the prelude, which I don't feel counts (if you've read the module you will understand). A vast majority of encounters take place outside in open terrain. This module is a role-playing module. It emphasizes the story and forces players to think about moral and ethical ramifications of their actions, but they don't really get to hack at stuff very much. This can be frustrating for players, who are often itching to roll some dice. In summary, the reason I like this adventure is simply because I like reading it. However as playability goes, it is better suited as a reference book rather than an adventure.

On the other hand, one of my other favorite adventures is the Temple of Elemental Evil. If you've ever played it, then you know it is non-stop, nitty-gritty, hackin', slashin' goodness from start to finish. At the very beginning you investigate the moathouse and from then on you spend 95-99% of your time inside the Temple of Elemental Evil delivering cold-hearted justice to the wicked. As far as background goes this module dedicates the first 2 pages to history along with a few after that to detail Hommlet. After that, you're mostly on your own. Great adventure, just like Vecna Lives!, but for an entirely different reason. Even though it's a 2nd edition module, it has a very real 1st edition "feel" to it. In general, modules in 2nd edition were more like Vecna Lives! than TOEE.

Anyway, I feel guilty for having hijacked this thread but I can't bring myself to just delete my post. I'll end on topic by saying I am very excited about the Age of Worms campaign path. If it is anything like Shackled City it will provide lots of dungeon crawl along with an epic experience that I won't soon forget. Plus, since it's written by Erik Mona, I am setting the bar high. I'm sure he didn't disappoint us.

Some people have mentioned that roleplayering and powergamering are not mutually exclusive. I don't disagree, but that doesn't mean playing with a role-playing powergamer is any more fun than playing with a roll-playing powergamer. I offer the following analogy to explain my points. (Disclaimer: parents, you might want to cover your children's eyes if you haven't taught them about the "facts of life" yet.)

When you begin your career as a 1st level character and spend your entire career hunting down the lich that destroyed your party's home kingdom before you were born, the encounter should be intense, exciting, challenging, and take at least a moderate level of work and clever thinking. However if the party manages to disintegrate the lich in one round because the spellcaster has augmented his DC to 39, the whole campaign becomes a downer. I know this is a bad analogy for gamers (no offense), but it's a lot like sex. If you climax in 6 seconds, it isn't really much fun (and you're likely to anger your partner). There isn't much point to that kind of sex, and there isn't much point to that kind of D&D encounter. Sure, you get a momentary power trip, but things like that are so much better when they are savored.

That's all I'm trying to say: savor the experience. Enjoy the challenge of playing a less-than-optimized character. There's nothing impressive about a wizard with 36 Intelligence who successfully disintegrates his enemies 95% of the time. You EXPECT him to succeed. However the wizard who deceives his enemies and cleverly uses a combination of spells to disable them is commendable. While one character would need the deck stacked against him to have a reasonable chance of defeat, the other is truly heroic because he is overcoming the odds.

I don't think powergamers are bad people. I just think they are missing the point. They are using the game for cheap thrills when they could be having an epic experience. And that's not to say I think my way of playing the game is the "right way." If a group of powergamers play with a powergaming DM and all have a good time that's perfectly fine. But not everyone enjoys that kind of game while everyone should be able to enjoy a good story. If someone asks you about your "I killed the tarrasque" t-shirt, are you really going to be happy telling them "I just cast vengeful gaze of god" instead of regaling them with a tale of action, adventure and intrigue?

Maybe it's just the area I live in, maybe it's the zeitgeist of gamers these days, or maybe it's the change in focus the game itself has taken, but whatever it is, I'm sick of it.

Every time I sit down to play a D&D game in my hometown (College Station, TX) I am surrounded by wizards with 28 Intelligence who apply sudden maximize to an empowered spell to obliterate an encounter 3 levels higher than they are in one round. Either that or the Fighter/Barbarian/Exotic Weapon Masters who attack 5 times per round, critically hits 25% of the time, and deal an average of 85 points of damage per hit when using Power Attack. And let us not forget the Bards with +25 to Bluff and +47 to Diplomacy (at 10th level) who manage to convince an adult red dragon to give them some of his treasure. This isn't a game anymore, it's some puerile pissing contest!

Now I play a variety of D&D games. RPGA sanctioned games like Legacy of the Green Regent and Living Greyhawk are quite popular. I also like to run Dungeon modules as one shots from time to time. Occassionally I'll convert one of my old 1st or 2nd edition modules to 3.5 for my group to play as well. But it doesn't matter what the campaign is, what the character creation rules are, or how many players sit at the table. It inevitably turns into a big game of Players Vs. DM where the only sense of accomplishment comes from beating the DM's monsters senseless in 2 rounds this time instead of 3 or ridding an entire dungeon of monsters without taking a hit. Fighters have 25 Strength and 4 Charisma. 6th level Clerics turn liches into dust with the flash of a symbol. Rogues have +15 to initiative and successfully Hide by "taking 1" on their Hide check.

I am tired. I hardly know a single player anymore who values a good story over a good battle or one who has crafted a detailed family history for their character. It doesn't seem like it's a game as much anymore as it is a bragging contest to see who can create the cheesiest character.

Does anyone out there empathize with me? Is the role-player truly dead or is my experience simply relegated to my circle of players? I wish I could just sit down and have a merry evening discovering lost bits of lore and fantastic items in a dungeon laden with traps and surprises. Am I just playing the wrong system? Maybe so. After all, D&D has become so focused on miniatures and maps that it does seem to be going the way of the wargame. I just feel so nostalgic for the days of intrigue, discovery and adventure.

Yes, crafting things in general is a difficult task in D&D. Say you want to buy a suit of full plate. You find a 6th-level dwarven expert who is a blacksmith to help you out. This dwarven blacksmith has max ranks (+9) in Craft (armorsmithing) and Craft (weaponsmithing) not to mention Profession (blacksmith). Using the default array: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8, he wisely chose to make Intelligence his 13. At level 4, he bumped it to 14. Now of course he also has masterwork tools for his profession, netting him another +2. And of course, this is his primary means of making money. He has skill focus in armorsmithing as well. So what's his total bonus? +2 (Int) +2 (racial) +2 (mw tools) +3 (skill focus) +9 (ranks) = +18. This gives him enough to take 10 and get a 28 on his check, which incidentally is enough to add +10 to the DC in order to craft the item faster. At that rate, he will finish 784 sp worth of work a week, enough to finish the full plate in 19 weeks and change. That's a long flippin' time.

Now suppose he's in Eberron and he is a magewright. This gives him a +10 to his check. If we extrapolate the rules and assume a crafter can add an additional +10 to the DC (for a total of 38), then this brings the time down to about 10 1/3 weeks. Still a pretty long time. You would be hard-pressed to outfit even the officers in your army at that rate.

So here's my solution. Allow synergies like crazy. 5 ranks in both Craft (weaponsmithing) and Profession (blacksmith) should give him +2 synergy each. Add 5 ranks in Knowledge (architecture and engineering) to the mix and give him another +2. Give him a +2 for each magic item creation feat he has if he is a spellcaster. You could create a feat called Master Craftsman that gives you +2 to two Craft checks of your choice. There are a number of things you can do to raise the bonus of a Craft check. You have to be creative to do it though. I have no idea how long full plate takes to make by hand in real life but even assuming a best-case scenario, it is a rather time-consuming task by D&D rules. Then again, I do know this one guy who took three years to weave his own chain mail in his spare time.