d13's page

As an alternative to lowering the reqs of Create Construct, you could try an apprentice angle.

In one of my campaigns the party's necromancer (who did not fulfill all of the reqs) assisted a more powerful, more qualified necromancer in the creation of two flesh golems. Some things went awry (dice rolling at times, story telling at others) and when the two golems were finally completed, the party's wizard had a golem with fewer hit points and only one functioning arm -the runt of the litter.

This worked for my campaign because it was a way to bring in a golem henchman that wasn't too overpowered to be in the group as well as still limiting the creation of constructs to more powerful wizards.

By the way, rolelaying a one-armed flesh golem is totally fun.

tangent: How do you help a Munchkin in your group if he/she wants to change but doesn't have the foggiest what roleplaying is all about?

A power gamer is mostly interested in creating the baddest, toughest, fastest, butt-kickin'est character around.

Naturally, weakness is not a typical "munchkin" characteristic.

If a power gamer is truly interested in becoming more of a role player, I would have them design a character with some built in fears and weaknesses.
A good DM can cater to a player's weaknesses (just as he/she could cater to their strengths) and provide good roleplying opportunities.
Phobias are a good, easy route for beginning "role players". Heroic flaws (pride, wrathfullness) can also be fun, but are a little more advanced.

I am a little hung over at work today because of this thread.

I spoke to a gamer friend (who doesn't frequent these boards) on the phone last night and told him that I had bought a bottle of Crown Royal. Without missing a beat he replied,
"Crown Royal? whaddija do? buy it for the bag?"

without missing a beat!
it was priceless. based on that exchange I have to say "STAPLE".

I acquired my "purple & gold" quite by chance... When I was but a budding gamer ( I was around 13) and I had only been playing a year or two, my "girlfriend" gave me the same Crown Royal bag I still use today. I thought I was being cool because no other gamers in my area at the time had one.

"I thought I was being cool because no other gamers in my area at the time had one."

Crowl Royal Bag or Girlfriend?!

Trust me pal, you probably WERE the only gamer in your area that had the latter.

I have never owned one, but they are definitely a staple of the gaming table. And as my old dice bag is on its last strings, I think I see a bottle of CR in my future. Never would've thought of it without this post. Thanks F2K!

d13 wrote:

Death-a-phobic (necrophobic? mortiphobic? what is it?)

It would be thanatophobic.

ooooooh. thanks. good word.

Thanatophobic Elves.
hmmm. you have sparked my imagination in cruel and unusual ways this morning. I see a problem for my players on the horizon. thanks again. I would laugh maniacally but I dont want my boss to know that I am plotting woe and destruction.

Now, surely you can't be serious. Kaptain Kangaroo.

I quite serious. And dont call me "Now"

Isn't Mr. Greenjeans Ted Nugent's dad?

Doesn't this make them a more formiddable duo?

Y'know not to mention it's hard not to be more than a little gunshy if you know that if you die, that's all there is--no magic can bring you back to life, particularly if you're looking at a normal lifespan of hundreds of years. The longer a person lives, I'd say the more the thought of death horrifies them. Safe to say the same is true for elves.

So if there's no magical way to bring back an elf, it makes you wonder if elves could even become undead? It would be interesting if necromancy just didn't work on them at all...

Just a side thought.

The fact that elves cant be resurrected in my world has created a few very Death-a-phobic (necrophobic? mortiphobic? what is it?) older elves.

I've always ruled that they can become undead. A lot of times its just a variant type of undead due to their elvish nature. They still have souls, so they can still be corrupted, it just works a little differently than other races.

And most necromantic spells work just as written, elves or not. Your suggestion makes a lot of sense, I just shudder to think at the logistics of changing a whole school of magic simply to accomdadate this racial difference.

Captain Kangaroo.

Dont let the red blazer fool you, he was a stone cold killer in real life.

And Mr. Green Jeans was a genetically engineered Navy Seal.

You think Kirk and Spock could take out those guys?

I got one word for you.

Ping pong balls.

I'll admit to only having skimmed a lot of this thread, so forgive me if I we already made this point.

Was it in 2e that Elves could NOT be resurrected? or was that an old house rule that I played with back in the day? Regardless, I maintain this rule in my own games today.
It cuts down on a lot of elven problems and answers some of those questions. Once their dead, thats IT.
After all, I'd like to see you try to live for hundreds (much less THOUSANDS) of years without getting in some freak accident. It happens to thousands of humans every day and we live to be about 75.

I just ran an encounter with Harpies for the first time in 3.5 rules. They are relatively low CR, however, if you fail the Will save vs. their song you are TOTALLY SCREWED. You DO NOT get another chance to save unless they try and lead you over a cliff, into a deep river, etc. They bring you in a straight line to them and then can pick you apart with their talons (albeit slowly) and you can't do anything about it. Also since there were multiple harpies, each one got a chance to sing at the PCs until they had a rapt audience. It ended up be a much more dangerous encounter than I had anticipated.

Also, has no-one ever thought of learning the "Rusting Grasp" spell in order to use similar tactics on NPCs?

I am about to use that spell on my PCs

I have a paladin in my group. He may not like it when his precious metals get turned into useless junk, but hey! he's a paladin. He should be above material junk. He needs only his faith for a shield, right?
In 2e, Paladins had a max number of magic items that they could carry. I'm pretty sure that rule got nixed in 3e, but the idea is still a good one. As a champion of faith you should be above material goods. Its a tough one to swallow when it happens, but you do get a lot of cool abilities as a trade-off.

My first thought is the lack of anything that resembles legs.
So it would have to roll around behind him, and that just skews the flavor.

We're just going to animate it anyway.

Wooh!

Oooohhhhh....preferably with some sort of chilling mechanism built into it....{smacks lips}...could brown mold be used for that if properly contained?

Mold is a fungus, as is Brewer's yeast. Something that ferments the sugars and simulataneously keeps the beer chilly?

We are on to something! I can definitely see this as Dwarven technology in my homebrew.

. . . hrmmm . . .

I had a player who liked to animate anything he came across. The best was when he tried to animate a keg. He wanted it to walk around behind his character and provide needed sustenance. I gave him a blank stare, waited a beat, and moved on. It was a classic moment.

What is wrong with this? Maestro, I say right on!

no, but seriously, why shouldn't this work?

I was wondering what techniques DMs use for their ambient sounds.

I typically find one, non-obtrusive (but still thematically appropriate) track and put it on repeat until they come to a specific encounter/battle. Then I put a "battle track" on repeat until the combat ends. Then switch back to repeating the original track or another less exciting "theme" track.

This helps me to avoid switching out CDs or wasting time pushing the stereo remote buttons while we are playing. I found out the hard way that doing so can be a real mood killer - which is just what you want to avoid with music.

What techniques do you use?

And I got paid to sit here and read it.

I am at least getting paid to sit here.

By the by, I think the TV program oft-mentioned in this thread was the NOVA special "The Elegant Universe" based on Brian Greene's book.

Just puttin' that out there in case anyone's interests have been piqued.

The leader of the Wrecking Crew. I forget his name. I read somewhere that he became a villian because his son tried to emulate the Human Torch and set himself on fire. This supposedly happened in an issue of "The Fantastic Four" a while back. I've always wanted to own that particular issue because of this morbid detail.

I dig on Hammerhead too. How silly can your power get?

"I bash things with my skull"

At least The Rhino got to wear a big grey suit.

Thank you all so much for helping me waste time on the man's dollar! This thread has touched on two of my favorite subjects, D&D and quantum theory. And I got paid to sit here and read it. Thanks Saern! Thanks Tequilla! Thanks Cleaver!

I am in the process right now of developing my own cosmology for my homebrew and reading this thread has made up my mind on one point. The laws of physics that bind the material planes have little or no bearing on the mechanics of the other planes.
With that huge difference, the very concept of infinity will differ from plane to plane. There may be in fact, no common scientific or rational ground to stand on between planes. Trying to force all the planes to fit the scientific standards of one will only create a headache resulting in -2 to attack/damage rolls and saving throws.

unless its opposite day. . .

on Limbo. . .

Although I count LOTR as my favorite all time books, I really dont read much fantasy. This is strange, since I am a tremendous D&D geek, but I've tried to read other fantasy novels and I just cant seem to get into them. That being said,

I friggin' love these books.

I started Game of Thrones last 4th of July and I am now eagerly awaiting "A Dance of Dragons"

I have never read a book that I have more successfully hooked more people into reading. I have created a whole group of my friends, (fantasy lovers and haters) who have torn through all four books now.

We need to start a thread for people who have read all four so that we can discuss without fear of spoiling some of the finer points!

The dwarves are trained in battling giants, but the training is probably based on them usually being their normal size, not enlarged. Maybe that is where the DM is coming from on this rule. Although even then I wouldn't agree that the dwarf would lose the entire bonus (not that I agree with losing any of the bonus).

Yeah. I wouldn't take away all of the bonus. I always saw the dwarven bonus as a combination of racial training and dwarven anatomy - they are sturdy, stocky little guys with low centers of gravity. Just because they are enlarged doesn't mean that they dont still have sturdy frames and low centers of gravity. They may be bigger targets, but high armor class doesn't simply mean that your opponents miss, it can also reflect that your opponents dont hit you solidly enough to do damage.

Reading these posts I would have to take the player's side in terms of the RAW for underwater AC bonuses/penalties, but can anyone explain to me why an armor laden dwarf who is almost completely submerged is harder to hit? Why the bonus?

It would seem to make more sense the way the DM ruled it. You can hardly keep your head and shoulders above the water, your armor is weighing you down, almost all of the space you need to swing your weapon is underwater, IT IS HARDER FOR YOU TO MOVE.

I would've ruled with the player on the spot, but after further review, I may change the way this rule works in my game.

Half-elf.
I'm wirey. Slender but heartier than skinny little elves. and my ears are kinda pointy.
8th level Bard.
Cant sing worth a damn though, so my perform skills would probably be spilt between
Perform: Rant
Perform: wise-crack
and
Perform: witticism

I can certainly say that I have use the bardic "fascinate" ability before, and not always to good ends. And I played "Henry V" once so I'd like to think that I have "inspired courage" as well. I draw the line at "inspiring greatness" though. I'll have to level up a bit before I pull that one off.

I'd take the rapier over the bow. I can use a bow, but I'm good with a rapier - maybe even a weapon focus feat.

I may have a level of sorceror thrown in the mix somewhere. I have the odd ability to know (and call beforehand) when a football player is going to miss a field goal. I call it "The Curse of Al Del Greco" and its a phenomenon that spooked out a number of people. Friends even call me on the phone when they need someone to miss a big kick.

Half-elf Bard 7/Sorceror 1.
Yeah. Thats probably pretty close.

So you don't have a 'should have' list for them? I'm guessing you don't do magic shoppes and like to do treasure the totally random way and let the PCs survive on whatever the dice give them?

I run a pretty low magic campaign and I dont like my PCs buying magic items. Rolling random treasure has always been one of my favorite parts of putting together an adventure. I may put a specialty item in the horde once in a while (its good to keep your players happy) but most of the time the goodies are coming off a roll of the dice.

Since a lot of players are pack rats, a bag of holding/portable hole is a must for any high level group.

Other than that, I pretty much play it by ear for my group. The standards apply of course, strong weapon, armor, shield, staff, whatever; every class has their basic wish list items. I have to admit that the evil part of my DM nature also takes great delight in knowing what magic items my PCs want and withholding or teasing them with said items.

I dont know any thief who wouldn't want a hat of disguise.

A magic intsrument for a bard - although masterwork instruments work just as well - a +2 on perform rolls is not to be overlooked.

A Cloak of Displacement is a nice item for the wizard in the group.

Back in 2nd edition I played a paladin with a sword of sharpness, the rules are a little different for keen edges in 3.5, but I'm sure that its still a lot of fun to play with.

I'm actually pretty stingy with the magic in my game though, I try to keep my PCs from covering all the bases.

I wonder sometimes about these sorts of things in other areas. For example, what about inevitables in Faerun--are they exclusive to Mechanus? I had always figured Slaadi were Greyhawk specific (being from Limbo and all) but then came Demon Stone and apparently the porting of the whole plane into Faerun.

Isn't The Great Wheel/Planar Cosmology of D&D a common thread between all the settings? If you had the means, couldn't you get to Limbo (or Mechanus, Elysium, etc.) from ANY of the settings?

I have been playing in a homebrew for the last 10 years, so my knowledge of the published settings is remedial at best.

I also know that there are probably a lot of people out there who have created their own way of dealing with the Planes - I am currently developing my own system - but speaking strictly from what is published about the different settings, isn't the Great Wheel a common denominator?

Thanks again Paizo comrades! As always your insights make my game better!

Anybody got a good idea for what I can use as a miniature?

Fighting a swarm of insects?

My PCs are going to go up against a massive swarm of bees.

Stop laughing at me.

They dont have access to any big fire spells (or area effect spells of any kind) and sword and shields aren't going to be too effective against a swarm of insects. Are they?

I'm sure there must be rules out there for dealing with this type of encounter. How do you figure AC, HP, etc? Even with a certain number of HP, it seems pretty silly that they could somehow do enough physical damage with a sword, mace, arrow, etc. to disperse the threat.

Whats the buzz on this?

Still fun, but disappointing overall. SPOILER ALERT.

The first scene with Angel as a little boy in the bathroom, clipping his wings, was very good. One thing that these movies have done well is exploring the pain and confusion (and stupidity) of prejudice. That message may seem dumbed down to adults, but to 12 year old fans of the comic books, well . . . It is one of the things I admired about the first two movies.

But none of Angel's scenes move the plot forward in any way. Why is he in the movie? It was if they put him just appease fans of the comics with another classic X-Man. I am a fan of the comics, but they could have taken him out and shortened the movie considerably. Put him on the extended edition DVD. That would be a cool extra for anyone who liked this movie enough to buy it.

Peter Jackson. He could probably run a pretty good game. Especially if Phillipa Boyens and Fran Walsh are helping him write the adventures.

Christopher Lee could run a great gothic/Ravenloft campaign. Can you imagine that voice taking you through Strahd's castle? Suh-weet.

Akira Kurasowa for an Oriental Adventure. Hey, if we are bringing him back from the dead, I'm sure we can overcome a little language barrier.

Tom Landry (back when the Cowboys--and the NFL--still had class)

I actually met Tom Landry on an airplane in Dallas when I was 8 years old. We were the only two people on the plane during a layover and he taught me magic tricks.

Other than my parents and my brother (who continue to inspire me daily) my heroes growing up were:

Spider-Man - he's undeniably a good guy with a sense of humor

King Arthur - My last name is Knight. His legend has always been a shining example for me.

Steve Yzerman - To this day I love Stevie Y. He is the greatest team leader in hockey today. He changed his game and made statistical sacrifices in order to make the team better. He leads by example. Not a lot of talk. Just a lot of action. And the right action at the right time. Even if you hate the Wings, you gotta love Steve Yzerman.

D.R.I. today.

I was threatened with an a** beating once for listening to DRI. Communist-punk crap is what I was told. Good social commentary is what I say.

M@

Wooh! Tabernacle!

I was once subjected to the ire of a junior high school teacher for wearing a D.R.I. T-shirt. Little did she know how perfectly it fit into my master plan! Eat it Mrs. Kilgren!

Lately I've been listening to the String Quartet Tribute to Tool. I find it helps me write D&D. If I put on Megadeth or Maiden (or any other old metal/rock) I just want to get up and thrash around. The absence of lyrics with the String Quartet helps me focus but the hard edge hidden underneath it all inspires my devious parts. Mwu-ha-ha-ha!

This is my new favorite though. . .

In my evil campaign, the necromancer assisted his father (a more powerful necromancer) in the creation of two flesh golems. Manfred (the above mentioned necromancer) was not as skillful in his golem creation as his father and an accident in the lab rendered one of the flesh golem's arms useless.

Other than his trademark monosyllabic grunts he aint much for conversation, but playing Drom the one armed flesh golem has been a hoot. He still kicks a lot of arse when the going gets rough, and I really enjoy grunting and moving around the room like a crippled Frankenstein's monster.

Drom HATES flies.
Drom LOVES sticky buns.

OK. I may have given him a little more personality than the rules allow for constructs, but my players dont seem to mind.

Lately the group has taken to keeping him in check with a flaming whip. It was just conincidence that they had such an item in their possession, but I now believe that they should give flaming whips to everyone who owns a flesh golem. It just makes sense.

I primarily DM, but I tend to keep certain NPCs around for multiple adventures. I have had a lot of good ones over the years, but my best NPC (according to group reaction) was probably Hartook Can-Ri-Tirum.
Harry the Bugbear.
Harry was the henchman of one of the PCs. The PC was once the captain of a mercenary company, but he became seperated from everyone in the company except for Harry. Harry had joined the mercenary company because my player had allowed him religious freedom. Harry's religion was voodoo. I happen to know quite a lot about voodoo, so I was able to speak, curse, taunt and wax poetical using various voodoo terms in a thick Haitian accent. My group all fell in love with him. After about the third session with Harry they all began to praise the voodoo Gods. "Dat mee-akes Papa Nebo 'appy!"
Harry uses a staff of the python in combat often had a little zombie crony following him around.

What can you guys tell me about "Lords of Madness"? I have almost bought this book a number of times, but something always stops me. After reading "The King in Yellow" in Dungeon 134, I'm intrigued again.
Is it worth it?

David Roberts wrote:

...blurted out "Macho Man"...

Why do I have bad mental images of the Village People, who's cast has been replaced with Elminster, Mordenkainen, Rary, Iggwilv, Tenser and the other "iconic" archmages doing the line up for YMCA?

Help!

Lol. These are GOOD mental images!

Pelor (pay-lore) the Pit Bull?

This is good. You can tell the judge that your pit-bull is named after "the God of Sunshine". Who would convict with that excuse?

Whatever you name it, please train your dog to get crazy happy when you say the words "sausage gravy". Trust me. Being able to say the words "sausage gravy" and have your pet go wild. . .
oh man!
there's nothing better.

It was over a year ago I saw the cover of Dungeon #116 while browsing in a newsagent. Crikey! I know that face, I thinks to myself. Now at that point I had not played or even thought about D&D for at least 15 years, but the Green Devil stared me down and forced me to buy the issue.

I had a very similar experience with that issue. The green devil's face marked my first Dungeon magazine purchase. I didn't get completely hooked on the mag until recently though.

Last week I run my first game in a very long time. I even got to yell "Bree Yak"!
Bill

You yelled, "Hey Rosie!" to your PCs?

In my evil campaign the necromancer is also a bit of a surgeon (or chirurgeon if you will). Each time the party defeats a new kind of monster, he takes out his vivisection kit, cuts open the critter and starts making detailed notes of the creatures anatomy. He always ends up keeping a few of their organs and casting a spell similar to "gentle repose" on them.
The systematic carnage created by these field disections has become a sort of calling card for the party.

The DM who spends way more time on one Player's character arc than anyone elses. This was a lesson that I learned early on. I couldn't figure out why people were leaving my game.

d13, you're in Lansing too?

I graduated high school just south of Lansing. Now I live in New York City. At the moment I'm in Denver though.

It's lembas for gamers, and it keeps you regular, to boot!

Pancakes as lembas? Hmmm. Never thought of that before. I'm going to steal that idea. I love incorporating food and drink into my gaming sessions.

How do you say "Aunt Jemimah" in Elvish?

I find it interesting that in reviewing a study that is trying to determine "whether participation in Goth culture leads to self-destructive behavior or whether adolescents with those tendencies gravitate to Goth", Dr. Jasmer writes (in the next paragraph no less), "There is a Goth subculture in the U.S., reportedly inspired by fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragon"

"reportedly inspired by?"

Isn't the study attempting to discover if Goth behaivour "inspires" self-destructive behaivour and vice versa?

Chris was right in his original post when he stated that the statement in question comes out of left field. Since no evidence can be found of D&D's influence on Goth culture in the original Glasgow study, I am confounded as to where Dr. Jasmer's comment stems from.

To insinuate that Dungeon & Dragon (sic) "inspires" Goth behaivour is either a sly and insidious attempt at linking self-destructive behaivour with D&D or a dangerously misinformative error in writing.

I sincerely hope that Dr. Jasmer replies to Mr. Chin's request and joins the discussion on these boards.

I'm sure the guy(s) who facilitate these boards are very busy, but I would LOVE to see a PM feature. And as long as were throwing out suggestions, how about letting us upload our own avatars?

Just suggestions. I know you must be busy.

"You ran away like a big p***y--you probably have the 'run like a coward' feat," she told me.

"Yes, I do, my character has the run feat," I told her and pointed at my character sheet...."and he's alive and your character is not."

lol. I hope one day this character can discover a pair of "boots of speed". You'd never hear the end of it!

I am not up on my FR pantheon. Is it the same as listed in the PH? Sorry, I play exclusively in a home-brewed world so I dont pay much attention to the other gods.

I think Fharlanghn seems like a good choice for a former slave. The God of Roads/Travelling seems like the antithesis to someone who is imprisoned or enslaved. No choice vs. almost infinite choice.

But you also want to use a shot put, which to me seems like it would work well with Kord or any other God of Strength. Is there a God of Contests or Victory in the FR?

In terms of Domain: Travel and Strength?

I love players with this type of perspective. Unfortunately, I haven't played a character in a few years, all of my recent experience is as DM, but I much prefer writing adventures for someone who has weaknesses built into his character. I'm more of a role-playing based DM, then a hack-and-slash or munchkin runner, so I find it challenging and very rewarding to run these type of characters through the gauntlet.
I salute you sir! I think that playing a character with weaknesses is an often overlooked, but extremely fun part of the game.
I used to be a "lets make Johnny as whoop-ass as possible" type of player, and I know how fun that can be as well, but it does give me more pleasure as a DM to make the PC with 6 charisma have to speak for the group.

Pancakes as an.....adventure hook???

Pancakes have never been an adventure hook in my campaign.

STICKY BUNS, however, have played a prominent role in one particular campaign. One of players is convinced he can bake "Sticky Buns of Flesh Golem Control". Its probably not going to happen, but its funny that he keeps trying.

There are 88 Waffle Houses between Tampa, Florida and Lansing, Michigan. This is fact. My friend and I counted them and played the song "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult after each one we would pass. Thats 88 blessed times.

"Here is wisdom,
let him who hath understanding reckon the number of Godzilla,
for it is a human number,
and its number shall be eighty-eight."

The Shogun's Assassin - Simply the Finest movie I have ever seen.

"At night we would make our tea,

lol. This is one of my favorite movie quotes of all time.

This link reminds me of the jukeboxes at Waffle House, which have an entire row of songs with a Waffle House theme. My favorite: "Special Lady at the Waffle House."

-Vic.
.

I enjoy "Waffle House Doo-Wop" and the classic "Its Waffle Time"

"Its waffle tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!"

Majestico wrote:

In comic books : Juggernuaght

In books: Ser Gregor Clegane from George R R Martin's superb 'A Song of Ice and Fire'

Clegane is a right bastard, but in some ways I pity him - I just finished up "A Clash of Kings" and was intrigued how they portrayed him.

Hey Lilith,

There are a lot of great villians in this series

In my game; you get rewarded for participation; you dont get penalized for not roleplaying and can make up that exp in other ways.

Indeed, penalizing someone for not roleplaying will only make someone want to play less. I'm sure we all get enough of this kind of crap at home, school, work, etc.

The "what you say is what your character says" rule is pretty effective. I have played in campaigns with it to great effect but I dont run my own game with it. I find that if I maintain talking to the players "in character", they will usually follow suit.

If you do use the above rule, however, my advice would be to start out slow. It can be a tricky rule to get used to for any player not accustomed to it. Just make sure that, as the DM, you dont get frustrated or snippy with anyone who is having a hard time with it.

And having a gesture that denotes the player speaking as opposed to the character speaking is a must when using this rule. Someone already mentioned that they had to pat their head and wiggle their fingers to speak out of character. My groups have always pretended to rip a hole in the fabric of reality.
Yeah.
Its a bit overdramatic, but hell! its roleplaying! being overdramatic should be the least of your worries!

1. LoTR - goes without saying.

2. The Seven Samurai - inspirational on a character driven level. makes me want to play a "defend the helpless villagers" adventure every time I see it.

3. The Road Warrior - Exactly like a western, but in an apocalyptic setting. Inspirational because it shows just how awesome you can make an idea if you do a small thing to turn it on its head. A simple change that produces complex results. Thats DM gold.

4. Gladiator - Maybe for no other reason than Hans Zimmer's incredible score.

5. Jaws - a great example of how "the space in between" can produce some of the best moments. It may be a movie about a killer shark and the men who hunt it down, but the best scene will always be the tatoo conversation on the boat and Robert Shaw's fantastic monologue about the U.S.S. Indianapolis. It just shows that sometimes the brief moments away from the action can shine the brightest and leave the biggest impression.
--
as a side note, I am not going to put it in my top 5, but I just recently saw Alien vs. Predator. I thought it was an awful movie, and I couldn't shake the fact that it seemed like I was watching an incredibly cliched D&D adventure. and for that reason. . . well. . . I kinda liked it. It WAS awful. but still. . .