praetorian's page

ghargh6969@comcast.net I love hero labs Thanks in advance!

So I am getting ready to run this and I must say the resources in this thread have been fantastic. My only comment so far is why does Jask look like a cool Rastafarian outlaw in his picture (Made me think of that Vin Deisel movie where the murderer gets stranded on the planet with the passengers from the ship) when in reality he is a middle aged, pasty faced weakling? I'm going to need a new picture to show the players!

So here is my payback tot he group. It is the picture I am going to use on the front of my notebook and on the message board I use to do between game chats. Reading the first book made me think of a certain reality show my wife loves...

go to smuggler's shiv survivors

I do custom mini painting and conversion. I have had some totally crazy requests for weapon swaps and such and most are doable with a bit of thought. Use a jewelers saw to cut the weapon off the hand flush. Drill a small hole and insert wire Clip the hilt off the weapon and drill a hole in that and the wire in weapon and hand will keep them sturdy enough for gaming]
The reaper weapons and accessories are provided in their whole form so they could be used for dioramas etc as well. You almost always have to cut the hilt of a sword, shorten the axe handle, and remove the grip on a pistol to make it work.

here are a few conversions I have done for customers

http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/572239672mzNCma

Good luck!

I added a concept for a bit of extra fun. Since these guys are the toad lickers and each has a toad companion, I thought it might be fun to expand why. Enjoy the extra craziness it can cause!

Toad Licking
The swamps near the little burg of Sandpoint have little to offer the casual visitor save bug bites and possible disease vectors. The flora and fauna there are on the whole unremarkable with one exception. These swamps are the singular home of a species of toad called the “Skull-back toad”. The black and red patterns on its back do resemble a humanoid skull. These toads continue growing until predation or disease or mishap ends their lives, thus some locals have reported seeing one large enough to swallow a sheep whole, and rumors abound of man eating ones deeper inside the bogs.
Their secret to survival is a substance they secrete from wart-like glands on their back. The effects of this toxin vary by the individual toad and how frightened or excited it is, and the biochemistry of the consumer. Vomiting, disorientation, penalization, and temporary blindness have been reported. The toxin seems to lose potency once removed from the toad’s back, but alchemist have tried raining them to harvest the toxin with little effect.
One of the local goblin-tribes discovered the odd properties of the toad. What first started with “I dare you to lick that” and laughing at the results soon elevated to keeping them around for entertainment. From there the goblins began to build up a tolerance for the toxin. Now they often lick them to attempt a religious trance (Where things glow or you can see snippets of the future, though usually just a few seconds into the future). Young goblins are forced to lick the toads at an early age, while the older ones squeal in delight as they puke, stagger, drool, and go stiff as a board.
The toads can be licked in combat (A standard action) and sometimes will give the imbiber a sudden boost of strength or even heal wounds and fatigue.
The effects of the poison worsen the more that is consumed. Thus the first “lick” of a day (Sleeping 8 hours purges the toxin from the body) is a DC 13 fortitude save. The DC increases by 2 with each successive lick.
For someone who has never been exposed to the Toads toxin, the DC begins at 17.
DC 13 fortitude save.
If successful roll a d6
1- Strength increase +4 for 5 rounds
2- Dexterity increase +4 for 5 rounds
3- Constitution increase +4 for 5 rounds
4- Heals d6 hit points
5- Can see all magic auras for 5 rounds
6- Cures d8+1 Hit Points and removes any conditions (Including blindness and deafness)

If failed roll a d6
1 Spend 1 round projectile vomiting then shaken for 3 rounds
2 Dazed for 3 rounds
3 Sickened for 3 rounds
4 Confused for 3 rounds
5 Blinded for 3 rounds
6 Paralyzed for d4 rounds (But you see the most amazing things. Roll a d20 and add your wisdom bonus If it is equal to or above 13 you gain a +3 insight bonus to any d20 rolls you make for the next d4 rounds.)
Toad Lickers capture fingerling toads fresh out of their tadpole stage and tame them. Hours a day are spent finding particularly juicy bugs, and later mice or birds for the larger ones. A particularly good toad may be fought over as spoils after a goblins death. Some aficionados amongst the tribe feel that a diet of certain types of insects brings on certain effects most often. Each diet is a closely guarded secret.

Just read through this and cannot wait to run it. I plan to run it once for kids aged 11-15 and again for my adult group aged "We all bought the original D&D boxed set"
One question came up with the Goblin Alchemist. He has a book with his formula. Are we to assume it is all pictures as he could not write anything without incurring the wrath of his tribe.

For all those wanting an all Goblin adventure, the difficult thing would be buying supplies and magic items since there are no high level goblin friendly merchants.

Got the book- It looks GREAT!

And I added some finished photos to my album. (See above post!) Have 9 miniatures converted. If you need parts lists or ideas for sources let me know!

Also guess what, they have rules for shifters and warforged!
Les

OK, so I swore I'd not get sucked into 4th edition, and my 3.5 long running campaign will go on as long as we can and as long as Paizo keeps publishing 3.75 or whatever it will be called!
But when the gaming group saw this beauty we boys decided we needed to play army!

I have tried running military campaigns and they have met with limited success. You have to convince PCs to get with the idea that you take orders and the good of your pretend country is what matters more than loot and glory.

"Hooks" are all automatic. No need to get the players interested inthe adventure, they just get their orders. And so many options, one week you are rescuing a princess, next you are guarding her, the week after kidnapping the enemy princess. Assasinations, supply disruption, steal the artifact/plans/orders/general's baby, caravan raids, caravan protection, shock and awe, and the 4th edition combat heavy feel seems to play right into this.
Player death is no biggie, you get replacements, no need to haunt the local bar for a replceament, and no hours spent gaining trust, he is a brother in arms and vouched for by your commanding officer. Also if a player misses session he is temporarily re-assigned.

Still have no idea what races and character classes can be "Wraiths". I have been working on miniatures though. Here is a link to a webshot album with the work in progress figures. No idea if Mongoose is putting out minis for this one, so I used GW 40K figures along with their fantasy line to make some wriths. Eye pieces are kneadatite putty (Green stuff) as are the back packs (Taken fromt eh video game Ghost Recon)

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/567002357giliji

[url=http://good-times.webshots.com/album/567002357giliji[/url]

Les

I am pretty sure Dr Lucky is trhe guy you are trying to murder in the board game "Kill Dr Lucky" which is kind of like CLUE in reverse!

Looks more like a hatchling Star Spawn sized to me.
Life-size would crush my house!
(laughing)
Though I'd like to know how BIG of a fireplace space we are talking about too.

1979, I was a senior in High school. I had loved miniatures since I was in like 3rd grade and got hooked on Airfix HO scale army guys. The gaming store in Davenport Iowa was called "The Thinker's Emporium" and Iw ent there mainly to buy magic illusions as I was a performing magician who actually got PAID for shows ! I saw they had these metal miniatures from a company called Ral Partha. I snagged a few Lord of The Rings miniatures (Some Orcs and the hobbit set)
Over the next few weeks I bought and painted more (Using Testors enamels and a HUGE brush because that was all we had- I still have those minis now to remind me of how badly I painted back then)
As I was buying another 6 bucks worth (Did I mention how cheap minis were back then?) the owner said "Man you guys must really be into D&D!"
We looked puzzled and he explained the concept of the game to us and we bought it sight unseen. My friend was driving so I tore open the plastic and pulled out the first book. I flipped it open to the monster section and read aloud the description of “gelatinous cube”. We almost died laughing at the thought of being eaten by giant jello!
The dice were hideous and we could not for the life of us figure out the yellow d4 which had only ghosts of numbers imprinted on it, and whose edges were uneven. We rolled the d8 and divided by 2….
We were in ready to play though. A few weeks later I had recruited the few kids who were fantasy readers in my tiny Midwest high school to come and play. I was DM, Ted was Elric the Half Elven, well…an elf. There was Edina with Elbereth Gilthoniel the elf, and Bill with Zoltar the Wizard.
There they stood outside the first introductory module as I read the flavor text about how this dungeon had been built many years ago by a wizard and a fighter, and had been sealed up since they vanished and now they were ready to enter……
As the doors opened I rolled for a random encounter….Berserkers. As they defeated them the questions began. If this was sealed up, where did the berserkers come from? I had not actually read the module to the end, so I was flipping through trying to see.
Several random encounters later, with goblins, human bandits, and a few orcs the questions as to where they came from, how they ate, slept, got water, and even where the bathrooms were had me terribly confused as the DM. Then they found a stuck door. On the other side was a werewolf. As they bashed the door I imagined the werewolf waiting to pounce. When it opened I described the werewolf slavering etc and the elf asked “Is she friendly?”
I said “She is a werewolf!”
But the rules say you are supposed to roll to see how they react. Sure enough here was a chart. I rolled and got “Friendly”. So now the werewolf is begging them not to kill her, and I am scrambling for a reason…”because I am not a true werewolf, an evil sorcerer named Malthus turned me this way, only if he is slain can I return to my natural form, a beautiful elf maiden.”
So now the party had a werewolf named Lila Swiftbow with them. Soon they encountered ANOTHER friendly monster in Bort the wereboar who I figured had the same story. Now the party vows to find Malthus and make him pay! They are thinking this is in the module but I am making it up on the spot!
In the lower level (Where the wizard points out they should all be dead for lack of ventilation and how are those wall torches still burning by the way?) they found a magickal talking sword named Max (Or blue max since he glowed blue) I decided Max had been a peaceful cleric and had been transformed by Malthus into a sentient sword as the ultimate punishment. Max had an old Jewish man accent and screamed when he fought and begged everybody to quit fighting and try to talk things out. The party broke into gales of laughter as I screamed “OYVEY! Not to be shticking me in that filthy orc! Do you have any idea where he has been? Quit with the swinging me around, OW! this armor is hard! Don’t use me on that statue- are you M’shuggna??”
When the pre packaged module was done I decided to design my own dungeon with more clues as to Malthus whereabouts. Turns out he was an acolyte of the Cult of Cthulhu. I put in water sources, sleeping quarters, ventilation, dining rooms all the things the players had complained were missing in the other pre-fab dungeon crawl. Lila and Bort and Max became fast friends with the trio as they tracked Malthus through the Lord-of-the-Rings meets Elric meets Conan meets H.P. Lovecraft world.
We had all night sessions until the summer after graduation we all split different ways. Gaming was and is an important part of my life. Almost all my best friends I have met through gaming. I still have those first figures, the torn, cheeto and coke stained character sheets, and even a few of the hideously malformed dice to remind me of the exhilaration that came in that little flat box.
Les Seabolt. Westminster CO