Tony, don't kid yourself, drywalling is the thinking man's construction job. It's not like you lay concrete!]
LAFF no insult at all! plus anyone else here make 35$ an hour?
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Laff, BTW i'm a drywaller and i DM. ;)
Male 29, played since the red box, 89ish, then in Jr. high found myself in the library playin' T.M.N.T. Then picked up the game again at about 21 playin' rifts and Deadland. Then they came out with the 3.0 DnD and i never looked back. http://www.freewebs.com/bigbadheros/
I played games with my neices and my friends kid, and the game did not rely around combat so much as apposed to skill checks the imeaditly (oops) knew how to jump and climb. My one buddys little girl 'bout 8 (i think) spent the whole night trying to track down and capture a kitten she wanted it was so halourious that the who group ended up watching her. Ahhh good tymes!
I assume that rod he weilds is in the DM 3.5 (which i dont have) so im hoping someone can give me th "low down" on exactly what it does, as well as the price of it please.
WHaT aRe yOu tryiNG tO Do mAkE sOme COnvErTs?
1) sure if thats the kinda guy that plays that kinda wizard, never herd it before, every wiz. that my players played, even the wiz. that i've played likes takin a couple of mths. off, its what wizards do, slow down time so your not gaining lvs. so fast it helps create err, a perception of time i spose 2)we'll what ever i spose? 3)random items are good in my opinion, its cool to get an item you thaught you'd never use untill u use it. 4) i belive the title of this board is General Discussion and maybe it would help you to look up the word discussion in the dictionary before you use words like fascist?
Okay i spose i didnt write what i ment to say. I found that the equator between loosing a couple of levels to "coat" yourself in magic items IS a fair trade. A 12th Lv. ftr and a 10th Lv. wiz. with say 2-3 wands seems pretty balanced to me. And in my game it was. I've never herd anyone complain about this before, but then again i'm not much of a power gamer. I think the Xp cost stops a wizard from making everyone in the group every possible magic item, becuse if im just making skill checks whats to stop me from "holeing" up for 6mths and making countless items. Not only this it gives the wiz. somthing to whine about i.e "You want me to make you boots of springing and striding, you know thats going to cost me Xp". And as for maliciously sundering, stealing, and soaking the players out of there goods, well thats just not my style. Whats the point of minusing the Xp just to make a "boatload of magic" just for the Dm to steal it, why not charge the Xp cost and the wiz will be carful of what he makes and how much.
Oh my games tonite, so i pray to the mighty Ao, knowing the fact that he will not awnser, but i pray anyways that the PdF will be out today.
the only problem with your "no xp" plan is this i had a wiz pretty high lv. and the amount of crap he made, made him so out of balance for the party. one players a 12 lv. ftr and one is a wiz with 20 frikkin wands more potions than you can count and coated in magic. the XP cost is the equator for the wizard. If i was in your game id make a wizard too!
In my game Smenk convinced the PCs to go stop the Triad "becuse i may want a @#$% town, but the @#$% cultists want the whole @#$@ realm". So the PCs are slowly gathering evidence, but my Smenk is too smart to have them gather evidence on him. Smenks gotta know he's got boxes with his mark on it. So he has sent some of his crew to wait and "finish off" the PCs if they should exit the mine. Which would give a reason for Allustan to get his adventures out of Diamond Lake tell he can sort this mess out with his corrupt brother. Leaves a possible showdown between the bro's that the party will never see, Allustan rallying the Heriounites to arrest Smenk, or the party attempting to kill him. The party will determine the outcome.
i've always used Forgotten Realms, but this time, becuse the adventure path is so self contained, i've decided to use the Greyhawk map. None of my players have any idea whats going on? The sum total of there knowledge (meta thinking) is Diamond lake so its working just purfectly. To be honest i don't know much about Greyhawk so it allows me to do what ever i want as well. The reason i chose Greyhawk was one of my players, the wiz., wanted to see a map of the realm so i "yanked out" the Greyhawk maps from the Dungeon Mag. and laid the section out with Diamond Lake on it and said taa daa, they were not too impressed, but i was!
I hate to say it as i was one of the "overloaders", but will the PDF be out soon i hope?
Things work a little differently with APs, though. That's why I was waiting so expectantly for the Overload. I'd hate to have characters suffer Wis/Int effects from using it and then find out in the next installment that it gives them great insights into the secrets of the universe and acts like a Pearl of Wisdom or something like that.
laff true, true!
maybe, just maybe sometimes you have to take things into your own hands and make some of this stuff up your self? I don't think it's Dungeons plan to explain ever finite detail. I assume i'd be wis. loss (maybe a little dex too!)
3 miners are released from Smenks service, these miners have been working to pay off the debt to Smenk. ALL there parents died during the plague out-break years Back. Balabar saw this as an oppertunity to get slave labour and builds a orphanage for the orphans of Diamond Lake, untill they are ready for the mines. 10 years later heros emerge from the mine, although they do not no it yet! A wanna-be monk trained in the city square by the drug-dealing monks,when he was not in the mines working for mere coppers, who's best friend from the mines is an apprentice wiz. to "the smartest man in town". Along with the two is a rogue who has had no formal training, except from the mean streets of Diamond Lake, set off to investigate a local cairn for the wizard Allustan...
There you go, if you read the overload adventure synopsis, you only really have to hold them in town tell the 3rd adventure. WHich it seems you've already done. Now my plan for "the big city" is to make it a confusing as possible with thugs and rogues picking on the "newbies". I may make them do search checks per day to find what there looking for in a quarter part of the city per day. After all these are a "buch of small town hicks" and the "big city" is pretty overwhelming. Hopefully after a few days they'll just want to return anyways, hopefully that is... P.S. I usually run all my games in the Forgotten Realms, but opted for Greyhawk since my players no nothing about it, and i'm free to build the landscape as i see fit. That i imagine will make a difference.
The garrison makes constant patrols in the surrounding region becuse of lizard folk attack. One of my players at 2nd Lv. was hinting to the party that he wanted to get out of this crappy town. So my solution was this; a garrison member hears him say this and he puts in, " Ah ya stupid miner we lost 4 good fighters today to 'dem blasted lizard-men and you wanna trollip to the big city, theres easly a thousand score of the lizard-men out there, have fun ya fool!" And i was prepaired to send as many lizard folk to drive them back or kill them; either way they'll never make the mistake of leaving again. Luckly my players are pretty good at seeing the "Evil DM stare". It should also be noted that normally i play a pretty "go anywhere do anything" kind of game but i explained to my players that this game will be a bit more controlled then there used too. "Think of it more as a story, and that your the main characters."
I cant wait for it too come out, then see the new postin' board with the title "too much hype for what was in overload"! Cuse if you can please 1/2 the people 1/2 the time your doin a fine job!
The skeletons attack and the PCs "spot" 2 cultists run down the hall towards the arena, which predictably they follow. And yes it was a near TPK (cept for the monk and a prostitute NpC make there stabilize saves, what are the odds???) Luckly for my players i put in extra tidbits for extra xp. The players are all about 1 lv. advanced for the encounters and the still almost die all the time. Iz a tricky thing this DMing thing wanna have iconic players and yet slay them all.
gimmie a fat rogue, maybe modeled after Mirt, that would be sweet. Or the bartender from nearly all DnD video games, but of course he'd hafta be rare or uncommon.
meh* ideas-50xp (i.e. going door to door gathering info, usually a lame attempt at xp gathering and i feel like a nice DM on that night.) good ideas-100xp (i.e instead of just attacking the monster why not set up an ambush?) friggin' great ideas-150xp (i.e. dives off the bridge to save an NPC, comes up with an outragious plan that i would have never thaught of.) *Plus all donations or moneys given away (i.e Paladans, monks) each 3gp given= 1xp point.
Abet, gnomes can do the most wonderful things these days. But in reality, (yuck*), i find DMs are the ones who need a total suspension of disbelief, thus the reason DMs are DMs and players are players i guess. Players it seems need less to fufill there imagination and DMs squabble (on message boards or themselves) on the "reailisim" whereas players are more than content to "let a sleeping dog lie." Of course even i have a player who DMs once and a while and hes got the same problem to.
Geeze you guys have a tuff time beliving in a needle when there are people "whipping" lightning from there bare hands, Huh?
Does that mean no AoW overload-overloaded, awww shucks:)
in the DMs guide they give a pay listing i belive its a d4 or d6 in sp. for a days wage plus there craft skill.
First of all i play the Age Of Worms, and its a great start to a most memorable game, but i think i'll put my 2 cents in. I reilize that everyone there @ dungeon puts alot of hard work into the mag. and thanks, but i belive a little foresight would have been nice in this instance. 1st. Waited an extra mth. to release AoW (to get all your ducks in a row, so-to-speak.) 2nd. Put out the dragon with the cottage in it the mth. prevously to AoW, (becuse i, and i assume others, told people they could "fix it up" but had no idea what was involved). 3rd. The overload; i dont know if this was a whim or not, if not should have been out corasponding to the 1st.adventure, if it was a whim then it is what it is. (Although that is one of the reasons i said to release AoW a month later.) 4th.I dont remember what the "posters" name above me was but he mentioned that adding this stuff is not easy or cheap, but in the end these kind of things are to drive up sales because thats what keeps a mag. in busness, subscribers, and any incentive to get someone to "shell-out" 10-20 bucks a mth. for two mags, plus another 20-50 depending if your hunting for a greyhawk mag, or like me, planning to buy the Waterdeep book is not all that much trouble in my mind anywho! But, i'll still keep buying and reading and unfortunatly writing about what i'm buying and reading.
I totally agree wit Leapingshark if your wondering where the bathrooms are you might be missing the point of DnD, but whatever floats your boat i spose.
Okay i admit i "skimmed" the posts and i dont understand what the problem is ive only played the first adventure, (i dont have a subscription so i await it at my local bookshop.) But all my NPCs have survived even Filge. The party knows that Balabar runs the town including the garrison so when the finally got to him they beat him, he gave up. the took some stuff from him, (not his spell book or items within his eyesight), basically the group came to this conclusion that to bring Filge in to the garrison is pointless becuse there owned by Balabar so whats the point? same with the albino orc, no point? the spend there time trying to figure out how to "de- throne" Balabar. then to top it off ive added in some gangs that wander about town using skermish cards for cool NPCs so far the party must watchout for Kullan And The Gang, The Frount Street Boys, Filge, those NPC adventures in the book??? (Which ive named The Grimlocks), and gang of halflings that pickpockets 'bout everything (no name yet). No longstanding NPCs sorry guys i just dont understand??? PS. I think after this my players deserve a "slugfest", bring it on!
All members are orphans, (due to the plague) born in Diamond Lake. All are good friends abet taken a different paths in life
Human,(Nadian) Wizard- Trained by Allustan. Human,(Orin) Rogue/Fighter- Sly, ruff, and tumble, no formal training Human,(Quickblade) Paladan of Herionious- showed the signs of true faith and dedication to the will of the god. Human, (Constance Grace) Rogue- *Party controlled NPC, ex-prostitute lookin to escape Diamond Lake.
I made my party miners working for Smenk, through endentured slavery. Becuse they were all orphans from the plague 19 years ago. So it comes to the last month of the party working off there "paid for", by Smenk childhood. (Smenk errected this temporary orphanage for this reason alone.) Now the party is finally free to explore the world. With 3 Mths. wages.
If you must maybe think about adding a "filler adventure" to bump them to 4th before you send them off to the temple. Or scale the adventure. Nuff said?
please tell me theres an E.T.A. on this thing (hopefully today or tomorrow ???)
So only two players could make it this week, and i didnt want to say "sorry no game cuse theres two of you" and i didnt want to get into the box of flumph without the whole party so what now? So the two Pcs leave the carn and begin to walk back to town when they spot a mine enhterence littered with tools. and the set off into the mine to investigate. I ran "The Burning Plague" off the WOTC site and just dropped the whole poisioning thing. The only addition that i added was the mine belongs to Smenk which now will add all kinds of trouble for the PCs as theve broken into and raided his mine. Ill probaby make them re-emburse Smenk 1000gp for there deed. So besides the XP the players will end up making nothing for there excursion.
Ive been Dming for 5 maybe 6 years now and when i first started Dming heck ya, killin' PCs was my fav-or-ite thing ta do. But after running counless adventures and campaigns i began to find that i liked the storys that were created through the game, and that my player enjoy a character made from scratch way more than from say, 5th Lv. So "fudging" for me ya to about 5th lv or so alot of "unknown fudging happens to help aid the character make it to the point that a raise dead spell or reserection scroll is not totally unatainable. Then my "fudging" takes a dramatic drop as by this point the players should be able to manage without the DMs help. I find that this makes an enjoyable time had by all. And every character becomes memorable. But, and i say but, there is a fine line between to much and not enough. Make the players feel as if your never "fudging", and ya accidents happen.
The only thing I'd like to add is this; Okay most of the time theres not alot of usful information in dragon for DMs but i do buy dragon every month for my players before the game starts and everyone starts showing up i put out "my stack" and always my players begin sorting through the issues looking for this and that, (especially the wizard, just too many cool spells.) My only beef with this months is what the #@&%# is with the 2-3 page ad for "relms of dragons 2 book" i mean cummon isnt there enough ads that that just seems a little over kill. Were some of the writers on summer break or something that you added so much "fluff" for one book???
Yessa got luuv the new stat blocks so much easier to use and the special attack insert is way cool so much easer than sorting through usless feats in combat:)
1. explore the Cairn, to get enough gold to leave the town. But I know once they get hold of that owlbear chick, they will be off to the "Freecity" for that 3000 gp and probably not get into adventure #2? 1. I plan on making the surrounding area plagued with lizardfolk so if the party tries too leave they will be severly punished. Of course Allustan will warn them that they are not ready for the journey. 2. How are different people handling the groups interaction with the town at the end or middle of the adventure? 2. Read my post i "invented bad guys for the PCs to slaughter" 3.do you have the Seekers show up at all. 3. Nope, but super idea! 4.How are you handling the other party in town. 4. i belive 1 and 2 explained this. 5. How are you handling the PC's not going straight for the cult once they find out about rather than go back to the Cairn? 5. Being th DM has benifits such as lieing about a gather info they cant find any info tell, well YOUR ready. 6. In general - how are you handling the all to frequent reststops in Town. I mean if they start selling stuff, and getting upto no good in town while half exploring the Cairn. 6. a couple O' nights in the stockaids and a hefty fine should smarten 'em right up!
Personally myself Ive played with the same group of players for the last 5 years and between us all there must be 30+ years worth of DnD in the group. So "cheezie" tricks rarly work on them and there very methodical now, ie. figured out the rotating crypt and went one click at a time, usually sending the monk to explore becuse he can dash quickly and get out of most jams and back to the party. Oh not to mention were a four man party and yes on Wednesdays we play for approx. 6 hrs, is that long though? Sure dosnt seem like it.
Okeedoke, i like the rest of you am pondering "what should i use as a filler tell the next A.O.W comes out?" Knowing that i am nearly done the Whispering carn and have a couple of sessions tell the next issue ive been forced to build on "The Lake" 1.Allustan hires the party to retrieve Constance Grace and the folder of "secrets" from the Feral Dog. Ive taken a bit of a twist with my Allustan (yes he loves his brother and will not openly attack him but finds his methods deplorable, so has hid Grace in "the Dog" and sends the party to get her, but a gang known as "The Frount Street Boys" is watching the tavern.
2.Then after defeating or sneaking out grace, the party sets off for Allustans but during the walk Grace pulls down a poster and sees a face on a wanted poster that she knows intamitly (Constance being a call girl an all). And remembers that he said he was staying in a hovel of a tavern down by the docks. 3. Then i plan on running A Box Of Flumph i dont think ill modify it too much as i want the xp to remain low for the next adventure path. (Just 'cuse "the Flumph" looks too good and this is a perfect oppertunity to run it with no lingering effects.)
The pull out map to the city is alrite but having it in the book would be fine enough becuse i find that the city maps are rarly used. What i'd like to see is some of the "cooler" location maps ie; map of the main lv. of the Feral Dog, the observatory, or even that market in the market square of Diamond lake would be AWSOME, i can just picture a huge gang fight in the middle of town, (maybe for the final showdown with Kurgan and "the boys." Please give this some thaught O' Wiz-O Guys, before you give me a little map of the foothills of the Twilight Monastary, when the monastary would be much, much cooler.
Damn, had i noticed this thread i wouldnt of started a new one anywho look to starting the Age Of Worms.
Ya i just described it as abot a 25x25 room with a collapsed second level with more open sky than roof. But it seems to be a nice place to re-coup if needed. (Some times maps are only used for the DM, players rarly care what the temp. hold-up looks like.) But if there attacked there or plan on building it the you ban "Burn that bridge when you get there!"
No not family land, (laff or at least i don't think so, but that may change.) I just wanted to give the players a feeling of destitute-ness. You always start with a bunch of gold through the hand book so i wanted the total effect of being flat broke and being under someone elses thumb (Smenk) would unite the party "off the bat". Which it did (two of the players lost there gold in the Feral Dog the first night). Forcing them to do "bout anything to earn more cash. It was funny to watch them when the figured out they may have to sleep in the alley, but when they got treasure in the Carn so were so happy to stay at the Coaster. "Look ma um on top of the world." Brings a tear to an Evil DMs eye.
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