Bookmarked it. I'll look forward to future posts. The first doesn't disappoint. It makes me wonder though, if your lunches are so jam-packed with creative enterprise, how much world-bending work you must accomplish throughout the day. I mean, you created an entire region in, what? Half of an hour? What do you do all day, break secret codes using only your brain and a pocket calculator?
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Ha! Thanks for the props. But my job is exceptionally dull. So I have ideas percolating in the back of my mind all day. I want to develop my discipline a little more and so expanding the ideas in my napkin doodles is a good way of doing that.
In any case now that I have a follower I'll have to post regularly in order to feed the masses :-)
Thanks for bookmarking Mendedwall12. It's appreciated.
Mostly he just watches re runs of my little pony: friendship is magic.
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Thanks Mikaze! Appreciate it.
Now for Post 2: Zooming in on Haighwall
Another Mapkin I drew on my lunchbreak, as always comments re appreciated. :)
Brilliant. With the in depth detail of a bustling city, placed firmly in the original region you created, you've set up a really intriguing set of possible campaign hooks, along with multiple adventure locations all in one city. I already envisioned various and sundry quests and dungeon crawls precipitated by various of the fighting powers in the city. Great work. When my current campaigns finish, I might be actually using this region as a starting point for the next set of adventures. Of course I'll need you to transfer the mapkins to full-color, rich-graphic PDF files so I can print them off for the players. :P
Also I LOVE Adventure Time, that show is sadistically out of the regular cartoon box.
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As promised (albeit a little late): The Rat Thing Tunnels Part 2 The Startling Conclusion. (Rooms 5 - 8).
I hope y'all get a kick out of this quick free adventure I whipped up and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
As promised (albeit a little late): The Rat Thing Tunnels Part 2 The Startling Conclusion. (Rooms 5 - 8).
I hope y'all get a kick out of this quick free adventure I whipped up and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Great stuff. Really creative, and yet remains very realistic (if you can use that word in a fantasy setting). The sequence is well designed, and you've accounted for changes in character reactions to things. I especially like the campaign seeds at the end. I'm guessing you could easily turn this region/town/adventure into a long-running adventure path with little problem. Seeing as you've so quickly and creatively invented so much in so short a time. You might want to think about it, and maybe send off a draft to one of the 3PPs. I can tell you that I would absolutely drop a little coin on a lengthy campaign bundle with these kinds of creative yet realistic elements. Of course, as stated previously, you'll really have to take those mapkins and turn them into properly detailed and graphically pleasing PDFs. :D
Dude this is awesome! Dotting for reference.
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Thanks. I understand that a lot of prefab adventures don't take into account the "on alert" phase of a dungeon. It's rare that my PCs face a monster or NPC that won't flee if brought low, or a BBEG that won't send a force of monsters to assault PCs foolish enough to rest in a dungeon. When I was a newer GM I disliked "wandering monster" tables, but really they add a sense of dynamism to a dungeon.
In any case next week I'll take a break from the mapkins, and detail some NPCs for the players to befriend or rival.
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What? No kind words for the Explodaphant? I'm shocked!
That's okay. Tonight's blog is all about how to handle NPC followers, this might be of interest to anyone running a Jade Regent or Serpent's Skull AP game trying to find a way for the NPCs to take a bigger role.
This is the method I use in Kingmaker to make the NPC council members and citizens integral to the PC's interactions with the world. So the first in my "Supporting Cast" series:
Supporting Cast Part 1: NPC Cards and the Dwarven Florist.
As always I thrive on feedback, be vocal! I want to hear what you think.
I thought the explodaphants were pretty awesome. I couldn't help imagine a herd of them blowing up a foolish dragon. They seem like they would work out great around Geb or something.
Also that bit on party NPCs and how to handle them was pretty useful.
Thanks for the feedback Ragnarok. The Explodaphant is one of those silly over-the-top ideas that you see in old school D&D, like the mimic or the cave fisher, where it seems to evolve specifically to mess with adventurers.
Of course at some point I'll have to write up the Explodocus!
The Explodaphant would seem to have a honeybee type strategy: One dies in the process of killing its enemy to protect the larger population. This suggests the existence of Explodaphant hives...
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Hi y'all. Tonight's topic is a little more controversial than last week's and has been tackled before. Tonight in my "Supporting Cast" article series I explore:
As always I love your feedback, and am totally thrilled to have you tell your friends. So light some candles and set out the fancy napkins, because we're talking about love.
As a male player with a male dm, I find it hard to get my characters into romantic subplots (awkwardness / no one wants to deal with it). Sex though, sex is apparently easy resulting in a PC who could be seen as a play boy without actually trying to be.
As a male player with a male dm, I find it hard to get my characters into romantic subplots (awkwardness / no one wants to deal with it). Sex though, sex is apparently easy resulting in a PC who could be seen as a play boy without actually trying to be.
I think if any characters have casual, friends-with-benefits type relationships with the same NPC more than 2 or 3 times, they should definitely have to make will saves to avoid developing emotional attachments. On second thought, maybe that's an alignment issue...
More seriously, I like the idea of romance in RPGs, but if you try to railroad players into it, your game will become uncomfortable. As I remember 1E GURPS (last time I really looked at the system) had romantic themed advantages and disadvantages; Blue Rose seemed more a "girly reskin" than a very functional rules for social interaction and/or romance; the Jade Regent player's guide system looked functional, if a bit simple.
tl;dr: I guess I'm saying, could be fun, but that way lies madness; probably too late to help the inventor of the Explodaphant, though :P
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As a male player with a male dm, I find it hard to get my characters into romantic subplots (awkwardness / no one wants to deal with it). Sex though, sex is apparently easy resulting in a PC who could be seen as a play boy without actually trying to be.
An interesting dilemma, and one I meant to touch on in this blog, but cut die to forgetfulness and not wanting to make it too long.
As always step 1- is talk to the GM, tell him you want your character to be a romantic lead rather than a lothario. If the GM says he's not really comfortable with that see if you can work out a compromise. Options include:
1- Asking the GM for a romance quest line to win the heart of your lady fair. The GM then only needs to add an establishment subquest, complication quest and go with a happily ever after ending. This is a game after all so it's valid to create a romance you can "win".
2- Ask the GM if you can declare your love for an NPC you can never have. A knight in love with his lords lady, or Quasimodo's love for Esmeralda. In that case you can interact with such an NPC (be protective and awkward) without actually making the GM change up the interactions too much.
3- Ask the GM to read my article particularly in the area about finding a comfort zone. Sticking with 3rd person statements can relieve a lot of awkwardness.
Hope that helps.
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March of Evil Part I: The Nemesis
This month I'm delving into everything Evil to get GMs and Players prepared for the Way of the Wicked Campaign and Skull and Shackles. So get reading and get discussing, I'd love to hear your opinions on this expanding card-rule and on how you handle the evil in your own campaigns.
Interesting bit on the nemesis. I don't know if I'll use it though, it sounds like it would require a group that's okay with a particular PC being the star attraction.
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March of Evil III: Interlude... of eeevil
I promised a stat block and instead threw together an encounter because I've been working overtime. Enjoy. Discuss. All that jazz.
Nice little encounter, Dudemeister. I like the use of terrain and disease, but my absolute favorite is picturing the reaction to the PCs showing up at the money-changer's with 50gp worth of gold and silver teeth. RP opportunity!
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Nice little encounter, Dudemeister. I like the use of terrain and disease, but my absolute favorite is picturing the reaction to the PCs showing up at the money-changer's with 50gp worth of gold and silver teeth. RP opportunity!
Thanks, I firmly believe treasure should tell a story, as much as an encounter does. Often times players won't stop to talk to the bad guys, particularly monstrous ones, so the treasure is a way of adding narrative to an encounter or plot hooks for future encounters. In this case: giving the PCs a hint as to the extent of the evil at the Faringen hunting lodge.