GM Haladir's I6: Castle Ravenloft (Inactive)

Game Master Haladir

Yeah, take your time. I've been kind of busy myself which is why my posting slipped. Hopefully after GenCon I'll be more able to focus on this.

No worries at all GM, you've got loads on - I am enjoying this classic module so I'm more than happy to hang around and wait for you to return when you feel able.

Hi, folks.

I wanted to give you another update:

My father died last week. His funeral was Tuesday. I've been in my old home town the past week, helping my mother with the arrangements, and just offering moral support. I'm back home now.

My father was a serious pack-rat, much to my mother's chagrin. I knew that he was, but I hadn't realized the extent of it-- He wasn't quite a hoarder, but it's close. Several rooms of my childhood home are pretty much haphazardly jammed with a whole lot of stuff: a mix of brand-new, unopened, often expensive stuff and yard-sale "bargains" that he intended to fix up and resell but never got around to. (For example, I'm typing this on a brand-new, top-of-the-line Samsung laptop he bought in January and never even took out of the box. I found the laptop box under an old milk crate full of second-hand snowblower parts.)

For the foreseeable future, I'm going to be continuing to spend my weekends heading back-and-forth from central New York State to New Hampshire to help my mom sort through all this stuff and figure out what to do with it all. Complicating matters is that I have three step-siblings that I don't know particularly well (they all live in Florida), and for the sake of not alienating anyone, I need to be sure that I don't sell or give away anything that they want. (I'm keeping that laptop, BTW.)

So...what does this mean for the game? Not sure. I don't want to go on an official hiatus, but I'm not sure how much time and effort I'll be able to put in at this time. Once everything reaches a new state of equilibrium, I should have a better idea.

Thanks so much for bearing with me.

I'm so sorry for your loss Haladir. Please take all the time you need and don't worry about the game; we will be here when and if you find yourself able to pick it up again at some point. Until then, you and your family will be in my prayers.

Sorry for your loss. Take your time. We'll be here.

Sorry for your loss. :-(

I'll just echo what the other folks have said, really sorry to her about your loss - in the grand scheme of things, this game is not something you need to be worrying about right now... if and when you are ready again, I'm sure we'll all be here - but until then, look after yourself and your family.

I'm very sorry to about the passing of your father. Please take all the time that you need.

Can't say it any better than the others. We'll be here when you're ready.

Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone!

I think I'm back now.

Given other things going on in my life, I'm going to shoot for daily posts again, but I'll consider it a success if I can make 4-5 posts in a week.

New Rules...?

I picked up a copy of Horror Adventures, and am definitely going to use some of the new rules from that book in this game.

Right off the bat, I know that I want to use the revised fear rules for this game. This increases the number of states of fear from three levels (Shaken, Frightened, Panicked) to seven states of fear (Spooked, Shaken, Scared, Frightened, Panicked, Terrified, Horrified).

Horror Adventures hasn't yet been published to the PRD, and it's still so new that I'm not finding the rules reprinted on either Archives of Nethys or d20PFSRD.com.

I'll cut-and-paste the rules sometime soon to our campaign site on Obsidian Portal.

A related change I'm considering from the book is a suggestion that the class ability "Immune to Fear" be changed to "Fear Resistance." (Theodora: You're the only PC in this game with that class feature. I'll have a conversation with you via PM to go over how that would work and to get your feedback on what I'm thinking.)

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things as you're able :)

Also the updated fear rules sound cool to me; I'd definitely appreciate some copy & paste since I've not picked up a copy yet (and probably won't for a time).

I've got a reproduction of the revised fear effects up on the campaign wiki:

Revised Fear rules from Horror Adventures.

Given that fear is kind of a big thing in a Gothic horror game, I would propose making the following change to characters who are immune to fear:

RE: New Fear Rules

I have to admit, I have some concerns about this rule change. What benefit does this change bring to the game? On the face of things, it just appears to make things more complicated and difficult for the PC's.

Also, having one of my character's class abilities weakened is not something I'd prefer. It makes sense to me from a flavor aspect for a paladin to immune to fear. Furthermore, the +4 bonus to Fear is what she gives her companions within 10 feet already. Does she lose that ability? Although it does not matter in this case, how does this interact with Mercies, specifically the one that removes the Shaken condition?

I might be able to get on board with the loss of fear immunity if the bonus against Fear is doubled to +8 or each fear save allows for a reroll, keep the highest. Otherwise, it just feels like my character is being weakened to make the game more difficult without adding any extra enjoyment.

I'll read the full section when I get home. Then I can respond intelligently.

I'm guessing that the desired effect is to increase the atmosphere and sense of dread that's implied to be present when playing in the Ravenloft setting rather than out of any desire to maliciously mess with the PCs.

As to whether or not they should be implemented for this game, I'm neutral. While I personally wouldn't mind, I'm also happy to continue as-is if everyone else would prefer not to use them. If we do implement them then I can agree that some further hammering out on how it would affect PCs like Theodora would be in order. Paladins being courageous in face of danger and horrors that send other people screaming is a rather thematic part of the class, so I can see where she's coming from.

Wes Schneider, Paizo's biggest aficionado of horror gaming, ran a seminar on horror gaming at this year's Paizocon. (I heard it on the excellent "Know Direction Podcast.") He talked a bit about using fear rules to simulate the kind of things that happen to the characters in horror movies. (Being jumpy, running away screaming, hiding, morbid fascination, etc.) He said he always thought that, being a ruleset for heroic gaming, the 3.5 OGL rules for fear (which PF never modified) didn't do a particularly good job of what he wanted for horror scenes. Thus, expanding the state of fear from three levels to seven.

Of course, he went on to say that Pathfinder remains at its core a heroic gaming system; while the new rules from Horror Adventures introduce game mechanics to make horror scenes more hortific, he prefers other game systems for pure horror gaming. (E.g. Dread, Call of Cthulhu )

Wes wrote a sidebar in the Fear section of Horror Adventures about paladins and other characters that are completely immune to fear. He suggested that in a hortor game, where fear becomes a major factor in gameplay, fear immunity can become an unbalancingly huge advantage.

That said, these rules do make things more complicated. Obviously, this would be the first time I've ever used them. Like all new subsystems, I am not sure whether the new rules will make the gameplay/storytelling more fun, or if it does, whether it will be worth the extra bookkeeping.

I'm still noodling about what, if anything, to do with fear immunity. I don't want to take away a class ability or nerf it into uselessness. At the same time, being immune to one of the major themes of the game also serms problematic. Of course, I hadn't really thought of that until I heard the seminar and read the book. So, I'm kind of torn here.

Thoughts?

Here's a stab at an alternate Aura of Courage paladin class ability for horror gaming. This is for discussion purposes only at this time...

Aura of Courage (Su): At 3rd level, a paladin becomes resistant to fear, and this aura of courage also affects nearby allies. The paladin gains a +4 [untyped] bonus on all saving throws against fear. When under a fear effect, she treats the level of fear as if it were two levels lower. (This means a paladin ignores all effects of the Spooked and Shaken conditions.) Each ally within 10 feet of her gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions only while the paladin is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.

Now that I've been thinking about this a bit (it's been a slow morning at work), I'm second-guessing myself...

The bonus already stacks with Divine Grace... Should the bonus to fear effects also scale up with level? If so, should the bonus to nearby allies also scale up?

If the paladin should become affected by a fear effect, does the aura of courage drop? Or, should it drop only if she reaches a particular threshhold (i.e. Terrified, which the paladin would treat as Frightened?)

I'm starting to think that this whole exercise is rapidly becoming more complex than it's worth. I may try running these rules as an experiment in another setting, but for now, let's just return to the standard rules all around.

--Hal

Thanks for explaining the thought process behind the change, that makes more sense now. It's an interesting idea, but obviously it still needs some adjustments for some classes and spells. These might also make things more difficult for occult spellcasters who cast spells with emotion components, as longer lasting fear effects would effectively shut them down.

Hey, folks.

I know I just restarted the game, but tomorrow I'm flying out to Los Angeles for a few days. After tonight, I will likely not be posting again until Monday. (I've never been to California before-- I'm really looking forward to this trip!)

I also wasn't expecting you to head up to the third floor so soon, and hadn't prepared the Player's Map yet. I'll get that up as soon as I can.

Just wanted to let folks know I was still around. I'll try and get a post up ASAP, I've just been kinda generally drained lately.

Good to hear from you :-)

I agree, glad you're still with us! I understand the 'drained' feeling so hang in there and post when you feel up to it :)

I totally understand, Verran! Glad to have you back!

Sorry that posting has been a bit slow. I'm finding that I frequently don't have time to update both of the games I'm GMing on the same day, and have to cycle them.

Sorry it's been so long, but I've finally kicked the bug I've been dealing with and will post shortly :)

Yay! Welcome back, Verran!

Yeah, busyness (including a mini-con and 2 5-star tables) + sinus infection in the side of my head that I normally sleep on + other physical stuff = tired Michael :)

Huzzah! Welcome back :)

Just a heads-up. I am going to be at a con tomorrow through Monday. Please bot me as necessary.

Sorry for disappearing.

I'd been making my GM posts on my lunch hour, but I haven't been taking a lunch break for a couple of weeks due to deadlines. My personal life has gotten really busy, and I just don't have time to make long GM posts after work.

I think things are quieting down at work, and I hope to be able to get back into a (mostly) daily posting routine.

Thanks for bearing with me!

Just a reminder about how I'm interpreting the unchained afflictions rules...

The spells neutralize poison and remove disease will automatically end the poison or disease effect itself, and will also restore the subject to Healthy status.

Lesser restoration will not remove the poison or disease effect if it's still ongioing, but will improve the subject's status by one step toward Healthy.

Restoration works as lesser restoration, except that it moves the subject's status all the way to Healthy.

Verran and Petracleus are still fatigued from Strahd's necormancy, and Countessa and Ireena are still suffering from lingering effects of spider venom...

I'll get a gameplay post up later this afternoon.

Out of interest, with all the stuff that is being used from the newer books on the other side, is there any intention that when/if we level up we might start getting access to some of the options meant to work with them?

Verran: A fair question!

My goal for this adventure was to attempt to recreate the feel of an old-school AD&D module using the modern Pathfinder ruleset. To that end, I thought that restricting character options to the Core Rulebook would be the best way to keep the "old school" feel. And since this module was an attempt to run Gothic horror game... one aspect of horror is limiting the protagonists' options.

I'm using the unchained afflictions rules, as I think they up the horror potential for a game like this. I'm not aware of anything in Pathfinder Unchained that really uses them other than the rules themselves.

I am using haunts, pretty much as per the GameMastery Guide. Obviously, those aren't part of the original AD&D experience. Hoewever, I don't really consider haunts to be a new element of Pathfinder, as they have been with the game since the beginning... actually before the beginning: They were introduced for 3.5 in Pathfinder #2: The SKinsaw Murders two years before the PFRPG was even published. The purpose of haunts is to tell backstory in a manner that engages the PCs...

I toyed with the updated fear rules from Horror Adventures, but I think at this time they increase complexity without much added benefit, so I have withdrawn that proposal.

There may be other things from Horror Adventures that I'll be incorporating... I don't think it will be too much of a spoiler to say that the corruption rules might come into play, especially since you're up against a vampire. The original Ravenloft module did break/modify existing AD&D rules about vampires, so adding corruption rules doesn't in my opinion break the spirit of the "Core Only" game... and I did say at the outset that NPCs might be using character options not available to PCs. (Opening the curtain a little... I'll say for the record that Madame Eva is a witch with the Cartomancer archetype. It just fits the character.)

As much as possible, though, I'm keeping NPCs to using spells from the Core Rulebook, and whenever possible I'm keeping spell options to the Pathfinder versions of spells from the AD&D Player's Handbook.

That said, the point of a game is to have fun. If you're not having fun with this, please let me know what's grating on you so that I can adjust things. (I acknowledge that I'm having trouble with pacing due to interference from life events...)

What non-Core options did you have your eye on?

To be honest, I don't have specific things in mind because I haven't really researched them. I do know there are ways of dealing with haunts in various books though. And actually, that's what's been irking me, the inability to detect or deal with the haunts before or after despite there being both a rules mechanism for doing so and there being two party members with ready means to do so. I've even prompted this in play a couple times, but such was deflected. I get the feel you're going for, but I think the playing field is a bit too tilted and it's really killing my vibe for the game.

To be honest, I don't have specific things in mind because I haven't really researched them. I do know there are ways of dealing with haunts in various books though. And actually, that's what's been irking me, the inability to detect or deal with the haunts before or after despite there being both a rules mechanism for doing so and there being two party members with ready means to do so. I've even prompted this in play a couple times, but such was deflected. I get the feel you're going for, but I think the playing field is a bit too tilted and it's really killing my vibe for the game.

As I said, I'm running haunts pretty much straight out of the standard rules from the GMG.

To summarize the mechanics: haunts act on initiative count 10 on a surprise round; there's a Perception DC to detect them before they manifest. A successful check usually gives some kind of clue about the nature of the haunt. In order to try to destroy haunts before they have their effect, you generally have to be able to act before them in the surprise round. Positive energy and holy water does normal damage as if the haunt was incorporeal undead. Some haunts are also affected by other attack forms; there's usually a very big hint as to what that might be in how the haunt manifests. (e.g. a haunt that manifests in flames is probably also subject to cold- and water-based attacks...)

When a haunt manifests, it has a magical trap-like effect, but itss main use as an encounter is to provide some kind of story information to the PCs. Haunts are also supposed to be creepy and mysterious and scary. Mechanically, part of what makes haunts scary is that they are difficult to interact with before they manifest. Standard haunts manifest then go dormant until their reset time has passed; persistent haunts continue to do stuff for some number of rounds, depending on the spell effect the specific haunt mechanic is based upon.

There are magic items that affect haunts or allow you to interact with them in other ways... I am indeed planning for you to find one or more of these in your exploration of the castle.

A spell like detect undead would certainly reveal the presence of a haunt in range before (or after) it manifests...

Oh, and sorry to everyone for the slow place. Life keeps interfering with my ability to keep up with my online games on a daily basis.

No worries GM, thanks for checking in when you can!

(No real opinions either way re: haunts but I do think it will be nice when/if we find some of those magic items!)

Hey guys.

It's been kind of a depressing week for me, and I just haven't had it in me to game.

On Tuesday, one of my best friends from college went to the doctor for a sudden rash of severe headaches, and learned he had a stage IV malignant brain tumor the size of a tangerine. He told me on Wednesday, and on Thursday, he underwent a 14-hour brain surgery to remove the cancer. He's now in the ICU and still in an induced coma. His husband has been posting updates to one of those illness blogs. They have two kids, age eight and six.

It's hard to run a horror game when real life is scarier than fantasy vampires.

Thanks for understanding.

No worries GM; I'll be keeping you, your friend, and his family in my prayers.

Agreed, Haladir. Be safe, and here's hoping for a swift recovery for your friend!

Friends and Family always come first GM, here's hoping that the surgery was a success and that a positive prognosis is on the way... be there for your friends, we'll be here whenever you are ready to play again.

Hey, folks.

I'm planning to resume the game tonight.

My friend is doing as well as can be expeced in this situation. He's awake and alert, and doesn't seem to have any obvious cognitive impairment due to either the tumor or the surgery.

Plus, I need to take my mind off of this dumpster fire of an election. It's really stressing me out!

Glad to hear your friend is doing well and I hope he continues to improve!

Okay... my friend is still recovering (and is, thankfully, not reliant on Obamacare), and I've had my Big Sad regarding the election, so...

ON WITH THE GAME!!

I don't normally plug these things, but there is a Humble Bundle of Pathfinder products, sponsored by Frog God Games, Kobold Press, and Green Ronin. $417 of digital books can be yours for a minimum $15 donation. It includes Rappan Athuk, Freeport: City of Adventure, Deep Magic, and a bunch of other books that are all well-worth their cover prices.

I already owned about 10 of the titles in the bundle, but I bought it anyway!

Hey, folks.

Paizo user Kobold Cleaver started an AMA thread for me in the "Off-Topic Discussions" section, and I have to confess that I used my spare time this afternoon to post there instead of here.

I'm super-busy for the rest of the night, and probably won't be posting the next round of combat until tomorrow.

Sorry!

On a related note, I'm heading down to my in-laws Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll try to get a post or two while I'm away, but I can't make any guarantees about it.

Happy Thanksgiving for all the U.S. folks and Happy Thursday for everyone! :)

(Gameplay post a bit later, hehe.)

Sorry, no update today. I spent my lunch hour doing some "Cyber Monday" Christmas shopping. My VTT-based D&D 5e game is meeting tonight, and I am unlikely to be able to post this eventing. Hopefully tomorrow!