Its "A" Dungeon, Too: The Second Chance (Inactive)

Game Master Terquem

There we go. most recent post edited to reflect the fact of our newest door being a portcullis.
Roll away oh preserved purveyor of percolated puissance.

I'm hoping for a dragon. Perhaps we can challenge him to a game of backgammon rather than him eating our faces.

Dragon's like bacon. That would work.

D20s: 5d20 ⇒ (13, 9, 11, 3, 14) = 50
D100: 1d100 ⇒ 39

Beyond portcullis is A ROOM! 20x20 containing: A Monster and a TREASURE!

Monster a CR 7 group of humanoids.

Bah that isn't a dragon.
Still though, hooray. Monsters to loot and treasure to kill.

I'm unsure if it will matter but did you add in the -2 on the monster CR dice roll on account of us being in a dungeon level lower than our collective level average?
We are on DL 6 and are a L5 party.
Don't know if that will change much.

Didn't add the minus 2 but isn't DL 6 higher than APL5?

Yes I think because of your groups daring do mentality, forging deeper into the dungeon, you actually have a CR 8 encounter there

And as it is a Group of Humanoids, we have a large selection. I may need to add a sub table to Appendix "C" to help narrow down the Humanoid Type.

I believe this is the list of available Humanoids

boggard, bugbear, cloud giant, cyclops, dark creeper, dark stalker, derro, drow, drow noble, duergar, ettin, fire giant, frost giant, gnoll, goblin, hill giant, hobgoblin, kobold, lizardfolk, merfolk, ogre, orc, stone giant, storm giant, svirfneblin, tengu, troglodyte, troll, wererat, werewolf

*shrug*

Every type of Giant is a humanoid. There is like eleventy billion of those in every rainbow shade or elemental flavor.

A group of half-dragon ogres plucking banjos and arguing about the best way to cook bacon and/or if angel tears are good marinade springs to mind.

Assuming we can survive the fight it might actually be quite the boon for us.
As apparently this is a thing.

Note: Special Monsters and Guarded Treasures
Some Treasures, when they are indicated with a Monster Encounter, should be larger (at the discretion of the GM). For example, a Dragon and a Treasure together would indicate, possibly, a Dragon Horde. Generally, if the Encounter CR is 3 higher than the APL, a larger Treasure may be called for, roll three times on the table, and take the highest two rolls.

EDIT:
Oh were-creatures. Were-wombats. the best kind of bestial transformation.

That looks like a pretty good list, though I think some of them are over our CR for this one, especially since it's a group.

I'll try to get a post up today with some sort of monster group in the room beyond the portcullis.

I'd like to also point out that I am always looking to improve the Appendix "A" document, so if you see something there that doesn't make sense, seems too wordy, or is difficult to follow logically, please tell me

If I think of something I'll make sure to let you know.

Have at thee, vile wooden portullililiilillliililili--i

!

Srsly, who makes portuluseses out of wood anyway? Wouldn't that be a "gate"??

A gate with holes, yes.

*pffft* don't be daft, a gate swings, while all Portculusessi lift from the bottom

Treasure?

Roll 1: 1d20 ⇒ 10
Roll 2: 1d20 ⇒ 6
Roll 3: 1d20 ⇒ 15

First there is a treasure worth 2500 gpv (no magic items)
and a treasure worth 12500 gpv, also no treasure, but are their Loot-able Corpses here?

Chance for Loot-able Corpse?: 1d20 ⇒ 16

There are Loot-able corpses in that room

How Many?: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Let's get back to that treasure
Treasure #1 is contained in: 1d20 ⇒ 9
Small coffers

Treasure #2 is contained in: 1d20 ⇒ 3
Bags

Corpse Loot
#1: 1d20 ⇒ 14
#2: 1d20 ⇒ 14
#3: 1d20 ⇒ 16
#4: 1d20 ⇒ 7

Oh boy, corpse loot. Free money and a snack.

Each character receives

1200 experience points for avoiding the Poison Gas trap

There is no such thing as “faster” in play by post gaming…
Also, lifting the gate will give you access to the room beyond, but someone with the right strength will have to keep it open, or it will need to be “spiked” open to keep it up. A Wooden Portcullis, requires a Strength 25 to lift to the open state. A spike, or other tool driven into the grove after the Portcullis is up will keep it up

Y'know one of the things that I really loved about Diablo 2? It was the attention to little details that they gave. The little bugs scurrying around your feet, the fine lines around buildings that you'll never even see, and even the main big ally, the angel Tyreal, had an historically accurate name.

It's canon that most of the angels of lore have a name that ends in "A-E-L". Like Michael, and Raphael. (The other well-known one is supposedly spelled Gabriel, but the pattern is similar.)

Hence, I was tickled when I saw the inspiration on the internet for this character, Imrael.

Jus' sayin'. =)

I enjoyed the cow level.

Ael and iel are commonly used in angelic names, if I recall correctly this would be because those suffixes mean something like "Of god"

On the topic of cows I'm fairly sure Ruul just rendered that mook into custard. Lets hope hes in a position where someone provokes the bull before the rest flee.

A surprise Mother's Day get-a-way has taken me away from computers until Tuesday, sorry for the delay.

Hey guys. Here I am again.
Mental illness has just spiraled out of control :(
I am afraid that I will have to take an indefinite break.
Really sad, but I did enjoy our bacon wombat and too-good-to-stay-undead-guy and my sauve gorilla :)
Maybe in the future, but I have to say goodbye. Thanks for the great game, and pray for me :'(

Thanks for the update and I wish you the best.
I shall certainly miss the semi-threatening innocence beast had. The amusing events waiting to happen later as he grasped the idea that meat tasted good and tofutee was exceptionally tasty meat.

I was able to get two game maps updated last night, but ran out of time before I could get this one. Sorry. I will try to hit it tonight

No worries, at the moment I'm attempting to bore holes into the back of Bud's neck over the internet so he posts an action.
*ominous latin chanting*
Either it works or I summon Cthullu or something. Should be interesting either way.

this map is not interactive (you cannot move yourself). I am using interactive maps for some other games, they are a bit harder for me to create, but once they are built they are easier to use.

I'll see if I can find an easier way to make interactive maps for this game so that you can move your own tokens.

Well here I am apologizing again. I am headed to Boise again, a four hour drive, and will be back Sunday. I had wanted to get all the games updated today, but couldn't get the time. Sorry everyone.

I hope to be back with some updates Sunday Night.

Have a safe drive.

Each character receives

1000 experience points

For defeating the Derro troup

It's times like this when I get very confused. I obviously don't know what I'm doing.

The characters in this party are 5th level

Their To Hit Bonus average is +15

CR 5 monsters have an average of 17-20 AC

this party needs a 3-5+ to hit their opponents.

That makes no sense to me.

In all fairness, don't be hard on yourself. There are a few things going on that are outside the basic SRD.
For starts, I think a few of us took advantage of the liberal attribute points that can come with customized races.

Also, our base to-hit bonus is mostly +10(+4-5 attribute, +2-3 BAB, +1-2 weapon), which seems to even out and be a 10+ vs AC 20, which is as it should be.

But it looks like many of us are veteran players that know how to get some situational advantages. Ruul +2 with kill, I was able to buff Bull str and the warpriest has a siiick Swift-action economy. And the Bacon-thing gets bonuses to...bacon. (I'm sorry, I can't keep track of everything that crazy-ass plant is doing. =)

Yeah, what he said.

Our attack bonuses are all in the +10 or +11 range. We've just all got a buff or two going on that bumped that higher.

When I put together the first "Its A Dungeon" I sort of asked the players to, you know, not customize their characters "too well" because it is a lot easier on me to just pull monsters right out of the PRD

But I think a good GM in any Pathfinder campaign has got to be smart enough to customize monsters as well as the players customize their characters otherwise the number disparity just gets ridiculous.

This group is fine. The characters are a bit more powerful than I understand at times, but I'll get by just fine.

Ding.

Do we get Xp for the loot too once we count it all up or now for this roundup?

When I get it all sorted,
Yes

So it looks like from this room we have:
2500gp in small coffers
12500 gp in bags.

Corpse loot of as yet to be determined value.

Shortswords, leather armor, crossbows and poison vials from the dead Derro.
Also snacks.

It doesn't look like we rolled for it but would it be correct to assume that this room is a dead-end?
Seems like the Derro might have ran the other way if there had been a path. They are not exactly the type of creature to stand and fight unless they absolutely have to.

Would it make sense to roll to see if there is a secret door around here?

The room was never checked for exits, but lets go with none, and that means we can check each wall for a secret door (that's 3 walls) a roll of 1 on a d6 indicates a secret door

Secret Door?: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 2) = 10

I'll try to get the loot sorted out today.

Take your time, doubtless we shall be around.
A shame there are no secret doors though. Those are always the best kind of doors.

Once we get the treasure sorted out I guess we take one of the paths through the door on the other side of the hallway from the portcullis.

We have two paths to take on that.
Would it make sense to get the rolls done for our next direction done? Or would you prefer we wait until you've had a chance to iron out our loot totals first?

There is also the option of continuing to the south.

Somehow I missed that as an option.

I am experiencing extreme self criticism over my attempts to create a working system for generating Loot. I thought I had a good set of tables, hated them, reworked them this weekend, hated the new ones.

It seems there is no simple way to generate loot that satisfies me.

So until I get my head straightened out

The four bodies discovered have

2 suits of leather Armor, 1 chainmail shirt, three back packs with a total of 100 feet of rope, nine torches, 15 spikes, 2 hammers, three pints of oil, and the following weapons

1 warhammer
4 daggers
1 long sword
1 short bow, with 9 arrows
1 light crossbow with 12 bolts
1 MW iron shod staff

Each character receives

4000 experience points for treasure and loot found

And finally. Look for there to be a shift in this game, here is my explanation by way of apology

This "loot challenge" idea seemed good, when I was on cold medication, with a fever, and watching old episodes of Space 1999

But I feel it is not practical, difficult to manage, and without an actual "other team" to be in competition with, pointless.

So a change is coming. If you want to drop out after I introduce the change, that will be fine, but otherwise you can stick around and see what happens next.

Bud's not going anywhere, though he may change his name to America for the summer. Unfortunately for you, and Tofutee, you're stuck with me.

Since the loot is for a competition, would it be okay if just one of us kept track of it? It seems a bit superfluous to divy up until the end. (Do we get to keep it? Or is this question, itself, now superfluous since everything might change? =)

Also, there's no way I'm dooping. My character is just too awesome. This could be: "Let's Stack Boxes" and I'd stick around. ^_^

*grumble, grumble, durph, murfh*

Ideas being considered
let's stack boxes
convert to traveller campaign
Run classic D&D module for 5th to 8th level characters

Okay so that was a good guess, but I'm thinking of doing something else

*teehee*

Of note, how exactly do you think this is doing poorly?

My thoughts (for the all of nothing that they are worth):
1) Instead of it being fully, truly, totally player-rolls-dice random, why not make the rolls yourself. Like, as in, IRL, with dice on a table. If you get a roll you don't like (like a dead end or an immediate drop) just throw that out and roll again. Then we just go through this maze you've created.

The great part is that if it doesn't make sense, we can't say "Hey! This doesn't make sense!" because you can be all "Well, duh, it's random."

2) You can even do that with encounters too.

3) Hence, the whole thing is "random" but with a mild polishing so it's not frustratingly so. (I imagine Diablo does something like this. Making each map unique, but conforming to some rules).

4) Don't worry overmuch about loots. Go with the generic generator and let that fall to the wayside.

5) Ignore #4. =) I mean, introduce NPC competition. Have your little demonette's pop up and taunt us saying "Whoa. You guys just dropped into second place! You R t3h SUX!" Then, coincidentally, the next intersection goes left to Safe Passage, but right is Big Monster. Choose!

6) Or a classic module would nice too. Maybe something remote that only makes sense if you're not running a party of 4-6 humans with boring motivations. =)
(My character hook can bring me in to anything. A Monodrone could show up saying "Pssst. These guys over here, they're not being very lawful" and I'd be all "SMITE!".

IMHO. =)

Thanks for the suggestions

While I have always considered just rolling the dungeon myself, I had also thought that getting the players involved in that would be nice.

It hasn't been exactly nice. First, some players are very enthusiastic about their involvement (not a criticism in any way) but due to the tables being my creation, and that means a bit broken and hard to follow, it has been at times problematic. While other players have no interest in rolling the dungeon (also not a criticism in any way).

The Loot Challenge just doesn't seem to be worth the effort. Keeping track of weight carried, keeping track of what the loot is, doesn't have a solid reward ( and by reward I mean a reward to the players as they play the game, something that makes the game feel "fun").

So, I was up late last night writing a wall of text to introduce an alternative adventure that does not take any of the characters out of this setting, and ties this group of players into a couple of the other games I run.

I can introduce that adventure hook today, in the game thread.

Or alternatively, end the Loot-Challenge, award the player character's the prize for finishing, and then begin again with another simple Random Dungeon Adventure in which I will make all the necessary rolls.

I would like each player to tell me what their opinion is on these two choices.

Keep in mind, if you want to see the first choice, in the game thread, it is not binding, and you can then make the second choice if you prefer that one.

I just do not have the time to keep driving myself crazy over figuring out how to manage this Loot Challenge idea I had, and I regret getting carried away with it.

You are all fantastic players, and I compliment all of you on your patience and willingness to put up with this cranky old DM

I'm up for whatever. Keep us posted! =)

What's he mean by other games guys?

I think he's busy burning them to the ground.

Is that what that bright light was?

Damn, multiple personalities. Sorry they got loose. Excuse me while I stuff them back down and beat them to a pulp.

*SMASH* *KAPOW* *ZONKS*

Ok, that's better. It's a lot quieter in here now.

Seeing as I have some little involvement in these so called other games, I'd kinda like to peek behind the curtain on that one. I am totally cool with continuing this random craziness though. Like I said you're stuck with me.