DM Heathy's Saltmarsh Discussion Thread

Yeah. If I wanted to piss around with inventory, I'd get a night job as a Stocker at Albertson's.

Yup. "Some nice shiny stuff, 2000 gp and a nice-looking sword; anyone want to cast Identify?" is far, far better thsn "ah, lessee... it's a ... citrine worth blah blah blah."

~Laughter~ True!

I like to throw something interesting in there for s%#+s and giggles, like a high chair made out of muskoxen horns every once in a while, or I'll describe the potables for the functional alcoholic dwarf. If it doesn't add anything though, it's just a coin value equivalent.

Most of us guys in the Heathy/Aubrey campaigns are pretty verbose and enjoy a bit of fluff. Not all players are like that, though - some just want to kill orcs and take their pies.

Most of us guys in the Heathy/Aubrey campaigns are pretty verbose and enjoy a bit of fluff. Not all players are like that, though - some just want to kill orcs and take their pies.

Mmmmmmm..... Pie!

Yup. "Some nice shiny stuff, 2000 gp and a nice-looking sword; anyone want to cast Identify?" is far, far better than "ah, lessee... it's a ... citrine worth blah blah blah."

I've actually never felt that treasure is that big of a deal, but it becomes really important if there's a lot of DR/something monsters. We've struggled mightily again relatively puny monsters with DR 5/something we didn't carry, as well as plowed through supposedly tougher opponents because we had the right stuff. Which serves to remind us that "objective" CR is often subverted by certain tactics (see Alwyn smoking 14 ghouls in two rounds in the RotRL game - those would have been great fun withot a cleric) or overcome by good playing; on the other hand, some modules are really, really tough, and players might just not stand a chance without the "correct" combo of items and spells. Thus, you'll probably need to modify the existing adventure.

Oh, and one more thing - tone down the traps a bit. I can't think of a more dreary thing than Tomb of horrors (which is already more than bad enough) as a PbP. The medium doesn't translate well for endless iterations of Search and Disable device.

I actually made an error with the ghoul-smoking (specifically, forgetting their turn resistance) so you smoked more than you should have. But on the other hand, it was spectacular, even if it made the encounter a bit easier than I anticipated.

On traps, they made a comment at the cusp of 4e on the WotC website recognising that traps can really slow down a game. I tend not to use them except where there are legitimate game reasons - a trap-filled room in which people have to manoeuvre and fight was fun (for me) in the Eberron game - but putting them in every door and corridor just leads to pointless dice-rolling. You need some, to justify the rogue taking those skills, but not so he or she becomes the trap-detecting monkey.

I've been noticing the lack of traps about myself too, and wondering if I'm jeffing the rogue somehow.

I use very few of them myself - but they are OK in places where they make sense (on treasure chests etc.). Traps that are just around to f$!% you over piss me off.

Yeah; that's the gist I get. I think they make perfect sense from a storytelling point of view, they just make the story (especially with the nature of pbp) into a grind. If you have to forestall the action for a day plus waiting for the rogue to do his thing...and then do it multiple times....your pbp might go into the archives that way.

I'm not that convinced they make that much sense, story-wise. If you have traps everywhere, the chance of stumbling into your own trap is quite high - everyone, even Evil Overlord Ug, has forgetful days. So placing them in obvious strong points and areas you just have to protect, like the treasure vault, makes sense, but not scattered liberally through your home. Unless you are weird like that, or a kobold.

It depends. I agree; IRL for instance--no guns in the house; too many toddlers about.
BUT, if one was not in suburbia but instead living in a Keep on the Borderlands with hostile humanoids about, traps everywhere would just make sense. OR in your tomb filled with zillions of g.p. worth of loot.

Polymorph--hmmmm....it's giving me ideas. Interesting spell.....mwahahahahahahaaa!

Hey guys, I’m back from holidays. Might take me a couple of days to catch up on various games, but will hopefully be back up to speed shortly.

Have a nice time - where are you going (or where have you gone)?

Went up to the Gold Coast. Don't know if any of you know your way around Australia, but if you do, that's about an hour's drive south of Brisbane (which is the state capital of Queensland, about an hour and a half by plane north of Sydney).

The geography lesson may not mean much ... anyway, it's a big holiday / beach destination. Surfer's Paradise, which is the main suburb (and beach) on the Gold Coast is arguably the second most famous beach in Australia, after Bondi.

Right on; the blonde that turned into a green hag scored a critical touch attack on Elgan....it's a fondle.

Does that count as cruelty to animals, or was she just being friendly in a 'cannot be classified' sort of way?

My problem is this: I don't think I entertain the rogues and the clerics enough;

Meh ... I don't know, I have fun. As Vatters said, hundreds of locked and trapped doors gets really boring. Beldan has had his moments to shine - he isn't the most useful guy in combat, but he's gotten in a few good sneak attacks here and there that have felt like they've turned the tide of the battle. He's got to sneak around a bit and be generally roguish. I feel it - I think you're doing a good job in that regard.

It's not like it's all undead and 'you can't sneak up on the guy 'cos the dwarf is clanking along nearby in his plate armour' and 'this town executes thieves' and crap like that.

I want to sell off my +1 warhammer, +1 waraxe, +1 katana, and put the money into the party pool.

Altai is gonna put a +1 on the adamantine axe.

That's cool.

I reckon you guys can just get back to Saltmarsh, and pop over to Seaton and get whatever stuff.

There's no g.p. limit to worry about.

That's cool.

I reckon you guys can just get back to Saltmarsh, and pop over to Seaton and get whatever stuff.

There's no g.p. limit to worry about.

Bump, because it's not showing up for some reason.

[hijack]Fakey, Aref might want to show up to pray and ululate by the riverside or something.

He's coming home.[/hijack]

Um, Heathy - if you don't mind me asking, what was that red lizardman?

[ooc]a lizardman....with some fiendish bloodline type templates from the Hordes of the Abyss added to him...I felt kinda bad, because the "red skin" wasn't per any rules per se, so I didn't want to blow anybody's mind...unfairly.

Cool. That's what I get for overthinking stuff - I thought it would be immune to fire and thus didn't include it in my Fireball blast...

This is another reason I love home-baked monsters, as I have no idea what to expect. Those odd gals we're fighting in Aubrey's Eberron campaign have me completely mystified, and that's a good thing.

I know....I was thinking about trying to exorcise the secretary; nothing else seems to effin' work. They must be psionicle, that ain't my forte; at least I know the secretary must be a monk...

I'd say Karile is the one to exorcise (if any); I reckon the secretary is probably just a fairly standard monk, juiced up with a whole bunch of psionic buffs from Karile.

What a couplea byoches.

If you guys wanna keep bopping around in the Castle of Amber, that's cool too; it was more of a tip-o-the-hat to the old girl than a total recreation, as well as a useful bit of mapping that turned out to (in my mind) make the weird place believable.
But I can run with this. It's good stuff.

Next up was a (fairly brief) replacement of U2: Danger at Dunwater; the original module was a 50-room lizardman slaughterfest that I'm....just not feeling, for a lot of reasons. I think what I have in mind is a little more apropos.

Castle Amber. Cognac. Character motivation. It fits for me.

Should we get another guy to be a cleric or something?

Not to be an eavesdropper (OK maybe I am being an eavesdropper) but are you recruiting? <blinks large monkey eyes>

I might be. Thinking about it.

If you do, keep me in mind. I love watching this game, it's a hoot.

I will; just wanted to see what the rest of them thunk.

I got Silenttimo and French Wolf as alternates; I'd got to see what they want to do first;

Patrick would be a great cleric. While we do have other alts, we haven't heard from them since way back when.

Yeah,.....hmmmm.....

Allright, Patrick's in.

Patrick,
6th level....
They're in the Castle of Amber; it's a great place to introduce a character because (in my mind) there's gates to anywhen....
They're from Greyhawk; it hooks up to a door in a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Doublewide Gnome Mobile Home in the Hool Marsh.
You can be from Greyhawk, wherever; I don't care...

6th level; you've got....
13,000 gold pieces worth of equipment; slap another 1,000 on cos everybody else is kinda looted up I think so
14,000 gold pieces worth of whatever you want (unless I see something glaringly jacked which I probably won't.)

Allright, Patrick's in.

Patrick,
6th level....
They're in the Castle of Amber; it's a great place to introduce a character because (in my mind) there's gates to anywhen....
They're from Greyhawk; it hooks up to a door in a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Doublewide Gnome Mobile Home in the Hool Marsh.
You can be from Greyhawk, wherever; I don't care...

6th level; you've got....
13,000 gold pieces worth of equipment; slap another 1,000 on cos everybody else is kinda looted up I think so
14,000 gold pieces worth of whatever you want (unless I see something glaringly jacked which I probably won't.)

Don't forget, 32 point buy and starting gold(standard for level?).

Yeah; 32 point buy.
Like, 14,000 g.p.; that's the wealth-by-level plus a grande from the dmg. That sound about right?

Sounds good - he's got at least as much as we do.

Hey, welcome aboard Patrick.

French Wolf's in too if he wants; the more the merrier.

F#%+ it; says I; I could handle 8 before.

all 6th level...
Riese (fake healer) is a 6th level human paragon/wizard/pyromaniac egotistical guy.
Gittik (Aubrey the Malformed) is a 6th level hobbit barbarian raised by goblins.
Stiggy (kruelaid)is a 6th level fighter dwarf that talks kinda scottish, drinks a lot, and whose dog Tenser eats most of the fallen enemies.
Altai (Vatnisse) is a 6th level human wizard; likes summoning stuff.
Elgan (Ragadolf) is a druid, 6th level, with the shapeshifter variant from the PHB II
and
Beldan (Mothman) is a 6th level rogue. I think he might be the straightman of the game. It certainly isn't the dungeonmaster.

So, they're kinda low on healing; whatever you two want to do. They're in Castle of Amber right now, which means you guys could be from damn Narnia if you wanted to; there's gates to a lot of real estate therein.

The plan is to return to Greyhawk, though. Being clerics of off-Greyhawk deities could get a little weird. But, with this party, who cares?

Oh, noes!!! NOT WEIRDNESS!!!!!
I got somethin' in my eye? The buggedy one?

I was just thinking that praying for spells could get a bit complicated. We should demand that French Wolf plays one of those cat-guys, and that he must post in French, which we'll then run through BabelFish in order to understand anything. It'll be awesome.

We should all post in Swahili!

Eu sou um excitador excelente!

J'aime manger des flumphs.

Babelfish is got cusswords too!