Ahwe Yahzhe's page

I posted this on the Design an Encounter section, but I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful Chase on Charred Ground encounter, Christine!

I just converted it to 4E using some of the info leaked/released from the D&D Experience. Turns out this works very well for a party of 1st-level 4E adventurers, although I did have to make the sled two squares longer, change the Ashscar Orcs to Hobgoblin Soldiers and Archers, and convert all of the skill checks and saving throws. It turns out the basic premise of this encounter is great whatever version you run it in. Great fun!

Just wanted to thank you again for this encounter, Christine-

I just converted it to 4E using some of the info leaked/released from the D&D Experience. Turns out this works very well for a party of 1st-level 4E adventurers, although I did have to make the sled two squares longer, change the Ashscar Orcs to Hobgoblin Soldiers and Archers, and convert all of the skill checks and saving throws. Fun encounter!

Congratulations!

Any way you can fit a sled race into "Clash of the Kingslayers"? That was my favorite entry, although Carnamach was pretty dang cool, too...

CONGRATS!

(January 2009... So is this adventure going to be 4E OGL, or 3.5E OGL?)

DANG! Hurry up already! I've got work I'm ignoring!

I cant wait to see the final results. And I know this for certain: who ever wins surely deservs it.

This contest was hard.

Yeah, but it was fun for all of us who got to read the entries and vote. Thanks to the judges and all 32 participants for all of NPCs, countries, monsters, encounters, and adventure ideas to steal. Too bad we only get to buy one...

Just say it with me: Mephistopheles. I love that name. If my wife and I ever have a kid, I'm going to name him that. That way I can say at dinner, "Mephistopheles Banjo Sullivan! Finish your vegetables!"

Also, I loved your background with the spear-of-destiny-I-can't-pronounce. I'm always the DM, and reading The History of the Realms cover-to-cover is my idea of a good time. I'm just wondering how much of that background the players are going to get in the adventure. I liked the imagery of the cliffs of shattered glass with natural springs bubbling up through them- very cool, I know my players would like that. I'd buy this adventure.

Boomer - awesome proposal for an Adventure Path, I'd hate to think how this would get hacked up to fit into 32 pages. It makes me wish you'd written the Savage Tide AP. (And I love some of those modules, especially the one with the sargasso sea.) I've been a fan (and you've gotten my vote) in every round so far, so I'm torn between you and Christine...

Oh, and -SNEAK ATTACK-

When i was reading this entry THREE questions occurred to me :

1. When can i play it ?
2. When can i play it ?
3. When can i play it ?

I'll add one more question:

Awesome imagery, imaginative bad guys and I love the flavor names- interesting, but not impossible to pronounce.

I'm torn on which way to vote, because Boomer's proposal would be an awesome Adventure Path full of werewolf pirates and other crazy stuff like Onuyaka and Friends, but I can imagine yours much easier as a stand-alone 32-page module. And I want to crush some PCs with that colossus.

ausgezeichnetes schreiben!
(At least that's what the online translator said...)

I really like magic item sets as presented in the Magic Item Compendium; I was assuming that's where you were going with the panoply of the phoenix. This would make a really cool "Super-Adventure", or three-part arc like in the last few issues of Dungeon. I'd buy it, but then I've loved Egyptian settings ever since the I3-I4-I5 module series. And I like linear; you'd be surprised how often player thinking is linear, and how quickly deviations return to the norm. As a DM, I can always improvise as long as I understand the storyline.

Very cool- but you may get edged out on how much of this you could actually fit into 32 pages, which is all the winning finalist gets. Tough choice here. Thanks for an awesome adventure idea!

Don't tell my wife that I'm looking forward to reading the final 4 entries more than Valentine's day tomorrow!

LOL - my thoughts exactly. Luckily I took the wife out to dinner last night, when it was (relatively) less crowded and the service better.

If I was to go off of the track records of all four finalists so far, I'd really be hard-pressed to predict- SO I NEED THOSE PROPOSALS!

I also see this as being kind-of a "but so-and-so also won" kind of contest, like some seasons of American Idol. Maybe if the publishing schedule justifies it, we could see multiple finalist products (just as long as we don't get any movies like "From Justin To Kelly.)

And will these be 3.5E, or 4E product(s)?

Put me down for the Charred Chase and the Monkey Goblin Attack entries.

I love seeing people take well known (and often considered cliche or boring) monsters and doing something new and fun with them.

Great work to everyone though. Very fun to read through all of these.

Ditto on my votes: "Chase on Charred Ground" and "Monkey Goblins Attack!" Loved them, and could play both out in my head.

Just like I had to not vote on Christine's "Mind the Machine" last round and betting she would move on, I'm giving Boomer's awesome "Impartial Tribunal" a pass while being pretty assured he's going to the final round...

I think think the large post complaining about the physics of the volcano eruption is off mark.

I get into arguments all the time about things like this with players, especially ones who are engineers (like me) or the like.

There is a pretty important key to remember here: this is a game, not a simulation. There is a big difference between the two.

I'm with you- I like clarifications of rules from players, and the appearance of verisimilitude, but I've got kind of an internal cut-off that prevents me from putting sufficient bathrooms and fresh water in my dungeons when it gets in the way of the Cool. Christine's entry is Cool, and I'll find a way to use it sooner or later.

I thought "ashscar" was intentionally close to "ash-car," which is kind of what these crazy volcanic half-pipe sleds sound like.

P.S. = If a player were to capture an Ashscar orc and ask something like, "How do you get the sleds back up the hill?" I would probably come up with some ridiculous, elaborate story about an annual ceremonial race where the survivors of the losing team have to carry everything back up the mountain...

This reminds me of an old tasloi encounter in Dungeon Issue #33 Mad Gyogi by Collin Sullivan.

That was fun, but this one looks better!

I liked the detail on the map. I really liked the addition of heat rules. I love the fight in the trees!

Good job, Rob!

gets my vote.

What do you mean, you like his better?! I was proud of that tasloi ambush!!! ;-)

It's the funniest thing- I clicked this because it said "monkey goblins," and right before I saw Rob's map I thought of the tasloi...

Of course, my treetop trap was a giant spiky log swinging through the trail (which I stole from Ewoks in Return of the Jedi.) I like Rob's good ol' fashioned noose-around-the-legs-hanging-upside-down trap version even better! Gets my vote!

Thanks for remembering my adventure, Mactaka. It's nice to know I made an impression way back when. (Check "takeshima mikawa" on Google Images for the island in that adventure.)

I considered Schneider, Outzen, Nelson, and Boomer as worthy submissions. Looking back on their previous submissions, I saw that I previously had issues with both Schneider's wondrous item and Outzen's country. Ultimately, I found Outzen's country inspiring dispite its problems while Schneider's wondrous item is just too broken.

My votes went to Outzen, Nelson, and Boomer.

Christine Schneider just lost out this round, since I only get three votes:

The technique of voting for submissions you don't think are the best - if commonly used by voters - will affect the validity of the results.

Since I intend to buy products created by the winner, I recommend that people vote for their favorite entries, period.

I went with Arthelia, Kotalya, Cackling Whirling, and Onuyaka. Nothing surprising, I can just see using these as throw-away one adventure villains or recurring pains-in-the-ass.

I'd like to know at least how many people voted in this round, just to see if we have a statistically significant sample (58) or not. If, say, only 200 people voted, I'd say your top ten are a lock.

I'll be curious how this thread predicts teh results. Clark says taht the actual votes are 5 countries and everyone else. That actual differs pretty dramtically from our list.

Here we have three and then a big drop:

38 Stained Peaks
34 Iskandria
34 Yithnai

I'd say that predicts success for those three pretty strongly. However, after this we start having only 2-5 vote differences in any drop. Thus, we really don't have a strong prediction beyond the top 3.

Clark also stated that nothing advanced with only 25 votes, so we also know that this is an extremely small sampling. Not that there was ever anything scientific about our thread.

Can't wait to see how closely our 16 compare to the actual 16.

Well, I voted not completely with the Top Three:

Carnamach
Cyrehllan
Karistynia
Vramaire
Stained Peaks (THERE'S my Top Three vote...)

OK, I figured out the billing for PATHFINDER. They deduct from you card each month so your subscription never expires...cool

ASEO out

That's a cool option for folks without a game store in convenient distance. I'll try Pathfinder too- but I'm going to buy it from my FLGS, just to make sure they carry it after Dungeon and Dragon die.

Still mad.

A black day!

The Black Hole has finally consumed the multiverse.

Not just the multiverse; the Black Hole has finally consumed itself! My only hope is for a new slush pile for Pathfinder...

The Black Hole is Dead; Long Live the Bermuda Triangle?

Well, the announcement does explain the lack of meetings.......

I was working on another CW, it's almost finished. Should I still send it in?

Finally, the mysteries of the Black Hole have been penetrated!!

So I guess we're going to see a single adventure path in Pathfinder and occasional stand-alone "old school" modules written by the established authors. While I really enjoy the content from these authors and look forward to Pathfinder, I was really hoping for the chance to publish adventures of my own again. Well, at least the playtesting was fun...

observation:

GGG must be devastated, so many queries, all for naught.

I would guess that GGG is too busy getting Pathfinder together to worry about the slush pile right now... ;-)

(From my post on the Dragon messageboard side, I don't know how else to rephrase my shock at the decision. I haven't decided yet how angry I am with WotC.)

My first issues were Dragon #81 and Dungeon #1. My first (and only) published adventure was in Dungeon #32. For me, the passing of these two magazines is the end of an era, like the elves leaving Middle-Earth for good. With the excellent stewardship of these magazines under Paizo, I look forward to Pathfinder, but when I walk into my FLGS and see nothing but miniature battles and card games, I can't help but worry for the future of tabletop RPGs. This is a sad day for the hobby that's been with me three-quarters of my life.

-Colin

Well, I started with Dragon magazine way back with issue 70 or so (and Dungeon since the beginning), and I can't believe it's ending. Now, all associations and ties to old school AD&D, even the faintest by proxy glimmers, has now faded to black.

Pathfinder might do just as well or better than Dragon, but Dragon can never replaced by a hatchling. The Great Wyrm has passed. Time to move on.

My first issues were Dragon #81 and Dungeon #1. My first (and only) published adventure was in Dungeon #32. For me, the passing of these two magazines is the end of an era, like the elves leaving Middle-Earth for good. With the excellent stewardship of these magazines under Paizo, I look forward to Pathfinder, but when I walk into my FLGS and see nothing but miniature battles and card games, I can't help but worry for the future of tabletop RPGs. This is a sad day for the hobby that's been with me three-quarters of my life.

Once upon a time, in the brief and shining Good Old Days, you could expect to hear "no thanks" or "received and will be reviewed at the next meeting" within a month of sending your query. Unfortunately, those days are no longer with us. It's 99% likely that if you sent your proposal, it's sitting in our inbox, so Gatekeeper is going to continue to stay dark for a little bit while we get caught up on other things. (That means there's no need to send in "hey, did you get my queries?" emails until further notice - please just assume they made it.) I promise that all queries will be reviewed before the next submissions meeting (which, contrary to any rumors you may have heard, will not be happening any time soon).

Have faith, folks! Your queries are still alive and well!

Thanks for the quick response, Mighty Gatekeeper! I will withhold my pestering e-mails so it will be easier for you to filter through to the chocolaty goodness that is my query.

And thanks, Steve, for the prognostication- it helps for us aspirants who don't have adventures published in Dungeon on a regular basis.

You guys rock!

CONFESSIONS OF A GATEKEEPER #17:

"Sometimes, when nobody's around, I mark all the queries in the inbox as 'read,' and then hit 'undo,' just so that - for one shining second - I can feel what it's like to be all caught up on submissions...

-The Gatekeeper

rumorrumorrumorrumorrumorrumorrumorrumor...

Okay, that's out of my system. I have a quick question that I can no longer remember if the answer is already lodged somewhere in this labyrinthine thread. The proposal submission guidelines state that once you send a query, you should shortly receive either a quick rejection or acknowledgement that the query has been received. I also read that if you don't hear anything back from the Black Hole after a month to ask. If I get no e-mail reply that my proposal query has been received, should I pester the Gatekeeper, or wait a month? (The question is somewhat academic, since it's been three weeks since a sent my happy query and SDF to the Black Hole.) Thanks!

I've been subscribing since Dungeon #2. A buddy picked me up #1 in 1989 at Gen Con but I have since picked up a couple of mint copies from a local shop of #1 & #2 since my originals are well loved/used. #2 is my favourite of all time since it was the first.

You were lucky to find those old #1 and #2 - I recently scoured a few game shops for anything older than issue #40, and came up blank (I was looking for a spare copy of the issue with my adventure in it - #33.) Other than that, I've got a straight run from #1 to #50, then nothing until 3rd edition. I guess as mentioned before, it reflects my relative level of D&D play.

Ahwe, aren't you forgetting the two-headed giant space hamsters?

And the fact it all turns out to be a dream, and the "heroes" are really 9-5 office workers.

Ooh, that's good. I think we can put the hamsters on the "crashed space ship" level of the dungeon (thank you, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks!)

Ahwe Yahzhe wrote:

[u]Dungeon of the Borrgh (working title)[/u], A 3-Part Mystara Adventure Arc for 1st-level characters

Adventure Elements So Far:
- Evil Illithid Wizard Kidnaps the Mayor's Daughter (why?)
- Massive dungeon filled with undead kobolds (and an aboleth)
- At least one or more PCs/NPCs replaced by dopplegangers
- Dinosaur-riding pirate sea hags (in a dungeon)

All we need is a plot, and a few more incredibly cliche adventure elements. OK,Go!

I like the idea. I'll be happy to do the part where the PCs deal with a "simple humanoid infestation", preferbly inside the dungeon. For no appearent reason.

I love orcs (not in a sexual way.)

BTW, what do the J's think about this idea?

Sounds great! So why WOULD an insane illithid be in a dungeon with a "simple humanoid infestation"? Oh, and orcs are great, but I think they have to be undead in order to wedge in one more cliche. (So why ARE they undead?) :-D

Ahwe Yahzhe wrote:

What's happening in under 2 weeks' time? Is that a sucking sound I hear coming from the Black Hole? Do I have time to shuffle off any more queries? Or is there some massively collaborative adventure going to show up in Dungeon #145? Come on, clue me in!

Ahwe, you could call this the worst kept secret in Dungeon magazine. It was often hinted at and blatantly pimped here. The cat's well out of the bag at this point if you've read the blurb for The Seeds of Sehan adventure arc on the cover of the latest issue of dungeon.

It was written by Great Green Good, Ashavon, Farewell2Kings, Dryder, and myself from these boards.

Cool stuff! Well, I guess I will have to wait for a couple weeks with everybody else! BTW, great work on Tides of Dread! I loved the use of the Victory Points mechanic to tie everything together!

Great Green God wrote:

Imagine it? You won't have to in under two-weeks time....

Counting the days, trust me ;). Hey, at least the 5 of us actually fit on a single line.

What's happening in under 2 weeks' time? Is that a sucking sound I hear coming from the Black Hole? Do I have time to shuffle off any more queries? Or is there some massively collaborative adventure going to show up in Dungeon #145? Come on, clue me in!

As for the massive, collaborative query, well, I've already provided the skeleton:
[u]Dungeon of the Borrgh (working title)[/u], A 3-Part Mystara Adventure Arc for 1st-level characters

Adventure Elements So Far:
- Evil Illithid Wizard Kidnaps the Mayor's Daughter (why?)
- Massive dungeon filled with undead kobolds (and an aboleth)
- At least one or more PCs/NPCs replaced by dopplegangers
- Dinosaur-riding pirate sea hags (in a dungeon)

All we need is a plot, and a few more incredibly cliche adventure elements. OK,Go!

*gasp* Rip my favorite magazine? Are you crazy? :P

Yeah, no. I'd pick any magazine BUT Dungeon or Dragon because any adventure ideas that came out of it would be horribly derivative, if not plagiarized. Try Vogue, or raid your dentist's office. I hear "Highlights for Children" has some seriously twisted stuff in it.

Ashenvale wrote:

We should write the largest collaborative query ever. Let's ask all posters on this thread to help create a cohesive, plausible, comic adventure, and then submit it from all of us.

I can imagine it... the author credits would be as long as the stat blocks (maybe longer!).

As a joke, or for-reals? Because actual comic adventures are really hard to pull off. Usually they tend towards the ridiculous- slapstick traps and wildly inappropriate monsters (I blame Gary Gygax for the unintentional morbid humor of S1 Tomb of Horrors, and for intentionally writing EX1-2 Dungeonland and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror.) I think an actual comedic plot would require some knowledge of the characters who would be the target of much of the comedy. Can anyone think of a successful comedy adventure that's been published, that was actually funny at the table?

Ahwe Yahzhe wrote:

Dungeon of the Borg:

When an insane illithid wizard kidnaps the mayor's daughter, can the adventurers fight through the undead kobold horde to rescue her from the depths of the never-ending Dungeon of the Borg? The PCs may be their own worst enemies as they are secretly killed and impersonated by the wizard's allies, a vicious gang of dopplegangers! A Mystara adventure for 1st-level characters. (estimated length: 30,000 words and 12 maps)

Uhhh, maybe this was a joke, but haven't the editors pretty clearly stated that they don't want any Mystara (or other unsupported setting) based adventures?

Yeah, I was most definitely kidding when I tried to incorporate as many elements that the DUNGEON editors said they DIDN'T want to see again in adventure queries. However, I might have fooled a few people- maybe it's a perfect gestalt that ironically makes it look like a workable adventure- I mean, come on, a 30,000 word adventure?! I think that would be the entire magazine, especially with 12(!) maps...

As for setting a Western flavored adventure in the Far East, I say why not? Akira Kurosawa was so inspired by John Ford's Westerns that he made "Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo," which later inspired Sergio Leone to make "A Fistful of Dollars" and John Sturges to create "The Magnificent Seven."

Thought experiment of the day: Take an old Shadow Run, Twilight 2000, Rifts, Doctor Who, DC Heroes, or whatever module off your game shelf and mentally re-imagine it made for D&D.

Thanks for the thought experiment- that's a great brainstorming exercise. Another one is the "rip-up"- take your favorite magazine (with lots of ads) and quickly flip through it, ripping out every page that catches your eye. Scribble a single word (adjective, noun, adverb, whatever,) that the image evokes. When you're done with the magazine, go back to your rip-ups and look at what words and images you've got. Then use that to build a story. Great fun and very much in the "destroy-to-create" vein...

I know GGG was giving examples of cross-genre application with the westerns and samurai flicks, but just out of curiousity, does anybody actually play D&D Oriental Adventures any more? I've always had a soft spot for it, but it never seems to get beyond samurais and ninjas, and people lose interest. Would DUNGEON print an OA adventure? Or better yet, an Forgotten Realms OA adventure that actually makes reference to Kara-Tur's location in Abeir-Toril? I've got a couple of ideas that would make a nice proposal, but if nobody else plays OA any longer, there's not much point.

With all the interest on a d20 modern cross over, What about an adventure like Barrier peaks or temple of the frog where D&d characters go through some sort of time vortex ans end up in the future or modern characters are flung into the past!

Ooh- I take it you saw the "Return to the Temple of the Frog" pdf that was just posted up on Wizards? Maybe a sequel off of that...

Easy! Playable only with a pre-generated set of pirate-hag PCs who ride a mismatched gaggle of dinosaurs all named Lavinia.

"Playable only with..." Perfect!

Did I mention the aboleths in the bottom level of the dungeon?

Hmmm- Maybe I should submit this just to see what kind of response I'd get. I mean, who DOESN'T want to see what a doppleganger of a dinosaur-riding sea-hag pirate pre-gen PC would do facing off against an insane illithid wizard?
(I think I left some commas out there.)

Ahwe Yahzhe wrote:

Dungeon of the Borg:

When an insane illithid wizard kidnaps the mayor's daughter, can the adventurers fight through the undead kobold horde to rescue her from the depths of the never-ending Dungeon of the Borg? The PCs may be their own worst enemies as they are secretly killed and impersonated by the wizard's allies, a vicious gang of dopplegangers! A Mystara adventure for 1st-level characters. (estimated length: 30,000 words and 12 maps)

Pretty awesome, right?

Pretty awesome indeed! In fact... if you think about it a bit... it could actually fly if you tweaked it just so.

E.g., Tone down the really over the top stuff (like, perhaps just have a horde of kobolds, not a horde of undead kobolds), drop the unnecessary Borg reference (but keep the dopplegangers) and revise the word and map count down to a more reasonable value.

Whatever you do, though, you must keep it in Mystara! Absolutely perfect campaign setting for this kind of thing.

Seriously.

-Jenni

...Actually, I was thinking of going the opposite direction with it- but I just couldn't figure out how to fit in the dinosaur-riding pirates...

MORE ADVENTURES NEEDED:
- Short (5,000-8,000 words)
- Low-level (1st-5th level)
- Forgotten Realms
- Eberron
NOT NEEDED:
- Rescue missions
- Doppleganger murder mysteries
- Wacky evil wizards
- Undead / Goblinoid army invasions
- Borg assimilations / Possessed NPCs
- Straight dungeon crawls
- Anything that's appeared/will appear recently
(At last count, that included spiders and aranea, Shar, pirates, dinosaurs, aboleths, hell-related stuff, hags, weasels, stoats, goats, and rabbits.)

The list above inspired me for another proposal:

Pretty awesome, right?

A Rift in the Ice (mid-level; aquatic wilderness, aquatic dungeon, and arctic dungeon; high adventure turns into an unexpected story of redemption)

Sounds cool, Ashenvale; I like the arctic-aquatic mix. Good luck! (How cool would an igloo dungeon be, anyway?) Bring on the polar bears and narwhals!

You've all inspired me- I've just sent in my first proposal in over a decade, and my second one ever. I guess I was a bit attached to having a "perfect batting average", but it's really been too long. Here's mine:

The Verdant Cradle (mid-level Forgotten Realms, moor wilderness w/ some dungeon, carnivorous vegetables and my desperate attempt to NOT railroad the PCs...)

Well, back to my brainstorming diagram, if still got a couple more floating in my skull that I need to flesh out...

Zeus,

After reading through this thread, it makes ME want to quit gaming...

As much fun as it is follow the current "Proposal Psychosis" theme of the thread (while trying to ignore the sucking / flushing sounds coming from the Black Hole,) I have a question.

Can any of our esteemed editors provide an update on what type of adventures they're looking for? The most recent tips I see on what is needed are from a couple of submissions meetings ago, and these might have changed since then. I'd love it if anyone could update or validate this list:

MORE ADVENTURES NEEDED:
- Short (5,000-8,000 words)
- Low-level (1st-5th level)
- Forgotten Realms
- Eberron

NOT NEEDED:
- Rescue missions
- Doppleganger murder mysteries
- Wacky evil wizards
- Undead / Goblinoid army invasions
- Borg assimilations / Possessed NPCs
- Straight dungeon crawls
- Anything that's appeared/will appear recently
(At last count, that included spiders and aranea, Shar, pirates, dinosaurs, aboleths, hell-related stuff, hags, weasels, stoats, goats, and rabbits.)

Any updates or additions to the "More Adventures Needed" list would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Friday Night

February 9, 2007

OK. First off, we have a new player. His name is Don Hendricks and he will be running the human warlock, Tormos. Second, Rob was never excited about Mithos the dwarven cleric, so we dip into the crewmen picked up in Renkrue and presto! Rob’s new character, Markos the Black, a human swashbuckler.

Continuation of the Captain’s Log as scribed by Captain Amella Venkalie…

I just wanted to add my thanks for keeping up this campaign journal... I've been reading these adventures avidly, and am dying to run them myself... I'm living vicariously through your tabletop!

With the accelerating death rate among the Rusty Raiders, though, do you think it's time to start a "Savage Tide Obituary" thread yet? I'm counting three dead PCs (Id, Joe, and the other one early one I forgot), and a few more who dropped out along the way... I do appreciate that you recently recapped who's even in the party these days... Man, do the Rusty Raiders need a cleric, druid, or favored soul!

I'm looking forward to seeing if they survive this "Night of the Living Dead" sargasso patch! Thanks!