Goblin Squad Member. Organized Play Member. 155 posts (261 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 1 Organized Play character. 3 aliases.
I was rereading my Hook Mountian Massacre AP and couldnt help noticing the similarities of the Black Arrows in the Module and the Night's Watch from "A Game of Thrones". Fort Rannick is similar to Castle Black, well, without a wall of ice but both were meant to keep out the wild things beyond the border. Both of them have men who have been given a second chance on life, to let go of their pasts and focus on public service. Both are isolationists.
It occured to me, if and when my players clear Fort Rannick, they may want to reinstate the Black Arrows there instead of ruling and I thought, to bring new rangers into the fold, an oath could be used in roleplaying.
For the Night's watch, they swear the following...
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
I have GMed for most of my life, almost 32 years now and never had a table react the way it did last Saturday night. I enjoy creating an atmosphere or scene to make the expierience surreal for my players,acting out my NPCs and using strong narrative as I read text from the book as an actor on stage would do. I employ cut-scenes if you will for the players to get a full perspective of the story, mostly after things have transpired to curtail metagaming. Hook Mountain Massacre uses more macabe, gore and grotesque evil than a standard dungeon crawl.
What I have come to realize after my last session, even if an encounter is equal CR or less than the PCs, the paranoia, terror, and fear factor instilled in the players mind by roleplaying may cause your players to react very diffrently than expected...running for their very lives...leaving the dungeon, even going so far as to hide in the inn, waaaaaaay back at Turtleback ferry.
I am not sure if the mental picture was just so vivid in the players mind but I had one player downright refuse to investigate the Graul farmstead and stayed at the game table the whole evening saying "nope, I'm fine, you guys go ahead". Both of my female players were obviously ill with the descriptions of the rooms contents and one decidedly stopped eating at the table. I had a conversation with another player yesterday who asked me if the rest of the AP was this going to continue through the rest of the game.
Recently in my regular game, I lost a player who was the group healer. Usually, I like to add accommodations to compensate for this so no one has to feel they "have to" play a healer to support other players.
One of my players decided he wanted to create a gem with a command word, which casts Cure moderate wounds with unlimited charges. Looking at the rules, I don't see where an item could not be made on the cheap but my GM "spidy-sense" is going off. It doesn't seem balanced.
It would translate into a instant heal the entire group item at downtimes (when the PCs are not in combat)and a dam good 2d8+3 healing for standard action while in combat. If i let them create one, they will create one for each person in the group (command word activated).
So, am I looking at this wrong or should I make a judgment call like
"any item with a Duration: "instantaneous" effect is not eligible for unlimited charge items."
So, on my usual Saturday night game, I am running the skinsaw murders and my players finally enter the lumbermill at night during a ritualistic killing. They sucessfully stop the ritual at a critical point, I go into my theatrical entrance of Justice Ironbriar ( with the mask on) to signal the boss encounter, when the witch player of my group decides to use her "beguiling gift" spell and hands the Justice a love potion...
I look at his stats and see he has a +7(+2 vs enchantment) for a will save and think, no problem. I roll the dice and *poof* natural "1".
The players laugh, my dice have failed me and what was to be a challenging encounter, turned into something entirely diffrent.
The rest of the skinsaw cult is put down quickly and I take a minute away from the table to think about how this changes things.
After the combat, Justice ironbriar removes his mask in gentlemanly fashion, grasps the witch's hand, bows and says..
"My lady, your beauty besieges my heart, but alas it is already a prisoner to another."
The witch-"You will leave her, and are mine now, and forever."
Justice Ironbriar-"My mistress will not at all be happy. What shall I do? Must my heart be broken asunder? Perhaps I can love you both."
The Witch-"Take me to this harlot!"
Justice Ironbriar-"of course my dear. She is this way, under the irespan in a tower, the very top, where angels watch over us, my angel."
It was quiet interesting as Justice Ironbriar watching the two women he loved more than anything fight to the last breath atop of the shadow clock. Xanesha was powerful but he could not deny her. His cult had changed greatly since his involvement with her. But he knew, as a priest of Norgorber, that one of these ladies must be murdered, why else would his followers would have been slain. Norgorber was not pleased and only through death of something he cherished would he regain his favor, it had to be, Father Skinsaw's plan. Love can be quite painful at times.
I was talking to a friend about looking into publishing a pdf online he wanted to include art for his gaming product. Quite honestly, I have not the first clue how to go about figureing out how much he should buget for such things.
Does anyone know any guidelines? Best practices? Where to start?
Permit me to conduct my introduction if you will and I will get to my plight. I am Chord, first herald of the Acquired Lands, a bard by trade, a survivor by necessity and even though I arrived with good and healthy company, brave of heart and sharp of mind, they have all found themselves perished within the wilderness with one exception. As the sole survivor, I list in order these fallen companions as precaution to other unfortunate enterprising individuals who may have received a charter from the lord of Restov.
Spoiler:
Urie the Impatient, rushed out ahead of the party to hunt bears in the woods nearby Oleg’s trading post only to run face to beak with an owlbear. His remains were seen but not recovered.
Yurie the very cold and witless, decided during a snowstorm to light a fire in Oleg’s barn consuming the barn and 6 stabled horses. Though not caught in the fire himself, he was last seen being hogtied and dragged to Restov to await judgement.
Sianide the poor sighted, cavalier of the dragon and rare rhino rider, charged a gigantic trap door spider only to fall into a deep hole, the fall instantly slaying him. It took us over a day to figure out how to get the rhino out of the hole.
Voldan the obnoxiously loud, dwarven inquisitor of Torag, pierced by bandit arrows along the Thorn river after exclaiming “there’s a wagon here, let’s take it before its owner comes back”
Yorric and Synead, almost twinlike brothers of Yurie and Sianide, were cut down where they stood by the whole of the Stag lord’s men after devising a great plan to kill a guard at the Stag lord’s fort in attempt to lure out a few bandits at a time to an ambush location deep in the wild. The ambush site, an event which would be forever known all over as the “Stag Lord’s Massacre” in which no less than 20 bandits, lieutenants, wild druids, an owlbear and the Stag Lord himself gleefully took part of.
Amazingly, through all of this, I alone have lived to tell the tale. I have heard often over sneering comments by swordsmen and wizard alike in the tavern how the profession of bard is unrewarding, often the death knell of one’s career. My travels have taken me far, and I feel we are making progress in the acquired lands. We now have a friendship with some of the local fey, a grigg and fariedragon due to my efforts of performing with my flute. The Stag lord has left his fortification and is on the move but know we must track him. In Oleg’s trading post I await other adventurers soon to arrive from Restov, maybe I will be fortunate to find a ranger among them.
If you see any seasoned adventurers, please send them my way.
Recently had my group investigating a labratory explosion and had to create some interesting twists to the bestiary ( because i like to keep my players guessing)
Inspired by James's goblin song I created a variant of the gibbering mouther of goblins singing out of sync. Most of the group fled however, the barbarian half orc nearly died, who stayed flailing at the thing with his greataxe, due to his hatred of "the song". Now, the other players use audible glamor in the form of goblin lyrics in order to motivate the barbarian along through the dungeon.
To everyone at Paizo involved I just wanted to thank you for the chance to enter the contest and have my idea looked over by professionals (Signature Rivet of the Craftsman).
The business is tough I am sure, and I know you guys are working extra hours to give us quality products on a regular schedule. It means a lot to us who may not like our day job to sit back and dream a moment about "What if I could get noticed, or what if I could some way contribute to my favorite hobby?". It says a great deal about the quality people you have who takes time out to do this contest and I wanted you to know it is appreciated.
To the 32 finalist, congrats and thanks. I already see two items I want to use in my regular Sunday night game.
Reading over the module it had occured to me my group may have some difficulty. I have 5 regular players and three of them are evil, two are neutral, all are players under the age of 21 with a kick in the door mentality.As I get to page 16 in the module and the good writers Nick and Tim mention "evil characters can still play the senario" in a sidebar and I think to myself "Ok, lets give it a shot".
Carnival of Tears spoilers herein:
Day 1, My evil elven fighter, wizard meets Kimi's mom from "Crown of the Kobold king" and decides to put moves on her while the husband is convieniently away, making the relationship between the party and Kimi estranged. Ralla, Hollin's sister, who works in the brothel becomes a regular stop for two of the other players to spend some gold. I explain to the group the Carnival is coming and may help give some hope to the people of falcons hollow, in hopes to get them motivated.
Carnival time, and I am looking to give out virtue points. At the ticket booth, several beggars are asking for coin to join in a little merryment. Easy virtue points, right? The ranger of the group produces a gold coin from his pouch and tells two bums to fight, the winner gets the gold. This causes one to strangle the other. The ranger then backs out and offers instead a bag of silver to the best fighter of the ravel. This starts a mob, and after the carnies step in to break up the fight, no less than four towns folk lay dead. No virtue points here.
The ale tent and a drunken lumberjack sees a PC that he has had words with in the past comes over to insult Adventurers in general.This leads to hurt feelings and comes to punches at the would be hero who then pulls out his scimatar and admantine hammer and obliterates the lumberjack with two swift strokes. Holding his weapons on high he warns any other loggers if they dont shut their mouths, they can die the same. No virtue points here.
Later, the vacant tent and the group notice a wealthy aristocrat who has paid Kabran Bloodeye for the services of his ladies. One tries to buy her off the noble for his own purposes, one offers to guard his tent for the aristocrat for possible favors later, two others pay to join in the fun. No virtue points here.
Needless to say, the virtue point total was a little less than stellar when it was said and done. Syntira was never seen, giving up hope for the town, she and her court decided to stay out of the private war of the cold rider. This presented a little more of a tricky module for me to finish. I was fortunate that one PC made the save against the Eye of Rapture. This caused the party to think he had lost his mind. It wasnt until they approached the beer tent filled with trees that others noticed the strangeness too. Maybe they can still live through this.
A fight with the pixie turned the ranger to a tree, later to be seen by lumberjacks who were agrivated someone put a sculpture of the adventurer who killed a fellow jack earlier that day in that same tent.
It wasnt pretty.
The titans wheel almost killed another as one adventurer fell into the manacle trap as participants stood in line to spin it. The fighters agreed they need to get to the bottom of this. The ringleader Namdrin Quinn "obviously" must be slain to stop this crazyness and they ran off to his tent to do just that.
Now, in the module, the authors say Quinn does not attack the players even if provoked. Why? I dont think it is in Quinn's best interest to be emo enough to just let the players kill him and loot his corpse. Look at all this free loot he would be giving them. I decided to try a diffrent approach. As they entered the tent, Namdrin is getting confirmation from two of the cold rider's frosty chislers "All is going according to plan, you have served us well Mr Quinn and as promised you will be reunited with your wife, as long as you stay out of our way." The players were aware of Namdrin's loss and the rogue of the group disguised herself as his wife to disorient him before attacking him. The conversation between Quinn and the chislers was the turning point for my evil path and with a good diplomacy check the players were able to speak to Quinn with the promise they would help him find his wife if he helped them with the fey problem. From that point, I used Quinn in the place of Syntira and the information she would have offered came from the gaunt elf who slowly realized the cold rider fed him only lies.
We ended the game at that point this evening, I feel confident they may be able to pull out of this one. Nick and Tim are good writers, a little demented, dark and sick individuals but the concepts are good and challenging. It is fun to watch my players wretch at descriptions of children walking by licking twitching eyeballs on a stick.In my opinion fey CRs may be a little low. They gave my APL 5 group a harder challenge. The frosty chislers curse is interesting but I would have just left it at the 1d6 damage and dropped the stat damage. The fight with the swineomancer may be more interesting if you could have added a spell that adds weight (girth) to a target. Lowering Charisma, exhaustion and maybe giving -2 Dexterity due to armor not fitting well. The Freak show is good but I would have liked to know what happens to the freaks after the events. Why no animated Modern Machines? I know there isnt much that can be done with already printed modules, I hope this may help future modules be more well rounded.
Still, I am having a blast with the module. Please keep writing them.
First I want to take a moment and tell you guys at Paizo thank you for producing a fine product with the Bestiary. I have been spending the last day or so finally getting to look over it. One of my players had been mumbling about how late it was getting here but to be honest, I would prefer quality of product over a deadline. Craftsmanship takes time and in a world of instant gratification, we seldom get the time needed to insure products are polished the way they need to be. Anyway, I digress...
With the assumptions; the Bestiary has to conform with OGL, and is written to speak plainly about critters in general as well as restricted to page counts, etc, I would like for you to consider the following if there comes an opportunity for making a Bestiary, part 2.
I want these, therefore I am speaking up about it and would like to hear others thoughts as well. The intention is to hopefully help stir creativity in the exhausted Paizo employees and give you guys a little insight to our needs as GMs.
The regular races (elves,dwarves,humans...)to be included next time maybe with examples of commoner, warrior, noble and adepts for us to use at a glance. Often times at the gaming table it would be nice to flip to a page and use common stats if a fight was to break out at the bar, or on the rare occasion the group's rogue stole from that elven shopkeeper.
I read somewhere James Jacobs mentioned all non OGL critters were subsituted with equivilents. I have some gaps in my monster lists I would like to see eventually handled.
Like...
What about animated traps? How would that work? (CR of Creature + EL of trap sort of like a template?) Can Paizo produce something like a living spell?
Can we get critters from the Adventure Paths added in at some point?
I like the angels and demons but can we get some Golarion flavored outer planar types like Herald bards of Cayden, Slag elementals of Torag, or even fiendish bullettes of Rovagug. The point being I would like to see creatures with some sort of hook to the mythos already published. I love when I can bring up a historical point in my home game. I have used games to teach my daughter about Greek mythos with stories of Madeusa or Hercules and the hydra. Learning though play is the best way to get a point across to children. I would like more creatures from literary references. Grendel from Beowulf, the Jaberwock, titans even? What happened to them anyway? You also have an entire area in the campaign book with a scifi/sorcery feel. Creatures for that type of game will need to be considered as well. I know I ask too much, but I have been spoiled by you guys. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your time and I will continue to throw down ideas as they come to me.
In the https://secure.paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/myAccount page. Looks like it can not find the image for the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatability licence" in the menu bar. It is just a file pathing issue.
Code from the offending page is...
<A title="Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License" href="/pathfinderRPG/compatibility"><IMG border=0 src="http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZOCOMPATIBILITYE_180.jpeg" ></A>
code is the working code from the http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG page as follows...
<A title="Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License" href="http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility"><IMG border=0 src="http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZOCOMPATIBILITYE_180.jpeg" ></A>
This code tells me two things. One, copy&paste will get you every time and two,you guys need have a single image folder to reference that no matter how large the site map gets, your references to the image folder will not accidentally change on you causing src file not found errors. If you have to copy&paste, checking to see if the hrefs point to the right image folder will be one less problem to worry about.
Just finished D1 and I cant tell you how much fun I had running this module. All of my players are relatively new to gaming in general and the highlights of my game were when...
Spoiler:
1) Our bard ran off with Jeva in tow through the woods to get her away from a bugbear combat and keep her safe while his companions fought.... *cough*. Boy wasnt he surprised!
2) Our cleric got "stuck" in the Glintaxe encounter and after the fighter figured out what was happening, decided to bull rush the cleric to get him unstuck and wound up getting them both stuck. priceless!
3)in the room of the spear legion trap, a player used a scroll of fly to evade the trap, he purposely triggered the trap to disarm it and was happy that he did not fall the first round. His mood soured after the secondary effects took place.
4)In the fight with the Forge Spurned, the creature effectively sundered the fighter's weapon (Improved sunder with admantine weapons ignore hardness of i think 20 points) and blinded the ranger with its forge breath. That fight was brutal.
5) whilst running from the dwarven ghouls, the cleric got to the door of the ossuary, opened it without seeing the skeletons inside, turned back to see the ghouls closing in and decided to channel energy... inadvertantly killing 10 of the skeletons with a roll of 6 within the AoE. Nice
6)As the party fought the kobold king, there was an interesting roleplay where they backed into his consorts chambers, where she imediately tried to woo them. The bard trys to seduce her while the king entered the chamber and caught his concubine cuddling with the bard. She protested covering herself saying the bard made advances on her. I gave the bard a -2 penalty for his armor not being properly doned on.
All in all, i had a great time. The group enjoyed it and can not wait to play another of Nick Logue's modules.
Guessing this needs to go to Gary. I am using IE8 and noticed the img looks off with a white line under the img.
viewing the source code...
<td rowspan = "2" width = "200">
<!-- topNavBrandingImage -->
<a href="/paizo"><img border="0" alt="Paizo Top Nav Branding" src="/image/navigation/branding/paizo.gif"></a>
</td>
I am thinking the image is not the right height. Padding of like 5px to the top may be a quick fix or changing the height of the row(s) since you span two with the img.
take care. Gotta make sure my Paizo peeps look professional;)
I just got back from Dragon Con and loved the two games I could actually play in (those being #29, #30). Our group had only four players all first level. A paladin, thief, wizard and myself the cleric. Leaving the rest of this under a spoiler tag...
click here for problem with senario:
When we got to act #3, our half orc paladin bluffed the cleric Luscilia into thinking he was one of her orc workers. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a surprise round rushing the deck. On the deck, we found 3 fast zombies and a 3rd level cleric. On the first round the cleric cast blindness and the zombies attacked and killed the paladin to -24hp. I was able to keep the rest of the party alive by using my AC and healing myself while the thief and wizard fought at range from the door to concentrate on the cleric. The only problem I had with this encounter at our level was the channel negative energy. The cleric is 3rd level, but says it is a CR2 (2d6 Area effect 6 times a day, kind of like striking every first level character with a greatsword, every round) against 1st level characters could mean TPW in round one. I would like to suggest the cleric be made level 2 to even out the encounter to 1d6 damage. Also noticed the encounter was only to have 1 zombie, not sure why we had 3 unless the GM made a mistake and I realize that stuff happens sometimes. Other than that, I enjoyed the senario,the story was well written and the paladin won the table gift for his handling of roleplaying the death (it was good showmanship crying out to Iomedae, demanding justice for his untimely death and not getting pissed and walking away from the table.)
From the home page..."Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.
Dragon*Con 2009 will be held Labor Day weekend (September 4 - September 7, 2009) in Atlanta, GA".
Pathfinder senarios there include.. #23 Tide of Morning, #24 Decline of Glory, #29 Shipyard Rats and #30 Cassomir's Locker.
I am just curious if the developers have any house rules they use for their personal gaming tables they did not add to the PFRPG or rules they felt strongly about but may not have had enough room for it in the book?
In most rulebooks or in the introductory of modules is the statement "A well rounded group is recommended” but what does that really mean. When I think of about it, I envision someone to fight, someone sneaky, someone to heal and someone who can do the arcane stuff. Basically, a fighter, a thief, a cleric and the magic-user by old 1st edition standards come to mind. But what classes are truly essential, what classes can you have a successful game and do without?
As GM, I want my players to play the race/class combinations they want. I have noticed in my local gaming groups of late, the healer is the only class the groups will not go without. The one class no one wants to play. All of the other classes, though helpful are not thought of as essential to the game in their eyes. My groups gravitate to classes that are aggressive and it is more engaging to fight than to heal. The role of healer is played like hot potato, with someone having to have to play it out of guilt.
The game now in its 3.75 edition has come a long way. Paladins fight and are not too shabby in the healing department. Druids and bards can also heal and are formidable allies (and no, bards do not suck, just misunderstood). Still though, why are players hesitant to play without a true cleric?
In my current game, we started with no cleric. They did have a bard (Russ, for those of you who know and love him). The rest were rogue, monk and ranger. Kyle later would decide to drop Valeros the iconic fighter for a cleric of Cayden Cailean, but for the most part, the group played the D0 module without one and was successful.
Having to bounce back from a tiring fight is important and if the GM doesn’t want the party resting often, he must make some concessions to party healing. Below are some of the ways I deal with it.
1. Make healing potions, divine scrolls and wands available for purchase before the adventurers run off to the dungeon.
2. If magic shops are not available in your game world, herbs, salves and ointments may be a good alternative. In the Hollow’s last hope, Laurel owns a herb shop. You can even dial down the amount of healing a salve (1d4pts per use) or herb gives to make it less effective than having a cleric. The use of such items may be governed by a heal skill, or you make use it like a potion if no one has the heal skill.
3. Create an item to function as the clerics role. For instance, an amulet with a chain of gold holding the body of a fairy caught in amber ( think there is an item card in the GameMastery Wonderous Treasure Item cards) is functional and neat to play with. The fairy within is a soulbound fey , cleric of Desna level 4 and functions like a genie to be summoned once a day to heal the group with her spells before being banished back into the amulet.
I have been in the middle of moving some older gaming stuff around and came across a old "pick your own adventure" book from TSR back in 1982 called "Dungeon of Dread". I know the books were common in the 80's but I was wondering what are the chances Paizo would be willing to try one for pathfinder?
For those of you who do not know what i am speaking of... http://www.gamebooks.org/eq1list.htm
Its basically a novel you read as if you were playing a game. You read until you are given a choice, then you choose one of the choices and the decision tells you which page to continue reading on. This goes on and on until you end the story giving the reader a chance to be the hero of the stoey. It was a cool concept. Some books even aloowed you to keep up with a character sheet and had you roll dice to see if you won a battle.
It might bring in some younger players to the game.
In an effort to bridge the gap between PFRPG devs and those who love the Flumph... you two gamers know who you are, I have hopefully altered the Flumph stats to the new PFRPG standards.Thus allowing James and Erik to focus on getting the books out the door. Enjoy
FLUMPH, UMPH CR7(3,200 XP)
LN Large Aberration Init +1(Dex); Senses All-around vision, darkvision 60 ft, Perception +10
DEFENSE AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 ( +1 Dex, +8 natural,-1 size)
hp 32 (6d8+9)
Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +6
Defensive Abilities OFFENSE Spd Fly 20 ft.
Space 10 ft; Reach 5 ft
MeleeSpikes +10 melee (1d8 plus acid), 2 Eye Rays +4 ranged touch
Special Attacks acid, engulf, eye rays, Nauseating spray, pounce
STATISTICS Str 22, Dex 12, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CBM +11(+15 Grapple); CMD +12
Feats Weapon Finesse (spikes), Improved Grapple
Skills Stealth +10, Survival +7
ECOLOGY Enviornment Any underground
Organization solitary
Treasure None
SPECIAL ABILITIES Eye Ray(Su) Each of the flumph’s eye rays resembles a spell cast by a 5th level caster. Both eyes have a range of 30 feet and a save DC of 13. The rays include:
Sleep :This works like the spell, except that it affects one creature with any number of hit dice(Will negates).
Slow : this works like the spell, except it affects only one creature. The target can make a will save to negate the effect.
Pounce (Ex) When a flumph falls 10 feet effectively charging downward, it can make a full attack.
Engulf (Ex) A flumph who hits with its spikes can start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity against creatures at least one size category smaller than itself. If the flumph wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and gains a +4 to its next attack roll.
While engulfed, the flumph can still use it’s eyestalks to affect other targets.
Acid (Ex) When a flumph hits an opponent with its spikes, it injects a potent acid into the wounds. This acid deals 1d8 points of damage to the opponent for 4d4 rounds. The acid can be washed away by vigorously rinsing (two full rounds) or by total immersion in running water.
Nauseating Spray (Ex) Line of foul smelling liquid, 5 foot wide, 5 foot high, and 30 feet long, once every 1d4 rounds; nauseated (no action other than a single move or move-equivalent action) for 1d8 rounds; Fortitude save (DC 15) negates.
The odor from this spray lingers in the area (and on any creature hit) for 1d8 hours and can be detected at a range of 300 feet.
A flumph appears as a jellyfish-like creature about eight feet in diameter. Its body is round and almost flat. The body is flanked by two eyestalks, each about ten inches long. Several long tentacles hang from the creature's underside, concealing a mass of large spikes. A flumph is pure white in color with slightly darker tentacles.
In Combat, the flumph hovers a 20 feet above the ground, or hangs motionless in trees or similar concealment, hunting medium creatures such as humans, elves, and orcs. When it finds a medium creature, it falls ten feet, and drops onto its prey, engulfing them, piercing them with its spikes and injecting its acid into the wounds.
If the prey escapes the engulf, the flumph uses its eyestalks to slow down its victims or puts them to sleep.
If threatened by a larger creature, the flumph attempts to drive it away by squirting a foul-smelling liquid from an orifice along its equator. If this fails, the flumph can rise to a height of 10 feet and drop onto an opponent, piercing it with its spikes and injecting its acid into the wounds.
There I was last Sunday night playing my usual Falcon’s hollow gaming group when my wife had gotten irritated with one of the other players. He is 16 and does stupid stuff, and it bothered her to the point she was done for the night. Her tolerance for BS had diminished. I pulled her aside and asked if she wanted me to call it a night. She said no, go ahead and finish but I want to talk to the offending player later out of play. She understands I started this game to get the local younger generation more involved with table top gaming instead of World of Warcrafting all the time.
The offending player is Russ, Russ has died or been almost slain at least four times in the last two sessions. We have been gaming about 2 months and he is on his third character. Russ, currently a gnome bard, is the kind of guy who kicks in the door before checking for traps, looks the ogre bouncer in the eye while he insults its mother and is the first one to drink from the weird evil looking fountain of random effects. This kind of thing is OK for me, because it is easy run a game where the players are naïve. However, smarter, more cautious players suffer at the hands to the actions of the chaotic neutral players. Russ also doesn’t know how to play a bard. He is new and I needed to get him involved in reading the Beta rulebook… kids for some reason have gotten away from reading, unless its Facebook/MySpace or texting on their phones.
So, that evening, Russ’s gnome bard found himself in the Silver Bullete bar in Oldfen. Not even a month ago, He and a friend had fled that same bar after a fatal bar brawl which landed him in Falcon’s hollow as a refuge. When he fled, he was playing Lem, the halfling bard iconic pregen. The party was just finishing the module D0 Hollow’s last hope, and decided to venture to Oldfen to get better prices on their loot. I had mentioned to the players that Russ’s character was getting a lot of weird looks. A simple diplomacy check told the players of local things going on and that the guards were looking for a human swordsman and a short musical bard responsible for the death of citizen. His widow had put up a reward of 5 gold for any information on them. Russ did not catch on but the other player’s understood why the tavern goers were giving Russ the weird looks. One man bought Russ a drink, asked him where he hailed from and introduced himself prompting Russ to do the same. Russ replied and the man said “tis shame, I was hoping you were the famous Lem” and Russ said without thinking “ooooooh, that IS me, my middle name is Lem”
The guards were called as the other players were trying to get to Russ, but it was too late. Most of the patrons in the bar had known the man slain and were not letting him get away. Russ’s character was hauled off. Russ says “ I will wait till they put me in jail then I will use my escape artist skill or maybe I will kill the guards now and these peasants will all learn to fear me”. The other players were shaking their heads.
I reach and grab the Gamemastery Map Pack:Villiage where cartographer Cory Macourek was nice enough to include a gallows map and I placed Russ’s character on it with the two guards and the captain arresting him. The captain reads off the charges. The penalty for murder was death by hanging. Russ, hands and feet bound with noose around his neck was asked “Do you have any final wishes?”. I paused the game as the other players were positioning themselves to pull a Robin Hood like rescue.
I looked Russ in the eye and said as a GM “This is a bad situation Russ. Your hands and feet tied,yet you still are not helpless. You still have the ability to speak and as a bard, that may be all that you need. You get one action and only one before the captain uses his readied action to pull the lever. I suggest to you, take a few minutes to read your class out of the handbook and look for anything that may help you stay alive. Depending on your roleplaying I will give you a circumstance bonus to your next roll. Once you have made an action and rolled the dice that is it.” Everything got quiet. Russ was scarred. I left the table a minute to let him read.
When I got back, Russ tells me he has the Fascinate ability and tells me he is going to use his action to try to fascinate the captain with a wild tale of Cayden Cailean. Roleplaying, he spins a tale of unbelievable proportions going to the nth degree lying and making up stuff about how Cayden single handedly killed eight dragons with an enchanted tankard. The tale lasts over 10 minutes of real time. I made him roll the dice giving him a +4 circumstance bonus to his perform check (+3) and told him the DC was a 15. I was impressed but I guessed he had help coming up with the story. Still, it was good.
He rolled an 8 and sighed. It was just enough for the captain to relax his grip from the lever. Within moments a female voice from the crowd could be heard “That is not him.” An auburn hair woman pushed her way through to the gallows. “During the last few days my husband and I spent together, he told me it was a halfling who stabbed him, not a gnome. This little one is not his murderer. I would see him freed.”
Russ’s character was let down and apologized to. Russ told me later he had a great time and that he will study what his character can do.
Creating an adventuring group
The module starts in the town of Falcons Hollow, but how do the players become a close knit adventuring group? Not every table you sit down to will be 4-6 people who have known each other before. Mostly never, and personality types can cause problems. People come sit down to your table from every corner of society, with different backgrounds, philosophies and points of view. What they all have in common is they want to sit and enjoy a good adventure filled with heroic deeds, challenging villains and wondrous treasure. The first evening, the gathering or mustering of characters is a pivotal point in a campaign. Players left to their own devices generally are untrusting of other characters in first contact. As a GM, I feel its necessary to tie the players in some way. To give reason to be meeting each other and help give focus to the story instead of each other. After a while, positive roleplaying will emerge out of the story telling and the players will become immersed into a surreal world.
Finding the common thread
Looking over the characters, their alignments and classes, I see a real division in play styles, the holy types, and the barfighting, rough and tumble types. At this point, Aurora is not with the group, Amy had family issues to tend to and told me to start without her.
Only Rite the cleric has any back story at this point so I start with him. Rite receives word from Lady Cirthana, the head priestess in Falcon’s Hollow, a summons to meet discreetly at her temple mentioning the church there has not been welcomed as she had hoped for when they first settled the area. She mentions the locals seem reluctant and fear the lumber consortium may be holding their pay if they are caught attending the services. Take the paladin Seelah with you in case there is trouble on the road. This sets the motive for group one.
Group two starts in Oldfen at the Silver Bulette but more so running from it and the town of Oldfen due to some misunderstanding about the quality of ale, a price and the questionable heritage of the owner’s parents. Needless to say, after a few broken pieces of furnature and bruised faces. Valeros, Lem and Seltyeil rush off to Falcon’s Hollow to avoid persuit of guard that would never follow them. This gives them more a sense of companionship than individuality. Once the watch came in to clear out the bar, all three of the players tried to talk, plead and eventually fled. The banter started early on setting blame on Lem’s failed attempt to pick pocket a barmaid or Seltyeil’s hot headed temper. Valeros was sitting a little too close and was caught in a sucker punch. In the end of the brawl, they were sike sibling brothers. Group two was on their way to Falcon’s Hollow.
The road to Falcon’s Hollow
Along the dirt road they meet each other, exchange glances but do not really talk. With opposing alignments, working class versus religious cast differences, no one wanted to speak. There is nothing like a common enemy to break the ice with.
I wanted to tie in the D1 Crown of the Kobold King module early on. I wanted to establish familiarity to the denizens of the Darkwood forest. I set an encounter on the road, a sign written in draconic under a tree saying “pink skins here”. Waist high bushes to either side of the road. One Kobold FTR2 trapper with net and javlin in the tree. Two kobold WAR1 ambushers from the left side of the road. Spot check DC12 to notice a pattern of rocks on the ground in the form of an “X” in front of the sign. It seemed simple enough.
“Initiative”
Lem rushed up to read the sign, stopping right on the “X”. Lem had about just enough time to learn the language was draconic by his bard knowledge before a net fell over him. Then it occurred to me. The group had not real ranged attacks. Most were melee types. The ambushers met them in the road and were quickly dispatched by Seltyeil and Valeros. The kobold in the tree though got a crit on the Seelah and it looked grim if not for my D6’s rolling 2’s. I rolled a balance check for the kobold in the tree to see if he would fall out any time he took a standard action or was hit. The cleric picked up a rock from the road and killed the tree kobold. Lem managed to unentangle himself after the fight.
Rite offered to heal the wounded. Lem was just glad to be free of the net. Seelah managed with Valeros to find all the kobolds gear, cleared the sign from the road and they talked the rest of the evening by campfire about Iomedae, Falcon’s Hollow and the fact they were glad to be away from Oldfen.
I have not recieved my copy of the Bonus Bestiary yet but after reading the boards, i like the idea of undead getting a HP adjustment from their CHA...
Does that mean that most intelligent undead come from sorcerers and bards? Guess that would make sense. Keith Richards is undead isnt he?
2. Spell all your proper names correctly if referencing from pre released products.
3. Never pass up a chance to tie in some other Paizo product with the scenario. Game maps, item cards or reference book. It helps GMs be more well- rounded on any given scenario, creates surrealism to the campaign setting and may cut down on development time of a map.
4. Venture-Captain was hyphenated and only upper case when used with a proper name.
5. Less fluff, more meat. Fluff is good, but not with the proposal. Be straight and to the point. Get to the point. Clearly define the encounters.
6. Josh mentioned no "retirement home for dragons" scenarios. At first I did not know what this meant. In my home game, I use a lot of wit or sometimes comedy to break up tension to a serious evening of gaming. I do not think the direction of the scenarios is comedy based.
7. A lot of what I heard coming from several of the designers was the “Indiana Jones” concept. If you think it would make a good Indiana Jones sequel, it may be a good scenario idea.
8. Write well, be accurate, use your knowledge of the game to branch out and design a new feat, or a template to add to the monsters or even a new condition code. Developing new ideas along with clever story will help you stand out.
9. This is the most important thing I have learned. Learn from every failure and never give up trying. I spoke with Larcifer who told me it took him four submissions of his before he was accepted. Success is built upon the wisdom of past losses.
Hope this helps. Good luck in your submission writing.
A friend and I submitted this together to try to get a more rounded idea to pitch. He is more the writer, I am the game mechanics developer sort.
Our guidance was "a new secret basement level has been found in the Blakros Museum from #5 Mists of the Mwangi senario."
We were rejected for a few things, some we are ashamed of like misspelling some names, at least we got Erik right and some were more general. Josh had mentioned they were not accepting submissions which used the surrounding planets.
Spoiler:
From the Age before recorded history, mankind has gazed with wonder and awe at the stars shining within the Dark Tapestry. Our ancient forefathers were certain in the belief that their beauty and wonder contained the very secrets of the gods themselves. But the wisdom of the stars is not a goal for the faint of heart, as the darkness between the points of light are often filled with dangers more terrifying than the deepest abyss.
It has been many years since Ralzeros; an eccentric archmage, searched the Dark Tapestry for secrets and forbidden knowledge. It was during the years of searching that he built his basalt observatory that would one day become the Blakros Museum. It was also during this time that his quest brought him to the attention of a Lashunta of the Nika-Dalmous clan of distant Castrovel, the Green. This clan of powerful psionicists had long sought for a way to exploit Golarion for their own ends, and corrupting Ralzeros, became the first step in their quest for power and domination. Eventually, Ralzeros was slain, but not before he had secretly created new agents for his Castrovel Mistress, the family that would come to be known as Blakros.
Descended from Ralzeros, bred with an ability to hear the distant voices from Castrovel and to entice the men of many lands with their beauty, the Daughters of Blakros slowly expanded their influence beyond Absalom. Over the years, the beautiful Daughters of Blakros married into the nobility of many lands, gathered wealth and secrets from beyond the Inner Sea and slowly fulfilled the wishes of the Voice from the Void.
When the mad pathfinder, Lugizar Trantos arrived from distant Numeria with a crate for the Blakros Museum, he muttered “And so my oath is fulfilled.” before slipping into a coma, the Society became concerned. When shortly afterwards, the numerous daughters of Blakros began to return to Absalom, sending Nigel Aldain away to far off Varisia, and closed the doors of the often haunted museum, that concern became worry.
The daughters are now having a massive celebration in their Absalom mansion, and have left only a skeletal staff at their many properties. What is happening behind the walls of the Blakros Museum, and who can discover the secrets of the Daughters of Blakros before they complete their ultimate goal?
The Nika-Dalmous have made a pact with the Demon Lord Cyth V’sug, and are using its magic to protect the seeds that the daughters have collected. The seeds are to be sent via the Arkall to Castrovel. Their plan is to use the seeds to create an undistinguishable human/plant hybrid that they will use to subvert the powerful nations of Golarion.
Rooms
1 Blakros Museum - Before Nigel leaves for Varisia he tells the Society that the Daughter have been spending a lot of effort working on the basalt floor of the North Exhibit Hall. He gave the Society a key to the museum’s front doors and warned them that something is afoot. The ziggurat on display in the North Hall has been moved back, exposing an opening in the basalt floor. Stairs lead down into the darkness below.
Enc1- Guardian (Alien) Tier 1 Vegapygmy x3 (EL2)/ Tier 2 Grick (EL 4) / Tier 3 Gibbering Mouther (EL 6)
2 Entrance Chamber – Enc2 Trapped stairs (EL 1-4) lead down to the Entrance Chamber.
Barren Sentinel – Not all the children of Blakros have the temperament or ability to become a true “Daughter”. Those found lacking for any reason are sterilized, and become Barren Sentinels. These beautiful but deranged daughters are turned into enraged guardians of the families holdings.
Enc3 Guardian Tier 1 Barren Sentinel (EL3)/ Tier 2 Barren Sentinel (EL 6) / Tier 3 Barren Sentinel (EL 7)
3 Incubation Chamber – The seeds gathered by the Daughters from the nobles of distant lands have been placed within the moist and nourishing earthen walls of this room to incubate. The “Seeds” are a mix of human and plant, and are nurtured in soil that is fed by demonic grubs and spores provided by Cyth V’sug. (Cheliax Goal)
4 Disposal Chamber – “Seeds” that are not viable are disposed of here. This is also the room where the Vegapygmy’s are grown from the Otyugh guano that is left after it consumes the discarded Seeds.
Enc4 Guardian - Castrovel Otyugh – (variant) Tier 1 (EL2)/ Tier 2 (EL 4) / Tier 3 (EL 6)
5 Preparation Chamber – The room is filled with alchemical and thaumaturgical equipment. Seeds are being encased within a viscous shell to protect them during their upcoming transfer through the Arkall to Castrovel. Once a Seed is prepared it is placed within a special cask and taken to the Arkall.
- Enc5 Castroval Astral Obelisk which details the pending astral alignment which the Daughters are going to use to help power the Arkall, and transfer the various Seed and information to the Nika-Dalmous Matriarch. EL4 (optional) (Sarenrae Ankh used as the symbol for the sun – Osirion Goal)
-Enc6 Guardian – Tier 1 Barren Sentinel (EL3)/ Tier 2 Barren Sentinel (EL 6) / Tier 3 Lashunta Agent (EL 7) and Enc7 Vegapygmy servitors who can be called from the Arkall room.
Information found within the Preperation Chamber also includes a record of which noble families / races were the source of each seed. Taldor, Andoran Goal.
6 Arkall– A vast circular room is dominated by ring of metal, suspended over a pile of Seed Casks. The ring of metal is held aloft by 4 stout chains. Attached to the metal ring is the Electro-Thaumaturgical device that Lugizar Trantos brought back from Numeria. ( Qadiran Goal)
Success
If the party is able to prevent the activation of the Arkall, they will have succeeded. The Pathfinder Society learns of a new threat and can warn their factions of the Blakros plot. Blakros influence will prevent the family from being totally discredited.
Failure
The Seed Casks are sent to Castroval, where they are grown to become Nika-Dalmous spies.
The main take aways I learned over the weekend was to pay attention to the little technical things. Never use a ";". Write encounters, not rooms. Try to avoid ideas that are comical. Josh used the term "retirement home for dragons" and it had never occured to me that my home style of gaming sometimes used laughter to break up the seriousness of an evening. Adventures need to be more serious and to the point. Research and try not to reinvent an earlier product.
Please feel free to comment on the submission.
Thanks in advance for your critique. Josh mentioned the boards were harsh, I will don my armor and shield and await the thrown vegtables.
It has changed my gaming life. Not only have I seen the light, but my friends are saved as well. To the point they made this feature a home rule in the regular D&D non pathfinder games.
Channel Energy could be the one rule that makes everyone want to play a cleric. The ability to heal your group without having to sink all your chosen spells into Cure Wounds spells to get through a game session is quite appealing. The class is no longer the one you give to the group introvert, you know, the kid who sits in on the game and reads novels and occasionally picks his head up from the book to tell the GM "oh, yeah, i heal Ragnar the barbarian this turn, go kill em Rag!" and retreats back into his reading for others to enjoy the action.
Excellent rule... nice job guys. please keep the innovative game concepts coming.
The more i think about this, the more i think Ki Pool, Barbarian Rage points should be more like the Rogue Talents or Fighter Feats
Every other level or so, the player gets a choice of a special class feat making them unique to others in their class without having to keep up with the math.
Shelyn, Goddess of Beauty, Art , Love and Music has a favored weapon of Glaive. Abadar, God of Cities,wealth, Merchants and law has a crossbow.
Im thinking these need to be swapped. Shelyn gets the crossbow, Abadar gets a glaive (or polearms).
It would be really nice to give Shelyn a weapon that could double as a musical instrument, like say a Harpbow, so Bard worshippers would not have to change items in a fight.
I like the Rage Powers, diversity is needed with the Barbarian class, but keeping up with points is not an easy task. Can you make the powers into a Feat tree mechanic or even a spell list (rage powers per day) just so GMs can keep players in check without having to do the math. You could even make it an optional way of doing the powers.
At 17th level a paladin gains a DR/5 Evil. I like the Idea of DR for a paladin, but personally feel it should be DR/5 Good not evil. Paladins should suffer penalties for fighting Good creatures not evil ones. Generally, if the paladin is doing his justice, this feat would never help him cause most of his foes would be evil of some type.
In the old game I realize using Con to base the skill Concentration was a good idea, sort of even ground for all the classes.The more durable the caster, the easier it was to continue casting a spell under duress. I agree the Concentration skill needs to go and the Spellcraft skill is the obvious choice, however, not all casters are intelligence based. What of Bards, of Clerics? Should a human wizard be harder to make fumble a spell than say a dwarven cleric? No, we want even chances for all classes no matter what spells they cast.
Here is what i suggest.
Option one, tailor the skill to suit the class using it. Primary ability score as its base. This would be an easy fit. as i read the list of what Spellcraft allows a player to do, I feel the first benefit ( identify spell as it is being cast) is more befitting the Knowledge Arcana skill than the rest of the spellcraft uses, but that is another subject.
Option two.
Create a rule more like a save or a caster level check. If you take damage, you roll D20, add your caster level, primary stat, against DC 10,+ damage taken, + level of spell being cast. In cases where someone is entangled, bad weather, distracted.. the GM can add +2 Circumstance bonus to the DC.
