Go figure, the day I post something and the boxes arrive. Nothing new to report, I am afraid I did not receive anything that is not already mentioned above (I did get a Rappan Athuk notebook, but it had no notes in it...I guess I will need to make some of my own)...that said, I got stuff I can swap around. All in all, it was a good load even if I did not get any golden beebees. I have a keen interest in Rappan Athuk swag from the KS I missed (I got the button, dice, level 7B, and two battlemats, I can let one of those go too). I am a big fan, what can I say?
Here are the things I can let go:
KS mini Bethany Razor
Resin mini Karnedge Gorefathom
S&W Hireling and Equipment decks
Tome of Horrors 3
Vault of Larrin Karr
R1-3 Rappan Athuk (I have a second R2 that I just got, but I have had the original three for years; I need space too and since I have a leather edition on the way and a reloaded edition in hand, I am looking for a new home for these)
Rappan Athuk battlegrid flip surface map
S&W adventures:
Hall of Bones
SF5-10 (Eclipse of the Hearth, Mornign of Tears, The Heir of Sin, Pains of Scalded Glass, Duel of Magic, and Remorse of Life)
Stuff I would like should you have it (and I am not as concerned with new condition) all 3.5 or PF:
LE Orcus Mini
Lost City of Barakus
Cyclopean Deeps
Rappan Athuk Players Guide
Rappan Athuk Bestiary
Rappan Athuk side view map
Rappan Athuk Battle Maps
Rappan Athuk GM Screen
Rappan Athuk Pregenerated Characters
Rappan Athuk pencil
Rappan Athuk sticker
The Mother of all Treasure Tables
Wurst of Grimtooths Traps
K3 - The Doom of Listonshire
K5 - The Six Spheres of Zaihhess
K7 - The Tower of Jhedophar
K10 - Demonheart
K12 - The Earmonvale Incursion
G6 - The Grey Citadel
F2 - Fane of the Witchking
SF series (1-10) in PF not S&W
And of course, I am open to suggestions! If you are in Europe, I may be available for you too, talk to me.
I am still waiting for mine to show, I got 1 large and 1 medium. Would anyone be interested in some form of swapping for anything I may have doubles of? I see plenty of things in hand by you all that I do not yet have, but I do have many things Necromancer...
Holy crap, this is great! I am waiting for my copy of Tsar to show, but I do not even have a group where I am currently located. I have been gaming starting with the red box since the early eighties and pretty much did the DM thing the whole time (I got to play periodically, but 98% DM). I move around alot (and I cannot wait for the next move) so I get exposed to a lot of new players. I am a huge fan of what was Necromancer games and since FGG has at least some of the talent that brought those wonderful items to print, I will probably be a fan of theirs for the forseeable future (especially since I jumped in on Sword of Air).
I would like to mention that there is a lot of interaction between the fluff (and characters) that are present in a bulk of the Necromancer adventures. In particular, there is a Half-Orc Cleric that goes from Crucible of Freya into Rappan Athuk (and if you destroyed him first, that is already covered). I became attached to the FR setting, so I run all my campaigns there. Fortunately, there is a preceident for Orcus in the game world through the Bloodstone Lands series. That made it easy in my mind to have all that wonderful stuff cross over into FR. Most of the stuff I use from Necromancer was linked to a campaign I use time and again (cause I move and have so many new people to experience it) adapted from The Night Below. I have other stuff too, but it is about 50/50 between Necromancer and all others. I even added RA as a side venture, but most groups were afraid of it. I can say that its introduction to your campaign should not be a conflict at any point and that your players will have just about as hard a time negotiating without losses as they are do now. The good news is that they designed entrances to lower levels (thus more difficult, or built for higher level characters.) They should work well together and you may even be able to link something they desperately need to solve the Tsar (remember, I have not read it yet, so not sure about the viability of this) by going to RA and get it.
I also have a suggestion for teleport, if you would like a logical reason for it not being an option for them. Link a teleport to a random loction ward to the massive unhallow effect of the Desolation. I figure without deity level magic, they will be unable to penetrate or dispell the effect until they resolve the core issue (thus ending the campaign and it is no longer an issue). Further, you can link a teleport shield that nullifies the effect while inside the Desolation so they are unable to teleport out for ease of travel. That way, when they first try the teleport, they hopefully get the message that it will not work or can get them into even more random trouble if they attempt to use it as a simple short cut. Just some ideas to help with your thought train.
One of these days I need to do a story hour, my wife says it would be nice...maybe once I settle down for a bit...
Getting down to the wire and less than 2K to go to the second book for magic and alchemical crits! The GM screen just unlocked too. This stuff is gonna be great!
Here is another new kickstarter that is perfect for Pathfinder fans: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brianberg/laying-waste-a-guide-to-criti cal-combat-pathfinder
As of the time of this posting it has almost funded, but there are a ton of stretch goals with another book dropped into here. There are also a number of add ons to go with the campaign. Please, check it out.
To add to what is already posted here, PFRPG is an extension of the 3.5 material and was created in response to WOTC being bought by Hasbro, converting to the new 4th edition system, and discontinuing of the D20 open gaming license. There are some details in there, most of which are already posted, bu that is, in a nutshell, why PFRPG came into being. It was created in response to the support provided by people that did not want to see the end of the 3.x system, but rather an expansion of it. It seems to be doing quite well.
In any case, there are actually more than 4 editions of D&D, some of the ones that are not so easy to find are due to them predating what is referred to as AD&D, or the first edition. These are mostly nuts and bolts things like rulesets that are tied to level and their accompanying adventures. With the second edition came a launch of material that focused more on world settings than nuts and bolts rules, which were also provided, but in a different presentation than by level sets. There were still adventures to go with them all though.
In current times of internet availability, WOTC now offers a great deal of the older items on their website as PDF downloads and is the first place to start to get that older material. If you desire hardcopy over PDF versions, then ebay is the way to go. You can most likely find someone willing to part with an entire collection in one sweep that will have you catching up on reading for months.
Finally, there are support magazines for this hobby. Most notable among them are Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine. They are strictly digital now, but there are ways to get back issues as stated above. Newer material is out there supporting PFRPG, Kobold magazine most notable among those and you should be able to find the bulk of them by exploring this site.
Hope this helps you in your search and do not be afraid to advertise in the internet and at local game shops for new players.
Here are a couple more sources of material for background info on what you want to combine. There is a trilogy of adventures late in 3.5 dealing with the reemergence of the Netherease from the plane of Shadow. They are hard bound volumes with titles like Cormyr a Tearing of the Weave, Shadowdale something, and another on Anorauch something. It is possible to find these on the net as PDF if you look for them. Great background material and maybe some ideas to add to your current adventure. There is also a group of surface dwelling Drow that control a country in the Shining South, mostly through their half blood kin. The book is called, simply, Shining South (there is other stuff in there too). You can use that info as a basis for the society you are planning to build in the new location. The last thing I have to offer is an adventure called City of the Spider Queen. It is an early 3.0 adventure that is set under (near) Shadowdale. It is obvious by the title who the star villains are, but the plot can also be useful for the background for your adventure as well, if not the NPC villains.
And a thought about the travelling...why not go underground? There is a source book called Underdark that details all the areas under the surface of the places you want to travel through. Maybe it will offer womething better than the overland routes? Also, timeframe is a factor, as alluded to in Laurefindel's earlier post, somethings in the areas you are travelling through will have changed based on the date. for example, near the end of the 3.5 timeline, up in old dwarf country, the Dwarves and the Orcs are trading control of some holds and the Orcs even carve out a surface nation. Do a net search for Forgotten Realms timeline and you should be able to pick up the idea of what I am talking about.
Good luck with your creation and let us know how it turns out, or, even post some of the notes once you have it under way...
Making Finslayer a weapon of Legacy might be kinda cool but i never liked the fact that to use one you have to burn like 3 or 4 feats for it (call me wierd). I agree that the monster's do make the adventure, though i might be able to take some licensing with it... Something i will have to contemplate lol.
Simply solved by eliminating the feat requirement and sticking to nothing more than rituals to unlock the magic...
Good luck with this and if you start a working thread, I will be sure to check in from time to time
Several folks have already chimed in with some suggestions. I would drop a vote for making a conversion of the creatures as is from the link to the Enworld 3.5 conversion. Most of the work will already be done, and in my opinion, the original monsters are what makes the adventure. Further, there will be a need for adding something additional to the basic encounters to spice it up a little. The largest complaint I heard about it was the repititious encounters with the same creatures. I offset that with roleplay and additional material that kept the PCs guessing what was really going on until someone fed them the info. It also helsp to bring them back aboveground periodically as part of the additional material.
Another thing I enjoyed adding was Finslayer and other choice items. I used the Weapons of Legacy book to build it and it became a not so overpowered tool at such an early stage, but at appropriate levels it became just the tool needed. Maybe some sort of "ritual" based magic involved with its conversion will make it useful throughout for your campaign as well.
My vote is for the H series or the Rod of Seven Parts, that would be a little different. Another great one that does not work as a direct conversion is Dragon Mountain. That one would definitely need something else done to it for the third book.
While the Night Below would be a great conversion, it already exists as a 3.5, as does the A series. It would not take much to continue rolling those into a Pathfinder version. Anywho, they are readily available as text documents on Enworld.
Total awesomeness! I just got back from a whirlwind two week tour of 7 countries in Europe. I should sell the experience to hollywood and book it as the worst vacation ever. I wish I could have been more use to you on this project, but damn, you are good.
Anywho, what is on the horizon as the next great project? (Bloodstone...)
I just looked over the update and I have a Pathfinder question I am not able to answer from my rulebook. Since it is not stated specifically and 3.5 was the basis from which Pathfinder evolved, I am assuming that this rule will be the same, so here it is. On the subject of NPCs with a core class, not an NPC class, are they not supposed to be the same CR as their level? In 3.5 that was the rule and NPC classes would be one less CR than class level.
At any rate, you are correct about the ubiquitious fireball being a scene ender for the encounter with the first set of guards. I have a few thoughts below:
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A few tactical thoughts from previous run throughs on this encounter over the years. The wizard can prepare with a delay action carried over from the set of the ambush (surprise against the bad guys will be incredibly difficult, but not impossible), but the delay can be for a counter spell or a damage inflicting spell to cause a concentration check. Another tactic I used was to supply the spearman with an additional body shield instead of changing the weapon to long spear to direct the characters into a funnel toward the swordsmen to keep them from fanning out and flanking past the troops toward the bowmen and spell caster in the back. The polearms with the reach will be spread out behind the ranks for their attacks. I also left the polearm leader with the Boots of Levitating and had him levitate above the door to make an attack against any lagging PCs, usually spell casters or bowmen themselves. No one has looked up upon entering the room, ever. I also left the Lieutenant with the Ring of Invisibility and had him invisible when the PCs entered so he may be able to maneuver into a position to achieve a flat footed attack before he is discovered, or possibly even more than one. The bad thing about clumping the bad guys to keep the PCs from fanning out is that they are more subject to Cleave results, especially against the level 1 dudes, but they are going to die just as easily if they are spread out in defense anyway...
Another thing to consider is that the PCs may have well spent much of their offensive magic against Aulicus if they did not bypass him with some form of sneakiness. If they decide to stay put to heal and rest, then send a patrol from the random encounter list to discourage the idea (under the pretense that they are checking on Aulicus's condition after the noisy battle). A couple final notes are that while the Lieutenant is an obvious leader with his actions, the sub leaders are not and should be indistinguishable from the other bad guys they are leading (unless something obviously gives them away and produces some interesting facial expressions from players when they do not succumb to 10 points of damage). Lastly, if Gormundel does escape the frey under his conditions, there is no reason why he could not stop by the Captain's quarters to summon reinforcements if the encounter is going to easily against the NPCs (stating he needs more magic from his quarters prior to returning to the fray, explaining his original course of action to not return to the fray). Just some of the things I have done before to "even the odds".
Sorry I have been off the boards for the week, got family visiting...
What I need to do in my assistance is to quit thinking as I am in the past and actually reread the sections I am looking at updating. For example, I solved the problem of the combined encounter by simply leaving the dragon in his hidy hole until after the PCs dealt with the external guards. I know the module says he sticks his head out when certain conditions are met, and frankly if the PCs are wiping through the external guards, he still can, but the PCs can also completely bypass him if they take the other route from the external guard chamber (and that can also be an escape for them instead of defeating him as well if you are adamant about not altering that piece). Anywho, if my weekend opens up any, I will take a look at the first level of the tomb and its guards since I will actually be able to do their conversions...
I almost forgot there is a fella that posted either here or on enworld that has already started this as well. I have not heard from him in a bit so I will shoot him an email and bring him onboard. He may have some of the immediate future already fleashed and ready for review.
Also, I am going to take a look at the initial and follow on encounter I mentioned last post and see if I can shoot you a proposal today.
I am all over this one. I have used this adventure a few times in my 3.5 campaign. I am very interested in how the "lower levels" will work out and I offer my assistance in making this the "expert" adventure you want it to be.
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For example, I translated the dragon into an aerial expert, unbeatable in the open skies by the PCs, but when encountered in its lair, most of its abilities get nullified, and thus, a 7 level party can defeat it and move on
I can be reached for collaberation outside the boards at thedmstrikes@yahoo.com
I also have a digital copy of the second level in a full map, but it is in either spanish or portugese for the little writing there is in the corner. I will have to scan the remaining maps myself from the hard copies I have.
Other things I have are all of the digital updates from WOTC (most notably an article about updating the traps specific to the box set to 3.5) and digital copies of the three articles from Dragon. I also have digital copies of each of the box sets (which was why I thought I may have the maps already) and the expedition book. These resources can be used to populate the areas they describe but are not in the original box set.
Finally, although only in hard copy, I have a series of index cards done in 2D ed from when I was undertaking the project you are now that can be used to give you a bit of a jump start on populating the blank areas with some ideas if nothing else. I also stumbled upon two files from a fella that contain his journal of notes with numbers (but no map to key the numbers to, although I beleive they are the original numbers on the level one map) of a 2D ed tromp through the Undermountain. Again, this may be useful for augmenting what is already there, especially the parts he details a second visit to. What may be most useful is designing an "if...then" notes page about the powers that be in each level and how the will react to certain changes within the dungeon, i.e. if room 13b is cleared of the current inhabitants, then they will move in and set up shop with...as well as, a list of alternate encounters if they do not occupy the now empty space. There will also need to be a time frame involved on how long it takes for such actions to take place after the PCs wander through even if it is only five minutes and a new creature wanders into an old space and makes it a new lair.
I left my email above if you would like access to any of these resources, just let me know.
I just started checking this out and it will be quite the undertaking. I once tried filling in the blanks of undermountain and I never even touched the second level. I have all of the hard copy materials and could scan the remaining maps, but I may already have them digitally. I will need to plug my game drive back into the computer and go through it, maybe this weekend. Send me an email reminder on friday and I will check it (thedmstrikes@yahoo.com).
At the risk of being accused of thread necromancy, I have no other way to communicate with the original poster. My appologies for my silence for most of the last year, I am in the military and have had quite a busy year since I was last posting in this thread. If you are still working on this project, I am now finding myself with the time necessary to contribute as I originally offered. As my sudden disappearance is drawing to a close, the chances of it happening again for a good while are equal to WW III breaking out, so if you are still following the boards, send me an email and I can make good on my offer (finally) to help out with this.
The class levels will stack independently of the base creature. Since all its psionic abilities are psi like and have daily uses vs powered by power points, then everything divides easily. Just imagine that a spell using creature that has both spell levels from a class and spell like abilities. The two do not stack, the psi/spell like abilities have an independent level from their actual psionic manifester/spell caster level. As for CR, any creature that adds classes to its base is simply advanced in CR 1 per level added.
So, in your example, if the Aboleth had both a psi like ability and a psionic power of the same name, it could choose to either use a daily allotment at a fixed manifester level or the power point version at its level based manifester level. When you start adding in or changing standard feats for the creature, either of these two effects could be affected, but that would be a different question...
Deamonslye, you mentioned a while back about your next project and one of the adventures on your list was Tomb of the Lizard King. There is a fella on the boards that is going through that one now, just in case you wanted to look in on him and offer some well earned colleberation advice. Personally, I would like to see it done as well, as I use it in my campaign, but it is further down on my list of things to do at the moment, and, well, he has already started it...
Awesome work here, good to hear about the playtest. I personally have a habit of running intelligent opposing encounters that would prop up CRs just a hair on average. If I remember correctly, this adventure is one that is meant to be completed without significant losses on the PC side (as opposed to something like the Tomb of Horrors and excluding unlucky dice results) so having not to worry so much about each encounter being an almost TPK is a good thing...
I have located the 3.5 update to the Water Weird. It is in Dragon magazine #347. Obviously, they are tied to the elemental plane, but they are also tied to the new Elemental Weird found in MM2. They are called Lesser Elemental Weirds and the two major differences are no spell casting ability and they do not regenerate in their element. The differences from the older edition are the loss of all special attacks to harm or kill it and they have a few more hit points. They are classed as CR 5 (which for that adventure will be a bit on the high side with three of them at once for a minor encounter and that early in the adventure, it is offset by the fact that they do not regenerate or cast spells). They have all the other cool features you remember from the original in their updated format. It should not take too much additional conversion work to update to PFRPG. I hope this helps you...
Back to the subject at hand, I have run this module as part of a campaign more than once and on two occasions I have had party members stand up to the spoiler event listed above. On one occasion, the party member was just trounced (he was not a particularly brite soul), on the other, the party member was very shrewd and had what was necessary to defeat the adversary, I just got real lucky and the adversary got away (as intended). What I found as the best method for running the encounter is as a show of force. Make a big deal about the adversary's approach and the PCs should figure out what the correct course of action is. As a DM, I further suggest in your conversion process that you tinker with a standard version of the adversary and make it an aerial master. This will help greatly when the second encounter takes place and reduces the adversary's effectiveness enough that the recommended levels should overcome it. Hell yes, it will still be a tough fight, but well prepared and properly outfitted PCs (they got a preview of the adversary after all) that make it past the initial guardians and take the fight to the adversary before any real exploration of the area will have at least an equal chance of defeating it (hey, bad things can always happen with dice). If you would like more details on what I am getting at, by all means drop me a line (thedmstrikes@yahoo.com) and I will give it to you. We may even be able to collaberate on a decent conversion (although I will admit, I know even less than you about Golarion). I am definitely interested in how you tackle the conversion of the primary adversary of the module.
A persistant meta magic feat is a good call rkraus2. I wish I had thought of that. Since it is not a spell but a spell like ability, you just need to change the name of the feat a bit and there you are. The monster may need to be adjusted a bit from a standard of its type in order to get the feat, possibly by adding a level or two from a class to gain the feats necessary. Or maybe it just read a magic book somewhere and poof instant feat....
I am going to have to make a note of that for the next iteration of adventurers to wander through my campaign. I like not having to bend the rules too much to keep the flavor of the old games.
This is by far the most excellent conversion work I have seen by anyone not getting paid for it (and even some who are). You are a better man than I Charlie Brown...
For your next project, I vote for the Tomb of the Lizard King. That is also another very underated module that I have used alot in my campaign as a side trek to get the players more interested in the land they are defending and not just the land under it (yeah, it is the Night Below, but hey, it was a great super module). besides, after all you have done with Paladin in Hell, you deserve a break. I am very interested in how you tackle the Lizard King and his immediate tomb area. I would also like to throw a vote for the H series adventures, of which I would pledge my assistance in converting, just so I do not have to do it alone. One last conversion I hear all kinds of grumbles about but no one has tackled is the Dragon Mountain super module. I am fully aware it is not playable as a direct conversion due to the change in rules, but I believe it is not a lost cause. You Sir, have a way of working things out and I would be most interested on your take for how to solve the mountains conversion....
I have used this module in my campaign since the introduction of The Night Below. The PCs start off looking for Jeleneth and wnader into the next town, Orlane, looking for clues...and then they get conveniently sidetracked. Works great as a level booster when it was needed, but now, I simply use it to reinforce my red herrings and keep everyone guessing what is really going on. Not to mention that I added a Legacy magic item for them to pick up. In any case, I always figured the hardest part was using a Naga without killing the party. No one really questioned how she was doing what she did after the dust settled, they were just glad to be alive. Ideas I toyed with were mentioned above, like downplaying her power somehow, as if she were a younger version of a Naga, etc. During second edition days, they party was saved by a timely occurance on the critical hits table I use, thus ending the threat before it ended them. During third edition days, it was a little easier because by the time they encountered the Naga, they had a good three to four levels and could survive being hit by that opening fireball, but it was always still a very close battle....and I may not have played her to her full potential, she needs followers after all. The one thing I want to caution strongly is, if they are anything like my groups, they do not like to retreat and regroup often, so if they encounter Explictica after using up a lot of daily resources getting to her, they are already in a world of hurt.
Now back to the original question, how does she have this great charming power? Magic. If a Wish spell (or ring) is not good enough for having given her this obscene power, then make up some obscure artifact that she posessed for a time, but has conveniently lost prior to moving (perhaps forcefully) to this location. You should stray away from divinely given powers though as she is trying to become a god herself....and the gods do not really help you do that.
Can you shoot me an email and we will see if I can work something out. thedmstrikes@yahoo.com. I am not physically present, but I have relatives that may be able to help me out...
I have also wanted to see some form of conversion for DM. As with your research, mine turned up the same flaws, the new edition does not support the premise for the final set of confrontations with the mountain. However, in the tradition of other grand reappearances for super modules, you could simply redraft much of the adventure as a "Return to" type. In my opinion, this is the same way that WOTC solved the whole conversion of old modules for resale problem in the first place and the plane shift (I know you are not a fan of that story line) ability of the mountain itself would easily lend to a reappearance of the mountain with something different inside. And maybe it will stick around a little longer this time too...
If you approach this project in that fasion, I will be more than willing to assist with conversions and such, even though I do not own anything other than the Pathfinder core book. I am a big fan of 3.5 anyway, so I would do all the work for a dual conversion into that pathway as well. Shoot me an email at thedmstrikes@yahoo.com and I am in!
I am recruiting to round out a party of five. We will begin in early January and run a capmaign in the Forgotten Realms. Novice and beginners are welcome. Most likely, we will play on Saturdays and the game will be in English (My German is too poor to try, but maybe I will learn some more). I can be reached through the messageboards or my email: thedmstrikes@yahoo.com
Fighter pilot
Fighter navigator
Fighter gunner
RL soldier
TOG soldier
CW (Commonwealth) soldier
Bounce soldier
Grav tank driver
Ground tank driver
Grav artillerist
Ground artillerist
CS (Capitol Ship) Navigator
CS Helmsman
CS Weapons Specialist
CS Engineer
Xeno scientist
CW councilman
Emperor
Prefect
Senator
Illustrous senator
Spy
Covert operative
Special operations soldier
Demolitions expert
Also consider some form of advancement tree with requirements for the rank structure. Maybe something that requires the gaining of a specific skill set, weapons, time element, or any other factor to advance to the next rank. Maybe have a system for non military ranks as well, such as rookie pilot, veteran pilot, fighter ace, etc. that is seperate from the rank advancement which could be based on actions completed, or something like that.
I am looking forward to when this may get off the ground and I am definitely in to help out with the design, if you will have me (my email if you prefer, thedmstrikes@yahoo.com)...
Thinking about classes, how about if you go in the archtype direction, like shadowrun? Have pilots, soldiers, tankers, and capitol ship techs, etc. Each archtype has a suggested skill set that matches their archtype, but the character can build any skills they deem necessary from other archtypes. Also, have you looked into the renegade legion RPG? It could give you a starting place for these things and just adapt it for your own use. I can shoot you some exerpts if you do not have it, I just gotta dig it out of the mothball section of my gaming room....
Maybe something of an antipathy effect, maybe from a magic hat or cloak or something that forces characters to will save just to look the character in the eye or be forced to look no higher than the chest or something like that...
A very interesting concept, thank you. I may just use this myself...
Have you considered the D6 system they use in classic Star Wars and Shadowrun? The more successes you get, the worse the hit in combat. This can also be offset by the hit charcter using actions to conter the "bad" hits with some evasion successes instead of attacking back. I found this combat system very intense, and possibly deadly, but definitely survivable.
I love thst game! I am very interested in seeing what you have come up with. You are right about one thing...there are not many gamers that play that game anymore, I certainly have not seen any....
Thanks Catlion. I live closer to Tubingen than I do to Stuttgart anyway. Unfortunately, my German is not up to the task of playing games. Do you think their English might make up for this?
I am looking for players in the greater Stuttgart area. I run a Forgotten Realms 3.5 campaign in english. I can provide more details if you are interested. My email is thedmstrikes@yahoo.com.
I have tried recruiting in this area before and it appears there are few to no gamers to be found, so if you have a stable group of folks in the Mannheim area, I may be willing to commute to that area once a week.
I have recently finished the healing process after breaking a leg and I am ready to start a campaign game up in this area. I am primarily an English speaker, but I am learning German, so all players are welcome. Please email me at thedmstrikes@yahoo.com with D&D in the subject line and I will respond with more info about the campaign.
Been away for a while, so I am scanning some older posts to catch up...
There is a book called Power of Faerun that details how to manage this and other types of lordly play without to many really restrictive rules that suck the life out of you...Even though it is based in Faerun, it can be used for any setting by just changing names (which may not even be necesary with the chapter on the Border Kingdoms).
I started with 40K about 11 years ago when a friend of mine invited me over to play in the second edition. Then I started with a single squad of Space Marine scouts. The army grew from there and now I have over 10,000 points worth of marines alone (a good portion of them not yet put together including the recently purchased company box set) and now I live for Apocalypse games. I wrote my own chapter, The Emperor's Blood. It is actually a vanilla style codex with new characters. I also got into Imperial Guard (cause I am a treadhead at heart) and now have about as many Forgeworld tanks as I have plastics, though I have not tabulated my points total in that army in a while. I sold my orcs when the new codex hit and the Speed Freaks got euthenized, but I still have a small eldar force, a 100% mounted Dark Eldar force, and some Tau, maybe 3000 points if I max them out (unfortunately, the tanks suffered a fall and are in some disrepair at present). I have recently started collecting Witch Hunters (especially Sisters of Battle) but they are still in the expansion phase and I don't even have enough to field 1500 points yet. No Grey Knights yet, they just cost to much on the table and in the store...
For Fantasy, I do not get to play much, opponents are few and far between, but I have Orcs and Goblins, Chaos (mixed), and a large Empire army with two Steam Tanks (treadhead remember?).
I have BFG and Epic armies also, but absolutely no players in my current area, so I have not dragged those out in some time. I don't have any of the newer models for Epic that have been produced in the last few years. I may be willing to part with my Tyranid fleet if the offer is a good one. They are assembled but not painted yet and I have all ship types up to but not including a Hiveship (the one bigger than a battleship class). If the Nids guy from earlier in the post is interested, drop me a line at thedmstrikes@yahoo.com for detailed accounting of the fleet. I may also part with other aspects of my armies that are not Imperial (40K)...
I too have not played in a while, but I understand this game well. The double crossing and lethality can not be understated. Everyone is a bad guy until you determine they are not (and even then, they may still be) this includes the guy that does the recruiting for the run. Cashflow rules this game. If you give too much, the runners will outpace the challenges with their gear and weapons. Give out too little and they are toast by die rolls. I would say the amount gained per run should be barely enough to reequip and modify for your next chapter.
What can I say...none of my characters survived except the last one and that was because we never finished the run....I love that game! If you can, try to pick up a published adventure for any of the rules sets to get an idea of how things go from bad to worse to ow, that hurt. And be as devious as you can get. This was the reason I never ran this game. I could never get the double cross within a double cross thing down....
PC Name: Annoying Wizard wannabe (yeah, I forgot)
Human
Battle Mage
Level 4
Setting: Forgotten Realms (Night Below campaign)
Appropriated the cursed ring from the first bandit hideout (yeah, the one that enrages outsiders) and was going through a side adventure (an old 1st edition converted to third) when an enemy wizrd used a scroll to summon a devil. As soon as it popped in it focused all of its energy on destroying the character with the ring. In fact, it ended up swallowing him whole after beating his lifeless body against the wall a few times. The round before it swallowed him, the rest of the party was able to defeat the summoner so the devil decided they were not worth the effort and wandered off into the sunset...I really did not like that character much, but it was pure coincidence that he was wearing the ring and they could not defeat the magic user before he summoned his help.
Necro is not in limbo. I read the entire post and Orcus was very clear more than once, either there will be a change to the GSL or he will support Pathfinder when its time comes. Either way, he was attempting to notify the fan base that Necro would not be producing anything until one of those two conditions were met.
Hey Heath, I am frequently the 10000th visitor to many sites, especially if I am visiting for the first time....hmmmm...
Not to mention the DC 10 ride check for staying on the mount while it fights....that would be embarrasing to fail...but at least it is a free action...
I run Forgotten Realms games and they have a book called Power of Faerun that has some useful information for characters running their own business and nobilities and such.
As we are spitballing ideas here, I have read through the enitre post and have the following to offer:
On Dracodruid's idea of changing up the ranger's ability Favored Enemy, I agree with Majuba that this will go against the backward compatability goal of Pathfinder. Although the designers may go with the suggestions for how often the bonuses pop up, I do not see this as a major issue one way or the other. It will still have it's backward compatablity, just a few additional +2s that may need to be accounted for or jockeyed around.
On Owen Anderson's idea of Tactical Knowledge, I believe some of this idea already exists, as knowledge checks for various knowledges. i.e. Knowledge Nature, if the DC check is exceeded, a known weekness of a creature that is native to this environment is recalled and translates into combat advantage. (as I am at work and do not have my books with me to look up the specifics, please do not flame me over the details). I would suggest that your idea be expounded on and offer that your Tactical Knowledge ideas be molded into a feat or feats that add to the knowledge skills that I referrenced above. Keep it a Ranger only feat perhaps. I think your idea has merit, just that it needs to be worked a little more to fit it in without breaking backward compatability.
On Dan Davis's idea of the Hunter's Mark, I think your idea can be expanded on for something different than a base class. I think it will fit well with a prestige class for a "Hunter". It will still apply to Rangers as they are the most likely candidates to have this title, but it can also be utilized by other classes if certain conditions are met. Thus it would make for a great prestige class addition, especially if there is a hunter prestige class already out there (I am afraid my knowledge of actual prestige classes is limited as I seldom use them).
Finally, I would also like to add my two cents to this thread. A true hunter is good in ANY environment, but most hunters only roam through one environment, thus, they could claim a "favored" status for this environment as a feat (again, please forgive me if this already exists in a splat book somewhere). This would definitely be a Ranger only feat, perhaps exchangable for a favored enemy selection as a class ability, that gives +2 to survival checks within the favored environment and a +2 synergy bonus to any Knowledge check involving a plant or creature native to the favored environment. This is not a finished idea, just spitballing...
There is a gasme convention in the Stuttgart area town of Boeblingen the weekend of the 20th. I will be in attendance as well as almost all of the local gaming community, so if you are new to the area, come check it out. Details can be gained at the Strongpoint, the local gaming store.
Oh yeah, and I still have space in my game for you...
Well, it seems I missed the give away by a matter of hours, but, I am good with that. I am a DM with an interest in this idea of alternate uses for the spells. Could you elaborate on that a bit more? I am also in the older generation of gamers and prefer print to PDF.
Woohoo, we are on a roll. I got two players and maybe a third that is a newbie. I know there are more of you out there that are looking for a nice group, give us a shot! thedmstrikes@yahoo.com
Forgotten Realms, from the beginning...and we are staying 3.5...
I am now imbedded in the community and have some of my material. I am ready to begin the campaign, I just need some more players....1 is simply not enough.
