Charles Ulveling's page

Does this include the companion guide?

Can confirm - great folks running a great podcast!

Thank you for the kind words, Jason! Glad you're enjoying it!

The apocalypse is crawling ever forward...

Into the Unknown Podcast is a fantasy/horror Actual Play Podcast, primarily playing the Age of Worms AP using 13th Age. It spans both geography and time, and culminates in an epic battle to save the world!

So, what makes us different than all of the other 'casts out there? Well, it's simple: we strive to provide a listening experience that makes you feel like you're at the table with us! It might not be the most polished 'cast out there, but we think that's part of the charm. So join us every Monday as we fight back against the Worm That Walks, Kyuss, Lord of Undeath and worms!

Into the Unknown Podcast

The Age of Worms Adventure Path is the second Adventure Path for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, published over twelve installments from July 2005 through June 2006 in Dungeon magazine. A campaign designed to take player characters from 1st to 20th level, Age of Worms was given an Honorable Mention in the "Best Adventure" category of the 2007 ENnie Awards.

So, what's the difference between these 3 screens? The description doesn't make the distinction clear. Is it just the art on the front?

This is underwhelming, to say the least...

Okay, sneak attack stays. Obviously. Also, the surprise attack feature? That's a new feature you're touting? That's already a thing in PF. If an enemy hasn't acted in the first round of combat, they're considered flat-footed, thus granting a rogue the use of sneak attack.

I do like the idea of skill feats for free, because rare is the occassion when someone would take one. And I really like the change to Mobility. Just straight-up ignore AOO's. Super cool. Same with Dread Striker. Very thematic. But Gang Up is a dead feat. Really? The Rogue can't move 5 more feet? It just seems super useless. Better to take Improved Feint. That's much more versatile. Opening Moves should make the target flat-footed to everyone, not just the Rogue. Seems pretty useless, but I guess it depends on the action.

All-in-all, it seems rather meh to me, but hopefully a more complete reveal in the future will get me over that hurdle.

Dotting!

The main thing I try hard to adhere to as a DM is trying to say "no" as little as possible and not letting the rules get in the way of a memorable scene. In a game as highly collaborative and creative as Pathfinder - or any tabletop RPG, really - is all about imagination, from both sides of the table. So, when a player says, "I wanna slide down the bannister on my shield, jump off at the end, and then swing from the chandelier all while hacking at the people below me," you can see where a strict application of the rules could really hamper that. So, when a player goes out of their way to be super creative, I think a good DM steps out of the way and helps them accomplish that goal.

Now, I've been a player in a group when the DM very much stuck to the rules, most of the time to the detriment of the group. I had a neat idea for a Paladin who had an irrational fear of water - due to the fact his sister drowned and his family blamed him for it - and he was haunted (literally) by her water-logged shade. He flat-out said no to the idea, because Paladins are immune to fear... I ask you: would it be game-breaking for a Paladin to have some kind of uncharacteristic flaw? I say no. This is why the above is so important to me. I felt really creatively stifled in that game, and there was no real good reason for it to have happened that way.

I'm not meaning to toot my own horn here. I actually learned this from the DM I try so hard to emulate. Thanks, Corey!

Dotting this!

The problem with using the forced march rule is this: forced marching, such as what Marines and Soldiers do, is done at a speed of at least 4 mph. That's pretty fast considering any gear you're carrying. After about 45 minutes, you need a break. I don't think the PC's are blasting through a dungeon at 4 mph. I would go with the longer estimate of 16 hours and go from there.

It should take easily more then a year or two of regular weekly or bi-weekly gaming to get into the high teens after all.

Holy slow advancement, Batman! My group played through the Age of Worms AP in about a year. It took us all the way from 1st up to 23rd. We played once a week for 4 hours, then, right before our deployment, we stepped it up to 2 nights a week - still 4 hours per night - for about a month. Do you use a slower progression system or something? To only reach 14-ish after a year seems ludicrous to me.

It comes down to how the player builds his character. I ran the AoW AP, and my buddy Jason played Merik, a wizard. He specialized in Evocation and, by the last adventure, could cast Twin Maximized Chain Lightning about four times and he could Quicken it twice!? That meant he was dealing 240 (I think that's right) damage as a free action and as much again as a standard. Power gaming is a real threat. You, as the DM, need to adjust the game to it. Drain his ability scores. Hold Person. Kill off his buddies and, when he's low on LOH, lay into him. It's hard, IMO, to run a game with a party full of power gamers, but with some out-of-the-box thinking, it's more than doable.

What bothers me, along with the list of grievances above, is the timing in which this "support" material is being released. I know the AP overview isn't out yet, but why isn't it/ It 'slike if you were planning on driving to Claifornia and, having never been there, didn't buy a map. How would you get there? This is an essential piece of support.
Also, the character backgrounds sucked. Why don't they have a generic setting. I am running the SoW in the FR so a little work is necessarry, but with such vagueness abounding throughout the adventures, it has turned into A LOT of work. This completely contradicts WotC's promises of easier DM-ing.
Finally, as much as the character background article sucked, why did they wait until right before releasing the 3rd module to put this out? This would have been a much more appropriate tool at the beginning of the AP, right? Would it make sense for a DM to ask his group of 23rd level PC's to pick a character background tying their characters into the story? Of course not. While I know that this example is a bit extreme, it is no less relevant to the situation at hand.
In closing, the overall problem seems to be "support" which is too generic and too late in being released.

Whatever powers the dM wants.

So, it is indeed adjucated by the DM and there are no supporting rules so far, correct?

Wayfinder
Aura faint evocation; CL 5th
Slot —; Price 500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
Description
A typical wayfinder is made
from silver with gold accents,
and functions as a compass.
A wayfinder grants its user a +2
circumstance bonus on Survival checks
to avoid becoming lost. All wayfinders
include a small indentation designed
to hold a single ioun stone. While
still granting the user their normal
benefits, ioun stones slotted in this
manner frequently reveal entirely
new powers due to the magic of
the wayfinder itself. A wayfinder can
be commanded to emit light (as the
spell) as a standard action.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, light;
Cost 250 gp, 20 XP

Let me preface my response with this...
The wizard in my groupo that went through the AoW AP was EXTEMELY powerful. I could almost never get anything within range to threaten the party due to his mainstay spell: Twin Maximized Chain Lightning. He could cast this, like, 3 or 4 times a day!
Now, with that being said...
Yes, wizards are very powerful, but should player's who choose these "Uber Classes" be penalized for picking them? If it were me, I'd never pick a wizard. There's nothing worse than seeing all of the other PC's leveling up and you still have a few thousand XP to go.
Besides, I feel that Fighters and Barbarians can be just as overpwoered as spellcasters, albeit in different ways.

I have looked all over the place, but I can't fin dwhat other special powers a wayfinder brings out in an ioun stone!? Anyone else know the answer?

OGL = Open Gaming License, this is what 3E runs on.

GSL = Gaming System License, this is what 4E runs on.

The OGL is very, very open, giving whoever wants open and free access to the 3E rule-set to create what they want. Paizo's Pathfinder is built off of the OGL, as is Mutants and Masterminds, Conan, Arcana Unearthed, and several other stand-alone games (Spycraft, maybe, definitely Everquest and World of Warcraft the RPG).

Coming out with 4E, WotC felt the OGL was too open and moved to restrict precisely what could be done with it. The GSL is still free to use, but places much stronger restrictions on what can and can't be done with it. One of the more controversial provisions is that you can't produce a product line with both OGL and GSL using products. Currently, however, the GSL is being revised to be more open, so we don't really know what it'll end up looking like.

Feel up to speed? :)

Hanging head in shame...

Charles Ulveling wrote:

I really like the second installment. The only problem I have now is trying to figure out where to place it now that the FRCG has come out? Anyone have any ideas?

I remember a post on wizards.com about Red Hand pf Doom in Forgotten Realms and they said Elsir Vale fit perfectly over a portion of the map but I can't for he life of me remember where it was. I want to say it was near the Dalelands but I'm not sure.

I don't know if the expanded map for the second installment of Scales of War still fits over this area but it's worth poking around on the big map and seeing.

Yeah, I would hate to putit somewhere and then all of a sudden be out of continent. Talk about a suspension of dibelief breaker, huh?

Charles Ulveling wrote:

Hey guys!

I was just looking for a little help in adapting the 2nd SoW AP into the FR. I was thinking to set it in the Dalelands, but I'm not very versed in Realmslore. I was hoping someone could givee me a more informed answer as far as location. Thanks!

I admit I've lost track of the realms a bit, plus there's the new realms version. Ive been thinking Greyhawk myself. The Red Hand of Doom Module places Elsir Vale (in the realms) imbetween the Misty Vale and the Forest of Amtar. Changing Brindol to Rethmar and the Rathgaunt hills into Giantshield moutains. Other suggestions were the southern stretches of Chessenta or the boderlands of Damara/Narfell/Implitur. Im not sure how many of those regions still exist in 4e Realms.

Without the AP outline its hard to tell how big the region of the story will be. I was hoping for a where to put it article. However, they havent even gotten the player article out yet.

For real. They're really lagging behind in their support in those regards.

Maybe this isn't the right thread for this and maybe I'll make myself look like a real douche for asking, but I can't resist: what the heck is OGL and GSL and how do they differ? I've tried to read up on them, but it's kind of confusing. Am I the only one a little lost in this?

Hey guys!
I was just looking for a little help in adapting the 2nd SoW AP into the FR. I was thinking to set it in the Dalelands, but I'm not very versed in Realmslore. I was hoping someone could givee me a more informed answer as far as location. Thanks!

I really like the second installment. The only problem I have now is trying to figure out where to place it now that the FRCG has come out? Anyone have any ideas?

So, basically I'm retarded. Yes, he needs to use more pronouns. Saying Grimr in every sentence and only ever referring to goblins as, well... goblins is irritating at best. Switch it up with some "Pronouns" and speckle in some adjectives, too. For instance:

The goblin scampered forward, his wickedly barbed blade brandished before his hate filled eyes. His thrust caught Grimr on the inner thigh, a gasp of pain escaping his lips. The foul creature danced away, laughing in menacing glee. With axe in hand, the warrior swings in a massive backhand, severing the goblin's head from it's shoulders. Black blood fountained out of the stump. The monster fell forward onto the ground with a resounding thud. Grimr smiled grimly, leveling his gaze at his next victim.

Something like that.

Actually, a pronoun would be something like McDonald's... something important that would be capitalized.

Um, personally I thought the story was good. Aside from the fact you need to use more adverbs (you said Grimr in almost every sentence and used the word goblin almost as much; change it up with "he" or something, you know?), I thought it was very entertaining. If I were doing it, I would have the fiction be a seperate download so that those who want to read it can and those that don't can avoid it entirely.

I would also love to see an overview for this AP. When I ran the AoW AP, I tried to tie characters and events into later adventures, but until the overview came out, it was mostly conjecture.

As far as the talent at WOTC, remember that they have an A+ staff over there, but they're new at the AP thing. Look at all of the source books. Do those suck? So, if they can write stuff like that, surely they can handle an AP. We just need to give them a chance to get the gears going.

They do need to, IMO, move back to the 3.5 adventure layout. It was much clearer and more concise. There were times when I realized, "Holy crap! We totally missed that encounter." This was simply due to the fact that the writing is very vague in some places. Also, where is the artwork? 3.5 had so much eye-pleasing goodness. WHy is 4E so bland?

Anyways, I have extremely high hopes for this adventure path. I'm sure WOTC will deliver, once they get into the groove.

My party managed to defeat Darl fairly easily with Bigby's Crushing Hand. Darl failed his save by, like, 1 or something. So, he was out of the fight for all intents and purposes. So, after they defeated the rest of his group, they decided to interrogate him. I used this opportunity to teleport him away, seeing as how they were going to take the Hand of Vecna away from him. I wanted him to reappear in the final adventure so I just whisked him away. Later, they used gate and pulled him through. This is after they buffed themselves in anticipation of this very event. Needless to say, Darl did not last for a cameo in the next adventure.