ChefOrc's page

My good friend Richard Farrese (Worlds' Largest Dungeon, Legend of the Five Rings books, World of Warcraft RPG books, Dragon magazine articles, etc.) and I have created our own little company, Paragon Publishing, and have just published our first 12 products. Please check it out!

Devil's Workshop is proud to present Warriors of the Wild, by Paragon Publishing.

Warriors of the Wild is a fantasy d20 product line designed for both players and game masters. It offers well-balanced and thoroughly play-tested classes constructed around various animal, natural, and tribal themes. These classes are perfect for any combat-heavy game, be it in dungeons, cities, the wilderness, or other planes. The prestige classes were designed primarily for barbarians, fighters, and rangers, but they are flexible enough to be usable by any martial character as well as many roguish ones.

There are currently 12 classes available, including the FREE Juggernaut, which will give you an idea of the quality of these products. Check out all Warriors of the Wild core and prestige classes at OneBookShelf simply by clicking the link below:

Paragon Publishing

Core Classes
Prana Filcher
Shamanistic Warrior

Prestige Classes
Adaptive Hunter
Bird of Prey
Brave
Child of the Bear
Force of Nature
Juggernaut (FREE)
Owl Prowler
Snake
Wildcat
Wolfpack Hunter

You can also read a RPGNOW staff review of the shamanistic warrior.

I have not received my copy of Dungeon #145. Could you please send me a replacement copy? Thank you

Mattieu Begin
Montreal, Quebec
Canada

p.54 shows how much treasure a PC is expected to gain while going through one specific level. So for example, while going from 13th to 14th level, a PC will gain around 40 000 gp.

p. 135 shows the cumulative amount of treasure a PC has when he/she is at a specific level. So for example, if you add all the numbers on p.54 from 1rst to 13th level, you get approximately the same number as what p.135 indicates for 14th level.

I would not give this adventure a perfect score. The mystery itself is not very deep at all, and there is really not much for the PCs to do, as everything revolves around talking and the situation can be resolved easily and quickly.

That being said, I have to congratulate Schneider and Sutter for creating an incredibly original setting and a vivid, fascinating atmosphere. Congratulations also to the artist (I don't know which artist did it, too bad...) who drew the "family portrait" on p.21. This is such an inspiring piece of art. It really enhanced the atmosphere of the adventure for me.

I think that what made me fall in love with the atmosphere is the little things here and there that made the location and the protagonists feel so real, yet fantastic and original. Lady Auraluna, with her dogs, wheelchair, bad temper, old-person habits, craziness, and obssession with regaining the glory of the past, is a wonderfully rich and original NPC (and her portrait is just amazing!). And the strange and twisted relationship between these two murderous minds (she and Peck) fits perfectly. I just love the idea of the old lady crazily re-living her early motherhood by dressing up the halfling like a doll, while he lets her do as she pleases because it reminds him of the warmth of a mother that he never had. Nice twisted touch! I also loved how the old lady keeps her victims captive: gruesome!

Originality also comes from the stats blocks. Both Lady Auraluna and Peck have very unorthodox stats, which is very refreshing in a sea of "long sword+1, 18 str" types of NPCs. I also enjoyed the diplomacy check modifiers table which, while not not very useful from the standpoint of the game, adds so much to the realism of the atmosphere.

Overall, I think that the atmosphere of this adventure is one of the best I have seen, but the other aspects are a let down. Actually, if I DM this adventure, I will probably keep the NPCs and the setting, but add a lot of elements to the mystery and to the plot. This adventure will mostly appeal to those who care about atmosphere and who love to play a more civilized urban game, where PCs are expected to talk to NPCs and think in non-action mode. It also helps if you love the type of atmosphere that you find in murder mysteries, Agatha Christie style. However, if you approach this adventure like a dungeon crawler would, you won't like it much.

I think it is too bad that Will Save is over. I did enjoy reading about games from the perspective of how it affects real life (and I personally don't care that Will did not play much D&D, gamers are gamers IMO). I hope his column will be replaced by something similar in flavor. I think we get all the strict game content that we can ever hope for every month, and that Dungeon should contain some other types of articles too, such as Will Save.

(I have not read all of the numerous previous pages of this thread, so sorry if I am repeating what people may have already said)

It seems very strange to me that something like Will Save attracts so much attention and passion. Will save is one page. If you don't like it, you still have 99% of the magazine to enjoy. Compare that with the adventures. If you happen to not like an adventure in a specific issue, you just wasted 30% of the magazine. Now that's a problem. But I don't see anyone complaining about there being different types of adventures in Dungeon magazine. Everybody accepts that one specific adventure cannot please everyone and that there are going to be times when you don't enjoy one, two or enven all of the adventues in a specific issue. Why not extend that logic to Will Save? Some people will like it, some will not. That is expected and unavoidable. What's the big deal?

Now as to Will Save, I do like it. It is not my favorite part of the magazine, but I usually enjoy reading this short real-life perspective about D&D. I am 30 years old, and some of the topics that Will touches on feel quite close to what I live. I also like that it brings diversity to the magazine which is otherwise very focused.

I have just re-read the last 2 years of Dungeon magazines and I have noticed an impressive amount of praise for Greg A. Vaughan in these pages by staff, subscribers and authors. Most people seem to have been overly impressed with Tammeraut's Fate but also by the Istivin mini campaign. While I recognize obvious qualities to these adventures, I can't say that I am impressed to a point where I would put Mr Vaughan work over most other authors' like some people seem to do. I am curious as to why people think that his adventures (as opposed to other author's) deserve that much praise. In your opinion, what makes Tammeraut's fate such a great adventure? Which aspect of the game do you feel that Vaughan excels at? What is he doing that others are not doing?

Don't get me wrong here. I am not trying at all to put down Mr. Vaughan's work (which I respect a lot), I am just trying to get a feel for what people like and why they seem to like his stuff better.