Felonstream's page

Wow.

Dennis Wheatley sounds really interesting.

Thanks for the tip. Probably not right for Planet Stories, but I'm going to have to pick up some of those occult library books.

Wheatley was a writer I thought of suggesting, but he didn't seem exactly right for the series Paizo is producing. Besides which, most of his work is still actively in-print (on this side of the Atlantic, at least) so I don't know how copyright would work out. Many of his themes are grounded in real-world occultism (predominantly Satanism), which doesn't tie too well into the pulp fantasy genre.

Another possibility is to take the players completely out of their comfort zone by dropping them into a world with an entirely different social structure. A cruel, anarchic place where orcs, gnolls, or somesuch bad guys are the dominant species and all other humanoids are inferiors, minorities or outright slaves. For the standard PC races, even a wayside village could be as hostile as a low-level dungeon and securing weapons, supplies and provisions could well become more vital (and dangerous) than looting treasure.
Such a setting gives very definite campaign goals (firstly, survival and then guerilla warfare to carve out a safe haven for themselves and their fellow sufferers - perhaps using powerful artefacts liberated from local dungeons or the ruins of previous societies) and you could structure these goals towards the final end whilst allowing the players complete freedom in how they attain them.
Of course, it rather turns the usual concepts on their heads when adventurers have to hide their equipment and adopt an air of submissiveness before entering a tavern or town and they can only feel safe(ish) in carefully prepared dens in the wilderness, but that's all part of delivering a new and challenging experience to veterans with preconceptions of how D&D worlds 'ought' to work.
You could, of course, just get them all to play orcs or gnolls and drop them into a 'normal' world, for pretty much the same effect, but in this way, you let them remain the 'good guys' and benefit from a certain righteous zeal towards reformation.
Speaking of reformation, another idea would be to have them all members of a religion that is distinctly at odds with the main religion of the state in which they live. You (or, preferably, your players) can choose where good and evil lies and then the goal can be to advance their own interests against the current establishment in an entirely different way. This approach lends itself more to urban intrigue and still allows PCs to benefit from the local taverns and markets if they keep a low profile, whilst still placing them in an unremittingly hostile environment that will tax their skills in ways that they may never have encounterd before.
Finally, you could turn an old roleplaying cliche on its head. For example, the PCs are approached by a noble who tells them his lower-class lover has been consigned to a mental asylum by his family and wants them to rescue her. Unbeknownst to them, the noble is disturbed and delusional, but the name and description he gives (tallying with a milkmaid on his father's estate) coincidentally matches that of a real inmate who has been seriously abused by someone with the same name as the noble (and isn't going to react well to people trying to 'rescue' her and take her to someone of that name). If your players like planning elaborate operations, then they'll face all sorts of trouble getting into the place, forcibly removing the unwilling prisoner and being met by disbelief and scorn when they proudly present their 'damsel in distress' to their patron. With any luck, the runaway nobleman's family will intercede and pay them well for their silence, but they could equally decide to eliminate the PCs to save the family reputation. This can be done at almost any level and afterwards the players might well feel grateful for the opportunity to go back to beating up goblins and kobolds for a while.

Felonstream wrote:

If anyone is still watching this thread with any degree of interest, then might I suggest the works of William Hope Hodgson?

We're always watching this thread. :) Hodgson was somebody I looked into pretty early on, after I read an homage to "The Night Lands" which blew my socks off, but all the works I knew about was still in print and relatively easy to find. May have to take another look, though...

Thanks for replying James. As I said, I don't know exactly how the copyright issues go, particularly with internet availability going on, but I have had real difficulty getting hold of a printed Carnacki collection myself. The odd story turns up in anthologies, of course, but the modestly innocuous little paperback that I borrowed from the library fifteen years ago has taken on the mantle of a holy grail since then.

All the very best!

If anyone is still watching this thread with any degree of interest, then might I suggest the works of William Hope Hodgson? In particular,the stories that deal with Carnacki the Ghost-finder. A few of these (such as "The Whistling Room")are freely available on the internet (although perhaps shortened or edited, depending on where you look), but I don't know exactly how the copyright might work for republishing.
I suggest these stories because they seem tailor-made for use by D&D, Call of Cthulu and D20 Modern altogether, with but minimal adaption.
There is a sort of a Sherlock Holmes-y type of feel to the stories, but that's only because they're set in the 19th Century with a fairly know-it-all sort of protagonist. The themes behind the stories are golden, however:
Firstly, ghosts are dangerous - hugely so. Secondly, ghosts might be allied or related to horrible elder powers from a barely-understood spirit-world. Thirdly, those who must deal with ghosts or the unseen powers might, if they are fortunate enough, have knowledge of ancient rituals to exert control over the unliving. Finally, technological safeguards may just be available - such as the 'electric pentacle' composed of electric tube-lights - that might ward against the machinations of evil.
If these are available for re-printing, I'd highly recommend them for the job. They should inspire gamers and even if they do not, they ought to do a decent job of being genuinely scary in a clasically nasty sort of way...

Once, a long time ago, a 1st edition Ranger character of mine was exploring a dungeon and came upon a pillar of stone set with numerous red and blue gems. It suddenly became hugely important to me that my character get at least one gem of each colour. Why? Because I had recently finished reading the Mika trilogy (a series of Greyhawk Adventures books by Rose Estes - in case some of the younger folk haven't heard of them) and in these, the hero gets hold of a blue gem that hugely enhances his spell-casting ability. Later on, he combines it with a matching red gem, the two blend into one and he is pretty much granted total mastery of magic with very little effort or study.
Being young, foolish and easily-influenced, I naturally assumed that the red and blue gems on the pillar were exactly the same miraculous magic-granting stones that I had read about. I didn't stop to think that a pillar completely covered with near-miraculous and obviously priceless artifacts was an unlikely garnish to a third-level dungeon - it never even occurred to me that they might just be rubies and sapphires. As far as I was concerned, this was an opportunity for my Ranger to gain all the powers of an Archmage without the boring levelling-up process.
My character attempted to lever a red gem out with his dagger and was immediately hit in the face by a blast of poisonous gas. Forced to retreat from the area, he waited for the gas to disperse and then went back to try his luck with a blue gem. Once again, his ill-advised prying led to a faceful of poison gas and a hasty retreat. Obviously this was a puzzle. Sadly, the difficulty made me even more convinced that these were wonderful magical treasures.
I'm afraid that I attempted ingenuity in the form of a homemade gas-mask. I'll not bore you with all of the fine details, but the upshot was that my character, after a frenzied attempt to dig as many stones out of the pillar as possible (unsuccessful in every attempt, by the way), was left unconscious on the floor with an ineffective, but highly embarrasssing, urine-soaked cloth tied around his face.
Two other party members had to rush in and drag him out by the ankles, suffering undesirable gas effects themselves in the process.
To this day, the precise nature of those gems remains a mystery, but the more I think about it, the more inclined I am to believe that it was possibly a trap of some kind.

"zom-BEE" or "zom-B-eye?"

zom-BIH. Never give away a double-e when you don't have to. The necromancer may be playing scrabble after all....

I was going to type a great, long post about all my memories of Doctor Who from childhood to the present day, but mature reflection has revealed to me that it wouldn't be very interesting for anyone else to read. Edited highlights instead:
I grew up with Tom Baker. Really, he's the Doctor as far as I'm concerned (although I have some vague memories of Jon Pertwee from the time and excellent opinions of his performance in the re-runs I've seen). I know that I used to have a large Doctor Who action figure (Action Man/G.I. Joe size) modelled on Tom Baker. It came with a TARDIS that the figure could be placed in and it would disappear and reappear through a cunning mechanism inside. I really do hope that it's still knocking around at my parents' house somewhere, but my mother has a mania for throwing things away, so in all likelihood, it's landfill by now.
Peter Davidson worked fine for me and he was the Doctor that appeared in the first storylines that I fully understood (Tom Baker had the presence and authority, but I was of an age where I was either overawed by his persona or scared sh*tless by Davros, so whilst I respected him deeply, I never quite appreciated all of the subtlety he brought to the role). Davidson was good and the show was doing well in the viewing figures, but the next two Doctors just couldn't carry the can. Admittedly, there were some pretty flat storylines, but neither Colin Baker nor Sylvester McCoy quite 'worked'. A real shame, which resulted in the show's disappearance for some time.
I remember the hype for the Paul McGann resurrection of Doctor Who and I'm sure that he did a great job of it, but they put it on around new year (some year, any year) when I was discharging my duties to be hugely drunk in a party somewhere, so I never saw the episodes.
I did think that Chistopher Eccleston did a fantastic job of reviving the character, and David Tennant, if anything, is even better. Lots of emotional interaction alongside your space horrors. I would honestly have to say that, as much as I loved the old programmes, the new series with Eccleston and Tennant have really pushed the envelope and they're the ones that I am most likely to go out of my way to watch again.

I believe that Sidhe is properly pronounced SHEE in Gaelic, so that's what I go with.
Aasimar is an interesting one from an American English/British English viewpoint. If you start with a short vowel sound it comes out as Ass-i-mar, but a long vowel sound makes it Arse-i-mar. The poor fellows are going to be the butt of a few jokes either way.

It might be a good idea to wind this thread up now. The original poster only meant to say that regardless of how 4th ed. turns out, we will still have 3.0/3.5 to play with, if necessary. Which makes good sense. After all, we could all still be playing 1st edition if we wanted to (and I'm prepared to bet that a good few people on here still do). Unfortunately, the message got a little confused along the way.
Which is not to say that Krome et al. didn't make some good, pertinent points, because they did; we cannot yet be sure of exactly how 4th ed. will pan out or what it will mean to the numerous independent publishers who have so far made good use of the OGL. Speculation without further information is somewhat pointless, but I'd go along with the opinion that Erik Mona has probably got a better insight than the rest of us.
There haven't really been any truly contradictory viewpoints expressed on here yet, but a fight has ensued nonetheless. We don't really need to fall out at this point and start slinging mud (and pointed personal observations) at each other. As of now, we don't know enough to be either wildly excited or clinically depressed, so it really isn't worth falling out amongst ourselves on sheer speculation, optimistic or pessimistic as it may be.

I'm going to throw in some old Games Workshop offerings that always worked as two-player games for me. You'll probably have to go poking about on ebay for them, if you didn't catch them first time around, but they're good fun if you can get them:

1) The Fury of Dracula - absolutely superb for being immediately recognisable to anyone in its intentions and concepts. Will support four players, but brilliantly playable with two. Lovely board, excellent cards and counters. A real joy to play, with the 'hunters' having to plan desperate travels around 19th century Europe (with its obvious limitations - particularly in the East) and the Dracula player (in a very GM position), trying to keep his undead machinations secret from everyone. This is a fantastic game that I cannot recommend highly enough.

2) Chaos Marauders. This was a card-dealing game designed for the drunken and raucous. Each player had a sheet upon which battle lines could be drawn. The available troops were very much of the orcish disposition, as drawn by cards and complete battle-line v. non-complete battle-line combat. Trading, drawing, fighting and stealing tended to result in much player-based merriment. It was usually, and intentionally, a great big, violent mess. But happily self-contained fun for anyone owning the game, of course.

3) We can never overlook Space Hulk, and nor should we. This may well be one of the best immediate-action two-person games ever developed. A very simple, yet straightforward, games system that covers absolutely every point of conflict that the two players of the game are going to create between themselves. Space Hulk was always one of my favourite games because it could be set up very quickly, with immediately-variable boards, and played through quickly in a fashion that was generally taut and scary as hell for both players...

Let's throw something new into the mix...

How about duergar?

I started off with DWARE-gar myself, but I'm now given to understand that DEW-er-gar is correct. Anyone else have thoughts or opinions?

I don't like to think about how long I've been waiting for this. Didn't the original WH40K Rogue Trader come out in 1987? I remember eagerly awaiting that for Christmas and feeling utterly transported when it arrived (it was full of fantastic artwork, photos of painted miniatures in exciting dioramas and hobby projects for making alien scenery). It was absolutely f***ing brilliant! I wanted a deeper immersion experience even then.
It's rather sad that twenty years later, I'm still childishly excited at the prospect of finally 'getting involved' on an individual roleplaying level.
Strangely enough, whilst I think that Star Wars roleplay is a cool system and full of wonderful adventuring potential, WH40K roleplay resonates deeper. I had certainly seen all of the original Star Wars trilogy more than once when Rogue Trader first appeared and I'm still a big fan, so I find this difficult to explain. Perhaps, there's a certain age where child meets grown-up and the boundaries merge, or perhaps I'm more able to engage with the nightmarish disaster of 40K now that I'm 'grown-up' and cynical (read: working).
Whatever the reason, I'm going to end up buying this system, even if I never play it. It'll draw something of a line under a long-running unfulfilled desire.
Mind you, if I remember right, there were going to be three different 40K roleplaying games from Black Industries, each potentialy building on the others, but presenting different bases from which to adventure. The first, as advertised, is being a member of an Inquisitorial retinue (which ties in with the Inquisitor 'large miniature/roleplaying-ish' game from GW a few years ago). It should be good, and I can think of some good adventure hooks, but I wish I could remember what the other two were supposed to be about. I can't find the explanatory news post from Black Industries that I read a while ago, but I remember thinking that at least one of the follow-up games sounded even better.

I pronounce drow "disease vector."

The very next chance I get, I'm going to play a half-disease vector rogue. My character will break into butcher's shops, bakeries and taverns in the small hours of the morning and, instead of pilfering the strongbox, he'll push his grubby fingers into the food and snivel all over the preparation surfaces. A couple of days later, he'll be able to commit the most audacious crimes ever seen and no-one will be in a fit state to stop him. Even if anyone recovers sufficiently to catch him, they won't dare execute him in case his bloated, disease-ridden body explodes and fatally infects the whole town.

I know...all those drow, crammed together in those caves with no ventilation, and those Lolth clerics don't go around curing disease to be nice....it's a tuberculosis breeding factory.

And just think of all those fungal spores drifting around the Underdark. The average drow lung must be full of them. A cough or a sneeze at the wrong moment could leave you wishing for good, old-fashioned ergotism.

Unquestionably, it rhymes with Thiefling.

As for the latter, I invite you to all use the simple mnemonic, "The drow coughs as he plows the tough dough."

Well I just hope that he was wearing a face mask, or I certainly shan't be buying his bread.

I started typing my last several posts ago. I hate it when you go off to type a response, finally post it, and then find that everyone else has covered the issue and moved on....

The problem with 'sow' is that it could rhyme with 'now' (as in a female pig) or with 'go' (as in sowing seeds), so it's not particularly helpful as a pronunciation guide. Personally, I pronounce 'drow' to rhyme with 'now', cow' and 'bough'.
There's no real harm in people pronouncing various names (which are fictional after all) differently - plenty of real words get exactly the same treatment - just so long as your playing group knows what you mean. The only real danger of rhyming 'drow' with 'go' that I can think of is that it might be confused with a quick or slurred rendition of 'derro', but that's unlikely to happen if everyone is used to it (and they don't get as drunk as my group seem to routinely manage).
I agree totally about 'lich' rhyming with 'ditch' though.

After some minutes of sitting here loudly talking to myself, I've decided that I actually do say TEEF-ling rather than TEA-fling, but it's a very fine distinction. In either case, the 'f' is an unvoiced aspirant that pretty much bridges the syllables in normal speech.

Apparently I do have a strong accent, because there is a distinct difference between 'tiefling' and 'teethling' when I say them. I am sure that there would be less distinction if I came from the South-East of England rather than the North-East and perhaps this would be the case with American accents in general as well, so it probably isn't a bad rule-of-thumb.
The one thing that I am absolutely certain of though, is that it's a good job I'm not typing this at work - my colleagues would almost certainly have responded to my vocal experiments by calling security long ago.

I always went for TEA-fling myself. I believe the word is derived from German, in which the second vowel of an adjacent pair normally carries the weight of pronunciation.

Felonstream wrote:

It's hugely ironic that he should be so savagely opposed to suspension of disbelief considering the scenarios that he comes up with and the messages that he's trying to peddle.

I don't know, I think most kids who believe in Santa generally end up killing another child by the age of 8 and finding themselves next to Osama Bin Laden on the FBI's most wanted list. There's a few who transcend such abuse but not many. I should know...I was one of those Santa believers. Luckily, I got help. But I'm one of the lucky ones.

Yeah, you're right. I suppose that I was in denial - blanking out my memories of the yearly schoolyard bloodbaths as each generation of children discovered the awful truth. What a terrible price we pay for our unreasonable addiction to charming whimsy...

...and now I've read Chick's bizarre attack on Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Whoever said that he was attacking imagination in general hit the nail right on the head. What a bloody fruitcake!
It's hugely ironic that he should be so savagely opposed to suspension of disbelief considering the scenarios that he comes up with and the messages that he's trying to peddle.

Just looked through the MST3K script - pretty good. It also got me to notice something that I had overlooked when reading through Dark Dungeon originally. I had largely ignored the footnotes, having no interest in looking up the 'relevant' passages in the Bible and so I didn't notice the one that recommended burning the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as well as D&D manuals and rock music. Events in the movie industry over the last few years must have hit Chick pretty hard.

Of course, if you're opposed to anything that can be found in an occult bookstore, then you'll have to expect constant setbacks, as such trappings of Beelzebub as shelves, carpets and light fittings continue to proliferate.

It just gets better. All of the endorsements from brain-washed pre-teens who have been able to "Witness!" (or "Witless!")thanks to the unthinkingly dogmatic, racist cartoons of Mr. Chick cannot fail to fill any heart with eternal joy. Provided that the heart in question is extremely facile and mentally defective, of course.
Obviously, playing as much D&D as possible is one of the easiest ways to c*%* a snook at such ill-informed bigotry. Let's keep those d20s rolling....

I can't believe it censored me! What if I'd wanted to C*%* a rifle, or been concerned about the wellbeing of my male poultry (my c*%* is not attending to the hens as he should, perhaps he needs something more in his diet)? I should just have said "bite a thumb" instead....

It just gets better. All of the endorsements from brain-washed pre-teens who have been able to "Witness!" (or "Witless!")thanks to the unthinkingly dogmatic, racist cartoons of Mr. Chick cannot fail to fill any heart with eternal joy. Provided that the heart in question is extremely facile and mentally defective, of course.
Obviously, playing as much D&D as possible is one of the easiest ways to cock a snook at such ill-informed bigotry. Let's keep those d20s rolling....

With reference to the Chick cartoons, I love the way that he 'proves' the Bible is the only true scripture by quoting from...the Bible. Priceless circular reasoning that he expands to cover the evils of D&D, other religions etc. I suppose that we should feel honoured that we, as players of D&D are regarded as great a threat to the world as Jews, Muslims, foreigners in general and anyone who isn't in Jack Chick's church. In fact, we are exposed as greater exponents of evil, because we're all working up to a career of active devil-worship. Somehow or other. Mind you, I may be stopped from selling my soul directly to someone out of the Fiendish Codex, because I am from England and (according to Chick) Islam has already brought England to it's knees. I must say it's news to me, but then again, I understand that there is a small and modest mosque within a few miles of here, so doubtless I'm languishing under the shadow of the crescent without knowing it. Although I am drinking Scotch at the moment, so maybe not.
I would have laughed a good deal more at his ignorant, transparently unsubtle propaganda, were it not for the uncomfortable knowledge, in the back of my mind, that some people do actually believe this crap. And if you read through it all, it's a hell of a lot to believe. Chick and his Fundie friends apparently adhere to the very real belief that demons truly exist. Not only that, but said demons are forever lurking in the wings, just out of sight, ready to take over an innocent body or mind that is insufficiently defended. Moreover, they appear convinced that these demons will grant magical powers that actually work to anyone willing to stand in a pentagram in a dressing-gown (c.f. Debbie's successful 'mind bondage' spell in the 'Black Leaf' comic). How do these people sleep at night?
The vast and solid majority of D&D players are very aware that they are indulging in an exercise of fantasy and imagination - which is precisely why they play. The shiny-eyed, happy-clappy types appear to be convinced that it's all true. If either group is in danger of mental trauma and potential physical harm, I know which I'd place my money on.

I agree with a lot of what felonstream is saying; I feel like if you want to jack with the fluff, there's so much fluff that has room for expansion. Why mess with the golden stuff? There's 666 layers of the Abyss. There's new demons created every day. The yugoloths have been on the back burner forever. Etc...etc... there's room there, I'm sure of it. [/QUOTE

Too right there is. There's as much room as you (the player or DM) are prepared to make. what goes into, or stays out of, your world should always be your choice, not that of a designer 'simplifying' things. People reading this are probably wise enough in the ways of D&D to sort things out for themselves, but new players may be in danger of losing a great deal of background and heritage to the cause of 'logic'.
I thought that the erinyes and the succubus were distinct enough in character and intention, similarities notwithstanding, to fulfil separate roles in any campaign (like orcs and hobgoblins - the dice rolls involved may be similar, but the disorganised rabble v. the disciplined army thematics can result in very different problem-solving appoaches to encounters). It seems to me that we're taking a 'heads' monster and a 'tails' monster and making them into one 'coin' monster, just because you can, 'holistically', see both from the edge.

Damn it! Once again, I spent a long time typing a post that got lost and deleted when I somehow got logged off the site. This is becoming very annoying, when I can otherwise stay logged in for weeks on end.
I'm a little too demoralised at all the wasted effort to mess about going through all the points and arguments again, but the main thrust was as follows:
It is my opinion that a new edition of the rules should concentrate on improving the 'crunch' to a level wherein play is enhanced in terms of ease, speed and intuitiveness for all involved.
Messing about with 'fluff' is dangerous. 'Fluff' has been built up over the years by many of the finest minds in the business and it is what actually defines D&D from other games. After all, the basic premise of "assume a fantasy persona and act it out in a fantasy world" pretty much applies to all RPGs - it is the 'fluff' that makes D&D the game that it is.
I've never much used the Planes myself, but I like the fact that they are all there for me as and when I should happen to need them. I like the fact that there are so many different types of dragons waiting for me to use them as I see fit. I like the idea that there are any number of low-level sword-fodder humanoids just waitng to give low-to-intermediate level PCs challenges that may only differ in flavour and description, if not game mechanics. Keep goblins, kobolds, hobgoblins, orcs and gnolls. Keep ten types of true dragon (and throw in all the gem, shadow, gloom and whatnot variations you like), keep the Great Wheel and more Planes than can be used at once.
Hang onto it all with the jealous fury of the drowning, because it's much better to discard half of what's available, or severely limit the usage of certain things, than to have only half of it available and be severely limited by lack of choice before you start. Retain as many options as possible, even if you can't use them all at once, or even don't like some of them (someone probably will, somewhere in the world, and the brand is stronger for catering to all tastes).
If 4e concentrates on making the game quicker and easier to play, then I'm all for it. If it wants to cut down and simplify the background, then those parts can go and play in the traffic.

Actually, if anyone's interested in Dog Soldiers, there are a few videos on YouTube that should give you a reasonable taste. Someone does appear to have set some clips to country music for some reason or another, but I'm sure that they thought they were doing the right thing and you won't actually hold it against the film itself.

It's not that I have anything against country music, you understand, it's just that it isn't really appropriate in this instance....

Felonstream wrote:

The film even manages to include a swordfight and a very enjoyable unarmed combat v. werewolf sequence. I would highly recommend it, if you can get hold of it at a reasonable price.

If it has CGI fights and/or sped-up film, I'll skip it (I'm boycotting both of them this year), but otherwise it sounds great! Can you advise me?

I can honestly promise you that CGI and sped-up film do not feature in this film in any way. They make excellent use of a limited budget by keeping the need for special effects down to a minimum (werewolves only - and not overly-sophisticated at that) and relying on the reasonably ordinary human interplay to keep the narrative rolling along.

I was looking though this thread and trying to remember the scariest movie moments that I'd ever seen when drunken_nomad's post of 8th August reminded me that nothing has ever been as scary as the British Public Information films from the 1970s. Honestly, these are generally as nasty a collection of horrors as you could ever encounter (and they're all available on YouTube too). drunken_nomad's links to the "Apaches" film should start you off very well. There was obviously a great deal of effort put in to making a smoothly-flowing plot with believable children's play and discourse (which makes it all the more horrific), but by the end of it, you'll be asking yourself "Why didn't anyone keep those kids away from that f*****g farm? And why didn't they learn from experience?". The most horrible thing about it though, is at the very end, where it gives a list (heartbreakingly, with names and ages) of all the children who died in farm accidents whilst the film was being made.
They used to show us these at school. We would all be gathered together into a big room or hall and a television would be wheeled in, whereupon (through the magic of Betamax) all of us 5-6 year olds would be reduced to a state of absolute terror. I particularly remember one film called "Robbie", in which a boy got both of his feet cut off by a train. There weren't even any railway lines near where I lived, but I was still terrified of going outside after watching that.
The very worst example though, was an absolutely appalling film called "The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water". This used to be shown in the commercial breaks of children's television programmes on a Saturday morning (so you'd watch your favourite show, sit through the adverts for toys and games, suddenly be scared s**tless and have your childhood ruined from that point on). To be fair, I haven't yet been killed by farm machinery, drowned in grain or slurry, dismembered by trains or motor vehicles, or asphyxiated in a lonely quarry, so perhaps these films did their job, but they can still evoke nightmares in people of my generation today ("The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water" recently came near the top in a UK poll of the scariest television moments ever). To be honest, he'd make a superb D&D villain, if you were running a fairly dark campaign, but I'm not sure that I could handle it myself, even after a quarter-century or so.

I just spent ages typing out a post for this and then something happened that wiped it completely. I was not best pleased, but I'll cut straight to the meat of what I was trying to say and recommend a film called Dog Soldiers. This was a fairly low-budget British film of 2002 and I don't know how widely it was distributed (although Fox did the distribution, so you may be able to find details on their website) and it did get very good reviews, so it shouldn't be entirely out of the public domain. Low budget and predictably shaky special effects aside (although it is presented in a way that keeps special effects to the bare minimum), this is an entertaining werewolf movie, containing a lot of action (and violence), character exposition, suspense and a generous helping of dark humour (not as much as Shaun of the Dead, but it does have more of a dangerous, potential TPK, 'pressure-cooker environment' feel to it).
Basically, it's about a small party (very D&D) of British soldiers on exercise in the Scottish Highlands. They stumble across the sole survivor of a special forces unit that has been, literally, torn apart and find themselves the prey in a nightmarish hunt. Only with the opportune assistance of a local woman do they find a defensible position in an old farmhouse, but things are never as they seem and the curse of lycanthropy does not rest easy. The film even manages to include a swordfight and a very enjoyable unarmed combat v. werewolf sequence. I would highly recommend it, if you can get hold of it at a reasonable price.

I happened onto this stream by dipping into the messageboards at random and it's amazing how quickly it developed from a (somewhat rabid and irrational) anti-WOTC rant, into a back-and-forth argument on the relative merits of Palladium products and then onwards into a campaign for the proper usage of spelling and grammar on internet messageboards, before finally embracing a message of love and tolerance for all despite the occasional spelling mistake.
It really is quite a beautiful example of how fine and worthy results can be drawn from the least promising beginnings if people will just work together.

Damn it, once you start, you can't stop.
I was reading back through other people's postings on this stream and the thing that struck me most was that (even on a thread largely dedicated to the demise of "Dungeon" and "Dragon" magazines), many innocent players of D&D have been accused of being Satanists.
If there is anything in the world of roleplaying that upsets and angers me, it is this particular piece of mindless (and witless) prejudice.
I am consistently dismayed by the number of complaints that arise every time that a 'demon' or 'devil' appears on the cover of a D&D sourcebook or magazine. The fact that demons and devils regularly appear in devotional artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and suchlike does not seem to have any bearing. If anyone actually wishes to see devils and demons in the 'proper' Christian tradition, then they should look at the later works of Hieronymous Bosch - these are much more violent and nauseating than anything that you will ever see on the cover of a D&D magazine.
The fact that most D&D PCs combat demons is equally left unexplored - but what do the so-called Christian Soldiers purport to do?

I realise that I might undermine my argument, in the USA, at least, by confessing to being an atheist, although I do not think that it is anything to be ashamed of, but I wish to deal with my fellow gamers from a position of honesty - I do not believe in God, but I do not believe in the Devil either - and I most certainly do not believe that any one of you is doing anything wrong by playing D&D or reading D&D books. If you are labouring under such oppression then you have my sympathy, and my support. There should never be any harm in make-believe.

I'm going to be honest and say that the news hit me hard. I've been involved in roleplaying games for a good twenty years or more and "Dungeon" and "Dragon" have been constants throughout that time. I only committed to D&D wholesale and bought the 3.5 edition rules 4 years ago (I think), but in that time, I must say that the magazines have been fantastic. One of the first things that occurred to me when I actually started buying D&D products was "Hey, I can buy Dragon now and actually understand all the stats." I have every copy of each magazine since that time and neither has ever disappointed me. I have never been a subscriber, because I live in England and the vagaries of exchange rates have never made it a consistently better option then buying from my local gamestore - which needs the support anyway - but I have been a loyal reader of both magazines for long enough to recognise the quality that Paizo put in. If any action is required from loyal fans, then the very first thing should be a hearty round of applause for Erik Mona and his team - they really made my experience of "Dungeon" and "Dragon" something to relish, and I'm sure that they did exactly the same for countless other readers. I will always have fond memories of both magazines and I am well aware that I am, rather without intending it, involved in the end of an era. I shall look forward to every single issue of each magazine that I receive hereafter and I am absolutely sure that the final issues will be mindblowingly superb in terms of content and artwork - sometimes the end of an era, however regrettable, is as much to be cherished as the era itself.
I shall not be boycotting Wizards of the Coast products, largely because WotC saved D&D when TSR accidentally over-reached itself and there are people working there who have been involved in the game for donkey's years. WotC also have the ability to resurrect the magazines in the future, if they so wish - it wouldn't be the first time that a publication had been hauled back from obscurity, after all, if market conditions desired it.
Let's be honest - we could all still be playing from the red box/black box/first edition AD&D/Second edition, or whatever without expecting any more support. The game is so grounded in the imagination of the players that you can wing it with no rules at all, yet we hang in there, following all the latest developments because they inspire our imagination and enhance the game that we play. WotC are currently our best source for this (although I will recommend Mongoose Publishing to anyone who hasn't tried it yet - the Slayer's Guides are brilliant) and we know that official, quality D&D (rather than D20)sourcebooks aren't going to come from anywhere else. You can take that pretty much anyway you want - and it's entirely up to you - but I would advocate an approach where we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The core game has to be supported, because the brand has to remain strong. It was the strength of the D&D brand that persuaded WotC to take it on, when it could quite easily have died with TSR. As superb as the many D20 Open Licence products that exist are, we still need to be aware of the importance of the core D&D brand and uphold it whenever we can.
I have talked at some length now and please feel free to call me a windbag or fool if you wish, but let's not forget that whilst circumstances may change, and times may move on, we have one of the world's most iconic and influential brands in OUR keeping, and if we stick to it, we may see many more developments yet.

I'm considering running ROTRL in Fate Accelerated (FAE), with Killershrike's house rules that kinda-sorta emulate PF1 in some respects. The game would be over email, and I already have a spot saved for 3 players, but I'd like to know if anyone here would be interested in one of the last 3 slots?

What I'm looking for:

• - People preferably not too familiar with ROTRL already, though this is negotiable for people whose writing style I really enjoy.
  
• - People with excellent writing skills, as we'll be leaning heavily on the narrative.
  
• - Adults who know how to amp up the drama.
  
• - People who know how to work with everyone else to make a compelling story, and not just attempt to play someone invulnerable (or otherwise cheese a narrative game), or ignore the tone of the scene or what other players write, or otherwise not get into the spirit of things.
  
• - People who recognize that ghosting a game instead of explaining that you're dropping out is an a$$#ole move.
  

None of us are all that familiar with FAE yet, so system mastery is a plus, but absolutely not required. All that's really non-negotiable is that you be an adult who can spell, has a decent vocabulary, uses punctuation - and are fun to be around/game with.

About me:
I'm primarily a GM who has focused heavily on PF1 since it came out, 3.5 DnD before that, and been a player for a chunk of the 2e DnD era as well. I tried a bit of PF2, but I'm looking for something with less crunch and more meat now. My GM'd games have almost exclusively been PBEM - to reiterate, this game would also be a pbem, NOT a pbp.

Like pbp, the pace is slow - and it's slower as everyone already slotted for it, including me, have real life and jobs going on. My posting requirement is minimum once a week, but preferably more often - and if you wait too long, and I have time to post, you forfeit your action. I generally only guarantee you one day to reply - after that, it's fair game (but I'm reasonable about life happening).

If you're interested, drop a comment and a link to your favorite post or game that you're writing in (or were writing in). I don't mind some character concepts, either - nothing fully built to FAE, though, as I give no guarantees. Just the idea and some sense of your writing style and expectations, or maybe also the High Concept and an Aspect (just one, make it count).

Any questions, feel free to ask. And in case this is read far into the future - you can DM me regardless. I don't always hang around the boards but I do pop in from time to time when not recruiting. Patience IS a key ingredient in text games, after all. ;)

Hello! I’m planning to run Kingmaker 2e in a pbem (play by email) format, and I’m going to need one new player, but with a possible need for one or two more, depending on my existing players’ availability. I’m looking for friendly, well-adjusted, and creative writers-who-are-gamers who haven’t played Kingmaker in any shape or form before (though I’ll make an exception if your character really wows me).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I hope to make a selection within a week, or two at the most.

Hello!

I'm planning to run a pbem in Eberron, using the PF1e rules, some of these conversions, and some house rules. I have a character generation rules page I can link you to in a PM if you're interested, as well as a Discord chat about it, if you're chosen. The game will be run out of groups.io, and an account there is free. You can add your character picture to your handle there. I'll also post your chosen character picture on the cast page of our support site, along with a few details of who they are for the other players.

I'm looking for 2-3 more players. The other players currently include:

- a sylph wandslinger (a houseruled swashbuckler archetype)
- a human (d'Cannith) artificer
- an aasimar "halfling" sorceror
- possibly a warforged brawler (might not join)

We'll be starting in Sharn. So far, everyone in the party has been a member of the Keen Company, under Garson Keen, who died on the Day of Mourning, getting his company out of Cyre. They escaped with the fog right on their heels.

Now, two years after the war has ended, they've received a letter... from Garson Keen. He has invited them to Sharn to help solve the mystery of what really happened on the Day of Mourning?

I'm looking for people who enjoy writing more than one-line replies. If you have a cool concept, a great backstory, a love of writing, and team spirit, this game is for you!

I'm not posting the character generation rules here, because at this point I'd mainly like to get a feel for your writing style and concepts. If you absolutely need a framework to start with, start with a 15-point ability buy (this has the potential to be altered later, according to my house rules), no evil alignments, and know that 3pp isn't out of the question if it's in my library or on d20pfsrd.

I'll let this recruitment run on several forums until I get the desired number of players - it's definitely NOT "first come, first served," but the sooner you reply, the better. I'll try to answer any questions you may have quickly, but I do work days and can usually only reply on my lunch break or in the evenings.

I'm at GMT+1, and expect you to post at least once during the week (and you're very welcome to post more often!); I make wrapup posts as quickly as possible, but usually once a week on weekends, to allow those of us who are busy a chance to respond.

I hope you'll join us!

I'm thinking of running an Eberron campaign, beginning with The Forgotten Forge. I would use PF 1e rules, and the conversions found here.

The game would begin in Sharn, and I would expect the party to already have links to each other in their backgrounds, and a reason to be together as the game began. I'm thinking of running it as a pbem rather than a pbp, just because I like the format better, and also I've never run a game on the boards before (though I've run plenty of pbems). I would put up a campaign site with things like house rules, setting details, a cast page with pictures of the party members, and a collected archive of posts so that you could read them like a book, instead of trawling through hundreds of posts to follow the game.

Would anyone be interested in such a game? If so, what would your character concept (not crunch) be?

When I hit the RSS feed buttons, all I get is a page of code, instead of the feed subscription page. I'm using Chrome on Windows 10.

In the steaming jungles of Chult, on the wild and rocky coast where pirates prey on the unlucky - even in the very heart of the tropical city of Tashluta, where the air is redolent with exotic spices and the streets are packed with exotic peoples; everywhere in the sweltering heat, something wicked grows in the hearts of humanity. A tide rises, and all the world will be washed away before it... unless some brave souls were to take a stand against it.

To beat back the savage tide.

I'm starting a Savage Tide Pathfinder campaign set in the Forgotten Realms near Chult, with 3pp considered if it's in my library or on d20pfsrd... though, with certain caveats (for example, I restrict psionics to a custom race, the thri-kreen, for flavor reasons). We'll also be testing some of the alternate rules, like armor as DR and the vigor/wound rules. Posting rate will be 3-4 times weekly, should daily be too strenuous a schedule to keep, but I expect more than a one-line response. The characters begin the game in Tashluta, capital of the Tashalar, in the middle of the Chultan peninsula, on the 1st of Mirtul, 1375 DR. It's 15-20 point buy (explained on the support site), min.7 after racial mods, max.18 before racial mods. The catch is that it will be a pbem based out of Yahoo Groups, rather than a pbp. Here's the support site, which shows the rules we'll be using and the four characters already chosen.

I'm looking for two more players. Would anyone be interested?

Recruitment will run for a week or two.

The wind howled down from the crags like wolves, ravenous and sharp-toothed, stirring the deep mist between the trees, and in the valley below, the villagers shuddered. "An ill wind," the whispers said. What foul tidings blew down from high above, where Castle Ravenloft perched upon the mountain, ominous and dark? No one in Barovia had to ask.

The devil Strahd stirred.

I'm running Curse of Strahd in 5e as a PBEM (NOT PBP) based out of Yahoo Groups, and we're still early in the mod. I'm looking for a replacement player, as we're down to 3. Ex-PCs can be taken over, or a new PC can have been lured from the Forgotten Realms into Barovia by the Vistani. (We had a Vistani PC once, but I think it would be best to stay away from that in the future.)

The ex-PCs are:
Ascal Weaver, human wizard 3
Grey Jatan, tiefling monk 3
Dante Hatalithil, half-elf paladin of devotion (Torm) 3

If you do pick an ex-PC to take over, you'll need to familiarize yourself with their personality; other changes that don't dramatically alter the character are acceptable.

The current PCs are:
Perdita Imogen, half-elf rogue 1 paladin (Lathander) 2
Brother Attero Dominatus, human cleric of war (Torm) 3
Lissa, human barbarian 1 druid 2

Fair warning: My work has ramped up, so this isn't currently a fast game, but it chugs along. The party is currently in the town of Vallaki.

I'll let the recruitment run for a few weeks, since it seems hard to get people interested in non-pbp games.

Hi guys,

I'm running a group in a few hours, and one of the monsters (a greater barghest) has the Change Shape special quality. I don't see anywhere what type it is (Su, Sp or Ex), so I'm assuming Sp for now (even though it isn't listed under the monster's other spell-like abilities), but is that right? I want to know for the purpose of determining if using it provokes an AOO. Is there some other rule that covers special qualities that I haven't found?

(I'm also assuming it takes the same time as the spell it mimics, though I'm not sure if that's right.)

Thanks!

You know what would be cool? An [init] tag that sorted all the dice rolls inside it according to the results of the rolls, highest to lowest. :D

That, and I agree with another poster that somehow marking spoilered text, like with an indent or color field or something, would be really nice.

Cheers!

Make your rolls in this thread. Always ID your character and mention what you're rolling for.

Welcome to your DOOM.

...At least, if it's up to the devil Strahd. Is it?

Let's find out.

This thread is for dice rolling. Please ID your character every time you roll dice, as well as mentioning what you're rolling for.

I'm planning to run The Sunless Citadel, The Forge of Fury, and Red Hand of Doom (converted to Pathfinder) as a campaign, all set in the Shaar of the Forgotten Realms, 1279 DR. The game will be a PBEM (NOT PBP) based out of Yahoo Groups, with a support website for things like character portraits and a collected archive of the story.

OK, that's all I can think of to add for now. Feel free to ask questions!

The wind howled down from the crags like wolves, ravenous and sharp-toothed, stirring the deep mist between the trees, and in the valley below, the villagers shuddered. "An ill wind," the whispers said. What foul tidings blew down from high above, where Castle Ravenloft perched upon the mountain, ominous and dark? No one in Barovia had to ask.

The devil Strahd stirred.

I'm planning to run Curse of Strahd in 5e as a PBEM (NOT PBP) based out of Yahoo Groups, with a support website for things like character portraits and a running story-format archive of the game. I'm running a number of other PBEMs with Pathfinder, but this will be my first 5e game. We'll start the game in the Forgotten Realms, on the Sword Coast, in Daggerford.

NOTE: It's a sandboxy kind of adventure, so there's a good chance of running into things not tailored to your level!

I'll let the recruitment run until the end of the month, or thereabout. Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm not really familiar with 5e, but I love the old Ravenloft stuff from 2e. I understand Curse of Strahd is like an update of that older stuff. Has anyone out there converted the module to Pathfinder rules? Alternatively, are there good conversion guidelines out there somewhere? I've found some that go the other way, but they aren't official or anything.

So, my players didn't finish off all the critters on the Hambley farm, and that means more farmers will succumb until there's a raid on Sandpoint. Does anyone have suggestions for how I can stagger the raiders into manageable chunks in interesting ways? Or, perhaps, know of a module I could substitute for the event?

The party isn't that attached to Sandpoint thanks to their ongoing feud with Vinder, and some other... interesting diplomatic moments they've had. I'm also trying to think of ways to get them more friendly with the locals.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if the spellblade abilities are actually feats, or abilities with the same name as feats that stack with the same feats?

Thanks!

Like many others, I got the Humble Bundle, but my question isn't about downloading. Rather, I was wondering if it would be possible to swap out the Hell's Rebels adventures for Kingmaker ones? I realize I'm already getting a really good deal, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. :)

I'm trying to buy some pdfs, but it won't let me until I enter a shipping address, and when I click on Manage Addresses there's nowhere to enter a new one. Hitting Edit just loads the same screen that says I have no addresses, with nowhere to add an address.

When trying to pay, it allows me to enter a new address - but the popup is so small that I can't get to the bottom, and I can't scroll down, so I can't enter it there, either.

I've tried to enter an address in Chrome and IE (I can't use Firefox because it keeps crashing lately). Neither works. I'm using a Win7 machine.

I'm thinking of starting another PBEM campaign on Yahoo Groups. It suits the format of writing-focused roleplaying, and I handle most of the mechanics of the game behind the scenes to save time. I usually have 6 PCs to encourage posting to keep the game moving, and I'm planning on experimenting with 3pp (that I have access to) on a case-by-case basis.

The campaigns I'm considering are:
1) Kingmaker
2) Throne of Night
3) Serpent's Skull

Would this be of any interest, and if so, which campaign?

Does anyone have suggestions for published adventures/modules to run as a prelude to Red Hand of Doom? I'm thinking of starting the game at level 1. Refluffing isn't a problem.

Make your rolls here if you like - just note which character it's for, since I don't know all your aliases.

When I go to look at The Order of the Stick comics, I keep getting bounced back to this page: http://paizo.com/store/booksMagazines/comics. Is Paizo no longer selling these, or is there some other problem?

Because of reasons.

Artists take note!

I'm wondering if a glitterdust spell continues to affect anyone who walks into it after it has been cast, or if it only affects those caught in its radius when it is cast?

My friend is saying that only emanations have an effect that continues to affect those within its area after it has been cast, and glitterdust is a spread, not an emanation. Does this hold water?

I once read this article about how characters who had suffered a brush with death (i.e. been raised) could be eligible for new feats that played off that connection to the dead. I cannot for the life of me remember what issue it was in, or find it anywhere. Please help!

I'm running Burnt Offerings for play-by-email on Yahoo Groups, and player dropout has left some openings. I'm looking for one or two people either willing to take over an existing character (female half-elf rogue or female half-elf barbarian) or to create a new character using only core races/classes, who has been captured by the goblins of Thistletop and will be released shortly by the party.

Again, this is for pbem, NOT pbp.

Preference will be given to players who can spell and punctuate correctly. If you're interested in one of the existing characters I can tell you more. If you want to make a new one, right now I'm just looking for a short background/concept - don't go to all the trouble of making a whole sheet.

The current composition of the party is:
male half-orc wizard (evoker)
female human paladin (Sarenrae)
male gnome cleric (Desna)
male human fighter (possible the player may drop out)

female half-elf rogue (up for grabs)
female half-elf barbarian (up for grabs)

I've been playing on and off in a long-lasting solo game. In the beginning the DM said, "make your character anything, any level," so I came up with a munchkin character and for a while we had a blast. We didn't use the rules (2nd Ed. back then) as anything but a stepstone for ideas, and though the plots were cheesy, the DM was really good at NPC characterization and we had a lot of fun.

Within the last few years, though, his tendency to take away the control of my character, have him do something bad, then say something like, "Suddenly you're back in control of your body" and have me deal with whatever shit situation he's come up with has increased to the point where half the time I'm not responsible for anything the character does. On top of being held responsible for it anyway, his NPCs have taken to insulting my character on a regular basis, my character can't deal with anything above a lvl.5 challenge (I either get my ass handed to me by DM fiat or told that my solution flat out won't work - only for his DMPCs to come in and say/do something similar that saves the day), he never gives me enough information to act on without me having to pull it out of him like I'm pulling his teeth (but if I do something wrong because I didn't know what my character should be able to see, LOL SRY TOO BAD), and he's completely screwed over my character's backstory with his current plot. He also penalizes my character for my own lack of charisma/tactical knowledge/whatever.

I'm starting to feel like an unwelcome extra in his DMPC-focused story extravaganza. The problem is that he's really touchy, and any criticism can set off a tantrum where he threatens to take his ball and go home. He views himself as a great DM (and he really used to be one!), though has never actually played IN a game, so I don't think he understands how frustrating this shit is. I offered to de-munchkinize my character in case it was getting too hard to deal with, but I immediately regained all my powers by his doing. He seems willing enough to play the game on the occasions we meet, and I try hard to go with the flow of the story even when it's borking my character up, so the vibe I'm getting is that he thinks it's fun to do this - not for me, but for him.

At this point I'm really attached to the characters and invested in the story, but playing is a gorram frustration. I can't discuss it with him frankly because he'll blow his top, but I don't want to give up on the game. Maybe someone with better charisma than me can explain how to let the DM know he's not being as great a DM as he thinks?

My DM is running us through the War of the Burning Sky AP, and I have a greatsword-wielding fighter that just hit 2nd level. His feats are Cavalry Errant (a background feat from WotBS), Dodge, Weapon focus: greatsword, Mobility and Power Attack. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what feats I should take through lvl.20? Obviously I'll be taking the weapon specialization and focus tree, and I'd like to take improved critical and weapon supremacy (from PHB2), but other than that I don't know. The DM said I probably won't need the mounted feats.

Any 'official' source is probably OK.

I need some new players for our RotR play by email campaign. The group is still in the beginning of the first module (just entered the Glassworks), and currently consists of a human half-Varisian cleric of Shelyn, a human Ulfen ranger, and a halfling bard.

I'd like to recruit people who can write well (so we'll have a fun story to read when it's all done) and who can post at least daily.

We're using the Pathfinder rules, but only Core races and classes (archetypes are probably OK, but please check first). You get two traits, and in addition one of the feats from the Player's Guide if you're a Varisian native. 25-point buy for abilities.

You don't need to post any crunch here, just a concept and character background. If you get picked, there's an RTF sheet to fill out on our Yahoo group under Files. Our website is here.

I'd like to run the Freeport adventures in Golarion with the Pathfinder rules, and I want to offer some cool campaign traits. I'm aware that KQ has some, but they appear to mostly presuppose that the PCs are from Freeport, while the adventure states that the PCs should just have arrived from elsewhere. I'm an uncreative lump at the moment, so tell me: what do you think would make good campaign traits for newcomers to Freeport?

Yesterday I made a post about this that got shunted into Suggestions/Homebrew/Whatever for some reason, never to see the light of day again, so this time I'll keep it short and sweet.

I need advice/ideas on how to challenge a low-level party that has to climb the tallest mountain(s) in the world (infested with rocs) and then travel through a forest full of über-dire wolves. I don't want to TPK them, but challenge them with these foes (and possibly some abberations) - preferably in a way that doesn't need to lead to combat. Puzzles of some sort would be nice, and ideas of how to make the trip fun and memorable.

Suggestions on aberrations to use are also welcome.

Some facts:

• The PCs will start at lvl.1 having to climb the mountain and go through the forest
  
• They will have no wizards, rogues or paladins, but possibly oracles or summoners.
  
• The PCs are flavored as Neanderthals, with Neanderthal equipment
  

In any case, I'd like to start my very first fully-homebrew game with an all-human Neanderthal Epic 6 story. I'm not doing anything mechanically to differentiate Neanderthals from regular humans; instead I plan to alter the Cro-Magnon a little. But that's a tangent, sorry.

I've been brainstorming all day, and I've come up with a story that seems okay, I think... but now comes the part where I have to translate it into actual scenarios with opponents and game mechanics. Yech. Which finally brings me to my point: is anyone interested in helping me come up with a fun scenario for the first adventure?

The gist of the first adventure is: The Bird of Thunder clan has seen something strange far to the north, where the frost never touches. Having journeyed to the top of the tallest Sky Mountain to see this for themselves, the party must go there through the forest of the Ur-Wolves.

I want the challenge to have something to do with the rocs that live on the Sky Mountains and of course the Ur-Wolves in their forest, but I'm drawing a blank as to a fun thing to do with them. I don't want it to be just some hackfest, but to maybe have a puzzle or something. Maybe the Ur-Wolves are semi-intelligent, and let the PCs pass if they save a pup in trouble, or something. Any ideas, anyone?

It says Spark can light unattended Fine objects... but it seems odd that it couldn't light a torch, which is meant to be lit, though it isn't Fine. In fact, it seems odd that it could only (potentially) light torches or lanterns that are unattended. Could someone clarify? Thanks!

I'm running a homebrew where one of the PCs is looking for her long-lost sister. I decided to make the sister one of the minor BBEGs in the campaign, which is about a fey invasion. The PC will have a chance to 'convert' the sister, or they'll have a showdown and (I expect) the sister will die, perhaps whispering a few clues for later and setting the PCs against the evil fey. In the meantime, I've set it up so that all the cannon fodder for the evil fey army (goblinoids mostly) are terrified of her, and due to how she's been talking up her sister the PC, they're afraid of the PC too.

The sister has been abducted by the fey to their realm for a while, where a lot of time has passed, allowing her to become more powerful than the PC(s). I've decided that this was because of her mixed human and fey blood making her a good go-between for minor villains used by the main BBEG. That's why I'm thinking she should be a feyblooded sorceror, circa level 10 (the PCs are currently level 6).

I could use some advice on her build - feats and spells, mostly. I want to emphasize how badass she is to scare the cannon fodder like that, preferably with fey-themed abilities (dreams, shadows, animals, phantasms, etc.). Or if someone has alternate class/prestige class ideas, I'd like to hear about them, too.

If anyone has any bright ideas about how I could extend the fey blood theme to the PC somehow, that'd be great too. I thought about offering her a bonus fey feat, but thought that'd be unfair to the other PCs. I also thought about making a special prestige class to offer her, but I have no experience doing that, so it'd probably end up unbalanced.

So... halp?

I'll say it up front: I suck at tactics.

The party has just cleared the thistle maze and more or less all resistance on the first level of Thistletop, capturing Ripnugget (they captured Gogmurt too, but let him go). They haven't yet discovered the dungeon levels, but when they do, I think they'll turn back to Sandpoint to restock and recover.

My question is: with the goblins wiped out, what would Nualia & Co.'s response be? Surely she wouldn't just keep on researching as though nothing had happened? How would they set up a defense of the fort without the goblins if they have a day or more to prepare?

Where would they set up to cause the most grief to trespassers? Any specific tactics they might use would be welcome.

If it helps, the party has just hit 3rd level. One of them is a paladin of Sarenrae who used to know Nualia. I imagine a chance for her to redeem Nualia if she plays her cards right.

Anyone who enjoys writing interested in joining an ongoing Rise of the Runelords pbem played on Yahoo Groups? We're still early in the first adventure. Only core classes and races, though.

A barbarian in my game is trying to use a Knockback bull rush against the mount of a mounted opponent with the Mounted Combat feat. Since you can negate a hit on your mount with this feat, does it function against combat maneuvers?

If a Handy Haversack is sized for a Small character (we don't use magical item resizing), is the capacity smaller, or does the fact that it's a magic item overrule that?

I've joined a campaign that has gotten to 16th level, which is by FAR the highest level I've ever played. At first I built a camel-riding paladin, but the setting and general uselessness of the paladin (can't even convert anyone, that's taken care of by the cleric) has convinced me to switch characters.

Now I'd like to try an elven rogue in the hope of actually being useful for a change. Elven due to campaign concerns, rogue because we already have a fighter and a ranger and I'm nervous about remembering all the options at this level for other classes. But I've never really run a high-level character besides the fiasco that was the paladin, so I could really use some advice on an awesome build, from stats to feats to magical equipment. OR an alternate class build if the rogue turns out to be a bad choice.

Can anyone help me out? Most splatbooks are acceptable I think, assuming either I or our gaming club have them (which is likely). The new adventure starts on Monday. Piles of internet cookies for everyone who helps! :)

We've lost the player of our dwarf ranger, and we need a replacement. I'd prefer that someone just take over the dwarf ranger, but I'll consider interesting new concepts, too.

The group is currently assaulting Thistletop, so any new character will be found there, probably as a captive of the goblins. Everyone is lvl.2, core classes and races only. Concepts please, not stats.

If you'd like to take over the existing dwarf ranger (yay!), here's some info on him:

• He came to the town of Sandpoint during the Swallowtail Festival specifically to find a half-elf (one of the PCs) that he's infatuated with (whom he knew would be attending), but she's recently changed into a terse killer and his affection is unrequited.
  
• He lost his father's battleaxe under Sandpoint (shattered) and now uses a fancy handaxe he found on a mutated goblin-thing.
  
• His name contains the rare-in-Dwarven "th" sound.
  
• He doesn't believe in bathing, but believes his 'natural scent' hides him from predators.
  
• His favored enemies are goblins.
  
• Anything else you want to know about him, ask.
  

The rest of the party consists of:

• A half-orc evoker
  
• A human paladin of Sarenrae
  
• A gnome cleric of Desna
  
• A half-elf, half-Shoanti Shadde-Quah barbarian
  
• A half-elf rogue (the dwarf's interest)
  

I'll wait a week or so for volunteers before choosing. Cheers!

Our RotR pbem game stagnated due to lack of posting, and now we're looking for people committed to frequent posting and entertaining writing. You can take over one of the old characters (a Shoanti druid, gnome frost sorceror or halfling rogue) or make a new character that has a reason to go adventuring with the Heroes of Sandpoint.

The party is 1st level and has just defeated a goblin raid on the town of Sandpoint the day before yesterday. Now they're investigating a goblin lair, where they might find the new party member(s). 25-pt buy, no evil characters, core material only for class and race (though I'll usually accept archetypes). The current party includes an Ulfen ranger, a Shoanti monk and a cleric of Shelyn; we could use a rogue or arcane caster. I'd like to see some basic concepts here before you go to the work of statting out a character.

Our group on Yahoo Groups is rotrdk, with a link to our website on it.

Can anyone recommend a 1st-lvl adventure where there's little combat and mostly roleplaying? It can also be 3.5 and even something from Dungeon; I'm planning on running a pbem game for total RPG newbies, and I find it best to restrict combat severely. However, I feel too shaky as a DM to design an adventure myself, so any recommendations are really, really welcome.

The pregen characters at the back of WBG includes an alchemist, but I'm a little uncertain about the extracts he has. Specifically their number. As far as I can tell, he should only have 4 at lvl.1(2+2 for Int), but he has 6. What have I overlooked? Could someone please explain this discrepancy to me?

In the pbp game I'm in, when I post as my alias Patch Cullen, I get the message that I can only post 10 times before the name becomes permanent, which I never got with my other aliases. The only other time I've seen it is when I first posted on the boards. Is there something weird going on here, or does that message show for all aliases now? I'd rather not change my original alias to Patch Cullen!

I've got a non-optimized 15th level desert paladin (complete with divine warcamel mount) that has proven to be far too squishy, mainly because I didn't outfit her very well. Now I've been encouraged to cheese her up equipmentwise (within the means of a 15th level character), and I need some advice.

Due to her desert background she's leery of metal armor, so she has bracers of armor and some homebrew "spidersilk" armor that stacks with them, but her AC still sucks. I'd like a non-plate armor method of beefing up her AC. Losing the spidersilk is not a problem.

She's specialized in using a glaive or, at closer quarters, a falchion. However, the ones she has aren't magical and basically suck. She deals something like an eighth of the damage of the other combat characters in her party. Somehow I don't think her god is impressed with her nearly dying every fight she's in.

I can probably argue for anything found in an official 3.5 splatbook, and possibly even non-official splatbooks, but I've never played such a high-level character before and just don't know HOW to cheese her up. Any advice is appreciated!

Hi there,

I'm doing a bachelor project on gaming (game literacy and social ties that bridge the digital divide), and it would really help me out if as many online roleplayers as possible would answer a few questions for me within the next few days. I've made a short questionnaire with just 10 questions here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FF8WYHB

If you have any questions, post them here and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks in advance for your help! :D