Frank Steven Gimenez's page

Which Dragon magazine issue had the article explaining using a known personality to template the role playing of your character? It had a drawing showing a D&D party that included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bart Simpson, and Big Bird.

I think it came out during the D&D 3e era. I also remember that the magazine changed editors at that time.

My Google Fu has failed me. Might you know?

...living as a fish in a blender.

Here's also a beautiful side view of Cauldron. I use it as a watermark for my Shackled City printouts.

It just occurred to me that Anna from the TV series "V" would make a great roleplaying template for the Stormblade leader Annah, who is also a villainous diplomancer.

I was already trying to play her like this when I ran a scene with her in the past.

I hope this suggestion is helpful. I'm not a natural role-player, so I need to use every shortcut cheat I can get to pull off my roleplaying when I run a game.

Okay, the imp in the Flood Season has encountered the party. The party has just defeated his plaything and is going to mess with the party. Of course, the party does not realize that they have an imp problem.

Here's the thing. I hate practical jokers, pranksters, and the idea that it is okay to have fun at another's expense. However, I also believe in bringing honor to the PC's adversary by running them to the best of my ability in the manner that they should be run.

I need ideas for what the imp will do with the party. How will he mess with them?

Someone in the past said that they restructured the second half of Flood Season so that the wands were hidden around the city instead of yet another dungeon. I was not able to find that post. If someone could find it I would appreciate it.

What I want to do is to make the Urban Ranger's Urban Tracking highly relevant in this adventure. First, make the clues provided by the Last Laugh informer available as information that highly skilled investigators can dig up with good rolls. Then, find one wandholder hidden in town and get from him clues to another wand, etc. There is already one time pressure in place, which is the flooding. I'll solidify it by putting the flooding on a fixed time schedule. In addition, I'll have the Stormblades find out that they are looking for wands throughout town and they will try to one up the party by finding them first. Of course, the PCs will have the advantage with their urban ranger, but I want to have the Stormblades breathing down their necks.

So, what I need is an alternate setup where the wands are hidden in buildings around town, guarded by alleybashers with the occasional hidden mini-dungeon under a building to house the spiders of the wizard and a seperate one for the undead gnoll.

Any ideas?

I know that one of my players will want to take over the Lucky Monkey after they are done clearing it out. What does it take for someone to legally claim abandoned property, such as the Lucky Monkey, Jzaderune, Malechite Fortress, etc.?

I'm about to run to the beginning of the third adventure Flood Season which will have the Stormblades publically confront the PCs and mock them publicly in an attempt to sully their prestige and reputation, which they hope will goad them into attacking them. Now I'm sure that there are several DMs here that relished the opportunity to rip into the PCs with their witty sarcasm. But my personal insult-fu is very weak, along the level of "you are a doo-doo head and a pee-pee face".

I would like to arrive at this encounter prepared with some scripted lines, bullet points, and teardown tactics for me to put out for my players. Annah would of course start out with some satiristic praise of the PCs and their acomplishments, but then go into some cleverly veiled insults. Todd would interject with variations of "Losers" here and there. After a while of interchange Cora will jump in with some aggresive vitrol.

Some distinctive points about what has been going on in my game: The PCs are noble-ish. Although not nobles, they are socially the same level as Cora Lanthenmire. The PC Kyra is Cora's younger sister. The Stormblades has scooped the PCs of Kazmojen's treasure hoard from the Malachite Fortress. Yes, the PCs hate them very much. This was done with Annah forging a note by Sacrem stating that the Stomblades were working for the Church of St. Cuthbert, which got them past the St. Cuthbert guard that was stationed at Ghelve's Locks. Jenya knows nothing about this note. The PCs have confronted the Stormblades at the Cusp of Sunrise, where Annah showed them the forged note and cooly and calmly informed them that such "recovery" tasks are exclusively their domain in this town, that the PCs should have handed over the job to them, and from her point of view the PCs has stolen treasure that rightfully belongs to the Stormblades. The PCs have not discerned the note was a forgery. But doing some follow up Gather Information and Knowledge(local) and (nobility) checks after the meeting has revealed that Annah is full of it and blowing smoke.

During the Kordite barbarian retreat, Kyra made friends with Zachary Aslan II and he spilled to her how much swag they took (5,000 gp worth), how he was initially angry at her and her group for doing the adventure that he thought was their right to have. But since the Stormblades didn't go into the underdark to find more enslaved citizens like Annah said they would, he's feeling pretty bad about the whole thing and is sorry that they did that. And also how he's drifting away from Cora and the Stormblades, but is too loyal to leave either and is feeling stuck (Kyra's player rolled a high Diplomacy check.) Of course, Cora has by now caught wind that her boyfriend and her little sister has been hanging out in the woods for a couple of weeks and is feeling very jealous and paranoid right now. Which leads to...

Help me Obi Wan; you are my only hope. :) Please help me bring honor to the portrayal player's adversaries. What is Annah, Todd, Cora, and even Zachary going to say? This has the potential of breaking Zachary away from the Stormblades, depending on how it goes.

Cora Lanthenmire is the most quiet and bloodthristy of the Stormblades, a rival NPC adventuring party. Quick to anger, most of the group's fights start when Cora imagines an insult directed at her or her lover, Zachary. Cora's fighting style is an unusual combination of graceful jabs and powerful stabs. She's a natural at fighting with finesse but her patience often runs out by the third round of combat, at which point she starts to utilize her Power Attack feat. As she gains levels, she learns how to focus her anger with more grace, but never fully learns to control her emotions. She has numerous scars, mostly on her hands and forearms.

A PC in my game is her younger sister and she is pestering her with questions about her scars. So far, I have been rebuking these inquiries with "you wouldn't understand; none of you would," (referring to her family) but would like to have a little more idea of why she chooses to keep and show off her scars, and how she regards them. In my D&D world, it means that she choosing to refuse magical healing so that her wounds would heal naturally which would naturally leave scars.

Why does she think why she keeps her scars?
Why does she really keep her scars?
What does she say to her friends about them?
What about to the people she doesn't like?

**SPOILER** I'm trying to set up a political manuver and it's reversal. I'm running Shackled City and I want to set it up so that Lord Taskerhill, the most powerful noble of Cauldron, has something over the wizard alchemist Vortimax Weer. Taskerhill has a tangeble McGuffin that gives him cohersion over Weer. The PC, being married to Weer, will use her roguely skills to break into Taskerhill's mansion, find and recover the McGuffin, and find bonus evidence of Taskerhill's plot to hire an asassin to kill the mayor.

What I need is:

• What form is the McGuffin that it's possession can cause coersion to Weer (and it's absence would remove it)
• What is Taskerhill coercing Weer to do for him?
• What form is the evidence of Taskerhill's (or his "Mr. Johnson") finding, meeting, negotiating, and/or paying the asassin (or his agent)?

The PC cleric of Pelor is spending several hundred GP on renovating the shrine of Pelor. Since they are breaking through walls & floors, what cool secret can she and the NPC cleric uncover while doing so?

One thing I'm considering is that the character is a 4th level wizard with Scribe Scroll, and the church could hire her to scribe scrolls. Instead of paying money, they could offer her some other consideration.

My adventuring group is having trouble coming up with a name for itself. So, I would like to see the names of the adventuring parties that you have been part of, or have heard of.

My group consists of:
Kyra Lanthenmire, human female fighter, leader of the group, younger sister of Cora.
Gwendolyn Weer, female elven rogue/sorcerer, golddigging wife of Vortimax.
Seodarin "Seo" Hillsborough, female halfling cleric of Pelor, child of the owners of the Tipped Tankard Tavern.
Brunhilda Spintershield, female dwarven Wizard, granddaughter of Davked, niece of Zenith.

They are all gestalted with Aristocrat as they are nobles.

I'm creating a mini-adventure for a player who is playing Kyra Lanthenmire, a female aristocratic fighter, younger sister of the swashbuckler Cora Lanthenmire, so that she can pick up a level of Barbarian and have it be somewhat logical while also being cool. I have the framework for the adventure; I just need some help fleshing out the descriptive detail and roleplaying.

The player's character is currently a chaotic good level 3 fighter focused on the fullblade, which is probably the biggest sword a humanoid could possibly wield. The plan is for her to have her gain her fourth level in barbarian in a non-eye-rolling 'give-me-a-break' plausible manner.

To make this work I used the fact that the Kyra is a strong active worshipper of Kord, who is the chaotic good god focused on strength, competition, brawling, fitness, leadership, courage, etc. A god who happens to be worshiped by a lot of barbarians. So, the key to this implausible trick is to define that the barbarian class is sacred to Kordites, or at least the high priest of the Temple of Lordly Might. Last week Kyra was approached by the half-orc high priest Asfelkir Hranleurt and informed that she has qualified to partake in the yearly retreat to experience the sacred ways of the barbarian (treating it like a pseudo prestige class) if she is interested. "To live life by the strength of your body and spirit, to battle daily challenges in a manner that is pleasing to Kord, and to learn how to find and channel the spirit of Kord through yourself."

This sidequest will occur between the first and second adventures of the SCHC. The adventure will start with Asfelkir handing the PC and four others to his half orc brother (barb 4/cleric kord 3) who leads a barbarian tribe in the jungle twenty miles away. He will lead the group in a marathon run there and the winner will have the privilege of eating meat that night, whereas everyone else will have to make do with plants for their dinner.

During this three week retreat, the five participants gets to live in the barbarian tribe (a collection of humans, orcs, half-orcs, and some individuals who used to live in the city but have moved here after their retreat experience in the past.) During this period they will learn how to live within nature, how to hunt and survive in the jungle, how to find their animal totem (he has a different dogma than his brother) which they can invite inside of themselves to empower them for a short time. There will be grueling physical activity mixed with competitive physical challenges, including swimming, jumping, climbing, running, and wrestling a bear (trained animal companion of a tribe druid). The experience will end with the shaman facilitating a physically taxing spiritual awakening where the participants will encounter their animal totem in a hallucinagenic vision. At the end they will go back to the city but they may join the tribe if they are interested in moving there. Those going back will, of course, have to run there; but this time having to run up the volcano to Cauldron at the end of their marathon run.

What I need is cool stuff to say as the orc tribal leader, some ideas of descriptive color of the barbarian tribe along with details of the grueling physical challenges that they are experiencing during the montage of transformation that occurs during the three weeks. Most importantly some ideas of how to run the last part. Or else it's going to go like "Um you fail your Will save and go into your hallucination and meet a wolf. He says 'Hi I'm your Totem' and you can Rage now." The whole reason that I'm running a published campaign is because I have so much trouble coming up with my own stuff, although I am pleased with how this mini-adventure is coming along.

Since the player is also picking up the Scion of Kord feat I would like to incorporate a message from Kord delivered by his emissary during the vision revealing that the blood of Kord runs through her veins along with a warning of the dire fate that awaits Cauldron and that Kyra needs to become as strong as she can possibly be to courageously lead the opposing force to stop this dire threat.

I'm creating some NPCs for the other players to play if they choose to participate; otherwise I'll just run this as a one-on-one for the player. Their regular characters will receive the experience points for this mini-adventure.

The other participants will be:

Zachary Aslan II (Ranger 2/Cleric Kord 1) a tall ruggedly handsome young noble of the rival aristocratic adventuring group The Stormblades. He has recently turned to Kord and starting to turn away from his callous ways which is shared by the other members. He's thinking of ending his romantic relationship with the swashbuckler Cora Lanthenmire in his group and hooking up with the bard leader Annah Taskerhill. However this is before his attention was caught by Cora's younger sister, Kyra. :) She has defeated him in a wrestling match at the Kord Temple and has intrigued him. He wasn't planning on going on this retreat, but he'll be there now. (And yes, the player is working to take him from her sister.) This NPC will be played by me.

"The inspiration to us all" He is a small human male with a slight but bulked up build. He was born physically weak and sickly but with a phenomenal force of will (18 WIS). He has been working intensely at the Kord temple since he was a boy to overcome his weak body and has worked himself to a 10 STR and an 8 CON. What he lacks physically he overcomes by far with skill, experience, and tenacity. He has been rejected ten years in a row before being regarded strong enough and tough enough for this ordeal. He is a master wrestler and can defeat enemies much stronger than himself. Human male 32 Ranger 3/Fighter 4/Cleric Kord 1 with Iron Will, Improved Grapple, Track, Favored Enemy: human, Two-Weapon Fighting, Endurance, Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus: Grapple, Weapon Specialization: Grapple, Run, & Diehard. Domains: Luck & Strength. Climb, Jump, & Swim maxxed out.

Female half-orc commoner 2, 20 STR. She has had a miserable life growing up with low (4) intelligence and charisma (4). Having trouble learning anything she has been viciously tormented in childhood. Living with her mother in the poorest section of town, she was only able to get jobs doing things that a person would normally have mules do. She has upgraded her job loading and unloading boxes at a warehouse, but her fellow employees shun her and and some torment her. She thought that she could find a place at the temple of Kord but no one there wanted to have anything to do with a living parody of a Kordite. No one except for one cleric who has been working with her for the last couple of years explaining to her how beautiful and wonderful she is in Kord's eyes. Although she is more accepted now by the other Kordites, the cleric hopes that she can find a new life at this retreat.

Male half-elf rogue 1/warrior 2. He was a cruel mean vicious bullying thug, including a history tormenting the female half-orc in the past. But after going to the temple of kord seeking to become a physically stronger bully he instead found a kind cleric who has helped him find a way out of evil and how to use his strength for good. He's halfway there, currently chaotic neutral, and has been allowed on this retreat as a reward for the progress that he has already made. But his cruel streak comes out when he is trying to psyche out an opponent during a competition; a practice which is considered fair play at the temple. (Maxxed Bluff & Intimidate)

The player is Kyra Lanthenmire. Fighter 3 (gestalted with Aristocrat 3). Using a fullblade which no one in her family respects, particularly the swashbuckler sister.

I certainly would appreciate more ideas for detail and roleplaying cues for the NPC participants.

I'll be using the Degrees of Success rules from the Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns book for the noncombat physical challenges that I detail which should make a nice change of pace for everyone from standard D&D combat. I can detail how that would go if you want.

And whatever I can do to incorporate this better with the rest of the campaign I would like to know. I have only read the first two adventures and flipped through the rest of the book at this time. For example, where on the Cauldron region map would be the best place for this barbarian tribe be located? And how will this affect its makeup and character?