GUTH's page

Of course, the players shouldn't start putting the pieces together until they are mid-level (10+). They should be confused in the beginning; part of the fun is solving the mystery over time.

Or it could go down like in my campaign where the players now refuse to continue playing because the "confused" part became frustrated. If you have a "puzzle solving" group of experienced players, then AOW is for you. If you group is all about what Gygax used to call "hack and slay" then you might be better off starting about half way through the AOW AP.

I dont know if this has been covered but does anyone know if the AGE OF WORMS adventure path will be coming out in a hardbound edition, ...and if so, when?

Thoth-Amon

This topic has been frequently discussed, and the answer is a great big MAYBE.

I have recently been reading gary Gygax's "Night Arrant" book and reference was made to iridium and jotellium as types of coin that is more precious than gold or even platinum coins.

Were these ever used in D&D at all?

Thanks.

I was wondering how many DMs used Dwarven Forge products--to create 3D dungeons/caverns--in their game?

If you do use them, which products would suggest for someone who does not own any Dwarven Forge products yet?

Thank you, and I look forward to your replies. Good gaming to you all!

I use dwarven forge but only because I collect it and use for displays, and my own amusement as well. It's too expensive to buy only for use with your game but if you love the sets then by all means, go for it.

Free Kyuss worms for all subscribers!!!

I have a bunch of those Cheetos that turn your tongue green that I've been licking to turn them green and slightly soggy. I plan on throwing a hand full of them at the first player to come in contact with the worms...

ASEO out

You giggle, but I did something like this in our first meeting with the Kyuss Spawn. I bought some fishing lure plastic green worms, and had a handful in my pocket. When the time came, I tossed the handful at the player whose character had been hit with the worms. It was effective. The shock value was well worth the price of the worms.

I have used the worms to make some "large Kyuss worms" and also used Green Stuff to make several bases of Kyuss Worm Swarms.

Access to a PDF copy of the issue from the Piazo site?

The problem with PDF of up-to-date material files is obvious. With the wide range of file sharing programs out there, the PDFs of the recent issues would be available for free download, thus making it that even more people don't bother to buy Dragon or Dungeon.

That's my opinion.

I agree. One of the fighter characters in my campaign has this feat, and the most recent use of it was during a scene involving a large horde of zombies. I assigned the zombies low HP for the sole reason of creating a situation where this feat could be used to full effect.

The result was the fighter character dropping zombies left and right, and the other players hooting and cherring as the "zombie buzzsaw" cut through the crowd.

It allowed me as DM to create a tense situation as a huge mass of zombies bore down on the PCs but then allowed for quick resolution.

Used sparingly, it works well. Used too often, it's boring to the PCs.

We as DMs have to look at our players and their characters, and utilize the "tools" they've chosen to make gaming fun and exciting. This is one of those times when you can turn the use of a feat into a cinematic event that the players will all remember.

If they put them out on time, what would we have to complain about? *wink*

That's because there haven't been any. *wink* Refer to the "online supplement" threads to understand why.

Hmmmm. What do I want to see from the next AP. That's easy:

DIRECTNESS AND LESS BEATING AROUND THE FRICKIN' BUSH.

I know the idea of an AP is to take characters from level 1 to 20. Whoo hoo. Big deal.

I'm an adult with a full time job and all that crap. I'd rather see a short AP that is intense, fun, and detailed rather than these AP's that drag the players on wild goose chases and by the middle of the AP finally get down to doing whatever the AP is really about.

With the current AP's especially Age of Worms I tend to have to do this: "Well all this is cool but I know we're only going to play about 1 or twice a month this year for about 4-6 hours each time, so what fat do I have to trim in order to make the story fun, make sense, but still move along so we can actually finish a story for once...." And I know I'm not the only one.

In other words: we are DMs. We can devise sidetreks and extra little adventures to gain the characters XP. We don't need the AP to drag us through the mud of "well they need to gain XP to do this next thing so they have to fight 50 kobolds in a temple completely unrelated to the actual theme of the AP."

The author of a gaming module, book, or article does matter to me. If Monte Cook, Chris Pramas, or Bruce Cordell wrote it, I probably have it. My fiance knows that she's safe buying me anything that has Monte Cook as the author, and he's the only author she recognizes in relation to gaming. So yeah, if I weren't a subscriber already it might matter if you put the author's names on the front of the magazine in the purchasing department. However, the effect seeing the author names on the front of the mag does for me is I glance at the cover to see what this issue is featuring and if I notice an author I like, I put it into my briefcase for quick reading during free time at work or whatever. If it looks like it sucks, I toss it on the kitchen table to read when I get time on my days off.

I simply like to get the insights from the publishers for the different settings, mainly Eberron as I am running a campaign world based on the Eberron campaign. I could really care less about the artwork or maps. I just want to read the "Running (whatever section) in Eberron" section. I wish there was a way for this to be included in a side bar instead of lumped into the online supplements.

Good to hear things are progressing. I hope they stay interested in the AP... and it sounds like they're paying quite a bit of attention, if they have such a developed opinion of Allustan ;) After reading ahead I can tell you that paranoid nature might actually save their skins in the near future.

Do you mean the bit where he takes them to blackwall and then teleports away? I'm not going to be running that part in that way at all. It would destroy the effort I've put into making them trust Allustan. Or are you hinting at some betrayl by the wizard in the future I've missed by reading Overload?

I'm just interested in reading the sections for running the stories in Eberron. I'm not so worried about the graphics. I just like to read the insight on the different campaign settings since I am running the adventure path in a loosely based Eberron setting.

They are simply teaching us all a lesson in patience. (resolved sigh)

My players have become more interested in the AP and are actively taking part. They are still very combat oriented but a few of them have discovered that D&D is actually more than a miniature game. (My players are big fans of Warhammer and Warmachine)They were at first viewing D&D as a "glorified" miniatures game. Some of them have begun to develop the personality of their characters and are having fun with it. I have also utilized a blog which they can use to access information before and after the game. Things are going much better since the primary post.

I have found that I cannot run subplots. They seem to only want to focus on one thing at a time, so they will ignore everything but one issue at a time. This caused a problem with AOW because the beginning of the AP is choppy and focused more on giving a nod to old greyhawk legend and lore rather than taking a direct route to the meat and bones of the story. They are still confused, I believe, about why their characters even did anything they did in the Whispering Cairn as none of it seems to connect with the TFOE.

Also, developing NPCs as allies is difficult because they assume that all NPCs are enemies. Thus, all my good guys have to wear white and all the bad guys need to wear black. The PCs are the only ones wearing gray and it's often a dark shade of gray. Thus, the issue of making Allustan a trusted benefacot has been a problem. At one point they were convinced that Allustan was the bad guy behind the whole plot with Filge because Allustan was being helpful to them (thus he had to be getting close to set them up!)

I am still using a campaign setting loosely based on Eberron. They don't seem to love it, but they don't complain much either. They don't seem to care one way or the other about the setting.

We currently are at the near end of the TFOE. I recently posted some information about the good role-playing and good planning they pulled off at the beginning of TFOE.

We stopped playing D&D before Christmas and I'll probably try to pick up playing again next month.

I actually had the same thing go on in my campaign. The standing looter characters were trying to figure out how they could carry the red metal pedestal out of the Cairn. I decided ahead of time that it was going to be the "magical" metal from the old boxed set RED STEEL. My more experienced players liked it because it was a nod towards an old boxed set and the newer players were terrified because the monk's player was going on ab0ut how it was radioactive and did terrible things to you if you remained in contact with Red Steel and such. It was amusing. Needless to say, it remains in our game world right where it was ... untouched.

I'm a fan of trying to round up relevant music to play while gaming. When the redux of Dawn of the Dead came out, we played some zombie killing spree adventurers with such tunes as the Cranberries tune "Zombie" and Ozzy's "Zombie Stomp."

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions on Worm related music. For example:

Pink Floyd's "Waiting for the Worms to Come"
Impaled's "The Worms Crawl In"

:O)

Our gaming group extends from the DuBois area throiugh Brookville and even into Marienville, PA. So basically if you live in Forest, Jefferson, or CLearfierld counties, give me an email. :O)

I have been using the 1988 TSR product "THE DUNGEON MASTER'S DESGIN KIT I" to flesh out encounters. It comes with sheets for role-playing encounters, melee encounters, treasure, monsters, and lots of other stuff. It's a handy resource.

Hint, hint. It would be cool if it were redesigned for 3.5

14.5 wide U.S. Boot.

I'm curious only (and don't want to start a big deal in the forums about it) if there is a "update" to overload planned for the future. I was under the understanding it would be added to or something as the plot thickened. Just wondering. Thanks!

GUTH wrote:

In DuBois, PA we have 9 players and me, the DM.

I'm interested in how the campaign is going with so many players, since when I Start up in March I'll have 8 players.

How are you adapting things? I've always found the EL/CR tables in the DMG less than helpful when the party is double the size the tables were created for.

Well, having so many players, most often not all of them are available to show up for every session. We usually have between 5-6 each session, not always the same ones as last time. I've found that having so many players, I really have to plan out the "important" encounters well to provide the excitement that's needed. I often double the number of creatures encountered and have to main villians with bodyguards and magic items to boost their abilities. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

In DuBois, PA we have 9 players and me, the DM.

In other words, just about in time for you to start asking for 131's online supplement.

My group had some very interesting approaches to this adventure. You might remember that these were the players who were saying the AOWAP was too hard, and they wanted to quit D&D. With some work and the use of a blog, things have turned around. I have listed some interesting turn of events that happened in our most recent gaming session. Also, I have at least one question having to do with the pool that the Overgod comes out of. Please check it out.

1. The players wanted to know if the guards who wandered the Dourstone mine ever hung out at a paticular place. I said decided to go with the flow to see what happened and said that many of the rough-n-tumble guards hung out at the Feral Dog. This resulted in the PCs researching how the ale is brought into the tavern. The PCs role-played through an entertaining scene where they "poisoned" the supply of beer in the bar with substances whipped up by the PC monk which would give the guards a case of food poisoning. Thus, many of the guards did not show up for work the next day, or were very ill during their shift. This plan came from the same group who has almost no interest in anything but combat. I was impressed. I lowered the amount of guards to be encountered within the mine.
2. The PCs posed as miners and got into the mine in this fashion. Since many of the guards were sick or ill, they didn't have a lot of trouble bledning into the crowd funneling into the mine. They had to do some bluffing and sneaking, but managed to get inside.
3. We only play 2 times a month for about 6 hours a session. Thus, I cut the TFoE down in content a lot. I combined the three temples into one with three sections. At the center was the dark cathedral. Anyway, the PCs used their imagination to come up with some good tactics that didn't rely on combat only during the adventure, and again I was impressed. For once it wasn't just hack-n-slash but a mix of subterfuge, tactics, role-playing, and guile. It was quite fun.
4. In the Dark Cathedral, the PCs rushed the main floor, attempting to disrupt the ritual at the pool. One of the PCs used a homebrew wand styled after the Ram Ring which can "shoot" beams of force. Each charge allows for a 1d6 of damage. This is where the question comes in: The PC decided to fire the ram wand at the block surrounding the pool, trying to collapse the brick into the pool. As I imagine it, this wouldn't do too much to affect the Overgod crawling out of the pool in the end. (They know something bad will be coming out of there.) What opinion do you all have on it?

I am happy to report that my gaming group is doing better, and it's widely due to using the suggestions other DMs gave on this board. Thanks for your help! You helped "save my game."

GUTH

So what have other people done with Filge?

Well, in my campaign, Filge was captured by the PCs and turned over to authorities outside of town. He was put on trial and sentenced to prison. He currently is a madman (having experienced Kyuss up close and personal) and often supplies the PCs information from behind a closed cell door. Think "Red Dragon" or "Silence of the Lambs" and you'll get the picture.

Out of Morbid curiousity, what would the stats be like for a fully functional Ebon Aspect? I believe that my group doesn't plan to raid the Dourstone Mines because they are too afraid that they'll be killed. Thus they will face this terror later in the adventure and discover they could have fought it in a lesser form in the Dark Cathedral.
Are there possible stats for the fully function Ebon Aspect available (CR 16 rather than 6) or is there some other monster available in D&D books that might be a good basis for the stats of a fully functional Ebon Aspect?

I think that an interesting twist might be that Smenk is an agent of the Thieves Guild located in "Free City." This would allow for Smenk to be a plant in Diamond Lake, carrying out smuggling or other activities for the Thieves Guild. It would also give Smenk backing that amkes him a little more powerful and a bit more "untouchable" as the Thieves Guild might not like Smenk being messed with if he remains valuable to them. Just a thought.

In my campaign Filge was arrested and turned over to the authorities. He was so interesting, that I have plans on having him come back. In fact, He's going to be taking the parts played by "Alustan" in later adventures. The sagely wizard of Diamond lake just seems to dry for me character wise. He's basically just an information kiosk until "A gathering of Winds". Having Filge as an important source of information that the party must work with down the road will add some real amusement and tension to the group. Filge will be the "black sheep" pupil of the Archmage that the party hunts down later on.

In my version of the AOWAP, Filge has been sentenced to prison. His role in my campaign was that he was being used to research the worms and Kyuss for the Faceless one. I even went as far to have the necromancer allow one of the worms to infest him like is discussed in the pretige class in the recent issue of Dragon magazine. Filge survived, and has the taint of Kyuss madness. I picture future episodes where the PCs go to the prison to speak with the mad necromancer to find out more and more information. I picture it as a D&D version of the Silence of the Lams or Red Dragon. The madman behind bars, spouting information.

RPGNOW.com sells a PDF of the ROD OF SEVEN PARTS boxed set. You could check that out.

Here's our version:

http://duboisaow.blogspot.com

This bring up the question to me: What if the Aspect gets to run wild? Has anyone had this happen in their adventure path? I can just picture the PCs sitting back and watching as the Aspect crashes out and starts destroying the town. They will likely make a fast retreat and head for the hills. The question is what if the Aspect doesn't get put down? Assuming Allustan doesn't deal with it, nobody really would. So would the Aspect just destroy the town and then slink back off into the netherworld again, or what? What do you think? I just like getting different opinions than my own. Thanks!

Well, in my campaign the players have discovered that cultists are in the Dourstone mine and planning a ritual in a few days time. Instead of trying to foil the plot themselves, they've decided that they should report the problem to the regional law enforcement through the Justicar that's in our mix of players. We're playing in the Eberron campaign. Diamond Lake is of course located in Breland not far from Sharn. They want to try to get the Citadel to send official troops to Diamond lake to take care of the situation. I'm formulated that getting a bunch of soldiers to Diamond Lake in three days time (the remaining time as they spent 2 days deciding what to do about it after they found out the information.) is a bit unreasonable unless mass teleportation or the like is used. But I thought that I would present the complication to the rest of you DMs and see what your reaction might be. I have considered the following: (1) The soldiers are dispatched and arrive later due to political red tape and distance. (2) The soldiers somehow arrive on time, fail to stop the ritual, and the PCs watch as the Overgod crawls up from the mines and starts to do bad things in town as referred to in the 3FoE issue of Dungeon. What do you guys think, and what are some other clever tactics I might use?

I've read the book and the boxed set both entitled "Rod of Seven Parts" and wondered if anyone else is using information from these to add to the Age of Worms. Comment as you see fit. Thanks.

I recommend using a blog. They are handy!

Maybe I'm jaded by having been a fan of companies like Games Workshop in the past, but despite the sentiment of complaint on this messageboard, I for one do what to take the time to thank the staff of Paizo for being willing to communicate with fans as well as they do. Maybe they change release dates, post the release dates wrong, or make promises that they can't keep from time to time - but they're human. At least they're not sequestering themselves into a high tower over the fans and staring down their almighty noses. Again, I'm one of the walking wounded of Games Workshop who make no bones of doing exactly that. Thankfully Paizo is fan friendly.

I'm enjoying the Age of Worms adventure path. I have collected sources of information dealing with Kyuss including the Rod of Seven Parts boxed set. So I'm really interested to see where it goes from here.

My group has finally finished up the Whispering Cairn completely with Filge captured alive.

Take it easy! Keep on gaming!

My first character was assigned to me. I was about 13 and had no idea what I was doing but it was fun. That's when my obsolute obession with anything D&D began.

I played a Ninja from OA. I'm unsure what level he was but he had a +1 sword, caltrops, and a cool item called the Bag of Hellfire. Basically the Ninja could open the bag, and a gout of Hellfire would shoot out.

Interested in D&D 3.5 and live in the DuBois, PA area? You can contact me at the following email address: rlguthjr@yahoo.com

I live in DuBois, PA and often travel to the Altoona area. I might be interested in meeting from time to time to take part. Email me at rlguthjr AT yahoo DOT com

I often see the advertisement in Dragon that features the miniatures posed in the cover art of the Forge of Fury module.
I have wanted to buy the black dragon from that picture, but have been unable to figure out its product name or anything. Was it a single model or included in a set?

Anyone have any clues?

A few discussions later, my players have explained that they want lots of action, combat, and hack-n-slash.

They also feel that they are in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation with the Age of Worms. They feel the adventure path is too bleak and hopeless.

They also feel cheated that the "Talisman of the Sphere" did not turn out to be a part of the Rod of Seven Parts.

But they are willing to keep trying. We are planning to play through the part where they raid Filge's hideout.

Basically, they want very low information and backstory, low amounts of role-playing, and lots of hack-n-slash.

I can see doing this with some parts, however others may become difficult. For example, the parts in Overload mentioning Lashana doesn't appear to me to be filled with combat and danger.

The part they hated the most was when I introduced Diamond Lake, and allowed them the freedom to do whatever they wanted in town. They felt that they had too many choices, and no set goals. They tell me they had too much freedom to explore the town, and no opportunies to use their combat based abilities.

Complaints were also made that they don't know who to trust in-character and they feel like they are wandering around just waiting for something bad to happen to them. They feel powerless and helpless.

So, that's what I'm working with. I'm going to try hard to meet their needs. I may stop by and create threads from time to time asking for advice. I really really appreciate the positive voices in this message board. Thanks a lot!

Thanks for the info, Guth and Torgan. I'm confused, but working on a solution to this.

Koramado

I returned today and downloaded the artwork and looked through the website resources without a glitch. Good work! And thanks!

Is there any possibility of getting artwork for the mysterious "Talisman of the Sphere?"

I quote Mr. Miyagi:

"No such thing bad student. Only bad teacher."

And this begs the question that I've wondered about: Am I simply a poor DM?

That's the question that I am unsure about. It sure seems like it. I guess this is a learning experience to say that I need to meet my player's needs better. However, I'm not sure how to do that without feedback. I am currently in the process of trying to find out what they'd rather see from the campaign.

Do they hate what I'm doing or just completely dislike the idea of this campaign called Age of Worms?

I'm not yet sure.

I'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Actually, the creation of a blog and a handout of the rouge's gallery is what put my group over the edge. Many feel it's too much for them to handle.

We're basically going to finish the Whispering Cairn (with any luck) and see what happens.

I've lost one player because he's fed up with the plotline and doesn't understand it.

My players tend to be miinature gamers more than role-players. I think the lack of hack-n-slash has frustrated them.

Basically if they can't kill it when faced with it, they're not sure how to overcome it.

I'm currently facing a problem where my characters are saying that the campaign contains too much information to understand and that its too confusing with all the nonplaying characters, the different locations, the organizations involved, and the "biggness" of the plotline.

They are currentl in the Whispering Cairn part of the adventure, ready to raid the Observatory. However, I've been told that the information about the Battle fo Pesh, the Whispering Cairn, the green worms, and the Talisman of the SPhere is just too much for them to handle.

On top of that I am using the Eberron campaign, and they are feeling that the campaign setting is too overwhelming.

Any comments, sugeestions?

Currently I believe our D&D campaign is simply going to stop, and we're just not going to be playing anymore.

This is simply my campaign log for my current game going on in DuBois, PA 15801.

I am running an Eberron campaign, tying in a bunch of AoW stuff into the current plotlines.

http://duboisaow.blogspot.com

I continue to get the following error using internet explorer. If I use netscape, nothing happens at all.

Runtime Error
Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".

127 came out in PA 5 days late. I assumed it was due to the holiday.

You know, everybody.... there WAS a time.... in the not to distant past... when these supplements didn't exist.

And I KNOOOOOW that NOOOOBODY out there would do this but isn't it amazing that the ones yelling and crying the loudest ~sometimes~ appear to be the ones who claim they "misplaced" or "lost" their copy of Dungeon Magazine.

Sometimes I wonder if the ones complaining are really even buying the magazine to start with in the first place.

Rich